| abstract
| - It's amazing how different things can be when one is prepared. In a stark contrast to many other areas on the Moon, the Side Deck and the areas surrounding it for about a block in each direction are virtually untouched by the war raging across the moon. It quickly becomes apparent why-- the Deck's reputation for preparedness and a willingness to enforce itself on the immediate neighborhood is well-earned, it seems. The Deck itself is sealed by thickly armored blast shutters and doors, except for the main entrance. The vast hangar doors overhanging the long drop to the Slums on the back side of the building have been closed, and the long, sinister barrels of turbolaser turrets traverse lazily through the air. Two of the black-armored men that escorted Kaitlin on the streets are standing watch at the front door, with more sweeping the alleyways around the facility. In short, it looks more like a fortress than a repair pad, today, but thus is life in the Nar Shaddaa underground. Nothing is ever truly as it seems. Kaitlin herself is inside, and the bar is largely quiet, though activity on the hangar floor suggests that business continues despite the fighting. An SS Kale and Customs craft appear to be getting worked over by tech teams. In the barroom itself, drinks are not being passed about, but things seem to be at ease, despite the grim war being fought all over the Moon. The doors open up to the side deck, Dareus smiling as he walks in until a sniper shot ricochets off the top side of the door just past his head, and he ducks quickly, giving the finger to the general direction in which the shot came from, now obviously out of sight. "I'll kill that little bastard with my bare hands later, I'm sick of getting my armor scratched by cowards who can't fight face to face..." He shakes his head slightly before he wanders in a little farther, lifting his bi-polar up to rest against his shoulder, looking around, "Guess Malign isn't here yet." Running his hand through his hair, he yawns a bit, even with the normal pandemonium going on outside, it seems to not really phase Dareus in the least, "What a nice shop...so well prepared. Just makes me grin." Taking a glance, he frowns at the bar for a second now that it's closed, taking a flask from his combat vest that's over his armor, and having a sip from it, shrugging and having a seat on the bar, "Everyone ready for fun?" His eyes glaze over slightly while the whiskey runs into his system, the look of a predator and maniac on his face, enjoying this far too much, it would seem. The door gets pushed open, and quietly a certain pair of twi'leks make their way into the room, a light grin on Ka'una's lips. "And here we are.." she says, holding the door open for Via, waving with her other hand to the people present. "Hey. Other cantina's pretty much deserted now." she says as she spots Kaitlin, and heads slowly for the bar. "Met some strange pair on the way, but eh..they were either wanting a space ride or food, I think." As the door begins to shut behind the twi'leks, it is reopened, and the form of a large hairy beast stands in the frame. Shots ring about him and as such he is quick move inside and close the door. Both Twi'leks are greeted with a sound clap on the shoulder and the Wookiee moves further into the bar he once called his home away from home...away from home. "rrg ooooaugh grah oooooo ahghghgh hhhrrrrroog grrowr" He huffs a Wookiee chuckle himself turning to face the Twi'leks, "rrowr auoorgh mmmrrog rahgh mmrroooa rahrahraff ooooaugh mrrowr frowh grrowr" (speaking in Shyriiwook) Xar'on limps up to the door, slightly stooped. When confronted by the guards, he straightens up with obvious effort and growls, "Dr. Xar'on fraggin' Tanner, boy," his voice coming out raspy and harsh, as if he'd been up all night yelling and barking orders. He forces his way past the guards, spots the bar, and immediately limps over and collapses into a stool. A medpac is tossed onto the bar, and shaking, blood-stained hands fumble with it for a moment before he manages to get the case open. He pulls out a hypospray, and injects himself in the neck, straightening with a deep breath and a shudder. Via steps into the Side Deck, looking around briefly and staggering under the 'pat' from the Wookiee, before approaching Kaitlin with a purposeful stride. "You said you might have a spare rifle for me?" she suggests. "I feel under dressed, with just my pistol." She flicks a lek toward Ka'una. "I'd ask if my friend could have one, but she's always under dressed." The Side Deck is entered not by one, but my a small group of Pirates. Each of them carrying weaponry and bags slung over backs and shoulders. One pirate is being dragged by the other two, a blaster wound in his side. Apparently the crew of Juran Reinzhiner has already experienced a small skirmish or two. "Put 'im over the table and lemmie get my kit out." Juran then lets his ZCF dangle around his waist, his Vibrorapier slapping against his armoured thigh within its sheath as he examines the mans wounds. "'es 'ad it.." He mumbles. A good shot on the man, and Juran's face is screwed up in bitter resentment. "Close your eyes, Paul, relax. Stop strugglin' and it'll feel less painful.." The Pirate Captain sighs and rubs his weary eyes with his fingertips, watching the man's skin pale. "I'll put yer name down in the log, Paul. Ah'll ship a lil' bit on the side to yer Mam, bless 'er." He stares down at the dead man, before leaning down to fix his clothing abit and shut his eyes over. "Gerrim' out of here.. Send a couple 'undred creds off to his Mam." Juran waves a gloved hand as two of the crewmen quietly pick the body up and haul it out ofthe Side Deck, and the pirate takes out his hip-flask, unscrewing it and tipping it back, his adams apple bobbing as he takes a few deep gulps of the liquid, then screws the cap back on, shoving it into his toolbelt again. We need to work on your definition of fun," Lynae replies to Dareus's comment with a quiet voiced one of her own. Where Dareus looks like he's enjoying himself, if that's what he looks like, Lynae looks grimly determined. Her eyes are alert, sweeping over the room, the shotgun held in one hand, pointed downward, loaded and ready for use at a moment's notice. From the ease in which she holds the shotgun it would appear she's very accustomed to using the weapon at this point, and the pockets of the vest she's wearing plus any available pocket of her clothing are stuffed with reload rounds. Over her shoulders she's still wearing the 'borrowed' jacket she lifted from Dareus from the beginning of this debacle. Once Xar'on enters she tips her head in his direction, indicating to Dareus where she's headed and makes her toward the Doc, "Any of that blood yours?" is her low voiced inquiry. Sarray leans against the counter and as Xar'on tumbles onto the stool he smirks. "I told you Old man...armor is a good thing. But no...gets in the way you said!" he raises a brow and hefts the A280 in the crook of his arm. "You sure you don't want a set I have some handy." Juran had done an excellent job on Tyler's swoop has he was scouting the upper levels. Unfortunately he really got to test it when the Thrashers found him, or he ran upon them stalking Lon and Siren. There was a brief and mostly bloodless skirmish that resulted in the three escaping, Lon and Siren on one of the swooper's bikes following Tyler down into the lower levels of Nar Shaddaa. The trip was treacherous and they only briefly lost the gang, who would no doubt trace them here, the Side Deck within a few moments. The Sith and his two companions pull up and are admitted as he simply forces the vessel into the establishment with Lon and Siren in tow on theirs. The Sithspawn's powerful engines hum shakes anything not strapped down, from the dead body to all the glasses and liquor at the bar. He kills the engine after one deafening roar of the engines and slides off the vessel. He moves swiftly up to the bar, his boots and their spurs clapping loudly across the floor as he lights a smoke and leans up near the Doctor, "Grubba's men are on the way, they're going to try to force us out of here." He says quietly, "These gangs mean business, some of the best mobile killers on the moon. We're going to not only have to fight'em but beat'em at their own game. I guess they could pump some poison gas into the ventilation system, or simply start threatening us in another way." He turns to Juran, "You manage us any bikes?" Kaitlin wordlessly hands Via a rifle from behind the bar at the question, apparently going over a ledger spreadsheet despite everything happening outside. The sniper taking potshots at Dareus as he enters learns a swift lesson in Nar Shaddaa's unique system of law when Kaitlin's employees chase him off with a hail of blaster fire in retaliation. And then, Tyler and his new ride show up. Normally, Kaitlin might be annoyed by the bike on her carpet, but now is not normal times, and she sets the pad down, pulling another rifle from behind the bar. "The ventilation is a closed system-- I don't care for the smell of fresh air. But I don't fancy waiting around in here being shot at when I could shoot them out there first," she adds, slapping a full power pack into the EKX-10. "So I think we should probably go teach them the folly of their ways, hmm?" As Malign 'sneaks' into the Side deck, Dareus hops off his stool and chuckles, looking back to Lynae, "I live for this Lyn, you're well aware of that fact. Just make sure you're ready for more surgery on me." Tilting his neck from side to side deeply, several vertibrae crack, and he takes a sip from the flask, offering it to Tyler, "Yeah; mobile killers, well, they haven't been where we've been; time to take them to school." He recharges the action on his carbine, the heavy whine starting up as it loads the power into the weapon, and he sighs, knowing full well he's cocky, but that's kept him alive quite a bit before. Looking at Lynae, he smirks, "Don't mess up the jacket or I'm denting your ship, Doc." With a quick wink at her, he looks around the room, smiling a bit, having already fought with quite a few of these people already, if there's any nervousness, it's not coming from him. Ka'una lets out a curse that gets pretty much drawn in the sound