A series of massive explosions jolt the group from their activities.
Immediately, alarm klaxons begin to blare throughout the base and Commander Drayson’s voice crackles over the intercom speakers:
“Attention all personnel, this is a condition red alert. We are under attack from Imperial forces. Evacuate the base immediately and proceed to the rendezvous points. I repeat, this is a condition red emergency. All personnel are to evacuate the base…”
The intercom is cut off with a burst of static as another explosion rocks the facility. The corridor outside their rooms is rapidly filling with New Republic personnel running in all directions. The ground shakes with every explosion, sending cascades of duracrete dust down from the ceiling. The illumination panels flicker erratically. There is no telling how long it will take the Imperials to reduce Canfre Base to nothing more than a smoking crater in the ground…
Aboard the Bellerophon, Khail is thrown into a bulkhead as the ship lurches sideways. Sparks cascade overhead as pipes and cables are knocked loose from their moorings.
Shaking his head, the smuggler groggily gets to his feet and staggers to the ships cockpit where every display panel is lit with blazing red alerts. Beyond the viewport is a scene of chaos. Slabs of rock have been knocked loose from the hangar roof overhead, and several ships lay crushed beneath the debris - his own included, according to the damage readouts. As he watches, another turbolaser barrage thunders into the base, and more massive boulders cascade from the ceiling.
“Dammit, my ship!” he screams in frustration. “Argh! Come on, L7, we’ve got to get moving before we’re crushed in here.”
He races down the access ramp and heads for the base interior, hoping that it is better protected from the orbital bombardment than the hangar. The astromech droid zips along at his heels, bleeping in alarm as a several fleeing technicians in front of them are buried beneath an avalanche of falling rocks.
Khail keys his comlink and is greeted with a hiss of static - the Imperials must be jamming communications. Things are going from bad to worse…
Cyan, Fenri and Thalo make their way up the corridors, struggling against a stream of base personnel fleeing the other way. Intermittent explosions echo throughout as the bombardment continues.
Suddenly, the walls and floor nearby crack and buckle under the force of a nearby turbolaser hit. The ground lurches beneath their feet as chunks of duracrete rain down around them. Thalo stumbles and falls to the floor. The soldier grabs an arm and hauls the Jedi to his feet. “Come on!” he snarls as they continue down the corridor.
Chaos and fear rules the Command Center, where base officers are still at their posts. Some are trying to reach others on intercom channels, some are repairing damaged computer consoles, and others are attempting to put out small fires.
They pass one communications officer calling into an intercom: “Shield control bunker, please respond! Lieutenant Kai, report your status!” The officer turns to Commander Drayson. “Sir! We’ve lost Lieutenant Kai in the shield control bunker.”
Commander Drayson looks grave. “The Star Destroyer hit the Ion Cannon too. We don’t have much of a chance against a concentrated attack like this. Send the evacuation code signal again. Get everyone out of the base immediately!”
“Where’s the data?” Fenri yells. “Did you complete the transfer?”
The commander shakes his head. “No, but what we’ve got is over there.” He gestures towards a small stack of holodisks. Fenri scoops them up as Khail runs into the command center.
“The hangar bay collapsed,” he gasps. “There’s no getting out of here that way.”
The ground shakes again as the base takes another direct hit. Control panels spark, sensor screens explode, and the lights flicker out. The red emergency backup lights switch on as Drayson begins shouting for everyone to get out before the main generator blows.
Khail grabs the commander. “Which way?”
“Follow the damned signs!” he snarls, shaking the smuggler off.
The group runs for it. As they make their way through the base, it becomes clear that the Star Destroyer’s orbital bombardment has already taken a severe toll, with many rooms and corridors having collapsed.
Unlike before, they no longer see any base personnel fleeing – some of them must have escaped, but many have clearly been trapped and killed in sections of the base by the Imperial orbital bombardment. They run faster, hoping to avoid becoming another casualty of the Empire.
Rounding a bend in the corridor, they find a pile of rubble and debris blocking their way. A turbolaser blast appears to have caved in the ceiling.
