Haarmon sets the slaves, clad only in cheap coveralls, running across the ice towards the crawler.  Then he follows after them, the Ubese struggling to keep up with him, until two of the slaves turn back, grab the masked alien and half drag, half carry him towards the vehicle.

Ahead, Haarmon can see that somebody has opened the main hatch of the cargo transport.  At least it wasn't locked.  One obstacle removed.

Which gives him a chance to take a quick look round.  There seems to be a lot of stormtrooper activity, but none of it is aimed in his direction, yet.  The mining complex also appears to have suddenly gained quite a few burning buildings.  There is a small explosion, as explosions go, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight.

Juragga and Shard clamber onto the open deck of the skiff, and the Wookiee starts hammering at the controls.  The whine of the repulsorlifts ramps up to a shriek, and the vehicle starts towards the exit at a good speed, even as the driver comes running out of the office and yells something after it.

Then it's through the blast door, and the two rebels see Haarmon urging the last of the slaves aboard a cargo crawler.

A blaster bolt hits the ice about twenty metres short of Haarmon.  A trio of stormtroopers have apparently just realised that there might be something odd about a large group of slaves getting aboard a crawler, and have decided to investigate...

As Rhijans tries to look busy, the troopers move closer to him.  One of them finally spots him, and voice calls out, "You.  Where's the rest of your unit?"  The other three still seem more interested in keeping an eye on their surroundings, but one of them, presumably the one who spoke, is now moving directly towards Rhijans...

Rhijans snapped to a reasonable approximation of attention.  "We were on duty at the main compound, and got orders to come reinforce you here.  There were a few bomb blasts--the Comm Center and both the gun emplacements were hit.  The rest of my unit was caught in the second blast...I was told to report here, anyway."

He looked out to where the mining skiff was sitting, with its laser pointed toward the building.  "That's not supposed to be out there...the other vehicles are all still in the compound."  He turned back to the trooper questioning him and said, "I think the bomber might be hiding in here, somewhere...I was trying to find him...or any survivors."

"Oh, hot void."  Shard braces her blaster where she can on the skiff.  Without much regard for aim - she knows her odds of hitting at this range, with this weapon, from a moving skiff are only slightly better than her managing to beat Juragga in unarmed combat - she looses a pair of blaster bolts in the direction of the troopers.

Attention-getters and worry-makers, as it were.

"Get them aboard!" she screams at Haarmon over the howl of the wind, the blaster heating minutely in her hands.  If they can get the slaves aboard...if they can get the skiff to the ship...all before any bombing starts...

So many if's.  And yet, so very close.

OOC - Zap, Zap, 10 and 8.  Not like Shard's going to be winning any accuracy awards.

Ever.  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:39, Thu 22 Mar 2012.

"WaaaUUUUURRAAAAAGgggh," Juragga complained, as he slewed the cargo crawler up to load the slaves aboard.  Shard's accuracy... well, it was a long way.  He didn't know that he'd hit anything at that range either.

"GrrrrUUUUuuuunnnHHH!" he added, requesting everyone kindly hurry up.

Shard's aim may not be the best, but it doesn't need to be, not to send a handful of troopers running for cover behind some of the parked vehicles.  The pause in the shooting gives haarmon enough of a breather to get the last of the escaping slaves boarded, and to hit the hatch control.

Somebody starts up the crawler, and the heavy vehicle starts to lumber across the ice before the hatch is even fully closed.  Juragga and Shard, on the skiff, start to follow behind.

And the troopers recover their nerve and start shooting again.  Their accuracy is as legendary as ever, and blaster fire strikes the rear of the retreating skiff, but doesn't do any major damage...

The stormtrooper seems to be studying Rhijans for a moment, though his expression is, of course, impossible to read.  Finally he nods.  "Stay here and guard the vehicle."  Then he turns to his own men, "Stay with him."  One of the troopers moves to stand alongside the disguised rebel, as the rest of them, together with their leader, move off to continue their search of the ruined warehouse.

There is a brief, awkward silence.  And then Rhijan's new companion says, "Have you seen the new T-17?"...

Shard screams something regrettably unprintable, loosing a couple more blaster bolts in the general direction of the troopers* before going flat on the skiff beside Juragga, laughing maniacally.  "I can't...believe this might actually work out!" she shrieks over the wind of their travel, then stares down at their curious cargo. "Did they mention health issues?" she wonders aloud.

