Despite the closeness of the Imperial Star Destroyer once the Handree had it's course set for the gas giant Bespin it appeared to be pulling away from the Desolator. Suddenly however everyone was thrown across the gunship as the Handree shook violently. Apparently the Star Destroyer had turned on its tractor beam. The com unit came back to life "by Imperial law we demand the immediate surrender of the Handree".

'We have enough genuine technical issues.' Lyla had answered Klyn via comlink, then turned to see Nessquik sabotaging everything. Shutting down exterior light, why? 'What the cruk are you doing?!' she exclaimed. 'That's a stealth tactic! Going dark will make the Imperials suspicious and confused. We don't want them suspicious and confused!'

Naturally, moments later, the ship rocked violently and the Imperials demanded their surrender. 'See?! Now turn the running lights back on, quick. Tera, talk 'em out of it.'

"Yeah, that's sadly true" said Klyn.

He heard some words from her next sentence before some of the control screens telling him the outside light went out.

It should not have happened... and he feared some kind of delayed program from the imperials to signal trouble.

His worries quickly got an answer as the ship's movement was suddenly heavily hindered.

"Lyla? What's happening? Why did the light went out? "

'Frelling Nessquik shut the running lights off! The Imperials got us in a tractor beam and are demanding our surrender!' she yelled down the comlink.

Caught in the tractor beam of the Imperial Star Destroyer their fate was grim. The Handree was no small starship however and it was not impossible for a ship their size to break the lock. How far they might run and what repercussion they might face if they tried it were unknown.

The lower levels of the gunship had a launch bay but checking the ship's inventory only atmosphere capable speeders and skiffs were on board. So no escape that way was possible.

OOC The Handree will move 1 starship square per round toward the Desolator unless Klyn attempts an opposed Grapple to pull away. The Handree is a frigate which has a Grapple of +50, Klyn will be aware that the Desolator is cruiser size with more powerful engines and subsequently a larger Grapple bonus.

Tera opened the commlink to the Star Destroyer, tight beam. Her face looked stern as she stared into the video pick up. "Put me in touch with your captain immediately" she said with the imperious tone of someone used to giving orders. "Run a database search on me and my identity. You'll have me documented in the records as Lieutenant Tera Inkari, Imperial Navy. There should be warrants for my arrest for genocide. Please confirm this and inform the Captain of these before opening communications again."

Lyla did a double-take, surprised Tera would say that. 'You sure, T? That'll just make them want to capture us more.' she asked softly once Tera had closed communications. Things had gone from bad to worse to worst and something else entirely.

Nessquik's eyes widened in surprise.  Not because he was surprised to see the Imperials not believing Tera's first story.  She had made the mistake of giving too many details.  It didn't make sense to him that the Empire would look into trading with Cloud City.  That mining outpost is too small for the Empire to bother with.  Ness had left civilian channels open.  The Star Destroyer could have tried to confirm Tera's story of trade investigations with the local administrator.  That lie was so easily seen through.

But this new lie?  A war criminal?  It's outrageous!  But still... 'Now this lie has a flare of the dramatic.  Now she has to drive it home.  Give them a reason to let us go.  If it were me, I'd say you created a plague ship.  Surely they've done a scan for life signs on us.  Only a handful of lifeforms left alive is what you would expect to find on a plague ship.  That'll make sure they won't want to come within ten kilometers of this ship.  Although, they might just blow us out of the sky to be safe.  Or, knowing the Empire, they'll want to capture us so they can study this plague.  Nope.  Can't see much reason why they would let a plague ship go.  And risk spreading the plague to some random planet?  But a planet of their choosing?  That'd be different.  Only they know Rebels wouldn't willingly carry a plague back to a Rebel planet.  They'd fine a way to force us.  Oh, dungst!  I can't see how this new lie is going to make things any better for us.', Ness thought to himself, his mind racing at the possibilities.

On the comlink came Klyn's voice, a bit stressed.
"Lyla? What's the plan?  I could try to get us out the tractor beam, but it would only help us that much: we have nowhere to go... And I don't think we can take that destroyer by ourselves."

'Hold on, she's talking to them.' Lyla relayed to Klyn, then patched Bridge communications through to Engineering so he could hear and stay in touch.

Just as Tera commanded the comlink was cut off. The Desolator's intercept course with the Handree was not halted however and the pull from the tractor beam dragged them closer still.

In the silence the tension built up until the comlink buzzed and the Imperial comms officer relayed his new orders "Lieutenant Inkari by the order of Admiral Grendreef you are relieved of command and thereby ordered to cede command of the Handree to Captain Tonth immediately. Non compliance with this order will have severe repercussions, the Admiral awaits the call from Captain Tonth".

Lyla swore. 'They know Tonth's on board. They know everything.' she hissed, frustrated and fearful at this turn of events. Then she sighed, remembering the old Twi'lek adage: ride the storm, don't try to defeat it. Let the winds blow you. 'And of course they do. Why would we be allowed to affect this story before it's done playing us?' she groaned.

