DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games CFH: A Call For Heroes CFH10m: Arrival

Amos

He moved silently into the shadows as he slowly drew his vibro machete that would cut through most anything. Silent and deadly.

2BB-2

He had observed the interaction with the Order BB-unit on arrival, and sent an inaudible query to Amos to see if he should try spoofing their IFFs. In any case, it wasn’t a plan to execute on his own, so he rolled into cover, extending sensor radius and relaying movement and location data to the team.

GM

J.B. Force-jumps into the rigging above the tank. Jix ducks into cover behind a blue barrel of Berko-8 cleaner. Its liquid contents should absorb blaster-fire well and the barrel is the right height for resting the bipod of his heavy blaster rifle.

Amos crouches behind the ramp with his vibroblade and is joined by 2BB-2 on high alert.

Even with the lights activated, the laboratory is dimly-lit and shadowy. The team are well-hidden from human eyes at least.

Stomp stomp stomp. The First Order security droids stomp down the ramp, carrying a large spider brace between them. Probably to the shore up a critical structural support.

Each droid is over 2 metres tall with white laminate armour and enough servo-strength to lift a grown man off the ground in each hand.

They stop at the bottom of the ramp, looking around suspiciously with their glowing red receptors. Why are the motion-activated lights already on?

They might continue with their task or they might revert to security protocols, report and investigate.

But what will you do?

Amos

He waits to see if they continue in their task or not, ready to slice and dice if needed.

Jix

He is patient. No point in taking on droids if they don't need to. He remains still and silent.

2BB-2

The Droid considered overriding the motion sensors to make the lights go out or flicker, behaviour which would be indicative of a mundane fault, but silence and stillness seemed to be the order of the day.

JB

Patience.

The Twi'lek waited in the shadows above, crouched and ready to fall on the droids from above. Her saber hilts were in hand as she stilled her mind and focused on the Force. She would react in that instant that the Droids changed their protocols... only then.

GM

2BB-2 has rewritten his chipware on-the-fly to allow him to lag-out the droids' sign/counter protocols using his networked slicing uplink. He could also actively jam with his comlink.

Both might give the team an edge but also tip off the First Order to their presence.

The security droids don't initiate a priority scan though. Instead they report in with robotic voices:

"Request sentry units to Sublevel 1. Possible signs of crawler infestation."

"Proceding with support task."

They carry the repulsor brace into the lab and set it down in a precise location before activating.

The brace hums and hovers into the air, ascending to the ceiling and unfolding load-bearing members.

There's a grinding of metal but the brace seems to work. The two droids spin on their heels...

"Task complete, returning to station."

...and march back up the ramp.

Jix

"Swift exit?"

If they can vacate this area quickly enough, they could avoid the security droids, especially if they could get down another level.

Jelly Bean
https://i.imgur.com/5u4oxaT.jpg

JB dropped down from her perch, putting her light sabers away before putting her hand on the tank one more time.

"We have a,,," She sought the right word to make herself understood. "A purpose. He have to stop those who hurt you. Turn off there machines so we can save the galaxy." She tried to imagine images to go with her words. "But I gave you my promise. We will help you. I will not leave you here."

Once finished, she turned her attention to her team. She was ready to finish this.

Amos

He waited and watched the repair droids finish their job and request security, then nodded to Jix.

"Lets be away from here and on to our mission before those sec bots show up." he said, sheathing his machette and motioning for Jix to take the lead. With her enhanced sensory abilities along with 2B, they had a chance to stealth away.

Jix

He does not need any more encouragement and heads deeper in looking for a way to descend, a way towards their goal. Weapon at the ready, he is intent of speed but is aware of possible alerts.

"2B can you check for any alert triggers?"

2BB-2

With sentry droids incoming, a swift exit was their best option, and preferably not along a vector the support called in would take. A brief affirmative chirrup at Jix' request, as he kept his sensors active and on high alert.

GM

J.B. feels the pull of the Purrgil's gaze once more. It sees her and she senses a creature whose natural world is all spaces, real, hyper and beyond.

She can be sure that the Empire were studying this animal. The Purrgil ability to communicate across whole sectors of space is too closely related to Ghidrah's ambition for it to be mere curiosity.

