Hytar's Ship

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Vicky was busy setting up her quarters, after some negotiations and the like she had join Hytar group for a while. Busily she set up her gaming system, though knew since the new upgrade she wouldn't be playing all night. While many races found sleep annoying she found it delightful being able to do it now.

Shane growled when he saw the guard, making a rock then sending it at him like a bullet without a gun

"She doesn't particularly like guards." Ariston told the guards quietly. "we find it best to simply... leave her to it. It prevents an... irritating tantrum and shouts about people going through her belongings."

Saira, if she overheard, didnt' react. She just took a deep breath and continued to meditate.

---

Hytar had his team go slow, mindful of any security systems in place.
Swarm moved ahead of them, scouting out the tunnels and calling back any tripwires or blinking lights they saw.
One of Hytar's men set to work carefully disabling those traps they came across, or else finding an alternate route.

---

Eleven growled, eyes glowing red as they fought.

Toby was far quieter, fur bristling and tail twitching as she listened out for danger.

Shane's rock killed the guard, who crumpled to the ground silently.

Tala signaled for Shane to lead the way and look for traps, while she and the others provided cover, and watched for any attackers who might sneak up behind.

There were quite a few magical tripwires here, so progress was rather slow. There were some sounds of footsteps from the direction the group had come, some guards who had heard distant gunfire were coming to investigate.

~~
"Terrans are so damn fragile," one of the guards said dismissively, losing interest in Saira.

"I can't get my com to work. I'm gonna go outside and try to call about getting a specialist in here for the goods," another guard said. "We need a pro to evaluate this stuff."

~~
Hytar's team would make good progress for a while, and gradually the traps became less frequent, but these service tunnels were pretty meandering and indirect, and sometimes the team would encounter the slaves who used these tunnels to do their work. There seemed to be quite a few of them down here, carrying brooms or mops for the most part.
Maybe they could hide from the slaves sometimes, but that wasn't going to be possible every time, and pretty soon some poor slave was going to spot them.

Ariston nodded. "i'll come with you." He told the guard, making it clear he didn't trust these guys any more than they trusted him. That was how these things worked, too much trust would be suspicious after all.

---

Hytar noticed the slaves and nodded to his team to stop. They'd come to rescue slaves, which included these poor bastards. Now, where there were slaves, there were usually slavers. He sent Swarm to locate whoever was overseeing these slaves, and carefully approached one such slave who seemed to currently be alone. They'd be much easier to convince than a group. Of course failing that, there was always a stun gun.
He tried to look unthreatening though, hands raised, palms out, unarmed, he approached and silently moved a finger to his lips.

The guard nodded. "You can come along." He headed out the airlock to try and place a call on his com. "Shit, it's not working, piece of junk," he said after a few tries. He raised his voice, "Someone, get the damned rare items specialist over here!"

Meanwhile the other guards kept searching the ship.

~~
The slave saw Hytar and backed up slowly, watching him. Yeah, she didn't trust random people who sneaked around with attack teams, and tried to shush you. "Who are you?" She whispered, edging back to try and get far enough so she could turn and bolt.

Shane spread his wings to silently tell the group when to stop as he found the traps so he could disarm them. The closer they got, the more star dragon 'voices' he could hear and convince to stay calm and wait for his signal so they could escape together.

Hytar kept his voice low. "We're here to get you and the others out of here."

---

Ariston nodded, adjusted his tie and went with the guard. He looked at the com as the guard got angry with it. "Mm such a shame, have your bosses considered investing in something a little more robust and reliable?" He smiled his best salesman smile. "Perhaps I could put you in contact with someone."

Tala stayed near the back of the group, she heard those guards footsteps coming down the hall. When they appeared around the corner, she and some of her team would hastily shoot them, letting Shane keep handling the situation up at the front. They were drawing closet to where the star dragons were kept, and security was getting more tricky to get through, although not yet impossible.

Eventually they'd reach a big, locked door with two guards standing watch. This must be the way to where the star dragons were kept.

~~
"And then what are you going to do with us?" The woman asked, still slowly backing up. She was just about at a corner now, where she could dive out of the line of fire and run away.

~~
"It's a com, it just works, we don't need to spend more on these things," the guard said.

The specialist came out of the hold after a bit, and headed over, carrying a selection of magical tools. "Why didn't you use the com?" She said.

"I tried. It's broken," the guard said.

The specialist looked suspiciously at Ariston, put on some goggles, and headed into the ship.

