Private Dockyard Ghosts

[Council of Captains]

Abandoned Outlaw Shipyard
High Orbit over Cilare

There wasn't much further you could get from everything else in the galaxy than Cilare. A frozen planet orbiting a weak and distant sun, it lay at the very northernmost edge of the galaxy, a silent orb of thick ice and drifting snow. It was utterly unremarkable in every way except its utter isolation - no useful natural resources, no native species, no relevance to galactic history. It likely would have remained lost to the galaxy if not for one point of interest: the remnants of the crime lord Tayand's palace, and what he had built high above it. Because Tayand, a patron of smugglers and mercenaries, had ordered a small shipyard to be constructed in orbit.

Only the most desperate would attempt to even approach a shipyard that had been mostly derelict for most of the eight centuries since Tayand's death; fully-equipped modern shipyards, shiny and new, lay at just the other end of the sector. But those shipyards were in Sith Empire space, and for the outlaws and refugees of the Verge Flotilla, that meant they weren't an option. Instead, as always, the Flotilla was going to make do with what it could get. With the starboard sublight engine on the Tears of Taloraan, one of the fleet's Big Five civilian ships, recently damaged by a catastrophic fire, they needed a repair dock, and this one was available.

The equipment on the Cilare dockyard would allow the Flotilla's engineers to fully diagnose the damage to the sublight engine, and from there repair it. Of course, to use any of that equipment, they would have to get power and life support online again. It was more than likely that Tayand had left behind security measures - mag-locked doors, ray shielded bulkheads, defense auto-turrets, combat droids, the works. And there were plenty of rumors that bands of pirates had squatted on the station over time, using its facilities for the same kind of repairs the Tears now needed. They were extremely unlikely to be friendly to strangers.

But if the Tears couldn't be repaired soon, some 300,000 people would be left stranded in deep space...

 

[Rance Draysom]

Aboard the shuttle over from the Tears of Taloraan, Rance checked and rechecked his blaster. He hated the feeling of not knowing what he was getting himself into, and he hated the feeling of dragging anyone else into danger. But he knew that he didn't have the skills to fix what needed fixing in the damaged sublight engine, or even to find out exactly how much was wrong. He was quickly learning that it was important to have allies, and to delegate to them when their knowledge and abilities were superior to his own.

That was why he needed Ned Rhosen , and that was why he was going to make sure the engineer made it through this alive.

Without Ned, the fire on the Tears might have been the end of the ship - or even the entire Flotilla. Working together to keep that from happening had, at least in Rance's mind, forged a bond of friendship and mutual respect between the two men, and there was no one that Rance would rather have at his side as he tried to get the Cilare dockyard operational again. But he knew that Ned was most at home tinkering with electronics in his own workshop, and he hated having to put him in a potentially deadly situation.

"You ok, Rhosen?" He asked, glancing over at the engineer. He'd managed to scavenge up some blast armor for the both of them, enough to cover their chests, backs, and shoulders in flexible anti-energy mesh. He'd learned the hard way, during the mission to recapture the Flying Dutchman, that agility alone sometimes wasn't enough to keep you safe. "I appreciate you coming with me on this one," he told the other man, nodding respectfully at him. "Without you, we wouldn't even know that we needed a repair yard."

He glanced out the window at the approaching space station. "With any luck, that drydock will have everything we need."

Ned Rhosen ​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned took a deep breath, this wasn't what he'd signed up for. Not that he'd signed anything, and in all honesty, this was exactly what he'd signed up for. His whole life had been about playing with inanimate objects, compared to some of his crew mates his life experiences were non existent, it was something he'd wanted to change, but it wasn't something he had planned on changing at this precise moment and in this manner. He knew though that it didn't matter what he wanted, it mattered what the fleet needed, and this right here, this derelict and likely dangerous space station, was what the fleet needed. At least that's what they hoped.

"Me?" replied Ned looking over to Rance, "I'm er... I'm nervous" there was no point lying, the fear was written all over his face, every guy in the galaxy liked to think that they would be ice cool going into potentially a battle zone, that they'd walk in, shoot some guys and walk out unscathed. Ned had been no different, however he didn't feel like that right now, he'd spent many an evening messing around with pistols and rifles, fixing them up, modifying them and shooting them at little makeshift targets he'd made. Little makeshift targets didn't move though, and they didn't shoot back.

"Hopefully" was all Ned could muster as a response to Rance when he mentioned the drydock, he knew he wasn't being much company but the nerves were almost to much for him to handle.

 

[Rance Draysom]

Rance offered Ned a reassuring smile and a clap on the back. "I feel ya, buddy. I've got your back, though. With any luck, we won't even run into anything more serious than some flickering lights and broken down droids." And that was technically true; things might go that smoothly. In his heart, though, Rance really doubted it. Nothing in his life ever seemed to work out that well; there were always complications and unforeseen obstacles. So his job was to keep Ned safe and make sure they both came back in one piece.

They weren't the only pair heading over to the station, of course; several other teams of Fleet Marshals would help scout and secure the dockyards, and all would stay close enough to provide each other with backup if anything went wrong. Still, it might be a little while before that backup arrived, so they would need to be alert and ready for trouble. "Better make sure you're armed, though, just in case. You got a gun?" Rance pulled a second pistol, a slim, sleek SoroSuub ELG-3A. "If not, take this. Accurate, not much kick. Easy to handle."

