Ghost in the Arcade

[CaptainBonkers]

Bes’galaar’s engines hummed softly in the background as the ship glided through the empty void of space of the Kessel System. As loud as the old bird might have been outside, within the ironclad hull of the ship the engines could barely be heard outside of the engine room. A testament of Jayec’s brother-in-law’s skill as a shipwright as well as Cerina’s as an engineer and mechanic.

Down in the hold Jayec leaned back in his seat, enjoying the building tension in the air. There were few things like an approaching fight to clear one’s thoughts of unnecessary clutter and ground one in the moment. For the aruetii those moments were likely often filled with dread and worry over ones life and well-being but not so for a mandalorian. A mandalorian would not waste those precious final moments afraid of what would come once the doors were opened and the time to storm the enemy positions came. Of course, most other people were not brought up with the knowledge that they were part of the people that produced the greatest warriors in the galaxy.

No, Jayec wasn’t worried about the coming fight, nor was he particularly worried that anyone awaiting for Bes’galaar to dock was either. The mercenary commander knew his warriors well enough not to worry about their mental state. Some of the juniors might be feeling a little too eager for their own good but none of the ought to be afraid of a fight. He might have been a little worried over the two non-mandalorians coming along for the ride, if he hadn’t known both well enough. Thel being here was a no-brainer. The lad was miss Faine’s top lieutenant and a dar’jetii and Jayec was glad to have him aboard. Ylva’s presence was a surprise, though a thoroughly welcome one. The buxom zabrak was a fine warrior, a fact Jayec could personally attest to from hours spent at the gun range and sparring with her. She’d even dislocated his jaw once, mostly accidentally. It was surprising merely in the sense that work she did for Faine usually did not include regular merc work. She was usually the one cleaning up the mess they left, not making the mess.

The only thing that Jayec wasn’t feeling too good about was having to wear a vacuum seals for this opp, but that was because of one bad experience back in the day. A shitty seal had given in while he and his squad had been trying to enter a derelict spaceship few years back. If Kenna hadn’t been there to drag him back to ship Jayec would probably have died there. The memory of the feeling of oxygen flowing out of his suit without him being able to do anything to stop it while the depressurization squeezed his lungs was not a pleasant one or one he particularly wished to relive.

“Alright then. Our ETA is in twenty minutes, so if you have anything you want to do before we go in, now’s the time to do it. There ain’t no time for potty breaks later.” he began, standing up from his seat and scanning the people in the hold. “Once we arrive, we go in hard and fast. Our first objective is to secure the landing bay so that we have some place to retreat in case things go pear shaped. Thel, you’re out first with that glowstick of yours, covering our advance. That ought to draw the chakaars’ attention well enough for them to miss that their day is about to be ruined by a platoon of mandos and one very capable lady. Once we have the bay secured, Jayna will take the junior squad and hold the fort while the rest of us proceed deeper into the station. We do not know how well prepared they are but assume that they are ready to put up a decent fight and we should be golden. Any questions so far?”

[Rugs]

Io’an liked to think he was more well-versed in life’s experiences than most. He’d traveled the Galaxy since his teenage years. He’d learned to command the all-powerful Force, including his inherent ability to change the natural world around him. He was a slicer extraordinaire, in his own (humble) opinion.

And at only twenty-three — still barely more than a child by the standards of his homeworld’s elders.

But this? Riding into battle for the Exchange with a crew of hardened warriors?

Io’an couldn’t say he didn’t sign up for it — Ms. Faine’s job description had been quite clear and the pay was quite good — but he couldn’t help looking back on that conversation and wondering if he should’ve turned the offer down.

He sat in a corner of the hold, trying to keep to himself. He’d suited up a bit ago, in a steel-grey powered suit for zero-G operations. The armor plating, primarily on the torso, upper and lower arms, thighs and shins, was sleekly-contoured and lighter than the Mandalorians’ impressive armor, but enough to offer the protection he should need. His lightsaber hung from a magnetic clip, and he’d traded his usual hold-out blaster pistol for a heavy one.

The armor’s equipment was the impressive part about it. It’d been tailor-made for slicing, with an expansive suite of tools and telemetry equipment that linked to a holographic HUD in his helmet, which sat on the ground to his left. Io’an figured he might have to look into transferring the suite into a regular suit of armor sometime.

If I live through this.

His stomach churned. Io’an closed his eyes as he fought to keep from vomiting into the bucket in between his feet again.

Everyone else felt so calm. The Mandalorians felt more eager than anything, and even Ylva and Thelonious exuded a quiet sort of confidence.

“Alright then. Our ETA is in twenty minutes, so if you have anything you want to do before we go in, now’s the time to do it. There ain’t no time for potty breaks later.”

Io’an’s stomach churned again. But he listened to Jayec’s short briefing silently. Get in, secure the place. Move in deeper. The team was to make a distraction for Ms. Faine’s group to do... whatever it was they were doing.

