Maturing Assets - Minka and Zephrin (Closed)

[GM Nicha]

Zephrin, you don't sense anything distinct, but you experience a sudden flood of rage that clouds your senses for a moment before vanishing as quickly as it appeared.

[Zephrin Hayn]

"Something is wrong." The Jedi unclipped his lightsaber. "I sense anger."

He kept his guard up in case of attack. From what though?

[Minka Daivik]

(Ghosted)

It's a daunting task, but Minka recalls that in addition to grenades a grenade launcher can be modified to use rappelling gear. Reddae tinkers with his weapon a bit and then the squad works together to fire the rope across the river and embed it solidly into a tree.

The ensuring crossing is both safe and easy, with the squad seemingly grudgingly impressed by the lieutenant's leadership.

Minka rolling knowledge warfare with boost from squaddie

Net Successes: 3; Net Advantages: -1

[GM Nicha]

Zephrin, you stay alert, occasionally feeling the tinniest snatches of that anger as the journey continues. But you can't quite pin it down. How do you respond to this lurking feeling of danger?


Meanwhile the journey continues. The next day is easy enough but by night fall you're walking up an incline into a low mountain range. Largely bare with grey stone, freezing glaciers and howling winds it is a formidable barrier. Worse there is a winter storm sweeping in from the ice with crackling thunder and the promise of thick snows. If it arrives before you cross your little expedition will be snowed out and will miss its deadline!

((It is highly recommended Zephrin choose their roll for this section before Minka!))

Zephrin can choose to either lead the way or scout for dangers. If Zephrin elects to lead the way they can roll their choice of resilience, athletics or willpower at average difficulty with two setback dice to forge a path. ◆◆ ■■. On a success Minka can upgrade their roll to lead the squad across the mountains twice. On a failure Zephrin takes 3 wounds with no soak allowed (these wounds cannot be stimpacked or healed at this point)

If Zephrin elects to scout for dangers they can instead roll their choice of stealth, perception or vigilance at hard difficulty. ◆◆◆. Success will provide with 3 upgrades they can distribute how they wish for their next scene, but will provide no bonuses for Minka.

Minka can choose to roll their choice of survival, resilience or leadership at hard difficulty difficulty with two setback dice to lead the squad up the mountain. ◆◆◆ ■■. Success has the squad scramble over the mountain just in time. Minka may add one boost dice to their next roll ■. Failure means the squad is caught in the storm, Minka suffers 3 wounds with no soak allowed (these wounds cannot be stimpacked or healed at this point).

[Zephrin Hayn]

It was subtle, but something was there. Watching perhaps? Waiting?

Zephrin cleared his mind, meditating on the Force, on their mission. He let the Force flow through him. What would be, would be.

They had a mountain range to cross and a storm to beat. He turned to the squad. "We need to move quickly. I will lead the way. The Force will guide me."

As it turned out, he was right... With his thermal cloak keeping the elements at bay his force-assisted athletic abilities allowed him to pick out the safest route for the squad.

Now it was over to Lieutenant Daivik!

---

D2 Maturing assets. Leading the way. Athletics at Average. Thermal Cloak Removes setbacks. Net Successes: -1; Net Advantages: 0
The Force is with me!
2 pips for 2 successes, Net = 1 success!

Minka can upgrade their roll to lead the squad across the mountains twice.

[Minka Daivik]

Minka followed the Jedi as his force senses guided their path. Even with her thermal cloak the chill still bite. But she let none of that show, hiding her discomfort behind a mask of natural charisma and officer training. When one of her men stumbled, Minka would stop and help them up...a subtle gesture to let the squad know she was in it with them.

It was just the most basic of tactics for leading others...but it worked, and the Lieutenant did feel a sense of responsibility to her squad.

--------------
Maturing Assets - Leadership vs Hard to lead the Squad. -2 setback from Commanding Presence. 2 Upgrades from Zephrin being an awesome Jedi Master of Awesome. 4 Presence, 1 Leadership, +1 Cascader, +2 Upgrades

Net Successes: 3; Net Advantages: 0

[GM Nicha]

Thanks to teamwork good leadership and a little elbow grease you're all able to make it across the range just as the storm strikes. The thunder is nearly deafening and you can see several small avalanches set off. That was close.

Thankfully the rest of your journey is downhill as the mountains slowly recede into hills with the occasional tree or roaming herd of goats. It's only another few hours until your target, the largely abandoned hillside town of Wilno. This small settlement nestled in a valley up against the mountains is largely sheltered, before the war it was known for its famous orchards and a lively ski scene. Now it is abandoned except for the small Mandalorian garrison guarding your target, the anti-aircraft cannon.

Now you just have to move unseen through the town, blast the anti-aircraft battery and wait for your extraction...so why is there a looming feeling of dread?

The town seems completely empty, clearly evacuated for the war. And the Mandalorians appear to be based just outside of town around their big guns.

The streets are eerily quiet as your squad enters until you come to a small cobbled courtyard decorated with statues of old republic war heroes, a veteran's square. While there is still no sign of the Crusaders a figure in grey Mandalorian armour is sitting in front of the frozen fountain reading a book. And he has a lightsaber on his hip. As you enter his gaze rises, fixing on Zephrin.

Again, that feeling of rage and anger.

The challenge is clear, the figure against Zeph, the squad can go. At least, until he's finished with the young Jedi.

[GM Nicha]

(( Zephrin, you're heading off to here: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=225 ))

[GM Nicha]

Minka and the squad continue on, trusting a Jedi to handle Jedi busincess. Once they reach an abandoned townhouse they have a clear view of their target, the massive Mandalorian anti-aircraft defences. The squad must sneak through the frozen orchard, takeout the scattered defenders and then plant the explosives.

