Smuggler Archive
Thread: Story: Tatooine Ambush
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SwenLaransa
Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:36 pm
#1
Ah Mos Eisley. Such a friendly city full of friends, colleagues, and most importantly... work and coin. I will admit that I have a soft spot for helping the lost that find their way their either by choice or bad fortune. So it started that I was sitting on the steps outside the starport showing a young lad the proper way to service a blaster when something felt wrong.
A casual glance behind me showed about twenty some odd subjects, all of them suspicious. Down side of Mos Eisley. If I were in Theed it would be the rouge with the concealed gun that'd be out for me. Not so easy here. A few I recognized from around. A few bounty hunters. A cop or two trying to blend in. And a guy who's face I recognized only in passing.
Two bit smuggler with no real skills. The way he was shaking right now wasn't uncommon for him. Got that way when he got nervous. In this line of work you really need three things. A tuned blaster, a fast ship, and balls of steel. He had none of 'em. My eyes turned to look over the rest of the crowd when I saw him attempting to level a blaster in my general direction.
I easily rolled out of the way and started towards him. The fear in his eyes was unreal and he just started shooting wildly. Oh man. Screaming everywhere. I think he managed to hit a bantha. The chaos was, as chaos is, out of control.
He saw me walking towards him, renegade at the ready, and threw his hands up in front of his face. A few shots wizzed past in my direction but nothing that had a snowballs chance of connecting. And there he was on the floor in front of me, out of breath, out of his mind, and out of luck. Now ya can't do in a guy like that. It's like strangling kittens. It's just... well, it's wrong. I couldn't just leave him there to shoot me in the back so I brought the butt of my pistol down onto his temple.
Hopefully the imperials who think they're in charge will be useful for a change and throw him in a cell for a month or twenty. Useful. Imperial. Wishful thinking, I know. I decided to clear out and look for work before they showed up.
I hit up a few contacts but business was slow all around and ended up signing on with a crew to go and recover some materials another smuggler had 'lost' around the dunes. It was a one day gig and while the pay sucked I had nothing better to do with my time. A long boring day.
So I head out with a few hired guns to wander the sands looking for the cargo some two bit smuggler dumped as soon as he saw an imperial ship overhead. Didn't even break atmo. Didn't even try.. well anything. We mostly stuck together swapping stories as we rode around the desert looking for it.
We stopped for a drink and took a few potshots at some rontos that were snooping around when the high whine of speederbikes echoed loudly in the air. More hunters? Seriously now. Starting to get annoying. Two of them rode up fast and hard and leaped off their bikes trying to hit me in a rain of fire. Several shots connected and I fell to the ground in pain and managed to roll out of the way as the transport we were using crashed to the ground where I just lay.
A quick stim or ten later, some less than legal, and I was ready to go. I peeked over the downed transport and considered my options. Two of them. The guys I was with nowhere to be seen. Ok. One of me. Odds slightly not in my favor. And they were moving closer, circling around.
So I ran. A manly tactical run of course. I waited until the first was almost to the transport before I rolled out and slammed my pistol into his face, dropping him to the ground. I turned on my heel and fired off a quick shot at his friend, clipping him in the side of the head.
Then I ran screaming like a little girl. Gotta get a head start you see. If you've spent as much time in the desert as I have you get to know a few things. What's friendly, what's not. Where to hide when there's angry bounty hunters gunning for you. Useful things that those not used to the desert won't know.
The guy I sucker punched with my pistol was up and was shaking the blood out of his helmet. It was the bloody codpiece I let live earlier! Where has professional decency gone? I ask you? When you step up and a man knocks you down you don't go back after 'em. You take your licks and you learn. His buddy was still kinda dazed from the shot to the head I gave him and I was far enough out of range to not worry about that massively huge rifle he was packing.
There's a saying about men who need big guns. Anyways, so I ran right past one of the rontos we were shooting at a few minutes earlier and the guy from before starts after me, firing his blaster wildly in my direction and yelling some inane warcry. Seems it was a little too wild and he managed to nick one of the big ole bulls. A ronto ain't nothing if you see it coming. They're big, dumb, and easily confused. If you don't see it coming then it's several tonnes of big dumb and pissed directed all at you.
I should've kept running, I really should've. But this kid pissed me off. This is what I get for kindness? Horrible. Just horrible. So I turned about and took careful aim and as the rontos hoof came down on his chest I sent a bolt flying into his head, taking him out. His buddy just gaped at the scene before leveling that big rifle at me.
Men with big guns are a mixed bag with me. Most of the time it's just compensating for a lack of something. But there's that rare time when you get someone who knows how to use it and use it well. And this guy... turns out he could use it. The first shot nailed me right in the shoulder and I swear it felt like someone just ripped ten yards of barbed wire through me.
He had me out in the open too. I couldn't run away. That would be suicide. I dived to the side as he sent another blast searing past me. My returning shots mostly went wild, distracted by the searing mess that used to be my shoulder. I managed to nail him once in the shin and that seemed to tick him off a bit, but not much else. I rolled along the ground as a hail of shots rained down around me.
A pause to take his aim and I sprung to my feet at him, peppering him with light shots. Sure enough it worked and he was suprised and taken off balanced. By the time I got up to him it was a simple thing to kick the gun out of his hands and bring him crashing to the ground with an elbow to the chin. A few quick shots made sure he'd never make the same mistake again.
