The Ugnaught spoke quickly. "Put down your weapons and come out! Please!! He'll kill me if you don't!! Please!!" With that, the creature started squealing. The thought crossed Jaxon's mind that he should just kill the thing to shut it up. But it was the only assurances he had that he'd get off this station alive. One thing he knew for sure - if he did decide to come back the next day, he wouldn't be docking in this hangar bay.

Obviously the Ugnaughts had some regard for Jaxon's hostage. They complied immedately with his demands. Four, five, six other Ugnaught runts appeared from behind garbage piles and laid down their weapons. One of them spoke.

"Release the Preacher, and we will let you go with no charge," it said. Jaxon smiled at the naitivity of the creature.

"I really don't think you're in a position to bargain, friend," Jaxon replied. "See, all I have to do is twitch, and your friend here dies. You all may get me in a rush, but I can promise at least four of you will die trying. Now, is that really worth the credits? Here's my deal. You all slide your weapons as close to me as possible. I'll collect them, and that'll be sufficient payment for damages and time lost. You do that, I'll let your friend go. If not, he dies. What'll it be?"

The Ugnaught that seemed to be the leader thought for a moment, then said, "Fine." He slid his weapon towards the bounty hunter, which seemed to be a signal for the others to follow suit. Jaxon began to walk towards them, keeping the Preacher in between him and them. As he bent down to pick up the first weapon, he saw movement in the corner of his eye.
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Scratch had finally gotten Ritchy unstuck. "Come on. Let's get back to the others," he said. Ritchy, rubbing his sides, followed him through the tunnels back to the surface.

When they emerged in the garbage pile, Scratch took in what he saw, and he didn't like it. Snitchy and the rest of the gang were standing in the open, unarmed, talking to a man who appeared to be the owner of the E-wing fighter. Cas lay on the ground, unconscious, and Preacher was being held as a shield in front of the bounty hunter. He caught the tail end of the man's request and Snitchy's response. As the Ugnaughts laid down their weapons, Ritchy came up beside him. Scratch then had what seemed to him a brilliant idea. When the man bent down to take the first weapon, Scratch could take him down. It would not only increase his credibility with the gang, but they could get a much larger payment from this man's account.
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Scratch's plan would have worked perfectly but for Jaxon's perception. He saw the slight movement of the Ugnaught reaching for his blaster as he bent over. Jaxon didn't have time to pull his own away from the other Ugnaught's neck, but he did have time to move the piggy into the path of the bolt. Preacher took the shot directly in the chest - he was dead before he knew what hit him. Silence fell over the rest of the Ugnaughts - but not over Jaxon. He fired four rapid shots into the trash pile where the shot had come from, tumbling Scratch from his perch.

Now he had no choice but to kill the rest. Another Ugnaught went down before they even began to move. That was when Jaxon started moving, since staying in one place would get him killed. He scooped up the blaster next to him and started taking snap shots as he ran towards a trash pile. Two more Ugnaughts were hit as they scrambled for their weapons, and another was flipped over as it aimed. Two left, including the Ugnaught leader (Scratchy). They started firing as Jaxon reached the trash pile and dove behind it.

He waited a few seconds, then popped out, taking down another of the little beasts down in the process. Scratchy then threw down his blaster and raised his little...hands, paws, whatever the heck they were. Jaxon got another surprise when another of the beasts emerged from the trash pile with its hands raised as well. Jaxon thought for a moment, then called out, "Anything preventing me from leaving now?"

The expected answer was, "No," but again, the expected did not occur. The second Ugnaught called out that he would take care of it, then disappeared back into the pile. A few minutes later, the piggy reemerged, calling out that the man could leave now. Jaxon, knowing it would now be safe (considering the six dead Ugnaughts and the stunned and wounded hanger caretaker) emerged from behind the trash pile, keeping his blaster trained on the Ugnaughts, and headed to his ship. Climbing the ladder, he told his R2 to start the ship, and he hopped into the cockpit, closing the canopy and leaving the Ugnaughts to take care of their own dead.

Message Edited

What the assassin failed to remember was that the hanger maglock was activated under the ship's position. As a result the fighter had not the thrust to break the station security's magfield.

