The Scavenger's Prize, Part III: Down the Hole

As the heroes observe the spaceport, they see it is bustling with Imperial activity. The entire garrison, estimated to be about thirty Imperial troopers and pilots, seems to be mobilized. A patrol of speeder bikes zooms by the shanty the heroes have holed up in, leaving a cloud of dust behind them.

Kyito feels his arms ache. He has been carrying the heavy burlap bag for nearly two hours now, and its contents are not getting any lighter.

Suddenly, a man's voice speaks from behind, surprising everyone present. "Quite the mess you caused, eh?" the voice says. Fortunately, it is the voice of Wes Janson, the mouthy Rebel pilot and member of the Tierfon Yellow Aces. From the shadows, both him and his commander, Jek Porkins, approach.

"The good news is that they are not suspicious of us yet. They say they are looking for some criminals from a violent cartel of pirates, not revolutionaries. The bad news is that your friend Captain Tikaris didn't seem to care. He took off as soon as the guns came out," Porkins says matter-of-factually, arms crossed atop his wide chest. He doesn't seem worried, though the situation does seem to have turned for the worse.

Kiko sat in frustration. She didn't like this feeling of being trapped, especially when that feeling stemmed from imperials being on high alert. So any plans on getting out of here? They think pirates were responsible, which is good overall. But don't they still know what we look like?

“We did make quite an impression.” Vek said, grinning at Wes.

She wished she could say she was surprised that Tikaris took off, but truth be told she probably would have done the same thing in his shoes. He wasn’t really a part of the cause. Neither was she, for that matter. The Twi’lek turned to face Kiko. “I would suspect so; at least enough to have a general idea. Not all of us blend in here,” she drawled, looking around at the primarily human and duros crowd.

Dodging the patrols didn’t worry her excessively. She had spent a lot of time avoiding Imperials back when she was working with Alien Combine on the Imperial Centre, and these fools weren’t half as well trained as those soldiers had been. She stayed in the half-shadows, out of direct line of sight from the street, and took a small pack of Sullustan spiced jerky out of her pouch, munching on it without any great enthusiasm.

“This is a shipping moon. There are literally thousands of ships around. Pick one.” She said between mouthfuls. “Preferably something fast. We could try to barter our way off the planet, but that will look a lot more suspicious than just slipping away.”

"Stea...er borrow a ship?" Kiko asked. After considering it and their situation, she shrugged. "Why the heck not. It's not like we've a lot of options. And "borrowing" a ship seems like a drop in the hot water we're in now.

R2-V8 Binary a comment while watching their immediate surroundings, only turning his dome head once towards Vec.

Vek looked down at her little partner in crime. “If we get you to a security or dock terminal of some kind, do you think you could find out?”

A Binary is the astromech's answer.

“Maybe you could shut it down, if they have one.” Vek looked up at the rest of the group. “We might want to get Short Fry here to a computer, we might be able to shut down any tractor beams or other nasty things they might have in place for situations such as this. Although,” she took a look around at the generally shabby condition of the planet, “I'm not sure what kind of defences they would actually have...”

"I imagine 'Borrowing' a ship at this point might be a reasonable choice. Can't say as how I'm comfortable with the Imperials here working with the local rif raf, and the both of them wanting our thingy. Do we even want to know what it is?"
Mykl casts a glance over at Kyito's pack.

Despite the ache in his arms, Kyito was reluctant to relinquish control of the item. He'd risked things so far for it, he wasn't about to let it out of his sight. Mykl raised a good point.

Well... bout time I had a look at this piece of poodoo, see what I'm risking my neck and other important parts over...

While the group discusses how to get off the planet, Kyito squats down and opens the sack ever so slightly to have a peek. He idly chatted as he did. "How many ships did we spot coming in? Has to be one piece of space-worthy scrap that won't be missed too much long enough to get our sorry keisters home."