Log:Defiance Guild: Pok and Awe

Pok and Awe

OOC Date: June 28, 2018
Location: Diyu, Hutt Space
Participants: Defiance: Zhu Yan, Darius Wildes, Vasani, Grom, Kasia Ashkuri, Sajin, Tarion Tavers, Siha Archer, and Hex as GM

The short story: Pok's true believer gets others into a sticky situation. How many DBAGs does it take to destroy a small security drone? Literally all of them. And they're not very good at it.

The long story:

The dead lay at Grom's feet in heaps.

Alarms blare urgently from distant hallways, ignored by the dead who might care about them, and smoke-hazy air slowly clears to reveal Human, Nikto, and Klatoonian guards, slavers who tried to hold down the control room of this "science" facility. These mooks didn't stand a chance, and all of them are dead now. It wasn't just Grom, of course; the others no doubt have heaps (smaller heaps) of their own, victims mowed down by Defiance's over-powered weaponry and saucy devil-may-care attitudes. The DBAGs are largely unhurt. They killed this. Literally!

They aren't far from home, just down the Shag Pabol hyperlane between Nal Hutta and Teth, on the industrial slave-economy world of Diyu. Hex, who believe it or not does actually do some work sometimes, discovered through his unreliable network of highly dubious sources that this compound touting itself as a bastion of scientific exploration and discovery was storing scores of slaves, test subjects stored in carbonite, and that's turned out to be true. So Defiance did what they do, and stormed the compound. The team's goal now is to get Hex access codes to open up the frozen slave storage, and then get out of the facility.

"See? What did I tell you? Easy mission, ok ka?" Hex's voice crackles over the comms, chatter punctuated by what sounds like shotgun fire and occasionally the screaming of an unlucky guard. "Everything has gone perfectly, except for the part where they used demolitions on their own building and blocked your way out... but it'll be fine! There will be another way out, there always is! Get me those access codes so I can load the ship with these carbonite slabs, find a map to get yourselves out, and then I'll meet you where you exit."

Computer terminals abound in this hazy room, though some might be blood-splattered or have stray limbs and bodies strewn over them. Y'all messy. Perhaps one of these stations can be used to locate codes and a map.

"DIYU BUH-LIEVE IT NOW?!"

Zhu Yan was geared up for Houk and the barrel of his heavy TA-16 rifle was smoking with mostly-impotent rage. He had of course missed most of his shots but hey, there was such a thing as 'suppressing' fire. He was missing the bomber jacket today, instead wearing a jaunty red lumberjack shirt under his body armor. And he was of course spouting bad puns because he was convinced he was an action hero.

Actually, he'd been making Diyu puns all mission.

"Look here, green man, I'm getting a little bit tired of you sitting on the couch eating TaggeCo Ice Cream while the rest of us risk life, limb, and ravishingly good looks for your damn fool crusade!" he was saying into his comm. Loudly. Clearly he was varying wildly between 'Yes I get to kill things' and 'Sithspit things are trying to kill me'. He was also typing rapidly one-handed on one of the terminals, one of the least-bloody ones. There was a LOT of blood. "Anyway listen, before you get your pantalones in a twistalones, I'm tight-beaming you the access codes you need. As soon as I find the 'any' key to start the transfer." Beat. "Oh. Right."

Darius leans against one of the walls of the control room looking between his theedarms S-5 blaster pistol and his DL-30. "The S-5 is just so pretty, but it just doesn't hit the mark as much." He grumbles to himself as he holsters it and then idly plays with his blaster. Cause he supports responsible blaster ownership. Maybe he shot people. Maybe he put down a slaver or two, but really Darius is just happy looking around the room. "Hey, this is Ve and I's first slave freeing adventure with Defiance. Cherry is smashed open!"

Vasani swipes through the computer terminals (doing her best to clean the blood off the screen so it's usable, damn Zhu Yan taking the only non bloody one), looking for any information she can find. Turning on her comm to make sure Hex hears too she starts speaking, "Found the map!!" She says excitedly. Yay she did something helpful!! "There's only one way out from 'ere. South West. Authorized personnel only. We're authorized, right?" Yeah- totally authorized for the place they broke into. "Grom is all the authorization we need." she assures everyone, because no matter what security they have on this thing she's PRETTY SURE he can punch through it. "So uh, that-a-way!" Vasani points in the direction of the exit.

Grom informs Hex over the comlink, "Grom wins!" Proudly remembering to switch the comlink off this time, the Houk leaves his axe planted in the trunk of a Klatooinan and merrily reloads the small artillery piece he calls a rifle. "You are lucky," he informs the very dead Klatooinan. "You beheld the mighty Grom for longer than your friends did. They are probably very jealous." A knowing nod as the modified A280 is rested over one shoulder and the axe recovered in the other hand with a wet squelch. "That-a-way!" he echoes Vasani in a booming Grom voice, and starting cheerfully in the indicated direction.

"Yan," Kasia is here as well, with her own pile of dead here in front of her, not near so impressive as Grom's, but you know, it's hard to keep up with that guy. "You know what we're doing before we leave, if you're going to complain, stay home. Otherwise shush, and do your job." She flinches back from the booming voice of Grom, but her ear isn't bleeding so that's progress. "I guess we're going this way." Through the comms. "Ka're, are you getting the information?" she asks, trusting that the others have actually forwarded it to him.

The dead lay at Grom's feet in heaps, and crouched over them is Tarion Tavers, the grey-armored bounty hunter toting a T27 blaster rifle that doubles as a grenade launcher. For future reference, maybe. Anyway, he's rifling through the dead's pockets at the moment looking for loose change. "I'm telling you guys, not looting the dead is just in bad taste, I mean, these guys are dead because of us, take something to remember them by, for krif's sake," the bounty hunter chastises the others, holding up a piece of paper to squint at it.

"Your special blaster

Polishing it will always be

My fondest chore.

"Now see, where would we be if I hadn't found this? A whole lot less culturally enriched, I'll tell you that much. I, for one, feel that I've really been touched by this," he informs the others, pocketing it for later study. "And here, a bus pass, with three rides left, that'll be good the next time I'm in town, okay, support the local infrastructure," moving to the next body, he pulls out a square wrapper with a round shape within. "Holy krif, a balloon animal kit."

Siha Archer is, unlike the others, already pretty damn injured when she joined this mission. So, to lessen the impact on her already battered body she uses her blaster to take folks down. PEW PEW. She isn't FURTHER injured, but beneath the spry mandalorian armor she wears she is a hot mess hopped up on drugs to keep her going. SHE MADE A COMMITMENT. So she here, "Fan-farkin'-tastic." And to Grom she gives a thumbs up, and with a nod to Vasani she will take in a deep, deep breath, some sort of crinkling sounding from inside her helmet as she unwraps something with her lips, teeth and tongue, then the marbled, "A'ight, s'good, we do." She do, she do, she kill, she do not spew.

"SORRY YAN," Hex coms back, over the sound of more shotgun fire, "I can't hear you over the sound of my ice cream, I mean, NOT DYING. Shut up and get to work, it's not like you're not paid. Arni'soyacho for the codes. Seeya on the flip side you salty schutta. Try not to find novel ways to die." Click.

