The warrior falls to Drask's onslaught, while his comrade curses in anger. The other remaining Krath, either in cowardice or good sense, seems to make a run for it.

One Krath down, two standing; the one in cover uses a maneuver to move away, then downgrades his action to move away again. Which puts him at a... distance... away.

As the two remaining soldiers start to break and run, Massan realizes that they'll be back with reinforcements unless they are stopped. He also realizes that they are unlikely to try to shoot him with a massive Nikto in front of them. He takes careful aim at the nearest soldier and fires several blasts at him. He rejoices when he thinks he's hit the soldier, but curses when he only drops his weapon, shaking his hand from the impact and looking at Massan.

"Oh, come on, what are the odds of this happening?" Massan whines.

The remaining Krath pistoleer, noticing that his remaining comrade has abandoned him, glares at your group in anger, barks something vicious sounding in a language you don't recognize, jams the barrel against the side of his head, and pulls the trigger. A moment later, his lifeless body slumps to the ground. By now the other Krath has rounded the corner and is out of sight.

Combat over, everybody recover strain, if necessary. Don't forget your fear setbacks!

Kanti's eyes widen abruptly as the Krath soldier raises the weapon to his temple, "Wait, no!"

Her voice doesn't carry far, muffled by the blaster shot ringing through the air. "Are they really so vicious? W - The Republic needs more intel."

The Twi'lek breathed a long, low sigh and tried to perk herself up. "Anyone hurt? Anyone need a moment?" she asked as she looked over her group one member at a time.

Massan looks around, making sure there are no soldiers looking. Once he's certain, he puts his pistol back into the holster. "We need to run, one of them got away, he'll bring reinforcements. Lots of reinforcements. That guy shot himself rather than surrendering, that's just crazy! Are they all this insane?" Massan babbles.

The pudgy Klatooinian looks at the four other beings present. The Twi'lek and Chadra-Fan seemed to have sensibly kept their distance and shot the soldiers, but the others had charged them with a knife and a stick. Soldiers. Armed and armored soldiers. Massan decides that they must be a bit strange in the head. No, a lot strange in the head, he decides. But better to keep them on his side. At least they might hold off more soldiers while he runs away.

He looks around. "There, this way to the river. We really need to find a speeder now. They won't like civilians killing their troops."

Drask drops one of the soldiers with his staff attack and then turns to see one in retreat. Drask makes a move to go after the retreating soldier but Kanti's plea for the remaining Krath soldier to not kill himself causes him to pause for a moment. Drask makes a disgusted face at the display. To fall in combat was one thing but to kill oneself? That seemed like a method for cowards. He kneels down to the one he feeled and then relieves him of his blaster, after all he won't be needing it anymore and tucks it under his waistband.

"That was unfortunate" Though what Drask was considering unfortunate is unclear. "Krath fall easier than I thought they would." There was a note of disappointment in his voice, like he wanted to be challenged.

Then he looks over at Kanti as she inquires to injuries. "A shoulder burn from their blaster bolt but nothing I can't walk off!" He grins "Still no speeder it seems."

"As ever, I'm glad you're on my side," she says to Drask with a flash her teeth as she smiles.

A shudder rushes across her body, "I can take killing them, but when they start killing themselves it... It's honestly a bit creepy." Kanti moves quickly in the direction their Klatooine friend belives to be the direction.

Dubi couldn't believe his eyes. He fights to survive, nobody actually LIKES being around death do they? Then why had one of his opponents chosen to take his own life? His associate had the right idea, run away and get the better position or find help, after all that's what Dubi had done. Hoping he could stop his own fur from shaking visibly infront of the braver warriors he'd found himself with he followed the others in search of their speeder.

As you near the village, a small crowd of refugees seem to be arguing with a trio of royal guards in the courtyard of a house. One of the guards, seemingly the leader, is a gray-haired older man, and it seems he's trying his hardest to calm the group down, but doesn't seem to be making any success.

One of the guards is Osfmor. Somebody can try to intervene and calm the crowd, if they want.

"This is not working." Osfmor thought to himself. " The captain is good at his job but not really good with people. I am not better but something has to be done to calm these people."

Osfmor addressed the crowd himself. "Citizens please calm down. The Security Force will handle the situation ."

He frowned as he could not calm the crowd down.

Drask takes note of the situation brewing in the courtyard and then nods his head over in their general direction "Hey do you think if we helped them get that mob under control they'll let us use an air speeder?"

Seeing the chaos in front of him, Kallukorus decides to take control.

"SHUT UP!" he bellows, and all heads turn in surprise to see a fierce Zabrak bearing down on them, his face covered in scars and tattoos.

"Most of you are already useless in this situation. Making nuisances of yourselves as well will not go well for you. Now settle down and wait for instructions."

Kallu glares down at them for another moment, making sure they are suitably cowed, before turning his attention to his companions and the guards.

As the crowed is shocked into silence, the head guard quickly jumps at the opportunity.

"Alright everyone, listen up! You need grab only what you need; we need to get you to safety!" He turns to the other guard standing beside Osfmor. "Tor, please escort them. I will catch up in a moment."

He turns to Kallu, and eyes him cautiously.

