Mission Log

Episode X: Starforge

Date: 37:7:11 - 37:7:24

On arriving in Starforge Nebula in the Ado Sector, the Hammer was greeted by a flight of three Y-wings approaching from the rear. They demanded to know the reason why the Hammer was in the Nebula as if they owned the place. Aaron, fully briefed on the customs of dealing with Starforge's personnel, simply replied that they where on their way to Starforge Station so they could visit the shipyard and get some upgrades done to the Hammer. He also mentioned that they had an appointment with Talos Sharn, a client liaison for Starforge Shipyards. During this conversation, Zulah managed to partially decrypt the Y-wing's communications and intercepted a transmission to the Behemoth requesting backup and confirmation of the information given by Aaron. Moments later, Chaide's sensor board picked up the Nebulon-B Frigate Behemoth inbound to the Hammer's coordinates

After a moment or two of heavy silence the Y-wings moved into an escort position and instructed the Hammer to follow them. As the Hammer started off to follow the Y-wings, the Behemoth turned about and returned to its patrol. After an hour or so of travelling through the dense nebula they arrived at the Starforge Station and were instructed to dock at number twelve airlock. They were also requested to send a security representative to the airlock to meet with station security. As Chief of Security, Chaide immediately made his way to the airlock taking Alyssa and Kal with him.

At the airlock they were greeted by a towering Barabel and three non-human guards. With a slight look of disdain in his eyes, the Barabel ran through the station's rules and regulations, which featured an awful lot of 'spacing' for committing certain crimes.

Once fully briefed on the rules and regulations, Kal commed Aaron and suggested that they should get the entire crew together in the main briefing room to relay the information they had just received. After the crew briefing, Aaron split the command staff and crew up into three teams. Each team could take shore leave one at a time, leaving the other two teams onboard the Hammer.

With a large pile of credits burning holes in their pockets, each of the teams went out and spent some of their hard earned credits on new equipment, fine food and drink. During one of these excursions, Aaron and Alyssa were enjoying a meal together in one the station's restaurants whilst Lisa Harris and Morrez were sharing a drink at the restaurant's bar when a Trandoshan and a Weequay approached the table. The pair started hurling insults at Aaron and Alyssa for no apparent reason. This quickly escalated and the pair of thugs started hurling punches at the still sitting Aaron and Alyssa. It was at this point that Lisa and Morrez noticed the scuffle that was breaking out. Quick to defend their friends, Lisa and Morrez drew their pistols and pointed them at the thugs. Just as Lisa started telling them to back off, she felt a blaster digging in her ribs and heard a voice saying "Put it away. Let's see how this turns out". She turned to see a Sullustan behind her and a Rodian behind Morrez with a blaster in hand. Trapped, Lisa holstered her pistol turned back to watch the brawl. Seeing this, Morrez followed suit and holstered his own weapon.

The Trandoshan lunged at Aaron, whose quick reflexes saved him and he pulled the big Trandoshan down onto the table. At the same time, the Weequay kicked Alyssa's chair backwards to the floor. Alyssa rolled backwards to her feet and dodged the Weequay's wild attacks. As the Trandoshan struggled to stand upright, Aaron attempted to batter him with his stun baton. Meanwhile, the Weequay was flailing ineffectually at Alyssa whilst she delivered some minor injuries to him before, finally, he went crashing down. Alyssa turned to the Trandoshan and challenged the towering thug. Turning and seeing his partner whimpering on the floor, the Trandoshan smiled as best as he could and offered them both a drink! Seeing the fight for what it was, Aaron and Alyssa agreed and waved Lisa and Morrez over to join them. When station security showed up all they found was a broken chair, a messy table, six friends having a drink and a restaurant full of witnesses saying they hadn't seen a fight...

