DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games CFH: A Call For Heroes CFH4: The Secure Vault

Jix

"Still need light, just see more detail when I do see something."

His antenna twitch as he senses for movement ahead of them. He is crouched, small target, ready to move quickly is needed, rifle at the ready. In soldier mode.

GM

Although all the team probably take in the view for a moment or two, Jelly Bean and Winta have a good, long look.

The wreck of the Starlight Wanderer is barely visible through the heat haze, with its hull being sun-bleached and gauzed with Jakku sand.

But blotchy as it is, there's no evidence of trouble. No smoke, no blaster fire. Jelly Bean's scanner goggles draw measurements and blink readings, intensifying the image, but the sky is clear of fast movers, only soaring steelpeckers. There are no dust-trails across the sand either.

Winta looks up, back the way they came, passed the silhouetted outline of the bridge section. Again, clear skies.

Amos is the team's most experienced animal handler and he's happy to leave the Varactyls unattended. They are said to be very loyal beasts, and these ones are also well trained for exactly this type of job.

What Varactyls living in a desert have to talk about, the ex-marshal wouldn't know but they squat on the wide sill gossiping with each other.

The bridge of the Star Destroyer is classic. A central 'command' walkway with technician pits either side, and encircled by an esplanade on the same level as the walkway.

The colour scheme is dismal though not much of its gloss remains. The sound-damping flooring has been ripped up and repurposed by wildlife, leaving trip hazards everywhere.

There are droppings and red-brown feathers from much larger birds than steelpeckers. The droppings contain crunched fragments of bone. You even see an orbital and nasal bone, a piece of humanoid skull. Larger and carnivorous birds then. From what they've learnt of Jakku, Amos and Jelly Bean might concur that there are Ripper-Raptors nesting in this wreck, deeper in. Nocturnal mob hunters, not much fun.

2BB-2's sensors indicate it's actually not that dark inside the bridge but everyone's eyes are so washed out by the fierce sunlight it seems pitch black at first.

The team's comlinks are handheld devices, small cylinders the size of a death stick lighter. One end talks, the other end has a mini-light. It comes in handy in situations like these.

Jix sets up her heavy blaster rifle to provide base of fire if needed.

Preach is the most cautious in his steps, and his caution is soon justified.

STOP!

Did someone shout it? Everyone senses it.

The wreck shivers, metal creaking omninously.

As 2BB-2 rolls up behind Sirra with his holoprojector illuminating the floor, she realises what's missing in this bridge.

The floor of the pits has completely dropped out, all the way to the far end of the bridge where there's just a black gulf.

The bridge section is effectively a head on a neck. Upon impact with Jakku, it must have slammed forward and back like whiplash. The bridge section's reinforced monocoque survived intact, but the decks and machinery constructed inside were ripped assunder.

Now Jelly Bean understands why the panes in the viewports blew out, and everyone has a better idea of the severity of the damage to the wreck.

Thinking back to the whiplash example, the Inflictor is like a guy wearing battle armour, jumping off a peak on Vandor. Checking his corpse, the armour would be battered and scuffed but servicable, whereas the guy inside would be mush.

As others join Sirra in looking down, they see a fall of some 50 metres. On the upside, they'd probably only fall 10 metres before hitting a jagged metal edge or jutting rod.

The floor where you all stand holds for now. The walkway and esplanade further round might be less stable. And the whole scene is titled at an angle.

Fortunately, the instruments are mostly still fixed in their enclosures. They just have no seats or even floor next to them. The navicomputer looks to be present but it's over the far side of the walkway.

Jelly Bean

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Everywhere they moved required that they work the deck angles, and missing deck plating and pit flooring only made things harder and much more dangerous.

Go to Jakku they said. You'll love it, just like home... with the added fun of Imperial death traps scattered everywhere...

Jelly Bean was a fixer, a problem solver. It was all a part of being a pilot AND an engineer. Everything was a puzzle that needed solving. With the machines, she could put her hands on them and feel them, hear them, and know them. People were different though. Making all these people parts and even BaBay all work like a machine was Winta's problem. Hers, right now, was how to get to the nac computers.

Jelly Bean stood near the edge of the deck, looking into the void of one of the pits. She glanced back at Sirra and then to BB. There was nowhere for the droid to roll up onto it. No place for them to sit or stand. No place for her to twist and turn herself to get into, under, and around the machine to make it come to life again.

She shrugged but then cocked her head, her lekku writhing in a rapid undulation. It was either and idea or an orgasm... the latter seemed unlikely at the moment. She glanced above and about her.

"Ut Chay... Abu'uta," she muttered excitedly as a smile grew on her face.

