Stormchaser Roleplaying

Kite furiously types calculations into the computer, a chime from the scanners breaks his concentration as the Vermillion powers up it's weapons and tractor beam. In a frustrated tone he mutters "Kriffin hell, rather end up in a black hole than let these amateurs do us in" Closing his calculations he slams his armored hand on the button and sees the star streak as the ship makes the jump to hyperspace.

Zed slaps Kite on the shoulder. "Nicely done," he says, giving another raised eyebrow in Adorhi and Shorlu's direction. Civvies... "Let's set up a crew watch," he says. "You all can catch some rack time. I'll stay up for a few hours."

At the abrupt disappearance of the Zeltron's image, Shorlu blinks, then looks over at Adorhi, and they share a knowing gaze. "'Aaaand so I saaay farewell, my space-bound angel," he begins to sing the well-known spacer's shanty, hopping out of his chair and offering a hand to dance. Whether she joins him or not, he goes spinning out of the cockpit, the song following him through the door: "You'll alwaaayyyys be in my dreeeeeeeeams!" He dances and sings right to his bunk. (edited)

Chuckling at the Ortolan's display, Adorhi turns to the clones sharing the cockpit. "Good job, Kite. When we get to Nadir, however, the goal will be to reel the red ones in, not run away. And Zed, you're good for first watch? I'm happy to hang out a bit if you'd like. Still plenty of studying to do behind the sticks here anyway." Adorhi gestures to the starships controls as she slumps into the pilot seat to do some mental exercises taught be the Ortolan. (edited)

Zed eases himself down into the chair Shorlu just vacated. His knees ram into the console, and he lowers the seat a few notches. "You're welcome to stay up," he says.

After jumping to hyperspace, Test slowly walks back through the monstrous ship to his bunk, collapsing on the mattress without preamble. His sleep is disturbed by dreams. He sees Veets petting Mishy across the hall in their old rooms on Tatooine. Test is cleaning his lightsaber at the table, both rooms with their hatches open, the evening suns setting as the temperature starts to cool. Veets looks up at Test and smiles warmly. Test smiles back as he drops his eyes to the mass of parts on the table as he puts a small pin back into it's slot. Raising his eyes again, Veets's smile has turned nasty, and their are drops of blood on his face. Test looks down to the bloody mess mess in his hands, fur matted on his clothes from the dark wetness. Test yells and leaps to his feet, rushing to his dead kitteh as Veets's hatch closes. Test's saber, again whole, ignites, quickly cutting through the hatch. A scream fills his ears from behind the vaporizing steel and he pulls the pieces of the door apart with his mind to find Kite inside clutching at his ruined chest. Blood bubbling from his lips, he looks up at Test with confusion. "Why? You were my brother." (edited)

06:17

Wheeling away in shame, he steps back out of the room and into a cavernous ship hold. There, a lonely vulture droid sits, disabled. A hideous yet indistinct ghostly entity floats up from the floor, a blue jewel hanging from it's neck catching the light. "Thank you, brother" the shape says in a feminine voice, speaking Togrutti. It loops through the air, landing on top of the decrepit droid, power surging from the blue crystal into the large, metallic form, bringing it to life. Springing on to it's pincer-like legs, it surges forward and pins Test to the bulkhead as ranks of battle droids file into the cargo bay. The voice speaks again in Togrutti, but this time the voice is more masculine as it's features remain indistinct. "For crimes against the galaxy, against your brothers, and against yourself, how do you plead?" Fighting against the pressure on his chest from the droid's pincer, with no hesitation, Test begins to answer "Guilty," but before the first sound escapes his lips, the ranks of battle droids carry out their sentence and fill the air with blaster bolts. Test's eyes burst open, the pressure remaining on his chest. But it's just Mishy. Her warm presence calms him and he quickly falls back asleep. (edited)

The next morning, Test sits down with Gauss to discuss the new crystal they have found to see if they can figure out what it is.

As Gauss sits using some sort of spectral analyzer what-cha-magig on the crystals, Test closes his eyes and reaches out, not to the crystals as he would have in the past, but to the Force. As he settles into the almost-now-comfortable rhythm of breathe and exhale, he suddenly feels drawn to the newest crystal, but in a way that feels comfortable and more of a suggestion than an allurement--as was the case with the Fell Star. Somehow, as he draws closer to it, he knows the crystal from the stasis device on the Starworm somehow has the ability to increase his own self-awareness and will help him to attune himself to the will of the Force. Reaching out through this crystal, then, his attention shifts to take in the crystals from the cave wall on Point Nadir. He suddenly remembers Haspin's voice telling him about his practice saber..."It uses a Bondar crystal. They produce a lightsaber blade that stuns rather than burns and slices. They've been used since the days of the Old Republic as crystals for training blades." (edited)

After a long, restful sleep, Shorlu awakens at last with a trumpeting yawn. He throws on a simple shirt and pants, and heads to the galley for some breakfast. Minutes later, he is seen entering the cockpit with a tray loaded with every important food group, and then some. "Mornin', everybody." He finds a seat in the co-pilot's chair next to Adorhi. "Alright Tails, I'm gonna give ya a pop quiz, and if you do good, I'll play you in some sabaac later. Just consider any credits you might lose as my tuition." He winks at the Togruta. (edited)

"I think we'll be talking about a scholarship, Blue," Adorhi retorts with a grin while leaning over inquisitively at the Ortolan's platter. After nabbing a piece of grub she turns back to the ship's controls ready for the instruction.

Zed rises and heads to the common room, where he grabs some flimsi and begins sketching out the layout of Point Nadir, from the best of his recollection. He held off on actually making battle plans -- it was moot anyway. He didn't know the size or composition of Prello's forces, and his plans would change depending on how many men she had, their capabilities and armaments. But he spent the time formulating ideas.

Each morning before the rest of the crew wakes Kite makes his way to the cargo bay, with MK following close in his wake. Producing a set of flimsi targets he directs MK to set them up throughout the bay. Setting his rifle to stun at the lowest setting he takes his stance outside the cargo bay door. Slowing his breathing and ensuring his tech is properly tuned up. Each morning as he prepares, memories assault his mind. The holos of Ventress, Voss, and Bulq cutting down squadrons of his brothers. Using their sabers and tricks to get in so close that the clones could not properly aim. Seeing the monster that wore Veets face confidently striding through the flames, his saber primed to cut Kite and his brothers down. Though the memory that haunts him is that of his last trip on the Messenger. Of him trapped in an escape pod, with his brother on the other side his saber cutting through the door. His rifle all but useless in the pod's small dimensions. Each memory bring up a feeling that Kite has worked his whole life to reject, weakness. As the cargo bay doors open Kite leaps out and MK hovers out flashing red, blue, & green lights, occasionally shocking him as it flies. Flying in and out of his face, attempting to distract him. As he moves through the bay shooting the flimsi targets. Each day he get's a bit better and by the end of their journey he is confident he could shoot down a Jetti regardless of how close they get.

Shorlu slaps down a Fleet, beating Adorhi in their second hand of sabacc. The Ortolan is into his fourth cup of cheap liquor he found in the pantry, and it's starting to show through his rosy cheeks. "Sorry Tails, can't bluff me that easy!" He stands up in his chair and leans over the table to rake the pile of credits over to his side. "I'm the scourge of every gambling hall from Coruscant to Canto Bight! Part a' the job when you're a private eye, ya know." As he shovels it all into his pack, he pauses. "Ah, there's an idea. Whattya say I put this against your credits for the next hand." He reaches in and struggles to pull out a single gold bar stamped with an Old Republic seal: the same one as the others they found in the cavern on Point Nadir. He lays it on the table with a thunk. "Don't worry -hic!- about matchin' it exactly, or anything." He says, swinging his trunk jovially.

Adorhi admired Shorlu's ability behind the cards but her pride would always win out. Despite a feeling to cut her losses, she threw in what she could against the gold bar and dealt the cards. Not looking good, 'rhi, the Togruta thinks to herself after a few rounds of bad hands. Only to keep him on his toes, rather than be purposely deceitful to her companion...and friend, Adorhi attempts to sneak a card to improve her chance against the shark on the other side of the table. Perhaps her consciousness got to her but awareness of the fumble was all over the Ortolan's face. "Kriff," Adorhi curses under her breath before continuing to her opponent. "Guess I'm a little rusty, 'lu. Brilliant play. Maybe I'll have to add a gambling elective to my course list with the Shorlu Institute of Fine Learning." With a slight change in tone, Adorhi changes topic as well while nodding towards the gold bar. "Coming good on this job with Alastair, maybe he can help get your friend out of his situation. Either way, we'll find a way to do so regardless. I'd not wish that pain on anyone..." Joining Shorlu in the less than enjoyable libations, Adorhi shares a few memories of Deasha....the one she herself had lost.

From the other end of the table, Zed looks up from his maps and ponders the suddenly-sober togruta. It seemed that nobody in this group was safe from the plague of loss and pain that afflicted the galaxy these days. It hadn't always been like this, right? Surely things were better during the Republic. He wasn't naive enough to believe that. Not fully. Sure, things had been better for him and his brothers -- they had been doing what they were created to do. But out here, in the fringe of the galaxy that they'd been living in since they had deserted, it had never been good. He sighs and moves over to snag the bottle from Shorlu's side of the table. He pours himself a couple fingers worth, downs it, then refills his glass and heads back over to his maps. The alcohol, unsurprisingly, didn't make them any clearer.

Not minding Adorhi's minor attempt at cheating—in fact, he considered it part of the game at this point—Shorlu sweeps away the remaining credits into his pouch, but leaves the gold bar where it is. "Hell, you can have it anyway if you want. I'm sick a' carryin' it around. Too heavy." He reaches over to the bottle for another swig, only to find it dreadfully far away, with Zed. He gives up on it for now. "Yeah, I can't wait to give that McCarthy a piece of my mind, treatin' my friend like that-hic!" He pauses in thought, realizing he still didn't even know the boss's first name. He shrugs to himself as he makes the accompanying realization that he didn't care what his name was. He listens to Adorhi's tales of nostalgia and woe. Despite his tipsy state, he's sharp as ever, with an attentive, respectful ear. He then trades some stories of Phu'ri, his erstwhile fiancée. By the end, he's weeping fat tears. "Ooohhh. What was I thinking, I never shoulda sold that ring." He heads back to his cabin with the bottle in hand. (edited)

Zed blinks as Shorlu snatches the bottle out of his hand. He hadn't even realized he had taken it. He puts his glass down and leans against the table. He pinches his eyes shut, sleep threatening to pry him away from the table. He compromises and falls into a chair.

Gauss spends the days holed up in the mechanical workshop, reprogramming, modifying, and upgrading his wristpad. He develops routines to direct blasts he creates with it, away from anyone he chooses. As well as improving the speed at which the computer calculates various actions it performs, enabling it to execute programs more quickly. Once he is done with his tinkering, he heads to where Test has been training himself. "Hey Test, want to relive the old days and fashion a pile of explosive ordnance? If we're going to start a war, might as well go in prepared." he asks of his brother, with his thumb behind his shoulder, pointing out the door. (edited)

Test feels his brother's approach before he hears it. A shift in the air perhaps? "Hey Test, want to relive the old days and fashion a pile of explosive ordnance? If we're going to start a war, might as well go in prepared." Test opens his eyes and smiles. "Yes. Yes, that would be great. Thanks for asking.

"All right, let's get started then!" Gauss replies back with enthusiasm as he heads back towards the workshop. The two brothers spend the next three days working together to provide the group with some well needed firepower. Test and himself take several each then offer the rest to the group. Zed takes the fragmentation charge, to resupply what they had used on Tatooine in their escape, along with a grenade. Kite comes over and snags one of the stun grenades, leaving one more for either Shorlu or Adorhi. "So... could either of you mame use of this? It's an electrostun grenade, not a whole lot of noise, but will shock anyone enough to keep them incapacitated for a while," the clone asks of the two. (edited)

Four days later, a whine followed by a dull thud can be heard throughout the Messenger as the swirling blue of hyperspace coalesces into scattered points of light on the black backdrop of space. Up ahead sits Point Nadir, a dim corona of vapour giving the comet an eerie illumination.

Shorlu falls into the the specific flight pattern expected of all craft before traffic control gives docking clearance, but some time passes and still nobody hails the Messenger.

Zed is leaning over Shorlu's chair, staring intently at the silent station. "No signals at all?" He smacks the intercomm. "Kit up," he says without waiting for a response. "We've got trouble."

Finishing a nutrient bar that served as his breakfast, Shorlu glances over to Gauss at the sensor station. "I'm inclined to agree. Gauss, can you scan for any out-of-the-ordinary signatures in there before ya suit up?" (edited)

Gauss scans the comet for any signatures "Got nothing, could be the comet messing with the sensors, but it's showing nothing there currently."

"I've got a bad feeling about this, brothers. Maybe we should just get out of here and try our luck elsewhere."

"What, and leave Flynn at the hands of that 'roided up nutjob? Like hell." Indignant as he is, the pint-sized pachyderm does seem visibly tense, keeping a death grip on the controls as he steers them further into the comet. "Besides, didn't you guys have unfinished business with those jacketed guys? Treble Down, or something? Blew up our old ship?" It's apparent he's joking about the name, but not very well. (edited)

"Sable Dawn, but yes," Zed says. "And we'll get Flynn back." He pats a hand on the ortolan's shoulder in an attempt at comfort.

Shorlu begins to deviate from the standard flight pattern, banking in towards the Jackrab hole, but the challenge from control never comes and the Messenger slowly enters the cavernous opening.

The quantity of wrecks and debris littering the cavern seems to have increased noticeably since those in the cockpit last made this journey. However, Shorlu smoothly navigates the gently cork-screwing passage to the comet's heart, until it finally opens up into Fische's Cove. Where once ferries and skiffs constantly flitted to and fro amongst the docked vessels, the cove is deathly still. Many of the ships hooked up to the chains and umbilicals that line the Tethers show signs of damage and distant flashes of blaster fire can be glimpsed in the Slips from afar.

"Uh...guys. My bad feeling? Getting badder."

"Jeez. Leave for a few days and somebody goes and starts a civil war... I'll leave it up to you guys if you wanna land in this." Shorlu slows the ship down at the approach to the Slips.

Looking to Zed as the battle torn scene comes into focus "Prello make her move early, or more Sable Dawn di'kutla?" Looking at the Ortolan, his tone neutral "We're committed, between Prello, Adorhi's benefactor, and getting Flynn out. We don't have another option but to land. You think you can bring us in safely?"

"Zed...you should probably go get in the turret. Just in case."

Gauss looks to Adorhi "Which hangar did you take off from? Probably safest to land in the same place we came, since at least one group will know who's landing."

Zed, who was already backing out of the cockpit, nods at Test. "Yeah, I think you might be right." He turns and runs the length of the ship toward the gunwell.

"Bay 53, Gauss." Adorhi replies. A flood of emotions wash over her as she remembers everything she and her companions went through on this kriffin' rock not too long ago.

The Messenger banks to starboard, heading for the Slips near Fische's Pub. However, as the freighter enters the cove, the Epsis tower sprouts several quad laser turrets and the comm chirps to indicate that the ship is being hailed.

"Better put that on." Shorlu says, frowning at the sight of the laser turrets. "Though I doubt it'll be another Zeltron..." he mutters under his breath.

The speakers blare as Zed opens the channel and plays the transmission. "Messenger, this is Epsis tower. Redirect course to land at docking bay 145 or you will be fired upon."

Zed blinks at the speaker before saying, "Copy that, Epsis tower. Docking bay 145. Can I ask what this is about? We have a salvage contract we're here to fulfill."

Knowing not to anticipate a satisfactory answer, Shorlu begins to comply, turning the Messenger from their heading of Docking Bay 53 to Bay 145. It was better defended, after all, and they had a 'friend' at Epsis. And most importantly, he wanted to know what the hell was going on in the shadowport proper. Maybe they'll answer our questions down there.

"Negative, Messenger. You will be briefed after landing," the tower explains before the line goes dead. (edited)

"Chatty today," Zed says, flicking off the transmitter. "This should be good."

"...Yeah." Shorlu agrees belatedly. He was already starting to get lost in thought, coming up with speculative theories about the conflict, and trying to come up with a new plan to deal with McCarthy. With war in the streets, a simple meeting would be less reasonable. "You guys might wanna go suit up, like you were saying. Let's be ready for anything."

As Shorlu begins to change course, making for Epsis tower, Adorhi's personal comlink chirps loudly. (edited)

"Seems like our employer might be getting antsy," Adorhi says acknowledging the incoming call. Looking to the others for input, "Answer? See if he can help?"

"Yeah, at least hear him out. I feel like he'll get offended if we ignore him."

"And that would be a concern to me?" Adorhi says with a chuckle to Shorlu's implication. Pulling up her commlink, she receives the call. "Alastair, darling! Feel like it's been forever. Preparing a welcoming party for me and the boys?"

"Very droll, Miss Ven," Alastair replies, collected, but all business right now. "Sadly it seems that we're all out of time for witty banter. Do you have the cargo?"

"Typical man, always wanting to jump right to it without any warming up. Yes, we have the cargo. Perhaps you can let us know what we're walking into on Nadir. Things don't seem right," Adorhi probes, hoping to give the group any sort of heads up they can manage to get.

Adorhi's comlink emits a dark chuckle that hangs ominously in the thick air of the Messenger's cockpit. "Well, you, of all people, should know, Miss Ven. It was you who started it, after all." Alastair lets the statement stand for a short moment, before continuing. "Tell your pilot to change course and make for Docking Bay 3 on my mark. I will handle Epsis."

Muting the comm, Adorhi turns to the others, "Boys? I'd offer that we have something Alastair desperately wants, so I trust his ability to provide us with a safe landing." (edited)

Zed shrugs, unsure. "We were on good terms with Epsis before we left. Not sure why they're pointing weapons at us." (edited)

Unmuting the commlink, Adorhi replies back to Alastair, "As long as handling Epsis means getting their guns off of us, then sure, we'll reroute. You say when and we'll adjust." (edited)

Kite shrugs "Place looks a like a war zone. Staying on target is probably their SOP. Epsis shot straight with us last time, Alastair may have plans of his own. Especially if he found out about the rest of the gold."

"Well, we better hope they don't shoot straight right now, they ain't toolin' around." Shorlu says, slowing their momentum again while he glances back, waiting for the go-ahead from Alistair over the comms. While they wait, he voices some thoughts rolling around in his blue cranium after hearing their employer's ominous reminder. "I never really considered myself a gambling man, but I'd wager some credits on who coulda started this fight. I'm thinking of a desperate bunch, desperate enough to, say, charge a squad of armored clone troopers for the medical supplies they're escorting?" He looks at each of the clones in turn. "Sound familiar?" (edited)

"It's possible. But my instincts tell me it's the gold we found, and someone is making a play for power. We shouldn't have used the gold here. We shouldn't have split it up."

"I agree to avoiding getting shot by those quad-laser turrets, either way. They're much like those we used to have on the old Arquintens cruisers during the war. They will make short work of us if anything goes awry." Gauss says as he watches the turrets track them. "Epsis has yet to do us dirty and from what we have heard about Alastair, if he found out we gave the other bars to Epsis, he'll more likely shoot us, than be negotiable, I think." He taps a few buttons on his wristpad, priming it for use. (edited)

toddmoonbounce

Unmuting the commlink, Adorhi replies back to Alastair, "As long as handling Epsis means getting their guns off of us, then sure, we'll reroute. You say when and we'll adjust." (edited)

A couple of tense seconds pass and then a high-pitched scream like that of a firework pierces the thin atmosphere of the cove. From somewhere astern of the Messenger, several surface to air missiles streak past the freighter, leaving thick trails of white vapour in their wake. The Epsis tower is obviously well armoured, but with the turrets deployed openings have been exposed and the missiles strike the cannons at their base in a series of fiery explosions that shroud the building in a cloud of dust and debris. "Mark!" Alastair's voice can be heard to bark from the comlink. Simultaneously, the plaza on the Slips outside the tower can be seen to erupt in a flurry of blaster fire on all sides.

"Kriffin' Bay 3, 'lu! Punch it." Adorhi calls out to their pilot counterpart. Turning back to the comm, she signs off with Alastair, "I owe you more credit, Al', see you soon. A glass of Dry Amber would be great. " (edited)

Shorlu launches into the maneuver he'd been preparing for for the past half-minute, pulling a throttle to cause the port thrusters to flare to life for a moment, while the starboard ones remained quiet. The hefty stern of the freighter swings around, as he'd planned, though a nearby rocky outcropping just outside his field of view nearly interrupts the movement. In seconds, the Messenger's nose is pointed in the direction of Bay 3, and the Ortolan pulls both throttles hard to send them straight towards it.

The Messenger rolls hard and everybody aboard feels the momentum rock them as the freighter plummets towards the Slips. Behind the ship, the dust from the explosions slowly begins to clear and two of the turrets can be clearly seen to be sparking with columns of smoke trailing from them. However, one begins to move, hydraulics whining as it turns to face the source of the missiles and opens fire across the cove, resulting in another series of explosions in the Tethers. Shorlu brings the Messenger in over the docking bay and outside the streets nearby are deathly quiet, giving way to the blaster fire of the skirmish further up the Slips near Epsis tower. The ship sets down with a clunk followed by a brief moment of near silence, bar the distant echoes of the cacophony outside.

"Well... Who knew Alastair would have access to missiles?" Gauss slightly laughs as he checks outside the window for any company.

Gauss can see the garage door at the front of the hangar opening and a group of men enter with a hovercart. (edited)

"Well, looks like we won't be able to make off with anything if we wanted. Alastair already has men here to pick up the salvage." Gauss turns to say to the others. (edited)

"Shame. The wife woulda loved a new military-grade droid processor." comes Shorlu's sarcastic reply, as he hops out of the pilot's chair and stretches his limbs. "I'll go be a good host, you guys can come if you want." He gathers all his things (especially the gold bar) before heading down the cargo ramp.

Kite grunts "I'll come. Be rude not to thank them for putting a target on our backs" Slinging his rifle and checking that his blaster pistol is securely in it's holster. Kite follows Shorlu with M.K hovering after them.

Test, follows the others out.

"Don't forget your arm candy, 'lu," Adorhi says while catching up to the Ortolan. "Afterall, I'm the one that got us in this mess."

Zed exits the ship last, making sure to scan all sides of the docking bay for ambushers.

The garage door is just closing as Adorhi, Shorlu and the clones come down the Messenger's ramp. Standing inside the docking bay is Garon; the Sullustan that tossed Test the Messenger's starter codes more than a week ago. He's accompanied by an armed escort of six, who stand covering the hovercart and entry points to the hangar. A Balosar, a Barabel, a Houk, a Rodian, a Twi'lek and a Wroonian. Each has a blaster carbine in hand and most wear a utility belt or bandolier loaded with additional gear. They've clearly come ready for trouble, although whether that's from their guests or other insurgents remains to be seen. "Welcome back," Garon remarks, leaning casually against the hovercart. "I'm told that you have something for me." (edited)

"Hold your orbaks, darlin'. It's coming out on a hovercart in just a moment." Adorhi says to the Sullustan while gesturing towards the Messengers loading ramp. She then directs a question back to their host, "So, what's all the commotion going on around here?"

Garon gives Adorhi a sardonic look of disbelief. "Real cute. You know, you're lucky that the boss wants you on side for now."

"Co-mmo-tion," Adorhi says slowly, assuming she said too big of a word for Alastairs muscle, "this chaos, all the loud noises? What is going on?"

Shorlu's ear twitches as he picks up on the Sullustan's choice of words. He waddles leisurely down the ramp, digging in his jacket pocket for one of his cheap tabac sticks—and finds one. He lights it up with a power cell and clamps it in his small mouth under his trunk. "'For now,' eh? And here I thought we were doing a great job for your boss." He plops down on the side of the ramp, letting his feet dangle over the edge. "What, he want us temps gone? Or are ya just that slow to trust?" He watches his and the others' reactions with a careful eye.

Garon fixes Adorhi and Shorlu with narrowed eyes for a moment, until they slowly widen again in realisation. "You... you really don't know, do you?" the Sullustan marvels, his last words choked out between laughs. "Wow," he exclaims wiping small tears from sides of his eyes, "well, then I guess that I get the dubious pleasure of telling you nerf herders what you've bloody done." Garon pushes himself up to sit on the edge of the hovercart, carefully watching each of Adorhi's companions in turn. "He who controls the legacy of Salovan Fische is the 'rightful' ruler of Point Nadir. For a long time that was just a nice story, but now that legacy is here and real and tangible and you idiots just waltzed around town handing it out to whoever you felt like. Welcome to the war for control of this frozen lump of rock." Garon lets that sink in for a moment, while his eyes fall on Shorlu. "You gonna share those?" (edited)

Shorlu remains still as Garon rants, his beady eyes betraying his inner thoughts for once. They're actually fighting each other over that story? Why's that gotta be our problem, if we didn't dig up that damned gold, someone else would've... For a moment, his face twists with indignation towards Garon, but he stops before voicing any of this. What stopped him was a memory.

"You planted death sticks on them? Tell me this isn't true, Shorlu!" The Chadra-Fan's normally high-pitched voice has grown squeaky with anger, as she waves the datapad detailing the controversial arrest he'd made. The Ortolan is unable to meet his wife-to-be's gaze, instead trying to interest himself in his small bowl of hyork chowder, already cold. "Phu'ri, baby, I'm telling ya, they had to be put away. They woulda been caught with spice sooner or later anyway. What we had to do doesn't matter if they're behind ray shields now! It's not our problem anymore..." He tries to reach across the small table to take her hand, but she pulls it back in disgust. "Maybe you're right. If you can't see that what you did was wrong, then it's not our problem." She stands up, and removes her engagement ring, tossing it on the table. "It's yours." She says conclusively, before walking out of the door of their meager Coruscant apartment.

Steadying himself with a deep breath, Shorlu pulls himself out of the memory, and blinks attentively when Garon asks, "You gonna share those?" He digs in his pocket for a handful more, handing them out to Garon, and any of the others that displayed interest. He puffs on his own stick. "Yeah, that's our bad." He begins to seriously contemplate their options as the moment passes. "Hey, your boss. Y'know what he wants this processor for? I'm curious."

