STAR WARS UNDERWORLD EPISODE I: LOST FAITH

Episode I: Lost Faith

2 months after the battle of Yavin...

 It is a time of rapid change in the galaxy as the Empire works to consolidate control over planetary governments as support grows for the Rebel Alliance. Rumors of the destruction of Alderaan and the Death Star have been disputed and labeled misinformation deepening the rift between the citizens of the galaxy.

Desperate for information about the Rebellion, the Empire has established a secret prison on the Jossu moon near the fringe of the galaxy where the inmates are abused, tortured, and broken...

1. In Jossu Prison Imperial Engineer Anson Cass had lost faith in the Empire after his home world Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star. He used an update for the medical droid M3 as cover to download top secret files and security codes which allowed him to disable the prison defenses. Cass and M3 escaped aboard an impounded pirate ship called the Glass Eye along with 3 freed prisoners: a Wookiee named Arri Tatha, a Devironian named Nilessa and a former extremist Rebel General named Huff Lasoo.
2. Admiral Kruxis informed Cardinal Moon Rasa of the breakout at Jossu and that certain files pertaining to the ‘Cullus Project’ had been stolen. With the fleet tied up in Vader’s hunt for Luke Skywalker, Kruxis had limited manpower to both protect the Cardinal and track down the files so they decided to bring in the Marshal who first caught Lasoo.
3. Jolian Dice met with Kruxis aboard the Star Destroyer Brevvik and was ordered to track down Huff Lasoo with the help of his new partner Imperial Security Bureau rookie agent Keno Lindarra. They took Dice’s ship, the Hawk’s Talon, to Kuat where they met with an old acquaintance, a slicer named Kruss who specialized in underworld accounts. Dice asked Kruss to find Tanis Holloway, an old love interest of Lasoo’s and one of the best thieves in the galaxy. Kruss traced her to the Bad Bacta, a Cantina owned by a mafioso called Moxee on a floating barge colony known as Amber Station. Kruss’ had already met with Lasoo and associated Dice with the hated Empire so he attacked when they tried to leave. Lindarra and Dice were able to overcome Kruss and escape.
4. Meanwhile Lasoo had arrived at the Bad Bacta and reconnected with his old lover Holloway. Nilessa arranged a meeting between Lasoo and her fellow pirate Rhul Ket who brought with him an Aqualish technician named Xio and a Trandoshan thug called Drezzk. Lasoo had a plan to strike at the heart of the Empire in a way the Rebellion was too weak to ever try. Rhul Ket and gang agreed to join forces.
5. Dice and Lindarra traveled to Amber Station and along the way Dice told his new partner about how he first caught Lasoo. Before becoming a Marshal Dice had been a space racer, and not too bad of one. Lasoo had been a Marshal at the time and a fan of Dice’s and they had become friends. Eventually Lasoo became obsessed with a missing persons case he claimed involved the Empire and it drove him deeper into a fanatical desire to overthrow the government. Dice learned of a terrible plot to assassinate Cardinal Moon Rasa that would have hurt a lot of innocent beings and felt he had to stop it. He crashed his racing vessel to prevent the attack, ending his career as a pilot but starting a career as a Galactic Marshal after turning Lasoo over to the Empire.
6. When Dice and Lindarra landed at Amber Station he warned her not to show any Imperial insignia or speak about imperial law there, it was a dangerous place. While Lindarra kept a look out at the bar, Dice confronted Holloway at her dressing room. Arri Tatha acted as Holloway’s bodyguard and warned Dice off.
7. Lasoo and his gang were alerted to Dice’s arrival. They had to move quickly. While Lasoo went out into the bar to visit Dice, his gang broke into Moxees back room to steal weapons and explosives. Dice and Lasoo had a bitter reunion and Lasoo told Dice to ask his new partner what the Cullus Project had to do with Senator Ono’s death. Things got worse when Lindarra tried to arrest Lasoo. It had been the old rebels plan to bait exposure of Imperials in the bar and both Dice, Lindarra and Holloway were quickly seized by Moxee and her thugs. Lasoo made his escape and left Holloway behind as a star destroyer closed in. Moxee who became enraged after discovering her cache was raided. Lindarra had called in the Brevvik when she spotted Lasoo and the Destroyer arrived in time to send a squad of Stormtroopers into the Bacta to rescue her and Dice. The troopers gunned down innocents and criminals alike which angered Dice. As Lasoo escaped, Xio set left a timed emp bomb that disabled the Brevvik and much of Amber Station.
