STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- The Hunter

Started by Captain REX44 pages

"Oh, so Rylis Tavel is impressed by size and girth? Gain some perspective!"

Snith bends over and carefully picks up the small black box. It sits comfortable in his hand.

"Well, you've got what you came here for. Time to head back to the city so I can get what I am here for." Rylis replies.

"Also, I don't believe you when you said that that thing didn't effect you at all..."

"If I could explain everything, I would," Snith says. "But I haven't the slightest clue why I didn't see anything. Perhaps my mind is stronger than your own..."

He delicately removes the lid of the box with his index finger and thumb, then lifts up the box and sets the lid underneath it, in his hand. Within the box is what appears to be a perfectly spherical black stone set into an ornamental gold piece which is strung on a simple black leather string. Snith touches the surface of the black stone and a faint blue light drifts out of its depths, vanishing when he retracts his finger.

"This is it," Snith says. "This is the Control."

"That, or you're not telling the truth..." Rylis says. "Which I find pretty likely, considering how much you've lied about or hid from me already."

"Why is that even important?" Snith asks. "I'm telling you, I'm not hiding anything about this. Now drop it or you can walk back to Mos Eisley."

"Then maybe it did effect you and you didn't realize it, but I've a feeling that it didn't just leave you alone. After all, you're being rather touchy about it." Rylis says, narrowing her eyes.

"Going to get the ship flying, then?"

Snith glances at the black stone, then replaces the box lid.

"Let's go see what the system check says..." Snith replies, heading off to the cockpit.

The system check basically reveals what is not wrong with the ship, which is very little. Apparently the hyperdrive blew up in mid-flight, which ripped them out of hyperspace, damaged the engines, and forced them to crash land on the planet. The crash itself knocked lots of things loose and damaged some of the ship's structure, but it can be repaired.

Snith sets to work on the engines, as they are required for flight. He tells you that he is going to cut power from the weapons and life support systems because they are not needed for a brief flight through Tatooine's atmosphere.

"Once we land in Mos Eisley, we'll deal with Kyle," Snith says. "This hunk of junk, believe it or not, is one of the best smuggling vessels in the Galaxy, so we'll probably send men to do the repairs and get it back in the Corporation's service."

"You wouldn't think that by looking at this thing..." Rylis says, looking around the ship. "Need any help, or am I going to just sit here and kill time until the ship is functional?"

"Help is appreciated," Snith says. "Just be careful. I'm not sure why the hyperdrive blew."

You accompany him to the engine room, which reeks of burning oil and smoke. A shattered and melted hyperdrive lies exposed in its slot in the floor, still sparking and smoldering every so often. The power has been cut to it.

"Don't worry, I have no plans of zapping myself..."

Rylis has a Fix-It score of 10, so...she's fairly decent at fixing stuff up 😛

It doesn't take you long to figure out that the system scans weren't joking. A great deal of the engine has jostled itself loose. Most of your work consists of putting things back in place and tightening systems and whatnot, then running tests to make sure your handiwork is holding.

However, you can only help so much before Snith says you've done all you can. He is a technological genius and has started jury-rigging things that aren't working at all but are required.

"Go see if the comms system is working," Snith says. "Give a test, call someone."

"Fine..."

Rylis will head off to the cockpit and send a quick message to Makrus, saying that she's testing something and this hunt is nearly done.

Makrus will answer your message, if you want to talk to him.

Sure, why not.

"Have I ever mentioned I hate Tatooine? Because there's really nothing so fun as being stranded in the desert..."

"Tatooine?" Makrus asks. He is wearing the off-duty uniform of a stormtrooper. "What the hell are you doing there?"

"Tracking down Kyle, of course. I'm sitting in his ship right now, in fact. Seems he crash-landed here...anyway, he's all but mine and then I can actually relax for a while." Rylis replies. "Still doing the stormtrooper thing, I see?"

"Hey, Carratos doesn't subjugate itself, you know!" Makrus says. "But hey, listen. I did some digging on that Snith fellow for you. I've got a friend in the Imperial Records department, thanks to this stint I'm doing with the Army."

"Oh?"

Rylis will take a quick look to make sure Snith's not near.

"Do tell what you've found. I still suspect he's not telling me the full story."

"What I could get was highly classified. Snith, after graduating from Carida, had a terrible military record. Defying officers, not following orders, so on and so forth. But through some bizarre twist of fate, he was promoted. Pulled out of the army and put in some high place. I wish I could tell you how that happened, but... well, my friend mentioned a classification level, and the rest of Snith's personnel file ranks as being only accessible to the Emperor himself."

"Really. That's...interesting, to say the least. Promoted to what? Or was that not available?"