Log:Defiance: Rori Rescue
Rori Rescue
OOC Date: January 17th, 2018
Location: Rori
Participants: Defiance: Tarion Tavers, Rheisa Dirleel, Tess Ul'Datha, Kasia Ashkuri, Sajin, Zyx, Naelyn, Zhu Yan, and Jehni'va Cihn as GM
Jehn is missing in the swamp but Tarion never misses an oppurtunity for friendly fire, Rheisa gets down and dirty with a helpful stranger, Tess finds a new hobby, Kasia can't believe she's here, Sajin is too buff to be a janitor, Zyx wishes he hadn't followed that signal, Naelyn is missing his soaps
The galaxy was plunged into terror and chaos by the destruction of Hosnian Prime; trading has been disrupted, and while it may soon stabalize, many oppurtunistic pirates have taken to ambushing those who /do/ risk their runs in some of the shadier parts of the Outer Rim. Even the moons of Naboo have found hardships where the payouts do not qualify the risk: the colony on Rori, composed of slaves freed by Defiance with nowhere else to go, stands to suffer greatly from this, and consequentially have lost the majority of the supply traffic that they depend upon. Their own 'resident trader' (and his ship) disappeared earlier in the week, and they turned to the only organization they could truly trust: Defiance. The routes would stabalize quickly, but it doesn't make the immediate situation any less dire - so returning from Takodana, a subdued Jehni'va took on the business of the risky supply runs to Rori - an endeavor that has been going well enough thus far.
Until it wasn't.
Jehni'va never reported in from this last run, and Defiance has been issued a distress beacon from /the Hotbox/ that pings out of a swamp on Rori.
"Listen, if we can save Jehn and get back before anyone notices she's gone, then there's bound to be a bonus in it for me somewhere," Tarion is explaining, strapped into the pilot's seat of the Firespray patrol craft known as the Parallax. The hyperspace tube peters off outside the main viewport and realspace comes whooshing back into existence with the characteristic streak of stars, the vessel suddenly stretching up into reality just outside the moon of Rori's orbital pull. He's already dressed in his trademark Defiance-logo'd grey armor, with one chest plate looking brand new and the rest looking... is that glitter? It's assorted dust and some of it sparkles, that's all that's obvious. "Hold on tight, I'm going to take us down to the surface, assuming, you know, she wasn't shot down by pirates who are preparing to ambush us right now," he informs his passenger(s?) cheerfully, punching a few buttons and pulling back on a stick.
Rheisa doesn't like the swamp. This is no news, given her shit time on their last visit. It's wet. Rheisa doesn't like the wet. She also doesn't like Tarion, but she's stuck with him, too. Him AND his glitter. SOmehow it's now on her feet...and now under fingernail. Dammit.
Tess lacks any mode of transportation of her own that could get her out to Rori, but she has no shortage of weapons. The big visored helmet of her black and red armor sits beside her while she assembles Addell from a case at her feet. Having hopped a ride with Tarion, she glances up with a raised brow, "She'll be fine." Then right back to her work; blowing on a new blaster cartrage connector before slapping it into place with a quiet buzz of power running through the weapon. She even seems calm in flight, which is hardly like her.
Kasia has her own ship, because of course she does. "Let's just assume pirates are involved, and then if they're not, at least the surprise that they're not involved is a pleasant one," she says over the coms. There's a pause. "Don't get captured by them this time, Tarion." It's true, she does have snacks, there are always snacks on her ship because she's married to Hex. There are also probably drugs on the ship somewhere. Somehow her ship has less glitter on it.
In the same boat Tess is, and yes that is a double meaning because he is literally in the same boat as Tess, Sajin rests against a bulkhead out of the way and silent... except for a breadstick wich cracks and crunches with every chew the handsom Hapan makes. He looks to Tess, then to Rheisa, hazel eyes studying them a moment or two. "Risi... old pirate hangout, been here a spell in my younger days when I was a cabin-boy..." Is all he offers in respect to their location.
Given the choice of flying there himself, hitching a ride with Tarion, or hitching a ride with Kas, Zhu Yan had made the smart decision (at the time, I just saw that roll!) to ride with Kasia. After all, one does not fly immediately after being dragged out of bed! He had, of course, brought THE DUFFEL, full of armor and jetpack and blaster, and had finished fastening on the last few plates over the top of his bomber jacket. The furry collar sought escape! "Honestly why did she opt to go alone? Safety in numbers, et al." Et al is a weird thing to say in person but hey he said it.
