Ask Corellia Corellian Gambit

[Zekk Krieg]

Corellia
Southern Hemisphere
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Zekk grunted as the small Corellian freighter bumped in the Turbulence. "Tighten up the engine baffling, D4. We're getting a nasty kick from the port one." The droid beeped quietly and his control panel lit up as the astromech twisted his interface arm slightly. With a slight whine the turbulence smoothed out. Zekk grunted again and turned his attention to the front windows. The canyon approach required a deft hand on the controls as the freighter slipped back and forth through the winding route. This thing was in no way as maneuverable as his fighter, and it required extra attention to make sure the much wider ship didn't scrape. The cockpit was empty except for him and the droid and was silent outside of the quiet beeps and boops from the controls.

​

The locator in the cockpit was counting down the kilometers rapidly as they approached the reported site of the old Alderaan Royal Engineers research facility. Hopefully it would actually be here. The last three reported sites had been nothing but destroyed warehouses, looted long ago for their material. But those had been hidden nowhere near as well as this site, so with any luck they would actually hit paydirt. But Zekk wasn't counting on it.

With one last move to the starboard side they slipped out of the canyons and into large bowl, ringed on all sides by high stone walls at least 3 kilometers high. In the middle of the bowl sat a complex. It consisted of several long buildings made out of a dull grey metal that seemed to squat close to the red stone they sat on. They were connected to each other by a complicated series of skywalks and covered tunnels. A preliminary scan noted that the buildings were mostly intact. A few bays had collapsed but otherwise it was remarkably well preserved after after almost 150 years.

"Get me a landing pad, D4. The sooner we're out of here the better." Another trill, another grunt. Silent reigned again for the next few minutes while they moved in to a landing pad and the freighter bumped slightly as they set down. Zekk stood and stretched his back before patting the droid gently on the dome. "Keep this thing ready to go. The things I've heard about the ARE we might be running out under fire." He moved out of the cockpit and stopped in front of the locker that sat outside the hatch. His hands moved quickly and with a practiced ease as he strapped on a flexible chest plate, a slicing gauntlet, his gunbelt and two bandoliers, and slid his Bryar Pistols into the well worn holsters. His E-11s fit into its carrying straps across his back, and he slid a cut off scatter gun onto clips placed along the small of his back. His rebreather slipped into its pouch, and the rest were filled with various accessories of his trade. A dozen magnetic grenades sat along his left hand side, and a miniaturized grapple gun hung below it. The last piece were his long leather duster and his wide brim leather hat that was broken in perfectly to his head.

With his kit in place he moved into the bay onto a catwalk above where a dozen Mon Cal moved about. He looked out over the bay and after moment clanged his gauntlet on the railing. After a moment they looked up at him and he opened his mouth to speak. He hated this, but they were a necessity.

"My name is Zekk Krieg, and I am a Sector Ranger. That means I'm in charge of this operation. You will do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it. My job is to keep you alive, and I intend to fulfill that job. We have landed in unknown territory, and everything outside of that door is presumed to be a threat until proven otherwise. According to scans we have 4 surface buildings to check, and then we have detected a large power signature in a what appears to be a shielded bunker 100 meters undeground. I've uploaded what we believe to be schematics to your HUD. You'll also notice an add on. It's biomonitor. It'll allow me to keep track of you and whether or not you meet your fate here." He placed his hands on the handrails for the ssteep ladder that led to the catwalk and slid down them to where his feet encountered the metal deck.

He strode across to the ramp and slammed his hand onto the open control. Steam hissed from the hydraulics as the large ramp lowered to the solid metal landing bay. A quick turn to face the Mon Cal followed. "Stick close. I don't know what's out here waiting for us." Another turn and he walked down the ramp with sure, even strides into the darkness that awaited them.

