Log:Space Battle: Wheel Heist
Space Battle: Wheel Heist
OOC Date: December 11th, 2019
Location: Besh Gorgon System, STA The Wheel
Participants: Mak the Hutt, Maireni Lash, Vandred, Sumi Kora, Kryll, Zee'roh Kora, Kaelyn, Naelyn, and Jehni'va Cihn as GM
Ship Crews:
HC Fabooda: Mak the Hutt, Kryll, Vandred
Wanderlost: Kaelyn, Sumi Kora, Zee'roh Kora
FRT Fool's Rush: Jehni'va Cihn, Maireni Lash
FRT Fool's Errand: Naelyn
STA BDT-0978, or 'The Wheel', is a huge space station, alive with the lights and activities of a thousand different interests and vices. It was also, until recently, a place from which one Jehni'va Cihn did business - good business! Legitimate business! But, that all changed when a group of thugs, acting under the good name of 'station security', shook her down for everything she had. Now, the little shop has transferred hands, and the Coruscanti pilot is left with a deep hole in her pockets.
But how do we get /here/? In the blackness of space, under heavy fire, and - for some - being slowly drawn back towards the station via tractor beam? The answer: a little digging, a couple of favors, a thrown-together plan, and a whole lot of bad luck.
It turns out that station security was bought out by the pair of goons running one of the local casinos; they managed to, pretty much overnight, turn The Wheel into a hotbed of criminal activity, shake downs, and embezzlement - and it all went to the casino. So, like any rational, morally contrite citizen would do, Captain Cihn organized a heist. Poorly. And now we're here.
<<"So, maybe this didn't go exactly as planned.">> Jehn's voice, somewhat distorted by the ship's communications technology, is as flippant and cheery as ever, even as the HWK-290 craft she pilots is drawn backwards by the station's tractor beam. Her ship, as well as a couple of others, have been loaded up with crates of ill-begotten credit chits, and at least one of them is in possession of a datapad containing more of the same, thanks to some keen slicing. <<"We need to take out these tractor beams, shake th'fuzz, and we'll be free an' clear - normally I have, uh, y'know - /qualms/ about firing on legal security? But, we know that /these/ lugnuts work directly for th'nerf-slappin' wompholes that run th'casino.">> There's a pause. <<"I probably should have gotten their names, come t'think of it... Hope that doesn't come back to bite m- please, Maireni, don't put your mouth on that.">>
<<"Didn't go accordin' ta plan!? DIDN'T GO ACCORDIN' TA PLAN!? Now there's the biggest underexaggeration I've heard since I tried to eat off the children's menu!">>
Lord Zlurbo Qwig Makooja, King of Smugglers and lord of most that he surveys, is currently screaming Frantic Sarcasm into the headset of his borrowed shuttle.
The shuttle is off a bit from the Main Freighter, serving as more of a decoy than anything else. Mak's title is mostly self-appointed, and he is usually more 'cargo' than 'smuggler'. But sitting behind the controls of the shuttle, his fat globs all squooshed into the cockpit area, and his ever-present cattle rancher hat perched back on his head, he actually looks a bit like the rugged space cowboy that he claims to be.
If you squint reeeeeally hard.
Spitting into the bucket on the console before him, and letting the t'bacc juice run down his lack-of-chin, he turns back to look at his hastily-assembled crew.
"Talk to me people! What do we got back there!"
He's probably talking about snacks.
Tramping around in the back of the ship, Vandred seems to have made himself busy being the official 'go fer this' person. Light armour gives idle clanks where the straps haven't been tightened down enough, and he pauses for a moment to tighten up his chin straps.
He does briefly poke his head into the cockpit of the shuttle, before he steps in and gets close enough to put down a tray of bantha jerky. "Found this." He states, before he rather promptly exits back out into the shuttle proper - to hopefully avoid the bucket of t'bacc spit and the horror that it could cause if it were to spill.