Dusted myself off and after a few minutes the guys I was with crawled out of the woodwork. Always nice to know you can count on the guys you're with to watch your back... and then loot your credits when you get shot in it.
A casual glance behind me showed about twenty some odd subjects, all of them suspicious. Down side of Mos Eisley. If I were in Theed it would be the rouge with the concealed gun that'd be out for me. Not so easy here. A few I recognized from around. A few bounty hunters. A cop or two trying to blend in. And a guy who's face I recognized only in passing.
Two bit smuggler with no real skills. The way he was shaking right now wasn't uncommon for him. Got that way when he got nervous. In this line of work you really need three things. A tuned blaster, a fast ship, and balls of steel. He had none of 'em. My eyes turned to look over the rest of the crowd when I saw him attempting to level a blaster in my general direction.
I easily rolled out of the way and started towards him. The fear in his eyes was unreal and he just started shooting wildly. Oh man. Screaming everywhere. I think he managed to hit a bantha. The chaos was, as chaos is, out of control.
He saw me walking towards him, renegade at the ready, and threw his hands up in front of his face. A few shots wizzed past in my direction but nothing that had a snowballs chance of connecting. And there he was on the floor in front of me, out of breath, out of his mind, and out of luck. Now ya can't do in a guy like that. It's like strangling kittens. It's just... well, it's wrong. I couldn't just leave him there to shoot me in the back so I brought the butt of my pistol down onto his temple.
Hopefully the imperials who think they're in charge will be useful for a change and throw him in a cell for a month or twenty. Useful. Imperial. Wishful thinking, I know. I decided to clear out and look for work before they showed up.
I hit up a few contacts but business was slow all around and ended up signing on with a crew to go and recover some materials another smuggler had 'lost' around the dunes. It was a one day gig and while the pay sucked I had nothing better to do with my time. A long boring day.
So I head out with a few hired guns to wander the sands looking for the cargo some two bit smuggler dumped as soon as he saw an imperial ship overhead. Didn't even break atmo. Didn't even try.. well anything. We mostly stuck together swapping stories as we rode around the desert looking for it.
We stopped for a drink and took a few potshots at some rontos that were snooping around when the high whine of speederbikes echoed loudly in the air. More hunters? Seriously now. Starting to get annoying. Two of them rode up fast and hard and leaped off their bikes trying to hit me in a rain of fire. Several shots connected and I fell to the ground in pain and managed to roll out of the way as the transport we were using crashed to the ground where I just lay.
A quick stim or ten later, some less than legal, and I was ready to go. I peeked over the downed transport and considered my options. Two of them. The guys I was with nowhere to be seen. Ok. One of me. Odds slightly not in my favor. And they were moving closer, circling around.
So I ran. A manly tactical run of course. I waited until the first was almost to the transport before I rolled out and slammed my pistol into his face, dropping him to the ground. I turned on my heel and fired off a quick shot at his friend, clipping him in the side of the head.
Then I ran screaming like a little girl. Gotta get a head start you see. If you've spent as much time in the desert as I have you get to know a few things. What's friendly, what's not. Where to hide when there's angry bounty hunters gunning for you. Useful things that those not used to the desert won't know.
The guy I sucker punched with my pistol was up and was shaking the blood out of his helmet. It was the bloody codpiece I let live earlier! Where has professional decency gone? I ask you? When you step up and a man knocks you down you don't go back after 'em. You take your licks and you learn. His buddy was still kinda dazed from the shot to the head I gave him and I was far enough out of range to not worry about that massively huge rifle he was packing.
There's a saying about men who need big guns. Anyways, so I ran right past one of the rontos we were shooting at a few minutes earlier and the guy from before starts after me, firing his blaster wildly in my direction and yelling some inane warcry. Seems it was a little too wild and he managed to nick one of the big ole bulls. A ronto ain't nothing if you see it coming. They're big, dumb, and easily confused. If you don't see it coming then it's several tonnes of big dumb and pissed directed all at you.
I should've kept running, I really should've. But this kid pissed me off. This is what I get for kindness? Horrible. Just horrible. So I turned about and took careful aim and as the rontos hoof came down on his chest I sent a bolt flying into his head, taking him out. His buddy just gaped at the scene before leveling that big rifle at me.
Men with big guns are a mixed bag with me. Most of the time it's just compensating for a lack of something. But there's that rare time when you get someone who knows how to use it and use it well. And this guy... turns out he could use it. The first shot nailed me right in the shoulder and I swear it felt like someone just ripped ten yards of barbed wire through me.
He had me out in the open too. I couldn't run away. That would be suicide. I dived to the side as he sent another blast searing past me. My returning shots mostly went wild, distracted by the searing mess that used to be my shoulder. I managed to nail him once in the shin and that seemed to tick him off a bit, but not much else. I rolled along the ground as a hail of shots rained down around me.
A pause to take his aim and I sprung to my feet at him, peppering him with light shots. Sure enough it worked and he was suprised and taken off balanced. By the time I got up to him it was a simple thing to kick the gun out of his hands and bring him crashing to the ground with an elbow to the chin. A few quick shots made sure he'd never make the same mistake again.
Dusted myself off and after a few minutes the guys I was with crawled out of the woodwork. Always nice to know you can count on the guys you're with to watch your back... and then loot your credits when you get shot in it.
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