RPlog:In the Jungle

Five hours have passed since Enb'Zik and Snarl escaped the pinching crush of Sith droids outside the city. The couple still have not slept, going now just over a full standard day without significant rest. Snarl's military training sustains her. Zik's abilities with the Force do the same for him. It had taken an hour and a half of hard climbing in the wet, slick tunnels to emerge in Tof Soren's western burrough of Khorma. From there, they'd had to move with extreme caution to avoid detection -- or so they thought -- and ascend into the once-upon-a-time prison of Old Soren. That had needed another two hours. From there, Zik had homed in on his local contact with relative ease, and the two had been updating one another from both sides of the story since then.

The contact, a human named Aldol-Eo Pold, had informed the Sullustan about slaving operations taking place on world. He'd passed along a data card, as well, showing the names of several members of the Ikihsa clan that had been on the world -- and subsequently shipped off -- some three months prior. Zik was too late, and numerous family members were still unaccounted for, but there was no longer any doubt of what had happened to them. The only question now was where they had gone from here, and if that could be learned. Pold had no answers for that, but he had been able to enlighten Zik to the final piece of the puzzle: details about the Sith invasion of the planet. Malign's agents weren't new to this world. Just their increased numbers. Ord Vaxal wasn't an ill-equipped planet, and the fight had been hard. But now, it was a Sith world, and Pold was planning on getting out.

Seated at a table in a darkened room with Snarl nearby, Zik nods at the man on the other side. "That reminds me. As Snarl and I got into the tunnels, the Sith were bombarding the area where we left my fighter. I haven't gotten a chance to try to contact the onboard computer since then. Can I access your communications array? If I can't raise Ranger One, I may need a lift out of here."

"Zik, yore pilotin's welcome on board my ship any time, Pal, if ya need it. Th'comm's right over there, though. Yore welcome t'that, too."

"Thanks, Aldol," the Sullustan responds, standing and walking over to the dirty, beaten up console. It's old and has seen a lot of better days, but it's functional. Zik takes a seat and pulls out a small device that he plugs into a conduit there. He taps several buttons, then waits. "I doubt Ranger One survived that bombardment, but it wouldn't do me any good not to at least check," he remarks, mostly to himself.

Listening to the conversation while appearing not to be doing so, Snarl sits some distance from Enb'Zik and his contact as information is exhanged. Soon after their arrival, the Horansi had dropped into a comfortable crouch that allowed her to rest her back against the wall and relax a bit. With this comfort achieved, she had seen to the minor scrapes on the pads of her hands and feet caused by brief traction loss on the slick ferrocrete they'd been climbing for hours. When Zik goes to try his luck at contacting Ranger One, the big cat is still in her choosen place with her eyes closed. A casual observer would likely think her asleep, but the occasional slow twitch of the tip of her tail reveals the truth.

In the time that Enb'zik and Snarl have been within the city, a thorough search of the city has been conducted. Thorough for working in close quarters and short time and sorting through of the citizenry as swiftly as possible. For these sweeps tend t make the citizens nervous, for some reason, but the droids are intent and cannot be dissuaded. The instructions were clear. Find - follow - but do not interfere. For theirs is not to harm the two persons of note, but to track and to glean what information can be gleaned from their passage. For those that they contact become Persons of Interest, and will be pulled aside for further dialogue. The droid units are staged around the city itself and along expected points of egress.

"Wha's distance t'that ship o' yours, Zik?" Pold asks, his backwater raising made plain by his accent.

Zik looks up from waiting on the device to attempt its linkup, "About thirty kilometers. What's the broadcast range on this thing? Malign wouldn't have left the planetary comm satellites online, so I'm not betting on any kind of boost. Even if he's reactivated them while his droids are fanning out, they'll be monitored."

Pold nods his accord as he answers, "It'll go fifty. If that ship o'yore's is still able to talk, she'll here ya."

Zik nods and turns back to the communications console, flipping a final switch and tightbeaming a coded signal at a point 272.4 degrees from their current position: "Ranger One, this is Enb'Zik. Return status report scrambled Guardian Osk Wesk Krill." He pauses, listening, then repeats the request again, patiently. For awhile, nothing happens, and the Sullustan's frown grows. Then, there is a whistle over the commlink, followed by a chattering that sounds /similar/ to binary, but somehow off. Sucking in a breath through his nose, Zik quickly keys the device he'd plugged into the console when he'd sat down.

