Khaine looks over at Tox puzzled. She'll fearlessly go toe to toe with a giant space bug but an old corpse bothers her? I don't know if I'll ever figure her out... "Well, lets see what we can find out." He heads over to the chair and pushes the body out of the way. As it falls, it's torn to peices by the restraints that were still attached. "Ooops. Eh." How did I miss that it was still strapped in? He wonders while he sits down. Brushing the dust from the console Khaine connects the external audio jack on his suit into the console and gets to work. "What do you have for us." *Bzzzt* "Hmm, ok, what about. *Bzzzt* How about this one. *Bzzzt* "Grrrr." *Bzzzt* "Oh come on!" He exclaims as he gruffly as he disconnects the audio jack. "The system is completely locked down. I'm going to have to try and slice in."

Khaine pulls the slicing gear out of one of his belt pouches and begins attaching it to the console. "I hope this thing has some pre-loaded scripts. I'm very good with computers." Khaine sits back down and starts going through the menus. "Let's see... red spike into the Bravo port... *click click* ...blue spike in the Zed port. *click* "That doesn't look anything like the example readout..." "Maybe this one?" *Bzzzt* *Warning! System lock down in effect* I didn't do that... *Warning! System lock down in effect* Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time." Unplugging the slicing gear from the terminal Khaine looks to his companions with a defeated look on his face. "The system is locked down and I can't undo it. I could maybe try to brute force it, but it may set off alarms or other security measures." He puts the gear away and takes a long look at the hole in the hull.

Maybe I can at least figure out if anything out of the ordinary happened here. Walking over to the hole Khaine inspects the edges of the hole in the hull. After a few minutes of examining the edges and looking it over he speaks to his companions without turning around. "Definitely heavy blaster fire. Turbolaser maybe." I hope that sounded convincing...

As his allies go about their tasks Khaine watches as Fzaexx picks up a small encryption spike from the corpse. He tilts his head with a look of frustrated exasperation on his face. After rolling his eyes at missing such an obvious thing he helps Fzaexx get to work on the console.

Chapter 3

Those Left Behind

S'zish manipulates the tractor beam holding the TIE fighter and deposits the wreck some few meters away from the hull of the C-ROC, it settles gently into the dust and is ready to be examined for the targeting computer it hopefully still holds.

Khaine and Fzaexx are reactivating the sensor station one screen at a time. It seems that the system has been locked down so long that the computer needs to cycle up slowly just to function at all. The system key is hugely instrumental in doing this. Evidently whoever it was that died manning the station wanted to keep everyone shut out without it.

Outside there is a loud kerthunk-shoom , a pleased sounding Tox reports that the hatchway panel retracted properly, and the airlock is now accessible.

The sensor station is slowly coming to life and everyone gathers back in the cockpit to watch.

The screens displaying internal viewcams light up and a sensor looking into what must be the cargo hold glows to life.

The view into the hold is obscured by layers of dust and grime but you can still make out a clear enough picture. The area has been haphazardly cluttered with furniture and piles of bedding. Partitions have been placed around the hold to create makeshift rooms with a bit of privacy. Several of these "rooms" contain sentients involved in various acts of debauchery. Some of the figures are engaged in traditional pursuits but the occasional cry of pain comes through the scratchy audio receptor and various areas clearly cater to those with more masochistic urges. The only true commonality is that each pairing has a Zygerrian in control.

The cargo bay of a C-ROC occupies the entire center of the ship and is flanked by freight hatches, four on each side, where the large externally stored cargo pods can be accessed and entered. Looking into these cargo pods you see rows of cages with sorry looking occupants. Cycling through the various feeds available you can see that there are a variety of species caged and chained within. Most would be considered physically attractive but tastes are diverse. Walking between the occupants you see an Ithorian, gently dispensing food and water.

One of the cargo pods, clearly not filled with cages, has some sort of turbo lift built into its outside end. The turbo lift doors open and a Zygerrian male exits and approaches what you now realize is a counter or desk of some sort. A Zygerrian female rises and greets the newcomer. You toggle a few dials and the audio feed rises in volume so you can hear the newcomer say ..."no satisfaction from those **** hammerheads, they always just roll over and take the whipping. Have you got any new stock? Something with a bit of fight still in it?

How do you respond?

