Tuesday, April 12, 2022

(Star Wars d6) #33 - Dip, Dive, Dodge

 The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.
Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.
Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.

Unknown Parting Gifts
After completting a mission for some unknown Twi'lek, 
The crew of the Pretio has been awarded the custody of 
An unknown prisoner with unknown repercussions. 


The crew of the Pretio had completed an unexpected side mission, and as a reward, won the release of a prisoner within the Obsidian Cylinder. There were two problems: First, they had no clue who this prisoner was and (2) the alleged released prisoner was hurtling out a strange second story door directly on top of them.

Frokazza surprisingly stepped out of the way with some grace, leaving Evus, Tarrie, and Ne'vets to catch the brunt of their fallen prize.  They managed to break the person's fall, with Ne'vets catching a boot to the side of the head, knocking him out.  

Frokazza tried to get his friends up off of the ground, but he was focused on the still-conscious body of the prisoner.  Their head was covered in a sac, and their arms were bound behind their back, but it was the boots that drew the most attention, or better yet, the lack of boots.  Below the knee were avian-like legs, ending in wide, orange, webbed feet.  

Meanwhile, Tarrie tried to tend to the knocked out Ne'vets to no avail, and when presented with mystery prisoner, instructed the Wookie to "unmask" them, with he and Evus at the ready.

The sack came off the prisoner's head, revealing a lush white mane.... of long feathers, flowing down the back of their head. The alien was covered in feathers, with an orange bill for a nose//mouth.  Most surprising were the seven eyes centered in his face.

Staring back his Wookie "rescuer," the alien figured parlay was the best bet for the time being. 

"Who are you guys?"

"First," Evus interrrupted, "Who are you?"

Not willing to anger these men, the alien went into exposition.

"I'm a bounty hunter.  I was in this sector in search of a particular bounty, when the ship I was hitching a ride to was attacked, I guess by these guys here.  The smugglers I was with were killed, but they kept me alive.  Thanks, I guess.  

Tarrie and Evus agreed to cut his bonds holding his arms and the alien stood up.  Frokazza walked over to check on the still-unconscious Ne'vets. 

Ne'vets finally came to, still in the arms of the Wookie, still in the same spot they had been sent to.  Seeing a Sips'kud amongst then, it was time to ask the tough questions.

"Are you the one who kicked me in the face."

"I wouldn't say as much as kicked, but was hurled in your general direction."

"Fair enough.  Do you mean to kill us."

"Your boy," motioning at Tarrie, "... looks a little ready for a fight, but I have no qualms with anyone."

"You know a way out of here?"

The Sipsk'ud ran his fingers through his feathery mullet, searched his cargo shots for a pair of sunglasses and put them on.

"I have have an exit strategy."

Ne'vets looked contented, "Here, have my blaster... You'll use it better than me."

The Sipsk'ud led them down numerous passages, narrowly avoiding the cultists and pirates alike, a few door proved troublesome, and while the alien zipped through the security, there were hushed whispers, everyone questioning the trust in the prisoner.

Evus was the loudest, "Seriously, he seems okay, but we don't even know his name."

The security door opened, the Sipsk'ud turned back, "How rude of me, I'm Duk'k: the Bounty Hunter."

Beyond the door was a motor pool, and a long tunnel heading further underground.  Obtaining a speeder transport, Tarrie piloting, and Duk'k navigating.  

Less than halfway through this tunnel, the back of the speeder burst into flames.  The rest ran back to find a a small child arsonist, who had set fire to equipment.  

"We stole a speeder with somebody's kid on it?  AND he's a pyro"

Ne'vets pulled the nine-year old kid out of the fire and applied some hasty first aid on his burns.  

Tarrie pulled over, grabbed his stretch coveralls out of his pouch, and instructed Kafla to use them to put out the fire. The kid was pushed out onto the edge of the tunnel and the speeder flew off.

