Log:Return to Felucia

Return to Felucia

OOC Date: April 3, 2015
Location: Felucia
Participants: Ambrosia Greystorm, Jax Greystorm, Sesti Gath, Oriana, Hex, and General Hux as GM

The short story: A small team of Resistance soldiers returns to Felucia, looking for clues. Sesti is the coolest.

The long story:

Felucia is just as pretty a picture as it was when the Resistance fled -- sorry, strategically retreated -- last time, a smoldering wreck of something that was unfriendly to begin with. Jax and his copilot (NPC) have tucked in under the radar, landing a short hike away from the treacherous cave system where the Resistance encountered trouble last time. (Speaking of trouble, Hex is here again, but the Corporal is being quiet and civilized now. Then again, he hasn't seen any running Gands yet). Upon landing, the team has sent out the first wave of probe droids towards the cave under Jax's guidance, seeking the current status of the tunnel system and its potential inhabitants...

Jax was looking at the datapad that was talking to the little sensory droids. "Alright we'll have to find another way in. The previous location you guys entered in is completely caved in and locks to be unsteady. But I seem to found another route into the cave network." He points in the direction of that a pair of the little droids went, "It seems their's a destroyed village there and another cave entrance. No signs of current First Order activity." He says looking around for a moment. "So that way?"

Major Greystorm has left her rifle behind, this go 'round. Too bulky. Requires use of both hands. Makes killing too impersonal. And now it /is/ personal. She'd sort of liked DeLong. While the man was still a decade greener than she, he was old enough to have /really/ been put through it and it was nice to have a more experienced, veteran ear to swap stories with, that wasn't also trying to play grab-ass (Husband Greystorm) or get her onboard his rig (Dash Rendar). She waits with the others in the safety of the ship, waiting for the droids to relay back their scans. When at last the data feeds through, Ambrosia lets loose a long, worried sigh and pulls her helmet on over her braids. "Well. I suppose this makes our entry point an easy decision. Let's assume it's another funnel into a well-attuned lair. Traps abound. Nobody cuts loose, nobody runs ahead. If you see something shiny in the village, leave the souvenir snatching for later. We don't need to add 'pissed off local' to our list of problems."

Oriana stands a bit back watching what's going on, making sure to listen for orders. For the time being she is quiet, but ready to go. A glance is passed to Hex, and he is given a reassure smile before eyes move back to the others, a hand rested on her rifle.

The zabrak medic is silent in her seat in the cargo hold. She has her blades, and her med pac, and pistol. Her eyes are focused on the helmet in her hands as she listens to the comms coming through from Jax, but doesn't respond verbally. She follows Amber's lead, putting her helmet on over her shorter braid, and the new skin is almost normal color by now. She exhales a long breath, centering herself for the battle.

Buddy Stayput, the faithful NPC copilot, remains with the ship in case of emergency evacuation, and peering out the viewscreen, privately feels a little bit glad that he's not the one hiking out into that madness, what with burned jungles and villages and collapsed caves full of rude people in white armor. Hex's synthleather-wrapped lekku twitch at the mention of not running ahead, but he plops his weird alien helmet onto his weird alien head, and follows the rest of Amber's team out as they head toward the burned village, another probe set loose under Jax's guidance to let them know about all the ugly creatures, First Order, and hurt feelings that may await them.

Jax really really needed to bribe a quartermaster for Resistance Field kit and not just his pilot flight suit if he'd been planning to do ground operations. He stops running the probe droids through their paces. "I like these little guys, they don't talk back like Exine...or just about every droid I know. It seems the tunnel continues for for about fifty yards, getting gradually smaller the further back it goes. At the furthest end it is about a man and a half tall, and you see a straight vertical drop that leads straight down. There also appears to be some kind of metal platform maybe a lift set into the hole." He looks to the team around him and tucks the datapad in his flight vest and pulls his Dl-18 pistol.

Meanwhile as Buddy Stayput remains with the ship out rolls out little Exine, the R2 unit belonging to Jax. He produces a datapad from his internal space, "A game of holochess? Want to put 10 credits on the game?"

