ECHOES FROM HOTH: Episode One: Fire on the Ice

[Solo4114]

"Kit! We need to get to better cover!" Cal exclaimed. "Can you make it to the trenches with the rest of the team and patch me up when we get there? Maybe we can help Jax, too,"

[Starbeard]

Vale silently rushes the snowtrooper and attempts to cut him down with his lightsaber.

[Rex]

Kit

"Grrgr1" With a lunge she jumps up and grabs cal and starts for the others at a full run.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

Zuul watches with glee as Vale charges the lone snowtrooper. He turns to Clark and smiles a wide toothy grin that you assume is friendly. "Yess. Thank you. That would be great. Do you have any planss on dealing with that thing?" Zuul motions to the AT-AT with a hand that shakes everytime the AT-AT takes a step.

[kipper]

"Me?" Clark asks Zuul incredulously as he patches him up. "I though you were the expert at blowing shit up!"

[Solo4114]

"I--ooof--didn't mean--uff---you--oof--had to--rrrf---carry me!" Cal remarked, wincing as he jostled in Kit's grip.

[ybn1197]

Cursing himself for not getting a medpac, Jackson makes his way down the trench towards Clark and Zuul.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

Zuul sighs a warm breath of relief as Clark and the medpack get to work. "Right. He hass never faced one of those. Maybe the legss?" He remembers the magnetic grenades that were given out by command.

"Hmm. Maybe the grenadess. Wait! Do you think they were given to uss because they knew we were going to face it alone?" Zuul seems shocked at the realization. "It'ss almost like they planned for it to happen!"

[max_vale]

Sector 31; East Ridge of Echo Base; Planet Hoth


The massive Imperial AT-AT continued to lurch its way towards the Rebel base, its awkward gait masking the fact that it covered a lot of ground quickly....in the trench lines on the East ridge leading up to Echo Base, the band of Rebels were coming together....

Vale Starcloud rushed the last remaining Snowtrooper as the Imperial seemed rooted to the spot and dumbstruck after watching the young Jedi actually SWAT aside his blaster bolt and therefore he reacted late as Vale moved in quickly and with quick slice of his humming blue lightsaber, he dropped the last Snowtrooper unmoving to the frozen tundra. The Jedi student felt a brief moment of strong connection to the Force, before a massive blaster bolt fired from one of the AT-AT's medium cannons mounted on the side of its 'head', landed about a meter away and the concussive force of the blast blew Vale off his feet and flying back and into the back-wall of the trench, where his left arm snapped from the impact and he 'oozed' down the wall to wind up in a pile on the frozen ground, his world a kaleidoscope of colors and pain as he came in and out of consciousness*....

Professor Clark talked over how to go about putting a dent in the AT-AT with Zuul as he took his only Medpac and ignored his own wound to treat the Barabel's. The academic did an admirable job, after which Zuul felt immensely better and as both rose up to survey the situation, they took in the sight of Vale taking down the Imperial and then getting blown off his feet to land in heap at the bottom of the ditch near them. A few moments later, they took the sights of Kit the Wookie carrying Cal under her arm drop down into the ditch as well and Jackson following close on their heels.....

Kit snatched up a protesting Cal and quickly raced across the open ridge to drop down into the trench line, where a moment later, Jackson Crodowski slid into the trench behind her. She set down the pilot as the poor Jedi; Vale; came flying into the trench from a near-miss from a Blaster cannon fired by the AT-AT and the medi in her could IMMEDIATELY tell that the human had suffered broken bones, a concussion and possibly worse injuries.....

Cal watched his world move shakily up and down and he gritted his teeth against the pain of his wounds as Kit the Wookie carried him to the 'safety' of the trench line, breathing a sigh of relief as she let him go as they arrived and he took in the state of poor Vale getting blown off his feet to 'land' in the trench near them in a bad way....Clark fixing up Zuul....and Jackson sliding down moments after them.....

Jackson took off and rounded the trench lines to catch sight of his fellow Rebels, just as Kit and Cal came sliding down into the trenches and beyond them, what looked like a badly wounded Vale and an okay Zuul and somewhat banged up Clark....

