Log:Defiance Guild: The Eel Job

The Eel Job

OOC Date: October 12, 2016
Location: Carnovia, Hutt Space
Participants: Defiance Guild: Tylin Creel, Tess Ul'Datha, Raim Shah, Rheisa Dirleel, Jehni'va Cihn, Kasia Ciph, Zhu Yan, Oriana, and Hex as GM

The short story: Defiance steals slaves from Bosuja the Hutt's eel farm on Carnovia. Tylin needs to have a word with her org leader; Tess's booty is fly; Raim has Had Enough;, Rheisa makes an unexpected acquisition of her own. Jehni'va has a heart for wildlife; Kasia and Hex resolve bickering via near death experience; Yan chases the galaxy's craftiest Z-95; Oriana has a special relationship with eels.

The long story:

A short jump through hyperspace has found the Defiance Barter and Acquisition Guild on just that... an Acquisition. This is a slave theft on the watery world of Carnovia, a world controlled by Bosuja the Hutt, known for its aquaculture resources: Eel farms. Eel farms operated entirely by slaves, so that Hutts throughout Hutt Space and beyond can enjoy feasting on the juvenile eels. One of these farms is, of course, the acquisition target. Carnovia looms large and blue in the view screens of the Felicity and the Of Course I Love You, as the ships approach. Kasia pilots the Broadstar, with Hex manning a turret gun, and Tess aboard as well. Tess has a parachute. Heh heh. What could that mean. The other members of the mission are aboard the Felicity, and Hex's voice sounds over the coms to refresh the mission plan:

"There's only one real entrance in and out of this farm - it's on a piece of land that juts out into the ocean. Today, and today only, there's a freak tidal event causing an extreme low tide, which means you'll be able to land the Felicity on what's normally sea floor. Watch your step and run up through the induction pipes to the eel farm, and then do what you gotta do to get everyone out. I want this place a wreck when we leave - tear it up. Wipe all their computer systems, manifests, ledgers, and records. Kasia and I are gonna light up the entrance to keep security busy, and we'll drop off Tess for some sniper cover fire. You got one hour before the ocean comes back so don't dawdle or you'll get marooned or drown. Everybody got it? Vatak'ultuka!" A pause lingers, then Hex adds, "Oh yeah, and watch out for eels."

With that, the OCILU veers off on a different vector, and the Felicity makes its way through atmo and clouds to land with an inelegant, squashy sshhhhththhhuuuckkkk sound on the strange landscape that is usually the bottom of an ocean. The Eel Farm on its promontory looms ahead, with giant induction pipes exposed that would normally be underwater. That must be the way in...

On the way in Tylin is looking out the view port "Look at all that water!" She exclaims before shuddering at the thought of the tide coming in and the thought of being in all that. She backs away from the view port, bottom lip bitten. When the ship lands her nerves start up in over drive, finger nails pressed hard in her palms. But a quick glance around her at the others stops her from saying she will stay on the ship instead. No fear...riiiight.

Tess is dressed light in dark blue and gray camo fatigues with no armor. She's got her face painted to fade her facial profile against the dark tidal waters, sitting with her eyes closed in the back of the ship with a lightly packed ruck sack beside her, a DL-6 blaster rifle folded down to attach to her right hip and Addell laying across her lap like a dying lover who just wants to spend one last second with her head craddled against a topsy turvy turning belly.

"Oh my god, I can feel the ship drowning... I hate this.." She shouts, it is not the first time she has complained about flying. The truth of the matter is she has said it enough that, one can only hope, she's beaten that dead seahorse (see wtf I did there?!) to death, necromancied it, and then shot it point blank with the stfu wtf is wrong with you stick.

"Open the hatch, I'm going to jump, I'd rather swim... Why aren't we in Star Trek so we can teleport, this is bullshit.."

Riding aboard his yacht is something that Raim has become accustomed to quite easily. It is a yacht, after all, and quite the comfortable atmosphere to spend hyperdrive jumps and space travel. Someone else piloting his ship other than the hired staff is something that the Chiss is not quite as easily accepting of. It is no small surprise that Raim has spent some of the travel time in the lounge, taking a few shots of Corellian whiskey to calm the nerves as the mission briefing is redirected through the entire ship via the intercom system. He is outfitted as he always is, though to day is a slight exception in the fact that he wears a blaster pistol strapped to one thigh, for all the good it will do him. As the yacht drifts through the atmosphere, the Chiss' glowing eyes survey the waterlogged planet through the view deck and he heaves a sigh. He lifts an ear piece communication device from the table and fits it into his ear and says, "Right. So... We will just climb up that pipe then." No sooner does the ship touch down, than Raim presses the button on his wrist computer that causes the boarding ramp to lower and he is the first to charge down the ramp and begin making his way as stealthily and quickly as the two can be done. "Everyone stay together. Watch each others' backs. We are in and out."

So this is unfortunate. Doing her best impersonation of stone is Rheisa Dirleel, buckled into her safety seat as they come into landing and listen to Hex's final words of advice. It's safe to assume the Togruta's not a fan of their choice of landing pad, or the mode of farm entry, or the habitat through which they'll presumably be slogging to find all the peoples in need of liberating.

But just in case there's any uncertainty as to her feelings, she utters a soft "Bhekt," as a faint shudder ripples through the Felicity and they're down. Half-closed lids watch Raim exit with the enthusiasm of a perturbed feline and she struggles out of the harness before collecting what few articles of injury she possesses, a comlink, and march-limps her way on after.

It's not stealing if they're people! At least that's what Jehni'va is telling herself as she silently hyperventilates aboard the Felicity. Squeeeealch! "Oh, gross." Flying is one thing - there's no problem there It isn't until they land on the squishy planet that she nervously pinches the fabric above her knees and sucks her teeth, brow firmly knit as they await an inevitable death by gunfire, eel, or drowning. At least Tylin seems nervous too and the tall pilot shoots the other woman, what she hopes to be, a reassuring look as she trots from the cockpit; but she probably just looks like she's about to vomit and wants to share the moment with someone. "Let's do this." She cliches, falling towards the door with the others and praying to be left to "guard the ships". "Those pipes then?" In and out, okay. She's sure everything will go exactly according to plan, because that's how all of Hex's plans go.

Kasia is neither afraid of flying, or water, though eel infested water might be another story, and she is therefore pretty glad that she's staying on the OCILU rather than going down on the ground. "The ship is not drowning," she calls back, having heard the whine from Tess. "And you'll get to jump out soon enough, don't you worry. Then you'll get to shoot at people," a pause. "Just don't shoot our people, okay? We like our people. Shoot the bad people. Also don't shoot the slaves this time." It's a lot of instructions, but she has faith that Tess hasn't listened to any of it and will do whatever she wants.

