Public The Kessel Run [SJO] [OPA]

[Tyria Koth]

The Atrax pulled up alongside the now crippled freighter, the ship drifted uselessly in space as its engines sputtered and burnt, two laser holes in each one. "Your vessel has been disabled, any further action on your behalf will result in further violence. Shut down all systems besides life support and open all internal doors and hatches. Acknowledge," she said into the commlink. She watched on the display in front of her as the ship complied, transferring its control over to the Atrax. "This was easy..." She thought to herself, sending out a retrieval beacon to her employer. They'd be along shortly to free the captured Wookies and her payment should arrive a moment after.

Like clockwork, another freighter pulled up on the other side of the crippled slaver ship and extended a docking tube over to it. Seconds later her computer chimed merrily, informing her that her fee had been received. Without a second glance, she accelerated away from the two freighters and onto her next assignment.

Her course took her away from the Channel and into a chaotic path through the maelstrom known as the Corkscrew, after several minutes of intense flying she caught up to her new targets. Several ships were following two heavily laden freighters through the shortcut, every now and again a cargo container would separate from the larger of the two ships and tumble chaostically into the void. Flashes of lasers and the odd explosion illuminated the surrounding clouds as Tyria pushed the Atrax to catch up to the action and as soon as she was in range, fired her forward blaster cannons into the engine pods of the freighter Eravana, her new bounty.

 

[Sasmay Cull]

WIELDING: 4 Whimsy Knives, 1 Nastirci Combat Knife, 2 HG-88 ‘Big Iron’ Hand Cannons, 1 R12 LMG
WEARING: Phase I Haywire Armor on top of UL-13 Corporis Skin Suit

The whirlwind of activity had pulled the majority of attention away from the landing zone as a vessel churned to life. Loaded with weapon crates and crude physical blast shields, it chugged towards the intended recipients. Slaves in need of freeing.

The Junker floated through the area, her chandra fan pilot squeaked and made her displeasure at having to navigate the horror that was the Kessel area known. The vessel haphazardly bobbed and weaved as needed with Sasmay manning the two forward laser arrangments from the copilots seat.

"Quit, we aren't dying out here and there are slaves to free. Or at least incite to violence and free themselves." Sasmay shot back to the protesting chattering. The forward lasers took apart asteroids and made the shields able to handle the smaller debris left behind.

"Cull. Crates are ready to drop." A voice called through her suits comm link. She clicked the link twice, an affirmative on her end before opening up another channel to all aboard.

"Man the laser and keep this thing flying. I'll handle the drop. Everyone else, make sure no one tries to throw a party for us while I'm gone." She gave orders to the skeleton crew that ran to stations.

The quad laser suites were hard wired to one another where it was handy. Ten in all, it only took four people to run the lot of them. The typical thirteen needed to properly run them just made the things more accurate. The crew were former slaves though, ones that didn't want to go home and had kept on when the ship had switched hands. Hearing about others being enslaved had stirred Sasmay and her crew to come here however.

Cull stood when another came to take her place. Taking a final shot before quickly switching control as the vessel rocked to one side as Kask avoided larger debris. Her chattering continued as the twi'lek that took over spared a look to Sasmay.

The woman shrugged before heading down below. The Junker approached the planet quickly, Sasmay moving to her spot as a few hands prepared to push the sealed crates out with her. A hand glided over one of the crates as a wicked smile crossed her features.

"Let's stir up some trouble." She hissed, putting her helmet on as the vessel broke atmosphere.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

This is Corte Fletchador of the Silver Jedi Order and both of your ships are known for smuggling. You are herby ordered to return to open space and wait to be given landing coordinates. If you should fail to comply, trust me, you won't lose any of us - we are smaller, faster, more agile, and better armed. We will blow you to oblivion. Please reply with an affirmative. Corte thought that that should be enough to make them fear for their lives and to come about. Just to be serious, he decided to use A26's firing solution and fire on Infinity Free's cannon that had already caused him trouble. He made direct hits on the cannon but wasn't sure as to the damage....

The freighter bucked as laser fire punched through. Decompression alarms wailed. Jerec's ears popped and he reached for the bulkhead control panel, ready to seal off whatever corner of the ship was venting atmosphere into the Corkscrew of the Maw.

His hand froze, and so did the rest of him, as the location registered. Laser fire had just wrecked the aft quad turret through which Jerec's Apokka first mate had been covering their escape.

