The RimWorld Bacta War
Part IX: “Automatic”
The group on the independant space station (Corvo, Dag, and Keema) find themselves in a heavy gunbattle with two improved humanoid battle droids and a Droideka. Everyone is badly beat up from the battle, and nearly half of the Rim World Consortium is taken out (including the ship’s captain they were supposed to be introduced to by the 1st mate), but they beat the things down (and cart at least one of the droids (the droideka, natch) back to the ship under a tarp.
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The Iktoch group (G___, Sharess, Nayda, and Simon) end up in a fight with themselves… or clones of themselves… or something. It becomes more evident as to what is going on when one of the attackers drop with sparks flying. The six attackers are all droids. The “jedi” have repulsor pads in their hands and feet to increase Jumping and simulate Force push effects. The false jedi’s “lightsabers” use a completely different technology, projecting heated plasma into a ‘magnetic bottle’ that looks like a blade. The weapon’s output is someone less than that of a Jedi’s weapon, it doesn’t cut through solid substances nearly as easily, and the power supply for such an inefficient design is tapped completely out in just under a half hour of use.
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The group on the space station negotiates to follow the pirates to a neutral meeting zone on a nearby mining colony. Upon arrival, the pirates have left their ship and are chasing all over the base. It turns out that one of their own number was a spy for the Trade Federation and has jumped ship. The “old” captain was very careful about not mentioning their RWC ties to planets like Naboo (where they get supplies), but the 1st mate mentioned it out in the open to the PC’s after the fight. The fellow is obviously selling this information to the highest bidder (or taking it back to his employer).
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Simon locates the speeder that their attackers arrived in. He works on the craft’s GPS for a few minutes and manages to create a ‘back track’ of the vehicles route out of the Iktochi wastelands. Everyone hops in and they take off into the wastelands (after sending most of the droids back with the police).
The wastelands are unfriendly, and the quartet’s speeder is accosted by a “tri-horn bull” (aka a “reek”) — a native, ugly herd animal that is very territorial. They avoid it and finally come to a narrow canyon that ends in a large concealed blast door. As the stolen speeder approaches the door, it opens onto darkness beyond — apparently automatically.
They have a bad feeling about this.
Jelani Gan. J-E-L-A-N-I
That’s it, I’m changing his name.
I just didn’t have my notes in front of me.
And he’s the new character.
And it was the “Gan” that I was remembering.
I swear… it’s not that it’s a girl’s name or anything.