Log:The Unclogging of Beacon Outpost

The Unclogging of Beacon Outpost

OOC Date: November 6, 2015 (Optional)
Location: Beacon Outpost
Participants: Zonk, Ektor, Tallie Lintra, Zandra naMuriel, Sera West, Finn, Lofty, Kryll, Fil, the Plumber Tech

"This must be the place..."

The hulking, slouching, purple monstrosity who somehow slipped past Resistance recruiters has also somehow figured out where the meeting place was. All the people in orange suits probably helped.

And all the flashlights.

And the guy yelling 'Zonk! Over here! No! Look where I'm standing! Right here!'

The guy who did that is named Fil.

Fil seems to be about a hundred years old, give or take fifty, it's hard to tell with humans, especially when they get all pruney and their mustaches start getting all gray. He wears a Resistance Maintenance uniform, and appears to be the maintenance tech in charge of all the other maintenance techs.

There's only one other maintenance tech in his department, but Fil is in charge of him.

The two maintenance techs are standing at the manhole cover to the sewer, which the Other Tech is currently trying to lift. He looks very much like he wishes that he were in charge instead.

"Yeah yeah... quit yer yappin! I know where all the maintenance access whatsajookies are. Houks have photomatic memories." Wiping the sleep out of one of his beady yellow eyes, with a giant purple fist, Zonk looks slightly less present than usual, but just about as truthful as ever.

"Why do we gotta go down in the turd tunnel anyways? Ain't that what we got you floppy little nerds for? This ain't what I signed up fer..."

Fil draws himself up to his full five and a half feet of height, looking Zonk square in the eyes and twitching his mustache ominously.

"You're here, Cadet, because we have a pressure imbalance. And when we have a pressure imbalance, we start getting backups all over the base. And when THAT happens, I get angry vidcalls from all the muckity mucks asking me why the sewage is overflowing in their showers. And I'll have to tell them whose been filling up all the TERLETS and eating all the BEANS!"

Zonk hangs his head, and doesn't ask any further questions.

"Right, so.. pressure imbalance?" Ektor interjects curiously. "I mean.. I volunteered for this it weren't punitive or nothing. Damn sure weren't for breaking a couple.. dozen regs." Anyway. "ANYWAY, once we drop into the stink what needs doing, yeah?" Ektor isnt even in uniform. He's in the most worn out and mysteriously stained undershirt, trousers, and boots he could find .

One of those muckity mucks who get testy about standing in sewage while taking a shower is heading toward the scene. The flashlights beams look like old recording of beacons over cities being bombarded, grainy footage showing bombers, the tech standing around looking like the survivors of the terrible aftermath. Tallie has a flight uniform on, so old, so grease stained and patched that when she took it out of the plastic bag that it had sojourned in, she extracted it with two fingers wondering if she could even get herself into the thing.

"Volunteered. Someone somewhere thought it would be funny to get a muckity muck in on this."

"I don't even know why I'm here." Says Elrych who's near Ektor, "See... some guy said Force Imbalance so I had to come investigate. Why you gota be so disingenious!" He's likely kidding and is on duty because he's got his flight suit on, lightsaber handing from the utility belt. He peers on curiously towards those working on the manhole. He's just missing a cup of Caff and or a shovel.

Zan is wandering by, and finds a group. She pauses. "Must be here," she says. "Someone told me to come see what is going on. Something about sewage in the shower, and surely to goodness we could help?" She shrugs a bit, as she spies folks she recognizes. "So - uhm, should I just turn and go the other way?"

Chief West was here because drek rolled down hill. She had a specialized suit on, with a re-breather, and an all encompassing mask to keep drek from getting in her hair. NOT THE HAIR. -- She held a special tool kit, and was armed with the knowledge of engineering. <"Alright.. let's get this plunging party moving already. Chow's in half an hour, and it's some sort of spicy Sullustan that will require the freshers to be working.. or the lizard lions in the swamp will have their choice of a new buffet by the shoreline.">

Fil looks over to Elrych, "The only durned imbalance is the improper amount of force used to abuse all the damned terlets on his base. Its like you all have no proper respect for sanitation! You all think that everything down here works on majics, mystical workings below that somehow allow yourselves to live care free in your fancy rooms!" the old man reaches up to smooth out his greyed mustache as he gets a little worked up. "This mess is beyond epic proportions, and we needed the help, we're short staffed. So thanks for volunteering for this /duty/." he looks back towards his assistants, "Come on already! Get this manhole open and all the well to do folks can get back to their lives all the quicker."

