The party reforms after a bit of shopping and some assorted chitchat - most of it concerning where the future might lead. Caise expresses his desire to reach Pandath, as well as his reasons why, and no one can provide any compelling reason as to why this is not the best course for all. The padawan considers how to go about securing transportation to Taanab's capitol city, then a pair of familiar faces present themselves.

"You guys are still here?" asks a grinning Jaal. His arm rests around Jeena's waist, and she wears a grin of her own. The young man asks a few polite, non intrusive questions about your success here in the city thus far, and relates his own. "Father will be quite pleased," he remarks. "I was able to pick up three of the Daizar Sevens for what we expected to give for two of them, plus a couple of spare condensors to boot!"

Jeena rolls her eyes as he prattles on about ag equipment, but does manage to interject, "See? Your father would do well to follow your lead on this - you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

You find yourselves on the street outside with the couple. "Listen," Jaal explains, "I have to get back to the plantation, else we'd give you a ride to Pandath ourselves. But the trans depot is halfway across town from here - we'll give you a ride there."

GM's note: I see no reason for anyone to object, so in the interest of time, I'm pressing forward...
As a group, you walk to the end of the polyblock building, where Jaal pauses in front of a small terminal adjacent to a large cargo door. He inputs a code into the terminal, then stands back to wait. "Sorry, but this particular garage has some ancient servos - Brod is too cheap to upgrade them, so it takes forever for them to retrieve your ride, especially when they stick you on one of the higher levels." You understand that this is an autmoated parking facility - one parks their transportation on the pad, where it is then whisked inside and placed into a holding bin, thus maximizing the available space.

Jeena steps up next to him, whispers something in his ear, and the two share a quick kiss, oblovious to the traffic of the street. Smiling, she turns to Caise and opens her mouth to speak, but pauses in mid motion. Her expression quickly melts into one of confusion.

Suddenly, Caise's senses are on fire. Danger! they scream.

Even as the padawan reazlies what his senses are telling him, Jeena realizes the bright red stain rapidly spreading across her chest. She glances downward, touching the gaping wound that has opened there, looks at her crimson-stained fingertips. Worldlessly, she sags to the ground, the look of surprise never leaving her face.

Shock and terror twist Jaal's expression as he screams her name, and an instant later, there is a discernable *ping* as a chunck of polyblock explodes into shrapnel mere inches to the side of Damanil. Belatedly, you realize that it is apparent that you have come under fire. Before anyone can react, a wall of force knocks every member of the party to the ground as some sort of concussive blast detonates at extremely close range.

Through the ringing in your ears, you can hear the terrified screams of sentients, as well as the whine of blaster fire.

You are attacked!

Dime let out a yelp as the pulse hit him. This was not going to end well. Lucky for him, he was packing heat.

He took a quick look around to find cover - it would have to wait, but it would be nice to know. He instictively reached for his heavy blaster and then attempted to find his targets.

(OOC: Point and click then! Start with the closest grunt and dive behind cover when the chance presents itself)

Ziv nodded knowingly to Caise and slipped his data pad back in his pouch and chuckled at his comment about being bored, “Well to each his own.. Me I prefer some action to all this sneaking about and not knowing where we are going.”

He followed the Jedi to the others and followed along watching as they finished up their shopping. He hadn’t found anything interesting to buy and nothing that he really needed. He chuckled at Dime’s enthusiasm about his musical purchase. Ziv never did have any talent for music, he tried once when he was a kid but his skills tended towards fixing things and tinkering. To him the hum of a well tuned hyper drive was music to his ears.

He smiled when they met up with Jaal and Jeena again. He had to admit it he liked them, and Jena seemed to know a lot about engines and stuff. His kind of girl. He was just noticing the blood on the front of her shirt as the attack struck.

