Log:Smugglicious

Smugglicious

Location: Nar Shaddaa and Brentaal IV
Participants: Ari, Oozlevort, Oriana, Ysille Vale, Zaena

Zaena sends messages to Oozle and Oriana's holonet addresses. "We might need a little backup, going to deal a couple of new suppliers. Was hoping the two of you might be interested in a little...off the books job? Should be easy money. And you two would be cut in for full shares."

And then she puts down her datapad, and smiles at Ysille. "All right, Captain Vale," she says. "If they're interested in the gig, then they'll be by pretty soon. I don't want to head down to the Old Duros Sector without some backup," she says. "You know?"

Oriana got the call, and pulled herself away from.. whatever it was that she was doing. She'd come in, but not looking quiet the same as she did last time. She still has the bruises, and the cold, and now she favours the right side of her stomach as she moves. Atop of all that, something I her eyes screams of her soul being stomped on, ran over and kicked to the curb. In a word: cold. But, it's not to anyone, it's fully internal at this point. Meeting with the others, blasters on her in case they are needed, she does manage a small smile to them though, trying to make it as friendly as possible, following it with a nod of her head in greeting.

Oozlevort is still nursing some old wounds from a run-in with Guavian death gangers and their proximity mines. But he has left his cane at home. The Gand meets Zaena and Ysille Vale outside of their YT-2400 vessel. "Greetings. Oozlevort was told there was a job to do yes?"

"Yeah, you never know with those blue skins, lots of trouble, those ones," Ysille winks with a grin. She sips her drink as they wait in the lounge for the muscle, raising her bottle as the two make it up the ramp. "Hey gang!" she greets them. "We've got a hold of some spice that needs some running into places it isn't welcomed," the wroonian seems electrified by the idea of being bad, even though in this galaxy, her idea of bad is rather pedestrian. "Since we're possibly skirting both the law and another gang, we thought some backup might be helpful."

Zaena nods to Ysille. "Not only that, we've got to head down to the Old Duros sector to make the pickup!" she says. "There's a landing pad pretty nearby, but we'll be headed through some pretty gnarly territory," she says. "So, of course, ladies of business such as we are, we need some escort," she says. "Anyway, we'll split whatever we end up profiting on the run four ways, how about it?" she asks.

Oozlevort tends to use his hands, but has brought along a simple blaster pistol and a rifle too. The pistol is holstered on his bandolier and the rifle is slung across his back. He checks the blaster's power pack and settings before re-holstering it. It powers up with a ZEEEEE, and powers down with a ZOOOOOOooo. "Four ways is acceptable to Oozlevort. Bounty hunting has not been very profitable of late."

Oriana is, generaly, more on the good side of things but will help out where she can. Lips quirk up a bit, eyes flicker to Zaena, then Ysi and then Ooz. They each get a nod, but she seems more to the point, and direct, not nearly as relaxed as she was last time they were all together. "I'm fine with that, I'd rather you two, or nobody, got hurt." Which is her main reason for being here.

Ysille grins, "Excellent, let's get going then. It should be an easy enough flight to the Duros sector," she says. "Do you want some spice for your sinuses, Oriana?" she wonders, while not legally classified as medicine, Ysille finds it good for perking up.

You test your Knowledge:organized crime skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (14).

Oozlevort tests his Gather Information skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (29).

"Nobody wants anyone to get hurt," says Zaena with a chipper grin. "Besides, it's not like we're running deathsticks, after all," she says to both Oriana and Oozlevort. "Just good old fashioned spice, like grandmother used to hit," she says.

"Anyway. The meeting that I /think/ we're setting up is supposedly with one of the suppliers my uncle worked with before. I know him pretty well, actually, and I've checked out a bit. His name's Zex Onzebeech and he's been running a little outfit from the ODS for a few decades," she says.

Ysille finds that an easy trip over to the Old Duros Sector landing pad, and Zaena grins as she loads up. "All right," she says. "I'll leave the droids on board to make sure the ship's protected. We've got a few blocks to go on foot, but they're rather nasty ones," she says. "Let's hope by looking not worth it, we can avoid a fight. Everyone ready to go?"

Oozlevort scrambles to the cockpit of the YT-2400 and the four-foot-tall Gand straps himself into a proper seat - he doesn't want any more shenanigans like last time. "We are ready. Let us go!"

Ysille nods her head, coming out of the cockpit with her blaster fastened to her hip in her holster. "Yup yup, this should be a breeze," she says optimistically. "A few units of spice, and we have a week on Zeltros paid for!" she chuckles and leads the way down the entry ramp to look over the landing area, checking out the cityscape for a moment before leading the way towards the road.

Ysi Oriana looks, bites her lip, considers it then shakes her head. "I -- I better not." Knowing her personality, and her state, anything that could be used for relief may become more so she gives a kind decline. Then she looks to Zaena and nods. "I'd rather not get anymore hit up but, to be honest. But you never know, better safe than sorry."

Oozlevort unclasps his seatbelt and scrambles after Ysille. The Gand is short and not very intimidating for an alien bounty hunter; rather he just follows Ysille, acting like a bodyguard with an obvious pistol strapped across his chest.

