Star Wars OPEN Elite League Limmie

IC: Charles "Chuck" Bonaven
Head coach's office, Mehsla Vhetin, Keldabe, Mandalore

The excitement was gone, the cacophony of millions of fans had long faded and the players themselves well on their way home. But as Chuck Bonaven contemplated a season at the crossroads, he saw a single light still burning bright in the darkness. Approaching it's source slowly he saw it emanated from the office just off the locker room, an office that the nameplate on the door simply said L. Braun Coach. The old man was going over game reports of the Lightning match up, getting a first glimpse of what was in store for the Mercs in their final home game of the 277 season. Chuck knocked gently at the door and Braun looked up to him from where he sat behind his desk, nodding softly.

"Heck of a game out there today," Chuck said. He meant it too. It had been a hell of a game, the hits and been hard and players had been flying all over the field. For the most part the refs had let them play. It was just the sort of game that the Mercs had originally been built for, and one that their fans loved. Sadly, the Smugglers seemed a little more built for it and, after a contest that had gone beyond tense, had once again emerged victorious over their hated rivals. It was the Mercs first home loss this season, and it stung.

The Mercs had done well in their other "rivalry games", collecting hardware more often than not from their foes. But in the game with no trophy, the game of pure hatred between Nar Shaddaa and Mandalore, the Mercs had come up short for three seasons in a row. In was heartbreaking to Chuck, who so wanted at least something to hang his hat on before Felps went on destroying the team. Her plans for this season were crashing around her, but he knew that she would gut the team even further this offseason to achieve her goal.

"Someday we'll learn how to beat those guys," Braun's gruff response made Chuck smile wanly. Braun didn't know what Felps had in store for the team, and Chuck knew he couldn't tell him. They would both get fired if Felps ever got wind of it.

"You know, Youv'e done a great job..."

"Braun looked at him sharply. "3-3 is hardly a great job."

"With this group...it is."

Braun shook his head. "There is some real talent on this team. The veterans are playing back to form, and some of the rookies are developing faster than I thought." There was a gleam in his eye now. "There's two or three potential all-stars out there."

Chuck could only shake his head. He knew that Felps would trade away or release any veteran talent this off season. Any rookie that showed signs of improvement that fast would probably also be let go or sent down to Concordia. Oh she wanted a winner, just not on Mandalore. "You really believe that don't you?"

"I know it. We're contenders now Chuck. Not just for the playoffs, but for the Cup title."

It saddened Chuck to see coach so delusional. He liked Braun, he liked this team and dammit, he liked his job. Seeing Braun actually believe this without knowing the whole truth, it was worse than losing to the Smugglers. He broke down.

"Rak'el Felps will never allow that to happen..."

TAG: No one.

 

IC: Martin Vigo

Vigo Household before the Monarchs game

Tomas came running down the stairs in his Allin jersey ready to leave for the stadium. “Why don’t you wear your Fortune jersey?” I suggested, “Especially since his parents are our guests today.”

“Is that an order?” Spencer asked in a challenging tone as he appeared at the top of the steps in an Allin jersey of his own.

“No, it was a recommendation.”

“Why don’t you wear a Fortune jersey?” Tomas asked, causing his mother and brother to laugh.

“Yea, don’t you ever get tired of wearing suits everyday dad?” Spencer added.

“Made my first million wearing a suit,” I explained. “Once you make your first million you don’t turn back.”

Both boys were waiting by the door. I realized they weren’t going to change and we headed out to the speeder so we could make our way to the stadium.

Owners Box, Bankers Mansion

My wife was setting up lunch when the Fortune’s arrived with Zoey. “Can we eat now?” Tomas asked before they removed their coats.

“In a few minutes, Tomas,” my wife said turning in his direction. “Let our guests serve their plates first.”

Tomas’ expression turned sour, he sat back down and continued to watch the warm-ups. “You can let the children eat,” Mrs. Fortune said kindly. “Your daughter made us breakfast this morning and I’m still full.”

“Justyne made breakfast?” Spencer asked in disbelief. I was glad he asked because I was wondering the same thing myself. Mrs. Fortune nodded as if it was no big deal. Meanwhile Tomas grabbed a plate and started serving himself some food.

Lucie allowed Mrs. Fortune to hold T.J. while she made herself a plate just as the game was getting underway. It began with a drive by Rydonni Prime which ended quickly with a thrilling interception by Ty Allin. Our offense had no better luck than the Monarchs though. Fortune caught a pass from Hovechar, but he was double teamed and unable to pass or get a clean shot on goal. He ended up getting tackled and losing possession.

On subsequent drives Allin made several more big plays. Our offense managed to make a few bar points. The look of frustration on Fortune’s face could be seen all the way up in our box though. Till could see it too, he substituted Sureysh onto the field and brought Allin to the sidelines for a consultation just before half time. We had the lead at the half, but it wasn’t a comfortable lead. We were up 5 – 1, it was proving to be a real defensive battle.

“Ty’s playing great!” Tomas said as he got up to refill his plate while the players headed for the locker rooms.

“It’s nice to see Allin playing on our team for a change” Mr. Fortune commented.

“What do you mean? Ty’s always played for the Starkillers.” Tomas asked as he placed the largest piece of nerfsteak he could find on his plate.

“Andres used to play on a travel league in his youth,” Mr. Fortune explained. “Ty was a year older so we didn’t face him every year, but when we did we always lost. Andres once asked me if we could go home without playing when we arrived at a game and he realized he was matching up against Ty Allin.”

“Really?” Tomas exclaimed. “So how come Ty didn’t play at Bela Vistal or some other top rated school, like Andres did?”

“I told you that a few weeks ago,” Lucie reminded Tomas.

“But what did Ty do that was so bad he couldn’t get recruited by a better school?” Tomas asked.

Mr. Fortune looked at me for approval and I gave him a nod. “Well back when we played youth ball Ty’s father was very vocal. He argued loudly with the refs when a call was made against his son or agued when a call wasn’t made in his son’s favor. Even worse, if Ty missed a tackle or had a less than perfect game he could be heard lecturing his son in the parking lot after the game. Now I wouldn’t say that his upbringing gives him a pass for his behavior later on, but I suspect Ty could only take so much. There were reports in the media that Ty’s grades were falling a year before he was to graduate.”

I looked over to see Tomas and Spencer turned around in their seats giving their full attention to Mr. Fortune as he told his story. “One evening Ty was arrested for vandalizing speeders in an upper class neighborhood.”

“Ty was arrested?” Tomas asked in disbelief. “Didn’t he know that would ruin his chances of playing Limmie?”

“He was heavily intoxicated at the time as well, according to reports.” Mr. Fortune explained. “Unfortunately I don’t think Ty cared much when it happened. He wasn’t only arrested he spent 4 months in a juvenile rehabilitation center.”

“Lucie you never told us that,” Spencer said accusingly.

“It’s not something he’s proud of,” she answered defensively. “Besides he knows how much Tomas looks up to him. He doesn’t want you to get in trouble Tomas.” She said turning to look at her little brother. “And don’t look down on him either,” she instructed. “Ty may have made some mistakes. Even after he got to Ralltiir he did his fair share of goofing off. He thought he had ruined his chances of ever getting to play pro-ball and didn’t take it seriously until he was picked up by the Starkillers. He’s changed though. All the work he does in the off season with the youth leagues. He does that so kids don’t make the same mistakes he made. He’s a better person now.”

As if on cue the Starkillers ran back out of the tunnel to take the field for the second half. Ty Allin was leading the way. Fortune took the field with a look of determination. Whatever the coaches had said to him at halftime paid off when he was able to score the first and only goal of the game. The stadium erupted in applause as the Starkillers took an 8- 1 lead.

The rest of the game was a grudge match. The Monarchs fought hard, but only managed two more bar points. Allin wasn’t the only star of the defense. It appeared as if Teaspoon was finally hitting her stride as well. On offense Sureysh, McTodd and Jul each added a bar point to our total.

After the game everyone came back to our house to celebrate. We packed a care package for Bat that Mr. Fortune had offered to deliver when he got back to Corellia. It was for his birthday and included mostly home baked treats from his mother. It also included hand written notes from all of us and several pink dresses for the baby. We had a cake and I surprised the boys with the tickets to the Senators game.

“Dad, will I be home in time for the tournament in Demilla City?” Tomas asked with concern.

“We’ll be leaving right after the game,” I told him. “You will be able to board transport with your team as soon as we get back.”

“What tournament?” My wife asked suddenly. Then I remembered that I had never explained the details to Maddie about the all-star team Tomas had been selected to play on.

“I’ll tell you later,” I said putting my hand gently on her back. It wasn’t long before Lucie and Ty had to leave since they were both exhausted and wanted to try to put T.J. down for the night. The Fortunes along with Justyne, Andres and Zoey were right behind them. As soon as the boys retreated to their rooms for the evening I was cornered.

“Now,” Maddie said. “What tournament?”

“Tomas was selected to play for the Cambrielle all-star team for his age group in Limmie. It’s a real honor.” I added. She stood with arms crossed waiting for me to continue. “The boys have a break between grading periods and while their off from school Tomas will be traveling to Demilla City to play against other teams around the planet.”

“And who’s going with him?”

“His coaches, teammates, and a few parents have also volunteered to help chaperone," I assured her.

“You’re a parent why can’t you go?” She challenged, but she didn’t let me answer. “Let me guess, you’re busy. Did it cross your mind that maybe I’d like to go.”

“You’ll be watching Zoey,” I reminded gently, “Besides Lucie may need your help with T.J. Tomas is 10 years old now; he’ll be fine away from home for 2 nights.”

“Two nights! And why didn’t you just tell me when you first learned about him making the All-Star squad?”

“Things have been really busy, it just slipped my mind.”

“That’s sithspit Martin! You didn’t tell me because you knew I wouldn’t approve. And now you’ve already told him he can go. So if I go and change your mind I look like the bad guy.”

She was partially right I didn’t run home and tell her the first night because I had hoped to find the right opportunity. Unfortunately shortly after he first made the squad I had gotten really busy and simply forgotten I had never told her. “If you feel that strongly about it I can see if there’s another slot for an extra chaperone.” I offered.

“And then what? He has a great weekend, a great career at a local secondary school, then what? Gets his heart broken when he’s not recruited by a college, or tears an ACL and never walks without a limp again?”

“Those things could happen, Tomas knows that. We’ve talked,” I explained.

“He’s 10. He doesn’t believe anything like that will happen to him. He thinks he’s going to play pro ball. You know the odds of him playing pro ball? And what would you do if he did put himself up for the draft? Watch his heart break if he’s not drafted? Draft him yourself or worse yet what if another team drafts him?”

“What would be so bad about that?”

“I don’t want my son playing for Nar Shadda or Mando’ade. I won’t stand for that Martin.” She turned and started to storm off.

“What about the trip in two weeks?” I asked.

“He can go, I won’t be responsible for breaking his spirit.” She turned and gave me one of her most heinous stares. “If he should get hurt or if he ends up in the detention center like his hero Ty so help me Martin I’ll break your spirit.”

Tag: CPL_Macja (for game play) Vehn and Bardan_Jusik (for team mentions)

 

Sub-GM Post

Did I say I was going to do this yesterday? Well, I went out to run errands, intending to run scores when I got home, but when I returned, the cat was blocking my computer and stayed there the rest of the night. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Bonus rolls this week to (points in parentheses): Eriadu (30), Commenor (28), Thyferra (32), Tatooine (30), Concordia (30). Banked for next week: Druckenwell (28).

Limmie Futures League
Week 5
Eriadu Thunder at Commenor Gundarks (28–8)
Thyferra Force at Tatooine Sandskimmers (3–22)
Garqi Gunners at Concordia Crusaders (9–20)

TAG: Jedi Gunny Bardan_Jusik Vehn Runjedirun Tim Battershell Rebecca_Daniels CPL_Macja

 

IC: Christine Gamble
Nightclub, Coruscant

Christine went into the nightclub in the entertainment district of the planet. It wasn’t the seedy club scene that was in the lower depths of Coruscant, but instead the more upscale type of place where one could get lost in all the excitement and just let the hours pass by. The team was headed out to Hapes the next day, so the night was all to themselves right now. She wasn’t alone, accompanied by defensive teammates Michelle Doss, Reena Wyley, and Rainy Frantsen, the on-and-off-again captain for the Thyferra Force who was in her next stint with the Senators. The poor defensive performance of the first half of the season had brought her up her to try and plug the leaks.

The place was about half-full, with lights that were going every which way and music that provided a nice background ambiance. But it was all about the atmosphere, with random strangers drinking together and watching various things on the HoloNet screens littered throughout the club. Christine sidled up to the bar with her teammates and ordered a drink. The bartender got one to her and she began to drink it. The season had sucked so badly thus far, but at least the club life on Coruscant was nice. If nothing else, it provided a useful escape for the hell that was the 277 campaign.

“Here’s to any hopes we have for the rest of the season,” Michelle said, raising a toast to her glass. The other players did the same, and their four glasses clinked. Christine was half-done with her beverage, so a lot less liquid sloshed around when she made contact with the other glasses.

“There’s going to be a lot of change occurring for next season,” Rainy said. “A storm is coming, and I don’t know if we’ll like it.”

“Then we have a few more games to figure things out,” Reena said.

“Hey, Reen, where’s Cord? You not invite him to come out with you tonight?” Christine asked.

Reena set her drink down and sighed. “Cord and I . . . it’s complicated.”

“We have time,” Michelle said.

“We’re divorcing,” Reena said bluntly. That caused Christine to almost lose grip of her drink. She hadn’t seen that coming.

“What brought this on?”

“Cord’s actions over the last year have gone farther than I’ve wanted them to. That suspension was the last straw; I told him it would work out if he kept doing that, and he told me flatly that I was right. Both he and I figured it would be best if we went our separate ways. I hear he’s already got another girl to run to,” the Hapan said, shaking her head as she said this. “So I’ve entered back into the singles pool again.”

“That sucks,” Michelle said. “You need any support?”

“Nah, I can handle it,” Reena said. “I think our relationship was mostly based on sex, though, so it just didn’t work out like I wanted it to. It’s probably best to just move on.”

“Welcome back to the singles side,” Rainy commented as she swigged her drink.

“Yeah, guess I need to remember what it’s like here,” the Hapan said.

This got Christine thinking. If that elusive guy of her dreams ever came along, how would she react? Could she learn to let her competitive side down a little and learn how to love, and how to be responsible in a relationship? Being team captain, even for one game, was hard enough. Could she make that sort of commitment? Being captain meant pledging the maximum amount of support you could for your team, just like any being would do for a significant other. It had its ups and downs, but hopefully things would come out alright. It sounded like Reena hadn’t had the best experience, and this bothered Christine. It told her that things were not always so peachy out there. The injury had taught her enough about the harsh reality of the galaxy, but disappointments like this seemed to abound. What was her role in all this, anyways?

The next twenty minutes were spent drinking and talking, the four players just there in the midst of the crowd. Then Christine felt another presence behind her, and she looked around. Reena was now talking to a man she had seen before, who looked very familiar.

“Xander Darkrider,” the man said. “I played six years of Elite League ball. I’d still be doing it if my agent and the Mercs were reasonable with their demands.”

Now Christine remembered him. He had played midfield for the Mercs when she was a rookie; she remembered the name and the face.

“You should have signed with us,” Michelle said. “We could’ve used a solid middie this year before things went into the tank.”

