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The Ceronia Incident

         The players are should be members of the Rebellion, alterations can be made for other periods of Star Wars history. They are called in by their superior officer for a briefing.

         "Greetings, we have been alerted to Imperial research leading to their creation of a new planet killing weapon. It is apparently in the form of a missile which will destroy an entire planet, this is something we cannot allow to happen, since once tested and ready this weapon would allow every vessel in the Imperial fleet to become as powerful as a Death Star. And we can easily foresee them being able to bring the entire galaxy under their control."

         "What we want you to do is to sabotage this weapon, destroying the prototypes and all research. Since the development is being done on a fairly quiet world this should be easily achievable."

         "The research centre is on the planet of Ceronia, it's a small world, with only the research centre, the local Imperial Governors vacation palace, and an ore extraction centre. The Extraction centre is near the southern pole and is operated by slave labour, and the governors is not in residence at his palace at the equator currently, so security will be light. Both of these are a long way from your target near the northern pole, so should not be a consideration. The planet has a standard breathable atmosphere, and has two major continents covering 40% of its surface; the majority of the rest of the surface is covered with water."

         "The research centre itself is manned by only 12 scientists and their assistants, and only a single squad of Stormtroopers, so resistance should be light. We will give you an Imperial shuttle and security codes which will allow you to land, from there on it's in your hands. We'll also provide some explosives, which if planted on the prototypes, should destroy them and take out the entire centre."

         "As you realise, the success of this mission could save innumerable number of innocent lives, and help the galaxy remain free of tyranny and terror."

         The Imperial Shuttle awaits them near by, and they have several hours to gather their equipment. They depart and enter hyperspace without any problems, emerging in the Ceronia system a couple of days later.

         As they approach the planet, and orbiting Strike Cruiser hails them.

         "Unidentified vessel, this is the Imperial Vessel Vendetta, you have just entered our sensor range, identify your self, your destination and mission."

         A successful Con test with a Moderate target number, gets them through, as although they have a valid code, they have no valid reason for being there (the target number can be modified up or down depending on the reason they give for their mission).

         If they should happen to fail, then the Strike cruiser will scramble its Tie Fighters against them, and the rest of the adventure will have to take into account the fact that their cover was blown.

         Assuming they were successful, the Strike Cruiser moves on its way, jumping into hyperspace and allowing them to land unhindered.

         They spot the base as they approach its co-ordinates on the northern continent of the planet, it is a single large building with a landing pad off a short distance to one side, a second smaller building lies directly next to the landing pad. No vessels are landed currently, and apart from a small clearing around the two buildings a think forest leads off into the distance, under the temperate sun above.

         As their shuttle settles to the ground, a Stormtrooper comes out of the smaller building, his hand blocking the glare from the sun as he watches your vessel land.

         Unless the players somehow bluff him, he'll raise the alarm on this helmet communicator, and the players will find a dozen Stormtroopers converging on their location. However if they manage to bluff their way past him, the Stormtroopers are split evenly between the two buildings with 5 in each, with the extra one patrolling the jungle.

         The smaller of the two buildings is the Stormtrooper barracks, and consists of only 5 rooms, a mess hall with integrated kitchen, a sleeping area, a toilet, a security control room, and a garage holding 6 Speeder Bikes.

         The larger building is the research centre itself, there are two visible entrances, but a further one is on the opposite side. The two visible doors are a human sized door, and a garage style doorway, the other doorway is also human sized. The garage style door cannot be opened from the outside, the other door opens to a central corridor, two sub corridors lead off it, one to the scientists quarters, recreation and eating areas, which has the rear entrance in that area as well, with a successful Spot check against a moderate difficulty, the players notice the door clicking shut.

         This is one of the scientist's assistants, a Human Replica Droid, who has spotted the players and is going to alert the Stormtroopers (although the players may be already fighting some of the 5 Stormtroopers originally present in this building). When she gets there she watches the players progress on the monitors, and when she sees them sabotaging the weapon, she steals their ship as she is one of the few people aware of what the result will be.

