Chapter 12  Into the Drift--The Scourge and the Grey Griffins

Andromeda couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief as the Moonshadow left the great star destroyer Brazen behind in orbit above Elrood.  Now they were in the Kidron System that was located on the edge of The Drift.  Luse had stayed behind with Parek to take care of certain business on Elrood.

            The Drift was known to be an immense stellar dust cloud that had most of the Elrood sector shrouded in mystery.  Navigating through it was a very tricky proposition, since most of it was unexplored space, full of uncharted asteroids, planetoids and other stellar objects.  Even on the edges of the drift had pockets of stellar gas that were beautiful to behold, but rendered the sensors useless.

            With the help of the data pad and disk that Parek had left them, they were able to make nine jumps successfully.

            The Moonshadow came out of hyperspace and emerged into a dense cloud of stellar gas.  Tolian was bent over the astrogation computer and announced that the last jump would take about sixteen hours.  He then began to busy himself with the calculations when the proximity alarm began to make an annoying noise.

            “What is it?  Can you see anything out there?” Zaron asked as he rushed into the cockpit.

            “Nah.  All I see is the gas clouds,” Andromeda as straining her eyes as she struggled to make things out through the cockpit viewport.

            “Well, something is out there,” Maharet said.  “It’s huge.  This thing’s gotta be at least eighty meters long!”

            “Is it a ship?” Andromeda had settled back into her seat, ready to take evasive action if necessary.

            “I don’t think so, but then, sensors are not doing so well here.  They’re saying this thing is made of carbon compounds and water, but there’s a small energy source at its center.  I just tried opening a hailing frequency, but all I’m getting is static,” Maharet reported from the sensors station.

            Suddenly, the large object slowly emerged from the gas clouds not more than two hundred meters in front of them.

            “Um, guys.  If you’re not up here already, get here!” Andromeda called.

            Not a word was said as everyone got a real view at the huge serpentine body.  It was a creature of some sort, with a sinuous, many-segmented body and a huge pair of gossamer wings stretching up from its back.  Its scales on his underside were silver, and the scales on his back were pale blue.  One of its wings appeared to have a tear in it.  The serpent’s eyes were open, but had that glazed-over look to them.  It didn’t move, but just drifted limply in front of the Moonshadow.

            “Wow.  A Duiniogwuin,” Tolian breathed.  “I didn’t know that they were real.”

            “A what-did-you-call-it?” Maharet spoke up.

            “A Star Dragon,” Tolian translated.  The group was silent as they gazed upon it, wondering if anyone else knew that Star Dragons existed.

            “He’s alive.  I sense hunger and death.  He’s dying of starvation,” Kosh said quietly.  “He’s force-sensitive.”

            “We should try and save him.  What can we do?” Maharet asked.

            “What does a Star Dragon eat? —I hope not people,” Zaron fretted.

            “I wonder how something that big could survive this deep into space?” Andromeda wondered.

            “Llellandra, bring us around.  I want to get the docking tube to his head.  Maybe if we give him a little air and some water and maybe fix his wing, he can get back to where he was headed,” Tolian said.  Andromeda did as she was told.  The docking tube was extended and the end of it fit perfectly over the Star Dragon’s snout, and he began to breathe in the oxygen that was coming from it.  Tolian had suited up and was giving the dragon some water as well.  After a few minutes, the dragon stirred and seemed to come back to life.

            “Thank you, Kind Travelers.  Without your assistance, I surely would have perished of starvation!” his deep voice sounded.  It was almost melodic and majestic sounding.

            “My name is Star Wing.  I live on the far side of this dust cloud and was trying to cross it, but lacked the oxygen to get through to the other side.  You’ve saved my life!”

            “You’re welcome,” Tolian murmured as he and Zaron moved out to go and fix his wing.  Star Wing took to the first aid without any complaints, happy that he would be able to return home without further incident.

            “I thank you, Kind Travelers!  I really cannot thank you enough!  I really do owe you one for saving my life.  Perhaps our paths will cross again in the future,” Star Wing spread his wings wide and with a mighty flap, the dust cloud had swallowed him whole, and he was gone again.

