Capture Order Target: Hukan Pilil * *Target is wanted for questioning in connection to recent pirate activity. Target is known to run an antiques shop at the enclosed coordinates. Pilil is suspected to have guards supplied by pirates connected to recent kyber crystal smuggling. Target must be taken alive.
Blackhawk viewed the message on his datapad. “Looks like we have word to do.” Blackhawk stated. “Indeed.” replied his pilot. “Shall we round up the usual team for this one?” “Of course. And let them know to bring their ships along. We might end up needing them. Could probably use a speeder to if we can get one.” With that, Blackhawk and his crew set off to meet up with the rest the merry band of misfits he habitually went on missions with.
Kalen heard his comm chirp and whipped it out. Karra him and D were just on their way home from Arx where they had spent most of the last several weeks.
“Hey buddy guy! What the sitrep?” Kalen said when he saw that it was his fellow Plagueian Hawk.
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“We’ve got a Muun in need of abducting. You in?” Blackhawk asked, fairly certain of the answer.
“Hit me with the coords. Karracca and I’ll roll with you….wait, like abducting because he did some bad stuff right? Like we are just kidnapping for extortion or something…right?” Kalen had to check.
Blackhawk chuckled. “We won’t be the ones doing the extorting. That’s for the Inquisitorious to handle.”
After hearing the mission was sanctioned and receiving the rendevous coords Kalen said “Alright, looks like were about a day away if we take the Correlian bypass hyperspace lane. I’m guessing we want to switch on our VIFFs for this?” Kalen said, using the acronym for running the ship under a Virtual ID Free or Foe system which changed the registry and transponder codes of the ship for sensitive missions.
In all reality Kalen didnt know anything about the device or how it operated, all he knew was that he had one and the holovids he’d been watching at night with Corra implied that this would be an appropriate time to use the karkin thing. Karracca churled in the affirmative and half giggled in his fat, jolly, Wookie sort of way from the custom oversized co-Captains seat next to Kalens pilot/Captains station on the small bridge of the new ship.
The recently purchased and renamed JV Corra IV, was a modified Lancer class pursuit vessel. It was bigger, and more heavily armed and armoured the the Corra III(Star Courier). It was also more luxurious on the inside and had a cargo hold capable of carrying 100 tons of cargo, a reinforced platoon of fulled equilped soldiers for short trips or combat landings. Kalen had equipped her with an additional quad laser cannon, ion cannon turret and additional hardened hull plating. Karracca had even referred to the new ship as a ‘Defiant, speedy, tough little pocket corvette’, to which D3PO had countered by asserting that it would be more accurate to refer to her as a ‘Lightly shielded small gunboat, or well armoured fast patrol ship’. The droid went on to insist that the light shielding, small crew, interior volume/floor space and lack of torpedoes or missiles precluded a classification as a capital ship of any kind even with the use of the qualifying ‘pocket’ verbiage. Thankfully Kalen had shut down the debate before it had a chance to repeat the ferocious 3 hour long “The galaxy is currently ungovernable by a central power’
Debate of a week prior. In that rambunctious 3 hour long argument. Karracca had steadfastly argued in the affirmative, while the droid had supplied several compelling historical examples supporting his stance disagreeing with the statement. In the end D had conceded that recent galactic history did not provide any evidence of a sustainable galaxy spanning authority having a realistic chance of long term success. It should also be noted that the droid conceded point after a threat of some rapid, unscheduled, forcible removal of D’s limbs.
“Now dont start that again. Rerouting us to the rendevous point.” Kalen said.
A day later
The Corra IV and the Tarentum were docked together next to a quiet out of the way service station near their targets last location.
“Nice eh?” Kalen said with his arms outstretched as he was giving Hawk and Spokk a tour of his new ship. They were in the central circular lounge area now, it was about 7 metres in diameter with a wrap around couch on side and 6 person dining table on the other.
“See that wall panel over there, with the handle on it? Thats the fridge dude….” Kalen grinned from ear to ear. The ship had everything needed to sustain 3-9 people on long term missions, and his large lower cargo hold could also be used to transport prisoners or even ground troops in a pinch. She wasn’t a large freighter by any means but she was fast, well armoured and bristling with weapons.
