Chasing the Storm

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Chasing the Storm

Post by Gonesolo »

OOC: This is a bit of a history thread for my character, based 3 years before ANH. The thread is open but please do ask before joining.


Naboo, Theed city
Mayors house.


The party goers continued to mingle and dance as the mayors re-election party continued early into the night. The party had been going now for a few hours. The large residence was secluded somewhat from the rest of the city with large gardens so neighbourhood complaints about the noise were unlikely, the mayor had always been known to throw lavish parties and only the real elite got an invite.

Through the throng of party revelers a red haired woman picked her way through the crowd, her black seductive dress hung tight against her body, with a hemline just above her kness but an inviting cut on the right side revealing her thigh. She searched through the party revelers for her prey, she knew he was around here somewhere, the mayor always made his presence well know at these parties, she also knew he had a reputation as a womaniser and that his wife was off planet at the moment.

She spotted the mayor surrounded by some of the local elite laughing and drinking in a corner of the room, se determindly started picking her way towards him through the crowd. As she approached she grasped a large glass decanter from one of the many trays doing the rounds and also acquired two large bottomed glasses.

She slinked quietly up to the mayor and draped herself over his shoulder with the decanter dangled enticingly in front of him.

"Can I offer you a drink your honor!" She purred quietly into his ear.

He turned to view her and a broad smiled graced his contenance.

"Of course my Dear!" he replied ushering her to a quiet corner.
For the next hour or so she spent in his company, laughing at his jokes and smiling warmly in his direction. Eventually she slipped from her chair and slid herself onto his lap.

"Can we go somewhere a bit more quiet, I'm afraid I'm a little tipsy and the noise is distracting"

"Of course" he beamed at her.

He lead her across the dance floor and out to the large hallway and started up the stairs were two guards stood flanking the large stone, curved stairs. The mayor stoped for a moment and whispered to his guard

"Make sure we are not disturbed!" The large guard noded his head in reply.

The mayor lead the woman up the stairs and into a large bedroom at the back of the house. The woman dropped heavily on to the bed in the room and shot a pair of pussy cat eyes at the mayor as he sat down behind her. She stood up lightly as the mayor say down and started to dance drunkedly in front of him. The mayor was loving every moment, but could hold himself back any longer gesturing for to woman to move over to him.

"Come here my dear, let see what you look like out of the dr.......Ack!"

The mayor started to choke, his throat was constricting and he could hardly breath, he definatly could not cry out. The last image he ever saw was the beautiful, fiery haired woman her hand out stretched in a choking motion as the life was squeezed out of him.

As she dropped the Mayor on the bed, she quickly threw the sheets over him and turned off the lights to make it look like he was sleeping. She then slipped out the door and down the stairs. The guards shot her a confused look as she came down the stairs.

"The mayor was tired and needs a sleep!" she purred waving her hand inconspiciously infront of the guards face

"I'll make sure he's not disturbed M'am" the burly bouncer replied.

The woman smiled at the bouncer and continued to the front door. At the door a transport was called and she was ushered on board. As the transport pulled away she smiled to herself.

"Where too?" the pilot enquired

"Spaceport!" She replied with a content smile on her contenance

"You here on business or pleasure?" the pilot enquired

"Buisness"

"Get it done then?" he queried again.

"Yea got it all wrapped up" she replied as the transport sped off to Theed spaceport.
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Post by SmokeMare »

5 years ago Coruscant Undercity
The Undercity's largest Spaceport.


Raynard Quinn was wandering around the fuel pods and engine section on The Stormcrest. A ship he'd just finished some major repairs to. A huge hole gaped in the fuel pod that he had removed, now resting on a hover sled ready to be towed away, " I think we're all set now - I've tested everything thoroughly and it seems okay, if you have any problems come back to me..." Faben sighed, he'd gotten the impression this Zabrak didn't like Bothans...

Faben turned back to his ship, " SKIM ! GET THE CREDIT CHIPS FOR THE REPAIRS ! " he turned back to Raynard, " He won't be a minute 20,000 credits for the lot right ? " Raynard nodded as the tiny Bothan, only 1.3 metres maybe came bounding from the ship, " Here father, are we ready to set off yet ?" Faben took the credits and paid Raynard, " Aye son, we'll be under way in no time...

~

3 Years before ANH,
Hoth System.

Skim rushed back through the ship as another blast rocked their battered Corellian Corvette, sending him sprawling. Freila, Skim's long time friend and partner called back to him, " SKIM ! The shields are failing ! You have to get that HYPERDIVE ONLINE NOW !!! " She frantically tried to make more evasive action as the modified Gunboat Swooped around for another pass.

As Skim climbed to his feet again he was sent sprawling by another blast. By the time he'd made it to the engine section coolant was leaking everywhere. The inertial dampers had shutdown due to overheating and the Hyperdrive was smoking badly...

Skim looked around at the chaos in panic. 'What the hell were they going to do now ?! The biggest load of spice they ever been commisioned to ship and this damned Bounty Hunter had creamed their ship...' Running back to the front Skim called to Freila as he went, " TAKE US DOWN TO THE PLANET I HAVE AN IDEA, TELL THE GUNNERS TO KEEP FIRING !" Freila sighed and hit the comm, " All gunners keep trying to shoot that blasted ship down ! And brace for impact - we're going down !"

Soon Skim was diving into the co-pilots seat. What a legacy his father had left him... He'd certainly picked his time to get killed...

Skim manned the co-pilots controls and Freila and Skim guided their craft 'The Stormcrest' down into the atmosphere Turbo Lasers still blazing...

" There, that huge snowdrift at the base of the mountain, take us right into it!" Freila nodded and engaged the re-heat. slowly the lumbering Corvette dropped into the snow and Skim sprinted towards the back of the craft.

Temperatures were returning to normal! Skim picked up the ships comm and called Telan and Chap to help him out, within minutes they had arrived and the three of them patched up the coolant system. System temperatures returned to normal.

Rissk, opened a comm to her Prey, " Bothan smugglers, I have disabled your ship. Any more attempts to escape or acts of hostility and I will destroy you. The Coruscant Civil Service has given me warrant to sieze your spice shipment, your ship and to take you all into custody. You have five minutes to get out of the ship with your hands held high. I have scanned your ship and if I don't see twenty seven of you outside in that snowfield reaching for the sky you will all be killed. " she flicked the comm off. It had been a good day, she'd been following them from Tatooine waiting for an appropriate moment to strike. Surprisingly easy prey...

Rissk liked working for the Coruscant Civil Service on jobs like this, you felt like you were doing the people a service as well as getting paid...

Meanwhile Skim was back in the cockpit with Freila, " Are you ready ? " Freila nodded and kissed him softly on the cheek , " Let's do it Skim, NOW !" They slammed the sub-light engines on and flew up into the air, then headed straight at the Bounty Hunters Modified gunship. Rissk startled yanked her control yoke to the port side, missing a collision by inches rather than feet.

Skim was panicking at this point. The engines were still at correct operational temperatures but they weren't going to make it to hyperspace at the rate they were going.

Angry now, Rissk swung her ship around lining up the Stormcrest in her sights. Blazing Green Military Turbo Lasers cannoned at the Stormcrest, just as it was pitching up to leave the atmosphere...

The Green bolts of energy just missed the ship, striking the large dura-steel cargo canister secured underneath. Mounting brackets shattered and the mammoth cargo cannister sheared off landing softly in a large snow drift kilometres below. Rissk barely avoided being struck by it, having had to take major evasive action to avoid it landing on her small craft.

The whiteness of the Hoth sky turned into the blackness of space. " Freila! We've got to go back for that cargo ! Rossa the Hutt is NOT going to be happy ! There's a billion credits worth of spice in that Canister !"

Freila was frantically punching in complicated Hyperspace jump sequences, she spoke without even looking up, " Skim, another direct assault from that ship and we're dead - if we flee we've got a chance ! " Skim screamed back at her, " I'm not leaving that canister ! We're going back !" Freila sighed, " Sorry Skim, we're not..." And she tapped the hyperspace ignition button. The Stormcrest blasted out into Hyperspace.

By the time Rissk had evaded the falling canister and straightened up the Stormcrest was well beyond range. She swung around, killing her throttle and swooped low over the icy wastes. 'Oh well, I'll get half bounty for stopping and confiscating the shipment, and I'm saved the time of securing all the prisoners, not bad at all...' She mused to herself.

Looking at her dark green reflection in the cockpit window Rissk smiled, the thoughts of all those credits... One day she really would have to visit Dosha and see some fellow Trandoshans. Being a bounty hunter she considered was easy work, probably mainly due to her genetics...

Rissks tractor beam latched onto the huge cargo canister, her small ship looking silly lifting the huge cargo canister. She soared up through the atmosphere whilst her cargo clamps engaged. Once clear she punched in the co-ordinates for Coruscant...
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Post by Gonesolo »

Naboo, Theed Spaceport

20 minutes latter a YT-1300, stock light freighter, lifts off from Theed space port. On board the ship the red hair woman sits in the open passenger compartment in the rear of the ship. She has not changed her clothes and is drinking from a cup of Java juice. A small astrometric droid rolls into the passenger compartment from the ships cockpit area. The woman looks up at the little droid and smiles.

"Nice Java juice R5, you really know how to make a girl glad to be home!"

The astrometric droid whistled a happy response. The young woman put her cup on the table in front of her and stood up and stretched her arms out above her. Then she looked down in distain at the dress she was wearing.

"I hate wearing these things," she complained and quickly removed the dress over her head, then she sits down on the chair again and removes the high heeled shoes that matched the dress. Her foot recoiled slightly as she put her bare skin down on the deck plating

"Freel R5 remind me to get heating for this deck plating" She quipped as she forced her bare foot down onto the floor. R5 whistled and burped an unhappy reply as she took another mouthful from her mug.

"Ok, Ok !" She replied, "anything you say mammy!" as she grabbed the dress and shoes and walked into a small room down the corridor slightly from the main passenger area.

"R5 I'M GOING TO GET WASHED PULL UP THE MESSAGES FOR ME WILL YOU!" she called from the room.

The little droid did as commanded and he plugged himself into the computer terminal in the room. He logged into the ships communication array and searched for any new messages/jobs available. A few minutes latter he had pulled up the main list of open bounties and the woman's personal message store.

"Ah thats better," the woman said as she returned from her room drying her hair gently with a towel. R5 was relieved to see she was now more clothed than she had been, she had thrown on a light, knee length silk dressing gown but had still forgone any foot wear. The woman quickly crossed the room and retrieved her mug and slipped into the chair beside her friend.

"So what have we got 5?" she asked staring at the screen, "Oh hang on a personal message, pull that up"

From: Rossa, The hutt
To: BH198666 - Ariane, Nevar
Subject: Bounty:
Miss Nevar as an officer of Rossa the Hutt I have been ordered to contact you in regards to a delicate situation which requires your attention. Attached is the data file of one Skim Quinn. This individual owes my employer a lot of money. Your job is to bring him to Rossa to answer for his failings.
Rossa assures me that I will not have to pull in that favour that you owe him but would like me to assure you that payment for this job would not only incude your usual fee but also clearing of this favour to my employer.
Rasink
PA to Rossa the Hutt.

"Oh great cried the woman as she leant back in the chair and took another mouthfull. Ok R5 download the details so we can have a proper look"
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Post by SmokeMare »

Moon of Endor, uninhabited part of the planet
A few hours later...


The Stormcrest would have looked to anyone tracking them that they had set off for Ord Mantell. In fact Freila had jumped Bespin, Dagobah, out beyond the outer rim. Then back into the Galaxy at Endor.

Skim sat in his co-pilots chair staring dismayedly at the forest floor outside.

" Freila we're dead ! We're dead ! Rossa the Hutt isn't going to let this go ! What the frell are we going to do now ?! "

Freila leaned over from her chair and hugged Skim, " We'll be okay, that Bounty Hunter could never have tracked us here...."

~

Coruscant, Civil Bounty Rewards Depot,
That very moment.


Rissk stood looking proudly at the massive container full of spice. Passers by were stopping to stare into it. Amongst them one or two secret spice addicts pondering how they could get their mitts in unnoticed.

A smartly dressed officer came up to Rissk with a large tray of Credit chips, " We've been had a meeting, and we're really pleased. We think you did the right thing stopping your pursuit to confiscate the spice. He won't get away - we probably won't even have to chase him. Somebody owned that spice and whoever it was is going to be after his blood... We're going to pay you the full agreed price... Besides - this is the single largest confiscated amount of Spice EVER siezed!"

Rissk smiled to herself, it was good to get recognition... She might even take a holiday for a while...

Moon of Endor, uninhabited part of the planet
Aboard the Stormcrest...


Skim was hugging Freila tightly, weeping, they'd been in some tight spots before... But the Hutts were notoriously reliant upon getting revenge on people who crossed them.

Freila wiped a tear away from Skims eye with her furry finger, " Oh Skim, we've been in worse scenarios - we'll be okay, we're always okay ! Look the ship isn't that badly damaged, all the crew are okay... We can hide out, lay low for a while, perhaps go out into uncharted space for a while ? I'll call a meeting with the crew..."

Skim nodded and stood up, he patted Freila on the head, " I love you Freila, I know we'll be okay - I'm just worried... Ignore me..." She smiled at him as he turned away headed for the back of the ship and picked up the Comm. " Okay everyone - we're having a meeting, everyone meet outside the ship by the large fallen tree on the port side... 2 minutes people !"

In a moment Freila and Skim were seated on the huge fallen tree near to the ship. Chap and Telan were standing near to the front of the small crowd of Bothans. Twenty five expectant Bothans were looking up at Skim and Freila waiting for the News. Skim stood up first,

" Okay everyone, listen up... We've lost our cargo. It will have been confiscated by now - and there's no way we can raise the money to pay Rossa the Hutt, or get hold of enough spice to give back to him. Freila and I have been discussing our options... and we think it would be best if we flew out into uncharted space and lay low for a while... " Murmurs of dissaproval echoed from the small crowd of agitated Bothans,.