            “A story to tell the grandkids,” Andromeda said wistfully as she watched the dust swirling in the place that Star Wing had just occupied only a brief moment ago.  “So are we ready to go?”

            “It would seem so,” Tolian replied as he came back to take his place in the cockpit again.  He paused only to set the new coordinates into the nav computer and punched the button.

            It was nearly six hours later when there was loud thump followed closely by the hyperdrive alarms were heard.  Anything that was not bolted down went flying across the cockpit.

            “What the…?” Andromeda began as she looked out the viewport to see the starlines of hyperspace abruptly shift, reverting to pinpoints as the Moonshadow returned to real space.  The entire ship was pitching to the left uncontrollably and the whole cockpit was reverberating.

            Looking out the viewport, a huge container vessel was seen fleeing into the gas cloud.  A space barge lingered in the distance and four Skipray blastboats began to race toward the Moonshadow at top speed.

            “A gravity well!” Andromeda griped and let her fist hit the console.  “They’ve got themselves fitted with a gravity well!  Ten credits says that’s extremely illegal!”

            Before Andromeda was able to regain complete control over the ship, they all began to open fire!  She wasn’t even able to react when the controls were suddenly ionized and the ship was rendered helpless.  The Space barge was taking its own sweet time in extending a docking tube.

            “Get ready!  They plan to board us!” Andromeda called over her shoulder and reached under the seat for the blaster she had put there and strapped it to her hip.  “They’re not getting her without a fight!”  A gleam had come to her eye as she headed for the cargo bay with the others to lay in wait for the pirates.

            There were ten of them, armed to the teeth, and extremely confident that this ship boarding would be no more trouble than their last one.  Unfortunately for them, they had to take the turbo lift to enter the cargo bay from their docking tube and our heroes had the drop on them.

            Andromeda fired her blaster at two of them, knocking them both down to the ground.  Zaron also fired off a shot of his own and took down another one before he had a chance to even fire.  Kosh put on a show of his own with his lightsaber, slicing through three unlucky pirates.  Another unfortunate pirate lost his head to Maharet’s vibro-ax, and Gorr took one by complete surprise and literally ripped his vocal chords out.  Tolian fired off a shot and felled one more, leaving only one pirate left, who instantly surrendered without having fired off a single shot.

            “Ha!  Now who’s boarding who?” Gorr crowed triumphantly as he followed his comrades onto the space barge.

            The barge was huge, sparse, and mostly empty.  There were two pilots on board, but they never knew what was happening, and it was a very easy thing to take them out of the picture completely.  They split up to see if anything could be found or salvaged, but there was nothing.  The ship had been emptied in anticipation of filling it again with spoils and booty of their exploits, and the only thing found in the cargo hold was a few crates with the word Whisper painted on their sides.

            “Found something!” Maharet called joyously.  “Found the Whisper’s cargo!  Parek’s gonna be glad about that!”

            “But what about the Whisper itself and the Grey Griffins?” Andromeda asked.

            “Lemme check on that,” Zaron began to tap at the computer terminal.  In seconds, a smile had crossed his face.  It was obvious that he had found something.

            “Okay.  The pirates’ main base is on a planet by the name of Dega, and the missing Grey Griffins are being held there.  The Whisper is in the Korad System in possession of Slythor, who is a Squib crime lord.  I’ll just download the coordinates here to my data pad, put things back in their place and we can split,” Zaron pulled out his data pad and went to work while Tolian and Gorr moved the Whisper’s crates over to the Moonshadow’s cargo hold.

            “Looks like we’re headed for Dega,” Andromeda said decisively as she and Maharet began to head back for the Moonshadow.

            “What about our prisoners?  We should turn them over to the proper authorities,” Kosh said quietly.

            “He’s right,” Maharet agreed.  “Besides that, Dega is an easier jump when coming from Elrood.  It’s high time we left The Drift anyhow.”  Andromeda nodded in agreement and as Zaron finished up, and hurried back onto the Moonshadow.

