Hoth: Blood and Ice

Zeno was in the hallway between the barracks and who knows what. He was looking over the mess and junk that lay around, blocking walkways. There are wires exposed from a wall panel and all sorts of other problems. But for right now he's just taking a mental inventory.

[Way open, hoping to get some people for a bit of base renewal]

After taking a moment to get something good to eat to at least liven his spirits after cleaning up all the sludge in the morning, Remmington passes by the barracks and spots Zeno. He offers the other Sith a polite salute from a good distance away.

"Good evening Zeno. I apologize for the smell. Helped clean out the hangar this morning but the smell won't seem to come off."

Tethys is nearby with a datapad in hand, having peeled off her armored gloves to input data more quickly. It’s still chilly in this part of the base, but she’s not in Dan of losing her bare fingers to frostbite, which is a lovely feeling.

“Lord Thul.” She nods a greeting. Zeno has always made her a bit wary in their few encounters on Alderaan, but having actual, Empire-loyal Sith for neighbors adjusts the baseline rather dramatically in his favor. “I was hoping to run into you, actually.”

"I saw it was a mess," Zeno replied, looking at Remmington. "Would have helped out but I had to go searching for lost adventurers."

He doesn't look directly at Remmington, but is definitely addressing him while doing his analysis of the situation. Similarly, he maintains that focus when he responds to Tethys.

"Zeno is fine. But if you are insistent on a title then Duke-consort would be more appropriate. I haven't been a lord of the Sith for over a decade."

"Your pardon. I haven't spent enough time on Alderaan to be thoroughly familiar with your planet's marital titles for nobility." Tethys nods with a mildly apologetic air. "If you prefer Zeno, I've no objection. Many people call me Tethys."

She spares a wave for Remmington as well. "And Lord... Balmung? I had heard a rumor suggesting you might have some special knowledge of the hangar situation," she comments, utterly deadpan.

"Have the two of you cleared rooms for yourselves in this area yet? I'm matching the crew list against housing numbers," she adds, lifting her datapad slightly.

---
Anyone especially excited to start us off? We need only 4 successful rolls at the moment, generic difficulty at this power level is 4 purple.

Zeno nods to Tethys. "I got mine cleared out quickly. I don't need anything fancy. I'm hoping to find and clear passages to other areas I think. The faster we go through the clutter, the faster we may find something useful in it all."

His heightened senses made it easier to see through the clutter and figure out what was useful.

----

D2 EE, Renewal, Perception + Force Dice vs Hard+1 for inadequate power: 2eA+3eF+4eD 2 threat, 1 Light Side, 2 Dark Side


1 DS becomes 1 success, 1 DS reduces threat

Total: 1 success, 1 threat

"Just as well. Nothing at all here is fancy, unless you had very strange taste." Tethys leads the way down a particularly dark and creepy unexplored corridor, marking off each usable room to be cleared on her electronic plot.

"You served in the Imperial military at one time, did you not?" she asks, not quite offhand. "I don't know whether I should picture conditions in that service as very spartan, or quite the opposite."

---

D2 EE Renewal Op--Discipline, difficulty 4 (inadequate power), I guess I can use the General's upgrade from Tension here?: 3eP+1eA+4eD 1 success, 1 Triumph


2 rolls passed!

Fluffing that Discipline as a fear check thing. I'll ask about the triumph when we know how the whole thing turns out, maybe find some interesting information about the base's history in a dark and creepy nook? Or... suggestions?

Following along, he wobbles his had to say 'kind of.'

"I was part of a military family. And when I say family I mean like great house size, not just my parents and siblings. It's different in the empire because it's not always a job, it's a family and way of life to some. So, I never operated as part of an active unit in a battle. I have fought pirates, Republic and Jedi opponents in my short active period with Zash years ago. But I continue to be familiar with common protocol."

Remmington studies the area with his goggles. Whenever he spots irregularities in the Barracks he goes to make adjustments with his tool box.

"We all got to do our part. I haven't had a chance to go off base yet myself but I'll probably be stuck here for the next couple of days at least repairing stuff." He comments to Zeno.

He returns the wave form Tethys and smiles. "Good to see you again Master Carrack. That is correct. I ended up activating the fire suppression system to deal with the speed fire that I lit on a ship. It makes ships go faster you know." He was joking right?


/ Base renewal in Barracks. Mechanics/Int @ Hard. Power +1 Difficulty. Master Artisan -1 Difficulty. Ally assist. Custom Tool Kit. Intuitive Improvements. Inventor. 4eP+1eA+3eB+2eF+3eD =
4 successes, 3 advantage, 2 Dark Side

+2 Strain
+1 Boost to next roll.

