Faction The Resistance Connection (Underground / Verge Flotilla)

[Ned Rhosen]

"If I'm honest I spend most of my time tinkering with broken bits and bobs, I suppose I could do that on a planet, it's just something I've never had the chance to do" replied Ned as he watched Vouvry clear the vines blocking the door. The engineer worked quietly for a little bit, after his earlier uncontrollable speech earlier on, the silence was almost deafening, a few beeps from Tread broke the silence as ned moved out of his way, the droid began working on the control unit.

"I should be OK for now" replied Ned as he smiled back at Vouvry's offer of tools before the Mirialan admitted he wasn't great with more advanced sections of engineering, the news took Ned aback a little but he smiled at his companion again before replying, "It's OK, there's so much to do here even a little knowledge would be massively useful" he paused for a moment as the doors of the Turbolift slowly jumped and scraped their way open, "Aha! Now then, how good is your aim? Just in case...Mine's not the greatest, not bad, but obviously my skills lie in different fields"

The inside of the Turbolift was reasonably clear, other than a few errant vines there was little to do on the inside, unfortunately the controls on the inside were dead as well, chances were if they headed down they may find a power source for this place and get a few more things online, Ned bounced these idea's to Vouvry before speaking to Tread, "Tread, you're in control, can you send us down please, we'll send you a message when it's time to bring us back up, you should be pretty safe here, hopefully we will be too!" the doors slid shut before Ned could say anything else, after a few moments they started to head downwards, the journey was not as smooth as it should have been, Ned imagined the shaft itself was full of many things blocking their way, but eventually they made it to a lower level, which one that was, was anyone's guess, the doors opened partially before coming to a halt suddenly.

Ned looked at his companion and back at the doors, the darkness ahead of them giving them no clues as to what was blocking the doors, "you haven't got any light sources in that bag of your's have you? I've got a couple of glowrods but they won't last forever"

Vouvry

 

[Vouvry]

Making himself busy by continuing to remove some of the vegetation by the door, the Mirialan listened to his ally. Relief washed over him as Ned seemed rather undisturbed by Vouvry's lack of deeper engineering skills. Nodding along, he let out a quiet "Good" with a soft voice before returning to his task. It soon became apparent that the human had fixed the elevator as it started producing noise. Taking a step back, Vouvry waited for the doors to slowly open fully before setting his foot inside the elevator. Seeing as it felt stable, he continued on in with more confidence.

A bright smile formed on his lips as Ned queried about his aim "It sure is" he said happily before reconsidering. Leaning his head to the side in a shrug, he let out a careful "Well" before pausing to weigh his words "It is much better than it was a few months ago" While this may also have been the admittance of a flaw, it was much less of a defeat to him, seeing as he was rather confident in his capacity as a shooter and knew that he was a competent fighter in melee. With that, his smile returned "But don't worry, we'll be fine. I'm good with the knife too

The journey down was not something which he wanted to relive anytime soon as his heart skipped a beat each time the elevator got loose after having been slowed down by a branch or vine blocking the way. Feeling rather relieved that they had finally stopped, Vouvry eagerly waited by the doors as they started to open. This time, however, they did not open fully. Looking up at the upper part of the frame and then down, he failed to see anything which could cause the block from their side "I don't know, top-side might have been more hospitable"

Peering out into the darkness beyond the door, Vouvry soon returned his attention to Ned "Yeah" his response was brief as he soon started to dig around in his tool kit until he found a flashlight with a long and narrow handle. "This thing have come in handy when the ship has needed emergency repairs" he said before letting out a chuckle and adding "...or when I have needed an emergency sandwich at night" Continuing on the relatively lighthearted path, the Mirialan spoke whilst eyeing the flashlight "It should hold for a few hours and if we still need more light by then, I've got a laser welder and corridors filled with flammable greenery"

Taking a step towards the somewhat opened doors, Vouvry utilised the flashlight to have a look at what was outside "I can only see a couple doors from here" he said, disappointed that the view was so underwhelming. With the tool kit in his left hand and the light held by the side of his head in the other, Vouvry started squeezing through the narrow opening, moving sideways to fit. Once outside, quickly looked to the left and then the right, making sure that they were alone. Once feeling safe enough, he looked back into the elevator with the flashlight pointed to the right "The coast is clear"

The elevator was connected the long side of a rectangular room. On the opposite wall Vouvry saw three doors, two seeming to be lavatories with the third - which was already opened - leading into what was once a break room, containing both tables, benches and a coffee machine. Bringing the flashlight around another time, it became clear that this area was not quite like what they had seen before - on the right side to the east, plenty of vegetation covered the room and door with a faint sound of dripping water coming from inside. On the left side to the west, the vegetation seemed to be somewhat less pronounced, especially around the door. "What do you think?" he asked, looking to Ned to see if he had any ideas "Give me a few minutes and I think I'll be able to get that one open" he said, pointing at the eastern door which was covered by vines. "the other one already seem pretty clear"

Ned Rhosen

 

[Ned Rhosen]

Ned slid his way out of the half opened doors, following the light of Vouvry's flashlight, there was definitely a mustier smell down here, although that was to be expected, how long had it been since someone had been down here? That thought consumed Ned momentarily, doing the maths on how long it theoretically would have been although before he could come up with a definitive answer Vouvry had posed the question, left or right?

It was a question he'd not long posed himself to his companion droid, however something about this place seemed to weigh much heavier on this decision than the last one. As Ned surveyed both directions he couldn't help but wonder what would cause such an influx of growth to one side, there had to be a reason behind that, it was one he didn't have the answer to at the moment but it was one he wanted the answer too.

