Log:Jedi Order: Rescuers Down Under Nar

Jedi Order: Rescuers Down Under Nar

OOC Date: February 12, 2019
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Jedi Order: Rey, Leia Organa, Syrus; and Kylo Ren as GM

NAR SHADDAA, HUTT DISTRICT, OUTPOST ZIRO

The cold, fetid air of the cells on Nar Shaddaa has been Syrus' constant companion these last few weeks as he languished in a cell under the First Order's outpost. Abruptly, it's broken as the forcefield holding him inside is deactivated and not one or two but four Stormtroopers in white armor stand outside. "Get up, Jedi scum," the one in the lead instructs, stepping forward with a pair of manacles. "You're being transferred."

Out of doors, the rain is falling. The starport in the Hutt District is one of the more opulent affairs the Smuggler's Moon has to offer when it comes to duracrete tarmacs, and the staid efficiency of the blast panel that covers the Order's launch bay stands out by virtue of its nondescript, plain appearance. Airspeeders dart through the air in long lines, tracing invisible lanes through the air, while the traffic of freighters and other larger craft fill the area with more deliberate and relatively slow-moving activity. It's a busy day, with a local dignitary being received here, and members of his retinue are already lined up and waiting further down the starport.

Honestly, it feels good to be out and about, so Syrus isn't going to complain, even if he does have a quartet of blaster rifles aimed at him as he walks. The Kiffar Jedi is sluggish, having to pause every once in a while to either stifle a cough or submit to a fit of hacking and spitting. Scarlet blood is wiped away intermittently, but the man walks on. Under the kind, guiding hands and rifle butts of his caretakers, of course.

Leia does not often take the fight into her own hands. That isn't to say she's above fighting, of course, but hardly has she ever left the forces behind to do something herself. At some point, however, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. In many ways she's lost faith in her own creation and isn't sure they're up to the task anymore.

So here she is.

Standing in the rain with a dark brown cloak pulled up over her head watching the tarmac from the relative protection of a food cart. "If our intel is good, they should be moving him soon." She murmurs, picking up some browning fruit from the stall while speaking through comms to Rey.

It's hard to trust intel that didn't involve Bothans dying though.

Rey is in a dark set of clothing, synth leathers that cover her body. She has a black canvas satchel strapped around her torso and the bag hanging at her left side. Over her shoulders is a blue textured scarf, thick fabric... hangs heavy over her form. It has a hood also and that hood is pulled up over her head bathing her face in shadow. The lower half of her face is masked over by a similarly shaded blue slip of cloth.

Rey's uncovered eyes dart over to Leia. "Lets hope." She says through the mask over her mouth. She then looks back to the foul smelling city of Nar Shaddaa, thankful... in this instance, to have her face covered to help block out the scents and odors of this place.

The intel is good. Syrus's restraints are clapped on and the man is moved quickly through the bowels of the outpost's inner machinations, with some healthy shoves to move him along. MOVE. ALONG. He's escorted up to the launch bay, where a JAS troop lander is waiting to serve as transport. Nothing fancy, no frills, nothing to draw attention, just a plain ordinary slow-moving but heavily armored troop lander. "Get aboard!" he's instructed by the same Stormtrooper, at least it looks like the same one. It's hard to tell.

As this goes on, the heavy blast doors covering the launch bay from the acid rain and noise of the city above slide slowly back on gargantuan rollers that would crush a sentient being's body to a fine paste if one was unlucky enough to fall in front of them. Far down below, the Order's few ships still stored here can be seen, and the prisoner's escort moving about, looking like toy soldiers from the height disparity.

"Of course, my friend," the Jedi says, nodding to the aggressive, true-believer of a Stormtrooper. "What a city, isn't it?" Syrus muses to one of the soldiers as he shuffles his way onto the lander, lifting a manacled hand to scratch softly at his nose.

