Drask debates taking the speeder anyway seeing as how the family ignored their initial advice and are attempting to continue knowing that it won't work. He looks at the group gathered and decides against pressing the issue and instead shrugs when the father starts the speeder. He begins walking off in the direction of the river once more as he calls back to his companions "If we linger we are going to end up fighting Krath. I don't object to that of course ....... but I've gathered the rest of you aren't as spoiling for a fight as I am"

When the group has moved further away from the family he then interjects "You know that woman may be right, we may not find a speeder. We might have to take one by force. Either from the Krath or one of these civilians."

Kanti furrows her brow and attempts to help the apparent head of the household right his speeder and keep it on course, drowning at the man the entire time. "Only if you abandon some of this dross will you be able to make it safely. All the same, good luck."

Having done all she could, successfully or not, Kanti would quickly move to catch up with Drask and company. "We make it to the river and press our luck. If we have to, we can follow the river to the plains they just mentioned and see what's there. From there, I have every intention of stealing a bike or truck if we need to."

She remembered the noble officer's final words to her, pleading for the safety of the citizens of this place. "If I promise you that we can put the boots to some bad guys later, will you promise me no injuring families who are just scared and confused?"

"families who are just scared and confused"...

Never mind the families, Dubi was more than scared and confused and fully understood why everyone was running. He didn't particularly like the idea of hanging around here much more than they had to. The speeder looked useful but there was no way they were going to be taking it off the family, they needed it more. The fighting was going to be horrible and he was glad to have his gun with him at least, it'd prove useful when it came to it, and it WOULD come to it. He was glad he had the non-lethal option as well... He was as scared of the panicking citizens as he was the fighters by this point. Thank goodness the big male... Drask? Looked like he could look after himself, and Dubi if it came to it.

Drask scoffs "I wasn't going to hurt them. Just scare them and take their speeder. Aren't we running low on time for that little girl?"

With a glare to Drask the small blue Twi'lek grumbled, "No point in exchanging four lives for one. Sometimes you only get bad choices to make."

She really was worried about that poor girl laying there, waiting for the medical attention she so desperately needed, and her likely terrified father. "Though you are right, Drask."

Drask rolled his shoulders slightly "Yeah ..... but you know we don't know if that family would die. They could hunker down in the city and may be just fine. The Krath don't kill EVERYONE after all. But ..... if we don't find something soon that girl may die and then we'll be stuck on this planet." He takes a look around "Though .... I suppose there are worse planets to be stuck on than Naboo."

"So, guys, let's just leave, let's keep going," Massan says in an almost whiny tone. "Head to the river, try to find a speeder nobody is using."

He knows that even if nobody is using a speeder they might come across, it would still have an owner. An owner that might need his vehicle to get out of the city with his four young children and pregnant wife. He pushes that thought to the back of his head. If they find one it probably belongs to someone who, sensibly, got off the planet days ago. Someone rich and obnoxious that deserves to have his speeder stolen. He probably stole it from somebody else.

As he walks, Massan keeps fabricating the story about how bad the owner of the next unoccupied speeder really is, in his own head.

The speeder lifts off the ground, but as Kanti does so, some of the luggage shifts and the speeder dips dangerously, causing her head to strike the dash, but it soon stabilizes, and the family loads back into the speeder. As she passes, the woman hands Kanti something--a pendant--and resists any attempts to take it back. "Thank you for what you've done," she says. "Please, be safe." With that, the family heads up the street, although the speeder moves awkwardly and lopsided.

Several more minutes pass as you travel through the city. You can hear the shouting and frantic sounds of citizens moving for the edge of the city, although you rarely see any other people. But then, as you round a corner, there stands a group of Krath skirmishers, standing about a block and a half down the street from you. They spot you, and shout a battle cry.

Make your Vigilance checks for initiative. No setback, unless you're already suffering from the effects of fear.