"...And there we are," Ambrosia murmurs, looking over Jax's shoulder to the pad. She backs off and to the ramp. "Let's advance to the entrance and toss in a few sensor scramblers. Buy ourselves a little time navigating through, if we can. I'll take point. Everybody ready? Sarge, you got those grenades? I don't want to blow it sky high until we've had a look around, but they may come in handy."

With the others Oriana follows, and pats the bandolier she wears giving a nod to the Major. "Got them, Major." She replies with a nod, patting on of her grenades. She also has her rifle at her side, a hand resting on that to be brought up and ready if need be.

Rather than having two women peering over Jax's shoulders, Sesti takes up a position to the side and slightly behind so that she can see past Jax and Amber, and watch the flank to one side as well.

As the Resistance Troops make their way toward the burned village thats stands guard over the massive cave that is their destination they realize that there is no cover to speak of. The ground is black and charred, ash and charred trees creating a wasteland of sort all the way to the burned out husks of the few buildings that still stand, most of them having caved in as the flames claimed them. In the middle of the village along the walkway that stretches between buildings there are the charred and burned out remains of two great Rancors. Closer inspection reveals that one seems to have been felled by normal blaster fire, while the second had been blasted to death, likely from a starfighter. Beyond this, the closer they get to the cave and the last building that stands, charred to a crisp they will notice a strong stench wafting through the air in almost unbareable intensity. As their eyes are drawn toward that building, they will notice a heavy chain, and large lock looped about the double doors.

Buddy Stayput is going to lose all of his money to Exine. Like, all of it. They'll come back and find that Buddy's salary and pension now belong completely to an Astromech along with his weapons and most of his clothing, but, hey, if Buddy wants to go down the slippery slope to Exine servitude 10 credits at a time, that's Buddy's problem. Everyone else has bigger problems, cave problems, village problems. "There's a lift in the cave?" Hex frowns, speaking up. "Whatever they were looking for in those caves, they sure put some time and infrastructure into trying to find it."

Onward and upward they hike, and upon reaching the ruined village, Hex seems taken aback. "Ugh," he protests at the sight and smell of the rancorpses, but it's that last building with its heavy chain and its heavy unbearable stench that seems to draw him up short, almost involuntarily. "Akei ka schutta, what in the black fires of hell is /that/?" He sounds worried, possibly worried that he might throw up in his helmet, but he makes no moves to attempt opening the door.

Jax moves with the group and as the stench hits him. Jax starts to turn pale and looks at the building with chains, "Fear." He answers Hex. "I got a bad feeling about this. Something bad happened here. Not just this village but there specifically." He says pointing his gun to the ground.

"Unless the people in this village had already set it up for whatever they might mine from this cave," Sesti mentions to Hex. "And the First Order came in and said, "thank you, very much, we will take it from here"." She narrows her eyes against the stench, looking to the two rancors, pursing her lips. "Where did they find three rancors? Do rancors usually move in packs? I thought they were solitary creatures." Then she looks to Jax, and notes his pallor. "Are you alright Jax?"

There are few things in life that unnerve the Major, anymore. She's tasted the scent of her own flesh burning - fire, electricity - watched her insides get blasted out, 'poured tea' before a congregation of the Empire's finest, parented three children and given birth to four. But that chain. That chain.

Ambrosia's face seems on the verge of turning itself inside out as they crunch quietly nearer. One hand uplifts to absently feel her breastplate. A very old thing is hanging beneath there. A ring nigh turned to stone with age, almost too small to fit on her fingers. No doubt the ancestor who wore it saw such things, too. Pressing her lips tightly together, she turns her face away and presses on, one heavy step after another to the entrance. "Don't open it. Let's go."

As they approach Oriana brings a hand up to her face, not openly gagging there is a strong frown and turn of her head, the sight is awful. Taking a breath to try to calm herself. "It feels like the definition of evil walked this land." There is a shudder. They are pushing forward though, and that is what she does too.

