Log:Hutt Cartel: The Intervention
The Intervention
OOC Date: September 26, 2016
Location: SPACE!
Participants: Hex, Naelyn, Zhu Yan, Kadi, Rhani, Ax, Eebua Gnuda, The Hutt Cartel, Waywards, Exploration of Varl
The blackness of space closes in on the personal yacht of Lord Eebua Gnuda, the Star Wind. The massive vessel has made the journey from Nar Shaddaa to just outside of the pull of the gargantuan black hole that dominates the forward view made visible by the clear viewport of the Hutt’s throne room. The thirty feet tall crimson hutt himself is perched upon his throne and watches as the transport launches from the landing bay of the Star Wind and begins to fly slowly across the inky blackness toward the ancient freighter that is even now slowly being pulled toward the rippling outer ring of the black hole. The comms crackle as they flare to life and the gravelly and wet voice of Eebua rumbles through the speakers. “You are approaching the freighter known throughout history as the Intervention. This ship has drifted through the years and hopefully untouched. If so, then the Intervention will serve as a pristine time capsule from days far beyond memory, as the Intervention dates back to 15,000 BBY.” There is a brief pause in dialogue where Eebua takes a huge and self satisfied inhale of breath before continuing, “My technicians calculations see that the freighter is picking up speed as the nexus of the black hole gains a stronger grip upon it. If they are correct, then you have an hour or at most an hour and a half before you will not be able to fly out of the pull of the black hole. Work fast.”
The little transport was far too... stock for Zhu Yan's tastes, but he handled the controls with deft skill as he lazily set a course towards the freighter. "Hour and a half, he says. I bet I can get out in two," he mused to nobody in particular. He wasn't paying attention to anything other than flying at this present juncture. Of course, Yan being Yan, he dialled up the intercom and sent a message throughout the little transport. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for flying with Zhu Air, please make sure your seat belts are fastened and tray tables are in the upright and locked position. Also put your EVA helmets on." Never one to take his own advice, Yan's own EVA helmet was on the floor somewhere. He'd find it later.
Kadi doesn't do that flying thing, except in an emergency. Which - well, there are pilots, right? Check. So no flying for Kadi, which is a good thing. She's here - though she's really not happy about it. Quiet and a little on the tense side. She's got her eva helmet right by herside, because the Freighter engineer is calmly waiting to see what can be done over on the other side. Though she's pulled up to one of the scanning stations, taking a look to see what is going on, as she can.
Hex also doesn't have his EVA helmet on, because he's engaged in trying to wear it. This is a delicate process which requires gingerly sending his lekku into the helmet/suit first, before fitting the headpiece over his head. There's enough room in there, probably, but it has to be handled carefully and the thing wasn't really meant for Twi'lek anatomy. "Only in my luck do you go after a ship you've had fifteen thousand years to get and there's an hour to do it," he grumps. "And none of your shit even has tray tables, Yan. Put your dumb hat on." Despite Yan being the object of complaint, it's Naelyn he's keeping an eye on, watching the black-clad dancer with something mingling protectiveness and worry.
There's a little shadow settled in a seat, belted carefully and carefully checking the various straps and connections, murmuring softly to himself softly in Ryl, counting down and rocking a bit as his eyes closed as he murmurs softly in his breath. He seems to be going through a soft prayer of some sort, but each word seems to be from a equation that ends up the numerical value of the letter that spells out each word. There's a moment before he slowly works on putting his helmet on, still whispering softly to himself. That is Naelyn.
After getting into her EVA suite and checking Kadi's if she is willing, Rhani makes her way toward the cockpit. She sidles around the others with quiet, "S'cuse me"s to those she passes. Once in the cockpit, she slips into the copilot's seat and clicks the buckles into place. "I'm Rhani. I'll take this station and back you up."
The ships comms crackle to life once more as Eebua's voice speaks for the boarding team to hear, "For those of you who may have designs of double crossing me, do know that the Star Wind's weapons are trained upon the transport, and will remain so until you arrive back on board. For those of you who perform your duties well, there is an individual allotment of credits for each of you waiting for your return." Zhu Yan's piloting ability is fairly solid, though as the transport approaches the outer rim of the black hole, both the vibrations setting in on the ship felt by all and the pull toward the nexus which only Zhu Yan would be able to note as it fights his attempts to pilot are signs of how very real and dangerous the situation could turn.
There was a certain vibration in the control yoke, a tendency for the ship to list lazily to the left that gradually intensified, that warned Zhu Yan about the gravitational pull. "Thanks," he said to his new-found copilot. "Give me a hand compensating for the gravity and we can get this ship landed easy. Just like flying in atmo, but weird." He slipped the transport beneath the big ancient freighter and the cockpit was engulfed in darkness for a short period as he scanned for signs of the hangar. "I didn't see the hangar on the approach vector so it has to be... there it is." Out from underneath the ship and Yan could see it. He brought the ship around in a careful bank. One didn't want to tear apart their only means of escape.
