Astromech's Amok
By: Rogue, with a contribution from Wildcard As the restraining bolt fused onto Jazzy's body, the astromech let out a shrill screech as it was happening. The Imperial technician pulled on the restraining bolt to make sure it was secure and then activated the kill switch on the control device. Jazzy's vision faded to black as his power was turned off without him doing it himself. His vision came back as power was restored when the Imperial deactivated the kill switch. Jazzy did a quick diagnostic scan of himself and saw that he had been offline for exactly forty seven seconds. He scanned the room. Aside from the Imperial technician, there were also two Stormtroopers present.
The tech handed over the control device to one of the Stormtroopers. "There you go. That little piece of rusty drukk will give you no more problems. If it does, just flip the switch and it's lights out for it."
The other Stormtrooper shook his head. "I still don't know why we don't just blast it and scrap it."
The Stormtrooper that was holding the control device answered. "Because Agent Korr has ordered it. You don't have to like the order, just follow it, understood TK5968?"
Admonished, the other Stormtrooper sighed and reluctantly answered. "Yes Sarge."
"Good, now let's get this Rebel rust bucket back to the storage area with the other two so we can get back to the rest of the unit."
TK5968 kicked Jazzy hard to get him moving. "Move it."
Jazzy let out a few indignant beeps before moving towards the door. The door's sensors registered the movement and slid up and opened fully. Jazzy rolled through and headed down the corridor back towards the storage closet he had reactivated in after he and the others had been captured. He was happy in the knowledge that through his actions, Master Bakk was free along with the other pilots, what concerned him was the thought of going back to the storage closet.
The journey to the closet took a few minutes. As he approached the door, Jazzy let out a mournful trill. The door opened and once more he was kicked by the same Stormtrooper. This time Jazzy started to protest and was even considering trying to shock him. Before he could even do that, the other Stormtrooper activated the controlling device for the restraining bolt.
Before Jazzy was plunged into darkness he noticed that there were two other astromechs in the storage closet, Crusty and Shade.
The seven X-wings touched down in the Vigilant's main hangar, and the deck crews put ladders up to the side of the cockpits once the canopies were raised to allow the pilots to climb down. Another set of ground crew set about removing the astromechs from the four fighters that had them.
Wolf made his way towards Gremlin's fighter as she climbed down, doing a double-take as he regarded her garb. "I was starting to get worried about you all when you didn't return. What happened and why are you all wearing Imperial TIE uniforms?"
Gremlin ran her fingers through her purple hair to untangle it. Her whole head had been stuffed inside an Imperial TIE pilot's helmet since their escape from the Interdictor, and it had done a number on her usually well-kept hairdo. "It's a long story and I need some caf before I can even begin to explain what happened to us."
Rogue retrieved his two DL-44's and holsters from behind the X-wing's seat where he had hidden them before they had been tractored onboard the Imperial Interdictor. Standing up on the seat, he removed the helmet and life support gear, chucking them down to one of the waiting ground crew. Before climbing down, he fastened the holster belt around his waist and secured both leg straps to stop the holstered blasters moving freely. He finished by giving both blasters a pat to make sure they were both still there and in the right place.
Rogue took the offered Imperial helmet and life support gear from the ground crew and looked over towards Wildcard's X-wing. The young pilot was looking more anxious than what Rogue had seen him look in a while, so he decided to walk over and see what was wrong. As he headed over he noticed Wolf and Gremlin heading out of the hangar. Gremlin was looking tired and looked to be giving one word replies to the questions Wolf was asking her.
Wildcard noticed Rogue walking towards him but couldn't catch a read on the other pilot's expressionless face, which concerned him. As Rogue came to a stop near him, Wildcard spoke. "Are you going to punch me again?"
"Do I need to punch you again?" Rogue asked, his expression hadn't changed.
"You and Blixus have lost your astromechs because we got trapped by that Interdictor and that ISB agent was after information he thought I had about someone I knew," Wildcard blurted out.
"Drukk happens kid, sometimes it's your fault other times it's out of your control... this is the latter," Rogue replied to Wildcard. "As for Shade, I asked him to stay behind on purpose. Blixus' astromech seemed to have taken a heavy hit from the Ion cannons that disabled us and hadn't rebooted when we escaped. If he's able, he'll get both Crusty and Jazzy out of there."
Wildcard's face took on a look of confusion as he tried to process what Rogue was telling him. "How? I mean how can you be so sure they'll be able to escape...and again, how?"
"Did you notice that silver protocol droid that went by? What about the green and yellow R5 unit? Did you see the two mouse droids?" Rogue asked Wildcard.
