On the Winds of Rebellion, Part Two

Posted on Tue Dec 21st, 2021 @ 2:06pm by Bomoor Thort & Thane & Amare & Tolmin Voq

3,028 words; about a 15 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Moz Müt
Timeline: A day after "Free Öetrago" (following on from "Part One")

OLD

“Oh, and…” Jiljoo frowned and began rustling around in her shoulder pouch before producing three X-30C 'Compact Lancer' blaster pistols, all older but recently cleaned, “We should all av’ one of these. Stun is already on but can be switched off ere’.”

She gestured to a little switch above the trigger, “Hopefully zis’ will not be necessary” she added.

Buhggs harrumphed – for the umpteenth time since joining the party. “Most of ’zis is not necessary,” he complained, effecting a purposefully rude interpretation of Jiljoo’s lilting accent. His avian head then jerked suddenly, as if he finally picked up on an earlier comment from the group’s informal leader. “Sorry, did you just call him the brawn?” Yet another harrumph and shake of the head. “Just lead the way, Leader Jiljoo. If your gun doesn’t work, at least we can throw Limp Llim at them.”

NEW

The group set off and, aside from the odd grumble from Dr Buhggs, silently infiltrated the volcano facility by making use of a cargo lift Jiljoo was able to slice using some older credentials Dr Buhggs had acquired. They were only a short way inside when they heard a hollow blast off in the distance, followed shortly by an alarm sounding, indicating that Onko's team had indeed started their cover assault. After watching a battalion of GalactaWerks troopers appear and hurry on by to the site of the explosion, Team Jiljoo pressed on.

They eventually found themselves towards the top of the structure in a shielded section that looked down on one side into the gaping maw of the volcano crater and, on the other side, an unpleasantly steep slope with the earlier treeline they had hidden within just fuzzy dots far below.

“Okay, so ze’ monitoring centre is up ahead,” the Twi’lek said in a soft tone, while looking at the schematics, once again provided by the good doctor, “With a data terminal inside which you think you can access Dr Buhggs?”

"I don't think," Buhggs corrected Jiljoo, puffing out his chest, in a display very reminiscent of a bird thrusting out its plumes in a show of dominance. "I know." He produced yet another device from within his sterile-looking outfit, which had a narrow display attached it, with a series of undecipherable numbers scrawling down it. "The volcanic activity makes scans from far distances difficult, but having got closer, I am able to detect an increasingly active radio band frequency in the vicinity of the facility - the ones used by GalactaWerks' tin men."

He looked up from his device to the other two. "I've only been able to tell since we've got here," he snapped, almost defensively, even if the critique was unspoken and probably just from himself. "I've only been able to get some data regarding the operation of their droid networks. They seem to have localised command hubs or networks, and with the interference of the volcano, I imagine they will be using even smaller units than usual, with pre-set commands to follow."

Buhggs then looked towards their destination, pocketing the device and then priming some of the electromagnetic weaponry he had designed for them to use against mechanical opponents. "They have either left a number of their droids behind, or they haven't received the call. Either way, we should still have the element of surprise - and a limitation in their droids' ability to communicate with other units."

The indication of GalactaWerks droids in their way was concerning but Jiljoo mustered her courage, “Okay, keep monitoring that GalactaWerks frequency. Record anything to prove zey’ are involved so we can show it to ze’ people.”

The Twi’lek peeked her head around the corner, one of her lekku drooping down more than she intended, “Seems clear,” she held her hand back until she was certain and then abruptly pointed forwards, “Let’s go.”

The group hurried onwards and crouched down again just outside the doorway. Jiljoo carefully arose to peer into the room through a window panel in the door and took account of those inside.

“Okay, I see one of your droids, doctor,” she whispered, “Not a combat model: it was small like you said. Looks like some kind of Y8 unit so it should be easy to disable. There is a person in there too at ze’ control panel. Looked like a Human; I think we will have to stun him.”

The intensity of the moment nearly led Llim to almost accidentally squeeze off a shot from his EMP pistol at Buhggs' feet. He quickly released his trigger, but then nearly lost his grip on the weapon. He juggled it a bit in his hands then finally caught it before it hit the ground. He breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to see both Jiljoo and Buhggs staring at him.

Buhggs glared at the bumbling Ithorian hatefully, his beak slightly apart in frustration at the display and risk they had been subjected to.

"Sorry," he whispered, then stole a quick glance around the corner, then ducked away just as the droid turned its cone of mechanical vision in his direction. "Oh no, I think it saw me," he further added in stereophonic whispers. "It's coming this way."

"Lousy son of a mynock," the H'nmenthe hissed, shoving Llim out of the way and spinning around the corner with one of his EMP 'grenades' primed.

