Mercenary Crew: Bounty Hunters

[Rogue Nine]

Latch shifted the large pack slung over his back into a more comfortable position. It was heavy with medical supplies which had been purchased from the clinic at a generously reduced price, thanks to Arelyn's timely but impromptu bodyguard service. Truth be told, he'd been completely taken by surprise by her quick and efficient dispatching of the ruffian. As far as he could tell, she'd broken both of his arms, his knee, his foot and probably several choice internal organs, all within a span of not more than 4 minutes, most likely less. While Latch didn't think she'd do that to him, it made him take a step back and reconsider his strategies. He'd have to be very careful with this one.

 

"Wonder if Alec ever found us a new pilot? Nar Shaddaa ain't exactly the Imperial Flight Academy."

 

Latch chuckled. "You'd be surprised," he replied. "Probably got some of the best pilots in the galaxy on this dump. You've just got to be willing to either settle their debts or pull them out of their bottles." He shifted his pack again as he deliberated over his next few words. "Hey Arelyn, d'you think you could...show me a few moves? Y'know, when you're all healed up, I mean."

[starmark2k]

“No problem.” Tannis smiled. “Were it not for Zip he’d be the most annoying thing about this ship, but he is my friend and the ships first mate so he’s going to be around for a while. And while he's here the women aren't queing up to come on board so no offence I take what I can get for the crew.”

 

Tannis turned around and activated the small holo-display unit connected to the navigation map. “Anyway we better get down to business, I have a possible target and a location for them.” Alec brought up a galactic map and zoomed into an area on the edge between the outer and mid rim, then to a solar system and then to one of its outer planets. “This is Bryndar, Yeah I know, you never heard of it but don’t worry only about 100 people in the Galaxy have. It’s off the usual shipping lanes and wholly unremarkable, except for an old, abandoned and very, very small mining outpost. But that is where we have to go.”

 

He played with the display again zooming out to show the distance between Nar Shaddaa and Bryndar and then a few lines came up. “These are Imperial patrol routes, I’d appreciate it if you could get us from here…” Tannis pointed at a dot on the display that was Nar Shaddaa. “…to here…” Tannis pointed at the dot that represented Bryndar. “…avoiding the Imperials.”

[Grace]

Ali grinned. "I'm liking this job already," she said. "That's gonna be tricky, but you bet it's possible..." Her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly and she asked, "Any requests as to how long you want it to take to get from here to there?"

[Quist]

"Hey Arelyn, d'you think you could...show me a few moves? Y'know, when you're all healed up, I mean."

 

Arelyn cast a scrutinizing glance at her fellow gunner. She'd been anticipating a come-on from him; she was surprised he'd taken so long to get around to making it, however. They were practically on board already. Then again, perhaps Latch was counting on Jyot finding a woman to entertain himself with, which left his fellow Corellian to make a pass at her unhindered. Arelyn shook her head. Men, she thought with a tiny bit of exasperation.

 

Stalking up the entry ramp, she grabbed hold of one of the pylons and turned to look at Latch. "Sure, I'll show you a few," she agreed. "But I'm not going to go easy on you, so be prepared." She smiled ferally, then turned and entered the ship.

[starmark2k]

“The most important part of our job is speed.” Alec explained as he turned off the holo-projector and activated the power to the pilots console by typing in the security code. “So the answer to that question will always be A-S-A-P.”

 

Alec stood up and stretched out his arms, before he started to walk out of the cockpit. “The rest of the crew are due back in twenty minuets so I’ll be briefing everyone on our job then in the common room, I’d like to leave as soon as that’s over.”

[JasraLantill]

Jyot guided a levi-trolley through the crowded streets in the Corellian sector. He was coming back from his shopping spree purchasing parts for the Scimitar--some spares but mostly the replacement parts he needed to fix Arelyn’s turret controls. He had probably spent more than Alec had intended him to, as he had been preoccupied with thoughts about Ali’s arrival, but at least he hadn’t got any of the dodgy/second hand parts this time.

