Fwurg

[Storyteller (Brend)]

With the help of the map, the two Jedi, the professor and the droid carried the two stretchers back the way they came. The door of the security centre, and any other doors that remained closed where quickly taken care of with a lightsaber. Although the auxiliary lab featured an emergency shower, Trigiel decided against using it.

Making their way through the dark structure, the group soon arrived at the door to the landing pad. The corpse of the soldier was still slumped in the corner, and the weather outside had not improved.

((OOC: I wasn't sure what you were going to do once you were at the exit, so I didn't fast-forward anything here. But let's keep up the tempo!))

[Fecta Trigiel]

"Let's flare the soldiers." And without waiting Trigiel took his flare out of his pocket and activated it. He put the flare on a location of the landing platform where it was good visible for their pick-up.

Then he walked towards T'sal and searched for her flare. Once he found it, he put that flare in his chest pocket. Now that they had to wait half an hour, they had some time to look at the data T'sal downloaded from the servers. "S4, please display an overview of the data T'sal has downloaded. Then play the security video footage."

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

"While you do that ill keep an eye out." nebesnogo said as he kept an eye to the sky but also keeping an eye out for the monster.

((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 4 Vision -- tonotice the plane and the monster))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

Roughly eight minutes later, Trigiel's prediction was proven false: the roaring enging of the dropship could be heared nearby, and soon after the ship itself swerved into view. The ship set down on the landing pad in a most unsubtle manner.

The soldier inside had already opened the door, and looked at Trigiel with a big smile. "You flare? We wait in sky!" he shouted over the engine noise and the wind while making the 'I am watching you sign' Trigiel made at him earlier.

"Jedi, I can't stay here long. The winds are to strong.", the voice of the pilot came through the communicator. "Drop your cargo or get in quickly!"

[Fecta Trigiel]

"We have two wounded and a professor for pick-up," Trigiel shouted back, both in voice and over the comm, trying to manage not shout too hard over the comm. "Watch it, the female appears dead, but I believe she might be alive, probably poisoned.

Nebesnogo and I will continue our investigation inside, I believe we are close. Any knowledge of other security measurements? It's a hell hole inside."

[Storyteller (Brend)]

The two soldiers in the back of the craft hopped out to help carry the wounded on board. Once on board, they secured the stretchers to the floor of the craft. S4 quickly hopped in as well, and set down next to the blacked-out T'Sal.

"Negative on security. Affirmative on continuation of investigation. We will return to base, and radio in a new transport as soon as we are out of this storm. Good luck!", and with that, the engines of the craft roared back to life. One of the soldiers grabbed the professor, and roughly helped him into the craft.

Soon after, the craft jumped into the air and accelerated out of view. The two Jedi were alone on the platform now, the rain pouring down on them heavily.

[Fecta Trigiel]

Trigiel went back inside. "Al right Nebesnogo Sveta, the doctor told us that most power was rerouted to laboratories C20 and C21. I say we go to there and check it out. At least we can move a lot faster with only two persons and no entourage to protect.

If we find the creature from the screen, I want to try to talk to it first. It looks smarter than the average beast."

If Negesnogo Sveta didn't stop him, Trigiel went to laboratory C20 or C21, depending what was either closest by or more important looking according to the map.

[Storyteller (Brend)]

((OOC: Whoops. I kinda forgot that S4 also existed. I intended for it to be on the craft as well... Seeing how it is T'Sal's droid, and it seemed quite concerned about T'Sal I think it is reasonable to assume that it goes with its master.

Would you mind taking that into account?))

[T'Sal]

((OOC: Question Does Trigiel have T'sals datapad (with map en data)? or did you download/copy the map?))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

((OOC: He has no tools to copy/download it to, and he didn't return it, so I assume he still has it. I'll let him decide that though.))

[Fecta Trigiel]

((OOC: We need the map, so yes, I still have the datapad. Dont worry, Trigiel is not interested in your secret exotic porn stash ;).))

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

Nebesnogo helped the soldiers while he tried not to be blown away by the wind.

