Pembric II

Pembric II, also written as Pembric 2, was situated within the Pembric system in the Kathol sector of the Outer Rim Territories, specifically at grid coordinates M-21. It had hyperlane connections to four locations: the Galtea, Sebiris, and Shintel systems, as well as the nebulae that contained the Tanquilla Beach shadowport. Using a Class One hyperdrive, the journey to Galtea took one day and eight hours, Sebiris was two days and fourteen hours away, Shintel required three days of travel, and the Tanquilla Beach space station could be reached in nineteen hours. The system's dense asteroid field, along with unpredictable radiation fields, provided Pembric II with a degree of isolation from the rest of the sector.

Pembric II was a terrestrial world with a temperate but warm climate and a constant, light drizzle. The atmosphere was breathable for most species, had standard gravity, and was characterized by swampy wetlands and urban settlements like Erwithat. The planet also featured numerous beaches and a field of volcanoes. Each day on Pembric II lasted thirty-three standard hours, and a year consisted of 302 local days. The population was 200 million, primarily Human. Although the Galactic Empire, and later the Warlord Moff Kentor Sarne, nominally controlled Pembric II during part of the Galactic Civil War—a war between the Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic—a puppet government was put in place in 8 ABY by crime lord Crev Bombaasa to gain control of the planet. Local law enforcement was the responsibility of the Pembric Security Legion, but this organization was corrupt and controlled by Bombaasa's Cartel. Due to its isolated nature, the planet became a haven for smugglers, pirates, and other criminal elements, evolving into a shadowport. Contraband items, as defined by both the Empire and the New Republic, were major exports, along with hfredium ore and other precious stones. Food, technology, and weaponry were consistently in demand for import.

Pembric II started as a desolate, rocky planet, marked by numerous impacts from meteorites. It was terraformed with the intention of creating an agricultural colony, but the process was poorly executed. While the resulting planet was habitable, it was unpleasant and unsuitable for its intended purpose. The constant drizzle and swampy conditions hindered large-scale agriculture, and the construction of Erwithat and its spaceport was a difficult engineering achievement. The planet became home to rugged, frontier settlers and criminals. Despite failing as an agricultural colony, the population capitalized on Pembric II's natural features, including picturesque beaches and volcanic fields. Due to Pembric II's remote location in the Outer Rim Territories, a conventional tourist industry never thrived. However, resourceful individuals marketed the planet to a specific clientele who found other tourist destinations too restrictive for their activities. In essence, Pembric II became a resort world for gangsters.

As gangsters established their operations on the planet, cantinas, museums, and entertainment venues were built to cater to them. This, in turn, attracted a more refined and cultured criminal element, who soon overshadowed the planet's original inhabitants. Pembric II's corporate government was fully aware of the situation and chose to ignore the smuggling and organized crime, as long as credits continued to flow into the economy. The Pembric Security Legion, the planet's police force, became known for its corruption.

When Imperial Moff Kentor Sarne was appointed to govern the Kathol sector in 2 BBY, he used the Pembric system as a mining outpost. Hfredium ore, extracted from the system's asteroid field, was processed on Pembric II and shipped to various arms manufacturers aligned with the Empire. Many new workers were brought to the planet to work for the Empire in the processing plants. The Imperial presence led to a decline in criminal activity on the planet, and Pembric II's beachfront properties were negatively affected by the increase in industrial activity. Sarne controlled the planet for several years, both officially as an Imperial representative and, after the death of Galactic Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor and the subsequent fragmentation of the Imperial High Command's power, as an independent warlord. During this time, the Moff allowed the planet to remain a haven for criminals, recognizing the advantage of having connections to the underworld—rumors suggested he had a tense alliance with the Bombaasa Cartel, led by the Corellian crime lord Crev Bombaasa. The Moff used Pembric II as a training ground for his soldiers and intelligence operatives, occasionally cracking down on the population.