Ziv cried out in pain as the concussion wave hit him slapping his eardrums and knocking him to the ground where he managed to scrap a few elbows and knees as he tried unsuccessfully stop his fall. As he rose to his feet, drawing his blaster at the same time, he spotted the two attackers across the street and returned fire at them trying carefully not to hit any innocents in the way. His aim is more to create cover fire and not taking careful aim to hit them, hoping to make them duck or seek cover themselves.

Coming fully to his feet he looked about for the nearest speeder or other ground transport intent on ‘borrowing’ anything to get them away from there. As he did he thought back to what he Caise had said about boredom, but he still felt exhilarated and thought this was still better than nothing.

((OOC: If there is anything available nearby, he will run to it and attempt to toss the person out and take the vehicle. If successful, he will hop in the driver seat and yell at the others. I figure it is a street and maybe someone was driving along slowly and stopped in surprise because of the explosion. Worth a shot. ))

“…to each his own,” Ziv had quipped in reply as he returned the datapad to his pack, “Me, I prefer some action to all this sneaking about and not knowing where we’re going.”

Caise chuckled softly, remembering well the time in his life when he, too, sought excitement and adventure with little regard for caution. Had it not been for Master Trask’s wisdom and patience in imparting that wisdom to him, Caise knew, that his time with the Order would have ended some time ago; likely in a gruesome fashion. “Understood, Ziv,” the padawan nodded, “but keep in mind that, to be effective, action must be directed to clearly conceived ends. So, you see, all this ‘sneaking about’ is not for the sake of avoiding action but, instead, guiding us into action with a clearer perception of what we are to face. Do not strive to be like the men of action who, in reality, are little more than unconscious instruments of the men of thought.”

It was then that Dime caught their attention, waving them down as he exited the mercantile with his purchases in hand. The charismatic twi’lek, obviously pleased at having found a fizz horn, was smiling broadly as Caise and the rest moved in his direction. “Have any of you heard of ‘The Great Al’ of Alderaan,” Dime asked as they drew up and gathered loosely in front of the shop, “He made his career on this instrument…”

“My master is from Alderaan,” Caise nodded, almost certain that Trask had played some of The Great Al’s music from time to time, “I’m sure that I’ve heard the music before but I can’t claim to recall the performer.”

“So,” Dime queried after a moment, his violet eyes having skimmed the faces of their makeshift group, “where is everyone headed? Is this goodbye?”

“Only if your path leads you somewhere other than Pandath, my friend,” Caise replied, taking a moment to brief Dime and the rest on what had transpired with the minister and, as a result, his need to move on to the larger city. As he finished, his gaze sought out Mercury; “We’ll need to make arrangements for transport there, of course,” he said, knowing that, like Ziv, the pilot was likely bored with milling about the town and in need of a distraction or, at least the promise of something to do in the near future, “and, when we arrive, Mercury, if you could look into finding an out-bound ship for us…”

“You guys are still here?” Jaal and Jeena had appeared from the interior of Brod’s then, both grinning and obviously enjoying being in one another’s company. Jaal proceeded to ask questions about the party’s successes and relate some of his own (which Jeena didn’t hold the same excitement for where the equipment was concerned, though there was some pride in her remarks about the differences between Jaal and his father’s personalities).

“Listen,” the young rancher smiled as he turned and guided Jeena towards the end of the building, “I’ve got to get back to the plantation, else we’d give you a ride there ourselves. But the trans depot is halfway across town from here – we’ll give you a ride there.”

The group followed the young couple towards the automated parking facility, dismissing the apologies made by Jaal for the antiquity of the structure’s servos as no great concern, and expressing appreciation for yet another ride. Eager to know what was on the datachip that Rool had provided him and somewhat anxious to get to a spot where Ziv or one of the others could set about accessing the thing, Caise was, at first, oblivious of the danger that had surrounded them. It wasn’t until after Jeena and Jaal had shared an intimate moment and the girl turned, apparently, to address Caise that he sensed something was terribly wrong.