A few quiet minutes later, the shuttle glided gently into the docking bay. Through the viewports, Rance and Ned could see the huge bulk of the Tears of Taloraan moving slowly into position. Once they had main power online, they would have to extend the docking clamps to hold the megafreighter in position while the shipyard's diagnostic systems analyzed the damaged engine. But all that was still well in the future; first, they needed to find the main reactor and fire it up. That was the step on which everything else depended.

Rance pulled on his breath mask, made sure that Ned had his, and then cycled the shuttle ramp. The interior of the station was still pressurized, but the air scrubbers would be nonfunctional until they got the power back on, so they'd need to bring their oxygen supply with them until then. One hand on his gun, the other holding up a fusion lantern, the Fleet Marshal walked slowly down the ramp, scanning the dark interior of the docking bay. Everything was quiet, cold, and still, a durasteel mausoleum undisturbed for who knew how long.

At the far end of the bay, a pair of heavy security doors led deeper into the station - and, presumably, toward the reactor. Rance crossed to the doors, keeping an eye out for movement or traps. He found none, so he carefully reached out and cycled the door switch... nothing. He hit it again. No effect. Without power, there was no easy way to open it. "Found our first problem, Rhosen," Rance called back to him. "Any way you can give this thing enough juice to open? Or do we have some way to cut through?"

Ned Rhosen ​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned slammed his palm against his forehead, how had he managed to forget a weapon? He'd been so occupied with bringing as many items he thought he would need to get them through the station and get the dockyard operational, that he'd forgotten to bring something to protect himself with, he'd been thankful for Rance Draysom supplying him with the armour he'd managed to get together, he was embarrassed that he had to accept the pistol.

"I'm so sorry, I was busy getting all this together" he motioned to the impressive amount of tools he had with him (which wouldn't be ideal if they had to make a hasty retreat), "how did I forget a weapon? I've got a whole collection of things I've fixed up and modified" he shook his head in frustration. Thankfully the anger caused by forgetting his weapons had pushed out the nervousness he was feeling as the shuttle docked.

As they approached the sealed security door Ned relaxed a bit, this was what he was here for, well that and getting the whole thing operational. He holstered his weapon, put down the carry case of tools he had and pulled out a power booster pack and a couple of screwdrivers. The booster wasn't a big item, it wouldn't jump start a reactor for instance, but it would give enough juice to open the doors that would block their path, what it wouldn't do though is bypass any security codes needed to open the doors. Ned sighed, cracking codes had never been his speciality, bypassing security features was more his style and hopefully he'd be able to do that here.

He undid the screws holding the control panel in place, revealing a hub of wires, Ned got to work cutting, crimping and reseating several of the wires, thankfully the station was old which made things simpler to mess around with, still complicated if you didn't know what you were doing. After he had finished with the wiring he attached the booster to the console and turned it on, the screen that was hanging down exposing the wiring booted up and the doors automatically began to open before everything cut out and the doors shut again. Ned shook his head and swore under his breath before fiddling with the wires again and trying again.

This time everything worked as it should, he turned to Rance whilst reattaching the console to the wall and packing away the tools he'd had out, "I er... got the red and brown the wrong way around" he unholstered his borrowed weapon and ventured through the door before it ran out of juice again and shut separating them from their shuttle.

 

[Rance Draysom]

Rance just smiled as Ned took the blaster; the poor engineer was nervous and frazzled. The Fleet Marshal remembered his first time going into a hostile situation, how terrified he'd been by the possibility that he might get shot - or have to shoot someone. He'd been through both of those possibilities many times since then, but he still knew the nerves that came before a fight well. He'd experienced them all over again not too long before, when he, Eris, and Cillian had stormed the Flying Dutchman and nearly lost their lives to pirates.

This will go better, Rance promised himself. He wouldn't let any harm come to Ned. He waited patiently as the engineer worked on the door, chuckling as the man explained the mix-up. "Hey, you got us through, that's what counts." The two of them headed through it together, and it slid shut behind them with an ominous clang as the last of the power faded. With any luck, they would have main power back online shortly, so it wouldn't matter that the bulkhead had re-closed. Of course, Rance and luck often weren't on speaking terms.

The Fleet Marshal lifted his fusion lantern higher, illuminating the area around them. They were at a T-junction, with corridors leading away to the right, left, and straight ahead. The paths to the right and left probably led to other hangars and cargo storage areas; they needed to go deeper if they were going to find the reactor, and that meant continuing forward. Cautiously, his blaster at the ready and his body angled to shield Ned if anything came down the corridor, Rance began to walk toward the center of the repair station.

The tomb-like silence of the dockyard was complete except for the sound of their footsteps on the metal deck plating, which echoed eerily down the hallway ahead of them. Rance felt like an unwelcome intruder, as if the silent colossus all around them was judging him for his violation of the eternal stillness of this place. It set his teeth on edge, made him want to hum or whistle or talk, break that jarring emptiness. But he resisted the urge. He didn't want to alert anything that lay ahead any more than their footsteps already would.

