"Lots more walking ahead," Shard mutters.  "At least it'll warm us up...bet you're not sad about putting on that armor now, Haarmon."  She shivers beneath her bulky cold-weather clothing.  Her blood runs thinner now than it did twenty years ago, and the chill has a bite.  "Bottom level," she continues, stepping out from the elevator car for a look around.

Gloomy.

"Our destination?" she inquires of Youwhy, pointing down toward the heavy blast doors and the silhouetted beings.  The aging rebel does a quick recap in her head.  "It's almost a straight-line path from the mine to the landing fields...except for this."  Turning, she points at the elevator.  "We've got a bit of a bottleneck for getting everyone out of here."

Pausing, she takes a closer look at Juragga.  She has her clothing, Haarmon has his armor, but...fur only went so far, especially fur on a jungle native.  "You doing okay in this, Juragga?"

Haarmon was indeed pleased to be wearing the armour. However, he wasn't pleased to see Shard shivering like she was (and not just from the cold either, she was deeply, deeply bother by something in all this) and had a passing thought to hand the armour over to her.

Just get it done, he told himself, and get them all out alive. That's the best thing you can do for them.

"Hey Shiny-balls," he said to the droid, "There's no way they ran a whole mine out of this one elevator, is there? There's got to be something else."

Before waiting for the droid's reply, he starts patting his armour, looking for his portable computer terminal. "Void-damn it!" he spat, "I left my computer with my clothes back up in the common room. Stupid, stupid, stupid."

He starts looking around for a terminal.

Juragga let out a low warble as they filed out into the lower level, his breath steaming in the frigid air. My nose is cold, was the translation.  He could feel the cold, of course, but his heavy pelt kept it mostly at bay.  The all-weather poncho he wore over it was more for concealment than cover, but it also helped.  Although the way Shard looked, he was tempted to give it to her.

(OOC: Just thinking of Chewie out and about on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back with no coverings, and he managed...)

He wuffed a gentle bark, Don't worry about it, kid, let's find a terminal, to Haarmon.  His bowcaster was concealed under his poncho but ready to go.  His teal eyes scanned the gloom.  He didn't want to shoot first, but he'd rather them get out alive.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:48, Wed 02 Nov 2011.

The protocol droid points ahead of them along the tunnel, "I believe there is a large junction there, with several smaller tunnels radiating out from it.  There should also be a crawler parked there, which serves as a temporary office for administration of this level."

Haarmon's question, or perhaps the way it is put, causes the droid to stop in its tracks, "I really do not know, Sir.  This is the only elevator I have ever used on the mercifully small number of occasions when those simpletons have insisted that I come down here."  He starts to walk again, and stops almost immediately as he steps into a pool of icy cold water which reaches up above his ankle.  "Oh dear.  The Maker alone knows what foul impurities are in the water down here.  I am sure I can feel the filthy liquid corroding away my servos as I speak."

In the warehouse Vekkis Lund can almost read Rhijan's thoughts, even through the helmets they're both wearing...  He wonders briefly if the other man can read his.  Yes, that looks like a secure storage facility if I ever saw one.  I only hope it's not full, because if it is then Alliance intelligence is wrong again.

The group of fake troopers keep moving, apparently searching among the nearby containers for fugitives, while actually studying what now looks to be their real target.

There only seems to be the one entrance to it, and the troopers are all on guard duty in front of it.  At least there don't seem to be any heavy weapons in evidence here, just the usual Imperial issue blasters and other personal equipment.

UY-3PO trudges along with the other members of the mine infiltration team, and gradually the distance to their destination decreases.  Eventually they are close enough that they can hear the rumble of machinery, and the occasional whine of a repulsorlift.

Finally they step out into a large chamber, its slightly domed ceiling braced by a network of girders.  To their right cargo skiffs are dumping rock, gravel and dirt onto a transport belt which slopes up through an opening in the ceing, close to the wall.  The empty skiffs, all of them driven by humans clad in cold weather gear, then drive back into one of the twenty or so small tunnels which fan out from the chamber in all directions.