Just my luck...we get through this alive, and I find out I've come down with something incurable from radiation.

It occurs to Shard that she hasn't needed a single drink for ages, now.  Curious.  Her mind rapidly formulates a list.  Competent companions?  Check.  Plans proceeding positively?  Check.  Dearth of deaths?  Check.

Interesting.

Of course, now that it has come to mind...  Hold steady, Shard.  Juragga's counting on you.  So is Haarmon.  And Rhijans.

Sitting up, she stares forward, eyes narrowed.  "They'll be ready for us," she continues in a more sane tone, only a slight quaver in her voice.  "No point in talking now.  Better be ready for shooting."

*OOC - Her player giggles and declines to even bother rolling.

At Shard's mention of radiation, the Wookiee's teal eyes widen, then narrow and he warbles, "Don't jinx it!" in a cacaphonous caterwaul.

He concentrates on guiding the skiff after the crawler, and with one hand, tosses his bowcaster to his side where he can get at it in a hurry if need be.  He couldn't steer and shoot, so their covering fire would be up to Shard until they stopped.  But the Jedi was doing great, as he knew she would.

Rhijans cursed under his breath...Great...stuck with a babysitter...  In his mind, he calculated the time remaining for him to get to the docks before Lund would have to take off.  There's still time...wait for it...

At the trooper's question, he gives a shrug.  "Haven't had the chance yet," he answers.  "Are they actually an improvement?"  He didn't know a T-17 from a bantha, but maybe, if he could get the guy talking about them, he could pick up some details...or at least get the guy distracted long enough to come up with a get-away plan.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 16:46, Tue 27 Mar 2012.

Haarmon was relived that the crawler didn't turn out to be a giant carnivorous space worm in disguise or something. He was still uneasy. He stood behind the driver, rifle at the ready, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Roll credits, roll credits, roll credits, he kept repeating in his mind. Almost like a mantra. As though saying it would make the crawler faster. Or the plan safer. Or the goal closer.

The chatty trooper looks away for a moment, apparently distracted, before continuing, "It looks like they modified the ion engine, but I still prefer the T-16's.  Incom should have... "

"What's going on over there?"

A couple of hundred metres away, in the direction he indicates, a heavy cargo crawler and a skiff are coming through the gate from the inner compound.  Nothing too unusual there, except that the crawler seems to be going at top speed, while the skiff is moving at a slower than usual speed, maybe to keep pace with it.

There also appears to be sporadic blaster fire between the skiff and somebody inside the compound.  "Maybe that's got something to do with all the trouble today?"

The crawler and the skiff, with their cargoes of slaves, protocol droids, rebels and Nergon-14, pass through the gate into the outer compound.  The gate to the landing pads is visible in the distance, perhaps a half kilometre away.  The warehouse, some parts of which are burning extremely well now, is just ahead.  Behind them the troopers are still firing, though with increasing range their shots are becoming less and less accurate.

About two hundred metres ahead there seem to be two troopers and what looks like some sort of armed skiff standing guard next to a gaping hole in the side of the warehouse...

Taking advantage of the fact that the trooper was looking at the approaching vehicles, and not at him, Rhijans levelled his blaster and fired, point-blank.  "Nothing to worry about," he quipped.  "Just the rest of my team on their way out."

He grabbed his commlink.  "LUND!  We're going to have a LOT of company, very shortly...I hope you're ready to go!"  He had no idea what the mining laser would do, as a weapon...but if it would put a few heads down and buy the others a little more distance, it would do enough.  Suddenly, the countdown in his head shifted from Not yet! to Any time, already! as he began hoping for the whine of starfighter engines from the sky.

Looking ahead, blasterbolts whining spitefully off to the left, Shard squints into the wind.  "Great," she hisses, then raises her voice.  "Might as well head straight for them, Juragga!  We'll -"

Apparently change plans, as one of the two troopers raises his blaster and fires directly into the other one.

Shard blinks.  Troopers have crap for accuracy, but they're not that poor.  Which means... "Rhijans," she breathes, reaching out to ruffle Juragga's fur.  "YES!" Fumbling, Shard switches to her com.  + Got you in sight, Rhijans! +  He knows that, of course, but now he knows she knows.

