(Star Wars d6) #46 - Loose Pets

The crew of the Pretio in this week's episode:

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo. Brother of potential terrorist, rebel Latorna Savvn. His climbing skills are suspect, but his dance moves are above par. Edging a dangerous lifestyle of drugs, booze, and loose women.

Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently rescued by the crew.  Offering his services in order to get off this barely existing hunk of mud.  His warning shots are dead center mass kill shots.

Destination: Adventure!

It only took one whirlwind day of hard driving

And hard drinking for Ne'vets' crew 

To land themselves numerous gigs

(And for Frokazza the Wookie to prevent 

His friend, Tarrie, from making yet again,

Another horrible decision.

A contract on a Devorian Snow Tiger 

Is active, but first is a quick search of the 

Takodana's system for a rogue spacecraft... 

The crew of the Pretio was preparing for an actual job, obtaining a Devorian Snow Tiger, but the lure of easy money for a few quick hours of work was too much.  A YT-1300 freighter in the middle of hyperdrive repairs had disappeared from Takodana.  Assuming a reward, or at least some light adventure, they would venture to the only other life-sustaining planet in the system, with the hopes that the thieves limped the ship there. 

With Frokazza and Evus nursing another few days of life at home base, it was Ne'vets, Tarrie, and Duk'k with their droids, running this quick errand. 

With Duk'k in the co-pilot seat, the Pretio flew off to Takodanda V. Duk'k sensors roles picked up a huge amount of debris encircling the planet, enough to venture a search.  

"I get the asteroids, but why is there so much man-made debris around this planet?" Tarrie asked.

Ne'vets quickly replied, "We're in a system with the main planet run by a retired Pirate Queen.  Where else would you dump 'debris'?"

Takodana V

Duk'k was never good with instrument panels, but with Ne'vets' penchant for horrible errors, the Sipsk'ud was far more trusted.  There were no obvious energy signatures, but he swore up and down the ship matching a YT-1300 freighter was right.... there....

Tarrie stared out the cockpit then finally peered over to the sensors.  "That's not our ship, but that's a good sized ship."

The flyby of the ship revealed a small, debilitated luxury liner.  It's engines were not running, sensor reading weren't indicating a completely dead ship.  

A second pass around revealed one major issue.  Something had hooked up to the docking clamp for the ship.  The problem was only a portion of that ship was still attached.  

"That's a docking tube for a YT-1300," Tarrie said matter-of-factly.  "Without that section, everything would be in a complete vacuum, save the sealed cockpit."

"We don't have space suits for repairing and removing that piece of the freighter, so we can dock with the ship.  Perhaps if we jettison the droid over to repair it?"

R2-H8(r) screeched its displeasure at Tarrie.  

Attempts to hail the other ship proved unsuccessful, but Ne'vets and Tarrie persistent. After a few minutes of attempts, they heard a click on the other end, a low growl, and a few higher pitch noises.  No one could translate the strange grunts and noises.  They even brought in the medical droid for an attempt, but it was of no help.  

Tarrie moved the Pretio to the bow of the mystery ship, turned on it's outside lights into the cockpit.  There was no sign of life inside the cockpit, save a half-a-meter tall triangle of red hair climbing from behind a console.  Once the lights illuminated the cockpit, the noises on the other end squealed in surprise, then cut off entirely, the red hair disappearing below.  

"Was that a baby Wookie?"  Duk'k inquired.  

Tarrie showed rare assertiveness, "Our options are (a) leave it alone (b) rescue it or (c) send H8r over to detached the docking clamp."

"We can't let that creature die," Duk'k reasoned.

Getting the Pretio as close as possible, R2-H8(r) left the ship's docking tube, and with a few thrusters, got into a safe position to secure him to an outside terminal.  

R2 failed to alert Tarrie he had already released the YT's clamp.  The debris flew back at the Pretio, forcing Tarrie to perform an odd barrel roll within close proximity of the ship, to avoid imminent disaster.  As the ship's cockpit came back around, the corpse of a women with red hair, purple skin, and antennae off her ship slammed into the cockpit window.  Duk'k quickly administered counter-measure, but a small crack appeared on the Pretio's window.  A bad bump, or the wrong piece of asteroid striking the ship, and the damage could spread and threatened the entire crew.  Tarrie quickly ushered the others out of the cockpit, and sealed it for the time being. 

"H8r, get inside and check the place out, we'll dock in two minutes." Tarrie ordered the R2.   The astromech droid maneuvered to the airlock, re-pressurized it, and not only disappeared from view, into the facility, but it's comm connection seemed to have gotten scrambled.

Arming and armoring themselves, the crew crossed the docking tube into the mystery ship.  The doors opened to a stark white room with a number of crates inside, and another door across from them with "Welcome Guests" sign in Galactic Common above it. 

A quick search revealed all the crates were empty, but also uncovered a number of empty animal cages hiding behind them.  The cages varied in size, from small creatures to big enough to fit a drop bear.

