Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

**I think Italics weren't working because you did the wrong kind of slash ( \ instead of / )**

The Billowed Reid came out of hyperspace just where the co-ordinates of the remote should be and there before her lay an image of the Promised Jewel. Lula smiled as she watched a fellow hunter's ship fire at the ghost ship. She almost laughed as she saw the bolts pass harmless through and almost hit a ship on the other side.

Lula wasn't particularly worried about the hologram, she just wanted to pin-point the signal that was being sent to the remote to keep it operating. She tapped a few keys to get the most powerful of scans activated from her ship. The reading was surprising. It appeared to be coming from a tiny planetoid registered as PT44086. Obviously the planetoid was nothing of interest since it hadn't been given an official name.

Lula decided to let the other ships play with the image of the Promised Jewel while she checked out PT44086.

BFFC Moderator
It was like thousands of voices cried out for a sequel and were suddenly silenced...

27 (edited by Ursula Sunday, February 26, 2006 12:53 pm)

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

The ships sophistecated sensors picked up a scan  of it's active systems by an unknown vessel, and the computer added this further piece of data into the matrix of elements that included the recent compromise of the illusion, and the attack by marauding bounty hunters. The new information processed and triggered a fail safe protocol.  The warning sequence spiraled out through the cybernetic guts of the ship. At the same time several encrypted transmissions fed out through space. On a remote planetoid too obscure to even warrant a name, a receiver picked up and decoded the alert message, then transmitted it to the next line of defense…

****************************************************************************


"Jin, you need me." The eerie voice bounced off the inside of Jin’s skull. "Let me out. You have no hope of defeating your enemy without me."

Jin squeezed his eyes shot and tried to block the voice as he prepared to enter the Jewel. Of all the damn times, now was not the one to deal with his own personal demon.  "**** off!"

A vision of droids constructed from chalky gray metal filled his mind: Cortosis droids!

The door leading the corridors of the Jewel started opening sequence. Fine. Cortosis droids. He couldn’t fight them with a lightsaber, but he had other weapons at his disposal. His small ion stunner wouldn’t do much against a larger battle droid, but he’d lay sucker’s odds that between the cryoban greneades and the E-11, he could deal some serious hurt.

"There are many droids, and you are only one pitiful man."

The voice was both taunting and seductive. Jin felt the mortar dissolve in his mental wall, and the rocks began to tumble. He slumped against the wall of the airlock, and fought to regain his meager control.  Setting the demon loose would only damn him further, yet he found himself wanting just that, more and more, with every passing day, moment, and nano-second.

"What can you do against an army? Stop resisting me, and I will bring you everything you could desire, including victory."

The door to the interior of the promised jewel slid open.  Jin righted himself, slung the shoulder strap for the E-11, and grabbed two of his cryobans. He thought he heard cannon fire. Must be other hunters had found the phantom ship.  “I don’t need to fight an army.  All I need to do is find that astromech or a way into the main computer banks.”

He stepped cautiously into the corridors, leaving tracks in the dust that had been undisturbed for who knew how many years. He had the rough schematics for the Jewel more or less memorized, but that didn’t help him on this unfamiliar ship.  He could have used the repair corridors to travel, but that would kill precious time, and most likely get him lost. The astromech hung out on the bridge, he reasoned, and the easiest access to the main navacomputer was on the bridge.  That meant the bridge was his target, no matter how heavily defended such a position might be.  His ears registered a metallic, grinding sound that grew louder with each step.

He neared a corner and the voice roared to life in his head. "They’re coming!  Release your greneades, boy!"

Jin flattened back into a doorway, and tossed the grenades. For a moment they hung motionless in the air before him. He tapped the flow of the force, armed them with practically no fuse, and sent them hurtling around the corner.  They popped with a dull blast and the grinding stopped. 

"You see how valuable I am?" 

Jin ignored the voice, and ventured around the corner. Two battle droids were shattered, their various bits frozen and scattered.  He knew more would follow. He moved quickly down the hall and found a remote station where he was able to access ship schematics and plot the fastest course to the bridge. Beside the station was a lift tube.  Jin jumped in and took it three levels up to the main corridor.  He was aware of the distant sounds of battle, and became more aware when a tremendous blast shook the unknown ship, causing it to rock like a wayward cradle.

“Boba Fett.”  Jin knew without doubt the mysterious bounty hunter was, in one way or another, the cause of that explosion.

He moved out down the corridor, which led right up to the bridge doors. The walls were of strange construction, and too late, he noticed, singed with the marks of blaster bolts.  He barely had time to pull his twin sabers, and summon the blades before the volleys of laser bolts assaulted him from all parts of the corridor.  He fought the rain of fire as best he could, but he was so caught up in protecting himself  he couldn’t move forward to his intended target.

