Star Wars - The Covenant of Shadows
Game Master Camris

Yep, i believe Jeriko has the right of it.

Machanics 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31
Mechanics 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (12) + 15 = 27
As we don't have the coordinates to the Yellow Truck Juce, Desh, Six and Jerrn are going to lay low while Bolt and Jeriko escort Banis to the med center to gather supplies. Then meet up and head out to the Yellow Truck.
Or, if Bolt can provide said coordinates, the made men ;) will head straight to the Yellow Truck.

Pulling rank on us newbies in this game, hey Juce? =)

"Oh, of course, Juce. That is a good idea, Juce. Here are the coordinates." He pulls out a burnt scrap of paper with the coordinates scrawled on them in large clumsy letters.

"I was really stressed, you see Juce, from the crash landing. My heart was thumping and I couldn't help but have my claws out. It made it hard to write.

The cathar hands the scrap to Juce, "We will go via the vet's place and meet you all there immediately. Hang on," he snatched the paper back, "Let me get a copy of that before we part."

Getting the bikes in running order, you depart the scene just ahead of the Hutt mercenary forces. As you turn down an alleyway you can see a armored walker come up to the front of the cantina and start to disgorge heavily armed figures.
You are not pursued.

You guys all going to Baniss' shop? Straight to the Yellow Truck? Split up?

Baniss, Jeriko and Bolt are headed to Baniss' surgery, Desh, Six, Jernn and Juce are headed straight to the Yellow Truck.

" That was close, we'll meet you all at the Yellow Truck once we've picked up some more medical supplies. Good luck! " Baniss says over the comms as the group splits up.

On the way to Baniss' clinic
The tip of one lekku curling, Jeriko turns to Baniss as they zip down the dry, dusty street, "Doc, I can't believe you woke me up for this mess! This job is not at all like you made it sound." He hesitates a moment, the pause heavy with tension.

"This has almost been as fun as a chawa*! I thought this was going to be a dull, easy, show-up-and-get-paid-without-any-fuss kinda job. But no! U kulle rah doe kankee loca!**" His smile is beaming as he regards the duros and cathar, then it slowly fades away, his forehead furrowing slightly, "Tell me you guys are having as much fun as I am. You are, aren't you?"

As they roar away, Desh looks over and shares a nod with Juce before his voice rumbles over the comms to Jerrn, Six, and Juce. "We may have trouble... or more trouble, anyway. One of those we just got away from was a Mandalorian." He wracks his brain to remember if he's seen this specific mandalore or not. "Juce, did you recognize him?"

Talking over the com.

"Probably from the band that captured your ship earlier. It's mandalorian style to come in heavy. Did you see that walker!? *whistles* I'm glad we got out, let's just hope we got out clean."

Juce looks every-which-way as they head out of the spaceport to find the Yellow Truck, they might be out of sigh, and they might not.

"Oh, and we really should consider breaking into the hutts palace people."

Perception 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

"Fun?!," the sarcasm is clear enough through the low growl, "I get hives all through my fur when I'm stressed like this. Or maybe it's fleas again..
"Hey Vet, perhaps you shove some more of those pills down the back of my throat..."

"Hey." Juce suddenly pipes up over the comm. "You guys hear the one about the group of wanabe bounty hunters who got got chased by the mandalorians?"

"No? They got shot. Keep your eyes peeled people."

"Sorry, Juce, I don't get it. Is this a line of jokes, Juce? like the ones about the binary load lifters falling from trees, Juce? Or is it a pun on eyes peeling, Juce?"

Baniss’ group

At the storefront clinic there is no one here at the moment, the usual street folk probably at the races. While getting the stuff you want, you see the message light blinking at your holoterminal. “You have ONE message.”

Non-Baniss’ group

Passing through the checkpoints out of the city unchallenged (The guards wave you through, their attention seems to be glued to the holoterminals), you head out into the dry wastelands of Tatooine.
Opening up your speed, you feel a great weight is lifted off of you. You are free from all the stresses of city life, especially life under the thumbs of the Hutt controlled gunslingers.

At first maneuvering through traffic (both mechanized and not), you quickly leave it behind as you exit the moisture farm zone and out into the true desert. The endless frozen waves of the Dune sea.

Here you are truly alone. There is no sign of other life at all, except for the occasional giant skeletons of sea creatures who died before the rise of intelligent life in the galaxy.

==============================

Eventually, you come to a large massif. Deep canyons, tall mesas separated by deep canyons crisscross the entire region. Following the Cathar’s directions you locate the site his ship is supposed to be. But there is nothing there!

"What the..."

Perception 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

"Over there!" Juce points excitedly as he spots the ship camouflaged under tons of ruble, it's bow hanging out over a four hundred meter deep crevasse. "We'll need a demo-job to get it loose, but give me enough explosives an I can get it out... We just need to find a way to prevent it tipping over..." You guys can probably read the spoiler as Juce pointed out the ships location.

