Nau'ravi(Arya and Co.)

Meh'ano en'ss'anu'ek da a'ni'eh
Au'ri'ano Kheh'ana o'ss'eha
En'riud'ek kama'a
Nau'ravi an'reh a'mo' ka'ss'ek kheh'du meh
A'mah'ss'ano ju'lau'ri'ek eh'ri a'ma an'au'ek
Kheh nau'ravi

The message had been delivered by a courier most trusted - in fact, he had the rather maddening honor of being the only one that Loklorien s'Ilancy ever used. He was discreet, and knew that the privacy of his client was tantamount to all. He had been with her for more years than he could count. Ten? Fifteen now? No, it was most likely that he'd been in her service for far longer than that, ferrying messages between herself and General Dan. It wasn't often that he was called upon to deliver outside of those two, but when it happened he was sure to follow her instructions to the letter.

Now was one of those rare occurrences, and as in times before, he'd given the recipient that familiar, almost weightless slim metal tube. Hand-delivered, he was never too careful. Even at the look he'd been given, he answered only with a nod, a curt smile, and a shallow bow before turning about on his heel and disappearing the way he'd come. No word of how he had found her. No word of what was being sent to her. He simply left as quietly as he'd arrived.

He never asked questions, never pried into the nature of what he carried for the Jedi. She paid him well enough to ensure his loyalty, and over the years it had become something ingrained beyond pure monetary value.



Inside, written in a precise hand, was a message. Short and concise, it said only what needed to be said. Anything beyond could be saved for the future. For face to face.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/h...standfound.jpg

The dataslip in question was no larger than a fingernail, and would fit into any datapad. The coordinates had been encrypted, though not in any Alliance code. Instead, it was in Bast'yr, a language that Arya Ravenwing would know well enough.

Arya Ravenwing whooped and leaned over the paddock railing, reaching in to brush her fingertips against the gelatinous surface of blob #78. "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

Beside her Tak was climbing up as well, feet on the second rail as she clung to the top of the fencing. Arya stood on the first rung, held the top and leaned back, giving another victorious yell before letting the stable hands shoo them away from the racing blobs. A thick plexiglas wall had been installed inside the paddock to keep the Umgullian blobs from oozing through the fence.

The Lupine turned to help Tak down, gave the girl a swoop through the air and then landed her gently on her feet. "C'mon, lets go collect our winnings. I told you #78 was going to beat all those other slackers." Arya walked backwards, blowing the greenish purple blob with 78 suspended inside of it holographically a farewell kiss.

Once out of the racing stables, the capitalistic chaos of Umgul City descended on the pair in a cacophony of holographic ads and street vendors. Most were hawking blob souvenirs this close to the arena, and Arya ignored them as the led Tak towards the important looking building where she could cash in her betting chit for their winnings.

"Arya Ravenwing?"

She looked around, confused for a moment at hearing her name, and saw a courier hurrying to catch up with them. "Uh, yeah?" Her hand dropped to the butt of her blaster and the other nonchalantly pushed Tak behind her.

He stopped just ouside arms reach, and held out a slim metal tube. Arya frowned, and saw that it appeared to be a non-standard message cyclinder. She hesitantly reached out for it, and he nodded, gave her a short smile, and a tiny bow before disappearing in the crowd outside of the stakes office.

"That was... bizarre." Arya examined the container, saw that it didn't look booby trapped, and slipped it into her satchel to open later. First - credits! Then a celebration dinner!

Back on Wing of the Raven, the smuggler broke the transparent seal and carefully removed the note while Tak groaned from her prone position on the floor. The little girl's tummy was slightly distended from all the dessert she'd eaten after dinner. Arya's eyebrows rose as she read the message, and then she turned the dataslip over in her hand before inserting it into a datapad to access it.

"Looks like your dama wants to meet up." She frowned, wondering if it was a good idea. Vymes had been fairly adamant that Arya keep Tak safe and away from s'Ilancy. Tak had seemed almost blissfully unaware of the drama that surrounded her.

But... the thing that she'd lost was her father's medallion. The smuggler's eyes tracked over to Tak who was grinning excitedly through her tiredness and trying to get up without bending in the middle. And Arya would do anything to get it back.

"Really?"

Now that wasn't what she'd expected at all, and Tak smiled from ear to ear. After the huuuuge dinner they'd had, and the dessert! It was enough to fill her completely, and the little Lupine thought her tummy was gonna burst open at any moment. Ever since being with Feathers, Tak had come to cultivate a rather wild and spontaneous streak that her Dama would've never allowed. But Arya did, and it was great! They always stayed up late, ate whatever they wanted, and did all the kinds of stuff that Dama would've never allowed! Like the races!

Her eyes had been as big as saucer plates during the entire thing, and the young Lupine had almost even Changed just to be able to race with them!!

"Well frakkin' 'ell! Let's gooooo!!!"

She'd learned those words from Arya.

"Calm down," Arya said, slowly translating the contents of the datacard. Coordinates were all that it contained, and a single word. Dauntless. "We have to request clearance to leave first, then wait for our takeoff window, and then we can go."

She tapped the datapad in her hands, and lurched up to her feet. "C'mon, lets see where these coordinates are going to take us." Tak scrambled up, ran down the passage to the cockpit, and was already spinning around in the co-pilot's chair when Arya got there. The smuggler absently roughed up the girl's hair as she sat, and input the numbers into the navicomp.

"Ahh, Sullust. Ever been there before?"

"Uh uh. Is that where Dama is?!"

"That's what the message says." Arya tapped out a textual request to the Umgul Port for clearance, and nodded over towards Tak. "Start the pre-flight checks, will you?"

Bad words hadn't been the only thing she learned from Feathers; in fact, since she'd been with the older Lupine, Tak had become more of a stubborn grumbler than she already was. But, she'd picked up easily how to do the things like pre-flight checks. It wasn't too hard, and the girl enjoyed every moment of it. She wondered if Arya's ship worked like Sanis', or if it was too different for her to learn fast enough.

Working over the console as she'd done many times before, Tak began to hum the lullaby that Dama had always sung to her at bedtime. It was a haunting tune, but held a soothing undertone with a bit of sadness to it.

"How long is it gonna take us to get there," she asked, interrupting herself.

"Not long. About a day." Arya ruffled her hair affectionately, and started up the freighter, tapping the comm to acknowledge Control and take advantage of their departure window.

The sublights warmed up in moments, and the Lupine felt the familiar vibrations of her ship flow up into her from her boots. She winked at Tak, pulled up on the steering yoke and Wing of the Raven floated up into the air, hesitating a moment before flying up and away.

The trip from Nar Shaddaa had been short enough, and Montegue was a silent companion. Ecks was grateful for that. He'd never been the best at upholding his end of a conversation.

Razor's Edge had gotten clearance to land at Umgul's secondary port, and the big Falleen took the first few moments on the ground to double check his inventory of weapons. Their bounty permit had been transmitted to the Umgullian security forces, so there shouldn't have been any problems with the locals getting involved.

This was the last place Ravenwing had been seen. Or, rather, Rima Xavier, the alias she was reportedly going by. It had taken a while to find that information, and the Zabrak he'd gotten it from was a reliable slicer. Usually.

The two hunters checked out the race tracks, where Xavier was reportedly spending a lot of time. Hugo did the honors of talking to the bookmakers at the blob track, which had led them to the tertiary port and the ship that Xavier had put up as collateral against her bets. Lucky for her she'd won.

Ecks didn't gamble. Not with his money, anyway.

And... there she was. A tall, angular human female with short black hair, sunglasses, and company. Montegue made to move, but Ecks put out a stilling hand.

"Kid."

A tiny blonde girl walked at the woman's side, disappearing into the ship with her. Not Ravenwing's - the woman had no recorded pregnancies. It was possible that she had delivered with no doctors or med droids, but unlikely, especially considering that the girl shared no familial resemblance.

Was this a kidnapping? A job? Or was the child part of the reason Ravenwing carried such a high bounty?

One of the Sergeants that had trained Hugo way back when in the Senate Commandos had always told him that it wasn't enough to simply know your enemy. You needed to know your battlefield too, and the kind of additional complications that such things could generate. If you were boarding a starship, you needed to know your way around; not just your way to the objective, but your way to alternate points of interest if things went wrong - as they invariably did. If you were visiting a planet, you needed to know the local laws, and the local law enforcement that could get in your way; and local militias, crime syndicates, and mercenary groups that a fugative from the Senate could employ to aid in their flight from justice.