Three more explosions shook the ship.  The lights dimmed momentarily, and then alarms blared to life.  The laser fire doubled in intensity. 

"You can’t hold out without me, boy. You know your limitations."

There were only so many fronts of battle a man could maintain until one of the invaders broke through. A fine red rage misted before his eyes, and the bolts became a solid blur.  Fire blazed through his blood, invigorating him with power that no mere mortal man should wield. He merged with time, he reached out, he touched the current of the collective fury of the galaxy. Hate suffused his being, a clean burning fuel that gave him the edge he needed.

Jin moved like a dervish in a dance of death, dueling with the tracked shots from hidden cannons in the wall. Only he wasn’t Jin anymore.  Jin watched from the sidelines and the ancient Sith spirit that possessed the dark spot of his soul manipulated his body with a skill far beyond anything Jin could ever hope to achieve. Step by step, the Sith spirit moved him closer and closer to the bridge.  And with each step, Jin fought the spirit for control of his own body, his own mind, his own destiny. The walls were charred from the deflected laser bolts, and smoke filled the corridor.  Jin’s eyes watered, but the Sith did not need eyes: it saw by the virtue of the dark side of force, a tireless sentinel that watched always, ready to pounce and take it’s kill.

He spun wildly, and the lights went out. The safety lights flared up a moment later, dull, and yellow, giving the field of fire a hellish cast.  Through the haze of battle Jin spied a singular figure backing into the corridor, firing from a sawed off blast rifle as he took very measured steps that would lead him ultimately into the tunnel of death.

“Fett,” Jin shrieked over the din of chaos that was battle. “Watch your back!”

***************************
[url]http://museunplugged.blogspot.com/[/url]

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

The first thing Boba Fett noticed as he boarded the seemingly-derelict cruiser was the thick, weblike substance covering the walls along the tight corridors.  He grasped a handful of the subtance, peeling it off of the wall for further examination, then tossing it aside as he continued through the labrynthine hallways of the ship.
It did not take long for the ship to respond to his presence.  The dim emergeny lights lining the corridor shut off abruptly; plunging the hallway into complete darkness.  Fett immediately activated his helmets infared tracking sensors, just in time to see the outline of three IG-series assasin droids approaching him rapidly.
He pulled out his blaster rifle quickly, firing aimed volleys down the corridor, then dodged a sudden flurry of tiny flechettes that barely skirted the edge of his helmet.
His infared vision suddenly erupted into a nova of light, and a wave of heat nearly pushed him off of his feet.  He activated his wrist-mounted rocket launcher, arming a special projectile he had the foresight of bringing along; a DEMP ionization blast rocket.
His vision had barely cleared before he saw another wave of flechettes, which lodged themselves inbetween the cracks of his right shoulder's armor.  Boba Fett ignored the pain.
The substance lining the hallway had ignited with the heat of the flamethrower blast, providing enough light for him to fire his rocket directly into the droid that had wounded him.  The ensuing blast of electricity consumed two IG droids, while the last combatant fired a sonic blast at Boba Fett.  His helmet immediately dampened the explosion of sound, while he quickly dispatched the survivor with a wave of blaster bolts aimed directly at the droids head.
Fett paused for a moment to pull the shards of metal out of his shoulder.  More would come.  He could hear them already. 
Boba Fett armed another ion rocket, and continued down the hallway in the direction of the bridge. 


-------
<they are resourceful>
//summon mo/re enit/ies//
71-13Y 4123 637711\1 (1053
THE FORCER CAN SEE ME
qu3ry, how?
I DON'T KNOW, BUT HE WANTS ME...
<you kn0w what you Have to do, then>
YES
-----

The true strength of the BeasT had yet to reveal itself.  While Jin and Boba Fett fought off automated turret-guns protecting the bridge from intrusion, and reinforcements of IG-92 droids moving in from the other direction, a new threat massed silently on the other side of the ship.  A combined force of Terminax assasin droids, 2.2 meters tall with a blaster and frag grenade launcher built into each arm, and retractable vibroblades as well, gathered alongside five shielded droidekas, more relics purchased by the Falleen to protect his treasure from the scum that invaded the BeasT.  They had recieved orders from the superior enities; to wait for the hunters to return from the bridge, and destroy the meat-bags who violated their master's ship.

"If you don't want me to eat you.....SAY SOMETHING." 
-Captian Murphy

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

Dropping out of hyperspace, Nate looked to see a few ships gathered around the ship he figured to be the Promised Jewl.
Well, looks like I'll be having some company with me, but they won't be there for long, even if they already have what I want, I'll pry it from their cold, dead hands.

Linking up with the jewl, he entered the ship. Reaching deep into the force he found there where a couple other hunters inside the Jewl. One he could definetly tell was Fett, the others he couldn't tell so easily. With a devious smirk on his face, he creeped down the hall, they didn't know what they were hunting, but he did, and he would steal it, and the million credit reward right under there noses.

