Mynock Squadron Recap # 30 [RPG]

Session # 30 Recap

Having successfully destroyed the Nanocarrier and saved countless lives, the pilots of Mynock Squadron’s Beta Flight retreat to a safe distance away from Dorval’s Wall and take stock.  Warik’s vessel was heavily damaged in the fighting, and Keth suffers from minor radiation poisoning.  As Warik goes EVA to repair his Defender, the others intercept panicked Imperial chatter—Alpha and Gamma flights have launched their attacks on the remaining Nanocarriers!

The pilots of Beta Flight follow through on their pre-planned secondary mission of securing the Imperial mining base hidden in the depths of a dense asteroid belt.  Mikaela’s knack with sensors allows her to plot a safe course through the treacherous field.  As the pilots near the centre of the field, Keth and Kero use their ships’ sensors to find the hidden base and its defensive batteries of concussion missiles and blaster cannons. 

The group decides to try to bluff their way into the base to avoid having to run the gauntlet.  Warik comms the base, but the defenders are wary and insist on receiving code words that he can’t provide.  As the base’s concussion missile launchers swing towards the ships, the pilots react even faster.  Mikaela strafes and destroys one of the batteries, while Warik takes care of the others.  Kero and Keth have little difficulty leaving smoking craters in place of the base’s blaster cannon turrets.

Beta Flight lands and prepares to breach under fire using explosives.  They gain entry, but the lack of gravity makes ground combat disorienting.  Although the first group of Stormtrooper defenders are dealt with, Keth accidentally shoots Warik in the foot!  After the fighting, Keth hands Kero a medpac and asks her to treat him, but she looks confused by the idea and tells Keth that it was his mistake, so he should fix it.  Warik shouts at Kero that she’s a trained medic and shouldn’t act like she’s never bandaged a blaster wound before.  Each asks if the other is suffering from a concussion.  As they proceed down the corridor, Warik whispers to Keth that he’s going to request a psyche eval for Kero once they return to New Republic space.

The pilots fight their way to the mining base’s armoury and they take advantage of what’s available.  Just as someone reaches for a box of grenades, Keth shouts to stop!  The box is booby-trapped, and further movement would have set off every grenade it holds!  Warik manages to disarm the trap, and the soldiers continue on through the base. 

After one bend in the corridor, force field projectors begin to hum.  Warik jumps back in time, but Keth finds himself cut off from his companions just as an Imperial E-web crew comes into sight!  As Warik desperately tries to destroy the force field generators, Keth realizes he has no choice but to charge the E-web at full speed!  He’s wounded by several bolts but manages to close the distance and stay alive until his friends arrive and finish off the crew.  Warik contrives to have the E-web lifted onto an anti-grav stretcher.  Kero treats Keth’s wounds, mentioning that she may need to perform surgery on him when time allows.  Mikaela raises an eyebrow at the remark.

After blowing open a security door, the pilots reach the central command module of the base.  There, they find the base commander holding a pistol and trying to browbeat technicians into defending him!  Kero intimidates the technicians into surrendering, but the base commander fires anyway and hits Warik in the stomach!  Warik responds by opening up with the E-web, leaving only a smoking heap of burned flesh where the commander stood!

Having earlier shown themselves skilled in starfighter combat, the members of Beta Flight have proved their prowess in ground combat as well.  The mining base is now secure, providing a safe location for the New Republic forces trapped behind Dorval’s Wall to plan the next steps in their campaign to destroy the Pentastar Alignment once and for all.

----------------------------------------------------------

Director's Commentary (12/05/2017)

Kero's dual personality problems continue to manifest, and become quite noticeable to the other PCs in this session.  Unfortunately, we never got to see how it would all play out.

I really like implementing stuff like Zero-G combat, knowing that most players will completely ignore preparing their characters for it, but any who do will receive a big advantage.  I think, however, I forgot about the zero-G stuff about halfway through the session!

This session had a lot of traps, and exciting, cinematic moments.  I have to give credit to the system, and it's really easy to design action scenes that are fun but (when it comes to PCs) relatively forgiving, with a large margin of error.  I was never in any doubt that the PCs would take the asteroid base, but it was a lot of fun seeing exactly *how* they did it.

This was the last session of the campaign.  There were some very painful real-life issues that brought it to a close earlier than planned.  I did manage to put together a nice epilogue, which I'll talk about next week.

Next Recap