Tump isn't quite sure what to make of the droid spazzing out, but he continues to try and communicate with it. "Ok, really starting to regret pulling you off your previous duty, but if you roll back over here and talk these hunters down... that would be great!"

The droid rolls back over to the terminal still shaking a bitime, but under better control.  It extends the data arm once more and plugs in.  A few turns later a message appears on the screen.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Your faces were priceless megabytes I'll never dump.  I haven't laughed that hard in centuries.  And for a droid, that's a lot longer than your perception of time.  Those DH-Vs are boooooorING!  The AC stands for Astromech Conscious, but everyone just called me Aice.

Inarra draws a blaster.  "I'm going to disintegrate it."

Irin looks at the screen, then at R10-AC and finally Inarra and the rest of the group.  She grins and chuckles.

Tump just stares at the screen for a moment, then bursts out laughing. He looks over at Irin. "Did you know it was messing with us?"

He calms himself from the fit of laughter. "Well, I'm not gunna lie kid, that was pretty good. You're alright, Aice."

Looking over at Inarra, he continues "And given the stress we've had the past couple days, I think a good prank was in order." He motions for her to lower her blaster.

"Hey Aice, are you able to transmit to this datapad?" He pulls out his personal device. "I know it's not as good as what those hunters are using, but I figured we'll need a way to understand what you're saying when not next to a terminal like this."

Irin shakes her head and shrugs.  "I had no idea."

Inarra lowers her blaster and glares at the droid.  Then, seeing Irin and Tump chuckling, she deflates and grins sheepishly.  "Alright, alright.  A comedic droid.  That's just wonderful."  She holsters the gun and sighs dramatically.

Tump's datapad beeps and a message scrolls across the screen.

Of course.  What?  Do you think I'm an amateur?  Your primitive technology is so basic I would almost rather not send/recieve.  Ugh, I feel like I'm thinking through the sludge after a thousand protocol droid oil baths.

Tump grins at the message. "Perfect. That'll do Aice."

"If it's not too boring, perhaps you could take a look at something for me. I found a data drive from an old ruined droid not too long ago, but there is some rather aggressive AI on it and these terminals can't handle it. Care to give it a go? I'm sure Irin would be forever grateful for whatever data it holds."

The droid holds out a mechanical hand.

Tump pulls the drive from his pocket and hands it over to R10-AC. "Alright, let's see what's on there."

Aice takes the drive in one of his 'hands' and rotates it around, scanning it.  He plugs in what looks like some kind of peripheral connector, likely checking for hostile properties of the drive.  He lets out a long, low whistle, the first communication sound he's made.  It almost sounds - well, not human, but biological.

Satisfied with his initial scans, he opens up a port in the back of his dome and extends a port.  The port is shifting as it extends until it exactly matches the drive's configuration.  Aice connects the drive which is then retracted into his dome.  His 'hand' also retracts and everything goes still, quiet, and dark.

A full minute passes while everyone waits.  Ronan, bored, starts packing up the harnesses to carry back up the stairs.

Then Aice lights up again and a full-sized holographic of Guri appears before him.

"Hello.  My name is Guri.  This communication system has been established in case those calling themselves the Star Gods win this war.  A series of steps, trials, are contained within this message, which can be activated on any droid capable of decrypting the MX-40L encryption algorithm.  If you are not working for the Star Gods, the trials will only pose moderate difficulty for you.  They will test your worth and your dedication, but they are not deadly.  If you work for the Star Demons and you've somehow managed to get a hold of this, then it doesn't matter.  You are incapable of passing the trials and finding me.

Your first trial is a riddle.  What is neither dark nor light, neither good nor evil, balanced beyond one, but neither two nor none?"

The hologram stands there as if waiting.  It is not paused, but looks like some kind of interactive 3D avatar.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:42, Mon 27 Mar 2017.

Tump sighs. "Great. Riddles", he says with a smirk. "I hate riddles."

