Stephanie McKibben, Author
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Captain Candy's Starlog, Post Mission: HOTH (Part 3)

1/9/2025

 
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Episode 1

Chronicles of The Desperate Measures

If you need to review or catch-up, see all the missions under THE DESPERATE MEASURES tag in the Categories in the right side bar (If you're on a computer) ------------------------>>>>>>>

​Or if you're on your phone, you can see the Categories at the end of this post! 
​
This is my record keeping with embellishments of a Star Wars Role Playing Game we played in the year 2020.

Cast of Characters

Vidar Starhawk - Jedi General. Human. 
Jaris Marr - Mercenary. Mechanic. Miraluka. 
Candy - Pilot. Gunslinger. Duros. 
Mandragore - Hired Gun. Mandalorian. 
Hell Shepard - Demo Expert. Clone Trooper. 
Jess - Force Wielder. Night Sister. 
​Snidely - ID9 seeker droid.

The Story Behind the Game

Winding down from the scary mission that was HOTH, the players wrote to each other out of game on our discord server and played as our characters during the times we weren't playing. The previous article that you can find here is part 1 of these conversations and part 2. 

​Here is a refresher of the HOTH mission: 
​A shady contact of Candy's gets in touch to see if she and her crew can find a Dr. Twoie on Hoth.

We found vampire-zombie rats, ghouls, and an important serum that can make a person into some super rakghoul. Our trooper found a data chip with important schematics that have to do with the entire army of storm troopers. If you follow Star Wars you know this probably refers to Order 66. 

I thought I was going to die. I did pass out. (Okay, my character passed out─I was having fun)

The post mission shenanigans is long so I'm going to break it up. But by this time, we were all totally into it and having a great time extending the game to outside play time, writing back and forth to each other as our characters. This was my first foyer into discord but caught on quickly to the different rooms. 

This was still the best game ever and I wish we had a recording of it. Alas, this is all I have. 

You'll see different characters doing different things. I'll try to keep it all together but no promises. You'll see speech tags most the time, but not always. Hopefully by now you can tell the difference of language to tell who's talking.  
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Please make note: There are grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. I can't catch them all. Thank you for your understanding. ​​
Start at Episode 1
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Post Mission: Hoth
​Part 3

Candy finds Vidar is Meditating in his room. "Am I disturbing you, general?" Candy says.

“No come on in.”

Candy strolls in and nods to Vidar. "Hi, General. Sooo..." She looks around. "Now that we've had time, I want to know your thoughts on what to do with the vials." She holds her palms toward him "Without the morality of it. What would you do?"

“Well, I would give them to a scientist I trust. Problem is I am not aware of any. So, I would hide them where only we can find them. if it weren’t for the fact we might need either I would destroy them. Problem is we have no idea if that was the only facility. I would rather not have to brave those things again to get a sample if we need it.”

Candy laughs about her dilemma. "Oh, General, the problem is, I trust myself - to let this momentary morality pass and sell it. The temptation to use it will come soon enough. One way or another." Candy sobers. "The consensus is, destroy them." Candy sinks her shoulders and leans against the wall.

“I want to help your friend. But we can’t give those who want to kill him this stuff. That leaves finding another way to help him. Which I suspect won’t be easy.”

"Can't save everyone," Candy sighs softly.

“Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to help him.”

Candy hums. "The only people I want to save are on this ship."

“So you want to leave the man counting on you hanging? Should we not at least have him run?”

"Oh, I'll talk to him. Depending on what he says, I'll decide what I do with him."

Mandragore knocks on the side of the open door. He took the time during the meeting to sanitize himself and his armor. It's hard to tell with the black coloring but it’s suspect his armor was sanitized with his flame thrower.

"Hello, Easy. What say you?"

"Sorry but I'm rather new to this group. I've done the best I can to catch up but I'm still rather lost on the specifics of the situation. Can someone please provide a brief summary of the dilemma at hand?"
Candy looks to Vidar with a warning glance. "Sure. Short of it is, the vials we got from the mad doctor contains a virus. That virus makes rakghouls. We have the supposed antidote, but now the issue is, do I give the vials to my contact to save his life?"

"I see how the cure could save his life but how is the rakgoul infection going to save him?"

"Ah, yes. Every good story starts at the beginning. I was contracted to get a sample from doc twoie. My contact needed them to give to his superior or they were gonna kill 'em."

"So why don't we just kill the people threatening to kill him?"

“That is one way to deal with nasty people who likely were seeking the rakghoul plague.”

Candy messages her temples.

"Wait, you're telling me I'm the first one to think of that?"

