Mission Report

Jedi: Karka Sei'pek

Location: Rinant 9, Mos Epin

Orders received from Jedi Council

-- Orders Begin:

Background: Rinant 9 is a backwater world located just outside Hutt territory on the outer rim, MOs Epin is home to various gamblers and smalltime smugglers. Recently a very dangerous spice dealer named, Boona Tar has been making contact with the local hutt authority Jek. Jek makes a lot of credits sponsoring local biker gangs to compete in dangerous canyon races. There is little risk to him and lots of profit since he owns all of the betting and tourist establishments. Boona Tar will most likely try to steer him towards the very dangerous but profitable spice smuggling.

Mission: Convince Jek to stick with the status quo. You are authorized to offer a 10,000 credit Annual prize money "Donation" on behalf of certain Republic Interests. Details in supplied data pad. Boona Tar is to be considered extremely dangerous and has powerful allies. It is imperative to keep Jek alive.

May the Force Be with you!

-- Orders End.

As instructed in my pre-mission briefing, after arrival at MOs Epin, I made contact with three other operatives in a busy cantina known as Jarwol Cantina and run by a Rodian named Capo. The others included Pampi LaRue, a female Twi'lik tech. spec., a hammerhead (Ithorian) named Tendau, who is also a tech. spec., and Hep Luk, a young male Duros who is a very good pilot. The second Jedi assigned to the mission failed to make contact at the rendezvous point and we proceeded without him.

Members of a biker gang known as the Nova Killers, some clearly strung on spice, initiated a hostile encounter while we were formulating plans at the cantina. It is unclear if they received information about our mission or if they were simply acting on their own as thugs, trying to intimidate off-world speeder-bike racers. We had, during our conversation amongst ourselves, attempted to make it clear to any eavesdroppers that we were interested in entering the next race. Three or four of the thugs were seriously injured in the fight, but none died. Capo tripped an alarm before he entered the fray. When he did he began wildly firing a pair of repeater blasters at the miscreants. A local law-enforcer arrived to administer first aid to the fallen gang members and to haul them off. From this man (Dela Jar), we learned that Boona Tar was in town with a number of mercenaries.

Capo was hyperactive after the fight and seemed more willing to talk than he had been earlier. From him we learned that while spice trade had not been on-planet long, it was fast becoming a problem. Already profits from the races were being negatively affected. Capo also informed us that Jek had a former friend who had been a racer who was still living in the region. This man, Raynar Nassin, proved to be a valuable contact.

Boona Tar had made planetfall shortly after I did. He was meeting with Jek at his palace when we tried to register for the race. Both Jek's guards and the off-world toughs that Tar brought along denied us access to Jek, the palace and even the officials of the race registration. Rather than fighting our way in, we went to find Raynar Nassin.

Nassin seems to be a Jedi in self-imposed exile, posing as some sort of scruffy nerfherder. He told us that he once thought of himself as a Jedi. Pampi LaRue and Hep Luk were successful in getting the man talking. He became quite agitated when he heard that Jek was meeting with Boona Tar. Raynar gave me his lightsaber to deliver along with a message to Jek. It was a threat that should Jek not break off negotiations with Boona Tar, Raynar would come for the lightsaber, kill Tar and then kill Jek. Raynar was also excited about Hep's chances in the race, and loaned the young pilot a customized speeder-bike to use instead of the rental he had.

I had no pre-mission information about a Jedi named Raynar Nassin, and had no personal knowledge of the man before meeting him. He was a very important and useful contact here however. I recommend follow-up with Nassin to discover the reasons for his self-imposed exile. I left 100 republic credits in a pouch at Nassin's place in a spot where he would find it after I left the planet.

On our return to MOs Epin, we were ambushed by several of Boona Tar's mercenaries. They were either watching Raynar's ranch or had followed us. Their ambush consisted of a series of inertial dampeners set up in a narrow canyon along our route. Once they had us stopped, they fired on us from cover behind their speeder-bikes. The ambush was unsuccessful in killing any of us, but we were unable to take any prisoners for interrogation. Two mercenaries survived the first few moments of the fire fight but a sniper armed with a rail gun, positioned on a ridge above us killed them before they had a chance to surrender. We towed their speeder-bikes back to Jek's palace and left their bodies for the womprats.

