Amarath snags your drink and quaffs it quickly as you both head to the door. She drops the empty glass on a table with a pair of Rodians and half-jogs out to catch you in the corridor outside, "I figure we can't lose. Either we give those spooky womprats the slip, which is a story. Or we don't, and we kill a few of them. Also... a story."
Alright, Ladro. When you want to outrun Hith the Nightsister, roll+Deep. On a hit, choose options. On a 7-9, choose two options which are true. On a 10+, choose only one. - you have to bribe someone to help you get away, mark off 2-Cred - it takes so long that the rest of your team has to leave without you - nobody on your team is identified by the authorities
On a miss, Hith catches you. Take a -1 Forward when it happens.
After a merry chase in the 1300s, you started to feel safe enough to chance a trip towards the surface. You moved quick without being obvious, and Amarath blended in rather well with the seedy underbelly of Coruscant.
The long ascent to the surface can only be accomplished on speeders or chains of barely-connected lifts that meant long walks down dark corridors, taking far too long. You chose to fly up on a three-deck repulsor transport that's seen better days but has interior stairs between decks and a decent enough view of the open air space to the surface.
Not long after your flight began, you felt something. As you started looking around, Hosk reported in, letting you know the crew's ready to depart on a passenger freighter bound for option one.
That's when you saw this woman:
With her are two others: a Trandoshan with a bowcaster and a string of brown and gray pelts on their shoulders, and a dark-haired Corellian male in ruddy brass-colored armor with bandages all around his face and arms.
Hith is unmistakable. She has a stun baton, sparking with energy as she walks up the stairs to your level. The dozen people on this level start moving out of the way. There's no security here, none that will get in the middle of this.
In a voice like a hiss matching the hum of her stun baton, Hith demands, "Take me to the Falleen girl and you can walk away, Vossss."
Okay, this Night Sister is as creepy as they're reputed to be. Not certain how much of the rest is true, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. It's a fight, regardless.
"No." I draw my blaster. The one I shoot people with. Okay, actually the only one, but I'm hoping Amy draws both.
Amarath is right behind you, drawing both blasters and firing on the Trandoshan. She's laughing as she fires, giggling like mad while dashing for a row of seats to duck behind.
The Trandoshan draws the bowcaster in a practiced motion, while Hith moves quickly towards you, her staff whistling in the reconditioned air. The bandaged one moves sideways to mix up the firing arcs.
Blaster bolts fly and you know this is going to quick and brutal, Ladro.
Hith brought a staff to a gun-fight, as far as I'm concerned, but she still scares the poodoo out of me. I plant a foot on a row of seats, flip behind them, then take a quick bead on the overly-fancy light fixture fizzing and blinking, and hanging by a single bolt directly above the witch's head, and fire.
You shot takes out the light, which falls right on Hith. She barely gets her staff up in time to avoid a severe blow to the head. Glass shatters all around, and on her, cutting her cheek, her hands. She twists and tumbles to the side away from you to recover.
Meanwhile, Amarath tags the Trandoshan twice before it gets the bowcaster aimed at her. That Correlian fires his rifle at Amy and hits her in her left shoulder. She falls behind the seating, groaning in pain from the blast. Her vest may have caught some of it, but there was a spray of blood, too.
Now you've got the Correlian leveling his rifle at you, Hith at your side, rising to come back at you.
I flip a knife out of my sleeve and toss it toward the witch's neck while rolling aside and squeezing off a double-shot at the Correlian's center of mass.
Hith drops down slightly as the knife flips end over end. At the last second, she brings her staff up to block the weapon. Just barely. If you were watching, you'd see her eyes were a bit wide, she almost took that in the eye.
The Corellian was tracking you, and fired one shot over your head, one right behind your tumble, with the last hitting your left arm (that's 2-Harm minus one for suffer little. Are you wearing armor on your arm?)
You fire off two shots, hitting him full in the chest on both. His armor eats up some of it, but he falls to the ground, straight back, landing heavily.
"Why do you fight for this girl? Hasss she trapped you with her Falleen ssscent?" Hith asks this as she slowly rotates the staff in front of her, the thing pulses with energy. You feel her pulling at you somehow, searching your feelings.