In 8 ABY, Moff Sarne was driven out of his capital, Kal'Shebbol, by the New Republic, ending his control over planets in the region. Crev Bombaasa quickly moved to secure the planet for himself, seizing control of the mining operations in the asteroid field and eliminating Imperial loyalists on the planet—though some remained, concealing their allegiance. As news spread that the New Republic had taken Kal'Shebbol and was extending its influence throughout the region, Bombaasa installed a puppet government. This new government claimed to be pro-Imperial, which Bombaasa hoped would be enough to prevent New Republic intervention in the system. The population was ready for a change in government after Imperial rule and was willing to accept and support the New Republic. The workers brought to the planet by the Empire were stranded by the collapse of Imperial authority in the region, and with the Cartel's takeover, many wanted to leave. The government tried to prevent this by implementing expensive "transit visas" and "exit passes" required for leaving the planet. An underground market quickly emerged, selling transport off-world at exorbitant prices. A Rodian, Kebbo, served as Chief Magistrate of the Security Legion. Kebbo was in Bombaasa's pay, and the organization soon began enforcing the Cartel's will while ostensibly maintaining local law and order. Anyone opposing Bombaasa could not rely on help from the Legion, and they regularly suppressed civilian protests with violence.

In the same year, the New Republic CR90 corvette FarStar traveled to Pembric II in search of a man named Breslin Drake, the manager of the ThrusterBurn Tapcafe in Erwithat. The FarStar was experiencing technical problems caused by several programming trapdoors and booby traps installed on the vessel by its former owner, Moff Sarne. After one such system was triggered in the Shintel system, destroying the hyperdrive, the FarStar was forced to make repairs at the Tanquilla Beach shadowport. During the refit, the engineer Spang noticed that the programming was similar to work he had seen done by slicers operating from Pembric II. He directed Captain Kaiya Adrimetrum, commander of the FarStar, to Drake, who he believed could lead them to someone capable of removing all the hidden systems. Aware of the planet's reputation, and believing that an armed New Republic vessel would be unwelcome, Adrimetrum decided to send a team led by procurement specialist Loh'khar the Finder to the planet, posing as illegal arms merchants. They would use the FarStar's Aegis-class combat shuttle, stripped of New Republic markings, as their transport. However, one of Bombaasa's mining outposts in the asteroid field detected the corvette's arrival and informed the crime lord.

Upon landing at the spaceport, the delegation was met by Chief Magistrate Kebbo of the Pembric Security Legion, who knew of their allegiance but had been ordered not to reveal it. After the New Republic team paid the necessary bribes to ensure the safety of their shuttle while on-world, Kebbo directed them to Drake and assigned two Legionnaires to escort them to the tapcafe. However, the two Legionnaires were secretly deep-cover agents loyal to Moff Sarne, and they orchestrated an ambush which the New Republic delegation survived. In the aftermath, the team found a data plaque containing transit visas. Reaching the ThrusterBurn, they contacted Drake, who told them that the Keiffler Brothers—whom he considered the best slicers in the sector—had been hired to work for the Empire on Kal'Shebbol but had not returned. One of their apprentices, Gaelin, had returned, claiming that the brothers had been killed by the Empire. He had eventually started his own business but was soon absorbed into Bombaasa's operations. Gaelin wanted to leave the planet, but Bombaasa kept him locked away, working in secret.

During the conversation, Kebbo arrived with a squad of Legionnaires and informed the FarStar delegation that Bombaasa wanted to see them in the casino at the rear of the tapcafe. Bombaasa stated that he knew of their allegiance, the presence of the FarStar in the asteroid field, and that Pembric II was pro-Imperial. While he didn't care why they were on his planet, he wanted reassurance that the FarStar was not the vanguard of a New Republic assault and wanted to make a deal to keep the New Republic out of the Pembric system. However, he doubted that the mission group had the authority to sign such a treaty, so he ordered them to leave as soon as possible, provided they could afford the tariffs to depart the planet. Upon the mention of transit visas and exit passes, Kebbo realized that the guards he had assigned to escort the crewmembers were missing and that they had been carrying the required documentation. As Kebbo prepared to search the delegation, they resisted, leading to a confrontation. The New Republic delegation was aided by Drake and four of his bouncers, who helped them escape the tapcafe and took them to a small warehouse on the outskirts of the spaceport to hide.

