Modules

Star Wars

Rebellion Era

Lords of the Expanse Campaign

WEG D6 (GM: Dave)

Escape (page 2)

"I don't know Commander." said Captain Alberick Ellery as he was walking down a hallway with his commanding officer. "Trusting these guys doesn't sound like a good idea to me."

"I admit it is a risk." said Commander Rourke Alabard to his second in command as he strolled with Ellery down the hallway to the meeting room. The men passed several other people in the narrow hallway going about their business. "However, allies have been few and far between in this Sector so if the opportunity is being presented to us then by the Force we are going to take it."

"What are your plans for the meet then?" asked Ellery who then continued, "Surely you don't expect these Rebels to show up with the fighters you asked them to get?"

"Actually, Al, I do." replied Alabard confidently, pausing in midstride to emphasize his point. "In past reports, they may have appeared to be somewhat inept at times, but I think there is more to this group than meets the eye."

"Well," said Ellery as both of the men entered the doorway into the meeting room, "I guess the only thing left to do is try to convince the others of the importance of this meeting." Alabard began to head for the front of the room as Ellery began to head towards the back, but not before adding, "While you're at it, you can continue to work on convincing me!" Alberick glanced back at Rourke with a sly smile. Rourke saw the look and ignored it as he took the spot behind the podium.

"Everyone, thanks for coming down here on such short notice." Alabard began as he looked out on the small gathering of personages that made up part of Alabard's Comets. Other than Ellery, there were eight others in the room. A Herglic, a Vratix, a Mrlssti, four humans, and a droid. Everyone gave Alabard their full attention.

Continuing on, Alabard said, "The time is now upon us since we made contact with the group we suspect of being Rebels, when we have to begin preparations to leave to get to our meet at the supplied coordinates." Motioning to the Mrlssti to hand out her small stack of datacards, Rourke continued, "Gia will be handing out the information on these datacards as to some of the specifics of our plan. Items included, are the number of ships we will be taking, backup, contingency plans, etc. Please look them over and then let me know if any of you have any questions."

There was a few minutes of silence as each of them reviewed the plans.

A few disgruntled mutterings about how tight the time schedule was for this mission began emanating from the assemblege. The Herglic was the first to address Alabard directly. "Commander, I'm betting that you want me and Drass to begin prepping the ships for the trip immediately after this meeting?"

"Yes, Lieutenant Knumaiz, as soon as we are finished here." replied Alabard.

"No, you don't understand." said the Herglic Lieutenant, "I mean, care for a little wager?" the Herglic asked with a trace of humor in his deep voice. It was well known that Herglic's enjoy a good game of chance or almost any type of gambling. Everyone appreciated the attempt at some humor to lighten the mood.

One of the humans spoke up, "Commander, are you sure you can trust these guys enough to warrant sending such a small force out to meet with them?"

"Well, Carter," Rourke replied, "on the surface it would appear to be a small taskforce, but keep in mind some of the other things our intelligence has been able to pick up. An Imperial Holonet transmission we have been able to intercept indicates that some Manta fighters were recently stolen at the dockyard at Tallaan. As you know, Manta's don't have hyperspace capabilities so if our boys managed to pilfer these Manta's, then the only thing we have to worry about is what sort of ship they will be bringing the Manta's in on."

"If they bring the fighter's to the meet, you mean." slipped in Ellery.

Rourke threw a menacing glare at Ellery and hastily added, "At this point, we have no reason to suspect that they won't bring the fighters with them and no reason to doubt their intentions. They appear to be diligently searching for support for their cause and most likely won't risk alienating a possible positive contact with us."

"Have we picked up any other more recent information on this group's activities in the sector since the intelligence on the stolen Manta's?" asked Nalin, one of the humans.

"No," Alabard began, "at least nothing in durasteel." He continued, "We have, however, been picking up a lot of subspace transmission activity near Allandor. At this time, we don't have any idea if this involves are prospective meeting with our Rebel contacts or not."

Things grew quiet around the room. Alabard gazed over the assembly, intently looking at each person's face and trying to get a gauge on how his personnel felt about the impending mission. Finally he said, "Look, I know that many of you have various misgivings about this contact, and I can't blame you for being cautious. We've been operating on our own for awhile now and there is every reason for all of you to think that reaching out this way is somewhat reckless. I just want each of you to remember something." Rourke paused for effect and then, with a devilish grin, said,"When have I ever steered you wrong?"

Rourke looked firmly at each of his people and then continued, "I feel quite confident that this is the best course of action for Alabard's Comet's to take."

"If", Zutraphaz spoke up in it's clicking tones, "Commander Alabard feels that this is in the best interest of the Comet's then I will agree with him."

This seemed to break some of the tension as the rest of the group began to relax a little.

"OK, Commander", Lt. Knumaiz said, "Drass and I will get started right away on prepping the ships." He then got up to go, motioning to Drass to follow.

"Thanks team." said Alabard. "We'll need to leave in 1 hour."

The assembly broke up and everyone began to move to their assigned tasks. Alberick lagged back to speak with Rourke.

Approaching his friend, Alberick asked, "What about the transmission activity near Allandor? Do you think that the activity has anything to do with our contacts?"

Rourke paused for a moment before responding. "I'm not sure yet."

Alberick looked his friend in the eye and then said, "Rourke, I've known you long enough to see that something else is bothering you. What is it?"

"I don't want to say just yet, Al." Alabard responded. "I want to check on some more communication reports."

Both men began to head out of the room and in the general direction of the communication room.

Alabard then added quietly to himself, "We may have another problem to deal with."