Galactic: Save the Galaxy

This week we played Galactic 2.0 by Riley Rethal as a group of spies working for the Liberation against the authoritarian Mandate in a galaxy some distance away. We mostly followed the plot guide created recently by Randy Lubin. We are ace pilot Jacob Quam of the bird-like Qaddin race, double-agent Luna Moonglow who we think is now on our side, Theta a diplomat with a droid companion known as AWK-3, an astrablade-wielding Nova named Juroden Nightflame who has yet to find his destiny, and con artist and inveterate gambler Bolma Anluso.

Our story begins when Jacob Quam arrives with a message from the Liberation that we need to make our way to the ancient Nova city of Tusinda, but it takes some time for him to convince us he’s legit. Luna Moonglow is also concerned with proving her trustworthiness and brings us information about the Mandate’s powerful new mega-weapon to prove her loyalty. She knows that the device is in a heptahedron configuration and connected to the excavation going on at Tusinda. Theta’s ex-lover is an archeologue working at the dig, but before we blast off to investigate, Bolma meets with Forn Wie, one of her underworld contacts, and learns that the weapon plans are kept in the palace on Tusinda. As we hurtle through hyperspace on Jacob’s ship The Star Cracker, we learn that Tusinda is now a modern city built atop the ruins of an ancient Nova Temple that is being excavated by Mandate archeologues in search of some as-yet unknown ancient Nova artifact.

Once we arrive, the group splits up with Bolma, Luna, and Theta racing to the regent’s palace to obtain the weapon plans and Juroden heading to the dig site to find the artifact before the Mandate does. Jacob Quam can’t be enticed to help without further payment, so we leave him with the ship where he is visited by Binn Hobb, his arch-rival, who mercilessly mocks Jacob’s ship and hygiene until letting slip about the great treasure believed to be hidden in the Nova Temple. When we enter the palace, Bolma is sent to intercept Triga, Theta’s ex, and after much discussion gains her trust to learn that the temple’s ancient meditation chambers contain unique meditation crystals that, when configured correctly, can power the mega-weapon but that the archeologues can’t seem to find the chamber with the key crystal. Meanwhile at the temple, Jacob has caught up to Juroden and together they stumble into the secret meditation chamber through luck and intuition. Juroden takes the sacred crystals while Jacob hauls away the mundane treasures for sale on the black market. Back in the palace, Luna and Theta infiltrate the room with the weapon plans and steal them.

Once we regroup and realize the Mandate’s plan, we decide to change the key crystal on the plans and leave our counterfeit crystal where Triga and the Mandate can find it. Once they construct their new weapon with our replacement key, the crystals will compress the Space Between rather than expel it, causing the weapon to implode and ending the Mandate threat … for now.