"Da, lets go there but be careful it might be frightened of us." the little mudry responded as he followed Trigiel.

((OOC: sorry for the late post but i did not have the time last week))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

The two Jedi entered the compound once more, to navigate its dark and empty hallways towards the two laboratories. Looking at the map, Trigiel sees that the two laboratories were located next to each other, with C21 being smaller and in between the Jedi and C20. Though in this case 'smaller' is purely relative. Trigiel estimates that the security and data centre would both fit in C21 with room to spare. And C20 was roughly six times as large...

After an uneventful trip through the darkened compound, with a few doors getting to know the meaning of 'opened by force', the two Jedi walked into the corridor from which C21 can be accessed. It was immediately clear that this lab hadn't lost power: the door was still open, and an eerily blueish light shone into the hallway. From inside the lab the sound of humming machinery was heard.

Moving closer, the Jedi felt a draft of air moving out of the laboratory at a lazy pace. For some unknown reason, the air smelled sweet to Nebesnogo and Trigiel. A few meters later, the Jedi were at the door looking into the laboratory. From here, they could see that C21 was probably a very busy laboratory: there were vats of fluid and large machines everywhere. Upon entering the lab, it quickly became clear what the focus of this laboratory was.

The laboratory contained a row of glass tubes, not unlike bacta tanks, with different kinds of partly grown creatures in them. From the map, Trigiel deduced that the Jedi entered the lab at one side, and that the door to C20 would be at the other side.

Near the door to C20, the two jedi spotted a smashed incubation tube. When they moved closer, they also saw the torn up bodies of two scientists. It was clear that these scientists were violently killed, though they couldn't see any of the distinct markings on the wall or machinery nearby. Unfortunately, they couldn't read veolian, but from the images they gathered that a insect-veolian crossbreed female was incubated here.

The Jedi could easily reach the door to C20 now, if they wished to do so.

[Fecta Trigiel]

Upon noticing the small breeze of air Trigiel said: "it appears as if they try to maintain a small overpressure in this lab to get the dust out, but I didn't saw any 'clean room' equipment. Maybe it is just ventilation."

While they entered the lab Trigiel looked around for anything out of the ordinary, like missing security cams or suspicious monsters with claws. When he saw the scientists, he looked if he recognised them from one of the video's.

If he thought it was safe to walk in the lab, he made his way through the lab to the other side. "The entrance to C20 is over there," indicating to the other side of C21, "that lab is six time as big as this one."

((Check: 9 = 4 Force Level + 5 Vision -- sensitive optics (infra red, ultra violet, night sight zoom function) For looking around and check if it is safe and anything out of the ordinary))

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

"Maybe because of fire hazards in the hallway or in lab 21. Lets go the to the other side and see what's going on." Nebesnogo said as he followed Trigiel.

"Do you have a strategy to look unaggressive to the thing we might find there?" The little Mudry asked while they were traversing the laboratory.

He also kept an eye out for any signs of deliberate destruction that was not him or Trigiel.

((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 4 Vision -- looking for signs of deliberate destruction.))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

As they already found the bodies of two scientists, it quickly became clear to the two padawan that the scientists in this lab were attacked. The subjects in the pods were mostly left alone, except for the single one near the entrance to C20.

After closer inspection, Nebesnogo's background in explosives could them him that the broken incubation pod was shattered by a point force from the inside. So whatever was in the pod broke out. With the materials knowledge from both their engineering backgrounds, the padawans quickly determined that these pods were built to keep whatever was in them inside, and that this breakout could only have happened if someone sabotaged the containment field generator.

Trigiel soon found the cause of the field generator's failure: it was indeed sabotaged. The power coupling to the generator had been removed, and replaced with a fake that burned out the moment the generator drew power to actually contain something. This was clearly evidence of foul play. But who was responsible, or why they did it remained a mystery.

While investigating the broken pod next to the door to C20, they felt a sudden strong draft of air flowing from the door. It was clear to them that the sweet smell came from the next room.