Jeena’s aura, when she had turned to face him, was a warm, mingling wash of love for Jaal, burgeoning friendship for the ‘strangers’ who had been in her company since the evening before, and an overall flow of happiness and peace. The miraluka padawan found it almost surreal the way that all of that seemed to melt suddenly away to be replaced with confusion, pain, and…

…Danger!
Suddenly, it seemed, that danger was the only palpable energy in the Force and Caise’s hand dipped to his saber even as Jeena numbly realized what had just happened to her and, an heartbeat later, Jaal’s anguished scream tore through the air. The Jedi turned, instinctively seeking out the origin of the shot that had felled the girl, and was met with a great, red wave of angry energy that momentarily blotted out his perceptions and painfully tossed them all to the ground as it crashed over them.

Blast it! No! Caise’s mind raged. This was the second time in as many days that he’d seen an innocent shot – likely as a result of actions he had or hadn’t taken – and, for the negligible fraction of a second that he lay on the street, anger flooded his emotions. Anger at himself for sensing the danger too late and anger at whoever it was that had attacked them so blatantly.

There is no emotion, the Code reminded him as his hand closed around his saber, the blade igniting as he kicked up to regain his feet, there is peace… The lightsaber whirred as it swept out in front of him to bat away the blaster bolts that rained down on them and the remaining lines of the Jedi mantra cycled through his mind, centering him again and allowing him to focus on what had to be done. There is no death; there is the Force. Even as this last line faded to silence in his mind, Caise had picked out the three attackers that were nearest to them and had sent his senses out to see if there were more… Jaal’s keening over Jeena, though, made him realize that death was a very real prospect for some.

“Get them out of here,” Caise demanded of no one in particular as he moved to impose himself between the young couple and any weapons fire that might have threatened them further. His instinct was to close the distance between himself and the attackers… take away their distance advantage… but he couldn’t leave Jaal and his girlfriend exposed.

((OOC: Okay… that got longer than I expected… For the time being, Caise will focus on defending the civvies until they’re out of the immediate line of fire, so to speak. I’m assuming that Jaal’s speeder has yet to be spit out from the auto-park… might be a good thing if that were to show up soon… both as a means of providing cover and of getting at least some of us out of here. Anyhoo, Enhance Ability (Dex) +3, for the time being, please and, once the civilians are clear, hit me with Battlemind and we’re going after the baddies! Any way apparent to get to the sniper’s nest relatively quickly (stairwells/fire escapes that could be quickly ascended, etc)… we need to get that sniper taken care of ASAP methinks… Updates, edits, etc as necessary))

Lana blinked as Jeena fell, her mind coming to a conclusion just as the poor girl hit the ground, but before she could say or do anything, a concussive blast knocked her flat. She shook her head as she struggled to her feet, trying to clear out the ringing, cursing loudly as blaster fire soon surrounded them.

Lana was already on her way over to the two when Caise yelled gave the order to get them to safety, she looked down at the poor girl, caught up in something not even Lana fully understood yet, completely innocent and yet is now dying, if not dead. That's enough to piss anyone off.

Lana looked up at Jaal, "You heard the Jedi! If she has any chance of surviving, both of you need to find some cover! Now!"


(If Jaal complies, she'll help him to get to cover then find some of her own to shoot at those responsible, if not, then she'll pick up Jeena and give Jaal a swift kick to get him moving, Lana's not feeling very patient right now.)

(I know it's not much, but at least it's a post, I really need to catch up in all my games.)

"Well kiddo. It really ain't any of your business, but since I'm in a good mood, I'll let you in on a secret.”

Mercury leaned in to listen to the tale that the soldier was telling him. He couldn’t grasp it all though. Something about not being a soldier and yet being a soldier and a slew of different commanders. Basically, Damanil was working his own agenda now that things had gone Bantha legs up.

"So if you don't mind, I'll enjoy your company for a little longer?" the Mercenary asked with a congenial pat on his shoulder.

