The Gathering Calm

[Domino]

There were many Halcyons in the galaxy, it had become quite the common name over the years. Tonight there wan an extra Halcyon wandering around as Domino used one of her oldest alternate identities. Crossing the floor of the bizarre bazaar, she was wondering if it was time to discard her oldest of false identities as she looked at the shop banners hanging from the storefronts and took in the smells of the freshly cooking food on offer.

Shrugging off her melancholy, she entered the Mandal Hypernautics store to the electronic jingle of the door's bell and the bored sounding clerk's "Hey there." The displays held no interest for Tricla Halcyon as she strode past them to the counter.
"I have a list here of things I need and I'd like them delivered to my ship in docking bay thirty six." As she talked Tricla unfolded a flimsy and slid it across to the guy. "I need forty Ogre Two mining droids and two AT-MP mining vehicles, oh and I'm paying cash."

 

[Domino]

Enjoying the look on the man's face, Domino simply nodded at his skeptical tone when he named out the price and hoisted a slung backpack onto the counter. Clicking its lock open, she counted out the required number of high-value credit chits and passed them over for him to count before dropping them into a slot built into the counter. Presumably it lead to a time-locked safe of some sort. Taking the order verification form, she filled it out as Tricla and re-designated her landing bay. On finding out that she should have her order in three days, she told the clerk that it was fine and, thanking him, left the store to the sound of him wishing her a nice day.

Taking the monorail for the next hour saw her within walking distance of her next destination, a small G.E.A.R. outlet. It was a personal equipment company, that mostly specialized in the higher end equipment and mostly subsided on government contracts, but the Twi'lek was interested in one of their public products today. "If I pay cash can I get half a dozen of the 'Geological Exo-skeletons' delivered to bay thirty six in the next few days?" She asked the droid manning the place without preamble. Such droids were rarely programmed to take easy offense and she didn't feel like wasting time being polite with a machine. Once again the confirmation process was repeated (with sizing thrown in) and out came the backpack for another round before Domino was again on her way.

 

[Domino]

This time she decided to walk since her final destination today was only a little ways away. Her street instincts were telling her that this was a bad idea as this was far removed from the brightly lit and bustling friendliness that had pervaded the area between the docking port and her first stop, but she was confident that she could handle herself on these quiet and dirty streets. It was really the smell that was putting her on edge though, that wonderful mixture of stale vomit and piss from drunks underlined by old blood left too long uncleaned. Reminded her of some of the seedier parts of Nar Shadda, or growing up on Coruscant.

The alley only really cut a few blocks off her route to SFI, there was no real reason to take it, but Domino had a pretty good idea what she'd find down it. Sure enough, a little over half-way past the buildings towering on either side was a large dumpster taking up most of the path. It didn't take a genius to know what awaited her on the other side, the fact that the two stoop sloops across the street had straightened and began to follow her down confirmed. A quick feel through the force confirmed their intentions, if it'd just been a simple mugging she might have let them off with just a beating, instead she pulled her knife from its leg sheath and was bringing it up into the leader's neck as he stepped from behind the bin, shock baton out. Not waiting for him to fall, Domino followed through with the motion, pulling the knife from his subclavian artery as she turned and threw her blade into the chest of the closer of the two sloop's chest. He went down with a gurgle, pinkish blood slowly frothing from his mouth.

Having watched his two friends coldly dispatched with all the speed and brutality of the fracking Storm Commandos, the third man's pipe dropped from nerveless fingers as the spacer they'd meant to be pray turned her steely gaze to him. Turning heel, he made a break for it. Domino watched him almost make it to the mouth of the alley before reaching out with the force to grasp the man's heart and give it a few good squeezes. He collapsed in the throws of a heart attack and by the time those brought over by his death spasms looked down the alley both the woman introducing herself as Tricla and her knife were gone.

 

[Domino]

Her pattern didn't change any once she reached the Sun Forged Industries dealer. More mining equipment (thirty HMS-227 Mining Power Suits) to be delivered to Tricla's landing bay and most of the remaining cash from the backpack. This time however she opted to wait for a taxi to take her straight to her destination rather than public transport or walking. People were being murdered apparently and it wouldn't do for a lady to expose herself to that sort of element.

