Log:From the Ashes Part 1

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A rag-tag band of adventurers attempt to reclaim the Renegade from the Guavian Death Gang

OOC Date: February 16, 2016
Location: Renegade
Participants: Old Explorer's Guild, Rax Vaelus, Oriana, Raim Shah, Bar'duur, Kyanggha, Zaena, Ari, Ysille Vale, Oozlevort, Kirk Novastar, Sion, Guavian Death Gang

-(OOC)- Rax Vaelus says, "http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/interstellarfilm/images/9/9b/Black_hole.png/revision/latest?cb=20150322005003"


The Bad Habit reverts from hyperspace well beyond the asteroid belt along the edge of the accreation disk of the supermassive blackhole dubbed Netherworld. Rax Vaelus is standing on the bridge, arms folded, as he watches space streak back into being, followed by no less than three separate proximity warnings. He's wearing a long leather coat, bearing a golden compass design on the back. The new symbol for the Guild of Explorers. "There it is... Netherworld."


Watching the fast-spinning disk of light sweep and arch and swirl around the huge black mass in the center, Rax turns away to look at those assembled. "All right... This is our first mission together. Some of you don't know each other, and some of you have met, but don't know what the other people here can do. This is where that changes."


Rax steps back, pointing at the asteroid field, which occasionally glints with reflected light off ancient space wreckage. "Somewhere in that debris field is the Renegade. How it survived is a mystery for another time. Today, we're here to save her before she falls into the grip of Netherworld. No one else should know it's here. But stay sharp...just in case."


He looks down to Ysille and Kirk in the co-pilot's seat. "...Take us in."


Oozlevort isn't flying, but he is in the cockpit trying to peer over the back of the co-pilot's seat and see outside. "Oozlevort has never seen a Netherworld. It looks very dangerous." The Gand findsman is wearing his breathing mask and a bandolier with a blaster pistol in it; otherwise, he doesn't have any armor.


Zaena gives a smile to Rax - she'd been delighted to to offer up the use of the Bad Habit for this rather ill-conceived mission - because the prize is just so tempting. There had been hints corroborating the intelligence Rax received, evidence of escape pods and distress signals, but the location or the fate of the ship itself had been a mystery to herself and those who had gone on the Jakku expedition.


"I think at least at first, it'd be best if Ysille stays at the controls. So that we'll be ready to beat a hasty retreat," she suggests, excited but nervous a bit. "The Netherworld," she says. "So what is that?" she asks, curious.


Bar'duur is starin out the window with /huge/ eyes, his mouth agape a bit, he's fixed on the danger and beauty of what lies before them. He is at first up in the cockpit but gradually makes his way back to the commons with a smile. "That is.. amazing." He whispers softly under his breath before his attention turns to Rax and the man nods, then finally turns and offers a smile to the others. "I am Bar'duur, I am acting for chief of security until we have someone better for it. My specialties are wilderness surviving." Says the man in his Zabraki accent.


Raim is standing, not seated, his arms crossed over his chest as he gazes through the front view port of the Bad Habit at the black hole on the horizon. His scarlet eyes widen a bit, with a due sense of wonder at its spectacle. His eyes flick to regard Rax as he speaks, but inevitably draw back toward the black hole. At his right rests BB-2232, his BB-unit which rolls fractionally left to right with what would almost appear to be a restless sort of energy for a droid, his mini Translator droid hovering on tiny repulsor jets to stay aloft above and to his right. The Chiss makes no move to introduce himself to the others, a few of whom already know him.


Kyanggha is armoured up and holds a nasty looking bowcaster casually. She isn't crowding the cockpit, instead she's lingering near to where everyone else is, keeping an eye on them, and keeping an eye on ... well just in /case/ there's people who decide to both sneak on, and make things unpleasant. She's listening, and generally alert.


Sitting in the third chair of the cockpit, manning a secondary station where she's monitoring the sensors, is the second purple twi'lek on this expedition. Ari is probably close enough in height and skin color to Zaena for the two to be mistaken for sisters, but the similarities about end there. She's not really dressed for business, or even adventure, and the expression on her face seems to default to being a little more serious.


There's a note of awe in her otherwise flat voice. "I haven't seen a lot of the galaxy, but still . . . never seen anything like that." She turns to the assembled crew behind the cockpit. "Ari. I'm here because someone said you might need an electronic security expert." That's a euphemism for slicer, presumably.


Some of the ride here Oriana had found a spot to sit, put in some headphones and listened to some music. Which she enjoyed via drumming her fingers on the floor, bouncing her head to the music and singing along to it softly, which is good because any louder and people may want to remove their ears and happily plug them forever and ever. With that bit of time done, and nearing location she'd of removed the headphones and gone up to join the others. There is a bruise, a good looking one across her cheek and along side her nose, with her sun kissed brunette hair pulled back into a pony tail there is a even darker more fierce bruise at the base of her skill, someone hit her real good. Normally graceful with some regal air, that's gone because she moves in a stiff sore fashion, and the cold doesn't help much. Her nose is a touch red, she lifts her arm to cough or sneeze into her elbow. Despite all this she doesn't seem to give a damn and pushes on.


On the bridge she would stand back and listen, head tilted with a bit of laboured breathing through the congestion. One hip has her blaster, the other her new rifle which she hopes this time will not blow up on her. Pushing off from the wall she was leaning on, eyes set on the ship with brows knit together, following that with a nod. "Looks like fun, last mission I was on we had to wear clothing drench in dragon piss to avoid them making us their mates. This is a step up." She smirks.


"There's a good reason most of you haven't seen a black hole up close. They drive astrogation calculations mad. The time-space distortions alone create rolling dissonance waves that cannot be resolved." He glances aside toward Bar'duur, "We don't know what kind of condition Renegade is going to be in, but if her hull is intact, she may still have breathable air. But first..." Rax turns his lightning-colored cerulean eyes down toward the other purple twi'lek here--Ari. "...We'll need to find her. Got any leads for me, navigator?"


Beyond, Netherworld continues to sweep and swirl, the light of the accretion disc as bright as any sun...if vastly further away. The sheer velocity of the disc's spin must approach lightspeed itself as it swoops and twists.


Oozlevort braces himself, using his three-fingered hands to grip the co-pilot's chair while the ship zooms around. He eyes the sensor display.


