Approved Lore The Mercy-Quill Expedition | Planeshift: Rishi Labyrinth

[Tilon Quill]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: A nice wrap-up of the Rishi Labyrinth voyage.
• Image Credit: Me
• Canon: No
• Permissions: Seeking Trade Goods, Mk1 Scabbard procurement from Adumari Advanced Starcraft
• Links: Planeshift: Rishi Labyrinth

GENERAL INFORMATION

• Event Name: The Mercy-Quill Expedition
• Event Specific Links: Planeshift: Rishi Labyrinth
• Location: Launched from Kamino, entered the Rishi Maze, ended at Wo'theth
• Galactic Standard Year: 902 ABY
• Participants:
• Tilon Quill flying the North Ridge (16 meters, long-range shuttle), outfitted with an Adumari Mk1 Scabbard hyperdrive ring (30 meters, supply)
  • Notable cargo: Healing Capsules, non-addictive psychedelics, M-Series astromechs, Krillium silk, aerosolized bacta, CeramiCote applicators
• Mercy flying the Hive Harvester (corvette, repair and mining)
• Okkeus Dainlei flying the Blue Lightning (45 meters, smuggler)
  • Crew: Apollo and Navi
  • Notable cargo: Hyperspace Momentum Capacitors, Microjump Capacitors, Jumpmaster 0.11 Elite Hyperdrives, Kyber Engines
• Jared Starchaser flying the Crosscurrent (26 meters, rescue/blockade runner)
  • Crew: Delila Castillon , Spark Finn
• Shade of Decay flying the Ebion (200 meters, heavy personal transport, medical capabilities)
• Atlas Drake flying the Quasar Ghost (55 meters, blockade runner)
• The Kite's Roost (510 meters, logistics/supply and emergency shelter, medical capabilities)
• Pathfinders One, Two, and Three (350 meters, navigation, scanning, stealth)
• Chloe Blake , Choli Vyn , Serenity Blake , and Trextan Voidstalker flying the Aurora Hawk (52, meters, navigation and stealth)
• "Cobalt" flying the Horizon (70 meters, combat freighter)
• Brief Overview: The voyage was intended to cross the Rishi Maze. It visited the planet Wo'theth and mapped three nearby systems, but encountered a widespread dimensional distortion and was unable to complete its journey.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION
During the Planeshift crisis, the Rishi Maze and two other small companion galaxies collided with the Prime Galaxy, making them closer but destabilizing hyperspace routes and making many maps obsolete. The Mercy-Quill expedition, a dozen small ships, came together at Kamino with the intent of mapping a route through the Rishi Maze. Three other ships were intended to join the expedition but were unable to rendezvous.

The expedition left Kamino for Wo'theth. The Quasar Ghost experienced severe engine trouble and had to put down at the planet's primary spaceport. The expedition paused to scan nearby systems for next steps, to support repairs, and to see the sights. The scanning ships identified three appealing possibilities:

• A red dwarf system with low background radiation, offering good scans of plenty of systems ahead. There was an Ebruchi supply station in an asteroid belt, potentially a good fallback point for repairs and reliable shelter.
• A blue giant system with massive overlapping asteroid rings and diffuse gas giants that had ripped each other apart. It had a reputation as a watering hole for spaceborne life forms, including a vanishingly rare family group of sapient Vantasanth Leviathans.
• A yellow dwarf system with a forest world and definite signs of hyperspace traffic.

The expedition picked their next destination collectively: the blue giant system. They remained at Wo'theth for repairs and to top up consumables and secure local trade goods. Another element of uncertainty came into play as the enigmatic vessel Ebion issued an urgent appeal for information and went silent. Its commander, the Sith spirit known as the Shade of Decay, had been caught up in the faraway Sundering Dawn crisis.

The expedition was preparing to leave Wo'theth when a colossal dimensional disturbance took place, perhaps as an effect of the Sundering Dawn crisis, an aftershock of the much larger Planeshift, or both - some kind of intersection. The ships and the planet found themselves translated into an alternate dimension; Wo'theth's surrounding asteroids boasted liquid water and greenery, Vantasanth Leviathans were present, and the stars had changed. Shocked, lost, but intrigued, the expedition took comprehensive scans of the region and underlying spatial phenomena and assessed their options. Some consulted with planetary leaders at the spaceport and the spaceborne Leviathans themselves. The explorers braced to need to find a way home or, at a worst case, make a new one.

The dimensional distortion ended as unexpectedly as it had begun, perhaps because of the end of a galactic Planeshift aftershock or the resolution of the Sundering Dawn crisis. Several Leviathans, who had been close to the expedition ships in orbit, came back to the expedition's dimension of origin, impacting the rare sapient species' trajectory away from extinction.

The expedition did not reach the far side of the Rishi Maze. However, after its return to Kamino, the trade goods and unique high-resolution sensor data it had gathered provided enough value to cover all participants' costs with a little left over. (Tilon Quill, for example, wound up with a net take of about five thousand credits, which he promptly spent on fuel and a winter coat on Calimancha.) The Mercy-Quill extragalactic expedition, though it failed in its primary objective, was a success in two crucial ways: everyone returned home solvent and alive.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Some delightfully straightforward lore! Approved!