On the Run (Ask/Invite)

[Captain Awesome]

Somewhere amid the grassy seas of the luxurious planet of Aargau lays the gleaming city of Escrow. Majestic sky scrapers stretch up to the dusty pink skies of dusk, glass elevated walkways criss-cross with the neat little skylanes of expensive speeders that spiderweb through the bustling metropolis.

Three shots rang out into the sky, one after another.

Three streaks of tibanna energy traveled faster then the speed of sound, melting neat little holes through multiple sets of windows until each one burned itself cleanly into their respective targets. Three politicians fell backwards onto a plush rug, each sporting a blackened tunnel through their brain, before the sound of the shots even reached their dead ears.

Three hours later, Sel Tavis was in his speeder, careening into the sky. Where was he going? He had no idea. A vein pulsed in his brow as his speeder shuddered under the impact of a variatable swarm of angry bullets as they tunneled into the speeder's thick armor plating. Sel's knuckles tightened around the wheel as he tried to squeeze the last vestages of speed from the thing. But it was no use. He was already hitting 300 mph.

Another shudder, this one more violent then the rest. Sel cursed under his breath. He cursed the two security officers behind him, hammering away with their blazing guns. He cursed the faulty sniper/assassin droid he had used, for yielding to the authorities his identity. And most of all, he cursed the crime lord, Switch, for setting him up for this job.

Blurred rivers and mountains zoomed by unnoticed underground. The city was no more then a dot on the horizon, and shrinking fast. He barrel rolled and tried nearly every trick he knew, but it was no use. His engines had taken too many hits. But he still had one trick left.

Sel slammed on the breaks.

Sel's eyes were straining against their sockets. The G's pulling him against his crash webbing were so powerful that he cracked a rib. He almost blacked out.

But he didn't.

When he opened his eyes, the speeders were out of sight. At 300 miles per hour, a few seconds can do that. He was in the clear, but there was another problem: he was free-falling from thousands of feet in the air! Remaining calm, he keyed the engines, but they had taken one bullet too many. Starting up was simply too much. Sel's stomach drifted into his chest as the ship plummeted towards destruction. Had he not chosen to see to it that his escape vehicle was complete with a repulsorlift on his ejectable seat, he would have died for sure. As it were, he only tore up his leg and gashed his shirt and chest on the branches near the edge of the forest.

Five minutes later, a bloodied, bandaged figure stumbled into a cantina at the edge of a town. Sel had no idea what town he was in, nor did he care.

All he knew was that he was safe... for the moment.

 

[Ka've]

Vak was taking a leak in the bathroom when the screaming started.

He zipped up his pants immediately and burst through the bathroom door. Outside the bathroom in the dimly lit cantina lay a man soaked in blood with guests screaming around him. The other patrons were hysterical, had no other reaction but too either leave or scream at the top of there lungs. In seconds, the bar was cleared of all but the curious patrons.

Vak scanned the room to find his brother rushing toward the man on the floor. Vak followed but was interrupted by a voice saying "Don't touch him! I'm calling Medical right now, you might worsen it.."

A inaudible gurgle came from the man, which sounded like a scream. Vak turned around and looked at the man. It seemed his throat was so clogged with dry blood that he couldn't even speak. Vak said "At least we can give this man some water...although i don't think he wants Medical involved..." The bartender replied "Ill get this man some water real quick, but he's not dying in MY cantina. Either he goes to medical or leaves." He left to fetch the wounded man a drink.

Meanwhile, Sien had taken off his shirt and tried to stem the bleeding on the mans face. He gingerly wiped the blood away while Vak was speaking to the bartender and applied pressure to the deep gash near the left side of his torso with his other hand.

What was that? Thought Vak. He had just felt a chill ripple through the Force.

He looked over at the scene that lay before him just in time to hear Sien say ".....Sel? Sel is that you??!!"

 

[Jiang Winters]

[Joining on invite from Feste]
The Cathar smuggler known as Hakim had been seated at the bar when a bandaged and blood-stained human-like alien, an Umbaran if he had to guess, staggered through the door and collapsed. Well, that's a new one. He thought idly, knocking back what little was left in his glass of Corellian ale as many of the other patrons started screaming or otherwise panicking, and proceeded to flee the area.

He didn't really understand why they ran like scolded dogs, it wasn't like wounded and apparently helpess men pulled out repeating blasters and massacred everyone around them, after all. But then again, rational thought seemed to be an ability possessed by very few members of the galactic population, so he supposed their response could be considered 'normal'.

