Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Ender 8]

Jaim pulled in across the square from the Revenants' position, and clicked his comm twice to signal his part was done.

[Vergere 1]

Brier stayed at the table with all the various people as she gathered intel the old fashioned way, by simply listening to what everyone saw and heard. She stayed quiet as she munched on some food as she listened in, but after a while and once the news began to repeat itself, she excused herself from the table, Brent following suit. Once a good distance away, headed towards the Planetary House to make sure things didn't get screwed up outside, she just sighed softly.

"Is everything okay?" The older Corellian hugged her shoulders as they walked.

"Meh, just thinking." They grabbed some dessert from a nearby vendor and sat on the steps to the House, chilling out like typical tourists enjoying the nice day, but also making sure things seemed normal outside and that no suspicion seemed raised.

[Drake 53]

Atuarre peered through the scope of her sniper rifle, constantly scanning the surrounding area for signs of trouble. She spotted a speeder bus, large enough to accomadate the entire squadron, drive up at slightly reckless speeds before coming to a stop almost directly under her current position. That would be Adarra, She thought to herself.

Across the street, Atuarre saw the Intelligence Captain, Brier Fae, sitting on the white marble steps leading up to the Planetary House. She was eating some kind of dessert with a stranger. Most likely some kind of intel contact but Atuarre could never be too sure. This man could always be dangerous. He could be a double-agent...or Brier could be.

Atuarre kept one eye on the pair while continuing her scan.

***

Aston absently chewed on the end of his datapad's stylus pen while he worked his way into the security systems guarding the turbolift.

"I think shutting down the cameras is a bad idea," he said at last.

Aeric turned from the door to look at the slicer. "What do you mean? We need to if we want to get up that lift."

"Nah. I mean that switching off the cameras will alert the Imps to trouble and they'll lock down the lift faster than a X-15 Highguard Firewall when it spots a virus."

"Right," Aeric said, with a confused look on his face. "Well, how do you propose to get past this road block?"

Aston was engrossed in the terminal screen, his attention randomly distracted. After several seconds, he turned back to the Captain. "Huh? Oh yeah. It's actually pretty simple. I'd just have to tap into the camera feeds, record a minute of empty hallway, then slice into the video feed, input the recording and loop it indefinately."

Aeric nodded, only slightly more convinced. "Right. Easy. Get to it."

He turned back to facing the door and removed his datapad map. He entered a quick text message and sent it to Kaden and Szen's pad.

It read, Watching your backs. Lift watched too. Give us a few and you're clear. Move on signal. Trick out.

Aeric added his callsign, instead of his name. He hadn't had the chance to come up with a false name and his callsign from past squadrons had started making itself known amongst the Revenants.

***

Takeshi normally had little problem thinking up new and colourful metaphors while insulting someone but, this time, he was beginning to run low on ideas. He spotted security moving in to, probably, attempt to calm the pair down. Perhaps they would supply Tak with more opportunities for fun.

"Luna weed!? Sure! Chewing on that is the only thing that could possibly make spending any more time with you bearable! Not that your constant nagging wouldn't drive any man insane anyway!"

A burly and bearded security guard pushed his way up to the two and tried to break them up. "Excuse me but I'm going to have to ask you both to calm down or take this outside. You are causing a public disturbance and I cannot tolerate it further."

[Mara 29]

Both Kaden and Szen pulled out their datapads again when they chirped. He glanced at her. "Uh, you better take the lead. You're better at this commando stuff than I am..."

Wanting to keep moving, they slowly walked down the hall, making to move away from the indicated lift and staring at various art pieces on the walls. Kaden wondered to himself as to why there were so many paintings this close to Indutrial Military Control, but seeing all the doors, figured they were still in office space for personnel.

[Rogue 4]

Layla looked to Tak, amusement in her eyes, then over to the security guard and did the last thing anybody around them expected. She broke out in tears, suddenly shaking as if she just couldn't take anymore stress, and the burly security guard suddenly seemed to melt, trying to get her to calm down.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi rolled his eyes. "Don't let this one fool you," he said to the security guard. "She likes to flip the switch to the waterworks whenever she wants to sucker your sympathies and get things her way. Typical woman, am I right?" He laughed a cold and heartless laugh and pointed at Layla with a hint of accusation. "You hear that? You're little sob tricks won't work on me anymore!"

