OTHERSPACE: Episode Five: Enter the Nest

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin offers a hand to Zardra to help her back up "We should keep moving if we can."

[Starbeard]

Vale, feeling much better, agrees. "If we have what we need, we can try to retrace our steps back to the ship, or head through that far exit."

Ominously, he adds, "But even if we escape, it still doesn't solve the problem that this thing is hurtling towards our galaxy. This seems like an engine room, perhaps we can find some way to steer it here—or, as a last resort, sabotage…" He looks around for a piloting apparatus or a bio-engine that looks particularly fragile and important.

[kipper]

"It almost feels like this thing is guiding us through it," Clark says, "I doubt it would let us go back the way we came, even if we wanted to. Let's press onward."

[ybn1197]

"I agree with Vale," Jackson says. "With this thing moving towards our home, we need to slow it down or stop it altogether." Jackson heads over to the "engine" and looks around to see if there is any way to throw a major monkey-wrench into the works.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

"Now we're talking! Let'ss set some chargess and blow thiss thing up!" Zuul puts his treasured handgun away and starts looking around for things to blow up.

[max_vale]

Fourth level of Strange alien ship/station in 'Otherspace'


As the Rebel band and Zardra start to look around for ways to muck up the 'engine' of the alien ship/space station/whatever they were on; they suddenly heard a massive skittering sound above them.....

Looking up into the web-filled ceiling some 5 meters above their heads, they suddenly saw a dozen or perhaps 15 of the Alien Warriors suddenly descend on web strands towards the floor level with the party....greenish-white plasma gun-ports glowing on their armored suits....Zardra yells out; "RUN!", and does so, loping quickly for the one obvious exit out of the room.....

Without much thought, a 'pack-mentality' comes over the Rebels and they follow the Bounty Hunter, emerging into a vast, strangely-lit chamber that is dominated by a 'dome' of some-kind of transparent material, from floor to ceiling; allowing the strangeness of 'Otherspace' to bathe the Rebel party in its strange light....

The massive open area has a raised platform in the center that is dominated by half-a-dozen or so, thick 'tentacle' like coils moving this way and that and two figures standing in the center, one human and the other, quite obviously one of the aliens.....

The human is tall, perhaps 2 meters in height and very thin with a gaunt face and dark, intelligent, ambitious and merciless eyes shining from them. An air of authority clings to him like a cloud and the uniform simply confirms what is obvious on an almost subconscious level; this is Imperial Governor; Moff Gran Ravik.

As tall as Ravik stands though, he is dwarfed by the alien standing next to him, who is easily 3 meters and more in height and wears the same kind of armored suit that the others wear, holding its 6 legs and 2 pincer-ed hands/claws out in front of its massive body, though the head was larger and the eyes shone a different color....a malevolent orange hue that burned like fire. Its armored suit was different as well, seemingly thicker and of a more complicated make, and to top it all off, a cloak of purplish-black cascaded down its back. This was unquestionably the leader of these bizarre beings....

Something about the scene caused the party to freeze in their tracks, and without really noticing it, a dozen warriors followed them in and fanned out behind them as first Ravik and then the alien spoke to them. "Well....I am pleasantly surprised to see that you made it this far, but to ensure that you know who I am, my name is Moff Ravik and I invite you to join with me and my new allies, the Charon"; here he gestures to the aliens; "-in a noble quest.....bringing about the end of Emperor Palpatine and his New Order".

In the stunned silence, the alien gestures with one of its pincered hands and one of the tentacle/coil things rises up and it connects its claw to the 'appendage' (think the movie Avatar here); and a moment later, a deep, bass voice that seems to sound somewhat mechanical as it is no doubt translated thru the bio-machinery; seems to literally rise up from the floor. "This disease has rarely vectored here to The Desolate and never before to the Final Nest level. Your strain is most resistant. Ravik-culture has convinced me that your strain will be of service to the Void. I am Berasco; the Final Prophet of the Charon. Submit to the will of the Void and our bio-scientists will evaluate and cultivate your strain so that we can cross you withe the finest of Charon warriors. What say you?"

As the two are speaking, Zardra quietly whispers out of the corner of her mouth and gestures with her chin towards the 'glass' of the dome. "Look down there, that's where the ships came in...and over past the platform those two are blathering on there's some empty suits of alien armor....you thinking what I'm thinking?"; she asks while her hand is behind her back, carefully pulling a spherical grenade.....