Kanti clutches her forehead and swears, "Frelling galaxy be damned," she cries out as her forehead meets the console of the bike. There remains a dull ache when the Krath come into view. "Be damned," she says as she reaches for her -- WHY DIDN'T SHE BRING A BLASTER TO NABOO!?

Drask's eyes light up as they turn the corner and spot their first batch of Krath scum. Today was finally starting to look up for the green skinned Nikto. It also helped that this random encounter proved his earlier essemant of evenutally bumping into Krath correct if they didn't take what they needed. Two vindications in one afternoon!!!!

He spins his staff in his hands as they shout their battle cry. Now was the time for his third vindication of the day.

"Don't worry I've got this Kanti. Get behind me." he says as he notices her hand reaching for the non existent blaster.

Okay, here's trouble. Now time to try and be useful... Dubi made sure his rifle was ready for the inevitable slugfest that was about to begin, he can't do much but at least he can shoot. Which is more than Kanti could at the moment without having a useful weapon. Hopefully that won't be the case for too long but for now he had no option but to wait for the firing to begin. Dubi started to mumble to himself and wait for the signal from someone, anyone to start bringing down targets.

"I can do this..."

"Oh no. No. No no no no no. They've seen us. Guys, they've seen us. We have to run. Blend in with the population," Massan manages to moan. His feet remain rooted to the ground, however, as he watches the soldiers advance with a look of horror on his face.

When it is clear that the soldiers are about to attack, and that his clearly sun-addled companions intend to stick around and fight, Massan's first instinct is to run. He looks around and sees that the path back is relatively clear. Covering fire. That was a good plan. He rips out his blaster pistol from the holster under his jacket. The smooth grip fits his palm like it was made for it. Which was no coincidence, since it really was. He had spent a lot on that beauty and had just taken possession of it the other day from that smuggler.

Massan knows that if he is to hit any of the soldiers at this range he needs to stand still, hold his pistol with both hands, spread his legs slightly, take a deep breath, sight down the target and then gently squease the trigger. But he does none of those things. Instead he lifts the pistol quickly, points it roughly in the direction of the soldiers and fires off several blasts as he runs in the opposite direction. The enemy soldiers are both unharmed an unimpressed with the pudgy Klatooinian's marksmanship.

So, a maneuver to draw the pistol, an attack (see OOC thread) that fails to hit but nets 2 advantages. And the 2 advantages are spent on a second maneuver, which is promptly used for running away. At the end of this, Massan is at Short range to his friends. Well, they are more like associates. He hardly knows these people. What have they ever done for him anyway?

And just to make it clear, Massan will not abandon the fight, he is just getting some distance between himself and the marauding soldiers. But he really isn't much of a warrior.

Dubi looks at Massan dropping back after his missed shots. That's the sort of thing that fills you with confidence. He turns back to see the would be targets are now more than aware of their presence. Hit now think about things later. He raises his rifle and pulls the trigger. He's not entirely sure sure what sort of damage he's caused but it certainly looked like a hit. Dubi looked at his new friends and wiped his forehead hoping for approval. What passed as a smile spreading across his face.

so the same maneuver and action as Massan but this time with actual successes! Dubi stands his ground and removes a little bit of his strain.

The Chad's shots ring true, and one of the Krath warriors fall, unconscious. Another takes a hit and looks weakened and injured, but remains standing. Quickly, he stumbles over to cover behind the corner of a building.

Giving their fallen comrade little mind, a pair of warriors advance. With their pistols drawn, the Krath open fire, hitting Drask.

Kanti frowned deeply as the Krath began to shoot back, and she watched as a few of them fell and others fell back into cover. She was good, not great but good with big mounted weapons, but here was no chance of that, was there?

There were, apparently a couple of solid shots here, "Drask! Think we can flush them out of cover?" She glanced to the downed soldier, had he dropped a blaster pistol?

No action taken yet. Just interjecting

The rear group, with their spears drawn, advance menacingly towards the group.

As they can't suffer strain to make another maneuver, that's all they're capable of doing.