On the following day Aaron decided that they needed to look into exchanging Zeta 5 for another kind of starfighter since it was no longer needed to maintain their cover. Plus, everyone agreed, especially Samic, that the TIE/In was little better than a bin with wings. So, Aaron along with Kal, Lisa and Samic went in search of a replacement. As they were walking along the promenade Kal spotted Zen in the crowd up ahead of them. Hardly believing his eyes Kal commed Chaide to inform him of the situation and to request backup. Kal then proceeded to tell Aaron and explained who Zen was - a slaver who worked for a criminal organisation called Nexus, which, at one time, had enslaved a number of the Nova Dragons. Whilst explaining this to Aaron they tailed the slaver through the busy station at a safe distance. After a few minutes of tailing him, Zen met up with another male human. It was Sordan, Zen's boss. They spoke briefly to each other in the middle of the promenade, before they headed off. Meanwhile, Chaide had grabbed JD and they were trying to catch up with Kal and company.

Eventually, Sordan and Zen stepped off the promenade and headed down a side street. As the pursuing Nova Dragons rounded the corner, Sordan and Zen entered an unmarked building half way down the street. On seeing this, the Nova Dragons came to a halt and waited for Chaide and JD to turn up.

On Chaide and JD's arrival, Kal pointed out the building that Zen and Sordan had entered. JD discovered that the building was owned by the Faraway Corporation, an import and export firm, by searching through the tourist floor plans of the station on his datapad. Suspicious that this company could be a front for slaving, Chaide sent Samic back to the Hammer to see what information he could uncover about the Faraway Corporation, whilst the others kept an eye on the building.

After a while Chaide decided that they should head back to the Hammer or risk being spotted. On the way back they discussed how and if they should tell the rest of the Nova Dragons, particularly as some of them tend to fly off the handle when Nexus is involved. Kal suggested that the crew could do with a Gamorrean flu inoculation and that he could add some sedative to the Nova Dragon's jabs. With a smile on his face, Chaide supported the idea and asked Aaron if it would be acceptable. Aaron, knowing what certain Nova Dragons were like, agreed with the idea.

With everyone gathered in the Medi Bay and after having received their injections, Chaide proceeded to tell the Nova Dragons what had been seen. He also informed all the ex-slaves (Morrez, Krib, Raggy & Zulah) that they were confined to the Hammer until further notice. Thanks to the sedatives, the news was quite well received all things considered.

Over the next few days, Samic, Kal, Alyssa and Dallarra searched for everything they could find on the Faraway Corporation and their activities. In all they found the floor plans for the office that they were using on the station; that the company's HQ was registered in the Minraava system; that they owned the Bindfast, a Hyrotil Crescent-Class Transport; that the Bindfast usually docked in Bay 6 on the station; that all business details about Faraway Corporation were very vague; that they frequently go on trips within the Nebula for seven days, usually in areas where Space Barnacles can be found; that there are only four known regions in the Nebula that Space Barnacles grow; and that they had just left the station on another trip. They also positioned some surveillance equipment to watch the office's front door. The only visitor to the office was a person dressed in concealing black robes. However, when Kal cleaned the image up and slowed it down, a brain tail could be seen. Immediately they suspected that the Twi'lek was none other than Dev Fort, a senior slaver in Nexus.

With only bare bones to go on it was suggested that they should break into the office and see if they could find anything else out. Agreeing with the idea Chaide, formed a team consisting of Alyssa, Raggy, Dallara, Kal and himself to complete the operation. Dallara, Kal and Raggy acted as lookouts whilst Alyssa and Chaide broke into the office. As a cover, Alyssa stood with her back to the door and hugged Chaide as he was working on the door's lock and security system. To the causal eye, it just looked like a lovers' embrace.

Moments later Alyssa and Chaide were in through the door. On entering the office, Alyssa did a quick sweep of the room with her video camera so that everything could put back in the right place when they left. Seeing that no one was home and that there appeared to be no security systems active, Chaide commed Kal to join them so he could slice into the computer.

After an exhaustive search of the office and computer the trio left the office and locked the door after themselves. Their search yielded little more information than they already had, but they confirmed that the company was a front for something and that they lived in the office in between trips in the Nebula. It became clear that if they wanted to track down Sordan and Zen, then they'd have to search the four regions of the Nebula known for Space Barnacles.

