Refugee Rescue

[Devrim Wolfe]

Refugees fleeing the chaos in Imperial Hutta have crash-landed on Makeb and are at risk of being rounded up, arrested, and put into slave camps by the Empire! We cannot allow innocents to fall victim to an operation we started! Go to Makeb and rescue as many refugees as you can! They will join the number of beings in open-rebellion against the Empire!

theme — dice thread​

Soaring through the dangerous electromagnetic atmosphere in his Enceladus, Devrim peered out of his cockpit once again to ensure that his wing man was still there beside him. Or rather, wing Wookiee. With the destruction of the Network Access on Nar Shaddaa, the entire HoloNet this side of the Galaxy was completely silent — something that Devrim had never even heard of happening before or even thought possible. Such an event, although unfortunate for the many innocents who lived in the Imperial Hutta, allowed the Galactic Alliance to swoop in and liberate them from the clutches of the Empire. The time was now.

"Enceladus to Star Leader," Devrim relayed through their operational short-range comms. "I think the refugees must have had their ship caught in the electromagnetic interference — we'll need to be careful if we don't want to end up in a pile of scrap, just like them." He peered out the cockpit at the huge landmasses below. Makeb, a largely oceanic planet, was accented by large plateaus that extended far above the sea level, often reaching into the clouds. Most of the cities on the world were built on these natural structures, and it was hopefully on one of these that the refugees had crashed. They couldn't tell much without the use of the HoloNet — the rebels were simply following the weak distress signal on their ship's scanners.

While Devrim had not officially met Greybok and his eccentric translator, he had certainly seen the Wookiee before. Both on Kashyyyk during the Life Day events, and at an Alliance celebration where Devrim had seen a very inebriated Greybok hurl a metal chair at one who dared tell the Wookiee to settle down. The Rebel Council member certainly had a reputation that proceeded him — and Devrim was more than pleased to be serving beside him. The Jedi Padawan's scanner beeped, giving the him a spark of hope. "I think they're just up ahead — on that plateau, two clicks north-east."

@Malon​

 

[Greybok]

The Starbird sailed into Makeb's electromagnetically-charged atmosphere like she was made for it. The freighter might not look like much, but Greybok knew better than anyone that it was going to take more than a funky planet's atmosphere to cause her any issues. He set his heading along the course Devrim had indicated, but there were no other complications with their flight towards the plateau. The Hutts didn't seem to notice or care that they were there. But Greybok always knew that when things were going to good, they were about to get bad—and bad, indeed, they got.

"Greybok, I've got multiple unidentified objects on our scanners," Twobee alerted the Wookiee, who immediately checked his instruments. Sure enough, the droid was right. And there wasn't just a few targets on his scope, but dozens. Almost eighty in total. The Wookiee threw his gaze out the viewport and saw what they were for himself. Reptilian-looking avians of some sort. Worse, he could see that some of them had refugees in their claws, while other refugees were caught in the creatures' talons. "What in the name of the Maker are those things?!"

Greybok didn't know and, frankly, the Wookiee didn't care either. He switched on his comm and began roaring to his wingmate. Twobee translated, "We don't know what's going on over there, but it doesn't look good! We—" The Wookiee pushed away from the controls and barked loudly down the hall. "You want BE-ET in here? But what will I—" Greybok returned to the controls and bleated again. "You want me on the guns?! But I'm not a gunner, Greybok! What if I—" The Wookiee roared more forcefully this time, letting the droid know that the argument was over. "Fine! One of these days, I'm going to be there when one of these plans of yours backfire. I can't wait for that day to arrive."

Stern rebuke out of the way, Greybok settled in to his role as the pilot just as BE-ET entered the cockpit and plugged into the Starbird with its scomplink. The little droid was a much better (and much less noisier) co-pilot. After a moment, Greybok barked into the ship's intercom. Twobee replied, "Yes, I'm on the guns. I hope you know what you're doing, Greybok. Oh, who am I kidding..."

With everything set, Greybok pressed on the accelerator pedal and moved to intercept these creatures, whatever they were. A couple of rounds of light cannon fire should be enough to scare them away. @Vosrik

 

[Devrim Wolfe]

Soaring through the air towards the plateau, Devrim's eyes drifted towards his on-board scanner. They widened as a multitude of flying objects were picked up and displayed on the holoscreen. "What is..." he began, before peering directly out of his viewport at the cloud of flying carnivorous creatures harassing the refugees. "By the Force!" he exclaimed in horror. If the Jedi and Greybok didn't intervene immediately, these people would be turned into lunch for these flying beasts. Devrim realized ruefully that his most effective gun in this scenario would be his recently upgraded sidecar — the Taim and Bak Quad Cannon. His only problem was that unlike Greybok, the Jedi had no copilots to take over the ship's flight or man the sidecar guns. He would have to make do with his cockpit-mounted Borstal Heavy Cannon.

Undoubtedly, the faster-shooting Quad Cannon would be far more effective at taking out such a multitude of these carnivorous beasts. However, the explosions created by the Heavy Cannon would hopefully cause more of the beasts to scatter. Devrim knew that ultimately, he would need to land to use his sidecar — plus he wanted to be on the ground to protect the refugees as best as he could. Coming within range of the pterathki, the Jedi aimed his Borstal Cannon and opened fire.