“Sure. I guess. Just don’t see what’s in it for you, that’s all.”

He wandered along the market with Damanil for a while, hoping to find a replacement for his lost sidearm on the ship. Wasn’t too likely here so he wasn’t too disappointed.

Then the Jedi appeared again and gathered up the group. There was some talk about what they were going to do next that Mercury half listened to until Caise said, “We’ll need to make arrangements for transport there, of course and, when we arrive, Mercury, if you could look into finding an out-bound ship for us…”

"Huh?" Mercury said profoundly, "Oh yeah! Sure. I can do that."

Then suddenly Jeena was down on the ground bleeding from the chest, and a chunk of polyblock explodes into shrapnel mere inches to the side of Damanil. Mercury’s instincts took over and he immediately dove for the closest thing that would serve as cover then drew out his blaster.

“Get them out of here,” Caise cried.

Lana called out, "You heard the Jedi! If she has any chance of surviving, both of you need to find some cover! Now!"

Mercury looked at Jeena but saw his sister there in her place. Keeping low, Mercury makes a mad dash towards them.

OOC: Mercury will attempt to grab the wounded Girl and drag/carry her to a place of safety.

More blaster shots rain in from across the street, but now, the party is ready for the conflict. Caise's lightsaber springs into emerald life as the padawan places himself between the civilians and harm's way, while Ziv, Dime, and Damanil ready weapons of their own and begin returning fire.

Lana and Mercury respond without hesitation to the jedi's command, and rush to the side of the fallen Jeena. Worldlessly, the pair each get a grip under a different arm, and move to drag the grievously wounded woman to safety. The scent of burned flesh hangs heavy in the air, and Jeena is completely limp.

The sniper on the far rooftop takes aim and squeezes his trigger, but reflexes aided by the Force are too quick even for energy bolts; instead of flesh, the deadly bolt finds humming green energy in its path as the bolt is easily deflected into the pavement nearby. Ziv fires wildly, and his own goal is achieved as one of the attackers takes cover. Another assailant cries out in pain as Dime lands a return shot of his own, and the sniper on the roof is forced to duck away from a shower of debris as Damanil's own shot comes very close to removing him from the roof.

Jaal is hysterical, unable to see anything but the bleeding form of Jeena. Numbly, he follow Mercury and Lana, but seems unable to render any sort of help.

Caise feels his senses screaming a warning, and he cries out "Get down!" A moment later, there is an odd humming, an instant before a rocket smashes into the side of the mercantile, knocking a sizeable hole into the permablock wall and filling the air with thick, acrid, black smoke. This time, the group is prepared, and no one loses their footing. However, things begin to look even more bleak - at least two more enemies have opened fire across the street.

Frantically, Ziv scans the street for a speeder to hijack, but the attackers are smart - they have waited for an opening to fire, so as to reduce the amount of available cover. Unfortunately for the party, it also appears that no citizen is foolish enough to drive their vehicle into a live firefight!

The fight continues, with one of the attackers popping his head out just in time to catch a lucky shot by Ziv directly to the face, and Dime himself taking a glancing shot to the leg.

However, the fates have not completely abandoned the party - the garage door opens to reveal the welcome sight of Jaal's ancient SoroSuub 45. As gently as possible, Mercury and Lana pull the still form of Jeena up into the speeder and usher Jaal inside, and momentarily, Mercury finds himself at the controls.

Meanwhile the emergency TDF frequency squaks to life on Damanil's commlink. Disturbance by Brod's Mercantile, comes the report. Active firefight in progress. Multiple fighters on both sides, be advised, one combatant appears to be a jedi. Casualties reported.
A moment later, a reply is made. Roger that, HQ. Riot team Theta-Theta-Two in route to respond. ETA five minutes.
The response by headquarters is chilling. Acknowledged, riot team. Both supressive and lethal force are authorized.

