In the Hanger the truck comes to a halt to one side, the transport they had followed is already emptying, with the Twins approaching an individual and starting a discussion...

"Ill be with you shortly" the formally dressed one calls out "Just wait here in the hanger"

The Doctor is talking with the twins, describing the downfall of both their Admiral then Queg " He climbed into the top by leaping from a building, then while the Admiral was talking with Mick got himself settled, once McKinnon was a clear target he just obliterated him, you know how powerful those guns are. Anyway the boys got a fright, but recovered quick, Yock got a stun grenade into the cockpit with a pretty decent throw, knocked the Rodian right out as far as we can tell... Amelia had her boys shoot too, from up here in the hanger. Anyway the thing tiped over right on top of Yock and his squad, waste of a good man, we could have used him." The Doc takes a breath for a minute, thinking on their lost Admiral " His kids are going to miss him, thats for sure, hate to be the poor sod who has to tell his wife."

" Did he have anything on him? Anything to tell us who sent him?" Felix,the battle hardened brother questioned.

"No, he was well equiped, a nice bow, but without much food or weather gear he must have a stash somewhere nearby, we never picked up a ship landing since the battle, so he must have been on planet for a while, or known the Admiral was on this ship to follow it down... cunning little bugger, waiting to strike for so long, and we just gave it to him on a plate."

The trio stand in silence for a few moments before Adin speaks up " Guess that puts me in charge, Amelia wont like it much, but Inquisitors are fickle... where is she anyway? Has she had a chat with our captive yet?"

"No, she said she is busy with something else, blasts knows what, keeps her cards close to her chest that one. I just gave hime some syrum a few minutes ago, should have worked now if you want to go have a chat yourself"

Naught was oblivious to everything else happening in the hangar, having been distracted by the TIE Fighter. It was potentially the most valuable asset the Imperials had, since its laser cannons would be devastating to ground troops and could even destroy fortifications. If it could approach the compound safely, it could probably blow holes in the gates and walls, making an assault much easier, but there was the problem of that anti-aircraft battery.

"If the anti-aircraft battery on the compound could be disabled, this fighter would be able to strike with impunity," Naught said, thinking out loud. "Are there inaccessible munitions on this ship that could be used to clear that impediment? Perhaps anti-vehicle infantry weapons or a ground-based artillery platform?"

Naught then looked around and noticed the Imperials deep in conversation. Then she looked at Lalam and Larik and saw them both tensing up. Without saying anything further, she began to take stock of her surroundings. Something was about to happen, and since she didn't know what or why, it was unlikely she would be able to prevent it. She would have to be ready to clear them an escape route, considering that taking on an entire Star Destroyer worth of Imperials was likely beyond their capabilities.

"Dammit Queg, what have you done," Larik thinks as he steps forward. No matter, they'll have to talk their way out of this. Fighting the Imperials here is completely out of the question, especially if he heard them correctly and there's an Inquisitor on board somewhere.

"Sirs, madam, please forgive the interruption, but on the trip here I was considering your issue of not being able to access the full complement of this vessel," Larik says. "And I mentioned some inside knowledge of a certain stronghold not far from here that is exceedingly rich in materiel and an, ahem, captive , workforce. It's too bad your walker suffered some sort of malfunction, but my group knows the compound quite well. We can show a small group of your soldiers the way and offer some meager assistance in taking out the anti-aircraft armament and then your TIE fighter there would be able to have its way with the place. You'd end up with the entirety of the compound, the mine below it, the large workforce already there and the remainder of my Krogan workers I've already promised you. Now, I'd need my Krogan employees to stay with us until the raid is complete - they'll be instrumental in getting us into the compound - but once it's done, they'll also be all yours.

"Once we've shown how helpful we can be and the compound is under your control, perhaps we can then discuss what trade goods you'd be willing to bestow upon us."

Larik takes a look back at his group and tries to throw them a reassuring smile that the Imperials won't notice.

"If these terms are acceptable, we're ready to move out. The scum running the compound cheated us out of a huge payday and made it personal," Larik says, making a show of darkening his expression and flashing his best feral grin. "We're pretty motivated to give them what they've earned."

Adin, the blond immaculately dressed brother who is now in charge turns, unaware you overheard their conversation.

"Son, we just lost the Admiral of our fleet to some Assasin, storming some fortress full of soldiers and slaves isn't exactly a high priority at the moment. We already lost 3 Ties trying to knock out the gun emplacements, and this is our last one...unless."

