Log:The Irregulars: Hot Spice

The Irregulars: Hot Spice

OOC Date: December 20, 2019
Location: The Spice Terminus, Bysis System
Participants: Jax Greystorm, Sesti Greystorm, Rial Het, Tharyn Corlas, Nova Korell, Dyannah Nerus, Sapphira Yavoc

On the Spice Terminus. The meeting had gone well. Plans made for hitting another manufacturing facility had been fleshed out by the participants. The strike team of the regular suspects: the Greystorms, Yavoc and the new man, Corlas, Nova, Het, the best slicer and spy in the quadrant had left the ship to attend to their own ships and on various errands with the intent of meeting back up at the Lady Silk's Lounge.

Leaving a skeleton crew on the ship for basic operations Dyannah heads for her quarters before joining the group to kick back and enjoy a little of the station's amenities.

Behind her passive scan lights up with the arrival of another ship in the system: a YT-2000. It's nothing unusual in this sector. The ship snugs into a berth two sections down from Pathfinder. Ten crew members disembark, armed very well, again nothing unusual on a station known for being a center for smugglers. Far out on the edge of the system, it will take several hours before it shows on scans, a large ship appears out of hyperspace.

Sapphira left the meeting and instead met up with Tharyn on the Spice Rack (as she still stubbornly calls it). So he'll see her coming out of Lady Silk's Lounge to find him, which might raise a few eyebrows. She grins widely when she sees him. "There you are, sorry I'm late," she tells the man. "Healing up from that fight still? Bet a drink would help move those healing ions along. Or however healing works." She, personally, is unaware of the looming threat.

Nova is looking around the most natural spot for a soldier: Weapons Depot, the local firepower franchise. Her cover being as protection for the folk on the /Pathfinder/, she's clad in her urban-camo armor and fully armed. She nods to the proprietor, indicating a pistol. "Hard to beat a BlasTech design, even an old one. Could you gift-wrap it? It's for a friend."

Rial Het is dressed a touch more upscale than the typical starfarer on the Terminus, having gone ahead of several others to secure their table at the club. A heavy pistol is worn for show on one thigh, but those who know the rogue have never seen him use it. A tip of his non-existent hat to Sapphira as he sees the spy emerging from his destination, turning to follow her eye toward Tharyn, with a raised brow and a small smile.

Tharyn was on business when he saw the redhead in the bay - or rather, on the hunt for it, given how much of mercenary work was found on a speculative basis in places like these. Financial demands are such that any fighting man needs to be able to pull credits from a hat, after all. And so, dressed as though he were rather ready to fight a brushfire war than go job hunting, Tharyn walks with Sapphira with guns on his hips and a few grenades mag-clamped to his armor in easy-to-grab places. "I'm fine," he tells her in his slow, accented baritone voice, helmet clipped to his belt. "Just, um, looking for work - did you see that ARC-170 in the, um, landing bay? S'mine."

Sesti has decided to leave her armor helmet on outside of the meeting, since Jax likes to keep his on to hide identity, she's not going to give his away by letting her horns out. She pauses as she waits for him to browse some armor, flexing her arm slowly in the new to her armor, appreciating the lack of interference in her motion.

Jax was with Sesti and looked like a clone commando of old as he walked through station with Sesti. He stops as she looking at the armor. His voice filtering out from his helmet as he looks at the armor, <Found a new outfit already?> Okay it sucked almost all of the humor from his voice and tone. He seems unaware fo the coming threat.

The head of the group from the newly arrived ship, Jarbro, splits the team, three to go into the center of the station, three to accompany him to the Pathfinder and two to circle in the other direction on the concourse. "We will be in touch with coms. Our first objective is to take the Pathfinder, if we can take their U-Wing named the Plan A and their Y-4 transport, the Compass Rose, all the better. Informants tell us that most of the crew is on liberty, we need to force the ship and just leave them on the station to cool their heels.