Hakim watched as a pair of human males appeared, one of them proceeding to tend to the fallen Umbaran while the other talked to the bartender. After silently observing for a short while, the cathar slid off his stool and made his way over to the wounded party, coming to a halt a few feet back.

"Anything I can do to help?" He asked, directing his query at the human tending to the Umbaran, only for a case of poor timing to strike, as the human had started to speak to the wounded fellow, asking if his name was 'Sel'. Or was it 'Shell'? He supposed that names didn't really matter at the moment, and so opted to stay quiet and watch, his curiosity about what had happened to land this 'Sel' fellow in this situation practically forcing him to stay.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Sel did nothing before gratefully accepting a drink from the bartender. It hurt to swallow, but he had bigger pains to worry about. Blinking the blood out of his eyes, he tried to sit up, but was met with a stabbing pain in the torso. He grunted feebly and collapsed onto the ground, where the bartender began to pour the water in.

The water was cold and invigorating on his swollen tongue. By reflex, he coughed out the first few gulps of water, which tasted metallic from the blood, and managed to choke down the rest. In his throat, a sizeable piece of scabbed blood broke off and lodged itself painfully in his throat, but at least he could breathe easier.

Gasping in the air he couldn't breathe a second ago, Sel regarded this "Sien" with one eye.

A moment passed before he remembered: He remembered sending Sien's mother some credits. It was always good to have favors owed, especially one with Sien's special assortment of skills.

He squinted through the blood on his eyes. Who was this Cathar?

"Sien," he managed to croak in acknowledgement.

 

[Ka've]

Sien replied "Sel! It is you! I haven't seen you since the war..." He turned his head and tried to not recall some of the more undesirable memories. After a second he turned his head back to look at Sel's battered body and then said "...What were you doing Sel?" Sien remembered Sel's 'skills' vividly, they had come in handy on patrol and infiltration missions. That, and Sel seemed to want to avoid any type of authority.


Vak said to his brother "You know this man?" His brother turned and looked at Vak with a blank stare, which Vak interpreted as a 'its none of your business' look. Instead of replying, he turned to the unknown patron to inquire if he had any medical experience but instead he was transfixed by the disapproving scowl of the bartender over the newcomers shoulder. Vak said "Soo.....what should we do with him?"

 

[Phil]

Noticing the small events that unfolded, the lightly white armored huntress Alicia Dagger looked on as the recently man who was a bloody mess stumbled into the Cantina she was relaxing at. From the looks of it, a friend of his recognized him and went to his aid as the Bartender also lended a hand, but did not seem to want any dead body's in his Cantina. Couldn't really blame the guy, trying to run an honest business and one dead body can ruin it all. Downing the last of her own drink, she set the glass aside and slipped her helmet back on as the orange lens suddenly started to glow lightly as she approached the pair as she saw a Cathar enter the Cantina and saw what had unfolded.

Reaching into her pouch, she went and grabbed one of her pain killer syringes, something she knew would take the pain away just until he was patched up. Yeah, this man looked like he was in a war zone, and needed something or else he could possibly go into shock from blood loss.

"Stranger, I don't know if he is going to make it before paramedics arrive. Give him this, it will take the pain away for awhile. Something that will keep him going until he gets patched up."

 

[Jiang Winters]

By staying quiet and listening, Hakim was able to learn that the injured umbaran's name was indeed 'Sel, and that the human tending to him was 'Sien'. The cathar had intended on staying quiet and learning more about what had happened, but the second human, who seemed to be a companion of Sien's, turned to face him and spoke.

As he couldn't tell whether the human's question was directed at him, or the bartender who was standing uncomfortably close behind him and staring over his shoulder, Hakim decided to reply. "I'm no medic, but I think this guy needs to be moved to a infirmary, or at least a bed. Bandages should be swapped out, wounds zapped with a laser cauterizer to sterilize and seal them, and he should be given a dose of antibiotics and painkillers. It looks like he lost a lot of blood, too, so... Uh, I'm not really sure of Umbaran physiology, so I don't know what to do about that."

Hakim looked up as a feminine voice spoke up, and he directed the curious gaze of his dark blue orbs to a humanoid female clad in concealing white armor with a unusual, one-eyed helmet that was. He opened his muzzle to ask if she had medical training, then paused, and shut his mouth, opting instead to once again stare down at Sien and the other human. "I think she's got the right idea. Drug him up and let's move him somewhere safe, maybe that clinic on the other side of town. Or you could take him to my ship, it's a lot closer, and it's got a medical bay."

