Log:Resistance: Old Birds - Cellar Door

Resistance: Cellar Door

Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Sar Yavok, Triz Dermout, Jax Greystorm, Sesti Gath, Corr Waldin, Sabella Lockheart, and Rato Darsi as GM The Resistance, Kath Hounds

After gleaming the location of a Crimson Blade outpost in the Hutt District of Nar Shaddaa, the Resistance moves in to gain intel on the location of the larger base and cause some hell. However, all is not as it seems…

"Alright. Eggheads looked the datacube over that Delede brought back from our agents. Seems like Crimson Blades'r operatin' in Nar Shaddaa. Couldn't get a lock on their headquarters, but managed to route the signal we recovered in the cube back to an outpost on the outskirts of the Hutt District," echoes Sar Yavok's briefing in the heads of the soldiers that are gathered in the back of the Starburst.
The Old Man is seated in a dropseat, wearing his Stormy armor and pulling softly on a lit cigarillo. He looks about at the few soldiers seated with him and says, "Remember. Quiet is the key. If we raise an alarm, this is gonna get a helluva lot harder on us."
"Five minutes to drop," remarks the pilot from the cockpit.

Ok, this is different. After fidgeting with the armor she thinks she has it on right. Triz steals glances at the others and mimics what they do. Finally "There," she says proudly as she stands "Got it," as she checks the armor once again. The blaster is checked, again, for like the fifth time. Then sits after realizing it's not that big of a deal. Feeling a bit out of place, her foot taps, eyes dart around. Not nervous, much.

Jax is standing across from Triz. He got his wayward armor on and his hood up. He looks over at the other pilot, "Chill. The Blaster hasn't changed the last 4 times. The battery pack is still charged. If Sargent Vetia could see you. He'd be yelping about sorry ass Corsec pilots." He chuckles. Then he reaches out quietly to Doc Greystorm. It's a quiet thing not him hiding his own jitters no sir.

For the purposes of going quiet and light... and to not be affiliated with anyone, Sesti has opted not to wear the heavier Waywards armor she owns that would match Jax's. She's wearing a non-descript set of medium armor with the heavy, dark brown fiber armor under the plates. She's donned the leather jerkin over them that she's taken to wearing as her 'Nar Shaddaa street outfit'. Her helmet is one hand, her knife and thin blade at her hips, and a blaster holstered to her back, just above the med pac, both mostly out of the way. As Jax speaks, she looks across to Triz, and there's the faintest twitch at one corner of her mouth. The Zabrak's confidence is evident in her posture, easy but slightly tilted to the balls of her feet, ready to be unleashed. As her husband reaches out, she turns the helmeted hand to give him a knuckle to knuckle tap of readiness and reassurance that she'll be fine.

This is hardly Corr Waldin's first time in the back of a dropship/troop transport, and hopefully it won't be the last. The soldier is just chilling over there, his arse perched on the tiny seat, one hand shoved inside his helmet and the other wound up in the webbing hanging from the walls. He's not smoking, he's not bantering, he's not holding onto a friend; just squinting out as the terrain flies by below, 'terrain' here meaning 'endless constructs and skyscrapers'.

If you need someone shot, you call the real soldiers. If you need someone to spend the best years of their life bent over a computer screen giving themselves spinal deformities to figure out what the eff was on a datacube, you call Rato Darsi. "Is not clear." The Togruta agrees over the comms, hidden away near the supposed outpost - camped out with her macrobinoculars, some technical equipment, and a tub of spacebeef. She ain't going in there. "We do not know how many there are in this hole, but if what I see is correct, this place is not all it seems. Blueprints do not match outside. Watch the floor." The- what? "Also, Sar?" Her voice returns a moment later. "These are montrals on my head, not eggs. I am not telling you this again." From her sniper-esque post beside the outpost, the female turns her 'nocs up, searching for the transport.
Upon arrival, they will see what any good outpost is expected to be: dingy, scummy, and with a drunk Dug passed out near the front door. It's a two story building; a little bit slummy, and with some shoddy looking craftsmanship. There seem to be two entrances - visible, at least - one each in the front and back of the building.
However, a few things seem a bit... Off.