of the motor, her hands at her ears for a moment as she quickly steps aside at the entering bike. Anger gets replaced by confusion as she sees who exactly Tyler dragged along, and she looks up at Joworral, lightly patting the wook's side with a smile before she points at Lon and Siren, nudging Via. "Hey. Lookit." she says. "Looks like they didn't get their food after all." she smirks and finally attaches the sheath of her blade to her belt as she slowly walks toward the pair. "Well well..see, everyone ends up here sooner or later.." she says, smirking. The Wookiee keeps silent for the most part, he is attempting to fit a confounded blast vest onto his massive chest. It is not going well. He growls a bit, "aaaaaa rahrahraff" He twists and pulls on it some more. Troubling that it is the vest that bothers him and not the swoop entering the room, nor the comments of imminent violence headed their way. He looks to Via, nodding to her once, "hhhrrrrroog ooaaaaaa hhhrrrrroog" A brief pause and then a glance over to Juran, eyeing the bags of weapons, then the pirate once more. A moment is given to let the man grieve and then, "rrrhl aaaaaa rahrahraff hhhrrrrroog ahrck ahrck ahrck mmrroooa brhnnnh mmrroooa mmmrrrruuugh frowh awroooohh mmmrrrruuugh rrg oooooo grrowr" (speaking in Shyriiwook) Xar'on ignores any comments directed at him for several moments, sitting on the stool with his eyes closed, breathing a bit quickly. His breathing eventually slows, and he slowly opens his eyes and looks around, shaking his head a bit. Lynae's question goes unanswered for a moment, before his eyes seem to focus on her finally, his frown deepening. He starts to turn away, but then rasps, "Just a little," before turning to face the bar and growling, "Ale," to no one in particular. Swivelling in the chair with a wince of pain, he looks at Sarray and grumbles, "No...no armor," before blinking heavily and shaking his head once more. "Oh, great. I swear, I'm cursed or something." Via hefts the rifle and tries to get used to it. "Jowwy, remind me to just blast people I don't like in the future. It'll stop them turning up everywhere I go. Honestly, I thought you could get away from people on Nar Shaddaa... Juran's right hand comes up, three fingers. "Got three for you, man. They ain't the best but I got scrap to work with after I made yours. They got weapons and they got some speed on them. Don't trust them to take any more than one or two direct hits, then yer best off leaping.. Otherwise you're gonna turn into the fireball." He lowers his hand, rubbing it against his thigh. "I got em' stored, one call and my lot bring em' round swift like for us. I got equipment, too." He waves his left hand, causing his men to move forwards, taking off their bags and setting them on the ground, taking rifles and pistols out from within them. "Take what y'need.. You use it, you gimmie it back. You break it, I want payment fer it." He eyes the Wookiee for a moment. "I got a spear. You look big enough to impale a couple folk on it. Or take a Blaster Rifle. Just mind t'leave it in good nick. If you bash it, you bought it." "That's a nasty threat," Lynae retorts to Dareus, rubbing at one after the sound from Tyler's ride fades. "Dent my ship and I'll make sure next time I have to stitch something of yours back on, it'll be on backwards." The grin that forms on her face is faint, and fades almost as soon as it appears, but the easy banter takes the edge off. She turns back to Xar'on one he responds to her question, her own gaze focusing on his face and studying him for a moment. She seems to nod ever so faintly, "Stimulants then," in a decisive tone of voice, gesturing with one hand to the side of his neck where he'd injected himself a few moments ago. To Malign she wonders aloud, "If we had something akin to a flame thrower we could wait until they're ready to try to charge into here, then fry 'em all at once and take care of the first wave which might, in turn, make the second wave hesitate long enough for us to get into position. Sarray moves across the floor to Xar'on and nods, his tone is quiet. "I can drag out a blast vest I think, keep the glass off of ya next time eh?" the A280 clicks against his armor as he moves and he sets a carbine on the bar next to the doctor. "Take it for protection eh?" Lon's eyes focus narrowly on the room they've forced their way into, the speeder underneath him and Siren still powering down its engines in the wake of Tylers. There is a momentary shocked look on his face, his eyes alight upon the occupants of the room. But after a moment, it's replaced by a look of determination. He turns that glance over his shoulder, eyes focusing on Siren. There is a seriousness in them, a warning, a message attempting to be conveyed through a glance. "If this is gonna be a swoop battle, think you better be flying hun. Switch seats with me." Lon tosses his body off the swoop, waiting for Siren to scoot up before swinging onto the back, his body facing backwards, feet locking under pegs to keep him in place. Turning toward the women who address them so harshly. "Live with it. Like it or not, I'm gunning on your side, it seems." Shifting his gaze back to Siren, he offers a brief smile, "This was not my idea of how to find a bite to eat... sorry hun." Shifting on the bike, Siren smirks slightly, "Well this wasn't my idea of a visit either." Her voice is thick with worry though and the emerald eyes glance over those here. Thanks goodness for civvie clothes. "Though I am hungry, we have to be grateful for having her necks saved..." She frowns slightly then, looking over those gathered here, noting that most are the same fromt he night before. "Seems like the party continues." But her eyes flick towards Via and Ka'una. A nod and then a lingering moment on the blue twi'lek before she closes her eyes and passes a hand over them. Tyler liked Kaitlin's spirit as he smiles and nods, "I like the idea of just taking the pain to them. I am not a very patient man." He checks his weapons and his attire and gives her a lopsided grin, "Anybody opposed to us just taking the fight to the enemy?" He takes a drag on his smoke and walks back over to his new swoop and runs a gloved finger around the edges, very satisfied with this thing. He leans on his new toy and listens as Juran reports on additional swoops, "Your three, my one, and the one we got from the swoopers." He rubs his chin and shrugs, "We can double up, but that'll leave some people on the ground. Including your pirate friends." He smirks. "A flamethrower would be nice, wouldn't it." He muses and sighs; Dareus was right on the money though the people he knew in the room were hardened veterans of a Galactic Civil War, and this was just a minor annoyance for most of them a bit of action to take the edge of monotony. Outside the sound of swoops could be heard and blaster fire, some of it bigger than the standard rifles. They were circling the block as well waiting, "Well sounds like our guest are here. They may even want to talk before we try to kill each other." He shrugs, there were at least fourteen of them, fifteen, until one fell to his death and his swoop became Siren and Lon's, "I am up for suggestions, but best not keep them waiting." Kaitlin listens to tyler talk, grinning predatorially back. "I've got a nice hunting blaster and a pretty good scope. I'll take a few of the boys up to the roof and we can support whoever's on the bikes. Might even still have an anti-tank rocket buried in the store-room somewhere..." she muses wolfishly. Laughing for a few seconds at Lynae, he shakes his head, "No way, you wouldn't do that. It's a pretty useless threat. Nice try though, that gives you a few points." Dareus adjusts his sling to keep the bi-polar ready for combat, letting it fall idly by his side while he pulls the Kylan out and checks the power supply for that, returning it to the thigh holster before glancing around the room once again. Seeing Tyler not take the flask, he shrugs, takes another sip and slides it into one of the combat vests, before he brings his blaster back up, "Well, I dunno about anyone else here, but I say we just go out, shoot first and let them talk after, if any of them survive. We have an advantage, they don't know if there's 7, 12 or 20 of us in here, and we know how many there are. We should use that for now while we can; it's not like we're going up against Sienar engineers anyway; half of them are lucky they're smart enough to use a holoterm." He moves along near the door, and stands, looking around the crowd; waiting for suggestions, but ultimately waiting for the orders from one person here. Ka'una mhs and lifts a hand, dismissivley waving at Lon. "Eh, it's okay, I'm not blaming you for coming here. Just miffed you didn't take the ride in the elevator in the first place. Guess your met Tatooine Bob on the other hand, tho." Then she eyes Via, Siren, Via. "Oh..you know each other, eh? I won't ask. Well you two.." she says, looking at both, Siren and Lon again..when the first blaster shots get fired outside, and the sound of swoop engines is heard. "Shit, nevermind. Last chance to get your booze is now." She moves the bar and clears her throat somewhat. "Hey! Who's moving with who now?" she shouts, and glances at her twi'lek and wookiee companions afterwards. "And how? Big Guy, ever rode a swoop?" Joworral persk up a bit, eyeing the spear and the E-11, a slow, toothy grin crosses his lips, "rawrr" he states clearly moving over towards the bag and taking up the Blaster first, strapping it across his bandolier for easy access. And then the spear, which he eyes a few moments before picking up. Quite the visage, a dichotomy of technology, beast man with a spear and blaster rifle. Poetic, really. "rahr" Joworral grunts towards Juran before moving back over to Via and Ka'una, "krahghrowj rowf rahrahraff" a pause then, "ooaaaaaa grrr auoorgh grrowr ahhhhhh ahhhh rawr ooooaugh" While the Wookiee himself is a pilot, swoop riding is fairly foreign to him conceptually. He glances towards the door with the sound of the engines, then shakes his head a bit to Ka'una, "ruuahhhh ooaaaaaa ruuahhhh ahghghgh awroooohh awroooohh hrowrowhr ooaaaaaa ahhhh frowh mmrroooa grah rawrr oooooo reeow aaaaaa grah hrowrowhr ruuahhhh hrowrowhr rahgh" (speaking in