Trapped
ASST/Mark Drackson/Phoenix/BHG -H

This a journal entry of Mark Drackson, bounty hunter/body guard. This is based on what I would do and also made it into a story. If you don't like it, you can shove it.

     As I pushed the panel forward out of the wall in the starboard hall with my blaster drawn, ready for trouble, it became apparent to me that the ship might be deserted. Damn pirates, I thought, they made off with my employer. This just great, Mark, really smart. Next time make sure you have a few ships standing by incase you're attacked. As I walked through the starboard corridor, searching for movement whatsoever and senses alert, it became somewhat apparent that I wasn't alone, probably from the tortured screams of the second and third class people, but couldn't really tell where the other passengers, bodyguards, or pirates are in this uncontrolled ship. I stopped at junction point where the galley hallway meets the hallway that heads towards on of the 1st class observation decks. I was hungry before the pirate assualt, so I head toward the galley itself insearch of some food. When I reached for the door that opens into the main kitchen, I stopped halfway, thinking that I heard something beyond the door to the otherside. As I leaned closer, it became apparent that there was atleast two people in their.

     This is weird, I thought. Normally, I would just ignore it, but figuring that the pirates already made off with most of the food, it wouldn't hurt to get involved alittle. Taking a step back, blaster raised, I kicked in the door and ran into the room. With the light on, I immediately shot the pirate that was in the middle of the room, who was standing over some one. The other pirate in the room, who was behind the door (literally) came up behind me, grab me by the arms and threw across the room. As I begin coming out of my rather unexpected meeting with the wall, the pirate walked over and picked me up by the throat and trying to choke me. As my vision started to wave out of focus, I heard a whine from a blaster and the acrid smell of carbonized flesh, then the pirate fell to the floor, letting me and my neck go and allowing me to breathe. As I looked for the third person in the room, a blaster was shoved into my face. Gulping, I looked at the person who a moment ago saved my life, only to be struckened to see her face. Fairly 5' 2", she was wearing a dark blue dress, which was ripped in a few places, and her blonde hair messed up. Brown eyes that spoke of innocents but at the moment showed fear like a trapped animal.

     "Ah, miss, can you put the blaster down?" I said, voice a little hoarse. "I won't hurt you, I promise. You have a my word."

     Hearing this, she took a few steps back but kept the blaster trained on me. With at a safe distance I got up slowly, just to make sure she wouldn't try to blast me. With that out of the way, I begin checking the pirate that tried to choke me for any other weapons and equipment, figuring what will be useful. As I go through the pirates equipment, which is amazing, I also watch the young lady, wondering who she is. "I guess," I begin to say, "we get to know each other alittle. You tell me your name and I tell you mine, ok?"

     She looked at me curiosly and then looked at the back wall. Figuring it as a no, I turned back to my work when she said something. I turned to see whats the matter and said, "What did you say, miss."

     "My name is Hannah Wrikley, I said, hunter," she said. Her voice, though shaky and still riddled with fear, was sweet sounding and beautiful. This clearly means she is either a singer, I thought. One of the passengers or one of the entertainers. Clearly not one of the exotic ones, which is good. I mentally slapped myself for that stray thought. What am I thinking?!?!?! Your a hunter and one on a mission. Maybe later when you all the other survivers make it.

     "My name is Mark Drackson", I said, my voice still a litle sore after the little fiasco. "I was one of the body guards of that big soloist. My shift ended when the pirates attacked. What happened to you?" Silently interrogating her, though not to prode much from that pirate attack.

     Surprisingly, she begins talking about it."I was doing a show across the galley when the pirates attacked" she said. " I was scared cause there was about fifteen of them and they eliminated the bodyguards with little ease. apparently, some of those bodyguards were pirates as well, so they pretty much waited for their friends to come." She bean to cry and I handed her my handkerchief, which she took. "Their leader fired a shot into the air and said that all of the first class people will go with eight of pirates. Those that were going to the shuttle will be held as hostages. The rest of us, he said, are going to die." She wept some more, clearly mourning over the loss of friends. "One of the frst classers objected and was shout in the knee, the pirates cut his throat. He wasn't the soloist, I tell you, but one of the managers. Then three more pirates appeared and the leader left with the hostages. Thats when two of the new comers decided to rape all of the human women and they picked my partner first and did it right there on the spot, then they just pulled out their blasters and shot her in the head." Hannah started to cry again, while thought, The second I find that pirate leader, he'll be wishing he never even became a pirate.

     I decided that anything idea in the immediate future will be to rescue the rest of the passengers and get them off the damaged ship. I looked back over the bodies of the pirates and only noticed a small circular badge by the collar. That looks familar, I thought. All of a sudden, I remembered that two of the guards had that same button by the collar, as well as four other hunters. Now I know how they got here.