The OCILU swoops down, and flying slower but still pretty damn quick, the ramp lowers. "JUMP, TESS!" Hex calls over the sound of the rushing air, "DON'T FORGET YOUR PARACHUTE!" They were in the army, they know how to operate parachutes. Like... probably. It might be a rough landing on the rooftop, crunch, ow, but Tess will have an excellent vantage point from there to do some sniping of the suddenly panicked security forces rushing toward the facility entrance like ants. The BOOM, BOOM, of a turret gun starts trying to defend the farm from the suddenly-appeared Broadstar, but Kasia's like a leaf on the wind (that's not ominous) and can't be hit. Hex can hit, and there's a smug, "Escho'ka ni tal'kan, slaver trash," on the comm as a plume of smoke rises up.

All this chaos makes for a clear entrance up the pipes - no one is shooting at the Felicity, or its occupants. But the sea floor itself doesn't seem like it wants to allow them easy passage. It's wet, slippery, mucky, and it smells like sushi that nobody but Hex would eat. A few sad fish that didn't make it out with the tide flop about here and there, as though in commiseration.

A thankful smile is given to Jehni'va for the encouragement. Just what she needed to screw up her waning courage. Out the door and right into the muck Tylin goes. She, of course, freezes as her boots sink into it. "Hole," she gets out through clinched teeth. Struggling against the suction she fights to get her boots unstuck all the while she glances at the water expecting it to rise and drown her while she is stuck. Free! She mucks her way to the pipes and begins to climb. Only a partial way up before she slides right back to the bottom, her face and hair now covered in much as is her clothes. Raising her head she gags and spits out the muck that got jammed in her mouth. "I am not meant for this, I should be back at the ship," mumbling to herself she nevertheless tries again the climb to the pipes and makes it! Though a lot more gross than when she left the ship.

It's good to be understood.

Tess may as well just be making vague sounds that sort of resemble agreement because she's far too busy trying not to vomit to pay attention, "Kill everything that moves, got it." She's too excited to get off this damn ship, entirely too excited for anyone's good. As soon as the hatch opens, Tess takes off running and barely makes it over the edge before the storm winds hit her, knock her feet out from under her, and send her hammering down against the bulk head hard enough to knock the air right out of her lungs.

Along with all the vomit that she's been holding in. She just crop dusted this planet with vomit.

In a rain storm.

"Oh sweet god... I think I broke my ribs..." She whimpers, but still manages to roll out of the ship into a storm, spinning out of contrpl in the raginess of the storm. Thankfully she did not forget her parachute or this would be the worst landing ever.

Well, it still is, just not the last landing.

She's still trying to catch her breath and doesn't pull the chute soon enough. The result is she hits the ground with about as much force as jumping from a four story building. "Son of a cu- I broke my ankle.. I hate you... all that stuff about not killing slaves, gone, this is your fault..." Who's fault? She crawls up to her knees and spits, "OUCH!"

Raim leads the charge... and is probably the least qualified person to be in the lead. He is eager to not be shot before they make those pipes, however, and he is hurrying as best as he can while still staying slightly crouched in an effort of remaining somewhat stealthy. Raim is sadly more of a brain than a field operative, however, and in his haste his foot steps directly into a wad of slimy sea weed and he pitches forward head first into a glob of the stuff, skidding slightly in his momentum. There is muffled cursing and gargling of a mouth full of sea slime, paired with a touch of interference over the comms as the Chiss struggles back to his feet, and then hobbles the rest of the way, trying as best as he can to maintain his dignity by NOT LOOKING back at the others. Maybe if he doesn't acknowledge that it happened, they won't have seen it. He manages to climb the rocky and uneven slog upward, and then turns, his glowing eyes finding Rheisa first and reaching his hand out to her first. Once she is safely in the pipe, he will offer assistance to the others.

Jehni'va Cihn is like a stork - long legs sink into the muck but she is evolutionarily adapted to it. She lopes her way easily through the mud, pausing only to hold a hand over her mouth in silent grief for the dying fish. One, she is able to throw into a shallow puddle and hopes it helps. She makes it to the pipes without too much issue, Raim helps her in, and she even climbs it alright! However, as she nears the top Jehn's hand slips and sends her tumbling backwards down the long length of the pipe. As she falls, she smashes her head against the side of it and lands in the mud with a resounding "UuuuuUuugh." Okay, she's got this. The pilot gangles her way slowly, painfully upright and claws her way back up the pipe, tilting slightly to the left and grumbling blearily. She's fine! She's fine, everything's fine.

Last time she tried to climb into a pipe of this size (or any pipe for that matter) it ended in a disastrous plunge into sewage with a wicked undertow. This attempt isn't panning out much better. Much. Maybe she shouldn't have laughed so hard at Raim when he landed face first in a sea salad. Rheisa now suffers in silence, aside from the slick slap of her knee into the muck after her arms fail to pull herself inside. It's slow going, but she finally crawls her way in far enough to grab at Raim's hand with slimy fingers. Her bare toes find some traction and she offers the other bumbling bodies a sympathetic frown.

The fact that Kasia's words are likely going to be entirely ignored is of absolutely no surprise to her. Even if they were orders, she usually assumes that Tess will take them as gentle suggestions and do as she sees fit. It's Tess. The ramp lowers and said psycho leaps, she assumes, hoping that it went well, and having no idea at the moment that it didn't. She's far too focused on guiding the ship around so that they aren't hit, and angling it so that Hex's fire can lay waste to the slaver trash below.

Boom! Boom! Kasia and Hex continue their teamwork, which involves bitching at each other on the open comms. "NONNA! The hell are you banking left for. What -- KASIA! You just made me hit the wall when I could have hit that guy in the head! Ryma'at, do you want me to drive?"

On the rooftop, as Tess gets settled with her busted limbs, she can see a number of targets available. Private security forces, Trandoshans and mercenaries, scramble to and fro in alarm, all of them failing to look UP. It's like shooting fish in a barrel... or fish on a tidal flat. There are also, of course, lots of slaves to shoot. Because Tess sometimes does that. The slaves are all humanoid species - humans, near humans, Twi'leks, a few Rodians and Bothans, it's an indiscriminate mix of human and alien beings suffering misfortune together. One stands out; there is only one Togruta, a tall woman with a toddler strapped to her in a sling. Adults and children labor together, carrying things back and forth, stuffing dead juvenile eels into eel storage jars, stirring foul, steaming pots of god knows what. They've all noticed the chaos, and seem frightened, unsure.