            It was nearly fourteen hours later when Elrood was finally visible from the cockpit.  Tolian was dozing off in his seat.  Gorr was practicing shadowboxing.  Kosh was off meditating.  Maharet was sleeping.  Zaron was trying to mess with technical parts, while Andromeda was trying to bug him for a game of Sabacc or poker.

            Upon turning the pirates over to the authorities, it was learned that the pirates were from the infamous band called the Scourge, known to be the most terrifying and most dangerous pirates in the entire Elrood Sector and that Andromeda and the others were considered extremely lucky to have gotten away with their lives and their ship still intact.  That was an extremely rare occurrence.

            But the ten seconds in the spotlight was extremely short-lived as the team quickly gathered up their things, dropped off their prisoners and took off again, this time for the Dega System.

            “Hey, Zaron.  What did you pick up about Dega when you downloaded those coordinates?” Andromeda asked as she gently brought the ship down for a gentle landing.

            “Let’s see,” Zaron pulled out his data pad and began to tap on it.  “According to this, Dega was once owned and mined by Radell Mining because it was once a rich supplier of ore, but all the ore’s gone.  The place has been decimated and there are no natural resources left.  There’s little to no vegetation, and what little water there is has been poisoned by toxic chemicals.  If you plan on walking around out there, a breath mask is highly suggested because of the dust.  Your lungs will be killing you in about a few hours if you stay out in it that long.  On top of that, you’ll really have to watch your footing, because of all the unstable mining tunnels and shafts below the surface.  If anything, Dega is now used as criminal haven.  There’s probably bases and hideouts all over the place.”

            “It would appear that we’re being hailed,” Tolian indicated the comm board that was flashing and making a low beeping noise.

            “Do you think we’re found out?” Maharet said from behind Zaron.

            “Even if we were, I wouldn’t worry,” Andromeda smiled self-confidently and leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest.  Zaron threw her a worried glance, but didn’t comment.  Tolian only sighed and threw the switch.

            “Greetings, unidentified ship.  This is Iych-thae of the Ithorian shepherd ship Varnay.  I would like to have a few words with you down on the surface.  You might want to bring a breath mask.”  The message ended abruptly.

            “Doesn’t sound like pirates to me,” Maharet said.

            “I think it will be alright,” Kosh had appeared from behind them.

            “I feel better already. If the Jedi says it’s okay, it must be so!” Gorr gave his cheerful opinion on it.

            “Looks like we’re settled then,” Tolian indicated the viewport and they were able to see another ship land nearby.  It was probably about fifty meters in diameter, and it had many viewports on its hull.  Andromeda made a move to get her armor, since it had a built in breath mask in the helmet.

            On the surface, they were met by a rather tall Ithorian.

            “I am Iych-thae, a pilgrim of the Mother Jungle,” he introduced himself, his stereophonic voice sounding more rich and more deeper than it did earlier over the com.

            “And what is your purpose for this meeting?” Andromeda asked.

            “It is my duty and sole purpose to educate the galaxy about our most precious resources, and to leave untainted worlds alone.  Dega is just a mere example of what could happen when a world’s resources are simply squandered.  I and ten others like me have been traveling the Elrood Sector for the last few years, trying to get many to rally to our cause,” Iych-thae explained.

            “Well…” Maharet faltered.

            “At least hear me out,” the Ithorian almost pleaded.

            “Alright,” Zaron seemed interested.  Andromeda and Maharet exchanged glances, wanting to be on their way.

            “I know much about Dega,” Iych-thae began, instantly putting them at ease.   “Dega was once rich and beautiful, and very rich with bountiful resources.  Radell Mining came, and Dega began to suffer under its stewardship.  This is what happens when we do not care for our worlds, and when we take our precious resources for granted.  So tell me, friends.  What is it that brings you here to Dega?  You don’t appear to be a part of the Scourge.”

            “You’re right.  We’ve come looking for them, actually.  A rescue mission, you could say.  Could you tell us where they are?” Gorr asked.

