After the failed coup attempt and attack on the crystal mines of Glom Tho the SHADOW WING has retreated to the hidden reaches of the Unknown Regions. Biding their time, the pirates gather strength and make new plans.
A dramatic rescue saves the crew of the Fortune of Greepo. New information is learned and new contacts are made. Using the data taken from the Stellite Monks, the Jedi Taanar Ryl and her companions follow Master Frowd to a meeting with the SHADOW WING...
As the crew of the Fortune of Greepo - or Alpha Star, as it was currently known - stood over the unconscious form of Master Frowd of the Stellite Monks, they were joined by the team of additional Antarian Rangers who had accompanied them to Canyon City. One of these Rangers, a Kaminoan named Ayja, was a trained medic and she immediately began to use med packs to treat the injuries that Ren and Nema had suffered. At Taanar Ryl's direction, Ranger Ayja kept Master Frowd under sedation.
Moments later, the local Canyon City constabulary arrived, demanding to know what was going on in the alley. Taanar Ryl introduced herself to the lead constable, Inspector Bek, using her full title, which seemed to cow him. Bek still insisted that the constables should take Master Frowd into protective custody. As a contingent of constables began to escort the team to the docking bay where their ship awaited them, Taanar's commlink beeped. It was Ferb aboard their ship. He anxiously reported that Stellite monks had surrounded the docking bay, though at present they weren't trying to get inside or making any hostile moves. Ayja then murmured to the rest of the team that she had used her datapad to tap into the constables' comm channel and had heard them receiving orders to detail the Jedi Order team. Ayja added that she was unable to contact the Stellar Flare. Communications were being jammed.
Inspector Bek announced that they needed to stop and wait for a moment due to a "disturbance." Realizing that they were being set up for an ambush, Ren slipped behind one of the constables and held his vibroknife to the man's back, ordering him to drop his weapon. The constable responded by grappling with Ren and pinning him so he couldn't move. Taanar quickly told Ferb to take off immediately, but he responded that someone had attached docking clamps to the Alpha Star. Taanar then turned on the constables, demanding, "Are you attempting to detain representatives of the Jedi Order?" Her demeanor intimidated the constables enough that they all abandoned their posts and fled.
Ayja pulled up detailed maps of Canyon City on her datapad as the group attempted to plan their escape. They needed to get outside the city to a location where they might be able to overcome the signal jamming, which Ayja estimated reached 500 kilometers. The Kaminoan Ranger suggested that they take a hovertrain out of the city into the countryside and find a way to get to the top of the canyon, where they might have a better chance of reaching the Stellar Flare. Taanar agreed, and Ayja purchased tickets for them. Taanar told Ferb to remain calm and sent the other Rangers to the Alpha Star's docking bay to keep an eye on the monks and look for an opportunity to release the docking clamps.
The hovertrain took them along the river that flowed at the bottom of the canyon, carrying them out into rural areas. Ayja applied her medical skills to Nema and Ren's injuries on the way. Taanar received a communication from the Ranger contingent at the docking bay, informing her that the monks had suddenly departed and boarded speeders heading down the canyon in the same direction as the train. Ren searched Frowd thoroughly for tracking devices but found nothing. Taanar explained to her companions that if other monks were Force users like Frowd it might be possible for them to detect his location through the Force, but the Secura brothers were convinced that it had to be a device and even looked for surgical scars on Frowd that could indicate the presence of an implant.
Since it seemed that the monks somehow knew where the Jedi and Ranger group were, Ayja suggested they disembark from the hovertrain and hire riding animals called thumpers to ride down a side canyon in search of a way to the top. Nema and Den bought a service droid's entire supply of protein bars and a large quantity of sib in resealable containers, some of which they emptied and refilled with water.
The narrow side canyon that led away from the train stop required the party to ride their thumpers in single file. Ayja took the lead because she had the maps. She was followed by Ren, Taanar, the still-unconscious Frowd strapped securely to his mount, then Nema and Den at the rear of the line. As they rode along a narrow path climbing the canyon wall, Den lost his balance and fell off his thumper. Ren teased his brother, saying, "Can't hold your sib?" Neema asked her cousin, "Is the trip too boring? Did you fall asleep?" Den got up sheepishly, unharmed, and had just mounted his thumper again when three wamp rats suddenly appeared from a pile of rocks and leaped out, one attacking Ren's mount and the other two going after Den's thumper. Both brothers managed to stay in the saddle, but Den's mount lost its footing and fell, landing on Den's leg. Ren activated his vibroknife to defend himself and his steed. Nema drew her blaster and fired on the two wamp rats attacking Den's fallen thumper. Ren turned his thumper around, leaped off, and hit one of the rats. Taanar reached out through the Force and sent the rat by Ren plunging into the canyon. The remaining rat, left without a pack, fled back into the rocks.