Leia glances back at the sound of the heavy gates grinding open and then over at Rey. Her head jerks a little in that direction, motioning with a subtle twist of her wrist. "Once it is halfway up, we make our move." Whispering into the mic hidden somewhere beneath her hood, pulling it a little tighter against either side of her face as she exits from beneath the awning out into the uncomfortable rain. "If we can't get that shuttle to land, we'll have to get inside before it breaks atmosphere. I'll head for the detention area, you go for the command deck and take control of the transport. We'll use their ship to get us to the rendevous point where Chewie waits with the Falcon." It's not at all as simple as it sounds, of course, but they can't risk bringing a heavy cruiser into Y'toub or trying to outgun any escorts in the Falcon.

Rey is observing the hangar opening, the rain falling into it and then she looks over to Leia. "This should be interesting." She says then, her hand going to feel the lightsaber hilt that is hidden beneath her messenger bag on her hip. "I'm ready." She says then and stands up to move. She starts casual, walking like a civilian who's just heading for their own ship on a pathway that will take her to intercede the hangar as it opens, its a casual approach... walk casual!

All the while her other senses are reaching out to hear, and feel for the shuttle craft that is surely about to launch... She has other weapons on her person as well, expertly hidden amongst her clothing.

With Syrus loaded on board, the lander's ramp closes up behind him, sealing him away from the light of day that'd been pouring down, however dimly, from the cloudy skies above and instead replacing it with a garish red from a bulb on the ceiling while the troopers file in, pushing him towards a seat along the wall while the craft powers up. Shortly enough, there's a shudder and the queasy feeling of upward momentum as the ship rises into the air, moving upward towards the yawning opening at the top that the blast doors have revealed.

It moves relatively slowly, with blinking lights set on the edges of the craft, its squared-off edges and blocky exterior making a reasonably effective platform, incidentally.

Sitting in the jumpseat, Syrus grunts and leans back against the bulwark, sighing raggedly after taking a deep, labored breath. The Kiffar's eyes flick between the cadre of soldiers keeping watch. His fists tighten and relax over and over again.

Apparently jumping isn't taught in finishing school on Alderaan.

It explains a lot about how she was completely unable to save herself when the speederbike crashed.

Or slid into a gabage shut.

Or literally a dozen other times jumping would have been incredibly useful.

The fall is going to be an unpleasant one to say the least. Time enough for her to think about all the mistakes she's made and what a terrible disappointment dying in this manner is ultimately going to be. Survived Vader, died to gravity.

Rey, on the other hand, had been jumping onto things, across things, over things and up things most of her life. She was lithe and nimble, ready to go and when the opportunity came she leapt... and landed.

But she was prepared for the concept that Leia might not be able to make it, she thought it might happen. Once she grasps a strong enough latch onto the shuttle she turns and extends her right hand, calling upon the Force around Leia to grasp onto her, to steady her and to bring her back!

The impact of Jedi atop the lander does not go unnoticed by the pilot at the helm of the lander, who was expecting no such impacts to his vessel's hull. The ship quivers just slightly, and a few alerts light up on the control console. "What the..." A gloved hand reaches for the intercom. <<Secure the prisoner, got a bogey on the roof, just gonna toss whatever it is off.>> It's a long way down, and the droids can clean up the mess from whatever it was. <<Probably just another drunk fell in.>> With a sudden twist of the yoke, the whole ship jolts abruptly to one side, threatening to toss the offending unidentified object down to the duracrete below.

Looking up at the sound of the thunks, Syrus squints before his eyes turn back to the Stormtroopers. The Kiffar is jammed against the bulkhead as the ship does some sweet, sweet manuevers, making him groan a bit in pain. He lifts his manacled hands to the Stormtroopers, indicating that he's very much not a threat.

The landing is not graceful, but Leia is still thankful for Rey's quick thinking. Her hood has blown off from her hair which now whips out a little as the ship does some fancy wiggling to dislodge the two Jedi from the top of the vessel. It is by some grace alone, and a healthy application of the force, that Leia manages not to end up falling right back into the void beneath the shuttle. Just barely keeping her grip when the ship upends and then climbing back atop where she's now laying flat with a glance at Rey. One brow raised, mouthing soon as they lift off since it's all engines roaring up here and actually talking would be moot.