Garon shrugs. "I usually find that it's better not to ask too many questions," the Sullustan answers dryly as he lights his own tabac stick. "What's the hold up, anyway? Your boy coming?"

Gauss comes down the loading ramp with the processor safely secured onto the hovercart they procured on the 'hulk. "You realize how heavy this thing is? Took us a while to get it on here."

Garon brings the hovercarts up level with one another and several of his men hurry over to heave the processor across from one to the other. "Pleasure doing business with you," the Sullustan remarks with a mock salute. "If you'll follow us, Alastair would like to see you."

Of course the kriffing gold led to all of this craziness. Stating matter of factly "Do you have our credits, or are they with Alastair?"

"Where do you think?" Garon quips with a wink. "The boss has the cash. Let's go."

Fixing his mandalorian helm on the man he says coldly "lead on"

With Adorhi, Shorlu and the clones in tow, Garon and his men escort the hovercart across the Slips to Fische's Pub. A far cry from the bustling atmosphere that was omnipresent before the Messenger's departure, the bar is now empty and eerily silent. The motley crew of aliens quickly hurry the processor inside and through a pair of double doors set into the back-left wall of the cantina, while Garon gestures to the single non-descript door behind the bar that previously led Adorhi and Test to the Alastair's office. "Don't keep him waiting."

The processor is whisked away out of sight and, at a push, the door to the back offices swings with a soft creak. The corridor on the far side is as sleek and clinical as Adorhi and Test recall. Just a few paces in, the dull metal door to Alastair's study stands ajar.

Shorlu strolls through the pub, taking in the environment as they made their way to the back. "The name sure checks out. Some people here really worship this Fische character." We're really gonna have to be careful if we wanna sort out this whole gold thing. He leaves the last thought unsaid, but it's apparent in a look.

The door swings silently inwards, revealing Alastair sat behind his desk, as though he hasn't moved since Adorhi and Test left the room almost two weeks ago. The two bars of Salovan Fische's legacy are notably absent amidst the study's old world aesthetic. Sharp eyes dart between each of his guests, taking in the group in front of him. "Miss Ven," Alastair remarks with relish. "Come to witness the fruits of your labour, or just to reap them?" (edited)

Adorhi steps towards a cabinet in the office and begins to pour herself a drink from the decanter sitting on top. "Let's settle our current transactions first. Then perhaps we can talk about that harvest." She gestures the bottle towards Alastair, silently offering him a drink and then continues, "Afterall, whoever has the gold makes the rules, no? As long as the poodoo on this rock haven't gone and collapsed the mines, I believe we have some breadcrumbs back to the rest of Grandpap's gold." Finishing her drink and replacing the glass to the cabinet, Adorhi then gestures to Shorlu while still speaking to Alastair, "Mr. Podobo here would very much like to retrieve a good friend of his from the clutches of one of this fine rock's scum. Something you'd be able to help with, dear?"

Zed stands near the door, holding his blaster rifle in a carefully neutral position. He had imagined this Alastair guy, and so far, he had lived up to exactly what Zed thought he was. Ostentatious and too focused on his aesthetic. This man was not an ally -- not someone he could trust.

Shorlu strolls into the office for the first time, turning around a couple of times as he looks about. "Oh, wow, wow. What an office!" He affects an amazed tone, like a backwater Outer Rim tourist seeing Theed for the first time. He approaches and examines various objects and furniture in the room, seemingly out of wonder—in truth, he's using the opportunity to investigate the area with a practiced eye, looking for any trace of previous occupants, besides Alistair and the party. He's close to laying a fingerpad on a particularly marvelous bust when Adorhi mentions his name. "Ah yep. That'd be me. Pleasure to meet ya, Mister uh... Fische?" He blurts the name out with an educated guess on his part, though he'd never heard Alastair's last name. His beady eyes gauge the man's reaction.

"'Mr Fische' was my father," Alastair tells Shorlu kindly, with a touch of reproach. His eyes follow Adorhi's hands as the Togruta pours herself a drink, but he does nothing else to acknowledge her behaviour. "Please, call me Alastair. As for your 'breadcrumbs', Miss Ven," he adds, turning his attention back on Adorhi, "do you really think that anyone here has sat idle since you departed? Zietta controls the Fissures and her goons were flooding the mines before you even reached the Slips. Epsis locked down the docks to stop anyone leaving with more of the Fische legacy and, well, here we are." Alastair raises his hands on both sides, as though to indicate the situation around them, before rising from his chair. "That's all about to change though, for my blue angel has brought me what I need to take control of the situation once and for all. Would you care to follow me?" Alastair gestures towards the door that they came in through.

Kite grimaces under his helm, Prello was not going to be happy about whatever this is. Clicking on his comm line "Gauss, we may need some additional data on whatever the kriff this is. If you can do it discreetly, record the route to the object and and the object itself. In case we ever need to take action." (edited)

With a chuckle, Adorhi replies to Alastair's request, "Ha, 'angel.' I've been called worse I suppose. Boys, if no questions or complaints, shall we?"

"Ah, come off it, Tails. Who's to say he wasn't referring to yours truly?" The pudgy pachyderm lets out a small hoot at his joke as he steps out of the door. "Lead the way then, Alastair."

"Solid copy" Gauss replies back to Kite as he taps at his wristpad to begin holorecording his surroundings.

Test keeps silent--his eyes open and watching.

Stepping between his guests, Alastair leads them back out into the corridor, closing the door to his study behind the group once everybody is out. "Tell me about your friend, Mr Podobo," he remarks, leading the way down the stark silver passage to a nearby turbolift and pressing his finger to a button. The doors open with a swish, revealing a spacious cell. Alastair steps inside.

Shorlu enters the turbolift as well. "Flynn Rider. I've been his co-pilot goin' on five years now. He helped me out with a debt I owed the Hutts, so now I fly for 'em. But he neglected to mention that around these parts, he owes money to that meathead McCarthy at the Cruelest Cut. I'm guessing you're acquainted?"

Alastair pushes another button inside the turbolift and it begins to accelerate. "Unfortunately, yes," Alastair drawls in response, "I never quite did get the stench of his establishment out of the jacket I wore there... and now McCarthy is holding Rider hostage, is he?"

"Yeah, exactly. I bargained to make sure he wouldn't kill Rider for a while, but we're coming up on the deadline. Even if we had the money—we don't—I'd rather give McCarthy his just desserts. Now's a great time, but I'll admit we're a little low on manpower for a guns-blazing rescue. Can we negotiate some kinda help here?" (edited)

The turbolift glides to a halt with a soft whine and the doors snap open, revealing what appears to be the roof of Fische's Pub. "How much does McCarthy want?" Alastair asks, striding out of the lift and across to a railing from which one has a view of much of the Slips and the Utility Ward.

"Twelve thousand four hundred credits," Shorlu spouts with a mocking accent that echoes the gangster's.

"Well, Mr Podobo, it would seem that you're in luck," Alastair remarks, gripping the railing at the edge of the roof as he leans on it and surveys the eclectic mix of building styles that make up the shadowport. "I owe you and your merry band of friends at least fifteen grand... but, if I'm honest, it's about to get a whole lot more interesting than that." Raising his watch to his mouth, Alastair taps a button and speaks into it. "Ready, Garon?" He asks. "Ready, boss!" "Turn it on." A few seconds of silence pass, but for the distant sound of blaster fire off towards Epsis tower. Then, moments later, the clatter of metal shutters being rolled up can be heard from a nearby building, followed by a sound far too familiar to most of those present - the steady, rhytmic clap of battle droids marching en masse. They pour out of buildings at ground level, heading up the Slips towards Epsis and, eventually, McCarthy. (edited)

"Kriff..." Gauss says aloud, amazed, not by the fact Alastair had access to CIS battle droids. But that he had so many, now under his control. He carefully makes sure his wristpad records as much as it can.

Zed narrows his eyes inside his helmet. The clankers were on their side for now. But this made him trust Alastair even less. He couldn't help but feel that they'd just handed a powerful weapon to a tyrant.

"Wow, that's uh... wow." Shorlu says, now properly dumbstruck compared to his earlier facade. "You are quite the collector." With a grimace, he thinks back to the poor of Point Nadir. They likely just made their lives a lot more terrifying. (edited)

As the legion of droids march towards them, years of hard earned instincts kick in. Kite's hand darts to the pistol holstered on his left hip. Fortunately his mind catches up to his body as his hand reaches the butt of the pistol. And with significant strain he slowly removes his hand, crossing his arms. His estimation of Alastair went up several notches. Kite expected the man to have a handful of droids, maybe a squad. But the man who Kite initially regarded as nothing but a low rent gangster, had acquired his own army. Looking to the man he says simply "Impressive" (edited)

"Those droids of yours could use some air support, Alistair. We happened to pick up a fully intact Vulture. You interested in trading it for that piece of junk we've been flying around in?"

Alastair turns his head slightly to glance at Test, keen blue eyes assessing the clone and his offer. "You know, Test, the last time that we met I made you an offer; Fische's gold for the Messenger. Not just a bar or two, but the entire trove. That offer still stands, if you're up to the job. After all, he who controls Fische's legacy controls Point Nadir." He lets that sink in before continuing. "I'll certainly take the vulture droid off your hands though, if you're interested in cold, hard credits. Are its concussion missile racks still filled?"

"We'll think about it," Zed says. "I trust we'll still have access to the Messenger? We still have some other cargo to offload, the vulture droid notwithstanding."

Test, about to respond, is cut-off by his commanding officer and he snaps his mouth shut. Muscles clenching in his jaw he breathes through his nose and starts to think about ways to get that gold back again.

"I gave Miss Ven two weeks to salvage the processor from the Starworm," Alastair muses in reply to Zed, before glancing once more at his watch.. "45 hours of that time remain. I expect that that should suffice as a grace period?"

Zed nods. "Should be," he says.

Shorlu steps back from the edge, having seen enough of the droid army. He turns to Alastair, hands in his pockets. "So uh, we got your word these droids aren't gonna blast us in the back while we're going about our business here, right? Scav's honor and all that? I still gotta go get my friend back."

Alastair turns to look down at the little Ortolan loitering behind him and grins. "Well, if it's my word, then we'd better make sure, shouldn't we?" He taps his watch again. "Garon, flash our friends some IFFs. They're going to be out and about on the Slips." Alastair looks about at his audience of six up on the roof of Fische's pub. "Anything else?""

uncrossing his arms Kite adds "Our credits"

Alastair chuckles knowingly. "They're with Andy. You can collect them and your transponders on your way out." (edited)

Looking to Zed to see if his brother has any objections, seeing none, he nods and says "Understood. You have our com codes if need be." He then turns and begins to head out

Alastair remains on the roof, watching events unfold from on high, and the turbolift doors open with a swoosh as Kite approaches. The ride back down to the ground floor is short and a few paces on down the sleek, silver hallway the door to the back offices closes behind the clone, leaving him in the rustic interior of Fische's pub. Andy stands behind the empty bar, polishing the counter, and the Wookiee glances up at Kite when approached. "Acworcwo wwoorc rooohurc oarcwowaahaoc, ah aoraorwo ahao?" (edited)

Eager to leave the entire Alastair situation and regroup. Kite quickly heads off to the bar. Not understanding a word the man says, Kite responds in basic hoping the Wookiee would understand "Alastair said you would have our credits and transponders."

"Caorcraahrracao aooo rhhucahwhwocc aoacwowh," Andy notes, pulling a stack of credit chips and six electronic fobs out from under the counter. He lays them in front of Kite with a clatter.

"Hey Andy. That redhead been asking about me?" Test asks, jokingly.

"Wohoworcro whahrracao," Andy quips back as he pushes the credits across the bar.

Test, having no clue what the Wookie is saying, plays along. "Well I guess I'll just have to keep her waiting then. Thanks," he says, picking up a fob and dumping the credits in his pack. "Hey, you take care, OK? Things seem a little rough out there."

"Ah'sc ra rhahrr rhooro," Andy assures Test, while pouring himself a drink. (edited)

Shorlu climbs up on a barstool to take a fob and most of his share of the credits, leaving a 5-piece behind. "Can I get somethin' for the road? Anything that's sweet." He asks the furry bartender. (edited)

"Waoowoc ahao anooooor anahorwo ohwo'rcwo ooakwowh?" The Wookiee complains, rolling his eyes before serving Shorlu a brightly coloured cocktail in a martini glass. It tastes of tropical fruits, cream and rum. (edited)

"I know. I keep telling him he's gotta work on his tough-guy image." Test says over his shoulder as he makes his way to the door. "Shorlu...drink that fast wouldja? I don't think they are even open," he says, looking around the empty joint.

In a flash, Shorlu snatches up the cup and downs it, lifting up his trunk to pour it right into his small mouth underneath. "Oh, it tasted it even better than it looked. You keep that up, you'll have another regular here!" He puts another 5-piece down as a tip, totaling ten, and jumps down from his seat to join the others at the door. "Alright, let's pick up pretty boy." (edited)

Gathering up their credits and transponders, Adorhi, Shorlu and the clones head back to the Messenger, where they gather in the common room to discuss what happens next.

Caught up in the whirlwind of what was happening, Zed remained silent for most of the trip to and from the bar. When they get back to the Messenger, he says, "First things first, we need to secure Prello's landing zone. That means we need to make sure Epsis doesn't repair their missile turrets."

Tinkering with the transponders, his helmet next to him on the table. Kite looks up as Zed speaks, his voice even but with a hint of distraction "We don't know when Prello is getting in. Making an enemy of Epsis without Prello's troops will get us killed. It may do us some good to scout out where the turrets are, but our first move should be to secure Prello's base. We can take McCarthy off the board, free Rider and get Prello a base to operate out of." Shrugging as he fiddles with the gadget adding "Hopefully without pissing off any of the major powers." (edited)

Zed nods, still wishing for a battalion of soldiers. "I wasn't suggesting we hit the Epsis building. But you're right. First things first, free Rider."

When the squad of six emerge from the Messenger's landing ramp, they find that a pair of guards have been posted outside the entrance to the docking bay. The distant echoes of blaster fire can still be heard from up the Slips, but close to Fische's Pub all is quiet.

"Let's get moving," Zed says. "Let's take the long way through the Souk. We can move there quietly. When we get to the Cruelest Cut, let's see if we can't lure some of McCarthy's men outside. Maybe we can plant some explosives." He thinks back to the last few days. "That is, if we still have any."

Securing his helm as he walks down the ramp, Kite picks up the distant sounds of blaster fire. Shaking his head "Sounds like a warzone out there, don't know who may jump in if we make too much noise. My vote would be to find a way in, and quietly eliminate McCarthy, and then clean up anyone with more loyalty than sense."

"We don't have any way to know how many men McCarthy has," Zed says. "If we get trapped in there, we'll have nowhere to go...but you're right. If we cause noise outside, they could kill Rider before we get to him. It is a warzone out here...maybe we could use that to our advantage. Draw another faction in while we sneak in the back way."

As the group leaves the hangar, Gauss motions to the group. "Keep within ten yards of me and stick to the shadows, I have a piece of tech to insure we're not discovered while we move to McCarthy's." Once the group gathers, the clone taps at his wristpad before pulling out six small devices. "Keep these on you, and my wristpad will do the rest." He then presses on his wristpad again, a faint white noise can be barely heard, canceling out most noises the group makes, and the smells of the nearby area seem to disappear. The group's bodies and gear begins to shimmer before becoming faint and near-transparent. "Okay, lets go, try not to make too many sudden of movements, the field isn't perfect and perceptive beings may still spot us if we're not careful. And if you stray too far, the signal will be lost and your presence will no longer be masked." Gauss moves to the middle of the group, making sure he stays between them to keep the field functioning. (edited)

01:14

"Don't ask me how it works, it's way too complicated to explain, and I honestly came across it by chance." (edited)

Masked by Gauss's stealth field, it's easy to keep out of sight while stealing across the Slips and into the Souk. The steady thump of marching battle droids rumbles to the left and flashes of blaster fire can be glimpsed flying up and down from the sides of Epsis tower. The teams moves fast and soon the skirmish is left far behind them as they leave the skirmish on the Slips behind and head for the Nest and the Cruellest Cut. (edited)

Kite sends M.K. to scout ahead and his HUD flickers to life with a feed of the exterior of the cantina. The front door has been barricaded with scrap in the form of a make-shift checkpoint and guards patrol up and down the edges of the roof.

M.K. does a full sweep around the building. The Cruellest Cut is built up against the inner wall of the comet and the droid's sensors detect several vacuum tubes for waste and exhaust that are punched through the rock. Some are large enough for a humanoid to fit through and could potentially present a structural vulnerability that isn't under constant guard. The most easily accessible pipes are relatively small, while the larger pipes will be more of a challenge to get at.

Kite narrates MK's view as the droid flies around the building. After it finishes he says "They have guards patrolling the front and a checkpoint that we would have to clear for a frontal assault. There a pipes in the back that should be large enough to accommodate us, M.K didn't spot a consistent guard around those points. It may take some effort but I think using the tubes and going in quiet is still our best play."

"I agree," Zed says. "Unless anyone else has a better idea?" The fact that he's not in command anymore writhes furiously in the back of his mind.

"I still have some power left for the stealth field. Some of us can sneak in, while the others provide an overwatch of the building? Could distract a few on the outside to keep the majority off our backs." Gauss says, checking the power levels of his gear. (edited)

"It ain't the most dignified way in, but I'm with Kite on the tubes idea." Shorlu wrinkles his brow, already imagining the scent. Then again, he'd done worse to catch a perp before. "Normally I like to plan these types of things out more, but with Rider in there, time is a luxury we can't afford." He scans the perimeter of the Cruelest Cut, making sure they have a clear path to get to the pipes in the rear when the moment is right.

"I can't go through this again..." Adorhi mutters to herself through tear filled eyes and a face of shock and awe. With a quick shake of the head hoping to clear the painful thoughts of the past, she turns to Shorlu and puts a hand on his shoulder, "I'm with you, Shorlu, just lead the way. I'll do everything I can to make sure we save her."

Under the cover of Gauss's stealth field, Adorhi and Shorlu make their way around to the rear of the building. The outer pipes are slim, but sturdy affairs, tucked out of sight of any watchful sentries. The larger pipes will pose more of a challenge to reach without being seen. Judging by the light film of frost on the surface of the metal, the interior could indeed lead to the vacuum of space.

As Gauss and the others prepare to leave, Test turns to Zed and says "I think I should go with them. You coming or should you and Kite light up the outside?"

"We'll come with you," Zed says. "Kite's right, causing a distraction outside will make our exfil more difficult."

At the pipes, Test pats his saber and says "I can cut us in, but this frost makes me worry."

Feeling a pull on his mind, Test turns to his right, seeing a steel girder--apparently abandoned from some construction project--wedged amongst some small plumbing pipes. The way that's leaning, it's lucky that didn't crush those...crush those pipes! Test moves over and braces his shoulders against the girder, wrapping his thick arms around it. With a silent exhalation of breath, he heaves, lifting the steel beam's weight off the pipes and swivels to extract it's length from the tangle of plumbing. "OK, brothers, help me position this to crush the pipe. Once its crushed nearly closed, we can cut it there, and my saber should fuse the sides together. Then we can cut the pipe closer to the building where it's not crushed. Make sense?" (edited)

Zed nods, moving into position.

Shorlu draws his pistol as he approaches the rear of the building, pressing his back to the wall and peeking first to ensure the way is clear. He rubs a fingerpad on the frost, causing him to feel and taste it at the same time. "Damn..." he mutters at first, but his ruminations on what to do about this are quickly halted as Test is the first to come up with a plan. "Hey, not a bad idea, big guy! I can help ya find a sweet spot." He presses an elephantine ear to the pipes.

Shorlu helps Test find a place to wedge the girder--providing a long lever arm to amplify his own strength and the weight of the beam--directly across from a portion of the pipe abutting the ground, allowing Test to use the floor as an anvil opposite the hammer of the girder. Placing the girder carefully to avoid making too much noise, Test pushes down, crushing the pipe just as he'd envisioned it in his mind. He takes out his saber, and begins to cut.

There's a sharp hiss and the groaning of warped metal as Test's lightsaber sears through the pinch-point in the crushed tube, but the noise is suppressed by Gauss's damping field and soon the vacuum of space is safely sealed away in one end.

Nodding at their handiwork, Test moves closer towards the building and attempts to sever the pipe at two locations, removing a segment to allow them to enter. (edited)

This time the acrid scent of molten metal is swiftly followed by the foul stench of refuse from within.

"Of course."

"Hey, at least you don't taste everything you touch. Let's go."

The pipe is tight, cramped and claustrophobic. Shorlu is small enough to be able to manoeuvre better than his larger friends, but navigating the waste ejection tube isn't a pleasant experience for anyone. Noises from inside the building echo back and forth disorientingly and it seems like the rank, oppressive confines of the sewer will never end.

-Hhuaagh.- Following behind Shorlu, Adorhi struggles to hold back the urge to retch in reaction to the filth. "Rider kriffin' owes us for this one," she says mostly to herself. Despite the massive sensory distraction of their surroundings, Adorhi does all she can to listen through her montrals for nearby beings as they move deeper into the structure.

The stench being nearly overwhelming, Test puts his hand in his pocket, feeling for the crystal inside. Reaching through the crystal, he opens himself to the force, hoping the extra sensory perception it gives will drown out the worst of the stench....or at least make him one with the stank.

Gauss holds his sleeve up to his face to keep out what stench makes it through his neutralizing field. "Bright side... we might not be able to...coughs... come back this way..." (edited)

"Tell me the bright side after we get out of this stinking cesspit," Zed says, thankful that his helmet blocked out at least some of the smell.

Kite trudges through the grime, as he silently tallies the hours it would take to clean the literal poddoo out of his armor and cape. As a very pungent draft wafts past him, for just a brief moment he considers throwing his kit into the incinerator. Before shaking his head and trudging on.

After what feels like an eternity inside the unpleasantly tight confines of the waste pipe, Adorhi's montrals detect an open space to the side of the pipe in what seems like a long corridor. There doesn't appear to be anybody nearby outside it.

At Adorhi's indication, Test, in the middle of the group, ignites his saber to cut out the side of the pipe. Just before it falls free, Test--his force-enhanced senses giving him warning--reaches out with the force and cushions the drop of the curved metal disk, settling it on the ground gently. (edited)

Having remained silent for once by choice out of disgust, Shorlu squeezes out first. After a moment of feverishly shaking his hands clean and even wiping them off on the wall, he focuses on his surroundings, looking about and listening for any nearby persons besides the party.

The exit that Test has created appears to emerge into a maintenance corridor on a lower level. The building is quiet, but for the background hum of electronics and the echo of distant footsteps.

"Guass, Adorhi, you picking anything up? Where do we go from here?"

Adorhi can sense the nearby vibrations of the building's power and water systems, but not movement within thirty feet.

splaaat A splash of the mysterious sludge hits against the side of the pipe as Adorhi hopelessly tries to kick off the filth from her boots while fighting through another urge to throw-up. The first sense of relief since entering comes from a new vibration within the building up ahead, one that gives off the distinct patterns of a turbolift. "We may be in luck, boys. Turbolift up ahead to the left."

"Alright, let's move," Zed says. "Quiet as we can."

Unlimbering his vibro-claymore, Test takes point.

Gauss checks over his equipment, making sure the gunk hasn't damaged or prevented it from functioning while keeping to the middle of the group.

Shorlu draws his pistol again while following straight behind Test. "Careful. They'll be more likely to smell us coming than see us, like this." Fortunately, it seemed Gauss's dampeners had that covered, too.

True to form, Adorhi is right. A short way down the corridor is a left turn to another passage with sleek turbolift doors in the wall. The lower level is eerily quiet, although movement can still be heard echoing from higher up.

"So...up then, I guess? Gauss, can ya disable the lift once we're up? At least until we need it again? I don't want reinforcements coming up easily."

"We gotta find out where they'd keep prisoners. And frankly, a lower level like this would fit the bill. I say let's look around here first before we go to another floor." Shorlu checks up and down the corridor for entrances or exits leading to other rooms.

Continuing past the turbolift as he goes looking for where they might find Rider, Shorlu's sensitive ears pick up the sound of muted conversation and the high frequency whine of containment fields. (edited)

"Sure thing." Gauss replies to Test, setting to lock the console out for anyone but himself. (edited)

Gauss locks out the console, shortly followed by the sound of hammering from the other side of the door. It seems that the turbolift was occupied. (edited)

"Better hurry. They might figure out it didn't just break." Test on point continues to move forward towards the containment fields Shorlu points out.

Shorlu winces at the sound of hammering on the door. "Yeah. C'mon." Let's not talk about how lucky that was...

Gauss follows suit, keeping an eye on the turbolift door as he moves, ready to act with his wristpad, if it opens before they can get clear.

Test slips ahead, remaining just within range of Gauss's stealth field as he scouts the corridor ahead of his brothers. Peering around the next corner, there appears to be some kind of small detention area. Two guards, an Aqualish and a Zabrak, stand behind a console surrounded by cells in an arc. Crimson energy fields block the entrances with a warm hum. (edited)

Test holds up his left fist indicating "halt" and turns his head to hold a finger to his lips: silence. This is immediately followed by his left hand thumb down, index finger pointed forwards indicating "enemy sighted there" moving into holding up two fingers to indicate that there are two enemy. Looking back at the group, Test looks through his curled hand indicating "sniper (Kite)" and touches his wrist indicating "engineer (Gauss)" and waves them forward. Then, touching his shoulder to indicate his commanding officer, Zed, Test points two fingers at his eyes and points back down the hallway indicating that Zed should watch their rear. (edited)

Zed taps his helmet in acknowledgement and keeps his eyes on the group's six, scanning the corridor for any signs of movement.

Gauss nods and moves up to Test ready to strike at his signal. (edited)

The thumping on the other side of the turbolift doors stops for a moment, followed by a single, more powerful blow that echoes down the corridor. The guards at the console turn their heads.

