[SoNE Episode VI] Shot the Messenger

[VK-318]

After my dust-up on Fondor, I decided that a new outfit was in order for my next mission. It didn't matter much what, so long as it didn't scream "IMPERIAL!" at the top of its lungs.

Rather than waste time with the tedious process of requisitioning an outfit from the Scout Service supplies, I raided the wardrobe of the Avenger Enlisted Drama Club. A few minutes work and I had a get-up that, if somewhat lacking in protective material, was certainly less obvious than my armor.

I was deployed to a barren region of Ord Mantell, a desert whose once-fertile soil had been ruined by toxic fluids that leached from the debris deposited here decades ago. Streams ran here and there, and the temperature was not intolerably hot, but there was hardly a plant to be seen anywhere.

There were Rebels, though.

And, unfortunately, they didn't really care whether I was an Imperial, a bounty hunter, or a bit of shriveled bush that had gotten tired of the place where it was growing. The opened fire, and of course I returned the favor.

The Rebel training regimen is not especially effective, I think. I was easily able to down one Rebel as I approached their position behind an old thruster pylon, and the other fled after sparing a shot for a bundle lying under the large wing that was propped up as a sort of sunshade.

I finished off the other Rebel, then went to investigate. The bundle was in fact a body. A Mandalorian, though fortunately (or perhaps not so fortunately) he was not Boba Fett. He still bore a thank-you note, one of the many notes that the Avenger was distributing and carrying, trying to get them to the elusive Fett. But his hands were in binders, with the gauntlets removed. As were his fingers.

A pool of blood was gathered on the hard, sandy ground, and severed fingers lay steeping in the dark fluid. Close by lay the tool with which this mutilation had been done: a large wire-cutters whose blades were crusted with blood.

I studied the bodies around me grimly. Torture, then. There could be no other explanation. The Rebels had caught one of our messengers, perhaps the contact obtained by Behemoth, and had sought to torture him into revealing Fett's location. And when I arrived on the scene, they sought to silence the poor fellow by killing him. And, whether for good or ill, they had succeeded, and put the man out of his considerable misery.

There was no opportunity to bury him, and I had not the tools. Neither could I have buried the Rebels if I had wanted too, though I didn't. Killing in battle is one thing, and some defend it as an entirely moral and ethical action. But torture is something else. Whatever the officers may do, no soldier who tortures a prisoner is worthy of the name of warrior, and by the unwritten code of war his life is forfeit to any who may capture him. Let these two rot, and their flesh be devoured by flies; it would be a fitting end for such Rebel scum.

But my encounter with these scoundrels was not entirely unproductive.

The Rebels had dropped their datapad. And even without taking the time to search it carefully, I could plainly see that it contained a trove of potentially useful intelligence. Nothing to win a war with, to be sure. But we would give the Rebels a hot time of it now.

So, despite my distaste at the scene I had just discovered, I was smiling when I left the spot to return to the rendezvous point.

OoC: I made some modifications, after receiving the posted advice from MstrOfPppts, BEAVeR, and others. The original should be in spoiler tags below.

Ever wondered why the Scout Trooper armor is so outdated? It's a relic of the Clone Wars, to be honest. The reason is simple: 90% of the time, agents of the Imperial Survey Corps do their work out of official uniform.

Once I recovered from my beating at the hand of intoxicated Rebels, the first order of business was to find a less conspicuous outfit. Off to the wardrobe of the Avenger Enlisted Drama Club! There are a few perks that go with charter-member status, and I just happen to be a charter member. One of those perks is access to the costume department's supplies.

Snappy, no? Now that I was outfitted in a less ... conspicuous manner, I was headed groundside to continue the hunt for Boba Fett. By now, we had left Fondor behind, and I was dropped on Ord Mantell to pick up the trail again.

Ord Mantell, one of the great scrap heaps of the galaxy. To make the hunt somewhat easier, the ISC equipped its agents here with R2 astromechs, and it was thanks to mine that I spotted a critical, if somewhat grisly, clue.

It was a Mandalorian, or rather his body. Not Boba, fortunately, but there was no way this could be a coincidence. My R2 and I approached for a closer look.

His body was still limp and warm - he could not have been dead for more than a couple of hours. Quickly I searched the body, but I found only a scrap of paper in his still-clenched left fist - a scrap of paper that bore Lord Vader's seal.

The Rebels were ahead of us once again, that much was clear. But all was not lost. The Rebel had evidently been startled, and left in great haste, because he left something rather important behind.

It was his datapad.

As I walked away on my way back to the rendezvous point, I grinned broadly under my thick, heavy, and rather itchy fake mustache. This was an excellent find indeed. Now the Empire finally had the intelligence it would need to get ahead of the Rebels in the hunt for Boba Fett.

[OoC: A couple more pictures to show the set itself in more detail: my sigfig kept getting in the way for the main shots.]

Edited September 25, 2014 by VK-318

[Yzalirk]

Looks good VK and it's pretty funny with your sig-figs' disguise.

[-Horizon-]

Great build VK. Really like the Junk Wing.

