Log:Defiance Guild: Space Oddity
Space Oddity
OOC Date: April 19, 2017
Location: Deep Space
Participants: Defiance: Jehni'va Cihn, Rheisa Dirleel, Kasia Ashkuri, Raim Shah, Tarion Tavers, Naelyn, and Hex as GM
The short story: Defiance runs into a problem of particular gravity. There is booty, and also booty.
The long story:
"It's going to be an easy mission, ok ka?" How many times has Hex said that? How many times was it actually the case? The whole team is on the Mayhem this time; two pilots about -- Kasia and Jehn -- just in case both the freighter and its auxiliary fighter need to jump into the fray. It's spacious for a mid-size freighter, with a number of crew bunks, and this time the hyperspace trip is due to take a long time. Long enough for everyone to get bored of each other's company and start bickering about stuff. Hex is pointing things out on a holo-map, and continues, "It's a long way out to the middle of nowhere, but it should be a fairly uncomplicated smash and grab. This shipment of totally legitimate cargo has been stolen at least three times before we got there, and the way we're coming at it through dead space instead of a normal hyper lane, those pirates will not have a chance." No slaves this time, just thievery.
Chomp, chomp, chomp - there's one of those pilots chewing on some soft, gummy sweets. Jehni'va idly fusses with the zipper of her jumpsuit before dipping into her pocket for another morsel, eyes half lidded as she lets her head gently 'thunk' back against the skin of the ship behind her. It's not that she's grown tired of the other Deflings company, it's just that she's grown tired - it's a long trip and she's prone to naps. "Pirates?" She repeats belatedly after Hex's announcement, perking a little. There's a pause as she mulls this over - but if she is anything, Jehni'va is trusting and loyal... Like that one really, really dumb dog you just can't bring yourself to yell at. This will totally be easy because Hex said so, and when has he lied before? The human woman shrugs and goes back to eating her candy. At least the cargo is totally legitimate!
Rheisa's hiding. Or was, spending quite a bit of time stowed away in a bunk in a little 'gruta ball of sleep but her hungry belly's gotten the best of her uncharacteristically antisocial mood, so she's emerged in search of snack. Why is she here, hurtling through space? Maybe someone wanted extra precaution against any remaining vokolings wreaking havoc in the interior. Maybe Raim didn't wanna tag along without her in tow in case her off-handle outburst last night had him concerned. Who knows?? But while Hex talks about how EASY this is going to be, she's slugging through in search of a crew mess.
Kasia is standing at Hex's side, looking down at the map in question with a slight frown. "Do we have any idea how many pirates might be there?" she asks, looking up at the Twi'lek beside her, then back down to the map. "Or should we just assume a lot, and go in very armed just in case?" There are definitely snacks in the mess, this is Hex's ship and Kasia is frequently aboard, assume ample snackage.
"If there is one thing that a Chiss of my condition is great at, it is a swift smash and grab operation," comes the monotone voice of Raim Shah creeping forward toward Hex from wherever the chiss is lingering. He has changed his legs for this operation, once more sporting the janky bird leg and smaller protocol droid-like left leg. He is leaning heavily on the force pike he is using as a staff, and a familiar rocket launching jetpack is strapped to his life support suit. The loud mechanical inhale and exhale fills the space between his words... and everyone else's.
Tarion is slung full-length on a bench, his head hanging over the edge upside down to stare at the map so that he can get an accurate read on the geographical details of this operation. "So, Hex, when you say, you know, 'legitimate', but it's been stolen like three times, you're referring to it being legitimately worth something, right? Because the fact that it's been stolen three times already does /not/ mean that somehow if we steal it a forth time, it's like, legitimately, legally ours." His face is pink from the suffusion of blood. "You know that, right? Of course you know that, you're the boss, but you know that. So technically these are hot goods, and technically maybe that means it's more dangerous for us, so maybe this should involve a little bonus on the side, a little ching ching, a little win-win, you grease my palm, I grease yours, sort of exchange," the hunter rambles, scratching the side of his cheek while his eyes peer up at the map. "Like, you know, beyond the regular paycheck."
