Hale propels himself up from the seabed and grabs onto the boat's ladder, using his momentum to heave himself up on the deck, ignoring the cuts on his hands as he does so. He tumbles into one of the goons. He grabs the man as he stands and flings him into a second, sending them stumbling off-balance. "I got your back!" he yells to the Zeltron as he braces against the coming attacks, ready to take fire for his already-injured ally if need-be.

Briar watches the two task force members board the boat, but she knows that if the boat tries to run for it she'll never make it. So, she focuses on removing her foot from the sand and begins moving back towards the resort thinking I'll be more helpful there than floundering through the water.

"Oi oi! Don't move!" It was too late though as far as Den could tell. As Den sees the sudden move from the shooter, he doesn't think, just reacts. Dropping to one knee he fires a single shot, aiming for the targets gut. His hope was to stop him from doing whatever he was about to do by catching him in his centre mass. On the plus side, at least he wasn't a part of law enforcement, when the military shoots someone, it catches less flack from superiors. For Den, this was part of his job.

Den Combat Check : 3eA+1eD 2 successes, 1 threat

Does 8 base damage to target

The gunman collapses to the deck with a look of surprise on his face, fading fast. Immediate care might possibly save him, but if he had been telling the truth about the fleeing sniper, his survival was not high on the list of priorities.

The two other men bring up their carbines to fire, and Hale springs in front of Veitra, shoving her aside and out of harm's way. The first bolt rips into his left shoulder, burning through the light uniform, and a second grazes his torso as he continues charging recklessly towards the assailants.

Startled by Hale's shove, Veitra overbalances and yelps as she flips over the rail and falls back into the water with a splash.

“H-he-!” Veitra’s yell was cut off by a splash, the female landing inside the water with a gurgle.

“Might want to jump off yourself. Our sniper up there will have you in his sights next. Or you could join us, leave those redblades to their own murderous ways. You know that’s not your way. The Rebellion needs men like you to step up and lead.” The rogue operative Nils Crispin pulls the last carbine off the rack, as he addresses Hale and moves out into the open. He has obviously applied a stimpack or dosed himself with something, and his voice sounds confident, all things considered.

The watercraft’s pilot is less confident, and panics into evasive maneuvers as the Phantom shrieks by overhead. “Decker, back on the flak,” Crispin orders, and one of the storm commandos abruptly lowers his carbine and complies.

Zyi Ux further examines the unique ejection pod as he nears the water, and touches down a hundred or so meters out. He doesn’t have quite what he needs to disable the TIE’s weapons, but he finds the ejected seat is in itself a vehicle of sorts!

The fleeing assassin can’t shake the determined ISB officer on his tail, but he manages to knock over a service droid with a tray of supplies into the agent’s path.

As the others (mostly) stand down, Hale stops and turns to the man. Despite his best efforts, Hale feels a chill run up his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the mention of the sniper, but that's overridden by his anger. His blood was already boiling, but the... whoever he is... inviting him into the Rebellion just makes him furious. He spits contemptuously and growls, "Yeah pal, I don't think so. Last time some punks decided they wanted to break away from the government, we fought the Clone Wars and you got this Empire you seem to hate so much. It may not be perfect, but it's a whole helluva lot better than the alternative. I joined up to stop half-baked revolutionary terrorists like you and your sniper friend from plunging the galaxy back into another war. Not interested." He finishes off with some slightly more colorful language and tries to brace without being noticed, ready to make a move, or counter theirs, depending on how this shakes out. Since they're the ones with carbines and a sniper, I've got to take this carefully. Hopefully Lady Pinky will be a help here, but I certainly can't count on that . May have to just make a dive for it.

Den rushes across to the fallen attacker, sliding over the ground to end up kneeling over the body. He tries to do what he can for the shooter, but his training doesn't cover severe trauma. Well, it did, but he may have missed that lecture. "Argh, curse my high accuracy precision shooting, I'm just too good" he mutters to himself. Fumbling with the figures jacket he eventually gives up on his efforts. "Fine, you want to be shot? Be shot, see if I care!"

Noticing the fugitive attempting to escape, Hawk raised his rifle to his eye, exhaled slowly and stroked the trigger.

When Crispin goes down, those task force members on the scene hear a familiar voice over comms. It is Colonel Yularen himself!

”Mission Override Aurek-77-Cherek. Abort. Abort. Abort. Primary mission accomplished. Stand down. Abort. Abort. Abort. Debriefing to follow.”

Hale, Hawk, Briar, Ral and Veitra have been conditioned to follow orders, including abrupt changes to those orders, but could this be a ruse? The code is correct, and the voice sounds genuine.

When the blaster bolt comes out of nowhere and strikes Hale's target, he realizes the sniper either hates everyone or switched sides. Either way, looks like he's clear. He plants his foot to leap towards one of the rogue storm commandos.

Veita has just regained the ship's deck and is clambering to her feet when the message comes across comms. Hale stops his charge, pivots, and runs towards the side of the boat. Looks like I'm taking that dive anyway... "Pinky! Time to go!" He grabs the Zeltron and heaves her off the boat, following her with a quick dive.