"Whatever, nerd," Sar responds to the Togruta. He taps the ash from his cigarillo and stands up.
The gunship's engines thrum idly as the large vessel sets down just within the walls of the compound and the hatch slides open, revealing the strange scene.
"Keep your wits about you, Hounds," Sar instructs, snuffing his smoke out and sliding his Stormtrooper helmet on. Booted feet make the foot-tall drop from the ship to the duracrete ground outside of the compound.

As soon as Jax isn't looking, at least she doesn't think Jax is looking Triz wrinkles up her nose and yes there was a tongue stuck out. "Just making sure," she says once the face gets gone. "And I'm not a sorry ass CorSec pilot." Technicalities. A smile flashed to Sesti and a glance to the ever cool Corr does help instill some confidence. She stands and follows Sar out the door of the drop ship, moving quickly so as to not bottle up the doorway. Blaster gets pulled out as she looks around. Eyes falling to the target building. A quick look down the side "Hey, I got a door way down here, looks like someone tried to hide it. Seems to go to a lower level," she says over the comms.

Jax nods to his wife. Then he glances back at Triz and chuckles, "I saw that." His hand going to his blaster pistol and pulling it from it's holster. He points the blaster downward. It's probably best he's not on the command channel as Sar and Ratso. So he can't discuss what type of head different individuals are. He gestures to Sesti that there's two guards at the back as he moves to cover.

With a smirk, Sesti indicates she saw it, too, but it's fight time, now. She draws the blaster, pointing it down, and she's on the ground almost at the same time as Jax, fanning to his right. "I see eyes at the window, second floor to the right," she mentions in coms, and her eyes follow Jax's gesture, noting those guards as well. She moves to the side of the building, keeping from their sight and to get to a point where the eyes above would have to lean out to see her, choosing to either be blind or reveal themselves.

As the gunship touches down, Corr grabs up his carbine, a heavily modified Quicksnap he's picked up for looking like a civilian instead of the EL-16 with some sort of alphabet soup on the end, AKA the Official Rifle of the Resistance. He pops his helmet on, hops out of the ship, and takes a look around. Something doesn't feel right. Quick eyes pick out the drunken dug, and he wanders aimlessly forward, kicking the drunkard with a heavy boot. "Hey. Start talkin'." The barrel of the Quicksnap redflags the dug haphazardly. "Don't run, either."

Sabella Lockheart is along for the ride? Not hardly nope, she is one of the last off the dropship though and once there she does pull her blaster free and is following the others quietly. The mechanic pauses though as she glances over to see Corr head over towards someone anda soft ah escapes herwhile she moves on a bit close to the building to not be in the open, and well she listens in. An she is totally backup, or something along those lines.

. Movement and voices draw the attention of the guards keeping watch at the back of the outpost. "Go check it out." One of them, a human female, demands of her counterpart. "S'probably just some kids. S'always just some kid s." The voice suggests a male beneath his helmet - but he's wearing a helmet, so it's hard to say for sure. Either way, drop team needs to think fast, because after a brief argument and a grunt of reluctant acknowledgement, he's heading towards the side of the outpost where the drop team seems to be collecting, adjacent to that cellar door... Except for Corr, who has noticed that that 'drunken, passed out' Dug doesn't seem quite right.
Taking the initiative to approach the drunken Dug, he will find a that the fine, upstanding gentleman starts struggling to sit up. He lets out a grumble of anger at the boot kick, eyes narrowing dangerously."Talk about vut?" He demands, squinting up at the human male as he scrambles to his feet - er, hands. "Who are you? Vat do you vant with me?" Slowly, Corr will notice, one of his smaller feet-hand-whatevers drifts beneath his vest - just as whoever Sesti saw in the window seems to vanish into thin air. Uh oh?
The front door, unguarded save for that drunken Dug - the cellar, unguarded save for a failed tarp and some alleged window creep, and a back door with two guards... Is security just seriously lacking?
Up in her tower, Rato adjusts the zoom on her macrobinoculars and dips her hand into the bucket of meat.

