Ask Drill Interrupted

Bast Emblai

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The medbay was packed to the brim with injured, many with blaster wounds. She’d expected the boarders to be armed, but Bast’s heart still sank when she saw the bodies, peppered with burns. These pirates were not skillful killers. They were the blunt ‘shoot until it stops moving’ type, more interested in achieving a goal than minimizing carnage. It was likely a flurry of electrified bolts would be released at even the slightest sign of movement. Overkill, but an effective method for fighters with mediocre skill. Nevertheless, the threat was real. The number of hostiles was unknown and the Rangers were barely armed. Poor shooters could still kill a practically helpless rangers from meters away. The woman knew that fact too well.

Bast knew Corran had been trying to reach out. She hadn’t missed his worried expressions or cautionary posture, as if she was a feral kath hound. For all she knew, she could be. Every moment was another chance for the dam of emotions to break, for her to lose herself in a past she couldn’t differentiate from the present. The potential horrified her. Every fleeing crew member, every grind of metal agitated her in an irrational way. Recognizing the inconsistency in her mind only made the woman increasingly frustrated. She shouldn’t be feeling that way. Even the detective could recognize there was no reason for such a visceral mental reaction. Logic did nothing to ease the irritation, however.

“Bast-!” Perhaps she could finally confide in him, tell him what it felt like to being going insane and know it. Tell him she a hair away from completely breaking under the pressure of memories, but had to live with it because it was too late to back out and she was too proud. Not only that, but he could reciprocate, tell her his demons. The woman wanted to comfort him, even embrace him, though perhaps more for her sake than his. Scratch that. The professional facade between them could not be broken, especially now. Priorities were elsewhere.

Before any thought could be verbalized by either partner, an announcement came on the intercom, hard to make out with all the commotion. Having just processed the information after mentally patching together pieces of audio, she was left helpless in the middle of the room. The floor shifted violently from under the female Sector Ranger’s feet, the force of an impact throwing her completely off balance. Forearms and knees hit the ground hard, but she sprang back up almost immediately, before the pain could set in. Corran, the poor lad, appeared to have hit the squeaky-clean floor with the force of a small cruiser. She waited for him in the doorway, then ran with him to catch up with the Lieutenant. Hopefully he would understand she wouldn’t leave behind one of her own and excuse their delay.

Utter chaos still reigned in the vessel. Crew flooded past the three advancing figures, tripping over each other and giving incoherent, garbled warnings. The cautions of a terrified crowd would not, however, scare away the three Sector Rangers. They did not have the luxury to run. As they ran through the complex of halls, the hubbub died, replaced by a chirping siren and strobing warning lights. A raised fist from Corran indicated a halt. His hand also indicated four hostiles. Four against three relatively unarmed combatants was hardly a fair fight, but unlike the woman, the galaxy did not care about justice. Completely unsure of the next step, she looked to Lt. Rook. Not only would it be presumptuous to give orders, but she was unable to give a command she could be confident it.

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Roland Rook

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A drone barge was not a small ship. They went out on patrols for long times and used probe droids to surveil and recon possible dangers to the Free World Alliance as well as track down fugitivies. The ships were known for being dull and monotonus places to work. But today was not boring for the crew of the IT-6. Thankfully they were all at their stations or efficiently moving from place to place. They didn't have a large onboard security team so that quickly left halls empty after a momentary rush of feet.

When they came towards where a breach occured Corran raised an arm since he found someone. <"~team is getting the armory."> He caught the muffled huttese of one of the attackers. <"Let them. It means their fight will be harder than ours. Better them than us hehe."> The comment earned some malicious chuckles from the others. Then came a heavy thud, followed by another. The group of enemies armed in yellow and black flight suits parted as it looked like a loader stomped its way through and down a different hallway.

The Lieutenant knew they needed to engage them. They were going to find other members of the crew or cause irreparable damage to the ship. Giving a short sigh he flipped his stun blaster around so that it was grip first in Corran's direction. The blond ranger's hands were still wrapped around the empty weapon he had planned for using in the training exercise. "Stun weapons won't work on that droid. We take out this squad and then secure the ship they came in on." He verbalized their priorities to make sure the three of them were all on the same page.