Gauss pulls out a stun grenade showing it to Test. (edited)

Kite shakes his head and holds up a finger to his helmet. And then points to Test's sword, and his silencer. Hoping to keep the engagement quiet as long as possible. He then draws and offers Gauss a vibrodagger

Gauss nods to Kite, putting the grenade away and getting his own dagger out, readying his wristpad as well. (edited)

Shorlu's beady eyes follow the clones' hand signals. He seems to understand some of their plans—especially the obvious implications of a stun grenade—but their more minute expressions elude him. He levels his gun, looking to Zed for the go-ahead.

Test nods at Kite, placing his hand on Kite's shoulder as the sniper drops to one knee ready to brace his gun on the corner of the wall. Once in position, Test slightly squeezes the shoulder (ready) and immediately releases it, signaling him to take his shot as he rushes into the room with sword in hand.

Holds his left hand up as he levels his rifle at the Aqualish on the left. His HUD lights the Aqualish up in a green light and provides optimal targeting data for the shot. His finger lightly rests against the trigger as he prepares his shot.

The blaster bolt catches the Aqualish in the shoulder, sending him toppling from his stool with a cry of pain!

Grumbling into his helm, irritated that the Aqualish turned just enough that he had to waste a second shot on the fool. Lining up the cross hare right over the man's face and lets a second blast fly, sending the alien crumpling to his feet. His face a smoking ruin. Ejecting a clip from his power belt he quickly reloads and trains his rifle on the Zabrak.

As Kite lets loose two blaster bolts, toppling the Aqualish, Test heads right for the Zabrak, his vibro tearing into the man's chest before he can even react to their presence. As the Zabrak drops to the ground, Test looks over to assure himself that the Aqualish is down for the count. Satisfied, Test holds up his thumb to signal success, then signals for Gauss to come open up the cells while Kite provides over-watch. Meanwhile, he looks around the cells to see who, or what, is down here. (edited)

Gauss taps Zed on the shoulder, pointing his thumb back around the corner and tapping his wristpad. He quietly rushes around the corner, checking for cameras before finding an access key (edited)

Shorlu swings around the corner belatedly, pistol held in both hands, and is mildly surprised to see the grunts both dead already. "Almost like we're working with professionals," he says quietly to Adorhi, before entering the room. He looks in each cell for a familiar face.

Gauss quickly locates a shiny, black observation dome fixed to the ceiling and finds code cylinders on the belts of both guards. Six pentagonal openings are arrayed around the security console in an arc, each blocked by a shimmering, red forcefield. Half are occupied. One by a Balosar, another by a Twi'lek and the third contains Flynn Rider, who it seems was sleeping until woken by the sudden commotion. He stares at Shorlu and the clones, rubbing his eyes as though he cannot believe what he is seeing. The man is bettered and bruised, but alive. "Shorlu?!" He exclaims weakly, his voice breaking in relief. Meanwhile, back towards the turbolift, the heavy blows from the inside have stopped, replaced instead by a sharp sparking noise and a glowing spot on the exterior durasteel.

Seeing that Gauss has everything under control here, Test moves back down the hall, positioning himself on the far side of the turbo lift, ready to strike at anyone who exits. "Adorhi, wanna help me out here?" (edited)

Gauss quickly aims his wristpad at the observation dome, firing off a bolt of electricity which fries it completely. "Well, they probably know we're here now. Give me one second on those locks." he tells the group as he moves to the bodies and pulls out their code cylinders. "Give me a second there, Shorlu, I'll have your key." He throws one of the cylinders at the ortolan. The clone then looks at the other cells "What should we do with them?" (edited)

Shorlu's eyes light up as he spots his old friend. "Rider!" He catches the cylinder and deactivates the force field, before rushing in to hug the battered smuggler. "Ah, thank the Maker. I was worried..." He breaks off the hug, taking a step back, then scrunches up his face with a frown. "Wait a sec. This is the part where I get mad. Why'd you just waltz in here, knowing you owed this McCarthy guy twelve thousand?! Think, Flynn! He coulda shipped you off to the spice mines of Kessel for that!" The portly Ortolan rants as he squats in front of him, pressing his fingerpads to the sides of his head to emphasize the word "think," making a light plip! sound.

"Argue later," Zed says. "Get him the kriff out of there and let's head to exfil. We've been made at this point. Going out the front door?"

"Doubt they know yet that we came through the pipes, plus the turbolift is still locked, might as well keep it that way. Do we want to free the others and let them do as they please? Could serve as a distraction at least." Gauss replies to Zed, twirling the cylinder in his fingers. (edited)

Zed squints at the Balosar. "What are you in for?"

Rider grins weakly. "I was gonna pay him triple," he jokes, wincing as the little Ortolan embraces his battered body. "What kinda fool throws away a fortune like that?" Meanwhile, the Balosar eyes Zed hopefully. "Gambling debts," he offers. "That's how must end up down here." At the turbolift, the glowing spot on the metal is slowly progressing in a vertical line up the height of the door.

"Zed, catch." Gauss yells st his brother, tossing him the code cylinder. "Heading to Test to deal with our incoming hostiles," the clone says as he runs back towards the turbolift. He taps at his wristpad, shutting down his stealth field and preparing another function. Once he reaches the lift door he motions Test to the side. "Might want to stand clear," he whispers loud enough for Test to hear but not those behind the door. "Time to go...*hot" he finishes with a grin. (edited)

Zed catches the code cylinder and plugs it into the panel while looking at the Twi'lek in the next cell."And you? Gambling debts?"

The Twi'lek nods to Zed, pale with fear. Meanwhile, Gauss and Test stand ready by the turbolift doors, as the fusion cutter reaches the floor on the other side of the rectangle that it has been scoring. There's a loud clank as the metal panel is rammed once more and then slowly topples outward, revealing a Human and a Vuvrian.

Before the door comes down, Test tells Gauss "Let's try it quite first. They don't comply, light 'em up." When the door falls, Test points his sword at the one on his side and growls "Hands on your head. Don't make a sound." (edited)

"Alright...first sign they don't, they burn." Gauss keeps his gauntlet aimed at the men as Test talks them down.

The turbolift's occupants start, before slowly raising their hands. However, as they do so, Test can see a red light already blinking on the internal console.

"Gauss, see what you can do about that," Test says, nodding at the light. "You two, this way," Test says, jerking his head down the hallway toward the cells.

21:37

Stopping in front of Adorhi, Test continues, "Hold up. Tails, can you give these two a pat-down?"

Adorhi steps towards the two figures, first looking them up and down for any obvious finds as well as for any likely locations of something hidden before then giving a thorough search of their persons but comes up empty as she is heavily distracted by the lingering stench of the sewage covering her party's boots. "...nothing other than their blasters," she says through a dry heave while taking the weapons from their holsters. (edited)

"We got a problem." Gauss says over comms. "They hit the lift assistance, I'm going to try to stop it, but be prepared for more company." He hits the button inside the turbolift. (edited)

"OK, move it you too. Into those cells."

The two men stumble on out of the turbolift and make for the cells. Back inside, Gauss hits the button and the flashing stops. However, by now the sound of rapidly approaching boots can be heard echoing from the nearby corridors.

"Kriff..." Gauss runs back down the corridor and into the holding room. "Throw them in, no time to wait, we got hostiles incoming!" The clone calls to his comrades as he takes cover around the corner from the entrance, stun grenade in hand and gauntlet heated up with a searing flame.

Looking back to see Test send McCarthy's hires into the unoccupied cells, Shorlu gets up, tossing Rider a ration, and one of the thugs' dropped blasters. "I'd say 'get ready for a fight,' but you're probably used to fighting by now, ain't ya? We're gonna make a stand and root out McCarthy." Giving the rogue a nod, he approaches the brig's doorway and peers down the hallway, listening for the source of the footfalls to grow louder. Spotting Gauss as he runs back in, he gives him a hand signal of his own, an IntSec special meaning "dual attack." He figures the engineer, of anyone, is clever enough to intuit it.

Gauss nods at the Ortolan and tosses the stun grenade to him, preparing his gauntlet to let loose once it goes off. (edited)

Putting his back up against the wall so he can lean around corner, Test looks at his friends pulling stun grenades, shrugs his shoulders with a smile and pulls out a frag grenade. "Third one's the charm." (edited)

Kite ducks behind the console, using it's bulk to conceal his frame. Gently laying his rifle on the ground he quickly loads a plasma missile in this wrist launcher. Retrieving the rifle, he looks down the sights as he takes position. His finger hovering over the trigger, as he prepares to take down McCarthy's thugs.

Rider takes the gun in one hand bites a hunk off of the protein bar with the other as he hugs the wall behind Shorlu.

Gauss spends a moment to listen to the sounds of guards coming towards them. "I hear most of them coming from the turbolift... but... I hear growling from the other side? Seems they have some manner of beast. Test, think you could cover that side with Adorhi?"

Adorhi's montrals confirm Gauss's analysis of the situation and she takes to what cover she can before their guests arrive.

At the far end of the corridor, beyond the turbolift, the first of McCarthy's men can be glimpsed peering around the corner.

Zed fires a volley of suppressing fire down the corridor. The energy splashes off one thug's armor, provoking a small grunt, but nothing else.

Realizing she's of no help with her blades in a fight down these long halls, Adorhi jumps behind the center console and draws her pistol taking aim down the right side holding a shot for the first sight of trouble.

Luck fails the first thug to round the corner. As soon as the man's face comes into the view of Kite's scope, the clone lightly squeezes his rifle's trigger. Sending a blast hurtling through the air, that eventually connects with the man's face. Sending the thug rocketing backwards into the ground. Kite smiles under his helm and just loud enough for Zed to hear adds "Head shot.". Before retraining his rifle down the hallway.

These men appear to be more heavily armed than those encountered so far. Each is clad in light battle armour and wields a blaster rifle. The first to step around the corner quickly falls to Kite's sniper rifle, but he's followed by two more who make a dash for the turbolift alcove, while their comrades lay down covering fire. One stray shot finds Kite, scoring a glancing hit that knocks the clone off balance. At the other end of the passage the doors burst open and an enormous bipedal insect comes charging towards the brig.

As the...whatever it is...begins its rush towards the group, Adorhi pops up from her cover and takes a chance at a shot down the hall. A little further than she's comfortable with but the creature, perhaps unfortunately for her and her companions, has a lot of surface area to hit and the blaster bolt strikes the beast in the side. "Kriff do I hate bugs..."

As the bug come crashing down the hall, Test rolls his Frag grenade toward the beast. The blast rips through the hallway, throwing shrapnel at the walls, but the bug dodges the worst of it. Test breathes steadily as he lets the force flow through him as he grips his sword, ready to spring out and match his prowess against the unbridled strength and ferocity of this huge beast.

Shorlu leans out to risk a shot at one of the attackers, but his ear perks up as he hears the giant bug approaching. Distracted, his shot goes wide. He presses his back to the wall again as Test engages the thing, and casts a glance at Rider. "That McCarthy's pet or something? I knew he wasn't one for loth-cats, but a gutkurr? Damn!" (edited)

As blaster fire streaks back and forth down the corridor. Gauss gets low, taking a quick peek around the hall to see where each hostile is located. Once he sees the four guards, he darts back to cover. After hitting a few buttons on the over-engineered gadget, a compartment hatch opens, revealing several small holes. "Think that cover will help them, huh?" the clone thinks to himself, "Try hiding from these." He sticks his left arm out with his back to the corner wall. With a flick of his wrist four small projectiles shoot out, veering in seemingly random directions before buzzing down the hall. The each fly towards one of the guards, impacting, then exploding in each of their chests, searing their skin and armor in small balls of fire. He gives a nod to Kite and Zed before getting on Comms. "Adorhi, think you and Test can handle that thing? We have this hall covered at the moment."

Seeing one of the men dart behind the corner Kite shifts his cross-hare slightly and pulls the trigger, catching the thug in the chest as he crumples to the ground. Quickly ejecting and slamming in a new clip, he takes aim on McCarthy's beast. Ready rain hell on the monster if it moves.

Leaving the advancing thugs to Gauss, Zed turns on the beast as well. A short burst from his cannon peppers the floor around the creature. Kicking himself for missing once again, he yells, "Bring this ugly bastard down!" (edited)

"Don't have to tell me twice, " Adorhi exclaims in reply as she leaps over the prison console to gain a better vantage on the creature coming down the hall. Her first shot strikes and penetrates the bugs tougher exoskeleton. The second however reflects her rustiness with the weapons and misses just wide. Taking the last bit of opportunity left to get out of the line of fire, Adorhi falls back into the main prison area while reluctantly wishing for the beast to come close so she can slice it apart.

The Gutkurr snarls and pounds towards Test, taking heavy fire from Zed and Kite until it finally ploughs into the object of its ire with both claws. Driven on by the red mist of rage, it tears savagely at the clone even as its handlers hurry up from behind it wielding electrostaffs. Meanwhile, McCarthy's men focus their blaster fire on Kite. Most splashes off of the cover of the console, but another scores his armour with splashes of plasma.

As Kite unloads on the beast as it moves up to Test, the thing tears at him, managing to draw thin lines of blood from his chest. But the thing was just a dumb beast. A dumb beast with a newly minted chink in its armor, courtesy of his Jedi-hating brother. With a roar to match the giant bug, Test thrusts his huge sword right into the beast's chest, causing the thing to crumble at his feat. Turning to the electro-staff wielding beings behind it as he withdraws his ichor-coated blade, Test smiles with grim determination: "You want to be next?" (edited)

Shorlu changes out his blaster pistol for the carbine from his pack, seeing this would remain a distanced battle. He scrutinizes, then fires a couple of shots at one of the beast tamers, but trying to play it safe does him no favors.

Gauss rounds the corner, quickly firing off a burning ray of fire, singeing the wall of the corridor by the turbolift instead of his target hiding behind it. "Kriff...Kite, two in cover by the turbolift!" he cries out to his brother.

He never understood his brother's affinity for swords. A good knife can be useful in a pinch, but to willfully charge into the poddoo. With only a blade was a complete foreign concept to Kite. Though as Test drives his blade through the giant bug's carapace, he gains a slight appreciation for the art. Kite swivels his rifle over as his brother cries out. Seeing one of McCarthy's thugs taking position over his fallen comrades body, Kite lines up a shot and burns another of the goons to the ground. Turning to train his blaster on the electrostaff wielding thug next to his brother. Preparing to blast him if he makes a move.

Zed was about to fire a volley into the creature again when Test ended its pitiful existence. So instead, his rifle snapped up toward the beast's handlers. Two short pulls of the trigger later, and one of them was on the ground, a scorch-hole in his chest armor.

At the other end of the corridor, the remaining gunmen concentrate their fire on Kite, until a lucky shot almost sends him sprawling across the ground.

Test ducks left to get under cover and throws his hand forward at the men down the hallway as though to abjure them. Unexpectedly, shrapnel from the ground leaps from all around him and flows up in graceful curves toward his outstretched hand and then continue their curves, shooting out at great acceleration towards the men in the hall. The shrapnel flies into three of the men and Test sees blood bloom on their chests before ducking under cover. (edited)

Gauss watches the blaster bolt streak by and burst against Kite's armor. As his brother hits the ground, Gauss is already vaulting over the terminal, medical kit in hand. "I thought mandalorians don't sleep on their backs" Gauss laughs as he tends to Kite's burns with a quick bacta spray. "I got your back, as always," he says, grabbing his brother's arm, hoisting him back up to his position. (edited)

"Kriffin hell. You got some bacta spray or somethin' Gauss?" Test asks wincing at his bleeding chest.

Reeling from the thugs lucky shot, Kite nearly hit's the ground. Fortunately his brother is there with a steady hand and pack of kolto. As the Kolto surges through him he grunts out "Vor'e Vode. Survived the clone wars and all the kriffin dar'jetii we been running into, wouldn't do to die to some common guns for hire." Raising his rifle he quickly lifts the rifle a view of the man's face entering into his scope. Pulling the trigger, a red bolt arcs out and ends the man.

Rider rests a weary hand on Shorlu's shoulder. "I hope you have a way out, because there's more where that thing came from," he adds with a gulp, gesturing to the gutkurr.

Shorlu cools his blaster before tucking it under his arm. "Here, these should help. Gauss's only got so much." He tosses Test two medpacs from his bag. "More? Damn." At Rider's warning, Shorlu frowns with uncertainty as to their next move. "Prello hired us to take McCarthy out. If we can just get to him, we could cut all this a lot shorter..." He looks back to the human. "Well, either way, we obviously can't drag you along for the ride. We busted a pipe to get in here, you and the other two could get out the same way, only there's all those droids outside now. But if you can make your way to the Messenger... oh, kark, I forgot to tell ya, the Bane, she's gone 'cause of those Sable Dawn bastards." The Ortolan's mouth is only outpaced by his mind, as he tries to come up with a plan of action on the fly. But by the time he mentions the Katarn's Bane, he just seems tired. "Maker, there's a lot to explain and not enough time to do it in." (edited)

After the last man is brought down, Gauss does his rounds, spraying bacta on blaster burns and bandaging gashes made by the gutkurr. "We don't actually know if it was the Sable Dawn who destroyed her, and followed us out of this rock. But someone with resources definitely was." Gauss replies back to Shoulu as he's covering Test's wounds.

Rider stares at his co-pilot in disbelief. "Gone? What do you mean gone?" He sighs dejectedly and runs a hand back through his hair as he stares around at the sprawled bodies. "What do we do now? If you're after McCarthy, he'll be upstairs in that durasteel box he calls an office."

"Well, you and your new pals should get outta here first. Right down thataway, there's a pipe we cut through to get in here. If ya hold your breath, you should be fine. Like I said, the ship we're using now is the Messenger, at Bay 3 of the Slips, go there. Tell any flesh and blood guards we sent ya... oh, and for the droids, you'll need this." He hands Rider his IFF, then leans in close to whisper. "Fische just unleashed his own army of reprogrammed CIS droids on the streets—they shouldn't fire on you if they scan that." He leans out and shoulders his blaster once more. "As for us, yeah, McCarthy's ours. If ya know about anymore pets of his, or how best to get to him, now's the time. Otherwise, mee jewz ju, buddy." He throws the captain the Huttese slang for goodbye, with a jaunty salute.

Rider continues to stare at Shorlu for a couple of moments and then gulps. "Wow. A couple of weeks with the bucketheads and you come back a bounty hunting gun fighter. You know, you wear it well. That passage on the right will take you past the beast cages to the fighting pit. McCarthy's office overlooks it three stories up. The windows are transparisteel, but your only other option is to fight your way up through the corridors. Stay safe, Shorlu." With that, Rider hefts his pistol and makes for the pipes with the other two prisoners.

"Cover me." Gauss says to Kite as he runs down the hall to check the bodies of the various guards. He pulls out their credit chips, "They won't be needing these", as well as a couple commlinks and a couple deeds to some droids, before coming back to the cells. "Nothing much, but I did grab these," he shows the commlinks to the group. "Can use them to listen in on their communications. Should help us get around them."

Kite takes the power packs from the fallen merc's rifles after his brother clears them, discarding his spent packs. Looking at Zed he says "We gotta move. Surprise is over, only thing on our side is speed. We can put down any beast McCarthy throws our way and scale up to his office." Fishing out his grappling hook attachment "This should help. Though once we get paid some Mandalorian jet packs would save us a lot of kriffin trouble."

"If I had five credits every time a jet pack would have been useful..." Zed says. "Some of us should go up in a more conventional manner to distract McCarthy and whatever goons he has while Kite and one other come in through the window." He looks over at the turbolift. "Let's find out if that thing goes up any farther."

"Hey, maybe some of us can get some of that Mandalorian iron as well.". Gauss somewhat jests at Kite, still regretting leaving his Katarn helmet and armor plates on "The Mad Line".

Kite smiles under his helm at his brother's joke but earnestly says "That's the dream vode, once we have done enough dirty work for the Hutt's and the rest of the galaxy's di'kuts. I'm going back to Mandalore buying true beskar and forging my own beskar'gam" Shrugging he adds looking at his battered durasteel armor "But that day is ways away. And this kit has served me well." Looking to Zed he says "Understood, who are you sending with me. If we play it right we maybe able to get up without being noticed"

"Hey, I'd do it, but my back ain't what it used to be." Shorlu proffers, as he scoots towards the turbolift. "Whoever's gonna go, stay on those comms. We only got one good shot at this, so something goes wrong, we gotta know fast. Gauss, you wanna take a look at this?" He gestures to the turbolift control panel.

Zed looks at Test. "Go with him," he says. "We'll keep comms open. Once you hear us engage, then you flank them.

"Good copy, brother."

The corridor past the holding cells towards the fighting pit is dark, illuminated intermittently by the flickering of fluorescent strip lights. The pungent scent of feed and excrement hangs on the air as the first cages come into view. In the nearest one a cougar-like beast paces in circles, snarling at any who approach.

Zed thumps a gauntleted fist into the broken turbolift door. "Going up?" he says, looking back at the squad. (edited)

Kite ducks down moving low and quiet, his HUD dominated by the feed from M.K. Sending the droid ahead of him Kite attempts to scope out the beast room and get eyes on McCarthy's office.

A variety of other beasts appear to be caged in these pens; a two-legged reptile, a horned canine, a furry bovine. A few of the cages are empty, and a couple have open doors. Closer to the gate to the fighting pit, M.K. can make out some kind of four-armed simian stalking through the shadows.

At the behest of Zed, Gauss unlocks the turbolift for use. "All ready. Sure we want to be an enclosed space, incase they set a trap? There could be another way up." He asks those present while taking a peak down the hall. (edited)

Shorlu enters the turbolift, scanning it while thinking on Gauss's words. "You're right. We might have a way around that, though." He points to a hatch in the ceiling of the lift. "Could one 'a you tall folk reach that? If we go up through the shaft, we could ride on top of the lift and ambush 'em after they think it came up empty."

With Guass's help, Zed reaches up and undoes the latch holding the ceiling hatch. It opens with an echoing clank. "We should get moving," Zed says, listening to the echo. (edited)

With a little effort, Gauss and Zed haul themselves up on top of the turbolift. The shaft extends up a few stories, but the distance is certainly climbable.

Seeing the feed from his hud, Kite positions MK to keep an eye on the creature, and signals to his brother to watch his back. He then ducks low and attempts to move quietly over to the control panel he found on the left side. (edited)

As Kite slips forwards between the dimly lit animal enclosures, he misses a discarded can in the shadows and his booted foot sends it skittering across the floor. The roaming beast roars and bounds over in his direction.

Four claws slash rapidly at Kite. The first two are truly gigantic and one catches the clone across the chest, sending him stumbling back out of reach of the smaller pair.

Kite barely has time to curse his own carelessness before the Beast was upon him. thrown off balance by the beast's fury he quickly tries to bring his rifle up and click the combustive setting he installed. His blast catches the beast center mass and sets it aflame but the Gundark eye's continued to follow the clone. (edited)

Hearing the huge beast lunge at Kite, Test is caught off guard, watching Kite's back having not been warned about the creature. Fumbling for his sword, he swings at the thing but just misses connecting. (edited)

The monster clobbers Kite around the head once more, sending Test's brother tumbling unconscious to the ground, before slashing viciously at the other clone with its two smaller claws.

Seeing his brother fall, Test recklessly swings his sword at the beast. Knowing that he and his brother were about to be Gundark food, he pulls a pin on the stun grenade strapped to his chest, trying to buy time for his brothers to arrive. "I'm sorry, Vode."

Kriff, that doesn't sound good, gonna go check on them." Gauss says after hearing the sounds of fighting and cries and roars of pain coming down the hall Kite and Test went down. He begins to sprint down the hall. As he comes within sight, he sees Kite laying on the ground, unconscious from the beast, just as Test's grenade goes off, leaving the tough clone dazed and knocked cold as well. "Zed! We have a gundark! Get down here now!" he shouts out, loud enough for anyone to hear in these echoing halls, as he furiously taps at his wristpad. A few moments later a familiar barrage of rockets come whizzing out of his gauntlet, streaking down the corridor and slamming into the beast with four small explosions. "This way you overgrown monkey-lizard!"

Zed is halfway through helping Shorlu up when Gauss calls out for him. "Sorry, Shorlu." Zed drops the ortolan. In the same movement, he flings himself out of the lift and takes off down the corridor after Gauss. "This way, you overgrown monkey-lizard!" Gauss says. As soon as Zed gains line of sight on the gundark, he drops to a knee and sights up his rifle. That's right, you big bastard. Stay right....there! The blaster bolt severs the creature's spine in a splatter of red goo. (edited)

Gauss sprints the rest of the way and begins patching up Kite with his copious amounts of medical supplies. As he brother begins to wake up, Gauss rests his hand on Kite's shoulder "Can't die on us yet, vode. Still have that dream of a being a full fledged Mando, no?" He then turns to Test and gives him a good shake, before also tending to his wounds. "You either..."

"Huh wha?" Clearing his head with a shake, Test says "Couldn't let a flaming gundark take me out. I take it my grenade gambit worked?"

"Sorry for wha—" In an instant, Zed's supporting weight is entirely gone, leaving Shorlu to hit the ground. "OW!" His yell echoes up the shaft somewhat, as the Ortolan rolls over and collects himself, rubbing his spine. "Ooh, my back..." Moments later, he hobbles into the hallway clutching his back in one hand, and his pistol in the other. "Somethin' about a gundark?"

"If by worked... you mean made you into an easier meal, yes. It didn't really care for that stunt." Gauss gives the lying lump of the gundark a good kick. (edited)

"Could have been worse," Zed says, walking up behind Gauss. "Everyone okay?"

Shorlu catches up. "Better before the drop, but ah, you weren't askin' me. Looks like you guys just cleared us a path, though you risked your necks doing it. I say we go this way, together, so we can avoid another scare like that. I'm starting to think they'll figure we're in the shaft after that commotion." He looks around at the other animals. "Any way we could ensure someone can't open these other cages right up after we pass through?"

Zed places a hand on Shorlu's shoulder. His helmet is an unfeeling mask, but his voice is full of concern. "Sorry about that."