 

[Ka've]

Even though Vak disapproved of getting on strangers ships ( a habit that had been ground into him as a child) he resigned to the fact that given their current situation, it was the best option placed in front of them.

But before Vak could speak, Sien said "Ok, we gotta get him there fast. Vak, come over here and help me.." Vak got down by Sel's armpits and hoisted him while Sel hoisted the other. Sien said "Lead the way." To which Vak added "Hurry....i have bad feeling about this..."

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Allright then, come on." Hakim replied, turning and heading towards the cantina door, but pausing and glancing back at the armor-clad individual. "You're welcome to come too, especially if you know anything about first aid." He said, then turned and walked out the door, holding it open for the two brothers carrying the wounded Umbaran.

The cathar lead them on a almost straight course, heading directly for a small and beaten-down windowless duracrete building, next to which was a large landing pad that was protected only by a inexpensive seven foot chain-link fence with razor wire atop it, and a single security camera sitting on the edge of the building's roof, aiming at the landing pad. Sitting on the pad was his ship, the Tien, her name proudly emblazoned in bold white letters along the two bow prongs flanking the cockpit.

Hakim unlocked the primitive twist-dial padlock that held the fence door shut, then lead his companions to the rear of his ship, where the main cargo ramp was located. After locating a well-hidden recessed keypad and entering the proper code, the armored ramp hissed briefly, then slowly rumbled downwards, until it hit the duracrete of the landing pad with a loud clang. "Head to the back of the cargo bay. There'll be a corridor, take it, the infirmary is the second door on your right. I'll be along in a sec, I want to see if that woman followed us and close the loading ramp."

 

[Captain Awesome]

Sel coughed weakly as the filtered air from the ship blossomed out and hit him in the face. His eyes could see his body heat, like a human sees color. Was he getting a fever?
He staggered with the other's arms, dragging a broken ankle along the metallic floor until they led him into the infirmary. It was sterile white, as are most infirmaries, and smelled vaguely of some unknown chemical.
He slumped onto the bed. He looked at the cabinet, organizing them in his head.
"Fourth cabinet from the top," he said, pointing with a shuddering arm. "Bone - bone marrow stimulant".

 

[NiteCrowe]

Urkazza looked up from his work and gave the hovering protocol droid a curious look. He had been working on the gyroscopic stabilizer for the stern gun turret - one of several things he had been fixing for Hakim - when he had heard voices entering the ship.

Still holding his hyrdospanner, he rose and held out his arm, allowing the blue primate known as Creeper to run up it and onto his shoulder. Then, with the protocol droid in tow, made his way toward the loading ramp, just in time to see two men supporting another and making their way towards the infirmary.

Curious he followed the trio into the infirmary, never loosening his grip on the hydrospanner lightly, "ohacraaoc rrooahwhrr oowh?" He asked with his head tilted to one side, once the trio had entered the infirmary and began to look for things.

Grumpy translated, "He wants to know whats going on?"

 

[Ka've]

Vak turned around to see himself face to face with a huge, hairy Wookie.

Few are the ones who can control their actions in the face of danger. And fewer still are the ones that can control it when being scared by a Wookie...Vak wasn't one of them.

His instincts came to him and in a instant he had pushed himself as far away as he could get from the Wookie, who was blocking the doorway with his lumbering figure. Vak felt his back hit one of the Infirmary walls, drawing his blaster as he came to a impact.

Sien, who had been by Sel's side, noticed the commotion immediately and he also drew his pistol, although he didn't move.

Vak drew raspy breaths, and his heart felt like it would beat its way right out of his chest..

 

[NiteCrowe]

Urkazza suddenly found himself in a strange position. He had two men each pointing a pistol at him, and another man, possibly feigning unconscious.

The Wookiee began to wish that he had at least had the sense to grab his Bowcaster or Ryyk Blade, before investigating strange voices.

On the other hand, he did have a Hydrospanner, a small blue primate and a hovering protocol droid who could be very quick when he wanted to be...

And he was a Wookiee...

In his head he quickly played out a scene, where after a quick grunt Grumpy kicked in his boosters and zoomed at the smaller of the two pistol wielders, knocking the gun out of his grasp, while Urkazza quickly threw the Hydrospanner at the other wielder, distracting him while the Wookiee quickly disarmed him.