Rey feels a sense of relief in having gotten Leia back onto the shuttle but its all short lived as the shuttle starts to try to shake them... and now she's finding her whole body hanging off of the ship being pulled by gravity... save for just her left hand holding her onto the shuttle. Its... nerve racking to say the VERY LEAST. Her own hood comes off, but her half-mask stays wrapped around the lower half of her face. She's groaning behind it, physically strained to stay grasping on to the shuttle....

But as they even out and they come back to level flying she slams back into place on the ship and looks over to Leia with HUGE EYES.

But there is no time to waste, Rey starts to side-maneuver around the ship until they come to the door, the boarding hatch doorway. She motions to Leia's lightsaber and then to the doorway. She wants Leia to cut it open... to trigger the release with the saber's blade so it'll pop open. While she steels herself to prepare for what will come next!

"That is one determined drunk," the lander pilot mutters under his breath as the alerts don't go away even after the hard ninety-degree toss to the right. <<Be advised, bogey persists, may not be a drunk. Could be something more potent, these Hutt scum will shoot up with anything they can get into their bloodstream,>> the intercom announces, while the pilot half-heartedly gives the yoke a wobble, poking at buttons to try to get a better read on what's stuck to his ship. In the meantime, the rising action has continued, and with a sudden gust of 'fresh' air, the lander breaks the surface of the blast doors, exposing itself to the open air.

Down in the launch bay control room, one thing is clear from the video feeds: It's not a stoned hobo on the outside of the transport. It's TWO of them.

"Curious," Syrus muses, looking around the inside of the shuttle to try and get a look into the pilot's station. He hrmms and looks back to the door release. Then he closes his eyes and reaches out, as it were. Wisps of ghostly Force energy move about the interior, trying to find it. But, Syrus's own lack of ability and the general tension in the ship mean that whatever he had plan doesn't come to fruition.

Leia takes a steadying breath when the ship tries to shake them off again, but with less effectiveness than the first, and slides along the top of the craft towards the entry ramp on the back. Once there she takes hold of the lip of the hull and ignites her lightsaber in the other hand, slashing it downward at the latch that, in theory, keeps it locked into place. It isn't an exact science, but these vessel were not really designed to be Jedi proof.

While it does work, it's not nearly as elegant or as effective as she thought it might be. Still, a victory is a victory when you're hanging onto the outside of a ship headed towards atmosphere.

Rey watches Lela's efforts with the lightsaber pay off, and in the mean time she's decided to crouch down as low as she can get. Down in a crouch she watches the hatchway swoosh open and then she draws in a breath and she darts around to reach out and pull at a Stormtrooper inside the shuttle.

By now, Syrus will likely know whats going on, what with the saber being used to open the hatchway.

Rey's pull on the Force was unsuccessful, however. The situation is too stressful, or too distracting, what with all of Nar shaddaa literally behind her as but her right hand and a precarious placement of her boots toes is keeping her from falling backward toward it all.

PFFFFFT.

"Why is the door opening?" the Stormtrooper's leader demands, grabbing at his rifle and pointing it towards the door with calculated menace, prepared for whatever should appear on the other side of its somewhat anticlimactic reveal. <<Pilot, the door is opening, SEAL IT IMMEDIATELY.>>

<<Negative, something's malfunctioned, I can't secure it,>> the pilot replies over the intercomm, frantically pushing all of the buttons, flashing warnings all over his control console. <<Can't take us out of atmo like this, secure the hatch and engage manual sealing.>>

And then there's a pair of windswept women, one old, one young, reaching their hands into the shuttle like they want to be pulled in. "OPEN FIRE!" the leader yells.

"What the hell! A lightsaber?! The Jedi!"

"SHOOT THEM!"

"We can't kill them!"

Oh, look! A rescue attempt! Syrus does his best to just try and stay out of the way once things seem to be popping off. The FO took decent care of him, but helping him out with that collapsed lung was like at the bottom of their priority list. Still, he feels he needs to help, so he throws out a wild FORCE PUNCH that only succeeds in obliterating a poor, innocent jumpseat across the aisle.

Once the door swings down, Leia swings into the open hatch with her lightsaber casting off a blue glow across her wind swept white robes and tossled brown hair. The blaster bolts fired at her are deflected away with the whirling blue blade that comes down and across the first stormtrooper in her path, cutting him from shoulder to hip with a downward cross slash.

