A place long forgotten (Rhoden, Warvanus)

[Kell Sangros]

He nodded as he walked over the 2 defunct droids “Well” he began “Nobody is perfect” he conceded. He spent a lot of time working out developing his martial arts skills, along with marksmanship. Though the marksmanship was a skill he had developed when he was still Kell Sangros and had never heard of Darth Tormentous or the Sith Empire.

He walked down the hallway until they came to the room where rows upon rows of tubes filled with liquid and humanoids inside them. This was a cloner’s facility. He had heard of them but never been inside one. He wondered who or what was being grown and who was responsible?

He let out a low whistle. “This looks like trouble” he said with a sense of foreboding as he looked at the Imperial Commander. He knew that during the clone wars that they used humans for clones, in fact that the original template he remembered from his reading was a Mandalorian by the name of Jango Fett. He wondered if this was an earlier batch before that template or an experiment all of its own? With the Ysalmari running around he wondered if they were trying to cross replicate their anti force bubble ability with these clones, if they did and were successful that would have spelt trouble for any Force Adept. That idea made his stomach sink.

“Can you tell if these systems are still active?” he asked

[Rhoden Carbine]

There was a flicker and a hologram appeared, towering up in the chamber. The face was in shadows, hidden entirely, "I assure you this facility is fully operational." a voice boomed out. Rhoden gave a terse nod as he recognized the voice, confirming that the facility was active. The hologram seemed to turn to him.

"Hello, again, Rhoden." it said, Rhoden breathed in "Bareil." he growled. There was a chuckle, "Who else would it be but me? Perhaps you were hoping I'd gone to ground again--I assure you I have no intention of doing so before my job is done, perhaps not even then." Rhoden ground his teeth together.

"But I'm afraid I haven't got time to chat just now--I'm still gathering my resources, positioning assets, contacting old friends... the usual." the figure shrugged and vanished with parting words, "Deal with them."

There was a clicking and the figures of droids and clones alike began aiming towards them. Rhoden cursed under his breath, "Add it to the list, Jorvan." he said, rage in his voice, "If we get out of here, that is." Jorvan said. Haly and Rhoden turned to look at him, "If?!" they asked simultaneously.

[Kell Sangros]

Warvanus had scanned from side to side, making note of things he saw. Trying to keep the emptiness he felt at bay as it
Threatened to consume him. His distractions and his thoughts were pulled to the abrupt image coming from a holoprojector.

Rhoden he thought to himself. So that was the Imperial Commander’s name. They had never formally introduced each other.
This person seemed to know this Imperial Commander, No Rhoden quite well. Unfortunately he could not dwell on that thought
As he now saw approaching droids and clones. If he could touch the Force he would be excited but it was still not available
To him. So he needed to get outside its influence.

He attempted humor “Maybe they will surrender when they realized they are outmatched” he was sure his attempt at humor fell
On deaf ears. He raised his blaster rifle that he had commadeered from one of the droids. He took a breath as he raised it
And aimed.

His tone grew very serious “If we could get outside of the damned lizards influence we will have more options”
But the truth is they were still inside the influence. To make a bubble as large as they were in would take several. He
Wondered how many would have to be killed to disrupt the range of this anti-force bubble. No time to dwell on that he though
As he took aim and squeezed the trigger.

[Rhoden Carbine]

The Inferno's opened fire as they dropped into crouches and scrambled for cover--a rather pointless endeavor as the walkway offered no such commodity. Rhoden saw several droids drop, and clones for that matter, but the return fire from the latter was far too precise and calculated to be at all comfortable.

"We need to get down there, now!" he yelled over the hail of bolts slamming into the walls, walkway, and--most unfortunately--his armor. He rolled over and sprinted, still in a crouch, for the nearest stairway--flying down it as fast as he could manage without tumbling down it and breaking his neck.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it." he said with each step, continuing to fire and beginning to sweat--more from the heat of proximity blaster bolts than physical exertion. "I'm going to rip out his spine and beat him to death with it." Jorvan growled as he too dove behind a thankfully thick bank of terminals shielding them from blasterfire for the moment. "I think he'd be dead after that first bit." Haly said, crawling behind cover as well and patting at a persistent smoking spot on her armor. "We'll figure out a workaround." Rhoden said darkly, wincing as a blaster bolt tore a piece of terminal out above his head and sent tiny specks of molten metal into his armor "But later." he added hastily.

Rhoden looked around for the Sith, spotted him, and gestured, "Get over here so I can blow them up!" he called.