***

After a couple minutes, Aston finished recording the empty corridor from the cameras in view of the turbolift. It took another half a minute to slice into the video feed and loop the recording through. From a view of the feed on a smaller window, they could see that there was no change to the image when Aston switched it over to the loop.

"Alright, boss. We're good to go. I also bypassed the passcode and unlocked the lift controls. They should have no problems getting up there."

Aeric nodded. "Okay, let's get going then."

Aston looked mildly surprised. "Let's? I should stay here and monitor this."

"We need you when we get to the information. If it's encrypted then you're the best person to solve it."

"I guess you're right," said Aston with a nod. He tapped something into his datapad then disconnected and stored his equipment. He switched off the monitor to the computer terminal, leaving his programs running. "I set up the terminal to send me updates and warnings to my datapad so hopefully there won't be any surprises."

Aeric led the way back out into the corridor. Both men quickly walked through the halls towards the turbolift. It was a minute before they turned a corner, almost running into Kaden and Szen.

"Oh, hello there," said Aeric with a smile. He motioned to the lift behind them. "Going up?"

[Rogue 4]

Layla pouted and kicked him in the shin---or rather, that's what everyone else saw. She really just skimmed the inside of it. "You're a horrible person! I'm crying over here and you're standing there all self rightous! I should have never left home with you!"

[Vergere 1]

Brier leaned back on the steps, propping herself up with her elbows. Brent leaned back too, then shifted to bring out a datapad out of a pocket and handed it over to her. "There are my cuties -- you haven't seen them in a while, so I thought you might like the update." He smiled gently, obvious love for his children in his face as he returned to keeping a watch on the people around them.

Brier smiled as she took the datapad, going from picture to picture, "They've gotten so big so fast... I'm sorry I can't visit more. Government work-"

"It's a bith, I know. Hey, no worries. It's not like any of us get to see each other much anymore. You know, with lives and all."

Brier handed the datapad back to him after a while, and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "You're a good dad. Don't let them try to convince you otherwise." She smiled and leaned against him like a sister would, and sighed as they returned to people watching.

[Drake 53]

"AH!" Tak shouted, grabbing at his shin in mock pain. "You rodder!" He started moving forward toward Layla.

The security guard put a large hand against Tak's chest, blocking his forward motion. "Sir, that's enough! Now both of you need to go outside or we will have to resort to force."

Tak looked around and spotted two more guards standing nearby.

[Rogue 4]

Layla sniffled, secretly giving Tak a look that said it might be time to start with the making up before they got in too deep. "I just don't understand!" She exclaimed, voice wavering purposefully as she spoke, looking shaken and frail. She hoped that would keep the guard's hands off of her, although if they tried to push Tak again they were going to get it. "Was...I...not...good enough...for you...? Is that...why you had to go...and cheat on me?"

[Drake 53]

"You think that...!" Tak began to yell. He stopped, forcing himself to pretend to calm down. "Look...I never cheated on you with anyone. I promise you."

[Rogue 4]

She sniffled, shrugging off the security guard that had her by the shoulders and avoiding Tak's gaze. For her character it was out of guilt, but for her it was because she knew if she saw the humor in his eyes once more she knew she was going to burst into laughter. "Not even..." Sniffles. "That blue skinned Twi'lek wench...?"

[Drake 53]

Just going to hyjack Kaden for an action. It'll be cool, though, lol/

"No," Tak said, shaking his head. "There never was any blue-skinned Twi'lek wench."

***

Aeric, Aston, Kaden and Szen rode the lift up to the Military Control level, weapons at the ready. Though Aston assured them that the top was clear, it was better to be safe than blasted away.

The doors hissed apart, revealing another corridor, this one running away from the lift. It was empty.

"Told you so," said Aston with a sigh.

"Where to now?" Aeric asked.

"Uhh." The slicer looked at his datapad. "Three doors down the hall on the left. Resource Planning."

The four Revenants walked as silently as they could down the corridor. There was no one around but they did not want to tip anybody off to their unauthroized presence. When they reached the third door on the left, Aston called them to a halt. He studied his datapad again.