After a few tense minutes, they reached a four-way junction. For a moment, Rance had no idea where they should go from there; he wasn't sure how far in they had come. But then he spotted it: a maintenance hatch built into one of the walls. It could only lead down, to where the reactor lay buried beneath layers of protective plating. "That looks promising." Fortunately, the hatch was built to still work when the station lost power. Rance wrenched it open easily. Sure enough, a ladder extended down into the darkness below.

But suddenly he fell back from the hatch, shielding his face. A dozen mynocks, screeching, clawing with their jagged wings, boiled up out of the darkness, swarming around his lantern. Rance dropped it, and the fallen lantern rolled slowly down the hall, casting crazy patterns of light over the walls and ceiling. "Feth, get back, get back!" The Fleet Marshal tried to fire off a shot, but the mynocks were all around him, and no matter how he flailed or tried to aim they kept swarming at him... except for the ones that started coming at Ned.

Ned Rhosen ​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned fell into line behind Rance as they made their way towards the reactors. Ned thought the place couldn't have been more creepy if it had tried, between the lack of proper lighting apart from the fusion lantern Rance held which cast some awful shadows, and the silence interspersed with the echoing of their travel. He was on edge, he was nervous, and he was fighting the urge to talk to his partner, if Rance wasn't talking then Ned wasn't going to either.

As they reached the hatch Ned relaxed a bit, the hatch wouldn't need his expertise to open so long as it wasn't seized which thankfully it wasn't, however any momentary feeling of calmness was lost in the madness that was the mynocks attack. In his line of work he'd had many an encounter with the bat-like creatures, they caused some pretty horrendous damage if left to do what they wanted for a sustained period of time - it looked like they had found the cause of the lack of power. Not that Ned had any time to think about any of that, Ranch had dropped the lantern and was trying to fight off the beasts, getting a couple of shots off to little avail, Ned fired a few shots of his own as some of them headed his way but he knew there was little point, the sheer volume of them rendered it a pointless task.

As he realised that shooting them was not an option Ned delved into his myriad of items and pulled from it a small can, it wasn't an obvious choice but it was something his dad had told him years ago whilst they were dealing with a mynock infestation on a corvette. It was a can of freezing spray, a watered down version of carbonite effectively, it was useful for freezing bolts and smashing them off when fettling was no longer an option, however in this instance it rendered the mynocks immobile, unable to fly. Ned wasn't however sure of the effect on a person and not wanting to test the theory out he shouted his partner, "Heads up!" and threw the can to Rance hoping the man had a decent catch on him.

 

[Rance Draysom]

Rance had never liked fighting up close. A firefight was nerve-wracking enough, with blaster bolts whizzing by, but at least you had some distance from the people trying to kill you. When the enemy was right on top of you, every movement counted. The wrong sweep of your arm or twist of your body could leave you vulnerable to a killing stroke, impaling a vital organ or cutting your throat. With one opponent, you could read their movements, and if you were good, you could find the right moves to defend yourself. But against a swarm...

Dimly, Rance knew that he was lucky these were mynocks and not, say, Yavin IV's piranha beetles. Mynocks didn't want to eat him, and in fact couldn't; their sucker mouths were designed to latch onto sources of electrical current, not flesh. But this flock was panicked, lashing out at him for disturbing their nest, and their barbed heads and jagged wings could do some serious damage. He was already bleeding from a dozen shallow gashes - his arms, back, and forehead mostly. His blaster seemed helpless to dissuade the maddened creatures.

He heard Ned's shout, and dimly registered that the man was throwing something. It was hard to see through the swarm, though, and his outstretched fingers only brushed the can as it sailed by. He managed to find where it had rolled to with his foot, though, and scooped it up. He had no idea to expect, but he trusted Ned, so he started spraying. The frigid carbonite mist washed over the mynocks, and they screeched even louder in protest. Several of them dropped to the ground, flailing as their frozen wings failed to keep them aloft.

The rest of the swarm retreated, flying off up the various corridors of the station, and the two men finally caught a moment's break.

Breathing hard into his mask, wiping the blood that ran down into his eyes away with a sleeve, Rance finally managed to straighten and toss the can back. "Thanks, Rhosen," he said. "That was good thinking. Went in here assuming I'd be looking out for you, and you're the one who saved my life." The Fleet Marshal pulled out a medpack and opened it up, spraying disinfectant over his cuts and then closing them with synthflesh bandages. "Did they get you at all? Better clean up if they did, filthy things are full of infections."

He offered up the medpack if Ned needed it, then walked back over to the shaft. "Sure hope there aren't more of them down there." Striking a glow rod, he dropped it down the shaft, watching it fall into the darkness. It came to rest about a hundred feet down. Rance saw no more mynocks, but he did see a different problem: the utility ladder had rusted away and broken, leaving no clear way to descend the shaft. The Fleet Marshal walked back over to where the fusion lantern had fallen, dusted it off, and walked over to where Ned stood.

"Got anything in your bag of tricks that can get us down there without breaking our... everything?"

Ned Rhosen ​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned breathed a sigh of relief once Rance dealt with the swarm he had attacking him. He'd been massively lucky in terms of injuries compared to Rance who had literally taken the swarm to the face, the fact that ned had been stationed further back than the fleet marshall was the main reason for that, he smiled under his mask as Rance complimented him.

