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 wounded from the shootout in the Spyder
Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently joined the crew. His warning shots are dead center mass kill shots. He has managed to rescue Ne'vets from the shootout, stabilized him, and went in for more.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot to Tarrie. He had stayed behind at Chopper's shop while the other began their shenanigans.
"Sid" - A peculiar woman with some knowledge of their missing ally, Evus, Sid has been allowed to tag along for now... She was badly wounded in the shootout and pulled to safety outside by Evus. Currently working through the back streets of Naboo.
Evus - Twi'lek male, former slave, then former associate of Ne'vets, currently working for Crom-Crom the Gungan on Naboo, but caught back up in the nonsense of the
Pretio. He rescued Sid from the firefight and is currently hiding within buildings in the neighborhood.
Tarrie Prolek - 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. Currently missing during the botched exodus from the
Spyder.
Scattered and Confused on Naboo
After engaging in a all-out in the
Black Sun gambling den, The Spyder,
The crew of the Pretio has escaped to the
Four winds, a few of them in grievous shape.
But before Duk'k the Bounty Hunter
Can regroup the crew, and attempt
To leave the planet, the Sipsk'ud
Drop back down into the Spyder through
A skylight to confirm his friends were gone.
Just a duck humanoid and his thermal detonator....
A top the roof of the Spyder, Ne'vets Aharo laid behind a humidifier coil, "A cruise... for... the royal... family. I think it would work... What do you think, Duk'k? Duk'k?)
Duk'k the Bounty Hunter was gone, back down the skylight and into the bar of the Spyder. He fell amongst a motley collection of gamblers, felons, murders, and Black Sun Operatives.
He paused the raising of blasters with the activation of the thermal detonator in his left hand.
Scanning the room quickly, he saw no sign of Tarrie, "Where are my friends. Tell me know, or we're all going to die."
The crowd stammered collectively, as the Sipsk'ud slowly rotated to ensure everyone knew the detonator was legit.
One of the Black Sun's lieutenants finally barked out, "Hey! Hey nutjob! All your guys are gone, right out the front door, alright. Somebody us is gonna give you trouble later, not us. Let's not blow this place up to smithereens."
Duk'k stared down the Black Sun operative, and the lieutenant, repeated, "Seriously, everybody's gone."
Duk'k ignited his jet pack and flew back out the skylight. He landed on the roof and collected Ne'vets. Ne'vets looked up at his friend, "Take care of business down there?"
"What I needed to. It looks like everyone else scattered and disappeared. We should too."
Ne'vets was relieved, "That's good, but I'm not even sure what happened."
"I'll tell you on the way."
A few blocks over, in a random warehouse, surrounded by dozens of transport crates the Twi'lek Evus was finally tending to the wounds of Sid. Sid's eyes finally opened.
"Hey you're awake..."
Sid thrashed about and tried to get on her feet,"We need to move..."
"STAY.... PUT."
With that, Sid put her head back down. Evus continued, whether Sid was paying attention or not.
"We found some friendlies who got us out of there. It's been a couple hours, I haven't heard anything."
"Has the Captain survived?"
"You... you mean Mister Ne'vets?"
"Of course."
"Probably, I don't know for sure. I've been keeping you alive rather than monitoring the comms. I think we need to meet up with Frokazza. He'll know better what to do."
Back at Chopper's Shop, the Piscopo was getting a new side door installed, a horrible medium brown color. What ever damaged the craft was dealt that didn't need to be replaced was getting buffed out.
Frokazza sat on a stool, furry feet propped up on one of the workbenches. The Quelloran Beaked Monkeys, Kozar and Beegle were playfully attacking the Wookie, Frokazza only needing to hold both of them off with a few fingers.
An associate of Chopper's ran into the workshop quite flustered, "Dude, somebody blew up the Spyder! It's a mess down there."
Chopper looked over at the Wookie, "Isn't that where your friends were going?"
Frokazza just shook his head.
Chopper continued, "If you guys are coming back here, we'll have your vehicle fixed up shortly. Then you guys get the hell out of here."
 |
Chopper
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Back on the roof of the Spyder, Ne'vets was lying on a condenser, focusing on breathing. Duk'k simply scanned the surroundings of the city. He tried to hail the rest of the crew on his comm.
Ne'vets responded,
"Hey buddy, I'm right here..." He managed a feeble wave. There was no other response.
Duk'k gathered Ne'vets and jetpacked off the roof to a quieter spot down the block from Spyder. It was not as chaotic as the front of the club. Pondering hot-wiring a vehicle, Duk'k decided to simply a taxi speeder. He gave the driver direction to a market he had seen on the far side of town.
Ne'vets, laying in the back seat, his head on Duk'ks had a worried look, "Did anyone happen to pick up my winnings?"
Back at Chopper's garage, the monkeys were dressed in martial arts costumes intensely wrestling. Frokazza was enthusiastically cheering them on.
