Log:Retracing The Steps: Everywhere But Jakku
The only place in the sector without a sign of the Dauntless Courier gets scrutiny when all paths run cold. A ship isn't the only thing found.
OOC Date: February 13, 2022 (Optional)
Location: Jakku
Participants: Zelo Parrai as GM, Vhe Tenara, Sumi Kora, Zevin Daodhri, Nerys Greystorm, Amallia Madine, and Orin
It all started with a bridge on Pamarthe on the verge of catastrophic failure. This led to the final resting place of a previously unknown Sith. Which led to a trail for a missing ship, and the secret lost with it - too valuable to even transmit, trusted to a lone messenger. The trail led to a deep-space monitoring station. Then, an underwater listening station. And then a thousand stops that led to nowhere. It took many months for the mystery to become clear. The only system that never showed up... Jakku.
Zelo Parrai, along with a shipload of some of the brightest and the most powerful, has taken to Jakku, running as much of the surface as he can in hopes of finding some sign. Sweeping grid patterns and scanners working overtime, the Razor Crest ship Projor Haal flies low over the desert world in hopes of finding ghosts 30-years gone to ground. The Nautolan's voice comes over the ship's intercom, speakers rattling a little as the ship shimmies in the air currents.
<<"It's been a few hours and we've swept about... twenty percent of the target area now. Everyone just keep working those scanners... Something has to turn up.">> It has to. There's nowhere left to look, or this secret may stay buried... Or fall into the wrong hands.
Vhe is not one for computer use but rather is leaning over the controls beside Zelo to get a look as they are coming up on a large star destroyer. She tilts her head, straining her eyesight and reaching out to try to aid herself with the Force. She braces herself with a wide stance and one hand upon the bulkhead above her, palm pressed heavily upon the sleek surface. "I...does that appear odd to anyone else?> The way the sand is moving just beyond the star destroyer? It may be something to look into," she remarks sliding her foot against the side of the floor and wall. "This does not look like a place to vacation though it does speak to the immensity of the conflict." Her eyes slip across that graveyard of old ships, filled with sand and toasting in the bright light from Jakku's sun.
The Ysanna's wild hair is restrained, wrapped in a colorful scarf and a loose hanging shawl is draped about her shoulders. The colorful array of three feathers is braided into her hair behind her ear and as her honeyed gaze looks towards the pilot she nods. "Thoughts? Maybe we set down just over there?"
Sumi chicken-pecks the keyboard controlling the bank in front of her. Not one for the most advanced technology, she's showing her age. Tap.. tap...taptaptap. <"What is it we search for, Parrai?"> A dumb question or not, Sumi's already forgotten. Such is the life of someone who is used to delegating to highly capable slicers and engineers while she relegates herself to headbutting and punching things in the face.
<"If it's of any consequence, the makings of a graveyard loom beneath us now. Tombstones from ages past stick up marking a spot of some great battle.. or crash.."> Tombstones? Sumi meant the ship wreckage sticking out of the sand. Basic is not her first language.
Jakku is the worst sort of place to look for anything. It's a desert, yes, but it's a desert chock full of rubble, debris, and wreckage. There's plenty to see that doesn't belong. Which, however, is what they're actually looking for?
The half-Echani is holding onto the back of the pilot's chair to support himself as he stares out the cockpit, helmet clipped to his belt. Its thermal sensors and nightvision are of no benefit through the transparisteel. Zevin leans forward, a bit over the Nautolan's shoulder. "It's jus' the aft a' a Star Destroyer. Bow's either crumpled or in the sand." He doesn't even look at the scanner readouts and interfaces. His eyes are better than his skills with any of that. He narrows his eyes as he stares. "Don't make anything out 'bout the sand, m'self."
Nerys Greystorm and her trusty droid companion...or perhaps it was the other way around, stood/hovered at one of the computer banks which gave them a solid view of the exterior landscape as it flew by. Though they were entirely silent, no doubt their conversation was rapid fire along their personal comms and Bitty, hooked into the computer terminal worked on refining the scanning, and Nerys worked as her spotter, seeing what could be seen of the landscape, coordinating what the computer was reporting and what was visually possible to see. They were one of those of the expedition members who had been there from that first discovery on Pamarthe, and it was clear the pair intended to see it through. "Zelo, coordinates <insert XYZ coordinates here>. A mountainous formation, but scans report it's not geological, but a fragment of a large ship. I can just make out the glinting of metal through the sand and debris cover." Nerys paused, clearly listening, and then she continued, "Bitty is reporting a series of signatures, which appear to be remnants of imperial ships, certainly larger than any droids they might have been using, and a faint transponder signal that matches what we found in the space station." She looked over at the droid, this time, her voice coming across the open comms, "You might have led with that." Bitty, who only needed one of her hands for the work she was doing, made a rude gesture in Nerys' direction with the other. "Best direction so far is that way." Again, insert the right coordinates.
"I hate this armor, Zev. Makes me feel like I'm back in basic. 'OI MOLLIE, GIT A LEG ON. ARE YOU DEAF OR JUST STUPID'," Amallia Madine says, voice dropping a little bit lower as she imitates a Drill Sergeant known as SGT Rocknuts. She'd never asked him about the nickname because she'd honestly never cared to know. The young woman laughs a bit at her own impression, checking over the bracers and the rest of the armor carefully. She's laced up before, but it's been a proverbial minute and a half.
"Ahhh, don't mean to take you on another one of Molliwald's Magical Memories. You know how I get," she adds. Armor situated, Mollie is now going through routine checks of her blaster pistol. Switch set: Kill. Safety: On. PowerCell: Loaded. A soft little sigh sees her tuck that blaster back into her thigh holster and nervously drum her fingertips on the railing she's holding.
A glance is given up towards the cockpit. She wants to be in there rather than out here -- a point she's been certain to emphasize on more than one occasion and to virtually everyone aboard at least once. Probably twice.
"I should be in there steering us around," she says to Zevin. Probably his, like, fourth time hearing that.
Orin seems to be checking his rifle for a moment, before he's assigned to scanner duty.
<"Copy that.">
and he gets to work. He sees what he can find, pushing the buttons and checking the systems. He takes a deep breath, the sound echoing in his helmet, the mechanized voice leaving little by way of sound before he enters a full silence so he can focus.
He answers or talks to no one else, even other Mandalorians. He got those greetings out of the way early. Now? Now he's on mission focus.