Dyannah out of force of habit looks through the cameras that watch entry and exit on the ship. She is about to open the door when one of a group of men, takes a blaster out and starts up the ramp of the Pathfinder.

Rial's com beeps, Dyannah's voice crackles over the connection, "Rial, pick up. There is something strange going on out there. We might have visitors. Report to me, stay alert."

"Yeah?" Sapphira waves to Rial, but she's looking at Thy still. "You gonna let me take a look under the blast shielding? Lemme just grab a beer and you can show me." Not like Spice Rack is going to have open container laws or anything. Sapphira's started to turn that way when her comm crackles, and she puts a hand to her ear. Immediately her face changes from girlishly happy to focused and serious. Her hand is already on her blaster as her bright greens sweep the area and find the first three baddies coming down the way. She reaches out and puts a hand on Thy's upper arm. "You're hired," she tells him, before speaking into the comms. <<Dy, this is Red. We've got three here in the main hall. Lot of civvies, I'll try and get to you as quiet as I can." And she does just that, trying to sneak around those that she sees, and trying to keep Thy with her.

Nova blinks suddenly, overcome by a familiar feeling of disquiet. Something's not right. She can't put her finger on it, but her neck hairs are certainly giving her all the right signals for a Bad Feeling (tm). She looks to the shopkeeper. "Hmm... could you hold that for me? I won't be long," she promises, tucking her carbine under her arm in a casual carry position and stepping out into the crowded promenade of the Terminus. She moves in tune with the crowd, taking advantage of the fact that most of the muscle around here is taller than she is. Surely there's something sparking that feeling... it's almost never been wrong before.

Rial Het's comlink chirps before relaying Dyannah's message, which draws a frown to the rogue's brown brows. Answering, "I hear you, luv. Outside the club wit a couple of th' others. On me way back to you." Aside, he notes to Sap (and Thryn), "I see them. Gonna head back to Dy and have a look." And a look he has, indeed. Rial promptly notices the armed men, and in the habit of rogue at work, puts effort into looking like he *doesn't* notice them. Nothing out of the ordinary, here. Just a well dressed gentleman walking along innocently.

Tharyn hasn't got a comlink, as his helmet is off, but doesn't really need one. He's got a redhead. With a flicker of a smile, the mercenary gives Sapphira a gentle nod, and draws on a pair of heavy gloves from his belt over the thinner material of his sealed gauntlets. "Step away from me, please. I'll engage them from the air when time." He makes fists, then. The gloves begin to quietly buzz, and there's a distinct tang of ozone about Tharyn's armored form.

"Another outfit?" Sesti asks Jax, trying to figure out his humor that she knows is there without inflection. She turns towards the corridors as she waits for Jax and then freezes for a moment, using her helmet to focus in on the exposed neck of one of the two people walking down the corridor. Then she shifts her glance to the other one. "Jax," she murmurs. "Mark of the Brotherhood." She taps at him and then melts to the side of one of the doorways, keeping them in sight. "Why are they working here?"

Jax rolls his armored shoulders, <Was acting like armor was just like any other clothes shopping.> He turns to look at the thug with the mark one of the pair on the concourse. His voice switching to her the com unit, <You're right on the mark. I don't know why they're here but it's nothing good.> He says moving to follow Sesti and the pair as stealthy as he can.

Almost immediately reports come back to the ship. Dyannah posts three of the crew at the corvette's ramp doors and runs to the bridge to monitor incoming calls. She skitters onto the bridge in time to relay back<<Copy that Sapphira, stun when possible. No collateral damage if we can help it.>> Almost immediately on that call Rial's voice comes over coms, <<Copy that, Rial. Careful, love.>>

Two of the three sent to the center of the station walk into the central area trying to look like they blend in with the other people on the concourse unaware that they have been spotted, one hangs back. Part of their training to not bunch up and make an easy target. The leader on the ramp speaks into his com. Over ship's com comes a stranger's voice, "Your ship the Pathfinder is being impounded in the name of the Brotherhood. You can do this easily or do this the difficult way.>

