Private Breakout (solo/warm-up/filler thread)

[Saija Kwann]

Jumping in point: https://www.starwarsrp.net/threads/in-too-deep-darkwire.171929/

...Following an explosive attack on a Hover-train Line perpetrated by members of the Seven Corners Cell, The Tombs opened its doors as a refuge from those who would see them either imprisoned or killed in the street.

Above them in the district, CorpSec tightens the noose, strangling any Shadowrunners or their sympathizers who still roam free. Contained and boxed in, Darkwire finds itself trapped in the Tombs for the time being, sharing finite resources with no aid in sight...

The Police are on a tear through the urban metro; the recent strike by the Darkwire "Cyber-terrorists" prompted harsh retaliation
I got word over the Darkwebs that alot of the safe houses and other real estate were being raided
No time to dump the files into the shredder; begins rigging thermal detonator charges to all the hardware
My crew and I bug out just as the Corpo scum kick in the shop doors and seconds later the charges blow

Heading out the back way, but the CorpSec troopers are all over this place like crawlons
Nowhere to run; we're quickly apprehended and arrested
taken down to processing

 

[Saija Kwann]

Tosh, Bobo and Riss are taken along with me to the holding cells
We're cut off from one another by the forcefields
it will be tricky to escape with no hacker gear and weapons

Tosh is complaining as usual. Meanwhile, Bobo and Riss look on...

"I hope you have a plan."
"I always have a plan."
"Just not a very good one."
"Give me a break. We were set up. There's no way they could have hit the shop that quickly and not trip the proximity alarms."
"Well, they DID."
"Just get ready. Help's on the way. That's part of the plan, you know."

* R7 droid rolls into corridor*

"This is your plan? Why couldn't you get us a Droideka or something to shoot us outta here?"

looks across the cell bay to Riss as the force field drops

"Where did you get this guy?"
looks back at Tosh, very cross
"This isn't one of your spacer joints where you can blast your way out, kid. I know you haven't been with the gang very long, but that's not how we roll. Try using your brains instead of a blaster."

The droid projects a hologram schematic; I quickly look it over for the best escape route
after a quick interface with the nearest terminal, it opens the other cells
prisoners escape and begin to riot

Pandemonium makes for great cover as we seek out the first leg of the escape route
While Riss stands guard, I grab Tosh and pull him to the center of the hallway under the air vent
"Hold still." -- picks up Bobo, puts him on Tosh's shoulders
"Pop open that register, little buddy..."
"Utinni!"

 

[Saija Kwann]

One thing I admired about Bobo was that his fingertips were just as good if not better than any basic hand tool. His fingernails could turn rusted-in screws while he could get a grip on bolts that were long stripped. I don't know if it was just him or it was a trait all Jawas had, but right now Bobo's hands are the only set of tools we've got...for now anyway.

Looks at the Droid before following everyone else up the shaft
"Meet you at point two."
[*Beep~Boop~whistle*]

"Good boy."

As we crawl along inside the confined air shaft, Tosh has to give me more lip...
"How did you get that droid to help us!?"
hisses back annoyed -- "I told you. Brains over blasters. Now will you switch off, they're gonna hear..."

just as we manage to reach the perimeter of the cell block, the corridor below is flooded with CorpSec security and Police droids

hushed whispers, continues moving with the others -- "Whew, that was too close. Your droideka wouldn't have done us any good without disabling the stationwide IFF protocol...which is too high a level to hack into for a quick getaway. But a single maintenance droid..."
"Flies under their scanners. I gotcha, yeah..." -- Tosh uses one of his pilot analogies...he's getting it.
"Speaking of flies, Tosh.... you're not gonna like where we're headed next..."

 

[Saija Kwann]

We emerge from a steel grate in the overhead ductwork
The stench hits us all, some of us harder than others
Riss looks like she's turning green as she covers her nose and mouth
Tosh tries to not get sick from the bad air...and fails miserably

Bobo looks completely unfazed, his poker face is better than mine...

"Waste Processing? What the fark are we doing down here?"
"This will be one of the last places they will look for escapees."
"I almost wish I was back in my cell."