" What are we going to eat and drink !?" One of them shouted.

Freila stood up, " We're on a little visited moon at the moment, we can spend a day gathering food and filling up the water supplies, the less time we spend in known space the better! It's our only chance of survival, the Hutts are relentless about chasing people who owe them money and we owe them several Billion Credits right now... Chap, Telan you help Skim with the repairs to the propulsion systems. Everyone else - get out into the forest and get foraging. Gather as much food as you can, fill as many decanters with water as you can... We can't waste another micron! "

Bothans began scurrying about, hoisting huge water carryers on their shoulders and heading out into the forest with sacks to collect food. Chap Telan and Skip rushed to the engine bay, tools at the ready...
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Post by Gonesolo »

The woman scanned down the details of Skim from the message. There was the usual stuff for a wanted persons bio-profile. Name, Age, Last known location. Some personal stuff was also listed.

She sat pondering for a few moments as she inished the contents of her mug.

"Where to start, where to start!" she mumbled to herself placing the mug gently on the bench.

"Here we go!" she smiled pointing at the screen,"R5 set a course!" she leaned forward and read further down the report on screen which went into the details of Skim's 'failings'.

Attached to the end of the report was an obviously 'sliced' copy of the Corruscant Civil service report into the confiscation of the Spice from Skim and his crew.

Ariane opened and parused the file as R5 trundled up to the cockpit to set course for the Hoth system. After reading the file she composed her own message to the Corruscant Civil service requesting to be forward to the agent who had brought in the capture spice requesting if they could forward any futher information regarding the last encounter with Skim and his crew.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Coruscant, Upper City
The Piaza Classe Hotel


Rissk was sitting in her room supping a Corellian Ale when her comm station beeped. ' Hmmm, funny - I'd told them I wasn't taking bounties at the moment!? I wonder who's messaged me ?!' She thought. Chugging the last of her Corellian Ale down in one huge gulp Rissk wandered over to the comm station and pulled up a stool.

' Hmmm, someones still chaasing that Corvette ?! Hmmmph ! Well, they're welcome to it as far I'm concerned... I'm on holiday...' She thought to herself as she punched in the Reply sequence. A fresh screen opened up for her so she penned her message:-



To:- Registered Bounty Hunter : ARINEV001709#8477776
From:- Registered Bounty Hunter : RISRIS001675#555677
Subject:- Spice Smugglers Information.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am no longer pursuing this Bounty as after being particularly well rewarded for confiscating the Spice I have decided to take a long overdue holiday. The crew are a large group of Bothans, previously the vessel belonged to a Faben Baier. My most recent intelligience is that that captain of the vessel is the late Faben's son Skim. Last time I scanned their craft, a Correlian Corvette called the Stormcrest I detected 27 life forms. Of these I believe all are Bothans related to Faben with the exception of Faben's partner - I don't know her name or where she's from.

Having recovered the spice on Hoth I took a scan of their emissions trail. After analysing it carefully, it appears they were heading for Ord Mantell. In honesty though their ship was so badly damaged I doubt they would have made that jump.

I suspect they jumped to Bespin, then somewhere else after that. Wherever they jumped to would have to have been close to Hoth but they wouldn't set down anywhere beyond the Correllian Trade line, I don't think they could have gotten further than Bakura at the farthest.

going on their emissions I' fairly sure one of their fuel tanks was ruptured so they might need to visit a spaceport near to there to re-fuel and repair.

Oh be careful, the little toe rag wrote the book on dirty tricks and he'll probably try every one of them. Little rat tried to ram me out of the sky.

I'm sorry but that's all the information I can give you :-

Good luck and happy hunting.

R~


Rissk hit her 'Activate Transmission' button and ambled back over to the couch. She cracked open another Corellian Ale and flicked on the Holonet. Rissk keyed in the news channel. Of course she was still on the news, looking rather sheepish standing next the Civil Authority Ministers...

She laughed aloud and started flicking through the channels looking for something better to watch...

The moon of Endor
Onboard the Stormcrest


Skim, Telan and Chap were looking dismayedly at the wreckage of their engine bay. Coolant was leaking pipes were smoking and all the temperature guages looked thoroughly unhealthy. Skim rapped his hydro-spanner in his furry palm impatiently, " Hmmph! Well Telan, I hope the foraging goes well it looks like we could be here for some time ! I mean we could make small jumps, but... Let's just say next time we jump we should jump to somewhere we can get this hyperdirve looked at..."

Telan shook his head rubbing his chin, " Hmmm, you're right Skim, three jumps without major repairs and I reckon we're space-dust..." Chap slammed his welder onto the deck, " THAT BLASTED TRANDOSHAN !!! SHE'S TOTALLED OUR SHIP !!! I SAY WE FIND HER AND KILL HER !"

Skim turned to him shocked, " Chap, we're smugglers not killers, besides Any ship as small as that which can do this much damage to a Corvette... I'd say if we never meet her again it will be a good thing.... Come on we may as well start patching up as best we can, you never know we might have to leave here in a hurry...."

Out in the Forest

Out in the Forest Freila and her team of foragers were faring somewhat better than the repair detail. They'd found some small animals to kill and more fruit and nuts than they could carry. Near to where they had landed was a large waterfall with a cool feshwater pool underneath so everyones decanter was full to the brim of water. Freila hunched her decanter onto her shoulder, " Come on everone ! We can do two more trips today ! "

Two hours later the Bothans were carefully storing all teh food and water in their stasis store aboard the Stormcrest. Freila had made a large campfire near to the ship. The foragers had already sat down and begin to eat one of the small creatures they'd killed, when the repair detail exited the ship.

Skim was covered in coolant when he slumped next to Freila, " Phew ! Freila, it's bad in there - it's worse than we thought. we can't jump to wild space until we've gotten some serious Hyperdrive repairs... Two or three more jumps without repairs and we could well find our selves in pieces floating through space..." Freila smiled at him and patted him on the head in a friendly way. " Come on skim, have some food - we've killed several of these - they're quite good... Hehe - epecially barbequed on an open fire..." Skim shrugged and reached out to the spit pulling a hunk of nicely cooked meat off of it. He took a huge bite, it was good....

The Bothans sat be the fire in the twilight, eating, drinking and resting. Retiring to the bunks on the ship just when the fire was burning down to embers...
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Post by Gonesolo »

The fiery haired woman entered the cockpit of the freighter as it danced through the azure maze that was hyperspace. They were coming to the end of the hyperspace jump to Hoth and she was starting to get restless. She slinked into the cockpit wearing her silk dressing gown and a malicious smile as she remembered the expression on the mayor of Naboo as she had choked the life out of him.

She slid into the pilots chair and lifted and rested her bare feet on the control panel, the silk wrap slipped away to reveal her soft, silky legs as she gazed out the plexiglass cockpit to the azure ocean beyond. Lost in contemplation she didn't hear the soft beep on the hyperspace reversion alarm, but as the swirlingly blue, white haze of hyperspace slowed and revealed the black emptiness of space she regained her senses.

She slid her legs from the contols in front of her and returned to a normal seating position. Beside her R5 scanned sensor data and check engine status as the ship returned to standard drive systems.

"R5 time to test the new cloaking generators," she smiled at her metalic friend, "I hope you installed them correctly!"

The little astrometric droid gave a short and blunt but obviously quite upset response. The woman only smiled as she reached forward and punched a few controls, the lights on the ship dimmed and the shield display panel indicated that the freighters shields had dropped.

"Well?" she queried of the little droid beside her who burped a proud response, "Well done my friend I'll never question your engineering skills again" she smiled as the little droid burped an injured response.

The freighter swept in over the ice planet of hoth, scanners showed that below heavy storms were raging all over the planet. Temperatures were below freezing in all areas. Ariane expertly guided the freighter into the planets atmosphere for a closer look. Down to the co-ordinates provided by the Corruscant civil defence to where the spice was recovered As they swung low the scanners picked up minute traces of hyperdrive fuel in the snow below. The concentration was getting stronger.

"Thats what we are looking for R5" the woman commented standing up from her seat, "Put us down over there and we'll go out and have a look!" she commented pointing out the starboard viewport.

The little astrometric droid stopped for a moment and look his mistress up and down then whistled gently at her. The woman looked down and nodded at the droid.

"Yes your right this is not appropriate attire for the weather out there, you put the ship down and I'll change into something more appropriate" With that she slipped out the cockpit door towards her quarters.

The YT-1300 freighter made a sweeping starboard turn and returned to the target area, after hovering for a few moments the ship settled into a snow field, its heavy landing struts sank slightly into the heavily compacted snow but then settled into position.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Moon of Endor, aboard the Stormcrest,
THe next day...


Skim awoke on his bunk to find Freila hugging him tightly. " Friela !? What the frell !?" She awoke with a start, "S..So.. Sorry Skim, I was really cold..." He smiled at her and hugged her back tightly. " I love you Friela, you're always welcome in my bunk..." Freila hugged him tightly again, "I know Skim, I love you too... C'mon let's get up..." After clambering awkwardly up they wandered to the cockpit.

Sitting in the pilots chair Skim set a systems diagnostic running. Freila sat beside him, " Skim, once we are out of this and the heat has blown over we really should try and bring the crew back up to numbers... I know your father always said he'd only ever have family aboard his ship but... After so many were killed or captured, we're down to half a skeleton crew !" Skim sighed loudly, " I know Freila, and we will. We'll try and find some more help after the heats blown over... Back in fathers day there were nearly two hundred of us you know... I guess law and order wasn't so well enforced at that time.... We're coping anyway... "

The console beeped loudly and a large stream of problems with their propulsion systems started to scroll accross the console. Skim rolled his eyes, " Freila we're goign to be lucky to get off this moon at the rate we're going... " She patted him on the head, " Don't worry Skim, I plotted a difficult course to follow... Besides, if that Bounty Hunter had been able to follow us she would have found us by now!" Skim sighed and nodded his head, dismayedly staring at the screen of errors.

Just then Joffie wandered from the back, he was carring three bottled Corona's, " Erm, Skim, Freila, I've been saving these - they're my last ones... I...I just wanted to share them with you..." Skim took a bottle and patted Joffie on the back heartily. " Come on, let's go and sit outside for a bit.

Joffie, Skim and Freila left the cockpit and wandered out into the forest. The bones of the bird-like animal were still smouldering over the grey ashes of the previous nights campfire. The air was fresh and crisp, the sun now filtering through the tall trees...

They climbed up onto the large tree log and sat looking out at the green forest floor. Skim took out a large complicated looking paper star chart and spread it out over the tree log. " Hmmm, we're going to have to set out to get these repairs done before we jump out into wild space. Let's see where we can go... " Freila, Joffie and Skim peered over the map. Freila ran her furry finger up the Corellian trade spine, " Hmmm, we should try and steer clear of the spine, there'll be too much space traffic, we'd likely be detected... Hmmm, how about Bespin ? It's only a short jump and they have the facilities to repair our ship...?"

Skim shook his head ," We can't go to Bespin, we jumped there briefly when we left Hoth, it's the first place a bounty hunter might look for us... "

Joffie tapped his finger on the map while supping his Corona, " Why not Carrent or Cyrodyll ? They're much closer and nowhere near any major trade routes.. ?" Freila shook her head, " It's no good, they wouldn't have the facilities we'd need I'm sure of it... He's right though, we should steer clear of the trade routes.... That rules out Ison, Relar and Veronat.... How about Omararick ?" Skim studied the map while supping his drink, " Hmmm, I've never been to Omararick, I'm not sure if they'd have the facilites we need... I think we should go to Bakura, it's a reasonably long jump but they're independant, well away from any Hutt controlled planets, there's no Imperial presence there and I know for a fact they can do the repairs we need.... What do you think...?" Freila rubbed her chin thoughtfully, " Hmmm, I think Bakura is our best bet, we'll spend today gathering more supplies and prepping the ship.... At nightfall we'll set off."

Joffie folded up the starchart and handed it to Skim who tucked it into his beige leather flight jacket. The three sat on teh log, listening to the wildlife and supping the last of their bottles...

In the ship the rest of the crew were waking, resltessly. Chap and Telan were already on their way to the engine bay... It would be a long day - they had a lot of hard work ahead of them...
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Post by Gonesolo »

The freezing cold wind bit at what showed of her face as she walked down the gangway and trudged onto the snow below. The snow was well compacted and almost solid under foot although she did leave very light foot prints which were quickly covered with fresh snow.

Slowly she picked her way through the blizzard to what remained of the impact from the Stormcrest emergency cooling maneuver a few days before. Not much of the ships image remained, having mostly been covered over with fresh snow. But Ariane was confident that she would find what she was looking for here!

She unstrapped a small shovel from her back and started to dig, hoping the snow was not to thick. For about 30 minutes she toiled in the stinging, biting wind. Eventually the snow changed texture and color and she smiled. She reached down and scooped out a handfull of the snow and held a scanner up to it. The device transmiting it's findings back to the ship. Once complete she put the shovel on her back and returned to the ship.

Some ten minutes latter she tramped her way back up the gang plank, knocking snow from the shoulders of her heavy coat as she did. She pulled the hood down and removed her scarf as she entered the passenger area of the ship.

"Ok 5 what did we find" she called to the astro droid analyzing data on a nearby console as she unbuttoned and removed the heavy jacket.She shook her hair free from the tight bun she had confined it in before she left. Her hair fell free around her shoulders and she tossed it gently back and out of her face as she slid into the seat beside R5.

The screen showed a chemical analysis of the snow sample, various chemical symbols and break downs appeared on the screen. Ariane did not even pretend to know what she was looking at but she did observe what R5 was doing. The screen stopped and displayed the breakdown of substances in the sample.