"He's no good to me dead."- Boba Fett

30 (edited by SciFifreak90 Monday, February 27, 2006 2:49 pm)

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

The blast doors opened, and Arcuse and Sathik immediately saw...nothing. Just bare, durasteel walls and bulkheads laid into the framework every few meters. The Ubese shone the beam of his glowrod down the corridor, but it met yet another wall only a few meters in front of him. A corner.

Alright, so sight’s useless. There could be an army beyond that corner for all we know, just waiting for one of us to stick his head around the corner. But seeing isn’t the only way to locate an enemy, we could always-

“You hear that?” Sathik asked to his friend, the dark hunter’s voice hushed and hurried.

He did. It was only when he strained his ears to listen that Arcuse noted the slight grinding sounds coming from around the corner. He nodded his affirmation to his friend, tightening his grip on his BlasTech. The noise seemed to be some piece of rusty machinery; but that didn’t tell him much, who knew how long it had been before anything living had set foot on this ship, much less performed basic maintenance.

“Sounds like something hasn’t been oiled in awhile.” Sathik said again, lining up his shotgun’s iron sights. “Like metal on metal...droids?”

“Indeed.” Arcuse rasped, the coarse sound he emitted sounding not unlike the rusty grind they were hearing now.

“Grenade?” His friend asked beside him, almost eager to hear a positive response.

“Not yet.” The Ubese said absent-mindedly, trying to see in his mind’s eye how far the droids were from the corner by their sound alone. It wasn’t the simplest of tasks; then again, it wasn’t the hardest either.

“Then wh-”

“Now!” The rock-on-rock voice of the alien-hating Ubese rose as high as his vocal chords would allow – barely more than a hoarse whisper. He and Sathik primed and threw grenades in perfect tandem, bouncing them around the corner and into whatever make of droids had been sent to kill them. The pair waited for the twin explosions, then dashed down the short corridor and around the corner, firing as soon as they had targets.

Look like B-2s. Thought all of those got scrapped during the Clone Wars. Guess I was wrong. Arcuse thought.

And then there was no more time to think, just time to kill. The Ubese’s E-11 belched fire in his hands, aiming for the B-2’s (or SBD’s, as the clones used to call them) depressed, oval-shaped heads. His aim was as precise as ever, and during the first two seconds of the encounter he’d blasted four of the super battle droids, he and Sathik having already wasted a full half of them with their grenades. The Ubese took a solid hit to the chest as he stood motionless firing his rifle, but his armor absorbed most of the impact, the bolt didn’t penetrate the plasteel plates,

Sathik worked through the last 3 ½ droids (one was minus a pair of legs) with brutal efficiency. The first went down with a shotgun blast to the torso, blowing the droid off its feet and drawing forth an eruption of flames and smoke. He paused to duck a blaster bolt before acquiring his second target, which met a fate very similar to its most recently-killed companion. Throwing himself sideways to avoid another volley of crimson projectiles, Sathik rolled to a crouch, worked his slugthrower’s pump-action, and gunned his third victim’s legs out from under it. The B-2 fell to the floor with a resonating clang, and looked back at the dark hunter just in time to witness its own execution by Sathik’s spreadgun.

The last crippled droid made itself known with a poorly-aimed burst of fire, and was promptly put down by another of Sathik’s thunderous gunshots. Then, there was silence, save for the constant sparking of disabled droids which now littered the ground.

“Mate must’ve had a fried targeting computer, courtesy of our frags I’m guessing.” The shotgun-wielding hunter commented, referring to the legless droid and its ineffective last stand.

Something’s not right again. That voice was whispering in Arcuse’s ear again, sewing paranoia into the Ubese’s logical, virtually fearless mind. It was too easy. Ancient, rusted battledroids? You think they wanted you dead? No, whoever’s running this show is just testing your strength, gauging what it’s up against. I’d be careful if I was you soldier-boy, because this thing’s not like anything you’ve-

Enough. It was Arcuse’s own mind that finally got a chance to speak now, entering this psychotic, schizophrenic conversation. You’ve said what useful advice you had, now let me get back to killing things.

There was no response.

“It was too easy.” The Ubese rasped, now out loud. That second voice of his had been right about that much at least, and the part that followed. “Whoever’s in command of this ship was just testing our strength. Wouldn’t have complained if the droids had killed us, but I don’t think he really expected them to.”

“So, what, you want to go back for more weapons? You’ve got some nice ion pieces in that arsenal of yours. EMP grenades might not hurt either.” Sathik said, thinking more weaponry might set aside of his friend’s edginess.

