Roka turned slightly in his seat to eye Marr out of the corner of his eye. It took all his self control not to snap at the 'addled mind' comment, but he focused instead on the scans that were finishing up. He rolled his eyes at the warning about things being so much worse than a labor camp as well, the stuck-up doctor really thought that that was the worst Roka could imagine, or that that was all he'd seen of the Empire? With a business that spanned as far as Roka's parents, he'd seen plenty of smugglers and ships come and go, and heard the horror stories of what could happen if the Imps caught you. Roka'd had more than one close call, smuggling everything from drugs, weapons, even medicine across lines and blockades. This... Was child's play.

"The Steadfast is a state-of-the-art YT-2000 light freighter." Roka said, reciting from memory as he began to plot a course through the asteroids. "The newest ship to come out of the Corellian Engineering Corporation. This model almost got axed by the Imps for being so much more than a civilian freighter. If I can't pick up comms, they don't exist. I modified this ship to pick up any signal there is, and I'm telling you there's nothing. I've been scanning this graveyard since we left, and this is the only sign of Imperial presence we've seen. Their engines are down and they're leaking fuel. We have two laser turrets and an ion canon, while they have a peashooter that can't punch through our shields." Roka was aware of the rising rage, jealousy and overwhelming greed coming from the doctor, and pushed the advantage. "Lasers take out the shields, I hit their turret, command center, sensors, and engines for good measure with the ion canon and they're as dead as this ex-planet. I'd estimate the max crew capacity of that thing to be 30, but they'll need a lot of that room for equipment. Say, 15 Imps. At most, half of that would be solders, probably. You and me go onboard, leave the kid to watch our backs. Sweep room by room, between the two of us I'm sure we can sense any danger coming, even behind closed doors. We walk away with state-of-the-art equipment and any cargo they picked up, easy. You want a percent? I'd say our chance of success is pretty high. 80, maybe 85 percent." Roka turned to face Marr and crossed his arms. He'd considered inflating the percentage a bit but if the doctor really could sense moods there'd be no point. And Roka was confident enough anyway.

"What do you say? You in?"

@Almosegosum

DS-115 Had set out 3 hours ago. Patrol duty from the Victory Class Star destroyer the Redoubt. They were supposed to keep an eye out for any activity. A special note was added to run by this sector for a research vessel that had missed its last check in. SL-216 had tried to pick up a conversation with him at DS-148 every now and then, but 115 knew that their helmet-comms where always recording and off-topic chatter was frowned upon during these missions. It wasn’t that he didn’t have anything to talk about. The destruction around him was enough topic for conversation. As were the narrow escapes they sometimes had to pull when the still unsettled debris moved unexpectedly due to collisions or the like. Most of all he wanted some distraction from the memories he had of visiting Alderaan with his parents, 8 years ago. His father had taken him climbing together with his brother. A great hike ending at the magnificent Cloudshape falls. They had killed a wolf-cat there, something that had greatly upset 115’s brother. Later they were thanked by a local nerf-herder. He remembered the arguments he had with his brother and father about it, somehow it always boiled down to order and stability. It brought him back to the duty he was to preform today. Keep order and stability on this site of destruction. He had questioned the compromises his superiors made for these ideals. Alderaan had been the most recent of these. 115 pondered over the explanation given so far until he was interrupted by SL-216 crackling over the comms.

“Got something on my twelve, going to check it out.”

He suppressed the urge to snap at 216 that not every floating corpse had to be reported and described as he had done with the last few occasions. 216 was a replacement, hailing from some Outer-Rim stinkhole. Such a shame the Empire had to resort to filling the ranks with the likes of him. At least he was human though. Barely.

“What the Kark! It’s a ship, A bloody spacetugg. Scavengers I reckon!”

Interference crackled and the howling of 216’s TIE became louder, 115 frowned inside his helmet as he turned the controls to set him on a course towards 216.

“Let’s blast that scavver to bits!”

216 laughed over the comms almost making 147’s call to converge inaudible. But 115 was already on it. They were the real team.

“147, Get a visual and report it to the Redoubt. If it is a tugger it’ll have a transport somewhere, Converging on your position 216.”