For a moment, the Nightsister peers at you. She sees something, and says, "You're jussst a decoy. And she's already gone." She takes a few steps back, looking at her two partners, then back to you. "Clever boy."
With a wave of her hand, she summons some force and knocks you to the deck. Hith dashes over to grab the Correlian, pulls him up to his feet and they both run for the stairs down. The Trandoshan struggles to its feet as well.
Amarath fires at their backs, sitting up from her hidey hole. She nails the Trandoshan in the neck and face, but misses Hith.
Hosk replies in an annoyed tone, like he's been arguing with someone in the background, "Not yet, but they won't hold the flight for us. I can get another."
"Go. We'll meet you on the far end." Not sure what it would be like trying to get a visibly wounded Amy onto a passenger liner right now. And speaking of Amy, "How are you doing, Glorana?"
Amarath holsters her pistol and pulls herself up with her cyberarm, her left arm cradled against her side. "You see that karking Trando fall? Almost had Dengar, too. I hate that sleemo!" She's obviously in some pain. When she gets to her feet, she reaches into a pouch on her belt, pulls out a small innoculator device and presses it to her neck. It flexes and she hisses, then tosses it away, standing up to look at you. "No ride. Now what?"
I smile at her bravado, but wince along with her pain. "Let's get you patched up for real, then catch the next ship out to anywhere but here. You know, I used to think it would be awesome to live on Coruscant."
Amarath catches your smile, nods and grins with you. "It's pretty wiz, for humans. Everyone else gets hidden down here, with the flotsam and jetsam. Still, some nice bars, a decent brothel..." She chuckles, hoping it's a joke you'll laugh with her about.
She heads over to the Trandoshan, moving a little quicker as the meds kick in. When Amy reaches the corpse, she bends down and starts rifling through pockets with her cyberarm, her left arm still folded in. "We could hop a shuttle, too. My worry is coming up top with this dead body's going to get us in big trouble. And if they get away, Hith will come back for us, so we should move." She pulls a knife, some creds, a holocube and a patch off the dead Trandoshan. As she's working, she asks, "Ever hopped from one shuttle to another mid-flight?" She looks up, eyes dancing with anticipation.
"Exactly. Plus this doesn't make you drop a load!" Amarath says with a tittering laugh. "And, there will be witnesses to our brave derring do, which is also worthwhile." She tosses the holocube to you, pockets the creds and the patch, then stabs the knife through the corpse's right eye, stands up.
You both head to the stairs, then open a rickety metal door with a big warning painted on in three different languages that it is an EXIT, do not open during flight.
Then you're looking out into the chasm below, the winds rushing past. There are a half dozen ships rising and dropping through here. None are very close, of course.
I get as close to the edge as I can, so I can take a look at the oncoming vehicles and judge timing. When it's time, I give Amy a nod, then back up and take a running leap to the roof of our next ride. There may be whoooping.
Eight running steps forward, the last one plants at the edge of the shuttle. You propel forward, legs churning, arms still moving as you cross the empty space. Rising up "the hole" at a faster rate than your three-deck transport is the ship you chose, a SoroSuub V-35 Courier, a sleek little speeder that should work nicely.
Here it is:
Somehow, you adjust in mid-flight, as if you're truly weightless, not falling. Some unseen force pushes you those last inches until you land in a crouch, right on the front hood of this thing, agile as a neti.
The pair of young humans, one male, one female, gawk at you for a moment. They watched you falling, but didn't react until you actually, physically landed on their speeder. The girl simply says, "Wow."
A heartbeat later, Amarath comes hurtling over your head. She'd jumped behind you, but harder, off balance. She crashes through the windshield and slams into the male, throwing him back in his seat. It takes a few moments for him to recover, and the speeder does a full rotation (spinning around, not end over end, so you're able to stay on it without trouble).
The girl is shocked by Amy as the cyborg starts moving again, but she glances back at you with amazement on her face. Her green eyes look on you like some holovid hero as she asks, "Who... who are you?"