“We’ll re-arm, but that won’t solve all our problems. We need to find out where the real Promised Jewel is, and maybe disable this vessel’s weaponry before taking off again. The Morbis Ferre can’t take any amount of sustained fire from this thing; we already almost got vaped coming in, and I don’t want to die without a gun in my hand, unaccompanied by a host of corpses.”

“Right, right, warrior’s death and all that. So, we get guns now?” Sathik said inquisitively, raising an eyebrow as he looked at his black-clad friend, the armor of whom was still smoking, giving him a frightfully god-like appearance.

“Yes.” Arcuse sighed, “We get guns now.”

They backtracked through the short, metallic tunnel, and arrived back at the Ubese’s Skipray in mere seconds. Arcuse unlocked the craft, lowered the cargo ramp, and followed Sathik into his ship. Coming back to the Morbis Ferre, unlocking it, re-arming, and then re-sealing it would be a timely process, but both of them would rather be prepared; and besides, until they had a reason to hurry, they could take all the time they needed as long as it didn’t put them too far behind in the hunt.

“Those droids looked like they hadn’t been taken care of for a few dozen years at least.” Sathik said, strapping an ion blaster to his right thigh. “I don’t think there’s anything alive on this ship, except for us and the other hunters, so we can concentrate on ion weapons for now.”

“Indeed.” Arcuse rasped his usual response. He removed the grenade launcher from under his E-11’s barrel and added a cut-down ion caster to the BlasTech’s accessory rail. After confirming that it had a full charge, the Ubese exchanged half his fragmentation grenades for special-made ion ones, noticing that Sathik had done the same. The human had of course kept his shotgun and S-5, but his personal armaments now included the ion weapons he’d selected as well.

More or less satisfied with their weapons, the pair left the Morbis Ferre again, sealed it off, and made their way back to the blaster-scorched location of their brief skirmish with the droids. The corridor kept going for a few dozen meters, finally ending at a pair of turbolift shafts.

“Think they’re still working?” Sathik asked, looking towards his armored friend.

“The weapons were.” The Ubese said simply, and stepped up to the lift on the right.

“Good point.” Sathik conceded, following Arcuse and waiting for the lift to get down to them. Apparently, the last person to use this had gone to the bridge, or whatever was on the higher levels of this damnable cruiser. The glowing numbers showing which level the lift platform was currently on began winking out as it descended. The countdown stopped at Level 5 (which was apparently the level they currently occupied), and the two bounty hunters readied their weapons. The doors slid open, revealing an empty platform.

Too easy again. Whispered that bodiless voice. There should’ve been a bomb on that car, or more droids; anything to slow your progress. Think about it soldier-boy, that’s what you’d have done had you been in command of this ship.

“But we don’t even know if there is someone in command here.” Arcuse hissed under his breath, speaking, to put it simply, to himself. “Mayhap it’s just a few droids that remained active. The turbolasers could always have been set to defend the ship if anything fired in close proximity to it, as sai Sathik did.”

He knew that this was unlikely, and that there was probably something in control of the ship, but he’d try anything to get this voice in his head to shut up and let him work. To his surprise, the voice didn’t respond, and he was able to bring his attention back to the real world.

Sathik stood on the lift platform, eyeing his friend strangely. The Ubese didn’t know if the plagued hunter had heard him talking to himself, but he hoped silently that he hadn’t.

“You comin’?” Sathik asked, tapping his foot in a mock gesture of impatience. Arcuse walked into the lift beside his companion, but gave no verbal response. As much as he hated to admit it, the thing in his head was right. Something was trying to stop them, and the fact that he didn’t know what it was or why this ghost ship was even here made him uneasy. Arcuse of the Ubese gripped his E-11 tightly, and watched the level-indicator relight the numbers one by one as the lift platform rose.

"I AM A SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR!" - Belkar

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

As Arcuse and Sathik rode the turbolift to the bridge, Nate waited in the corridors, and Jin fought alongside Boba Fett against the automated turrets, the enities on the bridge waited.
Twenty long-since obsolete SD-7 battle droids, giant hulks armed to the teeth with blasters, frag grenade launchers, and flechette cannons, stood alongside their master, the lone astromech who carried the true location of the Jewel.
a dozen 1G-92's, superior versions of the IG-88 series, flanked by six Commerce Guild Dwarf Spider Droids, waited at the turbolift enterance...ready to destroy any intruder who entered the room.
Their mettle had been tested.  Now for the final challenge...only those worthy to find the Jewel would exit the room alive.

And the Terminax droids still wait...lurking in the shadows...

"If you don't want me to eat you.....SAY SOMETHING." 
-Captian Murphy

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

Finally deciding he didn't want to wait any longer he crept more along the hall. Opening a door he just found more and more halls.
This is hopeless, he thought, I need something to happen, something to point me in the right direction
So, sitting down he meditated, it would come, he could feel it.

