Well forgive us these smiles on our faces (Recon Run: Ord Biniir, Sith Ascendancy)

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Seydon"] [member="Rosa Gunn"]

"Kinsey," she grunted. "Don't get cocky Xin," he wouldn't see the smirk on her face. Still. The guy could shoot as well as he dodged. In her experience, that meant more than luck. No time to unpack that now.

Kinsey pulled a pair of goggles from her satchel and pulled them over her eyes. Leaning forward once she was sure he wouldn't go flying off the back, her heel jammed down on the acceleration pedal. With a jerk, they were flying, dusty air blasting their faces and weaving through hair and tentacles. They didn't have long. Speeder bikes and tanks would probably pursue them soon.

Luckily, the bike was faster than that clunker truck. They might actually catch...

"Son of a Gundark," Kins swore in a few traveling languages. A ship hovered over the truck they were gaining on. "Friends of yours?" Flipping gears, the Starchaser pushed the bike to its limit.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Seydon"] [member="Sal Katarn"] [member="Darth Sarcophago"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Alen Na'Varro"]

Many airspeeders had flight ceilings in the hundreds or thousands of metres. This truck wasn't among them, but he'd overclocked the repulsorlift banks and pulled off the wall hop. He did that again, burning out the repulsors entirely. For anyone else, it would have been a gut-wrenching, all-or-nothing risk. For him, it came down to an unerring sense that upward was the best literal course.

Blasterfire slashed in from all sides, largely too late. The hovertruck bounced off the street and plopped neatly into the cargo bay of the Golden Rose. He winced at the groans from the truck’s bed. Without hesitation, despite the yawning cargo bay aperture only meters away, he climbed into the bed. The notched hydraulic splitter proved ideal for extracting the nails that hadn't torn free. Blood loss, concussions, dislocated arms - but all five spacers were alive.

He glanced out the bay and toggled his comm. "I'm in, Rosa. Bike coming up fast, might be Alen Na'Varro. He was covering my butt in there."

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Xin didn't actually have a great deal of friends. Hi chose to take Kinsey's question as 'associate' instead. From this distance he couldn't tell. There were a lot of corellians in the Fleet and one of them might just have been mad enough to try and pull this off. If that was the case then why had he been sent here? So far his time with them had started to draw a picture of them sending him on virtually impossible missions. Was it a test of his resolve?

Philosophical questions were put on halt by a blaster bolt skimming his shoulder. He grunted in pain and grimaced behind Kinsey. With the speed they were going and the pain from his right shoulder he decided it would be a waste of time to try and return fire now. Then a ship descended over them. The situation was getting more outlandish by the second.

"After that truck!" he grunted through clenched teeth. As they set down in the truck it would become immediately apparent to Jorus that he did not know the nautolan on the back of the bike. Xin relinquished his grip on Kinsey and slid off the back of the bike. He kept his left arm out wide and managed to at least keep his right palm on show. Faint tendrils of smoke rose from his right shoulder.

"Not imperial!" he called out. The driver appeared to be help people down from the truck. Xin intended to assist. Once he was certain he wasn't about to be shot.

 

[Seydon of Arda]

Seydon was braced at the mouth of open hold doors, anchored to the bulkhead by a length of fashioned wire clipped to a service harness. Rosa dismissed him from the forward cockpit. He had come down through a tight series of interior corridors and over a short gangway to the storage bay, grabbing a store longrifle out of a weapon’s chest installed by their chambers.

He cranked the breach open, slotted a slug cartridge, closed the chamber up and sighted down the measured barrel. It was one of a few firearms he had any comfort operating. Black powder weaponry was almost jokingly out of date. One vest pocket was weighted with more ammunition, modified rounds he’d built himself. The Dunaan watched a pair of scout-bikes take up pursuit and rise up hard over Dascoria’s low roof line. Tracked the right-most Imp-biker trying to wick and bob against the Golden Rosa’s engine downdraft. Seydon paused still and depressed the trigger. A hot ball burst out the barrel-end and a tracer-bright lance shot out and down. Right Imp-biker’s helmet burst, struck through the visor screen. Their scout-bike dipped its nose too low and forward and caught the lip of a low, ramping kitchen house.

