Continued from Part I...

It wasn't very difficult for transport to be found on Hoth while the base was being setup.  The initial scans had so far been proven correct, there was no real life on the planet, at least on intelligent life.  The tauntauns and the more technical vehicles were underutilized as, barring Echo Base, there was really no other place to go on this iceball

Shira and TwoOneBee were able to get a slightly damaged vanspeeder in their custody by promising to fix and test it.  No one else wanted the job and advanced droids such as medical droids often benefited from trying to repair something mechnical rather than organic.

As the two were working on the 'speeder's tendency to list to the right, a small spaceship wheezed into the vehicle bay and planted itself next to Fabled Star, seemingly resolute not to move itself again.  It was a true contradiction, a typically asymmetrical Kuat Wayfarer that had seen much better days.

"Ah," a grizzled old tech said, "That's Her Majesty, she will get you young party banthas to shore leave on Bespin."

OOC:
1. As always, apologies for the usual delay.
2. We are starting a new thread and chapter this post.
3. Go ahead and place your characters in this scene somewhere and I will weave your PCs somewhere in the plot.
4. If your characters wish to, they have free reign to explore Hoth, as Rebel Command doesn't believe there is anything on Hoth to threaten them.
5. Otherwise, this new ship is lent to your PCs for the purpose of leave.  Your first destination would be Bespin which is near enough to Hoth and beneath Imperial notice (so far, as Episode V showed).  After which, your characters can take transport to different free systems for your extended leave unless (giggle) some sudden and improbable crisis forces you to stay together....
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:27, Fri 25 Aug 2017.

By the time the debriefings were over, Celes was ready to do basically anything else. While she was getting used to the idea of reporting to these pseudo-military types, many of them either historians or farmers, the lack of formality still threw her off. On top of that, she could see that some of them simply didn't know what to do with the information they gleaned from the team's reports. It was true, these people weren't meant to be soldiers and were forced into it, but Celes couldn't help feel that the Rebellion was going to need more experienced people in its ranks, and quickly. There wasn't much she could do about that from Hoth, and leave was sounding very good.

The bounty hunter approached her team, dressed in her purple bodysuit, her only weapon being her blaster pistol. The armor she'd taken from the Forcetrooper remained on board the Fabled Star. Her green hair was, as usual when let down, an almost fashionable mess. The rush of air from the second ship's landing was actually an improvement, though Celes was unlikely to be much interested. Instead, her attention was on the captain and crew's discussion.

"Looks like our transport could use a rest. Should I dress for exploring this iceball?"

Shira enjoyed tinkering with the damaged speeder. She was moderately good at repairing things, but her enthusiasm was off the charts. Ghostlings didn't have technology nearly this good, and it was exciting to work with it.
Shira smiled up at Celes when the bounty hunter approached. "If you'd like to come with us, I'd really appreciate it, Captain Celes. I can't fly that thing. The other soldiers are pretty sure we won't find anything, but I'd like to at least take a look" Shira attacked flying with the same enthusiasm as most things, but too much enthusiasm and not enough skill made her dangerous behind the controls of a vehicle, so she wasn't allowed anymore. Not until she completed more training. "Oh, I like the purple, Captain Celes."

"Oh my! I wonder what Bespin is like? I've never been there before" she said excitedly. She admired the newly landed starship, apparently seeing something quite different than the old and battered Her Majesty.

Making his way over to Shira and Celes with his usual whirs and clanks, TwoOneBee listened quietly to their discussion.

"Oh, I am quite certain we will find something Ms Shira, Ms Celes.  There are interesting discoveries to be made everywhere.  I'm quite sure Hoth has its own unique beauty, and I for one, look forward to exploring while I can.  That is, provided it is acceptable for me to accompany you?"

Celes gave a nod, then hooked a thumb toward their own ship.

"I can get my armor and we can get going. Maybe we'll get lucky and find something useful."



As she turned to head past the speeder and collect her things, Shira's compliment gave her pause. Celes gave Shira a blank look, then glanced down at her outfit for a moment.