The Ortolan flicks his trunk, standing up a little straighter despite the soreness. "Nah, really. I'm fine. Now c'mon, let's dig our way outta this mess."

With a groan Kite sits up and slides moving his back next to the wall. Pain but most of all shame flooding through him. He had failed today and worst of all he was sloppy. Looking at Gaus he says quietly "thank you". Before slowly getting to his feet and looking to Zed "the operations failure is my fault sir. I was sloppy and didn't check the environment. " pausing he begins with some effort and says "the beast was on me before I could react. I... apologize"

A tink, tink, tink echoes down the corridor from the turbolift as a fist-sized canister drops through the top hatch and begins to rapidly release gas into the surrounding area. (edited)

Thinking fast, Gauss gets himself within range of the canister and fires a concentrated burst of liquid nitrogen at the device. The icy cold ray cyrogenically freezes the gas grenade, preventing further gas from escaping. He then runs up to the frozen canister, picks it up, and throws it into one of the holding cells, before turning the energy fields back on. "Seems they heard all our commotion after all. The lift is probably a poor choice now, shall we take the stairs?" he asks of the group, preferring not to climb up a fighting pit one at a time. (edited)

Test nods and leads the way to the stairs, staying as silent as possible.

As Test approaches the stairwell, the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

Test holds up his fist indicating 'halt' and then immediately drops is hand toward the ground palm down indicating that they should all drop prone. He puts his back to closest wall and cautiously approaches the door looking for traps.

The door seems ordinary, but when Test listens closely he can hear the faint sound of breathing from the far side.

Test looks back and signs for a breaching charge, not remembering if his crew still has any. As he waits for a reply, he sheathes his sword, placing his hand on his saber instead. (edited)

22:30

As Zed comes forward with a charge, they work together to quickly wire the charge to blast right through the door on Zed's remote detonator.

22:33

The group takes positions, taking what cover or distance is available, and Test re-draws his sword, readying himself to burst through the door once it is blown.

As the clones set the charge, Adorhi gestures with a tap against her temple followed by motioning with four fingers signifying what she's sensing on the other side of the wall.

Test nods at Adorhi and then mouths "not for long."

The charge detonates with a sharp crack, blasting a hole in the door and raining shards of durasteel on the far side. Despite their fortified ambush point, the four men behind it are shredded through their cover and sent flying by the concussive blast. They're obviously dead on impact and, as the dust settles, the stairwell beyond them appears clear.

Crouched a few meters away, Shorlu gives Test and Adorhi a thumbs up, and prepares to follow the first person through the exploded doorway.

The stairwell runs up a level, with an exit to what appears to be back of house on the ground floor behind the bar, before continuing on upstairs. The building is deathly quiet, but for the background hum of technology.

"Lock that down so we don't have anyone come up behind us?" Adorhi says while gesturing to the exiting door. Then, with clenching grips on her swords, the Togruta moves cautiously but with purpose up the stairs while listening through her senses for any others making a mistake of attempted ambush.

Adorhi's montrals sense the vibrations of seven humanoids in a room on the top level.

Test watches her go up the stairs. Of course she should be doing this. With her tails she makes a much better point than I do. Got to stop falling into old habits. Letting her take the lead, Test follows as a close second to provide back-up if necessary.

As soon as she picks up movement up above, Adorhi turns to the others and quietly fills them in, "I'm picking up seven." (edited)

Zed looks at Test. "Hostiles?"

Test shrugs and says with a pained smile, "I think I've been replaced by a newer model."

Zed grins beneath his helmet and looks at Adorhi. "How are they arranged? Around a door? Ambush formation?"

"At least five ready at the door. Two others deeper in the room," Adorhi reports back to the clone. Turning to Gauss, she asks, "Have another boom box?"

Zed readies a frag grenade and tosses another one to Test.

At the behest of Adorhi, Gauss heads for the door and locks the electronic lock down tight, before following the rest of the group upstairs. "Sorry, all out." Gauss replies back after rejoining the group. "Got plenty of grenades however." he smirks at the torgruta, pulling out a flash grenade, and handing it to her before pulling out a stun grenade himself.. (edited)

Kite loads a plasma missile into his wrist launcher and takes position behind the group. Flashing Zed the "ready" hand signal.

Adorhi does little to hide the expression of apathy as Gauss hands over the grenade, being one to prefer the subtleties and precision of a stealthy approach. That wasn't these boys' style however, not at all. And, she couldn't argue with the effectiveness either.

Test catches the frag grenade and exchanges his vibrosword for his lightsaber. "We'll make this a small hole then."

As Test and Zed mount the top of the stairs and step onto the landing in front of the door, they're met with a soft click, followed by an abrupt concussive blast and a hail of shrapnel as a hidden mine detonates. Several shards rebound off the door with a loud clank, stripping cladding and exposing the dull metal bulk beneath. (edited)

As Test lets out a surprised grunt from the explosion, he sees that the door appears to be made from beskar, and therefore his plan of cutting through the door is no longer viable. Quickly noting that the only visible camera has been knocked out by the explosion he winks at Zed and groans in apparent pain, then turns his head to the others and puts a finger to his lips, readying his grenade for what he hopes will be an imminently-opening door.

Zed follows suit, a slight smile coming to his face under his helmet as he readies his blaster. (edited)

An electronic bleep and the scraping of metal on metal can be heard as the door's locks retract and it softly swings slightly inwards. The barrel of a blaster rifle inches forwards through the gap.

Test takes the opportunity to set the timer on Zed's borrowed frag grenade and roll it through the crack in the door. Then he slams himself flat against the wall for cover and to make space for his team while readying his vibrosword.

The familiar ear-splitting crack of a frag grenade detonating rings through the corridor, followed by several cries of pain the slump of men falling to the ground.

With the brief pause of silence after the grenade blasts, Adorhi looks to Zed ready and waiting for first sight of any enemy on the other side of the door. With a nod to the clone, she throws the door open. (edited)

The door is barely open before Zed squeezes the firing stud on his rifle. The bolt screams through the small space between Adorhi and the door and tags a figure in between the eyes, dropping him to the deck.

Without a second thought, having all the faith in Zed to take out the obstacle before her, Adorhi rushes into the room heading for the isolated figure in the back corner, blades out and at the ready. A first swing comes in and strikes against the guards armor and the Togruta realizes that this cut of meat is a bit tougher. Focusing on her next strike, she finds a weak spot and strikes hard with a deep, damaging slash. The deep cut allowing her a chance to retreat, Adohri makes space between her and the three in the room in anticipation of her blast hungry counterparts. She then calls out to them as she stands ready for the likely incoming blast, "Come on now boys, a girl don't like to dance alone!" (edited)

Gauss quickly follows in behind Adorhi, throwing his stun grenade at the door on the opposite side. The concussive blast rings through out the cramped room, knocking around the senses of the guards and MacCarthy. The guards shake it off, but MacCarthy slumps to the floor, stunned and unconscious from the impact. The clone rushes back out of the room past Test, giving his brother a fist bump as he passes, to take cover from return fire.

The mercenary with the rifle lets out a grunt of pain as Adorhi's blade slides between the plates of his armour. He rears back to thump her with the stock of the weapon, but she's gone before he can react. Snatching a grenade from his belt, the man hurls it into the corridor outside, before pulling back to the cover of the balcony over the fighting pit. The remaining merc is wearing powered armour and stands firm in front of McCarthy's crumpled form, unleashing a burst of fire at Adorhi from his assault cannon. Quick on her feet as ever, the wily Togruta is faster than the man's aim.

Hearing the blast Kite sprints up the stairs, and rolls into the door frame. Engaging his armors targeting protocols as he moves, coming up to his knee he takes aim at the soldier defending McCarthy. Flipping the combustion switch on his rifle he lets loose a bolt of energy. That smashes into the mercenary and sets him ablaze. Kite then ducks back and retakes his position.

Shorlu hurries up the stairs as he hears the grenades and blasters go off, slipping past Kite just in time to toss his own stun grenade in the mix, calling out, "Clear!" as he does so. The situations in which he needed to use it had been rare, but he had received training in breaching operations from IntSec. He signals to Zed and Test to strike just as the stun grenade detonates, immediately making a mental chart of their lines of attack.

Test, seeing the heavily armored bodyguard standing over the slumped form of their quarry, gathers his will and focuses on all of the shrapnel on the ground from the mine and the grenades that have exploded and will them to fly at the guard causing them to slice into the man's armor.

Zed charges in after Test's force-manipulated shrapnel, bearing down on the still-standing guard. The move takes the guard by surprise, and Zed dodges a few scattered blaster bolts before closing the distance. He knocks their blaster away from their torso, and then sends a volley of bolts into the guard's chest armor, and then into their arm. The hand spasms with the pain, and the blaster rifle falls free. The guard looks down at the weapon on the ground. "Don't do it," Zed says. "Put your hands on your head and face the wall."

Adorhi rushes towards her previous target intent on knocking him out like his counterparts. Putting all her weight into her first strike, she missteps directly on to the bodyguards fallen rifle and slips wildly missing her attack and kicking the weapon to the other side of the balcony. Quickly resetting, she goes in for a second hit with her offhand and hits the enemy but does not get past his armor. "Kriffin...kriff..." Adorhi curses to herself and steps around back into the main room. (edited)

Gauss fires a kolto infused spray on Test, mending his wounds and invigorating him, before heading into the room. The clone flanks Adorhi, towards the limp and unconscious McCarthy and his guard. Aiming his wristpad at the bodyguard behind the wall, Gauss fires a concentrated ray of fire at him, but misses by a hair, burning a hole into the guard's cover. "Tie these two up, keeping ole McCarthy alive might prove useful" he tells the group. (edited)

His position desperate, the remaining bodyguard snatches a grapple line from his utility belt, hooks it to the guard rail of the balcony behind him and throws himself over the edge, before swinging back in on the level below.

Kite ducks into the room, and sees that the body guard has fled. Rushing to the edge of the balcony he peers over and scans the area and finds that the guard has escaped. Removing his binders he treks back towards McCarthy "Someone want to restrain him."

Gauss takes the binders from Kite, and then hands them to Shorlu, "I think you should do the honors." He then pulls out his rope and begins to tie up the unconscious guard.

If an Ortolan could smile, Shorlu would have from ear to ear. It still comes through in the spring in his step as he takes the binders and claps them on McCarthy's wrists, leaving him bound to the leg of his desk. The process takes him back, if in a weird way, to his prior arrests of thugs and small-time gangsters. Booking one last bad guy. He steps back to check his work. (edited)

Kite looks to the Ortolan and then Zed "Any info we need from him? Prello is going to need credits and resources, he may be able to gives us intel on his stash before we carry out our orders."

Zed slaps Test on the shoulder as he moves back toward McCarthy. He looks at Kite. "Prello'll want to talk to him, I'd imagine. Until then, let's turn this place over. Small men like big, hidden safes." A few minutes of searching turns up McCarthy's huge edge on Epsis -- a hidden comm relay. "Fire it up Gauss, and call our new boss. We've got a asteroid to liberate...and I don't want to stop there." (edited)

"You got it." Gauss slices all the technology in McCarthy's office. "I'm in... should I ask if our benefactor is available for a chat with our new friend?" (edited)

Nodding at Zed, Kite turns and jogs over to the door. Running his hand over the metal with a sense of reverence rarely seen with the clone. Taking his helmet off, his pale face twisted into a rare sight. The clone was truly smiling from his mouth to his eyes. Patting the Beskar "Vodes, this is greater than any other treasure that kriffer has. There is enough, for us all to be fitted with true beskar'gam. It's almost to good to be true."

Gauss perks up as he taps away at the console "Are you kidding?! Don't they kill non-Mandos who have that stuff?" A smile streaks across his face at the prospect of having a full working suit of armor again. (edited)

Zed laughs. "We've got more Mando blood in us than most Mandos. I don't think they'd turn away four Fett clones trained by Kal Skirata." He turns his attention to Kite. "But my aim isn't to be a Mando'ade. Unless Mandalore turns its sights on this new Empire." The comment is almost off-hand, but a heat has come into Zed's voice.

Turning his smile to Gauss "When the clans hear how we took back OUR metal from this hut'uunla. We will be welcomed back as heroes. Beskar is the life and power of our people, it belongs to the Mando'ade not di'kuts like McCarthy." Looking to Zed "I don't really give a kriff about the Empire." Shrugging he adds "but I owe that inquisitor a few slugs for Veets." Nodding at Test "And with the way Test swings that Jetii'kad around, I'm sure to get another shot at him." Pausing for moment he dons his helmet again looking back at the squad through his people's signature T visor and says "And I don't want to lose the squad again. " (edited)

Seeing one of his brothers lust after this metal, another the technology in this office, and a third become impassioned in enacting political change through violence against the empire they had brought into power, Test shakes his head. How did we get into this? What are we doing? Setting up a micro empire for a sort-of-OK gangster Hutt? I can't do this. This isn't the way. Dropping his vibrosword on the ground at his side, Test says flatly, "I can't do this anymore. I want out. It's time to fade away. Farm or trade or something. No more of this," Test says, motioning to the heaped pile of corpses on the ground, shredded by his frag grenade. "I'm done." (edited)

Zed takes off his helmet, a concerned look on his face. He studies Test, and sees the tiredness there in his brother's eyes. He wants to protest, to get his brother to keep on fighting, but he can see right there, in that moment, Test's fight is over. "I understand, brother. I understand. Wherever you need to go, we'll get you there." Zed extends his arm in Test's direction and pulls him into an embrace. "I would have followed you anywhere, vode."

"You'll always have a bunk, wherever I end up. All of you." Snapping to attention, Test throws up a precise salute. "It's been an honor, sir."

Zed returns the salute. "The honor was mine. Ours. All of ours."

Shorlu's elephantine ear perks as he hears where the conversation is going. He turns to the clone and approaches to give him a meaningful look, his beady black eyes shining. "I get it, Test. I didn't say it before, but you're a good sort. Don't let 'em take that from you." He outstretches a hand for him to shake, but winds up hugging the clone anyway.

Gauss pauses to join Zed and Test, motioning Kite to do the same.

Sadness builds in Kite as he sees that his brother is serious, he had hoped the squad his family would be together until the end. Joining his brothers Kite pats Test on the back and says "Vode you are the Jatnese be te jatnese. Where ever go, we will always be aliit."

Still against the wall of McCarthy's office, Adorhi sinks in even deeper as all the others come together in a huddle. Once again, she found herself an outsider and alone. Her vision starts to blur as tears well up in her eyes and Test's words echo in her mind 'I'm done'. She's been done for a long time. She would remember them, remember their troubles and triumphs. The anger, and the anguish. Remember the lessons, the laughter. By the maker, they almost had her believe in companionship again. But in the end, it was the same story and this book had to come to a close. Adorhi didn't know where the next volume would start, but she knew it had to end back on Shili and she would do everything she could to get there as fast as possible. With one final look at the others - Zed, the steady rock and warmth. Gauss, the eager and ambitious. Kite, the determined and loyal. Test, the passionate and bold. Shorlu, the kind and gentle. - she quietly slips out of the room and into the shadows of Point Nadir. One final thought lingers on her mind, and the blue skinned Togruta does little to try and shake it away, Boys, this could've been the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Gauss pats his brothers on the back, "Let me finish calling our boss," then heads back to the comm relay and finishes up the slice. Then patches it in to the signal Prello gave them. (edited)

The quiet hiss of static fills the room as Gauss opens a channel and turns up the volume. It holds for just a moment too long for comfort, before giving way to the profound emptiness of a silent connection. "Hello boys." Prello's familiar, warm tone fills the room, but there's an unusually eager edge to it. "What do you have for me?" Outside the Cruelest Cut, the distant scream of blaster fire still fills the air and the interior of the comet is lit in the dancing orange shadows of the shadowport in flames.

After your call with Prello ends, Test goes back to your ship to gather his things and to guard it until your mission is completed. As discussed during the call, your next step is to handle Epsis so that Prello can land with her forces. Conveniently, Epsis is engaged with Alastair's droid army in an all-out frontal assault on their compound. Fires rage in nearby buildings and the streets are otherwise eerily quiet. After several minutes of merely adding your firepower to the droids, you decide to take command of several droids after Gauss successfully knocks out their transponders, and use them in a flanking attack that draws off all of Epsis's reserves and allows you to infiltrate their command center. After a brief struggle inside, you decapitate their command structure by killing Puzzel and his superiors, and the lower-level Epsis members surrender when they understand their hopeless position. With two battle droids under your control still functional, you secretly program them to deliver Epsis's 10 gold bars to your ship as you continue on towards Alastair's final objective: Zietta's palace.

As you approach Zietta's stronghold, you are stunned at how impregnable the place looks. But, you think to yourself, with the amount of firepower at your disposal, it might be enough to break through. After a bit of a stalemate--your droid forces not making much progress, and you being unable to devise an infiltration strategy--you get an urgent call from Alastair to accompany the bulk of the droids back to the docks because he is under attack from an outside entity. You smile inside, knowing the Prello has arrived. Leaving only a relatively small contingent behind to pin Zietta inside, you accompany the droids marching back to the docks and start planning your double-cross. To your surprise, and obviating the need to use most of your intricately laid plans, you are bustled inside past Andy who, as you come in, pulls out a shotgun from under the bar as he grunts into a comlink, "Rowoc! Rrwoao ahwhaooo aoacwo oawoananrarc rawhwa caoraro acahwawawowh...Rowoc, ah'anan rhwo oararcwowwhuan....Whoo, ah'sc whoo acworcoo....Ah anoohowo rooohu aooooo. Aowoanan shahscscro ah anoohowo acahsc. Rroooowarhrowo. " Once in his office, Alastair begins to fill you in on the tactical situation when you all pull your weapons on him and force his surrender at gun point.

As the party secures Alastair's building--Andy surrendering quietly--Zed takes charge of securing the immediate perimeter. Eventually, as Prello's forces are just about ready to proceed to their final objective, a distinguished looking human male with grey hair, dark eyes, and pale skin approaches, flanked by four other humanoids, two slightly-built and two larger-framed, all moderately armed and armored, and giving off an air of professional efficiency. The leader of this group, in contrast, is dressed in a fine tan suit of exquisite cut and the latest Corellian fashion, and is armed only with a platinum-plated blaster pistol in a holster that appears as fresh as the day it was synthed.

18:57

"Welcome. You must be Prello," the man says with a small, but lingering nod of his head. "Welcome to Point Nadir. I am Virec Xan, as you may know, and I come bearing sad news for your family. Zietta is dead at her own hand. I suspect she could not bear the shame of having been discovered to be a mere pawn of the now-also-late Tis Dolan. A murder-suicide, I'm afraid. I assume you already know all of this, however, having arrived to relieve your cousin of command. Your arrival is none too soon. She has allowed events to get out of control, but I see you are already putting things right once more. A team of mine, who happened to be trapped in Zietta's stronghold before these droids arrived, discovered the bodies of Zietta and Tis and have secured the scene for you including, of course, all of the evidence I'm sure you will want to forward on to the Anjiliac kajidic implicating Zietta. I'd be honored to escort you to your new home, madame. And please let me know how Sable Dawn can assist you during this transition of power." Spreading his hands to encompass the entirety of Point Nadir, Xan finishes "We all want you to succeed."

Zed's movement is neither threatening, not passive. He simply moves subtly to put himself with a clean firing line toward the Sable Dawn agents. His voice is clear. "She already has an escort," he says. "I think Sable Dawn has done enough."

Three of the four bodyguards completely ignore Zed's movements and response, focusing their attention outward at other potential threats. The fourth--a hard-muscled woman--looks Zed up and down, a small smile touching the corner of her mouth. Xan smiles warmly, "of course, if that is what you wish. Genessa is my commander on-site at the palace. She will help you in any way you require. You may dismiss her when her team's services are no longer required. Well. We will be in touch."

As the week moves on, Prello secures her physical and political hold over the comet. The palace is a bustling hive of activity. Ship traffic quickly picks up, with lots of equipment and building materials and workers arriving. The party is employed primarily in peacekeeping roles during the days, walking on patrol, breaking up fights, investigating crimes, and the like. Prello secures Epsis tower, christening it as the new Point Nadir Security Force headquarters, and the party reports out of this building over the next two weeks.

In the evening of the first day after the transfer of power, Gauss leads the party to McCarthy's--still sitting idle at this point--and uses the computer system to track down the address of the droid owners. Making their way through a rougher neighborhood to this address, the party arrives at a small, rusty garage. Inside, the party discovers a remarkably well-kept and neat workshop with a small rear kitchenette, refresher, and bunk. A work bench lines the far wall behind the two speeder bikes that take up the main floor area. One is half disassembled, parts on the floor or sitting in pans full of degreaser. The second appears complete and has a fresh coat of bright blue paint with scarlet and yellow flames licking the flanks of the bike.

20:46

As the party enters, beeping and whirring sound from the back corner as an astromech unit rolls forward threateningly. A calm synthesized voice hushes the wheeled droid as a small floating medical droid hovers behind him. "Don't mind him. He's just upset that the master hasn't been back yet, and he wasn't scheduled to be away is all. Are you here for the ID8? I'm sorry to say the repairs aren't finished yet."

Gauss, surprised at finding a humble looking repairshop, it seemed. ""Oh...um... about that."" he brushes his arm on the back of his head. ""Your master...uh... Killborn. Was unfortunately killed as part of the fighting before Prello the hutt took over Nadir. We found his body and were asked to see that his belongings be taken care of." He pauses to pull out the deeds. "I assume you're the droids these deeds go to?",

The astromech, a C1-series with a pristine, crisp paint job--slate grey with electric blue highlights--rolls forward and a blue beam of light sweeps over the papers. The unit chirups once to the other droid--a GH-7 unit--who confirms that they are, indeed, the droids you are looking for. (edited)

"Good, I'll be registering you under us for the time being." Gauss says to the droids before glancing to the speeders. "You mentioned someone was picking that an ID8 up some time, is that it on the bench?" pointing at the pile of parts strewn about, "How about these speeders, were they Killborn's?" (edited)

The medical droid responds "Yes, I'd expect them today...it would have been finished if he hadn't died. Pity I wasn't around when it happened. Maybe I could have helped him. Goodness knows I've done it more than once. He and that whole crew. The bikes are his, yes. Were his. That one's not finished, and he still needed a few more parts. But he wanted to retire from McCarthy's and race. Less dangerous he always said. Less dangerous and more fun. Pity. Do you like the paint job on that one? He always let me do the painting. Says I have the steadiest hand he'd ever seen. Neat and tidy. It's why I'm also the housekeeper. Oh goodness me, I apologize for the mess. I wasn't allowed to clean up those parts because the master was working on them. I do hope you aren't offended."

17:41

"Will you be taking over the garage too?"

"Right, right. Most likely, I was sent to deal with Killborn's belongings and do with them as I see fit." Gauss walks over to the workbench, placing the deeds down so he can transfer ownership to himself. As he finishes up, he checks over the ID8. "Do you know the name of the owner of this droid? He might not be coming back either, McCarthy's place was hit pretty hard if he was another one of his guards." he starts tinkering with it, trying to find its issues. (edited)

"I'd never met the man before. He was short and stocky. Wore a tan suit. The master didn't usually bother with paperwork. I thought maybe you were sent to retrieve it for the man."

The words "tan suit" were fairly unremarkable, but they made the hair on the back of Zed's neck stand on end. Sable Dawn's preference for drab fabrics hadn't escaped him over the past few days. "This man, did he leave an address or a a way to contact him?" Zed asks.

"If he did, it died with the master. Or, rather, with San," the medical droid replies. (edited)

Gauss looks up from the workbench "Oh, since we forgot to ask, what is your designation, droid? Also, do you know what Killborn was doing to this droid specifically, or know if he wrote anything down?" (edited)

"I have a long designation, but...San...called me 'Walls.' Like the famous artist. I think he used it derisively, but it's hard for me to tell. Anyway, I believe the man wanted the sensors augmented and a tiny blaster hidden behind the main sensor. But, no, San didn't really write things down. He said it'd be harder to pin anything on him that way. I think he meant to not leave evidence behind."

A feeling in between annoyance and anger builds in the clones as the man in the tan suit is mentioned and the droid is either unable or willing to give a direct answer. Taking his slicers kit from his pack he decides to go to the source and see what he can get from the ID8 model's data banks. Waving his brother over they work in concert to set up and begin breaking down the droid's defences

Kite plugs into the central processing unit of the droid, and powers on the device. Forestalling the normal boot operation, Kite first checks the base level firmware of the chipset and concludes that everything is standard and straight from the factory at that level. Booting just a file access protocol, he scans the memory unit and everything there also appears to be pristine...as though it hadn't ever been used before. Looking at the droid housing and components, although there is some very light scuffing, it is in good enough shape that this assessment could be correct, but he would not be able to tell for sure without a thorough memory sweep that may leave traces of his snooping, if someone were so inclined to look carefully or if there were any safeguards pre-installed. He might be able to avoid even that risk if he had enough time to do it very carefully. But it would take about 20 hours straight work to accomplish that...and the man could be there any time. (edited)

"Hey Walls, is there a hovercart around we can use? Otherwise we are going to have to come back for the speeders and tools. Definitely not planning on taking this place over, or meeting this droid's owner." Gauss says, turning around to start packing some of the scattered speeder parts into a nearby crate.

"I'm sorry, there is not. Although, the first bike is finished, and you could ride it out if you wanted. Unfortunately, it's built for racing and doesn't have much room for cargo."

Kite nods at Gauss and curtly says "Take the bike and the droid. Vode I can tell you've been itching to get your wings. We'll meet you back at the Messenger."