There might not be a lot of other people on Jehn's ship, but apparently there i at least one other person there. That person being Maireni Lash, who is currently in the cockpit with Jehn and fiddling with things she probably shouldn't be. <<"Whaaaaat?">> comes the high pitched protest against the accusation that she's putting something she shouldn't in her mouth. Which she is. There's a crinkling, and then a crunch, all of which is conveyed over the comms. <<"It's fine.">> Most everyone else is lucky enough to not be in the same space as her, but Jehn is presently gifted with both Ryn smell, and the overuse of perfume to cover/compliment said scent. It's a lot for the nose to process. <<"Someone shoot the beam thing so we can get out of here please.">> There's a pause. <<"Does this ship have escape pods?">>
Sumi Kora takes her seat in the pilot's chair of the docked Wyvern fighter aboard the VCX 100 light freighter Wanderlost. She pulls the restraining straps over her shoulders, fastening them in place before glancing over the advanced control consoles. A few flips of switches and the thing lights up the cold darkness Sumi is concealed in. The chiaroscoro of the controls paint the armored Mando as she triggers the internal comms with the ship's Captain. <"Stern guns hot, Captain. Targeting system is online.">
Meanwhile, Kryll is in whatever guns the shuttle he hitched a ride on with Mak the Hutt has, and calls back over the comms. <<Clearly, getting a ride isn't easy or cheap anymore. I need more lessons or a proper droid. Systems are hot and ready back here. Tell me again, who are we shooting at?>>
Zee'Roh has switched over to a lighter armor, but one that still has her uplinks behind the visor, and slides down into the dorsal turret of the Wanderlost as they approach, <<"Tac-comms check.">> Switching the duel weapon systems online with a flick of her finger, testing the controls, <<"I'm set down here.">> She's being a paid. Paint targets and she'll shoot them.
The Wanderlost, running with its IFF transponder disengaged, drops out of hyperspace at the appointed space and time. Shields, weapons, and all the other wonderful tidbits about the VCX come online and the ship's pilot glances around. "Soo we're here, at the appointed space, and time, where's the.... " Kae then sighs "Oof... Yup... Ok ladies." She says over the comlink "Look lively here, we're going in weapons hot. The Fool's Rush is living up to its name and has pissed off Casino security.. Probably robbed the place, and here I just hoped it was a normal escort.." Kae says.
Kae firewalls the throttle of the Wanderlost, the VCX rumbling to life and vibrating as it rockets forward. "One of you grab the chin gun, the other, waffle between the dorsal and aft weapons fire controls! I'll grab the forward weapons and stay on the piloting, and my droids will keep us in the sky..." she says and then adds "Gimme a shout out when you're ready!" She adds then tight-beams to the Fool's Rush << Escort here, I'm packing heavy weapons!>> SHe calls out, now starting to achieve a lock on the Wheel's tractor beam projectors... "Look Lively now!"
The station security forces consist of eight E-Wing fighters, and they buzz about like a disturbed nest of grutchins. The /Fool's Rush/ continues to slowly drift backwards, caught in one of The Wheel's tractor beams: there are three in total, helpfully labeled 'A', 'B', and 'C' in the nav readout by Jehn's astromech. She, Maireni, and the /Rush/ are currently stuck in beam 'B'.
"This ship does not have escape pods - um, about that... Co'po: it'll be a last minute resort, but we may have to blow the hyperdrive to get loose from this." A distressed whirr of binary answers her, the R3 unit in the maintenance hatch swiveling its dome in a quick back-and-forth 'you better not', but the pilot nods, not missing a beat, as she continues to flip switches. "Yes, /that/. I am fully aware of your feelings on th'matter - Maireni, can you take over for a minute? I'm going to go aft and load everything we can afford to lose into the cargo bay. Just in case. Co'po, try to get a message back home, we might need the other ship." Transferring external comms to her headset, the pilot disentangles herself from the goggle display of the Maccrow freighter and clambers over the back of her seat towards the body of her ship. Whether she has an actual purpose back there, or is just trying to get some fresh, recycled air, isn't exactly clear. Maireni smells very bad.
Meanwhile, security is doing its best to drive the thieves into those tractor beams - at least, on the plus side, they don't want to outright destroy anyone and risk losing all those credits. <<"Thanks for droppin' in, folks! If you could do something about these tractor beams, I would be might-">> There's an audible grunt and a 'SLAM'. <<"-Mighty grateful.">>
"Thank you kindly, son. Mighty decent of ya!"
The King of Smugglers reaches his pudgy hand onto the tray, batting awkwardly at the bantha jerky before finally getting his sausage roll fingers around one of the treats. He quickly puts this in his mouth, more quickly than he does anything else, surely. Right on the tongue, he pushes the jerky into his lip and lets it mingle with the copious t'bacc juice there. Soon, protein sludge is part of the drool that's oozing from his mouth.