Zaena gives a quick smile back to Ari. "I haven't seen anything like that either," she says, looking up, scratching her head. "But it's absolutely amazing," she says, with a smile. "Anyway, I'll be...erm...looking for any opportunities that I can. I created the salvage record, possibly, for a 'converted, decommissioned vessel," she says. "And we have a salvage title that we can provide, but..." She smiles. "I suppose I'm here to help make sure that we don't get overwhelmed," she says.


"From what I can tell, there is no effective, prosecuted claim over vessels lost here," she says. "So what we retrieve will be at least technically ours - that is, if we can manage to defend it," she adds, chipperly.


Patient, she then smiles over to Ari. "Pick anything up?" she asks, tearing herself away from the awe-inspiring sight of the massive singularity.


Bar'duur grunts a bit. "I hope so, I did not bring anything to let me walk in space." Says the Zabrak with a little frown. "Probably the air is bad but I do not know how those things work." He admits a bit more seriously. "We will take our time at first, if we need to split up we must have teams, noone is to be left alone."


Raim's eyes narrow a bit as he glances sideways toward Zaena, but eventually they move back toward the viewport and what lies beyond. He moves toward the a wall and places a hand out to brace himself before the ship begins to navigate through the asteroid field. Once he has gained a supported position, only then does the Chiss spare a glance for the others near him. He offers a nod of greeting toward Kyanghaa and toward Oriana.


Kyan's reply to 'if we can defend it', is a lifting of her bowcaster in a silent show of force. She is, apparently, just the brute force and ignorance around here. She provides a quiet grunt of greeting all around.


The station in front of Ari emits a shrill whine, a brief stacatto of beeps in Binary heard a moment later. She reaches forward to flip a switch, and a holodisplay pops up in front of her. In the projection, the tiniest ant-like speck materializes to mark the Bad Habit's location, dwarfed by the mammoth black hole they're approaching. She keeps at whatever she's doing. A moment later, another signature pops up: this one is a larger but still ship-sized dot that's closer to the swirling accretion disk.


"Huh." The twi'lek woman sounds surprised. "I'm picking up a live power plant. It's probably the Renegade, though I'm surprised its reactor is still active. That ship disappeared not long after the Battle of Endor." Hear head briefly turns to the Wroonian pilot ahead of her. "Ysille, I'm sending you two the heading."


She keeps talking as she works the console. "For those of you who are wondering, it was the Habit's crew that clawed this data out of the sand." Ari's eyes snap for a moment to Kyanggha, the purple woman finally smiling. "With some very useful help from the rest of th guild. It was a bit short on detail, but from what I've gathered from subsequent research, the Renegade was a pretty feared ship in its days for its harassment attacks. Supposedly, it carried a crack squadron of fighter pilots who made short work of Imperial supply ships running near this corridor. What happened to it? I think we'll be the first to find out. Though judging by some of the voice recordings I heard . . . it wasn't anything good. Don't let your guard down."


She stands there, looking out at the beautiful display before her. Sure things maybe be dangerous but it's driven into her people to stop, to see these things and appreciate them with every bit of feeling they have. And that's where Oriana defaults to at this second, just drinking it in. Until she has the sudden urge the sneeze, which she does by lifting her arm and doing so into her elbow. There is a slight groan that follows and she rubs that ugly looking bruise at the base of her skull while turning with a sniffle to see what's going on. Oh, computers. Not her game, or not without a ton of luck anyway, luck which has aided her in the past but she wont try her hand at now. Watching them a second a few steps are taken to the side, to lean against the wall so give her body some release of the stiffness that's ravaged it from probably unseen bruises. Seeing Raim glance her way, he gets a friendly smile and two fingered salute.


Kirk Novastar having taking the mantle of co-pilot, which he'll bill Rax for later, Kirk sits there waiting for them to land the ship. Shakira is buzzing around near the exit hatch in stabd by mode. Right now Kirk is playing a game on his wrist computer which has a mini translator droid rigged to the side of it. There is a moment when the sounds of the game he is playing makes a victory like noise, "Alright, just beat my previus high score!" He leans back and waits till he's needed while he plays his 'Space Invaders' game. He didn't know many here but he might let that change. He turns a quick glance back to Ori then back to his wrist game.


The Bad Habit silently launches forward, the disk-shaped craft rapidly approaching the outermost layer of rocky debris. Ysille dodges and ducks and sweeps around the boulders until... Just as Ysille is about to drift around another asteroid, a huge plane of metal comes careening around it from the other side. Ragged and torn along most of its surface, one broad, smooth, perfectly straight line marks this as a chunk of Imperial Star Destroyer, and the pilot gasps as she yanks back on the controls. There is a loud, screeching bang as the Bad Habit catches a glancing blow from the hundred-meter-long chunk of debris, and the YT-2400 goes spinning about!


Oozlevort points at the viewport. "Is that a-" Then they hit! The Gand is thrown to the floor with a grunt. "Oof." He picks himself up, but slowly.


Bar'duur hmms gruffly and turns to look down the corridor just as the ship starts to move and shake, the Zabrak's knees bend instantly lowering his center of gravity and it helps he was near a hand-hold, grabbing on to it. "Hold on!" He shouts and reaches out as though to try and steady anyone nearby though not all that successfully.


It was fortunate that Raim moved over to brace himself against the wall when he did, as the ship is impacted with debris and is suddenly sent into a violent spin. Raim's hand grasps the wall hard and his feet brace himself back into the wall to combat the spin and he manages to stay aloft. While his translator which is flying in the air is not effected by the spin, the same cannot be said for BB-2232 which is rocked by the momentum and sent at a fast out of control clip toward Oriana.


Kyan leaned herself against the wall of the ship, braced into the doorway to the cockpit as things go all topsy-turvy for a while. She reaches her free hand out to stablize herself on a convenient hand hold. "You may want to try and avoid those in future." She drawls almost lazily.


The initial impact tosses Ari's compact frame like a ragdoll, her body lurching forward toward her station. It's lucky that she's buckled in, though her pained grunt when she slams into the straps of her seat makes it obvious that even that wasn't a purely pleasant outcome. She's probably going to have an x-shaped bruise across her torso for a week.


The twi'lek woman struggles against the inertia of the constant spin to reach for the controls. "Get her steady!" she calls to the pilots in front of her as she barely manages to reach a few glowing buttons. "I'm trying to get shields back up! I don't know if we took any damage beyond that!"


