Shadow of the Crimson Turtle

“Derrab!” Ceph shouts, somehow realizing the man was about to do something reckless. The premonition is too sparse and too late however, and the explosion catches Ceph off guard, throwing him to the ground. Instincts honed from years of surviving as a criminal kick in and Ceph rolls, somehow getting his rifle in hand and firing off a wild shot. The shaky officer’s body spins around and down to the ground as the lethal blast rips through his shoulder. “I think it’s a little late for that.” He comments to Sovia.

Lebenha dodges a lost shot and she kneels trying to get some cover. Expanding her senses through the Force, Lebenha reaches the mind of one of the station security members. There she found the natural confusion and anxienity that a combat carries with it but there was something more. It was like a cloud around their minds, as if a cloud was covering their minds. She felt that they weren't truly on their senses. "They are under control of someone! By the Force do not kill them!! We are allies!!" 

In a split-second, Derrab figures the speeder is a bigger threat than someone with their head down. He fires a quick shot, putting a hole through the patrol speeder's windshield, then ducks behind a parked speeder, "Throw down your weapons and we can talk! This is a tragic misunderstanding!"

Nils is more interested in getting away than talking. Luckily the thing he's taking cover behind is an airspeeder. And a nice looking one at that. Keeping low to avoid blaster fire, he smashes the window and bundles himself through it in an ungainly but surprisingly effective manner. He's not seen this exact model before, but it looks expensive, which means it probably has a remote starter, which means it might have exploitable weaknesses in the remote keycode verification, which means with the right equipment he could probably create a makeshift key-cloner, which means... Ah, heck. He'd already broken the window, why stop there. He rips the panel over the ignition slot off, yanks the keyslot off its mounting and twists one pair of the tangled wires beneath together. The engine purrs into life, and he feels it wobble slightly as the repulsors warm up. Neat . He cautiously peers over the edge of the window to see if any of his companions were dead yet.

Seeing the leader fall, Sovia sends her lightsaber whirling at the other officer on foot. A single spin and it removes his gun arm. He falls to the ground clutching the stump as a torrent of crimson first comes spurting, then gushing out. Sovia pulls herself to her feet to follow Nils to the car he is breaking into. 

In just a few seconds, everything has spiralled out of control. Debris from the burning wreckage of the crashed speeder rains down on the street several stories below with a crash. The body of the security officer that Ceph hit with his rifle crumples abruptly and hits the duracrete roof with a dull thump. The second officer screams in horror and falls to his knees, staring at his dismembered arm lying besides him. Blood gushes from the remaining stump. The remaining airborne speeder drops below the the roof as the pilot takes it out of sight. Out of initiative.

Lebenha rushes over the officer with the amputed arm.  "What in the name of the Force had you done?!" she screams as she run towards the wounded man.  She tries to calm him down, "Don't worry it's a clean cut. They could repimplant it to you in no time. Now calm down and let me help you. " she says trying to apply some first aid to him to stop the bleeding and he dying from bleeding out. 

"Leb, time to go, they were going to kill us. Hopefully the injury will snap him out of whatever's holding him."  Sovia reaches down to grab Leb by the shoulder and pull her up. "His colleagues are hiding from us now, the quicker we go the sooner they will come and help him." She gives a firm pull and runs towards the car. "Nils wait. We all need to go."

"But..." says Lebenha " .. But..." the push of Sovia makes her stand and her she reluctantly walks with her towards the speeder but she mutters a "Sorry" towards the officer. "This is all wrong..." she whispers when they enter the stolen speeder.

"Are you staying or going? Because if we're going we should go!" yells Nils frantically to Ceph and Derrab, gunning the engine as Leb and Sovia clamber in. 

Derrab runs across the roof to the acquired speeder, "Bring him with us if you want to share feelings!" He was seated and almost buckled in before the door shut behind him.

The sound of approaching sirens fills the sky and hubwards the flashing blue of vehicle-top lights can be seen rapidly approaching. The low hum of repulsors indicates that the other speeder is still close by, but nobody is close enough to the edge of the building to be able to judge where.