Looks good VK and it's pretty funny with your sig-figs' disguise.

Reminds me of you Mando Behemoth.

[Yzalirk]

Great build VK. Really like the Junk Wing.

Reminds me of you Mando Behemoth.

Perhaps someone killed Boba Fett's messenger?

But I did make mine have all dark blue except for the helmet and jet pack.

[VK-318]

Actually, it's supposed to be your messenger, Behemoth. I didn't look close enough to get that detail of wardrobe right, though. I'll see if I can fix that.

[Yzalirk]

Actually, it's supposed to be your messenger, Behemoth. I didn't look close enough to get that detail of wardrobe right, though. I'll see if I can fix that.

Wow, I feel honored!

That's awesome, just try to fix it if you can.

[markus1984]

i like your new sig-fig .

I think the rebells are sleeping again with her entrys .

Good Job

markus

[Wat Tambor]

Still no Rebel entries? Well that's fine that makes it lot easier to get that Boba Fett tag.

Your new outfit is quite funny and a nice contrast to the one of Garindan, the Imperial spy in Episode IV.

[VK-318]

Your new outfit is quite funny and a nice contrast to the one of Garindan, the Imperial spy in Episode IV.

i like your new sig-fig .

Good Job

markus

Looks good VK and it's pretty funny with your sig-figs' disguise.

Thanks! I wonder how long I'll be able to justify keeping that look ...

I think the rebells are sleeping again with her entrys .

Still no Rebel entries? Well that's fine that makes it lot easier to get that Boba Fett tag.

If I had to bet, I'd say their waiting until close to the end, so that they can organize their entries to take back as many areas as possible from us.

[MKJoshA]

For a 2nd entry I think you could have included more detail, but I do like the junk that you have included. It's also nice that you've tied yours and Behemoth's builds together. Good team work on that one!

[MstrOfPppts]

One thing to go with when being restricted in two dimensions is the third one. I'd sugest sticking that wing upwards, which would give you a lot more space to throw in some more junk and make it look more like a junyard. this way it looks more like a wing from a fallen fighter somewhere in the dwsert. Else the build is fine, but I really don'd dig your fig nor story. I understand that the episode plot is somewhat questionable, but I don't like how some of you are trying to turn Star Wars into comedy. Episode 3 was acceptable but somethings are just too much for my taste ...

[BEAVeR]

Interesting entry, you went straight for the pile-of-junk approach, and it turned out pretty nicely! The junk pieces are good, and I enjoy the fact that it looks like they're all from the same ship that got abandoned there and was left to disintegrate. Nice touch!

It's good that you added some texture to the ground, as that's appropriate for the junk. Still, a general rule with adding such texture, is to hide the big parts. So you can't have a lot of studs at the same height at the same place. Well, you can, but then it has to be a strange shape, so that you can't see what pieces were used right away. So avoid long, straight lines in your ground, it makes it look very artificial. 1x1, 1x2 and corner plates are perfect to top it off. Also, as a general rule, you shouldn't make height differences of more than two plates. These are just some thumb rules to make the ground texture more realistic. It will also be more chaotic, and that's ideal for the junkyard. Relief isn't all about heights and shapes either. There can be some well made color variation in it all. Dark tan is an obvious choice. Or something else. You already have the red blood (dark red would be more realistic, except if Mandalorians have a weird blood color...), and you could have some kind of oil leak in the same fashion. There are a lot of tricks to bring more texture to the ground.

I already mentioned I like your junk. Still, it suffers a bit from the same thing as the ground: in essence and purpose it is very good, but it lacks a bit of refinement. So again, you have big shapes here, but smaller details are somewhat lacking. You use a lot of big pieces. Of course, you already added some smaller details, but there should be way more of them to give it all a substantial junkyard feel. Because how strange as it may sound, it are often the small details that make something appear big (literally, if you want to make a model look big, you should add a lot of details. Because your brain thinks: "There are a lot of details, so there's a lot of room for details, so it is big!" It has something to do with scaling mechanisms, but think about it: in SW ships, greebles often appear on big ships, but small fighters have much lower concentrations... now you know why) This digression aside, it would be nice if the space beneath the junk would be filled with more, smaller junk. Maybe you could make a little hill of grey plates, and just drop some minifig utensils on there as details. Or you could link it more to the ship, as some crate with spare parts that spilled, or something like that. Anyway, it would be really interesting to say that Mandalorion laying on a bed of junk...

I hope these tips make some sense and can help you to continue making better scenes. You're already a master in hilarious stories. Whether they're suited or not, they're awesome in their own right

[Aland1916]

Nice, good wing.

[VK-318]

Made some modifications; the original is in a spoiler if anyone is interested.

[Yzalirk]

It seems the picture links must be broken, I can't see them!

[VK-318]

Sorry about the broken images. I got up this morning and Brickshelf is down again! I'll try to find a way to get them up, but I'm going to be out of the house until 10 p.m. CST or later.

Edit: The images are back up. Judges, MKJoshA, sorry for the inconvenience.

Edited September 26, 2014 by VK-318