Kadi totally lets Rhani check her EVA suit, helmet and all, no problem. And offers a smile of thanks to her friend, before getting to the scanning as Rhani heads to the co-pilot's seat. Kadi mutters under her breath, but then says on comm sounding crisply professional, so whoever is listening can hear it, "Freighter is easy to see in the view port, and I have it on scan. No signs of life detected and no signs of any electronics online, including life support and gravity." A pause, and then just within the transport: "Great, this is going to cause the most interesting bruises, isn't it?"
Hex finally gets his EVA suit helmet on, lekku a little bit crammed, but he'll live. He has weapons, clearly packed like someone who didn't know what to wear to the dance, as there's both a vibroblade and a pistol in evidence. There's a slight lift of one brow to Eebua's comment of 'double crossing,' but otherwise, he continues sitting there looking innocent. "I'm just here to look pretty and carry heavy objects. Electronics, life support, getting Eebua's ex girlfriend's number off the computers, that's all you guys.”
Rhani Aeternum nods to Zhu, "No problem, boss." Leaning forward, she takes control of her station, checking various gagets and dials in front of her. "Steady on. Wow. That is quiet a tug." Her comments are neutral for now, quiet, efficient and probably more due to nerves than necessity.
The vibration is not what Naelyn needs, it interupts his calming calculations, eyes snapping open when he hears the voices around him, hands resting on his helmet with a slow blink before he tilts his head to the side thoughtfully. He doesn't speak though, not yet. He hears information about computers and all of that and he knows that is the only reason he's here. Well that and his ass probably. But mostly the computer skills.
The tiny transport, the Dognak, is easily flown through the mouth of the hangar where the containment field is noticeably absent as another sign of the apparent lifelessness of the freighter and the dangers that are present should a misstep in a gravity less environment send someone cartwheeling out of the open hangar to be sucked into the greedy pit of blackness that seeks to devour them. As the ship is landed, the magnetic 'feet' attached to each landing point clamp loudly to the deck plates of the Intervention and the boarding ramp opens slowly to touch down and provide an exit to the hangar.
As the group makes its way from transport to freighter, they will see two ancient freighters hanging against either wall, the cockpits crushed by some sudden and violent impact rendering them inoperable. A large corridor leads off of the hangar and deeper into the ancient freighter, though total blackness grips the tunnel.
"It's like a horror movie. Anyone wanna bet on mean aliens or big robots coming out to get us?" said Zhu Yan, now safely fastened within his EVA suit. Being paranoid, he already had his beloved Bryar hand cannon out and ready to ruin some mean alien or big robot's day. "Why in the hell didn't Mister Hutt just spear this thing and pull it away? Whatever." He was babbling now. Nerves. "I vote we go to the bridge, get what we need, and bail.”
"Whatever we're doing, let's stick together," Kadi says. "And I'm okay with heading to the bridge, getting what we need and bailing out, especially given we have a small time frame. The only thing - with no power, blast doors and the like are going to be difficult to open." She frowns a bit, considering the options. "I honestly think it might make sense to get at least minimal power to the ship, if we can do that quickly - but - who knows if we'll be able to, on a ship this old." She's fretting and it's probably obvious that she really wants to rescue the whole ship, because wow! Historical treasure trove, indeed. "The systems are probably so archaic that they won't even start - and - okay, look, someone just tell me what to do. Because I don't know."
"Tcha," Hex scoffs, "Always with the mean aliens! I'm gonna bet on mean humans coming out to get us." He gets up, stows his weapons. "We're gonna waste time getting there without the grav on, Yan, not to mention doing the work." He eyes Kadi. "Do you know how to get to where you can turn on grav, power, or life support? If you do, we'll give it a shot. You got like ten minutes. You can't fix it in ten minutes, we eat the loss and go to the bridge without it. Ok?”
Rhani Aeternum listens to both options and purses her lips slightly. She has her pistol out and ready but is not aiming at anyone. Drawing a slow breath, she glances at Kadi then Ahu Yan. "At this point, I would be willing to bet that anyone who was here has either passed or left. Or, they will want to steal our transport to get off this hulk. Either one person needs to stay and try to defend our ride or we will need to lock it up." Otherwise, she nods to Hex for the plan, “Agreed."
