Log:Hutt Cartel: No Take Backs

No Take Backs

OOC Date: May 7, 2019
Location: On a Cargo Ship going from Corellia to Nal Hutta
Participants: Mujiji, Rosh, Domino, Usha as GM

The pickup was smooth, uneventful even. A team of Cartel and Black Sun members dropped by a laboratory facility on Corellia where they carted out three wooden boxes two as tall as the members themselves (save Mujiji) and one long and laying horizontal. Out from the loading dock they are wheeled and into the cargo hold of an unmarked Hutt ship. The boxes are added to a pile of other cargo that already sits on the ship and once they are settled in place, they look no more conspicuous than their brothers and sisters. And as instructed by Lord Ikkan himself, not one of them takes a peak at exactly what it is they're transporting. They're good Hutt employees!

The ship itself has been in hyperspace for quite some time, the radars showing that they are nearing their destination at Nal Hutta. Given how easy everything has been going, Usha finds that this is an optimal time to kick back, relax, and celebrate. And boy is it a party in here! "THIS IS MY JAM," the drug dealer yells over the Space club music that is /bumping/ through the speaker system runs through the ship. She's sitting back in a seat, dropping some liquid spice into her eyes and blinking a few times before the chemicals seep their way to her system.

A Bivall doctor, clad in a white lab coat, accompanies them and the boxes on this journey. Straight laced and nervous, she watches in horror and Usha destroys her body right before her. And in true Zeltron fashion, she screw the lid back on, handing it over to Mujiji when she says, "You want some?"

Mujiji doesn't hear Usha's offer, at first. Her paws are clamped tight over those floppy, kushiban ears to muffle some of the UNS UNS UNS UNS that assails her sensitive ear-drums - but she can feel the movement beside her, and it isn't difficult to figure out what the offer is. Wordlessly, the tiny logomorph reaches out to take the drops, unscrews the lid, and drop a single drop into each eye before giving it back, wincing both from the drops and the momentary loss of her improvised ear-muffs.

"So. Really, no one is going to peek?" Mujiji asks, loudly enough for their escort to hear her. "No one?" Her paws are back over her ears, pinning them to the sides of her head.

"Rosh is not paid to 'peek'," is the Ubese bount hunter's response to the tiny rabbit. His visor tilts down to look at her from where he's leaned against a bulkhead. "Rosh paid to deliver." His vocoded voice crackles through the helmet as he speaks, but his visor soon tips back away from Mujiji to stare off toward...who knows.

Domino being the resident security expert she doesn't feel the need to babysit the cargo directly but rather monitors portable security sensors and cameras she's put up and made VERY obvious to discourage peeking. She herself monitors the feed from the corner of her datapad which she uses to amuse herself quietly whilst en route.

"I MEAN I'M NOT GUNNA LIE I KINDA DO WANNA PEAK. BUT I'M SCARED. ALSO I CAN'T HEAR WHAT ROSH IS SAYING." Usha the groans, the drugs helping her to feel every vibration of the heavy base that rattles this old ship. She's slipped on her sunglasses and melted into the seat beneath her, and then suddenly, she pops back up like a groundhog. "WAIT, WAIT. HERE COMES THE BEST PART! WAIT FOR IT! WAAAIITTT FOR ITTTT!"

And then the lights go off.

No. The whole ship goes off.

The power is completely gone.

"What the kriff?" Usha voice comes through complete darkness. One can't even see the hand in front of their face. Shuffling sounds indicate she's gotten up from her seat only to knock over something else. "Can someone please go check on the power?"

"Tough crowd." Mujiji decides with a sigh, squinting at Rosh and Domino... And then nothing. "...Is this supposed to be the best part?" The kushiban asks dryly, her own voice sounding far too loud in the suddenly silent ship. There's another sound from the little creature: the whisper of steel against armor - she's pulling her knife out, just in case. Explosives aren't going to do her too much good in a ship (really, that's at the top of a long list of Bad Ideas), and a blaster may be overkill in the dark... But at least her pitiful, stolen sport knife can poke a few holes in a few kneecaps, should the need arise. "I couldn't see a rancor humpin' a speeder in this lighting - anyone got a light? I'm not about t'go stumblin' around to find the computers when I'm pretty sure whatever cursed corpse you got in those crates just woke up. Or whatever."