A deep, satisfying boom roared from the front of the Enceladus as the first laser rushed to its targets. Exploding in a burst of plasma in the middle of the flock, five of the creatures were instantly atomized by the blast. The heavy cannon cycled and fired once again with an expulsion of power that never failed to thrill the Jedi. The second shot exploded, slaying another five of the pterathki. However, instead of being scared off by these sudden attacks, the creatures were enraged. ♦ Setting their eyes on the approaching craft, their powerful wings carried them through the air as they made a beeline towards Greybok and Devrim. "Oh, not good," the dark-haired Jedi said through gritted teeth. Flicking switches across the cockpit, he redirected energy from the weapons to his thrusters. Devrim wanted full maneuverability and speed to get to the ground to help the refugees.

@Malon​

 

[Greybok]

Greybok had another strategy in mind. With a flip of a switch in the cockpit, he dropped the ventral groundsweeper light cannon out of its hidden flap and opened fire on the flock. The groundsweeper did its job; the cannon was faster than Devrim's own cannon and succeeded in scaring the flock, which seemed to entirely forget about the refugees and began to flee en mass. Unfortunately, the dumb lizard birds decided to do this by flying straight at the Starbird. The result was what sounded like a hail storm on the outer hull and Twobee's distressed shrieks over the intercom.

"These birds are huge, Greybok!" the droid cried. "Do you have the shields up?! They're going to dent the hull!"

The Wookiee checked his shield display in the cockpit. Indeed, the shields were up and it was holding steady. The heavy thuds they were hearing were the giant reptilian creatures bouncing off of them. However, an alert going off in the cockpit got Greybok's attention and he switched to check his other instruments. Sure enough, the flock had somehow managed to dislodge the groundsweeper in their panicked escape. The cannon was just hanging from the lower hull. Greybok barked angrily and he pushed up hard on the steering yoke, sending the ship in a nosedive out of the flock.

"Don't worry about the cannon, Greybok," Twobee's voice came over the intercom. "BE-ET can fix that right up when we land." BE-ET whistled in Binary to confirm the protocol droid's assertion. Greybok snorted and adjusted his course for the plateau. Having heard him, Twobee used her headset to access the ship's comm and hailed Enceladus. "We're moving to land, now, Enceladus."

The Starbird veered down and landed along the plateau where the refugees had crashed. When Greybok emerged from the ship's belly, he was lauded with gratitude. "Thank the Force someone heard our distress signal," one man, a Twi'lek, told him. "I was certain that we were all going to be taken away and eaten."

Greybok hooted in appreciation and then, with Twobee's help, and while BE-ET patched up the cannons, began assisting the refugees on board. The Starbird would take the bulk of the refugees, due to its increased passenger capacity, while the Enceladus too whatever remained. The Wookiee was both pleased and suspicious that this mission was going so smoothly. Things always seemed to go smoothly before it got really, really bad... @Vosrik

 

[Devrim Wolfe]

Despite Devrim's initial fears, he was relieved to see that the massive flock of "birds" were instead fleeing the scene instead of flying aggressively towards Greybok and the Jedi. Bobbing and weaving in complex evasive maneuvers, the Enceladus was able to avoid being struck by any of the pterathki — with the shields holding steady for any that did. ♦ Devrim wiped his forehead, cleaning it of the moisture that had formed there. Having a swarm of creatures fly directly at you was definitely a stressful situation, and it brought back unpleasant memories of the crash that Devrim had been in back on Ellora. He would not be having a repeat of that today, not with his his prized ship.

"Copy that," Devrim replied upon hearing the hail from Greybok's protocol droid. Flipping switches in preparation to land as well, he cast a wary gaze out of his viewport at the departing cloud of beasts. Reassured they wouldn't trouble them for the time being, Devrim landed the Enceladus with ease and stepped out of the loading ramp. Looking out at the refugees as they rushed in earnest toward the Starbird and the Jedi's ship, he kept an eye out for any who were particularly injured by the pterathki. "Help!" one shouted out near the crash, drawing Devrim's attention. The poor Twi'lek had been severely mauled by the creatures — both his legs were torn to shreds and he was clearly unable to walk, let alone crawl.

Looking back to the refugees boarding his ship, he ensured they had all gotten off the plateau and into the relative safety of both his and Greybok's ships. "I'm coming," Devrim called out to the final refugee, sprinting over and extracting a few kolto packages from his medical pack. They were laughably insufficient for the wounds this poor Twi'lek had received, but it would be enough to stop him from bleeding out. "Let's get you out of here," Devrim said reassuringly, before hearing a strange chittering behind him. Whipping his head around, the Jedi's gaze was met by the sight of a massive Makrin Creeper rapidly approaching. ♦ Devrim's body tensed up — normally, when given a flight or fight situation, the rebel tended to fight. However, his priority was getting the refugees to safety.

Flight it was.

Picking up the limp Twi'lek, Devrim sprinted as fast as he could toward the Enceladus. TAKE OFF, TAKE OFF!" he roared toward Greybok. The Jedi didn't dare look back, though he could hear the rhythmic thudding increase in pace as the wood-like creature ambled faster toward its prey.

@Malon​