Clone forces rally! As the war
escalates in the Outer Rim, the
Jedi Knights are spread thinly
across the galaxy. Many new
clones are rushed into service
to support their Jedi generals.
Unfortunately, because of the
relentless demands of battle,
many young clones must join
the struggle before their
intensive training has been
completed. These clones,
manning a vital network of
tracking stations, are all that
stand between the Republic
and invasion…
On a desolate asteroid just outside their home system of Kamino, a group of new recruits sits in the control room of a monitoring station. One of many such stations throughout the galaxy their job was to monitor for CIS activity and send a distress signal should the enemy attempt to enter the system. Their secondary mission is to maintain the all clear system broadcasting that the system is safe. This station is the last station between before the clone homework of Kamino. Any enemy passing undirected would catch the world and all the young clones off guard. At frist the duty was new and exciting but now, several months into it, the young clones find themselves with a case of cabin feaver and an eagerness for some action. The one seasoned clone, sergeant O'Niner reminds the young troops of the importance of their station and the upcoming inspection tour by a group of decorated clone scouts.
Blam sighs as he runs the scanners through a quick auto-diagnostic. Which is to say he hits a button on the console before him and checks the indicators to see if any turn up anything other than green. He understands the importance of the job and tries to the best he can. The doesn’t change the fact that it’s mind numbingly boring and monotonous.
So while Blast does his job and carefully notes the results in the log with his datapad he can’t keep the boredom out of his voice as he makes the required verbal report,”All scanners check out as operating in acceptable parameters.”
He puts the pad down and stretches, his arms and back popping in rapid staccatos.
Coins wanders into the central control room. He's not technically on duty, but there is literally nothing to do at the base besides sleep and watch the monitors. And count ceiling tiles. There were 256 ceiling tiles in the control room the last time he checked, but he's pretty sure he'll be counting them again later. Maybe right to left this time, change things up.
Idling up to Blast, he gives his fellow trooper a nod and automatically checks the bank of screens. His eyes suddenly go wide. "Blast! There's something on the number two monitor! It's...it's...a speck of dust!"
Blast tensed at first when Coins mentions seeing something. With the rest of his report he groans and relaxes again. He grabs a dust cloth and pitches it at Coins’ head.
”Well don’t just stand there trooper take it out!”
Blast shakes his head and turns back to his station. His shift isn’t over yet,” How many times have you made that joke now?” he asks in an easy-going tone. This isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation and it’s clear Blast knows he fell for it. Again. Not that he minds really.
As the team jokes around an arm sounds indicating that the front blaster doors are being opened. some observation team. How did you miss the arrival of the inspection team? Fodder report! The sergeant calls out to the clone manning the door. When no response is received he calls out to the clone on external patrol. Still no answer.Bring up the front security cameras. he calls to the clones in the control room.
Spoiler:
easy computer check. That is one purple any clone can make it.
”Sir!” Blast shouts as he does a quick check of his board before remembering he’s at the scanners station, not the cameras. Rookie mistake from a rookie.
”Coins, you’re right there. Can you switch them over?” he calls as he goes over the board again,”I don’t get it. How could they have not shown up on any of the scopes?”
Spoiler:
Edited by gm... your roll somehow you got the code for another person's roll... did you get it from the dice history or the screen after your roll? Ziz; Target Lock; Coercion Check on Cora: 1 Failure, 1 Advantage
0 Success(es) added from talents or equipment
0 Advantage(s) added From talents or equipment
Boost to whoever does get the cameras.
A view of the front blaster door appears. It is wide open and a clone sits slumped against the wall with his head down. A brief glimpse of a moving shadow can be seen as it passes out of the camera view.
"Guys, you're making a lot of noise. This is my quiet time" Dusty would call out from where he was sprawled. He had taken residency on a couch near the window. He'd spent most of the morning there, in fact he spent most mornings there. Since his posting here, his initial enthusiasm for action during training had simmered significantly. There was no action out here, that was what he had been bread for.
As the sergeant shouts at the squadies Dusty scrambles to his feet. He glances out of the window before grabbing his helmet and joining the others. "I didn't hear a ship come in, are we sure it's those clones we're waiting for?"
As he sees the clone slumped against the wall he would curse under his breath as he pulls his helmet onto his head. 'I don't think this is clones' he would say as he moves towards the rooms exit. 'Who's coming to check it out?'
Blast stares at the screen for a second, his mouth going to a hard line.
”Yeah, I think you’re right. Love to go give our guests a greeting.” he growls flipping his on helmet onto his head and lifting his multi barreled weapon onto his shoulder,”First things first though. If we’re being breached we need to cut the all clear signal. It’s the only reason to hit this place.”
Blast looks to O’niner,”This will get messy if we all just do our own thing. Orders sir?”
