Sunburns & Hyperdrive Troubles

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt was unaware of Kaile's discovery, rather enamored with whatever was behind the door he was currently fiddling with. Restoring the power had also restored many of the door locks around the facility, however, luckily for Kurt most of the locks were ancient and their protocols had been mostly reset by having their power off for so long. He managed to enter the standard code on the lock, a simple smidgen of the zero key over and over again.

The door fell open.

What was inside shouldn't really have been a surprise to Kurt, in fact, it really wasn't, but he still couldn't help but let out a long and impressed whistle. He had expected something like this, but it was still quite a sight. In front of him lay rows upon rows of weapons. There were crates of grenades, stacks of disruptors and entire walls filled with E-11 rifles. There was a lot of equipment, and for once Kurt didn't feel the need to immediately rush and tell Kaile.

Instead he perused the armory, slowly walking through it and running his fingers over the different weapons. It was an interesting thing, to see all of these machines meant for killing. Kurt himself had never really liked blasters, never really enjoyed carrying them, but he knew well what all of this meant.

Money.

Money was always on his mind, credits. These wouldn't be worth as much as the vehicles upstairs, but a crate or two on E-11's kept on hand? Yeah, it would be enough for twenty to thirty thousand per crate, and that was something they could easily store on The Messa. It was liquid assets, something that they could use as a backup.

Kurt liked that thought, the idea of having security.

 

[Kaile Vera]

The Empire of the Hand.

"No way." Kaile had only heard brief stories. More like myths really. The Gulag plague had managed to scatter information prior to the four hundred year darkness. There wasn't much she could personally recall off of the top of her head. However, she knew where she could find more.

For the price of ten credits. The Arceneau Holo Archives.

Without further ado, Kaile began overriding protocols. Taking control of the main system, she transferred over to one of unr larger screens. What else was there? Her brown eyes narrowed in focus. She was in her sneaky espion mode. The one that thrilled at discovering just what lay beyond the encryption.

A map of the facility was first on the list.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard, typing in commands. Glancing to her right, she reaver over and flipped the holo array on.

Okay. Twenty one floors.

What do you have here?

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt began to inspect the weapons.

He didn't know much about guns, at least not to manufacture them or even properly create them, but he knew enough to fire them, clean them, and take them apart before putting them back together. When he had been at the academy the instructors had always commended him for being a crack shot, a few times he had even been told that he would have made a fine sniper. The option had always been somewhat enticing to him, though the realization had eventually hit him that snipers usually ended up dead.

Kurt frowned for a moment.

The thought hadn't crossed his mind in a while. The need for a blaster didn't often come up now a days in his life, especially since he tended not to even carry his much at all.

"Oh well." Kurt said to himself as he picked up one of the old e-11's and began to fiddle with it. The Blaster Rifle came apart in his hands, the slide mechanism slowly slipped out and the small powerpack falling onto his palm. He inspected the weapon, finding that save for a bit of dust the thing would fire absolutely perfectly. He would have expected nothing less from the ancient rifle. These things were impossibly well put together, so much so that he wouldn't be surprised if every one of them still fired.

"Kaile!" Kurt yelled out. "I found some guns!"

Easy way of telling her.

 

[Kaile Vera]

Off in the distance, Kaile heard Kurt yell.

Did he just mention guns? Her face scrunched up in confusion. Even with the silence, she still couldn't quite make out what he was actually saying in its entirety.

Since it didn't appear to be under duress she could only assume it meant he found something. Something he was happy about since his swagger didn't bring him over to show it off just yet. It meant he was interested but not quite as excitable to warrant him bounding over with a show and tell.

Her attention was fixated on bringing up the map. "Okay... let's start with the basement..." That would make the most sense. Then they could work their way up.

A few more ticks, and the agent gave a slow girl, "Come to momma..." her eyes drifted from one screen to the next, her forefinger giving that one last key stroke.

Four holoarray's bloomed to life in a cerulean hue over the nearby table. It was a three dimentional representation of the floor they were in. She saw the computer room, the generator room. The vast chamber denoting where the series of YVH'1 droids and Storm Trooper armor stood. Stepping closer, she saw that it was a large chamber surrounded by eight other chambers. A few were labeled armories - which now made sense on what Kurt was yelling about.

However, her attention was drawn to the rest of the chambers...

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt continued to fiddle with the new armaments that he had found, working his way through half a dozen E-11's and then moving on to several disruptor weapons before he finally shifted his focus to some of the more unique weapons within the armory. At the far end of the room was a crate with a small lock on it. Kurt slowly wandered over, bending down and checking the small bit of metal with his finger.

He rubbed the dust from it. "Huh."

