Ye who enter here...
Posted on Sat Jul 16th, 2022 @ 12:30pm by Flight Officer Tawshiikkyrr & Lieutenant Kor' de'leia & Lieutenant Melvyn Kosta & Flight Officer Onyesonwu Zyd & Flight Officer Rana Dahlgren & Flight Officer Veil of Shadow, or Vesha (Tiphereth)
Mission:
Scoundrels, Cuttthroats and Rogues
Location: Kolia Breaking Yard
Timeline: Day 1 at 0000
The approach to the Kolia Breaking Yard would be harrowing to average pilots. A dense multitude of wreckage from spacecraft to industrial stations to common rubbish blasted into space to clear it from its native planet's surface had been collected to be broken down and salvaged for aggregate stock and basic building components. The station itself was in the center of the extensive debris field with corridors cleared for ingress and egress of freighters to haul away the recycled product. Looking not unlike a rusted spider in its web of twisted metal and duracrete, an industrial recycling facility sprawled multiple operations pods off a central operations station.
The Tobuk Chal Lanna was able to move right in on the station with nothing other than automated messaged warning of prosecution for entering an Imperial Industrial complex without required permits and authorization.
Tawshii had enough years and flight hours to be considered well above average, but even the big, confident wookiee was quiet and focused in the unspoken concentration he and Haro shared in moments like these. Internally, he already regretted bringing Onye with them, though having their unlikely trio together in the face of danger was definitely preferable to leaving her alone back on Nar Shadda.
Still, as human and wookiee meticulously threaded the transport through the eyes of a myriad of needles, both felt the chill ice of minor regret and wholehearted trepidation. The warning was a mere whisper in the nonexistent wind by comparison. They pushed on, Haro's glance to Tawshii reciprocated by a furry nod denied eye contact as the wookiee pilot focused on their position relative to the constant external threat of collision.
Their act of defiance to the automated orders did not result in any noticeable change on the station. No weapons were activated or locked on, no defensive shields, no... anything. The station floated like a derelict ghost in the blackness of space. Only the slight twinkle of working lights that were likely kept running for safety purposes, there was little sign of activity.
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Monitoring the 'Chal's scans as they approached, Onye's eyebrows remained knit together in worry as Tawshi deftly navigated the corridor through the debris field. "I'm still not detecting any response to our presence here." Nothing at all, she signed.
Haro nodded, but said nothing, his full concentration on shield distribution and micro-manoeuvres, tacking the ship in amongst Tawshii's overall control of their flightpath. Don't jinx it. Haro thought the words as the wookiee grumbled a quiet protest to the distraction. They were okay until they weren't, and they were too far into the mess to swiftly extricate themselves now.
Flipping back a lekku from her shoulder, Kor chewed at her lip looking at the dark monster outside the viewport. "This is fraking weird. They never let ships get this close."
The lights of the Chal illuminated the station and as they moved lower on the central pod, the open maw of a large docking port was visible. A slight bluish tint to the entry port showed the atmospheric containment field was operating. A great deal of smoke filled the inside of the docking bay as well as flashing emergency lights.
Tawshii yowled, a release of that long, slow tension that had been building within his considerable form. Stretching out his arms and cracking his knuckles, the big wookiee offered up a chuckling laugh - they'd made it! One up on the Empire!
"So do we just go in?" Kor shrugged. There genuinely didn't seem to be anything stopping them from proceeding.
"Yes," Haro confirmed in the immedate wake of Tawshii's grumbling affirmative sounds. And inwards they slowly went, risking whatever had made this station so damn quiet.
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The Bay showed large markings of 34-X as they approached. They penetrated the inner atmospheric containment shield with no issues. Once inside they could clearly see the deep furrows or ripped up deck plating leading to the smoking remains of an Imperial shuttle on the far side of the dock. The flash of rotating warning lights from a cluster of repair droids filled the docking bay. Curiously none of the droids moved, they appeared to have been shut down in the middle of whatever task they were conducting.
