STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION - Desecration

“Are you mad? Sending them out to do this?”

“Quite the contrary. I don’t trust him alone; he’s too reckless.”

“She’s no better.”

“Ahhh, but she is still far too intimidated by me to defy me. She tries to hide it, but I can see it in her eyes...”

The pair were seated in a room deep within a cavern, as the odd planet that they were currently occupying had it’s cities almost entirely underground. This fact served their purposes more than well enough, as when one is in hiding, they can never be too careful.

The fair-haired and fair-skinned one frowned at one of the glowglobes lighting the room, before glancing back at the other, an albino-skinned Nautolan. The Nautolan leaned back in his seat, a goblet of wine in one hand. A sinister grin played across his face.

“And this smuggler they’re meant to meet?”

“She knows nothing more than what they need to know.”

“I don’t like this. What if there’s nothing there to find? And what if the other rumors turn out to be true?”

“They should be able to handle themselves, just fine. And if not...then we’ve simply nipped potential trouble in the bud. You know well that he does not respect me as a leader. And my hold over her will not last forever...”

“And if they do succeed, then making them work together is just going to backfire against you, badly.”

“Do you not think I can’t handle myself against that pair of upstarts? Come, now, Gallador, have some more faith.”

“If you insist, Master Rand...”

--

Welcome to yet another Retrospection game, “Desecration”, written for Rex! He has done so well in keeping all of us entertained with games of our own that it’s time to see Galder get some play himself, and see what sort of trouble that everyone’s favorite psychopath with a lightsaber can get himself into.

This game takes place in 31BBY, a bit more than a year after the events on Zeiton. Not long before, some of the splintered remains of Kuylen’s group of Dark Jedi had come to join with another group, led by a Jedi Master who had fallen to the Dark Side by the name of Nume Rand. The two groups are cautious of each other; the remains of Kuylen’s group are mostly Force sensitives that have never been formally trained by anyone other than Kuylen himself, while Rand’s group is entirely made up of former Jedi Knights that had fallen to the Dark Side. There is little trust between any of them, beyond a need to stay together for survival.

Of course, that may not always be the case...

Arbra

This planet gives you the creeps, Galder. You do not like being underground, and all of the cities and structures here are built into the caverns that are found all over the planet. The fact that the planet is more or less abandoned doesn't help matters. Practically speaking, it's a nice thing - you don't need to worry about anyone finding you if there's no sentient life on the planet.

But still, it's eerie. And while the particular cavern that Rand had claimed as your base for the time being is large enough - perhaps it was a small village at one point? - you feel like you have little privacy while inside. And of course, there's the others around, those who you don't know well yet. You've only been working with Rand's group for a month, maybe two. You don't trust Rand. He's no leader, especially not compared to Rand.

But for the moment, his group offers you and the others a means to survive, so you deal with it.

At the moment you are outside, working on fixing a minor problem that had sprung up on your ship recently. It's completely minor and nothing that will actually have any effect on the ship being able to fly, but it gets you away from the others. For a while anyway; you are interrupted by your comlink going off.

Galder is tinkering with the problem- one of the landing gear is not fully extending and it is leading to lopsided landings- when his comlink goes off. For a moment, he ignores it. He's busy and the problem needs handling, especially before it gets worse when they don't have any supplies for serious repairs. When the beeping persists, he groans and gets out from under the Paladin's right wing.

"What is it?" Galder snarls into the comlink.

It is Rah, one of the two others of Kuylen's group that didn't run off on their own after Zeiton. His habit of making songs about everything could both be a source of dark amusement and annoyance.

"Rand wants you for something," he responds. "Didn't say what, but he was acting like it was important. Then again, he seems to act like everything he says is important..."

"He seems to think we're at his beck and call," Galder says, slightly less on edge due to it being a familiar voice on the other end of the comm. "Alright, I'll be in shortly. Tell him."

With that, Galder shuts off his comlink, then packs up his tools. He stands up and stretches his back before taking a breath of Arbra's fresh air, then walks off toward the caverns to find his cohorts.

It doesn't take you long to find Rand; he is in the large area that has been claimed as use as a common area for the group. Whenever he has something important to tell everyone else, this is where you meet; there's a large table and several chairs, as well as comfortable sofa or two on the other side of the room. There are several corridors branching off to other areas in the caverns. Everything is well-lit despite being underground.

Most of the others aren't around, though. Rah rolls his eyes, jerking his head towards Rand, as he exits the room. Rand is seated at the table facing directly across from you. Rianna is there but sitting several feet away from him, looking quite unhappy and angry. Gallador is also present, reading something, but he looks up at you when you enter.