Shyriiwook) Xar'on shakes his head in reply to Sarray and croaks, "Block quick access to my pockets, kid. Enough already." He gives Lynae glare out of the corner of his eyes, bringing a hand up to rub the injection site, rasping, "So the frig what..." As he pulls his hand away, a slight tremor starts, which he stops by gripping it with his other hand for a moment. He grabs the hypo and tosses it inside the medpac, which is somehow crammed full of items, rather than depleted. As he listens to everyone else talk about another fight, he sighs deeply, sinking his head into his chest and looking decidedly like a tired old man. "Look, Ka'una, I'm making her mad." Via smirks coldly and inspects the rifle's power levels. As the other twi'lek asks if she knows Siren, she shakes her head. "Nah. I just don't like her. You know how it is." She shakes her head at the Wookiee. "I could fly one into the ground, if you like." "Then let's make our own low-tech version," Lynae suggests instead. "There's alcohol, plenty of cloth from the remains of the clothing of the dead to use as short fuses. You're smoking a cigar, Malign, so you have to have a lighter somewhere. This isn't a high-tech mind boggle. We stuff a short strip of cloth into the top of bottles of high-grade alcohol and lob them in the direction of the enemy. Hit the floors, the walls, even the thugs that hold still long enough. You get three weapons in once: flying projectiles, shattered glass, and flame spread by alcohol. Alcohol burns fast, so once it flares, what ever's in it's path is going to go up. And water will make the fire spread." She taps her fingertips against the top of the bar before grinning briefly at Dareus, "You know me too well," she calls out in reply, "I've spent too much time patching your hide together to harm you at this point. I've seen you naked more than your fiance has," she adds in a deliberate barb. Again her attention shifts towards Xar'on, "He won't use a weapon in defense," she explains to Sarray. "He's one of the best, if not THE best doctor I have ever had the honor to work anywhere near. He won't take a life, that's the difference between his school of training and mine. When the chips are down, I'll kill to protect my own. That which gives life also takes it away," she says, though her comment is clearly aimed more at Xar'on more than anything else, a hint of steel and a tone of finality in her voice as she heads off what will likely be a long argument someday. "Aye.. Take." Juran grunts and waves his hand at Joworral, "Break it you buy it." He thumps his foot on the ground, shifting his boot on the ground he then grunts and rolls his shoulders, making his back pop. "Righ'. I'll fly one of the swoops. I can build em', I can fly em'." He checks his Vibrorapier at his side, muttering to himself. "Oi.. Burnin' good booze." The pirate sighs, waving his hand at his crewmates. "Grab guns n' find yersel' good shooting positions. Don't fire until you have a clean shot, you know the rules that go w'being a Privateer." The men rise and run off, holding rifles and pistols. Juran checks over his ZCF and grunts at it. "Loaded. I'll try t'keep blowin' the stuff up to a minimum.." Sarray nods and glances at Xar for a moment. "Have it your way then...later on I will elaborate of the blaster as a scalpel and I will wager." he lifts and charges the A280. "When I am done...you will use a weapon." there is a faint smile on his face as he heads for the door. "Bob, I am soldier..not a speed jockey." Lon's eyes turn down to his rifle, checking the power cell. Swinging the backoff, he readjusts it so that slings over the back of the swoop, just in front of his lap. Opening it up, he pulls out a grenade, tossing it in the palm of his hand briefly, before throwing it back into the pack. For someone who's just 'slumming it', he seems rather well prepared. A gaze is tossed towards Tyler, a smirk rising to his lips. Stars know this is the last company he thought he'd ever be fighting along side. "Let's get this party started eh? Before someone with an itchy trigger finger and an attitude opens up on someone on our side." His eyes turn coldly towards Via with that remark. "There is a swarm of dung bettles out there for us to shoot at." The rifle is brought to his shoulder, eyes narrowing down at it once more. A single hand reaches behind him, gently gripping to Siren's leg, offering a bit of a touch in gesture. "Just keep us in the air love.." the last, is offered in a whisper to her. Emerald eyes turn off of Via with silent disinterest, at least feigned. Siren then smiles, leaning back against Lon as she whispers, "I will..you know its the one thing I do well." She winks and places her hand over his. "We'll get off this planet. I just hope the Admiral is as forgiving." There is a frown to her face. Breaching shore leave by going off planet was not exactly kosher. The Deck Officer of the Audacity glances around again, then gazes down at the speeder, checking over a few things. Looks like she knows what she is doing. She leans back then and speaks with Lon once more, "Seels safe enough, it got us here...just hope its got the manoeuvrability I think it has. Just hold tight when we get going." Tatooine Bob, yes Tatooine Bob's own swoop gang. He grabs a pair of gloves from a compartment on his swoop and gestures to Dareus, "C'mon." he mutters as he saddles up, "Divide the swoops among yourselves. I am going to go out and have a talk with the Dug that leads this group. Might as well get some order, he'll honor a gang fight, even if he out numbers us, makes him more likely to listen, he is confident." No helmets for Tatooine Bob it wasn't his style he begins checking his systems, "Juran, Kaitlin, organize the riders and their gunners." He kicks his swoop on and it emits with a steady roar, "We're allowed to fight dirty." He winks and waits for Dareus. This was going to be very interesting, he holds his hand out for that flask of his finally, now he wanted a drink. Tension was high but who wouldn't be tense or sarcastic when facing death, it was a way to deal with it. Tyler, or Tatooine Bob reaches into his jacket and pulls out an igniter and pitches it to Lynae, "Use your imagination, Doc." He smirks, "There is a Dug outside who wants us dead, I'm going to go talk to him, and I need all of you on the same page, the same side, and ready to run out shooting. Down here there isn't a lot of room; the fight isn't going to stay down here too long running over 200 kilometres an hour, "Sarray saddle up with Juran, he'll take good care of you, he's one of the best damn pilots in the slice, or so he claims." He smirks, "You either ride with Tatooine Bob or you ride against him, that's all I'm saying, tonight we are the best swoop gang on the moon, and we're riding for Thanos." Kaitlin turns and whistles sharply for one of her people's attention, gesturing. "Fetch the swoop from the hangar, Tess. Juran, get them sorted out onto rides, and I'll let you have your choice of driving or shooting on mine. Dareus grin a bit more, tapping his fingertips on the barrel of his carbine while he reaches for his flask once again, glancing around the room while he takes the cap off,having another sip. Looking to Xar'on, "Stimulants? Bah, Whiskey makes better for a fight, no offence Doc, but running around trying to be a hero by saving people on this dump, ain't worth it. It's not normal civilians dying outside." He points the flask at him for emphasis, "The innocents are held up in their houses and slums, hiding from all this, you just damned well remember that, cause I give no quarter to anyone who's got a weapon, injured or not." He's far different than years ago, helping injured, even the enemy, but this was a different time and whole different situation. The look on Dareus' face changes quickly and he points his finger at Lynae, seriously, "Don't be bringing her up right about now...this ain't the time or place." He's relatively sure she's in the dark about it, but it's a nerve that she struck, anyone could see that. Taking a long sip from the flask, and few deep breaths, he calms down far more, but decides to bottle the rage for later use, it comes in handy. Deciding to turn it into a joke, he winks at Lyn quickly, "Still haven't seen you naked, it's only fair." He turns sharply to avoid the look that he's come to expect from her, addressing Malign quickly with a bow of his head, skipping the helmet himself, "As you wish my Lord..." Things were starting to get interesting, he thinks, handing the flask to the Sith, quickly verifying the systems, and hopping on, and moving behind Maligns' seat, snapping the safety to off on the bi-polar. Ka'una mhrs and lightly nods, waiting to be sorted onto one of the swoops. "Blade only here!" she shouts to make that clear, in case it wasn't known, and seperates she sheath from her beld again, wondering why she even bothered. She eyes Via. "Girl..later, mh?" she says. "now's not a good time for that. Better do a last check on those blasters of yours." she says, placing the sheathed weapon into her left hand before she places her right hand onto the bar, waiting..looking at Juran. "Man..a fight on a swoop. I must be mad.." she murmurs to herself and closes her eyes for a moment, deeply inhaling, her lekku twitching. Yeah, she's nervous, but heck..no way out, right? she just grips the sheath tighter and slowly opens her eyes again, taking a look at Via and Joworral, smiling softly for a moment before she looks at Juran again. Joworral grunts a bit, looking to Via and Ka'una, "rahr grrraahhh" Cause really, what is he supposed to do in this situation? He looks over to Kaitlin a moment, "arrrrgggh hrowrowhr awwwwwrrrrrrhhhhh mmmrrog ooooaugh awwwwwrrrrrrhhhhh mmrroooa" Or perhaps he doesn't pilot at all and just throws things? Who really knows. And so the Wookiee awaits his assignment (speaking in Shyriiwook) Xar'on doesn't respond to Lynae's comments, and doesn't even look at Dareus. He sways in his seat a bit, his eyes unfocusing for a moment before he catches himself. With effort, he slides off the stool clumsily, and grabs his medpac, growling, "I don't ride fer no damn jedi o' any kind, and I don't ride fer no damn wannabe crimelord..." he doubles over in a coughing fit, eventually pulling himself together, but