DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games CFH: A Call For Heroes CFH5: Time to Go!

GM

The team are in position on the same dune that Sirra and Tiras had shot at earlier in the day. The piece of scrap metal is still there, half buried and scarred by burns and bullets. The steelpeckers are long gone.

Sirra and the Verpine Jix kneel at the crest, priming their long rifles for action. Winta close behind them, keeping her head down.

Everyone is converged in the trough, with the Varactyls and closer range firepower. 2BB-2's antenna is fully extended, head swivelling slowly like a radar.

The turbolaser turret might not be able to track onto the swoop bikes fast enough for a shot, but it does force the swoop bikes to keep the throttle open, giving them scarcely any time on target.

Under heavy fire, Mhar-li scales the ladder to the Quadjumper's rear hatch. As she's turning the locking lever, a blaster bolt strikes her in the side like a kidney punch. Her foot slips and she ends up swinging by the lever.

On the opposite side of the wreck, the Strus Clan concentrate their fire at the defenders around what was once the aft airlock.

These enforcers are wearing cool air respirators and carrying old Stormtrooper blaster rifles, fixed up with junk parts. They pack a punch.

The first three reach the airlock at about the same time as Sirra and Jix are ready to fire.

They're surprised as the Abednedo priest jumps out at them with a stave, thumping the first in the chest---a static discharge. The enforcer is thrown violently onto his back---and the second in the bukee-bags, eliminating him as a threat or future father.

Before the other two can open fire, they're sniped by Sirra's hunting blaster, the ZOK-10 punching smoking holes straight through their torsos.

The other Strus Clan within that same arc of fire are suddenly twisting round, frantically trying to locate the shooter. Instead they get incoming fire from Jix, who lights them up with her heavy blaster rifle, hitting sand, swoops, swoops, sand, wreck. The Strus dive for cover.

Almost immediately, the swoop bikes in the air are widening their circle to encompass these new combatants. Rather than hurtle straight at the dune, they attack from an obtuse angle, dropping below the crest and following its crest on their attack run to avoid the turbolaser. It still means they won't see the Varactyls until they're on top of them.

Fira Bon via comlink: «We're getting you outta here, you copy. Your mission is too damn important!»

By now, Mhar-li has pulled herself in through the rear hatch and the Sunstrider's engines are powering up. As it lifts off, the magnalocks disengage, dumping the cargo container with a whoosh of sand.



[Characters with the Varactyls have four incoming swoop bikes at about head height and 120 km/h]

Preach

He turned knowing from the sounds of the bikes where they were coming from. His eyes closed, he centered himself, and with a quick flip his raw violet blade burst into existence in from of him. Whether they shot at him or they tried to run him down, they would meet a similar fate. Their bikes couldn't take a hit from his lightsaber, nor could they. He could send their energy blasts back at them as well. He opened his eyes ready to act. He couldn't leave yet, they had promised to help, and he would.

<OOC: Let me know when they are in scatter blaster range and stun grenade range.>

Winta

Her back to the dune, she watched to left and right, lightsabre in hand, her mission to protect the two shooters behind her.

Jelly Bean

Watching from the crest's edge, Jelly Bean could see the Strus gang swinging out wide along the sweep of the dune to cut around it and come at them down over the backline and into the trough. Of course, they are trying to get a lateral line to prevent anyone drawing a bead on them going straight away.

"E chut ta, sleemos!"

They will come through the trough and high speed and at short range it will be very hard to fire ahead of them. Jelly Bean rolls sideways again, and lets the momentum drag her down the dune until she can get to her feet. With her blaster in one hand, she takes off at a hard sprint for one of the Varactyls. Her free hand pulls the thermal grenade, thumbs it into the magnetic trigger position, and hopes the Force is with her now.

Those swoops were going to come around and over them fast, and maybe they didn't know anyone was in the trough. Her guess was they were going to try to get a line on Jix and Sirra, by cutting across their faces at close range. That's who they saw firing at them. It would be hard for either of them to react in close with those long guns. Four swoop bikes would be a lot for those in the trough, especially moving overhead so fast. And once the Varactyls were spooked, it would be chaos.

There was no time to tell anyone her plan... No time to ask for permission. She wasn't even sure it was a plan, and it probably wouldn't work anyway. It would take every bit of her athleticism and agility to pull it off. To hear her own heart beat, to feel the burning sun and the heated air upon her skin, she focused on the task at hand and trusted that feeling inside her. The little ball of fury in her heart and in her mind's eye. that place where she could find calm. Maz Kanata had taught her to find it, to focus on it, and to channel it when she needed it most.

She ran for the Varactyls to use one as a springboard, and then launch herself in the air, twisting like a dancer in an acrobatic maneuver, as the Swoops went over the top... Attach the grenade to a swoop bike passing over her, or throw it at a bike and let the magnet trigger do the work for her if she wasn't close enough to touch. All of her focus was on this and this alone.