Tawshii exhaled the wookiee equivalent of a long slow whistle at this sight, and brought them in for a slow, careful landing. He let Haro set the securities, moving up and out as soon as the Chal was stationary, shifting to grab his bowcaster and rifle then headed directly for the lowering exit ramp. He wanted to be first out, ready to blast as needed if anything raised its aggressive head. Solid thumps resounded in the bigger space as wookiee weight rocked the Chal's exit ramp in a percussion of expectant violence.
A small sleek looking transport was parked on the deck. Definitely not Imperial design. The droids were frozen in patterns that didnt seem to acknowledge the ship was even there.
Tawshii sniffed the air as his bowcaster swept the bay from left to right, up and back down to level. Nothing moved. That was... weird. He gave a thumbs up to Haro, sat in the cockpit window above him, and moved on towards the biggest exit.
Docking bay 34-X of the Kolia Breaking Yard looked like any other rundown space station Melvyn had ever been to, only emptier and shabbier. The smell of oil, burnt plastic and hot metal was pervasive. A large imperial logo had been painted on the far wall, though it only did so much to hide the rust underneath.
As he disembarked Melvyn looked at the nearest droids but they paid him absolutely no attention, keeping their impromptu stillness. He allowed his hand to drop to the blaster at his side, just to feel the reassuring smoothness of the hilt under his fingers. The fact that he'd been allowed to keep it - that and the fact that he was walking free now - showed that he'd come a long way in the eyes of his companions. Well. Some of them anyway.
"Any idea where we should start looking?" he asked, looking at Kor.
"Considering the condition of this place, I think we need to find the control room. Not sure what is still functioning here, but we to make sure this place isn't going to disintegrate around us, and an inventory would be useful if we can get a droid plugged in."
Via her headset, Onye added, "We may need physical access to the control room to determine what happened here. I have a bad feeling about this. It's not like the Empire to just... ignore whatever this is - a malfunction maybe. Surely a repair crew has been dispatched to investigate."
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From across the space, Tawshii yowled loud enough to make Haro (up in the Chal's cockpit still) wiggle a finger in his ear under the flight headset. "I can call up the plans," he confirmed. "Security's busted some, but looks like all the droids are down?"
Kor nodded. "Let's hope we are long gone before they get here. So who is up for a quick stretch of their legs?" she asked, rather purposely stretching one of her long shapely legs out in front of her.
Movement from the small transport suddenly caught their attention. A Twi'lek and what appeared to be a Shistavanen wolfman jumped off the ship's ramp.
"Looks like things are getting interesting." The pink twil'lek stated, picking up her blaster and dagger. "All ashore that's going ashore!" she called as she leaped down the ramp after the wookie. Likely not the smartest tactical move, but given a target of a two meter tall walking carpet or a lithe young twil'lek in shorts and a top that were far too small for her, she'd take her chances.
Onye noticed a flashing notification on the 'Chal's cockpit communications board. Someone was sending a distress call from inside the station. To be precise, someone was sending an Imperial distress call from inside the station.
Onye's worried gaze moved from the display to Haro. "A malfunction might be auto-generated by the station computing system. Could take weeks for the Empire to send a response to a backwater station like this. But a distress call likely means live personnel calling for help. We may not have much time."
"Kor, Tawshii - someone's sending the Imps a call for help," Haro relayed via the comms. "We're in trouble." He looked to his sister in all but DNA and rolled his eyes. "I got a real bad feeling about this," Haro added to the still open link. "I'm gonna stay with the ship, keep her running for a quick exit."
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Back turned now to that internal exit door, Tawshii turned his bowcaster to the unknown duo and roared a warning/greeting that thundered in the quiet space of the docking bay. Considering the reality and danger of their current location, that was all the advice they were likely to get before the firing started.
Kor hit the bottom of the ramp and rolled out some distance from Tawshii. She leveled her blaster and started to get a bead on a crossfire toward the new arrivals.
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Onye's jaw clenched with frustration. She'd wanted to go with them, but she knew any risk she took, even just her presence, might distract Tawshii and put them both in danger. Onye was not a bad shot, when her quarry was a programmed target. Shooting at people though… that was harder, but there were many difficult things she'd done simply because she had to.