Lofty is here because NCOs get dragged into maintenance all the time. Especially when your sewer is near the water table and the water is brackish and swampy. He has a breathing mask on, but no gloves will fit his massive paws, so someone will have to hose the Talz off afterwards.

"Heh. 'Duty'," Ektor echoes with a crooked grin. Arright, let's get this thing open and get dirty, yeah? Lemme give you a hand, little guy," he mutters to not-Fil.

The Other Maintenance Tech is still struggling to lift the manhole cover, and has started cursing under his breath. Or at least that's what it sounds like he's doing.

Or, more accurately, it sounds like he's saying "SSssssssssssssssssssssshut up and help me with thisssssss sssssssssshithole cover, you sssssssstupid apesssssssssssss!"

He looks around at the assembled humans, and whatever Zonk and Lofty are, with eyes full of what can best be described as 'Reptilian Hatred.'

The Other Maintenance Tech is a Trandoshan, by the way.

"Here, little lady, lemme help you with that." Zonk reaches down, shoving past Ektor, gets his meathook around part of the cover, and lifts it up, letting it fall down on the permacrete with a loud bang.

It also falls on the Other Maintenance Tech's foot with a quiet thud.

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

It means something really offensive in Trandoshan.

But he's a pro, and recovers quickly, throwing a glow rod down the maintenance shaft to illuminate the... maintenance shaft.

"Quick! Down the ladder! And don't touch anything until I give you insssssssssssssstructionssssssssssss!" The Trandoshan looks over at Fil, and revises his statement.

"Don't touch anything until WE give you insssssssssstructionssssssssss!"

Zonk still looks sleepy, but also impatient.

"I don't need no crummy ladder! Houk's got automatic stabilizin' whatsits in their legs. Watch this!"

Both feet go together, and the Houk jumps down the maintenance shaft!

He scrapes his gut as he slides through the narrow hole, and bangs his head several times off the ladder on the way down.

There's a very loud, slightly squishy 'THUD', and then all is silent for about twenty seconds...

Twenty seconds later...

"Nailed.... it...."

"That really sounds like I should just maybe stay up here and make sure nobody accidentally falls down - oh Zonk, no!" Zan winces, but down he goes. "That's somewhat distressing." She steps back, eyeing the group. "Are you really going down there?"

Does the look of relief that shows on the captain's face when she hears the Chief's voice mean she thinks she is off the hook? Not likely. Looking at the hair cover on her head has her holding up a finger and saying, "I'll be right back."

Tallie is right back with what could be a shower cap duct taped to her forehead. She shares the fervor: NOT THE HAIR.

"Looking good down there!"

"Geez, say it don't spray it Fil." Elrych says with a frown before peering over at the others gathering from behind his thick rimmed sunglasses. To Zandra he shrugs, "Jury is still out on that. I'm not much of a wrench puller. Besides I don't think we all can fit down there all at once." He seems more intent on watch more so than helping, getting some sort of sick pleasure out of it all. He peers over the edge of the manhole. "That's a long way down, yeah?" You've received a +nom from Elrych Cometburn. +nom/pending to review.

<<"Right, we're going to need an expert on this one I think.">> Sera steps back, not exactly sure she wants to commit to going down there. Sera places a hand to her ear and steps away. <<"Hey, Norman.. Shut the rekk up and listen; no it's not about those-- WHAT DO YOU MEAN STABILIZERS?!.. Stop. STOP TALKING. LISTEN.. Send Finn over here to help with the rekking terlot situation. Yes.. YES THAT GUY. YES, THE RESISTANCE HERO. THANK YOU.">> Sera looks to the others. <"I've called in reinforcements. Finn, Resistance Warfighter, should be here shortly. He was trained in sanitation, I hear.">

Lofty brought a massive wrench suitable for turning sewer mains. But once Finn is called? Well, he will let Finn take the lead. Though the Talz can't help put peek down the hole that Zonk slid down, just to see if he is dead.