So off they proceed, per Vasani's mapped out directions. This facility has surely seen better days. What should be a bright, clean white corridor out of the control room is dark with the flickering, failing lighting of emergency lights. It's a viscerally unpleasant environment, erratic and dark, steering all the senses towards 'this isn't right.' Defiance is used to that, though. They ain't right to begin with. The path on the map is labyrinthine, a word I like a lot and use every plot, and more than a few passages along the way are collapsed or damaged by explosives. 4 lefts, 5 rights, 2.5 backtracks, and 3 flights of access stairs later, the group eventually arrives at an old hallway, clearly fallen into disuse a long time ago. Not even the emergency lights work down here, necessitating the use of flashlights from the team's kits or gear. Eventually they're able to pry the door open and step into a foyer, however, and again, there are no lights here. Old lettering on the wall reads, "The Anninyun Institute for Environmental Experimentation" and there are two closed doors in the darkness of the foyer, one on the left, one on the right. The map is vague here, but suggests if they traverse this section of building, they can get out.

It is completely dark other than light provided by the team's equipment. Somewhere, something drips.

"Yeah but-" was Yan's contribution to the rebuke, before he just shrugged with a 'touche' expression on his totally invisible face. It was a distinctive enough shrug, though. "Eh, I just miss him sometimes. When I used to insult him to his face." Awww, cute! He went to rack the charging lever on the TA-16 again, then noted the smoke pouring from the barrel and realized it was already charged. There was a blowing noise from behind the helmet mask and the smoke went nowhere. "Right."

Through the madhouse the gang journeyed, Yan on point for some godforsaken reason. For someone who was terrified of getting hurt, he seemed to constantly be setting himself up to get hurt. It was probably the asinine stupidity. Beyond the door in the dark dark corridor lay a dark dark room probably full of dark dark things. Evil things. Yan's not racist. Much. Of course they were probably all gonna die because that's how these things went.

"Yeah so we got two doors, guys," was the slightly unsettled voice behind Yan's mask as he scanned the room with the rifle barrel always raised. "And honestly neither of these paths look well travelled so we can't really rely on poetry to get us out of this one." Huh. AIEE. That's probably what he'd be screaming later.

"Oh, what?! A Balloon animal kit?!" Darius says stopping mid-walk to follow Vasani's instruction and instead runs right over to Tarion. "Who makes it? Kuati Bard No-No is a really shitty company, and they got the market on most party supplies. But if it is Wesa Jokin, a Gungan Corporation, they usually make quality stuff." But as the group starts to move on Darius runs to catch up.

Darius takes a deep breath when they reach the end of their walk reach the dark drippy room. He fumbles in his utility belt for his really crappy space pharmancy 2 credit flashlight and turns it on. "I call dibs on going into whatever door Grom does."

"Can I have some ice cream too?" Vasani asks over the comm to Hex. She totally deserves a treat! She then follows after Grom in the direction of the exit, only stopping for a moment to turn back toward everyone else. "We need anything else in here? Any other IMPORTANT documents to look off those bodes, Tarion?" She teases him for looting the bodies so thoroughly before taking off again down the hallway. Vasani totally is skipping like an excited kid down these super spooky hallways. No worries of ghosts this time! Although they did just kill a buncha guys back there.... She wonders for a moment how long the process from dying to becoming a ghost takes and shrugs it off. "Hrmmmmmm" The Twi'lek looks back and forth between the two doors. She's probably doing whatever the space version of eenie meenie miney mo is in her head to choose a door.

The Houk grumbles, "Grom does not understand why we did not start blasting through walls THREE TURNS ago. Stupid walls." He thinks visibly for a moment. "Did outside have air? Maybe that is why. Hurm.." Peering left to right at the pair of doors, he listens closely for any hint of movement that might indicate a living for exists to either side. "Grom hears nothing. Foes are either all dead, or holding their breath until the Mighty Grom has left. Perhaps they will die of suffocation if we wait here longer..."

Kasia had started after Grom, but she turns to look back at any who might be lingering behind, making a 'let's go' motion that isn't the least bit patient, and then she actually follows after the Houk. "We can't smash through all the walls, Grom. If we did that, the whole place would fall down on top of us, and no one really wants that to happen." She pauses to study each of the doors for a moment, frowning. "I have no idea which one to pick. Someone," Grom, "Open that door." She points at the door to her left. "I don't hear anything, so we're going to just try that way, and if it doesn't work we'll shoot everything that needs shooting, and try the other one."

"I don't know, it just says 'magnum XL', so you know it's the good kind," Tarion tells Darius, letting the other man have the wrapper as they traipse along through the abandoned creepy facility like it's a walk in the park. The bounty hunter doesn't seem at all perturbed by the windiness or the darkness or the flashing lights. "Where are we going, anyway? Does anyone know?" The knowledge of the map doesn't specify which door, and without hesitating the idiot in grey strides into the middle of the room, picks up a broken chair leg, spikes his haiku paper on the end, and shoots it with his blaster. WHOOSH, it springs into flame. "Now we just wait and see which direction the smoke goes, duh. Whichever door has a draft is the way out, this is basic science you guys. I learned this on the holo like two whole weeks ago, you can set your clothes on fire and it'll get bacteria out too."

Siha Archer is dragging her feet, literally, not quite able to feel them, like maybe a half of her right pinky toe but that might just be phantom pains, "Ugh, I am not spending FIFTY THOUSAND YEARS for you guys to decide on a bloody door." Her voice slags a bit through the vox, and she will make a slurping sound, head given a shake as she lifts up her left hand and plays with herself a version of rock paper scissors. Three rounds, a soft 'huff' sounding with each toss she does against an invisible foe, and then, like that, she goes to the left, right foot dragging a bit as she hunch backs her way forward, shouldering her way into the door, she's not gonna wait for Tarions smoke to blow whichever way, and Kasia has already provided some direction. BOOM. DOOR. SHOULDERED.

Siha busts the door open, boom, and they enter... more darkness. There's still no light in this place. It /is/ pretty obvious by Darius's cheapy flashlight and Tarion's torch and the other source of illumination, however, that it wouldn't have mattered. Both doors clearly go into the same place. Don't you feel silly now?! A few more steps into this space, a few more, and the foyer becomes a corridor, dark except for their lights, but it seems safe enough to proceed along... then, abruptly, BANG, a door closes shut behind them. BANG! A second door. Security doors are shut, and even Grom may have a hard time punching through them.

In the darkness beyond, two pairs of glowing circles light up. "Reflection. Re-flection. Reflect- reflect- reflect-," a creepy, mechanical voice croaks out. It's a droid, and the extra pair of circles glowing is the droid's own reflection. This is like a funhouse hall of mirrors, except it's not fun, it's dark and creepy and totally disorienting. Their own reflections watch them, infinite DBAGs. INFINITE GROMS! THERE ARE SO MANY GROMS! There has to be a way to get through this, though. It's just mirrors right?

Darius gives a little whistle. "Wow, Tay tay you so smaht" he says with smirk. Wasn't sacrastic at all. "Hey, Spots, how about you don't lead the way yeah? We got more dangerous folk for that like Grom and Siha-" The young captain cuts himself as he watches her. "Hey, Siha, you feeling okay? " But then boom goes the door and then the two places lead into one room with mirrors.

"THIS ROOM SUCKS" Darius shouts after the dumb droid voice, and after getting turned around and dazed in the mirror torture zone. "Why are there so many handsome men in the WALLS?!" Slam, he walks into one of mirrors. "Except this one. This one is Drexen and is less handsome and now DEAD". Pew, pew. Darius shoots the mirror he walked into.

