New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel (Page 2 of 2)

The ships sophistecated sensors picked up a scan  of it's active systems by an unknown vessel, and the computer added this further piece of data into the matrix of elements that included the recent compromise of the illusion, and the attack by marauding bounty hunters. The new information processed and triggered a fail safe protocol.  The warning sequence spiraled out through the cybernetic guts of the ship. At the same time several encrypted transmissions fed out through space. On a remote planetoid too obscure to even warrant a name, a receiver picked up and decoded the alert message, then transmitted it to the next line of defense…

****************************************************************************

"Jin, you need me." The eerie voice bounced off the inside of Jin’s skull. "Let me out. You have no hope of defeating your enemy without me."

Jin squeezed his eyes shot and tried to block the voice as he prepared to enter the Jewel. Of all the damn times, now was not the one to deal with his own personal demon.  "**** off!"

A vision of droids constructed from chalky gray metal filled his mind: Cortosis droids!

The door leading the corridors of the Jewel started opening sequence. Fine. Cortosis droids. He couldn’t fight them with a lightsaber, but he had other weapons at his disposal. His small ion stunner wouldn’t do much against a larger battle droid, but he’d lay sucker’s odds that between the cryoban greneades and the E-11, he could deal some serious hurt.

"There are many droids, and you are only one pitiful man."

The voice was both taunting and seductive. Jin felt the mortar dissolve in his mental wall, and the rocks began to tumble. He slumped against the wall of the airlock, and fought to regain his meager control.  Setting the demon loose would only damn him further, yet he found himself wanting just that, more and more, with every passing day, moment, and nano-second.

"What can you do against an army? Stop resisting me, and I will bring you everything you could desire, including victory."

The door to the interior of the promised jewel slid open.  Jin righted himself, slung the shoulder strap for the E-11, and grabbed two of his cryobans. He thought he heard cannon fire. Must be other hunters had found the phantom ship.  “I don’t need to fight an army.  All I need to do is find that astromech or a way into the main computer banks.”

He stepped cautiously into the corridors, leaving tracks in the dust that had been undisturbed for who knew how many years. He had the rough schematics for the Jewel more or less memorized, but that didn’t help him on this unfamiliar ship.  He could have used the repair corridors to travel, but that would kill precious time, and most likely get him lost. The astromech hung out on the bridge, he reasoned, and the easiest access to the main navacomputer was on the bridge.  That meant the bridge was his target, no matter how heavily defended such a position might be.  His ears registered a metallic, grinding sound that grew louder with each step.

He neared a corner and the voice roared to life in his head. "They’re coming!  Release your greneades, boy!"

Jin flattened back into a doorway, and tossed the grenades. For a moment they hung motionless in the air before him. He tapped the flow of the force, armed them with practically no fuse, and sent them hurtling around the corner.  They popped with a dull blast and the grinding stopped. 

"You see how valuable I am?" 

Jin ignored the voice, and ventured around the corner. Two battle droids were shattered, their various bits frozen and scattered.  He knew more would follow. He moved quickly down the hall and found a remote station where he was able to access ship schematics and plot the fastest course to the bridge. Beside the station was a lift tube.  Jin jumped in and took it three levels up to the main corridor.  He was aware of the distant sounds of battle, and became more aware when a tremendous blast shook the unknown ship, causing it to rock like a wayward cradle.

“Boba Fett.”  Jin knew without doubt the mysterious bounty hunter was, in one way or another, the cause of that explosion.

He moved out down the corridor, which led right up to the bridge doors. The walls were of strange construction, and too late, he noticed, singed with the marks of blaster bolts.  He barely had time to pull his twin sabers, and summon the blades before the volleys of laser bolts assaulted him from all parts of the corridor.  He fought the rain of fire as best he could, but he was so caught up in protecting himself  he couldn’t move forward to his intended target.

Three more explosions shook the ship.  The lights dimmed momentarily, and then alarms blared to life.  The laser fire doubled in intensity. 

"You can’t hold out without me, boy. You know your limitations."

There were only so many fronts of battle a man could maintain until one of the invaders broke through. A fine red rage misted before his eyes, and the bolts became a solid blur.  Fire blazed through his blood, invigorating him with power that no mere mortal man should wield. He merged with time, he reached out, he touched the current of the collective fury of the galaxy. Hate suffused his being, a clean burning fuel that gave him the edge he needed.