"I don't like this," remarks Sar's modulated voice from behind his Stormtrooper helmet. A be-gauntleted hand rests on the butt of his EE-3 and he looks towards the Dug.
"Rato, tap into general comms. Any chatter in the area?" he asks, his HUD's target-finder unreasonably quiet. His thumb brushes against the safety on his blaster, but he doesn't skin the weapon just yet.

Triz looks around, she's not used to this waiting stuff. Move and scoot, at least it works in her fighter. So as she notices the guard heading their way she mutters "Screw this," and heads towards the cellar door. Hopefully a bit out of sight. Not opening the door she crouches down "So what are we doing, I think we are gonna have visitors here shortly," comes her voice over the comms.

Jax frowns, "We got company coming in. We got time to stand around?" He slips the safety off his own blaster. He looks around for a moment, "So Sar which door we going through boss?"

Stowing her blaster, Sesti stays close to the building as she trots quietly back towards the door where the voices were emanating. The vibroblade slips out of her sheath, and her other hand pulls a knife as she closes the distance towards that door where the company will be coming from. "I can have the rear door cleared ... probably without attracting attention," she says over the comms.

"Cellar. Make it quick," Sar instructs. "Starburst, wheels up."
The Colonel begins to move quickly towards the cellar door. "Safe money says they keep any servers underground and on an internal power supply to keep busy-bodies from nosing into their business." He reaches down and pulls the cellar door open, before he drops down into the opening, disappearing from view.

Stowing her blaster, Sesti stays close to the building as she trots quietly back towards the door where the voices were emanating. The vibroblade slips out of her sheath, and her other hand pulls a knife as she closes the distance towards that door where the company will be coming from. She pauses at Sar's orders, then motions for Triz to head to the cellar door, staying behind the woman to cover for her if the company comes before they get there.

Doing his best to hide his limp, Corr hurries over behind the others, abandoning the belligerent Dug without a word as the team opts for the cellar entrance. Swinging himself over the edge, the soldier drops down into the basement, his ankle buckling in ungainly fashion and sending him spilling forward onto the floor, to the sound of a loud klaxon immediately triggered by his intrusion. "Blast," he mutters sharply, picking himself back to his feet, carbine pushed back up against his shoulder as he peers around the room, clicking on the low-light enhancement in his helmet (if necessary obviously).

Sabella Lockheart eyes the Dug a few moments and then glances after the others and turns to follow along. She'll take the more normal approach to get down to the cellar along with the others, though Corr goes stumbling, falling, face-planting an the like and she errs faintly and will half stumble herself. FOR SOME REASON and is using the door frame to keep from falling suit. She peeks out towards the cellar. "Ah..." That is all she says, because she already messed up enough thank you.

The cellar seems a strange place to hide anything - it's pitch black (so good thinking Corr, you KLUTZ), and seems to be to small and easily exposed to hide anything important... And it's filled with tech - random, pointless tech. Anyone who knows anything would know that an outdated server unit serves no purpose on top of a washer. It is also worthwhile to note that the second Corr's feet hit the ground, something clicks... And alarms start blaring.
"Now is chatter." Rato's voice drifts casually back over the comms.
However, perhaps luck is upon them. From up the stairs to their right, there is a shout of "Tha' damn lothcat!" And a series of indistinguishable shouts and grumbles - above the drop team's heads, chairs are being pushed back, games of sabaac are probably halted, and a call of: "Probably tripped the switch 'gain. HOHNSEN! GO CHECK YOUR DAMN CAT!" Breaks above it all. A disheveled Zabrak appears at the top of the steps, lazily tugging a blaster pistol from his pants as he flicks a switch - and then the cellar is bathed in light, illuminating all those nice, perky intruders. Hohnsen blinks. "Oh fuck me."
The stairs haven't been flooded with personnel yet - and what was that thing Rato said about the floors?