Gauss gives the bike a once over to confirm the droid's assessment and checks it's charge level before adding the tracker droid with it's parts to his pack and heading back to the Messenger at speed. Then Zed and Kite gather everything else including the restraining bolt control modules for the astromech and medical droid, the bike and it's parts, and a full set of astrotech implements, mechanic's kit, and gadgeteer's implements. Within a half hour, Gauss has returned with the hovercart, and they quickly load up and leave. (edited)

Over the next several evenings, Kite spends his time on a work bench in the Messenger working on the little droid carefully, continually monitoring any subroutines in all of the droid's various peripheral processors. He finally completes a thorough memory scan at the atomic level, and is able to find traces of a thorough, but not indiscernible, memory wipe. Analyzing these anomalous sectors in detail, he is able to reconstruct several files--or at least pieces of them. In one, Kite recovers a truncated video file of a short and stocky man--presumably the droid's owner-- torturing a dark-green Rodian male with a set of surgical instruments. The man is seen only from behind while the Rodian screams out "Jakoli!" before the file ends. Another video file segment shows the corpse of a corpulent female Hutt, a blaster burn in her temple smoking while the same short and stocky man, again shown from behind, holds one hand up in a pinching gesture while he swivels his other hand--holding a blaster pistol--from the corpse over to a petite Wroonian female dressed in sharp business attire and clutching at her neck, apparently unable to breathe. A bolt of blaster fire to her forehead renders the gasping...unhelpful. A final uncorrupted file lists dates and times along with currency transfer amounts, but no account information. A file, unfortunately without context or explanation. (edited)

23:02

Working next to Kite most nights is Gauss, toiling away on his own table, assembling various bits and pieces of equipment.

Although most evenings Zed helps Gauss, one evening Test invites Zed out to go with him to the Souk. On the way, Test explains that he renegotiated his contract with Prello, and that he really wanted Zed to be there for the first part of the renegotiated payment. Arriving on a street with a large area cordoned off with yellow tape and a few security officers to keep order, lines of obviously-poor citizens wind through the street, waiting to be seen by one of several medical staff wearing white coats over their clothes. "Remember that medical shipment of Alastair's that we transported through town? I convinced Prello to buy it as part of my payment and to distribute it to the people here who really needed it. She liked the idea so much that she is providing some medical care on a regular basis to residents of the Fissure District. I think she hopes it will make her popular. But I think she also cares. Maybe I'm just being naïve. Either way though, they're getting help now." As Zed and Test walk around, Zed observes that one of the medical staff--a thicker male of below average height in khaki pants--is explaining to a resident the importance of a vaccine he is trying to administer. He points to his own arm and explains how he received it this morning himself. "I assure you it is safe. You really don't want to catch this year's strain of pneumatic fever. I hear it's a rough one." Test continues, "anyway, I'll show you the second part tomorrow if you bring the boys around to Fische's Pub after your shift." (edited)

Zed opens his mouth to speak, but his voice catches on a sudden lump in his throat. He swallows, remembering Test's words to the woman who seemed to be leading the gang that had tried to attack them while they transported these medicines. "I took a job lady. I'm not walking cause you don't think lives are worth the money he's asking." He had pointed his weapon at a kid that day. That had been the wrong thing to do. This didn't make it right, but it went a long way toward helping. Zed turns to Test and claps a hand on his brother's shoulder. "This is good. This is what we should be doing," he says. "We'll be there tomorrow. I'll make sure. Probably have to drag Gauss away from his tinkering, but we'll be there."

The next evening after their first easy day at work--the streets were really starting to quiet down, finally--the three clones hike down to Fische's Pub, only to see men installing a new neon sign in elegant script over the front: "The Golden Cache." As the men enter, the first thing they notice is a subtly changed interior. The floors have been polished to a dull lustre and the tables have fine white linen draped over them. Jarringly, a B1 battle droid stands just inside the door at a wooden podium, it's outer plating sporting a fresh paint job: one that evokes, but doesn't mimic, a tuxedo. "Do you have a reservation?" From across the room, Test's voice rings out, "They're with me, B!" "Roger, roger." The clones swivel their heads in unison toward the source of their brother's voice--the bar. Standing next to Andy behind the bar, Test is wearing a neat pinstriped waistcoat, his biceps straining a white collared shirt. "C'mon over boys.". Turning to Andy as the men approach, he asks "and this one is called a 'dark and stormy,' right?" Andy grunts an affirmative. Test takes his brothers' orders and, with some guidance, prepares the drinks as he explains that he's arranged with Prello for he and Andy to take over the old pub and turn it into an upscale restaurant. Prello, providing the location and seed money for the renovation, takes a 50 percent owners stake in the business with Andy and Test splitting the remainder (plus tips!). "So, what do you think?" Test asks with a hopeful expression. "Andy's teaching me to take over the bar here, and he's planning on taking over the kitchen. Apparently he's quite the chef." (edited)

"This," Zed says, grinning, "Is amazing. I'm surprised at you, I never thought that this is what you'd want."

"Well, to be honest, I don't know what I want. I don't really know how to do anything other than fight. But other than you guys, Prello and Andy are the closest things I have to friends. This felt like something I could learn, and seemed like too good of a deal to pass up." (edited)

Taking in the scene around, surprise and a bit of sadness filling him as he understands that his brother was serious about leaving. He had thought, no he had hoped he just needed a few days to clear his head but it seems his mind is made up. Taking his helmet off and clipping it to his belt he leans on the bar and looks to Test. "It's a good place Vode. Do you think you will happy here?"

"I honestly don't know. But something feels right about it. Will you visit?" (edited)

"That depends," Zed says. "Do we get free drinks?" His helmet is off and the rest can see his good-natured smile in response to his own joke.

Chucking Kite adds "And make sure Andy knows how to make Uj Cake. With the mess Tatooine turned into I haven't been able to get my successful mission snack in a while. If you stick around and teach the Wookie how to make Uj cake, I may end up just celebrating here." (edited)

With a broad smile, Test agrees: "Deal." The clones share a few drinks and toast to their former life, their finished mission, and to new beginnings. Long hours later the men stumble back to the Messenger for a good night's rest.

Over the course of the past week, Shorlu spends less time with Hammer Squad, electing to check up on Ryder. The pachyderm seems lost in thought even when he does come back to help the clones here and there. Eventually, he feels encouraged to explain his thoughts after one too many of Andy's 'Jedi Mind Trick' cocktails. "Remember when I told ya about how I was almost married? I didn't tell you guys the whole story, so pipe down and listen to me ramble for a minute...." "Back before the Clone Wars, I worked for IntSec. Handled all kinds a' cases, all of 'em interesting, kept me coming back for more. They said I was a natural, and I liked solving a good puzzle, so it really kept me going. Great way to get your daily cred, doin' what you love. 'Least, that's how I started off. But when I started asking questions like, what was happening with some of the perps I caught after they got taken away, and why we were getting contributions from senators to stay offa their homeworlds, they started stonewallin' me more and more. But the pay was good, and we needed it." He stops to take a big swig of another drink before continuing. "Anyway, 'round that time, I met Phu'ri. Like I said, Chadra-Fan, cutest thing on two legs, yadda yadda. She was a journalist, covering one a' my more fun cases. You think I'm a snoop sometimes, I'm nothin' compared to her! We hit it off, spent years together before I finally popped the question. After we got engaged, though, things started to go downhill. Intsec was starting to pay me just to look the other way on a lotta stuff back in those days, and when the Empire took over, they started kowtowing to 'em like crazy. Phu'ri, of course, found out about the cases I'd been told to close, and -bam!- walked out on me. Said she couldn't stand being around me a second longer. Ain't seen her since." (edited)

00:39

He finishes his glass, before lowering his head to the table, letting his trunk flop out with a thud. For the first time since meeting the squad, he looks entirely defeated. "So... yeah. Guess I just needed to get that off my trunk before I went. Me and Ryder've been talking about what to do without the Bane, and Prello's offering me a job running a sort of a security team around here. Running around with you guys really made me feel like I still had the knack for this line a' work, so... I said yes. Gotta look out for those folks like we ran into on the street, with the cargo droid. Start... tryin' to do the right thing, y'know? Even if I'm still working for the Hutts, technically." A fat tear starts to fall from one of his beady eyes, but he wipes it away. The pudgy Ortolan rises, climbs out of his seat, and heads for the door.

Zed stands up as Shorlu rises, and extends his hand. "Prello couldn't have picked a better man for the job," he says with a smile. "You're welcome back with us at any time. Just say the word."

Gauss grabs the ortolan's forearm, clasping thier arms together. "You would have made a fine pilot during the war too. Gonna miss chilling on a ship in hyperspace with you. Not going to miss you eating all the food supplies though" the fellow pilot laughs before letting his new friend head off.

After two weeks on security detail for the recovering space port, Gauss, Kite, and Zed make their way to the palace and are shown in to speak with Prello in a large meeting room. Kite immediately recognizes the room as the same one from the holo-vid he hacked from the tracker droid--the one with the dead Hutt and the struggling-in-vain Wroonian. As the squad waits near the entrance, Prello is finishing up a conversation with Ryder. "Well I just wish there had been more salvageable is all. It was mostly broken apart when we got there. Anyway, we'll get started on the exterior installs, and I'll transfer the internal components over to Mechanical so they can get started in here." As the man walks out he smiles and thanks the squad again for saving him from McCarthy. "My boys! You did such a good job for me," Prello says, beckoning them forward. "I can't believe our contract is up. Listen, I want to do something for you...as a bonus for doing such fine work. You don't have a way off this rock, and I hear you don't want to stay on as security here. Well, I can't blame you. You're much more...proactive. Real go-getters. So here's what I'm going to do for you. You go-get something for me, and I'll do better than give you passage back to Tatooine: your pick of ships at the impound, including that one you're living in now if you want to keep it. Now...what do I want you to go-get and where do you go-get it from?"

Prello pauses and waves another person in. Well, another something in at least. "O2, yes, now is your grand entrance." With that, the squad watches as a strange droid stalks in. The frame and some of the hardware on the unit suggest a standard light-duty mining droid, yet other components tell a story of a droid who has traveled the galaxy and seen a few things in it's time. Unless Gauss was very much mistaken, this droid was probably capable of some serious combat. It might even be a bounty hunter droid with those upgraded sensors, Gauss thinks to himself.

"O2 here has spent some time on Bracca lately, which is where I want you to go. If you accept, O2 will guide you to a Mandator-class starship. On the ship should be an inertial-dampening system. I want you to get it and bring it back for me. I have a clearance code that should get you past the Guild patrols, and O2 tells me that the island the Mandator is on is left alone by the guild, so hopefully you won't run into any trouble on the surface either. And, as a bonus for being my favorites, since you'll be there anyway, I want you boys to get yourself something nice for your new ship if you can. Maybe a few nice somethings."

Prello looks at the clones expectantly, obviously hoping for a quick acceptance. Under the silent gaze of the men, in particular the unnerving blank stare from Kite's helmet, Prello cracks and continues on. "Ok ok. Seems too good to be true right? Well I suppose there is some good news and some bad news." Prello again waves at someone behind the clones. "I need you to take a couple people with you. First the good news. Meet Musari. Musari used to be one of my cousin's fighters in the ring at McCarthy's. Now that the place is under new management, it will no longer be operating such...barbaric tournaments. In any case, Musari is looking for work and is quite the capable fighter, and I understand Hammer squad is short one Test for the foreseeable future. I want him on your mission, if you take it, as a sort of try-out for me. Let me know how he does." (edited)

07:15

"And the bad news. Our new friends at Sable Dawn have requested that I utilize some of their...personnel. This is Nas. I understand Nas is also good in a tight spot, so hopefully she'll pull her own weight."

07:18

"Anyway, I don't need an answer right this minute. Get to know each other in the next room, and I'll join you after my next meeting. There should be refreshments waiting for you," Prello says, pointing toward a door to her right. (edited)

Zed nods to Prello, and gestures toward the next room that she had indicated, and the group makes their way to it. As they arrive, Zed, Gauss, and Kite form a wall about halfway through the room, where they can see all entrances and exits to the room. It's a subconscious movement -- one that they'd done so many times before that they didn't even realize. "Welcome," Zed says, looking through his visor at the droid and the two beings. "When we head out of here, you can drop your stuff at the ship. Just pick a cabin that doesn't look like it has gear in it." Over their personal comm channel, Zed says, "Kite, keep an eye on them. Especially the Sable one. This is a lot of new people, and we're one man down. Stay vigilant." They didn't need the reminder, but it felt right to give it anyway.

The Echani follows the group to the side room, his silver eyes scanning over each of the members of the crew he'd be running with (for the time being at the very least). The man was lean and lithe, not overtly muscular but certainly toned. He seemed fairly well armed, a bandolier of vibrodarts across his chest, an intricate looking chakram hung on his hip, and a carbine slung over his shoulder. The rest of his gear was kept in a simple backpack. As one of the clones, Zed, speaks up and welcomes them a smile comes to Musari's face and he gives a nod. "So you guys really are clones, huh? Heard stories about your type. Prello already introduced me, Musari is the name and fighting's my game." He was curious about their exploits, either during the war or even more recently, since troopers were considered some of the most elite soldiers. But story time can come later.

At Prello's gesture, a diminutive droid with four legs, the general shape of an arachnid species (but with two manipulators where mandibles would be), and a faded olive drab paint job skitters in. About the size of an astromech droid and identifiable to the technically inclined as an older Servo-O-Droid E-series mineral extraction droid, O-2's age is betrayed more by the exterior of his chassis than by his deliberate movements, as he swiftly places one clawed foot in front of the other in short order. Coming to a halt next to Prello, he lets her take care of introductions while he silently scans the team she'd been planning to set him up with. Clones. Likely to have anti-droid sentiments. Is she doing this on purpose? While even the most rote of his logic cores told him not to trust a Hutt, she had been a steady source of work in a galaxy that usually ignored droids like himself (which he usually preferred, but that wouldn't bring in credits), so he didn't verbally question her. All the while, however, one of his many photoreceptors remains trained on her, with another on each stranger. As they enter the side room, O-2 makes a beeline for a corner of the room opposite the others, where he can monitor each sentient without leaving his rear unguarded. Right away it is apparent, to Zed at least, that the feeling of mistrust is mutual. Nestling himself in the corner, O-2 finishes his scans of the organics and logs the preliminary data on their capabilities for later cross-referencing, in the unlikely event that they should surpass his expectations. When Zed addresses the group, the droid twitches as the silence is shattered. In response, he lifts his head slightly to 'speak.' His vocabulator produces a uniquely harsh-sounding, static-ridden dialect of Binary. (edited)

08:04

"Ksssshhhfrrrshhhht-drit-kzzzle." "I will be familiarizing myself with the interior of the ship in its entirety, when we get there, and then I will select a 2-by-2-meter square to be my own, which none of you will enter. Is that understood, or must I repeat myself in Basic?" (edited)

Gauss thinks for a second, trying to make clear what the droid said in it's static-ridden Binary. "Won't stop us from keeping an eye on you..." he replies to O-2. "Zed, the droid wants us to draw him a chalk box to call his own." he tells his borthers. The engineer looks over the unique form of their new droid partner. "What are your specs? Can't say I've ever seen or heard of a droid like you." (edited)

O-2 shifts his view to focus on Gauss. So one of them does understand Binary. Now he knew which one to watch closest; or at the very least, to mind what he verbalized around. It was a bit of a shame, really. O-2 liked to lace his speech with jabs or rhetorical questions which flew over the head of less technical organics. The droid elects to raise his abdomen compartment in response. The Serv-O-Droid logo, however worn, remains faintly visible as he waggles the part around. His vocabulator crackles with a somewhat uplifted tone, almost braggadocious. "Dreet-shhh-brit-fzzz." "I wouldn't expect you to, clone. I was originally designed to mine hard-to-reach minerals and be forgotten about at the end of the cycle. I now have a host of combat, espionage, reconnaissance, and target elimination protocols my chassis is well-equipped to perform. All you need to know precisely is that I'm very different from the B1 battle droids you were designed to destroy." (edited)

Though Kite's T-visored helm is unreadable, his stance is stiff and at least to his brothers his displeasure is clear. Keeping his eyes locked on the operative from Sable, he says into his helmet's comm system "Prello has been a good boss, but this is to much. Sable and their force freaks have spent the last few months trying to kill us and now we gotta play nice. I'll keep watch but I've got a bad feeling vode. Prello has been good but not that good." (edited)

Zed grimaces behind his helmet. "I know. But whatever they are, they're nothing we can't handle. Just keep an eye out."

It would be a lie to say Nas expected to be working alongside bonafide clone troopers, nevertheless years after their bulwark of a Republic finally cracked. While it did make her wary, especially considering her…previous employment, she couldn’t say she wasn’t intrigued. She might finally get to have a real conversation with some of the few remaining “Soldiers of the Republic.” Lingering outside the side room for a brief moment, the slender falleen watches as the troopers scan the room, like automatic turrets relentlessly searching for trespassers. Anxious. No, they’re soldiers. Cautious. Understandable. Nas finally saunters her way into the room. Her wiry-frame was guarded in lightweight body armor, even her face concealed by an insectoid mask. Typically innocuous, but any seasoned Republic soldier can recognize equipment used by a Separatist agent. A long vibroblade sits in a magnetic sheath at her side. With a click to her temple, the veil over her face slips upwards, exposing sunken yellow eyes to the flickering lights of the meeting room. She smirks, hands on her hips. ”Have to say, didn’t think I’d ever see one of you clones since the bucketheads moved in, let alone multiple.” (edited)

Zed's helmet is an emotionless mask, the orange highlights clashing with Nas's yellow eyes. "Not many of us left," he says. "Empire didn't care much for our kind."

--Talking to O-2-- "That's not much of a standard to beat, our brother Test used to tear their heads clean off with his bare hands. We've also seen them simply cease functions from ineptitude. One could hope you're even remotely better." Gauss taunts O-2 with a laugh, after giving a rough translation of the droid's binary to his brothers. (edited)

Nas meets what she can only assume is Zed’s stare. Her gaze seems to snake through his visor to meet the commando eye-to-eye. She holds it only briefly. Shrugging, she meanders her way to the table holding refreshments. ”Their loss. You kids were always built different.” Her eyes scan over the selection, looking for something to take off the edge. If Nas was going to be working with clones, she’d need it. (edited)

Musari lets some of his curiosity slip out at the exchange between the Falleen and one of the clones. "Well I guess that explains why you aren't in the new army, somewhat. But how'd you guys end up out here?" He had no idea how long they'd actually be working together, maybe his curiosity would be wasted, but between stories of what clones could do in battle and the rumor that the template used was a Mandalorian intrigued him. The armor worn by one of the clones seemed to back this up, too. The Echani had a sort of respect for the Mandos after all. (edited)

O-2 seizes up at the clone's flippant remark. Owing to the language barrier, he didn't often have organics talking to him, and it was even rarer for them to talk back like that. Especially with the insinuation that he might fall apart or cease to function.... It didn't take any kind of calculation for him to decide he didn't like it. The droid takes a few steps out of the corner, forgetting his earlier concerns, and undergoes a minor transformation. Blades dripping with toxins, resembling fangs, sprout from his head-mounted manipulators, while his thorax opens twin compartments which reveal a suite of micro-rocket pods mounted on each, similar to a hailfire droid's. His photoreceptors flash from blue to red. His vocabulator sounds with a tone much more akin to a bestial hiss. "Kssssssssrt. Fzzzrt-dsht. Ksssshht!" "I am easily the most efficient and deadly construct in a 50-parsec radius, at any given time!"

Zed laughs at the echani's question. "That's a long story. Suffice it to say, we'd like to keep as far out of Imperial hands as we can get."

Kite grunts out a bitter but resigned "Understood" to Zed's order. Positioning himself to keep watch on the newcomers. Agitation building behind his black and gold helm. Too much was happening, Test starting a new life, Shorlu sticking around on Port Nadir, Adorhi's disappearance, was already a lot of change for the clone to handle. Now adding onto it Prello was forcing aruetii onto the squad. Though the hiss and transformation of the droid snaps him back to reality. Slowly uncrossing his arms, Kite's right hand near the butt of his pistol. His left hangs loose with his wrist launcher angled at the ground. Through his helmet's exterior speakers he says in Mandoa "Everything alright Gauss? Never learned Clanker, but it doesn't seem like you made a friend." (edited)

Gauss laughs "It didn't like me comparing it to the old battle droids we fought during the war." (edited)

O-2 twitches, a motion reminiscent of a humanoid blinking when taken aback. This clone's—Gauss, as they were calling him—nonchalant behavior put him off his guard. The other one, Kite, had had a far more predictable reaction. But Gauss and Zed—their apparent leader?—were quite at ease. It could easily be said to be his combat protocols running in the background at all times, but the former mining droid was always anticipating violence, and he'd certainly been expecting it from this crew. No one cared if they upset a droid, after all, clone troopers least of all. Right? Yet he didn't get quite that impression from this group. All at once, O-2 realizes this was something called 'teasing.' Just as quickly, he ceases to care. His red photoreceptors flash back to blue, and all of his weaponry retract into his chassis. As his vocabulator returns to its standard—still crackly—tone, it produces a sort of clicking noise, similar to the sound certain tongued species make when annoyed. "Tch. Breet-khst. Drit-kzzle." "It doesn't matter. Notify me when you intend to leave for your ship. I still intend to inspect it myself." He nestles back into his corner, and continues to wait and watch the others. (edited)

As he heard the sounds of the droid's weapons being revealed, Musari moves just his eyes to look in the direction of the commotion. He's unable to understand any of the communication going on between the droid and one of the clones, but since Gauss seemed to be giving a joking tone he didn't feel too worried and returned his attention to the one he had addressed. Though perhaps by instinct, he kept the apparent disagreement in his peripheral vision and a hand fell closer to his hip where the chakram rested. "A long story, huh? Those are the best kind. But perhaps another time, when there's less chance for it to be interrupted. Our break is probably almost over." It wasn't long after that the droid's weaponry was concealed again, and his hand relaxed. Maybe he was just showing the clone what sort of armaments he had.

Prophetically, Prello slithers her bulk into the room moments later apologizing for the delay. "I hope we are all getting along. Now, to business. So boys, what do you think of my offer? Are you up for one final job to get your wings?"

Zed looks at Kite, then Gauss. Kite was unhappy about this, no doubt. But we need a ship, Zed thinks. "We'll take the job," Zed says, nodding to Prello. "My squad gets operational command for the duration of the mission. That's our condition."

"Oh indeed. I'd have it no other way. You boys get. It. Done," the Hutt says with a languid smile. "Well, as I said, O2 can be your guide on-planet. The target is a Mandator-class ship. I'm not sure if you boys have ever been inside of one, and I don't have detailed schematics of one...the military specs are, unsurprisingly, classified. But I do know that the inertial damper system has a central processing board on the bridge and six projector units throughout the ship. You'll need to get the board and all six projectors. The projectors are about 2 tons each. I'll have repulsor coils delivered to your new--or old--ship, once you've made your selection, so that you can move the projectors around once you've located and unhooked them." Prello slithers over to the table and picks up a jiggling, translucent red cube and places it delicately in her mouth, swallowing it without chewing. "Any questions about the job?"

"You know of anyone else pursing this?

"No I don't, poppet. If there is anyone, it would be a big coincidence. The ship has been there for years."

Nas smirks slightly seeing the tiny droid unlock such an arsenal, but quickly returns her focus to the ardees she had poured. This is definitely going to be an interesting assignment. Taking a long sip, she leans against the table and looks towards Prello, swirling her drink passively. ”In that case, when do we leave?”

"As soon as you are ready, dear," the hutt replies, her voice dripping with sweet honey. (edited)

The Echani couldn't help but chuckle as Prello entered, almost as if on cue. He listened as the Hutt gave a description of what they would be going after, and scratched his head with a bit of a puzzled look. The assembled crew seemed to have a measure of combat skills, but they were picking up cargo. Then with the question from Kite, and the ensuing answer given, the clues were tugging at his brain. Untouched for years? "Do we know why that area is avoided?"

"I would defer to O2 on that, but I imagine the area is dangerous. That's why I'm sending my very best."

"Understood. We'll get it done. Don't lose the rock while we're gone." Nodding once to Prello, Kite then begins to turn and leave the area.

After leaving Prello's palace, Zed, Kite, and Gauss split up to find new equipment for their new mission. Gauss heads out to find the three clones several pairs of infrared goggles to integrate into thier helmets. After around two hours he finally tracks down a less than reputable seller. The toydarian merchant, Loroo Tod, is one of the only few that still carry the item, as they have been bought out by the dezinens of Point Nadir, in search of Fisches' gold. However Loroo, being one for "Only money", as he put it, is selling his last pairs for far more than the clones have to spend. Gauss picks up various other pieces of equipment before heading back to the Messenger. (edited)

O-2 pipes up at the mention of his designation. "Bwit-kshht-dit-dit-dit. Kssshrrt." "I have some intel on the location, which I'll disseminate to you all on the way there. Let's go." Lifting his body up and down with his legs, he gives Prello his closest approximation of a nod. He follows Kite out of the room. As they wander the port, he waits for the team patiently as they go about the business of upgrading and purchasing additional equipment for the mission. The droid himself only stops to buy a few components for his internal commlink, which he quickly fixes himself before rejoining the group. It'd been a long time since he'd actually worked as part of a team for a job, so he'd rarely made use of it before today. (edited)

"Dangerous, yeah, that makes sense." He nods along to Prello's brief answer to his question. Though at the idea of deferring to O2, he looks to the droid just as it starts making its static-like sounds that signified Binary speech. A language that he had absolutely no fluency in. "Uh... Right." Hopefully that wasn't important, and if it was then someone will translate. Either way, as everyone was leaving he made his exit as well, not really thinking of any shopping needing to be done right now.

Nas finishes her glass and sets it on the table, neglecting to do the same with the rest of the bottle. She shoots a look down at O-2's scuttling form making his exit. "Lead the way little guy." Nas goes to vacate the room herself, the rest of the ardees hanging at her side. A quick glance catches Zed's eye as she slips away.

After Nas leaves the room, Prello catches Zed's arm and says in a low voice, "I probably don't need to tell you this, but she is a spy for Sable Dawn. They want power and I have it. Currently. Don't trust her. And, if you can, try to spy back a little yourself. I want to know what they are up to."

Zed nods. "Of course, ma'am. We'll keep an eye out."

As he reaches the door Kite remembers the recordings that he was able to salvage from the droid. Bringing a copy of the data out he hands it over to Prello "Thought this may interest you. I'm working to clean up the original file and will send it once complete. Keep alert, you don't have many friends here."