80% water
2% debris matter
16% HCL fuel
2% unknown

Ariane sat back with a vicious smile on her face

"Perfect!" she purred and then suddenly jumped from her seat and headed for the cockpit. Once there she spared no time as she started the freighters engines. They quickly growled to life as R5 joined her.

"R5 re-calibrate the scanners to scan for HCL fuel particles, If that corvette is using HCL fuel and one of its tanks are leaking we should be able to follow the trail even in hyperspace right to them"

The engines on the Dark Hunter reached a concerto as she dropped into the pilots seat, deftly she raised the slumbering freighter from its snow covered rest. Hovering for a few moments the nose raised skywards and accelerted out of Hoth atmosphere

Once clear of the planets gravity she studied the sensor details that R5 feed to her and plotted their first hyperspace jump

"looks like that bounty hunter was right they did jump towars Ord Mandel. Now lets see if he's right about them not making it that far!"

Silently the Dark Hunter flashed into hyperspace.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Endor moon, outide the Stormcrest
Early afternoon.


The crew of the Stormcrest had been toiling all morning to the tasks they had been assigned. Freila and the foragers had packed every inch of available cargo space with food stuff and water, they were WELL supplied.

Mohab, Ronf and Kieras had even been swimming in the pool.

Back in the engine compartment things weren't looking so good. Layse, Tobias, Jyma and Spoot had joined Skim, Telan and Chap. They had dismantled and rebuilt the worse parts of it. The coolant leak had been fixed up fairly well, and the coolant was fully topped up. Skim was wandering through examining the work amongst tired and sweaty Bothans. Satisfied he trudged wearily to the outside of the ship. Freila was sitting by a brook gulping fresh water.

Skim rushed over to Freila, " Freila ! I think we're ready to set off to Bakura now ! Let's get going ! " Freila stood up and met Skim with open arms, they hugged and Freila called out to the Forest for everyone to get back in the ship.

After the hatch had closed Skim did a quick head count - everyone was present and accounted for. "Okay everybody get into position - we'll be lifting off in two minutes ! " Skim rushed back to the cockpit and sat besides Freila, they slowly lifted off from the forest floor. Everything appeared to be fine, slowly Freila increased the throttle whilst Skim monitored the systems temperatures..." Hmmm, Freila take us out of the... Wait... FRELL !!!! QUICK SET US DOWN !!!! SET US DOWN QUICKLY !!!!!"

Frantically battling with the controls Skim and Freila ground the Stormcrest back onto the forest floor. Skim looked in dismay at the readings on the systems diagnostic. It appeared a seal had gone on one of coolant guages and the valves to the fuel cahmber had jammed open.

By the time Skim had rushed back to the engine compartment his team of engineers was already there. Jyma was buried up to waist underneath one of the coolant cylinders cursing, " Frell, Frell and double Frell ! Spoot pass me the Tyrak " Spoot sheepishly started pillaging his toolbox, hydorspanners and assorted tools quickly cluttering up the walkway. Eventually he found what he was looking for and rushed over to where Jyma was working, " Errr, here, It's an eleven, bee - will that be okay ?!" Jyma yanked the tyrak out of his furry hand cursing and started frantically adjusting some hidden aparatus.

Skim looked at the chaos and his heart sank, " How bad is it ? How long before we can be airborn ? When will we be able to jump to Hyperspace ?"

Tobias dropped his arm onto Skims back, " Don't worry Skim, it's nothing like as bad as it seems. We know exactly what the problem is - I guaruntee you we can lift off in four hours... I guaruntee it ! " Skim smilled and patted Tobias on the back.

Four hours work and they would be on their way to Bakura for these critically needed repairs...
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Post by Gonesolo »

Ariane sat impatiently at the controls as the Dark Hunter exited from hyperspace for what seemed like the 16th time that day. immediatly she studied the scanners on the frieghter.

"Looks like the HCL particles are starting to thin out R5" She commented to the droid beside her, "This better be the last jump or we will be looking for another way to track them!"

She sat back heavily in the seat as R5 calulated the next jump in their serach. So far they had been to Bespin, some marsh world she didn't know the name of and then had jumped clear outside the outer rim altogether. As she looked down at R5's calculations she noted that this jump headed back into towards the hub of the galaxy again. She yawned heavily as she leant forward to pull on the hyperspace lever.

"5 I'm going to get some sleep, wake me when we revert to real space again!"
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Post by SmokeMare »

Endor moon,
Aboard the Stormcrest, that evening.


Skim inspected the impressive array of repairs scattered around the engine bay. It was good, they were guarunteed at least one jump this time. Skim started walking towards the cockpit, " Jyma, you're in charge - if anything looks like it's going wrong - let me know asap - we'll take her out nice and slow this time... " Jyma wiped the sweat from his brow and nodded, " Right-ho Skim, we'll stay here and keep an eye on things, just incase - i'm prettty sure we're sorted this time though..."

Skim shook his crossed fingers at Jyma and smiled as he backed out of the engine bay. He wandered back through the ship. Joffie and Spoot were playing a game of Sabaac in the recreation area, Bothans were bodding about eating and drinking. He cast them a wave as he strode past, some were still frantically repairing sub-systems dotted around the ship.

Freila turned to Skim as he entered the cockpit. Skim leaned down adn kissed her gently, whiel ruffling the fur on top of her head up. She smiled and tickled him under the chin. Skim grasped his control yoke, " Okay Freila, we're going to give it another go... nice and easy this time, let#s take iit slow as possible, we'll take off gently, then idle into the atmospere and Make the jumpt o hyperspace. Freila nodded and started flicking ignition switches, soon the Stormcrest was lurching into life...
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Post by Gonesolo »

The Dark Hunter silently slipped out of hyperspace as the lush green of the forest world of Endor opened out before them. The shields of the freighter again dropped as R5 activated the cloaking generator and slowed the ship to a dead stop.

Ariane studied the sensor displays, her grim expression told R5 all he needed to know.

"Looks like we are out of luck 5!" she snapped "The fuel particles have dried up we have no more trail to follow!" She seemed a little more than disappointed as she studied the scanners for anything that may give her a clue to the next direction on their search.

Suddenly the sensors registered another ship in the area slowly rising from the planets surface. Surprised by this Ariane quickly checked the status of the cloaking generator and then studied the scanners as the ship made its slow, steady climb up from the lush green of Endor. R5 had the ship identified before it cleared the planets atmosphere and he beeped excitedly.

"Guess luck is still with us today" Ariane smiled at the little droid as she powered up the frieghters engines.

As the Corvette powered its way out of the atmosphere Ariane expertly guided the YT-1300 in behind the massive thruster array of the corvette.

"Not much chance of a view port back here" Ariane smiled down at her friend as she guided the freighter slowly in closer to the lumbering, crippled Corvette. Sensor readings indicated the ship was powering towards a hyperspace jump as the Hunter caught up on the rear of the ship and dropped below the thruster array.

As the speed of the corvette teetered off slightly just before she leapt to hyperspace the Dark Hunter latched itself to the underside of the massive corvette's thruster arrangement. As the lumbering beast leapt to hyperspace the frighter tagged along for the ride.
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Post by SmokeMare »

The blackness of space phased into the ivory and blue wash of hyperspace. Skim was frantically running diagnostics on ship systems, while Freila monitored their flight computer, next stop Bakura.

Skim sat bolt upright in his chair and stared scratching his head, " Hmmmph ! What the frell is going on !? " Friela looked shockedly at him, " Skim ? What's the matter !? " Skim started scrolling throught diagnostics logs again, " I can't understand it, according to the computer we're running within normal parameters - but I felt a jolt, just as the ship entered Hyperspace.... Didn't you feel it ? As if a stansion or something had broken!?" Freila frowned at him, " No I didn't feel anything, the computer says we're okay - so.. so we must be okay - look everything's running at normal parameters, well, the engines are having to work a bit harder, but that's to be expected... You know how badly we were hit near Hoth - we're lucky the ships still in one piece - don't worry Skim, a few hours and we'll be on Bakura - organising repairs." Skim sighed loudly and climbed out of his seat, " Hmmm, you're probably right Freila, you usually are... I'm going back to look at the engine bay...."

Skim turned and started jogging towards the rear of the ship, it had been a very hard forty eight hours or so. He felt like he was training for the Great Theed Run, the amount of times he'd sprinted back and fourth recently.

Inside the cramped engine bay Tobias was watching Jyma, Spoot, Telan and Chap attend to the various guages and fine tuning controls. Skim skidded to a halt next to Tobias, " What's going on ?!" Tobias turned relaxedly to Skim, a look of mild surprise on his face, " Nothing, everythings working well within the expected parameters... We've lowered the fuel throughput to put less pressure and the Fuel valves and coolant intake. It'll add a couple of hours onto our journey, but the temperatures stabilized at much closer to acceptable level... Why ?"

Skim rubbed his chin thoughtfully. His eyes scanned the interior of the engine bay - all the stansions looked undamaged, the struts looked unbuckled... If it weren't for the debris of tools on the floor, the tired Bothan engineers and the low throughput of the engine it would have looked like a normal Corvette engine room. " Hmmm, I don't know - it's probably nothing... I felt a jolt as we entered Hyperspace... I thought a stansion might have gone or something.... Did you feel it ?"

Tobias scratched his head and squinted while he tried to recall the sequence of events just prior to their jump to hyperspace. " Hmmm, I felt something, I thought it might have been an air pocket in the fuel intake valve discharging. We bled the valves dry before to make sure there were no fractures, that must have been it... We'll keep an eye on things down here anyway - don't worry..." Skim rubbed his chin and looked around... Everything looked normal...

Skim shook his head, " Tobias - it's time you guys got some rest, get Joffie, Mohab, Kieras and Ronf to take over monitoring the engines... We can check the systems when we get to space port..."

Wandering back to the front as Skim entered the cockpit Freila was just setting the navigation computer up to drop them out of hyperspace within short sub-light of Bakura, " Oh, hi Skim, everythings set now- we should go and get some rest before we land..." Skim shook his head. Wearily Skim and Freila ambled arm in arm to Skims bunk in the sleeping area.

~

36 Hours later,
Bakura System


As the Stormcrest dropped out of Hyperspace Freila and Skim were taking their seats back in the cockpit. Again as they dropped out of hyperspace Skim felt a subtle judder... " Hmmmph, Freila, remind me to get an expert to look at that judder, It could be something serious...." Freila rolled her eyes at him, " Come on Skim, according the nav-comm these are the co-ords for the spaceport. "

The Stormcrest swooped down to the Bakura main spaceport, setting down in the largest repair bay they could see.
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Post by Gonesolo »

As the Stormcrest dropped out of hyperspace, close to the Bakura ship yards, Ariane released the docking arm's grip on the ship. The Dark Hunter dropped silently away as the larger corvette lumbered on course.

After a couple of moments of drifting the engines of the freighter growled to life and Ariane expertly brought this ship around in a large circle. After the Stormcrest had landed R5 de-activated the cloaking generator, with luck it would look like they had just arrived from hyperspace.

After requesting landing permission Ariane left R5 to land the ship as she returned to her quarters. She quietly retrieved her cloak and swung it gracfully around her shoulders closing the clasp on the front before the trail of the black cloak had settled around her. Lying on the bed were two heavy blaster pistols and two metal cylinders. Quickly she retrieved the two blasters and after spinning both in her hands returned them to the reverse slung holsters on her thighs. She paused for a moment as she stared at the two clinders on the bed then turned sharply on her heel and marched out of the room.

The Dark Hunter gently set down in a smaller bay of Bakura station and R5 joined Ariane at the top of the gangway from the frieghter.

"Stay with them if they leave 5!" she commanded as she pulled up the hood on her cloak and dissembarked into the station
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Post by SmokeMare »

As the Stormcrest dropped into sub-light Skim felt sure something was wrong again. He picked up the ships internal comm, and connected to the engine room, " Joffie ? Is everything alright down there?! " Joffie crackled over the comm, " I know what you mean Skim, we felt it too - it felt like we just hit a bit of Space Debris though, I think the particle shields might be down on efficiency..." Skim shook his head in dismay as Freila swooped low over the repair yards of the space port.

After gently touching down the weary crew wandered out into the bustling spaceport. Twenty Seven Bothans ambled through the streets looking for a cantina, eventually they came up on the Fallen Star Cantina. It was busy inside so the crew began queing patiently at the bar, while Skim wandered around looking for somone who might be able to repair their ship.

A corner of the Cantina quickly became overrun by Skims crew. They say patiently chatting waiting for Skim to return. Eventually Skim appeared on the scene, being followed by a Twi'Lek, " Freila, this is Tiberus, he runs Sein Star Drives, and they'll look at our ship on a no repair, no fee basis." Freila stood up and shook the tlal Twi'Lek's hand, " Good to meet you, when do you want to look at the ship ?!" Tiberus scratched his head, " Hmmm, we can have a look after you've finished your drinks - Skim here gave me the impression you were in a hurry to leave..."

Freila and Skim looked at each other, Tiberus sat with them and finished his own Correlian Ale, within thirty minutes they were trapsing back to the Stormcrest.

Back at the Stormcrest Tiberus Repair crew were already their with a much vaster array of spare parts and tools than the Stormcrest crew could ever muster.

Freila and Skim hugged each other as Tiberus work crew bustled about removing charred components and topping up liquid components. Skim turned to Freila, " Y'know Freila, I think everythings going to be okay! We're due a holiday anyway after all this stress - let's fly out into the wilds, look for a lush green planet with a breathable atmosphere and have a holiday..." Freila smiled faintly at him, " We're not out of the hot water yet Skim, every minute we spend here is a minute too long.... This is a busy spaceport and there's alot more chance of... "

Freila was distracted by the sound of blaster fire in the street, they rushed over to see joffie, Jyma and Mohab lying prone, assorted blasters pointing down the street firing frantically. After many blasts a yelp could be heard and a Rodian slumped out from behind the barrel where he'd taken cover.

