LogDeniable Asset-Jason-21

Game log for the 2025/05/11 session of Star Wars - Deniable Asset, as taken by Jason

The Alderaani celebrate having a freighter go down, while the Nerrix corporation people publicly assure everyone it was an accident and they'll be taking safety precautions. Helenta Vox tells us that behind the scenes, Nerrix people know the truth, and they're very concerned. Montage! Con comes up with a plan to sabotage the gas mining equipment in a way that will reduce production and be hard as hell to repair. Gar helps the Alderaani through security. TL-DR talks to the Gand to get them on our side. Igli provides inter-city transportation. Phex scouts holes in security. Mylla mans the turrets.

Con's scheme fails to wreck as much equipment as he hoped, but it does contaminate a lot of gas, so production will be somewhat reduced this quarter, and some increased capital spending to repair it. Gar's scouting enables the Alderaani to execute the plan without anyone getting caught. TL-DR finds that the Gand already face some discrimination from the human owners of Nerrix, and they can be persuaded to help the Alderaani change the system. Igli moves people around successfully, spreading anti-corporate activity across the planet. Phex's scouting mission leads him to a Rodian security guard who can be bribed. Unfortunately he's working both sides.

Phex meets with fellow Rodian Herbo Zofat for a drink. He's heard that a transport full of Nerrix corporate security will be arriving in a couple days, to help put an end to all this sabotage and outcry. Apparently corporate shareholders are on edge. These new "security folks" are contacted security, and bringing them in has cost the company a lot. Quite a few of the incoming freelancers are former ISB. Helenta Vox confirms some of the rumors and says the ship is expected in two days. It's a Consular-class light assault cruiser. That's too large for us to take on... until Gar suggests that maybe we could improvise a one-shot antiship weapon to even the odds. TL-DR convinces his Gand friends to steal some explosives for us, and Phex and Gar help move it through security. Con turns it all into a bomb, and does so well enough that it's actually more powerful than a photon torpedo. Igli and Mylla boresight it and get the Deniable Asset trimmed out so that it can still maneuver with this space AIM-174b. We had out to intercept the mercenaries with just hours to spare.

Gar's plotted intercept point turns out to be just a little off. They jumped farther out than expected, which puts the Asset out in front, where their heaviest weapons are. Con immediately jams their comms, and Igli punches the Asset's engines and lunges us forward from a standstill to speed 4 in one brutal burn. Gar angles deflectors and lays out the vector for Igli to fly, and TL-DR tries to coordinate fire. Unfortunately Igli's accelerating so fast that the fire control system keeps rejecting his inputs. Igli misses with the improvised torpedo, but he gets it close enough that it locks on and circles around. Phex's fire hits their shield generator before their shields even go up, and Mylla's fire also hits their shield generator. The torpedo circles back and hits the transport, but does not score any critical hits.

Con picks up a feedback spike in the transport's comm, suggesting something melting down. The transport's comms are down hard, so Con starts doing damage control. Igli cuts power and flips the ship end-for-end as the transports goes past. TL-DR is able to get a firing solution this time, and the Mylla and Phex keep up a brutal rain of laser fire. Con senses that TL-DR is suffering from trying to do all this while suffering from battle damage, runs to the bridge, and makes a hasty repair that clears the remaining droid's critical hit. TL-DR's attempt to provide fire discipline for the ship's turrets fails, notwithstanding. The Asset's next volley of laser fire hits the bridge and also the transport's engines. If the transport can't fix them, it's headed for a very bad outcome. Unfortunately, the transport starts launching a TIE Fighter. Con melts its comms as well. Gar angles shields toward the TIE. Phex tells Mylla to focus on the TIE while he bombards the freighter. Phex only does modest amounts of damage to the transport, but Mylla leads the TIE just right, and it turns into a very pretty firework. Another TIE launches...

Phex's fire on the freighter penetrates the hull and decompresses one compartment, and Mylla destroys this TIE too. Things on the freighter are not going well! Phex's next volley destroys the transport. It doesn't explode all at once, but it's breaking up while on a course to impact the planet. Scans of the wreckage reveal corpses in very Imperial-looking uniforms and the same caps the Imperial Navy wore. Long-range scans show response units coming out from the planet, and the Asset jumps to an uninhabited system to lay low for a couple days. Nobody in the system is able to track the ship's escape vector.

A couple days later, we jump back to Haslet. There's still some debric scattered around the place where the transport jumped in, and some salvagers looking into it. On our first request, landing permission is denied, because the port authority is closed. They cite "atmospheric conditions." However, we're eventually given permission with a diplomatic code, which suggests that someone is happy with us. Cryon Jebly meets the crew at the landing pad and says, "not here." Gar assures her that we have the asteroid scan data she requested. She expresses happiness to hear that and leads everyone to the embassy. En route, we observe rioting on the station. When we meet her, Vox seems extremely pleased. She shuts the door, Jebly performs a bug sweep (which they apparently do several times a day now). There's someone in the office we don't recognize, and when Igli asks, he introduces himself as Terek Henko, Ministry of Diplomatic Affairs liason. Anax Fez sends her regards, apparently. Henko does not seem real excited to meet us, but he does tell us that the Nerrix corporation has decided that the situation here is a liability, and that they'd like to divest themselves of the Haslet operation. That requires a shareholder vote. It's possible the vote might lead the planet out of corporate control, and the resulting independent planet might choose to join the New Republic. He'd love to have the crew (really TL-DR's) help crafting the message. Helenta shows TL-DR her draft, and the droid gives it a copyedit that makes it a much better message. She delivers a speech to the planet about self-determination, the rights of all sentient creatures, etc. The shareholder vote does, indeed, go toward divestiture, and Haslet becomes and independent planet. The New Republic is making some offers about aid and trade should Haslet sign up, which should help change some minds. Our success in this matter has also impressed some people in the New Republic. Henko requests the crew's transfer to the Almovar sector, where his number one priority is hunting down Harken the Ghoul. The crew loves this mission and is excited to be a part of it.