However, near the top of the cave-in they detect a glimmer of light - the passageway must be close to the surface. If they can just clear enough debris away, they could squeeze through and out to freedom.
Fenri and Khail climb to the top of the rock pile and begin shifting away the rubble. In short order they have cleared enough space to crawl through.
The group quickly climb up from the collapsed corridor and emerge onto the edge of an immense crater.
Surveying their surroundings, they see that the base is all but destroyed; turbolaser blast craters are now the dominant feature of the landscape. Strewn amongst the twisted wreckage of patrol landspeeders and speeder bikes are the charred and smoking corpses of several would-be escapees. The dense forest nearby appears to be beyond the area of the bombardment zone, and seems to be a much safer area to be standing in than their present location.
They dash off to the treeline of the dense forest, wary of the white sliver of the Star Destoyer above them in high orbit. Several points on it flash argent green; turbolaser bolts which rain down on the wreckage of the base, blasting the ruins with every hit.
“Halt right there!” a voice shouts from off to one side of them. Glancing over in that direction, they see four white-armoured Imperial scout troopers picking their way through the dense undergrowth.
“Stop those Rebels!” the officer shouts. The troopers level their blaster rifles and opened fire.
Khail dives to the ground as Fenri takes cover. Igniting his lightsaber, Thalo advances quickly on the scout troopers whilst Cyan makes a more cautious approach.
Wary of the oncoming Jedi, the scout troopers focus their fire on the imminent threat. Thalo desperately dodges and deflects the incoming blaster fire but is badly scorched by several near-misses. A shot from Fenri takes down one of the troopers, and then Thalo is among the remaining three, lightsaber swinging.
The troopers back away from the blazing emerald blade and unleash a torrent of fire at the Jedi, who is hard pressed to deflect their attacks. His robes smoulder in places where the troopers’ blasters have almost found their mark. With Cyan’s arrival into the melee, the scout troopers begin to split their fire – a costly mistake. Another falls to a well-aimed blaster shot from the soldier, and the two Jedi dispatch their remaining opponents.
Thalo slumped to the ground exhausted, while Fenri attends to his burns with a medpack. Khail wrenches the helmet from one of the slain scout troopers and examines the integrated comlink. “Hmm,” he muses. “This could come in handy...”
Defeated!
The group gazes through the fading mist of their own breath into the Canfreyan night. It is cold; cold and eerily silent within the deep forest. The pristine atmosphere of Ord Canfre – unmolested by industrial pollution – allows the stars shine in perfectly clarity.
It has been four days since the Imperial siege of Canfre Base. Once the main generator collapsed under a power overload, the Empire easily decimated the fragile outpost from high orbit. The base’s ion cannon barely managed a single shot before being silenced by the Star Destroyer’s turbolasers. Meanwhile, the New Republic fighters were the first to fall from the sky – if they weren’t first buried in the collapse of the hangar bay. Any shuttles or transports that managed to lift off either crashed into unyielding rock or else were shot down. It was a desperate hour for the New Republic’s efforts in the Outer Rim.
The companions managed to escape from the doomed base and flee into the surrounding wilderness in a retreat that was chaotic at best. They have no idea if any of the evacuation teams have survived. For the past few days they have put as much distance between them as they can from the destroyed base, knowing that the Empire would establish a tight net of guard posts, speeder patrols, and fighter reconnaissance flyovers in an attempt to catch escaping New Republic forces. So far, they still have their freedom; however, without starships, speeder bikes, or major weapons, their freedom is about the only advantage they have.
The sky slowly changes hues, lightening from a midnight black to a deep blue. The dawn is coming – and with it another day of survival on a lonely world.
They recall Commander Drayson mentioning rendezvous points scattered around the planet. Perhaps other escaped personnel are hiding out at them. They only saw the orbital map of Ord Canfre a few times, and it is impossible to recall any intricate details. However, they do remember that the planet is divided into two main continents, separated by a large expanse of ocean. Canfre Base is on the northern continent, which is roughly oval in shape.