It had become so ingrained in his consciousness that as a bounty hunter, he continued to do the same. Thus, he'd spent most of the time in hyperspace becoming an expert on the planet Umgul. Fortunately for him, there hadn't been much to learn: the planet was relatively unimportant and unsuspecting, with very little of interest to anyone in the galaxy, save for enthusiasts of the bizzare past-time of competatively racing protoplasmic, gelatinous blobs.

In the interests of being thorough, he'd learned enough about Blob Racing to decode any local trends and turns of phrase, which had helped him to translate the otherwise incoherant dren that the bookies were rambling on about. Unfortunately, he feared that no matter how long he lived and how much more he learned, he'd never be able to rid his mind of the otherwise useless trivia his efforts had garnered him with.

One of the things his research had allowed him to do was select the appropriate weapons and gear for this particular hit: specifically, equipment that wouldn't pack up after exposure to Umgul's mists. He'd calibrated it too, to compensate for the variances between the gravity on Umgul and on the last planet the weapon had been tuned for; as a result, he was somewhat frustrated at having his opportunity to employ his customizations delayed by Ecks.

He followed the Falleen's gaze, eyes settling on the small child inexplicably present with the smuggler. His stated observation was certainly correct: there was most definately a young girl standing beside the smuggler - or at least, what looked like a young girl from this range. He raised his rifle to his eye, sighting through the tactical scope. Yes: definately a small girl; Human, or near enough, if appearence was anything to go by. Why she was there though, he couldn't decipher at this range; he cursed himself for not having had the illogical spark of forethought to bring audio surveillance equipment with him.

"The background information didn't include any mention of a girl."

He knew Ecks was probably thinking the same thing anyway, but decided it was worth stating. He'd intensively studied their quarry - every encounter, every alias, every criminal charge that he could find reference to - and there was most definately not any mention of a young girl, whether as a relative, victim, or otherwise.

Hugo bit back a curse. There was nothing more frustrating than such glaring evidence that his research wasn't up to scratch.

He shot a glance across at Ecks, and wondered how this would change things. They could certainly storm the place, and take Ravenwing; but there was no guarentee the child would survive the crossfire. The presence of a child certainly compromised his own paternal instincts: but how would it affect his new 'boss'? Was the child an acceptable loss: collateral damage? Or was the hunter scheming about the possible ways he could profit from this new revelation?

"So," Hugo asked, eyes narrowed. "What's our move?"

Stun weapons would take down an adult, but their effects on a child's physiology was mostly untested. He saw the odd headline on the holonet now and then, though, CHILD DIES AFTER COMPLICATIONS FROM STUN BLAST. And if the kid was a kidnap victim or something, that would be serious bad press.

Plus they might get involved in a long and drawn out hostage situation, which was not something Ecks ever wanted to do again, not since Ord Mantell. And then they had no permit filed for a second target. "You hurt the kid, I'll gut you myself," Ecks grunted.

Unexpectedly the ship fired up, the sublights glowing and then burning bright just as Eck's comm pinged with a message from Umgul Port Control. With no time for a committee decision the Falleen reached into his holdall and ran towards the freighter.

With a heave he threw an object at the ship, and there was an inaudible (over the growing roar of the sublights) metallic ping as it fused to the hull. The Rover Tracking device would transmit range, direction, and speed to Razor's Edge, giving the hunters a good idea where Ravenwing was headed.

Ecks' topknot of long black hair blew in the updraft as the freighter shot up into the atmosphere. With any luck, they'd be able to get there first.

Well, that certainly made that issue a lot clearer. It also revealed that Ecks had at least a shred of morality in him, which filled Hugo with a glimmer of reassurance in his new pseudo-employer. It may well have been the only line that the bounty hunter would not cross, but at least it was something. There was nothing worse than a killer without morals: those kinds of hunters were animals, not to mention dangerous to everyone around them.

Having learned one new detail about Ecks made him wonder just how much more about the bounty hunter he didn't know. Just on related topics, was there an Ecks Junior kicking around the galaxy somewhere; did the Falleen fight for the funds to support a family? Was there some dark and mysterious - or painful, even - reason for there not to be an Ecks Junior? Part of him wanted to ask; a greater part reminded him of the number of weapons Ecks had about his person, and pointed out how unsound an idea such an inquiry might be.

Hugo watched in silence as the Falleen bowled the tracking device towards the fleeing transport, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly against the gust of displaced air as repulsorlifts heaved the craft off the surface, and the sublight drives kicked in. "We should get moving," he stated simply; there was no need to explain why.

He rose from the position of concealment they'd adopted, and felt his knees sieze a little in protest. The cramped conditions within Ecks' ship hadn't been kind to him - maybe he should have insisted that they use his ship, after all? - and his mind was filled with scattered memories of similarly uncomfortable trips aboard Republic troop ships back during the Clone Wars. A wave of nostalgia for his old blue armour washed over him; not to mention for the squads of disposable soldiers bred specifically to take blaster hits instead of him. Life had been simpler back then.

He glanced down at the rifle in his hands, and fought a smile. Simpler, but less fun.

Ecks turned and jogged back towards Montegue, and the pair made good time as they returned to Razor's Edge. They didn't have to push through the rowdy and drunk crowds and dazzling holographic displays so much as a path formed in front of them.

The thorn-shaped vessel Ecks called home most of the time was already receiving telemetry from the Rover when they arrived, and he translated it through the navicomp while Montegue informed Port Control of their imminent departure. Technically the cockpit was built to hold two, but Ecks wasn't a small being and Hugo was no Llewelyn Voss. Their shoulders nearly brushed every time either of them moved.

"Looks like... Brema or Garris Sector. Hydian way towards the Outer Rim." That didn't narrow it down much, except that she was headed somewhere relatively close as opposed to towards the Core.

He finished prepping the ship as the navicomp provided acceptable jump coordinates, activating the repulsorlifts just as Hugo got the go-ahead from the port.

Hugo's mind plugged into the astronav part of his brain, recalling as best he could what lay in proximity to the "galactic south" extent of the Hydian Way. Eriadu, where Empress Tarkin's uncle - the infamous Grand Moff Tarkin - was was from, was out in this part of space; on the other hand, so was Alliance-controlled Sullust. Hugo wasn't sure which out of Rebel and Imperial entanglements had the potential to be more complicating to their mission; but if that was a question that didn't wind up being clarified any time soon, he'd be happy with that.

Longer trips might take them to somewhere like Mustafar or Utapau. The thought of the former - the volcanic hellhole where the leaders of the Separatists had apparently taken their final refuge - made him shudder. He'd visited Mustafar - Utapau too, during his grand, retirement tour of the old, major Clone Wars battlefields a decade or so ago - only once, and was pretty sure that he still hadn't replaced all of the fluids that wretched place had sucked out of his system.

In either case, they'd be gaining fast enough through Hyperspace that, when Ravenwing reverted for her course corrections to either, they'd be on top of her before she had a chance to recalculate her jump coordinates. Hugo contemplated that eventuality briefly, thinking back to the cursory glances about the ship he'd been making periodically, to glean what he could about its specs - a more probing investigation would have been bad manners for a guest aboard, after all.

He frowned, scrubbing at his stubbled jaw with his off-hand, to avoid jossling the pilot. "Got any ion cannons on this thing, or have we gotta shadow her covertly until she finds some place to set down?"

"Ion cannon," Ecks grunted in the affirmative, pointing a green skinned hand at the weapons systems. The standard plasma cannons were there, but there was a third, unmarked control spliced in and bolted roughly to the console. "Enough to make that freighter blink."

He leaned back in his seat, armor creaking, and a smile cracked his face. It felt good to be in the Hunt again. How in the seven hells had he been wrangled into heading up the Guild?

The flight wasn't long from Umgul, and Arya set up the copilot's console with a read-out on the volcanic world of Sullust for Tak. The little girl liked learning as much as she could, though it was hard to get her to sit still for long. Thankfully there were a lot of holographic displays of volcanic eruptions to keep her distracted.

Arya ran a shipwide diagnostic that was overdue, and left it running while she rustled up sandwiches in the galley.

She was mesmerized by the volcanos and eruptions, eyes wide and mouth slightly open as she watched. Tak had never before seen anything like this, and it was amazing! She'd have to tell Wyl about it in her next letter.

