STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Virus

Rolion VII

It is late at the facility; after hours. A pair of scientists, one older and wiser, the other his assistant, hurry quietly down a corridor. The elder scientist presses a blaster pistol into the hands of the younger man.

“Are you sure about this, Doctor?”

“More than sure, my boy.”

“What you’re saying about the Plague... it can’t be true...”

“The Emperor means to use our research to formulate a weapon to use against his enemies, not to find a means of preventing further outbreaks. A vaccine is needed to inoculate his soldiers and his soldiers only.”

“But it would be mass murder! It is too virulent to control effectively!”

“Worse than mass murder, my boy. You... were not present for our most recent test. But you will see the effects soon enough. If we do not purge Rolion VII of all sentient life, then the Galaxy is doomed to face the Plague.”

“That would mean eradication for countless worlds if the Empire were to use it...”

“Then you understand why we must do this.”

“Yes... let’s go.”

They scurry down the corridor to execute the plan.

-

Welcome to "Virus," an episode of the Retrospection games. As an episode of this series, "Virus" will be a very personal plotline, exploring events involving the player's character. Going off of Ushgarak's ever-popular Star Wars role-playing game, these mini-episodes occur in game-play’s past. In this case, we explore the burgeoning career as a Rebel gunslinger of the smugger Rhys Kyril, a man with enough wit to outsmart the smartest Verpine and a ship that has seen more than a few modifications; and we will also see the continuation of the Empire's efforts to make use of Rylis Tavel, bounty huntress extraordinaire, who dislikes the Empire but is more than willing to make friends with their paychecks.

Rhys had started off things with the Rebel Alliance when they asked him to smuggle a rather odd cargo- people that they didn't want found by the Empire. Take them to a designated safe point and drop them off, make sure you weren't followed, etcetera. So far so good, and now Rhys has been inducted officially as an agent of the Rebellion. Things are only going to get more difficult from here, though.

Rylis, on the other hand, has already had some poor experiences with the Galactic Empire (that involved becoming a badly-beaten puppet for a renegade Dark Sider agent and letting her prey escape)

The time period is set in 9 BBY- nine years before the Battle of Yavin and the events of A New Hope, and four years before Ushgarak's "Lanzar." A year after her failure to bring in Kyle Ragnor, Rylis has been cementing her reputation as a lethal bounty hunter... and avoiding offers from the Empire to run missions for them. However, she might be persuaded to change her mind once Makrus throws something on her plate. Rhys, on the other hand, has been called in by the Rebellion, who are in dire need of a smuggler willing to step up to a very dangerous task. And a very dangerous task it will be for them both...

Rolion System

Rylis- you drop out of hyperspace in the Crimson Dawn, coming from the Core where you met with Imperial officials coordinating and monitoring your mission. Your contact is Staff Sergeant Erwher; you do not plan on talking to him much during your mission, nor he with you. Your ship circles around the gas giant that is Rolion, the only planet in the system.

Rhys- you drop out of hyperspace in the Black Dawn, coming from the Rim where you spoke with your Contact and retrieved your hazard suit. You really wish you didn’t have to wear it, it’s such an ugly thing, reminiscent of 1950s hazmat suits. You fly in passing the outer Rolion moons, heading for Rolion VII.

Rolion VII is the sole habitable body in the Rolion system. Rolion itself, as mentioned, is an immense gas giant that none dare try to harvest minerals and gas from. Its atmosphere is a bright and vibrant blue, which crackles horribly every so often with catastrophic lightning storms that actually set the gas clouds aflame. The inner moons of Rolion are either too close to the planet and so have horrible surface conditions- active volcanoes and rolionquakes galore- or are too small to be of any importance. The outer moons are very far away from the planet, and so are either freezing balls of ice when at the orbit point that carries them farthest from the system’s sun, Rol, or swelteringly hot when they pass far too close to it.

It is incredibly easy to pick out Rolion VII amongst the dozens of moons swinging in orbit around the gas giant. It is the only green one.

As you both get close to the planet... you pick each other up on your sensors. Rylis is seeing a fat little freighter and Rhys an assault ship on the larger side, both headed for the seventh moon.

