Log:No Droids, No Problems

No Droids, No Problems

OOC Date: October 2, 2017
Location: Y'Toub
Participants: Mandl, Ax, Qadira Suuryet, Corr Waldin, Barquo Dentoo, Vraag Rengh, Papo Agora, Jax Greystorm, Sesti Greystorm, Adhar Gann

Thanks to the ingenuity and skill of a few, precious information had been gained on the hidden base nestled away within one of the larger asteroids. A clever enough hiding spot, the source of comm jamming frequencies had been traced to the large rock, and further scans had revealed vast energy signatures emanating from within the multi level base. Word had been sent to any and all with power enough to strike out against the still as of yet unknown enemy, and an attack force had been assembled.

Those with enough bravery about them were assigned to the infiltration team, while even the Hutt had deemed to send out forces in support of taking down the unknown force attacking the Y'toub system. And so, ships are in route. Several Hutt Cartel fighters fly in orderly ranks around the infiltration team ships, forming a protective shield as the group navigates the Asteroid field, nav-systems trained upon the approaching base.

The ships have not been in the asteroid belt for long when defenses are dispatched, buzz droids and vultures launching from the asteroid base, while anti-ship cannons begin to fire out from their positions hidden in the craggy asteroid surface, angry red bolts reaching out, some even connecting with the lead Hutt forces and blowing them into a fiery puff to be extinguished in oxygen-less space...

~ "Well, here goes nothing," Ax mutters to nobody in particular as he flies the Blade into the asteroid field. "Everyone get ready. I don't trust these damned hutt fighters not to just accidentally shoot us out of the sky." He just shakes his head, checks his sensors, and kicks the thruster to as fast as he feels he can safely navigate the system.

>>"We plotted this out last night, I have exact coordinates of the base, or what we believe is the base, so don't venture too far."<< Ax says over communications to the ships flying in with him as part of the infiltration team. "May the force be with us or whatever," he says in a soft voice. Asteroid fields were never the safest places to fly to begin with. Filled with unknown enemies, it doesn't get any better. ~

Vraag cannot believe that neither of his pilots turned up for this excursion, but such is life.. He is fully outfitted in his battle armor, weaponry within arms reach as he rides in the co-pilot chair of the Sentinel-Class landing craft dubbed the Firebrand along with the rest of the war party. "Alright guys," he says over his shoulder to the rest of his crew. "I am a pretty shitty pilot, so it's a good thing Ax lent us one of his guys. Everyone just keep your head on straight and sync up with the rest of the infiltration team when we touchdown. I have a hunch most of what we'll be fighting in this rock will be droids, but don't take that for granted. Damn droids almost killed Corr and I when that droid factory blew up."

Leaping into realspace, the Moonstormer makes a much bigger target than the other ships leaping into the asteroid field - which is by design, at least as far as her captainis concerned. <<All right, this is Moonstormer,>> says Adhar over the agreed-upon frequency. Inside its oversized web cockpit, the man sits in armor next to Mandl at the copilot's station, frowning out at the great band of silent stones. <<We've got the heavy artillery of this group, so if you need us to get people's attention, we can. Or we can crack a couple of those rocks up ahead once the natives get restless and make it that much harder to get to you.>>

Adhar turns to Mandl, then, shaking his head. "Well, at least it's a stationary target," he says. "Hell, I thought it was going to be a ship."

The slicer on the Firebrand jerks a bit as the ship manuevers through the asteroid belt. He's sitting down at a console with a computer in front of him. "I need to find a computer terminal when we get in. I'll contribute to the firefight while I can and once I see an opening I'll start slicing into their systems." he shakes his head and under his breath says "Or at least try to."

Mandl shrugs? "Best not to assume what we face until we are touched down. Could launch rockets. Could *be* rocket."

Aboard the Firebrand, a tall, armored figure tightens their grip on a handhold. "You know I'm not the biggest fan of ship-to-ship." Papo Agora sighs, her voice tinny through the comms of her helmet. The medic shifts uncomfortably against her straps, that T-visor turning accussingly toward Vraag because it's all his fault that she doesn't have her two feet firmly on a planet's crust and her ax firmly in an enemy's neck right now. "I'll do what I can to patch you up if you get roasted, but there's only so much I can do on the field. Don't be idiots." There, the doctor has said her piece.

Jax had found himself in the pilot seat of the Fire Brand. His Wayward Scout armor's hood pulled back. He wasn't sure how he'd end up piloting the Mando Sentinal Class ship. That had been either Kadi and/or Ax. There had been talk of trade for something or another and possibly a later draft pick. Maybe a clothes washing unit. Anyway Jax really hoped it temporary. He looks up at the tall Mando as he gives a speech. There a grin on his face. "Well lets hope I live up then. That and don't confuse the Waywards for droids." Then he turns back to the his flying as they go in letting Ax fill the com with the sentiments abou tht force.

"I just use the auto-pilot thing when I gotta go somewhere," Corr replies to Vraag, strapped in one of the back seats with his personal armor, painted up in the CDF colors. It's cheaper than having custom suits made, and 'just as good'. "You shove one of those rolly machines in it. Droids. One of those. If you need me on the guns though, I can prob'ly manage that again. Otherwise I'll just uh. I'll come out when it's time to shoot stuff." He fiddles with his rifle awkwardly, out of his element here among strangers and with his feet off the ground.