For each of these rolls Minka should pick up to two squad members they believe are suited for the tasks and describe how they accomplish the objective (Minka still rolls with their own skills and characteristics though). If they describe how one member of the squad members is perfectly suited to this they can add a boost dice to that roll. ■.

To destroy the anti-aircraft gun all three of these rolls must be a success, however Minka may re-roll one failed roll as a leadership roll with the difficulty reduced by 1 to represent them stepping up and saving the day.

On a despair one of the squad members is killed completing their part of the mission!

The first roll crossing the frozen orchard, darting from cover to cover is a stealth roll at average difficulty with two difficulty upgrades. ⬟⬟

The second roll, taking out the defenders is a ranged light, a ranged heavy or a melee roll at hard difficulty with one upgrade ⬟ ◆◆.

The final roll, planting the demolitions and then defending the sit is a hard knowledge warfare, cool or discipline roll with two difficulty upgrades. ⬟⬟◆

On a success Minka successfully detonates the explosives and extracts the surviving members of the team. On a failure Minka can choose to withdraw or make a sacrifice, the explosives are detonated but Minka will suffer a crit+30 and a crit+40 as they detonated the explosives still in the blast range.

[Minka Daivik]

Minka frowned and cursed under her breath. Memories of her first battle were playing in her mind. She slapped her temples and shook her head, dispelling them. This time would be different.

"L-T?" Reddae frowned, "You alright?"

"Yeah...Sergeant, take Marlowe and move." Daivik pointed to the distance, "Over there, quickly and quietly. You'll be able to ambush them from there. We are aiming to confuse them and hit from two sides."

Reddae looked off to the indicated zone and frowned, he started to speak up and then shook his head. If it's what the boss wanted then he would do it and drag the kid along as well. "Give me five minutes." Then he and Marlowe were gone, the older veteran keeping the kid close and on a short leash.

Minka nodded and turned to Sweetwell, "I need you to set up at that position and be ready to pour fire into the enemy. When I give the signal your keep firing till they are dead or I signal otherwise." Sweetwell smiled wearily and patted the heavy weapon. "I'll keep them down at least."

Finally she looked to the demolitions expert, who was grinning in a profoundly terrifying manner. "And I make everything go BOOM!" Minka indulged in her own meager smile, "No we make everything go boom."

Lt Daivik checked her chronometer, she looked to see if Reddae had made it and saw nothing. Either he was good or had left her out to dry. She shook her head, no Minka had to trust the man's experience and loyalty. She had given him a mission and he would complete it.

Finally the time ticked over, Minka signaled to Sweetwell, and the whole world erupted. She counted to 10 then called out "GO! GO! GO!". Leaping out she ran trusting Haggaradi to follow behind her. But even as she ran, Minka knew everything was going wrong. The guards were better then expected, they had reacted to the Sweetwell's fire with a cool discipline. Even when Reddae and Marlowe joined their own shooting, the Mandolarians effortlessly shifted to cover them. "NO! NO! NO!" Minka screamed, "KEEP TOWARD THE PLATFORM!" She motioned Haggaradi onward and charged. Straight into the Mandolarians.

Truthfully Minka Daivik had no idea what she hopped to accomplish but her wild charge finally shocked the guards...more from confusion then any real threat. It was enough, their fire slackened as they spun to fire at Minka and her team used the chance to shift and catch the enemy in a deadly crossfire.

For her part, the Lieutenants armor was now sporting a few blacked spots from near misses and one lucky black streak across her head.

Rushing over to Haggaradi, Minka watched as the demolitionist worked. There was a glee to her work that was disquieting but Georgina knew her stuff and was surprisingly cautious even if she was emitting the occasional childish chuckle. "And done...we probably need to move now."

"Fallback!" Minka called out and the team moved quickly off in the direction command had expected the ship to come down.

No one looked at the explosion. Her squad was too cool for that. Marlowe even apparently had sunglasses for the occasion.

Mission Successful?

--------------------------
Stealth Agility - Maturing Assets - First Roll! Adding the Boost die for descriptive (Will Subtract if necessary)

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: 5

Heavy Ranged/Agility to provide suppressing fire. 1 Boost from the Description. 2 Boosts from prior (I will remove the best if description isn't up to snuff)

Net Successes: -1; Net Advantages: 5

Leadership to Reverse the Ranged roll!

Net Successes: 3; Net Advantages: 1

Cool to plant some bombs with the maniac who likes bombs

Net Successes: 2; Net Advantages: 0

[GM Nicha]

As Minka expected, when it came the blast was a big one. The massive explosion blows several trees down, shatters every window in the village and vaporises more than a few charging Mandalorians.

Minka and Wampa Squad though? They were already making their way out as the gout of flame erupted behind them (in suitable slow motion, of course). Sunglasses on, mission accomplished and lives saved. Just another day in the Republic's service.

Mission Successful!

[GM Nicha]

Epilogue

Minka, Zephrin, Torvin and the entirety of Wampa Company stand on a hill as above them the dark knight sky is ablaze with light. The Solar Horizon roars through the atmosphere, glowing with the heart of re-entry as the battered ship struggles to fly straight.

No Mandalorian guns fire, nor do interceptors swarm the craft as it slowly, painfully slowly it seems, points it's nose up and glides onto the ice of the frozen sea. Great plumes of steam erupt as its superheated exterior instantly melts and then boils water as it skids on and on before coming to a swaying drunken stop.

Silence, just the wind. And then the loading bay door opens and figures emerge into the cold as Republic speeders appear on the horizon. No casualties today. Everyone is going home.


((Thank you both for the RP ))