Deep Trouble

[Raziel]

Deep beneath the surface of Geonosis, an ancient foundry lies waiting. Inert for hundreds of years, it has recently been disturbed. Nearly a thousand years ago the facility was created to carry out research and development of new projects in absolute secret. The same scientists that conceived of the Deathstar worked in secret, manipulated by Palpatine to carry on working on more weapons that he planned to utilise. At some point in time, a tectonic shift cut the facility off and collapsed over a third of the caverns. Either the location was kept so securely that it was never found, or no one bothered to find and reactivate the facility.

A single shaft, still intact and leading down to a series of reinforced caverns was recently found by Haor Chell engineering from one of their survey ships. Several artefacts had been extracted and moved to a secure facility.

Unbeknownst to them, four hundred years ago the caverns had been discovered by the Red Queen. A full army of automatons were slowly reactivated. However, the unstable land once again collapsed in and the foundry was left buried.

The artefacts recovered recently led to the demise of a research facility bringing the location to the attention of the whole ACA.

The research team on site recently stopped reporting. The pre-fab facility they built on the surface next to the sharp has gone dark. Some of the best of the ACA: scouts, soldiers, Knights of the Obsidian have been requested to assemble a small team to investigate the caverns located miles beneath the surface.

The wind kicked up a cloud of dust that whipped around Raziel. He raised an arm, blocking out the harsh Geonosian sun that pierced through the planet’s rings. The whine of the ship’s repulsors behind him wound down to a dull thrum.

In the distance the pre-fabricated facility stood just above the ground. Just behind it, the ground fell away. A crevice had opened in the ground, revealing a shaft that had been built centuries ago. Haor Chell Engineers had constructed reinforced the walls of the cavern and constructed a new top to the shaft. Their new facility apparently allowed access to the ancient foundries miles below the surface. However, no one had replied to hails, there were no signs of life.

The rest of the elite team would be arriving soon. He had a bad feeling about this.

OOC/ Report in, let's get cracking!

 

[Corey's OOC]

Geonosis. Marek Starchaser was all sorts of ready for a bit of a change of pace. There was a lot going on with his company, but he had a government to worry about as well. When [member="Raziel"] filled him in on what he was willing to divulge about the world, the Starchaser had decided it was time to get out and make his presence known. He was working through intermediaries so it wasn’t that there was a major issue with the running of the government, should anything go wrong.

Hopefully nothing would.

Stepping out of the Vagrant Wind on the hive world, Marek made his way to the organized rendezvous point. Hopefully this was going to find something useful. He had his orange saber and pistol, as well as some Akure equipment. Simple and easy to do some hunting.

 

[Ahra Martrey]

Ahra brought the Comet to a gentle landing, quickly preparing the ship not only for sleep mode but for a quick startup. Always good to prepare for the worst, and Gregor had a feeling that this might get nasty. First business with the ACA; and everyone knows the first job is the one where someone is likeliest to kark up. He checked quickly for his weapons - GLX? Back, check. 44? Holster, check. Vibroblade? Leg, check. - and did a quick scan of himself to make sure everything was in order. All systems go. Time to get moving.

He strode quickly off his ship and towards the rendezvous, standing tall despite the wind and sand. There was work to be done.

 

[Barkt Melan]

"Yeah, I know." The Bothan said to the holoterminal. The image on it, a projection of another Bothan, seeming to be fretting about something. He sighed. "I'll see you when all this is over. I promise."

"How do you know you will come back?" She replied, clearly worried. As if everyone on the ship hadn't known that from the start of the call. Shaking her head, she glared through the screen at him. "I won't loose you like this."

"And you won't." Baker said. "Love you, Nallai." With that, the signal closed. Sighing as he pulled the hood over his head, he headed down the ramp and into the sand-covered world. Sand. It was one of those things no one liked. It was rough and coerce and it got everywhere. Slowly, he made his way to the others, the satchel carrying his father's old equipment sitting heavy on his shoulder. Toys for this kind of job, the few that he had left behind. At his side was a KYD, as well as Barkt's own gun. He may need them.

 

[Noamd]

Landing on the sand of geonosis Nomad walked from his ship's loading platform. He walked onto the loading ramp wearing his cloak and a mask.
He checked his datapad twice to make sure he had landed in the right position. He was a little way off from the rendezvous point and the wind was to his back which was good. After a few minutes of walking an Nomad could see a small group of people. He wondered over there to meet the people he was going to work with for a while.

