2 ABY – 09 Golf – 1 Taungday (Pirin) A strange reverie has settled over the party members – a feeling as though they’d walked into the large centrifuge chamber a month ago and become lost in thought. [A month has in fact passed IRL since the last gaming session.] Shaking it off, they find themselves just inside the previously sealed pressure door of a partially flooded chamber. Murky liquid obscures the floor, and some tantalizing mechanism (an orb running on a track around the circular machinery in the center of the room) beckons them closer. Kantarra finds a 2-meter piece of pipe in the previous room to use in testing the waters – about 30cm deep to the smooth floor. Kantarra, Cheebs, and C4-BL3 venture through the water and note some ripples moving further in the room. The ripples stop and the party forges ahead. Cheebs’ cargo scanners pick up some interesting background readings, identified later as trace amounts of banderium in the water. Reaching the centrifuge’s central machinery, the group examines the 60cm diameter sphere that apparently orbits the centrifuge. C4-BL3 notes that it appears to still be pressurized with no obvious means of operating or depressurizing the sphere. Aware of C4-BL3’s noisy splashing while approaching the sphere, the group is nervous about the unknown threat apparently under the water nearby. They decide to vacate. Sealing the door behind them, they backtrack and approach the unexplored area to the NE.
Proceeding through a smaller room with a partly dismantled lesser centrifuge, they come to a powered blast door which C4-BL3 opens for them. Ahead they see a semicircular chamber with many now-familiar holes in its curved far wall, sized to accept the mysterious canisters of orange goo they found earlier. Another opening at floor level forms a passageway through the wall into another space – from which comes some now-familiar animal squeaks. Kantarra (wanting nothing to do with more rat-like creatures) abruptly turns around. As several rats start to boil through the opening and rush towards Cheebs & C4-BL3, the Duro pilot fires a shot at the creatures, managing to strike the first three of them with a startlingly accurate stun blast. He yells to C4-BL3 to close the door. But the comm droid falters, falling into his fantasy of being a battle droid. He brings up his heavy blaster pistol and fires a couple impressive-looking but entirely ineffectual blasts at the onrushing rats, which now pour around the bodies of their fallen brethren to left and right. Falling back to keep distance from the creatures, Cheebs yells “Kantarra!!” – who begrudgingly runs back to her comrades, blaster carbine at the ready, grumbling all the while about constantly having to save them. The Duro squeezes off an even luckier shot with Lorik’s special target blaster (now retrofitted with a laser sight), catching 4 more of the vermin with a single stun blast. Kantarra blasts a few more with her carbine, but a few manage to make it to the droid, piling on but failing to pierce his armored exterior. After nearly shooting himself (being overwhelmed by close combat), the droid blares forth bombastic synthesized music as he finally manages to blast the last of the vermin. He considers this a great victory. The party tosses the seven limp bodies (those that Cheebs had stunned) back into the far room and finally seal the door back up.
The party decides to head to the last unexplored area to the NW, but as they cross a large empty room towards it, Cheebs gets a warning call from R3-M3 (aboard the Porgatu). The astromech has detected movement SW of the ship’s landing pad, quite close at hand. The explorers abandon their objective and head straight for the ship. As the astromech starts the ship, they secure the last of the cargo, check the skies (clear of threats) and hear the distinctive whoop of a speeder bike leaving the area. Cheebs blasts off, the Porgatu’s new underslung cargo module now 2/3 full of salvage.
Hopping to the other side of the planet without incident, the party gets clearance to land. Cheebs calls Vaha Nacc to review and valuate their salvage. C4-BL3 continues his research into the contents of the chemical containers – marked “Trionex,” comprised of banderium, ionite, and trinium (none of which occur naturally on Pirin. Nacc isn’t interested in the trionex, so the party keeps this (as well as the wrecked C-series protocol droid they recovered). The low-density metal ingots and the masses of control systems parts they recovered, however, are quite valuable. Even though the party’s share was reduced by their repair debt to Nacc, the group grosses 40,000 credits on the haul! Gok-Tok automatically gets sent 10,000, and Cheebs insists on repaying the ship’s debt to Kantarra immediately and with interest (another 10,000). The scene ends with C4-BL3 demanding that a formal contract be drawn up regarding the party’s individual shares in the ship’s fortunes.