IC: E-i-E - Ardent Emancipation

[Noedig]

Jarik heard Ice mention corpses and something began to worry him.

Ice, this is Crash. What corpses? The LAATs don't come with windows, over."

[Thundercracker]

Ice
"Those funny looking hills in the middle of that city over there? Unless my scopes are wrong, those are corpses," Ice replies to Jarik's comlink.

The Mrlssi flips a switch to send an encrypted message to friendlies.

"All craft, stay above 2500 meters, repeat, do not descend below 2500 meters. Predator pilot, do not exit your vehicle," he says.

"What chain of command?" he mutters after making sure the comm is switched off.

Spoiler

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Ice wants to talk to Kel and Sharka (edit: make that the entire party), which ships are they on? If they're not on the Dawn, he'll open a channel to their comlinks. Also, have we taken out the automated turrets yet?

[Iron Victory]

Sairen's eyes go wide with terror as the Chiss' composed expression fades. "I've seen this before, an old file... Imperial bioweapons Project I71A. It was an infectious viral agent that attacked biological tissue and transformed its victims into violent, undead monstrosities. The last known outbreak was over 100 years ago, its presence here is... troubling, to say the least." He takes a moment to contemplate the situation. "I agree with Dr. Sharka, we need to gather samples. I request to be part of the landing team. Extreme caution is required here, full hazard suits only."

[Mithric Gunn]

"If we can figure out how the virus affects the hosts, we may be able to synthesize something to destroy it."

[Noedig]

Jarik popped off his helmet and scratched his beard. Standing in the back of the LAAT was starting to get tiresome. They'd removed the speeders from the back to accomodate both Jax and himself, and it was more uncomfortable than usual. He pulled out his comlink.

"Crash here. Are we going to snag the VIP or not? The LAATs can't stay airborne forever, over."

[Major]

"Negative." Kelaeon says in reply to Sairen and the Doctor, "Our mission is not to deal with bioweapons, our mission is to rescue the VIP. While knowing of the weapon is useful and allows us to protect ourselves against it, needlessly going around and gathering data is a risk to the mission." He says, "I repeat, if there was a way to grab it another time sure. But right now we aren't going to land, grab samples, and do the mission. We are on a timer and we do not want to cause questions by us randomly landing."

[Philistine]

Graff doesn't reply to Ice's call - playing dead means electronic silence, after all. He double-checks the indicators on his suit, and then on his ship, to be sure that the airtight seals on both are still holding, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as he does so.

Using active sensors is out of the question, of course, for the same reason he's staying off the comms, so he stares out the fighter's viewport while he waits for his ride to arrive. After a minute or two, he remembers to activate the electronic augmentation package included in his new helmet - the new systems don't help him much while flying, but they do wonders for ground-based scouting.

Spoiler

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Perception: (1d20+12)[4](16)

[Felhammer]

All the LA-AT's are sent back to the Kestrel. The 4th Platoon sticks around to aid the PCs, given that their suits are environmentally sealed, for a few hours. The rest of your suit up in Hazmat outfits. Their bulk makes moving awkward and their iridescent yellow color makes camouflage all but impossible. The Red Dawn and one LA-AT slowly slink into the Prison via it's gaping maw-like entrance. The lights are all off, save for those being generated by the ships and the Hazmat suits. The Troopers jump out of the LA-AT and form a perimeter. The room is large enough to house several small prison ships. Large red and black tubes (with holes large enough to fit a single wookie) dangle eerily from the ceiling, some 6 meters above. Jarik has heard of such devices before, they are used to dock with prison ships and suck up prisoners deemed too dangerous for anything except maximum solitary confinement.

To the north is a wide, open staircase, leading to a grand cargo holding area. Hundreds of crates, both large and small, litter the platform. Beyond them, atop two spiral staircases, are two doors. One appears to be lead to an elevator, the other a hallway. To the east is a massive bullet-shaped ship, painted in reflective, shiny silver. Ice and Sairen recognize the design as the latest model of yacht from Naboo. Beyond the Yacht is a doorway leading to a room called "Initial Interrogation Chamber". To the west lies a very basic prison ship. A 20 meter long cargo container, docked to a small sub-light shuttle. Ice recognizes the design as being the bog standard workhorse of the Empire. He fiddled with one a few years back, the shuttle is slow and not very maneuverable but it is cheap and easy to repair. It also seats a crew of 8. Beyond the prison ship, lies a door leading to a room designated "Prisoner Cleaning Chamber".

