Log:Resistance: Catacombs of Akiva

Resistance: Catacombs of Akiva

OOC Date: November 23, 2019
Location: Akiva
Participants: Callax Dalso, Merek, Zonk, Tallissan Lintra, Zandra naMuriel, Elrych Cometburn, Lofty, Poe Dameron as Jessika Pava

The Ghost, a CEC VCX-100 heavily modified light freighter engaged its VTOL rotating its thrusters down to maintain a heavy hover. The ramp lowered from beneath the cockpit and Jessika Pava stepped down the ramp wearing the black plated armor of Black Squadron. She hoists an A280 CFE, hooking her arm over the buttstock while keeping the weapon oriented skyward, a casual stance for a veteran soldier. A glance down the ramp, from the side, she sees the ground below.. some 700 feet below. The wind whips, and her black ponytail is caught by it.

Turning back, she motions everyone else. "Follow me!"

The small Captain steps from the edge of the ramp to land inside a large pipe that sticks out from the side of the mesa (the side of the cliff.) It does not require a jump, just a careful step. Once inside, she switches the light on at the end of her weapon and shines it ahead, stepping with the cautious wisdom of a veteran. Jess does not look back, the way is forward, and that's where they're going to go.

Poe Dameron is seated in the cockpit of the Ghost. He has BB-8 with him, but the droid is looking down through the canopy to those who exit. "Yeah.. I'm worried too, pal. Go with Jess and the others. Make sure they get out alright. Make sure they remember the path back out." It appears that Poe is their ticket out. Rather than rush in to fight Terex again, Jessika insisted Poe stay out of the fight so cooler minds could make good decisions. Poe agreed.

BB-8 comes down the ramp and crosses into the pipe. <<"Weapons out, people. Optics or lights on. This is the easiest part of the mission.">> Jess has a certain command to her voice as she turns to look over the rest of the group. A deadpan expression and a focused dark gaze reveal nothing of the internal emotion or concern.

Merek has put on his uniform armor, while he takes a moment to check his pistol, then he nods to Jessika as he makes a way along from the ship with a lift of the weapon.

Captain Lintra toggles the helmet light on, and checks the S5 in its holster before stepping out of the shuttle behind Lofty and Pava. With a brief glance around her checking on the other's readiness she makes the short step from shuttle to tunnel, the shuttle bobbing slightly in an updraft. Once out, she takes the S5 out, safety off and begins the slow vigilant walk towards their target.

Lofty the Talz slaps a new cartridge of explosive bolts into his massive weapon with a CHONK. He pulls back the cocking cord and the orbs on either end of the conducting rod begin to thrum and hum, generating a magnetic field that will propel the quarrels forward at supersonic speeds. He uses his claw to click on the spotlight glow rod to the side of his weapon's barrel. And then he goes forward like a giant woolly wampa.

Zan feels remarkably underdressed for such a mission, and it does indeed come across her mind that she should maybe invest in armour. She pauses, centering herself, and feeling the flow of the Force for a moment, before she pulls out her lightsaber, holding the handle in hand. She steps carefully down the ramp and off the ship, behind Captain Lintra, and glances at those already there. At the recommendation, her lightsaber snaps on with a hiss, even providing a bit of light.

"Scrub a dubby dub... rubby dubby rub..."

The Resistance's Toughest Pilot is in the middle of rubbing some sort of noxious grease all over his shirtless body, while humming a song that only people in the Resistance have ever heard. He's got some sort of pack, worn in a beltlike fashion, located in the general fanny area.

It's into this pack that he replaces the Battle Grease Jar when he's convinced that he's sufficiently greasy for whatever might confront them.

Following the group, and trying to keep up while zipping up his fanny pack, Zonk is immediately disappointed as he squints out into the atmosphere.

"Man... howcum we always gotta come to these dumps? Ain't there anybody left to fight on CANTO BIGHT!? This place is gonna do murder to my skin."

