Crimson Squadron - a Star Wars campaign

A gurps lite exploration with x-wing miniature space combat.

Characters

BBOR9 Former Docking bay engineer droid played by Daniel.bowling

Pwando Duru Rough and tumble soldier played by Anthonius

Dakotan Defecting Imperial Officer played by Brokunn

Campaign Background

We are situated in the Gaulus sector of the Outer Rim Territories. Near the home-planet of the Twi’lek, Ryloth.

The party is composed of experienced adventurers of various types, all capable of flying a star-fighter in combat, though some better than others. Your characters have reason to cooperate and work against the Galactic Empire or would not have been chosen to fly in the Crimson Squadron.

You start on a small space refueling station known as Staion76 which is also a secret waypoint for Rebellion activity.

Recently, you’ve been asked or ordered to participate in a new Rebel splinter acting out of station 76, which while being a refueling and not-so-secret smuggling station, has not been known to be a rebel base. Someone is about to change that. They’ve gathered a few hodge-podge star-fighters, some munitions and enough intel to begin applying pressure to some imperial resources.

Mission 1

There is a small research facility on a large asteroid within one parsec. We have reason to believe a recent communicae, though using a very old encryption method and only partially deciphered, is from a high-level researcher who is wishing to join the rebellion. She has reached out and asked for an extraction after the installation has been occupied by imperial forces.

We have reason to believe this mission, though likely not highly dangerous must be executed rapidly before whatever she was researching falls into the Empire’s hands...if we’re not already too late.

Our surveillance of imperial transit also indicates an imperial shuttle is in the area and may be bound for the research facility.

Try to beat them there and find Doctor Carelle before she succumbs to the imperial grasp. Your fighters are being prepped in the hidden docking bay beneath the trash compactor. May the Force be with you.

What Happened

Three of Crimson Squadron jumped to the coordinates; Marson and Dakotan in X-wing fighters and BBOR9 in an Arc170. As they approached, two patrolling TIE Fighters banked to close the distance. Before any comm was commenced, BBOR9 fired proton torpedoes at the lead TIE, who dodged. After a brief dog-fight the rebels were victorious and flew into the docking bay, led by Marson who blasted a parked imperial shuttle as he flew in. BBOR9 followed suit and laid into one of the 2 TIE fighters docked in the bay.

As the rebels de-planed, the blast doors on the docking bay closed and Marson noticed two bodies in the adjoining control room. BBOR9 immediately approached the console and jacked in. He turned off the attack alert and re-opened the blast door. The party gathered and opened the control room door and Marson listened through with his cybernetic ear hearing little, other than the words "doctor" and "escape". The door was opened with Marson kneeling ready to blast in the front. As the door opened, Dak shouted for whomever was in the room to cease and put their hands over their heads. One of the confused spacers within complied while the other charged Marson who dropped his blaster and grappled the man to the floor.

After some commands from Dak and threatening motions from Marson's blaster, Bert and Clif complied. BBOR9 jacked into the control room console and downloaded schematics of the research facility and access logs and tapped into surveillance footage throughout the facility.

While a plan was hatched, Marson boarded the damaged imperial shuttle and changed from his rebel flight suit into an imperial pilot jumpsuit.

After finding the doctor via video surveillance in the ante-chamber of the latrine, Dak and Marson had Bert lead them through the facility to her via maintenance tunnels, while BBOR9 and Clif surveilled and unlocked doors from the docking bay command room.

