There is pretty much nothing about this situation that doesn't feel threatening, but none of her environment's ominous contours are specifically trap-shaped.

There's an aura of paranoia and despair permeating the whole place, but the individuals in the facility's center have emotion reads more typical of frightened underlings than jumpy assassins.

The way the force moves around Deskyl suggests she's currently the only sith in the vicinity. Unless her counterpart is absurdly good at cloaking his force signature, there's no way he could be lurking in ambush.

The doors glide closed behind them. The docking bay begins to pressurize.

Shreya fires off her SLAYER's hip-mounted grappling tethers, securing her biomech in the rough center of the chamber so that it won't drift off in the null-inertial conditions once she unplugs from it.

If she unplugs from it.

She looks to Deskyl for further guidance.

She slips back into Sith mode, detaching from Devika and assuming the imperious body language they've seen from her before, and gestures for Shreya to unplug.

    "Stay close to her."

"Yes ma'am."

Shreya reaches back to eject the uplink cable from her TFI. Her fingers fumble around the edge of the implant a couple times before she finally manages to disconnect from the SLAYER.

She is a long way from home.

And she is drifting further and further from her Dragon's last commands for her.

"-are you all right, Ma'am?"

Shreya shrugs, causing her harness to bounce a little in the process.

"...I don't know if Culamine would want me to be here."

"I expect she would, Ma'am. Deskyl is downplaying it, but this is very much an emergency; this new Sith is a danger to her, too, and possibly to the Draco territories as a whole. The best thing for us to do right now is learn more about him, and establish that we can work with him without violence."

(Drishti Kaur has been sitting in the corner this whole time, by the way: utterly terrified, utterly unwilling to draw attention to herself, very confused by everything said and done since she was taken aboard.)

"I wish Culamine had sent someone better than me."

Devika is eyeing the hatchway impatiently.

She takes the initiative to get get Shreya unbuckled from her harness while the secessionist pilot is still introspecting.

(Deskyl has floated over to Drishti and is attempting to communicate by sign that she should get up and come with them.)

"Noone would have been prepared for this, Ma'am. Just do your best, and if anything happens to us, try to get back to Culamine and tell her what you've seen."

"Okay."

Devika is the first one who moves to leave the cockpit.

She's as nervous as anyone else here, but she finds a reckless energy coursing through her.

What's the point of hanging back?

What does she have left to lose?

Despite Veda's words to her earlier, she does not feel like a thing that would be hard to replace.

Deskyl stops her from leaving.

    "We need to keep up appearances, Ma'am; we have to assume he'll be watching. Deskyl and I will go first, and then Shreya, Drishti, and you, in formation." Deskyl gestures to illustrate the formation she wants; null gravity makes it inconvenient, but not overly so.

"Understood."

Everyone forms up as instructed.

(Drishti appreciates being sandwiched between Devika and the rest of the formation. She's spent a lot of time raising Devikas. She knows Devikas are pretty badass. Adjacent To A Devika seems to her like the safest available position in this highly-unsafe-seeming situation.)

And out they go, Deskyl first, then DZ, then the rest. She waits for them to form up again and leads the way toward the facility's inhabitants.

All remains still in the hangar bay.

The cavernous space contains no other craft. The only sound audible as they float their way across it is the creak of Shreya's SLAYER's grappling tethers as the biomech sways back and forth between them.

Devika and Shreya stay in formation. Drishti, not as well well trained for maneuvering in null-inertial conditions, goes careening off course though.

She makes a small, panicked sound when she notices her mistake.

She doesn't get far; Deskyl turns and gestures, and she stops short.

There's a shaft leading deeper into the facility, with guide lights along its corners and ladder rungs carved into one of its walls.

It goes on for hundreds of meters, from the look of things.

A reasonable defensive choice, by someone who can shoot lightning in a world where everyone else can only shoot bullets.

Deskyl takes hold of the rest of her companions as well, giving them a brief moment to get used to the sensation of being gently squeezed, and then propels the group down the shaft at a speed much faster than they'd manage if they were using the ladder.

Ominous circumstances aside, this is actually kind of fun.

The unadorned shaft gives way to more intricate hallways and corridors about a fifth of a kilometer out from the center of the structure.

Machinery and circuitry thrum all around them.

The docking bay and the outer portion of the shaft were uncomfortably cold, but things warm up considerably as they draw closer to the facility's core.

Deskyl navigates confidently, slowing to a reasonable pace as their surroundings become hospitable but only stopping when they're just outside the room where half the facility's inhabitants are gathered.

There were a couple of closed doors on the way, but they all hissed open on their own as the group approached.

This last portal is no different. The doors part, revealing a lively rec room. Upbeat music plays from a wall interface, in-progress holo-games clutter the central volume of the enclosure, a snackbar is set up in one corner and a cozy reading nook is set up in another.

Everyone turns and stares at the new arrivals.

(Emotion Read: Paranoia and Despair)