"Boarding Party" - Star Wars: Riptide, Episode 4 Chapter 3

Episode 4 Chapter 3
BOARDING PARTY

The crew of the Riptide, at the behest of
Kara Pacha, has taken on a mission
to rescue the scientist Doctor Topas
from an imperial prison transport.

The crew has intercepted the transport
and have disabled it. 
Now they prepare to board
the ship and free the imprisoned 
microbiologist...

The Crew of the Riptide

Evo Shandor - nautolan transport captain

Balin Lee - young human Jedi-in-training

Emily Wonder - human mercenary

Eggs Ledscramb - quarren bounty hunter

Rhys March - twi'lek tech-spec

Is Anybody Home?
The airlocks joined and Emily opened the Riptide's outer hatch. Rhys moved forward with her hand-held cutting torch and cut through the outer hatch of the Gozanti-class transport. When she finished, the metal pieces fell away revealing a darkened passage beyond. The only illumination came from the red emergency panels in each corner and the small illuminators clipped to their jackets and utility belts. An emergency claxon could be heard somewhere far off in the ship.

Emily and Eggs moved forward, adjusting to the 90-degree change in orientation. They climbed the ladder rungs of the chimney-like chute and emerged into a dark passage. The passage ended in another chute but another passage branched to the left halfway down. They carefully advanced and took the passage to the left,

They came to a lift tube. There was no power so the lift tube was unresponsive. They forced the doors open and climbed to the next level. Rhys cut a small hole in the lift door, just big enough to crawl through, and climbed to one side. They had emerged into a small cargo hold. Emily looked into the room and saw a stormtrooper taking cover behind some fallen debris. The stormtrooper was exchanging fire with unsean combatants on the other side of the room, just out of sight from Emily's vantage point.

Balin using the Force

Balin changed strategy. Instead of using the Force to confuse the enemy, causing them to fight each other, he chose to enhance the fighting ability of his allies. Suddenly, Emily, Eggs, Evo, and Rhys could feel the Force flowing through them, guiding their actions, making them better fighters. The three combatants in the cargo hold ceased fighting each other and turned their attention to the intruders.

Resistance
Emily crawled through the hole in the lift door and rolled to one side to allow Eggs to follow. The two sprang into action, shooting the stormtrooper they could see and moving behind the same cover to take on the other two combatants. The opponents turned out to be two more stormtroopers using some crates as cover. A stray shot hit a coolant line, filling the area with steam and obstructing line of sight. Evo shouted "Grenade!" and threw a piece of harmless debris into the steam. The two stormtroopers ran out of the steam and dived for cover.

Once they realized it was a ruse, the stormtroopers got up and returned fire. One took a few shots with his blaster while the other ran up to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Both were soon dispatched. During the battle, another stormtrooper opened the door leading forward. He surveyed the scene and quickly closed the door and retreated to warn others.

After the room was secured, Rhys and Balin used ropes to lift "Parts Drop" the astromech droid up the lift. Rhys had Parts Drop plug into a nearby computer interface. The interface had no power. Rhys jury-rigged a temporary power supply which allowed Parts Drop to at least download the ship's schematic, but not much else.

Ambush
The forward door was locked, but Eggs quickly had the door open. Eggs moved forward after the retreating stormtrooper. He was soon caught under a barrage of blaster fire from the ambush waiting for him. Emily ruished into the room and began blasting! Evo ordered her to take some of them alive for questioning. Emily glanced back at him with a grimace and switched her blaster to stun. She advanced forward on the four stormtroopers hiding behind an overturned table, blasting, blasting, blasting! The stormtroopers were no match for Emily's unrelenting onslaught. Once they were down, Emily restrined them in their own wrist-binders.

Eggs Ledscramb

Emily then grabbed the wounded Eggs and retreated back into the cargo hold.

The team decided instead to head aft towards the holding cells to look for Doctor Topas. Eggs was able to disable the security on the door and the team moved into the long dark corridor beyond. The floor consisted of metal grating and the walls slanted inward towards the ceiling. Small niches stepped down to the left and right every few meters. Each niche contained a holding cell. At the end of the corridor was security terminal manned by a dead officer.

Shootout in the Holding Cells
They stared down the corridor and were halfway to the terminal when a squad of four stormtroopers covered the entrance and began firing. Emily and Eggs took cover in some of the niches and returned fire while Balin, Rhys, Evo, and Parts Drop ran to the terminal. All four stormtroopers were dead after a short battle.

Rhys March

Rhys once again jury-rigged temporary power to the terminal and accessed the computer database. She called up a list of all the prisoners on the transport:

1. Hanna Fothe - Forgery in the first degree
2. Kylain Reegient - Mass-murder, Larceny
3. Volo Ktrame - Criminal sale of imperial uniforms, Impersonating an imperial official
4. Zandro Groeg - Gaming fraud in the second degree
5. Gunther Stormchaser - Terrorism, murder
6. Dulgan Darran - Promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child
7. Doctor Ardap Topas - Treason
8. Spike  Bruvumon - Computer tampering in the first degree
9. Markus Radiian - Making graffiti
10. Sebastian Brangwin - Criminal sale of Ryll spice in the fourth degree

She looked to Evo, "What should we do? Who all do we want to rescue?"

To Be Continued...

GM Notes
Some great firefights this session. Once again, Balin's Force-power support goes a long way!

For example, Emily has a DEX 3D+2 and a Blaster 5D+2.

Balin's Enhanced Coordination gives Emily +1D for every 3D she has in Blaster, this brings her Blaster to 6D+2.

Balin's Battle Meditation, however, increases her DEX to 4D+2, which increases her Blaster to 6D+2, which boosts the Enhanced Coordination further, increasing its bonus to +2D which increases her Blaster to 8D+2!

SYNERGY!!

Emily went nuts! She was taking 5 shots per round, each at 4D+2. Her player even got a little carried away. During the assault on the forward room, she wanted to keep going, killing everything in her path! Someone had to say, "Ease off, Ripley! Easy off!" We all had an image of Emily panting and calming down.

Shhh.. Don't tell Emily, but if she spends 5 character points on her Blaster skill, it will increase to 6D. That means that Enhanced Coordination will increase her Blaster skill +2D to 8D, then Battle Meditation will take her DEX to 4D+2 which will increase her Blaster skill to 9D!

Emily Wonder, Bad-Ass with a Blaster