EPISODE 1: Operation Dark Sunset

[deadpool]

  I think you can't. But you could try using move object to get a tree on their way maybe. That would probably scare them away and it's more subtle than using blasters.

[Posterboy]

 How far away are we from the station? (Can you position us on the map?) Any chance they'll notice us if we use blaster fire?

Also, is there any cover that we could duck behind while the herd rushes by?

Finally, is the herd fast enough to overtake us moving at top speed in the Arrow?

[Posterboy]

"Hey sarge, you want me to handle this problem?"

Booth was bred to be a soldier, through and through, and within the last year he'd seen enough death and destruction for a multitude of lifetimes. It didn't bother him... as long as it was part of the objective, Booth rarely lost sleep over the matter. It was the deaths and destruction outside of mission objectives that bothered him... and it happened more often than he'd like to admit.

Through the headset comm, Booth replied, "Hold off for a minute, Longshot. See if we can use this to our advantage."

[Posterboy]

 How far are the hunters from us? Is it looking like they are shooting the beasts for sport or food? If we're going to start shooting at them, I want to make sure they're not going to get away into town and tell some authorities someone was shooting at them out on the plains.

Also, what kind of area does this herd cover? If we get out from amidst herd, how long would it take to move around the herd?

Finally... dang it... I forget my last question. 

[tomcat]

• If the power generator goes critical from the destruction of the cooling systems, how big of a blast radius are we talking?
• Question: the vehicle we're in is strictly/clearly military or could someone think it's just another group of hunters or something like that?
• Don't have my book on me at the moment but can I attempt to influence the beasts with a Use the Force check?
• How far away are we from the station? (Can you position us on the map?) Any chance they'll notice us if we use blaster fire?
• Also, is there any cover that we could duck behind while the herd rushes by?
• Finally, is the herd fast enough to overtake us moving at top speed in the Arrow?
• How far are the hunters from us? Is it looking like they are shooting the beasts for sport or food? If we're going to start shooting at them, I want to make sure they're not going to get away into town and tell some authorities someone was shooting at them out on the plains.
• Also, what kind of area does this herd cover? If we get out from amidst herd, how long would it take to move around the herd?
• Finally... dang it... I forget my last question.

• The blast is going to be big - perhaps a way to set a delayed charge or overload?
• The Arrow-23 are a popular speeder for both military purposes as well as for private use. The description in the book reads: The Aratech Arrow-23 is an enclosed speeder designed for hunter or adventurous tourists on fringe worlds. It is also designated paramilitary. Your speeder is painted in camouflage colors to break up its pattern in the grasslands and other green/brown terrain.
• I am still checking into this, Matt, but it looks like Telepathy may work (Use the Force). The palloo-beasts have an INT of 3 and can be emotionally influenced with a DC 15 roll, but you can only affect one from the herd. The other option of Move Object might be something to consider - but how do you stop a charging herd?
• I will get a map with your position in a bit - might be the morning. As for the blaster fire, no, the CIS station would not see or hear it from where you are. [EDIT] It's below.
• There may be the occassional tree, outcropping of sandy-brown rock that sticks up from the prairie grasses, but that is about it. You could get behind something like that for protection, the herd would go around it like water in a river.
• The Arrow brought up to speed would easily outrun the herd.
• The hunters are essentially 450-600 meters away (300-400 squares, beyond Long Range for Rifles). Longshot is watching them shoot the beasts for sport.
• As far as how big is the herd, think about the stories of the North American Buffalo that ranged central region. It was said that some of those herds were as big as a state. Now, I can tell you that this one isn't, but it is spread out large enough that it would cover a city.
• Can't help you with that last one, Aryn! 

[tomcat]

Longshot could now see the craft better, in which the hunters sped. It was long and flat and flew about three meters off the ground, but this one looked as if it had been modified with plates of metal that boxed in the platform - maybe for protection? Still, the clone trooper recognized it, "Bantha-II skiff."

A pilot stood center deck while five others stood about and pointed as the one in the rear took another shot. Longshot could see the shooter was a Duros - his companions were a mixture of Duros and Humans. With the sudden acceleration of the Arrow, the sniper watched as the hunters took notice of Derecho.