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A blacked-out Star Courier named the Nocte Drakon landed an hour later, at the same way station. The ramp lowered and a petite Togruta stalked down it, a sleek Vornskr shadowing close beside her. Jaw set and eye staring at a datapad in her hands as she walked over to the group. A growl emanated from her throat and she cursed in Togruti, as Tahiri stopped in front of the group and looked up to greet everyone.
“Greetings everyone. I glad that at we’re able to team up,” she sighed and flashed a small tired smile, before her face returned to the mask of seriousness. “Unlike that dunga Bantha-brained brother of mine.”
Seeing the confused looks from most everyone, except Blackhawk, who simply raised an eyebrow and nodded at her datapad, expecting her to explain quickly. Tahiri inhaled and exhaled to calm the urge to crush the datapad.
“It seems that my brother, Ro-Tahn thought it’d be wise to take on this bounty by himself. I told we already had the team set to meet, and he still left without any of us. As far as I know he’s already there and all that’s been reported is the fact that his fighter was logged as landing and being impounded, but no report of him. So I don’t know if he was successful and got out on a different ship, or if he was captured, or worse…”
Her eyes flashed from her grey hues back to the sulfuric yellow, as the Force aura around her darkened and she clenched the pad in her left hand tighter. A sharp sound came from the pad as a crack raced across the screen from beneath her thumb.
“For a big spender like yourself,” Blackhawk teased the Jedi, “you use so little of it on practical things.”
The two were trading friendly jabs with each other when their other team member arrived, along with an aura of darkness more intense than usual.
“We’ll find them both.” Blackhawk assured her. “You know we will.
After a brief discussion of how they would go about finding Tahiri’s wayward brother and their target, they set off. Each went in their separate ships, figuring they might need the extra firepower later.
Scipio was less than a days travel from the waystation, where they began a sweep for Ro’s impounded starfighter. It didn’t take very long for them to find the impound lot where his vessel was located. Upon landing at a nearby spaceport, and paying a somewhat substantial bribe to the official to not report their presence, Tahiri, Kalen, Blackhawk, and both of the Wookies headed for the Muun’s antique shop, while Taziadu'ku headed for the impound lot to steal Ro’s fighter
“So am I gonna play good cop or bad cop on this one?” Kalen asked, excited to use the skills he learned watching late night holovids after banging Corra.
“Can you think of any way to track Ro…would he have anything on him that might give off rare readings on a scanner?” Kalen added to Tahiri.
“I have a different idea.” Blackhawk stated with a sinister scowl on his face. “You four take the front. I’m going around the back. We’ll meet in the middle”
“Sounds good buddy….play it cool Karracca” Kalen said as the group rounded a corner onto the street the Muuns shop was on.
Impound Yard
Taziadu'ku moved quietly to towards the impound dock, taking care to avoid guards as much as possible. Within a few minutes, she managed to make her way around the secured dock, looking for any openings she could exploit. She managed to find a gap in security coverage where she could climb over the wall without being seen. Sticking to shadows, she made her way towards the Fang Fighter.
Tazi knew she would have to work quickly to get the ship out without being detected or challenged. The parking restraint was easy enough to deal with. She cut that away with a lightsaber. She ducked as low as she could manage when as she made her way into the cockpit, barely managing to avoid the untimely gaze from a guard.
Stealth ceased to matter much as she started up the starfighter’s engines. As much as she would like to avoid it, a ship starting up inevitably made noise. The guards, startled, were to slow to react. She got the craft into the air and throttled it, rapidly heading for space so she could go hide somewhere for a bit.
“Perfect,” she nodded and then cocked her head slightly at an idea. “Want me to establish a mental link between us all, in they have a comms jammer? That could be another reason I haven’t heard from Ro. We don’t need any surprises like that.”
“The Inquisitorius will handle the interrogations, Kalen,” looking the Jedi up and down for a moment. “Besides, unless I was going to be the nice one, which this time I’m not, you’d be the ‘good cop’ this time.”
Pausing at Kalen’s other question, the Elder thought about her brother’s equipment and anything that would be unique about it.
“Well, he should have his bounties kit on him, the only thing that could possibly give off any readings that would be abnormal, would probably be his rifle. It’s powered by ascendant crystals, similar to the ones the Children of Mortis used.”
“Probably not many of those on this planet then…I’ll have D run a scan from the ship, see if he can get a trace on any Ascendant crystals nearby.” Kalen replied, keeping his voice low as they passed from local Scipians.
