"Zaleos, how do you think your contacts within the Alliance would react if you were to forward them the info on Makabe and Segaris? It's too dangerous for us to confront the man, but perhaps if we can get this Skywalker on his tail, it will lessen our own danger, as well as that of the empress. If the alliance is going to exist, there is no point in not utilizing their resources for the betterment of the universe."
Zaelos thinks for a moment. Hmmm, To be honest I am not sure how they would respond. The Alliance still does not trust the Empire remnants any more than we trust them. I believe we would need to present a clear threat to the Alliance before they would send someone as valuable as Luke Skywalker after him. Keep in mind, Nichos, he may be a powerful Jedi Knight but he can be in only one place at a time."
Nichos I was making a joke. I already know everything you stated.
Zaleos, You need to wait a week before you can make the check again.
Information is incoming to Zaleos, Karval, and Nichos.
"So we know that the Trandoshans, the hardy reptilians are the slave-masters working for the Hutts and remnants of the Empire. It must have been interesting to witness a battle between the Trandoshans and the Malakai. Both powerful warriors...although the Malakai seem to have more honour." there is some pride and awe in his words. Karval obviously seems to be intrigued by the slaves culture.
That the slaves being under-dogs of a corrupt culture, it reminds him of what he hates about corporations.
"Zaleos, how do you think your contacts within the Alliance would react if you were to forward them the info on Makabe and Segaris? It's too dangerous for us to confront the man, but perhaps if we can get this Skywalker on his tail, it will lessen our own danger, as well as that of the empress. If the alliance is going to exist, there is no point in not utilizing their resources for the betterment of the universe."Zaelos thinks for a moment. Hmmm, To be honest I am not sure how they would respond. The Alliance still does not trust the Empire remnants any more than we trust them. I believe we would need to present a clear threat to the Alliance before they would send someone as valuable as Luke Skywalker after him. Keep in mind, Nichos, he may be a powerful Jedi Knight but he can be in only one place at a time.
"It is something to consider at any rate. Even if they don't send Skywalker, putting one of his students even on the trail of these assassins might be helpful. As for the distrust, the only way to lessen that is to give them reasons to lessen it; this is a reason. This whole alliance vs the empress foolishness is only going to get both of them destroyed if it is allowed to continue unabated. The Alliance must be made to understand that; the empress must as well, but I suspect she will be much easier to convince."
It doesn't take long before your datapads are getting updated with various links and articles. The first batch covers the temple in more detail, as Nichos continues to work away on his own datapad. "It would seem to me that finding the library would be our best hope of recovering useful information. Also, looking for any clues left within the structure itself, and the damage it sustained, might provide more precise details on the attack."
The history of the temple is a bit surprising. It was established near a century ago but destroyed only 3 years ago as one of the last bastions of Jedi influence. Because the planet was under preservation and not listed among the galactic assets. The emperor wasn't made privy to the planet until 10 years ago. The temple, which was out in the wilderness, was not discovered until the two months before it was destroyed. The Jedi did a good job at hiding it but it did not last of course. Also, it seems the comm system on the planet was only linked to the temple on Coroscamt. The temple has been isolated from the rest of the galaxy since the Empire's takeover. The jedi on the planet did their best to not draw attention to the planet by not making contact with anyone for fear of betrayal. It appears a lot of life rode on isolation. Few people ever knew this temple existed. All those people were killed in the first wave of the jedi purge. If the rebels had found this temple before the Empire did, the rebels would have been far stronger than they were. Malakai was too deep into imperial territory for the rebels to find.
It did not have a large number of graduated Jedi. It had only 5 Jedi masters and ALL of it's students were Malaki and through the time of discovery, very few of them ever completed their training as Malaki prefer live off their land and have little use for the Jedi code. In truth, the jedi code was extremely unpopular to the Malaki people. This resulted in very few students, and even fewer graduates.
"I hope that the Malakai refused the Jedi code merely because it contrasted with their warrior virtues and not because they found the dark side more appealing, as did Makabe."
