                                Star Wars 

                           Wizard's RPG Stories

          source : http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=starwars/newsarchive
          upload : 10.IV.2006


     Tilnes Falling

     Scenario Supplement for Caaried Away

     By Morrie Mullins

     Former Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer

     Former Living Force Plot Director and Campaign  Designer  Morrie  Mullins
presents the latest in our monthly series of  supplements  to  the  campaign's
newest scenarios. In "Tilnes Falling," an internal memo leaked from  a  Tilnes
mining company hints at dark secrets and brewing trouble. This supplement ties
into the March Living Force scenario, Caaried Away,  the  first  part  of  the
"Metatheran Caution" trilogy.

     The Verga Mer Mining Company - - VMMC - - has experienced any  number  of
problems with  its  holdings  in  the  Cularin  system.  While  they  survived
accidentally snubbing a Hutt and managed to stay in business even without  the
assistance of Nirama and his smuggling consortium, their mining operations  on
Tilnes have never been among the  most  secure.  The  strange  electromagnetic
pulses that  wash  over  Tilnes  with  disturbing  frequency  have  cost  VMMC
thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of credits, and the discovery of not
one but two secret bases beneath the surface of Tilnes did little to make  the
miners, investors, or managers of VMMC more comfortable.

     Somehow, VMMC has remained in business. The mines  of  Tilnes  have  long
been fertile, providing one of  the  most  consistent  sources  of  high-grade
crystals used as power foci in a  number  of  popular  blasters.  With  weapon
production up as a result of the Clone Wars, the mines of Tilnes are  at  peak
production - - no mean feat, since they're now a decades-old establishment  in
galactic trade.

     Perhaps the biggest obstacle VMMC had to overcome was its re-entry to the
marketplace following the strange events over Almas, which kept it from  being
a major player  in  the  original  equipping  of  the  armies  of  either  the
Separatists or the Loyalists. Still,  the  canny  Verga  Nus  and  Mer  Stodiz
managed to pull things together, make the necessary deals, and  sign  all  the
contracts to put VMMC back into the crystal business.

     All is not well, though. Recently, internal memos have begun to circulate
outside VMMC  offices,  indicating  that  something  may  not  be  right.  The
information remains very hush-hush, and for  now,  travels  only  by  word  of
mouth. Some might wonder what else those mouths carry...

     Memo Date: [3 weeks ago] From: HB7 To: All Area Managers

     Colleagues,

     It has been noticed by me and my people that there are  some  things  not
right in the mines. The south polar regions of the mines  are  having  trouble
again. It's not those dumb worms this time. In fact, we don't see much of them
right now, and we don't know why. Some of my workers have said it's too  quiet
down there, and when I go down, it seems really quiet to me, too. I don't know
what's going on, but ever since the piggies and their blaster-happy  neighbors
got found by the nice kids who pulled VMMC's tail out of the  fire  back  with
those crashes and the big blackout a while ago, things have been weird.

     I know that company policy says that we never knew  nothing  about  those
piggies or the Thaere people, and that's  fine.  We  never  did.  None  of  my
people, for sure. It's hard enough doing what we do without  having  to  worry
about running into some patrol of  half-size,  snout-face,  lying  freaks  who
smile so big you think they're gonna eat their own  heads.  (And  I  know  the
company policy says we're not supposed to talk  ill  about  the  piggies,  but
that's for public consumption, and I've got enough years  here  that  I'm  not
about to apologize for speaking plain when I'm  just  talking  to  my  peers.)
Don't even get me started on how worried I was about  my  workers  going  down
into the tunnels,  knowing  those  half-baked  freaks  from  Thaere  might  be
wandering around, waiting to shoot someone. I don't need  to  remind  you  how
freaked out our people were when the two head honchos from  the  Jedi  Academy
showed up because of all the problems, and our  own  security  people  weren't
doing much more than sitting around and looking cute. I still want to see  the
report from security on why we didn't know what was going on down there, but I
guess that's just something I should file a different memo for. I don't  know.
Sometimes, I just wonder.

