jarvisconsole | The Separatists Strike Back

The Venator had continued it's course away from the asteroid field, heading towards the nearest star system in answer to a distress call. They were about ready to drop out of hyperspace...

The moment they do, the Separatists are ready for them. Three large weapons firing from the planet's surface to converge on the ship. Electrical shockwaves run through the computer consoles, everyone having to leap back to keep from being electrocuted.

And then it all goes dark, the emergency lights kicking in after a moment. Everything electrical is out of commission.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

notjustanumber

     Fives hadn't even gone two steps past the doorway to the bridge when the attack hit. Naturally the first thought on his mind was that it was a Separatist Attack. But how did they know where they'd be??

     The ARC Trooper stumbled towards the wall, shouting at the officers at the consoles. The first thing he did was pull on his bucket again. He could already see several bodies lying on the floor as the emergency lighting flickered on, those who had not quite cleared the area in time.

     "We've got three down," he confirmed. "They'll need medical attention- any available medics, we're up on the bridge. Hello? Hello, anyone?" Fives flipped through their local frequencies, hoping that their communications hadn't completely been knocked out. "Great..."

     Still holding out hope for a response, he turned his attention to the rest of those within the bridge. "So how's it look?" he asked as consoles were cautiously approached.

From:

jarvisconsole

"Not good," one of the clones said, stabbing a finger at the touch screens in vain. All of them were black. "We've lost power to navigation, weapons, everything. I don't know what they hit us with but it packed a wallop."

The floor lists slightly as the ship is going off course, leaning more towards the planet. Through the windows, they can just see the ships coming towards them from the surface. Little dots with firey tails.

A few panels were open, flashlights pointed by helpful clones as they tried to get the computers up and running again. "We're dead in the water! They'll be boarding us in no time and we've got nothing to throw back at them."

From:

notjustanumber

     "Some kind'uv ion weapon. I remember General Skywalker mentioning they'd faced some kind of Separatist ship with a big one installed, once."

     Fives took a step to keep himself balanced as the floor shifted beneath his feet. He looked towards the viewports, frowning beneath his helmet.

     "There still a chance to get th' power up and running?"

From:

jarvisconsole

"For the whole ship? It'll take too long, they'll be right on top of us," the tech says before diving under the console to try and fix it. "I can only work so fast, sir."

Those ships were still inbound and menacing as they approached the larger ship.

"We'd have to do a full system reboot, there's too many systems..." the voice muffled under the console.

From:

notjustanumber

     And trying to boot up separate systems would take even more time, he thought, cursing under his breath. "Even if we could manually release escape pods, we'd still just be waitin' to be picked off once the Seps get their ships up here."

     They didn't have a whole lot of options, and they couldn't even make use of their fighters to buy time if they couldn't get the hangars open, much less evacuate on shuttles for their not being made for traveling very far.

     "There's gotta be a way, got to be something we can...."

     Wait. Maybe there was...

From:

jarvisconsole

"Sir, what is it?" He'd gone awfully quiet for this situation.

The Sep ships would be docking within 15 minutes, there wasn't much time left. And firing a few warning shots to tilt the ship even more. The floors were on a 45 degree angle, the cruiser leaning towards the planet.

From:

notjustanumber

"Jarvis! The A.I. we picked up off'a that crashed ship-" he explained, turning towards the doorway, but he realized he didn't know where the box that contained the A.I. had been moved. Fives grabbed the side of the door to keep himself from sliding.

"Where was he taken? I know it's a risk, but right now, I'm not seein' any other options. Th' cruiser's a lot bigger than the shuttle, but if he can help us get our systems back online, it's worth a shot."

From:

jarvisconsole

"We can't trust an alien computer program..." But Fives is already going out the door. They really didn't have time to argue.

"He's in cargo deck 3, sir," one of the others pipe up from the side as they hang onto their console.

From:

notjustanumber

     Sorry boys, clinging to consoles and mashing buttons in hopes of it working wasn't exactly Fives' style.