"Riss!" -- Tosh looks behind him; stares at a set of white knuckles and fiery eyes
she was just a nanosecond away from knocking him out and dumping him here for the Corpos to find
"We need a pilot," I remind her.

Meanwhile, Bobo has been on the lookout for our R7 droid. He hisses at us in Huttese when he catches up to us
"Bobo, take our little friend with you and get us into the loading area."
While the Jawa and the droid get to work, I tell Riss and Tosh...
"Don't just stand around, find some hardware. And keep a lookout."

 

[Saija Kwann]

Bobo and R7 get us into the next room, it's a maintenance supply area which is adjacent to our next destination. All of us go for anything we can use as a weapon; I grab a handheld plasma cutter while Riss takes the flame suppression unit off the wall. Bobo gets a torque wrench and Tosh grabs a long metal bar. He does a brief twirl move in the spacious compartment, spinning the pole expertly like a trained soldier.

Noticing my looks, Tosh says to me, "Picked up some combat training in the Imperial Army."
"I didn't ask...but I never pegged you for an Imp."
"I wasn't. The recruitment wing experimented with the juvenile delinquent "Slackers to Stormtroopers" program. It failed miserably; no one graduated. Matter of fact, most of us came out worse than when we came in."
"Why does that not surprise me..."

Our brief story time moment in the face of danger is interrupted by the sound of a hatch being opened nearby
"Fan out!" -- hisses quietly, takes cover like everyone else

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

While the rest of us took cover, R7 remained in the middle of the room
All of us crouch low behind parts containers and nearby machinery
I'm just hoping that the AI replacement brain I cooked up could improvise

[*Beep*...Beep Beep....Beep Beep Beep]

suddenly, R7 shines his light onto the deck -- right outside the still open hatch we had entered from
the puddle of Tosh's sick fits was lit up for the SecDroid -- the Police Droid looks away as if disgusted
It pauses for a moment...says back to R7 "YOU MAY PROCEED."

Nods to Tosh and Riss after fingerpointing my eyes, then tapping a spot on the side of my neck...they read my cue and come charging out

Riss goes first, spraying chemical fire-retardant foam right into its visual sensors and blinding the droid
Tosh follows up next -- the spinning metal pole strikes precisely at the head junction; located at the base of the skull there is a gyroscopic sensor array -- in other words his balance circuit; the droid wobbles on it's mechanical legs wildly
Before it can fire its blaster, Bobo strikes from below -- he knocks the gun out of the droid's hand; Tosh grabs it right away, ready to shoot...

That's when I attack from behind -- jams the plasma cutter into its power distributor

It drops to the deck; devoid of energy to its systems, the SecDroid is instantly neutralized
Riss is giggling to herself as she snatches the blaster away from Tosh. -- "Hey! I picked it up first."
"That thing is useless. Security circuit in the trigger mechanism. Only CorpSec and SecDroids can use it."

While I'm talking, I sever the droid's head from it's body and toss it over to Riss and Bobo.
"However, there's something far better than a blaster in this thing's head."
"Yeah, what's that?"
"Do I have to explain everything? An IFF transponder."

 

[Saija Kwann]

Our conversation is interrupted by a much needed discovery; Tosh finds a stash of respirators
passes around the air packs to everybody -- gratefully sucks in the filtered air
it still stinks, but it's much more tolerable

"I know what a IFF transponder is, Saija. I thought you said you couldn't hack their network."
"Well, you could with time and the right equipment, but it's much easier to get a droid to recognize you as a friendly...if you can hack a receiver and then broadcast a local carrier wave on the same frequency."
"What about visual sensors? They have our mugshots."
"Riss can get around that by reprioritizing the recognition sequence. Once it gets a level one positive ID on the IFF code, subsequent protocols should be ignored."
"Should be?!"
"Do you trust your girlfriend or not?"

