I Feel the Weight

[Daniel Solus (old)]

A rousing screech from Ari jerked Daniel out of his quiet contemplation of a hologram of the Lady Jolene being projected by a datapad on one of the desks he was cleaning. Her lines were so beautiful and her presence so imposing; he'd love something like that for his small apartment back home.

"It's started?" He asked the droid. An affirmative beep was all the confirmation he need. "You know what to do buddy," he said sadly. "Keep your comm open and lock down this room as soon as we're out. It's been an honor." He saluted the droid, snatched the datapad with the hologram off the desk (keeping relics of the vanquished was important) and made for the maintenance door.

"Timer's on, Angry Badger," he said to Dan as they exited the R&D complex back into the maintenance hallways and started retracing their steps toward the hangar. "Badger One," He commed, "What's your status, do you have eyes for us?"

@Sreeya @Rimrald

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz hadn’t moved from her original position, hearing and seeing everything from her boys inside the building. At Angry’s commentary, she rolled her eyes, “I’ll grill you guys way harder than that. What do you take me for?” She snickered, taking another bite of her donut. She slid her chair back to roll over to the coffee machine, making herself a cup before she rolled right back to look on the screens. She hated being here while they were inside risking their lives. There was no denying they were better at this than she was – she wasn’t known for her discreetness, but she was good at playing other roles.

“The faster we can get this over with, the better,” She muttered, “This weird skirt is riding up my ass,” She finished off her donut and sipped from the coffee. As Dopey’s voice came in through the comms, she looked again, “Kriff, there are two men heading in your direction down the hall heading towards the hangar. Inside of hangar looks empty for now but there are….two droids. Those droids might be a problem and raise flags,” Raz looked down at her chrono, knowing she didn’t have too much time left for her ‘inspection’.

She was beginning to feel anxious, knowing they had precious moments left. Raz nervously bit on her nail, gazing at the screen, “I need your go on when I can leave this stupid place. I gotta procure us a way off, after all,” She began to eye the various civilian ships parked all around.

@Lucid @Rimrald

 

[Wyatt Kebiin-Solus]

With cleaning cart rolling in front of him Wyatt pressed his holocom once more while Daniel made final preparations with the droid.

“Are you chewing over the net right now...?”

Followed by a long pause on his end.

“Wow. Just, wow.”

It was a mix of hunger and one of his pet peeves combined in one, as his mind wandered for a moment curious to know what she had found to eat. But it was disrupted with the warning of approaching humanoids and a pair of droids, but they were ahead and may be an issue for some unknown reason.

Turning to Daniel, Wyatt asked in confusion

“What kind of droids ina hangar would cause problems? The only ones I’ve ever dealt with moved crates or calibrated ship computers.”

Wyatt said idly in an attempt to make conversation while the duo of humanoids approached, to Wyatt they didn’t look any more out of place than Daniel and himself but in their alone time Wyatt had strapped his Shriek-Hawk to the underside of the cart in the event it may be needed in a pinch. He planned to follow Daniels lead as he kept a hand on the push rail and a hand the blaster carbine as the distance between the two pairs of people closed.

@Sreeya @Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Daniel was worried. The people they could deal with, but droids were more complicated...especially if they were security droids. Those had access to security protocols, Daniel was unsure their hastily acquired IDs would cover. He loosened the top of his uniform lest he need to get at his sidearm quickly and noticed that Wyatt had his hand under the cart...no doubt readying a blaster. He decided to comm Ari, who was still hooked into the complex's intelligence in the R&D facility.

"Ari, there are two security droids in the hangar that could stop us extracting," he muttered quickly into his comm. The droid responded with a buzz and burble that drew Daniel's eyebrows together. "Well then upload our faces to the databank!" Beep-beep dawwooooo was the forlorn reply. "I don't care if they're crappy pictures, just start a file!"

They'd just have to wait and see, for Daniel and Wyatt had rounded a corner and come face to face with the other two workers. Their eyebrows went up and a questioning gleam came to their eyes.

"Hey," said the bigger of the two. He had a tuft of hair that poked out over his collar that Daniel found both distracting and odd. "Are you guys new here? I thought I knew all of the sentient facilities staff by now..."

Daniel and his partner halted and the younger mandalorian flashed a smile at the big worker and his buddy. "Yeah we're new," he said happily. "The union rotated us through here just yesterday! Still getting used to everything, it's like a maze back here."

The big man held his piercing gaze a moment longer then his face cracked into a grin. "Ah! Well I must have missed the memo," he said sheepishly. "I'm not too big on paperwork, you see? Well my name's Keller, chief of the facilities staff here, glad to have you aboard..and don't worry, it gets easier to navigate back here after a while. If you guys need anything just comm me!"