Io’an, specifically, was to break into the Unseen mainframe and get whatever information he could, and wipe it on the way out. And not die. Especially not die.

Assume that they’re ready to put up a decent fight.

His stomach turned a third time, and this time he couldn’t keep it down. He retched into the bucket, loudly. His face reddened in embarrassment.

“No, no questions,” he said, keeping his eyes down on the floor between his feet. “Just ready to be done with it.”

[Fromikeable]

Vance hadn't moved since he'd put his armor on, seated with his legs crossed and his hands resting on his knees. The ship jostled around him as it carved through space, rushing ever faster toward their destination. Every crinkle of metal, every vibration of machinery, every breath and whisper of the people around him... He was tuning them all out, his own breathing a series of slow, deep exhalations.

He didn't usually meditate, but he'd learned in the drop shuttles above Taris that anything was better than letting his mind wander too far before a fight.

Of course, this wasn't going to be Taris. There wasn't a Republic army, a contingent of Jedi, nor every rakghoul in the universe awaiting them. Knowing the Hutts, there were probably going to be the usual suspects; mercenaries, smugglers, kingpins, drug lords, and every job title in between. It was almost guaranteed that they weren't open to negotiations. Not if the assault on the Blind Eye was any indication.

In other words, there would be no sleepless nights following today.

Opening his eyes as Jayec began to talk, Vance idly double-checked his suit as he was briefed. He had opted for one of the heavier options, solid black armor plating encompassing a skin-tight under layer handling life support. It was by no measure the beskar-built armor that the Mandalorians in the ship were wearing, but as far as alternatives went, Vance resembled an orbital shock trooper more than a clandestine agent.

The only real difference was the lack of weapons on his person, the shiny platinum saber attached to his hip and the heavy holdout blaster attached to his thigh being all he needed.

With Jayec's briefing concluding, Vance thought quietly for a moment, looking to his compatriots. Io'an was puking again, the poor guy. Maybe he didn't travel well? Or maybe he was just nervous. Vance wished that they could have spoken more prior to this. It wasn't every day that one found amicable Greys on a place like Nar Shadaa, and beyond the shared history, there was something off about the guy. His presence was always pulled tight, but not in the way others tried to conceal their presences.

Then there was Ylva, who looked downright intimidating in armor. Vance had always regarded her as someone not to screw with, but seeing her decked for a fight communicated that point all too clearly. To be honest, he was more than a little amazed that she had found armor that could accommodate her measurements. Seriously, that had to be custom, didn-

I sound like some jackass smuggler. Shaking his head once, Vance uncrossed his legs and raised a hand. "I've got one. What's our exit plan?" Smiling a little, his raised hand dropped down to the helmet on the seat beside him, drumming on it lightly.

"I need to know what, if anything, I shouldn't be smashing." If Jayec wanted him to draw attention, then it was a safe bet that the inside of that station was about to undergo a very sudden remodeling.

[Meira]

Ylva reached down and tried, for the third or fourth time, to adjust the crotch of her armored suit. The damn thing felt just a bit too tight. But then, it was a bodysuit. The plates of light but sturdy armor plating covering her vital bits not withstanding, the whole thing fit her like a glove. It was a bit unnerving when she'd received it. How had Faine gotten the measurements so exact? Even her helmet was perfect, with little notches cut into the inside padding to accommodate her horns. Well, she wasn't compeer for nothing. With the helmet on and sealed, Ylva would become a void of matte black from head to toe. Her gear belt, her blaster rifle, hip holstered pistol, and even her short vibroblade strapped to her back were all the same color. Against the black of space, she imagined, she'd be near invisible.

Space. Ylva leaned her head back against the metal wall, feeling only the slightest vibration of the ship as it moved through the infinite expanse. Unlike all the others aboard Jayec's ship, Ylva had only been in space once before, when her family moved from Nal Hutta to Nar Shaddaa. She hadn't seen reason to leave the smuggler's moon as she aged. Everything she needed to get by was there. But her exclusive contract with Lidah Faine seemed to be exponentially widening Ylva's horizons. First it was the big boost in wealth, then the apparent bump up in social circles like the invitation to attend that auction rather than simply clean up after it, and now this. Ylva also seemed to be finding herself on the front end of messy situations more often, but that was proving to be not so much of a problem as she might have thought. After all, knowing all the details about how a mess was made helped speed up the process of cleaning it up. She even had the opportunity to make sure the job wasn't being made harder for her from the word go.

“Alright then. Our ETA is in twenty minutes..." Jayec began, Ylva's head turned toward the Mandalorian, listening as he laid out the plan, such as it was. She was no soldier, but Ylva had held her own in any number of fights growing up, both on the Hutt home world and among the street gangs of Nar Shaddaa. With a mess of Mandalorian mercs on their side, Ylva didn't really see how they'd have any problems.

The skinny hacker next to her lurched and puked, again, into his bucket. She'd shoved the thing at him earlier in their flight when she'd noticed his skin take on a pale, sickly look. Ylva turned her eyes away from him until his retching stopped, then glanced back over. "You can't have much left in you." she said with a smirk.