Prello takes the data chip, asking "what is this and where did you get it?" (edited)

Waiting for the non clones to file out Kite begins to recount the incident his tone dry and precise "It's a recording we pulled from a sable droid. Shows a rodian being tortured and yelling Jakoli. Another clip has a Hutt with a blaster burn in her head, and a Wroonian female getting assassinated. Killer can use the force and appears to be an assassin, he is a short stock humanoid. There are dates and account transfers that seem to link up. " Pausing he looks at the Hutt and says "you need to be careful. Sable doesn't want share power long term. And with the killer being a force freak your life is always in danger. Use your resources, buy some assault droids, give your guards grenades and slug throwers, and if you can hire a few Mando'ad to watch your back. And if you do go up against one, don't take them prisoner just put em down. To dangerous to play games with." (edited)

Prello nods and says "Good. I had assumed they took out my cousin, but having footage of it gives me leverage. Very good work, Kite. For this initiative and in the interests of trying to get more good work from you in the future...any time you come to Point Nadir, you dock for free. In the slips. No more tethers for you. I'll make sure the dockmaster knows. I do hope you reconsider leaving my employ after you are done with this job. We could create beautiful things together." ........................................................................................ When the clones are ready, they are shown into the impound section of the slips, holding several ships confiscated or left abandoned during the transfer of power. There are several large freighters including a YV-929, an old Mandalorian AIAT/i that's had its transportation suites removed to make room for an extra cargo hold, a modified Wayfairer Class medium freighter, and a customized Gozanti Class Armed Transport. Additionally, a customized Dawn Class Luxury Yacht (what would be the precursor to the future Horizon Class Star Yacht) you recognize as McCarthy's personal ship sits at the end of the row. (edited)

Zed looks over the available ships. What I wouldn't give for a Venator-class destroyer. But a destroyer wouldn't serve them will, crewing problems notwithstanding. Too flashy and conspicuous. An old YV-929 came a dime a dozen on the spaceways and docks of the galaxy's seedier places. He had seen two at least once a week on Tatooine. He points at the 929. "I think this one. Tough and inconspicuous."

Musari really didn't know much about ships, but when they were all called up to look at the ships and decide which one to choose, he didn't object. With the ships that were available, he favored two but had no real strong opinions. When one of the clones pointed out the YV freighter, he nodded. "That definitely seems like a good option, already kitted out real nice. Though..." He points to the luxury yacht. "This one seems like we'd really be riding in style, and there seems to be a lot of room for some tricking out."

Walking into the hangar, Nas scans the ships provided to them. More than the starships themselves, she's impressed these clones were able to get on the hutt's good side. At least she assumes . Might have to check them for "modifications" knowing the sleemos' usual tactics. Sabotage aside, she barely gives a passing glance to the customized freighters decorating one side of the garage. If their goal is to attract little attention, the more innocuous the ship the better. Her eyes wander to the AIAT/i. Kriff she always wanted to fly one of those. Seeing mandalorians expertly dogfight in such vehicles was always a sight to behold. Plus, with an authentic mando, they might be able to live up to it. But after noticing the YV-929, the professional in her returned. Those carriers were tough as a reek and with firepower to back it up, she had been on several prior and could attest to that firsthand. Noticing Zed and the echani's discussion, Nas walks over, giving a couple knocks to the YV's hull as she passes by. "There are hundreds of these kriffers skimming every corner of the galaxy, definitely helpful for staying under the radar."

O-2 passes his scanners over each ship, considering only which would be the best option for their purposes from a utilitarian standpoint. He had a limited bank of information on starships, but was familiar enough with the YV-929 model to confirm what the others had to say about it. Unlikely to draw attention, and with sturdy shields, if nothing else. He crawls towards it, and emits a tone of what was obviously approval.

As the party is looking over their options, they observe a very large ship that Gauss immediately recognizes as a GR-75 arriving at the other end of the slips. Crews begin unloading huge pieces of machinery and escorting them away from the port. (edited)

Kite takes in the docks looking between the ships available to the crew. He preferred to keep his boots on the ground but good a transport is hard to pass up. His eyes instantly track the Mandoa AIAT, the thought of going back home with a suit of beskar'gam and a Mandoa gunboat puts a smile on the normally sullen clones face. "YV-929 is my second choice, the AIAT could put fear in our enemies before we even fire a shot. It's got my vote"

Gauss looks to Kite and Zed. "Do you trust me to check these over and find our best option?" he asks of his brothers has he grabs a datapad from one of the dock workers, detailing the rough conditions of each ship. (edited)

O-2 turns on a dime as his audioreceptors pick up Gauss's question. Whether the droid realized the query was not aimed at him or not, it seems not to matter to him as he raises his volume and responds. "Bzzzzt. Dwit-frsh, drit-kzzle." "No, I don't. I'll inspect them myself." He moves to follow Gauss.

With a single nod Kite says simply "100% vode" and steps back to allow his brother room to work

Zed laughs. "Better you than me," he says.

Ignoring the droid, he replies back to his brothers, ”Give me an hour, I need to see what kind of condition they are in and any modifications these starships were given before I choose. In the meantime, the rest of you can start bringing our stuff over from the Messenger while you wait? Just a thought.” The clone engineer spends some time checking over the Wayfarer and Horizon. But they did not interest him much, one was slow and not very well armed, even if it did have a large docking bay. The other was way too gaudy, like some gambler tried to trick it out before losing all his possessions to a scruffy smuggler. He then heads over to the AIAT/i mandalorian transport. Relatively untouched from what I’ve heard about them. Some of the Republic’s Judicial Forces used them as well, hardy and well armed, plus we could take in tons of cargo. Would be pretty funny to touch down on Mandalore with that and our prize from McCarthy’s” At the behest from the rest of the group, he checks over the old YV-929. ”Seems solid to me, brimming with cannons. Heard the shields are almost impossible to take down in a standing fight, however once they’re down, it has the tendency to fall apart fairly quickly.” He gives it a more through once over before coming back to the group.. ”Looks good, if not basic. Local authorities might have something to say about that many weapons however.” he laughs before checking over the old Republic Gozanti.

04:57

”Now this caught my eye. We saw a lot of these in combat during the war and it seems like some pirates got hold of one, judging by the paint job.” He heads inside, checking every nook and cranny. ”Wow...whoever had this transport really put some credits into it.” he thinks to himself as he walks through the completely retrofitted interior. Where once it housed two dozen people and a large cargo bay, it had been replaced with a small docking bay, fit for a small starfighter or even a couple of droid starfighters. ”I wonder…” he says aloud as he checks the small bay out. ”They did, they put a remote control console in this thing. He then notices a large covered object in the middle of the hangar. Gauss throws the tarp off, uncovering a slick, black, machine. ”Kriff, that’s a CIS scarab, that could be very useful. Looks like they modified the droid brain to be remotely controlled, much like the vultures. This ship would let us use that starfighter we got off the Star Worm as well.” He finishes up and heads out of the ship, with the group, besides the droid who had followed him each step of the way, patiently waiting outside. ”This ship has had a lot of work done to it, a small docking bay, plenty of weapons, all of which retract into the hull, and a power shield generator that would rival the 929. They even upgraded the computer systems and gunnery stations to enable a smaller crew to use it’s impressive array of weapons.” he inputs some information into his wristpad. ”I also found signs of a compartment towards the rear, scans indicated it contained dozens of droids. And from what I could tell, it houses a cluster of buzz droids. Nasty little things; can tear entire panels off of ships. Could come in handy if we need to escape.” He pauses for a few moments before adding information to the datapad he was given. ”Oh, and there was an old droid starfighter already in the hangar, it would complement our prize from the Star Worm. Comes with a control console as well, so we can remotely operate either of them.” Gauss hands back the datapad to the dock worker, done with his assessment. ”All in all, I think this old Gozanti would be our best option. Hidden cannons, and plenty of them, a docking bay, and a few surprises for anyone who tries to mess with us.” he looks over to the YV-929. ”If you all still want that 929 over there, I’m good with that as well. It’s a solid ship, as long as we can keep its shields up, we should be fine.”** The clone crosses his arms as the group discusses their options more.

(edited)

Zed frowns at the Gozanti. "You don't think it's a little conspicuous, flying around in an old Republic ship?"

"Doesn't look like it anymore, as someone painted it all black, and with those yellow stripes that seem to look like a sun." Gauss adds in. "But at least it's weapon systems are not out there for anyone to see. It should help with laying low, although we might want to repaint it again."

Zed nods, looking back and forth between Gauss and the Gozanti. After a moment, he nods. "Good enough for me. Kite?" He turns to the other clone.

While Gauss checks over the ships, O-2 follows him, but at a distance. He climbs along the exterior plating, looking for structural weaknesses his ranged scans couldn't find. While Gauss is inside the ships, he crawls throughout them like a spider, scrutinizing them intensely. At the end of the ersatz duo's inspection, the droid chitters positively, indicating the Gozanti. "Dreet. Dowot-brit-krssht." "I'm satisfied with my own investigation. My opinion happens to coincide with the clone's."

Nas stands patiently as Gauss rattles off his report on the ship. She almost mistook his diligence for excitement, joy even, earning a chuckle from her. ”You seem to know more about this stuff then any of us. I’ll bite, I’ll trust your judgement,” she states matter-of-factly.

Kite shrugs and adds "Works for me"

Musari didn't respond after the explanation by Gauss, since he specifically addressed the other clones. However he could not help but be impressed by the knowledge that he presented. Since the clone seemed to know what he was talking about, and the others trusted his judgement, the Echani would go along with his decision.

The newly-reformed squad--not Hammer squad...not yet--gave their selection to the dock master with instructions to fuel the ship for imminent departure. The clones move their equipment and other belongings over from the Messenger to the new ship--the Querren Gauntlet, while the other party members attend to their own business and gear. Soon the ship is ready for departure and Gauss slips into the pilot seat and familiarizes himself with the controls and settings before taking off and heading out of the slips, through Fische's Cove and out Jackrab Hole. As the ship maneuvers away from the comet, the party sees an ancient Calipsan mining ship maneuvering what appears to be a huge thruster towards the surface of the comet with a tractor beam, although the thruster appears tiny in relation to the huge bulk of the comet. (edited)

Once everyone gets onto the ship and it prepares to take off Musari finds one of the sleeping quarters farther from the cockpit area and drops off his bag. After which he'll walk around the ship, checking out where everything is, while he waits for everyone else to choose rooms and drop of their belongings or make final preparations before launch.

As her new crewmates load themselves onto their new Gozanti, Nas slings her bag over her shoulder to do similarly. She never carried much in the way of belongings, but she had all the equipment she needed to get her assignments done. This shouldn't be any different. As long as the clones didn't make any issues working with her. She navigates through darkened corridors until finding an unoccupied room, dropping her bag unceremoniously on the floor, followed by her hooded cloak. She takes a long overhead stretch. Feeling the ship reach cruising speed, Nas takes the opportunity to familiarize herself with the Gauntlet's layout, stalking the hallways like a malnourished predator. It was second nature from her training. (edited)

O-2 crawls aboard quietly, and begins methodically searching the ship area by area, much like Nas. Using his climbing-adapted legs, he also traverses the walls and ceilings of the rooms. He crosses paths with each crew member in turn as he performs this routine, simply saying nothing or ignoring them as he does so, unless they remain in his way or address him. Eventually, he chooses his own 'living space.' He climbs up onto the ceiling of the main corridor, which each cabin leads out to. Finding a spot on the ceiling equidistant to these rooms, he beeps affirmatively, then produces a fusion cutter from a mandible. Setting it to the lowest setting, 'trace,' he draws out a 2-by-2 meter square, carefully shaped. His work complete, he crawls to the center of it, bundles up his legs, and shudders as he powers down for a few hours, hanging right in the middle of the hallway.

Zed joins Gauss in the cockpit of the ship, and points to the thruster. "What the blazes are they doing there?"

Already on edge from with the new crew Kite shakes his visored helm and says " no kriffin clue but we should give Prello a heads up. If we are lucky it's something she cooked up"

Keying up various deeper probe systems, Gauss pings the mining ship's transponder and cross-references the data with the BoSS, indicating that the ship is commanded by a Captain Ryder. The probe scan also returns indications of the ship's mining lasers being primed for use. Meanwhile, the probe of the giant mechanical component comes back and, although Gauss runs the scan through his computer systems for verification, the holo projection that displays on his monitor shows him everything that he needs to recognize the model: a Rendili StarDrive proton 2. It is a primary thruster from a Lucrehulk. Suddenly the meeting in Prello's office came back to him. "Well I just wish there had been more salvageable is all. It was mostly broken apart when we got there. Anyway, we'll get started on the exterior installs, and I'll transfer the internal components over to Mechanical so they can get started in here." It also strikes Gauss that their own target--a set of inertial dampener projection units--were a key component of a useable hyperdrive system--components that would be spread throughout a ship and hold it and its occupants together while the main hyperdrive unit screwed with gravity around the ship and accelerated the ship past lightspeed. And the Mandator class they were supposed to get these from was big...bigger than a Lucrehulk by a wide margin. (edited)

"Looks like Ryder is commanding that ship." Gauss points to the old Calipsan, "Safe to say Prello already knows about what's going on. Seems they are attaching a thruster from a Lucrehulk." "Looks like our employer is looking to make Nadir into a starship, or at least a hyperdrive capable station." He says after looking over the information the Gauntlet has recorded. "The Inertial dampener units we're obtaining will most likely be used to hold the whole thing together." Gauss then starts up the hyperdrive preperations. (edited)

Kite nods and says "Smart. Prello has good sense for a Hutt." shifting his visored gaze to Zed "Shame we're moving on after the job."

Zed shrugs. "Look, we should talk about that," he says. "I've said it before, I'll say it again: I'm not in charge anymore. We should vote on things like that now, I think."

Musari finishes his little self-guided tour of the ship at around the time that the revelation of what's going on with the thrusters is revealed by Gauss, though the Echani isn't exactly in a place to hear it at that moment. But when he makes his way back to the central room that all of the bunks branch off of, he calls out to pretty much anyone who can hear him with a clear voice. "Well, we're stuck together in this big metal box for the next couple days, with nothing to do but talk or watch stars fly by! So now's a good time for 'long stories'." He gives a smug grin at his reference to what Zed had told him when he asked about their circumstances.

Nas' ears perk up at the echani's shout. Somebody's already bored. She chuckles under her breath, cutting off her extended walkabout to indulge him. The ex-pirate ship was a durasteel maze, but she eventually appeared in an opening behind Musari. "You have a story to tell?" Circling around the echani, she places herself directly across from him with a pleasant smile. Or saccharine, depending on your disposition. "I'm an avid audience." (edited)

"Well, there are a few I could think of. One more recent is how I became one of the pit's favorite underdogs. Come to find out, people think throwing knives are pretty neat. Especially when you make someone's jetpack malfunction because they thought you couldn't do anything if they got some distance, and they careen into a wall." He chuckled a bit, remembering how that one opponent thought he was clever. "But, wasn't able to beat the champ. He's a real beast of a man, didn't stop coming no matter how much you hit him." He pauses, and then holds up his index finger. "Oh, but he didn't like being called a beast. Wookiee stereotypes, you know? Pretty smart guy too. After I made it clear there were no hard feelings after the fight, he took it upon himself to teach me how to understand their language." He let out a soft sigh, knowing that despite the conditions in the pit that he had made some friendships and rivalries there. But now it was done, on to new adventures. "So, how about you? Any stories to share?"

Looking over to the Echani "I've seen a few wookies fight. That you made it out alive and without sporting a few cybernetics is impressive." Shrugging he says "My brothers may. I've never been one for stories." briefly glancing at Zed he adds "Especially when the future is uncertain"

As conversation starts up right beneath him, O-2 certainly notices, and exits maintenance mode. His photoreceptors swing around to eye the participants. He'd picked this as his place to rest, as it seemed the most optimal surveillance point. He could hear anything going on in the cabins and cockpit, from the hallway ceiling, and that certainly included the talk right underneath him. But this seemed like "small talk," another one of those sentient quirks he'd never had interest in. He lets out another irked "Tch." as they go on, but he listens anyway. His scanners focus more on Musari in particular, when he casually mentions he'd fought with a Wookiee, and apparently just for other's entertainment, no worse for wear. The droid takes interest in the conversation now, to gather more information on this group's capabilities. He shifts in position on the ceiling a little, and begins to pipe up with mechanical chatter. "Bid-dit shhhrrft. Dowot brit breet...." Seeing confused looks among those gathered (aside from Gauss), he cuts himself off. His photoreceptors oscillate with a bit of annoyance, and he produces a manipulator, tipped with an external translation unit. It powers on, and he repeats himself into it, which causes a humanoid voice to issue from the translator simultaneously. Rather bafflingly, the voice is that of a female, with an Imperial accent—a far cry from the original speaker. "I want to hear more about everyone's fighting techniques and prior battles. Please be honest, no 'tall tales' are required."

Zed laughs. "You want our combat specs, clanker? We're Republic Commandos. Hammer Squad. A joint operations unit between the Grand Army of the Republic, Mil-Int, and the Jedi Order. Battle of Geonosis? We were there. Battle of Kamino? We were there. Battle of Coruscant? We were there. And all the quiet times in between? We were there, too, infiltrating Separatist operations and dismantling them before they ever became a threat. I assure you, we're qualified for whatever we might encounter on this operation." He gestures at toward the cockpit. "Gauss is a top tier technician and and pilot. Anything breaks off of you, he can put it back on and make it better than before." He turns his gesture to Kite. "Kite here is one of the best marksmen I've ever seen. He's the last thing people never see. I handle assault and tactics. We were all trained by Mandalorian ori'ramikade -- supercommandos." Zed rises from his seat and removes his helmet, revealing his bald pate where the telltale black and grey hairs were already starting to grow in. "I think the real question here is, what are your qualifications?" He widens his gaze to include the Echani and the Falleen. "All of you." (edited)

The Echani does indeed give a confused look as the Droid first begins to speak in its form of Binary, not understanding a thing. When it (seemingly reluctantly) spoke into a translator and a human sounding voice comes out, he finds himself relieved. When they request information about everyone's techniques and past experiences in battle, he pauses to think about how and what he should explain, long enough for the Clone called Zed to speak up. Seems like they have certainly been around the block, taking part in most of the key battles of the Clone Wars. When Zed also mirrors the Droid's request for what they can do, Musari nods. "Well if any of you have knowledge of my people, the Echani, then you may have somewhat of an idea already. We are trained in hand to hand combat pretty much from the time we take our first steps." He lets out a soft chuckle, barely exaggerating on that point. "We are also trained in various weapons, but for most of my childhood I preferred just using my own body. That is, until someone introduced me to the concept of throwing knives instead of just stabbing with them. Turns out I had a knack for it. Circumstances lead me to leave Eshan, and I ended up in that pit looking for challenging fights. Used the money I earned to buy this little thing." He says as he pulls the Chakram from his hip. The circular bladed weapon seemed to have a bit of customization. (edited)

O-2 raises his head unit with a hint of defiance. "I'm quite capable of repairing myself. I'm not given to relying on an organic's assistance...." His chittering, and the translator unit in turn, trail off. After all, that wasn't true. He owed his continued existence to one curious Sullustan mechanic. But it was organic incompetence that put me there. "Regardless, despite any preconceived notions you may have about me given my size, I am an experienced bounty hunter with a success rate of ninety-three point five six percent, which has been maintained for the past thirty cycles—longer than some of you have been alive, according to my calculations. I prefer to operate stealthily, and have carried out reconnaissance work as well. Many organics overlook droids, especially a labor-specialized model such as myself. And as you have seen, I am equipped with weaponry for ninety-nine point nine nine percent of conceivable combat situations." The droid grows weary. He wanted to gather information, not have an actual back-and-forth discussion. And this translator grated on him. He raises his abdomen unit, and opens a compartment on the rear end, revealing a hook-tipped projector with a length of fibercord on a winch. The projector, with its shape and placement, greatly resembles a spider's spinneret. He attaches the hook to the ceiling, then releases his grip, lowering himself to the floor, right in the group's midst, with practiced mechanical speed. As he lands, he reels the hook back in with a soft whirr and clink!. "Those are my qualifications. I'll check the status of the droids in the cargo hold." He retracts the translator, and skitters away, to do what he said, but also to think. (edited)

While everyone else was busy conversing in the middle of the Gauntlet. Gauss was busy setting the navcomputer to plot a course to Bracca. "Alright, while that calculates...I'll go see what the others are discussing." He leaves the cockpit, just as the group disperses and O-2 heads off to the docking bay. The clone turns to his brothers, "Keeping everything civil?" he asks them as he unloads his stuff into their room. Zed and Kite inform him of everything that was said while he finishes up. Gauss makes sure they are alone before saying, "Seems like we have quite the dangerous bunch. Maybe I'll lock out some of the more...important, systems. Just in case, because you never know, especially with that Sable girl." He then heads back to the cockpit and sets about creating a few safeties in the ship's computers. As soon as he finishes, the navcomputer starts beeping, signalling that their course has been plotted. Gauss sits down in the pilot seat and flips on the ships intercomm. "Attention motley crew of the Gauntlet, this is your pilot speaking. We're about to make the jump to hyperspace, hold on to something, just in case this old girl has a few...bugs." He cracks his knuckles a bit as he gives the crew a second to settle down as he starts hyperdrive. A slow and low drone fills the ship, as the hyperdrive charges up. Once the light on the console turns green, "Engaging hyperdrive in 3...2...1...engage" Gauss throws up the throttle and engages the hyperdrive sending the Gauntlet bursting into hyperspace. Gauss spends a few more moments checking over all the systems. "Okay, we're in hyperspace, with little to no issues. We'll be in hyperspace for the next 48 hours, get comfy and don't kill each other." he ends with a laugh, still on the intercomm.

The time on board their new ship goes by quickly and quietly, with clones working on their own projects, and the new members of the squad keeping mostly to themselves. When the ship gives a ping of warning, Gauss and crew man their stations and exit hyperspace in high orbit over Bracca. Answering the automated hail from the surface, Gauss transmits the clearance codes given by Prello, and the Gauntlet is authorized for descent. Gauss slows the ship for re-entry, and maneuvers the ship to an island far off the nearest continent that matches the coordinates provided, and approaches cautiously. The local time is approximately 6 hours until day break, and three potential landing zones are apparent on the ship scopes: right on the hull of the Mandator which is half on the island and half in the water, on a relatively clear patch of beach about a 20 minute hike to the Mandator, and in a clearing next to a particularly large pile of derelict ships and scrap parts about 10 minutes hike to the Mandator.

After some discussion as to their landing plan, Gauss brings the Gauntlet down towards the beach. The craft lurches as it slows to a crawl. Gauss activates the repulsors and landing gear before skillfully touching down on the open beach. Sand and water are thrown aside in gusts as the hulking ship rests it's feet in the sand. "Alright, we're here. We have a few hours to make our preparations before morning." He says on the intercomms as he goes through setting the necessary precautions to keep the ship safe from outsiders.

The crew, knowing they face a long day tomorrow, get comfortable in their cabins and get some shut-eye until the sun rises in about 6 hours. Some hours later, before any of the crew has awakened Musari awakens to the sound grating metal. At the same time, O-2 also begins to detect vibrations in the hull that organics would categorize as "grating."

O-2's latent quake sensors pick up on the disturbance on the hull, and bring him out of maintenance mode immediately. He moves between the cabins, voicing his concerns with a loud, alarm-like sound from his vocabulator. "Bzzzzzzt! Ksht-kzzzzle." "Intrusion is being attempted! We need to investigate this."

As O2 goes about waking everyone, Musari is already awake and alert. Since the droid already set about raising the alarm, he tries to get an idea of what they are dealing with. Sounds almost like metal on metal. No cameras or windows showing what's going on? Might be an addition to suggest later. Instead, he starts to head towards the boarding platform, but thinks better of just heading straight out there to face-check whatever this is, and waits. "Anyone got a safe way to check this thing out, or should I just take a look?" He calls back.

Gauss runs towards the cockpit and looks at the front view ports to see if he can spot the disturbance...

Gauss sees a shadow cast by the morning sun rising over the ocean, a robed and hooded figure holding a small cylindrical object in its hand apparently standing on the starboard ridge of the ship. Other indistinct shadows also move, indicating multiple others. (edited)

As Zed runs up to get a look himself, the figure kneels down, pointing the object at the ship, and the lighting changes. The shadow flickers in and out of existence as light flares, indicating sparks flying as a new sound starts: durasteel being cut by plasma. (edited)

Zed scowls at the figure and starts moving through the ship toward the boarding ramp. "They're trying to cut in. We need to stop them from breaching the ship."

Gauss stops Zed. "This thing can fly, remember. Tell the crew to buckle up, it's gonna get bumpy." He instructs his brother before hopping in the pilot's seat and starting up the engines. "Could use some help up here, on the start-up procedures as well" (edited)

Zed heads back up to the cockpit and flicks on the intercomm. "Alright everyone, hang on. We're gonna shake this mynock right off the hull."

"Well that's not as fun." He jokes and moves to find something to hang on to, rather than standing near the boarding ramp. Cutting? Mynocks? That doesn't seem right. Maybe he was using a metaphor.

Following a vocal O-2, Nas picks up on the sound of searing metal, indicating what Zed had noticed just moments prior. As his warning echoes through the ship, she braces herself by a wall as the ship begins restarting. Moving carefully she eventually reaches the cockpit, opening the door to see Gauss rapidly strafe between controls, Zed flanking. "Looks like you need an extra set of hands, kid." Smirking momentarily, she begins adjusting her own controls to assist the clones with the cold start.

Gauss looks back at Nas then back to his procedures. "At least she's not trying to kill us yet," he thinks to himself as the engines start to roar. The sounds of plasma cutting stops from outside the hull moments before the green light, lights up on the control panel. "Hold on, bout to see what this baby can do." The pilot pulls back on the yoke and throws up the throttle, sending the Gauntlet lurching into the air at a surprising speed. "Someone get on those heavy laser cannons, but don't fire them yet, just show them our teeth." Once a good distance away, Gauss spins the modified freighter around while slowing it down, pointing the bow of the ship down towards their would-be assailants.