Standard protocol, 115 sighed to himself, all 216 could think about was blasting things to bits. Halfwit. Confirmed again by the sound of laserfire over the comms followed by:

“Whoa! Fucking thing reversed huh? Just you- Ho, the thing has a tracto-“

Fantastic to hear him have the comms open for that. It costed all of 115’s restraint not to answer in sarcasm. Luckely he was occupied a moment later, when he rounded an asteroid and saw 216’s TIE break out of tractor beam range and narrowly avoid an asteroid. 115 peppered the rock the scav was in front of with laser bolts, but the thing was agile in its own way. At least from this distance.

“Got the visual, turning round. Happy hunting.”

115 thought he could make out the start of the word ‘Moron’ as 147 broke turned round in his peripheral vision. He couldn’t help but smile, hunting a spacetug was somewhat of a challenge, but only if you overreached, like 216 did. The thing had already maneuvered behind an asteroid to avoid fire, but 216 was turning around.

“I’ll drive him your way. Don’t fuck up this time rookie”

He hadn’t said it or he could see something glint in front of him, farther away than the quadjumper was. He didn’t have it sharp in view by the time he had to round and asteroid and only after he cought a glimpse of the quadjumper he was chasing he could discern a spaceship momenteraly. Was that a Cutlass fighter?

Valana sped through the debris field as fast as she could without hitting something too big for her shields to handle. The Cutlass still steadily rocked as she forced her way through the smaller debris, leaving a trail of finely pulverized dust in her wake. Luckily it wasn't long before Jax's quadjumper came into view. The tug was moving surprisingly nimbly for what it's size, much like the Besalisk piloting it she thought, but she didn't take any time to appreciate Jax's piloting. Instead scanning the area around the tug for her quarry. Unlike the at least somewhat sleek profile of her Cutlass, TIEs were easy to spot visually a giant flying 'H' did not a stealth ship make. Expectedly it didn't take her but a few moments to spot one of the TIEs behind the tug, though the asteroids that were once Alderaan frequently obscured her sight of it.

It wasn't much longer before she spotted the other two, on had already broken off, presumably to report to whatever ship they were operating out of. If he got a message to their homeship there would be little chance any of the Swift Fortune's crew would be leaving Alderaan's system in anything but bodybags or handcuffs. "Caster, would you mop up the runner?" She trained her focus onto the TIE nearest to her as she spoke.

She turned on her targeting computer and hoped for a lock, at the same time setting her comms to an open channel. For a split second she considered her options, there was a chance she could hail the TIEs, and identify herself as an Imperial Deep Cover Operative. If she turned her guns on Caster the TIE could report to base and they could have enough reinforcement to capture Vikargo and his crew. Maybe she'd get a chance to go back to her old way of life. She missed having servants, and frankly it was what she deserved. But Valana knew that was her being hopeful, a moment of uncharacteristic optimism. She let out a deep sigh at the revelation. Even if all of that went perfectly, odds were still strong she ends up spending the rest of her life in a tiny cell. Instead she chose to go with something perhaps a bit more useful in case word somehow got out, that would maybe stop the incident from being linked to the crew and herself in case that TIE did somehow get communication to other Imperial forces. She traded her typically Imperial tone for her best Alderaanian accent. "Bail Organa sends his regards!". As soon as the sentence left her lips she unleashed a volley of blue laser bolts at the nearest TIE.

Her eyes reflected a purple glow as she tracked the bolts heading towards her target. She ignored the target lock beep sounding from the ship's targeting computer indicating the concussion missile launcher had achieved target lock. The first two pairs of bolts went wide starboard and the third split the TIE's wing, it wasn't as lucky for the fourth however one bolt skimmed the starboard strut connecting the cockpit to the wing, a superficial hit, but the other tore into the TIEs' wing. The ship almost immediately lost control and went into a spin that was quite abruptly ended as it impacted with Bantha sized asteroid. The subsequent explosion was notable but not grandiose. Still Valana winced a little at the kill. Killing had never bothered her, she actually kinda enjoyed it if she was honest, but she'd never killed an Imperial before. She couldn't tell if it was compassion for a person she would have once counted amongst 'her people' or regret that this would in a way mark the official point of no return for her, but regardless she shook off the moment of doubt as quickly as it came.

