"It's not as bad as it looks," Traest wheezed.  "Just a lower leg wound and a graze along the ribs."  As the ship started to warm up and lift off, Traest said, "Guro, can you turn on the ship's camera feed?  I want to see what's going on."  Guro obliged as Jubali attended to Traest.

OOC: Make a Treat Injury check.

OOC 10+3=13

After flipping on the video feed, Guro came over and assisted Jubali with her treatment of Traest.  Together they were able to at least bind and dress the bleeding wounds to keep more damage from occuring, but it looked like it might take a more practiced hand to get him back to full health.

Meanwhile on the video screen, they could see the Eclipse start to move forward.  As it did, another tremor sounded and the asteroid began to crumble, huge chunks of stone detaching themselves from the walls.  The cave entrance started to collapse as well.  However, Dane's flying was expert, and soon the ship had cleared the mouth of the cavern just as it collapsed completely.  On the rear-facing feed, Jubali could see the tidal forces in the field were tearing the asteroid apart, sending huge chunks of rock several times the size of the Eclipse spinning out in all directions.  Dane continued to swerve and dodge as flying rocks rushed past the ship.  Suddenly, the proximity alarm sounded and a small group of Cutlass patrol fighters came screaming from behind a nearby asteroid, laser cannons blazing!

"Um, might need a little bit of help up here," Dane called over the intercom.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:19, Fri 16 Sept 2016.

"Can you watch Traest, Guro?" Jubali asked.

"Sure," Guro replied.

When Jubali arrived in the cockpit, Dane asked "How is Traest doing?"

"Stabilized."

"Stabilized enough to come help?" Dane pressed. "Not that I doubt your abilities Jubali, but I need someone to plot us a hyperspace jump quickly as soon as we clear the asteroid field."

"Maybe?"  Jubali ran back to Traest.  "Are you okay enough to plot a hypserspace jump quick?"

"Sure," Traest said, pulling himself into the chair next to the computer console.  "Let me try routing the control to this station though, so I don't have to go up to the cockpit."

"I'll help you plot the course," Guro offered.

"Much obliged," Traest replied.

Jubali returned to the cockpit.

"Traest is going to route the navigation back there."

OOC It's your turn.

OOC: I know, I just knew it was going to be a post that took me a long time to do, and I wasn't feeling up to it until today.

As the six fighters headed toward them, the deadliness of the asteroid field proved itself as it eliminated three of their pursuers before they could even get a shot off.

As Dane expertly negotiated the swirling rocks, he said in a tense voice, "Sonora, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take some of those fighters off my tail."

Sonora fired the co-pilot's light laser cannon at the nearest fighter, the shot grazed the fighter and though it didn't seem to do any harm, Jubali saw on the sensors that its shields had been weakened.  And apparently that shot was enough to distract the pilot into running into an asteroid.

One of the two remaining fighters dodged an asteroid before firing a laser cannon shot at the Eclipse, successfully connecting and shaking the ship.  "That one hurt," Dane said.  Fortunately the last patrol fighter also fell victim to another of the flying rocks.

"Well at least we're just down to one," Sonora commented.

"Just one fighter," Dane replied.  "We also have the asteroid field.  And that Marauder Corvette is probably heading our way too."

"Good point," Sonora conceded.

As Dane continued to navigate through the asteroid field, Sonora took a shot at their single remaining pursuer.  The Force was with her and her shot punched through the fighter's shields, nearly destroying the little craft.  An asteroid finished the work for her.

Dane sailed through the rest of the asteroid field, finally clearing it.  However Jubali could see on the sensors that the Marauder Corvette was closing in on their position.  It would be within firing and tractor range within 30 seconds.

"Traest...how's that hyperspace jump going?!"

"Well I couldn't start working on it until we got out of the asteroid field," Traest replied.  "But the coordinates should be ready in about a minute."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:26, Wed 09 Sept 2015.

"You don't have a minute!"

"I'm sorry, but hyperspace coordinates are not that easy to calculate even with a navcomputer," Traest replied, and Jubali could sense the stress in his voice.  "I'm going as fast as I can, but I doubt I can do it in less than 42 seconds.  What's going on up there anyway?"