"There's no way we can get down in there and work... but... While my least favorite assignments for the Hutts involved ropes, I think we can rig a harness... a seat... hang it from there," she said with a pointed finger to one of the exposed superstructure beams above them. "Should give us enough freedom to move. Run a tie-off... just in case something crazy happens, like flying space monkey birds with sharp teeth come flying through here... cut the harness... we get banged up, but not dead... Me first, with BaBay in my lap. He can lock on to me... He and I get the thing powered and running... then it's Sirra and BaBay in the seat to get what we need... Yes? No? Other ideas?"

Sirra:

She barely moves or flinches at the sudden dropoff, but only looks down mildly.

"Well now, there's a thing. Bit of a poser."

She says conversationally while looking down. She kneels right up close to the edge and peers over, then looks around at the angles.

"A harness setup looks plausible, presuming the angles work out and we're careful about the structure we tie off to."

(She is basically trying to judge angles and distances for how things might work out)

2BB-2

The droid extended his grappling hook, but didn't yet fire. A reminder that tricky navigation was a BB-unit design requirement, and the group slicer was well equipped to get where he needed to go.

Winta

She looked towards Sirra, Jelly Bean and BB-2B.

"Whatever you guys plan to do - let us know first?"

She indicated the dark void. "The last thing we want is any of you hanging off a rope over the void to discover winged death flying up and at you, if we have not got a ton of firepower prepared and ready to protect you."

GM

A rope harness wouldn't need to lower the workers far. Only two metres.

There are plenty of cables literally hanging around, and the scavengers have packed the Varactyls with some basic kit. Quadnoculars, a couple of respirators, a fusion lantern for light and power, a datapad, and a bag of climbing gear.

2BB-2 is remarkably agile and has omni-directional grappling-harpoons to secure himself to surfaces, so its his bipedal team-mates who need the additional equipment.

You don't require stealth as such but the smashed viewports are clearly used by ripper-raptors as an in-out. You wouldn't want to knock an instrument rack loose and have it crash into the chasm, risking waking the entire nest.

Jix

He holds position for now where he can see both the hole and the way to the outside and he stays away from any holes or unstable floors. At point point he may need to try to secure himself so he can give covering fire down the hole but for now he is content where he is.

2BB-2

Using his holoprojector, 2BB-2 tried to project a schematic view of the area they were working with, attempting to map potential paths and anchorage points to get to the astronav computer, highlighting likely areas of stress or apparent damage, as an aid to how best to get where they needed to go without catastrophic complications.

Preach

The group alerted to be wary of the unstable decking, he settles on to his haunches for a moment. He looks up at the area and wonders what they should do to try and rig up some kind of a rope seat. He looks for ways to get above by going outside and then potentially reentering and lowering down a rope.

For most his part though he waits listening and considering. There is more than enough sign that they could have unwanted company if things don't go as well as planned.

Amos

The ex-lawman knew his role in this and kept his attention on listening for trouble and swiveling his eyes this way and that to keep a look out for any sign of problems.

Jelly Bean

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Working from BaBay's overlay map and referencing the exposed structure Jelly bean indicated several places for Sirra to consider, and then BaBay to evaluate in terms of the math of it all. There was no way to eliminate all risk. They could only do the best they knew how because time was of the essence right now. The harness seat was going to look a lot like a cliff climber's rig. Leg loops and something around the chest, under the arms to keep them upright when they let their hands free to actually do the work. a guide line higher up on the drop rope to allow them so finer maneuvering by having either herself or Sirra (depending on which one of them was in the hole at the time) be able to walk around the opening and pull as needed to get the drop line into the best position they could. Lastly, a safety rope that could be tied off or held by someone else.

GM

A platoon of Resistance engineers would brace the interior walls, fit seismo sensors, floodlight the whole place. Then use a salvage droid with a telescoping crane to provide an attachment point for the workers.

You don't have the time or resources.

The climbing gear is offloaded, laid out and made ready.

Then 2BB-2 motors across, veering alarmingly to match the subtle distortions of the walkway.

Jelly Bean follows, wearing a harness and leading a rope, scanner goggles down. A small if buxom package, she's one of the lightest team members. She leaves her pack behind. Her overall's have inbuilt tool panels, she doesn't need a separate toolbox. She also carries the fusion lamp, in case they need a bigger charge than the BB-unit's selenium drive can provide.

The walkway looks flat, should be flat, but isn't, having deformed upon impact like everything else.

It's tense but she arrives next to 2BB-2 and secures her end of the rope. The other end is secured to the empty viewport frame, and as the workers are setting up the fusion lamp and cables, Sirra makes her way across to provide point defence. She's also lightweight and has ditched her pack, carrying only her hunting blaster on her back.