Defiance was not the only recipient of that particular distress beacon. Another interested person in the form of a particular young Gand eager to prove himself had been sitting in the room he had rented in a cheaper motel on Nar Shaddaa, and had been lucky (?) enough to catch a ping on his comm unit. Hopping up, he had called up a shuttle willing to carry him out to Rori, and upon accomplishing that task had met up with the driver and thumbed a ride out to the Naboo moon.
As the Shuttle comes out of hyperspace and begins to dive through the atmosphere of Rori, the driver looks to Zyx for guidance, yelling out an irritated, "Hey! Where you want me to drop you off at, bug man!?" Looking up calmly from where he had been staring into a small glass sphere filled with ammonia gasses from the planet Gand, Zyx says quietly, "The distress beacon came to this one from the swamps of Rori. Drop this one off there, and it will find whoever is in trouble. The Mist will see to it." As the driver looks back around and shakes his head in irritated disbelief, Zyx gives his crystal ball another rapid shake as if to make sure the thing was turned on.
Even from space, it's clear that something is up on the surface of Rori. The bright, green, jewel of a moon is marred by the prescence of a monster storm system, visible evn outside orbit; their destination is hidden by the thick, churning mass of white-grey cloud cover. Is it where /they/ need to land? Of course it is, how could it not be? They're flying into a hurricane.
That's not the only problem.
A sudden volley of fire explodes behind Tarion and Kasia's ships, and while Tarion is capable of dodging the surprise attack, Kasia isn't as lucky. Blaster fire clips the ship twice - there is a single attacker, a horribly painted X-Wing. Stolen? Probably. Zyx's shuttle driver, aware of the recent trouble, is able to avoid the fight. But they will find atmosphere a difficult enemy - the winds buffet and roll the shuttle off course, and it's only going to get bumpier.
"What the krif is that?" Tarion yells into the comms with classic Tavers decorum, jumping up the throttle to its maximum and beginning to take evasive maneuvers. "HOLD TIGHT," he shouts, not bothering to turn his comms off, so Kasia will get a nice burst of static, and jolts the ship sharply backward. Climbing high, the flying clothes iron does a sort of loop-the-loop, bringing them around to face the janky X-Wing. "Someone get- jump up in this copilot seat and open fire!" A boot kicks out at the smaller, secondary chair down by his foot. It telescopes up once you're strapped in. "I'm trying to fly here!" As if to punctuate his point, a barrage of heavy laser fire lights up the shield along the nose of the weird-looking ship, shields blooming blue and orange. "Hurry up!"
Rheisa's bicolored eyes work their way around the space to meet Sajin's brief stare. "Is full of mud and death, under foots," she gives her own review of the moon, just before her dour feelings are justified by the sudden lurch and slamming of her head back in the seat. The rear headtail takes the brunt of the impact, which is good for her montrals' sakes, but dammit. "SVA!" she cries/curses aloud and just clings more tightly to the harness holding her there. No, she is not leaving her seat.
It's not easy getting from the back of the ship to the copilot seat while the thing is doing all that spinning, but make it Tess eventually does. Both hands pull herself in and buckle herself down, "How do I make it shoot?" She asks to settle everyone's nerves. She's a professional. "Oh nevermind, I'll just push buttons until I figure it out, don't worry about it."
Both hands grab the make fire thingies and start tracking beat up old X-Wings, "It's like a video game." She comments off handedly as she finally fires, the shot going so wide it probably begs to wonder if she was actually aimming at something. "BOOM! Taste the cold death of Justice!"
Kasia did not see the attack coming, having apparently not even taken her own advice when it comes to expecting pirates. Or basically anything that might want to attack. "AAAAAAH HOLD ON TO SOMETHING," is her super calm warning to Yan as she makes as sudden a move as she can with this big ass ship. The Aristocrat was the one she had prepped and ready to go, ok, she clearly didn't expect this kind of trouble on Rori. Thankfully, the ship also has a lot of weapons in case of pirates, so Yan has plenty to choose from.
Sajin braces Tarion maneuvers the ship, the ire of space combat comming back to the old hapan pirate. Not that he was old, but he was past his 30's now and well... he had been a pirate like many Hapan male escapees before him. Tarion shouted the order but the truth was Sajin had already been on his way to the Turret housing seat that housed the weapons control. It was an instinct... "Ah..." He says sitting down a bit off balanced, the telescopic display comming up to meet him in an appropriate position. He presses a few switches and buttons, "Don't get your hopes up, it's been like 15 years..." He finds the targeting rectical and finds the X-Wing. He gives it a second as the SHip makes another thigh maneuver before letting loose a salvo of heavy bolts from the on-board cannon. Sajin blinks as the bolts strike the X-Wing, shutting down it's shielding and leaing it open for a finishing blow. "Oh... well, Okay then. Come about I think I can get him again and we'll be good."