Shaking his head, Fil looks about at the folks trying to call for help. "You think some WAR hero is gonna come down here and fix this mess? He's got better things to do than deal with the largest systematic terlet abuse this side of the core." he starts making his way down the manhole. "Stop expecting someone to come save you, and get down the hole! That kinda think'n got us here in the first place!" the volume of his voice recedes as he climbs down, but the effort remains the same, just more echoey.

At the base of the ladder, there's a puddle of filth, a puddle of Zonk, and... a lot of other puddles.

More like a pond, actually.

As the delicate, pathetic humans start making their way down the ladder, Zonk tries to get up as quickly as he can, and tries very hard to look like he isn't in pain and DEFINATELY hasn't been crying.

He wipes away a tear with an already turd-covered hand, smearing it all in his eye and causing it to tear up even more.

So he just closes that one for now.

"Alright, Pudzos! Just stay out of Zonk's way... and keep yer heads on a swivel, I got a feelin' this is the First Order's work!"

From behind him, the Trandoshan glares at Zonk, practically boring a hole through the back of his head. He actually used the ladder, and managed not to injure himself r get covered in turds, which means that he's the MVP so far.

"Ssssssssshut up! Sssssssstupid, overweight, wasssssssssshout! We all know it wasssssss all YOUR FAULT! The terletssssss haven't worked right sssssssssincccce you CAME to thissssss dump!"

The Houk starts walking in the general direction of where he thinks the threat might be, balling his fists up for action, just in case.

"Great idea! Act like we don't know it's a trap! That'll confuse the phukk outta them First Order crudzos!"

Ektor peers down the hole after the plummeting Houk. "Your, uh.. stabilizing whassits okay diwn there, Zonker?" With a lazy shrug to Zan, he starts descending the ladder, before musing at Sera, "Love spicy stuff. Lets get this drek done in time for food, yeah? Like... literal drek, not.. some kinda symbolic drek, where drek us supposed to mean something else." All of this is while he climbs down the ladder. He glances up the ladder periodically as he descends, muttering a wordless disappointment before shifting his feet and sliding down the last length of ladder. With another crooked grin he snickers a d echoes the irate Trandoshan. "Heh.. 'dump'."

"Goddess, goddess, goddess," Lintra repeats to herself, thinking no one can overhear her. Looking up when she realizes she could be heard, she shrugs. She watches the others going down, Ektor capable of talking food despite the miasma of odor that climbs out of the hole and clings to their clothes. "I'm waiting for Finn because I don't know a drekking thing about plumbing or sewers and I'd like to eat today.'

Elrych doesn't go down in the hole just yet, looking to Sera and raising his brows. "Yeah... yeah. He can handle this." A Nod to Tallie, "I'm going to wait for Finn too." Full of excuses but also probably a sure bet. "Oi, Xer? How bad is it down there?" He catches a bit of the smell wafting up from the man hole and has to step back. "Did they bring any air filter, uhg."

Zan is already not assigned, just curious. She eyes the group and she says, "You know what might work for this? My ebon guard armour. Though I'd probably never be able to wear it again." Oh the decisions. "Are there air filters somewhere for those poor brave souls who are otherwise soon going to have no sense of smell ever again?" She peers down the maintenance shaft and shakes her head, stepping back.

Finn arrives in a bit of a hurry, his face etched in confusion (perpetual confusion) and eager innocence. As he skids to a halt, it becomes clear that no one told him he was going into the sewers as he's wearing his usual dark trousers, boots, and the old jacket Poe gifted him following his survival of a crash landing on Jakku. "What's... what's going on here guys? I came as soon as I.. oh, OH.. what's that.. Oh..that is terrible." Finn peers down into the hole. "Who's the unlucky soul who has to go down there?" Silence, and he looks to see all eyes expectant of him. "Oh come on guys, you can't think that I'm qualified to do this? I mean.. ask Rey, I didn't even-- I'm not talking my way out of this, am I?"