A holocam feed from the turret bubble showed only flame and whirling feathers.

Jerec squeezed his stinging eyes shut and sealed the door. The atmospheric pressure stabilized. Hard vacuum ate the fire instantly.

"This is Captain Jerec Asyr of the Infinity's Free talking to Silver Jedi Knight Corte Fletchador ." At some level he was stunned his voice came out so calm. Shock would do that. An asteroid left a rippling scar along the hull and he barely noticed the turbulence. "The Silvers have no jurisdiction in the Maw. You've got no right to my cargo or my ship. And that means when you murdered my first mate Quekko of Ord Mantell sixty seconds ago, it was an act of piracy. I'll kill you for that, Jedi. Won't be today, but I'll kill you.

"You're right about one thing, though. You ARE smaller."

He skewed the freighter and hit a carbonaceous chondrite asteroid sidelong. The brittle rock exploded into a cloud of debris, a meteor swarm nasty enough to shred starfighters. The freighter spun out of the Corkscrew and powered for clear skies.

"Quek, chart us a..."

 

[Corte Fletchador]

Kyra Perl , Karra Tor , Kingsley , Jerec Asyr , Acaadi
Chasing Eravana and Infinity Free


As the Infinity Free pulled out of the Corkscrew, Corte followed it and responded to Jerec Asyr 's accusation Listen here Captain, your first mate might still be alive if he hadn't been trying to murder myself and the other Jedi's with me out here. He also might still be alive if you hadn't taken off of a world laden with illicit drugs and slaves. So, yeah, I never like taking someone else's life, however, in the defense of myself and others - I won't hesitate. You are hereby ordered to proceed to the next habitable planet and surrender yourself, your ship, and you cargo. If not, we will stop you by shooting your engines out as soon as we are clear of the Maw - then a Republic cruiser will collect you and place you under arrest. You have 5 minutes to respond with your decision.......

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Corte Fletchador

"You came at us," Jerec seethed. "In free space. You've got no authority here, karkwit, nobody to defend, just a metric fethton of might makes right. Well you shot from the hip and you hit my friend. Feel free to have the last word and take your best shot. You think you've got what it-"

Too soon, way too soon, he slapped the control panel. The freighter leaped to hyperspace at a strange angle with a roar and a groan. Rivets popped and whined around the corridors. Jerec worked the nav bypass to skid his route unpredictably.

The Infinity's Free disappeared, leaving a wake of rusty hull panels and charred Apokka feathers.

 

[Acaadi]

Kingsley Kyra Perl

"Yeah, sorry but I am," Acaadi half apologised. A grimace had turned his face into a mask of determination. There was no going back now, only forwards. The mad smuggler was heading for the Maw.

"If it helps..." he said as the agile craft rolled beneath a rock the size of a small town, "...there's no point holding on tight. If I mess up we'll be flat in half a second."

He was honing in on his target when the sensors complained of movement. Everything seemed to be moving, but a flash of lightning gave Acaadi a glimpse of a mass of tentacles reaching out of a crack in the rocks.

"Uh oh."

 

[Corte Fletchador]

Kyra Perl , Karra Tor, Kingsley , Jerec Asyr , Acaadi
Chasing Eravana

With the disappearance of the Infinity Free jumping to light, Corte now turned his attention the Eravana over comms Captain of the other ship, this is Corte Fletchador of the Silver Jedi Order. Please follow my instructions as were given to the other vessel. You are in possession of illicit drugs and slaves, and we aim to stop their distribution. Please reply....

To the other Jedi, he asked were any of you able to track the Infinity Free? He got away too fast for my astomech to track....

 

[Tyria Koth]

Tyria pulled on the controls, putting the Atrax directly above the formation of Jedi Starfighters. Squeezing the triggers on the starship's controls, she fired another several rounds into the engines of the Eravana to no avail. The blasters on the Atrax were fine enough for regular engagements, but the freighter's massive engines quickly shredded the laser bolts, turning them into harmless gas ejected out of the engines with the rest of the exhaust.

She flipped through the channels until she found the one they were using to communicate. "If any of you are listening, there's a power converter on the main engine pod, if we concentrate fire we may be able to knock out their hyperspace drive before they can jump away too."