Zed rises from his seat and heads slightly aft to grab the forward laser turret controls. "Copy that," he says, his focus on the controls as he powers up the weapons. The cannons deploy from the front of the ship with an audible whir and Zed grins ever-so-slightly. "Alright everyone," he says to himself. "Let's put down our plasma torches and talk about this." (edited)

O-2 rushes to the side of the ship where he heard the grating, finding some cover and preparing to repel any boarders.

As the nose of the Gauntlet spins around, a group of a dozen jawas is revealed, several of them helping two fallen jawas back to their feet next to what looks like a portable power cell while others dive for cover, running away from the large ship. (edited)

Kite shakes his head as the Jawas come into view "Kriffin scavengers. Their lucky we don't send a few bolts after them."Nudging Gauss "Try and find a jawa free spot next time vode"

16:04

Thinking for a moment, "Also it may be smart to leave the ship hovering and just grappling hook out. Scavengers probably have hooks to but at least it will make them work for it."

As Musari holds onto something by the boarding ramp entrance, he hears the call out about scavengers. This makes him a bit confused since he thought this place was abandoned. "Makes me wonder if this ship is as untouched as we were told."

As the desert scroungers come into view, Nas’ muscles relax. A sigh escapes her lips. ”Well, that could’ve been worse.” Between pirates, junkers, or whatever else might lurk in this trash heap, she could handle a few jawas. She looks towards Kite and Gauss, stoic and focused as only Republic troopers can be. In a weird sense, the clones’ presence was…comforting. No, that‘s not the right word…Nostalgic. Her focus snaps back to the moment, hearing Kite’s suggestion over the muffled hum of the engine. ”Do we have enough cable for that? I’m all for a good drop-in, but we have to make sure we can extract ourselves. Don’t imagine any of us want to stay in this graveyard longer then we have to.” As she speaks, a hand snakes down into her bag, revealing a weathered grappling hook. (edited)

Zed moves back to the main cockpit. "Gauss, can we land on the Mandator? Would be quicker."

As the ship rises, and the danger seemingly passes for the moment, O-2 returns to the cockpit as well. He produces his translator unit once again, which began to signify that he had something important to say, otherwise he wouldn't bother. As he chitters into it, the sprightly voice simultaneously translates in an unsuitably chipper tone. "I was going to mention this after we got onto the surface, but this seems an appropriate time. According to my sources of information, this island is generally avoided by members of the scavenging guild, and regarded as a dangerous place. They're not interested in the Mandator, and those that did come here didn't return. It's strange that Jawas would be here." A few of his photoreceptors land on Zed. "Given this development, I agree with the leader clone. If we land on the Mandator, not only will we be able to faster achieve our goal, but we will also be able to establish an ambush point. And from there, capture and interrogation of one of these scavengers would also be possible."

"Sounds good to me." Gauss replies to the crew as he brings the ship over the Mandator, landing it snug the Mandator on the most stable looking section.

The ship sets down on a flat section of the gargantuan ship near the bridge. The Mandator class appears fully stable, nestled in the sand of the island and, presumably, the ocean floor beneath the gentle waves lightly crashing against it's hull.

Zed winces behind his helmet as the derelict Mandator-class groans every so slightly when the Gauntlet sets down atop her hull. But given that the groan isn't followed up by the shriek of tearing durasteel and Zed's stomach flying up into his chest as they plunge to their deaths, it seems the ship is solid enough. He unstraps from his seat and heads for the landing ramp. "Stay alert for any more trouble. I can't imagine the jawas will come back after that, but keep your eyes open. Gauss, what's our first stop? Bridge?"

"Yes, the bridge should be our first stop. I have a rough idea where things should be, but not the exact place to find them." Gauss replies to Zed as he finishes setting the ship to low power mode, in case they need to make a quick get away again. As he grabs his equipment, he turns to Walls who has been cleaning random sections of the ship ever since they boarded. "Walls, can you and Blue 3 keep the ship ready for take off in case of an emergency?"

Walls converses briefly with C1-B1U3 and turns back to Gauss. "Certainly, sir. C1...er...Blue 3 can keep the ship ready, if you like. Do you have any paint on board? This place could really use some brightening up."

"We didn't buy any. Check the cargo bay, maybe there's some there," Zed says, rolling his eyes at the droid's artificial politeness. At least the mining droid was outspoken in its personality. He punches open the landing ramp and descends, his footsteps echoing oddly between the two durasteel hulls. The flat grey of the Mandator stretched out before him, the conning tower and bridge rising up out of the plain like a mountain in the distance. He gestures in that direction. "Move out."

O-2 disembarks the Gauntlet after Zed, keeping his optics peeled for any pursuing scavengers, as well as potential security measures in what should be an abandoned Mandator.

Kite goes through his pre-mission ritual, checking that all of his kit is secure and operational. Noting that his wrist launcher, ion & sniper rifles were 100%, the clone begins typing on his wrist pad as he walks down the landing ramp. After a moment M.K comes flying by and begins scouting out the crew's path.

Musari heads back to his bunk to grab his backpack before following along with the others. He also slings his carbine over his shoulder along with the bandolier of darts across his chest and chakram at his hip. "Was there any other intel you had about this ship, droid?" He calls to O-2.

Hopping off the landing ramp with a light thud and a burst of dust, Nas gives their landing area a once over before clicking a small button on her temple, sliding the insectoid mask back over her face. A purple haze now saturating her vision, she pulls her bag further onto her soldier and grips the hilt of her vibrorapier. Looking over their path options, she snaps back to Zed: ”Sir yes sir.” It was a shame the mask hid her grin, but she could bet the clone caught on. Taking a lower stance to remain quieter, she steels herself for what’s to come.

"Kssshrrrt? Bzzzrt..." "Do I look like a tour droid? Fine..." O-2's flippant response crackles out, but it doesn't have much weight when most present couldn't interpret it. He relents, raising the translator. "This ship was called the Montecore. The most interesting thing about it is that it was decommissioned unusually early. When it was first brought here, it was in perfectly usable shape. Being in such good shape, it can be assumed that the only reason it was not stripped more thoroughly for parts, was that its components are generally incompatible with non-Imperial ships. The Empire itself has shown no interest either in recovering it, and that is likely because it is out of date." Ironically, he very much does sound like a tour guide given the translator's upbeat default tone. He immediately snaps the translator off and folds it back into his abdominal compartment, as if to say, That's all I know. I'm done talking for today. He picks up his pace to get slightly ahead of the group, and scans for a means of intrusion. (edited)

Musari scratches his head at the droid's response. "Huh. Thanks?" The Echani had been more curious about why attempted scrappers never came back, but maybe that was all of the information available. You know, considering no witnesses ever came back. 'Oh well, I'll be more specific next time.'

"It's a planet full of scrap," Zed calls back to Musari. "There's plenty out there that's easy to access. Basically the whole of the Grand Army's military infrastructure is on this planet, awaiting deconstruction. No reason for them to go after this, not when it's so isolated."

The Echani shrugs at the further explanation from Zed. "I guess that makes sense. Though those Jawas were certainly interested in our ship. Must be something that convinced them to leave this one alone, despite being so close."

As the party makes their way across the bare carapace of the enormous ship, they sees birds flying in the distance over the tree tops of the forest below. Looking around at the surface of the ship, scanning for danger, it suddenly occurs to them that there doesn't appear to be any life up here. No bird's nests. No scraggly plants trying to take root in small drifts of sand and dirt accumulated from wind and storms. Nothing. (edited)

Move quickly," Zed says. "I don't like this."

"No kidding," Nas remarks, practically sneaking up behind Zed as she scans the silent environment, hand firmly grasped around her blade's handle. "I expected a ghost ship, but even this feels unnatural."

The group progresses to the base of the conning tower without incident. Nearby, an access hatch is quickly found, but it does not respond to a simple open command: the hatch does not appear to be powered. High above them, light glints from the transparisteel of the bridge and various view ports. In the distance, the quiet roar of the ocean continues to beat ineffectively against the hull and the occasional bird is heard calling. As the party considers their next move, Musari catches a whiff of roasting meat on the air and, scanning the island in response, sees a vague wisp of smoke rise from the forest, and notes its location in his mental map of the island. (edited)

"Someone made breakfast." He points out the smoke to the others. "Wonder if that's where the Jawas are camped out. Might be good to keep some eyes in that direction." Which the Echani does, keeping an eye out for anyone coming from that way while the group figures out how to get this hatch open. (edited)

"I think I have something for that..." Gauss says as he comes up from the back of the group, finishing up setting his helmet to record his surroundings. The clone flicks his wrist, engaging a small torch that shoots out of his wrist gauntlet. He lines the torch up with the hatch, and starts cutting away at the seam.

About a minute later, Gauss has managed to cut the hatch out of its frame, and it tumbles into the darkness below, the metallic clang echoing through the ship's deserted corridors. No other noises or movement are immediately apparent, and, as far as Gauss can tell from his position at the hatch, the ship continues to appear fully abandoned and lifeless.

Zed flicks a switch on his rifle and a beam of soft light illuminating a ladder descending into a tight maintenance corridor. "Let's move," Zed says, climbing onto the ladder, dropping down, and turning to scan the area. (edited)

The corridor stretches off in both directions as far as Zed can see, with man-size access doors every hundred feet or so, the nearest about 25 feet away. Running along the ceiling that makes up the exterior hull of the ship are several pairs of pipes about 8 inches across, occasionally feeding into the hull of the ship with a smaller offshoot or running down a wall and disappearing into the floor. Gauss infers that these are part of the thermal management system of the ship. Nestled amongst the pipes are small bundles of conduits, some brightly colored and sized to indicate higher voltage power transmission and others, smaller and darkly colored, clearly for data.

Musari climbs down the ladder and follows who he has by now deduced is the leader of the squad. Not wanting to be potentially lost in the dark if the group gets seperate, he also fishes a glowrod out of his pack and activates it.

Seeing Zed and the echani start down the ladder, Nas takes one more scan of the area before following suite. She adjusts a knob on her mask as she slowly plunges deeper into the cruiser, the scanners in the device conforming to the new lighting conditions, brightening her descent in violet light.

When the squad and their new "friends" are fully in the corridor, Zed waves Gauss up. "Which way?" he asks the other clone.

Gauss spends a few moments thinking about the correct direction to lead the group. "Hm... If there was power, there is most likely a turbolift behind that door." he says, pointing at the door right next to them. "Our cleanest route will probably be through the maintenance halls. They should have physical locks, rather than electronic. They should be this way...." the clone engineer finishes with as he walks down the hall towards where he believes the nearest entrance to the maintenance halls should be. (edited)

Engaging his adaptive magna-claws, O-2 follows the group down into the ship's guts. He crawls at Gauss's side, occasionally chittering quietly to himself about some datum or another.

Kite clambers up the ships seemingly endless ladders, with a bit of shame realizing that he had neglected his PT in favor of more time at the range. After flinging himself over the threshold of the last ladder the clone leans heavily against the wall, thankful that the rest can't hear his raspy breathing through his helmet. (edited)

Moving quickly through the tight quarters and ascending ladders, Zed finds himself struggling. But his memories afford him a second wind -- on the prowl through a Separatist base with Haspin and the squad, or dropping out of an LAAT into a firefight. Back then, it had all made sense...well, maybe not everything. It was easy to remember those days fondly in contrast to the darkness looming over the galaxy right now. He knew that he had a tendency to wax idealistic, but the Republic hadn't been perfect. It had its own problems -- that was why the Clone War happened in the first place. His rambling thoughts conclude and he finds himself pushing up through a hatch into the ship's bridge.

O-2 begins the long ascent to the ship's bridge, giving it only a cursory scan beforehand. There were deeper mine shafts on Subterrel, in his day. He simply pushes on undeterred at first, but only by the time he nears the top does he realize his servos are letting out a whine from overexertion. On top of that, his joints were beginning to creak as well. Analyses rolled in his head, and their logical conclusion brought unwelcome echoes: that he'd been in operation for thrice the expected lifespan of any other E-series mining droid, and that he couldn't keep it up. As if to spite his own negative thoughts, he turns and fires his rear grappling hook through the hatch, finding a secure spot to latch onto, and hauling himself the rest of the way up into the room quickly. While certainly a display of acrobatics, the droid lands with a less than satisfying clank, which issues from within, accompanying the expected thud.

As the entrance to the maintenance halls are opened up, exposing the long multi-layered shaft of ladders, Musari lets out a sigh. "Right, of course. No power, no lifts." He follows in and begins the long climb. As they pass the halfway point, he's already beginning to feel the exertion taking its toll, breath becoming ragged. But he keeps pressing on, not wanting to slow the others down, pushing himself harder until they reach the top. He took pride in his flexibility and speed, but perhaps he should make it a priority to work on strength and endurance after this mission was over? When they finally reached the top and he was free from these ladders, he leans against a wall trying to catch his breath. "I really hope we can get the power back on for the way out... Though I doubt everything we came for will fit down that tunnel anyways."

As the crew climb up into the pits on the left side of the bridge, computer terminals spread out in front of them, they are finally greeted by a room with natural light as the mid-morning sun pours directly through the large transparisteel windows making up one whole side of the large room and into the command center for the enormous craft. Although larger than the bridges on the Venators they are used to, a strong family resemblance brings a certain degree of nostalgia to the three clones.

"Okay...let's see if this baby...ha... still has some power left in her. Should make the rest of this mission much easier..." Gauss says, still trying to catch his breath from the long and arduous climb. He then heads over to the enginnering console to try and boot one of the reactors up. (edited)

Gauss looks over the room and mentally catalogues all the stations, choosing the chief engineer's station to start with. Long-dormant circuits hum to life in this terminal as Gauss plugs his datapad in, sending power and basic boot commands to the system. Sidestepping the main boot sequence early on, Gauss drills down into base level firmware to query the ship's main systems, starting with power storage. The ship's capacitors still hold enough charge to power basic life support systems, including lights, doors, and lifts for at least a few hours. As Gauss taps away, bringing these systems on one by one, suddenly warning claxons sound from the automated health monitoring systems indicating multiple system failures and vulnerabilities. Only a couple seconds pass before Gauss is able to mute the system with an override, and visually scans the warnings, almost all of which are not material to their present situation. However, of note are the following errors that Gauss judges to be of potential import once he cross references their locations to the ship schematics he downloads: 1) flooding throughout the lower levels including at one of the projector locations, 2) communications and sensor failures throughout the engineering decks closest to the power reactor which encompasses two of the projectors, and 3) ship-wide radiation detectors indicating unhealthy levels of radiation throughout the ship that increases with proximity to the power reactors. He remembers enough to know that short-term exposure to their current levels isn't ideal, but they shouldn't be suffering any ill-effects yet. (edited)

Zed looks around as the cacophony of klaxons begins echoing around the bridge. "Uh...Gauss...that sounds like a problem. What's going on?" He moves to look at the other clone's console, and frowns. Much of it was incomprehensible to him, but he recognized the radiation alarm. "How bad? What's our timeframe?" he asks the other clone. (edited)

Musari also glances over at one of the consoles, not fully understanding most of the information being displayed. Flooding he understands though. "Guess we are going to need to go swimming for one of the things we came to get. Anyone afraid of water?"

"Bwit-dweet. Dit-dit-dit, kshhrt-dzzzt." "I've no such aversions. And I am equipped for traversal of any environment." He stamps his legs, causing the claws on the undersides of each of his 'feet' to fold inwards, and vents on each of his legs to open where there had been no visible evidence of them before. Vanes sprout from them as well, which broaden and appear as though they would serve as fins. Finally, three more vanes emerge from his posterior, which combine into a sort of fan shape. Aquatic movement seems quite feasible for this droid.

As Gauss relays the information he discovered through accessing the ship's systems, he's actively thinking up a plan. After a few minutes of thought, Gauss pipes up. "We're on a time limit with all this radiation. Even if we all wear environmental suits, save O-2 of course, we won't be able to stay here too long." He checks the locations once more. "Our best course of action would be to salvage the nearest projector, here in the tower, and take it back to the Gauntlet. There we can put on the EVA suits and split into two groups. Group one will find and procure the projector that is currently submerge in a flooded area of the ship." The clone points to the blip on the schematic indicating flooding in that area of the mandator. "Group two, which will most likely be the most dangerous to obtain, will take the two in the heavily irradiated zone." Again, he says as he points them out to the crew. "Once you have your assigned projectors, meet back at the Gauntlet so we can rest before grouping back up for the last two." "Anyone else have other ideas? If not, we should get moving. The longer we are exposed to this radiation, the more it will start to deteriorate our bodies." Gauss then starts uploading the schematics to his wristpad, still listening to the group as they deliberate. (edited)

As the group debates, they try the main turbolift at the rear of the bridge, and find it working. They are able to quickly locate the mechanical area sandwiched between the main barracks decks and the ship's main medical bay. The tower projector should be easy to locate from here.

"Glad I packed a rebreather. Guess I can help get the one in the flooded area." He volunteers for that group, if they do decide to split up. "I know our job is only for these projectors, but is there anything else we should keep an eye out for while we are here?"

Standing his breath finally under control "Hopefully the radiation will keep out the competition. We should get moving though, don't know if we can still be called clones if we end up growing some new appendages"

Zed nods. "Let's go get some projectors."

O-2 reverts to his default form with a shudder, and sets out to retrieve their first projecotr.

Gauss pulls up the schematics for this projector assembly from the data downloaded off the main computers of the ship. A relatively simple procedure, since they don't need to worry about damaging the ship overly much, the full crew finishes in about one hour. Subsequent removals should go even faster now that the crew knows what they are doing. (edited)

16:44

The crew quickly evacs the Mandator with the first of their prizes, taking a maintenance lift down to the correct level before taking the large piece of equipment through a main thoroughfare of the ship until they come to a lift heading up to a large dorsal equipment hatch. A few minutes more, and they are back to the ship, loading the first projector into their cargo hold, and retrieving their EVA suits.

Once they make it back to the ship, Musari takes a moment to lean against the wall of the ship and hold on to some piping to support his weight. His face looks even paler than usual, if that's possible. Seeing the EVA suits being brought out, he sluggishly grabs and puts one on. "Man, I don't know if It was the climb or the environment in there, but I feel terrible."

"A short break would be a good idea before heading out in our groups." Gauss says as he preps his EVA suit. "Speaking of... Who's going where? Two groups of three should suffice." (edited)

As everyone begins resting aboard the ship, Zed says, "Let's go for the less-dangerous pair this time. Kite and Gauss, you go with Musari to the starboard-side projector. O-2 and Nas, you're with me. We'll hit the port-side."

Taking the time to rest seems to do Musari a lot of good, as his breathing returns to normal and his skin returns to its normal level of paleness. As Zed gives his instructions, he nods and gives a shrug. At this point, he didn't much mind which group he ended up with. "Sounds good to me."

Standing to his feet Kite curtly says"Understood" As the others prepare he leans close to Zed and says simply"Keep your guard up" Before pulling his Eva suit on over his armor.

The teams reenter the ship via the loading dock entrance they had previously departed from, and make their way aft via the main trunk of the ship together, their footfalls echoing through the abandoned hulk. The eerie silence is not lost on them, but, of course, what else should they expect from an abandoned ship? The cold logic of the observation, however, provides little comfort in the face of such an alien experience. Splitting up at the rear of the ship, the two teams find their way amongst the large utility corridors servicing the thruster area of the ship. Eventually, they find the projectors they are looking for, and get to work detaching them from their electrical and chemical supplies, attaching them to their hover-devices, and then detatching the units from their anti-vibration isolator mountings. Without major incident, the teams head back to their ship along the same route they had come in on, Gauss's team a mere hundred paces or so in front of Zed's. Sweat drips down his forehead as the former squad leader starts to feel a slight queasiness in the pit of his stomach. The projectors are secured in the Gauntlet's hold next to the first, and the team debriefs each other, quickly on their successful run.

"So one of the last two is in the water, right? I packed a rebreather if we are going to split up again." Musari says after the two groups have successfully dropped off the most recent set of projectors.

Kite mentally runs through his own kit, shaking his head as he comes up short. The good old days, playing through his mind. Back when they had a requistions team to prep and outfit them for each mission.and says " Least someone has a full kit, anyone else got a rebreather? We need to get out of this kriffin place before Gauss grows another head, let's split hit the last two and make Prello a happy Hutt".

Zed grunts and takes a seat on a box in the cargo bay. "I don't. And there are three left. Two in the radiation zone and one in the water." As he looks about the group, a thought occurs to him. "Gauss, does the medbay on this ship have power?" (edited)

"I'm fairly certain I can. Medbays on ships that size use a negligible amount of power. The better question is if the connection isn't severed. But there should be quite a few medbays on a Mandator." Gauss replies back to Zed, having an idea of what his intention is with finding one.

Zed nods. "Musari, O-2, Nas. Do you think you can handle the underwater projector?" He gestures at Kite, Gauss, and himself. "We have something we need to do.

"Sure, why not? We'll scream if we need you." He says with a smirk. This job had been pretty quiet so far, other than the radiation sickness. Maybe it wasn't that dangerous after all.

The two teams roll out to their respective goals. Zed and crew make their way aft and up the command tower to the main medical facility located near the crew quarters. Meanwhile, Musari, O2, and Nas head towards the front of the ship before heading down. As they take a lift to the correct level, the small space begins to slowly fill with water as the liquid seeps between the tight seams of the lift carriage...they were now under the level of the water.

Musari powers on his Underwater Respirator as the lift starts to fill up with water. "Well, here we go. Hopefully this lift still works after getting wet."

Zed removes his helmet and rubs a gauntleted hand over his bald head. "I'll go first," he says, hopping up on the scanner bed. "Gauss, start the scan."

Zed's body slides back into a white donut-shaped piece of equipment. A quiet, high-pitched whine, just on the edge of Zed's hearing cycles on and off for a minute as he lays still. Then, when the whining stops, his bed slides back out, and he sees Gauss engrossed in a holo-projection of what looks like a human brain. He sees a darker mass of what appears to be a variant of human tissue...an anomaly that he has no explanation for other than the one Test had proposed. It was not consistent with a tumor. Unfortunately, it was well integrated into the surrounding tissue. It would be a risky surgery for someone with his limited skill to undertake. It would be safe with an experienced surgeon or droid.

Gauss has his hand on his chin as he considers their options. "This is far beyond me...however. Maybe Walls can do something about it. Strange luck that we come into ownership of a medical droid, just as we need the expertise of one."

The clone looks at his brothers, who are both staring at him expectantly. "Oh, right. You two don't do droids that talk back. One sec then." He hits a few buttons on his wrist pad, linking his comm to The Gauntlet. "Walls, still floating around over there? We could use your...expertise."

Walls responds enthusiastically and asks for the data to be transferred to him for his review. "Hmm, this is like nothing I've seen before. But, yes, I think I could remove the mass. The problem is that it's very well connected into the brain. In particular, it is acting like a filter on the impulse control portion of the neocortex. Removing it could have unforseeable consequences, even if the surgery is done perfectly. Given the difficulty, it's also no garuntee that I could do so perfectly. But I am confident that I can remove the mass and that you would survive without...well without catastrophic damage. The most likely side effects, if any, would be minor behavioral changes. Would you like me to come out where you are? The facilities you describe sound ideal, and I should be able to preform a surgery on one of you in about 40 minutes." (edited)

O-2 scans the depths of the cramped elevator shaft, before rounding his photoreceptors on his two companions. Without a word, his legs sprout hefty apparatuses, which he then launches onto both Musari and Nas's backs, appearing as small backpacks. O-2's vocabulator crackles to life finally, as they undoubtedly eye him with confusion or suspicion. "Dreet-kchk, do-woot-dit. Drit-kzzle." The translator activates seconds thereafter. "Both of you appear to need any advantage you can get in this sort of situation. My propulsors will help you swim faster. Let's get this over with." The droid taps his front leg a few times rythmically, as if counting, before plunging underwater to seek out the projector.

Rick [LE-X21 | Kato | Wulfhelm]

Gauss turns to his brothers. "What do you think? Do we risk removing whatever this, mass, is. Potentially creating more issues." he taps at his wristpad, downloading the data. "Or do we wait until we find someone who can bring our odds up? Maybe Prello knows someone that can help."

Zed frowns. "I'd rather handle this between us rather than get Prello involved. Walls says they can do it," he says, scratching his head. A persistent itch had developed right above where the scanners said that thing is. "Whatever this is, I'd rather get it done sooner rather than later."

Kite shakes his visored head still not quite believing the scans in front of him. This didn't make any sense, it just couldn't be. In the end he tersely says "Machine's been soaking up radiation for years. I would want a second opinion before I let the clanker under my buy'ce"

Musari is indeed both surprised and confused when the droid suddenly attaches something to his back. He was about to say something about it when the static sound of the droid flared up, followed by the translation. Propulsion for swimming, nice. "Oh, thanks... Warn me next time?"

Tegan J Gaming

"I'm with Kite on this one. We need more information if what Walls said about complications is true." Gauss'wristpad beeps, signifying thay the download was about to finish. "We certainly don't need to tell Prello why we need to find a neuro expert, just that we have personal reasons to locate one."

Zed shakes his head in exasperation. "Don't you get it? This is exactly what Test saw! Exactly where he saw it. They tricked us...manipulated us. I want this thing out of my head!" The last words are a mix between a shout and a scream, the desperation in Zed's voice causing it to crack. He coughs, trying to recover his composure. "Walls said the facilities here sound ideal. It might be a long time before we find another place like this. I don't want to be more in debt to Prello." (edited)

Kite's mind races, his hand repeatedly opening and closing as his brother's speak. This had to be impossible, he had seen many of his brothers and fellow clones take head wounds throughout the war. Someone would have caught this it just couldn't be right? Shrugging his voice curt and cold "Do what you need to. When this is done I plan on going home, and finding one of those kriffing scientist. And then pushing the kaminii until it squeals. If we got anything in us, you know they put it there."