Arkandri asked his question and Ylva turned her eyes toward Faine's favored underling. "I thought we were supposed to leave this place the way they left Fork." she said, then turned to Jayec for confirmation.

[CaptainBonkers]

Fine, maybe Jayec was a little worried over the nerd. The poor kid had already puked a few times and did not seem like he was really ready for a gig like this. Apparently he was some kind of slicer/jetii combo but looking from here it was hard to believe that the lad currently holding his third puke back had ever been a jedi. But if the boss lady said he was coming along, then the little guy was coming along. Miss Faine was the one paying the bills, so she got to say who came along for the ride. Even if those someone's didn't look like they were cut out for the job. Well, maybe Io'an would surprise him. He did, after all, carry a lightsaber. Maybe he actually knew how to use it and just had a really bad case of traveling sickness even his Force sorcery couldn't cure.

"If everything goes smoothly enough we get back to ship and just fly off." Jayec replied to Thel's question. Hopefully things would go according to plans and they wouldn't have to run through the alphabets to get the job done but it paid to be prepared for multiple variants being introduced into the equation. "Should we get cut off of Bes'galaar, we'll make for the escape pods and use them to get out. If that fails we'll improvise. As a final resort we can always pull a Kaleva exit and chuck ourselves out of the nearest airlock and hope that Farla can find us before we run out of air."

The last resort plan did not exactly appeal to Jayec but it was the Z plan. If everything else went to shit they would have to get off the station somehow and they were well armed enough to force their way through a locked airlock or even a thin section of the station's hull for that matter. He just didn't like to think about what would happen if Farla couldn't locate them in time.

"As to what comes to smashing things, everything that doesn't look like an important computer is fair game as far I'm concerned. The new guy supposedly has to fiddle around with some of those so try to at leas task his permission before turning them into scrap metal." 

[Fromikeable]

"Got it. Run computers by Glitch and don't smash the ship or the escape pods." Smiling under his helmet, Vance sat back and looked at poor Io'an. He knew that tone of voice coming from Jayec; one could always tell when he wasn't sure of someone he spoke of. But Vance had vouched for the other Force-sensitive personally, at least in terms of his slicing skills. If they could get him to a computer, then any security software might as well not have existed.

At least he was getting all of the puke out now. Vomiting in a sealed helmet was life-threatening, to say nothing of being gross.

"You'll do fine, man. Stay to the group, find good cover, and keep that saber lit." Vance gave a single thumbs-up, unaware of how casual he had made it all just sound.

[Rugs]

“I really hope not,” Io’an said to Ylva. “Thanks for the bucket, though.” He spit some remnants of his latest production into the bucket and tried not to imagine what would happen if the urge to puke again struck while they were on mission.

Ylva had to be right. Those starship rations didn’t taste much better coming up than they did going down.

More talk about the plan, particularly the escape method. Io’an squeezed his eyes shut as he felt his stomach tensing again at Jayec’s mention of possibly launching themselves out into the void and hoping the ship could find them.

I’m going to die.

“That’s... not actually gonna happen right,” he asked, raising a shaking hand. “I mean, that’s only if everything goes totally wrong?”

Io’an preferred not to think about it, if possible. Nor did he want to question how long their suits air supplies would last in a vaccuum, or what it’d be like to run out of air while floating in the void. Not if he didn’t want to throw up again.

And truth be told, he didn’t.

The computer systems question was something he could latch on to. Familiarity in alien world that offered some sort of comfort.

“I dunno the layout of this place specifically, but most stations like it have a centralized command center somewhere,” he said. “That's typically the best place to try to break in, and probably where their main servers would be stored. But, that’s probably gonna be the hardest place to get to, if that’s the set up they’re going with.”

Io’an thought for a moment. “Depending on how connected their systems are, I can probably break in through a secondary unit somewhere. I doubt they’ve only got access to the important stuff in one place. And I don’t even necessarily need direct access. Just a connection will do...”

He’d nearly started muttering to himself when Thelonious offered a word of encouragement. Io’an smiled weakly. “Thanks, Thel,” he said. “I’ll try.”

[Meira]

"Not a problem." Ylva replied to Io'an's thanks. "It's my job."

Jayec began to give his response to Arkandri's question and Ylva turned her attention back to the Mandalorian. He laid out their options for the exit strategy. Each proceeding option was less and less appealing. That made sense, but Ylva felt her own stomach give a lurch at the idea of just jumping out into the void of space. On instinct she barked out a laugh, part of her thinking -or maybe hoping- that Jayec was just joking about that last bit. She looked to her left, away from Io'an where one of Jayec's mercs sat. He was not laughing.

“That’s... not actually gonna happen right,” Io'an said. “I mean, that’s only if everything goes totally wrong?”