"Against my better judgement, I say we go through the path with most resistance" he indicated to the right, where the vegetation truly was unruly, "there must be a reason there is more growth this way, perhaps it could be something useful, or if not, at least we will have the answer!" he tried to sound confident, truth be told he wasn't, Ned's mind was always seeking answers to questions posed normally by itself, however his courage and sense of daring rarely met up with his ambition, it had been slowly improving though, ever since he'd joined the Flotilla.

Pulling out a small knife, Ned got to work helping Vouvry clear the way, he made a tougher job out of it than his partner but Ned didn't want to feel completely useless, as they worked he filled the quietness with a few questions, "so, what is it that you do? And how did you end up with the underground?"

Vouvry

 

[Vouvry]

"Alright" he said, seemingly not caring too much about the decision. To Vouvry, it was all an adventure and both paths appeared to be interesting enough. Besides, Ned probably had a better idea of what to look for than him, considering the seemingly vast skill difference in the most important field for the day. With that, he once again brought out his vibroknife and walked over to the door, starting to cut off wines and pull or break away the vegetation that was otherwise willing to budge.

The young Mirialan stopped for a moment, considering his companion's questions. Awkwardly scratching the back of his head with his free left hand, Vouvry shrugged "You know.." The poor start of his reply was followed up by an equally poor continuation ".. this and that, uh, yeah" Blinking hard a few times, he soon got back to work, waiting a bit before giving it another try, but this time, beginning from the other end "They saved me and a bunch of others from some band of lunatics, Sith cultists a while back. It was a close call, but they came through in the end" Naturally, there was a fair amount of gratitude in his voice when speaking of being rescued. "We protect the little guy against evil" he said but soon shook his head at how cliche it sounded "Uh, against tyranny for freedom?" Sighing at his formulations, Vouvry went silent and focused on getting the job done.

Once the door was clear enough, the Mirialan gave his ally a wave, indicating for him to stop. Soon, he leaned in against the door, applying a high amount of pressure as he started to push it open. Stepping into the large room, Vouvry slowly and methodically scanned it with help of the flashlight. The vegetation in the room laid thick, making it easier to simply stand on the vines that had spread out across the floor than to avoid them. Old workbenches stood against the the walls on their side whilst modules with switchboards could be found on the far-end of the other side, perhaps 30 meters away from them.

In the middle of the room stood two large objects with a few meters apart - reactors, if Vouvry's guess was anything to go by. More significantly, a large central pipe went from one end of the room to the other. It went along the ceiling and had a large hole in the middle through which a greenish liquid dropped down onto the floor. "Is that water?" the Mirialan's voice was filled with wonder and surprise as he eyed the semi-transparent liquid coming down from the pipe. Focusing the flashlight on where the drops splashed down, it became apparent how the vegetation seemed extra thick there. "That thing should go through the entire building" he said, stating what was probably already obvious to the engineer "But wouldn't it have run dry by now already?" he asked with eyes fixed on the hole. Whilst Ned answered, Vouvry handed him the flashlight, figuring that his ally might have something he wanted to examine himself too.

Ned Rhosen

 

[Veino Garn]

Eris Volcata Rance Draysom
--------------

Veino nodded, listening and activating a small holographic map of the galaxy, with the government boundaries and influence marked. It was true that the Sith and Bryn'adul areas of rule ran to the edge of the galaxy in their respective sides, spanning from one end of the galaxy to another. It made the work difficult as there was no easy around it. He rubbed his chin idly as he studied the display before gesturing to the very edges.

"In these places, there's only a small stretch of space that could likely be slipped through with small ships. And we might be able to consolidate enough resources to run the gauntlets with some small convoys with bulk freighters."

He frowned at the thought and then shrugged after a moment. "It would be risky, but we can probably pull it off once or twice at different borders. Otherwise, the edges between the two might be the best place to slip through."

After a moment, he zoom in on the sectors between the two superpowers. "Here." He gestured to some of the empty space. "It's a bit of a no man's land, but might be the best bit for getting large ships through, especially if we can steal some IFF transponders from the two navies so it seems like a patrol."

 

[Eris Volcata]

Eris rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she watched the display Veino Garn put up. "You're right," she told Veino genially. "That would only work a few times," said Eris thoughtfully. "If the convoys were caught, their attention would turn here," she said, lifting an arm to point towards the isolated part of the galaxy that the Verge Flotilla currently called home. She stood and paced away from the table, rubbing her hands together to massage away the stiffness.

"Perhaps we should be thinking smaller, on a larger scale," said Eris after a few thoughtful moments in silence. She turned back to the team. "There must be legitimate companies that transport within these places -- well, the Sith Empire, surely. I admit I don't know much about these... Bryn'adul," she said, her mouth twisting around the word with equal parts disdain and discomfort. "But unless they're an entirely closed economy, they must have some kind of trade. Perhaps these nations would be less interested in shipments that originate from within their borders."

She went back to the table, standing behind her chair, and rested her hands on the back. "Finding some shipping companies licensed to do business there might be less risky than trying to run the checkpoints or dodge their patrols. The trick would be finding companies that we could trust." Eris frowned and continued to examine the map. "Just a thought."

Rance Draysom​

 

[Veino Garn]

Eris Volcata Rance Draysom

Veino considered a moment and then slowly nodded, "That is a definite possibility, within Sith space at least. The Bryn'adul attempt to genocide every world they conquer. Far as we've been able to gather from scattered reports, there's more or less only their species remaining in any significant number within their space. I'm not even sure they have an economy."

He studied the map again. "The Sith do have companies operating within their space though. I'm not sure of the ones based there, or if they've been nationalized, but that would be something to track down. I'll see if I can find a slicer who can get access to their commercial licensing offices."

Veino grinned. "That was an excellent plan. New war, new ideas is just what we need."