There are two major colony efforts on this continent. One – Fortuna City – is on the far eastern shore. The other is in the southwest corner of the planet. The other land mass is wrapped around the first continent, along its southern and eastern edges.
Canfre Base is nuzzled in the northern rolling hills, making the colony on the eastern shore closer by at least 1,000 kilometers.
The faintest crest of the sun rises over the eastern mountain range, and the chirping of a hundred Canfreyan birds begins to replace the nocturnal silence.
The group decide to continue their trek east when they become aware of gleaming eyes staring at them from out of the undergrowth. The creatures’ white and black stripes blend into the morning twilight.
With a roar the monstrous snowcats pounce, rending with tooth and claw. The small clearing is then ablaze with the glow of lightsabers and the flashes of blaster fire.
Fenri pumps several shots into one cat and it falls, but not before it has rent his armour and left deep gouges in his flesh. Khail backpedals away from another, firing wildly as it bounds after him. Thalo manages one swing of his lightsaber before he disappears beneath the bulk of a third snowcat, its claws and teeth ripping and tearing at him. The Jedi’s green-bladed lightsaber snaps off as the hilt rolls away from his limp hand.
Fenri whirls and fires on the snowcat that mauled Thalo, while Cyan slashes her blade through another hungry carnivore. As it collapses to the ground with a smoking gouge carved into its flank, she leaps over its body and raced after Khail, who is barely managing to fend off his attacker. Unfortunately, the only testament to his blaster pistol’s lethality are the scorched tree trunks and smouldering bushes he has left in the wake of his hasty withdrawal.
Fenri fires another blast into the snowcat, the force of the shot sending it rolling back to lie in a smoking heap. Cyan slashes her blade down on the last creature chasing Khail, cutting through its spine and nearly severing the beast in two.
They return to the clearing in time to see Thalo regaining consciousness, thanks to Fenri’s skilled application of a medpac. While certainly looking the worse for wear, at least the young Jedi is alive.
“Can you walk?” Fenri asks him.
Thalo nods. “Yeah, I just need to get my breath back. Thanks for patching me up.”
“Not a problem. Grab your lightsaber and let’s get moving – we’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”
Immediately, alarm klaxons begin to blare throughout the base and Commander Drayson’s voice crackles over the intercom speakers:
“Attention all personnel, this is a condition red alert. We are under attack from Imperial forces. Evacuate the base immediately and proceed to the rendezvous points. I repeat, this is a condition red emergency. All personnel are to evacuate the base…”
The intercom is cut off with a burst of static as another explosion rocks the facility. The corridor outside their rooms is rapidly filling with New Republic personnel running in all directions. The ground shakes with every explosion, sending cascades of duracrete dust down from the ceiling. The illumination panels flicker erratically. There is no telling how long it will take the Imperials to reduce Canfre Base to nothing more than a smoking crater in the ground…
Aboard the Bellerophon, Khail is thrown into a bulkhead as the ship lurches sideways. Sparks cascade overhead as pipes and cables are knocked loose from their moorings.
Shaking his head, the smuggler groggily gets to his feet and staggers to the ships cockpit where every display panel is lit with blazing red alerts. Beyond the viewport is a scene of chaos. Slabs of rock have been knocked loose from the hangar roof overhead, and several ships lay crushed beneath the debris - his own included, according to the damage readouts. As he watches, another turbolaser barrage thunders into the base, and more massive boulders cascade from the ceiling.
“Dammit, my ship!” he screams in frustration. “Argh! Come on, L7, we’ve got to get moving before we’re crushed in here.”
He races down the access ramp and heads for the base interior, hoping that it is better protected from the orbital bombardment than the hangar. The astromech droid zips along at his heels, bleeping in alarm as a several fleeing technicians in front of them are buried beneath an avalanche of falling rocks.
Khail keys his comlink and is greeted with a hiss of static - the Imperials must be jamming communications. Things are going from bad to worse…
Cyan, Fenri and Thalo make their way up the corridors, struggling against a stream of base personnel fleeing the other way. Intermittent explosions echo throughout as the bombardment continues.