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Jal Widase]

The Mon Cala and Quarren troopers present turned to their commanding officer, Jal Widase, as the stern sector ranger spoke. They awaited his confirmation, his word, that he would surrender command. It would have been an unlikely proposition were he a younger and more boisterous man. Widase offered a solid nod to his soldiers before they took their positions, everyone giving their equipment a final once-over. They had wasted weeks on bad intel about the old factories - long-since abandoned, skeletal structures that gave life only to corrugated blankets of rust. This one was different, though: Everyone in the room (who hadn't lost their lunch at Zekk's fearless flying) could feel it. Shadows stretched into oblivion, the darkness below them an all-consuming void.

Jal strode to reach the Sector Ranger, his assigned companion for their mission into Corellia. "Krieg, was it? I don't think we've had a chance to actually acquaint ourselves - there's been such a rush across Corellia. Commander Jal Widase, at your service." He offered a black gloved hand to Zekk. "You've the experience in this kind of mission, so I will defer to your command. However, I wil ask a simple request: Do not command me and my soldiers as if we are your playthings. We are here on behalf of the Crown of Mon Cala, not the Sector Rangers." He followed the Ranger into the abyss.

"The reports said this site was ancient, oldest of the lot. What are the odds we find something worthwhile here?"

@Makashi Master

 

[Zekk Krieg]

Zekk looked at the proffered hand but did not reach to take it. "I don't have playthings, commander Jal." He pulled a taclight from his belt and turned it on, casting the powerful beam around him in slow deliberate arcs. "And I don't care who you're here for. I got pulled from a hunt to lead this merry band, and that annoys me. I'll do everything in my power to keep you alive but I can make no promises." He spotted a large switch built into the middle of a post and walked over, checking the label before pulling it down.

The landing bay and the large hangar beyond lit up slowly as the lights burned on one after another. Zekk flicked off the tac light and looked around the cavernous space. He was greeted by shiny surfaces, well maintained floors, and humming lights that filled every square inch with a flat light. And now his head was filled with internal alarm bells. After 144 years abandoned, this place should be overcome with rust and broken parts. Instead it looked like it had just been scrubbed yesterday.

He gestured towards the immaculate space. "I'd say the odds are pretty damn good. Looks like the automated systems are still working. Hopefully that extends to the generator and the computer banks as well." He ran a finger along the top of a nearb control panel. No dust. He cocked his head slightly to the side and listened. The lights were humming loudly at an annoying pitch, but years of training allowed him to filter it out after a moments. Underneath the hum there was... nothing. It was dead silent. That wasn't good. There should be something. machinery clanking, the throatier hum of a generator, the whirring of wheels from automated cleaning units... something.

Zekk reached down to his right thigh and drew his Bryar. He checked the power load and made sure that it was set to kill. Then with a flick of his thumb he turned the safety 'off'. He raised his voice slightly to be heard. "Keep you eyes and ears open. There's something here."

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Jal Widase]

He paused for a moment, his hand shaping into a fist before taking a deep breath. It's not worth it - focus on the mission at hand. "Consider this a hunt of a different kind, if that helps." He took a look at the clean, well-built architecture that surrounded them. Perfectly preserved - unlike everywhere else they had been. The Ranger was right - there was sure to be something ominous behind this clean facade. It could help explain why the New Alderaanian Engineers hadn't been able to excavate the site on their own.

He motioned for his soldiers to follow in line behind him as the lights slowly came to life. There was a momentary chatter among the troops as they noticed what Krieg already had - there was something downright eerie about this place. Widase shushed the soldiers behind him, as their clatter rose just above the hum of the lights. "Stay quiet, let's keep moving." His own hand moved towards the blaster pistol on his waist. He unholstered it - a sleek, black gun - and raised it to hold with both his hands.

The group was tense. "Your call, Krieg. Where to?" They had landed into a wide-open space - even with the lights on, it would be far too easy to get lost and distracted here if they didn't stick tightly together. Widase gripped his pistol tightly...he was starting to have a bad feeling about this whole mission.