Fzaexx watches the others gearing up as the Gand sets the ship down, his mind wandering through the possibilities of how his investigation on the Smuggler’s Moon will play out. Let’s go see what this fuss will be about. Maybe these peons can get some decent hardware off this junker. Turning a profit on this run would be a plus, my day job is a salvage shop after all. Leaving the confines of the short hauler, Fzaexx watches Khaine slip through the breach and follows the human’s path in.

The small bridge area is quickly jammed with Fzaexx’s hangers-on and the Falleen finds himself needing to lean over a console to allow them to move about. Inspecting the panel in front of him, Fzaexx picks at the corner where some paint is peeling. The paint peels back and reveals itself to be a solid sheet of flimsy covered in the moon’s dust. Gently pulling more away, Fzaexx discovers the console to be in immaculate shape as if it was installed yesterday.

As the others depart to explore in the walker or begin searching for an alternate entrance, Fzaexx continues to examine the inside of the bridge. Aside from the blown in section, everything else is immaculate; there are no dents in the walls, no chips in the paint, or even scuff marks on the floor.

"I've found out something very important. This ship appears to be new in every way I can see from here. If you can get it working and free, I'll have a valuable commondity on my hands. We should examine things further."

As thoughts of making off with an entire ship fill Fzaexx head, he instinctively ponders who he's stealing from. Glancing down at the desiccated corpse, Fzaexx scowls deeply and crouches to examine the tattered uniform. This proves to be a useless gesture as the clothing is nondescript spacer gear and any identification was lost in the blast. Fzaexx's time turns out to not have been wasted when he finds a small code cylinder tucked in the brest pocket.

Fzaexx holds up the code cylinder, "Khaine, I think I have a lead on that sensor console." Gesturing at Khaine for where to put the device, Fzaexx inserts it and activates the console. "Initializing...." it reads, and Fzaexx smiles greedily.

Khaine and Fzaexx are met with a light thump on their backs, weaker than the ones in the past, by their friendly Ithorian chum. “Excellent job you two, most excellent. To think I didn’t want to come down here at all!” He chuckled a bit under his breath, albeit not very convincingly. Truth be told after their last encounter with the worms Neelig had not been feeling very confident in this journey. How many beings had to be harmed? Why did it feel as if his violent urges were growing ever stronger? True, they were under attack…but he didn’t even try to disable them. He had spent the journey to the C-Roc muttering an Ithorian prayer for the essence of the worms to return to the Force peacefully.

“I sure hope things will go smoothly this ti-“, Caab was cut off as the faces of Zygerrians cropped onto the screen. Their furred visage was not a sight he desired to gaze on, beings the Ithorian believed to be one of the lowest levels of scum in the galaxy: slavers. Well ,perhaps he should give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, the entire race was not part of the slave trade surely there were some reasonable folk within the ship. “Friends, I suggest we tread care-“. The Ithorian popped on screen next. The lithe Ithorian woman trying to tend to the others. The Ithorian woman who he had seen within the more tropical areas of their piece of Mother Jungle, caring for the monkey-lizards and gizka. One of his herdsmen. His herdsman.

A twitch of the hand and the beginning of tears began to form, both of sadness and of joy. They were alive, but they were enslaved. How could anyone be so evil as to capture peace loving Ithorians? Who would drag a tender caretaker of animals and force her to feed the rest of the slaves?

Sadness soon gave way to anger. At first it was some heavy breathing, a bit of light snarling along the left mouth. His hands began to curve like claws, his staff gripped tight. All that was audible was a bit of deep huffing emitting from his dual mouths, his face going hot and his eyes losing any trace of his usual jolliness.

Then, the Hammerhead comment. The snarls grew more auditory, the huffing more powerful. He was doing all he could to subdue his emotions for the others sake, inside he was screaming in hatred. Hatred, a feeling he often felt inward but never towards another: never so pure until now. He paced for a second back away from the ship, slamming his staff upon the ground with what sounded like a sharp his spilling from his throats , dust flinging everwhere behind him, in a quick release of fury before fast walking right towards the door, his cursing audible, his breathing easily visible. He pressed through to the airlock, and with gritting, low and venomous words, barely restraining the brunt of his anger, he turned to the rest of his team. “Open. The. Door”.

