Mercenary Crew: Bounty Hunters

[JasraLantill]

Jyot grinned, but he kept his eyes to the snowy ground below him. "Nice to meet you, Ellie." Surely, pleasant conversation doesn't count as ogling, he thought. Or anatomical appreciation. No, I'm having a civilised discussion with an intelligent, resourceful woman who just coincidentally is....

 

His eyes flicked up for an instant, catching Ellie in a sideways glance. The icy breeze ruffled her short, treacle-colored hair against her smooth complexion as her lithe form walked gracefully beside him. Perfectly arched brows, long eyelashes, hazel eyes, defined cheekbones, soft lips, and....

 

...absolutely gorgeous. Instantly, he bit the inside of his lip. Damn! What is this place? Cold storage for potential fashion models? I'm going to go insane trying to win this stupid bet with Ali! He took a deep breath. Focus on the task, focus on the task.... Focus. On. The. Task.

 

He exhaled. "So, erm, what kind of transport did you have in mind, Ellie? Snow crawlers? Drive sleds?" He grinned crookedly. "Skis?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

Ellie grinned at the mention of skiing, lifting her wrist and pulling back the edge of her jacket, checking the planet's current time on the watch wrapped around her wrist. If they kept at this rate, they just might be able to make it during the shift change, when Ballon was on duty...

 

"Actually, I was thinking of sledding," she said, sounding almost completely serious - if not for the flash in her eyes, one would automatically assume she was telling the truth. "They've got a Tauntaun farm down on the lower levels of the settlement - grabbing a few of them and hooking them up to one of the sleds they used to use in the mines would make perfect mushing equipment."

[Rogue Nine]

"Why do I have to carry the stuff?" Stitcher complained, shifting the large pack on his shoulders while trying to keep the bags over his arms aloft.

 

Latch chuckled. "Because you're the youngest and therefore in the prime of your life. You should be able to carry twice this much!"

 

Stitcher shot Latch a look full of loathing. "I'm a doctor, not a pack animal."

 

Ali couldn't help laughing. "Hah, so you are," she said in between fits of giggling as she reached over and took a bag off of Stitcher's shoulder.

 

"You are still the youngest, though," Headshot told the annoyed medic, pulling another pack off of Stitcher's shoulders.

 

"Yes, thank you for reminding me," Stitcher said, sounding somewhat exasperated.

 

Latch grinned at all of them before turning to lead them into the cantina.

 

"I hope that hormonal engineer of yours is keeping to his word, Latch," Ali remarked as they shouldered their way through the doors.

 

"Jyot's a good Corellian, he keeps his word," Latch replied, though he was being only half-truthful. Jyot was, for the most part, an honest man. However, once you threw an attractive woman into the equation, all bets tended to be off. "Although, that chicky Alec told him to go with was rather pretty..." Latch glanced over at Arelyn. "Wasn't she?"

 

The Mistryl gave a curt nod in response.

 

Ali's eyes narrowed. "We better hurry up, then," she stated, quickening her step.

[starmark2k]

Alec walked out of the med-center and out into the icy whether, he began to walk towards the cantina where he would be meeting the rest of his crew. It was getting to midday on the planet and Alec realised the nearby snowstorm had almost cleared and allowed him to see further out into the frozen wastes. He moved to the edge of the settlement and continued to look out, he could see what appeared to be smoke in the distance. Alec didn’t think much of it as it was probably just a crater caused by a stray asteroid from the nearby belt. Alec shook his head and began to walk away from the edge.

 

”Save him.”

 

Alec turned at the whisper in the wind, trying to see if someone said it from behind him, But there was no one around except him. He shook his once again thinking he was mistaken and continued to walk away.

 

"Save the Pilot.”

 

Again Alec turned to find no one was there, once again he shook his head and continued to walk away towards the cantina. Once in the cantina he walked back over to the bar and ordered some water supplies for the journey they were about to go on.

[JasraLantill]

"They've got a Tauntaun farm down on the lower levels of the settlement - grabbing a few of them and hooking them up to one of the sleds they used to use in the mines would make perfect mushing equipment."

 

"Tauntauns?" Jyot wrinkled his nose. He was good with machines, but he didn't have much experience wrangling animals. "Last time I saw one of those was at the Coronet City Zoo. By the Stars, they stunk," he added. "Though I suppose with it being so cold here, we'll have rebreathers on so the smell won't matter." He paused a beat. "So, Ellie, are they pretty easy to control? Or are you going to teach all of us to 'mush'?" Again, an uneasy pause. "Or will we just have to wing it on our own?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

Ellie smirked - for some reason, this guy seemed to have a problem with looking at her straight on. Which was, of course, the exact reason why she had said what she did the way she did. Shaking her head slightly, she gave a single chuckle under her breath.