@Makashi Master

 

[Zekk Krieg]

Zekk looked around the large bay and ran what he saw against the schematics he held in his head. "We're in the bays. Closest building to here is R&D." He pointed to their left and a security door in the distance. It was framed by small yellow lights and sat open, the tunnel beyond cloaked in darkness. "That's the skyway. From my flyover it looked completely intact." It was as good a place as any to start. "Get your men moving, commander. I'll take point." Putting actions to words he started to move towards the open door with his pistol held in a ready position in front of him, the pistol crossed over the tac-light to provide a steady base.

As he passed various supports and crates, he passed them in a steady gait with the pistol searching the recesses. Nothing. What the hell is going on here? He reached the door after several minutes and swept the light through it where he found that the skyway sloped down at a slight angle to the point where it met the third floor of the R&D building. It looked clear, but looks could and often were deceiving. His left hand went up in a fist to signal a stop before he turned it into a blade and chopped quickly twice at either side of the door. The Mon Cal team behind him split and moved to flank the door on either side. Maybe they're not completely useless. He stowed the tac-light and pulled a small flare from his belt. A quick strike against the door frame ignited it before he knelt and let the flare roll down the slope.

It rolled and picked up speed as it crossed the hundred meters. As it crashed into the door at the bottom and stopped the end flared brighter for a brief moment before settling into a steady stream of colored flame. Zekk waited for another minute before he started to move down the skyway. He went slow as his eyes darted around the transparisteel walls that looked out onto dimly lit walls of the deep canyon. Unless the sun was directly overhead the only light that would reach down here would be a few refracted rays. But it was enough.

He was looking for movement. Anything that moved through a ray and blocked the weak light even for moment. A sense of dread was permeating him, making his very bones shiver.

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Jal Widase]

It's impossible to know when it happened. Some imperceptible movement, some heavy breathing; hells, maybe it was even the vital signs of all of these organics in one room. Something had woken up whatever had slept in this place - and it was too late to put it back to sleep. One of the point men, a Quarren with a long rifle, was the first to be noticed by it:

A sentry turret. Perfectly cloaked alongside the walls of the room, hidden as another of the many hexagonal tiles that covered the space. Its twin guns quickly, accurately, found their target and fired; the Quarren was riddled with blaster rounds and dead on the ground before the rest of the Mon Cala strike team could open fire. His rifle made a hard smashing sound as its plastic connected with the too-clean floors - his vital sign indicator flashed out of existence.

The smoke settled, and both turret and Quarren lay defeated. Widase took a moment to gather his breath, after surveying his man's corpse. "What have we walked into?" This place was supposed to be abandoned - it shouldn't have even existed, if the maps they had to cross-reference to navigate to here were to be trusted. "Krieg, there's been no reports of activity here in centuries. An active turret here? Built into the architecture of the structure? This isn't even a case of some spice-addled squatters going gun-crazy." He readied his weapon, holding it tighter than before. Frankly, he was more worried that they had tripped some kind of unseen alarm. He whispered to Krieg: "If I can make a recommendation - let's see if we can find a terminal in here that one of my slicers could tap into. We could get a better look of what we're up against."

@Makashi Master

 

[Zekk Krieg]

Zekk moved slowly to the Quarren's body and knelt next to it, placing his fingers over the corpse's eyelids and closing them gently. He stood again and examined the turret and its hidey hole. His fingers probed the opening and grasped a small bundle of wires. A hard tug pulled them out and he held them close to his nose before taking a deep sniff. No carbon. No rust.

"Krieg, there's been no reports of activity here in centuries. An active turret here? Built into the architecture of the structure? This isn't even a case of some spice-addled squatters going gun-crazy." Zekk turned around and tossed the small bundle to the Mon Cal. "These are new. So is the turret. When this place went offline this kind of unscannable tech didn't exist." He pointed into the dark doorway that sat a few more meters down the hall. "That means that the blueprints and the scans we have are useless. We have no idea what waits past that door." His eyes flashed as the electronics inside rotated and peered into the darkness. "If I can make a recommendation - let's see if we can find a terminal in here that one of my slicers could tap into. We could get a better look of what we're up against."

