Log:Reverie: Vault of Questionable Stock
The crew of the Blur and friends track down their next bounty...on Ingo. Things go a little strange.
OOC Date: June 12, 2022
Location: Ingo
Participants: Tovani Enno as GM/herself, Adalee Kaline, Kasia Ashkuri, Migs Mayfeld, Khalim, Netep Muri, Shi Jian
Ingo. Its not exactly the most hospitable world as the Blur comes in for a landing at a rather dusted and unused landing pad with a singular door that leads into what appears to be a bunker within a rocky outcropping not but fifty yards away. Tovani is one of the first at the ramp as it lowers, stalking down it as a blast of air slams into her, sweeping more dust and dirt across her vision.
She shields her face with her hand as she hiccups a breath after it being self imposed upon her. Turning her face she leans into the wind and starts towards the doorway, a red light overtop stands out as a beacon. She glances at the pad that requires a code to enter before giving a look to the others, she quietly pulls a keycard from her belt pocket. She slides it in and the keycode bypassed the light above turns green and the door hisses dramatically as it slides open, revealing a corridor that angles downwards into the rockbed of the planet.
Dim emergency lighting is all they have and it delves into what looks like forever at first but eventually they reach a hub where several branches spread out in three ways. Here there are stations, monitors and controls but all seem to be rather dead and unused for some time. "This can not be right. Target is supposed to be here."
Adalee follows Tovani and the others down the Blur's ramp. This time she totes a small satchel of electronics with her, a data interface the newest addition to the tools of her trade. Her trade, within this group, is expanding to include some of the more nefarious digital arts. She smooths a hand along one tapered ear, a nervous habit that's interrupted by the breath and cough she hacks out. "With you two I'm learning a rebreather is not optional. When are we visiting Rishi again? That's my kind of sand."
Once at the bottom of the corridor, where it branches, the half-sephi considers some of the stations. "The door had power, so theoretically these may as well. Unless the door's power was run by some emergency batteries, something like that." Power could be software controlled, in another part of this base, but it could also be... "Rather old fashioned, but it'll do!" She'd opened a panel and sure enough, a big ol' lever with a lightning bolt stenciled beneath it. Power! HEAVE-HO!
An inhospitable planet means Kasia is wearing her adventure pants. Also boots, knit top, and a jacket that offers only the most minimal of protection, but it's made of leather so her cool factor is raised slightly. She has a bag that she wears with the strap across her body, a habit mostly from living on Nar Shaddaa, but it comes in handy on adventures too. She has a pair of weapons strapped on each hip, both of them well cared for and ready to be used. When Tovani moves down the ramp, she follows, being buffeted by the blast of wind that immediately sets what was tidy hair askew. "Oh, Rishi sounds nice right now. Warm sun, sand, a drink, comfortable chairs you can stretch out on. Can we go there instead?" It's not a serious question, but it's asked as she peers around the dimly lit tunnel.
"Fekking Ingo?"
The disgruntled voice spits out his distaste just as much as Mayfeld spits out the sand from his mouth with a turn of his head. Blue eyes squinting and quickly wrapping the loop of cloth around his mouth, the bald man follows the others down the ramp and onto the unwelcoming wastelands of the planet.
Once into the relative shelter of the underground structure, he unwraps his head and spits again. "Startin' to think already I need to re-read this contract. When you said 'get off Tatooine', I didn't think that meant immediately going to some place infinitely worse. This is just a different kinda hell. Are you kidding me?"
'Are you kidding me' is akin to the warcry of his people. A phrase uttered when something is about to give. Right now it's what little patience the man keeps stocked on him, brushing off the sand from his person with fingerless-gloved hands and taking spot near the end of the group.
Stalking down the ramp, Khalim's circulated air keeps the grit at bay. All he inhales is the slightly stale compressed atmosphere contained within his suit's enviro-sealed reserve. "This is a paradise, what are you talking about?" he answers the chorus of complaints, sending the remainder of the group a momentary side-long glance, a visor-hidden grin that quickly becomes a grimace as he's caught by a gust of wind as well and nearly shoved off the ramp.
