They are in full working order, and unless the PCs have already rescued the Verpine prisoners, it should be quite the surprise.
Verpine Prisoners and the Stormtrooper Guards. If the PCs haven’t already encountered the seven Verpine, they find them here. These Ver-pine are the configuration team which developed the original designs for the prototypes. At the first oppor-tunity they will explain to the PCs that the B-Wings are in working order.
Two Stormtrooper Squads. Two full squads (with sergeants and heavy gunners) are presently assigned to the hangar. The sergeants are distin-guished by a red shoulder guard.
Heavy Weapons Stormtroopers. Three special-ly trained stormtroopers stand beside a repeating
blaster situated atop the catwalk just to the right of the TIE docking rack. The gun starts out pointed towards the hangar opening, but takes only two combat rounds to turn into the room. This is a standard Blastech E-Web on tripod mount.
Salin Glek and Four Techs. Glek directs these techs as they load the remaining pieces of Project Shantipole aboard the shuttle. These include the hard copy design specs, charts, engineering drawings, spe-cialized tools for construction, and all the engineers notes from the maintenance bay below.
If the Imperials are expecting the Rebels, they de-ploy so that they can fire into the tunnel the PCs ap-proach from. Where possible, the stormtroopers stand behind partial cover. Glek retreats to the pilots rec room in this situation.
When the PCs enter the room, the stormtroopers open fire in unison. Five stormtroopers use a combined action to fire at the first Rebel entering the hangar. See
“The Battle” for further details on how the NPCs be-have.
PCs making an Easy Stealth check can ob-serve the hangar from the tunnel entrance without be-ing seen. Any Rebel enterbe-ing the hangar must make a Hard Stealth check to avoid detection.
If a PC is spotted, a stormtrooper points and shouts,
“Rebels! Blast ‘Em!” The other stormtroopers are sur-prised for one round; after that it’s open season on the PCs.
If the Rebels aren’t spotted, let them study the situa-tion for as long as they want. However, don’t forget any detonite charges they may have set. Your players should realize that by stealing the shuttle they can ac-tually save the B-Wing’s specialized construction tools and manufacturing equipment, and by flying the B-Wings themselves out they can save the prototypes themselves. The B-Wings only require one pilot to op-erate, but the Imperial shuttle requires two; a pilot and co-pilot. If Suskafoo is with the PCs, he will insist upon freeing the Verpine prisoners if they haven’t already.
quickly and hard. A long, drawn out battle allows rein-forcements to arrive. Below is a summary of the NPCs tactics during the battle.
The Stormtroopers Tactics. The PCs biggest ob-stacle are the two squads of stormtroopers. One round after the shooting starts, both squads open fire. They drop prone or move to cover as they can.
During the battle, stormtroopers of the same squad will focus on a single target, but once the Sergeant has been downed, they break discipline and fire as two separate minions groups of four at different targets, while the heavy gunner fires at yet another target alone. They fight to the death.
The Imperial Officers’ Tactics. The round after firing starts, the officers lock both control tower doors.
Thereafter, they use the hangar bay com system to direct the stormtroopers fire to the PCs location. They will not call for help unless things look extremely bad, as defeating these intruders will earn them points with Commander Nothos. If the PCs break into the tower, the officers surrender.
Salin Glek and the Techs’ Tactics. If Glek sur-vives the first round of combat, he moves to dive into the shuttle. The techs break for the pilots rec room.
Glek spends the next five rounds preparing the shuttle for flight. One the eighth combat round, he starts the repulsorlift engines. On the tenth round, he lifts off.
Heavy Weapons Team Tactics. If the PCs don’t knock out the repeating blaster immediately, they’re in real trouble. Beginning on round three, the heavy weapons team begins firing the heavy repeating blaster each round at the most dangerous looking PC. The entire team must be killed or incapacitated to silence the E-Web.
TIE Pilots’ Tactics. Six TIE pilots are relaxing in the pilots rec room when the shooting starts. On round two, all six rush out. Four rush towards the B-Wing pro-totypes and two rush towards Glek and the shuttle. See Gleks’ tactics for details on the time necessary for readying the shuttle and prototypes. Once launched, all craft will fly straight for Nothos’ flagship. If the Pilots are cut off from the B-Wings, they will head to the catwalk to get their TIEs. If TIEs are launched, they will circle the asteroid and attack any Rebel craft leaving the hangar. All six pilots use the TIE Ace profile from the Core Rulebook.
Strike Force: Shantipole 38 Verpine prisoners scurry and hide. Thereafter, use
the Verpine to balance the combat. For example, if the PC’s start to lose, have the Verpine create diver-sions, using their own lives, if necessary, to give the Rebels a chance.