“After seeing how badly your team was doing, I was considering having my agent call your team office and ask if they needed my help,” Xander commented. “I may be out of the league right now, but I’m still very much able to make plays. Still in my prime.”

“Obviously that’s a lot better than what we have this year,” Michelle said again.

“So, Darkrider, what’re you doing here?” Christine asked.

“Talking to my girlfriend, what else?” Xander said. He motioned to Reena.

“Wait, you haven’t even divorced McKerty yet, and you’ve already gotten yourself in a relationship with him?” Michelle asked. “Wow, that’s a fast turnaround.”

“This divorce issue has been floating around for a while,” Reena explained. “So I met up with Xander about . . . two . . . months ago? We’ve been going out every now and then as friends, but with Cord and I splitting up, it was time to start a more serious relationship.”

“I’m glad she came calling,” Xander said. “We’re perfect together.”

“Plus, Cord didn’t want children. I know that at some point, maybe sooner rather than later, my Limmie career is going to end, and then things will change. I want to start a family, and I don’t want to wait until I retire,” Reena said.

“So does this mean you’re not coming back next year?”

“I probably won’t make the club next year if major changes are made, so I wanted to plan ahead,” the Hapan said.

“You’ve got that right,” Michelle said. “All of us might be gone next year. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“That’s why we have three games to fix things,” Rainy said. “We need to beat Hapes this week if we want to prove ourselves worthy.”

“Doesn’t mean anything, though,” Reena said. “We’re already out of the playoff race anyways.”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t still try to play hard until the last second of the last game,” Christine interjected.

“She’s got a point,” Michelle said as she finished her drink. “Anyways, if it’s fine with y’all, I’m going to dance,” she said before joining the dancers on the dance floor.

“I need to move,” Christine said as she finished her beverage and placed the empty glass down on the table. She then walked past Xander and Reena, who were talking to each other playfully, and then made her way through the club. There wasn’t a single lighting scenario, but she could see well enough to navigate through the crowd.

“Christine?” came a voice from nearby.

The corner back looked over at the source of the word, and she then saw him. Ben Quin, her former boyfriend back at Ord Sabaok, was sitting at the table drinking alone.

“Ben,” she said, sitting down across from him. “It’s been ages.”

“I know,” the man said. “Hopefully it’s long enough to help you forget how we broke up.”

“I still remember,” Christine commented. It hadn’t been the prettiest of breakups.

“But I never saw you again after that incident, and I felt so remorseful for what I said,” Ben said. “I never thought I would get to tell you that I am sorry for what happened.”

“It happens, Ben. Things change, we all mature,” Christine said.

“But I’ve been holding onto that frustration for five years,” Ben added. “It’s not easy knowing that your ex-girlfriend went on to become a major Limmie star, and you’ve gone nowhere.”

“Now hold on there, you were always the more studious of the two of us. You got your degree, and it was in something pretty good, if I recall correctly.”

“After we broke up, I just didn’t care anymore. I wrecked myself that night, and it took a long time to ease the sting of what I had done. I graduated, but I didn’t go looking for a job for a long time. What I did messed with me, and I’ve felt remorse to this day.”

“Why are you here?” Christine asked.

“Because I hang out in clubs,” the man said. “I’ve built huge tabs for myself that I can’t pay off, but I come anyways because I don’t have a life outside of this. I’ve picked up so many club chicks over the last few years, but it’s never worked out for me. I’m a dead-end guy with a dead-end job who blew his best chance at love.”

“You knew it might not last,” Christine said.

“But I let it affect me that much. Christine, I know I was a jerk, but please, hear me out.”

“We’re not getting back together, Ben.”

“No, I just . . . want to say that . . . fame is fleeting. I dragged myself down, and I’ve rued it ever since. Don’t let your fame, your responsibility as a player . . . destroy who you are. You were a good friend. Promise me that you will never end up like me, unhappy and bitter about the galaxy. Follow your passion for life and never look back at the hard times. Because if you do, if you mope about the past, then things will only get worse.”

For the first time, Christine felt sobered about her position as captain. Ben was right; she had a lot on her shoulders, a burden many couldn’t bear without breaking. And now she had to stay calm and reserved in the face of a losing season. When she went home that night, Ben’s words were still floating in her head. He had a point, an excellent point. She was not immune to the vices of fame and responsibility. This season was her test, to see if she could handle the pressure. But that required her to be prepared for what lay ahead. She had to look forward, not back.


TAG: No One

 

GM Post

HSN Headlines

• ELL opens investigation regarding Smugglers medical staff practices regarding dealing with in game injuries
• Investigation has roots in Leroux continuing play during Game of Rivals
• League also announced that officials from the game are being reviewed for allowing Leroux to play

TAG: Vehn

 

IC: Tim Dodd - Dodd Apartment, Calna Muun

Week Five's game against the Mercs had been disappointing, to say the least.

The unforced error by Lokensgaard had been even more so! Really, some people needed to have their lips surgically fastened together before they were let out anywhere!

Tim's comment to the press had been an entirely natural reaction, and a measured one; but contained a possible future benefit. If, as commented on by WWL, the Membership Committee sought to demote the Packers, it could be seen as due to pressure exerted by a Commissioner intent on silencing a critic; and the Committee could deny that possibility until they were blue in the face. The mud, the suggestion, would stick; as they said on Agamar!

The Storm's visit to Agamar should have given Esther Gondorf what Lokensgaard would really have liked to see on previous weeks; a full Stadium and no player or crowd trouble at all, as far as he could tell.

Part of that was down to half the ASF being in attendance, in case the other Bassell tried another spectacular disruption, but it did tend to discourage ordinary misbehaviour too! The game itself was played competitively, but with respect. That it had ended in the Packers' first-ever win over the Storm, and by thirty-three points to the Storm's fourteen, was a most welcome outcome indeed.

TAG: Trieste, jcgoble3

 

IC: Christine Gamble
Royal Limmie Grounds, Hapes

Christine stared out at the field two hours before the game between her Coruscant Senators and the Hapes Consortium Buccaneers was set to begin. As she leaned against the team tunnel for the visiting team, she hardly blinked, just thinking of what was going to go down in two hours. Her team badly needed a win – she needed a win. But Hapes would be just as hungry, because they were still in the playoff hunt. They would come out to play, and Christine knew that would mean she was going to have to work hard. Being captain meant that you couldn’t take a play off. You had to prove to your teammates that you would be the last one standing, the standards-carrier in the doomed regiment who stood their ground through the hail of opposing fire despite heavy losses. If you were to be the last one to fall, so be it. That was the job she had to fill.

“Gamble,” came a voice from somewhere out on the field. She snapped out of her stupor to see the bleached blonde hair of Adanna Inviere coming across the field towards her. What did the Hapan want, Christine wondered. She had left the Senators when the going was good, so why come back here?

When Inviere was up to the corner back, Christine decided not to look back. She was in a zone, and the Hapan GM didn’t faze her. “It’s been a while,” Adanna commented.

“Yes it has,” Christine replied curtly.

“Look, I know you probably are disappointed at how your season is going.”

Christine turned to face the Hapan. “That’s why you got out when you did, right? You knew this was coming.”

“Hardly,” Adanna said. “I got a chance to return home and be a full GM. I never would have gotten that with Coruscant.”

“Sometimes they say you have to experience hell before you get anywhere,” Christine commented, a tinge of bitterness in her voice.

“That’s funny, you could say the same thing about yourself,” Adanna said. She positioned herself on the opposite wall of the team tunnel and leaned into it with her back. “Isn’t this season hell for you?”

“Of course,” Christine said. It was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?

“Then, if the saying is correct, things will get better,” Adanna commented. “Hopefully not today against my team, but someday things will improve. To tell you the truth, I came here to Hapes for an opportunity. Like you, I wanted to prove my mettle against the best in the game. It’s been a decent season thus far, but it’s had its ups and downs. What ends up making or breaking a season isn’t wins and losses, though. Those are just team stats. What really matters is how you play the game. And how hard you try when things don’t go well for you. I don’t need to tell you how I found that out the hard way.”

“You won two Galactic Cups. That hardly counts as struggling,” Christine said.

“266, Christine, 266,” Adanna said.

“I was in middle school. So what?” Christine asked.

“That year, my team’s shuttle got hijacked by space pirates,” Adanna said with a sigh. “With the Senators, mind you. We were locked up, beaten, and generally kept miserable. It was a rough existence, let me tell you. Somehow we were rescued, but that experience has always stuck with me. It taught me that Limmie is only secondary to how you conduct your own life.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because even though you have an 0-6 record this season, you have talent. I’m not going to lie that if I could pry you loose from Gark S’rily’s hands, I would do so in a heartbeat. You’re a special player, Christine. It doesn’t take a Limmie junkie to figure that out.”

“But you don’t want me to beat you today,” Christine said.

“Of course not. But even though I came back here to be GM, I still played and managed with the Senators. You can’t just forget that. I won a Cup title with this team. But that takes a lot of hard work, and good teammates.”

“Something I don’t have,” Christine said. “At least, not like you did.”

“Then it really tests your mettle. I want to see a good game out there today. Obviously we need to win this game, but if you want to be remembered by the Coruscant fanbase like I am, you have to play hard. You want respect? You go out there and you put it all on the line.”

“Doesn’t this seem counterintuitive to tell me this before our teams play against each other?” Christine asked, bewildered.

“If it gets my organization some good Galactic karma, I’ll take it,” Adanna said with a sly wink. “We have playoffs to try and qualify for. Thus, we need you to come out and bring it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some team things to get to.” With that, she walked back across the field. Christine was alone once more, but now she had a lot to think about. Inviere was right; she had to really work for this. Maybe things weren’t so doomed after all . . .

---

Pregame

“I want us to go out there and play like this season isn’t over,” Christine said. “We’re going to take the C-Bucs to the wire today, got that? We’re going to beat them up. We can win this game today, because they’ll think they can walk over us. Well, we need a win. We’re long overdue. Today the losing streak ends,” Christine said to her teammates in the locker room. “Today the galaxy will know that we finally won a game. This season is over, but we’re building for next year. Next year, we’ll crush everyone. But we have to set that foundation. And that starts today. I just need all of you to believe me on this. Because if we don’t, most of us are toast. So play for yourselves, and for this team, and the fans. Because we can do this.”

Today was going to be an interesting game. Jed Ortmeyer was making his ELL coaching debut as the interim head coach, so Christine had no idea what he would bring to the table. She had never played under him, so it would be a learning experience. And that’s all this was anyways. With a season in the tank, and nowhere to go but up, the Senators had to play hard. They had to avoid demotion. They had to win. And the C-Bucs would be the first victim of the Coruscant Senators revitalization.



TAG: No One, although if Vehn wants to chime in about the Hapes side of things . . .


Bets for the Week:
Ryloth at Euceron: Euceron, 20,000
Agamar at Nar Shaddaa: Agamar, 15,000
Ylesia at Mando'ade: Mando'ade, 20,000
Coruscant at Hapes: Coruscant, 15,000
Kashyyyk at Rydonni Prime: Rydonni Prime, 20,000
Bakura at Ralltiir: Bakura, 25,000
TAG: Trieste (for bets)

 

IC: Martin Vigo

Andres was determined to have a better game against the Miners than the one he had against the Monarchs. To help improve his game he was staying late at the stadium practicing his shots on any defensive player willing to stay with him. He was hard at work down on the field when I left to get Tomas from Limmie practice. “Mom is upset about the tournament, isn’t she?” He asked on the ride home.

“She is apprehensive,” I conceded.

“Maybe I shouldn’t play.”

“I thought you were looking forward to the tournament. Why shouldn’t you play?”

“I heard you and mom fighting last night,” he informed me. “I don’t like it when you fight. I think I’ll just stay home.”

For a moment I was speechless. Maddie and I had argued countless times over the years. We always managed to settle our differences, usually within only a few days. The first five children had never expressed any concern. I was surprised Tomas would be any different. “This is an opportunity for you to play Limmie on a bigger stage. To play against other kids of your skill level, maybe even a greater skill level. You don’t want to pass this up. Your mom is upset because I didn’t tell her sooner that you would be spending the night away from home. She needs more time to get used to the idea. She’ll come around to it,” I promised. “You just concentrate on your Limmie skills. Leave your mother to me.”

The rest of the ride was quiet. Tomas was contemplative. He stared blankly out the window even for a minute after we had touched down in the driveway. When I got in the house I found Justyne and Zoey inside. Apparently since Andres wasn’t coming home for dinner they didn’t want to eat alone. I hadn’t spoken to Maddie since the night before. After our argument she had locked herself in our room, forcing me into the guest room for the night. I entered the kitchen to check on her. “How’s my girl?” I asked sweetly.

“Tired,” she answered. “I’ve been entertaining Zoey all day. Lucie called to let out her frustrations about there being two back to back road games scheduled after this week. Spencer’s swim practice ran late and now I have to cook two meals because Justyne wants to stay.”

“If Justyne wants to stay she should eat what we eat.”

My wife rolled her eyes. “It’s not that easy. The boys need carbs and protein to keep up with their activities. Justyne eats a plant based diet to fit into that tight little uniform the Starkillers provide.”

I opened my mouth to remind her that the uniforms were available in all sizes, but decided that probably wasn’t the discussion I wanted to be having right now. “The boys and I will clean up, after dinner you get some rest,” I offered.

She shook her head. “After dinner I get to use the gym, haven’t gotten to do anything for myself all day. Now what is it you really came in here to talk about?” She asked suddenly.

“Tomas,” I said. “He heard us arguing last night and he is considering not playing in the tournament.”

“Oh,” she said quietly.

“Look, Maddie, I know I’ve forced this Limmie playing on you pretty hard. It’s what Tomas wants to do. When we tried to curb Lucie’s passion she found a way to pursue it without us. The least we can do from that situation is to learn from it.”

“Well as long as you are willing to admit you were wrong not to tell me about the tournament when you first heard about it.”

“I should have told you sooner,” I agreed.

“Then you’re forgiven,” she said stepping closer to give me a kiss, “And Tomas can go on his trip. Problem solved,” she said with a smile. “Now let’s eat.”

Justyne hung out to watch holovison even after Zoey fell asleep on the sofa. She said that her own house was lonely without Andres. Finally she got a text from him saying he had left the stadium and she loaded Zoey into her speeder for the short trip back to her own home. I found my wife in the kitchen eating a bowl of fruit. “Are we made up now?” I asked.

She shrugged her shoulders, “I guess, Oh,” she said trying to force a smile. She ate a few more quick bites of fruit emptying the bowl. “You want to go upstairs.”

“Well that is the best part of making up.”

---

The week sped by. Tomas had a Limmie game, Spencer swam in two meets, and Andres continued to put in extra hours after practice. Two nights before the game against the Miners he was on the field into the early morning hours. He returned a few hours later to practice again. Twenty hours before game time Till finally shooed him off the field. Justyne and Zoey spent the night at our house before the game so that no one could disrupt Andres. We were all hoping he would get as much sleep as possible.

Before I even told my wife how many people would be joining us in the box for the game I offered to let someone on my staff do the catering for her. Instead she insisted that she couldn’t let me look like I was the only one who did any work and she put together the menu herself. We both struggled with whether we should allow the children to wear jerseys or if we should treat this as a more formal affair.