Ylva swiveled her head again, looking toward Jayec. "I... would also like to know the answer to that question." she said, slightly annoyed at the way the air around them was starting to feel thinner than usual. Clearing her throat and clenching her jaw, Ylva stood up, not quite pacing, but needing to move. She didn't want to think about that big cold nothing on the other side of the ship walls. She didn't want to think about how hard she would be to spot in all that nothing, with her all black armor. Did their suits have tracking beacons? They had comms, but what if they failed? How long before her suit couldn't handle the vacuum anymore?Why the fuck was she here anyway?

Somewhere, Io'an was talking about computers, Jayec's mercs were checking their gear. People were starting to seal up their suits. Ylva looked down at the helmet in her hands, the inside padding with the little cut outs for her horns. That tin bucket and some cowl type bit of fabric would be all that kept her lungs from collapsing... or exploding? Dying. Her breathing was picking up. The air in this damn ship wasn't right.

[CaptainBonkers]

That doesn't look promising...Jayec had forgot that Ylva hadn't been to space much before now, though even had he remembered that factoid about his friend he still couldn't have imagined her becoming so agitated over the mere mention of a vacuum walk. It was a common fear, sure, but not one Jayec could have guessed she possessed. However, obviously she suddenly wasn't feeling too good about being cooped up inside the hold of spaceship which knowing her temper could quickly spiral into a disaster. A swift intervention to get her to calm down might be necessary.

As he took his first step towards the anxious zabrak, however, the HUD of his helmet completely apeshit. Distracted by the static and blinking going on in front of his eyes, it took few moments for Jayec to realize that all of the lights had gone out and that aside from the noises made by the passengers nervously moving around it was dead quiet. The engines had suddenly died, their smooth droning replaced by eerie silence. A passing fear gripped Jayec's insides. If the station had any form of anti ship guns they'd be sitting ducks right about now. Fortunately he managed to recall that the intel they had on the station showed no indication of them possessing any heavy anti-ship weaponry. However, floating in space still did not sound like a good way to spend the day.

Since the comms didn't seem to be working, Jayec hurried over to the hatch leading towards the cockpit. "Sitrep, now!" he bellowed into the darkness in mando'a. Farla's response came quickly. Jayec's assumption about having been hit by an EMP had been correct one. All systems were down, though his pilot believed he could have most of them up and running again. Unfortunately that would take some time, anything from thirty minutes to couple of hours. The only things they could get back up quickly were the redundancy systems like emergency life-support and light. Also the auxiliary maneuvering thursters. Great. So instead of crashing out of control they could crash in a controlled fashion. Just great.

Farla was a good pilot. He'd get them on the station in one piece, even with the subpar controls at his disposal. As Jayec turned back to reassure the rest of the group, the hold was bathed in the sift glow of the red emergency lights. "Right. We've hit a small bump in the road but we should still be alright. Farla is confident that it's possible to get the old bird up and running again, so while we wait for him I see no reason not to continue with the mission. We'll just have to advance more carefully."

[Fromikeable]

The question lingered in the air. Would they have to shoot themselves out the airlock and hope for the best? Vance could appreciate their hesitance; it was an unappealing prospect, to say the least. Beyond a hospitable atmosphere to refill itself with, their suits would have a decided limited lifespan. If their plans went so sideways that they'd need such an emergency exit, who would be around to pick them up? Would activating a simple homing beacon to that end be to their benefit, or would it just give enemies on the station a better target to aim at?

He didn't get to think about it any more as the entire ship lurched, his HUD fizzling out of view. Blinking with surprise, Vance could only look around with confusion at the pitch black that encompassed their vessel.

We're dead in the water. Doing his best to move, Vance winced at the sound of his suit's servos bowing slowly to pure mechanical force, moving sluggishly at best. That was to say nothing of the lack of gravity, with everything within the ship floating for a moment. Managing to get out of his seat, Vance abandoned trying to see anything in the darkness, extending his presence instead. Aside from a newfound, constant state of surprise, everyone appeared to be okay, with Jayec having moved up to the cabin.

"EMP." Vance shook his head a bit, realizing that his comm was still offline. With another second, however, his HUD was rebooting, the machinery in his suit coming back online with the base systems. As soon as he could power his magnetic boots, he strode back to the ship's engineering room, taking a quick glance around with what little emergency lighting had turned on.

Nothing was completely fried, but those engines would take their sweet time firing back up. He didn't envy Farla his task.

The ship lurched again as they landed roughly, the auxiliary boosters hissing with the effort. Moving back to the main room, Vance checked over his seals one more time. Detecting no leaks and double-checking his supply of oxygen, he took up his saber with a nod, moving toward the ship's ramp.

"Carefully it is then. Everybody get ready." As instructed, Thel took his spot at the front of the group, hissing his saber to life. Green light flooded the group as his free hand hit the controls, the servos below them humming for a second before remaining motionless.

With a sigh, Vance pointed his palm downward. With a steady tug from the Force, the ramp was pulled open, him magnetically glued to it. As it thudded to the ground, Vance extended his saber with both hands, bracing for the impending bolts.

