The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Myitt]

Tara stretches her legs out in front of her, wincing as she stretches her back.

"Huh," she says aloud, her voice hoarse and dull and flat sounding, echoing in the little metallic room.

The holographic screen was gone. The chirping birds were gone.

She rolls dry eyes toward the wall through which the Andalites had been communicating with her.

Nothing.

Slowly, with a small whimper, she pulls herself to her feet. Her knees pop and she steadies herself against the cold metal wall, pressing her hands flat against it.

Nothing.

"Hello?" she calls, voice cracking. She pounds on the wall with numb fists. "Anyone!" She coughs and winces again, then pounds her fists against the wall again. "What the ****!"

[Estelore]

Norry stayed close to Ossanlin, noting that he checked for her to stay with him. <<Right behind you, Sir.>> Same as always.

The facility was full of not-so-distant noises, people running, humans shouting in panic, confusion, anger... the Hork-Bajir's night vision was horrible, but it still detected movement fairly well, and Enorryma had no difficulty staying abreast of Ossanlin. She was glad that they would be working primarily with the hosts right now, and not with their parasites.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin makes his way into the ramp-well cautiously.  Thought-speech echoes throughout the facility...many voices sounding either concerned or angry.  The loss of computer functionality coupled with the loss of primary power would be too much of a coincidence...they must assume they're under attack now.

He motions Norry to follow him as he makes his way up past the sealed screen on level negative one.  No one had to use the western well to access Negative One, so Ossanlin had asked Esarvit to seal it off.  The only accesses to the west ramp-well that aren't sealed are those to Maintenance and level Zero.  He makes his way to the access for level Zero and ducks as hoof-beats echo down the corridor in the other direction.  <There's one here!> a voice shouts from quite some distance away.  Ossanlin winces...someone had spotted Ehvrin and Claxter...he opens a communication to Claxter and Ehvrin.  <<You have at least two heading your way.>>  He closes the communication.  Normally he would draw fire away from the others, but the fact that they're taking attention away from the host cells is very good indeed.  He has faith in both Claxter and Ehvrin that they will take care of them.  A beam-fight while saddled with a bunch of unarmed hosts is the last thing he wants.

His claws click a bit on the hard floor as Ossanlin makes his way onto level Zero.  He can hear 'Tsaaps' echoing from the other side of the building, but things around the host cells appear to be silent.  He once again signals Norry to follow as he enters the cell-block.  <<Keep a close watch, Norry...this is going to be delicate.  We can't allow them to give away our disguises...I need to check...>>  He falls silent as he looks at the "guest" identification numbers displayed over each cell.  The numbers all start with the date of "rescue."

Ossanlin walks to each cell with the correct date and commands the walls to change to one-way view...he'd be able to see the occupants without the occupants seeing him.  He doesn't recognize any of them at first, though he does note that there isn't a single Hork-Bajir host...not amongst the rebel hosts anyway.  They're all human.  It had been a foolish hope to see the one face he'd been hoping for.  Of course Myitt was crafty...perhaps she'd escaped altogether.  His eyes widen a bit as he recognizes Terenia through the one-way viewer on her cell, and he takes a step back from the next cell when he sees Joanne.  How in the Homeworld had she gotten caught up in this?

He comes to the final stack of cells, only one Rebel host here.  The last one.  He changes the cell to one-way view...and his heart leaps into his throat.  She's here!  She's alive!  In his distraction, he doesn't see the Andalite guard drawing a bead on him through a crossing corridor...

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

~Story Narration~

The night droned on incessantly as Warrior Nirdran-Facil-Kerorat tried to keep his mind occupied.  He was the lucky one who got to command the facility while the Princes all got their beauty rest.

He'd been excited about this post at first...some top-secret assignment that he'd had to accept without knowing any of the details...just that he'd be performing a great service to the People.  As if.  Shuttled off to this Sky-forsaken moon and completely removed from the war, he almost begged for an attack on the facility.  Something different...but of course no attack ever came.  This facility was a secret even from the People.  At least there had been a shipload of new prisoners over the last couple of weeks.  It was something at least.  Oh the scientists  were all excited about new subjects and whatnot.  There had been some solar reflex radiation a little bit ago, but that was nothing to get excited about either...all Nirdran ever got was boredom and frustration.

