SHANTIPOLE: Episode II Journey to Shantipole

[max_vale]

As the Verpine Lifeboat is pulled into the bay of a larger ship via Tractor Beam; the newly patched-up Rebel band wait anxiously with weapons at the ready. After the loud echo of the escape pod touching down on the hull of the closed bay fades out; the hatch hisses open to reveal a large crowd of insectoid Verpine; including the familiar face and antennae of Suskafoo! The Rebels relax, lower their weapons and gratefully accept help from their Verpine allies in moving Grey Starr and in stepping down from the Life Boat. Suskafoo assures La'Reth that Grey Starr will be well treated in the medical bay; complete with a bacta tank.

Suskafoo quickly relates the tale of how the large Verpine transport; Queen Fellaroo; had acted quickly to pick up the Life Boats from the Command Base asteroid and that Ackbar and his team had all made it out; except for SGT Glek; who had valiantly stayed behind to buy them time and was believed to have fallen in battle. Suskafoo seemed genuinely sad upon telling them this; but then he seemed to shake it off and tell them; "Come; Ackbar and Speaker Jurfel need to talk to you."

The rebels are brought to a large chamber filled with many tables and chairs and in the center of the room; Acbar and a Verpine whose carapace seemed to be more faded in color than most of the other Verpine they have seen; seem to hold court. As they move close to them and take a seat; they hear Ackbar finishing up with; "-my most sincere thanks again Speaker Jurfel for rescuing my team and I." The older Verpine replies with; "Think nothing of it my good friend Ackbar. However, now the Slayn and Korpil hives along with our new friends; the Rebel Alliance hive; are in grave danger and we must act quickly. The Empire has recently broadcast a message throughout the Roche Asteroid Field on all frequencies; they are ordering all Verpine hives to declare total submission to the Empire or face destruction. I have consulted with the other Elders of the Slayn and Korpil hives; and we reject this offer and formally name ourselves permanent allies to the Alliance as long as our hives remain active. The situation is grim, however."

The Verpine continues; "The Imperials; with the help of their undercover operative Pollard; have manged to quickly seize both the Command Base asteroid and Research Station Shantipole; where the two prototype B-Wing fighters are located. Our scout ships and remote sensing stations throughout the field have also detected the presence of no less than 3 squadrons of Imperial warships setting up a blockade of the Roche Asteroid field and are sending TIE fighter patrols and probe droids to search for all Slayn and Korpil ships. We have massed our ships containing all members of our hives as we gather for an escape so that we can continue to aide our friends in the Rebel hive."

Ackbar solemnly replies with; "I cannot begin to express the appreciation for your assistance to the Rebellion nor convey adequate words for the sacrifice your people are making; but on behalf of all of the Rebel Alliance; our thanks and admiration are eternally yours." Gesturing quickly to a datapad he is holding in his right hand; he continues with; "To the matter at hand; as I see it; we have two major problems confronting us. The first is the more pressing and obvious problem and it is one you already mentioned; namely how to escape the Blockade. In addition; we must ensure that the Empire does NOT acquire the B-wing fighters and manage to reverse-engineer them to suit their own purposes. Now your most capable hive mate Suskafoo," at this point he gestures to the young Verpine who looks down and whose antennae seem to rotate down as well in a gesture of humility, "-has been kind enough to relay the situation to my computer here and I believe I have an idea that might help the situation."

"As your fleet is unarmed and stands little chance of making it past the Imperial blockade to open space to be able to make a hyperspace jump; we need to find a way to break out of it; and I believe I have just the place." Ackbar punches some keys in the computer and nods to one of his fellow technicians; who presses a similar button on a computer panel built into the wall of the Verpine transport and suddenly a 3D holographic representation appears in the middle of the room; above the crowd at almost ceiling-high level. "In sector G 147; the asteroid trajectories form a natural corridor out of the field and into open space. At the moment; only a single Imperial vessel is in the sector as a Blockade ship; a Nebulon B class Escort Frigate. If we can find some armed craft to run interference; I believe we can distract the vessel enough for your fleet of transports to make the run to open-space and then a hyperspace jump. Unfortunately the only armed craft in the area are my Shuttle and the Imperial craft that are currently docked at the Research Station Shantipole Asteroid. It is probably too much to hope for that the B-Wing prototypes survived the assault intact; but they would be even more ideal for this purpose. As Speaker Jurfel pointed out however; Shantipole is currently in Imperial hands."