There was nothing she could do to help her companions in their current confrontation, so Onye turned her full attention to hacking into the station's communication system remotely. Maybe I can do something about that distress call and buy us some time, she signed.
The Imperial network was not to be sliced by the faint of heart, but as the station was predominately automated, after a little tinkering, Onye found herself looking at the full communications array for the station. The distress call was a repeating message originating in the control center.
"I'm in," gasped Onye, as finally one of her attempts to wriggle in through a gap succeeded and she sliced past the firewall and into station comms. Her triumph was short lived. With her fingers on the controls, and her gaze on the screen, she spoke aloud to Haro, whom she assumed was seeing the same thing. "Trying to shut it down from here, but if I can't…" She glanced at Haro and signed, ideas?
Haro was keeping an eye on Tawshii, Kor and Melvyn, and his gaze didn't immediately shift to regard Onye, but took its time. "Well done," he told her, casting his attention her way finally, then without missing a beat, offered an option. "If you can't," Haro suggested. "Then we call in from here - should be able to use our transmission to block their outgoing one?" It was possible, but tricky.
Onye glanced up at Haro, then followed his gaze to the situation unfolding on the station. Tawshii, Kor, and Melvyn were under attack by battle droids. She swore, under her breath and with gesture. At least it appeared – as much as she could assess in a momentary glance - the two strangers were now allies.
Returning her attention to the threat she could actually do something about, she replied dubiously, "Maybe." A sentient comms operator, or a sophisticated automated system, might stop sending an outgoing message if they detected an incoming message on the same frequency. Comms was electromagnetic waves through space, not water through a pipe. Still, Haro had given her an idea. "I'm initiating a scan, to determine which comms frequencies are being used to broadcast the distress call." She returned to the backdoor she'd opened in the station's comm system. "And, I'm trying to figure out what response the station is waiting for. We can transmit that on the other frequencies."
As Onye considered her strategy, Haro's gaze never wavered from the external events. His pulse racing, he watched the situation unfold, trusting in their allies and keeping a look out for any trouble sneaking up on them from any other direction. Nothing on the outward scanners yet, but there was a good deal of internal shielding to deal with too.
"Okay," Haro said in response to the young woman, but his mind was mostly elsewhere. "Or we just jam everything..." he eventually added as a late afterthought. "Maybe safer?"
Jamming everything could still bring Imps to investigate. Better to stop the signal at the source, but she was too engrossed in slicing to respond. Security protocols threw up firewalls, but she skittered around. The station’s basic AI turned it’s attention to her, but she initiated a maze of recursive loops to slow it down. Then, there it was. The code the station was waiting for.
Onye sent the code, mimicking the expected response from an Imperial repair team on its way. "Distress signal is down for now," said Onye and stood next to Haro. She gasped at what was unfolding, and murmured, "Droids."
"They're in trouble," Haro agreed. Hoping he meant that trouble was Tawshii. "Front shields up if they start firing at the Chal."
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Melvyn pulled his blaster out and thumbed the safety off. He didn't point it at the new arrivals just yet but he was ready to shoot to kill if they seemed hostile. Tawshii and Kor seemed ready as well. Melvyn stepped away from the other two so they formed three distinct targets, forcing the twi'lek and shistavanen to spread out their shots more.
His first instinct was to shout a warning. Something like 'Put down your weapons and identify yourselves!', which probably would have been a dead giveaway of his Imperial background, so he bit his tongue. Better let Kor and Tawshii do the talking.
Tawshii stood firm, bowcaster unwavering, and waited.
Kor moved toward the duo, taking close note of the other Twi'lek. Her blaster remained leveled at the newcomer, but her lekku spread apart in a welcoming gesture. "L'anan dei lisi'er." she called out, asking them to lower their weapons.
Rana looked at the Twi'lek speaking Ryl it had been quite some time since she heard her native tongue " Cao dan tol gan go ohsi enkalei," and added " Jeejee doth wata bai bapeha wa pankpa che mi," in Huttese which was her preferred language other than Basic.