PEW PEW PEW PEW! Whatever these mirrors are made of, they seem to not absorb, but reflect, blaster fire. Darius has now released bolts that are flying all over the place. All. Over. Kasia, Tarion, and Siha get grazed with stray fire.

Vasani follows the others, peering into the left door. Okay- maybe peering isn't the right word, she DASHES in, ready to take some bad guys on. She's TOTALLY READY to tackle that other Twi'lek that's coming at her!! Except that was her and it was a mirror and she just crashed into it and now she's on the floor, covered in mirror glass. "What the-" She says, still confused as to what actually happened. Vasani looks up from her spot on the ground at everyone else, wondering if they got attacked by spooky clones too, but it seems most everyone else is fine... mostly. That is until DARIUS IS SHOOTING EVERYONE?! "WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!" She yells, watching the blaster blots fire from her spot on the ground.

"Grom will open that door!" the Houk roars in assent to Kasia's random choice of directions, tromping through the room to smash the portal aside if it resists! ...Only for Siha to have already begun moving and shoulder the door open herself. "Aw," Grom mumbles to himself, swiping at Tarion's chair-leg with his axe in passing. Houk pout. Into a dark room, into a dark corridor, and ooh- a droid! "Droids are weak foes, but better than nothing!" he opines, right up until myriad reflections of himself and his friends appear. "DEATH TO THE IMPOSTERS," he bellows, promptly beginning to lay about himself with the axe, striking at the first and nearest False Grom.

"You were willing to open the door, and that's what counts," Kasia assures Grom as the joy of door smashing is stolen from him. STOLEN. They pass through the door and into the room where both doors lead, a little quiet laugh rising at that. But then they move on and things get... weird. She jumps as the door bangs shut behind them, and there's a droid. And mirrors. "If we're careful, I think we can--" pew pew. Blaster fire bounces off the mirror and hits her, eliciting a hiss of pain. "DO NOT SHOOT IT!" she orders generally. "Can we please choose the path of sense and figuring things out once in a while?" She tries to give Grom a wide berth, knowing HE probably won't be talked into not attacking the imposters, trying to find her way through the not-so-fun house.

Sajin was here, he was totally here the whole time. Didn't you see him take everyones six so he could watch out for the rest of the group while Yan took point. It probably should have been the other way around but... this was Defiance we were talking about. He's able to dodge and duck what ever glass or laze bolts are flown this way and that fom the refleccted mirrors and such. He notices Siha take another hit or two and frowns. "You holding up okay." Concern in his voice. He knew she had been injured before this.

"Kasia, look, it wasn't my fault this time!" Tarion yells back at her over the sound of blasterfire, shattering glass, ricochets, a yelp from Vasani, etc. "I deserve a bonus!" There was a droid, but he's a bit lost on why it matters, and when a bolt of hot fiyah hits him in the ass, it stops mattering totally. "Damn you, Darius, I- kriffing hell." The bounty hunter begins to pick his way through the remaining mirrors with surprising alacrity, a kind of stupid intuition guiding him along as he goes, stopping at one point to survey his damaged ass in a magnifying mirror. "Damn it all. That's gonna be hard to explain."

Siha Archer is a tiny shapeless thief. Ha. And then the shooting happens and Siha gets blastered by glass this way and that, first by Darius, then from Grom, the glass cutting into the flightsuit beneath her armor, cutting more little slices into already sliced skin, "Awh mangs ...I just ..I just bought a new flightsuit ..." By this point she's crouched on the ground, hands over her head, blaster in her left hand, Sajins' words reaching her ears, a soft laugh escaping her, much like Kasia's laughter, but this one is of Siha being high, "I am ..floating ..I got this amazing stuff from Yoska and like ..I know I'm dyin' but it's like, whatever man, whatever - it's all good." And for once, maybe the seventh time, she agrees with Tarion, "Damn you ..Darius .." But, at the very least she can uncrouch, gesturing to Sajin to follow her limping leg dragging arse, "C'mon ..dis way .." She, she uses Tarions stupid intuition to fuel her own drug hazed intuition to slither her way behind him, hopefully leading Sajin to safety with his beauty intact.

Poor team. Tortured by disorienting light all through the darkness, by stray blaster bolts, by shards of flying glass, by truly terrible judgement, by visions of the 10 lbs they've put on since Life Day... not that I'm naming any names, here. But eventually, more or less intact, they stumble out. The room ends in a staircase leading down, just as pitch black as everything else has been, the air acrid with the bad smell of some kind of chemical. Fuel? Accelerant? It's hard to say, but that bodes really well for Tarion's torch, doesn't it? The staircase has a few landings, but the impenetrable security doors might as well be more solid wall. They're just part of the texture, not the map. Some of the steps crumble underfoot, and at the end of the staircase is another busted droid, same as the first. It's lying on the ground, so badly rusted that it cannot move, its visual sensors just flicker dimly. "Awaaaaaaaaaaaaare," it creaks, and then its attempt to repeat 'aware' just ends with it groaning out a meaningless sound. The sound doesn't stop. It just continues, "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr," endlessly. In as much as droids can conceive of hell, this is probably it. Alone in the dark, functioning but unable to move or comply with its programming...

Anyway that room beyond looks empty and totally safe and you should definitely cross it incautiously.

As the blaster fire reflects back Darius dives to the side, and then he hears shattering glasses and he rolls to the side. He is completely fine, and now they know what happens if they shoot the mirrors. A good lesson for everyone. "Oh, hai Spots. There you are." He shines his shitty light on her and sees the wounds. "Oh, damn it. Are you okay? What happened?" He catches name. "Hey, I just want to be like you guys! I'm problem solving the Defiance way!" Just like the body in the ally that Hex told him to deal with. Yep. Did that perfectly as well.

When they are finally out of that room and into a smelly staircase other room Darius finds himself leading the way. That is probably not good for the group, but life works in great ways. Peering with his dumb human eyes the Captain just shrugs. "I don't see anything. " PEW. PEW. He shoots off MORE blaster bolts into the darkness. "And it seems it is all clear too!"

Vasani just takes a moment to stay in her spot on the ground while attacks are thrown at mirrors. "Com'on guys!! We're smarter than this!!" She says like she DIDN'T just run into a mirror herself. "Okay, let's take a sec an' look at this." She finally stands up, wiping the remaining shards of glass off herself. "Oh ya know... Glass and blaster bolts, same as everybody else!" She responds to Darius. Vasani spots the stairs and starts heading down, not waiting for anyone else. She clearly didn't learn her lesson from the last time she barged in somewhere without waiting but oh well. She squats on the ground next to the damaged droid, cupping her cone ear to listen to it make it's sound. "Where?" She questions the droid even though it is incapable of responding in any way. "Hey guys, this droid whats ta know where we're goin'!! We're goin' outta here, silly!!" But then Darius is shooting things again, so she stays curled up on the ground with the droid, awaiting the imminent danger that is Darius.

Grom tromps down the steps, causing enough crumbling that the Houk peers down, idly curious if he can see anything beneath the stairs that might make jumping up and down a viable option. "Grom wonders if he should jump up and down," he mumbles, thinking aloud. Bah, there are sounds ahead. The crippled, failing droid pulls his attention in passing, as once again the sullen Houk takes a swipe with his axe at the rusted automaton to stop its noise. "Grom found big room," he states, not slowing his tread as he begins to cross it incautiously.

