(Star Wars d6) #98 - Infestation and Repair

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.  Currently missing after the Pretio's abrupt stop.

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.   

"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot.  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.  Still recovering from the procedure in her room. 

"Ship Tarrie" - With the recent catastrophic failure on the Pretio, the subsequent reboot has an awoken an AI to the ship that seems to believe it is previously MIA/KIA pilot, Tarrie Prolek

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'.  Currently detained and secured in the h

Multiplying Problems

Shocked by the Pretio suffering a catastrophic system failure, 

Falling out of hyperspace, and every nothing blowing up,

The crew is in a bit of a pickle trying to repair some 

Apparent reactor, all the while trying to figure

Out where their Captain and Employer, 

Ne'vets Aharo, was disappeared to. 

To make matters worse, it appears that some

Of the Bioxin Azure Rabbits from a previous

Mission had escaped into the walls of the ship, 

And have been procreating over the past few months

Damaging a number of other systems and supplies.

Duk'k continued to peer inside around the reactor of the Pretio, while trying to interpret a holo-schematic of the ship.  

"Kriff, these things are small enough to travel throughout the entire ship."

He chucked a doze grenade inside the panels.  After a few second, he popped a rebreather in his mouth and motioned at Squrl.  "Grab a cage, I'll anything I find in here."

Within second Duk'k tossed out his first Bioxin Azure Rabbit, then another, and another.

Ship Tarrie sensed something bad, but unspecific.

"Friends, there is still movement afoot that is not you...."

With the rabbits gone, Duk'k could finally take a good look at the potential damage. "Is it around here, Tarrie???"

Ship Tarrie did not answer.

Turning a corner, Duk'k found two more normal Bioxin Azures, and a larger one, breathing with great difficulty.  It didn't appear to be pregnant. 

"Sqarl, three more coming out.  They're pretty hefty."

A few tosses out of the reactor panel, Sqarl crammed the last rabbits into the crate and moved them to the open cargo hold.  He grabbed another crate and returned to the reactor. 

Duk'k reviewed the carnage outside of the reactor core, ".... and they've done some damage on these cables.   How are we not dead???  Sqarl toss in a spanner and some duct tape."

"You have your own tape?"

"Funny, toss that stuff in.  I'm trying not to die while while wearing just pants and a rebreather..."

"Friend Duk'k I can't see the damage, but I may be able to help you reroute the cables...   Hey R2, can you help with these guys?"

R2 was a bit curt. "I have three inches of protection when the ship goes nova.  Not going to risk it.  Tarrie, what have the meatbags done for you.  They wouldn't even come back to you...."

With no help from the astromech, Ship Tarrie, began to interpret the damage and offer assistance to Duk'k.  

A few mintues later, Tarrie stated from out of the blue, "Friends, explosion reported in Room 11, Cargo Bay A."

Sqarl was confused.  He had heard no noise and walked back over to the cargo bay door.  He could see nothing out of sorts through the port hole window in the door.

"No explosions here, we're safe."

Evus chimed in, "Not related to any explosions, but I'm going to need to bank hard to keep up with the hyperdrive."

Duk'k  acknowledged the maneuver, and the Pretio banked hard to the right.  

A half-hour later, Duk'k completed enough repairs to route more power to essential systems.  Gravity and environmental were at 100%, all lights were operational, even the shields and weapons were beginning to boot up.  He emerged from the reactor core, with two awake but complacent Bioxin Azure Rabbits his hands.

"Sqarl, did you see any damage from that reported explosion?"

"I didn't, but I'll take a closer look now."

"Good, I'll go look for equipment to try to lasso a hyperdrive floating in space."

The Sipsk'ud walked past the shackled Cousin Rancor in the lounge.  

"Hey Duk'k this is better, lights, oxygen.  It looks like we're not going to die quite yet."  

Duk'k rolled his eyes and proceeded to a supply closet.

Sqarl peaked through the port hole again, and no seeing any changes, decided to check on Sid.    Sid had been secured to her bunk after the surgery, so the ship failure and tumbling wouldn't send her flying across the room.  

He open the cabin door, and Sid was not there, replaced by a rabbit-like creature, covered in a black slimy exoskeleton, and a larger head filled with dozens of small, razor sharp teeth. 

Quite an alien-looking creature....

The creature turned its head, puzzled by the Quarren in the doorway.  The Quarren was less puzzled, unshouldering his rifle, and sending a silver harpoon screaming towards it.   To his surprise, the creature dodged the harpoon by leaping straight up and through an open vent on the ceiling. 

As the vent door bounced to a stop, Sqarl heard an odd thumping-walk down the hallway.  It was Sid, using an elaborate stick as a crutch.

Sid had woken up earlier, unstrapped herself from the bed, and after re-arming herself, struggled down the hall to Ne'vets cabin.    Ne'vets was not there, but there was an assortment of curios and collectibles strewn across the floor.  Sid did see the Kalamuuntu Walking Crutch, a perfect size walking crutch that was the traditional retirement reward of those who hunted the Narlaxian Drop Bear.   She had poked around the debris when the door shut, and Sqarl passed by in the corridor. 

