Gaia thanked Ronnin for his time and asked that her inquiry be kept between him and his investigator; for reasons of security , before leaving with the information at hand. Gaia would also talk to the other for collaborating evidence. She then contacted her higher ups on a secure channel and gave her updates on the information she had gathered, and even asked to some of this to be, put into the press mostly the stuff that Julienne. So she could maintain her cover as a reporter. Non if it was classifiable so it should be safe to do so.. And even requested for information on Goro and the Adda. Once that complete and any further orders she would receive she would continue her investigation to the second phase. That was finding the base of operations which meant going to the location Vanessa had given. She presumed she would still be working alone thus KD would be her only source of contact to the outside. So she set it up to where she would have communications with him and set up relay point so she could link computers to the droid; but he would remain on the ship for safety reasons. If didn't make a check every few hours, KD would send off a distress signal to local law enforcement as well as to the A.D.D. Allowing for reinforcements if plausible to aid her in extreme emergencies. The ships would be put on auto pilot and manned by an Virtual intelligences or a smart computer a better statement than VI.

The defenses where also on so thievery was likely to happen. All the while she was unaware of the presence of Pirates. The area was so frequent by them it was hard to tell when it was just normal traffic. Especially seeing as these pirates manned a a cargo freighter turned war ship. It acted and moved like one, faster than the standard cargo, but slower than an ADD interceptor. The Nightingale, refueled and with some upgrades. especially to radar and and transmissions allowed Anila and Amromeda to hack the coms system. Their new employer was generous in the money department and that made the Rouge captain happy as she was able to repair previous damage along with the notable upgrades. Which she installed herself. It sounded like the ADD had caught onto their work. Well kidnapping eight scientist tended to sound the alarms. Sadly, for the unwitting expecting agent ana now knew of her involvement. And where she was headed. She alerted the base but asked them to hold off and act as if everything was normal...

“I see no reason to share the fact that you were even here with my investigator. I'll try to keep him out of your way.” Curtis was cordial to the very end and Gaia did find that the information all added up.

Her arrangements were a simple affair really and encrypted files were sent to her ship concerning Goro and Ven or rather what basic information they had on the two.

Agent Nail had captured Ven, who had managed to get transported to a prison in the Lemur Cluster where he had been wanted for various crimes. He got reduced time from volunteering for all manners of experiments though nothing that seemed to affect him there were medical advancements that were made.

Goro was a small fry, a minor slaver and smuggler that served as an untrustworthy informant that was likely to turn on his allies to get ahead. He had been captured a few times but was am escape artist and the sort that saved himself and put his own interests ahead of all else.

He also emitted a scent that endued desire and was a slime based life form whereas Ven was a cyborg Hel'Corian essentially.

Gaia was still operating alone though she set up KD who broadcast that signal at regular intervals

Her ship was ignored while heading out of the planet's gravity well and she was able to get to the barren world where Ven had a hideout Scans indicated low gravity and a breathable atmosphere and only due to the fact that they knew where to look they were able to find an energy source beneath the surface of the planet, the hidden base without a doubt.

Trying to stay hidden any pirates here wouldn't be scanning for threats seeing that doing so would broadcast that they wee there in the firs place. Gaia would be able to set down her ship and approach the base after locking up.

The energy source had been underground and from the surface when she got o the coordinates there seemed to be no indication of anything amiss then she noticed the stacks of stone that served as vacillation or exhaust points, Ven may have used inorganic creatures but he was still a living being, and so were the Adda if there were any present.

She would see by the glint of the binary stars in the sky that there was a machine, a hovering security droid of a model that she had seen before with the phony Ven though as far as she could tell it had yet to identify her as a threat if it had been aware of her at all with the rocky terrain strewn all about.

( You know the Nightingale on normal scanners would appear to be a normal Cargo ship, so it kind of wouldn’t matter if they where broadcasting anything, as long as it appeared they where doing something pertaining to their design. Also sorry for the long wait i was trying to figure out to reply to this one.)

There was nothing to be seen, it appeared as the buxom agent landed on the planet. She was wearing full gear, and properly armed herself though it appeared to be normal gear. The area seemed dissolute not a problem seeing that the energy sigs where coming from underground. The appearance of the stone vents. There was someone here all right, most likely organic in nature, after organisms needed to breath. The air was breathable, a bit humid for her taste, but she was after all on a moon. Taking in the surroundings she began moving looking around for a bit as she moved along.

