Prospecting the Rimma IV

[Jsc]

​

Prospecting the Rimma IV - Crag's Underground​

Open to Adventuring Allies: (2 max) - (PM to join)​

​

___

Arctic High Forest World, Belair IV
Just outside Omega Space

___

Karen Roberts of Fondor was out prospecting again. Her journey along the Rimma Trade Route had taken her far out from Omega space and into regions now colonial. Belair IV was one of these such colonial establishments. A large blue planet with two massive polar ice caps, north and south; and a chilly forested expanse in between. It was mostly snowy vistas and endless quiet trees. A winter wonderland just waiting to be explored.

The Belfast Bruns held a few small colonies here. Most too small to be considered much more than a installation. However, underground it appeared they had quite a few cities and tunnel networks. Ingenious builders, I suppose. They had firepower, small frigates, and some elite droid guardians too. But their numbers were far too small to actually control much of the territory outside their city's limits. They preferred to stay inside their walls even when the snow was nice and warm. No. This planet belonged to the clear air and the high winter trees. With all it's strange white creatures and rosy blizzard birds. Only the crazy and the bold dared to venture out into the wilderness here. Which was perfect for Karen Roberts. Because she always considered herself something of both.

She stood in her winterized EVA waiting for a fellow adventurer to arrive. Standing atop one of the Bruns weather installations on the northern hemisphere of the large blue planet, she enjoyed a great forested view. The landing pad was nice and warm too. Heated. Just how she liked it. Letting the light snowfall melt against the hot concrete and giving her boots something slippery to think about.

She smiled deeply as a ship appeared on the horizon,

"Alright Corek. Let's if you still remember how to land that old thing. Hm."

...

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

Arctic High Forest World, Belair IV
Just outside Omega Space

Noah had to admit, he wasn't the best of pilots, he was actually one of the worst pilots he had ever met, the two people who were probably worse than him were his father and brother Flint Sr. and Flint Jr., so bad piloting ran in the family. Though he was actually doing pretty well piloting the Hawk, a Hawk-class Heavy Attack Gunship, the only ship of its kind, directly ordered by Noah and designed Koensayr to Noah's specifications. Two forward firing Heavy Laser cannon, three Ball-Turret mounted Dual Laser Cannons, one dorsal, one rear ventral and one forward ventral, and two Flex Tube Launchers, carrying eight warheads each. All in all, it was the perfect ship for Noah.

"Crag Underground Tower this is Colonel Noah Corek, captain of the Hawk requesting permission to land, over." Noah radioed in, last thing he wanted was for his beloved ship to get shot down. It didn't take long for a voice to come over the comm. "Tower to Hawk, your cleared to land, we were informed of your arrival by Miss Roberts beforehand." Upon hearing that Noah couldn't help but chuckle.

A minute later a ramp was lowered from right below the cockpit and Noah walked out, decked out in his Armor and Cloak, Rifle slung over his back, Pistols holstered on his hips and Blade sheathed on the small of his back. Noah walked forward until he stopped a foot in front of Karen, his massive six foot and six inches height dwarfing her smaller stature. "You know I grew up on Coruscant and I'm not very use to the cold. So I find it weird that most places you tell me to meet you at are as cold as Hoth."

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

She smiled in the shadow of the armored Corek,

"Cheer up big boy. You look good."

Karen turned and lead them down the stairs, and inside the local's installation. Drab walls, coarse wooden furniture, and few decorations. Military and warm. The Bruns kept their happy red homes below ground. This was just one of their topside outposts. Nothing special. Roberts gave a nod to the Brun soldier behind the desk and entered a large conference room. It was empty.

"Ah. Much better. Welcome to Belair, Colonel. She's an ice ball alright. Nice and quiet. So, thanks for coming."

She tabled her helm and pulled out her phone. Started pressing a few buttons as she talked,

"I've told them we're Bounty Hunters. Here to help them with a little ghost problem of theirs. So the locals should leave us alone for the most part. At least while we're topside and away from their caves. They don't like travelers wandering their underground. Go figure."

Karen put her phone on the table and pressed a button. It began displaying a holographic map of the surrounding area. Hovering in blue.

"So? It's been awhile. I hate to jump right to business like this. ...Old habits, I suppose. Well? Any questions before we get into the mission briefing? I think we've got time to talk."

