Ambush over Tatooine

[Vinzer]

Join in and take the story wherever you want, but if you use a character in this thread, you have to use a different one in the other thread!

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Vinzer sat in the pilot's chair of the Blackjack, feet up on the console. He watched the swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace as the ship made it's way to the Outer Rim. He was alone on the bridge at the moment, though some of the other pirate Rovers were scattered about on-board.

A short while later, the Vigo-class ship emerged from hyperspace. The sandy orb that was Tatooine hung in space far in the distance. Vinzer flipped on the ship-wide comm. "We're back. We'll make port in Eisley in a -- "

The captain's words were cut short by a bright flash of light off the starboard bow, followed by a muffled explosion somewhere on one of the lower decks. Vinzer tried to identify the attackers on his console displays, but the screens were flickering from the damage.

"We're under attack!" Vinzer shouted. "Anyone that can, man a turret and stand by to repel boarders!"

Whoever had attacked them wasn't going to get them without a fight.

[Sarene]

I love action!

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Sarene flew forward in the cargo bay as the Blackjack was hit by an explosion, smashing into her bacta modules she had been working on for the last several days. The modules spew bacta all over, drenching supplies, equipment, consoles, and Sarene's new clothes.

She stood up and wiped herself down with her hands as Vinzer roars over the comm to man guns. "Sure thing hunny, but your buying me a whole new wardrobe for this!" Alarms bleep and beep as Sarene stumbles through the Bay door and heads down the hall towards the Engine room.

"Bwwwpp! Cweweweoo!" Crank buzzes out of the Engine room, smoking and bumping into Sarene. "I don't care if you can't see through all the smoke, fix that leak now clanker!" she yells. Sarene pulls her shirt above her nose and wafts through the smoke to get to a turret, taking notice of a bright console showing the Engine status.

Main Engine Status...Online

Fuel Injection...OK
Coolant..........Damaged
Reactor..........OK

"Looks like shes holding together, just hope Crank can fix the Coolant before the Engines overheat" she thinks to herself, turning a corner and another and gripping a ladder. Sarene slides down and lands on her boots with a thunk, turning around and sitting herself in the gunner operations chair. Flicking several switches, the targeting screen lights up and the gun's capacitor charges as she reports in. "Sarene here, manning the lower port cannon!" she says, gripping the control sticks and placing her fingers over the triggers...

[Ithius]

Ithius sat in the Generator Room, slowly and carefully sliding small red and blue game pieces across a board. "Aha! Think you've got me now, do you? How's your parry? Watch my thrust!". Though no one was watching the cameras active in the room, it was clear that Ithius was completely by himself.

His quiet game of "Red Block vs. Blue Block" (which no one fully understands) was interrupted by a loud explosion. The lights flickered. All of the pieces on the game board scattered across the table and onto the floor.

"DAMNIT! I WAS SO CLOSE TO WINNI-" halfway through his sentence, another explosion rocked the ship. The lights turned off entirely for a few seconds, and all of the generators and mechanics slowed down, causing their normal tinks and tanks to turn into low-pitched hums. "My goodness, how absolutely delightful! A challenge!" As he bagan picking the blue and red blocks off the floor, Vinzer chimed in over the in-ship comm system, "Ithius! What the hell are you doing in the generator room?! Nevermind, get your ass up front!"

Opening the Generator Room door, another smaller explosion caused the ship to sway enough that Ithius fell face-first across the hallway and slammed his face into the opposing door, which then slid open with a triumphant *shlck*.

Picking himself up and dusting himself off, he nursed a now-bleeding nose as he made his way down the hallway towards the front of the ship. Another explosion, or perhaps some excessively fancy flying maneuvers, caused him to lose his balance and pull a Kloo Horn poster off the wall, which he had a difficult time pulling off his face.

As he stood back up, his face partially obscured by a hand tending to his bleeding nose, he recognized a voice coming from around the corner; "I thought Jedi were supposed to be able to see these things coming? Couldn't you 'magic' your nose to stop bleeding?"