"Oh. Uh, thank you. I guess it does look pretty good. Never noticed."




Celes nodded to the medical droid, gesturing to Shira.

"We'd be wise to take a doctor along. No telling how the cold will affect Shira. Besides, if we do come across any life that can handle this planet, I'm sure you'd want to get a chance to study it. Those databanks may be loaded, but there's plenty in the Galaxy left to see. Maybe you could make a journal of Hoth's indigenous life, once the war's over and the base doesn't need secrecy anymore."



The older ship, Her Majesty, got a wince from Celes as she looked at it again. She'd seen vessels in poor condition, but this one didn't look like it wanted to take off again.

"I hear it's a pretty rough place to put up a settlement. Plenty of tibanna gas, but too dangerous to safely extract. S'why no one's done it before. Whatever operation's going on there now's got guts. So do we if we're gonna be flying in that."

"Acceptable? Goodness, 'Bee, I wouldn't think of going without you if you wanted to go." Shira said.

"Of course we'll find something interesting. There's something interesting everywhere!" she added cheerfully.

She smiled at Celes. "We should go clothes shopping together someday, when we're on a more civilized planet."

She turned back towards the Her Majesty. "It's a little dinged. But I'm sure it'll fly just fine."

Thuraya stopped her saber training for a moment.  The remote was lagging, starting to slowly bounce off of the ice floor lightly intermittently rather than actually float.  It was firing at her booted ankles and didn't even tickle.  She sighed which caused Eli to smile slightly despite his meditation.  "This is a hunk of junk.  I guess almost two decades protecting Ember's temple has made them obsolete." Thruaya said.

"I spent almost two decades defending Ember's temple." Eli mused without opening his eyes.

Thuraya looked away in embarrassment, "Forgive me, Master Sundancer. I simply meant..."

"You spoke the truth, young Padawan, I am older but perhaps wiser."

He pointed to the bobbing droid even with eyes closed, now firing at its own reflection on the ice floor.  "It is probably not worth repairing.  Your saber can supply the coup de grace."  Thuraya raised the saber but did not bring down after a long moment.  "Just because something is struggling doesn't make it worthless."  She deactivated the droid for the moment and thought where an astromech might be.

"We can continue testing tomorrow."  Thuraya said, bowing as she left.

After the door closed, Eli simply muttered, "You already passed."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Ali bounded into the ice chamber where her friends were.  "Queenie leaves for Bespin and debauchery tomorrow.  But we can join a exploration mission today.  There is a series of caves nearby the initial scouting mission didn't notice.  They might have potential to expand Rebel forces here at essentially no real cost in resources.  Could be fun." Fun was in short supply on Hoth, one could only have so many snowball fights.

_____________________________________________________________________________

An hour later, a caravan of tauntauns and riders approached a maw-like cave in an imposing ice cliff...

OOC:
1.  Sorry for the usual delay, folks.  I wanted to give a little limelight to the NPCs so players know what happened to them.
2. Your character's interplay is doing just fine on its own so I am setting up the scene and moving things along a little.  The side trip to the Hoth caves is completely optional.  Just write yourself into the expedition in your next post.  Otherwise, you are still at Hoth for a little bit.  You can explore Her Majesty a little bit if you like.  If you still want to continue the current scene (which is quite fine), we will consider it a kind of flashback.

Celes's appropriated armor had been given some minor adjustments for a better fit, personalizing it to herself, and then it had been repainted. Rather than the immaculate white of the Empire's forces, Celes wore her armor in orange and red. She was less concerned with stealth than with presenting the image of danger. Whatever the suit didn't scare off, the blaster could deal with. Besides, it might be nice to be visible to her team on the iceball.

She let Ali do the driving. While Celes could, only having a left hand to work with might make operating a vehicle more dangerous than was strictly necessary. In any event, she was content to focus on giving her helmet's HUD systems a rundown and watch the scenery go by. It would take time to get used to the smaller field of vision again, but it would be worth the effort spent.