Elrych Cometburn is here, and much like Zandra dressed in his personalized robes. Hig boots instead of shoes and a classic tabard, corellian blood striped breeches, and a thick green cloak with a hood. He reaches inside tue hood and grabs his thin black and gold saber from his belt. He doesn't ignight it yet. Shades are pushed up his nose and adjusted as he reaches out to the force for guidance and concentration.

Following his fellows, Callax is wrapped in his usual purple powered mail. Boots clank on the deck as he steps out, into the tunnel, targeting routines and thermal sensors engaging as he takes up position with the rest. Implacable, faceless. He reaches for no weapon, leaving his hand-cannon riding on its mag-mount on his hip.

Seeing everyone readying their weapons, Jessika nodded. She'd been about to step off when the small orange and white droid bumped her leg. "Bee-Bee!.. Poe sent you? Okay, but stay close. You know my reputation with droids..."

Jessika steps off to lead the group down the pipe, and they walk for awhile. Soon the light from outside is gone, and all that remains is the smell of distilled water, humid air, the sloshing of water as they walk, and an eerie stillness. Jess stops several times as if she's lost, and has to look up at the junctions, mumbling something about 'what did Snap say..'; each time, she decides on a direction to go.

Their path eventually leads them out of the pipes and into actual mine-like catacombs. Piping changes to dirt, and the air becomes a little thinner; cooler even. Jess takes them down a set of stairs, and finally into a MASSIVE cavern from which they enter from the bottom. The structure ahead of them is not so different from the old Massassi of Yavin IV. It is stone, walled, with stairs and large towers. The biggest difference between the two was, Yavin IV's structures were abandoned; this one was not. Artificial light casts beam contrails in every direction as people move about carrying cargo. They are loading up speeders. There's roughly twenty speeders in all. Their cargo? People. Bags over their heads, hands restrained, and seated in a formation that is patrolled by pirates. "LET'S GO! HURRY UP! FIRST SHIPMENT IS DUE IN TWO HOURS! GET THESE REKKING PEOPLE LOADED!"

Jessika detested pirates, and anyone who knew her history with human trafficking and piracy, knew she had once been a victim of such circumstances. Jessika leads the Resistance fighters to a vantage where they can see down into the ruins with stunning clarity. <<"Find cover, and wait for my signal..">> Jess whispers, making a motion with her gloved hand for people to GET DOWN--SHADDUP!

Merek looks about when they are upon the place, then he nods while he makes to find a place to settle in for cover, with a look about. He shifts up with weapon while he looks to the place.

Lofty peeks over the vantage from cover and whispers through his boopsnoot, "The speeders is still OFF." Just in case anyone wants to know about the speeders being started or not. Of course as a former slave, Lofty does not like slavers either, so he's itching to boom-boom them with his bowcaster.

Zan looks around, but she's mostly still blinking at the pipes, building and not seeing anything of use. at least not at this point. she gets down in cover when told to by those in charge, cause well, she's one of the new kids on this block and she knows it. Also, it's good advice. Once there, she peeks out, to see what she can see. "Is that alive?" she asks, eyeing something floating through the water. "Oh, I hope not."

It takes a moment for her eyes to adjust to the change of light and perspective. The voices of the pirates urging each other on echoes in the cavernous space mixing with Pava's order for them to take cover, move and do it quietly. Another full second is needed for Lintra to realize that what the cargo is. She makes no sound but clears her throat in disgust at the realization then crouches looking for a position to fire on their targets.

A wall runs along a set of stairs that she can use to fire from behind. Still crouched she moves to the position and lowers herself down peering over the wall to get her bearings. She sees now that the stone structures are inhabited and lit from within. One in particular seems busy with the movement of people inside. << I may have a bead on headquarters>> she announces over coms.

"Sonuva!"

Zonk's boots are starting to get filled with the water that they're sloshing through, and is already beginning to get cranky.