On their return to the Hammer, Samic and Kal were able to analyse space traffic patterns based on flight logs sliced from Starforge Control to eliminate two of the potential sites. With the detective work done, Dallara, Krib and Kal went in search of a starship for hire, to enable a proper investigation of the two target areas. They ended up hiring a venerable YT-1300, the Terra Nova, in part because it was actually armed. Picking one of the two identified areas at random, the Nova Dragons boarded the ship and headed out into the Nebula.

On arrival at their chosen site, a sensor sweep of the area revealed nothing but a badly damaged and drifting YT-2000. Dallara moved the Terra Nova in for a closer look. Peering into the YT-2000's cockpit they could see a dead Sullustan in the pilot's seat and a dead humanoid in the Co-pilot's seat. A cold chill ran through the Nova Dragons...was it Syl and Kethan in the Wild Fire that they were staring at??

Tearing his eyes away from the cockpit, Kal scanned the exterior of the hull for the ion cannons that were fitted to the Wild Fire. There were none. With a huge sigh of relief, Dallara docked with the drifting YT-2000. Once clad in their powersuits, Krib and Zulah boarded the eerie freighter.

Other than the two dead crewmen, the vessel was empty. However, there was evidence suggesting that there had been some sort of boarding action. It looked as if the freighter had been hit by pirates. After some tinkering, Krib managed to restore power to the vessel, which turned out to be called the Faraway Queen. Once the atmosphere was reinstated on the freighter, Kal joined Krib and Zulah so he could perform burial duties for the two dead crewmen.

It was eventually decided that Krib and Kal would take the Faraway Queen back to Starforge Station whilst the rest of the Nova Dragons headed to the next location in their search. So once the Faraway Queen was under way, the Terra Nova jumped to its destination.

When they exited hyperspace, the Nova Dragons found themselves in an area populated by a number of large asteroids. Dallara did a sensor sweep of the area and discovered several ion trails, which seemed to be converging on a particularly large asteroid. Not long after Dallara's discovery, a group of four Uglies pounced on the Terra Nova from the cover of another asteroid. In the ensuing dogfight three of the Uglies were destroyed whilst the fourth fled to towards the large asteroid. Following the vessel in, sensor sweeps detected active and dormant weapon systems on the asteroid, as well as a hangar bay. After a failed strafing run to try to disable the weapons, Dallara flew the Terra Nova into the asteroid's hanger bay, which contained the damaged Ugly and a Crescent-Class Transport.

On exiting the Terra Nova under the cover of Raggy's smoke grenade, the Nova Dragons were met by ten slavers hefting blasters. The gun fight between the two groups was over quickly leaving the Nova Dragons with the field. A quick search of the hangar bay level revealed a pair of turbolifts, a maintenance bay and a vault. Chaide bypassed the vault's sophisticated security system with ease and inside found some contraband and what appeared to be people's personal effects. Seeing nothing of immediate use, the group headed for the turbolifts.

The Nova Dragons split into two groups and each group took a different turbolift. When they arrived on the level below, both groups were confronted by seven slavers with vicious intent. These slavers were quickly dispatched with volleys of blaster fire and grenades. On further investigation of the deserted level, they stumbled across another group of slavers led by Zen. A plasma grenade thrown by Zulah put most of them on the deck and sent Zen scuttling through a door behind them.

The slavers that managed to survive the plasma grenade surrendered and on interrogation told the Nova Dragons what laid beyond the door that Zen escaped through. A control centre. On checking the door they found that it was well secured and suspected that it was barred. Raggy went in search of a battering ram whilst others fanned out and checked the remainder of the level, which was clear.

The Nova Dragons eventually battered down the door and found that the control room was deserted. However, there was another door that appeared to be an airlock in the room. Looking through the view port they could see nothing but cold space. Suspecting that Zen escaped, Chaide ran a sensor sweep using the asteroid's sensors. Sure enough there was a Lambda-Class shuttle making its escape from the area. Unable to follow fast enough to make a difference, the Nova Dragons decided to search the rest of the station. No further resistance was found, however they did manage to liberate thirty captives, including Vanna Blue, who had been captured on the Faraway Queen and who was an old friend of the Nova Dragons.

