Zaye Kolene

Three of coming towards me while I am under the ramp. They are still clustered fairly close together and only starting to separate. I slow my breathing and focus on the one directly in front of me and fire a blast from my plasma pistol. It melts into the center of the torso and a gout of green flame spews back. Inside the whole, I see droid parts and more than just droid parts. It reminds me of the Awa'keen and the meld of biological and metallurgical, but a bit more sinister in appearance. I shake my head to get back into the fight and turn on my shield to prepare for what comes next. then I hear the roar of a speeder bike racing past me and then over my head I see a riderless bike which then transforms into Steelflow!! he pulls his blet off and it expands into a force pike and he parries one of the centaurs in front of me. Then LT. Voss pops up with a mini gun focusing on the same one I shot. Three bolts blast out and one hits inside the same hole and a huge blast of fire erupts and spews from the centaur droid. I can see that all of the other ship crews are firing incessantly, but it takes a lot of hits to have an impact. And then I hear the ramp above me and roll over to see the sky above me - and not a RAMP!
 
I turn back to the fight in time to see one of the centaurs firing at me and I get my shield up in time to see a pair of force manacles hit the ground in front of me. I also see that Steelflow had manacles shot at him, but they hit and he has blue arcs of lightning all over his body and wisps of smoke rise up. Then my ship fires on the two droids in front of me and I take advantage by firing a quick plasma blast - only to have the stupid thing overheat on me. I drop it from my nerveless fingers and lie down to see my ship getting higher above me. That final blast ricochets off the shield around the ship and hits Hicks! Oh no! I have to - crap there are too many competing demands on my time. I reach out to Bishop and ask him to find out how my ship is moving without power and to stop it - using the mouse droids. He starts to work and then I turn to see what I can do to help Steelflow while I am incapacitated.
 
A blue-white field suddenly flashes over the Starrise Falcon and the green fire bleeds off as the ship drops back to the ground just barely catching itself before crashing onto me! I then hear some woman talking about a hard drop and then coming back with a disruptor field. "Why didn't they bring that with them?!?!?" Incompetence always irritates me. Shots blaze out from the ship again and fire at two of the droids around me. Then I focus on Steelflow and run over to him to provide some first aid to get him back together: a touch of oil, some water, a few headache pills, and of course some bacta spray to help the skin to recover from the lightning arcs. We both look up as we sense a shuttle heading in for a crash landing. The repuslorlifts keep blinking off and on and the I see So'Zen stand and focus on the ship. At the same time, I see the artifact pop out of the side of my ship and start flying off with a contingent of other ships and centaur droid - droidtaurs. I had taken the time to put a few traps on various items in the ship to keep Spook from selling things and I had also put some tracking powder on the sphere - just in case.
 
The droidtaur that had grabbed the sphere was closest when the first trap went off and it faltered and fell. The rest of the posse picked up and vamoosed with three of the ships - and some hostages. Fortunately, the tracking powder continues to give off the signal so we will be able to follow it and find the ships, the hostages, and that sphere. It is lost to sight, but now I can focus on Hicks. I run over with the med kit and pop open the armor to see a very nasty plasma burn. So'Zen also runs over and looks to be trying something Jedi. I ignore him and begin to do first aid with burn cream and bacta spray as well as a patch. Seconds drip by and then his eyes open with the pistol in his hands within seconds. He sees us and is obviously confused. We get him into the med bay on ship and then So'Zen joins him in collapse.
 