Drake, who was looking for a way to leave the planet himself, made a deal with the FarStar crew: he would lead them to Gaelin so they could extract him, in exchange for passage off-world for him and his bouncers. At sunset, Drake led the delegation to another warehouse on the edge of the spaceport, noting that Bombaasa had hidden Gaelin there instead of the tech district to avoid suspicion. As a result, security was not particularly tight to avoid attracting attention, but it would still be difficult to infiltrate. Two teams were formed—one to infiltrate the warehouse and secure Gaelin, and another to retrieve their shuttle and fly it to the warehouse roof for extraction. The warehouse team successfully subdued the Cartel guards with the help of local laborers and convinced Gaelin of their peaceful intentions. The other team liberated their shuttle and flew it to the warehouse. The shuttle extracted the rest of the mission group, Drake and his bouncers, Gaelin, and the laborers who had assisted at the warehouse.

Around 13 ABY, independent operators Mara Jade and Lando Calrissian arrived on Pembric II searching for a former smuggler named Jorj Car'das. They were acting on behalf of smuggler chief Talon Karrde, who had previously worked for Car'das. While on the planet, the pair stopped an assassination attempt targeting Bombaasa; when the crime lord offered a reward, Jade refused. She stated she was working for a "chieftain," and Bombaasa agreed to postpone repayment of the debt until it was needed. Six years later, in 19 ABY, Karrde himself visited Pembric II while trying to contact Car'das, hoping to obtain a copy of the Caamas Document to resolve a potential crisis threatening to plunge the New Republic into civil war. Arriving on his Action IV transport Wild Karrde, Karrde and his associate, the Mistryl Shadow Guard Shada D'ukal, attempted to meet with Bombaasa at the ThrusterBurn Tapcafe. They were harassed by a swoop gang outside the establishment, but D'ukal, with Karrde's help, dealt with the threat. Escorted in to see Bombaasa by members of the Security Legion, Karrde used Mara Jade's earlier debt to secure safe passage through space controlled by the Bombaasa Cartel, acquiring an ID overlay that identified the Wild Karrde as a friendly ship to Bombaasa's allied vessels.

The population of Pembric II, numbering 200 million, was primarily Human, but included members of other species, such as Rodians. Residents mainly spoke Galactic Basic Standard, but some spoke Jarellian. A portion of the population was not native to Pembric II, having been brought to the planet by the Empire during its rule to work in the hfredium ore processing plants.

The main city on Pembric II was Erwithat, which contained the main spaceport. The city and port were constructed shortly after the planet was settled, a challenging task for the settlers due to difficult building conditions. The spaceport had several landing pads and warehouses. Erwithat was also home to the ThrusterBurn Tapcafe, owned by Crev Bombaasa. Located near the spaceport, it was frequented by spacers and criminals and included a casino in the rear where Bombaasa conducted business. Erwithat also had a tech district.

Pembric II first appeared in Crisis, the fifth RPG adventure in The DarkStryder Campaign, published by West End Games in 1995. It was written by Eric S. Trautmann and Paul Sudlow, with illustrations by Tim Bobko. Pembric II was mentioned in 1996's The Kathol Outback, the second book of the DarkStryder series, and Pirates & Privateers, published in 1997. Pembric II—styled as Pembric 2—was later featured in 1998's Vision of the Future, a novel by Timothy Zahn, and received an entry in 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

During the events of Crisis, players can try to escape from or negotiate with the Imperial agents disguised as Pembric Security Legionnaires. Neither option will succeed, as the agents will attack regardless. When planning to rescue Gaelin, the gamemaster can have Drake suggest splitting the team to cover both objectives—securing Gaelin and retrieving the shuttle—if the players don't think of it. The adventure assumes that both objectives are done simultaneously, and this article reflects that. Retrieving the shuttle and flying to the warehouse holding Gaelin will alert the Cartel to the character's intentions if done before raiding the warehouse, at which point more Legionnaires will be sent to oppose the players. After the successful extraction, the gamemaster can send B-wing starfighters operated by the Pembric Security Legion after the escaping shuttle.