Kallu scowls when he sees the 6 Krath troopers bearing down on them. The Nikto can obviously handle himself, but the rest of them are unknown quantities. So they may effectively be badly outnumbered, not a position Kallu likes to find himself in.

Kallu is unsurprised to see Massan shoot wildly and run away. The Klatoonian is obviously a coward. They'll need his skills to repair the ship though, so they'll need to keep him around. And besides, cowards are easy to manipulate.

The Chandra-Fan's deadly accuracy is a pleasant surprise. Seeing 2 enemies taken out of the combat, Kallu joins the fray, much happier about the odds he faces.

Drawing his vibroknife from a hidden pocket in his clothing, Kallu moves in, taking advantage of the advancing Krath's focus on Drask to jab straight into the gut of an enemy soldier before they have a chance to respond. Although his armour absorbs most of the blow, Kallu sees the Krath's eyes widen in pain as the blade cuts into his flesh

As a flurry of blaster fire erupts around him Drask springs into action. He charges towards the first group of Krath warriors, noting that a second group was forced into cover. As blaster fire grazes his shoulder he lets out a deep and mighty roar as he joins the fray with Kallu.

Drask spins his staff and connects in the midsection of the first Krath warrior he faces. The second Krath warrior readies his pistol and takes aim at Drask, but he moves faster than the Krath warrior can. With a spin of his staff he knocks the blaster into the air. Both combatants look up at the pistol but it is Drask who is able to pluck the weapon out of the air as it comes back down.

He then grins and diverts his attention back to Kanti "Kanti!!!" he shouts "Catch!!!!" He then tosses the weapon towards his Twi'lek friend.

Drask had been in Kanti's life for a couple of years now. She didn't really know when exactly they crossed paths, but she remembers the trouble she was in. If asked, the Twi'lek would say she had an eye for people, a great sense of what to expect. Whether that was true or not, she had been right about that Nikto, and she did so love to watch him work.

Her knees bent and she caught the formerly Karth held gun in her hands and grinned. With a twirl around her index finger, Kanti fired off a shot with a devilish grin at the group not directly engaged with her friend Drask. "Thank you, darling! Just what I always wanted!"

Not wanting to waste an opportunity when it presented itself, Kanti fired again, this time taking careful aim at the group of Krath which has moved in closest to her and her allies from their starting position. The bolt fired from her most basic of blasted pistols and seems to have made its mark. "We won't tell anyone of you decide to run!" she taunts as she fires off another blast from her pilfered firearm at the same group.

So spending my maneuver to aim, then firing. Results in the OOC thread per usual. I would like to crit.

Dubi saw the group with spears advancing menacingly towards him and after the initial shock of coming face to face with them took careful aim with his rifle and pulled the trigger. It looked like he'd certainly hit home but he wasn't going to wait to see the results. With the firefight building up around him Dubi took cover behind some rubble and tried to hope that his new friends wouldn't notice his fear.

Even with two more of their comrades down, the Krath are relentless.

The two pistoleers fall back from their enemies, and turn their fire on the diminutive one with the large gun.

Maneuver to disengage, action to fire at Dubi.

Massan is preparing to make a run for it when the soldiers open fire on Dubi, singing his fur with a good hit. "Bastards," the pudgy Klatooinian mutters, sighting down one of the soldiers and firing. His target is clearly an experienced combatant, as he deftly dodges behind a beautiful tree standing at the edge of a small square. The tree is hit several times and looks worse for wear, but the Krath soldier is undeterred.

Massan makes a small whining sound, audiable only to those next to him, clearly frustrated. "Never use a stock blaster man, this thing needs to be tweaked a lot before it's any good," he mutters, looking at his brand new blaster pistol.

"Who said you could leave?" Drask grins as the group he's engaged with falls back and begins firing on another target. He gives pursuit not wanting to give them a moment to catch their breath. Drask moves in swiftly using his bo staff as he connects with the Krath's warriors side and then follows up with a shot to his midsection.