Chapter 11 Operation Elrood—Two Weeks Later--Industrial Intrigue
The alarm on the Moonshadow’s
console blipped and buzzed, indicating that the Elrood system was fast
approaching. The streaks of light
quickly diminished into the familiar pinpoints of stars as Andromeda cut the
sublight engines, and the planet of Elrood was in full view beneath them.
The sensors were indicating a show of massive technology down on the
surface. Somewhere down there was
their next assignment. They
weren’t given all the details, but they were given a simple mission.
The Grey Griffins, an Alliance
scouting team loaned to the Radell Mining Corporation, had been captured by
pirates and were being held for ransom. All
that needed to be done was to rescue them and secure any new worlds they had
claimed for Radell Mining.
Rebel activity was nearly nil out here in the Elrood sector and the
Empire had quite a hold over it. Radell
mining had requested a Rebel team to come for them because of Imperial Mining
Ltd., a competing company, was doing anything and everything dirty and
underhanded in the book to get Radell to fall.
In exchange for the team, Radell readily was giving the
We must be doing well,
Andromeda thought. Mon Mothma had given each of us a medal of bravery, not to mention a
bonus. She personally gave us the
news that she had promoted us to the Black Ops. Division herself. What did she call
our team again? The Black Hawks? With
our track record, is this a good thing, or is it a bad?
Was this because the Alliance
had noticed our excellent talents, or was it to put us
elsewhere, out of the main action for a while?
Nah. Had to be based on
talent, thank you very much!
Andromeda reached over to
Uncle Tolian, who was dozing off in the copilot’s seat and gently woke him up.
He quietly came to and looked over at her with a slightly disapproving
look for daring to wake him.
“There already?” he mumbled a little groggily.
She nodded with a little smile and announced their arrival over the
comlink to the rest of the team as she gently set the Moonshadow down at the Elrooden Starport.
She took time to drape her stun cloak over her shoulders, unbuckle her
blaster from her hip, lay it aside, and to strap a vibro-knife in its place.
Ranged weapons were illegal on Elrood and she was feeling naked without
her blaster.
She dutifully paid the customs officer the appropriate fee for docking,
showed him her faked ident card and he directed her and the team to the Elrooden
Starport Permits Office in order to get a permit for her knife, and to get their
bearings for the lay of the city.
“So now that we’ve arrived, where the heck are we goin’?” Luse
asked. He seemed to want to get to
wherever they were going in a hurry.
“Gwynn’s Dispatch. There’s
a package there that we need to pick up. That’s
where we get a hold of a woman by the name of
“So what’s the buzzword? Don’t
these guys use a secret code, or something?” Luse asked.
“Yes. We’re old business
partners from Keyorin. That’s all
you need to know for right now. That’s
all I know.
We’ll just have a talk with Gwynn and see what happens,” Tolian said.
“I don’t know about you guys, but does anyone else get the feeling
that we weren’t told everything?” Maharet asked.
“Why do you ask?” Zaron replied.
“Because no one ever told us about that star destroyer that’s up
there orbiting the place,” she said quietly.
“No one tells me these things. All
I did was fly us over here. If
anything, that destroyer could have shown up at any time,” Andromeda said to
shake off the sudden sense of uneasiness that had settled upon her.
“To remain in orbit?”
Maharet pressed.
“Will you two stop that? There’s
quite a bit that we weren’t told, and the destroyer could be part of it.
Now stop trying to scare the bejeezers out of us and let’s get
going!” Tolian cut them off. Andromeda
had quickened her step to catch up with Tolian as they headed for the monorail
that would take them to town.
Gwynn’s Dispatch was an older building, easy to pick out amongst other
buildings that looked more modern and new. There
was a campy feeling about the place, and it also had a Mom and Pop feel to it as
they stepped inside. There were a
few spacers sitting off in the corner loudly discussing recent happenings in the
sector.
“Are you kidding? Even that
new Star Destroyer in orbit isn’t going to stop the pirate attacks.
The Empire’s lost three cargo ships in the past week alone.
There’s a crafty fellow leading those pirates.
I wonder if the Imperials are gonna try to stop him,” said the first
one.
“Oh, you know there’s no truth to that.
There was one pirate attack and the TIE fighters had chased ‘em off!
That Star Destroyer’s just on a stop over and is headed out to the
Rim,” said the second.
“Now, I heard there were two attacks and the Empire only lost one ship.
And that’s straight from a friend of mine who says he knows a pilot
that was in that Imperial cargo
fleet!” said a third.