The man, the myth, the legend held on for dear life, screaming like a little girl in surprise and fear, fear and surprise, those were his two weapons right now. It was after the ship jinked that he got the smart idea to find the turrets. "Going going going going going...!" ranted Zhu Yan as he bolted from the cockpit, feet unsteady on the deck, towards the mounted turbolaser battery. His madness mantra served him magnificently in keeping him focused as he strapped in over the armor plates, looked at the controls, and boggled. "What in the...?" he asked himself. "This isn't a quad laser turret!" See, Zhu Yan had found the turbolasers. His only experience with turbolasers was that one time he outran a Hutt patrol in his youth. He found what looked liked the trigger and there was a dramatic WHUMPH sound, with two huge beams designed for busting up corvettes and gunships fired wildly into space nowhere near the X-Wing. "Sithspit! This is hard!"
The ride is not a fun one for Zyx and his poor transport driver. The man grits his teeth and hauls on the controls of his ship, trying and failing to keep the ship flying straight. "Strap in! This is going to be a hell of a ride!" he yells out to Zyx in the back of the transport. Zyx is already miles ahead of him, having belted the safety harness of his seat as tightly around his stocky body as he can. "This one is already belted in sufficiently! Please just fly better! This one will never earn it's name if you crash us now!" CRASH! Right on time the transport clips a passing tree and lurches wildly, somehow managing to stay in the air, but only just.
Okay, it's dead. The stolen X-Wing and whomever piloted it are smashed into a cloud of nothing; Defiance are free to enter the turbulent, terrifying atmosphere. Tarion's load fares well, managing to land his ship with little incident, even as the winds snatch and scream, bucking the vessel. Kasia has less fun, but just as much luck - a pressure system catches the ship from below, thrusting it several kilometers up, up, up before abandoning it and plunging it into a crazed free-fall. But she is able to kick the thrusters back in in time before they spiral out of control into a tree. The Aristocrat is able to land near the Parallax. Zyx's driver, however, smashes into the ground at a force enough to rent the shuttle in two like a tin can in a blender - everyone should be able to survive, but that driver is going to have to up his bill.
Now on the ground, they can see that things won't be getting any easier - Jehn's signal is coming from almost a kilometer away. The rain is driving and sideways, trees bent and screeching as the wind rips them from the dirt and mud.
"Keep it up!" Tarion yells back at his impromptu crew, not even bothering to look to see who's manning what or what they're shooting at. He's flying, and laughing. He's laughing like a lunatic, really, twisting the vehicle into just ridiculous, heavy-G load maneuvers as the incompetent idiots within fire willy-nilly into space. Eventually, the X-Wing explodes, he assumes no doubt due to their excellent efforts, and with little fanfare and no difficulty, plops the ship down on the ground. Hopping down from his seat, he gives everyone a smile, wipes his hands together, and grins. "All ashore!" Grabbing his rifle, he heads for the exit ramp and strolls out into the swamp.
Rheisa....will caatch up. She's busy gagging, bent over in her seat, entirely unapologetic.
Tess has no idea what she's doing, but she's clearly enjoying herself! A huge grin on her scarred up face as she pushes buttons until something happens! OH! There's a laser, did she even do that?! Who knows, she doesn't. Another missile launches out of the firespray and goes hurtling in the absolute wrong direction. She isn't even waiting for a proper target lock.
She's like a four year old who found her parents saved Final Fantasy VI game and is monkeying around with said save file until she finds the delete button. "This is fun. Why didn't anyone tell me how much fun this was?"
Once on the ground, Tess is a lot more at home. Her helmet locks into place with a hiss with Addell slung on her back to be replaced with an F-11D combat rifle secured snuggly against her chest as she descends the ramp into the swamp. "Jehni'va, you in comms range?" Trying the comms channels, long shot that it is.
Kasia's flight is not quite so smooth, there's a lot of spinning and being thankful of the straps that hold her into the seat, and contemplating just how much mess the vomit will make if they're spinning while she vomits. Thankfully control is regained, at least to some degree, which means they stop spinning, and crashing, and she manages to set the ship down near Tarion's ship. Hopefully without squishing anyone. The landing is a little harder than she might normally do, but they're on the ground, and safe. You know, for now.
Except that the moment she steps off the ship and into just the worst weather to go tromping around in while in nature -- is there any good weather for that? No! -- the tree is ripped from the ground by the space Uber. A large chunk of tree comes flying her way, which she somehow manages to dodge in a fluid sort of sidestep that looks a little like a dance move. Whatever it looks like, she doesn't have a hole in her courtesy of exploding trees, for which she's very grateful. "Jehn better not just be high in the swamp. I'm going to be so cross if she's just high."