She waited for them to acknowledge, but after a moment her sensors began to wail with alerts and warnings. A huge organic signature had been detected emerging from a nearby asteroid. "We don't have much time!" She said, insistently, hoping the Jedi would oblige.

Kingsley Corte Fletchador Acaadi Kyra Perl

 

[Kingsley]

"Rrrawk! Almost there..."

The Eravana was scorched and battered but so far against all expectations remained unbroken. Nearly a third of its storage containers had been stripped by debris and turbulence but thankfully for his bottom line his wookiee cargo was still safe up in the main bay where he could take extra security precautions. Still Kingsley was bleeding spice and the sooner he could jump the better his haul. Not to mention all the people currently trying to kill him.

"And...got it!" he screeched when the navigational computer pinged a hit, "So long suckers-dank ferrik what the hell is THAT-"

A massive tentacle slammed into his bulk freighter sending it careening off course and its captain ping ponging back and forth against bulkheads. The nav com chimed mournfully as its plotted course vector was broken. Eravana spiraled through the Maelstrom smashing into asteroids and shredding cargo containers like confetti. Many of the massive shipping crates arced back at high velocity, obstacles for Acaadi Kyra Perl Tyria Koth and the others to avoid.

Kingsley burst through into an slightly less turbulent pocket of the Maelstrom. They were adrift in hazardous space but at least no longer under imminent threat of hull breach. He was far more worried about whatever that thing was that just hit him. Did he see an eye??

"First Mate Iziz!" the hiitian smuggler croaked, "Get your best men down there and get my engines running! Tell the rest to prepare for company! The bad kind! With guns and swords!"

"Utinni!"

 

[Eldin Daine]

Location: Lost in The Maw.


Purple haze, all around him in the Maw. So far, the Navi computer had gotten him this far without trouble, but that could change in the blink of an eye so Eldin kept vigilant. Any attempts to contact the ORION operatives came to nothing, there was just too much interference in this location. He was not here to break any records, that was the last thing on his mind. What was, was getting out of this swirling death mist in one piece. It was deadly silent, which made his nerves stand on end and this was not the path through the Maw he had planned on.

A bead of sweat trickled down the back of his neck, just as a piece of metal flew in front of his viewing window. The Maw made up of all sorts of galactic anomalies least of all, black holes in a cluster which should have been enough to make him decide not to accept this mission. Another small piece of metal and the angle of his ship pitched to the right. His ship was slowly pulling apart, alarms rang out and it was time to get out of here before it was too late. Lucky for Eldin he had only hair width clipped the gravitational pull of whatever was out there, he did not stick around to find out.

A knuckle tapped on his chronometer, time seemed to go funky in here, or maybe it was an illusion, he could not tell anymore. But somehow the clock had reversed a couple of days by his reckoning, although that was the least of his worries, it sat in the back of his mind with all the other stuff he needed to address when out of here. The purple haze thinned before him, which was nothing new to him, he had flown through patches thick and thin, but looming before him was something big. He leaned forward squinting his eyes trying to make it out, as if that would help, but the closer he got, the clearer it became.

“What the..h”, it looked like some sort of station. And from what he could make out, it was dead.

 

[Sasmay Cull]

Location: Atmosphere of Kessel
WIELDING: 4 Whimsy Knives, 1 Nastirci Combat Knife, 2 HG-88 ‘Big Iron’ Hand Cannons, 1 R12 LMG
WEARING: Phase I Haywire Armor on top of UL-13 Corporis Skin Suit

Sasmay listened over the comm as Kass informed her of their vector, calling out time marks when appropriate as others filled the comm with chatter about targets.

"Switch channels you lot. Filling my head with noise." Sasmay clicked in before the line between pilot and operator became deathly silent.

She felt the hull groan against the quick descent, hearing the whir of turret pods rotating in their housings to face targets. Silence filled the hull before Kass linked her into another comm line.

"Unidentified vessel. Halt your approach and state your business. You are entering-"

"Here on delivery. It'll be quick with all those vessels in orbit." Sasmay cut in. The link was silent for a breath of time. She could swear she heard the person on the other end asking someone if they were expecting delivery, or at least wondering who the frack was inbound.

"Uh. No. You are advised to change course and land elsewhere until-"

"Listen Richard. You sound like a Richard. Mind if I call you Richard for the time being?" Sasmay cut them off once more.