"I'm actually OK" he replied to the offer of the medpack, "I was lucky though, If I'd have been a bit closer it wouldn't have gone as well as that" he picked up the used can and shook it to see if there was anything left, "hopefully we won't need this later on, I only had the one can left and that used pretty much all of it, that was a trick I learned from my old man"

Ned moved closer to the hatch and looked down the shaft at the damaged ladder, he shook his head as Rance asked the question, "Nothing" he replied a hint of defeat in his tone, "what ne-" he stopped halfway through his question, a series of bangs could be heard from deeper in the station, what they were Ned had no clue, all he did know was that his heart was racing again now, mynocks he had been expecting, they thrived in this environment but those bangs were no mynock, "what was that?" he asked Rance but before his reply came they heard them again, only they were louder now, "was that closer?" he pulled out the loaned pistol, his hands shaking slightly, trying to see down the darkened corridors for the source of the noises.

 

[Rance Draysom]

"It's a good trick," Rance replied, and meant it. It'd been clever to use an aerosol against creatures that were hard to hit with blasters; there had been no way for the mynocks to avoid a cloud spreading over them. Unfortunately, it seemed they didn't have such an easy solution to getting down to the reactor level. They could try to find another hatch, but Rance would have no idea where to start looking. He was about to call one of the other Fleet Marshals over the comlink and ask for a liquid cable launcher when he heard the banging.

He wanted it to just be the mynocks flying around somewhere up the corridor, but it couldn't be; it sounded different, bigger. And like Ned had said, Rance was pretty sure it was getting closer. A dozen possibilities ran through his mind - pirates? Guard droids? Some kind of escaped predator from the savage ice planet below? There was no way to tell from here, though they might find out soon enough. If whatever it was hadn't already realized they were there, it would notice their light soon. Turning it off, though, would leave them in utter darkness.

Rance decided to leave it on; if whatever it was could see in the dark, they'd be putting themselves at a serious disadvantage if they deactivated the lantern. But he pulled it back behind the corner of the corridor where the sound was coming from, so that it shed just enough illumination for the pair of them to see anything that got close. "Yeah," Rance whispered, reading his own blaster, "Whatever it is, it's coming this way. Let's see if we can get eyes on it. Stay back, I'll cover you." Gun in hand, Rance peered anxiously around the corner.

When they saw it, they would have to make a decision - fight or flight?

Ned Rhosen​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned obeyed Rance's orders staying back, he scanned the area behind them before turning his head back to the direction of the banging, he had dealt with the threat of the mynocks quite well, this though had his heart hammering. It was the suspense of not knowing what was coming their way, Ned trusted Rance more than one normally would for the length of time they'd known each other, however they hadn't exactly had a normal introduction, avoiding a potentially catastrophic situation as they had on the Tears tended to strengthen bonds between people, Rance was however one man, and Ned was untested in these settings, untested and nervous.

The mechanic listened to the noises get louder and louder, he had no clue what or who was causing the noise, he couldn't even decipher if it was the sound of one thing moving or many things, that in part was probably down to his lack of experience of field missions, that and the fact he could hear the blood pumping in his ears, which made things harder.

As the tension was about to boil over, the noises stopped. Everything was silent again. Ned held his breath waiting for something to happen, a roar, a blaster bolt, a blaze of light, surely something was about to pounce. The banging had sounded so near, so ominous, but now there was nothing. Ned held his breath for what felt like a lifetime, before he couldn't hold it any more, he let out a low, long exhale - staring into the abyss of darkness, but nothing happened, if anything, the lack of a crescendo heightened the tension to a level higher than Ned thought possible. What would they do now?

 

[Rance Draysom]

A trickle of sweat ran down Rance's back as the two men waited in the semi-darkness, blasters drawn. The waiting before a fight was the worst; there was nothing you could do except tick down each second, trying to stay alert, wondering and worrying. Clank. Thunk. Clank. Thunk. As it got closer, Rance could tell that it wasn't just one thing moving; there were two, the sounds very slightly apart, to that they seemed to meld together at a distance. It was a metal on metal sound, grinding closer and closer... until it stopped.

There was a long, tense moment as Ned and Rance waited, but it eventually became all too clear that whatever was out there was doing the same thing they were - holding still, letting them make the next move. They couldn't just stay there forever; their oxygen supply was limited, and their route of retreat was cut off. "Ok," Rance whispered, scooting the fusion lantern closer with his foot, "no two ways about it. We've got to take a look. Watch my back." Slowly, carefully, the Fleet Marshal slid to the edge of the wall... and moved around it.

Some twenty feet away, half-lit by the dim glow of the fusion lantern, stood the source of the noise. Rance's heart jumped into his throat and his eyes grew wide. Two hulking, beetle-like droids stood shoulder to shoulder, taking up the entirety of the corridor, the multiple barrels of their several blaster cannons all pointed his way. He'd heard of these things, heard that the criminal underworld had gotten their hands on the prototypes in a Baktoid foundry on Hypori and distributed them to crime lords and tyrants across the galaxy.