The landing platform of docking day Thirty Six seemed a lot smaller than it was as it was dominated by the bulk of a battered and dusty Replenish-Class Freighter. As she approached, one of the massive side doors rolled open just enough to allow her to pass under and into the dim lighting of the ship's interior. A glance at the rear of the bay as she made her way forward confirmed that the stack of boxed plasma torches were still there and being guarded by one of her Lotus Guard. The ship housed a full dozen of them, making it have the highest ever concentration of Domino's personal guards outside of her residence.

Making her way through the tight corridors and up the stairs, yes actual stairs, Domino found her way to a small map room aft of the ship's bridge. It hadn't started out as one, but she'd needed a map/work room more than an entertainment area and so it'd changed to suit requirements. Sitting at the holoprojector and quietly humming an old tune in the back of her throat, Domino opened the stored scan data from the last time it'd been to Gromas 16. A 3D map sprung up over the table displaying what was essentially a hole angled several hundred meters into the ground. It wasn't quite large enough to fly a light freighter down but the dimensions were almost right for it. At the bottom were a few partially mapped tunnels branching off created by the local wild life. A few dozen Cyclops Probes in the other hold would serve to take care of that though. In the meantime she busied herself mapping a potential lay-out for the facility at the bottom of that hole. Yup, Domino was making a secret underground facility. No real reason a mine had to have it's outbuildings on the surface though and it just made sense to shelter as much as possible below the surface.

 

[Domino]

Over the next few days Domino was laying low in the ship, she had perhaps been a bit higher profile than she normally would have liked, but this had kept the money untraceable. The dead thugs were... well she didn't like rapists. Fortunately Kincaid had been able to secure the delivery of the one item they'd had to pre-order by herself. A Shen-Ru Cargo Hold now sat disassembled in their cargo hold. And no, that wasn't ironic, as they'd both had to point out to the skeleton crew running the ship. It was just unusual. By the end of the third day after placing the orders everything had arrived and looked to be in good shape, by midnight they were in hyperspace and taking the back-routs to avoid Hutt Cartel and Sanctum space along the Mara Corridor to eventually arrive at the Gromas. The whole route had practically been her backyard for more than a decade between the Suns and moving the Lotus's, if she and her people didn't know how to get by unnoticed something was definitely wrong.

On their approach to the sixteenth moon Domino mused at how they'd lucked out once again with there being no over-arching power protecting the system. Another reason she wanted to hide her facility underground, easier to avoid unwanted attention that way. The landing wasn't anything special either, they just parked the ship in the same space as last time next to the great big tunnel they'd dug slanting down into the ground and began unloading while techs started reconnecting to the droids they'd left behind.

 

[Domino]

The dust was the worst thing about this place. No vegetation and little surface water meant that there was nothing to hold it down against the constant wind sweeping the moon. She wasn't five paces out before Domino was pulling her dust rag up over her mouth and nose. "Right, start getting everything unloaded," she ordered one of the crew as she eyed the dark shape of the tunnel looming up out of the side of a small rise. "I'm going to make sure nothing's moved in."

In the tighter confines offered by the underground and the fact that something could come out at nearly any angle she'd elected to take her old stand by, a pair of sabers rather than her newer double sided pike. Advancing cautiously into the mine with one saber held up sideways above her head so that it's yellow light wasn't in her eyes, Domino kept the other at the ready but powered down before her. Last time Outer Rim Resources had come here they'd been attacked by a giant tikulini that'd nearly killed her, last time she'd had Rave Merrill and the Iron Knights lead by HK as back-up. As a result they'd gone from 'possibly extinct' to 'very rare' in Domino's estimation and she wasn't taking any chances, all her senses were on high alert. Organics tended to have mates...

A slight rustling off to the side, the whisper of sand trickling to the ground, was all the warning she had. Her danger sense flashed as she spun, saber already twisting around in a horizontal slash that bisected some insectoid in its mid-air leap and leaving its two halves to hit against her armor. A closer look showed it to be some sort of spider colored to blend into the compacted sand and armed with two massive mandibles and razor sharp daggers for legs. Around her and sown the tunnel the sound of moving sand echoed as dozens of the buried spiders stirred.