Zik speaks up over the incoming information, "Ranger, send me a status report, and I want a scan of your local area beginning at origin and extending fifty meters in all directions. Cycle your encryption matrix at nine-second intervals while you send."

While the data begins to come back, a look of hope enters Zik's eyes as he looks up, "Aldol, I'm going to need a fast way back to that ship. Have you got any kind of speeder I can borrow from you?"

The man shakes his head, "Borrow! Zik, there ain't a damn thing on this planet I'm gonna want back long as the Sith're here. There's some caves down under the city here. Fractures't got opened up during the Old R'public's bombardment of the place back all them years ago. You follow them fractures, 'n there's an outcropping about a hunnert fifty feet under us 's got a old Chariot speeder. She don't look good, but her engine purrs like that wife o' yore's gettin' 'er lower back massaged, if ya don't take offense at that, Ma'am." He glances at Snarl, then back at Zik, "She'll get you where you need to be easy enough, but you'll have them droids at your back all the way, I suspect."

The Sullustan nods, his eyes now trained on the holographic reading in front of him of the area surrounding his ship. The destruction is incredible, and it's nothing short of a miracle that Ranger One is responding at all. But as far as he can tell, she looks good enough to fly. "Yeah," he answers, so distracted that he completely misses Pold's attempt at humor. He looks up and stands, "Thanks, Aldol. Best of luck getting off this planet. If you're not out by the time we get starside, we'll do everything we can to help you get past the blockade."

Startled by the comment about purring, Snarl does indeed have one eye open when the man glances over at her. The look in that golden orb might be cold enough to cause some to worry for their safty. However, the massive feline merely huffs through her nose and then rises to her feet, stretching her nine foot frame completely so that muffled pops can be heard coming from her spine. This accomplished, she gives herself a brief shake that resettles her mildly ruffled fur. It sounds like the meeting is about to conclude, and she is as ready as she's going to be able to get without real sleep and a good meal.

"Thanks, Pal," the man answers, standing up and collecting several weapons that had been resting on the rickety wooden table between them. He holsters the collection, then nods his head. "Force with ya, 'n all that, Zik."

"May the Force be with you, Aldol. I can't thank you enough for what you've done here, my friend. Be well." Zik disengages the small transceiver he'd placed in the comm unit and replaces it in a pocket on his environmental suit.

Sometime later, Enb'Zik settles into the driver's seat of the QA-7 Chariot Light Assault Vehicle Pold had told them about. The speeder has to be fifteen years old and looks like it's seen every engagement since. A touch of the activator switch, however, and the engine comes online as true as her owner had promised it would. "Snarl," Zik calls as his wife catches up, "these LAVs aren't frontline vehicles. There's a blaster up here in front, but you might be better off with your own sidearm if you've got it ready. I'm going to do everything I can to move this thing fast, so you might want to strap in. I've got a feeling those droids aren't going to cut us any slack trying to get out of here."

A hush has settled over the city. Unnatural hush, at that. The sounds that come from the jungle are that of animal cries, the sound of insects and winged birds and all the countless little lives that inhabit the trees and the lick, lush, underbrush. The scent of charred vegetation, scorched earth, the smell of engines at work and the annoying buzz of speeders can be heard still from the jungle. With a curfew in place the citizens of the city have been herded, or rather 'encouraged' to Go Home, and Stay There. The sound of droids moving through the city is marked by the heavy foot falls of sith battle droids marks their passage.

General Siege has issued orders in tandem from Captain Cato, the over all commander of the fleet in system. Find. Detain. Deliver - alive. Those are the instructions. It is the discretion of the droid programming, however, that interprets these commands at will. Find - for which they've taken speeders to begin search from the air as well as on foot. Detain - which will be accomplish once they're found. Deliver - clearly, the other thing they'll do once they've located Snarl, Zik and their so-important contact. Cato's orders to Siege were very clear, Cato's displeasure at finding these orders not carried out will be a dark thing. A legion of droids are now mounted on speeders, slowly combing the area in methodical grids.

Enb'Zik doesn't strap himself into the speeder as he gets ready to pilot it. For one thing, he's used to swoops, and swoops don't have seatbelts. For another thing, sitting down might not be the best option for survival at all times. Zik glances over at Snarl and catches her attention, the question in his eyes querying whether she's ready to go. He also checks to see whether she's got her weapon at the ready. "You know," he states, "There are too many droids for us to get out of this city undetected. And losing them in the forest won't be possible once we're seen. I'll try to use the trees for some cover once we're in, but this is probably going to be messy." He pauses, giving the Kasa a meaningful, affectionate look.