Hosk comes over the comms then, "Lad? Lad! We're holding the ship. Well, more like for some unknown reason the ship's systems are suddenly malfunctioning, but you need to meet us At Maranda dock, Bay 42 before it becomes obvious, alright?"
I give the young lady a wink. "I'm your mother's worst nightmare, miss: an attractive Kiffar falling into your lap." I crawl in through the windshield entrance Amy made for me, climb into the back. "Can you drop us at Bay 42? That was fun, but we've got a flight to catch."
The couple, who seem to be related, agree. Amarath helps out by flirting a little, but it's surprisingly innocent stuff, and the guy's quite intrigued with a tough bounty hunter lady.
They bring you down at Bay 42. Hosk hangs back with Teela, who looks sullen.
Squall skips up to hug Amarath, then you, "It is fortunate you arrived when you did. The ship's systems are just now coming back online. We should go."
The Correlians watch you head to the ship. There are troopers crawling all over this place.
Before I leave the speeder, I give the girl a deep, holo-vid hero kiss. "Remember me." That may come back to haunt me, later, but too many episodes of TYatC have infected my brain.
I check the position of the troopers out of the corner of my eye, hustle Amy and the rest onto the ship. We'll deal with the rest once we take off.
The Correlian girl melts into the kiss, whispering as you part, "My name is Rachael." She touches her lips as if they're now something more special than moments ago. Her brother watches Amarath leave, eyes fixed on her ass.
As you move towards them, Hosk moves Teela back inside the passenger transport, which is a huge, boxy thing with far too many windows. Amarath drops back to watch your six, waves at the boy, although she tries to make sure Squall sees.
Squall walks beside you, "Ree would only take two thousand. She asked me to tell you that you did right by Teela, and she hopes you make good on your promise soon. Is the mission over now?"
I shake my head at Squall. "Not until we're out of orbit. Which will be soon. Then it's all you." I kiss her on the forehead and follow the team onto the transport.
Ze slips an arm in yours, in that old touchy-feely way ze has. Zir spark is back, the haze of Marda falling away, "We ticked off the Vigo who was supposed to be our ally. We're kidnapping a Falleen noble. We exterminated a street gang that will tick off another Vigo. I take it this mission... was a full success?"
Comments
Amarath snags your drink and quaffs it quickly as you both head to the door. She drops the empty glass on a table with a pair of Rodians and half-jogs out to catch you in the corridor outside, "I figure we can't lose. Either we give those spooky womprats the slip, which is a story. Or we don't, and we kill a few of them. Also... a story."
Alright, Ladro. When you want to outrun Hith the Nightsister, roll+Deep. On a hit, choose options. On a 7-9, choose two options which are true. On a 10+, choose only one.
- you have to bribe someone to help you get away, mark off 2-Cred
- it takes so long that the rest of your team has to leave without you
- nobody on your team is identified by the authorities
On a miss, Hith catches you. Take a -1 Forward when it happens.
(Rolled: 2d6-1. Rolls: 1, 3. Total: 3)
After a merry chase in the 1300s, you started to feel safe enough to chance a trip towards the surface. You moved quick without being obvious, and Amarath blended in rather well with the seedy underbelly of Coruscant.
The long ascent to the surface can only be accomplished on speeders or chains of barely-connected lifts that meant long walks down dark corridors, taking far too long. You chose to fly up on a three-deck repulsor transport that's seen better days but has interior stairs between decks and a decent enough view of the open air space to the surface.
Not long after your flight began, you felt something. As you started looking around, Hosk reported in, letting you know the crew's ready to depart on a passenger freighter bound for option one.
That's when you saw this woman:
With her are two others: a Trandoshan with a bowcaster and a string of brown and gray pelts on their shoulders, and a dark-haired Corellian male in ruddy brass-colored armor with bandages all around his face and arms.
Hith is unmistakable. She has a stun baton, sparking with energy as she walks up the stairs to your level. The dozen people on this level start moving out of the way. There's no security here, none that will get in the middle of this.
In a voice like a hiss matching the hum of her stun baton, Hith demands, "Take me to the Falleen girl and you can walk away, Vossss."