The mirialan does manage to recover, a hand meeting Tovi's armored shoulder, before crossing to that door, waiting, and then proceeding inside. His pistol is in hand as he looks about. He'd clearly intended to at least stun someone. Maybe twice. "Target is /supposed/ to be here. Let's not leave a bag of credits on the table without a thorough search though." He begins peering down the corridors that branch from this chamber, seeing little of note beyond empty space and a couple of recesses. They COULD, he thinks, hide... a vase? A person? Probably not both.
"S'not so bad..." Muri echoes Khalim's sentiment, though maybe a bit more genuinely, from inside the grit-free confines of her helmet. Muri does not live on Rishi, she's not spent much time on Rishi, but there are reasons for that and her lack of love for all things ocean is likely at the top of that list! Dustbowls are far superior.
Why IS Muri here? Bounty hunter extraordinaire she is not. Lethal machine she is not (well, maybe on accident once or twice). Back up pilot? Repair technician? Crypto-decipherer? Overall entertainment and suitable form of distraction? These things she can do.
Which is why for now, she's letting those more qualified to be front-line workers take the first steps into the unknown there, until she's directed otherwise!
[ Tovani Enno (Tovi)]
Adalee finds the source of their problems ala the source of power for their current section and with a lever heave-ho there is a sudden drone of power as it is once more supplied down the line of heavy cables. The emergency lighting down the corridors begins to dim and then be replaced by the actual installed lighting that runs the top of each section. Stark and unforgiving. No one's blemishes are getting away from this.
Power becomes the background noise to the environment rather than their breathing. Tovani gives Ada a smile before her attention shifts to the others. "Rishi next, promise. And drinks on me...this was a bit more complicated than I meant it to be. Granted..has anyone been here in years?"
Further away the clunk and whir of other mechanics echos, carrying with it that they have now likely supplied a good portion of the base with power. "Lets see what we got before we go venturing."
"Not so bad for now, perhaps we should look at splitting up? Thoughts?" They have enough people to head down the various corridors.
Dust. The next breath is full of dust. Fingers, touching dust, bits of rubble. Arms reaching out, boxes, crates... Durasteel. Brown eyes open, squinting, bathed in the red lights of emergency power flickering once, twice... White glow.
Shi Jian is lying on the floor. His head doesn't ache, surprisingly. Or, maybe he's already used to it. There was... Something... He shakes his head, hands drawing closer to his body and bracing beneath, pushing scattered durasteel tools away, then pushing up, righting himself to steady feet. His clothes - a simple uniform of black pants, black slippers, white shirt, white coat open in the front and hanging down to his knees - are as covered in dust as everything else in this closet. An analytical gaze takes stock and inventory: tools in disarray, cleaning supplies that need to be cleaned, stowed boxes, crates bearing labels of received medical supplies... And him. A Ming Po man, far from Carlac, with hair fastidiously short, an angled jaw and high cheekbones. His nose is sharp, much like the scattered medical implements in the corner spilling out of a delapidated box. His hand reaches for the handle, to open the door that must have closed when he fell while retrieving supplies during... A raid? Some kind of bombardment. People in the compound... Wei. The soft hand quickly presses down, but... Nothing. The handle resists, does not turn. His hand presses to the pad to the side, though why security would have been enabled on the inside of a closet...
Wei...
"WEI!" The voice is coarse, rough from the dust perhaps, and he pounds at the door with his forearm, so very careful of the delicate hands. "I'm in here!" He alternates between forearm blows and shoulder checks, distributing the already-likely bruising. The door, for its part, stands resolute.
