Chapter 34.

So this is the second part. I could not torture you lovely people with the build-up chapter without delivering on the action. Because we all know that's all I am really good at writing. Last edited May 9th, 2016. TT_TT Please enjoy.

Corridan, with Davain and Lars' help surveyed Voka's last known location. The walls of the urban maze here had been reduced to rubble, scorch marks littered the stone, discarded missile shells along with the smell of accelerant littered both the ground and lingered in the air.

Davain whistled. "Voka brought the heat."

Corridan nodded. "But no bodies or parts."

The two men looked at each other undecided on whether that was a good or bad thing. Lars caught their attention by waving his hand at them.

"Humm… But there are also a fourth set of tracks. Not ours."

Corridan frowned. "You sure?"

Lars nodded. "Yep."

Corridan's arms were crossed, his right hand rubbing the chin of his helmet when Mako and co. showed up. Draga looked around, silent, but eyes darting. Draga didn't get worked up over much, but his sister was one of those things that would get him riled up faster than air currents changed when a cold front met a warm one. Corridan chewed his lip and the inside of his cheek. Draga losing it was the worst that could happen to them, they needed the Chiss to keep it together and to keep his mind on the problem at hand. Why had Voka gone M.I.A. and why couldn't they contact her?

"You guys are huddled together, so I'm hoping it's good news?"

Lars stood from the spot he had been evaluating tracks. "Nope."

Mako frowned, shoulder sagged. "No one, huh?"

Corridan's arms dropped from their crossed position. "Not a soul." He began to pace and none of the Mandalorians payed him any mind, used to his agitation.

Mako looked at a discarded shell. "What's your protocol for this, because we don't have one for a situation like this."

Davain inhaled deep and then exhaled through his lips. "This more than just a rescue. And we're poor on intel."

Mako looked at Draga and then Back to Corridan. "Lars, you specialize in tracking, right?"

Lars grunted, but nodded.

"Okay, can you get us a direction in which they headed?"

"Sure." he shrugged. "Basic tracking."

Mako looked back to Corridan. "Draga and I are going to brute force this thing and get you proper intel, however, I think this droid has jammers, we lost contact with Voka and her team before they were hit and no matter how much I try to contact Raidre, her comm is not responding. If you're...Oh wow, I actually said if! When you go off after them, you have to remember that. If you get caught within a certain radius of the droid, you will lose contact with us and you won't be able to call for help."

Mako couldn't see Corridan's eyes, but she could feel the gears of his thoughts churning. She got the feeling he was making estimates and calculations on their chances.

"We don't know how badly they're injured."

Mako nodded. "I'm not telling you not to go, I'm just telling you that if we're going to help them, we need to be careful not to get in trouble ourselves."

Corridan nodded. "Davain, Siz, you're coming with me as soon as Lars has a direction for us. Reva-"

"Don't make me babysit, Cor."

Corridan groaned. "We can't leave the hackers unguarded, we need that intel just as much as we need to find them."

"They have Blizz, Cor, this Jawa has more fire power on him, than all 5 of us combined!"

"Really?"

Reva nodded.

A moment of silence passed as the Mandos looked at each other from behind their visors and helmets. Mako couldn't see it, but she couldn't help a smug smile as she crossed her arms and leaned back. Relaxed. Blizz shook with silent laughter. These Mandos would never look at Jawas the same again!

"Well then. Lars?"

"Ready when you are."

"Move out."

"Shabla haran! What is this encryption for?!"

Mako snickered. "For us?"

Draga sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I don't think I have ever had this much trouble slicing intel before, especially not from some self-important tech corporation."

Mako nodded as she kept trying to flood the reception protocols of the corporate net connection. "Yea, I'm back to basics too, but that's what you get when you have guys like is constantly showing the corporations that their security protocols are about as sturdy as straw."

Draga exhaled. "What are you trying now?"

"Gonna sound really basic, but I'm trying to flood their net IDs."

Draga nodded. "Okay, there's two of us, let's try the DCPHHP."

Mako's hands froze over her virtual keys. "What?"

"This is a level 12 crypto-key, it has extensive RSA and we don't have the time for any of the easier or subtler tricks. DCPHHP is brute force, but it will get us in."

Sweat dripped down Mako's brow. "It will also set off every internal alarm in the system, it will alert everyone to our presence and the heat that it will bring to us is going to be."

Draga nodded, frowned, and looked at Mako. "Do you have a better idea?"

Mako sighed and chewed her lower lip. "No, but this isn't something we can do without the rest of the team okay-ing it."

Corridan watched Lars' six as he scouted and read the tracks. The droit had been following Reva, who ran with a limp and Kotain, who was weighed down. Presumably, they were carrying Doga, who was huge, which was bad. The fourth person, who's feet were too small to be Torian's which meant it had to be Raidre, lead them away from danger. Gouges in the wall showed the struggle as the droid pursued. Raidre kept alternating between leading and covering rear. Where was Torian in all of this? No way he would leave Raidre to fend for herself. Which implied he was unable to follow. Corridan didn't think about why Torian couldn't follow Raidre, he didn't have time for the feelings that would provoke.

"It just cuts off."

"Fierfrik!"

Corridan did his best not to swear like Davain. "You sure? We can double back."

Lars stood from where he had been inspecting the soil on the ground. "No, I mean really, it just cuts off, like they jet-packed out of here."

They all looked up, the walls were typically only a few stories high but the one here was several times that. Corridan activated his comm-link.

"Okay, time to give me something guys."

"We will, but first we need your permission to brute force this network."

Corridan looked at the others at Draga's words. "Say again in Basic, please?"

"Oh-kay. Let's say the intel is in a safe, and I have a plasma bomb to open it. It's not the cleanest or quietest way to open the safe, but it will open it."

Corridan frowned. "How many more would we invite to our private party if we did that?"

Draga was silent a moment. "Mako says the Mantis has comm jammers, really big ones. So maybe not that many. At first."

"Humm. "Corridan grunted. "How about a map first. Can you or Mako get me eyes above and maybe a heat signatures. That would be enough to get me where I need to go."

"Affirmative. Anything else boss?"

"Yea, if we go silent for too long, use the plasma bomb. I'm not losing anyone over this."