"A little crude, but I appreciate the assistance all the same. Trying to get out of the city, Outlander, I take it? I don't know if I can say the same." He turns to Osfmor. "Novafall, you go, get out of the city while you still can; don't get captured, and try to join up with whatever resistance will form after this. Tor and I will remain in Theed, try to get this people to safety, and help out whoever gets trapped inside. No, don't argue, just go. You'll do more good out there than in here."

He turns back to the group. "I don't know how much help I can be to get you out of the Krath noose, but I remember hearing something from around the time the invasion began: somebody reported a speeder going into the water a little up river from here." He points in the direction. "I don't think anybody looked into it, so it may still be there. A competent pilot should be able to get it out of the water. And it might be easier to slip past the sentries if you lay low and wait until at least dusk, but that is your choice."

He turns away and begins following the crowd of people. "Stay safe!"

Massan watches with wide-open eyes as Kallu cows the crowd into submission. I'll have to remember not getting him pissed off at me, he thinks to himself as he observes the situation. When the officer mentions a speeder in the river the Klatooinian scratches his ample belly. No point telling the officer they are planning to steal a speeder.

"Well, unless it was damaged by the impact I should be able do de-flood the engine and get the capacitors working long enough for a good pilot to get it out. Fortunately we have a good pilot," he interjects. He then looks at Osfmor. "If you know your way around it would seem we can help each other. Right?"

Osfmor was a bit surprised by his orders but the captain knows his stuff. He looks over his new partners trying to size them up. Well they did help with the crowd so they can't be all that bad.

" I believe we may be able to each other. I can show you where the speeder is. But remember once we get out of the city we need to look for people to help."

Kanti opened her mouth to get the crowd's attention, but was derailed before setting off by her much more bellow-y companion. She closed her eyes gently and frowned a bit at the bluster, though she'd return to her half grin at the mention of a speeder.

"Well, I'm at least a pilot, and that's going to have to be enough."

Another officer another speech, though Kanti rather liked the cut of this one's jib; she had begun to take note of the selflessness of these Naboo guardsmen. "We have people to help officer. A wounded girl and her father are out there in the fields, waiting for us to bring medical supplies and some parts to fix their transportation."

" Lets get to the speeder again and hope we do not encounter any more Krath. " Osfmor gets a good feeling about his new "assignment".

"Agreed" he says after Kanti speaks. "If we stop to help others we will never get where we need to go." Drask nodded once in affirmation. While in the grand scheme of things it might be a good idea to help any who are in need they were under a bit of a time crunch and Drask was not sure how long the starship captions daughter would be able to hold out. Better safe than sorry right? Besides Drask has had his fun for the afternoon and they did make a promise that should be kept.

"Let's hurry up then"

You progress in relative peace for a few minutes up the street, following the waterway that cuts through the city. It's not until a few minutes and several blocks later that something happens. A person leaps out from around the corner, shouting frantically and pointing a blaster in your position, although you have enough of a warning to get a good look at him.

He's a Twi'lek in fancier, almost exaggerated, clothing. He looks quite panicked, and the blaster in his hand is held awkwardly, as if he's never used one before. He's talking faster than seems possible, and most of what he's saying is horribly butchered Basic, blended with what sounds like Huttese butchered just as bad, and stretches of his native Ryl.

Make your in-between fear checks, don't forget.

Dubi stared at the newcomer with more than a little apprehension. This guy is armed, and dangerous. He felt himself shaking and did all he could to compose himself and resist the temptation to fire blindly. He moved behind Kanti, maybe someone would be able to shout this one down before things get nastier...

"Uh, calm down. Sir?" Massan begins before realizing that he is completly out of his dept. "You speak Twi'lek, you handle this," he says to Kanti, not bothering to mention that as a former slave of the Hutts he speaks their language perfectly well.

Kanti eyes the twi'lek carefully as he brandishes his weapon. She moves slightly to block Dubi from the wild man.

Yeah, yeah she does speak Twi'lek. "Sir? Sir, we understand you're frightened. Desperate. We all are. And we all want to get out before any more of the Krath or their horrors are brought to bare against us. But threatening, frightening, or shooting at one another is so much worse. Please, put down the weapon and kick it away. Let us help you."

I think a charm check. Difficulty? Can I wrangle a boost for being the same species, using the mother tongue?

Osfmor's first instinct was to go for his blaster. He did get his hand on the blaster but thought better of it once Kanti started talking to the Twi'lek.

Upon hearing Kanti, the Twi'lek relaxes a degree and lowers his weapon.

"Oh, thank goodness! I am so happy to see you! I'm Chee Mobok. I've had the absolute worst time on this planet, and now with this attack, I'm completely at a loss," he says, speaking very quickly. He flubbs what may be a greeting in Basic to the rest of the party before turning back to Kanti.

"I'm a merchant, see? Selling the finest clothes from the Ryloth. But my business contact hasn't shown up to any of our meetings, and I've had the worst time at my lodgings! It's been terrible! When the attack happened I tried to get out in my speeder, but I lost control of it and it went into a pond not far from here. I tried to get help, but nobody would stop. Found this thing one of the soldiers dropped in the fighting not too far from here," he indicates the blaster in his hand, "and I've been looking around for some way out of the city or some help. By the way, do you want this? I've never actually used one."

He extends the blaster to take, and eyes the entire group.

"Your friends all look quite skilled; you think you can help me get my speeder going again?"