8. Lasoo and gang headed for Coruscant aboard the Glass Eye. Rhul Ket was upset that Holloway had been left behind, the plan required her skills, but Lasoo was sure that Xio could reprogram M3 to ‘perform surgery’ on locks. Cass fought to keep M3 from further tampering fearing his friends memory couldn’t handle more stress but he was threatened by Lasoo. In private Cass revealed to M3 that he regretted releasing Huff Lasoo.
9. While waiting for Kruxis to finish his initial interrogation of Holloway, Dice tried to do some research on what Lasoo had told him. Dice found that his clearance was not high enough to see anything specific related to the ‘Cullus Project’ except that it had to do with orphanages operated by the Crimson Church. Dice knew the church had risen to power after the Jedi Order had betrayed the Republic. The church believed that the force belonged to the galaxy, not in the control of beings and had been under some scrutiny for claiming to be able to cure beings of their force power. He looked into Fo-Cha Ono, former senator for Tyfuss who had been murdered along with his wife 8 years earlier leaving their daughter an orphan. The family security droid had supposedly ‘malfunctioned’ and massacred them with a vibro-blade, but Dice was suspicious of the limited facts. When he had an opportunity to interrogate Holloway with Lindarra he asked her what Lasoo meant about Ono and the Cullus Project. She told Dice that the senators daughter, Mana Ono, was reportedly remanded into the custody of Cardinal Moon Rasa despite her fathers outspoken stance against the church, yet the ISB reported the girl dead with her parents. Lindarra mentioned that Rasa was due to land on Coruscant for a public appearance with Emperor Palpatine and Dice was sure that was where Lasoo was headed. Kruxis could not make the jump to hyperspace until the Brevviks systems were running again which could take hours. The Hawks Talon was operation however so Dice and Lindarra brought Holloway with them to chase down the Glass Eye. The Hawks Talon reached Lista-Gon Spaceport just after Moon Rasa’s shuttle docked.
10. Cardinal Moon Rasa landed at Lista Gon Spaceport on Coruscant and was taken hostage by Lasoo and his gang while Rhul Ket seized the control center and locked down the facility. Dice, Lindarra and Holloway were all locked within the building as well. Lasoo broadcast over the holonet that he had Moon Rasa hostage and would kill his holiness if the Empire tried to get into the building.
11. While Dice scouted out the situation, Holloway picked the lock on her cuffs and knocked out Lindarra. She escaped to Lasoo and informed him of where the Hawks Talon was. After learning that Dice was at the spaceport Lasoo dispatched Rhul Ket and Drezzk to find him and kill him. Xio was ordered to the power core with Cass to set up explosives. Arri stood guard while Nilessa hunted the spaceport logs for the Crimson Church’s private cargo bay, a vault where church claimed property could bypass imperial security checks.
12. Dice returned to the Hawks Talon to find Rhul Ket and Drezzk taking Lindarra prisoner. Dice tried to rescue her and a shootout started which resulted in a thermal detonator being thrown onto the ship. Dice barely survived the explosion of the Hawks Talon and was injured. While Drezzk took Lindarra back to the control center, Dice fought with Rhul Ket and gained the upper hand despite losing his blaster in the explosion. He attempted to arrest Ket but was slashed when Ket pulled a hidden blade. Ket gave Dice some advice as he raised the blade for one final attack: the galaxy was changing and it was kill or be killed, no in between. Dice was barely able to kill Ket.
13. Lasoo was pleased to see Lindarra captured. He forced M3 to torture Moon Rasa to broadcast to Coruscant certain secrets the empire had kept from the public...the Death Star had attacked Alderaan unprovoked and then the Death Star had been destroyed by what was suspected to be a young man with force abilities. The empire also worked with the church funding their inquisitions that traveled the galaxy hunting for force powered individuals. And the Empire was planning a ‘cleansing’ of Coruscant that would purge non-human beings from the planet. Lasoo told the public to prepare for an exodus, he and the rebellion would be evacuating the alien population through Lista-Gon.
14. Dice found a communication terminal and contacted his old commander Para Incal. He warned Incal that Lasoo was looking for something to do with Senator Ono, the Cullus Project and the Crimson Church and Incal promised to look into it. Walkers had set up surrounding the spaceport but thousands of aliens had started crowding the barricades in a desperate desire to escape Coruscant. Admiral Kruxis had arrived to take control of the siege and was planning a tactical assault but Dice knew they would never survive the spaceport automatic defenses. He would have to shut them down so he told Incal he would head for the control center and call back.