"No. You're not. But that is the simple answer. Wait." Candy mumbles. "Why me? Why send us? Did he know what I was getting? It was so convenient that he had guard and inmate garb.” Candy sighs. "Okay, so, Rickey sends me on this mission. Let's review some things. One, if we save him or bring him along, what's to say he doesn't rat us out and bring his overlords to us? Two, is he even worth saving? Three, if we give his overlords the rat ghoul plague, whose to say they won't go from planet to planet threatening to infect everyone unless they get a randsom. Four, there are people here that seem to know who Rickey works for, including me, and they aren't people that are that easy to take out."

"Overlords?"

"Top level. Think crime lords."

"Oh. That's very bad"

"It would be like taking on Black Sun. You wanna take on Black Sun? How would we even know who runs the triumverant?"

"Okay, let's say we do the obvious good moral thing and destroy the virus and handover the antidote. What's the worst thing that happens as a result?'

"Another evil doctor backwards engineers the antidote to make the virus. Then everyone but those who join the triumverant or give into their demands get turned into rakghouls."

"And what if we don't give them anything?"

"They kill Rickey, possibly come after us."

"We have multiple vials of antidote correct?"

"Yes."

"Then how about this: We destroy the virus and give them one vial of antidote. We keep the rest and hang onto them until we find a scientist we trust not to weaponize or overly profit off the antidote and give it to those people for reproduction as a potential counter to the underworld. We also tell the underworld some dung about how the virus was destroyed in the lab before we could get it."

Candy hums.

“That still leaves millions in jeopardy,” Vidar says.

Mandagore turns to Starhawk "Is there an option that doesn't either leave millions in jeopardy or thousands on our ass? At least with this there is a chance that an available antidote will exist to counter the underworld."

Candy laughs. "And now you see the merry-go-round I've been dealing with. It's either black or white. And all I care about are the people on this ship."

Vidar stands tall. “I have been raised to care about the consequences of my actions and think ahead to what may happen.”

"Way I see it, my idea gives everybody a fighting chance, and us something good to fight for." Mandragore crosses his arms.

“Only those who have access to the antidote quickly and likely where they would hit would be a moderate population center where the infection would spread fast and out of control before the antidote could be gotten to them. This would be demonstration.”

"Then what's your idea?" Mandragore waves to Vidar.

Jess appears with a nail file, working on her hands, leaning up against the wall. "I like the Mando's plan."

Candy closes her eyes. "I'm telling you. Leave it with me and temptation will be too great. One of you will get hurt, I'll need repairs to the ship. Or... something... and I'll be selling that vial for one of your lives, or repairs, or..."

"Then I'll keep it." Jess says matter of factly, "You won’t be able to take it from me." She says with a smirk.

A cheshire grin crosses Candy's face. "Careful now, that sounds like a temptation all itself."

"Can we save the flirting until after we figure out what to do with the bio-weapons?" If the mando had eyes, they were sure to be rolling.

Candy laughs then shakes her head. "I think I should talk to Rickey and find out what he knows. His answers might give me a better understanding."

"You all are very loud, you know that?" Jaris called down the hall from the engine room.

Candy pokes her head out "Join the party."

Jess nods. "My offer is real. I will hold onto it until you find your," she air quotes. "Trustworthy doctor."

Candy straightens, her tone sober. "I know you would. But I want to throw everything into a sun and pretend it didn't happen."

Vidar shakes his head. “I think talking to Ricky is what we need to do. We need to know more.”

Jaris does indeed step down the hall, a bit of grease on his bare arms and hands as he rounds the corner. "Is this a party? I don't smell any food or ale. Odd time for one to be honest." He joked, his gaze falling over Candy and Jess for a moment before focusing on the others. "Toss the virus into a star, then talk to Ricky."

"Tempting. I might throw Rickey into the sun just to be sure."

“I don’t want to fight rakghouls to get more if the antidote doesn’t work.”

"Your chances of fighting more of them goes way up if you don't destroy the virus before we reach the planet." Jaris says.

Vidar smiles grimly at Candy. “Well that is one way to deal with him.”

"Unless Candy knows a moon somewhere remote we can stash it on." Jaris turns to the captain.

Vidar shrugs. “Only if someone doesn’t know we have it.

"Considering he asked us to do it, I'd wager the list of those who know we went there is high."

“I know places that are not on most maps.” Vidar says.

Candy raises a brow "I don't need maps. Remote moon, remote moon." Candy mumbles rubbing her forehead. "Hey, do you think it'd be safe in that temple with the shiny box? It would have it's very own protector."

Jess stares. “You mean in that death trap?"

"No Candy." The mechanic flat out refuses.

"Yeah!" She waves to Jess. "Totally, who would go in that creepy place?"

"Creepy people who might use a virus to destroy the galaxy?" Jaris says.

"Were there people in it?"

Jess shakes her head. "The Triumverate already know about....."