     "Got it-" he shouted over his shoulder as he took off at a run, not an easy feat when the ship was tilting. Hurry, he had to hurry. Those clankers would be on them soon, and they wouldn't last long without shields.

     It seemed to take forever to even get to the cargo hold. If there were any techs to be found around there, he'd shout at them to get him that box.

From:

jarvisconsole

One of them manages to slide over, but he's reluctant to give up the box. "Are you mad, sir? That'll finish us off for sure!"

The box has a port on the side that fits into most standard computer systems. All Fives will have to do is plug it in.

From:

notjustanumber

"Look, if we don't try something we'll all be finished off! The Seps are comin' and we can't get all the systems rebooted in time't do anything otherwise!"

Five held his hands out for the thing. "Jarvis won't do that- he said he'd cooperate, he can be reasoned with." Yeah, that was before they shoved him in a box. The Trooper grimaced within his helmet at that thought, hoping that the A.I. wouldn't be too upset about the situation.

From:

jarvisconsole

The clones were lining up at the doors, ready for a full scale assault. The doors were already making noises of something on the other side locking on.

They'd be defending themselves any minute now.

The A.I. knows nothing till he's plugged into the system. At first, there's not much of a result, then the console flickers and the lights all turn on. A hologram of Jarvis appearing nearby. "Mr. Fives." He doesn't sound pleased.

From:

notjustanumber

     "Jarvis." Well, that tone was to be expected. Fives shook his head.

     "I'm sorry for what happened, Jarvis-"

     He couldn't take too long apologizing. All of their lives were at stake here. Leaning his hands against the console, he looked at the hologram.

     "Look. We've got a problem. We got hit by an ion cannon of some kind and it's completely shorted the systems. If we don't get things back on line, we'll be dead without a fight. The Separatists I told you about? Sendin' their droid fighters as we speak- to finish us off."

     The severity of their situation seemed to really sink in, then. Fives pried off his helmet again to look at the holo with his own eyes.

     "We need your help, if you'll give it. Otherwise there'll be even less left of all of us than the Iron Maiden.

     "...please."

From:

jarvisconsole

Jarvis looks back impassively. Despite being only an A.I. program, he could calculate his chances of survival hinged on this ship surviving as well.

He could scan the downed computers from where he was plugged in. "The system is not responding." Strangely, he is able to gain access quite easily, a byproduct of the Separatist weapon.

"You may wish to hang onto something."

The lights all go out completely into dark just as the boarding party breaks down the doors. With a surge of energy, the lights and consoles come back on, flashing different screens all over the ship. Jarvis is having the same trouble he had with the smaller ship. The cruiser pitches and yaws as it tries to stabilize. The clones and the Separatists are thrown back and forth.

From:

notjustanumber

That was what he didn't like about computers and droids; you could never tell what they were thinking. Fives however remained where he stood, waiting, watching.

For Jarvis's lack of a response, the ARC Trooper prepared to accept the worst. But Jarvis did speak, although it wasn't quite what he wanted to hear, and before Fives could say anything, the lights went out after the A.I.'s warning. Quickly jamming his helmet back on, he grabbed a hold of the edge of the console as the floor shuddered beneath him.

From:

jarvisconsole

The Separatists were just as surprised as the rest of the crew as the ship turns completely upside down. Jarvis was taking over the whole system, redundancies and all. It's been awhile since he'd been inside a proper system and while he wasn't built for running a ship, he was nothing if not adaptable.

The docked Sep ship is thrown off, the locks unable to cope with the random movements of the larger cruiser. The air lock is sheared just enough for a crack to start sucking air out. But Jarvis is on the case, the door coming down to seal up the ship once again.

The ship turns and levels out. Up on the bridge, things are lighting up again, slowly. But so far, nobody can get control of the ship.

"Mr. Fives, are you in one piece, sir?" Jarvis asks from a nearby terminal.

From:

notjustanumber

     It would've been nice if he'd been told that the whole ship was going to be flipped! Fives can't maintain a grip when everything continues to tilt, and the console didn't provide the greatest handhold either.