"So, Oozlevort, are there many Gand planets?" Ysille wonders as they walk along the tarmac. "I suppose there very well may be now that I think about it, there are thousands of worlds where I can breathe just fine, why wouldn't there be thousands of worlds where Gand can hang out without masks?"

You test your Knowledge:alien species skill at a 100 difficulty.

 -Failed- (-31).

"I'm pretty sure that the Gand hail from the Gandia system," says Zaena, with great authority.

"Anyway," she says, checking her weapon. "All right. Let's look not worth attacking...and get going.

Perhaps predictably, after heading a couple of blocks through the dizzyingly tall buildings, boots clanking on the metallic decking of the Old Duros sector, there's a few derelicts that look a little bulkier than the rest of the homeless alien and human refugees that serve their Duros overlords. Of course, a Weequay, a Duros, and a Gamorrean, all of them warily focusing on you. "Hold it right there," he says.

"This here is Green Stryper territory," he says. "And you better pay the tax if you want to pass through her. Do that, though, and you'll have an escort," he says, with a snarl.

Ysille Vale tests her Bluff skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (14).

Oriana follows along, quietly, she moves with stiff motions but does her best to not look threatening - which isn't hard, sick and bruised it looks like she can't take down a fly right now. As they walk she looks around, making sure to take it all in, and then looks to the grunt who is talking and lifts a brow, but stays put, for now.

"Ah, the Green Strypers," Ysille nods her head as if that name means anything. "We already paid your pals down the block for this week's protection," she says. "If they're holding out on you, then I guess you'd better take it up with them, otherwise, the Strypers are going to get a bad name.."

Oozlevort walks along. "Gand come from Gand. Some Gand have lungs, others do not... but Gand lungs are different from other humanoids." He shuts up once they approach a bunch of alien toughs. His compound eyes look the street gangers up and down, then he folds his arms across his chest, attempting to look tough and assist in Ysille's bluff.

The Weequay sporting the nasty looking N'Gant-Zarvel carbine narrows his eyes. "Yeah?" he asks. "Well," he says. "I'm not sure about that," he grunts, back at Ysille, while Zaena keeps her trap shut for once. "Who did you pay off exactly?" he asks. "Show me the chit."

Zaena gives a grin. "Oh come on," she says. "You know as well as me that Rexo doesn't hand out chits," she says. "If you don't want to believe me, take it up with Rexo," she says, trying to brazen it past as well.

You test your Bluff skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (57).

The Weequay seems to reconsider his position, being told with absolute confidence of the passage already paid by Rexo. "Look, this set looks like more trouble than they're worth," he rumbles to the others. "And Rexo already was pissed at us after last week's mistake." He gives a grin and then lowers his weapon as he backs up from the crew.

"You can go about your business," he says, apparently letting up on this particular shakedown opportunity.

Ysille nods her head, "yeah, take it up with Rexo if you have problems," she says confidently before heading off with the rest of the gang to the meetup. "What kind of a ganger issues a receipt for a shakedown?" she wonders, scratching her head once the Strypers are out of earshot."

Zaena grins at Ysille. "None do," she says. "I think it must have been an attempt at a trick question," says Zaena. "If we started making a show of looking for a receipt, he'd know we were lying right off. I've used similar traps myself, in the courtroom, at least," she says.

The meet up with Zex Onzebeech is a warm one. "You look just like your mother, you know," he says, to a flushing Zaena, and then turns to Ysille, Oriana, and Oozlevort. "So," he says. "You going to make sure my shipment makes it all the way to the Core safely?" he asks. "Zaena mentioned you all have a fast ship. But do you all have the guts to run the Gauntlet?" he asks. "I don't want to run the risk of Republic entanglement. So that means that you have to travel through the pirate-infested lanes of the Gauntlet if you want to do a microjump from just outside nav scanner range, to evade the Republic patrols," he says.

"We have the fastest ship in the sector," Ysille brags about the Bad Habit. As far as she can tell, it's stock, but it's still pretty quick. "Your cargo is safe with us," she says with confidence. "Even if those scuzzy pirates do catch up while we're having lunch, we have the two deadliest fighters in the Outter Rims here," she says, gesturing to Oozlevort and Oriana. "Not to mention, I'm pretty handy with my blaster as well. We're not all slaves to the court like Zaena is," she grins to the twi'lek, who's likely a better shot than she is.

Oozlevort's own ship is still disabled, so he does not offer to run any cargo. When he is mentioned as one of the deadliest fighters in the Outer Rim, the Gand remains silent, letting Ysille do the talking.

Zaena smiles as the hunter and the tough lady remain taciturn. "As you can see, they know how to be stone," she says, with a flourish, wrinkling her nose. "I am not a slave the the courts! I..."

Zex chuckles a bit. "In any case. It seems like you're equipped, and you've got a good set of crew for the challenges ahead," he says. "My men will head back to your ship with the repulsor platform with the spice," he says. "If you come into the shadow of the planet from the Gauntlet, opposite the nav buoy in its system, you can perhaps evade patrols."