There shouldn't be that much malace on the face of a Jedi.

Especially not THIS Jedi.

Rey watches Leia rush in after the blaster bolts going zipping past them out into the sky. At least the shuttle can't go into space in this condition... if this is going to take a little while... It likely means it'll double-back toward the launch bay that they just jumped onto it from though, so time is limited.

With Leia going inside, lightsaber drawn, Rey stands back up and now she steps in as well, her hand comes up once more and she reaches out toward the Trooper once more, with a pull of her forearm backward she sends the Soldier sliding past her and out the way they'd come.

Her hand reaches down for her saber hilt, the restored hilt of the Skywalker lineage, and she draws it up. Behind Leia's right shoulder, Rey ignites it and stares at the other troopers. She starts forward, hoping to blow past them, hoping to get close enough to use the Force to push them over and advance further toward the cockpit.

Things are going from bad to worse inside the lander. <<What's going on back there?>> the pilot demands over the comms, his voice blaring from the ceiling while the mayhem unfolds. Leia's saber carves a brutal line through one of the poor white-armored fellows, who lets out a single scream (https://youtu.be/r6JK-gRELI0) before falling to the deck, jostling turbulence sending one half of his body tumbling out of the open hatch into a freefall while his bottom half flops back up against the far bulkhead. Their leader is straight-up pulled from his footing and hurled out into the empty air to follow the top portion of the first trooper. "Protect- protect the prisoner!" the highest-ranked remaining soldier cries, getting it together only through extreme difficulty despite his rigorous combat conditioning, and both remaining guards continue to fire on the Jedi boarding party.

Finally spotting his rescuers, Syrus smiles a bit, lifting a hand...well, hands to offer a wave at them. Then, he's back to trying to be of any use. His player is running out of excuses for why he's so bad at this, so let's just blame it on his lungs hurting this time.

Leia is a brutal force of nature, deflecting blaster fire as it comes at her with her twisting blade and lashing out with ruthless strikes that are not at all intent to disarm. She is overtly and willfully killing. Her white robes swirl out around her as she spins and decapitates the highest ranking Trooper with a back swing that leaves his body slumping forward onto his knees behind her. There is a second saber clipped to her belt and she's looking at Syrus with her head craning down towards it invitingly.

Staying behind the wrathful Leia, Rey keeps her saber ignited and held at a defensive posture only to keep herself, well defended.

Her eyes narrow up toward the pilot ahead and she raises her right hand to draw the pilot through the Force. First... she lifts him straight up into the ceiling of the cabin and slams him head first into it, then she pulls him backward so that he slams half into the doorframe and then gets yanked THROUGH IT!

Rey's last intention with the Pilot is to toss him right into the wall beside Syrus that he will crumple into a heap there and then she advances further, saber growling in the wind at her side.

Pandemonium that had engulfed the lander's crew, with a full half of the guards facing the destruction of Leia's lightsaber, and with the invisible pummeling that Rey is dishing out, has begun to die out, with no one left conscious to keep it going. One lone guard remains in a tense standoff between the lightsaber and his charge, not firing at Leia, merely blocking her path with his body and raised gun. The helmet jitters back and forth, the movements of a soldier looking for some solution to defeat this enemy and just not finding one.

The lander itself, bereft of its pilot, clicks into an automated holding pattern, and by now, the ground crew down at Ziro have realized that something has gone awry. A transmission chirps over the cockpit's comm unit. <<AAL 7341, come in. AAL 7341. You appear to be in distress. AAL 7341, confirm your status.>>

"Please..." Syrus says, standing quickly and moving between Leia and the remaining Stormtrooper. He's shooting some major Force juju into the poor man's brain, for anybody paying attention. His hands are held out in the man's direction as the comm calls to life. "Tell them everything is fine. And manacle yourself to the chair. Please," the Kiffar pleads, continuing his gambit.

Leia lowers her saber, but does not deactivate it, when Syrus steps in her way. Her expression, moments ago a mask of vengeful intent, shifts back to a neutral stare that, while not as furious, probably does next to nothing to erase the image of her slicing through half the squad. "Make sure he complies." She says to Syrus, then starts towards the hatch to manually get it raised so they can break atmosphere once Rey has control of the shuttle.