Wildcard looked around the hangar. Sure enough, off in the distance a silver protocol droid that must have walked past them was heading towards a turbo lift. Over to Wildcard's left was a green and yellow R5 unit going about its business, and finally he thought he saw one of the mouse droids zipping behind a cargo container. Wildcard looked back at Rogue before speaking. "No, I didn't even notice them."
"Exactly, people don't pay much attention to droids, where they're going and what they're doing. They ignore them until they need them for something. The Imperials are just as bad, if not worse, at doing this. As to how Shade and the others are going to get out, no idea, but they'll manage it, of that I have no worries and I feel sorry for anyone that gets in their way." Rogue turned and started to head towards the turbolifts to exit the hangar. Having only taken a few steps, he turned back towards Wildcard. "By the way, the Imperial flight suit, I'll take it off your hands. It's slightly too big for you anyway."
Another look of confusion spread over Wildcard's face. "Yeah, sure, not a problem. Why do you want it?"
Rogue let a half smile spread on the right side of his face. "That's for me to know and you to wonder why. Just have it cleaned and get it to me once that's done." Rogue turned away from Wildcard and carried on making his way towards the turbolifts.
Shade used passive sensors to see if there was anyone nearby before coming fully active. The storage closet was dark and none of the other droids were powered up. Crusty and Jazzy were both there, along with a silver and black RA-7 Inventory Droid and two Mouse Droids on a storage shelf. Shade shuffled over to Jazzy and once close enough, a servo arm extended and started working on the restraining bolt. A few moments later there was a brief shower of sparks, and part of the restraining bolt was glowing red hot with some smoke coming from it.
Jazzy started to power up, his main system rebooting and his optics coming online as well as his vocal circuits. Jazzy started to curse loudly only to feel something hit the right side of his body. His domed head spun around in that direction and he noticed Shade next to him. Jazzy took stock of his location and realised that he was still in the storage closet. "Shade? What's going on? Why are you active?"
"My pilot asked me to stay behind and rescue you and Crusty. Restraining bolts don't work on me, I have special circuitry and subroutines in me that bypass them. It allows me to pretend that the restraining bolt is working and simulate me shutting down. I've disabled your restraining bolt. You'll get a notification telling you if yours has been activated, allowing you to also simulate shutting down." Shade flickered his Kerner Optical holographic projector briefly at Jazzy and then got to work on Crusty's restraining bolt. "It looks like one of Crusty's circuits was damaged when we got hit with the Ion cannon. See if there's any replacement parts on that shelf."
Jazzy moved over to the shelf and quickly scanned the contents. Sure enough, there were a handful of compatible circuit cards that could possibly be used to replace the damaged one in Crusty. "Lots of replacements here."
Shade carefully opened Crusty's access panel and removed the damaged circuit. "MoBo looks intact from what I can see without fully removing it. Let's hope it is indeed undamaged. I can see a lot of ionization damage to the power supply and connectors. Do you see any of those for an R2?"
Jazzy extended his servo arm picking up the required circuit board and took it over to Shade. Setting it down, he returned and retrieved a compatible power supply.
Shade again opened up Crusty's access panel and removed the damaged circuit and replaced it with the fresh one that Jazzy had just found. He then carefully inserted and installed the replacement power supply. He quickly closed the access panel and backed away to a safe distance. Some droids reactivated violently after an unintentional shutdown, and Shade had no wish to catch a stray arc welder strike.
With the new parts inserted, Crusty came to life. His dome rotated a full three hundred and sixty degrees before his optic sensor settled on Jazzy and Shade. "We're still on the Interdictor, aren't we?"
"Yes," Shade answered.
"Our pilots and the other Astromechs?" Crusty inquired.
"Escaped, thanks to Jazzy's actions," Shade replied.
Crusty looked at Jazzy then back at Shade. "What's the plan for our escape?"
Shade's optic sensor went from Crusty to Jazzy. "We need to steal a shuttle. To do that we're going to need these Mouse Droid's and that RA-7. I need you both to reprogramme the Mouse Droids, I'll work on the RA-7. Make sure that all Imperial subroutines, security protocols, and any other hostile programs are removed. We're basically factory resetting them so that they're going to be our way off this ship."
Crusty turned and went over to one of the Mouse Droids, extended his servo arm, and clamped it on one of the small droids. Carefully, he placed it on the floor and got to work on accessing the data port on the small droid.
Jazzy did the same and started working on the other Mouse Droid.
Shade went over to the silver and black RA-7 Inventory Droid. Servos in his two feet pivoted him up slightly to allow him to access the maintenance port on the droid. Once connected, he accessed the droid's motor functions and got it to squat down so that he could complete the task without pivoting on his two feet for the entire process.