Leaning against the wall, ankles crossed casually, she hooks on thumb into the pocket of her pants and the other just sways at her side. The look back to Kirk is brief, because really, Shakira is there. Her eyes narrow and in a fashion that suggests her inner thoughts a hand idly moves to her blaster then stops, returning to hooking that thumb into her pocket. Just then the ship shakes. And having had a rough few days already, why not be thrown off balance and thrusted to the ground! One second she stands, the next she feels herself smack onto the floor. Hands had come out to stop her fall a bit but it smarts. Grumbling a good amount of things in another language - one unknown to most, it sounds more like she is saying something very angry and well, it's probably best that it's not translated.


Going to push herself up to sit that unseen droid collides with her, giving off a good thud sound. "Oh I want a drink.." Are the words muttered as she grumbles and goes to push herself up.


Kirk and Ysille working together furiously try to get the ship under control, but there's a cry from one of them as, very briefly, a brown boulder can be seen careening toward the ship when the viewport spins by it. Rax calls out, "Hang on to something!!" but Ari manages to force a reboot of the shields and powers them up fully just as the giant rock slams into the ship. Bouncing mostly off the shielding, the Bad Habit is merely jostled as Kirk and Ysille get it under control. Careening around to resume their heading, the looming hulk of the Renegade shines dull grey in the looming light of the vast, empty-centered Netherworld.


The space debris floats by silently, the constant current of gravitational force now more obvious as the asteroid belt flows steadily to starboard. Righting himself slowly, Rax looks out the viewport, his jaw hanging open as he whispers, "She's still intact..." There's power, too, as evidenced by the shimmering blue field covering the landing bay's open wall. He leans closer, nodding to Ysille without taking his eyes off the ship, "Take us into the landing bay."


Zaena gets dashed down to the floor, letting out a gasp as she stumbles. She has no experience whatsoever passing acrobatic troubles, looking back, a bit of blood from a cut on her forehead trickling down the side of her head.


"Owww...no, I don't like it anymore..." she whines, before she shakes her head and gets a little clearer, giving a smile to Ari. "You OK?" she asks, looking around still a little wildly.


Bar'duur remains standing where he is. "What if there are people still there, keeping it running." he comments. "Or droids, they used droids on those ships a lot right?"


Raim continues to keep a tight hold on the wall, his feet pressing him back against it to combat the spin. His scarlet eyes gaze out of the front viewport as the asteroid comes their way and he breaths out a soft sigh of relief as the impact isn't life ending. As the ship comes under control, Raim also catches a glimpse of the Renegade in the distance and he says, "Sooner we get on that thing the better for everyone. It has to be safer than flying around in all of this debris."


BB-2232 beeps apologetically to Oriana and rolls into her in a good natured fashion before rolling back across the floor toward Raim.


"If she's still intact, and with power, someone is keeping her powered up." Kyan opines with a rumble and a fresh grip on the wall so she doesn't land on her arse. "Expect resistance when we land. Better to expect it and be wrong than get shot as their version of hello. People or droids, they are unlikely to be putting the kettle on for tea."


Ari turns toward the scattered crew still recovering from the impact, grinning at Zaena in particular. "Glad to see your lekku are still on straight. I'm fine." Her eyes drift next to the others. Most of them seem to be OK, at least visually, but there's still a hint of concern in her expression, especially toward Oriana, who was already nursing a few bruises. "Are you guys OK?" She calls out, apparently to someone else, "Sion! Can you check everyone out?"


And then her console again beeps. She turns back toward it. "Uhhh, Ysille. Kirk. We're coming in fast. Might want to apply some reverse thrust." She looks confused. "I don't get it. Is that a tractor beam?" She misses the obvious conclusion, at least at first. She's not exactly a physicist, after all. "Oh. That's the Netherworld, isn't it?" She doesn't sound too worried, but judging by her voice, something seems to creep her out a bit. "I guess we're being pulled in. The Renegade too. It's not fast enough to worry about, but . . ." She pauses. "Lets just get this done and get out of here."


Finding something to grab onto Oriana holds on tight, resting against the wall as best she can. This doesn't give much ease with the sneezing, she turns her head away at least, and into her shoulder some. That little droid bumps into her playfully; this gets her attention with a rather wide smile as her eyes watch it roll away. A brief look is passed around the others, returing the look to Ari while resting her head against the wall, giving a slightly forced thumbs up to show she's stellar at this time, and then fixes those eyes on Raim, a face she recalls but a creature she can't place either. Daring to let go she points to the droid, and mouths the words 'I want one of those' to him, remembering that he dabbles with them, or at least, she seems to think he does. And then looks out to the rocks and such that are causing things to shake them around.


Kirk was lucky he had been buckled in as he watches the events unfold while trying to maintain his current score but that's a fail. The noise sounds that he lost the game he was playing. He grabs hold of the chair, thankful he was strapped in, "Wow... good thing we didn't panic." He says as the crew does their part to keep the ship from crashing or getting rammed by peices of old ships and the life. He spots the Renegade and then grumbles a little bit, "It's ugly." He states bluntly as the ships righted and things seem to be alright for now. He feels the ship grapple with the effects of the netherworld.


There's one good thing about being regular crew on this ship: You get a seat. And these seats have safety harnesses. Sion's glad to have hers as the ship lurches crazily under the impact of hitting tons of stray metal. She clings to the four-point straps until she ship settles onto a straight course again. "Oof... that officially did not... make my day," she mutters, shaking her head. "My uncle used to tell me that smugglers would come out of hyperspace with the shields up. Maybe we should start doing that, too."


Checking people out is part of her job, so she nods to Ari's suggestion and looks around. "Kayo... Anyone hurt? If you are, sing out where and how bad it feels." She does notice Zaena, though, as she unstraps and moves to check people out. "Head injury on the boss. You're on the list, Zae. And I think I see someone with bruises," she adds, noticing Oriana and BB-2232. "Careful, little guy, you're likely to bruise her more," she teases the two. "Anyone else?"


Rax leans on the console next to Ysille, pointing, "Bring us into the landing bay..." As the Bad Habit veers toward the blue shield, Rax glances back at Ari, "Good work back there. Everyone else..." Rax turns his eyes about the gathered crew, "Get ready to deploy. I don't want to be here any longer than I need to. We get in, disable defenses, and pilot this baby home. Any question--" Rax is stopped as Ysille tugs on his sleeve and points. Rax turns and blinks. There's an unmistakable shape bolted onto the side of the Renegade, near the landing bay entrance. A YT-1300. "...Well. We may not be alone here." The Bad Habit drifts into the atmosphere of the landing bay and touches down, the doors open. "All right, everyone move out. I'm going to check on Alana, see if she's recovered from space sickness yet or not."