This was a good place to hide, there wasn’t a whole lot to see most would simply leave and go on, believing they had been mislead. That was not the case here, Gaia knew they where here, the question how was she to enter. Her question seemingly answered as she spotted a droid when she looked at the binary stars. Moving quickly she ducked out of sight the best she could in the rocky Terrain. It hadn’t noticed her... Good. Peering from behind her cover she looked the droid over, her lids running ver her pupil as she did so. This droid was similar to that of droids Ven sent with his robot doppleganger. She stayed trying to see if the droid would change with another if so she would be able to time when she could move during the changing shift.

(Quite alright, it's the pirates that are trying to keep as concealed as possible in not using active scans so people don't get too suspicious though I'll keep that in mind should it matter later on )



The base (she assumed) had been located with the information that she was supplied. If not for that it would have been like locating a single fish in the ocean, the base had power readings but they were not broadcasting anything and any random traffic probably wouldn't have picked up anything having to first look then set down or make deep scans of one particular area.

The droid wasn't too impressive from her memory though she had not engaged in combat with one directly the Aschen droids seemed to deal with them easy enough whether because they were so much better or had the element of surprise …

She had to analyze that again, perhaps they were tougher but being a droid one might have thought that it would be an indefinite sentential but it ha to recharge. It's guard duty was much longer though it did not stray from that spot and thus it was somewhat blind she noted. As long as she did not approach the vent she could maneuver around easily enough without it sensing her.

It did not seem to have any senses superior to a human and even if it had infrared the binary stars would hinder it a bit seeing that the vent it watched made it so that it was more or less looking into the glare of at least one of the stars.

Eventually another droid came into view coming straight up that shaft with it's repulsor unit. The first held position until the second would arrive and the two units were facing one another now. With that, and the glare of the sun, if she timed it right she might be able to use hem as blinds to sneak in. The droids hovered but moved no quicker then a human and I was “walking”.

Easier to do might have been trying to take them out but if they were broadcasting to the base then one being destroyed might be noticed …

Unlikely though that they would set something up like that for picking up such energy readings on the surface would be far easier and if one were to trace a signal it would be fairly easy to locate the hidden base. More likely it checked in transmitting a burst frequency for a few seconds every few hours or even on the hour would make it difficult to track where the signal was going rather than having a continual broadcast. It was far less likely to give the base away though she had a few options here. Attempting to sneak in, waiting and taking out the new droid or searching for another way in since the droid only seemed focused on that vent though most droids lacked all but t simplest AI programs and it could have simply been under orders to guard the vent and thus paid attention to nothing else.

She had the opportunity as the two drones faced each other. The glare of the sun would mask her movements however their movements where like that of a human. Chances where she would not be able to sneak pass them. It seemed easier to take out the droid then enter, the chances being that no one would notice, but there was an off chance they might be uploading data on a regular basis; so that destroying it would be rather foolish. If not then it will be missed after it misses its deadline, leaving her with an unknown time frame to investigate this base. Would she have an hour or two hours? The blue alien thought about it for a second, she had better chance following the relieved droid and finding a point of entry at its destination. That what she would follow it and find a safer path, if not she would return to the droid at the vent and deactivate it, then risk having to deal with the guards.

(Sorry for the short reply, but its the best I could come up with))

(No problem, I assumed that that was going to be a shorter one, I didn't want to dictate too many actions or assume too much. I might assume basic common sense things to expand on choices but often pause at any choices to give more of a sense of control over events for good or ill.)




The glare of the suns made it easier to get to that guarded destination. As the droids passed one another she moved out to follow the relieved droid that went down that shaft, down beneath the surface of the planet. While it had repulsors there was a ladder there that she could descend down.

At the bottom was a base of some sort, it was high tech though not of advanced origins it seemed. The lights were dim and there were a few holes in the ceiling from other shafts that wen to the surface.

There were the occasional droids that drifted down, others being relieved she assumed as some sort of shift change was occurring though the shafts were spaced out she had a few ways out though at the top of those shafts were at least one droid guard she could assume.

The base was fairly large though not too complicated. Though there were plugs every so often near the walls with droids recharging. There were security droids there recharging and in standby mode. Effectively they were off but could power up quickly if a command was issued through the computers they were linked to.

The gravity was a little on the low side so jumping was easier and most things seemed lighter, even the gear she now carried. Whatever was here did not need any sort of gravitational controls to increase or decrease the gravity probably choosing to “deal” with it, which assuming the additional expense of such controls and the fact that the gravity wasn't too bad was the easy way to deal with it.

Another thing to consider if this was primarily Ven's base his droids had repulsors and probably weren't effected that much.

