Ara hastily went to work, setting her carbine on the desk so that she could take a look at desk lock. Seeing that it should be a simple trick to crack it open, the mechanic brought out her security kit once again, picking the Mech D2000 Deceiver for the task. She inserted the cylindrical tool into the lockpad and clicked the “start” button. The Deceiver showed five red bars, which meant five tumblers need to be lined up. Placing the tool between the palms of her hands, Ara twirled the D2000 like a mixer. The red bars were quickly replaced with green ones as the tumblers fell into place. Within moment, the Arkanian was twisting the lock open and rifling through the drawers.

The first drawer contains: four holoprojector cylinders; one code cylinder for use with a lock like the desk lockpad; and two cred chips.

The second drawer contains: an older model, heavily modified, heavy pistol with a well used holster; a lightsaber; a glow lamp; a power pack; one code cylinder similar to the one found in the first drawer.

The third drawer contains: one code cylinder similar to the others; and an ornate, japor wooden box which holds three medals of honor for various war service. It seems Krev Neilson is a veteran of the Clone Wars.

[OOC: Let me know what you want to take…]

Having pilfered through the desk, Ara went about doing the thing she had really come up here for – placing the detonite. With skilled hands, she connected the timer to the brick and placed the brick against the wall, hidden behind the small duraplast containers. She noted that the containers were also locked with cylindrical locks similar to the desk.

[OOC: I’m not sure Ara actually picked up a comm unit, but I don’t really care either way. If she did, then she’ll hear the next section. If not, then ignore Hako’ib’s last bit.]

Hako’ib’s voice suddenly came over her comm unit, shattering the silence in the room, “Get down here now.”

[OOC: Ginafae, let me know how long you want to set the timer on the detonite for, and where you want to go from here.]

“Wow,” Ara whispered, her fingers stroking the length of the lightsaber hidden away among Krev’s possessions. “Looks a lot smaller than in the holovids I wonder if it still…”

The comlink that had been pressed into her service suddenly burst into life. “Get down here now,” it crackled, in the sibilant tones of Hako’ib.

“Yeah…yeah…didn’t your mother ever tell you not to rush a Lady?” she whispered back urgently, even as she cleared out the three draws, save for the medals and the pistol. After a moment’s hesitation, she swapped the pistol for one of those that hung by her waist. ‘I’ll take a closer look at it later’ she promised herself.

With the deed done, she carefully planted the explosives and the timer, resisted the urge to peek inside the containers, and quietly left.

‘It’s not as if I’d be able to carry them anyway,’ she reasoned.


OOC: She’ll try and leave in as stealthy a fashion as possible, before assuming a near-approximation of a Stormtrooper’s swagger. The timer will be set for 30 minutes.

Speaking to Karra and Ithiria before Ara arrived in the elevator he raised a worrying point, but before that he needed to make sure they had a way off the space station.

"Ithiria, you need to call Maya. Tell her that we'll be in the hanger in about half an hour and will need a pickup. There isn't anywhere safe on the station now, even if we could have got back here the Jin-Gul gang would never let us live and we can't hide anywhere else without putting others at risk."
He handed Ithiria his comlink explaining it’s encrypted. Once Itiria had made the call he kept talking.

"The Jin-Gul gang will copy every last bit of information from Switch then whip him, they'll learn about why your here and they already know where we're going. They'll sell us to the imperials. We can't let them find out why your here."
He took his weapon out of its holster and primed it.

"Ara would have already set the timer, with any luck she'll have left us with enough time to quiet the Jin-Guls."
Hako'ib didn't know what the others would think of this, Karra obviously didn't want to get involved in a fight if she could avoid it and Ithiria seemed like she'd fight to defend herself, or him, he couldn't decide which. He hoped she would fight to defend all of them. The actions he was proposing were treacherous. You don't survive in the underworld by being stupid.

(OOC: I hope we have enough time and all agree with this, otherwise our GM will have some nasty surprises. She's too gooder GM to let something like this not come back to haunt us.

I also hope this won't increase Hako'ibs dark side score, in my eyes, and his, this is a justified action to protect the groups safety.

Lastly, if you replace 'underworld' with 'outer rim' in the last sentence you'll have a quote from Star Wars the Clone Wars. The character who says it is who I'm loosely basing parts my character on.)