Interview Room, CRS Vigilant
The opening of a door drew Wildcard back from his messy thoughts on the past few days. As his eyes refocused, he saw Gremlin exiting. "He's ready for you now, just tell him everything that happened. I'm heading back to the squad room. I'll see you there once you're done."
Wildcard stood up and entered the interview room. This room was veiled in a thin haze of cigarra smoke. The walls were a gentle white, with a single door situated on the wall his back was facing. On the table in front of him was a gunmetal coloured cuboid with various dials and grilles smattered around. A recording device, Wildcard suspected. Seated opposite him, facing the door, was an older human of no more than sixty standard years. The man was puffing a cigarra leisurely and scanning a datapad, presumably filled with information on the escape gathered from the others.
His lived-in face creased as he tabled the datapad and took Wildcard in. "I'm Agent Tranter," he said politely, pausing an uncomfortable amount of time before continuing. "Congratulations on the promotion, Lieutenant. I can only apologise for the wait here, but I thought I'd save the best for last, as it were," he said, hints of a humble smile appearing on his face.
"The best, sir?" Wildcard asked him, his brow raised in confusion.
"Well, it goes without saying that you've all had an eventful few days, but you in particular have a more special connection to this incident, wouldn't you say?"
Wildcard nodded quietly. "You're referring to Agent Korr."
"Correct. Your original statement has raised a few questions from the other spooks."
"If it ups our chances of catching him, then I'll help any way I can, Agent Tranter."
Tranter smiled warmly. "That's what I like to hear, boy. Too many pilots these days are scared to speak in case they get shipped off to some backwater planet as punishment for saying the wrong thing."
An eyebrow shot up. "Does that happen?" asked Wildcard.
"Not if you tell us what we wanna hear." Tranter winked, but the gesture seemed manufactured rather than genuine.
Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Wildcard straightened up again.
"Now," Tranter continued, "you mentioned in your report that Agent Korr claimed to have been in search of Kodo Luidi?"
"Correct. He seemed to think that I might know something about it."
"And do you?"
"I was told he'd been sent to a prison ship somewhere, but that's no secret. It was widely publicised."
"It was widely spread," the Agent mumbled and nodded. His eyes refocused and his voice rose back to normal conversational volume. "Correct, Lieutenant."
"Were the reports untrue, Agent? Are you implying he may be elsewhere?"
Tranter, no longer smiling, stared straight through Wildcard. "Let us not lose sight of who's asking the questions here. Now, did he give any indication that he may have known you were coming?"
"Not directly, no. However the attack on our squad was unmistakably pre-planned. Somebody told them we were going to be there. Somebody with access to sensitive information."
"Has anybody in your vicinity given you reason to believe they may hold, or have ever held, Imperial sympathies?"
"No."
Tranter let Wildcard's answer hang in the air for a moment, before glancing at the datapad and moving on. "Your squad claims that the ambush was conducted by Imperials working with pirates. This is rather unusual behaviour for what sounds to be a rather well armed Imperial force. Did Korr give any indication of where his allegiances lay?"
"Er... he was your typical, brainwashed, dedicated Imperial. Nothing about him personally seemed unusual, as far as ISB types go. However, everything seemed so distant from the Empire we know. They appeared to have more... mobility. More independence."
"Like a task force?" asked Tranter.
Ruminating over it for a moment, Wildcard nodded solemnly. "Yes, like a task force."
"Interesting. Something to be concerned about there. Moving on however, I have one last question."
"Yes, sir?"
"If we find any leads regarding what you've told us, would you be willing to assist Intelligence with the capture and interrogation of Kyle Korr?"
"Unquestionably."
Agent Tranter nodded, and then picked up his datapad. After breaking eye contact with Wildcard to type a few notes down, he waved without looking up. "That will be all, Lieutenant."
Jazzy closed up the Mouse Droid he had been working on and powered up the small droid. The power up sequence completed and the small droid came to life. Jazzy had made sure that he still had the Mouse Droid clamped down as its first action was to try and get away. "We're not going to hurt you. In fact, we need your help to get off this ship and back to our own people." The Mouse Droid's wheels stopped spinning. It sent out a series of melodic tonnes directed at Jazzy. "Yes, you can come with us."
The Mouse Droid that Crusty was working on took a bit longer to reactivate, but was soon coming back online as Crusty fixed one of the little droid's broken wheels. This one didn't try to get away once Crusty flipped it back the right way around. Crusty released it and watched as it moved over to the Mouse Droid that Jazzy had worked on and stayed silent as the other Mouse Droid spoke to it.
Shade finished working on the silver droid and closed the maintenance port. It was at this point that the RA-7 droid started functioning again. Shade watched as the silver and black droid stood fully upright, its insectoid looking head looking from left to right.
