The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Serid lifts in tandem with the Yeerks, doing his best to keep the unconscious controller steady and in the same position.  <It is difficult to say.  We performed a room clear, but the child controller was apparently hiding behind magnetically sealed crates that blocked his lifesigns from our sensors.  Obviously the Dracon was not on its stun setting.>

He carries the unconscious controller into the Tail Fighter and lowers him softly to the floor along with the two controllers.  <Prince Ossanlin, Keslin is aboard the fighter.>  He moves out of the fighter and immediately begins to demorph, not bothering to watch if Keshin is clear yet or not.

[Shenmue654]

"Weird," states Keshin, lowering Keslin along with Serid and then hurriedly ducking out of the Tail fighter. Considering they were the backup for Serid's group., the Andalite didn't seem to be paying them much attention.

<Dude's righ' in a hurry, though. We'll give 'em a reason later.>

<Maybe. If we too don't get easily dispatched. The circumstances of this boarding are very strange.>

"Yeah the guy's safe Oss. "No sweat, man," mutters Joanne awkwardly into the ARC, Keshin allowing her to switch in to better facilitate the job. She rubs the top of her mop of hair, awkwardly getting used to control even though they've done this dozens of times. "We're goin' to go help them take care o' bizness."

<Don't let your street gibberish get too thick or Ossanlin won't understand you.>

<I'm tryin' to keep it down.>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Nefitt ducks in alongside Keslin, monitoring his lifesigns, dispatching the group from his attention.



Ossanlin nods at no one in particular.  <Very good, Keshin...Joanne.  I have been regaled with stories of your prowess...I hope they were not inflated.>  He uses the Tyrennian's computer to analyze what little data on the personal shielding that Firin's ARC had gathered.  <Some of these controllers...perha ps many, have personal shielding tech.  You're the tip of the blade now.  Do what you must to subdue...and Keshin...try not to kill the hosts.>

He turns his attention to Claxter.  <Prince-Lieutenant, bring that fighter back.  Esarvit, have a security team ready in the hangar bay to transport Keslin to the medbay.  And make sure to inform the controller-medics.>



Serid finishes his demorph and glances at Keshin.  <We need to subdue threats and gain control of the ship.  Prince Ossanlin has faith in your abilities...>  He doesn't say anything further, glancing at the door held by Firin and Ferxal with his main eyes briefly before bending to retrieve his utility belt and weapons.



"The room is still empty...if there's more, they're waiting for us to come to them."  Firin continues to watch the empty room with suspicion.

[Shenmue654]

Joanne nods cautiously, muttering "I don' like this," as she looks down the empty hallway. She unholsters her weapon and carefully checks it again. They need to be ready for any possible outcome at a moment's notice. "Okay, I'm goin' ta go on, a'right? You guys follow on behin' me. We'll take care of this thing quick."

Joanne, Dracon in position to be fired, wanders down the empty corridor. She's confident enough, although the whole situation is really weird. Kess seems even more nervous about it than she is. Unknown Controllers, hiding behind shields, merely waiting for the very boarding party that's breaking onto their ship. She smells a rat--- something about what happened here is a setup.

"This link on the ARC works for the whole gang, right?" states Joanne, stopping momentarily. 

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Firin furrows his brow as the human controller strolls past him.  The drastic change in disposition suggested that the human might be in control now.  So few controllers operated in such a way...with one being better able to handle certain situations than the other.

<<They're like us...>>

<<In a way.>>

He nods to Ferxal and the newly-liberated Hork-Bajir before following the human-controller into the small room.  He dodges off to the side where the human he'd noticed the shielding on had fallen to the flat of the Andalite's tail-blade.  The human appears to be in his mid thirties, Dracon laying a few feet away from his hand and a nasty lump on his head.  Firin changes his weapon to stun setting and fires it from a few feet away from the unconscious controller.  There's a bright flash of light as the personal shield absorbs the energy from the blast.  His ARC immediately records and analyzes the data, a bright blue, blinking dot overlaid on the unconscious controller's waist.  Firin pulls the controller's up gently.  The blue dot is centered upon a small palm-sized, circular metallic object with purple-glowing radial lines.  The ARC continues its analysis of the device, displaying statistics and graphics on Firin's holo-overlay.  His eyes widen at the elegant solutions that someone had apparently come up with to solve the biggest issues surrounding personal shielding technology.