"Alright boys! Let's do some shootin'! Ain't nobody ever robbed a casino without blastin' their way back home! Hookers and booze are on me when it's over!"
And with that, Mak begins operating the forward turret, attempting to blow the ever-living hell out of the tractor beam. It's a very pretty lightshow. But not much else.
<<DAGNABBIT! Mah guns're broke!">>
Vandred's helmet is plastered to one of the viewing ports, staring out at the ongoing space battle. There's probably some wide-eyed awe going on at the all the space blaster bolts going out into the void, and then.. They take a hit.
Vandred almost smacks into Mak as he comes staggering back in, making his way to one of the consoles. A beep, a boop, and a few awkward button pushes here and there, and some new targetting information pops up for both Mak and Kryll.
<<"I suggest we target here on one of the tractor beams. It looks like there's a few panels that have come loose - so it might be an easier time. Uh. Hitting.">>
Maireni's eyes go wide as Jehn asks her to help with something. It's possible that this situation has never happened before, or at least not often, which means that there's an excited toot-whistle through her nose, and a momentary thrashing of her tail, like a pleased cat that's about to pounce on a toy. <<"Yah. I can do it!">> This was probably a bad idea, because as soon as she's left alone, she starts trying to figure out how to shoot at things. She's got enough experience in ships to figure it out, but nowhere near enough to do it well. Which means her attempts at shooting the tractor beam fail miserably.
Kryll tries to draw a bead on the tractor beams, but Mak is flying the ship in a way that makes targetting anything difficult, and then there is the fact that his evasive flying is not stopping them from being hit, further throwing off his aim. <<This may go smoother if you can stop getting shot.>>
Sumi has brought up the cannon controls, triggering the holo-projected instruments with the flip of another button. Bright display controls hum back and Sumi glances out the canopy toward the voice. Remaining silent as they went through their motions to enter the fray, Sumi rocks when their shields are tested from a fighter.
It's a good hit, but she's not disoriented enough to miss the priority targets conveniently marked A, B, and C. Sumi lifts the controls targeting B and opens fire. Thick lances of slower-than-light cannonfire cross the space between the Wanderlost's aft section and the station. The first volley score the station leaving marks, but Sumi's second volley hits the intended target damaging it. She doesn't celebrate, she just adjusts the the cannons by twisting something on the control panel.
No sooner is Zee'roh seated and ready to rock, the Wanderlost is /rocked/ and coming unseated, <<"Best pilot I've ever seen huh?">> Sardonic, crawling out of the dorsal gunner position with a hop, she slides over towards an access panel and pries it back, <<"ZERO! Get your drek up here and help me, I need an upload on a VCX-100 light freighter, stat..">> The Seeker droid beeps thrice and downloads the necessary information to her Helmets HUD, drawing highlight lines necessary to reroute power from the damaged ship-systems to a reserve/redundent systems. <"Yes, we're getting paid for this..."> To the droid, beeping at her, <"No, you're not getting paid extra.. you're not getting paid at all. You're an object."> The board goes green and she slides back over to the access hatch.
<<"Try not to get hit, huh? I'd like to shoot something tonight.">>
Kae frowns, trying to get a good scan on the Wheel's power systems... "Okie ladies, trying to grab us a better view on the ship's power systems, see if there's something exploitable." She calls out, as she jinks and rolls the freighter to avoid as many impacts as she can... < I'm working on it, these guys are skilled and the Wanderlost is a huge freighter... Or ya can leave the repairs to the BB droids and you can shoot till your heart's content!> she calls out after the freighter is blasted repeatedly by heavy lasers.. "Shields holding folks!" She calls out...
Kae frowns "Sensors aren't helping with the whole finding a weakness, just shoot away till your hearts content ladies!"
"This all went t'drek pretty quick." Jehn, reappearing at Maireni's elbow in the cockpit, announces. "I've loaded up all my furniture and some boxes into the cargo hold - if we can't get free, I'm going to have to do something really stupid, an' hope the techs aren't trained for it." She locks herself into the pilot seat behind Maireni, and grits her teeth.
