Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Mara 29]

Kaden and Aston took their X-wings in a few passes over the communications arrays, blasting them to bits with ease. After that, they just began strafing the outside of the building.

He turned to his droid, "Artie, found any weakness in the infrastructure?"

Artie tootled a reply.

"No? Well... time to get creative..."

He went for another pass over the building, seeing the roof, which already had a little spot damage from the earlier hangar explosion, plus the denotation of the generator, communications array and general strafing.

"Aston, let's focus all fire on the roof...."

Kaden was hoping to force a weak spot in the roof that they could pop their torps in. This way it would hopefully do more damage, igniting even nearer the ammunition.

"And arm your proton torpedo, " he added.

[Vergere 1]

After a while, Brier excused herself for a few moments to head to the ladies room. While there, she checked to see where the cameras were along the way, idly placing explosives where they would do the most damage as she walked.

[edit: tense ]

Edited March 29, 2008 by Tyche

[Princess 35]

Nima checked her power pack, making sure it was full before forming up to storm the compound.

[Ender 8]

Leaving a swath of downed trees and flattened plants behind him, Jaim got out of range.

"I'm clear, LT. Fire away."

[Drake 53]

Aeric took a quick look up and down the half-ruined door. "Let's go," he said before planting his booted foot to the centre of the door in a hard kick that knocked the durasteel entry the rest of the way out of the doorframe. It fell onto the floor inside with a resounding clang. All four Revenants stood still and silent, blasters at the ready, half-expecting a squad of Stormtroopers to come running at the sudden crash.

After a few moments, Aeric took a step into the entry and motioned his team forward with his blaster. As they made their way into the darkened loading bay, he said, "We need to make this quick. Getting to the starfighter fuel tanks will be our primary goal. We'll set some explosives and evac. Fuel lines run beneath the factory so secondary explosions will take out everything."

The corridors they passed through were dimly lit by the red glow of emergency lighting. When Aeric and Szen had destroyed the power generators, it had crippled the factory enough to grant the team easier passage through it.

***

Takeshi thought about their situation for a moment. They had a limited amount of grenades and he wanted to save them in case they were needed on the way out of the facility. Instead, he risked a quick glance into the hallway and took in all that he saw. Sure enough there were six security guards, spread out to either side of the hall and guarded by bulkheads. A direct firefight was out of the question. However, he took note of an open wall panel and, what looked to be, repair work on equipment inside one of the bulkheads.

Ducking back as the Imperials in the hall opened fire, Tak said, "They have defensable positions but I spotted an open wall panel. It looks like someone was working around the power conduit inside the bulkhead. If we could get a shot off into that conduit, the electical discharge could be enough to incapacitate the guards." He looked to Atuarre. "Find an angle, Bullseye."

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

Atuarre grinned wickedly, flashing her long fangs. "My pleasure." She swung her bag from her shoulder and began assembling her sniper rifle with a speed and efficiency that was truly impressive. She tried a few different angles before settling on the one she felt would make the most spectacular explosion.

Peering down the scope, she murmmered, "Ok, I'm set. Just blow the door whenever you're ready."

[Drake 53]

Lieutenant Beskar smiled and put his back to the wall, motioning for Layla and Arlan to do the same. "Give 'em hell, Four. Fire away."

[Mara 29]

Once Aston had confirmed his torp live, Kaden commed Lt. Riamor. "Sir, torps locked and ready. Continuing to strafe building. Let us know when you have the quarry..."

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

"Copy that." Atuarre's first shot blew a fist-sized hole in the door. The second shot came immediately after and splashed across the conduit's control pannel--which happened to be located just next to the conduit itself. The resulting explosion incapacitated the guards as Beskar had predicted, and produced a spectacular fireball with brilliant streaks of electricity dancing through it.

Layla whistled. "Pretty."

"I aim to please." Atuarre propped her rifle against her shoulder and swept an arm in the direction of the now open door. "After you, Lieutenant."

[Drake 53]

"Good work," Tak said, stepping past the Trianii and into the smoke-filled hallway. The conduit was still sparking so took a wide path around it. "Let's restrain them and collect their power packs and any explosives they may have.

Takeshi knelt beside one of the unconsious security officers. Taking out a pair of restraint cables, he secured the man's hands behind his back then another around his ankles. Next, Tak popped the power pack from the man's blaster and quickly searched him for anything else useful. He found two stun grenades on his belt and a datapad.

[Bad furday 57]

"You should put that on a shirt, you know" stated Arlan in response to Atuarre's comment.

***

As the second team moved though the dimmed corridors of the factory they passed several doors, behind which were various departments.

"That one's engineering, and that one's circuitry. This one's-"

"You can read what it says over the doors?" Aeric asked Jya. The dimness, coupled with the red lighting, made the lettering above the doors hard to read.

Especially since the text was in red.

"I don't find it hard at all" she said, after a pause.

