The cyborg waits for a hot second, waiting for anything and everything to come crashing down on their heads. Breath still, motors locked in place, until finally her shoulders slump forward. "Well, that was exciting."
. Persuasion then.
The old lady responds to Khal's artful and polite persuasion with a smile. Then she chews her lip as if thinking about how best to accommodate the group.
"Well, as I said, we've had speeders leave and never come back, but I can tell a good dakka fruit when I see one. And seeing as how you're promising me to stay away from the Suns, I can loan you a speeder for 50 a day, but with a 500 credit security deposit. It seats four and runs well, but you have to mind the dust. If that offer works I'll show you to the garage."
Honey and Tavin regroup with Mal and Rel at the opening into Davika Tower.
"I was sure that wouldn't work," says Kell. "I'll tell mother you're inside. If you find Matok, don't give that silver-tongued bastard a chance to talk you out of killing him." The young man nods and turns, and disappears from whence he came.
You find that with some simple hand excavation, you can remove enough of the wall section around the hole to squeeze through. The foundation is indeed brittle, but no doubt your blasters would have set off the alarm if not for Honey and Tavin's skill with the bypass.
Inside the Tower you see two massive chiller turbines, ducted through the ceiling at one end of the room. The air handlers on the roof must be substantial to provide for clean, breathable atmosphere. It's a big contrast to the small buildings of the Bazaar, some of which have open storefronts. That people have adapted to breathing powdered rust all day long is amazing.
This room appears to be unoccupied, and it is very large, 20x20 meters square. Utility closets line the walls and a set of double doors are closed along the wall opposite the air ducting. You're bathed in dim red light, and the sound is quite literally deafening if you stay for any length of time while the units are running, which presumably, they always are.
Drifter nods his agreement and then steps back to let Khal finish off the arrangements.
Honey takes in the room, all too briefly. "Good staging area as any. I didn't think we'd be jumping headfirst into this, but something tells me that this tends to happen with our team."
Khal keeps that smile going. ”That sounds perfectly fair. What would you suggest for dealing with the dust? Is it a way of piloting or is there something to avoid?”
The weathered old woman smiles and shows several missing teeth. "Right this way." She affixes a pair of giggles and wraps her face and head with a reddened scarf, draws the dusty layers of dress tight and proceeds part you, through the curtain layer offering modest protection from the elements outside.
The Bazaar is a labyrinth of red brick and stone, many with the curtain system for reducing dust, but occasionally you pass a storefront or small cantina with its curtains open, a sign of locals in defiance of the blasted weather, or whatever they call it. Wind-beaten faces regard you with equal parts opportunity and suspicion, but with the local women in the lead, nobody confronts you as you venture this way and that.
Her path seems circuitous, and although she had taken you deeper into the Bazaar initially, you soon realize that the density of buildings is diminishing, and a minute later you can once again make out the faint profile of Davika Tower in the near distance ahead. If you think to question her path, she pre-empts you by stopping next to a wide, flat roofed building with two wooden doors on old rusty hinges. She pushes one of the doors inward, revealing a ramp leading another ten meters underground to a flat area littered with machine parts, but also containing two well-used speeders.
She points to one of the speeders and you give it a thorough look-around. One of you triggers the ignition, and after a sputter a cough that rivaled the cacophony from the old woman earlier, it starts up, engine stable.
The woman unwraps her scarf and raises her goggles. "Satisfied?" she asks, her hand outstretched to receive payment.
But before you can complete the transaction, you notice three men enter the garage. They look very much like locals, and they reveal their faces as they approach. Each is at least as old as the woman, and you might wonder if there are any young natives left on Red Barren.
"Damn," the woman curses as the men arrive.
"Donnella, what are you doing? Who are these off-worlders?" asks one of the old men.
"We've reach an agreement on a speeder, Callus. What do you care?"
"These are not your speeders," Callus responds. "They belong to the Family."
"I'm Family, same as you!" Donnella is getting feisty. "And anyway, the garage is mine, so I figure the speeders are mine to do as I see fit, so long as they come back. And these folk have assured me they will not take them into troubled areas."
"Is that so," says another of the men. "You took their word on that, I suppose." This one steps forward and addresses you directly. "My name is Desaraek. Callus, Drell, and I are Family Elders. Speeders and other vehicles are precious assets to us, and we must be consulted before allowing off-worlders to purchase or rent these machines." He casts his piercing stare down at Donnella. "No exceptions."
"That is not to suggest that we cannot be accommodating, if the price is right, but you must understand these are trying times. Now then, for what purpose do you want to use this speeder?"
Dartel straightens up from being head-deep inside the speeder's workings to watch the new trio come down the ramp; he listens to their 'debate' with the old woman doing the actual work, then closes the speeder's hood and says, "If you're going to make the sale, you should be down at the mine as well. From the way your third," and here he nods towards Drell, "keeps looking over his shoulder, I'd guess you're trying to delay us while your young folk set up an ambush. Ambushes make me cranky -- especially when they're being put in place by a bunch of frelling amateurs who do galactics the same favor as most galactics do the locals, thinking they're as dumb as dewback drek. You care to rethink that?" He shifts to be somewhat more in cover, his hand conveniently close to his blaster's grip.