All around them, security forces are doing their best to keep Team Heist (and friends) away from those tractor beams - what's more, their tactics change suddenly. They're not just trying to keep them from shooting the beams, they're trying to herd them into range of them! <<"We gotta get those beams!">> Jehn laments, and slams down on the controls for the cargo hatch - it opens, dumping out a good majority of her belongings into space. At that same time, she throws the ship forward into a risky maneuver - one that comes accompanied with an audible BWOOSH from one of her engines. "And that'll be th'hyperdrive." She explains, calmly - but the maneuver is enough to trick the tractor beam into releasing the ship, and the /Fool's Rush/ joins the pack! <<"FRT Fool's Rush, coming in hot! Try not to let those beams getcha, folks.">> She hopes that someone back on Nar got her distress call - the /Rush/ isn't going to be able to hit hyperspace, if she is right about that big-bad-breaky noise.
"Just keep it frosty back there, son! I'll keep her steady up here... right after I do just a li'l bitta SPINNIN'!"
Mak proceeds to do just that, spinning the ship around to avoid all the incoming fire and tractor beam attacks.
Beef jerky falls in the console.
"DAG nabbit!" He raises hand up, holding his hat in place as they spin.
"Hurry, son! Save mah snacks! I need to keep mah blood sugar up or we're DONE FER!"
Vandred.. Was not prepared for a little bit of spinning. That's probably an understatement, there's audiable crashing and banging as the not-strapped-in man is bashed around a bit, before grappling on to the back of Mak's chair for dear life as the spinning slowly stops.
He does spring into action as soon as he gets the opportunity though, deftly doing his utmost to save the jerky. This involves sticking his fingers in deeper into the console than the norm, long digits stretching out before grasping on to the jerky, he pulls his hand back with a fistful of it, and promptly slaps them back on to the tray.
"Snacks saved, boss." He declares this like a minor victory, shaking his hand in the meantime.
Maireni really shouldn't be left alone (or semi-alone) with something so dangerous as a ship turret, but she was, and is, which means that she's going to try shooting things again. Jehn returns and she beams back at her, helping not one bit but still enjoying the absolute heck out of it. <<"Yah, it's real drekky," she agrees, once again over comms because she doesn't know how to turn those off maybe. Or doesn't care. <<"What're you gonna d--AAA!">> There's that BWOOSH and Maireni is startled, punctuating the shout with another alarmed tootaloot through her nose instrument. <<"IT'S THE CURSE!">> This accusation is shot back at Jehn, and speaking of shooting, she whips back around to look at her controls and fire. A couple of times. The trigger is pulled, buttons pressed, and then shots fired. Which sail past all the targets harmlessly. <<"I got them charms, an' you need one!">>
Sumi is rocked again when the ship's shields take another blow, which simply shakes Sumi in place. She has only a brief window to engage the tractor beams again, but her shots go both wide and uselessly into the voice. She adds no comment to the failure, she simply reaches forward to twist the knobs more the OTHER way, then takes hold of the cannon yoke again.
Zee'roh slidees back downt he ladder and drops into the swivel seat, immediately hooking the harness over her shoulders as she repairs up the duel-laser cannons. The small controls and targetting screen twists, but her HUD feeds direct 'LOS' from ship-board NAV computers, <<"Alright, Kaelyn, I'm going to let you send the droid this time...">> Because battle lust.
The dorsal mounted gun turns on its axis and lines up a solution that beeps an lock, double squeezing the triggers on the massive weapon with a woomp woomp and the flash of ignited circuitry following a brief explosion on the side of the station. <<"Tractor B is down.">> Swiveling in her seat with a jerking twist of her wrists.
Trying to keep a lock on the tractor beams of the station, kryll is having a hell of a time. <<Ok, this is not going well, we will be combat ineffective within several minutes. We need to disengage and get some of the heat off of us before we're floating space debris. Mak, your call. But if we get some distance or break, maybe we can pull them away from the others. But we are underqualified and outgunned.>>
Kae is at least living up to some kind of reputation, she's got the Wanderlost virtually dancing in space as she rolls, spins, then throttles up as she basically tail-slides in space, really making it hard for the stations tractor beams to lock onto the freighter, as she uses the superstructure its self to keep from getting hit. As the Wanderlost zips out from between two towers, an E-wing scores a few hits, glancing blows really, but again the freighter's shields are damaged, before one of the BB units Kae keeps aboard quickly restores said shields. Just in time too, as Kae is suddenly nosing up and rolling the freighter over into a hard barrel roll and keeping another E-wing from scoring a direct hit on the freighter. Yup she's dodging fighters now..