Sajin misses the second time, getting a little bit cocky after his lucky strike having not used any kind of ship weapon in over a decade. Despite this, he's pleased to see Zhu take the ship out with his large Turbolaser mounts. Pushing the console away as they land he stands, attempting to find another bread stick to put in his mouth. Alas, they've all been cracked up in the ensuing space skirmish. "Sithspit..." He whispers to himself, hazel eyes turning to look at Rheisa possibly expelling her lunch. He blinks, remind himself to clean that up later. He doesn't have a rifle, he travel's light with his two blaster pistols. Modified DL-44 and a Modified DL-30. Except the armor he wears over his onepiece. Heavy armor at that. He makes his way out of the ship following the others, putting on and engaging the helmet and it's HUD, seemingly protected from the rain for now. He takes a hard look around, scanning with all the assets avalible to him.
"I got him," murmured Zhu Yan, having flicked on the comms. The controls were finicky and the weapon was designed for big ships but the X-Wing was plumb. Ripe for the picking. A sitting duck. The broad side of a space barn. Yan's grandmother, old, blind, discount-hunting, force-feeding, and also dead, couldn't possibly miss this shot. Quick, good one liner good one liner good one liner you're running out of time Yan good one liner. "You can go and eat your breakfast cereal IN HELL!" Click, click, BOOM! Fireworks! Aw sithspit that was a terrible one liner!
Yan spent the rest of the spinning almost-crashing mayhem of a journey in sullen silence, chagrined by his terrible choice of badass quote. He was ashamed. Appalled. Shocked. Upset. Taking this far too seriously. He maintained this attitude until, abruptly, a tree came flying out of the ground at him! "frrRRACK!" was his cry as he fell over backwards, avoiding some emergency dental surgery. Good thing he'd landed on solid ground! The muck would have been a terrible, terrible thing!
"OH MY GO-- HEY! GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE SON OF A B--" can likely be heard over the howling wind to any near enough the wrecked shuttle. The sight of a fat little alien hustling along and diving through a tear in the hull precedes a clicking and buzzing basic yelled back, "This one has a job that it must do and no credits to spare. This one hired a safe passage. It is not this one's fault that someone lied about their piloting skills!" The reply from the pilot is stifled as a large tree is torn from the ground and lifted into the winds. Zyx does not try to dodge gracefully, but rather throws himself face down in the mud, turtling up in a ball. Branches scrape and his armor and exoskeleton, but he does not seem to mind. The tree lands on the damaged shuttle, and Zyx pops up, tossing a sad look over his shoulder at the shuttle before pulling his crystal ball full of ammonia gases out of his pocket and shaking the mist up. "Give this one a sign, Sacred Mists. Show it where to find the distressed being in need of this one's help."
Tess will have no answer. The distress signal is still beeping, drawing them into the swamp - even as the hurricane rages angrily around them. The mud is slick, rain is pounding against them from every direction, branches fall and crash around them, and lightning strikes /too close for comfort/! But... They are making it. The going is slow and dangerous - Yan and Rheisa find this out the hard, painful way, but it isn't enough to take this group down, no way.
They will be sodden, exhausted, and battered by the time the Hotbox slinks into view. Anyone can tell it wasn't just the storm that downed the ship - Jehni'va herself is struggling to sodder a blackened hole in the side of the Maccrow, alive and well... Is it really going to be this 'easy'?
"It's a beautiful day on Rori!" Tarion announces to the group as he trudges along through the rain and the thunder and the occasional too-close lightning, giving everyone a cheerful smile over his shoulder as he leads the way. He is, after all, a master amateur bounty hunter. "I love this planet!" he yells to whoever is closest, running his hand back over his damp hair in a gesture that sprays water back like a rooster's fan. Pointing towards the wreck of the Hotbox, he calls out, "I think I see her over there! This is too easy, what a great mission!"
When Rheisa DOES emerge from Tarion's ship, she's got a lot of ground to make up. The howling winds are not making it easy, playing with her senses and dizzying the mental image carried to her BY said wind. The Togruta's fighting a state of panic right now, struggling to keep up in a way that's probably no good for her dilapidated health and she makes one misteps too many. *SPLURT* Her cry of dismay gets blown away by the raging storm and all she can do is flounder in deep, deep muck.
"We just blew up her dealer..." Tess answers Kasia through her helmets vocab module with a hucking laughter as they trudge through the slop of mud and slick downed branches. Sinking to her ankle with each heavy step, the sniper glances down at her rifles power reader as the Hotbox comes into view, thanks in no small part to her super expensive armors super sophisticated 'stuff' that is entirely too technical for Tess to know what it is or, in most cases, how it works.