Adalee gives a little victory fist-pump to nobody, a smile offered to the electrical panel as its reward for doing its job. Adalee's blemishes under the bright illumination are mostly limited to her permanent record, earned on ships that had taken on troublesome cargo. Troublesome to the authorities, at least. But that harsh lighting does highlight the fact that her skin tone is now dust shaded.
A smile is shared back to Tovi as the half-sephi starts walking towards the right corridor. "Good idea. Anyone coming with me?" She didn't hear ANY of that yelling and banging. Had she even heard her own voice just then?
Kasia isn't entirely sure of the finer details of the mission, but she doesn't have to be, she's here to just be a pretty face. Also muscle. Maybe some talk if talking is needed, though it doesn't seem terribly needed right now. "I can go with you," she offers to Adalee, turning to follow her lead, hand absently resting on a blaster at her hip. Just in case.
Khalim holds a hand up, his helmet canted to one side as if the man were paying attention to something. "Does anybody hear that?" It was indistinct, too distant and too dilluted by space and echo of corridor to recognize for what it was but---- /nervous fart/
He looks to Muri, standing a meter distant. <"If I didn't know better I'd think a door just squeaked closed."> A long pause. <"But I do know better."> Though his vocoder does not transmit the chuckle that follows, it can be seen if not heard before he begins in the direction he'd thought he had heard that noise from. <"A noise. Something's off."> He begins in the direction he best believes that noise had emanated from.
Adalee's magic bestows them with LIGHT and Muri gets her first good look at what they've entered into. There's something uncanny about the emptiness. The lack of alarms or defensive fire. A baaaaaad memory creeps it way to the surface. "If there's any parasitized corpses running amok in here, I'm out. Faster'n any of ya can say 'frink', I swear it....just so's it's out there an' no one's surprised." That's what Netep's got to say 'bout the proposed solution of splitting up as she gives these verily derelict-looking corridors a distrusting side-eye. Can anybody else hear her heart beating right now?
Clearly, she's tagged along on too many Zhu Yan-has-an-idea ventures. Doubts and skepticisms have prematurely set in.
- Fwiip*
And so did that. Cept, not so much 'in' as /out/ - aww, shav, Khalim heard.
A pair of NOT SORRY yellow eyes stare back at him through the sheen of Muri's visor. She's about two-thirds of the way through formulating the perfect comeback, when .....a noise. But not just any noise - and not a fart! "Shh!" One gloved hand comes up to tap at her mouth (or where her mouth is, behind that visor. "Hey hey hey.." she cautions, violating her own request for silence. "Somebody's down there," and she's moving, scurrying right up behind Khalim, one hand resting over the smaller of the two guns worn on hips. "Y'hear that holler? 'Help'" her hands mime a desperate pounding.
"I shouldn't ask where you have been to get that worry, Netep," Tovi says, giving her fellow swoop racer a look. "That is far too detailed," she points out and then is listening as well head tilting as she tries to make out what the others are apparently hearing. "Where is it coming from? I admit i am not hearing it," she says, coming about as she glances down one corridor than the next.
But when Muri is adding to the possible direction of someone she goes still and steps closer to listen as well, her eyes narrowing as she leeeeeans in a scant few inches like that might change something.
The bunker itself is just whirring to life, nothing else seems to be of concerns as durasteel reinforced walls hold back the natural atmosphere for Ingo. Which is downright malicious.
"Maybe we all go one way and NOT split up?" She glances back at the other corridors before she edges down the left one where they are all facing. She flexes her knuckles and makes fists, ready to pummel anything that moves one iota.
After a minute, Jian feels the swelling, the growing contusion, indicating that this assault on the door is not tenable for the long-term. And, having already done it this long, he may be looking at the long term. Brown eyes dart around, looking over cases, something, anything... A crowbar... Why would there be a crowbar in a medical supply closet? Left behind by a lazy porter? Well, no lazy porters in this facility, apparently. He begins pulling the boxes open, looking for something, and several spill to the floor, making more of a mess as... Kitchen items skitter?