"Just no Candy." Jaris repeats. "If we want to stash the virus it needs to be somewhere no one would think to look, with no presence of any kind, and no life either. So a barren moon or asteroid." Jaris says.
Candy deflates. "Sorry. Thought it was a good idea." Her eyes slide to Jess.

"Look it’s a long story and I kinda already spilled to Jaris.” Jess says. “Short version was. I didn’t have control of my actions and they did..... they sent me to that planet to look for something so they know about it."

Candy's eyes widen. "You're with them."

Jess sighs. "I was lent out to them. They hurt me, and broke me, mind and body.... I had no control." She turns to Vidar. "The used a technique to bend me to their will. I would still be there if the passing of Mother Talzin has not stirred my mind enough to break free. I'm sure you have heard of such things. I thought I would be stranded on that planet but then you all showed up."

"Please don't get me wrong. I trust you. We would've been pulled out of hyperspace or you would've done something before we're almost there to the crew, the vials, whatever." Candy looks to Vidar and watches him closely.

“Powerful Darksiders have been known to do such things. They need to be dealt with. But that is not the immediate problem or one we are equipped to handle.”

Candy seems to relax at Vidar’s comment. "Dealt with indeed."

Jess shudders.

The movement doesn’t go unnoticed and Candy starts shaking.

Vidar looks at Jess. “I understand. it is a horrible thing they did to you. If I could go kill them for you I would. But I dont think I am to the point of being able to do that. I wish you had said something earlier. I was operating under incomplete data. That makes for bad planning. What can you tell us about them?"

"Whats wrong?" Jaris goes to Jess and touches her elbow.

"Aftershocks." she mumbles. "I don't remember what they look like. just shadows in hoods. but they pretend to be petty crime lords and they have hidden themselves, from the Jedi, the Nightsisters, even the Sith didn't seem to know of them. Jaris's people are force sensitive and he didn't seem to know either.” Trying to force memories seems to cause pain for Jess and she starts to wobble.

Vidar catches Jess. “It is ok. take it slow.”

Jess is breaththing heavily but trying to slow it. "I'm fine. it's ok."

Vidar guides Jess to a chair then goes and gets her some cool water.

Candy leaves the room, passing everyone without a word and goes to the cockpit's communications.

Jaris gives Jess a concerned look then calls out to Candy louder than before, stepping out into the hall he makes his way down to the cockpit. "What are you doing Captain?"

Candy knashes buttons on the communicator. "Get on the line you son of a bitch!"

Jaris rushes to the cockpit, reaches out a hand to take Candy by the wrist to stop her. "Calm down."

Candy uses her other hand to speak into the communicator "You think you have problems?"

With his other hand Jaris goes to turn off the communicator. "What are you doing?"

Candy spins around to the nav computer and hits a button. The ship comes out of hyperspace. "I'll kill him. Kill him. It's going to be worse than a sun." Candy's whole body shakes.

"You were calm one moment ago, what has gotten into you Candy? What did you realize and why did you drop us out of hyperspace?"

Candy shakes, starts tapping her fingers as if figuring a mathematical equation. "I know what we'll do. I'll set a trap. He'll open it, get infected, then I'll watch him lose his mind, slowly. Then maybe give him the antidote. Then infect him all over again. Then I'll kill him piece by piece."

"That’s enough, you'll do no such thing because that’s not the kind of person you are, nor are you dumb so can we stop being reckless?" Jaris is intense and serious, staring into the aura that is her presence in the force. "We need a plan, something we can execute, not wild rage."

Vidar walks into the cockpit. “I have a destination to hide this stuff for now.”

Candy's eyes are crazed, she answers Vidar. "No. I have a better idea." Then she looks to Jaris. Her eyes gain some clarity. She takes a breath and steadies herself. "I have a plan, if you care to hear it."

Jaris nods his head and releases her wrist.

She takes another steady breath. "We could put the antidote in a case. Track it. See who comes for it when I contact Rickey. Follow them. And maybe we can find out who these fuckers are."

“I think Jess already knows but we still need to hide the rest. So as to keep it out of reach. One vial of antidote as bait has potential. But I think we need to talk to Ricky first. Together. We need to assess his part. Wes he a pawn like Jess? Is he a dupe? Is he willingly involved?”

"Vidar is right, we need to know more before we make a final decision regarding Ricky."

Candy takes deep breaths as if she is gulping air. "Jess." Candy goes back to the room where Jess was last.

Jess sits slumped in the chair, leaning forward head between her legs. It looks like she's trying to catch her breath; hands on her head.

Candy drops to her knees and scoots towards Jess. She moves a strand of hair away from Jess' face.
Jess's breathing steadies. "I'm fine...." she whispers.

"Whats wrong?" Jaris asks as he looks into the room, studying her force aura for any changes. "Some kind of memory trigger?"

Candy presses a cool palm to Jess' forehead slick with sweat.

Candy uses her other hand to try to cool Jess' neck and face.