At this point Ackbar turns to take in the Rebel team and finishes up with; "We DO however have a team of highly resourceful Special Agents of the Alliance; who could possibly infiltrate the station; set demolition charges to destroy the base and escape in one or more of the armed craft necessary for the fleet's escape." Ackbar takes you all in with a serious look in his golden-eyes; "However, I know what it took just to make it this far and this was most certainly NOT in your mission briefing. This mission is strictly volunteers only and nothing will be put in the records for anyone who declines to accept it. What say you?"

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn clears his throat. "Well, sir, I can't speak for anyone else. However, my job on this mission was primarily flying our group around. I don't know what's become of our ship; all I can hope, at this point, is that my R2, Banshee, was able to get our ship out of there intact before the Imperials could get their diseased claws on her.

"That said, I'm a pilot. We're going to need pilots to pull this off. That, and we owe the Imperials, big time. Count me in."

[kipper]

Clark simply nods, the thought of not accepting this mission is completely foreign to him.

[gavin storm]

For the most part of the conversation between the Admiiral and the Verpine, Gavin stands silent nodding in places where appropriate. Though anyone paying attention to him mo0re closely would notice a lot of grinding during the session. As the conversation turns to them, he rubs the back of his neck and nods. "You can count me in."

[max_vale]

Ackbar and Speaker Jurfel nod gratefully to the Rebel team as they volunteer for the dangerous mission to board research base Shantipole.

Ackbar talks with his comm tech for a moment and after a brief delay; a holo-image of the asteroid base appears.* The image zooms out a bit and a substantial section of the Roche asteroid field is revealed; along with a glowing red triangle which indicates the Verpine Transport's current position in the field.

Ackbar speaks up; "The Verpine have a pair of special Repulsorlift craft they use for short journeys in the Roche asteroid field known as 'Asteroid Hoppers' with a new sensor-resistant coating applied. They can accommodate 3 passengers and have a single pilot for a total crew of 4. They are quite maneuverable; but like all Verpine craft; they are unarmed. I believe they are your best bet for getting to Shantipole undetected by the Imperials. They are a bit tricky to pilot; but I have faith that Agent Zinn can certainly handle one; and if the other-"; at this point; Ackbar is interrupted by Suskafoo shooting to his feet and speaking up eagerly.

"I'm sorry to interrupt sir; but I volunteer to assist your fellow Rebel hive mates and can certainly pilot the second Hopper if needed!" Ackbar seems a bit thrown off for a moment; but with a glance over to Jurfel; who nods agreement; he smiles and continues with; "Certainly Suskafoo. I'm sure your piloting abilities along with your excellent Technical skills will be of great service to the team."

"Now back to the matter at hand. There are four ways into the Research Station; there are two hangars and there are numerous air-locks from tunnels that connect to the rooms of the Station that the Verpine use for maintenance of senors mounted on the Asteroid's outer surface. Finally; there is the plasti-steel dome which covers the agri-factory used for growing food crops. Personally; I think the air-lock tunnels are the best bet as the hangars and the dome are too obvious and will certainly be heavily guarded and/or watched; but I leave that to your judgement."

"While we don't have much in the way of equipment to aide you in this task; we can certainly provide every member of the team with a vacuum suit and a helmet for any excursions in space and we do have half-a-dozen blocks of Detonite that the Verpine use for mining some of the Asteroids and three jury-rigged fuse/timers that we have come up with to serve as a means of destroying the Research Station. Upon boarding the asteroid base; you must make your way to the Main Generators and set at least three of the blocks on them to ensure the destruction of the base. The timers have been set for 30 minutes; that should give you enough time to get clear of the area in any Imperial craft you can obtain. The destruction of the station will serve as the signal for the Verpine fleet to make a run for corridor G-147 and past the Imperial Frigate to wide-open space for a jump to hyperspace and an eventual rendezvous with the Alliance. It will be at this point that any distraction you can provide against the Frigate would be most welcome in an attempt to limit casualties to the Verpine."