Aeric forgot what he was going to say, when a door at the end of the corridor opened, causing the startled group to turn with their weapons drawn.

An Imperial style protocol droid teetered through the open doorway, then stopped, evidently surprised to find a most unImperial collection of

people in the corridor.

[Drake 53]

"Hello," Greeted the droid. "Your faces do not match with any of the authorized personnel of this facility. Might you be guests? Your weapons would suggest a correlation between the recent attacks and your presense here. Might you be insurrectionists intent on disabling or destroying this facility?"

"Something like that," said Aeric. Before the protocol droid could do or say anything, he reached behind its neck and pressed the power switch.

It jerked as though stunned. "What? Ooh...myyy...goooo." said the droid as its power shut down, its eyes turned dim and its body slumped forward. Aeric caught the droid and laid it onto the floor.

[Mara 29]

Kaden was about to confirm with Aston that he had a lock as well on the target of the roof, when he pulled his X-wing up short and away from the ammunitions building, an idea coming to him.

"Sir, Lieutenant... I am wondering if it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep the building intact. The New Republic could use some supplies. If we could find a transport to haul some of the ammo with us..."

[Rogue 4]

Nat thought about that for a second. He knew how desperatly the New Republic needed supplies like that. They had been spread so thin that the furnishings that had been given for the office at their base were mounted evac seats that looked like they had been through a crash. He himself had been negotiating for the squadron's supplies and ammunitions, which despite their recent theft of an Imperial Interdictor Cruiser had proved difficult. His lekku curled at the thought. He knew

they could really use those supplies.

On the other hand, he knew that there were four of them, and hauling those supplies would require a lot of time and effort. Too much time and effort. And that was if a cargo ship decided to fall cleanly out of the sky and into their laps. He wasn't a droid, but he imagined that Ven would estimate those odds somewhere around three billion to one.

And afterall, they had their orders. And these pilots needed to learn how to properly follow them.

"Eleven, I want you to fire on the building." Nat's voice responded crisply over the comm.

[Mara 29]

"Yes, sir." Kaden had figured it was a longshot, and hadn't removed his lock on the target area. "Six, let loose your torp, and get ready to blow out of here. Fast."

Aston fired his proton torpedo at the roof and angled his fighter away, moving quickly away from the imminent source of the explosion. Kaden followed suit after he made sure the younger man was out of the way.

"Here goes nothin', Artie." He depressed the button then took his X-wing in a roll off to the starboard side, following Aston in speeding over the treetops.

Kaden didn't see it, but he sure heard and felt the massive explosion caused by two proton torpedoes hitting the damaged roof of the building, slipping inside and, consequently, igniting all the ammunitions stores.

[Ayingel 24]

"That was a risk we didn't need." Szen looked at the droid as it lay on the floor. "I hope they don't have too many more of these walking around." She looked back at the door it had come through and squinted at the text above the door. "I can't quite make it out."

[Bad furday 57]

Jya squinted.

"Maintenance. Good idea really. Land your ship in the loading bay and send your droid off to maintenance at the same time."

She gestured to an adjoining hallway.

"I'm guessing that side door is a loading bay entrance for personnel, as the larger doors say 'For Freight Use Only'."

[Rogue 4]

Layla moved cautiously down the hall. The air was stale and musky down here as they were now underground. But worse was that it was hot, from the factory production center. Looking cautiously both ways down the hall to make sure they were clear, she looked back to the others.

Tak was loading his newfound equipment from the guard onto his person, and Layla briefly hoped that none of it would get used in her general direction. A chill ran down her spine and she tried to hide it. To cover her wary staring she spoke. "Nothing sexier than a man with thermal detonators. Clear on both sides. What's the plan, handsome?"

[Drake 53]

Tak flashed her a smile. "We need to go down this hall. Then we'll hang a left, go down another hall and the droid ordnance bay should be there."

The comm on one of the fallen security officers crackled to life. "Squad Nine, we monitored a large power spike in your section. What happened?"

Takeshi paused for a moment, deciding whether to answer or not. After a few seconds hesitation, he picked up the comm and said, "This is, uh," he used his foot to nudge the fallen officer onto his back. Reading the man's name patch he said, "This is Dellano. We had a firefight with the intruders. The fools hit the exposed power conduit and it blew, killing themselves. The rest of us are fine down here."

"Understood," came the other voice. "Those Resistance fighters aren't too bright."

The Lieutenant almost laughed aloud. "No kidding. Well, we'll let you know if we find any more of them hiding around with their fingers in power sockets. As for the conduit, we'll clean up the mess here first. Send down a repair crew in twenty minutes."

"Confirmed. Control, out."

Tak shut off the comm and tossed it on the ground, just out of reach of the real Dellano. "Alright, I bought us twenty. Let's hope we don't run into anyone else." He took the lead and started down the hall toward their target.