They were a pair of Droideka Mark IIs, and they were designed to tear apart infantry and armored vehicles alike.

Rance dove back into cover as fast as he could, but the droids had been ready and waiting, and their powerful sensors and lightning-fast computer brains had already targeted him. Even though he had only a foot to travel back into cover, they winged him. He felt a blaster bolt slam into his shoulder while another one glanced across the back of his calf, spinning him to the ground in an agonized heap. He didn't hear himself scream, but he did smell his own burned flesh as he crawled back behind the wall. "Oh, feth," he wheezed. "Droidekas."

He couldn't stand, could barely think. He fished for his medpack, trying to find something for the pain. Clank. Thunk. They were coming.

Ned Rhosen ​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

"Droidekas?" replied Ned as he watched Rance struggle to sort himself out with a medpack, before he could process what they were faced with he heard the unmistakeable sound of them approaching. Think Ned think! The spacer had done work on Droidekas before and was quickly racking his brain trying to remember any flaws in their manufacturing, they're weak when moving, blind from behind, he knew there was something else he was missing but the panic was setting in, were the weapons they had truly strong enough to take on a pair of Droidekas? Their shields were some of the best moveable shields in the galaxy, that's it! Their shields are designed to stop return fire, not a stationary person, if they could get inside the shields they might stand a chance. Ned passed his bag of goodies and the loaned blaster to Rance and moved a few crates that lay near them trying to shield him from the Droidekas, it may be pointless but what other choice did he have?

"Be ready" he said to Rance before turning on his heel and sprinting as fast as he could, the droids would round the corner any moment now and Ned would be their target, due to him being the easiest to target, he hoped. This would give Rance a small window to disable the droids, how he would do that Ned hadn't actually considered, there hadn't been time. He'd meant to tell Rance that there might be something useful in the bag, or maybe the man would be a good enough shot to neutralize the droids before they killed Ned. Hopefully.

Clank. Thunk. Clank. Thunk. Nothing. This was it, they had halted, any second now Ned would be in a world of pain, if not dead, he made a last ditch effort to dive around a corner, the bolt hit him. He didn't know where, but it had hit him hard enough to send him spinning head first into the opposing wall.

Everything faded to black.

 

[Rance Draysom]

Through the haze of pain, Rance registered Ned handing him his bag of supplies - and the blaster he'd been loaned. He could barely understand what was going on, but he managed to hold onto those two words: be ready. As he finally found a painkiller and slammed the needle into his thigh, bringing a ray of clarity into his cloud of agony, Rance finally processed those words - and realized that Ned was about to do something drastic. By then, it was too late. Ned had leapt across the war droids' field of vision, drawing their fire... and he'd been hit.

Rance winced as the other man, his fire-forged friend, slammed hard into the wall and lay still. But there was no time to worry about him; if the Fleet Marshal didn't take this chance, they were both definitely dead. Reaching into Ned's bag, he felt his hand close around something that gave him an idea. It was part of the fried engine power conduit from the Tears of Taloraan, which Ned had held onto to tinker with after they'd removed and replaced it. This was powerful conductive material... and the fusion lantern carried a significant charge.

Working quickly, the pain temporarily carried to the back of his mind by the meds he'd injected, Rance fed the cable he'd found into the socket on the lantern. He kept the uninsulated end pointed away from him, his hand well back from the conductive metal, and waited. Clank. Thunk. Clank. Thunk. He would only have one shot at this; if he messed it up, the droids would tear him apart in a hail of laser fire. Clank. Thunk. Clank. Thunk. They were moving over toward Rance's position, trying to end the fight now that he was alone...

The moment he saw a clawed foot round the corner, the Fleet Marshal lunged forward, plunging the cable into the metal. The fusion lantern sputtered and went out, but the corridor was suddenly bright as a massive power surge overtook the droideka. Arcs of blue electricity crackled over its durasteel armor, and it convulsed... then teetered over and fell on its side. In the narrow hallway, it fell onto the other droid, pinning it down in a confusion of heavy metal limbs. Forcing himself to his feet, Rance limped over to the other one.

From inside its sputtering shields, he shot it point blank in the faceplate with both blasters. It seized once, then stopped moving.

Tucking away both guns, Rance pulled out a glow rod so that he could see. In the other hand, he produced his medback, then limped over to Ned as quickly as his injuries would allow. The pain was already coming back, but he gritted his teeth and forced it down. "Come on, buddy, stay with me," he said, setting down the glow rod next to the two of them while he worked. He quickly jammed a general-purpose stimm into Ned's arm, something that would both kill the pain a little and hopefully give him enough adrenaline to get him back awake.

Rance really hoped his friend wasn't concussed... or worse, hit somewhere bad. It was hard to tell in the dark.

Ned Rhosen ​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned woke with a start, Rance was leaning over him having just administered the stimm to him, not that Ned knew that had happened. It was darker now than it had been before, was that the after effect of being shot by the Droidekas? "Droidekas?" murmured Ned as he was still getting his bearings, "where are the--" he stopped talking due to the pain he hadn't initially registered.

