Imperial Warlords Act II: The Eriadu Campaign

[Thundercracker]

Espana quickly sorted through the damage reports, and casualty reports from the battle to determine if they had enough space to pick up the stranded TIEs from the ships that previously fled the engagement.

[RandomLunatic]

Veesha tapped her comm. "Oh Espana, would you take some scans of those frigates and tell me if any can be put back together relatively quickly at Mustafar?"

[robnar]

Tarastra

The rebel departure brings a brief interlude. LeStang's flagship acknowledges your order, and the one remaining Venator opens its colossal fighter bay to start bringing in TIEs. They report that their ship can carry all of the surviving fighters from their battlegroup - a paltry 112 remaining.

Your wings return to a close patrol around the area of the damaged ships, using the broken hulls and the clouds of stranded rebel spacers for cover. Four lambdas leave with a marine contingent and prize crew for the Consular frigate, while the SPECNAV team's Thetas detach and return.

The rebel fighter wing stays at long range - it's mostly composed of X- and A- wings, with little bomber capacity, so it provides no real threat.

Down in the main hangar bay, it's loud confusion. The stuck docking door is making everything awful - jerry-rigging the salon pod into one of the frigate cradles, clearing the decks of the damaged TIEs returning to base, and everything else. The SPECNAVs divert to one of the VIP hangars, and two of their thetas land at near-emergency speed. They disembark six critically injured SPECNAV and four critical rebel prisoners, followed by 13 more serious injuries.

Upper

The death of the rebel fueling gantry is nowhere near as satisfying as you expected. It turns out half the bags were loaded with ice and fire retardant. It matters little - the storm of fire from the Leviathan is more than enough to tear the gantry apart, piece by piece and helpless fighter by helpless fighter. The rebels start scattering, but the casualties are horrific. The Leviathan sits stoic in the center of the maelstrom, targeting frigate after frigate and corvette after corvette for destruction.

Talia Vesa - you and your guard are happy to mount up with a full regiment of stormtroopers on two imperial assault shuttles and two Lambda squadrons to intercept the rebel flagship. As soon as you noticed Home One Bandar diverted one of his interdictors toward it. The ship is ahead, straining its engines as hard as possible to keep up with the flagship before it escapes. Your shuttle squadron quickly overtakes the interdictor, burning on a direct course for Home One.

Spoiler: Rolls & Things

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Talia - perception check vs. DC 35.

Espana - knowledge (tech) or mechanics (whichever better) to assess the destroyed rebel frigates.

Espana and Halcoor - Use computer check for ship's sensors.

Kru - Persuasion (or other roll fitting your intelligence skills) to triage the prisoners and start them talking.

Halcoor - How long are you planning to spend here at Tarastra?

[Thundercracker]

Espana evaluated the damaged frigates as best he could.

Spoiler

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knowledge mechanics: take 10 if possible for 36 otherwise: (1d20+26)[37]

[RandomLunatic]

It was with certain trepidation that Veesha punched Talia's code inter her comm unit. She could only hope the Moff's wild gamble paid dividends.

"We've beaten the enemy back at Tarastara. What's the situation at Upper?"

Spoiler

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Not a second longer than it takes to recover the TIEs and and salon pod.

Use Computer - (1d20+21)[31]

[BananaPhone]

Talia Vesa


Talia was standing among the troopers in the Stormtrooper Assault Shuttle when the call came in upon her personal holoreceiver. Encrypted, naturally.

Retrieving the small, disclike device from her belt, the Moff held it upon her open palm and was greeted by the blue-white image of Admiral Veesha's visage flickering to life before her. Likewise, Veesha would receive a simulacrum of Talia's helmeted bust.

"We've beaten the enemy back at Tarastara. What's the situation at Upper?"

Talia smirked beneath her helmet.

"We've jumped into the heart of the rebel staging and refuelling operations. Home One is present. The Interdictors have the rebels trapped. If there are rebels falling back from Tarastara, now's the time to inform Admiral Bandar."

[robnar]

Tarastra

It takes about five minutes to reel in the salon pod and rig it into the frigate clamp. Another two minutes to bring in the TIEs.

