OOC:

relax, arnaut, it tends to happen, I mean it did back in our last comp with Blackjack. I was just wanting to ask you, Arnaut, can I have that Vader helmet, please?

BTW, 2nd page, nice!

Jenny looked at Arnaut, feeling only pity for him because his voice didn't sound okay, he was glancing at his Vader helmet and feeling proud of being on the wreck of the original Death Star. She always admired Luke Skywalker's courage to battle Vader on the Death Star from the stories that her father told her, originally a trooper stationed there who escaped with the stories of seeing the two battle. She didn't know if it was true that he had actually seen it or not, but what she wanted to see most was the spot where they had dueled and Vader had told Luke he was his father, a momentous moment for the two, especially since Vader had held this secret since Luke was born. Jenny chuckled at Vader's ability to turn against the emperor, his weakness for him to die with the new Death Star, Luke escaping. Wow, being able to walk through history is quite the honor, I better let Leia see this, she'll love it! Jenny thought as she remembered her friend's wish to do so and pressed in her comlink to link in video, recording what has already appeared in her helmet visor and continuing to do so now, for Leia had created that tech and introduced it into her helmet after several successful trials with other helmets like hers, she had thanked her for it and was amazed at what technology can do nowadays.

"Kand, don't feel so bad, Arnaut's going through his own phase right now, probably complaining about not getting to fight with that grip on his weapons." Jenny told Kand as quietly as she could as she walked to the front with him, pistol in left hand and vibroblade in right.

"I kind of can tell by that last snap he made. It's just the nerves working on him, relax, we shouldn't bother him now." Jenny nodded at his reply and continued with him and Helena in front, until shadows appeared from around the next corridor while her pistol raised in that direction with the rest of the squad's rifles, light illuminating their movement with them suddenly disappeared as the lights were turned off in this area.

"Oh, those damn droids, they're really smart when it comes to sneaking up on us." Jenny commented on the sudden blackout in the area, and they were back to the flashlights, glowtorches, and night vision again as Jenny turned on her helmet flashlight and was thrown a bottle of ale at her chestplate, not even doing any damage to the Clone armor.

"What the hell is this thing thinking, that the bottle of ale is going to break her chestplate, exposing the clothes or skin underneath to be boiled?" Koll remarked as a sort of a joke or something, but nobody found it amusing as they knew the droids were back. As if proving that the droids were back, they were suddenly attacked again by the service droids, this time with huge packs of rations and, with the help of at least three of them, a barrel of drinks marked alcohol was thrown at them also, adding that astromechs were firing at their fleeing footsteps.

Jenny was in agreement as she ran to cover, letting off shots at the nearest astromech that she could see, for those guys couldn't either and moved ahead to hear more footsteps, letting the platoon to take a lot of shots at them.

"Heh, classic, another trap waiting around the corner or right behind---"Helena was slammed in the face by a assassin droid that sneaked up on her, now having some sort of huge glove on one of his arms, providing extra strength for its puny hand size.

More appeared with its arrival as the platoon was more alerted and fired on them, not knowing that these things were quite hard to kill with them in the dark and almost unseen unless they came up right to you. Jenny had trouble with one which was playing with her, then it stabbed her in her right shoulder and got a return with a quick slash down its middle, cutting the darn thing in half. Damn droids, they could sneak up on you and it wouldn't feel like such a rerun if they were scary enough, I just wish Leia was here, she'd have loved to battle the droids that was supposedly guarding Vader himself, now she gets a front-row seat to it, I hope she received the signal I sent her. Jenny thought, turning to help Iron Horse and Raiders with the assassin droids, for they hadn't face one before and the battle wasn't far from where the Quest-object is, according to Spilfer, who was being guarded excellently by Wraith and Doc, not wanting the help, but quite needing it, for his tint of a blaster pistol didn't even make the assassin droids wink. I wish our buddy salvager gets quite the experience to tell his mates when he gets back about how he faced probably the one and only droids who had guarded Vader.

"Killer robots, dianogas, and flesh eaters, oh my."

RK turned directly towards Dante, his expression invisible beneath the helmet, but his body language suggested that he was more than a little annoyed with him.

"If you have a suggestion, make it."

Dante was about to retort when something heavy fell from the ceiling and knocked him to the ground. It then leapt to its feet, limbs flailing, and he realised that it was another assassin droid.

"How many of these damn things are there?" Famus yelled as he fired on the machine.

"Shut up and shoot!" someone else replied as the platoon scrapped the droids that that tried to ambush them. The last droid's head made a popping sound as its positronic components melted and ran out of the casing, and there was a moment of quiet.

Then the whirring started. Dozens of decript droids strode into view from both sides and immedietely opened fire. In such cramped quartes, their weapons could hardly miss, and several troopers were thrown back by blaster fire. However, Zero-G armour was more than capable of taking a few hits, especially from underpowered-hand blasters, and the paltoon soon mounted a coordinated defense.

