Last night we scored our first true victory. We resolved a major plot conflict and did so conclusively. Usually, our victories are pyrrhic at best, and more often could well be considered defeats or only moral victories.

We have been pursuing a line of inquiry into a company called Starburst Interstellar, a subsidiary of Santaros Corporation (or is that the other way around?). The president and CEO of the company, Alexandra Dormammu, is a Dark Sider (arguably a Sith). She fired and replaced most of her upper management months ago with Sith. Their Corporation controlled shipping, agribusiness, medical facilities, etc. across the sector and had a standing army of Elite, Force sensitive paramilitary units. Also, they had been well trained in anti-Jedi tactics (Slugthrowers instead of blasters, snipers, 40 mm Metalstorm grenade launchers) Dormammu has been maneuvering herself into a position to overthrow the sector and secede from the Republic.

Our patron, J'ror Tholin, has been tossing us into this investigation far over our head... then he abandoned us to go chasing after his wife Vraile (who is force trained, but not a Jedi), who defected to Dormammu's side (he suspects brainwashing). The big problem is that we had no proof that we could use to get the Jedi Council or the Republic to move against Santaros. We followed our investigations out to three frontier worlds on the edge of the sector where we found training facilities for the paramilitaries and a fleet of stockpiled ships hidden in the rings of a gas giant. We also found J'ror and his wife.

We were able to transmit information on this to the Reupublic, which began moving against Dormammu's forces. We got shot down over one of Santaros' base worlds, and had to trek through a jungle to reach an enemy military base to call for evac. After many wacky misadventures... like being harried by a Sith illusionist and having an NPC greivously injured... we made it to the base, which turned out to be a facility for medical research.

In the mostly deserted base there is a prison facility 30 levels down, shielded by Cortosis (a force shielding substance), which kept us from communicating between levels. We tried to get into the prison facility and only succeeded in trapping about half of our number, including J'ror, inside. The rest of us tried to reach the communications array outside, only to be harried by Dormammu's forces. One of our NPCs?, Mira (Our resident techie), was severely injured by a claymore mine. She died for a short while, but Quindo (my character) has l33t medical skills, and managed to triage her back to the living with some help. Igashu (jediseth), funtioning as a portable life support system, massaged her heart with TK to get it pumping again... way to go Igashu!!

At this point, Mira was was still fading fast, and Quindo sent the remainder of the group into the prison facility to bring out J'ror who has the ability to heal with the force. J'ror could have gotten out on his own, but he was hanging out, trying to get some information... and due to the Cortosis layer, we could not contact him without actually going to get him.

Quindo moved Mira to a room, and stayed to guard her while the others went for help. Ig - "What could you possibly do against 8 of those paramilitaries alone? They almost managed to take out the 4 of us together!" Q - "More than they think."

Q set up a smoke grenade on the door, so that it would go off if anyone opened it. He propped his spare lightsaber in the opposite corner and waited behind the door. Sometime later, the door bursts open, and bullets spray into the room, aimed at the lit lightsaber visible through the smoke. Q drops in behind them and kills them both. (9 months of game play and we've managed not to kill. (Well, Ig killed one guy unintentionally with a reflected blaster bolt, but that doesn't really count; and Davin killed a Sith and himself by crashing a space-fighter into a mountainside.) But this time, going up against superior numbers and firepower, Q knew that he couldn't try to reason with them or capture them without endangering himself and his friends.

So... he killed. Q ducked his head out into the hallway to see 2 more troopers, who opened fire. The first guy exhausted his clip, and Q uses telekinesis to try to jam the other guy's gun while charging at them. Luckily, the Force was with him, and he killed both of them before they got off another shot. (4 down, 4 to go). 2 more troopers round the far corner, and duck back behind it. Q grabs a grenade off the nearest dead guy and hurls it down the hall. Just as it sails past the corridor where they're taking cover, he nudges it with TK so that it curves around the corner and blows them both to smithereens. (Q gets a dark side point... at least it's well and truely earned) Trotting up the corridor with another grenade, he peeks around the corner into the main hallway to sees... a machine gun emplacement at 100 yards and a 40mm Metalstorm grenade launder. Q jumps back as bullets and grenades fill the corridor. But a Jedi is never pinned down. He goes back to the room where Mira is 'resting' and cuts through the back wall with his lightsaber, into the next room. He begins moving through the walls, toward the machine gun emplacement, moving Mira with him (I couldn't leave her behind). Reaching the nearest parallel corridor to the fortified position, Q conceals Mira in a room and opens his portable easel.