As the Resistance squad move into the caves, flashlights or some other lightsource must eventually be used as they step in further from the rapidly darkening sky outside and further into the embrace of the cold, dark stone. As lights are engaged, they find that the walls glitter and sparkle in the same way that they did when the soldiers passed through the lower levels far below. The tunnel moves along at a gradual decline until they reach the metal platform that has been rigged up into the vertical shaft. Large spools of cable set above show that it is indeed some form of motorized lift.

Hex can't seem to look away from the building, its horrible smell, its horrible chain. He's got a white knuckled (slightly paler green knuckled) grip on his weapon. Under normal circumstances he might have gone a little farther toward it, like a moth to a horrible flame, but the Major's order seems to snap him out of that trance. An order is an order, and he doesn't go on, but numbly looks back over his shoulder at the building as they move out. "What have they done?" he asks quietly, but it doesn't seem to be the kind of question Hex is sure he wants an answer to. He follows wordlessly into the caves toward the lift, but the sparkling crystals aren't so enchanting anymore.

Jax continues to look at the building with the corpses and the chain. He looks at the building and frowns. "Yeah I'm fine. That's not a good place. I don't want to go in there." He says to Sesti. He looks to the others and goes to help with prepping the repealing equipment. He reaches up to scratch the back of his neck. "Hex you alright? What does that place make you feel?"

Had to be a drop into the abyss. There's a reason young Ambrosia Aderanne chose to keep her feet on the /ground/ those decades ago. Staring down the black hole woefully, Ambrosia unoils a length of her syntherope and starts securing her safety, out of the way of lift operations. "It's you and me, Sarge, let's take a dip...Doc, you're in charge." Her expression seems preoccupied, rather uncharacteristic for the salty boot. To Jax: "Hey, what's that insufferable astromech of yours doing now, anything useful? If not, why don't you call him over here. While we're busy, he can open that lock, get a look inside," a thumbjerk back to the glow of natural light. "We may as well document what's in there...for the sake of report." Yeah, that's it. Report. Exhaling thinly through her nose, she tugs at her belt, flexes her fingers over the line, and takes a slow step back...hatingheights-hatingheights-hatingheights..."When we hit bottom and clear it, we'll signal for you to follow via lift. No sense in making a bunch of racket if we do--"

And for a moment, that's the last noise the Major makes, until her chin thwacks against the crumbled edge of floor and her body plummets into the darkness below, preceded by the bastard rock, of course. One of them makes a meatier ruckuss on the way down, thumping off the wall and whatnot. A crackle of static fizzles into the others' helmets. Breathing? Maybe.

Oriana would give a reassuring smile to Hex and moving over to the edge, making sure her equipment is all in order and tied off so they don't fall. Looking to Amber there is an almost excited sort of grin. "Should be fun!" To her anyway. A moment later she is repelling down easily, like she has done it all her life. "Major, you okay?!" Asks the Sarge quickly while moving down so looking up to the Major and stopping briefly.

Sesti gives one nod to Jax, although her eyes linger on him a bit afterwards, as if making sure that he's alright as she follows along. Her eyes are not drawn towards the building, she seems to keeping them away from it. Looking down the shaft, her eye ridges raise fractionally at being put in charge. "Yes, Major," she replies, and backs away a little to give Amber and Oriana room. At the slip, she grabs a hold of a strut to the side to look down into the darkness. "Anything broken, Major?" she asks through the comms as soon as the thudding sounds come to a stop.

Hex looks over at Jax, as they help set up the climbing gear for Oriana and the Major, "How do I feel about what place? The chained building? I've seen exactly one village burned in my life previous to this, and it was mine. It reminds me of that. It makes me feel like that. Not good. I wish I knew what they'd done in there, but I'm not sure that knowing will help any of my various personality disorders or anger management issues." He's joking, probably, maybe? Then Amber goes ass over teakettling down the chasm, and he winces. "She's uh, she is durable right?" He peers over the edge, lekku dangling down, waiting to hear that it's safe to take the lift or that everything is terrible and they should run away like little b- like fine Resistance soldiers.

Jax shakes his head, "Not what I mean but I'm sorry. Yeah we can't help them so stay on mission and do what we can for those still living. But yeah this was wrong." He sighs and looks at the others, "We're really really going to regret this." He pulls up his comlink, "Exine, home in on my site immediately." Within a few moments the little r2 unit now wearing Buddy's help on top of his head rolls up looks at Jax. "We need the lift going." He then jacks into a terminal and powers it up. "I hope their alright down there." He looks at Sesti.

