(Star Wars d6) #99 - A Reticulan Gambit

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.  She has recently left her room and assumed the controls of the partially crippled ship.

"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 lounge.

Bugs in the System

Still stranded in the middle of space, 

Thanks to an unmitigated infestation of

Bioxin Azure Rabbits, the crew of the Pretio

Has uncovered and an even more sinister truth:

The rabbits have become infected with 

Whatever afflicted the "werewolves" on Belkain

And they have become vicious, acid-blood hurling

Xenomorphs of their cute and cuddly former selves.

Can the crew eliminate the threat, 

Secure the missing hyperdrive,

And reach the Kwenn Space Station, 

Without any significant loss of life or limb?

Duk'k wiped more low grade acid from his armor and called on R2-H8(r).  

"Hey H8(r), there's some structural damage in the Piscopo's cargo bay.  The quicker you fix it, the quicker we all get out of here..."

R2 surprisingly complied and Duk'k could see him coming up the ship, before the Sipsk'ud left the cargo bay and walked over to the other hold.  Before entering that door, he bellowed over to Evus, 

"Hey, watch Ne'vets for me.  Cousin Rancor isn't going anywhere."

Inside, he began rummaging through the supplies, trying to find different apparatus to capture the infected bunnies.  He walked over to check the werewolf remains, which continued to be secure.  

He was forced back a moment later, as the airlock broke.  The lift for the hold opened rather quickly, sending unsecured items into the vacuum of space.  Duk'k ignored the increasing stresses of space to ignite his jetpack and stay inside.  He not only flew to the other side of the room, but managed to re-secure the broken landing gear that was sliding off the platform.  As he pulled the gear off and over to the side, he narrowly missed the hyperdrive clumsily fly into the chamber.  

The lift rose back up, re-sealing the room, and resetting the oxygen and pressure.  Once things were normalized, Evus and Dr P3PP3R came storming into the room and pulled Duk'k out into the hallway.

"I'm unsure what has happened to Mr Duk'k, but it appears to have sucked two years off of his life."

Duk'k could barely gasp, "That's two years at the end, right?"

Meanwhile, Ne'vets Aharo, had been abandoned in the makeshift medical bay in the back of the ship.  The pain of his foot injury was slowly abating with the treatments of Dr P3PP3R, but recent commotion in the front forced both his temporary bodyguard, Evus, and the medical droid to investigate.  

His foot healing, but quite tender, Ne'vets grabbed a smaller crutch and limped down the hall and follow the duo.

He arrived by the door for the cargo hold, to Dr P3PP3R standing over Duk'k, seated, back against the door.  The Sipsk'ud was panting heavily and the scent of spent rocket fuel was in the air.  

He walked over to the Sipsk'ud, but when he appeared non-communicative, he tried to venture through the door,  Duk'k reached out his arms and grabbed Ne'vets pants leg.

"Hold... depressurized.  Give it a minute."

"Are we ejecting bunnies?"

"I hope so!"

"Good job team!"

Ne'vets resorted to peering through the window.  The landing gear was missing, but a hyperdrive was sitting against a wall.

"Are we trying to collect space junk to sell as a profit? Good job, team."  

Ne'vets pulled out his com, "Team, status report."

"Ship Tarrie" was first to respond.  "Cargo hold breach resealed no issues, Sid can I assist with anything?"

"Hyperdrive secured in hold, no other issues.  Tarrie please run diagnostics on reattaching it to the ship."

Sqarl chimed in, "Cockpit is secure."

A moment of clarity was interrupted by a blood curdling scream.  Duk'k, Evus, and Ne'vets ran to the lounge.   Cousin Rancor was still secured to the couch, but two of the infected, mutated rabbits were on his chest, gnawing holes into him.  

Duk'k whipped out two blasters and unloaded on the creatures. Both were hit, and curled up into a ball, rolling off Cousin Rancor's body, and rolling away from them.   Cousin Rancor continued to scream, with quite a bit of blood.

Duk'k yelled "Medic!" and tried to follow the escaping creatures. 

Dr P3PP3R hurried over to treat Cousin Rancor. 

Ne'vets gained access to the cargo hold, to try and find a more effective cage to capture the creatures.  

Meanwhile, R2-H8(r) completed his repair work and worked over to the same hold as Ne'vets, to try to begin moving the hyperdrive.  