     His fingers slipped, and he hit the ceiling- or was it the floor? He hoped that his brothers were all right, but better bruised than dead. Unfortunately not all of them were wearing armor.

     "Ergh..." the clone grunted from the floor, once he'd tumbled back onto it. "...thanks f'r the warning." Fives shoved himself to his feet. "I'm all right. What's the status on th' ship?"

From:

jarvisconsole

The console crackles and flickers before stabilizing on a rotating logo that says STARK INDUSTRIES on it.

"Sensors coming back online. I have corrected the gravity situation."

The screens come back on, showing the ships coming towards them and firing, the broken ship hanging off the side of the cruiser.

"I am having difficulty locating the weapons on this ship." Jarvis says, sounding unconcerned in the face of them being blasted repeatedly by the Separatists ships.

From:

notjustanumber

     "Great- that's good Jarvis. Can you get th' shields working?"

     Getting pummeled by Separatist ships was the next thing to worry about. "Although if they can pull off another shot with that ion cannon, I don't know if our shields will hold. Not sure how long somethin' like that will take to charge." And he didn't really want to take any chances.

     Fives took a moment to try getting through to any of his brothers on the internal com within his helmet. "This is Fives- we're workin' on getting things back on-line. How're we holdin' up? Any tinnies make it on board?"

From:

jarvisconsole

Ah, shields. There they were.

"Shields at 25% capacity." At least it was something.

"The computer's goin' nuts! The Seps are on board, there's a bunch that got through the air lock..." His brothers think they've got control of the computer system too. Fives is the only one able to access Jarvis directly.

He's still working his way through all the system's programs, sorting, reprogramming, analyzing. He hasn't had a workout like this in a long time. It's quite exciting.

"Evasive manuvers activated." The cruiser avoids another volley of shots from the ships. A few of the shots hitting their own ships by mistake.

From:

notjustanumber

     Fives was so glad that the gravity was fixed. Bouncing off the walls and ceiling wasn't fun the first time around.

     "Better than nothin'," he replied to Jarvis. "Some of the Seps made it on board, not sure where they are but they'll most likely head for the bridge an' the reactor room."

     He started to move towards the opening of the cargo bay, pulling out his DC-15 blaster rifle to be ready in case any tinnies came this way. "Yeah, Jarvis is still workin' on the computers," he informed his brothers over the comms.

From:

jarvisconsole

"Shall I isolate them, Mr. Fives?" Jarvis seems annoyingly unable to drop the mister part. He's worked out the doors and can shut and seal them off from the rest of the ship. Of course, some of them will have to be encouraged to get into the areas that can be sealed off.

From:

notjustanumber

"That gonna be a problem? If you can do it, it's better than lettin' them have the run of th' ship," Fives said. He supposed he could deal with being called 'mister' under such circumstances. They had better things to worry about.

From:

jarvisconsole

"I can currently isolate 50% of the life forms on board. However, I do not have specifications on what distinguishes you from them."

Better be specific as you can, or he might start isolating out the wrong people.

From:

notjustanumber

"Whoa, whoa- hold on! They won't be life forms! The Seps forces are droids!" he shouted as he whirled around, Jarvis's words sinking in.

From:

jarvisconsole

Well.

That did clarify things for Jarvis.

"An army of droids...I see."

Force fields at different areas of the ship flicker on and off, Jarvis systematically testing the system and keeping the ones near the droids switched on. Blocking them in as he sweeps through the system.

One of the droids runs into the force field right near Fives, just in time to block it's shot.

From:

notjustanumber

     The movement he caught out of the corner of his T-visor registered with not nearly enough time to have reacted otherwise. Fives jerked back as a rayshield sprung up within the doorway, saving him a face full of blaster fire.

     "Couldn't'uv cut it a little closer, eh?" he commented, letting out a sigh in relief. Still, the Trooper kept his weapon ready, warily eying the droids just beyond the doorway.

     "How's it looking, Jarvis?"