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GM

Mhar-li looks up from where she works atop the Sunstrider with a hydrospanner, beneath a makeshift parasol. What goes on? Her expression asks.

Below, the scavengers have gathered, laughing and raucous to witness the Resistance team saddling up.

The Varactyl handler has given them the basics but steps back, expecting a massacre. Each of the beasts is over 15 metres long from nose to tip of the tail.

But they respond well to the Resistance fighters. Remarkably well. The handler scrambles out of the way as the team race their mounts out from the shadow of the wrecked corvette, the creatures trilling loudly.

Amos leads, pulling ahead of the others to scout, followed by Winta with 2BB-2 in the saddle behind her. No astromech socket on a Varactyl.

Then Jelly Bean, Jix, Preach and lastly Sirra.

The scavengers cheer at this surprising show of prowess. The team overcame the Strus Clan, now they've overcome Varactyl-riding.

Vontoba doesn't stand and watch, with a sombre expression she turns her back and walks inside.

Amidst the scavengers, Bormo smiles and bows his head in prayer as the team ride passed.

In the lookout post, Tiras lifts his slugthrower in salute.

At the edge of the camp, Fira Bon stands with her Longblaster, staring out to the horizon. No sign of the Strus Clan yet. The Varactyls sound and she turns slightly. Significant looks are exchanged, then with a nod, the twitch of a grin, the veteran pulls up her shemagh and returns to begin fortifying the wreck.

***

Desert sun. Desert sky.

Suddenly the whooping screech of a giant, beaked lizard.

The lead Varactyl jogs along the crest of sand dune, with five others following in line.

They are fast and light-footed across the sand. Their riders sit on small, well-worn saddles, constantly shifting their body weight to counter the side-to-side motion of their mounts.

Faces are covered and eyes protected. Such large creatures moving at speed in a tight group fill the air with fine sheets of sand.

Kilometres are eaten until the colour of the sand changes, gaining a redder hue as it piles up against the immense hull of the Imperial Star Destroyer, the Inflictor.

A short ride. Maybe a quarter of an hour.

As you rein in at the edge of the wreck you realise why you really need the Varactyls.

At least 45 degrees of sloping, bare metal plate, scorched until reaching the shadow cast by the superstructure.

And the superstructure is multitiered, each tier separated from the next by what is effectively an artificial cliff. You will have to circle up and around to avoid climbing beyond the vertical.

It dwarfs the wreck of the CR90 you just came from.

From a distance the wreck looked solid, intact, but up close you see it is ravaged by orbital battle and its time half-buried on Jakku. More worrying, the hull is buckled and you can clearly see a massive, jagged blast-hole, maybe 100 metres wide, in its upper edge from where the subsidiary reactor exploded. The internal damage... thousands of Imperial personnel must have died in an instant, incinerated.

The metal still groans, unquiet in its grave.

For the first time you're alone as a team. No Bek, no Sunstrider crew, no scavengers.

You take a moment to rehydrate. You already have a rough idea of the route the Varactyls will take up to the bridge. It will need minor modification, but for a few minutes at least you can gather your thoughts. How are you doing? How are your team-mates doing? How is the mission going?

Sirra

Sirra takes a swig of water from her canteen, then stands looking at the hulk in front of them, very quiet, an almost unreadable expression on her face.

One hand reaches up and traces the distant contours of the image in front of her.

When she finally speaks its in a low and somewhat understated voice, as if she were discussing breakfast.

"I've been in one of those. The Hegemon. I was ... "

she pauses and points at a distant spot up the hull.

"About there. With my Father. I think I was eight. They look bigger from the outside."

Preach

The old man was thankful for the chance to drink some water after the long dry ride. Even covered up sand got into everything from his eyes nose and mouth to places deep inside of his robes. A quick shift to dislodge some pesky bit of grit while he considers his route.

Sirra speaks and the old man listens. He knows about these merely from tales. Though he has traveled this galaxy and done many things, being on a star destroyer wasn't among his accomplishments. But hearing a piece of his normally quiet team speak was worth much more to him. People were what mattered in this galaxy, not things.

He didn't say much, what could he say. They came to do a job and he had little to say about it at the moment. So he remained quiet listening.

Jix

She looks over the ship, watching for movement mainly. It would be naive to assume they are alone here. Likely to be hidden inside but she still looks for signs, even tracks in the sand but if there are any they would be very recent, sand shifts continually.

"So where is the Command Tower?"

This is where they are supposed to be heading. Would be good if someone knows where it is.

