Catching a Falling Knife - Part 1.0

That multi-week vacation on Chalcedon was wonderful. Very relaxing. Several days in my dressing gown and slippers sipping caf and discussing mathematical theories. Ahhh!
 
There was only a little news in the Chalcedon System:
 
The new Crimson Knights have a new home on Chalcedon guarding the Infinity Gates. They are working on some kind of iris to close it to prevent just anything from coming through. And they are gentrifying the ruins.
 
The Hutts mostly left for Nar Shadda, leaving only a small scientific exploration team to study the Hyperspace Warp.
 
Hicks has a new-to-him droid SK-873, "Scooter", built be Annikin and his daughter Leia as a father-daughter project.
 
Chancellor Canter sent a "sensitive" summons. Derma the Hutt, who loves working with the Chancellor suggested to show it to all of us. Usually meetings with the Chancellor are a pants-required event. She showed us a Tie Fighter squad sighted in the system two weeks ago, not from the Katana fleet, positioning for a hyperspace jump. Abruptly, a dark-hulled Lucrehulk Battleship materialized in the middle, not at all a hyperspace jump. Danar recognized it as a decloaking. It had been hiding there.
 
It looked identical to the one the Nightsisters were working on, minus the large holes in the side.
 
It fired missiles, then a new type of weapon, spearing out in a steady stream of energy. They also emitted boarding vessels which rammed deep into a larger ship, then drilled out after stealing something. They also took some of the escape pods.
 
Then it cloaked(?) again and vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
 
The chancellor said that that ship had appeared and attacked two other times, always at the edge of the system. They also attacked a fuel convoy, spherical ships of fuel in an armored ball with escorts. A giant space train. They drained two of the pods and stole the fuel. Something like black-armored biker scouts (a very well-trained militia) materialized inside the common area inside a miner's ship. Barishe the Hutt's Boys defended them, wearing the insignia of the Kadjidic. The attackers dematerialized like they appeared. Sensors showed they had vanished, not just turned invisible.
 
The troopers had a lot of electronics in them. At least one's suit was recovered. All the ones that died were human and did not dematerialize after death.
 
The boarding shuttles were all looking for something specific. Battle tactic plans of the Empire, and Lieutenant Felderk Jessip, whom we swayed away from working for Admiral Thrawn.
 
Crimson Nova swiped Danar's cloaking shield belt technology.
 
There were plans around Kyber crystals, planetary defense laser, and Noki Sunfell's name was on the list.
Planet Auratera in the outer rim is mentioned, a world which had suffered during the clone wars, low population.
 
Noki had been hanging out with the clone troopers.
 
A human tech walked in with his latest discovery. The lightweight commando armor was a black body suit with black armor. He set it all out. It absorbs light. Danar asked if it was Vantablack. It was. It looked like a black hole shaped like an armor plate. The inside was lined with compartments that link much like Mandalorean armor and Arc-Trooper armor. Each piece combines into a whole which can aid other components of the armor. He attached an ordinary power cell and the armor vanished along with the power cell. Touching it, Danar's hand turned invisible too. When he turned it off, Danar got a small ionization / electrostatic shock.
 
Danar check closely, and found the circuitry and wiring was vastly different, but it clearly copied Vor shield belts.
 
mercenaries and bounty hunters?
 
The Sisters of The Steel Rose are unhappy and considering the option of a crusade.
 
Took escape pods , they were tapped into the Imperial sensors, which means it was an inside job.
 
Danar put the helmet on his head and asked the Tech to activate it while I used his odd arcane lens and several electronic sensors borrowed from the Tech's pockets. He mentioned it was similar to the feeling when Vanya says the Force is With Us during a combat. He claimed the helmet's heads-up-display pulled up a dossier on Vanya and her strengths and weaknesses.
 
Vanya said this was not written by K7 troopers. She deduced that this dossier could have been written by (and the HUD developed by) Tapani Vor technology. Vanya theorized Almon might have written it.
 