Dr. Khava Marr

@frapet @Korkoa

Dr. Marr closed his eyes, not looking at the other. His enthusiasm, and his overconfidence were clear signs that this was a bad idea. But he did not want to let this chance slip away. He wanted that research. He needed it. If he had that he could finish the first batch within... a few months. He smirked internally, suppressing the bristling ambition. It was dangerous to think like this. Especially with a venerable empath so close. His eyes flew open and he rolled his neck, the crack coming out louder than even he had anticipated.

"We might as well. This will most likely be worth more than any other piece of debris they might find out here. Make your preparations, and I shall make mine. Then, we take what we want." He sat back, and fiddled with his gloves, checking whether or not his medical supplies were in order - a few syringes filled with a powerful knockout agent, scalpels to disable major motor functions etc. When he was done with his prep, he recalled and cemented the layout of the ship in his mind. The other man might be a rather skilled shooter, but he would not be familiar with this ship. While the doctor was not used to combat, he was not going to be useless.

As the other spoke to the boy who manned the guns, and they neared the ship - Dr Marr thought over his designs. In his mind he saw a new breed... a group of super warriors. All the best aspects of all the best races, and none of the weaknesses. None of that bullshit race purity the Empire was concerned with. He struggled to suppress his smirk, as they moved towards the ship. An army of his own. The prospect of cutting his ties with these morons and making his own way. When he opened his eyes once more, they gleamed as he looked at the disabled ship. First thing first, though. "Are you ready?"

Roka shuddered slightly at the growing heat of barely checked emotion coming from Marr. The doctor had some kind of plan brewing, something that felt as if it were scratching a dark itch inside of him. Roka began to reconsider storming the ship, but it was too late now for second thoughts... He opened the comms to Bast, informing the boy of their plan and going over the basics of how to work the turret as he warmed up the ion canon.

Run by a few times, breach their shields. Open comms, offer a surrender. Five shots. The ion canon had five shots in his charge. It could take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to recharge the massive batteries that powered the canon, so five shots had to do. Two to the command station, knock out their comms. One to the turret, keep them from being a threat. one to the disabled engines, just in case. One spare, in case he needed to help punch through the shields or something unforseen should happen. Dock at the airlock. Go room by room. No Death Sticks, he needed to be able to sense the occupants. Keep a close eye on the doctor.

Roka nodded as he completed his mental checklist, opening comms to Bast again. "Alright kiddo, on my mark..." He said, pushing the ship forward and allowing himself a smile as he felt the engines thrum. "Open fire!" He called after a moment, whooping as the red lasers arced through space and scattered along the blue burst of the Imps shields. Those wouldn't last long. Roka opened a frequency to the ship now, offering them a chance. "Attention Imperial science vessel, this is Captain Zal'Ebos of The Steadfast. We're going to completely disable your vessel and then board it for your pretty tech. We can go through the rigamarole of us wearing you down and hunting you inside your ship, or you can surrender! We'll leave you alive and unharmed, able to limp back to your precious Empire. Whaddaya say?"

Jax’s arms where flying from this button to that lever in order to keep his ship from being hit by laserfire or asteroids. Only one arm remained somewhat steady in the turmoil of moving limbs; the one at the controls. It was an awkward move to speed up the Quadjumper, but there was no other way to avoid fire from the second TIE. His lower left arm punched the vectored thrusters controls as his upper right overrided the thrust limit on them. They were normally used for minor adjustments, but with that big hunk of rock quickly approaching Jax needed a bit more power. His upper left arm cut power to his back engines to supply for the boost and Jax’s body rocked in the pilot’s seat. Seatbelts weren’t a bad idea at all… His maneuver sparked an array of blinking lights and systems alarms in the cockpit, but he had to strain the systems some to get out of this mess.

"Don't worry Jax I'll be there before you can say 'tessellated arboreal binjinphant'. Just try not to kill them before I get there."

Jax snorted as he used the asteroid he was just evading to provide cover from the TIE behind him as he tried to spot the TIE he had just tractor beamed.

“Tessal-what? Choose a shorter word next time.”

He tried to think of a witty remark back, but laserfire cut the thought. He circled the asteroid a bit than zig-zagged between another set of debris to try and rid himself of the fighter. He only catched half of Caster’s words but he did not like them one bit.

“Caster, intercept that Kark-“

But Valana had beaten him too it.

"Caster, would you mop up the runner?"

Sounded a lot nicer than Jax would’ve said it. Probably for the best. Jax always had a hard time reading Caster. There was something about sarcasm that posed problems for Jax.