Imperial Star Destroyer Inflictor


Jelly Bean

Image

Jelly Bean sat for a moment, surveying the horizon. She clicked through the settings on her goggles to get as much distance as possible, and then focused on any individual things she thought might need to be seen. From left to right, scanning. She didn't want to be surprised by anyone skimming across the desert. Lastly she reduced the range to normal and then focused on the Inflictor and zoomed in as much as necessary. She needed to see who might be there already and then scout the best way up the tower, and since it leaned forward that meant the forward face of it was a negative ascent. Nothing was ever easy, right?


The Twi'lek sidled her varactyl alongside Jix's Varactyl as she lifted the googles to her forehead. She pointed to the large roughly rectangular superstructure that sat atop the main triangular body of the massive ship.

"That whole thing is the command and control tower," she said as she let her finger drift from left to right. Then back to a point near the middle of the imposing mass of metal.

"The main bridge though, that's where we need to start..."

Winta

She's content to let those with the right knowledge lead - she had never encountered a star destroyer before and would be no help in navigating a route.

"Sirra? Jelly Bean? It sounds like you guys know where we should be going. Lead on with Amos."

"I'll pick up the rear with 2BB-2."

Jelly Bean

Image

Winta's appointment surprised her a little. Jelly bean knew that when she was in the pilot's chair, that was her place to lead. But this?

"All Sirra," she replied to Winta. "I've never been in one either. I mean, this thing's been on the ground since before I was born.. I just know spaceships... and i have these," she added with a gesture to her googles. "I could see what looked like the best place to put a bridge. And I can see that getting there won't be easy, even with the lizards."

Winta

"You know spaceships," she responded with a smile. "That's way ahead of most of us. If we assume this thing was designed sensibly and logically, you will have a reasonable idea of where things ought to be. And Sirra might remember from her visit, where things were."

"Failing that, we keep an eye out on the way for any defunct droid that we might be able to power up and or repair that might have a schematic of the ship."

Amos

He had put on his old hat to keep the sun off of his face as they stood there, looking up at the metal monstrosity before them. The thought of spending most of your life inside one of those sterile coffins out in the depth of space was enough to make his shudder a little. Definitely not a life that he had ever wanted or sought.

But still he had found his way here now with his companions and it was his duty to watch out over them and keep them safe so that those with the proper knowledge could accomplish the mission.

Amos tugged on the harness of his beast and sent it slowly forward to work his way up to their destination.

Jelly Bean

Image

Jelly Bean looked sidelong to Sirra and pointed again, this time toward a point further up the Star Destroyer's main hull.

"I think we ride up the the dorsal line, climb each tier as we come to it, duck into the shade along the starboard side of center... start looking for a way in... If we can't get in, then the climb only gets more farkled from there... up the tower neck... and that means we'll need to circle around to the back corner so we aren't trying to climb sheer... and we can't climb negative. The higher we go, the more narrow the path. Need to be looking for airlocks or empty escape pod bays... something with a hatch we can breach- even better if we just find a good tear in the plating. Won't know until we get there..."

Sirra

She looks and considers silently for a while.

“Yeah. That seems to about cover it. I could probably recognize potential entry points pretty well, First order isn’t the Empire, but they share their design aesthetic.”

She looks around the group.

“Unless I miss my guess our best climbers are probably me and perhaps Jix. So at least one of us should probably lead and map out the best route To get the rest up?”

Preach

He watched and listened, it seemed much of what his lot in life was. It really wasn't but here he didn't want to offer bad information which might get someone hurt or worse. They all knew he wasn't the best climber. So he would wait and go when they knew where to go. For now, he turned his attention the desert. To that end, it occurred to him that there was a much easier way to see if there were any living things in the relic before them. Settling on to the saddle a bit more, he opened his mind and sought for signs of life or anything else interesting that The Force might tell him.

Winta

She nodded at Sirra. "Sounds good."

"I'd rather you led, Sirra. That will leave Jix free to give you covering fire if you run into hostiles."


She noted Preach doing what he was doing.

GM

Life signs. Preach's face is shaded by his dreadlocks as he meditates.

The presence of the Varactyls is distracting. Now that they're reined in, they want face-time with each other, twisting around to see what the others are doing and trilling with curiosity.

The tapping of steelpeckers sounds like workcrews scattered across the wreck, whacking the hull with pin hammers.

But what can be sensed through the Force? Not much. Life in the desert is sparse and Preach's reach does not extend across the hectares across the wreck.

He does sense large, slumbering presences under the sand though. These might be the Arconan Night Terrors that Tiras warned them about. Nocturnal though. If the team are still on Jakku by nightfall, the Galaxy will have more to worry about than giant worms.

