Star Wars: RSO

Second session report of our "Requiem for the Golden Sun" scenario, powered by Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. After a first "getting into the situation" session, the team picks up the small blond man's trail and discovers that the hunter can also become the prey...

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Emergency room

Diana, Nolan and Kejar take advantage of their cover in the hospital world to try to find out whether Aaren is - or was - among the facility's patients. Nolan had already noticed that the oxygen canister reserves were almost empty: a trace of the small blond man? Diana, for her part, reviews the entirety of the patients over the last few weeks. This considerable task earns her a fruitless return, for nobody matches Aaren's description.

Meanwhile, TRCJ and Galrow decide to identify the origin of the signal of the message Aaren sent to Kejar. Lacking the necessary faculties themselves, they choose to tail the Twi'lek from the HoloCafé when she gets off work. When she feels followed, she hurries towards her destination: unlucky for her, TRCJ manages to overtake and subdue her. She struggles, tries as best she can to draw her abductors towards the Republican garrison, but finally yields to their "request" when Galrow simply explains that he wishes to make use of her know-how. She complies: after a few minutes of work, she manages to discover that the interplanetary relay station that dispatched the signal is nearby, in the current sector. She also thinks that the message was sent from a HoloCafé, without knowing exactly which one. Armed with this information, Galrow gives her a few credits for her help, but TRCJ sneaks up behind her to assassinate her - a way to prevent her from talking to the authorities. Through the strength of despair, the Twi'lek manages to free herself. She runs and screams, before collapsing to the ground, struck down by a heavy blaster shot from TRCJ. Misfortune does not fail to strike our two rogues, as a Republican patrol was passing by: it immediately challenges them and grants little trust to the excuse stammered out by the duo, according to which the Twi'lek had stolen 50 credits from them. The patrol calls the medical center in the vain hope of saving the Twi'lek, before taking the suspects in.

To complete this ironic picture, Nolan is sent to recover the body and bring it to the morgue. In doing so, he learns of his comrades' fate, incarcerated until the investigation's outcome. Diana volunteers to plead their cause, claiming that Linda Garvik could vouch for their good conduct until the end of the investigation. Having taken her testimony, the Republican soldiers agree to release the suspects the next day, for the duration of the investigation. The Diana and Nolan duo take advantage of this pause to rent a decent hotel room and get a night of rest, while their comrades experience a less peaceful slumber.

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Rescue

The next morning, TRCJ and Galrow are released. The reunited group inspects the HoloCafés, until finding the one from which Aaren sent his message: according to the front-desk manager, the small blond man reportedly burst into the café without talking to anyone, paying his way with a heavy blaster, before leaving the premises a few minutes later. The camera recordings seem to indicate that he came from the squalid refugee camp located not far from there. Nothing more is needed for the group to make the rounds of the neighborhood, trying along the way to attract the attention of any suspicious characters who may have been following them all this time...

This little stroll proves more fruitful than they initially thought: besides the Bothan Nolan had spotted at the Cantina, another person seems to be on the lookout. A woman, glimpsed briefly through the grimy bay window of a sixth-floor apartment in a building nearby. When Diana crosses her gaze, the busybody promptly leaves her field of vision, as if she had something to feel guilty about. Diana and TRCJ choose to head straight for the building, while Galrow chases after the snooping Bothan. Nolan, for his part, takes the opportunity to search the refugee camp.