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

Noah followed Karen deeper into the outpost. Once inside Noah looked around the walls, floor and furniture reminding him of his apartment back on Fondor and the many ships he had been stationed on during his time in the Republic SFD. The soldier at the front desk eyed him a bit more warily than he eyed Karen, not that Noah couldn't blame him, he was packing enough fire power and ammo to take down a platoon.

Once they reached the conference room Noah took off his hood down and took his helmet off tabling just like Karen had. When Karen started talking, Noah listened silently and thoughtfully. When she was done he raised his head and looked at her. "Bounty Hunters? Did you really have to tell them were bounty hunters? And ghosts? I don't know about your Karen but I'm not really equipped to fight the supernatural." Noah informed her with a chuckle.

When she asked if Noah had any non-mission related questions he kinda just shook his head. "Nah, I've seen strange things than someone who I thought was dead mysteriously coming back."

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

She smirked. Still had a sense of humor about himself.

"I've died a few times this year actually. Some faked, some Netherworld. Then I think we all died again inside when Corellia was broken in half by an angry she-god. Ugh. ...Trust me Noah. I've had enough dying for three lifetimes."

Karen could only shake her head. Every time she got ahead in life, something catastrophic happened that took her back down to zero. Wallet included.

"As for ghosts? I wouldn't worry about the supernatural. The Bruns have lost three patrols out to their old city in the Cap Mountains. Hiring of Bounty Hunters was the only way I could get us landing clearance. They think we are here to retake their lost city for them. Well... That ain't exactly what I had in mind."

She pointed to her map,

"The Old City lies next to an ancient droid foundry located here. Just along the Cap Mountains. I found an old tablet in Scargad that muses about this foundry in specific. Says they were researching Teleportation Technology. Similar to Force Gates. Except? ...For war droids."

Karen nodded her head if Noah was thinking, what she thought he was thinking.

"It wasn't ghost stories that killed everyone in the Old City. I think it was whatever they found inside this centuries old droid foundry. Cloaked, invisible, or maybe teleporting machines. Bleh. ...Sounds like a horror story to me too."

She shrugged and turned off the map.

"The Tunnels of Crag's Underground should get us to The Old City. Probably only take an hour or two to walk it. The corridors are old and narrow, but the Burns have provided maps for us. Since the loss of The Old City? They don't use those tunnels anymore. So we aught to expect wildlife and other such shenanigans."

Karen gathered her phone and looked about the empty room one last time.

"Pay is 15,000 a piece for reopening the Crag Underground. Getting it's doors and power working again. And, another thirty if we kill all their 'ghosts' and 'boogymen'. Hehe. ...Truthfully though. Mapping this old foundry could make us more money than either. If you're up for it? That is?"

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

Noah rubbed his chin at what Karen had said and it sounded awfully like a story one of Noah's friends once had told him. Noah sighed, at the time Noah thought his friend was just trying to make up a story but hearing what Karen was describing now sounded exactly like what his friend had told him.

"You know back when I was in the Republic Special Forces Division I had a friend named Kanta who was from Tantooine. Before he joined the SFD he was a mercenary along with his littler sister Kosuna and his girlfriend Junko. They heard about a old droid foundry, pre-Darkness and top of the line military, hush hush top secret GA poodoo."

"Well Kanta gets his dad's old scattergun, which I now own after his death, Kosuna took a old DC-15S blaster carbine and Junko took her old DC-15A blaster rifle. Well they get to the foundry and instead of just a foundry, they find a entire fething city. Appearantly the place was so important the GA government built a entire city around the thing to keep it running."

"Well they searched the city and found a crap ton of loot, like enough to give them a very comfortable life on a planet like Saleucami or Dantooine. Well they got all the loot out but three days later they decided to go back. Kanta was always a greedy bastard. So the three of them went back, Kosuna had got a more powerful blaster carbine and a small 40mm grenade launcher, Junko had procurred a rocket launcher and a more powerful blaster rifle but Kanta still used that old shotgun."

"Well this time when they came they weren't alone. Kanta told me they were ambushed by a droid, the way he describes it the damn thing was taller than a adult Wookiee, could cloak and shrugged off everything they threw at it, which was about a hundred blaster carbine bolts, fifty blaster rifle bolts, twenty-four tungsten carbide slugs and even a high explosive 40mm round. The only thing that stopped it was a 95mm rocket from the rocket launcher they brought."