“But freight in the entire sector has been slow.
The growing season on Coyn is over, nobody’s buying electronics out of
Torina…and Derilyn still being closed to most outside ships isn’t helping
much, either,” the first leaned back in his seat.
“Yeah, I noticed that Elrood Customs have been really tight, too.
I mean, tighter than normal. Maybe
it has something to do with those bombings at Radell’s mines,” the second
one said. At this point, Maharet had
stepped up to the counter and rang the bell for service.
From the back room emerged a sour, old looking man.
Maharet’s nose wrinkled for a moment as she smelled the sweat and lum.
He stopped short at the sight of so many people that were suddenly in
front of him, but he took long, hard looks at Gorr, Luse and especially the
shadow with the red glowing eyes.
“I take it you folks aren’t from around here,” the old man finally
found his voice. “Well?
What is it that you want? I’m
a very busy man! And while you’re
at it, fill out these forms. Do you
have or need cargo?”
“Are you Gwynn?” Andromeda asked.
“And what if I am?” he seemed to get a little defensive.
“We’re here to see
“It’s about time! Shondra
left his thing behind about a few days ago for you guys.
Just where the heck have you been?” Gwynn pulled out a small box out
from beneath the counter and set it down. He
carefully opened it and pulled out a data pad and laid a disk that was still in
its case down beside it.
“I take it you haven’t heard from her in a few days?” Tolian asked
casually.
“No. She hasn’t been in
to work at all. She’s been making
a run, so I haven’t heard from her in about a week or so.
She should be in any day now. She
drops by here every two weeks or so—she never keeps a set schedule.
She must’ve found something of real importance, or else she’s managed
to get herself into massive trouble again. Her
bounty has been put so high I’m nearly surprised that all the bounty hunters
in the galaxy didn’t drop what they were doing just to hunt her down and cash
in! But don’t you worry about
Shondra. She’s a big girl and can
take care of herself. Just you guys
remember that if ever you need any cargo hauled, that I’m the person to
call,” Gwynn let out a hearty laugh as if to chase the tenseness away.
“Not to worry. I’m sure
we’ll find her,” Tolian replied with a smile.
He took a moment to hand the data pad and disk to Zaron.
“Thanks, Gwynn!”
“Ah, don’t mention it,” Gwynn dismissed them with a wave of his
hand and returned to the back room. Zaron
was already messing with the data pad and was slipping the disk into it.
A red-haired woman’s picture had appeared, and she began to speak.
“A message to the infamous Black Hawks.
“If you run into trouble, forward a message to me, but be
discreet. There’s all kinds of
nosy people in this part of space, if you catch me.
Be careful because I don’t have the people to come in and save you if
you get into trouble. I’ve got my
own missions, so I may not be in for a while.”
Shondra’s image faded and the pad went blank.
“Looks like we’re on the case!” Maharet’s eyes had a kind of
shine to them.
The cab ride took longer than anyone thought.
The cab drove them into the heart of the city, where it was pristine,
clean, and posh.
The Radell Mining Corporation was located in a rather tall business
building that reached fifty stories, and no one in the lobby even bestowed them
a second glance except for the security guards who were checking ID’s and
asking security-type questions as they came walking through the door.
Tolian took a moment to glance at the directory, and proceeded to lead
them to the left where the turbo lifts were located, past a maze of statues,
holo-art and the sea of humans and aliens. No
one could help but notice that the Radell Mining Corporation’s logo was
splattered across nearly everything.
“Good afternoon. My name is
SE4-T25. You appear to be in
somewhat of a hurry. What floor
shall I take you to?” a servant droid stood ready at the turbolift controls.
“Twenty eight,” Maharet spoke up for the group.
“Twenty eight it is, very good. And
if you have any questions at all about our wonderful facility, feel free to
ask,” the droid keyed in the destination.
It seemed to take a long time to reach their destination, and there
seemed to be a collective sigh of relief as the doors opened and they were able
to step out. The office wasn’t a
very large one, but it was nicely furnished.
The luxurious look of the office made Andromeda almost afraid to touch
anything and she hung back with Kosh and Gorr.
The receptionist looked up from her desk and switchboard and eyed them
with heavy scrutiny. Her little eyes
were beady as she looked them over from over the top of her glasses, and her
expression looked like she was full of suspicion.
Her lips were pursed into a thin line, as if she were going to explode at
them.
“Yes? May I help you?”
she asked in a tone that seemed to say
“And just who the hell do you think you are?
What gives you the right to be here?”