To bypass the automated (and mostly derelict) activation consol, a piggy would scramble under the small spaces under the hanger floor up to the maglock mechanism and manually activate it for their nefarious purposes.

This unauthorized use of station property was, of course, discouraged and, unknown to Typhoid 7, the hanger was under observation to catch the piggy's in such a prosecuting use.

Given that the gang had not tried that particular tactic in a while, the observation was lax and therefore the response was similiar.

The station security burst into the hanger noting a fallen human with the stink of inebriation about as well as several stiff Ugnaughts flat on their backs with their chests smoking.

But what captured their attention most was the E-wing thrusters firing though unable to lift off.

A security guard shouted into his personal comm and an alarm began to sound.

Ritchy had lied to the bounty hunter when he had said that everything was good to go. He had disappeared into the trash pile, but instead of heading to deactivate the maglock, he had retrieved two more blasters from the pile itself. Older ones, to be sure, but they worked. Jaxon's thrusters fired, but the ship stayed put.

Great, Jaxon thought. These piggies are really starting to tick me off. He began to reach for the switch to power down the engines when hanger security burst into the bay. Alarms started sounding, and the two Ugnaughts disappeared into the trash piles. Jaxon acted quickly.

He grabbed his comm and contacted Malra. "Hey, I may be about to be arrested. I'm gonna need you in to get me out of this place if I am. I'm activating a small homing device and swallowing it. The receiver will be with my ship, which I'm sure you can track. I'm transmitting the identification code now." With that, he swallowed the device and shut down his engines. Time to put on the act.

He opened the canopy and quickly climbed to the ground. Several of the security guards were there waiting for him. "Boy, am I glad to see you all. Those Ugnaughts..." A blaster stuck in his back stopped him short. Apparently security didn't want to hear his defense.

The head guard approached him. "What happened here?"

Or maybe they did want to hear what he had to say. "Well," Jaxon started, "I was here on a visit - meeting a business contact. When I returned to my ship, I found that man over there, along with a runt Ugnaught, guarding my craft. The man, apparently the hangar caretaker, attempted to charge me double the docking fee. When I refused, he and the Ugnaught grew angry, and the man drew a blaster on me. I will admit that I am trained in combat tactics, so I will not apologize for beating the tar out of him. While I ran for cover, I took a snap shot that hit the caretaker, though I don't know where.

"I headed for that trash pile over there, but when blaster fire erupted, I changed direction, grabbed that piggy there, and used it as a shield until I reached some cover, at which point I convinced the Ugnaught to have the rest of his friends come out from behind their cover and lay down their arms. The caretaker began to reach for his blaster, so I stunned him. When I went to retrieve the Ugnaught's weapons, another piggy fired at me from a different pile. I managed to save myself by swinging my hostage into the path of the blast, at which point a general firefight ensued, and you can see the results. The last two Ugnaughts surrendered and indicated to me that I was free to go without paying extra. Apparently they did not wish me to leave even then, as something is preventing me from doing so still." Jaxon sat back, pleased with himself, and waited for the guard's answer.

The security seargent was tired. It had been a long day and now to have this happen?


He scratched his head and turned to the pilot. "Let me get this straight: You are not even supposed to be docked here. The civilian docking ports are all topside on the upper portions of the station. So that tells me you didn't want to be seen and is pretty suspicious. You did not want to pay extra to the local gang. But the extra charge is not really unreasonable given you wanted to maintain your anonymity. Still," the seargent grunted, "I suppose it was the principle of the thing yes?"


The man turned to the other guards coming into the hanger and then back to the fighter. "Military grade weaponry.." he muttered.

This was not adding up well. If they were Mos Eisley, he couldn't have given a damn what the ship had on it. But when berthing inside a floating city like the Astoria, one registered with Port Authorities going through the safety scan to make sure none of your onboard "upgrades" didn't decide to blow themselves up while docked.

This clown went around the red tape and still thought he should be treated fair, if the destruction around the hanger was any indication.

This was going to ruin his evening for sure.