The question is, is this Purrgil calf crucial to Ghidrah's operation or is it just a relic of the Imperial research project, left behind and never terminated?

The First Order don't seem to be much interested in it and they're the ones who completed and now run Ghidrah.

J.B. has datapads from the original project though. Hopefully she gets a chance to scrutinise them.

For now, Mirror Team must push on but even as they leave the laboratory, J.B. can sense the calf's awareness almost as if it haunts her.

2BB-2's awareness is focused on the airwaves as he rolls down a ramp. He picks up encrypted burst communications from First Order sentry droids, the pyramid-shaped units with the in-built armaments and deflectors. They're inbound at high speed.

Mirror Team are one step ahead though, already disappearing into the darkness of Sublevel 2.

At the bottom of the down-ramp the team switch their optics to general purpose scanning, seeing in absolute darkness via grainy 16-colour images.

Still, it's easy enough to follow the metre-wide primary power conduit as it zig-zags through the bunker.

This level of the bunker might actually be in worse condition than the one above. As above, drapes of acid-melted metal hang from the ceiling, caused by ruptured mega-capacitors, but the plascrete walls are also cracked and breached and it's as if the mountainside has crept into the bunker. Rubble, dust... The team see what look like bore-holes in the walls, then Jix steps on something crunchy.

Perhaps lifting it up on the end of the bayonet fixed to his blaster, the Verpine sees a segmented carapace; some long dead arthropod.

As the team stop moving, they become aware of scurrying, scratching noises that seem to echo in the dark.

Jix

"Need to be sharp. Small critters around and we don't know how much of a threat they are. Let's try to progress quickly."

He starts forward again.

Jelly Bean

Emotions were problematic for Force Wielders. She didn't consider herself a Jedi even though she was trained like one. Maz had pointed out to her hat it would be her emotions that presented the greatest obstacles on her path forward. Jelly Bean knew that to be truth. She could feel it, even now, as she moved to leave the lab room and the Purgill. She felt it all through her training, this keen awareness of how her emotions affected her. The feelings she had for Maljean and the anger she had for the First Order. Further back, the years of enslavement to the Hutt Cartel. But simmering underneath all of it were the emotions and pain about her childhood. Abandonment and betrayal by her family and her clan.

JB focused her thoughts as narrowly as she could, finding a focus point. A flickering candle flame in an infinite darkenss. She poured her feelings into that flame until it turned as black as the darkness that surrounded it. And when she could only see the black flame rippling against the black void, she extinguished it.

I promise... I will help you.

But the creature's presence lingered in her mind, ans maybe that was comforting. It could be a focus for her.She followed her team further down toward the goal of their mission.

When they paused in the dark and the creepy sounds began to become pervasive, Jelly Bean stilled her mind again. She remembered the caverns of Ryloth and the many dangers that existed there. They could all be dealt with so long as you remain calm.

She reached out to put a hand on Jix as she stretched outward with the Force to feel for life and sentience. Again, another of the skills she was taught but never felt she mastered. The jumping and twisting and spinning skills... those were the things she was best at. Even pushing and pulling were better than the mental things. It took so much patience and calm... She thought of the Purgill and slowed her breathing and cleared the errant thoughts away yet again.

Amos

He trusted to his people in front to guide them safely but he pulled back out his vibro-machette in case any creature needed to be dispatched without the loud sound that his scatter blaster would make.

Jix

He is aware of JB's hand resting on his shoulder as his antennae quivered. He reaches up with one hand and rests it there for a few seconds, acknowledging and welcoming the contact. JB might not be Verpine but she is part of their team. It may not be the same but it is the best he has now.

GM

Jelly Bean uses the life-sensing technique that Preach is so adept at with mixed results.

Through the Force she senses there are many many things alive down here and all-around but what they are exactly she can't tell. They feel jumbled, indistinct, not individuals but an... ecosystem.

Maybe this planet isn't as barren under the surface as it appears from above.

With their scanner-vision, Jix and Amos see movement, creeping, crawling through the cracks, and 2BB-2's thermoptics show swarms of hot bodies emerging from the cold.

[Go to CFH11m: Accessing the Databanks]