(Star Wars d6) #3 - SPAAAAAACE PIRATES!!!

Our "Heroes"
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise
Evus - Twi'lek former mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle
Tarrie - Human pilot for the upcoming mission
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle.

Shanghai'ed!

Our heroes, aboard the Imperial Passenger Cruiser Hyrkania,

Have been attacked by pirates!  

Thanks to the muscle mass of a Wookie, 

They've been able to subdue a small handful of the space bandits. 

But when an errant blaster shot knocks out Frokazza,

Things get a little hairy.

Evus and Tarrie dragged the downed Wookie into an airlock/lift.

Ne'vets quickly ran back to the Wookie's room, grabbed his briefcase bowcaster, and in a titanic waste of shots, barges down the corridor, blaster blazing, to distract the pirate riflemen, proceeding to dive into the airlock/elevator.

A quick blast of the airlock's controls bought them some time and they negotiated the central hallway to the medical station.  Tarrie was able to stabilize Frokazza, but the Wookie was still out cold.   More screams and blaster shots could be heard around the ship.  

With all the action occurring in the front of the ship, including the weapons locker, and, if things went south, the escape pods, they moved up the deserted hallway to the front airlock/lift. 

Ne'vets disabled the lift controls, and allowed Evus to manually open one set of doors and sneak down to the huge observation deck.  Screaming passengers continued to be herded toward the front of the ship, forcing the Twi'lek to hide in hallway crevasses.  Once getting a good view of the observation windows, Nevus could see a very beat-up Correlian Cruiser docked with the Hyrkania, possibly from above.  The Twi'lek returned, re-sealed the door and reported his findings."

Tarrie was confused, "Pirates docking with us?  How did they do that with us in Hyperspace?"

Just then, two other doors to the airlock opened with two pirates on each side, very surprised to find the heroes (and a possibly dead Wookie).  

Evus literally leaped into action, catching both of them flat-footed and performing a double clothesline. 

Grabbing their blasters and handing one to Ne'vets, Evus moved towards the opposite side of the ship.  After watching another group of terrified passengers and following pirates dashed down the other hallway, they all could spy the nearby planet out that side's observation windows.

"Don't know what it is, but it definitely shouldn't be a regular stop." 

The lift began to jerk, as someone on another deck was trying to clear Ne'vets' override.  It lurched another time, and the others moved Frokazza up.  The lift continued to move up foot by foot, and before it cleared, our heroes spied something on the other observation deck.  A pirate could be heard, saying that the back end of the Hyrkania was cleared of passengers and they were good to go.  

Further towards the bridge, the sounds of repeating blaster fire, a few muffled screams, and a lot of thuds could be heard.  

Nevus led the charge up the opposite side of the ship, but it was Tarrie who soon took over the lead.  He got to the corner of of the wide-open disembarkation area and spied around to see a ghastly sight.  There were at least two dozen pirates, largely facing the opposite direction.  Three of the pirates were wielding heavy repeating blasters in harnesses and facing the far corridor.  He could make out a handful of bodies, but he was sure that most of the passengers were dead.  

Tarrie stealthily tried to make it to the weapons locker, and if needed, the Hyrkania''s bridge.   Halfway to the locker, he could see that it had been blown open, and most, if not all, of the weapons had already been seized by the pirates.   He turned to head towards the bridge and not two steps in, kicked a piece of debris, which hit the wall with a large *KAR-PLANG*. 

All twenty-some pirates turned around, quite confused.  

Tarrie went into a short monologue about how he lost his blaster, and everybody already took the pistols from the weapons locker, and what's up with that.

*crickets*

Evus had seen enough and with two hold-out blasters in hand, came around the corner and began firing wildly.  That allowed the pirates to turn their attention (and weapons) fire to him, and gave Tarrie a chance to dash down the corridor.  

With their options extremely limited, the trio, still dragging the Wookie, dove into one of the last escape pods, and shut the door.

"Thank you for using Hyrkania's escape pod system.  For the courtesy of the other passengers, the hatch will not lock until we are ready to depart in one minute."

The pirates rounded the corner and began firing. 

Ne'vets quickly went over to the door control panel and expedited the countdown, Tarrie grabbed the seat with some controls, in hopes that he could maneuver the craft, and just when things looked the bleakest.... Frokazza the Wookie woke up, quite startled by his environment.

In seconds, the Pirate's heavy repeater blasters made it near the escape pod, just as Ne'vets overrode the system, jettisoning the escape pod into space!!!

It's unsure what happened next.  Perhaps the heavy gunners breached a panel on the ship, causing instant decompression.  Perhaps it was the Pirate Corvette Blaster Cannons firing at the pod, and damaging the Hyrkania.  Regardless, both ships exploded, and either weapons fire or debris hit the pod, sending it out of control (and knocking out the badly injured Frokazza... again) and sending it hurtling down to the unknown planet below.

Next: Episode #4 - Crash-Landed!