STARFALL: Episode One: The Roche Asteroid Field

[angelicdoctor]

These are short range fighters and therefore he may have already attempted to contact his mother ship. Let me see about jamming his frequencies. Please try to disable his engines. There is no need to cause any unnecessary additional death.

The Bothan co-pilot locates the ship's comm and works a focused stream of broadcast transmissions at the TIE in an effort to garble any radio calls it makes.

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn nods. "True, we could let him live, provided our shots are true. We don't NEED to kill him, so long as we get away. But if we can't successfully jam his signals or disable his engines, we can't let him report our position. This mission is way too important. Are you gonna be alright with that?"

[angelicdoctor]

Zinn nods. "True, we could let him live, provided our shots are true. We don't NEED to kill him, so long as we get away. But if we can't successfully jam his signals or disable his engines, we can't let him report our position. This mission is way too important. Are you gonna be alright with that?"

Agreed. Do what must be done and may the living Force guide us. La'Reth resumes his work on the com dashboard, resolute in the task which lies ahead of him.

[gavin storm]

"Well that would be a life lesson for the pilot." Gavin says with a smirk "Look, before you fly into a pile of rocks" Pausing he adds. "With no engines, I wouldn't want to be in the middle of an asteroid field.

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn raises an eyebrow and quips, "I don't wanna be in this asteroid field WITH engines! We had to take this measure to deal with those TIE fighters."

[max_vale]

The fight in the asteroid field comes to a fiery conclusion when the last remaining Imperial TIE fighter attempt to race away from the Rebel freighter Out Runner and Greystarr, attempting a disabling shot, instead drills the ship with the Twin Laser Turret and turns it into a short-lived fireball and tiny bits of wreckage.....

Grey sounded a little rueful over the comm; "Sorry.....I guess my aim was a bit off there." In the cockpit Zinn and Borsk share a brief look and shrug; and then the Correllian turns the ship around and back onto its original heading towards the signal receiver set up by the Alliance team on the asteroid base.

Zinn does a masterful job of dodging the asteroids in the increasingly thick Roche field and finally they reach the source of the signal beacon; an hourglass shaped chunk of rock with points of light penetrating the outer crust and repulsor beam projectors highlighting a hangar bay opening with the distinctive shimmering of a magnetic field protecting the inhabitants. As the Out Runner approaches the comm comes to life and a voice calls out; "Freighter, identify yourselves and state your business."

Borsk replies with; "This is the Out Runner; code word: 'Bantha Pudu'." There's a brief pause and then a "Welcome to the Slayn and Korpil hives' Command Base Out Runner. You are cleared to land." Zinn deftly maneuvers the ship into the small, but functional hangar bay and sets her down gently. A few moments later the Rebels are walking down the boarding ramp and onto the asteroid base.

The rebel party see a lot of hustle and bustle in the small hangar bay. A control tower juts out over the hangar bay; apparently carved and hollowed out of the natural rock of the asteroid. While the ceiling rises high overhead, the walls remain a little uncomfortably close. A mixture of instrument panels, cooling vents and patches of natural reddish-brown stone cover the bay walls. A wide stone passage leads out of the chamber. Suddenly everyone's attention is captured by the three insectoid aliens moving towards you. They are green in color and stand about two meters tall on a very slim body with two legs and two arms and a pair of antennae on the sides of their head which is dominated by two large multi-faceted eyes. They are chirping excitedly over you and the one in the center comes closest and speaks in accents basic; "Greetings representatives from the Alliance hive. I am Suskafoo, a Verpine from the allied hives of Slayn and Korpil. How may we be of service?"



Professor Clark Jones; while fascinated by the aliens, also notices that the other two Verpine that had walked up with Suskafoo were now moving closer and close to the Out Runner and pointing to various parts of the ship and talking excitedly, but quietly in their own language.....

[kipper]

Clark casually (on some other pretence) wanders closer to the two aliens approaching the ship in order to overhear their conversation. That is, if he can remember enough Verpine...

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn tells Banshee to remain on the ship, run diagnostics, and keep everything secure. He clips his comlink to the inside of his collar so he can hear it if Banshee contacts him for some reason.