So Finn goes down the ladder, gagging the entire way down. When he reaches the bottom, his eyes narrow and he clicks on a light. "Where does the problem seem to be?"

"Well hells balls. Someone actually told you to come down here and help?" Fil looks over Finn's wardrobe and shakes his head, "Cowerds didn't even tell you why they needed your help did they. Some folks have no shame, like every terlet pounding fool up there tha caused this mess!" Fil turns towards his assistants, "Stop arguin with yourselves and lead the way to the bean blockade!" he looks at Finn's outfit one last time, "I thought you liked that jacket, why you bring that down here?"

The sewage system is just short of cavernous, considering the size of the place. It seems to mostly consist of a large holding tank, roughly the size of a mid-sized pond, where waste products are broken down before getting sent to further stages in the filtration process and sending the water right back up to the drinking fountains. Zonk certainly doesn't know how it all works, but he's got his fists balled up just in case.

The Trandoshan has his flashlight out, looking at the waste pipes that feed down from all over the Outpost and drain into the holding tank. Some of the pipes are submerged, some are juuuuust over the water line. Periodically, a sudden rush of waste water spurts out of the pipes, raising the level in the holding tank even further.

From the pipes below the water surface, there's no sign of anything, except for some occasional bubbles and weird noises.

"Hey Ektor! Did I tell you the one about the human who tried to dock with a Hutt?"

Zonk starts to chuckle immediately, and is unable to wait for the reply. "It your mother, Ektor! Hur hur hur! I'm just kiddin'. Just a little Zonk joke."

The Trandoshan rubs his temple with his free hand, while also scanning the pipes with the flashlight, looking for the most obvious place to start looking for the clog. He stands close to Fil, and pokes the old man with one of his clawed fingers. "Where do you ssssssssuppossssssse we sssssssshould sssssstart, ssssssssenile fool!"

Apparently Zonk isn't the only one who didn't take the Resistance's Mandatory Manners Briefing.

Ektor hollers back up the hole at Elrych, "Smells just like Corellia, you'll love it, yeah?" A snicker follows the words and he's trudging through the sludge and puddles along with Zonk, the Trandoshan, and Fil. To the last, he chuckles. "Hey! One of us could be a hero, you never know. I mean.. it's possible. Mathematically. Maybe it's even you, yeah?" Finn gets a lazy wave. "Hey there, Jumpy." Surveying the filth ruefully, he tilts his head to an angle. "Huh.. should there be bubble coming up like that?" he wonders, pointing out one particularly noisy and bubbly portion of sewage pond. Belatedly giving a flat chuckle to the Houk's 'joke', he gives the big reptile a slug in the arm. "I like your jokes, Zonker: they ain't too complicated."

The sun overhead is at just the right angle in the sky to illuminate the tunnel shaft. From her vantage point the light shines down into tunnel, reverberating off of the liquid obscuring the bottom. Reluctantly Tallie puts on the old field gas mask that she has laid on the ground nearby and gets down on the edge of the tunnel to peer downwards. Something large and black, but she can only see the outlines appears to be bobbing under the surface of the liquid at the bottom.

"Ektor. Ektor!" She calls, "Can you hear me? Something is down there in the water behind you all!"

Zan listens to the conversation, and moves to put a face mask on as well, before she kneels by the hole near Tallie. She looks down curiously, but isn't seeing what the Captain saw. Instead she spies something at the foot of the ladder that has her shrug. "Wast of a good credit, no doubt," is her comment. "Someone surely lost a bet along with the credit." Who the heck would want any credit after it was down there?!

Finn is dry gagging, each time is stronger than the last until finally he just chokes, spits, and coughs more. "Oh,.. oh.. it's so bad down here. I see why the radioactive sign is up in the chow hall.. ugh.." In leaning over, Finn has spotted a pipe beneath the 'water' and sighs. "There--uhhh.." He dry gags again. "Under the UHHHH.." Again. "...." A hand comes up and covers his mouth for a minute, then he just points at the pool of drek. The pipe they needed was there.