Leb is pushed to the speeder and she lets Sovia take her towards it. With a concerned look in her eyes, she sits back and remain silent.

Ceph pushes himself up and surveys the carnage around him. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” He yells as he makes a run for the acquired speeder. He squeezes in and shuts the door. “Well that all went to shit. Where should we go?”

"I am not sure but we cannot go to the authorities, those cops seemed to be under some kind of control. I don't know how deep that extends. But, please, can we do something legal for once?" 

The moment everyone is in the car, Nils guns the engine and takes off heading away from the core and the flashing lights coming from that direction. He doesn't go high with the traffic lanes, but stays low amongst the buildings, weaving between them with almost inhuman reflexes as he tries to lose the fleet of security cruisers hot on their tail.

"Now this is podracing!" Nils yells happily as he violently swerves between high-rises, dodging in and out of traffic streams with significantly more enthusiasm than his skill warrants. Just like he'd seen on the holonet broadcasts - fast, and dangerous! Unfortunately it appeared that a lifetime's experience of guiding bulk freighters into docking bays didn't exactly map to racing skills, and despite his shell's boosted dexterity, there was still a noticeable input lag as the shell had to physically move its hands between him making a decision and the craft responding. He'd have to look at options for direct connections in the future. If they survived. Which actually wasn't looking great now that he came to think on it. His original plan had been to try and break their line of sight and find somewhere to hide whilst they switched vehicles. Unfortunately, the police were cheating - there were more of them than there were of him, which meant even if he lost one or two pursuers, they still weren't in the clear - worse, they could come at him from any angle to try and block him off. "So," begins Nils, turning back to look at his passengers (and therefore failing to spot an oncoming family cruiser which swerves hard to avoid a head-on collision). "If we can't outrun them what do we do? Land and make a run for it? Anyone know anywhere we might be able to get away? Or we could just shoot them, though that's sort of what got us into this in the first place". He returns his attention to where they're going, and with a look of mild surprise yanks the controls to dodge the billboard (ironically selling speeder insurance) that had been approaching them at an alarming speed. "Whoops, almost hit that one, hey! Or we could just keep going up here, we might get lucky? Any ideas?"

"Keep moving." Sovia's voice comes through strong and calm from the back of the vehicle. "Our best chance is to outpace them."

"If youre insinuating anything, I'll add you to the list of tragic collateral from this job and leg it back." Derrab had initially tried helping to spot obstacles and navigate, but it seemed he was outclassed in both. He sat back, mostly quiet, and watched for cruisers coming in to cut the off.

A blue and green hologram hangs in the sky between two towers, indicating the destinations of the various skylanes. Residential towers, the commercial district, the port docks.

"The docks will be busy and full of places to hide. We could even convince them we are escaping on a ship off the station while we loop back around."

Nils shrugs and yanks the controls sending their speeder careening towards the docks, looking for further opportunities to evade their followers. 

Ceph leans out of the speeder and fires a pot shot at the pursuing authorities. As he turns back around he hears Sovia's comment and his eyes immediately glaze over for a moment. "Or we can actually escape on a ship off the station. One is about to leave from the docks. Another explosion. Blaster fire. It's risky but something tells me it's our only option."  He glances around at the others quickly, clearly surprised by the sudden flood of information and wondering how the others would respond. Sovia of course would sense the pulse of the force as she had when he'd had the premonition before the initial attack.

The station's many towers blur into walls as Nils rockets between them. The droid swerves up and down, left and right, weaving between the traffic lanes in an effort to lose their pursuers. Suddenly, he hits the brakes and pulls a hard turn. The speeder's surroundings jerk into view and more flashing lights can be seen approaching from the opposite direction. The abrupt change in inertia is enough to make most organics vomit. There's a chance to reach the docks, but getting there will require a few tricks that Nils thinks should be physically possible... if he can bounce the speeder off of the inside of the station's protective shield.

Lebenha says to Ceph.  "If you ever fire again against the authorities I am going to throw you out of the speeder..."  Something in her tone indicates that she is not joking. At all. 

