Sand, Dust and Bugs...[Geonosis] (OP/C.I.S)

[The Spark]

It was simple; Get in, get whatever they could and get out without getting caught.

November had done similar raids before, but nothing like the equivalency of Geonosis, this place was far larger than the last place she had been. The compound was complex and more heavily guarded than originally anticipated but when did something like that stop her? She had the firepower, the know-how and the ability to take down a small army if she needed to.

She pressed herself up against the wall as a guard passed by within the Confederacy compound, completely oblivious to the fact he just passed a living being. She maintained a steady hand on her rifle, her index finger on the trigger as she watched another guard approach the first one to stop and talk. She rolled her eyes beneath the eyepieces and gently pushed off the wall. She crouched into a low position and began moving away from the two chatter-box guards and towards the nerve center of the compound. From there, she would have to locate where the Confederacy stored information, or even relayed information. Codes, fleet numbers and maneuvers or whatever intelligence they were unwilling to give up. It didn't matter to her, she was going to take it, one way or another. She kept her rifle at the low ready, intent on using it as a last resort on those who got in her way. Of course, she would use her hands first and as always she was ready to escape to the darkness and hide should she get discovered.

She could be the distraction, or she could be the one getting what the Omega Protectorate wanted...only time would tell.

[member="Salem Norongachi"]
[member="Atretes Rhoujen"]

 

[Kal Strife]

They say that come the end, come the time when the sentient species of the galaxy finally find a way to annihilate themselves in an orgy of bloodshed and warfare, only the bugs will be left. Having read of Geonosis, of the Geonosian race, Kal Strife could understand why; twice in recorded history the galaxy had tried to purge them. First with the comet that had wiped out ninety-nine percent of all native life on the world even as it transformed it into a barren wasteland, and then again with the Gulag Plague. And yet both times the Geonosians had came back stronger, more innovative and more numerous, almost as though they were taking the galaxy's endeavours to destroy them as a challenge.

It would have been impressive, were they not so repugnant.

Now, sitting across a vast, carved-stone table inlaid with fine matrices of electronics from the current Archduke of Geonosis, the Corellian found himself wondering why he had ventured to this twice-damned place. True, there had been the needs of the Confederacy, the reborn Seperatist Order he had so very recently aligned himself with, but those needs could have been passed on to another easily enough. It wasn't as though the negotiations with the Archduke couldn't have been handled by one of the many minor functionaries who seemed to have made the administrative centers of the Confederacy into hives of their own. Yet something had drawn him here across the starry void.

But what?

Obviously sensing his distraction, the Geonosian noble clicked out a few words in their harsh tongue, prompting a tarnished silver protocol droid to step forward and remark, "The Archduke is wondering if there is a problem? He says the discussions regarding the latest series of battledroids can wait, if you would prefer." Grey eyes narrowing, Strife allowed his gaze to flicker from the droid to its master. Had that really been what the bug had said? Somehow, he doubted it, but the uncertainty annoyed him nonetheless. He would, he knew, have to make a point of learning the basics of Geonosian now. Not that he intended to return to this wretched world, of course, but the Force had an odd way of throwing unexpected detours onto a sentient's path through life.

Yet such musings on the secret sense of humour wielded by the Force were fated to be interrupted in that precise moment as a particularly agitated Geonosian fluttered into place behind the Archduke. Speaking quickly, even for a bug, the Geonosian clicked out an urgent sounding message, only for the Archduke to respond with irritation. Watching them for a moment, the Corellian soon turned to the protocol droid and motioned him over. "Translate for me."

"My apologies, Master Strife," the droid began, "But I am only instructed to-"

"We sit in the heart of a vast smelting plant," Strife interrupted, his tone cold and hard, "Translate for me, or I'll ensure that you are smelted down into eating utensils." Force, but he hated dealing with Protocol Droids. Even when you owned them they acted like they knew what was best for you.

"Oh my," the droid answered, one hand rising stiffly to its face in grotesque cybernetic parody of shock, "I'm quite sure there is no need of that." No doubt it would have continued its spiel in that vein, but for the fact that Strife half-rose from his chair, encouraging it to change topics and continue, "But Foreman Cottek is merely advising the Archduke that a number of sensors in the outer reaches have been triggered."