Tiph had taken a few steps from the ramp of her ship, scanner in one hand and blaster in the other. Her ears twisted in the direction of the ship that had landed. She looked to Rana then to the three who exited the ship once it set down. A pink female Twi'lek, a male Wookiee and a human male.
When the wookiee let out a roar, Tiphs ears twitched a little. About to howl a response back the Twi'lek spoke. Interesting enough, as long and as much time that Tiph and Rana have known each other and spent together, Tiph has only picked up on bits of the Twi'lek language. Still the tone said that they were not enemies. Her ears twitched slightly as her tail swished slowly and her eyes grew a little brighter when Rana responded back.
Still wary, Tiph kept her blaster pointed down though turned to face the wookie and the human, as best she could. "Names Vesha. You?" Her tone was pleasant yet had a bit of a growl to it.
As the strangers lowered weapons and began talking to Kor, Tawshii eased his stance just a little, but kept his weapon levelled casually against his left forearm. He looked a little more casual, at least as much as a seven foot tall wookiee could, and he kept quiet and listened. Was this a distraction?
Vesha. Melvyn automatically sought to remember the list of wanted criminals all Imperial officers had to memorize, but the name rang no bells. At least the Shistavanen had the courtesy to speak Basic.
"I'm Melvyn," he said, careful not to offer his last name. If an altercation could be avoided that was his preference, but he wasn't sheathing his blaster just yet. "What are you people doing here ?"
So long as their business didn't involve hijacking the Tobuk Chal, they might all be able to just... ignore each other and get things done. Maybe.
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Tiph tilted her head slightly and gave a small smirk at the human's name. It was definitely different than any other human name she had heard before. Her eyes blazed blue within her smirk. "Melvyn is it." She paused as she looked slowly around then back to Melvyn. "You want to know what we are doing here? (grin, looks to Rana then back to Melvyn) Not sure if you have the proper clearance for that information." She twitches her ears and swishes her tail a bit more playfully.
Rana grinned from ear to eat at Tiph "I don't see any harm in telling them, as it appears that they aren't meant to be here either," she told Tiph.
"We're here to steal a ship from the wretched imps, to replace mine, which some moron of an Imperial Captain decided to turn into molten slag," Rana told Melvyn noting the fact that he had an Imperial sounding accent.
A rolling chuckle of a laugh emanated from the big wookiee at this admission. He had to admire the gall of that, and their pheromones drifting across the bay had the scent of truth. Tawshii lowered his bowcaster a notch, confident he could raise it again just as fast if needed.
Kor watched as the couple of newcomers started to relax and actually seemed quite amiable. She relaxed her hold on the blaster, still keeping it on the pair, but not rigidly focusing it on them. "Good reason to be here. I dare say we are also here to acquire ships to fight the Empire." she said in standard basic. "Perhaps we can speed this process up together."
"Sounds like a plan," Rana said after a brief hesitation "Just in time too, cause we've got unwelcome company," she added at the sight of droids headed their way.
Unwelcome company? Droids! No warning to speak of via smell and only now that faint hint of sound.
Melvyn recognized immediately the characteristic - and somewhat emblematic - make of the modified B2 battle droids. A little bit antiquated but no less dangerous, especially in higher numbers. He'd thought they were all shut down but obviously he'd been wrong.
And, quite clearly, they were hostile.
"Eliminate intruders." The nearest droid stopped and took aim.
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Melvyn started moving before his brain had fully had time to process the situation. He started shooting at the droids - though he wasn't sure the blaster he carried was powerful enough to pierce through the droids' plate armour - and looked for cover.
Rana dove for cover, she had no idea whether or not her twin blasters could dispose of the droids or not, and she only had one thermal detonator, which would work if it landed amongst the droids, or it would be wasted.
Tiph's ears twitched at the sound of the droids approach before she seen them. She chides herself for not picking up their sound sooner. Turning she fired two shots at the nearest one, knowing that her blaster wasn't going to be that effective. Diving out of the way and behind some cover, once their she glanced around to check to see where Rana had gone. Spotting her, she let out a yip and growl to let her know that she was ok, then started to pepper the droids with blaster shots.
