A New Face, a New Destination

Clayton

Active Member
SWRP Writer
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
4,185
Reaction score
1,425
Vergesso rang with activity in the main docking bay. Space was being cleared for an expected ship. Hoversleds lined one wall ready to take on cargo. In the overlooking control room, a flight control officer had just finished confirming the incoming transport's ID and passcodes. "Dark Nebula, you are cleared to approach and land in docking bay one. See you soon." Bree'tor nodded and tapped for a moment on the control panel, deactivating the target lock on the transport. "Would those guns really do any damage against a larger ship?" asked the officer.

"Nope, it would make life difficult for smaller vessels. But that will change soon. Our main defense is secrecy, which is why your job is important. Our sensor net is the first line of defense, cronau radiation detectors and long range scanners give us time to go into quiet mode. Of course that would mean little if the Imperium knew our exact location. Which obviously is why you order ships to wipe their navicomp's record of travel to and from here. Now, Bree'tor must go down and greet the ship, it has cargo and a passenger that Bree wishes to meet."

With that, the eccentric rodian scurried out of the control room and down a flight of stairs to the hangar bay itself. An array of landing lights blinked, indicators of where exactly to land. The incoming ship grew larger until it filled the hangar opening and pierced the shield keeping atmosphere in. Repulsors whined as the engines throttled to an almost imperceptible output. Magnetic clamps attached themselves to the deck with a deafening clang. Bree eagerly waited across from a slowly lowering boarding ramp while mechanics loitered by as they waited for the initial traffic to disperse before inspecting and servicing the vessel.
 

Kiro

Mech Fan
SWRP Writer
Joined
May 1, 2012
Messages
5,086
Reaction score
552
As the so-called Dark Nebula landed in the main hangar of the asteroid base and the landing ramp descended, cargo droids began unloading swarms of crates labled "Void Protocol" while the boots of a lone humanoid banged softly amongst the heavy metallic thumps of the heavy droids and the soft hum of the repulsor sleds used to shift the heavy crates.

The woman that exited the ship quirked a jet black eyebrow, contrasted neatly against grey-ish blue skin as her ruby red-within-red eyes swept over the hangar, an electrostaff resting over one shoulder. Hearing a cacaphony of loud clanging of metal smashing against metal, Ree darts to the side with the grace and agility of a trained dancer, cursing softly in Cheunh while she frowned at the metal automatons. Ree had never truly liked droids, not even when she'd grown upon the Csillan Star.

Giving one last glare at the loading droids, she turns her crimson gaze to the alien that had come to greet her; a curious mixture of reptilian, insectoid, and mammalian traits, and almost of her height. Rodian, her memory cautioned her. She'd seen a few of that species since her return to the 'civilized' galaxy, and most had been of the beligerent kind.

"Bree'tor?" She queries in accented Basic.
 

Clayton

Active Member
SWRP Writer
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
4,185
Reaction score
1,425
Bree clapped his hands together excitedly as the few crates labeled Void Protocol were unloaded. "Excellent, have the engineering team take those and set them up. Careful though, Void-7 charges are rather dangerous. Which is why we got the, but that doesn't matter. What matters is aha! Vergesso's newest arrival. Ree, and a Chiss, interesting, Bree'tor has never met a Chiss before. Welcome to Vergesso Base, you guessed Bree's name correctly, yes. Do you have a maser? Bree's always wanted to tinker with one, interesting technology. Wait, no, of course you need to drop your things off. Come, Bree will give you a tour."

He ushered Ree down the ramp and to follow him. "Bree'll bring you to the women's barracks first, you can take a bunk, drop your rucksack off there. While we go there, do you have any technological inclinations? Your personnel file was rather spartan. Scientist? Pilot? Soldier? Spy?" Bree forced himself to shut up so Ree could answer as they made their way down the narrow halls. Ventilation was audible. Despite their best efforts at repairing the system, the fans were old and loud. Unless they replaced the circulation system completely, the noise wouldn't fully go away. Still, they had done an excellent job of fixing up and renovating the base. Walls and doors had all been patched and given new coats of paint. Where there were actually windows, they had been replaced with newer, more tougher grades of transparisteel. Going by looks, it was almost impossible to tell that the asteroid had lain abandoned for a decade.

