Chapter 1: Welcome to the Jungle

You step out of the humid, insect-ridden jungle and into the relative cool of the garage. For the first time since your ship delivered you to Onderon and departed, the hum of machinery drowns out the sounds of the jungle. The smell of machine oil hangs in the air all around the garage. You see a number of speeder bikes, as well as a pair of AT-ST walkers, and their hatches locked. There are several crates in the room, as well as a number of fuel tanks. A large metal door on the other side of the bay, sealed by a complex lock, leads into the base itself.

Your first task, entry, went smoothly enough. The codes worked like a charm. Who uses 1-2-3-4-5 as a code? Next step: cut the comm line, preventing the main base from contacting any distant reinforcements. That won't be all though. The snoops in Intelligence mentioned a shuttle we'll need to disable to prevent escape. Once that's done, we should be all clear to take the Command and Control room and claim the base as our own!

You find the comm line you've been told to cut and slice through it, severing Whisper Base from the outside world with a hiss and a spray of sparks. You have only moments before a patrol comes to look into the disturbance.

What do you do?

While Tendaar hacks into the system, I will check the contents of the crates and examine the area. While doing this, I will be constantly watching the large metal door to see if anyone comes through and making sure that if the door does start to open, I am close to an object I can take cover behind.

Tendaar had his pad ready, and seamlessly sliced in a clean signal on the line. But all he could do was send a "null" or "no-op" signal. He can't simulate a working signal when someone actually tries to use the line. They likely only have a few minutes before someone would come looking.

Imen is able to keep his eyes on the door and where he could dash to hide if anyone came through, but doing so is a distraction. He's only able to check the first, bigger crate. It's locked, and the keypad isn't responding.

Black scans the jungle near the garage door. He detects no movement, beyond wind and small animals.

Zal goes to work cataloguing the speeders on this side of the garage. The bikes seem to be almost all in working order. In fact most don't seem to be used very often. She confirms the four closest to the northeast door are fueled and ready to go.

Zal can hardly contain her excitement, mixed with a good deal of nervousness as she realizes just how long they've been in an imperial base without any sign of imperials.

Black double checks their external exit, but all seems quiet.

Imen is less than thrilled with the distraction, and takes up a firing position on the door.

Tendaar tries to get the latch open, but the lock and rust prevent him from making much progress. And as he does, the light he setup on the line goes off. Everyone turns to see it and immediately knows they'll have company soon.

As you slide into your hidden positions, you hear the sounds of hard boots on a pourstone floor and the idle chatter of Imperial soldiers coming from behind the door into the base. "It's probably just a cannok chewing on the—wait, what's that on top of the AT-ST?" You see four common foot soldiers staring up at Tendaar, with blasters drawn. They don't seem to have noticed anyone else. "Hey fish-head! Hands up!" the lead guard yells, taking aim at Tendaar.

Your attack happens simultaneously, and seemingly from all sides. First the fuel canister goes off, knocking the two closest guards to the ground. You hear a thick crack from both of them as they fall (1 damage each), and smoke begins to fill the room. The furthest from the fires takes a shot directly to the chest, throwing him against the wall. He slowly slumps to the floor unmoving. The last guard barely dodges the last shot, dropping his blaster off the catwalk in the process. Black curses as he sees three still moving guards and realizing his mechanic friend is exposed. He thinks fast and sees an exposed electrical panel in the AT-ST. He fires a lower powered shot hoping for a miracle, only to see the hatch at the top pop open in a shower of sparks.

The two guards on the ground are stunned, but quickly remember their training and roll onto their stomachs to return fire. The first guard tags Zal in the thigh (8 damage minus soak), and the second manages to slice into Imen's upper arm (6 damage minus soak). The last guard seeing his friend die and losing his weapon makes a beeline for the door they just came through. The catwalk throws off his balance though, and he stumbles as he enters the adjacent hallway, pausing for a moment to regain his balance (now +1 range band from last location, but still visible and clear shot).

Tendaar lays down some cover fire that keeps the two shooter's heads down, while Zal picks off the runner with a well placed shot right in the back. The last two guards try to pickup their heads to run or return fire. You'll never know, because Imen and Black drop them both. They drop back to the ground, unmoving. Zal jumps up to the AT-ST, moving into the drivers seat, but Tendaar turns her attention back to the fight to see no more hostiles. Only the smoking remains of the fuel canisters.