Near the centre of the open space stands a cargo crawler, surrounded by a high fence with orange strobe lights fixed to it, along with signs which warn of the danger of touching it...

As they moved out of sight of the troopers surrounding the storage bunker, Rhijans gathered the other two close by.  "Considering the ore we're after has tactical uses, I'm guessing they'd have it secured.  Odds are good that whatever the Hutt sent the Ubese after, it's also of high enough value to be locked up, as well.  We've gotta find a way to get in there...more importantly, to get rid of the troopers surrounding the place."

He made sure, yet again, that he wasn't transmitting through the helmet's systems, and continued, "I'm guessing, with this many troops on the ground, they've got to have some kind of anti-bombardment systems, blasters or turbolasers or something that they can use to discourage anyone who's looking too closely from overhead.  If we can get one of those and fire a few shots at the guards, I think we can thin the ranks enough to make a plausible chance at getting in there.  Especially if only one of us is shooting, and then blows up the weapon before anyone can arrive to investigate...the other two can step in at the bunker and claim they were sent as backups..."  He looked around again, trying to ascertain the precise location of tactical targets like the comm center and any heavy emplacement weapons--or their power supplies.

Vekkis looks about, considering Rhijan's suggestions, then comments, "It might be easier if we just threw two or three thermal detonators, or some demo charges, into the doorway, then pick off any survivors.  Quicker than finding a heavy weapon that can hit them in here, or moving one into a position which gives us a useable line of fire." 

The bunker itself looks out of place, perhaps a new addition constructed by the Imperials when they started mining for Nergon-14 here.

And talking of mining...

Studying the massive chamber, the Ubese speaks up suddenly, "Uyayt chyuday ntery dyodu grnudduy." and the droid asks, "What?  Where?" which in turn prompts the alien to surreptitiously indicate one of the tunnels on the far side of the chamber.

Unlike the others, this particular tunnel has a quartet of troopers standing guard at the entrance.

"I wonder why that tunnel is so important as to be guarded by that group of imbeciles?"

Rhijans nodded at Lund's clarification.  "Good thinking...sometimes I try to over-complicate things.  Still...I want to take out the comm center before we start the action."  He looked over at Jacobs, silently cursing the inscrutable exterior of the helmets.  He liked to see what people were thinking.

"Can we get away with breaking up into two-and-one?  Would a lone trooper attract attention?  Our best bet is to carry on as though we're following standard protocol, at least until we make things go crazy.  After that, I think we can run around however we need to."

Haarmon surveys the chamber. He's never felt more out of his depth. What to do? He was supposed to be in charge of this shindig, but he was lost.

"What do we do?" he asked, quietly, hoping he wasn't transmitting this over the airwaves or whatever. Go down the important tunnel? How can we free all the slaves if they're not all in the same place?"

Mark Jacobs is worried.  Somehow he seems to have ended up as the stormtrooper expert around here.  Still, he does have one idea that might work.

"Over here." he says and starts moving away from the blockhouse toward a stack of storage crates.  Around the corner, and they can't be seen by the troops on duty.  Out of sight, he removes his helmet.  "We might be able to get away with splitting up."

"Or we could try a diversion.  We could blow something up not far away and see if it pulls some of them away from their post."

Rhijans nodded.  "That's actually what I had in mind...I'll go take out the comm center, or at least the transmitter array...maybe see if I can find the main generator for the mine, as well, and take that down--I'm sure they've got backups.  The Empire's not the sort to leave a load of valuable ore down below just because the power failed."  He shrugged, the motion barely noticeable under the armor.

"I figure, at the very least, it will get rid of all the extra troopers running around in here, especially if I throw in a panicked call about the Ubese attacking the comm center right before the blast goes off.  I'd like to have two of us ready to rush the bunker if the guards leave...or ready to open fire if we need to.  I'll make sure I save something for a nasty surprise for them..."