"Someone...needs to get life support online and gravity, or the devices storing the information we pull may be damaged." Naelyn finally speaks, his voice is muffled by that helmet but it is still soft and lilting, Basic accented so that there's a purr to his rrr and sss sounds. "Get me to a console, and we will retrieve Lord Eebua's information. Old freighters...this far out sometimes are home to memories that have morphed into monsters...I have read stories." A look to Hex. "Let us not be xenophobic against humans when we may be sucked into dark space at any moment. Do you want your last words to be 'And another thing, those f*ckers grow hair /everywhere/. Can't trust them - ahhh, the space ate my face - probably those pink and brown mothereffers' fault too'." He has his gear strapped to his back. "He's not wrong, though. Humans are bastards," said Yan, his wicked smirk hidden partially by the bulbous helmet. It had to be bulbous. It was tradition. But now his nose was itchy. "Alright. So. I can't believe I'm about to say this but Hex has a point. Let's tether up and connect to the ship so we don't get lost, and try to turn on the power at least a little. Any disagreements?”
It takes a moment only to download the ship's diagram, such as it is, to the datapad that Kadi has, though she also had some time to review and memorize the thing on the way out, before arriving. The datapad is more of a backup, in case she loses her mind. And so it can update the map, maybe. Maybe. She listens to the conversation and then she smiles. "Engineering usually is to the back and on the lower decks, and that's where the map sort of puts it. I can try, see if we can get it going in ten minutes. Otherwise, getting to engineering is going to be tough - it'll be up top and midship. With no lifts and no easy way to open blast doors? Might take us three hours just to get there." That said, she moves to get tethered in, and makes her way as well, keeping to her position in the line.
"Zhu Yan, take point. Kadi, help Yan find his ass from his elbows, and also help him find the way to the controls you need," Hex directs as they tether up and get ready to go. Clip, clip, clip. "Rhani, after them, and Nae after her, I'll bring up the rear. Sahak chir, dopes on a rope, let's do this.” Hex adds for Naelyn's benefit, as well, "There's never a bad time to shit talk humans.”
Exiting from the ship, Rhani hears the order to tether up. In her hurry, she takes a quick, running leap intending to land near the others. Instead, her miscalculation becomes apparent as the pull of gravity pulls at her. Her cry of dismay turns to fear as her trajectory changes in answer to the black hole's pull. Her hands reach out in a near flail in an attempt to catch hold of something. Anything.
Naelyn listens quietly for a few moments, cliping that tether to his waist and adjusting it in a non suggestive manner, and tethering as directed, nodding firmly as he listens to feedback and instructions before glancing towards Hex with a slow blink. He just mutters in Ryl to the Twi'lek. "I am going to tell Kasia you licked all her lipstick and that's why they are lopsided." And then he's waiting his turn to jump. Then it happens in slow motion (literally) as he watches the poor young woman's bad jump and reacts instantaneously, letting out more of his rope and pushing off like a little rocket, flipping around with acrobatic ease to offer a hand/arm to Rhani like a trapeeze artist doing a transfer. "Easy there beautiful.”
Distracted maybe, Ax had been quiet and just following along, making sure that Kadi didn't get into trouble on this little adventure. He didn't like working for Hutts, but he wasn't going to let his wife go along without him. So, when it's time to make the jump across, Ax straps on his helmet, the heavy armor bulkier than what he's used to. He leans out the airlock, and just before kicking off the bulkhead, he slips a bit and his push sends him further off course than he could imagine.
Fortunately, his fellow cohorts do better than he did, and a rescue line is sent his way, otherwise Ax likely would have drifted into a black hole, and well, intense gravity was not how he intended on losing the little bit of weight he'd gained. "Thanks," he says over the comms, unsure at the moment who actually just saved his ass.
As the crew manages to get everything in order and drifting crew members saved from death by black hole in the lonely reaches of space, the ramp of the transport eases closed and the mechanical sounds of locks fastening into place should at least do a little to calm any fears of someone stealing their means of escape. The comms in everyones helmet crackle and the voice of Eebua sounds in everyones ears, "We are down to an hour," before drifting back into silence. Directly ahead rests the blackness of the corridor, though those who are using one of the EVA suits provided by Eebua have flashlights affixed to each shoulder. The going is (should be) slow, as everyone bobbles along in the gravity-less environment tethered together, though no one floats away. Once the team makes the corridor the going is easier with a low ceiling to keep everyone moving along in the same direction. Kadi's schematic leads them along to a dead-end where the corridor is capped off by the closed doors of a turbo-lift.
Leading the way, Zhu Yan couldn't help but shoot a number of dirty looks in Hex's direction. Clearly he wasn't happy with this whole on-point business. "You just picked me because my gun is bigger than yours," he huffed. It wasn't long before they reached the turbolift to crack open. "Okay, strong individuals, now's your time. That means you Hex.”