"Yeah let's notify the entire fleet that one of you shinies feel asleep on duty and let the inspection party walk right into a forward observatory. Hold off on the signal until we know what is going on. Grab your weapons and lets check this out. The Sergeant says as he grabs his own weapon and moves to the blast door. waiting for the others to line up with him.
Coins slings his rifle around into a ready position, then withdraws a stamped disc from a belt pouch. He gives it a glance, seeing that it's the copper and nickel example from his collection, featuring a raised profile of some long-dead alien potentate on one side and a quartered shield on the other. He takes it between thumb and forefinger, and taps it along the length of his rifle's barrel. Returning the coin to his pouch he thinks, Hopefully we won't need luck, but just in case...
He also gets his weapon into the ready position and gives the barrels a test spin up. Satisfied everything is good to go he falls in with the rest.
What he doesn’t voice is his thoughts. How this is a watch station studded with every sort of sensor imaginable yet none of them saw a thing or made even a blip. How unless the diagnostic tools are on the blitz they were checking out as operational. How the inspection tour didn’t hail the station on approach and two troopers failed to say anything into helmet mounted coms before at least one was taken out.
Still orders are orders , but he makes a mental note to consider where they need to fallback to if they find they need to take out the signal ASAP.
As the group gathers together in line the sergeant signals for the blast door to be opened. As the door rises a squadron of B2 droids stands before you and a shower of blaster fire engulfs the sergeant who collapses to the ground.
Coins throws his rifle to his shoulder, sights down the barrel, and for the first time in his short life, fires at an enemy in an actual combat situation.
As Coins lifts his rifle a single B2 droid steps in front of it calling out "Whaaaa" as it is blown to pieces and metal parts are strewn across the room.
Spoiler:
The squad rules exchange firepower for survivability. You only destroy one droid because of those rules.
Fire from blasts rifle streaks forward as he rushes behind the console. Firing wildly his bolts graze a single droid knocking it into the wall where it collapses onto the ground.
Spoiler:
no boosts passed. the second roll was not necessary.
"Sarge!" Dusty would shout in shock and despair as their leader is gunned down in front of the rookies. Staggering back a few paces Dusty would turn to throw himself behind one of couches in the room. "Can anyone get to the computer console? We've got to deal stop the all clear now!" Of course this was stating the obvious to the others, but Dusty was panicked by the sudden shift in events.
Peering around the side of the furniture he would bring his carbine to bare and open fire on the enemy droids. Despite the chaotic situation his shots land true, doing some effective damage to the attackers. He grits his teeth as he continues to fire, he has no plan to die here today.
Spoiler:
Combat Check: 2eP+1eA+1eC+1eD5 successes, 1 threat Does 14 base damage to the B2 droids. Setback spent to take strain?
Another droid falls from the squad under the incoming fire.
The droid squad continues to advance killing the last clone trooper who has not fired. The back door flies open and a large group of droids enters the room.
The center console behind which Blast and Coins hides and next to dusty, contains the main controls for the facility. The ability to control the all clear signal can be altered from that station. Additionally the floor in the center of that console is a grate over a large air vent, the last possible means of escape for the rookies.
Blast looks at the console to see the lockout message across the screen,”Too late! We’re locked out!”
Hearing the door open behind him he throws a glance over his shoulder to see more droids entering, then at the grate in the console.”Clankers got us dead to rights. Time to leave troopers!”
So saying Blast grabs the cover off the vent and moves to follow his own advice.
The vent system is a long tube, there are a few turn offs but the main tunnel head directly out from the base and some light can be seen coming through a fan at the far end. Nearly a mile from your current location and well outside the base.
"What? We can't leave! We've got a duty to the-" A near miss from a droid blaster seems to change Dusty's mind as the new enemies join the attack. "Fine, fine, I'm on you tail!" He'd shout to the others as he scrabbles out of cover. As he goes he unclips his grenade from his belt. As he dashes for the hole in the floor he tosses it under his arm, sending the explosive ball skittering across the floor towards the droids. The grenade stops short before it erupts with a loud bang, but provides the surviving clones with valuable time to make good their escape. As he is tucked behind the others in the pipe he would call out to the others in a loud whisper. "Where does this go to anyway?"
Spoiler:
Grenade Throw: 3eA+1eD0 successes, 3 advantage Can the advantage be spent to make the escape easier?
The clones move to the end of the shaft and can see through the fan. Outside lays the baron rugged terrain of the moon. The shaft exits at the bottom on of a large clif. Or at least what looks to be a bottom as there is a substantial ledge but it is obvious the ground drops off substantially not much further ahead. Based on your experience you assume the base is at the top of the hill, though regulations forbid leaving the base for anything but patrol so you are completely unfamiliar with this area. The fan appears to be simple enough and anyone with mechanical ability could disable it easily.
Spoiler:
easy mechanics check to get past the fan.... or you could just blast it...