Duk'k managed to pin the two bunnies against the wall.  The vents were potentially out of reach for the critters, but the Sipsk'ud wasn't taking any chances.  One shot destroyed  one bunny, exploding it against the wall on the starboard side of the ship.

The lone bunny sprinted down the hallway, and crashed through a panel on the reactor.  

Duk'k peered into the reactor from the broken panel.  There was no sign of the creatures, or any other critters.  He whipped two doze grenades off his combat belt, chucking down two of the access portals. 

Except one clipped the instruments or part of the reactor, bouncing back, and detonating closer to the broken panel.  A foggy cloud emerged from the reactor, enveloping Duk'k and Evus, but the duo appeared unphased.

"Hey Tarrie, do we need to access the reactor to reattach the hyperdrive."

"No way, buddy.  The hyperdrive needs to be reinstalled beneath the starboard escape pod."

"Good, Sqarl, one of them got away.  Find a torch, and seal up this area."

"Gotcha, Duk'k, where else should we reinforce..... and where are you going?"

"I'm thinking of... a trap.  Gotta get Ne'vets involved."

 The Quarren went up to the front of the ship to find a welding torch.  Dr P3PP3R was still putting the finishing touches to stabilize Cousin Rancor. 

"He is stable, but needs significant assistance at a proper medical facility, as quickly as possible."

H8(r) managed to wriggle the hyperdrive out of the hold, and moved it towards an access port to reinstall it to the ship.  Duk'k saw the cargo equipment in action and hit his coms.  "Evus, go watch H8(r) work on the hyperdrive.  Ne'vets, let's plan to capture or destroy these things." 

An hour later, Sqarl was finishing up the welds on the reactor panels.  In his search for welding equipment, he stopped at Tarrie old locker and uncovered a suit of armor that seemed to have far more use on his body, than staying in storage. Cleaning up his work area, he worked his way back to Sid in the cockpit.

In the empty cargo hold, Ne'vets and Duk'k were busy compiling a myriad set of mundane traps.  None would hold the creatures for long, but with the wonky sensors on the ship.  Loud noises and lights seemed to be more effective to narrow down .  

Two more hours, and H8(r) had the hyperdrive hooked up and going through the basic diagnostics.  Back up at the cockpit, Sid watched that console slowly come back to life.  She turned to Sqarl.

"We've got at least another hour before we can get out of here..."

To their right, she and Sqarl could hear a noise with the walls/ceiling of the cockpit.  It was a scurrying sound, followed by a series of loud thump.  The noises worked their way across the ceiling.  

Sid reached over and closed all vents in the cockpit.

The movement dropped from ceiling above the edge of the console, and moved towards the back of the cockpit.  

"Guys, we need some doze grenades up here, stat."

Duk'k gave the bad news, "We're fresh out, what's up?"

Ne'vets asked, "Do you have a bunny?"

"I have a something."

Ne'vets and Duk'k ran up to the cockpit, miscellaneous traps in hand.  Everyone stared at noise in the wall, stopping at a closed vent trying to claw its way out. 

Ne'vets placed a container by the vent and motioned to Sid to open the vents wide.  Within seconds, the vents opened, and someTHING was making noise within the container.

Sqarl secured container and pulled it from the wall.  

Duk'k looked over to Ne'vets, "What do we do with this, boss?"

Ne'vets stared at the container stoically, "Let's shoot it out into space."

Sqarl pulled the container further out.  A number of rings appeared on the ground, interconnected. They were attached to another series of rings, still attached to a line of grenades.  

That's a LOT of grenades...

"Why are there grenade rings on the ground?  Where are the grenades!?!"

Duk'k pushed the container down the ladder, sealed the cockpit door, and ordered Ship-Tarrie to open of the ramp for the ship.  The vacuum of space sucked the container out into space, just far enough for it to detonate.  

In less than an hour, the hyperdrive was online, and the ship jumped into hyperspace.  Tentative destination: the Kwenn Space Station.

GM: Let's be honest, Star Wars sensors seem to have pinpoint accuracy, or fail to detect a hand right in front of it.  Star Trek seems far more competent, but they are are in the future, not from a time long long ago.

Again, I pulled and converted data for the xenomorph from the Reticulan Parasite from Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society #4 circa 1979/80.  The Bestiary article didn't mention xenomorphs, but the artwork was spot-on, and the bibliography was everything published when Alien came out, including the original screenplay novelization by Alan Dean Foster. 

Next: #100 - Trouble at the Kwenn Space Station?