The team climbing up from the pipes, once they makes it up, finds it not too hard to push aside a covering grate and step out onto... a ledge. Well. They didn't come up right where the slaves are; they're separated from the work areas and juvenile eel pools by a ringed moat of... not juvenile eels. Dark waters in this moat tank stir with something sinister and unseen. There is a small cement ledge available to cross the tank... but it looks slippery.

Scrambling through the pipe and finally breaking once again into freedom Tylin finds her self on the ledge of doom. Peering over into the dark waters and movement in this causes her heart and breath to freeze. She looses it and tries to scramble backwards but her feet slip out, she lands in a lump only to slide on towards the water. A blood curdling scream emits as she finally slips over the edge, finger nails clawing for purchase but finding none, and plunges into the tank. Forget that there is anything in there, it's water! She panics, flails as her head bobs up to the surface only to plunge back down again. The second time this happens she croaks out "Can't swim," which gets partially drowned out with a huge intake of water that causes her to panic even more and coughing, gagging all at the same time before her head disappears once more under the water.

Tess sets up Addell up on the edge of the building and pops her neck as she lays out across the rain soaked gravel. A hand reaches over to pull the stock of the rifle tighter into her shoulder, just trying to ignore the agony of a broken ankle and bruised ribs. How can this mission get any worse?

There's plenty of targets, so that's not at all a problem for her... although hitting them seems to be.

The first shot goes as intended, if a little off center, wounding the trandoshan. The second and third are close, but not close enough to kill anything. Worse still, she's given up her positiont o the security force down there, but that's when she works best.

That or she just wants this shit show to be over quickly and figures dying at the hands of lizard men is the best possible death she can hope for.

"Son of a bitch, I left my music on the ship... Hey, you think you can circle back around and toss me my datapad?" Over comms, she's even maybe, possibly serious. She'll get serious when the shooting starts at her, maybe, probably. Or not.

She is Tess.

Raim glances around as he sees the small cement walkway and then looks once more at the slippery looking concrete dubiously. The droid technician sighs and shakes his head as he carefully sets one foot on the concrete and then begins trying to walk slowly across the slippery path. He is doing fairly well, until Tylin takes a dip. He reaches for her to try and pull her to safety, but that overbalances the Chiss and his feet slip, sending him into the water as well. There is one thing perhaps few people know about Csilla. It is icy. Frozen. There is no water. And as such, Raim didn't have many opportunities to learn to swim himself. He makes a valiant attempt, but as he feels the large shapes swooping around him in the water, any thought of saving Tylin is blissfully forgotten as the Chiss splashes and tries to reach for that ledge to help him escape this watery hell.

It's a bigger nightmare on this side of the pipe!

Not only are lasers blasting and sirens blaring and fearful people fearing, but suddenly semi-solid ground has run out and they're staring down the writhing waters full of serpents. A flashback of a hair-raising scream ending in a gurgling of bubbles and blood slams into Rheisa's conscious thought. Water serpents - the devourers of children. The reason she and so many of her peers did not take the plunge beyond ankle depth.

And then Tylin and Raim both take a plunge, towards those hungry, hungry mouths. The image of Ghedi'ta disappearing into frothy water burns behind the frozen Togruta's eyesand she runs. Not really runs, but scrambles like a feral thing escaping the horrible, over the algae-covered gangway and towards solid ground. Only when she's made it just she take a moment to turn, whip the blowgun off her back, and fire a dart at the nearest coil of eel she sees rolling at the surface by her companions.

Up the pipe, out of the pipe... Across the eel tanks. Easy. Jehni'va takes a long, anxious breath, her head still ringing from her argument with gravity, and then drops to all fours to unashamedly crawls across. You know what, make fun of her as much as you want but at least she isn't /in the tank/ with Raim and Tylin - because she's definitely come to expect a certain level of pain when Hex sends her anywhere near wildlife.... But Tylin can't swim and Raim is scrambling out of there. "Motherfu-" Rheisa shoots into the water, and Jehn takes a deep resigned breath. "Watch your aim!" She squeaks before throwing herself from the ledge to go get Tylin.

Of course their teamwork involves bitching on the open com, this is how couples operate, right? "I banked because I need to bank," Kasia replies in a mildly testy tone. "I'm trying not to get shot out of the sky here, not line up easy shots for you. Shoot better!" She banks again, gentler this time. "That better, ka'r-- crap!" Of course right as she said that she has to quickly maneuver away as another BOOM sounds, and she, again, tries to avoid a fiery, explody death. "Tess, pretty sure you don't want us tossing hard objects down at you. You'll just have to sing to yourself."

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... actually a plane! Seems like trouble couldn't just hover in orbit waiting to cover the exfiltration, not when a meaty brawl was taking place down below. The X-Wing plummeted from the sky like a flaming brick, S-foils splitting open to signal impending doom to those bastards below. The engines sputtered once, twice, before catching and abruptly changing the X-Wing's velocity from vaguely downwards to 'Holy shit he's coming right for us!' The sudden appearance of the Heartbreak 1 on everyone's IFF, abruptly close to all, was cause for concern, because nobody flew a ship called the Heartbreak 1 if their name wasn't Zhu Yan.

At the gates of the eel farm, it's pandemonium. There's sniper fire, ship fire, turret fire. Things are starting to burn and break close to the "real" entrance, and the security forces are now shouting about "something" up on the roof, but no one seems to be clearly in charge, and none of them seem able to neutralize the sniper. They're like the Resistance forces! hah hah... cry. But this disorganization means that Tess is in no danger from the wild spray of shots sent occasionally her way, and she has another opportunity to take shots.

On the production deck, the slaves have figured out some serious shit is going down. All of them have abandoned their work. There are around 75 of them, more rushing out of other areas of the facility, calling for loved ones in a panic, trying to find each other, trying to figure out the right way to escape. If they're ever going to get corralled in an orderly fashion to get out of the eel farm and down to the Felicity, someone is going to have to take control of them, whether through persuasion or intimidation.

Jehni'va makes herself useful by rescuing Tylin from drowning, and Rheisa, filled with the fury of too many ancestors eaten by weird toothy predators, fires her weapon into the tank like a proper badass. The eel that was about to take a chomp out of her blue bby goes belly up, and starts leaking dark blood into the water, twitching feebly.

Getting the slaves across that moat looks like it might be difficult... but sharp eyes might spot that there's some kind of automated cover, retracted now, that can be extended over the tanks from this side. Like a bridge! There's even a small console nearby that might have the controls for it... but everything is on security lockdown, and they're non op. OR ARE THEY.

"Glad you could make it, Yan," Hex comms to the arriving X-Wing, "Kasia's here to show you how to fly, don't worry."