As Jiljoo had identified, there was a Y8 unit, painted in the orange, black and red of the GalactaWerks colours, hovering in the middle of the room. It had already begun screeching after seeing Llim's antics, but Buhggs was completely on target, as he threw his device, which spun through the air, attached itself to the warbling droid, and promptly deactivated it with a loud fizzing. Its thrusters were deactivated and it crashed to the metal floor loudly. Several electrical sparks shot out in a few directions from the inert droid, causing a number of the nearby consoles to fizz and blinker off, too.

A sole figure, the Human Jiljoo had spotted, spun around on the spot, his face aghast. He wore an industrial helmet with the Company's logo on it, and UV-protective eyewear obscured his eyes entirely, but not the look of horror in his face. For a second, he just stood there in his orange jumpsuit and industrial harness, frozen in fear, staring at the interlopers. And then, he suddenly found his courage and leapt towards the nearby weapons locker.

Jiljoo pushed Llim aside with great urgency and trained her X-30C on the Human, discharging a blue ring of stun energy towards the man just as he began to turn back towards them with a blaster from the locker. He groaned as the strong energy shot through him, causing him to drop the weapon before his body went limp and sunk to the floor.

There was a moment of silence as the three rebels studied the room around them. No more hidden enemies were to be seen, but it was unclear if any alarm had been triggered by the droid. There was a orange light flashing away on the wall, but this appeared to be to do with the heat monitoring system rather than for security.

Jiljoo turned to Llim as he got himself back up and joined them, "Are you okay, Llim?" she showed concern, but frowned slightly at the Ithorian, "You must not get overexcited like zat'; we cannot risk alerting anyone to our presence. We just managed to survive that one."

"Apologies," Llim replied with sunken shoulders and a sullen look in his bulbous eyes. "I got caught up in the moment. Don't worry. I'll keep it together, I promise."

Jiljoo’s eyes softened slightly and she gave her friend a nod, “Okay zen’, I will cover ze’ doorway in case anyone else shows up. Llim: you help ze’ Doctor access ze’ console.”

"No, it's not okay!" Buhggs corrected Jiljoo, pushing past her to jab a finger at the larger sentient man's bulk. "You could have got us all killed with your buffoonery! You're an errand boy - an office datapad-pusher! Throw yourself in the volcano next time and rid us of your stupidity." He now shoved Llim aside again, his stark features drawn back in an anger that was not subsiding, and made his way to the console. "Don't help me; I don't need the console to explode in my face!"

A fire lit up in Jiljoo’s eyes and she shot a hand out and grabbed the tall white collar of the H'nmenthe’s rubbery jacket, “Do not speak in such a way,” she growled as she stared into the man’s reptilian eyes, “Llim will do his part just like all of us and your shouting does nothing to help us. None of us are going into ze’ volcano so do not even joke!”

She released him and they exchanged a glance, neither one seeming sure if they were fully understood by the other but they turned and parted ways, Buhggs beginning on the console and Jiljoo taking watch at the doorway, leaving Llim awkwardly in the middle not knowing who to go to.

It did not take Buhggs long to shift past a number of different screens and functions on the computer, although the doctor made a great show of his efforts by muttering and grumbling under his breath - a number of his comments sounded like insults, even in the squawking, scraping sound of his native language. Eventually, he gave a huff of satisfaction and then a bark of laughter.

"Pathetic!" He declared, smacking the console triumphantly and gesturing for Jiljoo to come over. "All of the supervisory correspondence for the plant and live access to the project notes!"

“And?” Jiljoo cocked her head slightly away from the hallway, “Who are ze’ reports going to? Who is really in charge here?”

Buhggs grumbled something to himself as his long digits worked quickly on the console. "A lot of the information, messages and access are being routed through members of the bureaucracy. Admin clerks, researchers and other pointless stylus-pushers are handling the minutiae, but- A-ha!" He began thrusting his finger down onto the screen. "GW Intendant Van'pelt!" He stated with a mixture of pride and disgust, shaking his sharp face as he looked back to the others. "After all the noise and pretences of hiding behind Öetragrow, and we find this Bith sell-out's slimy claw-marks all over the approvals. He's approved/accepted the dossiers for a Clak'dor-based conglomerate named 'ORT Networks'."

Llim was off to the side, head turned away and hung low, shoulders slumped, and feeling as useless as ever. He couldn't argue with Buhggs' assessment of him; he nearly got the three of them captured, or worse, with his sporadic moment of clumsiness.

I just wanted to help, to do something meaningful again, he thought to himself with a hushed sigh from both mouths. But I'm not a soldier or a hero, I'm just...me. Maybe that's not good enough. Maybe it's time to go back to my old life, away from everyone...away from Jiljoo. I'm just getting in the way...

His train of thought was interrupted as Jiljoo swung around into his view once again, "Zat's it!" she stifled her excitement at the doctor's discovery, "Ze' evidence we need to prove Werks' is involved in all zis. Get it on a datapad quickly."

While Llim was glad they found what they were looking for, the moment of triumph hadn't quite fully delivered its meaning in his heart. He felt it wasn't his moment to share, but that he was more like an unhelpful spectator looking in from outside. He was just another bumbling and bungling fool who--

Something had caught the very periphery of one of his eyestalks, disrupting his dour mental sway towards self-loathing. He turned and was greatly perturbed by what he saw approaching.