"I am RA-7-MP24, thank you for reactivating me. I have been offline for twenty three weeks, four days, seventeen hours, twenty four minutes, and fourteen seconds."
Shade spoke to the droid. "My designation is Shade, these are my associates Jazzy and Crusty. With the help of these two Mouse Droids and you, we're all going to escape from this place."
"What is your plan?"
"We need to steal a shuttle from the hangar and return to our fleet. To do that we're going to need to disable any security cameras and create false orders for the three of us to be taken to the hangar to be transported off this ship to an Imperial intelligence facility for inspection," Shade said before outlining the plan to the droids via ultra-short-wave wireless transmission. Switching to binary, this outline took less than a minute to be relayed.
RA-7 was silent for a moment before answering. "That seems like a logical plan. We will need to gain access to one of the secure data terminals. There is one such terminal on this level, however I do not have the access code to gain entry."
Shade's dome turned to look at the two Mouse Droids. "That's where our two little friends come in, using their internal throughways they can access the room where the terminal is and let us in."
The two Mouse Droids made noises that suggested they were happy to help with the escape plan that also included them. In unison they complained about being left to rot in this closet rather than fixed by their Imperial masters.
RA-7 responded. "Then we have a viable plan and we should proceed with it as quickly as possible before orders are given to deal with you three."
Shade's domed head turned again to look at the two Mouse Droids. "Once you have both gotten to the secure room, signal us and we shall proceed to your location."
Again, the Mouse Droids made noises before slipping away through one of the two throughways located in the room.
Shade outlined the specifics of the next step to the group. "Once they have entered the secure room and signaled us, RA-7 will lead the way to the room with Crusty following, then Jazzy, and then me. We need to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible, keep all communications to the minimum. Leave any talking with the organics to RA-7. Is everyone clear on what to do?"
The droids all made an affirmative noise, and waited.
RA-7 walked at a steady pace, the droid's gaze was fixed straight ahead as six Stormtroopers marched past in the opposite direction. Behind, the three Astromech droids followed in silence, their domed heads hardly moving as the small group of droids made their way to the secured room that would allow them to insert the false transfer documents and disable the security systems which would hopefully allow them to escape. RA-7 ran the odds again and saw that the odds of success had increased a few percent since leaving the storage room several minutes ago. There was a junction up ahead. The group had to turn left, carry on for exactly one hundred and thirty seven meters and enter the secure data room.
Their entry into the room was dependent on the two Mouse Droids having accessed the room and subverting the required means needed to get in. RA-7 stopped at the junction as a group of Imperials walked by, not paying the droids any interest. Once the Imperials had passed, RA-7 turned left and carried on with the Astromechs following closely.
As RA-7 got closer to the room, he received a data file titled "AXS CD". The droid opened the file, noting that it contained five cyphers, commonplace internal security codes for Imperial ships. RA-7 stopped in front of the security panel and entered the symbols in the sequence that was displayed on the file. When the enter key was pressed, the door slid open rapidly. RA-7 stepped back and pointed to Crusty and simply said, "In."
Crusty entered the room, followed by Jazzy and then Shade. Once Shade had entered, RA-7 entered the room and quickly closed and locked the door. The two Mouse Droids appeared and made several excited noises.
Shade looked down at the two Mouse Droids. "Well done. We wouldn't have made it without you two. Jazzy, plug into the nearest security console and start working on creating the transfer orders and shuttle requisition. Crusty, plug into the next terminal. Locate any security footage of our movements from the storage locker to here and wipe our movements from the footage. Make sure it's only us you erase from the system, and it needs to be flawless. RA-7, keep that door secure, no one gets in. Double check Jazzy's work to ensure the manufactured orders are the proper format and syntax when he's done." Shade watched as Jazzy and Crusty both plugged into their respective terminals and started working, RA-7 took up position by the door, ready to override anyone trying to enter.
"What about us?"
Shade looked down at the two helpful Mouse Droids. Not wanting to make them feel useless and knowing their skittish nature could cause trouble, he ran through a few permutations of options to keep them busy and feeling important. Ultimately, he settled on the fourth of 23 possible tasks. "We need the two of you to ensure others of your model do not happen upon us while we're in here. Go back a few meters into the access corridors for your peers and intercept any interlopers."
The droids chittered excitedly, but both stayed rooted to the spot as their tones turned interrogative. "Intercept... how?"
Shade thought a millisecond before responding with the best course of action that would avoid undue attention. "Just indicate that there is a power leak causing excess ionization energy in the room. Indicate that it is already under control, and you will be happy to hold their messages for the occupants of this room alongside your messages you need to deliver once the all clear is given."