Her weapon comes up to the ready, scanning the surrounding with a sweep of her blaster. "Everyone okay? Don't fall behind, Tarion will almost certainly leave you."
Kasia might not have brought one of her smaller ships, but she did think to change ahead of time. She probably keeps a change of adventure clothing somewhere in the hangar, one of these days Tarion is going to find it and he'll be wearing it when she walks in because he forgot to do laundry. Or he already has and she's just never caught him. The point was that she's wearing boots and pants, and a jacket, so she doesn't turn into a giant kite thanks to flowy skirts. There is a lot of grumbling taking place as they trudge onward, but the storm is loud, so almost none of it can be heard by anyone else. When they finally come upon the ship, and the missing mechanic, she exhales. "At least we know she's alive," she says loudly through the com. "Let's go get her and figure out what the heck happened."
Sajin follows along, experianced enough to have been in these types of situations before while he was doing verious crappy Merc jobs. Dodge a falling tree here, just miss being obliterated by a lightning strike there. Oh look, mud as deep as quicksand. Nope, not today! This Hapan has won the battle against nature, but has lost the battle in supporting his comrades. The looks around as Jehni comes into view and they enter a bit of a clearing, keeping his helm vision on the surrounding treelines. Hands hover above his weapons as Rheisa's cry is drowned out by a clash of thunder and lightning. "Hey... did anyone hear that?" He asks.
Yan was just fucking done with life right about now. He'd fallen over and nearly sank into the swamp more times than he could count. Really short bursts from the jetpack had succeeded in getting him out of one muck puddle only to sink back in. At least he had his helmet on. Yan's hair was too long for it to be comfortable when wet. But he was soaked. Chilled to the bone. Kasia better watch out because he was getting out of this gear and into the refresher the second he got back to the ship. And probably her fluffy robe or something as well. And slippers. Because COMFORT.
Off in the distance, he could see the Hotbox. Great! Frack this swamp! He wasn't gonna bother walking and dying the rest of the way. It was jetpack time. In a hurricane. This couldn't possibly go badly. Thankfully, Yan had been training. There were a lot of bruises on his noggin from hitting the roof of the Space Whale's hangar, and a lot on his ass from landing! The two jets from the KDY FormStar on his back lifted him into the air and he leaned forward, sending him sailing through the air in a lovely arc over the forest, over the trees, over the swamp, and over the HOSTILES! The Bryar figuratively flew out of his holster (because Quickdraw feat), took aim, and fired a snap shot at the one approaching the Hotbox from the opposite side of the landing party. It was the easiest one to focus on. Yan didn't pay attention to see if he'd landed his shot. He hit the ground next to the Hotbox not far from Jehn harder than he would have if he weren't distracted, lost his balance, and fell prone on to his stomach. "Hostiles! Hostiles!" he was calling into his comm. "Three, coming from in front, left, right! Jehn get DOWN!"
Finally deciding that the bit of ammonia gas trapped inside his little ball of glass is not going to tell him anything today, Zyx tucks the glass sphere away again and begins to wander away through the swampy swamp. He has already thrown himself down in the mud once dodging a wild tree, so he doesn't really care about staying clean at this point and simply walks along in the bits that look shallow enough to not drown him and pull him in to a dirty drowning death. The sound of feet ahead of him from the Defiance lot, and then the cry of a sinking Rheisa catch his attention, and he begins to hustle along at a faster clip. Coming upon Rheisa first, the Gand says, "Oh, thank the mist! I've found you. Here, let me help you." Clearly thinking that Rheisa must be the source of the distress beacon, the little Gand happily walks as close as he can, reaches out to grab her arms, and then pull her from the grasp of the sticky clinging death mud.
There was a decision that Naelyn made, to be there for Jehni just in case her recent brush with more of the shitty side of reality shook her up a bit more. That was to say 'yes' to an invitation to join her on /whatever this was originally/ supposed to be. Because it was Nae, there was warm tea and little cakes and compliments.
Until The Crash, happened. Then it was 'Oh honey, you accidentally took a hit off of /my/ joint. I told you that humans do not have the constitution for - do not go into the, *BLEEEEP* JEHNI'VA, now we are going to miss the holo mini-series about the anooba looking for its perfect mate.' and 'You are doing a wonderful job, darling, wonderful...those are not flying anooba kisses, those are shots, BANK LE-The *BLEEP*.
Then it was, Naelyn on his knees in front of a console, prying it open to tug out a few wires and start re-wiring things to get the damn distress signal to go through the storm and interference, his datapad connected so he has a sensor read out while Jehni goes outside to deal with the thingamajigger. The slender dancer is in all black, his travel gear...veil in place and his eyes narrow.