Andromeda could feel her confidence return and took a step forward to
meet the woman’s attitude with a vengeance, but never got the chance even open
her mouth before a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
She was almost surprised to find that it was Zaron, not Uncle Tolian who
had stopped her.
“Yes. We have an
appointment with Mr. Jameth Todkal. Would
you please tell him that his old business partners from Keyorin are here?”
Tolian spoke up.
“Mr. Todkal is in a meeting at the moment.
Thank you for stopping by,” she said stiffly.
Andromeda wanted so badly to get in the woman’s face, but Zaron’s
hand was still on her shoulder and he still had a warning look in his eye that
warned her not to push the situation.
“Believe me, my dear lady, but this is a matter that cannot wait,
meeting or not. Please get a hold of
Mr. Todkal immediately and tell him that we are here,” Tolian kept his voice
level. Andromeda could tell that
this woman was driving him up a wall.
“Bernice! What the heck’s
going on out there?” a voice called. A
young businessman came out of one of the offices and came to the desk.
“Mr. Todkal, I told them you were in a meeting, but they
wouldn’t—” she began to rattle off.
“Who are they?” he demanded.
“We’re your old business partners from Keyorin,” Andromeda blurted,
unable to keep quiet any longer. Jameth
Todkal’s face seemed to show a start of surprise, but then it was replaced
with a genuine smile.
“Good! You’re finally here! I’m
so glad you could make it. Please do
come on in. Bernice, some coffee and
donuts for our guests!” he ushered them inside a Spartan conference room.
A dark wooden table surrounded by a score of mauve chairs dominated the
chamber. There was a window where a
wall would have been, showing a wonderful view of the park and the great city
beyond. Bernice threw him a sour
look on her way out and Andromeda threw back a sour one of her own as if to take
up a challenge.
“Please. Have a seat.
Make yourselves comfortable,” Jameth offered.
They were all barely seated before Jameth began to speak again, very
fast.
“As you already know, my company has entered into an agreement with
your Rebel Alliance. This is due to
the actions of a company called Imperial Mining, Ltd.
IML recently started a ‘corporate’ war against us.
IML-sponsored agents had sabotaged our facilities, attacked our scout
ships, and in the last two weeks three separate facilities have been bombed.
Security is tight here because we fully expect another bombing, possibly
right here at our headquarters. IML
has close contacts with Moff Andal, so our requests for and investigation into
these incidents have been ignored.
“We’ve lost almost all of our scouting crews.
Our agreement with the
“The first
“Bernice, please send Parek in.”
“Grey Griffins? I
understand they’ve made quiet a name for themselves,” Zaron said.
“Parek and I here have been discussing when you’d ever show up.
You guys came highly recommended from Shondra.
You guys must be really good to get a rave review from
“Good day to you, Black Hawks. I
am Parek of the Grey Griffins,” he introduced himself to them.
“Unfortunately for my team, our ship the Whisper
was attacked by pirates and my team was taken captive.
I was the only one of my team that was left behind.
They left me with their ransom demand of two hundred fifty thousand
credits. In order to find this
planet called Alluuvia, you must find our ship because of the coordinates
already in the computer. We had
actually found a successful series of jumps that navigate through the Drift.
Great Drift is mostly unexplored space, and to try and get a new course
from scratch could take weeks. By
then the Imperials could have a rig set up on the planet and have the legal
rights to it. To get to Alluuvia,
the Whisper must be found.
I might suggest going into the Drift, since that’s where the pirates
went. Chances are you’ll find the
Grey Griffins, the Whisper, and
you’ll be able to reach Alluuvia before the Imperials do,” Parek said.
Jameth was about to add a few comments of his own when there was a
piercing wail of an alarm along with video screens jumping to life and intercoms
turned on. A rough looking character
was staring into the camera.
“Good afternoon, employees of Radell Mining Corporation!” his voice
blared. “I am Adair Koryunt!
You don’t know me, but boy, do I have a wonderful surprise in store for
you! I have just placed a bomb
somewhere in this building! It will
be going of in about thirty minutes and it will level the place.
Don’t try to find it, because you won’t.
I’ve got this place covered, however.
You can evacuate if you want. You can spend your last half-hour
looking—I don’t care! Bit if I
catch anyone trying to make like heroes, I’ll set it off!
That’s the only warning you’ll get!”
He signed off with a maniacal laugh.
“What, that’s it? He’s
not claiming responsibility for a terrorist group?
He’s not saying why he wants
to blow the place sky-high?” Gorr asked.