When the group gets to the ship Juce proceeds to duck under it. "The Emergency hatchway is clear. Who's coming with me?" he comms before popping the hatch and heading in, his blaster rifle in hand.

"I don't think that they mean to protect him, Baniss, if they are willing to pay over a million credits. And they said Hand the Jedi over to us , Baniss, which doesn't sound good either. It sounds too good to be true, don't you think Jeriko? "

Bolt scratches nervously at the fur on his thigh.

"let's get outta here, Baniss, I wouldn't be surprised if here is now bugged too. "

Desh follows his fellow mandalorian's finger to the rubble-covered ship. He can't help but release a deep-base sigh, "Why can't we ever find or steal a nice ship?"

He follows Juce to the hatch, flipping his new heavy blaster off safety. "I got yer back. Jerrn, Six. You guys comin'? Or you wanna watch the speeders?"

Perception 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11.

"Well, if she can fly, Ah can make her spacerworthy. Or at least airtight...."

"Well, if she can fly, Ah can make her spacerworthy. Or at least airtight...."

"Fly? Does falling count? - Fine, let's take a look, but keep the comms open. Someone want to keep watch? Let us know if we get company, or that thing starts to topple?"

Let's just say we all go in. unless Jerrn wants to wait outside. (not that i'm suggesting he should).

"Hmmm. Maybe Ah should wait out here, jes' in case it starts to tip. Ah might, might mind you, be able to keep it level long 'enough for y'all to escape." Jerrn is not confident on this point...

Feel free to come with us inside the ship, Jerrn. Hate for you to miss any fun (if there's any to be had).

Popping the hatchway, you enter a crawlway that leads past the still retracted landing gear and into the ships engineering spaces.

The ship is silent, with only the red gleam of the emergency lights tracing out the passageways, pointing to the emergency escape pods.

You find the hyperdrive access hatches open and the remains of three crewmembers there. It looks to you as if they were caught by surprise as they worked on the engines and were flattened by some kind of uncompensated accelleration. It is fortunate for you that they were wearing spacesuits, or the decomp would be horrific.

Exploring through the dark spaces, there are no unpleasant surprises waiting for you, other than the dead crew.

The ship turns out to be an older Ketin class light freighter, built in the Kuat shipyards more than a couple decades ago. The class has an excellent reputation for maneuverability amongst pilots. The ship has certainly been through a lot, but is still structurally intact. There is battle damage, and the general neglect of a pirate/smuggler crew, but nothing you can't fix if you had the equipment. There are enough empty cabins so that you don't have to share any.

The cargo has shifted a bit, now mostly piled up on the downslope bulkhead. The ship's launch is still in it's bay, seemingly undamaged. The landspeeder pulled tight to the bulkhead, where it can be lowered if a trip by hovercar is needed.
Looking at the cargo bay, you can envisage either two average fighters stored there, or four of the smaller. Five if you ditch the ships launch.

>CLICK< for the deck plan.
>CLICK< for some internal spaces.
>CLICK< for the Captain's cabin.

Jerrn prowls through the ship, one hand on the bulkhead as he goes. "Well, Ah'll be a bantha's baby. It's not a bad ship, once we get the stink out of it and a few repairs on 'er. Ah reckon we could do pretty well with her."

All Desh seems immediately concerned with is her defensive and weapons systems. "So what do you 'reckon' you need to get her up and running, Farmboy?"

He then turns to Juce and Six, "We should put a thought to getting her defensible for the short-term. I'm guessin' it'll take some serious work to get this girl up and runnin', and we have a lot of enemies around here already. Be nice if we could use this girl as a defensible base of operations in the mean-time. Juce, where you want me to unload these explosives?" (The ones he pulled off those merc's in the last fight.)

Camris, there any useful bits of information Desh can glean concerning setting up a defense grid around the Truck while they work to get her operational? Choke points? Ambush points (in the ship as well as around the ship)? Scouting/Sniper positions around the ship for someone to take a physical watch until we can get the computer systems up to full capacity?
Knowledge: Tactics 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20.

"And if we're going to make this girl our own, can we seriously think about finding her an appropriate name? We're not a fvckin' day-care."

Jerrn pauses, using his fingers to tick up the list of supplies they'll need to get the ship spaceworthy....

Mechanics: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15

Mechanics 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 15 + 2 = 21 I'm taking the liberty of using Jerrn's mechanic roll as an aid for my own if I may. Lol, not that my roll was much better anyway.

Juce listens politely as Jerrn ticks off his list of things needed and then counts off his own list.

"Stow the explosives in the cargo bay for now. We'd best have it handy if we're going to blow the ship out any time soon." he replies to Desh.

Taking out his glow rod Juce makes his way to the engines room. "I'm going to see if this baby has any power left in her, might be enough to power up one of the cannons at least."

Mechanics to see if the ship will power up 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 17

"Well, Juce is much better at this than Ah am, so Ah'll head up to the cockpit and see what works there!" Jerrn nods his thanks at Juce and heads up to the cockpit. He'll start the pre-flight check to see what systems look functioning and what doesn't. He'll open a comm channel to Engineering and tell Juce what works and what doesn't as he goes through the list.

