Private Slow West

[Belok Karr]

Tadgh was on his feet in a flash, reaching for the comm. He couldn't help but feel that the two of them had fallen into an oddly silent moment. They had been sharply thrown back out of it by the sudden change of events.

"Damn it Dee, can we outrun them?"

"I'm afraid sir that the chance of either escaping or defeating the patrol ship and its escort fighters is negligible."

Tadgh stepped across the corridor to his own room. The walls were covered in weapons.

"I'm sorry," he said to Lyla. "I'm not going down without a fight. Dee, stall them as long as you can then power down."

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla slid off the bed and moved over to the doorway to watch Tadgh with a worried frown on her features. Her leg was still painful enough that it caused her to limp when she walked -- not an ideal predicament when faced with a potential fire fight. Lyla specialized in computers and dabbled in engineering. Gunfights were not her forte, in fact, it was a rare thing for her to get dragged into one. If the tech geek was being shot at, something had obviously gone wrong.

She gave a slight nod of her head in understanding as Tadgh plainly stated what he intended to do.

"How... can I help?" She asked softly, resting her hand against the doorframe.

 

[Belok Karr]

"Good question," he replied. Tadgh hadn't even started to form any tactical plans. He had a strategy, which was to keep firing until they got him. The details within that weren't even forming.

"Is there anything you can do to get their interior doors open. I'm going to make for the tractor controls to try and disable them."

Tadgh didn't think she would think even he believed that was going to happen. It just felt comforting to add a sliver of hope. Better to move forward with purpose than to wait for them to come. With the initiative on their side he'd probably kill more troopers before they finally got him.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lylaa did not know the Mandalorian well, but she could see the grim determination in his eyes. He likely didn't think any of them would survive this encounter. Could she really blame him? Him and Glen were likely the only real combatants on board, and she wasn't quite sure if Glen was a fighter or not.

She'd never so much as shot someone. Of course, she understood the basic principles of how to shoot... But she hated firearms. So much so that she didn't carry one on her, even in her line of work. There was usually someone else that would do the shooting watching over her, after all.

Her eyes dropped to the floor and she felt her throat tighten with fear, though her mind was racing to figure out some sort of plan. Panic wouldn't help and she could still be useful. She just had to think of this as another job.

"They were able to track us... Which means the rodian has to have something on him that's transmitting our position." She muttered with a frown, though she was grateful that Tadgh didn't immediately assume she was culprit.

"I've gotten into imperial systems before, but brute forcing something like that will take some time. I can do it, but I'll need to go with you. We'll need to do something about the tracking, otherwise, even if you get the tractor beam turned off, they can just chase us down again."

She gave a small nod and raised her gaze once more, biting her bottom lip.

 

[Belok Karr]

"Oh we can do something about that alright," replied Tadgh. He grabbed the comm unit from his belt. "Come with."

"Glen, get in the cannon. Get down as low as you can so they can't see you're in it. Dee power us down, but keep reserves hooked up to the cannon. I need us ready to fly in a moment's notice."

Setting a target of the tractor controls was fairly pointless. He might as well have picked the engine bay or the bridge. It was a lost cause, but there would be no surrender and no quarter given.

" If we get to the controls could you disable them?" he asked as he marched for the rodian's locked room.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla turned and hurried after Tadgh as fast as she could, though it was difficult to keep pace with her injured leg. She wrinkled her nose slightly, furrowing her brow. If she was having a hard time with this, how was she going to keep up with him whilst trying to storm an imperial ship? Things were not looking promising. Was Tadgh just trying to make her feel better?

"Yes. I can. Won't be the first time I've done it..." She replied with a wry smile.

Her mind was running a mile a minute. She needed a different plan. There was no physical way that she'd be able to run through an unknown ship, so she needed something else.

"Where are we going?" She asked him, gritting her teeth together as she walked after him.

 

[Belok Karr]

Tadgh stopped suddenly, turning to face Lyla. The ship faintly trembled as she was captured by thee tractor beams. It wasn't a large patrol ship, the TIE fighters were fixed to the outside of the ship. The Azimuth would barely fit inside it's hangar bay.

"I don't know," he said bluntly. He lowered the light repeater he was carrying until the muzzle rested on the deck.

"There will be two squads of troopers at most on that ship, several blast doors between us and the bridge. That's a fighting chance, but a slim one. Which means we keep moving forward and keep shooting until we can't."

With his free hand he lifted his helmet, seating it on his shoulders.

"This is the way."

