Star Wars RPG: Chapter 1

Part 1

Tavasi watched as a binary loadlifter moved the last cargo container down the ramp and onto Haasef’s freight sled. He scanned the final box with his datapad, which chimed twice.

Haasef looked up at her. “The shipment is marked as complete, Mistress Tavasi. Your payment should come across soon.”

She smiled at him and walked over to the sled. “Thank you, Haasef.” She wanted to do something for the Duros, but felt helpless.

“How long do you have to work for Grey,” she asked him, instead.

Haasef’s looked at her with his large red eyes. “It will be several years. Two years is the duration of my parole. And then I will have their debt to contend with. It is several hundred credits per month.” He lowered his gaze. “If I save, work extra jobs, perhaps some day…” he trailed off, shaking his head sadly.

Tavasi reached out and grabbed his arm. “You know,” she said slyly. “I could use a mechanic to help keep the Nightingale running.”

The Duros took a step back away from her grasp. He was shaking his head.

Tavasi did not move. But, she did not stop talking, either. “I can get you off of this rock, Haasef. You don’t have much of a future here. Maybe you can find a better one,” she waved towards open space outside of the landing bay, “out there.”

Haasef had stopped shaking his head and started wringing his hands. “I am a criminal on probation, Mistress Tavasi. If I am found, the Empire will arrest me and send me back to prison. I’ll spend my life on the run.”

“Then we’ll find a slicer to make you a new ID. We’ll…” She stopped, shaking her own head. “I don’t want to push you. By the Force, I just met you! But if you stay here, it sounds like you’re destined to a lifetime of debt and servitude. It doesn’t have to be like that.”

They were quiet for a moment. Haasef was opening his mouth to speak when a male voice called out, “Excuse me… is this your ship? I’m looking to hire a transport.”

---

Malor and Josette had crept through the corridors of the landing bay. The first landing pad that they approached was empty. The second held a mid-size cargo shuttle — the pad was deserted but the ship was locked, ending Malor’s long-shot plan to hot-wire it and escape on their own.

Approaching the next landing pad, he heard voices and cautiously peered in from the shadows near the open bay doors. He saw a Questor-class freighter. A Zabraki woman and a Duros were having an animated conversation near a cargo sled. Malor was pretty sure it was the same freighter he had watched land a little while ago.

He slung his blaster carbine to appear less threatening and stepped into the landing bay. With Josette following closely behind, he called out to the two figures.

---

Tavasi spun to her left, surprised by the voice. She saw two humans approaching. The first was an athletic male with brown hair and a blaster slung across his back. The other was a thin woman wearing a grey lab coat the same color as Haasef’s jumpsuit. She appeared frightened.

Tavasi looked at the woman and then Haasef. “Friend or coworker of yours,” she asked?

“Dr. Agnel?”

Tavasi was surprised when Haasef addressed the woman directly. She had only been kidding.

“Haasef?!” Josette smiled and walked quickly over to Haasef. Over her shoulder, she said to Malor, “Haasef is a friend. He has done some work in the lab.”

Malor gave a polite nod to Haasef but kept his attention focused on Tavasi. “So, is this your ship?”

Tavasi sized the man up. Everything about him, from his build, to his bearing, to the way he carried his slung carbine screamed soldier to her. That usually did not bode well.

“Yes, I own and operate the Nightingale,” she answered cautiously.

Malor nodded and gently pulled on her elbow, steering her away from Josette and Haasef, who were chatting by the cargo sled. “We are… looking for transport. Off the station. Would you be available for a charter?”

Tavasi yanked her elbow out of his grip. “A charter to where?”

Malor swallowed. He had not thought this very far ahead. “If you’re moving cargo, perhaps we could catch a ride to your next stop? We’re trying to make it to Toprawa, but the first step is to get away from here and… disappear for a while.”

Tavasi glared at him. “What’s the problem?” She pointed at Josette. “Husband?” She pointed at Malor. “Wife?”

