'No, I think you're some kind of doofus. Murdering her isn't our decision to make. Maybe the Alliance higher-ups will try her for the murder of those guards back on Isis, and execute her themselves or put her in jail or exile her to the crystal canyons. We're passing the buck. We do our jobs according to the rules of war, we do the right thing, and sort it out later. You're thinking two steps ahead? We're thinking all the way.'

Lyla peered into each of the crew quarters as they passed. 'I wonder why rigged bombs on all these room? To destroy the ship or some kind of distraction?'

Tera peered into the rooms "My vote would be for distraction. There's nothing in these rooms. They're part of the ship they can safely blow up and we've spent time looking when we're running short on that particular commodity."

"They might also have intended for us to cause the explosion, to hurt us or to warn them.  We did encounter our prisoner as we got out an unusual path." added Klyn.

He let Lyla try to talk some sense in Nessquick.  He feared he might lose his temper if he had to speak with him before he had some time to regain his cool.

"We must plan our next move.  We need to get to their apparent location.  I did not find something that we could use to force the door open in the armory but maybe in one of the Engineering section?  First thing first, we must try to find if there is vacuum or not in that place.

T3, you have apparently the computers well under control. Could you find the different commands related to the front hold?"

Interrogation of the ship's computers by Klyn and T3-M8 does not reveal what the fault with the door into the Forward Hold on Deck 3 is. A closer examination was needed. The alarm on the Command Console also indicated that the Cargo Doors were open and any attempt at remote operation of the controls was unsuccessful.

Performing something of a rudimentary inspection of the rooms while the organics prattle on T3-M8 satisfies himself that no additional explosives have been left inside the rooms before moving on.  Rolling on down to Deck 3's forward hold the little droid once again inspects the path and destination for traps and explosives before plugging into the door's local computer system to assess it's malfunction.

I presume that taking 10 on mechanics is sufficient to fix the boots with a total of 25 and as energy weapons have no recoil it should not come flying off.  The question of more specific or long term modifications to take the firing chamber and barrel out and use them as a significantly smaller weapon I will leave for later.

'It's always distraction with them. Makes me wonder if that's all the forward hold is, another thing for us to go look at while they do something else. But we need to secure the medicine anyway.'

Lyla tried to get in front of the fast-moving droid so she could take point. At one point, she stuck a boot in front of the astromech so she could peer around a corner. Fortunately, the one-time dancer could make the necessary contortions. She released the droid, then dashed ahead to the next intersection.


OOC: Scouting ahead, Perception 24
09:55, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 24 using 1d20+8. perception.

"You think keeping our prisoner alive is going to make any difference in the way the Empire treats us if we're captured?  I tell you if the Empire practiced that whole 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' thing then there wouldn't be a rebellion in the first place.  The Galaxy would be such a happy place.  Got news for you.  It isn't!  The Empire isn't going to give a damn.  She's just an enlisted person.  She has no family.  No one is going to be grateful to you for keeping her alive.", retorts Nessquik at Tera.  "And no, the Alliance isn't going to put her on trial for murder.  It's war.  You can't try an enlisted person for killing people in the coarse of doing their duty.  The Empire might do that to us, but the Alliance won't.  They will only if she killed civilians and she didn't.  Although, let these Imperials complete their duty and a lot of civilians are going to die."

'If we're to bring down the Empire, if we are to replace the Empire with some kind of new republic, then we have to be better than the Empire. Otherwise this Rebellion ain't worth a damn.'

The Forward Hold has three doors. One is a small interior door used to gain access to the cargo during flight. It is this door which T3-M8 leads the Rebels to. The other two doors are exterior cargo doors set in the ship's hull. When in a planetary atmosphere, repulsorlift skiffs fly in and out of the doors to load and unload cargo. The controls to the door on Deck 3 do not work. T3-M8 examines them and finds that the circuitry has been tampered with from the other side, jamming it shut. Since there is only one way in or out of hold whatever tampered with the door must still be inside.

OOC Yes T3-M8 can carry the Blaster Cannon, he just can't fire it.

Any attempt to fix the door controls from this side require a Mechanics check and will take 15 minutes per attempt.

"We'll leave that up to the politicians.  As soldiers it is our duty to make sure it gets that far.  That includes preventing anything that could leave this ending in the Emperor's favor.  It's war, and in war there is such a thing as a necessary evil.  Soldiers die.  It's just the way of things.  They die for what they believe in.  And in her case, she totally believes in the Empire.  She would rather be dead than live under a new Republic.", retorts Ness to Lyla.