Sensors? Well, that was interesting, especially given that there shouldn't have been anything except Geonosians and droids in the outer reaches. "Archduke," Kal remarked, rising to hit feet even as he spoke, "Foreman. Could you please arrange for information on the sensors to be transferred to a datapad for me? In basic, if you please." The two Geonosians looked startled by his interruption and request, yet he paid them not the slightest heed as he scooped his armourweave-impregnated synthleather longcoat from its place on the back of his chair and settled it once more about his shoulders. In this heat, the weight of it would soon be unbearable, yet Kal was a pragmatic man to his core, and he'd happily accept discomfort in exchange for a little added protection in an unpredictable situation.

And this certainly appeared to be just such a situation.

[member="November Sinclair"]

 

[The Spark]

November continued forward, her eyes focusing in on the data readouts before her. Nothing had been triggered that she had seen off-hand, then again she wasn't directly connected to the C.I.S network, not yet anyways. Her movements were slow and methodical, like a surgeon removing dead tissue from a wound. She approached a set of droids from behind, of course at close proximity and quickly swept to the right. Luckily, there weren't any cameras in this area, just a heavy amount of guards. Her objective was ahead, another seven to eight meters.

Once everything began, hell would rain down upon her, she would have to be ready. She quickly brought the rifle up and over her shoulder, gently latching it against her back as she came up to a grate on the wall. Her hands came before her, delicate fingers touching the edges around the metal, searching for the finer points. The edges of her fingers found just enough metal to grip as she grit her teeth and tugged, with a hard tug she managed to pull free the metal grate just behind her objective. Slowly she set the grate down and placed it beside the opening, she took one quick look around before she lifted herself up and into the decent size air-duct. The sound of pipes hissing and electronics whirling echoed all around her, causing her goggles to throw micro-bursts of static into her vision. She growled low in her throat as she moved forward, a free hand coming up to pull the goggles up and ontop of her head.

~Just have to go in blind on this one...~

[member="Kal Strife"]

 

[Kal Strife]

A steady stream of updates from the factory-hive's security grid led Kal down labyrinthine paths, deep into the heart of the Confederate base. The heat in the depths was oppressive, yet a subtle application of the Force was enough for the Corellian to set a chill across his skin. Doing so was a calculated risk; the stirring of the Force might alert a wary foe with skill in the mystical arts, yet to do otherwise risked his hands being slowed by dehydration during their inevitable confrontation, and that was the greater risk by far given the myriad methods he had at his disposal for locating the intruder.

After another few paces, his datapad chirped an alert. A glance was enough to reveal the reason; a security patrol, one the many who continually navigated the hive, had noticed an access panel for a ventilation duct had been removed. Doubtless their droid brains had taken but a fraction of a heartbeat to determine that no maintenance had been scheduled in the sector, and now the alarm was racing through the security networks at much the speed of a nerve impulse. "Careless," Strife murmured, a touch of a smile ghosting across his features as he shook his head and set off down another corridor toward the exposed vent.

There, amidst the gathered battledroids, he paused a moment to tug his right hand free of the glove that encased it, before touching the bare skin against the warm metal. Letting weaves of the Living Force connect him to the grate, he probed at it, trying to get a sense of the person who had last touched it. It was difficult; the connection had been brief indeed, and only the fact that the contact had been so recent allowed him to get any sense of his prey at all. A... human? Near human, certainly. And slight. Female? Possibly, though he'd known more than one man as slight of frame, and taking aliens into account made it all the harder to be sure. Still, he had an idea of them now, and that was enough.

Tossing the grate back down onto the floor, Strife drew a commlink from his pocket and thumbed the activator. "Foreman Cotteck, intruder confirmed. Humanoid. They're in vent-" Breaking off, he glanced up at the vent designators, mentally translating the Geonosian script, before continuing "Vent Aurek-Aurek-Seven-Two. Order droids to all exits. All exits, Cotteck. And get someone looking for their ship."

