BLACK ICE - Episode 4: Chief Engineer Skolos

[Jedi Skyler]

Zinn hollers out, "We don't know that! For all we know, this guy has the whole ship wired with holocams and probe droids. Proceed with EXTREME caution!!!"

[Monsieur Rose]

A look on comprehension goes over Zuul's face as he slowly grasps the situation.

"Ahh, so thiss might not be help coming. Understood."

Zuul puts his back beside the doorway and awaits the newcomer.

[max_vale]

Aboard the I.S.S. Black Ice; somewhere in hyperspace


The heavy foot-falls got closer and closer to the bridge until eventually, a battered, silvery humanoid droid about 2 meters in height, very broad and very thickly armored; with one large, 3 fingered grasper hand and one arm that ended in what looked like a blaster tube clomped onto the bridge. The head turned too and fro and seemed to bore in on each Rebel in turn; "I SEE you naughty mynocks! Now hold still so DD-9 can dispose of you!"; it says in a sing-songy, cheerful voice as it starts to move in towards Zuul...

Zinn Valimar and Jackson Crodowski; the two members of Black Team with the most knowledge of; and experince with; Droids; could tell that this particular Droid was a DD-series mynock/pest disposal Droid that had been built to dispose of large, dangerous predators such as Mynocks and Gundarks with a powerful grasping claw and a powerful Blaster; either with Stun blasts or to kill if necessary. The fact that it seemed to be zeroing in on humans and sentient aliens and calling them mynocks made both men strongly suspect the Droid had had its programming modified to identify humans and aliens as mynocks and deal with them accordingly...

[kipper]

Clark wastes no time in firing his carbine at the approaching droid!

[ybn1197]

Jackson yells at the droid from his hiding spot, "DD-9! Cross reference visual input of humanoid and mynock. Compare and contract. Cross-extrapolate reference data."

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin fires his carbine at the droid as well.

[Jedi Skyler]

As Zinn lines up a shot on the errant droid, he follows Jackson's example. "DD-9! Activate life-sensor suite now! Scan for human signals. Report!"

[Monsieur Rose]

"Mynock? Who are you calling Mynock? Them'ss fightin' wordss!!"

Zuul gets into a low fighting stance, looking for an opening to topple the large droid.

[max_vale]

Aboard the I.S.S. Black Ice; somewhere in hyperspace


As DD-9 enters onto the bridge and advances on the rebels of Black Team, which it has identified as 'mynocks'; the group responds in different ways....

Clark and Gavin immediately open fire; both of them score hits with their blaster bolts and both are dismayed to learn that other than leaving scorch marks and peeled paint; their weapon fire did nothing to impede the progress of the stocky droid...

Zinn and Jackson attempt to reason with the Droid, asking it to scan for human-life and use its memory data to match humans against mynocks. DD-9 responds in a confused tone; "Hmmm I've never had mynocks shoot at me or talk to me before....still, my memory banks indicate you all look like mynocks should look. And humans are just tiny creatures that live in the comms system and tell me when to go deal with mynocks. You must be some clever, naughty mynocks trying to trick me. It won't work!"

As DD-9 finishes its speech, Zuul suddenly rushes forward; seeing a chance to try and knock the Droid over. DD-9 heavy grasper-claw hand snakes out in a lightning-fast move and grabs the big barabel by the leg; lifting him bodily up and off the deck and hanging upside down in its hand. "Ooof, you are certainly the HEAVIEST mynock I've ever had to deal with!", the Droid says while its Blaster-equipped hand moves over and at point blank range shoots a bolt into Zuul's torso.

Luckily for the Barabel, the energy blast is a blue-white stun blast and the big alien shakes and jerks and twitches uncontrollably in the Droid's hand for a long moment before hanging limp*. From a quiet corner of the Bridge, a sigh is heard along with a ripple of fur and the Bothan Jedi-Student Borsk La'Reth pulls out his lightsaber and with an audible hum, he ignites the blue-white blade....