The jittery movements still, the helmet steadying as Syrus' words influence the trooper and relax him simultaneously. "...I'll tell them everything's alright," he agrees reluctantly, his tone almost suggesting that it's an original thought, that he had, from his own mind, and not one that was forced there against his will. Stepping over to the cockpit, he clambers up inside with some difficulty, unfamiliar with the space. Fumbling hands pick up the comm unit. <<Ground control, this is Sergeant TH-0033. Everything is alright. I'm feeling the most peculiar way.>>

A pause over the comms. <<....AAL 7341. Where is AP-9107?>>

<<There's nothing I can do. Everything is alright,>> the stormtrooper repeats. <<We're all alright.>>

Muttering from the comms, and a faint <<...unfortunate...matter pff policy....scramble the....it down.>> That doesn't sound good.

Stepping down out of the cockpit, the hapless sergeant nods to his captors. "You're alright."

Hrmmming with disappointment, Syrus moves to the poor Stormie and rests a hand on his shoulder, leading him over to a chair and helping the man handcuff himself to the rail. Stealing the man's keycard, he unfastens his own manacles and lets them clatter onto the floor. "We should land. I have a feeling Mr. Thomm isn't in the best condition to fly."

Leia rushes back towards the front of the shuttle after clipping her lightsaber to her belt, "Get us to the Decan Towers." Pointing off towards the towering structures in the distant viewport, "They might be intent on keeping us from escaping, but I doubt very seriously they want to be seen shooting down one of their own shuttles over a populated section of Nar Shaddaa." Then she's reaching for her comms, "Threepio, tell Chewie to have the Falcon prepped and ready to take off, we've got Syrus, but we're going to have a tail..."

Glancing at Rey, "Corestar spaceport. Falcon should be waiting for us." should.

Rey watches the soldier make the comms call, she frowns at their lack of... good... pretending... and then moves toward the controls and she shoves at him to leave. "Go. Away." She says then.

At Leia's request the shuttle starts to bank and turn toward the designated part of the moon... she's not overly familiar with Nar Shaddaa but she's learned it enough in her brief visits here to know the general layout and once she spots the towers she'll know where to steer too.

"I'm glad I didn'at disable the engines like I'd thought about." She idly comments then. "Are we ditching this at the apartment building?" She asks then.

Luckily for the intrepid hijackers, there's a hold-up getting the TIE fighters off the ground back at Ziro in the form of that dignitary's Luxury 3000 finally arriving, and hovering directly over the mouth of the First Order's launching bay. Angry words are exchanged over comms, and eventually the ugly eyesore of a space yacht moves out of the way so that the pursuit force can take off, intent on doing exactly what Leia had predicted they would be too embarrassed to do. <<AAL 7341, maintain your position,>> comes the instruction over the comms. <<All is well, routine request. Maintain your position.>>

"You did fine, my friend," Syrus says patting the Stormtrooper on the shoulder before he moves to step away from him and over to the hatch. "I'm glad to see the two of you again, my friends." He stifles a cough and presents a smile.

Leia leans against the hatch between troop compartment and cockpit with her eyes fixed on the forward viewport, "Right there." Pointing at the spaceport. "The Falcon should be there. Come in low, land, and we're get out of here. They'll have to come back around before they can land and by then..." She nods towards the horizon and glances back at Syrus with an easy grin that she shouldn't be able to manage after all the angery she was showing moments before. She reaches out after grabbing something from her belt and hands Syrus his lightsaber. "It's good to have you back, Syrus."

Rey softly nods her head to Leia's words, her hood and mask laying down off of her face now, her expression is one of great concentration. But she does spare a moment to reply. "I'm really glad that you're not dead, Syrus." Rey tells him, distractedly. "Surprised too. But glad."

Her focus is entirely upon her piloting of this brick. "This thing flies like a building, _collapsing_" She punctuates every individual syllable in that last word. "Hang on to something!"

