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.
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.
Sqarl - Quarren ex-whaladon hunter, recently hired onto the crew.
Evus - Twi'lek male, former slave, then former associate of Ne'vets, who has found his way back to the Pretio but caught back up in the nonsense of the Pretio. Former lover and boy-toy to the feared Rebel terrorist (and former Pretio crewmember), Latorna Savvn. Recent victim of a werewolf attack and (as of a few minutes) below the knee amputee, thanks to the ship's medical droid, Dr P3PP3R.
"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot. Recently injured from an attack by "werewolves," Sid has just had surgery to amputate a mangled leg and is recovering in her cabin.
R2-H8(r) - "H8R" Astromech with a confusing history, and harsh attitude towards most of the crew.
"Cousin Rancor" - Social media guru, famous for foolish holo-vids across the galaxy. Lone survivor of last failed expedition to obtain a 'werewolf'
Pitch Black
The crew of the Pretio, in the midst of
A contracted 'Werewolf Hunt", have left the planet
Belkain with two additions, the head and spine
Of one of these mythical creatures,
and previously marooned social media and
Holo-Vid star "Cousin Rancor."
They leave the planet with two things missing: one landing gear,
Although the part was recovered, and the injured
Leg of their pilot Sid, a victim of the en masse
Werewolf attack.
En route to the Kwenn Space Station for
repairs to both the Pretio and Sid,
The ship has gone completely black, and
Has tumbled out of hyperspace.
In a matter of seconds, the
Pretio was comfortably cruising in hyperspace, an hour or so out from a visit to the
Kwenn Space Stationn, to the ship plunging into total darkness, falling out of hyperspace, and tumbling end of end in the darkness of space.
Duk'k scrambled in the cockpit, pressing unresponsive buttons, trying to maintain himself in a new zero-gravity environment. He fumbled for hit floating utility boat to grab some glow-sticks. Once the blue glow enveloped the room, he began opening cabinets underneath the console to see what the problem.
"Duk'k are we okay."
"Who's there"
"Evus and Sqarl. We're okay."
Squarl bellowed up, "We need to secure Cousin Rancor. I don't trust him at all, moving freely, while all these problems are happening."
Cousin Rancor yelled from over at the lounge. "I'm secure... don't feel safe."
"You have any experience with stuff like this?"
"Like the power company turning off your power... while your ship is in hyperspace? Why aren't we dead?"
Squarl grunted, holding on for dear life, "Don't care, just don't move."
Evus, shook his head, "Fine, go secure him, Sqarl. What do you need, Duk'k"
R2-H8(r) maneuvered with his thrusters to an interface port in the kitchen.
"Engines are off, power not routing through the circuit. Even emergency power is off. Look for a broken circuit."
With some tape, some luck, and some surprising ingenuity, Duk'k made some repairs beneath the console to fix the circuit, and enable flickering emergency light and basic life support functions. .
With some function of the ship returning, Sqarl finally managed to secure Cousin Rancor to the refridgerator, "This is for your own good."
"Sounds good, man, just make the ship stop spinning."
Both were too busy with the detainment to see R2-H8(r) continuing to run diagnostics on the ship, get a crackle of energy through his scomp link, forcing the astromech droid to disconnect.
The console in the cockpit came back to life, and Duk'k was able to regain control of the ship, through a long series of thruster maneuvers.
For a moment, things seemed better.
Sqarl worked his way up to the cockpit. Upon reaching the base of the ladder, he saw the main corridors light up with red flashing lights, in addition to two unfamiliar alarms. One, similar to an alarm clock, the second a new voice that repeated,
"WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED INTRUDER ACCESSING COCKPIT WARNING"
Duk'k heard the warning, and was equally confused He was still a new guy on aboard the Pretio, but he was quite certain a stock Ghtroc 720 did not have any computerized voice systems, and from his time with Ne'vets, they didn't go very flashy on the purchase.
Things elevated as the computer voices repeated the warning, and added:
"SHOULD I ENGAGE COUNTERMEASURES?"
Duk'k replied to the alert, "Identify list authorized personnel for cockpit." .27:20
"You, Duk'k. Evus, Frokazza, Me."
The voice seemed too familiar to Duk'k. "Ummm... Tarrie?"
"Yeah, where's Frokazza? I'm not sure who these folks are on the ship."
Duk'k stood up and walked over to the ladder. Looking down, he ask Sqarl, "You're hearing this too, right?" Sqarl only gave a confused nod back up towards him.
"And what is THAT thing coming up the ladder... ?"
"That's Sqarl, he's cool."
"Haven't found Ne'vets, no Evus, definitely no Frokazza. R2 stopped talking to me. Can't you see me?"
"Uhhhh... nope."