"No I-"

"Excellent. Look, I've got some crates to drop off and I need a signature. I don't plan on-"

"Ma'am, you-"

"See you in a second." She cut the link as she heard a cackling laugh from Kass before the ship rocked unexpectedly, changing the laugh to a panicked scream of curses.

The quad lasers roared, the shields humming as the bay doors opened and the ground came into view deathly quick. Explosions came from the open door as the vessel skated across the surface briefly before coming to an alarming halt.

Deft hands pushed the crates out, missing droids and copies below in the middle of working as Sasmay follows the crates down.

"Greetings!" She let the helmet amplify her voice as she pulled the lmg from her back and waved off the pair of heads sticking out from the bay doors.

The vessel screamed away, spinning briefly as lasers demolished gun emplacements around her. A quick series of steps had her hitting the lock on a box as bowcasters and assorted blasters burst from the lid of the crate like demented confetti.

"Grab something and give them all you've got!" She yelled, blaster fire ripping over her shoulder as guards poured onto the scene from their posts.

Droids whirred their heads around and wookies followed suit as the woman began unloading blasts at the guards.

Cautious steps and continuous fire had Sasmay kicking open the other crate as more weapons sprang out for the masses. She spared a moment for a wave of her hand as droids moved first, picking up what they could and firing at the overseers. The lumbering furry giants followed quickly after, and chaos began to descend as Sasmay laughed through her helmet.

*A distress signal comes from the surface of the planet to whoever cares with scant details other than an outpost being attacked by vigilantes.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra could only screech, events happening far too fast for her liking. Everything felt totally out of her control.

Jerec Asyr 's ship received a shot ahead of her. Its shield's were down. She had known that. Everyone had seen that. Acaadi had specifically ordered to stop after shields went down. The shot hit the unprotected spacer. She gasped, staring in shock.

Feathers blew out the back hatch, some red. A sense of unexpected fury burst from her chest, the padawan grabbing onto the coms and speaking across all sjo ships. Corte Fletchador Karra Tor

"WHAT NINCOMPOOP SHOT THAT, WE'RE JEDI, WE DON'T KILL!"

Always a strange moment-- when a padawan chastises a knight. She had just thought some things were obvious. I mean it was pretty black and white in lessons.

Her rant continued, the adrenaline loosening her mouth. "What part of just chip at their shields do you not understand? What ever happened to taking orders and peaceful routes-- How are you all out of school and I'm not! --they killed the chicken!" She complained to Acaadi, a whine hitting her voice as they looked across at each other.

He didn't have to say his thoughts, she could feel his exasperation from across the cock pit. She released the comms, the rest of SJO receiving static as Kyra glowered in peace.

She didn't have long to work through her shock, tentacles spitting out of the cloud around them. She screamed again, reaching for the comms.

"Mooooooooonster! Mooooooooooooonster!"

Some people just needed to be taken off comms.

 

[Acaadi]

It was all too much. All happening together. In those moments of focus his attention narrowed and spread at the same time. He honed in on his controls, the force spread outwards to guide his hand. Yet all the other events took time to sink in. The appearance of the vast behemoth, the destruction of the smuggler's gunnery tower and the distress signal from Kessel itself.

"To all fighters nearby, we're not here to kill. The ship we're still with has lost power. We have to distract that thing!"

Acaadi glanced over his shoulder at Kyra. He knew his words were in the same track as her sudden outburst. They had to save lives now, not catch smugglers. Illegal activity wasn't a death sentence. Not one the Jedi carried out every, anywhere. He also knew she would be alarmed at the thought of flying for the beast. Couldn't be helped now.

Twin ion engines flared to life as he angled to nose towards the monster as its tentacles stretched out towards Kingsley's ship.

"Fire on its eyes!" he told Kyra. As they closed he realised that gave her plenty of targets to choose from. His speed was his main hope. He cut a path through the tentacles to strafe its head and hopefully would carry enough velocity that the monster had to give chase.

 

[Corte Fletchador]

Kyra Perl , Karra Tor, Kingsley , Jerec Asyr , Acaadi
Chasing Eravana

Responding to the screaming Kyra Perl , First of all Padawan, it was never my intention to kill. Second of all, the turret fired at all of us and I was attempting to damage it, not kill.....unfortunately his shields went down in the same instant that I squeezed the trigger. All-in-all, I would never had done it if I knew what was going to happen, but they were wrong in shooting at us - and what's worse, is that they are transporting drugs and slaves and have gotten away with it for now.....