 

"I can tell you love animals, just from the look on your face." she said, looking at him from the corner of her eye. "Luckily for you, it doesn't interest me if it doesn't have an engine on it. Now c'mon - if we want to get those transports, we're going to have to get in there while they're changing shifts."

[JasraLantill]

Jyot's let out a tiny sigh of relief at not having to deal with tauntauns, but then his eyes widened slightly. "You're interested in engines?"

 

He felt his heart pound faster. Beautiful, has a sense of humor, and she likes engines? I think I'm in love.... Damn, damn, damn, that stupid bet!

 

He struggled to think of something to say, other than his usual lines. "So...does that mean you're interested in the swoop races?" Oh! that sounded so lame. She's going to think I'm an idiot if she doesn't think so already.

[Rogue Nine]

Latch spotted Alec at the bar and steered his companions over in that direction. "Okay boss, we're all here and accounted for," the gunner said, flicking stray bits of snow out of his long, black hair. "We packed warm, so where do we stash our stuff?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

She turned to look at him full-on now, raising a slight eyebrow as a slightly devilish smile came to her lips. "I've raced almost all my life." she said, before correcting herself with a shrug. "Well, I haven't recently - I had to leave my swoop back on Corescant when I left, but...yeah. I built it and everything."

 

Ellie could have laughed - with the look this Jyot guy was giving her, she was half expecting him to start drooling any second now. "And before you ask, no, I'm not Corellian." she paused a moment before continuing, "You alright, flyboy?"

[starmark2k]

"Until Jyot and his new chickita get here with a transport just dump it in the corner. Lets hope them and that Raelyn character get here soon i want to get going ASAP." Alec explained as he took the water and extra equipment to the corner.

 

As he moved closer he was stopped in his tracks by the ships sadistic little droid. "Undesignated Bounty Alec Tannis I demand that i join you on this Hunt."

 

"You know that repulsorlift won't work more than a few klicks away from the colony." Alec then thought for a moment. "But you will be useful... Looks like someone'll have to carry you!"

 

"I will not be carried like a common scanner!" Zip complained.

 

"Too bad it's not your choice." Alec slyly grinned.

[Rogue Nine]

"New chickita?" Ali repeated, arching an eyebrow. "And you let him go with her unsupervised?"

 

Latch was more concerned with Zip tagging along. "Oh, come on," he said to Alec. "We're bringing this bucket of bolts along? He'll probably stab us all with tranqs when we're not looking."

[JasraLantill]

Ok, so she's got one fault, Jyot thought.

 

"You alright, flyboy?" Ellie asked.

 

"Yeah, yeah, sure," he replied quickly. "Just fine, never better, 100 percent." He still wasn't looking directly at her, instead was looking ahead. "Is that where you're thinking of picking up our transport?" He pointed in front of them where several snow-trackers ((like snowmobiles but larger and faster 'cause we're in the SW universe. )) were parked.

[ForceFightWMe12]

She grinned, nodding. "Those would be them." she said, glancing around. "The only problem is they seat two people each...meaning we're going to have to work quickly. No one's around, they must still be switching the shifts - c'mon!"

 

Ellie darted ahead, moving quickly, lithely, and subtly through the 'no-man's-land', darting between the rows of vehicles. "On the front of each there's a tow cable - use that to hook one up to the one that you're going to be driving." she told him quickly as he joined her. She didn't pause for him to ask questions - she was already going to work dragging one of the two cables from its reel in the front of the snow-tracker to the back of another, slipping the large hook on the end under the back end of one of the other trackers. She jumped over the one she had hooked it up to to connect a second.

 

((*kills posts*))

[JasraLantill]

Jyot wasn't a stranger to 'borrowing' equipment. He had his snow-trackers hooked up and ready to go in about the same time as Ellie.

 

"Last one to the cantina is..." He took off in his tracker. "...buying!"

[ForceFightWMe12]

Ellie's jaw dropped as he took off, making her look both insulted and quite amused. "That little...cheat!" she said, shifting the gear into forward and jamming down on the throttle. She had very little experience driving something that had actual tracks on it, rather than a repulsor lift, and she had two snow-trackers attached to the back of hers as opposed to his one, but...somehow, in some ungodly trick of piloting, she was able to catch up on his tail.

