| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Nyla looks at the wound one last time before cursing. Steeling her resolve, she switches her carbine to autofire and unleashes a flurry of blaster bolts in the general vicinity of their attackers as she screams and curses at those who shot her.
Bolts continues firing at the assailants.
A loud squeal is heard as another of the Tuskans fall down the rocks and Joran darts up the hillside amidst a barrage of cover from the patchwork droid.
Joran reached out to the Force and attempted to lift the damaged speeder and advance behind it, using it as cover, until he was close enough to the Tuskens to attack with his lightsaber.
The speeder shakes a bit, but does not budge. The laser blasts continue to rain down upon the group.
" Anybody got grenades? " Bolts yells as he continues to fire.
"No, but I'm REALLY wishing I did right now!" Nyla grumbles in response as she also continues to fire.
As soon as I get enough credits, I'm getting a grenade launcher.
Bolts and Nyla both find their targets as the screeching of the raider is heard along with a human scream of pain. Shooting stops and just before Joran reaches the gun nest, someone or something blasts out of there in a jet pack and behind the opposite side of the cliff.
As the jet pack blasts out, Joran tries to get a look at who - or what - is riding the jet pack.
As the figure flies off, Joran looks behind the outcropping, looking to see if he left anything behind - or for other foes.
Nyla quickly looks to see if there are any other threats before making her way up the cliff to Joran and the origin of the ambush.
Bolts glances at Lom and then follows Nyla and Joran.
" Too easy, ha! " *adjusts hat.*
" That's not normal right? Flying tuskans? "
Among the bodies of the raiders, Joran finds two grenades, a credit chip, and two medpacs.
Among the other items found were a blaster carbine, a blaster rifle,a slug thrower rifle,and two vibro daggers.
Zoo Lom scatches his head and responds, "I don't think that is normal."
Nyla glowers at the bodies strewn about the ground. Keeping her carbine at the ready, she starts to methodically examine the bodies and search for anything useful, be it information or gear.
"So these 'Sand People' are just humans? Either that or these are imposters dressed as such."
"And the one who flew off on a jetpack wore Mandalorian armor. These are impostors. Sand People are far too xenophobic to allow outsiders among them. These weapons are also highly unusual for them to carry."
Taking one of the medpacs, he turns to Nyla and says, "If you sit down, I'll treat that blaster wound."
"Well,we haven't even made it to the moisture farm yet and we run into trouble.You guys have some serious skills.Big contracts ahead for you."
Zoo remains impressed.
"Did you say Mandalorian? What color was the armor? Did it have any markings?" Nyla inquires, kneeling next to Joran to both ask questions and receive medical aid.
"The assailant over there has a strange tattoo on his forearm. I don't recognize it, but perhaps one of you does?" She say, gesturing toward said body.
Bolts marches up, servos whirring. He inspects the tattoo.
As he set to work on Nyla's blaster wound, Joran said, "I didn't see the colors or markings, but the armor was definitely in the Mandalorian style. Sorry I can't tell you more of it."
Bolts can't quite seem to place where he has seen that tattoo before. Being in and out of service so many times, he is left wondering.
Zoo Lom asks, "Well, what do we do now?We haven't even made it to the moisture farm yet? "
"Thank you for your medical aid, Joran," she says before turning to the Sullstan.
"Perhaps these imposters were the ones harassing the moisture farm. If so, then we have one left to deal with. We should head to the moisture farm regardless. Take what you can of these bodies. I could sure use the grenades, and we could likely sell the other weapons in town if we find the right buyer. The sooner we move out the better. I want to find out who this other Mandalorian is."
Gathering the equipment from the Tusken impostors, Joran headed back down to the speeder, taking a seat in the back and quietly meditating.
Bolts looks at Nyla
" So... Ah, Can my master and I have a lift? "
Zoo looks at Nyla wondering to himself the answer to the question posed by Bolts.
Nyla follows Joran back down to their speeder and hops in. Starting it up, she looks to the Sullustan and droid. "If you want to join us you better hustle. I'm not sitting here waiting around forever."
Zoo Lom and Lor grab the gear out of the damaged speeder and hurriedly situate themselves onto Nyla's speeder.
"The farm is up ahead", Zoo emphatically points ahead.
" Uh, Hustle? " better access my data banks...Bolts stands stock still for a moment and then shrugs. Hustle: 1.push roughly; jostle. He gets into the speeder making sure to bump, shove or jostle anyone who he passes in the process. " It's good your plan is not to stay in this spot forever. That could get boring and sustinence supplies for you meatbags would quickly run out. "
Once the speeder pulls away Bolts leans over to Lom and says kind of quietly like a child's obvious whisper: " So... I'm a little confused. Were those the terrorists dressed up like sand people? Is that the princess? " He points at Nyla " Because I think she just saved us. It's not the way the trope goes but it could make for a good story. " he clings to the brim of his hat as the speeder whooshes along.
Zoo Lom chuckles uncontrollably for a moment at Bolts questions, but does not explain the situation.
The speeder races closer to the farm and as it begins the final approach, it becomes increasingly clear that there was some kind of attack on the village as things are strewn upon the ground.
The domes appear as burnt out shells. The evaporators are destroyed and smoldering. A few charred bodies can be seen.
As the speeder approaches the farm, Joran stares at the carnage about the farm. This is no raid - this is a slaughter.
As the speeder slows to a halt, Joran says, "Based on this level of destruction, as well as the fake Sand People who ambushed us, I do not think the Tuskens are behind this."
Bolts gets out of the speeder as it comes to a halt.
" We should check for survivors or see if we can track the assailants... " the droid takes off his hat and holds it by his side as he walks about looking at the ground.
Joran gets out if the speeder to look around, and reaches out with the Force to try and detect any signs of life.
Nyla also hopped out of the speeder and examined the carnage before her. Not again... I can't seem to catch a break with jobs on this backwoods planet.
"Well, so much for that job," she says, dryly. "Let's see what we can find out about who did this. Maybe they'll have something of value to make up for our losses. Plus, I want to know who shot at us and pay them some retribution."
If our adversary was wearing Mandalorian armor as Joran said, then I want to know who they are. Could they be associated with the Death Watch? she thought as she searched the rubble.
Everything is completely destroyed, burned, and blasted. Items that you would see in a normal dwelling appear to be missing. No life forms can be sensed, but while Lor is looking through the wreckage, he finds a severely damaged C1-10p astromech droid with just a bit of juice.
Look guys, over here, I found something useful. Come and see.
Joran jogs over to where Lor is, and upon seeing the droid, said, "I don't have the technical skills to repair or access it's memory banks, but we should be able to get some information off of it if we can access it."
" A survivor! " bolts exclaims as he sees the astromech. He drops his hat and crouches down to inspect the damage and see what he could do to repair the droid.
Nyla kneels next to the damaged astromech and sees what she can do.
"Let me take a look at this thing. It will take some time, but I may be able to repair it. Keep an eye out for any trouble."
"Hey you Bucket of Bolts, get over here and help me out with this."
Joran stands guard over Nyla, scanning the surrounding area for signs of danger.
Zoo Lom chuckles at Bolt's struggle with fixing the astromech unit. He then convinces Lor to have a look around. Before they depart, Zoo asks Joran if they will be ok, but he suspects that Joran and Nyla could handle themselves.
Then there is Bolts, he is a wellspring of surprises.