CONTINUED: Backwater Antics (33, Sal, Xerxes)

[Rhoden Carbine]

OOC: Ok, to review. 33 is on his way to catch Xerxes. who has a mouse droid underfoot. Sal is trying to escape after having caused an explosion in the hangar. Rhoden is rather irate at this point and is locking down the hangar.

The explosion rocked the hangar and Rhoden threw himself to the floor, hearing his shield strain as shrapnel bounced off of it. "Secure the area!" Rhoden roared. "No one is to leave the hangar until the person responsible for this is found!" Most of the crew who had been running stopped, but several did not. Rhoden ran, overtook one and threw him backwards, the man steeped back into line. Rhoden grabbed another, who turned and made as though to attack him--and was promptly shot. There was another, almost at the door to the hangar now. Rhoden shot the control panel and the door slammed shut directly in front of the runner.

"Get back in line!" Rhoden yelled at the man. Rhoden desired greatly to simply shoot him dead, but he got a grip on his anger. This was the chaos of criminals, despite the incompetence of the crew. Once more Rhoden regretted not dragging Jorvan along for this mission.

[33-5H4]

The commando droid sprinted down the halls at an inhuman pace, deadset on overtaking the fleeing fugitive that was being pursued by it's mouse droid. 33-5H4's photoreceptors were rapidly scanning the space station surrounding it, looking for any indicator as to who might be the culprit. Several corridors and two short flights of stairs later, the ancient android burst out of a set of doors and came to look at a most suspicious figure - down, all the way at the other end of the corridor, was someone in an unmarked spacesuit; and they were accompanied by a panicked mouse droid. Taking a second to recalibrate it's photoreceptors, 33-5H4 honed it's focus in on the individual as the old robot began to move towards him at an increasing pace. The vibrosword slung across the droid's back found its way into 33's left hand as it ran through the corridor, humming ominously in the background of the ongoing commotion.

33-5H4's droid force in the hangar didn't have much of a reaction to the explosion itself, the motley assembly of metallic figures taking a few seconds to look at each other before deciding to spring into action. Over the course of the next several minutes, the still-functioning doors that led to the hangar were locked and several Imperial employees were stunned. As the remaining folks were lined up for Rhoden's inspection, EM-3P0 dragged the stunned workmen over to the line and left them in a semi- straight line next to the rest of the group.

[Xerxes Nova]

Xerxes had his helmet on and secured so his face shouldn’t have been caught by the mouse droid but, he hadn’t chanced destroying it just because there was a slim hope that it hadn’t alerted anyone, they always got stood on and a lot of techs took out their annoyance at doing so by pinning them for a moment. However, the bleep from Scrap as he worked at the control panel to the airlock told him all he needed to know. He sighed, running through the schematics for the old station in his mind. If a hatch was forced it would be more difficult for him to open the maintenance airlock for the hanger where his exfil was hopefully waiting for him and he couldn’t risk forcing that one. This was his best route, few could follow as they’d need vac-suits and they wouldn’t use ships so close to the station. He knew of a few observation platforms that may be used but, he was confident that in the commotion that would be an unlikely course. So the choice right now, leave the opening to Scrap and fight in the confines of the corridor, not ideal his boarding suit though vacuum proof was still bulkier than normal armour, in a cramped corridor against skilled opponents that would be a fatal mistake. A rumble through the ship and the alarms scrolling over his headset told him that an explosion had occurred in the main hanger, a distraction maybe? It wasn’t where he was heading but… “Scrap, report a rupture to the environment here then cut ties with the internal system, we’ve already crashed the vids.” His droid gave the affirmation of the action and he quickly fed in the false results into the panel he was working on. If it looked like the section of the station was already breached then maybe the airlock repeating a breach wouldn’t trigger the intrusion protocols. As he did this however another bleep came from Scrap. Xerxes turned and cursed, a droid, of course the security coming for him would be a droid, vacing it wasn’t exactly an option but, it was all he had right now. “Mag” he said to Scrap as he hit the override and the airlock opened to harsh vacuum, the bulkhead at the end of the corridor slamming shut leaving the droid only one way, straight at him.

Xerxes ran out of the ship, the sudden loss of air not affecting the grav plating, but, once outside he was dependant on manoeuvring thrusters in the suit, some grapnels and the maglock of his boots which reduced his speed. Scrap came trundling out after him, the R1 chassis with the upgrades was a big thing but, tracked instead of the standard uniball made it a hell of a lot more manoeuvrable. “Scrap, I saw a vibroblade, I need you to get to the airlock to the auxiliary tertiary hanger get to work on it. Give me support if you can but, focus on defending yourself with the shields, I just hope the droideka parts I acquired are reliable. I’ll slow our friend down. I’m better in close than you anyway and I’ll be slower than you out here.” There was a plaintiff beep from Scrap and he cried “Don’t make me use an override here Scrap, your my best hope of getting out of this alive at the moment. Just do as I say, I know you want to try out the new guns more than shields but, right now I need you to use the latter not the former.” A raspberry came over their private channel but the droid trundled off. He sighed and turned, at just the right moment for his life but, his time to think was over before it had begun, damn Scrap had cost him those precious few seconds and now he was the one off balance.