The shooting from the TIE behind him had stopped but it didn’t make Jax any more comfortable. In his head a timer was ticking away from the randomly chosen 333 seconds. Though the counting made Jax calmer, what it stood for was not reassuring. It was his guess of how long they had before the TIE would be in broadcast range. Dodging debris made him think twice whether he was at 298 or 289. The sight of the second TIE coming straight for Jax made him loose count completely.

A string of profanities primarily heard on Ojom was uttered as he tried a similar trick as before, but the vector thrusters were cooling for the moment. A sharp dive followed that took Jax just under the incoming shot, making the cockpit light up in green. Too shortly after his ship rocked and he heard an impact.

“No, No-“

Jax looked up to see some smoke trail his Quadjumper and the manoeuvrable TIE line up another shot. It might all be over soon at this range.

“-Got one straight on my-“

The sound of laser fire made Jax instinctively flinch as he heard:

"Bail Organa sends his regards!"

Jax frowned, not only because the ship was still flying fine, but also for the odd remark. Wasn’t he a senator of some sort? He was pulling on his controls hard to come back up behind his TIE-pursuer only to see it missing a wing and slamming into a cargo-speeder-sized rock with a cutlass-fighter flying through.

“Wohohoooooo! VALANAH! Thank you and that Organa guy!”

Jax haphazardly avoided an asteroid in the enthusiasm, only now checking diagnostics to see what the impact earlier was. Somehow it came up clean. Than he spotted the datapad with the relay control to see another three dashes missing. Three… Not the number he hoped it to be, or was it? Captain wasn’t going to be happy, that was for sure. But Jax couldn’t care less at the moment.

“Caster for Kark’s sake, get that magnificent speedbeast of yours and take down that scout, I’ll assist our ace in hunting down this other TIE.”

Jax repeated 'tessellated arboreal binjinphant' for himself, getting it right on the second try. He couldn't help but grin at that.

That was when the unmistakable howl of the TIE was registered again.
Shortly followed by the sound of laser-fire and green flashes of light.

Dr. Khava Marr

@frapet @Korkoa

Dr. Marr stayed quiet as the other disabled the ship. He seemed rather confident, and as reluctant as he might have been to admit it - rather skilled at conveying threat. At least to people who had reason to be afraid of him. The whiff of suspicion that came from him had Marr on edge though, and he took the time to reign in his emotions and fall back into a more relaxed, controlled state. He needed to think clearly anyway, and it would not do to distract the other, nor himself. As the other ship seemed to not respond, they docked as they were wont to do, and while Roka connected them efficiently and securely - the two moved towards where they would board the other ship. The Small child had been instructed to stay behind and convey any sort of alarm to Marr and Roka. While the boy was clearly less capable than one might have hoped, the role of alarm should be something that very few people could fuck up. Raising a brow at Roka's concern towards the boy, and his comforting and confidence building words as they left the boy behind - the two made their way towards the doorway that was still sealed.

"I am not sure as to how we are going to open that? I take it you have the tools needed?" Marr looked over the door, in his mind walking past it, down the hallway, recalling areas where one might take cover and shoot blasters from. "When we enter, there is a second door - used to disinfect anyone who enters the vessel. It's not as reinforced as this one, but it might still slow us down. Behind that, there is a short hallway that leads towards the front of the ship. On either side there will be doors, one leading to the store room on the left, and on the right there should be a small field lab of sorts. Below there is a bay for storage and a small medical bay. Both doors are receded into the walls, so it could offer them reasonable cover. The store room will have some of the more immediately valuable goods, but the field lab will have the more esoteric treasures. While we should try to get as much of everything, if it goes badly, we might have to choose. I would vouch for the latter, but it might take us some time to find the right buyer." Still staring at the door, the doctor took out a syringe filled with a potent sleeping agent, which quickly turned lethal with an increased dosage. "Thoughts?"

Silence. That was what the science vessel portrayed. Not only the comms silence following Roka’s speech but a general sense of purposelessness that is befitting to things floating dead in space. That is if you disregarded the array of fuel, ‘smoke’ and small parts that were slowly drifting from the engine block.
Power readings gave an entirely different view of the matter however. Readings spiked and went out in every room of the ship, probably systems trying to restore themselves but short-circuiting or breaking down rapidly after. As such the displays monitoring became a cheerful array of lights and flashes that symbolized the whole mess going on inside. Only life support – as the doctor could tell with his knowledge of the ships layout- was still intact. Probably by engineering of the people there.