The lights went dark and the halls expanded into a black abyss for a moment. In a blink the emergency lights turned on, bathing everything in red light. Once again the artificial gravity turned off but this time it was not on purpose. Thankfully Roland's mag boots were still activated though it was disorienting. Quickly checking down the hallway again towards the squad that was making their way elsewhere, he saw that all of them had magboots as well, including the droid. Their flightsuits must have them setup for this occasion. On closer inspection he saw a bulky left forearm on all the flight suits as well. They had riot shields. "These guys might be Hazion Brood." After saying it outloud it made a lot of sense. It also meant they were more in line with bounty hunters and cartel enforcers than a pirate warband. With the gravity once again disabled, his visor turned to guage if both the rangers accompanying him were adapting to the latest curve ball.

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Corran Velt

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Huttese. That meant these boarders were either professionals trying to keep their idle chatter a secret or expendable novices who were thrown together for a quick job. Unlucky for them, Corran knew Huttese as a trade language from his years on the merchant lanes. A secondary team was heading for the armory. They'd find armed Rangers there, at least. Two large thuds caused the blond youth to peer around the corner once more and saw a large bi-pedal machine, along with its arm cannon. Fighting that with some rope wouldn't work. Slinking back behind cover, the young Ranger was greeted by the grip of a pistol in his face. His eyes darted between the weapon and the faceless Mandalorian as he explained the plan. Wanting to avoid making any unnecessary sounds, Corran merely nodded and took the weapon from the Lieutenant's hand.

Lights flickered and then faded entirely and abruptly. Darkness befell the ship. Blinking crimson returned visual to the hallways as the emergency secondary lights kicked on. Corran felt the comfort of gravity give way and his body begin to float. Beside him, the Mandalorian stayed upright with no change in stance. Mag boots. Instinctively, the blond Ranger barely used the wall to push downwards to return his feet to the floor. He was getting use to this. The Ranger officer took his own turn peeping and surmised the attackers might be Hazion Brood. Corran didn't know much about them besides reputation. But what brought them out here to the Manaan system?

It didn't really matter why. They had to stop the boarders. The ship alone was too valuable to lose and its crew needed to be protected. Corran glanced over his shoulder at Bast. In the slowly blinking red light, only she alone would see it. That confident glint in his eyes. He was going to do something reckless. A hand from the young man gestured the other two to stay back. Pushing off the floor ever so lightly, Corran glided out into the hallway; his boots barely brushing the floor. "Oh kark!" He shouted before making a show of scrambling back behind the hallway wall. Three of the four boarders turned around and pointed their weapons. With no target in sight, they had to make a decision. <"You two go take of that one and catch up when you're finished."> One ordered to the other two.

The rapid gripping and ungripping of mag boots began to grow louder down the hallway. Two boarders were approaching at a jog. Corran was floating mid-air right now, and aiming down the sights of his ascension-modded blaster. He waved again for the others to wait. Even as the young man drifted, he adjusted his aim millimeter by millimeter. Thudding of the boots grew closer and closer. Still Corran waited, unmoving besides his gravity-free drift, blaster held up. Closer still. Finally one armored boarder cleared the threshold where he would be entering the T-junction where the Rangers hid. A trigger was pulled. A piton flew through the air at blistering speed and hooked into the wall opposite. The first goon was immediately clotheslined by the cable, a surprised gurgle erupting as his throat smacked. Suddenly coming to a complete stop at the neck sent their feet flying from underneath them and floating through the Zero-G.

A second attacker was merely a few steps behind. They stopped out of shock and went to raise their carbine. The ascension-mod began to whine as it recoiled the tether towards the piton. Without gravity, Corran was yanked from his floating, stationary position towards the far wall. Two boots slammed into the thug's helmet and the momentum carried them all the way to the piton's landing spot. Though armored, the boarder slammed into the wall with Corran using them as a cushion. A pained gargle followed. With no hesitation, the young Ranger brought his borrowed stun gun to bear and fired twice. Then he turned around and fired into the boarder floated in mid-air. Quickly, the blond youth kicked off the wall and drug the unconscious goon he landed on behind the hallway wall opposite the other two Rangers. Holstering the pistol, Corran picked the unconscious Hazion Brood member's weaponry and any useful gear. If they were going to fight, it was time to even the odds.

