                                Star Wars 

                           Wizard's RPG Stories

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


     Burnout

     Scenario Supplement for Incursion

     By Morrie Mullins Former Living Force Plot Director and Campaign Designer

     Former Living Force Plot Director Morrie Mullins presents a supplement to
the campaign's newest scenario. In "Burnout," a mysterious transmission  sheds
light on a Thaereian space station that deals in drugs, weapons,  and  slaves.
"Burnout" ties into the June Living Force scenario, Incursion, the first  part
of the "Belted In" trilogy.

     Recently, an interview began making the rounds  of  the  Holonet  in  the
Cularin area. The interview consists of a conversation  between  two  figures,
both of whom are backlit so that only their outlines are visible, and both  of
whom seem  to  have  gone  to  some  length  to  disguise  their  voices.  The
interviewer is female, but beyond that, little can be  discerned.  She  speaks
deliberately, and the attempt to modify her  speech  patterns  is  clear.  She
speaks Basic, and the colloquialisms  she  uses  reveal  that,  if  she's  not
actually native to Cularin, she's been here for some time. The interviewee, on
the other hand, speaks roughly, in Basic that's sometimes broken with  phrases
in Dosh or Rodian. He - - and there can be no doubt that  the  interviewee  is
male, as can be seen from the content of the interview  -  -  fidgets  in  his
seat, seemingly worried that the interview might end  without  warning.  There
are no newsnet logos attached, and no single newsnet in  Cularin  has  claimed
responsibility, though all of them have run the  interview  exhaustively.  The
message that comes across has many in the system more than a little concerned.

     Interviewer: Thank you for contacting me. I'm glad you did. What should I
call you?

     Interviewee: Don't matter. X. Just call me X. This all gonna be masked?

     Interviewer: Absolutely. You have my word on it. No one will be  able  to
trace it to you.

     X: And you?

     Interviewer: I'm masked as well. No one will be able to find me and  beat
your identity out of me. Everything is as safe as it can be,  considering  the
circumstances. May I set the stage?

     She pauses, and the shadow opposite her nods.

     Interviewer: I'm here, speaking with X. X is a member of a very prominent
trade organization here in Cularin. One that's run by locals, rather than  the
often-problematic Metatheran Cartel.  X  contacted  me,  under  conditions  of
anonymity, to request an interview. He's learned things  that  the  people  of
Cularin should know about, if  they're  to  defend  themselves  from  all  the
threats that have emerged in the  last  few  months,  and  which  will  likely
continue to emerge. So tell me, X - - what is it that we need to know?

     X: It's Burnout.

     Interviewer: What is Burnout?

     X: Burnout's a space station in Thaereian space. Nasty place. Don't  want
to go there if you don't have to. There's bad places in Thaere, but  not  many
as bad as Burnout.

     Interviewer: And what's so bad about this place, this "Burnout"?

     X: What goes on there. You take every bad thing Riboga did, when  he  ran
Cularin. You multiply that times ten. You then figure out  how  you  can  take
what you get, and make it even  worse.  Then  you  kinda  get  close  to  what
Burnout's like.

     Interviewer: Sounds unpleasant. Can you give us some examples?

     X: Well, there's the standard. They run spice  through  there,  for  one.
Other chems, they've got a regular pipeline. Weapons, information - - lots  of
Bothans in Thaere, and they dig on the information brokerage - - even  people.
Lots of people.

     Interviewer: Burnout is a slave trading facility?

     X: Sort of. It's lots more than that, but they run slaves through  there.
It's got pens in it, corrals, almost. It's not just slaves, it's animals, too.
Exotics. If there's something someone might want to buy, but maybe the  Senate
doesn't like that kind of thing  being  sold,  well,  you  can  probably  find
someone shipping it through Burnout.

     Interviewer: I'm sure our viewers will find it hard to believe  that  the
government of Thaere allows this kind of activity  to  continue  within  their
borders. After all, they're a duly  assigned  protector  of  Cularin,  with  a
mandate from the Galactic Senate. They  wouldn't  allow  this  kind  of  Hutt-
trading to go on, so it must be that they don't know. That's the only  logical
explanation, isn't it?

     X: You aren't that dumb. Your viewers aren't that dumb. Thaere, it's more
than it looks like, and less. You wanna  talk  government?  [Swears  in  Dosh]
Their government is their navy. No  other  public  infrastructure  there.  Oh,
they've gone through some leadership changes, but tell you what - - they don't
listen to nobody who don't have the backing of the navy.  That  Tramsig,  he's
the real power in Thaere. So  when  we're  talking  about  the  government  of
Thaere, we're really talking about their  navy.  Now,  what  that  makes  your
question say is, does Thaere's navy know about this place, with the slaves and
the drugs and the weapons that nobody who's not in the army should  have?  And
the answer is, they ain't dumb. They see as good as anyone. They  know  what's
going on. "Belted In" Trilogy Summary Nirama, the enigmatic alien crime  lord,
has an agenda - - a very public agenda. He's not happy about recent  goings-on
in Cularin, and he's less happy with the strangeness in the asteroid belt that
he calls "home." Is Nirama helping the  people  of  Cularin,  are  the  people
helping him, or is it actually mutual?