Her next letter!

She needed to write Wyl right now! In the excitement of their arrival on Umgul, the little Lupine had completely forgotten to respond back to her husband's message, but now was a great time to do that. She hopped from her seat and skipped her way through the doorway, leaving the holos to play to an empty bridge.

"Feathers!!!"

Feathers was probably getting them food, which was a good thing since she was getting a little hungry. But it still didn't deter her from her ultimate goal, and skipping past the open doorway that led into the galley, she continued on down the corridor to the room the two shared.

"Feathers! I have to write Wyl another letter! Where's my paper and pen?!"

There was something about a child's voice that carried magnificently over any distance and through any obstacle.

"In your drawer under the bunk!" Arya called over her shoulder, slapping some egg and vinegar whip on the bread and adding a heap of cheese and meat. She licked some mustard off her finger and put two sandwiches on her plate and one on Tak's.

"Come and eat! We're -" A beep from the cockpit alerted her that reversion to realspace was coming up. "I have to enter the last jump. Shouldn't be long now."

She left Tak's plate on the table in the galley and took hers and a glass of blue milk up to the cockpit. Arya set the drink on the abandoned co-pilot's console and balanced her food on her lap as she supervised the hyperdrive's operations.

With pen and paper in hand, Tak bolted from their room and dashed her way into the galley. There was her plate - ugh, Feathers put egg and vinegar whip on it! A heaving sigh, and the girl angrily slapped her letter-making tools on the counter. With a scowl, she took the top piece of bread off to scrunch her nose up at the whip. It was gross, and Feathers knew she didn't like it!

Making a face, the little Lupine rebelliously used the edge of the counter to scrape the concoction off. No doubt Feathers would scold her, but frankly Tak didn't mind too much. She could scold her caretaker right back - and with just as much volume as the elder Lupine possessed (though just a little higher pitched).

Replacing her mostly whip-free slice of bread, Tak took the plate, her paper, and her pen, she turned on her heel to head back to the cockpit.

She could eat, write her letter, and watch the holos of Sullust for the rest of their trip, and with any luck Feathers wouldn't see the fruits of her little insurrection until after they'd met up with Dama.

Wing of the Raven, currently using its pirate transponder to transmit that it was the freighter Harbinger out of Chandila, reverted smoothly into realspace in the Omwat system, Garis sector. The navicomp quickly checked the holonet for updated route information, and computed a final jump to Sullust.

Arya took a big bite of her sandwiches, looking sideways at Tak who was trying to get into her chair and move Arya's drink over at the same time. "Be careful!" she said, but it sounded like "Bmf Mmmfmml!"

She reached for the tipping cup of blue milk, but it suddenly jumped at her and splashed its contents all over her. Adult stared at child, and both were momentarily frozen in shocked anger and fear, respectively. Then the ship rocked again, and the warning lights on the console (dripping in milk) alerted Arya to what was really happening.

"Krasst!" Her plate and sandwiches fell to the floor as she grabbed the controls, sending the freighter into a nearly uncontrolled dive and straining the inertial dampners. Tak rose up in her seat as the ship's systems tried to compensate, and Arya's arm flew out to catch the girl before she could crash into the console or viewport.

They had gained up the ground they had lost in hyperspace, and Ecks transitioned them into realspace at the same time as Ravenwing's freighter. He hulked over the steering yoke, arrowing his smaller and more maneuverable craft at the Harbinger, and let Montegue have at it with Razor's weapons.

The first few shots weakened the aft shielding, but did not take out the sublights, and their prey immediately went evasive, rolling its bulk down the Z axis and away. Razor followed, Ecks putting the ship through its paces smoothly and getting what should have been the freighter's main systems directly in front of them.

Harbinger was more agile than its size suggested, and was already rabbiting starboard, an impressive spiral dodge that must have had the occupants pinned into their seats with g-forces. Ecks narrowed his eyes and flew straight towards it, the sleeker Razor cutting through space and catching up.

Hugo scowled, wrestling with the awkwardly poised weapons controls. In the same way that the cockpit of the Razor made little concession for the presence of two ordinary-sized individuals - well, an ordinary sized Hugo, and an over-sized Ecks - it's configuration apparently favoured a single operator more than it did two. That made sense, of course, given its usual sole pilot, but it did make trying to hit the escaping Harbinger a touch more difficult than it could have been. Especially when Ecks kept piloting the thing all over the damn sky while trailing Ravenwing.

I'd give my arm for a nice, comfy gun turret about now, he mused, depressing the ion cannon controls to loose another salvo. His arm ground uncomfortably against Ecks' shoulder as he did so. Hell, I'd give my arm just to stop it bashing against him.

The icy blue shots of ion fire flew wide; Hugo clenched his teeth. "Back off a little," he requested, eyes narrowing at the targetting information on his display. "Give me a little more space to work out which way she'll be turning next."

Her sandwich - that she'd only been able to take one bite from - was tossed in the air, plate and all, after the first rock-about that'd made Feathers send them into a wild flight. Of course it landed somewhere unseen, and she'd probably get in trouble for losing it, but right now such a fate mattered very very little. No; right now Tak was holding onto the armrests of her seat with a white-knuckled grip, yelling in both Basic and Bast'yr for Feathers to fix whatever was happening.

"I don't like this! Nu'aliu'eh a'ja'ano ana tu'eh!!"

The ship shuddered once more, and the little Lupine let out a yelp before snapping her mouth shut and grinding her teeth.

Arya's forehead was damp with sweat as she jerked Wing of the Raven about again. "C'mon you big bitch, forget your size for once!" The ship shuddered about them in reply, hull and bulkheads straining under the pressure of what she was demanding of her.

There was a *ping!* and the climate control went out. And then the navicomp spat out coordinates as the pursuing ship missed with its ion blasts and backed off a little, and Arya straightened the freighter and punched the hyperspace controls.

Stars streaked into lines.

Ecks stared at the spot in space where Harbinger had been a moment ago, Razor's Edge still flying full tilt towards it.

"I backed off," he rumbled, needlessly. He let up on the throttle, accessing the tracking beacon and compared the data with what the sensors could tell him about the freighter's trajectory. He didn't look at Montegue, choosing to concentrate on the map.

Hugo scowled at where the Harbinger had been, his hand still idly resting on the weapons controls. Mentally he cursed himself and his rusty gun skills; fought down the urge to fire back a string of excuses and insults that would deflect responsibility onto shortfallings in the Razor's design, or blame the other burley hunter's flying skills.

I never would have missed in the Coromon, he thought idly, but kept his notions to himself.

Instead, he fired the briefest of sidelong glances towards Ecks. "At least we know how long it takes them to spool up their hyperdrive," he grunted. "Vector in on them as soon as we drop out; give me a long, straight run with them at range so I can compensate for her evasives; and we'll get 'em next time."

In the safety of hyperspace, Tak had taken the first few minutes to gather herself. They weren't being rocked about anymore, but the girl still held on to the armrests as if her life depended on it, eyes as wide as saucer plates as she looked first to the starlines in the viewport, then across the disaster zone of the control dash - blue milk, bits of sandwich, more blue milk...

Her hands let go of her chair, and her wide, blinking eyes went to Feathers.

She thought about her own sandwich, which had been thrown to land... somewhere.

"What happened," she finally whispered, afraid that if she spoke any louder the madness would find them and begin anew.

"Bounty hunters," Arya growled through gritted teeth, also trying to relax as the familiar colors of hyperspace swirled around the freighter. "If I had to guess."

After another long moment the smuggler unbuckled her crash webbing, ignoring the mess all over the cockpit. "We'll be in orbit of Sullust in a few minutes. If they follow us hopefully your Dama can help deter them."

She pointed at the console with a finger as the air temperature began to drop, causing her breath to fog. "I have to fix the climate control and make sure life support is still functional. You clean this up." Arya stomped down the hall, steps quickening as she began to run,and called over her shoulder, "Just do your best!"

Ecks grunted in the affirmative, and the navicomp spat out coordinates for their next jump. "Looks like they're going to Sullust."

His skin itched at the thought of the volcanic planet and its short natives. "We should be able to get there to greet them."

The hyperdrive spooled up and Razor's Edge sliced out of realspace.

Some of the shots they'd taken had battered the systems more than had been readily apparent. Arya squirmed into a tight access junction, hydrospanner between her teeth as she worked on life support. The hyperdrive was running a little slower than normal, but not enough to make too much of a difference.