Dyannah does not answer the demand instead she radios Rial, <<We have an emergency. We are being threatened with being boarded.>>

"Comms to channel 3287," Sapphira tells Tharyn before she allows herself to fade into the crowd apart from him. And as Rial passes "I'll meet you there." And she does, too. Sapphira, being a diminutive redhead who spends most of her time on the Spice Rack, draws no eyes or suspicion. Not until she's approaching the Pathfinder, hand on her weapon, ready to draw ... ...and she trips. The dumb bish actually trips right there in the hanger. Face is planted on the cold worn metal beneath her, tuchus in the air. It's the most un-sneaky thing Sapphira has ever done. And she does it right here for all to see. The comms groan at the impact, sending feedback into everyone's ear. And Sapphira's words. <<SON OF A SITHSPIT THAT HURT!>>

Could be the hangar, could be the thugs on the concourse or spread out on either side of the hangar."

<Wait... you're being /boarded/, Dya?> Nova interrupts her search, moving instead towards the main hangar. <I'm on my way.> And she gets there, taking cover at the side of the entryway... her armor knocking loudly against the hatch lip. <Dammit...> she mutters, stacking up anyway. Better to get in position to ambush these guys, even if they're now looking for her.

Rial Het keeps his hands casually visible as he catches up to the suspicious fellows boarding Dyannah's vessel. He wears a breezy enough smile, but when Dy us in danger, he gets hasty, and the rogue walks right up to the rear most fellow, holding out a credit chit with the light words, "Ho there, my lad: think you dropped this. Yours, is it?" He sounds so sincere. And yet in the same instant a small hold out blaster appears in his left hand, thanks to a mechanism concealed in his sleeve. The rogue shoots the man twice, before his victim stumbles backward enough for the third shot to miss.

"Have my back," Sesti states to Jax as she pulls her vibroblade and keeps it low to her side when she weaves around the front of the two walking down the corridor. The closest one to her steps backwards as she takes her first stab, and she decides to skip him and continue her attack towards the second one, letting Jax take the one that stepped from her range.

<Any thing you say.> Jax says drawing the Dl-44 blaster on his right hip in a smooth action timing it so he strikes his target as Sesti enganges hers. He pulls the trigger three times quickly ozone rising from the barrel as the three red bolts strike the target. <Feel bad, like we should give them a warning.>

Was the boarding well planned or simply a diversion for what is coming into the system now. It remains to be seen. On the bridge of the ship, passive scan still shows nothing. Outside, it heats up. Rial's bluff takes one down and out of the fight but there is an immediate riposte and he drops off camera. On the station, pursuit becomes hot as Sapphira runs toward the hangar. In the concourse, the Greystorms storm two of the assailants, leaving Nova and Thayrn to deal with the other group.

Dyannah can barely contain herself reaching through her senses to Rial. "You two stay on the bridge. I want you to put a priority code call to Rori, ask for Silver Astro. Keep an eye on scans to see if they don't try to breach through one of the hatches. I am going down to the ramp." Sapphira doesn't get her tuchus shot off, quite happily so. She lifts her face from it's planted place on the hanger, stretching so she's prone on the ground. Her weapon finds her hand and as she rises she starts to fire off shots at the leader of the group, the one standing near the comms. "Get on the ship, Rial!" she yells at the man. In the meantime, she moves for the ship as well, but more to use it as cover than to actually board it.

<Dyannah, we've got company! It looks like they were surrounding your ship!> Nova coms, pivoting out to fire at the ramp campers. One merc takes two shots dead-center and collapses across the decking, stone dead before he hits the ground. Another gets solidly hit by the last shot and goes down with a scream. She looks to the side. <I'd start rolling, Sapph. You're in a bad spot out there.>

Had it been only one gunman on the ramp, Rial's direct approach may have worked. Alas for an honest rogue: his enemy had friends. The return shot blasts Rial's right leg out from under him, sending the Talusian rolling back down the ramp, until one of the hydraulic struts on the ramp stops him. The holdout remains in his hand, but otherwise the rogue lies still on the boarding ramp.

