Admiral Ktern checked his sealed orders once more.  It was inconceivable that his superiors were commanding him to capture one of their own.  The Silth had enough enemies without resorting to infighting and petty power struggles.

Well there was no denying it – he had to arrest General Kofus before he married that lizard bitch princess, Cordillia.  Of all the races in the galaxy Kofus had to fall in love with a Ceran.  The Silth Empire’s very existence hung in the balance.  There were those followers of the Dayunth way of thought who thought the Silth’s future lay in embracing the other star faring races as equals and those of the Relgoran belief that believed Silth were superior to all other races and it was destiny to conquer them all.

Ktern had seen too much of the universe to believe the Relgoran’s philosophy, but he was also well aware that the Dayunths were too naïve.  The other races were duplicitous and individually inferior to the Silth.  Together, however, they presented a problem.  The middle road was probably best, but right now the Relgorans controlled the privy council.

It would have been so easy to kill the two of them, but that would have made Kofus a martyr.  And he certainly couldn’t kill Cordillia without making a permanent enemy of Kofus.  Politics was complicated stuff and Ktern longed for the simpler days when all arguments could be settled with a blaster pistol duel.

Nexus was too powerful a target to approach directly, so he settled for waiting in the nearby deserted system of Tevangal.  The sun had long ago burnt out, its fried core no longer giving energy to the two planets that remained.  His battleship, Fury, was the finest Silth technology had to offer with 20 particle beam cannons and several mass throwers for the more stubborn targets in addition to 10 Gecko fighters for longer range attacks.  The ship may be superior to any others, but it was useless for this mission.  Instead, the best approach was to send in a small team of “diplomats” in a Cartel and attempt to kidnap the couple.

Once the diplomats escape with the prisoners and rendezvous with the Fury, Ktern could head for home. The princess would likely be kept alive until the Cerans paid a large ransom and agreed to cede some territory to the Silth.  Kofus would be forced to denounce the Dayunth and help Husmanus, the Relgoran chief, to consolidate his power. Ktern had to be patient.  He had no idea when the general and his bride would arrive at Nexus – he only knew they would eventually pass through there on their way to the Ceran capitol, Ranoc.  Ktern’s thoughts shifted back to his drink as he swirled the cubes and tasted the delicious smokiness of the terran made alcohol.  At least the humans had contributed something to the universe – scotch whisky!

Summary:

The party mis-jumped to the Nexus sector and is way off target and is nowhere near the Nexus Portal. On their way to Nexus they stopped at a newly colonized Madji planet named Ji’Jon. There is only one settlement on the planet based around their colony ship, the Jo’Fla (which they have been scavenging for parts).

As the party’s ship, the Truculent, heads towards the planet a small, very damaged Madji Frigate is leaving after it had performed emergency repairs. It brought news of a pitched battle with Silth ships at the nearby star of Po’Jami. They also discovered that refueling here will be very expensive because of the scarcity.

After landing they find that someone has stolen the town’s power generator’s fuel rods. If they recover them the mayor agrees to refuel their ship. The mayor has a device which can detect the direction the fuel rods are in and it points to some nearby mountains. The mayor suspects some radical, back-to-nature, elements in his town stole the rods – bonus points if the Truculent’s crew can discover the culprit in addition to recovering the rods.

Ji’jon was thoroughly surveyed prior to colonization guaranteeing that there was no indigenous intelligent life on the planet. The survey was wrong! While tracking the rods, the group encounters a race of creatures resembling a cross between kangaroos and dogs. They are able to easily leap 10 meters and stab with their spear. One of the Dowari pointed their spear at Boone obviously challenging him to a one-on-one duel. The Dowari began the duel with a powerful leap and stab with the spear, minorly wounding the well-armored Boone. Having only one weapon, a powerful Assault Rifle, Boone shot the Dowari stunning him and causing some serious bleeding. The Dowari warrior quickly acknowledged Boone’s combat prowess and conceded the duel.

Other Dowari challenged other party members to duels. Each ended just as predictably – the Dowari conceded the duel because of the party’s superior skill and weaponry. After the duels the Dowari led the party into their mountain cave and led them to the power rods.

It was obvious the the party that they were inside a buried spaceship! The power rods were reverently placed near their own generator. The Dowari knew from their sacred texts that they needed the rods to power up their ship but even the high-priest didn’t have the ability to install them. The party took pity on the Dowari and installed half the rods and took the other half back to town.

Needless to say the mayor was less than pleased to learn that their planetary claim may be in jeopardy and they had failed to recover all the rods.