During that time, Dr. Espana has enough time to assess the crippled rebel frigates. Given that the ships are basically conglomerations of a dreadnought-class cruiser with two Nebulon-Bs, huge parts of them are recoverable. With a few hours and some heavy transports you could probably warp enough stuff to assemble two operating frigates.

Upper

Home One is giving you a merry chase, burning ahead quickly. The Interdictor is barely keeping pace, but your boarding ships are closing in evenly. You've entered turbolaser range, and bolts start flickering by. The evasive maneuvers are distracting but easy. You expect the first two lambdas to make contact in another minute and a half.

In the meantime, receding in your screen, the Leviathan systematically continues obliterating Nebulon-Bs and blockade runners, sitting like a monolith backlit by secondary and tertiary explosions from the fuel gantry.

[BananaPhone]

Talia Vesa



Talia waited patiently, her eyebrow perked at how the Interdictor-class was able to keep up with Home One. She pondered whether it was because Home One was deliberately staying just outside of range and taking them on a chase, or if the Interdictors were somehow special...but after several moments assessing the situation, she concluded it was the latter. Just what had Bandar done to the normally sluggish heavy cruisers?

Not seeing a feigned retreat by Home One, Talia made her way to the cockpit of the Assault Shuttle she was on and glared at the slowly enlarging rebel command ship through the front viewport. The Lambdas were catching up, but it was still too slow for the Dark Jedi's tastes. A minute and a half was an eternity in a capital ship engagement, and she didn't want Home One having that long to rally itself and counter attack.

"D'you think you can micro-jump to close the distance?" the Moff asked the pilot through the vocabulator in her helmet, her mind filled with images of the Stormtrooper Assault Shuttle almost crash landing into the hangerbay, its turbolasers blasting away anything in there as she and the troopers disembarked to brutally murder rebel scum.

ooc:
Taking 10 on "Search your Feelings" to ponder whether that would result in their deaths in the next 15 minutes or not.

[RandomLunatic]

"Smashing," said Veesha. "Do you need help bringing it to heel?"

[BananaPhone]

Talia Vesa


"Admiral Bandar seems to be managing. It would be best to ready yourself in standby for reserve in case you're needed But as it stands there is no point needlessly risking any damaged ships you may have."

[RandomLunatic]

"Bandar will doubtlessly want me to take the Panthac to Erinar," Veesha told Talia.

"Espana, would you look at that hangar door and see if you can get it working smoother?"

[Thundercracker]

Espana reported to the hangar to take over the repair efforts for the hangar door.

Spoiler

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mechanics take 10 for 36

[robnar]

Tarastra

Admiral Halcoor - Patience is difficult at times like these - where the TIEs load slower than they should, some deck engineer gets his leg crushed by the clamp on the salon pod, and Lestang's crew seems to move with the motivation and alacrity of fog on Dagobah. Even the SPECNAVs are annoying you with their slowness as they pull hooded and injured rebels into the detention/med bays.

It doesn't take Dr. Espana long to realize that he can't do anything to the docking bay doors. Though the problem is simple and immediate - a torpedo knocked one of the main docking bay retraction wheels of its bearing - it's also massive. The wheel itself weighs about 90 tons, to move the thousand tons of armored docking bay door.

Your whole small flotilla - The Panthac, two damaged Acclamators, a damaged Venator, and the skeletal-looking Consular missing its grav-well pod - readies up about nine and a half minutes after the shooting stops. Three seconds later you make the jump to Erinar…

...and are ripped out of hyperspace early, mass shadow alarms blaring. As you fight down the disorientation and stomach flops, you wait for the screens to come back. You hear a couple retches from across the bridge. The viewscreens reveal a stark sight. In the darkness in front of you, in deep space halfway between Tarastra and Erinar, both of Lestang's other Venators drift lifeless, torn apart by laser fire. Thirty imperial-standard deep-space survival boats* flit slowly among the salvage, picking up crew. The ships are a total loss, and there aren't that many beacons.

Spoiler: *

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*- the large lifeboats from Starships of the Galaxy p. 50

Upper

It takes an annoyingly long time to calculate the microjump. As your ship approaches, a turbolaser shot grazes by you and another light laser slams into the grossly overcharged shields of the assault shuttle. Around you, other lasers blast by, one blowing one of the lower wings off a Lambda alongside you. Just as the jump calculates, another laser slams into your shield.