"Nice shooting girls, keep it up, can either focus on the tractor beams or pick off fighters!" she calls out, just before the sound of her taretting computer is heard humming over internal coms. "Torpedos away!" She calls out, the ship thumping as first one torpedo, then a second goes blasting out of the launchers, both dead centering the emitter, taking out the shields over it and leaving said emitter open to attack! "There I hit something! Happy?!?!" Kae then tilts her head << Hey out there, sound off, who needs help?>>
There are multiple systems and pads and what not that Naelyn keeps to keep track of their people, and when they got the distress call he suited up, grabbed his oh so fabulously bedazzled droid (Equatia) and climbed into ship. Probably getting some type of contact from whatever lingers in there, sweet smell of smoke and lets be honest. There are probably more ladies things in Naelyn's room but still. Moving things that are not his out of the way in order to get comfortable.
He's programmed in the flight plans and what not and started his own sensors. Zoom in on the delicate and androgynous golden features of one Naelyn with his companion RT, only his eyes showing as a veil has been drawn over his nose and mouth, hair braided back into a bun. HIs fingers are flying over the console and he takes a deep breath.
"Little Jewel, it looks like you instigated quite the violent space orgy. Equatia isn't pleased that her holos got interrupted. Please give me a sit rep."
"Co'po! Fix that please!" Jehn shouts at the little astromech - it's a needless order, because the enterprising little hunk of metal is already whizzing around back in the maintenance hatch. They took two hits almost as soon as they wrecked themselves free of the tractor beam - a feat which, to be entirely honest, Jehni'va will brag about for months to come. Through her view-goggles, she sees an explosion and the helpfully labeled 'B' blinks out of existence. <<"Helluva shot, /Wanderlost/"!>> She whoops, jerking the damaged ship into a hard spiral - it is a sloppy, jerky, and desperate maneuver. Those hits damaged her gimballing systems, and until those are back online, running the maccrow is going to be like driving a pastry up a slide. Two more bursts against the station show two more hits to Beam A, but she didn't see where those came from.
<<"/Rush/ here, I've got my droid trying to patch us up, but we've lost aout 30% maneuverability. And, uh, I think my hyperdrive is totally fried - but that ones on me. Help Fabooda first, I can crawl back there if needed.">>
The new voice over the comms brings a bright grin to Jehni'va's face. <<"Naelyn! My love, my world. I have some talismans to purchase after all of this, believe me - um. Sorry, Equatia.">>
"Well boys... I think we can safely say that we've intimidated the shit outovem!"
Still trying to do Fancy Flying Maneuvers while also working the turret, Mak is only doing one of them with any success.
As the ship takes a hard turn, parts of Mak begin spilling over other parts of Mak, and the back of him begins sliding across the cockpit floor while the front half tries desperately to hang on and keep operating the controls!
"How ya doin' back there, Kryll? Regrettin' that extra glass of milk yet?"
As Mak starts to 'spill', Vandred promptly leans over to the controls, his left arm extending an inch or two to push a few buttons and assist in compensating for one of the hard banking turns, his right arm reaching out to help press on the controls and assist in banking.
"I shouldn't have had all that food before we left. I'm regretting everything. Strap in tight, Kryll. We're experiencing turbulance."
Maireni continues to prove that she's a good addition to the team by adjusting the helmet she's got on so she can better hear the chatter, and not firing at a good opportunity to shoot. <<"Haaaay,">> she drawls over the comms after Kryll speaks. <<"You sound cute. What you doin' later?">> Though she has an intended target for this flirting, it's out over the general comms so it's a party wide flirtation that can lead to much confusion. Because she's marginally capable of multi-tasking, she does see a target that she wants to hit. What that target is, might be a bit of a guess because the shots fired are likely closer to friendly ships, than foe. But no one was blown up as a result, so that might be marked as a win. "I'm gettin' better at this!" She's not.
<"Good flying, Captain."> Sumi comments, managing two vibrant volleys of cannon fire against the station. Sumi is responsible for the destruction of one tractor beam, and she nails another. To ZEE'ROH, she comms. <"Priority target has switched, vod. I've highlighted the new parameter!">
Sumi makes another adjustment to the weapon while watching through her canopy as the scenery constantly changed.
Swinging the turret around to track the targets, as Mak continues to fly like a drunken.. hutt. <<"I have not had a glass of milk, how would I regret having a second?">> he lines up a shot as the shuttle stays still long enough for him to do so, and fires, striking the first solid shot of this endeavor. <<Whatever you just did, do it again, we hit something. Well, I hit something, and I don't think we've been hit back, yet? Get us out of here alive and I'll buy you a serious snack bar.>>
<<"Nice flying up there..">> Zee turns in her gun, tracking after the quickly shifting aerial combat zone as Kaelyn's fancy flying constantly alters the view. It's almost enough to make someone sick, if they're not use to it, or aren't a robot who doesn't suffer from assanine biological issues with their equalibrium.