Passing through the mess hall and into the kitchen the trio picked up a trail of concerned facility workers. Dak and Bert talked them down, then Bert led the rebels through the walk-in cooler to maintenance and machinery tunnels behind the walls of the facility. Behind the walls, the remote support of BBOR9 was crippled. After Bert made an educated guess at the proper door Marson listened and heard two sets of footsteps. Assuming them Dr. Carelle and her aide, the opened the maintenance door and entered the hallway to find imperial midshipman Shneel with a woman. Dak ordered him to stop and for the woman to come with him, then asked Shneel if the woman was "the target". Shneel gave a suspicious look and asked the Captain if he had been properly briefed. Dak asked for an update and as Shneel stepped back and reached for his comm, Marson quick-drew his blaster as Dak shouted for him to stop and drop the comm, noting that their comms had been compromised by imperial technicians and were not to be used under any circumstance. That's why Dak and his pilot accomplice where not fully briefed. Dak then ordered Shneel and the woman to join him while Marson and Bert cleared the latrine for any stragglers. They convinced the Dr. to follow them back to the bay to get away. Carelle was relieved her dated rebel encryption worked. The party opted to have BBOR9 lead them through the corridors via surveillance and door locking rather than going back through potentially hazardous maintenance tunnels. Rounding once corner, they group encountered two storm troopers carrying crates of research equipment. Dak convinced them to move along, as they were and the group reached the docking bay control room. Dak dismissed Shneel to the "lower level" and watched him confusedly go back down the hall into the facility. The group debated which ship(s) to take and settled on the supply freighter after noting the imperial shuttle though shielded and more luxurious had no hyperdrive and was unable to jump back to Station76. As the group loaded into the light freighter and strapped into some make shift seating, Dak and Clif and Bert (debating to stay or go) saw Shneel lead 4 storm troopers into the bay, pointing at the ship as BBOR9 fired it up. Seeing Dak and Marson in imperial attire confused the troopers, despite the anxious pleas of the Mid-shipman. Dak yelled that rebels were infiltrating the facility and pointed behind the troopers. Marson dove out of the closing freighter ramp as Bert, Dak and Clif scrambled in and the troopers advanced leveling their blaster rifles. They fired on the two ships' cock-pits as Marson fired up his x-wing and blasted out of the bay, followed by BBOR9 sloppily knocking over a parked TIE and bumping the left x-wing. As Marson wheeled his X-wing back executing a Koiogran turn to provide cover the single remaining TIE took flight to give chase. BBOR9 wasted no time using his lightning calculator and ship engineering to rapidly jump to hyperspace and back to station 76, followed shortly by Marson in his X-wing.

While the researcher and two of her aids were recovered, two rebel fighters, complete with jump drives and recent coordinates were left behind. BBOR9's data scrape revealed that the Captain deployed to the facility was known to mostly have experience on planet-side operations and his escort's IDs indicate they were all academy trainees. There's hope that they neither have the experience to fly the left ships or the know-how to harvest data from them.

Mission Two

Kardon Brigg, your “Commanding Officer” at Station 76 was pleased you brought in Doctor Carelle, and she and her assistants have been assets already to helping keep Station 76 off of imperial radars. He calls you into his office for a meeting.

“We’ve been farming information brokers all over to find the ARC 170 and x-wings you left behind, and to gather intel about the Doctor’s research and it’s whereabouts. We haven’t gotten a bead on the x-wing and suspect the empire still has it within their iron grasp. However, the ARC has popped up on planet-side on Plooruu, a small jungle planet in the same system as the research station. Plooru is known as a vicious place for both its wildlife and the mercenaries who frequent it. We have a man on ground, an ex-soldier named Pwando Duru. You’re to meet him in a cantina in a cliffside “resort,” then work your way back through a bit of the jungle to where we believe the ARC is. We’re going to send you with a cred-card loaded with enough we hope you can buy it back. Bring it home if you can, or find out who has it. That ARC was a versatile combat fighter we want back, starships are expensive, but so are talented pilots. Be careful about engaging any combat down there. May the Force be with you”

Dr. Carelle has been able to modify Imperial sensor jammer tech and equip your ships with it, so it should give you a bit of an edge if you end up in future dog fights. Rebel techs have also equipped a YT 2400 freighter for you to take down along with Marson`s x-wing.

You start parked in a clearing with a few yacht-type vessels overwatched by a couple security droids , here the jungle has been cut back and hemmed out with 20 ft-tall electro-fencing below an elaborate cliff-side building some 200 feet above. From the exterior the resort resembles a bunch of black and gold bubbles erupting from greenery and cascading waterfalls.

What Happened

Bbor9 and Dakotan gathered a bit more info from Kardon before leaving their ships in the "parking garage" and heading into the resort entrance, past security droids and a gamorian guard in front of the elevators. They chose to stop in the Cantina floor where they were to meet up with Pwando Duru. BBOR9 chats with modified medical droid, DishDroid 9000 while Dakotan and Pwando go up to casino to rent a skiff to take into through the jungle to the "dark back alley" above the resort.

Following his intuition, Dakotan drove them through the lush jungle in what could only be described as a jungle tunnel to a smokey dusky semi-cleared camp-ground with a few tents and star-ships and many shadowy figures with cold glares for the new-comers. As they slowly cruised about looking for the "missing" ship, a Daveronian zipped up along-side them on a speeder bike. Kweel Matock introduced himself from behind his giant magnifying goggles and offered to broker a meeting for them with the ship owners, for a price.