Turning a moment later, Zik engages the speeder's forward thrusters. The open-topped vehicle cruises forward from its place of concealment and onto the streets. Letting the Force guide him, the Sullustan works his way forward in the direction that meets the happy medium between unoccupied-by-droids and heading-our-way.

She doesn't like having to fight from a mechanical vehical. She knows it and he knows it. Still, sometimes these situations can't be helped - which is why she's spent so much time training for them. Snarl leaps to the right 'wing' of the speeder and lands in a crouch, her impact, as always, surprisingly light and incongruous with her size. In order to afford herself as much cover as possible while also providing as little disturbance to the speeder's balance she can, the Horansi stays fairly close to the main body of the vehicle. The speeder's long body is relatively flat on top, so she'll have decent footing but not a lot of cover.

When Enb'Zik looks over at her, Snarl nods at him once to signify her readiness to get moving. The Horansi's weapons harness is fully stocked for this mission and she's already pulled her A280 out of it's holster. At his comment about it getting messy, she merely sighs and lifts her shoulders in a Human-like shrug even as the fur along them ripples in her own native gesture. "That is nothing new, Mmm'turrrah," she replies. "We will hope for the best." She gives him a brief smile and a slow blink of her golden eyes before settling down to the business of battle.

Speeder humming as cruising speed is set, the mounted droids are flying a pre-programmed course as the search grid begins. The speeder sensor begins to chirp at the droid leading one of the groups in a search pattern when unidentified vehicle begins moving away from the city and towards the jungle. 'Abnormalty detected on sensors. Pursuit program engaged.' The lead droid shoots that data-bit to the main controller as the attack speeder kicks from the cruising velocity into high gear. The medium hum is suddenly pitched up to a whine as the droids' speeders descend down on their target, their looping path coming in at Six'o'clock high, starting the chase.

Another speeder comes up by the lead droid. Acknowledging the receipt of the sensor data and the order of the lead droid, the droid Lieutenant verbalises, "Roger that, engaging in pursuit." This speeder follows just behind and to the left of the lead droid speeder copying its movements perfectly.

Central command & Control takes that bit of data, processes it instantly, and what one knows - all know. The other droids stationed in the city on foot turn, in unison, and begin to march towards the target district. With the only air traffic being the searching speeders and now that of the Speeder of interest, it is not all together a challenge to determine precisely which one it is that is of the most interest. Street by street they are moving, citizens peering fearfully out of windows and half opened doors. Each one, deep down where they would be loath to admit it, glad that THEY are not the ones being pursued at this time. Night is beginning to settle slowly across the land, the first touch of exotic colors sparkling the horizon as the sun begins it lazy, inevitable, descent as the planet turns gently towards the night. It will be a good hour more before dusk settles, but time is on the side of the attempted-escapees. For ahead of them looms the jungle, a charred path leading directly from the city towards where their ship is resting. Only time will show whether that ship can get up off the ground, or what waits for them in the depths of the jungle.

"Then may the Force be with us, Mnrrreau-La," Zik replies, his voice rising over the pitching sound of the engines. "And you be careful up there!" Conversely to Snarl, the Sullustan is fairly well protected inside. Although the speeder's armored canopy is long gone, the pilot's back is covered by the bulk of the transport behind him. The front is well armored, as well. Reaching up, Zik draws down the clamshell helmet of his armor to keep the wind out of his eyes, and sets to piloting.

It's not long before Enb'Zik senses the danger descending upon them. He'd expected to be pursued, but Malign's droids keep impressing him with their competence -- much more so than Imperial Stormtroopers ever did. "Snarl, we've got company," he yells back at her, sure she's already seen them. Reaching toward the thrust control, he pushes it forward and begins to encourage the old Chariot to move faster. He doesn't remind Snarl to watch the collateral damage; he trusts her: she already knows.

Snarl lacks much in the way of eye-protection, but she is wearing body armor that should at least assist in deflecting stray shots or anything low-energy that might catch her. She'd rather not have anything on her face anyway, and simply narrows her eyes against the wind whipping around her as the velocity of the speeder increases. As the sound of other laboring engines reach her backward folded ears, the Horansi grumbles to herself. She is fully prepared for battle, of course, but it would have been nice to make it a bit farther along before having to get into the thick of things. Still down in a crouch, the massive feline keeps herself down around the level of the engines and braces herself in preparation for firing as soon as the enemy is within range. At least facing backward the wind isn't impeding her vision, although she's going to have some serious knots to get out of her fur later.

