Topic: Never a dull moment - A Sector Rangers adventure

[Commander_Kurgan]

Never a dull moment, that was the slogan which the Ranger Force used in their recruiting campaigns in order to convince young and aspiring beings to make a career in the Ranger Force.
Of course, patrolling the Hyperspace Travel Routes and checking on the proper function of the Hyperspace Astrogation Buoys was not what anyone could call exciting, but there also were those missions when criminals like pirates, slavers and others were to be tracked down and apprehended.
Gangs were usually taken on by Ranger Teams while most missions were classic “Lone” Ranger stunts.

Aboard the Interceptor Patrol Craft AR-191 the day was about to start.
The IPC was a small vessel with a crew of one Ranger supported by an R1 unit. Most of the ship was engines and other miscellaneous machinery. The engineers concepting the IPC had paid little attention to creature comforts so the pilot had to recline his chair if he wanted to sleep. Even the cargo bay and the holding cell were roomier than the small fresher, galley and personal space for the Ranger altogether.
Yet the craft was fast, highly manoeuverable and packed some good firepower and those properties gave it an edge over most other spacecraft favored by criminals.

“One standard hour to ETA.” announced the electronic voice of the ship’s computer.
Sector Ranger Quade Nish opened his eyes and started stretching himself. He got used to sleeping in his pilots’ seat a long time ago. He pressed a button under the armrest and set the seat upright, then swivelled around so he could leave the cockpit through the armoured blast door which separated the main compartment of the vessel from the cockpit.
In the galley he drew a cup of sweet caf with a double portion of Nerf milk from the beverage dispenser and helped himself to a ration cube. Normally he didn’t exactly liked these ration cubes, but they provided the optimal combination of fibres, calories, vitamins and all the other good things which were supposed to keep a beings body healthy and fit.
He used the refresher and pulled a well broken-in flightsuit over his uniform. A Bantha hide jacket completed his undercover attire.

When he returned to the cockpit, the computer announced: “Ten minutes to ETA.”
The Ranger could easily have used the port facilities of the Mos Eisley Police Force, but without any doubt all local crime lords had their watchers posted to keep an eye on the opposition and for them it was important to know who came and who went.
He had cut off the projector which displayed the Sector Ranger badge on the nose and sides of the IPC for precisely this reason. There was no need to give too much intel away.
As the craft made its approach to Tattooine, he reviewed the tac reports through the secure Ranger comm channels and read the message which his local informant had burst-transmitted.
The target was still planetside and seemed unaware of any danger.

The Target was a certain Laf Magoo who was called “the Red” because of his flame-red hair. Magoo had killed 20 beings while involved in providing jobs for various crime lords.
Organized crime was a big problem for the Republic, especially as the lords usually kept themselves either hidden or could not be linked to the crime. Well, sometimes the never dull moments were full of frustration.

Nish set the IPC in Hangarbay 12.
“R1, you have the craft.” he said matter of factly and released the clamps which held his astromech, R1-D, subspace handle Errand, in its alcove. The bin-shaped astromech gave his affirmative signal and linked itself to the ship’s computer.
“Hunt them down, Ranger.” it said through the electronic computer voice.

[DocOutlands]

You tease!  Where's the rest??? 

[Commander_Kurgan]

Okay, here's Part II:


The Ranger opened the cargo bay and pulled the unmarked speeder out. Like the IPC, the speeder was a pretty good bit of equipment and although it didn’t look like much, provided a fast ride planetside.

He knew that Red Magoo liked to hang out in the Dowager Queen Cantina, a place on the 3rd Underground Level of Mos Eisley.
It was a short ride from the Hangarbays to the next entry to the underground levels.
Ranger Nish steered his speeder through the streets and found the entry. He dropped to the 3rd Level, cruising the vicinity of the Dowager Queen Cantina for a moment to get acquainted with the area. This was a part of Mos Eisley’s New Quarter and less bad than the Old Quarter, but still crime-ridden and pleasant only by local standards.

A Jawa eyeballed the speeder when the Ranger dismounted and tried to start a bartering conversation, but the Ranger waved him off.
“Get lost.” he said and activated the speeder’s theft protection system.

With a pneumatic hiss the door to the Dowager Queen Cantina slid open. The smell of illegal Spice hung heavily in the air and one could see the thick clouds of Daqqa steaming from the water pipes of quite a good number of beings.
Nish walked slowly through the cantina, seemingly relaxed and with no obvious purpose, but his eyes were scanning for Red Magoo. It was still a bit early for the target to come here, yet the Ranger wanted to see if there were other customers around.
He paused at the Sabacc tables for a moment, observing a heated debate about who cheated whom.
Although Blasters were forbidden to be carried in places like this cantina, the gun control rules were usually disregarded and this more often than not, led to solving situations like these with a more or less well-aimed Blaster shot.
He who shoots first is right, an unwritten Sabacc rule said and at about two paces distance between the players, it was hard to miss.