"He's no good to me dead."- Boba Fett

33 (edited by Ursula Monday, March 6, 2006 4:11 pm)

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

Boba Fett fought off the last of the attack droids, blasting it to smithereens, scattering it’s metallic guts down the corridor already paved with the singed joints and wires of his recent kills.

He heard a warning to watch his back. It came from Jin Sarin, at war with a never ending barrage of laser bolts. His eyes glowed an eerie, unnatural orange, and he moved at a pace too fast for the eye to track. Fett knew it wouldn’t be long before the frenzied fight would wear the human down, no matter what evil powered his body.

He took a moment to assess his current options, studying both the destroyed droids, and the hall of death.

The ship controls the droids. The idea had merit, and dictated a much different course of action.

Fett double timed it back from the direction he first came, leaping over the discarded metal carcass of an IG-88 and kicking through the remains of a cortosis droid. Beside the lift tube was a narrow silver panel.  Fett fired two judiciously placed shots, and the panel edges peeled back. He pulled it back the rest of the way and exposed the repair access remote array.

From one of his many utility pockets he removed Jango’s electronic lock breaker, the one he’d since modified with the highest tech slicer chip money and blatant intimidation could procure, and jacked into the main computer databanks.  He didn’t have the raw speed required for this task, but Slave’s computers certainly did, and part of his modifications included a link to Slave’s main system.

"Slave I, override main computer, shut down all security protocols."

Light arced back as the computer attempted a reject burst of energy, but his device held.

Initiating lock down sequence Slave I’s synthetic voice drifted softly inside of Fett’s helm. Unable to disengage without closing down atmospheric life support.

Fett considered the dark force user in the main corridor. Then he remembered the Creed. “Send alert over the main com five seconds to loss of oxygen, keep active countdown.”

**
The beast fought for electronic supremacy against an unprecedented assailant: the main computer of Slave I. No matter the datapath it took, no matter the attempt to transfer virus, Slave outwitted the beast at every turn. Slave fought on, brutally assaulting the decoy ship’s systems with pure aggression and ruthless precision that was somehow more than simple programming.

One by one, the walls fell.  Droid by droid, the army powered down.  And as the last of the defenses caved before the superiority of the system created by Jango and then further grown by Boba, the beast died.

Slave I’s main computer sensed the defeat, and enacted the countdown, broadcasting it over the main com.

Five seconds to life support shut down

To the master it then spoke. System override complete. Await further instruction.

No time passed, and the command came. “Re-initialize comsec and code sequences, then cut access at remote and main stations. Route all system access through my datapad wristlink, or comlink, standard recognition protocol in place.”

Slave complied immediately, ever ready, ever vigilant as it waited for the next command.

"Search main data banks for location of Promised Jewel."

The Slave filtered the data and responded. External storage; Astromech Droid. Location: main bridge.

***
Lasers raced past him while some disembodied voice, neither male, nor female, droned on over the main come.

One second to life support shut down

The sith spirit powered his swings and guided them with unerring precision, but Jin and his body knew there wasn’t much left in reserves to keep going.  And now the life support systems were on autoshut down.  Jin prayed to the maker and what ever gods governed the realm of sheer luck , that the weapons system would shut down too. He took a deep gulp of air and kept up the fight.

Life support shut down complete.

The safety lights cut off. The lasers stopped.  All went silent.

Jin fumbled for his breath mask, his arms wrung out from the prolonged battle. He managed to find it and secure it to his head, then he fell to his knees and breathed long and hard.  The sith spirit was blessedly mute.

For a moment Jin remained in repose, collecting the shreds of strength, and sanity, but the sound of rapidly approaching footfalls rallied him back.

He summoned the sabers.  In the darkness, they were a muted beacon, pulsing red like the blood in his veins. They cast a wide radius of murderous light that reached to the foot of the hall.   He turned to face the end of the corridor, mentally preparing for another battle, when a familiar figure charged into view.

Fett, in his Mandalorian armor, was a sight for sore eyes.

“What took you so long?”  Jin let one of the sabers retreat, and reached for a lightstick stored on his belt. 

“When you came in here, didn’t you have a plan for getting out?”  Fett’s voice was as mechanical and lifeless as a droid.  His long, ground eating strides took him quickly to the bridge doors.  “Never mind answering, Sarin, I didn’t think you would. You can thank me later.”

Fett gave the newest obstacle a moment of consideration. “Slave I, open bridge blast doors.”

A great clanking sounded onerously, and the doors began to part.

“Watch out for the astromech, Fett.”  Jin jogged the last steps to stand beside the lethal legend. “He’s the mastermind of this ship.”

**
Fett spied the astromech attempting to plug into the computer system as Jin issued his warning.

“Slave I, neutralize the mech.”

A blast of energy erupted from the instrument panel, enveloping the astromech in a shower of blue light.  It squealed, blew back into a console support pillar, and toppled over with a clang.