Okay, this Night Sister is as creepy as they're reputed to be. Not certain how much of the rest is true, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. It's a fight, regardless.
"No." I draw my blaster. The one I shoot people with. Okay, actually the only one, but I'm hoping Amy draws both.
Amarath is right behind you, drawing both blasters and firing on the Trandoshan. She's laughing as she fires, giggling like mad while dashing for a row of seats to duck behind.
The Trandoshan draws the bowcaster in a practiced motion, while Hith moves quickly towards you, her staff whistling in the reconditioned air. The bandaged one moves sideways to mix up the firing arcs.
Blaster bolts fly and you know this is going to quick and brutal, Ladro.
What do you do?
Hith brought a staff to a gun-fight, as far as I'm concerned, but she still scares the poodoo out of me. I plant a foot on a row of seats, flip behind them, then take a quick bead on the overly-fancy light fixture fizzing and blinking, and hanging by a single bolt directly above the witch's head, and fire.
(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 3, 2. Total: 7)
Meanwhile, Amarath tags the Trandoshan twice before it gets the bowcaster aimed at her. That Correlian fires his rifle at Amy and hits her in her left shoulder. She falls behind the seating, groaning in pain from the blast. Her vest may have caught some of it, but there was a spray of blood, too.
Now you've got the Correlian leveling his rifle at you, Hith at your side, rising to come back at you.
What do you do?
I flip a knife out of my sleeve and toss it toward the witch's neck while rolling aside and squeezing off a double-shot at the Correlian's center of mass.
(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 3, 2. Total: 7)
I frighten our attackers
The Corellian was tracking you, and fired one shot over your head, one right behind your tumble, with the last hitting your left arm (that's 2-Harm minus one for suffer little. Are you wearing armor on your arm?)
You fire off two shots, hitting him full in the chest on both. His armor eats up some of it, but he falls to the ground, straight back, landing heavily.
"Why do you fight for this girl? Hasss she trapped you with her Falleen ssscent?" Hith asks this as she slowly rotates the staff in front of her, the thing pulses with energy. You feel her pulling at you somehow, searching your feelings.
What do you do?
(Rolled: 2d6. Rolls: 3, 5. Total: 8)
For a moment, the Nightsister peers at you. She sees something, and says, "You're jussst a decoy. And she's already gone." She takes a few steps back, looking at her two partners, then back to you. "Clever boy."
With a wave of her hand, she summons some force and knocks you to the deck. Hith dashes over to grab the Correlian, pulls him up to his feet and they both run for the stairs down. The Trandoshan struggles to its feet as well.
Amarath fires at their backs, sitting up from her hidey hole. She nails the Trandoshan in the neck and face, but misses Hith.
What do you do?
If she's leaving, I'll let her go. "Lar, have you lifted off?"
Hosk replies in an annoyed tone, like he's been arguing with someone in the background, "Not yet, but they won't hold the flight for us. I can get another."
"Go. We'll meet you on the far end." Not sure what it would be like trying to get a visibly wounded Amy onto a passenger liner right now. And speaking of Amy, "How are you doing, Glorana?"
Amarath holsters her pistol and pulls herself up with her cyberarm, her left arm cradled against her side. "You see that karking Trando fall? Almost had Dengar, too. I hate that sleemo!" She's obviously in some pain. When she gets to her feet, she reaches into a pouch on her belt, pulls out a small innoculator device and presses it to her neck. It flexes and she hisses, then tosses it away, standing up to look at you. "No ride. Now what?"
I smile at her bravado, but wince along with her pain. "Let's get you patched up for real, then catch the next ship out to anywhere but here. You know, I used to think it would be awesome to live on Coruscant."
Amarath catches your smile, nods and grins with you. "It's pretty wiz, for humans. Everyone else gets hidden down here, with the flotsam and jetsam. Still, some nice bars, a decent brothel..." She chuckles, hoping it's a joke you'll laugh with her about.