(OOC: looking for the heroic move, with the risk of self sacrifice- charge me Destiny points or whatever else you deem necessary based on the narrative- and let's see where the dice fall.)

2BB-2

Incoming hostile, vector marked and tracked. Velocity accounted for. Rider seat restraints not apparent. Deploying grapple, objective unseat rider.

The BB-unit aligned itself into the path of an incoming Strus ganger, to maximise the impact of the grapple fired along that path, minimise the profile of the attack and opportunity to dodge, and to prevent being catapulted along with the head on kinetic momentum colliding between the grapple and rider providing a degree of cancellation.

[KenSeg, at their speed they will be in range now-ish. So let us know what Amos's action will be. A combat round in this system is 10 seconds.]

Jix

He remains where he is, looking for more targets and trusting those behind him to provide cover if needed. He knows his job is to attract attention and take out whatever thread he can. He looks for the easiest targets, including bikes, with the idea of reducing their effectiveness.

Amos

The lanky lawman eyes the incoming swoop bikes and pulls back his arm, activating the stun grenade trigger and throwing it so that it hits amidst them as the countdown ends. He will follow that up by swinging the scatter blaster up and firing on any incoming bikers.

Sirra, in the zone, moves from one target to the next, picking out the next highest percentage target, be that bike or biker, and working to remove it.

GM

Jix turns her side of the Starlight Wanderer into a kill corridor, forcing the Strus Clan there to abort their assault on the scavengers. Instead they have to reverse cover and form some plan to combat the heavy blaster fire pinning them down. Their return fire is way off and it doesn't take them long to decide the only option is to rush Jix's position. They have to abandon cover, some opting to circle around, others to scramble up the slip-face of the dune. As plans go, it's pretty desperate.

On the far side of the camp, the shooters in the lookout post surpass themselves. Inspired by Sirra and Tiras to push the limits of their skill, they pick off a Strus Clan advance before it can dig-in behind the Treadable in the garage.

Sirra would be pleased but she's busy tracking a flight of four skull-festooned swoop bikes coming in fast from the east. Her cyber-eye displays a ghost reticle ahead of her marked target, showing how much lead to give.

She shoots and a second later the bolt hits, blowing a Strus Clan biker's arm off. He tumbles out of the saddle, his swoop bike lurches out of control, breaking up the formation.

In the trough behind the dune, the rest of the team hustle into position to receive visitors, mindful not to draw fire onto the Varactyls even if they would be solid cover.

A moment later the air is suddenly full of howling swoop bikes and hot plasma.

Most of the enemy fire is focused on the top of the dune. Sirra nearly loses a few toes as the sand explodes around her feet and Jix is hit in the backpack, but Winta's lightsaber fends off the worst, batting away blaster bolts like it's sports practice and making a challenging target of herself.

The lowest flying swoops cut close to dune and are strung out in a line to carve through the apex.

Rounding the dune, they're still focused on the action at the crest when something explodes in their midst; a sequenced burst of brilliant white light that overloads neurons.

One biker slumps over his handlebars, out cold, and ploughs his swoop straight into the earth at full speed, ending life as a plume of sand, rock and burning shrapnel.

The others swerve, woozily trying to maintain control. Stun grenades are designed for use in confined spaces but Amos has clearly used this tactic before. (And people think Dantooine is a boring backwater!)

A disorientated biker zooms over the top of the Varactyls, low enough for a jumping Jelly Bean to slap her grenade onto the fairing of his swoop bike.

Like a solar flare, the shaped thermal charge slices the bike and its rider in half at the waist. Still powered by repulsorlift, the smoking rear of the bike flips straight into the path of another Strus Clan biker who dies in the fireball.

The final low flying biker ducks under the explosion, glancing back over his shoulder at it. Goggle-eyes to the front and he's amazed to see an old crusty in desert robes, dead ahead, brandishing a violet laser sword...

Preach's lightsaber cuts through the metal frame with a shower of sparks, lopping off the vane-like pitch stabilisers. The bike is turned into a rocket, rearing up and shooting skywards, trailing black smoke and a Wilhem scream from the rider.

On the crest of the dune, Winta has lightsaber in one hand, her Glie-44 pistol in the other and uses it to goad a flight of swoop bikes into a second attack run. Jix is ready, the swoops diving straight into her line of fire. The heavy blaster rifle punches through a power cell and KA-BOOM! another swoop bike falls from the sky in pieces.

Nearby, Sirra snaps off shots with her hunting blaster, sniping Strus Clan off the backs of their bikes as they zoom by. Swerving to avoid one of his own brothers, one rider U-turns and opens the throttle, intending to run down the sniper.