When Zoey insisted on sleeping in her Hovechar jersey the night before I realized I probably didn’t have much choice in the matter. The next morning I met Spencer on the pool deck. After watching him finish a grueling workout I asked him what he wanted to wear to the game. He shook his head, “I know what you’re thinking dad, you want to show me off. I’m not going to look like a dork in front of Jane Serena.”

“Meaning you look like a dork in a suit,” I ventured.

“Exactly, dad” he pleaded. “Just let me wear a jersey and look like a normal fan.”

“No son of mine is normal,” I said with a gentle smile. I saw fear creep into his eyes. “Relax,” I assured him. “You can wear a jersey.”

He didn’t find the exchange very amusing, after a quick breakfast he retreated to his room to study for most of the day. Late that afternoon I found him curled up on the sofa. “If you need to take a nap before the game you should do that in your room,” I suggested. “Your sister will be dropping off Zoey any minute.”

“Not tired,” he mumbled.

I noticed that he didn’t move much when he said it. “You’re not getting sick are you?” I asked suddenly getting apprehensive.

He shook his head, “Nervous.”

“Nervous about what?” I asked as I took a seat next to him.

He sat up and I noticed he had a Fortune jersey on. “The game tonight, what if we lose?”

“We bounce back next week,” I said with a shrug.

“Dad, this is serious. I don’t want to share our box with a bunch of Miners fans to begin with. If the Starkillers lose they’ll rub it in our faces. How could you even invite them?”

“This is an opportunity for me and you to meet another family in the business. I thought maybe we could learn something or share our knowledge. It’s not all about the competition on the field. When the season is over we need to work together.”

“Work together?”

“Sure, who knows what ideas the commissioner is going to come up with next, there are rumors of teams being demoted again. As owners we need to stand together and make sure we get to take a part in these decisions.” I continued. “Last season teams were demoted without any consultation I think that needs to change, don’t you?” Spencer shrugged. “I said that needs to change, do you agree?”

“Yes sir,” he said unenthused.

“You don’t have to agree with me. If you have something to say, say it,” I encouraged.

“I agree; I just hope we win today. We are outnumbered nearly two to one by Miners fans in our own box."

“Remember what I told you about your confidence. Be confident not only in yourself today, but our team as well. If we do lose remember that the season is far from over.” I heard a speeder pull up in the driveway and looked up to see Justyne pulling in with Zoey. “Did Andres sleep last night?” I asked when she came in.

“He was asleep when we got home this morning and we let him sleep until he had to leave for the game,” she assured me. “Look dad, I’m late. I’ll see you in the morning.” She said handing me an overnight bag for Zoey. She bent down to give her daughter a hug. “Behave for your grandparents, mommy loves you.”

“Love you,” I heard Zoey’s muffled voice reply.

It wasn’t long after Justyne left that we began to get ready to leave for the stadium as well. We arrived about an hour before dusk. One by one the moons began to light up the sky. There were 28 in all that revolved our planet, by the end of the game 17 of them would be shining above. Lucie, T.J, Maddie, Zoey, Spencer, Tomas and I eagerly waited for our guests to arrive, dinner to be served and the game to begin.

Tag: Trieste

 

IC: Meredith Chambers-Vayne
Royal Limmie Grounds, Hapes

Somehow, by some miracle, the ladies had secure a win against the infamous Kashyyyk Rangers. Then again, this wasn't the same Rangers team from years past. Sure, Nauranta, a former Smuggler, was still down there chugging away but even he was starting to look old on a pitch increasingly dominated by younger players. Camille Montes had nearly had a breakdown in that game after being leveled by one of the Wookies. Meredith had simply taken her aside and listened to her concerns, pumped up her ego, and sent her back out there. As fortune would have it, Montes made the game saving stop that kept the C-Bucs in the win column.

Now the great reunion was happening. For Meredith, that team across the way, that team that wore the black and orange jerseys, they were the enemy. She hadn't played in countless Rim War matches for nothing and had learned to turn up her game an extra notch when the Senators were coming to town. That Senators team across the pitch, however, was a different beast than the one she used to go toe to toe with. They were hurting. They were undefeated in all the worst sense of that word and they would be incredibly dangerous. She couldn't afford at this crucial moment in the C-Bucs season to let up on the gas now. She needed to keep her ladies focused, determined, tools sharpened for battle. She had fortunately missed the Smugglers own terrible campaign in 255 ABY. She'd still been in high school at that time. Yes, the Senators would be back next year. Who knew, maybe this year, maybe even today, they'd show up to play.

Not going to let that happen, Meredith said as she gathered her ladies around her.

"Now is the time," Meredith said, "now is the time. I talked to you at the beginning of the season of knowing what it feels like to play meaningful games. Well, ladies, today is one of them. Over there is a hungry team. Over there is a very dangerous team. They are going to fight harder than anyone you've played all season long. Why? Because they suck. Because right now all they're looking forward to is wrapping up the season and getting paid. They're playing for pride. For them, every game is going to be the Galactic Cup of Limmie. Make sure you get in their heads. Make sure you hit them hard. I don't want anyone losing their assignments and for the love of the force try to put up more points today, I nearly died against the Rangers."

"Today this game is meaningful. Concentrate, play hard, and let the rest take care of itself," Meredith instructed.

"Best of luck, ladies, and enjoy every moment of our game today. You won't see the same squad next year if we play them. Trust me, they'll want it more than you can possibly imagine," Meredith said.

Tag: Jedi Gunny

 

GM Post

HSN Morning Headlines

• Ternardiel trial begins on Nar Shaddaa with opening arguments
• Prosecution: “She knew what she did was wrong when she did it. It’s that simple.”
• Defense: “The defense has stipulated to the facts of the case. What we will show you is that the defendant is just like you: a being who tried to make a better life for herself against the odds.”
• HSN legal expert: “In stipulating to the facts, Ternardiel is admitting that she did it. This means that they’re almost certainly going for jury nullification.”

---

What We Learned: Week 6

Nobody got mad at us this week for anything so we threw a party for ourselves to celebrate. This means our bosses will probably get mad at us next week for throwing a party.

Agamar Packers – Agamar to the postseason is not out of the question after a surprise rout of Euceron. 5-4 in conference with a 4-1 conference record would be a hard mark to not make the playoffs with--but the Packers need to play almost flawlessly from hereon out.

Bakura Miners – Falene Trieste and Niskat Deenever are BFFs, a fact that is going to have no bearing on the fact that Deenever is going to get a monster contract this offseason. The reason this has no bearing on the contract is that Deenever absolutely deserves her upcoming payday. The only reason that she is not being talked about anyone who knows anything about limmie is that usually she is outshone by the player directly ahead of her in the field who is an offensive force of nature.

Coruscant Senators – The interns have told us that we’re being too mean to Coruscant. They have threatened to withhold our caf if we don’t say nicer things about Coruscant for the rest of the season. Because we love caf: the Senators more than doubled their points scored this season against Bakura! Hooray!!! The fans have reason to hope!

Euceron Storm – The Packers are not exactly the team that you want exposing the flaws in your system--especially because giving Nar Shaddaa and Mando’ade a road map to roast Chenkabukk in two and three weeks, respectively, is not a good idea.

Hapes Consortium Buccaneers – Coruscant and Hapes aren’t two teams that really have much ire for each other, so after a week of big rivalries, this is a game one can easily overlook. It’ll probably be a snoozer. It’s not like the C-Bucs GM has something to prove against her old boss. Or their head coach has had years of the Core War to breed loathing into her that she would use to amp her team up for the game. Nope, nothing like that.

Kashyyyk Rangers – We would make fun of the big bad Wookiees and Trandoshans for being beaten by a bunch of girls, but seeing as the girls in the office beat the boys up regularly for generally being stupid, we actually sympathize with the Rangers on this point.

Mando’ade Mercs – For an organization that has proven to be mind-numbingly inept in everything it’s done off the field this season, only losing the Game of Rivals by a couple of late scores is a shocking over-achievement. And it still leaves the Mercs in first place. What what?

Nar Shaddaa Smugglers – Agamar after the Game of Rivals is totally not a trap game. No way. The ghost of Admiral Ackbar isn’t vainly trying to haunt the Smugglers home locker room to remind them that they actually have to play limmie this week.

Ralltiir Starkillers – We know, we know, we shouldn’t jinx it after an ELL-record (and climbing) 12 straight regulation wins (which, the interns tell us, blows the Smugglers’ previous high mark of 8 game streak from 275-276 out of the water), but we’re going to say it anyways: no team has ever soared so high so fast as Ralltiir have under the duo of Till and Vigo. With another playoff spot all but assured, the Starkillers are suddenly the team to watch.

Rydonni Prime Monarchs – Needing to win out to have a shot at the playoffs? Badger don’t care. Badger just takes what it wants. Nothing can stop the Badger when it’s hungry. And if the Badger should happen to get, oh I don’t know, poisoned he’ll just pass out for a few minutes and then get right back up coaching. Do you hear us? Badger don’t care.

Ryloth Rough Riders – We just got footage of the promotion ceremony for the Rough Riders from an inside source at the League. It basically went like this:
Lokensgaard: Ryloth, you can destroy the Empress. She has foreseen this. It is your destiny! Join the Skywalker Conference and…
Ryloth: ...and?
Lokensgaard: I’m just kidding, you’re going to do terribly. It is the only way.
[Ryloth lets go and immediately falls to the bottom of the Skywalker Conference. Lokensgaard turns and walks away, probably to get a sandwich]

Ylesia Lightning – We just checked the stats and apparently Ylesia has the second best points allowed. We stopped and thought about this and then did the only rational thing: built a shrine to Korlo Penin right next to our Kasin shrine. The females in the office have approved this decision.

TAG: Bardan_Jusik CPL_Macja jcgoble3 Jedi Gunny JM_1977 Rebecca_Daniels Runjedirun Tim Battershell Vehn

 

IC: Falene Trieste
Senators Stadium, Coruscant



“Horst!” Falene called out.

“Yeah?” he replied.

The game was in time out as Max Grap was getting some assistance from the trainers. It didn’t look like it was anything too serious, but Falene wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to get the defense straightened out. Killenger was outplaying Penn, who was making stupid mistakes. Not just stupid--but really stupid mistakes.

“I’m really gonna need you to focus up,” Falene said.

“I know, I know,” Penn said, “I totally shouldn’t have let her distract me like that. I should have told her that her cleats were untied. Stupid. Don’t worry--I’ll tell her right now. She’ll never see it coming.”

“Horst, just play defense,” Falene said, “and don’t think about it too much.”

“Not thinking--good idea Falene,” Horst agreed before his eyes went wide, “Wait. I just thought about it. Now I can’t not think about not thinking. This might be a problem.”

“How about we focus on the play defense part of the equation?” Falene suggested.

“That’s a way better idea. I can totally not think about playing defense.”

Falene was about to say, No, you should probably think about playing some defense, but decided that was going to be more trouble than it was worth. She just headed up the field to join her fellow half backs. Before she got back to her position, Wizmark came over and clapped Falene on the shoulder.

“Let me guess, you were a babysitter as a kid,” Nelly said, “and that’s how you got the life skills to handle Horst.”

“Babysitter? Yeah, no. I had Federal Marshals and Senatorial Guard as a kid. I’m not sure that would have been the best pitch to parents. ‘Don’t worry, I’m just going to sit here with a bunch of beings with blasters while I watch your kid.’”

“You kidding?” Nelly said, “I’d want my kids protected by the Senatorial Guard while I’m on date night.”

“Fair point.”

“Keep it up. You’ve got Zalt pinned down,” Wizmark said before heading back to her outside position, “Use that insider knowledge.”

It didn’t much feel like it. Zalt and Falene had played together on the GCAA championship team at PCNS and the two knew each other well from years of practice together. They’d often scrimmaged against each other and now they were playing for an ELL win. Needless to say neither of them was giving the other any freebies. They’d save it for the alumni game. Falene already wasn’t happy with the one goal that Zalt had gotten in. It was a flukey goal, but it felt worse than if Ynisse had beat her outright. Falene didn’t want to let another one in, no matter what.

These Senators were playing exactly like Alana had feared they would--like cornered animals, lashing out at anything. Their offense, so anemic, had exploded against the Miners. It was frustrating for Falene. She knew that that the Miner defense, so much improved on the iterations of years past, should be holding the Senators down like every other team had done. The Senators, however, were making up for lost time.

Luckily, so was the Miner offense.

The ball turned over to the Miners, and Falene was the one who recovered it. She kicked the ball up the field, way over the head of the midfielders, and straight into the hands of her old friend Niskat. The big half forward received the ball cleanly, shrugging off the Senator who went for a tackle and broke into open field. She went right before cutting left, which was enough to shake her defender. There were so many new faces on the Senators that Falene honestly wasn’t sure who it was that had drawn covering Deenever today.

Whoever it was it didn’t matter, because now Deenever was in open field. The Senator defense was hurrying up, attempting to close on her, but the center half forward had too much time. She put the ball in the air in front of her and fired it off her foot into the goal for her second of the day. Deenever raised her arms in celebration as the crowd roared. The girl they call Niskat was having a very good day and the Miner offense seemed to be rotating around her instead of Rodders. Incidentally, this meant that Aron was doing very well and making some beautiful plays now that the pressure to carry the offense had been taken off him. Valerii was even successfully substituting Zonka at strategic moments to ease some of Aron’s playing time instead of just using Zonka for garbage time. The Hapan half forwards were having a successful outing as well, especially Alesh who was zipping between defenders and finding scoring spaces.

Though the defense hadn’t held the Senators down, the offense had done their part and bailed them out, like so many Miner teams before them.

When the game was over, Falene congratulated Ynisse. “Do a lot more of that and you guys are going to get this turned around,” she told her old classmate, “Good to see you Ynisse. First of many, I’m sure.”

The teams mingled for congratulations around her and Falene picked up snippets of the other postgame conversations, no doubt being picked up in their entirety by the galactic sports media if it was at all possible.

“Thanks,” Alana was telling Christine Gamble, seemingly in response to something her fellow captain had said, “You made us earn it today. How you play games like that is a message to the galaxy about what kind of team you are, what kind of being you are. You showed the galaxy that.”

Not too much further into the throng of media and players were the head coaches meeting. Pam Korthe was congratulating Valerii on the win and wishing her well against Ralltiir next week. Gaeriel clasped Pam’s hand. “Thanks Pam. Your offense hit their stride against us today--threw in some nifty tricks. You work with this gang for a few more games and they’re going to click. It’ll be overtime again at the Gardens next year, I guarantee it.”

Though none of them knew it at the time, this would be Gaeriel Valerii’s ironic valediction for Pam Korthe, a woman she’d faced across two different franchises, her “rival”. It was true, Valerii had the better of the matchups over the rivalry’s history, but they had been some epic games, from the early ones on Thyferra, to the overtime victory in 273, to their 276 overtime game to send the winner to the playoffs and the loser home. Falene had watched the rivalry firsthand for much of its history and played in several of the match ups. There was more for the Miners to feel good about in it, but that hadn’t kept the Senators from getting their licks in.

The last words that Valerii would speak to Pam Korthe, the being that Falene knew from firsthand experience had been candidly discussed as a coaching candidate for the Miners (“if only Gark S’rily didn’t have her locked down” was always added to any thought about such a hiring) after the Quinn Cundertol had parted ways with Talley (a position that had ultimately been taken by Valerii, who with four championship rings, two of which as a coach and one of those had come as a result of going beating Korthe twice in Gaeriel’s first season, was on her way to becoming perhaps the greatest figure in Miner history), would be the optimistic belief that this too would pass, that Pam Korthe would not allow herself to be defeated by an 0-6 start to a season, that the Senators would be back, and better than ever, with her at the helm.