"Or," said Yan, totally out of order, because he was dangerous like that and hadn't walked into the left hand door because he'd walked to the right side of that big room then grumbled and turned around and had to catch up, "you can look at this hatch thing on the ground." What was it? It was a big-ass circle thing on the floor that Yan was pointing at. "Ten bucks says that we have a problem with this thing there."

Sajin sighs at Siha's story and just follows along. Though, shortly there after... "ERRRBODY STOP!" Sajin yells at the top of his vocal processor attached to his helmet as they find the bigger room. "Darius, Vasani, why are you wasting blaster packs?" He turns on his wrist and head light. "This place is titty-traped." He points out towards the floor. "I see some variations in light with my passive scanning. Pressure plates and I'm pretty sure there's a gas line in here... it has the same haze as Tarion's ship."

Kasia is distracted, she caught a glimpse of her butt in this armor and these pants, and it's a bit wider than she remembered. So she follows with thoughts of cellulite dancing in her head, and she sees nothing. Other than Grom who is ahead of her, and pondering about jumping on unsteady ground. "You probably shouldn't jump, and--" She looks back at Darius. "If you shoot at nothing, and I am hit again, I am going to shoot you back. My blaster is bigger than yours." Threats issued, she continues on hopefully not falling through anything while she continues thinking about how her trousers feel a little snug.

Tarion, being the masterful bounty hunter that he is, has an eye for DETAILS, and he's spotted some in here. He strides forward into the center of the room, like there's nothing that could possibly go wrong. "The center is a different color, that's where we draw the summoning circle. Then Pok will appear and devour all with his unholy heat, and show us the way out of here. The torch is perfect for this, Pok has been known to enjoy a good torch." What the hell?

Siha Archer stops when Sajin says so, if only because she's out of breath. It's really, really good timing. She stops as instructed, right hand dropping to her knee as she stoops over, t-visored gaze lifting, the woman ..really not able to make anything out, "Oooh ...you made Kasia mad ...ha ha ha ..." She will reach out then, hand off her knee, to snag onto Sajin, "Okay, big daddy, you ..tell me where to go and where not to go, I ..am seeing colors. Like ..everywhere."

So there's a circle on the floor, a strange circle, a lighter color inside than the floor outside. And this place is almost certainly titty-trapped! Carefully the Deflings begin to pick their way across the room, but some of them choose to go right in that center of attention - Grom and Tarion, of course, shortly joined by Kasia - while the others are avoiding it.

Which is problematic.

As soon as the group gets to that center place with three of them in it.... FWOOOOOSSHHHH! Fire. The entire room gets lit up with fire from that gas line. Except for the circle, of course, which is protected by an energy field that springs up around them! The room was a trap. Just that circle wasn't the trap part.

"SWEET EMPEROR ON A SLICE OF TOAST!" bellowed out the suddenly-far-too-hot-for-comfort Zhu Yan. Thank goodness an arbitrary dice roll had caused him to leave his jetpack at home, otherwise he would have been in for a world of explosion! Hokay! Stop drop and roll! Stop drop and roll! He hit the ground with a clunk (armor, yo), rolling furiously, patting out the EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE flanellete lumberjack shirt as he went, and screaming "AIEE, AIEE, AIEE," like a little girl.

The rolling and screaming went on for far longer than two seconds.

"Spots! Wait for us! Don't hug that rusty droid! This isn't like that time on Ord Mantell!" Darius grumbles as he goes to move the blue Twi'lek away from it. Glass wounds and rusty juice. Yum. Yum. Though of course the reason she is hugging a droid is cause he keeps popping off everywhere, but she knows what she is marrying. "I'll take that deal!" Darius says to Kasia. Hey, as long as Defiance mom isn't hit, he is good to keep blasting away. Tarion's words catch his ears and he tilts his head in the direction of the torch. "So, Tarion, that seems like awfully specific informations there. Did you like.... Read it in a book or something?"

Then there is fire. Owwie. It is hawt. Darius remembers the academy and what he is suppose to do but being next to the love of his life he forgets himself and dives onto her. Smack. Smack. Roll. Rolling. Noodle flopping everywhere. Yep, gotta put out the best Blue Twi'lek in the galaxy first, even while his buns burn.

Vasani screeches - partly out of pain, surprise, and fear. There's fire!!! She just wanted to hang out with this nice droid that she's carrying around! For some reason her first instinct is to pick up the damaged droid and THROW IT across the fire in her panic. When the fire surrounding them finally stops Vasani waves her arms around like a bird, yelping along the way and throwing her body around and then being finally put out by Darius, who hasn't even tended to himself.

A special circle in the center? Grom needs a closer look, perhaps it is a special platform that will lift him up into the arena level above them, where he will get to fight a giant alien warrior with blasters for eyes, axes for hands and a hovertank for legs! Grom looks very excited, for some reason, right up until the wall of fire engulfs the room around them. "NO- Grom wanted Blaster-Eyes!"

Look, Kasia should have listened to Sajin, ok, but she didn't, she was busy thinking about all of the space Crossfit that she's probably going to have to do to get her butt into shape again, along with the rest of her. She's going to have to do those burpee things that looked like torture, and it's just-- hang on. There's fire. A yelp escapes as she cringes back and runs into Tarion, but they're not on fire. They're safe. Not everyone else is, she's both SO relieved, and also feeling kind of bad for all the suckers outside of the circle. "Guys?" The call is tentative once the flames die down. "Are you okay?" Grom's words land in her brain and she turns to look back at him, confused. "You want blaster eyes? Grom, you need to see with your eyes, they can't shoot for you too."

"Aha! AHAHAHA! HE IS HERE!" Tarion howls with delight, holding his torch aloft as the flames fill the room. "POK IS HERE! COME TO US FIRE GOD!" The bounty hunter waves the tiny flame back and forth with manic enthusiasm, actually putting the guttering light out in the process. Too much waving. "Destroy the nonbelievers! Oh krif, you all thought I was making this noise up, didn't you? Didn't you?!" They'll never hear the end of this. Not even noticing that the torch has gone out, Tarion strolls forth from behind the energy shield as it and the flames drop, smirking broadly at the unclean. "I hope you all realize you don't get a second second chance, redemption is like, a one time deal."

"FUUUUUUUUUU" Sajin says just as he's put his arm around Siha's lower back to help her along. The Flames were everywhere and now he was on fire. What did you do when you were on fire? Bruce Springstein had no answer for that! No! Instinctually he raises Siha up, grabbing her bridal style. Being that big protective man that he can be and hoping that she takes less of a hit because of it. Then, tucking her against him, he rolls. The tangled visage of Siha and Sajin, rolling around on the ground, flames flicking from his armor... and the screams of horror (pleasure?) Oh geez it's just not pretty.

Siha Archer isn't screaming. She's laughing. "Oh my goddesses, you smell like cookies." Said even as the flames erupt around them and Sajin does his fancy assed moves that he SHOULD HAVE USED AGAINST GROM IN THEIR BATTLE, Siha sniffing while Sajin rolls around making sure they're not on fire, or at least not on fire for very long. She's snug as a bug in a rug of Sajin Skin, and as a result of his prowess and size, he ensures that Siha isn't lit on fire, "Haa ...you saved me, cookie monster." Boop. Right to Sajins' nose when he stops rollin'.

