[For Mirror Team: 2BB-2, Amos, J.B., Jix]

GM

The foot of the mountains, the opposite side of the crest to the operating base and the other team. The elevated conveyex line protrudes from a tunnel in the rocky slope, running straight across the wide lagoon to the far end of the range. The old Imperial Railcrawler is sat on the tracks, idling, waiting to hook up to its carriages.

The light of the distant hot star casts dark shadows under the tracks and amongst the rocks.

Two 125-Z Treadspeeder Bikes are parked here, their pilots perched on the seats casually.

They look identical to First Order Stormtroopers except for the more padded, less armoured lower body armour.

Their white armour is grimy, scratched and seems yellow in GH-531's atmosphere.

One reads a datapad, shaking his head.

The other looks bored even in a helmet, complaining, "Can we go? Let's finish our sweep then I'll race you out to the hyperwave."

"I just don't get it!?" Says the one reading, sounding exasperated, "Someone must have said something somewhere."

Their voices crackle from their helmet vocoders. The other pilot walks over and snatches the datapad.

"Hey, give that back!"

"No. What's the point of being assigned roving patrol if we sit here all day?" The pilot says, stuffing the pad in his pannier.

"Doesn't it bother you?" Asks his comrade.

"No! I want to race."

"We're joining up with this Reborn Emperor and we don't even know how he was reborn. I was always told the Emperor got blown up on the Death Star and now he's back? How is that even possible?"

"Who cares? He's got like ten thousand planet-killing Star Destroyers under his command."

"Well did the Sith Eternal find a toe floating in space and grow him from that? I can't respect a leader who started life as a toe."

"Oh you are giving me a headache. Can we just put it down to space magic and move on?"

"Tell you what, if you give me my datapad back, I'll give you this can of Jawa Juice...."

Unbeknownst to the Treadspeeder pilots, they're being watched from the shadows by Mirror Team.

From medium range, the two Treadspeeders look like an attractive option for getting to the hardened Ghidrah bunker some 10 km away.

Each can carry two riders in tandem at over 100 km/h and by the sounds of it, these two are on roving patrol so aren't following an exact timetable.

Alternatively, from the sounds of industry above it sounds like the Railcrawler might be about to set off. The team could hitch a ride.

Jix

"Take out the riders? Bikes have more flexibility."

Jix is a soldier. Soldier take orders. But he can still offer a tactical opinion.

Jelly Bean

JB would make the case for the alternate option. Ultimately it would be Amos' call though.

"Even if they are roving and don't have standard check-ins, someone might call them," she offered. "The longer we can go without making contact, the the longer we hold the advantage of stealth. Once discovered- either group of us... then things get locked down, things get jammed up. We don't have that kind of time."

JB didn't mention the possibility of missing a shot. Why give breath to her own doubts, right? Besides, neither Amos nor Jix were likely to miss, so...

Amos

Like any good commander he listened to his soldiers who had experience and had earned the respect due them by their actions.

"Stealth is more important than speed at this point. Lets see if we can get a lift from the Railcrawler but take out the bikers if they spot us." he whispered back to them over the comm unit and then, watching the bikers for when their attention is diverted, moves in the shadows for the Railcrawler.

Jix

He nods. His solution is often combat orientated but he can see the argument to try the stealthy approach first. Best if they don't all target the same one.

"I'll cover the furthest."

He waits for the signal to move and tries not to attract attention.

Jelly Bean

JB took this moment to drop her goggles into place to study the railcrawler, then follow the track to it's destination, and then study the infill point where the crawler would have to unload or drop it's carriages, or whatever it was going to do. There must also be a turn-around loop, or maybe the crawler engine could function in either direction, just back and forth, able to hitch from either side.

Whatever the case, JB wanted to get a feel for the best strategy in boarding the crawler... ride on top? Actually get inside? As she was doing this she spoke in a hushed whisper to her compatriots, "If we can ride it up inside the depot that clears the first hurdle of having to to get inside the complex. I'll let you know what I see."

((OOC- over to Neil for any further details on the railcrawler option)

[AJ, does 2BB-2 have any input? He's versatile enough that he could make either option work despite being a BB-unit.]

GM

It's a short, easy climb up to the elevated conveyex and hidden from view from the two Stormtroopers by the rocky terrain.