No one sees anything that looks like a control panel in the immediate vicinity. Wireless Access has been disabled.

[Noedig]

Jarik checked the power pack in his rifle for the sixth time. The lack of resistance in the prison was...unsettling. He keyed his helmet com.

"I don't like this. Things must've gone sideways in a real hurry for these ships to get left behind, especially the shiny one. Bet it's worth a karking fortune. Whaddya think Ice?"

[Thundercracker]

Ice
Edit: "Yeah," Ice replies to Jarik, "250k at least, no signs of combat though, which could either be very good or very bad, depending on if you're a glass half-full or half-empty kinda guy."
/Edit

Figuring the shuttle was the last ship to arrive, Ice heads over to the 20 meter cargo container to inspect its manifest and possibly get a date of arrival.

"Looks like hallway, staircase, or interrogation chamber from here," he says, "we could try to clear each level before moving up to the next, or we could try to guess where the control room is, your call, Kel."

Spoiler

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I'm assuming there's nothing that looks like an active computer terminal where Ice can try to access logs and/or a map of the prison. If there is, he will naturally try to take a look.

[Thundercracker]

Ice
The Mrlssi weaves his way between crates, to the prison ship and inspects the door control panels.

"I'm going to try to get inside the ship to see the logs, he says, "someone cover me so I don't get my face chewed off?"

The slicer pulls out his pistol and then attempts to bypass the door lock and activate the shuttle's gangplank.

[Noedig]

Jarik nodded as Ice stepped over to the prison shuttle and tapped his comm.

"Nomad, Shaggy, Scratch: I want the Panthers, Acklay and Mynok to form a tight perimeter around this ship, on the hop. Twenty meter circle, nothing hostile in or out. Aim for the head and for karksake don't let them get close or I'll shove a rifle up your asses sideways. Jax, you stay out here and keep my platoon in order. Hammer, you and the Banshees are with me. Form up on me and Ice, double time, weapons up and hot."

He waited for his orders to be carried out before giving Ice the go ahead. He keyed his comm again, almost as an afterthought.

"Oh, and keep your hats on. No smoke breaks. And no wandering off for a piss. You have to go, go in your suit. Jax will feed you your rifles if you test me on this."

[Major]

As he climbed out the ship, Kelaeon clenched his fist as he looked around. This was very bad and he didn't like the looks of it. "Make it quick. This biohazard slowed us down and we want to get the prisoner and get out of here, if that is still an option." He says, "Check for danger and anything quick, and then we move on."

[Felhammer]

Ice climbs up into the shuttle. His footfalls clang against the metal ramp like giant bells. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! The inside of the shuttle is lit only by a humming red emergency light, which flickers at random intervals. The seats have been ripped out of the floor and flung around the room. The upholstery has been ravaged and ripped up. Blood is splattered everywhere on the seats, the deck plating and the windows. There is a single active, blood stained monitor. The screen is completely black save for a single line of text, "Pounding. Pounding. Pounding. They are right outside. We are out of ammo. They have clogged the engines. We are doomed. Oh god they're coming i"

[Noedig]

Jarik swept in behind Ice, rifle poised. As Ice checked the cockpit, Jarik took point as he and the Banshees swept and cleared the rest of the ship. His new eyes had other uses than being unnerving and the dark interior of the ship resolved itself into a sharp black and white.

Very useful indeed.

Spoiler

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Perception test with my darkvisiony goodness.
(1d20+12)[16]

[Thundercracker]

Ice
"Wonderful," Ice says, checking for a date to determine how long ago the attack took place, "once we're done here, I want to check the other ship."

Once the sweep of the prison ship is done, Ice will head over to the Naboo yacht.

"Nothing like wandering around a dead virus infected planet on a schedule," he mutters as he waits for the platoon to get into position and opens the gangplank.