Also, she is on drugs. This doesn't help. She uses a lot of simile when she is on drugs.

There are a few things that people in the criminal underworld grow accustomed to the feeling of. One of them is a gun barrel pressed to the back of your head. It's not /super/ great, but it does happen. It's owner whispers something to Rosh and the Ubese complies. No sense in getting shot in the back of the head, after all.

Domino pulls out a pocket flashlight and tucks her datapad into her haversack, "And this is why the cargo monitor has it's own battery pack. I rewired my boytoy's ship befoore the idiot named it after me-I'll go have a looksee unless there's an actual engineer aboard." she wanders around with the short field of the small flashlight making navigation on an unfamiliar ship beyond challenging.

"This ... this doesn't feel right," the Bivall doctor says anxiously, "M-maybe we should go check on the cargo? But, I'm kind of afraid of the dark. Could one of you come with me?"

"Oh will you /relax/?" Much like our furry friend here, Usha is also on drugs, which means she's unreasonably blissed out. But having a calm, collected presence is good in emergency situations like this, right? Patting herself down, Usha is surprised to admit. "Yeah ... I actually don't have a light on me. Its probably in my purse, which was near Mujiji. Mooj, you think you could feel around and find it for me?"

There is a ringing in Mujiji's ears, a byproduct, no doubt, of Usha's musical tastes. Moving her sports knife so that it rests between her teeth, the logomorph drops to a quadrapedal position and scuttles cautiously forward, trying to move silently as she feels around for Usha's purse. "Do I look like yer errand lass?" But she's still searching, tail flicking in the darkness. "Yeah, lady, I dun' trust you neither so... Stay where you is, savvy?" The kushiban snaps at their passenger, inching quietly towards the sound of her voice. She DOES NOT TRUST. Also drugs.

Led away from the group, Rosh grumbles and asks, "You disarm Rosh, take gun from Rosh head. Then maybe Rosh help you find boxes, eh?" He's speaking quietly, despite being in the cargo hold with whoever his strange assailant is.

Domino scowls and squints into the darkness, she does indeed have a flashlight but it only illuminates a couple of meters infront of her which makes navigating annoying never mind the fact that she is almost right on Rosh and his captor before she sees the gravity of the situation. Large hazel eyes go wide eyes "Nope." she she drops the light and there's soft rapid clicking of her heeled boots before only silence and darkness greets them-the light still facing them which makes it nearly impossible to see behiind it.

"Nope?" In the darkness, everything is ominous and threatening. Or... Maybe Moo is simply paranoid? Regardless, the little sentient is too slow to follow after Domino and her light, but she could have sworn she heard talking deeper in the shadows? She can't be sure, though, over Usha's prattling. "I'm not /grumpy/ I am..." There is a pause. "...Shuddup. Where's yer damn purse?" She's lost in the darkness, trying to move towards where she thought she heard voices, but likely just stumbling in the opposite direction. "Ouch!" That was her smacking into the wall. "Yo, uh, where'd th'other two go? I'm about to start loosin' incendiary rounds just to get some light." With her knife in one hand, she cups the other around her muzzle. "Crate lady? Gun person? Sourpuss?" She feels spinny, why does she feel so spinny?

"You're making a mistake, Parkere. You know the Council will gut you for this," Rosh says, snarling beneath that mask of his as the gun remains pointed at him. "Maybe I put you in one of these boxed for them, eh?" he asks. "You'll fetch a high price. Get Rosh promotion. Show the Guild what they're missing out on."

Domino remans where she's ducked long enough to remove her boots which were not designed with stealth but even so Dom's bare feet go whump-whump-whump on the grates as she hastily makes her way to ship's primary electrical access and tugs out ann automatic multi-tool to remove the panel, having to use the light of her datapad to work by until she has the panel off.

"You know ... I actually forgot they were on the ship with us for a sec ... I also can't remember where I put my purse," Usha pauses and then begins to giggle in the darkness. "Mooj, I'm more kriffed up than I anticipated. I actually think I made it too strong ..." The giggle is incessant and won't stop. It echoes through the room Mujiji and the Zeltron occupy. And then suddenly, there's a brief flash of blaster fire, a quick EEP from the doctor which is followed by a SLUMP sound.