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Bast Emblai

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The world was tilting, or rather, any sense of up and down immediately dissolved the moment gravity shut off. Once again, Bast felt brief but extreme pressure in her temples. The changing lightscape did nothing to help the woman’s nausea, but after a few moments, it subsided. Polished floors were no longer pressing up through her boots. Everything was washed in a dim red. She looked to the others, but their faces were hard to read in the blinking crimson. Lt. Rook’s instructions were clear and simple in nature, yet exceedingly complicated in practice. Corran had been handed a stun weapon, but she was still stuck with her Foesweeper. It would have to do. From what the woman could gather, a droid was dispatched by the boarders. No one else had provided any other intel.

The clink-clunk of mag boots sounded down the hall, replacing the garbled language that had previously echoed from the hostiles. They were approaching. Bast had heard of the Haxion Brood before, mostly in reports from the Outer Rim. They were a syndicate who dealt in credits, spice, and smuggling. Corran threw her a perplexing look. One she had not seen before. It pulled at her in an odd way, made her uneasy. Stifling a surprised call, the femal Ranger watched silently as her partner floated away, down the hall. She had almost reached out to grab him, although that would just take her with. Hearing his voice, Bast’s eyes widened. Corran, damn you. Be careful. His expletive sounded panicked, but she knew better. He was setting himself up as bait.

Returning, the amateur actor waited to pounce while Roland and Bast were left to watch helplessly, not privy to the blond ranger’s risky plan. Something he‘d said earlier pulled at the back of her mind. “With you? I’m always ready.” She should have been comforted, flattered, that he had so much trust and commitment to her, but dread filled the woman. Would he do something dangerous for her sake or believing she would save him? Bast could never forgive herself if something did happen. By the words of his own mouth, she would be to blame.

A whizz. The cable ejected from the ascension mod, pulling the first approaching boarded off their feet. With a thinned cord, it would have been clean decapitation. Decapitation. It was not a thinner cord, and lost in her own worry, Bast had missed the arrival of the second boarder, her attention only brought to him when two large bodies crashed hard into a wall. Before she could process anything, both Brood members were unconscious. There was no way the detective could afford to keep losing focus like that. Scanning Corran for any injury from the crash, she gave him a shocked, thin lipped smile. “That was very clever, but you do not need to be the hero.” The rest went unsaid. Heroes got themselves killed.

Drawn to the noise, the two other syndicate muscles decided to return, if the gruff voices were any indication. The sound of mag boots marked their position. Bast raised her Foesweeper and motioned for the others to remain quiet. As soon as one of the grunts were around the corner, he were met with a horizontal rain of bolts, all neatly arranged in a line perpendicular to his body. Unable to effectively crouch, he was struck squarely by three electric blue bolts. Bast was thrown backwards, having no way to prevent hard recoil, but managed to mitigate her collision with the opposite wall by ‘landing’ feet first. One more to go before the final challenge: the droid. It would likely take all they had to shut it down.

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Roland Rook

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Roland almost reached out to stop Corran by the time he went out into view. But it was already too late and shortly thereafter two Haxion Brood boarders were met by the blond Ranger's trap. The Mandalorian held his stun baton and repulsor in a braced manner. He only had a few shots with it and he wasn't too keen on using it on just a few small time thugs.

Corran showed a fairly lucky but inovative way of taking the pirates down a moment later. Roland went to each of them and gave them each a good stun shock as he came across to the Ranger from the far wall. He took one of the rifles that the pirates were using. Bast close lined her own target with her foesweeper, allowing Roland to bring up the rifle at the ready but he lowered it since there were no more enmies in sight.

The thuds along the deck returned. They got closer. The lieutenant glanced at the two rangers and began rushing as quickly as possible with his magboots down the hall towards the noise. But it wasn't long before the large loader like body rounded the corner. +Where are you?+ The harsh robotic vocabulator said angrily. Roland peaked out from behind the corner and fired several shot towards the droid. But the machine was large and hardy. Several medium bolts were shot past Roland's helmet and scored against the wall behind him. But he fired several more times, drawing the rifle down to the weaker looking legs. Hitting the knee joint the droid dropped to one leg but then let out a barrage forcing Roland to take cover again.

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Corran Velt

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As Corran rummaged through the pockets and gear of an unconscious boarder, Bast took the time to scold him. A cocked eyebrow was his only reply to her. He had always taken risks only when necessary and now she is concerned? Roland advanced on the adrift pair the more novice Ranger had engaged and gave them each a stun shock for good measure. They wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. Corran managed to finally untangle an A310 rifle from the unconscious pirate. Quickly checking the trigger housing, it became immediately apparent that the weapon lacked a stun setting. If he pulled that trigger, it would always be lethal.