Riss blows Tosh a kiss playfully as she uses R7's soldering arm to join a section of optical cable to the microchip Bobo pulled out of the SecDroid's head
Then she plugs another cable into R7's auxilary data interface, using the droid's own manipulation arm to make the modification

"Of course I do."
"Have faith in the plan. It gets better..." -- playfully smacks Tosh on the shoulder

 

[Saija Kwann]

Riss nods at me as she clips a length of optical cable leading from R7 to herself.
Bobo helps her tidy up; closes the access panel and makes sure the modded circuit rigging stays in place
Tosh and I conceal the remnants of the police droid, now just a pile of junk parts

"Bobo, on me." -- I mean that literally as I stoop down to let the Jawa climb up on my shoulders
He underhooks my head tails, holding on for dear life .... "Ow! Not so hard..."

"Form up around R7...link hands together and don't let go. Stay as close as you can and be as quiet as you can."
We move in unison now, slowly keeping pace with the droid while maintaining our circle.
The hatch to the next chamber opens; even with the respirators, the intensity of the stink in here is worse

An assortment of droids place, fill, transport, load and secure large canisters onto a flatbed loader
None of them react or pay attention as we make our way across the large bay
Suddenly a blast door opens; it's a pair of SecDroids -- they're continuing their search
"Don't stop..." I hiss at everyone with an urgent whisper

I can feel Bobo's grip tighten around my head tails
Tosh takes in one last gulp of air and holds his breath
Riss squeezes Tosh's hand harder, it could be their last moment together
At least they have each other...I might die with a Jawa stuck to my head

After what feels like an eternity of sneaking in open sight, the silence is broken by the sound of a comlink
"Report. Have you found them?"
The droids sweep the chamber again, this time activiating lamps to illuminate the dimly lit surroundings.
...
...
...
"NEGATIVE CONTACT."
"Proceed to next level."
The Police Droids turn back, marching out the way they came in
When they are out of earshot, Tosh's air pack hisses with relief -- "Holy farking chit. It actually worked."
He looks incredulously at Riss, who looks so smug right now
"Don't get too cocky. We still have to blast off outta here."

 

[Saija Kwann]

We continue walking our path, hands locked together around R7's dome, currently sprouting a transmitter to mask our presence from the SecDroids, which are growing in number. Doubtless they've learned one of their units lost contact with Control and sent others to investigate.

Another police bot wanders across our path but doesn't even notice we're there and keeps patrolling. The cloak is still working, so far so good...
Jinx! -- We come across an obstacle; a doorway that can only be walked through single file.

"Everyone hold."
--pauses for a moment, thinks carefully--
"Bobo, you're going to have to manually retune the IFF cloak, linear configuration..."
He's already scrambling to reposition himself, dangling his legs over my shoulders while hanging from my neck upside down, like a bad cantina act
"OW! The head tails! Those are not saftey ropes!"

"You seem so sensitive, Saija." Tosh seizes the opportunity, giggling at my expense.
"You're not going to be laughing when I kick you in the pogees."
Looks over at Riss -- "I apologize in advance. I promise I won't hit his mouth."
"Ah, switch off!" -- Now it's Tosh on the receiving end as the girls giggle back

Bobo gives us the go-ahead, and I let him piggyback again
"On my mark, I'm going to peel off to the back while R7 moves forward. Don't break the chain."
"Ready....Go, R7, easy..."

The astromech droid scoots forward steadliy; Riss is first since she's hooked into R7's circuit board
Tosh is in the middle, I'm last in line with a Jawa on my back
"Bobo, are you putting on weight?"
He answers back by pulling on my head tails while cursing at me in Huttese -- "E'chu ta!"
Tosh laughs at someone else's expense before asking "Okay, we're through, now what?"

A nearby blast door opens; there's a pair of droids but they are accompanied by a human officer.
"We found the remains of a police droid, re-sweeping loading area..."
The fact that he had been staring down at his wrist and at his commlink meant he hadn't seen us yet.
With hushed whispering at everyone -- "Faster, keep moving!"