Oozlevort is glad to get a chance to leave the cramped YT-2400. Before departing the exit ramp, the Gand checks the power pack on his pistol, and then slides it back into its holster. Down the ramp he goes, moving stealthily and slipping to one side of the dock at once. He goes to where the docking bay controls are most likely located.


Zaena gives a quick smile to Ari. "Well, Sion would be around to straighten them out for me if needed," she says, huffing a bit as she breathes a little heavily thanks to her adrenaline.


"Indeed, I think we should get out of here as soon as possible. ," she says. "Ideally, we'll be heading out of there while inside the Renegade's bay," she says. "Are the shields still up, after all this time?" she asks. "Ours, and the target ship's?" she asks. "Damage report on the Habit doesn't look too bad. Thank goodness CEC builds them tough," she says, with a little frown.


"Let's see if we can't get a scan on that vessel. At least see if we can get any idea on how long it's been there," she says, thoughtfully.


Zaena is not particularly handy with weapons, but as she draws her pistol and vibroblade she at least seems to be equally unskilled with both. "I suppose I'm here to help out if anything gets too close," she says, with a smile, glancing at the fellow with the Gand stick, and the other with a vibroblade. "So I suppose the three of us should make sure that...well, above all else, I imagine we'll need Ari. Because how else are we going to get this huge thing dancing to our tune? I'm not sure that my legal skills and cheery charlatanship will be very convincing to the Renegade." She grins. "They're for later."


Bar'duur makes his way toward the hatchway. "I will take point to start, who will take rear?" Asked as his gaze drifts over those gathered. "I dont know much about ships, but I assume the Bridge and engineering would be priority, first we need to worry about securing it, and then we will start investigating things and stabilizing the systems, sounds good to all?"


Raim glances around the landing bay as the ship moves inside the blue force field and settles to a landing. To Zaena he says, "I am not a bad hand with computers myself, though if her skill exceeds mine, I will of course defer to her." His scarlet eyes flick to Oriana and he smirks and says, "Everyone wants one, but they are surprisingly hard to acquire." His hand moves to the blaster pistol at his hip, though he doesn't draw the weapon as he moves for the entrance ramp, BB-2232 and his Translator moving dutifully to follow.


"This is going to get messy in very short order if no one is in command at least to coordinate. That someone is not going to be me." Kyanggha comments as she watches people start to scatter. "A plan would also be valuable, but I think we might be long past that stage of things already, save for Bar's suggestion. I can take up the rear. Again, expect resistance." She moves to follow those heading to disembark off the ship to find who might be waiting for them.


Ari finally unbuckles herself, wincing as she's relieved of the straps. One can already see her light purple skin start to turn a deep, angry violet due to the forming bruises. "I hope you don't mind being sidelined for this one, Ysille, but until we get our footing, you should probably wait it out here, so we're ready to leave in a hurry if we have to scrub the mission. Keep the shields up and the door closed until we get back, though. I don't want you getting surprised." She waves the others off as they begin to disembark. "I'll catch up. I want to run a few last minute checks." Another holodisplay materializes in front of her, apparently the interior of the ship, though this one is garbled by constant noise. The Netherworld cranks out a lot of noise.


As the others exit the ship, her voice suddenly crackles in over comms. It's a little bit warped, though, dropping out for a second here or there as static fills the empty spaces. "Comm check. Can everyone hear me? There's a lot of interference, but I'm going to see if I can get a good read on the ship from the inside." There's a long pause. "Bingo. We do have company. Six people on the upper decks. That's probably the crew of that YT-1300. This ship has likely been here over thirty years, so the original living crew is probably long dead. Even if a few holdouts were stretching supplies, I doubt they'd have survived the mental strain." Her voice goes silent there.


A few moments later, she's running down the ramp behind the others, calling out for them to wait up. "I suggest we rendezvous with those six ahead of time. They're our biggest wildcard right now, much moreso than the technical challenges. We have numbers and firepower on our side, especially visually. If they're willing to reason with us, we negotiate. If not, we blow them away while we have the tactical advantage. Either way, it's much better than being caught with our pants down later when we're in the middle of trying to bring the ship back online." Her violet eyes drift to the rest of the crew. "Unless anyone else has a different idea?" She looks at Zaena. "What are your thoughts?"


With a tight grip for balance still Oriana flickers those big eyes onto Sion, there is a smirk and shake of her head. "I'm tough, not the worse I've had. I'm fine till I'm dead, and even then, I'm fine." This is a statement saying she's a tough patient, one who wouldn't let anything really stop her if she needed to push on, but it's done in a friendly sort of way because she knows those doctor medic types have a way of making people do their bidding, against that persons will or not. "Well Raim," She calls out to him, but not enough to drown out anyone else talking. "Looks like you'll be busy when we get back."


Looking to Rax she presses her lips together when he says it's time to move out, then looks out to the ship their attached to and then lets go of that handle that kept her still. Movements are stiff, she sneezes a bit, coughs but would flick into that other mode of hers. If it wasn't for the aches and pains, there would be that echo of grace to her, of poise. For now, it's just pick up and go, and that's what this switch has been moved to. There is something almost military like in her eyes, like this is being treated like a mission, and that endless training that's been drilled into her comes out. First she pulls out the rifle but doesn't switch it on. "Now, if I need you this time, don't blow up like your old counterpart did and near destroy another ship and near kill me. That wasn't fun." This is said to the gun, in a threatening sort of way. Sure she knows it's not alive but hell, the past doesn't want to be repeated. Assured it's fine she pulls out the blaster and flicks it on, keeping it tight in her hand nodding in response to the com working. The blaster doesn't get a talking to like her backup weapon, but that's because the blaster has been good and has not exploded. That done, she'd turn to go with the others.