As Falene headed back to the locker room, she threw a look over her shoulder at the retreating Zeltron. Looking at the head coach, Falene wondered what Pam would have in store for the Miners next year.

It didn’t occur to her that there might not be a next year for Pamila Korthe. It was only the benefit of hindsight, which would take but a day to develop as the news of the head coaching change swept through the galaxy, that made the moment suddenly poignant.

---

Bankers Mansion Stadium, Cambrielle, Ralltiir

The Miners were quiet, tense, and focused in the locker room before their game against the Starkillers. The entire team hung on their coache’s parting thoughts before the start of the game.

“Let’s get what we’re all thinking out of the way right now,” Gaeriel said, “We win this game and we are in the driver’s seat for the Solo Conference and maybe even the Commissioner’s Trophy. We’ll have beaten Nar Shaddaa and Ralltiir and hold the head-to-head tiebreak over both of them. This is a big game. This is the sort of game that can make a season, that can define a season. This is the kind of game you don’t want to walk away from saying, ‘I wish I’d played that one just a little bit harder.’

“But that’s not what’s really on our minds,” Gaeriel said.

That surprised Falene, because that was exactly what was on her mind as she hunched forward, elbows on knees, hands clasped together in front of her, white socks with blue and gold vertical stripes hugging her calves all the way up to her knees, cleats tight, jersey clean and white ready to be striped and smudged with green, hair pulled back to stay out of her face.

“What we’re really thinking about is this,” the head coach continued.

She wrote on the interactive board in the front of the locker room: 12-0

“The Starkillers haven’t lost a regular season game in their last 12. Nobody’s done that in the last 16 years or probably even longer than that,” Valerii said, “We are facing a juggernaut. Ralltiir is one championship away from being the new Evil Empire.

“But records are meant to be broken and stopping the Starkillers just shy of lucky 13 sounds like the right time to stop them to me.

“They’ve got a stud offense. So do we. Everyone’s expecting a shootout. We’re game of the week from what I hear. I think the oddsmakers on Cloud City are setting the line for the combined score at about 90 and only taking the over. Well I’m sorry, but the galaxy is about to get disappointed. They may not have noticed, but we’ve got a defense that’s lights out now. We’ve watched the vids, we’ve done our practice. We’re here to shut the Starkillers down. We’re going to be the starkillers today. Everything we’ve done this season--everything--has prepared us for this moment. If you don’t think you’re ready for this, then you haven’t been paying attention because you are.

“It’s time to do what we do best: play our game and that’s damn good limmie. Let’s go!”

Falene jumped off the bench in tandem with the rest of the team. They were ready.

---

(OOC: Just because people keep inviting my ownership to their boxes… )

Who had first started the saying inside the Noble House was unknown, but it had been drilled into Fionn Dunross Trieste from an early age: five minutes early is on time. Fionn had instilled that in his children, two of which were Regan Eldred and Ronan Trieste. Accordingly, that was precisely when those two with their broods arrived at the Vigo box.

“Mr. Vigo, a pleasure to meet you at last,” Regan said, shaking his hand, “If the Commissioner had called the Board of Governors into session we would have already finished with this pleasantries. And before we get into things further, Regan, please. Justice Eldred gets tiring in social settings. Allow me to introduce my husband Atticus, also of the bar, my son Quentin, and my daughter Trixie.”

“Hi, whatever,” Trixie said in her usual less-than-thrilled-to-be-here way. Regan just rolled her eyes as her husband covered by shaking Martin’s hand.

“Also, my brother Ronan,” Regan continued.

“Mr. Vigo, nice to meet a fellow man of business,” Ronan said, “I admire not only what you’ve built, but your commitment to the community as well. Allow me to introduce my wife, Mandy.”

“A pleasure,” Mandy said smiling, “We brought the whole gang, if you don’t mind. Our daughter, Jane Serena, and youngest, Enoch. And where’s Antrose?”

“Back here!” came a voice from outside the box.

“Still mooning over your Archer?” Jane Serena teased.

“I most certainly am not,” Antrose said as he made his way forward.

“Then why do you keep going to Evenvale?” his sister asked.

Antrose paid her no mind. “Hello, Mr. Vigo. Antrose Trieste. Pleasure to meet the man who’s turned Ralltiir limmie on its head.”

“And last, but not least, what I like to call the Senators Trieste,” Regan said with a hint of a smirk, “My nephew Declan and his wife Ayn.”

“Mr. Vigo, thank you for having us,” Declan said, coming forward to firmly shake Martin’s hand with a politician’s handshake, “I hope you won’t so little of us for only bringing part of the clan.”

“It’s absolutely terrible,” Regan confided in Martin, “Ever since Vesper became big with the Monarchs, we can barely get my sister Siona and her family to watch a game. Fiona, Siona’s twin sister, does love the Miners with all her heart, but she’s been prone to watching the Bucs these days. I suppose when your daughter will likely one day own the team allegiances do shift a bit. My sister in-law Nessa and her children--hopeless causes. They’re brainwashed with Chandrilan Patriotism, I’m afraid. The Vehn-Triestes--ugh. We won’t even speak of them. I think you know where their sympathies lie.”

“For her part, my mother sends her regrets. She spends all day before ELL games are played shuttling across Bakura, taking in three to four Bak10 games in a day,” Declan said, “It’s a grueling schedule, so thank the Force she loves what she does. It does mean that we don’t see her at Miner games anymore, which is a shame because she loves it. Luckily, the Commissioner of the Bak10 is allowed to be partial to the hometown ELL team.” There was a bit of a glint in Declan’s eye as he said this.

“Now, we’ve barged in here in typical Trieste fashion,” Regan said, “We’re all anxious to meet the Vigo clan that we keep hearing so much about.”

TAG: Jedi Gunny Runjedirun

 

IC: Zay Antilles
Location: Nalo home, Eusebus, Euceron
Time: Prior to Storm–Packers game

Zay pulled the rental speeder up to the curb, shut off the engine, and looked over at Jado, who was studying the house he had grown up in prior to becoming a Jedi. “Memories coming to the surface?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Jado replied. “That, and I'm not sure anyone is home.”

“Well, let's find out.”

Both Jedi hopped out of the speeder simultaneously and walked up to the door. Zay pushed the doorbell button and waited, but nobody answered the door. Jado walked over and peered into the garage. “No speeders here,” he reported.

“Well, then what do you want to do while we wait on them?”

“Go in,” Jado said with a grin on his face.

“We can't, the door's locked. And I don't think your parents would appreciate us cutting a hole in their front door... wait, what are you doing?”

Jado had pulled a small tool from his belt and was working on the lock. “Cheap locks,” he told his Master, glancing back at him before continuing his work. “A celebrity like my dad ought to have stronger security.” The young Padawan withdrew his tool, then punched the UNLOCK button, and the door dutifully slid open. “We're in.”

Zay glanced around, but the neighbors didn't appear to have seen anything. He shrugged, walked in, and was greeted with a quiet beeping from a panel on the wall next to the door. One glance was enough to confirm his suspicions. “Jado, now you're going to set off the burglar alarm.”

“Pish. I'll bet you dinner they haven't changed the code since I left.”

“In six years? I'll take that bet,” Zay said with confidence.

Jado pulled out his datapad, brought up a notepad app, and selected the oldest note, which contained a seven-digit number. He then punched that number into the keypad, and the beeping stopped.

Zay took a step closer and read the display on the alarm panel. “ 'ALARM DISARMED'. Well, I owe you dinner, then. And why in the world have you been carrying that code on your datapad for six years?”

“Three, actually. I committed it to memory at first, but later decided to write it down.”

Zay plopped down on the couch. “Why would your parents give the alarm code to a... how old were you? Seven? Why would a seven-year-old need the alarm code?”

“They didn't. I overheard it and memorized it. I'm surprised a burglar didn't overhear it.”

“You parents suck at security,” Zay concluded.

Jado laughed, then changed the subject. “I wonder what they've done to my bedroom.”

“Well, let's find out, shall we?”

The two walked up the stairs to the bedroom level. Jado poked his head into the first room on the left. “I wonder where Tendra is. She's obviously not living here anymore.”

“How can you tell that?”

“Her bedroom's been converted into a guest room,” Jado said, showing the room to Zay.

“Interesting. Do you think we might be able to stay here tonight?”

“Eh, Dad probably won't have an issue with it. Mom will be harder to convince. Come on, let's go into my room.”

Jado led Zay down the hall to the next door, which was closed. He knocked out of politeness, but Zay could tell through the Force that nobody was in there. “Is this your room?” he asked his apprentice.

“Yep. Let's see what they've done.” Jado twisted the old-fashioned doorknob and threw the door open.

The first thing that struck Zay was how messy the room was. In fact, it still looked like a seven-year-old boy's bedroom that was still being lived in. “Have your parents even touched this room in the past six years?”

Jado was simply standing in the doorway dumbstruck, and it took him a few seconds to come up with a response. “No, they haven't. This is exactly how I left it the day I left with you and Master Quelkin. I knew they would miss me, but not like this.” The Padawan walked over to the table in the corner, stepping over a pile of junk that had fallen down sometime in the six years since they left. “I remember this puzzle,” he said, indicating the hundreds of pieces scattered across the table, about eighty of which were connected to each other and showing the beginning of a beautiful image. “Mom said it was too advanced for me, but I was determined to finish it. I never got the chance.”

Zay glanced out the window and saw two speeders pulling into the driveway at once. A look at the cockpits confirmed it was who he thought they were. “Your parents are home.”

“Tell them they can find me in here,” Jado said with a chuckle.

Zay suppressed a chuckle of his own and returned to the living room. He was lounging on the couch when Marte walked in.

“Aaaahhh! Wait... Zay?” Marte said.

“Yep, it's me. Hope you don't mind. My Padawan picked the lock.”

“Your Padawan? Last time I saw you, you were a Padawan. Sounds like you got a promotion.” Marte turned and shouted at his wife outside. “Honey! We've got Jedi company!”

Jaria hurried inside, saw who it was, put her bags down, and enveloped Zay in a big hug. Zay reluctantly returned the hug.

“So where is this devious Padawan of yours that broke into my house?” Marte said.

“He's upstairs in his old bedroom,” Zay said nonchalantly.

“Jado?!” Marte and Jaria exclaimed in unison.

Zay replied, “Yep,” but neither of Jado's parents heard it because they were already rushing upstairs. Zay slowly ambled his way back upstairs, allowing time for the reunion to take place. When he reached Jado's room, he found Jado squashed between his parents in a group hug. Jado finally pushed his parents away, and Zay detected a hint of the Force assisting him in doing so. I'll talk to him about that later, he thought. Now's not the time for it.

“How about we retire to the living room for conversation?” Zay suggested. “The Storm game starts in a few minutes.”

“Lead the way,” said Marte.

---

Time: A few seconds left in the game

Jado and his parents had spent much of the first half talking and catching up with each other, but eventually they ran out of things to talk about and focused on the game. Agamar was pulling away slowly, and though Euceron continued to fight on every play, they were simply outmatched.

Eventually, the backups were put in the game, as Agamar had wrapped up the win and it was just a matter of playing to the final buzzer. To their credit, neither set of backups was killing time; both were continuing to try to score, and indeed, Agamar's Georg Sturm put one in the back of the net with 48 seconds left. Zay knew it wasn't an attempt to run up the score, just a benchwarmer trying to show he deserved a little more playing time, and the Euceron commentators immediately arrived at the same conclusion. With five seconds left, Euceron answered with a shot by Chew Fej, the former Monarch, that Hohass Vesh barely tipped over the bar for a single point instead of three. That ended the game.

Although no formal handshake line formed, players from both teams mingled on the field for a few minutes before retiring to the locker rooms, shaking hands with teammates and opponents alike and generally congratulating each other on a game played well and with good sportsmanship throughout. Zay thought that the players from other teams who had been suspended earlier in the season for fighting could learn a lesson from that.

Finally, HSN Euceron switched to other programming, and Marte turned to his son. “Well, boy, you done growed up,” he said with a hearty chuckle. “Six years ago, I never thought my son would help bring down one of the EBI's Most Wanted. Got plans for his brother, ol' Number One?”

“We're currently at a dead end on Rondy,” Zay admitted. “But we're fairly confident that he won't try anything on his own. From what we've been able to gather, Rosty seems to have been calling the shots on all of the previous attacks, and Rondy is just a puppet. I'd be far more concerned about an attack on the jail where Rosty is being held to try to free him. We're going to be at the arraignment tomorrow, and I'm going to argue that he ought to be held in the high-security cells at the Temple on Ossus where we can surround him with ysalamiri.”

“Wait, he's Force-sensitive?” asked Jaria.

“Yep. He thinks he's a Sith Lord. Tried to convert me into his apprentice, twice in fact. But he won't succeed.”

“As long as he doesn't mess with my son,” said Marte in a jovial tone. “Or Palla, for that matter. Speaking of which, where is she?”

Zay and Jado looked at each other, neither wanting to deliver the news. Marte's face immediately grew a concerned look, and he spoke in a somber voice. “What happened?”

Zay took a deep breath and explained his former Master's injury and how it had occurred. “We think she'll make a full recovery, but we're not sure yet. It'll be at least another two to three weeks before she can leave the healing ward of the Temple, and a month or so before cybernetics can be attached. Even then, she might not have full use of the leg.”

“Well, I'll hope for a full recovery. By the way, where are you staying tonight? With Tendra gone, we have a guest room now, so you could stay here if you want to.”

“Sounds good to me,” Zay answered.

“Can I sleep in my old bed?” Jado asked.

“First, it's may I sleep in my old bed,” Jaria said in a stern tone. “And second, only if you clean your room first.” She winked as she said that.

“Moooooooooommmmm!”

Zay and Marte just laughed.

TAG: Tim Battershell (for the game)

 

GM Post

Bonus rolls this week to Agamar, Bakura, Coruscant, Euceron, Mando'ade, Nar Shaddaa, and Ralltiir. Let's get to it.

Week 7 Results


Ryloth Rough Riders at Euceron Storm (20-8)
Agamar Packers at Nar Shaddaa Smugglers (9-30)
Ylesia Lightning at Mando’ade Mercs (30-35)
Coruscant Senators at Hapes Consortium Buccaneers (4-32)
Kashyyyk Rangers at Rydonni Prime Monarchs (8-21)
Bakura Miners at Ralltiir Starkillers (20-11)

---

Rossum Balance Updates

• Client 24601: no bets, account balance remains at 1,000,000
• Client 214782: +15,000 credits, new account balance 365,000

TAG: Bardan_Jusik CPL_Macja jcgoble3 Jedi Gunny JM_1977 Rebecca_Daniels Runjedirun Tim Battershell Vehn

 

Sub-GM Post

Bonus rolls this week to (points in parentheses): Tatooine (28), Commenor (28), Druckenwell (28), Garqi (28). Banked for next week: Thyferra (30).

