4035/White Noise

White Noise
Date of Scene:	21 April 2016
Location:	Faraway Galaxy <FG>
Synopsis:	Juno Eclipse and her allies raid an Imperial base for information.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 414, 428, 571, 626, 794, Kushiko

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Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
The desert planet of Tatooine char-broils under the heat of its twin suns, cooking it into a desolate world where temperatures soar during the day and plummet at night. Very little grows here, and water is a priceless treasure. There is an Imperial presence here, but it's not as heavy as other planets in the Outer Rim Territories; their authority here is contested by the criminal Hutt Syndicate.

Juno Eclipse has called her allies into a back lot to go over the mission details one more time. The goal is simple: Juno's allies keep the Imperials busy while Juno hunts through Imperial systems for the data she needs. Theoretically, a bunch of Elites should keep the Imperials busy so she can work without getting caught. Or shot at. Or captured.

The blonde pilot has her 'rebel' clothing on, and a blaster pistol holstered at each hip. She's wearing a lightweight tactical headset over her head. With a piece of scrap iron she's sketched out a map on the sandy ground. Once everyone arrives, Juno addresses everyone in a no-nonsense tone.

"Today's job is simple. We're going to go in. You're going to keep the Imperials busy. While you do that, I'll be stealing important data for a future strike from the Imperial systems. I don't know if I'll get it, but I may get something that leads me to it. You'll all be compensated, regardless."

She looks up, eyeing everyone in turn, waiting until she has their attention.

"The key here is speed. They'll call reinforcements no matter what we do, so we'll be working under a time limit. My job's to find that information. Your job's to keep them from calling for help as long as you can, however you can."

"Once I find what I'm looking for, we'll retreat immediately. If they call in reinforcements before I can, we're aborting. When I call a retreat, we retreat. No questions. No heroics."

"Most importantly: No mistakes."

Folding her arms, Juno glances over her allies. "I'll go over everyone's roles one more time."

"I'm going to be looking for the data. I know Imperial systems, and while it's not easy, I can do it if I can concentrate fully."

"Maaka. I want you starting a fight with the stormtroopers. Find a good place you can set up a bottleneck and give them bloody hell. Keep them busy as long as you can. If you can slice into the security systems while you're doing that, you might be able to hijack some of their automated defenses."

"Revan. Aside from keeping the Imperials busy, I need you to try and slice into the mainframe. You might be able to buy us time if you can scramble their communications. I won't have time to do it myself, and it might make the difference between success and failure. Given your work on droids, I trust you to with the job."

"Tenno. I'll need you with me. If the Imperials start shooting at me, there's not much I can do about it, and I'll need my full concentration to slice into the Imperial systems. I'm confident you can take them out before they shoot me or raise a ruckus."

Juno tosses aside the piece of scrap iron and looks to each of her allies.

"Any questions...?"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Tatooine was definitely as hot as Juno advertised. Maaka had no doubt that Juno would not have exaggerated anyways, it didn't seem like the pilot to do so, but at the same time its heat beat down upon the cyborg even in her enviro-treated suit like an angry beast of burden's hooves.

    That said she has no trouble enduring it for the sake of the mission, as she remains fixated on the briefing while gulping down water from a canteen. Over her currently helmet less suit is a white cloak, more like a hooded poncho if anything, acquired to sell the appearance of a random mercenary, and her STALKER suit's color has changed to a desert MAPRAT camo appearance as well. Across her chest is a heavy repeating blaster, bought locally before meeting with Juno to serve as a burner gun for the op itself, as well as a smaller blaster carbine holstered under her poncho.

    She gives a firm nod as Juno give marching orders, trying not to grin at the chance to openly cause a panic among these white-armored goons. "You got it. I specialize in controlled chaos. Any marks as to where they keep access to their defenses on the way?"

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
The Imperial operation on Tatooine is small. Formally speaking they do not even consider it a base, so much as it is a very small local garrison. The facility itself is of the prefabricated kind carried by each Star Destroyer: A long, squat building that is almost invariably dug into the surrounding earth and partway buried. It's a very modular design that can be turned into a shield generator facility, among other things. This one, however, is nothing more or less than a garrison.

As is typical, the facility itself primarily presents as a squat little building with a low, flat roof and slanted walls with a door and corresponding control panel in the center. It is the same dull grey as every other facility of its kind, and for the most part it is relatively quiet here.

Rather than using many actual vehicles, the garrison is bordered by a number of very large lizards. Saddles are stored along the fence they're penned into, and they don't seem to have a stable precisely so much as a limited amount of burrowing space to hide underneath the ground, where it's cooler than the surface. At the moment several such beasts are lazing around.

Nobody is guarding the front door on the outside because, for the most part, enforcement in this area is handled by the Hutts. It's not a warzone, it's not an important facility. There's just a desk on the inside, and the place is probably peppered with Stormtroopers that are on or off duty. Doubtless, many of them are off-duty and either sleeping or in town.

The interior of the base is layered, but somewhat claustrophobic. The front entrance opens up into a wide but short room with a front desk, a door leading back into the ground level, and a small lift. A uniformed officer is manning the front desk, but she looks profoundly bored. She is armed, but only with a sidearm, and not particularly aware.

In a typical layout, the officer's quarters and more secure sections are three floors down, the NCO quarters and armory are the second floor down, and the main floor is probably a combination of communications and miscellaneous nonsense specific to whatever this post is /for/. Given that it's Tatooine, it's probably serving as an embassy for all practical purposes.

There are a few speeders out back, as well as swoop bikes. There's no room for ships to land here, most likely making use of the local Space Port, which is almost certainly more heavily manned than this place if only to secure hangars reserved for Imperial use.

Revan (414) has posed:
Lowri Revan-Shan folded her arms, listening intently to Juno's instructions even as she kept a look-out for signs of trouble which might possibly end their planned venture even before it began. It might be a little paranoid, and she had her Force senses to warn her of immediate danger, but she preferred staying one step ahead of things. Three, if she was completely honest.