Fett approached with caution and kicked it a few times just in case.  When it didn’t respond, he shouldered his blast rifle, and pulled out the same modified electronic lock breaker.  Then he exposed the necessary innards and jacked into the droid. 

“Find the location of the Jewel.”  Fett pulled out a restraining bolt and locked the droid down. He saw the dark force user in his helm read out as Sarin approach from behind.  His lean, haggard face was a study in torment.

“Don’t be stupid, kid.  You don’t want to die.”

“Maybe I won’t.” His muffled voice echoed across the dusty air of the bridge, rattling amongst the immobile droid army sitting in useless assembly.

Fett stood and faced off against Sarin.  “Cross me and I’ll dust you, same as the next barve.”

He watched as an internal struggle played out on Sarin’s face and in his eyes.  They flashed briefly, a heated redish orange the very color of hell fire, then they cooled.  The saber blade vanished. “You’re right. I don’t want to die.”

Download complete Slave I’s alert was welcome.  Fett didn’t think Sarin would be able to contain himself much longer, or worse, contain what ever evil plagued his soul.

“Smart move.”  Fett righted the astromech and activated the droid.  “A smarter move? Get out of this game.  You’re out of your league.”

The kid shrugged.  “Can’t. I don’t have a choice. What I need requires a lot of credits, fast.”

“Stick to gambling, it’s more your speed.” As Fett backed out of the bridge, his rifle trained on Sarin, the astromech followed in tow, a subdued prisoner.  “Contact the Hutt, he’ll probably offer you salvage fees for this ship. And one last thing: don’t try and reactivate the ship’s systems. The thing is programmed to kill.”

**
Sarin watched his last hope depart with Fett.  The hunter’s words held truth.  There was value in this ship. Not as much as the Jewel, but, certainly enough to use as a starting bankroll.  Maybe enough to buy entrance into a floating high stakes gaming hell that operated on the Outer Rim.

You give up too easy, boy The sith spirit made him dizzy as it spoke. Search the ship.  There is more than just the astromech to be found.

With no other agenda, Jin decided to give it a shot, starting with where the Captain’s quarters would be, if there’d been an actual captain.  He rummaged around the dingy little cabin, and just when he’d thought to abandon the search, his luck changed. Concealed beneath the base of a desklamp he found a small datacylinder.  Jin pocketed the booty, and started the journey back to his ship.  He wasn’t out of the game just yet.

***************************
[url]http://museunplugged.blogspot.com/[/url]

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

Sathik leaned against the side of the elevator lift, and turned to Arcuse, "So, we're just gonna wing it?"

Arcuse shrugged and continued to adjust the ion caster on his BlasTech, testing and getting used to the new weight.

"Nice." Sathik gave a wicked grin and cracked his knuckles with anticipation. The dark haired killer loved a challenge. Hated droids-but loved a challenge, and every fiber of lethal instinct in the two bounty hunters screamed about the danger that awaited them on the bridge.

Suddenly the lift jolted to a stop and the lights went out.


"Aw come on!" Sathik kicked the wall as Arcuse activated a glowrod.

Five seconds to life support shut down


"Gods damn it." Sathik sighed and grudgingly unhooked the breath mask hooked on his belt. The armored hunter next to the dark killer tried the control panel. When nothing happened he fired once at the small panel covering, which promptly cracked and fell to the ground.

Four seconds to life support shut down

Arcuse tested at the wiring and delicate apparatus with one hand. He pulled his hand back instintively when the device sparked once and then went dark.

"Fan-fricken-tastic." Sathik commented angrily, "I've always wanted to be stuck in an elevator."

Arcuse motioned toward the maintenance hatch on the ceiling, "Well then, let's remedy the situation."

Sathik pulled out his shotgun, fired once, and the hatch broke out of place with a satisfying Crack. He stuck it back into the holster on his shoulder, grabbed the edge of the opening  and pulled himself up. Arcuse  handed the glowrod up to his partner before he quickly followed after.

"There's a maintenance ladder over here, looks like it leads up to some mechanic repair and access platform." Sathik looked as far up as he could.

"Security Systems?" Arcuse asked.

"Everything's shut down." Sathik shook his head, stuck the glowrod in his belt and started climbing, and Arcuse followed shortly after.

life support shut down complete


"You know, the ship wouldn't have warned us about the life support." Sathik explained as he pulled dusty webbing out of his face and climbed up higher.

"No. That was a bounty hunter." Arcuse spoke with respect.

"Yeah, screw him. He's not getting our credits."



It was a long while before the two hunters finally reached the dusty, web covered access repair room. A repair droid stood lifeless next to a computer terminal. Sathik shoved the droid aside carelessly, crouched down to the computer's level, and tapped on a few control keys. Sathik whistled, "This is a pretty piece of work. Oh wow."