Battle droids, just over six foot tall and usually commanded by humans or tactical droids. Less effective when left to their own devices, but still packing twin wrist blasters and intimidating-looking enough, especially as a surprise reveal. Y'know, if you weren't 7ft tall and strong enough to rip limbs off most lifeforms, metallic or otherwise. Tawshii walked towards the first one, blasted it twice with a casual upward swing of his bowcaster, sending electromagnetically charged quarrels at high speed into his target. It wasn't alone, so he followed up with two shots at the second, then dropping his shoulder to grab an fizzling droid leg in one hand, picked up the thing and spun it wildly into the third. The crashing sound amused him, so the big wookiee's laughter mixed with the sounds of battle as he fired his heavy weapon one-handed into whatever remained of their inbound targets.
Seeing the wookie in action made Melvyn feel more positive about having the big furry beast on his side - sort of. Not on the enemy side anyway, and that was good enough for him.
His blaster didn't pack the same power as Tawshii's bowcaster but it was accurate, and so was Melvyn. He took advantage of the droids being otherwise occupied by an angry wookie to aim carefully. As well-built as droids may be, they usually found recovering from a blaster shot to the eyes as challenging as any organic. Melvyn's first shot only grazed the droid but his second one was well adjusted. Metal and plastic melted, leaving the droid shooting blindly around him.
As the droids rolled in, Kor flipped her blaster towards them and started firing, even as she rolled towards a nearby pile crates for cover. Droids may be stupid, but these monsters tore her homeworld of Ryloth apart during the Clone wars. While she was too young to have witnessed the slaughter, she was had heard the tales. Never trust a droid, her mother had told her. She never had.
She was heartened to see the Wookie's charge and the frames of droids being flung about. She concentrated her fire on the droids nearest the big guy. Most of her shots bounced harmlessly away off the machines' armor, but at least one lit up and burned itself out from her efforts.
"Anybody got any bright ideas for these things?" she called out.
Rana holstered her blasters and retrieved her ace up her sleeve and primed the thermal detonator, she hoped that the Wookie was paying attention otherwise it might not come out of this so well.
Rana tossed the thermal detonator at the grouped droids and took cover I hope that walking carpet is paying attention she told herself and waited for the thing to go BANG.
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Kor watched the Twi'lek toss the detonator. She was equally horrified and impressed. Whatever, she needed to get behind better cover, she stood to scamper back toward the Chal, and remembered... Tawshii. She looked his way and shouted in her loudest Shirwook "Jump!". She then recoiled to try to seek cover by the Chal's landing gear, praying the big guy found cover.
Melvyn only spotted a flash of silver, but the characteristic beeping was what gave it away. His eyes widened as he scrambled for more cover, but he didn't have time to get very far before the thermal detonator exploded.
Tiph had been tagging one of the droids when she seen the wookie start blaring away with his bow caster. Then pulling off the limb of a droid. This brought a grin and a howling chuckle to her. It was then that she spotted the tell tale silver of Rana's thermal detonator. With the loudest bellowing howl she could muster. "Everyone down!"
The deafening sound was followed by an intense heatwave and blinding light, thankfully limited to a fairly small area in the hangar. By the time Melvyn managed to blink back tears, the droid squad had been turned in a pile of molten metal completely fused to the floor of the hangar. Still blinking away the searing light of the detonator he looked around for Kor and Tawshii, to make sure they'd escaped the deadly explosion.
"Everyone okay?" he called.
Rana emerged from her hiding spot to admire her handy work "Let's hope there aren't more of them, as I am out of thermal detonators," she commented.
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For what felt like the longest moment, there was nothing but a whoosing sound and grey darkness. A distant sense of pain rolled up on him then like an ocean wave crashing over his body and Tawshii opened one eye, blinked, and closed it again. Bright light. Hard sound. Shockwave. Melty smell and red darkness with pinpoints of unpleasantly hard whiteness. Only one thing did that and left you alive afterwards. Thermal detonator shockwave.
