Star Wars Saga Edition: Scourge of the Outer Rim, part 4

“Wait, I have an idea…” Valin started pulling the armor and helmet off the slain guard, hastily working to put it on. Gage nodded, understanding the plan and putting an arm out to steady Valin while he pulled the jumpsuit up over his own clothes. Gage took a moment to tap into the guards’ comm frequency and disabled his mic to keep him from accidentally transmitting. Suddenly, Keel hissed a warning.

“Some one is coming!” He said, drawing his blaster pistol. Too-Too clutchered her stun baton and looked ready to pounce.

“Hide. Quickly!” Gage said, grabbing the body and Valin as the Kuati man struggled to get the jumpsuit the rest of the way on. They tumbled behind the stack of crates, managing to just barely get out of view as a guard with a large 6 on his sleeve rounded the corner. The guard sighed heavily.

“Number three, where the hell are you? You better not be messing with that rock again…” Valin helt up a hand for quiet as he did his best to mimic the dead man’s voice.

“...nooooo… I’m right where I should be…” He said. The other guard seemed to buy it, more or less.

“No, the fuck you aren’t, you little shit. Drop the damn rock and get back here now!” Number 6 shouted into the comms loud enough to be heard outside his helmet. Valin quickly grabbed the nearest rock and tucked it clandestanely into his new outfit’s belt. As he prepared to step out, Gage passed him a frag grenade.

“If you can, plant this to disable or damage the controls of one of the fighters. I’m not sure the Shadow can handle all three in a fight if it comes to it.” Valin nodded then stepped out from behind the crates.

“Sorry…” he said sheepishly, mimicking the dead man to a surprising degree. Six slapped him on the back of the helmet.

“Get back into rotation, you moron.” Valin fell into position like he’d been at the base for months, and Gage and the others shadowed his progress though the routine until Valin reached the Headhunter on the far side of the base. Valin looked around, then climbed up onto the pilot’s ladder and popped open the hatch, carefully placing the grenade so it would not be noticed. Number Six walked up behind him.

“What the hell are you doing?” Valin closed the hatch and climbed down, turning to face the other guard.

“Inspecting the cockpit?” Valin said, acting intimidated by the other man.

“You look with your eyes, idiot, you don’t open the damn hatch.” Six punctuated each word with a finger into Valin’s chest. Valin held up the rock he’d picked up earlier.

“I was just trying to show my new friend the controls…” Six slapped the rock out of his hand.

“You are your stupid rocks. Sometimes I think they are smarter than you.” The guard pointed. “Move it to your next post. And I swear if you show me another rock I’ll beat the stupid out of you.”

The roation carried Valin into the control center and boarding area for the Corvette, where two other guards were waiting. Gage watched Valin disappear inside and waited, once again chewing his lip as he absentmindedly ejected and retracted his fireblade without activating the powercell. A sudden explosion drew his attention, and alarms started sounding across the base. Most of the guards rushed towards the far Z-95, and one of the two guards rushed from the command center, leaving Valin alone with Number Six again.

“You two stay here, and close that door behind me!” The guard rushing out shouted as he ran, Gage motioned for Too-Too and Keel to follow him as they stacked up next to the door, and Valin started to ramble about rocks as he started pressing commands on the control consol.

“What did I fucking say about you and your damn rocks!” Six shouted as he moved towards Valin. Gage nodded, and the three of them rushed in, melee weapons at the ready. Too-Too swung her baton, and the guard ducked, narrowly avoiding the sparking weapon but putting himself at Keel’s mercy. Kell landed a cut that staggered the guard, who whirled and pointed his blaster at Valin.

“You’re not Three!” Before the guard could fire, Valin slapped his forearm with a deft strike, snatching the pistol from Six’s slackened grip.

“Now who's the idiot?” Valin said smugly. Gage cut off any reply by wrapping his arm around the guard’s throat, crushing his windpipe between Gage’s bicep and forearm, and then almost casually thrusting the fireblade, now activated, into the guard's ribs, piercing his heart and killing him almost instantly. Valin shoved the blaster into his belt and went back to slicing the console.

“If you can, try to disable the refueling safety protocols,” he said as Too-Too closed the door. Keel started hotwiring the door leading to the Corvette while Gage checked the charge on his blaster.

“Got it!” Keel said, and Gage took point again, leading the way aboard the CR90.