Unknown enemies. Known enemies. This whole thing is certainly making uncertain bedfellows to say the least. Kadi is at the sensors on the Blade, Rhani not far away, helping out for now. "It's important," she says to Ax, but her attention is on what she's doing. Quietly concentrating on the sensors to see if she can come up with anything new - any small piece of intel that might help out. "Hopefully whatever it is in there doesn't sneak out the back door," she mutters tightly.

As the buzz and vulture droids get ever closer, the Hutt fighters do their part, surging forward to press the attack. Any semblance of rank and file flight patterns are lost as both set of fighter vessels zig and zip before the approaching infiltrators, turning the flight space into a dangerous mix of asteroids, droids, and ally fighters. Flying is hard, even more so if pilots are having to track the nav-beacon guiding them to their target themselves. Soon enough, their target looms huge ahead, fighters seeming to surge from beneath the floating rock and zip out to the base's defense.

~ Ax navigates through the asteroid field with ease. "Alright, preparing to land," he says as he aims his ship towards the appropriate vector. >>"Looks like the hangar door is open, but there's no atmo in there of yet."<< he says into the comms. >>"Wayward Blade is going in."<< Glancing to his wife, "Sensors, my love," he says to Kadi. "See what you can see." ~

Vraag doesn't see much of the glare Papo is sending his way. If truth were known, the big Mandalorian has his eyes closed behind the mirrored t-vizor of his helmet. He cracks them open as he feels the ship begin to lurch and dive when combat is joined, the swirl of ships rushing dangerously close and the nearby explosions making the man reach for whatever space 'oh hit handle' is equipped in his pilot's chair. "Damn! They're all over," he calls out needlessly to his team. "Strap in!"

The sudden wave of death that is the Hutt's fighters and exploding droids throws off Adhar just a bit - after all, he hasn't flown the ship that much yet, and still getting the hang of the controls. "All right," he mutters to Mandl, "Let's see where - kriff!"

The lights flickers as the undeniable sound of impact and scraping metal sounds - the boards read several baleful yellow lights as certain systems begin complaining of potential failure. "Asteroid impact on the hull," he calls, "I ain't been in enough furballs in a boat like this - Wiz! Get up there and get that locked down, I don't want to limp out of here on a technicality."

The sound of an R2 unit beeping acknowledgement sounds over the comms, and Adhar turns the boat back on course. "Sure hope nobody saw that."

Is the newest member of the Ebon Guard still trying to get used to seeing the world through that 360 HUD in the armor, or is he just bad on a starship, either way the nav-computations have not gone well. "Y'know Vraag, I never mentioned this before..." Barquo reaches out and grabs a strap as the Firebrand lurches during combat "... Space flight has never been a strong suit of mine."

Mandl's flashing and bleeping sonata is stilled, finally, but the Bith looked particularly grievous for a moment there-- nothing like a sensor telling you there's an asteroid headed for your ten-o'-clock; YES I KNOW SENSOR, THANK YOU. All while one tries not to die. But the storm is weathered, it would seem, and in they go...

Papo is /already/ strapped in. She is strapped in, clamped down, and then some. The doctor isn't taking any chances - space flight? Not her thing. Space combat? Even less so. She is a simple woman of simple tastes - not dying in the cold, empty, honorless vaccuum of space is one of them. "I. Am." She grits out, judgemental T-Visor turning on the other shipmates. You heard the man! STRAP IN. As Barquo admits that space flight had never been his bag, her eyes go wide behind that mask. These are the people she is going to die with. This is it.

As the Hutt fighter craft break away and ships infilitrating the belt start in, Jax takes the Firebrand in as he dodges astroids, buzz droids, and vultures. "Listening to your boss, not a bad idea. This is going to be bump." The Corellian Wayward looks over Barquo after a moment with a confused look and a slight shake of the head. He sighs, "Let me handle it. Space Combat is *MY* thing." Jax reaching over and typing into the nav computer. <Blade? This is the Firebrand. We're off course. Our Landing angle is wrong. Making corrections now. Sit tight. I'm brining her around now.>

Jax calls out, "Alright groundies, hold onto your panties and don't upchuck in those helmets. I'm toning down the damapener so this won't be that sharp but you may experience some queeziness." The Firebrand coming in at an impossible angle if they had been on a planet but luckly space, gravitity isn't a thing yo.

"What'd you do?" Corr wonders mistrustfully, not of Barquo in particular but of really spaceflight in general. The sensors are flashing and whatnot, which seems vaguely like it might be a Bad Thing, and the man eyes the screens, his lips pursed in a tight line, reasonably sure that those things aren't supposed to look that way. Or maybe it /is/. "We doin' the right thing? When do we land?" If there's risk of crashing, he is unaware. "Greystorm, what's the ETA on landing?"

The Mandalorians, Corr, and Jax are on the Firebrand together, while the rest of the Array and Waywards folks fly through the oncoming droid attackers in their respective ships.

