Rhijans nodded.  "Act like everything's normal, nobody will think to start asking questions about what's wrong."

He didn't actually think they'd be able to walk right out of the place without any challenge at all...but the more normal they made their departure, the less likely it was that they'd have every trooper in the place actively trying to stop them.

The group descend to ground level, and pick up the droids, prompting some questions from You-Why, "Where is the Captain?  Has he decided we don't need an escort?"

Artoo responds with a series of vaguely rude sounding noises.

The door opens, and they step out into the cool shade outside the structure.  The walkway lays before them, seeming to stretch for kilometres.  Past the control centre and onward to the landing platform, where the shuttle sits.

Reldan mutters as they start to walk, "Just need to make it to the good ship Sitting Duck, and we'll be out of here."

And then they're out in the heat again, leaving the shade behind, and ahead of them a squadron of stormtroopers leave the bunker and start to move towards the main walkway.  If they're heading for the tower, then Alates will be found long before the Rebel team reaches the shuttle.  The troopers approach the intersection...

"We're going to need an escort now," Shard mutters darkly as they approach the troopers.  She grits her teeth for a moment, then relaxes.  "Get ready.  I'm about to do something that might just backfire."

Won't be the first time.  Nor the last, most likely.

As they approach the stormtroopers, she lifts a hand and points to their commander.  "You - I require an escort to the landing platform.  Vanguard and rearguard, your troops will suffice.  ISB business; any tardiness in your own duties will be excused."

"Of course, Lady Nimadda."

The stormtroopers fall into position immediately, which provides Rhijans and Reldan with instant camouflage, but does little to conceal anybody else.

The newly expanded group continues along the walkway towards the landing platform, the troopers marching in lockstep.  Up to the platform itself, and the waiting shuttle.  It all seems to be going smoothly so far...

Shard sets foot on the ramp and starts up into the ship.  The extended escort stops at the foot of the ramp and waits for the ISB agent to disappear into the interior, and then starts to move away.

Reldan drops into his piloting position, throwing the stormtrooper helmet across the cockpit.  "Right, let's get out of here before the Moff hits the fan.  Everybody find a seat and strap in."

He starts activating systems, and the drives hum to life as the pilot runs through an abbreviated checklist, "All good?  Check."

"I don't believe it," Shard whispers as the stormtroopers leave without a single word of question or complaint.  Sometimes the Empire's monolithic power works to the rebels' advantage.  Sometimes they don't get hit with a last minute mistake or coincidence.  Sometimes...sometimes things work out.

Her hands are shaking and void, but she needs a drink.

"Not done yet."  Rousing herself, Shard glances around at the others.  "I'll keep the suit on for the moment -" she hates it, less for it's representation than for the fact that it's less-than-comfortable "- but everyone else, get ready for fast moving.  Get what you need, belt in where appropriate, and Reldan, make cursed sure you send our authorization codes and whatever else we need to leave.  Don't hurry, do it right."

Turning, she spears Haarmon with a narrow-eyed glare.  "Haarmon.  Spill.  What did you do?"

Rhijans dropped into a seat where he could cover the ramp.  Just in case...

He made sure he was out of view of anyone outside the shuttle before he peeled off the helmet.  "Go easy on the kid...he saw a window and did something.  Woulda been nice to know about it earlier, of course..." he conceded.

"But I would've done the same thing if an opportunity presented itself."  He looked away from the ramp to glance at Dak.

"Just what did you do, anyway?"

The ramp closes, sealing the shuttle off from the outside, as the engine hum increases in pitch.  "Here we go." Reldan Jalt calls out, and the ship starts to lift, climbing away from the platform as the S-foils deploy into flight position.

"Er... I don't want to worry anybody, but I think the Impies might have figured out that something isn't quite right.  Seems to be some activity down there."

The shuttle banks, hard to port, and starts to accelerate away from the facility, while still climbing...

Haarmon, meanwhile, was staring at the facility. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but he'd be damned if he could look away. He was so fixated on the planet, so intent on seeing the results of his data-bomb, that both Shard's and Rhijans' questions went almost totally unheard.