Then irritation kicked in and he walked over to the body of Preacher, in a stiffened pose of shock, the black burn on his chest smoking slightly.

He looked down, grunted and then kicked the little guy.

"Get your ass up Preacher. We all know you sport an armour plate under your damned smock."

At first the Ugnaught didn't move.

The Seargent growled this time kicking harder. "Move your ass up now!"


"Behold, a resurrection!" came a the deep voice of the piggy as he groggily sat up, still a little in shock that someone had taken a blaster shot at him.

"Resurrection my ass. Get up Scratch!" the security man shouted to the other "dead" Ugnaughts who suddenly shook their heads and started to wobble which standing like a newborn fawn.

The Seargent motioned to his security guards and they began to round up the piggies much to their disappointment. Their squealing in outrage turned the Seargent back to the gang calling themselves Typhoid 7.

"Yeah? Well he didn't kill you! So he gets to go free! You, on the other hand, activated a maglock without authorization and are going to the brig!"


The pilot was about to say something when the seargent turned to him. "And as for you, produce the damned receipt that you actually paid for the spot here or stop being a damned cheap bastard and hand over your credit chit for scanning! Next time, go through the Port Authorities or your ship will be impounded! It should anyway for not registering your military grade weapons!"

The piggies were in outrage, only recognizing their side of the story when the seargent thumped a direction. "Get their little asses to the brig!" he ordered and Typhoid 7 were shuffled out of the hanger.

He stared at the stunned hanger caretaker and noticed that the drunk was snoring slightly. Then he noticed the humming under his feet.

"Shut that damn maglock down!" he shouted to the guards remaining.

Jaxon was in a bit of shock when the Ugnaughts rose to their feet. Apperantly there was more to them than met the eye. Too bad they were such low-lifes. They'd be valuable allies. Oh, well. He turned to the security guard and was about to offer his thanks when the man turned on him, demanding he produce a receipt or his credit chit. The bounty hunter pulled out the chit and replied, "Sure thing, Sergeant. I don't mind paying; I'm just not about to be walked over. I don't take kindly to being robbed. And for the record," he continued as he handed over the chit, "I was unaware that this was not a civilian docking area. It seemed to be empty, so I requested a spot. I was cleared by the caretaker over there. But I'll pay the docking fee, and I will land in the civilian bays from now on."

He waited for the Sergeant to finish scanning his credit chit, then said, "By the way, while my modifications to the fighter have not been registered here, they actually increase the stability of the craft in general. But I understand the need to register and will do so the next time I come. As it is, I have stuck around too long already. I have business in another part of the galaxy."

Jaxon turned to leave, headed for the E-wing as he heard one of the guards return and inform the sergeant that the maglock had been deactivated. He smiled and climbed the ladder to his ship, hoping their wouldn't be any more delays. There had been far too much attention as it was. Maybe he would attempt to eliminate the Imperial at another time. The Astoria might not be the best place to do it.

Just posting here that Rebels left, though still exists under another name, so i've taken posession of his little squad of mercinaries, and will be using them in the future.

Jaxon's ship exited the hangar in due order. Station security was still on the ground, cleaning up the mess. Jaxon keyed his comm. "Malra, I'm aborting the mission. There's been too much fuss, and I've already had a run-in with station security. We'll get the target at a later date."

The reply came back quickly. "Understood. Let me know if you ever need me again."

With that Jaxon flipped off his comm and spoke to his R2 unit. "You know, I don't think this galaxy is fit for a loner anymore. I think we're going to finally have to tie ourselves down. I mean, imagine what could have happened if we were captured back there with no backing. We'd be stuck rotting in the Astoria's prison."

The little droid beeped a question. "No, I do know where we're going. Most of the competing interplanetary governments will fail. However, I think the Vinda Corporation, now part of the Commonwealth, if my information is correct, will be able to stand up to the pressures." Another question. "That's right. We're setting a course for Bonadan."

A streak of stars, and the E-wing vanished into the depths of hyperspace. Destination: Bonadan.

I will come back and edit this later (and make it a story) but the mercs win by ejecting an escape pod into the trandosians Blah blah blah blah, jaxon (the one they wanted to hire) left, so they leave.