He was left waiting, blinking with surprise anew after a few seconds of silence. After another moment of waiting, he shot his presence out like a bullet, searching for their opponents.

"There's no one here." Walking down the ramp, Vance held his saber above his head as a torch, double-checking. That couldn't be right, but sure enough, he could sense a single hostile soul.

"I mean absolutely no one." Turning back, he looked up the ramp at the rest of the team, his helmet masking a look of concern.

"I don't like this. Somebody just EMP'ed this entire station, and they're not even here."

[Rugs]

Io’an was both comforted and further distressed to discover he wasn’t the only one uneased by the prospect of spending his last minutes, hours, however long, floating through space in a metal husk until the oxygen ran out. Until the suit froze over, preserving their lifeless corpses for eternity, or until someone found them or they crashed into something.

It meant the fear wasn’t unreasonable.

The fear being unreasonable meant there was at least some chance of it happening.

Ylva looked like she might need his bucket. He scooted it toward her with his foot and an understanding nod. She was, for the moment, right; he didn’t have much left to throw up now.

Instead, he tried to stay busy by distracting himself with his helmet. It slid on easily enough, and was comfortable even with his pointed ears. Something clicked with his suit as it came all the way down. A gentle titening at the base of his skull signaled the helmet locking to the suit and he felt a weird sensation as it locked and pressurized.

A blue HUD flashed to life before his eyes. It displayed an impressive amount of information in an intuitive, surprisingly minimalist way that didn’t obscure his vision with random bullshit. Io’an fiddled with the controls, which seemed to respond to his eye movements after he said a simple command word, until he saw the flash of light through the viewport.

He gripped a metal bar near his seat, not needing to wait for the blast of energy to sweep through the ship to know what was happening.

The ship went listless, then staggered back under control as the secondary thrusters desperately flared to life.

Io’an’s HUD went haywire, the clean blue lines turning to garbled static with a distinct crackling sound and dimming as the suit nearly shut down. He felt ther servos weaken as he braced against the rough landing, but they never stopped.

Yet for all that, it never shut off. It struggled, nearly buckling under the pulse’s weight, but didn’t crumble.

Io’an raised his brows in surprise and looked at his gloved hand, micro motors whirring as he flexed his fingers. What kind of money are you working with, Ms. Faine.

The landing was rough, but they survived.

Thel led the way from the shuttle, lightsaber blazing in his hand. Io’an poked his head out to look at the hangar beyond. It was empty.

The Force was quiet. He knitted his brow, wondering if something was wrong before he let go of the Force as Thel confirmed his suspicions. Nothing to feel. An empty station.

“That doesn’t make sense,” he muttered. He stepped down the ramp, movements still awkward as he adjusted to the suit’s magnetized grip on the metal below him. “An EMP doesn’t just go off like that.”

Despite his own misgivings, he reached to the Force again, pushing his senses as far as they could go. It was eerily quiet, save the distant pips of Ms. Faine’s strike team. That made Io’an feel worse.

Why did I agree to this?

“I need to get to a computer,” he said. “Something’s not right here.”

[Meira]

There was a lurch, and then suddenly everything was black. Ylva twisted, trying to look back to the others, but her suit wouldn't move as it had before. She growled as she strained against the slowly responding servos. Jayec had already started moving, barking out at his mercs in Mando'a. Ylva realized that she too was moving... still. Her turn hadn't stopped when she'd stopped pushing. What the hell? Then she realized that the artificial gravity was gone. She gave a lurch, arms and legs moving outward in an attempt to grab on to something.

It was at that moment that her suit's servos came back online, and the force she'd started applying then became excessive. She careened backward, her head hitting against the bulkhead with a dull thunk. It wasn't hard, no real damage, but she'd hit a horn and could feel the shock of it through her skull.

"Shit." she said, rubbing at the back of her head as one boot caught the floor and the magnetic sole engaged, pulling the rest of her form down. Ylva quickly put on her helmet, slightly askew and then twisting it into place, locking it to her armor. A faint hiss of air indicated that she'd made the seal correctly. The HUD attempted to boot up, flickered, and then went dark. Ylva smacked at the side of her helmet, growling out a few more choice curse words as it tried to reboot again.

The ship lurched again. "-of a bitch, fucking thing..." would be heard over the shared channel as the HUD stabilized and her suit connected with the others. Jayec returned, explaining the situation. "Fuckin' great." Ylva grumbled.

She fell in somewhere in the middle of the group as Thel took the lead, snapping his lightsaber on. The door opened and Thel cautiously moved forward, followed by Io'an. Ylva followed suit, pausing only a moment as Thel and Io'an pondered the emptiness of the hangar bay. At Io'an words of needing to get to a computer, Ylva stomped down the ramp and began to move toward a door. She unslung her blaster rifle holding it ready but pointed downward.

"Well let's quick dicking around then and move." The sooner they finished, the sooner they could get the hell out of there and back onto solid ground.