Feeling hands, or eels, on her Tylin fights it off but still gets dragged to the edge where she promptly throws up. Mostly dark water but those ration packs she ate on the trip to this hell hole are also there. Air, she would be happy to just hang there. "Thanks," she croaks out to Jehni'va between throwing up. But it's the bites from underwater that spur Tylin up and out of the water. At least she isn't all covered in muck. But she is shaking, pale and looks very sick from her dunking. But it's land and that's good.

From this vantage point Tess can see the poor bastards down in the water, amongst them one that is bobbing like a stopper surrounded by human eating eels. "Sing to myself?" A thought, a frown, her finger hovering over the trigger as she lines up a shot on Tylin... "I'll... give... them... Blood. Blood. Gallons of the stuff." Addell sweeps away from her compatriot when the return fire whips up a frenzy of dust all around her sniper position, "Sorry, can't take you out of your mercy this time... I've got slaves to set free of their mortal coil."

It's possible that she doesn't know what that means.

For now it does not mean she's shoot slaves, but she is singing again. "Say something, I'm giving up on you... I'll be the one, if you want me to.." The first shot drops a lizard man, blood spraying across the tarmac as he's rushing towards cover. The second, comes only once one of his companions tries to drag the first into cover, taking part of his head off. "Anywhere, I would have followed you..."

The rifle moves slowly across the scoped in field. "Say something, I'm giving up on you..." The last, threads right infront of a slaves face and hits her jailer, dropping him to a knee behind cover, "Dammit, I missed..."

Swimming is not Raim's strong suit, but resourcefulness is. As his love saves his life, Raim takes the opportunity to climb atop the dead eel. Balancing precariously, he lifts his fist first and punches the eel twice as hard as he can, his face transformed briefly into a mask of terrible fury. Once that burst of anger has played out, Raim stands on the dead eel and uses the floating corpse to lift him from the water so that he can climb back onto the slippery concrete walkway and crawl across like Jehn. Once on the other side, Raim's scarlet eyes survey the slaves quickly, locating Rheisa before he moves over to the console that should have the ability of overriding the security lockdown. Raim pulls a cord from his pocket, shaking it to remove any water before plugging it to his wrist computer and then into that terminal. The Chiss' hand moves quickly, tapping away as he attempts to override the security measures, and then close the cover over the hutt forsaken eel pools.

Take that, spawn of the unholy is translation for the lowly uttered grunts and fangly, saliva-spraying hiss that Rheisa casts towards the churning water after her toxic dart finds its mark. A more succinct interpretation would be 'F*k you'.

Apparently it's the only dart she's wasting on the fish, as the reed of doom gets tucked in against her side and she crouches to better survey the laborers now staring at her and the rest of the freak show that's come tumbling out the pipe. "Och!" She chirps, locking eyes with a surprisingly familiar race, at least. The other Togruta female does, in fact 'och', her eyes too wide to NOT look and see. "Bal'a hesk!" She's encouraged to 'listen' as well as Rheisa scurries light-footed over the ground towards her. The Shili woodcarver's gaze is focused forward, on the red-and-white face, but she's not let the rest of the pandemonium out of her mind's eye. Swooping craft, running bodies, it's all received by and funneled through her montrals, lending to her continuously updating mental map of the situation. Her target also possesses this superiority over the other assembling humanoids, so perhaps that's why she was chosen. Someone to help her watch their backs.

"E'yeh," Rheisa murmurs once she's slunk into close range, arm's reach of the baby-slinging Togruta. "Comrrro ka yi. Ehg tuul ya." Rheisa gestures to some of the other slaves, then back at her crew. Nevermind that she smells like an eel's ass...she offers salvation!

"No problem!" Jehn wheezes with a cough and forces herself shakily upright. Eels will haunt her dreams. More specifically, Raim punching a dead eel will haunt her dreams. "Let's go!" The lanky woman pants as she scrambles back up the ledge and lopes after the others and into the chaos of fear and panic. Rheisa is doing alright, it seems - even after she went all cool and feral at the tankside. But now the pilot is facing a predicament - she's not good with /people/. "Hey! We're here to save you!" She babbles to anyone near enough to listen. "Hey! You! Saving people, let's go!" Why didn't they leave her at the ship? "Come with us if you want to live!"

"Are you still complaining about my flying?" Kasia asks Hex over those open coms again, then turns off her com and just turns her head for a second. "Don't make me come back there! You wouldn't like that!" Neither would she, because they're flying and would crash, but she leaves out that important detail in her not very good threat, then focuses on flying, and not exploding, once more.

"She wishes she could fly like me!" was the typically bragging response from the rather talkative Zhu Yan. Reddie, the little R3 droid that some jackass had programmed to be someone's mother, bleated behind him in an annoyed tone. Yan, being Yan, respond with a quiet, off the comm, "Shush!"

X-W Heartbreak 1 was hurtling towards the ground at a speed best described as 'Jesus take the wheel'. How low was he going?! Goddamnit Yan pull up! At barely the last moment the X-Wing banked and rolled, barely two hundred metres from the deck, and streaked along the surface, donating a short barrage of Taim & Bak grade energy-based ordinance to one of the ground-mounted laser batteries. Clearly the resultant explosion was a sign that they didn't like their gift. Heartbreak 1 roared across the top of the battlefield with the bellow of an angry dragon, straight past a control tower staffed with now-deaf operators, as the remainder of the ground turrets turned way too slowly to track the far-too-close attack fighter.

Yan himself, for some strange reason, was dead silent. Maybe he was concentrating. Maybe he'd left his comm turned off. Who knew?

Splat! Splat! Splat! Bosuja's worthless mercenaries are dying all over the place at Tess's hands, and without direct supervision, there's not even anyone to yell at her for getting too close to the slaves. What fun! And no one knows she almost shot Tylin, either! See Tess, it's not all bad. Some of the mercenaries are trying to flee, but they can't get out, because there's an X-Wing and a Broadstar making a mess of the bridge in. They're doing a great job of that, and with another couple of satisfying BOOM's, the last of the turret weapons on the ground go up in smoke. "Easy peasy from here on --" Hex's voice cuts off. "Ahhh, akei ka schutta... Headhunters, incoming."

Back on the ground, everyone is saved from more visits with the carnivorous eels - but if Raim wants Rheisa to make him a nice pair of boots out of the dead one, someone better haul its carcass out of the tank before the covers close. The slave Togruta clutches her wailing toddler and listens to Rheisa with wide eyes and pale, frightened lekku stripes, but she nods, and starts calling to her companions in broken Basic, gesturing at the Defiance crew. "We go! We go! Friends!" That's not quite right. "Heroes!" That's also not quite right. "Stupid hero friends!" That's close enough. Between her, Rheisa, and Jehn, the slaves start to gather, though some still look like they may need extra encouragement to trust the Stupid Hero Friends.