The lithely-framed man attacks the door with the metal ladle. Very effective as a knocker. Unlikely to batter the door into submission. Maybe give it a good stirring. "WEI? Anyone?!? It's Shi Jian! LET ME OUT!"
Kasia's armed, and something about the way the woman moves makes Adalee think she's likely far more familiar with the danger part of danger pay than Ada herself is. "Yell duck, and I'll get out of the way," she says, voice a chime as she smiles to her searching partner.
Though they'd started walking in a different direction, towards one of the corridors the rest aren't facing, the half-sephi seems to agree with the notion that they should all search together and changes course. "Parasitized corpses? I certainly hope not." Her voices rises, "Khalim! Are we getting daaaaanger pay for any of this? Would that increase it?"
Suddenly she slows, looking at Kasia. "Did you hear that? That sounds like danger pay." The mostly non-combatant half-sephi shifts a little bit behind her exploring companion.
It's only when others point out the noise that Kasia concentrates hard enough to get any sense of it, then nods a little. Either she hears it, or trusts that they heard it. "Someone said help? That's a good sign," she says, a little chuckle escaping at her own remark as she tugs free the hand cannon. Just in case. There's a smile for Adalee, followed by a nod. "If there is need to duck, you'll be the first to know," she promises, but then something cuts the smile off. It's hard to say what, there's nothing specific in the moment that prompted it, but she adds, "Be careful. I can't explain why yet, but there's something here that's not good for us." Helpful.
As much as Khalim is fairly certain he's heading in the right direction, that is more or less confirmed with the clatter that echoes down the group's chosen corridor. Yells too, which can now be heard for what they are, if not entirely understood. They are, apparently, not alone.
"This could be our mark," he observes, the pistol held at the low ready re-checked for a proper charge-cycling. It is set to stun, which is not always the case. As Kasia and Adalee join, the former receives a quick look. If there was something he'd learned to accept at face value, it was generalized warnings out of the face of the Blue Light. A singular curt little nod is given in reply before he proceeds down that corridor.
The mirialan finds his pace at Tovani's side, though as they near the source of those yells, which begin taking on more recognizable form, he says, "Did our guy lock himself in? It makes no sense, this place seems far more abandoned than that." Muri's necrohordes. Danger pay. Kasia's vague warning.
A vague sense of his own unease begins working a frown across Khalim's unseen features. His pistol, as a result, finds itself actively aimed ahead, no longer simply ready.
- Something that's not good for us*
"Droyk, I knew it..." Muri hisses, but she isn't running away yet. Yet. She is, however, pulling that DL-18 from its holster and holding it in a steady-enough grip to at least look, at a glance, like she knows what she's doing. The thin sheen of sweat across her brow, within a temperature-controlled suit, might hint otherwise.
Adalee's comments about 'danger pay' cause her to laugh, Tovani shooting her a look. "Oh Ada, we would make sure you got correctly compensated." She coughs and then glances at Kasia, Khalim and then herself. The rest of them armed to the teeth she just has her fists and begins to wonder at the errror of her ways.
"Shooting range," she remarks to Khalim in regards to her own skill. She slows but even now, she begins to hear it as well. "Definitely someone...okay we need to open it. Whether its our target or not. HEY!" She bangs on the door with an armor clad hand. "WE ARE GOING TO GET YOU OUT!" No need to shout that loud. None at all.
"Anyone good with hacking or just..overriding a lock?" She stares at the door with its lock embedded in the door itself. Tovani is in the midst of saying something when she sees something back the way they had come. "Huh...what is that?" SHe points at it skittering across the floor. Some tiny metallic creature. Eight legs. And definitely machine like.