Kadi's got the sensors and she trains them on the hangar that Ax is headed for. She zeroes in, using the superior sensors of the Blade to get more detail than they managed yesterday. Her eyes widen! Movement! That is reason to check still more, and she does not like what she sees. "Be ready," she says tightly. "There are droids all over that hangar! I'm reading some combat, some retrofitted astromechs and protocol droids!" Then she flips her comm on. >> They're waiting for us. Sensors reading droids in that hangar. Be ready for trouble! << She manages a smile for Ax. "This is going to be difficult," she says softly. "Please be as careful as you can." A glance at Rhani and then where she guesses the other ships are, with Mandl. Jax. And everyone else she knows out there. "Everyone be careful. Please." The last is wispered but heartfelt.

Sitting next to Kadi at the sensor array, Rhani follows Kadi's lead initially. The hanger they approach is given a long, hard look. Rather than add to what Kadi reported, she nods once and remains silent. One hand falls to triple check her blaster and the vibroknife she carries. Her glance touches Kadi's face then moves to Ax. Join the Waywards, they said. It'll be fun, they said.

Combat is still heavy outside of the asteroid base, and looks as if it will be so for some time, if allowed to continue until either side manages to put the other down completely, but both the Firebrand and the Moonstormer are able to correct course and aim themselves into the hangar for a landing.

The Wayward Blade is able to glide into the open hangar without difficulty, and true to Kadi's words, droids are all around the space and begin firing what they have at the foreign attacker, blaster bolts striking at the ship's shielding from every angle.

As Adhar's protocol droid beeps and boops in the affirmative and heads outside to begin attempting to repair the damage to the hull and assess ship systems, the proximity to the droid hive is enough to overwhelm the poor astromech, and rather than helping correct engine systems, the droid begins to cause more damage, torch arm protruding to begin frying wiring harnesses and electronic boards.

~ Thanks to the readout on the HUD in front of Ax, Adhar's collission with the asteroid doesn't go unnoticed. The Echani can't help but laugh a little. "Looks like Adhar needs some flying lessons on how to maneuver a boat through an asteroid field," he adds with a grin towards his wife. As he listens to her describe movement, he sighs. "Well, we knew this wasn't going to be easy, right?" he asks and he engages the pilot controls for the single laser turret that his ship has. >>"Once everyone is landed, I can engage the sensor and comm jammers. Won't stop these droids from using line of sight, but hopefully will blind them otherwise,"<< he adds. >>Adhar, you alright back there? Looks like you took a bit of a pounding from that little rock.<<

Checking his gear, he sighs. "We need to figure out how to get atmo in here, but that's going to require shutting the hangar doors. Any suggestions?" he asks of the ladies with him, but his attention is fixed forward as the turret comes online. >>"Gonna try to clear a bit of a path for you guys to land,"<< he adds over comms as he triggers the weapon to start blasting at anything moving ahead of them. "Rhani, make sure our shields stay up and help Kadi with sensors please." ~

Vraag is holding tight to both arms of his chair, and he just /knows/ that when he gets up there will be a hole pinched in the bottom of his armor as Jax steers the Firebrand into that impossible angle. "Alright guys," he grits out through his teeth. "Ax said that environmental controls are down. Our suits are sealed, so we should be okay. When we touch down, Ebon Guard heads for the cargo hold and heads out to look for a computer bank for Barquo to get that hangar door shut and get us some life support. Jax can stay in here and use the ship weaponry to give us some cover and take out droids. Got it?"

"Get back inside, Wiz, get back inside! Suns below, you're gonna kill us before we get there." Adhar's fingers fly across the boards, speaking over comms.

<< Been a long time since I flew a tub this big to a battle in a rock field, but we're fine, don't worry. >> Don't mind that whistling alarm in the background, for sure. << I'd use the ion cannon, but that'll fry everything - let me get in there and sit on a couple of these bastards, see if we can't clear things out. >>

Adhar throttles up a bit, then cuts the drives entirely - letting the ship bullet in a bit thanks to ol' mother inertia, hitting retrothrust just as he's getting into the hangar. With any luck, he'll be able to start pounding droids with the laser turrets just as the Wiz brings them down to land.

"Got it." The Ebon Guard medic grunts, ready to get boots on the ground. Papo Agora, the only one on board with a pHD is pretty much useless, unless you count her as a pretty face... Which, to be fair, not many do.

The slicer looks to Papo and gives a slight shrug before turning his t-visor back to Vraag "Sounds like a plan to me boss. The terminal should be pretty obvious and hopefully it's not a system that is guarded to heavily. I would expect that from say... droid control."

Jax says through gritted teeth, "Not Sure, Fifteen seconds give or take. Busy at the moment Walden." The Sentinel class ship correcting course and coming in for a landing at the last moment. Nothing splashy, "I'm turning the Inertial Dampeners back on. So you should be feeling heavier. Welcome to Ground pounder heaven. Reports from the Wayward Blade indicate there's zero atmo but the forcecast is call for a target rich droid environment. I'll be providing fire support as Vraag requested. May the force be with you." Jax says pulling up an air mask in case something goes wrong. Then heengaging the turrents controls on the Firebrand. The lasers come alive and Jax shoots Adhar's Rogue droid off the ship. <Sithspit! Wrong turrent! Wrong Turrent! Emperor's bones, Imperial ship designs, what the fuck. Sorry Adhar! Switching to the forward turrents now.> Leaving Vraag to hit the button on his air lock in the Firebrands cargo hold.