The high pitched whine of the air speeders grow louder for the ones being pursued as the lighter and smaller vehicles begin to catch up to their primary target. Once in range, a scan is made from the lead droid and data is shot back to main control. 'Detain Program initiated. Status, live.' With that, the droid fires trio of laser shots that screams towards the speeder, the message in lethal energy form is rather obvious, 'Stop.'

The second droid follows suit bringing his speeder around and firing a trio of shots at the vessel as it tries to dodge the first droids shots.

From orbit the Dark Presence observes the lift off and the pursuit of the speeder in which Snarl, Zik and a whole host of information are making their escape attempt towards the jungle. Unbeknownst to the escapees, but more than likely very predictable, there is more at store - more at risk - than just two or three people leaving planet without permission. There is more at store, more to contend with, than just the location or the possible location of a handful of Zik's family. Captain Cato is observing as General Siege conducts this segment of the operation, standing in a well of silence that prevents the rest of the crew on the bridge from approaching or engaging in conversation. The General is linked directly with the droids on the ground, as they all are, and exercises the ability to view what the droids in lead pursuit are seeing, real time imagery at it's best. When the first round and second round of shots go wild, missing the targets entirely, random buildings are hit instead. The first of which smolders for a moment, the shots catching the exterior surface of the building on fire and it starts a slow burn. The other rounds impact against windows, ricocheting inward and narrowly missing innocent civilians in the process. The shrieks and cries of fear are unnoticed, though a team of droids is detailed to deal with the fire, after all - it's not in the Sith battle plan to have the city burn down around their collective gears.

"Snarl? Love? Are you going to shoot back at them or just sit back and have lemonade while letting me test out my fancy flying?" Zik's voice is terse with the effort of piloting the speeder through the wide streets, but his words are almost playful, especially given the situation. Thankfully, the fractured earth where the speeder had been stowed opened up onto Bahn, the city's southernmost and least crowded section. A sharp left at the first major intersection, and they'd be on a straightaway back to the jungle. Once there, at least their cover wouldn't be packed with sentient beings.

With shots coming in, the Chariot speeder reaches a large cross street, and Zik hauls the vehicle around onto that necessary turn toward the jungle. He loses some speed with the turn but pushes the throttle forward again before he notices a massive crater straight ahead, large enough to swallow a dozen of Tof Soren's biggest buildings. It is damage left over from a bombardment that happened decades before. "HANG ON!!" Zik yells abruptly to the back. Pulling on the ship's yoke, he tips the nose upward and sends the speeder toward the higher range of its altitude, effectively leaping across the chasm stretched in front of him and aiming for a gap in the trees on the other side.

"Ha, ha," Snarl spits back with considerable irritation as she tries to steady her rifle in one paw while her three other limbs strain to keep her from being flung off of the speeder's surface all together with the evasive manuevering. Nevertheless, the Horansi recklessly braces and squeezes the trigger of her A280 as she aims at the droids and their conveyances closing in from behind. The claws of her unshod paws continue to make absolutely horrendous noises as they scrabble for purchase on the metal surface beneath them.

The Lieutenant Droid now moves up to the leading position and attempts a bold method to bring down the hostile. He increases speed and tries to ram the Jedi.

If the lead droid was human, it would've probably uttered a string of curses in Huttese but instead the droid flies on in pursuit after the speeder, treating the missed shots as targetting miscalculation. The loud whine of the combat air speeder continues to draw closer with each passing second. The evasive pit jump however causes the droid speeder to shoot up into the air, having to go higher to maintain pursuit. At that time, the blaster bolt slams into the speeder but doesn't blow up. However, it did enough damage that it causes the speeder to start smoking and pitch downward, slamming into the up-sloped wall of the pit.

However, there are many droids in pursuit and another one is maneuvering into place since the loss of one droid in front means more room for the ones in the back. For now it remains behind the new lead droid as it begins to maneuver into position to get a shot off but probably to get blown up as well.