 

“Why?” he grumbled aloud to himself as he walked. “Of all the pilots in the Galaxy Alec could have hired, he hires her. He could have hired anyone—a Wookiee, a Trandoshan… but no-ooo. He goes for a Corellian. And not just any Corellian, oh no. He’s got to hire a female. And not just any female, no. He’s got to hire one that I’ve had a past relationship with, one that I haven’t seen in years and throws a right hook like a professional…. ” A passer-by gave Jyot a strange look as he sidled past him. “What?!” Jyot snapped at the man. “When your captain hires your ex-girlfriend to be the new pilot of your ship, see if you don’t complain a little!”

 

As Jyot rolled his eyes, the man gave Jyot a look and continued on his way. He soon reached the ship, loaded the trolley up into the cargo bay, took the parts he needed to fix the turret and headed up the ladder to the upper decks.

[Grace]

"Twenty minutes," Ali murmured as Alec departed. "I'll have a course ready by then..."

 

She devoted her full attention to the map, murmuring suggested routes and then shaking her head. Avoiding Imperial patrols was the trick. Were it not for that little comment, this would be all too easy. But it was a challenge and she loved a challenge. Then it came to her.

 

"Genius!" she exclaimed, grinning. "Even saves on fuel..." Leaning forward eagerly, she tapped seven waypoints and memorized the coordinates for later entry into the navicomputer. Then, she leaned back and gingerly propped her feet up on the control panel, careful not to touch any of the controls. Now, she'd relax here until the meeting.

[Rogue Nine]

"But I'm not going to go easy on you, so be prepared."

 

Latch shook his head. "It's times like this I wish I was a masochist," he muttered to himself as he trudged up the ramp. Entering the cargo bay, he heard clanging noises coming from above, meaning Jyot was probably back and fixing the ship. That also meant Alec was probably back as well with a new pilot. He made up his mind to head to the cockpit once he was done delivering the supplies to the medbay. Trotting deeper into the cargo hold, he made for the ladder in front of the quick-drop bay, tossing a wave at Kuun as he ascended.

 

Hoisting himself up through the hole in the deck, he hefted the bag and strode into the medbay. Stitcher was poring over some weird-looking instruments and bubbling chemicals, his goggles over his eyes. As Latch entered, he craned his head up, the opaque lenses making him look like some sort of strange alien bug. "Do you have my supplies?" he asked the raven-haired gunner.

 

Latch swung the bag down from his back and placed it none to gently in front of Stitcher. "Should be enough drugs in there to knock a bantha out, cut it open, play sabacc with its intestines, then sew it back up again."

 

"Lovely," Stitcher said, already rifling through the bag. "I take it you acquired them without any problems?"

 

Latch snorted. "You can't go anywhere on Nar Shaddaa and not run into problems," he told the medic matter-of-factly. "But Arelyn took care of it."

 

Stitcher raised an eyebrow. "She's all better then?"

 

"Oh yeah, she's fit."

 

"Good, one less thing to worry about then," Stitcher nodded, extracting a few pouches from the bag.

 

"Alec find us a new pilot?" Latch asked, leaning inside the doorway.

 

"Yah," the younger man replied. "Seems nice enough. Pretty too."

 

Latch hesitated. "He found us a female pilot?"

 

Stitcher shot Latch a glance. "Duh. And I'm pretty sure Jyot's already made a pass at her, so get to the cockpit and let her shoot you down too so we can all get that awkward part over with."

 

Latch stalked forward and tousled Stitcher's hair with his hand. "Y'know kid, for a young'un, you sure are a wiseass."

 

"Can't really help it, Latch," Stitcher replied. "Not with you and Jyot on board. And especially since I think we're now heavy three Corellians on this rig."

 

It took a few moments for Latch to make the connection. "Our pilot's Corellian?"

 

"You're quick," Stitcher said dryly.

 

Latch hefted a roll of bandages and chucked it at the medic as he exited the medbay.

[starmark2k]

Alec walked out into the common area and smiled to himself as he approached the small bar area. He poured himself a drink of some Zeltron cabble Juice, it was a blue liquid, highly alcoholic and very expensive. The mercenary would often pour himself a glass and anyone who cared to join him after they got paid for job well done.