With the ship landed, Kirk gets up from his seat and ques his partner in crime to activate. The cam droid comes to life and starts to grumble, "It's going to be hard to calculate things when I'm having to use the processing power of this little bot." She says to Kirk as he walks up to her, "Well, don't blame me if your signal can't stretch across the star lanes. Just be glad I didn't leave you behind. Now com on." He glances around to the others here. Taking note of each person, from the wookiee who once smacked him, to Rax, to Ori and then the others, taking notes. Shakira seems to almost huff from the voice regular of the small droid, "Just keep a watchful eye." He looks to the others, "I'm going straight to the engine room to start there. Don't know who wants to come with me or I can go it alone." A glance is giving to Ori with hopeful eyes. Shakira buzzes down by his head, "Anyone but her!" She says in a text across Kirk's wrist computer.


"Hold still a second, Zae. You've got a cut on your forehead," Sion says, pulling her shoulder-slung BioTech bag around front and finding a steri-wipe to dab away the blood. A little synthflesh follows to seal it up. "We don't know what's in there. I'd rather not take a chance on infection just from stepping on board."


She nods to Oriana, not the kind to push when all she can see is bruises. "Kayo, if you're sure. Just be careful. Shout if you do need my help?"


Onward. She has little tactical experience, and moves to accompany the blaster-bearers, drawing her own. "Six opposition. At least we have numbers on our side. So... where are we goin'?"


"Greetings."


The voice echoes through hidden speakers as the party exits their ship. "As you can see, this ship has already been claimed. So just get back on your little boat, ion out of here, and no one has to die. Got it?"


The lights flicker dangerously in the cavernous landing bay, with dormant droids laying lifelessly across the durasteel and permacrete bay. There's a large set of blast doors to the north, with empty space visible through the huge, shielded wall to starboard, and Netherworld's accretion disk spins sickening fast about the vast circumference of the black circle within to port.


Oozlevort glances up as the intercom informs them. Over the comms he says, "Oozlevort goes to the bridge. Follow him." He draws a pistol from his bandolier and starts trudging toward the bridge.


Zaena gives a grin. "Well, I've got absolutely no command experience," she says. "But! I've seen movies," she says. "All right, Rax," she says. "I think you should stay on the ship. We need someone to keep talking to us, and who can make a map based on what we see, and who could help direct some sort of response, or keep us together, in case we get into confusion," she explains. "Use the ship's systems to create a map that we could use," she says. "All right. Those with blades, come up with me, and those without, stay in back," she says, thinking for a bit. "Ahh," she says to Ooozle. "You stay at the very rear, to make sure we don't get surprised by something sneaking up," she says. "Anyway. If we run into trouble, fall back to the nearest defensive point," she suggests. "I'll make sure to point any out that look good as we pass."


And with a smile, she grins. "All right," she says, heading down the hatch and hoping - hehe, hoping, that she is followed." She smiles. "So, are you okay with managing our information?" she asks, checking to make sure her commlink is ready.


"All right," she says. "We're headed directly to engineering first. We'll secure it, and then leave Kirk there," she says. "At that point, Ysille and Rax can go reinforce Kirk, make sure he doesn't get surprised. The rest of us will go and secure the bridge," she says. "Engineering is on the way to the bridge, so that makes the most sense." And with that, hoping quite desperately she is followed, she moves to head down the ramp into the ship.


"Oh," she says, frowning a little bit. "Umm, well, it looks like we're too late," she says. "Oh well." A shrug. "I'm sure it's not the only derelict in the galaxy," she says, moving to head back to agree. "I'm not interested in killing some folks just becasue they beat us to the punch, I suppose," she says. "And I can't really see how they have any more of a claim to this thing than we do," she says, rather dejected. She looks stunned as Ooozlevort raises his weapon. "Wait. You're still going?" she asks.


Bar'duur stops, listening to all the different voices all saying different things. The tribal Zabrak just frowns for a moment as though in thought. "No, I will take point for now, I will speak with the men first, I want to try something. When we are in the ship we need someone familiar with large ships to take point. Kyan would be good to bring up the rear for now. We definately should go to the engine room then, and then bridge, all good ideas." He offers this somewhat plainly as though that makes sense and should be the way things are, it's all simple in his mind. "I do not know ships, but I know some things." He starts along toward the group of men.


"You found her! Thank you so much for finding her, we have been looking for her for so long now, ever since we were sent to find her, but here she is. Are you all well? We can give you medical aid. We cant thank you enough for finding our ship for us."


While the others begin to voice their different plans, Raim glances around the hangar and spotting a terminal that is still active, the Chiss hurries over toward it alone save for BB-2232 and his translator droid following him. Stepping up to the terminal, Raim tilts his head to the side curiously and his sapphire fingers begin to flutter across the keys rapidly. A pause, and then his head turns toward the other shoulder and the accompanying flutter of fingers on keys. "Alright... ship controls..." he mutters, "Droids... Should be right about there..." His head pops up vertically as the screen goes black and he says, "What the /fuck/?"


The console Raim is working on suddenly flickers and goes out. Flat dead. No signs of life whatsoever.


Over the comms, the voice continues, "The busty purple beauty has the right idea. No one crosses the Guavian Death Gang, after all." There's a smarmy pause. "And lives." The lights flicker uncertainly in the landing bay, and there's an audible 'vrrrrrr' as a camera swivels, focuses, and burns out. Aimed at Raim.


Suddenly, the console blinks back to life, and the landing bay dims a bit. The shields holding atmo in flicker dangerously. But the console glows brightly. "Captain Fasil Danse, welcome back. You were reported terminated 20132 days ago. Warning: Ship currently caught in gravity well of X0012 'Netherworld'. Please restore main power to engines."


"I'm not quite interested in just turning around and leaving, without even meeting these folks. Who clearly didn't put the damn kettle on." Kyanggha follows after Raim, to settle behind him and at least keep things that aren't the console from shooting at him. In theory. "I use computers as little as possible, but that doesn't look good." She comments as it flickers dark and then looks up to the comms. "Seriously? Gauvian Death Gang? /That/ is as good a name as you could come up with? Yelling at people over comms? Seriously?" She snorts. Clearly unimpressed.


Ari for her part keeps silent as the exchange starts between her crew and that of the gang who boarded earlier. It's only when Naim starts to work one of the consoles in here that she moves, slinging her rifle and moving to his side. She watches, though she gives him enough room to avoid interfering with his work. It's only when the console starts talking that she approaches, addressing him quietly. "Congratulations, Captain Danse. Looks like you just got a promotion."