Life is a marvellous thing.

Steelpecker beaks are famously reinforced with the alloys they eat, and their stomachs are full of heavy metals, that digest their food via a galvanic reaction.

What goes on inside a Varactyl's guts, none of you know. They look like giant lizards but have phenomenal mobility, able to keep pace with a wheel-racer across dunes and climb near vertical surfaces with a rider. How do they put out so much power under a hot sun and not boil inside?

Where there is physical mystery there are often subtle interactions with the Force, poorly understood by even the Jedi Order.

Either way, Varactyls are the right tool for this job.

Jix

She listens to the conversations ebb and flow around her, nodding her thanks to Jelly Bean when she points out the important areas. Jix fixes them in her mind. She doesn't add to the conversation because there is nothing of worth to say. She does not banter. Talk for her is an essential tool and, like all tools, should be used efficiently for the good of the Team. Her Team is a tiny shadow of the Hive and she cannot interact with it in the same way either but she is glad it is here. It is an anchor point that she needs, something to contribute to, a way of belonging.

So he is to be backup. He checks over the heavy blaster rifle. It is a good weapon. He must be ready to use it when the time comes. He pushes his pack containing the medkit onto his back. It will be there when he needs it.

Winta

"Order of march: Sirra, Amos, Jelly Bean, Preach, Jix, then me and BB-2B," she stated, matter of factly after she put away her water canister.

"Everyone happy?" she asked in case there were any final comments.

"Ok. Let's go."

2BB-2

The Astromech droid directed his sensors over the wreck, seeing if there was any useful data about which way to go, or any concerning structural points of failure to relay. He'd been shot at by the First Order equivalents of this beast of a wreck, but this had been crashed and mouldering here since long before he had been forged. Otherwise, it was a case of following the lead and getting the job done.

GM

You move out.

Chirruping loudly, the Varactyls surge up the metal slope and you rely on the handlebar built into the saddle to stay seated.

At first the beasts struggle against the thin layer of sand skirting the hull, but they extend their claws and hook onto any seam, crack or crease.

Then they go full pelt. 2BB-2's sensors judge their ground speed to be around 25 km/h up a 45 degree slope.

Up and up they go. You realise the obvious, that they've been trained by the scavengers and are experienced in this work. They follow your commands without hestitation and instinctively feel for the stability of the surface under their feet.

You stay on the outside of the hull where you can see what's ahead all the way to the top.

Your route takes you around the high side of the wreck, the side in the sun, starboard. The heat and glare from the metal is unlike anything any of you has experienced. Now you know what a bantha burger feels like!

The Varactyls aren't overheating though, your thighs aren't burning from where they touch the scaly hide. They wouldn't be the only creature in the Galaxy to have evolved a form of thermionic conversion, all that heat converted into muscle power.

It's slower and steeper climbing up onto the superstructure, but there is far more offset plating and exposed machinery. More to hold onto.

Soon your line of riding beasts looks like ants from a distance, scaling the slab-sides of dorsal tower. The giant lizards' grip deserves its reputation.

Maybe it is Jelly Bean's Twi'lek heritage but the fierce sun seems to do her some good. At Preach's age though, it's more of an ordeal and Jix is suffering too. A Verpine has multiple tongues it can hang out to cool itself, but Jix is all tongue and still feels like she's cooking in her shell.

Not far now. Traversing onto the bridge section, you near your goal.

Sirra doesn't like how tentative her Varactyl is when shifting its weight from one sheer surface to the next, and signals for the others to be careful.

Everyone follows one at a time, no problem, until Winta brings up the line.

Suddenly 2BB-2 makes a siren noise, drowned by the scarily loud popping of rivets from the wreck. The metal where Winta's Varactyl grips the bridge section comes away, about a ton of long-dead, overloaded power cell sliding out behind it.

Winta was expecting danger but the Varactyl gets out of harm's way by lunging violently upwards. The Niman disciple is flung backwards out of her seat, feet catching in the stirrups as she hangs about 200 metres in the air. 2BB-2 hangs beside her in the webbing tied to the saddle.

The power cell falls, impacts against the hull far below and explodes with a small flash and puff of smoke, so little energy remains in it.

The two riders might share a look, and the Varactyl looks over its shoulder at them, cooing apologetically.

***

Winta and the droid are soon back in the saddle, Winta having lost plenty more water in sweat.

The Resistance team traverses the top side of the bridge section between the coms array and massive deflector shield emitter, then partway down the front.

There are a profusion of wide sills here. You find the one you're looking for, halt the line and dismount.