Shane looked at the guards and tilted his head then looked around for any more traps near them, or anti-magic barriers. He would let the others shoot the guards while he searched.

Ariston smiled and followed this expert. "Have it your way." he told the guard.

---

"Well not me persssonally, but thossse who sssent usss have thessse notionsss of freedom and liberty and all that sssort of thing. " Hytar smiled and held out a hand. "I realisssse you don't trussst sssstrangerss but let me asssk you thisss, isssn't anything better than thiss?" He gestured around.

A couple of the team picked off the guards, leaving just the door in Shane's way. The coast seemed to be clear... for now, anyway.

~~
The specialist looked around as she boarded the ship. "What magic is that girl doing?" She asked sharply, looking at Saira through those goggles she'd put on.

The other guards froze. "She's doing magic?" One whispered.

~~
The slave woman nodded, like she was considering Hytar's words carefully. She was still backing up slowly though. She
finally reached the bend in the hallway, then abruptly turned tail and fled.

Shane moved to the door, checking it to get it open so they could get in and free the slaves in there.

The door opened to a hallway lined with cells. Most of the cells contained star dragons, although some of them contained humanoids who might have been dragons or not. The dragons here weren't all of the dragons at the hold, but it was a pretty large percentage of them.

(You wanna control the dragons, Starr? )

Shane looked at the dragons as he walked in then set to work opening the cells. As one was set free, if they were strong enough, they would move to help free the others as Shane explained what was going on to them all.

Hytar sighed. "Get her." He instructed. Two of his men peeled off to give chase to the girl and hopefully shoot her with a stun gun.

Hytar adjusted his tie. "looksss like we do thisss the hard way." He took out his own stun gun. "Ssstun any you come acrosss, bring them back to here, we'll get them out the way we came."

----

Ariston stood in the doorway to the ship, smiling placidly and very subtly tapped the radio on his belt.
The door behind him closed with a hiss and he raised his gun, pointing it directly at the expert.

The last few members of the crew stepped into place, this was probably going to get messy.

With the star dragons' help, freeing of the very valuable slaves would go faster. Soon star dragons, and a few interesting specimens from other species, were flooding out of their cages to help each other escape.

Then the alarm went off.

~~
The woman didn't make it very far, she ran like crazy, but before long, one of the stun darts hit her. She stumbled a few paces further before collapsing.

For many of the slaves who served in this place, it was going to be a similar story. Lots of running and hiding, not trusting these newcomers to actually mean them well.

The slave dorms weren't too far away, when the alarm went off. Catching all those guys was going to be... fun.

~~
The guards who had been in the main room drew together as the doors closed, drawing their guns. The specialist tried to get behind the guards. "Let us out, you don't want our blood on your hands," she tried. She could count, she knew the odds for getting out on an enemy ship like this weren't good, your best bet was to negotiate. Not that that looked like it was going to work here, darn it.

Shane looked up at the alarm then looked to the other dragons. "So much for quiet, time to get all the slaves out of here and free." He said, looking around to make sure they were all free in here before he would search for any other slaves nearby. "Tala, we need someone to lead this group to the shuttle while we search for more. The stronger ones can help guard the weaker ones."

Ariston smiled his pleasant smile, coal-like eyes glinting with malice. "And why not?" He asked.

Saira was still jamming their coms.

---

Hytar's group split into two. One group to take the drugged up slaves back to the shuttle, the other lot to continue forward and capture more. He'd made a deal to get as many slaves out of here as possible, he'd never specified HOW he'd do that. If they wouldn't cooperate, they'd be taken by force.

---

With the alarms blaring Eleven growled and climbed up a wall, slashing at any security cameras or alarm systems to shut them up. It wouldn't stop the guards, but it did mean they were now ABOVE any guards who tried to storm them.

Toby growled and raised her gun. "i'll take this lot back, keep moving. " She'd lead the slaves back to the shuttle, shooting anyone who got in their way.

"Because you're obviously decent folk just trying to make a living. You don't need to kill us. You don't want the ire of Avolire Hold, either, these people will make their revenge swift and thorough," the specialist said.

Meanwhile outside Hytar's ship, the guards had noticed that the airlock was shut. "Open your airlock immediately!" someone in the air control tower called in over the radio.

~~
The slaves didn't try to fight, but they did try to run. It was hard to catch them all, and probably a few would manage to evade capture entirely. Thankfully the majority did eventually get caught by Hytar's team.

