For this mission the commander is called Andy, the Gamemaster should make up some stats or use the character Andy McNab on the characters page. Briefing
Read aloud
We have found out from our spies that the Empire has a small garrison on the planet Nexus, located on the far side of the galaxy. We have been testing a new kind of pulse weapon. Things we know about the weapon is that it is about the size of a large speeder and equally maneuverable. It is able to fire out of most atmospheres and is therefore a threat to the Rebellion. We know that the Empire has a couple of these around Nexus and we need them taken out. Your task is in two parts:
One, to destroy the main resupply docking bay.
Two, to find and destroy the pulse weapon.
Your unit will go under the call sign Charlie - 31. We are not really bothered on how you do it but the final decision will come down to your squadron commander. The most important part of this mission is that you are going in as an undercover operation. The Nexus officials and the Imperial garrison won’t know of your presence and if you are captured you will be at the mercy of the Imperials. You are to perform this operation with the most impact to the docking bay and the weapon but without alerting the Imperials. You have two days to prepare, one for planing and one for getting equipment you will need from rebel stores.
Some other information about the planet is that Nexus is a hellish desert world located on the far side of the galaxy of Kashan. Officially it is listed as 'uninhabited' on any sector maps. In reality it houses a maximum security prison that was established by Kashan Systems. The prison is located a few kilometers north of the planet's equator. You are not to have any contact with it or to try and release any of the prisoners.
At this stage we only know of two groups that have defined territories on the planet. The Imperials, where you will be working own most of the planet. But there is another group, the Lossam, that have resisted the Imperials so far and will provide you with protection if you manage to get over the border. And remember if you are captured only tell them your name, rank, serial number, and date of birth.
Well good luck people and may the force be with you.
Equipment Given
Each:
Blaster Rifle (5 shot or 1 shot setting)
4 x 100 shot power packs
Knife
2 weeks food and water
Sand Camouflage clothes
2 x Medpacks plus 1 tube of bacta
4 grenades
2 smoke grenades
Compass
Equipment that is needed and they can get from rebel stores
2 x comlink (for leader and 2 i/c)
1 x small subspace radio
3 mines per person with det and det cord
PE4 explosive
Safety fuse
Detonators
Detonating cord
Rocket launcher x 2 (throw away after use)
Planning
Players should come up with a full plan off what they are going to do given the information at hand. This should include a starting place for both parts of the mission, ERV and FRV.You should decide to do the docking bay first because you might find some info on where the weapon is. When the characters decide to disable the docking bay, how much explosive they will need will depend on the explosives experts roll.
Easy - 120kg to blow up whole docking bay.
Mod - 20kg to blow up tractor beams and mounts.
Diff - 22kg to blow up tractor beams and mounts, as well as the computer.
They should also have a plan and RV in case the whole entire mission thing goes wrong and they are attacked by Imperials.
You are to be dropped there on foot. No speeders will be taken because if you leave them you don’t know if they have been booby trapped.
Getting Going
Read aloud
Over the past few days everybody has been in high spirits and going over basic fitness and training. Add 8 character points for the high moral that everybody has. On the sixth day you are called at 0500 by the pilot saying that you have been given clearance to start your mission. --You fly to the planet which takes 4 days (allow training time) and as you get close a warning comes over the loudspeaker to abort and return to hover distance. The pilot complies and you fly 3 hours away from the planet and sit in space to await orders. (No training time) After 2 days the all clear is given and you are allowed to proceed to the drop off area.
As you enter the atmosphere the pilot lowers the rear ramp and tells everybody that as soon as we get to 4 ft off the ground you jump with all your stuff and the pilot will fly off. This is to be done quickly as to not give off your position. If we are attacked jump back on and stuff your gear. The comlinks to the pilot will work until he is out of the atmosphere.
Pilot gives a 2 min warning to landing, everybody must make a 10 search roll or else you forget something on the shuttle. It is night when you land. When you jump everyone must make a jump roll of 10 to avoid spraining a ankle.
First night and day
You are dropped off 30km from the docking bay. You have 5 hours of darkness. You could make it to the docking bay but you will have to hurry. It nears dawn and you are still 10 km’s away you will need to find a LUP.
Easy search - about 3 small craters made by explosives
Mod search - a small overhang in rock that had been carved away by water long gone so that now there was a little cave below the land level.
In the morning you find that there is:
North- a flat area of 600m then a rise of about 5m and then another 400m a small plantation.
South- about 1500m a water tower and 2 buildings.
East and west nothing but flat plains for as far as the eye could see.