“Comms jamming… right, let’s avoid that.” The group paused for a moment while she forged the link. Blackhawk went around a nearby building, approaching the shop from the rear. “I’m in position. Whenever y'all are ready, let’s do this.”
After establishing a link and waiting upon hearing Hawks confirmation that he was in position, Tahiri glanced at Kalen and motioned for him to fall in step with her, while she mentally told the two Wookies to come up right behind them.
“Play cool till we get inside and then we’ll go from there.” The mental order went out as she pulled the hood of the cloak up and over her Montrals, lowering it enough to hide more than half of her face within it’s shadows.
Confidently striding forward, determination in every step, the petite Togruta felt the others follow closely behind her as Kalen opened the door for her, the group entering the shop together.
“We’re in Hawk. Your go.”
Blackhawk didn’t bother with subtlety. The back door opened to admit him, and was immediately slammed shut when a blast of Force Lightning obliterated the control mechanism inside, removing the possibility of escape. The unfortunate worker in the back immediately found himself lifted from the floor, and telekinetically launched into a nearby wall. Blackhawk’s armor quickly became engulfed in flames as he approached the dividing doorway to the front.
The employee’s in the front were rearranging and moving several antique’s and displays from an area that looked as if something had crashed through there.
“Excuse the mess, we had a clumsy shopper in earlier. How may we be of help, mis…”
The commotion in from the back startled the employee who had greeted the four of them.
Kalen closed the shop door behind him after casually looking to see if anyone was following him. In the holovid crime drama ‘Nal Hutta Nights’ starring Ahn Hathu'wei and Loid Briggez, Loids character always made sure he ‘checked for a tail’. As Kalen turned to follow his friends he was struck by the sight of his buddy Hawk, entirely engulfed in flames.
“Holy Sith! Get the fire extinguisher. Hawk man, you ok? Stomp, drop and twirl dude!” He frantically tried to remember little jingle about how to put yourself out if you were ever on fire.
Blackhawk facepalmed. “Do you really think I, AN ACTUAL DEMON, would be anything other than PERFECTLY FINE with being on fire?
Kalen stopped rummaging through his Brotherhood Essentials kit, trying to find the ridiculously small fire extinguisher he had seen in there when he first got it.
“Oh…you’re karking with me again. I see…well sorry for being just a tad bit concerned for your well being, yeesh.” He repackaged his essentials kit and swung it over his shoulders as women usual did with their purses.
Spokk couldn’t maintain a serious demeanor as he watched the interaction play out. “Ha ha ha.” Spokk’s translator translated the Wookie’s low, mirthy chuckle into a deep, booming laugh.
Tahiri raised an eyebrow at Blackhawk, a coy smile playing on her face for the first time all day, since the mission started. Then the Elder pinched the bridge of her nose at Kalen’s hysteretics. Sighing she turned back to Muun who had greeted them, who was now simply staring at the entire scene and almost visibly shaking.
“Well, now that we’re all here, there is something you can help us with,” her coy smile turning deadly as she stepped closer to the tall Muun, the hood falling back as she looked up. “Where’s your boss? And where is the Togruta who was here before us?”
“M… m…. My bos? I … I d…d… don’t know wh… wh… where he is!” Stuttering, the man tried to back away, but his way was blocked by a display and a large vase. “As for a… a Togruta, I have no idea I have no… no idea what b…. b…. bounty hunter y… you’re talking about.”
A hiss came from other two employees, who had taken shelter behind the counter, as soon as a flaming Blackhawk had come out of the back room.
“Ah, well then. If you don’t know, then you are no use to me,” Tahiri’s voice dripped with venom, as she smoothly pulled a snake headed dagger from her belt. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fairly quick, the poison will just slowly paralyze before killing you, just enough time for someone else to answer my questions. Unless you suddenly remember something?”
Kalen was on the verge of saying something to Tahiri about not being here to kill the dealers employees when his commlink chirped.
“How are you doing over there D?” The Jedi said into the link.
“Oh thank you for asking Master, I’m doing dreadful, I am cleaning the upper deck for the third time this week and still finding wookie hai..”
“I mean about the scans for that power signatures i asked you about D for Yoda’s sake bud, take a hint.” Kalen sighed and shook his head in frustrating with his eclectic and bird brained droid.