Look at these lads, trying to be sneaky; as the rest trail away, Tharyn pulls on his helmet, engaging the seals and using the tongue switches within to toggle comms channels to the frequency Sapphira had indicated. And then, well! He does what he does best - he obstructs.

Were he not constructed as he was, he could have been a freight train plowing into the group of people that the three mercenaries were busy trying to hide amongst; instead he leaps forth like a practiced runner, leaping over a bank of benches and springing upon the three. << Hello there, >> he manages before he tears into the men, fists wreathed with electricity - two blows land in the torso of the first, cracking bone and causing his heart to stop on contact with the high-energy field; the next is torn down with a savage blow to the head, the shock glove's electricity causing his brain to misfire as a major artery is burst within it. They go down like sacks of pudu, and then Tharyn turns to the third - who is promptly dispatched with the heel of his hand driven into the man's nose, which gives a perfect pathway for the nasal bone and a fresh dose of electricity to go boiling up into his conk. In just a handful of seconds, all three men are dead on the floor, possibly twitching somewhat thanks to their ravaged neurological systems.

<< Concourse, three tangos, uh, down. >> This he reports over the comms in a voice as flat as a frozen lake. << Moving to the hangar. >> As Sesti's blade bites, the man draws his own weapon, and his eyes glitter. "Hiso et Shuree," he hisses to her.

Without pausing, she bites back, "Dou fej sharee tlesu meni el'yol tira?". Hearing his own language coming back at him gives the man pause, and it's all Sesti needs. She darts in under his guard, taking out his weapon hand first, before she takes him down. As soon as the man falls, she goes to one knee quickly next to him and his dead mate, her free hand rifling through clothing and pouches.

<Looks like we got problems.> Jax says on the teams channel as he makes the corner into the hanger, <We engaged a pair of gangers in the concorce.> Then they make it to the hanger and Jax makes a huh sound, noticing all the poeple down on the ramp of the Irregulars ship. His brings up his blaster taking a couple of shots at Jarbro being he doesn't know the merc and firing. <Well I guess you guys already know. Should have been paying attention ealer.>

The hatch of the Pathfinder opens partway. Dyannah has situated herself at the top with another crewman behind her. "We are going to get Rial but first we need to get whoever that is still standing out there. Well armored, too."

Over coms she calls, <"Copy that Jax. Sesti, Nova, Tharyn, Sapphira. Rial is down. I think he fell off the ramp, I'm trying to get a fix on him now. There is one standing in the hangar now. I don't know if they are sending more. Help me get Rial in and then get to your ships.">>

<> Sapphira says from her place against the Pathfinder, leaning as if she were holding it up. But it's for cover, really! And it serves it's purpose. The redhead lifts her weapon again, and this time there's no rolling around, no stumbling about, nothing to distract her from her shots. So, she shoots. And she scores. The weapon is lowered as the Jarbro, at last, is down. <<That's the last of them out here. I think we're clear.>>

Nova lowers her weapon, taking a quick look around. <Confirming clear, Dya. Nobody left out here but us... and maybe station security in a minute. They had to have heard that. Maybe we'd better make ready to depart...>

The door to the ship stands open. Crew accompanies Dyannah as she strides down the ramp to stand next to Sesti as she gives Rial first aid. She kneels next to him silently, the empathetic connection between them strong while she waits for him to be stabilized enough to carry on to the ship. Speaking to those left in the hangar, "That was a brave fight. Thank you for that. There will be more. I can't believe they won't make another attempt. Get to your ships. Secure them. We will undock as soon as we are able."