He then looks down at T3-M8 and asks, "How bad is it?  You think they might have tampered with the Atmospheric Pressure Sensor?  Fooled the door into thinking there is a vacuum on the other side?"  Just in case though he fishes through the pockets of his uniform.  He pulls out a respirator mask, a pain of goggles that fit onto it, and a hood made of a thin silvery material.  He fits the goggles and mask together.  He then carefully curls up his tentacles and places the respirator over them.  It's a tight fit.  He then attaches a hose from a canister on his belt to the front of the mask.  Turning on the air, he tests it to make sure he can breath in through his mouth.  He then pulls the hood over his head.  The material clings tightly to his skin leaving no gap.  At the neck he pulls it down over a collar of the same type of material worn underneath his uniform.  Nessquik has a Thin Suit, the least bulky of space suits.

While clearly not designed to win in a foot race T3-M8 also does not waste any time catching up to the organics that race ahead to the shut doors.  Upon his arrival the droid offers Nessquik's query a few non committal beeps that could likely pass as any answer, but are at least an acknowledgment of the thought.  Focusing entirely on the damaged door itself T3-M8 begins a long process of assessment and repair, likely to take up far more time than the trip from the other end of the ship, but still not an importantly large chunk of the remaining travel time.

Mechanics total: 19

Lyla folded closed her pointed ears to anything else that Nessquik had to say about politics, and concentrated on leading the way to the forward hold. She popped her ears open again once she was there. Consulting the map, she realised there was, fortunately, only one internal entrance. Too bad it was locked. 'Locking themselves in a hold without air and only one exit is a p'du-poor tactical decision, and this lot don't make those. This ain't going to be what it looks like.' she warned the team. 'Tera, you still got that vacuum mask?' she reminded the doctor.

Seeing T3 getting to work, Klyn did his best to help him.

The talk about vacuum was, however a concern. Even if the ship was now surrounded by a force field, the hold could very well be a vaccum space now.  Nothing that could kill them, but opening the door might cause some trouble and the imperials could take advantage of it.

Nessquik, for once, had a good idea and Klyn wished he had at least kept the armor's magnetic boots in case there is a sudden air rush inside.

15:38, Today: Klyn Cors rolled 26 using 1d20+14. mechanics.

edit: the breather was in the expensive utility belt, not the one Klyn has, so that part is deleted.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:36, Sat 07 June 2014.

"Not too bad a tactical decision actually.", pointed out Nessquik.  "The air problem is easily rectified by stealing space suits kept aboard the ship in case the crew needs to make repairs outside the ship.  Extra oxygen can be obtained by raiding the medical supplies.  I noted some canisters of oxygen.  Used in combination with a Bacta Tank, pure oxygen helps induce faster healing.  Also when you have burnt lungs, it's absolutely necessary to breath pure oxygen.  Fighting in a vacuum gives them the advantage, especially when they think they took all the pressurized suits.

"Tactically there are worse choices.  There's one entrance, well one if you presume the other side doesn't have pressurized suits.  So one door to lock down and one door to keep a watch on.  Plus well placed claymore mines turn the other side of that door into a deathtrap.  I suggest we call over a couple of the ship's droids and make them go first to set off any mines.  Second, it's a big room so we can't just chuck in one frag grenade that's sure to explode close enough to them.  And third, there's lots of cover in there that we do not want to damage.  We're not going to go hucking in grenades and raking the place with repeaters, are we?"

For the first fifteen minutes T3-M8 struggled with the sabotaged door controls. When the droid was satisfied that the door was truly jammed Klyn tried. The ship's engineer had a few tricks left up his sleeve and after a tense wait he signalled to the others that he was ready to open the door.

Beginning with a shudder the door moved and finally slide smoothly open with a swish. At the opening is a ladder leading down into the large cargo bay. The hold is full to the ceiling with crate after crate labelled 'Medical Supplies'. These are the supplies that Polmanar so desperately needs to keep fighting. All the boxes look unharmed but the loading doors built into the external hull of the hold are wide open. A red light flashes indicating a malfunction. The only thing keeping the crates and the Rebels from being sucked out of the cargo bay and into hyperspace are the emergency hyperspace seals. The white streaks of the stars of hyperspace are clearly visible through the plastisteel seals.

It is standard procedure for such seals to spring up automatically over large hatches in a vessel when the starship enters hyperspace. But once the ship comes out of hyperspace the seals will automatically retract, exposing the hold to vacuum. Even if they don't the seals are not loading bearing; they merely provide a better carrier surface for the hyperfield. When exposed to the pressure differential of realspace vacuum, the seals will shatter like eggshells and anything in the hold will be sucked out and lost forever.

Not dismayed in the least by being thwarted by the occasionally tricky door, or shown up by an admittedly atypically competent organic T3-M8 rolls right on into the cargo hold to check on it's internal systems.  Once again searching for a non destroyed computer access port.