A other computer terminal not far from the moat-covering controls blinks promisingly - it may have access to more systems, and more files, to lay digital waste to this operation, as well as physical. This was a Naelyn idea by the way. Y'all know Hex wasn't smart enough to request this on his own. Hex's passwords are literally 'password.'

Far away, in the distance - the blue water line seems a little closer. How accurate were those calculations about when the tide was meant to come in...?

Tylin does as Jehn says and gets moving to the terminal. Behind her wafts the smell of muck, eel water and vomit. She sits, squishy, and begins typing. Quickly jacking in her datapad, some of the files she finds are downloaded to it. She searches any messages, and those she may find are also copied to the datapad. Only when she is satisfied that she has gotten all she wants does she begin the erase programs. Then the grand command of format is issued and her datapad is removed. Standing, she waits till the last minute before she begins to head to the others.

Oh no, they're shooting back!

Tess cackles as she's winged by a blaster shot fired up at her from the rooftop. "I can do this all day..." She warns them in a voice that is not nearly loud enough for them to hear. To sell her point, she shots one square in his chest and explodes his middle part into a bunch of little middle parts.

off in the distance, somewhere down in a tunnel perhaps, she's almost certain she feels the tickling feeling that Raim is being intimidating...

Which is why she misses her second shot.

It's Raim's fault.

The third... she'll eat that one.

She'll also roll over onto her back and pull Addell across her chest to replace the blaster pack on the bottom of the heavy weapon. The spent cartrage is dropped near her ruck sack while she looks down at her ankle. "Alright, Imma need you to stop being broken... we need to find a new sniper spot and I can't do that with a fracture. So get it together bones, aint nobody got time for your shit."

Raim Eelpuncher Shah finishes setting the eel enclosures on closing mode and then curses as he sees his eel being closed beneath the closing plates. Turning, he sees the slaves that are following along after Rheisa and Jehn, and then his eyes settle on the unfortunate few who are still on the fence. Drawing his blaster from the holster at his hip, Raim holds the weapon aloft and fires off three quick rounds skyward. His face is once more a mask of anger as he yells to be heard, "Everyone move your feet! We are here to save you from a fate worse than death, but if you do not get moving we WILL leave you behind. I have fallen in seaweed and muck, I have fallen into an eel enclosure and almost gotten eaten by these damned monsters. My patience is gone. Move your asses! NOW!" To illustrate his point, Raim fires three more blasts skyward.

"Yes, go now!" Rheisa echoes over her shoulder, ushering those immediately behind her ahead with a point to the solid mass that was once a watery grave. Magic? Maybe. "Into pipe! Make fast! Ehrru!" Rheisa halts at the edge, balancing on the original, narrow walkway while the herd of escapees advances and (hopefully) stampedes on by. She's watching the buildings' profile a little more closely now, searching for any ne'er do wells that the eyes in the sky - or Tess - haven't already blown apart. Also, it's possible she just needs a breather, and takes a knee.

With the back and forth over the comms, the general confusion of the slaves, and the chatter between her team mates, Jehn is about ready to call it a day and play dead - but most of the slaves seem willing to follow! "Let's go towards the -" The firefight above is brought into their line of focus as Zhu Yan goes streaking by low overhead. Instinctively, Jehn ducks and snaps her goggles down over her eyes as any loose sediment threatens to clog her vision. Glancing skyward, the pilot feels her gut constrict - headhunters outmaneuvering their guys. Gritting her teeth, she takes off after Tylin - who has just made that code her bitch - to lead people across the walkways. "Hey!" She shouts, shakily. Why aren't they all following? She's going to use her scary voice! "HEY GUY-" An explosion nearby makes her jump, which in turn causes her to swallow a wad of spit, and Jehni'va Cihn violently chokes on her own saliva for a drawn out moment. But Raim has this, so she's not too cut up about her shameful display, even Jehn snaps to attention and becomes acutely aware of an anxious pressure in her stomach as the large Chiss kicks them into shape. "Okay, okay." She breaths to herself and balls her hands into fists to start running back across the covered tanks. Hovering at the edge of the pipe, she clutches her knees, breathing heavily, and flashes Rheisa a questioning thumbs up before dropping through the opening.

It's hard to continue being annoyed with someone over something said when you find yourself confronted with incoming ships that want to kill you. "Shit." Kasia cussed into the open coms, and said foul language is followed by beeps, and squealing over the com before she shuts off her end of it so that it's not filled with dire, high pitched warnings for everyone to hear. There is a lot more cussing once it's not an open line, and then, "Hold on to something!" is shouted back at Hex, rather than over the coms, followed quickly by an unpleasant, and frankly terrifying shudder of the ship as the headhunter's weapons hit the OCILU. Though it might not be the time to crunch the numbers, she knows in her heart that if they survive, this is going to be expensive.

You know what the fun part is about a balls-to-the-wall high speed low altitude ground attack run? You don't have anywhere to go when relics from a bygone era start to shoot at you. So when some jokers in Headhunters show up and decide to be cowboys, that left Zhu Yan without many options. "Well frack me dead," he uttered to himself as he skidded on repulsors, put nose to sky, and hit the throttle hard enough to turn some poor soldier on the ground below him into a grilled cheese steak.

The sudden rapid climb was not good for evasiveness, and the pelting of laser fire from the Headhunter brought his shields down in short order, but it was enough to give him space to dodge. And dodge he did, corkscrews and weaves and enough distraction to try and avoid hits long enough for Heartbreak 1's shields to come back up. "Reddie, flip to torps. This guy is annoying me." Yan sounded annoyed! Annoyed enough to want to jam a long and hard object up his opponent's tailpipe. No homo.

This is a fun time, for sure. Oriana had gone off to plant some bombs. But damn that water and eels, because she is half wet and unaware of a dead eel sticking out of the back part of her armour. There are light bite marks on her face, but given that she is here she clearly won the fight. With a huff the last bomb is set, a one over is given to the charge, she is sure that she got dry wires. While making her way to the others a boot is pulled off to dump some water and small fish out. "Damn it, next time I'm staying on the ship and someone else can swim with the eels. I swear one tried to mate with me!" That's when she feels the dead eel and yanks it out. Going to toss it aside with a good throw.

Aaaah the OCILU got a little cooked! Or a lot cooked. "Hang on, nonna, hang on, you got this," Hex encourages his pilot, trying to get a shot on the headhunter beating them up while Kasia applies her attention to the whole not crashing and dying thing. He manages to hit his target solidly enough to leave it bruised, if not totally disabled. "Jehni'va, good news bad news, I got some work for you when we get back to the hangar," Hex adds over the comm. "Yan, now's a good time to be a thing of beauty and blow up these schuttakku..."