"Can't believe I joined this crummy outfit! All the time wanderin' around in nasty tunnels fulla crud and FLUUUUID!" He raises his hands above his head, balled up into angry fists as if looking for some offending fluid to punch.

Then suddenly, his hands relax.

And he smiles.

Then he starts to chuckle.

"Heh.... heh..."

The grin gets bigger.

"Heh! Ha ha ha HAR! Bwa ha HAR HAR! That reminds me of Ektor's Mudder! BWAHAHAHAA!"

Looking around, he realizes that Ektor isn't here, and hangs his head sheepishly. Waste of yet another Zonk Zinger.

Sloshing through the water, Zonk gets all sorts of flashbacks to the time that Tallie shot him and he almost got eaten, but just as he's starting to get nostalgic, he trips over something, falling facefirst into the puddle!

"SUNOVA! That's IT! I'M QUITTIN' AND GOIN' BACK TO A LIFE A CRIIIIME! What is this bantha spit?"

As he gets up, he has a series of what appear to be power cable, with a junction that seems to have been taped together. With a loud "RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" he pulls the cables apart!

Elrych Cometburn follows allong, looking to zandra, "Probably." He moves to a crate and waits for the order to strike.

Callax had never been a slave, but he had known the face of the horrible institution since birth. The smiling faces that cooed over him in his cradle, who schooled him, who looked after him into his earliest manhood years - all of them slaves. Raised by them, cared for by them. His has been a life watered in the tears and blood of captive souls. Missions like this allow him to pay back some of that debt, though there is truly no means to do so. He'd spent many years before joining the Resistance helping free people just like this. A scene that never leaves the soul.

More opportunity to settle accounts.

Callax steals across the way, allowing his augmented flesh and the devices in his helmet to guide him without external light - he sees them all clustred there, thermal masses huddled together, overseen by the solo shapes that are their oppressors. One formation has smaller figures amongst it. That's where he will begin. Stealing behind an outcropping of rock and storage boxes, Callax marks his targets, and prepares to strike on Pava's command.

All at once the lights go out, and the last image anyone had (without optics) was the pirates looking up toward the vantage where ZONK and company were. His heroic parting of the cord he found literally cut the power to the compound below, and the lights went out. Neither side could see much WITHOUT OPTICS or TAC LITES!

Confused calls emerge from down below, and blind shots from blasters light up the open space, sparking off rock high above. Children, in one small formation, begin to cry, and the adults cry out in fear.

Captain Pava plants her back to a pillar, reaches up to flip down her snooper goggles, and pauses a moment to let her eyes adjust. There was just enough ambient light inside the cave, for the NVGs to work. She wheels around her cover, lowers her rifle, takes aim and whispers into her mic. <<"Open. Fire.">> This heralds her first shot; a bright red bolt blasting across the open space to miss a pirate diving aside. Jess cusses under her breath and turns, adjusting her aim.

Merek looks forward when the order is given to fire, then he lifts up with his fingers pulling the trigger on the pistol, taking three shots. The blaster bolts clean strike into a pirate and takes them to the floor with skill, while he twirls the weapon also.

Random lights and blaster light trails make vision difficult as the pirates go into chaotic reaction to the lights going off. Low light vision on Lintra's helmet is barely enough for her to sight her first target. Aware of the children she aims for the group farthest from them making the shots difficult, she misses multiple targets. A cry cut off tells her she hit pay dirt. She moves up the stairs to take better aim.

Lofty follows Pava to another pillar and leans against it, using his tactical glowrod to shine on the pirates. He pulls the trigger on his bowcaster and a quarrel is enveloped in plasma, surging forward and exploding into one of the pirates' chests. BOOM. The pirate goes flying back and Lofty raises the bowcaster as he absorbs the massive kickback of the Wookieee weapon. His lower set of eyes have to shut themselves to guard against excessive light.