Ackbar looks you all over with a serious look in his golden eyes. "Are there any questions or concerns?"



*Map to be forthcoming in the attachments thread

[kipper]

"Yes, heading for a service tunnel sounds like the best plan, with luck we can arrive undetected. Let's get going, where do we collect the Detonite?" Clark asks as he stands up to leave.

[angelicdoctor]

Other than flying unarmed into Imperial space? No. No concerns at all. When do we begin? La'Reth betrays his feelings with a nervous chuckle and turns away to busy himself with checking his stock of med supplies.

[gavin storm]

Listening to the options, Gavin nods as Clark chooses what he considered the best option open to thier entry. Charging through the 'front door' would likely cost lives on thier part. "The more sneaky sneaky the better, I'd say."

[Jedi Skyler]

"Sir? There's a resource that has been ignored up to this point; I have an astromech on board the ship that brought us here. Yes, it will require some very good crypto on our comms, and only tight-beam transmissions, line of sight, that sort of thing, but Banshee could provide any number of diversions, as well as paving our way for us as we progress. Also, since you mention diversions, he could pilot our ship away from the asteroid field, even taking it in a wildly different direction from us as we make our escape; he has several 'safe' locations he can escape to in order to allow heat to dissipate, and we can pick him up at some point in the future. That, or we can send him destination coordinates for the first jump, then send him final destination coordinates, and have him take a circuitous route to get there so he can shake any pursuit." He looks around the room. "I realize it sounds like I'm giving him a lot of credit, and I guess I am. My father gave me that droid, and he's never left my side since. He's gotten me out of more than one tight spot, and he'd be a real asset here, if we use him."

[max_vale]

Ackbar looks both relieved and proud at the Rebel team's calm acceptance of the grim situation and ready agreement to take on the mission. Upon Zinn's last comments he looks a bit guilty and nods to one of his techs. The tech speaks up in a tentative voice; "I'm sorry I forgot to mention it Agent Valimar; but attempting to contact the Droid was one of the first things we thought of. There was no response when we tried back at the Command Base; nor when we were first picked up by the Verpine. This has lead us to believe that either the Ship has been moved to someplace deeper in the Roche Asteroid field or inside of an Imperial vessel with the Droid aboard; and thus preventing us from getting a Comms message to it; or that a restraining bolt has been placed on the Droid to deactivate its abilities to receive messages and/or reply to one. At this point; we ourselves are too far into the dense field to achieve any such comms message even if the Droid were active and/or had managed to pilot the vessel out of the Asteroid without being destroyed or disabled by the Imperials. Sorry."

An awkward moment engulfed the room for a moment before Ackbar cleared his throat and then said; "Alright then; let's get started, shall we? Please follow me"; and with that, he strode purposefully from the room while motioning for the Rebels to follow him. He led them to a storage room where he produced the cubes of Detonite and the jury-rigged timers. Giving them to the Rebel team; he then led them to a hangar bay where Utility Space/Flight suits with matching gloves and Helmets waited for them; along with two of the 4 person Verpine Asteroid Hoppers.

The Rebel team; along with Suskafoo; quickly suited up and then they were startled when Ackbar drew himself up in a perfect parade-ground stance and saluted them. They quickly returned the honor; except for poor Suskafoo; who was a little baffled by the moment. Ackbar shook each of their hands in turn and then said; "Your courage this day is a credit to the entire Alliance. It will NOT be forgotten. Good luck to all of you and may the Force be with you." With that; the solemn Alliance officer left the Hangar Bay and soon the magnetic force-shield would be lowered to allow the Verpine Repulsorcraft to make the journey through the asteroids to Shantipole*....

*Each Hopper can hold 4 people; Suskafoo will volunteer to fly one of them if desired; but is also happy to be a passenger. Both Hoppers will also have a rudimentary 'path to follow' punched into the pilot's console. How do you all want to divide the group?

[kipper]

Clark will travel with Suskafoo. He wants to talk to him about the Verpine, and practice his language. He'll let Suskafoo pilot.

