Star Wars - Gathering Shadows - The Origin of the Black Curs - Unpublished by Kathy Burdette Read Free Book Online Page B

to do.”
    “Eh. Bag it. Make somebody else fill out the forms.”
    “Yeah.” Jai was quiet for a moment; then her voice seemed to slur together. “Maybe when I get back I’ll tell General Madine what he can do with this Intel assignment.”
    “Maybe you should.”
    “Maybe.”
    Harkness felt the sedative seep into his limbs, warm and heavy. The room seemed to mist over, in the same blue-gray fog as the one that hung oyer the Valley of Umbra.
    “Sarge?”
    “Yeah?”
    “You ever think about becoming a mercenary?”
    “Sometimes,” she said. Then her voice seemed to gather a little strength. “Yeah, I think that would be pretty nice.”
    “You said you don’t care much about fighting for the New Republic.”
    “Why? You proposing something?”
    “Maybe.”
    She seemed to drift off after that. Harkness felt the silence tugging at him, but it seemed to be easing him into a warm darkness, not a bottomless well.
    Then the humming noise came back.
    Harkness started; he felt a surge of dismay. But then he settled back and closed his eyes. It hadn’t been a song, or anything to do with Chessa. The humming was the sound of the engines on Platt’s ship.

Roleplaying Game Information

Master Sergeant Jai Raventhorn

    Type: Ex-SpecForce Operative
    DEXTERITY 4D
    Blaster 7D+2, brawling parry 5D, dodge 6D, grenade 5D+2, melee combat 5D+1, thrown weapons 4D+2
    KNOWLEDGE 3D
    Intimidation 5D, streetwise 4D, survival 4D+1, willpower 6D
    MECHANICAL 2D+2
    Repulsorlift operation 5D, space transports 4D+2, starship gunnery 3D+1
    PERCEPTION 2D
    Con 5D, hide 4D, sneak 5D
    STRENGTH 3D+1
    Brawling 6D, lifting 4D+1, stamina 6D+1
    TECHNICAL 3D
    Demolitions 6D+2, repulsorlift repair 4D, security 6D+1
    Force Points: 1
    Character Points: 11
    Move: 10
    Equipment: Blast vest (+1D physical, +1 energy), comlink, 3 fragmentation grenades (5D), 2 heavy blaster pistols (5D), hold-out blaster (3D), vibroknife (STR+1D)
    Capsule: Jai grew up scouting and clearing planets, the eldest child of a scout service commander. Her mother died on a backwater planet giving birth to Jai’s sister, Morgan.
    Eight-year-old Jai was devastated, but automatically appointed herself protector to her little sister.
    As the girls grew up. it became obvious that they couldn’t possibly be more different. Morgan was clumsy and absentminded but brilliant, a child prodigy who wanted to do nothing more than fix ships and clear planets when she grew up.
    Jai, on the other hand, hated the constant upheaval; she was rambunctious and sarcastic, a crack shot with a blaster by the age of nine, and constantly at odds with their father. But the two sisters remained close, even after Jai left home following an argument with her father. She went to Rodaj and became a miner, desperate for a quiet, sedentary life.
    She got what she wanted, at least for a few years. Eventually the Empire began to exploit Rodaj for its natural resources: some of the Imperial soldiers made a point to harass the local miners, and in one such altercation, Jai’s fiancé was gunned down for no apparent reason. In short order Jai realized that she would never have the kind of life she wanted, blew up an Imperial munitions depot, asked a friend to watch over Morgan, and went into hiding.
    Several months later Jai made contact with a Rebel spook. She joined the Alliance and later won a place in SpecForces deadliest branch—the Infiltrators. There she gained the respect other peers, maintaining the lowest casualty rate per mission in that division’s history. All this meant nothing, however, when her sister, Morgan, was killed at the Battle of Endor.
    Jai now finds herself adrift. With the Emperor gone, Jai doesn’t remember her purpose in the Rebellion, if she ever had one: with Morgan gone. Jai believes herself a failure. To clear her mind of the overwhelming grief, guilt, and all the what-ifs, she has almost completely shut off her emotions.
    Jai Raventhorn is very tall, with long, blonde hair and