What is the point of this? What is the point of this series of torture rooms? Why is there a room of scary mirrors and another room of fire and why do they lock behind you? Having narrowly survived an unhappy trap, the slightly toasted marshmallows of Defiance Barter and Acquisition Guild find themselves obliged to trudge further into the darkness, this time up the stairs where they come eventually to an interstitial space much like an office. It's not a bad place to rest, maybe, as there are desks, long dead computer terminals, a few datapads that might still work. It all looks as though it was just left, like whoever ran this creepy place just didn't come back to work after a real, real long weekend. The path forward seems fairly straightforward, or the group can search for clues. Lunch money. More haiku. You never know. There is a map on the wall though, showing a corridor they missed in the darkness that would have gone straight ahead, to an area that says FALLING FLOOR. Sounds great right.... The same map shows a branch off the falling floor corridor that says "BREAK ROOM." Sounds good but it's in quotes, so that might be alarming. So those are the options: Search the office for context, like you'll probably find one of those books like in Skyrim that no one reads, go to the FALLING FLOOR, or go to the "BREAK ROOM."

"AAAH! AAAH! AAAH! AAAH! AAAH!"

Those were the words emerging from the tiny clanking human rolling around in his armor on the ground, frantically freaking the fruitcake out until he realized that the FWOOSH was long gone and everyone was standing around awkwardly. "Oh," Zhu Yan said, totally flatly. Right. He dragged himself to his feet, slowly, in a thoroughly dignified manner y'all, and observed the chaos. "Y'know," he said, looking at the comical tangle of Sajin and Siha over there on the ground, "according to local planetary law, you two are officially betrothed now." He nodded, once. True story. He'd pretended to read up on it. "To back out would bring dishonour, sooooo... don't tell Ori."

He was at the front of the group again, smelling slightly of barbeque and crushing disappointment, when they stumbled across the office, the chaos within, and the map. "I don't like this. I'm gonna look for clues," he helpfully suggested, then picked up an abandoned piece of paper and looked underneath it closely.

Yep. Best future husband ever. "ARGGH! NOT FUN!" Darius growls as he flops on his back and flails wildly. Sometimes love hurts. Sometimes love burns. Especially if leave yourself on fire for love. But no worries, the young Captain is probably being more of a baby than anything. Sitting back up he lets out a sigh. "Ve. Position Freedom Express tonight as thanks-" He touches his face. No. This cannot be. "Oh, Pok. What have you taken from me?!" Yep Darius beard has been burned off.

Darius seems to be in a bad mood now. When they come to this room he just throws himself into one of the chairs and stares at the monitor, wiping away the dust. "How dare you look at me with that face." He points at blaster at it. "BANG, BANG, TO YOUR DUMB FACE YOUR BEARDLESS KRIFF" Though he doesn't shoot. He can't bring himself to. Sadness washes over his face.

Vasani takes a couple of deep breaths after the fire goes out. "Whew" she sighs, getting up with Darius. "Not what I was expectin' outta that..." She says quietly. She finally learns her lesson and waits for someone else to walk into the next room before her, only to find that there are SEEMINGLY no spooky traps (or ghosts). It isn't until Vasani gets into the room and looks around back at Darius that she sees something even SCARIER THAN ANY SPOOKY GHOST OUT THERE! She just stares, pointing at him in horror. "D-Darius!!! What happened?!" Fire. Fire happened. She is filled with horror until she remembers- "Do you still have the gift I gave you the other day?" She asks him, surely whatever it is will cure this mess.

Grom is bored. He chops a table in half, which helps a little bit. Among the decrepit electronics and useless detrius, the movement jostles one piece of electronics to life, and the glow of a datapad screen catches his eye. Bending lower, and lodging his axe in the ground to free up a hand, he plucks it up and peers with narrowed yellow eyes. A snort follows. "BAH. Boring. Grom put his axe down for THIS?" A grimace of distaste. "Talky people may read if they wish. Err.. read-y people. Talking while reading is needlessly difficult so Grom does not advise doing both. OR READING AT ALL." He will wait a few moments for someone to accept the live datapad before blithely throwing it over one shoulder if there are no takers, and recovering his axe.

"What is the point of this?" Kasia asks everyone once she's pretty sure no one has actually been burnt to death by the fire that was definitely not her fault. It was Pok. Pok is to blame. "Really, what is this place?" She eyes the sign for the break room, and looks around. "Is anyone else alarmed by the fact that the word break is there? Break. Like it's a room where they finally break us, because they didn't burn or glass us to death?" She points at the table that's chopped by Grom. "Like that." He has a datapad, and she eyes it, but she doesn't take it, she doesn't move around a lot this time, simply eyeballing the area for the traps that she knows are here. Somewhere. They're definitely here.

Sajin pauses a moment, straddling Siha. He shakes his head as she boops his nose and helps her up against him against, though on her own two feet, so that she doesn't fall and melt into the floor. You know, cuz drugs. There is a look to Yan. "I don't even remember what planet were on..." He looks to Siha, "Don't worry he's just kidding." Poor Sajin.

"Pok be praised," Tarion announces as they make it into the next area and are surrounded by what looks like it could possibly be more loot! "Oh, this takes me back. Back to the beginning. Back to the first time I witnessed the irreverent heat of his passing," the bounty hunter rants, reading the room and talking at the same time against Grom's advisement. Stooping down, he pulls something shiny from the floor with a small gasp of delight, filled with mean-spirited childlike wonder. "A key! I bet it unlocks a chest to a secret treasure! Krif, I love treasure. It says '4201', which is clearly the number of treasures inside. I found the key so that will be four thousand, one hundred and ninety-five treasures for me, and seven for you."

THWARP. "Ah, Shavit, GROM. LEGS NOW A DATA PAD?" That's Siha after she's righted by Sajin to an upright stance, smacked square in the t-visor with the tossed datapad, the thing having sent her head knocking back a bit, and the datapad into her open right hand. Only staggering a little she automatically thumbs the thing on (a habit now with any found datapad, on the street or otherwise. Never know when you'll find account banking details or other lurid details.

Her left hand slings her gun into it's holster so she can rub her helmet with her left hand (it helps, honest, like a turtles shell. She can feel it), "He better be kidding, I'm betrothed to a Hutt and I can't marry /you/, that shavit will be all over the holonews before I can scam the damn hutt." Thumbing with her right hand through the datapad she will look very, very concerned, leaning heavily on her left hip, though the helmet hides her face. It's Tarions call about the key that has her looking up, "So, that key ..is ..the key ..you know. To the door to this storage unit down .."

She will do a slow circle, pointing in a vague direction, "Storage 4201, dude, the experiments these freaks have been doing to these people ..cripes. Uh - " She waves the datapad, "I can't read and walk right now but ..directions!" Boop. A female mechanical voice delivers directions promptly, "Go straight 50 feet, then turn left. Take the turnabout and veer left. Your destination is on the right." One of her shoulders lifts as she holds the datapad aloft, and under her helmet is a shavit eating grin. Schooling was totally worth it.