Ironically, it wasn't until there actually was some response that he shook his head and realized that he had some 'splaining to do.

He looked over at Rhijans, completely and totally ready to lay on some swagger and be all sorry-I-cant-hear-you-over-how-awesome-I-am. But once he opened his mouth to start the smack-talk, he found himself feeling almost shy. Maybe it was Shard's presence. Maybe it was Juragga's. Maybe it was the weight of what they had had just seen. But whichever the case, he was reluctant to make this about him. He was reluctant, in fact, to talk about it at all.

"I. Um. I put a virus in the system. A really bad one. Once it goes off, it'll erase their entire network. And send itself to everyone in every contact list it can find and do the same to their networks. Imperial security is too tight for it to get very far. But I put it into one of their terminals. Inside all their defenses. So it should. Should. Do a real number on the facility. Shut it down for a few days. Maybe a week. Maybe longer if their backups aren't up to date."

For one of the few times in his life, Rhijans looked at someone with unguarded awe.  Damn...this kid is GOOD, he thought.  There'd been no foreknowledge that something like this could be exploited, no real way of preparing for it, specifically.  The kid...Dak, he corrected himself...somehow, 'kid' just didn't quite seem to fit anymore...or at least, not at the moment.  He'd just taken what he had on hand and exploited the narrowest window of opportunity.

A chuckle that started as a surprised cough sprung from his throat.  "And to think, I was worried about doing enough damage on the shield array to set them back for a while.  That shield array will probably seem secondary...and if we're lucky, the virus will get into the fleet and put them out of commission for a while, too."  If they were REALLY lucky, the explosion in the shield array would get written off as an after-effect of the virus, or as something the virus was sent in to erase.

One thought did trouble him, though.  "Did you have time to copy any information about their program, while you were in there?  If we could hand over information about where components were being built, or how they were being shipped in, it'd complicate things even further for the Imperials.  Leave 'em wondering just how infiltrated their program actually was..."  There were further potential repercussions, but they'd all involve incredible amounts of luck, and he was feeling like they'd used just about all the luck they dared call on as it was.

Haarmon did a little double-take at the chuckle/cough in Rhijans response. The part of him that still thought of everything in terms of seating hierarchies in the Senior School cafeteria took that noise and turned it into 'Pfft. That's nothing, kid. Us invincible tech ninjas do that all the time.'

Haarmon shook his head. Concentrated on the question. And while his response was both halting and uncertain, there was confidence in his voice to indicate that he knew (or thought he knew) what he was talking about.

"I wanted to. Would have. But the Imp was staring right at me and I didn't have the time. So all I got was this." He held up the stick the tech had given him. "We have whatever they wanted Nimdadda to see." He shrugged. "Maybe enough in there to find out more? Gimme a fast terminal, a slow week, and a few bottles of Mad Bantha Energy Drink, I could see what's what?"

Rhijans gave a grin and a nod.  "Not bad...even if that doesn't have intimate details on the operation, it should give Alliance Intel some good cues about where to start looking for more information."  He almost...ALMOST...broke into a full smile.

"Now...if we can just get back home safely to deliver it..."  Setting back the operations was work well done--but if they didn't get a chance to report the situation to Command, it would only be a matter of time before the whole thing was back on its feet and churning forward again, without any hindrance.  They'd bought some time...now they needed to report in and get the payoff, what they'd bought time for...

"UUuuhhhrUUUUUhhhhhn," Juragga rumbled.  Great job!  I knew you could do it!

And with that, the Wookiee moved to the gun turret of the shuttle.  If they had to shoot their way out, they were probably dead, but if he had to die, he would rather do it firing a weapon.

Shard sits in silence as the men bandy ideas back and forth, her head spinning.  Things have changed.  It's not guns and soldiers any more, or Jedi with energy blades.  It's viruses and software, war a distance.  Not such a bad thing, but something she doesn't comprehend.

Good thing they have their expert.