Back in the here and now, he realised that Grumpy had taken it on himself to confront the men.

Groaning, he almost decided to just turn away and walk off, letting the men shoot the stupid protocol droid in the process.

"Put those stupid peashooters away," the emotionally retarded droid was saying, "We heard unfamiliar voices in the ship and came to investigate, and then you pull weapons - if those can be called weapons....."

Urkazza stopped slamming his forehead against the doorway, and quickly let loose the loudest Wookiee roar that he had ever, causing the protocol droid to actually stop talking - something which never happened - and he was also sad to discover that Creeper had fled away to some recess, obviously scared by the outburst.

"Shhucao racor aoacwosc ohacraao aoacworo rarcwo waooahwhrr acworcwo."

"Fine, if I must, but..."

"Waoo ahao!"

"He says, He wants to simply know what you are doing here...."

 

[Phil]

"Allright then, come on." Hakim replied, turning and heading towards the cantina door, but pausing and glancing back at the armor-clad individual. "You're welcome to come too, especially if you know anything about first aid." He said, then turned and walked out the door, holding it open for the two brothers carrying the wounded Umbaran.

The cathar lead them on a almost straight course, heading directly for a small and beaten-down windowless duracrete building, next to which was a large landing pad that was protected only by a inexpensive seven foot chain-link fence with razor wire atop it, and a single security camera sitting on the edge of the building's roof, aiming at the landing pad. Sitting on the pad was his ship, the Tien, her name proudly emblazoned in bold white letters along the two bow prongs flanking the cockpit.

Hakim unlocked the primitive twist-dial padlock that held the fence door shut, then lead his companions to the rear of his ship, where the main cargo ramp was located. After locating a well-hidden recessed keypad and entering the proper code, the armored ramp hissed briefly, then slowly rumbled downwards, until it hit the duracrete of the landing pad with a loud clang. "Head to the back of the cargo bay. There'll be a corridor, take it, the infirmary is the second door on your right. I'll be along in a sec, I want to see if that woman followed us and close the loading ramp."

Alicia had actually been following the group, her boots were just oddly quiet to the rest of the other's ears. It was a special modification to them that allowed the bottom to dampen the sound they made, all the better for sneaking about. However, she was still slightly behind and met the Cathar again when he approached the boarding ramp. "Sorry about that, had to grab something." And with that, thinking his offer still stood, made her way up the ramp and into the ship as she turned to face the Cathar. "Name is Alicia Dagger by the way."

 

[Jiang Winters]

"Pleased to meet you, Alicia. I'm Jamall Hakim." The Cathar smuggler replied, giving the armor-clad woman a smile and gesturing towards the corridor that he had directed the others to. "Head on in. Everyone else went to the med bay, it's the second door on the right." He added, at the same time reaching out to a small control pad and hitting a bright red button, causing the ramp and cargo door to rumble shut.

About that time, he heard a shockingly loud roar from down the corridor, one that could only have come from one person aboard the ship. "Judging by the sound of that, I'd say that either Urkazza has met the others, or he dropped that replacement turret gyro on his toe..." He sighed, moving ahead of Alicia as he started to make his way towards the Medbay, to see just what was going on.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Sel lay on the mat, quietly twitching away. Although his lead body was too heavy to move, his mind and his morbid sense of humor was unabated.

He heard the footsteps, imagining what he'd be seeing through his closed eyelids. Here everybody is, making friends over my prostrate body. Oh no, don't mind me, I'll just be laying here, bleeding...

 

[Ka've]

Vak's finger twitched as he heard the Wookie's snarl. Everything in his body screamed to shoot the furbag as many times as possible until it was unrecongnizeable. Fortunately for the Wookie, Vak's fear had him paralyzed.

Sien was different however. He realized his friends life was at stake. Sel's breathing now came in short, raped spurts; he needed help immediately. Sien had to decide now if he needed to barter with the beast or shoot it, both seemed highly unlikely. Sien had personally seen his share of the Wookie's in the war when he was stationed on Kyshyyk, how the Wookie's had torn some of his comrades apart with such unbelievable ease.

However, he had also learned how they could be killed. Every organism had their weak spots, and Wookies were no exception.

Sien drew his other blaster pistol, now holding two. Wookie's usually weren't interested in conversation other than with their own.