Inside the Arrow, Booth punched the throttle to avoid the oncoming herd.

[Posterboy]

Booth laid down the Arrow's accelerator bringing her up to top speed to avoid being engulfed by the palloo-beasts. He was afraid of not staying a head of the pack. He just wanted to leave the hunters alone. And, unless the Skiff has been altered to increase it's speed, Booth was confident that he could continue to put more distance beertween Derecho and the hunters.

"Longshot, let's leave 'em alone for now. For all they know, we may have just finished up our hunting trip and didn't want to get in the way of theirs. No need to get hostile yet." Booth kept the Arrow in front of the herd and moved towards the left side of it.

[Zilfallion]

Haywire had been keeping an eye on the maps and their course while the situation was handled by the others.  It wasn't his call to make what to do with the civilians, and was mildly relieved that Booth had decided to just play it cool instead of causing unneeded casualties.  The risk of them getting away and spreading word about them if they did attack was also something to worry about.  Putting those thoughts away for now, he went back to thinking mostly about what they were going to be facing up at the sensor station.

When you say big, how big are we talking, 500 meters, 1 klick, 10 klicks?  50 klicks?  Although if it's that big, the devastation from debris will be quite large.  Also, about how long from shut-down of the cooling systems until overload?  If we're talking a 10+ klick radius explosion, I think I should have brought some extra-long specialized timers.  An hour timer is plenty if it's a klick, heck, even if it's 4-5 klicks combined with I'm sure some time required for overload after cooling systems are down.

Haven't really posted much for this, not a whole lot Haywire can do in the current situation.

[deadpool]

Same here. I'm not gone, just don't know what to do right now.

[Posterboy]

 I say, what you're doing at the moment is pretty good, asking OOC questions and such. You could also post in character your own character's thoughts and feelings regarding the situation they find themselves in: Are they bored? Anxious? Eager to get going? Good with killing civvies? Annoyed with the hunters? Love the rush of driving fast? Dislike tight quarters? Physically, you might post about holding on for dear life  , or sitting calming while thinking about some cute Twi'lek you met up with during our last mission? You could post dialogue, with suggestions/questions/comments your character might have, like, "Nice driving, Sarge!" or "Think those hunters are gonna throw a hydospanner in our mission?" Lots of short character posts that helps the rest of us get a sense of who your character is.

On another note, we talked earlier on some forum about how, while there is a chain of command, there is also a basic assumption that each of the character is a professional spec-ops soldier and that they're trained to work and think independently. I'm assuming that there is a common understanding in Derecho that everyone has permission to speak freely, question an order and do what they think best. Had Longshot decided to actually open fire on the palloo-beasts or the hunters, Booth might have cringed, but he also would have trusted that Longshot knew what he was doing. Guess I'm just trying to affirm that your characters don't need to run everything (or anything) past Booth for approval (unless, of course, that's how you're looking to play your character). 

[deadpool]

The team's medic noticed the tone in Longshot's voice. He knew that tone. It was the "leave no loose ends" tone. Sometimes he worried about him, about all of them really. It was one thing to destroy a few droids, they can always be put back together. Even a living officer could be an excusable death, their hands were most of the times bloodier than their own. But civilians were out of the question, though that didn't mean they didn't get killed. The did get killed, a lot. And for what? And by who? It was clones like Longshot, like himself, who had to do this. It was them who fired the guns, threw the bombs, arranged the explosives. He hated that. But that was him, others seemed to enjoy it. Could he blame them? They were raised to do that, hell, they were created to do that.
And he knew he was one of the few "lucky" ones. One of the elite troopers, ARC troopers, the ones withouth the conditioning. Did the others really knew about the conditioning? Did they know that they were programmed to follow orders? That it was implanted into their DNA? And did his brothers, the rest of Derecho Squad know they were different? He never talked about it with them, never brought it up, afraid of how they might take it. If Mitts knew about it was because of his special training; the kaminoans taught him how their minds worked, how their bodies worked, how they came to be.
He knew it; the jedi. The clone could tell by the way he looked at them, a mixture of compassion and pitty. He was having doubts about this whole thing too. He was one of the good ones. Maybe he could help them escape this mess? Maybe, but now there were more important things to do. His brothers, his responsability.