"Ahahaha, but we are not ONLY smashing and grabbing, ok ka," Hex waggles a cybernetic index finger at Raim, because this is like the land of broken toys up in here, and 4 out of 4 Defiance members with cybernetic parts are present here right now. "I've got reason to believe that this particular gang doesn't just smuggle" snuggle "totally legitimate cargo, I believe they might also be trafficking sentients. So while those of us who aren't tech savvy are smashing and grabbing, you smart people are going to be kicking down whatever digital doors you can find and data-dumping what you can, in the hopes that we might be able to actually hit these people and their associates more than once. And if anyone tries to stop you looking at data, you know," he gestures at the rocket launcher, which he clearly thinks is appropriate for use inside ships, "Kill them all. Shut up Tarion, I'm not paying you more, this is literally your job. Settle in and get cozy though folks, because our route through this part of uninhabited space means we got like five hours before we exit hyper."
Smashing and grabbing? Trafficking sentients? Kill them all? "...Ching ching?" That all sounds about right, but Jehn still takes a moment to blink incredulously at the bounty hunter draping himself over ship bits - and rightfully so, because five hours is a helluva long time. "He said it'll be easy, ok ka." Jehn chides Tarion with the smooth, sleepy tones that suggest she took prior liberties to be extra chill for the duration of the trip. "Relaaaax." The lanky woman sags a little lower in her seat, ready to drift back to a fitful nap - but where is Rheisa going? Another candy is plopped into her mouth before Jehn shoves herself upright and slinks after the Togruta.
An inquisitive, orangey nose pokes into a tub of some gelatinous looking stew that the fridge raider finds. *Sniff* Rheisa's eyes narrow in response to conflicting, inner voices. There's vegetables in there. Food that food eats. But there is also a sizeable chunk of meaty thing, a bone - maybe with marrow!?!?! - and fatty goop broth. Indecision is short-lived, when this tech-unsavvy member senses competition creeping up her tail. "I eat this," she states quietly, in case anyone wished to dispute her claim, and wraps both hands around it as she turns to face down Jehn. Five hours is a long time, yes. Longer, if your crew is hungry.
"Tarion, you literally want hazard pay when you get up in the morning to use the refresher," Kasia points out to the man in a bland voice. "Like Hex said, no." What they're doing is listed off, and then she leans in a little closer to her husband, shoulder bumping against him. "Am I going to be smashing and grabbing with you, or keeping the ship ready to get out of here?"
Raim nods his head and readjusts his grip on the force pike, straightening himself with a weary sigh and a loud THUNK of the birdfoot on the deck plates of the ship. He has spent the entire flight standing up, because it isn't like his legs will get tired anyways. After the plan has been relayed, Raim says, "Very well. I will be slicing through cyber barriers and asserting my authority upon their ship and databanks. Sounds easy enough. Wake me when we get there." With that, Raim backs up like some form of twisted Star Wars tin man until he reaches a wall out of the way. With a simple press of a button, the cybernetic feet make a loud metallic sound as magnets are powered on to keep the Chiss from falling over, and then his mismatched eyes are hidden from view as lids slowly droop.
"I still don't see why refresher-use isn't hazard-worthy," Tarion complains, still hanging upside down. "Kasia, I /know/ you've been in there after Hex, and just because you're willing to risk it for free doesn't mean the rest of us are."
"..." There's a passenger who is clad in shades of dark brown and...darker brown, highlights of white, no skin super exposed, and all his hair braided back/covered, veil drawn over his mouth. Naelyn is idly toying with a slender blade that has been drawn from a sheathe as he keeps his eyes down on his clear datapad, scanning the rows of numbers and code sequences that go by, free hand just twirling that knife in figure eights. He has no comment. Mostly due to nerves. Flying is nerve wracking.
"I want Jehni'va ready to go in the Mischief and you at the helm in the Mayhem," Hex explains to Kasia, switching off his holo map. "As soon as we're back you're gonna dock up the auxiliary fighter and get us the hell out of there. Me, Tarion, and Rheisa are the boarding party; Tavers and I are there to kick ass and Rheisa's there to spot traps, listen for anomalies... and shoot people with darts or stab them with knives. Raim and Naelyn on the data. It'll be fun, ai'jouku! Fun and easy!" He beams. Then spots Rheisa, and twitches his lekku in displeasure. "Hey, is that my---"
Hex never gets to finish the sentence, however, because before he does, the ship gives a tremendous LURCH, and the vessel creaks and screeches like it's trying to avoid getting torn in half. Tarion's gonna fall off his bench and eat shit, Raim is similarly troubled by this unexpected event, everyone else manages to balance, however narrowly. It feels like the bump when a ship exits hyper, but much, much worse. Alarms start beeping from the cockpit. "Ryma'at! What the hell just happened?!" Hex demands.