He turns to his brother and asks "which one was it? The hanger your boys spotted?"

"43-E" came the reply from Felix

"Ok so here is the deal, the ship is powered off, basically none of the doors open, and considering we had hull breaches the Captain had shut every single one trying to keep the ship in the sky... Didn't work obviously. Most of us survived using drop pods, 4 Tie pilots followed us down and found this hanger open to land in. Mick got emergency power running in this section of the ship, so at least we could get to the quarters, maintenance etc... But no where else. Until yesterday we thought there was no other easy way into the ship, but Felix here spotted one of the Hanger doors that's high up the Stern end is open a crack. If someone can get in there there could be all sorts of useful gear. How about you start up there?"

Overhearing the conversation between his companions and the Imperials, Queg realizes that his only chance to get out of the hangar unnoticed was to do it as soon as possible, and his only chance to join back up with the group would be to climb up the length of the downed star destroyer's "knife edge" before they got started and thus were observed by the Imperials.

Over his short yet illustrious career, Queg knew that the best way to sneak through humanoids in areas where he didn't belong was to look like he belonged, if not in disguise, then at least in his facial expressions and manner. He slithers carefully out of the hangar while the Imperial officers backs are momentarily turned away from him. Once around the corner of the hangar doors, he immediately straightens up, "holsters" the energy bow in its strap on his back, and adopts the most serious, officious, haughty look he can muster. He strides confidently along the crash site until he gets outside the camp in a direction opposite the place where he will start to climb. Then, he carefully sneaks around the camp through ruined buildings and streets until he gets to where he can begin climbing.

He reaches the climb starting point without incident and carefully makes his way up the ship's edge towards the entry points discussed by the group below. It is very cold and still windy and wet, but the borrowed black cloak is keeping Queg warm this time around. When he arrives near to where the entry point might be, he stops, crouches, and waits for his companions.

Lalam finds himself in his element, brachiating from ledge to platform like a Kowakian Gibbon-lizard. Somehow he finds the right placement for his hands and feet. I'm so lucky , he thinks. He would have though the rain would make things slick, but the durasteel almost seems to shed it. Threading through a narrow chimney between armour plates, he spies a set of hooks and clasps, probably some kind of external maintenance safety gear to tether to while making repairs in space. It'll do. He threads the ropes through and tries to remember his knots. He gives a final tug, and yells down below. "Cmon up! It's pretty easy once you get past the tilted edge."

He takes a moment to get his breath back. The view is impressive, even if the rain hides the more distant buildings in a haze of moisture.

A burst of static and a quick message from below tells him that Queg has escaped. He grins openly, and hopes Queg isn't in too rough a shape.

Larik lets everyone go ahead of him. He hopes they think it's because he wants to make sure everyone gets to the top safely before he goes, and there is a bit of truth to that, but honestly it's because he's terrified of heights.

Watching his compatriots shimmy up 200 meters with relative ease also gives him a chance to see every little book and cranny that can be used as a hand- or foothold. He is awestruck by how expertly Lalam scales the ruined superstructure of the Star Destroyer and is equally impressed by the efficiency with which Naught and the runts maneuver up, going several dozen meters at a time before pausing to shift the ropes down to the next group of climbers.

Once he's at the top, Larik takes a moment to scan the horizon. His gaze is met with desolation. He's ready to be done with this planet. Nothing good has happened to them since they've touched down.

He looks around and is startled to see Queg sitting in the hangar bay, apparently waiting for them for who knows how long.

Nope, nothing good, he thinks.

Naught carefully shimmied up the knife's edge of the star destroyer, pressing herself against the side of the crashed ship. It's treacherous work, but her smaller frame gives her a little more leeway, and the ropes Lalam tied up help her keep her balance. She called to the Krogan, "Keep a firm hold on the rope as you come up and avoid the struts, they will not support your weight." Hauling herself up the last bit of the way, she paused and removed her scanner goggles for a moment to look out over the planet. There was very little movement to give her compound eyes a more distinct impression, but that could be considered a good thing, since any movement would likely only indicate additional trouble.

Dropping down next to the hangar door. She paused to consider their options for entry. She was skeptical of whether or not the slight opening in the door would accommodate her, and she didn't think they had a portable power source strong enough to to reactivate the doors. But they would have to be cautious about what kind of evidence they might leave behind if they used other means to wrench them open.

