Troggog had returned and he walked inside and waved his hand to signal his task was complete.

"Six has the data chip. Also, she said to use Tac Channel Four if we wish to communicate with her later."

Troggog's words reminded him of the box.  "That reminds me.  Six sent a care package."  He pushed the blaster, vibrodagger and comm towards Zyra.""It's very like her.  I'd send you nice chocolates, a quality whisky and all the soap I could find, she gives you stuff to kill people!"

Zyra smiled as she inspected the weapons.  "All I know of your Bothan colleague is the amount of profanity she caused a certain engineer to start sprouting when she 'borrowed' her credit stick at the party."

"I'm not sure whether having blasters is a good or a bad thing.  Sure we can defend ourselves better but all it takes is one laser blast to be seen or detected by a scanner and the Imperials will swarm us."

She turned to the comm.  "Bit risky to use this.  I know how well encrypted these things are since I ordered them initially but if the Imperials catch a transmission down here when their should be none, that will alert them as much as a laser blast."

Heigren shrugged.  "Usually Fiarr has a plan for doing things but I'm not sure with the commlink.  She has to know a comm burst could potentially be detected by the Imperials.  I'm no expert but I know that much."

"So how bad is the situation here?  Will they band together if they know rescue is possible?"

Troggog happily listened in the sidelines. In his mind, he solved matrices while he heard the two discuss what to do. He wanted to help, but so far, he felt like an empty backpack, pointless and without purpose.

"Even if all the camp would band together, don't think for a minute everyone deserves to be rescued Heigren.  Yes there are lots of good people here, not just the captured soldiers.  There are political prisoner here whose only crime was speaking out against the excesses of the New Order."

"But there are also some really nasty types here.  Hardened criminals, murderers and worse.  Those people have no business seeing the light of day.  Even this hellhole is too good for them."

There is a vehemence to her words that is out of place for Zyra usually friendly demeanour.  She shakes it off quickly.

"As for how bad the situation, the answer is bad.  Mark doesn't have long, it's amazing he's survived this long.  Added to which I think an attack against us from the Carnivores is imminent.  Without Mark leading, our strikes have dropped to nearly nothing and my attempts to keep the small groups fighting is failing.  I can't imagine it will be long before they strike.  A week at the outside, probably sooner if my sources are to be believed.  But of course, Mark will undoubtedly be dead by then."

Heigren looked around.  "What can we do to better defend ourselves?  I could ask the rescue team to send in more soldiers and weapons but a bunch of lasers and strangers is sure to get the Imperial's attention."

He sighs.  "This is why I leave the fighting stuff to the others.  I'm a talker not a fighter."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:10, Fri 17 Feb 2017.

Zyra waved towards Troggog.  "The question of defense is what brought us together.  Mark and I were running a two pronged attack, I use information to keep the various factions fighting as well as provide Mark with intelligence.  Mark used that information to lead raids on various groups whilst training our people to defend themselves."

"Troggog here has proposed building some larger weapons to defend ourselves but I'm not sure wether its enough or if we even have time or the materials."

"The defenses I had in mind are crude, low tech. They're useful for defending against the other prisoners and they might have a chance against the beasts in the jungle, but especially the bigger defense ideas I had in mind are too large to fit in any tunnel we can make in a reasonable amount of time. If only I had my kit with me, would make things a lot easier."

"Well crude and low tech sound fine as long as they work.  After all, we just need to defend ourselves from these other prisoners until we get you all out or the rescue team comes in.  They have enough firepower out there to level this place.  They've got a walker out there with four big looking guns on it.  I don't much about weapons but I've seen plenty of heavy firepower out there.  But until they move I guess we need to stay low tech."

"So anything you need to get these defences made more quickly or efficiently Troggog?"

"I could have another attempt at the catapult I was building, not quite sure where it went wrong. My guess is the central revolving gear was either loose or off-center. At any rate, I have the strength and know-how to finish it, but an extra set of hands would definitely help if you're willing."