"Aahhhh..." cried out Ned as he tried to sit up and assess the damage, he lifted his right arm up and below was a hole in his clothing with the unmistakeable flash of burnt skin below, luckily it looked as if the borrowed armour had done its job having taken a decent amount of damage, unluckily it hadn't covered every part of Ned and the blaster bolt from the droid had managed to find the part of him not covered.

Ned lifted up his shirt to see how bad the damage actually was, it could have been worse if truth be told but that didn't make it any less painful, even with the stimm Rance had given him. "Maybe we shouldn't hang out any more" managed Ned before laughing and grabbing his side in pain as a result, "Ow -- Don't make me laugh" he continued to try and stifle his laughter, "I know it was me but still... Dare I ask what happened?" he nodded towards the pile of droids just slightly illuminated by the glow of the rod next to them.

Ned pulled himself up, it took a lot of effort but he was starting to realise he was tougher than he thought, and not too bad in an emergency, which had been pretty useful since he'd turned up on the Tears. Ned had joined the fleet to stand on his own two feet, something he would struggle to do for the next portion of this mission, he'd joined to see and experience things that he never had, things that were not just the inside of some damaged wreck, however he hadn't intended on getting shot on his first official trip away from the Tears, still, at least he'd have a decent scar to show next time they opened up the makeshift cantina and started comparing histories again.

"Are we going to make it the rest of the way?"

 

[Rance Draysom]

Rance sighed with relief as Ned came back to consciousness, then chuckled at his joke. "We don't seem to end up in the best situations together, do we? Next time we're in the same room, I'll make damn sure it's a party. Drinks on me." He was relieved that the armor had taken the brunt of the Droideka blast; the improvised vests had been a good idea after all. But just like Rance, Ned had taken at least part of the bolt at the edge of the protected area, searing the flesh. They'd both need Cutter to check them out when they got back.

"I pulled some conductive material out of your bag of tricks, managed to overload them as they came around the corner," Rance explained, getting to his feet too. He was pleased to see that Ned was proving pretty tough; the engineer had forced himself back to his feet without any help, no easy feat after your first time getting shot. "That's... what, the third time it's saved my life? I should buy the bag a drink, too." He passed Ned back his tool bag and loaned blaster, along with a second glow rod. "Lantern's fried now, though."

Rance pondered the engineer's question; could they make it to the reactor now? Should they? And then he realized a simple fact. "I don't think we have much choice. If we don't get the power back on, we won't be able to get the doors back to the shuttle bay open; there wasn't a working access port on this side." An idea struck the Fleet Marshal then; maybe their encounter with the Droidekas hadn't just been a nearly-deadly waste of resources. Wincing, he limped over to the nearest of the fallen droids and felt around its chassis.

His hand closed over what he sought: a cable dispenser, allowing the droids to launch a grappling hook and scramble up walls.

Rance pulled out the hook at the end, the cable clicking quietly as more and more of it left the dispenser, and headed back over to the maintenance hatch. There would be enough to get them to the bottom, and it would be a straight shot from there to the reactor, but it still wouldn't be easy. "We can use this in place of the ladder," he said, "but it's going to be rough; we're both hit near the arm, so climbing is going to hurt like a schutta. Unless..." Rance looked closely at the grappling hook, then formed a rough loop around the cable.

"I can lower you down, so all you have to do is hold on. Are you up to it? You'll be maybe 50 meters from the reactor."

Ned Rhosen ​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned eyed the makeshift harness, it didn't fill him with a massive amount of confidence but what else could they do? they had to get down to the reactor and get it working, he took a deep breath which caused him more pain than he'd been expecting and made him jerk for his side involuntarily.

"It doesn't look like I've got much choice really does it?" he responded to Rance with a rather defeatist tone, the adrenaline in his system was starting to fade and reality was setting in, both men were injured, they still had a good 90% of their task in front of them and Ned was currently looking at a DIY winch. He had faith in Rance that it would hold, he had no doubt in his mind that his friend wouldn't suggest the option if he wasn't 100% sure that it would hold and work as described, still, it wasn't an ideal scenario.

Ned got himself comfortable, or as comfortable as one could be in the situation, and began his descent, the burning sensation coming from his side was starting to get worse, even more so when he wobbled in the harness and jerked himself tightly to the former grappling wire, rubbing the wound against it, this resulted in a cry of pain from the engineer's mouth, but he did his best to suppress it.

Finally, his feet hit solid durasteel, and he untangled himself from the wiring, he looked around at his surroundings before pulling out the glowrod that Rance had given him to make his task easier. Ned stood at the bottom of where the ladder should be for a moment, him and Rance hadn't actually discussed what would happen from this point onwards and unfortunately they had originally only had one comms device with them that was currently in Rance's possesion, "For feth sake" exclaimed Ned, his friends colourful use of language rubbing off on him, as he realised he was going solo.

He walked along in the direction of the reactor, or at least where he was imagining it would be, there hadn't been consideration for the fact the two men may split up, Rance had all the knowledge of the layout, all the communication gear, Ned was here purely to fix stuff, and with their injuries the simple task of relaying as much infomation as possible to Ned had been forgotten.

Eventually making it to the reactor Ned assessed the situation, things wern't as bad as they could be, the damage caused by the mynocks had been mainly to auxiliary wiring for things they wouldn't necessarily need, there was a few wires that needed replacing and reseating but not a massive amount of work in all honesty, the lack of fire was making the work Ned was doing here a nicer environment than what he had been confronted with on the Tears however unlike then he did have a burning sensation coming from his war wound.