"The corvette is closing in?" Jubali replied, then turned to Master Sonora.  "Can we jettison an escape pod to block their beam or something?!"

"There are no escape pods on this ship," Master Tabret pointed out.

"I may just have to do some fancy flying," Dane said.  "Traest, we don't have to go any place special, just somewhere safe."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do," came the reply.


Meanwhile the Marauder corvette continued to loom closer.  "Should I fire on it?" Master Tabret asked.

"No!" Traest said adamantly.  "That'll just give them an excuse to vape us.  Right now they seem content with simply capturing us."

Agonizing seconds ticked by as the two ships drew ever closer to one another.

Just seconds before the corvette was within tractor range, Traest announced excitedly "I've got it!  I've got it! Sending the coordinates to you."

As the coordinates showed up on the console, Dane said "Punch it!" and Sonora pulled the hyperdrive lever.  The stars turned to streaks and soon they were in the swirling mist of hyperspace.  "Whew!  That was too close," the Antarian Ranger exclaimed.

OOC: Any comments?

Jubali collapsed into a seat.

"Let's...uh...let's not do that again."

"Agreed!" Master Tabret quickly concurred.

"Sonora, I have something I need to tell you about these pirates," Ranger Cardosa announced, now that they were safe.

"Oh yeah," Master Tabret said, standing up, "we still need to interrogate the one that we captured."

"Wait," Dane said firmly, grabbing her arm gently with his hand.  "Now don't jump to conclusions, but when Traest and I were fighting the pirates in the cave, we happened to knock off a piece of the armored flight suit of one of them.  The piece was actually covering an insignia." Jubali could feel her master tense.  "The symbol was a fist over a heart," Dane finished.

"We need to interrogate that prisoner right now!" Sonora said decidedly and she quickly marched towards the med bay.

Ranger Cardosa was hot on her heels.  "Sonora, it doesn't necessarily mean what you think!"

OOC: What does Jubali do?

"Ugh, the Paladin again," Jubali muttered.  "Peace, Master.  Anxiety will only lead you to the dark-side."

"I'm not anxious," Sonora said without slowing her pace.  She soon reached the med bay, stormed in, tilted the captive's chair back, and pulled off his gag.

"What's going on?" Traest asked, shocked at the dramatic entrance.

Master Tabret ignored the Explorer, focusing instead on her captive.  "For whom do you work?" she asked.

"I'll never talk," the pirate said still struggling in his chair.

"You don't have to," Sonora said, ripping off the plastoid covering the marking on the pirate's suit.  "I know it's the Army of Life.  Where is the Paladin?"

Somehow the pirate got his right hand free; he put it in a fist over his heart and said "For the life!" and then crunched his teeth down.  Soon a foam started to erupt from his mouth.

"No, no, no!" Master Tabret cried in frustration as she put his chair back down and put her hand on his temples.

"It's too late Sonora," Ranger Cardosa said gently, reaching his hands out to pull Sonora's hands away from the pirate's head.  "That was a lullaby pill."

Master Tabret let Dane pull her away, and then sat down in an empty chair, clearly defeated.  "Don't you get it Dane?  He's not just coming back on his own.  Reinstating the Army of Life--he's recruiting!"

"Look, I think I've been pretty patient considering this guy's tried to kill us twice but I want to know what's going on."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:22, Fri 11 Sept 2015.

Master Tabret looked sidelong at Ranger Cardosa, who just shrugged and said "You may as well."

Master Tabret sighed, then started to explain: "The Army of Life is a terrorist group with criminal ties that purports to support the resurrection of primitive ecosystems across the galaxy.  What they really do is take species from one planet to another to ruin ecosystems and cause chaos.  That's because they were created by a mysterious figure called the Paladin.  Nobody seems to know who the Paladin is, but with a pseudonym like that, the Jedi Council suspected he used to be a member of the Order.  About 15 years ago I was tasked with tracking him to shut down the Army of Life.  However, he seemed to go underground when the Stark Hyperspace War started and hasn't been heard of since...until Pakyu Meni mentioned him."

"Oh...so there's really nothing TO know about him," Jubali replied.  "How...keen.  Have we even got a picture?  Is it even a he?"