Tylin finds success in her hacking of the terminal, and lays waste to the state of Bosuja the Hutt's eel farm files - manifests, shipping, ledgers, everything's ruined. Meanwhile, the slaves are not even gonna mess around with Raim Eelpuncher Shah, what if he turns out to be Raim Slavepuncheralso Shah, like, omg, dude is cray. So they begin to funnel into the pipes, heedless of the gunk from the sea still in those pipes, and they begin a run for the freedom of the yacht across the tidal flat.

The mercenaries have given up on Tess. They so don't get paid enough for this. They're disappearing into whatever shelter they can find - F this, F that, F all y'all, they want nothing to do with the slaves now, and enough of the security force is bleeding all over the ground that they want nothing to do with the Stupid Hero Friends either. Tess too has the all clear to run back with the slaves now. Or murder them and her team. You never know with Tess. Also like there are some hearts here she hasn't eaten yet, dead people hither and yon.

Hex spares a moment of not dying to comm, "We need to get gone, tide's coming in, Oriana, are those charges se--" BOOOOOOOOOM!

Oops! So a few of the bombs went off, you know... early...

Tylin spots Jehni and begins to run in her direction only to stop as she watches the fighting over their heads. Wincing as both Kasia's ship and then Yan's takes hits but it seems they are still flying. She begins to run again across the cover as fast as she can to avoid another drowning. That's when the blasts occur, causing her to duck and cover her head. Once the worse of the debris gets past she starts looking at the other's on her team to see if any were hurt "Everyone good? Any one hurt?" She will help if so.

Tess pulls her sniper rifle strap over her shoulder and gets up onto her knees, then onto her feet to test her ankles strength. It's not all she hoped it would be, but it'll support her weight for the insanity that's about to take place.

She reaches down and whirls out her rancor fanged blade and starts running across the roof of the building with the clomp clomp clomp steps of boots on wet gravel. At the edge she leaps off like a fuckin' swan! Knees bent, lightning flashing, and brilliant ass silouette sailing through the air magestically across the expanse towards the group of trandoshan's several stories beneath her.

Her aim, it is true, and the blade buries itself hilt deep int he side of her targets neck. She turns with it and throws him off to the side, grabbing the EL-16HFE blaster rifle off her thigh and pulls it into battle ready position in the crook of her shoulder.

One leg spread out to one side, water everywhere, bad ass ninja fucking Sniper ready to kill shit and eat it because that's what you do when you're not allowed to kill Slaves.

She should get an intimidation check at zero.

Raim reaches out a hand, holding either side of the pipe as the thing rocks mightily from the explosion. He curses and then says into his comms, "Rheisa... RHEISA! Are you alright? I can't see you." When the Chiss begins to move again, it is with purpose as he reaches out and pushes slaves either forward or out of his way as he rushes forward to attempt and find the Togruta. "What happened? What was that explosion?" he demands over the comms.

Rheisa is about to flash a mirrored gesture at Jhen, but a sudden BOOOOOOOOM shatters the air, her concentration on ALL things, and adds to the general assault of her very, very sensitive 'hearing'. Roaring X-wings and pelting turbolasers were scary enough, but an explosion of this magnitude is enough to warrant an ear-piercing shriek of pain and ire from the 'gruta as she flattens herself backward to avoid being skewered by some rebar before rolling into an abrupt ball to avoid a couple other plunks of high-velocity duracrete that go ricocheting around them. Probably not music to Raim's ears, or anyone's for that matter, with a com remotely near their earhole.

Not wasting another breath on this stinking, death noodle farm, Miss Dirleel stiffly unfolds from her huddle and rises with a wobble to her feet, ready to join the last few stragglers in diving down that pipe to freedom...almost. She looks a little cross-eyed at the moment but staggers in that direction anyway.

Speaking of comms, Jehn has a good moment to listen to the trouble above before Kasia switches off. "I'll clear my calendar." She answers with a smirk - this job is a mechanics wet dream, plenty of pretty ships getting shot at. Moments before the scene is blown apart in fire and flames, she spies Oriana yank a dead eel out of her armor. "Poor eels." Jehn comments airily, halfway through hauling herself into the pipe. And then the world roars and bucks and tries to throw them all away with it; when the explosion rocks the ground, she miraculously is able to keep on her feet - but a sizeable chunk of building smashes into her side and splays her across the ground like a fucking rag doll. "Uggghhh" No time for this. Bruised but not broken, the pilot tries to stand, falls, accepts Taylin's help and is then able to drag herself up to stumble back towards the pipe. Loathe to waste more time or find out what internal bleeding looks like, she pitches herself down it after Rheisa, only catching a brief, jaw dropping glimpse of Tess's intense ass silhouette as the pipe swallows all of reality. Fuck this smells, but at least the booty was fly.

Kasia is more than a little shaken as the ship is being shot to hell, but they're not exploded yet, and that falls firmly on the positive side of things. She would prefer to be in one piece, rather than many little charred bits. She doesn't even reply to Hex as she white-knuckle flies her poor, abused ship in an effort to avoid further damage. Boom, boom, rattle, bzzt, ping, add another zero to the end of that repair bill. You're welcome, Jehn. Kasia's bank account weeps, but she's stone cold silent and focused on making it through, and she DOES seem to be doing better now than she was. Possibly because the ship that WAS on her seems to be retreating, at least for the moment, but she'll take it.

The entertaining BLOOP from the X-Wing's control panel informed Zhu Yan that his shields were back up at twenty percent. That was something! "I like a good dogfight as much as the next guy but this is ridicuWHOA!" Just when one thought it couldn't get more rough, the building below him and his assailant went off like Life Day fireworks. "Alrightey!" Yan, being Yan, took the opportunity to DIVE DIVE DIVE HIT YOUR BURNERS PILOT!

The fun thing about explosions was that they created massive smoke plumes. And the fun thing about massive smoke plumes, besides hinting at certain extracurricular activities other members of Defiance liked to partake in, was that at best they were great big hiding spots and at worst they broke line of sight when someone did something as stupid as, say, flying straight into the fracking thing. Presumably there was a floomph sound as the Heartbreak 1 disappeared into it. There was definitely a brief chugging sound from the engines as the smoke got caught in the intakes. He was obscured for only a moment, but it was enough. Heartbreak 1 came out the other side and abruptly spun one eighty degrees on repulsors. For good measure, Yan flipped back to lasers.

"Come on, sunshine."