All of the Special Operations Rebel Team were back together again, granted....one of their number was on the ground with a broken arm and passing in-and-out of consciousness and most of the rest were Wounded, but still, they were together! Snow started pouring down into the trench as the ground literally lurched as the AT-AT crept closer and closer; the mechanical sounds of its gears moving and its Cannons blazing away at Echo base were ringing in their ears. A quick glance over the lip of the trench showed the Walker was barely a 100 meters away now....


*Okay, Zuul is now back to being in Full Health while Vale is Incapacitated.....i.e. he can do little more than maybe croak out a word or two or MAYBE crawl...his condition is likely to get worse quick...though he's in no danger of passing into the great beyond in the next few moments.....

For what it's worth; Clark is Wounded and has 1 Force Point; Zuul is now fully healthy and has 1 Force Point; Cal and Jackson are both Wounded and have NO Force Points; Kit is fully healthy, has no Force Points but DOES have 5 Medpacs; and Vale has already mentioned, is Incapacitated

[kipper]

Clark immediately rushes to Vale, although without a Medpac there is not much he can do. Looking up he sees Kit, "Get over here!" he encourages.

If Kit starts attending to Vale, Clark will pull out his magnetic grenade. "That thing will be on us any moment now. Let's inventory our explosives, this one is all I have. Maybe we can attach it on the legs as Zuul suggested, from below when it passes over?"

[Rex]

Kit

Kit tosses Clark her magnetic grenade as she rushes over to Vale and does her best to treat him, using whatever medpacs she needs to.

[Solo4114]

Cal rifles through his flight suit pockets, wincing as he does, and pulls out a magnetic grenade. "I have one, too. What's your plan for gettin' 'em on the walker in the first place? Pretty sure it knows we're here. Be kinda hard to miss Vale after firing up that laser sword."

[Starbeard]

Vale lies slumped in the snow, lost in a semi-conscious state of delirium. "Ixivaan… Master Ixivaan… I need you… Master Ixivaan…" He keeps repeating the name of his Jedi master, reaching out as though he can see him standing there, before losing consciousness completely.

[kipper]

"I haven't planned that far ahead," Clark replies to Cal. "Any ideas?"

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

Zuul knows what he must do. He snatches the grenade Kit tossed to Clark out of the air and races along the trench, away from the group. After he gets about 25 meters away, he leaps over the berm and into the snowfield. "Cover him!"

The shock of waist deep snow hits his system like a bolt of lightning, but he carries on. He starts running toward the walker.

[kipper]

Clark watches Zuul with a look of stunned incredulity. He then quickly grabs his Laser Carbine and shoots over the edge of the trench to provide the requested covering fire.

[Solo4114]

Cal also provides covering fire with his blaster pistol.

"Damn fool could've at least taken my grenade, too!"

[max_vale]

Sector 31; East Ridge of Echo Base; Planet Hoth


The struggle between a team of half-a-dozen Rebel Agents and a massive Imperial Walker on the icy East Ridge of the Rebel Echo base on the frozen world of Hoth was a microcosm of the greater war raging throughout the galaxy....

Kitkatarra; the female, white-furred Wookie healer; took another medpac out of her Satchel and concentrated on healing the young human male who lay before her. He was babbling in his half-conscious state and she did her best to block out the various sounds of battle going on all around. She did a good job setting Vale's broken arm and tearing a piece of his heavy coat to use as a make-shift sling and then using the medpac's contents to ensure that his cuts were cleaned, stitched closed and antibiotics and white-blood cell boosting agents were injected into his system along with a mild pain sedative. When she was done, she cocked her head and studied her work....he'd be a litle groggy for a bit, probably feel weak for a few days...but he SHOULD have full motion in his arm within a week or so...she'd done pretty good if she did say so herself.....

