Liberation of Wered Jericho

Type: Liberation Opposing forces: Crew of the New Toy, Jerichoan vigilants / Trandoshan slavers,, Din Rodef, Combatants: Aster, Eweertyyy Rawkill, R3-LC, Marshall Lohman / Din Rodef, Eli Sabacthon Combatant vessels: Chew Toy / Xenophobe, Gourmand Result: Rodef's estate is demolished and he is forced to flee the planet Location: Wered Jericho

En route to Taif in the hope of tracking down the Empiricist, the crew of the New Toy were forced to take a more circuitous route which led to their running low on provisions. Facing the chance of starvation, they decided to put in at Wered Jericho, a remote but prosperous settler world that was the last populated planet before they reached Taif.

Landing at Wered Jericho, they soon found that food supplies were not freely traded, and they were unable to obtain anything more substantive than a meal at the local cantina. After asking some questions of the locals, they were met by Marshall Aurenz Lohman, the community's leader. Lohman told them that he was aware of their status as assassins, but that rather than bringing them in, he wished to use their presumed skills at discrete killing to remove retired bounty hunger Din Rodef, the owner of the town's spaceport.

The Wered Jericho settlers, he explained, were under constant attack from a gang of Trandoshan slavers based somewhere in the planet's badlands. The settlers had agreed to buy passage off the planet in an attempt to find a new world where they could settle without being under attack, but Rodef had refused all attempts to allow transport freighters to land, even waving aside hefty payoffs from the settlers. Lohman asked the 'terrorists' to remove Rodef, in exchange for which they would be allowed to take all the food they could carry.

The smugglers agreed and set out into the badlands aboard a small agricultural skiff. They had not made it far outside town when they were attacked by a small but well armed snubfighter which destroyed their skiff. The snubfighter, rather than continuing to attack, kept position above them, waiting for its mothership, a heavy Trandoshan slave barge, to arrive.

The crew managed to conceal themselves inside a narrow ravine before the slave barge arrived. The Trandoshans fanned out but after an hour of searching were ready to give up. Opportunity struck at the same time as danger - the Snubfighter landed so that the pilot could confer with his allies, only to put down directly over the smugglers, collapsing their cave and forcing them to scatter into the open. The Snubfighter's pilot was flung from the cockpit, landing at Aster's feet.

Aster quickly managed to dispatch the pilot and engaged in a firefight with the other slavers while Eweertty boarded the Snubfighter. Two shots of the Snubfighter's rocket pods handily eliminated the slavers, allowing Aster and Relic to board the barge while the Snubfighter duelled with it. Aster and Relic accessed the barge's cockpit and opened fire on the remaining Trandoshans, capturing the barge intact.

After a brief discussion the smugglers agreed to return to Wered Jericho, pick up some of the locals to assist them in flying the barge, and get their wounds treated. The people of Wered Jericho were at first hostile to the appearance of the Snubfighter that had previously led slaver attacks on their settlement, but settled down when a friendly Ewok emerged. After a brief visit to the local doctor to treat some of the wounds sustained in their fight with the slavers, the crew found Aurenz Lohman amenable to their strategy.

Proceeding to Rodef's estate with six Jerichese crew onboard, the barge came under fire from a missile turret, which was eliminated after a brief exchange of fire. The two ships then used their laser turrets and cannons to effortlessly demolish the estate. The inhabitants did not attempt to return fire, and after fifteen minutes the once-proud estate was reduced to smoking rubble.

After a brief argument between Aster and Lohman, the crew agreed to land and search the rubble. Aster's scepticism seemed justified at first, but Relic literally stumbled on an undamaged sub basement. The smugglers and vigilantes lowered themselves into it to explore it, finding a hidden drainage channel where Rodef, one of the surviving Trandoshans and a handful of his security guards were hiding from the bombardment.

The ensuing firefight went poorly for the smugglers at first, with Aster and Lohmann both incapcitated by Rodef's duelling lasers. Concentrated return fire managed to bring the former bounty hunter uncomfortably close to death, and he escaped by leaping into the drainage conduit and swimming for cover. His Trandoshan ally did the same, leaving only a single security guard to hold off his pursuers.

After overcoming the last guard, Relic and Eweerrty were faced with a tough choice - bring Lohman back to Wered Jericho for medical treatment, without which he would almost certainly perish, or pursue Rodef. They chose the former, and saw Rodef escape in a concealed starfighter as they boarded the Trandoshan barge. Tempted to fire after him, they chose instead to undertake the difficult return trip, the barge once again undercrewed thanks to the losses at the hands of Rodef and his men.

Luckily, the town doctor was able to save Lohman, who honoured his agreement with the crew of the New Toy. The Jerichoans decided to keep the slave barge and use it as a transport to seek a new colony, but the smugglers were able to keep the Snubfighter, which Relic suggested be renamed the Chew Toy. After loading their supplies, they continued onward to Taif.