For a moment, Caise’s feet felt as if they had rooted themselves to the pavement beneath him, and it seemed to him that all he was capable of was standing his ground and batting away blaster bolts as they showered down on them. Mercury and Lana had been quick to drag Jeena to cover (and in coaxing the distraught Jaal to follow) while the rest of the rag-tag group had responded with return fire against their assailants. Despite the quick reactions of his companions, though, the padawan didn’t get the sense that now was the time to push through the crowd in pursuit of their attackers… Not until they’re safely away, he reminded himself once more as another blaster bolt barked from the blade of his saber. Once they’re clear of the mercantile, then we can press an offensi…
“Get down,” Caise shouted, his thoughts interrupted by another threatening ripple in the Force. Shortly afterwards the air vibrated with the ominous hum of a rocket that missed the party but exploded against the wall of the mercantile, tearing the place open and showering with debris and cloying them with the smoke resultant of the impact. The miraluka almost smiled when the shockwave cleared from his perceptions and he realized that none of his companions had been injured by the latest explosion but that relief was fleeting; quickly replaced by concern at the addition of two more attackers from somewhere in the streets. Dime, Ziv, and Damanil showed no hesitation in continuing the exchange, though, and even managed to eliminate one of them from the equation.

It seemed, too, that the explosion had finally spurred some functionality to the now wrecked shop’s autopark servos. Caise, having heard the door open and sensed Mercury and Lana making efforts to get Jaal and Jeena loaded aboard, no longer felt rooted to the spot he had chosen from which to defend them. Hopefully, Mercury, he thought as he let go of his solely defensive posture and sought out the nearest of the attackers, you won’t wait to get them as far from here as possible.
Even as the young padawan surged forward to close the distance between himself and one of the attackers, he heard Damanil’s commlink crackle to life. The message that was broadcast over the thing was lost on him, though, as his focus now was to get to one of these assailants, even the odds, and perhaps gather a little information. As it turned out, though, he didn’t need to hear the conversation; Shadoran was quick to advise him of the context of the transmissions.

“We’re about to have company, Jedi,” he heard the soldier call out. The underlying energies that had accompanied Damanil’s statement left no doubt in Caise’s mind that ‘company’ meant another freighter-load of possible trouble.

“Understood,” Caise answered even as he pressed forward. Part of him knew that the best course of action would be to get as far away from this location as possible but a bigger part demanded answers. Ever since his mission had brought him within hours of Taanab’s atmosphere, the attacks against him (or, perhaps, someone with him) had been almost a constant and, he had decided, it was time to get some answers.

((OOC: Okay… Caise feels that Jeena and Jaal are on their way to being clear of the immediate danger and is no longer in defense only mode. He’s taking the fight to the baddies; the hopes here being 1) to hopefully draw fire away from those in the speeder, 2) to eliminate some of the threat from the attackers, and 3) in the best case scenario, get some information out of one of them… unless left with no choice, Caise won’t try to kill anyone, going for disarm/subdue if possible… Also, due to Raven’s busy schedule, minor liberties taken with Damanil’s dialogue; edits as necessary…))

Ziv cursed silently as he saw no speeders close by. He could go up the street to the nearest but that left too much open territory and he was sure he wouldn’t make it. He moved towards cover when…

Caise feels his senses screaming a warning, and he cries out "Get down!" A moment later, there is an odd humming, an instant before a rocket smashes into the side of the mercantile, knocking a sizeable hole into the permablock wall and filling the air with thick, acrid, black smoke.
Ziv immediately dove for cover behind a street post as the rocket zipped by and took out a wall, he got back to his feet and using the post as cover he fired at the attackers.

The fight continues, with one of the attackers popping his head out just in time to catch a lucky shot by Ziv directly to the face, and Dime himself taking a glancing shot to the leg.
“YES!” Ziv shouted as his blaster bolt took the face off of one of the attackers and he ducked back behind his cover as bolts flew in his direction.