“Oh, yes, well then, I have made some progress on the scans, and as I was about to say before you interrupted me sir…There are active signatures matching the description you sent me occurring a mere four blocks to your west.”
“We found Ro! He’s four blocks that way.” Kalen said as Tahiri was about to neck a sobbing employee with her dagger. Kalen pointed in the direction of the back door, which Hawk had sealed on his way in.
“Yeah, thats on me, I locked it on the way in.” Hawk muttered.
Karracca sauntered towards the locked and fused door, ignited his lightsaber, and stabbed right through the locking mechanism before launched a chubby shoulder into the door and knocking the entire thing, jam and all right out into the back alley.
Spokk, not to be outdone, ran through the door behind Karracca, began running up a wall, and begsn leaping across rooftop. As Karracca, Tahiri, Hawk, and Kalen made it back to the street, they could see a blaster fight happening a few blocks down just as the droid had indicated on the comm. A series of blaster bolts from and elevated window showed the telltale signs of being from Ro Ascendant rifle.
“Ro.” Tahiri said before darting off in that direction.
“Now would be a great time to have you’re pilot swoop in and hover over top of that building, we all pile in, rescue Ro?” Kalen said as-a-matter-of-factly to Blackhawk. The holovid he had been watching just the night before, had a scene just like it.
“M… m…. My bos? I … I d…d… don’t know wh… wh… where he is!” the terrified Muun managed to stutter out as he attempted to back away. As days went, this definitely took the top spot for most eventful, and most terrifying days the hapless shop employee had experienced in his life. It had started like any other. He’d gotten in, cleaned a little, interacted with the occasional customer. A Togruta had come in, looking to talk to his boss. The Muun, thinking this was just another “VIP client”, had happily obliged. He’d heard a scuffle, commotion, cries of protest, some blaster fire. When he’d finally worked up the intestinal fortitude to look, his boss and the Togruta had left, and there was a dead man in the corner. He’d summoned police immediately. They weren’t there for long. Apparently, some kind of gunfight had broken out nearby. The Muun was just begining to clean up when this terrifying menagerie of monstrosities had entered.
“As for a… a Togruta, I have no idea I have no… no idea what b…. b…. bounty hunter y… you’re talking about.”
One of his co-workers hissed. He’d been there too. They’d both seen the same thing.
“Ah, well then,” the cloaked figure coldly stated, each word dripping with venom, “If you don’t know, then you are of no use to me.” She drew a dagger. He did not take comfort in her description of his impending doom. Then, the other one, a human spoke. Something about having found someone, an the group bulldozed their way out through the back door. The Muun, still processing what had happened, only just began realizing how fast his heart was bearing. Too fast.. and then, nothing. He didn’t feel the ground catch is body as it fell.
For Hukan Pilil, it had been a very eventful day. Of course, the day started like any other. He’d arrived at his shop, made small talk, chatted with customers, and met with his… special clients. As far as Pilil has been concerned, this Togruta was just another among the many rather unsavory types he met with regularly. Probably just another in the long line of individuals who had come to contract his less than legal services. Oh how wrong he’d been
Threats were a part of everyday life for the Muun. Most of them were harmless. Merely venting. The few that were actually concerning, his guards had always been enough to either deter or entirely mitigate. This time however, had been different. After his associates had left, presumably to attend to other matters in the shop, the Togruta introduced himself by killing his guard in a swift, efficient manner.
“You’re coming with me, weather you want to or not.” Human had been told. He tried to resist. Cry out. Anything. But, in the end, it was all for naught. The Togruta was rather persuasive. Pilil had gone with him to face whatever fate might await
They’d gone maybe a block and a half when the pirates had set up on them. Once Hukan’s guards, they now deemed to have little, if any regard for his life. Human had been bundled unceremoniously behind a wall for cover. He’d say this for his captor, whatever he’d wanted, it seemed that Pilil’s continued existence was a component.
“Move!” his captor shouted. Hukan shuffled down the street as quickly as he was able, the pirates pursuit slowed only by the well placed shots of the Togruta. By the second block, law enforcement had joined the running gun fight. With blaster fire now being exchanged between three separate parties, a decision was made to take shelter in a multi story building. Hukan huddled himself fearfully in a corner while his captor traded fire with both pirates and law enforcement, managing an impressive degree of accuracy.
