Janitor's words were snatched away before she heard them, but his intent was clear.
Nodding, Arana gathered herself once more and began to inch her way back to the others.
Karval makes sure to secure the cable that ties off Arana and helps haul her in.
He looks to the pipes and tries to figure if they need any cables and grapple launchers to try and ensure a safe transition.
Darius begins making space for the others to enter the pipes.
Arana didn't make it too far out and pulling her back is a simple procedure.
Going through the pipes requires no check but your progress is encumbered by gear. I have checked your gear list. You will be slowed main by Janitor and Kaval but I forsee no issues.
Darius reroutes the power lines and creates a safe path through the pipes. It'll be hit or miss whether or not you can exit somewhere safe as you won't have any way to tell where patrols are. Well you kind of do but I won't reveal it but you should be able to figure it out.
Now who is leading?
Karval is happy to lead, but if anyone else wishes to he'll gladly concede position.
"Can we monitor rebel communications? Or listen in to what's happening with the droids, they might have communications open." the Mandolorean wonders, whilst he crawls through the pipes glad that he's unarmoured despite the equipment he carries.
Zaelos takes his position at the rear of the party and nods in reply to Karval. "I can try to monitor the comm channels but I believe they would be encrypted. I could try to break the encryption, should I get access to one of their terminals. I would have better luck with the droids...once we are clear of these pipes."
Darius falls in wherever he is told.
You are unable to use the droids at this moment. They are trying to avoid attention. They will contact you when you are clear.
There is no way to monitor communications in your current state. Guess you'll have to rely on luck you don't come out on top of an enemy patrol.
You progress down the pipes into the building. You soon find yourself with several choices, up, down, left, right, or through the hatch ahead.
What is the choice?
Zaelos holds up his hand, "Let me see if the hatch is clear." He then lapses into a trance extending his Force sense outwards on the other side of the hatch.
Arana sits on a conduit as Zaleos reaches out for the Force. Closing her own eyes, Arana tries once again to determine exactly what Zaleos was doing, to no avail, she's unable to utilized this nature of the Force.
With a sigh, she ceases, thinking "I'll figure out how he does that some day."
Zaelos returns to his normal senses after only a few seconds, shaking his head. "There are at least a dozen people on the other side of the hatch. We need to find another way around them." He whispers softly.
Janitor's also willing to take point, or to guard the rear, or to be somewhere in the middle. He too pauses as Zaleos uses the Force, thinking about his experiences with its practitioners.
"Shall we go up? Through the hatch is inadvisable since we want to avoid Rebel entanglements." He says quietly; "Or down to the heart of the building?"
Karval gets ready to move, checking to see whether they can actually manoeuvre through the tunnels.
Zaelos replies, "Since we are trying to interrupt their communications we should be able to find a power conduit or junction we can disable leading to the antenna if we head upwards."
"I've got the explosives to rig if that's how we want to do this," Janitor reminds the others.
"Upwards sounds like a sound idea, Zaelos." Arana says leaning against a bundle of pipes.
"Good thinking Janitor." Karval agrees with his foresight as he hauls himself up the conduits in concordance with the others. Thews straining against the soft material of his shirt whilst he easily ascends, attempting to keep his efforts quiet - a stalker after his prey of a communications array.
It might be fun to open the hatch and throw some explosives out ... unfortunately, that'd give away our position. Darius thinks to himself.
Up it is.
You travel up. the climb like having a knotted rope, And you have no trouble scaling.
You make some pretty good progress before coming across another exit hatch.
To save time I assume you check. No life forms in the immediate area.
You can continue going up or exit through the hatch. However, some of the wires to the far side of your are beginning to spark a bit and you can smell melted plastic.
Zaelos stretches out with his senses briefly before nodding slightly at the exit hatch, "The way is clear here."
"Be careful this might be where the fire from the surge is." Karval adds cautiously. "However, we could exacerbate it and so interfere with the relay's operation? Shut down the anti-fire systems, open the fire-doors, and so forth."
Going out here may draw them to us as the fire looks like its about to originate in this area, Darius mentions.
Janitor struggles as the group begins to head up the shaft, but since he's taken the rear, he just gives it a moment to reassure his grip and then continues.
He pauses once he's caught up. "If we move quickly out of the area, it might not attract attention. And the longer we stay in the tunnels now, the more dangerous the risks we're taking."