 

[Domino]

Dropping her unlit saber, Domino's hand darted to her belt and tossed a micro concussion grenade further down the tunnel before leaping several yards back towards the entrance her now empty hand stretched out towards her saber and drawing it back to her. Further down the grenade exploded with a wump killing several of the bone gnashers and causing a few rocks to fall. Shaking her head to clear it, she just barely avoided another one of the spiders trying for the leap attack. A force push sent it careening off into the wall and smashed several of its legs before Domino was forced to turn her attention to the others rushing her. She skewered one with a thrust through the mandibles before turning it into a slash at another that ripped the side of what remained apart and lopped another of the spiders in half.

On the other side of her one bit down on her boot and hung on as Domino lifted her foot back, rolling it over before she stomped her heel down into its thorax with a wet crunch. They were a bit more weary of her feet after that and she stomped the ground a few times to ward them back as she picked off another with her saber. Problem was they were so low to the ground that she had to let them in close to reach them or almost go into a fencing lunge. Another leaped at her from the side from the ground this time and managed to slip under a twirl from Domino's off-hand saber. It's scrabbling claws managed to find purchase on the plate protecting her thigh and it bit down on the armor weave underneath, disgorging its venom until another swipe took care of it. Later investigation would show that one of the spider's fangs had barely made it through to leave the shallowest of scratches but that was enough to cause a throbbing burn along it.

 

[Domino]

After another one dropped down on her from above and left deep cuts across her cheek and down a lekku trying to find purchase before falling to her collarbone and getting crushed by a hand holding a still lit lightsaber, Domino had had enough. Gathering the force, she slammed a fist to the ground sending herself to one knee and a force wave radiating out to smash into the fracking things. Just happening to bat back another mid-jump, smashing its face in the process in a way that probably would have been quite comical if viewed in slow-motion. Then she began to re-collect the force inside herself, drawing on the life around her and draining the bone gnashers nearby of it as well. Their corpses withered and curled, seemingly untouched as Domino began to alter the flow of the force into a proper death field which she expanded several meters into the earth around her before sending it down the tunnel to instantly clear it of any more of the burrowing spiders hiding there. She repeated the process back up to the entrance, stopping just short of the cave's rim.

It was a technique that Domino hated and the power rush it gave her always left a bad taste in her mouth afterwords. That she'd had to resort to using it just made her angrier and that fueled the negative feelings brought about by the unnatural wrongness of what she'd just done. Resisting the temptation to spit, she set off to continue further down to the end of the tunnel, her every nerve buzzing with excited power as the occasional littered corpse crunched beneath her feet. The tunnel, at least the part she'd dug, ended in a wide domed room with several storage containers holding the droids previously left behind. Off to the left was another gaping opening where the tikulini had burst through the wall from where it had been burrowing along a vein of ore.

Yeah, this would do for a start. The room was just over half a kilometer down and would serve as a decent starting point to build from while the probes mapped out the remaining tunnels and showed where the webbing and crisscrossing vein of phrikite. Opening the shipping containers revealed the droids to still be intact if a bit dusty. Done, Domino turned and made her way back up the sloping tunnel as her leg began to stiffen up in protest. Her other wounds also stung from the pain and sweat and grit that'd made their way into them.

 

[Domino]

Squinting in the light of the sun after being underground for what felt like hours, Domino ignored the looks of the people working around her and made her way over to her Lotus Guard coming to meet her with a hover gurney which she consented to laying on after giving it a dirty look and a gently reprimand from her guards. After all, what did she have them for if she went into dangerous situations alone? "Next time I'm going full PSG." She promised. "Dat flamethrower, ungf." That got a roll of the eyes but it was true. Her people took her into the ship's med-bay and turned her over to the doctor who cleaned and bandaged her wounds with a bacta gel that practically glued them shut once it dried and left dark lines running over her blue skin. The leg also got a wrap and a shot of anti-somereallylongchemicalname. Rather than change after, Domino just buckled her armor back on and headed back out to oversee events. Someone had been kind enough to pitch several camouflage nets up as a type of pavilion for shade and had set up a series of terminals to monitor the progress of the probes.