As the display lights up Kaine sees the unmistakable sight of habitation. Immediately he begins to take stock of potential hostiles amid the unmistakable slavery on the screen. Disgusting. He thinks to himself.

Suddenly Kaine goes cold as the true horror of what lies on this ship assaults his eyes. This isn't just a slave ship. As screen after screen showed sentient beings being used for sexual gratification Kaine begins to shut down.

Suddenly Khaine finds himself on one of his first bounties. A small time gang had taken a wealthy Chiss businessman's daughter hostage. It was a simple enough job. Go in get the girl and kill the gang leader. It was easy to track them down since they didn't even attempt to hide themselves. Their base, if you could call it that, was a run down slum of a living block in a bad part of town. The bangers had heavily fortified the front door, and the first few floors but their spice addled brains hadn't done anything to reinforce the roof. What he saw in there that day would haunt him for a very long time. Women of several species were chained to beds and so drugged up on spice that they were little more than vegetables. He found the girl but she had been raped repeatedly until she had died. He remembers little from the next few minutes but the bodies Khaine left in his wake that day are still whispered in fear in some of the slums on Nar Shada. Most of his reward had gone towards medical bills and he'd used enough med-stims to raise the dead to make it through that day. But in the end his only regret was was the nightmares he still had about those poor women.

Snapping back to the present Khaine turns and exits the cockpit without a word. As he makes his way towards the access hatch he quietly gives his rifle a quick once over, makes a few adjustments, and grips the handle tightly. As Khaine steps into the hatch he pauses to look back to see if any of his companions had followed him as he prepares to strtthe airlock cycle. I won't let it happen again...

Scanning the security feeds for anything of note, Brin can't make out any of the slavers or their captives at first glance. Although, that Zygerrian there... is he wearing an insignia of the Zygerrian royal caste?

"Hey guys... I don't think we're dealing with a local slaver ring here. We're gonna have to exercise a bit of caution if we want to do any good here today. Hey, does anybody have a pair of binders? Maybe we can put these on Neelig, and-"

Brin stops himself mid-sentence as he continues to watch the feed. Are his eyes playing tricks on him? There are so many Rodian slaves in the galaxy. But that thin frame... those blue scales... that has to be Dahj!

Some time elapses. Brin's mouth is dry, but he swallows the lump in his throat and forces out some words.

"A-alright... let's make sure we don't... endanger anyone's lives here when we-" He mostly watches the screen as he talks but slowly turns his head toward his friends.

Wait where is everybody?

Brin runs out to the hatchway, confident that his team is ready to rush in and confront these atrocities. No, no, no! If I can't let them endanger Dahj's life!

"Everyone...! Hold up! If we rush in now, we could be endangering lives!"

Brin does his best to rally everybody. If we work together, we can definitely rescue these slaves! I'm coming for you, Dahj. I won't leave you behind again!

Watching the the screens with her team, thats weird to say, but yes, they are my team, Tox saw the horrors laid out in front of her. As soon as she say that there were Ithorian's chained down, her heart broke for Neelig. His herd! I can't imagine what that must feel like. To see your kin chained and abused like that. Scanning one of the flickering screens, Tox didn't notice any weapons, seeing only boots walking on a catwalk over looking the captives. " There are guards. " Turning to look at Neelig, but finding the space were he was standing empty, Tox looked around and saw fear, anger, hatred, pain, and anguish. She watched as Khaine left the area, fury forrowing his brow.

This is my herd, I can't let them go in alone. Tox realized. Bracing herself, she took one more look at the screens, her resolve set before she could even focus on the misery before her. Even if they wouldn't go in to help, I would go by myself. This cannot stand. If I was willing to risk my life for Rosestar, then I am willing to give my life for these souls. My herd.

Turning towards the hole in the ship, she started walking out towards the hatch. She was jogging before she got outside. Running before she hit slope. Sprinting by the time she caught up with Neelig and Khaine. She solemnly nods to both, her breath steady, ready for a fight. She can barely hear Brin talking over the rush of adrenaline. Calm, Cool, Collected. " Make every strike count."

Fzaexx's face reflects a look of amazement as he gazes at the feed. The movement and comments of the others prompts him to leave his thoughtfulness behind. Fzaexx smiles broadly, "These are my kind of scum; fearless and inventive!"

