SW Journal - 06/27/2004

[Relthar]

As we regroup, a large number of friendly troops come running up to the palace. They are led by a group of Jedi, including Rei Far’Len and Aleen. The Jedi look around and appraise our handiwork. A brief reunion occurs between Garrick and Aleen. The troops with them are a combination of Naboo forces and loyalists we freed. But we still have work to do. Before we enter, Rei Far’Len informs us they will make their way to the palace’s power supply. We get to ‘cut off the serpent’s head’, as it were.

In we go. The main foyer is a huge elaborate hallway, with a polished marble floor and columns. Rei and her group break off for the main power generator. The troops cover us as we proceed. At the end of the hallway is a large hall with an equally large set of stairs ahead, and two smaller staircases leading off at angles to the left and right. A significant number of droids currently guard the hall (4 battle, 4 destroyer), and obviously don’t want us there. The battle commences.

Trosk runs up and smacks one of the droidekars. Garrick charges another, and hacks right through its shields and it. Z5 hides behind D4, while the droidekars open fire. D4, Garrick, and Trosk each take some minor injuries. Six more battle droids are coming down the stairs. D4 opens up on one droidekar and two battle droids, taking out the battle droids. Koyi toasts two more battle droids (minor iracle – his eergy clip didn’t run try). Tranus advnces for a better shot and shoots a droidekar, not doing too much structural damage. Trosk then goes apeshit on another droidekar nearby. The blur of his fists and feet are barely seen as the hull of the droid caves in and collapses into a heap.

Garrick turns his attention to another destroyer, using Force Strike to damage it. A rather unimpressive display compared to flinging the tank. He caused a small dent – ooh, aah. Z5 continues to hide, and the Trade Federation droids once again prove they can’t hit anything (including the ones who came down the stairs). The droidekars however are more accurate. Trosk gets smacked again by their blaster fire, and Garrick is another popular target. Nothing serious. D4 opens up on the same droidekar, making it so much mechanical swiss cheese, and also blows two battle droids away. Koyi’s accuracy streak continues, and two more battle droids drop from his blaster. Tranus opens a can of whup ass on a droidekar, reducing it to so much smoking rubble, and for dessert toasts a battle droid. For a grand finale, Trosk leaps into the air onto the last lone battle droid and unleashes the “Spinning Lizard Monkey of Death” attack upon it. Scratch one battle droid.

That took all of 18 seconds. Next. Checking the room, the two angled staircases look like they lead to the castle turrets. The main staircase leads up to a set of double doors. However, there’s also a single door leading off to the left. First that lone door must be investigated. It is locked and Z5 easily bypasses the mechanism. Trosk opens the door, and stairs leading down. Maybe later. We need to check what might be the ‘throne room’ at the top of the stairs. Getting to the top of the stairs, the huge double doors opne up before us. We didn’t touch them. From inside we here “Please come in.” We do as asked.

Inside the spacious throne room are many columns along the walls. 5 long banquet tables adorn the room. In the midst of the tables is a fire pit. A large throne sits upon a dais at the head of the room. A neimoidian sits upon the throne. Battle droids and droidekars stand along the walls and in front of the throne. D4 thinks he looks familiar, but can’t quite place it. The neimoidian bows ‘respectfully’ and says we owe him money. To the tune of 25,000 credits. And now we are causing problems for him. <sarcasm>Koyi feels so distraught.</sarcasm> He allows us the opportunity to surrender and work off our ‘debt’, which we turn down. His patience with us having ended, he orders the droids to attack.

Many tapestries line the walls, and as the order to attack is given, several mercenaries come out from hiding, light repeating blasters at the ready. This makes 4 mercs, 8 battle droids, and 2 droidekars. The mercs open fire first. Trosk takes a hit, but it amounts to little more than a flesh wound. D4 and Garrick are other primary targets. D4’s armor and shields take the brunt, and the merc shooting at Garrick runs out of ammo. D4 swings his rotary carbine toward the nearest merc, unleashing an impressive amount of blaster fire. And only one connects. The merc doesn’t seem to feel it much. Eight more battle droids and two droidekars emerge from hiding behind the tapestries. OK, now its us versus the small army. Bring it. Several battle droids open fire ineffectually and the rest hold their fire – for now.

Koyi runs over to the right, behind a table, and takes a shot point blank at one of the mercs. He hits, barely fazing the man. Tranus doe the same off to the left. Trosk reaches into his bag o’ goodies, and lobs a glop grenade at a group of three battle droids and one merc. None of them end up immobile, but thy are partially entangled. Z5 hides behind D4 (big surprise). Garrick runs to the left side of the room, directly at one of the mercs, putting a gash in his armor. Koyi then takes a full auto light repeater in the chest. Ouch. D4 quickly continues his slow advance forward, mowing down battle droids. Quite a number of the battle droids combine their fire on Trosk, and actually manage a hit somewhere in the mass. The four droidekars also decide Trosk is prime target number one. They are much more accurate, as expected, and begin to turn Trosk into swiss cheese. Koyi tries to keep his lucky streak running, and proceeds to fire two very unimpressive shots at the thug right in front of him, and then the ammo clip runs dry.