[Felhammer]

Jarik sweeps into a completely pitch black containment and transportation trailer. The hallways is narrow, just one meter wide. On each side of the hallway are black durasteel plated walls. Every four meters lies a magnetically sealed door. Suddenly something small skitters along the ceiling. Before anyone can react the small creature lunges down upon Grim, the female Kel Dor. The creature's pointed limbs pierce her eye lens. It then sticks a different limb into the hole and sprays a fine, glowing red mist inside. The creature then jumps back onto the ceiling. Grim screams in pain as she desperately tries to rip her helmet off. As Jarik wheels around to see what just happened, he catches a glimpse of a glowing red eye and eight metallic limbs. The little droid then screeches - "SECURITY ALERT! PRISONER X-91-ALPHA HAS ESCAPED CONFINEMENT! TARGET HAS BEEN NEUTRALIZED! Prisoner X-34-BETA HAS ALSO ESCAPED. SUMMONING REINFORCEMENTS."

Ice can see the blood splattered screen in front of him light up with a warning of a prisoner escape. The door leading to the containment and transportation trailer slams shut. Suddenly, a mechanical hissing noise can be heard, along with the sound of metal scratching against metal. The northern end of the trailer slams against the ground as it is no longer being hoisted up by the shuttle.

The slam is as loud and unexpected as it is jarring. All of the Banshees are flung to the ground. Jarik only manages to remain standing thanks to his mechanical limbs. Grim screams, "MY SKIN IS MELTING! AHHHHHH!"

Ice then sees another window pop up, "Automatic spacing of unruly prisoners commencing in T-Minus 20 Seconds."

[Noedig]

Jarik ground his teeth and drew a bead on the little droid. He hadn't seen it and that had probably cost Trooper Lai her life. He took a breath and squeezed the trigger.

Spoiler

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Aim and fire, activating deadeye, sniper and careful shot.
(1d20+11)[20]
and a force point, because I liked Grim.
(1d6)[4]
(1d6)[5]

[Felhammer]

Jarik lines up and shot and snaps off one of the little bug droid's limbs. The other troopers furiously fire into the bug as well. Fixer manages to aim true, piling a shot directly into the droid's ocular mechanism. As the droid falls to the ground dead, five more of the same spider-like bug crawl out from underneath the deck plating. They skitter forward and screech in unison, "EXTERMINATE REBELLIOUS PRISONERS!" All five of them lift up a leg and spray a fine, glowing red mist. The cloud quickly wafts about, contaminating the entire hallway. Much of the mist collects on your armor, coating it in a blazing red powdery dew.

[Thundercracker]

Ice
"There's still prisoners on the ship?? They're going to dump the prisoners into the prison!" Ice says.

The slicer begins to attempt to override the prisoner spacing command.

Suddenly the spider droids attack, and Ice furiously attempts to shut them down before more casualties are taken.

Spoiler

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Take 10 for DC 32, otherwise:
(1d20+22)[42]

[Noedig]

Things were going from bad to worse. Grim was down, possibly KIA, and there were five more of the little karkers running around. He had no idea what the mist did, but if Grim's screams were any indication, it was very, very bad. He lined up another shot and keyed his comm and shouted furiously.
"ICE! WE'VE GOT DROIDS! SHUT THEM DOWN! NOW!"

He picked a droid and fired.

Spoiler

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Aim, fire, kill.
(1d20+11)[31]
(4d8+5)[16]

[Mithric Gunn]

Realizing that there is little he can do in this situation, Dr. Sharka immerses himself into the current, picking out a trooper and helping to guide that trooper's aim.

Spoiler

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Using Enlighten on a trooper:
(1d20+17)[30]
Using my immersion to hide myself and the trooper from the droid's sensors.
(1d20+17)[33]

[Philistine]

In the hangar bay, Graff stalks the 4th Platoon's perimeter restlessly. The hazmat suit isn't nearly as comforting as might be expected under the circumstances, due to the way the unaccustomed bulk interferes with movement; Graff's movement is partly intended to familiarize himself with the suit, as well as to burn off nervous energy and keep an eye on the team's surroundings.

He's passing behind the shuttle when the boarding hatch suddenly hisses closed, followed a moment later by the end of the cargo pod dropping to the surface below with a tremendous noise, and he whirls, crouching and reaching for the blaster at his hip. When nothing else appears to be happening outside he straightens, and begins trying to make sense of the com chatter from Crash and Ice. He immediately rules out trying to force his way aboard the shuttle - the people already aboard must be packed in like canned meat (a simile he swiftly regrets), and crowding yet more people in there isn't likely to help anything. And besides, they might be about to have problems of their own out here. Opening the door might help, but first he keys his comlink.