     I started taking the weapons, then noticed that the lady's dress was ripped and won't offer her very much protection. I began to think a little ahead and noticed that one of the dead pirates was about the same build as Hannah, so checked to see if there was body armor on him. After finding some chest armor, I handed it to Hannah and said, "I'll go out for a minute so you can change, and if you want can put some of the pirate's clothes on so you can protect yourself against the blaster fire. After you done", I said as I headed towards the door, "I can take you to your room or you can come with me so we can liberate whats left of the passengers and maybe capture one of their ships."

     "Sure," she said as I closed the door. I checked both ways, then walked over to the galley and opened it up slowly. As I looked across the stoves, cabinets, and other cooking surfaces, it became apparent that most of the cooks had either died when the pirates attacked or captured. Just then, I heard a sound behind me and turned, grabbing my blaster. There standing, was one of the body guards who was supposed to protect the soloist. He appeared to trying to get behind me and stab me with that knife.

     "Guess I wasn't alone," said the other guard. "I thought you had died when the pirates attacked."

     "I guess I'm just better," I said as I checked for others behind him. "What about you? I thought all of the guards that were in the show room were killed when the pirates attacked."

     He just shrugged and put his vibroblade back, then I went over to the far door to the right that opens to the showroom. Just then, I heard the sound of blaster on leather and turned to see the other bodyguard holding a blaster leveled at my chest. I looked up to him and while raising my hand, asked, "What's the meaning of this?"

     He just smile and with the other hand grabbed my blaster while keeping his blaster trained on me. "Cuase my boss wanted some extra money," he said. "Besides, we ned to tell you hunters about us." With that said, he opened the door into the show room and pushed me forward. As I stumbled in, I noticed about eighteen people alive still, with about another ten or so injured. Among them was about twelve pirates, with about four of them hudling around what appears to be their leader. Upon noticing the traitor and me entering, teh group quickly got up and headed straight towards us. I immediately noticed the pirate leader as the Bothan Josequin, with a fifty thousand credit bounty on his head. As we got closer, I made a mental check of the situation. As it began to check out, the traitor and myself stop and waited for the pirate leader to come. When he stopped, he took one look at me, then turned a little, then slapped me across the face, snarling with dangerous ferocity. As my ears stooped ringing, I turned my head to face the pirate leader and said, "Well, that was certainly a welcome. I guess you don't like surprises, do you."

     With remark, he just curled up a fist and was about to punch me when he thought against and said, in a rough voice,"Guess I should have known. You are a BHG bounty hunter. If Vesuvo doesn't kill you, then your a strong one, mainly because of the hard spirit and training. I'll make youa deal," he said as he turned. "Join me and you'll be part of my guard. Dont't, and you'll die with these weaklings. Your choice." He turned a little more, and allowed me to relax a little, which allowed me to rub my wrist. Thats when I used the moment to my advantage.

     A person might consider the numbers, but a person with self defense classes can use to his own advantage. Flicking up two throwing blades, I threw on at the traitor, hitting him with deadly accuracy, while the other hit one of pirate guards in the back. Using the timing to my advantage again, I quckly grabbed my concealed, heavy blaster and let the bolts ripped through the bodies of the pirate leader and his remaining guards. Another pirate fired his blaster at my chest but was cut short by the Titanium chest armor I wore under my jacket, then blasted the same pirate as well as two others.

     While that was going, one of the hostages, probably a crewer, grabbed the pirate by him and and threw the piate into the wall, grabbing the blaster and shooting the him and another pirate guard. The crewer quickly brought the blaster over and shot one behind me, who had a vibroblade, I quickly looked around for other pirates, the looked over at the new comer. "Better late than never," I said as I head over to the group of hostages.

     "Yeah," he said." But we better get off this ship. The pirate leader said that some of the other pirates were going to blow up the ship in order to keep every one from telling the authorities."

     "Figures. They must of gotten in through a hatch or something." I turned when the door to the galley oppened, but stopped from shooting the person when Hannah came in, wearing one of the pirate's clothes. She looked amazing, wearing slacks and tunic, brandishing a blaster. I immediately asked, "where did you get the blaster? I thought I took all of the weapons off the dead pirates."

     She scanned the room for a moment, then said, "when you left, another pirate came about five minutes after you left. I had the blaster you came in with, so when he popped his head in, I simply blew it off. His clothes fitted me better, so I simply took them." I quickly headed towards the doors to the right. I opened it and, using one of my unused throwing blades, poked it out, just enough so I can see it down the hall. As I checked, it became apparent that the rest of the pirates will be on their get way ship. I turned and headed towards the crewer and said, "is any of the crew alive? We might need to take the pirate ship and head toward a port where we can get you and the rest of the pasengers to safety."