Skim rushed over to Joffie who was climbing to his feet, " Joffie ! What happened !? " Joffie dusted some muck off his beige tunic, " Hmmph! Ruddy Bounty hunters ! He almost got me ! Hmmph ! Stupid Rodians - can't shoot for spit anyway..." Skim shook his head looking at the smoking corpse further up the street - MORE attention. Just what they needed.

Back in the repair yard Engineers were crawling over the ship. Skim told Freila wahat happened, " Bounty Hunter ?! Hmmm, Rossa's probably put a very desirable bounty on our heads - we'll set up a 24 hour watch until we are ready to leave. We'll always have at least four people covering every entrance to this repair bay..." Skim nodded and wandered into the ship to organize the first watch.
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Post by Gonesolo »

Finding the battered Stormcrest had proved not much of a problem, most of the technicians on the base had been pulled to do some sort of work on her, getting on board appeared to present more of a problem though. Ariane stood non-chalantly at the end of the landing bay as repair crew hustled and bustled back and forth from the ship. Seemed like Skim was being a bit paranoid, she had counted about four guards at each accessable entry to the ship, she needed a plan. Slowly one dawned on her.

She approached from the rear of the bay hidding behind some large containers and the fuel transfer pump until she approached where the engineers were ferrying supplies from the hanger to the ship itself. She pulled one of the boxes from the large stack and dragged it behind some of the containers and waited. She did not have to wait long as she heard voices approaching.

"Dang it Jacks where did you put that coolant pump?" called the first voice

"I left it right here," responded the second, "On top of the rest of the parts! Wait is that it over there."

"Yea looks like it great I'll get it you get the rest of these parts on board!" replied the first voice as the sound of foot steps echoed towards Ariane's location, silently she slid into the shadows to wait.

A middle aged man, with dark hair and a medium build rounded the corner and looked puzzled at the box on the ground.

"Now how did you get around here?" he mumbled as he bent down to grip the box. With that Ariane made her move, she stepped out and quickly grabbed the man, covering his mouth with one hand she pulled him out of view and threw him to the ground. Following him down she pinned his arms down with her knes and again cupped her hand over his mouth.

The man struggled for a short period but stopped once her realised who/what had him pinned to the ground as he peered up at a strikingly beautiful face just visible from behind the hood of a cloak. His eyes softened and he stopped struggling. Ariane removed her hand to find a smile gracing his lips.

"Hey there pretty thing ....." the man started

Ariane quickly passed her hand over his face "forget!" she whispered and he broke of what he was saying. Again she passed her hand over his face "Sleep!"

Immediatly the man dropped into a heavy sleep, Ariane reached down and relieved him of his tool belt and removed her cloak, quickly she tossed the cloak onto the box and she retrieved it from the ground. She made her way to the nearest entrance of the Corvette, the guards at the door gave her a cursory glance as she boarded the ship but no more as she slipped on board with the rest of the repair crew
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Post by SmokeMare »

It had been a hectic day. Skim had been alternating between checking the security of their repair bay, checking the quality of the repairs being done and resting. The whole crew was exhausted.

Freila emerged from the ship and wandered across the hangar to meet Skim, " Skim, the ships ready ! The repairs are completed, Tiberus wants paying... He said he couldn't find where the Hyperspace judder could be coming from though... " Skim nodded and started rummaging around in his beige leather flight jacket for some chips, " Here, Freila, this should cover it... Maybe the other repairs will stabilize the Hyperspace jumps !? Let's just pay up and get out of here before anyone else recognises us !"

Freila smiled warmly as she took the credits of Skim, they were finally going to be getting out into uncharted space, to safety...

When she returned Skim was already prepping the ship for take off. After a quick headcount they lifted off and manouvered out of Bakuras atmosphere. Freila was plotting their hyperspace course, a zig-zagging course going past Kamino to little known system called Cyyran, well beyond the borders of known space.

Meanwhile Skim was running through all the diagnostics of the ship. All systems were running well except... " Freila, somethings wrong... We appear to have picked up a passenger... Look here - this looks like we have 28 life signs on board - What the frell !?" Freila shook her head, " Skim don't worry - it's probably a womprat hopped in sniffing around for food... Or one of that scoundrel Tiberus lackey's falling asleep on the job... Marcha was mooching around all the time while we were prepping the ship - I'll send her to do a sweep of the ship - okay ?!" Skim nodded, it would have to do.... It was about time they got lazy Marcha to do something anyway.

Freila picked up the comm and tapped into Marcha's personal quarters, " Marcha you lazy hoo-y get up ! Get a blaster and check start a sweep of the ship. We think a Womp rat or something has come aboard - if it starts chewing through the cables we'll be done for ! "

Skim heard moaning, followed by agreement coming from the comm. It had been a tough week, it would eb good to get out of known space. Freila seeing all the systems were running at maximum performance reached for the Hyperspace ignition.
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Post by Gonesolo »

A couple of moments after departure, deep in the bowels of the corvette, the red haired woman exited a cargo bay. After a short epoch slipping through the various corridors on board she located the crew quarters. Choosing a door she attached a fibre cable from her cyber arm to the door panel and whispered into her com.

"Ok R5 do your magic!"

A few moments later and with a gently click the door slid silently open, she slipped inside.The room was a standard crew quarters with ensuite. With a iniquitous smile on her contenance she slipped inside.

A few moments passed and the door hissed open. A young Bothan entered casually chatting to someone outside. His faced was deeply harrowed and his eyes deep set and somnolent. Tossing his satchel to the cot he was instinctively drawn to the ensuite door. Focusing his interest his became aware of the swish of running water.

Warily he approched, drawing his blaster from his belt as he did so. Cautiously he peered inside, the air within was wet and steamy. Through the clouds of steam he could make out the silhouette of a person showering. Warily and a little confused he skulked towards the figure. With blaster in hand he reached out and snapped the door open revealing the figure within.

As the steam disapates the figure is revealed to be a young, virile flame goddess. The beads of water trickling down her supple form. Her eyes burn a sultry, unspoken invitation and a child like purity.

For a moment the man is worshipful, stunned by the vision of seductive beauty gracing him by her presence. His resolve weakened and his weapon falls to the floor. Not waiting to de-robe he entered, still unsure as to whethar he was dreaming. Gently he wrapped his muscular arms around her silky soft form and pulled her close. With a sultry smile she stared deep into his eyes and gently dropped her forehead onto his chest.

Unsure she pulled herself away from him and stepped back. Confused he attempted to follow but she brought her right hand forward and hit him in the chest with the palm of her hand. With a crashing noise he fell to the floor as glass shattered across the floor. The goddess, lightly stepped from the remains of the shower and stradled his broken body. Her eyes no longer sultry and naive but now showed malice and fury.

Bewildered he knocked her clear and scuttled to retrieve his weapon. Scrambling to his feet he aimed the weapon at his now attackers still exposed chest. Suddenly the blaster was knocked from his grasp and he smashed into the wall yet his attacker had not moved. As he weakily gained his footing she reached out with her hand and motioned as if grabbing his throat.

Immediatly he could not breathe, his larynx constricted. Desperatly he clawed at his neck but there was nothing he could do. Silently and with a malicious smile she took a gentle step forward and struck his nose with the palm of her hand. His nose shattered, sending fragments of bone into his frontal hemispheres, and splattering blood all over the room. His limp body dropped to the floor.

She strode from the room without concern and leisurely retrieved her clothing and quickly robed before leaving the quarters as stealthily as she had entered.
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Post by SmokeMare »

It was a long hyperspace jump to Cyyran. Skim looked at Freila, " Hmmm, I wonder how Marcha is doing ?" Freila shook her head, and started scanning the various screens on her console, " Hmmm, looks like she's found whatever it was anyway - we're back down to only twenty seven lifeforms aboard." Skim climbed out of his pilots chair, " Good, that's a relief, I woundn't have wanted to go back to drop off some drunkard ship repairman... We've lost enough time already... I'm going back to for a while..."

Freila nodded and grabbed Skims lapel on his beige leather flight jacket, she bulled him closer and gave him a quick kiss. Skim smiled warmly at her and rested his furry hand on her shoulder, before turning and wandering towards the recreation area.

Mohab, Ronf, Kieras and Jyma were playing 'Emperors hand' at one of the tables - a more complicated version of Sabaac where one could call Emperors Hand with a certain combination of cards and you could have more control over the pot and the ante. Skim had never really been a big card player he stood idly watching for a few moments, the four were concentrating deeply - it appeared to be a fairly high stake they were playing for so he decided to leave them alone.

Sitting alone, sullenly in a stall across the corridor Joffie was supping a bottle and watching the Holo-net. Skim wandered over and chanced a wave when he reached the table. Joffie looked up and smiled, " Hi Skim, have a seat - how are things ?" Skim sat down next to Joffie in the stall, " Not too bad - we're underway at last ! I think we picked up a lifeform on Tatooine somehow - Marchas dealt with it though..." Joffie scoffed, " Marcha deal with something ? That good-for-nothing ? I doubt it... " Skim frowned at Joffie, he perhaps didn't really know enough about his crew as he should do - this would be a classic example of that.

It was quite a disconcerting thought that despite the fact that they were so understaffed at the moment a crew member might not be pulling their weight - perhaps he'd better have a word with Marcha when he saw her ?!

Casting his thoughts aside Skim pointed at Joffies bottle, " Can I have a swig ?" Joffie laughed at this, " Here, I picked a crate up on Tatooine, I have a few under the table - just grab one !" Sure enough when Skim reached down he felt a small box with several bottles in it. He picked on up and studied the label, it was Corellian Ale of a sorts, but a Tatooine produced copy - he cracked it open and gulped down a third of the bottle- it wasn't all that bad...

Skim felt a little more relaxed now - he leaned back in his stall and looked at the holo-net mini screen, " What's been on the Holo-net Joffie ?!" Joffie shrugged, " US ! The spice confiscation - that Lizard that took our cargo... The bounty on is HUGE ! It's a good job we're out of here !"

They sat and supped their beers, after a short while Freila joined them having arranged for some others to watch the cockpit...
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Post by Gonesolo »

Twenty minutes later and Ariane found herself on the upper levels of the corvette as it raced through hyperspace. Silently she slipped through the corridors. As she slid towards the rear of the ship she was approaching the gunnery posts. She slowed as she heard a voice up ahead as she focused her senses she could make out a slightly inebriated voice talking. Pausing for a moment she listened intently but could only make out one voice. Warily she crept forward, staying close to the corridor wall to avoid exposure.

Craning her neck she was able to distinguish a middle/late aged Bothan slumped into the gunners chair of one of the Corvette's Turbo lasers. He clasped a brown bottle in his right hand and was shouting out the Dura-Glass of the gunnery spot at the swirling azure of hyperspace.

Crouching in a corner she opened her com link

"R5 pull up the specs for a Correlian Corvette. Tell me where the power systems for gunnery turret 1B are" she whispered.

A few moments later and the display of her com link illuminated to display the scematics she was searching for. Quickly she located her quarry and gently removed the cover from the power system relays.

"Ok R5 got it! Now tell me what I need to over load this thing."

Quickly the droid guided her through rewiring the power unit to create a powerful back feed to the gun chair. Working quickly and stealthly under R5's expert tutilage she quickly finished her task. Finally she flicked the power unit on and the status display indicated the over charge in progess. Silently she returned the system cover and slipped back down the corridor.

As she strode confidently down the corridor she heard an explosion from behind her and the tormented screams of a dying man. The sound of escaping atmosphese followed closely behind and the wail of the emergency Klaxson as the corridor was sealed to protect ships integrity.

Ariane smiled a wicked vicious smile as she strode confidently down the corridor
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Post by SmokeMare »

Freila and Skim had been sitting with Joffie in the recreation area. They'd been there for some time, watching the Holo-net and discussing their future plans. Their discussion was cut short when Reyfa and Railyf appeared panting next to the cockpit.

Reyfa stumbled over to the stall, " Skim, Freila, come quick, somethings happened ! Several of the ships systems have gone off-line, some sort of power surge..." Skim slammed his drink down and sprinted back up the long corridor to the cockpit, Freila just behind him.

Without wasting any time Freila and Skim slid into the pilots and the co-pilots chairs and began running diagnostics... Freila looked sullenly at Skim, " Skim, we're... We're down to twenty six lifeforms.... what the frell has happened ?!" Skim shook his head, he was feverishly scanning through ships diagnostics, nothing, nothing.... He raised his head, " One of the gunnery pits, some sort of power surge...." Joffie looked over their shoulder, " That's Erras post, he usually goes there with a drink to watch hyperspace.... How did this happen ?!"

Skim stood up abruptly, " Hmmmph! Those cowboys on Bakura ! They mustn't have fixed the ship properly! Let's get down there - get Jyma and Tobias, Freila, you stay here with Reyfa, try and monitor our progress."

Skim, Railyf and Joffie darted back through the ship. The gunnery post was near the aft and it was a long way. Eventually they arrived at the point where the klaxson had sealed off the corridor. Soon they were joined by Jyma, who had had the foresight to collect a spacesuit on the way.

Joffie, pulled the panel off the wall, " Hah ! The frekking contacts have crossed ! No wonder the gun blew up, Tobias, get me a hydro-spanner and some calips, this is going to take ages to repair..." Tobias nodded and scooted off to get some tools.

Meanwhile Skim had been helping Jyma into his space suit, " Okay we're all anchored - you go over to the klaxson and I'll initiate a 10 second release. I'll pull you out in ten minutes - just do what you can..."

Jyma nodded and walked slowly to the klaxson, Skim and the others quickly checked they were attatched to the rail properly, then Skim initiated the ship integrity protection over-ride. The klaxson door shot up, Jyma climbed gingerly through and it snapped shut after him.

Inside the bell housing of the gunnery post Jyma saw the remains of the gun, and Erras, Erras corpse being pulled to the vaccum though the small hole in the Dura-glass. The automatic Dura-steel cover had not activated due to the powersurge taking out some of the electronics, so Jyma carefully loosened the retaining bolts and pulled the durasteel down over the Dura-glass. After locking it tightly the klaxson snapped open again, pressure back to normal.