Upon exiting the ship, Zinn and the party are greeted by the Verpine. Zinn gives a small half-bow in reply. "Greetings, Suskafoo. I am Zinn Valimar, captain of the Out Runner. We are here to pick up Captain Ackbar, his team, research and prototype."

[gavin storm]

As the ship lands and lowers its ramp. Gavin makes his way to the exit and steps off the ramp as it clanls down. Keeping to the back of the group as Zinn does the talking, Gavin casually glances around thier surrounding. Mostly to see if their arrival had caught any elses attention. More out of casual interest than wanting to look ignorant.

[angelicdoctor]

Borsk exits the craft with the captain after performing the necessary post-flight duties and checks on the ship's systems. Standing just to the rear and to the left of Zinn, the Bothan force-user concentrates his senses on the Verpine greeter in an attempt to determine any emotion which may be of worthy note to he and his companions.

[max_vale]

The Rebels come down the exit ramp of the Out Runner and greet Suskafoo and take in the scene with the Verpine....

Professor Clark notices the two Verpine that entered with Suskafoo are excitedly walking around the Rebel freighter and talking quickly in their language of clicking mandibles. He had long ago picked up a bit of the Verpine language and enough of it was coming back to him to understand that they were talking about various traits of the ship and how they could improve them. In particular they seemed to be very sure that they could improve the Out Runner's speed and maneuverability if there were given the time to effect the modifications. They move to gather some tools from some bins resting along the wall of the asteroid hangar bay and appear to be about to indulge in the modifications that they were talking about...

Gavin noted that a pair of figures were coming through the same entrance way that Suskafoo and his fellow Verpine had used a few moments before. One was a brown-haired human male with a scarred face and the other was a humanoid with a four-tentacled head that resembled a squid. Gavin knew that this was a Quarren; one of the two sentient species that had originated from Mon Calamari. Both were wearing Alliance uniforms; the human's was that of a Lieutenant in the Fleet; the Quarren's was that of a Sergeant in the Alliance Army. They rapidly moved towards Suskafoo and Zinn; the human looked very irate; Gavin could not tell what kind of state the Quarren was in....

Borsk opened himself to the Force when looking over the Verpine and while he had not yet mastered the techniques that allowed him to more accurately ascertain the feelings and intentions of various species; he could pick up general 'vibrations and tremors' in the Force. He could not detect anything other than genuine friendliness and intense curiosity in the various Verpine throughout the hangar bay. He was momentarily jarred out of his serene moment by the feeling of some openly radiating anger coming from the direction of the main conversation going on between Zinn and Suskafoo and looking over he could readily tell the anger was stemming from a human male that was walking over along with an unfamiliar looking alien towards the group...

Zinn had just started to get a reply from Suskafoo; the Verpine telling him that there were two prototype B-wing fighters that were just about ready for testing and that Captain Ackbar was currently in the command center when the human male and Quarren male walked over. The human male immediately spoke sharply in Verpine to Suskafoo and his tone and reddened face clearly gave away the fact that he was quite angry. Suskafoo responded back sharply himself and then in a much more friendly tone he waved his antennae at the new Rebels and said; "It seems I must leave you all now; I hope to see you again"; and with that he moves out of the hangar bay through a different tunnel entrance than the one he entered. The Quarren male stands silent and stoic; while the human male in only a slightly less angry tone speaks up....

"Greetings; I am Lieutenant Pollard; Captain Ackbar's aide. This is Sergeant Salin Glek; the Captain's bodyguard"; he says while waving towards the Quarren without looking his way. Glek nods his tentacled head once. "Now; I trust you have a prime reason for jeopardizing the security of this base and project?"; he hisses out in an angry tone.

[kipper]

Clark returns to Zinn, and was about to bring to his attention the fact that the Verpine seem to want to tinker with the ship, but was interrupted by the Lieutenant's angry question. "Jeopardising...?", he asks aloud in confusion.