"Power systems; cockpit... guess that leaves the engine and hyperdrive. I'll go with Juce and take a look."

Baniss's group quickly mounts up and makes its way out of town. They detect no signs of pursuit, despite taking routes designed to ambush anyone following them, and the guards at the gates pay no attention (they're still watching the pod races on holo).
Despite all that, they still feel like eyes are on them.

They speed across the desert and make their way to rendezvou at the designated coordinates. They are all astounded at the precarious position the ship is in, with all the rubble on top of it and hanging part way over the vast canyon. Bolt doesn't remember that particular feature, but it was a time of brief nighttime on Tattooine when he staggered away from the crashed ship. He shudders at what would have happened if he had gone the wrong way in the dark.

Entering through the hatch, they find the rest of the group gathered around the powerplant in the dim red of the emergency lights, trying to light it off and not having any luck. Bolt hits the casing in the right spot and it spools up with a *thump-WHINE*. The regular ships lighting flickers on, revealing quite a mess. Clearly the ship rolled several times on the way down the slope after the crash.

Scattering through the ship, you take stock of it's current state.

Everyone with a Mechanics, Knowledge (Technology), Use Computer, or Pilot skill, give me a roll for each one you have please.

Desh looks around and finds an excellent place up the scree slope to watch from.
He can see several hundred meters up and down the canyon edge (the only practical approach). It is extremely defensible, with heavy boulders offering total cover and the scree making approach very difficult on the ground.
The only other ways he can't see are the blind approaches; up the sheer canyon walls or down the sheer mesa cliffs behind you.

The ship itself is only able to be accessed by a couple of emergency hatches; and with all the rubble on top, only a major warship or a mechanized battalion would be able to harm the ship through firepower.

To clear the main hatchway would take a couple of man-hours, and to clear the cargo hatch would take eight man-hours.

" Looks like it's going to take a lot of work just to get this ship dug out of the ground! Hey... Jernn, when we've got the time there's something you should know."

Kn: Tech: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (3) + 11 = 14
Use Computer : 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27
Pilot: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

Kn, Tech 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 15
Mechanics 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 17
Use Comp 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (9) + 15 = 24

Pilot: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (16) + 16 = 32
Use Computer: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

Pilot: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (15) + 15 = 30
Mechanics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Mechanics: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10
Pilot: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (8) + 12 = 20

Pilot 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (3) + 9 = 12.

Desh hikes his thumb back over his shoulder towards the hatch, "Til we can get this things sensors and computers back up and running at full capacity, there's some solid lookout/sniper perches out there that should give us plenty of warning of income. I say we put up a rotating watch if we're gonna use this thing as a base of operations."

"That's not a bad idea, especially since while we were out we were offered a hutt's share of credits by the Exchange for information regarding our saber swinging friend over here."

...

"We, uh, didn't take the offer, of course. They did try to blow up my swoop, after all. Hardly trustworthy folks."

"Jerrn? What did you do to get a bounty on your head? I'm a little offended that the rest of us weren't mentioned. I'll sleep better at night, but still...."

"Whuzzatnow? Ah got a bounty? Huh. Did they say whatfor?"

Jeriko turns to Six as he snakes his arm through an access panel, burying it nearly up to his shoulder. He grunts with effort, "Yeap! Seems the Exchange got some video feed from that E-web that perforated you guys. They were real interested in - YEEEEEEEOOWW!

Jeriko pulls his arm out from the access panel in the blink of an eye, shaking his hand vigorously.

"Well, the good news is we've got power behind this access panel at least. Not sure what it's going to or why but..." shaking his hand still he turns to Jerrn in answer to the Jedi's question, "Yeah, they said it was for a million credits." He shrugs as if to say "why?"

Cool use of those Race/ Class etc fields Jeriko!

Baniss grabs Jeriko's arm as he waves it about and checks to make sure the shock wasn't a bad one. While he checks for a pulse he says to Jerrn
"Erm, I think he means why have they put a bounty on him. The message did not really specify a reason but said you would not be harmed. Not that you can really trust the exchange."

Desh looks over at Jerrn, "Nothin' we've done since that weird science station merits that kind of bounty, Farmboy. You don't have any idea what it's about?"

"Not a one. Huh. Fer a million, Ah'm tempted to turn myself in..." Jerrn shrugs, but his brow is furrowed. He can't remember doing anything worth a million creds...

"What science station?" Juce pipes in, walking in on the conversation with his nose buried in a datapad he found in engineering. "The ships shot to hell, by the way, I can't even begin to fathom how much it's going to cost to get this hunk of junk of the ground, much less spaceworthy."

"The Exchange didn't name you in particular, Jerrn. Their interest seemed to be in what you were more than who you were, if that makes any sense." He nods to Baniss in appreciation as he regards Juce and and Jerrn.