As soon as the greats are off the duct Rin crawls in, following the Gotal who seems to know where they are headed. A little ways in Tok stops and carefully lowers himself down a vertical drop to the floor below, watching carefully Rin takes note [he put his hands there and the way he uses his legs to push against the inside of the duct, I can do that].

Once Tok gives the quiet signal Rin tries to follow, he drops his legs quietly over the ledge and tries to mimic the posture Tok used, it's a struggle for Rin and as he moves down he begins to slip[ahh crap], reaching out for the side duct of the lower level Rin misses and quickly picks up speed [oh, I'm in a bit of trouble here]. The next level is coming up quick but Rin reacts fast by launching off one side of the duct he manages to jam his body into the right chute, landing on his stomach with a crunch [that was a bit bloody loud].

"I'm alright, I'm bloody alright... Bit of a fast elevator if you're not careful!" He calls back up to the others.

As he then drags his body into the duct properly he feels the lump under him for the first time. Pulling them out Rin discovers the Macrobinoculars he picked up earlier, their hinge broken and the two lenses at a funny angle.. [awesome, just bloody awesome]

Tok decides to climb into the ventilation duct first to lead the group down. He pops his head out of the grate, glances around, then drops onto the deckplates of the housing level of Aurora Grey. He looks around, not seeing anyone, then senses more than notices a presence behind him. He turns to see one of the archaeologists, a greying, 70 year old Mandalorian woman watching him tiredly and brushing her teeth.

Meanwhile, the majority of the rest of the group attempts to climb down the duct with varying degrees of success and failure. One or two of them fall, but do not injure themselves overmuch.

Back in the cargo bay itself, the blast doors open, revealing a heavyset Corellian man, a grumpy looking Twilek, a small squad of Imperial Stormtroopers and a Stormtrooper Sergeant. They all level glares at Xaramis.

The two Stormtroopers on the destroyer panic a bit when Sonya activates her lightsaber and strikes one down with a vicious blow. The other fumbles his blaster rifle and attempts to shoot at her on reflex, missing her entire;y. Then, he calls out a warning over his commlink. Unfortunately, his errant shot destroyed the communications relay in the guard station, and his warning doesn't leave the room.

Spinning on his heel to look at the archaeologist he realizes he has to think quickly, but he's also puzzled how she could have known he was there. He'd been as silent as a stalking Nexu.

"Elaiza, what are you doing up at this hour?" he asks. "Was it the captain's announcement? Nothing to worry about. I'm heading down to the main cargo bay and hangar now, see if I can help expedite the inspection."

She gives him a look that unnerves him greatly, as though she's peering directly into his soul.

"Yes, I'm sure," she says. "Do what you can to help, I'm sure it's the right thing to do."

She turns back toward her quarters and says over her shoulder, "Good night Tok."

She pauses and without looking at him adds, "But remember the right thing is rarely the easy thing."

With a whoosh her door shuts. Tok stands in the hallway, shaken and more than a bit confused. How could the old scholar...

He shakes his head, it doesn't matter. Focus on the job.

Tok peeks back in to the ducts and sees the group continuing to move through. He decides he'd rather stay in the ducts for now than take the lift after all. The old woman has set his nerves on edge. He climbs back in to continue the descent, seeing the gathered Jedi had mixed results with their attempts.

Xaramis' expression when the door opens is one of combined deference and relief. "Gentlemen, thank the stars you're here. A madman came through here a few minutes ago - Zollo, one of the deckhands, conniving brakast - and I caught him interfering with these artifacts. By the time I could stop him he was already finished with whatever damage he was inflicting, and I was locked in here. He said something about the upper engine deck, which is way back aft; I'm sure you could stop him before he carries out his damnable plan," he smiles encouragingly.

Charm check: 1eP+3eA+1eD 3 successes, 1 threat, 1 Triumph

Ren-Do awkwardly attempts to climb down the shaft by using small handholds from joins in the air duct, but finds out to his horror that the joins are simply to small to get a proper handhold on. He begins to slide when he's just past the opening to the floor beneath the cargo hold they just evacuated, despite Tok giving him a hand.