[gavin storm]

Glancing at Pollard as he spoke, Gavin gives a slight smirk. Drawing himself up to his full height, he raises an eyebrow. There was more than one way to deal with military types. "If we jepodised what was going on here Lieutenant..." Gavin lets the pause hang in the air for a second, before continuing. "We appologise, but it's under orders from Command." Pausing he adds "We're here to see the Captain" The tone and language he used, was chosen carefully as it showed he was used to dealing with ranks far higher than the Captain's aide. His intentiion was not to intimidate the man

[max_vale]

Pollard sputters for a few moments and then begins to angrily go on about how they're unexpected arrival has probably brought great danger to the Rebel base before Glek clears his throat and speaks up in a gravely voice. "They're not entirely unexpected Lieutenant; remember the Captain sayin' there might be a party from Intel on the way? They used the right code word; we should really bring them to see the Captain."

The scarred human shoots an angry glare at the Quarren Sergeant but simply says; "Very well; follow me"; to the Rebel party and then begins to march back towards the tunnel he entered from. The Rebel party follows the angry human; with Clark noting that the two Verpine from earlier had now gathered some tool kits and were climbing on board the Out Runner and were beginning to employ said tools on the ship. He nudged Zinn and pointed towards the ship and then hurried to catch up to the others while the Pilot paused for a moment to see what was happening to the freighter....

The rest of the party followed Pollard and Glek through the tunnels which had been carved through the Asteroid and brought them to a heavy blast door and entered a code on the panel next to the door to open it. The door opened to reveal a large circular chamber. The walls of the chamber were covered with monitors and control panels and a holo-projector tank filled the floor space on the far side of the room. Hunched intently over a display terminal were a Verpine and a Mon Calamari male wearing the distinctive White uniform the Mon Calamari members of the Alliance Fleet favored and a rank insignia of an Alliance Fleet Captain. Pollard brings the party over and introduces you; "Captain Ackbar; these are apparently some Messengers for you from Sector Headquarters."

The Mon Calamari stands up straight and looks you over with his large golden eyes. An immediate impression of calm strength and confidence radiates from the man and a gravely, though warm voice emanates from him as he says; "Welcome to our Command Base. If you've journeyed from Sector Headquarters to our remote special project here; I can only assume it's something very important. I trust your journey was an uneventful one?"

[gavin storm]

Giving the Fleet Captain a quick salute to acknowledge that he outranked him, even if they were from diffferent commands. To the untrained eye he would appear to still be at ease, but appearance were everything in their game.

Motioning to the member of the group, that carried the message, he adds. "Lets hope so." As Ackabar asks if thier journey was uneventful, he shakes his head. "Wish it was, but it wasn't. We ran into a reconicanse Tie and its' escoret on they way in. Managed to deal with them, but our ship took some damage."

[kipper]

"Were you not expecting us?" Clark asks Captain Ackbar.

[max_vale]

Captain Ackbar seems a little distressed to hear about the encounter with the TIE patrol. "The fact that they were this deep in the Roche Asteroid Field is more than a little disturbing....hmmm....well, at least we are just about finished with the project..."; he shakes his head for a moment and turns to address Clark's question while accepting the holo-disk.

"Well, I knew there would be a team sent to us; but not exactly when. Mon Mothma is understandably rather secretive about specifics"; he finishes with a gravelly chuckle. As Ackbar moves to place the holo-disk into the holoprojector; Lieutenant Pollard rudely bumps Gavin with his shoulder as he makes his way out of the door the group entered with a mumbled explanation about seeing to something that Suskafoo needed.

Meanwhile; Ackbar slides the holo-disk into the projector and presses a few buttons while saying; "Let's see what you've brought to us, shall we". A holo-projection of Mon Mothma appears and with a smile; she speaks.

"Greetings Captain Ackbar"; she begins warmly; "As you correctly predicted the introduction of the Nebulon-B and Lancer class escort Frigates by the Empire have had a tremendous impact on our Raids on Imperial Convoys for both obtaining supplies and destroying the Empire's. Your last report stating that the Shantipole project nears completion could not have come at a better time."

