STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Liberator

Coruscant

"We cannot guarantee your safety, my employer says."

The aging man pressed a hand over his mouth, letting it drag downward over his chin. He stared with disbelief at the hologram.

"What do you mean?"

"You heard me. The others aren't happy with our arrangement and they want to see it end."

"But... do you know what that means for me?"

"Full well, sir, but there's nothing we can really do."

"There must be something!"

"No, there isn't. Unless you want us showing up on Coruscant. It'd be a might suspicious, that."

"But I could come to you!"

The hologram paused and looked away from its receiver, then back again as if satisfied with something that had happened unseen.

"My employer says that would be most unwelcome. If they're coming for you, we don't want it to be happening here."

"But..."

"I'm sure a fancy man such as yourself can find your own protection."

"But our deal! Our deal included my security and I fully expect..."

"Our deal is off. I'm sure a Force be with you or... whatever."

The hologram flickered out as the connection was intentionally severed. The aging man ran a hand through his silver hair, more agitated than he had ever been in his life.

"What should I do?" he asked his aide.

"Our best course, I think, would be to seek out mercenaries to provide security for your apartment. We can use your funds to purchase them uniforms, in order to conceal their nature. I advise against employing protection in an official manner, including the Senatorial guard."

"What about the Jedi?"

The aide hesitated. "Sir, I must remind you that if the Jedi suspected anything illicit about your need for protection, they would investigate. They are remarkably intuitive and could find something, whether or not they are actually searching. Your connections to them may delay any suspicion, but it would only be a matter of time."

The aging man looked out over the skyline of Coruscant, interrupted by jutting buildings for miles around.

"I don't care. I want a meeting arranged. Make it happen, Emso."

"Yes, Senator."

--

Welcome to "Liberator," an episode of the Retrospection games. As an episode of this series, "Liberator" will be a very personal plotline, exploring events involving the players' characters. Going off of Ushgarak's Star Wars role-playing game, these mini-episodes occur in game-play's past. In this case, it will specifically explore how Wentar formed his connections with anti-slavery groups and took his leave of the Jedi Order to pursue justice wherever it is needed.

Wentar Reiua as we know him is staunchly against the rights of the powerless being taken from them, as seen from his fight against the agents of the Golden Serpent on Calhoun to protect its native people and wildlife, and from his valiant starfighting and swashbuckling on Alura against the droid armies of the Trade Federation. He has strong ties to the Free Slave Society, using them as a contact for information in the Outer Rim while working with the Jedi Investigation Force. But before his time spent as a Renegade, Wentar served the Jedi Order and the Republic as a proud Jedi Knight. How did such a shining example of Knighthood come to the decision to leave the Order and take the law to places where it was needed?

The time period is set in 32 BBY- just after the events of the Battle of Naboo and The Phantom Menace. Wentar Reiua is an up-and-coming Jedi Knight with a notable talent in the field and a few great successes under his belt. The Council currently has him assigned to stopping a notorious gang of speeder thieves in the lower levels of Coruscant, but soon he will receive another mission, one with far more danger and adventure that will cause Wentar to examine just what being a Knight means to him and whether or not he is serving the Force in the best way...

--

At this point, I need to know which, if any, predictive power the players will be using before the game starts. Once the plotline is in motion, you can’t make use of these abilities. As a reminder, your available predictive powers that you may have taken are:

Dreams. Using this gives you a small chance that the Force will have given you vague but truthful insight into what is to come in the upcoming story, giving you a chance to better react and deal with these events.

Foresight. This is better than Dreams- it represents you actually spending time to navigate the future to deliberately try and get warning of upcoming events. It can give far more clear and comprehensive visions than Dreams.

Dreams can come free, in which case you roll a single d6 die to see the outcome, the power triggering if you roll a 5 or 6. Alternatively, if you spend a Force point, you get a free Dream. With Foresight (which costs a Force point), if you get a result of 3, 4, or 5, you receive a Minor Revelation that provides clues, whereas a 6 gets you a Major Revelation, which gives you foreknowledge of an upcoming event.

The power Insight ensures that you receive at least a minor vision with Foresight, while it increases your odds of getting one with Dreams. If the plot is extremely personal to the character, they will receive a bonus to their Premonition roll.

Coruscant

The officer assigned to your mission returns to your unmarked civilian airspeeder with a to-go bag of fast food from the neaby diner. He hops into the passenger seat and sets the bag on the dash.

