The trio slide along the wall to the darkened maw of the large chamber. Wall-mounted consoles cast a faint multicolored sheen across the maze of hanging fabrics. The breeze from the corridor makes it hard to discern which tapestries are ruffled by thugs and what's just the wind. It's clear the room is occupied, however - a woman's voice shouts "Please! Help-" before a thump cuts her off somewhere in the chamber.
Lent hefts one of the more-intact grenade-ravaged corpses and prepares to fling it through the doorway. Wayde and Arnae flank him on either side, blasters ready.
The corpse sails fairly convincingly through the blast doorway - there's the red flash of a blaster from just around the right doorjam. The corpse slides to a halt, one of the larger curtains billowing to the floor around the smoking body. Two guards who had been covered by the curtain crouch low and bring their blasters up, trying to get to more concealment.
Aurelia finally manages to repair the exterior hatch from the damage caused by the attempted boarding. It'll work just fine, although she reminds herself to go out with a power-sander and other gear to get the marred door back to looking right. That can wait though.
Not particularly wanting to dwell on where the others are, and knowing she will if she's alone, she goes searching for the Jedi. Her footfalls, although naturally fairly soft, make plenty of noise thanks to the boots she wears, and Erit knows she's coming. He hears a small knock on his cabin door.
"Erit? It's Aurelia...I was wondering if you'd like a game of holochess? Or Maybe Sabacc?"
Aurelia smiles softly when he opens the door, and she laughs quietly.
"I don't mind being beat by a Jedi. I just need something to do..." With the last bit, Erit can feel her fear again, slowly climbing back towards her conscious thoughts, but as they make their way to the lounge she seems to get better.
While the board flickers to life, she goes to their simple food-prep unit. "Tea or anything?"
As the curtain drops, Lent swings his own [and presumably much larger] blaster up into firing position and starts blasting at the two exposed guards.
[Commando Training]
"Wayde, Arnae, I need you to provide cover fire and act as rear guard. Watch for the guy on the right side of the doorjamb and try putting a few holes through the other curtains...just in case. Try to keep the casualies among non-coms to a minimum."
(Edited by Aihal the Silent at 10:08 am on May 26, 2005)
The haunting voice Erit has sensed in the past floats across his thoughts again. There is fear in this one. Teach her to tame it, to control it as it has long controlled her. She can be strong in the Force - show her the way.
---
Elsewhere, Lent, Wayde, and Arnae open fire on Gulgo's men. As the two harried guards dive for fresh concealment, the trio's blasts go wide except for Arnae, who manages to wing one of the guards as he ducks behind a curtain.
Jileeza can see muffled red flashes and hears the blaster fire. An errant blast hits extremely close to her, punching a crater into the wall above her head.
Luckily, the scattered return fire is just as inaccurate. A few blasts fly down the hallway harmlessly.
Gulgo's booming Huttese carries through the nascent battle. "Hold! Wait! Don't shoot! I assure you *spang* you'll regret it!"
Lent begins laying down a barage of supressing fire, so that Wayde and Arnae can pick off targets.
Lent gestures [so that Wayde and Arnae can see it] toward one of his remaining grenades in the universal symbol [at least on planets where the nuke has been developed] for We can always nuke 'em
Aurelia nods, fixing herself a cup before she sits. She states at the board for awhile...it's a long time since she's played with anyone, and begins with a very conservative, defensive opening move.
Quote: from Aihal the Silent on 1:57 pm on May 26, 2005
"Because a cease fire will end so well for us."
Lent begins laying down a barage of supressing fire, so that Wayde and Arnae can pick off targets.
Lent gestures [so that Wayde and Arnae can see it] toward one of his remaining grenades in the universal symbol [at least on planets where the nuke has been developed] for We can always nuke 'em
Sworn enemies exchange lethal bolts of ruby light as elsewhere, holographic animals begin their chirping dance of strategy and domination.
Lent's cigar belches smoke along with his repeater. His stream of bolts sails into Gulgo's chambers, striking down the goon that Arnae had wounded previously. Several tapestries and hangings are aflame now as Wayde and Arnae shoot at the silhouettes they can make out. Wayde sends another hapless guard to the floor - the dying man sends several blasts into the ceiling and falls to the ground amid a rain of debris. Arnae curses as he misses, his target proving to be nothing but silk caressing shadow.
Whoever was hiding just around the right doorframe makes themselves known once more. A Rodian hand extends into the hallway and fires two blasts blindly past Arnae and Lent. Close, but Lent's got the only cigar here.
"Blast them!" Gulgo shouts. "What do I pay you for?!"
A fusillade of red bolts scream out of the chamber as Gulgo's remaining guards realize the jig is up. Wayde counts at least five more shooters. Lent and Arnae are too busy flattening against the wall to keep score. There's just too many shots; too little cover. Wayde flinches back as a blast bolt kicks him across his forearm, burning off the blast plating and leaving him clutching his wrist. Lent miraculously goes untouched, but for all his luck, Arnae soaks up a gutshot. He yelps and falls back, bent double, hands shaking.
Erit sees Aurelia is playing it safe and tests her strategy. He's surprised when she doesn't go for his feint, capturing one of his pieces instead with a fine defensive ploy. Could be luck, might be something else. Or he might simply be rusty. The translucent dewback roars a short-lived victory cry on the gameboard.