The ladle has begun to dent, the bowl crumpling inward as the handle defies bending. The urgent insistence is being dulled by an adaptation for still-longer-term communication. Shi Jian, conserving energy, takes a step back, right leg slipping behind left in a stance that is both fluid, and dangerous. He stares at the door, lifting his left leg and pushes his weight into the ground with his right foot, then returns it through his waist to his hip, to his leg and- JUST before his left leg impacts the door, there's a sound. A banging from the other side. There's a voice as well, though... Muffled. Or it's the ringing in his ears. Metal clanging on metal in... Basically a metal box? It'll do that.
His leg lowers back to the ground, and he eyes the door, giving the ladle a look but not lowering it entirely. He taps twice at the door, around where the strike had come from the other side. Then he waits. Ladle half-raised above and behind his head, still in that lowered stance. Wei wouldn't have knocked.
Adalee's laugh chimes through the hallway and she shoots Tovani a look. "Correct compensation is important! I trust you and Khalim know how to balance your books." The door they've arrived at gains her full attention and she bends low to inspect the lock. "I've gotten pretty good at using this thing," she says as a small electronic lock killer is pulled out of her gizo satchel. "I've been practicing on the Blur. So far I can open the engineering access paneling. The autochef's internal liquor storage compartment. For whatever reason it needs that." She begins fiddling with the lock, and a spark shoots out as something is burned away. "I can open the Captain's Quarters too." Another spark. "Probably should have kept that one to myself."
Kasia keeps the heavy blaster in her hand as she twists around, not looking at the door that Adalee is trying to open, but back the way they came. Her gaze flickers down to the skittering thing, but that doesn't keep her focus. "If this is our mark, we need to get a move on once they're free. There is something here that... I don't know. I just know it's a threat to us, and we need to be ready when he head back to the ship." She's leaving the whole freeing the being from their confinement to the others, the concern pressing in at her is pulling her focus away from that to whatever is there, lurking, presenting some shapeless threat that prods at the heightened danger receptors in her brain. The sound of clattering makes her jump, but she's relieved that the door is opening, taking a step away from the others to try get a better sense of whatever is out there.
As the door begins sliding open, Khalim looks from the source of that skittering, just beginning to make itself visible, to Tovani. "You're the stronger between us," he acknowledges, a tilt of head indicating that exact same door.
As that tiny metallic creature approaches Khalim he recognizes it for the bit of unknown machinery it actually is. Though that bulky Mando-sourced heavy pistol remains in rough aim at the spindly little guy, the mirialan slips out the ancient datapad that rides within its pouch at his hip. A truly retro piece of gear, it even has an integral fan to keep it cool. It does kind of suck at its intended functions, though they are managed by the far newer 'pad kept elsewhere upon his person. This one though? It has a speaker!
- tap-tap-tap*
Beep whistle beep!
- tap-tap-tap*
Whiiiiiistle beep beep digital-clank!
Hopefully something along the lines of, <We come in peace. Your mom is a nice person. Do you need a ride home.>
Muri shoots Kasia an uneasy look, then fields the same to Ada's progress at the door. "Is this 'mark' going to be amenable to running fast as they can, or should we just save ourselves the trouble and toss'em over a shoulder like a heap of - the FRELL IS THAT!?" She's seen it - the skittering nightmare....a little too similar in appearance to Saturi's skittering biologic nightmare. Her blaster's found a new thing to aim at, while Khalim...
"Wha--" a glance, then two, to his datapad tappity-taps. "D'ya know what it's..." oh, Judges' judgiest judgements "Tell it to back off."
"I am sorry you think I can just shoulder that open?" Tovani just stares at Khalim a beat as he moves to interact with the creature not far ahead. A droid creature. She sighs and stepping closer to the door the Wroonin braces her shoulder against edge of the door in the open and presses her hands to the frame. She grunts and pushes back, feeling it give and finally slide fully open, causing her to stumble back a bit while a slew of items spill out of the closet and likely the unknown sentient behind it with it.
"Fine..so I can do it, hush." She missed the interaction with spiderbot and glances instead towards the closet, trying to pick herself out of the various items that had spilled out into the hallway.