'Oh shit', indeed. The Resistance is found out! Sar Yavok turns towards the guard and hefts his blaster towards him, saying, calmly, "Don't say a word." Unfortunately, Sar's helmet hides a really mean looking frown. Who's scared of Stormtroopers?

Triz is totally out of her element but...shoot first, talk later, right? She looks at Sar then up at the guy who seems to be staring right at her so she pulls the trigger of her blaster. But not before the guy gives a shout "Hey! Hey, get over here," he calls to his buddies for back up. Her bolt strikes just as he is about to yell something else "Sorry," she says to Sar and gives him a shrug. But then smiles "Not a bad shot, right?"

Not a bad shot, but it was audible - as was the shouting. And Sar was super unintimidating, sorry. But... NOW THERE ARE FIVE! With the sound of footfalls pounding towards the stairs and chatter lighting up Rato's radiofeed, chaos is quickly unfolding. "Throw a grenade down there!" One shouts. Another screams back that it's a bad idea. Another disagrees - and then angry humans (because I'm so lazy) are clogging that doorway at the top of the stairs - blaster fire rains down - one poor idiot tries to rush the stairwell and gets a blast through the calf to friendly fire. Someone in the back alerts backup... EVERYONE ROLL DODGE.

The incoming fire seems to rain down around Jax as he dodges easily making his way to cover. His blaster raised to take out one of the guards rushing them. His blaster shot going for the torso of his target. "Take them out before they decide the gerenades is a good ide."

At the order to go for the cellar, Sesti follows the others, and almost immediately has to hop away and give a little leap to avoid Corr and find space. When the door opens, her response is immediate, springing for the stairs to take him down, but then Triz's blaster shot rings out, flying past her to down the zabrak. When the blaster brings a rapid response, whatever she thinks of Triz using the blaster is unknown to the rest as she snarls in her own language, growling as one of the blaster bolts that was aimed down the stairs rips digs a furrow along her knee. The one who hit her doesn't have long to celebrate, though, as she makes a quick thrust with her blade. In her fury and annoyance, she sinks it too far in, and can't pull it out, her other hand missing the mark as the weight of her kill falls forward onto her.

Ripping the helmet off as the cellar floods with light, Corr manages to avoid being blinded on top of his awkward stumble at entry, flinging the protective gear aside to squint towards the back of the room, eyes quickly adjusting back to normal while Triz fells the first poor sap and Sesti skewers the next. Finding his sight picture, the trained soldier calmly blasts off four more shots towards the stairwell, peppering the incoming guards and sending them thudding down onto their asses or against the far wall of the stairwell. Business taken care of, Corr quickly scans the back wall and corners for anyone lurking in the shadows, and something pricks at the hair on the back of his neck. "Somethin' in the corner, sir, over on the floor," he barks to Sar, trying to move towards it in a combat glide but looking more like a combat gimp. Gotta stop falling off of things.

Sabella Lockheart dips her head slightly at the lights that come on and she mutters a bit before she is quickly looking over the room. Something is strange about this place. "Whoever thought this was a god place for the serves to be set up needs to be shot." Well she is a computery person so should this surprize her? SOmething near the back of the room catches her attention. "Wall..." But that is about all she can get out before everything behind her goes crazy, as she is still near the door some badguy gets a shot off and she happens to take it, with a half yelp heard as she is moving the rest of the way into the cellar. She holds her side slightly as her gaze flicks back to the wall. Taking a breath and clentching her teeth she is heading over to he lever as everyone else is playing blastermaster and she is giving it a pull. Nothing happens at first, but then something starts to clank and rattle and a bit of machinery is getting hauled out of the way and some stairs bave been found.