"I don't eat meat!" Comes the rapid defense from the pilot, squeaked out as her hands raise abruptly in the face of a hungry Togruta rounding on her. "Seriously, keep -!" Jehni'va doesn't finish that thought, she's knocked suddenly aside and barely manages to catch herself against the wall. ALARMS - not good! "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" She calls anxiously toward the cockpit before stuffing another candy into her mouth and running to check the engines which... Appear fine. "We're out of hyperspace." She announces when she reappears, rolling her sleeves up. "But at least your shit still works." Lol Tarion fell - it's not as funny with Raim.
Your what, Hex? What little concern was registering on Rheisa's face regarding Hex's attempt to grump in her direction is replaced by surprise when suddenly the ceiling is trying to be floor. Or maybe it's the other way around. In either case, her feral reflexes kick into high gear and somehow the bum-legged Togruta doesn't fall over. In fact, she's still holding on to the stew container when the tremorshakerumble settles. The frantic nature of the noisy alarms are mirrored by the wild look in her eye. Not /too/ frantic that she forgets the number one base instinct of the moment, however. Feed.
A quick slurp and dip of her stubbly tongue gulps back a mouthful of semi solid broth before panicked Hex can do anything about it and she swipes the marrow bone, to boot. The rest gets tucked promptly back into the fridge for safe keeping. THEN she quickhobbles over to try and assist Raim and his stupid bird foot. Teeth worry away at that bone all the while, seeking fissures, applying pressure, mining away for the iron-rich goodness inside, because /priorities/.
Yes, Hex, that is your stew. Kasia doesn't get a chance to tell him to share the food, that they'll get more stew. Her lips are just parting to say as much when, LURCH, the ground jumps unpleasantly beneath her feet. Which she manages to stay on, partly because she falls into Hex and then just kind of clings to him, which might not do much for him, but it does help her not land on her butt. "What was that?" she asks, and then bolts off for the cockpit to try and find answers, rather than wait for them. It's not long before she comms back to the others, "Yeah, we're definitely out of hyper, and it looks like we're not the only ones this has happened to. Jehn, you wanna come have a look and see if you've got any ideas what's going on here?" Because she sure doesn't. "We're definitely not where we're meant to be, not sure exactly where. A long way from anything helpful."
The lurching jar of the ship sends Raim rocking and jerking from where his feet are clamped down to the deck plates. He first sways dangerously far forward before a sudden shift in direction sends him whipping backward to whack his head painfully on the wall of the ship. He smacks his head and his eyes fly open in pained shock. His hand releases the force pike, the weapon falling dangerously toward where Hex is. The Chiss is stunned and he slumps back forward, his chin falling to his chest and his arms hanging limply at his sides.
Tarion is spilt out onto the floor by the tossing of the ship, but luckily he was already close to the floor, so suck it Jehn and your crowing. No one likes him, so he helps himself up, brushing the front of his armored suit off like it got dirty, and let's be honest, with this crew it's probably rife with crumbs down there. "The hell was that?" he questions, glancing around.
The word that the little dancer/slicer/residentbabybrother utters when they are yanked/yoinked out of hyperspace is more of a hiss and some random syllables but it is still foul as he's rocked in his seat and has to quickly sheathe the knife to keep from stabbing somebody, gripping his datapad rather tightly and taking a deep breath before he is working on tapping something into his datapad, dragging a finger along the surface and clearing his throat. "Hex..." Somehow he adds a sssss to the end of that. "Jehni'va is correct in her assessment of the current situation. It appears the computer is showing that our current predicament was not caused by a f*ck up in any the ship's system but mmmm..." He purrs the 'mmm' sound, trailing off when Kasia gives her own reports and others are chiming in, so he just turns to look at Tarion, who has helped himself up without assistance and then turns to look back at the others and then back down to his datapad, worrying his bottom lip as he starts tapping on that screen again. "Mistress Kasia, Hex? Would you like me to set an automated program to begin pulling data on past incidents of other negative experiences with gravitational anomalies around our current location and cross reference them to whatever logs I can pull on what those ship's destinations happened to be, to see if any of the coordinates line up to better assess our current whereabouts?" Unfortunately, he has that accent and he's in super calm emergency mode so what could sound brilliant, is delivered with his 'you've called the holo-sex line, my name is Deli'Icious, do you want to know what I'm wearing' tone of voice that is his curse in life. Rolled Rs, carressed Ss. Damnit.