The lock was old enough to have worn away some, though it remained surprisingly strong. For a moment Kurt simply mused, then he reached into his pocket. From it he pulled a small metal pin, a part of the hyperdrive that he had removed and never really put back. The Courier bent the metal pin, shifting it slightly then slowly slipping it into the lock. He began to fiddle it around, getting a feel for the thing until there was a slight click and the lock fell open. Kurt gave a pleased smiled.

That was a skill he had learned on Tatooine.

The desert world had not always been kind, it's residence less so. Sometimes Kurt had found the need to reclaim things from their proper owners, though only sometimes.

 

[Kaile Vera]

At first glance, it appeared that the bulk of the rooms were for storage. There was another full wing for the armory, along with what she could only presume to be another room of emergency supplies. That was the area Kaile was interested in stocking up for the Messa. There was a small medbay, nothing fancy considering that it was very likely that they had an entire floor set up for triage.

This was just the basement... they still had twenty other levels to go. Of course, the chances of each floor having anything of real interest was low, but -- one could only hope. Anything they could take from the cream of the crop would serve them well.

"Okay, how about the next levels?" she asked herself. Typing away, she entered the commands to scan for the main Med-bay and anything with research and development.

Because who didn't enjoy playing with prototype tech?


[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

The lock snapped open, Kurt pulling it up and away from the crate so he could toss it over his shoulder.

The thing didn't matter much.

He shifted slightly, moving in his crouch so he wasn't quite so uncomfortable. He then unlatched the small piece of metal from beneath the underside of the crates lip and pulled open the top. A whistle escaped his lips, his eyes falling on a sight that he hadn't thought he'd ever see. The crate was filled from top to bottom with brand new WESTAR-35 Blaster Pistols, the next step to the blaster pistol that Kurt himself carried. He ran his fingers over the weapons, noticing that they didn't even have dust over them.

The Courier pulled one of the weapons from it's place. "Nice."

His finger ran over the barrel of the weapon, then slid the powerpack from it's place in the handle. He whistled again, then slowly looked about himself. With a shrug, Kurt slipped the weapon onto the small of his back, standing up and closing the crate before he turned around and headed back towards Kaile.

 

[Kaile Vera]

Kaile went through floor after floor plan. Kurt had been right. This was made to be a staging point. The bulk of the floors were barracks, a mess hall, a med-bay, and standard administrative offices. The most she figured that they'd be able to stock up on were a few medicines and emergency gear. All which would save them money in terms of restocking.

There was also a maintenance bay, one that Kaile decided she wanted to check out for anything to resupply the Messa with. Basically, she was looking for the type of equipment that they would require in the now. Maybe a bit to store away. The Messa wasn't large at all to begin with, but they could do with a little bit extra. Maybe she could salvage some of the security equipment and re-purpose them.

Oddly enough, she couldn't find any sort of aerial equipment. Everything was for a ground invasion force. I wonder why, she mused, unaware that there was a far more dangerous reasoning to that.

"Hmm... med-bay it is." she mused to herself. After a few moments, Kaile brought her hands upon the keys again. Okay, they were going to need as much information about the bunker as they could. Otherwise, no one would believe that they had stumbled upon this. A few keystrokes and the punch of command codes did the trick. Within moments, the schematics and any manifests began to download into her datapad.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt wandered back to the computer room, pleased with his find. The idea of all those weapons, even taking a single case? It pleased him a great bit. They offered security, something that he and Kaile could keep on board The Messa to sell in case of emergency, something that they could simply keep stored somewhere until a rainy day. The tanks and speeders upstairs would give them a big cash bonus, but the weapons would give them something to deal with if they ever needed to.

That thought pleased him. The idea of financial security, something to have there as a cushion in case they ever needed it. Some might have considered that paranoia, but to Kurt it was simply a way of life. His family had struggled for most of his life, simple moisture farmers. It had taken Kurt winning the Boonta Eve twice to actually give them some security. He'd never faulted his parents for that of course, but it was still something he thought about often.

"Kaile." Kurt called out as he walked into the compute room. "I found an armory, actually, one of three armories I think. Enough weapons to give every single one of those stormtroopers a blaster rifle and a half, maybe more, I didn't really count."

He shrugged.

The Courier wasn't overly concerned with just how much there was, he only intended on taking a crate or two back to The Messa and the rest could be sold to whatever planetary defense force they decided to sell the vehicles to.

 

[Kaile Vera]

"Hey.."

Kaile caught [member="Kurt Meyer"] 's gaze as he sauntered back in. "Well, don't you look like the Nexu who ate the canary." her face grew bright in her amusement, the corner of her mouth curving upwards. Surprise would reflect in the arch of her brows at his distinct lack of extra firepower.