“He doesn’t need a real reason. He
could be hired by IML. He could be
one of those pirates. He could be
just off his rocker, for all we know. Maybe
there’s no bomb,” Jameth seemed to be poorly covering up his nervousness.
“If you’ll excuse me. I
have decided that I shall be helping with the evacuation.
Luck to you, Black Hawks!” Parek gave them a salute before running out
of the room.
“You want to just sit around and find out what happens in half an
hour?” Andromeda had leaped up and had followed Parek to the door already.
“If you were going to hide a bomb, where would you go first?”
“Start at the ground level and work your way up,” Jameth suggested.
“He said he was going to level the place.
I’d try there first.”
“We’ll start in the storage wing,” Zaron said and got up to follow
the others out. As they headed for
the turbo lifts, Bernice could be seen, trying to hide beneath her desk,
obviously in a state of panic. Andromeda
hurried by to keep from laughing outright at her.
It seemed to take forever to get down to the lobby again, since the lift
seemed to stop at nearly every floor. It
must have taken a good fifteen minutes to do it.
The waiting part had everyone’s nerves more on edge, realizing that
they maybe had about fifteen minutes left to find the bomb and get rid of it.
Receiving was looking unaffected and virtually empty aside from the
worker droids that were unloading skiffs.
“If it’s in one of these boxes, we’ll never find it in time,”
Maharet sounded a little worried. A
sense of frustration was evident as they scurried forward and hurriedly began to
search the nearest boxes. All the
while, Andromeda had the droids out of the corner of her eye, and noticed that
one was walking back and forth from a skiff with a box that it was not setting
down. She tugged on Luse’s sleeve
to get his attention and he noticed it as well.
They ran up to the droid to get a closer look and indeed, it was carrying
the same box to and from the skiff.
“Hey there!” Luse called to it. “Stop!”
The droid seemed to ignore the command, but another droid that was in
earshot had actually stopped. Andromeda
tried walking alongside of it in order to get closer to its electronic ear,
thinking that it hadn’t heard Luse.
“Stop and put the box down,” she ordered.
Still, the droid completely ignored her command.
“Kosh! Go and get security.
Zaron, I think you’d better get over here!”
“If anyone’s got any ideas,” Gorr invited as they surrounded it.
“If anyone smuggled a weapon in, now’s the time to use it!”
Zaron was rummaging around in his pack for something, and then he jumped
onto the droid’s back. He tried to
remove a piece of its metallic covering so he could get in and deactivate the
droid, but he was in for one heck of a shocking experience that threw him to the
ground, and before he could completely pull himself together and get out of its
way, the droid’s foot came down with a glancing blow to his head.
Andromeda’s hand flew to her mouth to smother a scream and she could
feel her anger rise up within her.
They had cornered the droid in a side bay by this time and Kosh had
returned with security, who had the place secured.
Andromeda scowled. What she
would have given for a blaster! She
had an idea. How hard could it be to
deactivate a droid? She’d
dismantle the thing, if that’s what it took.
She picked up Zaron’s pack that had fallen nearby and pulled out his
fusion cutter.
Gorr, in the meantime, had tried to rip the droid’s head off with no
luck. He got himself the same shock,
but managed to stay out of its way as it seemed to get angrier and more
determined in its task of holding onto its box.
Andromeda growled and leaped up onto it for her turn at it.
She had the fusion cutter on and set to work at cutting its arms off.
She was successful and the box with the arms still attached to it slid
gracefully to the floor. Andromeda
didn’t stop there. She proceeded
to finish the droid off by cutting off its head, which caused it to shudder to a
halt. If it wasn’t for the fact
that it was such a big heavy thing, she would have given it a final kick for
insult, but she knew that all it would have gotten her was a hurt foot.
Maharet made use of her claws and wasted no time in prying the lid off of
the box, and sure enough, there was a bomb inside with about six minutes left on
its timer.
“Looks like this thing’s gonna go off when this power pack runs
out,” Tolian said as he examined it. A
security guard was nearby with his blaster drawn for cover in case of Adair
showing up.
“Lemme have the power pack to your blaster and call out the bomb
squad!” Tolian instructed. The
security guard wasted no time and did as he was told.
It was a tense wait and no one said a word as Tolian and Maharet set to
work, quickly and delicately moving wires and making certain cuts.
The real tense moment came as there was a cut, a muttered “Oops” from
Tolian and an accelerated beeping sound, but with Maharet’s help, the beeping
sound slowed and even stopped. Tolian
spliced the wires from the new power pack to replace the old one.