Hex is busy for a second there. Incoming wife: caught! Incoming Raim's force pike: not caught, clocked solidly on the head. Ow. Then Kasia is scurrying off, reports are coming in, and none of it sounds great. "I can't believe you ate my soup," Hex bitches at Rheisa, because /priorities/, but there are big concerns afoot. Engines okay. Location in space, not so okay. "Could be worse, I guess the ship's not broken? Everybody get up to the cockpit and let's see what the hell we can see out there. Naelyn, whatever the hell you just said, do it, unless it involves everybody's pants coming off, in which case don't."
The cockpit is spacious enough that everyone can fit, even if there are only technically two seats. Outside the viewscreen is littered with what seems to be ships from a vast number of eras of galactic history... but all of them seem derelict, floating in space without engine power or signs that anyone's at the helm. Some are broken into little more than debris. "What the hell," Hex repeats, brow furrowed. "What the hell is this? We're not sticking around." He drops into the copilot seat and repeats the astrogate coordinates they used previously; waits for the calculation, pulls the lever.... and.... nothing happens, other than an error stating that they need to exit the gravity well. But there shouldn't be one here. "Shit," Hex hisses. "Raim, is anything alive out there?"
"Right away." Jehn jabbers back into the comms before scurrying to help Spacemom. She passes the bounty hunter on the way as he is picking himself up - no one likes you, Tarion, stay on the floor - and catches Naelyn's prognosis on the way. It was just about the sexiest damn jumble of technical BS she's heard all week - she nods uselessly at him, too dumb to actually have anything helpful to tack onto that, and slips into the cockpit. Alarms, blinky lights, ghost ships - it looks bad. She's on all fours by the time the rest of the losers will be filtering in, poking and prodding at the consoles and double, triple, quadruple checking wires and connections. It's a general sweep and one that she has a feeling will be in vain, especially when she's shit with computers. "Maybe the comps blipped?" She puzzles, still a little stoned, but is unable to drag anything useful away from a precursory search. "None of this makes sense." Jehn gripes belatedly, pushing herself back upright.
"Pack SHARES," Rheisa maturely cuts back at Hex in passing. She arrives to Raim's rescue just moments tooo late to catch that force pike, too. *Gnaw*Crack* "Rrraim," Rheisa unhelpfully prompts the sagging cyber Chiss in efforts to get him to wake up. She sucks back drool while the bone keeps between teeth to free both hands so they may play pattycake on his cheeks. "Nah baijhet!" Nimble fingers inspect up over his ktfo face and comb through his hairline to check for blood, dents...anyother thing that might be lost in the shaggier hairdo. *CRACK* Rodent crushing chompers break through her prize enough to chip off a chunk and expose more of the good stuff. Both little chunk and said good stuff get sucked down together indiscriminately while the solid remainder plunks to the deck. Damn right this floor is dirty. "Come!" as Raim starts to come around, she tugs at an arm and tries to pull him off that magnetic grip so they can follow everyone else into the cockpit.
Kasia is seated in the captain's chair, staring out ahead at the graveyard of ships, frowning at it like it's a puzzle. And it kind of is. "I don't think that's it. That wouldn't explain all of this in the middle of nothing, I can't imagine comps just blip like that for all of these ships, in the same place. Something pulled us out of hyper. Is there anything coming from any of the ships here that could do that? Anything natural?" She doesn't know, she just flies things and tries not to crash. "I'd say we should just sublight until we're far enough away from whatever it is, but unless all of these ships just broke, it wouldn't explain why they didn't do it too." There's a pause. "Do you see how old some of them are? This has been going on for a while, I think."
Raim shakes his head after a while, aided by the loving inspection of dear Rheisa who is arguing some something or other about soup. His eyes blink blearily at Rheisa for a few moments before the fog seems to lift and he presses a button on his cybernetics, allowing the magnets to disengage. He clanks along with the rest into the cockpit and as Hex asks his question to the Chiss, Raim leans forward and begins toggling the ship's computer systems. After a few moments he shakes his head and says, "Sensors do not pick up any sign of life. There seems to be a power signature coming from... Hmm... a transport vessel. It appears to be quite old. Life support functions seem to be online."