Spotted!! He shouts into his commlink, then at the motionless SecDroids next to him.
"They're here!....Don't just stand there! Shoot them!"
With the cloak still active, the SecDroids can't see a thing
"ERROR. NEGATIVE TARGETS SIGHTED."
The officer thinks on his feet -- "Switch scanners to infrared!"
From my vantage point, I can see the droids' optics change spectrum, making their eyes glow red.
"Run!!" -- Now the droids can see us and begin shooting as we dash for cover...

 

[Saija Kwann]

CorpSec security found us alot sooner than expected
We don't have much time, but we've got to make the time
huddles behind a large packing crate with Bobo
"Take this." -- hands him my plasma cutter, trades Bobo for his torque wrench
"You know what to get. I'm counting on you, buddy."

Looks at Tosh and Riss -- "You guys ever play "The planet is Mustafar?"
"What are you talking about?" Then it slowly dawns on Tosh... "No! No no no!"
"You two draw their fire. Then run for the end of the bay."
"For how long? When?"
"Trust me, you'll know."

Tosh and Riss split up while I take R7 with me to a nearby access junction along the bulkhead
"Jack in...override saftey protocols and commence immediate evacuation of containers three though fifteen. After that meet up with Bobo and get to the nearest ship."
[[Beep-whistle-Beepy-Boop-Boop]]

My distraction is pinned down now...Charges out into the open -- Hey! Over here!" -- hurls the torque wrench at the human officer
he easily sidesteps the flying tool, but now I've got his full attention
"Blast her!" -- the droids turn their weapons on me, along with the CorpSec trooper
I'm already in retreat as alert lamps flash and alarm klaxons begin to blare

that's the cue; Tosh and Riss run for it as well...

 

[Saija Kwann]

The SecTrooper and the guard droids are distracted, momentarily confused by the alarm
A second later, the flatbed hover-haulers come to a stop and the tanks begin blowing their emergency seals
In a flash flood, the loading area is awash in a tsunami of pure toxic sewage
The wave of poo-doo and other muck crashes into the droids and the trooper, slamming them into the bulkhead

Meanwhile, the rest of us try to stay ahead of the river of sludge bearing down on us
On the other side, Bobo is waiting with our droid -- the Jawa waves frantically and yells at us to hurry
As the three of us sprint to saftey, I shout out to R7
"Seal off the launch bay!!"

The large rectangular blast door begins to iris shut slowly
Tosh and Riss clamber through the closing doorway
Then I jump forward into a dive through the center of the door -- barely makes it just as the sections connect and the seals hiss shut
Just a moment later, the impact of the giant poo-doo flood slams against the barrier
"Bobo, did you get everything?"
He nods back as he drags a pile of parts and other hardware along the deck
"Keep moving, everybody. It's not going to take them long to figure out our next move."

We stow away aboard one of the large tanker ships --plugs R7 into the primitive droid brain controlling this poo-doo bucket
"R7, get us out of here!" -- The astromech droid overrides the loading routine and closes all hatches
Fires up the thrusters, takes the cargo ship out of the underground bay
As soon as we're clear of the atmosphere, we punch the hyperdrive
making the final escape with a barge full of poo-doo

 

[Saija Kwann]

We're not quite out of the woods yet -- there's the little matter of not having a life support system
this was an automated droid vessel, so there's no air except what was in the compartments
Everything hinged on the next few hacks and mods; looks over the junk pile next to Bobo
"Great job." -- rubs his head happily -- He's the best.

looks over the parts and stuff -- we've got a couple of CO2 scrubbers, a few meters of coiled copper tubing, a spot heater, an electro-solder, a couple of oil filters, along with some cables and connectors we'll need to make everything for the trip to our destination.

"Where are we going now? What are we going to do with a ship full of poo-doo?"
growls in a very low voice, also to conserve what little air we have
"Tosh, now is not the time. We don't have alot of oxygen and you're wasting it. We've got work to do."
He backs off because our survival is at stake here and I'm also not in the mood for his whiny attitude

It's a simple matter to get the CO2 scrubber working; the plasma cutter I had given to Bobo ensured a neat removal that could be hotwired later.

