The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Chad32]

<<You're right about the doors. The ramp well will be best. Go get into position. I should be able to hold them off a little longer before moving down.>>

Claxter peeked around the corner, and for a split second saw that one Andalite was trying to advance slowly while the other had a solid bead on the corner. a shot lanced the tip of his horn off, and a steady stream of cover fire kept him from getting another look. He ducked down to the floor, and took a shot from there while the other shots went high. The shots stopped, but he wasn't sure if he actually hit the guy. The advancing andalit was being cautious, not wanting to get shot or sliced open. 

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

"If I let you go, will you stop flailing around?  This facility is on an environmentally-hostile moon...assuming you can even find your way out of the building alone.  We're not going to hurt you."  He waits a few more seconds before releasing Tara.  "Now...help me with your friends...if we have to go through this foolishness with each one, this process will take far too long."

He moves to the next cell containing a rebel...a man he doesn't recognize.  The individual looks primed to rush the door.  He turns the cell's comm and speaks in Galard.  "We're here to get you out of here.  Relax your posture so that I may open the door."  He glances again at Tara.

~

Aurellia watches as Esarvit finishes packing and follows him toward the eastern ramp-well.  She comes up short, shouldering her weapon for a tense moment before relaxing it when her HUD shows a friendly Hork-Bajir.  <<Ehvrin?>>

~

Ehvrin nods at Claxter and moves down the ramp.  He glances cautiously into the hallway before striding out.  His eyes widen when Esarvit and Aurellia come around the corner and he half raises his ASAR before realizing they're friendlies.  He glances first at Esarvit and the Aurellia.  <<Sir, Aurellia...stay back...Claxter is trying to lure hostiles into this hallway to be ambushed...>>  His gaze runs over his compatriots' weapons.  <<Oh, you can help...stay hidden against the wall!>>

<<Sir!>>  He calls up the ramp-well to Claxter.  <<If you can get them to follow you...Esarvit and Aurellia are here...they can help with the ambush!>>

[KitsuneMarie]

When the door slides open with a soft hiss, Tess sucks in a gasping breath and spins towards the sound. Her eyes land immediately upon the morphed form of Enorryma, whose bladed body and visible Dracon prove enough to distract her from the fact that she is hearing audible speech for the first time in days.

She stares a few long moments before finally asking in a muted whisper, "Who are you?" She remains in her cell, as if rooted to the spot, afraid to approach if the most likely of scenarios proves to be the case: that the Andalites are being attacked by the Empire. Even a solitary cell is preferable to Imperial infestation.

[Chad32]

It wasn't long before the andalites got close enough to the corner to just charge forward. Claxter whirled around and ran down the ramp. <<They're coming!>> He yelled as he ran while firing shots behind him. He was grateful that Hork-Bajir has somewhat long necks, and he could easily turn his just enough to look behind himself in his peripherals without his whole body needing to shift. He made it down, past Ehvrin's location, and ran towards the corner, but before he could make it around he took two shots in the back.

He fell to the ground, dropping his ASAR, and turning to face them. They stopped in front of him, and stopped shooting, apparently considering taking him alive.

[Terenia]

The Galard, in an unrecognizable Hork-Bajir's voice, only confirms what Chris already suspected: Imperials. A vice seems to wrap around his stomach as he realizes that he is, most likely, facing his final fight. His blue eyes narrow at the closed door, hands balling into fists, ready to swing. Sorry, Tess, he thinks, swallowing back the lump of emotion.

"Out of here and straight to a ****ing Imperial pool," he says harshly in response. "I'm sure you'd love that, eh? I'd rather rot in an Andalite cell."

[Estelore]

Norry steps back from the cell doorway, minimizing as much as possible the impression that Tess is cornered and unable to leave.
Who are we? Good question.
She felt instantly sympathetic to this unknown human, and the feeling was strange to her. She did not typically make room for the luxury of sympathy.

Enorryma kept her voice low and spoke quickly. "We are allies, and not captors. I will make no move to restrain you. I am going to keep moving down this hall,  and the hatch will remain open for you to move freely. Follow or don't; it is your decision."

Norry waited a beat and then started moving up the hall, toward Ossanlin.

[Myitt]

Tara wrenches her arm away as soon as Ossanlin lets go of it, glaring knives up at him for a moment before whirling to face the open cell doors.

She only catches sight and sound of Chris, and she stares, a mixture of elation and overwhelming grief pressing against her throat.

"Chris," she breathes, rushing forward toward the cell door, before realizing it is still barred closed by the transparent living metal wall. She stops short, pressing a hand to her mouth, eyes wide.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin furrows his brow and gestures at Tara.  "Female, convince this male that we are non-threatening."

In private thought directed at Tara... <<Tara...Joanne is here.  Her number says she was intercepted on the same day that the Rebellion fell...should we take her with us?  Indicate assent by nodding your head twice, disagreement with two shakes of your head...and please calm this one down...I don't want to hurt him.>>

~

Aurellia raises her eyebrows as a morphed Claxter runs past.  She shoulders her ASAR, and as the first Andalite runs into the hallway, she fires.  The shot misses the first Andalite, but clips the second on the front haunch.  The Andalite pitches forward but struggles back to his hooves.  She steps around the corner and begins firing her ASAR heavily at both Andalites.

~

Ehvrin switches his ASAR to SI mode and holds the trigger down, peppering the hall with stun shots.  Both the Andalites are caught in the back several times.  Ehvrin ceases fire as Aurellia does and sees Claxter's prone form on the hallway floor.  <<Sir!!>>  He runs past the bodies of the now-prone Andalites.  Neither Andalite is exhibiting life-signs....too many stun-shots must have stopped their hearts.