Skim, unhooked himself and ran down the corridor to the gun position. Erras was dead. Burned, and scarred, he'd taken the full force of the explosion. The gunnery point was a mess, shards of metal everywhere, Skim shook his head in dismay as Jyma removed his helmet, " *sigh* Jyma, help me pull him free... " Jyma nodded and grabbed Erras left arm while Skim took the right. Slowly they dragged his burnt, lifeless corpse back into the ship.

Joffie, having had his tools brought to him was tinkering inside the wall panel, after a while he withdrew and started scratching his head, " I can't understand it Skim, this should never have happened ?! There's nothing wrong with the subsiduary systems, for all intent purposes this apparatus is fine...."

Skim, wiped the sweat from his furry forehead. As they wandered back to the main corridor Tobias looked aft, a torch was waving around rather erratically, as someone shone their way up the corridor, idly checking the conduits and suchlike... It was Marcha...

Skim approached her, " Marcha ?! Why are you still wandering around the ship ?!" Marcha scowled at him, " Because you told me to you Nerf Herder !"

Skim, sighed deeply, " Only until you'd found whatever it is and..." Marcha interrupted him, " Well I haven't found anything yet have I ?! It's probably your scanner-scope playing up again... I always get the putta jobs !?"

The internal communications array crackled into life, it was Freila, " Skim, the emergency internal comms array is online ! What's your status there?!" Skim, pulled out his handset, " I've got a bad feeling about this - call the crew together in the recreation area - we need to have a head count."

The commpanel clicked dead. Then Freila's voice crackled over the tannoy, " All crew members report to the recreation area for a head count."

Minutes later everyone was crowded into the small recreation area. Skim counted all the heads, sure enough - there was only twenty five of them. Erras they knew about but... Where was Ermik ?

Skim, motioned with his hands for everyone to settle down, " okay has anyone seen Ermik ?! " After alot of murmering a voice spoke up, it was Thonak, " He said he was tired, and was going to his bunk, that was acouple of hours ago though ?!"

Skim looked at Freila, "I've got a bad feeling about this.." He turned back to the crowd, Thonak, take Tolemn and check out Ermiks quarters...

The two Bothans scurried off towards the living quarters, eventually Skims comm crackled into life, " Skim, he's dead he's been killed..." the crowd errupted into shouting and dissarray... Skim, stayed on the comm, " Okay get back here - we've clearly got a massive problem here...."

When Thonak and Tolemn were back the crew had settled down. Joffie, spoke to the crowd, "Listen everyone, I've been first mate on this ship for along time, and we've been through some sticky situations... We don't know what we've got onboard, but we've got something on board and its clearly hostile, we don't know if it killed Erras, but it killed Ermik... It could be that Lizard that took our cargo has sneaked aboard... Or... some wild creature.... Everyone is to take a blaster and we'll start a sweep of the ship. I want one engineer with each group, if you think you see something in a conduit, then pump burning plasma into the conduit, we'll flush whatever it is out. Skim, Freila and Telan are with me. Chap, Mohab, Trick and Ronf - you're together. Possan, Cahab, Layse and Kieras you're together. Tobias, Jyma, Frett and Marsy - you're all together. Narcha, Tolemn, Caif, Terfa you're together, Reyfa and Railyf, take Spoot and Thonak. Okay everone - grab a blaster and a the tools for flushing the plasma. Keep together if you find something tell us about it."

The groups of Bothans split up, methodically sweeping the ship. Occasionally someone would think they'd seen something move in a conduit and the engineer would unfasten a Plasma bleed valve and blast a flurry of burning plasma through the ducts...
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Post by Gonesolo »

Deciding to seek so solace for an epoch Ariane slipped into the ships conduit network. The conduits connected all areas of the ship and made sense to be the most secure method of traversing the corvette.

Presently she became aware of a numbering of teams that appeared to be searching the ship. This did not overly worry her until she observed one of the teams flushing a nearby conduit with Plasma from the ship manifold. Suddenly she heard a noise from behind her. Quickly she scurried down a conduit and rounded a corner, but was she fast enough - had they seen her?

She could hear some activity at the far end of the conduit. Cautiously she peered around the corner. Roaring down the conduit, straight in her direction, a wall of burning plasma approached. Panicing she searched the conduit, she found a vent exit but it was too far away she could not reach it in time. She needed to buy herself sometime.

Reaching out with the force she used a force push to place a barrier at the junction as she started to back her way towards the vent. The Scaring, scolding Plasma flames ripped at the barrier but the barrier held. How long she could keep the barrier up for she was not sure. Glancing behind she force pushed the vent cover clear and dropped the barrier. As the deadly plasma flames rushed down the conduit she dropped through the venting to the ground below.

Landing gently on the ground she looked up to see a woman resting lazily against a crate playing with a blaster in her hand. The womans mouth dropped agast as Ariane dropped lightly to the ground, the edges of her cloak slightly singed from the plasma flame. The woman went to scream but Ariane force pushed her and she crashed into the container behind her. Like lightning Ariane closed the distance between them and as the woman stood up she snapped her neck like a twig. The womans body fell limply to the ground as three male Bothans rounded the corner, silently Ariane slipped out of view.

The three men entered the cargo bay from the opposite end the eldest of the three grumbling as they entered.

"God damn that woman she is going to be the death of me, lazy wench that she is always slacking off somewhere! WHERE THE FRELL IS SHE!"

The lead two stopped as they spotted a pair of legs sticking out from behind a container. Warily the three drew their blasters and approaced the limp form. As the three rounded the container their face dropped as they recognised Marcha lying on the ground her neck at an angle not normal for a humanoid life form.

The eldest of the three raised a com link to his mouth, just as he was about to speak the com link exploded in his hand. The trio whired around to face a red haired woman, dressed in black and wearing a black cloak pointing a smoking blaster at them.

"Hi boys" The woman purred as she holstered the blaster, "Looking for me!"

Confused the trio looked at each other and then opened fire on the woman. The woman moved like a blur, jumping the first volley she closed the distance between them in a second. Headbutting the first Bothan she crushed his nose before quickly spin kicking the second to the ground. As shots from the eldest man whistled past her she grasped the blaster from the second and shot the third in the chest.

Viciously she rolled the second onto his back and straddled him pinning his arms with her kness. She pointed the blaster diretly at his face.

"Who the Frell are you lady?" The Bothen screamed.

"Death!" the woman replied with a vicious smile. She lifted herself up from him as she did so the blaster recoiled in her hand.

She dropped the blaster on the ground and strode out of the cargo bay another four corpses in her wake.
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Post by SmokeMare »

The Storm Crest dropped out of Hyperspace in the Cyyran system. The abandonded looking asteroid and mine in the distance.

Hearing the gunshots Skims group rushed towards the corridor where his comrades had been fighting. The other groups arrived there at the same time.

The dead corpses of Terfa, their chef, Caif, Tolemn and sweet Marcha lay strewn about the corridor. Skim broke down in tears as he knelt next to Marcha's lifeless form. She had been the youngest crew member - barely into her late teens. Yet here she was cruelly robbed of life at such a tender age.


He picked up her frail and lifeless form and hugged her, tears rolling down her cheeks, " Marcha ! I'm so sorry I didn't look after you better !? You should never have come with us... If only I'd listened to your uncle Jeb Kaxsan... He said you were too young... " Her head slumped back lifelessly, an eternal expression of pain on her face.... Skim sobbed and sobbed as he held her, the large group was in shock. The danger they were in was now becoming apparent.

Freila rested her furry hand softly on Skim's shoulder, " Skim, there's nothing you could have done you weren't to know..." Joffie rested his hand on Skim's other shoulder, " Come on Skim, the longer we linger the greater the danger... I think there are only two things that we can be facing now... We need toget back to the recreation area, there's nothing you could have done for Marcha, Terfa, Tolemn or Caif... "

Slowly the weary Bothans crept back towards the recreation area. Many an eye was filled with tears. Their hearts heavy at the loss of their comrades. When they got to the recretion area the crowd had a solemn quietness about it this time. Joffie spoke, " There's not many things that could have taken out so many of our crew... We need to steady our emotions and concentrate on surviving, a long time ago in a space port I heard a story about a strange creature, like a giant insect, but with acid for blood, and moved quicker than the eye could see... The traveller who told me of it called it a Gieger Alien, wiped out most of his crew he told me, created by race specifically to hunt they are fearsome creatures though rare.... What interested me was his story of how they got rid of it. Now i don't pretend to suggest this is what we are dealing with, we could be dealing with a Jedi, possibly Jedi turned Bounty Hunter... It's certainly not that Lizard that stole our cargo on Hoth. The way my spacefaring drinking partner rid his ship of their silent stalker though was simple, he sealed himself in the cockpit with his surviving crew and opened every bulkhead in the ship. Flushing the contents into space - I suggest we do the same..."

In seconds the crowd of Bothans was in uproar, what about their food ? What about teir equipment, but Joffie reminded them that six of the crew had been killed without so much as a chance to identify what it was that was killing them. Slowly the Bothans filed into the small fifteen foot by eighteen foot cockpit area, and the bulkhead was sealed.

Systematically Skim and Freila set about locking open every bulkhead in the ship, and all the air locks. The hiss of air escaping into space seemed to last an eternity. The food and water which they had not been able to fit in the cockpit area drifted harmlessly out into space.

Skim's mind was racing with thoughts. A Jedi he thought ? He'd remembered talking to a man in a bar some time ago on Coruscant about Jedi, this man had boasted about the hundreds of Jedi he'd killed... What was his name... Kregor, something !? He'd told him something of how to fight Jedi... What was it ?!?! He concentrated, trying to remember what had been said as he watched the food and other Debris flash out into space. Saabac cards drifted dramatically past the Dura-glass windscreen.
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Post by Gonesolo »

Striding confidently through the bowels of the ship, Ariane was slightly a bit concerned that the amount of activity appeared to have died out around her. There were no more search parties, no more plasma fires.

"There planning something!" she thought to herself, "But what?"

Suddenly a monotone computer voice boomed out

EMERGENCY DECOMPRESSION SEQUENCE STARTING. 5 MINUTES TO SHIPWIDE DECOMPRESSION!

"Oh Frak!" she snapped desperatly looking around. She stopped and calmed herself allowing the force to flow through her and calm her. She flipped open her com link.

"R5 wheres the sensor relays on this ship?" After a blustered beeped reply the ship schematic appeared on screen again, "Excellent and show me the nearest escape pod from there and from here!" Again the image changed to show her the information she seeked.

The nearest escape pod was just down the corridor quickly she force ran to it an activated the pods computer.

"how long? how long?" she queried to herself before picking a number out her head and setting the eject timer to 5 mintes. "Better not hang around!" she commented before turning around a force running towards the sensor array.

Once there she wasted no time in removing the computer casing.

WARNING 3 MINUTES TO SHIPWIDE DECOMPRESSION!

Boomed out from behind her.

"Tell me something I want to know!" She snapped as she pulled the blaster from her left holster and adjusted the power settings, the blaster started to emit a rising whining noise, quickly she placed it within the console and replaced the casing. Then she force ran to the nearest escape pod and activated the control systems for it seting the timer to match the earlier set pod for ejection.

Panting she activated her com again.

"Ok last one R5 and quickly please air is getting thin over here. Find me the nearest escape pod to the bridge!" she stepped back and rested against the bulk head. It was getting hard to breath this was not going to be easy she wanted to hold off until the last moment. R5 response flashed up on her display

"Thanks 5" she snapped as she closed the panel on her arm and force ran towards the cockpit.

WARNING 30 SECONDS TO SHIPWIDE DECOMPRESSION!

Boomed over her head as she reached her destination quickly she activated the escape timer and opened the door. She paused as she concentrated on the force once more, bringing her body to her attention she started to slow her body down. Breath, circulation, they all slowed. She expelled all the air in her body and proceeded into the escape pod. Pulling the breath mask from the wall she started to breath at a much slowed rate and waited. At the last moment before the pod ejected she threw herself out of the pod.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Skim and Freila were monitoring the pressurisation of the ship. It was quite cramped in the cockpit, twenty one Bothans crowded into the tiny area. Skim rubbed his chin thoughtfully, " Hmmm, we've had total decompression for about three minutes now...Wha ..?!" Freila jumped as the scanner-scope fizzled out, at the same time three escape pods jetted off in different directions. " What the Frell ! They're escaping!? But why take three pods ?!"

Skim dropped his hands into the pockets of his beige leather flight jacket, " Hmmm, it's obvious, knock out the scanners so we don't know which he's on, release two and only climb into one - if we hurry we can shoot down all three... Unless..." Freila frowned at Skim. Joffie had overheard there conversation, " I know what you are going to say Skim, it's been over five minutes since total decompression, by the time the systems have worked it will be seven minutes in vacuum with no air.... Nobody can survive that long in vacuum without a space suit and if they do have a space suit then we could fly all the way to Coruscant and it wouldn't make a difference, let's pressurize the ship and shoot theose pods down.."

Skim sighed, " Hmmm, it's been nearly six minutes now... I don't know... *sigh* I suppose we have nothing to lose - Freila hit the pressurisation sequence." Skim stood up and turned to the crowd, " Olay everyone we're re-pressurising the ship. As soon as it's safe everyone except Joffie, Freila and me - rush and man a gun position, shoot down those pods then we meet back here!"

Eventually the bulkhead door between the corridor that led to the recreation area and the cockpit hissed open. Nineteen Bothans stormed through the corridors blasters in hand, preparing to man the guns and shoot down the escape pods. Within minutes all the pods were reduced to floating space debris.

Skims voice crackled over the tannoy, " Jyma, Tobias I want that scanner-scope back on line.... " Freila rested her hand on Skim's shoulder, " *Sigh* let's hope we're safe now Skim... " He grabbed her soft furry hand and squeezed it tightly, " I love you Freila, when all this has blown over we'll have a good long break somewhere..."

