Log:Learning Hex-perience 4: Killer Instinct
A misunderstanding results in the premature deaths of black market dealers.
OOC Date: April 30, 2016
Location: Amidst Cargo Crates
Participants: Javi Malek (as GM), Stavros, Uli Gosse, Lowkeyyy, Arcadia
Long story short: Stavros and Lowkeyyy interrupt Uli's negotiation by killing everyone when the black marketeers reveal a weapon cache.
The whole story:
It's delivery day with the other team dispatched to attempt to get the actual cybernetics, while this group has assembled with the intent of delaying black market buyers the other Arcadians are busy posing as elsewhere. Now the day is fading into twilight, a heavy mist falling into the area that is a virtual maze of shipping containers. This is false dock for the freighter they were able to finagle the shipping manifest to. Now it's just a matter of waiting, which shouldn't be long, thanks to the whine of engines that seem to be approaching.
Stavros has made his arduous way to the shipping container that surveys the landing zone best. The sniper rifle's tripod is set up, but it is under an urban camo net. So is the Zeltron himself, who has macrobinoculars until the weapon becomes necessary. "Com check. Overwatch ready."
It really doesn't take much for Uli to look like a man of questionable morals waiting around for a merch drop. He's obviously armed, he's wearing well-worn clothes (but oddly, a pair of dress shoes. Can't be helped. Thanks to SOME droid.) "Why do I feel like anyone else but me would be better at this?" says Uli over the comm to Stavros. He keeps a twitchy eye on what exits he can see.
A wookiee well over 7 feet tall, armed with a blade that could cleave a man in half, and a weapon so powerful that most human's cannot even cock it is most definitely not any better to be the face of this, but he glances down at Uli. "I almost died for you, so if you bitch out now I'll make sure you need one of the fake arms before this is over." Low's translator translates with a robotic feminine voice. "Just be cool." He looks around slowly, waiting impatiently.
The steady whine of engines gets closer, winding through the labyrinth of shipping containers to the perfect spot that was scouted that only has two points big enough for the entry of a vehicle. Soon two hover transports bump into the area, one of them pulling a wheeled cart to cary the crates they are supposed to be picking up. There are six of them in total, two that appear to have some sort of authority and the rest are the muscle. Of course they are armed, because while there may be honor amongst thieves, there is little trust. The two vehicles pull so they are in the corridor but still about twenty feet away from Lowkeyyy and Uli.
A Gran, judging by the fact that his goggles have three lenses, steps off the passenger side of the lead vehicle and starts approaching the two with a lazy swing of his arms. "I like your guard dog." He tells Uli.
Stavros eases up to the rifle, sliding his shoulder against it and trading the macrobinocular sights for the rifle's upgraded optics. "You've got this, Face." They're avoiding using actual names, in case someone picks up their communication. "Make sure they've got the money," code for 'Draw the pilots away, if possible'. "And then get the goods." Code for: 'get your ass behind cover so the light-show can happen.' "Hair and I handle the rest. You just keep an eye out for funny business."
He adjusts the rifle slowly to catch who's driving the speeders, then chooses the pilot of the transport that still has a leader on board as his likely first target.
"I'm not 'bitching out,'" mutters Uli in an aside to the wookie. He shrugs, "I'm simply stating there are others of us better able to talk and delay a bunch of thugs." Then he speaks more purposefully into his comm, "Like the guy who emits pheromones that make people like him." HINT HINT.
But then it's time to get in character. He tries his best not to look nervous as the man approaches. "If you call him that again, he might get cranky. And he probably won't take it out on me." When he speaks, he over-emphasizes his Imperial backwater accent. His accent is always there, but dilluted from a childhood on Nar. The only sign that Stav gets that he got the message is a tightening of his jaw muscles. He does his best to look bored, like this is a routine exchange. "You know how this works," he says blandly.
He grunts as Uli says he is not bitching out. The wookiee shrugs, falling silent when the men are too close to warrant him speaking like he had been. Low gives a sharp-toothed grin as he is called a guard dog, but he does not speak, at least for the moment. The wookiee hears what is spoken in his ear, but at the moment he doesn't have much to do or say, they've already spotted Uli as the face of this, and Low as some sort of guard, so he leaves this to Uli to play out for the moment.
"You haven't told me the secret phrase." The Gran gives a toothy grin to Uli, pausing to give the Wookie another eyeing. "I'm just shitting you, man. Alright. Alright, so impatient! So, what, you've got the goods in one of these containers?" He looks over his shoulder at the second transport, giving a little nod of affirmation at something and the other leader and his goons hop off the transport and move around to the back, tossing aside a tarp to pull out the payment.
Stavros moves his aim back and forth. At the movement from the tarp at the back of one of the transports, he activates his comm. "Get to cover! Trap!" The Zeltron's urgent whisper pauses as he scans for which enemy is closest to having a weapon in their hand. "Those 'credits' are weapons."
Settling on the ones back by the tarp, which concealed not a pile of untraceable cash but an _arsenal_, he draws a bead on the one who pulled the tarp aside, pulls the trigger, and even as the rifle vibrates from the blaster bolt, he's shifting aim. Another one is reaching for the weapons. Another vibration, another blaster bolt searing out. Then the last one adjacent to the stockpile has his turn. The weapon fires.
Within two seconds, the situation just went to hell. Two fall back with charred faces and the third's heart just warmed - and exploded. "Three confirmed."