After a brief meeting interrupting the loading of munitions to the ARC as well as a B-wing and another scum ship, the mercenaries were disinclined to sell for Dak's offers. Pwando pulled his blaster rifle and began his style of negotiations.

There was a brief fire-fight resulting in Dak waving a stolen sword as he peeled around the landing zone on the rented land speeder with Kweel in tow, while BBOR9 took flight in the ARC and blasted down the b-wing just as it began to lift off. That happened after BBOR9 grabbed the armed thermonuclear detonator from the mercenary boss and tossed it at the parked b-wing.

Pwando continued gunning and beating down mercenaries until he also boarded one of their ships and all flew down to the landing bay in front of the resort, where they left the stolen mercenary ship before flying their ship and the ARC into space. They dropped Kweel Matock off on a nearby planet before returning to base along with an encrypted datapad off of the mercenary boss who Kweel reported was in the employ of the Hutt cartel.

Mission Three

Later that day, you are summoned to Commander Brigg’s meeting room.

“We’re sending you in to recover the scum fighter from the Plooruu resort landing platform. Be sure to do a thorough check for any trackers on the ship before taking flight. While we hope to use the attained vessel as a bargaining chip, we do not want to compromise our location.”

“As a precautionary measure and to assist a well-respected rebel, we are sending you to rendezvous with a reliable Rebel pilot on your way back. You will be escorting him to our hidden base here. He recently fled a dogfight with imperials. Pretty banged up and wanting to ensure he lost any tails, he has been hiding out amidst a very dense asteroid field a short distance from Plooruu repairing his ship. You’ll rendezvous with him and share jump coordinates.”

"We don’t want any more bad blood with the Hutt cartel, so we’re outfitting your fighters with a primarily non-lethal load-out. Please destroy other cartel ships only as a last resort." '

What Happened

Bacta patches for Pwando. Gear up for possible skirmish at landing pad, including med-kit. Some 8 hours after the battle on Plooruu, three rebels return. Fly in and park opposite-facing to watch each other. Pwando and Dak cautiously inspect the mercenary fighter for tracking beacons or obvious sabotage while Marson watches from the cockpit of his A-wing. Eventually, Pwando fires up the engines and Dak returns to his y-wing and three leave the planet and have an uneventful flight a couple hours to the dense asteroid ring. As the three weave their fighters throughout the asteroids, scanning comm channels for the waylaid rebel, they notice their being followed and hailed by a giant YV-666 freighter.

Pick up broadcast from a female voice: "I want only the stolen property and the thief. You othersmay leave in peace...or die as accomplices to the theft of my employers property. As of yet, you have no bounties I am aware of." Dak replied with "Not yet!" before wheeling to bear down on the freighter.

Dogfight ensues. As she follows and fires upon rebels, Pwando screams into his comm his frustrations with the hidden rebel rendezvous moments before the comm static is broken by a wailing roar “Wrraaahaah!” “He says watch your back, you’re being tailed by a bounty hunter!” The sparking and crippled Millenium Falcon had been revealed.

Brief battle with many forms of ionization of the freighter, largely rendering it incapable of being much of a threat.

Just as jump coordinates were shared, a small modified fighter jettisoned from the freighter to engage the rebels. They began their leaps to light-speed with Pwando narrowly evading a swarm of missiles fired by the pursuing bounty hunter.

Back at Station 76 a small heavy lock box was delivered to Briggs from the mercenary fighter.

Han and Chewy mentioned the narrow escape from Latts Razzi and Han noted that he hoped she wasn't survieling comms when they passed over jump coords. Briggs spun on his heel and began chattering into his comm unit as he walked away from the party...

Mission Four

After a few moments of chit-chat among the party Han and his hairy friend wandered off following your directions on how to get to the non-secret side of the fueling station to get a decent meal. Minutes later Commander Briggs turned back to those of you who remained.

“Go move the ships you just brought in immediately to the public side of the station, refuel and be ready for anything. Where’d that nerf-herder get off to?”

You told Briggs and he purposefully strode off after Han.

You quickly gathered your things and made way back to your ships, which you then took around the station and dock public-side. Shortly after fueling up, the Falcon came around as well. A brooding Han finds you all and noted that Briggs has ordered him to immediately take you all out for what he refers to as a “joy ride” for a few days to ensure you weren’t tailed, and if you were, to lead the hunters off away from the hidden base.

“The techs had just started tearing into the falcon’s comm array, jump coordinator, and targeting systems, all damaged in our skirmish with the empire, I guess we’ll be hauling a droid to try and repair some of it while we fly. Still no decent meal.”

You all mount up and follow him out into the stars...