Karra sighed, and shook her head, gently pushing Haiko'ib's gun down.

"There's no time. We're already set to go, and if we don't make it to the hanger before that blast goes off, they'll seal it off, and there goes our chance. Yes, they may go to the Imperials, but they're also a shady group as well, correct? If that's the case, then wouldn't they rather not draw attention to themselves by bringing such information forward? The question could be raised of where they came across such information in the first place... or at least, that's how it was when I was taking my degree..."

Karra shook her head again, "Anyway, there's too many unknowns to do something so rash. For instance, they could very well call reinforcements upon assault, and in that scenario, we'd be flanked between two groups, depending on how quickly they arrive. There's too much to lose, and we won't even be sure of anything gained. Don't forget, most droids that hold information also usually will detonate themselves as a result of attempted external access. There's a good chance that either that will happen, or a failsafe will upload his memory onto a virtual device to be transmitted to another casing, or even delete it. Don't you think Switch would've prepared for this happening? Have some faith in your own employer."

Hako'ib lowered his weapon; he wanted to make a clean break. Not give anyone a reason to follow him; those thugs could hound him even once he's off the station if they wanted. Karra was right though, there was no reason why Switch wouldn't have prepared some fail safes if this sort of thing ever happened. She was right, Switch would never destroy himself but he'd certainly do something with the information he stored, he'd rather disadvantage himself and spite his enemies then let them have the slightest chance of learning his well guarded secrets.

"I don't know, Ganga Lors old gang was well know for tipping of the Imperials when they couldn't get hold of something themselves."
He turned to Ithiria

"What do you think? Risk it and try to clean up here or make a break for it and not run the risk?"
He knew the answer, it would be not to risk it. What a damn fine mess he'd been landed in, freedom suddenly seemed a lot further away since Angus had turned up. When he got away he'd sell the armor and rum, get himself somewhere to live or bunk and lay low, and sit out this war. See if he could find someone to help him if things turned bad, roomer had reached Switch that Senator Organa was increasingly active in the underworld, word was most of the noble families were financing raids on the Empire. For all its passive nature Aldaraan was probably the one planet that did most to attack the Empire.

With a sense of urgency, Ara picked up her carbine from the desk, turned off the lights and opened the office door with as much stealth as one could muster when wearing Trooper armor.

Stepping out into the hallway, she was relieved to find that it was clear again, save for the maintenance droids. Closing the door, she straightened herself up again and walked around the corner, attempting her best “trooper swagger”.

She saw the two troopers by the elevator again, looking as though they were listening to something coming through on their headsets. Almost as one, they moved from their post and began making their way towards her.

Ara nearly past them as they reached the T-junction leading up to the Loyalist Lounge, when one of them turned to her and said, “Soldier! Your comm unit not working? Harnell just called us all back to the station. Something about suspicious cargo in hanger. Let's go!”

[OOC: Careful, Ginafae… ]

“If By'u comes down just tell her from me not to worry about the droid now, less you want him as your servant or something."

“I’ll keep that in mind, Tails,” scoffed Angus. “Now, follow your kitten’s example, and get gone!”

The man seemed like he’d keep his word and, sure enough, while the thugs kept their weapons trained on the heroes as they left, they didn’t fire a round. Once Hako’ib, Ithiria, and Karra were through the door, one of the thugs hit the control panel, closing the bay doors.

As the three companions begin to make their way to the elevators, Hako’ib speaks softly in the commlink to Ara, “Get down here now.”

--“Yeah …yeah…didn’t your mother ever tell you not to rush a Lady?”— came Ara’s reply.

The companions made it to the elevators without any incidents. Together, they decided to wait for Ara to return before venturing up. However, as they waited, fine minutes passing with no sign of the Arkanian, Hako’ib began to second guess his decision not to take out Angus and his gang.

Karra disagreed with the Twi’lek, encouraging him to put the gun away and stick to the plan.

[OOC: Sorry, guys, not much here… you may want to wait until Ginafae posts and then respond to Ara… if Ara decides to use the comm.

In the confines of the large, white helmet she wore, Ara blinked. And then blinked again. Unfortunately the stormtroopers staring back at her didn’t disappear into a happy, dream-like fog.