The spiderbot in question is bobbing, taking a few skittering steps forward, then bobbing again as it communicates. The strange thing about the spider bot is that the sounds it makes seem to not always coincide with its movements. And they seem to be multiplying - distantly.
There's the sound of electronic fiddling, and then... Sparks? Yes, sparks. Jian steps slightly back and away as some cascade through the locking assembly and spill into the sealed room. Brown eyes dart, ensuring there's nothing... Flammable? Nothing, fortunately, but now there's a hand on the door... Pulling. Wrenching. The door starts to move. Slowly, the ladle rises, ready to... Dish? Something. His advance foot settles on some of the accumulated junk he's been working around, likely spilled from his fall, and prepares to kick it at a hostile invader...
Then the door slams open in an instant and the cascade unseats his tenuous footing and Shi Jian is tumbling forward, falling out of the closet with the rubbish and - with much clanging - prying his way up to vertical on the other side, hands raised as he takes in the group of people. Definitely invaders. But... "You're not with the plastoid brigade... Who are you and what are you-" He stumbles a little and then finds his footing, ladle raised. "What are you doing here? Who let you in?" He lowers into a stance again, right foot back and guarded, left leg between him and the Wroonian who seems to have been the one to open the door. His head quirks to the side, brown eyes darting as he hears the oncoming skittering. "Cleanup is coming... I'd run if I were you."
Ada's job at the door is done, and she begins kicking and pushing at the debris that's begun falling into the hallway until Tovi's push opens it more fully and a man suddenly appears behind it! She misses the fact that the skittering sound is multiplying, her focus upon the door a distraction. His warning is heard though, and she looks with some alarm from the pajama-wearing man-in-the-closet to the others. "Cleanup... That absolutely sounds like danger pay. The plastoid brigade?" She points at Shi. "Is this our mark?" She has, of course, no idea! "But more importantly, should we be running?"
There's a lot of clattering and that draws Kasia's focus from the corridor they came down, eyes on the most recent arrival and his warning. "What does that mean?" she asks, sounding wary. "Clean up crew?" It sounds bad, she has a bad feeling, none of it is good. "Running. It always comes down to running." At least she has better shoes on for running this time. "Alright, let's go, if this isn't our guy then we'll maybe have to come back later." She doesn't wait before she starts to move back to the corridor, intending on taking the lead on the way back to the ship.
Tovi's muscling of that door draws a quick glance from the Mirialan. <"Doesn't know her own strength,"> he quips. <"That always ends well."> Suddenly they are six, not five, an occupant of that closet revealed. As that skittering little 'bot maintains its distance Khalim dares a longer look at the man that had just given them that vaguest of warnings. Seconding Kasia, he adds, <"Coming back later seems wise."> Those noises had just registered. <"We are far from alone. Everyone, follow Kasia. Follow her to the ship. Follow her to a tap. Just follow her."> He does not immediately follow his own direction, staying in place and extending a hand to Shi. <"You coming?"> Only if accepted, and once all others are in run-mode does he enter the same himself.
"Frink," Muri whispers, looking past the boogying spiderbot to the dreadful sound of many, many, many more leggy boops. A glance down to her utility belt, coupled with a little nervous self-pat down, discovers that she'd left her ion and glop grenades in her locker and the only thing resembling a detonator on her person is...a CryoBan. Probably not the most effective weapon against inorganics.
Plan B: Run!
"I'll warm up the engines!" Shouted like she not only seconds Kasia's motion, but anticipates making it back to the ship ahead of everyone else. Which, naturally....ain't gonna happen. Just one and a half short-legged-sprinter strides in, she catches a little thingamagig underfoot (of closet origin, no doubt) and goes stumble-staggering forward, bouncing a shoulder harmlessly off the wall.