There's a head that peeks out of the ship, slowly, only his eyes and bridge of his nose can be seen through the rain like a mirage with tastefully worn eyeliner. It is The Look. The Look of Resigned Disappointment. He has been sitting here this whole time, waiting for a rescue, missing his holo.
Jehn merrily continues to sodder the ship, and - "MOTHER OF BANTHASHIT!" The pilot slips from the wing of her ship and SLAMS to the ground, losing her breathe in a rush of wind. "/Yan/? Oh! Yan!" She wheezes, staggering upright, covered in mud. "You guys got it! NAELYN! NAE- oh you're here. They got it! Wait, hostiles?"
Yan was pretty high up, and while his shot doesn't find its mark, it does startle the approaching attackers. They start firing off too soon, and shots go crazily into the approaching Defiance and Co. Jehn throws her arms over her head - passing a moment in terror - before remembering her blaster. She yanks it free. "Hi, guys!" She calls out, cheerily and fires a shot into the bushes.
There are three pirates - for they are obviously pirates - waiting in ambush either to finish the Hotbox off or to take out any who answered the call.
"Jehn! I knew I'd find you," Tarion calls to the Hotbox, waving his hand at the pilot and noting the head that pops up. "Oh, Naelyn too, wonderful." He's soaking wet, it's horrible out here, he's smiling like an idiot. But then there are pirates, and with a content warning for Kasia, his eyes narrow and his weapon snaps up into his hand, spitting a blast of plasmatic death (great line in the code there) at the nearest pirate. A sizzling shot splits the pirate's skull open as his brains boil into a mash inside the bone cranium. Glancing back to his comrades to brag about it, he sees a strange, sinister bug-man attacking his friend Rheisa. "Get the kriff off her, you bug-eyed creep!" he yells, leveling the weapon again and firing away at the Gand.
Saved by giant space roach! Rheisa isn't really sure what is under all that robing and armor and funny face mask, but doesn't question the merits of its wearer when Zyx pulls her out of the murk. She sputters some words of gratitude, spitting out bits of weeds and who knows what that dribble down her front. Without hair TO get wet, she'll dry faster, but not until they can get to dryer places. "My friends," she finally articulates, body wracked with some shivering. A finger points to the sound of blaster fire. "We go, yes? Hotbox."
And then one of those blaster shots from a 'friend' goes terribly the wrong way and cuts through the swampy veg only to slam into her savior. "Nah!" she yelps and flails to somehow remedy the situation.
It is entirely likely that this will contain some pretty intense description of gore.
Tess loves this shit. Walking around in the mud during a hurricane looking for, probably, stoned pilots crash landed on a world that is more or less a really upscale version of Degobah. This is her MO, the thing to which she has given her entire life.
When hostiles present themself with cray bad shooting that go all over the place and look more like her in space trying to shoot an X-Wing, Tess giggles madly and brings her rifle up as she side steps towards a very watery tree. "Awww, that's freakin' adorable... they want to fight.." She says, scoping out one of the contacts with a gleeful grin hidden by her helmet.
Her blaster barks and bounces a few inches when she fires, streaking out death across the gap, sizzling in the rainfall as it connects with the bad guys face with explosive efficiency. He tumbles backwards in his run for cover, flipping backwards into the mud with an atomized face.
"Tarion, that's a Gand you racist asshole... Aim higher. They have a shell or something..." Pointing helpfully at a more dangerous part of Zyx anatomy.
There's a shout about hostiles, and Kasia's gotten better with handling a weapon. She's pretty decent at it now, really, pulling the blaster from the holster and taking aim at one of the attackers. She squeezes the trigger and two bolts fly out, both hitting their mark, which is to say, they both hit the pirate who doesn't look so healthy after that. "What--" is there an attack coming from behind. She's confused at Tarion's target, turning to look back at the Gand who is being shot at.
Sajin can only hear the rain plinking against his armor's helmet and the wind howling against the speakers to the outside world. Also there's the comm. What he can make out in all of that is Yan yelling something about Hostiles. Then there's a blaster bolt heading right past him and towards Tarrion. He doesn't hesitate, his hand that had been hovering over his DL-44 scoops out the weapon, grabbing hold of its quickdraw grip. He finds what aim he can with his night and thermal vision, targeting the enemy with his HUD. He squeezes the trigger of the Heavy Blaster Pistol twice just as his weapon levels out, sending two scarlet bolts right into the bastard, midesection, burning wide black smoking holes into what ever armor or clothing they were wearing. The bolts rip and steam through the droplets of rain, causing a trail of wispy smoke. The muzzle smokes as he points it up the the sky and looks around some more, drawing his DL-30 with his other hand now that there's a bit of a reprieve.