Sid didn't believe what Sqarl had seen, so he decided to broadcast it over the coms.  

"Found a rabbit in Sid's room.  Probably mutated into something hideous.  It escaped into the vents."

Duk'k responded, "Not good, is Sid alright."

"Standing next to me right now, unharmed."  

"Good, keep her close."

The coms were interrupted by a panicked Evus, "Guys you don't hear Ne'vets screaming, he's shooting at something.  I just don't know where he is."

The crew fumbled with their coms, and Squarl found the exotic animal broker on a never used, non-universal channel.  

"HELP!!! HELP!!! Something's in the vents, I can't move.  ARRRRGGGH *BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM.... UGH...RRRR..."

Duk'k could hear the off-echo of the blaster shots emerging from a nearby vent, "How did he get in THERE?"   He readied his blaster and pulled himself into the vent.    After turning a corner, he could hear Nev'ets moaning, obviously in pain.  He somehow got himself lodged in the vent, and he had apparent injuries to his feet and legs.  

Ne'vets acknowledged Duk'k and tried to help pull himself loose and out of the vents.  His right foot has a bloody mess.  

Ne'vets explained he was asleep when the Pretio lost power and went dark.  He was getting bludgeoned by all his collectibles and trophies, and in a move he now realized was unwise, crawled into the vent on along the floor for any protection.  The ship may have been ready to explode, but he wanted a few seconds to recover in peace before it happened.  

When the ship didn't explode, or all cabin pressure was lost, he tried to find an unblocked passage, only to get lost a few minutes into his effort.  The vents were largely soundproof, and he must have knocked his coms a bit.  

It wasn't until those last few minutes when the rabbit-creature came down the vent.  Ne'vets was able to dislodge himself enough to rotate onto his back, pull out his blaster, and fire at the creature.  He may have missed entirely, blowing off his toes in the process.  The blaster shot proceeded to hit the creature and ricochet up and down the vent, until it fled.  

"It wasn't a direct shot, probably a ricochet that got your foot."

Duk'k got him up to speed, and questioned Sqarl, "So there was still nothing in regards to the explosion, right?" 

"Oops, let me check again."  

This time, Duk'k and Sqarl went into the cargo bay.  Everything looked okay, but upon further inspection, the crate holding the first seven rabbits had burst open away from the view of the port hole.  Two of the rabbits were still in the busted crate, quite dead, and the other normal sized ones were gone.  The crate itself was covered by the residue from the remains of the larger one they had obtained.  From the looks of things, it apparently exploded inside the crate, with tremendous force. 

"Alright, there might be more of these things, up to four total.  Let's secure what we can inside, grab that hyperdrive outside, and fix this problem.  Coming back to the cabins..."

Evus, "Oh yeah, I need to do something...." and with that he climbed up the ladder and back to the cockpit.  

Once Sqarl and Duk'k came back to Sid, she snorted in disgust, "Maybe I should hop up there.  Something might get accomplished.  Sqarl, check my six in the cockpit?"

"Will do."

"Great."  Sid hopped up the ladder to the cockpit, "Evus go help Duk'k for awhile..."

Ne'vets was sent to Dr P3PP3R to see the extent of his damages.  

"We could re-attach your toes, if you could find them in the air duct."

Cousins Rancor, quipped while Duk'k help Ne'vets to the sick bay. "I thought of a new holo-vid... how long can people stay in an air duct.  We put fifteen people in and watch them go crazy.   We throw in some of these rats."

With everything secured for the moment, and no screaming on the coms, Duk'k walked over to the other cargo hold, containing the Piscopo.  

There was no damage to vehicle or contents, at first glance.  However, looking at the grenade dispensers on the wall, the contents of the doze and frag grenades were empty.

Moving the dispenser off the wall revealed a pair of gaping holes, perfect for the grenades to fall through the wall, and into the sub-structure of the ship.

"It seems our entire supply of grenades is missing...   Let's hope our ship doesn't take a blaster shot.  Sid, work on powering on the shields between your maneuvers."

Peering into the hole, Duk'k  reached for his com again for more commentary.   The other crew members only heard blaster fire.  

Evus was the lone crew member to investigate.  He found Duk'k next to the hole, trying to find something to wipe something off his armor.  The sizzling sound of something eating away at parts of the armor could be heard under the constant cursing of the Sipsk'ud.  

"Damn thing surprised me.  I surprised them back.  By the way, they bleed acid when they explode."

GM Notes:   The problem with multiple GM ideas, and multiple sessions to resolve anything, is that when things culminate, it's not just one idea.  

Werewolf plotline?  Check!  Reticulant Parasite (aka xenomorphs)? Check!  Perfect timing to run an early Halloween session based on Episode 42 of the Star War Mynock campaign from the Campaign Podcast. 

Ne'vets player missed a session and thanks to grade school math homework, was late to this session, so he waked right into Ne'vets recovery.  Not as bad and Sid, but the creatures have shrunk considerably.

Next: #99 - A Reticulan Gambit