Private Slow West

[Belok Karr]

"Tadgh. The way I see it you get your crew's cut," he said. He shrugged with beskar pauldrons and turned towards the rodian.

The crime lord squealed a series of curses and complaints. Tadgh seemed to ignore these and proceeded to pat him down, removing a tracker, a knife and a gadget he didn't recognise.

"If you don't want to break your arm, I suggest you hold on tight to the webbing with your other one," Tadgh said. "Let's get buckled up in the cockpit," he said to Lyla.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla nodded quietly in response to Tadgh's suggestion, she didn't see a reason to argue with him on the matter. It wasn't like she wanted to sit around like a prisoner with the Rodian in the cargo hold.

As she followed the Mandalorian up to the cockpit, she took in the details of his ship. It wasn't a flawless Naboo gem, but it was far from some Outer Rim junker -- nice and middle of the road. She wondered if he ever used it for smuggling, since it was fairly non-descript.

"Can this thing actually get us out of here?" She asked Tadgh as she took a seat in one of the open positions.

 

[Belok Karr]

The length of his look replaced a frown, still managing to convey his offense at her question.

The droid in the pilot's seat swivelled his head a hundred and eighty degrees to look at Lyla. He did not need his ocular sensors to fly the ship.

"Why is she?" he asked, making his disdain for the question far more apparent. "Of course it will get us out of here. Just as soon as these TIE fighters leave us alone..."

Green laser bolts flashed past the viewscreen and then the renowned silhouette of the fighter that made the pass.

"Deflectors are holding, that was a warning shot," said Tadgh.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla held up her hands defensively as both the Droid and The Mandalorian turned on her with derision -- one with a hidden glower and the other with a blatantly disdainful remark. She chuckled quietly, knowing how crews could be when it came to their ships. Though that was not something she'd experienced for herself.

"Good to know. I'll take a seat in the corner and not touch anything." She mumbled with an apologetic smile as she buckled herself into the chair.

The ship shuddered a second time and swayed sickeningly through the air. Lyla was not a pilot, so she didn't want to sound off with a sarcastic comment just yet. These people were her ticket off world, after all; so she wanted them to like her.

 

[Belok Karr]

"She's here because she worked the job with us and needed a way out of that mess Dee-kay," Tadgh explained. The crew could speak openly around him, but he also had certain hard lines when it came to what was fair and honourable.

"Humph," he the droid, his head turning back around sharply. He was connected to a socket in the console and the controls moved to his command.

"If you want to help try calling out approaching ships to Glenn over the intercom or see if you can do anything to scramble their sensors!" Tadgh said to Lyla. He had little to offer now that running around and shooting things had come to an end.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla gave a determined nod, spinning her chair around so that she was facing the console in front of her. A hand ran down through her red curls, while the other quickly tapped on the display screen to bring the system online. Glancing around, she found a headset clipped to the bulkhead and grabbed it. "Glen was it? I need access to the targeting relay and the electronic jamming system."

Her fingers danced across the screen, waiting for someone on the crew to give her the permissions she was going to need in order to be of any use. While they seemed concerned about the tie-fighters, she was far more concerned about the capital ship over head. It could easily blast them out of the sky if they weren't careful.

Just why it was trying the imperials were after them was unclear, but she wasn't going to question the fact at the moment.

 

[Belok Karr]

A thought that occurred to Tadgh. "Dee, why are we flying underneath the giant star destroyer?"

"They will have a harder time hitting us up close. And hopefully they won't shoot at us until we're in their blind spot."

Tadgh could see the logic. They wouldn't fire their ventral cannons straight down and splash the city. He hoped they wouldn't, anyway. He just didn't like seeing that wedge looming over them.

Soon they were in its shadows, racing over the city. TIE fighters bearing down on us. Lyla's screen would open up with access.

"The flight on our tail have given one final warning. I assume we are to ignore it?" Dee asked.

"Keep flying!" shouted Tadgh.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

With proper access, Lyla was able to out her skills to use. Her fingers tapped on the screen in rapid succession, compiling several electronic chaf packages that would scramble a targeting array. It wasn't as sophisticated as she would have liked, but her improvised efforts would have to be enough.

She anxiously chewed her bottom lip, brow furrowed in concentration. It wouldn't be long until the fighters tried to start firing. Lyla redirected power from non-essential systems to boost the aft shield generators.

"Aft shields are ready, scramble packages standing by." Lyla said matter-of-factly to Tadgh, glancing in his direction.

Waiting for the fighting to begin, she quickly threw together a targeting matrix and forwarded it to gunner station. "This should help."

 

[Belok Karr]

"Hmm. You're good," Tadgh replied curtly.

The droid swivelled his head around to face them both.

"I could have done that," Dee exclaimed.

"Worry about out running those fighters," Tadgh instructed him.

The mandalorian had barely shown a hint of panic on the ground, but with the star destroyer overhead and blotting out the sun he was shifting uncomfortably.

Green lasers flashed by the windscreen, but this time came the sound of Glenn returning fire.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

The ship shuddered as the shields absorbed the brunt of the onslaught from the TIE fighters, causing Lyla to grit her teeth. There was a brief moment when she considered snarking back to the Droid that she was perfectly capable of dismantling it and reprogramming it's neuro-processor so that it was a second-rate dishwasher, but she refrained.

"Nothing like running a barricade to get your blood pumping." She muttered under her breath.

"TIE fighters are one thing, but capital ships are another. Not like we have the capability to block out their sensors." She stated, glancing to Tadgh.

"Though... If we fly close enough, we might slip under their radar."

 

[Belok Karr]

"I am flying as close to them as I can!" Dee replied. He was in a stroppy mood. Tadgh could only imagine that his programming was being taxed by piloting with so many unfriendly fighters on their tail.

