“There’s the ship!” Kori shouted as they ran around the bow of an old freighter. Blaster bolts struck the ship, raining sparks. Jax glanced up, thinking the owner would not be happy to have more damage to what looked like a ship held together with good thoughts and insta-epoxy. The trip from the bar to the spaceport was a sort of running gun battle. After losing a few more of their crowd to minor wounds, the locals had fallen back, but when they entered the spaceport, their anger and boldness returned. It helped that they seemed to have called ahead for reinforcements. Jax and the others had barely gotten through the pedestrian entry before the mob got to the tunnel in the ring wall.
Kori turned back and fired several blasts from her pistol. Someone screamed.
The Osprey was at least two hundred meters away, over open landing pad. Another freighter, only slightly bigger than the Osprey, lifted off, blowing dirt and dust around the landing area. Everyone had to slow down and shield their faces. The freighter they were hiding behind was the only cover.
Jax looked at the ship. “Baxter?”
A dark blur leapt from the top of the freighter to land with a thud two meters from the approaching crowd. A booming voice said, “I will cut you all down. Stop right where you are.” The matte black droid had both forearm blasters deployed, having fixed the damaged one, and one of his shoulder railguns was tracking independently. “It will be gross.”
A scraggly fellow in worn coveralls stepped forward, aiming his blaster pistol at the combat droid between him and the crew of the Osprey . He fell to the ground, a burnt hole between his eyes. Smoke wafted from the barrel of the blaster mounted in Baxter’s right forearm. He had raised his arm faster than anyone could have possibly processed.
“I do not have a stun setting. Anyone else feeling bold?” Baxter asked. He looked over his shoulder, red scatter light optical sensor swishing side to side. “Go, now.” The group left the safety of the freighter, now with more blaster scarring than it had landed with, and sprinted to the Osprey .
“Captain, I’m picking up chatter from the local authorities. They don’t seem to know what’s going on but are en route to the spaceport,” Skip announced over Jax’s earpiece. From behind, he heard an occasional blaster shot and scream of pain. Baxter must be having fun. Skip continued, “They’re rolling heavy, too.”
“Move it! Cops inbound!” Jax shouted, trying to increase his pace. “Heavily armed!” As soon as everyone was under the wing of the Osprey, Jax called out, “Baxter, time to go!” The boarding ramp dropped, unfolding as it did. Jax ushered the two women up before going up the ramp himself, leaving Steve to cover them. The younger Delphino had his weapons drawn and was standing on the edge of the ramp.
Steve was watching the combat droid when out of the corner of his eye he spotted a now familiar rust red object. “You’re starting to make me rethink my ideas on droids,” he said as Rudy rolled up, his knives nowhere to be seen.
“I’m chock-full of surprises,” the droid replied, rolling up the ramp past Steve.
Jax dashed as fast as possible to the flight deck, taking stairs two at a time. The controls were already awake and ready when Jax dropped into his seat, panting and sweating. “All set, Skip?” he wheezed.
The flight controls slid out of their standby position as the ship’s SI replied, “You bet.” The rumble of the engines began to build.
A blaster bolt ricocheted off the transparent view screen, causing Jax to flinch. He looked out the window to the crowd standing around the ship, many taking pot shots with their pistols. None of their fire would hurt the Osprey . Jax shouted, “Hold on down there!” assuming Skip would route his voice through the shipwide intercom. He put his hand on the grav-lift controls. With his free hand, he flipped the angry mob off, then pushed the lift controls forward, causing the Osprey to surge straight up off the tarmac. The thruster wash sent several of the nearest and lightest weight members of the mob rolling backwards away from the infiltrator as she rose. As the ship cleared the ring wall that made up the perimeter of the spaceport, Jax spotted a dozen or more hover cars with red and blue flashing lights on them. They were racing toward the vehicle entrance to the port. Behind them were two heavy personnel transports.
Rudy said, “That was fun.” He popped up the center of the stairwell and moved to his station.
Jax glanced over his shoulder as he powered up the main sub-light engines to boost them out of the atmosphere. “Thought I’d have to buy another droid.” Rudy made a weird sound. Jax added, “We need to talk about you and those knives.” He raised an eyebrow. “What did you do with them?”
“I left them on the tarmac,” the nav droid replied nonchalantly. “Didn’t need them anymore, and there are plenty of knives aboard the Osprey .”
“Okay, that’s…well, that’s disturbing.” Jax turned to focus on flying as the Osprey gained altitude, her engines screaming until the atmosphere thinned. He ignored the flashing light on the communications panel.
A few minutes of flying in silence towards the edge of Themura’s gravity well and Jax mused out loud, “Think that little incident was a big deal?”
Rudy said, “Well, we shot up a bar and a bunch of locals. Yes, I think that little incident was probably a big deal. Oh, by the way, Imperial frigate coming over the horizon.”
Skip chimed in. “He’s right, a notice was just posted on the planetary network.” The SI paused as if he was reading over the notice: “The Independent trader Penelope is wanted for disorderly conduct and discharge of a firearm in public. I’d say we should put Themura on our Don’t visit too soon list. They don’t have our real ident, so that’s a plus.” The SI paused. “Oh, and that frigate is hailing us.”
Jax shrugged. “Ignore them. Five minutes to wormhole.” He then added, “I mean, I don’t know what the big deal was. That reaction, and the determination they showed, really seemed a bit much. Chasing us all the way into the spaceport?”
Rudy tutted, “You hustled some locals. What did you think would happen? Worse, these particular locals seemed both itching for a fight, and out to have each other’s backs.” The droid paused. “Maybe that bodes well for Mr. Ichiko and his hiring of security forces from this planet. They seem to like to fight.”
Jax nodded his agreement, then said, “Ideally, they’re not supposed to know they’ve been hustled until we’re gone.” Rudy made a rude sounding noise. He turned back to the flight controls. “Wormhole in two.” He looked at the ceiling. “Skip, you got this?”
“Course plotted, wormhole generator online and ready,” the SI confirmed.
Jax stood and walked to the staircase.