[CaptainBonkers]

The landing was as graceful as could be expected from a ship lacking any real steering. It was a small miracle that Farla managed to get the Bes'galaar down in one piece considering how weak the auxiliary thrusters were. Jayec owed his pilot a bonus, that was for damn sure. Few could have pulled something like this off with such success. It might not have been smooth, with sparks flying as the ship slid along the hangar floor before coming to a halt, but they made it down safely and ready to move out. As the hold doors slid open to reveal the scene behind, Jayec quickly exited the ship along with his comrades.

The hangar bay beyond was eerily quiet and completely devoid of any signs of life. It didn't look like anyone had been there for a while, judging from the dust and grime that had gathered on the floor. It wasn't on years level yet, though. Less than a month but more than just a couple of weeks was all Jayec could guess. That didn't make him any less weary of the lack of people firing at him, though. Few things were as suspicious as not meeting resistance when expecting it. Usually it meant that you were either walking into an ambush or that something worse had cleared off that resistance. On a space station like this, the Mandalorian wasn't sure which of those options he liked less.

"Alright. Junior squad! Secure the perimeter. I don't know what the fuck happened here but if this is a fucking trap I want us to have a defensive fucking position from which to fuck off if shit goes sideways." he scanned the hangar with his eyes as he spoke, looking for a terminal or something. There was a maintenance station next to a set of doors likely leading deeper into the station. "Check if you can use that one to at least get us a map or something." directing his words to the tech guy. "I'd feel a little better wandering in deeper if I at least had some reference."

[Fromikeable]

"I'm with Broom on this one. Best not to linger." Spotting the maintenance station as well, Vance gave Io'an a silent nod to follow, walking over. Among a variety of starship tools and a broken down astromech, a small terminal flickered and buzzed, its components still clearly recovering from the EMP. Pointing at it, Vance moved over to the large door beside it all. Giant durasteel bars and pistons held it shut tight, the thing's mechanical emergency airlocking protocol clearly having kicked in following power loss. Placing a gloved hand against it, Vance gave an experimental tug. Unsurprisingly, it didn't budge, holding fast.

"If you can manage it, Glitch, see if you can kick on some emergency power too." Closing his eyes, Vance focused on the door, the Force around it swirling as he prepared to pry it open the hard way.

His concentration paused at the sound of a distant clunk, followed by whirring. Lights began to flicker on, the door's terminal coming to life along with the maintenance terminal.

Glancing at Io'an before looking back at Jayec and Ylva, Vance gave them a light shrug. "Maybe it was a weak EMP?"

“Auxiliary power restored.” An artificial voice echoed through the hangar, breaking the station's dead quiet. Shuffling over to the door terminal, Vance reset it, the bar locks disengaging with a hiss. With a creak, the door slowly began to open, stuttering in its movements. “Emergency protocol initiated. Deploying security forces. Please remain in a safe location until emergency protocol is completed.”

Vance adjusted his saber. With the door opened, a long corridor stretched out deeper into the station. Reverberating down it came the sound of rhythmic metallic clanking, the sound becoming multiplied. It wasn't until the sound was close enough to identify which branching hallway it was coming from that Vance mashed the door button again, the airlock sealing anew.

With any luck, they still had a few minutes before anything reached them. "Work fast."

[Rugs]

“I’ll see what I can do...” Io’an voice trailed off as he eyed the maintenance station Jayec mentioned. It was worth a shot. Doubtful any system there was connected to anything of use, but for basic mapping information to figure out where the hell they were? Surely that was doable.

“Though,” Io’an started as he began toward the terminal, “if the power is out I don’t know what I can do since I don’t have a mobile ge-“

The station’s automated voice alerted them that the station’s auxiliary power had been restored a few seconds after some lights flickered on weakly. Io’an was distressingly aware of his own breathing as he looked around the now-lit hangar and wondered if some nasty surprise might have been waiting in the shadows.

No, nothing to see. He exhaled in relief.

The maintenance station was a small plasteel box, essentially, with a window that wrapped around it to give a clear view of the station. In a past life, it’d probably doubled as a control post of sorts to direct ships in and out of the hanger.

Who knows when that was, though. Io’an grimaced as he muscled the stuck door open. The interior was coated in dust and someone’s food had long since rotted into a disgusting pool brown liquid settled across a small shelf that folded up from a wall.

The terminal was at least on. Io’an counted it as a blessing as he set to toying with it. It asked for a passcode he didn’t have, so began breaking into the system.

It was simple work, but he’d just need some time. Thel’s worried urging to work quickly gave him a moment’s pause, but he pushed ahead, focused only on the screen before him.

Find a map was easy, and once he did, it was a simple matter to get it to his suit and transferred to the rest of his team.

“Here,” he said as it sent to the group simultaneously. Was something banging outside the bay? Surely not. “We’re in Hangar Bay 003A. Looks like we’re a couple floors below the control room, which is on Deck 9.”