These building were not on the map which meant that we didn’t know what else there was that wasn’t on the map. The only way someone could see you was if they came right up to the lip of the cave and looked down from the south. The overhang covered the rest of us. They could only see us if we could see them. We should report what we have seen but the radios can’t work a heroic roll will discover that they have been damaged during the flight here.
They can investigate the plantations but this should be done at night. They will find buildings and farming equipment. Hear growling after a while and it is just a pet bob. You hear men coughing but nothing that is an immediate danger to you. You do see a large repeating weapon bolted to a concrete platform. When you decide to head back it is 2 hours to sunlight, you see in the distance (4kms away) a huge building about 2 stories high but very wide (the docking bay). If you decide to go there you will have about 20mins to look around before you have to head back.
Day 2
You wake at half a hour before dawn and get everybody to do a quick search that you have not dropped anything out of the hideout and not left footprints leading here. I also make everybody stand to until dawn.After dawn I let everyone get breakfast. During breakfast you hear the sounds of goats and the tinkle of a bell. The goats come closer until one of them pops there head over the lip. More goats head over. Then a young boys head comes into view over the edge, he is looking away from us but keeps walking until we can see his whole body down to his knees. He is looking at the goats and hitting them with a stick. He turns his head and looks around above you. Then he looks down straight at you, he freezes to the spot totally astonished. He then turns and run back towards the plantation. He gets away.
Andy says - OK hang on, he could do a number of things, he could not tell anyone, he could tell his parents or he could run straight to the guns and troopers. So either way the shit hits the fan right nhar!!
When they decide to move or after 4mins, you hear a rumbling of a vehicle coming your way. When you look out of the hole you see it just a farmer in a tractor. When you leave drop everything you think you won’t need because you need to move quick and be as light as possible.
Nothing happens as you walk for about 5mins then you hear the sound of armoured speeders to your left. I tell everybody to get down and hide, there are boulders scattered about the place. When the speeders come into view it is 2 armoured speeder with a huge cannon on top, and behind there is about 25 stormtroopers. Andy yell- “Grab what you need and leave your packs we’ll come back to them. Everybody then space out along this line and get down. Give them hell when you see my signal”
Let players fight for as long as there are stormtroopers. If things get boring reinforcements arrive
Once they decide to run off Andy say “grab your packs if you can and lets go”, it starts to get dark. Only one person is close enough to grab their pack (do this by they all roll 1 die and highest gets it.)
As we run the stormtroopers follow someone should throw a smoke grenade and then we run off losing them. After 2hrs of running we stop for a rest and to work out what to do. It is about 9 at night and dark. In the distance we can see headlights running around and heaps of glowrods. We should start heading towards the docking bay, where’s the map? Whoever had it has dropped it or lost it. With no map we should head north towards Lossam land and then report back in.
Now that the adrenaline from the attack has worn we are starting to feel the pain from our injuries, get everyone to do strength rolls and the lowest has a seriously sprained ankle, it is very swollen. The second lowest also has something wrong and he collapses. A mod first aid roll finds he is extremely dehydrated. The dehydrated one won’t be able to move for 6 rounds. It is also getting colder and there was now a total cloud cover. Some fighters go over head, we should use the comlinks. We manage to get a fighter and he replies “say again, say again. Your signal is very weak.” We try again but nothing replies.
You keep walking until a bit past midnight you come to a metalled road. We should not follow it because we don’t know where it leads or which road it is. We should keep going north so we know we will hit Lossam land.
Everyone -1D off everything because of the cold. We should find shelter. On top of a small mound there is a small rock wall about 1m high. About 2kms away there is a long line of pylons going off into the distance.
You feel the wind whip around you and the cold feels like being in a freezer cabinet. Andy says that we should remove and burn anything that connects us to the rebellion and anything that says who we are. It will warm us up as well.
Third day
The next morning it starts raining, in the desert. And then 1hr later it starts snowing. Everyone is reduced to 2D everything. At about 10am a car goes past following the pylons and then about 10mins another goes past. At 11am no more cars go past and the situation has gotten worse. The weakest person will die in the next two hours unless we find warmth. We should stuff the undercover bit and cook up some food and tea, smoke or no smoke. For the next half hour we huddle round the fire and eat an drink hot food. We make stupid jokes that at least its not hailing. If they do not move then at 2pm the weakest player will start to feel weak and can only mumble they have to move or find shelter.About 3ks through the snow we come off the snow line onto hard rocky ground. In the distance you can see vehicle headlights. The wind is getting stronger and colder.
We should keep heading north. We come to dried up river bed and the weakest collapses he is 1D everything now, time to make another hot meal and drink. It is now midnight.