Somehow, the sudden, triumphant “whoo!” that emitted from his captor managed to both startle and intrigue Hukan. He mustered up the intestinal fortitude to peak through the window, only to shriek and reel back at what he saw. Two apparently large figures were moving across rooftops towards them. And… wait. Are those… lightsabers?!? He’s seen several of them suddenly along the edge of the field. “It’s .. it’s over. W… w… we’ll be de… destroyed for sure!” Hukan lamented.
The Togruta, for the first time since they’d met, simply gave him a confident, cocky grin. “Nah. If that’s who I think it is, you’re in for one hell of a show!”
Hukan was terrified, but he peaked out just enough to view the scene that played out below them.
Tahiri tried Ro’s comm frequency again as she came to a stop just a building away. Nothing but static.
“Frack it, Ro,” she growled under her breath. Formulating a quick plan as her sharp eyes assessed the situation, while waiting for the Blackhawk and Kalen to join her.
“Looks like the local authorities either don’t know who to shoot at or they’ve been paid off. The pirates are concentrating most of their fire on my brother, while only taking pock shots at the authorities. Ro looks like he’s been holding out, but knowing him, he’s going to come out with his pistols soon enou…” Tahiri had to pause in her mental report to others as she spotted what looked to be one of her brother’s main pistols. “Oh kark.”
There were reasons why her brother was pinned down the way he was, and the only thing she could think of was, is that he was missing either one or both of his pistols, and he had the bounty prize.
“We need to get the pressure off of Ro, get him to see us, and allow him time to get down to us,” she glanced around. “Sound off if one of you can go acquisition us a ride to get some distance and back to our ships quickly. The rest get ready for my signal to blow some karking frackers up.”
Blow stuff up? Well, this looks like a job for me! Even telepathically, the glee in Spokk’s voice was apparent.
Karracca looked at Kalen. “We need a ship. Get goldenrod to prep for launch, I’ll help the Hand.” He growled as left a dozen feet in the air and ran across the roof of a shop.
Kalen raised the comm link to his lips as he fired his pistol at a few pirates in an alley across the street. “D! Get the ship ready for launch, you might have to fly her over to us like I showed you.”
“Oh Master Joss, I do no…”
“Just shut up and do it D.” Kalen pocketed his comm and followed the gang, eventually arriving at the base of the building where Ro presumably was.
“Let’s see what Ro and all these port, damned fools think of my new party trick*
Blackhawk again turned subtlety into a flaming pile of rubble by allowing his armor to become engulfed in flames. What got even more attention, were his lightsabers coming to life, also engulfed in fire. Blackhawk strode forward, a destructive inferno for any pirate or officer who dared approach.
Before even getting confirmation, she moved forward, her dark visage disappearing into a shimmer of air. Making her way as close to the mid way point as she could, before dropping her cloak and stopping in front of the building. Turning around, she confronted the two opposing forces that were against her brother, the firing stopping briefly as both sides seemed surprised by her sudden appearance in the middle of the combat zone.
“Hear me, if you care about your lives and lively hoods,” the petite Togruta’s voice boomed across the small street. “You all will cease and leave. Believe me, you don’t want to know what’s coming next.”
There was the briefest of pauses as several Muuns and pirates looked between one another. One of the pirates laughed and fired a direct shot at the Togruta. A lightsaber sprang to her hand and ignited, while she moved with fluid speed, redirecting the blaster bolt harmlessly away. She didn’t get a chance to say anything to give them another choose, as several other blaster bolts were fired her way. A smile crossed her face, as she dodged, fluidly and acrobatically weaving her way expertly through the barrage, either batting them right back at the one who fired it or harmlessly into the ground. A couple pirates had already fallen and some of the authorities who hadn’t decided to back off, began to fire again. This time it wasn’t just at her, Blackhawk joined the fray, and Kalen had begun to make his way over to the building.
“Spokk, Karracca, take care of the authorities for me, please. Deal with them as you will.”
Before the pirates knew it, the tiny thing that they thought would be easy to shoot down, was mere meters away. One pirate decided to stand straight up and was about to fire, when he yelped in pain as he felt a sharp, searing pain in his back. Glancing behind him, all he saw was the jaws of a beast as the black shadow fell on him, ripping out his neck.