            “Yes, but…” Iych-thae seemed hesitant.

            “What is it?” Maharet asked.

            “Do you have anyone else going with you?  A fleet, perhaps?  Do you know what you’re going up against?  That fleet is huge!  That Chalmer Trillili is definitely not a man to be messed with!” Iych-thae tried to discourage.

            “The leader, I take it,” Tolian said calmly.

            “Yes!  There’s at least six blast boats, a container ship, a space barge and who really knows whatever else!  Several ships did leave a few days ago and haven’t returned, but who knows whatever has stayed behind, and who knows when they will return!” the Ithorian said excitedly.

            “How far?” Andromeda asked.

            “Just over that ridge, if you insist on going!” he threw his hands up in surrender.  “Here.  Here’s the frequency you’ll need to tune in to in order to find them.”  He handed them a small data pad.

            “Thank you.  Much luck to your mission, Iych-thae,” she replied and moved to go.

            “And much luck to you!  Just remember what I said!” he called after them as they began to pile onto their ship.

            Andromeda wasted no time in getting the Moonshadow off the ground.  Tolian used the information on the data pad and tuned into the Scourge frequency, and they found it in no time.

            It was deep inside a crater in the southern hemisphere, about 500 meters deep into the ground and Andromeda had no problems setting the Moonshadow down at the bottom.  As they disembarked, they were able to look around and see that there were mine shafts that led away from the main one they were in, and there was a blast door in the opposite wall.  Zaron did the honors of unlocking it and having it open to whatever lay beyond.  They all drew their blasters and quickly took off down the passageway.  Tolian picked the lock on the next door, which led into the barracks.  They had all barely gotten inside when six pirates came from out of nowhere and began to attack.

            Andromeda fired off a shot but missed completely as her target cleanly dodged her.  Zaron was luckier, drilling an unfortunate pirate in the head, killing him instantly.  Kosh had already taken on to stuns and ducked into the nearest door, which was the computer center.  Maharet was using her claws, wreaking havoc of her own, killing another pirate, sneaking around and wounding another.  Tolian tried to pick one off with his blaster, but he missed just as Andromeda did.  Gorr was busy trying to engage another in hand to hand.

            Tolian saw one of the pirates take aim at him and despite his effort to dodge, couldn’t do it and felt the stun bolt hit him in the arm.  Another tried to do the same thing to him, but missed.  Andromeda was a little luckier in getting out of harm’s way as two pirates shot at her and missed.  Zaron began to fire off some shots, but only managed to stun one of the pirates.  Tolian moved to remove his vibro blade from his scabbard, but it got stuck.  Gorr tried to hit one upside the head but hit his opponent’s helmet by accident, hurting his hand.  Maharet killed another one, taking his leg off.

            Tolian decided to duck out of the fight, since he seemed to be having some bad luck, but his luck seemed to take a turn for the worse as he ducked into another room and found himself face to face with a huge, mountain of a man.  There was no doubt in his mind that this was Chalmer Trillili.

            Meanwhile, the fight still raged on outside.  One of the pirates was foolish enough to try shooting at Kosh at point-blank range.  Kosh had ignited his light saber and deflected the bolt with considerable ease, almost smiling as he did so.  Andromeda fired off another shot with her blaster, downing another pirate, who didn’t appear to be moving.  Zaron was shooting into the crowd, not hitting anything, but definitely creating more confusion.  Gorr had given up on trying to use a blaster and was putting those fighting skills to use, punching the daylights out of other poor pirate.  It seemed to be all over in an instant.

            Back in Chalmer’s room, Tolian was not having the best of luck.  They were engaged in a vibro-blade duel—or would have been if Tolian was able to remove his from the scabbard it was stuck in!  Tolian tried his best to dodge out of the way, but wasn’t quick enough and came away with a nasty cut on his shoulder.  Just when the situation was beginning to look hopeless for him, in burst Kosh on the scene with light saber humming.  Chalmer didn’t say anything but tried to defend himself against Kosh, and found that he lost his head over the whole thing.

