The run: Part 1

[Melomex]

"Hah, thanks" Verguxa said. He used his jetpack to lift himself of the ground, pulling out his pistol and trying to shoot Loom midair, missing due to his drunken state. He saw Renn running at Loom.

"Crazy" he muttered to himself.

 

[Siah]

Looms fired at Renn, trying to go for a body shot. With his men out of the fight Looms was trying to beat a hasty retreat back through the airlock while firing at Renn.

He depressed the receiver on his comms, "Captain, they're attacking! They've got us..." He ducked when Verguxa's shot flew past his head. He was trying to get to the switch to shut the airlock.

 

[Rob the Player]

Lazers wizzed past Renn as he ran, and one made its mark in his side. He didn't even notice, as he was focused on catching Looms. Renn made it through to the other side of the airlock, and continued to charge Looms. He threw down his pistol and drew his saber. With the press of a button, the lightsaber came to life. It's white blade strechted out and gave a satisfying hum. "Clean cuts, clean cuts."

 

[Siah]

Captain Myshak had a murderous look on his face as he slammed his fist down on the disengage button. The airlock immediately shut behind Renn, locking him on the pirate vessel. The sound of the metal clamps coming loose from the two ships was loud enough to be heard throughout both vessels. Myshak had one thought in mind... Blow that nerf herding ship to dust!

Looms snarled menacingly at the Mandalorian, he pulled out a small vibroblade dagger. The corridor was narrow, but Looms was not too bad in a knife fight. The large Trandoshan juggled his blade between his two hands, "So we have a Jedi?" An evil smile spread across his face, to replace the snarl. "There is an enormous bounty on jedi. When I deliver you, I'll retire." Looms was unsure about the lightsaber, but he stood his ground.

Siah heard the clamps disengaging and wondered how this had ended so fast. He slowly got to his feet, through the force he felt that only three had survived and two were back on the pirate ship. He would mourn the loss of a comrade later, know he had to find out what had happened. "Perhaps I should have done more," he argued with himself, "but I cannot risk being discovered." He walked purposefully to the airlock, the smell of burns and ozone permeated the air. He could make a figure in the smoke.

 

[Melomex]

Verguxa saw the airlock door closed behind Renn. "Dammit, you had to get cocky" he muttered.

Verguxa hastily flew into the cargo bay where Siah was, landing next to him. "The mandolorian, he's on the pirate ship," Verguxa very quickly and urgently slurred, making his words almost impossible to understand "he looks like a jedi, even I would turn in a bounty that bi... ahem we need to get him out".

"Get up here," Verguxa rushed up the stairs and banged on the airlock door "Renn, can you hear me!?".

 

[Siah]

Siah had just understood what Veguxa had said about Renn having been trapped on the pirate vessel. The Ithorian arrived at the airlock, and he watched as the Zabrak banged hard on the airlock. Siah looked at Verguxa, "Master Verguxa, that ship has detached from ours. There is no way we can get through that airlock now." There was a pause as if he was contemplating something.

A frown crossed the Ithorian's face. He shook his head and made his way to the cockpit. "We have a problem! Quick, we need to check the sensors for that second pirate vessel." Siah was worried that with the pirates having withdrawn, the other ship would have no reason not to fire on them.

As Siah was on his way to the cockpit, the second pirate vessel moved directly behind Grobu's Bounty. Myshak's order had been clear, engage and destroy. They would salvage what they could afterwards. The second vessel had only two crew, one pilot and one gunner. The gunner trained his missile-lock on Grobu's Bounty. He was seconds away from locking on and firing.

The sensors would reveal that the smaller ship was a B-wing Expanded, and much faster than Verguxa's vessel. They had no chance of outrunning it. The Zabrak would have to act fast!

 

[Rob the Player]

Under his helmet, Renn smirked at this sight of a vibrodagger. He would have to deal with Looms quickly to get to the bridge. Renn halted and got in his ready position with the saber. He would let his enemy come at him first. Jax's voice floated in his head, Hurry up and wait! He was completly focused on the task at hand, no distractions. If he wanted to save the rest of the crew, he would have to be quick.