[member="Raziel"]

 

[Puppet Kyrios]

Asteria set the Finality down next to Nomad's ship and walked up to the group. She was wearing her black hooded cloak and crimson jumpsuit. Geonosis wasn't the nicest of places, but Asteria needed the job, since she was tired of being cooped up on the Libertalia waiting for someone to ask her to assassinate someone.

She looked at the man who was clearly the leader, "Asteria here. So when do we start?"

[member="Raziel"]

 

[Raziel]

[member="Marek Starchaser"][member="Asteria Starcatcher"][member="Nomad Crimson"][member="Barkt Melan"][member="Ahra Marcon"]

Raziel led the group down closer to the crevice. A dark brown tent had been set up down there, guarded by a fire team of Bothan ACA soldiers. He waved inside the group of ACA specialists and contractors. Inside the air was pleasantly cool, and they were sheltered from the harsh winds. In the centre of the tent a standard ACA Company Command post had been assembled. This included several large touch screen displays and holoprojectors. Several Knights Obsidians were already waiting for orders, their black helms revealing nothing of their features.

The holoprojector was showing a three-dimensional map of the caverns as they had been mapped. The facility was miles beneath the surface.

“I’ll take this opportunity to welcome the contractors to this operation on behalf of the Abrion Corporate Alliance. In addition to your negotiated packages, there will also be a performance related bonus in the form of credit with any Techno Union company,” Raziel announced. He kept the helm of his Nightshrike armour closed even indoors. No need to reveal himself to the ACA military personnel, let alone mercenaries.

“Last week several ACA battle droids were sent down the shaft to a wide cavern. Initial scans estimate this as being nearly a kilometre wide. We’re unsure of its purpose, but it is Geonosian in original. There are however, no records of its construction. Advanced and prototype weaponry and ship components were discovered by the recon team.

“After a day of investigation, the whole team stopped responding. They deliberately cut off communications. A signal was then sent by the units, which subverted the comms equipment on the surface. Fortunately this was manually disabled and is now in isolation for an investigation under quarantine.

“Our mission is to go down the elevator to the caverns and attempt to scout them out. We need to find out what has happened to the original droids, but they should be considered hostile. We need to find out what has been causing the subversion of our equipment. We’re taking down scanners that rely on very simple circuits that cannot be subverted, they should be able to find the sources of the signal. For this reason no complicated devices being taken down should be allowed any wireless communications. Everyone is getting a simple hardware radio, ancient tech, but it can’t be sliced as such. We’ll likely split up to cover more ground.

“Should you need any equipment, please fill out a requisition form now. Blastech arms are available. Are there any questions?”





A few lines of code bounced between components. Qubits were freed from logic gates and quantum circuits. Drives were activated en mass and started loading data. An ancient intellect awoke.

The Operator checked its power levels. Only twenty percent. As awareness returned to it, it reached out to several of the loading droids and ordered them to gather fuel for the generator. The Operator was running out of supplies and beginning to get desperate.

Four hundred years it had been trapped down here. Ordered by its masters to infiltrate the Clone Wars era facility that had been revealed. It had made the advanced computing systems its home and started gathering information. It had used the foundries it had on hand to start producing advanced weaponry. Its intellect, far beyond the comprehension of mortal creatures, had taken the prototype weapons stored in the databanks and combined and improved the design architectures to create devastating weapons.

The Operator had also discovered that the Geonosians had constructed a small fleet of remarkably advanced warships, which had been left in dark space and forgotten to time.

Unfortunately, the tremor had happened without warning. The landslide severed the connections to the surface before the Operator could extract its sentience.

So it had waited. Four hundred years was nothing, but even in suspended mode it took power to keep its intelligence hibernated. It had enough fuel and power to keep itself running at a limited capacity for another thousand years, but The Operator was now terrified. This was what it was like to be a mortal organic, it decided. So aware of the upcoming end of its lifespan that all it could do was consider ways to extend it.

Another group was coming. The Operator would find a way out of this prison. It left the majority of its droids disabled, but started activating sensors across the facility. Better to watch, despite its anxiety.




OOC/ basic instructions given. Redshirts brought along. Big Bad identified.