"Perhaps we should give her some space to breathe and cool down?" Jaris says, looking at the others.

"She needs water."

Jaris takes the glass he notices on the table and hands it over.

Jess takes it carefully her fingers lightly brushing Jaris' and she tries to force a smile.

Vidar
goes and fills another glass hands it to Candy.

Candy looks at the glass, downs it, then hands it back. "Good boy. Find something stronger."

Vidar does and looks through the fridge looking at the beer selection. 

"I believe that was for Jess, Candy." Jaris says rather deadpan, glancing up at the ceiling for a moment as if rolling his eyes. "Any better Jess?"

Vidar skips past the beer...hmmm Jedha Sake.. pulls out the bottle. “You’ve been to Jedha Candy?”

Candy smiles. "Of course."

“Is this cold Sake or hot Sake?” Vidar says as he sets it on the counter to get some shot glasses.

Jess leans back up, her already pale palor leaning more white. "I said I am fine. I just.... I can't think about what happened."

"Well you have two choices.” Candy goes to the table. “Let me in your lap or let me drink."

"Just have to keep your mind on something else then, no need to test just how bad that can get....wait what?" Jaris had to take a second to pause and think about what Candy had just said.

Jess reaches up to candy. "It's ok. Please relax"

“Hey Candy is this suppose to be served hot or cold?” Vidar still holds the bottle.

Candy looks up to Vidar and smiles. "You might like it warm."

Candy sits back down and huddles into Jess' lap.

"Woah ok...." Jess is a little taken back. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I leave you all to this then, may that be the worst of it tonight." Jaris slipped backwards out of the room, brushing past Vidar and the sake he had brought with him, making his way the short distance between that bunk and the engine room. The door shut behind him.

Candy narrows her eyes as Jaris leaves. "I swear that boy needs to be honest with himself."

"Candy.... can I get up now?" Jess asks strained.

Candy stands and smiles a twinkle in her eye "You said to relax."

Vidar serves 4 glasses of warm Sake.

Jess sighs. "Not like that, not right now." she sees the sake and takes hers and Jaris's glass. "I better check on him." She stands, slowly making sure she has her feet under her.

"Good." Candy takes the sake.

Jess leaves and makes her way to the back.

Candy toasts Vidar and says, "So, what moon or asteroid would you suggest for placing the trap?"

“Well I have a place to drop off the stuff we are hiding. Maybe we should do two places. You pick a moon for the trap. I pick the place for the hiding. I will have R3PR put in the destination then erase it when we get there. that way you can tell things go bad. and I will have REPR pick a random one from a list so I dont know the coordinates either for the hiding spot. Droids can’t be influenced with the force and R3s are very very secure storage.”

Candy hums. "But they can be lost or stolen." Candy downs the sake. "But I guess it's for the best." She taps on her wrist console.

“Until we know more I don’t want to destroy options we may need.”

"Fine."

“We will have Hell Shepherd set some charges we can’t disarm so that it takes multiple to get to them and if opened improperly they incinerate.”

"Smart." Candy nods. "But he'll be able to disarm them? In case we need?"

“Yes. And they will be locked in a puzzle box so he cant open with out us. and we can't get to the planet with out R3PR. it requires a multipart key to get at.”

"Fine." Candy taps at her wrist controls.

After Candy sets down an empty shot glass, she leans forward towards Vidar and says, "So, while we're getting rid of a few slavers, you wanna throw off your own shackles?"

“Maybe reform their methods. They aren’t all bad. Misguided perhaps. They do mean well.”

"Are you talking about the Triumperant or the Jedi?"

“I don’t think the triumvirate mean well. They just want control.”

Candy shakes her head. "Vidar, the problem is they don't see themselves as slavers. And if you don't free yourself, you will become one." She stands. "Is that what Master Crix wanted for you?"

“Master Crix wanted to serve the galaxy. To help people. But I think the Jedi have bound themselves too much to the corrupting influence of the Senate. And that corruption is tainting the Jedi.”

Candy sits. "It sounds as though you are stuck. A soul that can see the corruption but doesn't know what to do about it." 

“It is even harder with this war...almost seems intentional...”

"Don't go back there then." She takes his hand.

Vidar hears an alert go off from the device given to him by Jocosta. She is trying to contact Vidar over a secure channel...
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Recap

Again, since this was a long, heavy conversation, I'm breaking it into parts. This is Part 3 and I'm trying to keep each part under 4K words. 

Remember, it's a game so there were several things going on at once. Our GM would go back and forth so nobody had more time than the others. He was amazing. 


I also noticed some grammar errors. I've gone through and tried to catch as many as I can. Bare with it if you can. The story hasn't been copy edited so it's just you and me noticing issues. I'll fix any I find. 


Until next time...
...happy reading!

~ Stephy
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