"Me?" Heigren snorted.  "I'm no good at building stuff.  In fact the boss is always telling me off for breaking my toys.  But if you need and the boss approves it we've got a whole team of combat engineers out there.  Mostly human too so they could pass for a prisoner better than me and actually know what they're doing."

"While they're at it they could bring you some proper tools or equipment.  As long as it will fit down a tunnel and wont cause a lot of attention I can probably manage it."

"Proper tools would be excellent. Would make the work go by swiftly."

Heigren nodded and stood.  "Guess it's my turn to go for a walk then.  With your permission?"  The last comment was aimed to Zyra.

Zyra nodded.  "Go.  It's either that or use the comms and until we can come up with a way to use them without detection we'll have to risk foot traffic."

Heigren turned to Troggog. "Got a wishlist?"

"Anything to help with building wooden devices, because that's what we have. There's not enough metal here for use. Adhesive tape, whatever non-heat based cutting tool you have, and a proper hammer replacement."

Troggog rubbed his hands thoughtfully for a moment before adding, "It's a long shot, but if you can also provide a medium power cell, a handful of wires, some circuits, and an energy emitter, I think I'll be able to provide something that's perhaps even better than a catapult."

Heigren disappears out of the tent to speak with Fiarr leaving Zyra and Troggog alone.

Zyra watched Heigren go and smiled.  "You know." she said, to herself more than anyone else.  "Maybe it's just my time in prison but I swear that man's arse gets finer everytime I see it."

She sighed and looked to Troggog.  "Sorry, but that boy has always been eye candy.  Anyway, Heigren is working on getting you tools and personnel.  Assuming you get them what's your plan?  One siege weapon can't cover all angles and I'll doubt you'll have much time to train us in their usage anyway."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:52, Wed 01 Mar 2017.

"If we're ever forced to use it, the big weapon will serve as the distraction. I'll man and defend it while any others aiding in defense will soften them up from hiding points. That was one idea, anyway, I'm not really a strategist. I was hoping someone of great leadership with more experience would handle the plan of action," Troggog shrugs.

"I was intending on loading a handful of stones rather than entire boulders for launch. This would be ideal for handling groups of individuals, which isn't what these low tech weapons are usually built for. They're normally meant for siege."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:34, Tue 21 Feb 2017.

"Well it's not exactly a siege we're worried about here.  Is your design going to be practical?  I believe you said something about a large crossbow as well?"

"Like I said, if we load the catapult with piles of small stones, it should work well against other prisoners, very difficult to avoid. The design itself is also very mobile, which also makes it great for our purposes. As for the advanced crossbow designs, I could work on those as well, though it'll take time to make enough to make an impact. From the looks of the admiral, I'm not sure if we have the time to make very many, perhaps half a dozen at best. Their design is similarly superior against large groups of enemies, like the catapult. It'd eat up most of our bolts all at once, though it'd do the job quickly and with one volley. I'll have to rethink our plans for defenses to help out in our defense in the short-term; I will let you know what I come up with, but for now I think the catapult is most important."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:17, Fri 24 Feb 2017.

"Well use your judgement in regards to weapons.  With luck we'll get help from the rescue party.  I've asked for helpers for you, more basic weapons to arm ourselves and ideally some soldiers to assist with defense and to train our troops.  Like you, military strategy is not my thing.  I always left that to Mark.  So just make your weapons as fast and effective as you can and we'll ask the soldiers to work on placement for us."

"Oh and don't use the Admiral as a gauge of time.  Things are going to blow up here soon enough I think, maybe in the next few days.  It's gone past the point where Mark's life or death could impact that.

Heigren came back into the house.

"Hey guys.  Spoke to Six.  She was surprised I came to see her instead of calling.  She said she had set up Tac Channel four for 'low powered directional comms' and the risk was minimal to nil the Imperials could pick them up."

"Either way we sent the message you requested to the team.  Six said she'd comm us when she gets a reply so we'd better leave it turned on and tuned in."

"Directional comms?  Well that makes more sense.  They're right that it's unlikely they'll be detected."