"Thanks! My name's Daniel! Gotta run though, some bitchy Kuati broad was going on about new detergent for the R&D 'freshers." The big man gave a knowing nod, tossing Daniel and Wyatt a cheery wave as they parted. Once they reached the turbolift down to the first hallway where they had stored their gear, Daniel let out a breath. He hadn't been sure that would work...thinking on his feet was something he was still getting used to.

"BadgerOne, we're about to collect our gear then head for the hangar. The droids may still pose a problem; so be ready for a quick departure if we need."

@Sreeya @Rimrald

 

[Raz Solus]

“Okay I’m losing the eyes for now,” She mentioned as she rose from her seat. She had no further time left for the inspection, and she downloaded the schematics of the building onto her datapad. She took her time in dismantling the security measures that were put in place. For one of them, she had to drag one of the security guards back and use his palm print to access a terminal. At the end of it, all their defenses were down and there would be no alarms going off if someone spotted something. She had gloves on to ensure her prints didn't get on anything.

Raz left the room and walked down a corridor, making her way back towards the front of the building. She met with the officials from earlier, handing over a completed form that checked off that they were compliant. Raz didn’t waste any more time, making her way out towards where civilian ships were parked. She looked around to ensure her path was clear before she picked veered off to the side, going to where she had stashed all her armor and weapons. Not one to leave her precious armor behind, she rapidly changed.

Feeling much more like herself, she tailed a man that was making his way back to his personal ship. He was done working for the night and planning to leave the shipyard. She walked behind him quietly, slowly slipping out her beskad. As she approached closer and he lowered the ramp to his ship, she snuck up and jammed it into the back of his neck. Raz dragged the body onto the ship with her, spotting a droid that was sitting in the cockpit.

She closed the ramp, the droid springing to its feet. She leveled her gun and shot it, dropping it. Raz hoped one of the boys knew how to actually fly, as she wasn’t the best at it. She plopped down on the pilot seat, starting up the engines as she spoke into the comms, “I’m ready when you are. It’ll be the only ship that’s got its lights on and stalling…”

@Lucid @Rimrald

 

[Wyatt Kebiin-Solus]

Wyatt gripped the carbine to the point he could feel his knuckles turn white as they came to an impass with the workers, and yet Daniel stood and had a conversation with the men. As if they weren’t agents of a foreign military organization here to destroy the means of ship production, it amazed him how clam Daniel kept and how fast he thought of responses that were complete bullshit.

Wyatt moved from around the cart to join the conversation for a few minutes, adding supporting statements and flashing the fake ID that actually was scannable. Not that it was needed at this point but he was just as happy not having to test his ability to lie today, he could save his skills for later and by the sounds of Raz they would be needed at the helm of some sort of ship.

“Is it a ship-ship or a space craft? There’s a difference between jacking a corvette and a personal ship... Gimme the details.”

Wyatt said with genuine enthusiasm in his voice, it had been months since he’d gotten to be around shps daily and learn a little about them. His thoughts jumped to questions about the ships layout and design and a handful of other things he assumed Raz couldn’t answer, so he kept them to himself. Focusing instead on getting ready to sell their reasoning for being back out on the landing and loading area to the droids who he knew would check redentials, that’s their whole job. Surely enough the duo was halted at the doors to the landing bay, as they slid up the two droids look at the cleaning can’t and noted the visual lack of Ari.

Questioning the two men was not the droids strong suit but the pair of droids protested their departure due to the fact they were without the droid they brought along. Looking over to Daniel to explain, Wyatt jumped in in the mean time by talking about the neee for him to inspect the ship with its lights on. Afterall he was posing as an inspector and compliance officer with inter system shipping. Ranting and raising a fit to the droids as he did until they scanned his ID, it came back with the scannable code belonging to whoever actually had this position.

A quick moment of panic ran over Wyatt as the two droids looked up and gave both him and Daniel a once over as if discerning who they were but coming up blank. It was time to decide if fighting or moving quietly would be the way this job would end.
@Sreeya @Lucid [/fancybox]

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Daniel was out of ideas, his brain hurt from so much use and he still felt queasy from the whole screwdriver thing. He didn't quite understand what had come over him; he was turning into his father more and more with each passing day. As the droids scanned their ID, and the processing time went on and on he just couldn't take it. The duffel full of armor over his shoulder was heavy and annoying too.

"Is something the matter? We were scheduled for depar--" Daniel cut himself off, shaking his head. They were so close to home, so close to setting up his new spiffy ship hologram in his apartment, he was well and truly out of patience. "Nevermind, screw this."