Another enemy pirate neared. Corran struggled to untangle himself from the looted boarder and bring his stun blaster to bear. Luckily, Bast hosed the newcomer down with her short-range scattergun and sent him tumbling. The female Ranger flew backwards from the energy of her own attack but landed somewhat gracefully on her feet against the far wall. She picked up zero-g movements quick.

With immediate threats incapacitated, the young Ranger took the opportunity to ready himself. Stun blaster in an accessible holster. The ascension-modded D-17 blaster was stuffed into a loosely-zipped pocket and he also plucked the magnetic piton from the wall. It would take time to wind it up again, but time suddenly was in short supply. Lieutenant Rook didn’t even say a word, only a black stare from the visor, before moving rapidly towards the metallic thuds down the hall. Corran pushed off the wall to settle his feet relatively back down to the floor, and bounced after the Ranger officer. The large thuds soon revealed the large, yellow loader, demanding their locations be made aware in a synthesized threat. A clear inheritor of the Mandalorian warrior spirit, Roland was the first to engage.

Due to the Mandalorian’s quick barrage of blaster fire into the hulking mech’s leg, Corran was able to change trajectory of his next bounce out of the immediate line of fire and into a corner of an alcove. At least it didn’t matter that his commandeered rifle only had lethal rounds. The center mass of the Haxion Brood droid was too well armored to punch through without determined effort and even with a damage leg, the mech was still dangerous. A few blaster shots from its arm-mounted weapon sent Roland scurrying. Resting the barrel of his long-rifle against the corner, the young Ranger steadied his aim and opened fire on the swiveling mech. Red streaks of light slammed into the inside of the arm, by passing its external armor and clearly damaging joints and cables. Unfortunately, even its metal skeleton was pretty durable and the arm stubbornly held on. The Haxion Brood droid turned its attention to the new threat and placed Corran directly in its sights. The gun-arm lifted as if to fire, but it merely shuddered. He didn’t allow a do-over. The blond youth pushed off the alcove wall and towards cover elsewhere. A weakened and wildly inaccurate nearly pink blast hit remotely near his previously location.

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Roland Rook

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"It's a scrap made droid!" He yelled as Corran drew its fire. Roland had heard stories about the droids due to their unique cobbled-together design. That meant they didn't have any specific weaknesses that cookiee cutter manufacturered machines tended to have. No easy to break joints, no brittle armor materials or senses that tended to malfunction. The bounty droid was a dangerous enemy and a bane for Sector Rangers in the outer rim.

Roland peaked around the corner, leaving his repulsor at the droid. His boots secured themselves and braced for the coming recoil. A blast ripped out from the forearm mounted weapon, sending the off balance droid over to the side. It was an awkward look for the droid since one of its feet were still magnetically clamped to the deck, its ankle joint bending to its limit as Roland pushed off from his corner.

+GRrah!+ The droid groaned as if it was hurt and bothered by the repulsor blast. The Lieutenant closed with the droid and pulled out the purified lightsaber hilt he kept stowed. Pressing the weapon flush against the chest housing of the droid and angling it up towards its head, the Mandalorian saw the beam of white light erupt inside the droid causing a momentary jerk of sparks and then an immediate fading of its photoreceptors.


The blue armored Mandalorian held a white knuckled grip on a dented Haxion plate, slowly relaxing his grip and returning to free float in the hall. Drifting towards a wall mounted panel he connected to the bridge. "Captain Jyra, we've cleared the port side boarding party."

A momentary delay followed before the voice of the captain returned. "Good work Lieutenant. The pirate vessels have begun to flee and are making for a hyperspace exit. It sounds like the other boarders are also being taken care of. We won't be docking with the space station until we've searched their ships." Roland nodded to himself, understanding the protocol. The Ranger Station was probably in locked down at this point anyways. Heck, it wouldn't surprise if some reinforcements had been scrambled. Whatever the case it sounded like the Pirates had bitten off more than they could chew and were now abandoning the hit. "Understood, Captain." He said and ended the communication link.

Turning to look at Corran, Bast, and the rest of the drifting blood, debris and smoke, the Mandalorian gave a nod the two Rangers. "You two did well. But it's not over yet. Let's stay sharp." There could still be pirates hiding on the drone barge or holding out. There would be more praise later but the Lieutenant knew that they were still in shark infested waters.

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