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Stars and Garters: The Gamble
Sensors aboard the Gravitas start pinging as they detect - briefly - a craft emerging from FTL on a course for the wreckage of the Stars and Garters. The profile of the vessel would be familiar to the Lotorian: Medlidikke, a menacing gunboat bristling with weapons. ETA: Five minutes.
The Gravitas carefully maneuvers over to the breach and holds there. Zuan's panicked voice comes over the comms, "Bad bad ship here. Go NOW!"
Bri helps as best she can with the locker, "Off we go!" she calls out and takes off, hopefully with the other two following.
Kestrel takes hold of the locker as well, lifting and starting to move off with the other two. "Zuan sounds awful torqued 'bout somethin'," she observes. "Bettin' it ain't kittens an' rainbows, neither. Less git outta 'ere."
Finch, Kes, and Bri reach the edge of the station, and the mechanic takes the whole cabinet himself, disengaging his boot magnets and jumping for Zero Gravitas's open cargo hold doors.
While Zuan awaits the EVA team's secure arrival in the cargo hold of the Gravitas, he might notice a certain pattern to the asteroids moving about in the Strand around him just now. The Medlidikke stalker, like the Gravitas, is having to cautiously negotiate the rocks. Zuan could conceivably strike two rocks at just the right angle to create a crushing vise for the Medlidikke that couldn't be avoided without slamming into a couple of other big rocks.
Lotorians aren't particularly known for playing it safe. Maybe that's why they don't have a planet of their own anymore. At any rate, Zuan takes the riskier choice. Once he's sure that the EVA team is onboard, he fires up the engines and heads into the asteroid field. He tries to nudge the asteroids at his malevolent Hekayan pursuers.
Bri lands in the cargo hold and even though she lands safely, she finds herself tumbling into a bulkhead as Zuan takes off, a little cry escaping her, and her breath knocked from her as she hits.
The stalker pilot might be very good. He could be quite excellent, in fact. But there's little he can do when it becomes apparent that the Outverser ship has used superior shield technology to bounce asteroids hither and yon. Still, he's a Medlidikke. They simply don't give up. Thrusters fire, the stalker jerks hard to port, and it very nearly boosts its way out of the trap. Nearly isn't enough, though. The hull crumples and implodes in an exhalation of atmosphere and metallic debris.
The Later reengages her boot magnets as soon as she's safely inside the cargo bay, luckily for her, though Kestrel still sways on her feet at the piloting maneuver. "'Kari's sword, what's 'e -doin'-? You a'ight, kid?"
The cargo doors slide shut, the gravity returns by degrees, and there is a roar as the pressure returns. Finch pulls his helmet off and mounts the stairs three at a time to head aft to the engine room as if the ship moving in unusual ways beneath him is nothing new. In the engine room, he slaps the intercom panel and says, "Things good? Remember, engines to half power before FTL."
The ship banks hard as it turns to an escape vector. Zuan takes no time to revel in his victory. Instead, he points the ship towards the nearest edge of the field. Still, this is asteroid field navigation. He keeps the throttle in check. Zuan replies to Finch with just two words: "Medlidikke dead."
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