The view from atop the ISD's broken back is impressive. Back the way your path has led from you can just see the Citadel and Library, monolithic buildings standing tall against the decaying city. Opposite that, your ultimate destination, the heart of this once glorious city. It looks like a small forest of dead trees in the distance, their trunks the only things standing, but in reality you know them to be the skeletons of mile high buildings.

Other features of this vista catch your eye, a lake stretching off into the distance to one side, surrounded by strange looking plants; purple and yellow. A crater near the lake possibly a kilometre wide appears to have been there centuries, possibly the remains of some forgotten war. Then there is the gouge in the ground left by the crashing of this very ISD, a straight cut through the city over 8km long.

Much closer to you the Hanger door is open. Inside like very dark, with almost the entire hanger blast door closed and no power it's likely to be very hard to see. As you all stand together admiring the city and planning your entry a cry rises up from below. Stormtroopers run out of their hanger and start spreading out into the nearby city, multiple speeder bikes peel out as well... Then the comlinks people carry burst to life

"This is Commander Felix, we have had a prisoner escape, a Rodian, he is armed and extremely dangerous. Do not, I repeat do not approach..." click

Moments later another voice comes over the coms, Felix's brother. "Did you happen to see anyone running into the city on your climb up?"

When the group begins dropping into the hangar where Queg is waiting, he fumbles with then ignites one of the "borrowed" lightsabers to light the room a bit. He is bruised and cut in a few places, but aside from looking slightly frozen and undernourished, he is none the worse for wear. The lightsaber glow has the unfortunate side effect of throwing his features into sinister shadows. "Do you guys use these things?" he asks politely, smirking and waving at the group. "A mean-spirited woman dropped these when I knocked her unconscious. She dropped her cloak and a couple blaster pistols too, but I had no real use for the pistols. I must confess I don't have a real use for these energy swords either, but I figured they would eventually come in handy to either myself or my pals."

When he hears the frustrated voices of Imperials over the comms, his smirk widens. "Anyway, what took you all so long to get here?"

Lalam steps over to the edge to wave to Felix's brother. "Hard to see with all the rain," he yells, "but there is somebody headed that-a-way towards the city." He peers into the distance for effect. "Doesn't look like a Krogan to me!"

He then sidles back up to the hangar door and drops in...and there's Queg! "You made it!" He slaps Queg playfully on the shoulder... "Oops! That didn't hurt, did it?"

Naught takes an involuntary step backward as Queg lights the lightsaber. "This Gand has yet to use such weapons, but is familiar with them," Naught replies. "As for the delay, we were taking pains to disguise our intentions and avoid placing the Imperials on alert."

She turned to look into the hangar, adjusting her scanner goggles to check out the interior. First they would need to see if they can get the doors open, then determine how many fighters were still operational. Those fighters may well have to serve as escape vessels, Naught thought ruefully.

Sliding on stomachs under a two meter thick blast door is a little daunting for those who dislike confinement. Before even getting through the smell is the first thing that hits you, it's horrendous. The weakest of stomachs start churning, gagging on the smell. The sight inside the cavernous Hanger isn't much better, worse than a slaughterhouse in the middle of summer. Blood pools on the floor, pancaked bodies everywhere, only the armour of Storm Troopers allowing you to identify them.

An enormous hole is in the centre of the durasteel hanger floor, something massive crashed down so hard it punched through to the room below. Two Tie Fighters are mangled wrecks in one corner, the impact of the crash must have busted them off their mounts. Thankfully the other 4 fighters are still securely in their mountings. It's also quite dark in here, the dull light under the hanger door and the red glow of ignited Saber only serving to heighten the shocking scene before you.

Queg winces a little but chuckles when Lalam hits his shoulder. "Ah no harm, Lalam. Most of the damage is in my face. That 'doctor' got a little overenthusiastic when she tried to wake me up from being stunned." He then briefly recounts his tale from the sniper nest to the present, leaving out the dream or vision he had as well as the state he had left the stormtrooper in. He nods at Naught. "Then I owe you my thanks. I probably would have been executed if I had remained in their custody. Imperials are not very forgiving when you kill an admiral."

When the crew slithers into the hangar proper, the stimuli of the smell coupled with the lightsaber glow of the graveyard causes Queg to expel the remainder of his stomach contents on the deckplates.