Whereas the droids on planet do not have the luxury - the impulse? - to engage in any fits of colorful invective, irregardless of the available languages to curse in (though cursing in binary is not satisfying at all) General Siege is not above such things. Devoid of such things, perhaps, would be the better way of processing the remark. With a curled fist the droid General signals another droid to take the place of the now charred and crumpled heap of scrap and more are warming up in the shadows, in the cool air that is thick with humidity. As the now-lead droid makes a run at the escaping individuals, the smaller more agile speeder looks like a bright shiny toy compared to the one that Snarl & Zik are riding in. Agile though it is, however, even the best skills programmed into a droid are not quite the match for a sentient pilot with extra talents at his beck and call. While the speeder does not, in fact, achieve it's objective to slam into the heavier older speeder model it does bring the battle droid into close proximity - and therefore relative danger - offered by Snarl. More speeders are closing in on this position above the city, the relative safety of the jungle is but seconds away.

Zik would grin at Snarl's retort if he weren't concentrating so fully on flying the speeder now. With the relatively large vehicle now moving into the forest, the Sullustan has to either dodge trees or destroy them to get them out of the way. That, on top of evading the attempts of Malign's droids to either shoot or crash into his speeder, is keeping Zik plenty busy!

Now that they're in the forest, however, there is one task remaining to the Sullustan aside from getting them there in one piece -- Ranger One has been sitting cold for most of a day. The ship can't fly like that. Familiar enough with the QH-7 Chariot LAV to know that most of them have advanced communications suites, Zik digs in one of the cargo pockets on his CES to extract the same transceiver he'd used to correspond with Ranger One the first time. Leaning across the seat to his right, Zik presses the device into the communications console and slaps a prominent button to activate it.

As the closest droid-driven speeder approaches in an apparnt suicide manuever, a smirk crosses Snarl's feline features. Shaking her head, the Horansi tsk-tsks at the metal pilot and then growls, "Thank you for making your head such an easy target." As Enb'Zik pilots thier escape vehicle clear, she takes aim at the droid's head and squeezes off a shot. In an attempt a wry humor, she asks into her comlink, "Are we there yet?"

Rather than trying to manoeuver his speeder or himself away from the incoming shot, the droid speeds up and attempts to leap onto the Jedi speeder, particularly towards where Snarl is.

Just before the speeders reach the first brush of trees the lead droid abandons his speeder and makes a leap towards the one upon which Snarl and Zik are fleeing the city. The blaster round aimed at the Droid strikes it dead on, even in mid-leap. The head of the droid, containing most of it's logic circuitry and optical/scanning equipment is blown clean away, save for a few remaining shreds of metal and attachment apparatus. Tiny sparks fly, the droids limbs moving in jittery spasms even as barely lands on the speeder, mere hand spans away from Snarl's position. The body is willing, apparently, but the head is now absent. And now they are into the trees. Thick limbs from the heavy trees create what can only be considered an obstacle course. Heavy ropes of fines string from tree to tree, a low level mist is rising from the jungle floor as the sun continues it's slow descent, and the first of the charred circles of vegetation is ahead.

With the new lead droid occupying Snarl's attention and fire, the second droid in line seems to be a little bit craftier, probably having selected one of the various tactics that had been preprgrammed into its memory banks while being assembled. Instead of following the same path as the target speeder into the forest, this one flies a parallel course with a little more speed due to it's speeder performance and less weight.

Zipping past the various trees and some stumps, the droid suddenly changes course and heads towards the target speeder. After dodging another tree, it finally has a clear shot and energy bolts are spat out of the cannons, streaking quickly towards it's intended target from four o'clock direction than the expect six.

With the forest thickening around them, Enb'Zik feels the speeder lurch mildly between his distraction and the impact of the leaping war droid. The Sullustan sits up fully and wrestles the vehicle back onto a straight course just in time to spot a medium-sized tree laying across their path. Without enough maneuverability to evade the trunk, he who had helped create life at the forest's edge now takes responsibility for destroying some. Zik's hand squeezes down on the trigger control, opening up a rain of fire from the cannon mounted under the speeder's belly. Ahead, wood explodes, sending a shower of splinters and smoke ahead of them. With the low mist, it's too wet for the forest to burn, and that's a good thing.

"Oh yeah," Zik calls back to Snarl over the comm, "Real close! Just ... twenty-four more kilometers!" Truth be known, they are covering the distance relatively fast. But no, they're not really close. "Ranger," Zik speaks now to a separate comm on the other side of the cabin from him, "Ranger, respond to security code Niner Isk Esk Zerek. Give me tone when you're listening."

