Star Wars - DRK-1X and its Mistress

[shadowbloodmoon]

[sblock=OOC]Not a bad guess, overall....

Yes, the price for that fuel is outrageous, especially for a fighter. A light freighter may cost around that, but not a fighter craft like the Ari. If anything, a full load would cost around a thousand including restocking as well. [/sblock]

X spends a decent amount of time listening to various transmissions and such coming into and out of the comm shack. For the most part, they seem to consist of patrol reports and random chit-chat that is quickly squashed by listening-in officers. The most interesting thing is obviously the conversation between the ground crew and the incoming oreship:

"Roger Station Eleven Two Seven. Landing codes being sent now."
"Base to Relay Star One, what is your status?"
"We have the freighter in sight, sending confirmation to designation Alpha Two Four."
"We copy. Freighter, we have code confirmation. You may begin landing sequence."

Another conversation is also of some interest to X:
"Colonel, I don't understand why you are ordering such a change, we've been relatively quiet in the last few months."
"Are you questioning my orders, Commander?"
"Of course not, sir. I only..."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Excellent. Besides, you would not want to upset the Emperor when he arrives."
"He..he's coming here?"
"Yes. I received a transmission directly from his office this morning. I would suggest shaping up that unit you call a division. At least until the new units arrive."
"What units?"
"The new battalion of soldiers hand-picked by the Emperor himself. He thinks that this operation should be left in more capable hands."
"Of course. Sir."

And another:
"Perhaps I wasn't so clear the first time. Make sure that security is tightened down. We have reason to believe there is a traitor amongst your troops that is working with the rebel slaves to undermine this operation. We think that they are trying to bring in outside help. Trust no one."
"Yes sir. What of the arriving freighter?"
"Get it taken care of as quickly as possible. I don't want them using this as a chance to make a move. We can't afford to mess this up. Not this time."

It takes some time, but an audio sensor wrenching metal sound signals that the landing platforms are opening. Great gouts of steam escape from the maw that is being revelead by the large moving doors. A high-pitched whine tells X that the ship's repulsors are firing and they seem to be overtaxed with the bulk of the ship. If X didn't know any better, it would think that it would be impossible to fly such a monstrousity. It lands inside the bay with a heavy thud. You can still make out the upper half of the ship towering over the lip of the opening. The facility seems to come to life as guards and technicians appear from the woodwork and herd towards that area.


***

The technician only grins at Derek's mentioning of piracy, winking as the Imperials approach. He then nods towards the previously quiet tech, who has just finished sealing up one of the ship's refueling tanks. The man walks over to intercept the Imperials before they reach earshot of the vessel and they begin an animated discussion.

Without saying another word, the more talkative one finishes resealing the last of the tanks with Derek's help and then holds out a cred chip.

 

[Ambrus]

DRK-1X carefully disconnects itself from the com-feed line and then folds and retracts its various appendages back into its chassis. With its small and clean spherical profile restored the probot carefully scans the area, tracking the movement of the various personnel swarming around the facility; both to choose the safest path of approach to the freighter but also in an attempt to spot Four. Although 1X isn't about to risk capture by trying to rush to the freighter, it is mindful of the fact that it has a limited time frame in which to approach it, locate a safe and viable entry point and make its way inside the ship before it departs.

Once it's picked its path and the way appears clear the probot will silently slip off the edge of the roof, sink down to the ground and begin its stealthy and indirect approach to the edge of the mine's hatch. Taking refuge behind a piece of the immense hatchway's mechanism, DRK-1X slowly spins to scan behind it to ensure that its approach wasn't detected. Completing its 360º revolution, the probot then tilts forward to peer into the mine shaft to scan the freighter's surface and the configuration of the landing bay it's resting in. Again 1X attempts to monitor the movement of any visible personnel as well as for security scanners before picking its approach vector and entry point. DRK-1X final destination is the freighter's computer core so it attempts to spot an open and accessible hatchway or vent in the infrastructure of the freighter that leads into the crew-compartment somewhere along the spine connecting the bridge at the fore and the engine in the aft. Once confidant that the way is clear DRK-1X will leave its cover, enter the mine shaft and approach the freighter's access point in its attempt to gain entry.