Pushing his feet against the wall, Tawshii moved to stand up and realised he was upside-down. The ungainly and awkward roll sideways left him with a strong smell of burning fur and a tangy taste of blood on his teeth. Feet hit the real ground as he reached for the harshest source of pain, and long fingers located a big piece of droid leg armour sticking out of his shoulder.
The resonating battle roar that left the Wookiee's mouth threatened to challenge the life of whoever had been dumb enough to let of a small contained nuke in a loading bay's confined space, particularly one with lives he cared about within its limits.
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Tiph shifted from behind what was left the metal crates that she has hid behind. She blink a few times to clear her vision, twitched her ears to ty and clear away the ringing. It was then that the battle roar from the Wookie filled the air. Shifting to look over the last of the metal crates she had used for cover, Tiph spotted what was left of the droids and the roaring Wookie. She heard someone ask if everyone was ok. "I am good. Rana?"
"I am good thank you," Rana said to Tiph and looked a little bit guiltily at the Wookie whom she'd damaged with her thermal detonator.
It was a toss up what was making Kor's head ache more, the resonance of the detonator or the bellowing of the Wookie. She was overjoyed to see Tawshii emerge from the wreckage in one piece. The blast had apparently achieved its purpose, reducing their adversaries to slag, it had also left a gaping five meter hole in the floor of the landing bay.
Kor peeled herself from the landing gear of the Chal and dropped herself to the deck, once more turning her attention to their new 'companions'. She lowered her blaster to her side, but kept her finger on the trigger. Kor looked over her sister Twi'lek, noticing the slightly guilty look on her face.
"A bold move hurling an explosive across a landing bay on a space station. Many would consider such a move foolhardy and suicidal. My compliments." she said nodding to the one called Rana.
Rana looked sheepishly at the other Twi'lek "I was out of droid poppers," she said.
Tiph shook her head slightly. She had known that Rana was out of droid poppers. Still, she should have expected the thermal detonator.
She looked at the roaring Wookie. "However if you don't happen to be fluent in Shirwook, our dear Tawshii seems prepared to rend your limbs apart. And not in a good way." she added a sly look on her face.
A short distance away, Tawshii was still occupied with trying to extricate the large piece of metal from his shoulder, but the roaring hadn't died down any and he had a real short to-do list. Metal out. Smash twi'lek.
"Well I'm out of thermal detonators, so he's safe," Rana said grinning from ear to ear.
Another action notched up on the wookiee's to-do list. Wipe smile off that pretty face.
Tiph moved to stand between the wookiee and Rana. She could tell that he was angry. Not just because of this roaring, but also do to his scent. If she had to describe it, she would say spikey.
"We should introduce ourselves. Kor'de'leia, star of stage and screen of Chandrilla, and operative for the free systems of the Galaxy." her lekku remained in a welcoming stance, while her hand stayed on her blaster.
"Rana Dahlgren, no specific homeworld, freelancer, and former slave," Rana said introducing herself.
Introductions were interrupted by the loud rumbling of blast doors closing around the flight deck.
Crap Rana told herself "Um we'd best move before the doors seal themselves, or we'll be trapped her til the Imps get here," she said stating the obvious.
Tiphs ears twitched at the sound of the blast doors starting to move. "Introductions later."
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Blood matting his fur, Tawshii now lumbered that short distance across the charred section of bay, intent on smacking his least favourite of the two twi'leks. His stance and voice left anyone in visual range of him in no doubt about that whatsoever.
Tiph had been about to continue though she was interrupted by the angry walking carpet making his way towards Rana. She purposely stood her ground between the wookiee and his target Rana. Her voice steady as she lowered her blaster to the ground, shot, then brought it back up. "Back off or I will put your down. Won't kill you but you will wish you were dead."
At the sound of the blaster bolt sizzling into the deck, Kor whirled around leveling her blaster at Tiph. Two quick shots and the newcomers were dead, that's all it would take. Kor questioned why she was holding back. Maybe seeing one of her own kind made her sentimental... her lekku quivered a little at the argument taking place in her head. Then there was the Roar.