Finally the Lupine hit the unit with the side of her hand, and the cyclers came back on with a whine. Shivering, she backed out of the bulkhead and reached for the panel with numb fingers. "The air temperature should regulate in a few minutes, Tak," she spoke into the intercom. "Tell me how many minutes until we revert to real space."

"Two," came the reply.

Two?! Arya hurriedly wiped her hands on her coveralls and jogged back up the passage to the cockpit. "All right, here we -" She surveyed the cockpit, and looked at Tak. "I thought I told you to clean this."

"I cleaned up my mess."

Which was the honest truth. She'd succeeded in locating her thrown meal, and after careful examination, the little Lupine decided it was still fit to eat.

She was sitting in her seat once more when Feathers came back up, busy chewing an oversized bite, and between mouthfulls Tak went on.

"You brought the blue milk up here, you clean it up."

Feathers had always forbidden drinks to be brought to the cockpit - or at least forbidden Tak from doing it. It was her own round-about way of saying 'maybe if you hadn't brought a drink in here you wouldn't have this mess'.

"Fr-!" Arya self-censored for once, used her arm to wipe at the console as the chrono ticked down. "Dammit!"

She sat down in the remains of her sandwich that had somehow worked its way onto her seat after she'd left. "You are an incorrigible little -"

The reversion to realspace silenced whatever it was she'd been about to call Tak, and the smuggler ran the standard scans of the area. "Sullust is just ahead. I don't see any other ships in the area, though." She slammed her fist into the console, sending up a spray of blue milk. "Frak this dren!"

She pushed the sublights to full and sent the freighter towards the planet, hoping to find Loklorien s'Ilancy somewhere nearby.

"There she is," Ecks said as the Harbinger flickered into realspace. Only this time the transponder was identifying the Chevette77 freighter as Old Maid. The thorn shaped Razor's Edge was sitting passively in the mass shadow of Sulon, Sullust's second moon. When Old Maid ran its initial scans it missed the bounty hunters completely.

The big Falleen punched up the power and activated the sublights, sending Razor's Edge arrowing towards the bigger freighter as it came deeper into the system. "Should have a clear run at them now."

"Already on it."

Hugo was already several steps ahead; the Razor's weapons were primed, and his hands were deftly dropping the targetting recticle over the distant target. Fingers closed around the trigger, unleashing fury from the full spectrum of the ship's weapons. Ion cannons hammered icy blue against the shields, the crimson bolts of lasers mixed in to bleed away the target's defenses even faster. At this distance, there was little need for him to maintain aim, provided Ecks kept the nose pointed in the right direction; even if the Raven fired her engines up to full, the shift in position would only amount to a few fractional degrees.

Instead, his eyes focussed mainly on the tactical display, watching as shield power output on the target craft tumbled downward... downward...

His fingers snapped off the blaster controls, ion cannons pumping the last few crippling blows into the shield grid. Aqua lightning danced across the Raven as as the weapons finally punched through. A grin flashed across Hugo's face. "Aft shields are down," he announced, fingers already rattling away at the targetting controls to designate a string of key systems. "Switching fire to target engines."

There wasn't even time for expletives as the bounty hunter's ship came flashing onto the sensors and Wing of the Raven was slammed by ion blasts. The shields flickered and died, and Arya shoved Tak's chair around on its swivel to protect her as the console was lit up with a sudden shower of blue sparks.

The engines were still online and sending them straight towards Sullust, which was growing larger and larger in the viewport. "Get strapped in!" Arya screamed at the girl, trying to lock herself into the crash webbing with one hand while getting the backup generators online with the other. Almost everything was fried, and the controls weren't responding. She gave up and hauled on the steering yoke with both hands, muscles straining to give the freighter some direction as their sublights were shot out from under them.

Sullust loomed in front of them, and Wing of the Raven tore into its upper atmosphere, almost totally out of control.

There was a point in space that seemed to shudder. It was a brief flicker, and nothing that was immediately noticeable.

Until, with a seemingly earsplitting crack, the massive hulk of the Dauntless dropped from hyperspace above the two smaller craft. She was a behemoth, dwarfing the Harbinger and the Razor's Edge. Like some great titan she sat above it all, a picture of deceptive calm.

On the bridge, Loklorien s'Ilancy refrained from sitting. She had slowly assumed more of a command position during any absence of the General's, and now, with him resting, the Lupine had taken up his duties for the time being. But, she still refused to place herself in the command chair that belonged to the General. Even when he was gone, it seemed that to do so would be... wrong, somehow. To her, it was simply not her place.

Instead, the Jedi chose to stand.

Her gaze fixed to the holoprojector table, she watched as images played out before her - she knew the shape of the Wing of the Raven well enough, but the other eluded her. Arya's trajectory was sending her into the atmosphere of Sullust, and s'Il gave an immediate scowl.

"Commscan, I want an ID on that second ship."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Scramble our rescue crews. .. " Status updates began to scroll across the lower portion of the projector, and the Lupine swore under her breath. Wing of the Raven was very fast approaching freefall, and in her condition would make for a particularly uncomfortable planetary entry.

"Ma'am! Scanners show the second ship to have their weapons hot... "

She turned to look at the crewman. He only stated the obvious, and the unsaid words that this second ship was responsible.

"Explain to them that they would be better suited to break away."

The crewman nodded, sent the word, and within moments a single burst of fire from one of Dauntless' turbolaser batteries shot through space to brush by Razor's Edge in warning.

This was even worse than before!

She was quick to buckle the crashwebbing straps, though they were still a little bit loose. She'd certainly grown since her time with Feathers, but apparently not quite enough. Small fingers scrambled to tighten the webbing as much as possible as Wing of the Raven shuddered and shook all around them. Her sandwich, which she'd only managed half of, was dropped once more to land on the deck - coming to rest under Feathers' seat. This time the pieces of bread had come apart, and the insides strewn all about. It wouldn't be any good to eat now.

"Do something!!"

Shooting a crazed look to Feathers, Tak held on doggedly to the webbing holding her in her chair.

The sublights on Old Maid/Harbinger were shot out, but not before the light freighter's forward acceleration took it into Sullust's upper atmosphere. Ecks' brow furrowed even more than normal as he opened his sublights to full to close the gap between the two ships.

And then a silent crack shook Razor's Edge as a huge capital ship jumped into the system almost on top of them. Transponder showed it as Dauntless, and it was a huge MC80 if the Falleen was any judge. Mon Calamari design meant it was almost certainly a Rebel Alliance ship.

"Broadcasting our permits," he said, almost calmly, slapping the communications system and transmitting their credentials and filed permits. Of course, that was valid for the Empire, but there was no telling what this big bird was going to to.

A turbolaser across the bow came too soon for him to know if they'd even read their transmission yet. "We have authorization to pursue," Ecks growled on a wideband comm signal, and doggedly did just that, Razor's Edge reaching the planet and dipping into its atmosphere after Ravenwing's craft.

"The Rebel Alliance is kinda fond of this planet, you know," Hugo muttered under his breath.

Though admittedly not an expert on the Alliance military, he'd made a point of at least skimming the major holonet headlines from the time he'd spend enjoying the Empire's hospitality, and Empire Abandons Sullust After Successful Rebel Assault was the kind of headline that tended to linger in one's mind, and he highly doubted the Rebels would go to the effort of wrestling a system from Imperial control only to abandon it to its own devices immediately after.

He shot a sidelong glance at the Falleen. "They might not take too kindly to us going about our business in their back yard."

His arms folded across his chest as Hugo leant back in his seat; their prey was caught in the gravity well of the world beneath, and there was little to be accomplished from continued shots speeding her descent. Especially not with the kid onboard.

The kid.

He felt a twinge of paternal panic stab through him, as concern for the child's wellbeing during her ship's impending impact with the ground raced through his mind. He turned to Ecks again, rifling through his mind for something useful. "You got a tractor beam on this crate?" he asked, frowning. "Only, I cooked their engines pretty good. If we can't do something to help slow their descent, we'll have pancakes to collect a bounty on; not healthy, happy marks."

Arya gritted her teeth to stop them chattering against each other as the freighter shook so hard it felt like they would break apart. The viewport showed her the flames starting up around them on the hull before darkening to protect their eyes. "I am doing something!"