Gauss stands silent, a little dumbfounded at his brother Zed's outburst. After Kite finishes talking, he makes a long sigh before calling up Walls again. "Walls, get here as quickly as you can. I'm sending you the part of the schematics you will need to get here." Gauss was never one for emotions, showing them, or really having much of any. Maybe they were sacrificed for heightening his intelligence or ability to deal with most any technology. He was never really sure and eventually gave up wondering after a few years. The clone often found himself looking for the logic and reasoning for things, rather than the emotions behind them, especially when it came to issues between his brothers. (edited)

"Yes, sir. Of course. Oh, shut up, Blue! No I won't take you with me. Guard the ship!"

"I'm sorry," Zed says to his brothers. "I trusted them. All of them. The Jedi, the Republic, the Empire...and they betrayed us. Every single clone."

Kite takes off his helmet and tries his best to put a bit of warmth into his typical droid like tone "Vode to them we were just meat droids, bred to follow orders but alive enough that we could fight creatively. The jedi and the Republic already got theirs. The Empire will too. But all that matters is that we stuck together, and made it. Kriff everyone else" Placing his helmet back on his voice going back to his usual dry tone "But we got a mission, so pull the chip or not, we gotta get moving."

The three party members at the bow of the ship open the lift doors once the lift is full and are surrounded by chill sea water, light piercing through the faint murk from the ship's abundant lights.

A bit over ten minutes passes before Walls arrives at the medical bay. He proceeds to efficiently prepare the operating room, inventorying and selecting instruments, then sanitizing them and the surfaces of the room along with his own appendages, and instructing Gauss to do the same. "Kite, if you would be so kind as to stand in the observation room just there?" Gesturing to the operating table, he addresses Zed, "Please, make yourself comfortable. Although we will use local anesthetic at the incision site, it would be best if we kept you conscious throughout the procedure so that you can monitor yourself for any symptoms that might occur. Please let me know if you experience any hallucinations, any pain, any emotional upwellings. As I said, the procedure will take us into close contact with important brain structures." Turning to Gauss, Walls says, "when you are ready, sir, we can begin. 5 units of chlorohydryl-alemine 7."

Zed swallows, suddenly nervous. He nods, and lays back on the operating table. "Just get this thing out of me," he says.

Kite almost pauses for a moment his faceless visor staring into the droid before turning to look at Zed and saying simply "K'oyacyi Vod'e." Frowning as he realized that was the first time he told one of his brothers, to stay alive. He never worried about his brothers rushing into a battle. But this wasn't a fight.

Zed nods at Kite's words. "Don't worry, vod'e," he says. He wonders for a second if he should back out. There was still time. He could change his mind. But no. This was the perfect opportunity. He looks up at Walls. "Do it." (edited)

After sterilizing Zed's bald pate, with delicate precision, missing even the tiny nerve endings in the dermis and cranium, Walls painlessly injects the clone's head on the right side. After waiting the required 30 seconds for the drug to fully take effect, the droid begins the incision and then, holding the skin apart, removes a small circular section of bone to access the brain. With Gauss's assistance, the droid carefully maneuvers a tiny laparoscopic instrument into the brain, avoiding the largest structures in the way, and burrowing deeper into it's mass. Just as shown in the Level 5 atomic brain scan that Gauss had conducted, Walls locates the bio-chip ninety degrees from the right orbital floor, below the parietal and temporal intersection. Using these detailed schematics from Gauss along with the nano-probes of the instrument, Walls is able to laboriously, yet efficiently, sever the hundreds of thousands of connections the bio chip makes with the surrounding healthy tissue, and--at least in many cases-- is able to splice many of the neural pathways back together to bypass the chip he was slowly excising. After about 20 minutes of work, the chip is free of the surrounding tissue and Walls withdraws it with the tiny tool. Using standard bacta-infused bone mesh to coat both surfaces of the skull, Walls reinserts the circular bone fragment and then stitches the wound closed. "Well, sir...How do you feel?"

Zed attempts to sit up, and is overcome by a wave of nausea that makes him think better of it. He swears colorfully in Mando'a, then tries again, more slowly this time. Shaking his head, he says, "Aside from one of the worst headaches I've ever had, I feel fine. I think. Give me a second."

Yes, some swelling should be expected. Gauss, there should be some anti-inflammatory medications in your med-pac. You can take those twice a day to relieve pain. Let me know if pain persists beyond 3 days."

Zed steps down off the table, bracing himself against it as the nausea begins to return. With a few deep breaths, he steadies himself, even while his head still pounded. "I want to see it," he says. "I need to show Test. Let him know that he was right." (edited)

"Certainly, sir," Walls replies, as he pulls out a glass square, a piece of tissue sandwiched between two panes, and hands it to Zed.

Zed takes the square and examines it closely. "Is there any way to determine what this thing did? Did it...could it have made me...kill someone?" (edited)

"That is a difficult question to answer. It's possible that, if it was still implanted, we might be able to run some functional testing and, in time, we might be able to determine more information about its function and purpose. But even then, it would be quite an undertaking. It appears quite sophisticated and well-integrated. It doesn't really look like it was an implant at all, really. More like a parasitic organism or even an organ of your own body. I can run DNA sequencing on it and you to determine whether it is part of your own body or a foreign tissue. However, either way, your best bet, i think, would be to ask your creators. Although, perhaps they would not choose to answer."

"The blasted kaminii might know a thing or two," Zed says scowling at the piece of tissue before handing it back to Walls. "Do you need the equipment here to do this DNA sequencing, or can you do it back on the ship?" (edited)

"I need to do it here, but it won't take me long. Perhaps 10 minutes depending on their sequencer speed. I believe the ship already has your DNA profile in its records."

Zed laughs. "Yeah, I bet it does. Get to work on it." Turning to Kite, he says, "I know you don't trust the kaminii, but given that we haven't encountered too many clones wearing Imperial colors in recent years, they may not be in the Empire's good graces anymore. It might be worth tracking one of them down. One of the scientists, like Taun We."

Kite nods relief and uncertainty warring within him. His brother made it but the bantha poddoo conspiracy proved to be true. Simply nodding he says "Lets finish up with Prello, after that we can make a trip home, and see what the Kaminii have to say for themselves"

As the new party members make their way through the flooded corridors towards the projector, the water begins to take on an undulating, surging character, buffeting the party about and threatening to crash them in walls, floors, ceiling and equipment. Part of the hull must have corroded, of course, letting in the water in the first place, but the magnitude of the undulating indicates that the hole must be massive to allow such strong transmission of the surf outside the ship into the interior where they now swim.

--Back in the medbay-- Gauss finishes up he final checks of Zed's procedure, downloading any relevant data for later use. "Sounds like a plan to me. Let's hope the Empire isn't in full force there as well. I've heard they took it over shortly after the war." He then takes his time investigating the medbay for any supplies. Finding none, he goes about inspecting the medical machines, how long it would take them to disassemble, carry it back, and how much it would be worth. "No supplies left here. But if we have time after getting the other projectors. We can come back and tear some of these apart to sell back on Nadir." (edited)

Nas seems to flow through the water effortlessly, always intuitively compensating for the unpredictable undulations of the water, and she makes it into the next hallway, following O2, just ahead of her, who seems to cut through the water with mechanical precision. Behind Nas, Musari gets tossed into the ceiling once, the walls twice, and narrowly misses some jutting computer terminals, before he starts copying Nas' movements well enough to get through the rest of the hallway. O2 opens a hatch into a mechanical room, and the projector is visible against the far wall, conduits and pipes connecting it to the ship's systems and heavy, slightly rusted bolts fastening it to the hull.

Walls completes his work and turns to Zed. "It appears to share your DNA sequence, but I took the liberty of running some protein and RNA analyses on the tissue sample. It's like nothing I've ever uncountered before. It's like a new...well 'organ' is a little too generous, but it is essentially an organ that appears to be added to your genetic code, and activated using an interesting epigenetic mechanism that is cutting edge. Truly astonishing to say the least. I believe I have isolated the gene sequence that was inserted into the DNA of your donor to generate this new brain region. Unfortunately it is a bit like having a snippet of binary code without the source code....it's hard to reverse engineer the programming. However, with this new testing and the previous atomic scan of your brain, I think I do have another option for you if traveling to Kamino is problematic. I believe that I could simulate your pre-op brain in order to better understand the structure's purpose and capabilities...if I had a large enough computer mainframe."

"It's a good thing we're on one of the most state of the art starships in the Republic Military." Gauss replies to Walls as he brings up the ship schematics. "There's bound to be a few mainframe on this derelict."

"Hmm...yes, the mandator class may have a robust enough system to run the simulations. It would still take days for me to run and oversee the simulations, however, even with the computer power on this ship." (edited)

"Need to talk to the others before we decide to set up camp," Zed says. "But we need this information. Gauss, did your readings indicate any intact mainframes on board this ship?"

Rick [LE-X21 | Kato | Wulfhelm]

Musari grunts from the pain of the repeated impacts, but steadies on and is hardly worse for wear by the time they get into the room with the projector. However, not really being all that mechanically inclined, he waits for instruction before messing with any pipes or cables.

Zac

"Need to talk to the others before we decide to set up camp," Zed says. "But we need this information. Gauss, did your readings indicate any intact mainframes on board this ship?"

Gauss finishes up checking on the schematics. "There are quite a few that run various systems, as well as the main ship computer which we should be able to access from the bridge, if not, then engineering will have access." (edited)

"We'll check 'em out after we regroup with the others," Zed says. "Can your droid save the data it has now?"

"Affirmative, sir."

"Then pack it up. Let's go rendezvous with the others. I'm sure they've finished with their retrieval by now," Zed says, waving his hand with index and middle finger extended in the GAR military sign language for get ready to move.

"Copy" Gauss responds back as he packs up what he can and makes for the exit, motioning Walls to follow behind him.

As the clones approach their ship from the stern of the Mandator, the other group approaches from the other side, looking weary and damp. Musari occasionally rubs a purpling bruise on his forehead. 02 drags the large inertial projector behind via a braided cable, the device occasionally dripping water as it hovers behind.

Gauss waves to the other group as he lowers the boarding ramp and enters the Gauntlet. He heads towards the cockpit to check the sensors, in case any unwanted attention might have been picked up.

The Echani groans as he fiddled with the bruise he had gained. Maybe he should take swimming lessons after the job is over. Speaking of, it seemed like they were most of the way done now, and getting smacked into walls by currents was the most excitement so far. Well, other than the Jawas trying to steal their ship earlier.

Zed also groans, holding his head. His helmet rubbed against the point of the medical droid's incision. "Okay," he says, groaning slightly. "Two more. And we want to go quick."

Musari nods as Zed suggests they move quickly. "I'm good to go, just a little bruised. Nothing that will get in the way."

The crew gather their strength and their equipment, and head back down into the Mandator. Gauss pulls up a holo-projection of the interior of the ship and scrolls to the level of the final two projectors. Located on a level just above the main rector, the two projectors sit in the same round room, fed by power cables pulled off the main power trunk of the ship, and providing inertial dampening for most of the mid-ship, with special emphasis on providing maximum dampening for the nearby power core. The party reach the lift that will take them down into the radiation hot-zone and open up just outside the room housing the dampeners.

Gauss turns to the group before they enter the lift. "Okay, we need a plan before we head down there. The radiation levels are too high for us to stay long, so we need to get in and then get out as quickly as possible."

Kite nods and begins tapping on the data pad strapped to the wrist of his mandalorian armor. As he types his silver droid floats up in front of the party. In his usual terse manner of speech "Can send M.K to scout it out and plot our most direct route. Keep us from getting to much rad exposure."

"Good idea," Zed says. "Make sure we've got a bead on both projectors before we head down there."

With another tap on his wrist pad Kite sends M.K into the room, swapping his HUD view with the feed from the droid.

The lift closes around the small, hovering droid and descends. Kite's view begins to go foggy as both his signal degrades and the visual sensors pop with static from the radiation. The lift doors open and the droid proceeds cautiously forward. Just as it exits the lift, audio receptors on both sides of the droid, much less effected by the radiation, register servo actuators moving, and the droid takes automatic evasive maneuvers, quickly ducking back into the lift as blaster fire ionizes the air it had just occupied. Safely hidden back in the lift, the droid registers faint servo sounds as if the defensive auto-blasters were searching the area, still on alert from its sudden appearance.

Kite's helm jerks back slightly as he sees a burst of blaster fire fill his HUD. "Kriff. Automated turrets defending the target. Seems like the radiation has made it sloppy though. Going in quiet would be smart, but the radiation doesn't give us much time for smart " (edited)

Musari stops fidgeting with his bruise as the news of the turrets is given. "Some potential action, nice. Though I'm sure there's someway to shut them down. Unless that's fried."

Gauss checks the plans for the location of the turret controls. "There was, but those systems are glitching or inoperable according to the main computer on the bridge." He thinks for a moment, "I can hide us from their sensors and they should not pose too much of a threat. But the radiation coming from the reactor is what I am worried about. Even with these EVA suits we're going to have to work quickly." (edited)

Zed frowns inside his helmet. "We go in hard and fast. Blast down those turrets. If you get hurt, fall back to this location. Copy all?"

The Echani gives a nod and a quick two finger salute in response to Zed's plan. Seemed like things were about to heat up. "You got it."

"Copy. We have four turrets, two close south, two close north. Kite and I can take the North, if you and Musari can take the south ones, Zed?" he shows the group the turrets exact locations before they head down.

Nodding once Kite says "Understood. Let's move." unslinging his rifle and preparing himself for battle.

The crew enter the lift, checking their equipment and going over a quick battleplan for when the doors open. As veterans of the Clone Wars, though, they know that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. As Senator Bail Organa has been famously quoted as saying, "when deciding on a plan, the enemy gets a vote." As the lift descends into the hot zone, Gauss begins getting increased radiation readings corresponding to what he expected, but that make his palms sweat nonetheless. As long as they were efficient, even if the radiation started getting to them, it shouldn't do anything...irreversible. He hoped. When the lift stops, there is a beat before the doors engage, but when they do, they open swiftly into a small alcove opening onto a hallway running perpendicular to lift's opening.

As the doors open Kite swiftly rolls out of the elevator coming up on one knee as levels his rifle at the turret. His HUD's target protocols engaging and identifying weak points within the turret's construction. Lining his sights up at the intersection of the base and barrel he squeezes his trigger twice. Sending two blazing red bolts into the turret as he rolls back into the room. A satisfying bamf and then crash echoing out from the tunnel as the Turret is dismantled. Ejecting his clip he methodically reloads the rifle with a pack from his belt.

Gauss follows suit, aiming his gauntlet at the other turret to their north. With a flick of his wrist a bolt of electricity shoots forth from his arm. It instantaneously connects with the turret, zapping it's internal circuitry and disrupting it's targeting systems. He takes cover back in the elevator before turning to Kite and Musari. "You're up."

Zed posts up on the southern part of the elevator's exit, and wheels around, blasting one of the turrets into shards. He looks at Musari. "One left. Along this wall," he says, slapping the doorframe of the lift.

Musari nods and steps up to the intersection, glancing both directions. He sees his target to the south, and spots the sparking turret that Gauss already damaged. He takes a deep breath to focus himself and then spins out into the hallway to put power behind the throw of his humming chakram. The bladed ring soars to the remaining southern turret and slashes across its barrel. It then rebounds back, ricocheting off the wall and back into his hand. He tosses it at the turret again, already pacing backwards down the hall. The weapon cuts deep into the turret once again as the Echani starts sprinting towards the already damaged turret in the opposite direction. As the chakram continues to rebound along the corridor, Musari jumps to catch it and land in a heavy kick to disable the remaining turret. "This one wasn't done yet. Don't worry, I got it."

As Musari lands his spinning jump-kick, foot solidly connecting with the barrel of the turret, spinning it around and stripping gears, sparks pour down as wires are ripped from their connections and arc against nearby metal. He lands in a graceful spin, bringing his eyes back around again to face the broken gun, and he reacts just in time as a rust-colored slime spurts out, following the sparks to the ground. He avoids getting splashed by any of the ooze, his nose cluing him in that this near-miss was a fortunate one. It smells of oxidized metal with a pungent, organic foulness layered on top. As the others look about searching for any other threats, Zed and Kite notice a fainter version of that same smell all around and Kite sees hints of a rust colored slime lightly coating the surfaces of some components in the hallway, mostly on electrical conduits.

As the Echani disgustedly looks at the rank puddle of goo on the ground in front of him, rust-colored pseudopods shoot out of the wall behind him, one of them about to smack him solidly before he turns it aside with a deft flick of his forearm as he dances out of the way of a second. Simultaneously, more pseudopods pour out of the wall by the clones, one lashing out at Kite but bouncing off of his thick armor as a second thumps Gauss across his helmeted face, making him briefly see stars as a slight queezy feel flutters in his stomach. (edited)

Muttering a dry "Kriffin hell" as the Oozes make their presence known. Above all grateful that his battered armor was able to protect him from the opening attack. Leveling his rifle he quickly triggers two blasts into the slime. The bolts hit but the ooze doesn't seemed phased by the high impact bolts. Activating his comm "Blaster bolts don't hurt it much, switch up if you can"

"Dammit!." Gauss exclaims as he recoils from the blow. "I knew this was going to well." Sounds from the north end in the direction Musari dashed catch his ear as well. "Sounds like Musari could use some help, I'll leave this one to you." he shouts towards his brothers as he hits a few buttons on his wristpad. It blinks a few times before Gauss points his arm towards the far wall past Zed, firing a small line into the wall. As soon as it connect it very quickly reels him in, just before another pseudopod is about to strike his position. "Incoming Musari!" the clone yells down the hall as a barrage of rockets fires from his gauntlet, zipping and screeching towards the goo before peppering it in motes of fire.

Zed plants the barrel of his assault cannon into the flank of the goo and pulls the trigger, firing three long bursts into this strange creature. It seems to absorb some of the blaster fire, dissipating the energy across its strange skin. "Any idea what this stuff is?" he calls out.

Musari certainly found himself wary of this strange living goo, especially as it tried to whack him with its slimy tendrils. Hearing the call out from Gauss, he looks in the clone's direction and leans away as the small rockets fly in and assault the strange creature. "Thanks for the assist!" He calls before slashing his weapon at the blob, landing one debilitating hit before the thing flattens back into the walls and sprays some of its sludge onto him. With a quick gag, the Echani follows the critter and tries to kick it. But the expelled slime causes him to slip, and he has to abandon his attack in order to regain his balance.

Kite suddenly remembers an old Mandalorian telling a tale about a rare creature he referred to as a "Sovra." The older man had speculated that it was related to the conduit worms of Coruscant, as they fed off of energy, usually radiation and electricity. The Sovra were especially hardy, being able to survive without atmosphere and could lay dormant in the cold of space for ages before happening to encounter a source of energy. They were especially dangerous to ships: once infected, it was almost impossible to rid a ship of them as, by the time the ship exhibited signs of infection, the Sovra was likely to be thoroughly ensconced throughout the ship. This infection suddenly makes more sense to Kite, of why this huge and relatively new ship had been abandoned--retired at such an early age and effectively quarantined on this remote island. Without much time to dwell on the thoughts flashing through his head, the Sovra in front of Kite--or at least the portion of the Sovra manifested in front of Kite, slurps back into the ship's bulkheads, splashing Zed and Kite with slime as more tendrils shoot out next to Gauss, attempting to grasp him without success. Wherever the Sovra goes, it leaves behind rust colored slime in puddles on the floor and dripping from the ceiling and bulkheads. The Sovra in front of Musari quivers slightly as though electrically impulses are traveling incoherently through what passes for its body. (edited)

Flicking his thumb over the red switch on his rifle Kite leans back from the creature and pulls the trigger down hard. Unleashing a red bolt with swirling energy formed around it. It collides with the goo and the bolt it self usurpingly has little impact. But the unstable combustion modification does it's work. As the bolt collides sparks leap from the Goo, lighting it on fire. With the smell of burning acid filling the air. (edited)

Zed runs and slides up next to the creature, his assault cannon blasting. The energy does little to damage the creature, and he growls under his breath inside his helmet. Belatedly, he remembers the incendiary cartridges that Gauss had passed him a while back. Growling again, this time at his forgetfulness, he grabs the cartridge and prepares to slam it into his weapon, pulling back the slide and ejecting the spent cartridge.

As the goo splats in front of Gauss "Kriff, these things are fast!" he shouts before he runs around it, still concerned on helping the Echani. He sends yet another barrage of rockets at the creature, creating an opening for Musari to strike as it recoils from the miniature explosives. (edited)

Musari was glad to keep the thing in place at least temporarily, and uses this opening to lay into the slime creature. He slashes inward across his body, and then back outwards and uses the momentum of the swing to also throw a punch into the goo, continuing to pivot into a spinning back kick. Thankfully he was able to land each blow this time without knocking himself off balance. "Can't say I've ever fought living grease before. This stuff can take a beating."

The ooze at the south end of the corridor slithers northward toward Gauss, his back turned to the creature to focus on the one attacking Musari, and slaps its tendrils ineffectually at the engineer before slurping back into the conduits and popping back out between the lift and the two gunning clones. Small sprays of fluid splurt onto Kite and Gauss, but are repelled by their armor. The northern ooze continues to fluidly dance about the Echani who mirrors the flowing moves, avoiding the worst of the tiny spurts of slime as he deflects the things tendrils once more, although he does feel a small flush as he turns aside a thrust with some of his exposed skin.

Kite flips the switch yet again sending a fiery red burst at the ooze but the blob swallows the blast with little effect, outside of keeping the mild fire alight (edited)

Gauss flicks his wrist, causing his gauntlet to rotate, settling into a long multi-barreled device affixed to it. He takes aim at the ooze currently attacking Musari and fires off a concentrated blast of superheated gas. The blast sets the ooze aflame, slowly melting it away as Gauss continues to hold the beam on the creature. Once it's finally turned to ash, Gauss starts moving towards the reactor room. "Musari, cover me while I work on the projector, who knows how many more of those will show up!" (edited)

Zed slams the incendiary cartridge into his blaster and unloads on the creature. The sizzle of flame and the crackle of the strange burning flesh sends him spiraling back years into old memories of the war. His eyes harden, locked not onto the creature, but far off into the distance. After a few seconds, he snaps back to reality and releases the trigger. The creature, parts of it still aflame, lays unmoving on the deck.

A few seconds tick by with no further movement from any slime on the ship. The immediate threat appears to be finished.

The Echani stands back as the slime he was fighting was roasted by one of the clones. Well, that's certainly one way to take out an enemy. When Gauss then calls out to him for cover, he blinks and shakes his head to get out of "fight mode" and back to the job at hand. "You got it." He rushes over to stand near Gauss, seeing the other two clones finish off their own slime combatant on the way, and keeps an eye out for any more surprise attacks.

The party sees no threats, but Gauss's attention is drawn to his dosimeter readings and remembers that speed is of the essence here. (edited)

Gauss hurries over to the projector, removing his tools from his pack and starting work on disconnecting it from the Mandator.

Kite takes a up a defensive position next to Gauss, setting MK to patrol and alert him if any more ooze appears. Looking behind him he says "We need to move our shebs. Sorva infestatations are nasty, there'll be more of them here if we wait to long."

After around twenty minutes the squad successfully detaches the two projectors, hooks them onto their carriers, and hauls them out of the reactor room as quickly as they can. "Phew...that...Ha... Was close. I could feel myself getting cooked alive in that suit..." Gauss says as they exit the elevator. "Let's take a breather and I'll decontaminate everyone with the kolto I brought along." The Clone motions for them to take their helmets off for a bit once they have found a reasonably safe area from radiation. He then activates a dispenser located on his backpack, which is attached to a fan. A mist of kolto fluids sprays from it, covering the group and healing the residual radiation from their bodies. Gauss tends to his burns while the kolto mist continues to cleanse them. After a minute the kolto container runs out, causing the mist to dissipate and subside. "Okay, good to go. Back to the Gauntlet so we can get off this rock." Gauss says to the group as he locks him EVA helmet back on and pushes one of the projectors forward.

As the party enters their ship, it becomes quickly evident that O2 and Nas are nowhere to be found on board. In the cockpit, the clones find a hastily scrawled note in neat, curvy script. Gone after O2. Headed toward scrap heap for parts. Wouldn't explain.

Zed picks up the note and shows it to the others. "I guess we should go after them," he says. (edited)

As Gauss pulls up the ship's scopes to try and pick up life form readings in the vicinity, hoping Nas is still within range, the readings appear degraded. Running a quick diagnostic, it appears as if some of the sensor materials have degraded slightly due to the low but omnipresent radiation coming from the Mandator. Conveniently, it looked like they were going to be heading to a giant scrap heap that should have plenty of replacements he could acquire.

"Kriff, looks like landing on the Mandator wasn't the greatest of ideas. The radiation has damaged our sensors." Gauss pulls up a display of the surrounding area, the three potential landing zones Set as blips on the simple map. "Let's move the Gauntlet to here." He points to the blip nearby the scrap heap. "Shorter walk and we can check for replacement parts for the ship. Maybe we'll spot O-2 and Nas as well." (edited)

Kite shrugs "Kriffin clanker, let's get the parts and hope Nas shows his face before we're ready to launch" (edited)

"Moving is probably the right idea. Though that also means they might not know where to go if they try to get back to us."

Gauss nods as he begins the startup procedures for the Gauntlet. After a few minutes the old Gozanti cruiser lifts into the air and veers off towards the scrap heap. As they arrive Gauss tilts the ship slightly, allowing the party a view of the landing zone before they land. "Anyone see signs of O-2 and Nas?" (edited)

The party quickly sees a trail of deep impressions in the sandy soil as if made by a giant crab or, in this case, metallic spider. The trail leads into the scrub that surrounds the trash heap. There also appears to be humanoid boot prints along the same route.

"There's their trail," Zed says. "Put us down there. We'll follow them into the scrap pile on foot."

The Gauntlet turns towards the trail, setting down in the clearing between the scrap heap and the trail. "I need to find us new parts for the ship, if you guys can handle searching for those two." Gauss remarks as he lets the loading ramp down and turns off towards the scrap heap. (edited)