Corr's suit is /not/ sealed, but he planned ahead. Space is terrifying, after all, so he happens to have a high tech device that will enable him to breath in the vacuum of space. It's called a 'mask'. It seals around his face, providing him with precious oxygen, and over this he straps a helmet. "Not as stylish as the fez," he comments off-hand to Jax, giving the other man a blink with one eye. It's not exactly a wink, it's less charismatic than that. "I got your backs, Vraag, let's move." The charging handle on his rifle is manipulated with deft efficiency, and the weapon hums to life, the stark white and black oddly clean in the man's hands. "Time to shoot some droids."

Kadi listens to what comm chatter there is, and now she tries to figure out how to get atmo into the hangar. And the rest of the facility, possibly. "I guess once the infiltration team is all landed, we can try to get the hangar door closed behind us. That'll keep those droids from landing here too. And it's likely there'a a manual emergency override in the hangar itself, if I had to guess." She can hope, anyway. "There should be, if safety measures haven't been completely overridden." For now, she keeps trying sensor sweeps, trying to get more information on the interior of this crazy place.

Leaning over the controls, Rhani keeps an eye on the sensor readout in case Kadi misses anything. Not that this is a likely eventuality, but it could happen. Flickering a glance to Ax, she nods, "Aye aye." Dropping her gaze back to the panel before her, she considers the problem of atmo, "Droids don't need to breath but they might need parts. Do we have anything we can scavange if the system is not just shut down but broken?"

Kadi frowns, and then on comm says, >> There is a computer bank on the port side of the hangar, between the Blade and the Firebrand. That might be really useful to hack into. <<

Adhar's Moonstormer is able to come to a hard landing inside the hangar, skidding across the deck of the hangar bay crushing a group of teetering protocol droids that were firing with retrofitted blasters on the Wayward blade. The Firebrand comes in for a more graceful landing, but as Jax powers on the ship weapons, his first shot nails Adhar's poor corrupted astromech droid and blows it clean off of the hull of the YZ and sending it flying across the hangar to crash against the wall. Blaster fire races across the hangar from every direction, most is poorly coordinated coming from groups of astromechs and protocol droids, but there are a good few combat programmed droids out there as well.

~ With everyone landed, Ax calls out over comms. >>Should I engage the sensor and comm jammers?<< he asks of everyone. >>It will bork up our communications, but might help us against the droids. I don't know if it's worth it though.<< As he speaks though, he keep firing blasts from the laser turret into packs of droids. "Kadi, Rhani, if you think there's a chance we can get atmo in here, relay what you know to Vraag's team. I think they have a slicer onboard." ~

As soon as the Firebrand is down, Vraag is on his feet and running down the corridor of the Sentinel. "Alright, you heard Kadi," he calls out to his team. "Computer bank on the wall between the Wayward ship and ours. That is our number one priority! We get Barquo there. Barquo slices the computer bank and gets those doors closed," he calls out as he runs. As soon as everyone is in the cargo hold, he presses a button to seal off the rest of the ship, pulling his blaster rifle off of his back as the ramp lowers. Magnetic boots powered on, he charges down the ramp, aiming at a group of protocol droids and blasting as he begins to run in the direction of that computer bank. >>Ebon Guard on the ground, don't shoot our asses!<< he yells out.

"Wiz! Wiz, get down here an--" Adhar stops as the ship all but crashes into the hangar like a bomb, sideswiping a wave of droids his skillful touch; Moonstormer's landing gear are only inches above the deck as it swoops in, making landing swift and otherwise easy. <Sorry /what/, Jax,> bellows Adhar as he leaps from his station, murder in his voice suddenly as he charges from the bridge toward the turret tunnels. <Did you see what happened? Those sons of zoo-whores killed my crewman, didn't they?>

Adhar says nothing else - or maybe it's just the growl he makes that cuts off the signal, because in a few seconds the ship's ventral laser turret comes alive and begins spewing furious lances of bright red light into the droids on the deck. Now that is a man who loves his crew, folks, regardless of their origins - sending the poor departed astromech to Robot Valhalla on a raft made from the souls of his enemies.

Barquo doesn't even bother unholstering his pistol at the moment. He'll need both of those hands free at the computer terminal. He powers on his mag boots and charges after Vraag, as soon as he's hit the deck of hanger he is bolting for the comptuer terminal "I'm going for that computer terminal you guys just keep those droids off my ass." He stops short at the terminal and sighs cracking his knuckles "Lets see here." His fingers are flying over the console. The mandalorian slicer seems to be better at a computer when he has a solid footing.