Freila smiled at him, Joffie a little embarressed tried to concentrate on the consoles.... Still no scanner-scope. At that point Jyma chirped in over the comm, " Skim, we can get the scannerscope online again but it's going to take at least half an hour." Skim, picked up his handset, " Good work Jyma, let us know if you need anything..." At that point Marsy and Frett wandered into the cockpit Marsy was carrying a water decanter, "Skim, Freila, Joffie - we thought you could do with a drink..." Skim thanked her and they passed the decanter around each drinking deeply....

It was turning out to be a traumatic day...
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Post by Gonesolo »

Ariane crashed through the grating in the ventilation system as the ship started to re-presurise. Her lungs were ready to explode in pain and in many places blood vessels had burst and trickles of blood ran down her face and across the back of her hands. She collapsed in a heap at the bottom on the conduit as air rushed through. Deeply she breathed allowing the cool air to relieve the pain in her chest. She lay there for a few moments tired from the exertion of holding her breath for so long. Almost 7 minutes, even with her Jedi abilities that was pushing the realms of her ability.

After a few minutes of allowing the refreshing cool air circulate through her body she wearily forced herself back into a crawl position. Opening the mini com on her system she glanced at the schematics of the Corellian Corvette as she rubbed her neck to dull the pain. After another minute or so studing the plans she picked a conduit and started to scramble her way down.

Presently she arrived at her goal, the central computer nexus for the ship, quickly she glanced around to ensure the area was clear and then warily she approached. The nexus was a large concaved cylinderical shaped array in the center of an otherwise empty room. Kneeling beside the nexus she quickly located the access panel she seeked and with a low click she detached the panel. Opening the panel on her arm again she pulled a fibre optic line and connected it to the Nexus.

"Ok 5 your connected!" she reported into the com.

After what seemed like and eternity but was really only a couple of minutes R5 beeped and ackowledgement that he had established an uplink. She quickly detached the fibre link and closed the panel again.

Leaving the Nexus she heading towards one of the Corvettes many gun posts. As she approached she could hear voices approaching. Quickly she slid into an adjacent corridor and listened as the voices passed. Waiting a few moments she followed a short distance behind.

"Got to make a pit stop!" one of them announced in a loud voice.

"Frell man I don't need to know that!" the other complained in reply before the two turned down another corridor. Silently Ariane followed. The two men proceeded into the bathroom off the main corridor and a few moments later Ariane slid up to the door. Listening intently at the door she could hear the voices chatting inside. Silently she drew her blaster and slipped inside.

"Hello boys!" she commented as she pulled into the room behind the two men who spun around grabbing for their blasters as they heard the voice.

"Now, now not a good idea" She smiled waving her finger in front of her face and pointing to their weapons.

The trio stood like that for a few moments the two men standing slightly in awe of the beautiful woman standing in front of them point a blaster at them.

Suddenly the younger of the two men raised his blaster, quickly shifting her stance Ariane changed target and fired catching the young man square in the chest. See his opportunity the other raised his weapon and fired. Ariane deftly dodged to one side but the blast winged her shoulder. Yelping she grabbed her injured shoulder and violently force pushed the man backwards. Ceramic smashed as he impacted the tilled was behind him. So strong was the force of the push that he broke into the wall leaving a strong impression of himself on the wall.

Regaining her composure Ariane holstered her blaster and pulled the blaster from one of her victims and after a cursory inspection she spun the blaster in her hand and slipped into her free holster before approaching the bathroom mirror and writing in blood on the mirror.

I'M STILL HERE!

Silently she slipped out the door and down the corridor.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Skim sat in the pilots chair drumming his furry fingers on the console, "Dammit ! When are we gonna get that Scanner-scope back on line... I want to know whats going on !" Freila patted him on the back, "Don't worry Skim, I'm sure Jyma's nearly there, I'm more concerned about our central computer system... It's slowed down to a crawl! Here' look.." She iniated a diagnostic, and there was huge, noticeable pause, then the results slowly chuntered down the screen.

Skim rubbed his chin thoughtfully, " Hmmm, perhaps it took some damage when we de-pressurised, I'll send some to have a look at it in a... oh" Skim was cut off by the Scanner-scope blaring into life. Jymas voice crackled over the comm, " Skim, is the Scanner-scope back on line !? We've had to butcher some auxiliary systems to get it working, but nothing we can't live without... There was an overloaded blaster in the console..." Skim picked up his mic, " The Scanner-scope seem to be working okay now - It's just calibrating itself !? What the frell did you butch..OH it doesn't matter - at least it's working now..."

As the Scanner-scope settled down Freila peered at the screen, she ran a lifeform check, " Hmmm, that's odd - we're one down... Twenty lifesigns, aboard... There's should be twenty one... " Skim shook his head in dismay... " Frell they must have had a space suit and stayed aboard ! Hah ! They don't waste any time... Let's get a head count... "

Freilas voice echoed over the tannoy for the crew to meet in the recreation area. A few minutes later nineteen Bothans were mooching around the recreation area looking worried... Skim addressed them, " Okay, we've lost some more of the crew... Whoever is attacking us is still onboard, we don't think it's worth trying to decompress again, they must have a space suit to have survived as long as they did... Did anybody see Trick and Ronf !?"

Cahab gingerly raised his hand at the back, " I saw them walking towards the rear gunnery positions earlier..." Skim rubbed his chin thoughtfully, " Trick and Ronf might have been fluched out into space - we'll look for the bodies later, from now on nobody is to do anything in less than a group of four okay ? We're going to cean this ship properly, Joffie, Telan and Marsy - you're with me and Freila we're going to flush out the ducts. Chap, Mohab, Possan, Cahab, Layse, Kieras, Tobias, Jyma, Frett and Danno - you're to go and get the proximity sensor repeating blasters from the hold, and as much ammoas you can carry, we're trp this ship so tight that if whoever is attacking us breathes their going be vapourised right ?! Okay - to work everyone!"

The gun crew set off cautiously towards the hold, Skim turned to Joffie, " Joffie, we're going to seal of the Ducts and Conduits by flushing them with burning plasma, then trapping the entrances with invisible infra-red trip mines, then we'll weld steel plating over them. "

Cautiously the Bothans went about their business, flushing ducts, welding ducts, welding un-used doors, setting trip mines, and setting up the proximity sensor repeating blasters. Over an hour later the Bothan crew was back in the recreation area, and Skims team were in the cockpit, content that the ship was secure Skim led his team back through the short corridor to the recreation area.

There the Bothans were sitting around exhausted, having worked as fast as they could... Skim addressed them again, " Okay, there's no time to sit around, I want four people guarding the port and starboard corridors at all times, eight can rest - then change. Myself, Freila and Joffie will monitor the proximity guns cameras from the cockpit and the life signs on the scannerscope - keep sharp! If you're getting tired get someone to swap posts with you. Freila, myself and Joffie will be discussing our options..."

The Bothans took up positions guarding the two corridors into the back of the ship, it was eerily silent. The resting Bothans tried to get some sleep, fearing that they would be too tired otherwise. Freila, Joffie, and Skim wandered back to the cockpit, Skim slumped into his pilots chair, " Frak ! What're we going to do now ? " Freila sat beside him, " Well we're pretty safe for now, let's have a look at that star chart and see if we can find somewhere we can go where we can get help ??!" Skim pulled his paper star map out of his beige leather flight jacket, Joffie, Freila and Skim began studying the map and discussing their options...
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Post by Gonesolo »

As the Bothans worried on sealing the access shaft to the turbo lift a dark figure moved in the shaft. Moving out from her hiding spot Ariane lightly dropped onto the roof of the now secured lift.

Quickly she opened her com link.

"R5 I'm heading for the access hatch at the top of the lift shaft I need my lightsabre's!"

A series of beeps and whistles indicated R5's reply as she closed the com and started to climb the shaft.

At the top of the shaft was a two stage airlock/hatch reaching the controls she quickly punched the sequence to open the outer door. The hiss of escaping air sounded from the opposite side of the hatch and she waited. Soon she head a light clang against the hatch and her com beeped once. She quickly closed the outside hatch and released the seal on the inside hatch. Two metalic cylinders dropped from above her and she quickly caught them and attached them to her belt. Securing the hatch she quickly climbed down the ladder but stopped short of the level she knew the crew to be hidding on.

"These mines will certainly make a mess of anything coming out of this lift!" she remembered the crews conversation as they secured the turbo lift door. She closed her eyes and let her senses extend beyond the lift shaft.

Just beyond the door she could sense the cold metal of what appeared to be three repeating blasters but just outside the lift door was attached a mine. Focusing her concentration she grasped hold of the middle sentry gun and lifted it off the ground and pulled it back towards the lift door.

The sentry gun triggered the movement sensor on the mine which exploded, destroying the sentry but also blowing the door off the lift shaft. The turbo lift which was stopped in front of the door absorbed the rest of the blast containing it.

Lightly she dropped onto the roof of the lift and opened the emergency hatch and slipped inside. Peering warily outside she noticed two other sentry guns mere metres in front of her.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Freila, Skim and Joffie were in the cockpit, labouring over a huge starchart spread haphazardly over the console. At the same time they were carefully monitoring the Sentry Gun Camera views. Obviously they were all quite startled when one of the cameras appeared to be moving backwards...

Seconds later the monitor fizzled out and a small controlled explosion was heard from within the ship. Skim stood up, " What the frell !? How did that just happen!?" Joffie, raised his head from the map slowly, " I saw it too Skim... There's only one explanation - Jedi..." Freila laughed out loud, " A Jedi taking on Bounties !? Don't be silly ! There must be some other explanation - it goes against everything I know about the Jedi that they would become petty two-bit Bounty Hunters...Sheesh!"

Joffie shook his head at this, " Freila, no disrespect but you don't know as much about Jedi as I do. Some of them do NOT follow their code of conduct and just use the force to whatever means they want. They are commonly called 'Dark Jedi' and I've heard many tale of them going Bounty hunting... And being ruthlessly efficient at it..."

Skim drummed his fingers on the console impatiently, "Well, what the frell are we going to do about it !? Hah ! It's a pity Uncle Jeb wasn't here... *Sigh* How the frell do we get rid of a Jedi !?"

Freila stood up, " I'm going to tell the crew what we're up against... Skim, it might be worth you and Joffie trying to get that camera back on-line, the gun may be inoperable, but it might have just shorted the camera out... Even if it can't fire at least we might see what we're up against !"

Skim nodded, " Okay Freila, you go tell them the situation..." Joffie was busy tapping away the console, trying to get something. As Freila exited the cockpit something flashed up on the monitor, it was a tallish woman with red hair, wearing a black jumpsuit. Joffie pointed to the two metal cylinders on her belt, " Dark Jedi - I told you so... Right let's get a hard copy..." Joffie pushed the button for a print screen, a moment later he was holding a slightly blurry copy of the picture....

Skim shook his head, " What the frell are we goign to do with that !? " Joffie sighed deeply, " I don't know... Hmmm, maybe one of us could take the Head Hunter, try and get help !? We can stay here, make our stand... If we could get a Jedi to come help us..." Skim sighed, he knew it was a long shot, but so far their own efforts seemed to have proved fruitless...

" Joffie, you're right - one of us can take the Head Hunter, even if we don't make it - at least they can tell our tale... Maybe find uncle Jeb and tell him what happened... Joffie, who is the youngest crew member left ?" Joffie rubbed his chin thoughtfully, " Hmmph, it would have been poor little Marcha... It's her sister Marsy I think..." Skim stood up, " Then it's settled we send Marsy out with this picture, that bounty hunter probably has an accomplice in a hidden ship - Marsy's a good pilot though, I'm sure she can escape..."

With a heavy heart Skim wandered down the short corridor to the recreation area. Freila had told them the news, and they were looking generally even more anxious than previously. Marsy was dutifully guarding the portside corridor with Jyma , Tobias and Chap. Skim approached her, " Marsy, we want you to do something for us..." Marsy lowered her weapon, " Anything Skim..." Skim put his arm around her, " Marsy, we need a damn good pilot to escape in the Head Hunter and try and find help... Go to Bothawui, not straight away this Jedi might well have an accomplice waiting to follow you and shoot you down, but eventually make your way to Bothawui and try and find Uncle Jeb..." Marsy looked at Skim knowingly, a tear welling up in her eye, " I'M NOT LEAVING MY FAMILY SKIM ! " Skim looked at Freila, he patted Marsy on the back, " You can come back, we need some help in this situation and you're the best one to go and get it... If you don't go we'll surely fail and be killed, you're the best here at flying the Headhunter.. We need tou to do this.."

Marsy nodded, then gave Skim a huge hug, " I'll get going then..." Skim put his hand on her shoulder, " Here, take this picture, it might help ... I dunno... And avoid the ducts and the corridors, take the fore service shaft to the bottom deck, then crawl to the hangar through the wiring conduit, you should be just about small enough to get through there..." Marsy smiled faintly and told the crew she would see them again soon, she dissapeared into the cockpit and climbed down the service shaft to the bottom deck.

Skim, Freila and Joffie took up guns and took turns guarding the corridors with the others. Meanwhile, Marsy was scrambling into the ultra cramped wiring conduit and edging along it on her elbows headed for the small hangar at the bottom of the ship.

After an eternity she emerged in the hangar. It had been some time since the Headhunter had been flown. Marsy looked around the hangar, she had a lot to do before she left, fuel, oxygen and a systems diagnostic check. Sighing deeply she set to work pulling the ladders to the cockpit and climbing up.

After sliding herself into the pilots seat she tried to turn the console on, however the power cells were low too. Shaking her head in dismay she calmbered out and rushed over to the recharge point and began dragging the cable over to the Z95's Power cells...
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Post by Gonesolo »

Ariane stepped out of the lift shaft in to the debris of the three gun turrets. Metal crunched under her feet as she stepped into the corridor and took a quick glance around. Warily she approaced the corner of the corridor and peered around. Quickly she snapped her head back as she noticed the two gun sentries at the end of the corridor.