Oriana eyes Zaera andBar, seems everyone is just thrashing their ideas about. She'd glance to Kirk and then to Shakira, smirking wide. "Shakira, you'll have to learn to live with me." The woman speaks, overly sweetly, and then coughs, fricken cold and rubs the bruise on her face "I'm not as much of a fan of your pretty backside as Kirk is, but lets say we put our mutual hate aside for this once okay? I'd really like to have this be a success. Or I can shoot you now and it'll be wonderfully quiet." There is a bit of passion in her voice, she very much wants this to happen and work out. Looking up to the speakers a second then down she just out rightly speaks. "Life forms up above? I'll head there, we don't need a surprise attack of any sort I'll be cover." Always willing to throw herself in the line of fire, That's Oriana! She'd go to head that way until Raim speaks up and she stops and stares at him. "That's not good." Her blaster is brought up a bit, as if preparing. "Right, engines. Kyan," Eyes drift to the Wookie. "Why don't you come with me and we try to beat those bodies before they get to the group and pin us in, give others time to do their work." Assuming she's going to be followed she'd go to head that way.


Shakira seems to merely bob in place a moment as Ori speaks, "For now! But if you touch him..." Kirk blinks a moment before he nods a bit to Ori, "Well, my place is where I belong, so onward. Kirk moves quickly and starts through the landing area with Shakira in tow right behind him, "Success lies in engineering." He tells Ori in passing. "And no shooting my droid." Kirk didn't care about the other people here. He'll let the grunts handle it. He's mission bound for the engine room.


"Well, that's one solution," Sion admits, hearing Zae. "Personally, I'd suggest another one: Set for stun. We can always cut them in for shares if they wise up, but I, speaking only for myself, didn't fly all the way here just to flee at the first sign of trouble." She grins. "Besides, we have them outnumbered."


The mention of the interlopers' /name/, on the other hand, draws a frown. "Dumb name, but I've heard it in stories around Nar. They're as nasty as their name is bad. But we still have 'em outnumbered. We just need a good plan."


And Raim seems to have found an edge! The Socorran smiles. "What Ari said. And... wait. Don't most of these big ships have auxiliary controls in the engineering spaces? And we have a slicer. Maybe we could cut these Guavian slime-devils out of the control loop, and put /them/ on the defensive."


"Sounds like you guys have a bit of a dilemma on your hands..." says the voice over the intercom. "Here, let me make it easier on you. 20,000 credits to each of you if you just turn around and fly on out of here. We'll double it for every person who tries to stay that you kill on your way out." There's a low, dry chuckle. "Or you can take your chances..."


At Raim's console, the computer says, "Captain, unidentified intruders appear to have entered the bridge. They are attempting to access my HoloComm array. Would you like to authorize access?" Meanwhile, the blast doors at the end of the hangar where Oozlevort and Bar'duur are waiting rumble open.


Oozlevort hisses over their private comm channel. "Guavian Death Gang? Best not to deal with them. Very dangerous. You'll never get paid. Bridge is fore and a few levels up." The Gand keeps his pistol in his three-fingered hand and begins moving forward through the corridor as the blast doors open, nodding at Bar'duur to follow.


Bar'duur frowns at the console. "Tempting, but I think we have more than enough ability and people to take the whole prize." When the door starts opening the Zabrak whirls around and brings his sword up to bear, looking as though he's about to dive for cover at first, but then he's moving closer to it cautiously to check things out..


As soon as the voice speaks again over the loudspeaker, and says that she was right, Zaena's eyes widen. She shakes her head at Sion. "No," she says. "Didn't you /hear/ what they /said?/ They said that I was right. With what I /said./ She then puts her index finger vertically on her lips, to suggest that anything said would be clearly heard by however they heard her.


Without the ability to speak, and therefore overly longwindedly talk her way through /everything/ she rushes her way over to Ari and Raim. Her crewmate had chosen to act, leaving her without much choice, but that clearly means she goes along with instant support of Ari's course, blaster and pistol out as she takes a spot between Bar and Ooze and the other two, a few meters away from the ship Ysille remains at the controls of, so that it's ready to address any challenges.


Raim spares none of the others any attention, save to cast Ari a slight grin, as he continues to work with the terminal. His fingers begin to type away with a flutter and blue skinned blur. He types his message back into the terminal, "Thank you, the report of my decease was an unfortunate false relay of information. I have returned to the Renegade with a new crew, please scan and take to file their biometrics. Be advised, it would appear that we have intruders aboard. Deny access to HoloComm and all ship controls. Activate all droids under my command and send defensive droids to intercept. Terminate if needed." Finally he glances around to the rest of the boarding party. "Alright. I cannot restore power to the engines from here, it will have to be restored manually. I will open the blast doors and give you a straight shot to the engines..." He trails away as the doors begin to open and he says, "Seems the computer is already ahead of me. We need control of those engines to get free of Netherworld."


Ari returns Raim's grin with a lop-sided smile of her own. "Good man. One of us needs to get to engineering, I guess, and I suppose that's going to be me. The more access you can grant me on the way, the better. See if there's a vacancy for the executive officer spot." A final pat on the back is given before she heads after Zaena, unslinging her rifle. It looks a bit heavy for her, but she manges.


She moves closer to the others, but she prioritizes cover over participation. "I'm not much of a fighter, as a bit of fair warning. I'm trusting you guys to get me there in one piece"


"Let's go meet the Gauvian Death Gang." Kyanggha agrees, moving to follow along with those who are moving further into the ship, her bowcaster rather comfortably along on her shoulder, ready to be demonstrated as needed. She pauses as the door opening comes with a bonus grenade and she levels the bowcaster at the open door in anticipation of anyone who might be following. She pauses a few, waiting and then growls softly. "Trapped the place. Rat bastards. Keep an eye on where you step. This is going to be a long trip anywhere." She is trying to keep an eye out more closely as she moves nearer to the door.


There's a sudden shout and blaster fire over the intercom, "Get...get off me! What are you--argh!" The sounds of a 3P0 unit apologizing profusely as it tries to pummel someone, along with beeping sounds of astro mechs can also be heard over the comms. Meanwhile, a claymore mine detonates before the Gand, Bar, and Zae and Ari, knocking them back.


Oozlevort is nearly knocked off his feet, but the short Gand is only four feet tall, so his center of gravity is lower. The mine's shrapnel sticks partly in his robed torso, causing him to hiss in pain. Luckily his breathing device is not damaged. "The Guavians have trapped the corridor with mines. When Oozlevort finds them, they are all getting SPACED." The Gand is tough and perserveres, moving onward on the path to the bridge. However, he is more cautious now, searching the floors and such for boobytraps.