Zaena gives a grin to Ysille. "Well," she says. "So you'll have to get us through the pilots, and then fly casual once we arrive," she says. "If we get stopped, it'll likely come to a fight aboard ship. I think it makes the most sense, given our stock armament, to play surrender and to surprise any pursuers in the boarding action. That means I'll be pretending to panic and surrender. Or not pretending, as the case may be," she says. "Sound good?" she asks the other three, as the much larger party starts to return to the ship to load up the spice. With Zex's men along with the party, there is no trouble given by the Green Strypes.

"We can out-run the ships in the gauntlet, I'm more worried about any gangers we see once we hit land-side," Ysille says as they get things all packed away on the Bad Habit. "With a load of spice we can't simply lose them in the maze of alleyways that they likely know better than we do."

Oozlevort continues his silence as they make their way back to the ship with their very illegal load. Once they are aboard he says to Zaena, "Yes, pirates will want to board, and their greed will be their undoing."

This Zex person would get a glance, a small friendly smile, and then she'd regard the rest curiously. Clearly, Oriana is tired but she pressed on by turning to follow them, in her wake a light cough or sneeze. The mention of pirates boarding gets a look, a hand moves a little in the direction of the blaster, as she is being protective of them all, in her own way, even knowing if it is just talk.

"Well," says Zaena. "That's probably true," she says. "I don't even know where we'll be meeting up properly," she says. "If Ari can slice the targeting systems of opposing craft, yeah, we might not even get boarded, even passing through the Gauntlet," she says. "But you're right. We won't be through the woods yet, even when we land. We're landing in pretty much the worse part of Brentaal - The Lair of Shadows." She grins. "That's not actually its name I made that up."

Tramping up onto the ship, Zaena gives a smile to Ari, who's in there. "Hey there, Ari," she says. "Well, we've picked up a load of spice - not a big one, but spice is spice. The customer? One of my uncle's old friends back on Brentaal," she explains.

Once everything is loaded and secured, Ysille heads up to the cockpit and takes the ship up into orbit with a roaring engine, the Green Strypers nothing but a pleasant memory. "Okay, this should only take a couple of days to get to Coruscant," she says once the jump is plotted and the ship jumps to hyperspace. "Oh, we have a sensor jamming kit on the Bad Habit?" Ysille whistles her mood brightening even more. "this is going to be a cake walk!"

Oozlevort scrambles back into the cockpit and clicks on his seat belt. "Coruscant was once the jewel of the Republic. But since the capital of the Republic has moved, Oozlevort hears it is a poodu heap."

Ari is sitting lazily in the third seat of the Bad Habit, having performed her usual task of performing nondescript slicing duties. Either that, or she's just playing hologames while everyone else is out there risking their lives. It's hard to say. She's really useful when she's useful, but when she's not . . . well, lets just say she's already forming an imprint on that seat of hers. The exciting life of a slicer.

"I'm glad to see your family is about as upstanding as any other reputable name in the core," she quips with a jocular smirk, barely-disguised disdain when she settles on that final word. She was born on Ryloth; not a lot of the Republic's "law and order" has ever helped her. "Isn't Brentaal pretty close to the core, though? How do you plan on getting us through cleanly with a hot shipment?"

"We have the calculations for a smuggler's route," Ysille says as she settles into the pilot's seat. "That will get us past the patrols, but some of the way points are in systems with some piracy issues," she explains. "If we're boarded, I'd like to see if we can get a data dump from one of the pirate's computers, see if we can get their patrol schedules so we can use this route with more safety."

"Well, Coco Town isn't great, but was it ever?" asks Zaena to Oozlevort, and chuckles a bit. She gives a grin to Ysille. "No! Not Coruscant!" She laughs. "My uncle's on Brentaal," she says. "The Gauntlet's surprisingly close, it weave in and out of an asteroid belt on the Mid Rim," she explains.

She then gives a smile to Oriana and a hand up, and then looks back to Ari with a grin.

"We're going to be heading through a..." She grins. "What she said," Zaena replies, pointing to Ysille." She nods to Ysille. "A solid plan. In fact, that makes it almost worth...letting ourselves get boarded, if the situation seems right for it," she says, getting all scheming-faced!

Oriana may be quiet, but she is paying attention. With the mention of family, she smirks some looks down and scratches the tip of her nose, it's more to herself then anything, as if she is thinkig of her family. With a breath she looks back up, eyes moving over them all, returning the smile to Zaena, and hooks her thumbs into her back pockets.

"I had a friend named Brentall," Ysille sings to herself as they leave orbit and soar towards the jump point, "He had big teeth so we called him Dentallll, when he had big ideas we'd say he was mentalll, yeahhh," she says, flipping the switch to launch the Bad Habit on the first leg of hyperspace. "Okay. Muscle. Plans for dealing with boarding actions?"

Ari swivels her chair to face away from the cockpit, idly musing as her gaze drifts down the corridor behind it. "I think you're making a lot of assumptions about how a boarding action would turn out for us," she says. Her voice hardens a bit. "You can handle yourself decently in a fight, Miss Zaena, but a negotiation gone wrong is very different than what some of the scumbags out there do as a common practice. A lot of them use illegal weapons you don't want to get hit by, and many more are perfectly content to blow up a ship out of spite, once they realize they can't capture it." She lets out a long breath. "I'm not saying it will necessarily go that way, but I think you need to plan on running first and only repelling a boarding party if you have no other options."