For a brief moment Tok is treated to a look of almost comical panic as the Cerean loses his grip and starts to fall. "No, no no," he says, almost to himself, as he attempts to grab Tok's hand again in a rather clumsy fashion. As he starts to fall he manages to brace his back against the fairly narrow tube and his hands and feet against the opposite side, slowing his descent considerably.

The tall Cerean lands at the bottom with a thump. Other than bruises he is unhurt, but his pride has taken a bit of a beating. He gets up and out of the way, so as not to get in the way of the green-skinned Falleen, but finds out that he is not behind him as he had assumed. Well, either he is betraying us right now or he has a plan to talk himself out of this mess that involves a rather good explanation for the open tubes, he thinks to himself.

He waits for the Gotal to get down there and lead the way out of the labyrinth of air vents. Besides, it was better to let the crewman exit first, he might be able to talk his way out of any trouble he runs into. Ren-Do would not have that option.

Effective tusk cat pounces was. The rest, pracu.

Sonya stands up from her combat stance and looks down at the terrified person in white armor. The being kept calling for others to help and frantically trying to manipulate the turbolift controls. Keeping the saber pointed at his throat, she points with her other hand in the direction of the detention cells. "That way."

Then she begins trying to figure out how to get a turbo lift to take her in the direction of the ship she saw being drawn in. The symbols on the controls are foreign to her but she attempts to take go up a level and move toward the other ship avoiding any more contact with the crew of this ship.

Perhaps on that vessel, some answers lie.

Kellen took a long calming breath before sliding and climbing down the shaft. His muscles strained at long unuse but he made it down safely two levels.

Kellen looked around trying to figure out where he was and to keep the area safe for his companions.

Garon did his best to move out of the way to allow the others to sneak into the hanger bay. All of them seemed pretty determined to lead the escape, and the Besalisk was only happy to oblige them.

On the destroyer, Sonya manages to stealthily make her way through to the docking playform, despite ever increasing patrol sizes. At the platform, four Stormtroopers guarding this end of the docking ring. They talk with one another while they wait.

S1: "So why are we even out here at this dirt end of space?"

S2: "Right? Adega is the closest inhabited system and it may as well be uninhabited for the lack of civilization it offers."

S3: "Shush! Don't you two idiots know?"

S2: "Know what?"

S4: "The Inquisitorius sent us out here. Some scientists found something forbidden in Adega system."

S3: "And we are here to impound the cargo. Kill everyone on board. Continue on our way..."

At the docking ring on Aurora Grey, the two Stormtroopers tilt their heads to listen to a communication, then turn and run through the ring back to the destroyer.

Meanwhile, the Gundark enters the dark hangar bay/large cargo hold. Red lights allow him to see the silhouette of an old, derelict freighter, loading ramp lowered, but powered off.

Ren-Do looks around. What was he missing? The Falleen was up there wither betraying them all or trying to talk his way out of trouble. The Gotal was here, as was the Dresselian and the Devaronian. He sighs inwardly. The biggest person here and he'd not seen him move off, too focused on not breaking any important bones going down there.

The Cerean notices an open grate and crawls through, spying the large Besalisk standing in a doorway, peering in. He returns quickly to the vents, motions for the people still inside to follow, and whispers rather loudly: "Come on, the coast seems clear." After all, if the bulging four-armed alien had not attracted attention he was fairly sure he could march a brigade of soldiers after him without problems.

Then, trying his best not to stumble into anything important, Ren-Do follows him. It would not do to let the Besalisk get himself killed through brash action. Apparently stealth is not a word in the lanky Cerean's dictionary, so the Gundark hears him coming. As Ren-Do sees the ship in the hangar he looks ambivalent.

"That ship could be our method of escape," he whispers to the large alien and the others, as they catch up. "Assuming of course that anyone in our motley crew can fly a spaceship. I hardly think I'm much of an expert. Somehow doesn't feel right. But then, my memories are lost. For all I know I could be an Ace pilot. I'd just rather not find out I'm not and doom us all in the process."

