As Riggs searched across the security consoles in hope of finding anything that would remedy their situation, he glanced across at what Gyro was doing every so often. The other clone was examining what seemed to be camera views of empty space.

His better judgement knew that Gyro wasn't just goofing off. "That's the rest of our base, isn't it," Riggs muttered, watching for a moment before turning away to focus harder on the console. The irritation and fear he could feel welling in his gut couldn't be allowed to distract him; indeed, he ended up finding only two objects of interest overall. Everything else had already been turned on.

One of them was the external door's energy shielding. It was an okay bet in theory, but he had mixed feelings about getting it going. It could help keep the air in for what it was worth- an action that could end up being redundant, as they seemed to have a stable atmosphere going already- but it wouldn't keep the droids out. Everyone had seen how they'd cut through the roof earlier. On top of that, he still believed that Caboose and Omega would be coming soon, and they just might be wanting to use the door. Perhaps it was a better idea to discuss it with Gyro.

The other thing was the self-destruct sequence.

"Gyro," Riggs began, turning his attention to the other clone and clapping him on the shoulder, "I've got a few possibilities going here. We could turn on the energy shielding on the outer door, which could keep us a little safer, but it wouldn't keep more droids from just cutting through our walls again. I think we should conserve our power and leave them off." He thought for a moment, then continued. "With that, we could fight our way through this mess and wait for our backup to arrive and possibly be killed in the process. Or..." and here, he gestured to the self-destruct sequence. "...we could warn the backup, blow the whole complex to smithereens, and take everyone down with us."

Sitting down in the chair in front of the computer, Gyro went to work. The system was damaged, but he was sure he could bypass the affected systems. Light reflected off of the front of his helmet.

Finally, he got the cameras working. He scanned around the base quickly. There was... nothing. A charred ship, but nothing else at all. No bodies, no droids, no enemy ships, nothing. He kicked the underside of the computer in frustration. "This is way too clean for a Droid attack," He muttered to himself.

"Gyro," Riggs began, turning his attention to the other clone and clapping him on the shoulder, "I've got a few possibilities going here. We could turn on the energy shielding on the outer door, which could keep us a little safer, but it wouldn't keep more droids from just cutting through our walls again. I think we should conserve our power and leave them off." He thought for a moment, then continued. "With that, we could fight our way through this mess and wait for our backup to arrive and possibly be killed in the process. Or..." and here, he gestured to the self-destruct sequence. "...we could warn the backup, blow the whole complex to smithereens, and take everyone down with us."
Gyro glanced up at Riggs. "I'd rather we didn't blow ourselves into itsy-bitsy pieces, thank you. As for door shielding... it wouldn't stop the droids, just delay them. I believe we should just open the doors and fight, unless we can't any longer. We just have to hold delay them as long as possible, not defeat them. Then, we will have reinforcements." Gyro glanced back down at the computer. "Besides, if the Confederate scum were good enough to get the drop on us, they probably have the signal mimicked. The only way anyone is going to know, is if we ourselves warn them."

Hodges sighed, stepping back from the door.
"Nothing.... If they are out there, they aren't doing much." he growled to Slade, taking a seat and placing his helmet between his legs. He looked to the trooper across from him, his strong demeanor faltering. "A fine mess we are in, eh? Guess this had to be expected. The republics finest facing down the over-whelming numbers of the enemy..." He joked, though it came out sour, flowing with sarcasm. But his following words held none of that as he added, "We just have to hold on, soldier. One side or another will fall... And I'll be damned if I die by a clanker's lousy aim."

It was total oisk, he knew. they would all die here. Down to the man, they would be slaughtered. And it wouldn't matter how many broken droids surrounded them. The droids were as expendable as he was. Cheaper, even. How could they possibly stand against so many?

Still, they would. They would fight til their last breath... Hodges knew he would. And he doubted Slade or the others would have much of a choice. No one would escape this unscathed...

Checking his rifle charge again, even though he knew it's current power level, The clone fell silent, his own thoughts carrying him far away, back to Kamino. To his family. His brothers in arms, numbering more than any droid army could touch. How safe he felt then.... how confident....

