"Test. I want to make sure you know what you're talking about before I let you near my ship. If you're as good as you say you are, we'll get along just fine. Head to the cockpit - she's powered, so you should be able to see the problem right away."

---

Mandall takes stock of his location. There are a few other empty crates near him, big enough to hide a human in if they were flexible. The stormtroopers look to be completely oblivious to their surroundings. The packed earth gives way to deck plating as you get closer to the armored walls of the complex. The "cells" are butted up next to the aforementioned walls, in a low-foot-traffic cul-de-sac near the piles of cargo and storage containers. It's probably fairly close to the drydocks - a fact that is confirmed when Mandall's pilot's eyes catch a glimpse of Ganet doing his best to simply be part of the scenery.

The cells have aftermarket maglocks on their doors and are poorly ventilated at best. In a warmer climate they would be torture devices, or worse, a means of slowly executing prisoners.

The AT-ST's heavy footfalls vibrate the ground as it passes outside the walls. There'd be a window of several minutes while it rounded the complex again.

Jorm nods and motions for Aurelia to follow him to the cockpit. He heads up the entry ramp into the shuttle.

While assisting Aurelia with the repairs, Jorm takes the opportunity to check the astrogation logs. The shuttle's earmarked for a trip to Anoat, and soon. It's ironic, then, that the shuttle is likely still destined for that planet.

---

Arnae's startled from his cockpit reverie by Rasa, the woman Aurelia had taken on board.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to... are you Arnae Maddock? THE Arnae Maddock, what started the Bespin Riots and killed Gulgo the Hutt?"

As Jorm enters the cockpit, he sits down at the Systems Officer station and begins checking readings. It doesn't take long to figure it out.

"Looks like the ion backwash chamber has overloaded, causing a cascading system failure. Probably a faulty sensor. If you'll replace the faulty sensor and reset the chamber, I'll begin clearing the board."

While Jorm is working, he also begins covertly checking for any security measures that would prevent a "borrowing" of the shuttle as well as any access codes the shuttle would need for arrival/departure [like from a comm log that someone forgot to clear].

Aurelia smirks.

"How come I always get the stuff that will shock you if you do it wrong?"

Aurelia heads into the back of the shuttle, removing one of the access panels. Humming quietly to herself, she tears out the broken sensor... Not bad Jorm.... She narrows her eyes, and looks at the board in disgust.

"Did they drop power management from the flight school training classes? Theyr'e shunting everything through one chamber...*everything*. No wonder the poor girl can't get off the ground..." She begins repairing the damage, although she takes far more time than she actually needs.

"It is funny how it always ends up that way." says Jorm with a smile and wink. "Relax, I'll cut the mains back and reroute some power. If you get shocked, it'll only be enough to wake you up from sleeping on the job."

Hm. The cells are plain in their view, and the locks don't look flimsy either. Okay, rock, here's how it's going to work. You'll distract them while I move closer, locate the guy and try to get him out. If anything goes wrong, you shoot them in the back. Okay? Thanks, man. I know you can do it. Don't let me down on this.

Saying a quick prayer to the Force Gods ("You're such an asshole, Han!"), Mandall casts the first stone.

Mandall's rock flies true, spanging off an empty crate out of sight of the cells.

Sure enough, the two stormtroopers look in the direction the noise came from... and then one waves his hand as if to say "bah!" and they go back to their small talk, sitting on their white armor-clad asses.

Mandall heft a second stone, while idly thumbing the safety catch on his blaster, when one of the stormtroopers makes an annoyed shrug after some possible scolding from his partner. He gets up and trods off out of sight towards Mandall's distraction. His friend remains behind on his box.

As the repairs continue, Jorm ponders how to get control of the shuttle from Brogan. Not trusting his own combat skills to the task, Jorm remembers something drilled into him from an early age: Work smart, not hard.

Let's see. It has to be far enough away from the main consoles and it can't actually affect any systems. Aha!

Making sure Brogan isn't too close, Jorm begins rewiring one of the secondary displays to give whoever checks it a nasty shock.

I don't wan't to kill him, thinks Jorm as he sets his booby-trap, but I don't want him waking up too soon.

Jorm finishes his dubious "repairs". Without the benefit of being able to test the console, it should do the trick nicely.

