New Taste Sensation Sweeps Western Reaches
Your Holoscreen bursts into life again and you are greeted by the friendly looking HK Protocol droid HK-42. “Today we bring you news that has just reached us of a new craze captivating chefs in the Western Reaches of the galaxy, the Horned Melurun fruit. Hailed by the finest chefs across the galaxy as the greatest new taste sensation discovered in years. This unassuming oranged skinned, slightly spiky fruit can be used in a number of ways. It can be eaten raw and has a citrusy, sweet flavour. Chefs love it because you can use every part of the plant, the tubers can be boiled and eaten like any other root vegetable, the leaves can be consumed as part of a salad along with the seeds. You can scoop out the green, gel-like interior and serve it as a delicious dessert, speaking of the interior it can also be made into a thick tasty jam or jelly to be spread on bread. I am also told that it can be blended with your alcohol of choice to make a very pleasant cocktail.“
“There are however a few minor issues plaguing the fruit. Firstly there are no major commercial growers, secondly it is quite a rare fruit and can only be found on three or four planets in any great numbers, thirdly and this may be its downfall, it is mildly addict..”
The droid pauses for a moment as a green skinned arm passes the droid a datapad and it began to read its contents. “Oh,” the droid began, “Oh my. I have some very concerning news to bring you.” The droid pauses for a second, checking the datapad again, “It seems that a little over two hours ago a large group of heavily armed vessels entered our asteroid field, HM 278-226HW. I also bring a request for aid from our leader, Bram Dupol. He asks you to help us, we need forces to repel these evil attackers and he calls on any friends to come to our help. We are outnumbered and he does not think we will last much longer.“
“At first our attackers seemed to be pirates, however they seem to be using a selection of ships, both fighters, gunboats and corvettes, which all seem to be of recent manufacture and be in a decent state of repair. Certainly if these are pirates, they are pretty well connected ones.”
“They have overwhelmed our valiant defence squadrons and begun to land on our asteroid, 24-T-131 Theta. From the report, just handed to me it seems that a surgical strike by Y-wings armed with Ion Bombs has breached our city’s shields and are now making strafing attacks on our landing pad and other infrastructure.” The droid looked back at the datapad. If it could have looked worried or nervous, it would have.
“Latest reports show that troops now seem to be moving through the streets firing indiscriminately at both our defenders and civilians alike. The head of our organisation has ordered a complete evacuation and is currently leading the effort to get as many civilians as possible on shuttles and out of the asteroid field to our nearby staging area.”
One of the figures raised his Dlt-20 and shoots the droid in the chest immediately destroying it in a shower of sparking electronics. You watch in shock as others take vibro-axes to the various banks of equipment and computers until suddenly the picture bursts with light and then ceases to be replaced with static…