Reaching behing her with the force she picked up several of the larger pieces of the gun sentries and threw them around the corner at the two active sentries. Immediatly the guns opened fire on the new threats and the sounds of gun fire echoed through the decks of the ship. Following a few seconds after with her a lightsabre in hand she stepped swiftly around the corner and force pushed the two sentry guns crashing them into the wall behind.

A vicious smiled crossed her lips and she stepped confidently down the corridor and retrieved one of the gun sentries.
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Post by Gonesolo »

With a crack she pulled clear the remote control equipment from the sentry and the camera which was still running and dropped them to the ground. Quietly she slid up to the junction in the corridor and peered around. Ahead she could see the corvette's large recreation area. It appeared that the crew were all here.

She setup the sentry to face into the rec area and gently slid it into the corridor. Almost immediatly the weapon acquired and opened up. Shots hailed into the large open area and screams and panic erupted from the silence. Panic engulfed the crew as they scrambled to get to cover.

She peered quietly around the corner watching the carnage unfold, a vicious, sadistic grin graced her countenance. As she watched one of the Bothans grasped a thermal detonator and threw it at the sentry gun as he threw himself to the ground. The detonator bounced of the wall of the corridor as it approached the sentry. Quickly she reached out her hand and pushed the detonator back the way it came ducking back behind the wall she head the satisfying tywump as it exploded.
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Post by SmokeMare »

The Bothans had been dutifully guarding the corridors when chaos irrupted.

Mohab, Layse, Frett and Chap were guarding the portside corridor and they could hear explosions irrupting deep within the bowels of the ship. Had they killed their prey though ? The answer came swiftly enough when a tracking gun slid into the corridor, picked them up and started firing ferociously. A hail of blaster bolts cascaded into the recreation, area, Mohab was the first to fall - blasted in the middle of his chest, he fell to the deck clutching the smoking wound.

Trying desperately to take down the out of control sentry gun Frett, was shot dead in the eye before he could get a shot off. Chap diving to a prone position, blaster trained on the gun - didn't make it, as he dived to the floor four blaster shots pock-marked his chest.

Amidst the screams and panic, Layse - who had been behind better cover on the edge of the door had his shot lined up and fired. The shot smacked the dura-steel armour plating of the gun. As he adjusted his aim for a softer spot - the gun picked him up and blasted him square on the arm, shattering bone and burning fur... Layse screamed as he fell backwards.

Seeing the desperate situation Danno rushed down the starboard side corridor - Thermal Detonator in hand. But his Thermal Detonator seemed to bounce back at him as if pushed - he dived for cover. Jyma and Kieras were in the blast-line too, they rushed and dived towards the port side corridor, the blast vaporising Kieras right foot as he failed to clear the corridor. Jyma, landed awkwardly on his shoulder and slid into the path of the port corridor, as soon as the sentry gun was visible he instinctively capped off a few shots at it, miraculously the gun missed his head by millimetres, burning the top of his ear off, yet his well aimed shots destroyed the fragile control box on the Sentry rendering it useless.

The Recreation area resounded with the screams of agony of the injured Bothans. The air smelt of burning flesh, and a vile vapour wafted around.

Marsy deep below heard the screams, the shots and the explosions and quickened her pace. The Power Cells were nearly charged, the oxygen tanks were full, just a few minutes for the diagnostics and the fuel. She skirted around the ship for one last visual check before she set out.

The recreation area was silent but for the sound of Bothans moaning in pain. Danno had not made it out of the corridor in time, totally vaporised by the Thermal Detonator explosion. Kieras was lying on his back, his right leg ending in a charred lump just below the knee. Chap staring blankly at the ceiling as he lay dead, four smoking pock-marks indicating where he'd been shot in the chest. Mohab lying a couple of feet away, his face in an eternal grimace of fear and agony, the single blaster mark dead centre of his chest. Frett, with his burned out eye lying alongside Chap.

Skim crawled blaster in hand to the door controls and shut the Port side Blast door, blasting the controls to it so that it could not be re-opened.

Before he could get to the starboard side Railyf screamed in panic, " I can't take it anymore -I'm taking an escape pod!" Reyfa, his friend and lover screamed at him, " NO! Rai, you'll be killed !" but he didn't listen, rushing towards the starboard corridor, Skim held Reyfa back who was crying loudly and trying to free herself...

Jyma, seeing the commotion climbed to his feet, his burned off ear stung badly. He looked at Layse and Kieras lying injured and broken on the floor. " Layse, Kieras, hang on. We've got some bacta packs in the emergency cabinet in the cockpit!" Jyma rushed towards the cockpit brushing past Skim who was desperately trying to hold back Reyfa.

Layse, sat up, he looked at his charred arm and tried to move his fingers - nothing... He couldn't even make them twitch. All he cold feel was a dull ache from below his elbow.

Freila grabbed a bacta pack from the returning Jyma, " You see to Layse, I'll see to Kieras!" And she knelt down and started to apply the healing bacta to Kieras charred stump where his right foot had been.

Throughout this chaos and the macabre aftermath Joffie and Telan were sitting hawk-eyed, covering the corridor entrances. Joffie called over to Skim, " Skim, I think you'd better seal the starboard side blast door, we aren't going to convince him otherwise - if he makes it to a pod and gets to the planet he might survive. We should seal the door. " Skim nodded his agreement, but before he could act, Reyfa slammed her elbow into his ribs knocking him back and ran down into the corridor screaming , " RAILYF - WAIT FOR ME !!! "

Skim shook his head sullenly as he looked up. With a deep sigh he closed the blast doors and shot out the controls preventing it from being opened.

Meanwhile Marsy was disconnecting the last of the cables to the HeadHunter. After which, wearily she climbed into the cockpit and closed the hatch. Carefully she punched in a near impossible to follow hyperspace jump pattern that would leave her near to Bothuwai, if Jeb was not there - he would be at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She hit the remote Hangar door opening. As the hangar opened to the blackness of space she ignited the engines and blasted out the doors - preparing to leave for Bothuwai.

Tears of sorry and pain echoed around the recreation area...
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Post by Gonesolo »

Ariane watched as a Bothan ran through the corridor just down from her and quickly deactivated the two sentry guns and ran on. A few moments later a female followed quickly behind.

Slightly bemussed Ariane decided to follow but decided she'd leave a gift for anyone who tried to follow. Picking up the last sentry she set it up in the corridor beside the other now non-fuctional one and removed the damaged unit. Now if someone tried to follow they would get a nice surprise although she did note that the blast doors were closed.

Silently she slipped down the corridor after the two Bothans, lightsabre in hand. As she rounded the corner at the remains of the turbo lift she could see the female Bothan at the end of the corridor. She reached out with the force pulling her legs from under her. The woman fell sprawling and crashed into the corridor wall. Panicing the young woman rolled herself over and started to fire desperatly at Ariane as she approached. The shining green blade of her lightsabre snapped to life and deftly blocked the blaster shots deflecting them back at Reyfa.

Reyfa screamed in pain as one of the shots impacted in her shoulder and she dropped her blaster. Ariane smiled as she closed the distance on the wounded Bothan. Suddenly Railyf appeared at the T junction of the corridor carrying the repeater section of one of the sentry guns.

"REYFA NO!" he screamed activating the gun. Blaster shots exploded from the rapid firing weapon and Ariane quickly brought her lightsabre up to deflect the shots. Her movement was a blur as she deflected the incoming fire but a certain amount of shots were getting past. Most missed but one struck her shoulder, she stumbled back as the blaster burned her arm and she glanced down to see the gears of her false arm exposed.

"DIE, DIE, DIE!" Railyf screamed advancing on the injured woman as Reyfa crawled back behind him to the end of th corridor.

Anger burned in Ariane's eyes as the burn of the blaster wound numbed slightly, she shot the Bothan an evil look and pushed him viciously with the force. Railyf was thrown viciously against the corridor wall and he slumped to the ground beside Reyfa. She placed her hands on his face and lifted his face to look at her. He looked weakly into her eyes and darted his eyes down to his hand. Reyfa looked down and he revealed that he was holding an armed thermal detonator that was quickly counting down.

Reyfa placed her forehead against his, a single tear ran down her face she pulled him close and kissed him passionatly as the detonator completed its countdown and exploded.

Ariane started to continue down the corridor as she noticed the thermal detonator in Railyf's hand. Without thinking she turned and threw herself back down the corridor and away from the blast which roared down the three ajoining corridors. She barely made it back around the corner at the turbo lift before the blast roared up the corridor after her.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Marsy's craft had just exited the hangar, still hugging the underbelly of the ship - a warning light popped on, " Frell!!! The Hyperdrive coolants leaking too !? Hmmph perhaps this ship has been sabotaged!"

Hitting the reverse thrusters she carefully guided the ship back into the hangar. Explosions and screaming could still be heard faintly somewhere above her, one or two decks.

Systematically she climbed out of the ship and went back to study the coolant tanks. After opening the inspection panel she saw an O Clip had come free, and Coolant was dripping from the loose pipe.

Sighing deeply she set about repairng the pipework and re-filling the coolant chamber. Marsy thought about her mission as she was tightening up the clip. She hoped Jeb was on Bothuwai, she wasn't even sure if the hidden Jedi Temple deep in the Bowels of the Coruscant Undercity was a myth or fact... She definitely didn't fancy trying to find it...

Eventually she was happy with the tightness of the clip and she wandered over to the coolant supply nad dragged the hose nearer to the ship. Clipping the nozzle into the filler she walked back to the console and keyed in the sequence for a Coolant refill.

Back in the recreation area the Remaining Bothans were still covering the blastdoors, and discussing what to do. Skim was waving his blaster around irratically, " Frell !What the frak are we going to do now !? I'm running out of ideas !" Freila shook her head, " I'm not giving up yet, whoever is attacking us HAS to be injured by now - Jedi or not... We don't know maybe they died in that blast we heard just now !?" Joffie shook his head, " Well, I'm not going to suggest opening those blast doors! Our ship is virtually crippled already, if we continue throwing explosives around we may survive, only to be stranded here on the ship...." Skim rubbed his chin thoughtfully, " I dunno - our first priority is to survive... I.. Hmmm..I have an idea, Freila, Joffie, Jyma, come with me to the cockpit - we're going to light the corridors up for our guest..."

Confusedly the three followed Skim into the cockpit and crowded around the main computer console. Skim explained his plan, he was going to overload all the plasma conduits in the section of the ship behind the blastdoors, leaking plasma and igniting it, setting off the remaining proximity mines, the part of the ship behind those doors was about to become a meat grinder.

Hurrying to thier task the Bothans set all the manual overloads up and synchronised a final power surge to hit all of them at once. The ship rocked with the force of the explosion! Marsy, who was at least two decks down was sent sprawling by the force of it.

Skim, turned to Joffie and Freila, " Hmmmph, if that doesn't do it I don't know what will !"
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Post by Gonesolo »

Ariane returned and overlooked the chared mess that indicated where the two Bothans had died. The burned walls a silent memorial to the two who had prefered to die by their own hands rather than hers. Her hand held her shoulder lightly covering the blaster wound although the pain was more phantom than reality.

Suddenly Ariane started to look around, something was wrong but she could not see what. She could sense a massive power build up but did not know where it was coming from.

Suddenly from all around her conduits started exploding and raging plasma roared into the corridors. Ariane threw herself hard against the corridor wall as a blast roared down the aft corridor of the ship engulfing what remained of the two Bothan's bodies. Her senses warned her and she dropped to the floor as the vent covers above her head exploded and flames raged out burning the cross walls on each side. Scrambling to her feet she looked around as all around her conduits and vents exploded and flames of plasma licked the walls of the corvette. Ahead of her the corridor at the turbolift was engulfed in flames. More explosions raged through the corridor and she found herself ducking low to avoid more raging flames.

Desperatly she searched for an escape, the only one she could find was the turbo lift shaft,, desperatly she ran towards the destroyed door as the flames eased a little, but she knew what was about to happen the entire conduit system was about to explode filling the entire ship with raging, deadly plasma. Keeping low and ducking more small explosions she raced to the turbo lift.

As she crossed the tresh hold of the lift she heard the growling rumble from the conduits each side of the turbo lift which was replaced by a ferious explosion. Plasma filled the corridors and raged towards the door of the lift. In desperation she force jumped through the access hatch on the turbo lift and slammed the door behind her. She could hear the plasma roaring in the lift below but the noise was replaced with a much closer, clearer noise.

She took a deep breath and looked up to see flames exploding from each side of the shaft above her and rage down the shaft. She dropped to the roof of the lift and listened intently to the raging below. Above her the burning plasma roared down the shaft drawing ever closer. As she listened she could hear the flames raging in the lift. She waited for them to abate and the quickly she opened the hatch and dropped through into the lift.

The lift was chared and burned and as she touched the ground she could hear the flames engulfing the top of the lift. Without thinking she threw herself out of the lift and rounded the corner. The mechanical brakes of the lift gave way and the lift car collapsed crashing down the shaft followed closely behind by a river of burning plasma.

Wearily Ariane picked herself up from the ground, the hot, chared surface was burning her hands as she got up and she quickly wiped the debris from her palms. She pulled her lightsaber from her belt and ignited the blade.

"Right thats it. No more miss nice guy!" she snapped as she stormed towards the rec area.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Skim was sitting in the cockpit, Freila, Joffie and Jyma alongside him. The Console was a kaleidoscope of warning lights as most of the inner workings of the ship had been destroyed.

Skim studied the vast list on the damage report machine. About the only thing that wasn't damaged or missing was the damage report machine. Engines were offline, oxy-generation was offline, life-support was on emergency reserve tanks. The Scanner scope was a burned out wreck and the power cells to the weapons systems were fused totally. In a word even if they had killed their silent stalker they would have to abandon ship anyway.