So this has taken a turn away from the "BREAK ROOM" and the FALLING FLOOR, both of which no doubt would have been a lot of fun. But the datapad and key the team has discovered seem to lead in other directions through the oppressive, spooky darkness, and off they trudge, managing to take a wrong turn or two in the darkness. RECALCULATING. RECALCULATING. But eventually they do end up at a metal door marked 4201, and sure enough, the corresponding key works. The door opens with a hideous creak, and as they shine their lights around, they see a small warehouse with orderly stacks of carbonite-frozen victims, frozen in grotesque positions. Another bay of slaves, people that weren't part of Hex's original intel about this place. They're worth so much money! Yay! Treasure! JK you'll get fired if you try it. Tarion. The original map they found may hint that escape is not far beyond this place, so maybe it won't even be too arduous to get these people out! Right? Right? ...except a little red light has just winked on in the darkness, and a small, round droid like a training ball or probe droid has just woken up. It rises up in the air, flying, zig zagging erratically while it takes in the group with its red sensor.

Rows upon rows upon rows of profit. That's what Zhu Yan saw. The trick was getting them out without anyone asking questions. Oh, he could probably do the whole 'Deliver them to Tatooine' lie again. That could work. But before that... "Drone!" he warned! The repeater was shifted to his left hand as the Bryar almost flew out of its holster. He needed the steady aim that the repeater hadn't been granting him. POW! POW! Two shots impacted some poor Carbonite'd sod behind the drone as Yan yelled, "Take the thing out!"

Darius reaches up with his free hand to weakly take Vasani's cheek. Yeah, let's milk this as much as we can. "Love happened. I'd do it again. I'd do it again for you." The young man then slumps in his chair, and then slumps further. Further. Until he rolls out of it and onto the ground. He stays there for a good second before getting up and slapping his face a bit. Ow. Ow.

"Lead on cousin. Comrade? Almost kind of related person!" Darius says to Siha in dejected voice. Yeah, his blaster is ready and he is moving, but he wears his smile upside down. Finally they are in a room with frozen slaves. Hooray, let's save stuff. OH LOOK MOMENT! IT DIES! Darius says nothing but starts blasting.

Vasani finally starts (trying to) comprehend what Tarion is even saying. "Are you just.... Are you on drugs too, Tarion?" She questions, having LITERALLY no idea what this boy is talking about. Whatever, she shakes her head and looks back to Darius, still pointing at his naked face. "Ya lost the emergency fake mustache?!" She is totally distraught. That was a GIFT, Darius!! Thats totally what she got out of his super cute moment. Vasani gets up, a slumped over sad Darius following behind. She watches the others shoot and gets ready to shoot that big bad ball herself, only to totally not hit anything at all. AT LEAST SHE'S TRYING!!

This place is basically terrible, and Kasia thought she might like it better because it lacked nature. Wrong. It's terrible, everything is terrible, she's going to go up to her apartment and never leave it again. The others go to the room with the key, and she follows along because right now hiding in her apartment isn't on the menu. "We're going to have to find a way to get these out of here," she motions to the frozen slaves around them, but the motion freezes with her hand hanging in the air, the other hand slooooowly moving toward the blaster on her hip. Others fire, and she decides to yank the weapon free and do the same. Everything else has been terrible here, why take chances. She fires, buuuuuut... she misses. Hopefully she didn't just sizzle the nose off a frozen slave.

Sajin usually doesn't just pull out his gun and start shooting... unless his wife is around. Then he does, ifyaknowwhatimean. Though instead of waiting a bit to see what the very fast AND agile hovering droid does or want, Yan starts to shoot at it, telling them all to do the same. Sajin was never very good at not doing the peer pressure thing. Just look how much he's becomes a piece of trash like the rest of the people in this guild. It's just aweful, just aweful that willpower of his. One of his bolts gets close but can't catch the thing. The other right after is way off the mark. "It's too fast for blasters!" He echos to the others. Anyone got a rocket launcher with a tracking system?

Tarion's eyes widen as the treasure is revealed to be "Priceless art! Look at all these statues. Amazing." Then there's a drone hovering up out of nowhere, and the bounty hunter eyes it suspiciously. "We are servants of Pok, Lord of Impure Fire, and we mean you no-" PEWPEWPEW, everyone is shooting. The man in grey deflates visibly, pulling his rifle/grenade launcher up with a sigh. "You guys actually managed to hire people who make me look reserved," he complains to Kasia, lining up a lazy shot and shooting a kriffing grenade at the flying thing. It doesn't work, but it /does/ blow up a 'statue'. "That one comes out of your seven!"

Ahem. Ahem. Siha, while the others are shooting at the drone, is typing on her datapad. Her NEW datapad. The one GROMED to her. Oh man. She don't feel good, so she sinks down to one knee, eventually sinking fully down onto both knees, sitting back on her heels. Her fingers type furiously, soft grunting noises made in her throat which echo out gently from within her helmet, 'You ..technically are my brother but ..' Said to Darius with some disdain, like she's embarrassed to admit it and only doing so out of respect for his mother. "*cackle* click click." Siha lets the datapad do the talking, and it whirrs out beeps, boops, blips, and other weirdo noises, while Siha sits with lips pursed beneath the helmet, the woman unable to feel below her knees. But it's coo. Her hands work.

"too, boop beep click too click, beep too beep ee boop ee beep beep beep beep? beep beep beep click click beep *cackle* boop *cackle* beep click boop click *cackle* beep ..click beep ..beep ee boop boop beep beep boop. boop too boop beep click beep click ee, click beep, beep boop *cackle* boop, boop ..click beep ..*cackle* click beep *cackle* boop ..boop beep ee ee boop click. too. beep click. boop click, boop *cackle*. boop too beep too too ee click boop *cackle* beep ..click beep ..*cackle* *cackle* *cackle* ee boop click too click ..click beep beep beep click too." The datapad quickly pops out her words in binary, and Siha will listen, nodding her head as she sinks back onto her butt now, legs sorta splaying in front of her. Ooof. "boop." Beep.

TRANSLATION OF BINARY: "HEY FLYING DROID." "So, I know you don't care, but see that big rock that's walking on it's own? It's going to smash you into a thousand tiny little pieces unless you decide to ..you know ..turn around and fly the other way. I promise I won't tattle on you for, you know, pretending we weren't here, AND ..In fact ..if you want a job ..I know of some people hiring. Us. We're hiring. Or die, I mean. I don't know your concept of life and death but ..I'm like ..near dead right now and I'm tellin' you ..not as cool as you think." The datapad quickly pops out her words in binary, and Siha will listen, nodding her head as she sinks back onto her butt now, legs sorta splaying in front of her. Ooof. "Please." Beep.

Grom's narrowed yellow eyes track the little droid buzzing around the room as blaster bolts fly. Gripping his axe, the hulking alien growls, "Grom... wanted... BLASTER-EYES," and lunges forward in a sudden sprint, planting one massive boot on a stack of carbonite slabs and launching himself up at the hovering droid, reaching with a chop at the full extension of his seven and a half foot frame.

He fails horribly, of course; a giant Houk is far easier to dodge than a blaster bolt, and the floating drone dodges aside with almost bored ease. Grom flies past with a Doppler effect howl, crashing into the ground again afterward in an inelegant tumble of limbs, armor, axe, and artillery. He breaks nothing in his landing, either of frozen slaves or of limbs.

That little flying thing considers Siha. It really seems to consider her, swiveling its red light toward her and appearing to 'listen' as it easily dodges the fire from her teammates. And a Houk, it easily dodges the Houk. But unfortunately, it's just not a very sophisticated droid, programming wise, and it doesn't have enough personality to do much in the way of its own decision making. It does seem to be less committed to the job, slower, but that's all that happens. It WHIRRRRRS and then a teeny blaster comes out. It seems to assess each target. And then it shoots at them, bright blue stun bolts! Notably, it does not shoot Siha.