Zhu Yan had done his part of the shooting. He clambered up from his prone position pretty quickly. "Let the ground-pounders handle it. We're in a killbox. Get down!" he boomed to Jehn, grabbing her and forcing her into the cover of the Hotbox's fuselage as laserfire exploded all around them. "Going on that run alone was a bad... oh, I know that eyeliner anywhere!" See, Yan had spotted Naelyn. "NO SPOILERS!"
The Gand SAVIOR is smiling, as best as he can, beneath that metal breathing apparatus that covers his mouth. He helps Rheisa get unstuck from the mud, and is just about to turn around to go with her to help her friends, when that attack comes at him out of nowhere. The blast tears a hole through his robe and light armor, blasting into his exoskeleton on his back. He cries out and throws his arms forward, reaching out to grasp at Rheisa as he falls, a look of betrayal on his features as he whispers, "Even you? You have betrayed this one?"
It is horrible outside with the rain and the muck. It is dangerous outside with the blaster fire. It is dirty outside with the rain and the muck. These things cross the dancer's mind as he huffs out a patient sigh of exasperation. Eyes widen slightly at the appearance of a sudden Zhu. Nae's robes aren't sheer, but waterproof and thicker, the hood flicked up as he leans back out of the ship. He might be grimacing, he might not. His features are shadowed with that hood, making his gender even more questionable as he drops out of the ship and points to Zhu and Jehni. "There is popped root kernals fried in fat. Do /not/ start without me."
He holds up an arm to protect his eyes from the rain, briefly and it looks like he was step/leaping into a side flip to land near Tarion. Perhaps even to tackle him but there's an invisible forcefield of muck and dirt, that makes him skid a bit in the mud and hold up his hands. Do not want. "Master Tavers! Get in the ship and I will pay you to not shoot at Miss Rheisa's boyfriend." A polite nod to Kasia and Rheisa.
BOOM! Dead. BOOM! Dead. BOOM BOOM BOOM! Dead. Surely that is it? Jehni'va takes cover beneath the wing of her ship, by Yan's choice, not hers, clutching her smoking blaster and breathing heavily. "Hi Yan!" She repeats, now that they're hiding by the ship. Tess, Tarion, Kasia, and Sajin effectively wipe out the approaching squad, but amid the thunder something else rumbles the ground. "IDIOTS!" The bellow is barely audible over the screams of the storm. The ship that managed to shoot Jehni'va and Naelyn down has not one, but two captains. They are a pair of identical twin Besalisk - four arms clutching two pistols and two vibroblades each.
"Did Tarion just -?!" Jehn turns, mouth agape, to Yan. "He was... Bad, right? Right?" She hopes, she really hopes.
The Besalisk Brothers stomp into the clearing, already firing. One takes a swing at Sajin with the vibroblade, they both shoot at the group.
"Listen, he's a bug man, he's on Rheisa," Tarion starts explaining, deftly stepping out of the way as Naelyn attempts to tackle him, wandering towards the Togruta and her 'savior' as he talks, a blaster bolt whizzing past his head as the all-out storm continues. "I don't know him, we're being attacked, I'm just trying to look after a nice ass- assssistant pilot thing," he hastily adds, stumbling on a log and inadvertently bumbling out of the way of another shot. Casually, he raises his on weapon and shoots back at the Besalisk twins, choosing the one on the left and aiming right at his eye with varying degrees of success. "I don't know any Gands, you don't know any Gands, none of us knows a Gand!"
"No! Is not me!" Rheisa bleats as the toppling Gand takes her down, too. "Is--" but before she can throw Tarion or anyone else under the bus, something hot slams into her right side, winging the shoulder blade after searing past the sway of rear headtail. She chokes on whatever it was she was gonna say, body already getting rigid with the agony of it all as it rolls off the downed Gand and back into the mud. The Togruta does not go quietly into this shitty night. When her breath /can/ be caught, she makes it count, and belts a shrill, keening wail with all the warbly alien qualities that make the hair stand on end as it echoes through the swamp. It hurts.
"Whoa!" Tess ducks her helmeted head down when one of the brothers takes a shot at her when her attention was on Tarion's attempt to one up her friendly fire count. She leans in against the tree for support with her weapon turned outward to fire on the second brother with effective, if not quite deadly, aim. One of his arms is taken off at the elbow. Hopefully one with a dangerous blaster what can shoot back and not like a knife or something.
Those things are useless.
"I know tons of Gand... Okay, I've seen tons of Gand... I saw a Gand once..." She murmurs, thoughtfully, "Have I ever seen a Gand? How do I even know what a Gand is? I feel like something profound happen just now... I hope it passes."
