Sapper

Of the 8 Career Skills, choose 4 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Engineer Career Skills: Athletics, Computers, Knowledge (Education), Mechanics, Perception, Piloting (Space), Ranged (Light) and Vigilance

Sapper Specialization Skills: Athletics, Knowledge (Warfare), Mechanics and Survival

Sappers have a versatile role in the Alliance. These personnel are responsible not only for building encampments, installations, landing areas, and more to support the war against the Empire, but also for seeking out and destroying many of the same that the enemy possesses. This means these combat Engineers must combine stealth, survival skills, and situational awareness to find suitable locations and analyze defensive possibilities, as well as using the same skills to probe for enemy structural weaknesses that can be exploited with suitable explosives.

Once Sappers find a good location for construction, they must deal with the logistical demands of supplies. Construction efforts mean they have three bosses that will never agree: the environment, the laws of physics, and their commander. Sappers prioritize each differently, and that decision can make or break a construction project. As with most support jobs, when Sappers do an excellent job, no one notices. Alliance soldiers don’t give a second thought to a warm bunk and good lighting in a base, for example, or pilots to a spacious and smooth-floored hangar. If these aren’t present, however, Sappers get the blame (and also the overnight repair duties).

Sappers do see battle, perhaps more so than any other support personnel save medics. Command sends Sappers to sneak up to enemy fortifications to find weaknesses and entry points. This work often requires a hands-on inspection of the enemy base, looking for cracks in walls, exposed power lines or sewage pipes, or unattended guard rotations and resupply schedules. A scouting mission requires stealth or a cover identity, and Sappers must avoid capture or death from guards or automated security systems while successfully mapping the enemy’s weak points.

Sappers who survive initial scouting missions must then infiltrate enemy sites to set explosive charges, carefully cut away security grids, or perform another act of sabotage, all while avoiding being killed by blaster fire or a mistimed explosive charge. Even if capture or death is unavoidable, Sappers must press on, as the lives of many of their comrades depend on their sacrifice.

After all that, Sappers who survive may still have to pick up a blaster and join the rest of the soldiers in storming the fortification. Perhaps the operation went off without a hitch, and the Alliance has provided evac to carry Sapper teams back to safety. Many refuse to retreat. They can still carry a weapon, and every body counts in battle. In the end, Sappers risk their lives three times over.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Academic: Sappers tend to come to the Alliance from one of two academic backgrounds: military engineering or civil engineering. Academic military Engineers have taught at one of the many military academies scattered throughout the galaxy. They combine practical military instruction and engineering theory to produce combat Engineers who can fight and build or demolish with equal aplomb. Their civilian counterparts in civil engineering have taught at one the galaxy’s many colleges and universities, where they have instructed new Engineers, architects, and urban planners. Their focus is, obviously, geared more toward constructing and maintaining towns, cities, and planetary infrastructure for private and governmental entities.

    No matter where they come from, Sappers with an academic background are incredibly valuable to the Alliance. As with Saboteurs, the knowledge and skills that Sappers possess are desperately needed for the war effort. Numerous civilian- and military-trained Engineers have thrown in their lot with the Rebellion. Recruiters work day and night to increase those numbers to bulk up the Alliance military’s engineer corps.
  • Eccentric: Sappers with an eccentric side are typically architects or civil Engineers with a penchant for fantastic, often impossible building designs. They tend to see structures as art first and buildings second. This can make them forget the human element of their creations, leading them to make strange decisions regarding proportions, materials, space, and scale. Fortifications and bases built by eccentric Sappers follow a strange logic typically understood by the designer alone. While this makes for infuriating and confusing billets for the troops assigned to these bases, it also makes such bases extremely difficult to assault or overrun, as they defy most common rules of layout and design.
  • Journeyman: Journeyman Sappers are another group of wandering altruists. They travel the galaxy assisting communities with the design, construction, and demolition of buildings and infrastructure. They often find work in the Outer Rim, where their skills in civil engineering and construction techniques are especially welcome in far-flung colonies and industrial or agricultural worlds. Like Mechanics and Shipwrights, journeyman Sappers are in high demand; those who seek to join the Alliance are welcomed with open arms.
  • Talented Amateur: Like Saboteurs, there are very few amateur Sappers. There are, however, numerous architects, construction workers, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, and contractors who, with their civilian training and knowledge, make competent amateur military Sappers. Individuals with this background tend to learn quickly once they begin their military service and come to equal or even surpass their profession￾ally trained colleagues in a surprisingly short time.