"The rest of this message is only for your eyes Captain and those of the Intel Special Operations Team that delivered it to you. Please pause the message while all other personnel leave the area." Ackbar obligingly pauses the message and with a a bit of an apologetic shrug and tone; he respectfully asks the Verpine techs and SGT Glek to leave the room. After they have done so; he presses the button to continue the message....

"A significant portion of the Alliance Fleet is assembling in the Pothor system. You are to proceed there immediately with your design team and both prototype B-wing starfighters. Upon arrival you will be promoted to Admiral; congratulations! Your first order of business will be to work with the LSS leadership to set up mass production of the new B-wing."

Mon Mothma then continues; "To the Agents of the Intel team who delivered this dis; Thank you for your service; the Alliance owes you a great debt. I must now ask you to perform another service for us. You must safeguard Captain Ackbar and escort him and his project to the rendezvous point; the location coordinates are coded at the end of this message. Do not take this duty lightly; our Counter-Intel specialists have recently discovered some strange coded communications coming from the section of the Roche Asteroid Field you are located at. They believe it may indicate that an Imperial spy may be working on the project."

"Captain Ackbar; my apologies for the heavy-handed precautions; but please trust these Agents as I do and allow them to escort you, your team and the prototypes to the rendezvous point. Due to the situation; I could not simply send you a message; even a coded one; per standard procedure but had to have trusted operatives deliver it by hand. The new B-wing may very well be crucial to the survival of the Alliance. Proceed with all possible speed and may the Force be with you."

The image of Mon Mothma disappears and is replaced by a coded sequence that must be the coordinates for the rendezvous point. Ackbar pulls out a small datapad and inputs the coded coordinates on it and then turns the holo-projector off. He seems to be lost in thought for a moment and then turns to the group and says; "Well; it seems we'll be in each others' company for awhile. Do you have any questions for me?"

[angelicdoctor]

At the mention of a possible imperial spy, the Bothan's fur ripples with noticeable agitation. Allowing himself a few moments to regain his bearing he then addresses the new admiral in response to his question. Admiral-elect Ackbar,first I would like to congratulation you on your promotion. I am honored to have been present at the revelation of this highest of all honors.

Borsk pauses briefly before continuing. The news is somewhat tempered, however, with the co-revelation of a spy among our ranks. Therefore, I must insist that we take measures to make our new mission a completely covert operation. I defer to your good judgment on this matter, however, I would recommend that no one on this station save those present here in this room become aware of it. You must appear as never having left the facility for as long as possible. Regarding these B-Wing prototypes, my team members are very capable pilots. Perhaps we can suggest as cover for our departure that we frame the launch of these new starfighters as simply executing maneuvers with experienced combat fliers as opposed to the test pilots. Tell me, Admiral, are these starfighters equipped with hyperdrive technology? It certainly would make our mission more easily undertaken.

Realizing that he just submitted a plan without conferring with his team beforehand La'Reth turns to them assembled in this room, "Please feel free, my friends, to add or modify as required."

[gavin storm]

Gavin nos his head and sighs slightly at the Lieutenants attitude. He had really put the officers nose out of joint. ~Hope this wont affect whats likely ahead. Especially if theres a spy in our midst.~ Turning his attention to the message being played, Gavin listens intently.

Nodding slightly in appropriate areas of the speach, to show that he was listening. ~Wonder who could be the spy.~ Mentally he tags the Quarren as a posibility. Quarens and Mon Calamari never had an easy relationship, not as volatile as Wookiees and Trandoshan but as well know. The Empire were know to use racial differences to thier advantage.

"Let me also congratulate you on you promotion sir" Gavin says with a slight bob of the head. He tended to be a man of few words, when it came to his job. Pausing to consider Borsks suggestion, he adds. "Depends on how easy the flight controls are on them."

[kipper]

"Regardless, if we take the prototypes out for a test flight, and no one sees them return, it will be quickly and easily noted by the Imperial spy." Clark comments. "Even Ackbar's absence will likely be noted after only a short time. A better plan perhaps would be to make it known (subtly through overheard hints in conversation) that we are heading to a different location than we actually are."