USH'S STAR WARS GAME- LIGHT SIDE INTERLUDE- 'Broken Lance'

It's an interlude!

Last seen with The Warlord of Droben, these self-contained minisodes help bridge gaps, pass time when time is needed and allow players to practise rules and tactics.

Interludes don't have a predictive element, so don't worry about those powers. But be warned. Although interludes end with a full health restore, you only restore ONE force point at the end of an Interlude, so be careful what you spend! (Acolytes and those with Flow of the Force restore more as per normal)..

Right now, this interlude is only for those who played the story 'Purity', but it will expand to include other Light Side players later on.

Coruscant

Three months on and your leave is over. Mandragos is fast becoming a memory. The Senators are all gone for now, to return later for the first meeting of the new committee. Big things are expected, once the normal legal issues have been thrashed out. Some of you fear progress will be... slow. On the bright side, the drug smuggling operation has been demolished. You shut down the supply at Spiridos and it seems that much of the rest of the organisation has been destroyed in some sort of internal struggle. There's nothing left. The Hutts will likely pick up the slack eventually- it's their half of the Galaxy, where the Golden Serpent runs the narcotics business on the other half- but for now a noticeable difference has been made, and Spiridos can get back to being a leisure world rather than the heart of a mass-murdering conspiracy.

Roan's report from Cassilis, however, has been met with little more than a shrug. There's nothing in the archives relating to anything that he or Jelena saw there. There's nothing else to be done. The planet itself, however, seems to have become stable again, so that is good too.

Gallagher has been undergoing counselling and seems relatively happy, though apprehensive. They have been keeping a close watch on Andro as well. There is some worry that Roan has had the misfortune to keep getting 'poisonous' assignments to lead and that he may become disheartened. Jelena... the Council is actually well satisfied with... but they feel she could do with more experience in law enforcement as opposed to the more cerebral tasks she has been on lately.

So, the solution for all of you is to put you on a big new assignment, as you were told would happen before. Trorn, the liaison to the Jedi Council, has met you all upon your return to the Temple in order to take you to the Council Chambers. He says you are going to be heading up a major investigation and enforcement operation against a piracy problem in the outer areas of the Republic. This one should tie you up for quite a while...

Despite the idea behind their three month break being that they would actually spend that time resting and recovering from their recent traumatic events- Cassilis and Mandragos- Jelena has not really done much relaxing. Instead, she has used the spare time to keep up with her studies, and meditate on the future.

Most importantly, Jelena has submitted several petitions for receiving a Padawan to train. As of yet, her requests go unanswered, but she knows she will receive one eventually.

She has, however, largely avoided the others from her recent missions. And so when she arrives at the Temple today to see Roan and Andro and Gallagher, she greets them all warmly.

"Hello, my friends," Jelena says. "I trust these past three months have been well spent in relaxation? It was something we had definitely earned, after having to engage in these maddening missions. What did everyone do?"

Gallagher comes to meet with Trorn and the others after attending one of his counselling sessions that have helped him get over what happened with Sienar and the remembrance of his past.

So far so good, Gallagher thinks to himself. He no longer worries about his alignment in the Force, as Sienar had caused him to.

"I did not stray far from the Temple," Gallagher admits to Jelena. "My time with Sienar wore me down, I needed to seek counselling with the Order to come to terms with everything. I largely did so on my own, but even so... one should not go it alone when he has ten thousand brothers and sisters that can help him with an issue that all of us face. What about you, Jelena? I thought I saw you in the Archives the other day..."

Gallagher also greets Andro with a friendly grab of the shoulder, without interrupting Jelena. He gives a curt nod of respect to Roan as well.

"I have kept busy," Jelena says, admiring that Gallagher's mood is much lighter since she last really discussed anything with him, shortly after Sienar's death on that rainy rooftop. "I studied, mostly. One never stops learning, after all. Also, I reconstructed my second lightsaber."

She produces it to show her duplicated lightsaber, sitting comfortably in her hand.

"I did not have time to do so before Mandragos. I felt my swordsmanship was weak when it came time for it in the Basilica."

The Council is in full session. You understand they are dealing with many issues today- but Trorn explains that yours is the most significant. "They have wanted a team together on this issue for some while," he says. "The difficulty has been waiting for Jedi with the correct mix of skills to become available. Even now, our manpower is short. There is increasing unrest in the outer areas lately."

"Hopefully you should not need to become too proficient, or our friend Andro would have some competition, wouldn't he?" Gallagher jests.

When Trorn starts to fill them in, Gallagher thinks about how Sienar may or may not have contributed to this unrest that Trorn speaks of, but sees it merely as an opportunity to help undo the damage.

"What sort of unrest?" Gallagher asks. "What problem is the Council trying to confront with our mission?"

"There's no single answer to that first question," says Trorn. "Crime is up, political unrest is up... there is general discontent all over. More and more of the outer areas are in the effective control of criminal organisations. Many others are in the hands of local bureaucracies whose loyalty to the Senate is wavering. Still more are too weak to defend themselves from the threats thst exist out there.

"What the Council is trying to move against is the perception that not enough is done to defend the outer worlds against such threats. Your mission is a central part of this."

Roan has spend much of his downtime in meditation, encouraging Sunda to do the same. Attempting, possibly futilly to quell his more impulsive instincts.
He has had much on his mind recently, from the battles on Cassilis to Sienar, and the famine.
His meditations brough back teachings of Master Gundark, and her desire to stop evil despite overwhelming odds. Her drive and mastery of the light has brought him comfort.

He arrives at the Council refreshed and ready to begin what he hopes becomes a clearly successful mission. Sunda is by his side, as usual and he meets the council with head held high, exuding confidence in himself.

"I agree, we should be doing more. Let us combat corruption wherever it lies. What is the nature of this assignment?"

Jelena is encouraged by Roan's outward demeanor when she sees him. She had heard whisperings that the Council worried for the morale of Roan Trilanger, thinking that so much gone wrong against him could do him harm. But he does not display it when she sees him. Maybe the whispers were wrong.

She waits to hear Trorn answer Roan's question.

He'd better let the Council explain the details. He stays outside the door and ushers you inside...

Gallagher too is pleased with Roan's directness, glad that he is not the only one to have recovered from the gloom of Mandragos.

"Thank you, Trorn," Gallagher says, before walking through the doors, ready to meet the Council for his next assignment rather than another counselling session.

Jelena goes in too, pocketing the lightsaber she had been showing the others.

The Council seems imposing as ever, against the backdrop of the Coruscant skyline.

Yoda seems to be in one of his frequent moods and says little, though he keeps an eye on all that happens.

"Good day to you all," says Ki-Adi Mundi. "I trust you are well rested?"

"As rested as we will ever be, I feel," Jelena says, bowing to the Council respectfully. She is curious about what mission they have in mind for the Jedi, but remains hopeful that she can discuss Padawan-training with them as well. "I hear the Council has much to handle today."

"Let that be our concern," says Mundi. "You need worry only about your own assignment."

"Trorn has told you the basics?" asks Windu. "Your assignment is against piracy."

"Piracy?" Gallagher says. It is not something he has ever had to deal with before, being so young and experienced so little of the Galaxy. "Intriguing. A new threat to confront, for me at least."

Jelena also has had very little experience with pirates, and then only diplomatic matters with pirates who were willing to reform and listen to Republic law. She had missed the actual fighting part.

"I am guessing there is a certain group of pirates that has raised the ire of the Republic."

"It is an old threat manifested in a new way," says Mundi "Your target is the Red Lance pirate clan, led by a man named Pelloran."

Does Jelena know anything of Pelloran or the Red Lance clan?