Cursing their luck at missing out on Sordan and Zen, the team stripped what they could of value from the station, including some database information, and then returned to the hanger bay. They took the freighter Bindfast with them, if only because they needed the extra capacity to carry all the released slaves in safety (and because it was a profit).

On their arrival at Starforge Station, they informed the Station's ruling council of what had happened and were rewarded with celebrity status for a few hours. The Faraway Queen was returned to its rightful owners and the Nova Dragons kept the Bindfast, which they checked against the Hammer's database to see if it had any outstanding warrants against it. It turned out to be clean.

A few days after returning to Starforge, Kethan and Syl arrived aboard the Wild Fire and Chaide filled them in on all the happenings during their absence. He outlined the information they had discovered about slavers and their possible whereabouts. Kethan decided that a "shakedown" cruise of the refurbished Hammer would be a good idea, and wondered if Chaide knew of any likely locations. Chaide replied that he had heard of an isolated system in the Outer Rim that might fit the bill...Minraava.

Captain's Log:

<<37:7:28/NOV.DRA/CAP.LOG/>>

Despite the presence of Jashir, locked in one of the spare cabins, it was good to be able to spend some time in the cockpit of the Wild Fire again. So much seems to have happened so quickly these past weeks that I seem to have lost time to simply be myself to a large degree. The length of the journey afforded me the opportunity to pick up my meditation exercises again. I feel more comfortable, now, with the ebb and flow of the Force; it was easy to sense Syl, and even Grat and Major Saxs. Jashir, though, stood out loud and clear, a simmering mass of darkness. Deep in that darkness I could feel a tug, but my Master's training has been thorough and I was able to dismiss the call of the Dark side.

Alliance HQ was something of a mess when we got there. They are still looking for a semipermanent base away from the Empire's eyes. They were muttering about some ice planet when I was introduced again to Ral'Rai Muvunc. Rather them than me.

Interviewing candidates for the proposed expansion to Project Hammer was an arduous task. I was still surprised how desperate the Alliance seems, given that some of those we had to interview were nothing less than out and out pirates. Despite this, we were able to settle on a couple of solid prospects. I spent a few days with them discussing tactics and logistics, which were as useful for me, I think, as for them. I look forward to the possibility of joint operations in the future, should the strategic situation demand such.

Ral'Rai, on behalf of Alliance Command, made me an interesting proposal. He offered the Hammer a place in the Alliance Order of Battle as a quasi-autonomous "Special Operations" group. The terms of this proposal would be similar to those of our Letter of Marque, except we would be under more direct Alliance Command, rather than our much more loosely defined current arrangement. I told him I would consider the offer, but that I couldn't commit until I had talked to my people. Even so, the situation is unlikely to be viable for a year or more, given that the Alliance is still on the back foot, and our special operations role can only really be successful in an offensive, rather than defensive role. Still, I find the offer intriguing. More than ever, this trip has convinced me of the…rightness, of the Alliance cause. Whatever I can contribute, whether as an individual, or as Captain of the Hammer, or leader of the Nova Dragons, that will hasten the end of this war, I will gladly do so.

On arriving at Starforge Station, it was reassuring to find out that the work on the Hammer was progressing according to schedule. Less so to discover that some of our old enemies had been seen. Chaide recounted a foray against the slave-taking scum, which at least liberated a few souls from that particular tyranny. With the information recovered from that base, together with input from our old friend Vanna, we have the opportunity to strike a devastating blow against this inhuman practice, and yet....And yet I hesitate to give the order. I, we?, are not judge and jury. Can we really claim such moral superiority to even think of being executioner? But if we don't act, what then? Are we condemning tens, scores, maybe even hundreds or perhaps thousands to a life of abuse and misery? I doubt that the Force will provide me answers, but it will provide me the clarity of my own thoughts to make the right decision. I will meditate on this issue now.