wheezing slightly. He aims himself at the door and growls, "People need help...innocent 'r not..." He takes a few steps, before his knees go out on him. "I'll stay and shoot from here," says Via, eyeing the swoop bikes. "Can always use some covering fire, right?" She checks the rifle again and moves to follow Juran's crewmates into a good shooting position. "Oi.. Take 'is." Juran unhooks his Vibrorapier, walking over to the bar and putting it down in front of the dear Ka'una. "If you break it, I'mma be annoyed." He grunts as he marches over to his table, grabbing his helmet and pulling it onto his head. He taps on the visor a few times as his vision shifts as the electrical systems activate, his targeting system beeping inside as he looks around. He pauses, lifting up his left arm to check the diagnostic, then marches outside to get his swoop. He hauls one leg over it, then sits there as he begins the diagnostic on that, also. He raises his head, grunting. "Rioght.. Ready." Lon smirks at a comment whispered to him from Siren, his head turning to regard her a little easier, cheek pressing against hers. "I'll talk to him if he says anything 'bout it," he promises her in a return whisper, eyes flickering over Siren's face as best he can from his back to back position with her. Giving her hand one more squeeze, Lon turns again facing back in the seat, shoulders his weapon, the growls slightly. "Come on.... Lets get this going! I can't stand just waitin' for this! Power this bird up, hun, and lets fry us some Dug, eh?" Lynae catches the tossed lighter and nods, turning to the bar again and moving around it to speak directly to Kaitlin, "My apologies in advance for assuming that we could liquidate your assets," she begins without preamble. "And if you give me a price sheet after the fact, I'm sure we can come to something reasonable in the way of compensation. To be fair, I'd suggest using the stuff that sells slow and has the highest content." She pauses to step back for a bit and takes out the vibro-scalpel from the sheath she carries it in and slices the shirt off of the dead body before returning to the bar. "I'll slice this up into short fuses, and it should work, with a reasonable amount of measure for error," she adds. Dareus's comment draws her gaze for a moment and she gives him a slow shake of her head, "Not in this life time, Dareus," followed by another one of those quick grins that fades the instant that Xar'on collapse, "Damn it old man, don't you dare die now," she swears in a low voice as she makes her way around the bar to kneel beside Xar'on. She checks his vitals as she lays the shotgun beside her on the floor, "He's just exhausted," she finally says and looks up and towards Kaitlin and then Tyler, "I need some place relatively safe to stow him until he's ready to be upwardly mobile again," she says. "Is there a storage room or locker or something?" There is actually a laugh from Siren that steals her serious air. With a sounding hum, their speeder roars to life and after a minute begins to pass her hand over everything, double checking everything in a few moments and then she lifts her gaze to the man in charge, or men. Eyes flicker to Tyler, her head tilting as she nods to him. "What a mess.." she says under her breath. Fingers flex and the navigator rolls her shoulders."I haven't flown anything like this since before the new republic was established..." Pressing her lips together she sighs, "I just gotta remember its going to respond more quickly then a capital ship..." Everyone was grabbing a swoop and things were getting to roll. Tyler didn't have the patience for an old man wanting to save the galaxy he drives the swoop forward its engines kicking up cooking Kaitlin's carpet as he pulls right in front of the doctor, his cigarette hanging from his mouth and his hair ruffled up, "Old man, you go out that door and you will die. There is a swoop gang out there gunning for people like you, old, frail, wealthy." He smirks not caring if the man could hear him or not, "You settle your little rear back down at that barstool, and think about how you want to spend the next few years of your life. Also, word of advice, call me a Jedi again and I'll make sure they can't find your body, no Jedi has the courage to fight a war for the people." He growls, "Tonight, we're freeing people from the oppression of the Hutts, and that is all that matters." He spits down in front of him before backing up and heading out into the streets to face Unb'tar, gang leader of the Thrashers, where their rival gang Grubba also hired is, was anyone's guess, no doubt waiting to see who comes out on top, if they killed Bob and his crew, they'd fight over the bodies for the reward. Outside some fourteen swoops stood hitting their jets and revving up. Tyler's swoop rides out and stops and the Dug, Unb'tar rides to meet him and they start exchanging words. After a few moments the Dug growls and zooms back screaming something in his tongue as the gang hit their engines and weapons are brought out. Tyler sighs to Dareus, "Well guess I shouldnt've have called his mother that." He smirks, "Hope your ready for this, we're going to have to run, a straight on blaster fight right here isn't going to be pretty." He turns back and gestures to his makeshift swoop gang to hit their jets and get into the skies behind. With that Tyler hits the accelerator and zooms off leading the way into the deep canyons of buildings that made up the Vertical City. Kaitlin grins wryly at Lynae. "Apology accepted. That said... the offer will not be necessary. One moment. We keep special stock for these situations." She ducks behind the bar, and hoists a case of very alcoholic bottles out from a bottom shelf, and shoves it toward Lynae. "Knock yourself out. Perfect stuff for Side Specials. We keep it around for object lessons." Clearly, all Kaitlin was concerned with in regards to the liberation of her stock was her authority within her own building. Then her swoop arrives from downstairs coourtesy of a cargo lift, and she nods her head at Joworral. "C'mon, fuzzy. You can throw things at people for me. Like... other people." Dareus laughs a little while the dug screams off, pissed and yelling in his own language, that he could care less about understanding. Patting the bi-polar, he looks back at the makeshift gang and shrugs with a laugh before turning back to the driver, "Don't you worry about me, I was born for this. Who the hell wants to live to be an old man anyway..." It's not really a question, just a simple statement, as the swoop takes off, Dareus uses one hand to stabilize himself on the back until it's at a stable speed, the other hand keeping around the grip of his carbine and finger on the trigger, tilting the weapon up vertically, and holding the butt in the crook of his elbow. Turning back as they move at high speed, he narrows his eyes a little due to the speed of the wind on his face, "Slow ass bikers, so far..." He was gonna regret saying that, he knew, later on; but still, "We got some space still..." He's not sure if Malign can hear him over the whine of the engine, but it doesn't matter, he knows from experience that communicating with this pilot won't be that hard. Ka'una blinks at Juran before she quickly nods, smirking. "Thanks." she says and grabs the rapier. She pulls it out of her sheath a little, smirking. "Oh yeah. This will do." she says, before re-sheathing it. Then, with one sheath in each hand she eyes the fallen doc and crouches next to Lynae. "Too late, it seems like it's about to start." she comments, looking out where the proverbial fan seems to be starting to spin. "Let's grab a swoop and get outta there. If he's just exhausted, I'm sure the people here can drop him on some nice cushions, mh?" Her four tattooed lekku move, slowly curling around each other on her back, staying out of the way of what's soon to come, and she straightens again, exhaling softly before she licks her lips. "Let's go." Xar'on shakes Lynae off with a surprising surge of strength, growling, "Get yer damn mitts offa me...I ain't hidin' in no room waitin' fer a buncha damn fools to kill each other." He rises to his feet awkwardly, and manages a dry chuckle at Tyler's threat. "Boy, I stared up at Imp walkers on Hoth 'n been in the sights o' the first two Death Stars. You ain't nothin' to me." He limps to the door slowly. Lynae picks the shotgun back up and doesn't argue with Xar'on, experience telling her that it'd be like arguing with herself which amounts to 'no point'. She heads back to the bar to begin to outfit the alcohol bottles that Kaitlin hoisted onto the bar from the bottom shelf. Stuffing a scrap of fabric into the top of each one, she works as fast as possible to be ready when the group is ready to move out. Watching all that goes on, the thrum of the speeder below her sings. She holds on lightly for now, trying to release nervousness. Then as Tyler lifts off, she gives only a moment notice. "here we go." With that she follows suit, backing out and falling in line behind the man. Watching the exchange, she grips the speeder, her knuckles whitening. Then as the dug takes off, the weapons drawn, Siren curses beneath her breath. She is not far behind, hitting the accelerator she is off in a flash, rising to follow suit. She bows her head, auburn curls almost straightening behind her as the ait whips past. She spares a glance back and then keeps her attention before her. Grabbing hold tight with his legs feet to the pegs, and his knees to the saddle, Lon holds as tight as he can for the initial boost away on the swoop. His teeth grit against the acceleration Gs.. the man on the back of this mobile racing/killing tool obviously not a pilot. But as the swoop gains a good speed, he relaxes, eyes flicking toward the pursuers as they make chase promptly on the lead group. "Come on.. come on! Let's get this group rolling!" His voice would be lost over the whine of his speeder and wind, but it's worth making himself feel better to yell. Tyler was an excellent pilot and he jerked the swoop around like a starfighter keeping himself close to the buildings as it looked like a duracrete blur off to their immediate left. Tatooine Bob's troops arrive in force but there was no formation, no means of figuring out how best