 

"Didn't your mom ever teach you?" she called to him. The passageways were, thankfully, totally void of life other than the two of them, leaving her no distractions or obstructions as she quickly gunned the throttle almost full-out to get ahead of him, slowing back to her normal, safer pace once she had obtained her spot. "Cheaters never win!"

[JasraLantill]

Jyot walked into the cantina and strode up to the bar. He slapped a credit chip down on the bar. "Corellian Ale and whatever she's having."

 

The bartender frowned a bit. "She?" Jyot appeared to be alone. "She who?"

 

"'She' with treacle-colored hair who will be walking in here any minute now with a ginormous grin on her face because I came in second in a field of two."

 

The bartender set the ale down, Jyot picked it up, and then, spotting Alec and the rest of the crew on the other side of the cantina, he went to join them.

 

"We got transport," he announced. "Snow-trackers, outside, and ready to go."

[ForceFightWMe12]

Ellie walked in only seconds later, and sure enough, her lips were spread with a wide grin. Seeing Jyot leave the bar and the bartender automatically turn his eyes to her, she figured he had already taken care of the drink. She caught his eye as he went to join the others of his crew and she tossed him a taunting wink as she strode up to order her drink.

 

Sipping on a fresh glass of Juma, she made her way over to where the rest of the crew of the ship that had just recently landed had gathered, swallowing the drink she had in her mouth before speaking.

 

"We've got five of them - two person to each tracker." she glanced at the large packs nearby that she guessed belonged to them. Just how far were they planning on going on this 'journey'? "I'm sure that, between five of them, we can fit whatever it is you need to bring."

[Writer]

Raelyn bounded in, an extremely wide grin on her face and Colin entered somewhat behind, frowning in the way of a man whose mind is presently occupied with other things. Both were dressed to suit the icy temperatures outside and Colin was carrying the bag.

 

"So," Raelyn announced decisively, coming to an abrupt halt in front of Alec. She reached back, seeming to instinctively know where her brother was standing, and pulled him forward. "This is my brother, Colin."

 

Finally, Colin's face broke into a smile... a polite smile, and looking a little fake, but a smile nonetheless. "I'm going to assume Raelyn has neglected to tell you that our help comes at a small price..."

 

Raelyn blushed, but said nothing. Colin glanced back at his sister, an unspoken warning passing between them.

 

"We are more than happy to help you, Captain..." Colin went on, pausing to give Alec a chance at providing his name.

 

"Tannis," Raelyn supplied promptly. "Alec Tannis." Then, she began cycling through all of their names. "Jyot Tyrell, Alindra D'Ayarra, Ray Brink, Arelyn K'zanthis, Kuun Lan, and Lach...lan?" She struggled with the idea of his name for a moment before settling on "Latch.. Vax. Oh, and transportation found by Elizabeth Kartyk... Ellie."

 

Colin was bright red by this point. "Rae," he mumbled. "People get suspicious when you know their names and they haven't introduced themselves..."

 

Raelyn frowned thoughtfully. "Whoops..." She grinned and tugged at her ears. "Good ears..." She tapped beside her eyes. "Good eyes." She wiggled her fingers. "Fast fingers."

 

"Right," Colin agreed, returning to a more natural color. "Anyway... price. I know you're not a passenger ship, but consider this help our payment. We're getting off this rock on your ship... or you're going to have an impossible time finding your Jedi."

[Quist]

Arelyn crossed her arms and studied the newcomers. Alec certainly did have a way of finding people who would do what he wanted them to do. For a price, of course. So far, none of them seemed threatening, although there was something about the female twin that unnerved her a little. Probably her knowing everyone's name before they even introduced themselves. Yes, that was it.

 

She noticed Zip struggling to activate his repulsorlifts. Moving to the little droid's side, she deftly slipped a restraining bolt onto his front socket, eliciting an indignant tweet from Zip. "Undesignated bounty Arelyn K'zanthis, what are you doing?!"

 

"Making sure you don't get us off on the wrong foot with our new companions, you abrasive little hover-rat," Arelyn replied, almost sweetly. "Now pipe down or else I will deactivate your vocabulator."

 

For once, Zip fell silent, but Arelyn could feel the droid's photoreceptors burning a hole in her head. Smiling smugly, she shouldered a pack and began moving towards the transport vehicles.

[Rogue Nine]

Latch grinned at the exchange between Arelyn and Zip. She'll fit in just fine, he thought to himself. Hauling his gear up onto his shoulders, he sidled over next to Jyot. "So, did you lose the bet yet?" he quietly teased his friend, looking pointedly at Ellie.