Zaelos looks over his own datapad, nodding in agreement with Nichos. "The fortunate news is there is a starport at the Temple. Whether it is still operational or not is another matter. Any source of information would have been stored in the Archives, however the chances of any useful information there is not very good. That area would have been the first target of the attack. If the Temple is as badly damaged as I fear, there will be little to learn. We still must try however." There is a note of... uncertainty in his voice, almost as if he is afraid of what he might find there.
"I hope so too Arana. I've heard the lure of the easy path is great." Karval says solemnly. "However, they do not seem like a peoples to take an easy path."
"No--this tale of their isolation speaks to that." Janitor reviews the information solemnly. "Be the destruction what it may, I think we must attempt to reconnoiter what intelligence we can from the ruins." Janitor nods to Nichos. "And thanks to our computer-savvy friend, we should have the information needed to do what we may. I'm already enjoying working with this group," the clone adds. "You obviously know what you're doing."
It's a good thing that Karval is used to keeping a straight face. 'Yeah, we can do the planning but it soon gets complicated.' "Already our goals are getting quite complex. But it is agreed, we head down to the planet and check out the ruined temple. Next we talk to the tribesmen?"
Yes, it seems the best course of action, given the information we've uncovered." Arana says
Nichos puts down his datapad as he sends his last results to the others. "That is all I can do here. Find me the right computer port on the surface, and I may be able to do more. For now, we need to finish our shopping, and meet with the commander of the station to give her some idea of what she can expect from us."
Information on this is scarce. What you find doesn’t exist in the imperial archives. The Trandos have and unknown number of bases set up on Malakai, most would be the sites of wiped out tribes. They do have five major starports they appear to share with the imperials on world. They’re numbers are unknown. The only leader you can find is Commander Kabock and his currently location is undisclosed. You known their main base is Ikssiss which is the largest most heavily defended startport. Also under the heaviest siege too.
The Malaki
This info is also hard to find as it seems much of any scientific data has been destroyed. The rest is hearsay. Best you can find is that they have no known religion. They have accepted technology and use it only when needed but prefer their old ways of doing things. They treat the Jedi code the same. They accept the training only to be used if absolutely needed and they don’t like all the rules of the code.
These people are all about strength and character. Hard work and living off the land molds them but they also appreciate education. One of the few things they actively accept from outsiders. They are also very social it seems. They adapted quick to many galactic languages including Chiss, Trandoshan, and Basic.
They have a ritual for their coming of age youth they have practiced for centuries. When a youth comes of age, they are sent off on some kind of hunt with a lot of rules attached. This hunt determines the youths place in society. In their tribes, apparently the bigger the kill the higher the status. Dangerous also counts as some smaller predators are considered more dangerous than some of the bigger beast.
The Trandoshans seem to admire this aspect of Malaki tradition. Malaki are seen as extremely tough people, able to endure more punishment than the common human. Reports describe Malaki as difficult to kill with conventional blaster fire and they never attack the same way twice. Their desire for knowledge has greatly influenced their methods of war as well. This makes them FAR more dangerous than any known primitive culture. The force may have a lot to do with this. Though many Malaki didn’t graduate, they did receive extensive training in the force.
The Leadership of Malaki is always changing, they respect strength and such the strongest in a tribe leads the tribe. However, information on tribes and leaders is sketchy, the tribes have become nomadic and any standing tribes have been destroyed or are in hiding. One name stands out though. Gran Taggard, the only Malaki Jedi still fighting for the resistance, or at least he was three months ago, his current whereabouts or status is currently unknown. Last heard, he was the leader of the Malaki rebellion.
Further information on the surface of Malakai or its war are limited to nothing of value, no indication of Makabe’s location, where his generals are etc, these files are extremely encrypted and would require an onsite link up to effectively Hack. Or a far higher Comp use score. Makabe could be on ground fighting or in space fighting, his location is protected. It is easy enough to point out, the Starports should be avoided unless you manage to get recruited at a Trandoshan hunting camp.
The nearest known hunting camp would be a day’s travel from the temple by vehicle. Malaki tribes will be hard to find until you are planet side.
"One person we can try to locate is this Gran Taggard, once we have finished our search of the Temple." Zaelos says.