     The Jedi was dressed neither as a member of her Order nor in the commando's uniform of a Republic which had fallen some time ago in this version of the galaxy, but in the trappings of a Mandalorian mercenary. Lightsabers were hidden within the heavy armour, and a heavy blaster rifle was slung across her back. But the characteristic helmet is nowhere to be found, instead, white-gold hair is gathered in a bun at the nape of her neck, an eyepatch concealing her grey eye. In all, she didn't particularly stand out in a seedy place such as Mos Eisley. Being as cautious as she was might not have been especially necessary, but the Guardian's preference for subtlety was close to common knowledge.

     The former Imperial was right: among the many skills she had learned since awaking to a new life with false memories, slicing was among them. Many a time she had come across a demand for computer skills, learning to hone them on the go even as she fled from the forces of the Sith. She could do this.

     "You got it," she acknowledged simply and to the point. As much as she enjoyed banter, it would just get in the way right now.

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
USE THE FORCE SPOT CHECK: Even from space, a Force user (or other psychic-type being) would find that Tatooine feels unnaturally cold. It remains so on the surface of the planet, in defiance of all rational logic and environmental conditions.

Kushiko has posed:
It wasn't just the Tenno in their Warframe; in this case, it was a secondary observer to provide tactical updates at times when they weren't being forewarned by others in the vicinity.

In this case of which Tenno and which Warframe, only one part would be answered: Valkyr, the feminine figure cast in that almost leathery black armor and purple, layered like how someone might see muscle past the skin. Energy lightly pulsed along the lines of the frame itself, mostly along her helmet and down her arms, the almost digitgrade like legs ending in taloned clawtips; three apiece.

She stood, silently, not so much looking at anyone because for all sense of propriety, the Warframe's outward face /had/ no eyes, no optics. Occasionally a wisp of smoky energy and light could dance along her fingertips. Void energy yet controlled, controlled in such a way that one would never know precisely what it was it lest they actually be properly scanning the Warframe directly.

Alongside the Warframe was a curious little drone; a Carrier by official designation, though it too was infused with rare alloys and modifications that ensured it could survive protracted combat, and to draw in resources for the Tenno to collect. She was armed, but her weaponry looked.. odd? In a sense: one was a slightly curved and oblong looking sidearm that had a hint of being lever-action, that maybe it was formerly a rifle before being shortened and compacted as such.

The other aspect was an elegant-looking rifle; at least one might think it's a rifle. Briary-like in stylings, the Boltor Prime which was infused with it's own technologies and alloys that predated some of the weaponry she currently employed. Lastly, a long sheath of a slightly curved blade; one could be forgiven for thinking the Dragon Nikana was in fact, a katana of yore, but they would be wrong. It was equal parts elegant and deadly, and the Warframe as a whole, despite her appearence when one looked at her, seemed to be a lack of presence altogether.

Which.. might be more by her own design and on purpose. Her tail flicked once, the anchor-like end as she only minutely regarded the others with polite indifference.

They were on an operation, after all.

She also might be giving.. an odd sense to those who are Force users, such a Lowri. There should be someone there in that suit. But she was diminishing her presence through means that were not necessarily Force based. Energy that was worn like a glove, respired and woven so intricately that whatever this.. Tenno, this Warframe was, might be akin to something more primal while being blessedly quiet. A study in contrasts.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has no power of the force, she has no mgic but she can seem to work magic with computer systems. She knows this place is a wasted out world. She wonders what was the pull of people living here? Just getting away from things the prying eyes of those in power? She wasn't sure but she looks to Juno nodding as she gets some idea sthere should be some local computer systems, droids and the lijke she could play havoc with and just do stuff to frustate them she's going to attempt to get into their com and computer networks here if she can.

"I preusme the nature of the game is don't get caught I could also do some decoy ... slicing if you want to keep their network security busy or I could mess with their Comms."

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
    ELSEWHERE ON TATOOINE (but not far enough...)

Darth Vader does not visit Tatooine willingly, and certainly does not do so without specific business to engage in. The practice of returning here is one that his Master has enforced upon him on a number of occasions with the intention of making him uncomfortable, or perhaps, to see if some spark of Anakin Skywalker is awakened by the experience. He has never received a clear explanation as to the purpose of the habit.

The cold that envelopes Tatooine emanates from Vader, though it is so vast that it is unclear that there is a person generating it at all. It could be a place of darkness upon Tatooine, or it could be that Tatooine itself is simply touched by the dark side. It would be most irregular for a whole planet to feel so from a person.

And amidst the haze of cold are pinpricks of warmth. People, places, animals, not associated with the cold but surrounding it. Like stars hanging in the night sky, giving warmth to their surroundings.

Vader stands perched atop a rock. The hiss of his respirator calls their attention to him, accompanied by a whooping, bestial battle cry. A blade of fire is cast out into the cold, cleaving through unarmored flesh and igniting nearby huts of hide, scrap, and wood.

In the cold of the presence that embraces Tatooine, those tiny pinpricks of life flash and burn like stars going supernova, and rapidly begin to extinguish.

Darth Vader does not visit Tatooine willingly, or often. But when he does, he always takes care to visit his vengeance upon the Tusken Raiders, as a meditation upon the Dark Side of the Force.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
The small, squat building that serves as a base is pretty shabby by most Imperial standards and speaks to the relative lack of importance that this place has compared to other fortifications. It's the kind of backwater place that someone gets assigned to when they mess something up pretty bad.

It's still hooked into the Imperial datastructure, though, which means that there's a chance that the information Juno Eclipse is after is accessible here. Even if it's not, she might be able to find something that can lead her to it.

Once her briefing's been given, Juno gives the order to move out and approach the base. How they do this is up to them, and she trusts most of the people here to do it in a way that doesn't call the entire fleet down on their heads. For her part, Juno sticks close to the Tenno she'd elected to hire as a bodyguard. She probably could have given that task to Revan, whom she trusts far more, but she needs Revan's expertise elsewhere.

Even if she has a better grasp of what the Tenno are, that silent thing is still unspeakably creepy. Maybe being on edge from that thing will keep her more focused?

Unholstering one blaster, Juno fetches up against the compound's outer wall, checking quickly for a sign of the local stormtrooper presence. Most of them must be on the town getting dead drunk in a cantina, because honestly, it's Tatooine, and what else is there to do there?