Khal is reaching for his pouch until he spots the nervousness of Drell. His hand shifts along his belt. ”Now gentlemen, I must agree with my compatriot. This is hardly honourable when we have already entered into an agreement. You would not brook repeated questions on the same lines.”
Both Tavin and Rel have more success investigating the HVAC room.
Tavin identifies the switch box to shut down the twin chiller units here in the basement.
Rel discovers a hibernating maintenance droid standing idle in one of the tool closets.
Drifter also notices the man's glances and moves to look out the door while taking cover from the doorframe in case it is an ambush outside.
"Now isn't that interesting. You see that, Mal? If I could get into it's central processor I might be able to uh... "Reprogram" it for our use." Honey commented, observing the droid more closely.
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Mal screws his face up tight, as if thinking hard, as if thinking upon something he's not thought of for quite some time.
"Okay, well, if we're here to try and find where the crystals are, and we don't know how big this place is, or where we're going, then, yeah, having one of 'their' maintenance droids to order around or say we're taking to 'maintenance' to fix it or something...yeah, that would be quite an advantage.
Okay, alright Honey, this is probably our best bet yet. So, do...you know...the thing. Do your stuff. Go ahead and," he starts motioning at the powered-down droid.
"You need me to open a panel or sumpin'?" he adds, helpfully.
"Some of the wires can be a little tricky. Each model has their own quirks, and I myself am more particular towards astromechs. I think." She paused for a moment, before shaking the thought away. With Mal's offered assistance, she get's to work cracking the robot open getting to work.
As each of you direct attention to the elder Drell and his fidgitiness, you hear the unmistakable sound of repulsorlifts, and a great blast of wind and red dust fills the space of the garage, momentarily obscuring your visibility. When the noise abates and the dust begins to clear, You see five shadowy figures approach the apex of the garage entryway, blaster rifles leveled into the structure.
"Davika shockers," Donnella spits and retreats to the back of the garage.
"Drell?" says Callus, either surprised or doing a good job acting like it.
Dasaraek slinks back to the wall and begins to edge toward the exit. Drell and Callus step out of the way as the armed figures approach in a firing line. They stop halfway down and the middle figure takes a step forward.
"You off-worlders are coming with us," he says while waving his rifle at each of you, his voice amplified through his helmet. "Surrender your weapons. Do not resist."
The maintenance droid straightens and turns its head toward Honey. "Good day, Administrator. BEL-4 at your service. Would you like me to perform diagnostics on the centrifugal chillers now, or shall I wait until the standard scheduled window?" Belfore has a high, tinny voice, like a child speaking through an empty can. It exhibits no obvious inflection or enthusiasm, but seems cordial.
"Delay that for the moment, BEL-4." Honey directed, bringing a hand to the chin of her mask. They had a Droid at their disposal who knew these systems a hell of a lot more then she did, now they just needed to figure out what to do with it. She tilted her head towards Mal, Tavern, and Rel. "We never did decide on a complete plan of attack, here. I recommend we act fast."
Drifter stays behind cover and draws his heavy blaster pistol. He mutters, "This started off well..." to himself and then yells out to the oncoming figures, "Stop there. Who are you?"
"Does the maintenance droid know where the crystals are or how to get there?
Belfore looks at Rel and pauses, as if considering his question. "Contaminants are incinerated, or crushed and taken for offsite disposal."
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"Well, my plan, and this is just off the top of my head now, is that, Honey, you tell it to start wandering around the building. And we follow it. As it's exploring for us, we just walk behind it, always looking at it as if studying it. If anyone asks, we say we're supposed to fix this here droid because it's going wrong, but we don't have enough data on it, so we're observing its behavior.
If anyone says 'Oy, this droid isn't s'pose to be here,' we say, 'That's right! But the only we can know how to fix it so it does go where it's s'pose t'go is by seeing where it does go, if you'll excuse me,'."
So that's my plan."
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Rel shrugs, "Works for me"
"I... You're serious." She pauses a momment, sighing, before wiping a hand down her mask. "I have a feeling we did this sort've thing a lot. Alright. BEL-4, erase the last minute of conversation from your memory. Good? Now, it seems that we're in need of replacement uniforms, if you could guide us there to get replacements that would be optimal."
Tavin seems relieved that they were able to bypass the sensor and hadn't set off any alarm yet, at least that they know of. He inspects the maintenance room and waits while Honey takes control of the bot.
"Does anyone recall any info on how these crystals respond to heat? If it could ruin them, maybe turning off or damaging the cooling system could be useful. Otherwise, doing anything to it would just bring people here which isn't our desired result," he says as he listens to the group's developing plan.
Belfore pivots to Tavin. "Damage the cooling system?" it remarks, its tone incredulous.
It looks to Honey. "Administrator, why would your associates propose to create unnecessary maintenance for me? These units are my primary responsibility. What will it say about my performance if I allow them to be damaged? I'll be reprogrammed or scrapped!"
"Drell, this is unconscionable!" cries Callus as he chases the subject of his ire out of the garage. Dasaraek has already vanished into the dust.