"Options?" Arcuse asked, analyzing his surroundings.

Sathik grinned and undid the latch on his boot, inside were three slicing ships. These pieces of contraband weren't for reprograming or hacking - Sathik didn't have either skill. One was meant to send a computer system into virtual cardiac arrest, the other was a highly infective virus, and the last was the one he was going to use.

"What's that?" Arcuse asked.

"This little trick," He stuck it in the data slot, "will force the entire system to reboot and start up again."

"Won't that turn the security systems back on?"

Sathik gave a sly grin, "We owe our bounty hunter friends downstairs the favor."

"A thousand years of space and time and I have never come across anyone wasn't important." -- Doctor Who

35 (edited by BalanceSheet Tuesday, March 7, 2006 9:03 am)

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

The BeasT, once vibrant with the activities of hundreds of battle droids awakening to combat the intruders, had fallen silent once again.  The deactivated shells that once constituted a devastating battalion littered the hallways, dead and lifeless hunks of machinery.
Yet one enity remained.
As the Slave I won the battle for control of the vessel, and shut down all combative droid unites within the ship, a specially programmed failsafe in the event that the BeasT should somehow be defeated.
The Falleen had spared no expense on this next level of defense, guarding his treasure from those who would wish to claim it for themselves.
A heavily modified Terminax Assassin droid, outfitted with a unique combat matrix, rocket launchers built alongside the blaster and grenade launcher within his arms, a heavily modified Enforcer slugthrower, and other hidden suprises for any who dared to challenge it. 
HUN-89, draped in a long trenchcoat concealing his tall droid chassis, moved slowly through the tight corridors of the ghost ship, marching in the direction of a tiny escape pod concealed beneath the vessel.  Without his droid familiars, HUN saw no reason to stay aboard the BeasT.  He would fall back to his masters next line of defense; the tiny, unnamed planetoid which the ship orbited around.  There, he would make the meatbags pay for their intrusion...

"If you don't want me to eat you.....SAY SOMETHING." 
-Captian Murphy

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

Why in the hell did they shut off the damn life support thought Nate.
He had heard the warning and quickly pulled on his breather before the light went out. Getting up he walked around a bit. He didn't need a light, in fact, the dark was more peaceful, that's why he decided to follow that path. People, when they found the true him, always scorned him in his practices. They thought he was evil, but that wasen't true, he didn't even like killing very much, blood and gore didn't apeal to him very much. Suddenly a powerful surge came though in the Force, So it seems I'm not the only one.

After about 15 min. he came across a door that looked promising. He walked inside, it was the Captin's quarter's. Suddenly he heard a noise. Covering himself with dark energy he hid from view. The dark Jedi walked in. He watched him rumage through some junk and slip a data bank of some kind into his belt pouch, then slip out to rejoin Fett. And so the first stage is over, finding the Jewl is over, now the second has begun, getting it back to the slug, Jabba the Hutt

"He's no good to me dead."- Boba Fett

37 (edited by Ursula Saturday, March 11, 2006 8:55 am)

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

A sinister whirring, coupled with a malevolent mechanical moaning, followed by the unmistakable sound of engines powering up, raised the hair on the back of Jin’s neck.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” he muttered to himself in the dark, empty corridor of the decoy vesssel.

Safety lights ignited, slicing through the gloom like a ready saber.

“A real bad feeling.”  Jin picked up his pace, switching from cautious walk to a fast double time.  All he had to do was reach the end of this corridor, get into the air lock, disengage his ship, and get the hell out of this sector of space and far away from this death trap.  “So many things, so little time.”

*

The decoy ship powered up. Strands of code slipped through the electric consciousness of the ship’s main computer. But that main computer had tangled with Slave I, and the wounds were fresh. Precious strings of data frayed and snapped. Key elements of code scattered like pearls falling from a torn necklace, fanning out across the computer network, rolling into the most unlikely areas. The major programming tried to walk but it slipped on these wayward pearls and it fell, in a most dangerous, and devastating way.

The droid army woke. But the instructions were garbled, the leader suffering from a systemic and crippling aphasia. The metallic assassins aboard the ship of death knew they had to fight, but they didn’t know who. So they turned on one another. And as they began a battle as epic as it was ill-fated, the main computer had the final, lethal stroke.  Then the self destruct sequence triggered.

*
“Bloody, friggen’, useless ship!”  Jin pounded the control panel to no avail.  The doors to the mated airlock, the safe passage to his ship, would not open.

“Guess we do this the old fashioned way.”  He pulled out his saber, summoned the blade, and drove it through the metal door, pushing it up to the very hilt.

Sparks showered around him.  Metal turned molten. The blade wanted to retreat, but his frustration held it fast as he muscled it through his latest obstacle to success.  Centimeter by centimeter he severed.  He needed to break the connection between the overlapping panels, then he was home free.  He figured he’d need a minute, maybe a few more.