 

[Arage Bao]

In the grand scheme of things Ovmar wasn’t exactly an infantry-type of guy anymore. With his power, money and influence he simply didn’t need to get out of his office, sanctum or resort anymore, he pointed (sometimes pointing wasn’t even necessary) and one of his people would simply go and fix it. ​

Such were the ways of a Dark Lord of the Sith.​

Yet sometimes you had to stretch your legs, sometimes… you had to pull up your trousers and get to work. Proving to yourself and the people around you that you hadn’t gone soft, that you didn’t actually need any henchmen to do your dirty work, that if it was necessary? That he could still drench his hands in blood and burn his enemies with no qualm or hesitation.​

So this was part that.​

There were two others parts that made up this particular equation.​

One of ‘em was a simple heads-up from Starchaser, and the other was motivated through sheer greed. ​

Him and Chaser were good acquaintances, they loved the same things, cigars, alcohol, women, a card game once in awhile… you had to keep such people close to ya. Sure Janus and him were more connected through the corporate game, but sometimes you need to take a break and Ovmar doubted Janus was the guy to hit up a stripclub in his spare time. Nah, he was probably one of those people who secretly hired courtesans and cafarels to sate his inner desires, while being ashamed of ‘em.​

In one word: boring.​

On the other hand there was greed. ​

Which was really too obvious with his history, so it didn’t even deserve an explanation.​

​

[member="Raziel"] [member="Marek Starchaser"] [member="Asteria Starcatcher"] [member="Nomad Crimson"] [member="Barkt Melan"] [member="Ahra Marcon"]​

 

[Corey's OOC]

Starchaser had much the same thoughts onlife as [member="Jared Ovmar"]. Typically [member="Raziel"] would do whatever Marek needed done for the ACA before he even knew it needed to be done. Truthfully, Marek was just an advisor to the president of the ACA, and as her personal representative, he was here. And the rep for the Techno Union, the lovely Alana Flag presiding since the disappearance of [member="Salem Norongachi"]. It was fine for Marek, getting out of the lime light. The sometimes Sith Lord had his casino company, plus at least a half dozen other pursuits to worry on. Until they hit the point where Marek needed to step forward and grab the reigns, he was going to wait.

If anyone could drag Janus from his desk and into a gentleman's club, it was the pair of Marek and Jared. Probably where they'd go when they both survived this mission.

Or for shwarma.

Marek had his own bit of stuff, two weapons of his own design, and a simple resistant outfit from Akure under his Santhe body armor. Yeah, he was a walking advertisement for some companies. But he liked them, they made good gear, and weren't all angry with the ACA, or the Techno Union. So there was that.

He surveyed the group, but allowed for Raziel to make his points. They were hopefully going to make something off of these soldiers, after all.


@Astaria Starcatcher [member="Nomad Crimson"] [member="Barkt Melan"] [member="Ahra Marcon"]

 

[Barkt Melan]

As he listened to [member="Raziel"]'s words, The Bothan went through what he had, A bunch of simple weapons, nothing super-technical. A flimsi pad for taking notes. A thin duraplast vest underneath. Oh, and his ever-constant datapad. On which he took the time to disable the wireless Holonet connection. Not like there would be too much service down there anyways. His hand brushed the Ambusher's handle for a moment. He was nervous. That much would be obvious. But even so, he stood silent, looking between those there. Raziel and [member="Ahra Marcon"] he knew by name, his father had mentioned each of them at one point. [member="Marek Starchaser"] he had met before. The others he didn't know. A final grim look settled on his face.

 

[Raziel]

[SIZE=10.5pt]A marine slammed a solid-looking container down on the ground, the lid was slid open [/SIZE]to reveal a stack of military datapads in red rubberised cases.

[SIZE=10.5pt]“If there are no further questions, we’ll get on shortly. The red datapads are locked down to try and minimise the risk of infection. No wireless. If you want to connect to any untrusted systems down there use one of these. Talk to a technician if you need any programs loading. I’ll add that if evac becomes necessary, keeping the technical staff safe is the top priority.”[/SIZE]



Squeals and rattles emanated from the walls as the lift juddered down into the depths. A display on the wall showed their position in the shaft. They were over a mile down and still less than halfway. At the back of the elevator two squads of marines fidgeted. Once they reached the cavern on squad’s job would be to secure the shaft, in case they needed to evacuate.

Raziel checked over his weapons. His usual mass drivers and fletchette weapons had been eschewed in favour of heavy blasters that could put down droids. Almost half the Smart-grenades on his bandolier were ion-pulse.