-Captain Kethan Falor

Chief Security Officer's Log:

<<37:7:24/NOV.DRA/SEC.LOG/>>

Hhhhmmm. Where to start? Its been an interesting couple of weeks. We arrived in the Nebula with full pockets and high spirits, relatively free of the stresses that go hand in hand with the kind of deep cover operations we've been up to our eyeballs in recently. That, however, was to be relatively short-lived. The presence of hostile craft is always likely to put a bit of a damper on your day. Eventually we made it on to the station, where they seem to be over fond of spacing for any random offence or infraction.

Aaron dealt with the mundane chore of stopping a mass exodus of the ship, the riot act was read and the crew was warned about the station's rules and punishments. It might have made a difference, I doubt we'll ever know as events somewhat overtook us.

Kal and Aaron decided it was about time we replaced our flying dustbin with, something a little less likely to get Samic killed. So they set out with Lisa and Samic to check out the Headhunter market. It was on this merry little jaunt that Kal, of all the people there, actually noticed a former acquaintance of ours…. Zen! Never has there been a man more in need of a beating!

Kal got in touch with me, and I grabbed JD to go and help out if we could, but we didn't catch them in time to administer the beating him and his boss Sordan, who had joined him later, so richly deserved. We were now in the position of having to tell the rest of the Nova Dragons. I was dreading it. Kal, however, once again came up with a sedate and reasonable answer to my problem. It's remarkable how relaxing inoculations can be when backed up by Kal's evil and calculating mind. I can't thank him enough.

After some surveillance work we found out that they were running a bogus import and export company, and were rarely on the station long. Alyssa seems to have got her edge back. Her abilities, I'm loath to admit, are as good as ever, if not maybe a little better. God it galls me to say that, even in a private log.

Samic and Kal managed to get some bearings on where the two scumbags go when they're not polluting Starforge with their presence. So it was agreed that we'd try to catch them off the station, considering the attitudes of the Starforge Station officials. We rented a YT-1300, and headed off into the Nebula to catch us some bad guys.

The first place we tried turned up a tragedy. A drifting YT-2000 that we found out was called the Faraway Queen. Part of me still feels a guilty joy at discovering that name, the Sullustan pilot with his Humanoid co-pilot were a little too close to Kethan and Syl for comfort and when we found out it wasn't them my heart leapt.

Krib and Kal rigged the ship so that it would get them back to Starforge and after a short funeral rite for the executed pilots we parted company. The ship had been attacked and we had a good idea by whom.

We jumped to the next site on our list and immediately new we had hit pay dirt. We were attacked by four Uglies. These we dealt with efficiently, tailing the last one back to the asteroid that was being used as a base, as it limped home.

Dallara's piloting skills were, as always, flawless as she coasted us in behind the ugly to land in the asteroid's hangar. We took the place by storm, and with a devastating volley of fire and grenades, reduced the opposition to a memory. Searching this level turned up little…except a case that nagged at my memory, found in a room full of people's personal effects. We split into two teams and took the two turbolifts down to the next level.

Resistance on this level was much stronger and better prepared, but before the wrath of the Nova Dragons it didn't last long. We caught a glimpse of Zen on this level, but he soon retreated from sight, and, as we were later to find, safety, due to Zulah's accurate grenade throwing skills. After his desertion and Zulah's grenade, the enemy lost the will to fight and surrendered. It took us a long time to get through the door that Zen had escaped through, and when we did he had escaped. He, and I presume Sordan, had a Lambda class shuttle waiting, and had made good their escape, despite the best efforts off all those present.

We scoured the asteroid, and in so doing, found 30 captives we can only assume were to be slaves. Vanna Blue was amongst them, and it was from her we found out the names of the unfortunate YT-2000 pilots. The case I recognised was hers… I should have remembered, but, alas, I have spent too much time around Samic recently and my memory has become retarded by the company.

We recovered a Crescent-Class freighter called the Bindfast, formerly the property of Nexus and used it to shuttle the prisoners to Starforge, where they could be returned to wherever they were from. Finally we got some respect on the station. It seems the one thing they despised more than our too human crew, was slavers.

I can't wait till Kethan's back, I hate not having someone to blame when I have a bad day.

-Lieutenant Commander Chaide Walker