Rhani! And Ax! Oh man! Kadi nearly takes off after first one, then the other, but is saved from having to try any such rescue by Naelyn and Hex. Thankfully. There's a bit of panic that has to settle down, but she manages to follow the schematic, giving some direction to Zhu Yan along the way since he's just in front of her. And then the lift. Kadi frowns at it, and then she looks at the schematic. "Looks like this will take us down to engineering, and I bet if we go up, we'll be close to the bridge too." But the door is closed, and there's no power to open. Kadi frowns again, glaring at it, and then puts her strength toward trying to open it. Maybe it's just that she has a clue where to put the fulcrum of a lever sort of idea, even if she's using her body weight as the counter, but she certainly works hard to try to get the dang thing open. "Someone please make sure this doesn't close again!”
"No, I picked you because this team only needs one comic relief character and I like me better than I like you," Hex answers Zhu Yan. "Anyway Ax and Rhani's attempt to investigate space anomalies in person was thwarted so we can send either of them on point since you're such a weenie. Bou, at," he counts in Ryl, because he's a space racist, "IRR." One, two, THREE, and he helps Kadi wrest the doors open. "Step lively, ka! I'm gonna get a damn hernia and then die in a gravitational space vortex.”
Rhani Aeternum squeezes Naelyn's hand once his meets hers. She is rescued! Her gratitude is clear even through the faceplate, though it turns to a different sort of horror when she sees Ax take a misstep as well. Relief, then is doubled once she has been tethered in place. Perhaps her walk is a touch on the wobbly side, but she shakes her inner horror, or shoves it down into the pit of her stomach. When she reaches the closed door, she considers offering assistance to the opening, then shakes her head. Even on her best day, she might not be able to help here. However, she does hear Kadi's request and nods. Looking around, she notes a barrol and slides out of line to grab it. Turning it on its side, she nudges the person ahead of her, "Here. This might work.”
Naelyn is there to assist where he can before they make their way to the next point in this tour. He walks behind Rhani, murmuring softly. "You are doing beautifully darling, just one step of a time...take your time, even through the suit the view back here is spectacular..." Etc, encouragement before stepping aside so they can get the door wedged open, hand moving to his toolbelt.
Ax moves to assist with the door, adding his muscle to the mix. Of course, either through better positioning, or maybe just a more compact frame that gives her better leverage, his wife seems to show him up. While the door budged slightly as he pulled, it seemed to be her pulling that got it opened. "You been working out, my love?" he asks of Kadi, chuckling a bit. "Next thing, you're going to be outflying me too."
With the door open, Ax finds something to wedge in the door's frame to keep it from closing again. He looks to Hex, "I can take point, if necessary. I'm usually better on my feet than I've shown thus far."
As the door are slid open, the blackness of the turbo lift shaft greets the group of ship explorers. The darkness is inky, but at least in the immediate vicinity there is nothing above or below to block progress down to the engine room or up toward the bridge. As the group makes their way down, according to Kadi's diagram the engine room should be four floors below, and then at the end of the corridor on the right. Whoever hastily through together the diagram was apparently not too far off base as the engineering compartment can be found at the end of the corridor, not on the right but the left. As the crew gains sight of the huge engineering room, the ship's lifeless engines can be seen, access panels placed here and there around the engine compartment to allow access to electronic components, and then on the far left of the room a body. The first crew member that the group has stumbled across clings to the computer terminal, without any form of EVA suit. A standard grade uniform is all that covers this human, male who's flesh has turned blue as it was frozen by the vacuum of space. Purple lips are parted in the last fruitless gasp for air, eyes wide and bulging forevermore.
Zhu Yan made a face of distaste as he pushed into the room, not liking what he saw. Floating dude in fifteen thousand year old uniform was not the way one wanted to begin their day. But that was nothing to the sight of the computer terminal. "This thing looks older than Aunt Muriel's Scumbo Soup!" exclaimed Zhu Yan. "I can't even recognize the language." No roll was needed for Zhu Yan to know he was way out of his depth here.
Kadi makes it down the elevator shaft, all creepy, dark, and lit only by the flashlights on the eva suits. Just like three fourths of every horror movie in space. She is kind of glad when they get to the engine room, though the sign of that poor frozen suitless crew member actually brings a soft squeak from her and she freezes. For a moment. Then she heads over to the console, staring at it in total confusion. She reaches a hand, pauses, reaches again, and then mumbles. "But - It doesn't make sense.”
Hex, like Yan, seems out of his depth. He lets Ax take the lead and brings up the rear, never far from Naelyn, around whom he hovers like a large, flashlight equipped bug. "Do what you can, if you can't get it, we move on," he advises the group, "No shame in not rebooting a millennia-old ship when you only got an hour." Frowning, he floats over toward the body, to attempt to move it out of the way of the technically inclined. "Ryma gesu'tak allesh," he says to it, something that sounds like a prayer, empathy, but is accompanied by a look on his face like 'I cannot believe I am touching the dead guy.’