And then you jump. Suddenly, Home One is so close you can reach out and touch it. The magnetic clamps fire, and spacetroopers start filing out of the side doors to fly towards the other assault points. As the ship reels in the impact alarms blare, and you slam into the ship. Moments afterwards, though it feels like almost a minute, the red strobes turn green and the assault door starts to drop open.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Give me an unmodified INT Roll, Perception roll, Knowledge (Tactics) roll, OR Use the force roll (as is your wont) to notice something.

[BananaPhone]

Talia Vesa


Talia perked an eyebrow beneath her helmet as she seemed to browse her surroundings for something that only she could see.

The campaign would not end here. Instinctively, she knew that.

Bringing her mind back to the present, Talia turned about and headed to the exit ramps of the assault shuttle.

Giving a nod to Dagon, both she and her bodyguard activated their personal energy shields as Talia withdrew her crossguard lightsaber. Moving to standing at the top of an opening ramp, the Dark Jedi Master was bathed in blood-red as she activated her weapon with a Snap-hiss!. Talia waited until the extensions pressed open and the inside of the rebel ship became clear before she charged down the ramp and into the enemy vessel...

[trueshopee]

The command bridge is dark for reversion. As the lights come back on, the same familiar frission of nervous energy suffuses through the staff. You hear the soft whispers of status reports and acknowledgements start to fill the room, and reams of data start to appear on each of your six primary holovids. After a few moment, the starboard side sensor crew chief reports to you: "Ma'am, we've positively identified six TIE scouts from Leviathan in a search pattern through the inner rings."

[RandomLunatic]

"Shields up!" Veesha called almost by reflex, before pausing to swallow back some bile. "Sensors, active sweep local space and report." She looked away from the vista outside to examine the holotank image.

((Perception - (1d20+11)[12]
Use Computer - (1d20+21)[34]))

[Thundercracker]

Espana

Espana attempted to determine if a solution to their docking bay door problem could be resolved by temporarily cutting the gravity generators in the hangar, so they could easily move the wheeel back into place.

Assuming it is not immediately feasible, he returned to the bridge in time to get jerked out of hyperspace.

Swallowing several times to quell the nausea, he started reviewing the streams of data coming in before the techs could compile their reports, and also checked whether their communications were being jammed, and if so, the source of the jamming.

[robnar]

"Shields up!" Veesha called almost by reflex, before pausing to swallow back some bile. "Sensors, active sweep local space and report." She looked away from the vista outside to examine the holotank image.

Swallowing several times to quell the nausea, he started reviewing the streams of data coming in before the techs could compile their reports, and also checked whether their communications were being jammed, and if so, the source of the jamming.

The holotank is slow to populate - the sensor crew is fighting down their own reaction to the sudden stop. When it does, you can see the remains of the two ships spread over a huge area. The initial sensor readings peg the only living things as the lifeboats, bleeping imperial transponder codes, and the emergency beacons of a couple hundred stranded crewmembers.

The cronau readings are off the chart. In addition to the horrible scattering due to your reversion, you can see the trails of multiple battlecruiser sized vessels entering and leaving the area and the telltale chaff of a grav well generator. Someone forced these ships out of hyperspace then left.

OOC - the hangar door's too massive to move without special equipment, even in zero-G. You'd need a frigate-sized tractor beam to lift it.

Giving a nod to Dagon, both she and her bodyguard activated their personal energy shields as Talia withdrew her crossguard lightsaber. Moving to standing at the top of an opening ramp, the Dark Jedi Master was bathed in blood-red as she activated her weapon with a Snap-hiss!. Talia waited until the extensions pressed open and the inside of the rebel ship became clear before she charged down the ramp and into the enemy vessel...

The assault shuttle breached into the starboard galley. A few panicked crew are cut down by Dagon and the stormtroopers flanking you as you enter, but the galley is mostly stowed up for battle stations. One of the rebs pulls the fire alarm before she's cut down, and the galley starts to up with the level 1 fire retardant foam. Through the clouds of suds, your HUD clearly indicates the paths to both the command deck and engine rooms, the two critical targets in a boarding action.