"Shira, doing alright?" The helmet had her voice sounding like it was coming from a comlink.

The droid doctor watched as Ali brought them ever closer to the rather ominous looking cave, looking very much like the ice wall was opening its wide mouth to swallow them all.  For a moment he wondered if he'd made a wide decision agreeing to explore the frigid caverns of a largely unexplored world.  He glanced over at DeeJay, seeing the gleam of her optical sensors as she gazed at the view screen in obvious excitement.  Yes he told himself, whatever happened, he had made the right choice.

He had thought a great deal about what Celes had suggested; could he write a xeno-biological journal concerning some of the more unusual life forms he'd encountered in the decades he'd existed?  It certainly was an intriguing idea, one he'd never honestly considered before.  It was an appealing notion.

He didn't intend to include tauntauns though, they were surly beasts that did not seem to like droids very much.  No, they would definitely not be in journal.

"It would definitely be an rewarding if the Rebel Alliance found our data useful.  I admit, from a scientific perspective, I am intrigued."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:43, Mon 18 Sept 2017.

Shira was struggling a little with all her cold weather gear, but still giving a curious look to every interesting rock formation and landmark the speeder passes. "I'm ready to explore!" she replied to Celes.

It had been wise to include a speeder with the tauntauns.  The normally well-trained beasts were too nervous approaching the cave to trust for precise riding.  That should have been the first clue.

The speeder was guided into the cave until it thinned enough to make disembarking necessary.  Ali scanned with the dual-antenna scanner while the rest simply looked with old-fashioned eyes.  Thuraya had a slightly forceful advantage in her perceptions.

"Hey," she said idly, "are those our eyes being reflected back at us through that clear ice wall?"

OOC:
1. Hey, everyone, it is good to be back after perhaps my longest delay.  My apologies, it was really a bunch of little things all ganging up on me at once.
2. Speaking of ganging up, what is reflecting back at you through the clear ice wall are Wampas, a lot of Wampas.
3. Why?  After scanning the internet for plot ideas, it seems that Hoth is rather under developed.  This is a rarity for any element of the Star Wars Galaxy, where the most minor feature of the films has been expanded to pages and pages for hungry fans and profitable Lucasfilm and Disney.
4. It turns out that all Hoth has on this iceball is Rebels and Wampas.  And you guys are the Rebels.  Now Wampas aren't really sentient and are quite savage.  So the only plot device on Hoth is -- a Wampa swarm (clutch/exaltation/murder/flock).  Having already seen a Wampa swarm of one in Episode V, I have lots of Wampas for contrast.
5. Now this could be played as a straight combat, it is still only so fun fighting a non-sentient horde.  So it could be played as comedy, with the team just escaping a bunch of Wampas.  Prepare to attack or run like the wind and I will riff off of that...

Celes turned to face where Thuraya was looking, and cautiously took a step up to her side to peer into the glass-like ice as well. She couldn't quite make out what those were on the other side, but they were certainly not a reflection. The hunter became tense rather quickly, noticeable in her posture shifting toward the defensive.

"Back to the speeder. Nice and easy. This cave's taken."

"Oh, animals!" Shira said happily. She looked up at the reflected eyes. "Certainly not tauntauns. Does anyone know what kind?"

Her cheer vanished when Celes ordered them back to the speeder "But I..." she began, but began to creep towards the speeder anyways. She knew to trust Celes

Grev unslings his rifle, putting himself between the eyes and the group.  "Move!  Now!"  He barks, in true laconic fashion.  As the other move away, he keeps himself between them and the threat.  Not that he can fight a large herd stampeding, but behaps he can buy time, a prescipous second or two.

Thuk stepped one menacing pace towards the Wampa horde, his fur puffing up to make him look bigger. "Think they are tasty?" he asked no-one on particular. "I for one am getting tired of dead food."

Even in a dangerous situation, Shira couldn't resist replying "If you want to eat frozen food, I'm sure there's plenty at the base."