Naelyn makes sure Rhani makes it safely through as he enters, head bowed for a moment, glancing over towards the dead body with a slow blink and then looking back to Hex. "He looks like he was once cute perhaps." Then he shifts over to float towards the consoles, narrowing his eyes and studying it quietly for a few moments. He takes a deep breath, and then another deep breath, scanning and studying before he moves to try to kneel/float next to it, reaching under the console and feeling along for something, squinting as uses a...yes, that is a sports knife to wiggle a panel free and start wiggling wires. "Can someone please hit this…firmly..."
Ax takes point, moving into the room, a hand on the heavy pistol at his side. "I'm kinda glad that there's no air in here, can you imagine the smell?" Ax asks with a shake of his head as the dead crewman floats by. Once everyone is down, he moves over to where his wife is. "You're thinking too hard, baby," he says. He kicks open a side panel on the terminal. "Think of the simple stuff first. Ship like this..." he leans down, using a light to shine on the internals. "Yep, shorted power cables," he points out to her. He had no delusions about being smarter than his wife, but sometimes that wasn't a bad thing, as he looked for the simpler issues. "If we can get the wires unfuzed together," he says, using his light to trace them, "maybe we can cut out the bad or jump it with wires from something else?" Yep, all that work on his fighter has paid off apparently.
Of course, it seems like Naelyn has come to a similar conclusion, so Ax smiles and hits the console, in a firm and manly fashion.
Between the efforts of Ax and Naelyn, they are able to pull the ancient wires apart from where they are melted together. Brittle with age, they have to be very careful to not break the wires too short to reconnect, but once the wires are twisted back together, there is an immediate hum from the engines, though judging by the loud clanging, 15,000 years of stillness have not been good to them. The terminal does flicker, however, a pale blue glow illuminating the room and blinking as the ancient computer system attempts to reboot itself. An ancient form of Huttese begins to scroll across the terminal, providing menus and schematics of the ship, and though Naelyn is not able to understand the language, a few attempts via trial and error soon have the ships lights blinking creepily back to life and bathing those around in a warm orange glow. Air flow blows from the ventilation shafts above, and those in the group floating are suddenly dropped back to the floor as gravity is restored. A quick scan via Kadi's data-pad will show that life systems are normalizing and systems should at least be partially online.
Thump! "Ow!" Zhu Yan's butt hit the floor like a ton of bricks and he rolled over on to his side, rubbing his bruised posterior. "Warn a man before you do that," he groaned out whilst dragging himself to his feet, and finally, finally, putting the Bryar away. It was at that point that the writing on the terminal caught his eye. "Hang on, looks like Huttese," he mused. "Two... eggs? Rectify calibrator, something something critical, and I'm fairly sure this squiggly line means Monkey-Lizard but I doubt it. Either way, we're running out of time.”
There's a rueful look on her face as Ax and Naelyn manage to get things working, while she stands there rubbing her sore arms. Bit chagrined, she's at a loss what to do, though she does acknowledge the practicality of Ax's words. And the truth to them. Overthinking. Kadi's datapad beeps, and she scrambles to look at it, since it at least gets her doing something instead of feeling embarrassed. Zhu Yan's words catch her attention for a long moment and she stares at him, before forcing her attention back to her datapad. "In addition to all the monkey lizard stuff, life support is coming back online and normalizing. Lights are mostly on, though looks like they may be at part-load for some reason." She pauses. "And I think the lifts should be working, so that should make it easier to get to the bridge. I hope.”
Hex is of course in a position that when the grav comes on, he manages to get squashed by the now falling body of the corpse. He flails like an overturned beetle under the awkward weight of EVA suit and the unlucky ancient spacefarer, but manages to eventually right himself and dump the corpse unceremoniously to one side. "Good work, lia'ra," he praises Naelyn, "We may survive this yet. Onward, upward, lifts and bridge," he suggests, "Good luck and we'll be home for dinner. Bad luck, and well, we die horribly, but that's pretty much usually the case." Not trusting the life support yet, he still has the EVA suit helmet on, and holds the lift doors for occupants to enter.
Naelyn glances over his shoulder at those who are heading to the bridge and he just bows his head a bit, his gravity slump/fall was as graceful as any of his others, an elegant sprawl and extension of his hand because bitch he wakes up this fabulous, before he pushes himself back to his feet and moves back to the console, he slips a couple of small thumb sized drives from his belt and eyes the connectors on the console...a pair of pliers comes out of another pocket and then some small plastic/metal bits that he's clicking onto the drives, squeezing, poking and prodding. He even takes what looks to be a waxy like substance to poke into the jack he needs to use, withdrawing it slowly to get the shape he needs and squeezing and bending the connectors as need be on his own pieces. His hands work quickly, eyes stay lowered. "I need 5 to 7 minutes." The little snake is apparently doing a data download from where he is, to get what he can. "I will meet you both. Please exercise caution, I have a bachlorette party in 72 hours and need all my body parts in working order for profitable lap dances…"
Ax understood a little bit of Huttese, but not enough to make heads or tails of what was going on with the terminal. "Shoulda brought droids," he mutters, looking about. As gravity re-engages, the Echani doesn't seem phased. Years spent in the cockpit, often with dampeners turned way down so he could get a better feel of the ship, had left him experienced with fluctuations in gravity. He looks at the monitor on the wrist of his armor. "I've still got two hours of life support left before I have to swap cannisters, but there ain't a chance in hell I'm going to breathe the air on this ship," he says. "If we're going to explore anything, I say we do it now. I can have the Lost Soul here in minutes. With tractor beams, it can slow this ship's descent, but probably won't be able to pull it out. Even slowing it down would be risky though, and should be only considered for emergency evac." His eyes look to Naelyn after the man's comments, but he doesn't say anything. Nope, he wasn't going to go there.