Suddenly, the walls and floor nearby crack and buckle under the force of a nearby turbolaser hit. The ground lurches beneath their feet as chunks of duracrete rain down around them. Thalo stumbles and falls to the floor. The soldier grabs an arm and hauls the Jedi to his feet. “Come on!” he snarls as they continue down the corridor.
Chaos and fear rules the Command Center, where base officers are still at their posts. Some are trying to reach others on intercom channels, some are repairing damaged computer consoles, and others are attempting to put out small fires.
They pass one communications officer calling into an intercom: “Shield control bunker, please respond! Lieutenant Kai, report your status!” The officer turns to Commander Drayson. “Sir! We’ve lost Lieutenant Kai in the shield control bunker.”
Commander Drayson looks grave. “The Star Destroyer hit the Ion Cannon too. We don’t have much of a chance against a concentrated attack like this. Send the evacuation code signal again. Get everyone out of the base immediately!”
“Where’s the data?” Fenri yells. “Did you complete the transfer?”
The commander shakes his head. “No, but what we’ve got is over there.” He gestures towards a small stack of holodisks. Fenri scoops them up as Khail runs into the command center.
“The hangar bay collapsed,” he gasps. “There’s no getting out of here that way.”
The ground shakes again as the base takes another direct hit. Control panels spark, sensor screens explode, and the lights flicker out. The red emergency backup lights switch on as Drayson begins shouting for everyone to get out before the main generator blows.
Khail grabs the commander. “Which way?”
“Follow the damned signs!” he snarls, shaking the smuggler off.
The group runs for it. As they make their way through the base, it becomes clear that the Star Destroyer’s orbital bombardment has already taken a severe toll, with many rooms and corridors having collapsed.
Unlike before, they no longer see any base personnel fleeing – some of them must have escaped, but many have clearly been trapped and killed in sections of the base by the Imperial orbital bombardment. They run faster, hoping to avoid becoming another casualty of the Empire.
Rounding a bend in the corridor, they find a pile of rubble and debris blocking their way. A turbolaser blast appears to have caved in the ceiling.
However, near the top of the cave-in they detect a glimmer of light - the passageway must be close to the surface. If they can just clear enough debris away, they could squeeze through and out to freedom.
Fenri and Khail climb to the top of the rock pile and begin shifting away the rubble. In short order they have cleared enough space to crawl through.
The group quickly climb up from the collapsed corridor and emerge onto the edge of an immense crater.
Surveying their surroundings, they see that the base is all but destroyed; turbolaser blast craters are now the dominant feature of the landscape. Strewn amongst the twisted wreckage of patrol landspeeders and speeder bikes are the charred and smoking corpses of several would-be escapees. The dense forest nearby appears to be beyond the area of the bombardment zone, and seems to be a much safer area to be standing in than their present location.
They dash off to the treeline of the dense forest, wary of the white sliver of the Star Destoyer above them in high orbit. Several points on it flash argent green; turbolaser bolts which rain down on the wreckage of the base, blasting the ruins with every hit.
“Halt right there!” a voice shouts from off to one side of them. Glancing over in that direction, they see four white-armoured Imperial scout troopers picking their way through the dense undergrowth.
“Stop those Rebels!” the officer shouts. The troopers level their blaster rifles and opened fire.
Khail dives to the ground as Fenri takes cover. Igniting his lightsaber, Thalo advances quickly on the scout troopers whilst Cyan makes a more cautious approach.
Wary of the oncoming Jedi, the scout troopers focus their fire on the imminent threat. Thalo desperately dodges and deflects the incoming blaster fire but is badly scorched by several near-misses. A shot from Fenri takes down one of the troopers, and then Thalo is among the remaining three, lightsaber swinging.
The troopers back away from the blazing emerald blade and unleash a torrent of fire at the Jedi, who is hard pressed to deflect their attacks. His robes smoulder in places where the troopers’ blasters have almost found their mark. With Cyan’s arrival into the melee, the scout troopers begin to split their fire – a costly mistake. Another falls to a well-aimed blaster shot from the soldier, and the two Jedi dispatch their remaining opponents.