The sublights were toast, but the rest of the ship's systems were coming up again. The altimeter showed their descent was way too fast (tell me something I don't know), and she activated the repulsors even though they were too high up for them to do much. The steering yoke became a little freer in her hands as the power returned, and Arya struggled to even the ship out and stop them from turning into a dead spin.

Tak was pointing at the sensors and shouting something, but she didn't have a spare brain cell to use to listen with, battling with her ship for their lives. After much too long the repulsors began to slow the ship, just as the viewscreen cleared up and showed that they'd successfully entered Sullust's atmosphere. They weren't going to die immediately any more, but landing was imperative, and more than a little iffy.

It was there, on the radar readout, just before they had plowed into the upper cloudcover - another ship. And it was BIG! It had to be Dama!

"Didn't you see it??!"

Of course Feathers hadn't; her caretaker was too busy making sure they weren't torn apart in the atmospheric eddies and aircurrents.

"It was Dad and Dama!! I saw their ship!!"

Hands letting go of her webbing then, Tak leaned forward as far as possible to run her hands over the controls on her side of the dash.

"You have to turn around, we gotta go back!"

A growl, and s'Il whirled about to catch a last glimpse of Razor's Edge through the panoramic viewports as it dove into Sullust's atmosphere.

"Take us into a close orbit."

"Yes Ma'am."

A few more seconds of silent brooding, as she considered her best options. She had enough faith in Arya - the Loveloxx was more than able to keep herself from dying in such a manner. It was the other ship - the bounty hunter - that she was more concerned with.

"Ma'am, data on the second ship coming through now."

The Lupine tore herself away from the viewport, her stride taking her to the commscan station. One hand resting on the back of the young officer's chair and the other on the edge of his console, s'Il leaned in to read the profile packet that he'd keyed up.

She blinked.

Ecks.

Oh, she knew the name well enough, and the sight of each letter on the screen was enough to deepen her already frustrated scowl. Her eyes narrowed.

A pat to the officer's shoulder, and she straightened back up. Many more than one pair of eyes were on her as she clenched her jaw.

Finally.

"Inform the General that he is needed to resume his post on the bridge."

"Ma'am?"

"I'm going down to the planet."

Ecks didn't spare a look at Montegue as the light freighter in front of them fell through the sky of Sullust like a meteor. He did have a tractor beam, but his ship was smaller than Ravenwing's. At best they'd be dragged along with Old Maid, or Harbinger, or whatever it was called; at worst both ships would explode into the side of one of the planet's volcanoes.

The big Falleen remembered the tiny blonde human, and cursed as he activated the tractor, the emitter coming to life with a thrum as the invisible modified force field lanced out towards the free falling freighter. Ravenwing was already straightening out her ship, no small feat with no power steering. Razor's Edge shook as it caught a hold of Harbinger, which suddenly started transmitting the new name Wing of the Raven as its transponder rebooted.

"Hold on," Ecks gritted out, as his thorn shaped craft slew around to port, the freighter's momentum slowing slightly and vector changing. Her repulsors flared suddenly, but there was still too much speed for any sort of safe landing.

Razor's Edge bucked and shuddered as Ecks threw the engines into reverse, a risky move with such a large fish on the line.

"Can't go back," Arya looked up at the bulkhead above her as the freighter slowed, repulsors on full and the ground coming up fast. Thankfully they weren't going to land inside a lava flow or a volcano, but that was about as far as their luck was going to take them.

Sensors flickered, and she saw that they were caught in a tractor beam, but it didn't seem to be making much of a difference. The vornskyr inside her was trying to leap out of her skin, and sweat slicked her hair down as she put everything she had into getting Wing of the Raven down in relative safety.

The last few moments were a blur, and then momentum ceased, the freighter creaking and groaning around them from bellying down into the rough volcanic ground. For a few seconds Arya just sat there, hands white knuckled on the yoke, eyes staring out of the darkened cockpit through the transparisteel viewport.

She remembered to breathe.

"Tak? You okay?" She yanked on her crash webbing, suddenly all thumbs as she struggled to get free and check on the little girl.

Her death grip on the crash webbing had been what kept the girl from slipping out and tumbling from her chair, and with shallow, paniced breaths, Tak was frozen. Eyes wide, the little Lupine found it impossible to speak.

The landing had been chaotic; she'd closed her eyes a moment before Wing of the Raven had kissed the dirt, and as the freighter had plowed through rocky, blackened earth she'd clamped her mouth shut, resisting the urge to scream.

But now, with the ship having ground to a halt, she stared straight ahead, unblinking.

She wanted to cry, and she bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling too much.

I want Dama...

The captain had insisted that she take an escort - well, rather demanded - and s'Il found her shuttle flanked by two X-wings as they descended into Sullust's atmosphere.

The Lambda dipped low, her pilot taking her along the trajectory that Arya's ship had gone, and it wasn't hard to pick up the freighter's crash beacon. Nor was it hard to miss the wide swath cut into the planet's surface that Wing of the Raven had made. A trail of pulverized rock, metal, and smoke extended like a burned tail from the point that the ship had finally come to rest.

Standing behind the pilot's seat, s'Il slowly uncrossed her arms, laying her hands on the headrest as she leaned forward slightly to get a better view.

The pilot pointed out an open area just beside the downed freighter.

"I'll be setting us down over there, Ma'am."

The Lupine nodded.

"Very good."

Hugo grunted, extracting himself from the tangle of chair and console. Ecks' efforts had slowed the descent of both craft, and they'd released the tractor beam at the last possible moment, giving them a few precious seconds to slow their own descent enough to stop the impact from crippling the ship.

Even so, it had hardly been the most gentle of landings, and Hugo was genuinely surprised to find that he was only bruised; nothing broken. Hopefully their luck would hold, and the same assessment could be made of the Falleen's ship.

Speaking of; Hugo grunted, shifting himself free of the console as best he could, and managed to jab an elbow into Ecks' emerald hide. "Nice landing," he muttered.

Razor's Edge was making all sorts of noises, but all indicators were blinking that the systems were within acceptable limits. Ecks took a moment to re-tie his top knot, and looked at Montegue. "Lets check on our girl." He followed the human out of the cockpit, both making last minute adjustments to weaponry and armor.

They'd landed just a few yards away from where the freighter had plowed a large furrow in the earth. Jets of superheated exhaust were venting from ports on the hull of the ship, and the ramp was still sealed up tight. Ecks stumped over to the hatch and slapped a lockbreaker on the controls, stepping back and letting it do its job while he lifted his blaster up and held it at the ready.

Tak was okay, just shaken up. Arya unclipped the girl's restraints, wiped ineffectually at the mess that was now her own coveralls, and then heard a thump on the hull. A light on the console lit up and beeped a quiet alarm.

Someone was picking the lock. She scooped Tak up and launched herself down the passage past the hatch and towards the cabins. Arya set the girl down by the door that led down into the cargo hold and hurried into her room. There wasn't enough time to do much more than grab the belt with her railgun on it and stuff her blaster into a utility pocket on her dirty coveralls. "Hide, Tak! Don't you dare come out until I say its okay."

The tone of her voice told the girl it was not a drill. Tak knew all the smuggler hideyholes, and she was adept at scurrying up and down the ladder that led into the hold. Arya stalked up the passage towards the hatch and belted on the railgun as the alarm beeped a little more insistently and the ramp began to descend.

Her first whiff of Sullust's air was hot, dry, and full of sulfur. Arya wrinkled her nose against a sneeze, and leveled her blaster at the opening hatch, snapping off a shot that sizzled down into the dirt.

The urgency in Feathers' tone was unmistakable, and Tak obeyed wordlessly. She could hear the alarm beeping, and it seemed to send her scrambling down the ladder into the hold and to the furthest concealed compartment from the boarding ramp. Little hands made quick work of the hidden latch, and swinging the top open, she slid inside.

She had to hop up, arm outstretched to catch hold of the lid's edge, missing the first two time. On her third try, her fingers hooked around the outer edge, and she let the weight of her body pull it closed. It shut with a clang, and sealed up in the dark, Teagan s'Ilancy huddled up in the far corner, her wide eyes staring upward and her fast-paced breathing the only sound to be heard.

There was a tight pull at the edges of her eyes as s'Il marched down the still-extending boarding ramp. The shuttle's pilot had been instructed to keep his craft ready, and he'd dutifully nodded. Her outer robes she'd left folded neatly in the copilot's seat.