He reaches down and grabs the device, pulling it free of the controller's belt.  He runs a scaly thumb over it a couple of times before clipping it to his own belt.  He discharges a stun shot into the controller.  The bolt splashes into the man's body unimpeded.  "Interesting..."




Serid brings up the rear behind the rest of the team.  <<Yes, the ARC provides constant communication between all operation associates unless specifically repressed.>>

[Shenmue654]

Joanne follows Firin over toward the unconscious human-Controller and watches as he experiments with the personal shielding technology on the man, eventually pocketing the tiny shield generator for himself. Joanne puts her free hand on her hips and whistles. "****," she states. "That's better than we've seen even on some of the Vissers, right? These guys are either rich as kings or spies. No doubt about it."

She glances to Firin with a worried look on her face, still on edge. "....this might be sticky. Where do we go from here to get off to the ship's bridge?"

Eventually Serid pipes in with the statement regarding the shields and Joanne groans. "I think that's a yes. ....Don't talk in big words, Andalite. Kess might get you, but I haven' got the time."

[Terenia]

Nefitt remains beside Keslin as he is moved, monitoring his injuries as best he can. He has managed to stymie the flow of blood from his head, but the gash there is deep and will require stitches. Using the hodge podge of supplies within the Andalite med kit, he bandages Chris' head in such a way that pressure is being continuously applied to the wound while he moves his attention elsewhere.

It is the Dracon shot that is going to cause the real problem. Chris appears to have taken it full in the chest, and Nefitt realizes with a start that they are lucky it did not stop his heart. The fabric of his shirt is blackened and burnt, melted to his skin in some places, which is red and angry, weeping with thin rivulets of blood. His chest rises and falls in short fits and starts, and his pale skin is taking on a slightly blue pallor.

"His lungs may be damaged," he realizes, speaking to himself. "He is not breathing correctly."

He looks up at the viewscreen of the transport ship, his eyebrows furrowing. With a slight scowl he reaches over and takes Chris' ARC -- one of many pieces of Andalite technology he has been vehemently trying to avoid. Slipping it on, he clears his throat.

"If anyone can hear me, I need access to a fully stocked medical bay immediately. We need to intubate him." He pauses, then realize that perhaps that word is meaningless for a species with no mouth. "I need a tracheal tube that I can use to force artificial breathing, and I need it as soon as we land."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin nods as he hears Neffitt's voice.  Esarvit has sent notification to Varekil and the human medical staff.  <You need a tracheal splint-field.  I will have Varekil pack one in his trauma kit.>  He suits actions to words and sends a quick message to Varekil to adjust one of the splint-field generators to human standards.



Firin glances at Keshin somewhat warily, but responds.  "This doorway should lead through the primary crew quarters which connects to the bridge via another hallway.  And yes, this technology is much more than we should expect to find..."  He fumbles around in the unconscious human-controller's pockets and belt pouches until his fingers run across a small piece of living metal.  He pulls out the small identification badge and growls in Rythil's fearsome voice before speaking again.  "The Hand..."

[Chad32]

Ferxal followed behind the controller, trying to notice even the smallest suspicious thing. He felt badly about Keslin and Chris, even if the enemy had been using unknown technology. It had been his duty to search the room, and no technology was able to allow someone to phase through solid objects, so he could only conclude that he should have done better.

Unfortunately he couldn't see any sign telling him that there was some invisible enemy nearby. Hopefully this controller could, or the mission could end badly. It seemed that even something that's expected to be quick and simple can turn ugly if you are caught off guard.

[Shenmue654]

Joanne turns around to look at Firin as soon as she hears that frightening growl. It occurred to her that she'd seen literally thousands of Hork-Bajir by now, and yet she was never going to get used to how outright strange most aliens were. As a kid, she'd been one of those people who assumed they'd all look rather like humans. "The Hand?" she states with a confused look on her face. "The **** is that, man? We heard about those Sector Seven guys, but are you sayin' we got like...three other secret societies to worry about?"

Joanne edges toward the doorway he was talking about, but did not intend to enter without determining what was happening first. She doesn't see any sign of an opponent yet, but with the way this was going her senses were likely going to lie to her.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin narrows his eyes as he hears Firin mention the Hand...apparently one of the Temsers had had the need of a transport vessel...perhaps there would be a bigger prize than basic supplies onboard.

