Date: Fri, 21 Jul 1995 16:24:35 -0400
From: Jmedinadk@aol.com
Subject: dfch1pt4.txt for DIR.Stories

This is a work of fan fiction.  But if you like what you read,
gimme a buzz at jmedinadk@aol.com and pass the text around.

This continues my account of the first adventure of my Second
Edition Star Wars RPG campaign, featuring characters created by
my players Frank Shaw, Marc Ford, Holly Jones, Alan Polcen, and
my wife Jamie Lawson.

A special tip of the stormtrooper helmet to the authors of WEG's
1st Edition module "Tatooine Manhunt," Bill Slavicsek and Daniel
Greenberg.  The freighter _Alabak's Gold_ from that module
figures prominently in my campaign, and the players used it here.

Time for punch up "Inner City" on the CD player....

                         STAR WARS:  DARK FALL
               Chapter 1--Stars Crossed At Ensakura, Part 4
                        Written by Joseph Medina


     Many vessels travel to Ensakura, the fourth planet of the
star system which bears the same name.  It's a common sight, as
on this particular day, to see swarms of freighters circle the
green and cloudy white orb of Ensakura.  So when the Mon Cal
freighter _Alabak's Gold_ punched its way out of hyperspace to
appear thousands of kilometers away, no one gave it a second
glance.  Except for a few suspicious looks from Imperial customs
officers, the _Alabak's Gold_ landed on Ensakura, taking a
docking bay at North Koevur Spaceport, without drawing much
attention to itself.  To the planet at large, it was just another
tramp freighter.

     Once the docking fees were settled, Dorian Sailbourne led
her comrades out into the streets and crowds.  Instead of her
usual flight suit, Telia wore a grey jumpsuit and robes darker
and more plain than Dorian's, but otherwise a similar cut.  R2-D4
rolled behind her, chirping excitedly at the new surroundings,
mewing nervously at the occasional Imperial guard.  In his usual
flamboyant gear, Redbeard kept the Ewok near him as they all
walked into town, where they were welcomed by a panorama of
verdant mountaintops and clear blue seas.

     "Any idea where we can find our missing man?" Telia said to
Dorian.

     "I'm not sure.  I've tried to see where he is, but I haven't
gotten anything really useful."

     Telia looked at her mentor closely and lowered her voice. 
"You can do that?"

     "Oh, yes.  At times, it's more difficult than others.  When
I joined the Rebellion, I met another Jedi who'd been hiding for
years just as I was.  He taught me a few things about the Force
before we lost touch.  Farseeing was one of them.  Sort of his
specialty."

     "So what did you see?"

     "So far, just thick green forest.  Which this planet has
plenty of.  It reminds me of my homeworld in some ways."

     Redbeard stepped up beside them.  "Let's just hit one o' th'
more col'rful dives we can find.  Use some street smarts to find
our boy."

     "I hate to agree with him, but he's right," Telia said with
a grin.  "If his...ship is still in bad shape, he'll need tools,
spare parts, stuff like that.  And quietly, if he doesn't want
anyone to know he's here."

     "Ah'll see what I can dig up."

     Dorian nodded at him.  "You do that.  We'll keep ourselves
busy."

     "Sure."  Telia patted the mulberry-plated dome of her R2
'droid.  "As long as we have to wait, we can get Artoo some more
software.  What'd you think of that, Artoo?"

     Artoo rang like a bell, letting out a peal of beeps and
whistles.

     Telia smiled to the others.  "I think she's in the mood for
some technical data."

     "How can y'tell?" Redbeard said.

     "I've had Artoo for years.  After a while, I got the knack."

     Redbeard stopped to ponder this, rubbing an itchy spot in
his namesake as crowds of tourists in elegant, brightly colored
robes and spacers in weathered flight jackets walked past him. 
He shrugged to himself, then went to work.

     His sartorial taste made secrecy difficult at best.  After
all, he was in his own man and was hardly interested in subtlety. 
But what talent and criminal know-how he had, he used.  He
swaggered his way around all the seedy dives he could find in
North Koevur and let all the local riff-raff pretend they didn't
know anything.  Then he waited for them to send a message to a
falsified HoloNet account.  If someone else wanted a low profile,
let _them_ do all the work, he figured.

     As soon as he got a reply, he caught up with the rest of the
team, filled them in, and led the way to the meeting place
described in the message.  They rented a landspeeder and rode
into town, slowing to a stop on the opposite side of the dust-
coated street to watch the entrance of the meeting place.

     Telia frowned at the lumpy concrete two-story box across the
street.  "This place isn't a dive.  It's a crater."

     "A bar like any oth'r," Redbeard said.

     From her place in the back seat of the rented speeder, Artoo
chortled a few computerized chords.  At Redbeard's quizzical
glance, Telia told him, "She said you should knowing, if her
spectroanalysis of your breath is anything to go by."

     Redbeard shrugged and grinned.  "Ha har!  That's me a'right. 
Ah'll go in first 'n' see whoever our boy is.  Ah'll bet it's
some Rodian cutpurse.  Lotsa talk around here about him."

     "Then you and me can go in separately," Telia said to her
mentor.  "We can cover the whole room and watch his back."  Artoo
chimed in with a whistle.  "Her too."

     Dorian nodded and said nothing as Redbeard jumped out of the
landspeeder, bid them farewell with a flourish of his hand, and
sauntered into the cantina.  She only gave him a smile and waited
several minutes before she smiled at her pupil, took the
fidgeting Ewok by the hand, and followed him in.