Lets hope this secret doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
Zelo's black-pool eyes, obscured by his helmet, are too locked on the vector - making certain they follow the searching pattern to the meter - looks up at the mention of irregularities in the sand. <"I expect if we're looking for a ship, we'll not come up short there, Vhe."> Ship graveyard, it's named, and not wrong. <"We're looking for a Sentinel-class shuttle that went missing about thirty years ago, Alor. Don't know what's on it, but the leavings of the Empire thought it was enough to be their key to rising again... So best to know what it is.">
Coordinates! Zelo listens to the rest of the report, though he's in agreement that Bitty buried the lede. <"Transponder signal sounds like it's worth checking out. We may need hand-scanners, if everyone wants to make ready."> He programs in the coordinates and then looks to Vhe. <"Not that far from where you pointed... Make sure you're all ready for anything. We don't know what we're going to find."> For the moment, he doesn't say anything about the other pilot wanting his seat. He said it already at least once.
The Razor Crest settles down in the middle of a ship graveyard. More than a few wrecks had been brought here in an attempt to consolidate and focus the aftermath of the Battle of Jakku and leave more of the planet's... Deserts, really... For those who still had to live there. More than a few scavengers had been through over the years, tearing out what they could, but there are none in plain sight as the Projor Haal's engines power down to uneasy silence. Facing North made directions easy enough. <<"The signal is coming from the east, but we're going to need to scan to pinpoint it better than that.">> The speakers cut out and the Nautolan is himself making ready as the ramp lowers.
Once they settle into place with the given details from others, Vhe is drawing up the shawl from around her shoulders and wrapping it around the lower half of her face and up around her head to secure it into place. Pressing the cloth in around her neck she creates some protection for herself against the waiting elements. Letting others file out she follows the pilot and ascends the ramp, having to quickly adjust the lay of the fabric as the wind pulls and tugs at the shawl. Narrowing her gaze against the sun, Vhe glances at the others as she reaches out with the Force, attempting to find the unfamiliar ship in the mass grave.
Fingers flex at her side as she takes her first steps out onto the dune. It fails her like the reaching ends of threads that have no final connection. She lets out a breath that filters back to her due to the cloth pressed against her face. But then something, a slight inclination and once flexing fingers lift and point to the East. "Just...maybe it is nothing but perhaps in that direction?" She is not even convinced herself by the sound of it but she is straining to see in the direction she had indicated.
Sumi doesn't respond to the explanation, just nods. As they come in for a landing and disembark, she's among the number who come down the ramp. Heavy bootfalls emphasize the weight of the armor she wore, each step yielding a percussive jingle-jangle of loose casings that bounced in her dump pouch making it sound like she was sporting spurs. When she reaches the sand, her cape is cast back revealing a small arsenal at her disposal.
<"I will take to the sky and relay points of interest. Sand is the worst for my knees."> Setting herself apart from the others, Sumi ignites her jetpack and adopts a brief hover before increasing the propulsion. Her body turns mid-air and she flies off high and above, leaving a small contrail in her wake.
Data begins to stream through the network they share if they're using a HUD. Sumi's voice crackles in over their encrypted comms:
<<"Got some giant lizards sunbathing atop some of these old vessels. They don't look like they give a rekk, though. See some old tracks, not a lot though. I'm not sure scavengers frequent this area as much.. or these old skeletons are absent meat for them to pick. Coming about for another pass..">>
"Settle down, Moll." It's at least the second time Zevin has used that particular phrasing. "Zelo's a fine pilot." Now the ship is landing, anyway. He walks down the gangway, slipping his helmet on and snapping it into place. <"If yer scannin', I'll walk with ye."> He looks left and right. Not having a scanner in his hand leaves both hands free for drawing weapons.
<"How we supposed to tell the right dead ship from all a' the dead ones by visual?"> Other than with a transponder, of course. Maybe he could have set his armor to watch for that, but: <"I gotta get better with electronics,"> he mutters. His gaze follows Vhe and Zelo for a moment, then rises to watch Sumi go airborne. <<"Copy, Alor. Nothin' movin' down here, either.">>
<"Yew pickin' up anythin', Cap'n?"> He follows Mollie wherever her scanner leads her, keeping an eye out for other people or droids, more than for a ship itself.
As soon as the ship was down, Nerys and Bitty stepped away from the console, making their way down to the ramp and off of it. Again, the pair continued to work in tandem, Bitty feeding information from her scanner, which she clutched in one hand, braced by her drawn up knees, and Nerys walking beside her, fully armored and unbothered by the harsh landscape of the moon, as the began to try to narrow down the location of the signal. And because Nerys, despite her sometimes disconcerting lack of self-preservation instinct, had an overabundance of the belief in the motto 'If you stay ready, you don't gotta get ready.', drew a blaster from its holster on the thigh of her armor. As the pair continued further east, Nerys continued to relay the information Bitty was feeding her, the updates coming from the Kora Alor not going unnoticed. "The signal's getting stronger now, still heading eastward. And the debris is resolving itself. Nerys took a knee, a gloved hand reaching out to sweep aside the sand covering a fragment, scanning the databanks that were her greymeats (see what I did there?), "Definitely a shuttle of some kind. Sentinel-class sized, if I'm extrapolating the extent from this debris, looks like it took a nosedive into the surface before it exploded."
Mollie Madine's looking down towards Zelo, who must have passed a hidden willpower check to avoid making a crack at her. Literally or proverbially. But then it is Zevin's turn to draw her ire with the 'settle down, Moll'. Her brow twitches. She huffs out a sigh and throws a shrug of quiet resignation up towards the desert sky. She turns to look towards one of the nearby sensor stations. Unlike Sumi, Mollie seems to at least be familiar with the layout of a QWERTY keyboard. Fingers settle in and taktaktak away.
With the ship settled into place and folks beginning to file out and into the sand, Mollie takes one last sensor sweep of the surrounding area. The pale light of the screen washes over her face in a burst of static, and Mollie's eyes widen just a touch as they settle onto something. A slow, steady swell of light pulsing slowly reflected in the black of her pupil.
"Huh," she says. "Yeah. What d'you make of that?"
It's her turn to lift her shemagh up and over her head. A lovely and ornate scarf -- red with gold accents. Rose red -- a pop of color in her otherwise fairly dull, earth-tone armor. Green and tan meant to blend in with a variety of different terrains.
"Oi, I want to see the lizards," Mollie says. She doesn't take the ramp. Instead, she opts to hop down off the side. Sand lifts into the air, displaced by the weight of her and her armor. She and Zevin move towards where others have begun reconnaissance and the plucky pilot opts to provide an update.
"Picked up a few things on long range, but the signals were too spotty to find a direction. Did pick up somethin' else, though. Short-range, due east," she says, and gestures that way with her fingers. "Something off about it, though. Signal was... pulsing."
Her eyes turn up towards where Sumi is jetpacking above them and her envy is clear on her face. Everybody gets to fly except for Mollie Madine.