The black Vornskr leapt forward, meeting his Alpha, and readying himself. One pirate rushed her and as she cut the pirates hand off, still grasping the blaster, backing away screaming in pain, before being silenced by his jaws.
“Good boy, Zuska.”
“Trippy” Kalen said as he watched Tahiri. He was about to shoot pirates on a rooftop right before the Quester redirected a bolt at him that was fired by another pirate.
He could hear the familiar while of the modded Star Couriers repulsor floatinf somewhere overhead. Kalen wound up, and leapt one rooftop and then another before seeing the outlived of his ship. He fumbled around in his pocket for his commlink and begsn yelling as he retrieved it. “3P0, I see you, stop there, and manuever the ship 20 feet to your right”
“Ewwwww, oh heavens. Master this is very disconcer…”
“D! Just pull back on the maneuvering thrusters. You’re doing great, thats good. Now pull the stick to the right, and just hover to the right 20 feet. And lower the entry ramp. Ill see you in a second”
“Well it certainly doesn’t seem proper to lower the raml while I’m airborne Master, very unsafe indeed. I’m breaking atleast 2 dozen local traffic ordinances already.” The talkative droid did comply with his Masters commands though.
Hukan’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
How?
The scene of carnage suddenly playing out on the street below them. Never before had he seen five beings perform such an act of vibrant carnage.
How could someone do small cdo so much damage? How could a single being become a walking inferno? Who was this man that had captured him?
Then, his heart caught in his throat. His captor looked… concerned? Afraid? Perhaps a mix of both? Whatever is was, nothing could have prepared him for what happened next.
Spokk roared. His translator couldn’t broadcast loud enough for anyone to hear anyway. Y'all might want to get to higher ground. Like, right now!
Just then Karracca came smashing through the duracrete block wall at the rear of the room.
“Eeeeeeeh! Kiddo, your sister is looking for you and she is not happy. Also, we got a ship on the way.” The now nearly 450lbs wookie growled at Ro.
Blackhawk didn’t need further prompting. Spokk saying the ground needed to be clear was often met with the ground gaining new terrain. He leapt, and fired off his jetpack, carrying him straight upward, away from what was about to occur on the ground.
Ro-Tahn watched as his sister appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the street, and heard her booming declaration.
Same old Hiri, always giving them a chance… wait… why does she look different?
He watched as the pirates opened fire on her, but before he could even squeeze a round off to protect her, she was batting the bolts away like insects. She seemed more… focused… no that wasn’t it. A sudden blaze caught the Togruta’s eye, quickly glancing over to see Blackhawk ignite himself on fire.
Well… that’s new… neato. But why is Tahiri acting that way?
He watched with a growing mix of awe, concern, and a hint of fear, as his older sister and her Vornskr torn into the pirates with deadly efficiency. Cutting them down as if they were training dummies. Ro didn’t get much time to contemplate, as a huge Wookie came bursting through.
“Oh, is that all? Huh, I figured she’d pissed about me beating her to the bounty,” slinging his rifle over his shoulder, Ro dragged Plil to his feet. “Thanks for the assist and for bringing a ship, I’ll have to return for mine later on. Either that or blow it up… Arrggg.”
The Togruta had moved too fast and pain ran through his side from where a blaster bolt had gazed on his right side. A little BB-8 droid immediately rolled out from the corner and bumped into his foot, beeping with concern and indignantly insisting on something.
“Don’t worry Dunga, I’ll be fine. And yeah yeah, I know you told me so.”
Tahiri heard Spokk’s roar, glancing up as Blackhawk took off into the air. Extinguishing her blade, she leapt back several meters, towards the building her brother and the others were all convening, the Elder paused, and smiled, taking in a deep breath. Dipping into the river of the Force swirling around her, she sent forth a single piercing scream that caused both the pirates and authorities alike to instantly cover their hearing orifices.
“All yours Spokk, my dear.”
With the swirling of the Force still flowing through her muscles, she leapt up onto the awning right under the third story window. Zuska took a flying leap, using a tipped over speeder as a ramp to gain air, Tahiri easily catching him in midair and delivering him safely to the ledge she was on. They both slipped into the window, stepping into the same room as Karracca, Ro, Dunga, and Plil.