Hearing the sounds of voices coming from around a corner she could hear the approach of others and had little choice but to duck into the nearest room. There was a dim light here and rows upon rows of security droids that had all been off. They seemed to be hooked into a mainframe and there was a computer here, galactic script used for the keys.

What else the computer had stored was another matter though the page it was loaded too simple monitored the number of droids linked into it, and it seemed as if orders could be issued to some or all of the droids. RECHARGE seemed to be the one, though it appeared that turning on the droids could be done individually or by groups. There were 24 units here and another six recharging at other stations meaning that there were probably six more on the surface.

By the readouts it seemed that this computer was used often enough to keep it on this page. From the basics it looked that this particular model was old and not too effective against combat trained individuals. Best used for riot suppress and guarding warehouses from the public. It looked to take about five minutes to boot up though getting a precise number from the readouts wasn't possible unless she was trained in that realm.

The voices were organic and passed, they were not speaking a galactic language familiar to her and sounded gruff. Adda, maybe? There were at least two though they passed by the room and did not seem agitated or hurried so her presence had been undetected thus far.

The sun hid her well, and she did her best to conceal her silhouette as she moved to the location of the hide out. It went down a shaft, upon getting a closer look there ladder, and the tunnel went down a bit ways. Finding this option adequate she took it, and began to climb down into the base.


Once at the bottom she recognize it to a base, high tech but pointed to no specific origin she could place. The lights where dim, most likely to conserve power or bright lights were not needed at all. There where shafts extending to the surface, dozens of them. There must have been a thousand or droids patrolling at any given time she thought as she looked around further.

Each droid was in a standby mode while they recharged themselves along the walls. She hoped they weren’t sensor based otherwise she would be found. SHe found the gravity to be much lighter, it took some adjusting, but it wasn’t a drastic gravitational change. These where clearly VEn’s droids and they looked to have taken up most of the base, as a result the droids where least effective with their weaponry. Though she wasn’t going to take a chance on getting shot by them.

She began to make her move to explore further into the base when sounds of foot steps and organic voice came to her ears. Ducking into a row of droids she waited for them pass. The Droids where old and seemed to be be hooked to a main frame while others looked to be domestic use only. She could make the basic settings but beyond that her skills in tech was limited. She was warrior and a priestess not a computer expert besides that what KD was for. However she didn’t want to run the risk of setting off an alarm so she held off.




They passed un-alerted and unconcerned. She hadn’t been notice. Good she was planing on keeping it that way. She sent a data message to KD outlying the base from what she had seen so far. She also made sure put out GPS lock on the base for reference to the ADD. That way if they came storming in they know where start looking. After that she began to explore the base more...

As shielded as it had been their had been energy readings if one knew where to look and KD had that information along with that supplied by Gaia. It had the tech skills where she did not and in little time had access to some information.

Her communicator would vibrate a few minutes later after she was looking around the base and a synthesized voice would chime in. It was KD using the computer and communications system in her own ship.

KD was remarkable The Aschen were quite advanced and KD could do a number of things though it excelled at the sciences it was created for but was more useful then just doing one thing very well.

When answered the computerized voice was faint. At first KD had to repeat information but that was better then having it overheard.

It focused on the combat droids supplying her with the model of droid and confirmed they were the same sort Ven had used before. The other few droids were not dangerous and did not have any sophisticated programming not that the security droids were too advanced.

It had seemed that there were a lot of droids here but only a dozen or so seemed active given how many recharge stations there were it concluded that twice that number were active, perhaps a dozen given readings. How the droid knew how many recharge stations would have pointed to how good it was in such a short time. It also had the exact number of droids plugged into the system.

I CAN SEND A PULSE THROUGH THE SYSTEM, A VIRUS TO DISABLE THE DROIDS INTERFERRING WITH START UP PROCEEDURES AND REQUIRING A MANUAL RESTART IF YOU WISH. SUC A PROGRAM CAN BE WRITTEN WITHIN FIFTEEN MINUTES. I CAN THEN HACK INTO THE COMPUTERS AT THE BASE TO DETERMINE WHAT INFORMATION I CAN, FOCUSING ON THE NEEDS OF ORGANICS MAY POINT US TOWARDS THE MISSING SCIENTISTS EASIER.

KD was becoming invaluable, being as advance as he was he was able to enter the computer system and translate it easily. The Aschen clearly made him extremely useful, while her people where advance it was apparent her people haven't yet come close to developing tech remotely this close. She would never admit it out loud however. The droids where confirmed to be be the same make and models as the ones she had seen on her previous mission. The droid had to say it twice before she actually got it for safety reasons. THere where plenty of droids here most likely to keep a round o'clock surveillance, but it was clear there gaps in their security. Gaps that should have been accounted for, perhaps she was dealing with an inexperience assailant. How inexperience that was the question?