to address the problem of the dug's swoop gang, who were circling below, apparently wanting to be good sports. Once all of them were together Tyler raised a hand and the race began he hit his accelerator hard and started pulling up speed, expecting those around him to, "Don't be honorable Dareus, start shooting and praying!" he mutters as the Dug's group pull into pursuit but half split off and move down another alley, no doubt planning to try to ambush them up ahead after a few thousand kilometers of hard riding. Unb'tar was boasted as being on of the most reckless swoopers on the Moon as he and his rough and rowdy gang members start closing the gap with deadly efficiency. Their swoops gleamed with weapons and other various melee weapons. Tyler grits his teeth this is going to get ugly fast. Traffic was low tonight on Shaddaa but that didn't mean there weren't obstacles like falling debris, the blaster shots from the gang behind them, some speeders managing to have survived, refugee ships, various droids. He mutters, "Grubba is going to get a personal invitation to pain when this is over." Having finally fixed her camera, Eithne comes out of hiding and jumps on the back of one of the swoops the pulls up in front of Kaitlin. "Mind if I tag along?" She waves her blaster in the direction that Tyler went in. Kaitlin straddles her swoop, pulling a pair of goggles down over her eyes, and guns the engine, frowning a touch before she gives Eithne a nod to get on quickly. She barely gives the woman time to get settled before she peels carpet, launching the swoop after Tyler's with a scream of the repulsorlift engine. When they get out into the open air, and their opponents give chase, she takes one hand off her controls, pulling a cryoban grenade from her jacket and letting the cylinder flip back over her shoulder on a contact fuse, with an amused little smile on her lips. "Honorable...who the hell said I was that honorable? I'm a traitor, remember?" He chuckles, an Imperial Traitor on the back of a swoop piloted by a Sith Lord...this amuses him to no end. He quickly turns around, very carefully, knowing full well Maligns' piloting, but still, there was the environment. His bi-polar levels with his shoulder and he starts to fire shots, grinning at the speed the bolts fly, although the first few shots miss their mark, some of the gang dodging quickly. "Fancy..." Dareus flips a switch and shrugs, taking an extra pack from his vest, and firing full auto from the back of the swoop, green bolts flying as if it was the exhaust of the vehicle, quite a few ricochet of the armor of their swoops, completely and accurately missing their own people, but still sending a few pieces of swoop off the enemy bikes. One of their shots just barely grazes his arm, and Dareus yells out, "NICE SHOOTING! NO WONDER WHY YOU HAVE TO WORK FOR THE HUTTS!" He was always a tactician, even in the Empire, especially on crazy little adventures like these, quickly, he turns the blaster fire to the side of the street, unloading several shots into a garbage bin, which in turn, launches the shrapnel toward some of the gang. Ka'una watches Lynae for a moment, before she quickly walks to an empty swoop and sits down on the back. She places the sheaths at the sides of her legs, somewhat steadying the ends against edges of the swoop, before she pats the seat in front of her. "That's a shotgun, isn't it?" she eyes the other woman's weapon. "I guess we need to get near the enemy swoops either way then." the twi'lek comments, nodding at her blades. Then she reaches into her vest and pulls out a silken cloth, before she begins to wrap it around her lower head. No way those lekku fit into one of the helmets around here, and it will give at least some protection against the wind. A set of goggles gets grabbed from the swoop, and she pulls them over her eyes. "So let's get real close n personal whenever we can. We gotta catch up to those bastards." She shifts a little on the swoop seating, and exhales slowly against the fabric of the cloth, getting ready mentally, her hands on the hilts of the blades. Xar'on limps to the door, past the guards, and steadies himself against the door frame as he takes in a deep, shuddering breath. He spares a glance at the departing swoops before walking out into the city. Lynae nods to Ka'una's question, "I have this shotgun and a hold out blaster, which isn't much to work with, but if you want to use either, just say the word," she says as she slides the strap over her shoulders, the one that's attached to the shotgun, Lynae slings the shotgun cross her back before tugging the hold out blaster from it's holster and tucks it into one of the front pockets of her vest for easier access. Now that she has the swoop loaded with as many bottles of homemade incendiary devices as possible, she nods to the Twi'lek and briefly introduces herself, "I'm Lynae, and I'll be your tour guide for this jaunt," she quips with a grin. Climbing aboard she studies the controls for a moment then powers it up, shakes her head slightly and shout comments over her shoulder, "Can you light the bottle and throw them?" she asks, offering the lighter to Ka'una, "Or we can wait until we get where we're going and save the fire for then." Either way she lifts the swoop up off the ground, a bit shakily of course, but gets it going in the right direction and forms up with the rest of the swoops to give chase to Tyler and Dareus as they move out. "IS HE SUICIDAL?!" Siren's eyes widen as she follows right behind Tyler. He's good. She isn't that good, but the woman is hugging the buildings closer than she ever would wish to. Narrowing her gaze, she leans in. Muttering something, she hits the accelerator to catch up and soon finds that Tyler as stopped. Pulling up next to him for the moment, she looks downward and then over Nar Shaddaa's airways. Then the whine of the speeder next to her gives her the signal. Moments after Tyler, she hits her own accelerator. "HANG ON!" is all she can yell to Lon behind her, the fear of losing him far exceeding any obstacle at the moment. A bolt zings up, striking near the side of her foot and she curses. Dodging right, she begins to weave a bit, keeping the aim off of them. This causes her to narrowly avoid the edge of a building. "GREAT MOONS! DAMN IT!" She curses. Oh and how she is going to start talking like a smuggler after this. Of course, if she lives. The swoop growls beneath them as Siren takes them away from the pursuing group. This may not have been the best idea in the world, in truth, Lon looking a little green all ready from all the manoeuvering. That and sniper rifles don't do so well at high speeds. But hell... he's done it before... made those rather impossible shots. Lon's shoulder braces his rifle, his eye dropping to his scope almost lazily, just for general area sighting at first. "Keep our speed up Siren, no matter what!" His yell comes out as loud as it can in hopes of reaching his pilot, but he doesn't wait for response. Instead, he squeezes the trigger... three times in succession as his rifle charges ready between each powerful shot. The first shot strikes true... to a wall, sending chucks of plasteel into the air at the pursuers, but nothing else. The last two shots only burn the air near their heads, the powerful bolts though carrying enough swaying power for most. Even at high speeds the deadly fire power of a FarSight could seem daunting. Dareus gets grazed, and Tyler doesn't like it, "You know, Dareus you could try hitting the enemy." He mutters kicking his swoop up into the air, "Hold on, we're going to do something irrational in a few moments." His swoop goes up hard gaining altitude but certainly not speed, the engines attempting to shut down as he feeds it more power by hitting the accelerator. Kaitlin's grenade hits its mark and well bouncing off the front of a swoop and doing what it was told to do with detonation, the result of the detonation was deafening but also a brilliant flash, one swoop off the map and two nearby ones zigzagging and exploding into the side of buildings, the group chasing them was down to four swoops and the Dug wasn't happy at all, peeling in from the side coming right at the heroes were the other seven shooting in all directions a few stray shots pelting the thick armor of Tyler's swoop as he growls thinking about how much it'll cost to fix the paint. "Alright, Dareus, reach around and take the controls, I'm not letting you get us killed." He smirks standing up and hooking his foot on a strap and unclipping his lightsaber. One he is sue Dareus as at least got some idea of controlling the swoop in a hard climb, "Remember, your engines will fail if you don't dive." He smirks and leaps off the swoop into the air with his weapon coming down. The height gave him the ability to jump down on his enemy and with the assistance granted to him by the Force he collects energy around and slams hard into the front of one of the enemy swoops in the rear his weapon raised sending the head of the driver off and down into the pit. He kicks the body off the bike and quickly leaps over to take control holding his weapon up high to deflect blaster shots from either side; he was now among the now three remaining swoops taking up the rear. Eithne actually adjusts to the change from being still to moving surprisingly easily and ducks as something comes over Kaitlin's shoulder. Grabbing up another pair of goggles she places them over her eyes to protect them from the wind. She shifts about so that she can better aim her blaster. "I hope you don't mind the noise." she calls to her swoop hostess (over the noise of the swoop). Her aim is good and the man he aims at suddenly falls over, his swoop going into a spin and crashing into the ground. Kaitlin isn't the absolute most amazing swoop pilot to ever swoop. But she's good enough, thanks to some years spent with the daughter of a famous racer, some more time spent with Starlight Swoops... and most importantly, her time here on Nar Shaddaa giving her an advantage. After all... this isn't just swooping on Nar... this is swooping in her *neighbourhood*. She knows the territory well. "What!?" She calls back, flippantly, over the noise of wind and engines and combat. She heard it fine, she's just making the point. And speaking