"Well I suppose losing a little weight might make us faster," agrees Nils, as the vehicle judders to a halt. He looks around them - police vehicles appeared to be approaching from every direction. No... almost every direction! Pulling back on the control stick, he coaxes the vehicle into a near-vertical ascent, repulsors whining as they fight the station's artifical gravity. The police vehicles converge below them as their speeder traces a semi-graceful arc over the top of a skyscraper and vertically down the other side. Meanwhile, inside the 239th-floor office of Evazan & Baba Legal Associates Inc, Darryn Kortu is delivering coffee to a board meeting. He'd only been on the internship program for 2 weeks, and thus far it'd been something of a disaster. He'd accidentally shredded an important document, had forgotten to book a room for a client meeting, and had sent a sensitive email to the wrong address. He'd been informed in no uncertain terms by his manager that he was now officially on thin ice, but last night Darryn had talked it over with his mum and he was now determined to turn things around. He was going to prove himself. He was an intelligent young man, and if he could just muster up a little confidence he was sure he could finally impress his boss. He'd double-checked the coffee orders, had written them down so he wouldn't make a mistake, and had been careful the entire way back from the coffee shop. It was a simple task, but he wanted to do it right. Trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible, he enters the board room, and quietly hands out the drinks, working his way round to the head of the table. Just as he leans in to set down the last cup though, a flashy-looking speeder hurtles downwards past the window at breakneck speed, less than a foot from the glass. Startled, Darryn jerks backwards. The cup flies from his hand and the boiling liquid lands squarely in the lap of the CEO, who yells in pain. The entire room slowly turns to look at the intern, who blinks as he realises what he's just done. Inside the speeder... So far so good. They'd avoided the police blockade, and even better they were now gaining plenty of speed as they dropped down the side of the skyscraper! The next bit could be tricky though - the only clear path Nils could see towards the docks was going to require a sharp turn between two buildings, or they'd collide with the city's shield barrier. Although actually, now that he came to think of it, maybe they could... "Do you think the shields are the sort that things can't pass through, the sort that things can pass through, or the sort that kills you if you touch it?" Nils wonders out loud. Not that there was really time for a reply from anyone, and the only other option would be to brake, which would make them slower ... Jamming his foot down hard on the accelerator, they fly towards the gap between buildings, the glow of the shields visible just beyond it. Just as they pass between the buildings, he flips the speeder upside down and pulls back on the stick again, pulling the speeder into an upside-down dive towards the ground, trying to reduce the angle at which they'd impact the shield. The car hits with a bone-shattering jolt, and the passengers feel their hair tingle with static electricity from the proximity to the powerful forcefield. But (despite the loss of some possibly-important looking bits of metal from the bottom of the speeder) the plan seemed to be more or less a success! They scrape along the curve of the shield, which pulls them through the narrow gap around the outside of the buildings, and down towards the docks. Nils twists the steering column, and they barrel-roll off the shield and skim above the docks. Nils scans the ground, looking for a convenient alley they might be able to slip into.

The speeder shudders and jolts as Nils sends it spiralling it into a gap between two nearby towers, where it lands with a scrape of shearing metal. The doors pop open with a hiss, releasing the occupants into what seems to be a fairly dingy alley, populated almost exclusively by large rubbish skips. A thin trail of smoke drifts gently from the vehicle's still whining repulsors, accompanied by the acrid odour of smouldering plasteel. One end of the alley clearly leads towards the promenade, and beyond it one of the many hangars of port-side docks. The semi-permanent crowds still throng out in the open, and beyond them a few security officers stand guard by the wide entranceway. In the distance beyond them sit several parked freighters and shuttles.

Ceph gives Lebenha an incredulous look. "Fuck you mean? That one chopped a guy's arm off," he points at Sovia. "This one harpooned their speeder with a grappling hook," he points to Derrab. "And you wanna give me shit for shooting my fuckin rifle as they're fuckin chasing uuuAAAAGHHH" His heated response is cut off as his stomach is flip flopped up into his chest. The aerial maneuvers cause patterns on his skin seem to go haywire from the adrenaline: spots and stripes of dark and iridescent light colors alternate like a strobe. Once safely on the ground, Ceph wobbles out of the speeder.  "Holy shit!" he throws his arms around Nils. "You are a maniac and I love it. Now, let's get moving and find that ship. We're looking for a barloz class medium freighter." he heads out into the throng of people, his skin calming into a discrete muted brown. 

