Living on the Edge- Episode 13
After spending time with the Red Skull’s getting their shiny new ship repaired, our heroes are once again ready to journey out on their grand adventure. Deciding the Red Skull’s were to cavalier about the loss of lives among their members, the crew elected to seek out the Rebel Alliance again, this time for formal membership.
As they departed for a meeting on Tatooine, the crew set down to rest. In the middle of the night, a strange rustling disturbed Emiko. She groggily opened her eyes to see a shadowy figure kneeling atop Sam. The glint of a dagger caught her attention just before it came sharply down.
Sam took a blow to his side, disorienting him but missing his vital organs. Emiko tried to lash out to protect her husband but she became tangled in her sheets and was unable to stop another blow from striking. Pinned though he was, Sam reacted with as much force as he could muster and arching his back propelled the assassin over his head and into the wall behind him. Unfortunately, the sharp movement strained his back limiting his mobility.
As Sam and Emi grabbed weapons from their nightstands, the assassin recovered and then leaped over the pair, drapping the bed’s blanket over their heads as she tumbled away and exited their quarters. Pulling the blanket free, Emiko attempted to follow but found no one in the corridor as she exited.
Having heard the commotion from the next room, Dr. Evie stumbled into the hall, still groggy but holding her pistol. Emi informed her of the assassin and she began scanning the area. As she tilted her head upwards she let out a shout as the assassin prepared to drop on her from the ceiling.
The shout came just in time to draw Verci’s attention as she emerged from her quarters. Unable to see well, she took the chance and fired her weapon. In her groggy, half trained state, her blast completely missed the dropped assassin and instead struck Evie. In a twisted bit of fate, the blaster bolt staggered Evie enough, causing the assassins blade to miss her.
Rolling away from the three armed women, the assassin hopped into a turbolift and began descending. Moving quickly, Emiko dashed forward, ripped off the control panel and shorted out the turbolift system, halting its descent. Once Sam emerged from their quarters, now holding his heavy weapon, she recalled the turbolift. The doors opened to reveal no one inside.
Preparing for a deck by deck search, Verci sealed the ship’s emergency bulkheads and monitored their status from the bridge. After a short time she detected the door to the lower engineering deck opening. The question remained, had the assassin entered engineering or left it?
Moving cautiously, Sam led the remaining crew down to the cargo deck. Emiko powered up their scanning equipment and was able to isolate a lifesign somewhere in the aft portion of the ship. After a thorough search of the cargo bay and supply bunkers, the team advanced to engineering. Reading themselves, they advanced into the control room.
Emiko continued to try and isolate the lifesign but unfortunately had forgotten to fully charged the scanner. As the battery died she cursed, drawing Evie’s attention just as she was opening a access panel. The door to the panel came open, Evie turning toward the curse, and a knife stabbed out just missing her. The unexpected miss caused the assassin to overextend and drop her knife.
Seeing the glint of the weapon, Sam charged in and sprayed the assassin with stun bolts. Despite the confined space, she avoided the worst of the fire as she tumbled out, rolling across the floor to cover behind a control table. Her attempt to retrieve her weapon failed and a sharp curse could be heard as she cut herself on her own weapon.
Evie successfully avoided taking another pummeling from the assassin and stepped out of the way just as Emiko came around the table and dropped the assassin with a fulled powered stun blast. Despite being down, Emiko gave the unconscious figure a sharp kick for her attempt on Sam’s life.
Securing the assassin in the cargo hold, Verci ordered her woken up and began an interrogation. A data pad had been found on her, revealing a contract for Sam. No details were given about the client but he suspected the Tarkin family.
During the interrogation, the assassin revealed only her name, Tafo Fess. She spoke of the Contract and her expectation to either fulfill it or die. As she had failed, she expected death. She refused to reveal information on her Client, as to do so would violate the Contract. She revealed that contracts were made with her master, she only fulfilled them.
Verci attempted to negotiation a cessation of the contract on Sam and to higher the assassin for another one, judging her to be a competent professional. Tafo refused but said she could put her in contact with her master. Judging the woman no longer a threat, and with Evie and Ria firmly against outright murder of a prisoner, Tafo was released into the desert of Tatooine; close enough to settlements to have a chance to survive, but far enough to no longer be a threat while they remained on the planet.
With the excitement over, the crew landed in Mos Eisley spaceport and booked passage over land to Anchorhead. There they once again met with Commander Navi Moreed, the rebel commander for this sector. Commander Moreed was surprised to see them again after so many months, having assumed them either dead in their attempt to gather intelligence on the Red Skull or no longer interested in the Alliance.
Verci filled her in on everything they had learned about the Red Skull, its leader, and their claim to the D’Anjon Nebula. Impressed, Commander Moreed was completely taken aback when Verci mentioned their discovery of the Reliance and the crews desire to join the Rebel Alliance and then take down the Arkanis Mining Guild.
Skeptical of the idea, Moreed listened to Verci’s plan but in the end was not swayed, finding the desire based on flimsy Force visions and the plan only loosely formed. However, given the crews success at outrageous endeavours before and the rumors about the Force being instrumental in the Rebels victory at Yavin, she conceded the matter warranted further study.
Eager to obtain use of both the powerful Reliance and the crews heavily modified light cruiser, Moreed accepted the crew as a formal ship of the fleet; the RAS Redemption, CL-34 under the commander of Captain Verci B’Tol. Verci quickly identified Sam as her XO based on his formed military experience, designated Chief Engineer Emiko, Ship’s Surgeon Dr. Evie and Helmsman Ria.
As part of the deal, the crew now has full access to Alliance facilities and supplies but must conduct themselves as representatives of the Alliance. Four crew were transferred to Verci’s command to help shore up the Redemption‘s crew shortage; Zii Lacer, assistant helmsman, Engineer’s Mate Alona Tosh and Gunner’s Mates Adan Makinen and Pech Thul.
Adapting to their new role, the crew made preparations to journey to the world of Vactooine, location of an Arkanis Mining Guild central processing plant in order to gather more intelligence about the organization.
Living on the Edge
