The Wrath of Cahn - Part 2 - A Talathen Sector story continued

Ok, after the last write up I realized I was about 1/4 of the way through the story. It was a long long tale, so lets summarize the action in as quick a style as possible. So here are the highlights

Discovery

• The team were directed to a local medical facility, where they met Jel Ta'leth, a Chiss scientist who was acting as ambassador from the Chiss planet of Kronos
• Jel explained that Ithkrall was a reasonable man, more reasonable than Malkar, and that this whole spate of violence makes no sense
• He said they were also investigating, and would share information. 
• He started by giving them the list of people who had been killed, and what their jobs were
• Ithkrall's outcasts were apparently living outside the city in some caves
• The team split into two groups, one to go talk to the outcasts, and the other to investigate a chemical factory that three of the dead people worked at
• Ori and Dr Vox investigated the factory, and looked for a way to distract the personnel there to get a good look in. About that time, an explosion occurred down the road and allowed them access (A double triumph for observing a way in) 
• The facility was empty very quickly, and they scouted it out, all seemed normal asides from one very secure room they hacked their way into. Inside they found some vials secured in a bio-security safe. They nabbed them. They also downloaded all the data off a computer system for later analysis. 
• The other team flew in their ship to the outskirts, their pilot reporting a "ghost signal" of a ship nearby, but could not confirm, just a fleeting sensor signal every now and then. 
• They landed, and after a little while, encountered Ithkrall and a small band of outcasts. 
• Ithkrall explained that their faith had major tenants, in order of importance. The second of which was "we do not shed blood", but the greatest of which was "When all the worlds in the devourer's eye are still, the eye will open and pull our souls to heaven. 
• His actions were the only way he felt he could communicate the evil being conducted by Malkar and his cabal. He wanted attention to draw people to question what was happened, as no one would believe him if he said it openly, and it would have been suppressed immediately. Also, the truth would destroy them. 
• Their plan was to create a virus, introduce it to the systems of the sector, and have it kill everyone on those planets, making the worlds still and heaven open. 
• The team arranged for Ithkrall's people to be moved off-world later, and that they would claim to have "killed him" in order to buy time with Malkar
• The team regrouped on the ship and compared notes. They strongly suspected that they had just obtained samples of the virus and the supporting data
• They analyzed the data and it revealed that the virus had already been shipped to most worlds in the sector. Then they remembered a news report from the pre-mission briefing about a rash of deaths on the core worlds. 
• Jel contacted them at this time to inquire about Ithkrall and their meeting. The team informed him of what had happened and he responded with an ultimatum. 

On the clock

• The team would have 100 hours to solve the issue, as that would be the time the Chiss Fleet would take to get from Kronos to Cahn and annihilate the city and take any information about the virus by force. He also informed them that his ship would now blockade the planet and anyone leaving would be destroyed. 
• Dr Vox said they had samples of the virus and Jel sent a cloaked ship to pick him up from the space port
• The rest of the team set about coming up with a plan to uncover the conspiracy, and replace Malkar as leader
• Vox and Jel worked on a vaccine for the next extended period of time, having the samples of the pure viral agent and the data allowed them to do this at an accelerated rate 
• The rest of the team reported back to Malkar that ithkrall was dead and that they were escorting his followers off-world and in to exile. 
• The team then staged another break-in at the facility and destroyed all the stored virus 
• This set off an alarm and the Malkar reported that the team was now a public enemy. They donned robs and tried to blend with the crowds. 
• Doran the Luxon found them and hurriedly took them to meet Tallarn, the council member who greeted them at the docks. 
• They showed Tallarn the information they had recovered and what was really going on. 
• They formulated a plan to rally the council leadership and to take back the council spire and depose Malkar. 
• Part of this plan was to use the recently returned Pilgrim as a figurehead. The poor kid watched the evidence and very nervously agreed to help over throw the government. 
• Malkar declared martial law, and revealed additional security forces he had kept hidden. Stun sticks were now turned to kill settings, and his forces swept town searching for the team door-to-door. 
• Dr Vox was dropped on the city outskirts with the small batch of vaccines they had put together (10), Doran met him and they evaded security patrols using the sewer network. Doran also donned his battered Luxon uniform for the occasion, and his old service weapon

The uprising

• Many of the leadership turned out, with their people and a mass peaceful movement of people marched towards the council spires, singing songs of praise and peace, all unarmed, but numbering in the tens of thousands. 
• Malkars security forces formed a line to defend the spires, armed with energy melee weapons, and a pair of heavy repeating blasters
• They opened fire on the protesters, killing hundreds, but even centuries of pacifism doesn't stop the fact that Trandoshans, even unarmed, are fearsome fighters. 
• The team focused on taking out security personnel and keeping the pilgrim safe. with Inomo using his force powers to bolster the pilgrims confidence.
• Through sheer weight of numbers, the protestors overwhelmed the security forces and the hevay weapons, but the death toll was considerable. 
• Then a cloaked ship, about the size of a freighter, landed in the middle of the crowd, killing scores more
• A figure emerged, although the team couldn't see them. All they could hear was the sound of a lightsabre and the screams of the dying. 
• The team rushed to engage this figure, who was a Chiss with a mask over his lower face, armed with a red lightsabre, they couldn't land a hit on him. 
• He seemed interested in Inomo, who fled back into the crowd, while Ana, Dr Vox and Oli tried to shoot him dead. 
• The crowd moved away from the Chiss while the team engaged him. 
• The pilgrim was raised high up on the shoulders of Tor the largest Trandoshan anyone had ever seen, who listed his skills as "lifting heavy things and moving heavy things"
• Bolstered by force confidence, the pilgrim said "he is one, he cannot kill us all, we will prevail"
• Even with his skill with a lightsabre, and the force, he knew he was no match for 10,000 people acting with one mind. And retreated to his ship (which Ana was trying to rig with an explosive charge, but failed)
• With the evil Chiss vanquished for now, the vanguard of the team, the pilgrim, Tor, Doran, Tallarn and a few others raced for the council spire. 
• The remaining guards, upon seeing them arrive, lowered their weapons and turned their backs, all the guards in the spire did the same. 
• Malkar was on the observation platform, but when they arrived two council members through him off the spire and onto the ground below. 
• These two members were named in the data as accomplices, so were placed under arrest. 

Aftermath

• The pilgrim was placed in charge of the government, and Tallarn as his cheif advisor. 
• They pledged to do anything to stop the outbreak and to help the rebellion 
• Ithkrall went into exile, knowing that his sins and inaction would always represent a reminder of these dark days
• Jel called off the invasion fleet, and demanded all data pertinent to the virus, it's manufacture and release
• When informed of the Chiss with the lightsabre, he had no idea who that could be, and that his cloaked ship was not one that existed on Kronos records. 
• He asked that the team meet him in Kronos as soon as possible, so they could help him get to the bottom of the conspiracy, find out who the Sith was, and get the means to cure the virus out to as many as needed it as soon as possible. 

Conclusion

This was a long story, and a deep story, with some dark themes and epic moments. The mass protest scene, with the players reacting to the deaths of hundreds of innocents was particularly powerful, and, remarkably, so was the "we are one" moment where the rebels helped unite a community against evil.

I like shades of grey in my stories, but this was one where the bad guys were truly bad, and the people were truly good. And it was a nice story to tell.