Fzaexx notices the others looks of horror, revulsion, and anger on the other's faces. I can't believe the naive lot I've attracted. Does that say something about be not being feared enough? Is my disgrace partly because I'm seen as soft? Let me give these things some perspective.

Fzaexx speaks in the most commanding, domineering voice he can, the one usually reserved only for bending noncompliants to his will, "Get over yourselves and don't act surprised. We're in the heart of Hutt space. We live on the same planet as one of the largest slave markets in the galaxy! Slavery is the law of the land by both Hutt and Imperial standards. If I could afford any, I'd get a couple wookies to help with the junkyard! If you start stepping on toes by freeing slaves, that path only ends with a bounty hunter or 5 dragging you in."

Fzaexx takes a moment to let that sink in, change topics, and lower his voice to a more calculating tone, "The only thing wrong here is that it isn't Hutts doing the slaving. I'm willing to bet they won't be happy to learn Zygerrian competition is in their back yard and they might be grateful if we handle them. Brin is correct however, the Zygerrian operation being in this place either means they either have permission from or are outwitting the Imperials. We will need to be cautious when taking them down."

Fzaexx makes his way to the airlock, thinking to himself once more. I've only met a few Zygerrians, but each one has been a conceited prick acting like they are a superior species. It'll be nice if my cadre brings these self centered scum down a peg or two.

Standing in the airlock Khaine waits as Neelig and Tox step in. Something catches his ear and slowly breaks it's way through the pounding of his heart. Fzaexx's voice drifts through the comm link in a commanding fasion but Khaine doesn't hear the words and brushes it away when a second voice comes through in a calm collected manner. Is that Brin? What's he saying ? That brief moment is enough to give Khaine a moment to focus. Listening to Brins calm voice urging caution gives Khaine pause. Then he hears S'zish volunteering to scout things out. Looking around Khaine takes stock of their situation. No body armor, only one heavy weapon, on medium, and the rest are small arms. No grenades. This could be suicide. Can't save anyone if your dead...

Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath. "We're outnumbered and possibly outgunned. We'll need to hit them hard and fast. S'zish, if you think that you can scout some of the area out then I can wait. But not for long. These sleemo must be smashed. Slavery is one thing, but this goes way beyond slavery..." Khaines voice trails off for a second. "Lets secure the corridor on the other side of the airlock then you can scout it out. Once we have an idea of where they are we'll need to move fast and secure that lift in the cargo hold. Wherever it goes, it's the bottle neck we need to keep them from overwhelming us." Khaine looks around at the others for any sign of agreement and then prepares to cycle the airlock.

S'zish looked at what was taking place within the the C-ROC he had seen slavery before but this was beyond that, Zygerrians are such a selfish species. S'zish turned towards the others after hearing their reactions, "The group must not rush, it could cause more harm then aid. S'zish volunteers to scout the hold." After the others had agreed he set out towards the recently cleared airlock.

Once S'zish had arrived at the airlock he replied to Khaine "S'zish agrees, and will attempt to find useful information." After all of the other group members, except Fzaexx, had entered the airlock, air began to hiss into the it. Once it had completed the process S'zish entered the hallway. He pulled off the space suit piece by piece, he removed the helmet last. He examined the comm-link and saw that it could be detached from the helmet and still be used to communicate. S'zish removed it, then with pulse rifle in one hand he began to creep forward towards the cargo bay. "S'zish will report soon." he said quietly into the comm-link.

Beyond the airlock is a small junction of a hallway. Immediately to your left is the bulkhead door that leads to the bridge, in front of you is another airlock presumably mirroring the one you just entered but for the far side of the ship. To your right an interior bulkhead door is closed, but a viewport reveals that there is a hallway Beyond it. The group cycles everyone through the airlock who is intent on entering the ship. You then start working on the interior doorways.

Despite having sat for years without use, the doors seem to open and close smoothly. It seems that whatever protocol was in place for depressurization closed the doors in this hallway. As you progress farther toward the rear of the ship, where the cargo hold and reactor room are accessed, you pass by multiple doorways leading to crew quarters.

At the end of the hallway you find what must be where escape pods would have been accessed. The escape pods are clearly gone however.

Beyond that the corridor ends and the hallways splits around two small circular rooms. Looking through a clear panel in a door you see that one is the ventral gunner station. The other is a turbolift.