"Do you know how lucky you are to have gotten away with that stunt?" Larik says to Queg, rolling his eyes at the Rodian. "You could have made this whole situation even worse than it already is!"

He starts to continue berating Queg, but decides it's not worth it. Everyone else seems glad to see him. No need to go further. The worst is behind them. Now all they have to do is get these doors open and that should be enough get the Imperials to go along with the plan.

Sliding through the tiny opening, Larik is hit full force by the smell of death and decay. He didn't realize how wrong he was about the worst being behind them. The worst was actually directly in front of and surrounding them. He fights to keep his gorge down, but is unsuccessful. He hears Queg also lose the battle with his own stomach and walks over to check on the Rodian. Unfortunately the illumination from the lightsaber is not enough for Larik to see Queg's vomit on the floor combining with congealed blood. The human slips on the wretched mixture and falls down on his back, covering his pants and coat in several different substances - none of which he wants on them.

Larik gets up and puts on the breath mask he remembers he has in one of his many pockets. He looks at Queg.

"You owe me a pair of pants," He says, voice slightly muffled.

The human then moves toward the center of the ruined hangar, trying to figure out where to even begin.

"The past is the past," says Lalam to Larik, musing on what he imagines is philosophy. "Cain't do nothing about it now."

The wave of stench and grisly sight greets his nose and eyes. It's a sorry sight to be sure. He sees stormtroopers, but from under the helmets appears the occasional face, and it's all the more wrenching. Under that armour, they are still just people. He watches his compatriots double over and heave, and the impulse is there, but he chokes it down.

"You guys shouldn't eat such a big breakfast," he says. He picks his way among the bodies, alert for anyone who might still, miraculously, be alive. He heads over to the pit in the floor to see what caused such a crater.

It was the sight as much as the smell that got her.

Naught's respirator filtered out some of the stench of carrion, but her scanner goggles allowed her to see the full carnage of the hangar all at once. She stumbled back against the hangar door as her eyes took in the blood, the fragments of bone, the viscera strewn everywhere. Attempting to take a deep breath only triggered a reaction in her stomach, and she felt her gorge rising. She struggled to get her respirator mask out of the way in time, and as she vomited, it slipped down her neck and dangled from the strap. Unable to control her body's reactions, she took a reflexive breath in between heaves, and a breath of caustic oxygen entered her ammonia-breathing lungs. Her chest burned as she began coughing uncontrollably, her lungs attempting to expel the poison into an atmosphere full of it. Only her strong will kept her from panicking as she slumped to the floor and lifted her respirator back into place with one hand and dug through her medpac with the other. One does not live and work in a poisonous atmosphere without taking precautions, and Naught immediately found the anti-inflammatory drugs she had earmarked for just such an emergency. As she took gasping breaths through the respirator, she injected herself with the drugs and slowly brought her jagged breathing under control. The whole crisis lasted only a minute, but it had felt like an eternity to the Gand. With a shaking hand, she secured the strap of the respirator mask firmly in place, still coughing wetly.

"Well," Naught said, her vocoder sounding jarringly normal, chipper even, over her labored, rasping breaths, "that was an adventure."

Scanning the darkest depths of the hanger is a disturbing task, their must have been over a hundred troops in here when the ship crashed to cause such an enormous mess. There are remains literally right through the hanger. Almost all have the distinctive armour of Storm Troopers, occasionally the cloth uniform of an officer can be seen, everything is a deep dark shade of red.

Lalam approaches the hole in the floor, being careful not to slip on the slick deck plates. Peering down he can definitely see some kind of vehicle crumpled into the room below, but it's too dark to make out enough detail to identify what it was. As he watches Lalam gets an uneasy feeling, like perhaps someone or something is watching him. Perhaps the deep red shadows cast by Quegs Lightsaber is playing tricks with the light, but did something move down there?

Lariks assessment of the room is somewhat disturbing, things seem a little out of place. There appears to be blaster scorch marks on some of the walls, unusual for an ISD hanger, perhaps fighting off boarders happened during the battle. There is also one area clear of remains, surrounding one of the large internal doors that should lead off into the main thoroughfares of the ship. No body is within 3m of the door, no blood or anything. The door itself has buckled during the impact, leaving a hole where they are not fully shut big enough for a person to walk through.

As Larik takes all this in he is certain he hears a shuffling noise, only briefly. With a jump he scans the room, but no movement can be seen. Then just as quickly as it started the noise disappears.