A momentary pause instilled as Riggs waited, patiently, yet tensely, for Gyro's response. Indeed, Riggs was a fairly emotional clone, and was prone to long-winded speeches and explanations about things which, honestly, didn't need much attention. In retrospect, any other clone less dramatic would likely have chosen to ignore the self-destruct sequence altogether, a factor Riggs preferred to ignore when seeking the advice of others to calm himself down.
Gyro looked up at him, his expression unreadable behind his helmet, and replied "I'd rather we didn't blow ourselves into itsy-bitsy pieces, thank you. As for door shielding... it wouldn't stop the droids, just delay them. I believe we should just open the doors and fight, unless we can't any longer. We just have to hold delay them as long as possible, not defeat them. Then, we will have reinforcements." Riggs' head dropped slightly as he finished his sentence. "Besides, if the Confederate scum were good enough to get the drop on us, they probably have the signal mimicked. The only way anyone is going to know, is if we ourselves warn them."

It bugged Riggs to hear that. They would need to fight, all right; that was indisputable, and it was wiser to leave the shielding alone and conserve valuable seconds of power. As much as he did dislike fighting and combat, Gyro had the best point at this moment. He nodded without another word and turned back to his console, silently hoping for Caboose and Omega's proverbial arrival.

Riggs and Gyro sat in the control room staring at the different control panels and computers. Gyro sifted through the dead hallways seeing the same thing over and over again. As he passed over the Hangar camera again he could have sworn he saw movement near the destroyed husk of a ship. Meanwhile Riggs stared silently at his console, unsure of what to do next.
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Slade walked up beside Hodges and looked over to him. "We just gotta stick to our guns and I'm sure we'll make it through this. Like you said, clankers got horrible aim." As Slade let out a small chuckle the doorway behind them let out a small groan, as if something was being pushed againt it. Slade immediately stepped back and levelled his rifle with the doorway.

Well, this truly was a fix. A fix Riggs couldn't fix, as nothing was necessarily broken, and that was even more irritating and stressful than otherwise. A thousand whys began to swim through his head. Why couldn't the droids just come out and attack them? Why couldn't their backup arrive sooner? Why couldn't the Republic just show up suddenly and save the day? And, even more importantly, why was he wasting time here when anything could be happening out in the corridors?

Riggs stood from his seat and walked out of the room, leaving Gyro to his cameras. An idea had hit him, and he thought rapidly as it took more shape. A brief scan of the hallway revealed Hodges and Slade, Hodges sitting on the floor with his helmet between his legs. Slade was chatting with him, or something to the effect.
"...we'll make it through this. Like you said, clankers got horrible aim," he said. Riggs knelt down a half-metre from where Hodges was sitting and pulled out his power packs, datapad, and toolbox. As he began to open up one power pack, a groan sounded from behind the nearest door- as though something was trying to push through. In an instant, Slade had stepped back and drawn his rifle, clone instincts warning him of impending disaster, but Riggs didn't move. He had a plan to pull off, and jury-rigging required concentration.

"Hodges, I'm going to try to fashion me a hand grenade from this power pack," he said out loud in the clone's direction. "If I'm really on my toes, I can have it set to explode when I turn it on rather than immediately after I build it!" And, if it doesn't work, he thought as he worked, I may have a new mess on my hands. Risks, however, were expected in their line of work.

---

((OOC: Riggs will make a mechanics check to build explosive devices akin to frag grenades from his 2 power packs.))

Hodges grinned at that. So look who had the sand now... He was about to reply when a loud groan sounded from the door, setting Slade back on his heels, rifle raised and ready. Hodges wasn't far behind, scrambling to his feet and hitting the wall right next to the door, blaster raised, meaning to stay out of line of sight, and get the advantage, assuming an entire platoon would be pouring through any moment.

"Hodges, I'm going to try to fashion me a hand grenade from this power pack," he heard Riggs call, knelt over some jumbles of electronics. "If I'm really on my toes, I can have it set to explode when I turn it on rather than immediately after I build it!"