"Get rekked, Xer." Elrych yells down into the hole just as Finn arrives. "Yeah... like. The whole system is clogged up I guess. You know about all this stuff. I don't." He steps back. "I'll make sure no-one locks you all in here or what ever." Such a good friend. "And ah... ya'll put in your lunch orders and I can go grab them."

Fil looks over at the gagging Finn and slaps him on the back, "Great eyes there hero! Finn has it right, the pipes down there are where we need to get to address this problem." he looks about at everyone else, "So, which of you drew the short straw? Someone get in that water and lets get this terlet problem resolved, so Finn can get back to saving the galaxy!"

Normally, a big strapping heroic type like Zonk wouldn't even notice a feeble human punch. But... Zonk just landed on literally all of his bones a second ago. He instantly tears up, winces, and looks away so that nobody can see the moisture which is definitely not tears streaming down his face.

"Heh. I gotta whole buncha them where that came from. My friends always told me I should have been a comedian, but good luck gettin' a Comedy License on Nar Shaddaa..."

Turning around, Zonk peers up toward the manhold with squinty, tear-filled, turd-smeared eyes. "The frell are you talkin' about, crazy lady? Of COURSE there's somethin' in the water. That's where the beans go to live after you're done with 'em!"

Shaking his head at the silliness, he gives Fil a look like 'Humans, right?' before remembering that Fil is a human too.

The Trandoshan Tech has started training his light on the area that everyone has identified as having Weird Stuff Happening. He doesn't seem as bothered by the smell as everyone else, but Trandoshans mate in swamps. Or... maybe that was humans?

Carefully walking around the pond, the Trandoshan peers into the water. "I think I can reach it without going in. I jussssssst need to..." He rolls up a sleeve, and sticks his bare arm into the turd-filled water.

"Jussssst need to reach in and.... yuck... it'sssss ssssssso sssssssssquissssssssshy! If I can jussssst.... hey! Issss that an.... eyesssssstalk?"

It is an eyestalk, suddenly snapping up from beneath the water.

And suddenly the Trandoshan has been wrapped up, and yanked down into the pond!

He doesn't even have time to scream.

Ektor cackles back at Elrych, relying on good humor to avoid focusing on his watering eyes and the filth they're surrounded by. "Admit it, that was funny!" Tallie is yelling something? "Huh? Yeah, I can hear you- you mean behind us, or the thing I was pointing at? Which- hang on, I think Jumpy's stomach is trying to get out through his mouth, here.." A blank look at Fil. "That don't even count as water!" Grumble, grumble.. "Buncha bubbles.. sure it's just rotting beans, but what if it's some kinda.. turd monster?" Then, an actual turd monster attacks. "WHAT IF IT WAS A MILLION CREDITS DOWN HERE?" he jokes reflexively, while scrambling to get hold of the poor trapped Trandoshan before the dianoga drags him to depths of dookie.

Lintra sees something waving in the water and then the Trandoshan's head disappears under the drek. Jokes float up to her like hot air but things are turning serious. The expedition to fix the system starts going down the drains in a hot second. They are up shit's creek down there. "No one suggested blasters or grenades!" The young captain pulls back her gas mask and hot foots it for the barracks and is back within minutes waving her Resistance issue blaster.

"Guys? Guys?" Elrych asks, having heard a struggle. "What's going on down there? Are you all okay?" He is unaware of the poop monster and contemplates going down there to assist.

Fil looks into water and sees something coming, he pushes Finn out of the way as the Dianoga arm reaches out of the water and then himself is grabbed. "This is why we can't have nice things! CURSE YOU TERLET ABUSERS! I didn't need to be here for this!" he starts beating on the arm, "Let me go!" then he notices he's over the sewer sludge, "No! No! Wait!" and then over dry land, "OK, Now let me go dammit!"

Finn avoids certain death by falling back, then he lunges forward to aid Ektor in holding onto the Trandoshan. He wishes he could say something helpful, something inspirational like Poe might; but all he has is dry gag noises and coughing/heaving as he holds onto the alien and tries to pull him up. "UUGH.. UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.. coughcoughcough UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" That's Finn, Resistance Warfighter and Hero.