 

[Jiang Winters]

Hakim made his way down the corridor, slipped into the medbay, and found himself... Staring at Urkazza's back. He raised one eyebrow and ducked down and looked underneath his left arm, surveying the situation. "Geez, what's with all the guns, fellows?" He asked, slipping around Urkazza and entering the medbay, then standing in front of the wookie. He glanced over his shoulder at the engineer, returned his gaze to the duo, glanced back again, then tried to hide the amused smile that crept onto his muzzle by talking.

"Guys, this is Urkazza, he's a friend. Urkazza, these are some guests. Their wounded friend there needs medical attention, so I offered the use of the med bay to them." He explained, hoping to defuse the volatile situation with his words. He moved to a point roughly between Urkazza and the two brothers, then turned sideways and gestured to both of them. "Now, put the weapons down, I don't want to clean blood off the walls again. And Urkazza, I'd really appreciate it if you'd put the Hydrospanner away, I think this guy thinks you're going to unscrew his head with it." He ordered, gesturing towards Vak with his final comment and suppressing a chuckle. Though in all fairness, if he was in Vak's position, he'd be terrified of a angry wookie with a Hydrospanner.

 

[NiteCrowe]

Urkazza looked at the second pistol then back to Hakim, then back to the pistol.

Shrugging he put the hydrospanner away and looked at the both of the men and Hakim, before half-heartedly pointing to the unconscious man on the table.

Their attention distracted for a second he quickly stepped forward and pulled both of the man's pistol's from his hands and dropped them to the floor.

Then he lowered his face to the mans and growled softly.

"All he did was ask what you were doing here..." Grumpy stated without any of his usual pompousness.

Urkazza rose once again and turned to the Cathar and grumbled something, before storming out of the room and towards the engine.

"He says he's finished with the gun and is going to attempt to increase the efficiency of the engine." Grumpy translated before hovering off after him.

Not sooner had they gone, Creeper, Urkazza's small blue primate pet, re-entered the medical bay and sat himself on the counter, observing the small group.

 

[Ka've]

Sien stood up and walked quickly to the medicine cabinet and ruffled through them to find some supplies. Satisfied, he brought them over to Sel, then crouched down to began medical procedures. Vak, still stuck to the wall, asked "Do you need any help?"

Without turning his head from the task at hand, Sien roughly said"No" and continued to work. A faint sound echoed through the ship, sounding like a faint cannon. What was that? Thought Vak. Seeing as he wasn't needed at the moment, Vak silently excused himself out of the room.

He walked out of the infirmary and straight out of the ship, eyeing the Wookie at work. "Furbag" he said under his breath. The sound echoed again, this one a little louder. He hastened his pace as he continued to the outside of the hanger bay, through the docking module and out into the streets.

As he stepped out into the streets, he felt something warm streak across his head. He immediately hit the ground and looked to his left. Blaster fire!

The city was in a uproar. Every where he looked all he could see were burning buildings and either citizens or the military with blasters. The ones in front of him were trying to fire on a few young boys with slug throwers who had probably been taunting or firing on the soldiers before Vak came onto the scene.

One of the soldiers lifted his weapon and started to take aim at one of the boys. With adreniline rushing through him, he drew his blaster pistol faster than the soldier by far and was able to squeeze off a few shots before the soldier could on his.

The energy bolts ripped through the soldiers body and created two clean, perfect circular holes in his upper left torso and hip. He crumbled to the ground.

The other soldiers immediately took notice and directed their weapons at him. Vak barely had enough time to scramble to a crouching position and duck behind the doorway he had just come through before their blaster fire cut him down.

He raced through the docking module and proceeded to get lost in the crowd. He walked calmly through the sea of people and sat down at one of the many benches, which were full of people he noticed. He sat down to a rather grumpy looking Twi'lek and said "Excuse me sir, but what is going on out there!?" The Twi'lek replied in a angry tone "What do you mean? Are you blind human? A few politicians from the planet just got assassinated a few hours ago, the whole planet is in a uproar. Its a fullscale revolt. The citizens and some private militia are involved, and the whole planet is on lockdown. No ships going out or in. The planet has called for battleships to guard the space above, otherwise i myself would have left long ago. No one knows how they all got their weapons, but i believe" He looked around to see if anyone was watching him. Once he was sure there wasn't, he continued "That there is someone behind this."

Vak got up at once and bolted to the ship to tell others the news..