About halfway across the walkway, it suddenly drops by about 20 cm on one side with a squeal of twisting metal. Sirra fights to maintain her footing, core muscles and grip strength tested. She avoids being dumped into the chasm.

Amos and Jix tense, shining beams of light into the darkness and ready to start shooting. But Preach senses no sudden flurry of life, no Ripper-raptor mob ascending from the depths.

Perhaps with some relief, Winta can turn back to scanning the outer desert. The quadnoculars provided by the scavengers allow her to scrutise any shapes in the sky.

By the time Sirra reaches Jelly Bean, everyone who can sweat is.

The instrument enclosure immediately below the three is hanging by only three of twelve bolts and contains the navicomputer.

Jelly Bean and 2BB-2 should avoid kicking or bumping into it when they descend and be delicate when connecting.

By powering up and then slicing into the computer, the team can plunder its secure data vault for the secrets of Ghidrah.

Jelly Bean can use another length of rope to descend. 2BB-2 has his own means and has identified a good fixing point on a spar, poking up through the floor. If it was sturdy enough to pierce the deck, it should be sturdy enough to hold the two of them.

Are they ready?

Sirra

Steady, steady ...

As the beam lurches Sirra puts on a flat footed dance worthy of a performance, twisting and shuffling and rebalancing her center of gravity to stay over the beam. Once her tight gyrations stop she stands still eyes closed for perhaps twenty seconds, letting her heart rate slow back down.

“Well. Wasn’t that exciting. Let’s do it again sometime. Anyone else want to give it a go?”

She then makes her way the rest of the way across.

2BB-2

The moment of truth. The Droid angled his free-floating sensor mount to the Ryllian in a coordinating nod, carefully calibrating his grapples before launching them. They had little margin for error here, with the astronav unit mounting as precariously secured as it was. Let's see if they could safely get into position to begin the slice.

Jix

He maintains position, ready to defend the team. It his job. But Sirra definitely provides a distraction as she wobbles on the unsteady walkway. She is a survivor though, Jix knows that are sure enough, balance recovered, she continues.

Jix forces his attention back onto his defensive arc.

Jelly Bean

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Making it across herself was challenging enough, but she was a dancer, and had spent years perfecting her craft and trade and art. When your life depends upon a particular skill, it becomes a priority. And when the time comes that something greater than your own life truly depends upon success those many tear filled nights diminish in importance in favor of the gratefulness for your determination to survive despite the obstacles. Watching someone else, whose life experiences had also brought them to this place and time, was even more nerve-wracking. There was nothing Jelly bean could do to help Sirra. There was nothing any of rest of them could do for Sirra, or JB, or even BaBay. Nothing but wait, watch and hope that the Force didn't fail them.

Wait... Did she just think of the Force like a religious entity?

Whatever.

"No showing off," she whispered in a voice that was half teasing, and half meant to ease the moment by playing off Sirra's own effort to release the tension of her near disaster.

Once the three of them were in place, she tested her lines and looked to BB2 and nodded before turning her backside to the opening and... taking a deep breath, she muttered a small Ryllian phrase that would have to pass for a prayer. It was one of the few things she could remember her mother saying to her as a young child.

"One Mother, One Breath, One Spirit, Vahs ka Ryma’at..."

She then let herself out into the openness of the chasm and slipped her legs into a tight embrace of her lifeline. Down, she descended keeping with BB all the way.

"Get power restored, get it running... get out... Sirra's turn..." Just a whisper of a reminder to keep her tasks in the forefront of her mind and not worrying about whatever was down there in the darkness below her. She couldn't do anything about it anyway. right? Do the job...

Preach

He remained watchful, alert, and waiting. When the superstructure shifted, his body adjusted out of reflex. For an old man, he could still move well. The only thing that betrayed how he might feel was how wide his eyes became. Yet he continued to guard and watch. He said nothing, let the others do what they knew how to do and focus.

Winta

She divided her time between checking out and checking in.
Outside, there was the relative distraction of what might be happening with the scavengers, and more importantly the risk that the winged death that lived here was actually already 'out', up in the air somewhere, and may come back at any time.

Inside, there was the risk that everyone was too focused on their individual tasks in hand, and that a bigger picture threat may transpire. She was consciously concentrating her attention on the places that everyone else's attention wasn't.

GM

When ready, Jelly Bean eases herself over the edge. 2BB-2 fires his harpoon with a puff of compressed liquid.

Jelly Bean is soon hanging alongside the enclosure, carefully plugging in the trailing cable from the fusion lamp. (She always travels with an Imperial power adaptor!) She can't put too much weight on the enclosure, which makes the simple job of plugging in frustrating. At least she didn't leave home without an Imperial power adaptor! With a whir of servos, 2BB-2 lowers himself and illuminates the comms socket.