3 Successes so far

I like the fear idea. Maybe find a dark history of a survivors log? Or maybe some illegal experiments gone wrong?

After going over the problem areas that need cleaned up in this section, Zeno organizes a plan of action to see that everything is handled by appropriate specialist or general laborers. It was a good enough plan to get the work done.

Looking to Remmington, he nods. "Well, we don't know if or when the pirates may return. But some folks might need a mechanic to recover their ships from the wastes too. Can probably help with that."

----

D2 EE, Renewal, Leadership+Force Dice vs Hard+1 inadequate power: 1eP+1eA+3eF+4eD 4 threat, 4 Dark Side


1 DS for success, 3 DS to reduce threat to 1
4 successful rolls

The area is cleaned up and ready to go, the base is really coming together.

"Well I will be ready and willing to help out with repairs. By the way, did either of you need assistance with that?" Remmington offers.

He looks around a whistles. "This place is looking pretty good now." Much better than the hangar anyways.

"Zhe progress is impressive, zhis will boost spirits, well done," the General said.

Zeno shrugs at Remmington, "I'll get around to repairing my ship. Not good for flying into a fight, but it can handle non-contact missions just fine for now.

"Thank you general. How is the base coming together in your opinion?" he asks, mostly curious to find out what she considers their current weak points so he would know where to focus.

"Security is much better, power is improving, still we lack self sufficiency if needed. We cannot get contact off-planet, so our situation is still precarious," she replied.

Zeno nods in understanding of the situation. "We should definitely get comms working again, but we probably need to compile all of the collected data from the ambush and our enemy for the Intelligence organizations to look into."

"How are our people and supplies holding out so far?" Remmington asks.

"It will depend on how long we must remain in zhis place, zhort term we zhould be fine, long term, not so much," she said.

Tethys greets the General with a polite nod. "If we're still here in the long term, it means we have bigger problems. Duke-Consort, I imagine your lady spouse will be one of the first to push the Republic to investigate once they realize we've gone dark." With the Imperial CO here, she gives Zeno his formal title, Luth's offhand remark about formality echoing in her thoughts as she does so.

Of course, that raises another interesting question. Which side's relief force might show up first, Republic or Empire? And what happens to the other side then? Not for the first time, Tethys files this concern away for later.

"Meanwhile, the mission is still the mission," she agrees, adding after a beat, "For you and I, at least, Duke-Consort." She can't exactly speak for the Sith, not knowing what exactly they originally meant to do here.

((Can our Triumph on my Discipline check be used to stumble across or reveal something interesting/useful about Echo Base's mysterious past? Dealer's choice.))

"Yes. And I'd say the pirates have demonstrated both their capacity and intention to negotiate, or the lack thereof. I think the mission we have has become the same that the empire has at this point. Self -defense," the Sith-blooded republican said.

"It was always self-defense for us," Tethys says, lips quirking. "Assuming displaced Republic citizens count as 'us.'"

She's still bundling the last of the debris she'd been sweeping out of the last room on this corridor into a trash sack. "With no capital ship to back us, negotiation might be one of our strongest weapons, if we point it the right way." Most of the trash is just grubby ice chips and can be tossed, though some of it might be burnable--an extremely crude sort of power generation, but waste not, want not. And then something that looks like a bigger ice chunk drops into the sack with a distinctly metallic clonk.

"Huh." She fishes it out, tapping it against the metal case of her multitool she'd been using to help Remmington so as to knock off more of the ice. It looks like a dead holo-communicator, rather out-of-date.

((Triumph used.))

"That's interesting. Wonder if it works or needs work?" Zeno asks, regarding the communicator.

"With no capital ship we're just target practice for them if we approach. They'll be able to burn through our shields on the smaller ships. But for now we have to harden our position and then organize a response, whether diplomatic or not. But some intrepid folks here will try to make contact quickly I imagine."

"My lord Duke-Consort, don't underestimate the power of diplomacy," Tethys says, smiling with a quick flash of white teeth. "These pirates are a patched-together confederation. Who's to say we can't find the seams?"

She brushes a last slithering flake of ice off the device in her hands, pockets her multitool, and presses a few of the corroded buttons in a spirit of experimentation.

"I definitely get diplomacy, it's a useful tool. I more meant that those pirates ruined our trip and it wasn't because of or in spite of words we shared. They want a fight because they got the drop on us and hit us hard. Why waste the advantage?"

"Why not just waste our escape pods on the way down?" Tethys matches his rhetorical question with the one she's been wondering about for the past twenty-for hours, more or less since her ears stopped ringing from the landing.