That's good, because it means the majority of them can get inside the outer compound yard without raising any alarms or suspicion. The building itself is a different matter. Juno flicks a hand to indicate Valkyr to follow, and then abruptly faces an open palm for the Warframe to halt. There's the main building, which must lead to other buildings. If she remembers her prefab Imperial bases-in-a-box right, this should have more than one floor.

Somebody's at the desk. Of course they have a receptionist.

Maybe she can try some measure of diplomacy first. Sort of. Opening the door as though she were a regular visitor, Juno lets herself in, motioning for Valkyr to follow. And then she immediately steps to one side, and lets Valkyr handle the receptionist in whatever non-lethal way she deems necessary. Sic 'em, Tenno.

Kushiko has posed:
Nonlethal... not something the Tenno are particularly well known for. It's probably a good thing no one yet has /really asked/ about how frequently the default response to a threat is 'kill'.

On the other hand, there's the factor that as trained as they are in all ways the anatomy works, and how they can study an opponent, there /are/ ways to... proverbially, provisionally dial back things.

She's moving ahead a little bit at first, seeming to silently sense and predict Juno's movements; it's imprecise at first before she seems to move a little more fluidly in expectation of her. And that absolute silence, the lack of physical presence is quite possibly comforting as much as it can be disconcerting to someone who's actually got eyes on Valkyr.

Now, as to actually /dealing/ with the presence of the receptionist, there would have been one option had Valkyr elected to bring along one of her Kubrow. That would've allowed her to get a bit closer and apply herself in a slightly less-than-murderous direction without being seen from the door.

The moment Juno steps to one side, however, in an instant a miniature grappling hook is near silently shot from Valkyr, grabbing the poor, unfortunate receptionist and expanding just a scintilla of energy to seize them. The very slightest twinge of force and the clerk is hurled up and out of their seat at an angle towards the door as Valkyr begins to sprint forward, launching herself into the air at the opposing angle, revolving once in air before catching the poor clerk, energy around her surging in just the right way to slow the shock of impact as she practically pounces.

The impact is reduced from 'spine destroying' to 'sharp blow' to their midsection, that as she lands, she rolls atop the receptionist who is turned around onto the ground as pressure is applied to effectively incapacitate the receptionist without necessarily killing them, but the near ragdolling that the Rip Line would cause will ensure that they'll be out of it for a while yet. Beyond the sounds that the desk jockey might make, there's scant a sound from Valkyr as she eases off her target, a glance towards Juno in the interim.

Well, that's one way to perform a takedown before someone's completely aware or has the cognizance of what's happening before blessed unconsciousness might be delivered.

Revan (414) has posed:
They split up to cover both metaphorical and literal ground, with Revan keeping to the back walls. A cold feeling associated with the Dark Side of the Force had been something she had picked up even as the Ebon Hawk approached the arid planet. Sith were little different from Jedi in at least one respect: it didn't matter which side of the Force they were necessarily aligned with -- strength in the Force was strength in the Force. The Guardian never could hide herself from anyone with even the slightest bit of Force sensitivity regardless of alignment. It had only been the inability to sense /which/ side of the Force she had leaned to which had allowed her to slip inside the Academy on Korriban. Being Grey had certain advantages, she had to admit.

     Unfortunately, that feeling persisted. She more than trusted Juno to handle things on her end, and the rest of the team of Elites were likely to be just as competent. But against a Sith -- or even a fallen Jedi -- of that strength in the Force was something that had even the former Dark Lord worried.

     Lowri sighed. She had little other choice but to have faith in them and do her own part. She'd worry about the rest as it came down the swoop track.

     Fortunately, Tatooine never seemed to change how many ever years pass, and there were access terminals at odd points inside the city. Making her way across an alley near the base, the Jedi found a discreet terminal point suitable for her objective. Tapping her commlink, she connected to her artificial crew back on the Ebon Hawk. "T3, wee if you can slice any security cameras nearby," she requested. "I'd rather not have any unwanted guests while I'm working."

     A short series of electronic bleeps answered her -- indecipherable for many but as clear as Basic to Revan -- before she addressed the remaining two members. "Tiny, Ulaire, I need you on standby. If things get a little too hot, we'll need a distraction."

     An electronic purr and a sharp feminine "Yes, Ma'am!" answered her this time as she set to work slicing the terminal.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa hjas been ready to do her best on this, she has no idea that Vader is here or there might be apanic right the hell now, she's glad to help Juno with this. She was nervous however and she's now going to try to sneak she'll cloak and try to find a terminal and physically jack into it for the best response. They would expect droids sure, would they expect a human to jack in? That's what she's hoping they are not expecting but lets see if she can even get in there in the first place.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Slowly easing one of the blasters from her hip, Juno checks its charge, lowering it from 'burn a hole in the target' to 'stun uncomfortably.' It won't be enough to kill her victims, but it should be enough to buy a few seconds against an unarmoured target. She holsters it and checks the second blaster, thumbing the setting in a single practised motion as she looks up.

Incidentally, she looks up just in time to see the receptionist sail by her in a neat arc toward Valkyr, who leaps up to catch the hapless woman and pounce on her. Hopefully she's just knocked out and that's not her neck breaking. It looks a little grisly; hopefully more than it actually is.

Note to self, she thinks to herself, don't ever aggravate the Lotus.

Second note to self, there has to be a simpler way to do something like that. What if one of the stormtroopers wandered by and happened to spot the movement?

When Valkyr glances back at her, Juno just shrugs. It worked.

Creeping further, she fetches up to the desk, shoving the blaster into her holster and rifling through the things on it. Most of this is pretty useless, and any access credentials wouldn't benefit her too much. A receptionist isn't going to have top-level security, and the terminal here isn't going to be much more useful, either.

"There's not going to be anything here," Juno calls softly to the Warframe. "Come on. Let's go."

With that, she beckons for the Tenno to follow, loping to the rear door that leads to the lift. Whatever she's after, it's bound to be down that lift. "Down the lift," she calls softly. "Let's go. Carefully, now. I'm not so lucky for it to be unguarded."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka's cheerfully, blissfully unaware of the feeling of cold on the desert planet. INSTEAD, she has to deal with the twin suns mercilessly bombarding the sandy surface of this planet with solar rays so intense she feels like she'd age ten years within a few days of staying here if she wasn't a post-human combat cyborg with a corporate tailored body intended to look good AND kill good as well.