"Long line formed just after I got in," says Officer Quinto. "Good timing on my part, I think. Anything happening?"

Unfortunately, Wentar, nothing has happened in hours. The Council has tasked you with putting a stop to a notorious gang of speeder thieves that have been running rampant in the lower levels of Coruscant, something you feel could have been handled by local security. They have apparently been unable to stop it themselves, and so you were called in.

At the moment, you are parked in one of the airways between the tall Coruscanti buildings, outside of a strip mall. On the other side of the airway, down a short distance, is a fabulous, brand new Guster 5600 airspeeder with all the latest conveniences. It belongs to no-one; it is a decoy to lure the speeder thieves.

"Nothing yet," Wentar replies, still keeping an eye out for any kind of suspicious activity. "You think they suspect anything?"

"Fancy speeder parked outside a casino," Quinto says, unwrapping his food. "Nothing to suspect. Do you think they'll actually come?"

Intuition is not something you are fantastic with, Wentar, prefering to live in the here and now with the Living Force... but yes, you have a feeling that tonight is the night.

Wentar grabs something from the bag. "Now that you mention it I've got a good feeling this time, but still we could be waiting another five minute to an hour before anything happens."

"I guess you're right," Quinto says. He munches on the burger-esque item of food that he purchased. "What's it like, anyways? Being that sure about things."

Wentar places his food down, thinking. "You know, I never give it much thought. Truthfully I'd say it's a bit constrictive but relieving at the same time, for example it's like knowing the outcome of a sports game, relieved your team wins but you can't enjoy the moment because you know the outcome. It's not an accurate example though, it's a hard thing to explain," Wentar chuckles a little. "Like if a Rodian asked you what it's like without antennae or a Wookie asks how being furless is."

"As good as explanation as I'll ever get," Quinto responds, cheerfully eating his burger.

Roughly another hour passes before anything happens, all the while your senses growing keen and impatient. Quinto finishes his food, takes a nap, which you rouse him from when you notice the open-top airspeeder pull alongside your Guster decoy. There are five men inside; one hops out onto the Guster!

"Looks like we have our guys... We should follow them back to where ever they're hiding," Wentar suggests, trying to spot any kind of registration on the open top airspeeder. "I don't want to turn this into a high speed chase through Coruscant's airways."

"Think you can trail them without being obvious?" Quinto asks. "We don't have intel about where they're holed up, but if you think you can get us there..."

"Shouldn't be too hard, anyway if we tried anything now they'd flee. Best bet we have is to track them home, where they have nowhere else to run."

Quinto agrees with you.

The speeder thieves are not trying to be inconspicuous in the least, aiming for a quick heist. Soon they have deactivated the security airbrake and, discovering that it is low on fuel, just hooked the Guster to the back of their speeder with wire.

"They're on the move," Quinto says.

"Indeed," Wentar will wait a few seconds before following, no wanting to draw attention by taking off right away. "Luckily towing that speeder will slow them down a little..."

Your speeder quickly and quietly hums along after them. The speeder thieves are driving as fast as their speeder will allow them with the expensive theft in tow and moving at a slight downward angle, towards lower levels of Coruscant's ecumenopolis.

Wentar will follow as discretely as he can without losing them.

Wentar is finding it difficult to remain inconspicuous while keeping up with the carjackers. They are weaving in and out of traffic and flying rather dangerously, something Wentar cannot do if he wants to remain unnoticed, but there is the risk of losing them.

Wentar is going to try keep up with them. Going unnoticed will be useless if he loses them. He trusts his flying skills will be good enough to keep up.

Can we contact any other officers in the area or is it just me and Quinto able to do anything?

Nobody else will respond in time. They are trusting that a Jedi can handle this all on his own as it is.

Wentar decides to pick up the pace as he dodges between airspeeders. That's a Pilot check to pick up the speed in traffic. In the airspeeder, he has a pool of 8 dice to roll, needing only two successes to keep up. Just to show how apt he is, Wentar rolls twice as many (all 6s).

You start to speed up and give chase to the speeding thieves. You think one of them notices you, but you can't be sure at this distance.

"These guys aren't giving us much of a choice," Wentar says, weaving through traffic planning on keeping up with the criminals. "Looks like this may turn into a high speed chase after all."

"I expected as much," Quinto says.

To your surprise, the theives' speeder is slowing down.