However, the fates have not completely abandoned the party - the garage door opens to reveal the welcome sight of Jaal's ancient SoroSuub 45. As gently as possible, Mercury and Lana pull the still form of Jeena up into the speeder and usher Jaal inside, and momentarily, Mercury finds himself at the controls.
Seeing the others jump in the speeder he smiles and jumps from behind cover firing quickly at the attackers to keep their heads down, hoping that the smoke from the firefight will provide them some cover. Seeing that Dime was hit, Ziv diverts to pass him and lends a helping hand, if he wants it, to get into the speeder. “Come on, our taxi is here” he grins as he uses one arm to help Dime and the other to continue his cover fire, “and I think this neighborhood is nothing but trouble.”

Helping Dime into the speeder, he hop in himself and watches as Caise charges across the street, “HEY! WE’RE LEAVING!” He shakes his head and tries to fire at the attackers in the hopes of aiding the fool Jedi.

It wasn’t the first time that Mercury was in a fire fight, and it wasn’t gonna be his last. He quickly brought Jeena to cover with the help of Luna. They need somewhere to keep her safe. Mercury spies a garage door and opens it. There before them is the welcome sight of Jaal's ancient SoroSuub 45.

‘Sweet.” Mercury exclaims. As gently as possible, he and Lana pull the still form of Jeena up into the speeder and usher Jaal inside, and momentarily, Mercury finds himself at the controls.

“Hold on tight to her!” The young man calls out as he powers up the engines, “This ain’t gonna be a smooth ride!”

He pulled out the speeder as fast as he dared, pulling it into a sharp swerve to present the best cover for him and his friends.

“Let’s get out of here!” Mercury cries out.

“Come on, our taxi is here” Ziv shouts out as he gets on.

Everyone is making the dash to the speeder, when mercury Sees that Caise appears to be going the wrong way.

“HEY! WE’RE LEAVING!” Ziv shouts out at the Jedi in confusion.

Mercury shakes his head and mutters, “Son of a Bantha! Goon squad is coming! You blind laserbrain!” With disgust, Mercury slams the speeder throttle, with intentions of riding close and fast to the Jedi so someone (anyone!) can reach out and grab the fool before he gets blasted.

"Dammit!" he mutters, "Not losing another!"

OOC: Mercury does not want to leave a man behind, but he won’t risk killing himself and everyone else to do it. I’m not sure if everyone will make it to the speeder, but Mercury will want to get Damanil to help him grab Caise and run. If not, then he get everyone to safety and go back for the jedi.

A short while ago...
It was dark and she was scared. Her wrists ached from where the bindings that tied them together had dug into her flesh, her mouth felt raw and blistered from the lack of nourishment, and she shivered in the darkness, as her mind imagined all sorts of creatures crawling over her skin.

“Get up,” a voice suddenly hissed from somewhere in front of her. “It’s time.”

A new wave of terror made her stomach retch, as a slippery hand fell upon her shoulder. She didn’t want this….
“Get up!” the voice sounded again, although this time it sounded more guttural, more urgent.

Her eyes cracked open, only to be stabbed by the harsh glare of the morning’s light.

“Dreaming,” she murmured to herself, as she slowly rose and made out the bulbous nose and beady eyes of the Toydarian staring back at her.

“Heh,” the creature cackled, “Gruulo thinks girly is getting soft.”

The woman stared back darkly, and threw back the sheet that covered her onto the cool floor below. The small dishevelled cot on which she had lain dominated the small rented room, which was otherwise furnished by a cracked viewscreen, a small desk upon which her belongings were sprawled out, and a three-legged stool that was now limping forlornly, after its previous owner had torn off its fourth leg. ‘Hotel Paradiso’ the Tanaabian authorities had called it – clearly a case of false advertising.

“What is it you want Gruulo?” the woman asked at last, as she lazily ruffled the tangled mess of her silvery hair.