Co-opting a seat for herself and stretching her leg out, Domino watched as lifters set down a belt to remove rock from the hole and more workers entered to get a look for themselves. She suspected that more than one would be leaving with a gnasher's claw in their pocket. Something to remember the job by and to frighten children with stories of. Her scratches had stopped bothering her and her leg has settled into a dull ache as Domino found herself dozing off to the sound of heavy machinery starting up.

 

[Domino]

When she awoke the main chamber had already been fashioned into a rectangle roughly a hundred fifty meters by eighty with a twenty meter high ceiling supported by great columns nearly a meter across, at least the dimensions would be once the walls were put into place and lined with durasteel. Domino was done taking chances with this place and she didn't want to return only to find her miners slaughtered by some digging roach that spit acid or something. Stretching, her leg was now completely stiff but no longer hurt, she checked on the progress of the pobes. They'd mapped out the tunnels ORR had previously mined and were now spaced out half a kilometer apart running down the giant worm tunnel and still going. Each was also still reading Phrikite on its sensors which hopefully meant they were sitting on several hundred tons of the stuff. Mentally she made a note to install a life signs detector and run a power cable out to several guard droids down there, maybe a backdoor escape hatch too.

The walls and ceiling were left rough, the better to grip onto duracrete with. Of which a few inches were applied that then had coated durasteel panels carefully fitted into it while it was still slightly gooey. That would ensure an even fit to the cavern surface. Then while that dried, the tunnel leading down to it was evened out, reinforced, and had a path laid down. Finally another layer of duracrete was added over the plating to help protect it. The reasons for such gargantuan over-built construction were two-fold. First, Domino intended for the mine refinery to be entirely self-contained underground, and secondly so that there was enough room for two light freighters to enter and land to either drop off supplies or pick up refined phrik.

 

[Domino]

Walking through the now truly cavernous room Domino's quiet boot steps echoed throughout. She had a can of washable spray paint in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other and was marking out where and how she wanted the buildings and process lines. Placing a staging area for miners and droids near the entrance of the mine shaft had been the only easy choice. Well that and droid maintenance and charging racks on the near side of it to the exit. The far side would have take away from he shaft and would be where the Shen-Ru hold would go to break things down and sort them. From there she laid out where the ore would go as well as a large area for unwanted material. Then it was processing and refining, storage, environmental reclamation so everybody didn't suffocate, kitchen, cafeteria, bunk housing, rec, more storage, power generation, operations control, landing pads, machine shop... The list went on for quite some time even as Domino revised the layout of the sprayed lines. Finally she allocated a small area for a freshwater pool that'd eventually have some plants and fish growing in it for fresh food and some color.

 

[Domino]

Once everything was mapped out again and cross-checked with the preliminary designs laid out during the wait for her orders to be delivered, the actual building of the facility happened rather quickly. Prefab frames were interlocked, plumbed, wired, and backed before having permacrete sprayed on with the end result looking like someone had taken part of Mos-Eisley and dumped it underground here. Which was good, those buildings were supposed to be energy efficient and low-maintenance. Walking through on another one of her many inspections, Domino made a note to order in some paint. Greens, blues, oranges, reds, the colors of a Felucian night to use on the buildings and brighten the place up before long postings drove workers mad from the dull surroundings. She had planned on hiring people from a desert world to work here considering the moon's surface, but even they needed stimuli that being down here would deprive them of.

Domino's inspection tour ended at the power generation planet where the ORR engineers were just about ready to turn on the shielded fusion generator and take the facility off of the powercells that had been running the lights and building equipment. A tech with the yellow stripes across his charcoal-grey coat made the appropriate checks of the power draw, tinkered with the settings and set the surge protectors before activating the generator. It powered on with a hum and lights came on within that settled on a warm yellow glow. A few additional checks later and the Tech informed her that everything was operating well within normal and the power plant was ready to take on additional draw. Thanking him, she left to return to the ship outside. It'd been a long few days and Domino was going to get some rest while the mining base was furnished and set up.