Aft of where the hall circles the gunner station, another bulkhead door opens onto a catwalk above the cargo hold. Having been warned of his presence by Tox, you know to watch for a guard that is manning the catwalk.

It seems that Fzaexx's observation from before is bearing out. Everything you've search up until this point has been empty to the point of austerity. Exactly as if this ship had been fresh off the lot before the battle began.

S'zish paused at the doorway to the catwalk, out of sight from the guard. S'zish had heard from Fzaexx that the guard seemed to be walking around the perimeter of the catwalk. Waiting until Fzaexx told him that the guard was moving away from him, and was about a third of the way down the catwalk S'zish quietly darted out of the area next to the doorway, and began to follow the guard. As he turned the corner to get onto the same path as the guard S'zish heard conversation drifting up from below, " ...bet me they weren't coming right back right away. He thinks his Admiral is going to be ordered to hunt down the rebels after the battle..." Odd. S'zish thought to himself Did the Imperials leave in response to the Rebellion? But that could wait, all that mattered for now was the Empire wasn't coming back soon. S'zish continued to creep along after the guard, when another piece of information from that conversation came up to him "I should get going. Nightfall is in an hour and I have to get a ship out before the winds come." Uh-oh, the group could get stuck on this moon... S'zish continued along the catwalk, the guard hadn't even looked to the side except to observe the cargo bay below. Then a different conversation came up from below, "Any more trouble down in the mines? I heard a few days ago you had more escapees..." Was this C-ROC just part of the Zygerrian operation on the moon? This could complicate matters, if the group destroyed only part of the Zygerrian operation then the Zygerrians could come seeking revenge... S'zish had almost crossed two thirds of the catwalk, he continued to step quietly has he had done this entire time, but the guard seemed relaxed. " ...so nice to sneak up here on..." S'zish paused for half a second, hoping to catch the rest of the sentence, but it was gone so he continued S'zish wonders if that was about the mines. The guard began to round the corner but S'zish has positioned himself so that he could hide in a nearby shadow to prevent the guard from spotting S'zish with his peripheral vision, the guard didn't spot him. While he was paused S'zish heard another conversation " ...strange at first to think they use actual jungles to recycle the air. But I've got to admit the hunting is..." S'zish almost sighed, I f Zygerrians spoke like Gand S'zish would know who "they" are. Perhaps the Ithorians? S'zish remembered Neelig had mentioned that some of the Ithorian ships had jungles. But what were the Zygerrians hunting? A creature that lived in the jungle, or... perhaps Ithorians... Some beings found great sport or fulfillment in hunting others, and Gand Findsmen were some of the best at it, but this would not help right now. As soon as he was out of the guard's peripheral vision S'zish continued to move.

He had reached the exit on the far side from where he had started, when he heard something that almost made him freeze. " ...progress with Phantom project? I heard they needed to redesign the ion engines..." Ion engines, TIE, Twin Ion Engines... Could it be? If so what was this Phantom project, S'zish aimed to get the chance to find out. S'zish moved through the doorway into the next room, it seemed to contain a reactor, but Fzaexx could not get any camera feeds to work, S'zish paused in the entrance trying to see if anything else in the room was alive.

Khaine pressed himself into the corner. On F'zaex's signal he would open the door then wait. With any luck he'll be too dumb or too curious and walk right into the hallway. If not.. Khaine twists his neck ...it shouldn't be to hard to grab him and pull him into the hallway and shut the door. If we can get this guy, the rest down there should be easy. And then these sleemo's will pay for their cruelty, and we'll have a nice new ship as a reward. Khaine smiles as he slinks into the corner and prepares to open the door.

Fzaexx listened dispassionately to his team move to the other side of the airlock. When called on he described the details of the path ahead as best he could, otherwise his mind wandered while keeping an eye on the monitor. Eventually the audio the group heard earlier ran back through his head and Fzaexx was struck by a new thought. Sure, the security system picks up audio, that’s not uncommon. But this is a ship and this is the comms terminal, I should be able to transmit from here over the intercom. It can’t be that hard to patch my comlink into this system; someone as gifted as I am should have no trouble. Fzaexx tightened his lips in a thin smile and set to work.