Whilst you are sitting there the fire goes out and in the next ten minutes you hear voices and footsteps coming the way. Andy makes a couple of signals. Everyone roll knowledge to see what it means.
You all understand it means there are 2 guys with rifles, so get down, no guns and absolute silence. When someone goes to kill them the two guys stop look behind them and walk away.
We should stay here for the rest of the night and continue in the morning.
Forth day
We awake at dawn and hear “ding ding, baa baa”.We see the road and before that 6 goats wandering around, then they see us and come closer. After about 30 seconds a guy about 70 comes up to us. He can’t speak our language and we can’t speak his. He says something and smiles.
Roll play a whole conversation.
After a while we have to decide what to do with him. The person who says to let him go first gets a force point and the person who says to kill him gets a darkside point. Name of person
let him go ___________________
kill him _____________________
I say we should let him go and that’s final. The man gets up after we say good-bye and walks off hitting his goats.
Now we had to work out what to do. 1, follow the river bed to where ever it goes. 2, get a car and dive across the border tonight. 3, sit here and die.
If they decide to follow the river the weakest stumbles and suffers 2D damage.
The first car they try is an off road speeder that looks brand new, when it gets closer it is full of wookies wearing the national boxing shirts. (Maybe not this car) The car they get is an old taxi speeder that has a fully covered roof and a couple of dents and scratches around the sides. It is being driven by a uukaablian. (A non-stop talking polite species) Once they have the car they drive for about 40 km when they come to a slowly moving jam of speeders all lined up. If the players try to reverse a speeder comes up the back of them blocking in. After a bit of looking from the driver only, you see it is a stormtrooper checkpoint. There is a trooper walking down the line tapping on about every 2nd or 3rd peoples windows and asking for ID.
We should wait in case they go past us. But the person in the back seat behind the front passenger should put his gun barrel on the driver lap, if a trooper puts his head in and ID’s us just bring it up and shoot. Driver keep your head back. If we shoot him everyone jump out, stay together and head west.
The trooper keeps coming and then knocks on the window of the speeder in front. He looks at the drivers ID and then gives it back. He comes to our speeder, he goes to knock on the window and then turns and walks back to the car in front. He gets back the ID and calls another trooper. They talk for a bit and then give the ID back to the owner.
The first trooper then comes back to our speeder and knocks on the window. If the window goes down he looks in and says “your the guys who attacked the plantation”. The shot should be fired and everyone jumps out of the car.
The second trooper shoots at the driver. And five more are running towards the car. Everyone do a knowledge or memory roll the highest remembers that it is 13kms to the border and 9 hours of darkness.
After 4kms you come to a small town. There are street lights and house everywhere. You run through the town. (One of the players is tackled by a trooper and nobody notices until they ask him a question or talk to him)
The border checkpoint is 400m away and guarded by 3 stormtroopers. To shoot them running is a very difficult shot, but to stop and shoot is a moderate shot from 150m away. If you don’t shoot them at 100m they will shout at you to halt. At 50m they will shoot.
Once you run through the checkpoint you get about 15m when 3 stun grenades explode around you, only a heroic dodge roll will make you avoid the grenades otherwise take 10D stun damage.
If someone does dodge the grenade you do a running roll to run to the nearest cover and dive behind it. Whilst they are running they are shot by a heavy repeating rifle on stun. Only a heroic strength will avoid this. If you do 15 stormtroopers jump on you and kick you unconscious.
You all wake together hands cuffed behind your backs and sitting in a circle. There are 20 troopers 10 of them have their blasters aimed at you. All of your stuff except your clothes are gone, your boots have been removed and so have your watches. The troopers make you sit up and a few of them kick you, 2D strength.
They pile you all into a large speeder and drive off. Two of them sit in the back with you and start thumping you with their rifle butts. After about a while they stop you are all bleeding and in pain. Everything is at 1D. We drive for awhile longer and come to a gate set in a 3m high wall, this is obviously the Imperial garrison barracks. You are pulled from the truck and are dragged through the gates and into a large courtyard with a selection of buildings. The gates are slammed shut behind you.
Fifth Day - Capture
It is now jut getting light and you are all dumped in a circle on the grass hands still tied. Two guards stand near us. (If the players talk to each other a guard comes over and hits them with the butt of his rifle)A man comes over wearing a very clean and straight imperial officers uniform. He ask who is the leader here. I don’t answer. The officer yells it this time. I answer and the two guards pick me up and drag me to the main building followed by the officer. (If someone else answers I say no its me) You are now alone on the grass.