Zan blinks, not entirely sure what just happened. The lights going off, that was completely unexpected. She takes a breath, centering herself, and then a grin crosses her face. She leans back for a moment, and then she lets that lightsaber fly, green light reflecting off walls, floor, speeders, whatever it passes as her telekinesis controls it, providing an eerie path of light that fades behind it. The Force guides her as she aims the saber where there's a slaver, doing damage as it hits, whirling like a dervish on its own, and then slashing at a second one, before it comes flying back to its owner.

"What the ruttin' cuss!? Who turned all the lights out!? Can't see a GOTTDAMMED THING!"

As the flashes of blaster fire and token lightsaber glows create a trippy lightshow, Zonk starts to space out a bit. Still holding the cables in his hand, he stares out into the combat, watching all the pretty, pretty flashes.

He can see perfectly well in low light conditions, because Houk, but this is perhaps a bit too much for his tastes.

So he plugs the lights back in.

Then he unplugs them again.

Then he plugs them back in.

Then he unplugs them again.

Giggling furiously, he continues to unplug the lights, wait a few seconds, and then Suddenly Plug Them Back In!

Elrych Cometburn stumbles forwards in the dark happening upon a pirate, his lifht saber ignighting and finally finding his way. He cuts that one in half. "Ooohhj sorry bud." There were two others who whitnessed and so he rushes them and carbed them up handedly. He then stands there like an idiot... "Guys... wheres ya go?"

Callax had never been a slave, but he had known the face of the horrible institution since birth. The smiling faces that cooed over him in his cradle, who schooled him, who looked after him into his earliest manhood years - all of them slaves. Raised by them, cared for by them. His has been a life watered in the tears and blood of captive souls. Missions like this allow him to pay back some of that debt, though there is truly no means to do so. The children wear sack hoods; there, at least, was a mercy. No violence of his would stain them further, beyond what they'd already suffered - and this also meant that proper justice may be carried out.

At the word of his commander Callax's hand blurs and draws the blaster from his hip; from his vantage point he fires at his first target, great blasts of brilliant emerald light coring the pirate's torso and shearing off his leg at the knee. The next target takes another shot, this one slightly right of his heart, unusual anatomy keeping him alive for but a few additional moments. No sound over the link, just his breathing, soft and carefully controlled, a background tide that rises and falls as the Jedi draw their plasma swords and begin to shear through those who do not all to gunfire. Then the gun is on his hip again, and he moves to get a better shot at the rest of the children's jailers, even as concentrated carbine fire tears through the crates by which he crouches.

The lights were doing havoc to Jessika's eyes and she cries out in anguish, ripping her gottdamned goggles off to rest around her neck. Blaster fire obliterates her cover, and before she can begin to complain about Zonk, or SHOOT him for rekking this assault up, Jess is forced forward by the sudden concussion of her cover exploding. The small ace pilot falls to the ground and rolls immediately to her back to rise back up.

Special forces training prepared you for all manner of things, but this nightmare? Jessika watched with Zonk induced tachypsychia as a green lightsaber crossed the opening in slow motion, cutting down two pirates with astonishing efficiency. Then the blue lightsaber caught her gaze, and she watched Elrcyh cut down three pirates with mesmerizing ease. They had this fight, she thought.

Jessika rose back up with a grunt. "PUSH.. FORWARD! CLEAR THE STRUCTURES!" For a small woman, Jessika could scream. It came from years of soldiering with the New Republic. Jess starts down the path toward the structures and halts only when a pirate steps out to blast her. "No!" Jess screamed, falling back and raising her rifle. She blasted him center mass full bore, and the enhanced weapon carried his body backward, sliding across the dusty stone floor in slow LIGHTS ON.. LIGHTS OFF motion. Jess put her back to a wall after making it down to the bottom and tried to catch her breath. A wise glance down the line is paid to look at the troops with her.

Merek watches as the cover he's at is blasted up with bolts, the junk tattering to pieces while he begins to take off moving towards more cover. Then he takes a roll while he lifts up his pistol from new cover, taking three shots that strike them clean, taking two to the floor while he strikes another.