‘Oh, frack,’ she thought, cursing the ill-fate that had led her to being alone, inside Stormtrooper armour, and with the stolen possessions of an Imperial Officer inside a shoulder-pouch. ‘I wonder if that’s a shooting offence or a drop-you-naked-inside-the-belly-of-a-sarlacc-job…’
“Your comm unit not working?” one of the Stormtroopers probed gruffly, shattering her nervous train of thought. Harnell just called us all back to the station. Something about supicious cargo in the hangar. Let’s go!”

“Uhh…guess not…” she replied, quickly dropping her voice down several octaves after the first syllable escaped her mouth. “Been playing up all shift,” she improvised with an exaggerated shrug, even as her hand surreptitiously activated the comm device Ithiria had lent her.

“So what do you think the hangar crew found in the hangar? Must be pretty bad if we’re all to go there,” she inquired, even as she gripped her carbine with renewed purpose and prepared to follow her Stormtrooper ‘comrades’.

‘With any luck the others will have heard that and get the message…otherwise we’re fracked,’ a voice in her head chimed, before adding: ‘well more fracked than we were before…’

Looking at the comlink that was handed to her sending the message “maya its ithiria, we are picking up cargo, need extract from hanger in 35 minutes" With that she follows along thinking to herself about how this was going to end. Until hao’ib spoke again.

"What do you think? Risk it and try to clean up here or make a break for it and not run the risk?"

Thinking on this for a moment she nods “I have to agree with Karra, there are too many variables to risk it, plus we have an explosive device which again agreeing with karra, the imps will lock this station down until the bomber is found”

OOC:
Sorry about slow posting life got FUBAR the last few weeks, but back on track

As Ithiria handed the comlink back to Hako'ib a voice spoke through it's speaker. It was Ara's voice, some octaves lower as if she was impersonating a Stormtrooper, and it echoed around Hako'ibs head before the meaning clicked.

Why would Ara be impersonating a stormie... Why would she take that risk... Of frack.

He repeatedly jabbed at the button to call an elevator for a good few seaconds before thumping the wall with his fist.

"Looks like our plans gone wrong, we might have to storm the hanger after all."
He shoved his pistol into his holster as he hurried into the elevator, once the others followed he pushed the button for Blue Deck.

There was no mistaking the urgency in Haiko'ib's voice, or the trepidation in his frantic frenzy of pressing the button to call the elevator. Yet, for all that he, his tone, and his manner said, it wasn't very clear what exactly was going on...

"What happened? What's going on?" Karra asked, setting her pack back over her shoulder just in case the elevator arrived.

Karra could obviously see his urgency, he answered her question as quickly and simply as possible.

"The Stormtroopers have found our friend in the hanger. They also think Ara is one of them and are going to investigate."
May the powers that be make that bantha poodoo elevator come quicker, everything was at stake here. He used the comlink to call Mira. They had never spoken but if anything they needed to speak now, he quickly manipulated the controls to call the last person called using the device. His tone was urgent and slightly panicked.

"My name's Hako'ib, I work for Switch. The Stormies have found your security agent and Ara is down with them planting a distraction. We need a ship down there on call to get us out once we have the agent."

The stormtroopers were already making their way to the deck’s security station while Ara was making her excuses. Whether they heard her or not was unknown. They didn’t question her further though. Nor did they answer her question about the “suspicious cargo.”

As they rounded the last corner before the security station, Ara noticed a familiar face. Hanging out by the entrance of the Lucky Stars was the plain-clothed Imperial informant who had fled from their earlier shootout on the Promenade. He seemed to be looking at no one in particular and everyone in general. The man obviously did not recognize the Arkanian in her current disguise.

Following after the other two soldiers, Ara entered into the lion’s den – Blue Deck Security Station. A human male, dressed in a regular Imperial uniform (as opposed to storm trooper armor) greeted the three of them at the front counter and let them pass through the security door into the briefing room with a simple push of a button.

Entering into the brief room, Ara suddenly found herself surrounded by display monitors – three of the four walls were nearly filled with the screens, each displayed images from cameras posted throughout the deck. As Ara took in the screens, she noticed that some of the cameras seemed to be moving. At first confused, it finally clicked for her… some of the droid were transmitting images!