Great, Hodges thought. So if the luck wasn't with em, Riggs would blow em all sky high. Still, it was looking like that might be the case anyways, so Hodges gave a vigorous nod. "Sounds good, Mate.Make it a big one!" he shouts, rolling his shoulders and preparing for the fight of their lives.....

Outside the room they clones waited; the door slowly groaned, as if something was being pushed up against it. The three clone readied themselves for a fight that could begin at any second.

Inside the room, Gyro was completely unaware of the situation in the hallways. He was still switching through all of the cameras, trying to find any trace of anything nearby. The computer made a clicking noise, as it's screens switched over and over again. Subconsciously, Gyro rubbed his somewhat sweaty gloved hand across his chest; although, it accomplished nothing. He kept going through all the cameras, click, click, click click.

Wait, what was that? Gyro swore he saw something move around the remnants of the ship in the hangar. Leaning forward, Gyro immediately took control of the computer. He quickly changed the screen back to the hangar, staring at the burned ship. Was his imagination playing tricks on him? Or was it something else? Was it something actually there?

Gyro paused, staring at the screen. Did these cameras have other setting on them, like infra-red or targeting? Blast, he should have paid more attention in the briefing when they first got here. Still unaware of the looming fight outside, Gyro began to try and change the camera's settings, or get a better view of where he saw movement.

(OOC: Yeah, sorry for the late post. Midterms are painful. And the way mine are set up, I have a never ending sea of them.)

Hodges and Slade stood around the door, rifles at the ready as the groaning continued. They could both hear what sounded like metal grating on metal from the other side of the door. "Well Hodges, guess we got what we've always wanted. Hero's of the Republic and all that." --------------------------------------------
Riggs started digging through the scrapped droids for parts as he set the two power packs beside him. He started piecing together two highly improvised and most likely unstable bombs.

((OOC: 30 on Mechanics))
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Gyro sat staring at the camera screen into the hangar. Looking for the movement again, he started searching the computer systems for other camera settings. He managed to find a Infra-Red filter and quickly switched the camera to that. As he looked over the hangar once more, he swore he could see a heat source behind the wreckage of the ship, although he still could not make out what it was.

Gyro glared at the console in frustration, nearly smashing his hands down upon it. Something was back there. He knew it. Was it a droid? A mercenary? Some Confederate Officer?

Gyro pondered momentarily about seeing the thing. What about breaking it's cover? Slowly, a smile crept across his face. What if he opened the hangar door? He was in the security room, he should have access to that.

Gyro quickly attempted to access the hangar blast shields and airlock. Sure, he'd open a route for the Separatists to get in. But it's not like they didn't already have access to that part of the base anyway. If all went well, the vacuum of space would pull the thing out, even if only enough to see. It might drag what remained of the ship out too, but that was of no concern to Gyro; it's not like him and Riggs together could fix that pile of scrap metal. Who knows, it might even draw some of the attention away from the base.

"Sounds good, mate. Make it a big one!" Hodges' confirmation eased Riggs' mind somewhat; it was nice to have an external party acknowledge and confirm his action.

Nimble fingers danced about the power pack as Riggs' ammo-to-bomb conversion ran itself underway. Accessing the power pack and redirecting its feed patterns was no big deal, and his toolbox contained everything he needed to make it all happen. As he worked, he could hear bits of conversation between Hodges and the other clone, Slade, and listened for anything of interest. There was little going on in general, as the two men were also monitoring every sound for potential danger. At length, the conversion was completed, and Riggs now had a pair of jury-rigged and likey unstable hand grenades at his disposal.

"Not too bad for a while's worth, eh, fellows?" He said to nobody in particular, trying to ease some tension. An uncertain chuckle or two left his lips, nearly inaudibly, before he gathered up his tools and shook his head. There was nothing to improve about their situation with banter alone, so he let it go, replacing it with a better action plan. A few feet from his position, Slade uttered in the silence "Well Hodges, guess we got what we've always wanted. Heroes of the Republic and all that."