"Gotta let me try yours some day, Zev," she says. Hope springing eternal.
Orin comes down the ramp, rifle in hand for some sharpshooting work. His footfalls are on the lighter side, don't dig into the sand as much. <"I will help Alor."> Orin nods to Sumi, and immediately gets to work on assisting her in spotting any hostile dot otherwise anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, the fierce sun is unkind to his helmet's sensors, and he fails to notice anything.
<"Nothing in my sights.">
But it would appear that some lizards are in the distance. So, Orin starts to get moving on foot to keep scouting.
Zelo walks near Vhe, his helmet turning left to right as he scans with the others. Not as good as Bitty's results, but he continues eastward toward the nose-dove wreck that definitely COULD have been a Sentinal, tail and wings sticking almost straight up, like landing posture. <"Do you think it's coming from there?"> He moves up to investigate, gloves brushing away sand as panels are sought. Maybe there's something to it inside. <<"This is surprisingly intact for a crash, Alor... Wouldn't you think they'd have cleaned this one more?">> Hands prying at the panel show why. Scratches show where attempts were made to pry the ramp loose, but the ship's still got some power in its circuits. <"We're going to need to get in here..."> Something has Zelo assuming this is the one.
Keen ears and senses give the group on the ground warning to look over their shoulders as a darker shape rapidly grows to the west. The inbound ship is nearly on a collision course for the Projor Haal, as it pulls up just short and slams into the sand just behind. Now moving at more normal speeds, the ship is a dark grey rather than the typical black and white schemes, with distinct lettering on the wings: EQI-4440. The dropship is much like a lot of the old imperial dropships from the war, but sized up and thicker in every way. Wings are already lifting before its repulsors shut down, and grey-armored troops come pouring out. Their armor is the plastoid of imperial stormtroopers, only a dark grey just like the ship from which they arrived. Many leap out with rifles raised, but some are brandishing crackling batons and a few are lugging large crates, though the last disappear behind the body of the Razor Crest before too long...
Vhe does not necessarily hear anything at first as she looks at those on the ground. But her head turns and she glances aside towards the horizon. She straightens up without a word like she had been summoned to do so and turns in the direction. "Something is coming and fast..." but she is not the only one. The drone of the engines reaches her ears and she makes motions. "TO COVER!" Her voice through the face covering is muffled as she motions for each of them to move. A flare of wide legged pants and tunic with the shawl slightly unraveling is the result of her flight, moving quickly to a part of a broken ship hull, sliding behind it and out of view. With her bright colors she sticks out like a sore thumb and is glad to be out of the way, her hand going to the cylindrical device at her side.
They land. And it becomes evident they want something from their ship.
Her hand raises, the other holding the glowing blade low. Slowly sand slips free of a wing tip that has been broken off and sundered, the piece part of her cover rises into the air and with a sudden rush forward and a cloud of sand it hits hard on one of the troopers, grazing another, sending him toppling slightly to the side.
The element of surprise has been ruined as she rises up, blade held down at an angle as she begins to take steps forward to engage with the group.
In the chaos of the new arrivals, Sumi introduces their foes to the taste of Mandalorian shock combat. The century old soldier descends from the sky wordlessly and hits the sand in a cloud of dust. Those deemed Queluhan fists are introduced to the serrated edge of a z6 stun baton swung about like a mace that crackles enthusiastically with electricity.
Her first foe loses their grip on whatever passes for weaponry, then they're struck across the face with such kinetic force their head turns in one direction and they're jettisoned from the spot which they had planted their feet. Sumi didn't need to see them to know they were dead, she felt it. Laughing hysterically, she engages the next foe, cape rustling as she chases them. <"Come here, hahaha!">
<<"Eyes up,">> Zevin says abruptly, both aloud and over comms. <<"I hear repulsorlifts.">> The distinctive whine cuts into his attention. <<"Behind our ship.">> We all rode on it, Zelo. It's OUR SHIP, comrade!
<"Get to ground by that wreck Zelo's at. I'm gonna-">> The Alor of Clan Kora dives down into the mass of the enemy. <"-do that."> He points his finger before his jetpack flares to life and he rises up in a parabolic arc. Then it disengages, leaving him to fall halfway towards the ground in the midst of the enemy before the flames roar out once more, bringing him down at a melee trooper.
Zevin impacts feet first into the chest of the Fist, with a punch of his Z6 stun baton, sparking to life with electricity sweeping along its surface with the sound of static electricity, into the helmet right behind it. The soldier goes flying backwards into and past his comrades. Then he turns to clear the space between him and Sumi with an overhand strike that smashes another down into the sand.
He twists to keep Sumi at his flank as he swings wide with the mace-baton, hitting nothing, but keeping Sumi somewhat at his back and side.
Ah, that was a bit of good fortune, as Nerys' head tracked away from where they had been searching, as the sound of a ship caught her ears, "Incoming!" That was on a open mic, as she used the bit of ship debris she had been examining, now, as cover, as she took a knee, watching the troopers disgorging from the ship, and the team immediately moving in to take out the targets. As the two mandalorians waded in with batons at the ready, Nerys targeted any which seamed to be trying to evade the onslaught. That screaming whine of her blaster was odd even in the midst of battle, as two went down, and another was left badly hurting.
Bitty, who, oddity of oddities, did not draw her blaster and start giving the bad guys what for, continued working on her coordinates, and Nerys, over comms, relayed, "The signal is coming from the ship you're at, Zelo."
Everyone is talking about that ship that Zelo found, but Mollie's spotted one of those sunbathing lizards. He's running across the sand, mouth open and upright. A few feet tall, he seems to be sprinting -away- from them. "Haha, Zevin! Would you look at that! I've never seen a lizard run upright, what an absolute maniac," she says, clearly amused. "I wonder why he's running?"
Vrwoooooo womwomwomwom. The sound of repulsorlifts whining and winding down. Heavy boots on the ground. She knows the sound of them before she even sees them -- troopers. Her hand immediately drops to her thigh holster and she slides out her Caelli-Merced from within it. -Click-. Safety off.
-Thunk thunk-. She taps twice on Zevin's back as she breaks from him. Vhe's telekinesis hurls a ship part towards the oncoming assault troops, and all Hell starts popping off. Sumi streaks overhead and starts doing what she does best. "Go on, Mandoman. Just be home before dark," she says. She hustles towards nearby cover. In this case, it's a piece of the ship half buried in sand. She presses her back to it and grips that pistol tight. "Never were much of a fighter, were you Mollie?" she says to herself. Time to pretend.