((OOC: I hope you two didn't miss the description of the scientists and the broken incubation tube in my previous post? Your posts seemed to ignore that part for reasons that aren't clear to me.))

[Fecta Trigiel]

"Well, someone wanted to give the people here a really bad day. I will probably never understand Veolians, that some think it is more convenient to sabotage the facility then to talk." Suddenly something important hit Trigiel: "If this tube is sabotaged, then probably more tubes are. Maybe we should check some power couplings. Whole rows of monsters braking free would be a little too much excitement... Okay, not really but at least I like to know beforehand that they might brake loose."

"And of course there is the creature who already is broken loose. So we should not spend to much time on checking the other tubes. And to answer your question, not immediately draw lightsabers, not keeping hands over the beast, no sudden moves, be patient. I am no animal expert, but these are general rules with approaching animals. Though I would be cautious with letting it approach. Those claws seems to cut through concrete and steel."

Trigiel started to inspect a few pods, and especially the power couplings. If there were fake couplings and Trigiel knew how to restore the couplings, he did. Though only if this didn't took much time. When the power would be shut down here, the beasts would probably brake loose anyway.

((Check: 10 = 4 Force Level + 4 Reason + 2 Mechanical Engineer -- To check if the pods are tempered with and to emergency repair any sabotage.))

((OOC: I didn't missed it, but I forgot to take an explicit look at it. Maybe 10 pages of 'a monster broke loose' makes me a bit sloppy on the expected scenery.))

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

"Let me help you with that. And then we can check the other lab and see where that strange sweet smell is coming from."

Nebesnogo went to help Trigiel with the checking of the power couplings while also trying to estimate how long the containment would last if power failed.

((Check: 12 = 4 Force Level + 5 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer -- to check for tampering, quick fixing and guessing life cycle without external power of the containment fields.))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

Working together, the Jedi quickly inspected the power couplings of the other tubes. It seemed that two other pods were rigged as well, but they miraculously didn't short circuit. After a short analysis Nebesnogo concluded that they didn't short circuit yet because the creatures in the pods didn't try to break free. It seemed these force fields only drew power when force was exerted on them.

Roughly ten minutes later, the two padawan had finished checking the pods. They learned that these pods seemed to hold chimeras of veolians and insects... Definitely not something on the list of projects the professor told them about. However, the real surprise was only learned after carefully looking over the fake power couplings. The Jedi identified what was actually wrong with the coupling: it wasn't actually a fake!

It was a real power coupling, but the insides had been melted down by some kind of acidic goo. They wouldn't have caught this if they wouldn't have taken their time to check the other pods, and to investigate the power couplings.

Having replaced the sabotaged couplings with fresh ones that were conveniently stored nearby, the Jedi learned all they could from this room.

[Fecta Trigiel]

"I hope that creature does not spit acid goo unannounced, it seems to burn through steel.

I think we are done here. It is less likely now that numerous creatures jump on us so we can give our little friend a little more attention. If we find him of course."

Trigiel walked towards the door to lab C20. "Hopefully we finally get to know what is going on here, this lab is just too strange to make sense."

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

"Da, I hope so too. lets Hope it does not have other surprises."

He followed Trigiel back to the door. "Ill open the door while you have a look in side ok?"

He then went to the door and had a look at the controls and tried to see how much noise it would make when opened and how to open it.

((Check: 12 = 4 Force Level + 5 Reason + 3 Mechanical Engineer -- to figure out how to open the door and how much noise it would make))

[Storyteller (Brend)]

Nebesnogo quickly figured out how to open the door, and that it wouldn't make that much noise. However, despite his age he was already a master engineer, and he thought of a way to open them nearly soundlessly.

As the doors slowly open by sliding upwards into the ceiling, Trigiel got a good look of the contents of lab C20.

((OOC: labs not to scale!))

As the door slowly and silently opened, a wave of sweet air swooshed past the Jedi. They couldn't exactly place the smell, but it didn't smell bad. Looking inside, it seemed that that lab was indeed much bigger than the one they were currently in. Trigiel could easily see the layout of the lab: the lab was twice as high is the current one. The doorway he looked through connected to a balcony overlooking the lab, with stairs to the left and right towards the 20 meter wide walkway. Along the walkway, Trigiel could see consoles throwing blueish light on their surroundings, and doors to auxiliary laboratories.