The other two techs that were on-duty with him, Ferlin and Shrudel, looked equally as bored.  Oh technically Nirdran was in command of the facility overnight, but that really didn't mean anything, especially since it would never be listed on his permanent record, or any record for that matter.  He began to pace the room in silence...it was all he could do to keep himself from going insane.  The small blip that echoed from Ferlin's console roused his attention, and he trotted over.  <What is it?>

<Not sure, sir...it says there's been some sort of unscheduled port-access to the central mainframe.>  Ferlin furrowed his brow.  <Gerik said the computer sensors had been acting up, but he never mentioned anything like this.>

<Has the mainframe hatch been opened recently?>

<No, sir.  It's still sealed.>

<Then don't worry about it.  I'm sure it's nothing.  At least it took a few minutes out of our boredo...>  Nirdran fell silent as he heard the hazard clamps lock shot around all the access hatches to Operations.  <What...?>

<Sir,> Shrudel spoke up, <I don't understand, the hazard locks have engaged...everythin g else...>  It was Shrudel's turn to fall silent as the primary lighting disengaged and was replaced by the yellow-orange of the hazard lighting.  Alarm klaxons began to sound in the room.

<What is this?!>  Nirdran ran to one of the unmanned consoles and tried to access it.  <This console is non-responsive!>

<I've lost control of mine as well, sir.>  Ferlin was tapping touch-buttons on his console impotently. 

One glance at Shrudel, and Nirdran knew his console was experiencing the same issue.  <We've lost primary power...and the computer is non-responsive...>  Nirdran's eyes widened in surprise and understanding.  <We're under attack!  We must be under attack!>  He accessed his personal comm.  <Security...report to the Central Mainframe chamber, this is not a drill.  Dispatch a second team to the singularity chamber, and a third to Ops.  I repeat, this is not a drill.>

Nirdran heard only silence after his communication.  <Security, respond!>

After a brief silence, the response finally came back.  <Um..sir...the armory has been locked down, we're unable to open the doors.  The hazard clamps are engaged and the computer won't respond...>

Shortly thereafter, the place erupted with open thought-speech.  The klaxons had begun to wake people up...all the doors, even the dormitories, must be locked down.  Nirdran dialed up the facility-wide con.  <Corvus Facility, this is acting commander Nirdran-Facil-Kerorat.  We have reason to believe that we are under attack.  We have lost computer functionality and all hazard clamps are engaged.  I am invoking primary protocol!  Anyone who avoided the lock-down, please be vigilant.  Shoot any non-Andalite on sight.  All personnel are cleared to use destructive force to navigate the facility.  This is not a drill.  I repeat...this is NOT a drill.>

Nirdran closed the con and shook his head.  <We need to get back into the computer.  Keep working on it...>


~End Narration~

[KitsuneMarie]

Tess jumps, startled by the abrupt intrusion of the acting commander's thought-speech message. She turns her head up, as if to look for the source of the inaudible sound, fear and hope simultaneously filling her.

Shoot any non-Andalite on sight. The words echo menacingly in her mind even after the announcement has ended. Her hand comes down from her hair and curls into a fist. "No one is hurting these babies," she whispers forcefully, eyes narrowing as she stares at the blank wall ahead of her.

[Chad32]

Claxter followed Ehvrin up the ramp until he heard shots and saw he'd been hit. He heard fast hoof beats towards them, and Ossanlin said there were at least two heading their way. He positioned himself in front of Ehvrin and drew his weapon. Should he try to just jump out when the Andalite came close, or would he expect it? Even if he surprised the first, the second might shoot him anyway. <<They only saw one of us. If I can lead them in another direction, you can shoot them from behind.>> He said, while firing some shots around the corner to slow the enemy down. <<Let's go back to a point where you can enter a side room. As they advance past where you are, you can shoot them from behind.>>

Hopefully if they did this, the Andalites wouldn't be looking behind themselves with their stalk eyes.

[Ember Nickel]

Esarvit follows after Aurellia, taking out his own compression packs and starting to load them up. <<How much space should I leave for the mineral supplement?>> he asks. <<Or are you packing that?>>

He packs in a rush, but takes time to glance at the doorway from time to time. No sign of movement, yet, but really, stalk eyes were quite excellent adaptations for times such as those...and here I am, loading up a bunch of slug food.

[Estelore]

Enorryma followed Ossanlin closely, scanning the area around them periodically. She missed her stalk-eyes desperately, and Ossanlin was far too focused on what he was doing to help keep a watch for hazards.

Norry felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, and she wondered absently what it could mean.
Then she recalled something she had read once about morphs with binocular vision, with an evolutionary history as prey animals. Their senses adapt warnings to the presence of predators and observers. This feeling meant she was being watched, and at some level, the Hork-Bajir was detecting it.
She wheeled around just in time to see the Andalite lining up his shot on Ossanlin.

<NO.> She shouted, forgetting to keep her thought-speech private, and drew her sidearm as fast as she could, firing it as she raised her hand. The shot would, at best, land low on the Andalite's body- certainly destroying his aim and crumpling him, but truly incapacitating? Probably not.

Norry fired again in the general direction of where the enemy would have landed, but she couldn't be sure, in the low light and with such poor vision. She turned toward Ossanlin.