The second scouter blitzed forward past their exploding comrade. Seydon was nestled in a bulkhead recess, slotting a fresh cartridge to the rifle breach-opening and snapping the action and barrel back into place. Hard-light pistol bolts spatted into the hold interior, scorching durasteel and blasting off the last finial. Seydon knelt down and leaned from cover, following the scout’s aerial weave. They were trying to pilot and fire simultaneously, running modified figure-eights. He paused, gauged the pattern, and fired. The shot missed, as the biker yanked to port; into a building face, ploughing through layers of ferrocrete, gympsum, and cheap duraluminium wall strutting, partially exiting the far building side as a broken doll twisted through a shattered balcony rail.

The Dunaan made his rifle safe and slung it over his shoulder, glancing from the Nautolan, to the young lady at the speeder-bike’s steerage handlebars, to the heavy transport truck mag-anchored to the hold floor. Decided to give the two additional stow-aboards the benefit of a kind doubt. Seydon vaulted up to the canvassed aft truck bed, peering in. Inside smelled like septic and wounded humanity. Bodies shivered, crying out in the gloom. Jorus was bent over one, prying heavy nail pegs from a pair of wrists and ankles. Seydon obliged lifting the crucifix post with just his hand, tossing it out the still-open bay doors.

“A-B-C’s, Jorus,” Seydon called over the wind scream. “Are they breathing?”

[member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Alen Na'Varro"] [member="Sal Katarn"] [member="Darth Sarcophago"]

 

[Rosa Gunn]

Rosa felt the bike hit the deck of the cargo bay and began angling upwards. Hands danced well practised tunes over the console, warming up the hyperdrive up ready to jump as soon as they were clear. Not that she needed it, if they got into a tight spot, Jorus was more than capable of getting them clear. Sensors flashed in warning as air patrols began picking on their trail.

She flicked on the internal comms. "I'd get out of the cargo bay if I were you and find somewhere to strap in." No sooner had she spoken than the first shots peppered her starboard side, pinging harmlessly off the shield. She wasn't concerned about the little guys down here, her shield would hold out against their firepower. She was however, concerned about what awaited them on the other side of the ozone.

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Seydon"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Alen Na'Varro"] [member="Darth Sarcophago"] [member="Sal Katarn"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Seydon"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Speeder bike controls were switched off and her hands lowered as it looked like the big man with the rifle wasn't about to shoot her and Xin's faces off. Be shot by these guys or the sith troopers behind them. Not good options. Still. There was something about being in the air that made Kinsey immediately feel at ease. That Starchaser blood.

Other dark-haired guy didn't look familiar. Seemed like someone Uncle Coren might know. Call it a feeling.

Still feeling like the chances of getting shot by these folk was up for discussion, her movements were cautious as she unsaddled the bike and knelt by one of the survivors. Hand searched in her pack and brought out a few bacta patches. Had to get those nail holes looked at first so they wouldn't die of blood loss.

"Two different groups sent in for a rescue mission?"

Piercing blues looked between the ship's crew, Xin, and back again. She was conveniently by Larry Windshaper - one of the survivors. And the one that stole her amulet. One bacta patch was peeled off and placed on the man's wrist as her eyes shifted downward to scan his pockets.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Seydon"]

Whilst there has been weapons being fired none had been pointed in his direction. Xin took this as a good sign and lowered his hands. Whilst his shoulder had been graded by a bolt he moved up to help the men on the truck. Executioners had some their job well. Nails had been placed carefully to ensure the smugglers would have hung, still alive, over the imperial citizens for some time.

Xin had mentally prepared himself to drag one of the wooden crosses away to free another man trapped beneath. Then the man who had come from within the ship tossed it back out the hangar with barely a thought.

Instead he helped another smuggler up to a seated position. Stubborn bastard trembled all the way, but looked relieved to be partially upright and leaning against the truck wall. Xin tried to imagine what that ride would have been like to experience. A view of the sky if lucky, otherwise the bed of the truck. Blaster fire overhead whilst being jostled and wounds tugged open. Perhaps the oppressive weight of several more men and crosses bearing down. Xin quite visibly shook the thought away. Better than slowly fading away to the view of gawping citizens watching your life force slowly fade from this world.

"I was just for him," Xin explained. "Though less of a rescue and more of a scouting mission to see where you were being kept."

"Dont know you..." Larry mumbled.