It was an interesting observation, but Riggs was uninterested in pondering it in that moment. That, too, was left aside for another space, and he carefully piled the grenades off the floor into one arm and grabbed his toolbox in the other. Striding back into the control room where Gyro was, he placed the box on the floor nearby the other clone, holstered the bombs and began dragging a table out into the hall.

"Hey, guys, help me get a good barricade up!" He called to everyone in earshot between the room and the hallway. Tapping his comlink a few times, he added "Batter, come on out of the medbay if everything is all right- I think we'll need everyone here if the assault will be as big as we think it is!"
Taking initiative was something he was still working on, and it scared him somewhat- but it was everything he preferred to playing cat-and-mouse with the waiting game any longer.

---
((OOC: Riggs will build a barricade in part of the hall facing the door with the grating noises with anything large enough to provide even half-decent cover- tables, chairs, whatever will work. He has the makeshift bombs on his belt and, as I understand it, will chuck 'em at whatever is audacious enough to charge in!))

Hodges met Slade's comment with a small, nervous chuckle. "It seems so. Let us not waste the opportunity. After all, to be a Hero, one must survive their first real battle. I don't care to be a martyr."

Re-setting his feet, the trooper's rifle remains leveled at the door. He was glad for his helmet, that his fellows could not see the sweat greasing his brow.

"Hey, guys, help me get a good barricade up!" Riggs sounded from behind them, and Hodges nods. "Go help him, Slade, I got this. Better we get it up fast, or we will all be mowed down."

Running past Riggs to the Dormitories, Slade entered the room. To any who were listening, it sounded as if he were attempting to drag a bed out in to the hall. From the Medical Bay, Batter stepped out. Stopping and looking at the carnage in the intersection of the hall, Batter walked over to Riggs to help with the table.
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Riggs dragged the table out in to the hall as the others scrambled to do something. As Batter stepped out of the Medical Bay he walked over and grabbed the other end of the table and helped move it in to position in the hall.
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Gyro sat in the Security Room and started trying to work his way to the Hangar and Airlock doors. As he tapped away at his computers' keyboard, a slight movement of the heat signature caught his eye. It was almost as if it flickered in place, yet it was still there behind the wreckage of the ship. Unsure of what to make of it, Gyro continued working his way through the damaged systems.
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Hodges stayed by the door, rifle levelled straight ahead. Being the only close to the blast doors, he was the only one who heard the grating noise get closer to the actual doors. As the grating grew closer to the blast doors, Hodges could pick up a low groaning noise from behind the door. He wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but it almost looks as if the door was starting to push out towards him.

Gyro once again was at an impasse. The heat signature seemed aware it was being watched. It stayed hidden. It must have had some way of either monitoring him, or the cameras. He continued to work his way through the battered computer system.

Gyro leaned forward in the chair. Did the heat signature just flicker? Droids were normally pretty constant... unless it was a gas expulsion from it's blaster? Did it reload? Pursing his lips, Gyro continued his work. He wanted to know what it was. "Please don't be a commando droid, please don't be a commando droid, please..." he murmured to himself anxiously, all the while keeping on typing.

Slade had barely left Hodges side when he detected something, a sound. Groaning from beyond the blast door, as if something very large was.... yes, he could see it now, ever so slightly... The door was being pushed? Was that even possible? That door had to be several tons, but something was MOVING it!

Swallowing, despite his dry throat, he backed away, activating his comm. "Boys, I think things just got worse..." He managed to growl, licking his lips in anticipation. "Something is... I dunno, pushing the door.... Something big, I'd wager...."

He refused to turn and run, to seek the shelter of the barricade and risk losing the initiative. Against all of his better judgement, he continued to face the door, backing away slowly. Whatever it was, he would shoot it first.... He wouldn't be taken in the back. Yet he felt it, whatever it was, would break through before he found safety. Whatever it was, it would be his end.... His hands tightened on the rifle, it's stock pressed against his shoulder so tightly it felt as though it would break. It took all of his self control to keep his trigger finger steady, and his eyes clear against the sweat pouring down his face. This was it......