The Bilonga
The Bilonga is a ruthless gang of pirates who have managed to put fear into two sectors. They are lead by a cruel but cunning Aqualish by the name of Varl Silkurth. Silkurth is a finned Quara, who abandoned Aqualish high society to form a cutthroat gang of mercenaries. From a small beginning of only 18 members and one freighter, the Bilonga has grown to include hundreds of members and over a dozen ships. Varl has several bases spread across two sectors. One of them is a secret base on C'had, which serves three freighters and also has several dozen members. The main base is on a forgotten planet in the Thring sector, called Guuntoth. He doubtless has more holdings, all of which will be revealed in time...
C'had Base
The base on C'had is very cleverly hidden. It is situated near the shoreline, and was built from an old disused mining pit. The pit is over 100 meters wide and approximately 300 meters deep. The mining was stopped when the precious metals gave out. Years later, Varl found the pit, and decided to use it as a base. He smoothed out the bottom of the pit to allow ships to land there, and had two tunnels drilled into the base. One tunnel served as a drain for the rainwater that accumulated, and the other tunnel was formed into rooms for the pilots and soldiers there. He also took a stolen Imperial Holoshield and placed it above the pit entrance. This Holoshield projects a hologram that makes it appear as if there is no hole in the ground. At the same time, it scrambles sensors readings so that they cannot pick up the hole (add one to difficulty to sensors roll). The entrance from the pit to the tunnel is sealed with a large blast door, but the door is not locked. Past the door is a large hallway. The first room branching off from the hallway is filled with ship supplies, including spare parts, concussion missiles, and fuel cells. Further on are two rooms that serve as the barracks for low-ranking personnel, and can accommodate as many as 30 people each. After these two rooms, the tunnel branches off in three directions. One branch leads to the more luxurious pilot's quarters, the middle branch leads to Varl's personal chambers, used whenever he visits C'had, and on the right is the treasure room, filled with loot from recent expeditions. All along the walls of the tunnels are small holes; these are home to a population of barely sentient Ranats. Since Ranats can use their claws and teeth to dig straight through rock, Varl hired them to dig out the tunnels here. Once they were finished, he decided to keep them down here as guards, which would prevent them from leaking the secret of the base out. Ranats are even worse guards than Gamorreans. They are very easy to bribe or con, and can be easily threatened with physical force - something not possible with Gamorreans.
Another possible entrance is through the drainage tunnel. The tunnel leads out from the pit into a nearby valley. Anyone examine this hole will see traces of starship lubricants in the drainage tunnel, and if he knows the existence of the pit, he will figure out where the tunnel leads. The tunnel is small and narrow; characters will have to crawl through. Anybody with claustrophobia, or any species that are afraid of small, dark, enclosed spaces, must make a Difficult willpower roll to enter the tunnel. The difficulty is only Moderate if the character is being shot at.
Inside the tunnels, it is cool and clammy. Lighting is rather low, with flickering lights and rusted-out wiring. All combat in the tunnels is considered to be in low twilight, which adds 1D to the difficulty to hit. If someone thinks to shoot out the lights, the tunnels are plunged into almost pitch blackness, which adds 3D to the difficulty. Creatures with ultraviolet vision are hampered, but anybody with infrared sight can ignore all penalties.
General location of the Pit
Map of the Base Interior
Home Base
The Aqualish's home base is not only extremely well-hidden, but also very well-defended. The base is on the barren, rocky world known as Guuntoth. It was discovered in the waning days of the Old Republic, and found to have large deposits of metals extremely useful in the production of concussion missiles. A factory was started there, but with the end of the Old Republic and the rising of the Empire, the base was cut off from the galaxy. Suddenly the Bilonga gang discovered the planet, on a misjump between planets. Varl sensed that this would be an excellent base of operations, as it was well-hidden, and had a ready-made facility. He took over the facilities, killing most of the occupants and enslaving the rest. He then customized the factory, expanding it to produce not only concussion missiles, but also to produce Z-95 Headhunter fighters. It took nearly three years and hundreds of thousands of credits to produce this change, but in the end it was worth it. He now has a factory producing brand-new Headhunters and cocncussion missiles. Since he uses slave labor, costs are low, and he keeps the factory running by selling off some of the stock. He also bribes the Empire by deliviring concussion missiles to them, which keeps them of his back. Fortunately for the galaxy, the rate of production in the factory is very low, mostly because of the lack of mining equipment.
This factory will be an ideal target for the Rebel Alliance, since they would want to free the slaves and stop the transfer of concussion missiles to the Empire. Also, if the Alliance could capture the factory, they could easily modify it produce X-wings.
Layout
The base has six buildings:
- Main Factory
- Finishing Area
- Docking Bay
- Slave Quarters
- Barracks
Click on a building name below to go to a more detailed description and a larger map.
The Main Factory is where the primary production of concussion missiles and Headhunters occurs. It is split into three sections: One section for the water purification, security office, and general control room, another section for the building of concussion missiles, and the third, largest section for Z-95 construction. Labor here is provided entirely by slaves. Because of this, the concussion missiles are made without explosives. Instead, the empty shells are ferried to the Finishing Area, where the explosive is inserted by loyal employees. When it was operated by the Old Republic, the Main Factory was powered by a nuclear generator. Varl shut this down and installed a new, more compact fusion generator.
The Finishing area is a small building that used to be a storage area in the Old republic. Varl had it converted into a processing unit to add the explosive to the incomplete concussion missiles from the Main Factory. It also serves as a storage facility.
The Docking bay is a large building, with a recieving bay for grav trucks on one side. Security here is high, especially when a ship is landed. Varl knows that if any slaves escape offworld, his base will be quickly invaded by the Imperials, so he keeps plenty of guards around his ships.
The slave quarters is a bleak, desolate building, in need of repair. This is the sleeping area for the slaves. The building is one huge room, with severla hundred bunks and a ten-unit refresher at one end. Although the building is locked, there are no guards. Guuntoth is deserted, so an escaping slave would have nowhere to go and would merely starve to death.
The barracks are where the soldiers and slave masters, and pilots sleep, as well as the loyal workers from the Finishing Area. There are about 100 soldiers on Guuntoth, and they rotate in shifts of 30. There are approximately 40 loyal workers, who alternate shifts of 20. Pilots are only here when a supply ship lands to pick up a load of Headhunters and concussion missiles.