Tarion, back on his feet, follows hot on Jehni's heels into the cockpit, pausing only to stare at Naelyn for a long moment at what can only be called an elegant soliloquy from the androgynous man before carrying on into the space with all its flashing lights and visions of a horrible slow death as oxygen slowly seeps from the hull and you join this graveyard of derelict ships. "Look at them all," he breathes. Except this is Tarion and that's not how he's interpreting this at all. "There's got to be /billions/ in cargo out here!" His face lights up like one of those warning lights, childlike wonder taking over as he shoves past Jehni'va to get at some of the controls. "Here, let me just... weird," he hrms, frowning down at the displays. "The ship is /fine/, but here we are. Nothing weird except, you know, whatever Raim just found, that does sound pretty weird. Maybe that's where the treasure is." Obviously there's treasure. "The treasure of a thousand ships, guys. We just hit the kriffing /jackpot./"
Jehni'va is jostled aside by Tarion and his Thousand Ship Treasure talk and then is sliding out of Raim's way as he gangle-gawks his metallic way into the cockpit - she's really just trying to keep from being obtrusive now; long limbs are held close to her body as she fidgets back and forth - but at Hex's urging she returns to action. Disengaging from the corner she was hugging, Jehn steps forward. "Let me see -" Now it's /her/ turn to push Tarion aside and get at the nav computer. She's frowning. "This doesn't make any sense - whatever has us here is just... Not going to let us go." She tries to run another course through the computer and her frown deepens. "If I chart us out of here at sub-light speed, the numbers go all wonky and we just... End up back here. It's no good."
Rheisa's got possibly the worst seats in the house for viewport viewing at this time, giving Raim the right-of-way to be useful. She can see glimpses here and there through shoulders and bobbing heads and it's enough to assemble a general picture of what drifts beyond. The Shili gal can't say why, but the sight of so many sad and lost, passengerless remains puts a sudden pain in her heart and sting in her eye. "Marukki d'kee och'sa maka..." she philosophizes aloud. "At rest in the stars with all other ancestors..." When Hex dishes out the orders she nods and backs up away from the pit to retrieve her few tools of the trade. The tension builds in her belly. What if Hex decides to leave her there so as to preserve the longevity of future leftovers!?
It had occurred to Kasia that there might be treasure on these ships, but treasure only appeals so far as them getting out with it alive, and that seems to be her priority. Which means that when Hex sides with Tarion on the matter of treasure, she gives him a look, but carefully maneuvers the ship closer to the ship in question.
Tarion doesn't notice or care about the look, because treasure. He's going along with Hex and Rheisa and Kasia, and two thirds of that is pretty ladies, so it should be A Good Time. "Alright, let's get some treasure!" he enthuses, clapping his hands together and smiling broadly at his compatriots. When he's this happy, it's probably a bad sign for every other person around.
Naelyn looks between Tarion and Hex for a moment before he offers as usual. "Master Tavers, 2000 to make sure Hex and Kasia both...make it back to the ship safely. I shall concern myself with the others." He pushes himself to his feet, pointing a finger at Hex, there are no words, just a pointed well manicured finger. Then he's retrieving his toolbelt and backpack, strapping them both on, and checking his holsters and various slicing wires/hookups/attachments, hugging his datapad to his chest as he stands and waits. "Oh...Hex. Before we go." He clears his throat. "Just in case...something happens and I can never tell you this again..." He lapses into Ryl. "I love you, my brother." Ever so heartfelt. "And f*ck you, preemptively."
Hex sighs and tugs at his gun belt, briefly considers the addition of suspenders to the structure of his life (or possibly less stew), and twitches his lekku. "We're looking for clues on how to get out of this mess first and foremost, Tavers," he reminds his smuggler, oh sorry, bounty hunter. "Treasure /second/." But they're totally gonna get some treasure! "Jehni'va, ai'jou, stay at the helm, ok ka. Take us in, keep us docked, and get ready to think fast if anything goes bad... I mean, goes worse. Help Raim if he needs it, ka. The rest of you, with me." Tromp tromp tromp, he starts heading for the airlock, his voice echoing down the corridor in response to Naelyn, "This is not even my fault!"
