It seemed the white-hatted man apparently had no designs on leaving their fortress. He moved his daughter behind the relative safety of the commercial kitchen units and laid her back on the floor. Grabbing a small holopad with physical connectors from inside his suit, he felt around the back of her head for the port then plugged a wire in.

“Get out of here!” His mother shouted over the deafening racket of her plasma repeater.

“Not until I bring her back!” The man shouted back.

Light protested as Senjen skittered off, but he wasn’t listening right at that second. So he grabbed the pistol from the bald-headed bodyguard and sucked it into his suit til only an inch of the barrel poked out. It was harder for anyone to grab it off him that way.

Then the QV compacted close to the floor, changing from a vertical to horizontal orientation. He warbled behind the Utaysi and hid in a nearby booth. He sent a pairing request so they could share sensory data, then stared at the plate glass windows adjoined to one end of it. He could see other buildings lit up through it and the street far below

“Maybe we can smash this glass and escape out of it?” He asked. He fired his plasma gun at the window; it made ugly black mark about a foot wide on it but otherwise had no discernible effect.

“Wow, strong stuff.”

The droids were the epitome of efficient warfighting. They didn’t even need to poke their heads or bodies out from behind cover to fire. They just ejected one flying disc that floated to the ceiling, then poked their guns out and fired with pinpoint accuracy. A few of the patrons scored some near misses on their guns but not before one person on each end was propelled backwards with a plasma bolt in their chests. Then one of them threw a flashbang around the corner of their booth towards the three remaining patrons closest to Senjen.

Patrons from around their level had mostly moved to the edge of the atrium space and were firing down to lower levels. Two women from the opposite side of the kitchen area were floating quickly towards the old woman, her son and the bodyguard.