<<Sir, are you hit?!>>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin hears Norry's thought-speech and looks at her right as she fires in his direction.  He plasters himself against the cell-wall and looks in the other direction as her shot intercepts an Andalite.  The Andalite's Shredder blast sears past as his aim is interrupted.  Ossanlin quickly raises his own ASAR and shoots several times at the falling Andalite.  The Andalite is unconscious before his body hits the floor.  He looks back at Norry and raises his eyebrows.  <<Thank you...How many do I owe you now?  I've lost count.>>

He takes a few deep breaths and looks around the cell-block more-carefully.  It would seem that this Andalite had been alone.  He nods and turns back to the cell in question.  There's no time to waste on relief.  He sends a private thought into the cell.  <<Tara, Don't give indications that you know me.  Please don't react as if you can hear my thought-speech.  It's Ossanlin...I'm here to get you all out of here.  The only other rebel I recognize in these cells is Terenia...and...Joa nne...I need you to convince them all to come with us without knowing who we are...we have all morphed Hork-Bajir so that we won't be recognized.  Above all, our identities must remain secret.>>

He taps the key-sequence to open the door, and the cell separates and slides open.  "We're getting you out of here."  He speaks in Gallard.

[Terenia]

The sudden thought-speech intrusion, makes Chris look up in alarm, his ferocious focus on the door temporarily waning as the message sinks into his mind. Under attack. That could mean any number of things. The most likely prospect, given how crippled their rebellion had become, was Imperials. That thought froze Chris down to the bone; he could not imagine being shipped off to an Imperial ship, handed out to some loyal Yeerk. All those years of fighting washed away, just like that. Back where he started, just a little older and with a few more deaths on his shoulders.

"**** that," he whispers under his breath. He was going to go down swinging to his last breath.

[Myitt]

Tara glares up at the ceiling, hands balling into fists.

She bounces on trembling legs. "Under attack," she tells herself, nodding. "****ing hell. At least we can go down with some action."

In spite of her bravado her words echo hollow and flat in the little cell, and she stops bouncing, dread gripping her heart. She swallows, closing her eyes and steeling herself.

And then Ossanlin's voice fills her mind.

She peers at the wall, nodding once at his unspoken instructions, her mouth slightly agape. Belatedly she remembers to breathe.

Myitt, she silently tells her absent friend. All those years of pretending to be me. Come on. Give me some of that. Right now.

When the wall melts open, Tara rushes into the hallway, shoving herself into the nearest Hork-Bajir with her fists raised.

"Let me the **** out of here, you crazy mother****ers!" she screeches in English, swinging at the Hork-Bajir's leathery chest.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin is caught by surprise in truth...he hadn't expected Tara to come out fighting..  He grabs one of her arms as gently as he can muster, grunting as the other catches him in the abdomen several times.  Still using Gallard, he speaks again.  "Settle down.  We're here to get you out.  I don't want to carry you, or anyone else for that matter."

~

Aurellia nods to Esarvit as he picks up his compression pack that she'd been carrying for him.  <<I've nearly filled my pack with kandrona generators, sir.  Both of us should probably grab some of the supplement.>>  She goes to another stack of durathane crates and cracks one open, revealing small 5kg packs of mineral supplement.  She squeezes as many into her compression pack as she can fit, and then activates the pack, which automatically folds the contents together in the most efficient way possible.  She places the compression unit back into her own pack and waits for Esarvit to finish.

~

Ehvrin groans in pain, but shakes his head, doing his best to ignore it.  He pulls an injector from his medpack and administers a dose of pain-killer to himself.  <<Okay, sir...perhaps if I hide around the corner of the ramp-well on level negative-one, you can pull them straight into the corridor...Prince Ossanlin said all the non-essential rooms would be locked down.>>

[Estelore]

Enorryma moved to the next cell she found. As soon as the human inside became visible, Norry said, sternly but clearly, "We are here to get you and the others out of this place."

She had enough presence of mind to belatedly holster her sidearm, holding her hands open in an admittedly ironic display of 'harmlessness'. It wasn't like any human here was equipped to fight an Hork-Bajir, but Norry did her best to appear less threatening, or at least not outright malevolent.

[Ember Nickel]

Esarvit fills up a few more layers of Kandrona generators, then places the supplement packs in manually--there was enough room left when the generators didn't fill up the cross-sectional area of the pack to fit it in without much extra room. Hauling that on his back, he treks towards the (still-open) door and begins proceeding towards the east ramp.

[Myitt]

Tara flails for a few seconds, one arm pinned by Ossanlin's big Hork-Bajir fist.

"Let go of me, dammit!" she yells, sticking with English, even though she does understand the Galard. She grunts in her effort to escape, wondering distantly how good of an act she's putting on.