"Jax, this is Squadron Leader Graff. I'm not gonna tell you how to do your job - but if I were going to make a suggestion, I'd say it might be a good idea to have a few of your people covering this-here cargo pod in case it spits out something ugly from the transport pods down the sides. Meantime, I'm gonna try to re-open this hatch." With that he steps up to the just-closed hatch and keys the access panel.

[Iron Victory]

Sairen, who had been hanging back and examining the wreckage rushes forward to help Jarik and his troopers. "In the name of the Emperor, hold your ground!" The Chiss' bodyguard, Titus, fires at the droids while shielding his charge.

Spoiler

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I'm really sorry for the delayed post. I'll be much quicker in the future.

Sairen (I'm not very effective against droids...)
Move Action: Move up towards the droids and Jarik.
Standard: Know Your Enemy: Galactic Lore (1d20+19)[32]
(Try to learn their Reflex Defense.)
Swift: Activate Born Leader.

Titus
Move Action: Move up towards the droids and Jarik.
Standard Action: Fire his Blaster Cannon with Rapid Shot at the droids. It's an Area Attack so he'll try to target as many as possible
Attack: (1d20+10)[30]
Damage: (4d12+4)[20]
Swift Action: Activate Harm's Way on Sairen.

[Major]

As the door seals Kelaeon looks at Graff and nods before quickly activating his lightsaber in case of trouble. He looks around and draws on the Force to try and sense his surroundings for any danger.

Spoiler

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Use the Force: DC 15 to ignore cover and concealment, DC 20 if total cover
(1d20+16)[34]

Perception:
(1d20+6)[12]
Force point
(1d6)[4]
(1d6)[5]

[Mithric Gunn]

Sharka immerses himself in the force as he scans the area for potential threats.
He turns to Keleaon, "Knight Keleaon, if there are only droids left active, I could sneak myself and another into the prison, possibly to disable any defenses."

Spoiler

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UTF to stealth and hide from electronic sensors: (1d20+17)[19]
Perception: (1d20+17)[18]

[Felhammer]

Ice finds that the droids are not networked in the least - they are fully autonomous. It is as if the Sith created these bugs for the specific purpose of confounding and bewildering any prisoner that dare escape his cell.

Jax glares over at Graff, "If you were any other man, I would rip your arms off, shove a pile of detonite down your throat and laugh as I detonated the explosives. But..." He smiles, "you are friend Graff and I do not harm friends." Jax then turns away from Graff and yells in a very guteral, almost incomprehensible voice, "Karking sithspit get the load out you weak-kneed Hutts! I want the lieutenant extracted in 30 seconds! Boom Panthers, have at.

Several of the Panthers run up and begin laying down a small charge along the cargo container's hull.

Kel senses 9 souls within the cargo container, along with one life that has recently been snuffed out. He can sense the existence of four spider-like robots inside. He also senses... What feels like a dark and ominous presence coming from deep within the bowls of the prison. The presence notices Kel and becomes intrigued. It reaches out for you and whispers, "Kel. Here. Reasons? Invasion? Reconnoiter? Extraction. Desires something special. Me? Secret Sith Project? The Ee. Interesting. Did not foresee this eventuality. Must extrapolate new plan."

The good Doctor easily hides himself from all surveillance and sees nothing out of the ordinary in the immediate vicinity.

Spoiler

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Sairen's attack must be retconned away since he is not inside the cargo container/prison ship/shuttle.

[Noedig]

Jarik was rapidly upgrading from annoyed to furious with these damned droids. The more rational side of his mind argued that, while unfortunate, a single casualty was hardly worth getting riled up about. The other of his mind said 'kark that' and he kept firing.

"Come on you karkers! Come dance with Crash! Banshees! Fire your weapons!"

Spoiler

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Aim fire kill (hopefully) and order my squad to do the same.
(1d20+11)[15]
(4d8+5)[18]

[Felhammer]

All of the Banshees and Jarik fire into the four bugs but, alas, to no avail. The little droids prove very agile and vexing. The four bugs lunge forward in unison. Jarik quickly realizes the little karkers are using advanced tactics as he takes aim at the droid leading the charge (who swiftly evades the assault). This realization comes too late as one of the bugs jumps up and attaches itself to Smash's helmet. In an instant, the droid dives its spear-like leg into the glass and, once through the thin material, sprays an obscene amount of the red mist directly onto its target's vulnerable flesh.

[Felhammer]

Momma Bear howls with anger as she clutches the screaming Chiss.