Forming a ring with the Squib at its centre, the troopers emptied clip after clip into the droids. The slagged machines began to pile up, forming an impromptu barricade and adding to the machine casualties as they clambered over their fallen comrades. Dante held down the trigger, enjoying the feeling of power as the rifle throbbed and casings flew in every direction.

One combat unit had managed to scavenge a grenade, and had just primed it when it was dropped by a slugthrower round to its sensor array. The activated explosive fell, bounced twice, then vaporized a squad of mechanicals and the corridor's supports. The ceiling crashed down, scattering dust over the scene and cutting off the possibility of the squads' retreating. Undaunted by the loss, the droids continued the attack.

One unit had taken multiple hits and was still staggering towards the Wildcards' when almost a dozen blaster bolts blew away its torso. Their erstwhile guide, meanwhile, was crouching in the middle of a group of bodyguards with its excuse for a blaster held over its head and shouting what it evidently believed was encouragement.

"White-armours, maxi-good! Kill!"

Dante repressed the urge to violently dismember the damn thing for what had to be the dozenth time, and instead vented his anger on the waves of droids. One especially lucky unit realised that walking and firing wouldn't work, and had almost crawled to the perimeter when someone scrapped it.

Even more blast doors hissed open, but the low-quality droids that Dante had expected to attack were non-existent. Instead, a group of sleek, if slightly dusty, hummanoid figures strode out.

They were taller than the assassins Wildcard had faced so far, and they held curved vibroswords in each of their four arms. The troopers opened fire, but the robots easily avoided the volley. Then they charged, all four swords humming and slashing at the air.

OOC:

No Vader helmet taking sorry chaps

After suffering through the previous encounters, Wildcard Platoon and Spilfer finally reached their goal.  The chamber's high, fluted walls and observation ports (empty now of their transparisteel) were bathed with a greenish glow.  Of the entire wreck that Riqimo had been through, this area was clearly in the best shape of what was once the Death Star, or a piece of it anyways.  Two massive, dangerous-looking powerplants of patently Ugorian design were obviously added after the space station's demise to power the object they were seeking.  All of the power was being drawn into a squat bulbous device about the size of a small escape pod.  Riqimo raised his hand for the platoon to stop as he scanned the device for any clues of what it may be, and if it posed any threat.

A silver mechanism was spinning rapidly at high speed within the transliucent black case, but it was difficult to see what it looked like exaclty at rest... but in operation it almost had the illusionof a blackhole.  Riqimo stepped forward, but found that each step he took towards the object became harder to make, almost as if he was going uphill, the slope becoming steeper as he approached.

Spilfer jumped up and down, pointing, “There big juju! Grab 'em and get leaving before some pushy Ug show up.  He ask plenty awkward questions, you bet!”

“The amount of power being drawn into this must be making the gravity field that we're experiencing on this station...” Riqimo muttered as he attempted to get carefully closer with the sensation he was wearing iron boots.  Just as the commander was halfway, Spilfer's patience was worn thin by excitement and the Squib ran forward quickly, plucking a long tool-like object from his collection of junk and swung it hard against the pod's outer casing.  Riqimo quickly rushed to cover behind a panel in reaction to the clang, the rest of the platoon following suit immedidiately.

As the high-pitched whining reached an 'explosion-immenent' crescendo, the guilt-ridden Squib closed his eyes and picked a knob at random.  There was a tense moment as everyone watched him turn the knob, pulled it off and calmly pocketed it with the rest of his junk before running for cover.  Riq slapped his helmet in disbelief, but was shocked when a friendly-looking green light winked on inside the device.  Amazingly the little guy seemed to save the day, despite causing the problem.

Up close, Riqimo marveled at the 'brute-force' method of Imperial scientific development; overcoming the limits of current technology by overkill rather than by breakthrough.  The gravity-projector was essentially a tractor beam modified with a number of oversized, overworked components.

Just as Riq was about to knock lightly against the device, all gravity that existed had shut off, causing the Stormtroopers to cling to the nearest surface to avoid being caught adrift.  Riqimo had the opportuniuty to grab a handle bar on the pod for support and half-jokingly asked over the comm, “How many Stormtroopers does it take to move a gravity-well projector?”

The answer was soon obvious when the pod started drifting with Riq attached.  It seemed to have no gravity of its own anymore, but it certainly had all of its mass when it collided with the ceiling of the chamber.

“I think we can roll this down to the ship with four folks trying to keep its movement in order...” Riq pushed against the ceiling with all the strength in his legs and brought the device back to the floor.  “It's a little difficult and tiring.. so shifts of ten minutes and a new set of folks rotate it.”

Just as Riqimo was about to assign the first four troopers to move, their pilot (still back on the ship) opened up a comm channel, “Uh, I don't know what you guys are up to, but there's a lot of garbage out here...”

“Yes, I know,” Riq cut him off, “Quite fascinating that we find garbage in a junk yard.”

“Well... it was so orderly before... but not it's flying everywhere, colliding and moving in all directions... including towards us.”