"We're making good time," calls Brogan from one of the auxiliary panels. "Should be ready for preflight in a few minutes, then we'll get you your power converters. Always nice to see loyal citizens out on the Rim."

Jorm moves over to the main controls as Brogan approaches the Console of Doom (TM). He can't help but smirk just a tiny bit as Brogan flips some switches to double-check Jorm's work, triggering the trap. There's a sharp *crack*, a puff of smoke, the smell of ozone, and unfortunately, only a slightly dazed Brogan sucking on his burned fingers. "What the hell was that?!" he shouts at noone in particular, peering closer at the sparking console.

Damn.

"Probably just a short," says Jorm casually as he picks up the nearest heavy object and attempts to knock Brogan unconscious.

*whump*

Brogan's shocked for the second time in as many seconds as Jorm takes the hydrospanner to the back of the chief's head. Brogan staggers back against the opposite console, still refusing to go down. He catches Jorm's second swing and almost knees the Vandal in the junk, but Jorm pushes him to the ground, relinquishing control of the 'spanner in the process. The loss of his impromptu weapon is of little concern for Jorm, as he upgrades to an entire toolbox, which is unceremoniously slammed into Brogan's face. The plucky chief hits the deck hard and stays there.

Panting with exhaustion, Jorm manages to raise himself up over the now limp form of Chief Brogan.

"You couldn't have done it the easy way, could you?"

As he begins tying up Brogan and finding a safe place to stow him, Jorm comms down to Aurelia, "Aurelia, what's our status? I'm about done up here."

Aurelia presses the panel back into place, looking satisfied.

"Ready to go...any word from the others?"

"No word yet, but the longer we wait the greater the risk. Let's go."

With Brogan safely stored in a cargo container labled Fertilizer, Jorm gathers those team members planning on crewing the shuttle and heads up to the cockpit.

"Giving the 'Go' signal and starting preflight," announces Jorm as he sends the innocuous signal previously agreed upon by the team and gets the ship ready for action.

The buzzer goes off in the B-wing as the signal from Jorm is received. Popping an eye open, Cat looks down at the monitor. "Nap-time's over," she says to Eritram. "Looks like it's time to dust some Imperial defenses. Get those torpedos ready; I'll have you in range shortly."

With that, Calsera kicks the engines to life and heads planetward at full speed. "What do you think, Eritram? Comm array first, then weapons batteries?"

Captain Leeds peered down at his shuttle. He'd be leaving for Anoat soon, and hoped his superiors would ship him somewhere more civilized... or at the very least, send a supply ship more often than once every 6 months. He sneered out of hand, thinking of the incompetence that plagued the Empire now Palpatine was gone, how he had himself stooped low enough to engage in a business deal with some off-world trader- wait, was that them? In his base? In his base, boarding HIS shuttle?

Leeds grabbed the comlink from his shocked systems tech, screaming, "All units! Stop that shuttle!"

---

The loudspeaker carries Leeds' orders across the complex. The stormtrooper who left the cells looking for the source of Mandall's distraction spies Dutch and Ganet hurrying into the Lambda.

"Hey, you there! St-"

The trooper spins around and hits the ground, a spiral of smoke and fire spouting from his chest. Dutch doesn't give the stormtrooper a second glance. He lays into sensor pods, machinery, consoles, anything he can see that might blow up or otherwise impede the Imperials' response time.

Ganet likewise draws and fires, ruining the blast door controls to the outer landing dock.

Dutch and Ganet can feel the heavy footfalls of the approaching AT-ST through their boots. It'll be on them in a matter of moments.

---

Mandall, still hiding behind his cover, spots the second stormtrooper leap to his feet and charge off in the direction of the repair bay. The cells are clear.

---

Calsera skips the B-Wing across Tanteldra's atmosphere, pushing her way as fast as possible through the soup without burning her fighter-bomber to pieces. Eritram locks on to his targets and arms torpedoes with a sly grin.

"Inside the shuttle!" barks Dutch, mentally going over the flight checklist for the shuttle as he heads for the cockpit.

"Sith spawn," swears Jorm as the alarm sounds.

Jorm continues the relatively easy process of preparing the shuttle for flight and sees what is within range of the blaster cannons.

"Aurelia, I hope you didn't put your tool kit away yet. I've got a bad feeling about this."

Ganet heads for the shuttle, looking for anything explosive he can shoot at when the AT-ST comes.