His midsection wrapped up in a Dianoga Tentacle, the Trandoshan Tech has most of the air squeezed out of his lungs as he's pulled toward the water. But just before his arms disappear underwater, his hands are grabbed by the Very Heroic Ektor.

The Very Heroic Ektor who somehow also manages to avoid getting any dookie on himself.

With Finn's help, the two are able to pull the Trandoshan back out, stretching the Dianoga's Tentacle so far that it looks like it might snap, before the creature lets his prey go.

Somehow, both Finn and Ektor manage to avoid the spray from the Dookie Water.

Good thing that Zonk already had his fists raised, because his pugilistic mindset is probably the only thing that had him prepared to suddenly evade when a random Dianoga Tentacle comes his way. The creature's attacks don't seem to be all that coordinated, but then it only has the one eye. You try smacking people with a floppy tentacle and only one eye.

The danger past, Zonk watches apathetically as Fil is wrapped up by a tentacle and pulled toward the pond. The right thing to do would probably be to try and save Fil. But instead, Zonk just starts chuckling.

The chuckle quickly increases in volume, intensity, and pitch, until it's a full-on belly laugh, causing the giant purple Houk to double over as if he's in pain.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Haaaaaa! Ho ho HAAAAAA!" It takes a second before he can inhale again.

"I just... hahaHA! I just... hohoHAAAAA! I just remembered a new joke!"

Pointing into the turd water, at the turd monster, Zonk holds off laughter just long enough to get the joke out.

"Ektor! That's your mother!"

As he struggles to keep hold of the trapped Trandoshan by a death grip on one claw-tipped arm, Ektor's contribution to talk of blasters or grenadees is, "DON'T USE A FLAMETHROWER." Straining a hauling backward, he avoids following the dianoga-grappled reptilian into the pool, muttering, "I really hope this leg stays attached, pal- SOMEBODY SHOOT IT." Between pulls to try and free the Other Tech, he mutters to Finn, "Thanks- for the help... but- RRRRRRR. You'd.. better not- puke on me."

Breaths of the reeking air are gulped in when their eertion briefly ends and the Trandoshan is freed. Zonk's 'humor' draws a retort of, "That's not even a joke, it's just an insult- unless- unless you was going for some kind abstract thing where the joke is that there is no joke?" Anyway.. "ANYWAY, So we got some dumb monster stuck in a drek chute. I'm gonna need a thermaal detonator!" A one-beat pause. "Yanno. Or, the wizards could do their space magic thing, too. That could also work. Heeeeey, El-rock! I gotta 'disturbance in thee Force foryaa, down here!"

Tallie steps up to the edge of the manhole and fires willy nilly into the murk below missing everything.

"That disturbance better not be your mother!" Elrych says as he groans and starts to climb down the man hole and into the sewer system. "He was right... it does smell like home." As Tallie shoots the bolt rockets past him. It's not long before he's down in the tunnel and making his way towards the others, unclipping his lightsaber from his belt but not yet turning it on.

Zan flattens at the top of the tunnel, leaning in. She's not in, but leaning just enough to be able to see - ugh, "This stinks!" She uses telekinesis to try to freeze the thing in place, to keep it from attacking anyone else. Scary enough, it actually works!

Finn, Resistance Hero and Sanitation Specialist from Starkiller Base, stumbles away from all the missing blaster shots and uncovers the panel that would've answered all their problems. Without asking, and only gagging, the former stormtrooper activates the auger, which serves as a built in garbage disposal for dookie, or whatever gets stuck in the pipe.

Suddenly, someone is firing blasters around, and the tunnels become a light show as the blaster rounds start bouncing around back in forth. "What in thundern bantha piss is going on up there! STOP FIRING! How do we win any battles with people firing blindly into sewage pipes! This is not tactical brilliance!" then Fil is leaning and trying to dodge blaster rounds while being flung around by some sewer swimming bean collecting alien, which is far from effective. Finally, one of the blaster bolts catches Fil in the gut, going through the Dianoga arm, and into his stomach. "Erk!" and then he's falling, the Dianoga letting him go as he splashes into the sewage, disappearing into the sludge, glorious grey mustache and all.