The Headhunter was clearly in dire need of Yan's head (funny that), because it had followed him. It burst out of the smoke cloud and straight into a hail of rapid laser fire. Being unable to determine where the Headhunter would emerge, it took a second for Yan to walk his shots (and plow holes in the countryside) before he scored a hit, winging the bastard. The Headhunter broke off and accelerated, and Yan pursued. The chase was ON.

That eel is as limp as its future mating dreams now. The other boot is pulled off; some water dumped out and then slide back on. Wishing for a shower and a good scrub, Oriana makes her way towards an exit, because bombs. And speaking of, there is a sudden BOOM - she stops, eyes go wide as she turns slowly, some pieces of building falling around her. Jabbing her hand into her demo bag she feels around while holding her breath, which is released with a loud "AW FUCK!" because this isn't good. A second is taken to TRY to count how many went off, but she doesn't exactly know. "Aw fuckity fuck!" Worried as yell her voice coursing through the come they hear more colour words. "No no no aww shitknuckle no." And other stuff. "Is everyone okay?! Get out, GET OUT! Some bombs may be defective!" Feeling a pang of guilt teeth take hold of her lower lip, going to move further in and stubbing her toe on a piece of building. This time the cursing is in her native tongue, Drikish. "Anyone in need of assistance? I can come to your location and help you!" Because screw it if they go off, she'll help her comrades while diving into fire. Which she does, because eyes befall Jehni'va and Ty, so her pace begins towards them.

The Headhunter chasing Kasia and Hex, in a similar state of mechanical distress as the Broadstar, has decided to beat feet out of there. Again, not paid enough for this, and it peels off and away, abandoning its wingman to Yan's tender mercies. Hex, however, has found new things to freak out about, and warns over the Defiance com, "The tide is coming in! Get the yacht up! Get the people on board! Get out, get OUT!"

When nature comes in, she comes in without mercy, and the line of slaves running for the ship is already having to slosh through ankle deep water, rising. A dull roar in the distance and a rising blue line suggests that time has just about run out. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, the rest of Oriana's bombs go off at the correct time, and water pours out from the edges of the ruined slave farm. Water, and also giant eels. Flopflopflop. Better get out of there before they have open water to swim in.

Helping Jehn, Tylin falters as she sees the water rising. "No no! Hurry, Jehn," Ty tells her as her panic starts to rise and the recent swim with eels flash before her. "We can make it, Jehn." But the water is getting deeper the more they move to the ship. "We can do this," she says mostly in an attempt to convince herself.

There's time for valor and there's time for discretion and then there's time for Tess'n some shit up.

With her rifle up, the lunatic who everyone thinks is a good guy starts shooting all those people who she just wounded earlier. There can be only one. Also she grabs her knife... and cuts out a trandoshan heart for later consumption.

Then and only then does she play the bigger woman and motion to the slaves who were doing slave things, "Go, run, get to the Yacht. The last one there is swimming home..." And as we know, Hex wont let you be in his plot. So slave lives matter for not.

Whatever it is Tess is doing now, it isn't running. It's kind of hobbling and shoving people towards the vehicle. "I swear to god if you assholes leave me..."

Raim catches sight of the open sky and begins to run, and then there is that damn slave at the exit of the pipe that catches Raim's foot and he pitches forward headlong. He skids on the slimy, mushy ground once more, and there is a renewed bout of cursing over the comms as he struggles to his feet. The waves, the rushing waters. He knows they are coming back, yet it seems everything is against him. And then there is Rheisa. His knight in shining... his big strong woma-... there she is to help him. He allows her to take his arm and he glances around at the remaining slaves and gestures toward the Felicity like a great general and shouts, "EVERYONE ONTO THAT SHIP!" Before he runs along with his swift heroine at his side.

Rheisa's shaken but not hurt. Outwardly, anyways. Gripping Raim's sleeve, she wordlessly ducks into the pipe, one precariously bare foot after another. The descent is far easier than their climb up and she goes sliding down on one hip, other leg angled out to brace for whatever impact awaits at the bottom. It's surprisingly sloshy - more so than before, but her feet hit the water...running? It's an awkward gait, cutting through the shin-deep surf, but it's a steady one, until the sound of thrashing limbs halts her progress.

"Rrraim!" The not-slave Togruta turns back and reaches down with both hands to grab at an elbow and his collar to tug and cuss until he's upright again. Once he is, she doesn't quite keep pace, and that's okay. She's a bit preoccupied with searching the crowd of slaves waiting to board to make sure that mother and child hadn't been claimed by the greedy sea.

Out of the pipe and leaning heavily against Tylin, Jehn squishes through the rising tide. "Shit, shit, shit." She pants - the water is rising fast and she starts to mutter incoherently at the tide creeping past her knees. "Phytoplankton, zooplankton, small nekton -" Her voice is tight as she stumbles and crashes into the water, continuing to bubble and mutter nonsense. "Larger nekton..." And finds herself face to face with an eel. The eel is still in shallow water and flails around, snapping uselessly as Jehn struggles up and away - and then stops. It's in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like her. "I'm coming!" She shouts to no one and everyone (and probably the eel), and scoops the wriggling, flailing creature into a full body hug. With a mighty grunt, she drags the slimy animal out to deeper water with them - because the water is getting deeper and she will save this sweet, innocent, defenseless creature. "SWIM AWAY!" She yells at it, struggling after the others still. It doesn't swim away - but it doesn't eat her either. "Friends." She whispers in an awed, probably concussed, whisper and just accepts it as her new companion. With Oriana helping them towards the ship, this motley crew has a taste of survival. "Go! I'll always love you." She whispers emotionally to the slimy creature in the water and boards the Felicity. "LET'S GET THIS BITCH OFF THE GROUND!" She announces triumphantly, using a combination of Oriana, Tylin, and the wall to hobble to the cockpit.

The Headhunter has turned tail and fled, leaving both Kasia and Hex still in one piece, and the OCILU in rough shape, but it's still flying, and they're not dead. All good things. She draws in a very shaky breath and tries to force her hands to relax now that the immediate danger appears to have passed. "Are you okay?" she hollers this back at Hex, rather than using the coms, for now reserving that communication for the people still trying to get off of the ground without drowning. At least they're not bickering now.

Nobody in their right mind should have been able to fly a Headhunter with that amount of skill, especially against hardware that was superior in every way to it, but this schutta was managing with enough ease than Zhu Yan was a tiny bit miffed. Laser blasts ravaged the ocean in a manner most ineffective as Yan missed, missed, and missed again. "Screw it. Reddie. Torpedo please." The droid obliged, arming proton torpedoes and beginning the lock-on sequence whilst also chastising him on his rudeness. Stop it, fake droid mother!