As Duk'k approached the other door.  It did not open automatically, rather two small flashing red light activated at the top of the door frame, and a computer voice spoke through the ship's comm system. 

"ERROR!  ERROR! ERROR!  We're sorry, but before you embark, all pets must be placed in approved carriers before boarding the Emerald Empyrean.   Initiating containment protocols."

Duk'k was not pleased.  "Pets?  Fuck you computer ship!"

The walls in the room slid over to reveal three small security droids with stun batons.  The first droid walked towards Duk'k, and motioned over to the collection of cages.  

"Please place your pet in the largest cage you feel is needed to adequately meet its needs."

"I am not a pet, I'm a sentient!"

The other two droids joined the other 

"We appreciate pets who perform fantastic tricks, like speaking, but we request the owners place these magnificent creatures in the appropriate pet receptacle."

Duk'k glanced towards Ne'vets, "If you have no orders, I'll be showing them a new trick," the Sipsk'ud raised his blaster up.

Ne'vets seemed nonplussed by the whole situation, "You probably won't like my input, I say let me put you in the cage.  Otherwise blast away."

Tarrie was concerned, "I really don't think you should put Duk'k in a cage, we should vote on this."

The droids called little from the crews attempt at democracy and swarmed Duk'k.   The Sipsk'ud slapped two of the batons away, but one snuck through the plates, giving him nothing more than a good shock.

Duk'k pulled his blaster under the successful droid's chin and blew off its head.  

Ne'vets could only smirk in satisfaction,  but Tarrie fumbled his blaster trying to help his friend.

Duk'k grabbed the second droid by the shoulder and tried to shoot it point-blank in the head, but the droid knocked the weapon aside.  

"Into your cage, pretty bird. Please comply."

The Sipsk'ud was forced to pummel his droid into pieces with his fist.  Tarrie lopped the head off of the final droid with a machete, and with that, the computer voice spoke up. 

"Thank you for securing your pets.  Enjoy your stay with us."

"I am not a pet. I am a sentient"

Ne'vets was finished being entertained "I wonder if we can reprogram the security protocols to not conduct security protocols."

Tarrie unsuccessfully tried his comm again, "If H8r was here we might stand a chance."

The door emptied out in a star white hallway with three unlabeled doors.  No more than two steps in

"Attention passengers, this is M2, your artificial Cruise Director.  Scans indicate a small number of pets have escaped their cages.  If you encounter one of these creatures, please contact the nearest Porter Droid immediately."

The first door was completely unresponsive to to protocols, security overrides, or just brute strength.  

The second door opened up easily to reveal a wood-panelled room, a bar, a few sabaac tables, a holo-billards table, and two green shag throw rugs.  

The trio decided it best to raid the top-shelf liquor before figuring out how to proceed.  Throughout the process, they polished off a bottle of space brandy, tried R2-H8(r) on the comms once or twice, and spoke with the medical droid back on the ship, before Duk'k looked puzzled.

"Guys, did we leave the door open?  And... weren't there two throw rugs on the floor?"

"Uh, oh, maybe it was a green Drop Bear," Tarrie joked.

Duk'k grabbed a tumbler off the back of the bar and chucked it at the other rug.  It bounced off the rug and rolled under the holo-billards table.  

Duk'k then investigated the area where he swore there had been rug.  There was no obvious movement, but he did gather a clump of carpeting, that in reality, was actually green fur.

Moving on, they opened up the remaining double door to reveal a circular chamber, with two circles of comfy looking recliners.  the ceiling of the room was a dome, covered with a different type of metal than the rest of the ship.  

The center of the room is marked out by four pedestals, each holding a sizable piece of black rock.  

"This is similar to when I went to see Laser Lloyd at the Coruscant Planetarium," Tarrie quipped.

As Duk'k crossed the center of the room, the lights appeared to dim. The further he traversed the room, the darker the room became, until it was pitch black in the center.  He turned around and walked back to the other two, who seemed more perplexed by his turning around than the changing lighting.  Alerting the others of the phenomena, Ne'vets went into the area to confirm it, then walked straight through to the other side.  

Tarrie decided it best to walk around the sides of the room.  

The crew walked out the doors on the opposite side of the room, into another white hallway, with two doors and a white marble staircase leading to a lower level.

Outside the first door, they heard three disconcerting noises:  An animal scream, a droid scream, and a manical laugh.  Opening the door, they uncovered a room tiled in sea-foam green with a few comfy chairs and a heavy smell of aromatic natural oils.  Three tables dominated the center of the room, surrounded by mechanical arms whirling around.   On the closest table, those arms were holding down a scared and flailing creature with green fur and six arms.  On the middle table was a familiar green R2 unit, again restrained by more arms..  Standing atop the furthest table was a small purple creature akin to the green one on the table.  It was laughing incessantly, and wielding a staff with crackling power....

Next: #47 - Skitter Shot