[IC] Prologue: Frying Pan

[Nova]

While waiting to walk senator Verbenti through his potential co-pilot duties, Nova stayed in the captain's chair,
staring out of the viewport as the others continued on with disguising the ship's transponder code.

She heard Rahullu clamber up to the cockpit. The Wookiee delivered some sound advice.
Nova answered without looking away from the viewport. "Hey Rahullu. Yeah, it's definitely different than just telling your wingman what to do."

"The Empire always taught us to shoot first and ask questions later. And for too long, I did... even when I shouldn't have."
Nova took a deep breath, then turned to face Rahullu. "I'm glad you've got my back, Bandit Two. I'll be ready."

[Garlen Veir]

Garlen replies to Rahullu:

"Not sure how much she'll listen to me. Those pilot trainees tended to be trained to look at us ground troops as grunts, beneath them. I will try, but she may not take advice from me."

[Jendu Verbenti]

[OoC: I was wondering if people could post what stat or skill they use when they make a roll.  I obviously know that shooting a blaster is either Dex or Blaster skill but some other things may seem obvious to players familiar with the game but I like to be sure.  For example, I assume Sensor Sweep is Mechanical but I'm also wondering if it could be Perception too.  And since Nova's Mechanical Stat and Perception Stat are the same I can't figure it out that way.]

While being given the run down of the piloting duties, Jendu watches everything Nova does very carefully.  In his mind he will be trying to follow her complex calculations...

Astrogation: 9
Sensor Sweep: 13
Sweep at regular intervals: 11
Com-Scan: 7
Defector Shields: 13

Jendu waits for Nova's evaluation.  He didn't think he did too bad with the sensors or shields but his calculations for Astrogation and the Com-Scans seemed a little bit wonky.  Jendu would have to keep practicing to get this right.  He didn't want to let down the team or his mentor.

[Rahullu]

Rahullu hangs around Nova as she shows Jendu the different skills of piloting. Silently hoping that the guy how the got stuck with last is getting well soon, be really inresting to get captured someone who is out so much that it did not notice either the ground or the spacebattle.Thinking out loud "huuguughghg uughghhhgh raaaaaahhgh aarrragghuuhw hnnnhrrhhh wrrhw huurh aarrragghuuhw huuguughghg uughghhhgh huurh raaaaaahhgh huuguughghg uughguughhhghghghhhgh huurh uuh raaaaaahhgh aaaaahnr"

occ: How about the sick one? Do we bring it to a dotor or just wait? Cant drag along a sick one into prision...
Hear any news from gamer75 Nova?

[Jendu Verbenti]

[OoC: Rahullu and Tiktuk, do you guys just make up your language or is there an actual online translator?   ]

While waiting for Nova's assessment, Jendu wore the welcoming smile that he always wore, when not under blaster fire.  It wasn't magnanimous, cocky or fake.  He smiled just enough to give himself an aura of trustworthiness and approachability.  He found that these traits were important for a Senator when not only dealing with the Senate but also with the constituents of his home planet.  

Thinking out loud "huuguughghg uughghhhgh raaaaaahhgh aarrragghuuhw hnnnhrrhhh wrrhw huurh aarrragghuuhw huuguughghg uughghhhgh huurh raaaaaahhgh huuguughghg uughguughhhghghghhhgh huurh uuh raaaaaahhgh aaaaahnr"

Jendu was facing the screen, attempting to double check his calculations when Rahullu starts roaring.  He couldn't understand anything the Wookie was saying but having a giant Sasquatch looming over your shoulder and roaring was disconcerting and a little bit frighting.  Jendu's smile froze on his face while his eyes twitched back and forth in a 'WTF' manner.  Did he do something wrong?  Were his calculations that bad that the Wookie was going to rip a limb off his body then beat him with the wet end?  What?  Jendu slowly looks over his shoulder at Rahullu, afraid at what angry, fanged, furry, death he might see coming at him.  Seeing that Rahullu's attention was focused on Nova, Jendu's face relaxed and he leaned against the wall behind him while wiping the beads of sweat that suddenly appeared on his brow.

[Nova]

Nova watched as Jendu tried his hand at the co-pilot's station. He seemed to have a decent handle on the sensor suite and the deflector shields. His scan of the comms could use some work, and his astrogation calculations... would have been a problem. 

"Not bad for your maiden voyage, Senator Verbenti." Nova meant it and tried to say so reassuringly.

"Angling the deflectors and working the sensor array went well for your first time. But when you next calculate a jump, prep your realspace origin and point of entry before trying to map any coterminous coordinates in hyperspace. That should help with determining route. And it's not ideal, but if necessary, you can add a couple of days duration to play it a little safer." 

OOC: I'm suggesting using the "preparation bonus" here. If you spend a round preparing for a single skill roll, you can add a +1D bonus to that roll the next round, provided you perform only that one task. Also, adding a day to your journey reduces the astrogation difficulty by -1 for each day added, though if time is of the essence adding days and days is obviously bad. If you botch an astrogation roll, you can keep rolling in subsequent rounds until you hit a 15, but IIRC each miss by more than 1 adds a potential complication.

OOC: Retconning the order of my previous two posts, haha! I've edited my last post so that Rahullu and I had the private "peptalk" conversation before I demonstrated the co-pilot duties. Astrogation, Communications and Sensors (combined as Com-Scan in the Introductory Adventure Game edition), and Starship Shields are all MEC skills. That said, I have seen Search rolls, under PER, used to notice or interpret weird results and anomalies. Will keep it in mind to add the governing attribute and skills for rolls next time!

