Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Garrett
Errin
Gunnar
Kaldo
Rennah
Nikto (All)
Swoop Gang (1-6)
Swoop Gang (7-12)
Radigan
The swoop bikes, of which there are many but the range the Nikto currently occupy blocks your view of exactly HOW many can be heard approaching fast.
Soon enough a handful appear coming around the mountain towards the outcropping near where your group and the Hutt and his minions reside.
The thugs appear tweaked out with tics and shakes even from the long distance away. "Hutt. Radigan's tired of playing games with you! WE don't want some of the spice anymore we want ALL of the spice!"
Mika shouts back, "A recent development has increased my bargaining power I believe significantly. Tell Radigan that he can take his leave to return to Tel Bolin or he can leave his corpse here in this ravine..."
The thug snarls, "Wrong answer you fat slug!"
=======
=======
When the thugs stand up and start shouting, Garrett scoffs over the comms. <<"Errin, let's light them up. I'll take our talkative new friend, if you want to pick off someone else. Kaldo and Rennah, let us know where you need a shot or two and we'll make it count.">> Giving it a moment after he speaks, Garrett shifts his aim slightly to blow a hole in the chest of the poor, unfortunate thug who decided to stand up and speak.
Errin fires on the first of the twitchy swoop gangers to appear in her sights, then just keeps firing, selecting a new target each time one falls.
Kaldo speeds towards a ganger, barrelling into his craft.
Rennah draws and activated her lightsaber, readying an action to charge out and attack the first ganger to get into range.
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Errin and Garrett put an emphasis on Mika's dismissal with blaster fire!
Of the two closest swoop thugs the first is hit by Errin, he manages to remain in his seat. Garrett strikes the fuel tank of the second rider, it explodes throwing him off but he is still up.
Both Rennah and Gunnar hold back not wanting to expose themselves until the gang members come closer.
Kaldo meanwhile drives the transport towards the farthest of the swoop pilots.
The Nikto are so stunned by the fast reaction of the Imperial forces that they pause.
A voice screams from the other side of the outcropping, "Get in there and finish them and that spice is all ours!"
Garrett's second shot strikes the thug as he tries to bring his bike to bear down on Garrett's allies. This time he goes down and clearly won't be getting up.
Kaldo and the transport meanwhile slam into the mast of these thug "emissaries". The transport rolls over the swoop bike but in turn rolls as well!
The sounds of several bikes close in, they are just about ready to round the outcropping and speed into your ranks!
The closest one though receives a shot in the gut from Errin for his efforts! Still, this breed of thug appears more sturdy than the last group encountered.
The Nikto from atop the range fire but their shots miss the fast moving thugs. The rest of the Nikto take a knee to make themselves smaller targets and await the rush.
Two of the thugs fire their blaster pistols at Kaldo in the cab of the transport.
Both shots are repelled by the windshield of the transport but the glass is riddled with weaknesses by the blaster bolts, that glass may not hold out much longer!
Garrett's next shot brings down the lead thug that Errin injured!
Cool as a dead tauntaun hanging in an ice cave on Hoth, Errin watches as targets fall, then eases her sights on to the next one.
Kaldo pulls his body through the shattered glass and twisted metal of the transport. He takes cover behind the destroyed vehicle, pulls out his blaster, aims at the nearest gang member, and fires.
Kaldo decides to risk the possibility of the glass breaking. Instead of ramming the enemy once more, he decides to weave in and out of their vehicles , in an attempt to send them into disarray, and, if he gets lucky, cause them to crash.
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Kaldo pilots the operational transport towards the next set of speeder bikes, his proximity and speed are too much for the closest thugs to avoid and they are tossed from their bikes!
Crash Damage
The rest are able to evade as they are heading towards the Hutt directly!
The Nikto pull up from their knees to converge on their Master making themselves easier targets, essentially sacrificing themselves for him.
The thugs take their initial attack runs though the first wave to arrive are only a handful.
Errin's blaster rifle emits a low pulse, it appears the battery pack ran out of its charge and the weapon does not discharge.
The bulk of the swoop bikes can be heard but not yet seen though you have no doubt they speed towards your positions even now!