Looking out the Rebels can see that she's right....some 100 or so meters outside of the dome and down, they can see the 'hangar bay' protrusion they came in at...and looking past the platform, which was about 15 meters from them, were maybe a dozen suits of armor...clearly designed for the charon...but empty.....perhaps 20 meters away....

[kipper]

Clark nods quickly to Zardra, then shouts out: "If you want to start assimilating us, why don't you start with him?" Clark points at Ravik.

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin has nothing to say or add just merely continues to think about how nice it would be to get the hell out of this strange place and back to normality.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

Only those nearby can feel Zuul's growl. He resists action, only moving his hand towards his launcher slowly. His eyes dart back and forth at the other members of the group, waiting to be released in what promises to be an explosive rage.

[ybn1197]

Like Gavin, Jackson has nothing to say or add that has not already been expressed. The time in the 'Otherverse' has worn him out more than all their previous fights with the imperials. He simply nods in agreement with Zarda.

[Starbeard]

Vale mutters to Zarda out of the corner of his mouth, "Just say when."

OOC: Does Ravik have a weapon in his hand or in his holster? If he does, I'd like to try to cause a diversion right before Zarda makes her move, by using telekinesis to have his own blaster go off shooting where it is. That might startle the big charon next to him.

[max_vale]

Fourth level of Strange alien ship/station in 'Otherspace'


Upon hearing Professor Clark's reply about perhaps starting the 'culture joining' between the Charon and those from 'regular' space with Moff Ravik, Berasco, the 'Final Prophet' and leader of the Charon turns towards the Imperial Governor, who's face contorts with anger as he glares at the Rebel Professor; but he has no time to say anything as a series of events is triggered by the deadly Bounty Hunter standing with the band of Rebel Agents....

Zardra explodes into action by first tossing the primed grenade she held behind her back towards the transparent wall behind the Rebels and back near the group of a dozen or so Charon and then quickly snapping her other arm back, the one holding the Force Pike; and with a pair of quick steps forward, she launches the weapon with amazing power and accuracy straight at the Charon Leader, who seems completely unfazed as the weapon glances off his heavily armored suit and rattles on the ground next to him. He does react with a glance away however, as a moment later the grenade in the far back corner of the room explodes and a section of the wall gives way, causing a great deal of noise and confusion as several of the Charon troops are sucked out into the Void and a howl of escaping air echoes throughout the room....

Upon Zardra's actions, the rest of the Rebels burst into motion as well....Clark, Gavin and Jackson racing forward and all nimbly dodging out of the way as a couple of the coil/tentacle things come their way and attempt to grab them. The quickly roll out of the way and end up right near the empty Charon vacuum/armor suits....

A pair of the tentacle/coils race in towards Zuul and Zinn and the big Barabel snatches up his double-barrel flechette launcher and cuts loose one of the 2 loaded canisters. It quickly explodes into a dozen deadly hunks of razor-sharp metal and the projectiles tear into and through both coils; cutting them down into half-sized stalks that flop for a moment on the ground and then cease to move, causing Zuul to let out a roar of approval.....next to him the tall Rebel pilot stares with his mouth open for a long moment before snapping out of it...

Vale doesn't see any weapons on Moff Ravik for him to attempt to use his Telekinesis Force Power on, but he DOES notice a coil/tentacle flying towards him and Zardra and without really thinking about it, he snatches up his Lightsaber, ignites it and with a quick slash, his humming weapon moves in an arc that bisects and cuts in half another of the tentacle/coil weapons; leaving 3 still working....2 waving around near Gavin, Jackson and Clark and the third serving as a make-shift shield for Ravik and Berasco....

In the back corner of the room, two or three Charon soldiers had been 'blown' out of the room and another couple are essentially serving as a 'stuck in the opening' jam while the rest try to recover from the sudden unexpected explosion from Zardra's grenade....

Berasco in his deep bass voice, says; "Eliminate the contamination!" to the 'holding on for dear life' Charon troops as the temperature in the room drops from the opening to vacuum and the sound of escaping air becomes less a whoosh and more of a hiss as the Charon troops serving as a makeshift 'patch' seal off most of it. He then wraps claws a round Ravik and hits a button that causes the platform to rise rapidly towards the ceiling, which opens up to show that there is some kind of 'escape room' up there....

[kipper]

Noting the loss of air, Clark quickly attempts to put on one of the Charon vacuum suits and seal himself up inside, if it looks at all feasible.