Approaching Wing of the Raven from the front, the Lupine had no vantage of the two bounty hunters as they did their work to open up Arya's craft, but at the sound of a loosed blaster, she ground to a halt. The brilliant orange of her sabre gauntlet flared to life with a snap-hiss, and mindful to mask her presence in the Force, the Lupine started forward once more; this time at a brisk pace that took her on a path around the freighter.

Severe lines cut across her features, her eyes narrowed. She was the image of a determined Jedi if ever there was one, but she was also of the same blood as Arya, and would protect the Loveloxx whether the other woman liked it or not.

The ramp was descending as the hatch opened up, and the bounty hunters were greeted with a sizzling blaster bolt that missed them both completely. "Come out and you won't get hurt!" Ecks bellowed up at the smuggler, who he could now just barely see peeking around a bulkhead.

She answered with another blaster bolt that pitted the ground right by his boots, making him jump back.

And then he heard it, a weird snap-hiss and the strange smell of ozone cutting through all the sulfur. The Falleen turned in time to see a short human female rounding the front of the freighter, orange glowing blades extending from one hand. Almost before his brain registered that he recognized her, Ecks was firing his blaster at Loklorien s'Ilancy, Jedi.

The stun blast ringed out towards her, but she wasn't close enough and he quickly thumbed it to regular and snapped off several bolts intended to keep her at a distance as they hit the ground in front of her.

"Get Ravenwing, I'll take care of this one," he said to Montegue without taking his eyes off of his former prisoner.

Hugo wanted to disagree. He wanted to slam the hatch closed and weld it; entomb the women in their ship until they were good and ready to deal with them. He wanted to yell at Ecks for being an idiot, trying to take a Jedi on alone; at least, he presumed it was a Jedi. He wanted to look and confirm, and to do everything else that his tactical mind insisted, but he couldn't: he couldn't pull his eyes away from the shuttle, and from the notion of Arya Ravenwing within.

Whatever it was that spurred him into action, it was insistant, and irresistable; it wouldn't relent in it's constant pestering for him to comply. He tried to battle against it for a moment longer, then surrendered.

A hand fell to his belt, and unclipped a small metallic orb, thumb flicking the control that would power up the device. His eyes peered at the hatch for a moment longer as a high-pitched whine built to a creccendo from within the orb and then, sparing only a moment's thought to hope that Ravenwing had been smart enough to tell the child to hide, he tossed the stun grenade casually through the hatch, and counted silently from five.

She couldn't tell what was going on outside, but someone was shooting, and it wasn't at her. Arya was just about to poke her head around the corner to see for sure, when a stun grenade bounced into the passageway. It took a second for her brain to process it, and then she dove away from it.

The grenade detonated, the concussive force expanding nearly four meters in every direction. She hadn't gotten far enough away, and the door to her cabin opened belatedly as she fell to the ground against it. Dazed, Arya struggled to get back to her feet, her head ringing from the grenade, and her ears bleeding.

She leveled her blaster down the passage, knowing that they were coming inside.

There was an explosion, and Tak braced herself, arms shooting out reflexively to steady herself along the compartment's narrow walls. She was still scared, but a small hint of curiosity nibbled at her. There was silence that lasted forever, and she hoped that Feathers wasn't hurt.

Slowly, the girl slid around on her knees, her hands feeling along the walls in the dark, moving upward to where the lid had closed down on her.

Feathers had better not be hurt. She still had to take Tak to Dama!

As if the bolts that hit the ground had drawn an invisible line, s'Il stopped abruptly, her sabres angled away and to the side. The lines in her face cut a stern expression, and she dipped her head, gaze locked on Ecks. Still out of range of the stun setting of his blaster, she squared her shoulders back, nostrils flaring as she took one half-step back, affording him her left shoulder and effectively cutting her exposure to him by half.

"I remember you," she growled, her voice low and terrible.

And overhead, the scream of engines filled the sky as if to punctuate her words, and her escort, the two X-wings that had been sent to accompany her shuttle, passed low over the crash site.

"This doesn't concern you, shifter." He kept his blaster aimed at her, though her profile didn't afford much of a target and her lightsaber made the defensive advantage hers. But his mind worked faster than most gave him credit for... it obviously did concern her for some reason.

A smuggler could be a Jedi, but Arya Ravenwing had not been listed as such in the bounty listing. That was probably not the connection between the two women. They didn't look anything alike. But Loklorien s'Ilancy was a shapeshifter...

Suddenly everything snapped into focus. "This is the woman who helped you escape Cloud City." His yellow eyes narrowed.

She chose not to answer. Instead, the Lupine stood rooted, her eye never leaving his.

"This is an Alliance world, Ecks." Her voice, still low, carried between the two easily as they stared one another down.

"Your bounty is not honored by us, nor will we allow you to continue on as you are."

"I never got paid for you," he continued, as though she hadn't spoke. "You can't deny I brought you in, fair and square. Only its not square, because I never got paid."

Ecks stared at her. The one that got away - literally. "Won't make that mistake again," he rumbled, opening fire at her with his blaster at full strength. With her armed as she was, his best hope was to distract her long enough for Montegue to extract their real target, Ravenwing.

Ravenwing. He felt stupid for not recognizing the name earlier.

It was out of sheer reflex that she swung her arm around, the twin orange blades thrumming through the air in a tight circle. Two of his shots were deflected, the other going wide. She frowned - without the Force her defense would not be so easy to maintain, but s'Il was determined.

The Lupine backed away, her steps smooth and sure.

"Think about what you're doing," she cautioned in a stern, motherly tone.

"It isn't smart."

She was backing up, probably trying to get him to follow her, and so he did. Ecks narrowed his eye at her, taking a few steps forward. "Interfering with a lawful bounty isn't smart, either.

"Especially when you are on the list, too." He shot towards her again, aiming to keep her occupied while he took large strides towards her and got her just within stun range. Ecks thumbed blaster to stun and shot again.

As the initial afterglow of the stun grenade subsided, Hugo crouched low, scooping up a few scattered rocks from the ground beside them, and tucking them into a pouch on his belt. The hand then strayed to another section, plucking a second, slightly different-shaped grenade this time, which he triggered, and tossed into the open hatch, sending it rolling along the corridor. The chemical reaction inside the device triggered plumes of thick, opressive smoke, that rapidly expanded to fill the narrow causeway that represented his only approach.

Gun held ready, his head peered around the hatch. He selected one of the stones he'd gathered and threw along in the grenade's wake, listening for it's clank as it struck the deck plates, and waiting for Ravenwing's reaction.

Arya coughed, eyes watering from the oppressive smoke. The cabin behind her was no refuge as the door had been open and it was also filling with the billowing white smoke. Unable to see or aim, she thumbed the setting on her blaster to stun. With a much wider area of affect, she was more likely to his something with a stun blast than with a regular energy bolt.

A third grenade banged onto the deck plates, and she threw herself backwards into her cabin despite the smoke, shooting blindly down the passage towards the hatch opening.

Hugo waited for the whine of the blaster bolt to subside; though he hadn't seen it, he had caught the flash of blue through the smoke, and the different fequency pattern that indicated a stun blast. That was a reassuring toward his survival, but didn't fill him with confidence in his chances of success: even firing blindly, there was a definate risk that Ravenwing might at least graze him with the stun blast, and he had no desire to try and tangle with a mark with one of his extremities incapacitated.

He threw another fake grenade into the frey, then snapped a quick few suppression bursts from his blaster, the crimson bolts lighting up the smoke cloud as they sailed through; he followed close in their wake, keeping low, soft-footed, and fast, and ducked behind the first patch of cover he could find.

His eyes glanced down at his blaster, checking the charge on the power cell. "There's no way off this rock for you, Ravenwing," he called over his shoulder, flicking the weapon to stun now that he was safely inside. "How about you come quietly, and then neither you nor the little girl winds up getting hurt, huh?"

She coughed, her head still aching from the stun grenade but she was shrugging off the effects faster than this bounty hunter probably thought she could. Chalk one up to her genetics. "How about you go away, and then you don't get hurt?"

The droid brain of Wing of the Raven was thinking. Where there was smoke, there was usually... The fire suppression system was activated, and both smuggler and bounty hunter were blasted with thick white fire retardant foam. Arya had been moving from one side of her cabin doorway to the other, and she slipped and fell, finger tightening on the trigger and sending another blue stun blast down the passageway.