 

The money they got wasn't reasonable for the trouble they went through to get it. Never the less the drink had become somewhat a tradition over the years he worked hunting, so he enjoyed his drink.

 

A few good things did happen this day and maybe that was worth celebrating, he did actually get paid which was a plus, they found a new female pilot who was unlikely to be pushed away by the horny mechanic and they may have a job with the biggest payday ever.

 

Still smiling he took his drink and sat down at the main table and decided to contemplate his next steps.

[Quist]

After stowing her gear in her room, Arelyn headed for the refresher, intent on getting a good shower in before the day was out. Bacta worked wonders, but it wasn't exactly her favorite smell. She'd have showered at the clinic, but she didn't like feeling vulnerable out in public.

 

Finishing up, she dressed quickly into a tank top and black slacks and headed for her turret. Now that she wasn't a walking bruise, she wanted to see exactly how bad her gun emplacement had been hit. Entering the override code for the door, she stood back as it slid open, revealing the inside of her turret. Nothing looked too out of place at first, so Arelyn took a few cautious steps inside. As she neared her seat, the damage to her guns became apparent. The side panels and parts of the ceiling were scored blackish with plasma backwash and a sweetly acrid smell emanated from the machinery below her control yoke. Crouching down, she ran a finger over the fried power couplings and frowned at the black residue that accumulated.

 

"Bloody pirates," she muttered, placing a foot on the side of her turret's base, then swinging her leg up and over the barrel, straddling it. Reaching up into a recess in the ceiling, she brought down the back-up diagnostic panel and brought it online. This was one of the Scimitar's many little quirks, as the screen for the panel faced away from the gunner's seat, forcing anyone who wished to use it to sit on the gun barrel itself and lean forward to see it. Jyot had promised to rectify that for her at some point, but had never gotten around to it, since it was just the backup panel. She wrinkled her nose at the main panel off to the side; the screen was cracked and half the keys were missing from the instruments.

 

She clucked her tongue, pulled a hydrospanner out of her pocket and began to tinker.

[JasraLantill]

"Bucking for my job, are you?" Jyot stuck his head up inside Arelyn's turret, and then revealed his recently-purchased replacement console assembly and waggled it in front of her. "If you're going to tinker around with stuff, you might as well make yourself useful and...."

 

He gave the gunner a quick once-over, his eyes not really lingering on any particular body part, and then frowned slightly. There was something different about her.

 

"...install... this, say, you change your hair or something?" he asked, looking slightly confused. Then a spark of realization flickered in his eyes and he uttered a slow, "Oh, I know what it is." He nodded in casual approval. "No bruises. It's a good look for you."

 

Placing the new console on the deck, he gave the damaged one a surveying look next, tutted, then reached up, grabbed it and unceremoniously ripped it out in its entirety. "Not even anything there for spares," he grumbled. His eyes narrowed. "You know, Arelyn, it's a very good thing, a very, very good thing, that you weren't in the turret when this happened. You'd've had a lot more damage than just bruises."

 

He wiped a finger across the soot on the side of the wall, tutted again, and then swore. "Kriffin' pirates. Just what I wanted to do today--refit power conduit and control panels." He let out a small sigh, then grinned at Arelyn. "Though if you want to assist me I'm sure the job would go twice as... oh." He shut his mouth, then nodded with acknowledgment. "I know that 'look,'" he said pointing a finger at her, his eyes locked on hers. "Seen it twice today already, and... well, not that you don't look stunning when you're getting irritated, but...." He rubbed his chin. "I really don't want to get slapped again today."

 

He ducked out of the turret. "I'll replace the panel once the crew meeting is over," he called up to her. Then he stuck his head back in. "Oh, you did know there's a crew meeting in the common room, right?"

 

Yikes! The 'look' again. "Right. 'Course you did." He ducked out again. "I'll save you a seat," he called over his shoulder. "I might need protection from Ali," he murmured quietly to himself.

[starmark2k]

((occ- Well two impatient people have Pmed me to get this thing going so I’ll do a twenty minuets later and presume everyone is in the common room.))