    Thus, as she follows in with Juno and Valkyr, she inspects the Warframe's handiwork before she begins to produce some tear gas grenades. "I'll keep these guys busy." She says in the lift, before she tosses out both grenades through the opening. She'll also draw her repeater as she begins letting off a loud burst, the blaster comically large even in her hands as she aims for the ceiling. Juno /said/ non-lethal, so she's gonna have to adjust her tactics accordingly.

    Swiftly, she hands Juno and others close some gas-masks via a matter manipulator, "Take these, they're gonna keep you safe from the gas." She has no idea if Valkyr needs one, or if the Warframe can even wear one.

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
The receptionist looks up, her expression flat, toneless, and utterly bored out of her mind. It couldn't be clearer that she just wants to get her shift over with and go find something else to do. Just when she's about to open her mouth and ask what she can /do/ for any of you though, Kushiko semi-gently throttles the hell out of her in a variety of creative ways that leaves her facedown on the floor and thoroughly unconscious. There's really not much time for her to register what's going on, so the most that comes out of her is what might have been a gasp if she'd had the opportunity to make even that much noise.

Right now, she's making some very uncomfortable noises that suggest she's recovering from having the wind knocked out of her. Doesn't seem to be conscious of it, though.

If anybody on the ground level hears it, they don't respond just yet. There is a door to the left, and a turbolift to the right.

Lowri makes a connection with a nearby terminal. This doesn't seem to be an Imperial network she's cracking into, but some local business or another that saw fit to put in some cameras along the exterior... and partly along the interior of what must be some kind of restaurant. Looks like the kind you'd get food poisoning in. At any rate it has eyes on the road surrounding the Imperial garrison, though it doesn't have a good fix on the sky. Might need to actually /be/ in the Imperial Garrison, since it's a prefab that was just dropped in here.

Activating her opto-camo, Kotone presses on into the lefthand door and finds herself in a series of offices. There aren't any stormtroopers back here, but several more men and women in black uniforms with a variety of bars are sitting at different stations. Some are just as bored as the woman up front, a few are communicating with... someone, somewhere.

The terminal that Kotone plugs into has a flood of information for her, but the computer is speaking in binary very rapidly. It doesn't seem to be a high-level security terminal, but it does have a record of a recent check-in at the local space port. A TIE Advanced checked in about six hours ago, and hasn't checked out yet. Intended departure time seems to be tomorrow night.

Juno, who can pretty much just wander the reception area freely, does find a lift cylinder on the fallen receptionist. Given her rank, she probably has access to all the floors no problem, if perhaps not the armory and bottom level secure storage. It'll get you to the lower levels, at very least, but you'll have to break some locks from there.

They head to the second floor, where the lift opens up into what is CLEARLY a ready room. Five stormtroopers are sitting at a table, playing cards. Two aren't wearing helmets, the other three are. Those two cough and sputter and retreat immediately, sending their chairs sprawling on the ground. The other three draw weapons and open fire on the lift. They don't really need to be good shots to hit anybody in there, either, this place isn't that big.

To their rear is a long corridor, about the length of the base. An armory door is at the end, heavy, thick, sealed. To either side, almost certainly dormitories. Some heads start poking out pretty much immediately, then disappear again. Weeeelp.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Juno doesn't bother to unholster her blasters. If she has someone looking after her, there's no need for her to waste time with weaponry; chances are the Tenno is a better marksman than she is, anyway. That leaves her free to investigate the premise, and see if she can't find what she's looking for.

There are five stormtroopers sitting at a table, playing cards.

Juno might be imagining the sound of a record scratch as she sees them, if she knew what a turntable was.

A nod is given to the Tenno. Go get 'em, tiger. Juno herself focuses on the two on the left, wasting no words as she pulls out both blasters and attempts to pepper both of them with stun shot. It'll burn like the dickens, but it shouldn't deal any permanent damage or kill them. She really doesn't want to kill them. They're just rank and file, at the end of the day. They're only following orders and might not necessarily know any better.

She was in that position, once.

"How good are you at opening doors?" she calls to the Warframe. Presumably not half bad, since they seem to put extra special emphasis on 'destroying everything in their path.'

Revan (414) has posed:
The pale-haired Jedi cursed softly. So she couldn't slice into the Imp's base from where she was, frag it all. Oh well, it had admittedly been a long-shot. It wasn't a complete waste, though; they would probably be better-alerted should stormtroopers descend up them from outside.

     She suppressed a slight grin as she followed the path the others had taken into the modest base, noting how they'd already taken care of the first level of security. /Great job, guys,/ she thought with not even a hint of sarcasm. /Although I would have tried bribing the receptionist first./ Hey, it had worked when she did it breaking into the base on Taris!

     But she did have access to a terminal better-suited to slicing into their mainframe. "T3, keep those cameras on, and let me know if there's anything moving toward the base."

     An electronic chirp of affirmation answered her while Revan extracted her rifle and set it on the terminal next to her before attempting to slice the receptionist's terminal.

Kushiko has posed:
It's true; plausible even that there was a risk that her sense of flair might attract danger at some point. However, all of the Valkyr's means were otherwise noise-based. Trying to take it down quietly well.. there might be an option but she didn't favor it just yet. The release of shield energy to paralyze and incapacitate might draw attention.

Thus, the Tenno adapted. Part of Kushiko, far beyond, wishes she had mayhap brought a weapon more suited for this sort of thing as needed.

The stirring of the receptionist making new noises delays her oncoming return to conscious thought is a quick, knife-palm strike to the back of the head before picking her up and carrying her to stash her, literally, under her own desk once Juno has made to do with what belongings are picked and purloined from her.

Still, once that's done, she reaches for her Dragon Nikana. It's a bit more precise and silent as she closes in behind Juno, but not so close that she would be sighted at the same time that Juno would be, mentally marking (and mapping) the layout of the place, as does the Lotus from her remote viewing and sync with the Warframe's systems.