     We quickly looked around at the rest of the hostages, then said,"only three of us are left. He killed the captain and first lieutenant. I'm the back up co-pilot, she," pointing to a brown hair female, "is the other pilot, and him," pointing a Mon Cal, " is one of the engineers. We'll probably need to get a new job, so this will be pretty much our last flight." He looked back at the other two, then looked over at the bodies.

     "But that isn't for seen," I said. "I have a few ships that need pilots and crews for them. If you want, you can go for the job. Any way, where did he say that the hostages were going?" I turned headed towards a small built in computer tapped incommands on any hull breaches.

     "He said that his boss was taking them with the rest of his fleet to another point. We also have a problem." I checked also sensors when he said that, and got some quick answers, then looked over to the passengers. One of the female passengers, who was a little overweight, was holding her stomach.

     "Well, good news," I said as I turned away from the computer, "there is a shuttle at one of the hatches not too far away. The bad news is that we have pregnant lady, who is about to go into labor apparently, on board and the bomb they put on is about to go of in about twenty minutes, so lets go!" I quickly told two of the hostages to help the pregenant woman up, then told the female pilot and Mon Cal engineer to be rear guard as the back up pilot, Hannah, and myself be point. As we headed towards the right door, I looked back at Hannah one more time, just taking in how beautiful she is and how I'm going to get her out at all cost.

     We only had to walk about ten meters, but about five meters away from the door, two pirates came around the bend, literally bumping into them. As the surprise wear off, I quickly grabbed my heavy blaster and sent the guys a fast, bright death. As the other people finally got a grip on the situation, I was about two meters ahead, walking around the bend towards the hatch. When I got there, I took a few seconds looking at it, surprised again at the charred remains of it. A few seconds later the group came, and I turned and said, "I'll go in first, the rest of you stay out here, I you don't hear any thing, assume the worst and try to get off the ship. If I don't back in ten minutes, pray you can find a another ship." With that, I went to the shuttle, thinking this looks like an Imperial stortrooper shuttle. The pirates must clearly be either after former Imperials or they stole this. After getting the passage way, I looked around for any other pirates, the gave sigh when it became apparent that anyone left will be in the shuttles bridge. I quickly turned to the far door way, blaster ready. As I walked, I heard at least two pirates in the cockpit. When I got to the door between the small hallway and the cockpit itself. Pressing the open, buton and stepping, the two pirates were still there, looking out the window. I fired at shot into the ceiling, then just as quickly leveled the blaster, switched to stun, and fired one shot into one of the pirates and fired two more into the other just make sure they're down. I quickly ran down the hallway, through the passsenger compartment, and in the halllway. When I got out of the small hallway, a pirate was there, holding his blaster to the temple of Hannah.

     "Now, get away from the hatch, hunter," he said as he took a step forward, "or she dies." It became quickly apparent that the only way off this damn ship was letting the pirate. Silently, flicking one of my blades out of its sheath, I gave one of the hostages a wink, hoping he was smart enough to decipher it. The male pilot got it and just took afew steps bakc , hitting the wall, and dropping, whether acting or deliberate. That caused the pirate to look behind him and allowed me to use it to my adavantage. While his head was still turning, I brought my hand up and threw the small blade into his gun hand, cutting off his trigger finger. That prompted Hannah to elbow the guy in the stomach, grab the blood-stained blaster, and turning it around one fluid motion, turning the guy's chest into a smoking crater. She turned around, walked over, then kissed me on the cheek(causing me to blush), and said, "if you keep saving me, I'm going to need some training in self defense." With that, she turned and went over to help the pilot up.

      I decided to get everyone tosafety, and said, "Ah, lets go before another pirate decides to be hero." With that, the group went down the hall and into the passsnger compartment. When every strapped in and the hatch seal, both pilots and myself went to the cockpit. Seeing the pirate pilots still out cold, I decided to tie both of them together and kept them in cockpit. With that, I took a seat in one of the chairs, told the female pilot help me and the male pilot to disengage the docking clamp and ask the computer to navigate a course that will take us on trip to a safe, Imperial port. With the shuttle free and less than five minutes before that bomb blows, both the pilots and myself pulled the shuttle away from the ship and put all energy into engines. The shuttle was about eighty kilometers away from the Nebula Queen when it blew, a bright ball of expanding gases and flames, a funeral pyre of the pirate and crew.

     About three hours later, the pregnant passenger had her baby on that shuttle and the boy Mark. Half of the passngers were of crew type, though they only received civilian training. They wanted to join, so I asked them to be part of my crew, with each them being trained the rest of the way. About thirty minutes later we managed to get to a small Imperial port, the original destination of destroyed Nebula Queen. Also there was a Modified Action Transport Razor's Handle, as well two small Vapor fighters, patrolling it.

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