Lent slowly manages to get his body back under control and also manages to bring his mind into focus. Despite the mental discipline and training, however, his eyes refuse to function.
Relying on an old favorite of Hybernation Sickness victims he manages to croak out:
Mak happily obliges, keying the gun controls from Greebu's desk. The turbolasers mounted around the ranch shudder to life, spitting fire at the Lambda. The view from Greebu's large window is quite spectacular. Green bolts streak over the stubby wings for a split second, almost giving the pilot a chance to escape... almost. The vertical fin disintegrates under the blasts, followed by the left side of the shuttle. A rolling fireball erupts out of the stricken Lambda as the Sullustan freighter drops low to the ground, its dorsal turret directing fire at the turbolaser emplacements.
The flaming shuttle falls to the garden close to the hangar doors, spreading a widening circle of burning plants and smoking debris on impact.
There's a massive Rancor roar from the other side of the complex - the turbolasers and the explosion seem to have drawn its attention. Then there's a secondary explosion as the freighter scores a hit on one of the three AA guns.
It seems to Lent he has either been dropped into the best surround-sound holovid he's ever experienced, or he was better off back in the carbonite...
"Nicely done Mak. If you can get off another shot at the other ship before it drops out of sight, great...if not, we should be preparing for a defensive."
Wayde spies the carbonite'd humanoid slowly regaining his senses.
"Someone see if Frosty over there needs a hand. I'm sure he'll be glad to know what kind of poodoo-storm he just woke up to."
At the sound of the explosions, Lent's reflexes kick in and he is able to drag himself upright, overcoming some of the lethargy of the Hybernation Sickness. Pressing his back against the wall, he stands in a half crouch flailing his left arm about in front of him as if searching for something (which is in fact the case). His right hand reaches down for his sidearm which is not there. After discovering the empty holster, the hand also searches in vain for the heavy repeater that should be strapped to his back but isn't.
"I hope they at least left me some cigars" he mutters under his breath.
*After hearing Wayde's Comment*
"What's going on? Where am I? Have the Jedi decided to release me?"
*After hearing Jileeza's comment*
"Don't talk to me about headaches"
Observing the iceman's dormant nicotine fit and the obvious habit of checking his chest pocket for a cancerstick manifesting themselves, Wayde empathizes. He walks over to the guy, pulls out a cigarette, jams it into the man's mouth, and lights it...all in one gesture.
(doing the same for himself)
"Buddy, you're in a world of shit right now. We're trying to remedy the problem, but you gotta shut your hole while we figure it out."
Despite the gruff manner, Lent recognizes the gesture for what it is: the first kind act he has experienced in years. He also knows that there is a time to do your own thing and a time to take orders.
He takes a deep drag off the cigarette (not as good as his old hand-rolled cigars, but beggars can't be choosers), nods his head at the voice and says quietly "My name is Lent and I'll help however I can."
The Rancor roars again, closer this time, as the low-flying freighter makes short work of a second defenseless AA turbolaser. To top it off, there's a repeated thumping coming from one of the locked doors inside the complex, probably the one separating your section from the main foyer.
A voice vaguely familiar to 'Za shouts over the general comm channel. *I want my ship back, you frickin' perv!* Ah, yep. It's the Gran that Jileeza seduced way back on Rodia... but why the hell is he here? That question floats to the back of 'Za's mind briefly as she pointedly prods Greebu into showing her the controls to set the Chance free of the hangar.
On ground level, you can see a few painfully moving forms trying to extricate themselves from the burning Lambda. Two survivors, a Nikto and a human female, limp their way past the garden perimeter... and right into the path of a crazed dewback. The giant lizard screams a challenge and charges as the woman screams back, pulling a blaster and snapping it up, not at the dewback, but at the Rancor lumbering from around the side of the main complex. It slams its claws into the dewback, stopping it mid-charge. A second later, its toothy maw cracks the dewback's neck and sinks into the raw flesh.