Sovia drags herself from the car. "Thank you for the graceful landing. In all seriousness Nils, well done, not many pilots could have made those judgements without the guidance of the force. Perhaps there is more to you than meets the eye." Gathering her robes back into a more comfortable position she begins walking.  " Come, we should get as far from here as possible, show ourselves on camera heading towards a landing pad, then double back out of sight."

As the group ventures out onto the promenade, several of the enormous holographic billboards that overlook the thoroughfare flicker as they are updated with new images. WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH THE PORT HANGAR BOMBING The announcement is displayed in stark capital letters, and below it a dash-cam recording of five figures clustered around the grapple launcher on the roof of the parking tower can be seen. On the right, three more official stills are shown. Lebenha's headshot from the archives, Ceph's official RBS ID picture, and the mugshot from Derrab's criminal record. All three are stacked on top of one another. At the bottom, the text continues. ARMED AND DANGEROUS. DO NOT APPROACH. PLEASE REPORT SIGHTINGS TO THE SECURITY BUREAU HOTLINE 82-105-3287-489 Ceph thinks he can see the nose of the cockpit of the type of ship he has in mind peaking out behind a couple of other freighters, but they'd have to head inside the hangar.

Inside the speeder: Leb looks at Ceph right in the eye. Sovia can tell that she is trying to calm herself down before replying. ”That’s exactly what I did when all that happened. And I just told you not to aggravate things with the authorities. The ones of the roof could be mind controlled but I doubt that all of them are. For what matters to them we are criminals now and we cannot be criminals! I cannot! The kids depends on me don’t you understand?! You said you were authorized to investigate the bombing but you had done nothing but illegal things. What’s the matter with you? Try not to make things worse! Think with your head not with that big gun of yours!”  Her next phrase is cut by the bold maneuvering of Nils.  Once they landed and left the speeder when their faces start appearing on the screens she just points to them and look reprobatory to the others.  “I hate saying I told you but... now the real terrorist has an scape goat and can fly away or perpetrate another bombing.”  She takes a few steps back and uses her comlink on a encrypted band she has been using with the freighter captain that helped them reach the station.  She wasn’t aware that was holding her breath until the comlink came alive again.  “Hi” ”Hello there”  “Looks that it’s raining on your system.” ”Isn’t is always? How are things over there?”  “We have a slight life support malfunction but the thecnicians are already here. We will be fine.” Lebenha heart stops for a moment. That was one of the coded phrases to indicate that they were discovered and she would run for safety. Given the circumstances she interpreted that the authorities were with him and the kids questioning about her and probably waiting for her.  “That makes no sense, we fixed the power claps not long ago.” She hoped he understood what she was saying. Fortunately she and Miles knew each other for a long time. ”I know, right? It’s like the thing was programmed to break even at the factory. Any case they are fixing it. It would be working again in no time.”  She kept quiet for a few seconds. Thanks to the Force for Miles, but she couldn’t leave the kids.  “Gotta go send my regards to Shinny”  “I will... you... you take care...”  The line went mute and she put her comlink on her pocket.  The last sentence gave her some comfort. That meant that Kreel her socorran tailring were free, probably on the docks hunting Mynocks. She could look for him. She returns to the others and says. ”Well with all the station looking for us and the terrorist still out there. What are our options? Double back or leave?. Didn’t we had a lead on the origin point of the ship that exploded?” 

"Well shit..." Derrab was mostly speechless as he exited the acquired speeder. The sight of the glowing wanted signed filled him with an overwhelming sense of dread, "Alright, three of us have warrants just short of kill-on-sight. Let's just say if they catch us, they may not listen to me much. Even if we can clear our names, they'll still want to know why we attacked security personnel." Leb's options left much to be desired, "Can't say I like either option. I think our lead was way back where this whole thing when ass-up. Now if we leave, well either be stowaways or thieves."