As he flies past the Varactyls, he's tracked by 2BB-2, who fires his grapnel-harpoon. With a thunk it attaches to the back of the rider's helmet and cable starts spooling out of the BB-unit at an alarming rate.

The droid might make some trepidatious sounds as he extends his multitool and hooks onto the tack of one of the Varactyls. The cable goes taut, 2BB-2 bounces into the air, the Varactyl looks confused and not far away the swoop biker's head is yanked off.

Then, the Sunstrider roars over the top of the dune, gouging the sands with its landing gear. It swings around and touches down near to the Varactyls, the rear hatch still open.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Yells Mhar-li over coms.

There are still three swoop bikes circling for attack and four Strus enforcers inbound on foot.

They aren't pulling back. Which means they're either brave, stupid, or expecting reinforcements.

Winta

"Ok. Let's get out of here!" she called, taking in them all.

"We need to get our data out!"

"2BB-2 - you first. I shall cover people's backs."

2BB-2

A direct order, and a clear escape route. The seven remaining of the opposing force pressing the attack despite their casualties wasn’t lost on the droid, who used every iota of his speed and manoeuvrability to present the hardest target for the shortest time as he saw to it that the data payload he carried was safely aboard their ship. He was mindful to drop the ganger head from his grapple first, no need for gruesome souvenirs.

Preach

He offers a grim smile at the spiraling rocket bike. He then prepares to continue to fight. The blasting sand from the return of their ride takes him by surprise. He pivots on his heels to the new threat only to hear the call to get out of there. As much as that is their mission and their mandate, he feels immediate guilt of leaving the people they said they would help. They have helped, even if they haven't stopped this attack. But this battle wasn't over. He looks to Winta and she gives the order. His rational mind offers that if they didn't act more lives would be lost than could be saved here. Even the ones here could be lost as well. They had to act to fulfill the mission. That wasn't new thinking for this old space traveler. He waited to help guard Winta, but he would enter the ship when his turn came.

Amos

He moved to Winta's side, blaster at the ready as he leaned in and spoke softly.

"Beg pardon but I cover your rear. We need the leader inside please."

Winta

She nodded to Amos and followed BB-2 to the ramp of the Sunstrider. She turned once on the ramp, to guard the ramp.

Jelly Bean

She hit the sand and her rollout was twisted into a tumble that landed her face first. She rolled over, exultant in her victory. Foolhardy for sure, but she needed a way to attach the grenade to the bike, right? Use the skills that other people forced you to learn, and then they become your skills.

Her triumph was short lived though as other Strus Clanners and their bikes were meeting terrible fates as well. In fact, seeing the head get ripped off of one by BaBay's long line was kind of disturbing and it snapped her back into battle mode. She drew her blaster and started back to the larger part of her group. The Sunstrider roared in over the dune's edge and Winta was calling for a withdrawal.

Yes, the data on BabBay was most important, but JB could feel the anger in her and the excitement of it. She wanted to keep fighting. She wanted to finish this fight. She heard Winta's words. She looked up there as Amos was moving her to the opening ramp. JB looked again in the direction of the Struss battle, though she couldn't see much of it from where she stood.

She growled and shook her head, snapping her lekku violently about her as she followed orders. She wanted to fight. She didn't want to leave the Scavengers until the battle was over. Oh, the predatory instincts in Ryllians lay just beneath the thin veneer of civilization. With weapon in hand, and despite her curvy build, she ran as hard as she could through the sand to get to the Quadjumper.

Sirra moved from shot to shot, aiming, breathing, firing, almost mechanically. As she was aiming again, she heard Winta. Quite evidently on the face of it she agreed agreed with JB’s thoughts. She hated leaving. It felt like betrayal.

“Yes. Winta, your hide is more valuable than mine. I just destroy things. I know exactly what I’m for.”

She performs a backing up retreat, providing fire to keep anything from getting too close until it’s possible to sprint to the craft.

Jix

He takes a good look all around to ensure there were no imminent threats, then turned and headed for their transport. Time to go.

GM

The team hustle to board the Quadjumper as swoop bikes howl passed at high speed, loosing a volley of blaster bolts.

They explode against the ship's hull leaving black pock-marks. One bolt nearly hits Winta in the stomach and she has to arch her back to deflect it with her lightsaber. It glances off the humming blade and burns a hole through the robes above her ribs. She feels a hot pain but doesn't smell any barbeque. Better a surface burn to the ribs than her innards leaking out through a smouldering hole in her stomach.

Inside the Quadjumper is stifling from where it's been sat in the sun all afternoon, but the air-cooler is thrumbing and juddering on the ceiling.

