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:

1. 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
2. They somehow prove that they got "swept down a river and died"
3. They blow "themselves" up, leaving bits of human

Problems with these:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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:

1. No inside help, they have to do this on their own and leave no one who could betray them.
2. They MUST fake their death, they can't just take it out on a lam. They need a blank(ish) slate.
3. There must be a very good excuse as to why there isn't a body.
4. 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:

1. As far as the chips the clones have in their wrists, a lightsaber in the right spot leaves that irrelevant.
2. 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!

clone a body and not you have evidence

"I've been separated from my unit, and I'm neck-deep in this cursed black quicksand. The Jedi just disappeared into a sea cave at these coordinates. Request air support for immediate bombardment. I'm not going t.. ghh.. rhhhghh.. ..."

Leave the comlink near the target area (in the quicksand, of course)- then disappear as you see fit (rebreathers maybe)?

Also.. Creating a 100% believable fake death is no fun, in my opinion. There should be at least one skeptic who suspects your survival, or turns up evidence of it later in the campaign.

Looks like Murkhana is known for quicksand and acid rain. Shouldn't be too hard to disappear leaving some dna evidence that you were in an area known for one of these two.

The other option as there are still some tourist areas, stage a fight near a cliff ledge where you have prepared a skiff or something to catch the two of you as you fall but make sure the fight, and your fall, is filmed by security or tourist cameras.

Shock isn't sent after Kal by himself, he's got a squad to back him up.

They catch up to each other at the remains of a small logistics camp/depot that was bombed/shelled/whatever earlier on and is now abandoned.

Shock demands Kal's surrender, Kal appears, other clones open fire, Kal kills the squad in self-defense, he and Shock injure each other in the firefight. They are able to disarm each other, brutal fist fight ensues as they beat each other against the base bits. A lull in the fighting allows a conversation and Kal says whatever the story requires for Shock to "shake it off" and fully break programming. They realize they can't go back, and the can't stay here.

Using left-behinds they find at the remains of the base Shock is able to swap out his armor for a "new" set that doesn't have his unique ID tags. Likewise Kal can drop some identifying gear behind (saber hilt included) and replace it with what's available in the ruins.

Shock calls in reporting he's wounded and the Jedi is closing in on him. Call for air strike, danger close. The two bug out before the bombs drop.

They find an alternate method of leaving planet, be it stealing a republic shuttle, capturing a sep shuttle, stowing away aboard a civilian transport... plenty of options.

Forensic analysis of the site: Concussion bomb bulls-eyed Shock's transponder. Found remains of Shock's squad. Analysis concludes Shock and Kal's bodies "blown to red mist" by the bomb. Theory supported by DNA is all over the site, charred personal gear remains also covered in DNA found scatted around the crater, damaged and now non-functional Lightsaber among it all.

I think that checks your boxes. They survive. Leave ample physical evidence of their demise. While they have to leave some of their personalized hardware behind, the logistics base ruins provide a source of replacement parts so their gear and stat blocks don't actually change.

Shock's inhibitor chip doesn't work, so that part is already taken care of, so I'm thinking this:

Shock isn't sent after Kal by himself, he's got a squad to back him up.

They catch up to each other at the remains of a small logistics camp/depot that was bombed/shelled/whatever earlier on and is now abandoned.

Shock demands Kal's surrender, Kal appears, other clones open fire, Kal kills or otherwise incapacitates the squad in self-defense, Shock convinces Kal that he isn't here to hurt him, and reveals he's got a plan: In the speeder bikes they came in on, he had a case that supposedly contained mission-specific gear, he reveals that it is actually a change of gear for both of them, minus the ID tags/transponders (I can't let their gear go!). Shock then relays a comm signal through his helmet (placed at the target zone) calling in, reporting he's wounded and stuck in this blasted quicksand and the Jedi is closing in on him. Call for air strike, danger close. The two bug out before the bombs drop.

In the original campaign, which was short-lived as a result of a 4 month period where he didn't prepare, and I prepared a different campaign, so when he finally was able to come over we went with my campaign, the Imperial intelligence agent who originally ordered Shock to track down Kal shows back up, so maybe he suspected that Shock hadn't died, but couldn't track him down until the GCW once Shock had assembled a team of insurgents.

I really like this! Thanks!

Any issues with my version?

9 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

Also.. Creating a 100% believable fake death is no fun, in my opinion. There should be at least one skeptic who suspects your survival, or turns up evidence of it later in the campaign.

Yes! All it takes is one Abraham Zapruder standing on the sidelines and all of sudden your carefully constructed plan turns into a conspiracy theory on the dark holonet!

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

a small logistics camp/depot that was bombed/shelled/whatever earlier on and is now abandoned.

Just my thinking on this:

So I envisioned the base as basically being a lot of damaged crates and conex-style containers of mostly mundane gear. It was a place where supply speeders would pick up and drop off supplies when the war was in full swing in this region, but it was hit somehow or another (Sep artillery or bombers being an easy option, but I believe the planet you chose has an orbital strike backstory that would also play in well) and quickly abandoned as the lines moved. So among the crates could easily be a set or, or components for the same armor the characters wear, allowing them to swap out.

Idea here is that it allow Shock's defection/desertion to be a little more spur of the moment and not premeditated.

If premeditated fits the story better... go with the change of clothes.

Also as a thought... if you want to avoid killing the other clones, you could make the base a bit larger and move maze-like. Have Kal Force Move a conex over isolating him and Shock and giving them enough time for the desertion catalyst to go down and the danger-close plan to coagulate. The other Clones trying to find a way to Shock can then end up in a position to see Shock from a distance wounded and exchanging fire with someone and then the strike hit him and the other shooters position.