Kasia leaves the fighting to the others, because there are plenty of others that are very good at shooting. Instead she hurries over, or starts to hurry over, but then Rheisa is shot, and then shrieking. "Who are you?" she asks of the Gand, who apparently isn't trying to kill anyone. The bag she always carries into these missions is slung across her body, and she reaches into it to pull out the sort of supplies a field medic would carry, which is bandages and patches to try and stop things from becoming too serious before they can see an actual doctor. "And what are you doing here?"
Sajin turns his head as the two Quadruped Fat Boi's come running towards them firing. Normal people would run. Not Sajin. There's something not normal about this would be Janitor. He's got skills that are just frankly, above that of simply mopping floors and dusting the furniture at the Defiance Hanger. Going head to head with this large and muscular and quiet Hapan turns and faces the charging behemoth, twisting out of the way of the charging Vibroblade. Getting this close to a man with dual wielded heavy blaster pistols? Not such a great idea. The hand carrying the DL-44 twists up, point the muzzle towards the Quadruped's head. He squeezes the trigger twice in quick succession sending two scarlet bolts burning through his skull from under his jaw, through the top of his head and sorring into the cloud and rain covered sky. The behemoth collapses instantly in front of him from not only his shots but other's that impacted him as well. Sajin just stands there and stares down at the heaping mess. "That was just stupid..."
"Honestly I've no idea! But if he did I'll let you shoot him this time!" Yan shouted above the din. As opposed to gourd planet, where Yan was none too impressed at the teamkilling smacktards. But Yan knew Tarion now so it was okay. He poked his head out to see what was what and saw Besalisks. That wasn't too bad. Besalisks only had two eyes for those four hands. Their depth-perception should be waaaaaay off! Or so Yan thought, right as he saw one clip Rheisa. "Rheisa hit the dirt!" he called out, aiming his Bryar at the bash brother that bore bad blood towards the Togrutan. Two bolts lanced out. One hit a tree. The other copped the wounded bastard in the face and deftly rearranged his features into a smoking crater. Dental surgery for everyone!
Zyx did not see where the shot came from that hit Rheisa, but he can only assume it is from the same person who just shot him. The Gand groans in pain and rolls around, desperately trying to gain his feet as Rheisa falls beside him. He begins to climb to his feet slowly, turning his eyes on the human spouting out things about the Gand, and his only assumption is that this guy just hates aliens. "Don't worry," he says down to the wailing Rheisa. "This one will get you out of this." And with that, he lowers his head and charges and throws a wild punch at Tarion. He is short, so his aim is not for the man's head, but right for the Tavers Family Jewels.
"I know /plenty/ of Gands, Master Tavers. If you could please stop being a racist <Insert explicative in Ryl here>" Naelyn places a hand on his hip, looking around as blasters and rifles go off and he just ducks his head, holding his arm up slightly. That's when Rheisa goes /down/ and Nae is rushing to her side. "Shhhh, shhhh...shhh darling. Shh, look. Naelyn is here. It's okay darling." He starts humming softly, a familiar tune perhaps, something she has played for him for a dance. "Listen, hum with me. Darling..." Kasia has the medpack, so Naelyn doesn't need to break out any of his gear. He does however, turn his head to watch Zyx...go after Tarion, a well groomed eyebrow raising slowly before he raises his voice. "Mistress Tess! We have injured, I am assuming we have an evacuation plan, if so can you please keep this handsome little Gand from castrating Tarion. We are saving that priviledge as a gift for Sapphira's birthday...and I do not want Rhesia's brave and charming side piece injured if we can help it."
"RHEISA!" Jehn screeches from her hiding place by the Hotbox and Yan. The Besalisk brothers die amidst wet, bellowing roars and gasps. Now with only three arms, having failing to swipe Sajin and failed to dodge Tess, Dunkkik cries softly at the ruined face of his brother - his only brother, his only family... Death is slow and painful. "What - what is happening?" Jehn gapes at the Gand and Tarion now wrestling, the dead Besalisk... "Let's hide out on the ship until the storm passes!" Jehn has to yell to be heard. The dead brothers are being slowly buried in mud. "We can get out when it passes!" The shuttle driver who took Zyx in, though? He isn't going anywhere. "I may be able to fix the ol' girl in that time, give you a lift." She offers, hunched by Rheisa, the mysterious Gand, and Naelyn, casting desperate looks over her shoulders at the others.
You did it - you found Jehni'va, you fought off the pirates, you didn't crash - now you're free to snuggle up on her couch and watch the soaps until the storm passes. Nae made popcorn and there's a nice corner where Rheisa and the new guy can bleed out in peace.
