Star Wars RPG: Chapter 4

Starting Conditions

Experience Points

Part 1

Tavasi and Haasef sat in the pilot and co-pilot seats of the Nightingale, as they neared the Toprawa system. Josette sat in the third seat in the rear of the cockpit, after receiving strict instructions from Tavasi: don’t touch anything.

Malor was strapped into the turret. In the event they encountered trouble when entering the system, he wanted to be ready to deal with it.

As the countdown timer reached zero, Haasef pulled the hyperspace lever and the spinning kaleidoscope of hyperspace resolved itself into the familiar darkness of normal space. The planet Toprawa lay directly ahead, already close enough for them to pick out the large ocean in its western hemisphere and the mountains and forests near their destination in the northeast.

The Nightingale was equipped with somewhat limited sensors, and Tavasi and Haasef both studied their scopes carefully. There was nothing unusual on the scanners — just standard satellites and normal planetary traffic.

Tavasi gave Haasef a thumbs up. This next step was tricky, and the two of them had discussed it for about an hour, after Tavasi found him sleeping in the cockpit. Nodding to her, Haasef opened the program he had written to slice into and disable the ship’s transponder.

All civilian starships carried transponders which identified the ship and conveyed its registration. Practically, this information was used for navigation and communications with other starships. The Empire also relied on these transponders to track and identify vessels, without detailed scans. Because of this, transponders were designed to resist efforts to tamper with them or disable them. Doing either was highly illegal.

However, after blasting their way off of Shenzou Station, Tavasi and Haasef had agreed that a little anonymity was worth the risk. The Duros nodded to Tavasi and then executed the program.

Haasef frowned, as the program ran. The transponder had not been deactivated, but no alarms had been triggered. He relayed that information to Tavasi. “Okay, we knew that might happen,” she said calmly. “Let’s get the ship down to the surface.”

Haasef opened the map of potential landing zones that Tavasi had sketched, while planning with Malor. He had created navigation waypoints for each one, as well as the town of Sotuna, itself. He was careful to color-code Sotuna in red, since they wanted to avoid flying too close to the town itself. As they descended to the surface, Tavasi would be able to see the waypoints on her heads up display, to more easily navigate the ship.

Haasef watched the scope carefully during the their descent, but there was no pursuit or intercept detected. The Nightingale entered atmosphere and flew towards the town of Sotuna, unmolested.

Part 2

Tavasi flew over the several of the potential landing sites before selecting the one she felt was most secluded. It was a clearing to the southwest of Sotuna, only about ten meters larger than the ship, on each side. The Nightingale fit comfortably in the space, and Tavasi expected it would be hard to spot from the air, unless someone was deliberately searching for them. The downside was the distance — they were about five kilometers from the town itself, and would have to walk a few hours through forest and hills to reach it.

After setting the Nightingale down, Tavasi asked Haasef to put the ship’s systems into standby. While he did so, she went into the galley and packed some of the food — protein cubes, nuna jerky, nutripaste, and ration bars — into a small daypack. She also grabbed her stimpacks.

Malor and Josette stood at the top of the ship’s ramp. Haasef exited the cockpit and met them there. Malor asked, “Do you have a blaster, Haasef?”

The Duros shook his head negatively. “They were not permitted for us on the station. I have a knife, but that is all.”

Tavasi joined them from the galley. Malor asked if she had any spare weapons aboard for Haasef.

“No, just my own sidearm.” Forcing a little bravado, she added, “Let’s try to stay out of trouble.” With that, she hit the switch to lower the ramp.

The team emerged from the ship and was greeted by Toprawa’s warm, humid air. Some steam was still venting from the ship’s underside, but the forest sounds had returned to normal after the Nightingale’s arrival. Birds chirped and insects twittered.

Toprawa rotated very slowly around its axis. As a result, the planet seemed to go through a season each standard month. A cold, sunless winter with plentiful snow gave way to a short spring with lengthening days and warming temperatures. In turn, this transitioned to a short, hot summer with perpetual sunlight, then a period of autumn cooling and waning sunlight. The cycle repeated about three times per standard year.

It was early autumn when and where the Nightingale landed. The sky was partly cloudy — this was common during the two temperate seasons. By contrast, winter and summer tended to be overcast with heavy precipitation.

Haasef stared in wonder at the tall, broad-leafed trees. After being in a penal colony and then a space station for the last few years, the contrast of the outdoors was astounding. He paused just outside the Nightingale’s shadow to breath deeply and take in the scent of the forest.

Malor scanned the edge of the clearing carefully, hands on his blaster carbine. He set out to the northeast, in the direction of the town of Sotuna, and took a knee at the edge of the clearing. Tavasi and Josette joined him there. Haasef hurried over a few seconds later, a little embarrassed at his own absent-mindedness.

Holding up the map on his datapad, Maleor said “It should take us two to three hours to get to the outskirts of the town. We’ll want to observe for a while before we go in, so we’ll look for a vantage point outside of town, probably to the south.”

Malor looked at Tavasi. “I’ll take point and scout ahead. You’re the only other one with a blaster, so you lead these two. Stay about fifty meters behind me. Be as quiet as you can.”

Tavasi nodded and Malor started off. After he had gone forty or fifty meters, Tavasi looked at Josette to Haasef. “You heard the man! Follow me, keep your eyes open.”

Part 3

Malor halted the group for a short rest, a little over an hour after they had set out. The team had hiked in near silence, to this point. Clouds had moved in, making the forest darker and eerier than anticipated. Still, it was dry and they had made good time.

The team was resting against a boulder and felled tree. Malor checked the map on his datapad for what Tavasi presumed was the millionth time. Speaking quietly — not quite a whisper, but more softly than normal — he told them, “We’re about halfway to town. I’m going to bend us a little to the south. The ground is higher there, and I’m hoping we can find a spot where we can see into town. I want to get a sense of traffic, security, how busy it is.”

They all nodded in acknowledgement and then set out again. As Malor had indicated, they traveled more to the east than north, this time. The ground began to slope gradually upwards and it became hillier. After another kilometer of travel, the trees had thinned out and they were traversing an area of rocky hills. Turning to the north, they drew closer to the southern edge of Sotuna, until they were a few hundred meters away.

None of them had macrobinoculars, so they could not study the details of Sotuna. Tavasi and Malor could not make out many details. Haasef, however, was able to pick out a few. He could tell that the town was laid out in a grid, roughly four blocks square, with farms and buildings dotting lands to the north and east of the town. A modest landing field was northwest of town — it was hard to make out details, but Haasef saw what looked like a grey- and red-painted YT-2400 freighter approach and land out of sight behind the trees.

Haasef also noticed that speeders of several sizes moved around town, along with plenty of pedestrian traffic. There was definitely a block or two that was busier than the others, which he thought might be a central business district. He saw no obvious security presence.

After conferring for a moment, they decided to approach the town proper. A cool drizzle began to fall as they began walking north.