     Interviewer: Tell our viewers what the Thaereian Navy is doing about this
problem, then.

     X: Doing? I'll tell you what they're doing. They're investing. It's not a
problem. It's an opportunity. It's a way for them  to  make  a  little  money,
maybe a lot of money.

     Interviewer: Are you suggesting that the Thaereian  Navy,  the  appointed
protectors of Cularin, are corrupt?

     X: Nope. You can't  be  corrupt  if  everyone's  doing  the  same  thing.
Corruption's a sickness. It's that little infected part of something that  may
make the rest of the body sick, and maybe kill you. If the whole body's  sick,
though, and it's got a fever that just makes it want to do more of  the  stuff
that got it sick, that's not corruption. That's just plain wrong. I  ain't  no
Jedi, but if I were, I'd probably say something like the whole Thaereian  Navy
is darksiders.

     Interviewer: That's disturbing. If a Jedi said it, that  might  mean  the
Thaereians had a large number of Force-users at their disposal. Is  that  what
you mean?

     X: No. Just armies of people who will do whatever they're told. You  look
at what's happened over the last couple years - - our timeline - - and you see
that they've had folks defect. Most of them ran as far away as they could, but
there's some that joined up with Cularin's militia.  One  of  the  commanders,
even, in the new militia. You don't need an army of people who use  the  Force
to kill folks. You just need an army, and with a big  enough  army,  it  don't
matter how many Force users are against you.

     Interviewer: Even a whole Jedi academy?

     X: How big an army you think you'd want to bring, if you  were  going  to
try to hold Cularin with that many Jedi and baby Jedi here? Think  about  that
number, and then think about this. There are 173,000 soldiers in the Thaereian
Navy.

     The interviewer shuffles her notes.

     Interviewer: Where did you get  that  number?  I've  not  heard  anything
bigger than... "Standing forces of 10,000 assigned to protection of  Cularin."
That's from their charter.

     X: Yeah. Well, most of them don't read too good. And as to  the  numbers,
well... once you get past what they can count on fingers and  toes,  it's  all
the same. Ten thousand, a hundred and seventy-three thousand - -  either  way,
it's a lot. But I stand by my numbers. Besides, their charter don't  say  they
can't have more. Just that ten thousand was how many they were required to put
on Cularin defense duty. It's more.  You  run  enough  goods  in  and  out  of
Cularin, you see how many ships there are,  you  figure  out  that  there's  a
blasted lot of them. Big army. Not that many of us.

     Interviewer: So,  back  to  Burnout.  Are  you  saying  that  the  entire
Thaereian  military  establishment  is  aware  of,  and  profiting  from,  the
existence of this immoral set of operations on Burnout?

     X: Aware of? Sure. Profiting from? Don't be dumb. The  ones  that  profit
are the ones that always profit. The leaders. Everyone  else  just  does  what
they're told and stays alive.

     Interviewer: Is Burnout a threat to Cularin?

     X: There's bigger threats. Burnout's just a stopover. It's a place things
get traded. But some  of  those  things  are  people.  Cularin  people.  Folks
disappear, and if they're never found, then  maybe  they  got  herded  off  to
Burnout and sold to the Hutts.

     Interviewer: Is Burnout a Hutt stronghold?

     X: Don't think so. Never heard of one being there.

     Interviewer: I think I - - that is, our viewers -  -  have  a  hard  time
believing that after everything Senator Wren and Nirama have done  to  prevent
slavery in Cularin, that neither of them would react to hearing  that  Cularin
citizens are being taken just outside our borders and sold into slavery.

     X: If the  Senator  knew,  maybe.  Don't  know  if  she  does.  She's  on
Coruscant, most of the time, taking care of home from a long ways away. As  to
Nirama... I'm betting he knows. And is pretty unhappy about it. But there's  a
right time and a right place to strike, and this may not be that time. Even if
Burnout really is the right place. You don't get to be  powerful  like  Nirama
without knowing when to fight and when not to fight.

     Interviewer: He does seem rather astute. So, anything  else  our  viewers
need to know about Burnout? Aside from it being a slave-trading, drug-running,
weapon-smuggling hive of malcontents and rejects  from  every  corner  of  the
galaxy, which the Thaereian Navy - - the body charged by the  Galactic  Senate
with protecting Cularin - - knows about,  and  allows  to  continue  to  exist
because of their own financial interests in the place?

     X: I think that sums it up.

     Interviewer: Thank you for your time. Burnout... it's something  to  keep
an eye on, Cularin.

     And with that, the transmission ends.