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn nods at Ackbar's rundown of what has potentially happened to Banshee. Knowing the droid's resourcefulness, brought about by the programming his father had installed years ago, the pilot had no doubts whatsoever that Banshee had either taken the ship and fled to safety, or had secreted himself somewhere, waiting for an opportunity to slip away.

Cracking his knuckles, Zinn steps up and selects a suit that will fit him. He begins to don the suit, transferring his utility belt and weapons to the outside of the vac suit. "Obviously, I'll be flying a pod. I'll defer to the Admiral's tactical expertise here; do you think it would be wiser to approach from two different directions? Or are there hatches close enough for us to enter the facility close together?"

[gavin storm]

Slipping on a glove and making sure to seal it from Vacum, Gavin Returns the Admirals salute and handshake. It wasn't something one in his profession got. Well not that often. "We'll do our best to cause them some headaches." The comment is said with a light smirk. As the Admral leaves, Gavin checks over the rest of his vacum suit and picks up his helmet. "I'll go with Suskafoo, to even the numbers in each pod a little."

[max_vale]

Ackbar turns to Speaker Jurfel who answers Zinn's question. "There are three emergency ventilation shafts that lead to the sprawling, three-level barracks utilized by the staff of Project Shantipole. Each shaft is a tunnel that is likely filled with ice deposits and which will almost certainly not be wide enough to allow for anything other than single-file movement. They all end in an emergency air-lock system; that hopefully the Imperials won't be monitoring too closely." Ackbar steps in at this point and says; "It might be more than a little bit of wishful hoping on our part; but the fact that the Verpine barracks are meters and meters of narrow tunnels carved in the rock of the Asteroid and the mostly pacifist nature of the Verpine leads us to believe that the Imperials will probably monitor the comings and goings of anyone into or out of the barracks; but they probably won't be IN the barracks tunnels themselves."

With that very SLIGHT bit of reassurance; the Rebel team split into two groups and climb into a pair of Asteroid Hoppers with Suskafoo at the controls of one and Zinn at the controls of the other. Professor Clark sits down behind the young Verpine and Gavin climbs in behind him. In the other Hopper; Zinn sits down at the controls and the Bothan Jedi La'Reth climbs in behind him. The two Hoppers power up and with a boost from their repulsorlift drives; they drift away from the Verpine Transport and out into the Asteroid field. The Rebels get another brief glimpse of the gathering Verpine fleet before the two Hoppers slip into the thick asteroid field and the view out of the cockpit becomes dominated by large, small, tiny and gargantuan hunks of rocks.

While Suskafoo smoothly pilots the lead Hopper onto the course outlined on the primitive navigation station; Zinn has a bit of a harder time flying the unfamiliar vehicle and following along; but he soon gets the hang of it. As a seasoned Star-pilot Zinn is EXTREMELY impressed by the Verpine craft's handling and especially its stabilization controls. A long hour goes by as the relatively slow (compared to Starfighters and Small Transports) repulsorcraft make their way towards Shantipole and Clark happily engages in talk with Suskafoo about Verpine culture and trying to learn a few bits of the Verpine language.* He finds it more than a little difficult to imitate the clacking sounds that are a large part of the language, but he is fascinated nonetheless. Gavin is just about at the edge of sleep when something catches his eye out of the plastisteel cockpit. Squinting; he just makes out the site of a moving object; gray and black in color and almost invisible in the backdrop of the asteroid field. He suddenly realizes that he's looking at the vaguely-arachnid-like shape of an Imperial probe droid and that it seems to be moving in the direction they just came from; i.e. back towards the Verpine fleet!

He points it out to the others and uses the short-range comm to inform Zinn and La'Reth as well. Suskafoo does a quick bit of calculation as well and determines that indeed; the Probe Droid will soon discover the location of the Fleet unless something is done**....

*If there's anything in particular Clark is asking about in terms of Verpine; let me know and I'll try to provide that info to you via Suskafoo's answers to questions, etc.

**The Hoppers have no weapons or shields and very short-ranged sensors and comms......they are basically Land-speeders in space. They also have no life-support systems; you all are in space-suits and strapped in; with the cockpit mostly serving as a means of visibly seeing where you are going and providing protection against micro-meteorites.