of making impressions... her second and final grenade comes loose, but this the flips sideways, through the window of a building she knows to be rickety at best. Pretty sure no one lives there. Noone she knows, anyway.... whatever. The house is going to relocate significantly into the street after she and the others pass, regardless. Tyler should be able to handle himself. "Very funny...very damn funny." Just for the hell of it, before Tyler can complain more, Dareus turns to the right side, and fires a few more shots on full auto, emptying the rest of his clip into one of the swoops that wouldn't be within reach for Maligns' leap. He knew well enough what crazy thing was about to happen, it was pretty easy to guess, for the pilot. The bolts graze the armor at first before several fly into the chest of the pilot, sending his smoking carcass off the bike, the machine itself flying unassisted into the side of a building and blowing up into a fireball; part of the front end of the swoop flying into the side of one of the others and knocking him clear into a sidespin, the bike skidding into flames on the ground. "Two with one shot, smartass..." Instantly, Dareus drops his bi-polar, letting the sling catch it where it falls, and he moves around, grabbing the controls, looking back while Malign leaps, kicking down hard and pushing it back into a steep dive toward the ground, and moving in at an angle just as it nears the pavement, kicking up the speed while he now ignores how or where the Sith landed. "You got it!" Ka'una shouts and grabs the fire and bottles, tucking them somehow between her and Lynae onto the swoop, and holds on to the swoop as they accelerate quickly. Eyes narrow out of instinct, and she smirks beneath that cloth as she sees enemy and friend get close. One way or the other..she's feeling a certain thrill now, despite being chased. The fire gets lighted again, and she gets one of the bottles ready, waiting for the right moment to set things on fire while she leans forward lightly against the driver, now that she can't hold on to anything. "Get us in front of those bastards!" she shouts, eyeing those flankers..and decides to throw the first bottle..actually two bottles of fiery pain held at the neck with one hand at the thugs, the force of her movement making the rear of the swoop shift a little..hopefully not too much. Lynae concentrates intently on the driving of the swoop, which is to say, driving it as fast as possible - faster than she wants to drive it to be honest - and also concentrates on not going SPLAT into the side of anything. Like a building, or another swoop. Crash equals bad unless it's cap ships, which she DOES have some practice in. "In front, okay," she agrees aloud, realizes she has to shout her comments, and simply nods emphatically as she applies more pressure to the throttle and accelerates even more to get the edge on the enemy swoops. A quick glance downward as she tracks the descent of the bottles and a fierce grin settles on her face as one of the swoop riders lets out a startled scream as he catches on fire, then the swoop itself. "Fire pretty!" Her eyes widen again and unconsciously she watches Tyler take his speeder a direction she had not planned. Now in lead, Siren gasps. But her eye watch as he jumps off and she all but jaw drops. There is a sound of something ahead and she turns Her head. In a second she is veering rather sharply right in order to miss oncoming traffic. Her heart leaps to her throat and she takes swift breaths to calm her otherwise frazzled nerves. Righting them, she begins leading the small group through turns, hoping to add to their advantage. The NR pilot/navigator keeps her eyes froward now, noting a nice arch, she dips then, slipping beneath it and then rising sharply to give them a moment of protection from the mess. Though it is short lived as a blaster bolt comes flying right past her ear. "LON!!! HE ALMOST HIT ME!!" She turns back to say those words, "DO SOMETHING!" "Careful damn it!" Lon shouts, looking as if he were about to puke off the back of that bike as easily as shoot! It's a stupid thing to even worry about... especially when a Sith goes diving past you in a suicidal move.... that actually works. Weird things he's seen, but thats the first time that has ever happened to Lon! His rifle comes up again toward the rear pursuing group... the two pursuers being engaged all ready. His rifle is still focused there, a hand leaving the front grip of his rifle and touching his scope. Then those swoops collide behind him, his gaze dropping away, his eyes staring on in disbelief still as his body gets whipped about like a rag doll for a moment on the back. Siren's shout catches his ears, his rifle raised as he returns it with like volume. "WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING!!!!" That shout is only echoed by another pull of his trigger and the sound of his rifle barrelling a bolt toward the flanking group. The round strikes an enemy pilot square to the chest, for a moment levitating the alien in the air as his bike goes careening into a wall. Then, like a wet noodle, the body falls out of sight, striking the ground unseen below. Eithne looks about to try to aim at another pilot, trying to hold the aim through the swooping about of the craft through the streets. Not the most smooth of rides, but the ease in and about as if Kaitlin was born here. Brings about more curiosity as to how angry you must be to blow up your own home, or was she just caught up in this mess on accident as Eithne herself had become. Perhaps she could be convinced to talk to Eithne later, but for now the true concentration must be on the task at hand...killing them before they killed us. Missing with the first couple shots due to a dip or rise in flight the third finally catches its mark. Tyler's danger sense goes off as he kills the throttle on his swoop ducking as the pair of swoopers flanking him shoot at him at the same time, both hit each other and their swoops drift into the destruction Kaitlin brings with another grenade as an entire building begins to topple down into the alley, the Sith takes the moment to light a smoke as several of the flanking swoops get caught up in the destruction a few of which were decidedly on fire and already out of control flailing their arms as they explode into the rubble, the dug dies in the explosion and what was left wasn't much anything, Tatooine Bob's makeshift swoop gang had defeated the Thrashers rather handedly. Smoking caucuses littered the streets below in rubble and small fires left over from a few careful Molotov cocktails. A few long draws and then he drives off to catch up with everyone on his commandeered swoop pulling up fast to the side of Dareus and choosing to jump over behind him onto his original swoop, the gang swoop loosing control and spinning off to crash below. Things seem to slow down as it seems safe to settle down and slow for a moment and enjoy the drive. Behind and closing in rapidly though was the other gang, they had been watching the whole time, the Slashers, Ander Dar one of the angriest and deadly humans on the moon covered in tribal tattoos leads the pack holding a sawed-off blaster rifle over his shoulder. The Dug's gang didn't do anything to weaken, so they weren't going to take any chances, with out a second thought they began to open fire, not with blasters but with a ZCF grenade launcher as explosions began to rock the nearby buildings and blow debris down on the heroes. Tyler curses, "Blast, hit the throttle Dareus!" he smacks the former Imperial lightly in the back of the head, "I don't feel like getting blown into little pieces." The *WOMPF* from the projectiles could be heard as they continued to fire but their aim was fortunately very erratic. Kaitlin screeches the swoop to a halt in a little skid, turning to see her handiwork with a delighted little cackle for the carnage. Flashing a grin over her shoulder at Eithne, the redhead settles her goggles again. "Just goes to show... you have to be careful who you point things at on Nar Shaddaa," she muses, with a tone that suggests maybe she means something other than blasters and someone other than the swoop gang. Say... a reporter and her camera bringing attention to the wrong people. Or maybe it was nothing. Who knows? Food for thought, but apparently, now is not the time, as grenades land nearby. Kaitlin guns the engine again, and takes off with a yelled "Here we go again! Hang on!" He quickly glances behind a few times, and as the hand goes upside the back of his bare head he narrows his eyes at Malign, almost jokingly though, thinking to himself, "Settle down gramps, just watch your own speed." Smirking, he looks back again, ducking slightly while a grenade whizzes through the air a few yards above his head, but still, it wasn't that fun to hear. He looks back to Malign and yells out, "Keep them going as fast as they can, time too see what your piece of crap can do." Without any warning, he starts to laugh while he slams in the brakes hard, sending everyone whipping past him, as he only pays attention to behind himself, turning slightly to adjust while everyone at high speed goes past. Casually, he kicks the back end of the speeder out, which clips the barrel of one of the repeating blasters of the new gang, sending the bike end over end, the driver launching into the air somewhere before Dareus slams back down on the accelerator, and moving up ahead quickly, grinning but sweating a little at the though of how close that was. Glancing quick at the controls, he starts to fire the plasma emitter at the back of one of the slower guys, causing the wannabe gangster to swerve, enough that he clips some poor Ithorian who was going somewhere, covering Dareus in something unpleasant, but letting the plasma light the new target up, as he disintegrates just in time for him to fly through what's left of the wreckage; full throttle heading back up to the makeshift group. Ka'una exhales softly as the battle seems to be over, softly laughing before she eeks and blows out the fire of one of the bottles..just before that other gang appears and she screams as the speed gets picked up again. She begins to light bottles and just throw them up into the air in rapid succession, letting the velocity