Jo-vell, the Bothan agent who dragged to crew into this mess, came into the shop, dragging two of the crew out of a potential mess.
Following the Jo-vell was Duk'k and Ne'vets, who was finally, if barely, walking.
"Hey Frokazza!"
"Where's everybody else? What happened to Tarrie?"
"I lost sight of everyone when we had to scatter. I'm pretty sure no one got taken out. They're out there some way."
Inquiring about how fast the Piscopo's repairs could be completed brought assurances from Chopper that it would be delivered to the site within the hour, but then the Besalisk looked serious.
"Waitaminute Jov-vell, you said you found these two where?"
"Outside the Naboo Mall, on a transportation pad."
"What the hell did you guys do? You were supposed to find info on that bounty hunter guy, not shoot up some place! Hopefully it's not one of the Black Sun crime captains. You've blown up two Black Sun sites, you're having a heckuva day!"
Having overstayed their welcome, Chopper hailed to other site to bring the Piscopo over, as-in. While they waited, the picked up a random assortment of hats for a disguise.
Ne'vets picked out an oversized beret that covered his eyes.
Duk'k acquired pimp hats for he and Frokazza. Frokazza refused.
Kozar the monkey was given a top hat, while Beegle acquired a tiny painter's hat, along with Krom-Krom designed white overalls.
The Piscopo arrived with a new brown door panel. With Frokazza behind the controls, the Piscopo and crew sped off back into Black Sun territory to find their friends.
Hours later, Sid and Evus were still navigating the back streets of the Black Sun territory, desperately trying to find a way out. Sid was going in and out of consciousness and Evus was forced to stash in in safe locations, while searching for a covert means to escape. Coms weren't working, neither had credits on them, so it was a long go of things.
Sid managed to open his eyes again, sunglight peered into a corner of the room through a grate that must of been street level. It appeared she was in a catch basin for a storm sewer, and lucky for her, things were very, very dry.
She could lift up her head with some difficulty, but was otherwise unable to move. Out of the corner of her eye, Sid could see a long mass slither it's way around the corner, heading right at her immobile body. Traditional vermin had long been eradicated on Naboo, but they had been replaced with three-foot long larval creatures with thick hides that pests and predators alike could not penetrate.
It appeared the creature had sense Sid's shoulder wound, which Evus had prepped, but in this jolting transit around Naboo, the bandages had come undone. The creature slithered its slimy underbelly over Sid's arm heading closer to her head. Her breathless screams were doing little to deter the creature and its sharp pincers and teeth were mere inches from her eyes.
*PEW-PEW-PEW*Three quick shots blasted the beast to bits, chuck and goo covering Sid. A relieved Evus stood back at the corner, blaster rifle in hand, admiring his marksmanship.
"Sorry Sid, won't let that happen again. Good news, we're clear for a couple blocks."
Evus lifted Sid onto his shoulders and wandered a bit before coming upon a service door. The sun had finally set on Naboo, and the streets were becoming empty. If this multi-block run proved successful, they would end up in a much safer territory than they had spent their day. Sid's body was light, but still encumbering, forcing him to focus on carrying her, so he did not pay attention and see the lights, the horn, or even the bumper of the vehicle tap him while he was in the crosswalk. A very distraught Wookie in a speeder van was cursing him out,
"Evus, you kriffing fool, get inside. We need to get off this planet!"
Evus boarded the Piscopo, relieved to see most of the old crew inside.
"Hey Frokazza, where's Tarrie?"
"MIA."
"What's the chance that he escaped and got back to another bar?"
"Just as likely that he's mooching booze out of glasses of the floor of the Spyder... Anything's possible."
They maneuvered outside of Black Sun territory to a neutral neighborhood. The first stop was the Temporal Flux, a bar with discrete parking and cheap drinks.
With no new data on Tarrie, they move onto the next obvious step, a karaoke bar.
"Where else would Tarrie be?
With no intel on Tarrie, and too depressed to sign, they went to the third option they though Tarrie might wander off to, a strip club. Still no luck.
The group was despondent, but not enough to not preoccupy themselves with the dancers. Still, Frokazza kept trying coms, in hopes that Tarrie would pick up. Finally he tossed it across the table, and focused on his drink, with the resignation that he'd be co-piloting with Sid from this point on.
Evus, out of sheer boredom, picked the com off the table, fiddled with the frequency, and spoke into it.
Somebody answered.... in a Transdosian voice.
"I'm sorry, Tarrie won't be using his communicator.... ever again."
Five inch platform shoes stopped adjacent to Evus, who was leaning half against the booth and half against the table. The green-skinned Rodian dancer had stopped her performance and looked straight down at Evus,
"That Transdosian's voice. I know that person. Why is your friend there???"
Next: #68 - The Underbelly of Naboo