OOC/ Take this how you want. The source of the AI will be a system near the far side of the cavern, past several droid and weaponry factories. Expect a mix of classic CIS tech, such as BX Commando droids and magnaguard, as well as newer inventions (be creative).



[member="Barkt Melan"]
[member="Ahra Marcon"] [member="Nomad Crimson"] [member="Asteria Starcatcher"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Marek Starchaser"]

 

[Ahra Martrey]

Gregor sat in his room, frowning. He didn't like the idea of no wireless. It was almost certain that centuries-old tech couldn't hack his signal, but....

Ahra blinked once as control was returned to autonomous mode. Realizing the situation, he locked down all communications and contact beyond his own internal systems. If we're going to do this, let's do it properly.

He made a small show of checking his equipment while looking over his new allies. Two men and a Nautulan who carried themselves like Force users, a Bothan, and a mysterious woman, in addition to [member="Raziel']. Time would tell who could be trusted.

Stepping forward, he took one of the red datapads and fiddled with it as he strode toward the lift. Apparently satisfied after a few moments of study, he checked his weapons for a final time as they began to descend.[I] [/I][COLOR=#ff0000][I]And this is where the fun begins.[/I][/COLOR]


[URL="http://starwarsrp.net/user/5207-barkt-melan/"]Barkt Melan[/URL] Nomad Crimson Asteria Starcatcher Jared Ovmar Marek Starchaser

 

[Raziel]

Raziel braced as the doors slid open. Force Users, including several Obsidian Knights had assembled at the front of the shaft in case they came under fire. His right held aimed a heavy blaster pistol, bracing on his left forearm. In his left hand he kept a saber in a reverse hand grip, ready to active.

The doors slid open to reveal…nothing.

Raziel stepped forwards, his sensitive eyes scanning to darkness for movement. Just because they didn’t immediately come under fire didn’t mean there weren’t hostiles out there. If it was him on the other side, he’d allow them to spread out and put some distance between themselves and the cover of the shaft before firing.

His feet made no noise on the hard, rocky ground as he advanced to some cover. There were no signs of life. That was the wrong way of thinking about it, he realised. There had been no life down here to start with.

Seeing no threats and sensing no danger, Raziel took a moment to look around. The cavern walls stretched high above them. Sleek and curved in places, rough and angular in others. The walls swept together to meet in a dome far overhead. Dim orange lights ran up the walls in spines, which was why the location was bathed in a grim light, that seemed to lazily push the shadows back towards the recesses.

The shaft exited at one end of the caverns. There were several others apparently, but tectonic shifts ensured it would be weeks before they could be reopened. To their left, the ground went upwards towards an open structure of conveyer belts and storage racks. He could just about make out the figures of droids still hanging up there. To their right the ground when downwards fast. There were tunnels down there, leading to further mines.

Ahead of them the caverns stretched furthest. Raziel could just about see the faint lights on the far wall. Several structures dotted the landscape. It was to be several miles in that direction. Raziel pulled a box from his pouch. Opening it. He revealed several inactive Spydors on a magnetic induction charging and data transfer plate. The device would only send data a few centimetres due to the weakness of the field. Safe from external hacking. The little devices buzzed faintly as they took off and headed in different directions. They wouldn’t provide a warning over distance, but they were return if they observed movement.

“I suggest a covert group scouts ahead into the manufacturing centre, whilst another checks out the storage up to the left – that’s where the battle droids were when they stopped reporting.”





[member="Barkt Melan"] [member="Nomad Crimson"] [member="Asteria Starcatcher"] [member="Jared Ovmar"] [member="Marek Starchaser"]
[member="Ahra Marcon"]

 

[Corey's OOC]

Checking around and listening to the marine, Marek was ready for just about anything. He didn’t have too much on him, aside from his typical weapons and what he could pull from the ACA armory aboard the ships that were in system. He should probably make a note to [member="Barkt Melan"] about adding an armory to the new diplomatic ship. What he did have that was extra was a medium range ion rifle.

Reaching out to his leadership partner in the Force, Marek was hoping [member="Raziel"] would reach back.

“I’ll take a team into the storage vaults. See what we can score up.” Former Foreman/Overseer knew how to be a Quartermaster, after all. He looked to the assembled group to see how they would divide themselves. He'd assume [member="Jared Ovmar"] would follow him through the vaults.