It is repurposed civilian station. It does have some stores and a requisitions officer who takes credits for gear. Most things can be found here. Anything in particular you are interested in? They do have protocol droids.
Walker has a max capacity of four personnel. Two drivers and two passengers. These capacity specs are not from the Core Rulebook, I modified them based off another source.
You are correct, you cannot fit all of you in the walker. Unless you had an AT-AT, but that's a bit high profile.
Procuring another vehicle in this location is possible but not free. You will need to buy one. Have anything you are looking for? I will list some options and their prices in a bit.
Okay here's the most popular vehicles on this station.
AT-ST
Size: Huge
Speed 30m = 90 feet
Cost 20,000 New, 12,000 Used
Personnel: 4
Imperial Combat Speeder
Size: Huge
Speed: 100m = 300 feet
Cost: 14,000 New, 8,000 Used
Personnel: 2
Imperial Speeder Bike
Size: Large
Speed: 100m = 300 feet
Cost: 6,000 new, 2,000 used
Personel: 2
Imperial Combat Hover Tank
Size: Huge
Speed: 50m = 150 feet
Cost: 30,000 new, 22,000 used
Personnel: 6
AT-PT
Size Large
Speed: 40m = 120 feet
Cost: 12,000 new, 7,000 used
Personnel: 1
Ask if you desire further details
What is our current walker and how much is it worth?
Your Current Walker is an AT-ST, fortunately it counts as New since you never Used it. You could get up to a 90% Trade in Value For it, 75% in credits. Depends on your haggling skills.
After turning in early, and getting a good night's sleep, Nichos is once more up early and out amongst the shops of the station. First stop is the vehicle bay, as the party has outgrown the walker. Fortunately, it still is as good as new, so it's easier to trade in. After spotting a promising looking hover tank, he finds a salesman and gets to haggling. Once he is satisfied with that the price is suitable for that, he heads over to the droid dealers, and picks out a slightly upgraded protocol droid that seems to have been reasonably well taken care of. Party needs taken care of, he turns to his own; finding the armor depot, he trades in his old armor for a something that gives the same amount of protection while being able to be worn under his normal clothes. Than it's off to the weapon depot to upgrade his weapons.
Zaelos is slightly grumpy about being roused from his slumber, but does accompany Nichos to assist in the haggling.
I'm going to set Zaleos as assisting with his Walker diplomacy, that'll allow Nichos to trade in the walker at 90% which is 18,000 off the hovertank.
Neither of you were successful at widdling the price of the tank itself, it is still 30,000 for new and 22,000 used (Used comes with a few or a lot of random problems :))
Zaleos gets a discount on a quality protocol droid making it an even 3000 credits
Nichos sells old armor at a 60%
Nichos buys new armor at -10%
Nichos sells pistol for 75%
Nichos buys a masterwork pistol at -10% and it can be up to MW +3
Nichos sells D17 at 50%
Nichos Buys a Masterwork D17 at -20% and it can be up to MW +3
I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere, can I get a reminder of anything I've missed?
Arana visits the station quartermaster.
Diplomacy to sell old toolkit 250 + benefit from roll
Diplomacy to buy new toolkit +3 2000 + benefit from roll
I'm going to set Zaleos as assisting with his Walker diplomacy, that'll allow Nichos to trade in the walker at 90% which is 18,000 off the hovertank.
Neither of you were successful at widdling the price of the tank itself, it is still 30,000 for new and 22,000 used (Used comes with a few or a lot of random problems :))
Zaleos gets a discount on a quality protocol droid making it an even 3000 credits
Nichos sells old armor at a 60%
Nichos buys new armor at -10%
Nichos sells pistol for 75%
Nichos buys a masterwork pistol at -10% and it can be up to MW +3
Nichos sells D17 at 50%
Nichos Buys a Masterwork D17 at -20% and it can be up to MW +3I'm sure I'm missing something somewhere, can I get a reminder of anything I've missed?
That's everything.