So caught up was she in this discovery, that she nearly missed her cue as an Imperial officer walked into the room. Each of the other stormtroopers (there were eighteen in the room now, plus herself) quickly lined up and snapped to attention. Ara followed suit.

The officer walked with a stiff, crisp military step, his boots clicking on the floor. Standing in front of the soldier, he did not waste time, “Soldiers! I have just been informed of the storage of some suspicious cargo apparently located on here, on our own deck.” He paused for a moment, letting the words sink in. “How this cargo managed to find its way on to this deck makes no difference for the moment. What does matter is that we find it. And find those responsible for it.

“Our sources tell us that those responsible will be looking to leave with in the next few hours. We will NOT allow this to happen! Understood?!”

“Sir! Yes, Sir!” came the soldiers’ strong reply. Ara joined in, only a millisecond behind the others.

“We will find and crush these roaches and bring glory for ourselves and glory for the Emperor! Understood?!”

“Sir! Yes, Sir!”

“There is already a squad in the hanger looking for the cargo…” the captain continued to lay out instructions for his troops:

Four troopers were to monitor the main elevators.

Two troopers were to monitor the maintenance elevators.

Two troopers were to monitor the entrance to the Loyalist.

Two troopers were to monitor the entrance to the Lucky Stars.

Two troopers were to monitor the entrance to the BluRay

Four troopers were to patrol through the hallways.

One trooper was to assist the captain in the hanger.

Ara and one other trooper (the one that had questioned her about her comm not working) were assigned to watch the security monitors in the briefing room and report any suspicious activity to the appropriate troops.

“Failure in not an option, Soldiers! I WANT THIS CARGO! Dismissed!”

The troops quickly filed out of the briefing room and headed to their stations, leaving Ara alone in the room with only one stormtrooper.

[OOC: Here you go, Ginafae! The security cameras are posted through out the Blue Deck. There are a total of forty monitors:
- two cameras in the maintenance room
- one camera down the maintenance hall
- four in the Loyalist
- four in the Lucky Stars
- four in the BluRay
- four by the elevators
- one in each hallway, so four total. (none down towards the offices)
- eight in the hanger
- eight cameras are mounted on maintenance droids
- one blank monitor

There is one other stormtrooper with Ara, there is one officer at the front counter. You can see all the other troopers on the cameras as per the Captain’s assignment, plus the six-man squad in the hanger (for a total of seven stormtroopers and one officer in the hanger).

Where do you want to go from here? (hint: you probably want to wait for my post for the rest of the party. ]

[OOC: I rearranged some of your guys’ dialogue in order to make the story flow a bit better…
Meanwhile, back on Deck N14, the three newly met companions began working out their plan.

“I have to agree with Karra,” stated Ithiria, with regards to attacking the Jin-Gul gang members. “There are too many variables to risk it, plus we have an explosive device which, again, agreeing with Karra, the imps will lock this station down until the bomber is found.”

Hako’ib accepted his companions’ wisdom and moved on. "Ithiria, you need to call Maya,” he said, passing his encrypted comm unit to the Jedi. “Tell her that we'll be in the hanger in about half an hour and will need a pickup. There isn't anywhere safe on the station now, even if we could have got back here, the Jin-Gul gang would never let us live and we can't hide anywhere else without putting others at risk."

Ithiria looked at the comlink that was handed to her and after a moment, punches in the frequency given by Maya and begins talking, the message, “Maya. It’s Ithiria. We are picking up cargo. Need extract from hanger in 35 minutes."

Maya’s voice crackles to life over the comm unit, --“Ithiria! What the…”— there is a pause –“I told you to only use the comm unit I gave you!”—there is another pause, followed by a sigh. –“Where? What deck?”—

“Blue deck,” comes Ithiria’s response, remembering that Maya had indeed given her a comm unit.

There is no response from Maya. The Jedi hands the comm unit back to Hako’ib.

The comm unit does not remain silent for very long, however. Ara’s voice, much deeper than normal, comes through the speaker with a somewhat cryptic message:

--“…Been playing up all shift.”— there is a slight pause before she continues –“So, what do you think the hanger crew found in the hanger? Must be pretty bad if we’re all to go there…”—

For a moment, none of the companions on Deck N14 moves, each considering Ara’s words.