“Want? What else? …Gruulo have job for you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t do that anymore. I’m out of that work.”

“Then Gruulo thinks you should get back in. Here, read it over,” the Toydarian added as he threw a datapad onto a bed. “And find another place to stay…Gruulo thinks this place is like the rear end of a bantha. It stinks.”

She scowled in response as the over-weight Toydarian half-flew and half-waddled out of her room. But deep down, she knew he was right. She had no Republican creds to her name, had nothing left that she could pawn, and there was only one thing she was good at.

‘Plus’, she thought to herself as she sniffed the air, ‘the room does stink’.

“Well only one thing for it,” she mumbled to herself as she picked up the datapad, and accessed the information inside.


((OOC: Just an introductory post here. I'll add some more later))

A short while later...
*crunch*

Her foot made a satisfying sound as it stepped onto the debris littering the plains of Tanaab. It hadn’t taken her long to find what she had been searching for – a battered shuttlecraft half-buried beneath the soil. A few words with some splicers she knew, a quick gander at pictures taken from orbital satellites, and she was soon able to deduce where the ship had landed.

“Or rather crash-landed,” she corrected herself, in the thin, metallic voice that emerged from the vox-box built into the sleek black helmet she wore.

She slowly looked around the crash-site once more, and the deep scar into the surface of Tanaab that the craft had dug. With a whirr and a click, the hud within her helm zoomed once more onto the various pieces of warped metal around her, the shorn tail fin, and the ugly scarring upon the hull of the shuttle. It was obvious that the craft had come under fire of some sort, but she was no spacer, and had no idea what kind of weapon was involved.

“The TDF maybe?” she mused to herself, as she stepped on another piece of debris, and ground it beneath her foot. Her dealings with ‘Tanaab’s finest’ hadn’t been pleasant in her short time on the planet, but she did know that even they liked to pretend that they were enforcing the law.

“DATA RETRIEVAL COMPLETE,” a digitized voice suddenly sounded from within the shuttle. Stepping quickly inside, the woman deftly removed the datapad she had plugged into the (barely) functional security terminal. The image on it was fuzzy, and she could barely make out the details of the figures it displayed, but despite all that, she let out a smile beneath her helm.

It was a start.

Soon the group was whole and the locals were being hospitable again. It was something that caught Damanil by surprise time and time again to the point of seeming a bit foolish to him. Back home, despite housing the seat of the Republic's senate, the people were mostly concerned of just three people - me, myself and I. And the son of an elite senatorial guard - or maybe former son, for dad probably didn't consider him as one anymore - was no different. It was the way the world had brought him up and so far he hadn't come upon anything that would've changed his view. And these people weren't going to either.

The bounty hunter's thoughts were interrupted by an all too familiar sound of a shot hitting something very close to him. Despite his usual awareness Damanil completely managed to miss Jeena's fate as the realization came to him. We're under att... And then the wave hit him in the face.

Dust flying. People lying on their backs or scrambling to their feet. Jeena lying on the ground face down with Jaal kneeling over her body. Mouths opening in silent shouting. Ears ringing..... The blaster rifle was already ready in his hand. Unconsciously even while being thrown back a couple meters by the concussion wave of the rocket, his reflexes had made his hands grab the gun. Then he was up too, with one knee down and the rifle pointing at the rooftop.

Sniper, rocket launcher and another. The ambushers had a good basic setup and could control the whole area and escape routes. With nothing really to use as cover, there's not much else to do than filling the air with blaster fire. So far the attackers were outnumbered and a quick volley of fire made two of them duck for cover while the third was hit by a sharp shot by Dime. Damanil was focusing on the sniper for two reasons. The rifle he? was holding would be nice to have, though the redhead knew there was no way to get it even if he managed to kill its current owner. And to him the sniper seemed like the biggest threat at the moment. Sure rockets caused more damage, but a launcher was slower to load than a sniper rifle and more difficult to hit with.