Limmie Futures League
Week 6
Tatooine Sandskimmers at Commenor Gundarks (12–10)
Concordia Crusaders at Druckenwell Marksmen (16–17)
Byblos Red Wings at Garqi Gunners (11–20)

TAG: Jedi Gunny Bardan_Jusik Vehn Runjedirun Rebecca_Daniels Tim Battershell CPL_Macja

 

IC: Lilly Vehn
New Vertica, Nar Shaddaa

Lilly was glad to be back home. She’d caught the tail end of the Agamar game and was pleased to see the Smugglers surge forward in the rankings to stay atop the lead in the Skywalker Conference. Apparently John Huntington was doing something right as the team had picked up right where it left off last year with a strong run down the conference stretch. She was quietly hoping that the Smugglers would try to repeat this year, and so far, they appeared like they would. There were still two weeks left in conference play and both upcoming opponents, Euceron and Ylesia, were not to be underestimated. They wanted to ding up the Smugglers armor and derail their successful campaign. They would try.

Occasionally in her occupation as scout, Lilly would come across sports analysts who had information on up and coming collegiate prospects. Now, there was nothing in her occupation that suggested that they had any new information that she didn’t already have but it was worth hearing their opinions on HSN. She tuned in just in time to catch an advertisement. This wasn’t any ordinary advertisement, however, this was Kaitlyn Vehn’s personal plea to the people of Nar Shaddaa to vote for her as mayor of the Vertical City.



The screen fades from black as Kaitlyn Vehn walks slowly toward the camera.

“Good evening, Nar Shaddaa. Tonight I regret to bring to your attention a most sobering matter but it is a matter that must be addressed by every citizen of our city for we are all responsible. Every year nearly 73,000 minors are killed inadvertently from gang warfare. Perhaps some of you know of a child whose life was cut down in their prime. Perhaps that child was your own. This type of violence, this type of heinous act against our youth, must end now. Not tomorrow, not several months from now, right now, in this very moment.

“When I came to the Vertical City several years ago I inherited a sporting franchise that was lost and adrift in the sea of the Elite League. Since then we have won a Galactic Cup title and raised the heart of our beloved city. That was a worthy battle but the greatest battle is before me now. To aide me in this fight I’ve involved the Valor Foundation and together we have a vision of making sure that every child receives a diploma, that every child has access to health care, that every child can become a productive, responsible adult citizen, that every child can safely walk our streets without fear of losing their life. Help me win the most important fight of my life, help me win the most important fight of your children’s lives, by joining with me in making the Vertical City a safer place to live. Through our educational efforts with the Valor Foundation, and active parents such as yourself, we can make a difference, we can defeat this plague and end violence against minors once and for all.

“If I am elected mayor of this great city I pledge to you that I will train a police force that is professional, well staffed, and ready to tackle the challenges head on of our Smugglers Moon. No longer will we have to look into the eyes of mothers and fathers everywhere and tell them that their child is not coming home today. No longer will we have to attend yet another funeral and whisper somber condolences. Those that facilitate this violence, those that continue to make our streets dangerous and unsafe for our youth will pay. And I have a message for them: For every life that you take, whether on purpose or by accident, I will see to it that you are hunted down and destroyed. The violence against minors ends today.

“Vote to end violence against minors. Vote for Kaitlyn Vehn for mayor of the Vertical City.”

Lilly turned off the holo. She had to admit that Kaitlyn knew how to drum up political support for her campaign. She also knew that if Kaitlyn was elected mayor that she would never get a chance to pull off her darkest desire. Her security escort would be too tight then. There wouldn’t be any avenues for attack.

No, the time was coming for Lilly to make her move. She clutched her blaster pistol tightly in her right hand. The time was coming. Soon, so very soon, Kaitlyn would pay for what she did.

Not soon enough.

Tag: No One

 

IC: Christine Gamble
Royal Limmie Grounds, Hapes

The things that Adanna Inviere had told Christine to do prior to the game weren’t working. In fact, they were going in the exact opposite direction. Although Christine didn’t believe in such things, whatever Galactic karma the Hapan GM had accrued with her “pep talk” of sorts to the Senator captain obviously was helping her team win, and big. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise, the corner back thought to herself as another Hapes bar point went over a hapless Zeke Barbosa. The Senators couldn’t catch a break anymore.

This game had been the typical disaster on all fronts. The offense, which had finally found a spark against Bakura the prior week, was back to its usual crapfest. Max Qorbus had quickly been benched by interim head coach Jed Ortmeyer after the Nautolan coughed up the ball three times. Ava had struggled to find open space, and when she did a Hapan defender was always in her face to cut it off real quick. Ynisse Zalt got banged up in the first few minutes and limped over to the bench, and hadn’t come back on as the seconds wound down in the first half. There was no point in coming back out if you weren’t 100%. There was no point coming back period, even if healthy. For Christine, what was the point, anyways?

What had she done to end up on this gravtrain wreck, anyways? Here she had been an Ingbrand nominee two years ago, ready to lead a team that had some talent. Then last year she fell flat with the injury, but at least the team had a pulse. They had gutted out a game in Bakura Gardens to almost make the playoffs even when they had no business being there. That team, despite the mounting injuries, had some life to it. But this was a complete corpse, with no pulse to have anything going for it. This was the worst team in Elite League history. And she was the face of the mediocrity.

For another moment Christine wanted to know why she was still here. Why had she agreed to captain this team instead of just demanding a trade? There was nothing left for her here except more failures. Alana Glencross had lied to her, and it hadn’t been much of a surprise. You sometimes said things after games that were more formal pleasantries than what you really thought. What had the Senators shown last week? They had shown nothing. They had shown that the Miners weren’t all they were cracked up to be, sure, but that was more about them than the Senators. What about her play ‘showing what she could do’ to the galaxy, what kind of player she was? Giving up 39 points was exactly the kind of message you didn’t want to send to everyone, because that showed how bad you were. The Miners were a franchise that was going somewhere, not this one. Hapes, here in an easy-going rout, was going somewhere, even if they didn’t qualify for the postseason this year. But they had some momentum, and good leadership. Where were the Senators going? The Premier League . . . or worse.

At halftime, the score was C-Bucs 25, Senators 3. Christine sulked in the deathly-silent locker room as she wiped off the small trickle of blood that was coming from a gash on her elbow, and Jed didn’t say anything to his team. Undoubtedly he wasn’t liking his head coaching debut any more than she was enjoying this spectacular game as captain. He probably had a target on his head already, and he had only coached half a game at this level. Jenna Leed had sprained something in the first half and was declared out for the rest of the game. Zalt looked banged-up, and would be withheld for the rest of this one. There was no point when you were hurting to keep playing.

So Christine was surprised when she was forced to play in the second half. Jed obviously was trying to gauge what he had on the team, but Christine didn’t want to play anymore. There was no point now. She would rather sit on the bench and try to live to fight another day than be out here playing for a rookie coach who didn’t know how to rest the one actual player he had on this “team” – her.

It didn’t take long for him to figure that out. One of the Masterson twins, Christine didn’t remember which, tangled up with her when the C-Bucs were on offense. When Wai Lin took the ball towards the goal and rookie Jam Tarpals, already in the game for Zeke Barbosa in goal, Masterson undercut Christine and sent her sprawling to the turf awkwardly. And of course it had to be the right leg. Immediately Christine knew she had had enough, and she limped over to the sideline for good when there was a stoppage in play after a Hapes goal. There was pain in her leg and ligaments, but at least nothing had been torn.

The rest of the “game” she watched in stunned silence as the C-Bucs finally eased up on the pounding they were dishing out. When it was all over, the home team walked away with a neat 32-4 win, preventing the Senators from scoring a goal for the third time in four games. Those were grounds on the highest order for demotion of a team from the League. Revenues were way down, and Christine doubted that anyone would show up for the remaining two home games this season. She wouldn’t bother to show if she were a fan, and unfortunately she had to play in those contests.

Christine didn’t really remember anything as she changed out of her uniform and got into street clothes before heading to the shuttle. The rest of the night was spent in a funk. She wanted to help this team so badly . . . but she couldn’t do anything of the sort. At what point would it be better to just give up?


TAG: Vehn (for the game), Trieste (for the Glencross comments) and Runjedirun (in case you want to mention any of this game for the matchup - and guaranteed win - next week)

 

Big Board v. 7.0 (a.k.a. Week Seven)

Quinlyn Zha'rel, (Female, Half-Nagai, Defensive Back, Sposia Medical University)
Game Line: 4 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries, 1 loose ball recovery, L @ TBA, 40-19
Analysis: Finally cooled off this week with a so-so performance. Now we see if the past few weeks have been an anomaly, or if she’s just hit a speed bump and will be back next week.

Noj Elbog (Male, Human, Corner Forward, National University)
Game Line: 1 goal, 3 points scored, 3 shots on goal, 2 turnovers, L vs. GVSU, 27-6
Analysis: Rough game for National and for Elbog. Sometimes you just don’t do well – this was one of those days.

Welnlseh (Male, Selkath, Corner Back, Manaan Technical Institute)
Game Line: 12 tackles, 1 interception, L vs. TBA, 28-8
Analysis: Brilliant game in what otherwise was a bleak performance. Could have a future in the Elite League, just maybe not at corner.

Lowatha, (Wookiee, Male, Half Forward, University of Kashyyyk)
Game Line: 4 turnovers, L vs. TBA, 32-0
Analysis: Ouch.

Megan Meeks (Human, Female, Corner Forward, The Ord Sabaok University)
Game Line: 2 shots on goal, 1 turnover, L @UCBV, 18-5
Analysis: See above comment.

Kaat Stun (Hapan, Female, Goaltender, Ralltiir University)
Game Line: 2 saves, 31 PA, @TBA, L 34-8
Analysis: See the above comment that says to see the above comment.

Elgin Cormorant (Umbaran, Male, Midfielder, UB Cape Suzette)
Game Line: 5 tackles, 1 interception, 2 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, 2 shots on goal, 2 bar points, 2 points scored, 6 loose ball recoveries, vs. UBGC, W 29-24
Analysis: Great game for this prospect, who now has a chance to make a splash considering how everyone else is doing terribly right now on this Board.

Zelena Wiles (Human, Female, Half Back, PCNS)
Game Line: 9 tackles, 2 interceptions, 1 fumble recovery, @UE, L 11-7 (OT)
Analysis: Sometimes you just can’t get the win even when you play well. Should be a second-round prospect at the very least.

Landra Wygins (Zelosian, Female, Corner Forward, Coruscant Polytechnic Institute)
Game Line: 1 shot on goal, 3 turnovers, vs. UC, W 15-2

Analysis: It’s just not fair when your team actually plays well and you have a dreadful game. Not helping her stock any.

TAGs to Everyone: Bardan_Jusik, CPL_Macja, Tim Battershell, Trieste, Runjedirun, jcgoble3, Vehn, Rebecca_Daniels

 

IC: Adanna Inviere
Royal Limmie Grounds

Adanna watched smugly as her Hapes Consortium Buccaneers worked on decapitating the Coruscant Senators in the first half. Everything was going easily today, which was a far cry from the prior week and the tough loss. The offense was rolling against the Senator defense, which had been exposed for how bad it really was the prior week against Bakura and was now torched again. On defense, the C-Bucs had dug in and were repelling the feeble efforts the Senators tried to have there. Midfield was a complete landslide win for the home team. It was all easy.

Midfielder Alysha Romax, a longtime Senator player and captain, was dominating her former teammate and friend Izzi Polakaya. The two veterans had played together on the 268 title team as the starting middie duo, and now their paths could be no more different. Polakaya was close to retiring, and it was no wonder why. She just didn’t have the defensive knack that had kept her in the Elite League all these years anymore. She was now just plain bad, but the Senators had no one else better to replace her with.

At the half, Adanna took a beverage from the waiting tray and sipped on it slowly. She was going to chalk up another win for her new team here today in convincing fashion. It felt good to get the win, but on the other hand the Senators didn’t exactly deserve this either. She had told Christine Gamble prior to the game that things would get better, and now she was exposed as being completely wrong on all counts. Gamble would have every right to be upset about that, because she was the one on the mediocre “team”, not the Hapan.

When the second half started, Adanna wanted to see her team pull back. There were of course limits on that, but there was no point whipping a dead eopie anymore than had to be done. In this game where superstitions sometimes were prevalent, she didn’t want to upset the Limmie gods and doom her team by running up the score. Besides, the Senators were done. They wouldn’t be coming back in this one. Besides, she had been with that franchise for many years; she didn’t like seeing them get destroyed like this, even when they were a conference foe. No one deserved this sort of fate, and her former employers having to deal with it made things more difficult to swallow.

Things got worse for them when Tilly Masterson undercut Gamble on a Hapes drive to the goal. Three points were scored to push the score even higher, but when the Hapan saw Gamble limp off the field, she had seen enough. The Senators were beaten; there was no point in getting any more of their players hurt. Their franchise had enough to worry about; adding more injuries by going full-throttle in a 30-point game and pushing around a bunch of rookies was rather unsporting.

Adanna rose from her seat and went to the door to the luxury box.

“Where are you going, boss?” asked an assistant.

“To avoid an utter disaster,” Adanna said. She went down to the field level on the lift and then walked to the Hapes sideline. A few of the bench players noticed her, but she had to speak to her head coach. When she spotted Meredith, she moved forwards, but then was stopped by the sound of another Hapes goal, this time by Di Vincenzo. 32-3 the score read.

Adanna finally made her way up to her head coach. “Meredith, enough,” she said. “Call off the vornskyrs; they’re not coming back in this one. No reason for the Limmie gods to hate us these next two weeks because we keep running up the score. Besides, no reason to fuel them for next year with more hatred for us.”

The rest of the game went by smoothly, the final score no different except for a Senator bar point late. At least no one got injured, although Romax was a little banged up after going to-to-toe with a desperate Levi Corner for the last twenty minutes of the game. Adanna joined her team on the field after the final horn sounded for the handshake line, but let the players and coaches go through their progressions before stepping in. She had to talk to a few individuals.

Jed Ortmeyer was her first target. She went up to him, but the man didn’t seem interested in talking. Adanna didn’t blame him. “Rough day, hm, Jed?” she asked her old teammate.

“Piss off, Adanna,” Jed said before walking away. Adanna knew she should be insulted by this, but on the other hand it seemed warranted. She wasn’t at the helm of a team on an eight-game losing streak with no hopes of climbing out for a long time, if ever. There were rumors that the Senators would be demoted from the Elite League for 278, but Adanna hoped that wasn’t true. That would be a travesty for everyone, even if it would financially help the League by cutting the deadweight of a former contender.


She wanted to talk to Gamble, but she had disappeared in the rapidly-retreating mass of Senators players and staff. Now the Hapan felt truly guilty. Not only had she been guilty of giving Gamble false hope, but the Senators hadn’t gone toe-for-toe with her team in this one. They could not afford to have a letdown after this game; the Hapes C-Bucs had to push to the playoffs, and there was no chance these last two games would be anywhere as easy as this one had been. She hoped her team was ready for next week, when Rydonni Prime would be hungry and looking for a win.

TAG: Vehn

 

GM Post

HSN Morning Headlines

• Euceron judge enters not guilty plea on behalf of Rosty Bassell, denies bail, and orders evaluation to determine whether Bassell is competent to stand trial
• Bassell refused to answer questions from the judge and reportedly proclaimed himself a Dark Lord of the Sith; Jedi representatives deny this claim but confirm that he is powerful in the Force
• Judge grants request from Jedi representative Zay Antilles to have Bassell held in a secure, Force-suppressed cell inside the Jedi Temple on Ossus
• Bassell will attend future hearings by holoconference and will return to Euceron only for trial, which is set for slightly under a year from now
• Prosecution in Ternardiel trial rests. HSN legal expert: “With Ternardiel’s defense stipulating to the facts, there really wasn’t much for the prosecution to do. Their burden of proof has essentially been met by the stipulation.”