and wind carry them to the enemy...that is, until the last bottle bursts from a blaster shot and she screams as some glass hits her, her instinctive reaction to throw the burning remains far away as not to set the alcohol on herself and the own swoop on fire. She curses, bending forward, holding her hand for a moment before she sharply inhales. "Move so they see we don't have bottles anymore!" she shouts and looks over Her shoulder, ducking as blaster fire shoots past them, watching grenades explode on building walls. More grenades than blasters. Long range stuff... "And then get in front of them! Full front and wait for my sign! Nice knowing you!" she instructs Lynae, Her voice rather shaky at the end, and her hands move to the hilts of her blades. This can't end well. Lynae nods, yet again, still pleased by how well the little fire-cocktails are doing, especially considering it was mere theory on her part, as she isn't a weapon maker as a general rule. Well, not this kind, that is. She squints, ducking her head slightly as a few of the last bits of body matter are still raining down after Dareus's little stunt, which - while bloody cool to watch - meant messy following for the rest of the group. Ka'una's scream startles her into accelerating a bit faster as she dusts one hand across the side of her vest, the wind carrying the last shards of glass off of her clothing and Ka'una's. "Must go faster, must go faster," she quips before leaning slightly forward, the swoop moving steadily faster as she shouts over Her shoulder, "Take the shotgun and take shots at their swoops, don't waste it trying to hit the bodies. Just shoot the swoop out from beneath them," she suggests. Increasing speed, if she even can, Siren pulls about a building, still hearing the whine of both gangs engines behind them. As a tight curve comes up ahead, Siren winces and has to slow, lest she lose them both. Preparing to take the turn she calls out, "LON, JUST HANG ON!!!" She turns to let some of the words reach him and eyes one of the Dugs next to her. Losing speed often results in the enemy catching up. Which they did. The shot is taken at them and she tries to pull up. But a blaster bolt is still faster then them. It hits their engine, smoke starting to rise, blinding Siren. "DAMN!!!" She cries out, having to dip to avoid another hit, but it strikes her leg and she grits her teeth, pain searing her limb as she starts to slow and skip them across the ground as they hit. The bump ends with them spinning slightly, soon coming to a stop against the wall of a building. Grasping at her leg, Ona Rei hisses. "Are you alright?" Lon hears the initial shout.. his hands releasing his rifle to let it swing at his side. Hands both grip at the saddle bar at the back of the swoop, while his body arches a bit and legs squeeze even tighter than before. The jolting, the turning, then the deceleration. It's almost enough to make Lon loose it, his face beyond green. But somehow, through some willpower, he manages to hold back. As the swoop gets hit, Lon curses at the top of his lungs, his rifle swinging up in the change in Gs to smack him in the head, gashing him deeply and dazing him. The rifleman can do nothing but hang on for dear life, his eyes squinted closed as he places his life in the hands of his pilot. After the skidding stops and debris settles, his hands come to his head, eyes wavering, but open. "Yeah... fine. Come on, we gotta move... gotta get cover." Stumbling off the swoop, more falling off it to be precise, his eyes flicker to the woman's leg with worry. "We'll get that dressed as soon as we get some cover. Come on." Eithne smiles back at Kaitlin's comment. At the abrupt take-off, Eithne actually tumbles off the back. "@$##9723!!!" She swears as she quickly grabs back up her blaster and rolls over onto her back to shoot at the bottom of the swoop that flies over her head after Kaitlin, aiming at the engine. Then, without looking to see if her blasts did any true damage she quickly moves herself up off the street and prays Kaitlin is not sending back another grenade. Ander Dar's group still has a hell of a lot of them left, and they're beyond mad, at the fact mainly that they seem to be dropping a little too quickly with a band of makeshift swoopers. The grenades and blaster fire continues to increase, chunks of duracrete and pieces of civilian vehicles easily shower along the group of people while the speeders move up quickly, increasing their speed towards the group that Malign had assembled, splitting up partially to form a shape like a pair of pincers to get the group as they fly through Nar Shaddaa at near psychotic speeds. Kaitlin 's balance is thrown off slightly by the sudden loss of weight on the back of the speeder when Eithne tumbles off, and she swears in fluent Sluissi as the speederbike pitches forward and suddenly takes off much faster than it would have otherwise. She rights the swoop, swinging wide to draw her Kylan, and snaps off some shots at the gang, though it's rather difficult to aim and drive. But maybe she'll get lucky. Dareus looks back at Malign with a half grin on his face, "Enjoying the damn taxi ride, Lord Malign?" It's half spiteful and half joking, "Lemme know if I can get you a drink, maybe you'll feel like helping out a bit...not as though you need to test me like an apprentice here." He shakes his head and slams his foot hard down on the throttle, the speed increasing quickly to catch up to the group, using the plasma emitters once again to fire across while he skids slowly to dodge some traffic that occasionally causes an interruption in the fight. He half stands with his feet firmly planted on the pedals, his hair flapping madly in the wind as he waves, screaming at some of the group, moving a hand for them to keep going and not slow down. Not caring if they saw it, he shrugs and pulls up quickly alongside one of the gang members, casually firing his Kylan into the dug's ribs, the corpse controlled swoop flying off into somewhere that causes an explosion, but already out of the view of Dareus. Ka'una breathes faster, eyes closed, listening to the shouted suggestion. "I can't!" she shouts back. "I can't fire the damn thing! I never did fire anything! It'll just throw me off the swoop!" she shouts, and she swallows. She takes the quickest of looks back over her shoulder nervously, before she looks straight forward again..and leans hard against Lynae, also effectively missing Daerus' sign. "Full break! Now!" She shouts, before she quickly draws both blades, their mechanism activating..bless Juran for the second one..holding them out to the sides of the swoop before she closes her eyes and bites into Lyrae's right shoulder, bracing for serious pain to come to her arms one way or the other. Lynae would normally have let out a good volumed shriek at being bitten, but she's figured out at the last possible second what Ka'una is attempting to do, that and the fact that the woman's teeth are actually biting into Dareus's jacket AND Lynae's shirt before she even gets to skin. She jerks the swoop ahead just enough then cuts acceleration and drops down between two of the gang members swoops like a rock. The blades that Ka'una is extending to either side of the swoop are deadly and carve down the side of the thugs, slice across the sides of the swoops and send both riders swerving wildly away in uncontrolled paths. "These things need seat belts," she comments before accelerating again. The dugs don't seem to be slowing down, even though they are occasionally dying in rather unpleasant manners. Civilians and their own alike, seem to be falling victim to the Tatooine Bob Gang, and Ander is visibly unhappy with this, his own swoop at high speed weaving in and out amongst his men, firing the laser cannon wildly towards the group they are chasing.His men as well, launch a considerable barrage of fire from ZCF's and their own cannons and assorted hand and swoop-mounted weaponry, towards the group as they chase, ignoring and killing civilians at will, as long as they continue to try to reach their prey. One of Kaitlin's blaster shots conveniently knocks part of the engine casing off, sending sparks into the engine itself and letting the rider catch fire on his leg; in the process of him trying to pat himself off, he flies into the back of a speeder of a helpless civilian, leaving another nice explosion that gets quickly unnoticed, aside from another missing biker. The two that just got sliced, amusingly enough, veery off slowly, before parts fall off of them and explode on either side of the causeway, the remaining 7 of them dont' close ranks, but keep spread out to avoid the same thing from happening again, their own shots becoming a little more erratic from rage and desperation. Kaitlin rockets her swoop back around as a natural continuation of her circling, angling her turn to bring her close enough to one of the swoopers to lash out with a boot at the gang member's vehicle, earning herself a grazing, but painful shot from the thug's blaster as she passes and throwing off the aim of her foot. But that's the price one pays for stunts like this, unfortunately. She's had a perfectly respectably kill count tonight. Nothing to compalin about if she doesn't add another. His eyes widen quickly as he watches the near same thing he did happen again; although this time there's a vibro-blade coming toward him and his helpful passenger. He kicks the throttle up and leans hard to the left, pulling the swoop in that direction, the tip of Ka'una's blade narrowly missing the tail end of the new vehicle. Once he regains control, quite quickly, he looks fast between the route ahead and Lynae, a smirk forming, "FANCY WORK KAMIKAZE COMMODORE!" He winks and speeds up faster to move up along the others who are ahead, pulling alongside another one, and starting to tilt the swoop into the enemies, loud thuds being easily heard around his immediate area. A few reckless hits and Dareus points his Kylan to the Dug, but it gets grabbed and a little struggle happens at high speed between them, back and forth rocking from both speeders for several kilometres before Dareus quickly yanks his blaster, pulling the dug off his own vehicle, dragging him along the ground at the high speed, the scream from the gang member