The helmet's dossier on me falsely listed me as "Mentat of House Vorpalagia". It recommended imprisoning me under concrete rather than attempting to kill me.
 
Danar texted to me much of hte dossier on Almon.
 
Ysanne Isard - female mentat candidate who washed out in freshman year- hyper focused - redhead -
 
Zaye noticed that those inviso troopers were physically enhanced and trained in military movement, marching, etc. They move like enhanced clones, with very precise timing. A very specific training. A clone trained them. In the environment of Zaye's adopted Father's training studio. He thought assassins were superior to mercenaries. The BG assassin order, The Void. (Davish became quite still at the mention of that name.)
 
No one who was cloaked got hit by stray shots.
 
Power cells scattered all over it. It has emergency power reserves scattered around it like a capitol ship.
 
Davish knows what the room was for The Void training. Zaye repeated the kata at his request, and he performed a matching kata designed to counter each move in her knife kata. "The Knights know the Void," he said, "The Void tried to assassinate Palpatine. While he was alive that was part of our training." The Crimson Knights backed up the Crimson Guard, but were loyal to the throne, not, the guy on the throne (which was as much rebellion as could be included in their training).
 
Vanya said we needed to look at Palpatine's enemies from before he was chancellor, when he was a senator of Naboo. Palpatine constantly pitted groups against each other to let the cream of the crop rise to the top.
 
Those trained in The Void were trained to Live in the Void. Consume a life until we are called upon. (Very deep cover.)
Someone trained by a student of The Void could continue the training after it was officially wrecked.
 
Almon noted the Jessup is different. He was an acquisition. He was a noble man. Vanya spotted it.
 
The chancellor receive a call. Oh boy. Vanya and I had to solve a situation.
 
We went quickly to the spaceport and met with a Librarian and Commissar Celestima (retired ship computer of a Sith emperor). CC was speaking to the trooper, Goss, who did not give her free reign. She was - well - not "pleased" but down to her normal levels of formal stress - to see us.
 
Vanya welcomed her. She learned that "her" Lt Jessup was missing, and that she could start a Sith campaign to burn the universe until she got him back, or she could just seek counseling from Vanya. Vanya arranged a diplomatic meeting place to discuss current events, hosted by Derma the Hutt, the only hoity-toity possibility that might impress CC. V introduced Danar to CC. And Davish showed excellent court skills. CC's body was designed to be able to eat most foods. CC was part of hte Sun Spear prior to getting her bio-cybernetic body.
 
Fritz was cooking something special for Derma and the dinner.
 
Yeager was injured?
 
Inviso-Troopers attacked the nearby cantina. I tried to map out the last known locations of the invisible enemies and send the information to our Clone Troopers' helmets.
 
I tapped into Vanya's sight beyond sight and added her senses to mine and to the Troopers' tactical displays.
 
Noki found that they were searching for her all along. Captain Koleen assisted her.
Can the LENS see anything when the cloaking device is active? Danar found that, yes, he sees a blur in the air where the cloaked insivo-troopers are.
 
Danar found that sonic attacks are absorbed but interfere with the cloak.
 
CC found that her kinetic lightning attack could pull the kidnapper inviso-trooper away from Noki.
 
I found that the newly installed air raid sirens could duplicate the frequencies of Danar's sonic stunner at pretty decent volume (I dialed it down a bit), and Eureka!!!! It caused the cloak effect to deactivate.
 
Vanya learned Cortosis, or a similar alloy in the inviso-trooper armor absorbs most of the damage of a light saber. I throerized that a low frequency vibration like the sound of a lightsaber would likely resonate and crack the Cortosis fibers if loud enough. Captain Kolleen shouted that the Sisters of Battle's pistols were not just a blast, but a continuous beam which could overheat the cortosis.
 
It worked. We shattered the inviso-troopers' armor.
 
Then a getaway vehicle zoomed in overhead and dropped four flash-bang grenades!