Thonak and Spoot appeared in the corridor. Thonak walked over to Skim, " How's it looking ? Did we get her ?" SKim shook his head nervously, " I'm not sure Thona - The scanner-scope has been destroyed... Everythings been destroyed... We're going to have to abandon ship... Hmmm, I wonder if Marsy has left yet... I should tell her our status...." Skim picked up his mic and tapped in to the small hangar area, " Marsy, this is Skim, we've had to take some even more drastic action here - if you can get away, bring help - I think we're going to have to take the escape pods down to the planet. "

Marsy heard the message over the tannoy, she was still a fair way off being ready to set out.

Back in the cockpit Spoot had been joined by Cahab and Possan. Spoot put his furry hand on Skims shoulder, " Skim, we think you're probably right... She's probably dead now... But we want to make sure... We've been looking, and we've four Thermal detonators left... Cahab, Possan, myself and Thona are going to run a sweep of the ship with our blasters, but we'll secretly hold our Thermal Detonators loosely and in such a way that if we drop them they'll go off... I...I know it sounds drastic and dangerous, but if we clear the ship we can just switch them off and make plans for our escape - we'll keep our distance great enough so that it's impossible for us to kill each other should we fall..."

Skim rubbed his chin thoughtfully, " Spoot you can't do that !" Freila sighed deeply, " Skim, if our attacker is still alive chances are they're going to be killed anyway - if not this way they might be able to take her with them.
*sigh* face it Skim she's probably dead anyway - how could anyone have survived a blast that virtually destroyed the ship ?"

Skim stood up and started pacing back and fourth... Was Freila right...? He didn't know, " Spoot, you don't have to do this... none of you do ! We're going to have to escape to the planet soon anyway..." Spoot shrugged, " Better to know that we've killed our attacker then eh ? We'll be okay - she's probably dead already..." Skim nodded solemnly and the four Bothans crept cautiously splitting up, taking different different routes through the ship and keeping great distance between them. Visibility was surprisingly good considering most of the lights had been destroyed and the walls were all a charred mess of explosion damage and dangling wires. As they crept through the ship they armed their detonators.

Back in the rec area Jyma had managed to hotwaire the starboard blastdoor, but it was now jammed firmly open. He shouted to the cockpit, " SKIM, I CAN'T GET THE DOOR SHUT !" Tobias, Telan, Kieras and Layse, took up positions on guard. The injured Bothans struggling with their injuries, Layse resting the barrel of his blaster on his wrecked arm and Kieras sitting awkwardly in one of the stalls...

The corridor was guarded, the four searchers were trecking silently through the ship. Skim, Freila, Joffie and Jyma were in the cockpit desperately trying to get some systems back on line - in vain. The ship a wreck, most of the crew dead, things were looking grim for Skim and co.

Deep with in the ship, in the small Hangar, Marsy was impatiently watching the diagnostics run again, this time a more thorough check owing to her previous attempt to leave. SMACK! She hit the console with her fist, " Come on, COME ON ! You piece of Nerf Dung !"
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Post by Gonesolo »

As she headed towards the fore area of the ship she could hear the search party coming towards her. Deciding it better to let them split up she slid quietly back down the corridor and back into the bowels of the ship. The rest of the ship was as bad as the main deck. Corridors were blackened and chared and consuits exploded right the way through the ship.

As she reached one of the sub levels she could hear someone approaching behind her. She turned a corner and recognised the bathroom she was in earlier. Silently she slipped inside leaving the door slightly ajar.

Possan warily made his way down the corridor. Sweeping from from to rear in a dedicated pattern. Spoot was not far behind him but a safe enough distance behind to be safe if his thermal detonator went off. As he continued towards the aft of the ship he noticed the blasted door of one of the bathrooms slightly ajar and could make out something inside which looked almost human/Bothan. Curiously he moved closer. Gingerly he pushed in the bathroom door with his blaster. Slowly the door opened in revealing more of the shape on the floor.

He made out two legs, then the hips and then the torso of a body on the floor. A smile started to form on his face. Suddenly he heard a noise that made him freeze in fear. A snap hiss from behind the door. The color ran from his face as a realisation crossed his mind. As he realised his folly a green lightsaber blade came through the door and stabbed him mid torso and then swiftly moved up his body cutting both door and flesh simultaneously. The blade withdrew just below his head and the door of the bathroom was viciously slammed into him throwing him across the corridor. As he hit the wall on the far side the thermal detonator in his hand exploded throwing the door back across the corridor and slamming into the wall.

Shielded by the blast by the wall Ariane dusted herself off as she stepped out after the explosion. Suddenly she could hear foot steps rapidly approaching and she slipped around the corner.

Presently Spoot rounded the corner at the far end of the corridor. Ahead he could see Possan's now badly burnt body lying against one wall and the bathroom door lying demolished against the far wall. Cautiously he approached the body. When he was about half way up the corridor a figure stepped out in to the corridor levelling two blasters directly at him. Spoot recognised the figure from the sentry camera earlier. He frooze, his fingers nervously fiddled with the thermal detonator in his hand as he pointed his blaster at the figure.

Re-discovering his resolve Spoot pulled the trigger on his blaster, repeatedly.

"DIE!!!!!!" he yelled as he pumped plasma in the womans direction.

Almost simultaneously Ariane pulled the triggers on both her blasters and mustered the force to protect herself from the blasts. Her two heavy blaster pistols bucked in her hand as she returned the hail of incoming plasma with equal vehemence. The exchange of fire continued for a few seconds and both combatants stopped. Spoot looked down at his chest to see a number of burn marks in his tunic. Immediatly the pain followed as he dropped to his knees. As Ariane watched the Bothan fall to the ground, in almost slow motion, she noticed the thermal detonator also leaving his hand. Immediatly she dived around the corner as the detonator exploded filling the corridor behind her in deadly burning flames.

As the flames dies down Ariane pulled herself weakly up against a nearby bulkhead.

"These guys are nuts!" she commented before pulling herself to her feet and quickly retreating down a nearby corridor.
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Post by SmokeMare »

Cahab and Thonak upon hearing the explosions elsewhere in the ship, de-activated their Thermal Detoantors and rushed back to the cockpit. Thonak was panting when he reached the rec area, Skim and the others had gievn up on the systems retreting to the rec area, " Skim, she's still here - we've lost Spoot and Possan! "

Skim rubbed his chin thoughtfully and sighed, " *sigh* Alright - everybody out - We'll set the self destruct and then ditch the escape pods - Marsy must be reday to leave by now... We have to get to the planet. " Freila nodded solemnly, " *sigh* I suppose there's nothing for it, we'll head to the pods and eject the ones we're not using, and get the other two ready to go..." Skim waved her away, " Give me two microns and I'll join you..."

As the Bothans started scattering for the escape pods Skims started frantically punching in the destruct sequence. Nothing. The ships systems had been so badly damaged they couldn't even destruct the ship. The patter of Bothan feet rushing to the aft had stopped, Skim was distracted by the snap of a light sabre igniting...

Skim whirled around raising his blaster but before he get a shot off the red haired woman had whipped her sabre around in a small arc, mangling and slicing the end of Skims blaster. She stepped forwards and pushed him back against the console, "Your not going anywhere" and she pushed him hard into a chair. Skim scowled at her, "Hah! Call yourself a Jedi murdering innocents..."

The red haired woman shrugged non-chalantly, "I never proclaimed to be a Jedi! You made that assumption yourself!" Skim frowned at this, " Who else could survive all our traps and murder most of the crew ?!"

The red haired woman sighed deeply, "Guess I'm just lucky! And your luck has just run out...

At that point Marsy had just finished thoroughly checking over the Headhunter and resolving problesm and she blasted free into space. The ship was clearly visible behind Skim in the cockpit window and the roar of the engines was clearly audible. Skim laughed aloud," Hah ! you may kill me, but Our messenger has escaped and they are going to get help and hunt you down! "

Ariane smiled softly at Skim, She flipped her right wrist and her com opens "R5 there is a Z95 headhunter leaving this ship - shoot it down"

A series of beeps and whistles indicated the little droids response.

Her smile turned sour as she listened to the droids response. "Don't deny me R5 I'm ordering you to fire on that ship!" she barked.

A series of half-hearted blaster shots flew towards the headhunter, missing it and it dissapeared into Hyperspace.

Sourly she commented to her com link "We are going to talk later my friend!"

Ariane grabbed Skim roughly by the chest "Come on you lets go!"

As they left the cockpit Ariane startled stopped in her tracks as she saw the rest of the crew standing there blasters trained on her. Skim, still holding his damaged blaster swung it viciously into Arianes face. while she was off-guard. There was a sickening squodge and blood flew everywhere as the broken blaster smashed her nose. As she staggered backwards from the blow, dropping her sabre Skim strode after her repeatedly smashing her in the face with his broken blaster like a blacksmith forging steel forwards and back, the blaster went, bloos splattering everywhere and teeth clinking on the deck. Eventually she was lying battered on the floor, her face a bloody mess, and blood pouring from her wounded mouth. Skim spat on her, " You're going to pay for what you've done !" Stepping from the cockpit Skim took up Freilas blaster and fired a rally of shots at the crumpled bounty hunter on the floor. He took Thonaks Thermal Detonator, armed it and gently rolled it into the cockpit shutting the door behind it.

Once the blast door had closed he used Arianes sabre to mush up the metal and controls around the door and welded the doors together. Before the blast could go off the Bothans rushed back towards the last two escape pods. On the WAy Cahab took his Thermal Detonator, armed it and wedged it into an area where the hull was already damaged.

As the last two escape pods drifted from the ship they saw the cockpit lit up in flame, and minutes later the side of the ship burst into explosion as Cahabs Detonor fired, air rushing into space as the ship decompressed.

The pods were drifting towards an old abandoned looking facility on the planet. In thin atmosphere they could still see the Stormcrest, their home for most of their lives, drifting towards it's grave. The bodies of their dead family and crewmates still aboard...

Many an eye was filled with tears in the two escape pods.

Meanwhile Marsy was blasting through hyperspace towards Bothuwai...
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Post by Gonesolo »

As Skim turned with the blast in hand Ariane, still in pain from the impact of the blaster, summoned the force to her and prepared to bear the pain. Multiple lances of plasma impacted her body. She managed to absorb the pain of most of the shots but some of it flowed into her. The remaining energy burnt hard and she writed in pain on the cold metal deck.

Unable to move she watched as a Thermal detonator was thrown on to the bridge with her and the blast doors were sealed. Calling on her energy reserves she forced her aching muscles to lift her off the ground. Desperatly she scanned the bridge as the thermal detonator counted swiftly down.

As she scanned the bridge her eyes noted the hatch in the floor. Stumbling her way to the hatch she pulled it open to reveal the ladder below. At the last second she threw herself into the hatch and pulled the heavy door behind her as the thermal detonator exploded.

A few seconds later she popped the hatch again. The smell of burned metal filled the room. The atmosphere in the cockpit was getting thin and the fires were already starting to die as CO2 levels rose and oxygen levels dropped. Taking a deep breath Ariane pulled herself out the hatch and towards the heavy blast door. Quickly she pulled her second lightsaber from her belt and ignited the blade. The Green blade started to cut its was through the heavily shielded door and the remaining oxygen in the cockpit was quickly used up. Slowly the blade ate into the door as Ariane's lungs started to complain and beg for a refill. Even with her Jedi abilities extending the time she could hold her breath she could not hold out much long.

Eventually the lightsabre finished its task and a large section of the blast door was pulled away by the expanding vacum behind the door. As Ariane pulled herself weakly through the opening and gulped some of the quickly escaping atmosphere the Stormcrest entered the planets atmosphere lurching forwards as the planets gravity gripped the ship. The giant corvette accelerated as it entered the planets atmosphere.

Ariane snapped up her com link "R5 What do you know about this planet!" She yelled over the noise of escaping atmosphere "How thick is the atmosphere? would this thing survive and uncontroled re-entry?"

An excited series of beeps indicated the droids over anxious reply. "Excellent!" smiled Ariane "Once we are through the atmosphere get the Hunter as close as you can and watch for me!"

Again R5's anxious replied echoed from the com.

The Stormcrest was now being buffeted heavily as she charged through the planets atmosphere. Ariane fought her way toward the turbo lift and she could clearly see the hole blasted in the hull of the crippled corvette. As the Corvette cleared the atmosphere the airflow changed as the air from the upper atmosphere started to rush into the hull from the gapping wound. Ariane breathed heavily, thank full for the small grace that physics had provided her. As her strength returned she pulled her way towards the gaping hole in the side of the ship. The hole itself messured about 1 meter in diameter - not big enough for what she was planning so she made her way around to an into the turbo lift.

Exiting the lift through the service hatch she crawled the access ladder to the the top of the shaft. Once there she quickly release the inner hatch release and crawled inside.

"R5 where are you?" she barked into her com link. The droid's response was swift and accurate, "Good watch for me!"

With that she closed her com and opened the out side hatch. The cold air rushed along the hull and her hair blew wildly in the wind as she stood up from the hatch holding on for support. Pausing for a moment as she stared down the length of the hull she threw herself clear from the doomed corvette and let the wind catch her.

As she was carried clear of the doomed corvette she freefell towards the planet. For a moment she was suspended floating free held only by the wind, but then gravity re-asserted its hold on her and she plummeted towards the ground. Suddenly she heard a roar from behind her as the Dark Hunter roared past her and took a position ahead of her. The top hatch on the freighter slid open as R5 shallowed his descent slightly. Ariane tucked her arms and legs in together and let gravity pull her towards the slowing freighter. She impacted with the hull of the freighter a little faster than she had wanted and groaned as she impacted the hull. Slowly she pulled herself the last few meters to the upper hatch and collapsed inside.

As she pressed the button to close the hatch R5 pulled the noise of the freighter sky ward and put the ship in a low orbit around the planet.
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