Yes, please do not shoot their asses. Papo, with surprising speed, launches herself from her seat and throws herself from that wretched metal coffin, unhitching her ax from her belt as she goes. "Thanks for the lift." She growls back at their pilot, then: "I'll protect the slicer." The medic falls back to keep the way clear for, in this moment, their asset. All their hopes and dreams on Bark! No pressure (literally. Get it? Because... Atmo... Nevermind, just think about it). With a grunt and the violent hum of a vibro weapon, the Mandalorian woman puts her back to Barquo and swings her ax at a pesky, approaching protocol droid and carves a gash into the floor instead. "Boo beep you too, asshole."

Jax frowns, "The LC shot the last Fez I owned. I was seven." He responds to Corr bout the the Fez. Jax is providing firesupport for the Fireband's team as they emerge. He's makes sure to fire ahead of the team not to repeat the mistake that cost them the Heroic Wiz. He's laying down fire. Jax coms to Adhar, <Yeah, they got him good. Let's not focus on it right now. We got to worry about our people still on the ground.> Then on the Wayward Channel, < Ax, you think Adhar knows? I'm may need you or Kadi to give me a reference on a good place to buy him a new droid.>

Taking a deep breath as Vraag unlocks the door and lowers the entry ramp, Corr looks out at the asteroid with faded blue eyes, skimming over the droids blasting back at them and picking out the terminal that is their objective. The air slowly pushes out through his nose, and then he's on the move. The ex-soldier doesn't have the benefit of magnetic boots. He doesn't have fancy armor. He's looking through what is essentially a diving mask with a tank of compressed air strapped to the bottom and trying not to breathe too much so it doesn't fog up. The lack of atmosphere is odd, but Jax said something about gravity that he didn't understand, and it seems to be enough to keep him on the ground. Operating mostly on instinct, he moves quickly along behind the Mandalorian trio, snapping his rifle up to shove the buttstock into his shoulder. There's no noise as the charge rockets away, and no noise as the first battle droid sparks and devolves into a molten heap. A small bloom of steam rises up the middle of his mask as he twists, sighting in on the next and fairly vaporizing the upper right half of its torso, leaving so little behind of the mechanical arm that it cannot support the weight of the blaster it holds. The man falls in near the terminal to continue to provide covering fire for the slicer.

Kadi stays where she is for now, though she looks over at Ax. "Do you want me coming with you when we leave the hangar?" She's not sure how safe the ship will be, though hopefully very safe or getting out could be trouble. She doesn't stop meanwhile, trying to get as much intel as she can, using the sensors of the Blade. Because she sure can't shoot any of the ship's weapons at any droids. "How are the shields holding, Rhani?" she asks. She might be peeking, but she's leaving them to the other woman for now.

Rhani Aeternum listens to the conversation between Ax and Kadi, though only in a cursory way. Her attention is mainly on the panel she has been assigned to monitor, "Everything is fine at the moment. I will let you know if I seen any kind of a fluctuation or blip." Listening to the channel chatter, she winces as it becomes clear that Jax was the one who offed Wiz. Though she frowns at that, she does not comment.

With the new EVA attachment to her armor instead of the usual leather tunic covering it, Sesti is actually a little more streamlined than usual as she strides down the ramp and off the ship. She turns just before she leaves to blow a kiss back to the pilot, whom she'd been sitting quietly next to, waiting for touchdown and battle. Once down, she takes stock of the slicer's position, and simply walks forward, drawing the longer blade from her back, and a shorter, back-up knife for her other hand. The latter doesn't need to be used as she takes advantage of two droids standing too close together. She starts with a back swing to the legs of one, and finishes with a forward upsweep on the next one to take off the top of it.

The computer screen blinks into life as Barquo's fingers begin to dance across the keypad inputs. Rather sophisticated technology to be nestled in the wall of an asteroid base, it doesn't take long for the slicer to break through the firewalls and security measures built into the system to keep intruders out. Soon enough, the hangar's controls are open to his whims. Moments later, the hangar doors begin to creep closed, likely much too slowly for the liking of the Infiltrating team's comfort. As soon as they close, life support systems initiate, slowly filling the hangar with oxygen, meters available for Barquo's perusal as levels normalize and soon enough he atmosphere is breathable.

The droid ranks are thinning considerably, and with the last few attacks from the trio of ships, the hangar is soon an expanse of durasteel and the smoking husks of droids blown to bits.

~ "It's up to you," Ax says. He would prefer she stay aboard the ship, thinking it would be safer, but he wasn't going to tell her that. He continues to lay down cover fire for the team on the ground. "But before we go anywhere, I want to make sure we have gravity and atmosphere. It would be horrible to get dowsed with some kind of toxic air or acidic spray," he adds.

Ax, clicking over to the Wayward channel, can't help but laugh. >>Let him think the enemy did it, at least for now. That guy is strangely attached to his droids it seems.<< And yeah, Ax has a favorite droid or two, but he also knows they're machines and can be replaced, unlike other members of his crew. >>When all this is over, then you can tell him R2's are pretty commonly available.<<

Now that atmo was being dumped into the hangar and the doors were closed, Ax rises from his seat and is moving towards the exit, making sure to grab the helmet he almost never wears on his Royal Guard armor. "Time to get busy," he says as he heads out of the ship. ~

Vraag isn't able to spare eyes for Barquo as the man starts work on the computer terminal, instead he is busy firing off shots at the few remaining droids and watching the ship turrets carefully to make sure he is not standing in the path of one of those cannon blasts. He does note as the hangar doors begin to close, however. "Looks like you're doing a good job, Barquo," he says over his shoulder before he straightens as the last droid falls. He looks over his shoulder finally, and says to the slicer, "Can you access a schematic of this base from that thing? Find out where it looks like we need to be heading?"