"Wesseq sent me," Xin explained. That explanation was accepted with a slow nod. The nautolan followed Kinsey's gaze. "Not now," he hissed. There was at least one other crew member. Human female by the sound of the voice. Heeding the warning, Xin offered his left shoulder to try and get the Corellian smuggler secure somewhere. Preferably a med-bay. Xin would welcome a bacta patch himself in his right side.

 

[Rosa Gunn]

Xin would be hard pressed to find a medbay on the Golden Rose. The ship was small, the cargo bay itself would be cramped with the hover truck and the speeder bike inside. The narrow corridor away from it led to a large room that served as kitchen, dining and living space. There were seats enough her for everyone to be strapped in and med kits in a cupboard somewhere, the second room was her private quarters with the cockpit at the far end.

If Rosa had known this was going to be a rescue mission, she'd have brought a bigger ship. Sensors went mad as the Rosa breached the atmosphere into space above Ord Biniir, her view screen lit up with red as turbolaser fire hammered down upon them.

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Seydon"]

 

[Seydon of Arda]

The decking rocked under his boots. When the first klaxon rang in the rapidly cramping bay, Seydon eased out of the truck’s box, skidding over the grille floor. He palmed a heavy, rubber-cased blue button switch. The aft bay doors juddered, hydraulics keening and pulling the weighty durasteel and heat-shielded interlocking hatches back into place. And then he was sprinting up to the forward cabin, briefly running at an angle along the bulkheads when a hard impact connected with the starboard shielding.

Open space winked bright and cold ahead in the canopy viewport. Cannon shots lanced in from distant picket vessels rushing to close in and cut off their hyperspace transit vector. Seydon was bounced into the co-pilot seat by another blow to the port shield bubble. He clicked into the crash webbing, consulting the console banks.

“Angling deflector shields,” Seydon murmured, warily glancing at depleting energy stores. A red-white bolt whisked by, a near miss, briefly filling the cockpit with searing light. Warnings began to pile across hologram read outs. He cursed, shutting off the siren and dimming cockpit lighting to a carmine glow. His knuckles bumped into Rosa’s, both reaching to input coordinates in the navicomp nestled between them. Wasn’t the time nor the place, but the Dunaan blushed for it anyway. “No, after you.”

[member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Xin Boa"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Seydon"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

Not the smartest thing to do, but Jorus let the voices wash over him without sinking in. He put all his focus on the nails, fifteen of them, and the hydraulic splitter he'd notched into a pry tool. Long steel spikes rattled in the truck bed. By main strength, he shoved the bloody beams aside and laid out the smugglers more comfortably, those that couldn't move well.

Eventually, Seydon's words registered. "They're alive. Breathing fine. Pulses are weak." He slumped over the side of the truck. His boots thudded onto the deck, and his head just about followed them. Instinctive navigation could take it out of you, and he'd pulled out all the stops to know just the right way to drive.

As Seydon rushed back to help Rosa in the cockpit, Jorus glanced at the other two rescuers. The Nautolan was conversing with one of the crucified. No real threats here; Jorus headed into the next room and shoved rations aside to get med kits. The ship trembled - a near miss or a hard maneuver. Either way, that meant their escape was far from certain. Had he told Rosa and Seydon about the Vagrant Queen, lurking half a light-year outsystem for a pickup? He couldn't recall. Maybe they knew about it already. This far out, folks had to stick together.

"Hi, folks, I'm Merrill. We've got synthflesh, anesthetics, and for the dislocated arms we've got triangle bandages. You know how to use these?"

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]
[member="Seydon"]
[member="Rosa Gunn"]
[member="Xin Boa"]


"I'm not doing anything," she hissed back, keeping her blues from rolling. Alright, alright, so Xin knew how to read her by now. Wasn't about to admit the nautolan was right. ALSO, if Larry happened to mess with the amulet or if it was already unwrapped, they might have another problem. Whoever touched the metal would be turned into a nexu.

That was the last thing they needed bounding around this ship.

Plus, the litany of questions she'd have to answer.

Kinsey eased to Larry's other side and helped Xin. Found him a seat somewhere to strap him in. So far Larry seemed too out of it to go rummaging around his pockets for a dangerous amulet that might be there. "Name's Kinsey. Thanks for not blowing our faces off back there," she spoke to Merrill and grabbed some of the synthflesh and anesthetics from his stash. She quickly turned back to Larry and the nautolan, eyeing up his shoulder she handed him one of each. "You need help with these or you got it?"