"Do it" Gaia whispered back to KD to use his virus to gain entry into the computer systems. Hopefully he would be able to uncover something useful and or vital. Untill then she needed to explore more and that's just what she was going to do. Making sure the close was clear she began to investigate the underground base more.

KD accepted those commands working on the shut down sequence first before it began to hack any security files. Shutting down the droids or rather making starting them an arduous procedure that had to be done manually to each made things far more difficult then hitting a single switch to start them all up at once.

The facility seemed big enough. There was a room she discovered with all manners of spare parts and even a few repair droids that were off, perhaps only turned on when working on something. There were a good number of droids here, perhaps to resupply loses quickly. They were not invasion numbers after all but a quick restock of loses seemed to be within reason.

The biggest obstacles were the organic beings. Four armed reptilian creatures. The smaller ones seemed to be techs of which she saw a few though the larger ones were armed with stun weapons and daggers though the daggers seemed redundant in the face that they had claws so it was probably used more like a tool then a weapon.

They were easy enough to avoid though seeing that they had not been alerted to her presence yet but the larger ones, the soldiers she assumed, seemed cautious even in their relaxed state as if danger was something they were use to. That did not seem to be the case for the smaller ones who seemed to defer to the larger ones, dropped gazes, moving out of their way and other submissive shows that she observed from a reasonable distance as she went about.

One room was locked though. It was an electronic lock and there was a card reader alongside the door. What was beyond she could not say though the other rooms that dipped into an obvious power supply had been unlocked, and unguarded.

From what she saw there were probably a dozen of the organics, 4 smaller ones all unarmed and the rest warriors. One guarded a particular hallway though did not seem attentive more so then the others any way though the warriors seemed to be aware of potential danger about them.

She had yet to discover the barracks but the dining area seemed to be small and from what she saw in total thus far were 11 she could surmise that there were at least 12, the relief for the guard in the hall perhaps.

Most were either practicing unarmed combat skills or in a lounge from what she had managed to observe. All that was done within those 15 minutes KD needed to shut down the commands to the droids too, just as she discovered an underground hanger with a retractable roof and two shuttles though one was in a bit of disarray and undergoing repairs by one of the smaller creatures.

The base was large but practical. There was a repair wing full of spare parts and back-up droids, most likely for quick replacement. Nothing serious but still concerning if should the ADD make full assault on this place, these droids would become a nuance. KD was working on that bit, she made updates on what she found to report to her commanders. She moved on looking around taking everything in to photographic-memory. The biggest problem on the base was the share number of the guards, this many meant they where protecting something that needed strong security, that or they really didn’t want anyone here. It was easy to she the difference between the soldiers and the workers.

The smaller ones were not armed as far as she could tell but the brute’s where stun weaponry and daggers where their arsenal. She surmised it was more to make sure no serious damage was made during a altercation. However she question the daggers as they seemed to be idiotic do to the large claws the brutes had on their four arms.Using good timing and slick movement she avoided them easily enough, though she did make sure she couldn’t be tracked do to scent. She wasn’t foolish enough to underestimate reptiles regardless of their bronze minded nature. Besides they seemed alert regardless of her stealth. Their eye’s constantly darting looking over everything double checking then checking again.

The smaller ones not so much, they seemed humble to their counter parts. Dropping their gazes when they came near them, moving out of their way in submissive manner.’So the smaller ones are afraid of the bigger ones then’

Within Fifteen minutes she had the place pegged pretty well, though she never came across the barracks; which would be useful and the armory was unaccounted for. Still KD had shut off the droids making it easier for an attack, though the warriors would be a hand full, the smaller ones could be detained without incident if one was cautious. That gave her a total of twelve guards. It was then she came across an underground hanger. Their were two shuttles one damage and receiving maintenance another with a retractable roof. This was interesting but there was no sign of the scientist, nor anything that was particularly standing out. She made her update and decided to see if she could find a way into the locked door. She need a keycard to get in, most likely it was with whoever was in charge, if she could locate him, and if feasible steal the card, if not she would had back and transmit her findings.

KD took the droids offline, at least there would be no quick way to activate them and she would have maybe half a dozen droids that were already activated to deal with in a worse case scenario and those were probably on the surface of the planet.

Though Gaia had a little more to check on the number of droids, though inactive either meant there was something here that was worth protecting or they were being stored here, either to resupply easier or in preparation to be passed on to a buyer for a large scale operation by some warlord.