The cargo transport is from an era 30 or 40 years forgotten, when a different scrappy Rebellion was fighting a different dark power in the galaxy, because that's something we do regularly. As the team enters from Mayhem's airlock into the transport's, the data from Raim was good; life support is on, here. But the air is stale, and the lights flicker, and it all seems quite untrustworthy. "This is not my fault," Hex repeats. "Rheisa, tell me if you hear anything weird, you'll hear it first."
Jehn does her best work when she's left to keep the ship running, mostly because she isn't in the thick of it to fuck anything else up. Sweet safety, sweet silence, and sweet solitude: she gives a lopsided grin to her departing coworkers, off to raid the mysterious ghost ships and whom she will probably never see again. "Be careful!" She reminds the group at large as they file out. "Bring me back a souvenir!" Once the landing team has gone, she fusses with her comm, picks at the fabric riding up her ass, and then drops heavily into the pilot's chair with a satisfied groan. If she's going to spend eternity floating in space, she might as well do it in comfort: Jehni'va kicks her feet up, leans back, and pulls a joint from her breast pocket. Maybe there's still some good shit in that fridge...
Has Rheisa ever complained about how starship interiors warp acoustics? Probably she has. Well, after a year or so of frequenting passage on board the damn things, big and small, she's learned to account for the deviations and is pretty decent at interpreting whatever her sixth sense tells her brain. Still, it doesn't mean she feels at ease with her surroundings when they complete the boarding process and take their first tentative steps inside. Her lekku are also agitated, just in a different fashion from the green man's. A little nod is all she offers in way of acknowledgement because the rest of her is already busy inching forward to take point. Fingers that just itch to touch and examine ALL things glide over the thin layer of stagnant air separating them from the hull, an overhead compartment, a weakly respiring vent...and on she goes.
"The fact that our ship was pulled out of hyper isn't your fault, that we're here, that is completely your fault," Kasia points out to Hex as they board the other ship, with it's stale are, and poor lighting. She needs good lighting, soft flattering lighting to enhance her looks, not this dim flickery nonsense. Ugh, she can't work like this! Or this is basically how she always works now, but this isn't the time to reflect on how her life has gone wrong and landed her here, now is the time to look for clues to get them out of there alive. And treasure, too, jeez.
Tarion's got his armor on already, just like always, even bringing the helmet along out of the weapons locker whenever they board the landing craft, but once it becomes clear the air is breathable he decides to leave it behind so that he can look rakish and daring instead. "So, treasure first, then we find the way out," he reiterates Hex's instructions so that everyone remembers what their priorities are. "Smells a little funky in here," he comments, holding his rifle affectionately at the ready. Careful eyes, soft and blue despite his smirking grin, watch protectively over Rheisa's shoulder, ready to blast anything that might pop out to get her.
Naelyn brings up the rear, doing what he does best, following. He is tapping on his computer device and then looking around as he slides some extra attachment into a specific port and takes a deep breath, and just following. And searching for a computer terminal.
"Well what else are we supposed to do, Kasia!" Hex replies tersely to his wife, because it wouldn't be a proper plot without the Ashkuris doing some marital bickering. "Sit there in space forever like everyone else in this dead ass place, because we can't leave with hyper, and the sublight nav doesn't work either? Clues! We are looking for CLUES! ....and like.... some money, because we're really gonna miss that rendezvous with the pirate cargo, now." Through the ship they go; Hex has a pistol but no special armor, this is team Rakish and Daring all up in here. Plus Kasia's a twink so Hex can just stay within her bubble of safety! The lights flicker, flicker, flicker as they travel through the stale air of corridors, and Hex opens up a door... only to reveal a room full of dead bodies, human, slowly mummifying in the deadness of space. "Okay no!" he says, and quickly shuts the door down again. Further, and they come to a room that looks like a cargo bay, filled with crates.... and more bodies. There is a bank of computer terminals here, and a corpse slumped over one. Hex reaches over to haul it off. Some skin is stuck to the terminal. Thud, the corpse hits the floor. "Naelyn, that's all you. Tarion, let's open these crates and hope it's not all soap or somethin stupid."
Gruta headtails are flashing signs of 'high alert' by the time this intrepid crew reaches the bay and even her skin seems twitchy, flinching at the slightest sound. She hangs back in the corridor, edging aside to numbly let the others pile in and party with the dead people. Does she see something? She looks like she sees something, staring pointedly in the direction they'd BE heading if they hadn't stopped to hunt for treasure/data. A few breaths more, then she creeps ahead two steps. Stops. More staring. Her toes flex nervously over the floor and she finally calls out "'Alo??" Echo...echo...echo. "Bazic?" Maybe it's a Kee'tch'ka.
