As the party searches past the first chamber of the Palace of Aldera, they are surprised and suspicious that so much of the palace is intact. Large armored plates are visible behind the decorative walls where the stonework has cracked and fallen away. They discover as they proceed further into the palace that the entire structure has been reinforced with an unknown alloy, presumably enabling it to survive the destruction of the planet.
Moments later, they hear and feel a loud rumbling as the downed drone which had been slowly deteriorating in the chamber they had come through explodes and the tunnels collapse in on themselves. They find they will have to move forward in order to find their way out. They send a message to Fri and Jebbo who are still on the Ashen Angel to circle the asteroid and search for another exit.
They search several offices and find them to be destroyed or abandoned except for one, which triggers a hologram when they enter. An image of a tall, gaunt man in a Grand Moff’s uniform appears before them, whom Rima Borealus identifies as Grand Moff Tarkin and they watch as the scene unfolds:
Tarkin nods and smiles evilly, then says to someone outside the recording: “Princess Leia, before your execution I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.”
He pauses, listening, and then continues: “Not after we demonstrate the power of this station. In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, 1 have chosen to test this station’s destructive power... on your home planet of Alderaan.”
Another pause, then: “You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name the system!”
Tarkin waves menacingly toward someone outside of the recording: “I grow tired of asking this. So it will be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?”
With a smile, Tarkin says: “There. You see, Lord Vader, she can be reasonable. Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready.”
Tarkin’s image shifts, to a view of a planet with a small moon orbiting it. Then they notice that the moon is actually the Death Star. It fires one powerful beam of energy at the planet, and Alderaan explodes in a shower of light.
The room erupts in the screams of millions of people with ghostly images of the souls lost surrounding the party. After a moment, the room returns to normal, the ghostly images gone. Lastly, a heavy breathing voice speaks from the projector, "You could have saved them."
The party continues searching and come across a bridge stretching across a large, now dry decorative waterfall. The cross and continue searching the rooms and offices on the far side. There they come across an additional holo-recording.
The hologram activates with a ghostly scream as an accusing specter of a woman in robes appears, “You dare come back here, Princess? Wasn’t what you did bad enough? Now you have returned to bring back the awful memory of that awful day. You killed us, Princess. It was your fault that Alderaan died!”
Rima seems more and more emotionally strained as they progress through the palace and watch these recordings. She explains that she roamed these halls as a child and that the figure in the hologram was her mother, who had been an aid to the Ruling family and that this was all probably a trap and phycological torture for Princess Leia Organa who had been present on the Death Star while it Destroyed Alderaan.
As the party continues their search and come back out into the Grand Hall, another much larger hologram activates. Horrible screaming echoes throughout the Grand Hall as holographic ghosts of people appear and then are vaporized in a blinding flash of light, simulating the final moments of terror of millions of Alderaanians. As the holograms disappear and the hall falls silent, a half dozen stormtroopers and a half dozen more Imperial officers begin blasting at the party from across the bridge.
The party takes cover and returns blaster fire as the stormtroopers begin moving across the bridge. Traxim throws a grenade in an attempt to destroy the bridge, but it has no effect other than shaking the room. As the firefight continues, the party can feel rumbling at their feet just as a small Exogorth, or Space Worm, comes piercing out of the ground among them.
The Exogorth clamps it's large jaws around Missindi and pulls her down under the ground as it tunnels across the room. She is able to break free and the worm lashes out at the stormtroopers and tears through some of the Imperial officers. The party is able to cut down several more of the Imperials but the Space Worm burrows back to their side of the Great Hall and they struggle to keep it at bay as their weapons don't seem to be effective to its hardened carapace. Traxim leaps into action attempting to use his Vibroswords to stab into the Exogorth's armor and is able to ride the giant slug for a few seconds before being forced off. Each of the party is being worn down by the toughness of the Exogorth's attacks and fear they won't be able to defeat it.
Katerr quickly programs her datapad to mimic the rumbling sounds of the Exogorth tunneling through the asteroid and tosses the datapad down the channel that bisects the Grand Hall. Miraculously the Exogorth takes the bait and single-mindedly follows the recording playing from her datapad, slamming repeatedly into the stone walls and the floor below, giving the party enough time to escape.
With the Space Slug distracted and the Imperials defeated, the party recovers the equipment containing the recordings of the holoprojectors and therefore hard evidence that the Empire used the Death Star to destroy Alderaan. They moved into the final room, an amphitheater. In this amphitheater, they find a recording which does not belong to the Imperial forces behind the other recordings.
This hologram projection fills the room with a recording of an Alderaanian Council meeting. Dozens of council members surround the room, all paying attention to a young Bail Organa, Viceroy of Alderaan, speaking and gesturing to a hologram of an Alderaanian War Frigate. “My fellow Council members. As Alderaan embarks on a new adventure of peace, we must decide what to do with our tools of war. I say that the galaxy will always contain a spark of evil, and eventually even the smallest spark will rage into an inferno. We just ended one such inferno that we called the Clone Wars. What will we do when the next inferno blazes forth?”
Rima produces a small crest from a pendant around her neck and presses it into a receptacle on the amphitheater's holoprojector. The hologram ends and a small panel opens, revealing a device resembling a transponder or comlink. "I think this will summon the Another Chance! We just need to find a way out of here now!"
Fri and Jebbo send a message to the party saying they flew around the asteroid and found a small hanger bay on the other end, but it is has a Stormtrooper transport landed near it and they couldn't approach.
The party is able to locate a secret door which leads down a hallway to a small hanger. Inside is a Skipray Blastboat. The hanger doors are damaged and even though Missindi is able to have her tracker droid interface with the doors, they will not open. While approaching the Skipray Blastboat, the party is surprised by four stormtroopers. They seriously hurt several of the party, but Traxim gains control of the ship's turret and disintegrates them.
They use the Skipray Blastboat's ample weaponry to destroy the tunnel to the hanger and the hanger door. As they escape, they fire on the Stormtrooper transport, destroying it as well. With Katerr's help navigating the shortest distance out of the Asteroid field, Missindi pilots the ship out of the field and into open space.
Clear of the Asteroid field, Rima begins activating the beacon. Unfortunately, when a ship drops out of hyperspace nearby, it's not The Another Chance, but an Imperial Gozanti Patrol ship, which deploys it's Tie Fighters and attacks. The Patrol ship begins firing missiles and the party is forced to engage while they wait to see if the Alderanian War Frigate has received the signal from the beacon.
The Tie Fighters begin to bog down the crew and the Skipray Blastboat as they try to take the Ties out one by one. Missindi's expert piloting allows the Skipray to evade missile after missile but it's clear that even with their superior firepower, they are outmanned by all the fighters and the Patrol Ship supporting them.
Just as they begin to take hull damage and things begin to look dire, The Another Chance arrives, dropping out of hyperspace and wiping out the remaining Tie Fighters and sending a volley of Turbolasers towards the Imperial Patrol ship, destroying it before it can escape.
The crew docks with the Alderanian War Frigate and take a short rest aboard the Skipray Blastboat before disembarking.
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