A sonerous alarm began to pulse across the com system of the ship, an unmistakable tolling of a death knell.  Sentient space travelers the galaxy over were hard wired to recognize this sound on an innate level.  Jin went cold.  “Self destruct.”  Excellent.  Could his luck get any better?

He pushed on with renewed vigor, his energy fed by his will for self-preservation, and at last, the door and metal gave way to the saber and his desperation.

Thankfully, the opening to his ship was easier to muscle through.  It had a manual safety feature the previous door lacked.

Jin raced to his cockpit and attacked the console, making ready for hasty flight.  His engines powered up, but it would be precious moments before he could detach and launch.  He hoped only two things:  that he’d cut loose in time to save his miserable skin, and that the data cylinder he found held something worth the outrageous risk.

As the ship made ready, he locked into the pilot’s chair, and pulled out the cylinder. In the better lighting he was able to make out scratchings that were, on closer inspection, actual words.


He studied the letters for a moment, sounding out the foreign words at the same time his mind made the translation.  “Maintenance logs.”

***************************
[url]http://museunplugged.blogspot.com/[/url]

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

Sathik stared at the computer terminal as the self destruct alarms blared and the shattered systems struggled to work, scrolling useless fragments of data.

"What?"  Arcuse rasped at his partner, "No witty remark?"

"It's turning out to be a lovely day." Sathik smiled weakly still staring at the computer as a dark hell of machinery and technology began to twist and groan between life and death around the two hunters.

"Come on!" Arcuse pulled out a weapon and moved back towards the lift platform. Sathik snapped into survival mode,  quickly selected the lift controls preset a quick oneway trip and deactivated all the safety--Sathik threw his arms in front of his face as the terminal overloaded. The dark killer jumped after his partner. Time was non-existent. They had to get back to the Morbus Fere now.

The elevator lift rose like a shrieking runaway train without the safety measures, crunching to a halt at the top in a sparking almost explosive clash of metal.

Let's go!" Sathik shouted over the chaos, and grabbed a hold to the top, Arcuse hardly seconds behind him. The lift suddenly dropped into a dead fall, getting faster and faster without the repulsors, breaks, or anything else to slow its fall.

One Shot. Sathik pulled out his S-5 and fired the grappling hook screaming in his mind the bounty hunter's version of a prayer.

YOU BETTER WORK YOU [edited for content] PIECE OF [edited for content] [edited for content]!!!!

Arcuse grabbed tightly onto Sathik's shoulder harness.The dark hunter cried out as the life saving cord tightened, and the two hunters swung into the duracreet wall. The lift slammed explosively somewhere far below them in the black abyss of the shaft. Struggling from the pressure of the weight, Sathik grimmaced painfully and grit his teeth as the lethal partners were pulled closer to the the lift opening Sathik had pre-set. Arcuse quickly reached up with his free hand and grabbed a hold, and shoved Sathik up into the corridor. The faceless, armored and heavily armed hunter was easily strong enough to pull himself up.

They didn't need to shout at each other to hurry. The injured ship started to shake uncontrollably in its very own death spasms. Lights flashed and shattered. Droids down the corridor lit up the hall with their unguided and crazed blaster fire.

Arcuse immediately pulled out his modified E-11 and picked off the confused pieces of scrap metal while the two hunters charged down the hall. There was hardly a challenge as they rushed madly through the destructive discord of what was left of the ship. They finally reached the familiar air lock. Sathik had sprinted ahead and uselessly tried the controls, as Arcuse gave cover fire. There wasn't time to be angry. Arcuse saw the problem and quickly stuck a Detonation pack to the air lock.

The two hunters took cover in the hall. The ship shuddered and jolted from the explosion. Arcuse had already tapped the controls on his gauntlet to start the Fere as they made one last mad dash. Sathik had sprinted ahead and with one hand opened the door, so Arcuse could run to cock pit uninterupted. Another wracking jolt and the two hunters both nearly lost their feet. The ship seemed to take forever to detach from the self-destructing death trap, but finally launched with a powerful thrust of the engines.

Arcuse locked in the safety harness, still busy at the ship's controls. Back in the corridor, Sathik  quickly forced his dislocated shoulder excruciatingly into place.

"Nnnggh." The dark killer sunk against the ladder to the gun turret breathing heavily.


Hopefully they weren't out of the game yet.

"A thousand years of space and time and I have never come across anyone wasn't important." -- Doctor Who

Re: New Boards, New RPG! - The Promised Jewel

Dude, there are alot of posts on here.  Ya'll could make a whole book out of this material....nice....

                                                              {MW} MS9

“(I’m) Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. The monkey in the wrench. The pain in the a$$.” -John McClane