Sackboy's Arrest

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Sackboy watched as the ramp in the back of the shuttle opened up. He was at the jail.

A nearby Stormtrooper in the vehicle spoke, "Out you go, little guy."

[The Rogue]

Connor let's out a deep sigh and swings Trimerrera around. He guns it's throttle and races back towards the Courscant containment facility. He approaches fast and in an wide arc. He sees the burlap doll and stretches out his hand.

"Hey Sackboy!", He yells to the doll as he swings by and grabs the little guy's arm.

"You might wanna hold on!", Connor says to Sackboy as he dumps the burlap chap on the back of his hoverbike. He speeds away from the facility as guards start to get their vehicles ready in Oder to give chase.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

The guards zoomed toward the rapidly departing Trimerra bike on landspeeders. Red laser blasts came out of the mounted cannons on the front. Trimerra swerved in the next turn. Sackboy turned around, summoned a ball of purple jam and threw it at a speeder.

"Oh my... ---The Stormtrooper was blinded and crashed into a road fence.---"

[Storyteller]

"Blast!" Corporal Anderson took three quick steps, bounding out of the shuttle, lifting his blaster in one hand to take aim at the retreating hover bike. His hand wavered as the distance rapidly increased, and he was forced to lower his arm. At this range there was no way he could make a reliable shot. He instead simply switched on his comm, turning and hopping back into the shuttle. "Situation has escalated. Repeat, situation has escalated." He waved over a handful of stormtroopers that came barging out of the detainment facility, blasters at the ready, and with only a single glance in the direction of the retreating hoverbike they broke into a run for the shuttle, leaping into the back of it.

"That's a roger, Corporal. We are directing backup from the original scene to give chase. Keep eyes on the target."

"Understood." Anderson strode up to the front of the shuttle and poked through the door to the cockpit, clapping one hand down on the pilot's shoulder. "Alright, hotshot. Let's move."

"You got it, boss-man!" With a flourish, the pilot brought the boarding ramp up and the shuttle lifted off from its ground-bound position. "Y'all better hang on to your helmets, ladies and gents. When there's some crazy prisoner-snatching loon to catch, I don't fly with the kid gloves on." One arm stretched out to the main throttle lever, and the word "Swerve" could be seen scrawled along the exterior of his forearm.

"Oh dear sweet Emperor..." Anderson whispered, and immediately grasped at the edge of the doorway.

And then the craft lurched forward, leaving behind faintly glowing trails of engine exhaust in its wake.

Below, several speederbikes and a landspeeder roared by the detention facility, already at top speed in pursuit. "Target is within range. Fire at will!"

"Copy that!" The gunner, a particularly burly-looking fellow with a targeting reticule etched over one eye of his helmet, growled in what could only be called intense satisfaction as let fly a volley of laser fire at the fleeing hover bike. Unfortunately...the main gun on Imperial landspeeders were designed for hitting much slower-moving targets, or at the very least, somewhat larger ones. His aim was good, but it wasn't perfect. Several near misses blazed by uncomfortably close to the pair of fugitives, but hit only empty air and the occasional building. "Dang it!" he roared, pounding one fist against the gun barrel. "Can't get a solid shot in at this distance! Not at this speed, anyway!"

"Keep up the fire anyway! Make 'em panic, they'll get sloppy!" The driver shouted back.

"Watch out, he's up to som--GAH!" One stormtrooper, his helmet suddenly splattered with jam, reared back, swerving chaotically as he fought to keep his course level. He ripped his helmet roughly off, blinking his eyes in the suddenly much brighter light, only to find the rapidly approaching sight of an obstruction in his path filling his vision. "Oh...my...." was all he had time to say before he hit it full-on. There was a horrid crunching and tearing of metal and the remains of the speederbike went flipping end over end through the air, along with the unlucky trooper, who hit the ground and skidded several times over the ground. He finally came to a halt with his armor covered in burns and dents, and with his exposed head bloodied, but alive. "Dang....that sucks...."

Several more of his compatriots blazed past him, leaving him to haul himself off to one side of the road, out of the way, as best he could.

In his position of overwatch in the shuttle above, Anderson smashed his fist against the bulkhead. "Son of a...." He turned to Swerve. "Open the boarding ramp to firing position."

"You got it!" Swerve said cheerily, and smacked a button on the control panel.

"Command, we have an officer down in pursuit of the subject. Requesting recovery, and eyes on all potential exits from Tier 1. We're not letting those two get away now."

"We read you loud and clear, Corporal."