In that instant, the tentacles from some monster appeared out of the clouds that make up the Maw and Corte had to make a quick and sharp turn up and to the left. When he corrected course, there still appeared to be monster tentacles coming at the group, he radioed and asked Acaadi , since I have caused enough trouble today, what would you like to do? What about the other smuggling ship?

 

[Karra Tor]

Ok, everything was just happening too fast.

The chicken's turret was blasted into chunks of glass, circuits, and feathers, and Karra just stared for a moment at the remains as her brain briefly shut down. She hadn't fired the shot, but all the same, she just saw a living, thinking being get summarily vaporized in front of her eyes, he even screamed. She didn't even know what to think or how to respond to that, and she wouldn't get the opportunity just yet either. Gonk had been focusing on the job the whole time (thankfully), so he immediately rerouted the ship into the path of another, making a hard turn that subsequently slammed Karra's head against the glass once more. She yelped and quickly shook her head before grabbing the controls again - this was no time for thinking, except for the kind that got her objective done!!

As you can tell, her thoughts are about as much of a jumbled mess as this battle when she's under this kind of stress.

She aimed the cannons and let off a few shots toward the target pointed out, hoping to at least ground one ship, but again, the ship had other ideas. Gonk saw the tentacles lashing out toward their ship before her and threw them into another spin, hitting the side thrusters and throwing them a few feet from the shadows of the Maw, buying them some precious time. Now though, Karra didn't let herself get slammed against the glass window - she had been getting overwhelmed by the pressure of being in the ship long enough. She threw out her hand and it morphed into an amorphous blob that spread across the glass, cushioning her head and letting her spring right back.
"Ok!! This is getting ridiculous!!" She growled, grabbing the straps of her seat and fastening them with all the strength she had.

She was a doctor, she knew her mind and her body, she could rely on what she knew. She hated flying, she was bad at it because of the various different controls and factors, even her ability to multitask was unable to compensate. Gonk helped maneuver the ship and handled the flying, but his method of flight tended to throw her around, simple solution? Tighten the straps so she doesn't move around as much and focus on one thing when she is moving - focusing on one thing helps to alleviate some of the tension and fear. She grabbed the controls and glanced out at the droid, nodding at him.
"Symbiosis Gonk, symbiosis..." She panted, chuckling softly. The droid offered a distorted whine in response before throwing them around, her cockpit's window filling with the dark angles and writhing masses of...whatever it was in here.

She breathed out, aimed, and started firing at the tentacles nearest the smuggler's ship. Something this big was probably beyond their ability to kill, so it would be more prudent to just make sure it didn't get near them, and most living beings responded to pain one of two ways: Anger or Fear...

 

[Eldin Daine]

Location: Lost in The Maw - Derelict Station


The forward lights moved across the surface of the ‘abandoned’ station as the ‘Blank Shot’, slowly manoeuvred around it. The station was covered in a crusted layer of space dust making the entire structure black, it would seem which told Eldin it was old. Just how old he could not guess. There were no lights anywhere, and in all likelihood, no life support either and is was eerie. Coming into view was a landing dock, it looked to be intact with only one way to find out. His ship touched down. The forward lights throwing up a scene of blackness, as black as empty space.

He fixed the breathing mask in place as the board ramp lowered, the hiss of air entering space indicated by the ‘wind jet’ reaction which quickly dissipated into space leaving Eldin standing lone on the platform in his magnetic boots and space suit. His priority was his ship, checking it over to find what had been pulled off with the near miss of gravity pull and found a missing panel on port side. Antenna and other small things could wait and be replaced back in OPA space on Bespin.

From a side compartment on his ship, Eldin gathered the tools needed to salvage a piece of metal from the station, at least this trip was not going to be for nothing and he could get the hell out of here sooner, it would be a patch job but enough to get him home. He approached the wall of the bay, a hand swiping the dust away which hung in the vacuum of space, it revealed some letters, Sinkho.., his hand worked further, ..le. He paid the lettering no mind, he just wanted to get the panel and get out of here.

Halfway through the task, Eldin suddenly stopped as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. It was like he was being watched, the force telling him a presence was close by which was strange to him as he never had felt this before, not directly or with any use of the skill he possessed. If he did not know better, it felt like someone had tapped him on the shoulder.

