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The Ceronia Incident

Part 3

        The players have finally got away from the Ceronia system, either via Otherspace in Part 2, or if you haven't run that part of the adventure directly from the end of part 1. They should now be making a hyperspace jump towards the Calamari system in an attempt to avoid the first live test of the planet destroying missile. If they are not, then you should point them in this direction, making Knowledge rolls for them to realise that they can warn the planet by using long range communications, but without access to a Holonet transmitter they cannot guarantee that their warning will get through, and that the quickest way to warn them is to travel there directly.

         What the players are not aware of is that the Strike Cruiser Vendetta which is carrying the demonstration weapon has docked with an Arc Hammer Class scientific platform, from which it is going to be fired at Calamari. They are also unaware that the Human Replica Droid scientific assistant which stole their original Imperial Shuttle has followed it there and has warned them of the destruction of the data and the destruction of the planet. They have also been warned of the possibility of following Rebel agents, so have blockaded the main hyperspace route between Ceronia and Calamari.

         The Arc Hammer Class vessel, known as the Exultant, has already put the assistant to work duplicating the weapon, and they have already (at least by the time the players arrive) have a partially complete one, and are preparing for the test of the original missile, as well as having duplicated most of the research data directly from the Replica Droids memory cells, although the players have hampered the development of the weapon, and despite it probably never being improved upon, it is still a menace to the galaxy if they cannot stop it here.

         The journey from Ceronia to Calamari takes just over 2 days, allowing the players a short time to heal and recover from their previous encounters. If there have been fatalities, then their replacements can either be prisoners of the Empire shortly into the adventure, or be among those rescued in Otherspace or the Prison Camp on Ceronia. But a few light-years short of the Calamari, they are jarred out of hyperspace, returning to real-space while still in deep space.

         They will quickly realise two things, firstly there is a squadron of Imperial vessels around them, 4 Interdictor Cruisers, 5 Strike Cruisers, 1 Imperial Class Star Destroyer and a massive Arc Hammer Class vessel. Secondly their makeshift repairs to the Hyper-Drive (or ones that were done to this vessel by someone else, if they have not taken part in Part 2 of this adventure) have failed, it will take a couple of hours to repair the engine, replacement parts have come loose, nothing serious, but time consuming.

         As they take in their surroundings, many fighter squadrons are scrambled from the capital ships, and the faster fighters soon are within weapons range of the slower moving Lambda shuttle. The radio crackles to life, "This is the Imperial Vessel Exultant, surrender your vessel, and prepare to be brought aboard."

         If the players attempt to resist, then 6 Tie Fighters attack each round, there are over a thousand fighters available to the Imperials so the players will be defeated eventually, no matter how lucky they are. If necessary use Command to boost the pilots skills, and jinx the dice, so that the players are not destroyed by a lucky hit, attacks will simply disable their engines.

         No matter how they have responded, they will end up in the Tractor beams of the Exultant, being drawn into a hangar bay underneath the huge vessel, as the voice over the radio continues to inform them "Once aboard you will lay down your weapons, and exit the vehicle surrendering yourselves to the forces awaiting you."

         As the shuttle sits down in the centre of the colossal hangar, hundreds of Stormtroopers can be seen around the edge of the hangar, E-Web heavy repeating blasters are set up. If the players attempt to resist, then the Imperial forces will get them out one way or another, disabling the shuttle with Ion weapons, and storming the ship stunning the players. If the players are curious as to why all this effort has been taken to keep them alive, the Empire is desperate to find out what has happened at Ceronia, as they have never tested the weapon, and are curious as to what its effect is.

         Whatever happens the players will find themselves stripped of armour, weapons and equipment, and taken down through the decks of the Exultant, and taken to the prison block, any people they have rescued are also taken. They are locked into cells in pairs, the holding area is a standard design identical to that on the Death Star, not that the players will get to take advantage of it, since the holding cells are extremely secure.