She probably thought he was crazy, most people did. He probably was, actually. If there was a little extra chirp in his voice today, it was because he wasn't just planning on a tour. Bree also wanted to take a trip to Hypori to salvage and modify some tech. With that he could finally finish upgrading the asteroid base and shipyard's defenses. Void Protocol was meant to be an end-game, but truth be told Bree had grown fond of the base, and would rather not have to abandon it if push came to shove.
 

Kiro

Mech Fan
SWRP Writer
Joined
May 1, 2012
Messages
5,086
Reaction score
552
Ree's ruby red eyes watched the Rodian carefully as he clapped his hands and advanced towards her and the cargo droids, rambling to himself before suddenly shifting his attention to the young Chiss. She simply observed him in silence as he rambled and ranted at her, before unclipping the holster on her right hip, drawing an ancient and curiously designed pistol. Just from the looks of it, the weapon relied on seperate gas chambers housed in a rotating cylinder, where each gas chamber was housed seperately, making it similar to an ancient slugthrower revolver in design. She simply tosses the gun to the Rodian as he mentions wanting to study it.

"Just be careful with it. It's an heirloom,"
she comments as she falls into step behind the green-skinned alien as a quartet of loader droids started to move one final item out of the Black Nebula's cargo bay; a heavily modified fighter craft that might at one point have been an Imperial starfighter. As she moved, the light would occasionally catch on the tricopper pauldron she wore on her left shoulder. "As for my specialities, I'm a capable pilot and fighter, and..."

As she walks, Ree opens herself up to the Force, allowing it to flow through her petite body, before using it to reach out to grasp the pistol that was currently in the Rodian's suction-cup tipped hands, making it jump out of his grasp, twirl rapidly before his multi-faceted eyes, before coming to a rest with the barrel pointing directly between those big, black, sparkling eyes... before falling back down into his hands again.

"I know a few special tricks."
 

Clayton

Active Member
SWRP Writer
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
4,185
Reaction score
1,425
Bree's eyes widened in delight as she tossed him an actual maser. Amazing! He spun the cylinder around, and studied the design. It was old, or looked old, and didn't seem to have a very high capacity, but this was still something that would be fun to examine in greater detail. He was barely listening to Ree while he looked the gun over, that is until it jumped out of his hands, pointed itself at his face, then fell back into his grip. His mouth dropped open. Ree was force sensitive? He had so many questions!

"You're force sensitive? Why didn't you join the jedi? How long have you known? What else can you do, though joining the jedi is rather difficult today. Tricky, yes. Hard to find them, easier to join rebels, give an edge on the battlefield. Clever, neat, Bree can see how that would be useful to have a force sensitive in a squad of soldiers. Must make piloting easier, yes. Special tricks, haha, that's funny. Can you tell when Bree is lying? Bree wouldn't like that very much, can make things awkward." They stopped outside a reinforced door stenciled "Barracks 2A". "Bree believe there should be room in there for you. Restrooms, sonic shower too. We replaced the old water ones to save, well, water and to make hygiene more efficient. Just grab a bunk that doesn't have anything in the footlocker. Then we begin our tour. Yes, much to show for an asteroid base. All the comforts of home and more. Minus hot water showers. Almost all the comforts of home."
 

Kiro

Mech Fan
SWRP Writer
Joined
May 1, 2012
Messages
5,086
Reaction score
552
As she walked besides the Rodian, Ree wondered if he mixed in hypermatter with his caf, and if that would explain why and how his mouth seemingly ran off at fifty parsecs a second. But as the two walked together, and the endless barrage of worlds spilled forth from that green, lipless mouth, Ree also found herself wondering if he had any sort of an off button like a droid. Of course, her revelation of her being Force Sensetive didn't really halter that barrage, but instead served only to reinforce it.

"Yes. My entire life. Yes," Ree replied, only half paying attention to the cacophony that flew out of the slightly taller alien's mouth. "Probably." She continued as he questioned wether or not she could tell if he was lying, and then pausing to pay a bit more attention as they arrived to the female barracks. As he finally stopped talking, she pressed a button to make the door chime, announcing her to any soldier inside that might be in a state of undress, waited ten seconds, and then opened the door. Once that was done, she strolled inside, found an empty footlocker, and dumped what few possessions she had with her into that locker, typed in her personal code, and locked it.

"You mentioned a tour?"
 