Tranus fires at the merc Garrick is attacking, landing two decent hits. Trosk, feeling worse than he expected, throws a thermal detonator at a group of battle droids at the base of the stairs. The five droids are reduced to dust. The merc in the blast manages to weather it to some extent. After the thermal detonator blast the neimoidian pushes a button on the arm of the throne and a shield generator around it activates. Z5 hides some more. Garrick lays into the merc in front of him and the droid next to him. The droid topples, but the merc is still up. The entangled merc can’t get his blaster aimed well enough to hit Trosk, but another has better luck. D4 then decides the merc o Garrick needs to be eliminated. Three shots later, he lies dead. The neimoidian pushes another button on his throne, and the thing grows legs and arms shifting into a droidekar throne.

[Relthar]

The destroyer throne opens fire on Trosk. Using his amazing Force ability to absorb the energy from blaster fire to remain still standing. The droids get to go once again. The droidekar also decide Trosk is fun to play with. (note to self: don’t throw thermal detonators around attracting attention). More yo-yo Trosk (vitality – no vitality – vitality…). Next up Koyi, in much pain (though not as much as Trosk), reloads his blaster. He takes a single shot at the merc, then retreats behind D4. Trosk lobs yet another thermal detonator up toward the throne. Two battle droids and two droidekars buck the kickett, and the throne takes some punishment. Z5 once again hides, but finally feels brave enough to shoot at the merc Koyi was facing down. He hit, once.

Garrick runs toward the throne, and pauses behind the large table up there (it makes decent cover). One merc uses Tranus as a bullseye, landing very telling shots, but runs out of ammo. Another merc advances on Garrick, raises his repeating blaster at him, and…he runs out of ammo too! The throne destroyer pops a thermal detonator out of a grenade launcher right in between Trosk and Garrick. Trosk somehow jumps out of the way, and Garrick weathers the blast. The one merc and battle droid caught in the blast don’t far near so well and neither do the rest of their body parts. Back to the reaining droids – two droidekar are all that’s left of them (plus two mercs and one throne of doom). Koyi fires form behind D4, continuing his attention on the same merc. He misses. Big surprise. Tranus shoots at the same one, and plus a rather large hole through him.

Trosk reaches into his bag o’ goodies and pulls out two thermal detonators. One flies over toward the remaining two droidekar and the last merc. The merc is still standing, and so is one of the droidekar. The destroyer throne also takes he blast. Trosk follows with the second thermal detonator in the same place. The droidekar, throne, and merc weather the second blast and are all still standing. Z5 actually moves out from behind D4 now that there isn’t much left. Garrick hops the table and assaults the merc. And he’s still up. D4 hustles to the front of the room as all the opportune targets where he was have died. The throne walks down the steps and shoots at Trosk. Through judicious use of a convenient solid stone pillar (which he hides behind), he remains untouched. The droidekar manages to hit him nonetheless.

Koyi runs up behind the foremost table and takes a pot sot at the last droidekar. He lands a lucky hit, and thing blows apart. Trosk lobs a glop grenade between the throne and merc, immobilizing the throne and entangling the merc. He follows up with a thermal detonator in the same place. The merc dies. The throne is unable to dodge in any meaningful way and takes some serious damage. The neimoidian launches another thermal detonator near Trosk and Koyi. Koyi ducks behind the table, so he doesn’t take the blast full on. Trosk just disappeared out of existence and reappeared. D4 opens up on the throne, collapsing it. He neimoidian jumps out and draws his blaster. Tranus moves to a better firing position. Trosk then runs up beside the neimoidian and knocks him cod with one punch.

We quickly disarm and bind his arms, then take him outside to the loyalist forces for custody. We find the other Jedi team looking like they’ve been through a war. How novel. Going to the stairs down from the main foyer, we delve ever deeper. It opens into a strategy room. There are a couple of dead neimoidians (killed by blasters to the head). Tranus determines they committed suicide. There is also a door at the back of the room – locked. Z5 gets the lock, but the bar on the other side proves difficult. Trosk takes out his scavenged lightsaber and cuts through the door. Inside the next room, after flipping on a light, we find the prince huddled in the back corner in fear. Empty food containers litter the room. He also hasn’t bathed in a while either. We take the prince outside to stand trial for his crimes as well.

The fighting continues for another three hours at least. The Trade Federation starts pulling out once they are told their Grand Administrator has been captured. The mop up operation continues until morning. We spend most of that time recovering. The devastation of war can readily be seen once the sun rises. The Trade Federation break orbit and flee. A shuttle touches down not too long after the fighting stops, and King Zoppa disembarks to the palace. He seems saddened by the whole chain of events. He looks about then comes to give us his thanks, and reiterates that we shall be rewarded for our efforts. He then dimisses us and we can tell the weight of his position is great upon his shoulders.

Over the next day, our wounds are treated, and droid bodies are rebuilt. We are then summoned back to the throne room. It is in much better shape than it was, but with the scars of the battle still fresh. A handful of troops and dignitaries are present, including Queen Amidala. King Zoppa calls us forward. He announces that he sees this day as a day of joy for the liberation of his world, though not under the best circumstances. He also says we are owed a reward. He claps his hands, and a steward bring forth a black lacquered case in which is a royal proclamation giving us stewardship of the archipelago known as the Haven Cluster. In total is covers 6000 square km, but only 15% is dry land. There is actually a small spaceport on Eastcape of the main island of Mandalay. Mandalay actually has an active volcano on it – Mount Primus. Mount Tomorrow is a dormant volcano on the same island. There are already inhabitants, about 50,000 people grand total. Not much, which is nice.

We now have the right to govern there if we wish, or he can appoint a governor with us as a ruling council. We must still abide by the Royal Constitution of Karlene. So basically the whole archipelago is ours to do with as we see fit. We still have to complete some administrative paperwork before everything is truly official.