Modules

Star Wars

Rebellion Era

Lords of the Expanse Campaign

WEG D6 (GM: Dave)

Beginnings, Confessions Of A Thief

'Not now!I hate heights!', thought Ace as he worked furiously at the tangle of syntherope while suspended 35m up the side of the cliff. 'I scale a building 20m tall, enter through a hole not much bigger than a Jawa could fit through, deactivate an advanced security system, climb down to the museum floor, grab the jewel, flee to another window at the back of the museum, and begin the harrowing climb down 45m of cliff face to a waiting sea skimmer below all to be done in by a stupid knot!' The screech of an alarm and the blast of security lights interrupts his thoughts. The sound of speeder bikes and landspeeders puncuate the air above him as the search intensifies for the intruder.

Suddenly, the knot comes undone and Ace can rappell the rest of the way down the cliff. As he reaches the bottom and releases the binder on the rope, a figure steps from the shadows with a heavy blaster pointed at Ace.

" Yanix!", said Ace.

"Of course.", said Yanix, "Who else would you be expecting?"

"Someone better looking and a bit more on the female side.", joked Ace.

Suddenly, serious, Yanix said, "The jewel, now!"

Ace grudgingly handed it over.

More pleasantly now, Yanix said, "Thank you. Now, get in the skimmer."

"What, no goodbye kiss?" quipped Ace.

Yanix replied, "I'm going with you, Hutt drool for brains!" They both climbed into the sea skimmer. "Drive.", snaps, Yanix. Ace takes up position at the controls and quickly maneuvers out into the lake.

After a while Ace says, "Where are we going, or do we take a nice romantic cruise?"

Yanix snaps back, "Shut up will ya! Keep driving till I tell you to stop!" Ten minutes later, Yanix suddenly blurts out, "Stop right here!" Ace throttles back on the repulsors and the skimmer settles into the water.

Suddenly, a blast of noise and light erupts from under the water near the skimmer. A starship glides out of the water and hovers above the skimmer. While Ace is preoccupied in watching the show, a burst of blaster fire into the controls next to Ace quickly brings Ace's attention back to Yanix.

After a few more quick shots with the blaster into the controls, Yanix settles the muzzle of the blaster back on Ace and says, "Sorry pal. End of the line for you."

As he begins to squeeze the trigger, the ship above them suddenly banks away and a blast from a quickly approaching sea skimmer interrupts Yanix's task. Ace takes advantage of the distraction to grab an item on the boat and then dive overboard into the dark lake. A few scattered blaster shots sear into the water around Ace as he swims further down into the inky void. Then, as suddenly as the attack occured, all is quiet. Ace looks at the controls of the breather tank he had grabbed from the deck of the skimmer and discovers that the tank has taken damage and he will have to surface soon.

Ace swims to the surface and as he breaks the surface he stares into the barrels of six blaster rifles pointed at him from three sea skimmers. After a brief moment of indecisiveness, Ace shouts out, "Who's in charge here?"

The troops exchange puzzled looks and finally one of them says, " I am, who asks?"

"Lt. Klinffmen, of the Society to Help Identify Thieves.", Ace replies, "That man that was trying to kill me has the jewel and is getting away! What are you going to do about it!"

The Captain in charge of the patrol looks at Ace an then looks at the receding spacecraft and then back to Ace bobbing serenely in the water. Deciding to help the Captain along with his decision, Ace says, "Well, are you going to pull me aboard and give chase to that felon or you just going to sit there with Krudfish for brains?"

The Captain suddenly barks out the order to his men, "Get him in quick, I'll place the call to command to intercept". Ace is pulled aboard one of the sea skimmers that did not have the Captain on it and then all three skimmers turn and race towards the shore that the ship flew to. Along the way, Ace glances around the skimmer for ideas and discovers a few grenades near the driver of the skimmer. Ace also observes that the Captain keeps looking back at the skimmer that Ace is riding in and seems to be aggravated over something. One of the troops turns to Ace and asks, " Do you have your ID?" "No,", Ace replies, "I lost it when I went into the water." There was little talking after that and as the skimmers got close to shore, Ace made his move grabbing one of the grenades and setting it off as he dived over the back side of the skimmer. Being close to shore Ace swam in and was able to get to cover before the troops began to comb the dock area.

* * *

A few weeks later, the Yanix Dream touches down on the planet Rhymeel. Artur Yanix with the jewel tucked securely in a pocket in his clothes, exited the ship and proceded down the landing ramp and was somewhat surprised to see a old man dressed in a Customs Supervisors uniform approach him.

With datapad in hand, the old man went up to Yanix and said, "What are you declaring for entry in our fair city?".

Yanix paused and said, "Strange, I never had to go through Customs out on the tarmac at Rhymeel before".

The old man produced a blaster from under the datapad and said, "That's because you never encountered an agent of the Society to Help Identify Thieves before, Yanix!"

"Wha. . .?", stammered Yanix.

"Hand over the jewel or I'll blast you so full of holes that you'll rival the Cathedral of Winds on Vortex.", said the old man.

Yanix looked at the old man a little closer now and realized who he was talking to. "Ace, my friend. How the heck are you? Looks like you win this time." Yanix reached into his pocket, fumbling for a moment, and produced the jewel and gave it to Ace.

"Thank you.", said Ace, gesturing menacingly with the blaster, "Now if you please, we here at Rhymeel don't need anymore Ronto droppings so please make a hasty exit to your ship."

Yanix turned to go back to his ship and said over his shoulder to Ace, "If I were you, I'd hurry up and get out of here with that item."

"Oh,", Ace replied, "and why's that?"

A siren sounded from somewhere and Yanix sneered at Ace as he said, "I buzzed security just a moment ago and they are on their way."

"That's ok.", said Ace as he started to run back down the ramp, "I dialed them up on my datapad too, requesting assistance for a ship with illegal contraband!"