Jileeza can see that the Twi'lek is a young woman, her age being hard to gauge due to 1) her being a different species and 2) the nonflattering clothing. The woman looks over her shoulder quickly before pleading:

"Please don't blast me! I need a place to hide, someone's after me!"

As the group walks away, Erit ponders their situation.

"I must remark that dealing with Gulgo always encompasses great civility. I might go so far as to say that I like working for him."

"Yeah, it's a great pleasure to work with him until his profit margins exceed your need to be breathing. Bounties, hired killings, protection rackets...that I can handle. I don't like dealing with other people's credits, especially when the word Hutt is involved in the transaction."

Probably someone's little hottie. Not like I care. Jileeza appears unmoved by the woman's plight.

"And who would be after you? And why?" she asks, drumming the fingers of her right hand on her left bicep.

"Yeah, but just in case our friendly financier decided on a little insurance that we pay on time for the next job, let's call the ship, shall we?" Reyes says, and pulls a comlink out of his vest. "Come in, Jileeza, status report."

"Imperial spies, I think - they came in on a shuttle and shot everyone in the bay, my dad...." she trails off just as 'Za's comlink comes to life.

"Imperial spies? Here --" Jileeza's question is cut off as her commlink springs to life. Giving the Twi'lek a hold up gesture, she taps her commlink and replies.

"'Za here. What's up, Cap'n? Got us a visitor. Claims to be on the run and looking to stow away. Also claims there are Imperial spies shooting everyone in the landing bay." Her tone belies her skepticism.

As she waits for Reyes' reply, she checks the monitors again for anyone else approaching the ship.

(Edited by fanchergw at 9:24 am on Feb. 5, 2004)

"Wouldn't be the first time they got bored and started shooting people. Still, don't take your gun off her just in case she's an Imp spy who's using the old 'damsel in distress' trick to shiv you in the back."

"Did you miss the Star Destroyer?!" she shouts. "Look, if that's your captain, please - "

Jileeza sees 3 men wearing paramilitary clothing, armed with blaster rifles file into the Chance's docking bay, sweeping their eyes and weapons across the cluttered fuel cells, cargo droids, and the bulk of the ship itself. The girl sees them too and darts from "standing in the middle of the doorway" to "flattened against the inside cargo bay wall".

"That's them!" she hisses at 'Za.

Jileeza is about to reply to the mouthy Twi'lek when she sees the 3 thugs entering the docking bay. Shit! She looks back over at the woman just in time for her to confirm that these are the same she had been fleeing.

"Hey Cap'n!" she calls into her commlink. "We got armed intruders. I'll set up a welcome with the autocannon, but you might want to get your asses back here, soon. I suspect things may get a bit exciting, and you know how I love excitement."

Jileeza hits the button to close the cargo bay hatch, then turns to the Twi'lek. "Follow me," she growls, then turns and moves quickly to the autocannon turret.

Once in the turret, 'Za points to the floor in a corner where the woman can't cause any trouble. "Sit there!" She slides into the gunnery seat and boots up the gunnery systems. "Time for a little target practice," she says with a grim smile.

Jileeza locates the men and brings the cannon to bear. If they move toward the ship, she'll open fire.

(Edited by fanchergw at 9:06 am on Feb. 13, 2004)

Well, the men keep moving closer, so 'Za lights 'em up. She unleashes a jagged stream of blast bolts, sweeping the fire hose of death across a loading droid and one of the men, dropping him at blast bolts carbonize his chest and right arm . The two remaining armed men dive for cover, and Jileeza shoots a pile of (empty) crates apart, killing the man hiding behind the flimsy cover, but the last target's spared by the stack of hull plates he took cover behind. The docking bay is a shambles. Somewhere off to the right, part of a maintenence gangplank falls to the deck with a CRASH!

The rest of the group, however, are on the tube train, wondering if their ship's going to be there when they get back. Arnae hears the chatter of the autoblaster through his comlink.

Jileeza pulls the trigger and carves the turkeys up with a fearsome grin on her face. "Eat hot plasma death, $@%#-@*%#$'s!" she exults, which can incidentally be heard over the commlink.

Aurelia grins as she hears the rather...spirited...battlecry over the comm.

"Technically, it's not hot *plasma* death..."

Erit looks at Arnae.

"Would it be correct to assume that my visit to the local Temple of Ithor's Children has just been postponed indefinately?"

Quote:

Quote: from Gatac on 12:03 pm on Feb. 17, 2004
Erit looks at Arnae.

"Would it be correct to assume that my visit to the local Temple of Ithor's Children has just been postponed indefinately?"

Wayde glares at the Jedi, unsure if he was serious or just joking,

"Uh. Yeah. That's a safe presumption. I doubt if we'll be heading back this way for a while. I do hear the Outer Rim is a nice place to get away from it all..."

Back in the bay, 'Za lays the hammer down once again as the last guy rabbits for the exit. He zigzags behind the burning loader droid, which gets blasted apart as the autoblaster fire hits it again. The bolts scorch craters in the deck as their target dives for the doorway, making it out with a burnt jacket but none the worse for wear. 'Za swears silently as the autoblaster finishes its swath of destruction, chewing the doorway and surrounding door lock panels into so much kibble.

---

*Now arriving, docking platforms 3A to 18A*

The tubetrain doors open with a hiss, admitting the rest of the group into the tunnels near their ship. There's a commotion up ahead of them, and they see some Sullustan "rent-a-cops" and a few Rebel naval troops jogging towards what could only be their ship's docking bay. Other civilians are milling about, running for it, or trying to see what's going on, just as any crowd in any place would do.

Wayde shakes his head,

"I believe those folks are for Jileeza. Let's try to avoid escalating the situation...if that's even possible."

The merc walks toward the docking bay knowing full-well that it will no doubt get worse before it gets better.

(Pulling out his comm-link)

"Jileeza, darling. Please cease the wanton killing...at least for the immediate time being. We've arrived outside the docking bay and are attempting to defuse the situation. What's your status?"

Jileeza catches Aurelia's comment as she blazes away. "Whatever," she says, followed by a string of ear-blistering curses as the last fo the intruders gets away alive. The cannon does do a nice job on the bay doors, she notes idly.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," she replies to Wayde. "@#$%* got away anyway. Bay is clear of intruders, and the stowaway and I are comfy - thanks for askin'." There is a trace of sarcasm in Jileeza's voice.

Outside, Mak shouts "They went that way! 4 armed Wookies, a Hutt on wheels carrying a repeating blaster, and a godamn Rancor beast! Hurry up, maybe we can catch them!" To everyone else's surprise, 3 of the security guards actually run off in the direction Mak points. The three remaining guards draw their blasters and look into the Chance's docking bay.

"What the hell happened here?!" "Get these people back!"

With that, two of the guards start motioning for people to move on, move away, nothing to see here. The last one starts speaking into his comlink.

One of the guards, a grizzled Sullustan, stops Wayde from getting too close to the docking bay entrance. "Sorry sir, we can't allow anyone in there right now. Just go on about your business."

On the plus side, Wayde is close enough now to pick out the comlinking guard's words. He's asking for an ion weapon team in case the ship's gone berserk, to find out who it belongs to, for a medical team, and for god's sake more security people since half his men just took off in hot pursuit based on a bystander's tip...