"And you didn't even bring a show and tell?" her quip would tease, fingers flexing along the holo array table. Pushing herself up, she gave a small gesture. "Got us a map." there was a thrum of excitement in her voice.

"Managed to get the bulk of the floorplans. There are a least three other armories in this level." that confirmed Kurt's assumption. "However, got a name on who we get to thank for our extra bit of creditflow and emergency kits." she told him, hands coming up in a small gesture for him to wait. Moving over towards another terminal, the agent went leaning forward, taking control of the keyboard to bring up another display monitor to life.

"You were right about the ties to the Sith... just needed a bit of tweaking." she'd say, her fingers flying across the keyboard in a flurry of commands. A quick tap of the enter key, and the symbol of the Empire of the Hand bloomed across the display monitor. Minimizing it, she brought up more information.

"This bunker belonged to a group called the Empire of the Hand." came the elaboration, along with a shake of her head. Kaile knew things, but she didn't know everything. "We can likely make a pit stop at the Arceneau Holo Archives to get more information on them... but just off the top of my head... they haven't been active in centuries."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt's eyes glazed over slightly.

It wasn't that he had no interest towards what Kaile was saying, wasn't that he didn't care...but...well history was boring.

The Courier had never really much had an appreciation for history, never really had an appreciation for anything that they had tried to teach him in school. He had always been far more interested in the here and now, far more interested in what was happening at that moment. It was his flaw, and his mother had thwacked him more than once with a wooden spoon for failing grades, but he never quite got it through his thick head that history actually mattered.

"Tell you what." Kurt began walking up behind Kaile and poking her in the side to tickle her. "You go the Archives, I see about finding us a buyer."

A day at the library? No thanks.

"Do we know what's on the floors above us?" Kurt asked her, quickly redirecting from any more talk of history.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

It didn’t surprise Kaile to see Kurt’s expression turn from vague interest into one reminiscent of eating too many Junre fruit and finding himself constipated for three days. It would prompt a slight snicker from the Lorrdian, who only shook her head once he countered with the suggest that she be the one to go to the Archives.

“Sure? There’s lots of fun things to do,” she’d add, a little bit hopeful. Oh getting the information wouldn’t take long at all, and they could make it a fun little day trip. Kaile enjoyed day trips. “Maybe even make it a bit more interesting…” came her slight bit of the corner of her lower lip.

No need to elaborate that further.

“Yeah, like I said. Several barracks, more storage. There is an entire floor for a med-bay.” a frown drew over her forehead, her hand coming up to push the wayward strands of hair away from her eyes. Typing in new commands, she had the compound zoom out to show all twenty one levels.

“These.. seem to be blacked out. No details. Just labs.” she gestured from floors ten through fifteen.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Oh good, labs." Kurt said deadpan as he could possibly be. "Nothing bad ever came from labs, nope, nothing at all."

The Courier shook his head.

If there was anything likely to kill them in place then it would come from anything marked lab. He was entirely sure that whatever was up there was bad news, and if it wasn't bad new then it was going to be bad news eventually. A heavy sigh escaped him, mostly because he knew that they couldn't walk away from whatever was over there. They would have to make their way and check out what it was, else they'd leave it for whomever they eventually ended up selling the the goods to, and that wasn't right.

"Which sections?" Kurt asked with a heavy sigh.

Perhaps before they left to go upstairs he would grab one of the blaster rifles from the armory. He already had the WESTAR-35, but he felt like a laboratory run by an evil Sith affiliated faction would have more than a dozen creatures that were ready to kill them.

That didn't please him at all.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“Umm.. ten through fifteen.” well he didn’t appear to be too pleased. His flat stare only provoked more of her amusement. A series of new commands, and Kaile zoomed in on the blacked out levels, bringing the holographic map up for his review.

“There are two turbolifts.” she gestured. One would be familiar. “The main one that reaches up to the surface, and a secondary one here.” It was at the far end of the facility.

“There is a stair well here.” that would be a pain to take, she mused. “Which… well… reckon that would sting the legs a bit.”

Another zoom in. “And a service lift here.” That one had confused Kaile a bit. “I think it leads to a hanger of some sort.”

Her fingers motioned towards the area in question. “If… I’m right,” she bit her lip, flicking that chocolate gaze at the pilot.

“That’s where one of the dormant volcanos sits at….”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Well at least that would make it easier to get The Messa over here, especially considering that the clearing outside the bunkers main entrance was only barely big enough to actually fit his ship. He shrugged slightly, then looked a bit closer at the map to see if Kaile was right. "Let's see about that hangar."

Kurt mused for a moment.