Now we need to get water; with the copper tubing and heater, along with the filters and a makeshift container we manage to find a way to distill some water from the sewage in the cargo tanks. With a couple of mods by R7 and Bobo, the electro-solder is repurposed to electrolyze the water, creating a source of oxygen. The split-off hydrogen gases can be combined with the CO2 from the second scrubber, which will create water and methane, the former we can drink to avoid dehydration, the latter we can vent away.

Once all the mods are made, we cram into the single area compartment (we can't make THAT much air)
"R7 has the hyperspace map. I have some friends on Smarteel."
"I know we need to lay low, Saija, but you're literally talking about the hind end of space."
"And we've got a tanker ship full of poo-doo. How appropriate."
The joke doesn't meet well with Tosh, he gets upset and whiney again
"I can't believe this! We've lost everything in the shop, including my starship! Now we've got nothing!"

lets Tosh throw his little hissy fit -- "Are you finished?"

"You're not the only one who's lost....Don't forget that was your ship, but it was parked in MY shop, which was hundreds of times worth your janky-little star skipper! Bobo and Riss too, we've all taken a huge hit. And now we've got a tanker vessel full of poo-doo."

"Which you have made abundantly clear. Where are we going with this?"
"Where you see 4 billion isotons of waste, I see an opportunity to make back some credits."
"What do you mean? This ship and everything on it is nothing but chit!"

Looks at Riss -- "Where did you get this guy?" -- she shrugs while cozying up next to her boyfriend
She elbows Tosh in the ribs...

"Oh, not you, honey."

"You done?" Sighs loudly -- tries to make this simple
"Okay...on an ecumenop....On a HUGE city planet with no farmland, where does all the food come from?"
"Offworld. They import everything."

"Right. From an Agro-world...a HUGE farm planet, which makes food for industrial and urbanized planets like Coruscant and Denon. When you take 50 trillion isotons of fruits and vegetables off world, you're removing water and bio-materials. If you continue this process without replenishing what you took, eventually the planet's ecology will begin to break down, the soil will be depleted of nutrients and nothing will grow."

Tosh looks like he gets it now. "And that's where the poo-doo comes in."

"This load was bound for a processing center, to break down the waste into it's constituent elements; water, nitrogen, etc. which is exported back out after the poo-doo is filtered, distilled and chemically separated. It just a matter of finding a buyer for black market fertilizer."

"Which you've already lined up. This was all part of your plan, wasn't it?"

giggles -- "You can say it's a crappy one. But we're free and we've got a source of credits. Not the most pleasant way to escape, but now we can lay low in Wild Space until we can re-connect with Darkwire."

 

[Saija Kwann]

The trip to Smarteel took a little over 72 hours because of the second-rate hyperdrive and the distance out here in Wild Space, far from civilization. It was like being locked in a sauna with the putrid stench of raw waste permeating the heavy, humid air. If we were in here for too much longer, the respirators and CO2 scrubbers would fail, and we'd suffocate in carbon dioxide and poo-doo.

greedily sucks away at the small still we built -- The water is unpleasantly warm but it's pure. And we need to replenish all the moisture we're losing in sweat. Bobo is the heartiest of all of us, but even he's beginning to show some signs of fatigue. I let him curl up in my lap as he drifts off to sleep

Meanwhile, Tosh is keeping an eye on R7 while also disabling the ship's transponder beacon. The Corpos, believe it or not, do have an outpost this deep in Wild Space; a mining operation in Cad City out a ways from the frontier and other settlements. It was a miniature fortress...And something we needed to avoid.

"Once we drop into realspace, Tosh, it's up to you to bring us..." -- points at a holographic map I programmed into R7's emitter array --

"...into geosynchronous orbit over these co-ordinates on the far side of the planet away from CorpSec surveillance. A Jawa salvage transport will scrap this vessel, so we abandon ship. They'll bring us down to the surface at their encampment here."

points to another part of the map -- "Our contacts will rendezvous with us there, then give us a ride back to Smarteel City."

"And civilization." Tosh nods, eager to get off this poo-doo barge like everyone else here

"If it could be called that. Smarteel can be a rough place."