As the rage starts to fill you, you get a priority message on the all-officers channel from the assault force commander. "Heads up. The big fish is reporting heavy contact. We are to continue mission and take this ship, but if I give the abort order then return to the nearest shuttle and we scramble."

[robnar]

Inquisitor Kru - you report into the intelligence/detention section's medbay - the one that Dekki never got access to - and watch as the interrogator droids do their work of preparing their 'patients.' Triage is quick - the SPECNAVs didn't take the captain alive, but the XO is awake and mostly coherent. You grab his skull and initiate the mind probe.*

The first question, "what is your mission?" gives you a lot. Their ship, the Calicut, was part of a reserve task force that would be used to draw the Leviathan out. The consular was to hold the leviathan in place while the long-range intrasystem fires of the Kelliadu battery would disable it and another force would come to finish the job.

Spoiler: OOC

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Assume you're doing the mind probe gather info trick.

[Thundercracker]

Espana attenpted to track the destination of the retreating cronau signatures.

[RandomLunatic]

Veesha knew exactly where the signatures led. To Upper-or more precisely, Leviathan.

"What pulled us out of hyperspace?" she asked, not seeing anything on the sensors that would explain the forced reversion.

[robnar]

"What pulled us out of hyperspace?" she asked, not seeing anything on the sensors that would explain the forced reversion.

Navigation pipes up: "Ma'am, mass shadow of the dead ships triggered the reversion. With the leftover residuals of the grav well around here the mas shadow is registering larger than usual."

Espana attempted to track the destination of the retreating cronau signatures.

There's a large amount of cronau signature around here, so you can't be 100% sure, but all the indicators seem to confirm Admiral Halcoor's assessment.

[BananaPhone]

Talia Vesa


Talia felt alive as the blaster bolts whizzed past her and her blade severed limbs and bisected rebels. The Dark Side permeated through her brain and guided each stroke, parry, thrust and swipe, and it wasn't long until she was standing amidst a pile of cauterised corpses in a smoke-choked section of Home One.

Reaching out with her senses, the Dark Jedi prowled he ship in search of what she wanted: the location of the Force User that Rol had told her about. Apparently Ackbar had acquired a Force sensitive pet that he was keeping at his side. Find that supplicant, and you'll find Ackbar.

When she located the Force Users presence, she'd gesture for Dagon to follow her. She left the rest of the force disbursement up to the squad leaders of the spec-nav troopers; some would follow her to either the bridge or the engines, while the others would go to the place she wasn't.

[robnar]

When she located the Force Users presence

The force ripples around the signature of a force user on the bridge. You're not sure if this is the one that Rol saw in his vision - the signature seems a little weak for someone who could detect a power as great as Rol's.

You gesture to your team to follow you, while other teams start moving towards the elevators down to engineering. The hallways of this ship are hardened against boarders, with turreted blaster cannons sweeping the halls at each are and armored bulkheads melting against your lightsaber. It makes for slow, annoying, grueling combat as your teams sweep the halls with combinations of flash, smoke, and frag grenades and then you move in to destroy the systems. It seems the rebels must be massing their manpower to fight at the bridge or in engineering.

Outside, you hear the clunks as the spacetroopers swarm over the hull, disabling weapons and cutting in secondary entrance paths.

Near the final corridor to the bridge, you encounter significantly more resistance. A group of rebel troopers, some rotary blaster cannons, and a short Twi'lek in a rebel navy uniform with a blue lightsaber bar your way.

[BananaPhone]