From the belly of the Moonstormer, Adhar is a statue behind the controls - finding targets, firing, moving on. You don't have to hit on target with naval guns, you just find masses of bodies and put laser bolts among them - and so it is with the heavy turret on the 'stormer, each blast scattering corrupted droids into smoke and gleaming metal limbs.

The slicer seems to block out the fight that is occuring behind him although he does say "Thanks for covering my back." he nods at Vraags question and a schematic of the base slides up on the screen. He quickly plugs in a datapad into the computer and says "I'm downloading the schematics and sending them around now." under the t-visor in the helmet the brown eyes of the slicer survey the schematic "Sithspit! Thats Huge!" the slicer shakes his head and says "There's a giant satellite array at the center of this base that is pulling massive ammounts of power." The schematic rotates on his screen and his finger quickly traces it "Down two floors there is a tunnel that should lead us straight to it." Having said that he pulls his blaster pistol from his holster and turns away from the Terminal after disconnecting his datapad "Lets go."

Papo Agora hefting her ax, Papo spins from side to side. "Anybody injured?" She growls, eyeing the computer terminal over Bark's shoulder. Ah, yes, technology. Yes. Good. All seems to be in order... Technologically. But they have a new destination. "Then that's where we're going." She nods, a hand raising to clap Bark on the shoulder as she passes.

Jax stands from his seat as he sees what going on the hanger cleared. He moves to run down the ramp. His blaster pulled. He moves to make his way up to the rest of the Firbrand team. "I'm fine. Everybody else." He grins at the Zabrak with them after pulling down his breath. "Hey Doc."

"Two floors down through a tunnel?" Corr asks in a low, cautious voice, glancing between the Mandalorians and behind as the red ghostly figure starts to approach with the other Greystorm and the other Greystorm. Both Greystorms. "I got a bad feelin' about this."

"Then I'm coming. You might need my expertise on droids," Kadi says, with a nod. She makes sure she's got her mask in case of lack of oxygen, and gets her ion blaster ready for use. Because no doubt droids will love that weapon. She does, notably, have 2 blaster pistols with her this time. Just in case, she has the new one that is more deadly. But it seems she's not quite ready for the big leagues, at least in her own mind. She has her datapad as well, and makes sure the schematics are forwarded to everyone, if need be. "Incoming intel from Ebon Guard," she lets the team know. "So, I think we have a target." She pauses. "I hope everything is going okay out there." Not that they can tell, but the hangar door is not being pounded as yet - that might be a good sign. So far.

Rhani Aeternum begins to stand, then stops still as Kadi replies to Ax. Pressing her lips together, she slowly sits back down again. "I suck with the turrets, but I can stay and keep an eye on the ships. You go." Loosening her blaster, she lifts the mask and helmet combo from the seat beside her. "If any droids attack the ships, I'll pop them."

Lowering her blade and shutting off the vibro for the time being, Sesti turns to Jax puts up the visor of her helmet to give him a little smile. "Hey, Correlian. Glad you could join the party," she tells him, and then pulls the visor down and falls in with the group.

The schematics for the facility show a large corridor that leads directly north and deeper into the asteroid, away from the hangar bay. Durasteel plating has been fitted to the corridor walks, ceiling, and floor, providing a smooth surface easily traversable by droid wheels and humanoid foot alike. Around one hundred yards down that corridor, a door provides access to a stairwell, while fifty yards further an elevator is situated in wall where the main corridor T's with another.

Vraag waits for the rest of the infiltration team to join up with the rest of those who had first gotten off of the Firebrand and once everyone has arrived he begins running down the main corridor. "Alright," he calls out over comms. "We have a decision to make... stairs or elevator? Someone decide quickly."

And having helped clear the bay of all synthetic life, Adhar emerges from the landing ramp of the Moonstormer, in full battle armor and gun in hand. His helmet glares outward like a weird alien death mask, and he is a fearsome figure even amongst the Mandalorians as he charges up to the knot.

"Always the stairs, in my experience," he says. "They might be mined, but they won't be computer-controlled. Got a better chance to get down to these bastards instead of just getting dropped."

Barquo slides in line behind Vraag as his slicing job is complete. His t-visor is constantly scaning from side to side as he moves down the hall. The schematic of the facility on his hud. "In my opinion Stairs." he shrugs and says "With a facility as technologically advanced as this I don't trust something like an elevator thats controlled by the computers."

While everyone else begins the democratic process of decision via committee and general consensus, Corr heads for the stairwell, shoulders through the door with his left side, grimacing discontentedly with the way it jars the joint, shoving his air-mask up onto his head so that he can see better. "Looks clear," he calls back as he starts heading downwards, rifle angled over the railing to shoot any droids who should suddenly appear from below.