15. Nilessa detected the communication and alerted Lasoo. While Drezzk wanted revenge on Dice over the death of his partner Rhul Ket, Lasoo ordered him to hold off. They had more important issues at the moment. Lasoo reached out to Kruxis with demands. He wanted the blockade drawn back to the opposite hemisphere and free passage for ship’s to leave the system. As long as the Empire didn’t fire a shot, he wouldn’t either. He broadcast the interaction via the holonet to keep Kruxis in the public spotlight.
16. Dice sneaked into the elevator shafts and vents to make his way to the control center where he watched as M3 was forced to surgically cut the skin off of Moon Rasa’s face and keep him alive and in pain until he revealed the location of a vault bay. Lindarra ultimately told them she would show them the way. Lasoo and his crew made their way to it leaving Arri to guard the control room and M3 to keep Rasa alive. Dice had to sneak into the control room when everyone but M3 and Moon Rasa departed. He contacted Incal for instructions on how to disable the defenses. Moon Rasa tried to warn against deactivating the defenses but could barely speak with his face removed. M3 tried to relay the message but it was too late. Turning off the defenses was exactly what Lasoo wanted. With the defenses down the vault would not be automatically triggered by their hack. As Lasoo revealed the trap to Dice, Kruxis sent in a squad of tactical troopers into Lista Gon. Xio had rigged explosives at key entries however and triggered them as he monitored the incursion. The troopers were killed in the blasts and the entry sealed. Cass decided he had to do something.
17. Arri Tatha apprehended Dice and dragged him along to the vault where Lasoo promised to prove to Dice everything he believed about the church to be true. Holloway cracked the vault lock and the doors opened. The bay was full of crates of artifacts Nilessa was sure could be sold for a fortune, gaining them favor with the Pirate Queen. Lasoo was interested in something else, however, a dozen crates of frozen carbonite. Inside appeared to be children. Dice could not argue the point and felt defeated as he realized that the Church and the Empire were indeed colluding to abduct children, but he didn’t understand for what purpose. Lasoo believed they were Force powered individuals. Thousands taken by the church inquisition since the end of the Clone Wars. Lasoo told Dice to ask Lindarra what the kids were being used for because the crates had been delivered by the Brevvik. Dice confronted her but she refused to admit to knowing anything until Lasoo brought up her true name: Mana Ono. Lindarra claimed the name meant nothing to her, it was another life before she was saved by the church and she and the rest of the Crimson Guard would cull the galaxy of Force powered individuals. The truth was too much for Dice to bare and he wanted to kill Lindarra but he had to know where they took the kids as the carbonite was meant for transport but she refused to say another word.
18. Holloway, though angry with Lasoo for abandoning her at Amber Station, was horrified and volunteered to oversee the transfer of the carbonite frozen children to a ship for rescue. Lasoo was pleased to find Dice had given up his struggle and admitted the Empire was evil. As reunited friends Lasoo took Dice along as they returned to the control center and explained his plan. Lasoo would open the gates to allow the persecuted aliens of Coruscant to enter Lista-Gon and board the ship’s docked there. Cass was preparing a melt down in the power core that would cause the spaceport to automatically launch all ships for emergency evacuation and Lasoo and his crew would be on one of those many ships with the children. They would hit hyperspace before the empire could stop them and the resulting meltdown would cause massive destruction in the heart of the Imperial Capital. Dice argued that the meltdown could kill thousands of innocent people. It was a price Lasoo was willing to pay. The rebellion needed the kids to be powerful weapons against the empire but Dice argued that what Lasoo planned was the same as what the Empire was doing. Lasoo was disappointed in his old friend and ordered Dice to be taken to die with the meltdown. Lasoo instructed Nilessa to open the gates to Lista Gon and allow the aliens inside. The exodus had begun!