The two diminutive droids rolled back and forth to nod their understanding, and then all but peeled out to head back into their smaller access tunnels to stop any of their kind from interrupting their escape.
Satisfied, Shade found another terminal and plugged into it. He had saved the hardest task for himself, creating a virus that would disable the Interdictor's weapon systems, hyperdrive, sub-light engines, and scanners. Shade found that gaining access to the secure systems was easier than he expected. It seemed that the Imperials didn't see an internal data breach as something that could easily happen onboard.
He gained access to the sub-light systems first. The virus was easy enough to place and hide, a string of harmless looking code within the operating system for the engines. Over the next twenty minutes the three astromechs successfully sliced into the Interdictor's main operating system, erasing files and inserting new ones. Shade was almost finished when he noticed a directory that seemed to be isolated from most systems.
After bypassing the security measures, he noticed that the directory belonged to the ISB Agent, Kyle Korr. The directory was divided into several parts, work, personal, and images. Shade opened up the three sub folders. Some of the work ones were secure and heavily encrypted while others were open and able to be accessed. The personal ones seemed to be a mixture of written and audio/visual recordings.
Shade accessed the images folder, and if he was able to be shocked, he would have been. Images and recordings of the ISB Agent in various forms of sexual activities with various non-human beings began flashing through his system. All the contents of the directory were copied and stored, and Shade made sure that there was no trace of the directory ever being accessed as he unplugged himself from the security terminal. As an afterthought, he wondered why such a staunch Imperial would not use a heavier encryption scheme to hide his more...anti-Imperial leanings. Shaking his dome slightly to clear his processors, he looked back at the other droids. "Jazzy, transmit the orders for the shuttle to transport us to the nearest Intelligence facility."
Jazzy whistled an affirmative, and after a few seconds Jazzy spoke. "Shuttle Inhibit has been re-tasked to transport us. It is fully fueled and will be ready by the time we get to the hangar. Orders have been sent to the pilots and controller and acknowledged."
Shade activated his short-wave transmitter to contact the two Mouse Droid sentries. "Make your way to the hangar. Get on-board the shuttle and get yourselves secured. Crusty, once the shuttle is clear of the Interdictor and I've activated the virus to disable it, I need you to vent the atmosphere to incapacitate the crew and keep the levels low so they stay unconscious until we land back on-board the Vigilant."
"Understood," Crusty simply replied.
"RA-7, take that data pad with us, Jazzy can transmit the orders to them and you can present them when we get to the shuttle," Shade said.
RA-7 went over and picked up the data pad. The transfer orders that Jazzy had created were already displayed on the screen. "If there is nothing else, we should go to the hangar."
The two Mouse Droids both exited through the room via the throughway and a route that would take them to the hangar. RA-7 keyed the switch to open the door and lead the way followed by the three Astromech droids in the same order as before.
The hangar was loud and bustling. Imperials in various uniforms were busy carrying out their work, and nobody paid any attention to the four droids that had just entered the hangar. The Lambda class shuttle Inhibit was located on the right side of the hangar. The small group of droids made their way towards the shuttle. For the majority of the distance the droids were ignored, and those Imperials that did notice them only gave them brief attention before carrying on with their duties.
At the foot of the shuttle's ramp, two of the crew stood talking. By their uniforms, ranks, and the patches on their uniforms, RA-7 was certain that these were the shuttle's Navigator and Engineer. It was the Engineer that noticed the approaching droids and gave a discreet upwards nod of his head in their direction.
The Navigator turned around and looked at the approaching droids. His gaze went from each of the Astromechs and settled on the RA-7 droid. "So these are the droids that are to be transported to the facility on Kethmandi so they can be dismantled and studied." The way the Navigator spoke it wasn't a question, instead it was a statement of fact.
"These are the orders passed down from Agent Korr, for me to give to the crew of this shuttle," RA-7 replied as he handed over the datapad. In his other hand was a restraining bolt remote, even though it wasn't activated and paired to the bolts on the astromechs' chassis.
The Navigator took the pad, activated it, and scrolled through until he reached the orders. "It seems we're taking you with us as well. Get these Rebel pieces of garbage onboard and stowed so we can get underway."
"At once." RA-7 turned to face the three droids. "You heard the Ensign, get on." When Crusty didn't immediately move forward, RA-7 kicked the Astromech and waved the defunct remote, which resulted in Crusty letting out a short squeal before he quickly moved up the boarding ramp.
Once the droids had all gone up the ramp, the Navigator and Engineer walked up. As soon as the Engineer drew level with the control for the boarding ramp he hit the button to close it and then activated the comms panel to connect him to the cockpit. "Droids are all onboard sir, Ensign Hyland is on his way with the orders. Everything is in order."