“Hey, Roka! Roka!? Is this thing even on?”

Brand sighed, and it followed by a few deafening ‘thumps’ and ‘crashes’ as the boy probably was doing some percussion maintenance on his comm.

“There’s a small pod docked with the ship, I could only see it from the –uh- lower turret. Escape pod I guess? Just thought you should know before you go out.”

The boy seemed to have opened up a bit to the captain of the steadfast after he got handed a form of responsibility, and there was a certain pride in his voice as he shared the news. A job well done in his mind perhaps.
Inside the vessel the tone of voice was quite different. Soft voices, voices distorted by helmet comms and one with authority, but no guidance.

Hushed voices, filled with concern.

Two of them in particular, lying in wait on the other side of the sterilization compartment of the access hatch.

“They’ll be here any minute now” the helmeted voice spoke SD-887, the scientist knew from their time together. It didn’t make him jump any less though, up until that moment everything was done as silently as possible, and the troopers voice felt louder than a bantha in a porcelain cabinet. The scientist swallowed and nodded as he fingered the blaster he had been handed from the armoury cabinet.

“Might not be what we think it is, so point it at the door and squeeze till its empty doctor, we got the choke. ”

He didn’t sound so sure. And the doctor hated that the helmet had no good way of whispering. His hands trembling around the grip of the gun. The silence after the docking of the unknown ship made the trembling even worse, but they had to make due. It was what they had done, it’s the only thing they could do.

“Let’s hope they are friendlies double-eight-seven. Let’s hope they are….”

Caster had been coming around a couple asteroids when he received Valana's transmission about hunting down the lone tie fighter. He was coming about and headed in the direction of Jax's quad-jumper, not terribly far away.

"Caster, would you mop up the runner?"

"Roger, I'm on it," He had replied. He lowered his throttle and came around, adjusting his coarse for the TIE fighter that was attempting to disengage. "I've already had my one that got away. You're not pretty enough for that."

“Caster for Kark’s sake, get that magnificent speedbeast of yours and take down that scout, I’ll assist our ace in hunting down this other TIE.”

"I got it, I got it," he said again. He hit his after burners, catching up to the TIE fighter. He fired a couple blasts around it, purposefully to let it know that it was not allowed to disengage until it was decided by the crew he was apart of. He took his after burner down and reduced his travel speed to combat speeds, maneuvering around asteroids, following the TIE. Fast they were, but not particularly maneuverable. Not even as maneuverable in a stock Z-95. With the modifications that Caster had made to his drive core and the overhaul he had done to his own Z-95, he had this in the bag. I fired a few bursts, tagging the stabilizers, rocking the fighter in front of him, a little. He targeted the engines of the TIE fighter, opening another burst, hitting dead center of each engine. The explosion cause a back-draft in the fuel source and cause the entire fighter to rapidly combust, as Caster pealed out quickly.

"Scout taken care of," Caster sent over the comms. "Regrouping now." He flew on his way towards his allied fighters.

“Wohohoooooo! VALANAH! Thank you and that Organa guy!”

Valana chuckled at the comment, at least Jax hadn't questioned it. There wasn't much time to be amused however and she quickly regathered herself, shifting her focus to locating the other TIE, it wasn't particularly hard to find. Valana used her ship's manuevering jets to bring her to face the TIE directly, from her perspective it was just over the port bow of Jax's quadjumper, it's attention still seemed to be on him as she monitored comms, Valana had held out a small hope that the TIE Pilot would hail them, and surrender. She acquired a target lock on the TIE, not that she wanted to waste a concussion missile on an unshielded target, but maybe the TIE would realize the hopelessness of the situation now that they were locked...

No such luck. As soon as the TIE fired at Jax's quadjumper she replied in turn, she fired only once, as the bolts were clearly on course to hit, she lifted her hands off the controls and watched. Two bolts slammed into the TIE's circular cockpit, Valana let out a hearty sigh as the TIE exploded into millions of tiny pieces, either wing fragmenting into larger pieces and shooting off in either direction away from the main explosion.

"You're clear Jax." She paused for a moment. "You okay?"