19. Drezzk escorted Dice, Lindarra, and M3 to the power core to die in the meltdown. Drezzk was eager to kill Dice and was about to slice the marshals throat when Xio tried to activate the bomb and was hit with an electrical surge that killed him. Cass had boobytrapped the bomb and defied Lasoo. M3 feigned an error and flailed it’s arms wildly slicing through Dice and Lindarra’s cuffs and wildly striking at Drezzk with needles and bone saws. Drezzk thrashed M3 into a wall before succumbing to a tranquilizer M3 had injected. Lindarra took advantage of the situation and snatched up a vibro-pike dropped by Drezzk that she plunged into Cass’ back telling them all, ‘You scum will die for defiling the Church!’ Dice dove for Xios blaster and turned to fire at Lindarra forcing her to run. Cass was injured badly and M3 was glitching too much to be able to heal him. Cass told them he would do what he could to stop the melt down but in the mean time he begged Dice to take the droid and run in case he failed.
20. As aliens poured into Lista Gon they boarded the ships in a chaotic frenzy. Through the madness Dice and M3 rushed to the control center. Arri stood guard of Nilessa and Lasoo when Dice and M3 pushed through the crowds. M3 told Arri that, despite its programming having conflicting opinions on healing and torture, it was certain that what Lasoo and he Empire were doing was wrong and Arri should know better than any. His people had been enslaved by the empire. The words reached Arri and he turned on Lasoo who sensed his plan falling apart. Lasoo started firing at Arri, Dice and M3 while Nilessa activated the emergency evacuation plans early. Lasoo and Nilessa fled the control room after destroying the computer. Lasoo and Nilessa were lost in the crowd. Dice returned to the control center where M3 admitted there was nothing they could do stop the evacuation. There was only 10 minutes to evacuate Lista Gon whether the core melted down or not, emergency procedures would launch every ship on autopilot. The spaceport programming would hold the ship’s in orbit where they would be picked off one by one by the Empire unless the meltdown occurred and destroyed the power core. It was a no-win situation so Dice did the only thing he could think of. Using the broadcast communication Dice warned the populace to abandon their ships and flee the spaceport.
21. Arri and M3 lead Dice left Moon Rasa to die in the control room and hurried to the Glass Eye to catch Lasoo. Lindarra arrived after to drag Rasa to safety.
22. Cass sweated from his brow as he struggled to resist passing out from his injuries. He deactivated the bomb and turned to see that Drezzk had gone missing and tactical troopers were closing in...
23. Lasoo had arrived at the Glass Eye to find that the crates of children were not there. He contacted Holloway on the comm and she revealed that she felt they had grown apart and she had her own plans to move on. She had taken the children to another ship and would free them herself. Nilessa was furious and turned to scream at Lasoo and he turned his blaster on her, killing her just as Arri, Dice and M3 arrived at the bay. Drezzk attacked suddenly and Arri grappled with him telling Dice and M3 to go on ahead!
24. Dice confronted Lasoo who had given up after losing everything. Dice admitted that the Empire had done wrong but Lasoo’s plan had been equally wrong. Lasoo wanted to know who Dice would side with in the end. They all had to pick as the war spread among the stars. Dice didn’t need to declare an allegiance if both sides were wrong and Lasoo called him a dirty Jawa, an insult that meant Dice was a garbage collector with no real home. Dice replied ‘Uttini motherfucker’ and a moment later both drew their pistols and fired. Lasoo dropped dead, a blaster bolt through his eye. Dice and M3 boarded the Glass Eye and waited until the last moment when Arri arrived flawed and injured but victorious over Drezzk.
25. The ship’s launched from Lista Gon and Dice jumped in the pilot chair, deactivating the auto pilot. As he maneuvered around the hundreds of launched ships an attack came from behind. Lindarra had Moon Rasa on an imperial shuttle and was chasing after the Glass Eye, firing turrets. Admiral Kruxis and the Brevvik angled in orbit to rain down fire on the launcher ships, blowing them out of the sky. Arri fired back while M3 monitored the computer terminals to calculate a jump to hyperspace. Coordinates came in from a mysterious unknown source indicating a flight path clear of Imperial blockades. M3 entered the coordinates as the Glass Eye took shot after shot and finally the jump was prepared. The coordinates were locked in for Bespin. Dice punched the throttle and they jumped to hyperspace and freedom.
26. Keno Lindarra, enraged by losing the Glass Eye, made way for the Brevvik where Moon Rasa could receive proper medical treatment. Kruxis vowed to find them, they wouldn’t be safe anywhere in the galaxy. Lindarra was promoted into the Crimson Guard for her efforts in rescuing Cardinal Moon Rasa and given one task...recover the children who had been taken from the program...

The End