In a whisper, he said, "Internal sensors read four lifeforms inside."

"Alright. Any of you good shots with a blaster?" asked Aeric.

The other three looked to one another and shook their heads.

Aeric nodded then pulled two blaster pistols from beneath his jacket. He dialed down their power settings to stun then nodded to Aston to open the door. As soon as the door slid open with an audible hiss, Aeric was through, blasters in front of him.

Two humans, dressed in Imperial researcher uniforms, were standing next to a pair of workstations directly across from the doorway. Aeric fired both blasters, dropping the researchers where they stood. Before the bodies hit the ground, Aeric was turning, searching for the other two lifeforms. He found another researcher sitting at a computer terminal, her arms raised in a show of surrender. Aeric shot her with a stun bolt, sending her flopping over onto her keyboard. The fourth was no where to be seen.

As Aston, Kaden and Szen moved into the room and spread out behind him, Aeric stepped forward into the planning room, scanning in every corner for the elusive fourth researcher. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a blur rise from behind one of the workstations. The young man was running as fast as he could toward a large red button on the wall, no doubt an alarm. Aeric suddenly realized that he would be too slow and the researcher would have already hit the alarm once he had turned and brought his weapons up to fire...

Out of nowhere, a durasteel chair intercepted the young researcher square in the chest with an impact that sent the man flying backwards. Holding the chair was the reserved and solemn-looking Kaden. He looked up from the groaning and prone form of the researcher then put down the chair.

"Nice hit," said Aeric with a grin and a nod. "Now, you two, tie these four up over there behind the workstations." Turning to Aston he said, "Get to work. I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

Moving over to the researcher, Aeric put a stun bolt in him, silencing his groans.

[Rogue 4]

"Really?" Layla sniffled again, looking up to him hopefully. She brushed past the annoyed guard to get to him. "Then I...Oh babe, I'm so sorry....I never should have..."

[Mara 29]

Thinking back as he and Szen were tieing up the men, Kaden still couldn't get over the fact that he had actually hit one with a chair. He supposed it had just been instinct, since it was more accurate than trying with his small blaster. Kaden mumbled a "sorry" to the man who had been hit with the chair as he tied his arms behind his back. Being a big brute was never something he had been good at or even liked.

After strapping sythrope around the last researcher's legs, he stood up and warily watched the door as Aston headed to the computers.

[Andy 60]

Aston set to work, or at least would have.

"What's wrong?" Aeric said looking at the puzzled look on Aston's face.

"Nevermind encrypted," Aston replied, "they don't even have a standard interface port... Not to worry though."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his spare datapad, and tore off the "antenna", which turned out to be small laser-cutter in disguise, and cut the non-standard port from the console and started wiring the cables directly into his datapad, while the others looked on in astonishment.

"Resourceful and sneaky," Aeric commented, "I like that."

Aston shrugged, and made the connections so he could break into the systems defences, "Hmm, too easy, I guess this first list is false locations... part of the security measures. I'll copy it anyways and keep looking."

"Don't take your time, though..." Aeric said nervously.

Aston dug around for a few minutes that seemed like an eternity to the other Revenants before he finally got the what he wanted. "Got it, now lets just leave a little nasty in their system for them to worry about..."

"How long?"

"Almost done..." As Aston replied his datapad let a triple-beep out. "We're going to have company... Time to call it a day, I think." He cut through the connection, and put away his tools and began to make a move towards the door. "The way we came is clear, but not for long."

Edited October 24, 2007 by Andy

[Ayingel 24]

Szen sent a quick message to the rest of the Revenants to let them know they had finished getting the information they needed.

"Then lets get going!" She tried not to sound too flustered, but she hadn't had enough time to ask if the signal jam had worked.

Edited October 24, 2007 by Ayingel

[Princess 35]

Nima pulled Nat into a small room marked 'Weapons,' it was full to the brim of various blasters and explosives. "We hit the jackpot Nat. This place is full of everything that we need." She paused and keyed her comm. "Twelve, pull up under the window of the third room in on the east wall. We've got payload to unload to you."

[Rogue 4]

"Ironic, using the Imperial's own weapons against them." Nat said, pulling up a chair and standing on it to pull down some of the higher, larger weapons in the cache. The chair shifted slightly beneath him but managed to hold his weight, and he handed down the first of the objects, a projectile launcher down to her. "Be careful with that. We would not want to set it off."

