Modules

Star Wars

Rebellion Era

Lords of the Expanse Campaign

WEG D6 (GM: Dave)

A New Life

The planet Dakron was like any other backwater planet. It was in the Outer Rim but located close enough to the Hydian Way space lane that it got commerce from traffic both going to and coming from the Corporate Sector and the Core Worlds.

Currently, there was a lot of commotion on Dakron as the local Imperial garrison had just gone up in a ball of flame. Chaos reigned supreme as the remaining Imperial forces, now leaderless, struggled to come to grips with what had happened. Local planetary security forces were ill prepared to handle the crisis as they had grown lax by letting the Imperial commander run things for so long. People seemed to be running everywhere all at once and with no good reason.

From a rooftop, a lone figure continues his agonizing howl. The figure is covered in light brown fur from his head to the tip of his tail. At 1.8m tall, when standing straight up as he is now, he seemed to be howling in apparent pain. Only there was no visible injuries. The only weapon the figure carried was a spear which he currently was thrusting into the air. After a few more minutes, the figure stops howling, replaces his spear in a sheath on his back, and slowly begins his climb down from the rooftop to the streets below. Malpath'ka ("Mal"), slowly starts to come out of the trance-like state he was in, to begin to think what he is going to do next. Going back to the ship, the Ooma Goonta , he thought, is pretty much out of the question. Surely the shell-heads had covered the ship since Mal was now a criminal in the eyes of the Empire.

"What do?", Mal muttered to himself. He began to try and think of some of the things that Sa'hept had taught him.

Suddenly from around a nearby corner, a squad of four stormtroopers appeared. One of them, noticing Mal, shouted, "There he is, get him!". The stormtroopers immediately opened fire. Mal quickly ran to the end of the street and turned right. Now on the main city street and with little cover, Mal knew he better move quick or he wouldn't live long enough to avenge his friend. Dashing out into the street he narrowly avoided the landspeeder coming from his left. Balancing on this left foot he pivoted in a half circle and spun around to drop back on his right foot directly in the path of a speeder bike coming the other way. Mal instinctivley dropped prone as the speeder bike flew over him and when he looked up he was terrified to see a robo-hack barreling toward him. Mal quickly rolled to his left, ending up in the gutter of the street as the robo-hack missed him by centimeters.

Picking himself up, he started to brush himself off when two blaster bolts scorched the air to either side of him, reminding him of his pursuers. Scanning the buildings behind him he noticed a small alleyway between two of them and dodged over to the entrance and plunged into the darkness. The stormtroopers easily moved across the street as the lead trooper stopped all traffic in either direction. The commander of the squad spoke briefly into his comlink advising all personnel they were following the fugitive. Surely, he thought, I'll get a promotion for this. Motioning the other troops that had stopped at the entrance of the alley to follow Mal into the alley, he took up the rear.

Meanwhile, Mal had darted to the far end of the alley and had a brief thought of a previous situation he and Sa'hept had similar to this. However, this time there was no boxes to hide behind or use for cover and no doors. The only way to escape was an old rain diverter pipe that snaked down the side of the building. Without hesitation, Mal lept up partway on to the building and grabbed hold of the pipe. Fortunately the pipe held his weight and was more securely anchored to the wall then Mal had thought. He was nearly at the top of the building before the troopers made it to his end of the alley. The stromtroopers exchanged puzzled looks and finally one of them looked up in time to see Mal clamor over the roof's edge. The commander called in the change of direction of the fugitive and the stormtroopers raced back out of the alley the way they had come.

On the roof, Mal quickly took in his options. Other than a few small air vents, there seemed to be no way in from the roof. The only building close enough to maybe jump to was the one across the alley. He could climb back down the pipe. Moving to the back side of the building revealed an access ladder, but when he looked down, a squad of stormtroopers looked back up. Going to the other side of the building revealed a few windows below the top edge that seemed to be close enough to climb to. One was even open! By dropping over the side of the building and hanging from his arms, Mal was able to reach the window and drop down into the room and roll inside. From Mal's crouched stance he saw a surprised human looking male, that was standing to the side of his closed room door with a drawn blaster. After a moment the man turned the blaster towards the intruder and pointed it at Mal and said, "Here now, what are you?"

"Mal.", Mal said pointing at himself.

"What seems to be all the fuss out there, Mal?", asked the man.

"Shell-heads look for Mal.", said Mal who then asked, "Turn Mal in?"

"I'm not sure yet.", responded the man. "Why do the shell-heads want to see you so bad? Does it have anything to do with that big explosion earlier?", asked the man.

Mal very slowly shook his head yes. Then Mal said, "Name?", pointing at the man.

"Oh, yeah, Pike Angeles.", Pike replied. "Mal, do you know anymore about the explosion?"

"Well. . . ,", Mal began, but his eyes suddenly spied the black Imperial Admiral's uniform draped over the chair in the room. Mal stopped talking and started to move slowly back towards the window as he drew the spear.

Pike saw where Mal's eyes went to, so he dropped the blaster away and said, "Now, Mal, don't get jumpy on me. I have a good reason why that uniform is on that chair."

Mal stopped, and pointing the spear at Pike, he said, "Explain."

"Mal,", Pike began, "I don't want you to be worried. I am not who I appear to be." Being a Llorddian, Pike was very good at reading body language. Besides, he had a feeling he could trust this creature, and it made the decision to tell Mal about his purpose much easier. "Mal, I am a special agent for the Rebellion.", Pike said, "Do you know who or what that is?", he asked.

"Yes, heard of Rebels. Go on . . . ,", Mal said.

"My mission is to steal ships and take them to a rebel drop point.", Pike continued, "I also pick up whatever information I can get to pass along. Understand so far?"

Mal nodded his understanding. Pike continued, "I heard about a plan the Imperial garrison commander had to mine the spacelanes in this sector so I was here to check on it before I, shall we say, relieved the garrison of one of their shuttles."

At the mention of the mines, Mal relaxed some and asked, "Know about mines?"

Pike said, "Yes, I do."

Mal then asked, "Know find Rebels?"

"Yes, I can find the Rebels. Why?", Pike asked.

Mal then said, "Take Mal to Pike's ship on trip see Rebels".

Pike paused a long moment before answering, "OK, Mal, but you must do everything I say." Pike thought things over for a few moments and then said, "Now here's what I want you to do. . . ,"

* * *

An hour later, Imperial Admiral Sean Blickers(a.k.a. Pike Angeles), was saluting two army troopers that had helped him load his personal effects, including several large crates, ostensibly with his uniform supply, into the back of a shuttle. Ten minutes after lift off, Mal joined his new friend in the cockpit for the trip to start a new life.