The 'floor' is still sloped at a complicating angle.

More interesting are the big W-shaped holes in the 'wall', each 2-metres high and rimmed with broken glass. Behind them a dark and cavernous interior, cool, draughty, and spooky when you consider you're looking into the distinctive bridge of a Star Destroyer.

Winta

"Right .... she said quietly as she got BB-2B of the Varactyl and out of the net and surveyed the remains of the bridge.


"'Power up a computer bank and slice out the astrogation data', they said," she commented.

She pursed her lips ... "Okay ... Amos, Jix, Preach, secure the bridge. Once its secure, those of you who know about powering up computers and slicing data can get on with it."

Winta herself, checks back the way they had come for signs of pursuit or surveillance.

2BB-2

The droid chirruped their gratitude at being freed from the netting, gyroscopic stabilisation trying to compensate for the tilted floor, circling in micro-movements. Winta's orders were sensible, no telling what might have made a home in this desolate ruin, but that allowed for ample time to plan out the next possible steps: Candidate computer terminals that'd provide astronav data for a squirt of power. Scanning for the likely ones and the best path to them, any potential pitfalls like that close call on the way in.

A lesson from that incident: Check for quick tether spots secure enough to carry the weight of one BB-unit and one organic in the event of a collapse. For now, everything was speculative, time for others on the team to show their expertise first.

Sirra

She kneels down next to the droid.

“Hey little guy.”

Her voice has an unusual note of ... fondness? For her, that was definitely an unusual note in the Sirra Symphony.

“So I was thinking perhaps the Auxiliary Navicomp, which should be ...”

She orients herself briefly.

“That way.”

She says, pointing.

“Might offer the best shot. Should be hardened against damage and perhaps be a bit more of an autonomous system ...”

If the others move in to clear the space, she draws her weapon and stays ready to provide cover fire if it becomes needed.

Jix

He dismounts and takes a deep swallow of water, holding it in his mouth for several seconds before swallowing.

"Bridge."

He nods, and uses the butt end of the rifle to clear some of the glass from a hole, peering in, eyes scanning the interior to pick up any relevant details, rifle also pointing in in case it needs to be used. If he can detect no life or movement or any hazzard of concern, he will drop in, crouch, guard and wait for others to follow.

Jelly Bean

Image

Jelly Bean watched after Sirra and BaBay as they 'teamed up' to enter the bridge of the ship. Winta gave orders for everyone else to set up support and security functions. Jelly bean knew her role. She was the fixer, and this beast was one giant machine in need of fixing. But they were only here to make one thing work.

Sirra's attentiveness to the BB unit notwithstanding, the two would be principle once the nav computers were up and running. Jelly Bean looked sidelong at Jix and shrugged. "Third Wheel, I guess..." She slid from the saddle and gave one last long distance look out across the horizon, and even into the sky using her googles. Could she see all the way back to the Scavengers Camp at the CR90? Could she see anything trolling around in the air? Could she see the approaching Strus Gang? She couldn't linger on this though, because there was work to be done and a Galaxy to save.

Passing by Winta she spoke softly, "Whatever did that to the transparisteel... was either trying to get in or get out... either way, Star Destroyers don't come with that feature built in..."

She followed the other two into the depths of the bridge.

"Hey you two... don't get too far ahead," she called out as the relative darkness consumed her in shadows. "I brought the snacks for the picnic..."

Preach

He was tired from being baked on the side of the hull. At least the creature helped keep his lower half a little cooler, sort of medium-rare compared to the well-done portion of the rest of his body.

At Winta's words though, his rest was over. He slid from the saddle and moved towards the broken windows. He tried to pick a spot that didn't have the sharp edges that would cut him. If none could be found, he used his lightsaber to carve a smoother edge and gave it long enough to cool.

Entering he carefully tried to pick his stepping places and handholds given how precarious the hulk was at this moment. The recent experience of watching Winta reminded him that this hulk was probably as old as he was. It was probably in worse condition too. Sitting around doing nothing didn't help old skin and bones. He also moved with extra attention to his surroundings. Threats might be something that sought protection from the sun, or it might be physical depredation. Either way he wanted to try and be prepared for them.

Amos

He slipped off his hat as he followed the others inside the darkness of the fallen ship and took his scattergun off his shoulder and held it at the ready, finger off of the trigger as he joined Jix and Preach in their quest for the bridge.

"Jix, how is your vision in this light?"

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

Image

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."

2BB-2

A cheerful nod of the sensor array to the Ryllian in response, the maneouverable droid orienting to grapple himself upwards in short order. One hard part was done, now they just needed to safely extract, first from the wreck, and then from the planet.