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla's frown only deepened with concern as he casually stated that he intended to fight to the death, with no real hope of success or plan to work with. That might have been his way, but it certainly wasn't hers.

The thought of dying for no good reason didn't sit particularly well with her.

"Wait..." She said, catching Tadgh's arm as he turned to keep walking for the airlock.

"This has something to do with that Rodian. No other reason for them to grab us without any contact. If we leave this ship, we'll die but... We might be able to bring the fighting to us. They can't vent the ship if they want him alive."

"If you can buy me enough time I can decouple the lock-in at the hangar. An electromagnetic burst should disrupt the tractor beam long enough for us to get free."

 

[Belok Karr]

"Clear the hangar and hold it as long as we can?" he asked. Tadgh stood still, that visor returning his gaze impassively.

"Glenn, as soon as the hangar floor is clear," if they got that far, "I want you to grab the welding gear. We're going to seal that main door shut and hold our position."

"That work for you?" he asked Lyla.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

"Yes. I can work so long as you keep them off my back." She gave a determined nod and hefted her tool bag higher onto her shoulder.

Glenn clicked his mic to acknowledge the new order, hunkering down in the turret.

Lyla offered a brave smile and took a deep breath. "Let's do this."

 

[Belok Karr]

He gave a sharp nod. "Glen, wait til it hits the fan."

Tadgh slapped the button to send the ramp lowering. He started waking along it well before it had touched down on the hangar deck.

"Come out with your..."

The first stormtroopers' request was lost as Tadgh opened fire. The light repeater he carried spat out plasma in a steady stream, killing the first trooper and sending the others scattering.

It hit the fan quickly. Outnumbered, Tadgh was struck square in the chest by a blaster bolt. He fell back to the ramp, smoke rising from the beskar chest plate.

The sound of the ships cannon opening fire was thunderous.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla's heart lodged itself in her throat when Tadgh went down, fully exposed, on the ramp. She couldn't tell if he was still alive or not, but she wasn't about to just leave him sprawled out in the middle of blaster fire. Gathering her courage, and dropping her walking aid, the red-head rushed out from her cover to reach the mandalorian.

Glenn's covering fire from the turret was enough to keep the troopers from being able to aim properly, but a few too many blasts came uncomfortably close to hitting Lyla in the head. Unlike her companion, she didn't have armor to protect herself. Kneeling down, she looped her arms beneath Tadgh's and clasped her hands together over his chest. The heated metal from the blaster shot burned her skin, but she didn't have time to readjust her grip.

She grunted as she dragged him back into cover, struggling with her bad leg to move his bulk. "Please tell me you're alive!" She shouted over the uproar of gunfire.

 

[Belok Karr]

"That one stung," he grunted.

Drawing his pistol, he rolled back up to one knee. His repeater was still in the ramp. Green light danced overhead in a wide fan as Glen fired.

Some troopers were retreating and others had realise there were blind spots in the turret's field of view and were rushing that way.

"Thank you. Keep to cover until its quieter. You don't have beskar."

Tadgh rushed halfway down the ramp and turned off the side. He rushed the group trying to get underneath Glen.

At point blank range he fired his blaster into the first. With his free hand he grabbed the muzzle of an E-11, kicking to knock the trooper to the ground. Two quick shots for the furthest target, and then the one he had thrown down. Three troopers in barely a handful of breaths.

"Push them back towards the doors Glen!"

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla hunkered down once more behind the best cover that she could find, squeezing her eyes shut so that she didn't have to watch the brutal gunfight unfold before her. She covered her ears with both hands and curled up as best she could to protect herself from any wild blaster shots. There were bright flashes of light with every shot fired from the ship and she could feel the metal shudder beneath her.

In her position, she couldn't see the small squad of four troopers rushing for the cargo ramp once Tadgh had moved off to deal with the others that'd been breaking off to seek shelter.

"Boss! The ramp!" Glenn barked through the commlink, trying to pick the men off before they could reach the ship.

 

[Belok Karr]

"I see them, I see them!" he called back.

Their logic was sound. Get inside the ship and the cannon could no longer eviscerate them. When the ship was secure the battle was done.

At this rate he was going to have to kill the entire crew of the patrol frigate, or die trying, before they got away.

Tadgh rushed around the ramp, raising his left arm. The chord snapped out from his forearm, wrapping around the legs of the Troopers highest up the ramp. He gave a yank, pulling the trooper to his back and sending him skidding back down and taking two of them with him.