While S’zish described the conversations he overheard, very interesting bits indeed, Fzaexx was combing the console for a connection point. Quickly locating the “comms in” terminal, he rummaged through the console’s utility drawer for the cable which would connect to his suit to the computer and plugged both ends in. Leaving the switch in the “off” position, he scoured the terminal buttons while barely registering the group’s talk about how to approach taking down the guards. A set of buttons with a similar arrangement as the group which changed the video feed caught his eye. One was labelled “shipwide”, while the others were simply numbered. So it’s not just a PA system, but individual intercoms for each room.

Suddenly the word “distraction” caught Fzaexx attention. “Yes, I can offer a distraction with the intercom system. Let me know when you need it.” Suddenly much more focused on his part in the mission, Fzaexx watched his team take their positions and waited for the guard to approach the open door. When the time came, Fzaexx pressed the button corresponding to the airlock hall, held his breath, flipped the “comms in” switch to active, and both twisted and pulled on the comms in jack. Fzaexx hoped this produced a crackling and popping sound from the intercom speakers which would draw the guard’s attention without being threatening.

The guard patrolling the catwalks above the hold comes abreast of where the door is open. from your vantage within the darkened hall and over the holofeed you see a look of cautious confusion on his features. Fzaexx causes a bit more static to emanate from the room beyond and a bored frown creases his face. He picks up a com from his belt and says into it. " This is Grakoon, something is going on with the electronics in the ventral gunner room. Send that mechanic up here to fix it. "

Grakoon then rests his rifle against the wall and strides towards the doorway with his hands busy pulling out a torch.

Ok, like we discussed.

Breathe in. One. Two. Three.

Breathe out. One. Two. Three.

Don't let your anger get the best of you. Glancing quickly at her vampblades in silent prayer, Tox noticed that she had forgotten to prime them when she last cleaned them. Koochoo je! I still have time, at least Fzaexx hasn't made the... KZZGHGHKKZZGHGHK ...distraction noise yet. Koochoo! Hurry, hurry.

Tox quickly resets the springs in her vamblades, flicks her wrist to activate them, smiles coolly, and crouches to pounce. The guard soon appears in the door. Tox holds her breath, waiting for the guard to take the two steps needed to spring the trap. One. Hes fumbling with his flashlight. Good, this poor stupa doesn't know whats coming. Two. Here we go.

Four things happen in rapid succession. A blaster bolt flies past from the darkness. Was that Brin? Why did he fire his blaster already, doesn't he know I'm attacking? He must be feeling extra trigger happy today. Wait, n o, not a blaster, too quiet, a stun shot perhaps? Swoosh . There's the door. Good job Khaine.

" Ungh, " grunted the Guard. My apologies Brin, good job. My turn.

Pushing off the wall, Tox thrusts the blades into the guard's chest. Fwip. Fwip. Both blades hit there mark. This might just be our lucky day. Pulling out the blades, Tox is suprised that they didn't penetrate fully. What kind of armor is the poodoo wearing?

It's the moment of truth. Khaine squeezes into the corner and does his best to blend with the shadows. Well, if things go south it wouldn't be that bad would it? I'll still get to blast these sleemo's... And no plan survives contact with the enemy. Here he comes... Khaine waits, nerves on edge as the guard enters into the hallway. Wait, no rifle. Oh, poodoo guard.

As the guard crosses the threshold Khaine reaches out and closes the door. The door closes with a quiet swoosh and no sooner had it closed than a quiet *zzzapp* rips through the air, leaving Khaines arm tingling and the hair standing on end. **** Brin, at least let me get out of the way before you start blasting. At least it was on stun.

Khaine twists back into the corner as Tox jumps forward sinking her blades into the guard's chest as Neelig comes from the other side with a blow from his mighty staff. Khaine can hear and feel the air as the guard twists out of the way and Neelig's powerful blow misses it's mark. This guard is better than I expected.

*zzzapp* Another stun bolt flies past his allies and strikes the guard. Dang, Brins a better shot than I gave him credit for. Nice. Hesitating for a second Khaine realizes that the guard is still up and reaching for his belt

Grenade! And here's where things go south. Khaine draws his rifle, all plans of stealth going out of the window and blasts the guard in the chest. As the guard crumples Khaine looks at his allies as they level looks of mixed disbelief and annoyance at him. "What? He was going for a grenade. I'm sure the door muffled the sound anyway. Especially with all of the noise out there..." He looks around. "Ok, I'm sorry. I'll stick to my pistol and stun as long as I can."