The shuttle finds a berth to land, she glides in and deactivates the engines, then cuts the anti-grav and the shuttle drops! Anyone standing is likely not standing after her maneuver there. "Sorry!" She shouts back to them.

What flies faster than the brick? TIE Fighters! A pair of them are screaming through the air from Ziro Outpost, zeroing in on Corestar Starport and the homing beacon of AAL 7341. The warning sensors in the lander start to beep furiously, tiny winks of light shining with panic out of the controls as a mechanical computer voice intones: "Missiles. Locking. On. Missiles. Locking. On." If it's any consolation, the rough landing knocks the damaged hatch ajar again.

Rolling the lightsaber around in his hand, Syrus offers a half-smile to his Master and nods before he reaches down to clip it onto his belt. "I'm also quite fond of still being alive, Rey," he says with a grin. Reaching out with the keycard, Syrus undoes Thomm's manacles and says, "Run, my friend." A flash of a wink and the man is turning to make his way out of the now-opened hatch.

"You fly like Han!" Leia shouts, having bodily collided against one wall, then the other across the way. Bumping back and forth like a ping pong ball. The exclamation is both a venomous insult and an endearing compliment depending on ones opinion of Han. Any sentimentality is gone in an instant when the onboard computer indicates that there are missiles inbound. Not good.

Not good at all.

Leia charges out of the landing shuttles open hatchway and across the spaceport towards the Falcon waiting with open hatch not far away.

Rey detaches hesrself from the flight controls and moves to catch up with the others. "Come on!" She shouts to Syrus in-turn, and Thomm too really. "I'll take that as a compliment!" She says back to Leia as they leave the stormtrooper transport...

Suddenly though, Rey slides to a halt and stops. Oh god. She moves to the pilot she'd knocked out against the bulkhead. "You too!" Her hand reaches out and she feels the pilot's presence through the Force and starts to... run with him being drug at her side, his armor and clothing making him surprisingly able to slide across the floor.

Out of the shuttle she goes, with the pilot just sliding along at her side, bumping over some cables strewn across the ground. "Everyone run!" She shouts to any civilians nearby too, she can hear the TIE fighter engines on the winds around them. The most wanted woman in the galaxy running away from the shuttle with her face fully exposed and a TIE Pilot dragging along, bumping across the ground beside her!

As the hijackers go ripping across the landing pads, the TIE fighters, with their distinctive engines screaming, come swooping in close to dislodge a pair of missiles from under their cockpits and send low-yield warheads rocketing into the side of the armored troop carrier. The blast rocks the starport, sending chunks of lander flying in all directions and a plume of smoke and fire shoots up towards the sky. Maybe the hijackers are knocked off their feet; several bystanders are. <<Spotted a YT-1300 here at Corestar, please advise.>>

Thrown to the ground, Syrus Volo bounces a couple of times before sliding to a stop. Coughing, the Kiffar pushes himself up and dusts himself off, turning to make sure that everybody's alright before he turns and continues his run (read: limping jog) to the awaiting Falcon.

Leia falls back just enough to help Syrus run, rather than limping jog, up the ramp of the Falcon and motions him towards the lounge where Threepio is waiting with tea as if this is a dinner party and not an intense rescue situation with explosions, "I hope everyone brought their hunger." The protocol droid states with a grin implied in his tone where it cannot be shown on his face.

"Not now, Threepio." Leia says from the hatch, waiting for Rey to hit the ramp controls to button them up.

"... Of course not, your Highness. I will just throw all this food away, I suppose. I was not asked to assist in the escape, I just wished to provide you all with a decent meal. Master Volo looks famished... are you certain I cannot fix you something? It is really no bother at all..." The droid moves over to fuss over the Kiffar.

While the TIEs circle around, the Falcon, already prepped and raring to go under the delicate care of one Chewbacca, lifts off from the starport. <<Identify and monitor, as soon as possible,>> is the response from ground control.

<<They're taking off, going to have to let this one go. Old thing /moves/, sir. ...I think I got a hit on identification.>>

<<And?>>

<<Well. It isn't good.>>

Down on the tarmac, waving a wistful goodbye to the rear blue fan of engine emmittance, is one TH-0033, stormtrooper. "I think they know which way to go."