There is another verbal warning of the quickly dwindling time. "Fifteen minutes. I see that the power has come back online, it should be easy enough to get to the bridge and copy over the data there. In fifteen minutes there will be no escaping the pull of the black hole," Eebua's voice says into the ear piece. If the others step into the lift, they will find it to be a large lift easily able to handle the size of a hutt. Seven floors up will bring the turbo lift doors open directly onto the bridge where a more gruesome sight greets the eyes of the explorers. Bodies in much the same shape as the poor fellow down below are scattered about the bridge, some draped across terminals, and the ship's captain slouching far down into the command chair. Lifeless eyes are open and clouded over, while the frozen flesh has already begun to shine and drip in the rapidly heating atmosphere. Seeing the sight that awaited him, it was all Zhu Yan could do to not retch. Which was good, as he still had his helmet on. "Okay. Yeah. No. Not going in there. Tech types, do your thing." He waved back towards the interior of the bridge and tried and failed utterly to hide his sheer disgust under his normal snark.
Making her way down the shaft to the engine room is not always easy, but Rhani makes it without many hitches. When she arrives, she surveys the room from her floaty position. That is when the gravity reasserts and she falls to the decking. Though she does not have Naelyn's flare for the dramaticly beautiful, she manages to land on one booted foot and one knee, her hand lowered to the deck in a pose more reminiscent of a linebacker than a fabulous performer. Lifting her gaze, her eyes focus on the corpse and she freezes. Eyes widen, her breath suddenly constricted. Time to look away. No. Really. Look away. It takes a while, though she finally does turn when the Hutt's voice sounds in her ear in a startling reminder that yes, they are on the clock. Rising slowly, she gives in to her fear and ducks back into the shaft to hide... er... keep guard. That's it.
Hex raises his brows as Naelyn wants to stay in the engine room, but he doesn't argue, just comms to the others, "I'm staying with Naelyn in case of mean robots," as they go up in the lift. "You do your thing up there, he'll do his in here, and we'll see you back at the transport in less than fifteen minutes." His lekku squirm unhappily, though they can't squirm much, mashed as they are in the EVA suit. "I've reheated pies in more time than fifteen minutes, little brother," he addresses Naelyn, "This tick tock is making me real anxious.”
Kadi comes to a dead stop as she spies what has Zhu Yan not going into the bridge. "Oh, man," she says, closing her eyes for a long moment. She takes a breath, really glad for the EVA suit right now, because she also hasn't taken hers off. "Ax - this is - nightmare worthy," she murmurs, but doggedly, she makes her way in to the terminal, connecting her datapad, pausing as things don't start automatically. "I don't have time for this," she mumbles, giving Ax a look. Her fingers skitter over the datapad keys, as she keeps looking at the corpses, eyes darting up at them, in case they ... move. Or something.
Naelyn works quickly and efficiently, data would be scrolling across screens, some he understands, most he does not. He knows numbers though and data and his eyes dart back and forth and forth and back rather rapidly as 0s and 1s and Hutteese scroll. He is attempting to access manifests, diaries, porn stashes, whatever he can from those computers, changing out the drives for a moment before glancing over to Hex for a moment and blinks a few times as he continues working. He glances aside to Hex again and shows him the screen of one of the datapads he slips out just for a moment before turning back to what he's doing. Timing things and slipping free the two jacks to tuck things back into his belt. "You reheat food?" ~ Ax takes point, and while he'd never been on a ship of this class, finding the bridge wasn't a difficult matter. Most ships simply make sense in that regard. "Keep close, nobody split off." Having spent a life as a smuggler, he'd learned a few things about computers, especially nav-comps, so once they got to the bridge, it wasn't difficult to get things moving, though due to the language barrier, it was a slower than usual process. He doesn't seem overly phased by the corpses, but he does put a hand on Kadi's shoulders. "Let's make sure to get two copies," he says in a soft tone to his wife. After a few moments, he sighs. "That should be it, babe. If not, it's not worth waiting any longer for. We need to get the hell off this ship." ~
True to Ax's words, another warning rolls across the comms in everyone's ears. "Five minutes." The progress bars on both Naelyn and Kadi's data transfer both fill rapidly until they are completed. Five minutes shy of being lost to the black hole forever.