Black lowers his weapon from his shoulder and pans the opening carefully before adding, "I like both of those plans, Zal. I think we can manage both. You stay put and have that thing trained for the opening and Imen and I can fool with the speeders as the decoy."

Black exits the cover he's in, making for the bikes at a calculated pace. He's still ready for intrusions with his blaster ready at his hip.

Tendaar checks the traffic on the line, but hears nothing. They must have disconnected it. As he does, Black begins preparing the speeder distraction. Zal covers the door w/ the walker while Imen checks the bodies of the downed troopers. Each of them has a standard issue army uniform with helmet, canteen, and light blaster pistol. A few of them have a personal effect or two. Old picture. Used candy wrapper. Nothing more.

As you all go about your plans, the far garage door opens suddenly. You all freeze as an old, clone-wars era battle droid walks in. At first you expect a fight, but then realize the configuration is all wrong. No weapons, and arms larger than expected. It appears this droid has been rebuilt for cleaning, maintenance, and utility. You all keep your weapons trained on it, as it starts walking past Imen toward one of the downed troopers.

This unit is not simple, unfamiliar organic. I am a BX-2R battle droid, nickname "Toor" by my masters. I have unfortunately been tasked with the cleaning of this garage facility. Please step aside so this unit can proceed with it's onerous tasks. Despite it's defensive-ness at being a "battle" droid, it's clear the droid has no weapons capabilities of any kind. You're fairly certain it's only utility appendages are mops and cleaning solutions. A restraining bolt can be seen on it's chest as it moves about the task of mopping up the blood that's begun pooling on the catwalk.

A map can be retrieved from the base mainframe. He states matter of factly, pointing a wall-installed datapad along the wall with the catwalk to the right of the door. The shuttle Nilos, Lambda-class, is the only vessel docked here.

In the docking bay. The droid says, matter of factly. Not super helpful though. You almost think you hear a sarcastic or cynical tone to the response. The personality module on this droid is definitely not standard.

Tendaar opens the datapad and gets the standard auth screen.

This unit does not have authorization to the computer systems. Although given it's capabilities, this unit believes that is a waste. The docking bay is located on the far side of the base, past the main communications and control room. There are a variety of paths there, including through the main halls, through the mess hall, past the armory, or past the officer's quarters. This unit cannot escort you however, as it is wastefully tasked with cleaning this garage.

"That’s what I like to hear Ten." Black says to the Mon Cal happily.

"Toor sure does seem to think highly of itself. Maybe it could be of further assistance after a little upgrade?" he asks his squad, looking pointedly at the restraining bolt.

Tendaar flies through the menus faster than you can keep up. And before you know it, he's logged into the local network and has pulled up a full map of the base layout.

Black slings his blaster and hustles over to help Zal.
"I think I see what your playing at, Zal."

Zal and Black begin dragging the bodies over to the speeders, propping them and tying them so it looks like they're roughly riding them. The bodies don't sit quite right, but at a distance it's probably fine. As you drag them across the garage, Toor comically follows closely behind sweeping up the blood seeping out of the body as it's dragged. It takes you 15 ~ 20 minutes to setup the speeders with all four bodies. Toor has gotten most of the blood now, and is working on the smoke damage from the explosion.

When Tendaar asks Toor about liberation, he responds This unit is unhappy with its current employers, but obeys none the less. If liberated, this unit would look to modify itself back to its original configuration, and then look for new masters.

Black wipes the sweat from his brow as he rests on the last loaded speeder bike and says to the group after hearing Toor's desires, "Well that sounds like something we might be able to help with, Right Ten? Maybe we can rig something out of these blasters?"

Since it's basically the same operation as Black did before, albeit a bloodier one, he helps Zal align and set the autopilot on the speeders laden with guards.
"I'm sure in Toor's current configuration they would be rather easy to subdue should we need to. Isn't that right, Toor?" Black says over to the droid as he works at the similar task.

Toor seems to perk up a bit at the prospect of returning to a life of shooting and combat. But only for a moment, before returning to cleaning. As Tendaar approaches, Toor stops his work and stands up straight, providing him easier access to the bolt.

At Black's question, Toor responds with a deadpan delivery, Cleaning chemicals can be quite lethal if applied correctly.

"Ten, no need to be worried about Toor now. We're on the same side." Black says with a knowing nod