In reality Shock used armor bits and mechanical parts from the base to set up a couple dummies that shoot on a short timer. Not good for up close, but convincing from a distance.

That leaves you with a squad of Clone "witnesses" to back up the danger close story. If you also make the airstrike from a Z-95 or something the pilot can also corroborate seeing blaster fire in the target area right before he launched his missiles.

For the story, it makes more sense for it to be premeditated, Shock's inhibitor chip was already down, and he had developed a close relationship with Kal as they had participated in many missions as a 2-man team, often without support, so him turning on Kal during Order 66 doesn't make a lot of sense, given his character and since he is an ARC trooper, he already thinks more independently than his brothers.

46 minutes ago, Ghostofman said:

Also as a thought... if you want to avoid killing the other clones, you could make the base a bit larger and move maze-like. Have Kal Force Move a conex over isolating him and Shock and giving them enough time for the desertion catalyst to go down and the danger-close plan to coagulate. The other Clones trying to find a way to Shock can then end up in a position to see Shock from a distance wounded and exchanging fire with someone and then the strike hit him and the other shooters position.

In reality Shock used armor bits and mechanical parts from the base to set up a couple dummies that shoot on a short timer. Not good for up close, but convincing from a distance.

That leaves you with a squad of Clone "witnesses" to back up the danger close story. If you also make the airstrike from a Z-95 or something the pilot can also corroborate seeing blaster fire in the target area right before he launched his missiles.

I really like that! Thanks!

Here is my revised plan:

Shock isn't sent after Kal by himself, he's got a squad to back him up.

The squad splits up, 4 and going one way, and 4 and Shock going towards the remains of a small logistics camp/depot that was bombed/shelled/whatever earlier on and is now abandoned (which is where Kal is).

Shock and the clones enter the building after Kal, Shock demands Kal's surrender, Kal appears, other clones open fire, Kal knocks them out by shoving them against the wall, and then flees out of the building, jumping over Shock. Shock's helmet gets "knocked off" and he convinces Kal that he isn't here to hurt him, and reveals he's got a plan: In the speeder bikes they came in on, he had a case that supposedly contained mission-specific gear, he reveals that it is actually a change of gear for both of them, minus the ID tags/transponders. They set up the dummies (somewhere where the abandoned depot is out of the blast range) and Shock calls for reinforcements "We've found the Jedi, WHERE ARE OUR REINFORCEMENTS!" a minute or so later Shock then relays a comm signal through his helmet (on the dummy) calling in, reporting that he's wounded and stuck in this blasted quicksand and the Jedi is closing in on him. Call for air strike, danger close. The two bug out before the bombs drop.

Any issues with this?

Go low tech to destroy the "evidence" in a flashy way: Atmospheric entry, especially over an ocean (any debris that manages to survive won't be buoyant). Mir was quite big yet almost nothing of it survived when it was sent into the atmosphere, and that was done in a controlled manner and a relatively slow entry. Not to mention various shuttle disasters.

Works in Star Wars physics. It almost happens in Vision of the Future (and likely a bunch of other stuff) to a light freighter that lost its drive in a fight.

8 minutes ago, NanashiAnon said:

Go low tech to destroy the "evidence" in a flashy way: Atmospheric entry, especially over an ocean (any debris that manages to survive won't be buoyant). Mir was quite big yet almost nothing of it survived when it was sent into the atmosphere, and that was done in a controlled manner and a relatively slow entry. Not to mention various shuttle disasters.

Works in Star Wars physics. It almost happens in Vision of the Future (and likely a bunch of other stuff) to a light freighter that lost its drive in a fight.

Good idea in general, but it wouldn't really work in this situation.

A thermal detonator or a disruptor rifle can leave only ash, so if evidence of such items are used, then that can work for faking a death without having a body. Something should be left behind though, so they believe someone died there.

1 hour ago, GroggyGolem said:

A thermal detonator or a disruptor rifle can leave only ash, so if evidence of such items are used, then that can work for faking a death without having a body. Something should be left behind though, so they believe someone died there.

They have to go with genetic residue

5 hours ago, Daeglan said:

They have to go with genetic residue

So carve off a small piece of yourself then. A small price to pay.

31 minutes ago, GroggyGolem said:

So carve off a small piece of yourself then. A small price to pay.

Or clone it

It doesn't seem to me as if cloning is something that is cheap, easy, common, fast, or something you can do on the fly in the Star Wars universe. You are at least going to need access to a cloning facility and a medical/science person who would be in on the secret.

16 hours ago, Daeglan said:

They have to go with genetic residue

But at that point is it really worth it to the empire?

1 hour ago, kaosoe said:

But at that point is it really worth it to the empire?

Yes. Basic forensics.

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Yes. Basic forensics.

To what end? In this hypothetical scenario, they are led to believe a clone was dusted. And Clones are all but property to them. I would expect them to mark the clones as KIA and move on with their lives.

29 minutes ago, kaosoe said:

To what end? In this hypothetical scenario, they are led to believe a clone was dusted. And Clones are all but property to them. I would expect them to mark the clones as KIA and move on with their lives.

Yeah, nobody is even going to look for Shock and nobody is likely to miss him. He doesn't really have to fake his death at all. He's just a statistic, and the Empire is already planning to phase the clones out of its military anyway, it's not exactly a big loss to them, and as far as they know he can't even defect because he's got an obedience chip.

19 minutes ago, micheldebruyn said:

Yeah, nobody is even going to look for Shock and nobody is likely to miss him. He doesn't really have to fake his death at all. He's just a statistic, and the Empire is already planning to phase the clones out of its military anyway, it's not exactly a big loss to them, and as far as they know he can't even defect because he's got an obedience chip.

No, the Jedi, they wouldn't care about Shock, but they would want to confirm the death of the Jedi.