"Hey Ektor, you really gonna let these crudzos shoot yer MOTHER!? Yooze Resistance people are cold-blooded."

Zonk may or may not actually be a reptile, for the record.

As the blaster bolts fly down from the manhole cover, some of them miss the dianoga and reflect off of the walls, bouncing around repeatedly as they ricochet back and forth, hitting anyone who isn't fast enough to get out of the way.

Or anyone who was busy picking his nose.

Zonk doesn't have a nose! But he's not all that fast, and gets hit by a blaster right in the chest.

It burns quite a bit.

Falling to his knees, Zonk looks down at the hole in his chest, a bit dumbfounded, trying to get words out through labored breaths.

"Yer... mudder.... is.... fat...." And then he slumps forward, falling into the tank just as Finn turns on the Dianoga Disposal and starts grinding up the creature!

There's a sickening shriek as the poor creature, who was only trying to crawl up the sewer pipes and stick his eyestalk up through the terlets, is slowly ripped to shreds and jetisonned from the pipe.

However, the auger also starts the cause a riptide in the tank, which pulls Zonk and Fil toward it!

Ektor blinks and ducks as blaster bolts ricochet around the drek pit. "Whoa!" Then Elrych appears with a laser sword. "Well, I *meant* the whole.. magic moving drek with your brains to pull it loose, but I guess chopping it up might work, too- nah, wait, then we'd have the chopped-off bit still stuck in the pipe. Huh." Then Fil gets shot and is dropped. "OH, DREK- The drek worm shot Mustache Guy!" Blink. "And Zonk!" More scrambling into the disgusting drek-and-dianoga-juice pool to try and keep Zonk and/or Fil from getting auger'd.

It was inevitable that she would find herself in deep drek today. Down the shaft she goes to try to salvage some it. Finn's dry heaves have her green under her mask as her feet hit the liquid and she starts toiling towards Ektor and whoever it is that has been hit or pulled under. "On ....*dry heave* my way!"

Just as Xer is diving into the poo pool, Elrych arives ducking as some of the dookie is flung towards him impacting on the metal wall. "What the..." He notices Zonk and Fil struggling and moving towards the auger. "Turn it off, turn it off!" There are more hazards in the water. The Jedi extends his hand and reached out with the force to attempt to assit Ektor with helping those two get back on solid ground or at least not get sucked into the churning disposal.

The current is much stronger than she had imagined, Tallie struggling to reach Ektor as he struggles to get the floating Zonk and what she thinks might be the Trandoshan. They are in deep doo doo now. Breathing deeply through the mask helps though Finn's dry heaves get sympathy flutters from her stomach as she dodges flog and sprayed sentient chunks and waste.

And all of a sudden Fil is lifted out of the slop and begins a soggy rise and drift towards solid land. He. is. covered. He gasps for air and vomits anything he had in his stomach and some things that who knows how many people on base had in their stomachs for a while. "GAHHHHHHH, Everything burns! I HAD MY MOUTH OPEN." he dry heaves some more spitting and cursing, then remembers he was shot too and his hands go to his gut, "This will not wash out!"

Finn reaches up to turn the auger off but finds that the switch is locked in place. Frightened suddenly, the stormtrooper takes hold of the lever and pulls with all he's capable of to jerk the switch down and deactivate the auger so no one has to die. Hopefully, the tentacle thing died though, and the terlots can get back into working order.

Zan simply reaches her hand, trying to extend her TK to help Elrych with what he is doing. It seems a much more reasonable action, though she does have to duck and dodge flying water and drek, even where she is.

As the purple Houk sinks under the water, he gets a momentary sensation of floating peacefully. For just a few seconds, it's like being back in the pool at Squilzax Memorial High School on Nar Shaddaa.

Actually, the water might have been chunkier there.

But as the auger pulls our favorite Houk toward his inevitable demise, something seems to be pulling him back.

And something else seems to be flailing near him, and punching and kicking his immobile purple carcass. It's enough to wake up the Heroic Houk, and strength returns to those mighty, not at all overweight limbs.

He's not overweight, the First Order doesn't know what they're missing.

Soon, Zonk is flailing just as pathetically as Ektor...