The arrival at the ready room, however is not something they were expecting, perhaps, but it could be worse: they could be ALL fully armed and ready to go. That three of them are is enough to make the Valkyr spring into action, springing into the line of fire. The blaster bolts strike two things: one, the Valkyr, ablating off the bluish pulse of shields.

The other? The drawn blade that rapidly reflects some of the other bolts as she becomes a humanoid-shaped shield to hopefully keep Juno from harm as she makes a hard beeline for the stormtroopers. Her blade, midair as she flies through like a bullet, is a sweeping storm until she lands again in a slide, pivoting to send herself in a spin close to the ground and forward, reversing the grip on her blade in order to bring the blunt edge in a painful sweep at the trio of troopers shooting. But she's got the armor to take more than a few shots and simply /not care/.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets the data on the Tie Advanced that wasn't common, so she noted it to the rest of the team. Blackout quickly asked to see if she could get more. So she's going to try to do so, she'll attempt to the data hopefully she can get a serial number or even if she's lucky the owner or at least whose flying it, at least that's what she's hoping for right now.

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
There's not a lot of room to avoid getting at least grazed in that lift. But there's almost /no/ room to avoid a stun shot from a blaster. Juno fires twice and hits home twice, causing the two Stormtroopers on the left to collapse in a heap. Being supertazed sucks. They won't be out for an incredibly long time though, so it might be a good idea to secure them now. They have binders on their belts. Though... the remaining Stormtrooper might have something to say about that.

To say nothing of his friends down the hall.

Lowri moves on to the receptionist's terminal. Slicing in here isn't that hard, but much like Kotone's use of the top level droid terminal, has limited results. But she does find some coinciding information on two subjects. Firstly, it appears as if the Empire dispatched someone to discuss arms shipments with the Hutts. Secondly, it looks like they've got more ambiguously-defined visits with Jabba the Hutt penned in on the calendar.

The ETA of the 'someone' aligns with the timing specified by Kotone concerning the TIE Advanced. There's also some layout information and memos concerning local security. The lower levels house most of the detailed, juicy information apparently, and are partitioned off from this top terminal. The lift requires officer code cylinders to be present inside to go to the lowest floor... but some maintenance man or another has noted the emergency fire evacuation codes to get the lift to do whatever regardless of authorization on the receptionist's terminal.

The sound of weapons fire from below has caught the attention of the officers in the rear part of the upper floor. One of them is advancing cautiously into the reception area, pistol raised. He doesn't notice Kotone, but will come across Lowri very quickly.

Kushiko ends up only really needing to take care of one stormtrooper, who much as the case with Juno, simply doesn't have the room to get out of the way of wide-range attacks in this cramped space. He retreats from the initial charge and sweep, but gets caught up in the followthrough and slapped around like a ragdoll. That armor does its job, though-- he's stirring in moments, trying to get back to his feet and his weapon. Give him a good thump.

Kotone, at her terminal, gets one last answer and runs into a wall. There's no serial numbers, and the solar panel / wing configuration mark it as a pre-production model instead of the more sleek and minimalistic design used by the bulk of the Inquisition.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
"Nice shot." The quiet, text-to-talk voice pipes up from behind Juno, flooding the brief space with it's electronic grace. From behind the former Imperial, the shadow-dark shape of Rabbit steps out. There is a blaster of her own slung across her shoulders-standard and nondescript with no modifications, aside from serial numbers being filed off and purged. "But keep it up."

    The disguised Kyra Hyral leaves the shooting to Juno as she splits away from her blonde friend, circling around to the immobile bodies of the tased troopers. She knows this would make her a target for the remaining three at the table but she trusts that Juno is quick enough on the shooting to eliminate them all as a threat before she can be harassed. If anything, her sudden darting movement probably buys the pilot time to handle the other three as there are now two targets to aim for, not one.

    Once upon the fallen Stormtroopers, she makes use of their own supplies, pilfering the binders and applying them to the fallen pair-after some fussing around as Kyra quickly tries to figure out how they work.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
"Restrain them. We don't want these fellows running off to trip the alarms." Juno's already reaching for the binders as she kneels beside one of the Stormtroopers she'd plugged in the face. Kyra's got the other one, and presumably Valkyr can also follow their lead. She secures them at the wrist, already glancing around to make sure that there aren't any more of their buddies coming to the rescue. That would be bad.

She frowns at the one lonely Stormtrooper trying to get to his feet. "Take him out," she adds.

Once she's got her new friends secured, Juno shoves her blasters into their holsters, sprinting for the armoury door. She glances behind and flashes a grin at Kyra's compliment, though. "Looks like my Academy training wasn't totally useless."

Her expression falls, though, and she stops at the armoury's blast door. That is a very heavy door. She steps forward, cracking her knuckles and licking dry lips as she reaches for the console beside it. "Alright. Keep me covered. I'm going to open the door for us, but I'm going to need to concentrate on this."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pulls out information on the Tie Advanced she doesn't get much more but the reaction it gets from Blackout is more than worrysome. She gets the rest of the data she can and she'll share what she can with the rest of the gorup naely she now knows where to go to get more data and that's what she's going to try to deal she's also getting worried from what Blackout has said on the radio...

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
As Juno advances down the corridor towards the armory, she hears an urgent beeping noise to her immediate left. At the exact moment that she hears this, she also realizes that it is thoroughly pointless that it came to her attention, because it means the damned thing is already going off. The closed barracks door to her left erupts towards her with a thunderous explosion. The explosion itself doesn't reach Juno.

One of the Stormtroopers who noticed what was coming placed a breaching charge on their barracks door and set it off as she came into range.

Simultaneously, Stormtroopers from the adjacent barracks lean out of the cover of their own doorways and begin firing down the corridor, turning the whole thing into a hideous deathtrap until they're dealt with.

Apparently, despite being assigned to some backwater shithole, these guys /aren't/ entirely incompetent.

Kushiko has posed:
The followthrough to a knocked down foe typically has /one/ result from where Kushiko comes from--that is to say, that long blade being pierced through in fatal fashion.

But given Juno's request, she was not quite being as lethal. Savagely brutal, perhap, given the way she swept them off their feet as opposed to reducing their overall height.