Khaine looks down at the body slumped on the ground and begins to make plans. First, we need to move the body. There could be re-reinforcements coming.

Fzaexx watches in shock as the group unleashes on the guard and it still stands. Who are these guys? Finally, Khaine's blaster ends the fight and Fzaexx quickly flips through the monitors looking to tell if the group was detected.

His grip on the console relaxes slightly when he finds the only out of place guard to be sending the mechanic on their way. "S'zish," Fzaexx says quickly, "Mechanic outbound from reactor room now."

S'zish responded to Fzaexx's warning by ducking further into the reactor room. The large reactor spanned three decks and, even though it was in low power mode, made the room warmer than most planets. S'zish found a girder that had a small space between itself and the room's wall, then he edged behind it, concealed from most angles. Once he was confident that he was hidden S'zish found a point where he could view the lift and remain hidden. After a pause the lift rose into view, a human with a tool bag over her shoulder, missing one leg, and walking with a pair of crutches. She paused at the rooms camera mount, which S'zish now notices has been removed, then the mechanic exits the reactor room towards the catwalk. After the mechanic had passed out of the distance most beings could hear, S'zish pulled out his comm-link, "S'zish to group, the mechanic is heading your way, and is not Zygerrian. The mechanic might be enslaved as well."

Casea stood looking up at the mounting bracket for the sensor. Some time ago she had re purposed the sensor to help monitor the parts of the reactor that were inaccessible from inside the ship. In the last few minutes it has sparked several times and it even looked like a servo had rotated too. It was a new puzzle for her and those were few and far between these days. Lost in thought she was surprised by one of the guards coming into her reactor room.

" Hey, mechanic. Quit your daydreaming and get to the top level ." The Zygerrian says in a gruff voice. Was this the one who had tried flirting with me last week? kark they all look the same in that stupid armor. Maybe it is, suppose I'll try being friendly . " Did you see that camera mount just now? "

The guard scowls, turns his electro whip on and growls out " Get your lazy pudoo moving " oh well, guess I won't be getting any slack from him today.

Adopting a meek posture and hurrying to grab the nearest bag of tools Casea moves over to the lift and pushes the up button.

That is weird, she thinks, almost like someone was activating the sensor from the ships system. But the system is in lockdown, I'm barely able to turn the lights on. And what does Grakoon want me up there for. If any of the sensors up there were activating he wouldn't notice, I only took apart the ones in here . The lift stops at the top level and she moves off to the catwalk area. She stops and pokes at the mount up here. This one was closer to the floor and she could reach it with a crutch. Nothing happens and she continues on. Grakoon will at least accept that I cant exactly sprint to wherever he is. As she moves down the catwalk, trying to be quiet with her awkward pace, she hears raised voices below and pauses to listen.

---

Fzaex notices her halt on the catwalk and cycles to a sensor on the cargo bay floor to see what caught her attention. A different patron, this one with gleaming cybernetics on part of his head has approached the female receptionist and says "No!" loudly adding a stomp of his foot for emphasis. " I pay you a good number of credits to come up here and play and I won't accept being lied to, if you're going to allow other people to use blasters in their fun then I demand it as well "

The female responds in a tone that implies she is familiar with placating a disgruntled client, " Master Kasiin, as I have explained the use of blasters becomes too costly when the stock needs to be repaired afterward ."

Kasiin interrupts her " Then explain why my sensors detected a blaster discharge moments ago. Huh? "

The look of patience on the receptionists face drops away and she presses her comlink and says into it. " Attention guards, initiate security procedure cresh? "

Casea looks around what the frak is happening , the guards below her are about to start moving the other slaves back into their cells and she can hear loud protest from the Zygerrian patrons. There, ahead of her, she sees the riffle leaning against the wall. Hobbling quickly forward she slams against the wall and slumps down next to the blaster. Letting her crutches fall to the side she grabs the blaster and checks it over. "Poodo I haven’t used one of these since basic" she mutters out loud.

Watching as the mechanic slides onto the wall, Neelig attempts to recollect himself. This didn’t seem to be the enemy- no pointed ears no little face horns, just a slave woman hobbling to doing her rounds. Perhaps she could assist them in freeing her friends in bondage along with his herd. Well, there was only one way to find out.