Jin moved like a dervish in a dance of death, dueling with the tracked shots from hidden cannons in the wall. Only he wasn’t Jin anymore.  Jin watched from the sidelines and the ancient Sith spirit that possessed the dark spot of his soul manipulated his body with a skill far beyond anything Jin could ever hope to achieve. Step by step, the Sith spirit moved him closer and closer to the bridge.  And with each step, Jin fought the spirit for control of his own body, his own mind, his own destiny. The walls were charred from the deflected laser bolts, and smoke filled the corridor.  Jin’s eyes watered, but the Sith did not need eyes: it saw by the virtue of the dark side of force, a tireless sentinel that watched always, ready to pounce and take it’s kill.

He spun wildly, and the lights went out. The safety lights flared up a moment later, dull, and yellow, giving the field of fire a hellish cast.  Through the haze of battle Jin spied a singular figure backing into the corridor, firing from a sawed off blast rifle as he took very measured steps that would lead him ultimately into the tunnel of death.

“Fett,” Jin shrieked over the din of chaos that was battle. “Watch your back!”

Dropping out of hyperspace, Nate looked to see a few ships gathered around the ship he figured to be the Promised Jewl.
Well, looks like I'll be having some company with me, but they won't be there for long, even if they already have what I want, I'll pry it from their cold, dead hands.

Linking up with the jewl, he entered the ship. Reaching deep into the force he found there where a couple other hunters inside the Jewl. One he could definetly tell was Fett, the others he couldn't tell so easily. With a devious smirk on his face, he creeped down the hall, they didn't know what they were hunting, but he did, and he would steal it, and the million credit reward right under there noses.

As Arcuse and Sathik rode the turbolift to the bridge, Nate waited in the corridors, and Jin fought alongside Boba Fett against the automated turrets, the enities on the bridge waited.
Twenty long-since obsolete SD-7 battle droids, giant hulks armed to the teeth with blasters, frag grenade launchers, and flechette cannons, stood alongside their master, the lone astromech who carried the true location of the Jewel.
a dozen 1G-92's, superior versions of the IG-88 series, flanked by six Commerce Guild Dwarf Spider Droids, waited at the turbolift enterance...ready to destroy any intruder who entered the room.
Their mettle had been tested.  Now for the final challenge...only those worthy to find the Jewel would exit the room alive.

And the Terminax droids still wait...lurking in the shadows...

Boba Fett fought off the last of the attack droids, blasting it to smithereens, scattering it’s metallic guts down the corridor already paved with the singed joints and wires of his recent kills.

He heard a warning to watch his back. It came from Jin Sarin, at war with a never ending barrage of laser bolts. His eyes glowed an eerie, unnatural orange, and he moved at a pace too fast for the eye to track. Fett knew it wouldn’t be long before the frenzied fight would wear the human down, no matter what evil powered his body.

He took a moment to assess his current options, studying both the destroyed droids, and the hall of death.

The ship controls the droids. The idea had merit, and dictated a much different course of action.

Fett double timed it back from the direction he first came, leaping over the discarded metal carcass of an IG-88 and kicking through the remains of a cortosis droid. Beside the lift tube was a narrow silver panel.  Fett fired two judiciously placed shots, and the panel edges peeled back. He pulled it back the rest of the way and exposed the repair access remote array.

From one of his many utility pockets he removed Jango’s electronic lock breaker, the one he’d since modified with the highest tech slicer chip money and blatant intimidation could procure, and jacked into the main computer databanks.  He didn’t have the raw speed required for this task, but Slave’s computers certainly did, and part of his modifications included a link to Slave’s main system.

"Slave I, override main computer, shut down all security protocols."

Light arced back as the computer attempted a reject burst of energy, but his device held.

Initiating lock down sequence Slave I’s synthetic voice drifted softly inside of Fett’s helm. Unable to disengage without closing down atmospheric life support.

Fett considered the dark force user in the main corridor. Then he remembered the Creed. “Send alert over the main com five seconds to loss of oxygen, keep active countdown.”

**
The beast fought for electronic supremacy against an unprecedented assailant: the main computer of Slave I. No matter the datapath it took, no matter the attempt to transfer virus, Slave outwitted the beast at every turn. Slave fought on, brutally assaulting the decoy ship’s systems with pure aggression and ruthless precision that was somehow more than simple programming.

One by one, the walls fell.  Droid by droid, the army powered down.  And as the last of the defenses caved before the superiority of the system created by Jango and then further grown by Boba, the beast died.

Slave I’s main computer sensed the defeat, and enacted the countdown, broadcasting it over the main com.