No one save a certain someone needs to be subjected to the question of being too short to be a stormtrooper, least of all in that way.

The nature of her close in combat like this means that certainly she is going to be close enough to deliver that thump, but the other hostiles down the hall incline her to work to deal with them since the report of blaster fire is sure to draw some attention.

The Tenno /is/ pretty good at opening the doors, either through breaching security or otherwise slicing it open. Which with Juno being somewhat more native and having intimate understanding might make it better.

Still, the options remain open as she moves into a defensive position, though. At least.. that was the theory.

There's a precognitive sense for just a split second, just as the breaching charge might actually explode. She doesn't know why. But Valkyr is suddenly moving. She's wreathed in energy, a primacy that might evoke a sensation in Revan and Vader that there is something, while not of the Force, is.. /not/ normal.

Overcome by her controlled Hysteria, Valkyr MOVED like a blaze of white-hot light, somersaulting towards Juno's position. Her hands end in long, Void-infused energy claws as she careens for the flying door in order to unleash a dizzying, rending motion of claws that would melt the door like PAPER. The initial impact might stagger the body slightly, but so wreathed in energy, she simply /woudln't care/ before making a beeline for the offending troopers.

'Not killing' may no longer be an option.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka was able to handle the Stormtroopers as they arrive, so were the others. As they're taken care of, Maaka lets 'Rabbit' handle the remaining trooper as she follows the rest of the group. There's not much room to split off, so there goes the chance to play distraction. Right now, she can only be the support gunner to keep the enemy's heads down.

    Of course, that goes out the window as a charge goes off and blows the wall open. Her STALKER's armor plating and helmet protects her, but Maaka is quick to strike back as opposed to just huddling behind cover.

    With her Repeater raised, the cyborg begins to let off a long, sustained burst at the Stormtroopers just as -something- streaks past her.

    As Valkyr claws the door open, Maaka is quick to follow in after the feral Warframe, her Repeater blazing away with controlled bursts. Valkyr may not even NOTICE being shot on accident, but Maaka's careful enough to avoid that possibility.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Beeing noise. There's a beeping noise on the edge of Juno's consciousness and she can't figure out exactly what it is. Why is there a beeping noise in the hallway?

The pilot looks left, only to note there's something stuck onto the door in front of her. It's a blast charge, she can understand that much. Before she can contemplate the situation any further, something slams into her at the velocity of yes.

Juno Eclipse manages a screechy sound of pure shock, because she wasn't expecting the Valkyr to physically tackle her out of the way to get to that door. Or shred it like so much wet paper. In the same breath, she throws herself to the side, as far out of the line of blaster fire as she can get, taking carefully-aimed potshots of her own.

Once she's not immediately being shot at, Juno charges forward, adjusting her blasters as she does and taking them off their 'non-lethal' setting. Sorry, Stormtroopers. Wrong time, wrong place. Diving forward, Juno attempts to roll past them, even as she fires on them in passing -- it should give her companions time enough to rush them once the Stormtroopers are busy being focused on her. She has to get through; to get to the computers further on. she's so close she can taste it.


"Come on! We're almost there!" she calls, beckoning for Valkyr and Kyra to follow. "I've got time enough to do this before we need to extract, if we get to those computers /now/!"

Revan (414) has posed:
"Hutts...why am I not surprised?" Lowri muttered as she accessed the files. So they were already in cahoots with the Empire. That took the option of bribing them effectively off the table. As much as she disliked dealing with them as much as the next sentient, the Jedi would have preferred to avoid open confrontation with them, or endangering sympathetic smugglers any more than necessary. Still, it was valuable information to have.

     As cautious as the stormtrooper closing in on her position might have been, Force senses alerted her to the nearing presence even as she worked. His alert state of mind rendered the use of a Mind Trick unlikely to work, and passing herself off as a bounty hunter on the Empire's payroll was equally as feasible, but she wasn't keen on alerting others with the sound of a blaster rifle. To silently take him out of the fight, that left her with two options. One of which was dipping into the Dark Side marginally, but if she timed it and controlled it right, it would also deal with him non-lethally.

     Taking up her rifle, Lowri left the terminal to hide to one side of the door. When the trooper appeared, her first effort was to knock him out with a good blow to the head with the butt of her rifle. Barring that, she would fall back on a personal favourite of one Sith Apprentice in particular: the Force Choke.

     But even as he was dealt with, there were more troops on the way, what with the alarm now going off. Possibly more, unless she found a way to kill that alarm and cut off reinforcements. In fact, she considered as she returned to the terminal, it might be possible to do both.

     Slicing into the system once more, Revan first attempted to slice the communication systems, preventing the troops from calling for reinforcements before attempting to disable the alarm system. But it was then that she heard confirmation of that Dark Side presence from the radio: it was highly probable that it had been Darth Vader's presence she had felt. She was already working as fast as she could, but that made her work just a little faster. "Be ready to go, T3," she radioed her droid. "I have a feeling we're going to need to beat a vapour trail."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
The distant beeping noise makes Kyra's gut clench with fear. Familiar with explosive devices, including those on timers, she already knows to associate that particular sound as a warning. Did it carry to here, in a galaxy far, far away?

    Apparently so, if what Juno experiences seconds later is any indication. Somehow they had advance warning of their advance-even so much that they could set up some serious explosives beforehand. The blaster fire she hears seconds later keeps her holed up in the room, hovering around the bound Stormtroopers.

    She's way too happy to allow Valkyr to zoom forward to clear the way. Kyra waits, silently extracting some potion-filled syringes from her disguised matter manipulator in perparation for treating Juno in case she took any shrapnel or blaster fire from all of that. Upon hearing her signal, she moves forward, quickly matching step with Juno and pushing a syringe into her hand. "If you are hurt." she explains in her electronic voice.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Prehaps things are being cut short, the Empire has so9me decent idea of how to keep it's information safe too she has to admit. It's a far bit better than sone might think they would have. Either way she's going to try to link up with the party given the Mention of Dark Vader? It was time to speed things up a lot she's got her blasters set fo stun so she's armed and ready. She jacks out and now is going to try to press on to find the computers they need so they can get the hell out of here. If Vader is here they do not have long at al

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
Kushiko deals with the door but makes herself an immediate target. In order to approach any set of the troopers she has to subject herself to crossfire from one direction or another. There are two troopers per doorway, around twelve of them in total, and no place where all troopers that might conceivably be shooting at her at that time are unable to continue shooting at her. If she pounces on one here, the guy who was kneeling behind him backs off and starts firing from an angle... and the guys on the opposite side of the hall start firing into her back.