         In an effort to obtain information about the happenings on Ceronia, the players will be taken one at a time for interrogation, they are led from their cell into another chamber, and a IT-0 Interrogation Droid uses OV-600 Truth Serum (Moderate Stamina roll to resist telling the truth each minute, if the roll is successful they take 2D damage) to get information out of them. Each Interrogation lasts 5 minutes, and the Questions asked are . . .

         "What was your mission on Ceronia?"

         "How did you destroy the missile/research complex?"

         "What was the effect of the weapon when detonated?"

         "How long did it take to destroy the planet?"

         "Have you warned Calamari about our impending attack?"

         "What are the defences around Calamari?"

         "Who do you take orders from?"

         "How did they find out about the development of our weapon?"

         Each player is interrogated in turn, as are any NPC's they have with them, and they are locked back into their cells allowing them to recover, at least a little.

         As they lie in their cells, they feel the familiar movement of a vessel jumping to Hyperspace, and a few minutes later emerging once more. The Exultant has moved into position for firing the missile at Calamari, however moments later they hear the klaxons calling the ships crew to arms, and the shudder of impacts on the ships hull.

         A warning has gotten through to the Calamari defence fleet, and the entire Mon Cal fleet has moved to interdict this threat, the Imperial taskforce is now heavily involved in combat, but it is doubtful that they have anything capable of taking down an Arc Hammer class vessel before it can fire its missile.

         As they sit, attempting to deduce what is happening, their cell door slides open, and the Squib, Veras Cortainas, (from Part 2, or another random prisoner, depending on what happened in Part 2) steps inside gesturing to the Players to keep quiet. She whispers to them "A panel popped open in my cell, so I managed to open my door. The guards haven't noticed yet, but it surely can't be long before they do."

         Three Imperial Troopers guard the cell block, the players can possibly sneak quite close before ambushing the guards. The lift from the cell block, only leads down a couple of levels, and only offers a single destination. The lift exits at a busy intersection, getting the players straight into another fire-fight. As multiple opponents fire at them, a nearby door offers shelter.

         Stumbling inside, the players find themselves inside a ground assault station, drop pods sit along the length of this room, large enough to hold a squad of troopers, or a Scout Walker. This large chamber is unoccupied, but two Scout Walkers, and a dozen Speeder Bikes sit in storage.

         The Walkers are too large to travel through the ship, the drop pods are a handy way to dispose of the Mon Cal's the players rescued in the last part of the adventure, although the players still have to save Calamari itself so can't leave the Exultant yet. The fastest way through the ship is the Speeder Bikes.

         Exiting on the Speeder Bikes, the players find the inside of this vessel contains many huge areas which the Speeder Bikes excel at crossing (think of the bridged areas aboard the Death Star). And they cover a kilometre in a minute, heading towards the research areas of the vessel, when they soon hear the hum of other Speeder Bikes approaching.

         There are 2 times as many Scout Troopers on Speeder Bikes as there are players, also the players encounter Stormtroopers firing at them from some of the bridges, although these only get a single round worth of actions before the players zip past. 2 attack in the second round of combat, 3 in the fourth, and 2 more in the fifth.

         As the seventh round begins (if combat takes that long), the players arrive at the research area, they can enter, arriving before any extra defences are erected.

         Two Stormtroopers guard the room, and must be dealt with before the players can enter.

         The research area is a near duplicate of that on Ceronia but on a much larger scale, a large computer system sits to one side, and several tables for the construction of the missiles occupy much of the laboratory. One missile is complete except for its rocket motor, and no others are anywhere near completed. Next to the door is a trolley containing some of the more interesting items the players were carrying, Lightsabers, Datapads, etc are here, as are any Unique items the players own. The back of the lab is open to space with the atmosphere held only by a magnetic field, a mechanical arm is jutting out through the field holding a complete missile. As the players watch, a female (possibly recognisable as the person who stole their shuttle on Ceronia) hits a button and the missiles engines flare into life and it shoots out of the restraining arm. Its is visible for a few moments as it accelerates, and two Imperial Gunboats form into formation either side of it.