Talia Vesa

~~~ the following post is going through assuming that the twi'lek is within 12 squares.

By now, Talia had allowed the Dark Side to completely seep through her soul and mind as she revelled in the violence of the boarding action. Her consciousness was still there, her personality and mind, but as the Force guided her, her spirit was the pilot of a vessel seized by otherwordly forces. Unfortunately, the resistance to her advance had been relatively body-lite. It wasn't under they neared the bridge that a real fight was on their hands.

And then she saw him.

The short twi'lek in a uniform wouldn't have stood out to her if he had not been wielding the lightsaber in his hands. Either he was trying to provide a distraction for the real Jedi on board, he was attempting to look more threatening than he actually was, or he was a complete fraud.

In any case, as the blasters whizzed and lanced about her in the hallway, Talia reached forward with her mind to seize the alien to rip him from his comfortable position and to bring him within striking distance, her blood-red crossguard lightsaber coming about in an whirring arc to meet him...


ooc:

Spoiler

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1st swift action: Designating Twi'lek Jedi as target for Juyo. Spending a Force Point.

Standard Action: Draw Closer: Target - Twi'lek Jedi:Today at 16:41, @BananaPudding: 1d20+19 = (11)+19 = 30. The twi'lek, if in range, gets drawn to a square adjacent to Talia, and she gets to make a standard attack against him.

2nd swift action: Activate Battlestrike: Today at 16:50, @BananaPudding: 1d20+19 = (3)+19 = 22: so that's +1 to hit and +2d6 of damage.


--- Attack: Attack from Draw Closer against twi'lek Jedi, also using Rapid Strike (-2 to hit for +1 die damage): @BananaPudding: 1d20+21 = (15)+21 = 36
--- Damage, 3d8+2d6+19: 3d8 = (4+4+7) = 15, 2d6 = (5+5) = 10 = total damage 44

[RandomLunatic]

"Take us clear of the mass shadow and re-plot our jump," Veesha ordered.

She opened a channel to LeStang. "Leave the [crippled Acclamator] here to recover survivors."

After a moment passed, she asked, "What were you doing out at Tarastara anyway?"

[robnar]

In any case, as the blasters whizzed and lanced about her in the hallway, Talia reached forward with her mind to seize the alien to rip him from his comfortable position and to bring him within striking distance, her blood-red crossguard lightsaber coming about in an whirring arc to meet him...

The Twi'lek is astonished as the force rips him out of line and onto the point of your blade. The arc of the saber pierces through his left lung and tears out from the side, causing grievous injury. The Twi'lek staggers down to one knee, feebly holding his lightsaber in front of him.

Him surviving the blow is useful - It forces the rebels to watch their fire for a few moments until the Twi'lek decides to fall prone. Even despite this you're faced with a veritable storm of fire, and several shots get through. A couple scorch your armor. Another blasts through your shoulder plate and scorches your arm; a third blasts through your right hip guard but only grazes your thigh. The injures hurt, but are not critical.

Spoiler: Damage

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Take 15 damage. IN addition, make 4 deflect rolls at -0, -5, -10, and -15 respectively.

"Take us clear of the mass shadow and re-plot our jump," Veesha ordered.

Navigation confirms "Roger Ma'am, plotting a course for Erinar."

She opened a channel to LeStang. "Leave the [crippled Acclamator] here to recover survivors."

After a moment passed, she asked, "What were you doing out at Tarastara anyway?"

Lestang's response is measured and precise: "These are my crewmembers and those are Tirpin's boats. I'm not leaving them anywhere and you're taking orders from me, not the other away around... break." He pauses, about the length of time it would take to receive another transmission.

"Plot a course for these coordinates to execute on my order. The Leviathan is in danger. They're pulling the blockade force off Eriadu."

Spoiler: Short term remembory loss*

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Though it's about three months ago in RL, here's the post where Bandar told you why Lestang's here. It's only a couple hours ago in game time, Halcoor would probably remember it.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/shows...7&postcount=37

* Finding Dory line, not typo.

[BananaPhone]

Talia Vesa

The Moff grinned beneath her helmet as her blade dug deep into the twi'lek and fell him in almost a single blow. If Talia had to speculate, she'd posit that he barely knew how to use the weapon he carried, and that he was one of the newly anointed Jedi students beneath the purview of that pretentious farm-boy Skywalker. There were other explanations of course - maybe today just wasn't his lucky day? But given how close Luke was working with the rebellion, that seemed the most likely explanation to her.