Kalen braced himself. He hadn’t done the whole ‘switching gravity around and floating’ thing since he was a teenager. But, he couldn’t back out now. Tahiris spine chilling scream added to his haste. He ran to the edge of the roof and reached out with the force while he lept, focusing on the ship itself pulling him towards it. It worked. A bit too well in fact, as Kalen almost careened past the lowered ramp of the Corra III as she soared almost 70 feet off the ground. He grabbed hold of one of the ramp struts and haphazardly threw himself into the interior of the ship.
“Out of the way D” he said as he rushed up the ladder and into the cockpit. He was running purely on adrenaline and mitichlorians at this point. He activated his turrets, engaged his thrusters, but left the ramp lowered and manuevered the ship over to the roof of the building Ro had been hiding in. Oddly he noticed a large wookie sized hole in the duracrete block wall as he brought the ship to stable hover.
lets go people rides here, time to go go go folks Kalen thought, hoping the telepathic link with Tahiri was still in place.
With Tahiri’s scream, things suddenly became early quiet. So quiet, in fact, that one could hear a pin drop. Perhaps some had enough functional heating left to do so. Spokk didn’t know, nor did he care. Dipping into the Force, Spokk reached, finding every switch, every pin, every activation mechanism. Moments later, the various beeps, alarms, screeches, and whatever other alert tones were used for that purpose, could be heard. A moment later, every explosive carried by the pirates and authorities Spokk could see detonated. For the pirates, it was almost complete destruction. For the authorities, while most of the explosives they carried weren’t designed for lethality, the effects were still debilitating. Flash angs, smoke, gas, electro shock, they were all harmful. And an explosive, lethal or not, is still quite painful for whoever it might be attached to.
“I think now would be a good time to leave.” Blackhawk stated, observing the carnage below as he flew over to the Corra
What?… What kind of monsters have taken me? Hukan thought. He dreaded to think what fate awaited him wherever they were taking him.
Kalen shot out of his seat and ran to the ladder “Take the stick D, and just hold us steady.”
Kalen had placed the ship in a hover right next to the hole in the wall that Karracca had smashed in the 3rd story of the little apartment building.
“Ewwww, not again.” D exclaimed as Kalen disappeared down the ladder. Just then Master Karraccas new R3 astromech beeped and booped excitedly from the corner.
“You? A geriatric astromech if I ever saw one. What do you know about flying space ships you rusted bucket of bolts.”
The old R3 droid plopped his front wheel onto the deck and rolled over to pilot console beeping and booping all the way before he plugged himself into the control socket.
“More then me? Also, how rude…”
Upon stepping into the room and seeing her brother, Tahiri felt the urge to go over and smack him upside the head. However, she knew they were all still in danger, quickly agreeing with the Clawdite.
“Aye. Let’s get out of here before there’s more trouble,” growling as she looked back out the window at what was left, or lack-there-of, of both the pirates and authorities.
“Ah come on, trouble is where all the fun’s at,” Ro grinned at his sister.
Tahiri narrowed her eyes, stalked up to him and reached up to grab at the base of one of his tall Montrals. Squeezing the milky white and cerulean striped flesh, as she tugged essentially on his ‘ear’ and pulled him towards the hovering ships ramp, eliciting an immediate “OW!”
“You are in enough trouble, brother,” the Elder hissed slightly. Then her face and tone softened a little bit, “You had me worried sick, and you weren’t answering you comm link.”
Ro scrunching his face slightly in pain, took out of his pocket the busted comm link.
“Sorry to worry you, but I had a good reason for not answering,” he smiled again, hoping his sister would ease up.
Seeing that, she paused and let go of him, then sighed exasperated.
“Fine. However, this isn’t getting you out of the extra training I now have planned for you, bantha-brain.”
“Grab the Bounty, and let’s get out of here,” she turned to Karracca and nodded, before easily jumping to the ramp and making sure Zuska made it. “Let’s go!”
“Wait… what training? I have to do training?!” Ro was slightly stunned. He followed her, leading the Muun over to the ramp, while whining, “Why do I have to do training?”
“When you know why, maybe you’ll be able to train less.” Blackhawk quipped.
The flight back to the spaceport was short and relatively uneventful.
“Let’s go.” Blackhawk said as they got back to the port.
“What about my ship?” Ro asked, incredulously.
“Don’t worry about it. You’re flying mine for now.” Blackhawk replied. “It’s been taken care of.”