Okay, now that everything is absolute trashfire - things get a little weird. For starters, this room is weird, this building is weird; everything is weird. Thankfully, they seem to be out of company for now, save for a lump of dead bodies left by Jax, Corr, and the pinned Sesti - but whatever Corr and Sabella are concerned with at the back of the basement just... Opens. MORE WEIRD! Sabella has the right idea, as a heavy piece of old, rusted, sensor moves slowly away from the wall at the urging of that lever and reveals yet another dreaded set of stairs... Another room lurks beneath the cellar - packed with the /real/ equipment that the shit up top was covering for (heat signatures, energy drain - growhouse rules apply). Luckily, they aren't going to have to scour through those computers bit by bit, because the nerd with the binoculars sent a handy piece of tech down with them. Bet those locations they need are tucked away on the data somewhere.
"Backup incoming, get out!" Rato barks through the comms. "I give two minutes. Don't die."

"Copy that, Lieutenant," Sar responds to Rato, before he jerks his head towards stairs and makes his way towards them.
"Secure the entrances, Hounds. Lockheart, make the call to Starburst. We're bailing out in 2. No later. Greystorms and Waldon, I want that LZ secure. Pick up's same place as drop off." A finger is pointed to Triz and he says, "Dermout, keep your eyes open, I'll be right back."
The Colonel disappears downstairs where he will plug a fancy little device into the Crimson Blade's servers and steal some juicy information.

Where to run when you are right there infront of the stairs? Left or right? Triz goes right, wrongly, of course, and cries out in pain as she goes head over heels oskittering across the floor as the down shots find their mark on her. "Damnit!" she curses as she tries to sit up, the blaster hand going to her free hand shoulder where smoke drifts up from the blasted armor. "Don't die she says," Triz grumbles as she struggles to sit up. "This is why I should be flying top cover." She struggles to her knees "Got it, boss. I got this covered, hurry up." She lowers her hand from her shoulder and raises the blaster up the stairs, waiting.

Jax is in the process of going to help Sesti with the body that's got her pinned but as he finds her not needing help. He still offers a hand up. "Yes sir." He says to Sar. Then with Sesti up and new orders. Jax taking off to go secure the LZ.

From the stairway, once the shooting and such dies down, there's another growl of frustration and annoyance teetering towards rage. Sesti puts her shoulder against the dead body trying to force her backwards down the stairs, sheathes her knife, then uses both hands to rip at the blade, and this time it comes free, taking a good chunk out of the side of the man. With a lurch of her shoulder, she sends it over backwards on top of his mates, and then she acknowledges the orders, following Jax outside and taking a flanking position to secure the zone.

"Aye, sir," Corr replies smartly, trucking himself right along towards the exit, snatching up his helmet on the way past and plonking it back onto his head as he moves outside, rifle still poised at the ready, head on a swivel in case that backup decided to show up early.

Sabella Lockheart glances to the steps that lead down and takes in a faint breath before nodding as she is back on the comms to all in the ship to get them the heck outa here. << Ready for pick up, same place as drop off. Keep sharp eye out for the badies. >> because theyhave found plenty in here after all. She is moving back to the door, blaster in her hand and free hand at her side. A faint glance is sent to Triz. "I'll cover you there, don't stay down here to long." She offers to her friend before following the others up the steps to wait for the ship to come haul them back outa here.

They got what they needed! And while it may not have been a quiet, sneaky recovery, there is a satisfying pile of bodies at the top of a staircase, a few bloodied limbs and blaster wounds, and enough unanswered questions to label this run as 'intriguing'. Who was in the window? Who was that drunk Dug? What happened to the guards outside? What is Rato eating? WHO KNOWS?!
Some people need more help getting out than others - except Sesti, because she's got biceps that go for miles and can rip a dude in half. Jax, you lucky dog you.
Sar downloads the information they need, and while Rat /would/ have liked to leave behind a nasty virus for these asswipes, it doesn't seem to be in the cards.
Finally, with timing that is almost too picturesque to be true, the moment they all limp, gimp, and sprint their way free of this hellish slum pit the Crimson Blade's more organized backup is descending upon the place - but all they're left with is a very bloody staircase.
"You live!" Rat purrs through the comms, watching them file out of the building - looking a little worse for wear, but definitely still alive, and ready to be airlifted TF out of there.