Nico's Gambit

Double Crossed

She got to the hangar entrance and looked around. For a fraction of a second, a blaster barrel tip peeked out from the doorway.

"Damn," she said. She leaned against the wall and tried to think. She didn't want to get ambushed, but she needed to find out how many guys were in the hangar. She looked down and saw a good-sized rock laying near her foot. She picked it up and lobbed it so it landed behind the squat med building. Just as she thought, a separatist peeked out to see what had made that noise, and in that second she fired her blaster and took him out. 

 She waited. If there were more inside they might have heard the blaster fire and come running. That would be a boon to her. No one came. Cursing her foul luck she edged her way to the doorway and peeked inside. Three seps stood on the far side of the hanger. No wonder they hadn't heard their friend bite the dust. She looked beyond them and there Corso lay, knocked out cold, or dead.

Off to her right was a stack of transport crates. She could maneuver to get behind those crates if she got a clear shot and down one more separatist, so it would allow her to take out the other two.  She prayed they hadn't as much target practice as she had. Aiming her blaster for the closest sep, she fired a shot directly into his head and he dropped like a brick. Before the other two could react, she rolled forward behind the crates. She snuck to the far side. They had started to run for the doorway. She took aim as best she could with a moving target and got him in the back. Nico had warned her about doing that. It was bad form, and you didn't get the opportunity to see the look of surprise in their eyes when they dropped. Two down, one to go.

She looked around the hangar. She was relieved to see that her ship was still on the landing pad. Maybe Nico had gotten wise to the invasion and hid in one of their smuggling compartments. Or more likely, hunting whoever was in their ship, grouchy and hungover enough to get himself killed. She couldn't find the other sep. He was hiding. That was bad. She inched around the edge of the crate to get a better look when a fist came flying into her face. Momentarily dazed, she fell at his feet. As soon as her brains started working again, she grabbed her other pistol and jammed it right into the sep's baby-makers. The man grunted as he bent over in pain. Odette managed to get to her feet and, with as much force as she could, clocked the guy across the temple.

"Didn't your momma teach you not to hit girls?" she said as she blasted him in the head for good measure.

Odette ran over to Corso. She tapped him on the cheek. He looked to be rousing when she heard the thrusters fire up on the Gambit. It flew off and out of sight. Maybe by some miracle, Nico would be able to overpower Skavak and take the ship back, but she held out little hope for that. Nico's last bender had been pretty bad and as he had gotten older it took longer to shake off the hangovers he inevitably suffered.

Once again, she tried to wake Corso up. His eyes flitted open and he gave her a huge farm boy smile, with crossed eyes.

"Ugh, I feel like a gundark used my skull like a drum," he said sitting up and holding his head. "Skavak stabbed us in the back. He took the ship and the weapons."

Odette pulled Corso to his feet and held his arm and chest until he was a little more steady on his feet. He patted himself down. "Where's Torchy? He stole my blaster too."

"Um, I'm sorry?" Odette said.

"Torchy was a genuine BlasTech ALT-25 with magnatomic adhesion grip and side-mounted rangefinder. She is too good for Skavak!"

"That scum stole my ship!" Odette said, pointing to where the Gambit had flown away. "My one ride off this puke of a planet."

"He's not going to get away with this," Corso said, pulling out his holocommunicator. "Come on. . . Answer, blast you!"