Her body is so tired from all the athletics thus far that she doesn't give much resistance, and, to Hale's perception, very well might have just given up upon hearing more athletics were necessary had Hale not been there to ensure she got off the boat.

Once in the water, he swims down towards the seabed before turning and waving for her to follow, hoping she sees him and takes the hint.

Quickly recalling the blueprints of the resort, Evon tries to cut off his target. ,,He probably heads to the main turbolift, that's the quickest way out of here." He goes through a maintenance corridor, but he still arrives at the elevator a tad bit late, seeing the figure entering the turbolift. ,,Stop, where you are!" - he yells to him, while sprinting to the elevator. ,,Should have said "In the name of Emperor!" - that would surely work!"

The doors are already closing - ,,Blast it!, I'm not gonna make it!" - and he jumps forward, sliding into the turbolift, catching the guy off-guard while he's busy with the control panels. He slides right through the place where the guy's feet were and they are both knocked prone. The doors slam shut, barely missing Evon's head and now they are entangled with each other. ,,I probably didn't think this through..."

Standing up with a faint grunt, Den goes to grab the guy by the back of his shirt, slowly dragging him behind him in what he assumes is the direction of the medical facilities. "Alright, come on then you bleeding idiot. Some people have glass jaws, I guess you've just got glass organs or something" he mutters. Huffing under the strain, he glances around as he readjusts his hold a few times to find the best way to drag this near-corpse.

Reaching for the coms he uses his free hand he sends a broadcast out to the others. "I hope you lot are doing as well as me. I'm killing it here. Quick question, what's the rule on collateral damage? Just in case".

The assassin recovers quickly and rolls into a crouch, drawIng a molecular stiletto from his boot. “Well this is a pleasant surprise. There’s a bounty on your head too, torturer.” The man lunges and misses, but manages to regain his feet in the attempt. Just then, the lift lurches, a sure sign it is about to begin its descent.

Outside, the tactical watercraft makes good on its escape, under cover of the flak gun. Some of the projectiles reach the resort itself, bouncing off the walls at seemingly random trajectories, obviously some form of non-lethal rounds. With Crispin down, the empire must have higher priorities at the moment- which suits the renegade unit just fine.

The Omwati slicer Zyi speeds to meet them, boarding just before the stern canopy closes, and the tac-boat reaches open water. As soon as it has sufficient depth, the watercraft dives beneath the surface and disappears from sight.

Banshee Squad escorts the Squamatan insurrectionists from the beach scuffle to holding cells. It is unclear if these brawlers have been indoctrinated into the rebellion, which obviously has a presence here- but they were most assuredly being groomed for it.

The diminutive ID9 clings to one of the Stormcrow’s wings, capturing the entire scene below, relaying it to Yularen’s office in real time. The true objective of the mission had been very much need-to-know, and had to look real. Stroking his white mustache, the ISB Colonel wonders if the rebels are going to take the bait..?

After giving the Assassin chase Drogos finally catches up with the Doctor and his target who had been running. He watches the Doctor slide into the Assassin and both fall into the lift together. As the doors close shut, Drogos rushes to the door and pulls out his lightsaber. Igniting it he sticks it into the control panel, " There is No Escape." The Inquisitor says with menace loud enough to be heard through the doors of the closed lift. Thankfully his strike at the lift was precise enough to destroy its capability to move, the Assassin was now cornered.

"There is no escape!" Comes a menacing voice from outside of the turbolift which runs chill through Evon's spine! ,,I'm so dead now!"

Then hot plasma heats the elevators corner at the outer panel to the point of white glow. ,,Oh, the Inquisitor." But the relief fades away fast and fear emerges from deep. ,,Oh, the Inquisitor!"

Whatever bounty there might be on the ISB Interrogator’s head, the would-be assassin’s prospects of collecting on it, diminish appreciably with the Inquisitor’s arrival on the scene. Judging from the change in his expression, he knows it, too. The lightsaber flickers menacingly in the lift, emitting its distinctive hum.

The small blade in the assassin’s hand feels ridiculous against such a foe, with such a weapon, and he lets it drop. “I can help I’m not part of their absurd rebellion but I know they have a station here I can take you,” he blurts out in a single breath, then appends awkwardly, “Sir... Lord.. Inquisitor..?” The powerfully built Zabrak had been a target of opportunity, but he had never dreamt he would be facing off against the Inquisitor within the confines of a turbolift. Sweat beads on his forehead as he awaits his sentence.

Paramedical staff relieve Sergeant Luks of his bloody burden, placing the fallen gunman on a medsled and hurrying off. Just then, Briar rushes past, heading in another direction. “This way to the lift, Sergeant.”

Still chaffing at the order to stand down, 3 blips on his screen rouse Ral’s attention. “Lieutenant Commander Somar, this is Colonel Yularen. Engage the incoming Y-wings, but do not pursue.” Indeed, the fighters are closing fast. If they were going to launch torpedoes, they would have done it already.