"We start there," Shard decides. "Not a lot of time, and if there are troopers there, they're either guarding something valuable..."  A dubious glance around the tunnel follows. "...or something that could end up dangerous.  My bet's on that."

She glances up at Juragga, then to the protocol droid, and finally to the Ubese.  "We've got any number of reasons to be in there.  Maybe taking Juragga in to be with other Wookies if they're there.  Maybe they need translating done.  Maybe me and the Ubese are here to 'buy' someone, or identify them." 

She pauses a moment.  "All right.  That last one works.  Assuming we don't walk up and the troopers say 'oh, another one?' and let us through, we're here to ID someone.  Someone upstairs figures they might have someone important to the rebellion chained up down here, and brought us into ID them.  That's it, that's all, you don't know any more.  Keep it simple.  Sound good?"

Juragga rumbled his assent.  He was ready.  He steeled himself.  He didn't want to be too hopeful at finding more of his people... let alone his family.  But the little spark wouldn't quite die out.

Haarmon listens to Shard's notions and nods. Sounds about right. Simple enough. Jived with whatever he had blurted out upstairs. Reasonable. He just hoped this lot were as disinterested in the minutiae of protocol as the rest.

"Okay," he said in a small voice, and then, "Okay." A little louder. More confident. "Let's do this." He could sense Juragga's excitement and tension. After such a long acquaintance the young slicer was pretty tuned in to the wookie's moods.

"I hope there's wookies, too, Rags," he said, "And I hope we can take them home. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We don't do anyone any good getting shot because we got excited, yeah?" He paused. Chuckled. "Pretty funny, huh? Me? Telling you to calm down? Who'd a thought? Am I right?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:31, Wed 09 Nov 2011.

Juragga favored Haarmon with a look and let out a low, annoyed warble... but despite the tone, the message was, "Right."

He hated when the kid was right.  But he'd learned to trust him, despite his youth and exuberance.  Dak was good people.

Vekkis nods, "That would work for me, I think.  Knock out their comms or some of their defences, and we'll see if we can get inside."  On the face of it, it's a good plan.  Everybody knows that stormtroopers are attracted to explosions...

There are only two possible stumbling blocks that he can see.

First, it relies on Rhijans being able to create the diversion and distract the guards.  Second, it relies on Mark and Vekkis being able to get the door open.  Even with those two potential problems, it's still better than anything Vekkis has come up with.  Just to be on the safe side though he suggests, "We should probably have a backup plan as well, though."

Down in the mine the group of rebels, along with the Ubese and the protocol droid, cross the cavern.  Nobody stops them, nobody calls out to them, and (most importantly) nobody opens fire on them...

As they approach the guarded tunnel a cargo skiff comes out of it, carrying a small quantity of rocks - probably no more than couple of hundred kilograms.  Unlike all the other skiffs, this one does not dump its cargo on the transport belt.  Instead it flies into the tunnel which leads back to the elevator that the group rode down in...

They move closer to the guards, and one of them finally seems to notice them, "What are you doing here?"

Rhijans grinned mirthlessly.  "Well, I can fake a comm call about the Ubese being on the attack over by the comm station...that should get a bunch of 'em running.  If I take a few pot shots on my way in again, I can blame it on him again and send anyone asking off across the compound chasing him while I 'tend to the wounded'..."  He shrugged, and added, "Or I can leave this with you, to be judiciously applied where you think it will work best."

The thermal detonator he indicated represented a small fortune on the black market, but he was enough of a pragmatist to realize that a small fortune was worthless if you weren't willing to spend it sometime.  "That should get rid of anyone close by, and might even be enough to knock in the doors...just gotta make sure that nobody sees you arming it or winding up to throw it.  Imperial troops don't play with these things...too unstable."

Thermal detonators did have a reputation for being temperamental bits of gear, after all...

Mark Jacobs looks at Vekkis and nods.  "That sounds like a backup plan to me.  If the diversion doesn't pull them away, we hit them with everything we've got."

