Viera looks at Cade and does her best to avoid Taska's eyes. Shrugging her shoulders she wrinkles her nose. "What does anyone know about the Force? Superstitious mumbo-jumbo. The sort of thing children have sayings about until they're old enough to know better - if nothing else for their own safety."
Reeb looks to Helrun, waiting for his response. Meanwhile he is using his datapad to see what info he can pulldown from the servers inside this building, running search routines looking for keywords like jedi, rebels and credits.
Computer Use:
Taska nods at Cade. "That sounds good to me."
She snorts at Viera's description of the Force. "Everyone makes it sound like Jedi had some monopoly on the Force, when virtually every planet has- or had, at least- an indigenous belief in some higher power. External or internal, there are all sorts of beliefs in mental energy manipulation."
The dark skinned woman shakes her head. "Most martial arts styles have some kind of meditation or training that's supposed to help harness energy for various purposes. It seems to me the Jedi just wrapped that all up in a religion, then grew faster than any other group and were eventually able to define the conversation. Nothing unique about it, just another group of people imposing their beliefs on others. They weren't the first and won't be the last group to try to push their religion on other people, but they were the most successful."
"Until recently, anyway."
Meanwhile
The Stormtrooper walks Helrun and Reeb into the bay. It has been about 15 minutes since they parted at the entrance. The young alien has worked thru about half the droids needing repair. A tech walks up to Helrun and says You just missed our new supervisor Count Vidian. Should I call him back?
@Stormtrooper
"No need."Helrun looks a bit upset at Thi'wiks progress....
"You best to watch these close he looks a bit too sloppy, hoping to repair what's obviously broken and leave parts that a near failure intact, it's a common ploy among the technicians."
@Thi'wik
"But you wouldn't intentionally only get these operational and leave defects to fail, would you?"
Helrun picks up one of the capacitors..."Did you test this one's tolerances?"
Almost without waiting for an answer Helrun turns his back on the little alien tech....
@stormtrooper
"Better than a wookie I suppose."
Cade listens to Taska with interest and then says True the Jedi do not have the monopoly on the Force. I have heard of groups called the Sith , the inhabitants of Dathomir for instance are another group. I know the Vigos a number of years ago had a run with a pair of Force users bearing red light sabers. The leader called himself Darth Maul, needless to say after the issue of that partnership. The Vigos would rather not deal with anyone who is into the Force. So tell me ladies where did you all grow up at?
Meanwhile
The Stormtooper looks at Helrun and says I will your alien tech person to you. I just received new orders.
This leaves Thi and Helrun alone to talk in the maintenance bay.
When the trooper walks away, Thi'Wik touches two leads to the capacitor Thek has in his hand.
The capacitor grows very hot and then explodes with a loud pop, leaving black marks on Thek's fingers as it explodes.
"Annoyed Observation. Yes, I tested it's tolerance." The literal minded alien says with annoyance in galactic. Then he points his device at Thek and Reeb's devices, and downloads to them the images from the droids he'd been working on when the Count Vidian came through, along with a subtitle so the humans can hear what was said without turning the sound up. He also copied down the personal memories of those droids into his own device for later analysis. "Now, if you will excuse me, overseer, I have at least four more droids that can be repaired with parts currently available."
Thi'Wik and crew are still in the Bay while Thi' works on the droids.
Meanwhile
Cade and the ladies still wait. The lift opens and a entourage of Imperials come out of it. A tall cyborg with irises glowing red and armored body dressed in imperial regalia comes out. Along with him are two imperial officers that appear to field grade officers. About 10 stormtroopers come with them.
The music in the room stops and all the Senators with their guests stop talking.
Good Evening Loyal Citizens of the Empire. I am Count Vidian, a special representative of the Emperor. I am here tonight to help keep the Empire free of Traitors. Behold the evidence. Count Vidian waves his hand a holo of Senator Gol Torah handing a disk to Cade. Here is the information that the Black Sun wants on the Empire's defenses.
The crowd gasps and sighs.
See how the corrupt Senator takes credits from the The Crime Lords. How dare this public servant sell out your safety for personal gain. as Count Vidian pause for dramatic effect. Someone for the crowd yells [ b] Arrest the Traitor [/b] The Stormtroopers start to move to arrest the Senator who had been a deserted by his entourage. The Muunist pulls a personal blaster. The Troopers open fire killing the Senator. The crowd collectively panics. Cade motions the ladies to stay in place.
