"Those things aren't meant to be stand-alone. You have to set them up with a defined, interlocking field of fire with additional units. By themselves; they're just a heavy, overpowered target that begs to be destroyed."
Quote: from Aihal the Silent on 3:37 pm on Feb. 4, 2005
"You sure know how to ruin a moment of beauty. Next thing you know you'll say were not taking it with us."
Lent very carefully begins to remove the power cables connecting the gun and sheilds to the power supply.
"Sorry. It's that tactical we're not out of the woods just yet military mentality of mine."
Wayde maintains a vigilant stare at the corridors ahead, eyeing Lent's cigar.
"You know, you should save those things until after we've saved the day."
Lent laughs "If you don't stop to check out those woods, how're going to know where the booby traps are or where to set them?"
"I've got my eyes and ears open," Lent grunts as he continues his attempt to disconnect the E-Web. "Besides, I'm almost through here. I just want to make sure this thing isn't being aimed at us when we leave."
"Cigars are for smoking, not for saving. I haven't had a good cigar in decades and I would feel pretty damn stupid if I got killed here without smoking one."
Wayde finishes demolishing the E-Web while Arnae scouts up the ramp a bit. Lent takes a pause to enjoy the cigar and check his wound. The spiral ramp up to Gulgo's chamber is surveyed by cameras, which Arnae wastes no time in blasting. No goons are awaiting them on the long circular hallway - which is probably because there's little to no cover available, and to top it off the main blast doors to Gulgo's sanctum are very large, very thick, and very locked. Side hallways branch off to either side of the top of the ramp. It's a good bet there's another way in, but the lack of guards thus far (compared to what they saw the last time they were here) leads the trio to assume Gulgo has some tricks up his lard-enshrouded sleeves.
---
The Chance's access hatch gives way with a *whump* (some sort of thermal charge, no doubt), then the protesting metal screams a final time as the attackers brute force the door wide enough to enter.
Sitting down with his repeater on some of the remains of the E-Web, Lent makes sure that the gunner's hands are secured with the restraints he brought and gently taps him on the head with the barrel to wake him.
Quote: from Aihal the Silent on 11:11 am on Feb. 11, 2005
Sitting down with his repeater on some of the remains of the E-Web, Lent makes sure that the gunner's hands are secured with the restraints he brought and gently taps him on the head with the barrel to wake him.
The gunner got hit hard in the back of the head with a repeating blaster. He's not dead, but he's unlikely to wake without medical attention.
---
The first would-be pirate through the access hatch stops short, his blaster falling idly to his side. His two comrades follow suit, and nervously looking at the corners and ventilation, back out of the Second Chance and head for the hangar exit.
( some fine rolling, Señor Erit )
Aurelia winces when the charge goes off, and Erit feels a sudden wave of something other than anxiety...concern? compassion...empathy? Is it possible that she actual identifies with the ship.
"Thanks Erit...umm...could you keep an eye on things and make sure they don't come back while I fix the hatch?"
She jogs down to her quarters, grabbing her tool kit and a good many spare bits to get the hatch back in working order. She reaches the blasted hatch, the metal protesting as she manhandles it back into something that resembles it's proper position.
Arnae silently contemplates the tiff as he takes a nip off his hip flask. The execution didn't bother him at the moment it happened. He's been defering to Wayde's ground combat expertise for as long as he's known the man (almost to the hour, damn those Trandoshans for the necessity). He'd automatically distanced himself from the scum they're blasting, but after Lent's words...
What's the real difference between the sentients guarding Gulgo and the ones who used to run drugs for him?
Troubled by his inability to find an easy answer, Arnae takes a second, longer nip before replacing the flask in his hip pocket.
He ejects the power cell in his DL44 and slides in a fresh one. Then he meets Wayde's gaze, glances briefly up the stairs, and says to Wayde, "Let's go. I've got your back."
"I heard blaster shots. They're coming this way," whispers a blast-vested guard to his Mon Calamari compatriot. The duo had just returned from the third-level armory to check on the prisoner when Wayde, Arnae, and Lent made their way slowly up the spiral ramp.
"Make some noise, I'll sneak around through the slave quarters and get behind them," replies the Mon Cal, slinking off through a side hallway. The human was left alone, with only the growing noise of gently padding footsteps approaching. Well, that and the Nikto prisoner in the blast-shielded room behind him. And that gave him an idea.
Wayde's armored feet are the loudest of the three as he, Lent, and Arnae sidle along the left-branching hallway, looking for a less magnetically sealed entrance into Gulgo's chambers. A door cycles up ahead, followed by some verbal commotion that's hard to make out - though the blaster shot that follows isn't. Someone's coming, and fast by the sound of it.
---
"All the explosions must have screwed with our surveillance," Joss theorizes to Gulgo. "We don't have them on scanners - or anywhere on this level for that matter. Maybe you should get to your ship, boss."
"And expose myself in transit? I think you overestimate the abilities of a pirate, a has-been soldier, and a wounded man."
"And I think you underestimate them."
"We shall see, my piecemeal friend. For now, we are sealed off from them. We have weapons, guards, supplies and entertainment. And we have their ship. We DO have their ship by now, don't we?"
"I... I haven't heard from the men I sent."
"What? Then waiting here will not work. Guards! Gather the women. Joss, open the doors. All the doors."
Jileeza's once again under scrutiny, to her displeasure, as well as the displeasure of the dancing girls and hookers amongst her. The Gamorreans and other guards tell them to surround Gulgo and just stand there. As for the Hutt himself, he's repulsoring his bulk against a wall, leaving at least one side covered by rock. Joss starts untying the catches that held up the myriad curtains that are used to divide Gulgo's chambers.
Jileeza suppresses the urge to smile when she hears that those sent to capture the Chance haven't been heard from. Sounds like Wayde and the others are getting closer, too. All good.
'Za and the other "entertainers" are ordered to surround Gulgo as a human shield. She'd been looking for an opportunity to get closer to the Hutt, and now she's ordered to. This just gets better and better.
Though she acts as unhappy as the others, Jileeza moves in close to Gulgo's grav-sled, preferably next to the wall on the side near his head.
'Za follows obediently but slowly, and manages to end up near Gulgo's head. Gulgo's bizarre "protection" is made up thusly: Gulgo lies on his sled against one of the rock walls. Around him stand both of his droids as well as a semicircle of two Gamorreans and two blaster-armed Weequay, who act to keep the women in position. The women stand arrayed in front of those guards. Jileeza loses sight of who else is still in the room as the curtains and exotic tapestries fall gently from their hung positions, leaving Gulgo's chambers a disorienting maze of silk.
The guards only had to shoot one of the women to get the rest to fall in line.
Lent, Wayde, and Arnae flatten against the rough wall as a Nikto comes running around the corner. Wayde raises his blaster but Arnae pushes the Sarge's blaster down quickly. On second look, the Nikto's wrists are secured with binders and he's had a blaster pistol taped into his hand.
The spiky-faced sentient stops short, regarding Lent with suspicion but seeming to recognize Wayde and Arnae.
"Captain Maddock?" The smuggler doesn't recognize the face, but the voice gives the Nikto away as Pinky's henchman Ash Pomba.
Aihal the Silent
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