         The other corridor leads to the research area, in this area there are three small experimental labs, as well as the construction area where the experimental weapon is sat. The construction area has two tables for constructing the weapons, one is occupied, and the other is currently empty. A large computer system, which is the central store for the entire site, holding all of the relevant data. Finally as well as parts for the weapon, there are the large garage style doors, for loading the experimental weapons onto a shuttle.

         If hacked the computer can show that one weapon was loaded onto the Strike Cruiser Vendetta for a test on the Mon Calamari homeworld, there is also a lot of the research data for the weapon, none of this data has been copied.

         Putting their explosives onto the weapon, no matter what timing they set, the explosives will detonate shortly after they leave the centre (if the Gamesmaster uses cutscenes, then it shows a scientist entering the lab and starting to defuse the explosives).

         Returning to the outside, they see their shuttle lifting off the pad, and soaring away into the sky without them, it being highly unlikely that they left anyone behind to defend it. If they were stupid enough to leave any weapons or equipment aboard, then I'm afraid that it's lost, as although the Human Replica Droid will be encountered again, the shuttle and everything aboard is gone.

         The players only way from the base is the Speeder Bikes stored in the smaller building, using these they can make their way to either the governor's palace, or the mining camp, to try to appropriate some starship transport.

         As they zoom away from the camp, they head up a rise overlooking it, and there is an explosion and a blinding flash of light. Looking back they see the centre demolished by the flames from the explosives, which are then sucked back into a slowly growing black globe, within moments the globe has swallowed the remains of the centre and is creeping slowly outwards as trees and the other building gets swallowed by it. The globe soon reaches a diameter of a hundred or so meters, reaching into the sky, and cutting deep into the ground.

         The players destruction of the weapon, has released its payload, since the weapon is actually only a containment vessel for this effect itself. Similar to a blackhole, but without the gravitational effects, the weapon swallows matter to power its growth, only once it has consumed all of the matter it can (usually once it has consumed an entire planet) does it collapse and disappear.

         The planet is doomed, and the players are now in a race against time, to escape or be swallowed along with the planet.

         As they speed over the hill, the black globe passes out of sight for a while, but soon is visible expanding outwards into the sky, but the forest quickly blocks the view as they speed onwards (requiring a moderate Repulsorlift Operation roll to negotiate).

         Hours pass as they head away from the effect, the forest thins out to plains and the travelling gets easier, and they can speed up making excellent time. This is a small planet and the journey will take about 2 days, the curvature of the planet has taken the weapons effect out of view, but storm clouds are gathering overhead, a Survival roll (Moderate) will tell them that this is not natural for this world and worse is probably yet to come.

         As they race onwards, they must make a Repulsorlift Operation roll, the lowest roll goes shooting over a Sarlacc Pit, and a tentacle shoots out, latching onto their Speeder Bike. The Bikes riders come flying off, and land on the ground nearby, taking damage from the crash, and the bike itself lands nearby bent and damaged but not destroyed (its guidance forks are buckled, reducing its speed to 1/2).

         The Sarlacc has 4 tentacles, (6D Strength, 6D Dexterity) and its beak (8D Strength, 6D Dexterity). Although the Sarlacc itself is incredibly tough and cannot be killed with handheld weapons, the Players need only move out of its reach to escape it since it is not mobile.

         Fixing their bike may be a problem, but they can carry on soon after, day changes into night, which passes uneventfully. However they do not have time to stop and rest, and unless they are riding two to a bike and swap over so one can rest, they will suffer a sleep deprivation penalty of 1D (if they do grab some rest (maybe while someone fixes the bike by the Sarlacc), or on the back of the bike, this sleep is short and restless, meaning the penalty is still in place but only at a 1 pip level.

         As day breaks, so does the storm that has been building all night, rain begins lashing out of the sky, soaking everyone not in sealed armour to the skin. It becomes difficult to see, and the players will be glad of the shelter when they return to forested terrain late in the morning. As they manoeuvre between the trees, they see the ground is becoming extremely marshy, and if they were using ground vehicles it would now be almost impossible to travel at all.