"Time to bail, ladies and gents," declared Zhu Yan. He was already on his way back to the ship. Sure, it was still warm... ish, but five minutes was needed to actually get the engines online. It was when he was approaching the ramp that he abruptly blurted out, "Wait, Naelyn's a DUDE?!”
Kadi watches the load, one hand reaching to Ax's as he puts a hand on her shoulder. She has a disk drive too, and she connects it to the data pad in preparation. Once that load from the ship is done, she disconnects, and then starts the copy going, so that she can give all the data to Eebua, on the disk drive. Two copies, just in case. But not with any intent to cheat, just for safety. The second copy can run, while they make their way back to the hangar. "C'mon, let's go," she says, in fervent agreement with Ax. "With tethers, preferably." Cause flying out into space now - so not a good idea. There's a shudder as she looks over the bridge at the corpses as the life support does nasty things to them. "I don't like it here, even if this is a museum of a ship." She sorta stops at the blurt from Zhu Yan, eyes widening, and just shakes her head. Data pad is secured to her belt, and she reaches for Ax's hand, though she probably doesn't need to tug him to get moving.
Hex watches Naelyn work with a total lack of comprehension, until suddenly he seems to blink and wake up a little. "Uh," he says, and then there's a question about food. Both hands lift, palms up, and he protests, "Some food comes frozen." This super important point cleared up, he shakes head. "You're out of time - out of time. Unplug and get gone, or I'll pick you up and run back to the ship with you that way.”
Stick together and split up. Split up, but stick together. Rhani is not used to contradictory orders so gets a bit muzzy headed for a moment or two. Either that or she is trying hard not to retch into her helmet. She almost misses the group headed up to the bridge but turns to tag along with them at kind of the last minute. With all of the bodies scattered around up there, she isn't sure that it was a good idea. But... she is there. Hanging back a bit. When the five minute mark is hit, she grimaces and looks over her shoulder and mutters "Come on." under her breath. At last, the data collection process is finished and she turns to head for the transport. Zhu's startled pronouncement has the unfortunate effect of giving her a gigglefit... She does not try to answer that one…
Fingerlessly gloved fingers move quickly to disconnect that second mini-drive and with a flip over his finger he is tucking it securely in his belt and Naelyn just eyes Hex for a moment and mockingly lifts his arms. "Well if you are offering..." He drawls before shaking his head. "I'm going, I'm going...let us go. I may need to jump on your back nerra and if I miss and hit your ass, blame my height as my intentions towards you will always be pure. Well somewhat pure." He's resuiting up as they move. "Well, a little pure. I mean I do not fantasize about you and Kasia as that is weird but I do admire physical assets while I can because you are quickly running towards hefty..." And he moves faster, to avoid being swatted. Bratty little Bro(?s) gotta brat. The man-woman moves quickly when he wants to.
As the group makes their way back to the hangar, a strange sight meets their eyes. The lighting in the room is beginning to warp, forming streamers of multicolored light that pull it toward the gravitational pull of the black hole. In much the same way, the view of the transport seems indistinct as the reflected light bounces off of the vessel and pulls in the same direction as the rest toward the hungry center of that hungry force of nature. Even though the gravity is back online in the freighter, the pull of the black hole can be felt strongly as the ship creeps ever nearer to the point of no return, and as Zhu Yan powers the transport online and leaves the hangar, the pull is near chaotic. Inside the vessel itself, vision begins to do strange things, looking from one face to the other, everything seems to lengthen and pull toward the black hole, even as the ship attempts to fly away from that pull.
One minute! Zhu Yan promptly fell into the pilot's chair and started pressing a myriad of buttons. Funny thing about these Hutt transports, you could get another ten percent of power out of them via bypassing safe operation limits. Of course, it voids the warranty. Their boss might be annoyed, but hey, mission success. "If you're not here in thirty seconds you're about to experience a cursorly lesson in Time Dilation one-oh-one! We, are, LEAVING!" His blood was flaring up. This close to the point-of-no-return and Zhu Yan's hot-blooded-ness went from Sith to Shonen.
Thirty seconds. Bam. He hit the hatch seal and simultaneously lifted the ship off the deck, pushing it straight into attack speed and promptly cooking the interior of the landing bay. He wasn't even out when he banked down, scraping the tail against the ceiling in a horrible SCREECH and gunning it away and under the ship. Zhu Yan yelled some weird battle cry in some weird unknown made-up language as he dragged every single dramatic moment out of what would normally be some sort of fireball escape but was really far more flashy. He was straight-up manhandling the ship in a manner that would get him arrested for assault on a civilized world. The throttle didn't go forward any farther so Zhu Yan started rocking in his chair, willing the ship to escape.