Jiljoo picked up on Llim's change in posture and her expression dropped to a serious one, "Someone is coming."

She gestured out of the viewing window at several figures moving along the passageway around the far side of the volcano's rim. They were far off but advancing with some pace.

"Downloaded," Buhggs huffed with a nod, removing the datapad and secreting it away within his white lab coat-cum-tactical jacket. Not even looking at their Ithorian companion, whom he pushed past again, he came alongside Jiljoo. "No need to stay here any longer. This heat is unbearable, even for me."

Jiljoo shot to the doorway once more and glanced in both directions, "Our route back around ze' interior is blocked now but we should be able to get back onto ze' exterior catwalks from that service hatch over zere'."

She turned back and added, particularly to Llim, "But we must be quick and not falter. If we fail now, all zis' will be for nothing."

Buhggs did not wait for Llim to make any self-deprecating comment or to raise any concerns. Instead, he grabbed the larger Ithorian by his sleeve and pulled him towards the service hatch, which they all eventually managed to make their way through, albeit with varying successes, given their divergent physical constructions. It was a narrower path through, but after closing the hatch behind them, they could hear muffled tones from where they had been, including the tell-tale warbling and staccato tones of droid soldiers.

Retrieving the electromagnetic device from his jacket, Buhggs checked it over and primed it. "Even the tunnel-visioned brains of programmed minds will think to look this way eventually. And I say 'brains' and 'minds' loosely."

"Zen' we must be quick," Jiljoo panted as she tried to get her bearings.

They had found their way out of the main facility and onto a catwalk on the exterior of the structure, although much higher up than the platform they had originally ascended to from the service lift. From this height they had a good view of the sister volcano as well as the thick jungle flora below, which appeared like a thick moss from this distance. Turning back, they could just make out the ringed corridor around the rim of the volcano but could no longer see the approaching figures within. They could already be piecing together what happened in the monitoring station.

The Twi'lek edged forwards slightly to peer at their options for travelling down, seeing that they would have to travel along several of these narrow walkways and ladders before they got down to a more secure footing below. She turned back and looked at the device Buhggs was playing with.

"How many droids will zat' EM blast take down?" she asked the scientist.

"As many as are near to it," the doctor replied matter-of-factly, as if the question was almost ridiculous. "But the higher the setting, the weaker the yield. If you get some of those flimsier walking mannequins, you could disable a few in a five-metre radius. But those shielded spinning ones, or something industrial?" He shrugged lightly. "One, maybe two, in a one-metre radius. Anything with redundancies or more-complex or less traditional systems could be back up and running soon after, unless you maximise the output close-range."

Buhggs looked between his two companions, seeming to realise he had wasted valuable time talking. "Too much information? I mean, when faced with death, just throw all of them. Anything is better than death."

Jiljoo looked out across the dark waters wondering how long they had until the sun would begin to inch above the horizon, "Mother Mozo told me death is not ze' end and we should not fear it. But I don't want any of us to face zat' today so let us all keep a grenade primed and hurry along."

They scurried along, as swiftly as they could without losing their footing. These platforms were ideal for droids with no fear of heights, but less suited for organics. Losing her lekku had affected Jiljoo's balance slightly but her body had largely compensated but she began to feel that giddiness she had felt as a young child as she carefully placed one foot before the other. Buhggs build was probably the best suited to this venture but she could see Llim was also uneasy on his feet. Those strong Ithorian legs were only as sturdy as the floor itself and these narrow walkways were clearly a challenge.

"Jump down here" she pointed to a sturdier platform below, "I think we can reach ze' cargo lift again from zere'"

The three figures dropped down, with varying degrees of noise, onto the durasteel platform and all seemed to expel a collective sigh of relief as they saw the lift just ahead. It was the same one as they had arrived in, but they had taken it to the higher level, rather than this lower one.

Jiljoo smiled and handed Llim her EM grenade, "Hold zis' while I call ze' lift. Looks like we will not be facing death today."

She pressed the button and turned back towards her little crew proudly but was suddenly struck with a cold sensation creeping across her like a serpent slithering down her spine. The indicator chimed behind her and she heard the doors easing open.

Turning her head, she caught sight of a blood-red Devaronian monstrosity, with mechanised arms and torso and a fiendish smirk, partly hidden by a black neck wrap. His right horn was broken off but was more than compensated for by the striking spike on his left temple. He was accompanied by two of the GalactaWerks patrol droids they had spied earlier, one on each side of him.

As the doors opened, the two droids raised their blaster rifles and the cyborg Devaronian raised a hand out towards her.

"Run!" Jiljoo screamed as she felt a great power take hold of her. She had just enough strength in her to grab hold of the railing before she was dragged backwards but it took every ounce of her strength to keep hold, "Ze'...cyborg..."

TBC

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