Rahullu howled some food for thought just then. Nova nodded. "Yeah, I hope he's not down for the count. He was so eager to volunteer too. If he doesn't make a real recovery soon, we may have to drop him off at the closest Medcenter and hope his health stabilizes."

She took a deep breath and starting looking around for a breath mask. Gloves too. "I should see how our sick friend is doing." 

[Rahullu]

Rahullu looks at both Jendu and Nova"huuguughghg huuguughghg huurh awwgggghhh uugggh uughghhhgh aarrragghuuhw

occ: "Good that menas im off co-pilotduty?, I can still man the shields if you wish or Com/scan you deciede."

[Tiktuk]

Tiktuk's little nose quivers as she finishes her meal and looked at Nova wiggling her fingers like some sort of worms. She cocked her head to the side frankly not getting the meaning. But supposed she had tried something with the spirits and failed miserably. She put her plate and the remains of her food in the disposal then grabbed her tools ad headed to the transponder. She then started to work on it hoping the normal security features that completely diabled the ships Hyperdrive would not cut in. But rather than alter the one currently in the system, she looked to Vier.
"Zeeke nip guda wig wonga uti no no dabrute Zoom no chuki." (The harmonious equipment should be removed and replaced with a new one. If we fail it can disable the fast motor and leave us stranded.)

She would then make a new transponder

Building a New transponder
[5d6] = 24 Ship repair 15 mins
[5d6] = 18 Ship repair 1 day
[5d6] = 11 Ship repair 1 Week

Encoding a new one
[5d6] = 17 Computer Prog/rep 15 mins to encode the new transponder
[5d6] = 19 Computer Prog/rep 1 day to encode the new transponder
[5d6] = 20 Computer Prog/rep 1 week to encode the new transponder

Installing it by swapping out parts
[5d6] = 15 Ship repair 15 mins to Install the New Transponder

Once the work was finished she would scamper her way to Nova and speak. "gonetoe ibi jup dag new new" (we need to test the new name singer and see if the fast motor still works.) She pointed at the astrogation computer and then the hyper-drive controls.

[Nova]

Nova turned from Rahullu to Jendu just in time to see the senator's slight look of fright dissolve back into his usual warm expression. She scruffed the Wookiee's fur... and then playfully punched the senator's shoulder. "Yes, you're off the hook for now, Bandit Two. I think Senator Verbenti's getting the hang of it."

With that, she headed off to the ship's makeshift "quarantine." Nova wasn't quite sure if what she'd been told about their comrade's condition were true, or if the crew had just been indulging in some bawdy gallows humor. As a private person and lifelong loner, Nova had no personal experience with physical relations whatsoever. Apart from having once had a crush on SS-3-6 — or rather, Ria Talla, a cadet who had only briefly attended Skystrike before deserting along with three others, at the outset of Nova's second (and final) year at the Academy, she had neither the time nor the inclination to ever pursue or permit such things. Outside of her devotion to the success of the rebellion, Nova otherwise found fulfillment in contemplating whatever occult mystery had captured her imagination at that moment.

And so, despite trusting her Academy education, at least in this regard, she donned the breath mask and gloves anyway. She'd leave medic duties and armchair diagnoses to Veir or Tiktuk. Right now, she just wanted to make sure their ailing teammate was still breathing. The good news was that he was alive and seemingly on the path to recovery! The long days spent in and out of hyperspace had proven to be beneficial for everyone it seemed. As she emerged from checking in on their "patient", Nova realized she'd been holding her breath.

Tiktuk scampered up just then, pointing to the nav-computer and hyperdrive controls. Over the past few days, Nova had spied suspect trails of spare parts leading here and there, but she had faith in Tiktuk and Veir's combined efforts, especially after seeing how well the Jawa had patched up various starships back at the base.

Although she had initially wanted the senator to have a hand at live astrogation, Nova calculated their next side-jump herself, just in case the ship's new song was off-key. 

MECHANICAL [4d6] = 18 + Preparation Bonus [1d6] = 4  = 22

(Carefully prepared Astrogation roll for our next jump, post-modifications.)

MECHANICAL [4d6] = 18

(Sensors roll to test our new transponder signal.)

Nova smiled at Tiktuk, as the nav-computer charted their course correctly, and the hyperdrive engaged without issue.
Thankfully, even with its new identity, the ship still sang in tune. And now, it appeared that they were on their way in earnest — to find the Last Jedi.

[Rahullu]

As the hours wittel away, while  watching Jendud education as a pilot, Rahullu seaks out Nova, and veir if he is not working ""huuguughghg raaaaaahhgh , raaaaaahhgh aarrragghuuhw aaaaahnr awwgggghhh uuh huurh uughghhhgh wrrhw aguhwwgggghhh uughguughhhghghghhhgh uughghhhgh uughghhhgh raaaaaahhgh huuguughghg wuuh huuguughghg raaaaaahhgh raaaaaahhgh aaahnruh huurh huuguughghg huuguughghg hnnnhrrhhh aarrragghuuhw raaaaaahhgh huuguughghg" Then he throws his big fist a Nova, stopping just milieters before her nose, raaaaaahhgh awwgggghhh uughghhhgh aaahnruh. If he gets an affermative he goes away to make sure there is enought space, probably in the cargo hold.

occ: Hey boss, you mentioned learing hand to hand i think you all could do with some trainig with unarmed and armed close comabat, shall we say 2-4 hours training each day, thinking about the mission ahead it would be good if you all know the basics of self defense. 

First rule, always be ready.