Striding to the rear of the ship, Anderson stared down at the chase below through the now half-open boarding ramp. "Alright you bunch. Normally this is the part where I'd say bring them down and take them in alive to properly pay for their actions." He unhooked a marksman rifle from the wall of the ship, passing it off to another of the troopers present. "But now that's three of my men they've either killed or injured. They've earned a one-way trip back to the Fountain of Infinity. Fire at will."

"Understood, sir."

[The Rogue]

"Okay good, I need you to run interference while I focus on driving! Oh and try not to cause any more damage!" Connor yelled to passenger over the wind. He scanned the city streets and took a several sharp turns in attempt to lose their pursuers.

"Come on there was to be a way to those lower tiers.....", Connor suddenly said aloud looking for a ramp or some sort of transportation downward. Then several blocks away he saw a sign, 'Elevator, All Tiers' and an electronic display that read out 'Current stop: Tier 1.

Then the high pitched whine of blaster fire caught up to his ears as windows and sidewalks erupted with the blasts.

“Skatrè!”, Connor swerved slightly from surprise and slowed down a bit, then he revved Trimmererra's engine and gained the ground he lost.

“Crap a gunship! Sackboy do you happen to have a shield or something? It's time to move to the defensive”, Connor relayed the orders to the burlap doll in his bike, then started making sudden and sharp turns to lose the gunship behind him.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Sackboy held up his Bounce Pad Shield behind him in response.

[Storyteller]

"Tryin' to lose me, huh?" Swerve grinned confidently, letting out a low chuckle. "Not in my city, Prime...not in my city."

The much larger craft was significantly less maneuverable than the much more nimble hoverbike the fleeing pair was on, and was forced to make rough impromptu dives and crazily sharp loops, completely away from the direction of chase and slingshotting back around. How much of it was entirely necessary, and how much was Swerve's crazy piloting was up for debate.

"Is he..." Anderson gestured at one of his squadmates, receiving a pair of binoculars and peering through them. "...they are. Headed for an elevator." He tossed the binoculars aside. "Swerve! Enough with the chase; we're gonna cut 'em off! They're headed for elevator C-11. Get us there yesterday!"

"Hey hey hey, alright! Hold on to your helmets, fellas!" With a rumble of its engines, the gunship lurched upward and banked away, passing out of sight behind a building.

On the ground below, another Stormtrooper was blasted off of his speederbike as a blaster bolt bounced off of Sackboy's shield. His speeder kept going, leaving its rider behind with a scorched hole in his armor. A wheezing cough signaled he was still alive, but wouldn't be accomplishing much else any time soon.

"Got a shield, do you..." the Gunner growled. "Well ain't that just fine 'n dandy for you."

"Hold fire on that cannon there, big man! Wait until he drops that shield!"

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Anderson picked up a walkie-talkie and spoke into it, "Two bogeys heading for elevator C-11. From a blockade in the front of it, now!"

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Trimerra dashed toward the elevator desperately.

[The Rogue]

“Anáthema!”, Connor curses in Arcadian, for he sees several Stormtroopers making a blockade in front of the elevator. Once they get set up the Stormtroopers start taking shots at Connor.

“Skatrè!”, he exclaims as he starts to make smooth swerving motions in attempt to dodge their fire, but a stray blaster shot hits his shin.

“Pedigamo!”, he swears, then he sees another turnoff and goes down, ’Okay gotta find another way down…’, he thinks to himself. He keeps on making random turns whenever he sees the gunship too close in his mirrors.

“Kateveíte ton kólo mou!”, he swears up the gunship, as the burn on his leg drips small droplets of blood and a clear fluid.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Sackboy and Connor saw a sign giving directions to an alternate elevator on the left way in the nearby road fork.

Connor steered his bike left to escape from the Stormtroopers.

[Storyteller]

"Suspects have deviated from their previous course. No longer en route to elevator C-11."

"We read you loud and clear, Corporal. Eye in the sky's got them pinned. They're headed right for elevator C-13."

"Elevator C-13, huh..." Anderson sounded almost disappointed. "That makes this almost too easy. C-13's a dead end, unless they want to take a nose dive straight off the side of Tie 1..." He trailed off, looking down at the chase below. "...deploy a marksman unit to C-13. We're not taking any chances on these two not being as crazy as they look."

"Understood."

Dropping one hand from his comm, Anderson took up his blaster again. He didn't even raise it up to aim properly, just held it out at arm's length, and let the HUD in his helmet take care of the rest. Three quick shots blasted the ground below, one missing Connor's head by inches, another glancing harmlessly of the rear hover well of the hover bike they were riding and the third leaving a scorch several feet ahead of their path. "Damn...gonna need to get this thing recalibrated. Should've at least been able to hit them from this range...even if it wouldn't bring them down."