From his perch, Hawk also hears the incoming fighters, as do Hale and Veitra below in the surf.

Ral picks up his visual scanning and spies the 3 bombers approaching in formation, just before Yularen gives his order. "Acknowledged, Colonel. Moving to engage." Allright, this'll be fun, he thinks to himself. The Phantom and the Ys converge. As their trajectories cross, the Phantom lets loose a volley of laserfire, striking the lead ship. She stays in the air, but is hurting.

On 7/25/2020 at 8:54 AM, Edgehawk said:

Whatever bounty there might be on the ISB Interrogator’s head, the would-be assassin’s prospects of collecting on it, diminish appreciably with the Inquisitor’s arrival on the scene. Judging from the change in his expression, he knows it, too. The lightsaber flickers menacingly in the lift, emitting its distinctive hum.

The small blade in the assassin’s hand feels ridiculous against such a foe, with such a weapon, and he lets it drop. “I can help I’m not part of their absurd rebellion but I know they have a station here I can take you,” he blurts out in a single breath, then appends awkwardly, “Sir... Lord.. Inquisitor..?” The powerfully built Zabrak had been a target of opportunity, but he had never dreamt he would be facing off against the Inquisitor within the confines of a turbolift. Sweat beads on his forehead as he awaits his sentence.

The Inquisitor immediatly lifts the man with the force binding his arms and legs from movement and brings him close enough to see his face as he pulls off the mask. " I will take you aboard our ship where you will tell the Doctor and I everything you know of the rebels who attacked here today." he beckons the doctor to come to his side with his helmet in his free hand. "The more cooperative you are and the better information you give the less painful the interrogation." He said with a great deal of menace as he stared the man who had shot at him the eye, he smiled a grim smile, the threat of noncooperation did not need to be stated.

Evon nods in acknowledgement of the orders and gives the lifted assassin a shove with his palm. ,,Move along! If the Lord Inquisitor is satisfied with you, you might even keep your head in the end!" - he adds casually, like they were talking about the latest huttball bets, but the implications are very much real.

After dumping his capture with the medical staff with a well deserved 'wuss' thrown over his shoulder before he see Briar pass by. "Are you serious? This was meant to be a vacation!" He moans before going to run after him. As they reach the elevator, Den doubles over as he once again tries to catch his breath. "This whole running all over the place, getting really old".

Once the watercraft makes good its escape, Hale bobs to the surface near Veitra, who still hasn't moved. "You okay? Can you make it back to the shallows without help?" He is dubious of the prospect as she seems exhausted, but he'd rather not have to tow her back as he isn't exactly feeling like the Energizer Squall here.

Hearing a distant whining roar, he looks up and sees three silhouettes on incoming. Recognizing the sound as that of a Y-wing, he swears. "We got to move ! Can you swim? "

When she doesn't answer, still struggling to tread water, he looks back over his shoulder at the two hundred fifty yards or so to the beach and swears again. I'm not feeling so great either, but I can't just leave her here.

With that, he gets far closer to Veitra than he had ever wanted to. He hooks his arms under her armpits and begins to swim backwards as fast as the situation allows. Guess I get to put that lifeguard training to good use... Lucky she's just tired and not panicked. Wouldn't want to deal with that right now.

"Tell me when I can drop you, I don't want to do this longer than I have to." he grunts.

Keeping an eye on the incoming Y-wings, he sees the Phantom shrieks by with a volley of laser fire at the Y-wings, but they stay in the air. One of them begins trailing black smoke from its port engine, but it maintains speed with the others. Great. Just great. Got to get out of the water... He looks back to the shore, sighing at just how far they still have to go.

“I’m hit! I’m hit!” the Y-wing pilot exclaims, frantic, seemingly surprised to still be flying.

“Stay on target, Gold-Five, these wishbones can take a hit.”

Sure enough, it’s a little wonky, but the rebel pilot is able to stabilize and stay its course. An astromech busies itself extinguishing the flames shooting from the port exhaust nozzle.

One of the other Y-wings lands a hit on the elusive Phantom, with its ion cannons. “Got’m!”

”Nice shot, Gold-Two.”

Inside, the captured sniper wonders if it might not have been better to die at the Inquisitor’s hand? Nah. Still have options. Opted not to die. Hey, it’s a start.

The internal monologue helps little, and it is impossible to relax with the grip of the Inquisitor upon him.

As the Imperials conduct their hapless prisoner to one of the newly-renovated containment cells aboard the Stormcrow, the resort’s concierge slithers into view, blocking their way. “What iss the meaning of thiss?! We were apprissed of a martial demonsstration, to occur outsside, within view. But thiss?! Chassing and sshooting through the clinic’ss corridorss?! Most unsseemly. If you have any further ssafety concernss, pleasse refer them to me, or contact our ssecurity via the commss. Thank you.”

With a groan, Veitra shook her head, clearing her head from being tackled by a man probably twice her breadth.

”I’m fine I’m fine...”

she mumbled as she began to kick her legs.