******

Derek takes the proffered chip, clips it to his own and taps the few buttons that will transfer the four thousand credits from his to the other. The human replica droid then pulls the chips apart and pockets his own while holding onto the second. Looking at the crewman, Derek then pulls out his handheld comlink, keys it to the station's com-frequency and depresses the talk button. "Refueling is complete. Thanks for all your help. Requesting departure procedure instructions." Derek waits for a response with the requested details. Once satisfied that his way out is clear the human replica droid will take a few steps up the Ari's ramp before tossing the crewman back his chip and giving him a casual wave. "See you around." Derek wastes no time in sealing up the ship, powering up the Ari's Sorrow's engines and lifting off. If nothing or no one stands in his way, the droid will fly the ship at a leisurely pace back away from the station.

 

[shadowbloodmoon]

X watches for a while as the ground crew start running the ore freighter through its procedures. When the movement settles and each person seems to be on a task, X determines then would be a good time to make haste towards the ship.

Dodging through some of the shadows of the pre-fab buildings, X has a difficult time spotting Four. In fact, X hasn't seen her come out of the command building. She hasn't activated her encrypted comlink yet either, but that could mean she hasn't needed to or she has been captured.

Coming to near the edge of the open pit, X is well hidden by taking refuge underneath a crane control room. Its recessed panels allow the small probot to virtually disappear and still be able to see the ship itself.

Though most of the steam has dissipated, there is still moisture in the cold air that makes it difficult to pinpoint details. What X does see though is that the landing gear doors have ladders attached, which would indicate a way into the ship from them. There are also many small hatches that have been opened in the spine of the ship. These would seem to lead inside as well, as steam escapes from these.

Looking down further, the main hold has been opened in three places and X spots cargo elevators hauling up piles of some sort of glistening rock. These are subsequently pushed aboard the hold with repulsor crates. The men pushing the ore are wearing tattered clothes and chains are around there ankles. They are slaves. Around them are all the guards that had appeared from places around the facility.

As X is determining the best mode of entry, it spots something odd. One of the slaves doesn't seem to be wearing irons. Instead he is holding... a blaster!

The slave starts firing in random directions towards the guards, sending them for cover. It isn't long before he is answered with shots from the soldier's guns. Even as he goes down, more slaves have become armed and are firing. A huge firefight has erupted in the pit and not long after, the alarm sounds. So far, no one has seen X.

"Eyes, face is violet. You?"

***
"Roger, ship. Sending clearance codes n... hey you can't be in here. What the...?" Blaster fire cuts him off. The codes however survived and are now in Derek's possession. If anyone else in the area knew about the shots, they didn't react.
Deciding to get a move on, Derek tosses the paid credchip back to the technician. Derek sees the pirate checking the status of his reacquired credchip as soon as he catches it. As Derek enters the Sorrow, the Imperial tech that was talking to the quiet one notices and starts yelling and pointing is Derek's direction. This of course is Derek's cue to leave. Rapidly firing up the Sorrow, Derek is on his way. He doesn't get far before another transmission comes in.

"Unidentified ship. You were not given clearance to leave. Shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded." As if staking claim to the threat, the ship's proximity warning system detects two small craft detaching from the cruiser and headed towards Derek at high speed.

 

[Ambrus]

"Eyes green. Slave revolt in progress. Stand by." Taking advantage of the firefight in the pit below, DRK-1X sends a surge of power through his repulsorlift unit and shoots off the edge of the pit. The probot arcs silently through the steam filled air over the dim of blaster fire towards the top of the freighter (Hide +22, Move Silently +15, taking 10). Once it is within proximity to the hull of the ship, 1X arrests its forward momentum with another surge from its engine and stealthily traces a line along the spine of the ship towards the rearmost steaming vent. A quick 360º allows the probot to verify that it hasn't been spotted and to scan the inside of the hatch for security sensors (Listen +9, Search +10, Spot +13, taking 10).

Assuming it doesn't appear to have been spotted and doesn't detect an obstacle in the hatchway, DRK-1X will pause to transmit "Eyes violet" before stealthily making its way inside.

******

Derek activates the Ari's Sorrow's nav-computer and calls up the pre-programmed micro-jump he had prepared earlier as he calmly responds. "Unidentified broadcaster, you are in error. I am transmitting clearance codes now." The human replica droid quickly does at it says but, being mindful of the rapidly closing intercept craft, rests his hand on the lightspeed activator as he finishes simply by saying; "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a schedule to keep. Goodbye" With that, Derek pushes the throttle up to thrust the Ari's Sorrow into hyperspace to make his timely departure.[sblock=OOC]Did the crewman nearest to him hear the sound of blaster fire issuing from Derek's handheld comlink?[/sblock]

 

[shadowbloodmoon]

The steam making things difficult for the fighting men here in the pit, X spots numerous blaster shots missing their mark and hitting the ground, the walls and even the ship itself, sending sparks flying in all directions, adding smoke from superheated metal to the mists in the air.