Just so you know, I am still waiting on a decision
Climb
Arana climbs the up the shaft with the others, occasionally having to double check her footholds but successfully gaining the area around the hatch.
Watching Zaleos as he pierced the wall with his "sight", she smiles when he says the way was clear.
You all clammer out of the hatch seeing only a cleaning droid in the hall beyond. You now have three directions you can go.
Left and right is simple enough. You can't see anything special in either direction.
Straight ahead has a short hall with two doors, one to the right and one to the left.
At the end of this short hall is an open room with several consoles and computers. There appear to be people in there but they are far enough and covered enough to where they cannot quite see you.
What now Heroes of the empire.
"Head down one of the corridors? Left? Rather than alert the technicians to our exact position." Karval suggests, "Or we could go over and ask directions?" he says doubtful that they are good enough at bluffing.
That might be a control room. It could be a location to disable to comm systems or at least partially disable them before disabling them elsewhere. Darius notes.
Zaelos nods, "I concur with Darius here. We do not have the time to wander aimlessly here. Now how to deal with the people who are manning the room. I do not think we can bluff here, we have penetrated too far and they are undoubtedly aware of our presence now."
"Storm in pointing guns and knives. Most people tend not to react well to that, especially non-military people." Karval states gruffly. "Just so long as they don't warn anyone!"
Darius acknowledges Karval's concern. "Does anyone have any stun gernades? Perhaps a stealthy approach and a few stun grenades, followed by a quick kill and subdue mission would be the best approach." Darius adds in a tone that seems to suggest some thought and planning.
He adds, "Also, lets not forget about the fire that we expect to erupt near here soon."
"I uses my stun grenades on the rebels we encountered earlier. I have a number of explosive grenades though." Arana says ,checking her harness.
"I'm just packing the high explosives. We all have stun-capable blasters, though, don't we? Someone scouts it out stealthily, determines how many there are, and then we can coordinate and take shots simultaneously." Janitor offers his suggestions simply, seriously: you get the sense that he's done this sort of thing before.
"I'm only reasonable at stealth, we'll need to be close to get the stun setting to work." He adds, as if the military personnel would actually need reminding. "But that won't harm the electronics?" he queries, rocking back on his heels ready for action if needs be. His blaster slipping into his hands softly.
"My blaster doesn't have a stun setting. We only need one of them stunned for questioning, if we can kill the rest."
"Hmm, maybe I can shield our advance but making those rebels only see an empty corridor"
Janitor shakes his head. "Blaster-fire's pretty loud, kid. I'd prefer to keep this silent if we can. If anyone's a great shake at throwing knives or feels confident enough to get behind someone and cut their throat, that'd work." He looks at Arana and nods, working to keep the surprise from his face. Sure is nice having the Force on your side. "That would be very helpful, girl."
You guys are running out of time. Guards will be by soon if you don't pick an action and go with it.
Lets storm the room, take out who we can and move on. Guards will be hitting this position soon because of the fire anyway. Stealth would probably be more appropriate if they weren't going to be drawn to this area soon anyway." Darius says as he draws his blaster.
"Agreed, we need to keep moving." Zaelos replies as he draws his own blaster.
"Sounds good," Janitor whispers, drawing his blaster pistol in one hand and his combat knife in the other. "Go for quick kills or stuns. Everyone watch each other, don't aim for the same target."
"Alright, let's go." Karval agrees unslinging his blaster in one hand and unpowered vibro-blade in the other. His entire poise changes taking on a predatory stance, slipping to the balls of his feet as he starts to move quickly forward - his pistol set to stun.
Arana blinks, coming out of that place she goes to access the Force. With a shrug, she says "I'll save that trick for another time." hefts her blaster, flicks the switch to stun setting, and follows Karval.
Keeping low he moves down the corridor, feet padding softly and silk shirt clinging to his muscular curves. However in the group his silent approach is limited and there's gentle footfalls.
Janitor moves down the hallway efficiently and quietly, moving along the sides and keeping an eye on the enemy, his blaster--for now--set to stun. At one point, he accidentally kicks the wall with one of his boots, but it's a glancing hit, and he winces and continues.
Arana runs with the other, hugging the wall, keeping to the balls of her feet.
Stealh
Zaelos sighs mentally as he follows behind, knowing his stealth skills leave something to be desired.
Darius moves quietly with the others wishing he had more covert mission training.