Immediately once aboard, Valin sliced into the door controls and forced them to seal behind them. Too went left, rounding a corner and disappearing. Gage and Keel went right, moving up and into a room where Gage found another console for the Corvette’s computer system. He took his time slicing into the computer, eventually getting greater access. He established a remote link with his wrist computer and then asked it for the number and location of all personnel onboard. He obtained the rough locations of all twelve, including the four of them. He pulled the cargo manifest, oblivious to Keel and his meditations behind him.

As Gage looked over the Manifest, Keel spoke up in a low whisper, “The prototype is in the escape pod bay across the ship. There,” Keel pointed at exactly the room that the manifest showed the prototype being in, then continued, “and there is something else, a kind of dark presence…” Gage looked at Keel incredulously.

“A what now?” He asked.

“Company!” Too shouted as she threw her Electropole at the ISB tactical officer who rounded the corner. She drew her blaster and ducked as the ISB officer shattered the wall above her head. Gage hastily locked the doors to all of the rooms besides the one he and Keel were in. Valin moved up to support him and Keel, while Gage could hear more guards rushing to engage them. Keel fired, hitting a guard who stumbled back and was hit again by Too Too’s blaster. Two more guards fired, their shots going wide. The ISB officer fired on Too, and she dodged to the corner, taking cover.

One of the guards braved their fire, charging forward, and Gage shot him for his trouble, but the guard seemed unperturbed and fired at Gage, the blast glancing off his Beskar harmlessly.

“Keel, get behind me!” Gage said as he stepped forward into the doorway, firing wildly. Too cried out as she was caught in a crossfire from a pair of guards. Keel fired a snap shot from the corner of the doorway and dropped the guard they’d already hit, the blast knocking the dead man backwards as the shot took him in his chest. Too Too took down a second guard, sending him sprawling and letting out what Gage assumed was a Gungan victory shout. He mentally did the math; twelve lifeforms, four of them were him and his companions. Eight guards, three locked in the rooms, and two dead. They were doing alright so far, but the all too familiar searing pain of a blaster bolt finding the gap in his armor pulled Gage back into the fight. The ISB officer lined up another shot on Gage, but Keel pulled him back before the ISB officer could fire.

“That looks bad,” Keel said, raising his voice to be heard over the firefight.

“I’ve had worse,” Gage said, nailing a guard with his blaster as if to demonstrate how fine he was. Junker, Valin’s droid, screeched as he was hit by a lucky shot from a guard, then fell over, disabled. Keel smiled grimly.

“Hopefully, the droid’s the only one who goes down,” Keel said, then aimed a careful shot that took a guard in the faceplate of the helmet, killing him instantly. Valin shouted and fired wildly, forcing a guard to duck for cover, but Too Too shot the man squarely, dropping him. The ISB agent fired again, wounding Too. Gage swore, and darted into the hallway, then used a quick burst from his jetpack to propel himself infront of her, and finished off the imperial. The last two guards went down quickly, finished off by Too Too and Keel. Gage moved to the locked door of the chamber where the prototype was stored, and cocked an eyebrow as Keel vanished from in front of him. He shrugged and hit the intercom.

“Your friends are all dead, but you don’t have to join them. Stand down, and we’ll take the cargo and leave.” Gage pulled his last frag grenade out of his belt. “If you don’t… well.” The guard laughed.

“You did me a favor, scum.” Alarms started sounding and Intruder alert. Gage shrugged again, activating the grenade and rolling it into the rrom while he stayed out of the doorway. The grenade detonated, and a stream of curse words told him he’d landed the hit exactly as intended. Before he could make another threat, the swearing stoped, and a a human in dark armor and robes rushed him from the smoke. A crimson blade of brilliant energy appeared in the figure’s hands, and Gage thought to himself, “So that’s a lightsaber.” The figure swung on him, and the blade’s heat burned his skin as it cut him. Valin tried to fire on the man, but the lightsaber moved with expert speed and deflected the blasts harmlessly away. Gage felt himself lift off the ground and fly backwards, hitting the wall and knocking the wind from him. The figure moved with superhuman speed and leapt behind where Valin was bracing against the wall to fire, and he lifted a hand, beckoning Gage. Gage could feel the wounds catching up with him, and he knew he couldn’t last much longer at this rate. His mother had given him a single Kaminoan Saber Dart and its launcher. He stood shakily and fired the dart. He smiled grimly, knowing that the force user was likely dead now. He staggered against the wall, and the figure rushed past him and into an escape pod. As the pod launched, all the alarms stopped, and Gage saw an R5 unit with Too and Keel. They had the cargo, and Valin was dragging Junker’s remains towards them.