How's that for some character development?

[tomcat]

That was a great post, Deadpool! I ike getting insight into PC thoughts. As for this particular encounter, no stress - I am not going to drag it out. I just wanted to see how your characters reacted to the locals.

As for how big, I am going to say within four-thousand meters is Haywire's estimate on the explosion. I want you guys to have an urgency to get out once you start the overload, but I don't want to put you guys in a position to outrun a massive ball of fire.



The speeder began to spread the distance between it and the head of the herd, leaving the hunters and the palloos behind. If the skiff's passengers had even seen Derecho Team, they did not make any reaction. Longshot kept his electrobinoculars on them for a while longer until they disappeared behind the raging movement of animals.

Though still abundant with the living energy within the Force, Martel could sense that their path was clear of any other mass herd for a good distance. Booth took advantage of that and kept the speeder moving fast over the prairie, Haywire behind him communicating course adjustments as needed.

The terrain began to change. In the distance, the bare rocky outcrops of what the map called the Salt Flats - why, when there was nothing flat about the area at all - could be seen. The shadows from the buttes and mountains were growing long over the grasslands as the sun was beginning to set. They had tried to time their planetfall with as much daylight available for when they landed, but the planetary rotation hadn't allowed for it. Booth knew he would need to slow, or even have the team stop and rest for the night once they made it into the Flats. He did not want to risk damaging their vehicle too far away from their objective. He continued to press on fast as the sun set into the mountains ahead of them until the grasslands changed into dry, hardpacked clay.

The trio in the back - some had dozed - felt the Arrow begin to slow. Longshot dropped down from the cupola and joined his companions. Booth brought the vehicle to a halt and they heard the whine of the repulsors fade, dust settling outside. The headlights were still on and the men saw a jagged hillock in front of them, high enough to give them overwatch of their area; rugged enough to break the outline of their Arrow; and good to block line of sight from the direction of the sensor station.

The team climbed out and stretched. They had covered 110 klicks of their ingress and it was only thirty more to the target. Booth waited until they had done any personal business needed before he called Derecho to him and Martel. It was thirty klicks away but they needed to plan their approach and assault. He wanted to get eyes on the station from a distance to see if they could assess the defenses. Well, that was Longshot's specialty but the whole team would give their input.

[Stefan]

Hammer had watched the hunters and the heard with only a passing interest.  He had no interest in killing either with no purpose so as long as they werent in the way, he was perfectly happy leaving them to their sport. 

Now that they'd stopped he got out of the Arrow and looked at thier surroundings.  He quickly spotted a nice place for an LP/OP part way up the rocky tor that would allow one of them to keep an eye on things while the others rested.

"I'll take first watch.  If we're going to hit 'em before dawn we should probably leave about 3 to 4 hours before hand so we have enough time to get there, it's gonna be slow going across this terrain."

[GandalfOfBorg]

"Too big ... too many" Martel muttered aloud, obviously straining against something.  "No good trying to direct them.  Keep on course and we should be fine."
- - -
The ride had been long and cramped, kind of like the pod ride earlier.  At least there was no hard impact at the end.  The young Padawan got out and stretched -- Jedi techniques were great but there is no substitute for real exercise.  Looking around he nodded approvingly.  In his bones he ached to do something but once again it was the tense hurry-up-and-wait routine. "I'm gonna go up and get a look around.  You with me Longshot?

[Callowmoryne]

After a quick stretch Longshot went over his gear again. Nervous energy he thought. Sometimes he felt like a perpetually coiled snake. He hadn't really wanted to take out the hunters unless necessary. Had he? He tried not to get inside his head in these situations. Just follow orders. It just seemed like the need for action was calling from every fiber of his body. He tried not to howl with relief when Martel spoke up. "I'm on it, boss man." He snatched up his rifle and binocs. "I'll take point."