[OOC: I rolled Perception checks for each of you, plus Force Perception for Karra. Two of the three of you passed your perception checks to get a sense of what Ara’s message might mean. Karra failed her Force Perception roll. I worked it out in the story that Karra failed both rolls, only to keep with the dialogue that was written.]

Hako’ib was the first to come to some conclusions. Oh, frack! he thought as he began jabbing at the elevator’s call button before slamming his fist into the wall.

"Looks like our plans gone wrong,” he said, frustrated at how freedom hoped for seemed to be slipping away. “We might have to storm the hanger after all."

"What happened? What's going on?" Karra asked, setting her pack back over her shoulder as she waited for the elevator to arrive.

"The Stormtroopers have found our friend in the hanger,” stated Hako’ib, explaining his theory. “They also think Ara is one of them and are going to investigate."

As they waited, Hako’ib anxiety got the best of him and he grabbed his comm unit, calling Maya once more. “My name's Hako'ib. I work for Switch. The Stormies have found your security agent and Ara is down with them planting a distraction. We need a ship down there on call to get us out once we have the agent."

The response was terse, as though Maya was speaking through gritted teeth, --“Stay off this frequency or you’re going to get us all killed!”—

The comm unit went silent again. The arrival of the elevator punctuated the silence with a ~~PING!
The party of three stepped into the turbo lift before the doors had even fully opened. With great haste, Hako’ib punched in the code for Blue Deck and the lift whirled its way up. The Twi’lek scoundrel holstered his pistol, and together the companions waited.

Their ride was interrupted four times on the way to Blue Deck. First, a group of three human male maintenance workers stepped on at Deck N09 only to get off again at Deck N06. For most of the three floors, one of the workers sneezed repeated only to say, ”Aw, sorry, fellas. I’m allergic to cats.” The companions could tell he was faking it, and the other men just laughed along rudely with the joke.

At the Promenade, a human family [father, mother, son, daughter] and a man wearing an Imperial uniform stepped onto the elevator. As they continue to ride up, the girl attempted to reached up and touch Ithiria’s tail, but the mother smacked her hand away, “Aria! You make sure you wash that hand when we get to our room!” the mother looked at Ithira with scorn. “You don’t know what you could catch!”

Karra and Hako’ib noticed that the uniformed man just smiled but didn’t say anything. The family got off at Deck P23. The companions waited for the uniformed man to exit too, but he was heading all the way to Blue Deck as well.

Finally, the elevator reached Blue Deck, and the companions and uniformed man stepped off. Stepping onto the deck, all the companions immediately notice the security cameras pointed at the elevators. The “people” traffic on the deck is not as heavy as on the Promenade, with only two people plus their droid servants stepping onto the elevator the companions just got off.

The heroes also notice the uniformed man turn the corner towards the offices.

[OOC: Alrighty! So you guys have made it to Blue Deck! Hurray! Now what? :evil: (before you answer this question and post, please read the Q/A board for more details)]

Once in the lift Hako'ib voices a plan he thinks will be unpopular, it's risky and relys a lot on the right thing happening at the right time. But you never know, the group might have a bit of luck.

"We should all make our way to the hanger, if anyone asks us were picking up some cargo for Gundark. Once we get to the hanger if the guards won't let us in then we request for someone to escort us and to keep an eye on us. Hopefully Ara will have caught on to this and will appear from where ever she is and offer to keep an eye on us if it's that urgant.""
He looks down guitaly, thhis is the worst part of his plan.

" Then we just need to get those doors closed and hope for the best."
For the rest of the way to Blue deck he remains slient, cold towarcold t other people who enter the elavator. Turn the. Turn tback a few years and the sorts of things like a mother forbiding a child g a childa carthars tail woul tail woost unheard of, the anti-alien propoganda was working quickly.

As the last man exited the lift, the Imperial, on blue deck he felt a spasm of what could have been guilt but it was more shock. The man had turned towards the offices, hopefully he wouldn't find the explosives before they got into the hanger.

(OOC: Sorry about spellings, I'll spellcheck it later.)