 

With everyone Gathered around the large table in the middle of the Common room Alec stood up and picked up his datapad and handed it to Jyot to look at then pass it around.

 

“Ok I’ll start this off by introducing you guys to our new pilot, She’s Alindra D'Ayarra and from what I hear she’s good. You guys can get to know her later but right now we need to get to business.” Alec begun with a grin. “As you can see I got a message form an acquaintance of mine, An Abyssin that myself, Jyot and Latch had helped out a couple years ago. The message is about a possible bounty. It’s a Jedi Ladies and Gentlemen.”

 

Alec paused for a second knowing it will cause a stir among the group. “Now I normally wouldn’t trust the Cyclops as far as I could throw him but the chance to get the biggest payday of our lives is an opportunity I’m not willing to let pass me by. But this much money is high risk and as I said I don’t trust our contact, so if anyone wants out, go now.”

 

Once again Alec paused and waited to see if anyone would leave, he sighed in relief when he noticed no one was going to leave. “Good, We’re going to Bryndar, A backwater rock of ice that is of no importance. It has a small imperial garrison but they are paid off by Hutts who use that world as a safe zone for their employees with bounties on their heads. We’ll land on a small Settlement that use to be used for miners before they abandoned it. There we’ll try to find out a more exact location for the Jedi…. Any Questions?”

[Grace]

"Sure, I got a question," Ali said. "Have you ever seen a Jedi in action? Because I have... and when they're expecting something, which you gotta assume most Jedi these days are, it's damn near impossible to get near them... let alone capture one. So do you have a plan for this? Way I see it, you're gonna need one hell of a plan to pull this off..."

 

From where he was flitting around the chairs, Zip spoke up, "Undesignated Bounty Alindra D'Ayarra, we are professional bounty hunters. And while you may be immune to my hypnocane darts, surely the percentage of beings in the galaxy who can withstand a dosage of the tranquilizer such as you did is very small."

 

"Hypnocane would only slow a Jedi down a little," Ali countered, glaring icily at the droid. She looked around at the rest of the crew. "How much do any of you know about Jedi?"

[Rogue Nine]

"I can't believe ol' Squinty Eyes wouldn't try and go after this bounty himself if the payoff is as big as you say it is," Latch spoke up from inside the doorway to the main corridor. "Though I suppose if it's a Jedi we're talking about, even he probably couldn't grow back what would get cut off."

 

"How much do any of you know about Jedi?"

 

"Admittedly, not very much, Miss D'Ayarra," he responded easily. "But they don't know very much about any of us." He smiled and cracked a few knuckles.

[Grace]

Ali rolled her eyes. "Smartass," she muttered. "Real big advantage that gives us. We got what, two gunners, a medic, a mechanic, captain, fighter pilot, and me? Oh, right and some hypnocane-happy droid. Against one Jedi." She shook her head. "I'm not satisfied. Planning's important. Jedi'll get away... or worse if we don't have a good plan."

[Rogue Nine]

Latch laughed and shook his head, sending long black hair waving around. Stalking up next to Alec, he threw a hand over his captain's shoulders and turned to look at Ali. "I can see Alec has been neglectful in his duties," Latch said, smiling. "He didn't tell you anything specific about any of us, did he?" He pointed to the datapad that was being passed around. "Nothing beyond what's on that.

 

"Let me give you the 'real' rundown of who we are." Latch reached over with his free hand to cup Alec's chin. "Our intrepid captain may not look like much, but behind this stubbly exterior lies on of the keenest tracking minds in the Galaxy. Don't believe me? We were in the in Wild Space once and he found me a restaurant that cooked braised nerf filets when I had an absolute hankering for some." He grinned at the betrayed look on Alec's face and laughed again. "If that isn't genius, I don't know what is."

 

Latch pointed at the Headhunter pilot lounging in one of the chairs around the projector. "Kuun over there is a crack shot, almost as good as I am."

 

The silver-haired pilot snorted. "You mean 'better than you are', Latch," he said.