 

[Saija Kwann]

The Jawa ship is in orbit as we arrive, right on time. There's also no sign of Corpo activity, but they knew better than to get between the Twisted Sand crime syndicate and a salvage op. As the Jawa scrappers board the Corpo tanker ship, we're spirited away to their main vessel, then shoved into an escape pod, which they would later salvage. They weren't much for small talk, save with Bobo, whom they lavished with praise as well as a pretty hefty reward for such a massive find. He demanded we keep R7 as he was now a part of the crew...and it was my AI in R7's droid brain.

Once we arrive at the Jawa encampment, we're greeted by the local chief whom they called The Foreman
They offer food and water, which we gratefully accept -- we're warned not to stay up too late
the desert predators come out at night, but for now, it's great to feel a planet under my feet again
with fresh air and open skies, a refreshing change from the city life

Tosh looks like he hates it; I understand, I've been there myself
I've even gotten used to the smell of Orbak patties
and all of the tribal stuff with Kronn K'taris and the desert people
"I never thought I'd say it, I actually kinda like it here"

The sound of Tosh's voice breaks me from my reverie -- "You do?"
Ah, fark -- I was thinking out loud, it's a terrible habit

"Yes, I do. It's good to get away from the great urban sprawl. And all the electronic, hypersonic felgercarb that goes with it."
"Well I think it sucks. They don't even have a wi-fi connection here."
"No, but you do have Riss to keep you company. And I decided not to kick you in the pogees, kid. You did good."
"Well, gee, thanks for not blasting my asteroids for the sake of my girlfriend."

Speaking of...Riss arrives just in time to interrupt our latest little argument
she tugs urgently at Tosh's arm, obviously wanting him all to herself
"Just a second, honey, Saija and I are in the middle of..."
"Go with her. I'll be here tomorrow morning."

Tosh and Riss step away to be alone
curling up on a rug next to a little cloth shelter
the Smarteel desert sky is clear as can be with no light pollution from buildings and urban infrastructure
just the setting desert sun and the stars coming into view

but then there is another sight -- There is a small flash at first, then it spreads out across the evening sky
like a growing cloud of falling stardust, twinkling beautifully in the air
the view is seemingly magical, especially to those of us whose usual life was spent living on a city world
rarely do I feel wonder and amazement, because even I haven't seen such a pretty sight in ages

As I chill with Bobo and R7, the other Jawas come out and celebrate
the cargo of poo-doo currently burning up in the atmosphere was not only a spectacle to behold
it was also a great boon for all the desert tribes, who depended on the land
which was now being replenished, and the cycle of life continues

EPILOGUE

The two lovers look up at the night sky, watching twinkling stars dancing all above them
it really is a pretty romantic sight, if you ignore the fact that it's a giant cloud of poo-doo

Tosh isn't thinking about his losses anymore
"Wow, Riss...this really is pretty amazing."
She puts her index finger on his mouth and takes Tosh in her arms-- "I love you."

(Special Credit to Zor for inspiring this writing adventure with "The Emperor's Poopships")

 

[Saija Kwann]

Next part coming soon!

For now, links to background stuff and things mentioned, mainly the planet Smarteel, just some fragmented stuff in my head world

Public - Welcome to Smarteel!

I made this thread to kick things off after RP discussion here: https://www.starwarsrp.net/threads/wild-west-themed-sw-adventures.149925 you can reply OOC there for comments, questions, chatter, etc. No real hardcore plot, this is just an introductory type thread to build the setting and...

www.starwarsrp.net

Public - Back at 'The House' -- Post-mission follow up

Previously on SWRP Chaos... https://www.starwarsrp.net/threads/the-frontier-war-no-mandalorians-sky-mandalorian-enclave-dominion-of-lyran-iv.157389/post-2101657 My posts: Post here before entering thread! OOC chatter/discussion/ideas/whatever: Linky

www.starwarsrp.net

 

[Saija Kwann]

Next part here: https://www.starwarsrp.net/threads/laying-low-in-the-desert-solo-head-stuff-writing.173945/