J.B. adjusts the zoom and image intensification on her classic Torjeka scanner goggles.

She's reminded just what perculiar vehicles old Imperial Railcrawlers are.

The locomotive is in two sections. The dorsal section clamps onto the tracks from above and is braced to the ventral section below. Both have a high speed, high traction belt drive.

The Empire used them on worlds where the dust, cold or other environmental conditions made repulsorlift unreliable.

That the First order are patrolling on Treadspeeders also suggests that repulsors don't thrive in GH-531's environment. The storms must deposit a lot of ionised dust on the ground.

Although the conveyex links the operating base to the Ghidrah bunker, the Railcrawler's depot is constructed in the tunnel that passes through the mountain.

Here J.B. can see two First Order engineers in their black overalls and salet helmets, hooking up the Railcrawler to several carriages from a siding.

A gantry-mounted loudhailer squawks to life.

"Railcrawler, departure for hyperwave in three minutes and counting."

The engineers finish with the carriages and jog back to the locomotive. It appears they're also the crew.

They board the dorsal section. From below, the team could jump onto the ventral section as it passes.

With the conveyex being so old and spanning a relatively short distance, the driver isn't likely to put the hammer down. More likely they'll accelerate slowly and maintain a steady, low speed.

Jelly Bean

"All aboard," she said softly. "Engineers are running it from the upper engine," she then reported. "Don't see any other crew. "All the cargo carriages are armored and sealed. Caboose will be a heavily armored turret. I think the best bet is to ride in on the lower engine."

She slipped goggles back up onto her lekku headdress.

"A couple minutes for us to get up and under it... then jump up onto the lower engine."

Amos

He turned to their engineer/pilot and nodded at her words.

"You are the expert. We go with your plan JB."

2BB-2

The droid held his peace, trusting to his colleagues. this was Amos' decision to take, and the Droid was well positioned to back him either to the train or on the path not taken.

A quiet trill offered the possibility of remotely spiking the electronics on the bikes as they took the train, but that ran the risk of going loud too soon.

Jix

The mode of entry chosen and time running short to take it, Jix stows his weapon behind his back to leave his hands free for the manoeuvre. He mentally prepares himself.

Jelly Bean
https://i.imgur.com/5u4oxaT.jpg


The object was to get underneath the rail itslf, in it's shadwo. Onve the crawler started moving they would have to run along and jump into the lower engine. She hope it wasn't occupied. She didn't think so because the two engineers doing the hitching work had gotten into the upper engine. Perhaps they were short staffed and this place was remote and secret and the First Order had it's attention elsewhere right now, so most personnel were assigned to that 'elsewhere' purpose.

She looked ahead at the limited runway of ground.

"Like catching the hyper-link on Nar Shadaa, a people mover system that was always in motion that you stepped on or off when you wanted. Okay, this was probably going to be a little faster, sure... but you match the speed and jump across onto it... easy, right?"

Was it easy? Probably not, but they could do this.

"Let's go, we need to get ready, when it moves we move... before the doors close and the ground slopes off... Jix first, then Amos.


Babay was fast and could sling himself to the railcrawler, so JB didn't have to worry about him. But she offered anyway, "You got this, little friend?"

"I'm last," she stated. She could probably jump the farthest. Back on Jakku she had shown her acrobatic jumping talents. She also wanted to be prepared to Force Push any of them that needed a little extra help.

As soon as they were in place, it all came down to timing after that.

GM

Red-lit interior of the Railcrawler. Faces hidden behind tinted visors, the First Order engineers stand, staring out of a slit-like horizontal viewport. The drive-belt mechanism shares the cab with them.

One engineer pushes a lever forwards slowly.

Groaning, the belt starts to move.

"Engine timing synchronised. Leaving station now." Reports the other engineer.

Outside, the conveyex pulls away from the sidings and emerges from the tunnel into the yellow light of day.

Travelling at around 10 km/h, it's slow enough for Mirror Team to jump and grab onto from either side of the tracks. Each carriage has ladders built into the front and rear corners.

2BB-2 and Amos are at the front of the first carriage, the droid using his liquid-propelled grapnel harpoon to cling on. Looking back along the carriage they see at the rear, Jix and J.B. looking forward.

So far so good. Wind speed increases, becoming a roar as the Railcrawler accelerates to about 100 km/h.