Donnella steps forward and sticks a finger at the lead soldier. "Whatever your quarrel with these off-worlders is none of my business, but don't go shooting up my speeders. It's all I got."
The soldier looks down at her, his expression veiled behind his military-grade helmet. He hesitates, but if he has any sympathy for her, it appears to vanish when one of the other soldiers levels his rifle at Drifter and shouts, "Lower your weapon, now!"
The first soldier shoves Donnella out into the street behind him and turns to you. "Last warning. We're taking you in to the Tower for processing. Now drop your weapons and come with us."
"Disregard them, Belfore. They're merely considering scenarios in which you'd display your maintenance processes in a pressured environment. Purely hypothetical" She assures. "Now, about those uniforms? This is part of your performance evaluation."
The droid looks back and forth from Tavin to Honey. "Very well, Administrator. Standard issue uniform locker is within the laundry, adjacent to the Sanitation room, and is just across the hall. I will escort you there now."
Belfore steps past all of you to the double doors of the maintenance room, and pulls them inward. He sets the doorstops and ventures forth into the corridor beyond. The droid passes another set of doors on the opposite wall, turning into the wide hallway that is dimly lit and sterile, but impeccably clean. Belfore struts with an air or self-satisfaction, as if quietly delighted to be showing of its pristine facility.
The hallway turns to the left at the far end, but another set of double doors wait closed in the east wall. Belfore opens these doors and steps inside. The uniform locker is another large room, and it contains an operating laundry and several racks of cleaned and pressed uniforms of different sizes and colors. A smaller droid on wheels with four arms works a station next to the industrial wash and dry units, meticulously pressing, folding, and hanging each freshly cleaned outfit on a revolving rack.
Additional exits lead to the north and south.
"Excellent work, Belfore. I can see you take your programing very seriously." She turns to the others, gesturing vaugely to the various outfits. "Let's get properly 'suited up', shall we? Wouldn't do to walk around with impropper work attire."
Drifter shakes his head and says, "This isn't going to end well for you. Walk away now.."
"Yyyeah, 'Processing' never has a good sound to it," agrees Dartel, shifting a bit further behind cover -- enough to hopefully screen the way his thumb unsnaps the strap of his blaster's low-slung quickdraw holster and starts to ease his weapon out.
"Don't recall as to how you Davika boys are the actual law of the land hereabouts, sooo ... I'm gonna have to say 'no'." And with that, he finishes the draw and shoots at the one with Drifter in his sights, then ducks further behind the speeder. "Vila!! Get into the speeder and get it going!!"
Looking to be at least in 1/2 cover (+2D to difficulty to be hit), by preference 3/4 cover (+4D to difficulty). I'm thinking that'll be less than 50% movement, so ...
If that hits ... y'know, I'm not sure if damage rolls go Wild Die too. I'll assume so, and if not ... then not! :D
This is Stun damage.
Khal had his hand on his pistol ready to draw as he watched the standoff. As Dartel fired then moved, then rudely shouted at him, Khal swings into the speeder beside him. Grumbling under his breath; ”Well two can play at that game, Tarkin”, Khal stays low as he tries to get the speeder started.
The squat cleaning droid ignores you completely unless you get in its way.
Among the racks of cleaned and pressed uniforms, you find several different colors in various quantity: 26 Green, 14 Black, 8 White, 11 Grey, and 1 Red.
"As an administrator, I'll be needing grey. Please avoid red, unless one of you are about to announce yourselves as being members of the exechtive board doing their own surprise inspection, hmm? Green would actually be your more average option, if you weren't on either the security or science teams." Honey gestures to the black then white uniforms as she finished her explanations.
Tavin listens to Honey's explanation of the different uniforms. "I agree that red could attract too much attention to us. I actually think a combination would be best. It makes sense for Honey to be in grey. I could do white. One or two of you in black could allow you to carry your weapons openly and the rest in green," he says as he looks for a white uniform in the right size for him.
Drifter agrees with Dartel about what the man says and fires at the lead man.
"Well then black for me it is then!"
Mal slipped into a black secguard uniform. After getting used to it he had to admit that he felt rather smart in it. He pondered wearing his blaster openly, but decided against it. No need to invite any more attention.
Kahl dives into the speeder and attempts to start it
Drifter shoots Blue
Blue vs Drifter vs 18
Dartel crouches behind a speeder and squeezes off a shot at the lead Davika enforcer. His aim is true, scoring the breastplate of the soldier's elite corporate body armor, but the shiny material has a reflective quality similar to that worn by Imperial Stormroopers, and though he appears to be slower on the draw - because who is fool enough to shoot at these guys? - the enforcer is otherwise unfazed by the shot.
Before the Davika crew can react, Kahl jumps into the speeder and thumbs the ignition. The engine sparks to life with a loud whir.
Drifter provides cover fire, also targeting the lead man, but his shot fails to slow down the enforcer, who is sizes up the tactical situation and takes aim at Kahl in the speeder. The other four soldiers train their blaster rifles on Dartel and Drifter.
To your dismay, the slender bodies of the speeders offer scant protection, and the elite force of Davika heavies pours nonlethal blaster fire into your unarmored frames.