Ned was messing around with a console trying to get a feed to it, hoping to be able to do a quick diagnostic check on the system, his goal was to see if the system flagged anything up before he tried starting up the system, as he managed to get a flicker of power to the system he realised two things, the first was that there was an issue, and it was one Ned wouldn't be able to do much about, there was an exhaust chute not too far away from their encounter with the Droidekas that was blocked, what it was Ned wasn't sure what it was but he was certain he wouldn't be able to get to it to fix it, sure he could reverse his tracks to Rance and find the blockage, sort that and the system might be ready to go but how long would that take? It would be much easier if he could get a message to Rance to investigate the blockage and try to sort that issue out, it was something he could do with the help of the station's primitive PA system, the problem with that would be anyone or anything on the system would know they were here, and the rough location of the two of them.

The second thing Ned had realised, and it made him work at the first task even harder, was that he wasn't alone here. He didn't know what was lurking in the shadows, but he knew he was being watched. He finished working on the PA system and tested out his theory.

"R-man this is Mech-1" he had no idea where the nicknames came from but something he'd read somewhere that you didn't use your real names on airwaves you knew were not secured and they were the first ones that came to mind, he was hoping Rance would understand, "Issue needs dealing with by you, exhaust blockage on vent 2d, say 150m west from the DD's" he was hoping again that Rance would pick up Dead Droidekas from that, he really didn't want to lead anyone straight to Rance however he wasn't 100% sure that his code was understandable, if someone knew the layout of the station off by heart they may know the location of that exhaust vent anyway, but he had to ensure Rance went to the right one.

"I'll be able to see if its been removed" he steadied himself for the next part of his message unsure of the reaction he would get, "Hurry, I am not alone" he left the system open and headed for cover, whoever or whatever was stalking him would now know they had lost the element of surprise. Ned made sure to keep the console in his view so he could see when Rance was finished and he waited for whatever would happen next.

 

[Rance Draysom]

The wait was agonizing, and Rance didn't just mean the literal pain from having been shot, clawed, and bitten.

It hadn't taken long to lower Ned down, though that hadn't been easy; every meter of cable the Fleet Marshal let down had sent a fresh spasm through his wounded shoulder. But he'd gotten the engineer down there without dropping him, which was a relief; he would never, ever admit to Ned that he hadn't been entirely sure he'd be able to do that. Adrenaline and painkillers were keeping him going for now, but he knew his strength was flagging. Unless they got the reactor online and got out of there soon, they were both in big trouble.

But since lowering Ned down, there had been nothing for Rance to do except wait. He had no way to contact the engineer, no way to know what he was seeing... what he might be facing. If there was another swarm of mynocks down there, or auto-defenses, or a radiation leak, he might have just signed his friend's death warrant. As second stretched into minutes, then longer, Rance focused on staying awake. He couldn't afford to pass out, no matter how inviting sleep seemed, no matter how much everything hurt. If he did, Ned would be trapped.

His eyelids were starting to droop despite his efforts when, suddenly, the PA system crackled. Rance nearly jumped out of his skin, his hand falling to his blaster as he spun around in momentary panic. Then he realized what was happening, and slowly relaxed. The system was old and full of static, but he could make out most of Ned's words. R-Man, he chuckled. Maybe they needed to set some code names before they went out in the field. But he could've been called worse. Calling "Sleemo Who Got Me Into This Mess", he imagined with a laugh.

Then he stopped laughing. Ned wasn't alone. Given what they'd already encountered, that could be very, very bad.

Rance had no way to contact poor Ned, but he could at least do as the guy asked. 150 meters felt like a long, long way when every step nearly pitched him to the ground, his wounded calf buckling under him, but he didn't have much choice. Slowly, bracing himself against the wall, Rance limped down the dark corridor, past the hulks of the disabled droids. He had to reach and clear the vent before whatever was hunting the engineer - pirates? More droids? Some spaceborne predator? - found his friend. They were in no condition to fight.

After a few agonizing minutes, Rance found what he was looking for. The exhaust vent was smaller than he'd expected; he would've passed it by if he hadn't been looking for it. But the markings were clear: Vent 2D. It was easy to see the blockage; the vent cover was rusted shut. There had probably been a leak in the life support system, spilling a trickle of water down over it, so that the mass of rust had been able to grow over time. With a grimace, Rance eased himself down into a sitting position and tugged at the cover. It wouldn't budge.

Grabbing his blaster by the barrel, Rance slammed the butt of the weapon down on the cover once, twice, three times. Finally the metal bent and gave way, and he was able to pull the rusted cover free. Behind it, he found a mess of corrosion and decayed organic matter plugging the vent; it stank to high hell. Grimacing and covering his nose, he reached one gloved hand into the opening and pulled it out. That should clear the vent, and the automatic warning Ned was seeing. He just hoped it was in time to keep his buddy safe...

Ned Rhosen​

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Nothing had happened. Ned was certain he wasn't alone, he was also positive that his comments on the PA would force his would-be assailant into an attack, but it hadn't. Ned strained his eyes and his ears as best he could but could see no proof anyone or anything was there, had he been imagining it all along?