[Rogue 4]

"Twenty's good." Layla said, covering him as they headed down the hall. Thirty would be better, but they would have suspected. She was relieved that he took the lead from her. It made it easier for her to keep an eye on him for anything suspicious.

As they headed deeper into the mountain, she began to sweat. Not from nervousness, but from the heat. The droid foundries were active, that was for sure. "The droid foundries should be just ahead, if we're lucky---" She frowned, stopping. "We're not lucky enough I guess. There are people in there, and they're pretty fragging aggrivated. probably engineers. But I'm sure a few bucketheads too."

Edited April 3, 2008 by Rogue

[Mara 29]

Artie twittered at Kaden. He shut off his flight squadron comm to talk to Artie privately.

"No, Artie. I won't tell him it was your idea. It was my idea. It was a longshot. Don't worry about it. It's forgotten now."

The droid sighed electronically.

"Focus yourself. Strengthen sensors, report anything unusual in the area." Kaden spun his fighter around, to check manually, to supplement his readers, on how much damage was actually done on the building. Computer estimates only went so far.

Everything was gone. Small fires and smoke still trailed up from a huge crater in the ground, plus from surrounding trees.

Artie whistled.

"Yeah... A lot I imagine. To go up like that..." he answered his droid's comment about the magnitude of the damage. "I hope the Lt. got Twelve away..."

He reopened his comm to the flight frequency, trying not to think at all how easy this had seemed. Because that thinking usually lead to lots of trouble. And pain.

"Target hit. Destroyed. Checking area for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary." Kaden took his X-wing in close, telling Aston to follow suit, and flew over the area where the building used to reside, checking for anything that was missed in the double proton explosion.

[Drake 53]

"If we're lucky," Takeshi said, "Then they'll be too busy guarding the obvious target, the foundaries, to think about putting too many to guard the ordnance bay. Thankfully, we're going this way," he pointed down one direction of an adjacent corridor, then back to the other way, "The opposite way they expect us to go. Let's use that to our advantage and move quickly before they realize we're not coming."

Tak set the pace down the corridor. Weapons at the ready, they went at a brisk jog that wasn't too fast to prevent running into traps or ambushes but fast enough to make good time. It wasn't long before they reached a large set of blast doors with writing designating the ordnance bays. It was here that the Imperials filled and stored the plasma canisters used in the Boomer droid's cannons.

Looking to Layla, he said, "Don't suppose your pheremone empathy works through two feet of durasteel."

[Rogue 4]

"I'll try. You boys just keep your pants on. And Four, I'm sorry. I know this bothers your nose hun." She increased her pheromone production, trying to get a read on what was going on inside. If her pheromones could get through the cracks on the durasteel door, then she could get a read on the emotions of the people inside. And from that reading she could separate and catalogue the different emotions in her own mind, to get an estimate of the amount of people inside. That was if her pheromones could sneak through the cracks.

Unfortunatly, luck seemed to be against her today. She shook her head, lowering her phermone production with the knowledge that what she had produced would cling around her for a bit. "Either I can't get through the cracks, or there's nobody inside. Sorry babe."

Edited April 4, 2008 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

"No problem. I like surprises."

Takeshi went over to a control pad next to the blast doors. After poking at it for several seconds, he made a confused expression that quickly passed to understanding and finally closed down to cold determination.

He turned to his team. "The door isn't locked down. Only basic security protocols, easily bypassed. This means the Imperials are incredibly stupid, incredibly overconfident, or incredibly planning a trap. I'm going to take the road of the pessimist and lean toward the latter. Something we have going for us, though, is that they won't risk firing close to the plasma canisters. They'll probably try to disable us with their weapons on stun. Bullseye, Legs, take the other side of the door." Looking to Arlan, Tak nodded towards the door console and said, "You're with me over here. When I say so, open the door."

Once Atuarre and Layla were in position on the opposite side of the blast door, and Tak was ready at his side, he said to Arlan. "Open it."

Arlan tapped the console and the doors rumbled open. The Revenants remained pressed with their backs against the walls, waiting and listening. When several tense seconds passed with nothing happening and not a peep coming from inside the bay, Tak cautiously snuck a glance around the edge of the door.

He drew his head back, with a look of annoyance and confusion on his face. Then he stepped away from the wall and entered the bay, blaster lowered but still at the ready. "Come on in," he said to the others.

When they entered, they found the ordnance bay empty of all its plasma stores. The storage tanks were also dark and empty. Only a pair of deactivated Boomer droids stood at the far end of the room.

"Perfect," Takeshi said with a sigh.

[Rogue 4]

"This is a joke, right?" Layla's annoyance was broadcast through the group via pheromones as she lowered her own blaster, walking around the room in a circle to check every storage tank. "Tell me we didn't come all this way for nothing. Not a single plasma canister."

She leaned over, looking down into one, then up at Takeshi in frustration. "Unless you think the residue in the storage container's is enough to blow this place, we're in real trouble Hot-Stuff."