And then there was light.

Whatever finagling Domino is doing, the power on the ship turns back on. The lights glow to reveal a dead Bivall lying in a pool of her own blood before Usha and Mujiji. A woman body guard is still holding the blaster pointed at the doctor's head, and she's accompanied by a much more timid looking man who has his gun pointed at the Kushiban, though he's much too scared to make the first attack. All the while the music returns. BOOM BA DA BOOM BOOM BOOOOOM BA DA BOOM BOOM BOOM

"Shut your face Rosh. Also talking in third person is the tackiest move in the book.," Sena threatens, keeping her grip on the Ubese tight. That is until the lights come on, revealing the cargo she seeks. And suddenly its as if nothing else matters, abandoning the Ubese, the silver fox runs toward the boxes heading straight for the ones that stand upright first.

"Oh." Mujiji blinks in the sudden light. "Nope." It all makes sense now as she stares down that blaster barrel - but she can see the fear, she can /feel/ it... and the kushiban grins, dropping her knife and instead plucking one of the cryban grenades from her belt. Slow, methodical. "So... Way I see it -" She has to yell to be heard about the music. "-We have two choices. No one dies, or everyone does. Which one are you feeling today, honeybuns?" Frag, poor word choice. "Because whatever it is that'un gave me a bit ago makes me not care so much, personally."

"Says the woman who sneaks around like a coward," Rosh answers the woman. Then the lights are cha-chunking back and and she's bolting. The Ubese spins on a heel, catches himself with with his other foot, both of his chromed-out, tacky-looking snub-nosed blaster pistols leveled at the woman. Running to cover, himself, the Ubese lets loose a whole mess of blue-colored blaster bolts at the woman. "Catch her!" A moment. "ALIVE!" he hisses.

Domino tugs out her datapad and uses her location to patch into the ships sensors and try to pick up any evidence of comms or transceiver feedback which might give her any clue if and where there is anotheer ship docked to ship one. Finding none she reviews the feed and siiighs in irritation but remains where she is.

Oh Mujiji. Look at her. She is SO cute. With her cute little knife, and cute little grenade, and cute little rage. Despite the choices the Kushiban provides, the timid man is suddenly overcome with the courage to pull the trigger and sends a shot straight for Mujiji. Of course, his courage feeds into the woman bodyguard's courage as well as she lets fire lose on Usha, who takes a rough hit to the arm. "UGH," the Zeltron falls back, scrambling to pull out her blaster and taking a sloppy shot at the bodyguard.

Meanwhile Sena runs and ducks behind a metal box to hide from Rosh's fire storm. When it ceased, she herself pops up to take a few shots for cover as she makes her way back to the upright boxes. A look of anxiety and hope fills her face as rushes up and does something to the boxes that make both of them collapse, revealing what they oh so secret cargo actually is.

Two tanks, glowing and bubbling with amniotic fluid. Within them are two half grown humans, a male and female. They float in the fluid, curled in a fetal position. A cord extends from their bellies. They look delicate and helpless, and clearly too young to survive outside the tank. Sena's eyes tear up as she presses her hand against the glass and looks.

...Okay, Mujiji was bluffing, but when she is shot, the grenade goes clattering across the ground. The timer is set for 30 seconds, but the wounded kushiban's squirrely reflexes save them all from a cold, paralyzing blast of consequence. The grenade powers down, going dark. "Okay, well. That was just rude." She grunts, clamping a paw over a painful burn seared across her right side. "Here I was trying to be - trying to be /diplomatical/ an' you just... Well." It is /just/ ice, after all... What are a few compromised limbs? "I know when I'm beat. Here, it's a gift." This time, she doesn't arm the timer for thirty seconds, the cryoban is set to detonate upon impact. She throws it at Rando.

For some reason Sena gets all sentimental around people in tubes. It's a glaring character flaw. And one that Rosh is fully intent on capitalizing on. Mantling over his cover, Rosh's butt slides along the top of it as he looses a bolt into Sena's back. The older woman shudders and drops to the floor. Rosh, not too worried about the folks upstairs, takes a minute to make sure that his quarry is properly bound before he heads for the ladder heading up. Did it just get colder in here?

