USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE III (RENEGADES)- The Hunters Hunted

Well the slash seems like it is probably just due to a sloppy swing with a lightsaber. Say whoever was wielding it attempted to slash somebody and they evaded, and ended up digging the blade into the ground. That could hint to an inexperianced handler, something you would never see in a Jedi. So it doesn't really pin point that it was the Jedi onboard, but maybe just someone who happend to have a saber. Jedi aren't the only ones who can wield them, after all.

Possibly, but that doesn't square with what Xeth thinks; he identified a powerful Force user who moved so fast that the guards barely had time to return fire before all being expertly killed.

Something is clearly wrong!

"Marcus, take a look at this," Xeth says as the Jedi Master approaches. "This is odd...these men were cut in half and cauterized, and my deduction is that a powerful Force-user moved fast enough to kill these men before they could return fire. But...this mark...it doesn't add up."

Marcus is actually still following his trail. He's occupied there, where Observation is also of use; the rest of you will have to handle this one.

So you will either have to use forensic logic, Xeth, or get someone with an Observation score in! You are certain something is wrong, though.

"Hey Arken!" Xeth calls to the newer member of the Gundark circle of Knights. "Get over here."

Xeth waits for Arken to come over, then explains his finds.

(Arken has an Observation skill of 12...)

That's good news!

In which case, Arken makes the link.

The guards sliced in half... the cut angled slightly downwards... and the end of the cut of the first guard leads onto the start of the cut on the second... and so on down the chain.

These four were killed in a single 'blow'; that cut them all in half. But that's ridiculojs, you couldn't make a blow like that with a Lightsabre; these guards were in a line behind cover, not surrounding someone. Your arms would not reach. Nor would they move at that kind of angle.

(Yeah, it's what I think it is...but Xeth doesn't, so crap...)

"Peculiar," Xeth says to Arken, after Arken explains this. "Well, that means it'd have to have been some of laser to cut and cauterize like that and not be a saber...peculiar..."

Could Xeth contact Gralus?

Not immediately. Not sure what you want from him either.

Ypou've never seen a laser used offensively like this before, Xeth.

You look at the full scene of things. The upper slice in the bulkhead door is angled downwards also.

Hell's teeth... this 'laser' shot... it sliced through the bulkheads. AND the guards behind. AND then still cut into the floor behind them too.

"Nice piece of work, whatever it was..." Xeth comments.

How high up would Xeth say that the laser shot was coming from?

And I think Gralus, since he's keeping tabs on the Union, would know about droid models and such.

Higher than a person would be.

Well, you can send him a message, but it will take a little while; you know how paranoid they are.

And nice piece of work? A sustained ranged weapon with the focussed power of a lightsabre? That's not nice, it's monstrous!

(Ten bucks says it was a ten foot tall battle droid or something that did it xD)

Arken hmm'ed slightly as he went over the scene very carefuly, evening walking down the hall a bit to around the location where a beam weapon would of been used, and examined the chaos it caused. height the beam weapon would of been fired from well over the top of his head. "Xeth.. I think a droid did this, all of this. The kind of power supply needed to project a beam even stronger than a lightsabers beam, and almost five times the range would be massive, far too combersome for any single soldier to wield. Xeth, why don't you follow the path that this weapon would of taken to get to this point, and I'll follow it to where it might have gone after. We might find more evidence of it in use and more evidence of where it came from"

(Another ten says the beam went through the whole ship.)

(Out of character, I am thinking that one of those spidery walker droids from AOTC did it...Xeth wouldn't know that...)

"Most likely," Xeth agrees, not elaborating. Did the path of the thing follow onwards from there?

Nope! This weapon is more powerful than any personal weapon you have seen on screen.

However, it DID stop at the floor. It must have a relatively short focus.

The path of the thing does indeed follow onwards.

Meanwhile, Marcus is following the trail of dead Cultists.

-

She cut down another one to her right, trying to bolster the security guards as she moved onwards.

"Come on!" she said. "We have one chance or nothing at this; what is there to lose?"

And then a terrible screaming ahead, and Sareena's grip on her sabre tightened as she heard a high-pitched noise.

Twirling her sabre, she stepped forwards...

-

Marcus and Xeth, you two just ran into each other. There are a lot of dead people here, cultists and guards.

The trail of destruction from ther bulkhead continues along a corridor.

Sareena's trail ends here.

Marcus, you notice a thousand tiny metallic and crystalline remnants spread acorss the floor, and sigh. A destroyed lightsabre.

"hmm, a destroyed sabre"
*I'll take a look at that burn mark in the ground*

Nothing more to see there, really.

(Oh...well, that's not good! It's a droid, I'm positive, but I'm wrong about the type...)

"Damn!" Xeth curses. "Though...there is no body."

This is true. A destroyed lightsabre but no corpse.

"Hence, she's missing, right?" Xeth comments. "Perhaps...perhaps her lightsaber was destroyed, and then she was taken hostage. A Jedi is a valuable thing, after all."

If she is a hostage, what value if no-one has declared it?