But the terminal held more than just a map. Io’an’s guess that the station doubled as a traffic control post for this particular bay was right, and with a bit of nosy prodding around, he found travel logs.

Except something was wrong.

He frowned as he quickly scrolled through the data. “Hey guys, something’s off here,” he said. “If these logs are right no one has been in this landing bay for months. At least.”

“That can’t be right,” he muttered under his breath. But looking at the bay’s general state of disrepair... “Did something happen? Maybe I can get to some of the other bays’ logs.”

It was about that time that he pulled his head up to glance at the team and noticed the great doors leading further into the station were glowing. Bright orange. He swore he could hear blaster fire from the other side.

His stomach dropped.

“Uh, what’s going on?”

[Meira]

Who the fuck is Broom? Ylva thought. She didn't have to ask the question out loud, however. Only a moment later, the message from the other team came through with a faint ping. The list of code names appeared on her HUD and Ylva scanned them. She was broom.

"Is that some kind of fucking joke?" she grumbled.

Meanwhile, Jayec began barking his orders to his Mandalorians and Io'an moved toward the terminal with Thel. Ylva moved with them. Before he could even start, however, the station's auxiliary power came on. Ylva let out a sigh of relief at the voiced announcement. She didn't want to have to think about being in a dead space station anymore. That sigh turned into a growl, however, when the announcement continued. That couldn't be good.

Ylva's eyes moved back and forth between Io'an at the terminal and Thel by the main airlock. The latter seemed intent on something. Ylva moved toward him, about to ask what it was when she heard it too. As Thel closed the door and urged Io'an to work faster, Ylva turned back to Jayec. "We're about to have company." she said, but could provide no further information.

Another ping sounded on her comms as her suit received the data Io'an sent out. The schematics were put loaded into a corner of her HUD, marking her location in the hangar as a small yellow dot. Those of her companions glowed green. The advancing sound reached the hangar doors and a commotion could be heard from the other side. It appeared the doors had been locked, which would buy them some time, but who knew how much.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Io'an said.

"We're about to get fucked." she said, matter of fact. "Unless you can find us a way around whatever that is." Ylva gestured to where the door now glowed a bright orange.

[CaptainBonkers]

Jayec had seen this fucking movie. A group of mercs go investigate a space station that turns out to me devoid of organic life and then get attacked by the droids that have gone haywire or something. As he recalled, it hadn't ended too well for the mercenaries. Of course, that flick had had only one mandalorian character on the roster and the writers had come up with a contrived way to kill them off in a freak accident, which to Jayec meant that either the writers had had something against the Mando'ad or they were a smart lot that realized that if the group had a Mandalorian tagging along them for more than half an hour then all the tension in the movie would be gone and all the problems solved by the 45 minutes mark. Not exactly ideal for a feature film. Might make an interesting episode in a holonet drama, though. Anyways, this venture was not going to go down like that movie, mostly because in addition to a platoon of Mandalorians in full kit they had a dar'jetii and a pissed off zabrak lady in tow. And a nerd who could do computer stuff on them. Maybe. Anyways, Jayec wasn't too worried over their prospects at the moment. He reserved the right to change his opinion, though, should it come apparent that they were up against something more troublesome than a bunch of crazed maintenance clankers.

He didn't have to bark out orders in regards to taking up defensive positions towards the door being cut open by the droids. His comrades knew what to do without Jayec's input on the matter. Ylva, Thel and Io'an were a different matter, though. It wasn't that Jayec thought them less capable or intelligent than himself or his vod, but well, they weren't mandalorians and if he had his helmet on they couldn't tell when he was rolling his eyes or smiling while talking to him. "Thel! Take front and wave that glowstick of yours! Draw some fire and return it to the sender! Wolfie, nerd, take cover and return fire! Don't hit Thel!"

[Fromikeable]

A couple of floors between their hangar and the control room was promising, or so Vance tried to convince himself. Really, it meant they had a short trek, even if they had to forgo the elevators for stairways and maintenance hatches. The downside would become more and more apparent the closer they got, however.

There were undoubtedly more security droids around the control center than the rest of the station.

Jayec's orders went followed without a word, Vance taking up a position in front of the door with his saber primed. Part of him wanted to comment on how this wasn't the first time he was being called on to block droids while the rest of his team shot them off, but honestly, it had happened so many times over the past few years, that any joke would feel tired. Beyond that, "blocking blaster shots" was essentially the first bullet point of Vance's job description, and while it was rarely fun, it was also rarely something he would complain about.

He hadn't mastered Soresu for nothing.

Dropping into his stance, Vance watched as the door grew more and more red, the droids on the other side making more audible pounds against it with every passing second. For a minute, it almost looked like they might not be able to cut through it completely. But with a staunch hiss, a cutter's flame finally poked through the door, making a quick circle.

As soon as the door was free, Vance reached out a hand. Rather than fall to the ground, the newly-cut door went soaring back through the hallway top-first, producing repeatedly screams of tearing metal as it moved. It was only when it stopped with a large thoom far down the way that the droids in the rear rallied, proceeding forward. At their lead was a large spider droid, its guns spinning up to a rapid fire as it marched forward over the corpses of its allies.

