"Land us on the mining platform, yerssot," Gundark instructed, gathering herself together. Her robe was left long behind during her fight with Kuylen and the rest of her clothes could best be described as rags. She studied her small group; not the most experienced, but determined and devoted solely to the Good side of the Force. She wondered if they would be as brave in the face of their own deaths. As for herself, she had her sabre and she had the Force. It would be have to be enough.
Yerssot nodded and set the ship on a docking sequence with the platform.
"Master Gundark... what is the plan, if I may ask..."
He checked the lightsabre again and put it under his robes.
He closed his eyes... concentrating on the Force...when he opened his eyes the platform was only 1 tick away...
The young knight pressed the release button for the landing gear as well as for the brake...
A few moments later they landed on the platform
The docking bay is quite large and entirely empty- but quite definitely powered. If there is no-one here now, then there was very recently.
Yerss, you spot the dead body first. It appears to be some sort of maintenance worker. There is a sabre wound across him, but a wound larger than a normal sabre would produce. Like the sabre carried by that REALLY big Dark Jedi...
Lance- it's pretty simple. You guys have escaped the blockade, called home and got some info on Kuylen and orders to follow him. You've tracked down where the DJ's went, and here you are!
You find more bodies scattered around the platform, with similar wounds. There has been a recent massacre here.
There seem to be a few 'optional' extras bolted onto this platform. The detention centre, in particular, seem rather incongruous. The cells however, are empty.
The supply rooms, however, tell a more obvious story, with weapons and equipment for the pirates. This must have been a reserve base of theirs; these cells would make a good hidden place to keep Damagran prisoners.
Yerssot, you discover the bad news first. There is a single transport that normally resides on the station, adapted for approaching the planet. But it is already in use- someone has taken the shuttle down to the surface.
Gundark, you find a public access computer and root around., It appears that Faylar built this place to mine the gold and other mineral deposits on the ice of the planet- deposited by the stellar material. This planet is a literal gold mine; it must be the source of the money that was paying the pirates.
But at some point Faylar appears to have GIVEN this platform to Kuylen. The Dark Jedi worked the workers hard and virtually without pay; from some of the records you can find a mutiny was brewing. Judging from the bodies, they took their chance to kill their slavers; a bad move aginst ones so powerful.
The name of the planet below is Avalar. Avalar, Avalar... again, Gundy, you THINK you have heard that name before. The name gives you an uneasy feeling.
Whatever it is, there is more than just gold mining going on here. Judging by the work Kuylen was doing here, you would almost say that this platform was being used for archaeology, not mining. There are references to the 'dig site' and 'excavations' and 'artifacts', and something about a 'Monastery'...
If any of you are with Gundark at this point, you see a horrified look pass over her face. Oh no! Not THAT Avalar, surely!
Gundark stared hard at the viewscreen in front of her. Avalar.....we've stumbled upon Avalar.... It was inconceivable at first. She thought back to an intense conversation she had had with the late Qui Gonn Jinn about Avalar. He had been so adamant about its continued existence, as he had been about so many things in his life. He had told her it would take every Jedi in the Temple in a combined effort to merely breach the black core of evil within the monastery. She had dismissed his arguments as myths of Sith power long gone, and she and Qui Gonn had gone back and forth over the thing for some time. Gundark managed a grim smile. Checkmate, Kellan, she thought to herself. You were right Qui Gonn.
She called her three companions to her and began explaining what they were up against. She told them of the Sith monastery below, its dark history and the uprising of evil against evil. "It is not just the dark Jedi, the flesh and blood foes we face down there but the very core of evil itself," Gundark looked from one face to the next as she spoke. "Do not underestimate the power of the Sith, be it in an upright opponent opposite your sabre or taking form around your thoughts of fear or anger. It will turn those thoughts against you, pulling you toward the Dark Side." She folded her arms in front of her. "Do you understand?"
"Master, destroying the Sith temple is important to bring balance in the galaxy again... but ... this news is very disturbing, perhaps it will be better to contact the Jedi Council first, if we can give them the coordinates and the travelroute, we stand less chanceless...
I understand these powers are dangerous and that we must have to do more then our best..."