Nils looks as surprised as anyone else that they made it to the docks in one piece. "That was pretty wild, hey? I thought we were going to crash into that building back there for sure!" As Ceph hugs him, he awkwardly pats the transhuman on the back, before following the others out onto the promenade, keeping his eyes peeled for the freighter. "So, a Barloz-class? Is that the 5E model with the extended tailfins, or is it the older one with the lateral intakes? Because I once came across a 5E that - funny story - had actually been retrofitted with... what are you all looking at?" He follows the others' eyelines up to the billboards. "Hah, that was quick work! And they've really got your numbers, hey?" he says to Leb, Ceph and Derrab. "You can't see the rest of our faces that well, but you three might want to invest in some diguises pretty quickly!" He listens to Leb and Derrab's frank assessment of the situation before adding his own thoughts. "Yeah, that's the problem with these force-users. Always pulling dirty tricks like that. Can't trust 'em. Present company excluded of course," he adds hastily, remembering that he and Derrab are the only non-force-sensitives among them. "Anyway, I don't see what we can really do here if security's going to be looking for us. And even if you evade the security force, whoever planted it obviously tried to frame us and might still be a threat - they're obviously pretty dangerous if they managed to mind-control those policemen. So leaving makes a lot of sense. We could try and get to the Bakura system, which is where the ship came from, though that's probably a dead-end - it would make more sense for the bomb was planted here on the station. But if we gave up on the bombing case, we could definitely become stowaways or thieves, like Derrab suggested! That could be fun!"

"Look, I don't know what you guys are tryna do, but I saw that ship leaving and one way or another I'm gonna be on it." he points to where he can see the nose of that ship "We blew this job, but we were close. That's why they're doing this, we were on to them and they had to get rid of us." He turns to Lebenha specifically. "If you don't like the way we've been doing shit, feel free to go turn yourself in or come up with some better fuckin options. Now," he turns back towards the hangar and begins walking as fast as one trying not to raise suspicion can. "Everybody please try and be lowkey. If we get spotted, make a break for the ship. We'll figure out where we're going once we're outta here."

Ceph slips between the masses thronging on the promenade, blending with the crowds as he has done all his life. Leb quickly follows suit, followed by a rather less aware and wider-eyed Nils, but the trio manage to stick to a larger group and make it past the security forces unnoticed. Sovia and Derrab are not so lucky. The tall draethos stands out like a sore thumb, and Derrab bumbles straight into Sovia as he tries to get around her. The officers at the entrance immediately recognise the alien from the recordings and draw their blaster pistols. "Hold it right there!" One shouts. "Slowly raise your hands above your head." Several shrieks can be heard as a space clears around the two fugitives.

Sovia raises her hands above her head, looking across to where she sees a fire alarm, then casting her eyes around for something heavy, and any evidence of a blast shield that may block her path to the ship.  "What have I done? I am unarmed and am willing to comply, I have already been harassed once today when trying to cooperate. I thought aliens were welcome here?" One step at a time she backs up slightly, trying to make more space for the others to slip through. She can already feel her invisible lightsaber forming and hovering between her and the security forces as a barrier. 

The officers keep their weapons trained on Sovia. Beyond them she can see numerous transparisteel dividers that corral passengers into lanes for security checks and boarding. "Stay where you are!" Once of the officers barks back, clearly not buying her story. "Your picture is all over the station. You and your friends killed three officers on that roof and wounded dozens more in the hangar this morning. Now, get down on your knees. Nice and slow now."

Sovia nods, her compliance. "I am not running, I don't know what you mean about the hanger, and I personally harmed no one on the roof, I tried to comply but was attacked. I fled in fear for my life." Mentally she reaches out and pulls the fire alarm...

A claxon starts to blare across the promenade as Sovia activates the fire alarm, and sprinklers immediately kick into gear, covering the area in a mine mist of droplets. The security officers flinch in surprise, and the few civilians who have not already cleared the area begin to head for safety.