Be calm loyal Citizens the Empire will help keep you safe. For now please enjoy the Eveing and get some droids to clean up this poodo. one of the Imperial Officers says.
The Stormtroopers take up spot around the room to provide security. The Count and the Officers start to mingle.
Cade looks nervous and then says We need to leave before anyone see me
Meanwhile in the Bay a request for a droid support comes in.
Viera bit her lip when Taska spoke. If the Imps clearly didn't understand Jedi, this woman certainly didn't.
She was saved the challenge of how to continue the conversation without showing her emotions when the action kicked off. They were definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time now.
She whispered. "If we get up too soon, we draw attention. Too slow and we get discovered. We're between a rock and a hard place."
Thi'Wik checks to see what the droid request is, before allowing any of the droids he is working on to respond.
"Also cross reference the droids service routines and movements, and ensure good access coding and directional narratives."
In other words....
Reeb is also downloading any blueprints to this building, including the positions of weapons and strong electrical "hotspots" which might show the locations of data storage systems.
Computer Use:
Reeb is able to gain access to the monitor on the second floor. As he able to move through the data. He sees what has happened to the Muunist Senator, he also sees Cade and ladies by the lift.
Thi'Wik will release the droids that are repaired for the droid assistance requested, but he'll set up a debug routine to feed their inputs and logic references back to his datapad. This is as typical thing to do with freshly repaired droids when you put them through testing routines. He makes a note in the droid's internal repair logs that he's releasing them due to a priority request, and monitoring them to make sure they don't break down during untested use.
He should already have their memories copied over, as part of the backup routines when repairing them, which would include building plans, maintenance routines, and so on. If not, he'll download that from the first droid that isn't repaired.
"Umm, Helrun you should see this!", Reeb says as he watches the events transpire within the building.
"Now what do we do? I take it he was our contact here?"
"Observation. We do our jobs, get paid, and leave." The Mrlissi says in a very soft voice, making sure that no one can see it's beak move. "We are technicians, doing our job."
Thi'Wik removes the code he had put in earlier to have the information go to the Senator, if he had put it in any droid, before releasing the droid.
"Finish up the repairs and yes get paid. Reeb and I can go with the droids to aid in the clean-up and give them an ETA on the remaining droids."
"Also we can pull any non-essential personnel and bring them down here in the bay, so they will be out of the way."
Taska shakes her head and sighs. "So now you're worried about being seen." It was pretty much the same as saying 'I told you so.'
She shrugs at Viera. "I don't think anybody would wonder about people running from an execution like that. It's a pretty sensible reaction." The bounty hunter looks critically at Cade. "Too bad you don't have a hat or goggles or something."
Reeb will take control of the elevator that got them to this level and send it up to be ready as an escape route. He tells Helrun what he has done, and will send a burst message to the ladies, notifying them of the escape route.
Computer Use:
"Thanks Reeb, stay here with Thi'wek. I will take these droids up and brief our employers of the status of the remaining droids."
Once he gets up to the floor with the repaired droids for clean-up...
"Sorry for the delay in droid support, my tech is still working on droid repair in the bay area. I have not had time to inspect his work so the standard warranty is waived."
Helrun stands by the lift as the droids move into action for biohazard waste removal....
"Several droids remain in the bay receiving repair."
Layout of the Room
======================================
Cade and Ladies get a com burst on the coms that lift is on it's way.
When the lift opens it is Helrun, the closest Imperial goes to says something.
"Sorry for the delay in droid support, my tech is still working on droid repair in the bay area. I have not had time to inspect his work so the standard warranty is waived."
Helrun stands by the lift as the droids move into action for biohazard waste removal....
"Several droids remain in the bay receiving repair."
The Imperial looks at Helrun and says Your promptness is very professional. Take care of that mess. He nods towards the remains. The droids go to make clean up as they do. Count Vidian moves towards the lift. As he does several several Stormtroopers come with him. He moves next Helrun, he turns to speak to Helrun. The Count looks at Cade and says What do we have here, I believe we have found our fugitive at last. Who are associates?
Cade sits realizing he has been made. These women are not with me, they simply sat here. He says to Count Vidian.
The women and Helrun have a chance to act.
Staying behind and monitoring the situation through the in-house security, Reeb see that the group has been made.