Tera kept the breather mask close to hand as she entered in behind the droid. Her pistol drawn and ready to shoot. "You know Nessquik, what the Imperials would do if I were captured is more or less irrelevant. I know I did right. Whether that counts for nothing in the long term....who knows. All I know is that I'm pleased I did it, even it is just for my whim. At least my whims don't inflict permanent harm on those around me. Let's just get this bay secured and then we can look at the drive system."

Lyla hefted her repeater and sack of grenades. 'Well, it was the plan...' she said, starting to rethink it.

As the cargo bay finally opened, Lyla was both relieved all the medical supplies were still there, and worried she couldn't see the bad guys. Raising her rifle and signalling the others to halt, she started scouting over and around the crates, seeking her prey wherever they lurked and keenly aware they could be doing the same.


OOC: Scouting the bay:
15:47, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 20 using 1d20+8. perception.
15:49, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 24 using 1d20+10. stealth.

Klyn allowed a smile on his face as the door opened.

What he had not expected was T3 moving inside without taking any kind of precautions.

"T3 ! Take cover! They might be nearby"

Doing his best to stay in the shadows he moved forward, taking another path than Lyla, as to prevent any blunder from him to show her position too.

16:34, Today: Klyn Cors rolled 25 using 1d20+8. stealth.
16:34, Today: Klyn Cors rolled 13 using 1d20+8. perception.

Nessquik braces himself against the bulkhead expecting a large intake of air.  But apparently the seals activated before too much air was lost.  He still figured it was a good idea to keep his breathing mask on.  There's no telling what tricks the Imperials have planned.  With all these medical supplies, it could be possible to rig an trap of poisonous gas.

"You'll think differently if it actually happens.  What happens to you will be relevant to you.  But yes, in the whole scheme of the Galaxy, it makes no difference.", replies Nessquik to Tera just before he comes around the corner to face the slings and arrows of outrageous Imperials.

Rynn kept a breather over his environmental mask and let out a long sigh, the Quarren seemed to have a lot to say about EVERYTHING. He flex his hand around the grip of his blaster, anxious about possible gun-play in the near future. "Can't we just agree to disagree? Or at least save the debate for when we might not all die in the next 24 hours?" He kept his eyes on Lyla, in case she found the hidden imps.

An examination of the hold discovers no Imperials. Anyone that examines the Cargo Door Controls can see signs of it being tampered with. Those that explore around the hold and crates find a hole cut in a bulkhead leading to dead space within the ship's superstructure. The superstructure is a tangle of pipes, wires, ducts and vents. It is very noisy and foul-smelling. It is also not under the influence of the Handree's artificial gravity. Also checking the cargo reveals there are about three hundred crates. Each crate is about one metre cube and weighs about four hundred kilogrammes. The crates contain pharmeceuticals, medpacs, operating room equipment, diagnostic equipment, bacta tanks, several dissembled medical droids and lots and lots of bacta fluid. All of these supplies will be lost when the starship leaves hyperspace.

Now what? Lyla wondered as she peered inside the hole, shining a glow-rod inside and pointing in the nozzle of her blaster rifle. It would be hard-going crawling through there, but they must have been trying to get in some place.


OOC: Looking in the hole, any clue or a trace?
14:01, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 17 using 1d20+8. perception.
14:05, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 9 using 1d20+8. perception - tracking.

And where is the hole leading?
This message was last edited by the player at 14:57, Thu 12 June 2014.

Despite all their expectation, no blaster fire greeted them.

The hold was all too empty.  Meeting the imperials would, in fact, have been beter.

"Apparently, they choose to follow their own path, like T3 and I did to get to the command room.  Not good..."

He left the others to debate on their next move and moved to the tampered controls.

All their efforts would be for naught if they didn't manage to close the door.

So, with the feeble hope the imperials hadn't done a 'good' job - not much to hope with all they already had witnessed - he began his inspection.

16:50, Today: Klyn Cors rolled 22,26 using d20+14,d20+14. mechanics, use computer.

"You're no fun, Mr. No-talk.", the Quarren replies to Rynn.  "Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I am not a quarrelsome person, but rather someone to makes arguments for his own amusement, or to blow off stress?  Under stress, like when about to get into a firefight, some people chew their nails, some people drink, some people clean their gun, and some people argue."  As he talks, he moves through the cargo hold inspecting the cargo containers to see if they have been opened recently.

He stops at the hole cut in the floor that leads into the ship's superstructure.  That gives him pause, not because it is so threatening but because it is something he had never thought of.  "Huh.  Got to hand it to them, that's pretty genius.  We could have searched this whole ship and then done a spacewalk on the outside and never found them.  No one is supposed to go into the space between the outer and inner hulls save maintenance crews in a shipyard.  It's going to be tight and cold in there.  Definitely not the comfortable place I'd like to spend the voyage in.", he comments about it.