Ayja treated the injuries to Den's thumper, and he remounted to continue the journey up the canyon. As the path neared the top of the wall, the party found an alcove inset into the rock that showed signs of recent activity by sentient beings. An opening at the back led up onto the land at the top of the canyon walls. Just as they reached this point, they heard the sound of repulsor engines echoing off the canyon walls, drawing nearer to their location. The alcove provided little cover.
A voice on a loudspeaker called out, "Release our comrade and we'll let you live!" Den looked at Frowd and realized that the Stellite master was awake. He held his blaster to Frowd's head and threatened to kill him, but he suddenly felt that he didn't want to harm Frowd and instead wanted to release him. When he moved to free the monk from the binder cuffs that restrained Frowd, Nema realized what was going on and shouted out for Den to stop. Ren then grabbed his brother and began struggling with him, trying to restrain him. Nema threw the contents of a container of sib in her cousin's face, which caused him to stop fighting Ren but didn't eliminate the compulsion to release Frowd.
Taanar spoke to her comrades, warning them that they couldn't accept the monks' claim that they would be set free if they released Frowd. She turned on Frowd, telling him, "Release the Ranger or I'll throw you off this cliff!" To emphasize the threat, Ren held a knife to Frowd's throat.
Frowd responded by using the Force to throttle Ren. This broke his control over Den. Ren responded to the threat on his life by stabbing Frowd in the neck. Ayja hadn't given Frowd any treatment after the earlier fight beyond sedating him, and no one had realized how badly he was hurt. The stab wound was fatal. Released from the choking invisible grip on his throat, Ren shoved Frowd over the cliff edge, his body falling into one of the open-sided speeders the monks had arrived in.
Most of the Stellite acolytes had vaulted onto the cliff ledge by this point. One of them, a reptilian Falleen, threw a sword at Ren and it began to attack him as though of its own will, revealing that there was a second Force user among the monks. Den hurled a grenade into a group of four acolytes just outside the alcove. Nema sensed a wave of cold rage from the Falleen but experienced no ill effect. Taanar lifted a huge boulder at the opening of the alcove and tried to crush the Falleen and an acolyte with it. The Falleen dodged.
At the back of the alcove, Ayja drew her blaster and fired on one of the acolytes close by, seriously wounding him. Nema then used the Force to yank the blaster out of the acolyte's hand and pull it to her. The acolyte who had been disarmed switched places with one of his comrades and took up a position near the Falleen at the edge of the ledge. The Falleen reached out through the Force and began to choke Taanar, who was better able to withstand the assault than Ren had been. But she lost control of the boulder and was unable to lift it again. That didn't stop her from leaping over the boulder to land beside the Falleen, igniting her lightsaber as she jumped and slashing at him when she landed. The acolyte Nema had disarmed tried to attack her with a knife but wasn't able to touch her.
Ren scrambled over the boulder to position himself on the other side of the Falleen. Taanar was hit by blaster fire when she failed to deflect it. She slashed the Falleen with her saber. Then Ren stabbed him in the neck as he had done with Frowd. The Falleen collapsed, green blood pumping from the wound for a few moments before his heart stopped.
Taanar turned to the acolyte behind her. "Find another way of life," she said. The acolyte leaped into one of the speeders. Taanar repeated the same message to the remaining Stellite acolytes, and the speeders departed. While Ayja treated everyone's blaster burns, the brothers searched the Falleen's body, finding a code cylinder that Ayja identified as being for a secure commlink. The group then climbed up to the top of the canyon and contacted the Stellar Flare for pickup. A contingent of Rangers returned the thumpers to their owner.
Aboard the Stellar Flare, the team reviewed the secure commlink they had taken from the Stellite master. It led to a hypertransceiver directed at an unknown planet in the Unknown Regions. But that link led back to the planet Taris, which lay well within the boundaries of the New Republic. Taris had been devastated during the war, but there were still industrial areas where space slugs and slime slick could be found, suggesting that might be where the Shadow Wing pirates were holding Imperial Knight Vima Montari. The question now was, would the Fortune team go to Taris or to investigate the planet in the Unknown Regions?
Next: Episode 11, The Rot Within part 1
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