[kipper]

((OOC: There is nothing in particular Clark wants to know from Suskafoo.))

"If we want to stop that droid, it seems the only way would be to ram it. But then how would we make it to the Station?" Clark asks.

[gavin storm]

Strapping into the hopper, Gavin sits back and lets the verpine drive. As the hopper proceeds, he catches sight of the droid at the same time as the others in the pod. Running a hand across his chin, he takes a moment to try and gues whether the pod would survive making contact with the droid (knowedlge)

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn swears under his breath as he catches sight of the probe droid. He comms the other pod. "Suskafoo, are these pods quick enough to make it back to comm range to warn the fleet? We have no weapons or shields to use to fight that thing, but we COULD give the fleet the chance to get out of there before they get discovered."

He goes over what he knows of the probe droid's capabilities to see if he can determine their chances of success in beating the droid to the Rebel fleet.

[angelicdoctor]

Zinn, give me your blaster and open the hatch. I may be able to destroy the probe if you can get us close enough for a clear shot.

Borsk unseats himself and using a restraint tether attaches himself to the craft to keep from floating home.

[max_vale]

As the options are discussed among the Rebels in the Asteroid Hoppers; the Probe Droid seems to take notice of the two repulsorcraft and begins to move quickly in their direction. Suskafoo answers Zinn's question about attempting to get back into comms range of the fleet before the Probe droid with a; "I don't think so hive-mate Zinn. These repulsorcraft do not have the speed of Imperial Probe Droids". His sad sounding voice seems to snap back into excitement after a brief moment though when Clark makes the comment about ramming the Probe Droid. "An excellent suggestion hive-mate Clark!"; he replies happily while quickly lining up the Hopper with the Probe Droid and then gunning the repulsors for all they're worth. Gavin's thoughts about the survivability of such an encounter rapidly go from the theoretical to the right-here-and-now....

Meanwhile, Zinn passes back his Blaster Pistol to the Bothan sitting behind him and opens the cockpit after La'Reth has signaled that he's properly secured to the craft. It's only after the cockpit is open and the Bothan takes aim and fires a shot that sails several meters to the right of the Probe Droid that the Rebel pilot/Intel operative remembers exactly how bad a shot in training his companion was. He was about to suggest that La'Reth hand him back his blaster when two things happened that broke his concentration. The first was that he saw Suskafoo's craft accelerate forward on what was clearly a ramming vector and the second was the red blaster bolt that suddenly erupted from the Probe Droid and slammed into the side of the Hopper; causing a small, fist-sized dent in the vehicle; but causing La'Reth to start to float away from the craft to the edge of his tether as the impact moved the formerly-still repulsorcraft in the opposite direction from the blaster hit....

The view from the cockpit in the other Hopper was rapidly filling up with the arachnid-like form of the Probe Droid as the Verpine piloted the craft directly at the Imperial machine and both Clark and Gavin were clutching their seats and questioning whether this was a good idea when the sudden impact with the Droid caused the Imperial machine to suddenly spin madly off into the asteroid field and shortly thereafter be transformed into a fireball as it collided with one of the large chunks of rock and metal that made up the Roche field. Suskafoo managed to regain control of the briefly spinning Hopper as well; while ruefully stating; "Hmmm, perhaps I underestimated the consequences of such an action my new hive-mates. It would appear that the Asteroid Hopper has a 34.7 percent degradation in maneuverability and a 25.4 percent loss of structural integrity.....oh; are you both quite alright?"; he adds with a worried after-thought...

Meanwhile; Zinn managed to yank the Bothan back into the Hopper and regains control of the craft's course; shortly before it would have slammed into a small, but rapidly moving asteroid and he quickly brings the Hopper back towards the other craft while determining that the damage to his Hopper was inconsequential. Looking over at Suskafoo's craft though; he could see that the craft was clearly banged-up; but looked like it was still in fly-able condition....

[kipper]

"Right as rain." Clark replies to Suskafoo, his whitened knuckles regaining colour as he releases his grip. "It's a one-way trip for these hoppers in any case, let's continue on to our destination ASAP."