"Haarmon," she slowly begins, "if that thing works like you said it should, you've just given us the biggest chance we could have."  Gripping the arms of her chair with white-knuckled fingers, she thinks furiously. "I don't know how you did that so fast, but...here I thought you were coming out with information.  But you've got that and more.  You've...you've crippled them, for weeks.  I figured the sabotage would slow them, maybe enough to put together something fast and loose.  This?  Add the sabotage on top of it, and they'll be down long enough for us to plan something worthwhile."

"I'll put you in for a cursed medal." Her teeth bare in a not-smile.  "You take that information-stick and you bleed it dry.  And pray we get out of here to give what you get to Command."  Everything they've accomplished will be for nothing if they can't break through the blockade.

Not to mention we'll be dead.

The shuttle, nicknamed Sitting Duck by its pilot, rises higher, and moves away from the base.  "I'm going to try to put some horizon between us and the weapon emplacements on the tower." Reldan explains, "Just in case they decide that maybe the ISB inspector has gone rogue."

It's lucky there isn't a lot of traffic at this altitude, because Reldan has quite enough other things to keep an eye on: watching for pursuit, signs that anybody is shooting at them, movements among the fleet in orbit.  Luckily the things he has to watch for are suddenly reduced...

"There was an explosion back there!"

The pilot is correct.  Probably not a biggest explosion in the history of the Rebel Alliance, but enough to damage the tower.  The top section of the structure, including the huge dish, slowly topples sideways and crashes onto the sand.

Reldan pulls the nose of the ship upward, and it streaks towards the edge of the atmosphere, and the waiting fleet.

"Anybody feel like bagging a star destroyer while we still have some luck with us?"

Juragga hooted in enthusiasm and began warming up the popguns on the shuttle.  This was a Wookiee's idea of a good time!

Rhijans snorted audibly.  "Luck?  A Lambda shuttle against a Star Destroyer?  I think that'd take a helluva lotta luck.  And we've been spending it pretty heavily thus far."  He shook his head.

The Empire was down one major computer network...likely with seriously spreading complications attacking other systems that had been connected to it.  Their current pride-and-joy planet-based shield system was in a massive state of major disrepair.  And they had at least some intel about what all was going on with the rest of the project.

"Think we better save our luck for actually just making it PAST the Star Destroyers, actually..."  He shrugged, and looked at the others sitting with him in the passenger area.

"Odds are good SOMEONE is going to challenge our departure...anyone got any brilliant notions for a cover story?  It doesn't have to be air-tight...just gotta make them pause long enough for us to get too far away."

"Well, the grenade plan worked," Shui breathes.  Worked better than she'd hoped, to boot. "Let's hope everything else falls into place."  So to speak.  Her lips thin, she listens to Juragga's hoots of pleasure and Rhijans' cautious question.  "There's nothing we can do if they decide they really want us," she finally tosses in.  "We have to hope that Nimadda's codes -" how the heck had they gotten their hands on those, even accidentally? "- get us past the blockade, that nobody knows enough about what's going on that they're not going to chance disturbing someone of that level."

In other words, pray.

She slowly nods. "I say, stick with the codes."  A horrible suspicion has begun to brew in her gut, but she lets it pass for the moment.  "Assuming Nimadda isn't out there right now, they're our best bet for that hesitation you're speaking about." 

Just when Haarmon thought the buzz was starting to fade, things started to heat up and his brain started sizzling and bopping once again. He looked around, happy for the presence of people who knew what they were doing. Up here, on the ship away from his terminal, he felt pretty useless.

But it was only a matter of time before someone down there set off his little bomb. He had originally wanted it to happen long after they'd left, so no one would connect them with it. But that ship had pretty much left orbit, hadn't it?

"Stick with the codes," he said, "Even if she is, it just means that they'll have to verify her identity. Or ours. And once they do that search, everything goes."

What he didn't say was that he just hoped that this shuttle's computer wasn't connected to the facility's network. That could be bad. But there was nothing he could do about that now.

"I'm, uhhh, going to run a quick back-up."

And he went over to the nearest terminal and started backing up all of the ship's vital systems. Quickly. Starting with navigation and hyperdrive. Just in case.

The shuttle breaks free of the atmosphere, and space ahead is full of motes of light.  A disconcerting number of them are moving, independent of the background.