"Sonofabith..." crackle-pops back into everyone's comm. It's the Major! She's alive, but doesn't sound incredibly happy about it. Stretching one painful limb over the other, Ambrosia ungainly claws her way into an upright position, dangling and twirling lazily about like a drunken spider. Gingerly turning her chin over shoulder, she spits a mouthful of blood. A little piece of something pearly white tings off the wall along after. Tooth? Probably. She's likely swallowed the rest. Along with maybe some of her tongue. Troops, rejoice! Not taking a minute to assess what hurts, she clumsily reorients and flicks the latch loose with her thumb to shakily rappel...slipsplatwhumpscraaaaaaaaaape. Thump. Creeeeeeak and she's back to dangling after a horrendous, 15 foot slide down on her face. Thank goodness for the wimpy, half face shield to protect those pretty, pretty eyes. Because it's all that's pretty after that muckup.

Still, there's work to be done! Blinking hard to clear her vision, she flips a switch on her helmet and...nothing. That's fine, she's got backup! Probably. After finding the flashlight still clipped to her belt, she shines it towards the eerie, green glow of acid and stares into the cavern below. "That...is a long way down," she sputtermumbles around another mouthful. Spit.

It feels like forever as they work their way down. Hands grip tight to the rope, footing is sure. There is a wince as Amber skids down again, the Major doesn't seem to be having such an easy time. "Doing alright there?" She asks, but assumes the answer will be that the woman is, and keep going, the Major is tough. Going further down eyes glance to what feels like the never approaching bottom. There is a glowing green over time, then slowly there is a shaft. Looking to her fellow climber there is a frown. "Take your time Major don't rush." Then she speaks into her com. "There is this green glow like the river before, I can see the end of this mow it goes on forever. It leads to a cavern, which looks empty I'm going to drop to the floor and check it out."

The 'son of a bitch' reassures Sesti a bit, and she leans back again, looking around at the controls of the lift. "No key," she sighs. "I wonder if I can..." she taps a few things, trying to bypass the key, but comes up with nothing. As Jax claims regret, she can't help him give him a snort and half smirk, stepping out of the way for the droid to jack in. "I am sure they are alright. The Major is made of tough stuff... I should know, I installed some of it."

In the tunnels above, Jax's droid seems to have no trouble at all. As the droid rolls onto the platform and interfaces with the electronics he beeps in annoyance and then moves over toward an electrical panel. The droids utility arm extends and he pops the door of the panel open and the arm begins to go to work. There is a slight spark of electricity and the lift hums to life.

"Well, they're alive," Hex says dubiously, then watches as Sesti and Exine manage to get the lift humming. He double checks the climbing ropes to be sure nothing there is going to come undone, then steps on to the lift, not pressing any buttons just yet. "Down we go?"

Jax nods, "Good work Exine." He looks back to the little droid. "Scan the building behind us for anything out of the ordinary. It's not a good place." The little droid whirls a compliance and heads toward the building. Jax looks at Sesti, "Your call Boss but I don't see any other call."

"Mmmmnnnot good," Ambrosia mumbles to herself, about herself, as adrenaline takes a breather and graces her with a taste of her injuries. Pain. One of her fingers is bent the wrong way, in those gloves. No problem...a quick snap puts the prosthetic back into place. "Okay, Doc," she breathes heavily into the mic. "Looks like you've got eleven unfriendlies waiting to greet you on this side of the river at the bottom. Think they're guarding something. If you take the lift down, get ready to shoot. If you can lure them closer, Oriana here's got a little something to keep them distracted before you make a full exit." A grunt. "Yeah okay. Proceed with caution. Be prepared to shoot your way out. Looks like...yeah. A rough dozen."

"Okay. So here's the deal," she says now to her partner hanging alongside. Sounds a little out of breath. "You think you can pop a clean shot from here? If so, lay down some cover fire when our guys topside make landfall down here. They shouldn't be able to hit us back, if you tuck up after drawing their attention. When they get closer...toss a boom."