"Siha for Pok's sake stop appeasing it and start shooting you vibrant loon!" Yan's insults were not that great today. He put the Bryar back in his holster and moved the repeater back to his main hand. It was time for action. Chaos. And enough collateral damage to make Hex cry.

WHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPH.

There were some weapons that should be suppressed not for stealth, but for decency. The TA-16 Heavy Repeater was one of them. The red bolts flooded the room, impacting into the carbonite behind the drone, as Yan scythed the laser fire through the air. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" he declared respectfully and politely.

"Technically brothers. Aren't we just a pair than, brother?" Darius returns to Siha after the first wave of shooting stopped and after her datapad spit out beeps and boops. His frown twitches almost into a smile. Yeah, making anyone in Clan Tul acknowledge their relationship to him always feels great. Thanks mum. Letting out a big sigh Darius shoots a few more times but doesn't put his heart into it, sitting down next to where Siha is. "Pew. Pew." he says weakly. He just isn't the same man. "Siha, I think I want you to teach me Mando, I have been thinkin bout whatcha said. " Is this the time for this Darius?!

Vasani gets ready to shoot the stupid little flying guy again. "I'm gonna get you!!!" She yells at it. She does NOT get it. Two shots go wide, but at least since she was aiming up at the flying droid they hit the ceiling and not the carbonite-ed slaves in the room. AT LEAST SHE ISN'T HARMING PEOPLE!!!

Grom gets his feet back under him with a mumbled growl of, "Stupid floating dodge ball. FIGHT GROM LIKE MAN-BALL." Letting his axe remain where it lies, he struggles for a moment to detangle himself from the carrying strap of the massive rifle, before bringing it up to his shoulder with a dull whine as the four and a half foot long monstrosity powers up (it is not supposed to be shoulder fired). With a concussive blast that shakes the air to either side, the A280 fires, vaporizing a chunk of the ceiling.

Kasia's poorly aimed firing halts as she stares at Siha and her blooping. She knows what language it is, but she doesn't understand it. "What did it say?" The question is asked about the same time that everyone except Siha is shot at, though she steps back just in time for the bolt to go flying past, dark brows jumping higher. "I take it that it's not friendly?" It's not, and she fires. And misses. Again. She really did punch that bat once, ok. She might have to resort to punching this too.

Things are just not going well at all. No sir, stray bolts and grenades that are failing to hit this droid are impacting the precious cargo behind them. Not that that Hapan would notice as he sends two bolts towards the zipping and juking drone. "Nope... this is definitely not working." He glances towards Siha. "Tell it I will suck it's.... whatever just to make it stop!"

"Don't worry, I got this," Tarion assures everyone, pumping his rifle like a shotgun to load another concussion grenade into the shoot and launching it at the drone. "FLY IN THE NAME OF POK," he calls after the grenade. It does, and destroys another unbeliever statue. "This art must be, like, defiled or something," the bounty hunter concludes.

'But ..but ..I understand it!' So says the high as a kite Siha who sees just the most gorgeous aura around the drone, colors oscilating in her vision. And look, it doesn't shoot her! So Siha will type something quick out on the datapad and it will beep out in binary at the droid, "ee click ee *cackle* beep." before she calls out, 'GROM. GROM. GROM. GROM.' Waving her hand up in the air as she tucks the datapad into her breastplate, "click. ee beep too beep. beep ee *cackle* *cackle* click beep. beep ee beep. boop too beep *cackle* beep, beep. beep beep too too.' boop too beep beep beep beep beep click boop boop beep. too *cackle* ee too ee, beep ..*cackle*, beep too beep beep boop beep, too too too too beep too beep too too click click 'beep beep too beep boop too ee. beep boop beep click. click click! boop click click, beep!" Then in basic, 'TOSS ME, GROM. LOVE WILL WIN.' Or ..she'll die. It's ..who knows. She's down for either. She's like, bleeding here. And super high. Thank you Yoska, for keeping her alive! <3<3<3

No no no, this thing has no subroutines for hugging. Or having its servos licked clean. It doesn't understand! It's like a poor stupid animal. It knows it doesn't want to get captured though, so it zips high high out of reach! DO NOT WANT! It's treating Siha like she's the sweaty dude at the con with the free hugs sign. But once again, even though it fires back, it is moving slower.

No wonder it wouldn't stop. The drone couldn't hear the overtures of peace over Zhu Yan's OVERWHELMING FIREPOWER. He didn't rain fire so much as tear the entire room apart with WHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPH and "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA".

As Siha flies away Darius looks up at her. One manly tear slowly welling up in his eye. "Yes, brother. Fly." Man he is a little emotional. Where is his future blue wife? She needs to come over here. She needs to handle this mess. A little sniff, and he gets back up. Wait... Those blocks of carbonite. "Hey, guys if we blow up the frozen slaves while frozen, do they die in real life?" Pew. Pew. He takes a few more shots idly. OH GAWD WAIT, SIHA IS ON THAT IF HE MISSES!

Vasani attempts to shoot the drone two more times, again completely missing. "Ugh, nevermind!" She exclaims in frustration, giving up on shooting the thing and heading over to some of the carbonited people. She takes a look at them for a second before working to slide the people out of this room. "If we're gonna be blowing this shit up a least we can save SOME of them, right?" she directs the question at no one in particular. That's where your beautiful blue future wife is, Darius. She's caring about the people.

Grom peers aside at Siha the fourth time she yells his name. Her delusional request is met with a pause, a shrug, and a thud as he sets the rifle down and grasps Siha by her armor. "FLY, BARELY MAMMAL," he shouts. Alas, Mandalorians aren't aerodynamic, and she ends up... slightly spinning in flight, more like a throwing star or a humanoid boomerang than either of them might have wished.

Kasia tries to hit this thing, but it's not working with the blaster, so she does the really smart thing and just goes charging after it, hands up in the air as she tries to slap it out of the air. Like the bat. AND YES SHE DID HIT THAT BAT OK, SHUT UP HEX, YOU DOUBTING TWI'LEK. It's just that the skills she used so amazingly well in that strange dark underground place with the bats just... doesn't work here. People can see her, so it just doesn't work. "SOMEONE GET THIS STUPID THING!" She turns just in time to see Grom throw Siha, sending the Mandalorian through the air spinning in HER general direction. There's a startled yelp and then she drops, trying to avoid getting absolutely murdered by the woman in real sturdy armor.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" Sajin says to Kasia as he takes two more shots and it just impacts off of something probably important in the distance. At least he hadn't been hit yet. He has a moment of pause as Grom sends Siha flying... Awe and astonishment almost. "It's so magical..." A respite in the battle.

"I know, right? Look at that little shit. Agile as hell," Tarion observes of the magical droid, misidentifying the objecting of Sajin's admiration as he toggles his weapon over to regular pew pew and taking another shot at the little droid. Missing, again, he swings the rifle back onto his shoulder and pulls out his purse instead. "Hang on, I bet I've got something in here. Kasia, frown at it."