But her little triumph was short-lived as a forest of blaster bolts erupted from the other side of the hallway. Whipping her left hand up and forcing her will forward, Talia seemed to "catch" the bolts in mid air in a decorative display of light and colour. When she closed her open fingers into an armored fist, the trapped blast bolts seemed to fizzle away before she returned her attention to the down Twi'lek.

Flicking her wrist in a practiced motion, the Dark Jedi Master struck out at the downed aliens body with her humming red blade with rapid, precise strikes...


ooc:

Spoiler

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Reaction: Used Telekinetic Shield on the blaster fire instead of rolling delect - 1d20+19 = (6)+19 = 25, which gives her an SR rating of 15, which negates the incoming damage. She's choosing not to continue sustaining the power, so it dissipates soon after.

Standard Action: She uses Saber Swarm on the now prone twi'lek (giving her +5 to hit). 1d20+19 = (7)+19 = 26. She gets to make 2 attacks at -2 penalty.

--- Attack 1: Using Rapid Strike (-2 to hit for +1 damage die). 1d20+23 = (17)+23 = 40.
--- Damage: 3d8+19 = (3+8+8)+19 = 38 damage

--- Attack 2: Using Rapid Strike. 1d20+23 = (2)+23 = 25, Juyo re-roll 1d20+23 = (11)+23 = 34
--- Damage: 3d8+19 = (3+7+1)+19 = 30 damage

Move Action: If the twi'lek dies, Talia is stalking forward 6 squares towards the rebels.

Rolls on Discord.

Edit: I forgot that I had Juyo activated on the twi'lek and so chose to use the re-roll on the second attack.

[RandomLunatic]

Spoiler: Pepperidge Farm remembers

Show

It also remembers the post right after that where she warned him off. She's going to quite annoyed if all this was quite preventable, and she's going to try to make LeStang mad too.

"Aye, sir," said Veesha, forwarding the coordinates, then taking a look at the plot to see where exactly they would land.

Then she opened a line to the Dauntless to ask for a picture of the situation at Upper.

[robnar]

But her little triumph was short-lived as a forest of blaster bolts erupted from the other side of the hallway. Whipping her left hand up and forcing her will forward, Talia seemed to "catch" the bolts in mid air in a decorative display of light and colour. When she closed her open fingers into an armored fist, the trapped blast bolts seemed to fizzle away before she returned her attention to the down Twi'lek.

Flicking her wrist in a practiced motion, the Dark Jedi Master struck out at the downed aliens body with her humming red blade with rapid, precise strikes...

The little Twi'lek vaults to his feet and slides around you almost as soon as you've reset your stance - he's fast. You're faster - your first strike slashes him across the torso, leaving a smoking gash in his uniform. He's able to bring his lightsaber up in time to block your second blow.

Though you catch many of the blaster bolts in the force, it can only do so much against the withering hail of multiple blaster cannons zeroed in on your position. Some of the bolts get through, scoring your armor and cutting minor nicks and flashburns across your skin.

It doesn't matter much, though, as his dodge left him between you and Dagon. Dagon takes the opportunity to shove his rifle in the little alien's face and cook off a quick burst. The ruined corpse slides to your feet as the horrible ringing slams of multiple flashbangs, frags, and stun grenades blow up in the rebel line. The troopers behind you got their lob right.

After the shattering concussion, the rebel fire is much weaker. The turrets are still blasting away, but only a few of the rebels can get their rifles over the barricades to fire randomly at you.

Spoiler: Pepperidge Farm remembers

Show

It also remembers the post right after that where she warned him off. She's going to quite annoyed if all this was quite preventable, and she's going to try to make LeStang mad too.

"Aye, sir," said Veesha, forwarding the coordinates, then taking a look at the plot to see where exactly they would land.

Then she opened a line to the Dauntless to ask for a picture of the situation at Upper.

Lestang responds to your earlier question about Tarastra: "Getting you. Bandar's orders. Thanks for coming back; we would've been dead otherwise."

"Here's the situation. Leviathan's reporting that it's under an intense long-range ion barrage. It can't pin down the grav well generator that's got it locked down, and in a few more hits it will probably lose hyper anyway. Their turbolasers are keeping the rebels at bay, but there are enough rebels to swoop in for the kill unless it can get free. We warp in 2 minutes so that we can arrive at the same time as the Eriadu blockade force."

Dauntless's pilot gives you a slightly different picture. "Boarded Home One and m'lady's assaulting the bridge. The spacies cut into engineering from the back, so the rebs can't nuke it anymore. Assault group commander said Leviathan's in danger, but to continue mission. We're supposed to scatter if Leviathan gets it."

Spoiler: Annoyings!

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Notwithstanding her warning, Lestang was there.