- biologicalproblems
The dual-cannons lock on to the heavily damaged tractor beam spitting out arcs of electricity and lights it up, immediately tracking after one of the fighters, but the twist in her seat sends the red heavy laser lancing over the wing. TO SUMI <"Roger that, Alorir, I've got priority target on screen.">
Kae jinks the freighter, left and right, again making the nimble light freighter roll around the various incoming fire from fighters... "Hey pick out... Nevermind!" she calls out, Kae barrerolling the freighter up and over as she cuts throttle, letting a fighter zoom in front of her before she pitches the nose down. Kae fires a pair of blasts at the fighter, managing to nail it once and quite heavily with the freighter's chin turret, the heavy laser misses.... Still the fighter is smoking now as Kae accelerates ahead... "Ok the fighters get nastier from here folks, stay frosty.,.. Oh and there's some apples from the Mandalore system in the fridge for later!"
Keeping a careful distance, and sighing to himself.
<<"Equatia will forgive you, she always does. Please let me know what it is that I need to do to provide assistance.">>
Naelyn is hovering over ---> yonder, watching things with a careful eye.
With maneuverability returned, Jehn snaps open the ship's x-wings and gives a loud whoop. "Nice shot - um, almost!" She offers to Maireni in front of her, and twists them further away from the tractor beams... Or, she would, if they were not going up like a firework show. <<"Good hits, good hits! And, uh, good flirts too, I guess.">> In space, no one can hear you screaming - but they can certainly hear Maireni shooting her shot. The pilot laughs, her mood improving which each explosion from the station. She loved that place - it's doubtful she'll ever be able to return. Ah, well... There is enough credits on board her ship to buy a new shop. Maybe Kara Ninx is getting sick of running the barn on her own? Questions for a later time. <<"Alright, beams are down! We can get out of here! Naelyn, you still there, my love? We're not going to be able to make hyper, so we'll have to limp away and then tether up to the /Errand/. Maybe find us a good spot to hide and get that done?">> There are plenty of asteroids around, maybe they can hide from any of the Wheel Guardians that try a pursuit. <<"It goes without saying, that any repairs your ships need will be done free of cost. And, um, once we shake these fools? Hearty payout.">> She grins again - maybe this wasn't a total failure of a heist, after all!
"Outta the way! Outta the way!" The Hutt tries frantically to scramble back into position, only to notice that the New Guy has handled himself pretty well, and righted the ship in the process. Mak learns a valuable lesson about the inherent worth of all sentient life forms. Even bipeds. And every time a bell rings, a Hutt gets a new Sarlaac Pit.
"Okay, okay, good job. Now get on back to the rear gun and cover our espace. I'm gunna hafta do some FANCY FLYIN' so's they never forget who's the King of Smugglers!"
It takes him a bit, but eventually the rest of Mak's bulk catches up with the front half of him, coming back together like an enormous turd that someone has stretched out, and smushed back together.
Though what sort of sicko would do such a thing?
"Let's BLAST 'EM BOYS!"
It's a hell of a lightshow! Not much else. But sometimes, that's enough.
"Yes, Boss."
Vandred's left arm goes back to it's normal length as he hauls himself up and promptly runs away from Mak and his spit bucket. Especially the bucket. There's a moment as he does his best to get himself strapped into the back turret, and then an even longer moment for him to figure out the controls. Then he realises that squeezing the triggers makes the large lasers go 'pew pew'.
This is of course, an absolute revelation and delight to the man, who promptly begins pulling at the triggers for all he's worth - and scoring an unlucky hit on one of the guardians, leaving it floating dead in space as it's power systems are forced to do a cold boot.
His cry of victory is more like a keening raptor, and probably twice as irritating.
It was not a good shot, nor are the ones that will soon follow, but Maireni is having a blast. She's a kid in a blaster store, firing dangerous weapons without the proper knowledge on how to handle them. Someone should probably stop her. <<"Ayyyya, best flirts!">> She tries to primp her hair, but she can't because it's usual volume is being contained within a slightly too large helmet. Floofing denied, her tail thrashes a little, the bracelets on it rattling with her unspoken annoyance. <<"I think we're doin' good! Maybe we're gonna shake off this curse.">> There's a pause. <<"But probably not so ya all oughta see me after about gettin' some curse breakin' charms, ya feel? 'specially you cute soundin' ones.">> She does fire again at one of the ships still out there, but she doesn't really understand the targeting computer, so it likely beeps another disappointed beep as she fires at the wrong time and once again misses.