The moving ones are growing bigger with every passing second.  The pilot slows down, a little, and holds a straight course, calling back to his passengers, "Let's try to act like we have nothing to hide.  And transmitting the codes now... "

"Meanwhile, Juragga's on one weapon station, but I could do with at least one more gunner, two if we can manage it.  Just in case they don't buy the whole 'casually strolling out of the exploding secret military establishment' thing."

He glances at a display on the panel in front of him, "Is somebody messing with the computer?"

Rhijans shrugged.  "I can tell you everything I know about starship gunnery in about fifteen seconds...but if it'll make someone coming after us have to dodge a little more incoming fire, I can man a weapon."  He'd never been in a situation where he'd needed to use anything larger than a hand-held weapon...never envisioned being in such a situation.

But that seemed to define a lot of his life, these days.  He'd also never envisioned impersonating a stormtrooper...and he'd done that.  Twice.  Never really envisioned sabotaging Imperial installations with explosives.  He'd done that, too.  Twice.  With a shrug, he made his way to another gunnery station, and strapped in and powered up to standby...Wouldn't make sense to be flying through friendly formations with weapons hot, after all...

If he ended up having to fire, he hoped it went well enough that he'd end up doing that at least twice, too...

Haarmon looked up and winced a little at the pilot's question. Did that mean it was starting? "Why?" he asked, all seriousness, "What's happening?"

Meanwhile, he tried to dump and back-up as much as he could as fast as he could.

"I just noticed some activity and wondered what was going on." Reldan explains, not taking his eyes from the instruments as his hands dance over the controls, "Did you spot something wrong?"

The pilot does glance around as Rhijans drops into a second gunnery position, then back to the instruments as an alarm warbles.  "Glad you could join us.  I don't think they're buying it - somebody just launched TIEs.  Everybody stay alert."  Then he puts the ship into a long, slow curve, intended to put the shuttle on a new vector without making it look like anybody aboard is panicking.  With luck the Imperials will mistake it for a planned course correction...

"Well, that's torn it."  Shard's lips thin.  Everything will be for nothing if they don't get back to the rebellion with the information; all they've done is slow the construction of this obscenity, not stop it.  She gives a quick nod to Rhijans as he heads off to man the guns - guns against how many TIE fighters? - but otherwise keeps her mouth shut to avoid distracting...well, anyone.

Haarmon is involved with something on his computer, Jalt needs to fly the cursed shuttle, Rhijans and Juragga on the guns...nothing more for her to do, here.  Supposedly the Jedi could reach across vast distances and manipulate objects and events...she can't.

And I'm a cursed lousy shot with ship's guns...Rhijans probably has me way beat with them.

Juragga, for his part, had the top turret warm and the guns fired up.  For whatever they were worth.  He figured the Impies would send out TIEs instead of just blasting them to atoms, and he'd been right.  So at least he'd get to take some of them down.

"RRrrrrrAAAAAhhhhhhhrrrrggggh," he yodeled. How's that hyperdrive coming?

Rhijans sat down and quietly familiarized himself with the gunnery station.  Well, at least there's SOME kind of fire-control on here...it won't all come down to just my skill.  Or lack thereof...  He hoped he wouldn't have to find out just how much assistance the computers would provide...

They'd made it back to the shuttle without incident, after all.  What could have happened in the few moments it took for them to lift off and get into orbit that would change that situation?  "If they were coming to try and take us down, wouldn't someone be sending some kind of challenge or something?  A stand-down demand of some kind?  Isn't that the way the Imperial military mind works?  "We're so powerful that you have no choice but to capitulate to us?"  Or have I just been watching too many holovids?"

It was hard to pick up...but there was an extra tension under the terse phrasing.  If things went wrong and they started shooting, he wouldn't be totally powerless to do something about their fate...but he would be utterly reliant on a skill that he'd never really had occasion to test out before.  It was a step up from helpless...but that step was a little too short for his comfort.

Focus on what you CAN do...  That mindset had kept him from losing his composure in many a tight situation...so he dropped into it once again.