<<"I'll suppress the shooters while you kids play with your sticks.">> Mollie levels that blaster over a flat surface of the rock and squeezes the trigger. A thick, loud, angry-looking blaster bolt screeches through the air and collides center-of-mass at a hapless trooper. He wrenches backwards, twists, and falls. The second hits a trooper in his belly and causes him to fall briefly to his knee. After firing those two shots, Mollie ducks back behind that rock. Hand steady, stomach quaking as she exhales.
Cover is called and into cover Orin goes, finding a thick looking rock to hide behind. He starts cocking his rifle and he angles himself over a rock.
-Click-
Safety off. He quickly exhaled a breath, the trigger pulled back as a blaster bolt flies from the rifles barrel, striking one of the Fists dead immediately, hitting right between the eyes. <"Still plenty left!"> Orin calls out as he reangles himself.
Open season. He quickly checks the other fighters, make sure they're okay. A few bolts are flying around, he tilts his head as one looks like it's coming for him, but it wasn't! He reorients himself. <"Troopers on the move, take cover!">
Blaster bolts are flying, and the warning is enough to give the ambushed the opportunity to respond. Zelo takes this time to finish stabbing gloved fingertips at the ramp control pad on the crashed Sentinel, being rewarded for his diligence with the hiss of long-dormant hydraulics as the ramp begins to come down, stopping in mid-air a few feet from the ground, due to the downward buried nose of the ship. He turns, pulling his E-11 on the sling as he takes a bolt of red plasma to the chest. Were it not for the beskar reinforcement of that durasteel plate, the Nautolan would have more to show than a slight winding and a singe on his polished, gleaming blue beskar. He returns fire to suppress as he makes his way with a jump onto the ramp and back into the ship for cover, visor scanning downrange to see - so far - that none have been injured. <<"Alor, I've got the ship open. Can you all hold things down out there? This ship is not as dead as it should be, and I have... A plan.">>
<"I don't know where they came from, but we have to hold them off,"> the Nautolan calls out through his vocoder for all to hear. <"They can't get this ship!">
The troopers continue to pile out of the dropship, and hissing, sputtering sounds can be heard from the other side of the Razor Crest.
The group she is with is efficient and there is no need to wade in just yet but there is the matter of those who remain unseen. Vhe reaches out her hand again, slowly stalking forward to close the distance towards the ship, the troopers, the engaged and that which she can not see. The Razor Crest creaks as something moves it, only a scant few inches but as the Ysanna continues forward in her determined stride, sand slipping about her boots she grasps the Crest and lifts.
It rises off the ground, lifting straight up to reveal the troopers attempting to piece together the E-webb from the crates. She lets out a breath and moves her hand horizontally, shifting the Razor Crest carefully like some claw machine hanging over its intended target. "I SUGGEST YOU MOVE!" Comes her voice, rich and full as she tries to be audible as the Razor Crest begins to lower right on top of the E-Webb and its assemblers. "MOVE NOW!" She continues those forward steps as she tries to make the weapon a moot point.
Joined by Zevin, the two Mandalorians appear to move with each other in their periphery. Where ever Zevin is, Sumi is not, she's focused in a different direction. With the fists down though, Sumi pauses to watch as a ship lifts of its own accord and moves. Eyeballing the revelation of heavy E-webs being set up, and the inevitable shift of the ship to 'fall on' them, Sumi turns her ire toward the rushing troopers from the South.
<"Engaging the group from the South.. prepare for fireworks."> This is said as Sumi touches the targeting device on the side of her helm, which lowers the erect antennae down over one side of her visor. Sumi spends a second aiming manually, adjusting for some 'Tatooine windage', then tips her head forward to release the heavy rocket.
The munition takes to the air in a loud hiss, though it does not travel fast enough to break the super-sonic barrier before impacting, and immediately exploding. A towering black-shaded explosion stretches toward the sky enveloping the troopers from the south, wholly. The concussive blast follows, sweeping out in all directions and stirring up dust where the wind kicked up. Sumi is left standing there a moment observing the effect while triggering the targeting device to rise back up. <"Targets eliminated.">
As Sumi turns to face south, Zevin rotates north. The ship floating in the air gets only a moment's glance, as it is floating over the enemy. A flipped switch lets the heavy, crackling end of the baton gather momentum as he spins it, bringing it around to land from behind right on the behind of an advancing rifleman trooper. He falls forward, meeting the half-Echani's raised knee before falling to the ground.
He whips the mace back and around, this time knocking a carbine out of a gray stormtrooper's grasp as it hits his right arm, the shock leaving him shivering and his muscles contracting uncontrollably before he, too, hits the sand.
He latches the Z6 back into place and 'stabs' it forward into the knee of another trooper, who is also brought down as much by the electricity as by the joint damage.
He braces himself against the shock wave from the Z-6 rocket landing. To those back in cover, he transmits, <<"Nice cover fire.">>
Nerys, remaining behind cover, evaded the shots that were sent in her direction. As the danger behind the obvious danger was revealed, Nerys nodded, more to herself than anyone, even Bitty, as she focused her attention, not on the troopers still pouring out, but the e-webs being set up. When she fired, she aimed for, but did not manage, to break through the housing on the battery packs, but no worries, there was still time before they were ready to fire. She hoped.
Bitty, leaving her human steed to her fate, hovered off, keeping close to the sands, as she headed for the ship Zelo had just opened up, zipping inside to get to work. First, to find a computer relay. Perhaps in some deference to Nerys being too busy to serve as her translator at the moment, Bitty's voice came on the comms as she hooked herself in. She sounded both up-market corellian, as did her steed, and entirely aggrieved at having to sully her vocorder with Basic. "Ships systems on low power, but fully operational."
"By the Force," Mollie says, peering over her shoulder at the Razorcrest that's... lifted off of the ground. A glance is given towards Vhe, the Jedi who appears to be moving that vessel through her mind alone. Amallia's fought beside Jedi before -- doesn't make it any less terrifying to witness. And speaking of terrifying! Three E-Webs! Vhe Tenara might be suggesting those troopers move, but Mollie's seen what those guns can do to people. She leaves nothing up to chance.
She bites her bottom lip and twists. Her arm rests on that flat rock surface and she tips her head to the side, looking down the holographic sights of her blaster pistol before squeezing the trigger. The barrel flares and hurls two bolts towards the troopers that had been assembling the E-Webs.
-ZZRRRK-
That first bolt tears through the air, leaving the smell of burnt ozone in the air. It rips into the side of one of those trooper's skulls and drops him in a heap. That second shot sings high up and over the head of a second. It's so close, they can smell the ozone too.
- FWEW!*
Missed. Luckiest kriffer in the galaxy. Orin's eyes narrow as he starts to move. He keeps the rifle in his hand as he moves for an elevated position, even if he had to put that jet pack to good use.
