[ic] Tales of the Smoking Blaster I

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Boss," Louw said as he worked the shields and watched the Z-95s on the sensors, "I think you'll want to roll this bantha, 'cuz they're about to get ugly at us."

Louw tried to figure out how much distance there was between their current location and the end of the gravity well that prevented them from jumping to lightspeed.

[Blue Glowie]

Gen was stunned by how quickly the z-95's were closing the gap. His palms began to sweat and he wondered if they shouldn't just surrender right now. But Gen was stubborn. He never would have left Sullust in the first place if he wasn't stubborn.

"As long as you think you can calculate a way of out here, Louw, I'll roll this bantha all day long." (Full Dodge)

Then he said to Jeaubert, "Hold your fire until you get the go ahead from Louw. I don't want to get hostile until we see an exit."

[Jedi Skyler]

"Got it, Captain. I've got a bead on one of those Headhunters. Holding fire..."

[Endless Flight]

[Round 2]

Gen decided to try and dodge any incoming fire, but he first cut the throttle to be able to maneuver the ship*. Louw's quick analysis revealed that it would take at least another 50 seconds before the ship could make any jump, the time was necessary for the nav computer to calculate a safe route**. Jeaubert held his fire while he waited for the signal.

The three Z95s closed the gap a bit further then fired upon the Blaster†. The Corellian transport also slowed down and was also within range but decided to wait it out. The three Z95s all fired and missed. Gen's quick work at the controls paid off...for now.

[*All-Out Movement to High Speed movement. Cannot do Full Dodge until movement rate lowered. Partial dodge allowed. -2D to dodge: Rolled 24.
**You can make a jump now but you will have to roll every round in hyperspace to avoid a mishap.
†All-Out movement reduced to High Speed. 12+4=16-14=2 spaces between ships. Corellian All-Out to High Speed 12 to 6, 28 spaces behind]

[End of Round 2: Players win initiative for Round 3. GM actions: Two Z95s will fire blasters, the other will fire a concussive missile.]

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Louw grinned. Given the odds, it was a chance he'd be happy to take.

"I bet they didn't count on someone who actually knew what they were doing being at the nav computer of the ship they hit. Hold on to your seats!"

Louw hit the hyperdrive for a quick [1 round] burst, which would propel them ahead far enough to get them out of range of the Z-95s. Perhaps the transport would come after them (if they had the same guts to play with their hyperdrive as Louw had), but their odds against a freighter without fighter support would be immeasurably greater than being cut to pieces by the fighters.

Of course, if the Blaster's hyperdrive blew, they might just collect their fighters and come after them.

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert nervously watches the fighters getting closer. "Um...is someone gonna pull a jump? Or do you want me to open fire? Those guys are getting awfully close!"

[Blue Glowie]

"Take us away, Louw!"

Gen held his breath. There were several things he could be doing right now instead of holding onto his seat, such as "rolling this bantha" as it were, or telling Jeaubert to fire away. But none of that was practical as long as a potential hyperspace jump was underway.

[Endless Flight]

With the three fighters on the Blaster's tail, Louw decided to pull a risky maneuver. They would enter hyperspace but for a few seconds, sending them perhaps a million miles away from their pursuers, hoping they wouldn't be brave or foolish enough to attempt to follow them. This would give them time to regroup. He activated the ship's hyperdrive with little preparation. The three fighters were stunned as they saw the ship they were pursuing quickly stretch and escape into the stars like a rubber band being shot off from a finger. Almost as soon as the blue luminescence of hyperspace began to take form around the ship, the intuitive navigator deactivated the hyperdrive. The star lines returned to stars and the ship re-entered real-space.

They had escaped the pirates by the skin of their teeth. They were on the outer edge of the nebula. Things were looking up, until Gen noticed a light flashing on the control panel. It was the hyperdrive malfunction alert. Clearly something had happened on their short trip.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Thank me later," Louw said, pointing at the flashing light "we should probably see to whatever that is."

He checked his own console for the source of the malfunction, after making sure the nav computer's auto-locator was churning on discovering where exactly they were so that he could plot a course out of there once they dealt with the malfunction.

[Jedi Skyler]

"Um," Jeaubert says nervously over the intercom, "is that a hyperdrive malfunction alert I'm hearing in the background?"

To himself he thinks, Man...that guy is kinda handy with the navicomp. But there are some days he should just stay in his bunk and look at that porn he broke into from the hold...

Aloud he adds, "If any more ships suddenly pop out of hyperspace like we did, you want me to shoot first and question them when they're dead? Or am I supposed to just keep sitting in this turret with a bull's eye on my head until we figure out if they're friendly?"

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"You best be glad you're able to hear a bastasi malfunction alert at all," Louw grumbled to himself, leaving Gen to answer the boy's question.

[Blue Glowie]

"Well that all depends on how the hyperdrive is looking," Gen said to Jeaubert. "Those pirates could blow us to bits at will. It was my hope that if we couldn't escape, they'd take mercy on us if we didn't try to, you know, kill them back."

Gen followed Louw to check out the hyperdrive. "That was some quick thinking back there, Louw." Gen went in for a hand shake, but the gesture wasn't reciprocated. "Uh, good job. Man. Sport." For some reason it always got awkward between the two. Gen scratched his head as the Duros got to work. "How 'bout that Gorka...?"

[Endless Flight]

After Louw had done some checks on the bridge and Gen did a physical inspection, they both came to the conclusion that the alluvial dampers in the hyperdrive had been irrevocably damaged from the quick trip and needed to be replaced. It was something that could be fixed at most spaceports as dampers were one of the more easily broken parts of a drive, but they'd have to find a port to locate one. Luckily for them, the nav computer revealed that they were actually near, in sub-light speed, to Darknon Station. It was an ancient relic of a station (and the only one along the Run) but it provided new hope to the crew, and it was only a few hours away.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

Seeing little other option, Louw set coordinates for Darknon Station into the nav computer, which would allow the ship's auto-pilot to steer the ship in that direction on sublight.

Meanwhile, he attempted to rack his brain for anything he knew about that place [Planetary Systems 4D+2].

[Jedi Skyler]

"Sure," Jeaubert says sardonically. "Pirates. Mercy. The two often go hand in hand. Nice job gettin us outta there, Louw. I'm comin back up, unless you expect us to get set upon again."