Outstanding.

"We need to get our friend to his ship as well!" she shouts over the howl of the wind and the wail of the skiff's engine.  It wouldn't do to bring along the smuggler all this way, then toss him into the hold of their ship and leave his behind.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:22, Thu 29 Mar 2012.

Juragga roared enthusiastically as Rhijans revealed himself and Shard ruffled his fur.  This might actually work out after all.  True, they hadn't magically found his family amongst the mine slaves - or even any Wookiees at all - but that was his own personal business.  They'd accomplished the mission they'd been given AND freed a bunch of slaves.  To the big Wook, that was a double-win.

If they could pull it off.

He kept his foot on the accelerator and headed the skiff after the crawler, hoping they could disembark successfully.

"Which ship is his?" he hooted in query.  "And is he in any condition to fly?  He DID get shot," he reminded her.  His tone suggested that, if he were a Wookiee, being shot wouldn't have been a problem, but, being a weaker being...

As the crawler and the skiff go past him, Rhijans starts his own skiff moving, and the three vehicles are soon travelling over the ice at the nice steady pace set by the bulky crawler...

Ahead of them the gates to the landing field are closed, which makes no difference whatsoever to the crawler, or the escaping slave at the controls.  The vehicle just ploughs straight into the barrier and flattens it.  Then it swerves, heading towards a trio of ships parked to one side of the field. 

Elsewhere on the field, a ship powers up - the Bold Gambit.  And moments later the laser cannon mounted atop the ship opens fire, sending bolt after bolt of energy streaming out through the gate.  Vekkis' voice comes over the comlinks, "Just in case any uninvited guests were thinking of joining us!"

"You've got about a minute before I start to feel really uncomfortable sitting here."

Loads of time...

Rhijans left his skiff to wind down, jumping out as it slowed to a pace where he could move safely, and taking off the stormtrooper helmet, which he threw up the ramp onto the ship.  Never know when a good set of armor will come in handy, he told himself, although he really hoped they never ended up operating in another location where the snowtrooper armor would be in use.  He had nothing against the armor...just wasn't a big fan of the cold...

He took up station at the bottom of the Gambit's ramp, gesturing for people to hurry aboard, and keeping a careful eye on the entrance, for the troops he was sure would end up streaming in at some point.

A minute.  Wonderful.

"We'll have to ask him when we see him again!" she shouts back, fumbling with her com before giving up.  Haarmon has enough to focus on right now.  The older woman winces at the howling scream of heavy laser bolts searing the air. "Careful with that, Lund," she mutters.

So close, now.

"Get this thing on board - I'll go bug our injured pilot!"  Before the skiff comes to a full stop, she hops off and hits the ground running, stuffing her blaster pistol back into her coat as she heads toward the crawler.  Get to the Ubese.  Hope he's conscious enough to point out his ship.  Get him on board.  Get the ship in the air, preferably with a pilot at the helm who isn't dying and knows what they're doing.

Par for the course, really.

Haarmon nods to the droid and tries to stare out the window like he knew what he was doing. When he saw Shard coming across he breathed a relieved sigh and started toward the door. "Let's get McLimpy there over the door, You-why. He armed escort is coming."

Haarmon reached the door and opened it. Waved to Shard. Looked back to see how the Ubese was coming along.

Juragga nodded, sliding the skiff up so Shard could hop out.  Then, once she was clear, he quite deliberately slewed the skiff to one side.  Grabbing his bowcaster, muscles taut like steel cables, the mighty Wook lept free... setting the skiff between the blaster fire and the waiting ships, with the back end pointed towards the ships so they could unload it. Nothing like a little cover.

23:05, Today: Juragga rolled 11 using 3 dice with the WEG Classic system with rolls of {Wild}4,5,2. Set the Skiff up as cover (Repulsorlift).

23:06, Today: Juragga rolled 24 using 5 dice with the WEG Classic system with rolls of 2,6,{Wild}4,6,6. Jump clear.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:07, Tue 03 Apr 2012.

The ship's cannon still sends pulse after pulse of energy in the direction of the gate as Juragga and Rhijans bring the skiffs to a halt near the bottom of the ramp and take cover behind them.  So far nobody is shooting at them.  So far.