No one takes notice of X, or rather, no one seems to care at the moment, but it makes its way towards the rear hatchway of the large vessel. Rising up to take a glance around, X can see that the fighting is still raging below it. Apparently the transmission X intercepted came too late to be effective.

Turning to face the hatchway, you can see that there was a defensive system here. Telltale lenses along the sides of the hatchway reveal that a laser mesh system was in place, along with an electrolocking mechanism. At the moment, these are deactivated however. It would seem that someone has already opened them. They are not here at the moment however.

X quietly hovers inside, taking note of the cramped space, even for a droid of its size. Various tubes, pipes and wires line the inside of this cylinder crawlspace. A glance at the warnings and labels tell you that these all lead to the engine section, mostly consisting of power conduits and control circuitry. It continues ahead more than a few meters and then seems to drop off in what would be the middle of the ship, judging from a quick calculation. The steam blocks any further sight. It is then that X picks up a voice, barely discernable with the sound of blaster fire outside drowning most everything else out.

"...Shhhh. We have to do this quickly or all of this will be for nothing. Now they said if we go this way then we'll the find the main..." The voice trails away.


***

The Imperial attempts a response, "Now you listen here! Turn that ship around or..." Anything else is lost in static as Derek and the Ari's Sorrow disappear into starlines.

[sblock=OOC]If the crewman heard the shot, he didn't show any reaction to it.[/sblock]

 

[Ambrus]

Knowing that steam, like hot air, rises DRK-1X slowly sinks down to the ground in hopes of getting a clearer view. As it does so the probot cycles through various sensor configurations in a further attempt to pierce the steam cloud. 1X then begins moving stealthily (Hide +22, Move Silently +15, taking 10) in the direction of the speaker in hopes of learning what is going on here and whether it will interfere with its mission. The probot is also on the lookout for any computer interface ports or labeled power conduits it could follow back to the computer core (Listen +9, Search +10, Spot +13, taking 10).

******

Safely in hyperspace, Derek removes his visor and then attempts something he's seen organics perform countless times before; he breathes a sigh of relief. Curious about the lack of a discernible effect the action provides, the human replica droid nonetheless considers the experiment a success and adds the mannerism to his growing list of behavioral protocols.

Although the trip through hyperspace is to be short, only bringing the Ari's Sorrow to the core-ward outer edge of the system, it should provide the droid with the few minutes of time necessary to shut down and reprogram his skill set. Derek leans back in the pilot's chair and closes his eyes, turning his attention inwards on his own Code.

Once his meditations are complete, Derek awakens, reaches forward and pulls back the hyperspace activator to bring the Sorrow back into real space. The human replica droid then begins the computations for a second hyperspace micro-jump; one that will bring the Ari's Sorrow back to Hurven Seven (Astrogation +4, taking 20). When ready, Derek punches in the transit locus into the navigational computer, takes the controls of the ship, turns it around and pushes the hyperspace activator forward once more.

 

[shadowbloodmoon]

X sinks as low as possible without scraping its underside on the ductwork. As it continues, it restablishes audial contact with the voice again.

"This is it. Set them here for now and keep an eye out, this might take a while." You hear the sound of something heavy being dropped to the ground. "I said set them here. Gah! Why do I even bother?"

X finally finds the source of the commotion. There are two men dressed in the same 'uniforms' as the rest of the slaves. One of them is tall and wide and the other is barely large enough to pass for an adult human. That is the one that was speaking. You notice that you have followed them into a control hub. Past this point would be the main engine room. There are also numerous access ports and datalink cables here. Next to the two men, there is a large bag that the smaller man is reaching into and pulling devices out of. The bigger man is simply looking around. Judging from what X can see of the control hub, access to the computer core should be nearby.

***

Derek soon arrives at Hurven Seven, the doomed pirate station a long distance away. His scanners pick up newer vessels that weren't there when he and his companions first arrived. They were unmistakable in their triangular shape. Not one, but two Victory II class star destroyers are visible against the light of the planet's solar azimuth. Their purpose can only be tied to the freighter that is on the planet's surface. At the the moment, they ignore Derek and, it would seem, everyone else in this sector of space.

 

[Ambrus]

DRK-1X endeavours to remain out of sight as it hovers silently behind some ductwork. The probot's photoreceptors zoom in on the devices the small man is pulling out of the sack, attempting to identify their purpose by comparing them to similarly configured devices in its technological database (Knowledge (technology) +6). 1X also records a holo-image of the strange pair as they go about their work for future reference.