"Yes blood pumping. And nothing I can do about it," Tadgh replied. He was displayed very little emotion since they had met. The tremor in his voice was the first crack through the beskar.

Two Ties passed them by, one exploding as Glenn found his mark. Dee had to veer them past it. A few more seconds and they raced beneath the destroyer. Behind its engines was a great blindspot.

"Making calculations for the jump," Dee declared.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla had done everything she could to help. Now, all there was left to her was to close her eyes, grit her teeth, and hope for the best. She held her breath as the ship raced along the underbelly of the looming imperial behemoth.

Quietly, she hummed a soothing lullaby under her breath, trying to calm herself down as the ship shuddered once again. Targeting chaff could only do so much when what was shooting at you was a stone's throw behind you.

Her fingers tightly gripped the armrests of her chair as she was tossed about from Dee's maneuvering. At least, so far, she was having a better day than the pilot of that TIE fighter, she thought darkly.

 

[Belok Karr]

Tadgh turned his head just a fraction towards Lyla. Beneath his visor his eyes turned to watch her directly. She was softly humming to herself as they barrelled on through the chaos.

TIE fighters kept close on them, chipping away at the shields. Several warning lights started flashing on the dashboard. They had to take a gentle angle towards space or else the star destroyer would open up with its dorsal cannons.

In part he wanted to tell her that everything would be fine. He didn't know that it would and he didn't want to interrupt what must have worked to calm herself in the past. He knew nothing about her at all. After this was over he would have to unpick exactly what had led to this job going to South. They had the target. Another job done. Others had paid the cost.

"We are clear shortly just one more..." Dee started.

Lights across the console flickered.

"What?" asked Tadgh.

"Power spike from the shields, the hyperdrive is resetting. We are a sitting target."

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Her eyes snapped open milliseconds before the ship's power cut. She'd heard a hiccup in the thrumming of the ship, a subtle groan that most who didn't grow up on ships would have missed; but she knew it was a bad sign.

Immediately, her mind kicked into over drive and she unbuckled herself from her seat. "I can reroute the power." Lyla called out, quickly pulling up a schematic of the ship so that she knew where the hyperdrive relay was located onboard.

They only had a few moments to act before the fighters figured out that something was wrong, or the capital ship managed to get a lock on them with a tractor beam -- neither option ended well for the souls on the ship. She didn't have time to tell them that if she screwed up the coupling, they'd likely only find a pile of ash on the floor.

Before anyone could say otherwise, she was out of her seat and racing down the hall to find the access panel she needed.

 

[Belok Karr]

Tadgh watched the newcomer throw herself back out of the cockpit. It took half a second for the mandalorian to realise that she was going to throw herself into the very heart of the ship. His ship.

His very livelihood was in this vessel. It was where he threw his wealth. At least, that did not go back to his clan. He needed this ship to go between worlds. What was a bounty hunter that couldn't follow a mark off the planet they were on?

He threw himself up and turned after her.

"Dee, hit it as soon as you've got power again!"

"What can I hell with?" he called after Lyla.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

"A tool kit! I need tools!" She called to Tadgh as she knelt down over the hatch in the floor and hurriedly yanked the grated slat up and to the side. It was heavier than she anticipated and her leg screamed in protest as she strained to drag the grate out of the way. The blaster shot might have been a glancing blow, but it still hurt like hell.

As carefully as she could, Lyla slipped down into the small chamber that was just big enough for two people.

She was happy to see that there hadn't been any obvious damage to the hyperdrive in the power surge.

The ship shuddered from the assault of the fighters and she braced herself as best she could against the hyperdrive. "Kriff..."

 

[Belok Karr]

"Tools...tools..." Tadgh could have listed where every single gun part and piece of munitions was in the ship from top to bottom. And he had secreted weapons all over the shop.

He vanished around the corner and then returned with a triumphant: "hah!"

Tadgh didn't seem to exude the same professional confidence on his own ship as that on the ground. It was as if he was more at home in the middle of a rolling street firefight.

"What tools?" he asked, slamming it open. The lights flicked as the TIE fighters came around for another pass. The destroyer didn't even take an interest, leaving them to the fighter complement.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla very quickly realized that the mandalorian didn't exactly know his way around an wrench. Blasters and combat were his specialty, while hers was slicing and engineering. She was worried that if she called out the name of a piece of equipment, he wouldn't know what she was talking about. Not tht she doubted his intelligence, just that his experience was lacking.

"Bring them down here!" She called up to him, already starting to flip breakers to kill the power to the systems that she was going to need to unplug to redirect power.

 

[Belok Karr]

That was a very blunt way of suggesting she didn't trust him to find the right piece of equipment. Or she felt she was going to need almost everything.

There was a click as he removed his helmet. Tadgh didn't take it off outside of the ship, now his home. He didn't even take it off around strangers on the Azimuth. It was set down beside the space and he leaned over the side, holding the box down to her.

"I'll hold anything you need me to. Need any parts? We don't keep many spares."

 

[Lyla Emerson]

When she tilted her head back to look up at the Mandalorian, she was taken aback by how gorgeous the man was. It was a silly thing to notice in a moment like this; but she expected him to be some unkempt soldier twice her age, maybe with an eyepatch. What she had absolutely not imagined was a starkly handsome man who looked more like he belonged on the cover of a magazine than in the middle of a warzone.

She smiled appreciatively at him as she took the toolbox, gesturing for him to jump down with her with a quick wave of her free hand.

"I actually need you to hold that port open and a flash light." She remarked while she rummaged through the kit, looking for a specific tool she needed.

"We don't have much time. The shields won't hold much longer, and I need their power to boost the hyperdrive back online. Hope your gunner is a good shot."