STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Respite

Kell's people don't keep great documentation of their history, and Kell's gang is actually fairly new to this fight in the grand scheme of things, from what you can tell. After all, they've got functioning speeder bikes.

"Why do you ask?" Kell asks. "Hardly the time for scholarly pursuits..."

-

You will need to make Hard Strength rolls to not be penalized. Alacrity does not apply. If you fail the roll, you lose dice in whatever you're doing.

Nothing about you yet, Xeth.

"Let's move," Navir says, lugging the mines. "Where do you want to put these?"

"I have a strange feeling about Tarne's faction," Vera-Kin says. "I don't know why and I want to explore the possible reasons. How much do you know about what started this? When did your faction get here?"

"Whatever seems like the most obvious route through the rubble," Xeth says. "They don't want to make it harder on themselves."

"'A strange feeling?'" Kell asks. "I don't know about all your Force mumbo-jumbo but I work in facts. Tarne's the enemy. What more do you need?"

-

Navir can help you pick a suitable spot for the mines based on your preference and his Sabotage skill. He installs them one at a time under collapsed walls and shards of metal and oily soil on what appears to be the most obvious route.

Helping him with this is hard work. Even as a Jedi, you are starting to sweat from lugging these mines around. That's fairly unusual for someone so fit as yourself.

"I'm not sure," Vera-Kin says. "But something more. Can you tell me anything or not?"

Does the heat feel unnatural or is something making Xeth feel uncharacteristically out of shape?

Kell sighs.

"What do you want to know?"

-

Actually Xeth, it does feel abnormally warm around here.

Can Xeth see or sense (whichever works best) a source of heat near him?

"The background of Tarne's forces," Vera-Kin says. "The start of this conflict has been lost, as far as I can tell. I need to know where they come from."

Vera-Kin feels very strongly that the answers she wants must be there.

Kell will tell you what he knows.

"Tarne's and Malteen's factions have been here forever. We only have theories on who their factions descended from. Respite was a planet-wide rehabilitation hospital and relaxation resort. Where do you think you could make money on a planet like Respite? And I'm talking illegally."

-

Xeth, you sense the heat coming toward you from the north.

"The enemy?" Navir asks.

Xeth remembers what troops Tarne has deployed over on this side of the battlefield.

"Yes," Xeth says. "Flame droids, I would guess. Can you finish setting the mines while I delay them?"

"Drugs?" Vera-Kin hazards a guess.

Navir tells you it will take longer if he is doing it himself, but assuming you are up for the challenge, he can get it done.

-

"You've got it," Kell says. "Every planet has their underworld, and no doubt some of the meds were ending up on the black market somewhere. Eventually, the authorities would have caught on and taken action to stop it. And from there... it must have gotten pretty bad. The gangsters and smugglers found a source of profit they didn't want to let go, and they fought to keep it.

"We don't know what trashed the environment so thoroughly. But things escalated until Respite closed off from the Republic and was quarantined to prevent things spreading to other worlds in the system."

"I already knew that part..." Vera-Kin says. "So where does Tarne's group trace back to? Did he come during the quarantine? Before? After?"

Let's get to it, then. Xeth will leave Navir to his trap-laying and seek out the oncoming droids, intending to blow them all up on his own.

"We think before," Kell says. "But we're not sure. Definitely before my crew arrived."

-

Not difficult to find the oncoming units, Xeth. You close in on their location based off of the extreme heat radiating from the north. The units of flame droids marching your way torch everything in their path, setting piles of greasy, oil wreckage aflame and turning them into molten bonfires.

You see dozens of these flame droids. No other types of infantry.

Can Xeth ambush them and get his first attack off without retaliation? He's probably going to start with his grenade launcher, just for fun.

"I might need to investigate further," Vera-Kin says. "If you really don't know Tarne's past..."

(Also, CC ES CG, just for fun)

"What are you going to do, go ask him?" Kell snorts. "You're in bad shape, Master Jedi."

-

Intrusion check for Xeth says...

You accidentally knock over some old pipes that clatter loudly against some sheet metal. One of the flame droids turns toward the noise and spots you.

"Enemy unit approaching," it buzzes.

"Roger, roger," responds another.

"Roger, roger," responds a third.

Soon the lot of them are marching your way, flamethrowers raised.