"So tell me, do you have any thing that can take down a thing like that?" Noah asked with a raised eyebrow and then chuckled. "Because if not then I do. Give me a minute and I'll get it." Noah told her as he stood walked and was gone for a couple of minutes and came back with a large rifle slung over his shoulder. Noah walked over and set it on the table. "The Hekler'Kok Railgun Anti-Materiel Rifle or RAMR-1 for short. This thing is a 15.2 kilogram and a 1.32 meter long killing machine. Firing a 20mm tungsten carbide slug, accelerated to a thousand meters a second. Think this'll do the job?"

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

Yeah. Karen had called the right guy.

"Colonel. That would put a hole in my X-Wing. Hehe. ...So, yes. I think it will do nicely."

That was the great part about having guy's like Corek around. They didn't need space magic to get the job done. They just brought the appropriate tool for the job. A bigger gun and a better motto.

"I should warn you though before we leave. I'm not skilled at detecting droid energy signatures through the Force. Not my thing. Especially not ones that can use therm-optic camo. My helm works just fine for most targets but if you've got some special gizmo that can see invisible hostiles? Bring that too."

She didn't know how big of a tool box the Colonel had in his custom ship, but he was going to get the perfect opportunity to try it out today. Karen's own visual equipment was a custom Disruptor Carbine, A color-shifting shawl, and three Lightsabers. However, it was always what you didn't see that made all the different in Force Adepts.

"The entrance to the Crag Underground is just across this installation's catwalk and down into basement. I requested no escort. Don't trust these guys not to shoot me in the back. Ah. And here. This your copy of the map data. I've programmed us a route into the Old City. If we get separated underground, we'll met back up that entrance tunnel. Easy to get lost with tunnel networks of this size. Good to have a plan B. ...Now? Shall we?"

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

When Karen talked about ways to sense the droids Noah just chuckled. "Karen, it's me we are talking about here, of course I have something to detect it. My helmet is crammed full of tech. Macrobinocular visor, range finder, advanced HUD, oxygen filtration system, audio/visual recorder, MFTAS system and most importantly in this situation, a built-in motion sensor." Noah informed her as he took his helmet off the table and slid it over his head, making sure the hermatic seal was in place.

Noah then remembered something and reached into one of the three satchel that were attached to Noah's waist by three hooks each on his belt. Noah pulled out three grenades and showed them to Karen. "Before we go out take these. The two ones with dark blue markings are EMP grenades and the one with the light blue is a CryoBan grenade. I also have some other grenades, some flashbangs, adhesive grenades, frag grenades, thermal detonators and even a few anti-vehicle grenades. So lets get moving, we have some 'ghost' hunting to do." Noah said with a chuckle and making sure 'ghost' was said with sarcasm.

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

Oh. Cryoban Freeze grenades. Now that's a classic. Noah knew how to show a girl a good time. Good thing Grant wasn't here. He'd get jealous with all this equipment going around.

"A motion sensor should do the trick nicely. The bigger they are? The easier we can shoot them. Hehe."

Karen sealed her helm and walked them out into the hallways. The Brun guard remained seated and as slothful as ever. Something about Noah told him not to even bother.

"Careful. Cold outside."

She opened the catwalk door and trekked across the tethered walkway. The wind was brisk and flurry. The tall trees covered in white. It would be the last view of the surface they got for awhile. The Crag Underground was dug deep into the surface for stability and turbolaser protection. Guess these boys had seen a glassing before. Building your cities under a mountain would certainly help.

They returned into the far side of the installation, passed through some food cloning labs, and decended into the basement. The local Bruns were a near-human species with red skin and a fashion for dark pony-tails. Karen had never seen one of them smile either. Must suck to get the surface jobs. Or, maybe they just disliked outsiders.

"We'll have power in the walls for about the first twenty minutes. The blast doors should open for us until then. After that, we'll need to find their back up generators to move from section to section. Can't be too hard with all the cables running along the exterior walls. Just time and searching."

She pulled a switch and the massive basement door began to cycle open. First the inner lock. Then the middle lock. Finally the outer section began to open. With a blast of cold air and a flurry of snow, the big door slide away. Leaving open a passage just big enough to drive a tank down. Actually? That might have just been the drilling machine they used to carve these tunnels. A tank.

"Damn. Would have brought my roller had I know the passages would be this big. Guess they like their tunnels on the generous side."

Karen stepped into the dimly lite passage and looked around the floor. Scattered steel plates, rusted droid parts, buckets, and broomsticks. No sign of a struggle or combat here. Just snow and red dirt.