One pale-skinned being threw his cards down in rage and jumped to his feet while the other being, a rough-looking local didn’t engage in the manly chest-beating and simply drew a small holdout Blaster and put a round through the paleface’s chest, thus ending the game and the argument.

The Ranger walked on. He did not stay to watch how swiftly some of the cantina’s patrons searched the dead paleface for his valuables and stripped him of his clothes. Within minutes even his boots and underwear would be sold in the backstreets of Mos Eisley.
Upon the signal of the bartender, an older boy appeared and dragged the body of paleface through a back door. The corpse would be disposed of, probably being eaten by Womp Rats or other varmint.

Nish settled at the bar with his back towards the corner.
Wearing a smug smile, the bartender leaned forward.
“Good day, stranger.” he said. “What are you having?”
“I’ll have some hot caf.” the Ranger replied.
It took the bartender only seconds to produce the beverage. He set it before the Ranger and looked at him as he took his first sip of the hot caf.
“You’re here for the first time.” he stated. “I have a great memory and never forget a face.”
Nish lifted an eyebrow “Good for you.”
“Are you going to stay long?”
“Nah. Just passing through.”
“If you need a room, a girl or some Spice, let me know. I can get you everything you need.”
“That a fact?”
“Absolutely.” the bartender confirmed.

The Ranger looked him in the eyes and laid an electronic notepad on the counter. It showed the picture of Red Magoo.
“Do you know this guy?” he asked.
Shaking his head slowly, the bartender contemplated the picture. “Never seen this being. I told you, I have a great memory.”
The bartender started to break a sweat. For the mement he believed that this new patron was a Bounty Hunter, but his eyes widened when Nish pulled his Bantha hide jacket open to reveal the Ranger insignia on his left chest.
“Your lies are as bad as your caf. I know that Red Magoo is a regular in this shithole. Don’t try to tell me stories.”
“You’re a Sector Ranger…” he stated the obvious.
“I’ll make it easy for you.” the Ranger said with a cold smile. “When he comes here later today, you tell him that the Law has come for him.”

[Tamer]

Very nice. On the front page.

[beige-4]

SPACE COPS !! love it !

[Commander_Kurgan]

Part III:

„He’ll kill me if I tell him that.“ the bartender gasped.
The Ranger’s hand shot out, his fingers dug into the bartender’s colourful tunic and yanked him over the counter.
“In that case I’ll book him for 21 murders.” he growled. “Now you be a good citizen and do as I tell you before I turn this place of yours into a slaughterhouse as you know that I can.”
The bartender nodded wildly. “I’ll tell him when he gets here, Ranger…”
“Good. I’ll meet him here tomorrow at noon. He better be not armed or he will leave this place boots first.”

The Ranger released his grip on the man and laid his right on the grip of the heavy Blaster pistol which rode on his hip. He slipped out of his corner and approached the door.
Most patrons had either not taken notice of this little scene or at least pretended they hadn’t.
They knew they could joke around with most local cops, but they knew just as well that there was no fooling around with a Sector Ranger.

“Shall I tell the Red?” asked the older boy who had returned from disposing of the dead paleface.
The bartender watched the door which had closed behind the Ranger and while still looking at it said: “Yeah, wait a moment, then go and tell him. This Ranger asshole will be Womp Rat fodder by this time tomorrow.”

Scull, the errand boy of the Dowager Queen Cantina, exited the cantina through the back door. He looked carefully all around as he stepped into the alley behind the place where he did the dirty jobs which the bartender didn’t want to do himself.
It was a long walk to Red Magoo’s hiding hole so he jumped into the old beat-up speeder which the cantina maintained as a delivery truck and messenger vehicle.
He fired up the coughing engine and the speeder bucked as the repulsor field built up underneath it.

By speeder it took him only several minutes to the apartment building on the outskirts of Mos Eisley’s Old Quarter where Red Magoo holed up when he was in town.
Although he was generally a suspicious man, Magoo felt relatively safe in Mos Eisley. There were many worlds where he never left his hiding places except if he was off to do some work, but in lawless Mos Eisley he felt safe enough to develop habits such as visiting the Dowager Queen.
Here he also had the protection of Jabba the Hutt, one of the most powerful crime lords in this part of the Outer Rim. He had done quite a few jobs for Jabba and was one of his preferred gunhands.
Here people cleared the way for him when he walked along, they knew that he could kill them in a heartbeat and if in a foul mood would do so without thinking.
Killing somebody once in a while without apparent reason was good for one’s image, Magoo thought.
He opened the door to his safe-place after Scull had identified himself.