 

"Mmmhm, sure," Latch replied demurely. Turning back to Ali, he said, "I don't think Jedi are trained to dodge sniper shots and Kuun is one of the best I've seen." He held up three fingers. "Not to mention that Kuun isn't going to be the only one shooting. I'm pretty decent myself and our other resident female," he gestured over to Arelyn, "could shoot a tick off a Dug's nose. When she's not blowing up her turret, that is." Latch glanced over at the Mistryl as he said this and sure enough, she was staring at him hard enough for him to feel holes being burned into his skull. He shrugged off that uncomfortable feeling and continued on. "She also wrestled a Togorian down to the ground with her bare hands and held him there long enough for me to incapacitate him." He nodded at Arelyn, who seemed just a bit more appeased at his compliment. "Not an easy thing to do."

 

Latch strolled over to Jyot and threw his arm around the mechanic's shoulders. "Jyot here you already know, so we'll just skip him," he said, throwing an apologetic look to his friend and ignoring the elbow thrown into his ribs. "As for myself, I'm ex-CorSec, so I know a thing or two about apprehending tough collars. Haven't notched a Jedi in my belt just yet, but there's a first time for everything."

 

He looked over at the young medic. "And if all that's not enough to convince you, Ali, then just know that whenever we capture a successful bounty, Stitcher here cooks us up some mighty fine Karkan ribenes, complete with Corellian seed poppers." He shot Stitcher a grin. "Oh and he's a pretty good medic too."

 

Turning back to Ali, he flattened out his grin and addressed her in a serious tone. "We know what we're doing, Ali. Believe me, we don't go into things half-arsed. You signed up to fly with us, so give us at least some credit and time to prove to you what we can do. How about it?"

[starmark2k]

((Well the forum deleted my last post so I hope I remember what I typed.))

 

“What my Cocky Gunner is trying to say in his own special way is.” Alec tried to translate the point from Latch’s defensive rant. “We’re Professionals and we’ve been doing this a while and we are pretty good at it.”

 

Alec took back the Datapad and placed it on the table. “Chances are this will turn out to be a wild Mynock Chase, but I think it’s worth the Punt to go to Bryndar and check out the Information on this Jedi.”

[Quist]

Arelyn had to grin just a little bit at Latch's antics. Her fellow gunner did have a certain bit of rogueish charm about him, she admitted to herself. Too bad he spent most of his time around her being obnoxious. Same went for Jyot... She straightened up as a thought struck her.

 

Picking her way over to where Ali sat, she took the seat next to the pilot. "Arelyn K'zanthis," she said by way of greeting, extending her hand. Ali shook it and Arelyn took a seat next to her. "Nice to finally have another female on the ship."

[JasraLantill]

Jyot's eyes widened with horror as Arelyn sat down and introduced herself to Ali. "Oh, no," he remarked under his breath. He leaned in closer to Latch. "They're making an alliance," he quietly commented about the two women. "I've got a feeling we'll need the cold weather gear long before we get to Bryndar...."

 

Clearing his throat, he turned to Alec and said, "Right. Bryndar. Ice planet." He cracked his knuckles. "So...," He wiggled his eyebrows. "That means we get to test out the skids I made for the speeder, right? I mean, if we don't find our Jedi, we can at least get some winter recreation in, yeah?"

[starmark2k]

"Why is it wherever we go you always find a way to turn it in to a holiday?" Alec asked annoyed. "I mean there's a time 'n place Jyot and that planet is neither, Hell without the right equipment your Lungs could freeze from just breathing in."

 

He looked over at Aly and smiled. "Let's get the hell off this rock and go to a whole new frosty one."

[JasraLantill]

"Hey!" Jyot held out his arms in surrender as he backed off down the corridor to engineering. "What can I say? Just trying to have a good time at work, Alec. You know, job satisfaction and all that. And I do have a couple of thermal re-breathers, in case you've forgotten. Traded those..." He paused, not sure if Alec remembered that he had traded a pair of thermo-couplings for the re-breathers a year or so back. "Those, erm... those useless spares that were cluttering up the back storage area for.... Erm, nevermind."