"Darn! There goes my change to get a contact in the Black Sun!"
He manipulates the security system and sends an emergency call to the back of the complex.
Computer Use: 20+10+1 = 31
Helrun steps backwards surprised
"I thought the enemy was that pile of Bantha fodder over there."
Points at the corpse(s) hard to tell that the droids are working on.
"Will the droids need to remain for a second clean-up?"
Points at Cade
Thi'Wik activates a request for CPU diagnostics from all the droids as they start to clean. This will activate the feedback loop in the rickety droid's power supply. A random bit of time later it shorts out and burns itself out internally. Any forensics should come up that it was an old droid that overtaxed itself multitasking. Part of normal stress testing is to make it multitask heavily.
Taska looks suddenly at Cade, moving away and closer the stormtroopers as if surprised by the revelation. "The fugitive! You're right!"
Count Vidian goes says something when all of the sudden the droids go crazy. The droids that came up with Helrun, shoot straight towards the crowd. The crowd erupts with panic. The Stormtroopers move towards the Officers and the Count.
Helrun grabs his Commlink......
"Tech Thi'wek, send no further droids, and shut down the repaired droids ASAP..even if you have to set off an EMP!"
Viera is genuinely unsure as to what to do. Regardless, she sticks by Cade's side and hopes Taska is just bluffing rather than genuinely switching sides.
ThiWek notices a binary code coming in from the second floor. It is a command code that tells the droids to attack. The code is hard wired into the droids.
Count Vidian has a droid that is near him that is sparking. He swings with his metal fist at astromech looking droid. The droid dodges to the left and puts it self between Cade and Count. The Imperial Officer Kam attempts to draw his weapons and fire but gets caught by crowd in the room. Cade makes a run the lift.
Taska lets herself fall into her battle trance, feeling the Force flowing through herself and everyone else in the the room, allowing her to read their next moves before they make them.
Thi'Wik forwards the information to Thek, about the signal. Then he uses the link he has with the droids to try to activate the self diagnostic subroutines to force them into shut down.
"Alert. Agent Thek, droids accessed from second floor, hard-wired command packet, buried in secondary processors. Override difficult. Inform Imperial Command. Imperetive. Physical interception of hacker imperative." Thi'Wik will also send the same information to security from his location. He tries to track down where the signal is coming from in greater detail.
He then tries to disrupt the control network.
Reeb looks over at the Mrlissi and asks, "What can I do to help? "
Helrun backs into the elevator....
"Seems the droids are hard wired to do this so nothing I can do here. Have a good day!"
Thi'Wik barely looks up. "Track hack. Hack environmental in room hacker in. Turn on anti-fire. Lock door so no escape from security." The droids hadn't gone after just the imperials, they had gone after innocent bystanders, whoever this was, wasn't a friendly ally.
Cade and Taska head to the lift that Thel is moving to.
Reeb attempts to track where the droid hacker is located and lock him and and turn on the fire suppression systems. He will also attempt to block his signal out of the room.
Computer Use (Trace and Trap):
Computer Use (Override Fire Systems):
Computer Use (Cut Communications):
Reeb figures out the overide to droid came from a controller that the Senator Gol Torah has. The device is somewhere on the second floor.
As Thek,Cade,Taska, and Viera make it to the lift. Thi'Wek command about shutting down the all the lifts and doors take effect. So the door is shut on the lift but its not moving.
The sounds from outside of the lift are yelling as the Imperials and Stormtrooper start shooting the droids. The group inside the lift can hear Count Vidian. Get these doors open now!
The lift door freezes for a seoncd the group inside can hear the Count ordering the troopers to blast it. Then the lift goes down down to the maintenance bay but then starts to go back up.
Cade looks at Thek Can you do anything ?
would there be time to take 20?
"Lifts stop if you open the doors, don't they?" Taska pulled out a pair of heavy fighting gloves and slipped them on. "Let's see if we can force the doors open." She nods at Cade. "Be ready to grab the other door and pull."
Thi'Wik aids Reeb in overriding the elevator while he's buried in the guts of a droid.
Reed tries to override the lift controls and bring his friends down to where he is.
Computer use:
Viera looks on helpless. Either her comrades will be able to override the lift functions and they can escape - or the doors will be opened and they'll have to fight their way out of this.
Viera closes her eyes and meditates - allowing the Force to flow through her. If it came to a fight, she may have to use her saber.