"Ahh, Galder, nice of you to join us," Rand says, with that creepily sinister smile of his. He stands up, gesturing at a seat. "Please, sit down."

"I'll stand, thanks," Galder says as he enters the cavern. He does approach the table though, leaning on the edge of it. "What do you want? I was in the middle of something."

"If you so insist," Rand says, sitting back down again. He ignores your comment about having been busy. "I have a proposition for you. Something for you to do."

"I don't like this," Rianna snaps quietly, but she falls silent again when Rand glances over at her.

"It may be to your interest," Rand continues as if he hadn't been interrupted. "I have heard of something interesting from the Mecrossans."

"Your assassin contacts?" Galder says. "Huh. Alright, shoot. What'd they hear?"

"They brought me a mention of a planet that was once an ancient Sith stronghold. It's been uninhabited for thousands of years, however, there's a possibility that not all was destroyed there," Rand responds, taking a sip from the goblet of wine he nearly always had with him. He pauses for a moment, looking you in the eye.

"A Sith holocron. I would like for you to investigate, and if it does exist, bring it back here."

Galder tenses up at the mention of the Sith holocron. It has been his goal since uniting with Kuylen to learn the secrets of the Sith and become a powerful Dark Lord... but that way has been closed off, having heard nothing from Kuylen in nearly a year. Perhaps an alliance with Rand will suffice in the mean time...

"Sith holocron, eh? Curious. What planet is this wonderful contraption rumored to be hiding on and how did they hear about it?"

"The planet is called Iragez Prime, from what I understand very few know of its existence, let alone its location. Very few maps have it charted, and the few that do consider it inhospitable and not suitable for living on; there's no reason for any to visit it anymore," Rand says.

"As for how they heard, apparently a smuggler that occasionally does runs for one of their assassins heard about it and tipped them off. This smuggler's a cautious one, though; she kept the actual location to herself. You'll have to meet with her to get there."

"Oh good, I get to do public relations work," Galder sighs. "I guess it could be worse. What's up with Iragez Prime that it's deemed inhospitable? Who is this smuggler and where am I meeting her?

Galder looks over at Rianna.

"And why don't you like this?"

"Iragez was known for fairly heavy volcanic activity. A few thousand years ago, enough eruptions happened at once to more or less wipe out all life on the planet. The planet is largely dormant now, but still, nothing lives there," Rand responds. "The smuggler is a Twi'lek by the name of Taizan'alee. You'll be meeting her on Mos Eisley."

Rianna glares at Rand when you ask her that, before sighing herself. "He wants me to go along with you."

"Just in case, you understand. It's always better to have two people than just one," Rand says.

"Ah, Tatooine," Galder says. "My old stomping grounds. That'll be fun."

Does Galder know who the smuggler is by any chance?

"And of course. Don't want me disappearing on an uncharted planet, do you?"

He probaby wouldn't mind, Galder thinks to himself.

The name isn't familiar to you at all. Whoever this smuggler is, she's certainly not one of the big-name ones. Probably just another small-timer that's a dime a dozen.

"Indeed. You likely won't be there for too long, though. Iragez is not too far from Tatooine, supposedly about midway between there and Rishi," Rand responds, leaning back in his chair. "And you disappearing would do no one any good, Galder. We don't know what could be there, and I would rather be safe than sorry, wouldn't you?"

Rianna simply makes a quiet sound of disgust.

"Sure, whatever. When do we leave?"

"Make whatever preparations you want to tonight, so long as you are ready to leave in the morning. Is there anything else you may need?"

Not from you, Galder thinks.

"I'll be fine," Galder says. "I can handle the prep myself. Just make sure that smuggler will be there. Rianna, do what you need to do. We'll be leaving early."

Galder will take his leave to go do some preparations, then. He keeps most of his weapons in his ship- he generally just keeps his lightsabers on him, and then the knife and blaster in his robotic arm. Could he maybe put some stuff together for light armor or molotov cocktails?

He'll also put in a call to Rura Ta, telling me to meet them on Tatooine.

Galder leaves then, with Rianna still glaring at Rand and Gallador watching everything from where he had been reading.

You doubt that there's the materials around for armor, but you're pretty sure that you can at least toss together a couple of small explosives of that sort. Nothing that'll be too terribly destructive, but certainly good for distractions and some general mayhem, if needed.

Rura doesn't answer, but he's generally good at getting your messages.

Is there anything else in particular that you want to do tonight?

Also, would you like to use any predictive powers?