TAG: jcgoble3

 

Power Rankings​

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1. Bakura Miners – Showed that they belong in pole position in these rankings, and in the League, with a nice win over the Starkillers. This team is scary good, and at the right time in the season. 2​

2. Ralltiir Starkillers – It’s rough to have to lose, but when you’ve won 12 regular season games in a row, it’s bound to happen at some point. But there’s still hope for them to reclaim the lead in the Solo, with doormat Coruscant next on their schedule. Look out, Bakura, the Starkillers aren’t done yet! 1

3. Nar Shaddaa Smugglers – The defending champions are doing what they need to, blowing away Agamar at home to reinforce their lead in the Skywalker. Winners find ways to make things happen, and the Smugglers are definitely winners. 1

4. Mando’ade Mercs – Pushed back into the playoff picture with a nice win over Ylesia (who, despite some reports, still has a shot at making the postseason). We cannot sleep on this team apparently, even though their ownership seems somewhat scatter-brained. N/C

5. Euceron Storm – Rough loss to Ryloth aside, the Storm are still a dangerous team. They should bounce back next week. N/C

6. Rydonni Prime Monarchs – Now, you might ask yourselves why the Monarchs are here after beating a weak Rangers squad. Well, Hapes beat a team anyone could. At least Rydonni Prime actually proved something. They proved that they have a great defensive unit, sans Cynour. Now, if they could only score a few points . . . 1

7. Hapes Consortium Buccaneers – Revenge is sweet, isn’t it? Easy win this week, but the road gets tougher in the next two weeks. This team has to keep it together if they want to make the postseason. 1

8. Ryloth Rough Riders – We’re guessing this was one of those teaser games where Ryloth tried to prove that they belong in this league. And right now they have a chance to make the postseason. Who knew? Still need to stop other teams from scoring, though. 3

9. Ylesia Lightning – You can’t win ‘em all, and the Mercs have just been that good at home. But they put up a fight, and that’s what counts. Still alive in the playoff hunt. 1

10. Kashyyyk Rangers – Stick a fork in them, this team is basically done. Just don’t have the shock factor they used to have when they were dominant. Of course, that’s subjective, because having a bunch of Wookiees descending on you is a very scary thought. 1

11. Agamar Packers – Another trip to the lottery for Dodd and his team. When he realizes that muscle and brawn aren’t everything on defense, we’re going to be very afraid of this team. They have talent, but team leadership needs to change if they want to go anywhere. 3

12. Stewjon Metropolitans – Honestly, how can you not love this team and their awesome Mascot, Mr. Met? Honestly, this team is as funny as it is good at Limmie. Sometimes very hilarious, other times not so much. It’s a grab bag every week, and who doesn’t love that?



TAGS to Bardan_Jusik, CPL_Macja, Rebecca_Daniels, Trieste, Vehn, Runjedirun, Tim Battershell, jcgoble3

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​

 

IC: Christine Gamble
Senator Team Shuttle

It was 0130, and Christine wasn’t tired in the slightest. Just a few hours ago she had been battered, bruised, and thoroughly beaten by the Hapes Consortium Buccaneers for the Senators’ eighth straight loss. She had put some ice on the injuries, and that had seemed to do the trick. Her right leg still bothered her from the chop block put on her by one of the Masterson twins, though, so she was taking it easy.

She stood in the darkness of the practice field. The shuttle had a half-field (with smaller dimensions than the real thing, obviously) on which the team could practice during road trips, and she was here holding a bolo-ball from the rack of them between her hands. She wanted to crush the ball, but there would be no sense in doing that. She could afford to pay for a new one, but that wasn’t the point.

Why had things turned out so badly this year? The thoughts of confusion from the game were coming back now, questioning her motivation, questioning her resolve to fight on. What was the point in trying anymore? Ralltiir was coming to town the next week, their offense starting to come back down after a torrid early pace but with a team that had confidence to burn. And then Rydonni Prime was up after that, with their lock-down defense that would likely cause the Senators to lose another game while getting shut down on offense. That game could easily be scoreless from her team, the corner back figured. There was bad, there was terrible, there was atrocious, and then there was the Senators on offense.

Christine screamed out in her frustration and chucked the ball at the goalpost as hard as she could. The ball missed wide of the left goalpost and landed hard into the net that was slung behind the goal. This was to prevent balls from nailing the wall at high speed. She couldn’t even score a goal from this distance; that was the kind of season this was.

“Can’t sleep?” came a familiar voice from the doorway. Christine wheeled around to see Dirxx Horstse silhouetted in the darkness.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I asked if you couldn’t sleep,” the Besalisk said. He flipped on two of the above lights, which bathed the two of them in a bit of light, enough to banish the darkness that had been surrounding Christine for some time.

“Of course not. How can you sleep after being blown out by 28 points?” Christine asked.

“I suppose you have a good point,” Dirxx commented.

“Why are you up so late? No one ever is,” Christine asked.

“I can’t sleep when I get too excited, or when I get too depressed,” Dirxx said. It was obvious that he wasn’t in his normal jovial spirits right now. If he had been, Christine would have asked him if he was on drugs, because there was no reason to smile after this latest beatdown. “Right now happens to be one of the latter.”

“You get fired?”

“Yep. Can’t say I’m not surprised, though. I would have fired myself after this kind of season. But it’s the right thing to do. Have to clean house if you want to progress anywhere.”

“What does that mean for these last two games?” Christine inquired.

“It means that you’ll barely have any defensive staff to work under,” Dirxx said. “Just Telena, but we all know, and I bet she does too, that she’s as good as gone when this season is over. We did a so-so job the first few weeks, but now things have gone downhill, and it’s better to just start over.”

“What does that mean for the team?”

“What it means is that there are roster spots to play for,” the Besalisk answered. “At least, if anyone gets kept from this year. At this rate, almost no one will.”

“And nothing else?”

“I wasn’t going to say that, but since you seem on top of it . . .”

“Since I bear the brunt of the media abuse, I need to care,” Christine said. “Captains don’t get off so easy.”

“Being captain isn’t easy,” Dirxx said. “It means that you need to have the most serious mind, and be able to take abuse when it comes.”

This got Christine thinking. Here she had a chance to talk to a Hall-of-Famer; she had to ask something had had been burning in her mind all week. “How did you deal with struggles like this when you played?”

“Let me first say that I never had struggles like this, EVER,” Dirxx began. “I had some bad years in my first few seasons, but then things came together and clicked. But if that was destined to happen, nah, I don’t believe in that, even though we Limmie players are superstitious as all get out.”

“I don’t understand . . .”

“Look, Gamble, I had to deal with a lot of abuse when my career started. Everyone wanted me to be like my father, who was one of the most-liked Senator players of his generation. Even though he never won a Cup title . . . he was a tough act to follow. I worked my ass off to be half as good as he was, but no one ever wanted to give me a chance to prove myself. And I dealt with all the critics; they all said I would never be like him. But you know something? I never gave in, even when the few seasons before ’62 were less than stellar. We lost a lot those days, but the game was still there to lure you back in. Maybe it was the money, maybe just that I liked the game that much.

When I was named captain . . . still not sure how that happened . . . the critics got even louder. They asked if I could be a good captain, because I was a bit of a goofball back then. It was the only way I could cope with my dad’s death. After those first two losses in ’62, the abuse got worse. I was surprised to see that the Coruscanti media cared that much to torment me, even though Limmie was basically nothing there at the time. No one cared about it.

And yet, I pushed through it. I had good teammates, we had good leadership . . . and, I don’t know . . . things just improved. We won a game, won again, and eventually bulldozed our way to a Cup. All the while the galaxy started to pay attention, and now I’m here before you with my place in the Hall. Yet I still managed to get fired from a coaching gig. Funny how that works out. Sometimes they say the best players don’t make good coaches.”

“But how did you deal with adversity?”

“By practicing for the next week,” Dirxx said. “There’s no sense in worrying about the past. Sometimes just let bygones be bygones.”

“Easy for you to say,” Christine said glumly. “You only won two Cups and made the postseason almost every year.”

“True, but those first few years weren’t so rosy.”

“You were a special case. You had everything you needed to succeed. I have nothing. Hell, those rumors about the team trying to trade me . . . you never had those.”

“Point conceded,” Dirxx said, giving up. “What it is you want me to say?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re looking at the negatives,” Dirxx commented. “Not once have I heard anything that tells me you feel like you deserve that captain’s letter.”

“I don’t, that’s just it,” Christine said as she retrieved the bolo-ball she had chucked away minutes before. “What kind of captain am I, anyways? All people see is me failing to get anything done with a team headed nowhere and a stadium that is empty on gameday. What can I do? The whole thing is going to get ripped out this offseason, and I know I’m one of the main trading pieces. Not like that would be the worst thing, according to the experts . . .”

“You really listen to those crackpots on the HSN?” Dirxx asked, amused.

“From time to time.”

“They’re so full of crap, and downright self-righteous, so much so that they couldn’t fight their way out of a flimsy bag if they tried,” the Besalisk said. “They’re not the ones on the field, the players and coaches are.”

“I still don’t understand where you’re going with this.”

“You aren’t willing to sit tight and work on the rebuild.”

“Why should I?” Christine asked. “I’m a star, a known commodity. Why should I stay here?”

“There’s a famous saying that I heard many times back in the day, when I was your age,” Dirxx said. “This too shall pass, when the morning comes.”

“Right now, it’s eternal night,” Christine interjected.

“You want to bail? Go ahead, then. But don’t feel like doing so will further your legacy.”

“Are you trying to guilt me into staying?”

“Aren’t you giving yourself a sense of guilt for staying on a lost cause?”

“If I got traded, I could be someone. Right now, I have nothing to prove.”

“Exactly it. So wouldn’t you rather find something to prove with a bit of a challenge, instead of going somewhere where you could win, but you wouldn’t be a star? Would you get to start on the Miners? Smugglers? They would just sit you on the bench because they would see your plummeting value here and use you for situational duty only. If you went somewhere else, your value would diminish so much. Besides, you’ve already got the fans here eating out of your hand.”

“What fans?”

“You might be the most popular player on this team since I was playing,” Dirxx said. “And I mean that, Ms. Gamble. Even though things have been rough, I have seen so many of your jerseys around town than anyone else. Sometimes even more than my own. And that’s saying something.”

“Who would want to buy my jersey? I’m no one,” Christine said.

“Let me see the ball,” Dirxx said. Christine flipped him the ball, and the Besalisk examined it in his hands for a few seconds before looking back at the young player. “Limmie is truly a beautiful sport. Can’t get any better than that.”

“Isn’t that why we’re all playing?”

“Apparently you seem to discount yourself at it,” Dirxx commented. “My career is over. It’s time for someone else to be the face of this franchise. If you stick this out and help in the rebuild, maybe win some games next year, you’ll get that respect you crave. You want to be a star? Prove that you can work through a flux situation, and knock the League around in the future with a team you helped build. The morning will come someday; do you want to be on the rise when the sun comes out, or sinking into oblivion as the last bits of light fade away?” He then chucked the ball straight at Christine, who had to move fast to catch the ball. “Think on it,” Dirxx said before walking out the door, leaving Christine alone once more with a ball in her hands.


TAG: No One

 

GM Post

HSN Morning Headlines

• Ava Killenger donates 50,000 credits to City Central Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Clinic's youth rehab program
• Killenger: “It was the right thing to do. Having had a similar experience to what these kids are going through, it's important for someone to be there to help them through the hard times.”
• Senators announce associated fundraiser in conjunction with Week 8 game against the Starkillers
• Defense in Ternardiel trial calls character witnesses
• Valor Foundation executive Declan Adama testified, but some testimony stricken from the record due to objections from the prosecution on the grounds of speculation. Adama: “The defendant spent a lot of time at the Foundation. It was certainly more hours than she spent at home.”
• Ternardiel expected to take the stand tomorrow

TAG: Jedi Gunny

 

IC: Ava Killenger
Parking Lot, Senators Stadium, One Hour until the Beginning of the Starkillers-Senators game

The parking lot was mostly empty as usual, and Ava was dismayed to see the number of Starkiller fans entering into the stadium. It seemed like blue and orange were outnumbering orange and black by at least two to one, so it almost felt like she was playing at Bankers’ Mansion, the only difference being that millions of fans wouldn’t be sitting in the stands for this game. It was going to have all the feelings of a road game, and if there was anything that the Senators hated more right now, it was road games. They hadn’t won a road contest in two years, and Ava, despite having missed last season, had gotten enough of an idea that things weren’t going so well over the last two years.

She was sitting in on the City Center Rehab Youth Program’s tent in the parking lot trying to help get some additional donations from the fans entering the stadium behind them. The youths were starting to get frustrated, because for some reason most fans didn’t seem to be interested in helping kids with addictions get over their issues. Ava wasn’t sure if that was just a cultural disconnect, or the dismaying fact that if the issue had revolved around cute kittens or babies that the cash would have poured in. People just didn’t want to help teens with issues, and that was disheartening. Ava knew the youths needed a second chance, and they weren’t getting it. Senator and Starkiller fans had donated, but it certainly wasn’t enough to make much of a difference. Ava had been here about thirty minutes and had only seen about six donations made out of the hundreds who were going into the stadium.

“They just don’t care about us,” a boy named Dali said.

“We still have an hour to go, have a little faith,” Ava said to everyone, despite knowing deep down that she shared the boy’s sentiments on the subject.

“Are we going to be able to watch the game?” Robson, a boy of about 15, asked.

“Maybe parts of it, but you guys promised me to earn some of these donations, so you’ll need to watch the table,” Ava replied. She had struck a deal with these youths that they would get to watch some of the game in exchange for spending time during the event at the table taking donations. It was only fair that they do some work in exchange for what she was doing for her. “Besides, the way things have gone recently, you might not want to see the game.”

“You really think it’ll be that bad?” a 12-year old Jami asked.

“I hope not,” Ava said. “But you guys shouldn’t worry about it too much. The game is secondary to real life.”

“It means a lot more than that,” Ilena, the former Limmie player, said. “Limmie was my happy place.”

“What I mean is . . . your rehab is more important than any game,” Ava said. “If you don’t have your life, then all games are meaningless. Trust me, my drug addiction was far worse than this season ever can be. All things considered, this is nothing, despite being a major disappointment.”

“But you’re going to whip the Starkillers, right?” Jami inquired.

“I’ll do my best,” Ava replied. “Have to try and make the team for next year, when things will hopefully be better.”

“You going to score another goal for us today?” Jami asked. She didn’t miss a beat when it came to Limmie.

“I don’t think it’ll be easy, since the Starkillers finally have a goalie that can make saves, but yes, I’ll give it a try. You guys liking the one I got for the center?” The ball that she had used to score her first goal two weeks earlier against Bakura was now on display in the lobby of the Rehab Center, encased in glass with her autograph on it. That had meant a lot to the youths, and they found it to be a source of pride.

“Hell yeah,” Jami said. “It reminds us that someone famous cares for us enough to gift us a real game-used Limmie ball!”

A male Duro wearing an old Dirxx Horstse jersey came up with two youngsters in tow, and looked at the booth before coming over. “What’s this all about?” he asked in broken Basic.