Oozlevort says confidently as they zoom through space, "Oozlevort will hide in the cargo bay near the airlock. When they come in, Oozlevort will ambush them.

Zaena nods, suitably chastened. "Yes, you're right," she says. "If anything, you can probably see about slicing into their systems remotely, using the ships's computers," she says. "I've heard of a few freighter captains doing that. If anything, it won't hurt," she says. "But you're right. Ideally there'll be no boarding action. Ysille - we'll get that data if it comes to that."

Before heading into the Gauntlet, however, Ysille must calculate a nearby jump into hyperspace and then fly the Bad Habit through the iceball field surrounding the planet Sirrenda.

Ysille Vale tests her Astrogate skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (48).

Ysille Vale tests her Pilot skill at a 100 difficulty.

 -Failed- (-3).

The ship drops out of hyperspace almost exactly where Ysille intended, but there's an ice field at the drop point. "oh crap, this guy's charts are out of date," she complains as the Bad Habit is tossed back and forth by the debris of the ice belt. She does her best to get the ship's velocity under control, but the shields take a beating and go down, "Crap, Ari, can you get us shields back?" she asks, doing her best to dodge the random particles criss crossing their path.

Ari tests her Repair skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (28).

Ari finally swivels back to face her station, starting to work the console, her face all business once more. She leans forward, popping open a switch cover, and flicking the switch up a moment later. The holodisplay in front of her goes dark. "I'm going to run the sensors in passive mode for now. It should make us less obvious, but on the flipside, if we do get spotted, we might not know until it's a little too late to evade. So try not to run us into any pirates, eh Ysille?" That last bit is a little more joking.

It's about now that Lexa finally makes herself known, the black R3 quietly rolling up just behind Ari's station. Without saying much, she extends a data connecter and plugs herself in. Ari looks toward her quizzically. "What are you doing?" The R3 wobbles left and right on its two main wheels, happily beeping something. "Wait! This ship isn't your personal . . . " Lexa does not listen, which is normal: she rarely does. A moment later, a poppy dance tune starts to play in the cockpit. It's Sera Starlight, a manufactured twi'lek starlet who blew up the charts about thirty years ago.

It's about then that the ship drops out of hyperspace, almost immediately finding itself rocked by debris, the turbulence going strangely well with the thumping beat of the music. Ari is thrown a bit in her chair, but she's prepared this time. She bought padding for the restraints after that last job. "Hold on! Just a second . . . " She redistributes power, the shields coming back online. Lexa, meanwhile, is still wobbling back and forth to the music. Maybe she needs a memory wipe more badly than anyone knows.

Alarms sound around the vessel as the heavy smash of the ice ball shudders it in space, the YT-2400s shields down and a disturbing temporary patter patter of ice chunks, not big enough to cause any true damage...yet...spatter upon the hull.

A few moments later, the alarms cease as Ari redirects power away from the damaged system, and reactivates the shields on one of the redundant circuits. The Bad Habit speeds forth, through a bare spot created in the iceball field by the gravitational influence of two high mass low luminosity neutron stars. The glow outside is a cool, chilly blue.

Ysille Vale tests her Computer Use skill at a 100 difficulty.

 -Failed- (-8).

"Sera Starlight? Really?" Ysille asks over her shoulder, giving the sensor screens a cursory glance before she gets back to dodging rocks. "Good work on those shields!" she says as she sees the display turning from an angry red to a happy blue to indicate deflectors are back up again. The ride is still bumpy, but the impacts don't sound quite as dangerous as before.

Ari tests her Computer Use skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (19).

Zaena, for her part, holds on as best as she can, grabbing the back of the copilot's chair Ari's in for support. "We should put handholds in the ceiling!" she says. "Do either of you see anything on sensors?" she asks.

Ysille Vale tests her Pilot skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (53).

"All I see is snow," Ysille says, her attention mostly focused upon escaping the ice belt in tact. They're almost there, but there are a few big rocks up ahead. "We're going to need a new paint job after this," she says gravely.

Ari suddenly sits up straighter. "I'm seeing something." She suddenly mutters a curse under her breath. "Ysille, see that ice ball off the starboard bow? Something's hiding behind it. Can't get a clear read through the ice, but I think it's a bulk freighter. It . . . " Two more sharp beeps from her console interrupt her. "Wait, I've got two more. It's dumping fighters. Give me a second . . . R-41 Starchasers. How fast do you think you can get us out of here, Ysille?"

Oozlevort continues to bounce around in his seat. His weathered three-fingered hands grip the arm posts of his seat, enduring Ysille's wild ride. "A bulk freighter? Is it a Republic patrol?"

"I doubt it, a patrol would have assumed we were in distress when our shields went down," Ysille decides and pulls up, gunning it to evade the fighters and get clear of the debris so they can jump to hyperspace. A glance to the navicomputer's read out indicates they have to clear the gravity well of the blue stars. "We're still in the gravity field of the stars," she says, pulling the ship around to begin the escape. "This will be close!"