Tadgh started firing, the the one left standing launched himself back down the ramp. Tadgh was struck by a knee to the chest and sent back down to the floor. His blaster pistol scattered across the floor.

The sound of his armour taking an almost point blank hit rang out. Couldn't take many of those. Tadgh turned sharply, drawing his vibro blade and stabbing it into the stormtroopers knee between the joints in the armor.

 

[Lyla Emerson]

When the gunfire came to a stop, all that was left to fill the unsettling quiet was the screams of the man that Tadgh had just stabbed in the knee. He toppled down the ramp, grasping at his maimed leg with the blade still jutting out from the armor.

While Tadgh finished dealing with the men still scattered across the floor, Lyla grabbed her bag and hurried to the nearby computer station. It was an absolute miracle that the terminal hadn't been blasted to bits in the mayhem.

Kneeling down, she yanked open the access panel and quickly plugged in her datapad, using that brute force her way into the local network. It was only enough to seal the blast doors and get the terminal working, she would need more time if she was going to override the tractor beam remotely. She stayed crouched down while she worked, just in case any of the men still inside the hangar got the bright idea to shoot her in the back.

Glenn came jogging down the ramp, kicking one of the men that was still alive square in the stomach as he approached Tadgh. "Right boss, got the welder. So uh... Plan? Yeah, what's the plan? And where's your lady friend?"

 

[Belok Karr]

No quarter given. None asked for in turn. He recovered his blaster and silenced the stormtroopers' screams in one shot.

"She's at the blast doors, get over there and seal them!" he shouted towards Glen.

Tadgh took stock as Glen ran with an awkward gait after Lyla. The welding gear was heavy.

There was a window up above them, overlooking the hangar bay. Tadgh reloaded the power pack in his light repeater. He took a shot at the window.

"Blaster proof," he muttered to himself. "Droid, watch that window. If they blow it out we'd be in a shooting gallery."

 

[Lyla Emerson]

Lyla spared a quick glance in Glen's direction as he raced up beside her, awkwardly carrying the equipment. It looked like it was just a little too big for him to carry, the sight would have been charming were they not in such a precarious situation.

So far, things were going relatively well. Tadgh had taken a few shots, but he was the only one with any beskar -- if someone was going to get shot, it might as well be the one who would survive the experience.

Fortunately for the crew of the Azimuth, it was considerably easier to thoroughly easier to thrash something than to fix it. Lyla just needed to break the pieces, she didn't have to worry about cleaning up the mess. She almost felt sorry for the engineers that would have to mend the ship once she was done.

"I'm not sure how long the system will be down once I overload everything, but we're gonna have to get out of here and jump pretty much as soon as we're out of the hangar." She raised her voice just enough so that Tadgh could hear her.

 

[Belok Karr]

"You catch that Dee?"

"You want me to watch for stormtroopers as well as calculate an emergency hyperspace jump and get ready to pilot the ship?"

"You can do all those?"

"Easily, yes."

Tadgh resisted the urge to ask the droid why moan if it was so easy. If he let the droid bait him every single time they would get no work done.

"Lyla, how long will this..." Tadgh started.

"Window," called Dee.

Tadgh turned and shouldered his repeater. The blast proof glass was slid aside by one trooper, whilst another stepped up.

Tadgh opened fire. This was a bad place to be.

"Keep working! I'll draw their fire."

 

[Lyla Emerson]

"I'm almost done!" Lyla shouted over her shoulder, wincing as the blaster fire started anew.

She muttered under her breath to herself, talking herself through the process while working as quickly as she could. Tadgh had his Beskar and Glen was close enough to the wall that it offered him some shelter, but Lyla was completely exposed in the open with no armor to speak of. The situation was far from ideal.

The troopers at the window started returning fire. At first, they focused on Tadgh who was the most obvious threat since he was the only one actually shooting back, but that didn't last for long. One of the troopers realized that the exposed woman at the terminal was a much easier target and a larger threat if left to her work.

Tadgh would be able to see the trooper shift his stance and adjust his aim accordingly.

"Almost there... almost there.." Lyla murmured to herself, frantically typing and trying her best to block out the madness behind her.

"There! I got i--" She exclaimed, turning to search for Tadgh to warn him about what would happen; but when she moved a blaster bolt that had been intended for the back of her skull struck her shoulder, just below the curve of her neck.

The slicer staggered back and twisted around, slamming her hand against the keyboard to cut the power to the hangar as she fell to the ground.

"LYLA!" Glen shouted, as the entire hangar was plunged into total darkness.