• Galrow, nimble as any good Wookiee, tracks down and catches up with the Bothan without difficulty. A short exchange of rudenesses makes it clear that the Bothan was part of one of the previous waves of candidates, rejected by Diana. Out of frustration, he looked into the one who could have become his employer and seems convinced that Linda Garvik has some obscure designs for which she manipulates the weak-minded. Galrow decides to bring the snoop back to his colleagues, but the latter calls a Republican patrol to the rescue. Our Wookiee then tears off his wrist computer and makes off.
• Diana and TRCJ burst into the building and climb up to the floor where the suspicious woman was seen. They arrive in a small cold corridor, connecting two apartments. While Diana's calls remain unanswered, TRCJ pushes the door panels open by hand. The apartment seems empty, except for the corpse of a certain Dónal Ove, slumped over his living-room table. A quick check on the HoloNet reveals that the man was killed several weeks ago - the smell confirms it, incidentally - and nothing seems to directly link him to Aaren and his colleagues. However, Diana discovers that a drawer of a dresser was modified with a false bottom: inside, precision heavy blaster rifle accessories. Military equipment, of excellent quality. Nothing more is needed for the group to suspect that this apartment is none other than a hideout from which the woman - the sniper - could watch Aaren's comings and goings. For what reasons? That remains to be discovered. The neighbor, a shy Trandoshan, refuses to talk to the duo, who agree rather to wait for the rest of the group on the spot before carrying on.
• Finally, Nolan ventures into the vast refugee camp. There he discovers a gaping hole leading to an improbable tunnel made of different layers of roads and concrete whose purpose was lost over the millennia. In every corner, refugees are scattered on the ground. This passage opens onto level 1,611, where the prospects of finding Aaren seem very slim. The return to the surface nevertheless allows Nolan to spot a kind of more or less hidden small passage, which opens onto a tiny room where a man lies on a respirator, fed by the oxygen canisters stolen from the hospital. He seems to have lost consciousness, his lifeless gaze desperately plunged into the void. Around his neck, Republican identification tags: Duke Galoé. Armed with this find, Nolan rejoins his colleagues in the vacant apartment.
• Meanwhile, Kejar contacts the team. At the hospital, he reportedly learned that two oxygen canister thefts took place over the last few weeks. The hospital's manager suspects one of his former employees, Miupo the Rodian, of being behind the thefts.

This information fishing proved rich in catches, which the group members digest little by little: Nolan uses the notes left by the Bothan (Jared Idrall) to try to understand who Linda Garvik really is. Judging by certain details of her companies' accounting, this name could conceal not a person, but an interest group active in the Outer Rim.

Back to the investigation: a search on the HoloNet indicates that Duke Galoé was a scout in the Republican army, before resigning almost five years ago. A few more efforts are needed to discover that Duke and Aaren were mentioned together in an article published on Bakura's public channel: the two of them reportedly joined a mercenary squad, led by a certain Decebal Vulpesco, a distant member of Bakura's royalty. The three men are accompanied by a woman, Xeli "Firefly" Netham, a trained sniper. The small photo accompanying the article confirms that Duke is indeed the man seen in the underground, that Aaren really is the man whose photo Linda Garvik circulated, and that the woman Diana saw in the apartment can only be Xeli.

Galrow offers to stand guard in the apartment, in the hope that Xeli will come back to retrieve her equipment. Meanwhile, TRCJ takes position in an apartment in the building across the street, while Nolan and Diana try to find Miupo. It is hardly difficult: Kejar tells them that the Rodian spends most of his time at the Lascivious Star, the famous night club run by a mysterious gang. They resolve to approach him as a black-market medical equipment reseller. The Rodian quickly takes the bait, for he was not waiting for a better occasion to get rid of his excess oxygen canisters: apparently, his "best customer" could no longer pay, and was even looking for a helping hand to dispose of them. Perfectly aware that said customer could be Aaren, Diana and Nolan offer to help. They call TRCJ and Galrow before leaving with Miupo and his two aspiring bodyguards towards a meeting point where the customer is supposed to be waiting for them.

The scene takes place in a dark alley of the sector. Aaren, for it is indeed him despite a significant malnutrition and a moth-eaten coat, begs Miupo to give him the remaining oxygen canisters. His attitude oscillates between supplication and threat. Galrow steps in and struggles to block the small man, who suddenly becomes enraged. No sooner said than done, TRCJ disorients him with a stunning blaster shot, while Galrow lands him a violent slap, opening the way for Diana to drive a paralyzing syringe into his jugular. Aaren sinks into unconsciousness onto Galrow's shoulders, who carries him off towards Nolan's ship. Unfortunately, no sooner has the group reached the main street than a Blaster Rifle shot nearly hits Aaren in the head. Galrow and he owe their lives only to Nolan's heroic intervention, who throws them to the ground with a sudden and surprising surge of testosterone. In an equally surprising flash of genius, the Wookiee determines the shot's origin: an apartment in the heights, from which he glimpses Xeli hesitating to fire again. Instead, she triggers a stealth shield - shielding her from all sight - and flees by climbing the nearby scaffolding. Determined not to let her get away, Galrow grabs the heavy blaster rifle Miupo left behind in his flight and fires blindly. He then rushes to the apartment, where he smells the odor of charred flesh: his shot hit home, but that did not prevent Xeli from making her escape all the same. Revenge to be taken.

This hard day's work ends when the group loads Aaren and Duke onto Nolan's ship. Aaren is tied up, gagged and bound. As for poor Duke, his health diagnosis remains to be established.