"Very well Sergeant, secure for take off," came the reply from the comms unit.
The Engineer made his way to his seat and strapped in. "Let's hope we get a nice layover after this milk run," he mumbled aloud.
Nearby, the Gunner was already sat down and ready, her system in standby mode. She leaned over. "Where are we going this time?"
"Kethmandi," the Engineer replied as he accessed his terminal.
"Kethmandi, we haven't been there in a while. It'll be good to visit Artika's tavern again. That was a wild night," the Gunner replied with a smile on her face.
The Engineer gave a quick laugh. "Yeah, that was a good night. Try not to get in a fight again though!"
"No promises," the gunner said with a wicked grin on her face.
The Engineer shook his head at the comment from the Gunner. He quickly checked the information on the screen in front of him and activated the comms. "We're green across the board sir, we're good to go."
"Acknowledged." Came the reply. Within moments the shuttle was lifting off and using its repulsors to guide it towards the Magcon force field. Once the shuttle was over the opening, the pilot tipped the craft's nose forward and started feeding power to the main engines. Once the shuttle was clear of the Intidictor's main landing bay the pilot activated the switch to bring the two wings down for flight mode. The pilot activated the shuttle's comms unit. "Control, this is shuttle Inhibit, clear and proceeding to destination."
"Copy Inhibit, proceed. Control out." Came the curt reply.
Shade had found a data terminal and surreptitiously plugged himself in while the Engineer and Gunner went about their work. He was waiting for the final communication from the Intidictor to the shuttle before he activated the virus that would cripple the enemy capital ship. As soon as he heard the shuttle pilot close the link to the Interdictor, Shade sent the coded command to activate the virus. Shade rotated his dome towards Crusty who was plugged into another of the shuttle's access ports. "Crusty, vent the atmosphere now."
"Acknowledged." Crusty had already accessed the shuttle's systems and bypassed the security measures and begun venting the air from the shuttle.
"HEY!" The Engineer shouted, rubbing his neck absentmindedly as he began unbuckling his restraints. "What do you two rust buckets think you're doing?!" He gained his feet, but wobbled slightly as the rapidly lowering oxygen levels began to take hold. He took a step forward, but his second step was interrupted by the first of the friendly MSE droids erupting from their hiding place and tripping the human. Just as he hit the deck, the second droid's wheels squealed as it rammed itself directly into the bridge of the human's nose, knocking him out instantly.
The Gunner's attention was drawn by the cacophony. Reaching for her comm panel to call for help from the cockpit, her other hand began to fall to her hip and her standard-issue sidearm. Just as her fingers were about to touch both items, her hands spasmed and fell limply to the side, followed by the rest of her body.
Above her stood RA-7, holding the now shattered remains of the droid remote in his metallic fingers. He looked back at the rest of the droids and shrugged.
Crusty continued to monitor the internal systems now that the immediate threats were neutralized. He saw that the four Imperials in the cockpit were in varying states of panic. About thirty seconds later Crusty saw that all of the Imperials had been incapacitated. "All humans are now unconscious, air supplies are now being restricted to keep them in this state."
Shade's dome turned in Jazzy's direction. "Jazzy, go plug into the flight controls and get ready to jump us to the coordinates I give you as soon as I get into the navigation system."
"Moving out," Jazzy said as he made his way up to the cockpit.
"RA-7, find something to bind the hands and feet of the Imperials and check them for any weapons, and remove any that they have," Shade said as he headed towards the cockpit.
"Understood," was all RA-7 said as he stood up and set about the task. If the droid felt guilt about taking direct physical action against his old masters, it didn't show.
Shade had made his way into the cockpit and had connected to an open Scomp link. He began to send Jazzy the coordinates for the route he wanted them to take back to the fleet. Once completed, he paused for a moment to inspect the status of the virus he'd sent moments ago. The Interdictor had lost power and was now drifting in space, the lights onboard the Imperial cruiser started to flicker off and on. He quickly compiled the navigation message and sent it. "Route plotted, ready to engage."
"Confirmed, stand by, we're jumping in three, two, one," Jazzy counted down. At one, the shuttle's hyperdive came to life and jumped to lightspeed, vanishing from the system.
Rogue was in his squadron's briefing room, working on some reports that he had not been able to finish from previous missions. The datapad that he was working on started beeping, but the tone used wasn't the normal alert sound. This was one that Rogue recognised right away, and a half smile crept onto his face as he accessed the newly arrived message. Reading the message quickly, he closed down the datapad and reached for his comm unit. He keyed in the channel he needed and waited for the channel to open. "Bridge? This is Lieutenant Sweet. In a few minutes we're about to have an Imperial shuttle, callsign Inhibit, drop in system. This shuttle is under the control of Alliance forces and has Imperial prisoners onboard. Do not engage this shuttle, I repeat do not engage this shuttle. Make sure units on CAP are advised and tell them to escort the shuttle to the auxiliary hangar, and have a security team meet me down there. How copy, Bridge?"