 

[Melomex]

Verguxa rushed to the piloting seat. The B-wing fired a heatseaking missle at the Grobu's bounty. He turned the ship to the side and activated the flares, the missile hit the flares, but the blast still hit the ship, shaking the ship.

"Oi Ithorian, get to the damn gunner turret and shoot the thing" Verguxa yelled, trying to steer the ship away from the B-wing and the other ship.

 

[Siah]

Everything was happening too fast. Siah tried to focus his mind on the multiple facets of the pirate event, but failed. Renn was a Jedi and yet Siah had not thought proactively enough to use the force to get to know his allies. He was too focussed on his cargo, he berated himself for this. Now there was another vessel firing on them and the Jedi had been captured by the pirates. Things were spiralling out of control too fast for the ponderous Ithorian.

Grobu's Bounty lurched as the concussive wave hit it. Siah was almost thrown off-balance. He was not in tune with the force and was actually thoroughly confused.

At Verguxa's command, Siah was snapped back to the present situation. All the Ithorian wanted to do was meditate on the force and get some guidance, but there was no time for that. He could not take a life, so perhaps he could disable the ship that was firing on them. Siah hesitated a moment longer, realised that asking questions about Renn was not a wise move now and then left for the turret.

Behind the gunner's seat, Siah took a moment and closed his eyes. He breathed in slowly and reached out with the force. He felt the hum of energy powering the turret. Feeling more at ease, not nearly as much as he would like to, he opened his eyes and sent the force out through his hands. A moment later the B-wing came into view on his HUD. Siah reached out and felt the force pulsing through the energy of the other ship. He fired and hit the B-Wing dead on. The B-Wing jolted as the shield absorbed the impact, and the pilot took evasive action not expecting to be fired upon. The B-Wing retaliated by releasing a volley from its turbo lasers, trying to take out Verguxa's engines. Siah concentrated on the force as best he could, he sought the guidance.

Looms moved closer to the young Mandalorian. He knew that these tight corridors would make wielding a lightsaber more difficult than his short dagger. "You must be very brave or stupid being this far into Imperium space. Give yourself up now and I'll collect the bounty with you alive, otherwise I'll collect when I hand in your corpse." Looms lunged at Renn.

THe Trandoshan made a tight, fast swing at Renn's wrist, trying to slice the lightsaber from his grip.

 

[Rob the Player]

Renn's heart raced as Looms ran towards him, but he knew what to do. As Looms made his swing, Renn moved one step to the side and swung down on Looms's hand. He then threw his weight against Looms as to push him back. "You're no match for me."

 

[Siah]

The virbobladed dagger went flying out of Looms' grip as Renn's attack found its mark. Being over 2 meters tall and muscular, Renn's shove had little effect on the large Trandoshan. Despite being in heavy armour, the Mandalorian's shove only caused Looms to take a small step back. "You have too much to learn. I've been in more fights than you could imagine, Jedi. I've been doing raids since I was half your age!"
With his blade now lying somewhere on the ground behind him, he grabbed for Renn's wrists while trying to bite his face with his powerful jaws. He knew that he had to disarm Renn, the lightsaber was too great a threat.

 

[Rob the Player]

Renn raised up the saber in defence and swung at the pirate's face. He swung again at his already weakened shoulder. "GET BACK!"

 

[Siah]

Looms whipped his head back just in time to dodge the lightsaber. He did not, however, expect the second swing. A searing pain shot up his arm as the lightsaber's blade bit deep into his shoulder. "Ugh! How dare you, you...!" Looms collapsed to his knees clutching the cauterised wound.

Grobu's Bounty lurched violently as the B-Wing scored a direct hit to it's engines. Siah felt the shock and knew that something had to be done before Verguxa's ship was blown apart. He waited until the B-Wing crossed his HUD, then he fired a shot for the engines. The retaliatory shot was true and the B-Wing began to smoke as it swung around for another sweep of laser fire.
"The pirate fighter is coming around again," Siah said over the comms system.

 

[Rob the Player]

Renn just looked down on the pirate and shook his head. "I guess you didn't learn how to exploit weaknesses, huh?" Renn said as he lowered his saber next to Looms's neck. "I'll give you one chance to answer this correctly, where is the bridge?" He needed to get there as soon as possible if he wanted to save Grobu's Bounty, if it wasn't already destroyed.

