I'm currently working on a campaign with my friend that he will GM, but because it is an origin story for a couple characters I came up with, I am the one crafting the beginning of the story and giving the general outline.
Basically, there are 2 characters that are relevant for this part, "Shock" a Null-class ARC trooper whose inhibitor chip malfunctioned as a result of head trauma during training, and his partner-in-war throughout the Clone Wars, Kal, a Jedi Padawan.
The relevant part of the story takes place on Murkhana during Order 66. Background information: there were 6 Jedi on Murkhana: 3 died initially, 2 were killed by Vader when he arrived on Murkhana later, and 1 escaped. The way I'm setting it up, Kal's master was actually killed as one of the three Jedi who were killed initially, but Kal escaped, only to have Shock sent after him. Then, somehow they both fake their deaths (making 3 Jedi killed in the immediate aftermath of Order 66: Kal, his master, and one other) and escape before Vader arrives.
The question is, I can't for the life of me figure out a way for them to fake their deaths without a body, and they are both gonna keep their armor (unless you can come up with another way for them to retain their armor [Jedi reconnaissance armor for Kal, and Phase I ARC trooper armor for Shock]), because they both had the same armor during the Galactic Civil War.
A couple basic options I have come up with so far are as follows:
- Shock relays a comm signal through a departing shuttle that says he tracked Kal on board, and boarded himself, but for whatever reason can't finish the kill and so would you please blow them up
- They somehow prove that they got "swept down a river and died"
- They blow "themselves" up, leaving bits of human
Problems with these:
- There would be people on board, and 1. Shock has sworn to not kill clones, if he can help it (obligation: oath). And 2. the other one is a Jedi for Pete's sake! So that's not gonna work. If there weren't people on board than there wouldn't be any life signs.
- No body, even though there should be, and the Empire wouldn't just assume that the Jedi died, they would want a body. It would also be hard to give "verifiable" evidence that they had actually died, rather than just swimming out of the river, which they would probably have done anyway, in order to avoid actually dying.
- Okay, so they blow up a clone's corpse, but what about for Kal? There is also the issue of bits of clone armor or Kal's armor being used to identify them, though I've already (mostly) ruled out the idea of them leaving their armor behind.
Couple other restrictions:
- No inside help, they have to do this on their own and leave no one who could betray them.
- They MUST fake their death, they can't just take it out on a lam. They need a blank(ish) slate.
- There must be a very good excuse as to why there isn't a body.
- Shock can't be seen as having turned against the Empire. This one is a little bit more malleable, but I don't want him to have seemed to turn.
Notes:
- As far as the chips the clones have in their wrists, a lightsaber in the right spot leaves that irrelevant.
- It is an option for Kal's saber hilt to be destroyed, but not the kyber crystal.
I will greatly appreciate any help you can give me, I've been stumped on this for a while, and that is unusual for me. Thanks!