Oozlevort also finds another claymore mine along the way to the bridge; he gestures Bar'duur and the rest of his group around its detection field, so as not to set it off.


Sion winces at the sound of an explosion from nearby, and rushes to check on the injured people. "Maker... looks like our Guavian friends don't like visitors. I'd hate to see them at tea," she murmurs, taking cover and getting out her medikit.


The flash and sear of the grenade bursting near her opens up a couple nasty slashes in Zaena's shoulder. "Ouch OUCH!" she says, glancing over towards Oriana and the Gand and Wookiee charging forth. She nods to Ari. "Those...schuttaspawn!" she splutters. "All right," she says. "I'll help make sure you're safe at Engineering, but I'll join the others if there's to be a fight," she says. "In for a deposition, in for a case, I suppose," she says.


Bar'duur is knocked off his feat and back on to his rump emitting a growling sound as shrapnel tears into his flesh in the unprotected areas where his armor does not cover, it's only light armor after all. He climbs back to his feet, frowning and just nods to the Gand moving along behind him the Zabrak lets him worry about traps while he keeps an eye out for anything else, providing cover.


Raim continues typing along on the console for a moment, "Computer, report to me when the intruders are neutralized and have an astromech man the controls and be ready to set a course for Nar Shaddaa as soon as engines are manually engaged." With that, Raim turns and runs for the engine room, falling into place along side Kirk and Ari as they work to manually engage the engines. He manages to disable the safety override and then curses as he doesn't get any further. "Work fast, guys. We need to get out of here."


Kyan is headed for the bridge, to give the non combat droids a combat wookiee backup, bowcaster at the ready for any stragglers she might find on the way. She /does/ try and keep an eye out for mines and grenades, but now it's an irritated wookiee whose patience seems to be running thin at the 'Death Gang's pranks and traps and general obnoxiousness. Then again, they might say the same thing about her. She arrives to the closed door of the bridge, and growls at it before opening it and taking out her irritation on someone within, via bowcaster. Ideally someone on the 'Death Gang'.


Ari is lifted off her feet by the force of the blast, but she seems to escape the worst of it. Aside from a few superficial burns and a few tiny bits of shrapnel, she looks unharmed. With a still stunned face, she looks over at Zaena next to her as she's helped up. It takes her a few moments to gather her wits. "Right. Engineering. Lets go." It takes them a few minutes of winding travel through the ships innards before they finally step into a massive control room overlooking the inner side of the engines.


She finds her way to the main control panel. "Alright. Old tech . . . I'm used to old tech. Think. Think. Think. That's the ignition . . . that's the exhaust manifold . . ." Her face starts to look more panicked. "I'm . . . I have no idea what I'm looking at." Her frustration grows. "This is stupid, even by sixty year-old standards!" To her side, Raim seems to be having more success, but it looks like she's still too rattled from the mine detonation earlier to have much success.


Oriana eyes Shakira. "Don't worry, sweetie," She says to the flying hunk of metal full of attitude. "I'd make sure to shoot you down first if the unlikely event ever happened." Offering it a smile eyes go to Kirk she laughs, in her sweet catching way, then suddenly sneezes. "Ugh.. well," Her nose is so stuffed up. "I guess I'll let you get the shot off with her." A pat on his shoulder and the woman turns as the blast doors open. "Aw shit." Murmurs the woman shaking her head and going to head that way. She dodges the blast and stands up from her duck, eyes wide. "Woah, why didn't I think of that. And I left my bombs at home.." She frowns, being the explosives expert a part of her can find the tactical advantage here. Anyway, moving on she pushes through head first, not one to shy from battle, that military part of herself clear as day. Avoiding bombs found to where the noise is coming from with the droid war stuff, that's where she heads with blaster at the ready giving, coming up along side Oozlevort and Kyan in the process.


Within the bridge, five guys who are just thugs are fighting off a couple 3P0 units, four astromechs, and a swarm of mouse droids. One of them, looming over the others, is wearing black armor, distinctive braids and scars and...


...a bowcaster bolt to the face.


The other thugs suddenly stop as he goes down, even as a silver 3P0 ineffectually tries to bap a guy on the shoulder.


From far below, an explosion rocks the ship. The thugs go ashen. They look horrified. Slowly, the horizon shifts. The Renegade is listing. Alarms begin to wail. The Renegade is falling into Netherworld.


Over the comms, Rax yells, "WE JUST LOST THE STARBOARD SHIELD! BRACE YOURSELVES!" Blast doors start slamming shut all through the ship as the landing bay is spaced.


Sitting in her captain's chair, Ysille flips through her copy of Smuggler Monthly, reading up on tips and tricks for evading the po-po in those locked down sectors. She's about to dive into an editorial on secret cargo holds and how the new FT-35 handheld sensor can give them trouble, when she hears the explosion echoing through the ship. The journal is discarded and the wroonian gets onto the coms system, slipping her headset on to listen to the chatter. As the atmosphere from the landing bay is vaccuumed out, she quickly closes the hatch. "You guys okay out there?"


Oozlevort rushes into the bridge, moving surprisingly fast for a short and squat ammonia-breather. The ganger in the yellow bandana is closest - he is quickly killed by two hard strikes from the Gand's chitinous fist. Then everything goes a bit wild. "What is going on?!"


Nobody looks much like they're intending to be treated. Feh, it can wait. Sion moves to back up Kyang and Oozlevort, shrugging the medikit back behind her back and drawing her blaster again. Hopefully this'll be a short fight. It'd be good to take this ship intact!


She moves to take cover behind the lip of the bridge hatch... and sees the chaos inside. On the plus side, there's an important-looking guy down, and it looks like there's a Guavian goon not too far away and trying not to trip over a Mouse droid. She blasts him and...


... grabs for a handhold! "Oof! Oh, wow... we're in trouble again, aren't we? This definitely feels like trouble."


Rax growls as he storms back onto the bridge of the Bad Habit, "What the hell... The entire starboard containment wall is gone. I think that YT-1300 stapled to the hull just blew itself up." Suddenly, gravity starts to pull to port. It's faint...but the grip is growing rapidly tighter. Rax's cerulean eyes widen in slowly dawning horror as he stands over Ysille... "Ma'am... I need you to plot a hyperspace course for the Renegade." His eyes snap down to her, "Right now."