Winta

"Ok. Well done, 2BB-2," she praised the droid.

Then she added to everyone, "Now, no-one do anything foolish in the excitement of getting what we came for - like falling down the hole."

"Let's get off this wreck. Same running order as we came."

Amos

He nodded at the orders and moved to the exit, eyes sweeping the outside for any trouble before letting any of the others out. Once he cleared it, Amos moved out of the way to let the others out to get to their mounts.

Jix

He mounts a rearguard action as this is what soldiers do. Then moves back to his mount for the journey back, he keeps his gun at the ready though.

Preach

He waited for his turn and then silently turned towards the exit and made his way carefully back the way he had come. He agreed with the sentiment take the time it needed, they still had a long way to go.

Jelly Bean

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Jelly Bean moved with the group, toward the back of it though. She had done her work and not the defenders needed to see them all, but especially BaBay, to safety. As she saddled up, she rubbed her cheek. The sting of the molten metal that splashed her face would probably scar. She could probably get some bacta packs and have the docs make it all shiny again... but Jelly Bean wasn't sure she wanted that. She never had a choice before in whether she got injured and then healed up, nice and pretty again for the next scum who liked to play rough and hurt people. But she made a choice this time. She got hurt, and she had the choice to live with the marks of it if she wanted.

So weird. Not that anyone would ask, but how could she ever hope to explain that kind of logic. She smiled and saddled up. So weird. Weird day. But there was a galaxy to save, right?

Winta

She got 2BB-2 into the net and secured the net to the mount, before mounting up herself.

She let Jix take the rear of the group, and let the ones at the front select the route. Winta's attention was on the sky and on the scavengers' camp..

Sirra walked about in the middle, her face impassive.

Really. Her brush with death had not bothered her as much as one would think. She considered herself dead already, and was living on extra time.

"Hopefully, they are doing alright back at the camp."

she says quietly.

She seemed to play as if it wasn't really a big deal, but anyone who could read her could tell she was actually concerned. She cared. She never used to care. She had causes, she didn't care about people. Only ... that was no longer the case. She seemed to have acquired a damnable conscience and empathy along with her thirst for vengeance from her 'death'.

She hated it ...

Jelly Bean

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Hearing Sirra's words and the concern in them, Jelly Bean slipped her googles back in place and and scanned the distance in the direction of the scavenger camp from her saddle. Sirra wasn't the only one with a worry and the belief that they put these people ina bad spot. The Resistance wasn't the Rebellion, right? That's what she's been told. Not much point in defeating the bad guys if it turns out you aren't actually the good guys in the eyes of those you should be fighting for... help the people who need it most. Don't turn your back on them when you've got what you came for.

GM

Primary objective complete.

You're one step closer to saving the Galaxy from the Sith Eternal.

The sun-scorched carcass of the Inflictor has reliquished its dark secret after 35 years.

As the last of your team hurries back across the twisted walkway, something explodes in the astronav computer and the whole enclosure breaks away, tumbling into the abyss.

The clamour as it bounces down through the wreck, crashing off scrap metal, is so loud that it turns the heads of the Varactyls and seems to echo across the desert.

Hundreds of yellow eyes suddenly awaken in the darkness and a din of squawking, screeching rises from the depths.

You see creatures with feathers, leathery wings, toothed beaks and talons and serpent tails. But the Ripper-raptors are too late for an early supper.

Mounted up, you ride out at a sprint. You focus now on what lies ahead.

***

We fade from the bridge of the Inflictor to the bridge of the Silencer, pristine and gleaming black.

A junior officer in sharp grey uniform hurries from a technician's console to where a supervisor stands on the walkway, standing out in his double-breasted teal.

"Sir," She says, a sheen of sweat on her ebony skin, "Our informants planetside report that a Quadjumper has delivered a cargo container directly to scavengers in the desert, avoiding the checks at Niima Outpost."

The supervisor frowns.

"And what do they want us to do about it, Lieutenant?" He asks, severe.

"Well, they thought it was suspicious, sir, and that we might want to investigate."

"Might we now? Unkar Plutt wants us to chase down some raggedy scavs dodging his taxes."

"It came in by orbital transfer, sir. We... didn't search it."

The supervisor clears his throat and hardens his tone, feeling as if his authority is being questioned.

"And nor should we have, Lieutenant." He says, adding, "We're not here to catch smugglers.

"If the opportunity arises, we might make a more thorough check. For now, dismissed, Lieutenant."

And the supervisor is indeed dismissive.