******

Confronted with the sight of the two massive destroyers in orbit, Derek cuts the Ari's Sorrow's engines and sets the craft to drifting. The human replica droid considers the matter for a few seconds and then accesses its internal comlink's encryption algorithm to encode a brief message. Aware that the comlink hasn't the range to transmit the message to the planet's surface, Derek next opens the hatch at the back of its head and marries its own comlink to the vessel's communication console with a cable it retrieves from its datapad. Once ready, Derek enters 1X's and Four's comlink frequency and depresses the transmit button on the console before him. "Mark 57.2 mark 28.9 mark 765.3. Yellow binary star system nearing perigee. Listening for dusk."[sblock=OOC]In case you can't tell, Derek is using a pre-determined code. The numbers gives his x/y/z position using a specially made-up unit of measure with the point of origin being the last spot the Ari's Sorrow settled on the planet. Yellow is naturally an indication of an obstacle; the obstacle being a pair of star destroyers, or a 'binary star system'. 'Nearing perigee' means that they seem to be waiting for the freighter to launch. 'Listening' is self referential as Derek's designation is 'Ears'. By 'dusk' Derek means that he is waiting to see if the star destroyers will depart to determine if it's safe for him to follow the freighter into hyperspace.

Derek and 1X have previously concluded that if the Sorrow is prevented from following due to the freighter having an escort that 1X and Four will have to continue with the mission on their own and hope that they can arrange their own transport out of the cluster later.[/sblock]

 

[shadowbloodmoon]

X stays out of sight as it watches the two men work. The 'guard' has taken to leaning up against the bulkhead for support while the other man continues to work, at times berating the larger one for being so lazy. They are pulling panels of from the control hub and hooking up these devices to something inside. Most of them look like data recorders, but a couple also seem to have antenna for transmitting and receiving. There is one set of items though that is unmistakeable. The two men carefully bring out a small brace of permacrete detonators and begin to install those in the area the panels cover as well. After observing this, only once did X have to move slightly to keep from being seen. It is then that the small droid receives a message from its partner in existential exploration.

***

For the moment, the two giant warships stay motionless against the night sky. Derek casually glances at his screens and notices that many of the ships that had previously populated the place are rapidly making a transit out. He catches no sign of communications to these ships however.

[sblock]Once, X was almost spotted. Good thing there is a distraction penalty...

I figured the communique was a code of some sort. The only thing I didn't catch was perigee, as I'm not familiar with the word. [/sblock]

 

[Ambrus]

DRK-1X watches the pair intently, its attention focused on the order and method used to install the various devices as well as any keycodes the man uses to activate or arm them, recording them for future reference. The probot's worst suspicions about the pair are confirmed when it identifies the explosives. 1X wastes no time in transmitting a short range message intended for Four: "Eyes yellow. Two saboteurs found working in the primary aft control hub. Inquiry: Face send hands?"

The probot's emotive node registers frustration and despair when it receives its counterparts transmission from orbit; even more obstacles to overcome in the search for its Mistress. DRK-1X waits to hear back from Four while its heuristic processor attempts to determine the best course of action to take next.

******

Knowing that its counterpart's comlink doesn't have the range necessary to transmit a response to a vessel in orbit Derek doesn't wait for a response. He instead focuses on monitoring imperial communication frequencies in hopes of learning their plans. This was, after all, the role the two droids had expected the human replica droid to take during the mission; to sit and listen, hence his designation of 'ears'. With nothing better to do, the human replica droid leans back in his chair and continues watching the two distant star destroyers through the viewport while listening to com chatter.[sblock=OOC]Perigee: The point in any orbit nearest to the body being orbited. The use of the word isn't entirely accurate but the two droids chose it to designate the act of escorting or following the freighter, orbiting it closely, so to speak. It's particularly apt when referring to star destroyers as simply 'stars'. I myself had to look up 'azimuth' to catch what you were trying to say about the two ships.

This plot twist amuses me immensely. The idea of two teams of infiltrators bumping into each other while trying to carry out their respective but unrelated missions and finding that, although they share the same enemy, they remain at odds because their immediate goals conflict makes me laugh. I feel bad that they went to so much effort to stage a slave revolt simply as a distraction; they certainly couldn't have anticipated a rogue probot with its own agenda to stumble onto them. Now 1X has to stop these two jokers from blowing up the freighter so that it can then use it to sneak into the cluster. Comedic action worthy of Star Wars. [/sblock]