<"They're starting to flank us, I'm moving to a better position!"> Orin is even prepared for his hands to be rated E for Everyone if a group comes up on him. Put that Echani training to good use.
Guns are trained on him and he frowns. "Great."
From further within the ship, Zelo looks back to Bitty at the computers. <"All of them? I'm going to check engineering, see what's going on with the power situation. That... Mollie mentioned something about pulsing."> With that, Zelo moves through the bay toward the engineering controls, ducking inside a doorway to the side of the rungs leading up to command and cockpit. A few moments later, anyone near the wreck hears a faint hum...
Outside, the panicked troopers are running from the descending ship and pulling out less-than-E-Web weapons as they make to join their comrades in the general assault. One trooper still hangs on for dear life as the ship lowers toward the trio of turrets, seeming very intent on doing... Something. Still on the far side of the ship as they dangle. The troopers seem to know they're not going to have a great time - a half dozen disappearing in a puff of smoke after a rocket explosion - and many others falling to shots fired. But plasma fires both ways as they press the attack onwards!
<<"Just hold them off, I think... I think this is going to work!">> The Nautolan Mandalorian's voice comes across the comms channel for anyone with a means of monitoring, and he sounds excited from deeper in the ship - sounds like he's running.
The Razor Crest is lowered, right atop those E-Webbs with a loud crunch screech as they become unusable beneath the lower hull of the ship. With the problem successfully dealt with there are smaller problems to engage. The saber shimmers and hisses as the tip touches the sand, scorching and glassing it immediately, smoke rising and caught - torn apart by the very air. The pale blue sweeps the air as she moves in, missing the first two swings as Vhe can not find her balance in the moving ground beneath her.
Finally finding her pacing she turns about and comes in hard with a strike that cleaves through the armor, melting it where she strikes and fells one trooper. She lets out a tense breath as her head lifts and she looks to the others. Fingers flex on the hilt and she exchanges hands and back again, turning the blade about and pointing it forward as a warning - naming her next target should they not back down.
There's a lot of incoming fire, and with Zelo's transmission about holding off the troopers, Sumi responds, <"If you don't hurry up, Parrai, you won't get to shoot anything--oof--!"> Sumi takes a blast to the chest that nearly takes her off her feet. The bolt is redirected away from her armor, sent down to pock up the sand near her feet, and she's lost her breath.
Far from the only one being shot, Sumi stumbles into the incoming fire intended for both Mandalorians. Several of the bolts hit around them, but Sumi thinks she heard another find purchase. If Zevin fell from the blast, he finds Sumi's hand lowered through the haze and fog of war offering to yank him back to his feet. <"Back in the FIGHT, Mando'ade! Hahaha! We FIGHT till we die, and we don't stop!.. and we don't stop!">
Then Sumi smashes a trooper across their chest with her baton, laughing still, <"..and we don't stop!"> If Zevin intended to charge toward the enemy, he is not alone in that endeavor. Sumi is giggling right behind him, her baton crackling with equal parts enthusiasm.
It would been worse without his armor. Zevin tries to focus on that thought as he stumbles backward and lands on his knees after a shot from a blaster rifle burns a crater into the durasteel armor on his chest, supporting his weight on the stun baton, its electricity arcing out uselessly into the sand. With Sumi's arm and pushing down, he rises back to his feet. <"-And we don't stop.">
He is moving a bit slower - the precise blows he was landing before are not as tight, but he still downs three of the advancing troopers in a row with a thrust, backswing, and downward chop that sends enemies, spasming, to the ground. That downward blow tugged on his pectorals a lot, though, and he growls something indistinct through his vocoder. Maybe it was nothing more than a growl at all.
He looks back at the ship that has smushed the E-Webs, then over to the advancing soldiers. <"Somethin's off,"> he mutters.
Nerys frowned, as her eyes focused in on what was being hidden by the ships. She could just make out feet, but she shook her head, aiming, instead, for the oncoming armed troopers she could see who appeared intent on cutting down the team. One went down to two blaster shots, another taking a strong hit to the chest. Nerys could do this all day. Literally. But the rest of the team did not have that much time.
Bitty, continuing to work her way through the computer systems, relayed her information as she worked, "The ship is fully operational, and even now, is of better quality than the razor crest we flew in on. Can we exchange that ship for this one?" Bitty didn't care, it wasn't her ship. She had no feelings of sentimentality. Sorry Zelo.
Mollie Madine turns to look towards that now-open hatch of the ship they're defending. She takes a breath and shoots to her feet, attempting to close the distance between her and that ship and slide inside. As she moves, a blaster bolt hits her in the side.
She cries out in pain when that bolt hits. The force of it is enough to twist her around and cause her to stumble to her feet. It burns -- hot, charged plasma scalds at her ribcage and forces the air from her lungs. More shots ping out overhead, and Mollie knows she needs to move. When she exhales, she pushes herself up onto her feet and stumbles into the ship with Nerys, Zelo, and Orin. When she finds a nice, defensible position, Mollie turns her body up and over and squeezes two more shots into the bulk of where those troopers are scrambling. Her first shot misses, but the second? Well, that injured trooper had slowed down significantly. Unlike Mollie, they weren't able to get into cover in time.
These things happen.
Shot fired, Orin misses his shot and he frowns. "Kriff." he frowns, but he's a little bit faster this time around, dodging the blaster fire coming his way. <"Ugh, could use some healing!"> He calls, and he repositions himself for punishment.
The ground rumbles from the east - at least for those who were closest to the wrecked Sentinel. The whine of repulsors starts quietly and gets louder, sending up gouts of sand twisters as the ship struggles with its silicate prison. <<"Understood, Sumi. I... Thought I might be able to bring a bigger gun.">> But will it free itself from the desert?
Beyond the grey troopers making their valiant stand against the forces of Good... Beyond the Razor Crest, hull singed in the sudden fire of a burst plasma cell... The dropship rises up, slowly turning toward the combat below as broadside turns to nose, turns to face the combat, and twin laser cannons begin to light up. And elsewhere... For those who have some sort of Sense... That's not the most immediate danger.
<<"Almost... Have it...">> Slowly, the Sentinel begins to rise, inch by inch, from the sand, ramp tilting down as the ship grows closer to horizontal.
Even as the objective is found and lifting off, Vhe's attention is for the Razor Crest. Without a word she moves, drawing on the Force to speed her steps along. Sand gives beneath her feet, leaving faint approximations of her steps as its slides back in around the imprint. Her strides are longer, faster than they should be as the Ysanna disappears to the other side of the ship she had lifted only moments before. What she finds causes a reaction all too quickly and she reaches out her hand once more, guiding the Force which had been powering her movements.