And it did. During his red-mist madness he'd lost track of everything happening in the cockpit, and when reality began to reassert itself he noticed the heavy sheen of sweat and his ridiculously laboured breathing. Of course, that didn't stop him from bragging. Loudly. Cover your ears. "TAKE THAT, YOU BLACK HOLE SCHUTTA! I, ZHU YAN, AM GREATER THAN GRAVITY ITSELF!”
Kadi nods to Ax, reaches for Rhani on the way, and makes sure they are all three together, as they get back to the ship, and hopefully pile on. She shakes her head, at the light effects, squeezing Ax's hand so as not to lose it, and keeps going. Once in a seat, she closes her eyes. For a moment. And then she remembers the scanners and sets them to scan everything they can- in case it might be of interest to some poor slob of a science student doing their ph.d or something. At least she's aboard the transport when the door slams, and now her fate is in Zhu Yan's hands. Or whoever is flying this thing.
"Stop, stop, just - Naelyn - I don't -- what -- NAELYN," Hex tries and fails to get the small slicer to 1) hurry up and 2) stop being completely mortifying. It's finally just too much. "Shut up about my fat ass, we're like two minutes from certain death!" Hex exclaims, and even though Naelyn's on the go, it's not fast enough. Scoop, grab, he captures his androgynous buddy and unceremoniously throws him over a shoulder in a fireman's carry. Face down, ass up, that's the way we like to... run for our lives. RUN RUN RUN, they make it on board just as Yan is howling about 30 seconds, and time is so short. But so long, and so - distorted -- Hex removes his helmet and stares at it in confusion and existential horror until space time returns to normal. "I'm going to throw up," he announces. "I don't know if that's cause the black hole or if that's just what it's like to be impressed by Zhu Yan.”
With Kadi's assistance, Rhani makes it across the distortion field though she very nearly pauses to admire the bendy colors. Pretty! And terrifying. Leaving now seems like a better and better idea. Once aboard, she leaves Kadi and Ax in order to head for the cockpit. She does get a good look at Hex hauling Naelyn to the ship, but does not have time now to savor it. Later. Her boots thud heavily on the decking of their transport as she runs full tilt into the cockpit. Dropping into the copilot's seat just as Zhu Yan slams the hatch closed and begins his mad bid for freedom and life, she fumbles with the belts, getting them on just as their ship dives out into space. She can almost see the black hole's hunger, almost feel the grasp gravity has on their hull. Flicking on the copilot's console she calls readings to Zhu Yan, hoping that she is helping and not being irritating. Some people don't like to hear the numbers. At lease she does not quote odds... And then they are free. The stars, the colors, the lights, all return to normal and she leans back in the chair as the pilot's exultant cry echoes over her and through their ship. For herself? She mutters a long, drawn out "fuuuuck." And that is all.
There is a quick intake of breath as Naelyn takes the Hex-train to apparently Hutt Ball Z, and he sorta scrambles/falls into his seat, scrambling for a seat belt and staring towards the black hole and then fumbling with his seat belt with a slow blink. "Don't blink Hex, that is exactly...what your mouth looks like...when I have consumed those yellow mushrooms...just with more sparkles..." He offers in a hushed whisper before he is replying to Zhu's declaration, because everybody already seems too scared, and rightfully so. "Oh...OH YES BIG DADDY TELL ME HOW YOU LIKE IT!" - What, he can yell too. So his is accented and smooth around the edges but he can shout! Then he's fanning himself and letting his head fall back against whatever wall or seat is behind him when all is calm. ~ Ax had flown the Maw cluster, had experienced the pull of a black hole before, but never from anywhere near this close. Once aboard the escape vessel, he made sure Kadi was secured before he takes his own seat. Rhani gets to the cockpit before him, but he didn't mind her taking the copilot's seat. Navigating such a spacial distortion was difficult at best, and an extra set of hands on the controls might be useful. Of course, in the end, it seems Rhani needn't have bothered. "That," he says, "is, I have to admit, some of the best piloting I've seen."
Monitoring the Intervention through the rear viewport will see the freighter seeming to float across the blackhole, drawing ever closer to the center mass until all at once a bright flare of radiation erupts across the system of the ship before it simply disappears and there is nothing but that huge sucking blackness that could have just as easily taken the lot of them along with them. The Star Wind floats in space where it had been before when the group started out, and the transport is easily flown back into docking within the landing bay. Unless there are any surprises, the various data backups are able to be given personally to Lord Eebua Gnuda who seems quite pleased. Everyone receives a considerable payout(even Hex), and then all of the ship exploring team is given a personal guest room on the yacht to rest during the journey back to Nar Shaddaa.