"Snow. Must be a crack in the ceiling up ahead. Would need to be... Maybe three stories high to get back to the surface from here. Maybe they drilled into a canyon or something. Hm. Still a good walk ahead of us. Best to keep your eyes out for bats."

She stopped her sightseeing and turned back to face the door.

"Close her up yeah? I doubt they want anything that was trapped down here getting out. Ooo. Spooky huh. Hehe."

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

Noah followed behind Karen silently, preferring to keep silent and listen to what she was saying. When the airlocks opened and there were three locks to the tunnel Noah whistled. "A inner, a middle and a outer lock? Whatever these 'ghosts' are they must have scared the Bruns enough to have them paranoid to put three half meter thick durasteel blast doors between them and this tunnel." Noah said and then turned to the console nearest to the door to close.

But as it was closing Noah noticed something that shook him. Turning on the flashlight connected to his rifle Noah shone it on a dent in the outer lock, a dent that shape of a fist and a fourth of the way into the lock. Noah took his own fist and put it inside the dent, finding that not only was the fist three times wider than his but it also sank into the lock up to his mid-forearm. Shaking his head Noah swung his assault rifle over his back and shoulder his RAMR just in case.

"You saw that dent back there too right? It wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me?"

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

Karen opened up a wall panel and began flipping on the lights. Tak. Tak. Tak. The panels began to flip on as the corridor lead far, far away from them. Nothing moved.

"Could have been something the Bruns did themselves. Making tunnels like this can be a messy business. We're still a good walk from the Old City. If that was put there by one of our spooks? ...Then he sure was motivated to come all the way out here."

The air was still chilly but the two adventures made good time through the first tunnel. There were signs of other creatures passing however. Including some rather large dents in the durasteel walkways. Something heavy had indeed been prowling.

The tunnel lead to a railway station checkpoint. Abandoned offices filled with switchboards. The railway tunnel itself was closed on both sides by another set of massive doors. Four move passageways were offered to them. Karen check her map and they continued east through Checkpoint Blue. Fifteen minutes of walking. No signs of life. Quiet as a tomb.

"Okay. Up ahead is the Canyon Dome. A large fissure in the earth's crust. Our Bruns used the site as a Terraforming Station. Air Condition Units for three stories on both sides. I think that's where our draft is coming from. ...Ah. Should be catwalks all through it. Mind your step."

She flipped another switch board and their long tunnel came to an end. Dumping them out like a sewer system into the Canyon Dome. An underground canyon with snow trickling in from hundred of meters above. It sounded like a ghost town too. Metal creaked, tubes rolled, and echos could be heard from far, far below. The walls clustered with massive conditioning vents and bright red tubes spanning the structures upper floors. It might have even smelled like a warehouse too. Foreign lights seemed to flicker on and off in the distance. It was a massive space to behold,

"Okay. You take the lead here. Should be some recon probes still active in this area. If they spot us before can shoot them down? We might awaken an entire swarm. You're motion sensor should do the trick. It's pretty quiet in here so far."

Karen pressed her rifle butt up against her shoulder and looked down the sights.

"We go up three floors. Then east. ...I'll follow you. Good hunting."

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

Noah rolled his eyes, sling his RAMR back over his shoulder and drawing his AR-35. Pulling out a suppressor from one of his satchels and screwed it on to his rifle. Leading the way Noah made sure that his rifle was loaded with tungsten rounds, special rounds that Noah made that were great for piercing through droids. Making sure to grip the angled foregrip and switch the fire selector was on semi-auto.

Walking forward Noah made sure to keep the rifle level in front and looking through his holographic sight with its magnifier giving it a good 3x zoom, perfect for a tunnel like this. They had walked for about fifteen minutes, stopping every now and then to take out a few of the aforementioned recon probes. After a while the light had cut out due to lack of power.

As Noah walked her heard a sound he had become acustomed to in his time as soldier, a boot crunching on bone. Shining his flashlight down Noah was he had stepped on a femur. Reaching into his pouch, Noah produced a flare and light it throwing it into the middle of the room. What he saw would be shocking to some but to Noah was just another walk in the park.

Seven skeletons, in multiple forms of mutilation littered the room. One had his arms torn off, ones skull was caved completely in, ones ribs were basically powder and the others had limbs scattered all over the room. Noah kneeled down to examine a skull and found something interesting. Whatever had done this, had done it with its bared hands.

Looking back at Karen with a serious face he spoke. "Whatever did this was very strong, very strong and very angry."