(Let players talk between themselves for awhile then when they finish) You see the door of the main building open and see the two guards drag me back out and drop me on the grass about 10m away. I am bleeding from all over and my face is all cut and swollen. I have not moved since I was dropped on the grass. (He is 1D everything)
(All others at 2D everything now) (Let players do what they want for awhile. If one of them tries to help me the troopers knock him down and drag him back. If they talk at all they are hit by the troopers) After a while the captain comes out and asks for the 2 i/c. He asks twice and then the guards grab the nearest guy and drags him into the main room, they come back out side and shut the door and walk back over to you.
Interrogation
You are dragged into the main room. There is a metal chair in the middle of the room and a desk at the other end. Behind the desk is sitting the man wearing the officers uniform. There are three stormtroopers in the room with blaster rifles and two other men wearing officers uniforms.You are sat down in the chair by two of the troopers and a blind fold is put over your eyes. You hear the officers voice. (if he doesn’t answer or give a correct answer the troopers hit and kick him 4 times)
“What is your name?”
“Are you part of the rebellion?”
“What are you doing on Imperial Land?”
“Who is the officer that sent you?”
“How did you get here?”
“How many were with you when you got here?”
If the guards have hit him a few times go on if not then ask more questions like above.
“Look (his name) I want to help you. I am being made to do this and you are not making it any easier on yourself. If you tell me what I want to know you and your friends will be let go.”
“What was your mission here?”
“What were you doing so near the border?” “Your friend has told me everything so why don’t you, and then you and your friends will be allowed to go.”
Carry on for a while if possible until person can’t or won’t answer a question correctly, then the troopers start kicking and hitting him until he is incapacitated. After they finish hitting you. You feel the guards pick your bleeding swollen body up and drag you back outside and drop you next to Andy on the grass. If other players talk or try to help us they are hit with a rifle butt.
The players that aren’t laying nearly dead are handcuffed to the metal fence on the grass. The other two are left where they are and their ankles are handcuffed. It is now dusk and one guard has been made to stand watch over us. It starts to snow.
If the players try to escape the first storm trooper calls for reinforcements and all players are beaten to incapacitated.
Sixth Day
We are all woken by stormtroopers kicking us (2 per player). We are all unhandcuffed from the fence and then re-handcuffed. Then made to walk to one of the smaller buildings. The troopers throw us inside and lock the door. Everyone is still at 1D everything. There is a window but it has heavy bars on it.
(Let players do what they want for a while, all attempts to get out fail)All day we are locked in the room we have not eaten in a long time and everyone is badly injured and bleeding from various places that refuse to heal.
Escape
As you sit in your room you notice the light beam on the carpet getting smaller and the room darken. As night sets in it starts to get very cold. The guards have not come back all day and now most of them have gone to bed except for the ones on guard duty.Have everyone do perception rolls.
Easy - stormtrooper standing on the grass next to a tree, with a blaster rifle.
Moderate - another standing in the shadows at the door of the main building.
Difficult - you can just see the end of a rifle just outside your door.
(Let characters muck around for a bit)
You hear a scraping coming from the otherside of the room. Then you hear a “tap tapity tap tap” (do until players return “tap tap” do this knocking on a table)
If they return the correct answer the characters soon see a hole in the wall give way followed by an arm all covered in black.
It is 4 rebel secret agents are here to rescue you they say they have a speeder outside (they found you by finding your packs and then the rest was easy). You all squeeze out the hole and now have to get out the front gates somehow. One of the rebels gets down on his stomach on the ground and slides all the way along the wall to the main gate and starts working on opening it.
The players captured are at 1D everything each from your injuries and must escape without the stormtroopers seeing. Once they get away they are driven to a shuttle a few kms away and are then flown back to Alderaan.
Welcome Home
When you arrive home everyone is taken to hospital and they stay there for 8 days. Once they get out they are perfectly OK. (Roll play the debriefing part) The next 4 days is spent in a debriefing session with general Madine talking about what went wrong and what could be avoided next time.All those that were killed or seriously wounded receive purple hearts medals and anyone who showed great moral and leadership gets the Distinctive Military Medal.
Give 1 week recuperation and 1 week training.
Review
If you have read the book then you will realise that this is a pretty close version of the mission in the book Bravo - Two Zero.
When i used this mission i found that the players were not all that happy about people dying left, right and center so you might want to go easy on the damage rules a bit.
This mission is meant to be a failure to see how the players handle such a situation and is also quite long so you might want to break it up a bit or take some bits out.Overall, even though they didn't complete the mission, my players handled it quite well with only 2 fatalities.
The mission was enjoyed by most and they especially like the battles but then who doesn't.