He kneels at Claxter's prone form, two holes burnt into his CO's back.  <<Sir...are you conscious?>>  He looks back at Aurellia.  <<Can we get him into that Maintenance Room?  He has to demorph.>>

~

Aurellia's eyes widen.  <<He can't demorph!  Prince Ossanlin said...>>

~

<<I KNOW what Prince Ossanlin said...he couldn't have meant one of us to die instead of morph.  Maybe there isn't any surveillance in that room...>>

He turns his attention back to Claxter.  <<Sir...sir can you hear me?>>

[Chad32]

<<F...fine. I'm...fine. Can't demorph. I don't think anything vital has been damaged. They probably wanted me aliv for interrogation or something.>> Claxter said as he struggled to get up. <<We have to get the stuff out of the lockers. Continue the mission. Thanks for the save, by the way.>> He managed to get to his feet, though his right arm that held the weapon wasn't moving. <<I hope that's all the Andalites we have to deal with. I'll demorph back on the ship.>> He limped towards the ramp, trying to look as much like he was fine as possible. <<Go on up and get started. I'll be right behind you.>>

[Myitt]

Tara hesitates, still staring at the transparent wall.

She nods twice, closing her eyes for a couple of heartbeats before collecting herself.

"Chris," she says, lowering her hand. "I-It's okay, I think...I think they're going to help us." She gives Chris what she hopes is a meaningful look, although between the unshed tears making her eyes burn and the emotional turmoil she isn't quite sure how much of the underlying subtext will make it through. She suspects Chris can't even see her.

Tara sniffles loudly. "****," she squeaks.

[KitsuneMarie]

Tess's dark eyes widen even further at the morphed Andalite's words, and her jaw works without sound, unable to get a word out before Enorryma is gone, having swept down the hallway and out of sight.

She reaches for the doorframe and cautiously steps through, her eyes looking right and then left. All up and down the corridor are cells containing humans. Her friends, all of them known to her. "Oh my god," she whispers, eyes filling with tears--of gratitude that she is not the only survivor, and of fear at what is happening, and who might not be here among the living.

When her gaze follows the Hork-Bajir who had freed her, it roams over half a dozen more familiar, confused faces before landing on the shaggy blond-haired man still entrapped. "Chris," she gasps, and the tears spill over, streaking down her cheeks. She stands, almost dumbfounded, in the hallway, a hand on her stomach, the other still on the doorframe, eyes taking in Chris's every moment, stunned with overwhelming relief.

It takes her several seconds to realize Tara is already freed, standing in the hallway like her with another Hork-Bajir, and she begins making her way towards them as quickly as she can.

[Terenia]

"Myitt?" Tara's voice filling the cell immediately gives Chris pause. Not Myitt, he realizes almost immediately. If Keslin was forced out surely so was she. But Tara...if she was alive, surely that meant there were more. Even if this was an Imperial attack, they wouldn't have had time to reinfest anyone.

His throat works as he tries to force himself to calm down. "Okay!" he says, raising his voice, even though the intercom can pick it up perfectly well. "I won't attack. Just let me out of here." To prove his point he unballs his hands from their fists and raises them, palms forward. Even now, though, he is on edge, waiting for any sign of a trap, any excuse to fight his way out.

[Ember Nickel]

Esarvit charges up behind Aurellia and Ehrvin, a few moments too late to help out with the battle. <<If you can't demorph, that's a bit more of an urgent priority,>> he says snippily.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin nods and keys the sequence to open the cell.  "All of you, stay together."

He trots over to Joanne's cell and hesitates a moment.  Tara had said yes...her word was good enough for him.  He keys the sequence to open Joanne's cell and watches her warily for a moment.  He walks over to another cell, this one containing a human of some type of ethnicity.  He keys the sequence to open the door.  He continues down the cells until all of them are open, and tries to herd them all into a group.  "We do not have weapons for you...so keep together.  These Andalites will shoot anything that isn't an Andalite at this point.  I won't chase you if you run off, because I know what fate you'll suffer.  I leave that decision in your hands."

~

Ehvrin sighs.  <<Yes..yes of course, sir.>>  He switches his ASAR back to standard.  He continues up the ramp, but keeps pace with Claxter.  They were supposed to stay together after all.  Once they finally attain level zero, he heads into the weapons lab and immediately sees the lockers.  He takes the compression packs out and hands one to Claxter before continuing over to the wall of lockers.  Each was open but still showed the dates of acquisition.  He immediately begins filling his compression pack with weapons and personal effects...mostly standard handheld Dracons.

~

Aurellia nods at Esarvit in agreement and descends the eastern ramp-well to the maintenance levels.  She applies the repressor emitter to the inside edge of the doorway and backs up to wait for Claxter and Ehvrin to finish their portion of the mission.

[KitsuneMarie]

"Chris!" Tess calls out to him as loudly as she dares, trying to keep her voice hushed, but relief and desperation are flooding her as she tries to reach him. Perhaps foolishly, reaching him is the most important item on her agenda in this moment.

She keeps one hand on her swollen stomach to shield it from the sudden throng of friends and then abruptly finds herself windmilling the other as she nearly loses her balance when another prisoner is freed from the cell right beside her. Her upper arm is snagged by the person who had just stepped into the hallway: a rather short man with brown hair and eyes, and most notably a living metal left arm. "Daniel," she whispers in instant recognition, nodding her thanks for catching her, but his gaze is already searching the crowd for someone else.