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

The downside of a disruptor. You made a lot of noise. Corek had a suppressor, so he was a natural at remaining quiet and sniping down those pesky recon droids. It was obvious Karen was going to have to learn to bring a larger loadout next time. Placing these thoughts aside, she looked again at the skeletons nearby.

"They aren't eaten either. Flesh decay is mostly from the temperature here. Lots of slashes and crushing. But no bites. No teeth. No organs consumed for food."

She looked closer,

"This damage pattern is not familiar to me either. Arms torn off. Head's smashed. It appears improvised. That means either a sentient creature, evolved AI, or a custom damage program."

Karen shook her head. This was bad. There wasn't suppose to be any hard resistance to their journey at this point. Shouldn't the war droids keep to their foundry? Aren't guardian's territorial? But... Already they had seen signs of a roaming inorganic presence here. This was going to be a much harder mission than she had imagined.

"Well. We've still killed a few Recon Probes in this area. That means whatever did this? It has either avoided them or moved on. And I don't sense any large organic Force Signatures around us either. ...Strange?"

Just before she could finish that thought, a large mass of Recon Probes went soaring past the canyon walls. Something nearby had triggered their alarms.

"Quick Colonel! I think they're on to something! We should follow them!"

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

Upon hearing this Noah was quick to stand and start running towards the sound of the recon probes going towards the disturbance. Noah sprinted for about a good half a minute before coming upon a scene similar to what he had seen before, just much more fresh and replacing organic skeletons with droid skeletons.

Looking at the lower left corner of his HUD Noah saw that something was running away at great speeds, much to fast for him or Karen to follow and not get either lost or find anything of worth. Looking down at the droid corpses Noah discovered something interesting.

"Hey, look at these droids. Not only were they dismembered like those corpses back there but it seems like parts have been taken."

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

Karen frowned and pulled up her map. Sure enough,

"Our boogie man is headed of in the direction of The Old City. Well. That confirms it. We've got ghost's to hunt after all."

She switched to her phone and began scouting out the area for footprints. Easy enough.

"Fantastic stride for just two legs. He's big alright. Faster than either of us too. We'll need an ambush if we are to succeed."

Roberts took a minute to think. Plenty of options for a killbox so far? Hmm.

"Perhaps we should gather some materials to use as bait? Something it wants. Then we could lure him out into the canyon's walkways and blow the cables. Dropping our boogie man down into the planet's depths for good."

She nodded and turned to Corek. It might be easier that way, other than engaging the creature head on. Sure there were railway blast doors about? But he'd probably bash his way through those eventually. Capture seemed out of the question.

"Thoughts Colonel?"

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Karen Roberts"]

Noah picked over the droids corpse's again and noticed something. "Hey Karen you see this? These droids have all their basic electronics ripped out. Electronics that a similar to all droids. Explains how the thing was able to stay alive so long. It destroys recon droids and salvages what it can from them."

Noah informed Karen as he pulled out his blade and began cutting out said electronics and piled them into a nice neat pile. "Karen I wanna make something real clear now. I want that thing. If not only to prove I killed it. That thing is both a great kill and a great piece of pre-Darkness tech that needs to be studied properly."

 

[Jsc]

[member="Noah Corek"]

Robert's seemed surprised by his request. How does one keep a giant war droid, I wonder? Perhaps as a trophy?

"Well... I had planned on smashing these catwalks and sending our large friend down into the abyss? But if you'd rather disable him? Hmm. I suppose we'll have to shoot our way out. Can't think of another way to take it alive."

Corek did have Cryoban Grenades on him. They might be able to freeze the spook. Blow off his legs and then put him on ice.

"The walls were constructed like air conditioning units. Designed to keep the temperature regulated down here. Let me look around for some Industrial Coolant. I think we might be able to make a messy Cryo-Carbonite Mine with the right tools."

Karen climbed up onto the higher walkways and began dismantling some of the paneling and duct-work. Three tubes of coolant should be enough for a mine. She climbed into one of the giant red tubes and began tinkering. Only her feet sticking out as she worked.

"Bleh. Lots of cobwebs behind these fans. What a mess. This place really has been deserted."

She poked her head back out,

"This will take me about ten minutes to gather all the components for a freezer bomb. See if you can keep tabs on our spook eh? Don't want him sneaking up on me while I'm working."

The Colonel had the motion tracker. Karen was too busy scavenging to actually keep watch.