The full scope of Grand Moff Kain's ambition to create the Second Galactic Empire has been revealed: by infecting thousands of civilians with the nanoshape virus, Kain has created an unstoppable army that will only grow stronger as it spreads by invasion and contagion. And to deliver this heinous payload, three massive vessels are nearing completion, each with but one goal: to drop out of hyperspace, crash into a vital New Republic planet, and set loose the nanoshaped to convert the populace and bring the planet irrevocably under Kain's absolute control. Yet, hope remains, in the form of Mynock Squadron . . .
As the members of Beta Flight continue their infiltration of the Pentastar Alignment, their timely warning to the Gatecrasher of the impending arrival of an Imperial survey ship to the planetoid it orbited did not go unheeded. The Gatecrasher immediately set course for a large, dense asteroid field in the system and, over the past two days, has lurked near the field's periphery to hide, continue repairs and await further intelligence.
Suddenly, however, the new routine is broken when, from within the sensor-blinding asteroid field, Imperial vessels emerged: a pair of small transports, an armored shuttle, and three TIE-fighters. The Imperial vessels were clearly as surprised as the Gatecrasher, allowing the New Republic ship to react first by jamming communications and opening fire. The sudden encounter at close range left the Imperial vessels with little room to maneuver, and four of the six were quickly destroyed by the Gatecrasher's point-defence batteries. One of the TIEs, however, scored a direct hit on the Gatecrasher amidships, and the quick-thinking pilot of the surviving shuttle, knowing there was no chance of escaping, accelerated towards the New Republic transport. The Imperial shuttle activated its magnetic boarding couplers, and in seconds well-trained Stormtroopers had blasted through the outer hull of the Gatecrasher to take the ship by force!
Inside, New Republic personnel Doktic, Rogum, and Dunno are returning from a routine briefing when they hear a nearby explosion. The three react quickly and run towards the sound, only to see Imperial Stormtroopers pouring out from a docking tube. Realization dawns on the trio that if the Imperials reach the nearby auxiliary communications bay, the Gatecrasher's presence in the system will no longer be a secret! Doktic immediately opens fire with his service blaster, but the Imperial vanguard return fire and the heroic trooper drops, unconscious and barely alive. Rogum gives a battle cry and charges towards the Imperials, using his martial arts skill to render their blaster rifles too dangerous to use in the heated melee. For her part, Dunno races to the communications bay, fuses the doors behind her with an expert blaster shot, and gets to work disabling the comm terminals. Elsewhere on the sparsely-populated deck, Max Cindarion is still in the brig when he hears the nearby sound of blaster fire. Flickering lights show that power to the deck has been disrupted, so the former member of Mynock Squadron takes a chance and tries to hurl himself through the cell's forcefield during a power outage. His timing is poor on the first attempt and he's blasted backwards, but eventually he makes it through and finds his gear in a nearby storage cabinet.
Although Rogum keeps several Stormtroopers occupied, others form up into small groups to clear the deck. They soon encounter heavy opposition from Max and a newcomer on the scene: the enraged wookie Salworr, who's climbed through an access tube from an adjoining deck. Salworr's fearsome battle prowess soon leaves the Stormtroopers in disarray. The furious fighting continues outside as Dunno sets up electrical booby traps in the comm bay. Rogum cleverly takes several Stormtroopers out of the fighting by using one of their own frag grenades against them, but he barely survives their retaliation. In seconds, only a handful of Stormtroopers remain. Some blast into the comm bay but are foiled by Dunno's traps, while others hole up in the armory and turn an e-web against Salworr! Their impromptu barricade is broken, however, and the surviving Imperials surrender when New Republic reinforcements arrive on deck.
Thanks to the bravery of Doktic, Rogum, Max, and Salworr, and the cleverness of Dunno, the presence of the Gatecrasher remains a secret.
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Director's Commentary (14/04/2017)
I must confess to only having a vague memory of this one. I'm not sure why I had everyone play their alternate/back-up character: it might have been because the main storyline was quite complex and I needed something simple while I worked on it, or because I didn't want people to feel like they put a lot of work into the back-up PCs and never got to play them, or because I needed an in-story reason why Max could get out of the brig. Or a combination of them all! I do remember it was basically one long running battle, but also that it was full of action and laughs. So it couldn't have been too shabby!
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