"Will do Major." Grabbing her rifle Oriana shuffles a bit to a bit spot with the ropes holding her and lifts her rifle to fire at the Stormtroopers.

Holding up a hand to the two eager beavers, Sesti listens to the Major, then gives one nod to the two men. "You heard the Major. Be ready for fire, and to start firing. Keep small and we will be landing hot. Let us go," she steps on with Hux, waits for Jax, and then pulls her pistol out. She pushes the button to lower, and checks the the settings on her pistol, not having used it in awhile.

As the Resistance troops on the lift begin to descend, there is the steady mechanical hum that fills the air as large cylinders unwind and lower the platform further down the shaft. It is a long and dark descent, the lift moving considerably slower than the climbers had, (especially the falling Ambrosia). After a long pause in which it seems like the lift is BARELY moving, they see Oriana and Ambrosia coming into view below, their toes wedged into the bottom most lip of the wide vertical shaft. The lift continues, opening out into a large cavern, the same acidic green river dividing the natural room in half. On each side is a stone bank, and just below and to the right side of the river is a natural stone ramp that the lift is heading for. Some eleven Stormtroopers are on the far right end of the long cavern, and one spots you as the lift begins to descend. He nudges his comrades, and as one they all turn, blaster rifles upheld toward the lift when Oriana drops from beneath the ceiling and fires a shot toward them. The aim is true, even if the troopers have time to move, but it has the desired effect and they scatter, scrambling for cover among the boulder strewn bank.

"Understood," Hex confirms to Sesti, nodding as she relays Ambrosia's orders and the description of the situation below. He takes up a position near the front of the lift as they descend down, down, down into the cavern, keeping a wary eye out for balrogs and stormtroopers, and firing at the latter once the position of the lift drops him in range of them, and them in range of him. There has to be a reason anyone tolerates Hex on these missions, and possibly part of it is that he shoots the lead stormtrooper dead on in the chest, a smoky hole that leaves the trooper collapsed in a heap. Gerratt would be so proud....... if he wasn't in a cell somewhere, oh weellllll.

Jax takes aim with his pistol over the side of the lift and fires. The first shot misses but the other two hit and send a wounded storm trooper into hiding before Jax moves to drop down. "I knew this was too easy." He says looking for his next shot to line up.

Meanwhile, Ambrosia's just hanging out...trying to hold her shit together. But it seems parts are leaking. The first drop and sudden stop seem to have torn (yet again) open the healing wound on her hip when her weight slam-jerked against the tautness of the line. So that's bleeding. Her nose is bubbly and burny, probably not with snot. It's making the visor impossible to see through. Forcing the shield up manually, Ambrosia is free to blood-snot-breathe on Oriana. And she's a mouth breather now, to make matters worse, since that nasal passage is crushed, but even that's unpleasant to do with the sharp pangs emanating from one of her short ribs. Which gravity and the squeeze of belt/harness isn't easing. If she wasn't grumpy /before/...

After a good deal of rolling around, Ambrosia's finally gotten herself steadied in a horizontal position, ensuring all arms and legs are kept inside the dropshaft. Then, she inverts, calling upon a talent of her distant past and hooking her ankle/calf around the line so that she may become one with the wall and grip the edge of the opening. Seems she's quite the flexible gal...Which really hurts her knee. A grimace is given to the lift as it descends, then she pulls her blaster from her hip - carefully - and keeps it at the ready. Once the firefight begins, she peeeers under the edge and takes unsteady aim before pulling the trigger. May as well give it a go. Even if for a moment there's some pesky black spots swimming around in her vision.

From where she hangs Oriana sways away from view for a moment. After that she swings back out and lets out another shot on a trooper.

From her crouch, Sesti lets out one shot, which doesn't seem to make it to the charging trooper, but he charges right into her next one, taking him full on the gront. "Major, there are two troopers that are not joining the party," she relays over coms. "They are out of my range, but I suggest that those with rifles try and take them out before they finish whatever they are doing?"