[Kell Sangros]

He kept pumping blaster shots into the horde he didn’t know if he hit droid or clone but he didn’t care as he backed up allowing Rhoden to do what he needed to do. He went to fire another shot but nothing happened, the power pack was dead. He tossed the useless weapon aside and drew his vibro blade. It was time to rely on his martial arts skills. That is until he was back in touch with the Darkside once again.

“You’re all clear” he told the Imperial Commander.

Warvanus now took cover and watched the firey inferno that was about to ensue

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden took a second to check the radius on the device he was about to use, and tapped the side on the terminal he was hiding behind to get a rough determination of its durability and composition. "Should be fine." he muttered. He came up quickly and threw the device out into the middle of the hostile forces, falling immediately back to the ground as a few shots spattered off his armor. He winced and checked a spot that hadn't fully stopped a blaster bolt.

There was a clatter and on impact with the ground the explosive cracked with a loud noise and blinding flash, too a minor ion pulse sent the nearest droids clattering to the floor. There was a pause and suddenly a rush of air towards the explosive device, followed immediately by an explosion outwards which sent shrapnel and bodies flying.

Jorvan looked at him, "How long have you had that?" he asked accusingly. "I've been carrying one on me since that assault on the Alliance station. I figured it could come in handy." Jorvan shook his head. "How many d'you have?" he asked in a resigned tone of voice. "Oh, just the one." Rhoden replied innocently. Haly snorted.

"Still in one piece?" he asked the Sith. There was a loud thud on one of the blast doors and he looked over--it was warped, which was probably why they weren't being shot at just yet, but they'd get through quick enough.

[Kell Sangros]

The explosion was impressive, but as it rained shrapnel he took cover, the shards rained down on him anyway but his armor absorbed it. He heard the banter between Rhoden and his people.

“Was that a gravitonic grenade?” he asked he had only heard of them a variation of a gravity mine. Those would come in handy indeed thought the Sith.

He nodded at the question of being in one piece. “We need to get up a few floors” he said as he spotted an air grate. “Maybe through there” he pointed as he could hear the banging on the blast door. They only had a little time before they were through. He didn’t wait for opinions as he began removing the air grate.

[Rhoden Carbine]

The Imperials followed the Sith through the grate, dropping down into what appeared to be a droid charging area. Rhoden turned around and snapped the grate back into place as the door blew outwards and troopers rushed into the room. He ducked back quickly as he caught his breath. These weren't the lightly armored, lightly armed guards that had been on hand to assault them initially. No. These wore full combat armor and swung blaster rifles smoothly around in search of targets.

He made a silent gesture that Jorvan and Haly nodded at. Haly went to the side of the door leading into the charging area they were in and Jorvan went to work on the control panel. Rhoden set about silently sealing the small vent which connected their room to the chamber beyond. Once he was satisfied he spoke.

"This place needs to stop existing. Now." he said, "I'd bet Bareil has more than this one place." Jorvan replied grimly, "No doubt about that, we'll see what we can pull from a terminal next chance we get." Rhoden said. He turned to the Sith, "Any ideas about how we get out of here? Without meeting our new friends, that is."

[Kell Sangros]

He looked around, surpsingly it was high enough to stand in with tunnels going in most directions. “I agree” he said as he glanced at his options “This place needs to go” Then he indiated to the tunnel going to the right.

“We need to get up to where we were” he began, “there was a terminal in that security office, maybe something useful can be extrapolated. We also need to blow this place to kingdom come, I would imagine that even a few more floors down they would have some form of reactor. Maybe we can access it from the security office and disable the failsafes and make that mother go boom” it was a good of a plan as any he thought.

He began walking down the tunnel. He didn’t know how long or how far he had walked but at the end was a shaft going upwards, and downwards, a ladder was mounted. “This seems almost too easy” he said looking at the Imperial Commander. With that, he began the ascent.

[Rhoden Carbine]

"That's because it is." Rhoden said shortly, spinning around to look in every direction. "Door, open, quickly." he said, as they approached what appeared to be an office. "If it looks like it's going to blow us up do say something." he added. Jorvan snorted softly and set to work, the door slid open quickly--far too quickly. "Jorvan?" he asked.

"Oh, do come in!" a voice called before Jorvan could respond. Rhoden turned around to face a large man with short white hair and a nasty scar across his face. "What d'you want?" he asked, bringing his blaster to bear. "Ah, ah." the man said, waving a finger. He flicked a coin out and as it sailed past a certain point there was a shimmering from the field of a deflector shield. The man gestured. "Do come in." he said.

There was a clattering and two droidekas--much newer than those they had recently faced--rolled out and unfolded, followed by more armored troopers. Rhoden's face contorted briefly, but he smoothed it out with a smile and stepped inside with his companions--the door slid shut behind them.

"Take a seat." the man gestured again, "We have much to discuss."