     I was there when we saw the piggies off and back into their ships,  so  I
guess they're orbiting somewhere, trying to  keep  away  from  all  the  other
locals who want to put holes in them. They've got to be some kind  of  warped,
to stay around here with the way some people want to kill them. It's like they
jumped hyperspace and their brains didn't come along. I don't know  about  the
rest of you, but I'd really like to see a report on what they were doing  down
in that secret base of theirs, too. They blasted it on their way out  so  that
no one else would end up using it, and what's down there is  just  rubble  and
debris and junk. But we're miners. We can send folks in to check that out  and
clear it. It may be getting in the way of us doing  our  jobs.  I  don't  want
that, you don't want that, and we all know it. I hear  the  response  already.
"We are not going to invest resources... must maintain market  share...  based
on productivity reports..." Caaried Away Summary Mining activity on Tilnes has
suffered a number of setbacks, not the least of which was the  discovery  some
time ago of a pair of hidden bases - - one  Caarite  base  and  one  Thaereian
installation. Now, even with those bases "closed," problems continue.

     With all due respect, I say  that  if  management  don't  care  what  the
piggies and the Thaereians were doing,  they  can  invest  some  resources  in
blowing their productivity reports out their market share. It makes  no  sense
to me, or anyone else I talk to, to think that they spent all that  time  down
there and didn't make any kind of extraction from our mines.

     Now here's the other thing that's bothering me. Some  of  our  operations
are getting way too close to the Smile. This place is nothing but bad,  and  I
don't care if we've got survey teams that are saying there are  huge  deposits
of high-grade crystals down there. We've got no way to  get  them  out.  None.
Zilch. Zero. We get too close to the Smile and all our machines start shutting
down, and the people we've sent that way on foot aren't  coming  back  looking
too good. I have a couple down really sick right now with some  bizarre  mine-
fever. I know that VMMC's been on Tilnes a long time, and maybe  we  think  we
know better than those old legends about Kaernor, but the thing you  learn  in
any place that you've been long enough is that old legends become old  legends
because they've got a kernel of truth. If we go too close to the Smile, if  we
start digging in a place where we shouldn't be  digging,  we're  risking  more
than just profits and market shares and resources. We're risking lives. That's
not good for me, and I hope it's not good for you.

     The fact that the piggies and the Thaereians were so close to  the  Smile
really sits badly for me. I mean, it makes a lot of sense that they'd use that
area as a cover, but it also tells me that they  didn't  care,  and  when  you
flaunt not caring around things like that, they come back to bite you. I don't
know that those Thaereians care about anything except themselves,  and  that's
their business. I still say that the team that disappeared a month before  the
Thaereians were discovered probably wandered on a patrol, but  I've  read  the
"official enquiry" reports just like everyone else has and  know  that  Thaere
denied everything. I don't know what anyone expected them to say. They shot at
the kids who helped us out, chased them and tried to kill them.

     About the only decent things to come out of Thaere are  the  things  that
came out of Thaere, the people who defected. I  hear  some  of  them  are  all
right, and one of them's doing good work on a militia. (Exactly  who  got  the
kickbacks for putting them in our backyard, by the way? Not that  I  care,  at
this point, since at least we know  they're  here  and  what  they're  up  to.
Besides, they spend more time repairing droids than anything else.)

     I just think there are too  many  secrets  right  now.  Management  isn't
talking to us. We're not involved in the decisions.  Not  that  we  ever  have
been, really, but still - there's a lot going on in Cularin. I'm thinking that
we're part of this system, and just because we're a business doesn't  mean  we
should sit around and do nothing when everyone else  is  doing  something.  It
also doesn't mean that the something we do  ought  to  be  something  everyone
sees, but it ought to be something. If that makes sense.

     We need to think about our place in this system. Better or  worse,  we're
here, and better or worse, we've got contributions we can make.