“Care to donate to the Youth Rehab program at the City Center Rehabilitation Clinic?” Ilena asked.

“I don’t know . . .” the Duro said.

“Please, sir, we’re trying to reach a goal of 20,000 credits today,” Jami chipped in.

“Look, father, it’s a Senator player!” one of the young Duros said, pointing to Ava. The man looked to where Ava was sitting on a cooler in the back of the tent.

“Excuse me,” he said, “do you play for the team?”

“Guilty as charged,” Ava said, standing up and coming to the table.

“Can we have your autograph?” asked one of the little Duros.

“I’d be happy to, but I’d like to request a 25 credit donation to the cause,” Ava said, motioning to the jar where cash donations would be accepted.

The man sat there and thought for a moment. Then he opened his mouth again. “I’ll give you 100 credits, but I’d like two autographs and a Holo for the children.”

“All right, then. Ilena, can you find the Holo camera?” Ava asked. The next few minutes were spent creating the requested items, and then the 100 credits were deposited in the jar.

“Thank you, and enjoy the game,” Ava said to the Duros before they walked away with their new haul.

“It’s nice to have you here helping us out,” Ilena commented to Ava as the rookie sat back down on the cooler.

“It’s the least I could do,” Ava replied.

Then a security guard showed up to the tent. “Team management has asked me to retrieve you for team warmups,” the guard said.

“Ah, gotcha. Give me a second,” Ava said. She turned to the youths. “Can you guys follow the steps I gave you for breaking down the set-up here? I’d like for you to be inside the stadium and set up with twenty minutes to go before the game. That gives you half an hour. Make sure to go through the gate I showed you earlier; the guard will let you through. Then set up at the table I led you to earlier. And remember, be respectful at all times. We’re going to make that goal, I know we are.”

She then went to join her team in the locker room. As expected, there was little life inside. Ava didn’t blame her teammates; there was nothing to play for the rest of the season. All that she could do was hope she would do well enough to earn a roster spot here for next year.

---

IC: Christine Gamble

Christine pulled on her black uniform with the orange stripe, the alternative home jersey that the Senators had in their current kit. Considering that they had basically won all their games the past two seasons in these uniforms, it was time that they wore them again. The road jerseys were haunted, everyone figured, and the home unis were no better. So the alternative kit was busted out and worn for today. Of course, it didn’t make Christine feel any better.

What made matters even worse were the changes to the lineup. Four new starters would be on defense today, those being recent call-ups Bernie McAllister and Girola Gundor, and a few players who had been up for a few weeks in Steen Roggers and Rainy Frantsen. But none of them were expected to do that well since they didn’t have much playing time at the Elite League level yet; Frantsen had about two and a half, and that was much more than the next closest player in Roggers. It was an inexperienced group, and that didn’t bode well for Christine and Jamee Meels, the Talz, who were the only two starters penciled in from last week’s game. Of course, the consecutive disaster outings had forced this change in the lineup, because Jed obviously wanted to see what his former Force players could do up here.

Speaking of Jed, he appeared almost out of thin air next to Christine’s locker stall. The corner back was surprised to see him there. She hadn’t expected him to come over to her. “Gamble, I have a question. You’ve been having a rough go of it lately. Do you want to start today?”

Christine had to think on this. Of course she wanted to start; what kind of dumb question was that? Then again, this was Ralltiir, who had the dubious distinction of being the opposing team in both games where she had been seriously injured the prior two seasons. Of course the thought crossed her mind that she might get injured again, that the Starkillers were a curse to her. She still vividly remembered the pain as it felt like her knee buckled underneath her when Flarn and Reena Wyley had tangled up in her landing zone last year during the huge blowout. The Yuzzem was gone from the Starkiller team, but the loathing still remained in the mind of the young captain. She still blamed him for injuring her, even though those kinds of things happened in Limmie. Players landed awkwardly, and got injured. But given how badly her team had lost, and was seemingly ready to lose again, it added an extra level of desperation to the equation. Should she go through with this game, even when it meant absolutely nothing? All these last two games served to do was serve the Senators up on a platter to playoff teams for the slaughter, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go through with that.

“What’s my other option?” she finally asked.

“Start on the bench, let some of the younger players earn their reps. I don’t want you to get hurt again, or I’ll get fired. I know your history with Ralltiir; you don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

Christine had to think this through. There was no point in her playing now, but the competitive spirit inside her still burned. She wanted to play, wanted to explode a detonator in Ralltiir’s face as they coasted to the playoffs. They would be coming in expecting to win by 30-plus points, and who could blame them? The Senators were hardly the model of consistency these days.

“What other options do we have?”

“D’jukk or Doss.”

Ugh was all Christine thought. Neither was any good. D’jukk just never clicked at this level, and Doss was turning out to be a dud for all the players she had been traded to Onderon for in addition to the injured assistant captain Jenna Leed.

“Are you trying to get me to come off the bench?”

“That’s up to you. I can’t hold your hand at this level.”

“I’ll start,” Christine said. “But if things get too dicey as usual, then I’ll take myself out of the game.”

“Agreed,” Jed said before walking away. He was likely wondering why Christine would want to start, but wasn’t going to argue with her.

When it came time to get onto the field for the game, Christine surveyed her fellow starters. All the new starters on defense gave her major cause for concern. Then again, could they be any worse than Lel Dey, Meter, or Bratter had been? Two rookies were making their first career starts at midfielder, and were likely going to be eaten alive. Arienne Farfell, the 276 third-round pick that had stunned the galaxy, was going to face off against Hovechar in her Elite League debut, and Levi Corner drew Zarene Klick. The Kaminoan had a huge advantage on him in size, but neither Izzi Polakaya, who no longer had any defensive skills, or Ye’ves’toung were any better these days. They had to concede that battle to the former Helmsman nominee. Any way you looked at it, if the Ralltiir midfielders didn’t go on a rampage in this one, that would be a victory for the Senators in itself. On offense, it was the pathetic combination of Ava, Mala Bonero in her first career start, Amasova, Jomas, a struggling Vail Pin, and Ynisse Zalt, who had been banged around in the loss last week. Overall, it looked like a disaster waiting to happen from the very beginning. Jam Tarpals was going to get his first career start in goal for the Senators, adding to the issues. On the bench, the team would be missing Maximus Qorbus, whose wife Zathalie was going to give birth at any time at a nearby hospital. The only reason he got away with this while Ty Allin on the other side had been blasted by the media for the same purpose was because no one cared about the Senators anymore to care. Besides, Qorbus was a huge bust this season.

“Let’s just try not to get blown out by 20 today,” Christine told her fellow starters. “Anything under that is a victory against these frakkers.”

“Conceding the game already?” Ava asked.

“Just being a realist,” Christine replied as the huddle broke. “Just do what you can, I’ll do what I can, and hopefully we’re all still in one piece after all this is over.”

She moved to her position and stared down Loren Jul, the star Hapan forward. Sure the other woman was older, but she at least had an offense to lean on when she struggled. The Senators had nothing of the sort on offense or defense. They sucked in all categories. And that didn’t sit well with the Senator captain. She was going to lock down Jul today. Nothing would stand in her way.


TAG: Runjedirun


And the bets for this week:


Agamar vs. Ylesia: Agamar, 15,000
Euceron at Nar Shaddaa: Euceron, 20,000
Mando'ade at Ryloth: Mando'ade, 15,000
Ralltiir at Coruscant: Coruscant, 15,000
Hapes at Rydonni Prime: Rydonni Prime, 20,000
Bakura at Kashyyyk: Kashyyyk, 15,000
TAG to Trieste

 

IC: Charles "Chuck" Bonaven
Mercs locker room, Mehsla Vhetin, Keldabe, Mandalore Just before game time vs. Ylesia Lightning

Chuck had taken it upon himself to be here for this. He didn't have to be, and if he had really thought about it and what Ms. Felps would do if she found out, he shouldn't be here. But deep down he knew he couldn't miss this. Coach Braun grabbed a bolo-ball and called the meeting to order.

"OK...eyes front!"

The low drone of individual conversations going on between players petered out as everyone turned their attention to the head coach.

"I have something I think you all ought to know about. It seems that Mrs. Phelps doesn't think too highly of our worth. She had high hopes that this team would be bad enough to finish dead last, knocking attendance down to the point where she could move the team to Nubia... and get rid of all of us for better personnel."

Chuck noted that he didn't even bother mentioning the other obstructions that Felps had put in their way in her attempts to force a move. Braun had been silent at first about those when Chuck had finally told him, and Chuck hadn't even been sure he had been heard correctly. But Coach Braun had understood all too well, had suspected that something strange had been in the works, and had informed Chuck that he was going to use this to push the team into contention. Now that plan was going into action.

"Even me?" Lieznam asked quizzically, he looked genuinely perplexed by what was happening.

"Even you, Mr. Limmie."

Daryc piped up now. "And what if we don't finish last?"

Braun gave a thoughtful nod as Chuck spoke up. "This is a multi year process for her, she wants out..."

"She'll replace you with somebody who will. After this season, you'll be sent back to the Concordia or given your outright release."

There was stunned silence from the players. Finally Mor'kesh stood up and looked everyone in the eyes. "Well, I guess there's just one thing left to do."

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"Win the whole shabla thing."

There was a pause as everyone digested that for a moment, and then as one the locker room exploded into cheers. Chuck looked over to Braun, who watched the players with a satisfied look on his face. He had found the something to bring them all together.

---

Mercs vs. Lightning, Final score 35-30

It had been a hard fought game, one that wouldn't go down in the defensive annals of Mercs history, but it was a win nonetheless. Pumped up from their pre-game meeting, the Mercs had come out firing, but had been matched by the Lightning who were fighting for their own playoff lives. Defensively the young group of backs just couldn't keep up with the relentless Lightning forwards. Fortunately the offense was able to keep pace with both Lieznam and Daryc having good games. Even Pedro managed to score 3 points on a screamer that hit the back of the net.

It was a fitting end to the Mercs home portion of the 277 season, one that saw them go 4-1 in front of the home fans (even if one game had basically been unattended). Their only blemish had come against their hated rivals, the Smugglers. Now they had to take their game on the road, a place that they had yet to win a game this season. First up was to be the Ryloth Rough Riders, the team that had beaten the Mercs in their only Galactic Cup Finals appearance. That had been before realignment and the Rough Riders demotion from the ELL. But now they were back, and they were in the Mercs way. After that the Mandalorian team closed the season out at Euceron, a tough team that was playoff tested the past few years. Nothing would be easy, but the Mercs held their fate in their own hands. Now it was up to them to see what they did with it.

TAG: No one.

 

(Incorporating some material from Runjedirun, who approved the game recap)

IC: Falene Trieste
Bankers Mansion Stadium, Cambrielle, Ralltiir



Martin looked towards Maddie and motioned for her to stand next to him. “This is my wife Madelyne,” I said proudly. “Our daughter Lucie and her son T.J., his father is the Starkillers starting fullback this evening. Those are my son’s down front watching the warm ups, Spencer and Tomas,” I continued motioning towards each in turn. “Finally we have our granddaughter Zoey. Her mother is our other daughter who part of the dance squad and is married to Andres Fortune the Starkillers starting full forward.” Zoey was standing shyly next to Maddie clasping her dress.

“No need to apologize for the family that is unable to attend this evening. I have two sons living off planet myself. One is finishing up his schooling on Coruscant at Republic University and the other is busy starting a family of his own on Corellia.”

Pleasantries were exchanged and the Triestes helped themselves to the food provided. It was Atticus (who did more cooking than his wife), who realized that it was not the standard concession fare of a stadium and inquired about its provenance. When it was revealed that Madelyne had been the chef, compliments were heaped upon the hostess for being so thoughtful.

“If Regan tried to cook anything like this, well done would be the best you could say of it,” Atticus observed, which earned him a whack on the arm from his wife.

Once they were seated, Regan next to Martin in the middle of the front row (and Jane Serena had sat herself next to Spencer and Tomas in the row behind them, twirling her pale blonde waves absentmindedly around one index finger). The game was about to get underway. “My son Tomas plays Limmie, he’s been playing midfield for two seasons,” Martin said.

“The most difficult position to play,” Ayn said. The Senators Trieste were further down, but close enough to hear, even with the crowd noise. “I hear the average midfielder runs 5 miles over the course of a game. Very impressive.”

“My wife has reservations about the danger of the sport,” Martin said, “I can’t say I blame her, but I also want my children to be free to pursue their passions. There are parents who forbid their children to play the game altogether. Did your family have concerns about Falene’s decision to play?”

“Well, believe it or not, my niece came to the sport very late in life,” Regan said, “In fact, she’d never played anything more than recreational ball until she went to university where she decided to try walking on to the team as a Freshman on a lark. A very Falene thing to do, especially when she was younger. Turns out she was good and by Sophomore year she was on the team proper.”

“Taoiseach and naturally gifted in athletics. What a charmed life,” Declan observed. His wife gave him a glare that communicated clearly that this was neither the time nor the place.

“It’s not your everyday story, but the Noble House has a history of this sort of thing,” Regan said, “Two of my sisters played. Falene’s mother, the Chancellor, played at the University of Bakura, Salis D’aar. People told her she could have gone pro, but obviously her heart lay in another direction. Fiona, Admiral Westenra that is, played defense--actually a half back like Falene--at the Bakura Fleet Academy. My sisters famously collided when Kerry scored what would prove to be the Bak10 winning goal for the Golden Bears. They said they both felt that one for a few days.

“The truth is, some of us are a rough-and-tumble in that regard--but more importantly Falene was an adult when she decided to play limmie. There wasn’t much we could do about it even if we didn’t like it,” Regan said.

“But I understand your point, Madelyne,” Mandy said from next to Jane Serena, “My boys--and my girl, as well--never played, but with the way kids get injured…” Mandy shuddered. “I wouldn’t want to see my children get hurt like that. I’m concerned about the violence in the sport. Everybody getting out there thinking that they can play like Alana Glencross. I’m sure plenty of bones are broken that way.”

The game progressed onward with general cheering in the box from each side as events turned and one team had a close chance or a score.

“The Miners have been passed down from generation to generation more than once now. When I purchased the team I originally thought I would pass them on to my eldest son, Richard,” Martin said quietly during a big play to ensure that Spencer couldn’t hear. “I’ve since learned that at least one more of the children has interest in at least partial ownership? How has your family handled this decision?”

Regan, well-schooled from her days in Superior Court in confidential conversations at the bar, leaned in confidentially, but subtly, picking up on Martin’s lead. “The Noble House operates on a tradition two and a half centuries old. The founding father of the House, Niall Trieste, decreed that the Noble House’s property, started from his founding capital that has grown--and shrunk--over time, was to be handed down in a single unit from Taoiseach, the first of which was Niall himself, to the next Taoiseach. The property cannot be divided upon inheritance, with the exception that a Taoiseach can take some when he or she passes the mantle, though the Taoiseach may distribute funds at their discretion, including to members of the family. These funds are always in liquid capital rather than investments. Every Taoiseach agrees to be bound to this condition. The Miners are part of the House’s property. The ownerships shares cannot be divided as a condition of inheritance. Now, the Miners could be sold in whole or in part, including to another member...but such a thing would circumvent the spirit of Niall’s instructions, not to mention dishonor the Taoiseach. Part of the thing about breaking the link between birth and inheritance in the House’s property is to make sure that the Noble House is only guided by those with great moral compass.”