Garrett stays steady when the swoop gangs make their first attack run, waiting for them to retreat and circle back around before picking another target; he takes advantage of their unfortunate positioning and aims to blow out another fuel tank with his rifle. He gives a momentary glance over at Errin when he doesn't see her fire, but once he's certain she hasn't been hit he focuses in and takes his shot.
Kaldo turns around, and begins to head in the same direction as the speeders. He stomps on the pedal and tries to go as fast as possible.
Seeing Gunnar tossing one of the Gangers nearby, Rennah grips her Lightsaber and charges out:
Errin curses as she ejects the defective clip and tosses it aside, deftly slapping in a replacement but still wasting precious time. Glowering, she snaps off a shot at one of the injured bikers before settling in and re-establishing her aim.
One of the closest thugs is thrown off of his swoop bike by the power of the force!
Rennah charges out at the other, slicing deeply into him as he flies by!
Kaldo drives the transport into the next set of swoop bikes.
This time the thugs are able to evade Kaldo's all out charge.
Meanwhile, Garrett once again takes out the lead thug from a distance.
Rennah grips her lightsaber tightly and snarls as she lashes out with a vicious couple of attacks on the same ganger.
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Gunnar uses the Force to lift the nearest Thug off of his bike. Rennah now has two available targets! She focuses on the one she already struck as he is still in mid-air. Somehow he spins in a somersault laughing maniacally as Rennah misses him. He backswing though cuts him in half and his laughter ceases.
More of the thugs sweep in, their veins pulsing at the thrill your group is giving to them! They fire in at the Hutt and strike down two of his Nikto.
The one on foot manages to scramble up to a knee and fire at Rennah.
Rennah need not even deflect the shot it is so wide.
One of them yells out, "They got snipers up there man close in so they can't pick you off!"
His warning is prescient but far too late to save himself as Errin's next shot takes his head clean off!
The Thugs still on speeders close in on the position of Rennah, "Shoot at the Jedi!" "That ain't a Jedi that's a Sith!" another retorts. A third barks out, "Just shoot her!"
In the meantime, the Thugs on foot fire at Kaldo.
Thug 4 shoots at Kaldo Blaster Pistol - Damage
Thug 7 shoots at Rennah Blaster Pistol - Damage
Thug 8 shoots at Rennah Blaster Pistol - Damage
Both shots find the mark on Rennah this time!
Both Thugs are not able to strike Kaldo but the transport sustains more damage. A few more shots like that and it won't fly any longer.
Around the bend Kaldo sees a lone figure on a swoop bike fly towards him. Unlike the others this one is not strung out on Spice, he fires at the transport with cannons mounted on his bike!
This time the shots find their mark and blast through the windshield.
(ooc]Damn, if he's critted that's probably not enough! Directing that back at him would have been great![/ooc]
Taking several blaster burns, Rennah renews her attacks on the thugs in front of her.
+ if the first attack hit.
Garrett grimaces when one of the gangers starts to close in, and then notes the two shooting at Rennah. Begrudgingly, he adjusts his aim and focuses on the one who got in a lucky shot, hoping to take him out before he can do any more damage. <<"Rennah, you alright?">>
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Rennah's lightsaber at first appears to slow to stop the Thug's one in a million shot but at the last second the Living Force brings the saber up, the shot is then reflected and the thug is blown off os his swoop bike, as it steers itself into the ground!
Rennah then charges the next thug cutting him down as well! It seems that while this drug makes the thugs stronger and braver (or is it just more foolhardy?), it does not make them any tougher!
Garret's next shot dislodges and kills yet another member of this quickly thinning gang.
The Nikto all concentrate their fire on another member of the gang, though half the shots miss half the shots also hit and he too falls.
Her blaster humming with a fresh power pack, Errin lines up a carefully-aimed shot at one of the remaining swoop gangers.
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Gunnar forces the closest one off of the bike as he steps out from cover to get close enough to do so. Before the thug can hit the ground, Errin's next shot finishes him off.
The last two thugs, seeing the carnage before them turn tail and run, perhaps all of their companions dying sobered them up just enough for them to decide self preservation is the best they can hope for at the moment.
The Hutt claps and his men begin to clap with him, "Your abilities are truly wondrous to observe!" The Hutt bellows to the Imperials as the blaster fire ceases.