[JasraLantill]

"We had very polite conversation about winter sports equipment, tauntauns, and swoop racing along the way," Jyot said matter-of-factly to Latch as he shouldered the pack Latch had brought for him. "And," he lowered his voice to an almost a whisper, "I didn't ogle her once."

 

Latch looked at him with disbelief.

 

"Honest!" Jyot said, moving his fingers in the pattern of a Corellian promissory gesture. "Not once. Glanced, yes. Ogled, no." He looked over his shoulders to see if Aerlyn or Ali were within earshot. They weren't. "But, by the stars, she's a pretty one," he confessed. "And she likes engines. Just wait until you see her ride a snow tracker. She beat me by 10 seconds and I had a head start."

[Rogue Nine]

"If I didn't know you any better, I'd think you were in love," Latch remarked jovially to Jyot. "Too bad I do know you better. She isn't the first girl you've been all a-twitter over and she won't be the last." He cast a glance over at Ali and Arelyn. "Just hope that our two resident ladies don't hear you."

 

As they moved towards the doors, Latch caught sight of the twin newcomers, paying notable attention to the female who had recited all of their names. She was pretty, if a bit mysterious. Latch nudged Jyot gently in the ribs. The amorous engineer had probably seen her before he had, but Latch couldn't resist refocusing Jyot's attention on Raelyn after he'd been swooning over Ellie. "Hellooooo nurse," he told his friend. "You sure picked an awful time to make a bet like that, Span. This must be where they keep supermodels in cryostasis."

[starmark2k]

(OCC- OK Guys I’m going to do another skip forward so we meet Kadis a bit quicker and get more into the main part of the story.))

 

The group had set off on their journey on an eastern direction towards where Raelyn had told them the Jedi would be. Alec and the guide were walking out in front of the group who were driving on the four tracked transports. Although Raelyn was leading the way Alec walked by her side in case he had to use his tracking skills in order to find the Jedi in case they moved on from where Raelyn claimed she was.

 

Alec had given Zip to Jyot to carry and told him to make sure the little droid kept a constant scan of the area to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Unfortunately the interference that prevented the repulsorlift also disrupted the sensors making them pretty inefficient.

 

They had only gotten a few clicks out from the settlement and it was beginning to go out of their line of sight. Looking forward all that could be seen was more snow covered wastes and a small mountain range in the distance.

 

As Alec looked out suddenly for the briefest of moments he saw what appeared to be a sentient in a robe. Alec turned his head to focus on it but suddenly it was gone as if it was never there in the first place.

 

“Did you…” Alec began to ask as he continued looking, he noticed what appeared to be a slight mound in the snow but something was sticking out of it, a hand.

 

Alec began to run over to the mound and knelt down next to it and began to dig through the snow with his hands. As he dug he slowly realised someone was buried under the snow and they hadn’t been there too long. “Hey Stitch get over here!”

[Corinthian]

Kadis' eyes fluttered open, his mind clearing for a moment, only to have the confusion be replaced with panic. He couldn't move. A leaden weight lay on his limbs. Faintly, he could hear a rumbling sound and a man shouting. The weight seemed to be diminishing, but he still couldn't even make a fist.

 

He tried to take stock of his situation. He couldn't move his hands, his blaster was under the useless excuses for 'cold weather gear' that he was wearing, and if he wasn't mistaken, he was frostbitten and probably hypothermic. He felt a hand grasp his shoulder and flip him over, and he was looking up.

 

"I'm Stitch. Can you hear me?"

 

Kadis nodded feebly.

 

"This guy's in bad shape..." Stitch grabbed Kadis' hand and looked at it. "Can you touch your thumb to your little finger?"

 

Kadis tried, but failed. He shook his head.

 

"He's hypothermic, Captain. We need to get him somewhere warm."

[Writer]

"Did you?" the captain began. His mind finished the thought. Raelyn frowned thoughtfully, but then everyone's attention was centered around the man lying in the snow.

 

"He's hypothermic, Captain. We need to get him somewhere warm," the medic announced. In an instant, Colin was by the barely conscious man's side.

 

"The settlement isn't too far, Captain," he urged. "Your medic's right. We should take this man back. There's not much we can do for him out here."

 

"Help him, Cole," Raelyn whispered from where she stood. Then, she moved to whisper a few quick sentences in his ear. He glanced over at Ali for a moment before looking down at the man in the snow. He nodded in response to a question Raelyn must have asked him and began doing what he could to carefully get the man up onto one of the trackers.

 

"Let's get him back to the settlement," he said. "It's only a few clicks back. Won't delay the Jedi hunt for long."