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"Acknowledged, Zerick Chase. Maybe this time if this unit is damaged you could add something like spinning death blades." With that, it climbed into the duct.

It definitely did like it here. It slowly made its way down the shaft, its night vision mode activated. After a while, the duct dipped down. HKR used its legs to clamp itself to the walls then looked through the vent cover.

Acarian Droids were marching back and forth between maintenance stations. A body in mechanics overalls was slumped over the maintenance terminal. Another body, this one just in a regular crew uniform lay on the floor, shot in the back. Though it was a bit weird he was there....

HKR slid out of the vent in the hangar bay and turned to the crew. " Unless you all seek a gloriously short end, which this unit could provide, advise that you dont go down that vent. It leads to the droid bay."

"So... what shall we do? Zerrick mentioned slipping past the droids into the armory, but... it seems that it would be a death wish," responded Anderson.

Tomalek paced the bridge. It had been several hours.  Why haven't they reestablished communications?  The situation must be brought back under control, he resolved.  He turned to the comms officer, "Ensign, do everything you can to establish contact with the colony on the surface.  Perhaps they know what has happened to the station." 

Tomalek paused, and then proceeded to dial up the ship-wide intercom, "This is Commander Tomalek.  Our away team seems to have run into trouble.  All personnel to battle stations, and security personnel please report to the shuttle hangars.  Tomalek out." 

"Lieutenant, you have the bridge.  I'm going to find Mr. Chase.  It appears that we will have to correct this situation.  Also, while I'm gone, make a note in the ship's log--Recommendation to command: the most senior officer on a command shall not personally walk into potentially dangerous situations and the first officer shall be given the right to withhold the Captain from going on any away mission involving considerable risk of lethality."  And with that, the Vulcan stormed off to Engineering. 

Engineering was busy with the whole team working on producing protective exoskeletons for another team to wear while going in and figuring out what happened to the away team. Zerrick Chase was the only one who had completed his and was directing the others in order to speed things up. When Tomalek appeared, Zerrick came right over to him.

"Don't get mad at me, but I took action on my own. I figured we should go in and try to get everyone out, but with the drones there, that would be suicide. So I came up with the idea of wearing armor. But the amount of armor needed to protect against these drones is heavy, so I developed an exoskeleton to help carry the armor. The result is this." And with that, Chase led him to his completed exoskeleton. "It's not perfect, but it'll get the job done this mission. What do you think?"

While in the vent, communications were cut off. Soon, the soft hum of the ventilation system was off. The Captain was getting nervous now.

"We should hurry to the command center. Let's hurry and get off this damn place. And also so we can reestablish communications."

The captain lead the team to the armory via the vents.

Tomalek looked over the exoskeleton, then turned after a moment of thought, "Mr. Chase, I believe that these will be sufficient.  Get them to the security details assembling in the shuttle bay as soon as you can." he turned, "Also, take four EVA suits out of storage and load those into the shuttle as well.  Thank you." 

With that, Tomalek began to walk to the shuttle bay to brief the crew there.  He activated his comm to the bridge, "Bridge lock weapons onto the station and the colony and be prepared to provide fire support to the shuttles." 

He turned to the engineering crew tasked with building the exoskeletons. "You heard the man! Get these done as fast as you can!" Zerick worked hard with his teams to finish up the projects and make sure everything functioned properly. Afterward, he had his teams transport the exoskeletons to the shuttle bay along with the requested EVA suits.

"Commander Tomalek to bridge from Shuttle 2.  We have begun pre-flight procedures.  Please open the shuttle bay doors."  Tomalek glanced around.  This will be an interesting mission he thought to himself.  Better keep an eye on everyone.  It will be a good test. 

He watched as the bay doors opened, revealing the starry black canvas of space.  He slowly guided the shuttle forward, followed by two other shuttles full of security personnel.  One veered off toward the planet, and he turned Shuttle 2 toward the station that had created the need for this mission far too risky for his liking...

Zerick stood behind Tomalek, suited up in one of his powered armors. "Thank you for allowing me to perform a field test. I look forward to dismantling some combat drones."

HKR tilted it's head at the captain's words. "You want to go through the droid bay? You are aware of the many reasons that is a bad idea, correct, human?"

"Sir?"

Pieter's tiny voice nearly gave Hendrik a heart attack. He looked around quickly, seeing that both the doctor and Gunther's attentions were occupied, so he risked answering.

"What is it, Pieter?"

"Have you considered hacking these droids and overloading their central processing units?"

Hendrik thought about it for a moment, and wanted to kick himself for not thinking of it sooner. Obviously, he wouldn't be able to do any such thing in his current state. He weighed his options. He could hope Pieter's limited cyber-warfare programming would be up to the task if he ventured forth alone, but he knew it would be a bad idea.

There was only really one valid option. He would have to enlist Gunther's help. He didn't like the man, but he also didn't have a choice. There was a monumental problem: he'd have to come clean about Pieter's true nature, and that could put everyone on the USS Wintreath in danger, if word got out.

"Fuck," Hendrik swore, silently.

"Indeed. It is unfortunate, but it would have come out sooner or later." Pieter had already planned ahead, as usual. It knew what Hendrik would have to do.

"I was hoping it would be much later." He slowly got up, feeling the pain wrack his shoulder, even though he had consumed enough morphine to become slightly high. He laboriously made his way over to Gunther. "We need to talk," he said, and dreaded the conversation that would follow.

Gunther had spent the last bit of time sitting with his machine gun and pretending to be watching out for more droids, but really he was thinking.

I can't believe I actually took out that droid and saved everyone. Yeah, I looked stupid falling to the floor, but I don't think anyone realized that it was the first time I shot the damn thing. Gotta make sure I get a good grip and lean into it next time so it doesn't happen again.
...
God, my shoulder hurts. Karen sure has a hell of a kick. Heh, giving guns names is funny.
...
I can't wait to get back to the mess hall on the ship. I haven't eaten in over SIX YEARS, and my stomach is starting to realize it. Ugh.

Gunther was absentmindedly looking down when he noticed Hendrik making his way towards him. He straightened up and scanned the area ahead of him, pretending not to see Hendrik.

After Hendrik spoke, Gunther nonchalantly turned and responded, "Oh, hey, Harry. How's the shoulder?"

Hendrik grimaced. "Not the worst I've ever been hurt, but it's never pleasant to get shot."

He collected himself, then decided to jump right in. "Look, we're running out of time, so I'm going to make this quick. I need your help to hack these droids. We don't stand a chance, otherwise."

Gunther had a confused look. "Uh, I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't exactly have a PhD in droid hacking or anything. What do you expect me to do? Charm them with my good looks?"

A part of Hendrik had held out hope that Gunther wouldn't ask questions. That dream had been shot to splinters.

"No." He held up his left wrist. "You're going to use Pieter, my highly advanced compact AI. I'll guide you through any parts Pieter can't handle himself."