Roka strode up to the door, pulling his repair kit off of his belt and removing the face of the locking mechanism that would lead them onto the dead ship. He knelt beside the exposed panel, wishing he had a dedicated slicing kit as he listened to the doctor describe the layout of the ship from memory. He began to use his repair tools to interface with the vulnerable locking mechanism, given a few moments he could get the door open. Not as quickly or cleanly as a slicing kit, but it would get the job done. "Hopefully we won't have to choose." He replied to Marr, focusing on the task at hand. "But if worst comes to worst, I say we take the more expensive stuff. Between all our contacts, we should be able to find someone to fence it pretty simply, even if it's more, what'd you say? 'Esoteric'? I think we can handle it."

The tinny voice of the stowaway on the comm gave Roka pause, putting one of the repair terminals between his teeth to grab his link. "Great work kid, that's the kind of info we need." He said, his voice somewhat muffled by the tool in his mouth. "I want you to stay down there and keep an eye on that pod, okay? If they take off, blast them to pieces; we don't need runners complicating things." He said, hoping the boy would follow orders. If killing could be avoided, Roka would have preferred that option. However, there would be no getting around it soon enough, he felt.

Roka paused in his work as his antennae pricked upwards, someone was approaching the door... Panic, insecurity, but also a kind of determination... A feeling of grim. "We have a welcoming commitee." He said to the doctor. "I think it's two. Strong feelings coming from one, but something a lot more subdued too... I'd guess one of the scientists and a trooper. I get a bad feeling coming from them. I'm going to pop the doors in a second here, we both hide behind the wall for cover. See what they do. If they surrender, great. If not, I'm shooting back." Roka waited for a moment for his companion to get into place, then pressed a final button on the panel, the door sliding open with a hiss.

The Balosar threw himself behind cover as a burst of blaster fire rained from the open doorway. He was nearly singed by the shots from the trooper, but the other one seemed to just be firing blind. Roka waited a few seconds for the initial burst to fade slightly before getting to his feet and running across the door's opening towards the opposite wall. As he ran he drew his twin blasters and fired off a half a dozen shots, hoping to get at least one of their foes.

The messages that untied the knot Jax had been forming in his stomach came rapidly after each other.

"Scout taken care of, Regrouping now."

That took away Jax’s concern about a Star Destroyer or the like showing up, and if the blast behind Jax wasn’t an indication Valana’s sweet voice relieved him of his primary concern:

"You're clear Jax."

He Laughed over the comms appearantly manically enough to prompt a "You okay?" from Valana.

“Never been better” was the immediate response, but he figured that a status update about his ship was due.


“Vector thrusters somewhat overheated, but that’ll clear out soon. 3 relays destroyed and 4 of them floating around. Most importantly the first relay between us and the Fortune is gone… It’s a mess but nothing I can’t handle… “
But the mess was serious, comms would be down for 20 minutes now or so, and who knows what could’ve happened in the meanwhile, especially with TIEs already roaming the field for some reason.

“Listen, I think we need to report back ASAP. Not only us, but the Doctor and Roka as well. It’s dangerous to be split up now.”

He paused for good measure to get some semblance of authority in his voice.

“Caster how about you get to Roka’s sector and check up with them, let them know there are TIEs out there. Scout out anything suspicious in the meanwhile. Valana I think it’s best you lay low here, latch to a rock and check for hostiles. We need an eye in this sector now… I’ll get comms back up on the double. That sounds ok to you guys?”

Less authority than he had hoped for. But it had to do in the absence of the Captain. He had already started tractor beaming the relay’s into place as he finished up his little speech. He hoped neither of them had a better plan.

Valana had been just watching the remains of the TIE float through space when Jax came back over comms. His order to have her watch for more Imperials was reasonable enough but she still felt a sense of somewhat surprising disgust at the request. Taking orders from a Besalisk... There was a time she would have shot someone for even saying she'd do such a thing. Now was a very different time to that though, and working with aliens was inherent to her survival. And besides she knew Jax, and he wasn't a bad guy she reassured herself. The thought brought her disgusted frown to a neutral grin before she replied.

"Roger that, I'll keep an eye out for any unwelcome types."