Riqimo suddenly realized the reason the Ugors had the device powered up and why the droids never salvaged it for power... it held the garbage in a clean tidy orbit... but now... no gravity, it was a free-for-all, every piece of junk for itself.

“And we seem to have Ugors landing on the station... you might want to get out of here quickly.  They haven't spotted the ship yet, but its a matter of time.”

Without wasting another instant, Riqimo waved the four nearest troopers over to push as he grabbed Spilfer who was floating in mid air trying to get a shiny soda can floating just out of his reach.  “We're heading back, double time.  If we engage any enemy forces, we engage them on the move.  Full scale retreat!”

Retreat, the word was almost foreign to Stormtroopers, and whenever it was used, they knew full well the situation was dangerous.  With a hustle that Riqimo had never seen before, everyone was working together to get their prize out as quickly as possible.

OOC:

Some real combat now, fun fun.  And please note the following:

There is still NO sound.  Vacuum
The gravity... no longer exists, you're gonna have to push off a little to get anywhere.  Know Newton's Three Laws?

The lack of gravity was making Helena unstable, even with her amazing balance. She found herself slowly tilting to the left, then rapidly to the right. After some time of serious thinking, she found her balance of light movement. The less she moved, the less likely she was going to drift off with little control of her body.

“Hey, Kand!” She spoke up, waving her hand in the air, doing a front somersault, almost bashing her head into the wall.

“You be careful, we don’t want to have to pay for any damages, mind you, that does look fun” He laughed, attempting one himself, only to find him self hitting Snipes in the face.

“Watch it will you! When I said enjoy it while you can, I didn’t mean for you to go all violent on me”

Both Helena and Kand giggled their way across the room, pushing vigorously hard from the floor to see who could jump and hover the highest.

Helena was finding it hard to squirm her way through the doorway into the next room; the amount of floating bodies just humoured her. The way people were bumping into things and almost trying to swim made her giggle. Even though she had only experienced no gravity for a short period of time, she was starting to get used to it. She no longer felt slightly ill; she was becoming a custom to it.

”Maybe I could get used to this all the time” She smiled to herself briefly before reminding herself how much pain she was in.

Kand seemed to be leading the way into a smaller room so she began to follow.

“We’ll get back safely won’t we Kand?” She sighed, placing her hand lightly over her wound applying a little pressure, hoping to relief some of the pain she was experiencing.

“Of course we will we’re all wildcard troopers” He laughed lightly, before smiling, hoping he could reassure her.

Snipes, being Snipes, was decidedly upset about the mission. He hated fighting droids, they tended to be boring, and he hating being anywhere he couldn’t smoke.

“When this mission’s over, I’m blowing up a church.” Snipes grumbled.

“You know, one could say we’re in a church.” Kanderin fired back, Snipes assumed he was grinning behind his helmet.

“Good, then I won’t have to go far.”

Snipes spun himself upside down, or was it still upside down, since as far as he was concerned he was still right side up, but now the death star fragment was upside down. The physics gave Snipes a headache, so for now what had been the ceiling was the floor, until it proved convenient for it to no longer be a floor. Either way, now the rest of the group was above him and he was left with a much clearer view of what was coming. He closed his eyes tight in frustration.

“Yay! We  have incoming, looks to be twelve or fourteen! Ain’t this just a wonderful effin’ day.” Snipes really wanted a cigarette.

“It’s always night in space.”

“Shut up.”

Snipes raised his rifle to his shoulder, took aim, and unleashed three bolts at a particularly ugly Ugor. They were all ugly creatures, from what little Snipes could make out through their space suits. The suits themselves seemed to be randomly thrown together out of spare parts, some had tools instead of hands, some had hands, some had four hands. Snipes bolts collided with one of the more highly limbed members of the group, the suit couldn’t take the abuse and burst around the area a humans heart should be. Snipes watched in morbid glee as the entire creature was pushed into vacuum through a hole little larger than his fists held together. It squirmed and wriggled for a few seconds and Snipes was forced to giggle a bit. Their ability to adapt the shape of their body seemed to be their undoing. And it was hilarious.

"First droids, now these Ugor things. This just keeps getting better, doesn't it?" Koll said, gunning down another Ugor. One closed in quickly, prompting Koll to draw his knife and rip it open. "These things move pretty quick for only having hair to walk on. And in zero-g, no less." Koll noticed the Ugor slowly...seep its cellular contents out. He grabbed the bulkhead above him, relatively, and used it to aid in a tiwst as he kicked the corpse away. That only left more...goo. Koll swung to the side and drifted until he hit a wall.

"Well, these things have made my shortlist of creatures that make me want to lower my sun-visor in low-light," Koll said, gunning down another Ugor. They seemed to be rather resilient for a unicellular species. At least, Koll assumed that they were unicellular, despite being so big.

"Is Koll getting a bit queasy?" Kand chuckled over the comm. The Zabrak just shook his head, resisting the urge for friendly fire.

"Ok, tough guy, you split one of these bad boys open when it comes near you next," Koll retorted.