EPISODE I - TWENTY-THREE: Out of the closet

Dex, Adria, and the Ansons carefully made their way down the hallway after exiting the maintenance closet. Balagon walked several paces ahead of the others because visually it didn't make much sense for an officer to be leading three maintenance workers. He turned the corner, which emptied them into a primary corridor. Two Stormtroopers who may or may not be looking for the intruders headed for the turbolift. Dex outpaced them, reaching the lift to push the button to take them up. The car whose passengers consisted of another two Stormtroopers arrived a few moments later. Dex hesitated before entering, subtly signaling Almeida with his right hand to proceed, while allowing the two troopers from the hallway to enter before stepping into the car himself.

"Hold that lift," Adria's voice called out from down the hallway.

The four white-clad soldiers looked at each other and then at the officer standing ahead of them. Dex exchanged an uneasy glance with them. "This is highly out of order," Dex muttered as he pushed the button, which opened the doors to the lift.

Irie pushed forward and grinned innocently at Dex and the troopers. "Thank you so much for holding the lift for us." She glanced down the hallway and back to the threesome inside the car. "It takes the old man a little longer to get from place to place, you see."

Dex rolled his eyes and shook his head, feigning exasperation. Adria and Etler, carrying the three equipment bags that were holding their gear and weapons, made their way to the waiting turbolift.

"Next level up, please," Etler requested.

The Stormtrooper officer with the red pauldron released an audible sigh. The vocal processor in his helmet amplified and compressed the sigh, and added a click click to the back end of it. The sound of it struck Adria as comical and nearly made her laugh. Fortunately, she saw Dex's face upon entering the car and noticed that he appeared both uneasy and flushed, which indicated to her that he was feeling quite uncomfortable at the moment. 

Dex released the door and the car traveled up to the next level. The trio of maintenance workers exited the lift and began to walk down the corridor. Dex acted as if he was headed further up in the complex, but opened the door as it began to shut. 

"I'd better make sure those three get to where they are going," he said, stepping out of the car. Red pauldron nodded in agreement. "We can't be too careful about who's wandering around with this section being on alert," Dex quickly added in order to hammer home his point.

Adria tucked her blaster into her belt, covering it with one of the equipment bags she'd slung over her shoulder. She encouraged the Ansons to do the same if they felt comfortable doing so. Both of them did, but it was clear that Etler was only following suit because he didn't want to feel out of place. They advanced down the corridor, which was strangely only being traversed by the occasional droid.

Balagon caught up with them but stayed behind them in order to not appear like he was a part of the group. Adria kept her ears open, awaiting any instructions coming from the commander behind her. 

"We're coming up on the internal shielding unit," Dex spoke in a theatrical whisper. "Etler... Irie... you're up. What do we do once we get there?"

The Ansons whispered a conversation between themselves. Dex and Adria looked on in anticipation as the two Aporothi pointed and gesticulated, punctuating their discussion with apparent instructions. After several moments, Etler returned to the Resistance pilots, leaving Irie to keep watch as he revealed the plan.

"Up ahead is a blast door, which leads into the shielding unit tower," he began. "It's not a tower in the sense that it rises above the ground. We're far enough below the surface that it's the tallest internal structure within this part of the complex. Really, it's more of a gigantic well that protects the rest of the complex from any energy fluctuations from the harvester located below it."

Adria understood its purpose. "It protects from within and without, so there's no way we would be able to blast it in an efficient airstrike." She paused, remembering they might not have any air support anyhow. "If we had fighters to do the job at any rate."

"Correct." Elter Anson started to feel a little confident about the mission.

Dex could see doubt insinuating itself on the makeshift strike team. "We'll be fine," he stated with a cheery tone in his voice. "All we need to do is to find a way to get through that door and get inside. Things should go smoothly once we really get things started."

Irie turned her head and had an impish grin on her face. "The door won't be a problem. I've got the code to get us in."

Elter looked shocked. "Now why would you have the code to a door for a section in which you don't even work?"

Irie's impish grin transformed into a mischievous smile. "You know Magrah who lives in the flats? She works in that sector and occasionally we'd head down there after lunch for a nip and a puff before coming back onto our shifts."

"Aah... the same old schoolgirl I fell in love with all those years ago," he snorted with delight.

"That's why Silara asked us to help out, Et. She heard me and Magrah talking about all our sneaking around in the shielding unit section that night at Pluvio Kaab's place."

All of this allowed the group to exhale, but there was still much work to be done. "Let's get moving," Adria commanded. "Irie, you and Etler pop the code in and get that blast door open. Dex will follow behind and trip the sensor that'll allow the doors to stay open long enough for me to walk through last."

Dex and Adria milled about separately, trying not to look out of place as they waited for the Ansons to get that door open. Of course, no one was in the hall, but they didn't know if anyone was watching at this point. Adria gave Dex the side eye. Clearly she was worried about the entirety of the plan going south on them. They were entrenched too far inside the base to fail and it was imperative for the sake of the planet and what was left of its inhabitants to ensure they didn't. 

Looking down the corridor, Dex saw the Ansons get the blast door open. He turned and briskly stepped to the foreboding entrance of the shielding unit. Adria saw movement in her peripheral vision and holstered the tool she was using to make it look like she was performing a repair on a power socket. Getting up from a crouch, she grabbed her pack and walked hurriedly through the door.