Tallie swears to herself that she will kill Zonk at the first opportunity. Every time the lights go off and then come back on destroying her night vision, the image of blowing the purple lizard up and making him into boots and perhaps a nice purse waxes large enough in her imagination to bring a smile to her face. Friendly but not so friendly fire might be a solution. But it will have to wait because all hell breaks loose as the pirates get a bead on their group routing some of them from cover while the lights strobe.

The group moves and though not forced from her position, she moves up with the others. He catches sight of the small figures, their heads hooded, and aims in the opposite direction nearly missing the pirate that seems to drop on her out of nowhere. Reflex takes him out, shot through the torso.

Lofty's cover, a pillar, is chewed through by pirate blaster fire. He is a chonky boy and cover is hard to find, so the Talz surges forward with Jessika Pava while everyone else keeps up the covering fire. He fires as he moves, sending supersonic crossbow bolts into pirates as he approaches the speeders. ZHHHONG. ZHHOOONG. The sound of the quarrels being accelerated echoes off the walls of the cave, mixing with the twang of his bowcaster's bowstring as it fires.

Zan catches her lightsaber, and ducks, just as whatever it is she's hiding behind goes flying everywhich way. she has to duck reflexively to keep herself from getting hit, and then she's on her feet, without cover. "Kriff it," she decides and heads to where she sees the blue lightsaber. She is stopped by one of the pirates in front of her, which has her slash out with her lightsaber. The lights are on, as she swings, off as she hits, and then on again as the pirate is ... just not there. What happened to him? The camera didn't show. Zan continues forward as Captain Pava gives the order, but she too keeps watch of her team, staying with them. A second pirate is there in front of her and as she spins, she follows through to slash him angled, like butter. The young jedi wannabe has been putting in hard time with her lightsaber and it shows.

Deciding to leave the lights off, Zonk reluctantly drops the power cable as he moves forward with the rest of the group. As previously mentioned, he doesn't need any sort of fancy goggles to see in the dark, for the same reason that he doesn't like to wear shirts or listen to advice: He's a Houk.

"Awright, outta the way, Pudzos! Time ta get the fightin' started!"

He begins running forward, propelled in a lumbering fashion by legs that are simultaneously froglike and elephantesque. His arms sprawled out in front of him, it's probably the least efficient way to run ever.

But it's dramatic and scary looking. If you're a pirate.

Ending up in the middle of all the action, Zonk begins pummeling the nearest pirate, punching him right in the face. But he quickly finds himself looking at the barrel of a whole bunch of blasters, and meekly pulls out a pair of Metal Knuckles from his fanny pack, sliding it on his hand.

He kisses the knuckles, as he prepares for obliteration, standing right in the open with nothing but some homemade Battle Grease to protect him.

Elrych Cometburn continues to play sh forward, charging head first in full jedi regalia. It must be a sight to see, like something out of a war long ago when the Jedi were many and plenty in the galaxy. He cuts through three more pirates and their weapons with ease, blaster fire zupping by him harmlessly.

The fire is serious enough that Callax decides to abandon cover - he is, after all, armored better than the other troops, and hiding behind objects suddenly seems supremely distasteful. Forward he charges then, his hand blurring again to draw his weapon once more - and firing at the pirates on the move keeps his servo-assisted aim ripe for challenge.

The first bright lance craters one guard's armor and cooks flesh and muscle beneath, dropping him just fast enough so that the next shot misses his falling corpse. The next converts the remainder's head into a smoking ruin, only a lower jaw and twitching tongue left after the rest is sheared free. Gory deaths, but Callax judges them not nearly enough for the sins that they have committed - but the children are safe for the moment, and so he pushes on.