As the troops move to intercept the Resistance, it would appear that Sesti's observation is correct. The two Troopers that hang back are all but completely out of sight to the troops on the ground as the battle commences. Blaster bolts fire in both directions, red beams of light flashing in either direction. Hex's shot takes out the lead Stormtrooper and down he goes flat to his back, not to move again. As the Jax, Sesti, Oriana and Amber all manage to wound their targets, but none of them cease the attack.

Hex is keeping his eye on the task at hand, but his lekku perk up a little at Sesti's relayed information. "I hear you," he confirms that he understands about the two troopers going off doing their own thing, "I don't have anything close to a clear shot, though. Gonna have to work with what I've got and clear out what's in front of us." He fires!

As Stormtroopers move to their position. Jax takes aim and fires at the targets pulling the blaster trigger with the same precission and calmness as if he was in a X-wing. "Yeah, well that's why we got the advance team for." He's got faith in his Mother and a bit in Ori.

"Absolutely!" Ambrosia huffs into her com, struggling to keep her lower (or is it upper?) end steady while firing seemingly useless rounds at the scattering troopers. If nothing else, maybe it'll keep them guessing. "Lob one of your Atunda-special-of-the-days when you get range..." she coughs to Ori, the next time the girl swings by.

Ah, this will be fun! Oriana nods to the order, pulls out one of her grenades, the cyro one, runs her finger over the switch and from where she hangs tosses it at the troopers.

From her vantage point, Sesti can't reach the two troopers she's pointed out, but she can clear the way for the others to do so. Her pistol fires twice, dropping one, then another. She starts to shift her position, looking back to Jax and Hex just as they dive away from the grenade that lands behind her. She has no idea what hits her as she's suddenly frozen in place, and there's a crackle on her comms as the ice shorts the circuits.

As combat is joined in full between the two forces, the Resistance seems to be making considerable progress toward thinning the ranks of the greater numbers of First Order Troops. While Hex's shot misses, Jax rolls through like a gunslinger. His first two shots take out one Stormtrooper leaving him bleeding on the ground, and the second takes the trailing trooper with a considerable hit. Ambrosia's shot from on high wounds another, while Sesti takes out two troopers on her own. The field of battle changes with a lone cryoban grenade, however. Miss thrown, the grenade falls right between the three Resistance soldiers and while Jax and Hex are able to dodge out of the way, Sesti takes the explosion in full, freezing her to the boulder she crouches behind.

Hex isn't quite so lucky with his shot this time as he was last time, and his target of choice dodges out of the way... which is shortly the least of his worries as a cryo bomb descends from above like an unlucky gift from a vengeful goddess. "Witchtits!" he curses in alarm, and bails fast out of the way in artistic acrobatics of panic and flailing lekku. It's like an interpretive dance. "Watch the toys, daesha," he calls out toward Cirque du Resistance, "You almost --" boom, it goes off, and there's now a Zabrakcicle frozen to a boulder. "Koa," he gasps, shocked temporarily into Ryl, prevented from going to Sesti by the need to dodge more angry blaster fire, which he returns. "Jax, what the nine ugly hells, is she okay?"

As the grenade drops, Jax calls out, "Fire in the hole!" Then goes diving rolling out of the way bit it's too late. He comes up firing like some type of space cowboy gun slinger. "Hell if I know, she better be. We take care of this and I'll get to her. Getting captured or killed isn't going to help her. " He says with grimace. One task at a time.

"Aw, falumpashit..." Ambrosia groans, seeing the direction the grenade soars and makes its mark. "We've gotta get down there. Gath, do you read? Corporal Gath? Dammit." Releasing the line from her feet, she swings back upright and grips the line lock with her left hand. The right clutches her blaster in a deathgrip and she eyes Oriana warily. "Cover me. Don't shoot me!" And with a big, prayerful inhale, she releases the line. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzt down she goes to the tune of blaster shot and a hoarse battle cry.

Oh, shit! Her grenade doesn't hit the mark and instead Sesti gets the brunt of it. Oh the guilt! "Sorry!" She bellows out, in a near pleading way. Being distracted means she gets shot, and damn good too. The pain makes her let go of the ropes, she slides down with the treat of smacking ground but stops herself in time. Groaning in pain, slick with blood she grabs her rifle and goes to shoot at any trooper she can, hoping not to fail this time.