Standing room only inside. Overhead hand-rails, no fixed seating except for the sturdy pilot's seat and two flimsy fold-out seats mounted on the wall either side, where the bulkhead originally was. It and the bunks were stripped out long ago.

The Sunstrider has been modified to fit as much stuff in it as possible. Passengers, cargo, whatever.

Mhar-li looks in her fisheye rearview, counting the team in. Her usually swarthy complexion is ashen, sweaty.

Outside, the Varactyls have broken their picket and are racing for the deeper dunes, hollering loudly to each other. So far the Strus Clan haven't shown any interest in the reptavians, even though they're worth a small fortune as working animals. If everything calms down, they should return home of their own accord.

The Quadjumper blasts off the moment the last Resistance fighter is aboard, landing gear retracting.

As the ship rises above the dunes, you get an overview of the scavenger camp. The enforcers that were trying to rush Sirra and Jix's position are scattered and fire futilely at the Quadjumper.

Their junky, half-burnt out blaster carbines can only scratch a starship hull.

Then Mhar-li curses blue as a projectile explodes violently against the windscreen, its impact powerful enough to trigger the deflectors.

A large sand skimmer ramps over a dune, a custom-built battle wagon that comes head-on at the Quadjumper. Behind the skimmer's closed cab stands a Strus, firing a mounted, drum-fed grenade launcher that spits mayhem.

It survives only seconds before it's obliterated by the turbolaser.

The Quadjumper flies straight through its fireball, struggling to gain altitude.

"We're down on power. Can't climb." Yells Mhar-li to her passengers.

She coughs, one hand dropping from the yoke. The ship veers and nearly collides with a swoop bike.

You notice there's blood dripping through the cracks in her seat. Its everywhere, at least a litre.

"I'm hit bad." She says, only now appreciating how bad.

Jix and Sirra saw Mhar-li take a shot to the kidneys as she was climbing into the Sunstrider.

Suddenly a blaster bolt ricochets around the interior. The rear hatch is still open and the team can see swoop bikes chasing them. Current air speed around 160 km/h, altitude variable, averaging 10 metres.

"Above the door! Tau-Six on a swing-arm!" Shouts Mhar-li, voice weakening.

Anyone who looks above the rear hatch would see, hidden behind stowed enviro-suits, a rotary blaster cannon, pintel-mounted to a swing-arm, designed to act as a door gun.

Preach

His keen old eyes take the events in as they are happening. He knows he has about as much chance flying this thing as jumping out the open door and surviving. His lightsaber is still glowing a raw violet streak and he moves without hesitation towards the handle. He at least can get there and help with that piece of the problem. If he makes it he will try to close the door using the lever that has been described.

2BB-2

Two matters of immediate concern, namely their pilot was injured badly and their ship had insufficient power. The slicer droid had very little idea how to deal with the first, but he was forged and founded as an Astromech, and had served in keeping a ship functional under heavy and withering fire from far more fell adversaries than this. A quick sensor scan for an interface port before swinging over and jacking in, to see what if anything he could do about the power situation, to optimize matters so the ship could give as much as it could to get them out of this mess. He’d beep over Jelly Bean and show her a schematic if it required physical intervention, but the prime focus was fulfilling his original purpose and design.

Jelly Bean

One of the last in, she was hardly up the ramp when the quad jumper lurched to gain altitude. The explosion on the forward shields threatened to knock people about the inside of the small ship. At least the temperature didn't bother her. And so she thought through the possible problems they were facing.

Winta hit.

Low on power.

Under fire.

Need altitude or the first dune slipped over will be the last as well.

"Ut Druk," she suddenly hisses when she saw the blood dripping out around the pilots chair. "E chu ta." There were commands going on all around the cabin. This was a problem of the highest priority. Okay, a lot of them were high priority but if JB couldn't get Mhar-li's ass out of the chair and her own ass in there then this was going to be a very short trip.

"Jix!" Mhar-li was not going to be able to pilot the ship for much longer before she passed, out or worse, in that chair. "Mhar-li is hurt... She needs you." Any thought of working on the power issue was gone because now they needed a pilot. She was already pulling the woman from the cockpit chair and as soon as Jix or anyone else had a hold of the woman JB was going to slide in there and take over.

"Power is all you Babay," she shouted. "Give me everything you can scratch out."

Jix

She looks around sharply at Jelly Bean's shout, slings her weapon and shrugs off her pack all in the same movement. Steps later she reaches the pilots side with a stimpack in one hand. She applies it without hesitation as she has done many times before.

When people are badly injured, wasted seconds can be wasted lives.

She helps Jelly Bean pull her out of the seat and then starts to assess the damage.

Sirra only pauses for a moment, seeing others move to their various places and jumps to the blaster cannon, swinging it out, and letting anything she can see through the door have it full bore. This wasn’t time for playing around.