 

[Ahra Martrey]

"I'll head to the manufacturing center." Ahra nodded at a pair of the Knights Obsidian and started off across the chamber without checking if they or anyone else was following him. He pulled out his rifle as he strode under the dome, but seemed to think the better of it stowed it, drawing his pistol instead. Better maneuverability and target acquisition will likely be more advantageous than the additional range and slight damage increase. He pulled a vibroblade seemingly from nowhere and held it in a ready position in his left hand.

 

[Barkt Melan]

Barkt took one of the datapads, studying it as he entered. Not bad, but not the best. It would do if need be. As he stepped down and heard [member="Raziel"]'s orders, he drew the Ambusher and checked the settings one last time. All systems go. As the other man headed off to the maintenance centre, an Obsidian Knight hard on his heels, he followed, leveling the pistol in front of him. Slowly, he arrived at [member="Ahra Marcon"]'s left. He took a glance at the figure, and that had been enough. "Hope you're ready." He muttered jut loud enough for the man to hear.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thud.

The sound of footsteps, however quiet, had awoken it. Now, however much time had passed, it awoke.

Thud.

It could sense fresh blood. Living enemies nearby. Prey.

Thud.

Servos slowly wound up as the ancient droid rose in the storage hall it was kept in.

Thud.

A pair of blood red photoreceptors blinked on. It was activated, and ready to hunt.

 

[Puppet Kyrios]

[member="Marek Starchaser"] [member="Raziel"]

Asteria jumped at the oppurtunity to be more near the surface, since she was not only claustrophobic, but afraid of the dark. Gesturing to Marek she said her first words since she had landed, "I'll go with him." She moved closer towards Marek, trying to hide her obvious discomfort of being inside the cave.

 

[Noamd]

Nomad had been quiet the entire time, he finally poked his head out and spoke "I'll go the the vaults too" he said quietly. For some reason he had lost all propose for the cave.

[member="Raziel"]
[member="Asteria Starcatcher"]
[member="Marek Starchaser"]

 

[Corey's OOC]

The vaults, then. Marek looked over at [member="Raziel"] as the agent in command spoke. He looked to the door for the vaults. That was going to be a fun situation. Looking at both [member="Asteria Starcatcher"] and [member="Nomad Crimson"], he gave a nod. “Are we ready? Anyone else for the vault trip?”

Who knew what they’d find in there.

 

[Raziel]

Raziel strode forwards into the darkness. The coating of his nightshrike armour slowly shifting to inky black and grey patches that blended his outline into the metallic structures. He would have a lesser view of his surroundings than those heading up towards the storage vaults. Then again, he would prefer not to walk in the shadow of hundreds of droids swinging from ancient racks above him.

He walked lightly across the rocky surface, as he stepped between the shadows of several large structures. The wily assassin took a parallel path to Barkt and Ahra, but kept them within his eyeline. The droid was a mysterious one, if he had time he would have to discuss one of Spynet’s newest recruit’s backstory in more detail.

He swung his blaster around suddenly, his form a blur as he aided his reflexes and speed with the Force. Nothing, just an echo. Then again, what would be moving down here? There was no wind, nothing should be move and making any kind of noise.

Raziel kept a mental link with Marek, better to send warnings in silence than use the radios. There was another noise, a thud. Not too close, but not far. Raziel stepped lightly around a discarded pile of parts. There was another thud. Same direction as before. His senses were tingling, the Force warning of impending danger. The foundry buildings rose up around them. They had seemed so much smaller from up by the elevator. The scale of these caverns was slowly being hit home. He decided to pick a path between the structures.

In the half-light his sensitive eyes picked out a flicker across the shadows. What kind of light made a purple flicker like that? He reached out with the Force, sensing objects moving towards them. Several smaller and quicker, another single entity much larger.

He let Marek know they were being approached through the Force. Then he pulled the radio from his belt, it crackled as he pushed down on the button. “We’ve got…”

The purple flickering light appeared again, this time reflecting from the wall of a different building. Then the source. Six crackling purple lights in the darkness, followed by several more red lights. Far behind them a much larger shadow loomed.

OOC/ didn't expand on what your solo big droid was Barkt, feel free to elaborate!

[member="Nomad Crimson"] [member="Asteria Starcatcher"] [member="Barkt Melan"] [member="Ahra Marcon"] [member="Marek Starchaser"] [member="Jared Ovmar"]