[Princess 35]

"What? You think that the fireworks would trip the Imps off or something?" Nima smirked as she climbed over to the window. "Twelve. Catch. Careful with this thing, it can make a big boom." She carefully lowered the weapon as far as she could before dropping it the last foot or so to Jaim.

[Rogue 4]

"Uh yes," Amusement flew across Nat's amber eyes. "I think that would be problematic. Might also hit the grenades and send what's left of us to space."

[Princess 35]

That caused another smirk to cross Nima's face. "Well, you know, I always did think that there would be fireworks between us."

[Rogue 4]

Nat hesitated a moment in bringing down the next weapon, waiting for the blood rushing through his cheeks to mostly dissipate before he turned to her again. "Oh?" He asked cautiously.

[Vergere 1]

After finishing dessert, and enjoying the scenery for a while, Brent took out a holorecorder, and started filming Brier.

She sighed and rubbed her temples, "Brent, are you serious? This is Ithyari, I don't think I need video of this vacation."

"Oh, come on. For prosperity's sake. Humor an old man."

She raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him. "Just because you're in your mid-30s does not qualify you as an old man. I hate to break it to you. You're not getting the senior citizen discount anywhere." However, she laughed softly despite herself as he kept making faces at her from behind the holocam.

[Drake 53]

"Agreed," said the Captain. He led the way out into the hallway. It was empty but he could hear the distant sound of boots running towards them. "Time to be fast." They ran back down the corridor, the way they had come. They boarded the turbolift. Aeric hit the descend button but the lift wouldn't budge. The doors wouldn't even close. "Uhhh. Not good."

Aston budged past the Captain and got to work on the lift controls. The boot falls were getting louder as they drew closer and the group could hear the digitized voices of Stormtroopers as they ordered curious researchers back into their rooms.

Aeric held his blaster pistols to his sides and fingered their settings to kill. "Don't fire. They'll try to take us captive, unless we fire first."

The first of the Stormtroopers rounded the corner, their E-11 blasters already at the ready. Aeric's right hand twitched as he ached to fire at the oncoming enemy. "Halt! Surrender immediately!" shouted one of the lead troopers. "Stand down, now! Hands off that control panel!"

Aston didn't stop working or even look up. The group of Stormtroopers were nearly at the turbolift when suddenly, the slicer backed away from the controls. "Got it!" he exclaimed with a grin.

Aeric smiled and waved at the approaching soldiers, blaster in hand, as the door swished closed and the lift dropped. Once at the bottom, the four Revenants were met by a half dozen blaster barrels and a Stormtrooper behind each.

"Ah, rodder..." said Aeric with a sigh.

The trooper aiming a blaster at the Captain spoke up, "Drop your weapons, scum."

Aeric was about to do so when a loud pew-kawoosh! sounded from down the hall next to the group of Stormtroopers. A couple of them managed to turn their heads before a concussive energy charge hit the ground behind them, creating a localized shockwave within the group of enemies. Stormtroopers cried out as they were flung clear of the floor. Many slammed up into the ceiling while the soldiers flanking the group were thrown into the walls.

Captain Tunon peeked around the corner, once all of the troopers were down. He spotted two figures at the far end of the corridor, both covered with weaponry and the slimmer of the two holding what looked like an old LJ-50 Concussion Rifle. As the pair approached, Aeric could make out who they were beneath all of the firepower.

"Orson? Vaar?"

Jya and Arlan stopped next to the other four Revenants. Jya brought the barrel of the concussion rifle up to her forehead in a mock salute. "Hey guys. Did we miss anything fun?"

Aeric shook his head, still disbelieving all of the weapons that were strapped to the pair. "Not much. We just stole the plans and are going to try to fight our way out of here. You think you could help us out with that?"

Jya grinned and shrugged four blaster rifles from over her shoulders. "I think we can do that, sir."

***

Takeshi smiled warmly and embraced Layla. He drew her close, placing a hand on the back of her head to stroke her hair as a comfort. "I didn't mean those things I said about you...and your sister...and your mother. Do you think we can work through this, hun?"