Following the boy had been a piece of cake for the Ranger. He could have waited for Magoo at the safe-house as his informant had given him the location already, but he wanted to make sure that the address was still current.
The place suited a character like Magoo: a big apartment complex where many people lived and nobody knew his neighbors. Nobody wanted to know his neighbors, to be precise. He could come and go as he pleased and nobody would want to know who and where and when.

He had placed small surveillance cameras near the front and rear doors, there were no windows through which he could escape near the ground.
The boy’s speeder was parked across the the street, too far away for a quick dash and the Ranger had found himself a place under the sunshade of a shop.
By now he had replaced the Bantha hide jacket and flightsuit for the hooded cloak of a local moisture farmer. This garment hid his uniform and body armor nicely and could be jettisoned in no time when it was time for action.
He sipped some spiced water from a bottle and for all the world looked like a farmer passing time away.

[Kualan]

It's like good cop, bad cop...except without the good cop...and the bad cop is a bad-ass cop. Liking it, Commander_Kurgan.

[Commander_Kurgan]

Part IV:

Out of the corners of his eyes he noticed a young woman approaching.
The bulky peasant poncho betrayed how slender her frame actually was, but the haggard face gave it away.
She sat down beside the Ranger, reached for his bottle of spiced water and took a long pull of the now lukewarm liquid.

“You shouldn’t have come.” the Ranger stated in a low voice without looking at her. Whatever would happen today, he could not use her as an informant again in the future.
“I tried to stay away but couldn’t.” she replied. “After all, he killed my brother.”
The Ranger turned his head slowly and looked into her big brown eyes. It was like he was looking right into her soul.
“Yeah.”
“I want to see him die.”  she rasped.
Nish shook his head. “He will have to stand trial. I’m here to arrest him, not to shoot him in cold blood.”
“He will never come peacefully.”
“Then so be it…”

“The Ranger said you should meet him at the Queen tomorrow at noon and be unarmed.” Scull said. He was looking at the floor, well knowing that too bold a posture would only provoke the Red.
“Of course, it is going to be a trap.”  Magoo mused.
He turned around and walked over to the wall-mounted comm unit. Touching the dialling panel, he tried to reach one of his friends in the Mos Eisley police force who usually was well tied in and would know if the Ranger was recruiting a posse from local cops.

“Haven’t heard anything about a Sector Ranger.” the treacherous policeman said. “Nobody has required us to support an arrest. Maybe he’s just some Bounty Hunter posing as a Ranger.”
“Maybe.” Magoo replied.
He was sure he could handle any Bounty Hunter in the Outer Rim who was stupid enough to come after him, but just to be sure he said: “Meet me at the Queen in an hour. I want to know what’s going on.”
Then he turned towards Scull.
“You go back to the Queen and leave the back door unlocked. I’ll be there in 90 minutes.”
He opened the blinders of the window and watched the street in front of the building.
There was nothing unusual to be seen. Scull’s speeder was parked across the street with a group of Jawas eyeballing the vehicle and maybe waiting for the vehicle’s owner to return so they could try to buy the speeder off him. A peasant couple was sitting in the dirt in front of the neighbourhood store pissing time away and sharing water from a bottle, another farmer was wrangling his Ronto and a drunken Tusken was ambling by.
“Leave me your speeder.” Magoo ordered Scull. “I don’t want to walk.”

The wind was picking up, driving dust along the street.
Nish noticed that the large door of the apartment complex opened, revealing the frame of the Dowager Queen’s errand boy. He watched Scull cross the street and walk away in the general direction of the cantina. When the boy had cleared the area, the Ranger nodded towards the woman sitting next to him.
“Time for you to go. I’ll walk you over to the corral.” He said.
They got up. Nish tossed the empty bottle away and helped the woman to her feet. Together they crossed the street and walked over to the Ronto corral like they were waiting for a chance to purchase a new animal or asking a Ronto breeder for a job.
Hiding in plain sight was the key to success. All it took was the disguise of an average person and an unimpressive, slightly slouched posture in order to become invisible even for the most alert observer. In most environments one just had to look like a common working man.