Ten rounds after the battle opens, reinforcements start arriving. Roll a difficulty die, on a blank, no rein-forcements arrive. On a threat, a detail of stormtroop-ers arrive (a minion group of 4 along with a gunnery stormtrooper), and on a failure, a full squad of stormtroopers arrive.
Any of the ships are eligible for being comman-deered - the control room cannot prevent a powered ship from escaping, though if any TIEs launched they will need to defeat them before escaping.
Ideally, the battle ends with the PCs fleeing in a stolen ship (or ships) just seconds before their deton-ite charges explode, consuming Shantipole in a tre-mendous fireball.
Once the PCs have commandeered a ship(s) and started it up, read;
he Rebels fly through the G147 corridor to the weakest point in the blockade. The Verpine fleet has arrived ahead of them and is locked in a one sided battle with an Imperial Raider. Unless the PCs inter-vene quickly, both Ackbar and the fleet will be lost.
As time ticked away and Imperial patrols closed in, Ackbar decided to move the fleet into the corridor ahead of schedule. Long range sensors indicated that the Imperial frigate guarding the corridor as moving away, probably to fortify the more obvious route leading from Shantipole to the fields edge. When Research Station Shantipole exploded, Ackbar ordered the fleet full speed ahead. He hoped the Rebel strike team com-mandeered a ship fast enough to catch up to them be-cause there was no slowing the fleet now.
Ackbar didn’t count on the combat genius of Com-mander Nothos. Nothos hd figured out Ackbar’s plan, and by ordering the frigate to leave its post, set his trap for the Verpine fleet. Unknown to them, he slowly moved his own ship in to replace the frigate, approach-ing from the sensor blind asteroid storm that frames on edge of the corridor.
Now Nothos’ flagship, a dreaded Imperial Raider, has engaged the Verpine fleet. Confident that the un-armed ships cannot hurt him, Nothos leisurely begins to destroy all but the largest command vessels. He has ordered the rest of his blockade to capture the Rebels who destroyed Shantipolem expecting them to break through the field at a spot closer to the now destroyed research station. That simple flaw in his logic could prove to be Nothos’ undoing, provided the Rebels can think of a way to distract his ship while the Verpine jump to lightspeed.
To do this, the PCs must distract the Imperial Raider by giving it something else to shoot at. If the PCs man-aged to fly out the B-Wing prototypes (which they should have made their first priority) they will have the perfect weapons to use against the Raider.
The scene begins as the Rebels emerge from the asteroid field into the G147 corridor per Ackbar’s plan.
To do this, they will have navigated through the dense asteroid field that surround the remains of Research Station Shantipole. As the Rebels near the exit out of the G147 corridor, read the following passage out loud;
Strike Force: Shantipole 40 If the PC’s haven't already figured out that the
B-Wings were designed to take out the Imperial Raider, Suskafoo will note that they were specifically de-signed to pack enough firepower to disable an Imperi-al frigate’s engines, provided they can get close enough to fire.
If the PC’s have more ships than they can man, the Verpine prisoners they PCs (should have) rescued can help. They were trained as pilots to test the pro-totypes, and have the same profile as Suskafoo with the addition of 2 Ranks in Piloting (Space). They will happily Pilot or Co-Pilot any ships that need to be flown, but they will refuse to fire weapons systems due to their pacifist natures.
The PCs don’t need to destroy the frigate, they only need to inflict three direct hits from the ion can-nons or a single direct hit from the proton torpedoes.
Any activation of a critical counts as direct hit, either through triumph use or exceeding the hull threshold of the Raider.
Once the conditions are met, proceed to “The Big Conclusion.”
One gunner
After your players have damaged the frigate (with the set amount of direct hits) read:
Back at the Rebel rendezvous point, injured Rebels are treated immediately. Ackbar asks the PCs and Sus-kafoo to act as his honor guard for the Admiralty cere-mony. Afterward he will offer the team commissions as officers should they not already be of that rank (this means if the groups Contribution Rank is not already at 2, raise it to 2 at this time). In addition to the
Contribu-tion awards presented in this adventure, award each character Duty rewards (in addition to those from their Motivation and Duty) based on the following;
Rescuing the Prototype B-Wings (even one) - 1 Duty
Rescuing the Verpine techs - 1 Duty
Recovering/Destroying the crates on the Shuttle - 1 Duty
Ensuring Shantipole was clear before detonating - 1 Duty
Rescuing Pollard - 1 Duty
Capturing Salin Glek - 1 Duty
Finally, award the PCs the following experience point awards for their actions:
Saving the Verpine Fleet - 10 XP
Rescuing the Prototypes - 5 XP/prototype
Rescuing the Shantipole Data - 5 XP
Destroying Research Station Shantipole - 5 XP