Damned. Nearly got you bastard. Damanil's shot came close to dropping the sniper. But even though missing its intended target it fulfilled its secondary purpose and forced the shooter to pull back. Risking a look at the other assailants, the green eyes turned in time to see one of them take a shot square in the face. Suddenly things were starting to appear much better, but just then two new sources of enemy fire appeared.

Then the Jedi's warning caught his ears: "Get down!" Already knelt down, Damanil merely braced himself for what he knew would come. The familiar whistle and whoosh of another rocket flying through the air too close by brought a shiver down his spine. But fortunately his assessment of the attackers' skills had been sound if not lucky - the one handling the launcher didn't seem to be a professional.

And if the situation wasn't looking grim enough so far, it sure got a lot worse when Damanil's com sparked into life: "Disturbance by Brod's Mercantile", comes a report. "Active firefight in progress. Multiple fighters on both sides, be advised, one combatant appears to be a jedi. Casualties reported." A moment later, a reply is made. "Roger that, HQ. Riot team Theta-Theta-Two in route to respond. ETA five minutes."

Bollocks A full Riot team meant trouble with a gigantic T. The recently retired (even if unwillingly) TDF soldier had no illusion of the Theta-Theta-Two coming to their rescue. And his fears were proven right only a second later by the HQ reply: "Acknowledged, riot team. Both supressive and lethal force are authorized." It suddenly occured to him that either Commander Albari was still very much alive or someone knew of his deal with the Hutt.

But then the blind Miraluka with a flailing green light moved past him obviously heading for one of the enemies, and another thought caught him. Maybe it's the jedi they're after... And with HQ's approval? "Hey!", Damanil called out to Caise with a dead-serious voice. "We're about to have company, jedi."

"Understood" Something in the jedi's voice told the Coruscantan that the man had caught his meaning, but still he carried on moving forward instead of running. Crazy bugger! Taking a glance back, Damanil could see the landspeeder crawling out of the garage and Mercury jumping in on the driver's seat. He was now facing two options... Either do as his mind screamed for him to do and run for the cover and hopefully safety of the speeder or for once in his life drop the selfish thoughts and provide the jedi some cover fire.

It took him a second to decide and in the raining gunfire the second felt like a lifetime. "To hell with it. He did save my ass up there." Checking the situation and location of the remaining ambushers, Damanil got up into a crouched, but standing position and took one final aimed shot at an enemy before moving to follow Caise.

Dime launched another shot or two at the guards, landing one and taking one. Fair shot, I suppose. Just a glancing blow.
Thankfully, a few in the speeder were coming to evacuate them. Smart crew. Caise on the other hand seemed to have something else planned. Ziv braves horrible accuracy to offer him a hand. This was it - to help his Jedi friend, or to run away and fight later. His mission made that answer clear. This was the chance of a lifetime. A Jedi being captured by the guards here?! Surely he would be captured and interrogated, probably tortured. How often does your mission just land in your lap like that?

He knew what he had to do.

"Sorry Ziv, I appreciate it, but I'm not ready to leave yet. That Jedi is my ticket to the bank. I trust that speeder has a working comm system? My link is set to channel 808. The range isn't great, but if you ever come back around..."

As if confirming his choice, Carrot Top follows Caise. Wonderful Dime muttered softly in Ryl.

Hoping his friends, especially the one with the dancing laser beam, would distract them, Dime dove off behind the closest thing he could find and began scrambling away. He needed to hide, and fast.

(OOC: Not trying to "hide" per se as more of "get lost in the crowd and find a place to watch the battle.")

((OOC: Back posting to Dime’s response. ))

Ziv only shook his head when Dime refused help and as he went on to the Speeder he watched Damanil and Dime race after the Jedi.

“HEY! WE’RE LEAVING!”

He hopped on to the back of the speeder where he can use the sides for cover and begins to lay down more precise fire at the attackers, being careful not to get too close to their comrades.