Drawing and releasing a sharp breathe, the Ithorian tried his best to keep the rage at bay for the time being, his hands shaking lightly as he leaned on his staff, stepping clumsily out to meet the young woman. “Peace young friend, we are not here to harm you. I am called Neelig by my birth herd as well as my new herd: a herd that is being held captive by those would try to claim you as their own. Please, I know you don’t know us, I know this isn’t certain and you have every reason to fire that blaster clean though my forehead…but wouldn’t you like to try? Help us, so that we might help the rest, please.” He kept his voice as silken as possible in his unstable state, his staff clenched between his palms in case this mechanic tried to do the aforementioned. The last thing he wanted to do is to double cripple a cripple, someone who it seemed had seen enough hardship for one lifetime.

Casea, stunned, looks up at the strange Ithorian. Taunt muscles ripple under his skin as he squeezes the stick in his hands. This guy is no malnourished slave. gah! Stupid medic training, pay attention to his words Casea not his physical condition.

Picking up one of the crutches she uses it to get herself standing again and responds to this Neelig fellow. "Well, yeah sure, but you guys were supposed to send me a message before you attacked. I'm not ready."

---

On the floor below the clamor of voices from the complaining patrons has been rising. One voice rises enough to be heard over the rest. "This is preposterous, you assured us that this place was unknown, especially to the insurgents. I say we leave now!" The speaker then draws a holdout blaster from inside his coat and brandishes it at the receptionist. "Now get out of my way!" He then heads towards the one cargo container with a turbolift built into it.

The Zygerrian from before. The one with the cybernetics on his head, is seen tapping a few buttons near his temple. A hologram appears in front of his eyes and he seems to be scanning for something. Out loud he says "I'm sorry. I didn't think it could be an insurgent attack, my sensors say it came from... that way..." he then points up at where Neelig is standing next to the riffle wielding Casea. Many of the heads turn to look up. As they begin to recognize what they are seeing fear and derision can be seen scattered among the zygerrian faces below.

Casea is stunned for a moment as she looks down into the faces of her "masters". Then, without really thinking about it raises the riffle to her shoulder and aims at the face of the karking schutta who has kept her miserable for two years. " Hey Alsen " she calls out as she sights in on the receptionist. " dance to this ".

She squeezes the trigger and a sphere of sonic energy so intense that it distorts the light flies down toward the receptionist, it howls loudly and leaves an echoing doppler effect in with its passage. The blast slams past Alsen and hits the cargo bay decking. With a bit of chagrin she says over to Neelig "I'm really not that good of a shot."

Khaine watches the mechanic lift the rifle to her shoulder, taunt the Zygerrian's below and fire. This is my type of girl! She needs some practice, but I like her style. Looking back over his shoulder towards his companions, Khaine eyes brighten and a grin spreads across his face.

In one fluid motion Khaine holsters his pistol, steps out onto the landing, and shoulders his Rifle. Cut the head off and the body flounders... he thinks to himself as his eyes quickly scan the Zyerrians below. In no time he singles out what appears to be the head of the crowd. A Zygerrian with cyber implants was pointing up at them. Yep, that's the one. Khaine centers the iron sights on him and squeezes the trigger. *Whump* The deep base of the heavy assault rifle river-beats through the air as the Zygerrian is blasted to the deck, his crumpled body sliding back from the impact of the blast. The remaining Zygerrians stare up in shock.

Without lifting his cheek from the rifle Khaine yells out "Drop your weapons and surrender!" Why is it that everyone demands surrender and only shoot afterwards. If you shoot first it shows the survivors that you mean business... Suddenly the Zygerrians spring to life and a group of guards brandishing electro-whips rush over under where he is standing. Their whips crackling they lash out. Khaine tries to step back, but one manages to make contact. Pain rips through him as the electro-whip lashes across his leg. The intense pain leaves him staggered for a moment as he leans against the bulkhead with pins and needles running through his leg. "Uhg!" Frak that hurt! Sweat beads on his brow as the pain threatens to overtake him. These guards are more dangerous than I gave them credit for.

Khaine looks back to his companions. "They're grouped up below. Anyone have a grenade?"