         As the ground becomes more and more wet, the players notice that the bikes drive systems are becoming somewhat unreliable. Although repulsorlift engines are not 100% when flying low over water, they should not be having this kind of trouble over mud. A Repulsorlift Repair roll with a Moderate difficulty reveals that the water must contain a high level of heavy metals, which as well as being somewhat unhealthy to those now completely soaked (although most medkits contain anti-radiation treatments which can handle the radiation levels they are receiving), it interferes with Repulsorlift drives, this means that if they have to cross the wide straights between this continent and the one with the mining camp their bikes with cease to function before they get 100 meters out to sea.

         Fortunately they are already only a few miles from the Governor's Palace, where hopefully they can get transport off world, or appropriate other on planet transportation.

         The Governor's Palace is defended by 12 Stormtroopers, and three Golan defence turrets (same stats as the Rebel DF.9 Anti-Infantry turret), these will be manned most of the time, but can possibly be avoided by sneaking into the grounds. The Palace is tended by 5 civilian staff, who will offer no resistance to armed attackers.

         There is an energy wall around the palace grounds, but this is only 2 meters high, so can be passed over by speeder bikes, or can be disabled. The gardens themselves are luscious and extensive, with decorative birds cowering from the heavy rain under the bushes and trees. A small landing area to the side of the Palace is empty, as is the jetty jutting out into the sea nearby. However a Boathouse next to the jetty looks hopeful.

         The Palace itself is luxuriously appointed with many expensive hangings and statues, obviously plundered from across the sector, there are no super-weapons here, nor anything much of interest, especially considering the players lack of time.

         In the Boathouse are 4 Sea Speeder Bikes, these will allow the players to reach the mining encampment, but there is space for another 2 which are missing.

         As the players head out to sea aboard their bikes, they see the missing 2 bikes approaching at high speed. The riders have the Stats (3D Str (including armour), Repulsor Lift Operation 5D, Vehicle Blasters 5D, Blaster 5D). The bikes engage and must be destroyed.

         The sea stretches out ahead of the players, and they zoom out across the rough sea as the storm continues to hammer down around them, Easy Repulsorlift Operation Rolls are required to stay seated.

         It takes most of the day to cross the straights between the two continents, and the players become aware of the second continent before they reach it as the hammering rain has washed plants, trees and tonnes of mud out to sea, and the stormy blue sea has turned a deep muddy brown as they approach. Looking back, they see the black globe of the weapons effect visible in the far distance, most of the planet is now gone, and they have a mere hour or so before the rest follows.

         The Mine Encampment is built around a natural harbour, and more Sea Speeders can be seen docked, but none are patrolling. Cries and screams can be heard as the layers approach the camp, and it soon becomes clear that a full scale riot is occurring.

         The fences once firmly placed around the camp have been mainly washed away, and the Stormtroopers are fighting with the slaves, who have managed to arm themselves. The few dozen Stormtroopers are fighting well, and holding hundreds of prisoners at bay, keeping them away from the main building, upon which can be seen two Imperial Shuttles. As they watch, one of the shuttles lifts into the air and speeds away into the distance, before finally curving upwards into space.

         There isn't much the players can do, possibly rescuing a few of the slaves, but there are over a thousand left here. The destruction of the planet is scant minutes away, and the race to reach a shuttle, either by scaling the building, or by fighting their way through it should be quick and dangerous.

         The shuttle is being prepared for flight by an Imperial officer, who can be easily overpowered, and the shuttle stolen.

         Flying quickly up through the atmosphere, they watch the final moments of the planet as the black globe creeps across the last few miles before eventually swallowing it completely. And if the players do not hurry this may happen to the world of Mon Calamari as well.

         To be continued. . . .

         Experience awards are 10 points, force points used within the camp are considered dramatically appropriate.

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