[GreyWolfVT]

Gavin picks a target and fires his blaster a couple of times at the foe.

[Monsieur Rose]

Zuul

Zuul yells at Zinn and Zardra to get moving. "The suitss! Get to the suitss!" Zuul will fire off his second round at the tentacle shielding the leaders, then move to the suits.

[ybn1197]

Jackson will try to don one of the vacuum suits as best as possible.

[Starbeard]

If Vale can still see the button that Berasco pushed, he will attempt to use his Force telekinesis to push it again (or the button next to it if there is one) to see if that stops or lowers the platform.

Otherwise, he continues his to slay the tentacle coils with his lightsaber.

[max_vale]

Fourth level/Outer Hull/First level of Strange alien ship/station DESOLATE in 'Otherspace'


The Rebels burst into motion, several racing for the Charon space-suits while others engaged their foes with various weapons....

Professor Clark Jones quickly scans over the suits and quickly realizes that though there will be a couple of extra 'sleeves' and the helmets will be rather large for all of them (except perhaps, for Zuul), they should work alright for the group. With Jackson's help, they rather quickly shimmy into a pair of the suits while a couple of their teammates take care of the nearby coil/tentacle....things....

Zuul launches his second and last canister from his double-barrel Flechette launcher and has the pleasure of watching it blow the coil/tentacle shield to pieces, but has to snarl in anger at the fact that the razor-sharp fragments fail to make any impact on either Ravik or Ber'asco before they disappear as the platform rises into the ceiling, cutting them off from the battle in the 'bridge'. That done, the big Barabel rushes over to where a couple of his companions have already figured out how to clamber into the strange suits and he immediately starts to do likewise....

Gavin Storm takes careful aim with his blaster and puts a pair of shots into the last tentacle/coil near Clark and Jackson and he grins in satisfaction as the thing drops unmoving to the floor. The smuggler then rushes over to put on another of the strange Charon vac suits while out of the corner of his eye he sees Zardra take a high-tech and extremely expensive vacuum-seal face-mask (imagine a ski-mask that works in space) and pull it over her head while also pressing a couple of buttons her her body-armor to enact seals at the neck, wrists, waist and ankles. She then races over towards the hole she had blown open with a grenade and said; "I'll see you all at the hangar bay!" and leaps into and thru the poor Charon warrior clinging to the broken transparisteel-glass wall, sending it flying out into the zero-gravity and strangely-colored vastness of 'other space'......and causing the atmosphere to once again start whooshing out in rapid, dangerous fashion....

Vale Starcloud cut down the last tentacle/coil waving around and then rushed forward, while grabbing a seemingly dazed-and-amazed Zinn and saying, "We've got to get into those suits NOW Flyboy!"

The two Rebels managed to do just that, with a lot of help from their Rebel friends and the six of them, now moving EXTREMELY awkwardly in the vac suits designed for the spider-like Charon; used the magnetic boots to 'walk' down the side of the space-station/ship known as DESOLATE and then into the yawning 'hangar bay', to find their ship, the beloved Out Runner; covered in strange webbing and worse, a wall of several dozen Charon warriors racing their way at the back end of the hangar bay. As the Rebels moved over to the ship, the hatch opened while at the same time the turret swung over and pointed at the incoming Charon warriors. The turret cut loose and a mighty laser blast tore into the first wave Charon soldiers as a familiar female voice came over the Comms speaker; "Get onboard quick darlings, I don't think my marksmanship is good enough to eliminate them all!" and the Rebels could immediately 'hear' the cold smile in Zardra's voice.

Everyone clambered onboard as Zardra fired several more shots, but as they came onboard a near-miss by a plasma shot from one of the Charon warriors blew a fragment of the outer hull of the Out Runner into shrapnel that slammed into Zinn Vallimar's head as he entered the freighter and the best pilot among the Rebels was knocked unconscious as he fell into the Ship's entry hall....

The question now was, who was going to fly the ship and who was going to work on fixing the ship's engine with the needed components carried by Jackson to enable them to get out of here....

[kipper]

Clark knows virtually nothing about ship repair or piloting, so he tries to stay out of the way. He will assist anyone who asks for his help though.

[GreyWolfVT]

Zinn & Jackson are the only two with piloting skill and nobody but Zinn has sharship repair skills that I can see in the character sheet area.

Gavin will see what he can do about repairing the engines "Jackson looks like your flying this thing. Anyone else care to help me try and fix the damned engines?"