Seemed like he wasn't as lucky as he thought.

 

[Aran Finn]

[member="Seydon"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Sal Katarn"]

It all happened so fast. Merrill was a true operator in every sense of the word; from bursting into the courtyard to limping out of it with smugglers in tow, it took all of twenty seconds. Only a few in the galaxy could manage that. Merrill's escape had second and third order effects, namely as he left, most of the palace's guards gave chase. The rest of the civilians scattered, leaving only a few dead bodies and a couple of live ones. One of note stood out to Na'Varro, the bounty hunter whose shot he had caught. The man stood by himself in the courtyard, a blaster pistol in his hand ... he was clearly not leaving without a fight. And Na'Varro would oblige him.

Na'Varro lived for this.

He stepped out into the hollow courtyard to meet the man. One of the lingering guards tried to stop him, a single punch put him to sleep.

Alen stopped roughly twenty paces from the man. He winked, paused, and drew his lightsaber. He did not ignite it. Not yet.

"I'm Alen Na'Varro." His statement was a statement of fact; there was no boasting on his part. He was past that now. "I've got a feeling that my head is worth something to somebody."

The sound of a ship making a break for orbit punctured the silence of the courtyard. Alen Na'Varro smiled.

 

[Sal Katarn]

A man stepped out from the crowd. Bearded, with hard features and some gray at the temples. Took out a guard in a punch without so much as a blink, then announced himself. No threats, but then he didn't need none. The slender cylinder in the fella's hand spoke enough threat.

He said his head was worth something.

Sal reached a hand over and pressed a button on his forearm display, activating a beckon call, then he looked back up to watch the fella. Integrated facial recognition in the helmet's target acquisition system hit a match with the Guild's bounty database.

"Hm."

Fingers curled tight around the butt of the pistol.

"Yeah."

Katarn raised the gun and fired, aiming for the fella's left thigh. The disruptor bolt from the Vanir Tech pistol crackled out. Weren't the complete disintegration kind, but it could punch a thumb-width hole through pretty much anything. Katarn wasn't too sure what happened when disruptor bolts hit lightsabers. He did know they couldn't be reflected, so probably nothin' good. Weren't tryin' to kill him, but put a hole in him, put him down? Sure.

[member="Alen Na'Varro"]

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Rosa Gunn"]

"I'll managed," Xin replied. His shoulder felt awful, but a cauterised wound wasn't much to complain about compared to what the smugglers had been through. A quick inspection revealed that the bolt had barely skimmed him. That it would ruin one of his tattoos was his greatest fear about it.

Instead Xin turned his attention to the Corellian from the Fleet. "Dragoons sent me," Xin murmured quietly.

"And these?" He managed to ask.

"No. It was just your lucky day," Xin said with a shrug as he tried to seal the wounds from the nails. He tipped his head back suddenly and turned to the instigator of the rescue. "Merrill... Not the Merrill?"

He was no medic, but the life he had led meant he could do some basics. That extended to putting a shoulder back in its socket. His fingers probed the joint to see how far out it has come.

"Brace against his right shoulder?" He asked Kinsey. He took Larry's left arm and prepared to place the ball back in the socket. "This won't hurt," he lied.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Seydon"]

"Nah, that was my sister." Jorus crouched by a Bothan survivor and squinted. Careful flicks of a vibroblade sliced the wire that had sewed the Bothan's mouth shut. From there, the best Jorus could do was pop in a kolcta geltab and some extra anesthetic. Best-case scenario here was to get these folks swimming in painkillers until they got to the Vagrant Queen. Speaking of which..

"Oh, by the way folks, don't panic if you look out a porthole and see a dreadnought a couple minutes from now. Heading into Sith space without backup ain't the most advisable thing. The big ship's got bacta tanks and all that. From there we can talk options. I think we're about out of the weeds."

 

[Rosa Gunn]

Rosa smiled at Seydon's flushed cheeks, a millisecond to forget they were in danger before the viewport glowed red again. Still smirking she entered the coordinates, and adjusted their trajectory, yanking the ship hard to port, hoping to clear there path.

A brief glimpse of clear open space, and Rosa picked the huperdrive into life. Stars stretched into lines and the once screaming alarms settled into silence. Rosa unclipped her webbing and leaned to Seydon, kissing him fiercely, a taste of what was to come later.