Hugo heard her fall; he glanced out from his hiding place, and barely managed to duck back behind it to dodge the errant stun blast. He cursed, but she was momentarily incapacitated, and that provided him with his opportunity.

He rose and, free hand grabbing every possible surface for added stability, sped down the causeway as quickly as he could. He slipped and slided a few steps, but for the most part stayed on course; planting the treads of his boots over a slight ridge in the floor, he held himself steady enough to plant a heavy kick into her hand, sending her blaster tumbling from her grip and across the cabin.

He levelled his own pistol squarely between her eyes, his own eyes narrowing to focus through the smoke. "I'm sure that's not your only one," he warned, making a deliberate show of flicking back from stun. "Toss the others aside, slowly, and I won't turn your pretty face into a crater. Deal?"

She clutched her wounded paw to her chest, nostrils flaring as she stared up past the weapon aimed at her head to the eyes of the man holding it. Arya slowly reached to her holster, buckled on hastily over her coveralls, and pulled the railgun out. It was larger than a normal blaster, and if she could have shot the bounty hunter with it, at this range he would have had a hole in his chest large enough to grow a indyup tree though.

She threw it aside, and it splashed into and disappeared underneath the slippery foam. Arya didn't look away from the bounty hunter, her lips peeling back in what someone might have mistaken for a smile. Her eyes were a predatory yellow.

Without warning, a grey blur flew from the foam, front paws out with claws bared as needle-like teeth opened in a vicious maw. The Vornskr pup had grown from when she'd first come aboard - now instead of barely a fourth of Feathers' quadrupedal size, she was nearly half.

She reared up in her leap, her weight barreling into the man who'd intruded, and her jaws closed down tightly on the arm that held the blaster leveled at Feathers while terrible claws tore at his midsection.

A growl, stuck somewhere between that of a cub and a grown beast sounded, and she wrenched strong neck muscles to shake his arm from side to side in an attempt to severe it.

Not for the first time, Hugo was greatful for the bulky weight of the jacket he habitually wore: aside from offering formidable protection from the elements, it did the same from some of the smaller creatures that he found himself battling against over the course of his work.

Instincts kicked in like reflex, and he twisted his arm, allowing the force of the Vornskr's jaws to tear free a chunk of his sleeve - and unfortunately, several chunks of his arm, as well. A sharp kick followed, sending the juvenile tumbling back across the foam-filled cabin; he crouched, snatched up the blaster that the creature's assault had shaken free, and levelled the blaster at it instead.

And then, it happened. It was like a surge, memories that he didn't know he had exploding unbidden from somewhere in the dregs of his mind. Ravenwing. Vornskr. Lupine.

Lupine.

His face twisted into a snarl, an uncontrollable rage boiling inside him as he stared down the blaster at the canine beast. The Lupines were vicious; evil; dangerous. The galaxy needed to be protected from their insidious scourge; it's people needed to be kept space from monsters, creatures, and beasts like these. They deserved to die; or better, to be captured; taken to her; where she could study them; learn from them; hone better defenses -

Taken to her?

His eyes widened in realisation at the thought that had just flashed across his mind. He'd spent a lifetime hunting beasts like these Lupines - creatures capable of unnatural feats of transformation or power, that placed the lives of innocent sentients at risk - and so at first, the hatred hadn't seemed out of place. But it had boiled beyond what he was used to. And then, as her icy-eyed visage resolved in his mind, he realised where those unbidden thoughts had come from: not from his mind, but from her; or at least, from some seed she'd planted in his subconscious.

The realisation flushed clarity through his mind; he sized up the Vornskr, and compared it to what he knew: too small for an adult Lupine like Ravenwing. Which could only mean -

The girl. "Oh, gods." His stomach sank, realising that it must be the child who sat at the end of his sights. And yet, try as he might, his arm wouldn't respond to his control. He couldn't shift his aim; it took every ounce of effort to wrestle his fingers away from the trigger. Whatever she had planted wasn't merely knowledge and rage; it was control. She'd broken him to her will; and there was nothing he could do.

Though he couldn't draw his gaze away, his focus shifted to Ravenwing, words clearly directed at her. "I can't stop myself," he confessed. "If you don't, then I'll fire." His voice was tight, issued through a jaw clenched by effort, and through regret over what he knew he was about to do.

"Stop me. Please."

Arya surged to her feet as the bounty hunter kicked Tak into her cabin, fire retardant foam dripping from her body and flying everywhere as she threw herself towards him. In that moment time seemed to slow down and everything around her snapped into sharp relief. Tak's anger and fear was acidic in the air, and the hunter smelled of remorse.

"Stop me," he said, finger on the trigger, his face constricted.

Gladly, thought Arya, barreling into his chest and knocking him off his feet, throwing his outstretched arm up towards the ceiling. She was holding back the Change through sheer willpower, and the odor of his flesh and the hot blood hidden inside smelled a little too good.

* * *

Her own natural reflexes took hold, and s'Il darted back and to the side, away from the surge of stun energy that he'd shot at her. It was a conscious thought to suppress her usage of the Force, but she was determined to keep Arya from losing her mind.

Further she moved, away from Wing of the Raven, in the hopes to draw Ecks away from his original intended target. If she could split the two hunters up, it would allow Arya a better chance against the one who had stayed behind for her.

The X-wings, having come around for another pass, swooped low to the ground, their wing-mounted laser cannon spitting fire that purposefully missed Ecks' ship.

In the aftermath of the thunderous assault, the Lupine leveled a finger at her adversary.

"That was your second warning, Ecks."

He snarled, letting her draw him a little further away from the freighter, but he didn't intend to let her get anywhere near the ship she'd come down on.

Ecks toggled his comm with one hand while he snapped off repeating shots towards s'Ilancy, concentric blue rings of energy arcing out towards her. "Hurry it up, Montegue." All he got back was static.

s'Il ducked behind a large chunk of upturned rock, its' blackened and scorched surface still smoking in places.

From her best judgment, the Jedi hoped that the distance they'd put between them and Arya's ship was enough to dissipate a small usage of the Force, and breaking from her cover, she bolted to the side, mindful to keep her trajectory headed still away from Arya's position.

Her arm moved then, in a quick jerk, and her awareness tugged gently on the Force before shutting it away once more. But her touch had been enough, and the blaster that the hunter gripped crumpled as if by an invisible hand, the barrel distorting and buckling into itself.

Ecks cursed and dropped the weapon, the air around him flooding with pheromones as he jogged to cover and pulled the blaster rifle off his back. He wasn't as fast as her, but he wasn't exactly a slouch, either.

He rounded the rock and peppered the ground in front of the shapeshifter Jedi with blaster bolts, halting her progression. "Your shuttle is the other direction."

It was faint at first, but there was no denying the scent that carried itself on the air around them. Stopped by the fire from his rifle, she turned on her heel, feet shifting beneath her as she steadied herself. The orange blades of her sabre came up in a cross position, ready to block any other fire that he might choose to send her way.

Gritting her teeth, the Lupine gave a throaty growl, shoving away the thoughts brought on by his pheromones - it was no easy task, and her free hand balled up into a fist, nails biting into skin.

She focused on the pain, watching him warily.

"You fight without honor," she hissed.

"Honor got me this," he said, pointing at his metal eyepatch. "You're in the same boat, I see." As he spoke he fired at her again, but not aiming directly at her.

Just close enough to keep her in place and worried about defense. He'd heard the rumors that Jedi could reflect the bolts of a blaster back at their attackers, but didn't put too much stock in it.

A noise came from the freighter - heavy footsteps down the ramp. Ecks' mouth curved up in an approximation of a smile. "I think we'll be going now, Jedi."

After she slammed the bounty hunter's head into the deck plating a second time, Arya turned back to where Tak's pup form was struggling through the foam. "C'mon, kid. I think I heard someone else outside."

She smelled her too. Loklorien. The smuggler pushed up on the hunter's chest from where she'd been straddling him, fished her railgun out of the foam, and turned back to scoop up Tak. The kid was getting big, but she didn't fight her as Arya carried her out of the ship and down the ramp, the extra weight making her footsteps loud.

As soon as they got clear of the freighter Tak perked up and struggled, forcing Arya to drop her.