[member="November Sinclair"]

 

[The Spark]

November frowned as she looked behind her at the ground covered and the remaining short distance to her objective. A tingling sensation hit her as she quickly jerked her head forward to the sound of hissing and venting. "Oh poodoo..." She bolted forward, moving as fast as she could as the pipes behind her began exploding with extremely hot stream and gas vapors. She came upon the network center grate quickly, slamming into the grate hard as the pipes behind her continued to burst, her body slamming into the grate hard again, and again. She began to panic as it wouldn't budge at first but slowly she felt it give way and just in the nick of time it would seem.

A pipe no less than a meter behind her exploded as she dived forward, her right hand jerking her side-arm up and out of the holster as she tucked, rolled and came up with it aimed directly at droid who appeared to be working on the data center modules. She frowned and holstered her weapon, coming up slowly to look over the massive banks of data clusters. "Gotta make this quick...." She quickly withdrew a data cord from her left gauntlet and plugged directly into the closest bank, she began hacking away at the internal systems and firewalls of the Confederacy. Within a few moments, she was in and the download began.

She disconnected the device and looked down at the progression bar on her left gauntlet, frowning. The clock was ticking slow, very slow. "Come on....." She quickly rushed over to the only entrance and exit to the data center she was in, her right hand reaching down her thigh pouch, pulling free a breaching charge and placing it firmly against the door. She pressed the arming device into the charge and armed it. Should anything or anyone walk through the door or cause pressure against the device, it would detonate. She turned and ran back to the other side of the data center, if the schematics were right, she would be able to place another charge on the wall opposite and to the left and have an alternate exit that would allow her a reasonable escape route.

She quickly armed that charge as well, and that is when her sensors began alarming in her ear. She quickly brought down her eyepieces and examined the incoming data. "Oh no..." Multiple signatures were converging all around, apparently somewhere she had triggered a silent alarm and a plethora of clankers were incoming. Her hands frantically worked the controls on her gauntlet as she connected to the OP Emergency Frequency stored in her Comlink. The frequency was highly secured, single-channel and impossible to intercept.

"This is Sinclair, I've managed to begin download but I've been compromised. I have a wave of clankers coming my way. I need immediate evac..." She hoped, somewhere on the other end, someone was listening.

[member="Kal Strife"]

 

[Kal Strife]

Alas for [member="November Sinclair"], time was not on her side.

Even as she spoke her frantic words into the comlink, the security systems within the Confederate datanet came online. A virus, a spectacular piece of coding that was the very pinnacle of the art of digital warfare, downloaded itself onto the infiltrator's device, piggybanking on the data she was trying to steal. It activated the very moment it was downloaded, simultaneously severing the device's connection with the datanet and activating an aggressive file deletion protocol that quickly began to obliterate the stolen data - along with anything else the girl had decided to store on her device.

Almost simultaneously, the doors began to open - an action that triggered an eardrum rupturing explosion that scattered shattered metal and droplets of liquidised armour plating across the corridor. Yet through the smoke of that explosion came more droids, undaunted by the destruction of their counterparts. First came the whirling form of a Droideka, an insectoid battledroid that inspired fear in even Jedi Masters, and right behind marched a full squad of battledroids, their rifles held ready. And behind them, lightsaber held ready and the Force held in readiness, marched Kal Strife. "Your effort was good," he called across the clanking of the battledroids' feet, "But for naught. Surrender, and I will guarantee your life." Would she listen? Somehow, the Corellian doubted it, yet any other course of action was suicide; between the droids already surrounding her and the other groups moving to secure the corridors around the chamber, escape was impossible.

And if she did escape the room? If she managed the impossible and escaped the Hive itself?

Ah, that was where the fun would begin, for already the legions of battledroids held within the Hive with being roused and marching out to preprepared positions, whilst Geonosian auxiliaries set into motion the steps that would bring the entire planet into lockdown. Orbital defences powered up, and swarms of vulture droids launched themselves from the heights of the Hive spires, darkening the skies with their sheer quantities.

Escape was impossible.