Malor shook his head and smiled slightly. “I wish it was that simple.” He took a chance. “Would you believe… Empire?”

Taking a step away from him, Tavasi said, “There’s a lot of that going around. What makes you two special?”

Malor looked her in the eye. “My name is Malor. That’s my friend Josette,” he said, pointing to the scientist. “The Empire is after her. Right now. I want to get her out of here. We’ll pay what we can.”

Tavasi was a little taken aback by the honest reply. She was about to ask a question when Haasef and the human woman joined them. Tavasi turned to her, instead. “He tells me you’re trying to get to Toprawa.”

Josette nodded. “I have family there. Can you take us?”

Tavasi tilted her head and gave the woman a piercing stare. “He also tells me the Empire is after you. That makes this more dangerous. Four thousand credits. Each.”

Josette opened her mouth to speak, but Malor interrupted her. “That’s outrageous!”

Tavasi held up a finger, as she spoke. “You need to get out of here quickly, and this ship available.” She held up a second finger. “You’re paying a risk premium because the Empire is after you.” She held up a third finger. “I don’t have other cargo, so I can take you directly to Toprawa.”

She put her hand down. “You’re not gonna get a better deal.”

Malor started to speak again, but Josette grabbed his arm. “I don’t have eight thousand credits on me.” She pulled several large-denomination credit chips out of her handbag. “I have twenty-five hundred here. I can get you another… say seventy-five hundred when we reach my family on Toprawa? But we have to leave.” She looked Tavasi in the eye. “Now.”

Tavasi was stunned — what a day. But ten thousand credits to haul these two to Toprawa… “I’m Tavasi Bonebow.” She pointed to the ship. “That’s the Nightingale. Let’s get aboard.” She nodded to Josette. “Now.”

She looked at Haasef. “Last chance. If you want out of here, you’re crew. I’ll split those credits with you, sixty-forty, after fuel and maintenance costs. I take captain’s share. Same deal as long as we work together.”

Josette grabbed Haasef’s arm. “C’mon… let’s get out of here, Haasef. This place is no good for either of us!”

As Haasef answered, alarms rang throughout the station, drowning him out. “Attention, this is a security lockdown! Attention, this is a security lockdown! All station personnel are ordered to shelter in place and follow the instructions of security personnel.” The message began to repeat.

Tavasi and Malor shared a look, the former shaking her head at the latter. Malor shrugged, flashed a quick smile, and then unslung his blaster and took up a position behind the freight sled, near the ship’s ramp.

Tavasi ran up the ramp, followed by Josette who was pulling the startled Duros behind her. Tavasi yelled backwards as she ran into the cockpit, “Haasef, get up here!”

Part 2

Tavasi raced into the cockpit and started readying the ship for flight. It was then that she remembered that she was going to have to cold-start an iffy hyperdrive. “Blast!” she exclaimed.

Haasef came into the cockpit slowly, looking around. Although he had been in starship cockpits before, years of prison had made him believe he would never see one again.

Tavasi threw a glance over her shoulder at him. “What can you do?”

He swallowed and tilted his head — he was reeling from the unexpected situation. “I am a trained pilot and astronavigator, with some experience. I served on a bulk freighter for about two years before my arrest.” He swallowed again. “Mistress Tavasi, I have not flown in several years. This is all happening so fast…”

She pointed at the copilot’s seat next to her and ordered, “Sit down and familiarize yourself with the ship and controls. I had some hyperdrive warnings when I flew in, so I had to shut it down completely. I’ll get it restarted — gonna take a few minutes. Run diagnostics on the hyperdrive and then look up Toprawa on the star charts. Be ready to lay in a course. We’re going to have to jump quickly once we take off.” She narrowed her eyes, and then said, “I spotted an Imperial cruiser on the flight in.”

Haasef hesitated for a moment, and then sat down next to her in the copilot’s seat. He ran his hands over the control board, studying the instruments. Tavasi watched him for about half a minute and then turned to her own console to restart the hyperdrive.