Five seconds to life support shut down

To the master it then spoke. System override complete. Await further instruction.

No time passed, and the command came. “Re-initialize comsec and code sequences, then cut access at remote and main stations. Route all system access through my datapad wristlink, or comlink, standard recognition protocol in place.”

Slave complied immediately, ever ready, ever vigilant as it waited for the next command.

"Search main data banks for location of Promised Jewel."

The Slave filtered the data and responded. External storage; Astromech Droid. Location: main bridge.

***
Lasers raced past him while some disembodied voice, neither male, nor female, droned on over the main come.

One second to life support shut down

The sith spirit powered his swings and guided them with unerring precision, but Jin and his body knew there wasn’t much left in reserves to keep going.  And now the life support systems were on autoshut down.  Jin prayed to the maker and what ever gods governed the realm of sheer luck , that the weapons system would shut down too. He took a deep gulp of air and kept up the fight.

Life support shut down complete.

The safety lights cut off. The lasers stopped.  All went silent.

Jin fumbled for his breath mask, his arms wrung out from the prolonged battle. He managed to find it and secure it to his head, then he fell to his knees and breathed long and hard.  The sith spirit was blessedly mute.

For a moment Jin remained in repose, collecting the shreds of strength, and sanity, but the sound of rapidly approaching footfalls rallied him back.

He summoned the sabers.  In the darkness, they were a muted beacon, pulsing red like the blood in his veins. They cast a wide radius of murderous light that reached to the foot of the hall.   He turned to face the end of the corridor, mentally preparing for another battle, when a familiar figure charged into view.

Fett, in his Mandalorian armor, was a sight for sore eyes.

“What took you so long?”  Jin let one of the sabers retreat, and reached for a lightstick stored on his belt. 

“When you came in here, didn’t you have a plan for getting out?”  Fett’s voice was as mechanical and lifeless as a droid.  His long, ground eating strides took him quickly to the bridge doors.  “Never mind answering, Sarin, I didn’t think you would. You can thank me later.”

Fett gave the newest obstacle a moment of consideration. “Slave I, open bridge blast doors.”

A great clanking sounded onerously, and the doors began to part.

“Watch out for the astromech, Fett.”  Jin jogged the last steps to stand beside the lethal legend. “He’s the mastermind of this ship.”

**
Fett spied the astromech attempting to plug into the computer system as Jin issued his warning.

“Slave I, neutralize the mech.”

A blast of energy erupted from the instrument panel, enveloping the astromech in a shower of blue light.  It squealed, blew back into a console support pillar, and toppled over with a clang.

Fett approached with caution and kicked it a few times just in case.  When it didn’t respond, he shouldered his blast rifle, and pulled out the same modified electronic lock breaker.  Then he exposed the necessary innards and jacked into the droid. 

“Find the location of the Jewel.”  Fett pulled out a restraining bolt and locked the droid down. He saw the dark force user in his helm read out as Sarin approach from behind.  His lean, haggard face was a study in torment.

“Don’t be stupid, kid.  You don’t want to die.”

“Maybe I won’t.” His muffled voice echoed across the dusty air of the bridge, rattling amongst the immobile droid army sitting in useless assembly.

Fett stood and faced off against Sarin.  “Cross me and I’ll dust you, same as the next barve.”

He watched as an internal struggle played out on Sarin’s face and in his eyes.  They flashed briefly, a heated redish orange the very color of hell fire, then they cooled.  The saber blade vanished. “You’re right. I don’t want to die.”

Download complete Slave I’s alert was welcome.  Fett didn’t think Sarin would be able to contain himself much longer, or worse, contain what ever evil plagued his soul.

“Smart move.”  Fett righted the astromech and activated the droid.  “A smarter move? Get out of this game.  You’re out of your league.”

The kid shrugged.  “Can’t. I don’t have a choice. What I need requires a lot of credits, fast.”

“Stick to gambling, it’s more your speed.” As Fett backed out of the bridge, his rifle trained on Sarin, the astromech followed in tow, a subdued prisoner.  “Contact the Hutt, he’ll probably offer you salvage fees for this ship. And one last thing: don’t try and reactivate the ship’s systems. The thing is programmed to kill.”

**
Sarin watched his last hope depart with Fett.  The hunter’s words held truth.  There was value in this ship. Not as much as the Jewel, but, certainly enough to use as a starting bankroll.  Maybe enough to buy entrance into a floating high stakes gaming hell that operated on the Outer Rim.