After a great save by Teaspoon, Martin said, “Over half our roster is non-human. However our planet is populated by 90% humans. Last year Marmu wanted a ridiculous pay increase to stay. Her agent claimed we were being biased to non-humans by not paying her such an outrageous amount. I considered it blackmail, but received a bit of bad press for letting her become a free agent nonetheless. How do you keep non-humans on your roster, do they feel comfortable living on Bakura? Several of our players live back home during the off-season which concerns me especially with Kashyyyk back in the ELL and our goaltender being a Wookiee?”

Regan rolled her eyes. “Tell me about vengeful players. That nasty stuff between us and the GCAA a few years ago was a result of a disgruntled ex-player. I hesitate to mention that it happened to be a non-human one,” Regan admitted, “which doesn’t establish a pattern, but it was what happened with us. By the way, we have excellent attorneys in that matter. Sydney Talon of Fleetfire Zarmer paid for himself ten times over in what he did for the Miners that year.”

“Says the woman who recommended the Miners hire him,” Atticus said wryly.

“I can’t help it if I was wise and insightful beyond my years,” Regan responded playfully, “In any event, despite my father’s best efforts to resettle Bakura almost 60 years ago with a more diverse population, we’re still overwhelmingly human ourselves. It’s only been in the last seven years that we’ve had non-humans on our roster, so we don’t have a long track record of dealing with any frictions on that front. Let’s be honest--winning two championships helps a heck of a lot in smoothing over the tensions. We’re not the most diverse team in the League when it comes to species, but for Bakura we’re making inroads.

“But now that you mention it...I don’t know how many of them live on the planet during the offseason,” Regan said, “That’s an interesting question. But if you’re concerned about the Rangers poaching your goalkeeper, you do know that the Rangers even talking to your goalkeeper about future employment would be considered tampering, punishable by heavy fines from the League? If they so much as sniff near your keeper, get Lokensgaard or Gondorf on the phone and get them to lower the hammer. I get the impression our Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner enjoy that sort of thing.”

“Speaking of promotions and demotions of teams,” Martin said, “what do you think about the new Commissioner’s decision to demote two teams last offseason in favor of promoting two others. Is that a decision we owners should be able to have a say in? Any of our teams could hit hard times and I certainly would like to know the criteria he is using to make such moves so I can ensure my team stays in the ELL.”

“The owners absolutely need to have a say in promotions and demotions,” Regan said, “Kayl’hen was, at the very least, transparent about her motives. She wanted the best teams in the galaxy in the Elite League. Lokensgaard...a bit more opaque where he was coming from. He said he made these moves in the interest of competition and geographic balance. We only have a sample size of one year, but I have questions. The very fact that he hasn’t yet called a Board meeting is curious, to say the least.”

“Quiet Aunt Regan!” Enoch hissed, “Niskat’s driving!” Typically, limmie won over more cerebral pursuits, at least for 60 minutes.

---

Falene flew across the field to deliver a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on Lightcin, the Starkillers half forward who was Falene’s responsibility today. Leann and Falene had joined the League together in 274. Lightcin had taken the now more traditional path of the ELL Draft, being chosen with the third pick of the second round. She was a solid player, a veritable veteran now that she was in her fourth season with Ralltiir.

That made it all the more satisfying when Lightcin tumbled down, losing the ball, which was deftly rocketed up the field by Wizmark, the Miners’ first draft pick in franchise history. Though the resulting Miner press didn’t result in any points, the whole series was more than satisfying for Falene.

The truth was, the whole game had been nothing but satisfying. The Miner defense was limiting the chances of the talented Starkiller forwards. Andres Fortune was clearly pumped for the game, but today Hulu was running a complicated defensive cycle that brought Dalton Ward into coverage on Fortune. Ward, the UB Salis D’aar Golden Bear, had raised the level of his game every time that he was near Fortune and appeared to be making it his personal mission to make life difficult for him. As Falene saw it, splitting Fortune between Penn and Ward made it hard for Andres to get his footing in the game, unable to settle into one defensive coverage.

The other side of this rotation was the highly dangerous Loren Jul. An MVP-caliber player, Jul was ably covered by Ward and absolutely neutralized by Penn when he cycled over. The Agamarian just about eclipsed the speedy Hapan. The Starkillers, understandably, started shifting more and more of the play to Vick McTodd, a solid player in his own right, but he wasn’t the bread and butter for Ralltiir and it showed in the quality of chances that lacked the same dazzle that Fortune or Jul brought to the game.

Taking out those two was key, especially because at midfield it was a battle of epic proportions. Alyda Hovechar and Alana Glencross were having a race for the ages. Hovechar was fast--faster than Glencross. With the slightest separation, Hovechar was just about gone, Alana nipping at her heels but unable to bring her adversary down. Valerii had seen this and had decided to get risky with periodic double teams of Hovechar by Pic and Glencross. This left Zarene Klick dangerously uncovered, but Hovechar was too dangerous. When she wasn’t double covered, Hovechar had that extra step on Alana.

That made what Falene was doing all the more important. She was shutting down the center of the field. It forced Hovechar into long passes or more circuitous routes through the Miner defense that couldn’t get directly at Andres, if she didn’t go for bar points herself. When Alyda decided to charge up the field herself, usually when she got that extra step on Alana, Falene stepped into the breach. She got rocked by Hovechar a few times, who had forward motion, but Falene was able to slow the Starkiller star up just enough for Alana to bring her down and muck up the Ralltiir assault.

The game tested the Miners, stretching their Hulu coverages, Valerii’s midfield system, and checking their prolific offense--but the Miners held. As the game lengthened, they started pulling away bit by bit. Each point was the victory of a battle, the rare goal was nothing short of small miracle.

Even in the final minutes of the game when the Miners were up by two scores, Gaeriel Valerii had her starters on the field. She wasn’t about to give the Starkillers the opportunity to rip off some points and make it close. No, this game was not for fooling around. This was a game you didn’t get cocky about.

Falene was so locked into the action that she barely registered the buzzer sounding the end of the game. She was running, locked on to covering Lightcin when she realized that the game was over and jumped in the air with a shout, hitting the turf in a slide with her hands over her head.

The streak was over at 12. The Miners had done it, wresting control of the Solo Conference from the Ralltiir Starkillers. All across the field the Miner players were celebrating. Wizmark, Penn, the entire defense had clustered around Falene with Comstock the cherry on top of the sundae. Under the night sky they had won.

“Falene, this is a huge win for the Miners. How do you feel?” an HSN reporter asked, extricating Falene from the tangle of teammates.

“This was a great game,” Falene said, “We played a solid game--maybe our best this season. I don’t know--I’m going to have to look at the vids, but I feel really good about how we played today. It was a team effort and lots of credit to our coaches who prepared us well, got us ready on the road for this game.”

“You own the Miners. They’re going back to the playoffs for the third straight year as a result of this game. What do you think that says about the direction you’re taking the Miners?”

“Look, as an owner, you don’t get more hands off than me--at least in operations,” Falene said, realizing she was pretty darn hands on when she was on the field, “I let the front office do their thing and the coaches coach. I just play the game. I was lucky enough to get an amazing, Galactic Cup championship-caliber team when I started off as owner and I’m not going to mess things up by trying to put ‘my mark’ or something on them.”

“Congratulations on the win Falene, see you in the playoffs.”

They were going back to the Galactic Cup Playoffs--and Falene had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to see these Starkillers again when she got there.

---

---

Rwookrrorro, Kashyyyk



Kashyyyk was the fourth world in four weeks that the Miners had been on. After the emotional win against the Starkillers, the team had pretty much crashed on the shuttle, half of them passed out from sheer physical exertion. Valerii and Hulu had smartly let their team recharge rather than use the flight to go over the vids from the last game and the prescout on Kashyyyk. Since they were traveling directly to Kashyyyk they’d have plenty of time to get into their practice routine there, including doing the usual prep of game week. Though it was brutal to have a three game road trip like this, Falene knew it was part of the job sometimes. And it could have been worse--it could have been a four game trip.

The Miners couldn’t have been more glad to arrive at their hotel where they grabbed passcards and headed straight for their rooms to settle in. Falene, who’d slept a lot on the shuttle, was actually hungry. It appeared to be some kind of standard meal hour when they got to the hotel, which meant that the hotel restaurant was packed. However, Falene had done enough travel like this to know that you could usually get faster service in the hotel bar than the dining room or by ordering room service, so she slipped in there. It turned out that some of the Wookiees knew it too, but there was an odd pocket of barstools open--and Falene didn’t have to guess the reason why.

Leaning his elbows against the bar was a Mandalorian warrior in beskar’gam helmet off and sitting next to him on the bar. The back of his shiny, bald head was one Falene had seen a few times before.

“I’m guessing this seat isn’t taken,” Falene said, sliding onto the stool that didn’t have the buy’ce in front of it.

The Mandalorian turned to look at Falene and then suddenly smiled.

“For the woman who signs my checks, it’s as free as the air we breathe!” Adenn Vizsla said before laughing heartily, “Sit, sit. I take it the team has arrived then?”

“Just got in now and I’m starving,” Falene said.

Vizsla held up a gloved hand and waved the Wookiee bartender over. “My friend, bring tonight’s special for my friend here, one of the heroes of the battle of Ralltiir.” The Wookiee looked askance at Vizsla before going off with what sounded like the Wookiee equivalent of a “harumph.” “Ah, you’ll love the food here,” Vizsla continued, seemingly unaware of the Wookiee’s less than cordial attitude, “Such flavors! Such vibrancy! Such meat! Never forget that the Wookiees are excellent cooks.”

“I didn’t think you’d be such a fan of the culture given…” Falene motioned to the beskar’gam.

“Ah, but you see, the Wookiees are one of the great warriors of the galaxy. A true warrior recognizes genius, brilliance in his opponents and honors it. A warrior is only robust as the meal in his stomach and our furred friends know that well,” Vizsla said poetically.

“Well that’s surprisingly cosmopolitan of you,” Falene admitted.

“You aruetii remain so incredibly dense about what makes a true Mandalorian,” Vizsla said, “No offense intended.”

“None taken...I think,” Falene said, “but what do you mean?”

“Mandalorians are the most accepting nation in the galaxy. Birth does not make one a Mandalorian. Deeds and actions do. Why, if you would have me, I could make you a Mandalorian right now. I would say the words, adopt you as my own, and you would be a daughter to me from this day forward, until the end of time,” Adenn said, “I could do the same to any of these Wookiees. In fact, I am sure there are many who would bring Clan Vizsla great honor who stand in this very bar. I have adopted children into Clan Vizsla before and they all add to our splendor. Species, gender, birthplace, it is meaningless to the Mandalorians. I dare say you would not ever call me Bakuran, would you?”

“Maybe if you lived on world for twenty years and stopped wearing that armor,” Falene offered.

“That’s what I thought,” Vizsla said, “No, there is much to be appreciated in the galaxy--though none of it quite so good as being Mandalorian.”

“Now this conversation is going more like I expected,” Falene said, half to herself.

“Besides, your mother, Alor Trieste, would not take kindly to me adopting you,” Adenn said, “nor would it be right. She is an honorable woman and friend to Manda’lor Taab in word and deed. Many aruetii ran from the Manda’lor but not your mother. Oya!” This last word was shouted before Vizsla quaffed some of his drink, bringing the eyes of just about every Wookiee in the bar to the two humans.

“You might want to put that helmet back on,” Falene said out of the corner of her mouth, looking around nervously.

“Nonsense. Ori’buyce, kih’kovid,” Adenn said pleasantly.

“Does that mean, ‘We’re going to die?’” Falene asked.

“It means, ‘All helmet, no head.’ It is a saying among my people when someone thinks they are more important than they are, to put it nicely. I take my helmet off to show these Wookiees that I very much have my head,” Vizsla said.

You might not for much longer, Falene thought.

“But no harm shall come to us here. We are guests of the Wookiees here,” Vizsla said, “Their customs of hospitality protect even a Mandalorian and a limmie player who seeks to embarrass their beloved Rangers. Speaking of which, you must be careful. After the Ralltiir game, the Rangers will seek to lull you into a false sense of security this week and then strike once you cannot match their surge in intensity.”

Falene nodded. Vizsla had been brought on to the Miners organization at Cundertol’s request. When Adenn had been let go by the Mercs, Cundertol had immediately approached Vizsla about joining the Miners to lead their advance team. The GM wanted a veteran voice in the strategy meetings with Valerii and Hulu, one who would bring a new perspective and challenge the Miners’ internal culture. Thus far the idea had paid dividends. Vizsla went ahead of the Miners to watch their next week’s opponent in person, meeting the Miners management in person or via holoconference to share his findings.

“I’ll make my full report to Cundertol later tonight,” Vizsla said, “but know not to take the Rangers lightly. They are like a coiled spring. And you’ve had your share of trouble covering Wookiees.”

Falene grimaced, but she knew it was true. “Yeah, they’re tough. Going to have to play a good game tomorrow.” Her food arrived, sure enough quicker than if she’d gone to the restaurant for it. Falene went to pay for it, but Vizsla exchanged a word with the bartender, preventing her from doing so. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did. It’s been long overdue,” Vizsla said, “You agreed to take me in when I needed a home. Don’t think that is forgotten.”

“But the Mercs and the Miners don’t exactly mix. Are you really happy here?” Falene asked.

“For all the arrogance of the Smug Dragon--and there is much--he is still brilliant. Two championships in his tenure, five years apart. There is much I learn from him,” Vizsla said.

“That didn’t answer the question,” Falene said.

“Like the Wookiees, you are great warriors, deserving of study and respect. I enjoy the company just fine,” Vizlsa said with a smile, “Perhaps one day I shall write a book about my time among the Bakurans. I am sure it would be a bestseller on Mandalore.”

“Sounds like you don’t intend for this to be your final destination,” Falene observed.

“Perhaps not, but one thing a Mandalorian learns is never to count on things to remain the same. Our lives are fluid by their very nature, but we honor our contracts. That is sacred. As long as I am under contract to the Miners, as I am to the end of the season, I will always be loyal to you, Alor’ika Trieste,” Vizsla said, “That you can be sure of.”

“Did you think I would ever doubt the honor of a mercenary?” Falene asked with a wry smile.

“Come now, you did not become alor of clan Trieste by being stupid,” Vizsla said with a twinkle in his eye. Before he could continue, he flagged down the bartender again. “Can you put on the Stewjon game? Thank you, my friend.”

The Wookiee grumbled again, apparently still not feeling very friendly to the Mandalorian, but he complied.

“Now the Metropolitans, the Mets, they are a team that interests me,” Adenn said as he relaxed and looked up at the vidscreen, “A team that’s going places, if you ask me.”

“The only thing they’ve got going for them is that Rurra Eshka’mos is their biggest fan,” Falene said.

“Rurra is a good being. Very funny, especially for a Bothan,” Adenn said, “You do watch don’t--WHAT THE--WHY DID YOU DO THAT?”



The sudden outburst from the Mandalorian surprised the entire bar, who turned.

“Of course you’re going to get scored on if you run a Kobayashi Maru in that situation! Is your coaching staff made up of slow-witted Gamorreans?” Vizsla said, pounding one kom’rk on the bar.

Falene decided just to eat her food and be thankful that Adenn Vizsla was not her head coach. She suddenly felt bad for the Mercs--but only just a little bit and very briefly. They were still the Mercs, after all.

TAG: Bardan_Jusik (who was hopefully entertained with how I'm using his character ) Runjedirun