There's no question that she can get at them and kill them in a berserker haze, but there is simply no way to do it without a scratch. Despite their reputation for buffoonery, these Stormtroopers are actually pretty coordinated and figured out a decent plan of attack on the fly when they noticed what was going on.

Alexis Maaka will encounter a similar problem. In order to get within striking distance, she has to walk within striking distance. Doing so takes some of the heat off of Kushiko, reducing the overall danger of the situation, but on the way there they still have to deal with overlapping fire from down the hall.

Unfortunately...

People are starting to die, or at the very least become grievously wounded. The first pair of doors is cleared.

As Juno begins her forward charge, the firing pattern pauses as two of the Stormtroopers adjust their weapon setting. She hits the standing pair -- not lethally, by appearances, she wings one in the shoulder and the other in the stomach -- but the other two are beneath her field of fire and open up on her with a pair of overlapping stunner rings. This is probably far more hazardous than lethal fire would have been, given the circumstances.

But Kyra is right behind her-- and has an opportunity, here, at the second line of half-dispatched troopers.

Upstairs, Lowri knocks out an advancing Imperial officer-- but it wasn't a guard. He was one of the people in the back offices, armed with a pistol. He crumples to the floor, knocked senseless, but she can sense a spike of fear in the back room. If she wants to cut off communications, she'll have to go back /there/, where there are people getting ready to call for help. It doesn't look like there's a way to do it from the front desk. The garrison below is all tied up, so they certainly can't do it.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Striking distance is perfectly fine for Maaka. Her suit is built to withstand severe damage anyways, and she's made of sterner stuff than these Imperial goons. As her suit takes blaster bolts to the chest, leg, and stomach, she grunts and reaches down to tear off her poncho. The cyborg then tosses it out towards the throng of troopers, using that to slow them down while she powers through her blaster bolt wounds.

    Her suit applies repairs to her cybernetic flesh, and she remains in combat as she and Valkyr clear the area for Juno and others.

    Her blaster blazes away, fired from the hip, and Maaka roars in fury as she charges towards them into close-quarters.

    Those Valkyr hasn't torn apart or haven't succumbed to heavy blaster fire will receive brutal buttstrokes from Maaka, the cyborg aiming for gaps in Stormtrooper armor while using her repeater in both hands like a short staff.

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
From the back room, Lowri can hear scrambling from the remaining operators and pencil pushers. Then comes a cry of, "We surrender, we surrender! We didn't want a post on this washed-out dustball to begin with!"

STILL MILES AWAY, Darth Vader stands towering over the smouldering wreckage of a Tusken Raider village. Communications from the nearby outpost are piped directly into his ear, and for a moment he stands still and silent, save for the whisper of his respirator over the crackle of flames. His thundering dislike of this planet gets the best of him, and he instructs the whimpering peon on precisely how to handle the situation.

Then he cuts the connection, having no more time for such foolishness.

That garrison is not important enough to waste his effort upon, and Vader knows better than most that if he charges in blade blazing without so much as a plan, what will happen is that he will wander into their midst in the last moments of their operation. Perhaps he will best them, and perhaps not.

Some of them will scatter, crawling into the many holes that Tatooine has for the trash of the universe, and he will not see them again until another such ill-advised venture. But if he lets them do as they please, then he'll know where they will be next, when he will expect and plan for them.

Darth Vader opens a secondary comm channel, and quietly arranges for one of his private assets to meet him here for his departure. Her expertise on matters such as these will serve nicely. And perhaps, if he's lucky, Triple Zero will get to drain somebody of all of their blood.

Revan (414) has posed:
The Jedi might have otherwise regretted knocking out a lowly worker only barely armed, but even they could alert the much more troublesome guards. Hefting him under the arms to shift him out of the line of sight of anyone who might come down the hall -- the unconscious worker would be discovered soon enough but it would buy her precious seconds to react -- she moved back to the terminal.

     Unfortunately, what she needed to do wasn't possible where she was. A dark blue eye shifted to the hallway, where there was a current of fear. /Of course it would be down there,/ she thought sarcastically.

     Calling on the Force to boost her speed, Lowri raced down the hall in an effort to catch up to them before they had the chance to call for help. And with more than just one, she needed to take them out, fast. Fortunately, Force Lightning wasn't always lethal...even if it hurt like hell. If not...well, levitating a chair and disabling them with blunt force should do the trick.

     Yet, even before she got to the door, the workers -- rather wisely, actually -- surrendered. Lowri jerked a thumb at the doorway behind her. "You'll want to not be here in a few minutes," she told them. "And you'll want to look into a non-evil Empire line-of-work once you're gone, while you're at it."

     Once they cleared out, the Guardian quickly got to one of their terminals to try again. /If this doesn't work I am going to be severely annoyed,/ she thought.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
MEANWHILE, Kyra does provide Juno some much needed cover as they work to stamp out the last of the resistance in this base. 'Rabbit' tosses a concussion grenade ahead of her and Juno, angling it down to the pair of Stormtroopers unloading stun rings at Juno. It's not exactly a lethal object but it is strong and has enough force behind it to penetrate armor. In fact, the armor might make it worse due to the vibrations.

    A strange noise emits from her, which turns out to be a strangely vocalized sigh of relief, when the higher-level officers straight up surrender to them. Good. Rabbit remains a mysterious, black-clad, masked entity with an unusual voice...sure to evoke some kind of fear in those familiar with Vader, if only because Rabbit's overall motif does share some similarities. She's lacking in the respirator and sheer height though and the face-covering helmet she wears offers no freatures.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
It does take a certain degree of courage to rush toward a hailstorm of blaster fire, and only the truly desperate would consider that kind of an option. There's still time yet to complete the mission, though, and Juno Eclipse is not yet willing to throw away this golden opportunity.