The planet was out of the way so a secret meeting and exchange could be possible. Against a real army the droids should loose but in a means of taking over a region that didn't have a professional military.

Looking about she found who was in charge, one of the smaller ones oddly enough. He was still a bit bigger then the workers, a small soldier who was probably dangerous treated as a runt all his life and struggling against his larger brethren probably meant he was particularly vicious if he was in a position of power rather than just barely skimming by in his caste.

But the key card had not been on him. She noted that when he arrived though others cleared out of the way and avoided eye contact. One of the workers had a simply key card clipped to his lab coat as if it were an ID of sorts.

Studying it the Adda was frequently in the hanger doing maintenance though roamed about a fair bit. It seemed as if he had been the leader among the workers, checking the progress of the shuttle, bestowing pointers and getting on others to move this or that to the other shuttle. It was being loaded with equipment of some sort and though she would have to sneak a peak to determine what that was she was more focused with getting that key card at present, that and remaining hidden.

Opportunity approached as he was heading into a room that she had been in, one with the surplus offline droids.

With the security offline she was safe from being spotted by camera’s still she need to be quick and quiet. In the worse case scenario she would have to deal with the already activated droids. There was little more she could check out in this place. Honestly she had expected more, still it was enough to get a cruiser and battalion of ADD agents here to mop these guys up.

There was something here; there was too many guards, so this might be a shipment hold or even a meeting place. While she looked for the head guard she made sure her updates where going out and recorded. The head guard wasn’t huge, but he was intimidating enough to keep the bigger ones in line and gain their respect. That made her worried considering how the smaller ones acted to their bigger brethren. Though he seemed to be in charge of the grunts mostly oppose to the guards. She followed and studied his physic trying to locate the key.

It was then she noticed the equipment was being loaded along with something else, she would take a quick peak before heading to catch up to the head Ada, if possible.

Timing things she was able to have a look. Seeing that the Adda vanished inside the ship for longer periods having a look out here had been easier. They were probably loading containers as well in the shuttle for maximum capacity and had to shift things around.

The first crate she managed to get to couldn't be opened being sealed though there was a label. Each had a label attached to the crate on four of the six facings of the cube, top and bottom exempt but there were markings that indicated where the top was. Pretty standard crates though normally only one facing would list what was inside or have a shipping invoice attached to it. Perhaps it was for ease that they did it this way.

Medical was listed in the first, though there were a few crates of medical supplies there were other things listed in other containers. Science stuff was listed on another, and then she noticed it or it notice her, it was virtually at the same time.

There was a smaller Adda going about the crates and containers with a datapad. He was wearing one of the white lab coats and was unarmed, frozen at least for the moment at seeing her like a deer caught in head lights, her being totally unexpected.

She had missed him or perhaps he went in the back of the shuttle and out the front closer to his destination, most of the Adda looked alike to her and if not for the height differences and the fact that the soldiers appeared meaner there was little telling them apart.

The leader she could since he was short and mean looking, the only one, though it occurred to her she had about 2 seconds before it's stupor would subside ...

She had been careful and silent. Effectively in the shadows but she had to get closer, in a way too close to see what was being loaded. It seemed like they where moving crates it was hard to say what was in them without opening them, or even looking up a manifest. It seemed to be marked as well indicating the bottom and the top. It seemed easier that way, still the Velurain kept her wits about and moved quickly to avoid detection. Reading the manifest the first crate was medical, and other things marking what was science applied and what wasn’t.

It was then she had realized she had not been careful enough, as a tiny Adda seemingly out of no where appeared. It was small so she hardly noticed the creature doing its work behind the crates. He was in a lab coat same as the head of this operation. Though he had bit more presence and more mean looking she couldn’t say for sure. They looked so alike regardless of height and bulk. She had two seconds before he sound the alarm, thats all shredded to to stun the creature. Fast draw she manage to fire a stun bolt. They where lizards and seeing as she needed stealth killing one of them could attract a frenzy. Like sharks she bet they could smell blood a mile away. Hopefully it would think it hit its head while she drifted back into the shadows, quickly and purposely. She made sure to get some distance hoping to cause a bit of confusion within the creature. Hopefully.

Gaia moved careful yet quickly. Being more alert this time as she moved towards her primary objective. She was getting the sense it was time to leave, but she hadn’t checked everything. If the situation permitted she would continue, if not she she would flee this place and report back. She held her pistol aloft as she moved double checking the area as she worked to catch up with the leader. She was ready to stun anything just in case she had to.