He holds out his hand to Rhijans, "I'll take that.  I know just where I'm going to put it."  Then he adds, "But I promise I'll only use it if I really have too."

The grin is audible in his voice, even through the helmet.

"Hot void," mutters Shui.  "That's not a place with prisoners, that's where they're mining the weapon-grade material."  It makes sense - the guards, the special care taken with the mined material. "I'm not sure we'll find anyone in there, but we'd better check and see if it's not all automated."    She unzips her coat partway as they get closer.

If they can think of a way to bring down this whole mine, so much the better.  After the slaves are freed.

They close, one of the troopers challenges them...and it looks like Haarmon is up.

"They only started bringing in slaves when those beastly stormtroopers arrived.  It would seem logical, then, that those slaves are being used to mine whatever the Empire is interested in." UY-3PO says quietly.

The Ubese's mask emits a short burst of garbled syllables and the droid turns to face him, "Will you please be quiet about your thermal detonators?  I am quite sure there is a better way out of this situation, which will be safer for all concerned."  The Ubese's response is short er than his previous comment, and results in a, "How rude!" from the droid as he turns back towards Shard.

Meanwhile, in the warehouse, Vekkis Lund makes a point of stepping out from behind a container for a moment, apparently checking the seals on it  for any tampering.  By coincidence, this gives him a clear view of the bunker door.  Then he steps back into cover again.

"They aren't moving, so that is definitely their assigned post.  We should make our move though, before another search party comes along and wants us to explain what we're doing here."

Rhijans nodded.  "We need to make our move pretty fast, anyway.  I don't want to be trying to move stuff from here to the docking bays with someone doing strafing runs on the compound."  He looked over at Jacobs.

"So, I'm okay doing the lone-trooper thing out there?  Like I said, I don't want to attract attention by doing something way outside the norm, but things will go down faster if we've got extra bodies here to take advantage of the distraction, and it'll be easier for me to slip back across the compound alone than it would be to try and keep two or three of us together."

He was already anticipating the answer...from what Jacobs had said about the backup plan (such as it was), he was planning on being here to be part of it, so Rhijans extricated the thermal detonator from his gear and handed it over.  "Don't use that unless it's absolutely crucial...who knows when I'll get a chance to replace it, if you do..."

Haarmon stops in front of the troopers. He pauses a moment. For dramatic effect like. "Got these prisoners, here," he says, with a gesture back toward Shard and Juragga, just in case the guy was a little slow on the uptake. "Supposed to take them down to the mine and see if they can ID someone. Someone from the Rebellion, like."

There. Nice and simple. Much better than last time.

Mark nods, "You should be fine.  Troopers don't go everywhere hand in hand, just nearly everywhere.  If anybody asks you were sent to get a replacement for a faulty blaster or something.  Don't say you're after a power cell though, they all carry spare cells around with them."

Rhijans nodded.  "I'll come up with something...a bad transmitter in my helmet or something..."  He shrugged.  In his experience, any large operation had its share of maintenance issues, the story should be plausible.

"Well, then, good luck...I'll see you in a few minutes."  He headed out of the building, taking a moment outside the door to orient himself and recall what the 3PO unit had told him about the location of the comm center.  He set off in that direction, his gaze sweeping the compound for potential targets of opportunity--power conduits, generators, weapon emplacements...anything of the sort, the stuff whose loss would make defending the mine a more difficult proposition for the Imperials.

Shard's palm itches.  It wants to slap her forehead.  But under the gaze of the stormtroopers, she contents herself with a warning glare toward the Ubese, then rolls her eyes at Juragga.

What is it with that Ubese and thermal detonators?

Tossing around a molecular disruption bomb close to potential weapon-grade ore might not be a particularly good idea.

Haarmon's attempt at fast-talking comes off good enough to Shard that her palm relaxes.  It's not...perfect.  But she doesn't detect any flagrant violations of com procedure.  Maybe they'll pull this off.