The Force wraps around the two troopers at the back and with an aggressive thrust of her hand they are tossed off and down the dune, letting them become a nonproblem.
But she does not reappear, unable to be heard.
Sumi charges up a small dune striking one trooper down with a horizontal swipe of her weapon. The brunt of the attack hits their torso, forcing their body to bend before being jettisoned down the small dune in a heap of broken bones and shattered plasteel.
She twists in place, spinning and hitting another in the face full force. Their head caves in to favor the kinetic hit and they slam into the dirt, cratered there. When Sumi hones in on a third, they run from her swing, causing a WHOOOOOOOOOSH with crackling energy. <"HA! You little drek.. get BACK here!"> She goes chasing after the trooper, baton in hand.
Zevin stares at the dropship that's taken off and seems to be aligning a shot. <<"I got an idea to save our ride. Y'all cover me.">> With fire and smoke he takes to the air, leaving the troopers to Sumi's tender mercies. He veers through the air, leaving a contrail, as he circles the shuttle. Then a small rocket fires up from the JT-12 jetpack. It soars up and forward, towards the left side door troops were streaming out of.
There's no explosion, but the missile passes right out the right side door before impacting the ground, with an impressive explosion. Sand sprays everywhere. No enemies there, but no allies either. Half a win?
Zevin doesn't say anything else, but he leans back and ups his airspeed, retreating past the dropship's guns before he gets caught in their blast.
Nerys was no gunslinger that was certain. She left that job to her husband. But she had not let her time as the other (possibly other other) Mrs. Greystorm go the waste, and so, in that moment, she rose from behind her cover, channeling her inner bounty hunter, as her eyes narrowed, and she raised her pistol, taking aim at the cannons which the dropship was bringing online. She moved with that slow deliberation with which she had often seen used to such good effect, and fired three shots in tight succession, the pistol losing none of its potency as the charged bolds spanned the distance between herself and the mounting, the force of the blasts twisting and melting the housing and leaving the turrets listing and sparking and hopefully useless.
Mollie leans forward, grabbing at her side and wincing in pain. It hurts. Blaster fire doesn't blow open skin like bullets does, but it does -burn-. She grits her teeth and lets out a long, ragged groan of pain. Her pistol drops from her hand and clunks onto the ground as more blaster bolts rip up and over her head, bouncing around inside of the ship's hull. Her eyes squint and peer ahead at the hallway in front of her. Just a quick sprint to the front. She's just got to breathe, stand, and run. Her hand stretches for that pistol and her thumb presses towards her palm. A magnet in her palm snaps that pistol back into her palm where it is tucked back into her thigh holster.
"Shavit idea, Madine," she says, and then pushes off of her feet and starts to sprint. She's quick, scrambling down the corridor and towards where Zelo is beginning to power up the ship.
"Don't mind me," she says, flipping switches and twisting knobs until...
-shunk-
Those turrets come online and swivel around towards the remaining troopers. A little camera above the gun feeds the display to a small screen in front of her. Both fingers pull the trigger.
The sound of heavy turrets chunk hot plasma towards the remaining troopers, scattering ash and sparks and potentially bits of charred skin. Lovely.
These blaster holes in him is really starting to suck. The pain he can manage, but it's making aiming difficult. He fires a shot for the pilot but it wizzes past the head of the pilot. "Kriff." Thankfully nobody is shooting at him, but what he is lacking, everyone else looks like they're just tearing these guys apart. <"Looks like I'm not too much use right now...">
Zelo, now with a gunner in the cockpit, nods briefly as he focuses on the fight in the flight controls. <"Thing hasn't moved in longer than I've been alive, it's bucking like crazy. You may have some tr-"> A laser cannon turret blasts the dropship at 6 o'clock. <"Nevermind. Keep... Doing what you're doing. Systems show their main cannon is offline, but I don't want to find out about their auxiliary."> Black pool eyes within the H-visor stare at the screens showing the view behind, studying the position of everyone visible on the battlefield. And perhaps looking for one not so visible.
Outside, on the far side of the Razor Crest called Projor Haal, a timer counts down.
And between the two ships, dark grey Stormtroopers make a valiant last stand, shooting as fast as their weapons will recharge. Some bolts strike true, but most do not. Still, their demeanors don't suggest defeat...
There are growing problems everywhere and as she stares at her current problem she blinks a few times. Leaning in she gets a better look at the attached device and withdraws her hand which had been hovering. Not a good idea. The countdown continues and she calls out to be heard from the other side of the ship - even if they can. "WE HAVE AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE OVER HERE!!!" She disables the lightsaber, clipping it to her belt with the soft hiss of the blade disappearing.
Vhe kneels before it, giving it another look over and not coming up with any sort of informed decision, her lips pressing into a thin line as her hands remain held back, not daring to touch it. "Kriff everything and everyone....why is everything always so messy and complicated." She is alone in that moment, watching the numbers tick down quickly - at least in her mind they are quick.
Sumi runs right into a gaggle of fighters. One is killed out right, then two others join them in a cloud of fighting, curses, blood, spit, and discontent. Two troopers remain, and the Mando emerges victorious with the odds stacked against her. SHe tests fate again, chasing after the last two. <"Come to meeeee! Haaa!">
Demolitions? Not one of Zevin's specialties, at all. Who would be able to deal with this? Who is technically-minded? He drifts towards the 'crashed' Sentinel shuttle.
At the first peep from Nerys, he tips forward and dives for the ground, doing a somersault to point the jets at the ground and decelerate right next to Nerys's cover. <"Hold on to me."> He puts his hands under her shoulders and blasts back up into the air, soaring up and over the Razor Crest and coming to a soft landing on the far side. <"One tech expert delivery. Won't even make ye sign for it,"> he tells Vhe. Then again he soars up, drawing his hand cannon in case he'll be needed.
Between the turrets that have leaped to life and opened up blasting under Mollie's control, and Sumi chasing them, and and Orin still on overwatch, he may never get a shot, but better safe than sorry. <<"Is that you on those guns, Moll? Nice shot. 'at ship's no wreck at all.">>
"I won't tell Kael if you don't!" That was Nerys pithy assurance to Zevin Daodhri as the Mandalorian scooped her up and flew her over to where she needed to be. She was used to being carried by rocket, of course, so she knew how to hang on like a Kowakian monkey-lizard, though her angle was a bit off, owing to having to monkey on Daodhri's front and not his back. She was normally the jetpack, owing to, you know, the Mr.'s power armor and rocket boots, but this would have too do. As soon as she touched down, she did a quick spin and twist, dashing over to the bomb. When she spoke, her voice was entirely calm and neutral. "Vhe. Run." That was it, before she ignored everything else and began the work of first identifying the layout of the bomb and then tracking the wires she would need to cut to disable it. As she worked, she reached into the pockets of her armor, pulling out her tools from the pockets in which she had squirrelled them, the blaster tucked away before. No good use for that now. "Kriff." The first cut sparked one of the cables, and the thirty seconds the bomb had on it immediately dropped to ten. "Run faster." If anyone could hear, Nerys didn't know, as she dove back in. She certainly was not running. Instead, she was working her way through the bombs cabling, snipping what needed to be snipped. Satellite bomb down, and then, working her little monkey fingers into the guts of the bomb, linking herself inextricably to the explsives as the countdown...counted down. Five...four...three...two...zrrrp. "The bombs' deactivated."