 

[Siah]

Looms scowled through the pain. He stared at the Mandalorian with a look of pure hatred. He nodded further down the corridor into the ship, "Second passageway on the right, then head straight on." Looms slumped lazily against the bulkhead, he needed medical attention to treat the searing pain.

Myshak, the infamous captain of the Talakan Liberation front, was furiously relaying instructions to the B-Wing crew. He wanted Grobu's Bounty to be destroyed, but still salvageable. He paced up and down the bridge watching all the sensor information.

 

[Rob the Player]

Renn nodded. Should he kill Looms here? He's obviously dangerous, and wants him dead, but Renn wasn't sure. Jax warned him of the dark side, and how it can destroy people. Killing Looms here would lead to that, so Renn simply left him lying there. Renn turned off the saber and ran down the corridor.

On the way he took out his thermal detonator. He ran into the bridge yelling, detonator in hand. He left the door open behind him. "Nobody move or you all die!" The thermal was raised over his head. This was one of his fathers modded ones, and it would surely destroy the bridge if it went off. "Looms, and the rest of your men are dead." Renn lied, "Call off the attack on our ship NOW!"

 

[Siah]

Myshak was scanning sensor information from the entire system, he had just on an hour before an Imperial patrol entered their sector. He was about to tell the B-Wing to fire the final shot when the door to the bridge slid open with a hiss. Myshak hadn't had time to look up before he heard the shout. He turned to see a blue armoured Mandalorian holding some sort of charge. A pilot sat motionless behind the controls while another crewman was busying himself with a sparking control panel. All three pirates were armed with blaster pistols and the pilot and crewman had plasma torches. The captain had an ornate vibrosword and elaborate hat.

Everyone did freeze, Myshak smiled a genuine smile. He looked the newcomer dead in the eyes, he had wrinkled skin that looked to be too loose and dark bags under his eyes. His silver hair was tied back in a long ponytail under his hat. He wore loose-fitting clothes and high boots that had seen their share of wear. The captain looked intelligent with his piercing blue eyes and crooked smile. His eyes seemed to bore to the soul.

"Well, from the last comms I suspected it hadn't gone according to plan. Unfortunately we were rushed so this wasn't our usual liberation." Myshak was a human amongst a crew of Trandoshans, "Now why would you go and kill such an excellent crew? Unless you're looking to replace them?"

Siah felt Grobu's Bounty swing aside as it narrowly avoided another shot from the B-Wing, he knew that the gunner must be good because he missed by mere centimetres. The Ithorian placed his hands on the controls and used the guidance of the force to fire his next shot.

 

[Rob the Player]

Renn could tell Myshak was stalling. "I'm serious man! Call off the attack or that's it! BOOM!" He made an exploding motion with his free hand. Renn noticed that the rest of the pirates were armed. If this didn't work, he was in big trouble.

 

[Siah]

A cynical smile crept over the old pirate's face, "So you destroy our ship, me, my crew and yourself? What does that buy you? Our fighter will still blow your precious rust bucket to spacedust." He lowered his hand to the console and depressed a small comms button. "Veechan, cease firing and disengage. Enter a holding pattern out of range of their weapons." Myshak winked at the warrior in blue.

Siah waited, he felt the force shifting around him and Grobu's Bounty. He felt a slight tug in the force and followed meditatively. The B-Wing came into view, but the Ithorian followed the force and waited. Not knowing the mysteries of the force's guidance was something Siah had become very comfortable with. He would take action only when led by the force.

A moment later Myshak received a reply over the comms, "Sure thing Cap'n. We're disengaging and pulling further out."

As the B-Wing cut communications it blew up in the silent vacuum of space. The Ithorian's force-guided aim and timing had been true.

Myshak stood facing off against Renn. He slowly drew his vibrosword.

 

[Rob the Player]

Renn pressed the red button on the detonator, and threw it. He subconsciously guided the detonator toward the glass window with the force. Quickly, he jumped back into the corridor and closed the door with a wave of his hand. He heard the boom behind him, so he made a mad dash towards were he left Looms. "Ok bud, change of plans. We're both getting out of here. If you help." Renn said, gasping for air. He needed to find escape pods, and maybe even some bonus cargo on the ship.