=======
Kaldo, you see the leader realize that discretion is the better part of valor, he turns his swoop bike back the way he came and begins to flee!
"Let's not let the snakes disappear back down their hole -- they'll only breed more that way," Errin says over comms as she lines up a shot at one of the fleeing swoop gangers.
Garrett follows suit with Errin, taking a parting shot at one of the swoop gangers as they ride off, tagging the same target as Errin if they don't fall from her first shot.
"Yeah, we're real impressive. We're still going to need to deal with the CSA, but once that happens we can get off-world pretty quickly."
Kaldo leans out of the window of the moving transport, and fires his blaster!
Rennah turns off her lightsaber, and nods to herself in satisfaction.
"It'll do. But did anyone see the leader of these guys?"
Rennah isn't too interested, but she help Gunnar in case they have commlinks, maps or anything that could help them get off the planet quickly.
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Errin and Garrett, even at medium range, are up to the task and finish off the last of the two injured Thugs.
Kaldo shoots at the leader but he is able to swerve out of the way and is around the outcropping far to quickly for him to follow on foot, the speeder is damaged but repairable Kaldo suspects with perhaps a few hours of work though new glass is out of the question.
Mika responds to Garrett, "No, let me and my contacts take care of the CSA. My desire is to get offworld and I assume you got here so you must have a ship to get back off no?"
Gunnar finds nothing of value save perhaps spice that these thugs were using to boost themselves with. Their appearances are horrific indeed as he gets closer to them, veins clear to see beneath the skin, jaws clenched, teeth ground from the spice use no doubt.
"If you can deal with the CSA, it's no skin off my nose." Garrett swings his rifle up around onto his back again, wiping off his hands. "Can you get us a way past the blockade, too? If not, we'll have to run it. That's not a horrible problem, but it might be a bumpy ride."
Errin scans the horizon, searching for additional threats. Seeing none, she climbs down from her perch and joins the others.
She nods, happy to let the Hutt deal with the CSA.
"So, Kaldo, how quickly can you get that transport running again? We need to go fetch the Emissary and get the Hutt and his crew on board before anyone else comes calling."
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
Mika shakes his head, "I've no way to get past the blockade but I have ways to get you scrubbed form their records as a subversive if that is what your group needs.
I may assume here but as you ran the blockade to get here I should think you could run the blockade to get out..."
===
As Errin approaches Kaldo she sees that he took some scrapes on this side of the ridge battling alone. The transport though took the worst of it to be sure.
===
"We've got the baddest ship in the system, so yeah, I think we can run the blockade again," Errin says.
"I've got no problems with us running the blockade, but if we had a way to get around it I wasn't going to complain."
Kaldo looks at the transport. Hmm...
"I'd prefer avoiding it, rather than running it. We can always have "running away" as Plan B."
Rennah looks around the area they're in, trying to see if she can find any evidence of an actual crash instead of a landing.
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
"Consider the scrubbing of your records done, it is the least I can do to repay you. Once you return me safely to my Father I am sure that he too will reward you handsomely".
Mika waves Kaldo off of the transport, "My Nikto can repair that and move it into a nearby outcropping. Let us board my sail barge and head to your ship that we may get off of this wretched planet. A crate of spice I would also like to bring, my men will guard the rest. Once quarantine is lifted, which I a sure will be only a few months away at the most, I will send my henchmen to pick up the rest... Orgamon, attend to me and prepare the vessel for departure. I assume your pilot Kaldo can sail one of these?"
Rennah, from what you can tell it was most certainly a crash.
Errin thumbs the private channel on her commlink, so only the other group members can hear:
<<Wasn't our deal with Vago to salvage the spice? Seems likely we can take Mika to his father and trade for the secret route coordinates that way, but if can bring the spice, too, we might be able to deal with both ... although Mika might get worked up about it.>>
"Do you think we can do a switch on the crate?"
Endregaard - Day 4 - The Prize
The Nikto load a few crates onto the skiff and begin to move the swoop bikes into a pile near the front of the ship. They also fly the severely damaged transport to another nearby outcropping to hide it from aerial view.
The Imperials gather their gear from the transport and board the skiff.