Painstakingly, Queg makes his way between the four TIE fighters to inspect their cockpits and make sure they are in decent condition. Each climb of the ladder makes the grisly scene in the hangar seem all the worse. After he inspects the final starfighter. He pokes his head out and announces, "TIEs are in good shape, everyone. What's the score elsewhere?"

Larik takes a deep breath to slow his heart rate. He know he heard something, but he realizes anything in here with them would be far too small to be a threat, considering how small the opening is to get in here from outside and how far up they had to scale to even get to this area.

Confident nothing is amiss, he continues his search of the hangar bay and is rewarded with discovering a side room filled with 3-meter-high gray metal cabinets he correctly assumes is the emergency backup power generators for this section of the ship.

Not being terribly mechanically inclined, it takes Larik a moment to figure out the correct sequence of buttons and levers needed to activate the system. Once he's got what he guesses is the correct procedure straight in his mind he hears Queg shouting from the bay.

"TIEs are in good shape everyone. What's the score elsewhere?"

"I think we're in luck," Larik shouts back. "I've found the backup power system. I've got it figured out and we'll have the power back on in no time."

Returning to the bank of metal he begins flipping various switches and takes the whining noise coming from inside the generators as a good sign. The noise intensifies with every additional lever pull and dial turn until it reaches a crescendo just as he pushes the red, dinner plate-sized button at the very end of the bay.

The lights indeed come on, but they are accompanied by a fiery blast and the smell of burning electronics from the metal cabinets, less than a foot from Larik's face. He recoils, hiding his face in the crook of his right elbow.

He hears a voice call from outside the room asking if everything's OK. He's so scrambled from the near miss he honestly can't tell which of his compatriots is inquiring. Looking around, he sees the fire extinguished itself and the system appears to be functioning normally. There's a constant, low hum, but Larik knows that's normal, nothing like the whine he was hearing earlier. And most importantly the lights are back on. They're currently dim, but getting brighter by the second. Time to rejoin the group in the hangar and see if they can get any doors open.

Naught blinked as the lights began to come on. It sounded like Larik might have had a misadventure in the next room, but it seemed that he was okay, and Naught was distracted by the strangely clear area in front of the partially open door. A closer look revealed that there were blood splatters in the vicinity, but the remnants of whatever soldiers fell there were missing. Judging by the state of the rest of the hangar, it was highly unlikely that they actually survived and were in any kind of shape to move, and it didn't sound like the Imperials had been in here since they crash. Which meant the most likely conclusion was...

Naught called to the others, "This Gand suspects that some local creatures have taken up residence here." She let out a couple of jagged coughs. Breathing was still a bit painful. "Scavengers, perhaps, given the abundance of carrion."

As Lalam peers into the darkness there is a loud BANG from behind him, then the emergency lights turn on, bringing an eerie dull glow to the entire hanger complex. His eyes focus on a mass of bodies scattering from the wreck of a Lambda Shuttle that's half buried in the distorted floor of the store room below. A large section of the hanger deck plate is down there as well, the shuttles wings broken off and the cabin crumpled.

The creatures that flee from sight run on hind legs, their bodies covered in feathers. All of them are the same dark colour, a mix of grey and black, but blood soaked around their neck and head. The leathery heads are elongated, with mouths which look to be filled with razors for teeth. A chittering and screeching ripples through the pack as they try to scamper out of sight.

Lalam gives a startled shout at the sudden appearance of the nasty-looking creatures below. Reflexively he palms his blaster and fires at their fleeing forms, but every blast only leaves a scorch mark on dead metal. "****!" he mutters.

"Hey, there's a bunch of big bird things down here. Looks like they've been feeding pretty well. Watch your backs, I bet they've had free run of the place for a while."

Queg jumps down from the TIE fighter and jobs over to Lalam, his energy bow at the ready. "What seems to be the issue?"

He looks around the hole with the wrecked shuttle inside. Clear signs of guano are mixed with the pulpy flesh of human corpses. "Carrion fowl. See infinite different species of them on every planet. Not dangerous on their own, but in groups, they are deadly, especially if they think their nests or food sources are threatened." He holsters the bow and claps Lalam on the shoulder. "We had best keep on our guard while in here. They look like they've had the run of the place for quite some time."

"At least it wasn't a fire breathing dragon," he murmurs as he turns away and wanders back to the TIEs.