"We could just not board this ship and try to use our smarts to get out of this," Kasia points out, though she knows well that their collective pool of smarts is somewhat limited, and also at least some of it is really stoned, or hyper focused on booty. Like the pirate kind, not the other kind. Or distracted by stew theft and potential treasure. "We could just--" Door opens, room full of bodies, and that's enough to silence her. At least for a few moments. "Hex," she cautions quietly, less irritable, and more concerned. "I think we need to go, treasure be damned, we /need/ to not be on this ship anymore."
As if Tarion is incapable of being focused on both types of booty at once. Rheisa and Kasia are both here, after all, ok ka, there's plenty of booty to gaze upon. "Oh shit, there's the /treasure room,/ why else would they all be dead in there?" the hunter posits, wandering in behind to start looking around for, you know, TREASURE. Kasia's warnings are ignored.
It is like slow motion, seeing the body slide off and the skin and the smell and the setting and he sways slightly on his feet, facial expression mostly hidden by his veil but his eyes do go dead as he just stares for a moment and mentally shuts off that 'snarky personality' aspect of himself and focusses solely on what he's being told. Naelyn drags his feet for the first few steps, swallowing before ducking his head in acknowledgement on the requested that has been translated into a command. But he is murmuring something to himself, over and over in Ryl, just asking softly 'where are the droids...'. A small canister of some type of disinfectent spray is tugged from his tool belt and he sprays the keyboard and the skin...dead guy bits. Then reaches out to connect the space dongle from his device to the space dongle of the ships's console so he can starts downloading information...pausing as he sees that file, and he taps it, glancing over his shoulder and turning on the speakers of his datapad. There is something he does ask softly. "F-forgive me for asking, there's something here but...for a ship this size, should there not be droids?" He does however go to play the files.
So there's some good news here, and some bad news. "Droids?" Hex asks Naelyn, blankly. BAD NEWS: There are droids, two of them, security droids approaching. Good news: There is MONEY in one of the crates Tarion opens, just straight up Imperial credit ingots from the old school Empire days. A BOX FULL OF MONEY! But bad news, the security droids might be looking a little past their prime, but they don't stop to ask questions, they just open fire on the first targets they see: Rheisa and Kasia. Rheisa dodges but it's not good enough; she gets hit in the shoulder. Kasia dodges like a straight up brick, and red blaster fire burns a hole in her dress, hitting her in the hip. "KASIA!" Hex shouts, booty forgotten as he panics about booty, and fires two shots towards one of the droids. Enough to disable it, but not as handily as Tarion kills the other; boy's got style.
Meanwhile, the data file Naelyn has accessed queues up a shaky recording, 2D rather than holo. The speaker was, perhaps, the man slumped over the console... but since he's left half his face on the console, it's hard to tell. The file has degraded over time, or maybe was never recorded well to begin with, and his words jump in and out of static. He is desperately, desperately thin; he appears close to death on this recording. "-- last one," the man says. "-- gone, everyone else has gone, trapped here for -- -- months. Ship has --- instrument anomalies. But there is a pattern, if you're watching this, if you see this --- it -- not random. There is an algorithm --- use to adjust your instruments. I think it will allow -- exit the -- well, and return to hyperspace. Haven't tested -- can't --- I'm the only one." He laughs, hollow. "I'm the only one." The thin man on the screen swallows, then says, "Good luck, friend," and the recording stops, replaced by algorithm details this man thinks can be used to correct the instrument errors and sublight out of the gravity well.
"We ne--" Rheisa Dirleel, owner of darling Kee'tch'ka opens her mouth imploringly to the aging units stomping their way, but her mistake is realized just a little too late. Understandably, Rheisa's become a little gun shy after a certain few encounters on Nar, so when what should have been super helpful droids turn into death machines, she emits a broken-hearted squawk of dismay and struggles to morph into evasive maneuvers. It's not enough and she's caught by a blue bolt in the right shoulder. Shock. Horror. Hurt feelings. Broken Rheisa scrambles ass over heels to duck under the careful aim of her comrades and stumble behind some sort of protection in the cargo bay. HEY NAE. She's just gonna tuck under this console, k?