Shard is gone, running across the ice towards the other ship, where Haarmon and the Ubese are urging the slaves to hurry aboard.  She passes UY-3PO, moving somewhat less quickly, though still probably as fast as he can manage, towards the Bold Gambit.

By the time Shard reaches the Ubese's transport, about three quarters of the slaves are aboard.

Vekkis Lund reveals that the Gambit has an external public address system, as his voice booms out from the ship.

"FORTY SECONDS!"

The ship's gun falls silent...

"Dammit," Rhijans growled.  He grabbed his commlink.

"Hey, Shard, are you gonna be able to handle that thing between the two of you?  It's gonna get really hot around here in just a few seconds..."  He had no idea what the Ubese's condition might be...in fact, if there was one person in that group he had not expected to see wounded, it was the Ubese.  And he had no idea if Shard knew thing one about flying.

While he wasn't a great pilot, himself, he at least understood the basics...and if it came down to a case of getting out clean with Lund, but leaving Shard behind, or trying to limp out of here with a second ship because Shard wouldn't leave the Ubese...well, it wasn't even a choice to him.  He didn't leave people behind.  Of course, when it was just me, that was a pretty simple principle to live up to... he told himself.  But leaving someone behind was like walking out on a half-finished job...he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Forty seconds?  That was barely enough time to get onboard himself, let alone load all this junk on the ship.  Grumbling, Juragga went to the back of the skiff and loaded a barrel under each arm, then lugged up the ramp onto the ship.  If he had time, he'd make a second trip.

++ I'm getting Haarmon! ++ Shard shouts into her com as she runs.  They don't know where the Ubese is planning to stop once he hits hyperdrive.  She's fairly certain the slaves will manage to make their wishes known to him as well, given their weapons and capability.  The fact is, she needs to get her team to the Bold Gambit.

'Her' team.  As if she's the leader.  Not, Shard reminds herself inside the safety of her own mind.  But cursed if I don't have a responsibility!

Skipping and stumbling across the field, a far cry from the graceful sprint of her youth, she pushes harder.  ++ Keep the ship warmed up for us! ++

That answered the question of which direction Rhijans needed to go.  He holstered the blaster he'd had out and grabbed another barrel out of the back of Juragga's skiff, wrestling with one nearly as much as the Wookiee had with two, but getting it up the ramp in pretty short order.  He left it there and started back down again, one hand on his blaster as he looked over the situation, gauging the relative positions of Shard, Dak, any Imperials at the entrance, mind racing ahead on the hypotheticals of each scenario he expected in stark contrast to the icy cool exterior he presented.

Haarmon sees Shard approaching, just as the last of the slaves enters the airlock.  He slaps the Ubese on the shoulder, and starts down towards the approaching woman at a dead run.  Behind him, the Ubese is inside the ship, and the hatch is already closing.  He jumps off the end of the ramp, even as it starts to lift into the closed position, and staggers past Shard, even as she skids to a halt on the ice and starts to turn back towards the Gambit...

"THIRTY SECONDS!"

UY-3PO reaches the Gambit's access ramp and starts upwards as Rhijans and Juragga grab the last two kegs and start to haul them up into the belly of the YT-1300, dragging or carrying them as required.  The whine of the ship's engines ratchets up several notches...

Behind Shard and Haarmon, the engines of the Ubese's freighter come to life, adding to the already deafening noise on the landing field...

A handful of troopers appear at the gate, about 200 metres away, and open fire.  Most of the shots fail to hit anything except the ground, but one of them strikes the empty skiff...

The two rebels reach the bottom of the access ramp...

"TEN SECONDS!"

A glance towards the gate reveals more troopers arriving.  And in the distant sky beyond them, a quartet of black specks that look like birds at this range...

Rhijans stopped at the top of the ramp, waiting for the other two.  As soon as they were half-way up the ramp, he triggered it, swinging it closed and helping make sure they were clear of it before it closed.

"Let's get outta here!" he yelled in the general direction of the cockpit.  He was pretty sure the troopers' weapons wouldn't do much to the ship's hull...but there was no knowing if late-comers to the group might have something heavier.  And there was always the chance that a fluke shot might damage something important...

Soon enough, the troopers would have bigger things to worry about than the pair of escaping ships.