Nichos finishes his shopping by lunch, rounding it out with a few holsters, some new clothes, and some basic disguise materials (makeup for scars, eye contacts of the common Chiss eye colors, etc.). By lunch, he is back in their room waiting for the others to finish their shopping. As he waits, he starts to study the Trandoshan language; while he doesn't hope to reach any kind of mastery in time for the trip to the surface, he hopes to reach basic competency so that he can understand what they are saying if they try to confuse the party by speaking their native tongue.
Karval waits quietly in the main lounge area, looking up as Nichos enters. He judges his companions mood, the Chiss had seemed very apprehensive since return to his home-systems. Karval just nods bruskly; glad to have the clever man with him.
Arrayed on the table before him is the weaponry, clean and fully-charged.
Zaelos enters with the two droids trailing behind him. Fortunately the droids chattering is not too distracting. He nods at Karval and the others and introduces the droids to them.
Arena strolls into the room carrying a shiny new tool kit, looking very pleased with herself.
Janitor moves into the room with a pack on his back and another, larger bag over one shoulder. "Armor," he grunts, indicating the bag with a shrug. "Thought it'd be better not to scare anyone just yet. Might blow cover if I walk around in full suit."
You load the hovertank onto the Lambda Class imperial shuttle. It is a tight squeeze but you manage to get it onto the shuttle. You load up and take off. Not far off you are ready plot the course. Someone needs to make an Astrogate check to plot the course. A Comp use of 20 will add +2 to the overall astrogate check. The Check DC is 25 Astrogate to plot a course to the planet Malakai.
"No, L7 I don't think the Empire had droids in mind when they designed her..."
"Beeep...diddle....whooo..."
On board the shuttle, Janitor enters a side room for a few minutes. When he returns to the main area, he's dressed in full armor: a suit not unlike that of a regular stormtrooper, but with a slightly differently decorated helmet, and the color is a pitch black that reflects the lights of the ship. He carries his helmet in his hand, and nods to the others.
"So, just to recap, what exactly are the objectives of this mission?" Janitor says, his voice serious and very soldierly.
Nichos is dressed as a typical secretary or clerk of a well to do noble, with minor changes to his appearance made to allow him to blend in as an unremarkable chiss. He openly wears his primary pistol and his rifle, with his armor, holdout pistol, and knife, and vibrodagger all concealed. He still doesn't look overly excited, but he has his game face firmly on, so it's hard to tell precisely what he is thinking as they approach the planet.
Arana's clothing is still a motley collection ,however she has refrained from wearing the brightly reflective deckhand vest she was sporting earlier. She takes up her time inspecting the shuttle, ensuring everything is where the schematics tell her they should be.
L7 charts the hyperspace course to Malakai. It is difficult given the planets history. It is not well recorded. Regardless L7 finds it.
Once the course is set, the ship counts down. The stars stream into lines as the ship leaps forth towards the planet.
Hyperspace lasts a few hours. Once you enter Malakai space you are faced with a large fleet of Chiss spaceships in conflict with a smaller force of imperial ships accompanied by an assortment of other capital ships. There is more here than was initially reported or found. The two fleets are still battling strong.
You are hailed by the Chiss flagship. Transmitting the clearance code you easily steer clear of the action and make your way planet side. You follow the nav computers to the Jedi Temple. After doing a brief scan of the temple you find no sapient life present at the temple.
Bringing the ship down into the starport you land it nicely. Congratulations you are all now on Malakai.
Zaelos says to his droid "Good job, L7. Remind me to give you an oil bath once we return to the station."
He holds up his hand and says softly. "Let me make sure we are truly alone..." He then leans back in his command chair and lapses into silence...
Arana frowns as she "looks" at Zaleos, unable to determine exactly what he was doing with the force. "Was that your 'sight' you we're using there, Zaleos? The patterns.... they were unfamiliar to me"
Zaelos starts momentarily as his concentration is broken. "Yes, Arana, my race has learned to use the Force to compensate for our lack of eyes. You appear to me as a bodily-shaped aura." He pulls up his visor allowing her to see the empty sockets where his eyes would be. "What you sensed there was me trying to determine if we are indeed alone...a risky move I must admit with the possibility of a Sith nearby."