He tries to see if there is anyone guarding the ship, and keeps an eye on the corridor to make sure they notice if enemy soldiers come in on their flank. Since the landing bay is poorly lit he rummages in his side satchel for a moment before pulling out a set of goggles. "Thought I saw a pair in there," he says to himself as he puts on his scanner goggles. "Can't see any movement. What is that over there? I can't quite make it out," he whispers to his allies.

Kellen makes his way into the bay and seeing that they're not all there yet he takes out his lightsaber hilt, his finger hovering over the activation button, and begins to sweep the area for threats...

"If the others don't show up soon we may need to go back and help them," Kellen says in a low voice to the others.

The Cerean's eyes must stil be adjusting, Tok thinks clearly seeing a hunter killer droid standing by the ship they planned to use in their escape. While the droid would be trouble, it was a lucky break it appeared to be alone. Tok motioned for the others to retreat back to the ventilation duct and explain the situation.

"It looks like there's just one droid guarding the ship," he said. "It's a particularly nasty model of hunter droid and the Imperials must have brought it. There was nothing like it among the archaeological equipment. I think we've got the numbers to take it. And the element of surprise."

"A dam restraining bolt would be handy... I think!" Rin replies to Toks statement about the Droid, "seems extra protection would be bloody handy right about now."

Turning to Ren he states plainly "I can navigate, done a lot of that in the past... well things have probably moved a bit now, but let's see how we go, a ship is better than no ship."

He then steps sideways to get a better look at the Droid guard and bumps a wrench off the top of a create, sending it crashing to the floor [doh!]

The shape of the possible Hunter Killer droid shakes when the wrench clatters to the deck plate. A pair of red lights, like baleful lanterns flicker on, before one of them sparks and flicks off. The shape's head turns slowly with a squeal of unoiled metal on metal, focusing in Rin's direction.

"Blasts, sorry guys, stun setting?" the now ancient Dressellian mutters quietly to those nearby.

Garon's lips form a snarling grin. From the sound of things, I think I've been asleep for far too long. His joints popped has stretched both sets of arms. Time to see just how soft I've got.

And rather guiltily he added to himself Not too mention, fighting the Sith is about the only blasted thing that makes sense right now.

"Thought there was something there," Ren-Do replies to Tok with an almost self-satisfied tone. "We should not be hasty, nor do we have time to waste loitering around here. Do you have a knowledge of it's armaments and defenses? Is it's armor laced with cortosis?"

The Cerean holds the hilts of his lightsaber in his right hand but does not ignite the blade. He remembers how pitifully weak it looked and how faded the blue color seemed, but brushes the thought from his head. Unless the Sith Empire has so much cortosis that it has started using it for armor on hunter droids a lightsaber will make short work of a droid like that.

He looks incredulous at the Dresselian. "Unless blasters and stun weaponry has evolved a lot since we went into the stasis it will not have much detrimental effect on a droid. Lethal force is required. A lightsaber should make short work of the droid. The trick is not getting blasted as we approach it."

The Imperials look at Xaramis in startled confusion for a moment, before their sergeant turns away, heading aft, his hand pressed to his comlink. "Central, central, this is Boarding 2. A friendly onboard says we've got a rogue element in upper aft engineering, could be going to cause some serious mischief. Suggest we pull all teams to seal off that section, then move in and clear it out," a moment later he nods, and turns back to his team.

"Alright people, move like the Emperor's watching. All teams, move aft of cargo, seal off forward movement and then close on engineering. The rest of the ship can wait," he turns back to Xaramis as his men head off. "Thank you, it's good to see that some aliens are willing to serve a higher cause."

"That's me," Xaramis replies. "Only the highest causes around here," he waits until the Stormtroopers are out of sight before addressing the other crew members. "You boys might want to find somewhere nice and legal to hide, I think things may get a little interesting soon," with that, he sets off on a calm but urgent stroll towards the cargo bay-turned-hangar.

When the droid begins powering up a look of terror washes across Tok's face.

While it's clearly not in great shape and unarmed, he's heard stories about what the HK droids are capable of and he wants to stay well back from it so he can hit it from range. Scrabbling back away, he trips over his own feet and falls to the ground, forcing him to crawl to continue his retreat.

