10: The Hidden & The Dragon Dawn: There is another
ESB Battle Of Hoth + 1/2 month
Where: Space Station G-11, Galadinium’s Extravagant Shopping Station, Wyl Sector
The traveled afar with a cargo bay full of large-scale explosives, to the famed space station near the Corporate Sector, Galadinium’s G-11 Extravagant Shopping Station; a super mall in the stars. It was one of the largest space stations of its kind. The Dirty Pair were in seventh-heaven. The presence of the Imperial Star Destroyer and the CSA cruiser at the station tamed their exuberance a little.
The Jedi Parax was unsure of this place. He found the place foreboding, and felt darkness enveloping this place soon. He didn’t realize how prophetic those feeling were. He slept uneasy while they waited for permission to dock and went through docking procedure. His mind traveled back to an all too familiar place, where a being that has periodically tormented him lives… to Hyper-N-Space. This was more than a dream. The being identifying himself as a Dimensional Dragon of Balance and Order, challenged the Jedi; asked him if he was ready for the ultimate test of his skill. The Jedi accepted the challenge, asking “What must I do?” He felt the world around him dissolve away as he returned to reality. As he did, he heard the voice of the Dimensional Dragon
“Survive”
He awakened feeling different, as if something was missing. He then realized it was his attachment to the Force. He no longer felt the Force flowing through him. This concerned the Defel greatly, to say the least. When he revealed this to his student, Mishavek, the Shistavenen pledged to protect his teacher until his powers returned.
As soon as the docked, they were recognized by the station commander who reported it to Galladinium himself. Galladinium saw it fit to have a chat with the group and invited them to dinner. This dinner was partially to warn the group that the station security knew who they were, in particular the Dirty Pair, and also he knew what they were looking for. He knew about a 3WA safe house within his station, and was willing to pass on the route to it if they promised to leave immediately afetrwards. They agreed. Galladinium said it would take time to gather the data.
After the dinner, the group went back to their ship to await the data. During that time, they had a few encounters, including a violent one with some dark mysterious beings calling themselves the Cult of the Shadow Drakes and an encounter with an old acquaintance, Quinton the Treasure Hunter. Harry was visited by his brother’s spirit who told him that Quinton was his murderer, and he must pay. Harry swore revenge.
Hours later, alarms sounded, and security personnel scrambled over an unknown threat. The group were contacted by the station commander and Galladinium, and asked to report to the bridge immediately. When the got there, they saw the threat. It was an immense alien craft, shaped like a giant spiny pine cone, bearing down threateningly towards the Space Station. The Star Destroyer was already on it way to intercept. The “pine cone” nslowed to a stop as the SD approached. In a flash, their was suddenly nothing left of the SD except debris, and super heated gas. Galladinium scrambled to take necessary measures to get all ships out of the area, and prepare his station for an attack. He quickly tossed the group the data they required to get to the safe house, and warned them to get away as soon as possible.
The route to the safe house was challenging, through a labyrinth of maintenance corridors through waste containers, and ionic-intake columns. There was no other to travel to it, with debris, and the “pine cone” out there. Part of the group prepared their equipment for the journey. Galladinium recruited the remainder of the group for security work, with Mishavek and Parax as on station security, and Alex and Harry as fighter pilots. However, nothing else came from the “pine cone”, until….
It blossomed.
The safe house party was struggling through the cramped, high rad-count corridors, dodging energy archs, and super-heated gases. The were able to get to the final steps when the “pine cone” started its attack.
Mishavek and Parax were in the lower levels of the station when the attack started. Several creatures appeared out of thin air, surrounding. These creatures had appeared to them before, in dreams, and in the archives of the Dragon Library on board the Second Chance. These were the Drakaresh, as race of chaotic force-sensitive creature that prey on souls for their weapons; the drain any living creature of their souls, and store it in a crystal, which they in turn use for their light-axes. These axes wail with the sound of the tormented soul, audibly and within the currents of the Force.
They instilled great fear on all their foes, and the two Jedi here were no different. They were overwhelmed, and Mishavek was forced to delve into powers he knows he has, but knows little about… the power of teleportation. He trusted in himself and concentrated on the safest place he thought they could be…
The CSA cruiser launched shortly after to engage, with the help of a few well armed freighters, and a few squadrons of fighters, including a Skipray Blast Boat piloted by Harry the Wookie and a Z-95 Headhunter piloted by Alex the Ewok. The enemy was launching its fighter, and larger ships,… but they weren’t ships. They were these beasts with wings of immense size, escorted by smaller version of themselves. The two pilots engaged with great bravery.
The Safe house suddenly found themselves facing Drakaresh as well, within the tight corridors of the space stations maintenance levels. As they battled, suddenly there was a flash, follow by Mishavek and Parax standing between them and the beasts. Shaking of the confusion, they scrambled to get away from the Drakaresh, and find their way back on the route to the safe house. The Drakaresh gave chase, and through some quick thinking, and luck, they were able to trap the Drakaresh in an airlock, and launch them out to space. With that threat out of the way, the worked towards the safe house which was attached to the out-hull of the station.
They found someone there, an old human cloning-scientist, who said he knew Clarke and the project around his clones. He called it the Clarkes Project, stressing the plural Clarke. With little time to elaborate, they called for the Lovely Angel and prepared to load the Angel with the contents of the safe house.
The battle raged, the non-dragons were not fairing well. The Dirty Pair put the call out to gather their numbers, and get the hell out. The Lovely Angel and Mughi finally showed up, but so did a Shadow Drake, which attacked the group, the safe house, and the Lovely Angel. Over the far edge of the station, Alex came to the rescue, valiently fighting off the Drake. In the battle, the old scientist was killed, but not before passing on a data crystal that he said contained the “information they needed…”
Harry’s ship was badly damaged, and flying near the docks when he got the message. He had spotted Quinton and gave chase. He wasn’t giving up, concentrating hard on his target… so hard, he didn’t see the badly damaged Skipray hurling towards his ship, propelled by the exploding CSA cruiser. The two ships collided, and crash landed in the hanger, letting Quinton escape. In the cockpit was a Kerestian, badly hurt. The Wookie took the body, out of the doomed Skipray, and stowed him in his own. He was able to jury-rig enough to get his ship flying, and launched just as the other skip-ray exploded.
The space station was doomed. The group salvaged what the could from the damage safe house, and prepared for a short jump out of the area. Hyperspace did not scome too soon, even if it was accomplished by the Wookie jury-rigging a droid motivator into a hyperspace motivator.
The Jedi laid back with a sigh of relief and suddenly felt a presence seeking him through the Force. It was a familiar presence… it was his brother. He was aboard the pine-cone, looking for him. He could not find his brother because he was no longer attuned to the Force. He had survived. Realizing that, the Dimensional Dragon revisited Parax long enough to return his powers, with little explanation…
The Dirty Pair was able to examine the data retrieved further, to find some alarming news. First, the data indicated that the surviving executives have been slowly eliminated suddenly, as if systematically assassinated straight down the line of succession. Secondly, they were the senior surviving employees… They were soul CEOs of what remained of 3WA.