You test your Knowledge:organized crime skill at a 100 difficulty.

 -Failed- (-3).

Zaena frowns a bit. "Ari," she says, looking a little concerned. "Can you get a display on the vessels?" she asks.

She looks ahead to see what Ari has scanned, taking a look at the markings. "I can't recognize what they are," she says, looking a little concerned, perhaps even wide-eyed, at the monitors, the threatening teeth painted upon the fighters' images.

Soon, there's a crackling sound over the comms. "Power down or else the Kanjiklub will taste your BLOOD!" is heard.

"Should we try shooting back with the laser cannons? Or should we just try to get away?" Zaena asks, as the ion-cannon armed vessels start to speed up. Ari was indeed right: any boarding action would likely be the bulk cruiser boarding a Starchaser ion-disabled vessel. However, the bulk cruiser is far slower than the Habit, so it'll have to be the Starchasers - at least for now.

"Kanjiklub?" Ysille curses, biting her lip as she finally clears the debris field, going full throttle towards the jump point. "I don't think we can take a bulk cruiser's worth of kanji," she admits. "Let's hope we have enough of a headstart to get to the jump point before the ions disable us!"

Oozlevort inhales through his breathing mask. "Kanjiklub are the worst! Run from the starchasers, quick!"

"Uh, Kanjiklub, this is Bad Habit. You might want to take that down a notch - we're hauling a proscribed shipment of detcores. Any instability could really be a nightmare. Perhaps you might want to hold off a bit - we'd nova anything that uh...hit you," Zaena attempts to lie, coming up with what she can on her feet!

You test your Bluff skill at a 150 difficulty.

 -Failed- (-11).

Ysille Vale tests her Pilot skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (73).

Ysille Vale tests her Pilot skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (55).

The two starchasers close in stitching red and blue across field of ice behind them. The Bad Habit flips and weaves, dodging quickly and randomly, pulling the pirate interceptors in closer before she hits the breaks and one flies right by, into the floating comet the Habit had blocked from view. There's a brilliant fireball, and ysille guns it again in the opposite direction, putting enough distance between them and the starchaser to get to the jump point. "And we're away!" she says, engaging the hyperdrive.

Ysille Vale tests her Pilot skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (70).

The concussion missile speeds up towards the Bad Habit, but Ysille manages to wrench it in a slow but violent turn, priouetting the Bad Habit up and forcing the concussion missile to miss. And then the shadow of a big iceball passes between the Starchaser and Ysille, giving her a chance to make the quick jump away to the dark side away from the nav buoy at Brentall, where the Bad Habit will operate under the pretense of being a 'domestic' arrival from one of the nearby merchant platforms.

Ysille Vale tests her Astrogate skill at a 100 difficulty.

 -Failed- (-15).

FwwwwwwwwwwwwwwWWHhhhd---whhd---whd---wd...The hyperdrive starts to activate but then sputters out for a moment, as a error in the astrogation path was calculated against the hardcoded limits in the nav banks.

R3-LX 'Lexa' ( 1233) tests its Astrogate skill at a 100 difficulty.

 +SUCCESS+ (25).

The stars lengthen and the Bad Habit is gone, leaving only an angry krew of the Kanjiklub to stop and pick up the auto-ejected pilot, saved from a gruesome death by the proximity sensors of the Starfighter.%r%rThe ship ends up at the edge of Brentaal’s gravity well on the dark side near a cache of stashed shipping containers, small enough that their tiny gravity wells would have not affected the flight much of a hyperspaced. Manager droids floating and tending to the containers present alerts, sending ‘NO TRESPASSING signals at the Habit as they do so From there, it’s pretty easy to flow over toward’s the planet’s side – the patrols on this side lax, and really unable to spend the time to try to inspect every one of the thousands of freighters between the local commerce platforms and the ship – which is why the Gauntlet is such a prized smuggling route.%r%rZaena provides the coordinates for the platform and smiles. “All right,” she says. “We’re on foot again, and we’ve got to defend the repulsor platform that’s got the delivery,” she says. “We’re nearly there. Just have to get this to my uncle,” she says, with a smile. “Haven’t seen him in a while, you know.”

Lexa screams out a series of beeps in protest as the hyperjump fails. Ari screams back. "If you're so much better at it, do it yourself and get us out of here!" The R3's data connector spins and rotates, and a momena later, it beeps again, its tone triumphant. "We've got it! Punch it, Ysille!" As the levers are again pulled, the stars through the viewport slowly stretch into lines, suddenly fading into a single sheet of brilliant white, and the Bad Habit is gone.

That song is still playing as the sounds of combat fade, though it looks like it's getting over just about now. Lexa unplugs and starts spinning in place as she beeps, "dancing" in victory. Ari finally breathes a sigh of relief, the tension in her body releasing. "Yeah, yeah. Save it."

