He is cut off by the deafening echo of a slugthrower as a pellet strikes the rocky ground a few meters to Luke's left.

"Sand people!" Biggs shouts, peering up at the cliffs far above, "Get back!"

"Sorry I didn't foresee that!" Mits apologizes, snatching the nearest guy to pull him to cover.  Which happens to be Biggs.  "Take cover, guys!"

Angel takes cover with the others, draws her weapon and asks, "How many of them?"

Sure, she is curious what they want, but she figures she'll ask that once she knows the threat assessment.

Luke was giving a confused look to Janek when the shooting started.  He of course dives for cover and readies his rifle.  "Oh great.  First a stolen ship, and now this!"

He tries his best to make out the numbers of the hostiles.

The tusken raiders are skilled at hiding, and it is difficult to determine their numbers. But as more shots begin to pepper the ground about them, they estimate their are at least a dozen of them.

Janek doesn't seem to be in the mood to run.

"Throw me the rifle!" he calls to Luke, advancing to crouch behind a low boulder.

"Come on, Janek!" Biggs calls as he takes cover with Mittens, his blaster pistol drawn once more, "This is no time to try and be a hero."

Janek glances at Angel, and his expression suggests that he feels this is exactly the time to try to be a hero. He then glances back to Luke expectantly.

"You guys get out of here, I'll hold them off."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:38, Fri 20 July 2018.

"Really?!  People made of sand!?

"Wow.  That's a lot of very poor shots."

She pops open the ship's ramp and beacons to the others as she heads inside.  "Their pea-shooters won't even scratch this ship's hull.  And the weapons aren't powered by the engine fuel.  Or you could just stay out here and return fire with pea-shooters."

For all of the catgirl's weirdness, she's finally said something that makes sense to Luke.  Return fire with the BIG GUNS!  He smirks and tosses Janek the rifle.  "You have fun with that.  I'm going to be manning one of this beauty's gun turrets!"

He runs inside after Mittens.

Angel is grateful for Janek's offer, but isn't interested in anyone dying today.

Angel says, "Everyone inside!" and hurries in while firing rapidly and blindly just to lay some cover fire. Wasn't this the very tactic Angel had Mittens use earlier? Stay inside so the others were forced to come to them? And it worked. But will it work on Sand people?

Once she gets aboard, Angel hurries over to one of the ship weapons and tries to get it aiming in the general direction the sand people are at.

Janek catches the rifle and doesn't move toward the ship. That is, until a shot finally finds its mark, grazing deeply into his arm and drawing blood. Janek curses, and firing a wild blast up at the cliffs above, hurries into the ship after the others.

Biggs stands by the boarding ramp, ushering everyone in until all are aboard. He finally brings up the rear behind Janek.

"Nice!" he calls to Luke and Mittens as they prep the turrets. He stations himself just inside the ramp, crouching, blaster trained on the entrance.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:35, Fri 20 July 2018.

"Fire warning shots first, please," Mittens requests, abandoning her dash for the nearest turret in favor of turning around and closing the bay door.

"Not to be presumptuous or anything, but I am sworn to a code of honor that values life and I must do everything in my power to preserve it.  Even if evil sand monsters are attacking unprovoked and deserve to have their sandy faces blasted off.  And that means not luring said monsters into a death trap if scaring them off is an option."

She then pops open a panel to take out the first-aid kit inside.

Luke shrugs, powering up the turret and training it on the enemy.  "Scare them off and they'll likely regroup and call for reinforcements.  But I was going to shoot a warning shot anyway."
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:45, Fri 20 July 2018.

Angel shrugs and fires in the direction of the sand people. BADOOM! "Alright. Then somebody get on the com, set it to speaker and let them know that was a warning shot and they have 10 seconds to either surrender or get out of here before we destroy the entire area. Then countdown for dramatic effect. Bonus if you can speak their language."

Several slug pellets strike the outside of the ship, but Angel's blast seems to do the trick. The shots cease instantly, and those of the party with keen eyes are able to make out a couple of the robed Tuskens rising and hurrying from sight atop the cliffs.

"Sand people don't speak Basic," Biggs informs Angel as he moves away from the sealed ramp, "But they scare easily, so your shot should do the trick. But they'll come back, like Luke says, with greater numbers."

"I'm fine, it's just a scratch," Janek informs to Mittens. He does not stop her, however, when she begins to bandage his arm.

"We'd better get up there as soon as we can," he agrees, "Otherwise we're gonna find ourselves surrounded by whole tribe of the savages."

Mits smiles.  "Nice!  Thanks for accommodating my sensibilities.  No little sand children will be given news of daddy being murdered by those fleshy monsters our tribe hates so much, giving them reason to grow up to get revenge."

Despite what one might think, Mittens is not one to be rough with an injured guy she's annoyed at for crushing on her best buddy.  The medicated bandage is applied with the utmost gentleness.

"If that's just a scratch, I'd hate to see what you'd consider a serious wound."

"The speeder's up past the slope," Luke informs, "So we need to get moving right away if we want to get to it in time."

He heads for the ramp to open it.

At the mention of a 'serious wound', Biggs is reminded of Janek's most recent attempt at matching his feat of 'threading the needle' in his T-16 skyhopper.

Aloud, he simply says, "Let's go!"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:22, Fri 20 July 2018.

Having seen the blast did the trick, Angel shrugs and hops out of her seat to follow the others and once everyone is out, she locks the ship again before following the bunch at a quick pace. She smirks over at Mittens. "Thanks for taking care of Janek, Mittens."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:26, Fri 20 July 2018.

Janek doesn't know whether to interpret Angel's smirk as a good thing or not. But she did notice, so that's got to be a good thing, right?

"Those savages have probably torn the speeder to shreds," he surmises darkly as he joins the others in exiting the ship.