     After hauling Artoo out of the speeder and onto the street,
including a failed attempt to levitate her, Telia and her droid
also went into the silent smoke-laden room.  The droid waited at
the doorway for a droid detector or a barhand to start complain-
ing about her presence as Telia went deeper into the room.  Telia
wrinkled up her nose at the dank, musty smell of the smog bank
that swam through the room, obscuring light sources as well as
the faces of the patrons.  She could barely make out their
humanoid shapes, but easily recognized the holstered weapons at
their belts.  Telia went to the bar to order a drink and watched
Artoo orbit around the perimeter of the room, neither one
garnering much attention.

     Dorian was at the other side of the bar, resting a hand on
the Ewok's shoulder as it bounced in place.  After taking
occasional sips from her drink, she walked past Redbeard's table
where he was already engaged in a conversation with someone Telia
couldn't see through the mist.

                                           *          *          *

     As Redbeard suspected, it was the Rodian thief he'd heard
about.  He looked at the Rodian with a smirk, and sent an
appraising glance at the third-rate translator box which the
thief had just put on the table between them.

     Sometimes underworld scum used translator devices as a
distraction to give them a chance to reach for a blaster while
some poor sucker is busy watching the readout.  Redbeard kept an
eye on the Rodian's suckered hands.  He'd already been stung by
that trick.  If the Rodian really wanted him to know something,
he shouldn't mind saying it twice.

     "Yer Kemgek, ah presume.  There's lotsa talk about you. 
Saying yer th' man tah talk to."

     Kemgek jabbered sweetly, chuckling.  His translator printed,
"I am the man all right.  If I don't have what you want, I can
tell you who does...but only if I get a cut."

     "How'bout starfight'r hardware?  Weapons, hull patches?"

     As Kemgek chattered in his native sing-song, his translator
printed:  "That kind of hardware are hot items these days.  More
expensive than usual."

     "So ah heard.  But then yeh can't believe ev'rything yer
told."

     "Then why are we speaking at all?"

     Redbeard smirked again, first at the translator, Kemgek's
wandering hand, then at Kemgek himself.  "Maybe ah was hankerin'
for some good readin'.  Either yeh got sumthin' tah sell or yah
don't."  He rose as if to leave, producing a quick burst of
information from the Rodian and his box.

     "Interested in weapon systems?  How about concussion
missiles, eh?"

     Redbeard sat down again.  "Ah'm listenin'."

     "I have a few left over from a deal that wasn't as lucrative
as I planned."

     "Ah could take 'em off yer hands."

     "You could," wrote the translator box.  "But I'm not
desperate enough to give them to you for free."

     "How much."

     "Two thousand."

     "Ah don't think so.  Six hundred."

     "For that much, you could buy them anywhere."

     Redbeard shrugged.  "One kay."

     "A good start.  Fifteen hundred is better."  When Redbeard
rolled his eyes, the Rodian spread open his thin, suckered
fingers and jabbered.  "But your price would be good...if you
bought enough of them," the translator offered.

     "Ah'll think it ov'r.  If yeh don't hear from me tomorrow,
ah probably moved on."

     Kemgek said nothing, glaring at him with its stone-like
black eyes, then purring a reply.  "I can wait for this.  But the
price might rise if you wait too long."

     "Fair enough."

     "Clear skies, human."  Kemgek nodded to Redbeard, taking his
translator box off the table as he left.

     Telia crossed the room with drink in hand, taking her time
before she sat at Redbeard's table.  "How'd it go, big spender?"

     "Real cagey fella, that one.  But ah got some info outta
him.  He says he's got a bunch o' concussion missiles that he
couldn't sell.  Sounds like our boy couldn't get much on Alliance
pay."

     "Aw, come on.  They hardly pay anyone at _all_."

     "That's what ah mean."

     Telia looked past Redbeard's shoulder, getting a glimpse of
the back of Dorian's greying head.  "Pick up anything?"

     Dorian nodded and spoke softly.  "A few things, but not much
from him.  He doesn't know anything about our man.  But he knows
a young woman who recently bought shield generator components
from him.

     "And something else.  This Kemgek has some kind of imprint
on him.  Something that stirs faintly in the Force."

     "Great," Telia sighed.  "Does it mean he's a Force-
sensitive?  Could he have sensed us?"

     Dorian shook her head.  "It's definitely an imprint, as if
he's been close to a powerful surge in the F--"

     A loud growl and an electric squeal interrupted.  They all
turned their heads to see their green-hooded Ewok, a lizard-faced
humanoid, and one of R2-D4's telescoping metal arms wrestling for
the same piece of syrup-coated fruit.  Dorian and Telia groaned,
raising their hands to their eyes almost in unison.  Redbeard
took the opportunity to swipe what was left of Telia's drink
before he was off like a shot, toward the fray.

     Seconds after the outburst, a shadow flew over the door of
the cantina, followed by the dying whine of repulsorlifts
powering down and a squad of Imperial stormtroopers bursting into
the cantina.  When the stormtroopers surrounded the combatants
and the intervening redhaired pirate, covering them with their
blaster rifles, Telia jumped to her feet.  Dorian's hand latched
onto Telia's wrist, tightening beyond the point of comfort as an
Imperial officer in a dark uniform entered.

     "Dorian, I won't do anything, just let go--"

     Dorian pulled her closer, whispering.  "That man, the
Imperial officer.  He has the same Force imprint on his body. 
And it's stronger!  Someone--or something--on Ensakura must have
a profound effect on the Force!  We've got to find it!"

     "Sure," Telia said, "if Redbeard and that Ewok don't get us
arrested!"


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