Uli rolls his eyes at the Gran's joke. "Which one of you is the pilot? This merchandise needs to be secured properly and flown in a properly shielded transport. Else it will get damaged and your clients will find themselves smacking themselves in the face. And that's bad for my reputation." He nods to Low. "Show their pilot how to secure the crate." He's counting on the language barrier to slow them down enough for Stavros' plan.
The best laid plans of wookie and man goes to hell when he hears the voice crackling over the con. He snaps his gaze over to the Gran, then reaches for his weapon as he runs for cover. Shit shit shit.
Like some old west gunslinger in a sleezy black and white western, the wookiee quickly draws his bowcaster, taking a step in front of Uli as the man moves to draw and dive for cover. The weapon, regardless of how hard it is to cock is cocked and humming in the blink of an eye, He sights in on the nearest to him, it is a marginal grazing wound, but he doesn't know that, he is reachign and cocking the weapon back again and fires at the second, it glances off of that man's shoulder, he then turns his next attack on the last remaining standing and fires, hitting him square in the head and killing, his shifts again to the one he grazed with a light hit and fires again, missing completely.
Flies. They start dropping like them. The trio arranged at the back that were pulling out weapons flop over like an awkward stack of pancakes, their now lifeless limbs unable to reach for guns that will never be fired. But maybe they were never supposed to. "Wait!" The Gran hisses when it's just him and one of his compatriots left, the latter panicking and shooting at the fleeing Uli but ends up catching Lowkeyyy in his furry arm.
"Wait!" The three-eyed leader throws his hands up in capitulation, nearly falling over himself to back away from Lowkeyyy, his feet squishing in something wet that he's too afraid to look down and identify. "You were told we were doing a trade! It was in the last missive that /you/ agreed to...unless..." Oh shit. These aren't the shippers he was supposed to meet. Sabotage!
Stavros's position is probably given away already, what with three blaster bolts already coming from it, but maybe the camo netting is buying him some time. Maybe the enemy need a few more seconds to get their thumbs out of their asses. Or maybe the Zeltron is unwilling to take the time to move or be cautious: they're shooting at his friends. They shot one of his friends.
His eyes are already narrowed and his breathing is even. The practice, the control - this is what it was for. He sees the gran with its arms up and snaps over to the one who actually shot at his people. He won't be able to get the satisfaction of feeling the man's pain; he'll just have to use his imagination. The first shot is merely a wound to the shoulder. Sure, it hurts like hell, but not for very long, as the second shot hits and instantly cauterizes his throat.
He peeks out at the battlefield, where the surrendering Gran- is full of shit, that sonuva- "Shoot 'em, comm on the hover!"
Uli does not have any battlefield training to rely on. He only even carries a gun because on Nar, it's necessary. He can count on one hand the number of times he's had to draw his weapon, and most of those times have been since he met this particular crew. Still, when the person watching your back says to shoot, you shoot. He fumbles with his blaster, lines up the shot and squeezes the trigger. The beam of energy lances through the air and strikes the Gran in the shoulder. It's not enough to drop him, but it should distract him.
It is like a voice in his head told him to shoot, the wookiee is cocking and firing the bowcaster so fast that the first misses and the last three are killing and rekilling him as he falls, he had 3 eyes, needs to be killed three times. The wookiee lowers his bowcaster and then seems to realize he got a grazing wound to his arm, wincing. He then looks to where Uli had dove for cover and then fired once from. "How're you, kid?"
In such a short span of time, the ground has been littered with six dead bodies, the last of which, the Gran leader left half in and half out of his transport, his hand reaching for the comm when he was dropped. There will be no back up coming. There will be no warning the actually shippers he was supposed to meet. What they are left with is one giant crime scene.
The Zeltron leaves the rifle ready, up against his shoulder, but his head is craning up to look left and right. "Time to bug out. I think an explosion will cover this best. Get clear." Stavros begins disassembling his sniper rifle with practiced motions, breathing in and letting it out.
Once his rifle is stowed and the camo netting pushed off the top of the cargo container to where it's less easily noticed, he fingers the detonator. "What was he talking about? I didn't catch it. Cover your ears in five seconds: five - four - three - two - one." He jams his thumb down on the detonator as he covers his own ears.
"I didn't catch what he was saying, you were screaming in my ear to shoot." Low always made a great soldier and fighter pilot, if he was given orders, he obeyed without thinking. Though as he turns with Uli to move away from the scene as Stav is moving to finger the detonator, the wookiee gives STavros a look as if he were slightly annoyed, perhaps there is a feeling that something should have been done that wasn't, but he can't put his finger on it. He begins running out of the area to get lost and no one to notice he was part of this.
The timing is perfect and on the the tail end of Stavros' countdown the strategically placed charges on the corridor of shipping containers goes off in a cacophony of KA-BOOMs that send metal containers tumbling into the void and burying the evidence that Arcadia was ever here. It's so calculated that the Zeltron would be able to know each concussion that is to occur, but when it comes to the second string...it's quiet. Something malfunctioned.
Stavros seems pleased enough with the performance, but it ends too soon. He glances over his shoulder, but it's too far from there to really see what might've happened. "Something didn't go off." He sighs. "Well we sure can't go looking at it now."
He glances over at Uli, who has studiously said nothing, then to Lowkeyyy. He spies the wookiee's T-16 Skyhopper up ahead. "Let's just... get out of here." Still, he looks over his shoulder again before scrambling aboard.
The skyhopper had been left open and ready to step in, just in case they had to leave on the run, granted they are not running, but they need to leave, luckily it is a super fast speeder. Low hops behind the controls, firing it up and waiting for everyone to find a place in the speeder before he moves to take off like a bat out of hell.