"If we can find one that attaches to the main network I have no problem with that. But until we do keep your weapons ready and anything you hear, see, or suspect you let me know immediately. From here until we're out it's shoot first and ask questions later. Grab a partner, keep each other close, and keep in contact." Zekk stepped through the door and swept his eyes and blasters through the room, allowing the delicate sensors within them to peer into the inky blackness. He spotted a button marked 'emergency lighting' and hit it with the butt of his blaster. Red lights began to strobe slowly through the building. Rooms demarcated by glass and fiilled with spotless lab equipment filled the space, with multiple powered-down lab droids of ancient make clustered around them. It sent an ominous feeling into his heart as Zekk hefted his blaster and set off into the darkness.

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Jal Widase]

Commander Widase watched curiously as the ranger...sniffed?... the wiring of from the broken turret. It was certainly a curious tactic to age-date the electronics - surely his droid could have done that for him - but he was unable to deny that it was effective. Widase fumbled to catch the wires as Zekk tossed them - they bounced around in his hands, clumsily, for a moment while the ranger spoke. "These are new. So is the turret. When this place went offline this kind of unscannable tech didn't exist." Well, perfect; this site was a minefield. A sharp pain shot through his temples as a feeling of stress overtook his whole body. He rubbed his temples with his hands while Zekk continued to speak.

""If we can find one that attaches to the main network I have no problem with that. But until we do keep your weapons ready and anything you hear, see, or suspect you let me know immediately. From here until we're out it's shoot first and ask questions later. Grab a partner, keep each other close, and keep in contact." Widase snapped his fingers, and the crew hefted off into pairs. Down one man, now, the crew was at an odd number. As he unholstered his blaster, he signalled for a Mon Cala to join him. The soldier nodded in response, grabbing his rifle off of his pack to join his commander. Krieg would find himself joined by a pair of troopers. One, a short Quarren with a pair of goggles on his head, nervously checked his submachine gun before he spoke. "Ranger Krieg? Szurp Llurpman." His tentacles made a disgusting, slopping sound as he pronounced his name with pride. "I'm the robotics engineering specialist. Emphasis on engineering." He nodded at the gun in his hands. It seemed all too uncomfortable. "I'll stick close with you. Let's see if we can't find that central network."

The little Szurp was joined by a massive specimen of a Quarren. Curiously, this one had no blasters in site - and barely any clothes. Rather, the lower half of his body was cloaked in a thin, silky garment. He rested on a massive trident in his hands, his blue eyes narrowing before he spoke. "Ranger." He offered a nod, his long tentacles rippling across his tunic as he stood. "Worry not for the boy. He is far more skilled than he seems." With that, he tapped his trident to the pristine floor of the facility, sending a resounding echo across the halls. "I await your command."

Widase moved on the opposite hall as the trio, flanked by his trusty rifleman. They stepped in tandem down the hallway, their pair of flashlights illuminating the shadowy hallways they stepped through. They stepped slowly, as seconds of careful marching turned to minutes. The two were up, face-to-face with a door. A mechanical whirring sound emanated from the other side of the door: another turret? A droid warrior? Some kind of bomb? Widase was eager to learn. In the meantime, he activated his commlink to the ranger. "Krieg, are you seeing anything on your end?" He whispered into his left wrist, right hand still holding the pistol in the direction of the door. "I think we've got something here. I'm going to send you a ping of my location. Treading lightly, for now." He pressed a button on his transceiver, sending a virtual flare to Krieg's team. He stood uneasily as his rifleman unholstered a "droid popper," an EMP. They took positions alongside the door as Widase counted down, silently, on one hand: 5...4...3...2...

@Makashi Master

 

[Zekk Krieg]

Zekk quietly moved around the corner with his blaster raised and scanned the room. His eyes bounced around through several spectrums and came up with nothing. I don't like this. He moved forward with the mon cal team behind him. The large warrior with the trident was deceptively fast and quiet, moving through the darkness with an agile grace. The droids that sat silent throughout the theaters around them were spooky figures in the emergency lighting, standing silent and still in the dark. As they crawled across the room at a snails pace Zekk's blaster kepy jumping from corner to corner in smooth movements, always tracking at the tip of his roving eyes. "Krieg, are you seeing anything on your end?"