Jessika was having trouble keeping her nerves in check. With it being near dark again, she has to draw her goggles back on so she can see! With those in place, she pies the corner from which she is covered and looks along this great stretch of battle. Tracking one target nearing Lofty, Jess centers her sight and blasts them center mass before they have a chance of reaching the massive Talz. Unfortunately, the shot she took announced her position, and Jess cowered back behind cover as chunks of dust and rock sparked where she once stood. She fell backward raising an arm to shield her face and cried out as the concussive impacts left her ears ringing.

Meanwhile the battle was heavily favoring the Resistance. The pirates are beginning to retreat without their prizes, moving to the speeders to try to get them online. BB-8 is heard over the comms, and for those who understand the droid speak and can hear him, he says that the pirates make for their speeders to escape.

Merek keeps advancing while his cover is blasted up, with maneuvering towards the next cover, lifting his pistol and taking three more shots, one striking into a wall while two take another few of the pirates to the floor. He nods a bit to Jessika, leaning back on the cover while he begins to check his weapon. It's pretty clear he is skilled in his profession also.

In the chaos of explosions, Lintra catches Pava's fall from the corner of her vision but with two on her can do nothing to get her up off the ground. Lofty's shot spears one practically in half giving her time to run to new cover crates marked rations. Once, in she takes two deep breaths before popping around the corner missing successive shots. An unlucky pirate, she doesn't care, they have children captive, limps by and she downs him with a shot to the head. Ducking back, she reloads before searching for her next target.

It's quite something, half dark as it is, and all thse light flashing every which way. Zan starts forward, finding a pirate ready to shoot at someone. That pirate doesn't have time to react as Zan's moving fast, and she's not stopping to take names. Then she's reaching another set of crates that can act as cover only to find a pirate there. "Mine," she announces, as her lightsaber swooshes through the air. It's not so much that she wants to kill, and there's no happiness in killing. there is a sort of peace in meting judgement to slavers though. The automatic reactions following the training of how to use the lightsaber show as well, and then Zan ducks behind the crates, nudging the body out so she's not sharing with it.

As blaster shots hit the ground around him, Zonk does his best to keep moving. One of the things he learned at Big Chudzo's Gym was to always keep his feet in motion, and his old boxing lessons are once again paying off.

With the metal knuckles on his fingers, he delivers a brutal haymaker punch to one of the pirates, punching him repeatedly in the head.

The first punch knocks the man silly.

The second caves his head in and squirts Head Goop all over Zonk's fist.

"Ewwwww! He popped like a little zoochberry! Humans are disgustin'...."

As the body falls to the ground, Zonk looks around for something else to punch, or something to wipe his fist on.

"Ha! Disgustin'... like... Ektor's Mudder!" Looking around, Zonk's expression is mostly uncertain, as if he's not quite sure that he did the time honored human custom of making jokes about mother's correctly. He... doesn't quite get human humor, but he keeps trying anyway.

Elrych Cometburn maneuvers through some heavy fire yet again, eacaping the scarlet death of the bolts. He happens upon two pirates, cutting ome down. The second evades a swing, the neon blue blade soarking off a crate. The third seing makes up for it though. He stands there and looks around, his blade humming lowly.

Once, raiding a slave warehouse on Usnia, this is how they lost a number of people - the slavers took to ther speeders and drove off, leaving them all in the dark. Precious resources gone, people dead, and the slaves all taken away. A total waste. No, not this time. Not when he has breath in him. Callax marches forward, preparing to slay again, but fortune is not quite with him; one of the remaining pirates, seeing him march across the blasted field in his implacable way, fires twice with a cut-down repeater he'd been using as a support gun against the ferocity of the Resistance offense. Stitching across the field, the sound like high-tension wire whipped into a microphone, the red bolts slash through the chaos, drilling Callax through the thigh and through his lower right side. Though the powered armor he wears saves his life, and the shot through his thigh only staggers him, it's the bolt that cooks half of the lower lobe of his lung that causes him to sit down hard against one of the piled-up boxes.