From inside his workers suit he drew his blaster and fired two shots, one into the head of each droid. They dropped like rocks with an enormous clatter and the sound of the shots echoed through the hangar. "We should run," he said to Wyatt, breaking into a flat out sprint.

"Ari, I did a stupid," he yelled into his comm as they ran, "Make sure they can't lock down the hangar! Badger One lower the ramp, we're coming in hot!"

At a flat run, the ramp to the ship just reaching the floor in time, two men bounded up into the ship. Wyatt headed straight for the cockpit leaving Daniel to deal with the hangar staff who were just cluing into what was going on. An enraged throng headed to the back of the ship. Firing a couple shots out the door, Daniel groped uselessly at the leavers by the ramp hoping one would close it. He yanked two down and the musical stylings of Bilbo's All Bith Band started playing from the ships external speakers.

Daniel cursed, pulling more leavers and flipping switches. What the hell kind of ship was this?

The music proved to be a serious distraction. Someone chucked a hydrospanner with uncanny aim at the young Mandalorian's face where it collided neatly with his nose. There was a disgusting crunch of cartilage; his eyes filled with tears and his mouth with blood. He fired blindly into the throng closing in on the ship.

"SOMEONE CLOSE THIS KRIFFING DOOR!!" His voice was thick with blood and a fresh new lisp.

@Sreeya @Rimrald

 

[Raz Solus]

“Kriff it’s a personal ship,” She was hating being asked so many questions, “I had to axe the droid and um,” She leaned in to investigate, “It belongs to a worker so it has all the validation certs to get us out just fine. Just don’t bank on me flying this thing because I’ll kill us all,” At least she was up front about her shortcomings. Raz drummed her fingers, once again playing the waiting game.

Within moments she began to hear the sound of blasterfire, “What the hell is going on, you idiots?!” She screeched into the comms, hearing Daniel’s voice next as he shouted about coming in. She cursed repeatedly as she lowered the exit ramp again, having a bad feeling at the pit of her stomach. She gathered her blaster and rushed towards the exit, watching Dopey scrambling to get into the ship.

Raz ducked to the side to let Angry Badger bolt past her and to the cockpit. She watched Dopey get conked in the face and leveled her blaster and shot at the droid that was scrambling behind him. She grabbed Dopey by the collar of his shirt and yanked him into the ship, punching the right buttons to close the ramp.

“Take off take off take off!” She screamed at Angry, “We need to go now!”

@Lucid @Rimrald

 

[Wyatt Kebiin-Solus]

~Ship Image~​

All plans go sour eventually, and that is what was happening now as Wyatt realized at the same time Daniel did, these droids were most likely about to raise hell. So Daniel beat them to it quickly blasting both of them at point blank range, and in doing so alerting the remaining crew of sentient employees that were in the workers parking hangar of their presence.

Tipping over the cart with a clatter Wyatt snatched his smaller bag that only contained his armor pieces and tools, digging for a moment for his bandoleer and producing it from the top just like he had packed. Removing the two fragmentation grenades he carried on it and lobbing one into the open turbolift they had entered from, knowing the explosion would at the very least disable it. Priming the second as he took to a dead sprint for the ship he hoped was their exit craft, it was confirmed to be as the ramp began to slide down to greet the two men.

Before barreling up the ramp and to the cockpit Wyatt turned to see a small group of men and droids assembling and shouting about shutting down the hangar bay, some began calling for the alarm to be sounded and security to be alerted. The prospect of KDY's private army and fighter force on their tail was of no interest to Wyatt as his fight or flight instinct kicked in and he hucked the grenade at the loose group before entering the ship.

In the moment there was no remorse for those he had condemned to death a moment ago, the thoughts would come later... After he knew if he would be alive to think them. Pushing past his fully armored Alor and giving nothing more than passing glance as he dropped both his sling bag and small duffle of armor outside the cockpit area before sliding into the pilots chair.

"You fried the droid pilot..."

His tone was ripe with surprise as he dragged it out of the copilots seat and out to be chucked off of the side of the ramp, just in time to catch Daniel eat a spanner wrench from one of the angry KDY employees. Returning to the cockpit and settling in Wyatt called out over his shoulder to the others.

"This Yatch is gorgeous, but i've never flown one... Button and panel layout isn't too foreign though!"

Wyatt said as he began priming the large dual-thruster thruster set with the flip of switch, then a press of two buttons to begin cycling fuel and engaging ship electronics. Quickly messing with the navi-computer Wyatt realised he didn't have the time to plot the course home or navigate the best route out of this sector.

"RAZ. Get your ass in this co-pilots seat chair right now!"