*Zuul is Stunned for the next 5 rounds

[kipper]

While the droid is engaged with Zuul, Clark moves in and attempts to cut into the metal shell with his vibro-bayonet.

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin "Now what...?" the smuggler says out of frustration. Wishing he had a EMP about now.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul is spending too much time on this ship asleep. =)

[ybn1197]

Jackson will attempt to hack into the comms system to see if he can override or impersonate the "tiny creatures" the droid receives its commands from.

[Jedi Skyler]

Seeing Jackson working with the computer, Zinn says, "See if you can track where its orders are coming from; focus on that section below us I mentioned before; it's the only place the CO2 levels were kept normal, so that's where our saboteur is."

As he speaks, Zinn takes the time to sight down the barrel of his blaster carbine, looking for the opportunity to get in what he hopes will be a final strike on the droid.

((Taking one round to aim.))

[ybn1197]

Jackson nods at Zinn and begins tracking.

[max_vale]

Aboard the I.S.S. Black Ice; somewhere in deep space


The strange battle between a DD series Mynock-removal Droid and the Rebels of Black Team continued on board the bridge of the captured Container Train Black Ice....

From his station, Jackson Crodowski could tell that all signs pointed to the Maintenance level several decks down as being the source of the all the strange events occurring since the Rebels had captured the ship. Jackson also could tell that somehow, the sensors had been tricked into detecting a false mass-shadow that dropped the big vessel out of hyperspace....

Professor Clark and Borsk La'Reth approached DD-9 with melee weapons as Gavin Storm loudly wondered what action to take next. Clark had just managed to score a light hit with his Vibroblade before the Droid's heavy stun blaster swung his way and with a loud ZAP; the academic-turned-Rebel was suddenly on the deck, painfully twitching into unconsciousness as the stun bolt slammed into his mid-section*...

His action was not in vain though, as it allowed the Bothan Jedi La'Reth to close in and with a swing of his lightsaber, his blue-white blade sliced through the forearm above the grasper claw; removing one arm of the Droid and dropping the Stunned Barabel Zuul to the deck in a heap. DD-9 exclaimed; "Well...that's certainly something to keep in mind for future dealings with you pesky mynocks!" in a surprised, but none-too-concerned tone....

All the while Zinn was taking aim with his Blaster Carbine and seeing his opening; he took a careful shot at the narrow connecting cylinder that served as the Droid's 'waist' and which was rarely revealed between the blocky, heavily armored 'chest' and powerful, thick 'legs' of the Droid. The bolt slammed into the unprotected piece and severed the Droid into two halves in a shower of sparks and short-lived electric sparkles. DD-9, losing none of its aplomb; turned its head this way and that and said; "Oh Dear....I don't know HOW I will be able to stop you mynocks now"; and other such nonsense over the next couple of minutes before Zuul and Clark came back into the world of the conscious...

At about the same time; the comms board crackled alive and an angry, male voice barked out; "All right you filthy pirates, this is Chief Engineer Skolos. If you wanna take my ship, you're gonna have to deal with me! I'm in maintenance, waitin' for you! Come and get me you cowardly slugs!" The comms shut off; followed a few moments later by all the lights as the main power seems to have been shut down. Emergency backup lights click on, bathing the Bridge in eerie, reddish-yellow light. The temperature also begins to quickly drop and Jackson, Zinn and Gavin know that if Skolos has command of the engines and the power generators and has shut them both down; it's only a matter of time before he can render as much of the ship as he likes uninhabitable....

*Clark was stunned for 5 rounds; but he and Zuul are now fine.

[ybn1197]

Jackson looks up from the screens in front of him. "Gentlemen we do not have a lot of time. We need to get down to maintenance in the quickest manner we can muster."

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin gets up blaster in hand says not a word and rushes of to the maintenance bay.

[kipper]

"Do you know the route?" Clark calls after Gavin.

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin shrugs and calls back "We'll soon find out."