Valana looked around the area as she spoke searching the chunks of Alderaan for one that would be suitable for her task. Whatever had happened to the planet had sure been thorough, and he options were surprisingly limited. That was of course in no small part due to her own limitations, landing was the worst part of flying in her opinion and landing on a moving asteroid was something she was not at all thrilled about. Still she eventually settled on an asteroid about twenty times the size of her Cutlass that was slowly rotating almost in place. It still took her almost a minute after arriving at it to match pace with it's rotation so she could land.

As her fighter came to a rest on the asteroid she powered down all of the ship's systems to their lowest sustainable level apart from the scanners and comms. Ideally, combined with the natural interference of the asteroid field it would allow her to get the drop on anyone who actually did come through the area. After taking a moment to check and make sure everything was as she had wanted Valana sighed and lifted her ponytail with her left hand to make sure she didn't pull on it before leaning back in her seat. It seemed like as good a time as any to relax.

Dr. Khava Marr

@frapet @Korkoa

Dr. Marr flinched at the fire, despite himself. Taking a deep 'breath' he could feel the Adrenalin coursing through the veins of their targets. A few other hormones were firing as well, generally a mix of fear, aggression from the one to the left... He waited for a moment, closing his eyes - focusing on the stress of the more experienced one. It was building. As if quickly reaching a peak. Apprehension. Something was coming? he was anticipating - the fire stopped. Rife overheating? As Roka seemingly also noticed this, he forwent his blind firing and turned inwards, shooting down the Trooper. As the trooper went down, the immediate overwhelming shock set into the other, and Marr spun around the corner, throwing the dart at the scientist. He smirked as the other dropped the gun, and raised his hands in fear. The needle punctured his palm and the liquid started seeping into his system. With panic he looked at the syringe, frowning at the yellow colour, looked up at Marr, his eyes widening before he fell to the ground as well.

Marr straightened his robes and looked over at his cohort. "That was fun. I can't sense anyone else on the ship. At least not in the vicinity. Keep those antennae peaked though." He started walking into the area, and pointed to the two doors. "Storage, and Field lab - I will take the latter and see what we can salvage. I suggest you go into the storage rooms and take anything not bolted down. If there are any silver boxes with self-contained cooling units connected to it, be careful with it. The items inside will be the easiest to shift." He started walking over to the lab, crouching down next to the comatose doctor and taking out the syringe from his palm. With a gloved hand, he turned the head, lifting the chin and opening the eye. With a quick jab through the iris he emptied the rest of the yellow liquid straight into the brain. The body shuddered for a moment before becoming still. He stood up, placed the now empty vial back into his breast pocket, and continued on to the lab, punching in the codes he knew rarely changed, and if it did - it changed back to the previous set.

"I think this must be the worst day of my life. Well... more than a day actually. Or is it?" Ayya's internal monologue paused, exhausted and on-edge brain trying to work out how long it had been since leaving "The Star-Searcher". Had it been more than a day? Her body was exhausted, from lack of sleep, to bursts of adrenaline coming and going, to pure mental and emotional tiredness. It felt like it had been weeks since she'd slept in a comfortable hammock. In fact, she was so tired right now she'd settle for a hard piece of floor to curl up on and black out for the next couple of hours.

But now was not the time.

On a strange ship that had broken down near the poor, destroyed Alderaan, Ayya was surrounded by enemies. She had no idea of their numbers or how dangerous they truly were, but she knew they had no qualms in harming her. From dragging her out of her escape pod without so much as a word, brandishing guns at her and confiscating her items before throwing her roughly into a cell, it was clear they were not friendly. In those few hours (Had they been hours? Minutes? With no planet left for the ship to orbit around, Ayya couldn't even gauge her time from peering out of the measly window in her cell). she had pressed herself against the wall; tired, but with too much fear and apprehension about her current situation to sleep. After a while, her mouth grew dry and her stomach began to grumble. Her wrists and throat from where she had been grasped back on the ship she had considered home were beginning to bruise up; thoughts were the only things keeping her company, and Ayya had no want to think about the events of the past just yet. She wasn't ready.

And then, the power left the ship sharply all of a sudden; plunging her cell into darkness before the eerie red emergency lights blinked on.

But her door had not re-locked itself.

She was free.