At the other end of the tunnel, it opened up to a cavern, with an non-cultist directing the vehicle to wall with obvious parking spot.  Walking around the wall they hung a left and found themselves in a tiny underground hanger, with actual natural daylight down a further tunnel.  Two small stock light freighters were parked there, along with three small starfighters. 

A "Q" Ship
Tarrie and Frokazza looked at each other.  "Are those the space-worthy version of those ships we saw on Alcazzar?  Those might even have hyperspace capability."

A plan was hastily hashed together by Tarrie, "I'll take one of the fighters, somebody pilot the freighter out with everybody else." 

"Who else can pilot, Duk'k?"

"Hey," Frokazza interjected, "I'm the co-pilot and I'm right here!"

Evus seemed to develop motivation to gain access to the nearby freighter, "Those red flashing lights and distant sirens are not a good sign."

"Somebody probably abandoned a kid in a service tunnel," Ne'vets surmised. 

Tarrie dashed across the cavern to the Q-Fighter, the rest seemed to scurry up the ramp of freighter, while Duk'k appeared to wander off, apparently looking for something.  

Frokazza made it to the cockpit of the freighter, started turning things on, but looked back at the rest of the crew, "Do you think Duk'k is even a real bounty hunter.  Why, he didn't even say he owned his own ship.  What kind of bounty hunter is that?

"A poor one," Ne'vets retorted.

"Yeah," Kafla added, "I'm afraid he's going to crack up or some other foul play... AND WHY ARE WE STILL ON THE GROUND. GO GO GO!!!"

On the other side of the cavern hanger, Tarrie was attracting attention of pirates while access the hatch of the Q-Ship.  Upon powering up, he lifted off, turned around, and unloaded the ships weaponry on the other Q-ships and the service tunnel entrance.  

Mission accomplished, he landed the fighter, jumped out tried to make it back to the freighter, explosion ripping in every direction.  

Meanwhile, back on the freighter, the Wookie looked more and more panicked in his pre-flight check.  He even tried to initiate the hyperdrive... while ship was still on the ground.  

Duk'k finally walked up the ramp and reached the cockpit, fully decked out in his armor. He had found his captured equipment, exactly in the spot the pirates tossed it in.  All his stuff was intact, less one of his knives.  

Duk'k waltzed over to the co-pilots chair and started unpressing buttons and got the engines turned over.  

Ne'vets looked desperately for the ship's manual, finally finding the phone-book sized manual, none of the pages written in galactic common.

Halfway between the two ships, and attracting the blaster fire of the surviving pirates, Tarrie dodged fire in a stumbling manner, but could see the freighter lift off, with the ramp still down.  Smoke and fire clouded Frokazza's vision and with no sign of Tarrie in the freighter, he gave the controls over Duk'k and ran back to look for him from the ramp.  

Around then, Tarrie changed his mind, turned around and headed back to the surviving fighter. 

Frokazza finally made it to the ramp at the back of the ship, and could only see carnage, smoke, fire, and rubble everywhere. The starfighter was still grounded, and enveloped in fire.  Eyes tearing up, the Wookie let out a low cry and manual raised the ramp. 

Back in the cockpit, the neophyte pilot that Duk'k was was unable to keep the freighter steady, bouncing off all four of the walls, but still going forward towards daylight.  Frokazza was knocked in all directions while trying to return to the cockpit.    

Tarrie quickly powered the fighter back up and caught up to the bouncing freighter, worried that some shenanigans were occurring inside. 

As Frokazza got back to the cockpit, Duk'k opening up the ship's guns, blasting the tunnel a bit further until they emerged from another side of the big island in the Great Sea.  The Sipsk'ud could only grin.

"Where to now, brotha!"

Free of the island's caves, the crew was disoriented, taking three trips around the island before they found the Pretio.

Frokazza/Duk'k crashed the landing-gear-less freighter with no further injury.  Evus was able to get the Q-ship into one of the Pretio's cargo holds, although it obviously it couldn't be launched from there.  

Giving Duk'k a quick tour, it was decided to head west, across the Great Sea, and go back for the ecological expedition and mission Kafla had hired them for in the first place. 

41 days to go.

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