“I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but the rest of the guards are about to break into the ship. We need to go, now.” As if to prove his point, the sound of a breaching charge echoed through the halls, followed by the sound of armored boots.

“Well, time to ask the droids to come get us.” Gage said. He pointed at the escape pods, and they all piled into one, Valin managing to persuade the new R5 to join them. The pod closed, and Valin pulled a MedPac out to tend to Too, while Gage commed the Shadow of Fortune. “R4, come and pick us up. Home in on my signal.” As he spoke to the droid, he pulled out a medpac of his own and applied the bacta-soaked bandages to his wounds. He looked at his wrist comp and realized the remote connection to the Corvette's computer was still active. “Time for some Shab’la fireworks…”

Gage hit the command, triggering an overload in the corvette’s turbolasters, crippling the ship, at least for the time being. He grabbed the controls of the pod and maneuvered the clumsy escape craft into position to dock with the Shadow of Fortune.

“Hold her steady R5.” Valen said as they docked with the boarding hatch. Once the seal was secure, everyone scrambled up the ladder and into the ship, Too-Too helping Valen haul the shattered remains of Junker aboard. Gage and Keel climbed the ladder to the cockpit and slid into their stations; Gage into the pilot seat, and Keel into the System Operator and Engineering seat. Gage patted the R5 unit on the top of its dome.

“Nice work R5. I’ll take it from here.” Gage started adjusting the controls and looked over at Valen as he slid into the copilot seat. Too-Too was sitting at the gunnery controls when Keel swore.

“Looks like they regrouped faster than we expected. One cloakshape and one headhunter headed our way.” Keel punctuated his words with rapid commands into his consol, powering on the shields and targeting sensors. Too-Too tapped a few keys and her controls for the turret kicked on, and Gage smiled to himself.

“Bring it on.” Valen nodded at his consol as he typed into his own controls. Gage pulled up the flight path Valen had sent him, an evasive patter that angled the deflects to offer enhanced protection. “R5, plot a hyperspace jump. We need to get out of here.” He nodded to Valen as he pulled the Shadow into a steep climb towards the asteroids. Valen began typing furiously on his own consule, aiding the inputs from the rest of the crew.

“Here they come!” Keel called. The CLoakcshape opened fire first, its laser cannons firing crimson beams past their hull, narrowly missing the slower freighter. The Z-95 closed in as well, boxing them in with bracketing fire. A shot slammed into the deflectors, nearly overwhelming their shields. Gage pulled them into tight evasive manuevers, pushing everyone deeper into their chairs as he tried to shake the fighters pursuing them. Another blast from the Cloakshape nearly hit them, but Gage managed to dodge the blast. Unfortunately, Too-Too was struggling to get a shot on the fighters on their tail with his flying, and she was not shy about her frustration.

“Uh, guys… there is an Imperial frigate out there. And TIEs coming in!” Keel warned them. Gage cursed and threw the Shadow into a corkscrew climb, plunging the ship into the asteroid field orbiting the moonlet. The TIEs followed, their green bolts crisscrossing the shots from the fighters behind them.

“Sorry Too-Too, this is going to be rough.” He said through gritted teeth. Keel hastily input commands into the sensors, and additional targeting data flashed on Too-Too’s monitor. She smiled wickedly as she lined up a shot ab sent a TIE fighter careening off into an asteroid. She switched the turret to firing back at their pursuers, and Gage narrowly dodged another volley of Laser fire from another Tie fighter. The second TIE was far more successful, blasting into their shields. Keel smiled as he happily recycled the shields, bringing them back up to full.

“I found us a system closer. It’ll shave some time off the calculations!” Valen shouted as he input the new coordinates into the navicomputer for R5 to calculate the jump. The progression of the path was shortened noticeably, and Gage was keeping barely within the edge of the asteroid field to use the debris as cover. Another TIE exploded as Too-Too landed a hit, shattering its left solar wing. She whooped with a victorious Gungan battlecry, and Gage rolled the Shadow over as the cloakshape tried in vane to keep them in its sights.

“The jump is ready!” Valen called, and Gage shot clear of the asteroids. He spotted the frigate launching shuttles towards the moonlet as he turned to Valen.

“Punch it!” The starts stretched into lines as they entered hyperspace, resolving into the swirling blue of the void as they made their escape.