Sumi is putting down a field of suppressive fire, laughing as she holds the trigger down. Her view of the stern is comprised of a constant flow of red lances that blast out into the void of space, efficiently being inefficient in the destruction of enemy space craft. <"Let's punch it, knife ears (Kaelyn), and live to fight another day!"> Sumi takes her fingers off the trigger and shakes one hand out, chuckling. No legs for the leg God today.
As Mak and Vandred seem to be pairing up to keep the ship flying and giving him the time to shoot that he needs, Kryll tracks one of the fighters as they tail them out of the engagement zone. He drops the crosshairs onto the ship, and pauses for half a hearbeat. Adjusting slightly he fires, putting bolts straight through the fighter's engines, disabling the ship and causing it to spin slightly. <<Splash one. Lets get out of here people.>>
There's a lot of space and so few blasters shooting into it! Zee'Roh holds down the firing controls on the dual-cannons and turns the stick as she lets rip, lighting up space with energy. A spinning dome of red laser light like a disco-ball, and just about as effective. She's in good company though, the Wanderlost contributes the bulk of laser-lighting to the Boo To You: Micky's Not So Scary Halloween party.
(Mandatorian mention of Disney+ only being $7.99.)
<<"Yeah, it was one thing when the targets were stationary, but these fighters are mucking up sensors...">> She's a ground pounder, not a space jockey.
Kae rolls the freighter left, then hard right, up and over again, dodging incoming fire... "Yup this is crazy." She mutters and then jinks once again.. "Hang on!" she calls out, and pulls up, spins the freighter and litterally cartwheels over the top of a fighter, fishtailing the massive freighter as she hard jinks sideways over the top of a fighter... She takes a few pot shots, but well her fancy maneuvering really makes it far more difficult to shoot! "Well that was a bad idea." She mutters, and again firewalls the throttle... << Hey, I might can latch on and do a quick short hop!>> She announces to the person with the bad hyper drive...
"Anyhow it's not too terrible, just make sure to account for our velocity versus theirs and then fire away, the other thing i just wait for your targetting computer to go 'fire!' and fire...."
<<"I am pulling up the star charts of the region and will triangulate the most logical hiding place so repairs can be - I am also going to do what I can to flash and wipe some logs of this..." He trails off. "Alterrrcation." His lilting and accented voice even a purr over the comms as Equatia's musical beeps can be heard in the background. <<"What do you mean they are are shooting at-">>
His voice does raise a fraction, at least for him, he's still quiet but he hisses like a cat when the ship rocks from impact and he's doing what he can to maneuver the controls. "Equatia. You know what to do." Then his fingers start flying over his console, plugging something into something else as he starts pulling the signals and then weaving a web of digital disguise, pinging the signals off fake signals as he monitors the signals coming from the Rush and the Errand. <<"Little Jewel, I am sending you the coordinates for us to connect at and Equatia is going to guide us to a safe place. Please hurry. We have about...10 or so minutes where we show up on sensors as things we are not, then I will have to recalibrate the disguise.">> His voice comes back over the comms.
The beams are down, and it allows those rushing away from the heist to flee freely while their fellows pepper the pursuing security forces with fire. The /Fool's Rush/ isn't flying quite right, but she isn't out of the running - the hyperdrive is entirely disabled, but the ship is still able to outrun most things in atmo or otherwise, at least long enough to make the rendezvous with Naelyn and the /Fool's Errand/. Jehn can't even be mad about the scorch marks on the Clearwater's side - Nae came to her rescue, after all. His quick thinking and computer skills leave the security forces unable to pinpoint where it is everyone is going, and any of those forces that remain chasing after them are left to wander the Big Empty without a clue. Just enough time.
Everyone - shockingly - makes it out alive, and have a generous payout to look forward to the next time they check their bank balances.
And, this time, Jehni'va Cihn is sure to purchase a talisman and bracelet, assuredly legitimate, off of her smelly gunner before they part ways. Maybe a disguise will be in order, should any of them ever need visit the Wheel again... New transponder codes, at the very least.