Jumping in to try and keep someone from going into a giant turd grinder was a snap decision, and Ektor would make it again.. but he was NOT prepared for just. how. foul the process would be. His progress toward the others stalls as wordless exclamations of disgust overwhelm more clear communication. "Bad idea!" he manages. "BAD IDEA." Still he flails mid-drek stream, disappearing under the drek for a moment, surfacing after to retch and report, "I REGRET EVERYTHING I'VE EVER DONE."

It's either let her gloves which seem to have a loose seam from their age fill up with the horror that they are swimming through or let go. One hand slips on its own, convulsing with disgust she strains to not loose her grip and join the glorious demise of part of Black squadron down the terlets.

Fil gets dropped onto solid land, with an unhealthy sounding SCHLOP. He can't even brace himself because his entire body is lubricated in waste, like its reverse day, and it released him. He heaves a couple more times, then looks about and spots what has to be done, with one hand against the blaster wound in his gut, he shuffles over to the auger controls and effects repairs. He tries to pull the lever, but his hands can't find any purchases, and he slips off and falls to the ground. "I. Hate you all. Someone pull the level please. I want to sleep in an engine."

The current, the drek, voices in the dark but one comes through. "The lever!" The current is helping as she is tugged towards the controls and is nearly swept by the dry area. She struggles up on to the dry area to add her strength to his. Under her mask, Tallie's face is a weird combination of red from the struggle and green from nausea, as she roars at the lever pulling with all her might and it finally pops out of position. Everything stops.

Sinking, ever sinking, Zonk is reminded of a poem that he read once in school. The words escape him now, as he's rapidly running out of air and getting dangerously close to the clog chopper which will surely end his life.

Too bad, he really liked that poem.

And it's too bad that Ektor's flailing woke him up, just so that he could be confronted with his own mortality.

And then, suddenly... everything stops.

But Zonk is still underwater and can't swim.

Fil, laying on the ground at Tallie's feet, looks up at her and offers a horrible smile. "Thank you." and then he dry heaves again and closes his mouth, as he tries to stop a sneeze, but instead, sprays a nasal cavety full of sludge into the air in an unwelcome thick wet mist. "Just end me now, there is no way I can clean myself enough to forget this. Not to mention, I will have to shave off my beautiful distinguished mustache. So much shame." he coughs, causing his body to recoil a bit then land back into the soggy position he's in with another SCHLORP. "Oh god, I actually taste the beans."

Beans is the final drop of drek for the pilot. Tallie rips off her mask and begins to vomit.

Zan holds to the ladder, with a death grip, and as everything stops, she slides down, quickly and then concentrates on where the flailing in drek is happening, because she can see that activity. There's a lot of concentration but Zan tugggs and her hand moves and then there's probably a slurrrping sound as she tries to get Ektor pulled out of the yuck.

For once in his life, when Ektor's head clears the sludge he doesn't start talking. The Tionese anchor had managed to keep a grip on the LARGER Houk anchor, as telekinesis saves him from the fate of drowning in drek. More retching, spitting, coughing, et cetera. Gradually,when he can manage a clear breath, he begins cackling. "Hehe.. I feel.. like.. Drektor."

On her knees and retching, Tallie overhears him and starts to laugh, clutching her stomach.

As the Houk's senses start to fade, he realizes that someone said somethign about seeing a credit chip lost in the drek. He sincerely hopes that they find it and do something great with it. Maybe a college fund named after him.

And then, he feels a pair of arms grabbing him from behind, and suddenly he thinks he might actually BE back at Squilzax Memorial High School, a cold greasy sweat breaking out all over him.

It's only when his head clears the water level that he violently snaps back to reality.

The reality in which he was shot in the chest, and has shit in his gaping wound.

And his eyes.

And his mouth.

And his ear holes.

Actually, the mouth was already the worst part, let's go back to that.

As he gets pulled out onto the nasty permacrete, he lies there panting for air and scanning around for more threats.

Looking back into the water, he sees the leftover chunks of the poor dianoga who only wanted to eat more delicious Bean Turds, and he can't help but feel a bit sorry for the thing, and a bit confused.

"So uh... did that thing come outta ME?"