Ysille exhales and collapses into her seat as they make it into hyperspace. "You've saved our skins, newbie," she says to the droid. "I guess you can stay," she winks to the R3. "Sorry about that, folks, I guess that's part of the fun of using smuggler routes, there's no BOSS constantly updating the charts."

The stars lengthen and the Bad Habit is gone, leaving only an angry krew of the Kanjiklub to stop and pick up the auto-ejected pilot, saved from a gruesome death by the proximity sensors of the Starfighter.

The ship ends up at the edge of Brentaal's gravity well on the dark side near a cache of stashed shipping containers, small enough that their tiny gravity wells would have not affected the flight much of a hyperspaced. Manager droids floating and tending to the containers present alerts, sending 'NO TRESPASSING signals at the Habit as they do so From there, it's pretty easy to flow over toward's the planet's side - the patrols on this side lax, and really unable to spend the time to try to inspect every one of the thousands of freighters between the local commerce platforms and the ship - which is why the Gauntlet is such a prized smuggling route.

Zaena provides the coordinates for the platform. "You really saved our skins there, little gal," she says, giving Lexa a fond pet, and smiles as Ysille takes the Habit down. "All right," she says. "We're on foot again, and we've got to defend the repulsor platform that's got the delivery," she says. "We're nearly there. Just have to get this to my uncle," she says, with a smile. "Haven't seen him in a while, you know."

Oozlevort is visibly relieved when they enter hyperspace and exit it safely. In fact, he even exhales! "Thank the Mists. Oozlevort did not want to die in an ice field." He loosens his safety harness, figuring that the worst is over.

The wroonian captaion sets the Bad Habit down on the indicated landing pad, giving the console a fond pat before she turns to Ooz, "Okay, looks like it's your show now. I'm not familiar with this planet, so there might be some trouble. Walking a skiff of mystery crates through a neighbourhood like this is bound to draw some interest from the local wildlife."

Oriana relaxes too, exhailing some. From where she sits the seatbelt had dug into her a bit, caused more echos of pain run through her. Resting her head against the seat she looks to the others. "Well done." SHe remarks gently and then closes her eyes, saying something that may sound like a prayer but in her native, unknown to others, tongue.

It takes a few minutes for Ari to calm her nerves, the twi'lek woman eventually unbuckling and standing, a catlike stretch following. "Gods, it's good to be up again." She pets Lexa once on the head. "You did good this time. Watch the ship. Contact us at the first sign of anything going wrong. Don't be afraid to wake up the droids in the cargo bay."

Here she looks at Zaena. "How far is the meet? And what repulsor platform are you talking about?"

Ysille oversees the loading droids moving the cargo onto the skiff, and once it's loaded up, she looks down at her datapad. "Okay, looks like the drop is just a little ways that a way," she says, getting her directions straight, she checks for a landmark and nods her head, reaching over to the controls of the repulsorsled.

Oozlevort nods to THE WROONIAN and unbuckles his safety harness. The Gand waddles down the cargo ramp and, having already checked the power readouts on his pistol, just waits for everything to be loaded. "Your contact is trustworthy, Oozlevort is hoping."

Ysille chuckles, "Trustworthy? We're talking about Zaena's 'Uncle,'" she says, not knowing if the contact is indeed a relation, or someone who pitched in for her tuition. "Of course he's trustworthy," she grins, double checking that she has her blaster with her.

The group of smugglers moves down the street and up ahead at the address, there are two brutish looking gamorreans pounding on the door with a slick looking sullustan hanging back, his arms crossed as he calls out. "Open up and give us our money old man!" It looks like the door controls have already been hacked to pieces by an irate gamorrean warrior, hence why they're trying to kick down the plasteel door.

Ari exits the cockpit as the crew prepares to disembark, but she heads deeper into the ship instead of toward the hatch. "Go ahead without me!" she calls out. "I'll be watching. I'm going to try out that new toy we bought, Zaena!"

Oozlevort makes a choking sound in his breathing mask. A puff of ammonia is expelled from the side vent. "Let us move then. Oozlevort will be watching for hijackers." He walks in front of the hovering trolley with his hands empty. When they come upon the current scene, the Gand makes a noise. "This is strange."

Oriana, once unbuckled, follows along with the others and when they happen upon the scene she blinks too, a hand slides to her blaster while she watches for a moment.

Ysille winces as she double checks the address. "Oh great. This is the spot," she mutters. Things had been going so smoothly, too.

One of the gamorreans stops thumping at the door and snorts and squeals a few words to the sullustan. "Welly welly welly well," the gangster says, inky black eyes studying the group who've quite obviously arrived to make a delivery. "If the old man ain't gonna give us our money, I suppose he can give us his delivery..."

One of those camera droid heads peeks out of the side of the wall, looking at the approaching group of Oriana, Oozlevort, Zaena, and Ysille. The tableaux is well within the sight range of the top of the Bad Habit from a few hundred meters away.

There the Gamorrean is hacking at the door, and a few of the other gangsters turns and grins. "We'll be taking it out of your hides, then, it seems. Looks like his debt payment just arrived."

"Zaena! My lovely niece! And so well protected! I had NO IDEA these men were after me! You're just in the nick of time!"