The Nikto and woman turn and run the best they can the other way - which draws the attention of the Rancor. It drops its freshly killed lizard and starts towards the pair. Of the two, the Nikto's legs don't seem to be as hurt as the woman's, but that's soon rectified as she blasts her compatriot in the knee and takes the lead.
The carbon-scicle's comment causes Jileeza to snort in derision. At least Wayde seems to be able to quiet him down as they continue their delicate negotiations.
Arnae sounds eager, so Jileeza helps him out. Still waving the gun in Greebu's face, she feeds the captain the data he needs, then hits the button to open the hangar bay entrance. "Have fun, cap'n."
It takes her a second, but 'Za recognises the Gran's voice over the comm. "Sounds like the hideous slug wants his ship back, boys. Let's give it to him..."
Watching the survivors on the surface run about like lost children proves quite amusing. The others can hear 'Za chuckling as she watches the human woman and the Nikto try to avoid being eaten. "You go, girl," she says, as the woman shoots her companion to get ahead.
The wounded Nikto dies messily as the Rancor snatches him up without breaking stride and bites him in half. Not sure what to eat next, the huge beast lumbers toward the Sullustan freighter, prompting a quick lurch away from the Rancor. The dorsal turret's string of blasts goes wide of the last AA turbolaser as the ship jinks to avoid being manhandled.
Arnae watches the hangar doors rumble open, and as soon as he thinks he can clear it, he swings the Second Chance up vertically and boosts through the widening opening, lining up the turrets remotely as best he can. It's not hard to hit at this range, though - a fact learned by both captains as the belly cannons on the Gran's ship open fire on Arnae a second after he shoots.
Blue-white beams, a telltale sign of ion cannon fire, slam into the Chance, dropping its deflectors. Likewise, Arnae's not-so-ion cannon fire drops the Gran's shields as well.
Inside Greebu's office, the group can hear the thumps from down the corridor turn to the creak of protesting metal as the battered door gives way. A feline roar echoes through the complex.
"That'd b-be the nexu," Greebu says softly. "There'll be f-four of them, if none of them were killed..."
Wayde weighs the options, none of which sound too thrilling. He turns to Greebu, looking at the fatso's one gooo, jamming a blaster into the Rodian's girthy mid-section.
"You've got a secret passageway out of this dump, don't you? Tell me you do."
Greebu keys a sequence on the desk and Lent's former prison slides out from the wall, prompting a puff of air, then to the side, revealing a hidden turbolift.
Outside, Arnae and the Gran continue to pound at each other. The concussion from the quad turrets can be felt inside as the Chance gets rocked by the Sullustan freighter's upper lasers, a plume of flame spouting from the starboard side. Arnae's return fire misses his target, blasting firey craters into the garden below. It looks like the Gran's getting the upper hand but Mak plants a turbolaser blast right into the freighter's engines as it skims above his field of fire. The Gran, losing control of his ship, dips close to the building, coming close to parking his freighter in Greebu's office. Arnae sights in and puts a stream of quad fire into the stricken freighter, punching completely through it.
The Gran goes up with his ship in an enormous fireball - Greebu's viewport shatters and everyone's thrown to the floor by the blast as a wall of smoke and fire shoots across the room.
And then there's a wham as something slams into the door into Greebu's office.
Hearing the talk of a secret passage and then the whoosh of a door opening, Lent puts two and two together and gets cautiously into the turbolift. After feeling around [assuming there is noone else in the lift] Lent gives an all clear signal to the others.
He readies his makeshift club and contents himself with the knowledge that the Hybernation Sickness might at least make himself taste bad to whatever creatures might try and make a snack of him.
Arnae lets out a rebel yell as he watches the Gran's ship go up. Tough luck, assholes, but we play for keeps.
With a light hand on the stick, he sidles the freighter up to Greebu's office building and orients the side of the freighter with the landing ramp up with the windows. He hits the "lower ramp" button and keys the ship's comlink.
Aihal the Silent