The beeping cut through the silence like a lightsaber through tissue and made Ned jump more than he would have liked. The jolt had caused him immeasurable pain in his side as he tore his wound just a little bit more, he hobbled his way back to the console though as he assessed what the situation was. Rance had done what needed to be done, Ned had never had any doubt about it, he just hoped his friend was having a smooth enough time up there.

After a few select key presses the system was ready for a startup attempt, Ned checked all around him but could see nothing, the sooner he got this reactor online the better, lighting would ease his concern, or illuminate his issues, one of the two. He started to type commands into the console, some perfect, others he had issues with, slicing had never been a particular strong point of his, he was better than most due to his line of work but it wasn't something he would record on a list of strengths.

"I need to see if Rance can get hold of a Slicer Droid" he thought out loud as he continued his attempt to go through the startup process, the system was designed to run with a team of dedicated engineers, not one wounded space scavenger like himself. Space scavenger was probably a little hard on himself but in all honesty he didn't have the qualifications that say a GA or NIO engineer would have, his was purely through experience and although out here in these conditions that was everything, Ned was under no illusions that if he turned up at one of the aforementioned factions he would be sneered at for his lack of paperwork.

Finally, after what seemed like an age Ned hit the last key. He waited for the startup to happen but it didn't, what now? He looked down at the console and everything seemed to be in order, it should be working, sighing the mechanic hobbled over to the reactor and aimed a very frustrated boot at the problem, as soon as the sole of his foot hit the machine it sprang into life, sometimes you really did need to just hit it.

The reactor lit up like Coruscant in the evening, it took its time but slowly more and more consoles and screens began to turn on, and then the lighting cam on, the sheer ammount of light in the place momentarily dazed Ned, along with a few Mynocks that had been resting high above the mechanic, they caused no issue for him though. His eyes adjusted to the light after a few blinks, and he surveyed the room, he wasn't alone, but he wasn't in danger, yet.

The Reactor room had apparently been used as a storage area for a massive array of droids. From battle droids to maintenance droids and seemingly everything in-between, they hadn't booted up with the reactor which Ned was grateful for, he was intrigued by the droid mausoleum, but he was very aware that he didn't want to be here if the battle droids came online at any point, one encounter with droidekas was enough for today, the maintenance droids could be massively useful for the fleet though if they could get them working.

Ned forced himself away from the droids and headed on back to Rance, his path was different now, the power was back on, meaning the doors were working, allowing him to take an easier route back to Rance, even if it wasn't the way he had been before. Thankfully whilst working on the console he'd been able to see a pretty decent layout of the station as it ran through its diagnostics, Ned had something of a photographic memory, it was one of the reasons he was so good at what he did, remembering what plugs into what is very important when playing around with machines.

Eventually he made it back to the two fallen droids, but he couldn't see Rance, had something happened to him? Was he hiding? Or was he just off exploring somewhere? He could in all honesty just be around the corner. Ignoring his instincts Ned called out, "Rance! Rance! I've got something you might wanna see, you there?"

 

[Rance Draysom]

Waiting again. It was getting harder and harder to stay focused, even to stay awake. As his adrenaline faded, Rance felt the pain of every bump, scratch, and burn more and more acutely. Most of all, he just felt exhausted. At every moment since the mynock attack, which by then seemed like a long time ago, he'd been pushing himself to the limit. He was just about spent, and sleep opened her welcoming arms wide to him, promising rest and healing. But he couldn't let himself accept. There was every possibility that another threat lurked around the corner.

Still, he was nearly gone when something happened that jerked him back to full wakefulness: the hallway lights turned on. Rance sat up with a start, seeing the dingy, rust-scarred corridors fully illuminated for the first time, and let out a joyful whoop. Ned had done it! He immediately regretted his shout as it sent a jolt of pain through his shoulder. Still, in spite of everything they'd faced, they'd come through again. When he and Ned worked together, they always seemed to get into a hell of a mess - and then somehow survive it.

His comlink buzzed, finally cutting through the interference. It was one of the other teams of Fleet Marshals. "Rance. Rance, do you read? Power's back on, and we've got the docking clamp controls online. We're bringing the Tears into docking position. We'll start running diagnostics with the station's scanners within the hour." Rance grinned; it was all coming together after all. "Copy that, nice work. Can we, uh..." he winced as he tweaked his injured leg. "Can we get a medical team down here?"

He glanced over at the deck code painted on the wall, visible now that the lights had come on. "Subdeck 3, Corridor 9, by vent 2d."

Then he went back to waiting. Rance sat against the wall, blaster resting across his lap, in case he needed it. Whatever had been watching Ned might still be out there, and even with teams from the Flotilla moving into the dockyards, it might still be a threat. Then, suddenly, he heard the engineer's shout. "Ned! I'm here." He forced himself to his feet, gritting his teeth against the pain, and braced himself against the wall. He could see his friend standing just down the corridor. "You did it, buddy! You really saved our hides."

The Fleet Marshal gave Ned a curious look. "What did you find? You ok? Did you get away from... whatever it was?"

Ned Rhosen ​