Thalo slumped to the ground exhausted, while Fenri attends to his burns with a medpack. Khail wrenches the helmet from one of the slain scout troopers and examines the integrated comlink. “Hmm,” he muses. “This could come in handy...”
Defeated!
The group gazes through the fading mist of their own breath into the Canfreyan night. It is cold; cold and eerily silent within the deep forest. The pristine atmosphere of Ord Canfre – unmolested by industrial pollution – allows the stars shine in perfectly clarity.
It has been four days since the Imperial siege of Canfre Base. Once the main generator collapsed under a power overload, the Empire easily decimated the fragile outpost from high orbit. The base’s ion cannon barely managed a single shot before being silenced by the Star Destroyer’s turbolasers. Meanwhile, the New Republic fighters were the first to fall from the sky – if they weren’t first buried in the collapse of the hangar bay. Any shuttles or transports that managed to lift off either crashed into unyielding rock or else were shot down. It was a desperate hour for the New Republic’s efforts in the Outer Rim.
The companions managed to escape from the doomed base and flee into the surrounding wilderness in a retreat that was chaotic at best. They have no idea if any of the evacuation teams have survived. For the past few days they have put as much distance between them as they can from the destroyed base, knowing that the Empire would establish a tight net of guard posts, speeder patrols, and fighter reconnaissance flyovers in an attempt to catch escaping New Republic forces. So far, they still have their freedom; however, without starships, speeder bikes, or major weapons, their freedom is about the only advantage they have.
The sky slowly changes hues, lightening from a midnight black to a deep blue. The dawn is coming – and with it another day of survival on a lonely world.
They recall Commander Drayson mentioning rendezvous points scattered around the planet. Perhaps other escaped personnel are hiding out at them. They only saw the orbital map of Ord Canfre a few times, and it is impossible to recall any intricate details. However, they do remember that the planet is divided into two main continents, separated by a large expanse of ocean. Canfre Base is on the northern continent, which is roughly oval in shape.
There are two major colony efforts on this continent. One – Fortuna City – is on the far eastern shore. The other is in the southwest corner of the planet. The other land mass is wrapped around the first continent, along its southern and eastern edges.
Canfre Base is nuzzled in the northern rolling hills, making the colony on the eastern shore closer by at least 1,000 kilometers.
The faintest crest of the sun rises over the eastern mountain range, and the chirping of a hundred Canfreyan birds begins to replace the nocturnal silence.
The group decide to continue their trek east when they become aware of gleaming eyes staring at them from out of the undergrowth. The creatures’ white and black stripes blend into the morning twilight.
With a roar the monstrous snowcats pounce, rending with tooth and claw. The small clearing is then ablaze with the glow of lightsabers and the flashes of blaster fire.
Fenri pumps several shots into one cat and it falls, but not before it has rent his armour and left deep gouges in his flesh. Khail backpedals away from another, firing wildly as it bounds after him. Thalo manages one swing of his lightsaber before he disappears beneath the bulk of a third snowcat, its claws and teeth ripping and tearing at him. The Jedi’s green-bladed lightsaber snaps off as the hilt rolls away from his limp hand.
Fenri whirls and fires on the snowcat that mauled Thalo, while Cyan slashes her blade through another hungry carnivore. As it collapses to the ground with a smoking gouge carved into its flank, she leaps over its body and raced after Khail, who is barely managing to fend off his attacker. Unfortunately, the only testament to his blaster pistol’s lethality are the scorched tree trunks and smouldering bushes he has left in the wake of his hasty withdrawal.
Fenri fires another blast into the snowcat, the force of the shot sending it rolling back to lie in a smoking heap. Cyan slashes her blade down on the last creature chasing Khail, cutting through its spine and nearly severing the beast in two.
They return to the clearing in time to see Thalo regaining consciousness, thanks to Fenri’s skilled application of a medpac. While certainly looking the worse for wear, at least the young Jedi is alive.
“Can you walk?” Fenri asks him.
Thalo nods. “Yeah, I just need to get my breath back. Thanks for patching me up.”
“Not a problem. Grab your lightsaber and let’s get moving – we’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”