Haasef spent a few minutes working at the console. He called up the diagnostic program, then reviewed the logs. Frowning, he looked at how the diagnostic program worked, and particularly its configuration. His fingers flew across the keypad as he grew more comfortable with the work. He had done this, years before.

After about ten minutes of work, he re-ran the hyperdrive diagnostics. Then he called up the ship’s power schematic and reviewed power utilization across the ship. Once he cross-checked some figures, he spoke. ”Mistress Tavasi, I have discovered and corrected an error in the diagnostic configuration. The hyperdrive is fully functional; it was the diagnostic program that was in error.”

Tavasi smiled at him. “That’s great!”

Haasef continued, “Looking at the ship’s power, I believe we can accelerate the hyperdrive restart, if we shunt power from the ventral cannons. This should roughly halve the remaining time required to restart the hyperdrive. But, it will take the weapons offline for some time.”

This was an easy decision for Tavasi. “Do it. We’re not going to do much with those cannons, anyway. Speed is more important.”

Haasef worked his controls, and then nodded to Tavasi. “Power transfer in progress.”

Tavasi checked the hyperdrive readiness and watched the timer drop from twenty minutes required for restart to just over eleven. “Two for two, Haasef,” she told him. “Great work!”

A couple of minutes later, preflight was complete. Haasef had started the navicomputer and plotted a preliminary route to Toprawa. Specific calculations would have to wait until they were in flight. Tavasi climbed out of her seat saying, “Ready for takeoff. I’m going to get our passengers settled in.”

Walking towards the ramp, she saw Josette standing in the cargo loading area, looking a little lost. Tavasi pointed Josette to the starboard corridor, which led to the crew lounge, suggesting she strap in for takeoff.

Tavasi turned and walked down the ramp. She called down to Malor, saying “Ready for takeoff, you should get —“ She stopped in mid-sentence and she saw a station security trooper come around the blast door and into the landing bay.

Malor had just turned to Tavasi when she stopped talking. She shouted “Troopers!” and drew her blaster pistol as she ran down the ramp to join Malor in cover behind the freight sled. 

Malor leaned out from cover and aimed at the first trooper. He fired a burst from his carbine, which went wide, sending sparking flying from the landing pad floor. The trooper stumbled in shock, not expecting the attack.  

The first and second troopers fired at Malor nearly in unison. The first shot went wide, but the second trooper had dropped to a knee and taken more careful aim at Malor’s exposed form. A blaster bolt burned a line across the big man’s right bicep. Malor grunted from the impact and burn, but was not seriously hurt.

Tavasi rose up from behind a crate and snapped off two quick shots. The first struck the trooper reeling from Malor’s burst. He flew backwards and lay unmoving, a smoking hole in his chest. Tavasi’s second shot struck the next trooper in the chest, as well. He grunted from the painful impact, but managed to stay on his feet. 

The last two troopers ran into the landing bay, firing as they came. A blaster bolt slammed into the crate next to Malor. He was uninjured, but the sparks disrupted his vision. A split second later, he heard Tavasi yelp as a blaster bolt from the last trooper slammed into her side. She dropped into cover in pain, and with the wind knocked out of her. 

Malor lined up a shot on the injured trooper and fired, blowing a hole in the man’s helmet and killing him instantly. He cooly switched to the third trooper and dispatched her with a single shot to the torso.

The last trooper fired at Tavasi, but the shot was low and slammed into the freight sled that she was crouched behind. She slipped between two crates and fired back at the trooper — the bolt hit him right between the eyes. The trooper dropped in a heap.

Tavasi was breathing heavily, staring down her sights at the room with four smoking corpses. The alarm continued to blare in the background.

Malor rose from cover and began backing towards the ship, his carbine raised, sweeping back and forth for more targets.

He hissed at Tavasi, “Get on the ship!” She shook her head, holstered her blaster and ran up the ramp. Malor slid in behind her, slapping the switch to raise the ramp.