Siha Archer, future exile of Hapan, goes flying through the air towards the droid, her katana whipped out, "I'M SORRRRRYYYY." Said as she's tossed, bodily, through the air, going ass over head with a 'BWAAAHH', the sword swinging a full two cycles, but sadly she misses in her spin. BUT. JUST AS SHE'S ABOUT TO HIT THE WALL SHE GOES FULL REPTILE! AND LANDS ON THE WALL. SPLAT. One foot to the wall, free hand up on a pipe, then she pops down, not twisting an ankle, and only bleeding a little. Beneath the armor. Her exoskeleton. Hahaha. She laughs a little more, dropping beside Kasia with no flourish, just .. a gassy toot, so sexy, the hipless, breastless woman chortling, "Holy crap, getting tossed by Grom is AMAZING." Ha ha. Her shoulders slump a little as she stabs her sword into the ground, leaning forwards, catching her breath. Oh man. "Oh my tummy is gurgly." Grumble. She don't feel so good. But ..With a snap back and a hand on the small of her back she waves her sword up, "OKAY. I'mma ..I'mma try again .." Yep, breathlessly Siha will limp/walk, readying for her next attack. Whew. Okay. She's starting to feel things now. God damn drugs, the high only lasts a few hours. YOSSSSSKKAAAAAAA.

It's crafty. It's TOO CRAFTY. Even with massive firepower and sharp-eyed Deflings and hitting it with everything they've got.... they can't hit it. The thing's battery is flagging but they still can't hit it. At least... not until Kasia gets mad and does better than frown at it, she straight up slaps it out of the air. SMACK! The thing hits the ground and roll roll rolls, trying to get its bearings, but perhaps TT has time to retrieve whatever he's reaching for in that purse...?

Kasia ducked as Siha flew near, landing close enough for it to feel like a real close call. "I'd have been real pissed if you'd killed me," she informs Siha, then straightens back up and frowns. SHE FROWNS. "I'm REAL TIRED OF THIS THING!" Her hand shoots up pretty fast, and at juuuuust the right angle that her hand connects with the drone. It's her bare hand, so it's not doing a lot of damage, but the slap is hard enough that it sends the little drone reeling. "HA!" If she can't shoot it, she's just going to beat it up until it stops trying to shoot at them.

"Well, this ought to do the trick," Tarion remarks brightly, reaching into his green reptile skin bag, a jangle of gold chains in the process, and pulling out a cheering stone, aka a Merr-Sonn 945 Adhesive Grenade, the special K series. "For twice the kriffery," the bounty hunter breathes fondly as he activates the device, and with a "Don't worry, Kasia!" he chucks it right at her and the droid.

The grenade flies beeping through the air for a good three seconds before FOOM it begins to spray adhesive foam in a fifteen foot radius, suddenly erupting in a fountain of sticky- you guys are gonna make this dirty. Glue, lots of glue.

GLUE! GLUE EVERYWHERE! The sudden outpouring defied physics. Unless it was all compartmentalized and shrunken and whatever the hell happens to make big things fit in small spaces. Ladies. Still, it was a relatively moot point because Zhu Yan was DROWNING. "Aaaaaaaaah!" he cried, stiflingly loud because the blaster fire cut off. It was up to his knees! It was dragging him in! NO! YAMATE! "I DENY THIS!" He pointed the repeater into the glue, which was easy because the glue had eaten the barrel, and FIRED. SPLAT! MOLTEN GLUE! DUCK FOR COVER!

Darius sees Ve starting to haul the frozen slaves away, and save lives. So noble, his depressed heart feels love again. Feels fire in his belly. "Covering fire!" He calls out dashing across the room. He misses, hears a clank and his fiance disappears out of the room. Oh TT is doing stuff now that Kasia has knocked that thing down. Probably some Ion grenade or something! Things looked like they have worked out. Darius turns around as Vasani is walking back in and reaches out to give her a nice loving butt tap, that any couple would understand as 'hey you, good job! We did it'

BAM. Glued. Darius hand is glued to blue Twi'lek butt.

Vasani rushes back into the room from carrying out the carbonited person and gets ready to take two shots. She figures she might as well TRY to help. And hey, maybe it'd be SUPER COOL and she'd shoot the thing down between carrying bodies out!! Maybe. Or maybe that wouldn't happen. Because Kasia already got it down and now Tarion is blowing stuff up. Sweet. She looks as his lizard bag (that may or may not be a fanny pack) and wonders what Slasst is up to right now. Wait... maybe this whole blowing-things-up plan wasn't so good after all, because Vasani along with the rest of the room has been splattered with glue. Vasani is stuck speechless, watching the Defiance crew fumble around covered in glue. Also she has a hand glued to her butt now. Nice.

Sajin is just standing there, having finished with his two rounds missing as Tarion throws the grande. Boom, explosion of glue. It comes in spurts, loads of spurts onto his helmet and starts to drip down his helmet. "This brings back some really awkward memories..." The handsome hapan says as he just stand there with the glue on his face. A compartment opens and a cloth comes out for his to grab and start wiping his visor off with, holstering his pistol after taking not of the halfway point on his charge on the powerpack.

That is ..that is fantastic. The glue helps to seal Siha's wounds, blood coming to a stop in it's leaking and she starts to feel just a tiny bit better. She will let her head tilt down to look to the droid, "I claim the floating droid for a pet .." Because that is what is most important now. Of course, when she watches the news in the morning she will be horrified and making holo calls to Ori to let her know NONE OF IT WAS TRU, SHE'D NEVER DO THAT TO YOU BB, but you know. Sending cupcakes thru the mail, flowers, the whole kaboodle. For now she knows she can turn that droid into her frand with some tinkering, "So ..we ..win ..?" Asked as she drips in a similar fashion to Sajin, her sword lifted up off the ground as she slowly tucks it under an armpit, "Who wants wings with red sauce. I'm like /starving/, PLUS I should see a doctor but ..food?"

"You see?" Tarion announces, clapping his hands together and pointing them out towards the situation as a whole. "Problem solved. I'm a genius, Pok is real, I need a raise, let's pack it in."

"Look, if we're all good," said Yan, stuck in the goop sans the hole he'd blown out of it, "I'd like to be free. I need to call a few people about a couple things." HINT.

"I kind of like you all like this," Tarion replies, putting his hands on his hips thoughtfully, smirking at the others with his lop-sided grin. MAD WITH POWER.

Kasia is ground zero for the grenade, which is good because that stupid drone droid is down beside her, but less good because she's stuck. STUCK. Covered head to toe in the stuff and trapped in place. "HETH. Thomeone call Heth." Because she can't move to call him, or anyone. Basically she can blink. "You're thired Tarion. THIRED!"

All of this has happened in the near dark, guided only by equipment light and the evil red "eye" of the drone. Thus as it comes as a blinding surprise when the back door opens, and sunlight floods in, along with the 'needs to do some space crossfit with Kasia' silhouette of Hex Ashkuri. "Aijou'ku. What are you DOING?" he asks, in a tone that indicates he's clearly wondering why they took forever, here. Then the scene becomes clear... along with the sight and smell of the adhesive grenade. That surely brings back some memories for /him/. Hex is stunned for a moment, then just starts to laugh... and laugh and laugh. It's a laughing at them, not a laughing with them. He shakes his head. "Nope, nope, nope," Hex decrees, and they can hear him lighting up a cigarette as he walks away. He'll be back to help them get free and load up the slaves (that they didn't explode, shoot, or break?) in a while, surely. Given his own experiences here, he probably travels with solvent.

Probably.