With flicks of the wrist, Vance began to block. Careful angles guaranteed no shots hit him and few passed behind him, and small maneuvers would redirect shots back the way they came every few seconds.

"Yeah, please don't hit me, if you don't mind!" Bending his knees a little lower, Vance settled in for the long haul, his vision a squint down the hallway at the approaching horde of metal.

"Which way should I be working toward?" It would be a slow advance being this defensive, but presumably they didn't want to camp out in this hangar waiting for every droid on the station to come down. They'd need to move.

[Rugs]

“It seems to be the only way in,” Io’an replied dejectedly to Ylva. At least the only reasonably accessible way. A catwalk up above led to some maintenance exit, but he couldn’t find a way up to it. More importantly, those droids on the other side of the door would be through by the time they came down.

Io’an bit lower lip. No way to avoid a fight. He shut the maintenance computer down and ducked out of the little station he’d taken position in — being careful not to bump into that disgusting brown gunk of Force only knew how old rotten food.

The screech of tortured metal greeted him in concert with a surge in the Force from Thel as he rounded the corner. A glance down the hallway revealed that Thel had used the door as a weapon, crushing some of the droids that had come to corner them in the hanger. And that more were pressing ahead to try killing them.

Io’an dipped back behind the wall, breath coming in short, quick gasps as blaster fire erupted and he raced through his options.

Jayec had told him and Ylva to stay behind cover and return fire when possible, while Thel took up a leading position to block the droid’s fire. Io’an realized he could help Thel in his duties, but that wouldn’t gel with Jayec’s orders.

Besides, he didn’t want to interfere.

But he had another idea in mind. There wasn’t much in the way of natural energy on the space, station, but with the auxiliary power back on, and the droids themselves, there might be enough to use.

He slipped back behind the corner to the far side of the maintenance booth. With a steadying breath to calm his nerves, he reached to the Force. Tepidly at first, unsure of himself and what awaited, but with increased surety after a moment’s hesitation.

There really wasn’t much in the way of natural energy on the station, with much of its systems still warming back up from the EMP. It felt dead. Cold--unnervingly so. Yet, if he focused on it, Io’an could sense the electricity coursing through the lines in the corridor beyond. And with a breaker panel nearby....

Io’an focused on it. It was more a matter of directing the power there to do what he wanted than using his own strength in the force. It wanted to pool and burst into that big spider droid.

On cue, as the big droid lumbered by, the breaker exploded. Tendrils of blue electricity arced from the wall in the droid, which stopped firing and shook violently, as if hit by an ion blast. Io’an peeked over his cover and through the window to see it crumbling to the ground, legs splayed out and twitching occasionally.

He let the Force go and retrieved his gun, moving to a position where he could more readily fire on the remaining droids.

“Might wanna make sure that one’s dead and not just knocked out for a minute,” he said to the team.

[Meira]

"Great." Ylva replied to Io'an. Looking down at her rifle, she flicked off the safety.

Jayec shouted out his orders. She considered asking for some consistency with the codenames, but Ylva preferred Wolfie to Broom so she kept her mouth shut. She hurried over to where a stack of dusty old crates provided a good vantage point on the doorway, which was glowing brighter and brighter with every second. She crouched down behind the crates, ready to either pop up and shoot over them, or lean and shoot around them.

She waited, watching as the first sparks on the doorway indicated that the droid cutters had finally punctured through. She watched as the sparks made their circuit, tensing up as the cut was completed. She was prepared to fire as soon as the big chunk of the door fell...

But it never did. Instead, it went flying back through the hole and down the corridor, smashing droids as it went. Ylva watched, in awe, then turned her head in time to see Thel lowering his arm. Fuckin' force, man. Ylva thought to herself. It was some weird shit. But she didn't have time to dwell on that thought, soon blaster fire came pouring through the cut out door as the droids that hadn't been hit came rushing forward. At the head, a large spider droid marched as it's gun spat out plasma bolt after plasma bolt. Ylva returned fire on some of the other droids pouring through the opening, picking them off and sending them scattering. She was a good shot, but she was also lucky in that droids just didn't seem to have the same self-preservation instinct that living creatures did. They hardly even tried to take cover. They just rushed through the opening.

"Oh, shit!" Ylva shouted as an arch of electricity jumped from a panel on the wall into the spider droid. The droid had marched forward, coming a little too close for Ylva's comfort. As the electricity surged through the droid, Ylva was sure that she'd have felt the hair on her head standing on end had she not been wearing the armor she'd been provided.

“Might wanna make sure that one’s dead and not just knocked out for a minute." Io'an said, appearing from around the maintenance booth. Ylva looked from him to Thel and then back. Thel was too caught up in batting away blaster fire to have caused such a thing to happen.

"Did you do that?" she asked Io'an, gesturing toward the spider droid. "Badass." she added.