With tattered, firey textiles fluttering to the floor around her, Jileeza makes her move. The hold-out blaster and vibroknife appear in her hands and she darts the meter or so to the Hutt crimelord.
She went over it three times in her mind before she went into action. Visualize, then execute. Her old training rises in her as she snaps the blaster up, putting a debilitating shot into the nearest droid's rust-red cerebral shell. The spindly droid falls, flailing as its gyros burn out. Jileeza mounts Gulgo's hoversled like a mountain climber, slamming her blade deep into his squamous folds and finding purchase in something vital. She hangs there for a second as Hutt blood begins to erupt from Gulgo's wound, managing to fire a second shot that wounds one of the Gamorreans.
Wayde sees Lent arm his grenade and crouches down around the blast doorframe. Arnae follows suit, holding his abdomen in pain. Through the haze, he stays cognizant enough to realize he's not dead and probably won't be - at least not from this wound.
Inside, the droid Jileeza felled aims one of its arms at the Rodian. The forearm splits with a whirr to reveal a small blaster array, which the droid promptly fires into the wall next to 'Za. Its counterpart squeezes past the grunting Gamorrean and tries to pull 'Za off her prey. She lashes out with a defensive kick, thwarting the droid's attempt.
Lent, having cooked the grenade, lets it bounce just inside the open blast door while he does his best to become one with the tunnel wall. BOOM! The grenade turns the chamber entrance into a maelstrom of flaming, shredded silk and ruddy dust. A twisted, ruined blaster clatters into the hallway, still grasped by a tattered green hand.
The grenade is the last straw for Gulgo's sentient shields. With the Weequays having disregarded their shepherding duties in favor of blasting the attackers and with the Gamorreans and droids closing in on Jileeza, the prostitutes and dancers turn on their captors. The damaged, prone droid manages to fend off two women, but a third curbstomps it's head against Gulgo's hoversled. A Weequay snap-fires, carbonizing a Twi'lek, then fends off a series of brutal scratches and kicks from the others. His companion doesn't fare as well - he manages to get off one ineffective shot as he goes down, eyes gouged and groin mangled. There's another blaster shot from the floor, but it's not from him. The wounded Gamorrean moves in on Jileeza as the second pig-faced thug bisects two strippers with a single swing of his axe. A third latches onto his neck from behind like an angry mynock, drawing blood with a newly-appropriated knife but failing to fell her feisty foe.
Jileeza's Gamorrean takes too much care not to hit his employer - Jileeza shrinks behind Gulgo's quickly-expiring mountain of flesh as the guard strikes half a meter of rock from the wall next to her.
The few blaster shots Wayde, Lent, and Arnae hear now aren't directed towards them anymore.
As the damaged droid pops its blaster array, Jileeza feels a moment of satisfaction. She knew that wasn't any damn protocol droid!
The room erupts in chaos as a grenade goes off just inside the doorway! Closer, the prostitutes join the action and take out their anger on the guards, downing the damaged droid and one of the Weequay. Jileeza doesn't really have time to watch the festivities at the moment, however.
The other droid shoves its way past some of the other women and grabs at 'Za. Fortunately, she's able to fend him off with a kick. Meanwhile, the wounded Gamorean is trying to carve her in half. For once, Jileeza is actually happy about Gulgo's disgusting bulk as she uses it as a meat shield.
'Za hasn't lost sight of her true target. Though badly wounded, the Hutt isn't dead yet. Swapping her targets around, she double-taps with the blaster into the huge slug. With her other hand, she lashes out at the droid with the vibroknife. For now, she has to just try to avoid the Gamorrean and his huge axe, maneuvering in an attempt to keep Gulgo's body and the droid between her and him.
Gulgo's once-luxurious quarters are a shambles. The flickering orange glow from the various fires highlights the mob scene that swirls around the Hutt. Above it all, still half-perched on the slug himself, Jileeza pulls the knife from Gulgo's bulk and slashes the last droid across its motivators. Hydraulics spray across the floor and the droid topples, crawling underneath Gulgo's sled in an attempt to prevent further damage. As for the crimelord himself, his flailing fails to dislodge 'Za. The Rodian assassin jabs her blaster into his fat and fires twice, the acrid smell of burning slug-meat adding to the miasma of battle. The Hutt's angry shouts turn to anguished screams now, his considerable bulk thrashing about.
Lent and Wayde enter the chamber cautiously as Arnae manages to get to his feet again. Amidst the chaos wreaked by the grenade, Wayde counts five dead guards - two humans in piecemeal armor, a mostly-intact Rodian right inside the right doorjam, and half a Sullustan gunfighter splayed over Gulgo's henchwoman, Joss. Her arm lies several meters away, tangled in a burning tapestry.
Lent sights up on Jileeza's Gamorrean friend and lets fly. The hulking alien shudders as he's stitched across his back, finally slumping to the ground.
Wayde shouts his warning, moving past Lent's fire and aiming. He fires a single shot at the remaining Gamorrean which hits it in the face just as its axe was poised for another devastating strike on the prostitutes. The pig falls - whether Wayde killed it or not is moot, as the women finish what's left of it. The last guard, the poor beleaguered Weequay, is doing an admirable job of fighting off the women, despite taking an punishing elbow to the face. He cuts another girl down with blaster fire as he tries to get away from the swarming hookers any way he can.
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