20040504

Republic Reckoning 5.15.87

We are given one hour to prepare for a council of war. Alynn heads for her ship but Elbram chases her down and gives her the necklace that Davin had from her. "He would have wanted you to have this." She thanks him and leaves, declaring that she will see him in battle. Christina confronts one of the Bayushi Generals (Narou) about Igashu's disappearance. Of course he denys all knowledge. We discuss Alynn and question why Bellisarius would make a formal declaration of war and tip his hand. We tell Aegon about Alynn and how we know her. She ran off with Sith artifacts, probably straight into Bellisarius' hands.

Aegon - "How could she have become an Admiral in Bellisarius' Fleet in under a year?" Elbram - "Maybe she worked hard and then had a healthy breakfast of Tastee Wheat and Alter Cola?"

We decide to postpone going after Igashu until the current crisis is past, he's probably okay or he would have found some way to contact us. Aegon wants to know if we can trust Igashu to do the right thing and work for the right side. Of course we can. And he'd trust us too!

At the end of the hour, we go deep underground, down 10 levels, to the Shinjo war room. There is a high tech holodisplay of the disposition of the fleet. Alynn's forces will be here in a little over 3 hours. Elbram demands to know what measures have been taken to evacuate non-combatants, but the Clans are confident of victory. They have shelters for important people and everyone else is advised to stay in their homes. Elbram argues that they should have done more. They insist that an evacuation at this point would cause more panic and deaths. The Emperor doesn't believe that the Sith will deliberately target civilian populace and infrastructure since he undoubtedly would want to planet intact. Elbram is not convinced, describes Sith tactics at Holgam. The Emperor is unimpressed. We decide to do our best to be ready aboveground if needed, and leave fleet operations to Aegon and the Emperor. We spend 3 hours in meditation to prepare and take up a defensive perimeter around the palace.

Elbram - "I put on my Battle Robes. You know, the ones with holes, stains, tears, and burn marks."

The attack begins only 4 seconds after the projected time, and ships jump in on nearly the exact projected vectors, allowing the defending forces to inflict maximum initial damages. Admiral Venetuun is apparently an idiot... or maybe Bellisarius is doing something trickier than we can fathom. Seems to be a "my face to your fist" attack strategy so far.

Three waves of attackers. One hits the Antimatter facility outsystem, one attacks the fleet fuel depot near the system's gas giant, and the last goes for planetary assault. The planetary assault is the largest fleet.

The fuel depot is flanked and fighting is fierce, but it escapes harm. The antimatter facility is damaged, but not severely. The planetary raid punches through the defending ships by sheer numbers, emerging badly damaged. The remaining attackers rain thousands of drop pods at the planet. Many of them are undoubtedly dummies, but there's no way to know which. Only about a third of the drop ships are destroyed on the way down. Reports indicate that only about 20% of the remaining pods actually contained Sith attack driods. Only about 200 droids actually make it to the planet and they are contained swiftly. Alynn's attack has failed. We're confused.

The Emperor is thrilled, he thinks he's won. We get into the double think. The attack was massive but badly staged, Bellisarius would never have committed himself to such a fiasco. But if it were just diversionary or meant as a plot, he'd have made it look better. It was so sloppy it must have just been Alynn's fault. Maybe that's what he wants us to think. What could be the purpose of such a poorly planned attack? What's Bellisarius up to? Aegon thinks that maybe Bellisarius just underestimated the defenses and besides, he probably didn't think that a Jedi would be coordinating them. We're still suspicious. It was too easy.

Elbram wants to farsee the future to find out if there's a surprise coming our way. He fails to penetrate the mysteries of the possible.

Quindo - "Why don't you meditate for an hour and try again? You'll be closer to the future then so it'll be easier to sense!"

Elbram is tired and ends up slipping into a meditative trance for almost 3 hours, but now he must be a LOT closer to the future. The vision is faint and garbled. Elbram sees himself running to get somewhere to help someone or stop something. He gets a sense that it's close but not imminent, perhaps one to three days. We give up and attend the Emperor's Victory Party (but we bring our lightsabers).

Aegon decides to mingle to find out the details of various clan struggles. Quindo leaves and goes to the scene of Igashu's abduction to find out what he can. Elbram tells Shiba Yoshioko about his premonition and she sends him to talk to "Spymaster" Doji Hikori (Kakita). He tells Elbram that he knows Igashu was taken in a Miramoto jet and openly wonders why Igashu specifically was taken, apparently they lured him on purpose. Elbram mentions the connection between Dormammu and the Sith and her interest in Igashu may have something to do with it. Christina gets a sense of unease and pings Quindo to tell him that something is afoot but no idea what.

Meanwhile, Quindo has found evidence of lightsaber use at the scene of the abduction, but only one, probably Igashu. He also finds a price tag for an expensive kimono which may indicate that Igashu was getting a new outfit for travelling? The Force is sometimes vague. He gets a ping from the party and calls a taxi. After waiting for several minutes he notices that the city is too quiet and there's no traffic. The taxi isn't coming, so he "borrows" a bicycle that's chained nearby and heads for the palace as fast as he can pedal.

Meanwhile, Elbram senses that Bayushi Shoju seems distracted but smug, clearly he's planning something. An attempt to glean information on the immediate future fails, but Elbram tries to put himself near the Bayushi leader just in case. The Emperor raises a toast and Shoju asks him "Do I have your support to do whatever is necessary to protect the Empire?" The Emperor says "Of course!" Elbram, Aegon, and Christine are all fairly alert at this point and are ready when Shoju draws a sword at the Emperor's response. Both Aegon and Elbram try to push the sword away with Telekinesis and feel unusual resistance, Christine shoves at Shoju himself and fails. As far as anyone not a Jedi sees, Shoju's sword comes out and passes cleanly through the Emperor's neck in one swift motion, beheading him instantly. All the Bayushi in the room draw weapons and attack. Several close quickly with the Emperor's daughter.

Elbram quickly moves to protect the princess (she's cute). Aegon and Christine try to fend off the rest as best they can. Quindo arrives outside the palace and is stopped by a guard. Quindo notices sharpshooters on the walls and the guard is not wearing his armor quite right, he's clearly an imposter. Quindo grabs the guard and uses him as a shield while drawing his lightsaber. Men come from both sides and in front, he can't approach the palace gates without being flanked.

Inside, Elbram calls on the Force to leap across the remaining distance and put himself between the princess and her attackers then cuts down 2 of them with one swing. Christina protects her friend Kakita Ichiro and uses [Affect Mind] to convince one of Ichiro's attackers to defend him instead.