He shrugs. "I got nothing. No sense in forcing an answer. You're pretty good with riddles, right Irin? This make any sense to you?"

"We should probably start heading back anyway. Ky may have some insight here as well, plus we've got loads of other intel and gear to start collecting too."

Irin is quiet while the group packs up.  It does not take but a couple of hours to get everything the group needs from the warehouse loaded, including the four-legged droid which Ronan is fascinated with.

After a stop at the generator company, where several generators and backups are loaded along with GDI-7X, the group arrives back at the Falcon.  By that time, it is getting close to supper.  Vyctor shows Ronan where to park the transport in relative safety from the denizens of the ruins.
Inarra, tired from the long adventure over the last couple of days eats and turns in early.

Ronan unloads the droids and starts tinkering with the four-legged one out in his make-shift garage.  Vyctor refers to him as a late recruit, but a talented engineer and systems specialist.  He also isn't bad in a fight.

Irin remains quiet, studying a datapad she keeps with her constantly.

Vyctor eats in silence, allowing Tump and the others time to defrag after that trip.  If anything is brought up of importance, Vyctor suggests waiting till the morning when everyone has had a good night's sleep.  Clear heads will be needed for the next phase in their plan.  He does say that Django was successful but should have been back by now and Vyctor is concerned.  If he isn't back by lunch the next day, Vyctor plans to send Ronan or Inarra out to look for him.

Django arrives back at the Falcon just before lunch.

Django shuffles his feet into Falcon, not even bothering to look around at any work that's been done. He finds a seat and flops down, clearly exhausted. He looks over at Kerr, and has a look of irritation and concern on his face. He doesn't speak at first.

"Hey marshall." Tump tips his hat to Django. "I was beginning to think you had gotten nabbed. Glad to see I was wrong."

Django grunts. "You'd be right actually. Crawled through a sewer. Lost my identity. Got shot. I even got to meet our big nasty Stargod himself. Also got to meet a friend of Vyc's who would have been great to know about beforehand".

"Wait, you met Vexember?" His eyebrows raise a bit. "How did you get out of there with your life?" Tump stands up abruptly. "Are you being tracked!?"

"My apologies for that, Blint.  I did not know if Dabne would be available for the assist.  It cost me quite a bit to call in that favor.  I did not want you relying on something that may not have ever been available."  Vyctor shifts in his seat to lean forward.  "What happened with Vexemeber.  Certainly he...well, not bribed, that would not be you.  He threatened you into agreeing to betray us?"

Django laughs. It's short, and almost sounds arrogant. "He's offered us our lives, in exchange for gettin' this rust bucket operational. Said he won't interfere one bit if we leave Core. On the grounds we go pester someone besides him. He considered us fleas. And had this haughty attitude. Treated the whole ordeal like it was beneath him. I seen the tactic before though. It was a power play. Act like yer problems are so far beneath you they don't even register. Ain't no telling what he's gone do from there, but he already knew everything. Knew you were fixin' up this ship, that's fer sure"

Django fishes in his pack for the object Vexember gave him.

"Also gave me this. Said it would help you with the star charts or some tech junk like that. Also said it would help us avoid th' other star gods".

Django holds out his hand to give the object to Kerr.

"Star charts?" He squints to see what Django is holding. "I bet Aice would love to get a peek at those."

He glances over at Inarra, then down and away. "About the whole pestering thing. We might have opened up a can of worms."

"Whaddaya mean? The heck did yall get in to while I was gone".

"Well...", his voice trails off.

"We found a couple really interesting droids! That little one over there, he's an astromech named R10-AC. Aice for short. We also got a bigger one, but he's more of a stationary sentry droid."

"Aaanndd... we might have sent a couple hundred hunter droids after Vexxie.", he blurts out quickly.

But it's gunna take at least a couple months for them to finish all their subroutines before they lock on!"

"Yup. We're boned"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:00, Mon 27 Mar 2017.