I get a moment to talk to Captain Nalso Duskstride and I am a bit blunt about what happened to us and the lack of quick response or real help. She understood and was apologetic about that due to the fact that past incursions were no more than eight humanoid droids and not the type that we faced. She then began talking about the steps they had been taking to track them to their headquarters and discussed that all of the tunnels they had found were smooth sided and the technicians were trying to discover if they were doing towards some black gate or away from it. The description suddenly made me think of that capitol ship that we have found buried on some other planet and I proposed the theory to Captain Nalso. She looked astonished and then thoughtful. Apparently, no one on their team had thought of this and she wanted to know if we could test it. I told her that if she could get teh schematics of the mapped tunnels we could test that against a library of ship design to see if anything looked close. She was excited by this thought. She also offered to help in getting my ship repaired so it could leave this planet. While it is being repaired, we can use my tracker to see where their headquarters might be as I am sure that the sphere will be taken there. She also suggests that a few Night Wolves get stationed on each ship for defense purposes until we get to Nightwick city. All of the captains agree and so we make a rough flotilla and head to the city for repair and protection.
 
As we head in, I take a moment to check with Lady Zaye. "I know you have a cultural thing. I also know you have a problematic adopted self-declared 'father'. Divorce the Scourge of the Galaxy. Marry me. We can keep it platonic. I'll give you a quarter share in this pretty ship once we get the hull patched, and a quarter share for you in any future profits, and another quarter share will go into a trust for your kids." In a first, Zaye looks astonished. "Marry you? I ... This is sudden. I'm a bond-wife to Vance right now. Formally marry?" She looks away and then back to you. Her expression softens. "You have no idea how much even being asked means to me. I almost have no words. There are cultural protocols to abide by but if Vance agrees to be free of our arrangement, I accept your offer to marry you." I respond "That is wonderful! You have proven yourself in many ways as a strong woman, a talented woman, and a woman who deserves more than what your current situation provides. It would be my honor to encourage you, support you, and assist you in whatever you desire to do, be, or become." She smiles. A genuine blush appears. "Thank you. Life is ... difficult in many ways. So many. Thank you. Vance would still need to agree. But still, thank you." Without warning, she suddenly hugs you with a force that hints at decades of pain from her past that for a moment, has peeked out from under her mental armor.
 
We enter their repair yard and it is big enough that it could handle very large ships as well. As each ship lands in a bay, a crew of technicians swarm around and begin to assess and do repairs. Once it is my turn, a technician walks up and checks to see if there is anything he should be aware of before they begin their assessment of the Starrise Falcon. They ask if there is anything they need to know about and I flash to the various traps Hicks and I set up to prevent Spook from taking and selling. I tell them I need to do a quick run through the ship to make sure that nothing is still operating that is dangerous. I let them know that I haven't had the ship very long and they said they will let me know if they find anything interesting while they are evaluating. They do tell me that the stress fractures from the hull breach are far reaching and will need to be repaired. I appreciate the obvious professionalism.
 
Hicks stops by and is looking much better. I fill him in on the events that happened while he was unconscious and ask him to be at the meeting with Captain Nalso and her crew. He wants to be there, but he also wants to get his armor repaired first as he really wants to be in armor for that meeting. I know how he feels and tell him that he has time since the Captain will need time to gather the information and people. He hurries off to get ready while I start doing checks on the other ships and their crews as well as trying to determine how many hostages they have. Lady Zaye looks me up and tells me that Vance has given his permission and agreed to officiate. She asks when we want to do this and I ask if she has any plans for this afternoon. She smiles - one of the first real smiles I have seen on her face. I ask about rituals, she asks about mine. I mention Vanya not being here and that she might be hurt and we decide to do a second ceremony - which would be for her father more than anyone else, but would allow Vanya to attend. We agree that makes perfect sense for all of the reasons and I go to ask Captain Nalso to attend. She is a bit shocked, but helps us to find a lovely venue with a great skyline.
 
So'Zen calls Vanya on her palatrium so she can at least hear it. The ceremony is short and sweet and Zaye looks very happy. The kids also seem to be happy and excited to be assassin pirates! Captain Nalso comes up to us and offers congratulations and then brings up the fact that we need to start working on the current problem. I ask Zaye what she wants to do and she decides to go back to the ship and get things rearranged and settled. I tell her we will take time to make plans later on. I grab Hicks with his information and we head to the conference room to figure out how to begin solving this planet's problems.