The lights in this enormous hall were dim, but enough to see the other side of the laboratory. It was clear that both laboratories had a good and stable power supply, and that they were not hit by any of the power outages.

The centre of the laboratory was dedicated to eight huge sphere-like glass tanks, each large enough to hold roughly ten Rancors with space to move. One of the tanks was clearly shattered. The other seven each held about twenty large creatures that seemed similar to the one Trigiel saw on the videos. They seemed to be dormant. Each tank was connected to groups of large machines that were neatly lined on the outside of the 'pit' formed by the walkway.

At the base of the shattered tank, a small cluster of pillows and mattresses on top of a pile of wires, pipes and plating formed some kind of nest. It was clear that this nest didn't come with the lab, and that it was built later, presumably by the creature. It was clear why there was a bed of rubble: it protected the pillows and mattresses from soaking up the fluid that was on the floor. As the shattered tank was mostly drained, the Jedi concluded that most likely the fluid spilled out of it when it broke.

As the lab was enormous, Nebesnogo had difficulty spotting what exactly was in the nest, but Trigiel's cybernetic body could zoom in: inside the nest, Trigiel spotted the baby, two children with some insect-like features, and five seemingly normal veolian women. The children were a boy and a girl, judging from their clothes, three of the women were soldiers, the other two were dressed in casual clothing, but wore name tags with the facility's logo on it. They all appeared to be sleeping.

There was no creature to be found, even though both Jedi carefully looked around.

((OOC: If you have questions about the environment, or want some clarification, do not hesitate to post. I'll react to them as soon as possible, so you could easily ask three or four questions before next week's post ^_^))

[Fecta Trigiel]

Trigiel looked into the lab and was a little suprised to see a nest. But then again, he actually had no idea what he expected besides rows of tanks and monsters attacking him. He looked if he could recognize the women. 'Only women' he though to himself, 'where are the males?'

Tigiel used his internal communicator to be as silent as he could be: "Lets be careful and make no noise. It might be better to let the women in the nest sleep, and see what other surprises there are. Let's carefully walk around via the doors to the other auxiliary labs to the other side of the room. The map says that there is more, I like to know what.

We also might need a plan if all 70 creatures simultaneously desired to eat you... us, I say we run to the previous lab, use the door as a choke point and if they are too strong we flee towards the main entrance to let the automated defences do the work. If you want to talk, we can do that better in the other lab."

If Nebesnogo did not indicated that he wanted to talk, Trigiel started to walk as silent as his metal feet could. At the same time he looked around to see if there was any spot for the creature to crawl through, he especially checked the ceiling. Trigiel also looked if he could see if the creatures in the spheres were indeed dormant.

Otherwise Trigiel went to the the auxiliary lab to further discus their plans.

((Check: 9 = 4 Force Level + 5 Vision -- sensitive optics (infra red, ultra violet, night sight zoom function) for checking any details of the room as described in the post, especially the ceiling.))
((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 4 Fitness -- Moving stealthy.))

[Fecta Trigiel]

Suddenly something hit Trigiel: "If the creature we saw on tape came from this area, then what escaped out of the previous lab, and where is it?"

[Nebesnogo Sveta]

"Ok two things if we see the thing lets not get in-between it and the nest. It might attack us because it then sees us as a threat." Nebesnogo said remembering something he had seen on a nature show.

"As for you second thing I have no clue what was in there and where it is. I suggest being careful." he tried to be as quiet as possible while Trigiel would still be able to hear him.

He then moved of together with Trigiel but at a bit of a distance so they had more covering fields of vision and it would be hard for the monster to sneak up on them.

((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 3 Fitness + 1 Stealth -- to no be noticed as they enter the lab.))
((Check: 8 = 4 Force Level + 4 Vision -- to look for the creature.))