 

He noticed the smile that Alec gave Ali, and his eyes narrowed a bit. "Frosty indeed," he murmured, and then turned and walked into engineering. He still had to fix the rest of Arelyn's turret, but more urgently the engines needed to be prepped for take-off.

[Grace]

"Arelyn K'zanthis," she said by way of greeting, extending her hand. Ali shook it and Arelyn took a seat next to her. "Nice to finally have another female on the ship."

 

 

"I completely understand the sentiment," Ali replied. Leaning forward conspiratorially, she went on, "I just got off a two month job with nothing but drunks and losers, all men, for crew." She rolled her eyes and gestured toward Jyot. "Even that, while not wholly desirable was much more appealing than another..." She shook her head, leaving the sentence unfinished.

 

Ali listened to the brief bits of chit chat that began popping up and then her attention was directed to the captain, who seemed to be interested in leaving as soon as possible. That suited Ali just fine. She stood and headed for the cockpit just as Jyot was trying to sidestep the fact that he'd traded something they may have needed for equipment to be used for a fun time in the cold.

 

"He sold something important, didn't he?" she inquired, leaning in the doorway of the common room. She shook her head in partial amusement. "Idiot."

 

She danced away into the cockpit, but in only a few seconds, she poked her head back into the common room.

 

"Oh, and Arelyn?" she said. A grin. "Call me Ali."

 

Then, she bounded into the cockpit, ready for the signal that all was powered on and ready.

[JasraLantill]

In engineering, Jyot was going through his datapad checklist in preparation for take-off.

 

"Hyperdrive manifold?" One of the maintenance panels removed, he peered inside it. "Why did he have to hire Ali of all people...?" He made a small adjustment, then closed the panel door and made a tick on his datapad.

 

"Aluvial dampers?" He opened up another panel and began to poke around. "As soon as we get into hyperspace," he continued to mutter to himself, "she'll find me and then probably ream my Corellian butt for not...." Something caught his attention to cause him to pause. He checked something else, did a small adjustment with his hydrospanner, and then made another tick on his datapad. "I mean, it's not my fault that I lost contact with her. After all, I've been busy." He closed the panel and moved on to the next one.

 

"Horizontal boosters?" He lifted a panel on the deck, then dipped his head down inside it. "Why is it always the guy's responsibility to call the girl, huh? She could have called me, right? It's not like Cloud City is out of reach of communications." He made another tick on his datapad, then closed the panel on the floor and moved to another one.

 

"Inertial compensator." Jyot let out a sigh. The inertial compensator was something that required adjustment--and the adjustment had to be to the pilot's liking. Right now it was sitting at 97%, which had given Nasai just enough feeling of acceleration for him to feel how the ship was performing, but without letting the crew feel the G-forces. But knowing that Ali had been a more risky type pilot when he had known her, Jyot figured that she would prefer a slightly lower setting so she could more easily sense the ship's movements and feel 'closer' to the ship. "Probably want 95 or something," he complained. "Kriffin' pilots and their quirks...."

 

Jyot pressed his comlink, linking him to the ship's bridge. "Jyot here. Hey, can someone up there tell me what our 'new pilot' wants as her IC setting? After that's done, we'll be ready to bug out of here."

[Grace]

"She can tell you herself," Ali's voice answered on the intercom, with a hint of annoyance. On the bridge, she rolled her eyes. Was he that uneasy about her that he asked others to communicate her answer? She thought about that for a moment before saying, "Set it to 95, Tyrell. That'll do fine."

[Rogue Nine]

Latch stepped into engineering just in time to hear the last few snippets of the conversation between Jyot and Ali. As the mechanic shut off his comlink with an angry twist, Latch crossed his arms and leaned up against the doorpost. "I can see you and our newest pilot are getting on rather well," he remarked facetiously to his friend.

 

Jyot shot Latch an irritable look before turning back to his controls. "Oh yes, absolutely splendid. Couldn't be better."

 

The raven-haired gunner chuckled. "So this is why you've been in such a rosy mood." He cocked his head to the side. "I know your ex-relationships tend to go nova, but she seems to really despise you. What'd you do?"