Without a word she left the cockpit, entering the now crowded living space. She glanced over the two faces she didn't know a frown crossing her face. She opened her mouth, thinking of something smart to say about the fact that they were most certainly not Na'varro. Then her eyes moved slowly over the survivors and a sigh came out instead.

She picked one, smiling at Jorus as she knelt down, passing her hands over the tears in his palms, the skin glowed softly as it knitted together. "Well, this certainly wasn't on the agenda. Any particular reason? Aside from the obvious it was the right thing to do?" She looked over at the others, moving her hands to the next wound on her patient. "And who are you, how do you fit into this?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Seydon"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

"Got it," dropping down next to Larry, she braced his arm. 'You're a bad liar,' she mouthed silently to the nautolan, making sure his inky-eyes caught that one. Larry was becoming more lucid by the second. Seems that's what happened to survivors getting off a cross. His face paled and his lips thinned as Xin got to work. He looked over to Kinsey and recognized those too blue eyes.

"Aw Feth, it's youuuAAAHHHHHH," he bit down as Xin popped that shoulder of his back into place.

"Chill Larry," Kinsey's grip tightened a bit on his arm for one second. "Not here to hurt you or get revenge. I just need....," voice trailed off as Rosa entered.

"I was with him," chin nodded to her nautolan....friend. That was a stretch but it was something. "Searching for this guy," palm patted gently against Larry's arm. "Different reasons but we're all good now." Kinsey eyed the woman warily, recognizing skills of a jedi. "I hope."



[member="Rosa Gunn"]
[member="Jorus Merrill"]
[member="Xin Boa"]
[member="Seydon"]

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Xin wasn't certain if they were all good. Not with the way Larry reacted to seeing her. Xin slipped off his jacket and rolled it up, easing the smuggler back down onto the deck. He whimpered faintly.

"It's all done now," Xin said. "She shot stormtroopers," he said as he tilted his head towards Kinsey. For now that was enough. "I was sent to scope out where he was being held and whether he could be broken free. I was just about to send back a 'no' when you started to pull that stunt."

A look said a lot more than any token verbal gratitude could. "If we can stop off and get him treated before we..."

The nautolan's voice trailed off as he saw what Rosa was doing. He wasn't used to being around the Force. In fact this was the first time he'd seen it being manipulated. Or at least realised he had given Jorus' subtle use.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Seydon"] [member="Rosa Gunn"]

Jaw clenched tightly. Blue eyes flitted to Xin looking at Rosa. It was clear he hadn't seen much force stuff. She envied him in a way. She'd seen far too much.

Sage Bane was still out there and he'd haul her arse in if he got a chance. Uncle Coren wasn't around anymore to protect her. She'd have to do it on her own. But like an addict, even with Ava's healer-stone help on Sulon, she wasn't sure she could resist the pull of the darkside again.

"Larry. Just gonna ask one question," she knelt down real close ignoring any protests from Xin and whispered. "You got that amulet with you?"

Larry's eyes widened and he started shaking his head. "Nono. I-uh, its on my ship. I swear I'll get.." Kinsey interrupted.

"Rest up. We'll talk later." Eyes ran over the wound dressing on his wrists. Fingers gently readjusted them so they were on a bit better. She just had to stick with Larry long enough to get the amulet and get out. Easy.

Before Xin could chide her any further, she stood and moved to the next victim, spreading out her bacta patches until that Jedi chick could attend to them. Her own force powers wouldn't be of use here. No one needed an illusion.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

Xin managed to draw his eyes from the woman manipulating the Force. He'd always been good ay dividing attention. That helped to get him out of tight spots as much as his luck did.

The people who had rescued the prisoners were capable. Out of his league. Didn't know if he could trust them, but he wasn't sure he could trust Kinsey either. She nice enough, certainly fair enough shimmying down a rope above him. But ab amulet? There was more to this and Xin felt that having it out in front if three very dangerous people who would likely side with him seemed the best idea. It seemed better than finding out she did have bad intentions right before she killed him anyway.

"What amulet?" Xin asked, crossing his tattooed arms over his chest. He wasn't overly aggressive but his tone suggested it was time for the truth.

Where he could run like a coward behind the Force users if necessary.