The Gamorrean snarls. "Nick of time my ass. We've had him cornered for days. Looks like he tried to work you like he works everyone. Dun matter." He grunts. "Get 'em."

The area is a semi open light urban area in front of a private compound. There's a number of boxes and large light columns and such to get cover on. Oozlevirt is the quickest off the mark, it seems, having the chance to react before the Gamorrean can bring his weapon to bear.

Oozlevort placed first in initiative. (20/105) NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1225) placed second in initiative. (19/110) NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1224) placed third in initiative. (8/98) NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) placed fourth in initiative. (5/95) Oriana placed fifth in initiative. (13/94.5) Ari placed sixth in initiative. (10/82.5) Ysille Vale placed seventh in initiative. (2/82) Zaena placed eighth in initiative. (2/74.5)

Ari begins assembling the bipod of her sniper rifle, taking position. Soon, the Prax Arms AFD-43 - 8620 is mounted and ready for combat.

Oozlevort raises his chitinous fist in a cluster of fingers, readying his piercing attack.

<Combat> Oozlevort's attack hits NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1225) at a 100 difficulty! (22)

      * Damage: 36 wound and 3 stun.

<Combat> Oozlevort's attack misses NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1225) at a 110 difficulty! (-9)

<Combat> Oozlevort's attack misses NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1225) at a 120 difficulty! (-24)

The lead Gamorrean squeals in surprised as the Gand launches himself at him, engaging him directly in a brutal melee fight! But the Gamorrean in question is no pushover himself - wounded as he already is, since the first stroke really clocked the greenie one but good.

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Oozlevort at a 150 difficulty! (-57)

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Oozlevort at a 160 difficulty! (-83)

Oozlevort sees where this is going. He isn't sharing profits with anyone. The Gand bounty hunter rushes forward with surprising speed, using his chitinous fists to strike at the Gamorrean in front. Whoosh, Whoosh, POW. The fist makes a loud thudding sound, like a pumpkin pie hitting the pavement.

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Zaena at a 100 difficulty! (-53)

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Zaena at a 110 difficulty! (-85)

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack hits Zaena at a 120 difficulty! (23)

      * Damage: 44 wound and 4 stun.

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Oriana at a 100 difficulty! (-30)

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Oriana at a 110 difficulty! (-11)

Another flurry of blaster bolts aims its way towards Oriana, but the scrappy street fighter is too quick for them. Oriana's able to get out of the way of the path of the gamorrean's carbine.

<Combat> Oriana's attack misses NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) at a 100 difficulty! (-23) <Combat> Oriana's attack misses NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) at a 100 difficulty! (-69) <Combat> Ari's attack misses NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) at a 100 difficulty! (-81) <Combat> Ysille Vale's attack misses NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) at a 100 difficulty! (-9)

Oriana looks over as Zaena as she falls, grits her teeth and then looks to these thugs. She brings her blaster dodging from their attack. "Oh come on!" SHe remarks with a bite. "What, did the First Order teach you how to shoot or was it your pansy ass grandmother!" She, being in not the best of moons, snaps that out to them.

Ysille is just about to start warming up her silver tongue when Ooz flies off the handle and begins pounding a gamorrean like a heavy bag. The blasters then start and the wroonian runs for cover behind the cargosled. She peeks out from one side and then does her best to shoot at one of the gangsters. It's close, but the gangster moves at the last second and instead, her blaster shoots a nearby potted plant, ruining Zaena's uncle's garden.

A single blaster bolt streaks out from the direction of the ship. It flies wide by about a meter, the ray of energy slamming into one of the columns in front of the compound and blowing off a hefty chunk of granite. There's nice power behind that shot; maybe not so nice of a shooter. Ari's voice crackles in over comms, apologetic. "Sorry!" Is she actually going to hit anything? <Combat> Zaena's attack misses NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) at a 150 difficulty! (-55)

A blaster bolt bursts out from Zaena on the ground, in pain, but she's really not having a good time with the burn. "Dammit!" she says, gritting her teeth. One of the Gammorreans is also not doing well, injured badly by Oozlevort's heavy, hefty fist - but he's still in the fight. The other two are trading wild flurries of bolts with the other three as everyone gets cover and both sides are relatively pinned.

Zaena checks everyone's initiative. Oozlevort placed first in initiative. (20/106) NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1224) placed second in initiative. (13/103) NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1225) placed third in initiative. (13/103) NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) placed fourth in initiative. (12/102) Ysille Vale placed fifth in initiative. (13/93) Zaena placed sixth in initiative. (15/87.5) Oriana placed seventh in initiative. (2/83.5) Ari placed eighth in initiative. (10/82.5)

<Combat> Oozlevort's attack hits NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1225) at a 100 difficulty! (64)

      * Damage: 60 wound and 6 stun.

<Combat> Oozlevort's attack hits NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1224) at a 110 difficulty! (35)

      * Damage: 45 wound and 4 stun.

<Combat> Oozlevort's attack hits NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1224) at a 120 difficulty! (29)

      * Damage: 36 wound and 3 stun.