Perhaps there was a ship there that they could use to get to The Messa, once they did they could park their own ship in the bunker and keep everything safe and sound that they wanted to take. They had made their little camp, and they could still use it later, but he would be far more comfortable with The Messa parked here in the bunkers secret hangar, especially if they were going to be flouncing around this bunker. He didn't know what those labs held...but if they had an escape route before going there he would be happy.

"See if we can't get The Messa over here." Kurt filled her in on the plan. "Maybe get some more equipment then check out those labs."

A shrug rolled over his shoulder. "Better than going in blind."

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]


Kaile gave a nod of agreement. This is actually what she’d been wanting to make sure the bunker had to begin with. A place for the Messa to be flown in to make it easier for restocking and taking what they would need. Having to hike back with all the gear through that humid jungle was not her idea of fun. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy getting hot and sweaty with Kurt, but this was an altogether different type of work out.

“Yeah, I’ll see if i can get internal camera feed. Unlikly, though,” she added, bending over the keyboard as her fingers flew over it entering more commands. “ Not without making sure there is power there. This basement grid seems to spread across the entire bunker… but there are a few black out areas. LIkely just do to the decades of lack of use or some sort of malfunction.”

“I’d rather see what we can use here to go exploring the rest.” she added, “ We don’t know what else we may find.. or what criters have taken to using this as a new home.”

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"There's a few bits of the grid I didn't want to switch back on." Kurt explained. "I didn't want to overwork the system."

That was good enough reasoning he thought. "Let's get to that hangar, see if there's a shuttle we can use to go grab The Messa. I'd rather we use our own stuff then whatever we find here, at least for now."

Kurt wasn't entirely trusting of everything that was here, especially considering the fact that much of it was centuries old. He'd rather they use what they had back on the ship, then make sure that everything found in the bunker was completely safe, or at least mostly safe. Call it Paranoia, but Kurt didn't enjoy the thought of getting some age old sickness just because they didn't scan an old ration bar. His finger jabbed Kaile in the side again, as if he were prompting her to get going.

"Come on, Miss Mind reader." He jabbed her again, playfully. "Lead the way."

His tongue stuck out at her.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“Hey!” she gave a sudden jump at his poke. Her face scrunched up into a huff, and she proceeded to conduct a series of poke backs.

“Watch where you poke, mister!” Kaile quipped, laughing as they had a mini poking and batting of the hands session. “I know where to get you where it counts!” she teased, managing to back away enough to head towards the main console.

From there, she bent over the terminal, reaching in to unplug the hard lines, giving a small half wiggle, “Okay, I got a map downloaded into my datapad. Should be enough so we know where we are at and going.” a small grunt and her fingers went wrapping around the cables. Unplugging them, she gave a small ‘Ah, there we go.”

Things were looking good, but they had to be cautious. The sudden drop in the turbo lift made that abundantly clear. Thinking of that made her realize that they would have to take that service lift over towards this would be hanger.

In a volcano if she was correct.

Not the most reassuring of thoughts.

“The lift would be down towards the left. Have to take the full corridor all the way down, “ Kaile told him, straightening as she collected all of her gear to stuff it neatly inside her satchel.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Well, we are inside of a volcano apparently, so of course we'll have to be careful." Kurt chided her, though of course he didn't actually mean it. Instead he offered her another small grin, winking and then waving for her to follow. He had explored the hallway a little bit earlier, so it was safe to say that he was an expert in this place, or at least this floor. The armory was down one way, the breaker room the other, which meant that the lift would have to be located...

"Ah." Kurt said motioning towards Kaile. "This way."

He hoped that the lift wouldn't be a repeat of the last time, mostly for Kaile's sake.

The Courier hated seeing Kaile that way, scared, half out of her skin, shaking, it was horrible. The memory brought a frown to his face, though his head quickly began to shake as he dispelled the thought. "Oh. Here, i think."

The doorway to the lift was somewhat hidden, barely an indent within the wall. The only tell that it was there was a small panel beside the door that was nearly sunken into the duracrete itself. Kurt reached out and waved a hand over it, checking the power to it's systems. He waved once more, then finally the old sensors within the panel began to light up. The doors within the duracrete seemed to shriek slightly, then they too fell away into the wall.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

It made such a gawd awful noise.

Kaile gave a grimace, holding her hands over her ears at the piercing noise. “I guess it needs a bit of lubrication.” she yelled over the loud creaking, trying to make a joke. It was obvious that Kaile was still nervous from the earlier drop of the lift. That trepidation only grew as the service lift was revealed before them.

It was a monstrous thing. At least ten meters in width and length, it allowed for the transport of the larger droids and equipment.

A knot grew in her belly, and her fingers began to twitch.

“So….test it out first?” she asked, rocking on her feet as she gave a tentative glance over to the pilot.