He spun around went to draw his pistol and aimed, at nothing. There was no visible person in the place. Still, “Who’s there?”, he demanded, but was met with silence. Moments passed and nothing, just the gentle floating of space dust before his face. His racing heart began to slow and breathing returned to a sense of normality before he lowered his pistol, maybe it was just this weird eerie place playing with his imagination. Eldin was about to return to his work.

“What we see greatly depends on what we are looking for”. The lights in the bay came on, everything revealed around him, crates, diagnostic equipment, fuel lines and two decayed bodies dried and shrivelled, if touched would turn to dust.

Out of the shadows walked a man.

 

[Aldric]

Somewhere in OPA Space a Jedi’s blade was locked with that of a Tapani pirate. The vicious visage of the pirate, gnarled with scars and damaged tissue, glared with murderous intent at his foe. The blades drifted dangerously close to the Jedi’s breath mask, nearly severing it from his face. With a surge of the Force, the pirate was shoved backward, knocked into a high tower of crates.

Taking wheezing breaths, Aldric tried to recover. Their battle had been going for several minutes and his lungs were exerting themselves heavily. Suddenly a pain coursed through him, not physical, but spiritual. A great injustice had occurred within the galaxy, a crime that tipped the balance in the Force momentarily to the Dark Side. A brief vision of a feathered being abruptly vanishing into nothingness crossed the Jedi's mind. Without greater context, he could do nothing but mourn the loss.

Before he could process what had happened further the Tapani was upon him again, roaring his disdain as his cybernetic legs ripped through the metal flooring, about to bring the blade down upon the Jedi.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Acaadi had indeed given her plenty of targets to chose from, a fact which actually made her aim surprisingly accurate. It was hard to miss when targets were that big. Or that numerous, for that matter.

Monster blood sprayed off into a mist through space, the creature letting out a furious scream. Tentacles lashed out, trying in a desperate bid to strike out Acaadi's ship and knock them into the depths of the maelstorm.

Somehow, and force don't ask her how, Acaadi dodged. A panicked laugh bubbled from Kyra's lips, the girl's shoulders practically raised up to her chin.

"Chit, I need new pants," she told the air, gasping for breath as Karra Tor 's shoots clean severed multiple tentacles from the creature. That seemed to do it, because the creature let out another shrill noise (that was totally lost in the dead of space because science), and writhed its way back into the safety of the maelstrom.

The cabin was silent for a moment, both padawans reeling in place. Kyra straightened, Kingsley 's ship floating stalled in front of them. "Quick! Board them before they can fix it!" She exclaimed, pointing wildly. You know, in case Acaadi had missed it.

She reached for the comms.

"A reminder to all our, um, friends. ...Lethal force is not authorized and, um, we're about to board them so.... don'tshoot."

She unbuckled as Acaadi navigated them through.

 

[Acaadi]

Kingsley

Acaadi snapped the small fighter around and back through the mass of tentacles. The monsters had turned to gives chase and instead slunk into the gaps between rocks.

"I'm taking us in," he called to Kyra. "They look in bad shape."

Many of the crafts cargo pods had broken free. His sensors picked up several that had continued on towards the Maw where they would be shorn apart by tidal forces.

"We need to get their engines working before they drift further," Acaadi added, calling those ships nearby too. Slight movements of the stick took him into the hangar bay of the freighter and he touched down. The canopy slid open.

"Anyone here?" he called out, offering Kyra a hand as he stood up. It was a tight for for two and he was almost glad of the chance to stretch his legs. Almost. One look back outside reminded him where they were.

 

[Corte Fletchador]

Kyra Perl , Karra Tor, Kingsley , Jerec Asyr , Acaadi
Chasing Eravana

Responding to Kyra Perl ’s comments, Corte said You will have to eventually learn that no one is perfect Padawan - nobody wanted to kill any of the smugglers, just disable their defenses....I will stay up here and battle this monster. Just as he finished saying the last comment, Corte opened fire with all four canons on tentacles that appeared to want his X-Wing. As it retreated from the area, it was obvious that the monster had finally had enough fighting for one day. It appears that our monster friend is on the retreat Corte reporter for anyone listening in to him. I’ll stay up here as an escort while you both take care of business on the ship....