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Oozlevort at a 100 difficulty! (-7)

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Oozlevort at a 110 difficulty! (-1)

<Combat> NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855)'s attack misses Oozlevort at a 120 difficulty! (-33)

<Combat> Ysille Vale's attack hits NPC: Mercenary (Exotic) (1855) at a 100 difficulty! (7)

      * Damage: 20 wound and 2 stun.

Oozlevort's hardened fist with chitinous growths stabs the much taller Gamorrean in the throat, killing it. The small Gand then darts across some boxes, dodging blaster bolts that fly willy-nilly, and hops over said boxes right into the second Gamorrean's face. His fist strikes the Gamorrean's belly twice, puncturing armor and bone and killing the porcine creature in a gruesome fashion. The Gand really hates Gamorreans. "This is what you get for stealing my ship!"

This, is about enough, People hurt, people shooting. Done. Oriana, again not in a great mood, hurt, sore, mentally shot physically shot, just hits her wall. Teeth grit, her big brown eyes, which are normally warm and kind blaze with fire, irritation and anger. She storms forward with a cloud intimidation around her. That grace of hers, manages to come out just a bit, there is something near regal, and commanding, as if that side of her that's hidden, that rarely gets to come out, shines in this second combined with everything else. Shooting off her rifle the shot goes wide, which is fine because she goes, yes goes, up to the things face almost nose to nose, eyes wide and fixed on his. "The last rife I used blew up, and nearly took out a ship with it. Keep this up and I'll show you that experience but from that special place in your backside. Or, you can stand down. Your choice." Her tone is flat, hard, but like that undertone, commanding and regal, and also, shows that she isn't messing around.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE

A Gamorrean, pursuied by blaster bolt after blaster bolt, running for all he's worth, can be seen sprinting for safety into a filthy diner a few blocks away. He won't be intimidating anyone else, though, at least immediately.

"My brave, brave, brave niece!" says the oily looking overweight twi'lek that waddles his way out in rich finery from the door that had previously been locked.

Tears fill Zaena's eyes as she shows off that seared wound in her leg. "I...Rimm! It hurts!" she whines, not putting the bravest face on things. However, she remembers Oriana's words, and she clams up, giving Oriana a little smile. "Sorry," she says. "Damn, sure was a good idea to bring you two," she says.

"You know, Uncle," she says, after a moment, still a little teary. "I really should be rather cross with you for setting us up to take care of your problems like this. But it's sort of hard to...because I suppose I'd do it too."

Ysille watches as the last gangster runs away, and she pretends that she was the real reason, that the gamorrean finally realized he was messing with Captain Ysille Vale (and crew) and that his days were numbered if he stuck around! Standing up straight and proud of a job well done, she blows the smoke from her blaster pistol and holsters it, watching the family reunion, she smirks and looks about to Oriana and Oozlevort to make sure they're okay. "Damn, Ooz, you have a temper on you!" she observes, handing over a hanky so the gand can clean off his claws.

Oozlevort inhales deeply from his gas mask, tasting that sweet ammonia flavor of home. He bends and wipes his bloody hand off on the Gamorrean's shirt. "Filthy creatures." He accepts Ysille's kerchief and wipes some extra blood from the fist. "Oozlevort does not like Gamorreans. Oozlevort worked for Hutts too long." He hands back the cloth and points at the Uncle. "YOU are uncle? This was not included in the deal. It costs extra."

Ysille holds the slime covered hankie with thumb and forfinger before tossing it away with a grimace.

"Cost extra? Oh no no no no no no no no no," says the fat purple twi'lek man, grinning obseqiously. "You have acquitted your duty extremely well, my friend, but I think you were being paid to deal with any problems that came up regarding the shipment, yes? And you were here, and then they attacked you," he says. "I mean, it's a tragic thing, but a hazard of the trade, you know?"

Zaena frowns a little bit. "I hate to admit it but..." She looks a little nervous. "I mean, you're already getting a full share off this one, Oozlevort. I'm not sure there's more blood to squeeze from this turnip," she says. "You're going to be getting as much as I or Ysille will...and well deserved too. If you're going to demand more out of our shares, well...how much?"

Oriana watches the man skutter off and then turns to listen to the conversation as she holsters her rifle. Eyes fix on Ooz. "Oh, get off the pot. You get a good share things happen, you could get nothing at all for a bad attitude, you know." She looks to the others a second and shrugs.

Oozlevort grumbles and crosses his arms over his chest like a petulant child. "Oozlevort does not desire more shares. But at a later time, Oozlevort will call upon your uncle, and request a favor."

"I'm always interested in hearing about possible business opportunities," says the man, with a grin. "Now, if you don't mind, I'll take possession of that little delivery, to get it to the distributors. I'll send you back with the empty repulsor pallet. You'll each get disbursements into the accounts set up by my niece," he explains. "I bid you all, indeed, a lovely day, and fair spacewake." He bows with a disgusting flourish, and then skittles away inside his estate, leaving the door slammed shut and Zaena to painfully limp her way over to sit on the pallet.

"Well," she says, with a grin and a wince. "Back to the Smuggler's Moon, Explorers?" Zaena gives a smile to Oozlevort. "And thank you for being...well, understanding," she adds.