As soon as the status arrays light up, the BB-unit extends his slicing tool, inserts it into the socket and rotates.

At this point, his Twi-lek work-mate smells an unpleasant chemical burning but can't pinpoint its source. Its not the fusion lamp.

2BB-2 switches to internal visualisation as he cracks the secure data vault. He sees a cascade of astrogation code, carrying with it spatial co-ordinates and other hyperspace telemetry.

But he soon finds a pattern of encrypted data, padding out the downtime between jumps.

He isolates in red, cuts, reassembles, decrypts decrypts decrypts, a maze that he flies along at cutting edge modulation rate. Solved! Parse, interpolate, interrogate. The cascade that became a maze is now a function, incredibly simple like a gearwheel yet only part of a much larger, multi-headed beast.

Ghidrah!

2BB-2 gets a sense of it now, spread out across the Galaxy. Not 100% pervasive, but affecting enough systems to obfuscate communications between entire sectors of space.

And how would one person, sending a message across parsecs, ever know why their message had dropped or why it had been received garbled or mistranslated? The engineering effort required to track down the cause of the problem would take a dedicated organisation on the scale of, well, the Empire.

It's cunning. If the Empire had ever developed it beyond a prototype it could have changed the course of the Galactic Civil War. Over three decades later, the First Order have done just that.

Such is 2BB-2's slicing nous, that he's already tagged Jakku and the co-ordinates of the nearest Ghidrah node. GH-531. It's in a different star system but the Bargon Flit has an uprated hyperdrive.

They are in business!

Jelly Bean now sees a tendril of smoke rising from the astronav computer though.

The Ripper-raptors are nocturnal, no movement from the nest as yet. And outside the skies are still clear but for steelpeckers and the occasional starship taking off from Niima Outpost beyond the horizon.

Jelly Bean

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She just about to start her way back up so that Sirra could slip into the harness to help BaBay with the slice work when she noticed the tendril of smoke. A moment ago is was just the mildly unpleasant smell of electronics overheating. It was enough to let her know that they were running out of time to get what they needed. The BB unit was busily formatting and indexing, or whatever it was that a Slicer Droid does when hanging suspended over a chasm that concealed a nest of carnivorous raptors in darkness. Well, now they had run out of time...

Jelly Bean looked up at Sirra above her. Wearing the goggles helped her avoid any light shift distortions so she could see Winta doing one of her checks down the hole as well. JB glanced to BaBay and took a deep breath. The little droid looked to be still working and whirring away.

"ohhh Babay... I hope you got what you needed," she whispered, mostly to herself. She then tapped her headgear comm, not wanting to yell up above and risk waking anything below them. Even then she whispered into her comm for those above to hear.

"Winta," she said quietly. Forgoing her usual use of the Ryllian word for Queen should tell the team leader that she was serious at this moment. "We might have a problem..."




((OOC- gonna drag this out for a round of role-play so AJ can write up his moment of Triumph.))

2BB-2

If he were a miner, this would be the motherlode. A gambler, a life-changing jackpot. They had travelled halfway across the galaxy, sneaked past a First Order Star Destroyer running a blockade, battled gangers, traversed the desert and infiltrated the collapsing hulk of a long-wrecked Imperial capital ship for just the hope of finding this, which had so stymied them on the Raddus and on the salt world of Crait. This insidious, potent weapon was now laid bare, and they could avenge those who had fallen victim to the consequences of its use. It had been a desperate hope, but it had been fulfilled.

The soft trill of beeps from the BB-unit as he successfully disengaged with all the relevant data stored safely away was nothing short of a quiet exaltation of triumph. Now to get out of here, off this planet and finally, finally turn the tables on those who would dam the free flow of information.

Winta

With a final glace for potential threats on the outside, she turned her attention to Jelly Bean.

"Uh huh?" she queried.

"What's up?"

Sirra:

She looked over to the droid and gave him a big thumbs up, before carefully working her way back across, very carefully.

Adrenaline was fine, just only so much of it.

Jelly Bean

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"...the astronav computer is fried," she replied as though she were still speaking in one extended sentence. "Smoke... BaBay is disconnected... so, whatever he was able to get is all.... Hold..."

Jelly Bean refocused her attention on BaBay and listened to the trilling. She cocked her head and her lekku twitched a little. She chuckled in her own throat. She then motioned for BB2 to go topside or ride with her. It was time to get out of this giant metal coffin.

"Pull me up... BaBay's pretty excited. I think he got more than he expected and we might not need Sirra down here after all... Well, not unless she can unsmoke this thing."