Meleenium rain streaks along the grey metal sides as the sky ahead darkens, yellow lightning visible behind the mountaintops.

Another noise heard above the wind and whirring of the conveyex. Not thunder but the distinctive scream of Twin Ion Engines.

Swooping down from the clouds comes a small craft, a TIE Echelon, an assault shuttle built along the familiar TIE Fighter lines. Sail-like solar collectors either side of the fuselage.

It's escorted by two TIE/sf Fighters with their red flashes.

The ships scream passed at high speed, heading to the operating base in the opposite direction.

Mirror Team can communicate with each via their comlinks.

The conveyex line is now passing over a glassy lagoon, its surface prickled by rain. The journey should take 5 minutes or so. It would have taken over an hour on foot.

JB

The Twi'lek looked to Amos. Any of them could make the comm call to the other team. The other team certainly needed to know that they should be expecting company. But, it was Amos' command. She was hesitant to use any comms, especially at a comm base but this seemed important.

"I can try to reach Winta or Preach through the Force," she offered. "Let them know..."




((similar to when Luke reached out to Leia when he was injured and hanging from an antenna array underneath Cloud City on Bespin- Telepathy))

Amos

His eyes followed the ships, a pensive look in his eyes as he mets JB and nods, hearing her over the comm.

"Try it, but we call in 30 seconds if you can't make contact."

[Excellent, I like it. Thinking like Jedi.]

JB

Jelly Bean didn't reply via the comm, but she nodded so that Amos would see her reply from one carriage to the next. She turned to Jix and took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Not my best skill," she said.

Maz had trained her in this, and Leia had reinforced some of the lessons in her no nonsense, practical fashion in the times the leader of the Resistance and she met. "I got it though..."

Jelly Bean closed her eyes, instinctively her hand stretched out as she slowly turned in place. She felt the Firce and embraced it. In a way, it was like a glove you never take off, always there, but so much a part of you that it becomes the essence of the 'white noise' of your life. It was like slowly stepping through a veil or stepping deeper and deeper into a pool of water. Yes, that metaphor was not lost on Jelly Bean. Born on an arid planet, stepping into water took some time for her to adapt to, and that was how those early lessons felt to the Twi'lek. This was the first time she tried to do this outside of the safe training environment.

She reached out with her mind. Preach was probably going to be her best chance. She had a recently connected with him in the Force as he guided her in the final assembly of her lightsaber just hours ago. Yes, Preach would be the best choice for her to get her message through. And so she slowed her breathing and focused on that Connection...

Master Preach...

Whether he was truly a Jedi Master or not, he carried himself with a calm presence and deep abiding wisdom. To the young early 20's Twi'lek he epitomized everything that she had been taught about the Masters of Old by Maz.

She focused on the an image, a moving sequences of memory, the one she saw when she heard the the twin ion engines, and knew what that meant. She looked out the plate windows of the carriage, into the sky and saw the two fighter and the Echelon shuttle pass over head. her eyes tacked them, looking back toward the main base where her friends were infiltrating. She wasn't strong enough to send much more than a few words, but it was the image she visual she wanted to convey the most

Master Preach... Incoming Danger.

She hoped Preach would feel his mind and know that he understood her.



((OOC- I will only post in our thread for now unless/until Neil tells me to do otherwise. GMs call as to how this is presented to Preach, or perhaps Winta picks it up as well.))

GM

With the wind tossing about her lekku, the Twi'lek concentrates, her eyes closed behind her goggles.

It feels like it takes an age but it's only seconds as suddenly she feels another presence, Preach, and her message is shared. It's an odd sensation, like the difference between saying something aloud and seeing someone react to it. An interaction. An interaction between the minds of two organisms at a distance. Using the Force.

It's not like a comlink. Preach doesn't come back with Incoming danger. Roger that Mirror Team, confirming that he's received and understood the message but J.B. can be confident he got the gist of it at least.

Jix

He is relieved to have made that jump. But then what is the worst that could have happened? He could have died. Whereas that didn't mean a lot to Jix, maybe some peace, it might have made a whole lot of difference to her team, her adopted hive. So he is content it worked out well.

He nods to JB, having followed the comms.

"You'll be fine."

