The Battle for Hoth, Part 3
In space, Andy is losing Y-Wings. He remains devoted to his plan, however, and continues to hammer the Star Destroyer's shields.
Meanwhile inside the Star Destroyer, Ed is marching towards the bridge. Along the way, he has to fight navy soldiers and droids and then stormtroopers and then more stormtroopers with an e-web repeater blaster. His dice are on fire. The Empire is throwing everything it has at this guy. They can't stop him.
Zack observed (out of character) that this tech was going to be buried with every medal in the Rebellion.
Meanwhile on Hoth, everyone is still waiting for me to stop the second AT-AT. Now, I was still skeptical because I am a salty gamer. I also remembered that an AT-AT can carry forty snowtroopers in its belly. I modified Zack's strategy. I knocked on the hatch. When it opened, I dropped a thermal detenator into it. The other players freaked out because -- aparently I was the crazy one. The GM told me that my four soldiers lept off the side of the AT-AT to get away.
I aksed if my soldiers looked like they survived the drop. The GM told me that they looked injured but alive. I said that I would take my chances up where I was and remain on the walker's back.
The thermal detonator went off, and the entire cockpit-head of the walker was blown to smithereens. As I stood triumphantly on the walker's back, the walker began to very slowly tilt forward.
Meanwhile in space, Ed was riding a turbolift to the bridge. The doors opened, and he was greeted by an entire squad of Stormtroopers waiting for him.
Just then, Andy's Y-Wings punched through the shields. The shield generators blew up. The GM declared that every character on the bridge, including Ed, needed to make a roll to remain upright as the bridge shook. Ed rolled for himself. The GM made some rolls to represent every other character. One character out of the hundred or so on the bridge managed to remain on his feet. Who wants to guess which one?
Meanwhile on Hoth, my AT-AT was collapsing underneath my feet. As the walker pitched forward, I ran towards the rear end to put as much distance between me and the point of impact as possible. The GM told me that when I reached the back, the incline had turned into a nearly verticle climb. Remember, I was a wolfman. I buried my claws as best as I could into the seems of the armor plates.
The AT-AT collided with the hard ice ground. My wolfman got catapulted off of the AT-AT's back. The GM described the scene I witnessed as I majestically flew over the battlefield. The entire battle unfolded underneath me. After flying over a kilometer, I smacked into a snow bank at the far side. The last thing I saw was white?
Was I dead or alive? I would have to wait to find out, because I sure wasn't conscious.
Meanwhile IN SPACE! Ed is still on his feet, and the bridge is defenseless against further bombardment. Andy has lost over half of his Y-Wings, but he commands them to perform one last bombing run against the bridge.
Ed sprints over the bodies of fallen stormtroopers, trying to reach the ship's captain. The captain orders and evacuation and dives into an escape pod. Ed doesn't reach him in time. All of the NPCs scramble into escape pods. Ed looks around and sees that he is the only one left on the bridge, and he can see the Y-Wings flying towards him.
Ed remembers that he is a communications guy. He runs to a comm station and tries to hail the Y-Wings. The comm station is damaged. Ed asks if he can fix it.
The GM explains, "You can try, but you know that you have seconds before that bridge is blown apart. There is one escape pod left, and you might be able to reach it in time if you leave immediately. That or else you can stay on the bridge and test your luck." Ed relented and ran for the escape pod.
Andy's proton torpedos tore into the bridge and killed the Star Destroyer. Ed's escape pod escaped through the explosion and into space. Zack marched his captured AT-AT to the door of the rebel base and reclaimed his tie-dye freighter.
A week later, I woke up inside a bacta tank. One arm and one leg had been replaced with cyborg limbs. I swam to the top and tore my mask off. A concerned medical tech watched me. I asked, "Who won?"
"We did."
"Okay, I'm going back to sleep."