Three troopers left now and Hex fires; maybe not the best shooting, but clearly he's worried about Sesti, and Oriana, and whether Amber's expression of disappointment in him will look different now that she broke her face. "Shit," he sighs, "Mop up, Jax, I'm only good when they're walkin into it."

Jax continues to fire at the storm troopers, "come on Hex, you got to clear your mind and keep you eye on the job. You let yourself worry about it we're going to go home. Take care of the troopers so that we can take care of them." He says shooting two more of the troopers.

With no more rocky walls to bounce off of until she hits bottom, Ambrosia is content enough with her final descent to overlook the failure of her aim. It's likely she was focused on NOT looking down. And oh! There's Oriana, whizzing by. The scorch mark in her armor is telling enough. As is the blood. Wincing sympathetically, Major Greystorm braces for a bone-jarring landing. She disconnects her belt from line and rolls free, tempted to kiss the cavern floor as she does. Solid ground! With a less than spry leap to her feet, she marches stiffly forward - favoring her left leg. A steady hand points with promise at the remaining helmethead nearby and she pulls the trigger.

The ground isn't far now so the rope is released but the landing isn't gentle. Blood drips on the floor and Oriana leans against the wall a second as shots are fired. One remains, gathering her strength and walking forward filled with more anger toward herself she goes to blast the guy, or gal, out of existence.

The ice wears off first, and Sesti slumps to the floor. It takes a moment for her to blink, and then she stirs, lifting her head. "what?" she asks weakly, assessing the hypothermic skin, and the fact that she can't really feel her limbs. She pushes up carefully on her hands and knees, watching each foot as she places it down, then gives a stamp to try and send some feeling into it. She turns and looks around, noting the downed troopers and everyone on the ground, then tries to focus across the room to see if the two troopers are still trying to finish their mission.

On the far side of the cavern the two Troopers that did not engage the others seem to know that their time has ran out. They hurry, attempting to finish whatever it is they have been doing and then hurriedly make a run for the bridge that will carry them over the river. Once there, they turn back, monitoring the progress of the Resistance through their comrades and then one lifts a small remote and presses a button.... and nothing happens. The two Stormtroopers look at each other almost comically and one begins charging back toward that tunnel that looms at the far end of the cavern, while the other turns tail and runs off into the cave tunnel on the other side.

Hex's lekku slack with relief as the last trooper falls, and he risks a glance over at Sesti, slowly thawing out over there where Oriana gave her the cold shoulder. What an awkward roommate room they're gonna have! "Sesti! Sahak chir! I'm so pleased you're not dead," he welcomes her brightly back to the world of the warm blooded. Finally stepping out from cover, he spots the two running off, and twitches, as though he'd like to chase that one running off...! But uh, last time that went, you know, not so well, and Hex proves he has at least a guinea pig level capacity to learn from painful mistakes by looking to Amber for orders before doing anything else.

Jax calls out, "We got two more and they're up to something. Orders?" Then holstering his blaster for a moment. He moves to rub Sesti's shoulders and start trying to warm her up. "Hey you okay? I'm worried, Do we need to get you on the lift and have Buddy and Exine come get you?"

"Blast the bastard turning tail across the water," Ambrosia pants into the comm, glancing briefly to ensure that Sesti is indeed moving, then points with a slight wobble on her feet to the troopers. "But that one," she singles out the one who's come back to their side of the 'water'. "Fetch. We can bring it topside for a chat after we get a look around...see what they were working on over there." and she holsters her blaster in favor of pulling the blade off her back and testing her sore arm's handling of its weight. She sets off on a purposeful march in the direction of their conspiring.

Her armour is covered in blood, steps are wobbly if not determined. That trooper is dead so she had turned to Sesti and frowns. "I - I am sorry." It is really all she can say words don't express her guilt nearly enough. Still on the job and has Amber gave an order with a turn she goes to walk forward anew to shoot down the one and let the others chase the other, running is not her thing right now.