She heads over to the Trandoshan, moving a little quicker as the meds kick in. When Amy reaches the corpse, she bends down and starts rifling through pockets with her cyberarm, her left arm still folded in. "We could hop a shuttle, too. My worry is coming up top with this dead body's going to get us in big trouble. And if they get away, Hith will come back for us, so we should move." She pulls a knife, some creds, a holocube and a patch off the dead Trandoshan. As she's working, she asks, "Ever hopped from one shuttle to another mid-flight?" She looks up, eyes dancing with anticipation.
I return the grin. "Can't say I have, but after jumping off a station into space, it seems like a piece of cake, right?"
"Exactly. Plus this doesn't make you drop a load!" Amarath says with a tittering laugh. "And, there will be witnesses to our brave derring do, which is also worthwhile." She tosses the holocube to you, pockets the creds and the patch, then stabs the knife through the corpse's right eye, stands up.
I drop the cube in my pocket, then stand. "Here's to evacuating without... evacuating." I wink.
Then you're looking out into the chasm below, the winds rushing past. There are a half dozen ships rising and dropping through here. None are very close, of course.
What do you do?
I get as close to the edge as I can, so I can take a look at the oncoming vehicles and judge timing. When it's time, I give Amy a nod, then back up and take a running leap to the roof of our next ride. There may be whoooping.
Why don't you give me an Act Under Pressure roll to pull this off?
(Rolled: 2d6+3. Rolls: 5, 6. Total: 14)
Here it is:
Somehow, you adjust in mid-flight, as if you're truly weightless, not falling. Some unseen force pushes you those last inches until you land in a crouch, right on the front hood of this thing, agile as a neti.
The pair of young humans, one male, one female, gawk at you for a moment. They watched you falling, but didn't react until you actually, physically landed on their speeder. The girl simply says, "Wow."
A heartbeat later, Amarath comes hurtling over your head. She'd jumped behind you, but harder, off balance. She crashes through the windshield and slams into the male, throwing him back in his seat. It takes a few moments for him to recover, and the speeder does a full rotation (spinning around, not end over end, so you're able to stay on it without trouble).
The girl is shocked by Amy as the cyborg starts moving again, but she glances back at you with amazement on her face. Her green eyes look on you like some holovid hero as she asks, "Who... who are you?"
Hosk comes over the comms then, "Lad? Lad! We're holding the ship. Well, more like for some unknown reason the ship's systems are suddenly malfunctioning, but you need to meet us At Maranda dock, Bay 42 before it becomes obvious, alright?"
The girl says, "We're headed to Maranda... sir."
I give the young lady a wink. "I'm your mother's worst nightmare, miss: an attractive Kiffar falling into your lap." I crawl in through the windshield entrance Amy made for me, climb into the back. "Can you drop us at Bay 42? That was fun, but we've got a flight to catch."
They bring you down at Bay 42. Hosk hangs back with Teela, who looks sullen.
Squall skips up to hug Amarath, then you, "It is fortunate you arrived when you did. The ship's systems are just now coming back online. We should go."
The Correlians watch you head to the ship. There are troopers crawling all over this place.
What do you do?
Before I leave the speeder, I give the girl a deep, holo-vid hero kiss. "Remember me." That may come back to haunt me, later, but too many episodes of TYatC have infected my brain.
I check the position of the troopers out of the corner of my eye, hustle Amy and the rest onto the ship. We'll deal with the rest once we take off.
As you move towards them, Hosk moves Teela back inside the passenger transport, which is a huge, boxy thing with far too many windows. Amarath drops back to watch your six, waves at the boy, although she tries to make sure Squall sees.
Squall walks beside you, "Ree would only take two thousand. She asked me to tell you that you did right by Teela, and she hopes you make good on your promise soon. Is the mission over now?"
I shake my head at Squall. "Not until we're out of orbit. Which will be soon. Then it's all you." I kiss her on the forehead and follow the team onto the transport.
Ze slips an arm in yours, in that old touchy-feely way ze has. Zir spark is back, the haze of Marda falling away, "We ticked off the Vigo who was supposed to be our ally. We're kidnapping a Falleen noble. We exterminated a street gang that will tick off another Vigo. I take it this mission... was a full success?"
I give Squall a crooked grin. "When you put it like that... I suppose the answer is yes." After a beat, "...and never call me 'Master' again."