Kasia just knew this was going to go badly, she KNEW it. Normally this is something that she's good at, but not today, my friends. Not today. She barely gets a glimpse of the droids that are incoming before she's hit, making a sort of breathy grunting sound and going down to her knees. Maybe from pain, or the force of the blast, or to hide. Not that she's super hidden at her current position. She doesn't respond to Hex just yet, this hurts, ok.
Death droids! Tarion gasps in horror when Hex distracts him from the money, but then he realizes what's going on and snaps his gun into firing position with aplomb, blasting away with deft precision that obliterates the offending droid before it can get another shot off at the booty. And the ladies.
Naelyn reflexively ducks when blasters start going off and he clings a bit to his device, taking slowly calm breaths and focussing on the task at hand, glancing over his should briefly. But then there's something...that makes sense to /him/, an algorithm...a pattern and he's quickly murmuring calculations to himself and nodding as he makes sure to save as much information as he can. He looks down to Rheisa and then back up. "You need to go back to the ship Mistress Rheisa, your hunt was successful, we will be there shortly. Get yourself and Mistress Kasia to safety...y-you can do it, you have to get home to Umak and Raim will be a part pouty chiss without you..." He raises his voice. "Hex! I highly advise and I do not mean to impose, to get the wounded back to the ship...give me a few minutes, I th-think I can get this. I-I will be good, I can get this..." That becomes his mantra, eyes darting from one formula and stream of data to another as he's calculating and getting what he needs, he can't look up from his screen now. "Tarion, 3000 if they all get off the ship alive."
Hex stows his pistol in its holster, and rushes to the aid of his beloved, his queen, that one special person he wants to trade slightly unfair jabs with for the rest of their lives. "I got you, nonna," he promises, and then picks her up. Scoop! Pluck! Like a feather! JK, neither one of them are small. It takes some effort. But he does pick her up, and seems a lot less keen to stay here now. "Great," he says to Naelyn, in tones of abject relief. "Tarion, grab what you can carry and keep in mind you're /splitting it/. Rheisa, you okay ai'jou, come out from there and let's go before more of those things show up. Lia'ra," that's to Naelyn, "Grab your numbers and let's go, we're getting the hell out."
There's a chance Rheisa may need assistance in exiting her impromptu hiding place. Like, it was easy bumping up under here head-first, but when she tried to turn around and make room for her ass, things got wedged. The sickly aroma of corpse plus her own sizzling meat singes her nostrils and prompts a sorry note to exhale from her lungs. "Am trap," she woes. "Bad drrroids gone?" One wary eye peeks out from under her armpit - how the hell - to watch Hex give Kasia a lift.
This hurts, it like super hurts, and it's going to hurt more when the shock of it all wears off. That's going to be fun. Kasia makes a pained sound as she's picked up, because the injury is in a bad spot for moving, but she's picked up, and once his his arms, clings to Hex. She is a sad Space Mom right now. "Ka're, I..." She draws a slow, shaky breath, looking up at her husband with wide eyes. "I told you coming here was a bad idea." Aww, look, more jabs. It's true love. Hopefully Jehn has some extra space weed to take the edge off once they're back on the ship. lol, of course she does.
Holy krif, the crate of cash and a 3000 credit bonus?! Tarion almost trips on something, yelling "See?!" to Hex and Kasia as a single entity. "Kriffing /danger pay/, Nae is motivating the /hell/ out of me right now!" The hunter bounds back over the bodies and shoves the box back closed, heaving it up with his mechanical arm, the weight of it dragging his whole body off-kilter, but he's got it, by Pok. "Got it," he mutters, but then the hunter looks around and realizes that Rheisa is not running out as instructed. "Wait, where's... dammit." He spots her tangled under the... wherever she is, and sets the container down. "Come on," he encourages her, a little grumpily, prising her free of the tight space, hurrying the Gruta towards the door, a shoulder shoved up under her arm for support. Damn it all, the three thousand better be worth it.
"We're gonna be okay though, nonna, Naelyn's got something to fix our nav, we're gonna be okay," Hex promises Kasia, "We'll get you fixed up, ok? No time at all." Or if not fixed up, at least high af. He kisses her on the head, makes sure the others are filling out, and then back through the ship they go, to the airlock, back to Mayhem. The nav controls do seem to operate better when corrected by the dead man's anomaly algorithm, and the Deflings are able to escape the well, hit hyper, and go home back to Nar Shaddaa... leaving the graveyard far behind them, along with all the souls it claimed.