Quindo is a painter. He insisted on carrying his small folding art kit with him through the jungle despite everyone'e insistance that he leave it behind. Why? Well, because he had hidden a pair of Thermal detonators in there :) He'd even rigged it so that he could activate one or the other through holes in the bottom of the case, one set on a short timer, one on a long.

Taking out the short fused detonator, he begins sneaking up the corridor toward the machine gun (which is pointed away from him). I had told the GM that his intention was to capture the emplacement by jumping in and threatening them with the thermal det. Unfortunately, they see Q coming and swing the grenade launcher around toward him. So, Q lobs the TD straight and true, directly into the gun crew (another 5 guys). BOOM. Dead. (have you noticed that there were more than 8? I did). The last 5 paramilitarys decide that cowardice is the better part of valor and book it out the back way. The only reason Q didn't go after them to finish them off (getting another dark side point) was that he needed to check on Mira.

Meanwile, the downstairs crew went away and managed to spring Jror, and he headed upstairs with Dabai (a former memeber of Dormammu's paramilitary). Elbram (our spiritual leader), To'iir (his teacher... a Twilek), and Igashu remain downstairs to settle the prison populace. And two identical Sith walk into the room. One is obviously an illusion, but they don't know which. As Igashu put it... "One has a red lightsaber, one has a purple. We all know that red means evil and purple means 'FAGGOT', so I'm guessing that the purple one is the real one." (no offense to those of alternate sexual orientations... but we have to taunt the Sith somehow)

Spending force points left right and center, To'iir engages the 'real' one (which turns out to be the red sabered guy), Igashu and Elbram engage the purple sabered guy. Igashu (who is good with a saber, but not great) managed to destroy the doppleganger with a one hit kill. To'iir takes a saber blow to the leg, which causes her to drop lightsaber combat, leaving her defenseless for a round. Elbram disarms the bad guy then holds his action hesitating to kill even a Sith unarmed.

The Sith uses TK to summon his saber back into his hand. Igashu makes a called shot with his lightsaber and destroys the sith's saber as it flies past him. Sith gets a handful of broken, melted metal and is forced to retreat as Igashu presses the attack. Sith calls the purple saber from across the room into his hand... Elbram makes the exact same choice as Igashu and destroys the second saber. Only, when he presses the attack, he actually manages to everyone's surprise, to hit. Using his full damage pool, he makes a killing blow against the Sith (Using the force to try to kill the bad guy... naughty!). Sith only manages to survive due to a little Force power called "Reduce Injury" that can turn any killing blow into a dramatic wound, and even then it costs him his last force point.

The wounded Sith is now not much of a threat. The Force has abandoned him and he is wounded and disarmed. By a pair of students no less. See! The light side really is stronger than the dark! W00t. They capture him, free the prisoners, and head back upstairs.

Meanwhile, Jror has stabalized Mira with Force healing, and we secured the communications array and got out a message. Dabai held a fortified position and we managed to capture the last 4 paramilitaries (the 5th was shot in the head). While we wait for 2 days for evacuation, we question the prisoners and the Sith.

Two of Santaros' new products, a cereal called Crispy Wheat, and a soda called Alter (Alter your attitude, alter your perceptions, alter your beverage!), had been researched and designed to acts as mind control agents when consumed together. The prisoners here were test subjects for the substanbces. Due to Santaros' control on shipping and agribusiness in the sector, they could virtually guarantee that everybody would be exposed.

The shipments are scheduled to arrive within a few days, and we're out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, a scout ship shows up a day before the fleet, and a group of us convince the scout to get us back to the core worlds right f**ing now! We get to a core transfer point called Cot and determine that the shipments are heading toward Coruscant, Alderan, Corellia, Brytell, and Bmmrrmm. Brojen (our drunk) uses the force to contact his Master Altair on Coruscant, a heroic feat, and warns him of the incoming food shipments. Altair covers Coruscant, and informs the Jedi Council, which moves to stop shipments to the nearer worlds (Alderan and Bmmrmrmr), while we make the jump to Brytell and then to Corellia to stop the transports.

A little red tape forces us to leave Igashu and Brojen behind on Brytell to deal with the incoming ships. The rest of us make it to Corellia in time and convince local authorities to impound the ship awaiting orders from the Republic fleet (via the Jedi Council). We manage to impound and destroy all of the Cola and Cereal, as well as get injunctions placed against any Santaros shipping containers containing Cola and Cereal. Then, we went back to Coruscant to get yelled at for disobeying the Council and saving the sector.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how things turned out. Of course, Dormammu is still out there, pissed off, and powerful. We only got two of her Sith underlings. There are at least another 5. Sigh. A Jedi's work is never done.