Mission Log

Episode V: Hunting

Date: 37:5:23 - 37:5:28

Thanks to intelligence provided by the Alliance, it was decided that a team would be sent to Ketress to steal the Lasso, an Imperial heavy-duty tug. The Lasso was reportedly berthed in Zarhrin city's starport, Garvan Field.

The team, led by Kethan, comprised of Samic, Chaide, Kal, Kribaczek, Dallara and Morrez. Due to the lack of a sufficient transport and the need to maintain the Hammer's cover, it was decided that the Hammer would carry them to the edge of the Tinava system. From there, Samic would take Zeta 6 ahead of the rest of the team and complete the final leg of the journey. The newly acquired Blue Rain would take Dallara, Kethan and Morrez on their final leg and would arrive twenty-four hours after Zeta 6. Meanwhile, Chaide, Krib and Kal would take a public transport from Tinava Prime, arriving forty hours after Zeta 6.

Arriving as planned around mid morning, Samic checked in to the Old Rise Hotel in Baluras city, where he had arranged for them all to stay at whilst the Hammer was on route to the Tinava system. Samic spent most of his first day enjoying the hotel's facilities and doing a spot of hunting.

Samic spent the following day trying to make contact with the local underworld in Baluras and Zarhrin. He met no success, but he discovered that the underworld tended to operate out of the small villages dotted around the planet.

Meanwhile, the Blue Rain had landed at Baluras' starport and Dallara, Kethan and Morrez had checked in to the hotel. They then proceeded to Zarhrin via the monorail, to investigate Garvan Field's security. After many hours of close scrutiny, they deemed that the starport was going to be incredibly difficult to infiltrate. The group headed back to the hotel and on the way back Dallara hired a speeder for a couple of days.

Disheartened with the lack of progress, Samic decided to go hunting and went to the Wild Country Hunting Lodge's range. Whilst at the hunting lodge, Samic bumped into his old friend and hunter Kyle Mard. The pair shared several Old Frosty ales at the bar whilst they caught up with each other. During the conversation Samic mentioned that he now worked for a mercenary group and that they had some business on planet that he wouldn't divulge. Kyle invited Samic to go on a late night hunting trip the following day, to hunt the native Catangs - a large feline predator. Samic readily agreed, and headed back to the hotel since it was already quite late.

Not long after Samic finally managed to get to bed, the public transport carrying Chaide, Krib and Kal landed. They headed straight to the hotel and once checked in, went straight to bed.

The following morning the whole team met up in the hotel's restaurant for breakfast. After they finished breakfast they headed up to Samic's penthouse suite. Once there, Samic updated the team on his progress and the information that he had gathered. The team decided to go to Zarhrin to take another look at the security in place at the starport and once again they arrived at the same conclusions - It was going to be more than a little tricky. Satisfied that they had gathered all they could, the team returned to the hotel for an evening meal before heading out to the Wild Country Hunting Lodge.

On arriving at the lodge, Samic introduced Kyle to the team and who extended the offer of going hunting to the rest of the team. Krib and Morrez eagerly accepted the offer whilst Kethan, Chaide, Dallara and Kal declined and opted to stay at the lodge to do some brainstorming for their next move.

Whilst hunting Samic told Kyle the real reason why they where on planet - to 'liberate' the Lasso. No lover of the Empire Kyle offered his help and suggested that they should meet a well-connected friend of his - Ki-da, a male Cerean. Samic readily accepted the offer, and Kyle promised to get into contact with Ki-da to arrange a meeting.

At breakfast the next morning, Kyle informed the group that he had arranged for them to meet with Ki-da in the Iron Gate tapcafe in Storba village at 2100 hours that day. Thankful for his help, the group left the hunting lodge with promises of staying in contact with Kyle.

Later that night as the group pulled up just past the Iron Gate tapcafe in their speeder, they noticed a group of people going down a neighbouring alley. Thinking nothing of it, the group proceeded into the Iron Gate and secured a table near the back of the tapcafe. Looking around the tapcafe, the group saw no signs of Ki-da and after a while Kal asked one of the bartenders if they had seen a Cerean. He was told that a Cerean had left with a group of people just before they had entered tapcafe. Smelling trouble, Samic, Krib and Chaide sneaked down the alley they had seen the people go down.

As the trio rounded a corner they bumped into a pair of thugs guarding the alley. Over the shoulders of the thugs they could see Ki-da being beaten by several thugs. In the ensuing fight, the trio called in the rest of the group and between them downed most of the thugs. However, the short leader of the gang, who turned out to be the loan shark Nylar Hreidersson, and a pair of thugs managed to escape in a nearby speeder.

Not wanting any more trouble, the group and Ki-da left Storba in their speeder. On the drive back to Baluras they where pursued by two speeders, but thanks to some superb driving by Dallara and the gunnery skills of Krib and Samic, they managed to destroy their pursuers.