A quick single click of his commlink signaled no back to the Mon cal as they approached a door set on the opposite end of the room. According to the blueprints this would lead to a clean room on the other side, and then an assembly room. The other groups door would take them into a fabrication bay. They met at the other side when they merged into a small sleeping quarters. His fingers counted down easily before they activated the hatch and moved into a large room, filled with large machines that sat as silent and still as their counterparts behind them. Lights continued to flash red around them, and Zekk eyed the large silent droids with suspicion.

He waved his hand slightly and led the way towards the middle of the room. With every step his sense of dread continued to mount. As his feet entered the middle of the room he heard a choked cry from behind him. His spin was almost instantaneous, the blaster tracking quickly as he scanned the room for threats. It took an extra moment to register that there was only one of his team behind him. Tracking upwards quickly he saw a Mon Cal suspended in the air between three machines, one of them with his hands in its clasp, the other two holding onto a leg apiece. There was no time to do anything.

With a wrenching motion the three machines pulled apart, and the Mon Cal went with them. He screamed as the machines twisted in opposite directions, and Zekk could hear the sounds of bones snapping as the Mon Cal's body separated in two as the skin around his waist gave way. The screaming continued as the being's insides splattered on the floor below, since it would take a minute or two for the soldier to bleed out. And the Mon Cal's lungs and heart still worked for now. Zekk aimed and fired, putting a bolt right in between the soldier's eyes. If only he'd been a second faster he could have spared him the pain he had just gone through.

Zekk and the Large Quarren uneded up back to back, staring down the large machines that were starting to activate one y one throughout the room. A small chuckle escaped the large being behind him. "If we die, at least we die well. And I promise I will not let them take you alive." Zekk almost growled.

"Same here."

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Jal Widase]

Widase was spared the terrible sight of one of his men being ripped apart by machines. He knew it happened, though; the vital sign indicator for him snuffed out. This was a madhouse - full of booby traps and death for Mon Cala soldiers who deserved better. And on soil outside of Mon Cala, no less. The troops knew the risk of death before they volunteered for this mission, but it was still horrific that they die under such conditions. An unknown threat on an unknown world. Jal felt like a fool - the sooner he could get any kind of picture of the building, the pair could strategize. He signaled for his trooper to pause her action as he spoke into his commlink once more. First, he called out to another pair of soldiers exploring another room of the facility.

"Get to the Ranger's position, now."

The door to Krieg's room had slammed shut and locked - it was going to take the soldiers a minute to slice into it. Failing that, they would have to melt it or blast it open. Widase wondered if they had that kind of time.

"Hang in there, Krieg. We're onto something here. Hold your position."

Widase hoped that the brutish Quarren warrior would be a strong ally - the Quarren had an unmarred, exceptional service record. His penchant for this trident had always been an asset: He knew how to use that tool like none other than the Gods themselves. Widase's own blaster pistol felt weak in comparison, a simple and inelegant weapon. It would have to get the job done. He took his position alongside the wall again, checking the sight on his pistol before he directed his fellow once more. Droid poppers were armed, and after a brief countdown, they tossed the EMPs into the room. After their distinctive sizzling sounds indicated they had activated, the pair burst into the the room; like Zekk, they had large, ambient machines and droids covering the walls and ceilings. The EMP had shorted out whatever power supply they were drawing from - ostensibly, it was right in the room with him. They looked as if they had not yet been activated - this part of the facility seemed powered down.

Widase activated his commlink and called another pair of soldiers to his position. "Krieg, I'm going to have one of our slicers go into the memory core of the computers here. Without access to a central terminal, it will be difficult, but we should be able to pry some information. Stay on your toes"

The soldiers opened panel on the groundside arm of one of the machines. A portable computer was attached to it, its long cable coiled about the polished floors. In a moment, they would activate a power droid to the panel, restarting the room's local computer system safely in the hands of a slicer.

Until then, he knew the two warriors would fight their hardest against whatever machines would face them.

@Makashi Master