New Ally

[GM Craig]

"Well to start, do you have an easy way of pulling his teeth?  Not that Jex didn't prove to be quite the oral hygienist with Shrike and...well with Shrike.  But I'm guessing this guy might not be too keen on having a vibro-sword jammed in his mouth in the middle of a fire fight to remove his transmitter.  Or do you have something we can use to jam its signal until we can get him somewhere safe?

And should we look at grabbing more than just this guy if the opportunity presents itself?  I'm all for vaporizing the place to cover our tracks but if they somehow notice just one person is missing they might dig deeper into what he's been up to as of late which could lead them to find out how he was able to slice the comms.  If there's a few missing it's more likely to look like a smash and grab than an extraction."

Shrike didn't have a tracker, or he took care of it himself. The guy with the tracker was a prisoner you guys grabbed when you were trying to escape from the Imperial Trap on the treasure ship. Shrike was a willing convert, the other one was someone you guys grabbed.

[Trax]

Okay, post edited.

[Trax]

Craig, does long range falls into the 'difficult' the 'very difficult' category?

Trax is 7D with any blaster and the top end of very difficult is a 30 so even an average roll he'd be close.  Take a round for aiming (and burn CP if necessary) and he could take out the comm tower before they know what's going on.

[GM Craig]

There are a few variables. The point Tibbero was making was that shooting from that far away is not a sure thing. You would likely be more likely to take out the uplink from the range than the average trooper, but that means you will be 450m away when the assault starts. Trade offs, I suppose, but having you do it is an option.

[Trax]

It's not a sure thing, but I'm guessing the moment the shuttle is spotted it's likely a warning signal would be sent.  If not then, the second it looks to touch down on the roof.  I think it gives us a better chance anyway.

The jet pack listed in the core rule book moves horizontally at 500m per charge (I'm assuming that's per round) and has 10 charges so I could get there in a round.  There's no difficulty mentioned in using it so I assume I'd only need to roll if I was doing some fancy flying or shooting while flying?

[GM Craig]

You won't be making a "short cruise" exactly - there will be some rolls involved, though they likely won't be difficult.

[Trax]

That last IC post conjures up images of the team walking through the facility saying 'Marco' whenever they see someone and if they don't respond 'Polo' quick enough they get blasted

Can you give me a ball park difficulty?  Apparently Trax's jet pack operation skill is only at 3D (not sure how that one got missed all this time) so his flight path could end up more like an orbital launch attempt than the nice arc from roof top to roof top that it should be.

[Niil Spaar]

We could still make a hot combat drop if the shuttle pilot's good enough.  If we could fit the shuttle with some grenade launchers, we could pop off a string of targeting-spoofing grenades (ie. EMP, smoke, concussion) or even a cluster of frags to distract/destroy anything on the roof a few seconds prior to landing.  The team exits the shuttle; first priority is to take out any resistance on the roof.  Then we hit the commo gear and head for the door (hack the door pad or demo the door).

To be truthful, I'd prefer that to being picked off while roof-hopping.  At least with the shuttle we have some protection.  We could probably do a HAHO drop on the base.  That way the shuttle can spit us out from miles away, and we'd pretty well have squat for a radar signature.  But then again, if we're visually spotted from a distance, we make nice target practice.  And there's always a good chance of not landing where we want to . . . 

[Trax]

Trax would be the only one roof hopping and once the shuttle lands I think we can be pretty sure all the cannons will be focusing on it, especially if you guys are firing at them with repeating blasters of your own.  That would give him the opportunity to land behind one of the emplacements, take the gunners out and then use that cannon on the others.

How long is the combat round in SW?  If I take the one round to aim can I apply that to two shots or just one?

[GM Craig]

Taking around aiming will apply the bonus to a single shot.

Rounds are as long or as short as they need to be. But they are around 5 seconds or so, depending on the circumstances.

[GM Craig]

OK, so are you guys good to go?

I presume you'll take a few troopers with you?

[Trax]

I've got at least one more question, just wanted to give the others a chance to post any questions/thoughts on tactics.

[Jex]

Just a question, it may or may not be possible to us at this time, but is it possible to jam the communication? Could a device be acquired/built that could be carried by the shuttle?

[Trax]

Yes, it's called a thermal detonator

Oohh, we need to find/make a thermal detonator launcher!

[Niil Spaar]

I was waiting for Major Tibbero to answer Trax's last IC question about the patrols.

As for some extra troopers - oh, hell, yes.

As for "standard" team gear - light repeater blasters, light armor of some sort (don't have the book with me), daggers (or vibrodaggers if we can finangle it), and some grenades.  For explosives people, a few breaching charges for stubborn doors.  "Hero juice" injections to carry with us in case of wounds.

And . . . the same set of gear for the dude we're trying to extract.  Just in case of the REMOTEST chance that surveillance satellites/craft see us leaving with a guy in Imperial colors.