            “All clear!” Kosh announced and moved aside to let the others in behind him.

            “Uncle!” Andromeda exclaimed as she helped him up.  “Are you alright?”

            “I’ll be fine,” he said as she helped him into a chair.  Kosh was already looking tend to the wound.

            “Wow!  Look at what I found!” Maharet’s voice came from the center of the room.  She was bent over a hole in the floor and was removing things from it.

            “Guns, loot, and all kinds of stuff!  There’s quite a sum of money here, too!  Shall we divvy?” she asked as she began to count it out.

            “What, he kept his valuables in a hidden sock?” Zaron joked.

            “In a manner of speaking,” Maharet smiled as she finished with her counting.  “Wow!  There’s enough here for each of us to have a thousand credits each!  We’ve done well.”

            “We would do even better if we could find the Grey Griffins,” Kosh quietly reminded them.  They all agreed and they continued on through the mineshaft.  It took a little effort, but the heavy door was opened into a larger portion of the mining cavern.  It was of a pretty good size and virtually empty.  A suspended platform hung from the ceiling about 60 meters above their heads.

            “My guess would be is that we have to find a way of getting up there,” Gorr said as he studied it.

            “My other guess is that we’ll have to deal with that thing first!” Maharet began to back up a little as a huge Oskan Blood Eater began to charge at them, seeming exceedingly hungry.  It seemed exceedingly huge as well, with its huge claws and its head that looked more like a huge maw, if anything.  Zaron guessed it to be at least twelve feet in height.  Along with its being hungry, it was going into a real frenzy at the sight of dinner and it smelled the blood from Tolian’s earlier wound.

            Andromeda reacted the way she usually did, with guns blazing.  She only managed to stun it, slowing its attack, but thanks to Zaron’s careful aim, the blood eater fell to the floor, definitely not moving.  A sigh of relief could be heard, and some movement could be discerned from the platform above.

            Andromeda took aim with the wrist-grappler she had on and hoisted herself up and onto the platform with a joyful “I found them, guys!  Come on up and help me!  They aren’t doing so well!”

            “Oh, thank goodness!  We thought we were dead!  Parek—is he alright?” a woman tried to walk to her but couldn’t.

            “Yes.  He’s alright.  As a matter of fact, he sent us on over to get you guys.  Don’t try to move.  Let’s try to help you out first,” Andromeda helped the woman to sit and removed her binders.

            “I’m Valera, and this is Dunston.  The Sullistan here is Oro Otel.  We haven’t eaten or had anything to eat in days, I think,” she said as Andromeda removed the others’ restraints.

            “Let’s just work on gettin’ you all outta here!” Andromeda worked as quickly as she could.

            “But just who are you guys?” Valera asked.

            “We’re the Black Hawks.  We work in the same organization as you do,” Andromeda replied.

            It was easy to get them off of the platform once Tolian discovered how to lower it.  With a few med-paks, some food and water, the Griffins were ready to go.  They high-tailed it back to the Moonshadow and wasted no time in taking off again.

            There was much rejoicing once they had returned to Elrood.  There was an emotional reunion between the rescued Griffins and Parek.  Parek couldn’t thank them enough, and was happy to have his team back.  As happy as things were, the Black Hawks couldn’t stay long to celebrate.  They were anxious to find the Whisper before anyone else did.  Parek understood.  The Black Hawks bid their farewells and headed back to their ship again.

            “I just love it when part of a mission goes well!  I feel like a super hero of some kind.  Our work here is done,” Andromeda joked as they headed back.  “I just hope the rest of this mission goes just as smooth.”

            “You call that smooth?” Gorr said.

            “Sure that was smooth!  I haven’t had to do any major repairs to the ship this time around.  We actually went somewhere and came back again without any major problems!” Zaron was pleased.  Maharet sighed heavily.  Tolian only smiled at the joke but muttered something under his breath that no one caught.

            “Are we ready to go?” Tolian asked as he bent over the nav computer.

            “Ready,” everyone chorused.

            “Then it’s off to Korad!”

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* 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.