The words were absolute and far too abrasive to be seen as respectful in this current situation, but she was the one who had just cut their odds of surviving this mission in half. Waiting for her to get in the cabin, Wyatt called out one last set of instructions.

"Plot a course for Mandalorian space, and monitor the close range scanner. I'll bring us around to see the show before we leave and it'll give you time to get coordinates for the hyperdrive in and then we're home free."
@Sreeya @Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Daniel stumbled, woozy with blood gushing from his broken nose behind Raz to the cramped cockpit. He stood back, watching as the she and Wyatt scrambled to take off. Maybe shooting the droids hadn't been the best idea after all. Certainly his nose had taken the brunt of it. He grabbed a wad of tissue from a dispenser in the wall and shoved it into his painful nostrils. He looked ridiculous but didn't care. They were almost out of it.

"Ari," he commed to the doomed droid, "Buddy what's our time?" A beep and a whistle came over the comm. "Nine minutes?!"

He turned to his companions, nose tampons flapping wildly. "Guys we gotta hurry!! Need to get home so I can set up my spiffy new ship hologram!"

It hadn't occurted to him to actually look at his prize and, seeing that Raz and Wyatt were busy and stressed, he quieted down and pulled it out. Flicking on the datapad didn't have the desired result of projecting the hologram so he pressed some keys inquisitively. Nothing happened, but diagrams, formulas and information began to flow across the screen.

He waved the datapad at the side of Raz's head. "Can you make this work?"

@Sreeya @Rimrald

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz purposely didn’t answer Angry Badger’s exasperation about her shooting the droid pilot. She had just finished yanking Dopey into the ship, the ship beginning to rumble as they prepared to take off. She heard Angry’s commands for her to get into the co-pilot seat, and it was probably one of the rare opportunities he could get away with saying that. She did as demanded, plopping into the seat and charting a course that took them back to Mando space.

She looked down at the chrono, “5 minutes,” She looked out, seeing some of the maintenance droids flooding out as it was obvious something was amiss. Thankfully, all the security systems she had taken down ensured that the executive office was still quiet. Raz knew this would be something that echoed all throughout the galaxy, and it would carry huge repercussions. They only had moments to make their getaway.

As she thought about the gravity of the situation, Dopey randomly waved a datapad by her face, complaining about figuring out some schematics, “Damn it, Dopey!” She yanked the datapad from his hand and conked him over the head with it, “Not now!” She looked over at Angry, “Come on come let’s go!” She monitored the scanners, feeling antsy about how this ship didn’t exactly have any weapons on it. However, it was quick and slick to make a getaway in.

@Lucid @Rimrald

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

There were a few tense moments of flying as they soared from the docking bay entrance and into open space. They wove and dodged security crafty, their nimble ship a silver gleam between the stars. Angry was doing his best and it was magnificent. After five minutes of the most stressful flying he had ever been party too they had evaded the security craft.

They were away, safe in space and on a vector bearing outsystem. In his earpiece Daniel could hear Ari's final countdown as he looked out a window towards the massive Lady Jolene.

Five

Four

Three

Two

One

Mark.​

Even as Ari beeped the final mark to them, the sublight engines of the Lady Jolene erupted into life. Cold start flares jutted from the drive nacelles as attitude thrusters strained to reorient the massive ship in its dry dock. Slowly, ponderously, the massive ship turned in her dock, the massive support ring a warped halo around the ship. She started to move slowly at first then gaining speed, tearing away supports and cables as she lumbered her massive bulk along a line across the other support rings of the drive yards.

New fleet elements were coming into being there from the smallest of starships, to the most massive of capital ships all of them were born here, at the orbital structures of the Kuat Drive Yards. Daniel sweated with anticipation he knew what was coming and every fiber of his being itched. There would be deaths and they would weigh heavy on him for a long time. He would have to bear the responsibility of being the one to suggest the Drive Yards as a target. Yet he knew it was needed; for the clan, for his people, for Mandalore.

In a blinding flash, it was done. The Lady Jolene jumped to hyperspace.

This close to the planet of kuat, she was pulled instantly out of her jump...but even an instant in hypserspace was enough to send her tearing through the orbital platforms, stations and support structures shredding them to dust. It was too much for her to handle. The stress of leaping to hypserspace this deep in a gravity well and then being yanked out of it obliterated her. With an explosion that for a moment created a new sun in the system, The Lady Jolene, vanished from existence along with all but the smallest part of the Kuat Drive Yards.

It all happened so fast, Daniel was unsure if he had even seen it. There was the ponderous journey of the ship, then the shearing lance of her body through the structures and the explosion. Then, the stars turned into lines around them as Angry punched the ship into hyperspace.

They were finally going home.

//THREAD

@Sreeya @Rimrald.