And he means it. He has a confidence in her and her abilities. So he primes his weapon and readies himself to keep a closer watch whilst JB is busy, remembering that they are aiming for a covert entry. So head low, compound eyes watchful.

Jelly Bean

The Twi'lek blinked a couple times as she gathered herself after her mental efforts. It was a little disorienting to her. With a glance forward to the first carriage she offered a gesture and a nod to Amos to let him know that she got the message through to the other team.

Then she smiled and nodded at Jix. She reached out to touch the exodekeltal carapace of one of Jix's arms. "You are a good friend."

Amos

She got back a smile and nod from the team leader as he sighed in relief and turned his attention back to their destination and the need for them to keep covert as long as possible.

2BB-2

The droid was still, held in place by his grapple, but he was far from inactive, keeping sensors live for any enemy activity, or just an awareness of who was communicating with whom. The TIE pilots, the would-be racers, either fortification, anything he could glean that might and their progress was what diligence required he seek.

Jix

"You are part of my.. team."

Being part of a hive.. or now a team.. it is part of the ethos to support all the other members as the whole is then stronger. This is common sense.

However the touch is welcome. He misses the touch of many minds but in their absence a physical touch helps. And many seem reluctance to touch him. Likey because his physical state is very different to those to have flesh bodies.

GM

The Railcrawler speeds along the elevated line. The yellow light dances off of the lagoon.

For a minute or so there's nothing to do but sight-see. Take a ride on a conveyex. See the liquid metal lagoons of the yellow planet.

If tourists do ever come here they probably won't be asked to cling to the outside of their conveyex.

2BB-2's sensors pick it up first, then Jix's Verpine antenna too. An invisible change. High levels of pulsing hyperwave radiation.

Of course, this is why the operating base is separated from Ghidrah by distance and a mountain range.

Prolonged exposure to such radiation, over even a few days, could result in a bad case of bloodburn. A good thing that the team are in a hurry then.

The Railcrawler starts to throttle down, slowing under the air resistance.

Ahead, the team can see the Ghidrah bunker built into the mountainside. Much larger now. Reinforced plascrete, durasteel doors and shutters, all severely weather-worn. It looks like the Railcrawler will pull into a terminus inside the bunker.

No sign of exterior guards or automated defences.

The hyperwave repeater towers above the bunker. A superstructure of calibrated rings, fixed to the spike running through the middle of them. It must have incredible range and wouldn't look out of place atop a skyscraper in Coruscant.

GH-531 is definitely not Coruscant.

Decision time. Will the team ride all the way into the bunker or jump off before entry?

OOC: questions from our character's perspective-

1) What would we expect to find inside the bunker? i.e. personnel and Layout?

2) can we do the mission from the outside? i.e forget going inside to the terminal and control areas and just climb up and jack in from the exterior

3) can we identify if there is another route in that might offer a better approach, more secrecy, less exposure?

And 4) what does the force tell her?

[Given the high level of radiation, it's unlikely there will be any personnel inside the bunker. But the First Order do use various sentry and security droids.

Best bet is that to take control of Ghidrah, you'll have to penetrate the bunker and find Ghidrah's computational databanks.

From the outside, you could definitely sabotage the repeater but that would only effect this one Ghidrah node. From a Galactic standpoint, ineffective.

So entry into the bunker is almost certainly required.

Let's use a mechanic from Fate Accelerated here. Because it's a play-by-post game, so we have time!

We don't have a blueprint of the bunker but we can decide how the team will approach the task.

Will they entry the bunker:

• Forcefully
• Speedily
• Brazenly
• Deviously
• Stealthily
• Carefully

An approach might be start out as a combination, or end up as a mix of the above, but primarily how would you describe it?

"It depends which approach is best" isn't a valid answer in this case. The best approach is the one you players want to take.

Once we know that, we can envisage how the characters might achieve it.]

OOC:


While none of us are expressly suited for Stealth like Sirra, we can do our best to follow such an approach. But time is of the essence and I would argue that speedily is important as well.

Perhaps a combo of the two... stealth and caution when necessary and speedily when we can afford to make up time.