Although she can barely feel the hands that Jax massages at her shoulders, Sesti manages a nod. "I am fine, not sure why I am so cold, though," she looks down to her hands and lifts them to look. "I think I will be able to walk alright, I just need to pay attention. I do not need Exine dragging me along the floor, thank you." She looks around as the trooper is being rounded up, and nods. "Help me go across and see what they were doing."

As the Trooper sprints back across the room to the Resistance side, Oriana's shot catches him directly in the thigh and sends him flying. He lands a few feet shy of the opening to the cavern at the end of the walkway. Blood is evident on the white armor, but the man continues to stubbornly crawl along, dragging his body across the stone floor until he all but disappears from view, one white boot being able to be seen protruding from the natural archway.

Hex eyes Jax to make sure he's being a proper Sesti-crutch (he is), then flicks his weapon's setting to stun and heads off at a jog after the guy Oriana hobbled, the one crawling away. "Guess whose crap I am totally sick of!" he yells at the white boot as he pursues toward the archway. "Go on! Guess!"

"C'mere...." Amber snarls at the boot crawling away. She keeps her current speed, not trusting her left leg as much as she'd like to, quite yet. As Hex trots on by, she twirls the humming blade in a lazy figure eight and reminds "Alife, Corporal. I wanth a piethe." Oh, fer...her bark doesn't sound nearly as menacing now, lisping over a swollen tongue and broken teeth. It only serves to fuel her ire.

Not much more she can do now, and being so tired suddenly after Oriana had let the shot out she finds a boulder and leans against it, sliding down to sit with her rifle at a ready just in case another surprise comes for the two.

Leaning on Jax, Sesti watches her feet, making sure she doesn't turn one as she trusts in Jax to lead her the right way. She coughs after Amber calls out to Hex, then her body is wracked with a giant cough, but she continues on until she can get a good look at the project the Trooper is trying to protect.

As the troops pursue that white boot, a few things happen all at once. The portal that the wounded storm trooper lays in is vastly different from that of the rest of the cavern. Those standing at an angle to view the inside of the room gain a view of the interior which is covered in a strange green glowing lichen that extend across the floor and up the walls. They catch a brief glimpse of rune carved walls and in the center of the room some form of shrine carved of gold and encrusted with very large gems. The second thing of note is that the Stormtrooper that Oriana hobbled has his helmet off. He is panting as Hex and Ambrosia come into view and the find a normal human face staring back at them. He is wide eyed, his nostrils flared and his expression twisted in pain. That does not seem to do anything to stall his aggression however and as the two Resistance officers step closer, he says defiantly, "Fuck you!" With that his left hand reaches across, striking a manual override set into the explosive charges that line the entire archway of the cavern. There is a fraction of a second before the portal explodes. The force of the explosion is enough to lift Hex and Ambrosia from their feet and hurl them back through the air. Hex is thrown to his back on the stone bridge roughly while Ambrosia is hurled across the walkway and lands, her head extending dangerously over the acidic water. The archway crumbles, large boulders falling down atop the defiant Stormtrooper and sealing the cavern in a pile of large boulders.

Hex follows the trooper into the shrine, and comes up short. "What the--?" Anyone else seeing this might wonder what the runes are all about, along with the gems, the shrine; Hex is probably wondering if the lichens are edible. In any event, he doesn't learn much more about any of it, because what he learns next is that he can fly, and he emits a very undignified yelp of surprise as the bomb goes off and throws him into close acquaintance with that bridge. "Sick!" he wheezes, "Of your shit!" But there's some very interesting information just beyond that rubble...

"UNH!" Is all Ambrosia has to say about that, as the wind has been knocked clean out of her. If she wasn't about to lose her cap to a sizzling cess pool of death, she may lay there awhile. But the noxious fumes are killer, and she rolls painfully to her side, then up...and sees something dangling under the bridge. Grabbing hold of the rocky foot of the bridge, she climbs to her knees. And stares. "Heth..." she croaks and lifts a shaky hand to point. "Wh...whath..." aaaand the concussion finally catches up to the Major, as she lurches aside and hurls before stumbling back onto her ass. It's going to be a long ride up.