Mollie's turret game proves a little strong, but motion out of the corner of her eyes has drawn her attention. "I hear you, mate. I would much prefer to stay... mmmm," Mollie says, and leans forward a bit in the gun seat. She grasps at her ribcage and pushes a breath out of her lungs while her hands dial up some settings on the turrets in front of her. Those turrets pull back into their housing, rotating forward and snapping into place. She inhales and flicks a few more buttons, disabling that front-facing camera and dialing up a digital display that sparks up in the viewport of the cockpit. "Alive," Mollie says. She pulls the once forward-facing turret mount down between her thighs. Like the joystick of a fighter ship, she can half yaw that ship into a slight tip and line those turrets up. And then, it's just a matter of waiting... waiting.
That dropship starts to drift into her line of view, and she continues to breathe. Nice and slow. Nice and steady. Steeling herself from the pain in her side.
"Almost there... that's right... come to mama Madine," she says, and bites down on her bottom lip.
CHONK. CHONK. CHONK. CHONK.
Four -meaty- bursts of plasma rip into that dropship. Well, three. The fourth zingggs by up and towards the atmosphere before slowly cooling off and turning back into gas to join the ozone.
<"It's heading for the 'crest and it's falling hard."> Mollie says over comms. There's a hint of something frantic in her tone.
<"It's going to crash into you! You need to move! Move move move!">
<"Wait! It's going to-"> It's too late. The scanners are showing the momentum even as those blasts fire. Zelo's seconding the gunner's sentiments as the Dauntless Courier - that missing Sentinel - rips into the dropship and it begins to drop toward the grounded ship. He switches to the comms channel. <<"EVERYONE MOVE, NOW!">>
The Queluhan pilot, blood and grit marring his face, screams through the shattered windshield as the decimated wreck falling gracelessly to the ground seems intent on his target. Projor Haal - Next Breath, in Mando'a - faces its last.
Run?! Vhe looks to Nerys, "I am not leaving you..." even as she takes a few steps back the Initiate remains, but it gives her a better view upwards and at the dropship. It is only when the device is cleared that she lets out her breath. "Good job," she says to Nerys and Zevin gets a look after. "It is a good thing you did not charge anything because I am alive to pay it and I am not rich." She grins, feeling a measure of the adrenaline leave her form - until....the sound of the dropship changing course and not by choice.
"Both of you hang on, be ready to tuck and roll." Her hands reach out and she snags both of the unsuspecting figures up. "Like last time, Nerys." She begins to throw them but keeps them low to the sand and as they find the dune's descent she releases them, allowing them to roll further out of harm's way.
Only then does she turn and rush after them, leaping forward to try to reach the ridge.
Zevin goes flying through the air, and not under his own power. This would be thrilling if the circumstances were better.
Really, it's thrilling anyway.
He tucks his knees and rolls over a few times, jostled about by his jetpack and other weapons making him less roll-able than is ideal. He lands on his belly, but he's still got his revolver in his hands. He braces his elbows against the ground, lifts the pistol, narrows one eye, exhales, and squeezes the trigger.
The POW that fills the air with that single shot is enough to make most people regret they have ears or didn't dampen their audio. Fortunately, Sumi already has tinnitus. The rest of you may not be so safe.
The slug rips through the trooper's shoulder. Unlike in the holos, that's really bad, and the right upper side of his body is blown out his back. He's down.
Nerys had only just gotten her fingers out from the innards of the bomb, when the call came that she was facing impending death and doom //anyway//. Really Force? That was how you were going to do her? And then, Vhe to the rescue, and Nerys was lifted off of her feet, and she was flying. No rocket boots, no jetpack, just jedi-power, bb. "This is the best day of my life!" Well, come on. Nerys faced death and dismemberment almost every day. But she was //flying// you guys! And then, jedi-space wings were gone, and Nerys twisted, like a diver heading into the water, adjusting just right to land on her feet a safe (she hoped) distance away from the explosion.
The forward-facing turrets hurl an extra chunk or two more of plasma through empty air, but that dropship has drifted out of Mollie's firing line. <"Zevin, if you die out there, I'll kill you myself!"> she shouts into comms. She pushes herself out from her seat with another wince, hand on the console in front of her. This does push her hip and side up into Zelo's business, but she doesn't exactly seem like a shy creature. Her eyes are wide, scanning what little she can see of that dropship that slowly... drops... onto the razor crest. Zevin goes flying. Nerys goes flying. Vhe comes a-running, and Mollie bangs her hands several times against that viewport. Thud thud thud. There's no way they hear her, but they can hear her over comms. No doubt.
<"Run karking faster! Run run run run run!"> she yells as she watches the dropship slowly careen towards the ship that carried them here.
- PWANG!*
A well-timed shot hits the Trooper in the face, right between the eyes. "Still have it..."> Orin grins under that helmet and he cocks his rifle and starts looking for anyone else. <"Troopers down!"> Orin calls as he checks one of the bodies to make sure.
Then he looks at the ship and he activates the jetpack and starts flying.
The dropship EQI-4440 falls onward, forward momentum and flaming wreckage dropping it toward the stationary Razor Crest. Wired with inert explosives, the plastic blocks won't detonate, but that doesn't change the screaming, crunching metal sound as two ships try to occupy the same point in space. Physics, of course, has a problem with that and the already-burning dropship spreads its damage to the Razorcrest in the smashing impact. It's unfortunate, then, that the fuel tank of the Projor Haal is ruptured, and immediately ignites. The two ships go down together - or, up, as the explosion flies. Debris and bits of wreck rain down all around to add to the litter of grey-plastoid-covered bodies and bits of old ships.
The blast from the explosion is a concussive one, knocking back - and likely over - anyone who isn't far enough away and with enough material between them and the blastwave. Small sheets of glass form where the Razor Crest had parked, instantly baked with the heat of the ignited fuel.