Kadi nods to Rhani. "Thank you," she says. It's usually Kadi who gets to stay behind, and she can't even shoot the turret guns at all. This time, she's off with Ax, disembarking from the blade and heading over to join the rest of the crew. "Unless we've already hacked into the elevator, I think the stairs too." She grins over at Barquo, with a nod of her head. Her armour is nowhere near that fancy but she's considering that helmet now. It could be useful, really. "Kind of like Mr. Walden just did."

"If the slicer does not trust the elevators, I am for the stairs as well," Sesti says. She shifts as her husband leans over to say something, and she nods, stepping over a little closer to Kadi as Jax steps back, the two of them taking up a protective stance around the engineer.

The stairwell certainly seems like the safer route, and as the team begins to head lower and lower, they don't immediately come into contact with anymore droids. Perhaps they were all on the hangar floor and have already been dispatched. Two floors down, and there is a door waiting for them, true to Barquo's words. Emerging through that door, the group finds themselves in a single tunnel, wide enough for four men standing shoulder to shoulder. Rows of bright white fluorescent lighting runs the full length of this corridor, and turns the tunnel itself into an almost blinding sterile environment. Just down the corridor, two ancient looking H.K. droids stand side by side, waiting for the approaching group. They are armed, and one calls out in a robotic voice, "That is far enough, meatbags. My master has informed me that if you turn back now, you will be allowed to return to what is left of your pitiful lives."

~ Ax sticks with the group, keeping an eye out for potential threats. "Stay close," he tells his wife, his pistol held at the ready.

With the HK droids arriving, his attention shifts. "Well, that isn't going to happen," he mutters. <REPOSE> ~

"We would speak with your master," says Adhar from behind his mask, voice tinny and amplified thanks to the vox. "We would prefer to speak peacefully, if possible." Good thing he's had to deal with packing anger in the face of clients in the past, because his brain is on fire.

The shiny body of Barquo's blaster reflects off of his T-visor as he holds it at the ready in front of him and up. "Your master has done a pretty good job maintaining you." he shakes his head "Make no mistake though we are headed down this corridor."

Corr listens patiently while the droids give their ultimatum, and then as Adhar tries to make the case for peaceful relations. The CDF Director decides that the case has been made in a manner less than satisfactory, and the rifle still held against his shoulder pops up quickly, a fraction of a second passing before the horrible sparking squeal of the blaster's report rings out, sending twin lines of hot plasma sizzling through the air to crash into the HK who spoke, one burning uselessly in the door while the other hollows out the droid's face. "How 'bout you let us in?"

Kadi is surrounded by folks much better with weapons than she is, but she does know droids. "They won't negotiate," she says, as she brings up her ion blaster. Course, she might not be able to get a shot off, given she's surrounded and at the back. "It's not in their programming." She does try to fire, making sure to only use her ion blaster. Because - reasons! Her shot goes off into the wall, hitting nothing, but probably scaring her own team more than the HK droids.

"Meat bag... says the bucket of bolts," Sesti remarks, and nods at Kadi's words. So, she negotiates the zabrak way. She keeps to the wall on her side of the hallway, so the others can fire towards the center and other side. It takes her almost no time to close the distance, and another droid is a heap of sparking wires and twisted metal on the floor.

When both HK droids are reduced to the same mass of twisted and smoldering metal on the floor, the way forward is clear for the group to continue. The further along they walk, the brighter the white light seems to get until all at once, the corridor gives way into a cylindrical silo, in the middle of which rests the fast satellite array that Barquo had found earlier in the facility's computer system. The structure is very large, and undeniably sophisticated, likely drawing enough power to broadcast a signal far further than just the Y'toub system.

"You... just... couldn't... stay... away," a robotic voice says from the far end of the corridor, a voice projected from the voice box of a rather odd looking droid. A huge construct primarily humanoid in shape, the droid itself stands easily twice the height of a large man, and twice as broad. Weaponry is situated in various places across the metallic chases, and intense red eyes glow angrily at the rag-tag group of infiltrators.

~ "I'm tired of this," Ax mutters as he levels his pistol at the newly arriving droid, and popping off a couple of shots. "Let's get this over with already." Normally, he'd be the type of guy to negotiate, but apparently not tonight. ~

Vraag doesn't waste time, and as Ax launches into the attack, the big Mandalorian is there with him. He brings his blaster rifle around to bear and begins firing off shots, aiming for whatever part of the huge droid looks the most vital.

"You big, monstrous bastard." Adhar's gun snaps up, the droid's approximage 'face' looming large in his pistol's enormous videoscope. "You killed Wiz! I'll never forgive you for that! You! Killed! My! Crewman!"

The irony of this is, of course, that the man currently unloading glowing red plasma into the horror-machine's face is one who actually /believes/ that droids should not be enslaved at all.

The other mandalorian in the group doesn't wait to say anything to the droid this time and he follows Vraag's lead. Bark lowers the barrel of his blaster pistol so it's leveled at the huge droid... "What can I say?"... and squeezes the trigger. "You called to me." the red blaster bolt deals a surprising ammount of damage considering it came from a pistol.