Additionally- as part of gameplay, you will each be receiving messages from me regarding information that the other must not know about or the whole jig is up! Please keep these things to yourselves or your respective missions to Rolion VII will be much shorter than anticipated...

Rhys decides to ignore the assault ship for the moment, scanning the moon for a suitable landing point. Does he have a general area on the moon for his objective?

"Just my luck someone heavily-armed would be coming in... wonder what they want."

Rylis is most certainly not going to be ignoring the freighter, and moves after it.

"Whoever you are, leave this system now," she says, contacting the other ship with her comms.

"Sithspit."

Rhys flips on his comm to answer, and after a moment puts on his best gruff, don't-mess-with-me voice. "I'm a merc, sweetheart, so back off. I don't care where you're going, but stay away from me and I'll stay away from you, shiny?"

He hopes to whatever gods there may be that this works...

Rylis just smirks.

"A merc, huh? I've come across more than a few of those in my days. Usually they're worth some money. Mind giving me a name, see if you're worth keeping alive?" Rylis replies. "Because otherwise, I've got no compunctions against simply shooting you out of the sky."

Even though it's not something I'd normally do...damn this assignment, she thinks to herself.

"Ain't worth no money myself. Collecting it's much more profitable, y'know? Name's Dak, my record's clean enough."

At least, it better be... he thinks.

"I'll be checking up on that, don't you worry," Rylis replies with a cheery tone...while warming up the guns on her ship.

As you both fly nearer to Rolion VII, you get visuals of each others' ships- feel free to describe them to each other. Rylis does not recognize it in particular but notices Arnian influences in the design. Rhys recognizes Crimson Dawn as belonging to bounty huntress Rylis Tavel and is very uncomfortable.

However, your conversation and your scans are interrupted when your comms receive a priority signal from the moon.

The Crimson Dawn looks like a cross between some sort of large starfighter and a shuttle, though of course much larger in size and heavily armed, thanks to the many modifications Rylis has made to her ship. It is sleek, in good condition, and downright deadly looking, and was named after its color.

Rylis will cut her taunting short (though she's going to keep the weaponry warming up, just in case), to see what this signal is.

The Black Dawn looks run down even from the outside, clunky and obviously rebuilt several times by several different owners. Even its shape makes it look more like it's being dragged through space instead of flying.

"Thank you automatic priority!" Rhys says as he switches over to the signal from the moon.

You receive an automated recording.

"This is Doctor Pard Tulmitor of the Imperial Medical Research Center in Narpest, capital of the Imperial colony on Rolion VII. We request that you reroute your flight path to Narpest itself and land. The colony is in a state of emergency and all craft are required to land in Narpest for further instruction. Risk of exposure is high to those failing to comply. Breath masks recommended. Do not drink the water. Thank you."

The message keeps repeating.

"...fun. This job just keeps getting better and better..."

Rhys will plot a course to Narpest and descend.

"Well, that just makes it nice and easy..." Rylis comments to herself, turning off her comms. Whoever this mercenary is, she can deal with him just as easily on the ground. Perhaps more easily, she's used to dumpy-looking ships being a lot nastier than they appear.

She will plot a landing course, but is keeping a close eye on the other ship on her scanners. She's also going to do a quick search to see if there's any info on him.

You almost mistake him for a very old bounty on some psycho-killer... but no, that's not him. This Dak fellow checks out; all clean, a mercenary-for-the-highest-bidder operating out of Hutt Space.

Narpest is easy to find- it is the only city with a locator beacon.

Easy enough.

Rylis will put the Crimson Dawn down in the starport, then (assuming there is one), taking the largest landing bay if possible.

Rhys will land in the bay farthest from this Tavel lady.

Was he provided with any maps of the area?

Yes, you both have maps.

However, landing is not quite as easy as you had thought. As you descend toward Narpest- a small city built entire on repulsorlifts above a lake- you are greeted with several alerts on your scanners saying that you have been locked onto by turbolasers.

Rylis slaps her comms back on, hailing whoever she can in the city, and is glad she has her weapons systems online and ready for use.

"What is the meaning of this?" she says, incredulously.