Clayton

Active Member
SWRP Writer
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
4,185
Reaction score
1,425
Bree bounced gently on the balls of his feet as he waited for Ree to get done. As she inquired about the tour, he nodded and grinned widely. He loved showing off his base. "Right! We should hit up Life Support first," he said, and started down another hall. "Vergesso is probably one of our better kept secrets, and that is the best defense we have against the Imperium. While the base has a robust anti-starfighter defense, the base proper doesn't have anything capable of engaging so much as a corvette, unless we have ships of our own stationed here. So secrecy is important. It's not uncommon for us to go into silent mode. If we detect a ship entering the system, we power down long-range communications and anything else that can give off a detectable signature. We don't want to engage an enemy here. This is a place of refuge for those hunted by the Sith, and a port of call for quiet repairs or modifications to vessels up to a light cruiser in size."

He went on about the proper way to approach the base and system, waiting in a standby system to sweep one's ship for tracking devices, and scan for anyone trailing. Removing the system from the navicomp after visiting, and of course plain old keeping your mouth shut about it. Presently they reached an observation deck that overlooked a grouping of rooms marked with large machinery and, off in one corner, part of a greenhouse bathed in artificial lighting. "We can grow our own food, and the plants supplement our mechanical oxygen recycler and CO2 scrubbers. It's not an entirely self-sufficient system, we still get a shipment of supplies but it's not a constant event. Minimizing traffic is another way we stay hidden. The base of course has the latest in water recycling equipment as well," Bree motioned to an array of filtration devices, some for air, some for water. Vents were directly in line with moisture vaporators that took in water from the air. It seemed that every possible source of water was being tapped.

"Down this hall and to the left are the communal areas of the base. We've got a full bar in a pub like establishment, gym, and arcade. Vergesso is a little out of the way so we try to keep morale up the best we can. Then over here you have the mess hall, aaand down this way there's a firing range, armory, small vehicle workshop, and Bree'tor's secondary lab." He typed in a passcode on a keypad and a door opened up to reveal a lab in horrifying conditions. A pallet of refined quadranium sat in one corner, piles of disassembled droids covered an entire table while soldering equipment along with other precision tools and quadranium blocks in various stages of tooling covered the other. "The Selkath were more than happy to give Bree their latest in maintenance droid developments and designs after the Imperium got their assess kicked on and above Manaan. Right now Bree is working on marrying traditional and nanodroid technology. Nanodroids are too simple for what Bree wants, so Bree thinks if Bree can keep the miniaturized circuit pathways for computing and communication, Bree can free up space for other equipment and functions."
 

Kiro

Mech Fan
SWRP Writer
Joined
May 1, 2012
Messages
5,086
Reaction score
552
Ree listened carefully, keeping only her charric on her hip and a knife in her boot, as her Rodian host and temporary tour guide began to explain the situation of the Vergesso Asteroid Base and their security measures, nodding occasionally as he explained various minutiae, finding most of them rather sensible, especially for a Rebel base that was this deep within Imperial space. "Understandable. Prudent, even," Ree commends Bree'tor as he explained how the base operated. "I suppose I should give your control center the transponder code to my own fighter. It's probably being unloaded as we speak. Would not want to be shot down by our own defences."

As they wandered past the observation deck, she watched the systems Bree'tor explained, nodding in understanding. "I assume you also recycle all of your waste? Having lived all my life on an arc-ship, that is what we were forced to do. It could be months between planets with drinkable water in what you Core-worlders call the Unknown Region, so we needed to recycle every drop of water aboard the Csillan Star," Ree explains, one hand still resting on the charric in it's holster on her hip, being the only weapon she currently carried aside from a tactical vibroknife in her left boot.

"It is a good base, Bree'tor. Well suited for an insurgency cell." Ree praised her host, following him closely.
 

Clayton

Active Member
SWRP Writer
Joined
Aug 5, 2013
Messages
4,185
Reaction score
1,425
Bree nodded. "Oh yes, that is how we recycle water and fertilize the greenhouses. As Bree said, we try to be as efficient with our resources as possible. And please do give our control room your fighter's transponder code. We'll still issue you a code phrase and duress phrase." He pointed down a corridor, "down that way is the defense command room and engineering. It's restricted access. You'll also note the track lighting along the walls. In emergency, the lights will be illuminated and show the quickest way to the hangars for evacuation." Bree clapped his hands together and looked at Ree. "Any questions? And Bree has a mission for you, if you're willing. Upgrading Vergesso's defenses, yes. Bree wants to be able to take out a corvette at the least. It would be a shame to have to evacuate because of such a small ship."
 
Top