We arrived at the palace towing the speeder-bikes. This seemed to agitate the off-world mercenaries guarding the door. Mention of Raynar's name was all that was needed after that to get us passage inside. Jek's guards seemed to be almost giddy that Tar's toughs had suffered a set back in their plans. They were more than willing to let us pass. Once inside we met with Dal, gang leader of the Nova Killers. Dal was also the odds-on favorite to win the speeder-bike race coming up in a couple of days. Invoking Raynar's name also got us past him and I was able to deliver the old Jedi's message. Boona Tar and his thugs were there and were very displeased. Jek agreed to consider Raynar's demands. I was, at that time, unable to deliver the information regarding the annual prize money sponsorship, but Jek decided to let the fate of the races depend on the outcome of the next race. If one of us could beat all challengers, including Dal, he would agree to forego the spice trade. Tar was furious and stormed out of the audience hall.

We were dismissed and left the palace to find our own lodgings and to prepare for the race two days hence. Before we left, I decided to risk passing the datapad containing the offer of an annual prize donation to Jek. The only way to get the datapad to Jek was to have Dal pass it to him. I hoped that Dal would not tamper with the data, but information later suggested that I was right to be concerned. We later learned that the rumor mill suggested that Dal was a plant by Boona Tar in Jek's inner circle. I noticed Jek reading the datapad and looking intently at us while we were at the palace but I could not get close to him nor could I interpret his glances.

On the day of the race there were seven contestants, the four of us and three Nova Killers, including Dal and two of his lieutenants. The course was set up to run through some narrow canyons with tight turns. Three quarters of the way around the course, the route came up and out of the canyon bottoms to traverse the top of a narrow, natural stone arch. On the second lap, just after Hep and Tendau raced across the arch, I nosed in ahead of Dal but my bike encountered a sudden, unexpected mechanical failure, blocking the racecourse. Dal, unable to stop in time, crashed into my bike, causing an explosion that prevented any other racer from quickly crossing the arch. Dal was killed in the crash. I suffered some injury, but was able to roll out of the way of the other racers. Sadly, my speeder-bike was a complete loss. The racers immediately behind us were not injured, but they were unable to finish the race. Hep and Tendau were the only successful finishers, with Tendau crossing the finish line only a fraction of a second ahead of Hep. Jek's conditions had been met, we had won the race.

Jek thought the race was a wonderful spectacle and seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it. He declared publicly that the races would continue and that spice trade would be forbidden. Boona Tar was furious. It looked for a moment that there would be a major fight during the post-race celebration, but Jek's automated defense systems and his very alert guards ended that danger quickly. During this short conflict, we observed that there was a rift within Tar's group. Apparently at least some of his lieutenants were not ready to heed Jek's decree. Boona Tar and his mercenaries left the party in disarray a short time later.

We were concerned that Tar or some of his men might make more trouble before giving up so we pursued him to the spaceport hanger where his ship remained berthed. We had to break in but when we did, we discovered that the factions had had a fire fight. Several of the Nova Killers and mercenaries lay dead inside the hanger. Pampi LaRue was able to lock down the computer systems necessary for Tar's ship to launch and we went in search of the survivors. We discovered only one, the lieutenant who had precipitated the trouble at the palace had just slain Boona Tar and after a clever feint, tried to kill us all as well. He nearly succeeded. The man was a dark Jedi and very powerful. It was nearly impossible for us to hit him with blasters without him deflecting the shots back at us. Fortunately he took cover behind some fuel tanks that we were able to detonate. Still, that did not kill him, but it drove him out of his cover and into the open where we could all concentrate our attacks on him. I engaged him in a lightsaber duel, but his skills were too great. I'm embarrassed to say that I passed out during the fight due to the injuries I suffered at the hands of the dark Jedi and the speeder-bike accident earlier in the day. Fortunately, the other agents assigned to the mission were more steadfast and they finished off the enemy with their combined efforts after I fell.

We placed the body of the dark Jedi in a cryo tank on Tar's transport and brought it back for examination. Each of the people you recruited for this mission performed admirably. We would not have succeeded without the efforts of everyone involved.

Recommendations:

1. follow-up to determine the reason Jedi [name] failed to make the rendezvous at the Jarwol Cantina.

2. If the council deems it appropriate, I would like to recommend commendations for Technical Specialist Pampi LaRue, Technical Specialist Tendau, and Pilot Hep Luk. Their performance during the course of this mission was exemplary.

3. Initiate examination of the body of the dark Jedi for clues to his identity and possible connections to others connected to the spice trade in that sector of the outer rim.

--- Mission Report ends.