 

[Domino]

It was just morning when Domino made it up to the ship and the smell of fresh caff permeated the air trying to tempt Domino into delaying sleep. Still she resolutely marched on to her bunk room. Closing the door behind her, she shrugged her jacket off and let it slide off one arm and onto the room's chair before sitting on the edge of her bunk and pulling her boots off, she let them lay where they fell and soon her pants joined them on the floor as she rolled beneath the covers and the oblivion of sleep.

The sun was half way back down the horizon by the time Domino stirred again. This wasn't due to laziness or some extreme exhaustion on her part, but rather the moon's short fourteen hour day. Dressing in the previous day's clothes and slinging her jacket over an arm, Domino went down to the galley to see what the ship's auto-chef was willing to make at this time of day. Everybody's schedules were messed up by the rotational period and differing starting planets. Like any experienced spacer, most of the people here couldn't count the number of times they'd had dinner for breakfast, lunch for dinner, or any number of the other variations provided by an auto-chef set to a ship's unfeeling clock that didn't care what planet they happened to be on that day or where the crew was from. Waffles! Seems Domino was in luck. She drowned them in syrup and slathered butter across the middle of the stack before attacking them with gusto. A few bits of bacon laying to the side were ignored until the stack was gone and were then used to finish off the syrup. Afterwords she leaned back in her chair and enjoyed a slow cup of caff which she refilled before heading out again.

 

[Domino]

Stepping off from the ship, Domino was witness to several of the crew trying to rearrange the remaining cargo without simply dumping it across the ground in order to free up a path for an older model S9 power droid. It was far from necessary but Domino had wanted something for back-up power that could also be used as a secondary power station deep in the mine tunnels if a secondary station was ever set up. Calling the workers off, she extended her non cup-laden hand out to the droid and, to the droid's great surprise and apparent joy, lifted it through the force and out beyond the bottom edge of the cargo ramp. The S9 proceeded to do as little of a dance as one its size could, beeping and whistling and shaking its head at Domino before settling down. Gathering the force again, Domino leaped up to the flat platform of the droid's body. Pointing the way into the tunnel down, the two of them set off into the mine at a sedate, if smooth, pace. Ahhh, much better than having to walk up and down that long tunnel. Thought Domino. The previous night she'd been tempted to install some sort of lift or cart system for passengers but it hadn't been in the plans and would need fabrication. Besides, once everything was running there wouldn't be a need. Light freighters would be taking the passengers up and down the tunnel and a lift would just get in the way of that and serve to lessen their camouflage and bring intruders down quicker.

Speaking of intruders, she was grateful to see that trenches that would eventually rout the power for several small anti-personal turrets and a few larger vehicular ones had already been dug and that several mining droids were working on the cubby holes for them. Those combined with the blast door once it was installed would turn the entrance tunnel into a defensive slaughterhouse should anyone be foolish enough to attempt an intrusion. Several others had suggested missile turrets as well, but the thought of having even more explosions wracking the tunnel hadn't sat very well with Domino. She'd also considered providing shields for the turrets and door, but had decided that would just be too much. The likely hood of an attack was minimal and those systems would have been expensive and require additional power generators beyond even her trusty steed S9. In the end she was satisfied with upping the thickness of the door and magnetically shielding it against laser fire.

 

[Domino]

Inside the complex the first of the miners were busy moving in and a few of the workers that didn't have their hands full gave her a wave atop the power droid as it made its way down the central path towards the storage at the rear of the cavern. Truth be told, aside from this main path running from the entrance past the landing pads and to the refinery and storage, the only other ones of any decent size ran from it to the shaft entrance and a third from the shaft to the refinery intake. She'd leave it to the miners to name the three 'roads' if they ever were, might make them feel more at home. Once they arrived at the droid racks, Domino clambered down and left her new friend waiting for the clutter to be cleared so it could drive into its slot at the end of the row, and headed over to the budding ops center herself.