Sovia darts into the crowd, using the people for cover to prevent a clear shot. She lowers her head and starts running towards the ship she can see ahead. Meanwhile a purple lightsaber materialises from thin air, hovering menacingly in front of the security officers it hums as it dances from side to side. 

"You don't really see that precisely for doing things as we have done, whoever is doing that " Leb points to the billboards " has it easier? And I gave two options mister. Try to listen... " replies the Jedi but keeps quiet when they are reaching a control point.  When the others are discovered she sighs and see the lightsaber of Sovia above the guards.  "Well at least this time she is trying to scare them instead of slice them... " she thinks to herself. 

The officers raise their weapons to fire at Sovia and Derrab, but hesitate as the fugitives dive amongst the civilians and the mysterious purple lightsaber appears. Swinging their blaster pistols back and forth between the floating weapon and the escaping 'terrorists', they slowly back away from the threatening blade, doing their best to keep the alien and the mercenary in their sights as they go. "Frak," one curses, before tapping her comlink. "Suspects spotted entering the port hangar from promenade quadrant beta. All units move to intercept." Meanwhile, the other officer carefully attempts to manoeuvre around the floating lightsaber and make chase. Inside the hangar the guards manning the security checkpoint between the main thoroughfare and the space-side departures zone also draw their weapons and hurry towards the entrance to assist their colleagues. A group of six runs straight past Ceph, Lebenha and Nils as they surreptitiously make their way up the length of the hangar towards the body scanner blocking the entrance to the parked freighter. Behind them, Sovia and Derrab are rapidly catching up and the mercenary fires off a few pot shots at the approaching security forces as they seek cover.

Sovia reaches forward with both hands as she runs, she dodges to the right and with a flick of her hands the huge plasteel security barrier is pulled from the ground with a horrible crunching and flies across the room, forming a physical barrier between he and the men in their way as well as clearing a path. "Derrab, slow the one behind us down. I can only do so much."

Drael checks a final row of lights as he checks the flight control display and throws himself back into the patched, red leather flight chair, causing a worrying creak as he does, despite his slight frame. "I cannot believe this, one little bomb and the deal is off, I mean we are here, we have the durasteel and he needs to buy it, what the hell is this guy up to?" Swivelling his chair to face the other man Drael gestures expansively in frustration  "And what is Obrim going to say, the fuel costs, the wasted time, no way he is going to accept us coming back with the durasteel and no money, no way at all."  Running a hand through his short black hair he gets up and starts pacing around the cockpit of The Yarithian Cut , sending the flight chair spinning round and round. He pauses, suddenly struck by an idea. "Look Vin, hear me out ok, we are sitting in this ship owned by a, let's face it, temperamental and dangerous man, who is going to take our failure to move his goods very badly.  We could, on the one hand, return to Bespin and face the music, possibly for the last time, or best case scenario find ourselves working for nothing while we pay off some trumped up debt we've incurred with Obrim for the force only knows how long or, now this is the bit I want you to think about carefully, we fly this ship straight out of here, as far away from Bespin as we can, sell the cargo and end up with a ship, and a whole loads of credits to get us set up in business.  We could make a fortune, come on tell me that doesn't sound like a plan!" Moving to the door to the cockpit he gestures down the ship to where the cargo is stored. "It's all there just waiting for a couple of entrepreneurial spirits to decide to take a small, calculated gamble on..."

"Damnit!" Vin swears as he angrily slams his hand against an upper storage compartment.  "I was counting on those credits."  He takes a long sigh trying to regain some composure. His wiry seems to heavy with some imaginary effort.  He pauses another second to fiddle with the straps on his gauntlet.  He seems to be counting under his breath, but his head moves with each number.  As he gives his head a quick shake, Vin passes his russet gaze up to Drael.  "We've worked for Obrim for how many months now? Two, three?  You know he's as much a slug as any of those gangsters on Hutta.  Ships like this have security, so unless you are as good at tearing the ship apart as you are at flying it, we are gonna have bounty hunters out for us eventually."   Vin stands up straight, pulling to his full height of around six feet, and turns away from Drael trying to cover the pulsing feeling coming over his face.  He reaches up to touch the side of his head near his temple trying to calm a quivering muscle around his eye.  His blood pressure was rising... quickly  He hated this situation; hated taking risks like this.  He motions to the cargo.  "But you're right.  Going back isn't much of an option.  In either case, we should get out of here.  You want me go check the hull for mynocks?" as he casually reaches down for his rifle.