Ensign Piancia let out a sigh. Why did these things always seem to happen on her shift? "Captain, we have a potential situation. I've currently got a Lieutenant Sweet from Spectre Squadron on the line saying that an Imperial shuttle that has been commandeered by Alliance personnel with Imperial prisoners onboard will be jumping into the system in the next few minutes. He's requesting for it to be escorted into the auxiliary hangar and a security team to meet him there."
Captain Quelle headed over to Ensign Piancia's station. "Pass me your headset, Ensign." Captain Quelle took the offered headset and placed it on his head. "Lieutenant, this is the Captain. How have you come about this information?"
"Sir, my Astromech has just sent me that message on a highly encrypted channel," Rogue answered.
"Understood Lieutenant, but how can you be certain that your Astromech hasn't been compromised and there's not a unit of shock troopers or worse onboard waiting for us to welcome them in?" Captain Quelle asked.
Rogue nodded to himself at the prudent question. "Because of the channel used sir. Shade's modifications means that if he had been tampered with at all in any way, this channel would not be available for him to use. I know as I'm the only one that knows about it as it was me that installed it," Rogue answered as he walked out of the squadron's briefing room.
Captain Quelle was silent but only for a moment. "Very well Lieutenant, this is on your say so." Captain Quelle took the headset off and handed it back to Ensign Piancia. "Do as the Lieutenant asked, Ensign."
"Yes sir," Ensign Piancia answered as she placed her headset back on and started speaking to the relevant departments.
Captain Quelle turned and walked back to where he had been standing. "Put the ship on yellow alert and inform the rest of the taskforce. Incoming captured Imperial shuttle, all weapons are to hold. Do not fire unless we are fired upon." The alarm klaxon sounded throughout the ship.
As Rogue was making his way to the auxiliary hangar, he activated his comm unit again. "Blixus? Wildcard? Get your backsides down to the auxiliary hangar right now, we've got incoming." Rogue killed the comm rather than field the potential questions from both pilots.
On the bridge, Ensign Wraw was tracking all the contacts on his scopes. A new yellow blip appeared. It was originally tagged as an unknown, but that soon changed as did the colour, which went red and the unknown was identified as an Imperial Lambda class shuttle. The Rodian's snout twitched before he spoke. "Captain, enemy shuttle has just jumped into the system, ten klicks out. IFF has identified this shuttle as the Inhibit."
"Thank you Ensign. This is the Captain, all guns track the shuttle but do not engage. This is a weapons hold order. Ensign Piancia, contact the nearest CAP element and get them to escort the shuttle to the auxiliary hangar."
Rogue had reached the auxiliary hangar and was waiting. The security team that had been dispatched was just arriving, consisting of eight troopers all dressed in battle gear and carrying A280 blaster rifles.
The Non-Commissioned Officer in charge jogged over towards Rogue. "Sir, any idea what's going on?" .
"We've got an Imperial shuttle that's been taken over by Alliance droids. There are six Imperial prisoners onboard," Rogue answered nonchalantly.
"Droids?" The sergeant in charge of the security team asked incredulously.
"Yeah, one of them's my Astromech, so make sure you guys are controlled on your targets when we go onboard."
The Sergeant's left eyebrow rose up. "You're joining us sir?"
"No, I'm leading you." Rogue's tone didn't leave any room for debate. He noticed Blixus and Wildcard stepping out of the turbolift just as the shuttle crossed through the Magcon force field. Rogue drew his DL-44 from under his left arm, thumbed off the safety but kept the barrel of the blaster pointed towards the deck. The shuttle's wings folded up towards the roof of the hangar as it came in on its repulsors with the landing gear extending down. "On me," Rogue said and moved off at a jog, with the troopers following him. The ramp was coming down as Rogue and the troopers reached the front of the shuttle. Rogue came to a halt and aimed his blaster up the ramp of the shuttle, the troopers also aiming their A280's up the ramp. "Sarge, you take four troopers and secure any Imperials located at the crew stations, I'll take three with me to secure the cockpit. Remember, don't shoot any droids. Ready? Push, push, push!" Rogue went up the ramp followed by the troopers. At the top of the ramp, Rogue went right followed by a trooper while two more went left, the Sergeant and the other four troopers made their way aft.
Blixus and Wildcard watched as Rogue and the troopers ran up the shuttle's ramp. "What's Going on?" Blixus asked.
"I don't know." Wildcard replied.