"Gonna get to killin', best do it," Corr mutters, hauling in air through his nose in a loud sniff, his faded blue eyes picking out targets on the big droid's mechanical frame through a squint. The blaster in his hands does its terrible work, screaming like a woman in the birth of labor as it shrieks death blistering across the space between the man and the droid. Once, and armor glows red hot. Again, and bits of circuitry float as ash in the recirculated air.

Kadi frowns, watching all the attacks at that droid. She even tries again to shoot it, still using her stun gun, and of course, misses. Mind you, it's not because her eyes are closed. They're open, but she's sort of staring at that ... abomination of a droid thoughtfully, and after her shot, she doesn't waste time. "Everyone, duck for cover!" she calls, and she suits her actions to her words. peeling back towards the door and skidding down to make herself a very small target.

As the blaster bolts fly, Sesti takes the opening when she sees it to dart forward and attack. She starts to take a swing when she hears Kadi calling for the cover. Glancing back, she sees the engineer taking off, and backs away, the swing of her blade more of a defensive move, now, as she backs out of range again.

As the group launches into attack on the large droid, it is clear that they are packing more firepower than the droid had been planning on. It takes hits, and it takes a lot of them. The big droid is not without it's defenses, however, and it begins rocketing off it's own return fire as it moves with surprising speed around the space. Blaster fire erupts from various positions on the droid's body, reaching out at the attackers, and connecting with more than one. The firepower thrown at the droid is too much, however, and inevitably the droid does go down, slumping at a steep angle to the right as one of it's legs is blown free of it's chassis. The droid's systems begin to fail, even as a bright red light begins to flash quickly on it's chest. Corr's blaster fire is enough to snuff out the droid, and finally it's 'eyes' go dim.

"Self Destruct, initiated. T-minus, five minutes," is said over an intercom system, broadcast throughout the hidden base.

~ "Now, tell me why the hell we didn't just blow this rock up from space instea of going inside?" Ax asks as he's running towards the stairs. Trying to keep Kadi ahead of him, and being a pilot not exactly someone who spends a lot of time running for his life, he's not that graceful. "We got 5 minutes, shouldn't take that long to get back to the ship, right?" he asks, already panting a bit. Thankfully, Rhani was still on the Blade keeping its engines warmed up. ~

Mandalorian Armor is not the best jogging attire, and Vraag has a hard time of it. Huffing his way up the stairs, by the time he reaches the level that leads to the hangar, he has an annoying high pitched wheeze that is squealing through the group comms. "Oh shit... oh fuck... oh damn," he huffs out tiredly as he runs. "I hope he has the ship ready."

Adhar, for his part, managed not to get shot in the face - but he sees Corr take a shot, and he moves to help the CDF officer get to his feet...which slows him down considerably. He moves with the rest, knowing that, though his droid is dead, his ship is still at top power.

A blaster bolt to the shoulder is not a fun experience for anyone. It has Bark cursing even before they start running. He has a trail of blood following him as he stumbles up the stairs behind Vraag. There is a spitting sound and a curse over the coms "I'm hoping Papo has a medkit waiting for me... y'know just being positive that I'm not going to die while running away." He pulls out his data pad and says "I've got the command codes ready to open up the bay doors once we're all on board... Just make sure I don't pass out before I do that alright?"

Corr spends a moment processing that instead of just dying, the thing has insisted on exploding to boot, and the man stands there staring, his rifle in his hands, before he takes off after the others. A thought crosses his mind: if the place explodes, they'll be back to no atmosphere, which sounds Bad. He pulls his mask down over his face. This makes breathing and seeing both harder, as it promptly begins to fog. A second thought crosses his mind: he got hit back there. Not real bad, but it hurts, and it's giving him a rough go. Not to mention everyone else is in front of him. "Come on, let's /move,/" he presses from behind, although he's hardly up there leading the pack either.

Kadi got a head start, due to her lack of trusting the crazy droid. However running is definitely not her strong point either, and she certainly is panting, out of breath and chest hurting by the time she makes it up those steps, never mind all the way to the Blade. She just about crawls up that ramp and collapses for a moment. "We gotta get the the hangar doors to open," she manages, between gasps.

Kadi's warning had given her some heads up, and Sesti was already turning when the droid announced it's self destruct intention, and she's past the others and taking the stairs two at a time. As she turns the corner up the next flight, she glances down and shakes her head once. "Pick it up!" she encourages, and she's going at speed, to get to the ship and head to the guns in case the hangar doors don't open and they have to shoot their way out.

The infiltration team is all finally able to make their ships, which are already primed and ready to head out as soon as those doors open thanks to Rhani and Jax being left behind.... except for Adhar's ship, because his droid... no... it's too soon.

As soon as the ship's ramps are closed and sealed, Barquo is able to get the hangar doors open and the ships can rocket free of the hangar. Two minutes to spare is not that much time when trying to thread a starship through an asteroid belt, and as the timer ticks to zero and the asteroid behind them explodes with a blinding white light, they are almost overtaken by the ever expanding blast radius, ships rocking and buffeted about before finally, barely making it free.