"All hands: lessen your fire. Keep it up as a pretense, but lay off so we don't keep blasting holes in Empire property. We've got them headed right where we want them, just keep them headed right this way."

Several variations of "Affirmative." and "Understood." were relayed back to Anderson. A further call-in of "Marksman Unit D-191 reporting. Takedown specialist Scope reporting. We are in position and ready." and a grim smile crept onto his face. "They won't know what hit them."

------------------

Standing behind his partner, a Stormtrooper with a set of field glasses lifted to his visor suddenly spoke up. "Target is in sight, Scope. Approaching at maximum registered speed."

"I see him." Down on one knee, rifle mounted and resting on a bipod, its scope to the visor of his helmet, Scope spoke up calmly. "This shot is gonna be almost too easy."

"It's what they get for thinking they could outrun Empire justice." He clapped a hand down on the blue pauldron on Scope's right shoulder. "Fire when ready."

"Three....two....one."

A single bolt of energy lanced out from the barrel of the Stormtrooper's sniper rifle, and that was all it needed. It cut across the intervening distance in the blink of an eye and scythed through the front hover well of Trimmererra. The hove bike gave forth a valiant effort to maintain its course, but with a terrific shower of sparks, and a second shot the hover well all but exploded, sending the front end of the bike to impact the ground. The entire vehicle, and its passengers, came to a sudden halt and were launched into the air, spinning end over end before the hit the ground none to gently.

"They're not walking away from that one. Nice shooting."

"I never miss."

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Sackboy landed on the ground face-first. He would have yelled, but he only talked through his text bubble.

He got up with a splitting headache. He looked down and wearily extended his arms in the air in surrender.

Scope and his partner approached and pointed their guns at Sackboy and Connor.

"You are both going to the EPD." Scope's partner sneered.

[The Rogue]

CAUTION: The following post may be graphic to some users

Connor yelped when the front hover well blew. He tried to brace himself for the inevitable flip, but Trimmererra went down hard. There was the ear splitting screech of metal tearing and crushing. Then Connor hit the ground, CRACK, his ribs gave out and he slid across the road and flipped over.

He heard the steps of the two approaching Stormtroopers and he turned his head to them. "H-hey", he said to them in a wet rasping voice, "C-can you do me a favor?" he coughs and a red glob of blood lands on the ground next to him, "My ribs are cracked....a-and one of my lungs....", he erupts in a fit of coughing "Are punctured, can you just kill me now?"

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Sackboy glared at Connor and typed on his text bubble, "Now you've put both of us in trouble. I didn't ask to be rescued. They said they were going to let me go before...--He faints"

[The Rogue]

Sorry little dude, I-I felt bad for getting you c-caught..." Connor coughs up some more blood and then turns to the Stormtrooper, "C-can you kill me already?".

Scope takes aim and pulls the trigger, the sound of his rifle echoes about in the now quiet corridor of Tier 1 Courscant.

Connor has died.

[Storyteller]

Scope scared down the barrel of his rifle at the corpse that was, just a few short minutes ago, Connor Hound. In just a few minutes it would be nothing but a mass of Omnilium, fading away into the ether. And then it would be nothing but a memory until he woke up back at the Fountain of Infinity, if he still held Omni's interest. "These damn Primes...treating death like such a light thing." In a burst of anger, three more shots rang out, burning another series of holes in Connor's body.

"Whoa, whoa, Scope, easy there!" His spotter jogged swiftly up and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Just let it go. No sense taking it out on something that won't even feel the anger, man."

"...yeah." Slowly the marksman's rifle lowered, and a deep breath was hissed out. "It's over now, anyway."

"Not quite over just yet, gentlemen." The voice of Corporal Anderson rang in the comm of both troopers, drawing their helmeted gaze to the sky where the transport ship was hovering in place. "We've got our other runaway to contend with."

"Roger that, sir. Taking him back into custo—"

"Negative." Anderson's voice cut like a knife and stopped Scope and his partner in their tracks.

"Sir?"

"If he'd just been snatched up and taken along for the ride, he might have gotten off easier. But he chose to fight back and got more of my men injured in that damn chase. Light him up."

"...understood, sir." Without missing a beat, Scope's partner drew his sidearm in one fluid motion, and three quick shots burned matching holes in the burlap doll's figure, snuffing out whatever life kept him animated. "Not like death is much of a hindrance to Primes, anyway."