Bip, bip, bip, bip bip bip BEEEEEEP! Whoosh! A red streak burst from the nose of the X-Wing and crossed the distance between the Heartbreak 1 and the wildly jinking Headhunter in a time span akin to that between a green light and an air-taxi cabbie hitting his horn. Dodge all you like, bucko, that torpedo is locked on. There was a satisfying boom as the bastard who could potentially fly better than Yan was promptly made irrelevant to the grand scheme of reality. Of course, this was immediately followed by the succinct, restrained, and ineffably well-thought-out comment of "FRACK YOUR FACE!" Which of course was followed by more admonishment by his space-Jewish mother of a tin can R3 unit. Typical.

Ignoring the complaints from Reddie, Yan did a lazy barrel roll, finished with the X-Wing on its side, did a sharp one-eighty, and observed the below. Whoa that didn't look good. "Uh, that's a lot of water," he said into his comm, the first time he'd done so since his bravado at the very start. Good thing no one had heard his outbursts! "Should there be that much water? Because seriously guys that is a lot of water."

The water rushes in, seems there was little use in emptying out her boots earlier. Wading her way towards Ty and Jhen, doing the best she can she'd offer out her hands to help them along, her balance seems pretty good. "I got you darlings." Her tone is soft, and reassuring, trying to keep calm against the panic. "Need to get to that ship!" Teeth grit a bit as she trudges through the deepening water, helping them as needed. Eyes did notice the eel, but she doesn't say much given her past experiences with them, she'll focus on helping them and getting herself to safety.

"I'm okay," Hex calls breathlessly back to Kasia, "I'm okay, nonna. We'll be alright." Then he hits the comms and asks the others on the open channel, "Is everyone else okay? Check in, ok ka."

The sea is merciless, and the water rises faster, faster, faster. Some of the slaves cry out as they're knocked off their feet, but most are getting aboard the Felicity just fine, where they'll huddle dripping and terrified while members of Felicity's crew hurry to scan them with devices of Naelyn's design, devices to find and disable any implanted trackers. It wouldn't do to have them all explode after leaving atmo. Everyone gets aboard - Raim, Tess, Tylin, Jehn, Oriana. Rheisa is aboard too, but the water is almost to the top of the ramp now, sloshing in now and again to ruin Raim's beautiful carpets, and the ship can't wait any longer. Felicity begins to lift off, or she won't be able to - yachts aren't meant to take off in water. But what about the last of the slaves? They can't all make it. Just a handful are left. A few were foolish, having turned back for possessions they should have left behind... and one, one was slowed too much by the precious, fractious cargo she kept with her. The toddler was terrified, screaming, slowing down his mother, and now the water is too deep. Rheisa's search for the slave Togruta woman finds her as the ship begins to lift off, lifting her little boy towards the hands of strangers. "Take care of my boy, sister!" the woman calls toward Rheisa, "Take care of my Umak. Give him what I didn't have." One of the other slaves is reaching for the Togruta's hands, trying to save her too, but the tide is too strong and pushes her away, out of reach. The yacht lifts off with everyone -- almost everyone -- and the dark waters close over the few who were too slow as the ocean reclaims its territory.

Try not to think about the eels...

The water is getting too high, but she will not try this swim thing again. "I am going to hurt Hex for this," she says to no one in particular. Once the three of them reaches the interior of the ship Tylin falls to her knees. Exhausted. "No more water. Ever." Comes the vow. Her eyes scan upwards to the slaves that they did save then to Ori who gets a big smile "Thank you," Ty says warmly. To Jehn "Are you ok, you are hurt."

On the ship, Oriana slumps into a seat, wet, with some eel bites, and the thoughts of failed bombs in her head. She wipes away some wet hair and looks up to Ty, other than those failures she doesn't seem TOO phased. "Why would you hurt him?" That makes her a bit confused, but the smile is returned. "Anytime sweetie, I couldn't leave you down there could I? I need to give you a shot of taking over me rein after all."

Tess helps slaves onto the back of a ship, but she does it super not gently because she has a reputation to uphold. Then one of them falls in or something and she considers shooting them before a shark or an eel or an eel shark or fucking chuthulu eats them... but good guys don't do that stuff, yeah, that's what she didn't do it.

Once they're all on the yacht, she drops down in a chair, lays Addell down on the one to her right, and the bloody trandoshan heart in the one to her left so that she can take a better look at her ankle. Also her ribs. They hurt too.

Raim jerks the comm from his ear as he makes it aboard the ship and then spies Rheisa searching for the other Togruta and her child. He immediately turns back for her to ensure that she does not attempt to leave the ship, the Chiss shoving slaves to the side as he pushes his way through the crowd toward the large exit ramp that is flooding every so often with the growing amount of water. Scarlet eyes watch the Togruta mother holding the child aloft and hears those words spoken before the mother is washed away in the flood of water, the entry ramp hissing as the hydraulics force the exit closed. He reaches out a hand, gripping Rheisa's shoulder holding the woman from attempting any water diving heroics.

"Nej oni!" Rheisa cries out, one leg hooked around some gear strapping at the base of the ramp. She flops forward onto her belly with about as much grace as a grounded eel, with arms strained forward into their reachiest of reaches. Nimble fingers take hold of the wailing tot by one arm and she clings fastly with the other hand as Felicity's thrusters kick up a gale-force spray. "Ha'eit ka e'yeh yi!" For a heart-wrenching moment, the sisters of Shili share in a soul-searching stare, then Raim's got Rheisa by the scratchy, slimy jumpsuit he made her wear and is muscling her back inside.

The hollow thump of the hatch's final closure seals in the child's screams for everyone's listening pleasure. Rheisa collapses back onto her rump, arms enveloping the little one with a muffled note of her own despair sobbed into the smooth crest of his hornless head. Oh, wee one.

"I'm fine." Jehn gives Tylin a tired smile on her way to the cockpit before she collapses into the pilot's chair and gets them the eff out of Dodge. It's hard to ignore the charming view of panicked faces bobbing in a crushing field of blue, and she is acutely aware that they couldn't get everyone on the ship. The pilot bites her lip as they roar into the atmosphere, leaving several slaves to a watery, eel infested death. "Sorry guys..." She whispers, breathing deep and trying to ignore the pulsing firebolts of pain shooting through her head, conscious, and entire right side. She can still fly, right? Shit, let's hope so. Nyla is going to kill her. "Epipelagic, mesopelagic, abyssopelagic, bathypelagic..." She recites to herself, dragging her nerves into check to keep the ship in check, drowning out the wails of the child she just wrenched away from his mother with arbitrary ocean vocabulary. Welcome to Air Jehni'va, you poor, poor souls.