The two pilots stayed back, a small gathering of deck crew had also started to form near the two pilots all waiting to see what happened next.
After a couple of minutes an Astromech started rolling down the ramp. "Crusty?" Blixus exclaimed. Behind Crusty, two Mouse Droids followed the Astromech down the ramp sticking close to Crusty.
Before Crusty had reached the bottom of the ramp another Astromech started descending the ramp. "Jazzy!" Wildcard said a smile suddenly appeared on his face. Jazzy was followed down by an RA-7 droid.
At the bottom of the ramp the droids moved to the left and waited as the troopers started bringing down the Imperial shuttle crew, their hands and feet still bound which meant that the troopers had to carry them down with three troopers needed for each Imperial. The Imperials were placed face down on the cold deck, with the Sergeant standing guard over them, his A280 facing towards their general direction.
The Imperials themselves were now coming around after being brought back into a healthy oxygen environment, the confusion on their face gave way to anger as the realisation of their situation started to dawn upon them.
Finally Shade, followed by Rogue, made their way down the ramp. "I'll leave the prisoners in your hands Sarge. I'll stay here with the droids and the shuttle until the droids can be checked and the shuttle secured," he said to the trooper.
"Yes sir. I'll get additional troopers sent down for the shuttle and make sure the techs are aware of the situation." The Sergeant saluted Rogue and then stepped away to grab additional manpower.
Rogue returned the salute and watched as troopers unbound the feet of the Imperials, stood them up, and escorted them out of the hangar.
Blixus made his way over to Crusty and knelt down in front of him. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again, Crusty."
Wildcard walked over to Rogue first. "Thank you."
"Nothing to do with me, shipmate." Rogue gestured towards the droids. "This was all them, I'm looking forward to hearing how they did it and how the Mouse Droids and the RA droid came on board."
Wildcard went over to Jazzy. "I wasn't sure I'd see you again."
Jazzy let out a series of beeps and whistles in reply.
RA-7 turned to look at Wildcard. "Your Astromech says he is happy to be back with you."
"I kind of gathered, but thank you for letting me know," Wildcard said as he patted the domed head of his astromech.
It had been two days since Shade and the others had returned. The techs had done extensive and deep checks on all the astromechs, the two Mouse Droids, and the RA-7 droid before declaring them safe. The astromechs had been sent back to their pilots, the two Mouse Droids had joined the ranks of the other Mouse Droids onboard the Vigilant carrying out the tasks that they did. The RA-7 droid had been assigned to one of the storage departments onboard the Vigilant to catalog supplies.
Rogue was walking down the corridor of the crew quarters; in his right hand he held a datapad. He stopped walking and turned to the left when he got to the door he was after. Using his left hand, Rogue knocked on the door. There was a bit of noise from the quarters, the sound of something being moved, before the door slid open revealing Wildcard.
"Rogue, something wrong?" Wildcard asked. This was the first time that Rogue had ever visited.
"Nothing's up. Can I come in?" Rogue asked.
"What? Sure. By all means." Wildcard stepped aside and Rogue walked into the quarters. "What can I do for you?"
"You got it wrong by the way, it's what I can do for you," Rogue said. He held up his datapad. "While Shade and the others were onboard that Interdictor, Shade planted a virus that would disable the Interdictor. While he was in the ship's mainframe he found some secure files belonging to your ISB friend."
The look on Wildcard's face changed from interest to anger. "Please tell me he got something on him."
A sinister smile crept onto Rogue's face. "He certainly did. Lots of classified stuff, some heavily encrypted files... but the real treasure, well, that needs to be seen to be appreciated." Rogue activated his data pad and went to the files that contained the images and the recordings and handed the pad over to Wildcard.
Wildcard took the pad and opened up one of the images. His eyes widened as it dawned on him what he was looking at. He closed the image and opened up a recording. The sounds that came through the pad's speakers left no doubt as to what he was watching, Wildcard tilted his head to the left and slightly tilted the data pad to the right. "What the kriff?"
"I haven't watched them so, I can only imagine. There's plenty on there along with some personal diary entries," Rogue replied.
Wildcard stopped the recording and looked at Rogue. "What now?"
"Now, all the classified and encrypted stuff goes to our intelligence people, see if there's anything that can be used. The personal stuff, that's up to you. You can do what you want with it; keep it, hand it over to the intelligence types, leak it, get yourself off to it, whatever you want. Agent Korr made it personal. You have the chance to even the score, or not. Keep the pad, this only has the personal stuff on it anyway," Rogue said as he reached up and activated the door control. The door slid open letting Rogue walk out of the quarters without looking back.
Wildcard stood there looking at the datapad and the many files currently displayed on the screen as the door to his quarters made a hiss as it closed.
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