In our current situation (where we left our intrepid heroes), the characters were clinging to the outside of two different carriages being pulled by the lower engine of a dual engine railcrawler. We have no idea what we will see or what might see of once we cross the shadow horizon upon entry into bunker depot tunnel. Any hope of surprise could be lost right there... But we could drop off a few seconds early and sneak up to take a peek inside. I think I opt for the latter- we just saw major reinforcements arriving, and i say reinforcement because those Ties looked shiny and new and everything here was definitely well worn and aged... not only in years, but also in terms of the environmental wear as well. And this would occur to my character that perhaps the First Order has some intel that something like this might occur at one of their Ghidrah bases- especially if they did some backtracking on what was really happening on Jakku- and so they have put measures into place to inspect as many Ghidrah nodes as they can... that means we are just a mere steps ahead of them right now.

I would opt for the latter and once we can talk a moment JB has a couple other ideas she will want to present to Amos and the other two.

Jelly Bean
https://i.imgur.com/5u4oxaT.jpg

[2BB-2, Amos, J.B. and Jix can talk over comlink safely. It's just if they open a longer range channel to Smoke Team that they take a higher risk of discovery.]

Jelly Bean
https://i.imgur.com/5u4oxaT.jpg

JB tapped the commlink active for her team only. And she spoke quickly at that...

"We're coming up on the Ghidrah bunker. Chances are, there's droid sentries on patrol inside. And those TIE ships, especially that big one... they looked shiny fancy, like they don't belong here... Not a good sign... What if the First Order knows we're here somewhere? Or even just thinks we could be at some Ghidrah base? If they investigated Jakku, maybe they know something. Might not be which Ghidrah, but they might be checking a lot of them out right now. The overflight was a surveil sweep... they're going to land and I bet there's a lot of troopers with them."

"We need speed and stealth right now... Stealth says we drop off in the next minute before the train gets inside. We can't see into that tunnel, might as well be night and day... but if we're discovered and they take the array offline too soon... It's over. So, Drop off, crawl up- take a peek and then get moving. Yeah, move as fast as we can when we can... If we can get Babay to a droid port, then he can scomp link in and we can figure out exactly where we need to go... He can also shut down a lot of their surveillance eyes and take us off their grid. Plus Babay is equipped to scramble their comms frequencies, yes? So if we do get spotted, we can jam them up and keep moving. Every second counts now."

2BB-2

The droid chirruped assent to JB's plan, keeping his contribution short to avoid mistranslation.

Amos

"That plan works. Prepare to drop off before we enter the base. Keep it tight and quiet people." he murmured back over the link.

Jix

"Ready. Do my best."

He slings his weapon again, leaving his hands free. It is only ever a few seconds from being brought to bear. He knows this in important and hopes that luck, fate or the force.. ideally all three.. are on their side.

Jelly Bean
https://i.imgur.com/5u4oxaT.jpg

Babay's drop was the most concerning for JB. He always surprised her with his capabilities though.

But now was the time... she focused on the Force and dropped off the side. If she landed first she might be able to help any who looked to have a problem, or if Babay need a soft landing himself.

2BB-2

The highly manoeuvrable orb with built-in grappling hooks was the least concerned with his own drop. He was a professional, he had the requisite tools built-in, and the relevant vectors were plain to his sensors.

Amos

The lanky, duster-coated man eyed the upcoming bunker and at the right moment dropped from the crawler, tucking into a roll for when he hits the ground.

Jix

He prepares.

Disadvantages: large eyes vulnerable, long limbs stick out, hard skeletal exterior.

Then turns the thoughts around to positive:

Advantages: large eyes to see better where he is going and judging distances, lomg limbs give reach, skeletal exterior is an armour of kind.

He jumps.

GM

As the Railcrawler turns in towards the terminus, the team spot a scree slope, perhaps rubble from when the bunker was excavated, broken down into finer, looser stone by thirty years of storms.

Better than solid rock.

Hustling into position on the carriage, the team jump from the conveyex, first those at the front, then those at the rear.

Scree isn't a soft landing but the team soak it up. 2BB-2 chassis has been reinforced specifically against fall damage. He thuds and bounces along. J.B. and Jix's landings cause a cascade of scree but they aren't carried away with it. Amos lands, rolls and strikes what turns out to be a half-buried plascrete block.

Dusting himself off and opening his longcoat, Amos would see a hefty dent in the plate of his battle armour. Better his armour than his ribcage.

Ahead of them, the conveyex disappears into the sheer, grey sides of the Ghidrah bunker.



[Go to CFH10m: Arrival]