There was a long pause as Duk'k thought of the ramifications.
"Well, it's pretty obvious, you're a Force ghost, who has engaged into the machine which is the Pretio to save us all. That's the only reason we aren't space dust right now. Even my limited knowledge of interstellar travel tells me we should have vaporized upon the unplanned drop from hyperspace, especially with no shields to protect us."
Sqarl looked up the Sipsk'ud, "Force Ghost in the Machine? Sounds crazy, but you guys seem to attract crazy."
"I'm what???? I don't...""Tarrie, it's like you came from another plane of existence, Tarrie..." Duk'k tried to explain.
"Wait, Tarrie came here on a plane? Tarrie, buddy, it's Evus, where are you?"
"Hey, Evus, I can sense you. Last thing I remember is we were running through the streets of Alderaan with Monkey Pants, and now I'm not sure where I am."
Evus nudged Sqarl aside "I'm authorized." and climbed the ladder. He whispered in Duk'k's ear, "We didn't have Monkey Pants during Alderaan. Only when we reunited on Naboo. Is it not Force Tarrie, or is he just confused. I know I am."
Duk'k tried to explain, "I think he's confused in his new state..."
"Like his new plane? Is he just drunk again on his new plane? We should open an airlock and help him out... I want Sid to get better, but I'll take Tarrie in a heartbeat if he can fix everything."
Duk'k reassured Evus that that was not the case.
"Tarrie, your consciousness has merged with the Pretio."
"Weird, makes sense, it feels like I'm paging through files and folders, like a weird monitors everywhere there are sensors on the ship. I could detect the dude, tied up next to the fridge, I saw the Calamari near the ladder, and I see Sid asleep in a cabin. What happened to her? Where's Frokazza? How I know everything, I don't know."
"Where's Ne'vets?"
"Ne'vets is trying to get.... actually I don't know."
Duk'k motioned to Sqarl to check Ne'vets cabin.
"Duk'k you want me to just open the door for this thing?"
Ne'vets cabin door open to an absolute mess inside. All the various curious, collectibles, and trophies had been tossed during the tumbling, most were laying on the floor. No sign of Ne'vets could be found.
"Anyway Tarrie, last time we saw you, we were on Naboo. Now that you're a force ghost, I assume things didn't go as well as we hoped."
"I don't know what any of that means."
"Let's get to civilization first and we'll figure things out. How bad is the ship?"
"We're drawing emergency power only. The reactor appears to not distribute across the ship, and the hyperdrive is not responding."
A quick dash down the corridor, Duk'k confirmed Tarrie's report. The hyperdrive was not responding... because it was disconnected, and possibly floating in space. Thankfully that section of the ship auto-sealed.
Heading towards the engineering console, R2 passed by Duk'k.
"The heck with you meatbags, I'm hiding in escape pods."
"Hey, that's your job!"
"Tell me once you figure out what's wrong with it."
"But that's your job!!!"
"Be lucky the life support is working, If it's not, I'll give it twenty more minutes then work on it with you guys a lot quieter." And with that, he headed towards the escape pods.
At the engineering console, Duk'k could confirm the hyperdrive was missing. He reached out to Evus.
"Evus, set the sensors for this signature. It's our hyperdrive, use the thrusters to catch up to it. "
With Evus' confirmation, Duk'k heard rustling beneath the engineering console. Opening up the doors, he was met with a pair of red eyes hiding in the shadows. Both Duk'k and the eyes stared at each other until the eyes turned to the left, revealing a profile of a Bioxin Azure.
"Rabbits, we haven't had rabbits on the ship in ages.... Tarrie? Tarrie. TARRIE?"
"I'm here."
"Can you get a bearing on these rabbits?"
"I can't pinpoint anything that deep inside of me, but I think I know it's there."
"Sqarl, go to Cargo Bay A and grab an animal container and bring it to the engineering in the back of the ship. Make sure it's big enough for a couple rabbits stuck in the reactor core."
Awaiting Sqarl's arrival, ran over to Tarrie's old belonging, and grabbed an extra job of Wookie salve he had been keeping for Frokazza. He doffed his shirt, and lathered up, as a level of protection, and to be easier to squeeze into smaller spaces. Getting back to the console, he checked up on Sqarl.
"Hey boss, still in the cargo hold, I've got the crate. I'll be there in a few seconds, but I found a problem."
"What sort of a problem, Sqarl?"
"The werewolf head and spinal column. Its container is open... and something was eating the remains."
"Lock up the container if you still can and come back in."
GM Notes: Fun fact, Duk'k botched his religious training skill rolls, so the assumption of a Force Ghost in the Machine was adopted by everyone without question. No one has a clue where Ne'vets is.
Next: #98 - Infestation and Repair
No comments:
Post a Comment