Now his breathing is ragged as he settles back, firing now not at the pirates but at the speeders that once again they intend to escape upon - this time he intends to do his best to stop them. Breathing in his gurgling way, Callax fires at the engine compartments of several parked speeders, hurling those hellish green lances away as if they were his spite given form. But his vision is a red moire, pain and shock keeping him from getting a proper aim, and even servomotors cannot support his arm when the strength begins to ebb from every limb. << I'll find...you, >> he whispers over the comms as he watches the single speeder take off and away, its cargo one more spot of shame upon his heart's own banner. He sags back, consciousness a treacherous thing, only pain keeping him going.

At least he kept the children safe, this time.

The last throes of this fight ebb on a final few who stand their ground despite their hasty retreat. Jess rises from her place of cover, having left her rifle to hang by its sling while she draws her own personal blaster from her holster. Quick shots end three targets in staggered succession, and she aims for the fourth shot, but the pirate blasts off on a speeder to disappear into the tunnels. Ringing silence reins and smoking bodies are everywhere.

For the first time, the soldiers can hear the soft crying of adults and children alike, as they sit beneath their cowls unknowing of their fate. This day, the Resistance wins and slavers met justice swiftly.

Jessika scowls at the stench of ozone, but she turns upon hearing the hot mic from Callax. "Assess for our wounded, and let's get these people out of here.-- Everyone.. listen up. My name is Captain Jessika Pava.. and we're with the Resistance. Please do not be frightened. If you do as you're told, we will get you to safety and figure out a way to get you home."

BB-8 bumps into Jess again and she kneels down beside the droid. "No, he wasn't here, Bee-Bee. Let Poe know we have a lot of people coming out. He'll need to be ready." Jessika straightened the orange-and-white BB unit's antennae, then rose to look over her troops to see who, if any were wounded, to help them back to the Ghost.

Merek reloads, then a look to Jessika and a nod while he takes a moment to move into cover with a look to Callax, then he's making a way to check up on him, "You'll be alright man," he says, checking up on him also.

Still shaking the Head Goop off of his hand, Zonk puts away the metal knuckles and rejoins the rest of the group. Once again, his brilliant tactic of charging straight at the enemy was a roaring success, and he has the brain meats on his hand to prove it.

As he gets closer to the group, Zonk notices that one of their party is actually in pretty crappy shape, and he squints at the injured Callax Dalso.

"Hey there, buddy. Yer leakin' a bit... didja fergit to wear yer Battle Grease?"

He seems to be squatting as he's talking, actually getting down on one knee as if he were about to propose to Callax. But, just when it looks like things are about to get Super Romantic, he points to his back.

"Come on, liddle buddy. I know what'll cheer you up. Houkback Ride to the ship! I can run real fast."

With a grunt, Callax gets to his feet while he's still able to do so. << You asking...me to dance, darling? >> A ragged cough escapes his helmet, muted by the speakers with its noise. << Well, by all...means. Please. Do lead. >> He'll allow himself to be carried off, armor-plated action figure he's become now, to be whisked away to safety.

Zandra's not hurt, but she does let her saber blade retract, attaching it back at her belt. And then she moves to help with the now freed slaves, allowing her calm to hopefully spread to them, trying to reassure them, and help get them moving along to the ship. Because they all need to go that way, fast. Before that lone escapee comes back with yet more reinforcements. "Come on then, everyone. Let's go this way."

Elrych hefts a sigh now that the pirates were defeated, as if he was holding in a breath. He exstinguishes his blade and blaces the cylinder back on his utility belt. Then, moves to help Zandra with the refugees who may need asisstance.

A Few Minutes Later...

"WHEEEEEE!"

Running at high speed through a dark tunnel with an injured man on his back, Zonk somehow manages to avoid tripping over another set of power cables while also splashing through Every Single Puddle on his trip back to the tunnel's opening.

And making up a catchy new song in between extremely loud breaths.

"Banana BAP BA! Runnin' through the tunnel! Zonk and... uh... This Guy! Gunna EAAAT BEEEEEANS in the shuttle! Bwonna na na!"