<Your mission has not changed, Serid.  Take control of that vessel, but stay on your guard...those are more than average troops.>



Firin hisses.  "More than average?  If that isn't an understatement..."  Firin glances up at Keshin.  "You've heard of the Hand I'm sure...not that I know that much about them.  I suppose they're similar to that group the head blue-fur was talking about.  Armed to the teeth with little gems like this."  He taps his newly-acquired personal shield generator.  They must be guarding something."



Serid steps into the small room behind the rest of the team.  <Right...lets keep moving.>  He continues to scan the hallway beyond the door.  He glances a stalk-eye at the newly-freed Hork-Bajir.  <You do not need to accompany us if you do not wish.  We will be able to provide you with a new home on our ship, free of Imperial infestation.>

<Keshin?>  He uses his ARC to show a top-down configuration of the ship's schematic on the turulek's projection unit.  <Here's the bridge, and this is our current location.  How would you defend it with minimal soldiers?>  The projection in front of Keshin's eye highlights the bridge and the team's current location.  There is a wide hallway connecting the current room to a small, round engineering room, which in turn connects with the small bridge at the front.  Various doorways lead off of the sides of the hallway into rooms of different varieties including a very small med-bay and various bunk-like quarters.  The small pool room and cargo bay sit one deck down, with stairwells leading down on either side of the engineering room.

[Chad32]

<I'm afraid I've never heard of The Hand.> Ferxal said. <Honestly I thought you were saying something about the host's hand, and didn't think it was important to me.>

The Hork-Bajir looked at the Andalite talking to him. "Hruthin not kill me and others? I help rescue. We sit in cages together. We friends."

[Shenmue654]

Keshin wracked his own brain and Joanne's for any mention of this "Hand" Firin was talking about. They had been on a great number of jobs for a great number of people, and he was certain the information existed somewhere. It was better to know who they were up against before they made any kind of assessment of the ship. They had made that mistake with Sector Seven and the Andalites, and they were not going to make it again.

<Hey wait a min', I think I got it. The Temsers. Like a few years back when we were startin' out. Yeerk secret agents. G-Men.>

<How on Earth did you pull that out of your empty fishbowl of a brain?>

<Hey, I got stuff in here! The guy who said I'd "go far" an' said he wouldn' mention our freakshow problems.>

Keshin examined the memory more closely and frowned. That was right. They had run into high agents of the Empire some time ago. Strong, cold folk whose speech was all business and whose job seemed to have no purpose the turelek understood. What was more peculiar was that they had guessed that Joanne was abnormal, and yet had chosen to say nothing about it. Keshin suspected that more than a few people must benefit from the status quo in the Empire.

Keshin then momentarily takes control and takes the schematic. He looks over the hallways and corridors and then states while shaking his head, "....the usual rules aren't going to apply. If these guys are really agents each one of them might be as proficient as me, and they have tech to boot. If I were them, I'd have two guys in the engineering hallway standing at the edges of the doorway...invisible, and ready to merely aim and shoot at anyone coming down that way. As for the bridge defense..."

Keshin points to the bridge room. "...our soldiers are going to be inside the open bridge room. They have the jump on us at every point in this ship because they're expecting us to come to them. They're counting on us taking the straight route, so...is there another way into that room?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Serid goes over the schematics data in his ARC, looking furiously.  <I...there should be...I mean, it would be silly if there weren't...>

He glances over at the freed Hork-Bajir who seems to be nodding and pointing to one of the side rooms.  Serid goes into further detail with the schematics and sees something in the room that the Hork-Bajir was pointing to on his schematic.  <Ah...auxiliary hatches.  Climbing room only.  Andalites would not be able to use them without morphing.  The hatches look to drop onto the upper scaffolding of the cargo bay.  One could use them to access the lower level of the ship...perhaps they wouldn't expect that...they're expecting Andalites, and probably ones who wouldn't want to morph...what do you think of it then, Keshin?>



Firin grimaces and shakes his head...was the blue-fur actually suggesting they split up?  Seriously?

[Chad32]

<Splitting up could go bad, but trying to blast through a heavily guarded choke point could be bad too. Despite our success at getting through the last one, there's no guarantee this will be any easier. I'm afraid I have no useful morphs.> It was obvious from the various scars on his body that Ferxal had little to no real experience with morphing, aside from the one test morph the military mandates to make sure an Andalite can do it.