Knowing that she couldn't miss at that range, Snarl isn't really all that concerned about the droid version of the headless horseman flying in her direction. As a matter of fact, she's rather glad to see the hunk of metal come within easy reach. "Perrrfect," the Horansi growls with satisfaction as her large paws momentarily stow her rifle on her harness and reach to hoist the dead weight. As the next closest droid-driven speeder veers close enough to take a shot at them, she anticipates Enb'Zik's evasive action and waits a second for a large enough opening in the jungle's vegetation to permit something the size of a droid body through. When she sees the opportunity, the massive feline flings the decapitated droid at the attacking speeder with a vengence.

Diord_Rennug from his little missile bunker on the ground. Gunnery Droid #4310 does what he does best. He looks at his sensor screen as it tracks the Jedi speeder. The computer calculates the proper firing angle, and Gunnery Droid #4310 does the hardest part of the whole process. He presses a button which launches a missle. Not just anyone can accomplish this, it requires special equipment afterall: a working finger. Man this droid is good.

The problem with shooting from an angle is that the difficulty is greater, due to the necessity of having to lead the target accordingly and maintain the lead while despressing the trigger stub. The droid's shots miss by a bit, splintering more wood as it hits tree trunks instead.

However, having to dodge another tree, the droid didn't even see the incredible throw by the giant feline. The metal broken body slams right into the nose of the combat air speeder, causing it to pitch forward. The droid is suddenly thrown off of its ride and flies forward at the same fast speed in spread eagle form, air resistance keeping it pinned in that form. Bad news for the droid is that one of the hanging looped vines is right in front of him and neatly decapitates the droid, cutting the head right off while the body pinwheels into the ground, crumple and broken. The speeder itself spins once and slams into a nearby tree, causing a rather pretty explosion with debris flying all around.

In perfect counterpoint to the explosions and destruction above him, a peaceful, pleasant little tone chimes from the console of the speeder. It's so peaceful, in fact, that Enb'Zik doesn't hear it at first. A second later it chimes again, a bit louder. Persistent. Zik glances over to see a diode pulsing blue on the dash. "Ranger!" he exclaims, glad the ship responded so quickly, "I've got two tasks for you. First, I want you to begin a long-range passive scan. Look for transponder identification... LS-27C1G. That's us. Second, as soon as we're within five kilometers of you, I want you to bring your engines online and get ready for flight. But no sooner! If the Sith don't know your location already, I don't want you attracting them before I can get there!"

As Zik speaks, a growing sense of something wrong forces him to lean forward and look harder into the forest ahead. It's beginning to thin out, he realizes. To clear. Why would it...? And then he understands why. It's not a clearing, but a blast radius! And there is no possibility of avoiding this one. "SNARL!" he yells back over the headset commlinks, "Look alive back there. I've got a bad feeling about this!" Sure enough, six seconds later the speeder passes into the opening. Heavy fire erupts as the vehicle loses every semblance of cover. Zik is left piloting in a way that suddenly reminds him of a swoop race he'd participated in some six or seven years prior on the then-Imperial capital planet Selene. His swoop had collided with cannon fire from an AT-AT and left him hospitalized for weeks.

Now, however, there is no time to think about that. Letting the Force guide his instincts, Enb'Zik manages somehow to pilot his way across the open ground and into the cover and safety of the forest on the other side. So much destruction. And potential destruction. Realizing now that there will likely be more such blast radii ahead, Enb'Zik pulls back to raise his shuttle's altitude for the rest of the journey. Moreover, he sets the speeder's onboard scanners to monitor the forest density up ahead and warn him of future openings. For the rest of the trip back to Ranger One, to the greatest extent possible, Enb'Zik avoids the blast zones, sticking to the safety of the jungle.

The droids on the ground were relatively certain the blaster cannon fire would do little more than delay the speeder. Certain, that is, once the statistics were factored in, weighed against the relative velocity of the speeder and the averaged skill of the pilot observed thus far. Their job, still, was not to irreparably damage the speeder passengers but to disable the speeder and detain. Thus and so, the cannon fire had not been tooled to it's highest output yield. When Zik and Snarl finally reach the clearing adjacent to the position of Ranger One they will find that a tree has crashed down against the side of the ship, one heavy limb blocking the main access hatch. Smaller limbs and debris are scattered across Ranger One and more is liable to fall down at any moment.