After gettinf everyon onboard Kalen clumbed bacl up the ladder and found D standing behind the captains chair ans Karraccas R3 droid plugged into the control socket.
“I thought I told you to take the stick D?”
“You did Master, but this arrogant and rude little droid insisted I let him fly the ship sir.”
“Well…were all alive and onboard, so…I guess it worked out. I’ll take control back now.” He jumped back in the pilotd seat as the R3 beeped an acknowledgment and withdrew his control arm from the socket. He then beefed a few times at D.
“You were just lucky, I will not compliment You on your flying skills…you simply held us steady, any lowky sanitation could have accomplished that.” D said to the upstart R3.
“So, you got a name?” Kalen asked the astromech. He beefed in response.
“He says his name is Reece Master.”
“We’re not done talking about this!” Tahiri scolded her brother as they transitioned to their own ships, or to Blackhawk’s ship in Ro’s case.
“Y'all better not have messed up my ship!” the Togruta teased. “I’d hate to have to take this rustbucket.” “Hey, it does the job, and I’m sure you ship is fine.” Blackhawk jabbed back. “And I hear the pilots pretty neat too! Speaking of which…”
She’s managed to give law enforcement the slip not long after getting off the planet. Turns out, they don’t have much interest in pursuing her once she left the planet. She’d flown around for awhile, keeping her distance from anything that looked like another ship.
“Tazi!” Blackhawk’s voice grabbed her attention immediately. “We’re leaving. Meet us at the jump point.” “Got it. Meet you there.”
As she approached the planet, she spotted something strange. It appeared to be a heavy freighter of some type escorted by a couple of small starfighters. That, in and of itself, was not weird. What did seem strange, however, was that they didn’t appear to be attempting to land. They were moving way to fast for that, and they were going around the planet instead of into the atmosphere
Tarentum shook. The pirate freighter was bearing down on them, and with the two starfighters throwing themselves in, fighting them off was proving rather difficult. “Kalen, bring your ship around. We’re dealing with that damned freighter. One way, or another.”
Kalen and do both brought their shop around. “What’s the big idea here?” Ro asked. “Ion cannons. If the freighter can’t chase us, the fighters will be a lot easier to deal with.”
“If we had my fighter…” he never finished the sentence. One of the pirate starfighters vanished in a ball of fire as a Fang fighter came streaking through.
“Wait. Is that my…”
“I told you we’d taken care of it.” Blackhawk cut him off. “Now, let’s deal with the freighter.”
Tazi came about, laying down fire on the other fighter. It didn’t survive.
The freighter was unable to avoid fire from Blackhawk’s ion cannons. Kalen wasn’t quite as accurate, but most of his fire also found it’s mark. “Tazi, give that freighter a taste of that thing’s firepower.” She didn’t need to be told twice, and Ro added some firepower from Blackhawk’s freighter for good measure. They didn’t completely destroy the heavy freighter, but it was left damaged enough that only someone suicidal would pursue them. The group jumped into hyperspace.
They stopped at some random, unknown planet so Ro and Taziadu'ku could go back to their own vessels. “So you’re the handsome devil that flew around in my ship back there!” Tazi greeted Ro playfully.
“And who’s this cutie?” Ro asked Blackhawk, playfully. “Taziadu'ku. Met her not to long ago, actually.” Blackhawk replied, chuckling “Little?” the small Togruta asked sarcastically..
“You two can get a room later. For now, let’s get our bounty turned in.” Blackhawk cut in. All parties nodded in agreement, and returned to their respective ships. That done, they jumped to Arx.
The cloaked, hooded figure stood waiting as the four ships landed. Six individuals escorted the obviously captive Muun. “One prisoner, captured for interrogation, as ordered.” the tall Togruta quipped, shoving Hukan roughly. The cloaked figure took their prisoner. “Thanks in no small part to your friends, I see. You caused a lot of trouble, Ro-Tahn. Next time, don’t count on your friends to save you.”
Tahiri almost had to be held back from trying to kill the inquisitor right there.
“Anyway, your assistance is appreciated and noted.” stated the inquisitor. “Have a nice day.”
The group was annoyed. The pompous inquisitor, of course, did not care. “Let’s get out of here.” Tahiri stated, dryly. “Agreed.” Blackhawk and Kalen both replied, almost in unison. They’d done what they’d come to do. Time to head home.