Vale's dreams and murmurs of his old Jedi Master; Ixivaan of the Vanurli people; soon faded and for a moment he was back at his Aunt Narunu's house in the Outer Rim....Then he was blinking his eyes open and seeing the concerned, white furred face of his friend and teammate, Kitkatarra. He carefully sat up and while he still felt weak and groggy and his arm was in a sling; he didn't feel all that bad. He could see they were sitting in the bottom of the trench at Hoth, and slowly his memories returned and the sounds and vibrations of the massive Walker getting closer and closer....along with blaster fire from nearby, brought him back into the present*......

Deftly snatching the Magnetic Grenade that Kit had tossed towards Professor Clark, Zuul was up and moving in a blur that belied his bulk. He was soon tearing down the trench to put some distance between his teammates and himself, hoping that they would follow his advice and fire at the AT-AT to draw its attention so that he could get to one of its legs unseen...or at least before it could react. The Barabel's face split into a fierce grin when he heard the sound of Blaster fire coming from behind him, signalling that his companions had indeed followed thru on his plan. His smile faltered a bit when he heard the AT-AT fire a cannon shot in return, but he had no time to worry about that, he leaped up and over the berm and raced forward; just getting to a massive 'foot' as it landed, nearly throwing him to the ground with the concussive force. Judging that he had only moments to leap onto its base before it rose up again, Zuul jumped and used his claws to secure himself to the cold metal of the 'leg' as it started to once again rise up. Doing his best to ignore the cold; the Barabel clung with one hand while the other reached for the two Magnetic Grenades he had on his belt**.....

Professor Clark was a grizzled veteran of both the world of Academia AND the world of combat....he was RARELY taken aback by anything anymore. Zuul's sudden snatch of the tossed grenade and race down the trench while calling for cover fire however was enough to get a long moment of stunned speechlessness from him. He then shook it off and popped up over the lip of the trench, ignoring the throbbing pain of his wound, and fired a couple of bolts into the massive AT-AT Walker now no more than a 100 meters away; knowing they wouldn't do any damage, but just hoping to distract the machine for a few moments while his companion could enact whatever crazy plan he had in mind.....

Cal had to shake his head half in admiration and half in exasperation as the crazy Barabel took off on his crazy bit of inspiration. With a sigh, he joined the Professor and Crodowski the Engineer in firing at the AT-AT to get its attention for a crucial moment. Hissing as he climbed to the edge of the trench and his wound flared up; he fired his Heavy Blaster Pistol, unable to miss such a giant target....even if it was 100 meters away; but also annoyed that such a shot would do little more than leave a smudge in the paint job. He hoped Zuul would get his chance to work some kind of miracle....

Jackson Crodowski joined Cal and Clark in firing at the Imperial Walker, even as his Engineer's brain was doing the calculations to try and determine if the force of two Magnetic Dual-purpose grenades that exploded at a 'perfect' place in the 'leg' of the AT-AT would be enough to sever said limb and thereby bring the vehicle crashing down from its own massive weight.....

The Rebels all ducked down to the floor of the trench as the AT-AT's head whipped around towards them after they fired on it, and one of its cannons fired and a moment later, all of the Rebels still in the trench were covered in snow and hunks of frozen earth as the near-miss blew in a section of the trench and turned it into a snow-drift***....


*Vale is healed, but will be concerned 'Wounded' for a bit as he recovers....he doesn't need anymore healing (which won't help, unless he gets to a Bacta tank)...he just needs some time to recover

**This is what I ASSUMED Zuul was going to do, my apologies if not....he can just 'stick' the 'nades, arm them and drop/jump off...or he can use the Demolitions skill to try and place them to do the MOST damage (a failure would probably lessen the damage.....you DO have a Force Point left....you know, in case you were curious )

***Nobody is hurt, but everyone will have to spend the next round (except Zuul) digging themselves OUT of the mini avalanche

[Rex]

Kit

Kit will try to shield Vale as much as possible from the snow drift and dig them both out, using her claws as necessary.

[Starbeard]

"Thank you," Vale says weakly to Kit. He tries to help dig himself out, but the pain and his arm sling make it difficult.

Resting back down, he tries to remove his emotions and use telekinesis to help move the snow that is covering everyone.