Just to inform non-Mod players who do not know what Avalar is-
Avalar is a Jedi legend- or more precisely, horror story. It tells of a Chapter of the Sith Order, during the last Sith wars, thousands of years ago. These Sith set up a Monastery and school, to initiate a new wave of Sith acolytes. To this end, they set about codifying every single rule, lore and piece of secret knowledge of the Sith, a painstaking task that took years. Their task complete, they placed this archive on Avalar and began training their new recruits.
The Jedi never found Avalar, but something far worse happened. The Sith never were team players, and many disagreed with the establishment of the Archive. Darth Bane's faction, in particular, believed firecely in the tradition of only passing on Sith secrets by wored of mouth, Master to apprentice.
War resulted. In a huge battle, Darth Bane's army stormed the Temple and killed all the Sith inside. But they did not destroy the Archive, inscribed on tablets sacred to the Sith. Instead, they let it be buried in the ice of Avalar for all time.
Most people these days deny the existence of Avalar. But if that IS that place, and the Archive IS intact... every secret of the Sith, all the Lore of the Sith, all the knowledge of the Sith... waiting to be taken and used by those insane enough to do it.
If you fail here, Kuylen and his followers will become the new Sith and the wars will start anew.
Luckily, excavating the Temple has taken some time. They do not yet have the archive, and there is still time to stop them! If only you could get down there! But if you wait for reinforcements, Kuylen will surely escape!
And if THAT wasn't bad enough... the pirate fleet is exiting hyperspace near the platform... and it appears they are making an attack run.
I had to edit your reply, yerssot- you aren't on the planet! You are on a mining platform. No bunkers to hide in! None on the planet, either, it's an archaelogical site.
At least fifty ships are jumping out of hyperspace. And another wavwe seem to be jumping out now.
Anyone on FM's ship (Phinney, maybe?) hears an open ended hail. One of the ships out there is asking to talk to a Jedi Knight named Yerssot.
"You are yerssot? My compliments. I am Squadron Leader Gethros of the Damagran State Space Force. Kai Verlaine sent us. We're your back-up."
(I don't know if you remember, Yerss, but you asked them to send help ASAP when you left Damagran. And you thought you hadn't done anything good!)
"We are moving in to engage the pirates. What is your situation?"
(I remember them! This is a big surprise to be sure!!! 🙂 I like it!)
"Hi Gethros, nice of your squadron to drop by!
Status report, we have lost one of our knights, there are four of us down here, we need to go down this planet, you wouldn't have a shuttle here, do yo?
Send a message to Coruscant, to the JediCouncil if possible, give them these coordinates and tell them we found Avalar. Say it's code clearance Tuip.
Keep those pirates away from us as long as possible!
That should cover it"
"Understood,," says Gethros.
"Verlaine traced this place as where Faylar was getting all his money from. We have acquired one of Faylar's adapted shuttles. I'm ordering it to land on the station now.
"This battle is starting. Any help you guys can give me will be appreciated..."
Ok, everyone, I will make the situation clear to you all.
1. The pirates, annoyed at just about everyone in the story, are attempting to destroy the platform. If they do so it's curtains for all of you- if you are on the platform you will be dead, if you are on the planet you will be stranded. Still, at least the DJ's will be straded as well!
2. Down on the planet the DJ's are about to grab the archive, and if they do it could be curtains for the Galaxy.
It's a good idea for you guys to stop both things happening.
You guys can split any way you like. You can take FM's ship and go ouyt and stop the foighters, or take Gethros'a 'borrowed' shuttle and go down to Avalar to stop Kuylen. Both are equally important to your suuccess; split the duties any way you like. My advice is for none of you to go down to Avalar solo! You will just make the DJ players laugh. Take at least two or more.
You can risk ignoring the space battle and go down in force; it's up to you.
If any of you have a cunning third option please say. Just to annoy you, I can reveal that there is at least one other option.
(hey! The Dj should have a ship or THREE around here, better hide, because we didn't saw it when we came in,
I think that if we go all down, we make a good chance, against them, if we win, we can always take one of those ships back, and I asked for back-up, Ush hasn't said he didn't do it, so if we stretch this one long enough, we could get help of the fellow Jedis)