Once again she ran across the same technician that had set up the fusion generator but this time he was setting up a pair of control stations for the mine. A brief glance showed that he had gotten at least some sleep as well. Conferring with him confirmed that one would monitor the mine and droids, the other would control the facility, its functions and defenses. The refinery would take care of itself for the most part but in a crises any of the terminals were capable of handling any of it provided the operator was up to the task. Satisfied, Domino left to check on the progress throughout the rest of the cavern.

 

[Domino]

Grabbing two of her Guard, she had them suit up while she went to her own cabin to up-armor herself. The lesson of the bone gnashers was still fresh and Domino intended to keep her promises to both Kincaid and herself. So she'd take her elite guard and wear her Song of Mandalor Operators Kit. It'd make her feel clunky using it to explore the mine shafts that still had the probe droids patiently waiting in them but maybe being a juggernaut made of iron would pay off. She wanted to find a good spot to block off that tikulini had left and maybe explore the possibility of an escape route, plus the mines themselves needed to be declared safe for workers.

Domino was just sliding a fresh power pack into her sonic shotgun when the freighter's captain called asking her to go up to the bridge. Sliding the gun into its leg-harness, Domino complied and ambled on up to where the captain was waiting for her. "There's a ship on the long-range. Thought it was the supply freighter bringing in tydirium at first but it's not scheduled for another forty hours."

"I see, could be someone else with their own op. I doubt we're the only ones with an interest here." She mused while peering at the display. Then she felt something she hadn't sensed in a long time. "Or it could be an old friend. Stay calm captain, it's someone I told about Gromas after the last time I was here. I'm going to go down to meet her if she lands nearby, please inform my escort where they can find me." Leaving the ship's captain grumbling to himself about mentalists turning him into a messenger boy, Domino headed out onto the sands to greet her old friend and apprentice.

 

[Fab'ul'ous]

[member="Domino"]

Her master was awesome sometimes. Saying it with a grin on her face while the girl was moving. For the first time in a long time she wasn't having to wear her Song of the Sun's armor or carry her lightsaber around. She got to enjoy herself while she was going to meet Miss Domino and stopped in her room. The top drawer suspiciously empty while Wendy looked at herself and her pants looking in wondering if she was wearing all of her pairs before she realized she was going commando and stood there with a smile on her face. Then she was going off to m,eet and help her master while she was going into the sands from out of the ship waving to the woman. "Hello master."

 

[Domino]

"Heya Wendy," Wendy could see Domino's grin as she greeted her as she'd left her helmet hanging by her side. Grabbing the human by a shoulder, she pulled her in for a hug while being careful not to squish her against her plates. "Great to see you out here, whatever you came for." Domino said after releasing her. By this time her two guards had appeared in their black-plated armor along with Kincaid who gave the other woman a respectful nod. "Care for a quick tour? We've been turning this place from a literal hole in the ground into a top-notch mining op for the last few days now. Should be just about done too." After that she'd get to clearing the mine tunnels. Although it needed to be done before they sent in droids or workers, it wasn't top priority since the Cyclops' hadn't picked up anything organic down there, but then most of them weren't equipped to.
[member="Wendy La Fey"]

 

[Fab'ul'ous]

[member="Domino"]

Wendy got to embrace her master and be happy looking at the smaller woman while she took in everything around them. Mining all the way out here would serve a purpose before her attention was on some of the things and she spoke. "I like it, this place has character and things to do right...." Okay she had no idea really what to do but was trying with most of her attention on some of the things. "Oh you should see all the col things they have been making for us at Sasori. New healing gear and healing crystals of fire, Master Matsu knows how to make them not just the rare ones that were taken away from the orders."

 

[Domino]

That turned the slight smile that Wendy always managed to bring to Domino's face into a small frown of concern. "I do know of some of that Jedi's inventions, the ones that aren't kept secret for the order anyways." She wasn't about to share that Matsu had told her of even some of those. She didn't think that it'd be a betrayal to tell her former apprentice, nor did she mistrust her. However, a secret told once was no longer a secret, especially with others about. "Someone taking the Jedi's healing crystals is news to me though. Who would do such a thing?" Normally the Twi'lek didn't care one whit what the Jedi were up to so long as they were leaving her alone, but she knew that that Jedi like Wendy would use those crystals to help the people that needed them the most.
[member="Wendy La Fey"]