"Well I did not expect you, and definitely not our target," Tovi makes a little sigh sound exaggerated as she eyes Shi Jian on the ground. She goes so far as to help him up if need be. The heralding of his knowledge of the little mechanical droid creatures with their eight legs and curious bobbing leaves her hesitant. FOr just as everyone decides that haste is needed to evacuate there is a swarm that starts to consume the corridor. Though they may be small they are many. Mighty in numbers as they crawl across walls, floor, ceiling. There is no friendly pause or bobbing now, now its just a mindless rush forward towards the invaders who are dirtying their hallways.
"What on...yep nope, you do not get a choice." She grabs at Jian's arm and hauls him free of the rest of the closets debris. "GO!" She declares and she is already hoofing it, giving little nudges or even helping to haul someone forward where needed, making sure to bring up the rear of the group.
The scuttle click clack of the swarm is overhwelming as the sound fills the narrow passage.
Shi Jian looks over the group, noting each odd addition in turn before lighting on Khalim, said hand reached out and the man in lab coat recoils. "You are..." Then brown eyes squint and he looks closer. "What division are YOU with?" There's confusion, and... Revulsion? Something perplexed in his expression. Then, his eyes halted on the clone armor, his hand is taken and he's pulled forcefully along by the VERY strong Wroonian. He tries to keep up, but his feet quickly give out beneath him.
"What are you? Abduction! Hel-" Jian begins to call out, and then he sees the skitting cleaners, and security droids, coming en masse to investigate. That's the sound? "Sentinel Alpha Six Two Three Two, Sentinel Alpha Six Two Three Two! Identify!" Passcode! Passcode? He hopes... He must really have hit his head.
Adalee's swept up in that same rush towards the exit. She's not the fastest, and maybe a time or two she almost tumbles head over heels, but she manages to stay on her feet and ahead of that mass of machine spiders. Netep Muri's rebound off the wall is the only time Adalee almost falls but with both Ada and Tovani's help she manages to not be consumed by all those chittering little critters. "Open the dooooooor!" she yells as they get nearer the installation's exit. "The ramp I mean, the ramp! Lower the raaaaaamp!"
"Do you /want/ to stay here?" Kasia shouts over her shoulder as she hears the cries of abduction. "/Here/?!" she repeats, while booking it down the hallway. She doesn't wait for an answer, leaving Jian behind to consider his options as she pulls ahead of the pack, partly to get the hell out of there, and partly to ensure that the way is clear for the others. She's stupidly fast for a thicc lady, but she can move when the situation calls for it. Apparently the threat of clean up crews is enough to do it for her.
Are they saving this man in the black pajamas? Or abducting him? Khalim is quite uncertain, though as Tovani pulls Shi Jian away and down the hallway the mirialan takes up the trailing position in their little escaping cluster.
Adalee's call out has Khalim activating his comms in a broadcast to a channel he knew the ship and its droid contingent were monitoring. "Ramp down. Ramp down." His voice would be instantly authenticated, and the Blur's ramp would be, at this very moment, descending back to meet the sand-whipped surface of this world.
"Run! The Blur is waiting!" he calls from the rear. He would not pass anyone up. He herds this crew, in his own way, though it's entirely unnecessaary in these moments.
Muri's rebound off the wall is landed gracefully in stride, somehow, and seems to be just the trick to get her on track with the whole 'run away' bit. She manages to gain a little ground here, a pass or two there, huffing and puffing all the way like a proper mathlete.
Cursing like an improper one.
"IF HE'S NOT YOUR MARK, WHO IS!?!!?!?!?"
"Does it matter?!" She yells back at Netep. Tovi proclaims as the sound of spiderbots begins to fill the corridor once nore as the reanimate. She glances back to see Khalim there, narrowing her eyes. As they scurry up the angled corridor the bots begin to gain on them. The ramp to the Blur is open and waiting as Tovi's heavy bootfalls carry her forward, pushing them all even the newly acquired Shi Jian. "GO!" She declares and she can feel one of the bots leap and grasp at her armor, feeling it start to whir as her body shakes. Armor is a blessing as the thing begins to try to disasemble her back piece.