The smell that hit her, faint as it was mixed in with the smoke and haze of their crash site, had been enough to send her into near fits, and Teagan struggled in Feathers' arms. Dropped, the pup hit the ground, scrabbling along the rocks and dirt to regain her footing before darting away.

To Dama.

Dama!

DAMA!!

She looked the same as the last time they'd seen each other, on Schwartzweld, and the little Lupine let out an overjoyed bark.

DAMA!!

Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of Arya tromping down the boarding ramp, her arms full of...

A gasp, and she momentarily froze. The little grey vornskr pup squirmed until dropped, letting out an excited yelp as she ate up the ground. The scent was unmistakable, and the elder Lupine flashed her eye back to Ecks. He'd been expecting his partner, and she used this sudden turn of events in her favor.

A burst of energy brought her from a shocked standstill, surging forward, her sabres cocking back as she bolted for the bounty hunter, using this distraction to propel herself on a trajectory that would take her around her enemy and toward her daughter.

But, there was also a terrible vengeance in her eye as she kept the Falleen in her line of vision - he had shot down Arya - who had happened to have Teagan with her.

This was now unforgivable.

Ecks roared his anger, wondering where the HELLS Montegue was, and how the FRELL Ravenwing was loose and running about out of the freighter. He was now outnumbered two to one, and one...canine... His mind filed that away to work on in the background while his body went into action.

He threw himself out of the way as s'Ilancy ran past him, her lightsaber blades close enough to make him nervous. He rolled to a kneeling position, leveling his blaster rifle at the Jedi, but then the canine was too close. Somehow he just knew that the kid Ravenwing had been transporting was that grey furred beast. He shifted his aim to the smuggler, and found that she was aiming a no-nonsense weapon at him.

Before the railgun could spit hot metal in his direction, Ecks dove behind a large volcanic rock, his heart thudding with adrenaline as the slugs tore up the surface of his cover.

The big green bounty hunter was alert, and got behind cover before she could shoot him full of holes. Arya sent enough hot metal in his direction to keep him where he was, and then jogged towards Loklorien and Tak.

"Some welcoming committee you've got here," she called to her. "With friends like these..."

She was only half listening, as most if not all of her attentions were on the vornskr pup in her arms. She clutched the animal tightly to her chest, eyes closed as she buried her face into soft grey fur. The little Lupine whined out her own happiness, nuzzling her cold nose into the crook of Dama's neck, taking in a scent that was the most comforting of all.

Still holding Teagan, s'Il lifted her head only slightly, cracking her good eye open to cast a look to Arya. It was plain to see, the tears that had formed and now began to seep from her eye.

A small laugh, and her mouth pulled into a rueful smile.

"I thought they were yours."

But, they still weren't entirely safe. Not yet. Even with the X-wings overhead, it was readily apparent that Ecks held their presence in no regard, and would continue his own personal mission whether they were there or not. Moving past Arya quickly, the elder Lupine nodded her head in the direction of the shuttle.

"Let's go."

Arya gritted her teeth. I'm not leaving my ship, she wanted to retort, but reigned it in.

"Fine." She followed after the Jedi and the kid, shooting a bit more in the Falleen's direction to make sure he stayed hidden. "Better hurry though."

The pilot jogged down the forward face boarding ramp, stopping in the middle.

"Ma'am! General is ordering us back," he'd raised his voice to be heard, but even through the yell it was plain to hear that he was worried.

"He's furious; said a few things I'd rather not repeat, Ma'am. I recommend we leave now."

A raised eyebrow, and s'Il held tightly to Teagan.

"You should think about changing back," she whispered into the pup's ear. Her answer was another happy nuzzle, this time accompanied by a tongue in her ear. It was... an odd feeling.

Time being of the essence, the Jedi broke into a jog with Arya close behind.

His head was ringing, vision blurred; the fact that he couldn't feel pain from where Ravenwing had slammed his head against the deck was surely a bad sign. He could hear the dull, distant sounds of gunfire; or maybe that was just the concussion, messing with his ears.

He squinted as he staggered, clambering from within Ravenwing's ship; stumbling his way clear. His eyes narrowed, squinting to focus on the shapes ahead of him. A shuttle. Figures retreating. He thought he could make out Ecks, seeking cover behind a rock. Or maybe it was just a green rock. He wasn't sure. Didn't care. People running towards shuttles generally meant retreat, and escape. Hugo wasn't sure who the hell all these people were anymore - his train of thought had been lost somewhere amongst the Rebels, the Jedi, and the shapeshifting wolf baby.

Not that it mattered. Now wasn't the time for questions. Shoot first. Ask later.

He fumbled with the controls of his blaster, shifting it to stun. At this range, there was little chance he'd be able to hit with a kill shot; let alone hit in somewhere that would merely disable his target and let them bring her in alive. On stun at least, he could fire indescriminately in her direction, and hope he hit something; and so he levelled his blaster - holding it steady with both hands - and opened fire.

Arya caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned to look at her freighter, rail gun staying on Ecks' position. The second hunter was staggering out of the ship, blaster aimed at the running trio.

"Go go go!" she shouted, though s'Ilancy needed no encouragement and was already booking it to the relative safety of the shuttle with the kid in her arms. Arya was trying to take an evasive zag to the right when the stun blast caught her, overloading her nervous system and sending her crashing to the sulfurous dirt.

Ecks surged out from behind his rock as the Ravenwing woman went down to the ground, and blasted the dirt behind Loklorien s'Ilancy to keep her moving forward and away from the mark. He ran forward, noting that the shuttle Lok was running to was out of range of Arya's position, making the pilot useless to stop him as he shot Ravenwing with another stun blast before throwing the twitching female over his shoulder.

"C'mon," he growled at Montegue, who looked out of it but together enough to follow him back to Razor's Edge, his blaster covering their escape. But s'Ilancy did not follow, or attempt to stop them. She was probably counting on those X-Wings that were due for another flyby shortly, and the MC80 in orbit to keep them from taking their mark.

The Jedi disappeared into the shuttle as the hunters reached their ship. Ecks threw Arya into the common area, yelled at Montegue to put binders on her, and charged into the cockpit to fire up the repulsors.

Head thick with concussion, Hugo struggled to focus, forcing himself to follow in the wake of Ecks' grunted command. Stepping into the ship came as an intense relief: soon, he'd be able to collapse in a corner; maybe raid the emergency medical supplies for something to abate the dull ache that permiated his skull.

Of course, the distraction that the pain provided wasn't entirely unwelcome. It stopped his mind from coming to grips with the terrifying truth: someone had been messing around in his skull, and had rewired his brain; taken his actions out of his control. He didn't want to dwell on that. Didn't want to have to contend with what that might entail: not here; not now. Maybe, if he took enough pain meds, he could slip into a daze and stop caring for a while.

Before he did though, he had one instruction to comply with. Retrieving the stun cuffs, he knelt down beside the paralysed Ravenwing. The programmed hate and bile still stirred in the pit of his stomach, but it was satiated by the fact that she was captured, no doubt being returned to the person to whom he was programmed to help send her; his actions then were his own, as was the hint of sadness in his eyes.

He reached down, gently closing her mismatched eyes, no doubt already drying out from the stun-induced inability to blink. He hesitated as he reached to slap the first set of stun cuffs around her wrists. "Thank you," he muttered softly, and then fell into silence.

She'd had no choice, and the pained look on her face gave away the frustration she felt as the shuttle's boarding ramp had lifted. The whine of servos and motors had rung out like a death knell, signaling Arya's fate. Even as the pilot brought the shuttle up off the ground, s'Il carefully set her daughter down - the vornskr pup wriggled as she was placed on the deck - and hurried into the cockpit. She watched, helpless as the hunters retreated to their own ship with the Loveloxx Lupine.

Gaze tracking to Arya's ship, s'Il knew that it would still need to wait a while yet before being retrieved.

It was the sound of Teagan's reversion, coming from the crew quarters behind, that took her thoughts away from those that pressed so heavily upon her though. Turning on her heel, she was gone from the bridge once more, and with her arms going out, the elder Lupine swept her daughter up into an embrace that lasted for long minutes. Both shed tears, and neither released the other.

Teagan was back. The events themselves that had apparently happened to deposit the girl into Arya's hands began to make a small bit of sense, but ultimately they mattered little now. What mattered most was that s'Il's family was whole again.

There is a part of my soul
Taken from me, lost to me
But you have found it
You have returned it, and I am whole again
I receive