'Tera! Talk to us. What's the plan?' she demanded. 'Unless you've got something up your sleeve right now, I'm telling Klyn to gun it against the tractor beam.'

'Darn it, this is taking too long, and it's getting us nowhere closer to getting free.', thought Ness to himself.

Since he was up on the bridge and in charge of the ship's communications system, he decided it was time for him to crash the party.  First he made sure that the camera system was deactivated.  It would ruin everything if the Imperials saw his face.  Then he broke in on the communications channel Tera was using.  Ness puts a tenure of desperation and fear in his voice.  "Don't do it, Captain!  That's just what she wants!  Inkari has created a plague!  It's not perfect though.  Some of us crew survived!  Inkari is looking for more guinea pigs!  That's the real reason why she's headed for Bespin!", he yells on the com channel like an Imperial survivor desperate to prevent a disaster.

Action: Aid Tera's Deception Check
Nessquik rolled 16 using 1d20+11. Deception.

"My plan was to go big, tell th4em I'm on a mission for Imperial Intelligence that means I cannot be detained and that Captain Tonth is now working for me. My file will have been doctored by them to prove I'm guilty of genocide, so the marks on my file will be there."

Lyla swore. 'You could've said something to us... Is it too late to tell them the Quarren's an idiot?'

Klyn has some trouble to follow the situation:
"What's going on? I thought Tera was talking to them? What's that nonsense about 'military disease'?  That's more imperial-like than anything the rebells would dare to do."

There was no way they could talk themselves out of trouble now... if there was any chance at all.

"The way I see things, I have two idea:
Either we successfully get out of the tractor bean and then hurry toward the city, even to crash land, and try to either find a escape ship, or dig ourselves in to hide.

Or we go the other way around: full speed TOWARD the imperial ship.  With a lot of luck they cut the beam and we survive the close call to go back to option one.  Or we die and destroy the imperial ship."

He stays silent a bit before adding:
"Any option will need our captive to be dealt with: they can tell what they know."

"We're running out of options and these medical supplies have to get through. I suggest we try to break the tractor, if that doesn't work, then the only thing for me to do would be to try to bluff them again. Let me stun you all into unconsciousness and try to bluff my way past the captain." Tera shrugged looking despondant "What other choices do we have?"

"If we are going to get caught we need to wipe the Nav computer and kill the captives like Klyn said. We can't give up the rebel base. If we are going to try and break the tractor beam let me know so I can give it a go and outrunning that ship."

They were in a bad place, and Rynn didn't like their odds at making it out, but better to get killed trying to escape than be a prisoner of the Empire.

'They already knew Tonth was on board.' Lyla stressed. 'We have to know what they know before anything else.' She looked at the communicator, half an idea coming to mind and she was sure the other half would follow. They wanted Pilia Tonth, she could give them Pilia Tonth.

'Let me have another go talking them down, I'll pretend to be Tonth and try to salvage this mess.' she suggested. It was a desperate plan, but this was a desperate situation. 'At least, I'll try to buy enough time for you... to do what you need to do.' Murder the prisoners? Lyla didn't want to know about it.

"Use the coder ring. They might have a voiceprint on file though..." Tera said, hoping it would work.

'Coder ring?' Lyla repeated, not getting what she was referring to.

Tera tossed Lyla the code cylinder she'd retrieved from Captain Tonth. "This...I think we're too far gone to do much with it. I was going to use it as proof of the fact I was an embedded Imperial agent."

When Nessquik took over the comlink and began to stir panic the Imperial operator was thrown off guard "identify yourself. Who is this?" they barked in response.

Catching the code cylinder, Lyla pounced on the communications panel. She double-checked the video feed had been turned off, and slightly detuned the signal so she'd come through a bit fuzzy. Finally, she gaze Nessquik a "zip it!" motion with her finger across her lips.

Show time! She hit the respond button. 'Desolator! This is—' Suddenly she fired her repeating blaster rifle, sending a brace of bolts into the roof, the pew-pew-pew and the hiss and sparks coming through loud and clear. Lyla breathed hard, clutched the mike again, yelled back in a hard voice 'Desolator! This is Captain Pilia Tonth! Report I'm now in command of the Handree. Report now in command of the Handree! Stand down!'


OOC: Deception 14, rerolled to 10. Add a Force Point, 1, for 11. Well, that was disappointing. :(
11:57, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 14 using 1d20+8. deception like a boss.
11:57, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 10 using 1d20+8. and reroll.
12:03, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 1 using 1d6. force point.

It seemed that nothing they did quite turned out as planned. The Force remained elusive as if their Destiny was to be found on this path and that it would not be swayed. The comlink clicked ominously and nothing but static was returned. The Desolator crept closer and even with Klyn firing the Handree's engines the gunship as dragged into the massive hangar area.

The starship shook as it was forcibly docked and internal alarms sounded as stormtroopers broke in and flooded the ship.