No one felt safe until both Tolian and Maharet sat back away from the box
and breathed a sigh of relief. The
timer now read “59:59”, and it would stay that way for twenty-four hours
before starting to count down again. There
were great sighs of relief, and congrats all around.
“I thought I said no heroics!” a voice sounded exceedingly upset.
They turned to find the terrorist Adair standing there flanked by three
rough-looking characters. The
security personnel were lying scattered over the floor, either dead or just
unconscious. Gorr had a look of true
surprise on his face as did Tolian and the others, realizing that none were
aware of the battle that was taking place in the main warehouse.
“Now look at what you’ve done! Now
you’ll all have to pay! Go get
‘em, boys!” Adair motioned with his hand and six of them rushed out to get
them with blasters blazing.
Maharet used the shadows to sneak up to the enemy unseen and with a
single slash of her claws, one fell to the floor, dead.
Andromeda made use of the crates that were stacked in the middle of the
floor and used them for cover as she pushed them forward.
When she got close enough, she toppled it over, causing her opponent to
fall over and hit his head hard enough to lose consciousness.
She quickly grabbed his fallen gun and pointed it at another one of
Adair’s lackeys, who appeared out of nowhere and went down without a struggle.
Gorr was bold enough to try and simply take a gun from his attacker, but
wasn’t so lucky. He came away with
a nasty wound to the arm before Maharet came over to his aid and cut that one
down with her claws.
Andromeda picked off a shot at Adair, but the shot went wide.
The terrorist and his remaining two henchmen thought it would be better
to get out while they still could before more security arrived.
They had barely made it out to the street before a group of off-duty
Imperial Navy troops pounced on them and dragged them away.
Andromeda could feel her throat tighten for a moment and her breath come
short at the realization that the naval troops were dressed in civilian
clothing.
Maharet let out a victorious whoop of joy.
“Everyone alright?”
“Just fine from here,” Gorr replied.
“I’ll be right back. I’m
gonna go and finish kicking their butts!” Luse began to take off after them,
but Kosh stopped them.
“There’s no point. They
gave up. No need to pound it into
the ground further!” Kosh caught him by the arm.
Luse paused and reluctantly gave in.
“Besides that, we have a comrade who is hurt and is in need of our
assistance.”
Andromeda was already at Zaron’s side, trying to inspect his wound.
“He’s still breathing,” she announced.
“He’s in serious need of a Bacta tank.”
They were quickly surrounded by the Elrooden Police, who began asking
questions and looking for eyewitnesses. Jameth
quickly came upon the scene and stepped in.
“No need to question my employees, officers.
They were simply doing what they’ve been paid to do.
You have your mad bomber in custody already, so please do not harass my
employees!” Jameth said smoothly and directed the police out with no further
incident.
“Who’s got the medpac? Let’s
get Zaron stabilized so we can move him out,” Andromeda moved aside so someone
else could move in and work. Once
Jameth had learned what was going on with the team, he had called for a
paramedic himself and had Zaron transported to the Oracle Base, where the
medical center took good care of him. Parek
had also gone over to see how Zaron was doing and to give them a data pad that
had a general heading to Alluuvia on it and highly recommended that they follow
it. Jameth also was kind enough to
pay for all their expenses himself since they had saved thousands of lives
today. He even gave them all
supplies they would need and Zaron a get well card as he took the day to
recuperate in sick bay.
“However,” Jameth warned before leaving with Parek.
“Whatever you do, you need to ‘keep it legal’ since Radell Mining
will be held accountable for anything that you do.
Here’s an ident chip that says that you are all employees of Radell
Mining. You’ll need that for when
you return to Elrood so customs won’t be giving you any inspections or a hard
time. Good luck to you all and may
the Force be with you.”
Thankfully, Zaron wasn’t hurt seriously and all the glancing blow did
was take off part of his ear. Andromeda
couldn’t help but to razz him a little over his first battle scar.
Attitudes were light, but it would be work as usual come morning.
Back to The Hub
* Chapter 11 and subsequent chapters are based upon the module "Operation: Elrood", a game concept owned by West End Games, written by John Beyer, Chris Doyle and Anthony Russo. I wish to make it known that the game and/or story concept is not mine. This is simply written into readable story form of our adventures as we went through it, and that passages are taken directly from the module itself. Concepts of people and places are not mine except for PC's listed on previous page. I'm doing so because I thoroughly enjoyed the story and wanted to do this for entertainment purposes only--I'm not making any profits of any kind off of this. I'm just wanting to make clear that I'm giving credit where credit is due. Thank you.