Upon seeing the death and destruction at the platform's entrance, Wayde feels his work is done for now.

Time to get the hell out of here!

Wayde stows the other grenade on his person, making a run for the Chance's open gangplank.

Sliding into the autoblaster seat, Jileeza thumbs the power-up toggle. The music of leashed destruction begins to swell as she pivots the turret around to bear on the source of their current difficulty. 'Za eyes the E-web and those near it as a fitting first target and begins to line up for a nice burst of streaming hot death.

As the fresh stormtroopers in the doorway take more piss-poor shots at Wayde, the grizzled sarge leaps for the Chance's gangplank and hangs there, rear exposed, for a few seconds while more blaster bolts whip by. He manages to clamber into the ship as Aurelia, remembering something about repeating blaster power packs and electrical shorts, digs into her bag of parts, coming out with a computer spike and a handheld diagnotics kit. She interfaces the spike with the kit, sets some settings that should not be set such, and for good measure duct-tapes a blaster mag to the contraption before sliding it across underneath the E-web.

Outside, Arnae has lined the ship up on the blast doors. The stormtroopers start to run for it as Urbani, face twisted by rage, pulls the trigger on the E-web and is thrown several yards as the heavy power core goes up in a fireball. At this moment, 'Za and Arnae unleash starship-scale firepower on infantry. Aurelia's pushed back into her nook by the concussive force of a stream of heavy cannon fire. The noise on her end is deafening as ruby bolts shear metal from metal and punch explosive impact craters into everything within 20 feet of those blast doors.

The shooting stops, and as the smoke clears enough to see more than 2 feet ahead, the elevator doors fall off their runners, slamming to the ground with a *CLANG*.

The E-web wreckage burns amidst the charred bodies of the Imperials. The smell is overwhelming.

Family Jewels...check. Ass...check.

Relieved that he hasn't received further injury, Wayde makes for Chance's tactical station scanning the area for Cloud Cars and anything presenting an obstacle in their upcoming departure.

Jileeza giggles at the sight of the carnage as a warm pleasure stirs in her body.

"So, Cap'n, are we ready to go?" she asks over the intercom.

Aurelia bolts across the landing platform towards the Chance, her head down as she runs.

The stoic mechanic boards the Chance in much the same fashion as Wayde, parts in hand (or slung over shoulder).

Crowded around the sensor station, Wayde picks up incoming contacts. Looks like three cloud cars, converging on the disturbance (your position, in other words). They'll be in range in ten seconds or so.

Wayde hits the ship-wide intercomm.

"I've got three bogeys approaching our position. ETA...10 seconds. Now would be a good time to leave."

Hoping everyone gets the cut of his jib, Wayde begins punching in neutral coordinates into the ship's NaviComputer.

Smiling at the announcement, Jileeza rotates the autocannon turret. She eyes the sky in the indicated direction, looking for a target to eliminate.

Mak finally takes his eyes off the beautiful bloody carnage on the docking platform and hurries for the last blaster cannon, clutching to his side.

(Edited by CuteMotherFucker at 8:40 pm on Mar. 23, 2004)

Mak slips the targeting headset on and settles into the gunnery seat just as the three cloud cars appear inside visual range. Arnae throws the Chance into a tight loop underneath the docking platform, disallowing more than cursory bursts of laser fire from the enemy cars. One comes close, though, blasting chunks from the docking platform immediately above the ship.

As Arnae puts the hammer down, speeding along the ruddy surface of Cloud City, Mak and 'Za return fire at the elusive cloud cars. A stream of red bolts from 'Za's turret manages to score a vital hit despite the blaster's original purpose of an anti-infantry weapon, sending a black plume of smoke and fire spitting from one of the cloud car's right pods. Mak scores a less precise but more damaging hit on a second car, blasting it in half and sending the pieces spiraling into Bespin's depths. The last cloud car remains with its wounded compatriot and drop back to long range, seemingly content to follow the speeding freighter.

Erit does not feel especially thrilled about being a participant in another "run from the authorities" style of leaving the place, but for better or worse, he has to stick with his compatriots for now. With nearly hurried steps, he makes his way to the cockpit to man sensors.

"Captain, I think you should be aware that we probably have a dead Stormtrooper in Engineering."

Arnae grunts in acknowledgement. He wipes his dripping forehead with his sleeve and reaches for the intercom.

Light, it's always the intercom.

"Someone near Engineering with nothing to do, please show our dead guest to the airlock. You'll get to keep his stuff."

Not surprisingly, Jileeza is pleased with the results of her shooting. Considering that the autocannon is underpowered for this kind of work, she could have expected little better.

"Very nice," she says to no one in particular.

Arnae's voice comes over the intercom. "Good enough for me," Jileeza says in reply, keying the intercom from the turret. "I'll check on the two I left in the cargo bay, as well."

Rising from her gunnery seat, Jileeza goes in search of spoils, removing the evidence in the process.

'Za finds quite a disturbing scene down in the moaning and whirring engine compartments. No, not the dead stormtrooper, although the blast crater in the helmet with no other sign of struggle is a little unnerving. What's disturbing is the masses of ripped-out wiring and the smashed components of what Jileeza's pretty sure is the hyperdrive, or at least part of it.

As the Chance continues its arc under and finally away from Cloud City, Wayde and Erit pick up more contacts. Two wings of TIE Interceptors have scrambled from the station and are approaching at full speed...

Jileeza takes one look at the damage and begins to curse in terms that would make most stormtroopers blush. She thumbs the intercom. "Who's the engineer on this crate? This bastard down here has fucked over our hyperdrive!"

Hearing that they have more pursuit, 'Za will put off her scavenging and return to the autocannon turret.

As Wayde tries to make heads/tail out of the tangled mess of wires and fried circuitboards, he does take enough time out to call Aurelia.

"Get down to engineering before the ship gets..."

(looks around at the condition of the ship's guts)

"Err...BEFORE WE DIE!"

Aurelia dashes down to engineering, tools in hand. She reaches engineering and looks rather worridly at the mess of wires. She crouches down, chattering reassuridly to the ship.

"It's okay baby...red to red, socket 15 set for overload..."

Erit keys the intercomm.

"Mr. Stryker, since you are more experienced with operating ship-mounted blaster cannons, I propose that you man a turret. I will attempt to assist Aurelia."

Quote:

Quote: from Gatac on 3:38 pm on Mar. 29, 2004
Erit keys the intercomm.

"Mr. Stryker, since you are more experienced with operating ship-mounted blaster cannons, I propose that you man a turret. I will attempt to assist Aurelia."

Sweat pouring off his brow, his hand slightly numb from mucking with live wires, Wayde half-chuckles at the suggestion.

Heh. Heh. Well, allow me to retort.

"Mr. Jedi. Those cannons would mean dick if we don't get this hyperdrive working! Get down her now and bring a hydrospanner! (Crossing wires) Oww! Dammit!"