At the same time, he sees Ren-Do start to rush the droid, and his stress level reaches a new peak. If something happens to any of these beings, his payday and entire future with his family will be in doubt.

That's something he can not let happen.

It. Can't. Happen.

As the droid's systems come on line Ren-Do finds something odd about the shape of the head and the body. Suddenly he's no longer on board the archaeological ship in some undetermined future. He's back in his time. And he's fighting.

Suddenly Ren-Do Uvara, Jedi Knight, is back on Coruscant, his bright blue lightsaber lit and ready to attack. No, not Knight. He brushes his Padawan braid from his face with his left hand, and looks up, waiting for his master to give the signal. Then the comlink crackles to life and his master orders the attack.

"Come on, we must get to the factory floor before the droids realize we are here. If we catch them off-guard we can end this once and for all," Ren-Do finds himself shouting at Republic soldiers as he leads them through narrow corridors. They get to the factory floor a few minutes too late. The intel had been correct but they were too late. HK-01, the droid that had instigated the droid uprising, was evacuating the factory with his bodyguard. Two floors above them the main strike force, led by his master, was fighting scores of droids fighting a rearguard action to keep HK-01 safe.

"Attaaaaaaaack!" Ren-Do hears himself shouting in the shrill voice of a teenager, as he leads the charge into the droids bodyguard. The Republic soldiers open fire, but the combat droids the HK had programmed with unfaltering loyalty close ranks and counterattack. Ren-Do cuts down first one, and then another droid with his bright blue lightsaber, but is forced to retreat. He leaps back to his men and deflects blaster bolts as several destroyer droids on balconies open fire with blaster cannons. He and his men are forced to fall back under heavy fire, and all he can do is watch in frustration as HK-01 manages to escape into the tunnels and out of reach.

Ren-Do shakes his head. He notices that the green-skinned Falleen is coming. Not betraying us after all, it seems.

The tall Cerean points into the hangar. "This is a very dangerous droid, looks like it's a close relative to the HK-series that caused all sorts of trouble a few years ago. For me, that is. You will not recall the incident. We must strike swiftly and decisively. Follow my lead." Without waiting for a reply, Ren-Do moves in. He notices that the droid is scanning a different area and scuttles in, staying as low as he can behind some craters. His lightsaber is still unlit in his hand.

Sonya sees a pale, sickly looking even, human man dressed head to toe in a solid black uniform bereft of rank insignia come up to the four Stormtroopers, practically quivering with rage, as two Stormtroopers come through the docking ring. The six gathered Stormtroopers snap to attention.

"Stow that talk immediately you miserable cretins, he snarls. "The occupant of cell 437 has somehow escaped and must be detained immediately. Every precaution must be taken. Our passengers and their masters demand it."

The Stormtroopers salute the smaller man and the seven march off towards the engineering bays.

With me, the force is.

Sonya slips from her hiding place and enters the Aurora Grey, looking for controls to close the docking ring and or an emergency evacuate ship signal.

A plan, possibly a bad one, I have formulated. If a communications device, I can find. Save as many as possible, I must.

Rin hears the description Ren gives of the droid, a memory of a lost and nameless friend springs to mind [The droid revolt took that person from me... Who they where is for another time, this guard needs dealing with immediately]

He pulls the recently acquired pistol from a pocket as he dashes toward the Droid, he has trouble turning the safety off but managed to get the pistol up and firing enough for a couple of his bolts to hit home. Most seem to bounce off or are absorbed, but one manages to cause a couple of sparks to fly. With the incoming shots the Droid turns to face Rin [well that got its attention, perhaps I'm a bit too close!]

The Hunter Killer assassin droid is struck by several blaster bolts, but manages to shrug off most of them. It grinds and shambles its rusted form like a robotic zombie towards Ren-Do. It swings its arm at him it what would amount to a powerful blow to the solar plexus, but the servos in its shoulder fail, locking the arm into place momentarily. It painstakingly turns its head to look at the offending shoulder, distracting it long enough for someone to strike it.