"Go for it, but I hope they keep the place free of those creatures, otherwise the docking fees are way too high." Drael nods, satisfied with Vin's answer.  "I'm going to go through the navigation prep, but yes we need to have a think about how we get this ship clean of Obrim's influence." Drael starts to check over another part of the console by the co-pilot's seat as Vin prepares to step outside.

Vin,feeling a little defeated by the situation, steps out of the cockpit and turns left toward the ramp.  ' Mynocks'  he thought to himself.  'No, there'd probably be no mynocks here,' but he needed to clear his head. He wasn't quite ready to jump into to piracy just yet.  Maybe a quick couple of laps around the ship ' searching for mynocks'   could give him enough time to come up with a counter argument. He slaps the ramp control with a loud wack . The starboard boarding ramp hisses as compressed air pelts Vincent's face and blows his dark brown tangle of hair into an even more unkempt mess.  He taps his foot as the ramp slows lowers. With the noise from the ramp dying out, he notices the blaring drone of a fire alarm somewhere in the distance...

Seeing the commotion behind him and the guards thoroughly distracted, Ceph takes the opportunity to take off at a full sprint towards the ship. He can’t believe this last ditch effort is actually working, Nils will just need to hack into the ship and- somehow he hadn’t considered the fact that the vessel would be occupied, and as his eyes meet the man standing at the edge of the ramp Ceph freezes. Vin sees what appears to be a tall alien of some variety, with a nest of smooth tentacles instead of hair, oblong pupils and skin that actively shifts color and pattern, almost reflecting the surrounding environment. He’s dressed in a transparent cloak and carrying a rifle, and he holds up his hands as he approaches! “Help! Please! There are terrorists on the station, shit’s crazy, you gotta let me and my friends hitch a ride out!” Despite the lack of context or detail, it’s a heartfelt plea.

Instinct, almost an automatic response from years in the Sith trooper corp, Vin's body reflexes into a defensive stance, rifle coming up from rest.  His finger stops at the trigger as he sees this bizarre alien raise his hands in.  The creature's words echo in his ears ' Terrorists'  his mind races back to destruction of The Dominator above the skies of Drumond Kaas.  Horrors flash in front of him as his eyes glaze over for a moment.  The raining debris over Kaas City. That feeling of terror that had swept over the entire staff at the Logistics Corp offices in the aftermath.  The broadcasts of the Eagle.  It was like a dagger in his gut. The pain dulled a moment as the muted alien's words came back into focus, hitch a ride out.   ' Hitch a ride .' he thought.  'Yes, we could all hitch a ride.  This may be just what I needed.'  he pondered on for a moment  He could use this with Obrim later. Ceph could plainly see his mouth moving but the words weren't loud enough to carry over the trilling klaxon.  Vincent smiled, he lowered the rifle away from the alien and freed up his trigger hand to beckon the alien forward. "COME ON!" he shouted over the alarms.  Then he motioned for the alien to hand over his rifle...

The security officers take cover and open fire on the charging Draethos, showering the transparisteel panel with blaster fire. The barrier holds, but also slowly begins to glow on the surfaces where the fire is heaviest. Behind Sovia, Derrab takes cover behind a cargo crate and lays down some covering fire to hold off their pursuers. "Go!" He tells her. "Get to the others!" As Ceph, Leb and Nils arrive at the foot of the  The Yarithian Cut 's boarding ramp, a distant rumble can be heard. A split second later the entire hangar shakes, sending them staggering left and right as they reach for something to hold onto. Through the enormous magcon field to their right, a colossal star-shaped battlecruiser can be seen dropping out of hyperspace and releasing swarms of strikecraft. J-droids. A new siren begins to ring out across the docks, quite different from the ringing of the fire alarm. A combat alert. The station is under attack.