Hytar's shuttle was going to be positively crammed though.

~~
Tala nodded. "Ask some of the star dragons to help free anyone else here, Shane, the rest of them can help the weak. Thank you, Toby."

There was another hallway with a few star dragons not too far away, fortunately there weren't as many there. Hopefully they could get them all freed quickly.

Some guards were racing this way now. Their footsteps pounded in the hall and they were yelling.

Shane nodded, talking to the star dragons he could to let them know what was going on and to spread word that they were being freed so they would stop running and stop the others from running so they could go with the rescuers.

He went to get to the next hallway as quickly as they could, a few of the strong star dragons coming with them to free others and fight the slavers now that they had a chance.

Hytar ordered the shuttle once full to leave, leaving him and one other crew member on the ground. They'd find a way out of here themselves.

He wasn't overly concerned as he picked his way along the service tunnels, pausing every so often to place an explosive charge from his bag. When they reached the exit into the main hold he stopped, turning to his companion "Alright, let'sss finisssh thisss."

His companion nodded and moved ahead a little way, they were looking for a guard or two to jump.

----

The main ship didn't do at it was told, instead the engines roared to life and it started to take off. This was the distraction.

While the skeleton crew held the hostages at gunpoint, Lope merrily opened fire on air traffic control and any guards in the landing bay.

It should, hopefully, serve as a very good distraction for those still within the hold and any small shuttles trying to sneak away.

There were a lot of guards coming in to try and control the escaping dragon situation now. They knew that even one star dragon was worth more than they made in several years, so they were doing their best to use tasers and tranq darts, rather than bullets.

Tala had her armor, so she kept herself between the rescue team and the guards, letting the darts bounce off her while she fired on the guards and bellowed. The tasers were more effective on her and disoriented her, but she was big, and her armor was designed to provide at least some amount of protection from electricity.

Meanwhile the dragons and her team would be pretty free to release the last few prisoners.

~~
Hytar wouldn't encounter too much trouble now, since most of the guards seemed to have run off to deal with some other situation. Oops.

They'd probably find some guards at the exit, who were debating whether to leave their stations and find out what was going on.

~~
The ship's departure was met with a great deal of activity. A couple of ships took off in pursuit, guns blazing. The missiles weren't fired yet, as the people in the ground tried to decide whether the hostages were actually valuable enough to save.

The hostages all abandoned their professionalism and tried to talk the crew into letting them go.

Hytar strolled up to the guards, casually shooting both with the stun gun.

His companion stole their uniform and they both rammed them into the nearest cage they could find.

---

Lope guided the ship around in an arc, still firing on the ground and any defence systems while trying to avoid those ships.

Ariston smiled serenely. "Sit tight, maybe if you don't cause trouble we'll consider letting you join your friends."

---

Eleven growled and shot at the guards, trying to keep moving to make less of a target. They were small and fast, and seemed to be able to scale vertical surfaces pretty efficiently.
Xe tore a camera out the wall and hurled it into the guards.

The dragons helped in defence and freeing the others, getting everyone they could out. A couple dragons took off in dragon form, flying into space to fight from there. "I think that's everyone, we should go" Shane said when he couldn't feel anymore imprisoned here.

"There's the eggs" one of the female dragons said, going off to lead the way to the 'nursery' to get them out to.

Eleven jumped down from the wall and followed the female. "How many?"

The guards didn't stand a chance. If they woke up before the Hold blew up, they were going to have some serious regrets. At least their uniforms went to good use?

~~
The hostages were pretty scared. One of the guards babbled something about how he was too young to die.

The ships were following Hytar's ship pretty closely, and apparently the hostages weren't worth much, because pretty soon they started firing missiles at the ship too.

~~
The guards tried hard to subdue the army of dragons, minotaurs, various creatures, and... whatever Eleven was, but they were losing, they just didn't have the firepower and the numbers to handle this situation.

Tala nodded. "Fetch the eggs, and then we shall leave with all haste."

"I don't know, a lot." The female replied. She broke the door when they reached it then went in. She looked around then turned to grab a bag as others followed. They started picking out eggs, only taking the viable ones to fill the bags with. "Done" She said, looking to Eleven, though there was almost twice as many left as they had put in the bags, all unviable

Shane and the dragons that stayed fought with magic, their wings tightly folded to their sides so darts couldn't stick to them. They would only stop when the resistance did.