You give up too easy, boy The sith spirit made him dizzy as it spoke. Search the ship.  There is more than just the astromech to be found.

With no other agenda, Jin decided to give it a shot, starting with where the Captain’s quarters would be, if there’d been an actual captain.  He rummaged around the dingy little cabin, and just when he’d thought to abandon the search, his luck changed. Concealed beneath the base of a desklamp he found a small datacylinder.  Jin pocketed the booty, and started the journey back to his ship.  He wasn’t out of the game just yet.

The BeasT, once vibrant with the activities of hundreds of battle droids awakening to combat the intruders, had fallen silent once again.  The deactivated shells that once constituted a devastating battalion littered the hallways, dead and lifeless hunks of machinery.
Yet one enity remained.
As the Slave I won the battle for control of the vessel, and shut down all combative droid unites within the ship, a specially programmed failsafe in the event that the BeasT should somehow be defeated.
The Falleen had spared no expense on this next level of defense, guarding his treasure from those who would wish to claim it for themselves.
A heavily modified Terminax Assassin droid, outfitted with a unique combat matrix, rocket launchers built alongside the blaster and grenade launcher within his arms, a heavily modified Enforcer slugthrower, and other hidden suprises for any who dared to challenge it. 
HUN-89, draped in a long trenchcoat concealing his tall droid chassis, moved slowly through the tight corridors of the ghost ship, marching in the direction of a tiny escape pod concealed beneath the vessel.  Without his droid familiars, HUN saw no reason to stay aboard the BeasT.  He would fall back to his masters next line of defense; the tiny, unnamed planetoid which the ship orbited around.  There, he would make the meatbags pay for their intrusion...

A sinister whirring, coupled with a malevolent mechanical moaning, followed by the unmistakable sound of engines powering up, raised the hair on the back of Jin’s neck.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered to himself in the dark, empty corridor of the decoy vesssel.

Safety lights ignited, slicing through the gloom like a ready saber.

“A real bad feeling.”  Jin picked up his pace, switching from cautious walk to a fast double time.  All he had to do was reach the end of this corridor, get into the air lock, disengage his ship, and get the hell out of this sector of space and far away from this death trap.  “So many things, so little time.”

*

The decoy ship powered up. Strands of code slipped through the electric consciousness of the ship’s main computer. But that main computer had tangled with Slave I, and the wounds were fresh. Precious strings of data frayed and snapped. Key elements of code scattered like pearls falling from a torn necklace, fanning out across the computer network, rolling into the most unlikely areas. The major programming tried to walk but it slipped on these wayward pearls and it fell, in a most dangerous, and devastating way.

The droid army woke. But the instructions were garbled, the leader suffering from a systemic and crippling aphasia. The metallic assassins aboard the ship of death knew they had to fight, but they didn’t know who. So they turned on one another. And as they began a battle as epic as it was ill-fated, the main computer had the final, lethal stroke.  Then the self destruct sequence triggered.

*
“Bloody, friggen’, useless ship!”  Jin pounded the control panel to no avail.  The doors to the mated airlock, the safe passage to his ship, would not open.

“Guess we do this the old fashioned way.”  He pulled out his saber, summoned the blade, and drove it through the metal door, pushing it up to the very hilt.

Sparks showered around him.  Metal turned molten. The blade wanted to retreat, but his frustration held it fast as he muscled it through his latest obstacle to success.  Centimeter by centimeter he severed.  He needed to break the connection between the overlapping panels, then he was home free.  He figured he’d need a minute, maybe a few more.

A sonerous alarm began to pulse across the com system of the ship, an unmistakable tolling of a death knell.  Sentient space travelers the galaxy over were hard wired to recognize this sound on an innate level.  Jin went cold.  “Self destruct.”  Excellent.  Could his luck get any better?

He pushed on with renewed vigor, his energy fed by his will for self-preservation, and at last, the door and metal gave way to the saber and his desperation.

Thankfully, the opening to his ship was easier to muscle through.  It had a manual safety feature the previous door lacked.

Jin raced to his cockpit and attacked the console, making ready for hasty flight.  His engines powered up, but it would be precious moments before he could detach and launch.  He hoped only two things:  that he’d cut loose in time to save his miserable skin, and that the data cylinder he found held something worth the outrageous risk.

As the ship made ready, he locked into the pilot’s chair, and pulled out the cylinder. In the better lighting he was able to make out scratchings that were, on closer inspection, actual words.

He studied the letters for a moment, sounding out the foreign words at the same time his mind made the translation.  “Maintenance logs.”