Zelo, despite being a well-adjusted pilot with a few smarts in his head, flies in that direction, even as the blast wave tries to send the Sentinel into an Aileron roll. Narrowly keeping the ship upright, he's speeding to where the three had been sent along the dune, looking for visual confirmation. <<"Is everyone alright down there?!">> After the explosion, they likely all have tinnitus - at least in the moment - and the chaos of the firefight is replaced by the quiet crackling of flames, wind blowing over the Jakku sands, and the hum of the Dauntless Courier's engines as it comes in low to land safely away from the flames. Their prize secured. But what had it all been for?
With the others ahead of her, Vhe is hoping the Force will shield her to some degree from what is to come but the moment the explosion rips outward and the blast catches her in the back it throws her over the other side of the dun. She lands roughly but folds into a roll as best she can to keep from breaking anything. ten feet or so down she manages to slow and come to a stop, her ears ringing, her vision spinning and she rolls over to catch her breath, shawl lost somewhere up the dune behind her. Wincing to a degree she grunts and starts to roll over, pushing herself to lean on her hand, sand pouring out of her hair, silk wrap and more.
She tries to call out but her own voice is hard to make out with her own ears. "EVERYONE OKAY?!" She sounds like she's yelling to someone a mile away. Her palm comes up to press against her ear as if to test it and then she is sitting there, leaning against her knees with heels in the sand. She wipes the granulated ground from her face only serving to smear more of it around with little relief.
Sumi, on the ground, is consumed by the dustbowl and explosion. Whatever sight had been had prior to the collision of ship to ground (which was her chasing someone until they were handedly shot) is lost shortly after when she turns and sees a wall of dust, debris, shrapnel, and chaos.
<"..oof!">
It's not clear if she's survived or not. Not until the dust begins to settle and some of the debris lets loose, crumbling into the sand. The Mando tumbles from the wreckage, landing on a bad leg and falling over. Rather than crawl though, she rolls to her back and just lays there for some time. She can't hear anything but ringing, and all she can see is the sky, smoke, and dust. That's enough to know she survived.. at least.
Zevin climbs to his feet as the ships started to bump into each other. He starts running as fast as he can, holding an arm up in front of his face, /towards/ the explosion. Mollie is going to be so mad at him. It's a silly thought to have as one of your potentially last. He's running to where Sumi is definitely not getting clear. The blast wave comes by, sand and debris flying past, and when it's clear, he's holding up a bar of durasteel that's really trying to land on him. Was it going to hit Sumi? Probably not, she was shielded by the other rubble. Did he think it was going to? Yes.
With a growl, he pushes it slightly to one side, then rolls out of the way. <<"'m okay, Moll.">> He's shouting into the comm. When the Alor of Clan Kora breaches the rubble, he lets out a breath. <<"Sumi is too, I think.">> He's still shouting. He can barely hear himself.
He leans over on his knees for a moment, before clasping Sumi's hand. When she's ready to try to stand up, he's going to help.
Once the dust had settled, the expression it left behind on Nerys' face was a frown. A deep one. Yes, they had been shot at, yes, they had almost been exploded, but this made no sense. "Zelo, this makes no sense." This can't be what they'd spent the last few months searching for. All that hiding, all the spycraft, the explosives that tried to take them out more than once...just to obscure a ship. "To kriff with that." Nerys was going to get down to the bottom of this one way or the ******ed other. As soon as she could walk again, she made her way towards the Sentinel, now their only way out of here. She began to cross the sands, to make her way towards the ship. The ship, which, with Bitty inside, received only a single remark from the spy droid. 'I never liked that razorcrest anyway.'
Nerys, though, ignored the spy droid, as she began to comb the ship. It was landed, for now, and there was a pilot, for now. She was going to find //something//, or else this was months of her life wasted. perhaps there was some inclinging of the woman's true nature, that she gave no more consideration to the people outside, injured or otherwise, as she began a systematic search of the ship, beginning as all things in a ship begin, with the captain's quarters. After a long bit of silence, Nerys' voice again, "Zelo, I'm going to need you in here."
Mollie's hands remain on that turret stick between her thighs as Zelo pilots this new ship towards where the dropship set itself down atop the razorcrest and turned desert to glass. The explosion is felt even in that cabin, making her teeth chatter together and her stomach flutter beneath her armor. She exhales impatiently, phantom steering that ship with the joystick as if she were the one piloting it. It's just something to do that isn't worry about the people they'd left on the ground.
"C'mon... c'mon c'mon," she says to herself. Zelo's the only one beside her who can hear -- it isn't over comms. She thuds her head against her seat a few times and, when that ship finally begins to settle down, she bursts out of the seat and towards the back of the cabin. She moves fairly quickly, though still grasping at that left side where the blaster had charred her ribcage.
<<"You had better be.">> Mollie says, lifting the lever away from the wall and pulling it down to draw that ramp down. She heads down, sand washing over her boots and shoes as the wind sweeps bits of it, ship, and glass across its metallic surface.
Feet on the ground, she heads towards where Zevin has his hand extended towards Sumi to help her up. Mollie takes one look at Zevin and quirks a brow.
"Ahh... having ourselves a little nap, are we? Well don't wake up on my account. Maybe I'll join you," she says. Beat. Then she turns to look at Zevin.
"'Okay' my ass. You look like absolute shavit," Mollie says, gesturing towards Zevin's torso where he'd been shot through Durasteel. She's one to talk, of course. The way that movement makes her wince and clutch her ribcage.
"And you!" she says, this time down to Sumi while the woman lies on her back.
"You are absolutely insane," she says.
Zelo is up out of his seat nearly as fast as Mollie, passing Nerys on her way into the ship. <"We need to get everyone in and get out of here. I don't trust that that's everyone."> He's on his way out to gather up their people if he has to bring them in one at a time. Of course, he's making a line for those who'd been closest to the explosion. The Mollie person - not bad as a gunner - already seems to have tracked down Zevin and Sumi, and there's not... Too much sign of distress there, so Zelo goes in search of a Jedi while Nerys is combing the interior of the ship.
<<"Everyone get to the ship. Those that need doctors, we can find plenty of them in friendlier systems. I do not believe we want to stay longer than we must.">> The Nautolan jogs up, offering a hand to the Ysanna, just as Nerys' voice comes in over his comms. His head quirks to the side, as he sends on the relay - <<"Be right there.">> - then looks to Vhe. <"It sounds like Nerys found something. We need to get off this planet, and... I have a feeling whatever Setis was after is within our grasp.">
What is on the datachip clutched in the skeletal hand of some long-dead Imperial pilot? How did a Valorum end up flying such a trusted position in the Empire? How did the ship end up where it did? Will the Sentinel actually leave Jakku? Some answers only bring more questions. But this question, at least, has been answered: what happened to the Dauntless Courier. Next time, the next mystery.