fading quickly into the night as he releases and rolls along the ground, probably to a far less than pleasant fate. Ka'una still is biting into Lynaes shoulder, panting, shaking a little..sobbing there, actually. At such speeds, going through people and slicing swoops in that kind of way does more than just shake the arms a little, and her hands are fumbling not to drop the blades from a rather weak grasp now. She finally lets go of Lynae's shoulder and exhales deeply, blinking a few times to get the tears away, before she swallows and straightens. She wordlessy sheathes the blades again, not really looking at the result of her action..she felt it. Instead, she lightly crosses her arms in front of herself and grasps her upper arms, eyes closing again as she lightly leans against Lynae once more. "Fuck...move it!" she shouts, before she bites her lower lip, hoping the pain searing through her arms will go away soon, her dropping adrenaline not helping. "Need a moment..." Lynae bobs her head again in a nod, a grin forming on her face as Dareus shouts out her old nickname, feeling more like her old kamikaze self now, than ever, or at least more than she has in months and months now. She gets a good hold of the swoop with her left hand, draws the hold out blaster with her right and gets that slightly crazy look in her eyes that her old comrades would recognize. She picks one of the thugs and accelerates rapidly towards him from below, nearly sideswiping him in the process and aiming one shot at the back of the thugs head. Which, amazingly enough, actually lands close enough that the thug swoops forward on his swoop which, of course, causes the swoop to spin out of control. Driving one handed she keeps firing at random, "This thing isn't useless after all, if we're close enough," she shouts over her shoulder before diving again to the side, "HOLD ON!" she shouts before aiming after another swoop driver. Starting to drop like flies, after one gets clearly kicked off of his swoop from Kaitlin, the remaining gang members speed up quickly on their bikes, looking for several moments as if they mean to escape; although that idea would quickly be lost as the ground starts to explode quickly on the upcoming makeshift group that is hunting down their Hutt bosses. Each of them takes the time to simply drop several frag grenades onto the ground and let the shrapnel and duracrete chunks do their best for now, giving them enough time to regroup and tighten on their formation just a little, each one occasionally leaning back to fire off a quick shot or two from blaster pistols. One of the explosions erupts largely and violently, looking as if a smaller sized thermal detonator went off on the ground, sending pieces of reinforced durasteel along with duracrete flying into the group pursuing them, leaving a large sized crater in the ground; several more of the explosions thunder through the air, easily being audible, over the engines of any of the swoops that are in the area, raining debris across their targets, along with the small arms fire that is directed toward them. Well, that's ironic. One of the grenades goes off too close to Kaitlin's swoop, and the shrapnel from the fragmentation grenade slices into the swoop's hull, pitching her off. The good news is, she's fast enough to hit and roll, eventually coming up to Her feet. The bad news is, her swoop's a mess, and her shoulder's not feeling too good, either. But her gun's fine, and soon the Kylan's in her hand, taking much steadier shots from a steady spot on the ground. It makes a nice counterpoint to all the cursing. Dareus chuckles and shakes his head at Lynae, quickly speeding up to match her, holding up one of his glop grenades, and getting a grin, screaming at the top of his lungs, "KEEP AN EYE OUT....I GOT ANOTHER ONE OF MY GREAT IDEAS!" He partially gets blinded by some dust and falling debris, shaking his head violently and veering a little to the side, flying with a grenade now clenched in his teeth while it's former holding appendage is now cleaning his eyes as best he can. He hits the throttle, and returns the grenade to his hand, holding it up clear in the air, as he speeds up and flies straight through some of the remaining thugs dodging quickly left and right while grenades explode and send shrapnel along each side of him and Malign, getting a few confused looks and random blaster shots that score Dareus' armor, another one catching the back of his leg, causing him to push forwards on the throttle while wincing slightly and move faster ahead of the entire pack of people. The hand flies off the grenade, bouncing harmlessly off one of the pursuers, a few seconds later it falls softly through the air before the explosion sends the glop into the air, quickly slapping along two swoops and their respective drivers, hardening quickly it flips both of them end over end, ploughing their drivers at high speed into the duracrete a scream coming from Dareus quickly, "GOTCHA!" "You and your great ideas, Rage," Lynae calls out to Dareus. If he's going to call her by her old name, then it stands to reason she gets to use his. She accelerates yet again, Ka'una's arms wrapped around her stomach as she tucks her legs up, feet braced high on the speeder and telling Ka'una to do the same thing. She slams the swoop against one of the enemy swoops, driving the swoop to the side before the driver can react. Following his movements and not giving him a chance to evade, Lynae side swipes him again, pouring all of her focus into the effort and firing her blaster at the engines of the thug's swoop before taking another shot that hits the thug square in the back. Another smack, and this begins to look like 'bumper-swoops' and the thug goes sailing into the side of a building with a nasty crunch of sound and a death scream. Ander quickly speeds past Dareus and Malign on their speeder, making a wide arc, screaming something that's barely, if at all audible and heads into a straight line toward the group of those that just wiped out his gang. Both his plasma emitters from his own swoop, and a blaster he's holding with his free hand erupt madly toward the others, and he moves full throttle toward the group, closing the distance at a nearly insane speed; each of his shots seem to veer off toward almost every individual while his seemingly suicide run is starting to get close to the end, where someone's gonna live and someone's easily gonna die. He was the last man standing and he clearly wasn't gonna run, not many of his kind ever did, instead, making it a purely crazy manoeuvre as he repeatedly fires toward each of the remaining group, the sound of his own swoop easily getting louder while the speed gets close to topping out. Kaitlin starts to dive for cover, when the straining noise of the swoop registers on her mind. She's many things, but foremost, a tech, and she knows exactly how... delicate a straining swoop engine can be. It doesn't take much of a flutter to have disastrous results. The redhead turns, stoops, and scoops up a rock from the ground... not even a very big one, and she sends it whizzing into the swoop's path. With any luck, it'll hit him in the face, or get sucked into an intake, or just plain unbalance the repulsorfeild. Any of them'll work. And then she dives for cover. Malign was growing tired of this battle. Standing up behind Dareus and leaning forward into the wind to ease the resistance while his boot hooks behind Dareus, using the man as an anchor. He raises his lightsaber, "Enough is enough." He mutters, "Don't back down Dareus, charge him!" Dark energy begins to collect around the Sith as it was the first time he had directly called on the Force during his stay here beyond a few feats such as leaping or healing. The Sith grits his teeth and jumps over Dareus and lands on the front of the swoop, telekinetic energy holding him in place as he leans forward and slices the front stabilizer off Ander's swoop and then pushes it down with another burst of telekinesis to send him and his swoop spiralling out of control below them. He laughs a little while Malign orders him to charge, considering he was already pressing the accelerator, never backing down anymore. Just in case, Dareus keeps the swoop on a perfectly straight course, especially while the landing Sith blocks his view completely, only seeing the quick flicker of light that sends a dug completely off course into oblivion, and only then does he start to back off with the speed, sighing sadly that there's no one left to kill, or for that matter, shooting at them for the time being..." Where to, My Lord?" It's a passive question, while they cruise at a semi-normal speed right now, taking the opportunity to wipe the Ithorian blood off his face, but it ends up just looking like red warpaint, starting to thicken and stick to him after the wind on his body. Lynae watches as the last of the swooper gang members, the leader apparently, falls to a slow and not so comfortable death. Shaking her head, a bit weary herself, Lynae guides the swoop into formation to the left and slightly behind Dareus, "Looks like the shows over for the moment, Malign," she calls out in a shout-comment before running her left hand over her face, wiping her eyes with her fingertips and glancing over her shoulder to check on Ka'una. She sighs then, realizing that her hands are shaking with the effort to keep the swoop level and not crash into something and make a crater. No matter what the destination is next, she's going to keep on driving the darned thing. Kaitlin picks herself up, checking her assorted body parts for existence, and eyes her banged-up swoop with a distasteful frown. The red-haired Nar Shaddaa local gives her left arm an exploratory probing with her fingers, and frowns, gritting her teeth, as she takes hold of the arm. A quick shove, and a loud, strangled cry of pain, and the shoulder is re-located, and reaching for her comlink. "It's Mainwaring. Need a pickup for the swoop. We're in.. ahhh..." she casts around, to figure out where she is. "Hah. How appropriate. Blood Alley. I'll make my way back shortly. And you may as well salvage the rest of the wreckage while you're picking it up. Bound to be some usable parts for us or Starlight."
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