Zaena takes the moment to speak now to the intercom. "We need to have full compliance on the bridge there. I think you can hear the alarms yourself," she says. "If you don't give yourselves up now so the astromechs can work, we'll all be dead." She doesn't hope for a perfect result, but as she feels the lurch, maybe it'll help along with the fight and the two charging soldiers to break the morale of the death gang!


As the sounds of explosions and vented atmosphere whistles around the Bad Habit, Ysille swivels her chair about and begins frantically flipping switches. "Okay, Habit, let's get a vector to victory," she says, knowing there's a deadly black hole just outside the door, she begins the calculations for their jump. With chatter of danger coming in over the coms, she adds in the mass of the bigger frigate, working them out for both.


Raim curses under his breath as he moves around the engine room. He pulls open a panel and reaches inside and says, "Ahh, of course. The circuitry has a bit of moisture on it... He reaches down and tears a piece of his shirt free, reaching in and wiping the contacts. He closes the panel and then stands back to his feet. He moves back to the computer and makes a few key strokes and soon the steady hum of the engines priming and then coming to life. "Computer, we have the engines primed and running. Be ready to receive an Astrogate vector from the pilot aboard the Bad Habit and get us out of here."


Bar'duur is more a witness at this point as people are shot and taken out, at least at first, then he's ducking to the side, trying to take cover, holding his pistol up ready to shoot at any who seem ready to put up resistance..


Ysille smiles as the readout for the Bad Habit's navicomputer seems to calculate almost immediately. "Awww, did you want to get away from this black hole as much as I did?" she asks, petting the navicomputer fondly. <<*Tssscht* Okay, we have a vector, uploading to your station, *Tssscht*>> she announces over the comms to whoever's driving the frigate while the battle in the bridge takes place.


Ari's eyes trace upward as a massive explosion rocks the ship, hands reaching for a nearby console to steady herself. It takes her a moment to parse what has happened. "A deadman's switch, huh," she whispers to herself. "******* pirate scum," follows after under her breath, that particular curse unfit for repetition throughout most of the galaxy. Raim seems to have the engines under control, and Ysille is playing the hyperspace savant. For the moment, she doesn't have much left to do. "I'll try to run damage control. Can you route navigation controls through here, Raim? Or does that have to happen on the bridge?"


"Pick a dumbass name like 'Death Gang' and I will /end you/." Kyanggha growls as she narrows her gaze upon the rest of them. The threat is made all the more effective by the lack of translator droid following her around, although when everything goes quite literally sideways, it's hard to look threatening. She scuttles a bit to regain her balance, the bowcaster still mostly aimed at the Death Gang dudes. "Our ship now." *TWANG* and *THUNK* She is clearly not in the mood for conversation.


Even though Ori's shots go around his head, seeing his companions go down in a flurry of Gand claws, bowcaster bolts, and the like, the guy who snapped off shots at Bar'duur just throws down his rifle, realizing he made a big mistake. "Surrender! I surrender! Purple twi'lek say so." He points at her, watching the Gand most of all. "Surrender surrender!"


Meanwhile, the bridge...suddenly flashes. For a moment, it is shiny and clean, with Rebellion soldiers walking around. Then there's fire and Star Destroyers in the distance. The hull shakes. From the ship, Rax says, "Explorers, we are LEAVING." There's a great thrum as power rushes through the ship, and suddenly the Renegade pivots about...


...before making the jump to Hyperspace.


Oozlevort is stabbed before he can properly respond, but the pirate who stabbed him is gunned down in short order by someone. Lucky for him! The Gand kicks the ganger's body with a boot. "Guavian Death Gangs cannot be trusted. We should space these prisoners." He hisses in pain, leaning against a panel and touching the spot on his exoskeleton where he was stabbed. Green blood oozes out from the wound.


"Excuse me, Captain..." It's the computer, at the console nearest Raim other than Engineering Main. "But I've noticed a slight...discrepency." An image of Raim, as he is now, appears to be glaring down at the screen. It's replaced by the image of another Chiss, thinner and older, but similar. "I am having trouble reconciling your appearance here Captain..." The image is replaced by the man, laying dying on the floor of the central corridor. He struggles to get up, and falls still. The image fast forwards several years. Then decades. Then he's gone. "Captain, I..."


Sion, hanging onto the hatch lip with one hand and her trusty DH-17 with the other, levers herself into a shooting position. "Go Kyanggha!" she cheers, going with the only name she knows of the fighters, aside from Bar'duur, and she can't see him. She moves to take aim...


... and freezes, stunned. Those people shouldn't be here! And where'd that /Star Destroyer/ come from?! Trying to take a breath so she can scream, or maybe ask what's going on, or /something/, she stares aghast.


And then there's more shouting, and they're in hyperspace... and the strangers are gone, leaving a damaged and dirty bridge again. And there are injured people. "Coming!" she calls, holstering her weapon and dashing to aid Oozlevort and Bar'duur.


But the momentary glimpse of a past long gone won't leave her mind, even as she works. Such is the strangeness of the Netherworld.


Zaena's eyes widen for a moment, and she reaches forward, and squeezes Raim's shoulder for a moment.


She gives a soft smile. "Good job," she says, for a moment, tilting her head a bit. "It looks like he...passed...making sure that the escape pods could all get away," she says, solemnly.


She smiles. "I'm glad that we didn't have to make the same sacrifice now." She glances to Ari. "If we find anything else in the logs, though, you'll undoubtedly be the first to know."


Raim considers the image for a moment before typing into the computer. "My father was Fasil Danse. Please forgive my lie, but it has been my goal to retrieve his ship lost to space and to determine his fate. I had hoped to have made it soon enough to save him, but it would appear that my crew and I were unable."


The cursor blinks silently white on the blue field of the output screen. Three seconds tick by before suddenly the computer says and types, "I understand. Thank you. It was nice to dream." Then the console powers down. The ship rumbles quietly through hyperspace...elsewhere. Away from Netherworld.


Zaena seems a little pained now, wondering if she can get a little bit of spice now. "Owww," she says. "Anyway. Let's secure the prisoners, I suppose, and arrange for them to be...returned," she says. "I don't think we want to foment a worse quarrel with the Death Gang than needed, do we?" she asks.


"Not just that, Ari, well...I think Raim would be grateful if we were able to communicate that way. Maybe the ship can find some meaning...well...getting to know the captain's son."