Tawshii was rapidly closing on their location, and even a dead Wookie would still slam into them at this range. She kept her blaster poised to drop anyone that twitched.
No words or actions would stop Tawshii's battle charge. Even if he had heard them over the rage screaming in his head, he still wouldn't have acted upon either threat - weapon or warning - simply because it was far too late for that now. It had been too late when the twi'lek had deliberately hurled a tiny nuclear weapon into the brawl he'd been engaged in with the droids. The warrior within was furious, the red mist was fully operational and the reckoning was inbound.
A couple of hundred pounds of big, muscled furball hit the curvaceous little armed shistavanen at speed. Different shades of fur - dark brown/black versus black/silver-white - mingled in a brutal rolling embrace that rolled across the metal flooring and skidded to a halt by the Chal's landing gear in a messy wrestle of a hug. Tawshii's arms wrapped about the shistavanen's arms and chest to keep any firearm action at bay, his heated breath in her ear and his heart-rate thumping. He held the unknown little warrior tight for a second or two, then howled in overt pain. Though the shistavanen beneath him couldn't see it, to anyone above and beyond their close-in cuddle, there it was, overt and shiny in the bay lights. A big jagged piece of metal that had once formed half a B2 droid's left leg embedded in the wookiee's broad, bloodied shoulder.
Tiph had not expected the wookiee to cover the ground so quickly. She had just finished saying 'dead' when her sight was blocked by a flash of brown/black fur. The sensation of flying was brief, very brief, which was replaced by pain as she hit the deck. The only thing that reduced the pain a little was the fact that she was wrapped in the wookiee's arms as they rolled across the deck to a stop. Her eyes came into focus along with the rest of her senses. She could feel the wookiee still holding her tight, she did not put up a fight. She also felt the thudding of his heart, she could smell his anger yet beneath that she could smell his pain. Her eyes focused on the piece of droid sticking out of Tawshii. Her tone was jovial yet also held concern. "Alright big guy, I know you like me but this is not the way to get my attention. Besides I like my men without big metal pieces sticking out of them. Why don't we get you fixed up. (lowers her voice to a whisper only Tawshii could hear) Then we can see where this might go. (pause) Besides, I think you may have broken more than my pride." As she turned her head towards where the two of them had rolled across the deck, spotting her goggles.
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Mission half-accomplished, Tawshii pushed his palms down on the decking and forced himself back upright. Seven foot above the floor and the shistavanen didn't help his mood any, but he heard her words well enough. She didn't sound angry, more amused, which pissed him off. Most things were pissing him off right now though. The idiocy of the detonator. The pain in his shoulder. Folks talking when he was dealing with both those previous things.
He yowled something that sounded less like he was about to rip the shistavanen's head off and more that he might simply want someone to help him out. He couldn't reach his own back, and it damn well hurt. To Kor, the words were an obvious request. Simply translated - get this thing out of my shoulder and we'll talk about broken!
Tiph stood and looked up at the wookiee. She could not understand what he was saying though his tone was not as angry as before. Which was a good thing. Tiph moved to his side where the piece of metal was sticking out. Raising her hands up, palms out, "Alright, Tawshii is it? Let's get this out of you."
A wandering cry of frustrated, uncertainty followed, Tawshii shook his head. But it hurt, and she sounded calm and looked unthreatening all of a sudden. Perhaps... Doubt clouded his expression, he looked to Kor and briefly chuckled at the sight of his newest friend's armaments. Kor would have fired had it been necessary, he believed that well enough.
Tawshii dropped to one knee, allowing the shistavanen to help him, but his gaze tracked warily and with menace towards the blue twi'lek. A low growl mixed warning with acceptance as the wookiee ducked his wounded shoulder towards Tiph in expectation and potential trust.
The piercing shout of pain hurt sensitive ears as Tawshii stood back up and flexed his arms experimentally.
