Each day or so I will post another piece of the back story to the ESC missions. SCs will receive mission briefing packages by pm at the appropriate times as the ESC nears. Tonight I will post part 2 and refresh everyone's memories about the gaming parameters.
Part I - An Important Discovery
"Enter" Arturus called from behind the desk in his office on board the VSD
Relentless.
"Commander Hargraves," the ensign said as he entered the office, "Captain Yarstore requests an urgent meeting for an intelligence briefing at your earliest possible convenience."
"Did the Captain mention the nature of the briefing ensign?"
"Negative sir, only that it was top priority."
"Very well ensign, inform the Captain that he may brief me in an hour in one of the secured briefing rooms. Dismissed"
"Aye Commander.
An hour later
“Attention!” one of the lieutenants in the room shouted as Arturus entered one of the refitted briefing rooms.
“As you were” he replied as he made his way to the head of the table. “You may begin Captain” he said with a nod. Captain Yastore, the man conducting the briefing, was the VENI officer in charge of intelligence gathering in the mid-rim on the other side of the galactic core.
“Thank you Commander” Captain Yastore replied. “Sir three days ago, we received feedback from two deep space intelligence probes we launched near the Ord Vaxal system. We had begun intelligence gathering near there to update our records; the last reliable information we had on the system was from the time of the Emperor.”
“Ord Vaxal used to be a prison planet and slave colony did it not?” Arturus interjected.
“Yes sir although the use of the past tense would be premature. Our intelligence gathering indicates that the planet is still the overrun prison colony it has been since before the rise of the Emperor, and that the Hutts continue to engage in an active slave trade.” The Captain continued.
“You say continue, the planet was under Imperial control, how as a slave trade run by the Hutts permitted in the first place?”
“After the Empire increased the defences on the planet with the fall of the Republic, the Imperial Moff in control of the sector and its defences, Adria Reyn, seems to have permitted the slave trade to continue by altering the planetary defences to give the Hutts a corridor of access to the planet. The reason for this corruption was never thoroughly investigated so we are unsure of why she cooperated with the Hutts in this way. Additionally, our information indicates that Moff Reyn is still in charge of the planet and her blockade fleet and planetary defences remain there.”
Arturus looked up from the holographic display the Captain had generated. “There are the remains of an old Imperial force still at the planet? How is it that it and the planet seem to be living in the past?”
“We have reason to believe that the colony was mostly forgotten sir. I say mostly, because our probes detected several quick communications bursts disguised as routine energy blips. Our people managed to begin to decrypt both the origin and the content of the transmissions. In addition, before they self-destructed, the probes began to build a record of ships to enter and leave the system and those that landed on the planet. We think that in addition to the Hutts, NRI may being using the planet as a prison planet of their own, and that they may have paid off Moff Reyn like we suspect the Hutts did although we cannot be certain on that point.”
“The Moff must be an old woman now”
“She’s in her seventies commander but still very much in charge as far as we were able to tell. Her fleet, well old and starting to fall apart, is also still together.”
“So basically Captain, you are telling me that we have an old prison planet guarded by a renegade Imperial Moff that may be back in use as a dumping ground only this time for NR Intelligence? I wonder if the NR high command knows of what their people are using this planet for, it goes against the very principles upon which they attacked the Galactic Empire.”
“Rebel scum have no principles Commander; their hypocrisy should not be surprising,.”
“Perhaps not Captain, but nevertheless, what you have found here may present us both with a propaganda opportunity to weaken support in soft pro-NR systems near us, as well as the chance to add desperately needed firepower to the defensive fleet. We need to figure out a way to get to Moff Reyn.”
“Most of those ships are probably in severe disrepair and the crews will be quite old now. They may even be down to skeleton crews.”
“Even if we only use the ships for spare parts it would be a boost. Besides, people we have, ship building takes time and is expensive. I want you to prepare a full report and action recommendations to be on my desk in six hours, I will personally visit the Admiral and brief him. This is a priority 1 project with the highest level classification. Also get me everything you can on Moff Reyn, her service record as a Moff, her political beliefs if any, any family and financial records that you can find, and anything else of use that can possibly explain her actions to this point or provide us with an opening to get her to change sides, assuming she has actually been turned. Get me your best assessment of who NRI may be sending to the planet, how long this practice has been ongoing, and anything else about NRI operations in the area that you can find.”
“Aye Commander” the captain responded, standing with the others as Arturus rose from his chair.
“Well done, dismissed”
“Thank you sir”