They break out into the wind whipped landscape, the bot clinging to Tovi's back as she pauses to try to pull it free, unable to reach it. "GET IT OFF ME!" She is right next to the ramp, not wanting to take it on board.
Jian has quite an unobstructed view of the gathering and oncoming security droids. They seem to be unheeding of his shouted security code, which he must have misremembered. The dead weight he's offering is no trouble for Tovani, clearly, but he tries to stumble to his feet anyway, not wanting to destroy his clothes if they ARE intent to take him out of here. "Why are you- Mark? Are you mercenaries?" His voice is rough, raised over the panic and running and skittering metallic approach. One of the spidery security droids leaps for the Wroonian, and even though Jian tries again - "SENTINEL ALPHA SIX TWO THREE TWO!" - it does not release and is now attacking her armor.
One hand clasped by the Wroonian, the other clasping the ladle for some reason, the strange man leans backward, swinging a leg up to knock it away- and only barely missing her backside - and then coming back down with a heel strike that just about takes her ankle if she weren't still moving. "I never did LIKE these things! Sentinel. Alpha. Sixtwothreetwo!"
Adalee reaches the ramp in time to see one of those spiderbots busy disassembling Tovani's rear armor plate. Wait, her BACK armor plate. Shi Jian's attempts to dislodge it leave it still there whirring away! So what's a normally non-combatant girl to do? She swings her knick-knack satchel, full of expensive hacking gear, in an arc that sends the spiderbot tumbling to the ground. It immediately sets back up upon its eight spindly legs and DID IT HISS? In STATIC? Ugh! Gross. Adalee doesn't hesitate to dash up the ramp, joining Netep in the safety of an open airlock.
Kasia is huffing and puffing a bit by the time they make it out to that windy platform. Lucky for her, it's very windy, so the sound is lost in the gale winds that batter them. Her hair is a hopeless case, having been hit with wind twice, and then also running. The whole thing will have to be taken down, she's probably left behind a trail of bobby pins on their way out, but that's a problem for later. For now Tovani is screaming about a thing being on her, and she spots it right as Ada slaps the little bot off of her. The hand not holding her oversized blaster lifts, taking hold of the skittering spider bot, bringing the thing up into the air, and then flinging it hard in the direction of the nearest platform edge. Is it gone forever? Will it return with a limp and a grudge? She has no idea, but maybe she'll find out one day. For now, hopefully there aren't more to infest the ship.
Oh there are SO MANY MORE waiting to infest the ship, because look! Right over there, the entrance to this installation is beginning to brim with spiderbots boiling around its edges. As if they want to be out there spiderbotting like crazy but aren't sure! It's beyond their groundkeeping map, and that map is their world.
Khalim had seen that bot tearing at Tovi's armor and his pistol had shifted in his grip. A pistol-whipping was in store that would hopefully not have Tovani turning to smack him in return, but it's unnecessary given that dynamic double-teaming on the parts of Adalee and Kasia.
And so he runs. Runs and yells and gestures for anyone not yet aboard to be so immediately as his own boots begin falling once again upon the lowered length of that durasteel ramp.
"Do you not KNOW!?" Netep volleys back to Tovi with as incredulous a tone as a Muri is capable of mustering. Her boots pound arid, alien dust as she crosses the little span of platform to that sight for panicked eyes, aka the ramp.
The not-their-mark man, Mr SENTINELALPHASIXTWOTHREETWO, starts taking swings at Tovi for some reason - maybe he really DID want to stay here? - but Muri figures the shock-boxer can handle it, so just sprints right on by! All the way through to cockpit. The sound of others engaging in the melee comes through in patches via comm and lessens the need for guilt, yeah? Yeah. He's one dude. They've got this.
Even Lorrdians can misread a situation now and again, hey? Especially whilst sprinting pell mell through it.