Since then, Ayya had scoured the ship; sticking to the shadows and avoiding places where she heard voices or footsteps - wanting to find her precious belongings, and hopefully some kind of ship in a hanger that could take her far away from here. Coruscant was the first place to come to mind, but after what had happened... what she did... she felt fear at being so close to the seat of the Empire. Although still in denial about what she had done, Ayya knew the penalty of being caught with powers like that. It was not worth satisfying the homesickness in her heart.

Her stealth only lasted so long; an engineer was the first to discover her; pressed against a shadowed wall in the hopes he would pass by her, unnoticed. But his head turned, and although she could not see his eyes past those blank, black slates of his helmet, she could sense his surprise. Even moreso when she jumped upon him, pressing all of her weight against the weak spot of his armour in the neck as the pair fell. A sickening crack and the man's arms suddenly contorting, then falling limp to his side showed that her tactic had worked well enough. Taking the only weapon he had - a small laser, used to cut holes in metal panels for emergency repairs. Not exactly a weapon, but it would do the job.

And so it did, with the next foes she ran into; two stormtroopers. One was injured, clutching a bloodied arm to himself and slumped against the wall while the other attempted to contact others on his comm link. The uninjured one didn't see her coming - didn't notice until she'd launched herself on his back, jabbing the laser at whatever flesh she could find. The laser burnt through the armour with a sickening smell of burning plastic, and the Stormtroopers garbled screams of pain were cut short as it passed through his voicebox. Leaving him choking on his own blood - a fair bit of it on herself - Ayya killed the injured one with a single shot to the head; gun courtesy of the one who life she had just ended. For these men, she felt no sympathy or sickness in killing them. She had killed before, and for what they had done, what they were responsible for... Ayya had never been to Alderaan, nor known anyone from there. But to destroy an entire planet and it's people was unforgivable.

Following this, Ayya was lucky in running into nobody else. Finding the storage area, she retrieved her bag of personal belongings and other things taken from her, allowing herself a wan and nostalgic smile at the sight of a stuffed Tooka doll at the bottom of the bag. One of the only things from Ryloth, she'd kept it with her everywhere she went. As Ayya's thumb brushed over the soft toy's head, she nearly dropped her bag in shock as the doors to the storage bay opened. Light filtered through into the dark storage bay, flickering with shadows as the figure of a man stepped before it. Darting behind a large crate, Ayya hoped whoever it was hadn't seen her. While she had no qualms in killing stormtroopers when they wanted to kill her, she didn't particularly enjoy doing it.

Sergeant ‘BB-L41’ also known as Bees or Bel by those close to him was keeping watch at the door of the Comms room. He had pulled all staff back to the bridge when Erlo Grann, the ships engineer, went missing. Sending private Sid, SD-887, and some doctor out to keep an eye on the entry hatch. The crew was scared though. Not his 4 man security detail, but the doctors… No matter how many times he said that their now injured ship captain had send the distress signal out in time and that evac was underway, they remained scared. And the longer it took, the less sure Bel became.

Keeping only private ‘Fours’ with him, for he was the one most in touch with the scientists, he had sent the other two out on a search of the ship, patterned in a way that they covered Sid’s back. They hadn’t found anything yet. Bloody prisoner. If only protocol had allowed him to execute on the first encounter. Missing Engineer Erlo was reason enough for a ‘kill on sight’ order though. Exactly the order he had given. In the meanwhile he was babysitting a group of scientists that were debating how to get the distress signal out without having to go outside of the comms room. Cowards, Erlo atleast had the guts to do that after the meltdown. How the prisoner had slipped by his initial search would be a matter for reflection and discipline later though.

“-But if we reroute the power of the secondary grid…”

“No that would have us go to the engine room for a general reset, life support would be off for 10 minutes, besides we’d be in the dark at the engine room, who know-“

That was when the ship rumbled, obviously a ship docking with them. Evac? So soon?

“What was that? ” the mingling of fear and hope was palpable.

“I’m not sure, but that is what we got Sid for.”

Silence ensued that was pierced by the sound of blasterfire audible troughout the ship. Bel didn’t hesitate. And opened his helmet comm.

“Report back to Comm’s. Doubletime. We got some kind of breach.”

Bel and his crew had often complained about their assignment being dull, he had doubted himself for it the last few hours, now came the actual hate. It was high time he did something about this.

"Lock the door behind me. Respond only to codeword Erlo. Fours, you on my back. We'll take eyes front. Off to that karkin' hatch."