Domino chews her bottom lip and pulls out a panel and connects a universal intrface to it the other end connected to her data pad. She toggles through a few screens and then chews her bottom lip bfore selecting the sectors for cargo bay and where she last saw Rosh, initiating the fire supression emergency response which at the very least queues an annoying high-pitched and queues whatever fire response is for this ship be it stopping the flow of 02 and sealing the sector or good old fashioned auto-deploy fire retardant spray.

The good news is: no one died from the grenade. The bad news is: no bad guys died from the grenade. Mujiji is not quick enough to dodge the blowback from her own projectile, and a wave of crippling cold energy sends the tiny logomorph reeling backwards and to the cold floor. One of her legs is frozen - that can't be good, right? "Unnnghhhh..." The small sentient moans from where she fell, struggling to push herself upright again. "That... That was such a bad idea... Who..." The poor rabbit did people drugs and nearly blew herself up - it happens. "Okay, okay... No... No grenades." She fumbles at the weapon strapped across her back. Blaster. Good old fashioned - what is that /sound/? Clamping one paw over an ear, she groans again, shrinking beneath the ship's seats behind her. It's the emergency response; luckily, there isn't a fire to contend with, but the alarm is annoying as can be. Moo drags her blaster loose - it's the modified one. You know... The one that shoots fire.

Maybe keep those emergency systems on a little longer.

Climbing out of the cargo bay, Rosh is quickly up to his feet and /very/ confused as to why there's a bunch of ice here. That can wait, though, because there's a TIMID MAN who must be dispatched. The Ubese lifts his blaster and pumps two rounds toward him. "Your boss is toast. Give up. Or I cut parts off of you and feed them to the rabbit."

Domino ushes the intercom "For any uninvited idiots still alive, the defense droids are on-line and heading for the cargo bay. Anyone unfamiliar who is armed will be terminateed with EEXTREME prejudice. Disarm now and save yourselfs or die and give me all your valueables. Choice is yours."

His stronger counterpart goes down and he takes his first hit from the damaged Mujiji, yelping as he clutches at his foot. Then Rosh rushes in with his threats and NOW there are defense droids coming for him. The poor timid man has had it! Domino's voice on the intercom breaks him. He drops his weapon, hands fly upward, and he falls to his knees. "P-please. I surrender! Don't kill me!"

Sitting herself up from her place on the ground, Usha winces at the pain in her arm while she reaches for her spice pouch. A pinky goes in and she subsequently SNOOOOOORRTTTS some substance to numb the pain. "Rosh, where the hell were you?" And then looking around the room she then realizes, "Where the hell did Domino go?"

And furthermore, what was in that last box anyway?

Domino's voice over the intercom is convincing enough, and Moo's blaster hits the ground with a clatter. "I need medical attention." She manages, her words slurred as shock slowly sets in, blood vessels dilating, blood pressure dropping, tiny heart patter-patter-pattering. "Suck it, shybo." She giggles. Drugs? Shock? Who knows.

"Sena snuck up on me and forced me into the cargo bay," Rosh answers Usha, doing an annoying little twirl with his blasters before he slides them into their holsters. "She's taken care of."

Domino adds in the intercom "Anyone who BELONGS on this ship who needs medical attention can find me in the galley for patching up and plugging of wounds. People who don't belong on this ship will have their unmentionables rendered to ash. First come first serve. Also-whoever's bankrolling this now owes me a thirty percent bonus since I am apparently this ship's engineer, medical, and computer systems analyst. That is all."

"Sena? Parkere?" Usha pops up with delight when Rosh delivers the news. Clutching her arm, she can hardly believe it as she begins to head out of the room to see if it was true, "We got Sena Parkere? Holy kriff! We're gunna be SO RICH." She's definitely throwing around a lot of 'we's here.

After Domino's announcement on the intercom, a pleasant pin sound plays and the ship slows to a halt, indicating that they've left hyper space and are approaching Nal Hutta. Poor timid man is bound up like a his passed out associates, the three of them held captive together so that they eventually can be delivered to the Hutt Council.

And the final piece of cargo that Sena wanted so badly from the Hutts? I guess that's something we'll never know.