         Five Imperial officers observing the launch pull their Blaster Pistols, and turn on the players, as does the female scientist, pulling a heavy blaster pistol.

Serris Dess (Human Replica Droid)

         Designed to be a bodyguard, assistant and companion for one of the Empires top scientists, Serris is an enhance combat machine, far superior to most other Human Replica Droids, and actually far superior to her owner. She is dedicated to the ideals of the Empire, and in the rare chance she survives this encounter will return to their service. Only her combat abilities are represented here, but she is an expert scientist as well, but lacks many pieces of common knowledge, and any battle experience.
         Dex: 6D                         Per: 5D
                 Blaster; 9D
                 Dodge; 9D
                 Brawling Parry: 8D
         Know: 3D                         Str: 5D
                                         Brawling; 8D
         Mech: 3D                         Tech: 5D

Special Abilities:

         Resistant to the Force; as a machine, Serris is immune to having he mind effected by the force.

         Immune to minor trauma; where a organic being will go into shock if an arm is lopped off, Serris is immune to this and will continue to operate until her head or body is destroyed. If she obtains a killing hit on an arm, then the arm is destroyed, but she continues to operate (probably having to switch to using her other hand), the same goes for legs except they will stop her dodging.

         Using force points the players will be able to defeat Serris and the Imperials, and in all probability will make short work of them with lightsabers.

         Looking outside they can see the majority of the Imperial fleet has been destroyed, but the Arc Hammer has disabled a few Mon Cal ships, and as far as the players can see no one is following the missile.

         The best way of defeating this vessel is to destroy the second missile, and the players can sabotage it easily enough.

         Because of the layout of the vessel, the labs are near to the launch bays, and the players can run down a corridor, the sounds of running feet echoing in all directions. They emerge into the hangar bay where they were brought aboard, the damaged Imperial Shuttle still sits there, their remaining equipment still laying aboard.

         The racks of TIE Fighters above their heads are empty, except for two StarWing Assault Gunboats. The players will realise that the damaged shuttle will not be able to catch the missile, although the faster agile gunboats might.

         Attempts at communicating with the Mon Cal fleet fail, due to the players not knowing the frequencies and encoding required.

         The Players only choice is to make a hyperspace jump aboard the Gunboats towards Calamari, and intercept the missile and its escort themselves. The shuttle still can't hyperspace, although it can collect the drop pod they launched earlier, and make a slower way to Calamari.

         Plotting the co-ordinates (probably aboard the shuttle for transmission to the Gunboats), the players jump towards Calamari, emerging from Hyperspace within Sensor range of the Missile. Its escort turn and attack the players, pre-warned by the Exultant of the Players theft of the vessels. The players have 3 rounds only to stop the Missile before it enters Calamari's atmosphere and detonates. The Gunboats will attempt to tie the players up away from the missile, but again with Force Points the players should make short work of this battle, and can dock with the Calamari shipyards after declaring who they are.

Planet Devouring Missile
         Piloting: 5D
         Speed: 7
         Hull: 2D

         The Players aboard the shuttle see the second missile detonate aboard the Exultant, the sphere expands quickly, bisecting the hull of the huge vessel, which attempts to turn away from the blackness. This tears the ship apart, and a titanic explosion swallows the vessel, which in turn is swallowed by the blackness of the weapon, which then fades quietly away.

         The Players can head towards the planet, as the Calamari fleet finishes off the remains of the Imperials. Repairs can be conducted on their shuttle and they then return to base where they are commended for a job well done.

         Force Points aboard the Exultant are returned, those used fighting Serris, and destroying the missile are dramatically appropriate.

         The character point award is 8 points, with extra points for good planning, strategies and roleplaying.

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