Ithius uncovered his face to see a familiar character infront of him...

[Agraathaa]

Ledra stood before Ithius, smiling despite the danger. Smiling for two reasons.

The first, seeing Ithius bleeding. She resented Ithius even being a Jedi, when she herself had failed the training, though she felt that largely she was more of what a Jedi should be like than he was. She even remarked to Ithius, "You make me wish I was a clone.", an underhanded jab of which Ithius never asked for the explanation but had he, Ledra would have readily confessed that her wish had everything to do with order 66. Additionally, another secret torment she inflicted on Ithius was that she had slipped an extra red block into his Red Block Blue Block set. Though she did not understand the game herself, she had it on a reliable authority that by adding an extra red block, it would make most games come maddeningly close to victory, but would render an actual victory completely impossible.

The second reason for her smile, she had been hiding off in a cargo hold where, contrary to Vinzer's orders, she had been ingesting great quantities of various compounds of spice. She had reasoned that they were so close to making port, what could be the harm of it, and that though she was a spice head, she was a highly functional spice head, which was definitely true, especially when one considered the size of her doses.

As Ithius stood staring at her smiling face, Ledra offered, "Well we better make sure it isn't broken", as she quickly reached out and grabbed Ithius's nose, and when she realized that it was not broken, she did not let that stop her from breaking it and re-setting it. "There!"

Ithius, his eyes heavy with water from the abuse his already hurt nose had just endured, in a very cheery tone of voice said, "Wow! Thank you!"

Ledra could not help but wish in that moment that she had left his nose horribly crooked. She felt a little better as she realized it was just starting to swell, and would soon be as large as a ripe dorian fruit. "Oh, you are most welcome, friend. Perhaps I should check on it later, to ensure it is mending properly." Smiling now at the thought that she may yet have an opportunity to fix his nose so it looks like a map of Beggar's Canyon.

Ithius replied, "I would appreciate that very much if you would, friend. But right now we should be getting to our guns."

She had completely forgotten the situation at hand and upon being reminded she walked off, without any further word, towards her assigned gun.

She had been assigned a top turret and when she arrived at the ladder leading up to it, she made a new discovery about herself. That, though she was a highly functional spice head, among the functions she could manage, when she was in the ways of the spiced, climbing a ladder was not.

She made three pathetic attempts to climb the ladder to her assigned gun. On the third her hands slipped and she fell backward, her head bouncing off of the steel deck of the ship. The impact did not render her unconscious, just a lot more looped than she already was.

She had somehow managed to stand, barely. Her eyes seemed to cross and uncross, lights seemed to flicker, as she staggered and stumbled to try to remain erect.

Wandering the ship now, with a partial concussion, trying to find her way to the ships sick bay. With her legs gone all rubbery and her attempts to stay above them, she managed to find her way into a bottom turret, quite by accident, as she fell into it. All together bypassing the ladder she would not have been able to manage properly descending anyway.

Fortunately the turret was empty. It had been designated to be unmanned as the crew was short and it was deemed to be of lesser importance than other turrets on the ship.

Even more fortunately, when Ledra fell into the turret she fell in such a way as to get entangled in the guns yoke and trigger, sending off a wild burst of fire that, incredibly, turned out to be a one in a million shot, destroying one of the more menacing ships positioned to the rear of the Black Jack instantly. The explosion was so violent and close that some debris from the destroyed ship slammed into and rocked the Black Jack, sending Ledra's head slamming into the steel bulkhead just above the gunner's seat.

This second impact on Ledra's head brought her world back into focus, though she was still pretty sure that if they were boarded she would still not be able to manage climbing back out of the turret to repel the boarders.

Unfortunately Ledra did not see what she had done. All she knew was that she had fired the ship's weapon accidentally. She never even saw the ship she had just destroyed. The sudden violent impact on the Black Jack after accidental firing of the ships weapon made her pretty sure she had done something terribly wrong. She keyed the com link quickly...

"Um... Sorry about that."