Her eyes glowing blue, Tiph looked over the piece. "It is not in deep. Probably by a nerve though." Placing her hand on one side of the piece and grabbing it with her other, "On there. One, two...." She will pull the piece out. "Not so bad now was it." She looked it over. Very clean and straight with a very wicked sharp point. "I can see why it hurt."
Tawshii canted his head from one side to the other and nodded emphatically. Yes, it had hurt. And this was their fault - these individuals he didn't know. He took the few steps required to fetch the goggles that smelled of shistavanen and picked them up off the floor to give them a gentle shake.
Yup, definitely broken.
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"I apologize for my actions noble Wookie, I meant to kill them droids, not to injure/maim you," Rana said to the Wookie not sure if it understood Basic or not hoping that one of those with it could translate if not.
It was up to Kor whether she shared the outpouring of shyriiwook cursing or not, Tawshii simply let the words roll out of his mouth with a displeased enthusiasm. There was some arm waving, obscene gesturing and a low, warning rumble of a growl, but no actual physical move to kill this new twi'lek. All things considered that was about as good as she could expect as an acceptance of blame and an apology.
Kor looked around the scene trying to process, the apologizing Shistivanean and the leaping howling wookie. She totally understood Tawshii's urge to pummel them, but it really didnt improve their situation, nor would a shootout with folks not wearing stormtrooper armor. She let the situation play out making sure her Twi'lek sister didn't make any sudden moves with her blaster.
"If y'all are done rolling around, we have some pretty serious issues to attend to." She dropped her blaster to its holster on her thigh, trusting Imperial discipline to make sure the newcomers were still checked.
"Now that we are acquainted, how about we figure how to accomplish what we each came here for. I need ships, and I dont think we are getting to them there." she said pointing to the now sealed blast doors.
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In the Tobuk Chal Lanna’s cockpit, Onye blinked, trying to recover from the blinding light from a… "That was a thermal detonator!" Angrily, she signed, What kind of insanity does it take to set off a thermal detonator in a hanger bay? She initiated the ship’s diagnostics program, if the ‘Chal was damaged, there was no possibility of a fast retreat. Then, scanning the carnage, she grabbed Haro's arm and added worriedly, "Do you see Tawshii? Is he all right?"
A more detailed diagnostic would need to be run, but the basic damage sensors were showing only minor damage to the external hull from the blast. Radiation levels were normal and hull integrity remained green.
Haro was on his feet, blaster at his side, face furious. There was cursing, inventively rude and with promise of violence, as he took a step back and then turned to Onye. "They could have killed him," Haro spat the words coated with anger. "He's hurt.. and he's charging..." Onye's arm on his stopped him from immediately running to Tawshii's defence, but that mood was fleeting and fading fast. "Why is Kor just talking to her?! What the hell...."
Onye wished the sight of her adoptive father figure, bloody and charging, was more reassuring, but she knew Tawshii could take a lot of damage and still keep fighting. "The medical kit-"
A loud audible screech flooded the comm system. Onye noticed the distress call was once more transmitting under an imperial prefix code.
Onye hastily removed her headset and adjusted the sound in the cockpit, hand still touching Haro's arm for comfort. "I'll try jamming the signal, like you said before."
Haro winced, then pulled free from Onye's light hold. "Someone needs to stay with the ship," he pointed out, neither volunteering himself or his adoptive sister, but simply stating a fact.
Onye looked at her console, noting changes to the station's firewall that accompanied the resumed distress signal. This was bad. She put her headset back on and spoke to Melvyn, Kor, and Tawshii as well as Haro. "There must be a sentient operator in the station's control room, maintaining the distress signal." Then she hugged Haro, so like a brother to her, and said just to him, "I'll stay with the ship. Be careful."
He returned the hug, despite his urgency to leave and Haro nodded as he then took a step back. "I'll be right back," he confirmed, grabbing the big first aid kit from its place next to the cockpit hatch. "Something tell's me we'll be leaving...." he added, emotion wrapped about those words. "Just want to make sure Tawshii's fixed up and I'll be right back, okay."
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