Ki-da, grateful for the actions of the group, offered to help the team for a more than reasonable price - getting him off planet. Kethan readily agreed to this meagre price and Ki-da promptly proceeded to outline his idea...

Ki-da got a set of IDs forged for Kethan, Chaide and Kal, allowing them to pose as maintenance engineers. Using these identities, they infiltrated a remote Imperial monitoring station to make some repairs to one of their computers and to log a flight plan for the Lasso.

A second set of forged IDs for Kethan, Chaide and Kal, allowed them to pose as a flight crew. Using these identities, they entered the starport and boarded the Lasso. Using the flight plan that they had previously logged they took off and headed for the Jump Zone. The Imperial authorities became aware of the theft when the captain of the Lasso stepped into the starport's control room. However, by the time the Imperials had scrambled some TIEs and a Dx-9 Stormtrooper transport the Lasso was well on her way. The TIEs caught up with the escaping tug just as it jumped into hyperspace.

With the successful completion of their mission, the remaining team members laid low for a day before leaving to rendezvous with the Hammer and Lasso near the Tinava system.

At the rendezvous point Kethan received some intel on a possible target in a nearby system. It was decided that after the Blue Rain dropped Ki-da off on Tinava Prime, the Hammer would proceed to intercept the target whilst the Lasso would head back to the Waypoint Station.

Captain's Log:

<<37:5:28/NOV.DRA/CAP.LOG/>>

Further to my previous entry, we needed to secure our newly acquired space station. In the coming months this could prove to be a valuable base of operations. However, to be able to move it, we had to acquire a tug. Our Alliance contacts were unable to furnish us with such a vessel.

Samic managed to track one down, the Lasso, based on the planet Ketress. I did discuss the possibility of taking the Hammer there and attempting to requisition the vessel but there were simply too many flaws in the plan to make it viable. Instead a small team (myself included) left to infiltrate the planet, hoping that better intelligence from close observation would reveal a way to appropriate the vessel. Samic went in first, and was able to maintain a cover as a high rolling hunter. He even bumped into an old acquaintance of his, Kyle Mard, who was to prove invaluable.

Our preliminary scouting of the military section of the spaceport raised more issues than it answered, despite some excellent work from Dallara in acquiring high angle holo footage. Needing to regroup and rethink, I agreed to the team taking time out at the hunting lodge at which Samic had met Kyle. I was pressurised to take some time out to go hunting, but I felt that the timing was inappropriate and it is not a hobby I would enjoy at any rate. Chaide chose duty over self and remained with Kal, Dallara and me; we were still without a plan.

I didn't appoint Samic to be my Intelligence Officer without feeling that I could show faith in his judgement, so when he suggested we bring Kyle into the discussion, despite my misgivings about compromising security, I agreed. Kyle pointed us in the direction of a Ki-da, whom he said would be able to help, if anyone could. Finding Ki-da was not so easy; it seemed he had made some enemies on planet. We were fortunate to arrive in time to save him from a severe beating, or worse. His gratitude opened the way for our operation to finally progress. His local contacts were able to get papers for Kal, Chaide and myself to infiltrate a minor local station from where Kal was able to slice into the Imperial net and plant false clearance for the Lasso to launch. The three of us then used stolen uniforms to enter the spaceport and execute those orders.

The station will now be relocated to a safe haven, and we'll still have possession of the tug, which may be a valuable tool deeper into our mission.

Our finances are sorely stretched at this point in time and we must make a successful strike soon or risk defaulting on our payments to the Alliance. Not only do I believe this would be disastrous for the Nova Dragons, I have also become more deeply convinced that we need to be successful in order to convince the Alliance to expand Project Hammer. A series of independent freelance raiders could have a serious impact on the Empire's ability to wage its war of hatred against all species of the Galaxy.

-Captain Kethan Falor

 

An Imperial officer bearing the rank of captain steps into the starport control room. "Evening, Johnson" he says addressing the Officer at one of the control boards. "Ah, evening sir" a somewhat puzzled Johnson replies. "Something the matter Johnson?" "Uh no sir.....its just....well....your vessel left a short while ago and....you're here" "What?!?!" "Your starship sir, the Lasso sir. It's just left orbit" "What do you mean, just left orbit??" "I mean it's just left orbit and is outward bound sir" "What? Who authorised this?" A quiet moment goes by as Johnson scans through the day's flight plans. "According to this sir, you did" "WHAT?!?!" "Sir??" "It must be the damn Rebels!!! They've stolen my ship!!!! Johnson, sound the alert" Johnson spins back to the control board and into the comm board shouts "Red alert! Red alert! All pilots to their fighters, all pilots to their fighters!!" ******** Four TIE fighters scream out of their hanger bay and bank into a steep climb. A Stormtrooper transport loads the last of its Stormtroopers and its engines rumble as it lifts off. ******** The TIE fighters eat up the distance to the fleeing Lasso and as their targeting systems acquire a lock, the Lasso engages her hyperdrive and disappears in a flash of light.....