She probably should have thought that through a little better, though.

Stunners rake her shoulder, and Juno reflexively drops the blaster she'd been carrying in that hand, staggering back and baring her teeth at the uncomfortable, painful sensation. It's like stuffing one's hand into an exposed electrical conduit. She manages to turn her shoulder enough for the other one to hit in approximately the same area. The resulting numbness is really and truly exquisite, and not in a good way, but at least she can still use one arm.

She manages an extremely gruff, unspeakably uncomfortable sound in the back of her throat that suggests the sensation is really not a nice one. That's awful and she manages a somewhat cathartic response by turning and slamming her boot into the unfortunate Stormtrooper's face in passing. Her friends can take care of the others.

It probably didn't do much, but darn if it didn't feel good to do it.

Barreling through, she slides into the next chamber, trying desperately to shake out her numbed hand as she does. One of them is better than nothing, though, and with some awkwardness she latches herself onto the nearest console and starts typing. It's not rapid-fire with only one hand, but it's something.

"Knock them out," she snaps over her shoulder. "I found a console. I'm--"

They surrender.

Oh.

Well.

"I don't buy that for a moment. Hurry up, people! Don't let your guard down; it's probably a ploy!" she calls, even as she jabs at the keyboard with some violence. The console gives various electronic beeping noises, and--

--Juno crows in exultation, although she reins it in a second later. "Got it! Let's get out of here! Out! Vader's probably on his way back now!" She can review the findings later. For the moment, she crams another data cylinder into her pocket -- with the information she'd wrested from the Imperial systems -- and grabs her blaster, turning and sprinting back in the way they'd come. "Anybody who hasn't got a quick exit, the Rogue Shadow can pick you up!"

Time to go!

Kushiko has posed:
There is no more room for non-lethal measures. The Stormtroopers certainly won't, and while it might simply be a job for them, their protracted response is enough for her to respond just as lethally now. Maybe moreso.

Despite appearences otherwise, the now berserk Warframe acts in accordance. When Maaka covers, she moves to avoid being caught in the crossfire directly, weaving unnaturally so as she moves forward ahead of Juno. Stormtroopers shooting at her don't seem to necessarily stop her. She's being hit, certainly but is so sunk into her fury, she is not dissuaded.

Kyra's support, her presence is felt, is known as she moves to tear her way through the Stormtroopers that set that corridor of death up the way they did. She moves like the wind despite her furor: the moment she feels her claws carve furrows into that white plastoid composite, to sink into flesh beyond, she'll move on.

The alternative is Stormtroopers missing their arms and outright dismemberment otherwise. But they haven't earned as such.

What's further worrying is that as she closes the distance, those energy claws move in a sweeping motion to *SLAP* down bolts of energy as she jinks, rolls, and weaves her way further and further into the crossfire itself: it's entirely possible that the Stormtroopers might see Valkyr move /faster/ for actually being as they are.

Without pause, she slides and spins, spreading her claws out like a razorblade as she moves faster and faster still until she's carved a path through, and in some cases erupting into a spinning uppercut to slice through those that /aren't/ being attacked by Maaka and the others.

For at least one unfortunate Stormtrooper she is going to somersault over before *shoving* her energy clawed fingers into his back. She is closing dangerously close to energy being drained by her sustaining of this ability than she likes, which leads to her working as quickly as she can to take down target after target without getting in the others field of fire.

It's only when the sound of surrender by the others is pointed out that she responds, alarmingly swift as blood hisses off one of her claws into a steamy mist. And then there's another voice over comms for the benefit of others, even as her Liset comes down, cloaked as it were. She wasn't going necessarily deeper into the facility, but just choosing another direction to draw fire off Juno, Kyra, and Maaka's retreat.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is keeping stelathed at this point as she move to catch up and she's doing a pretty good job to catch up with Juno and the rest she's trying to not pay mind to the carnge to think she's helping to inflict what was inflicted on her a long time agol. She puts her stun blaster to work here, it will give her away but hey it could ber worse however there's osmething else. When the surrender comes she does stop shooting and she looks for a moment to Blackout and is now moving to fall back it's time to go, and she's not about to hold off once out of speed. She moves with a swiftness only force users and droids are able to generally pull off, so for as for natives here. She doe snot want to be /here/ oh she does not wnt to be here she's running like hell to the point she can get clear beamout.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Extraction is the best course of action here, yes. Maaka slings her repeater after finishing off another Stormtrooper, and she runs like hell is at her heels because it certainly will if the girls don't bail right now.

    She hasn't even heard Vader or seen pictures of the guy, but if Juno's testimony of him is accurate then it is a very good idea to leave before he arrives. She draws her blaster carbine, a modified DC-15s she acquired a while ago, as she takes point and clears a path for the others while they make a mad dash for the exit.

Darth Vader (794) has posed:
The third row of Stormtroopers is cleared by Kyra and Juno just as the surrender occurs above. There's nobody really left /to/ surrender, as they have either been butchered, incapacitated, or simply decided that the fight is unwinnable and decided to play dead for the time being. If somebody is of a /mind/ to, the armory is right there and can probably be accessed reasonably easily. Snag a few guns and grenades, maybe a little bit of armor. It'd take an extra second or two, but hey, loot is loot.

Despite looming trepidations, it appears as if there will be no further interruptions. The third floor remains unexplored but inactive, the second is either incapacitated, playing dead, or actually dead, and the first is full of surrendering officers who don't want to die and don't get paid enough to live on Tatooine, much less to get butchered by all of these freaks.

ELSEWHERE, Darth Vader is on the move. He's returned to the speeder that brought him out into the wastes, and begun his return trip to the local space port. But they're not liable to encounter him at all, because he isn't searching for them... which is all the more worrying. His presence moves, like a frozen hurricane passing over the region.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    MISSION SUCCESSFUL
    OBTAINED: A detailed schedule of the Empire's flight plans surrounding Tatooine. A vault cruiser is scheduled to dock here in a few days time, and begin its slow journey back to Coruscant with a hold full of Hutt tributary treasure. It's scheduled to have an escort of four picket cruisers carrying four TIE fighters each... and possibly some munitions, if you felt like taking some of them. Either from the corpses, or the armory.