Fourty minutes after the boy had left, the door to the complex opened again and Red Magoo stepped into the street. He paused in the shade of the building for a brief moment, assessing the situation.
He saw the speeder waiting for him including the Jawas. The peasant couple were at the Ronto corral leaning on the dry walls and discussing the animals, shoppers were passing by, children played in the dirt, mothers yelled after them and despite it being late afternoon by now, it was still unpleasantly hot.
Magoo walked out into the sun.

The Ranger had seen the Red appear and while still talking to the woman had taken a quick bioscan of the man to make sure it was him.
Of course, it was him. He moved like an experienced gunhand and to one working in that line of business it was obvious what he was.

The farmer’s cloak slid off his head and shoulders revealing the uniform, badge and gun of the Ranger.
He snatched the heavy Blaster from his holster and trained it on the target. A red dot appeared between Magoo’s shoulder blades.
“Freeze!”

[Phatty]

This is pretty good so far, Kurgan!  Keep it coming!

[DocOutlands]

So.  WHEN are we gonna see customs of the characters?  Or do we have to come up with those ourselves??

[Commander_Kurgan]

Thanks for the encouragement, folks!

@Doc: At least the Ranger will be turned into a figure. Please feel free to do the bad guy or some other character from the story. Maybe Jay wants to do R1-D?

[Commander_Kurgan]

Part V:

The sudden challenge stopped Magoo dead in his tracks.
So it was a Ranger after all. The bounty on his head said dead or alive and no Bounty Hunter would have been stupid enough to put himself in danger if he might as well shoot him from behind for the same prize.

“Sector Rangers!” the deep voice boomed across the dusty street.
Red implied that the Ranger must have been holed up in the Ronto corral or maybe they had come as a team of two…the peasant couple.

“You are under arrest!” the voice declaimed. “Do not try something funny.”

The gunman knew that he was at a great disadvantage. One, maybe two Rangers had their weapons trained on him and regardless how fast he could draw and fire his Blaster, he would not be fast and accurate enough to make a quick turn, draw and fire to disable one or both of them.

“You will hold your open hands to the sides and slowly raise your arms!” ordered the voice from behind.

“And if I don’t?” Magoo asked. “You’re sworn to protect the law, you can’t shoot me in the back.”

A cold half-laugh erupted from the Ranger. “Watch me. Dead or alive, you’re coming with me!”
Even as he laughed and spoke, the red dot of the targeting device on his Blaster pistol never left the spot he intended to hit.

Slowly, very slowly, Red Magoo extended his arms to the sides, then, also slowly, raised them high over his head.

“Get down on one knee!” the Ranger ordered. “Keep it nice and slow.”
Magoo did exactly that.
“Now get down on the other knee!”
The gunman knew that this probably was going to be his only chance to make a swift roll forward over a shoulder, draw and take a quick snapshot at the Ranger, but he didn’t dare to do it and went down on the other knee.

With his free hand the Ranger took a pair of cuffs from his duty belt.
Now came the hard part, because putting cuffs on a target without another Ranger for backup was potentially dangerous.
Carefully, he approached Magoo from behind and it dawned on the gunhand that the Ranger was alone. Who ever the woman had been, she was not his partner, because in order to keep him in her sights, would have to move up on his left or right without having the Ranger between her and him.

Magoo heard the Ranger move up on him, he heard the heavy boots crunching on the sand and gravel so typical for Mos Eisley’s streets and saw the frame  of the Ranger casting its shadow over him. The Ranger was now dangerously close.
With his left, he snapped the cuffs around Magoo’s left wrist…the gunhand’s muscles tensed, he would throw himself around and draw his weapon when the Ranger tried to bring Magoo’s wrist onto his back to cuff his wrists together…another second maybe…

The technique which became known as the Tattooine Takedown happened in a heartbeat, maybe in two:
With a vicious blow, the Ranger hit Magoo in the back of the neck, pushing the gunman onto his belly. His face smacked into the gravel, his lips bursting from the sudden impact. Following through the push, the Ranger dropped down on one knee, placing it right on the back of Magoo’s neck and centering his full weight on this vulnerable body part.
He holstered his Blaster, then finished cuffing Magoo.
As the cuffs closed around the murderer’s wrists, the shock emitters activated and would issue electric shocks to the cuffed subject if it tried to yank the cuffs open.

The Ranger turned Magoo over and scanned him for weapons. It was not difficult to find two Blasters on him, one Sporting Blaster with targeting aid and one small Holdout Blaster, a Sabacc Special. He also found a vibroknife, a piece of thin wire, lock-picking device and other miscellaneous tools of the trade.
Magoo spit blood, sand and cursed the Ranger.
Nish gave the gunman a cold stare, grabbed him by the hair and pulled him to his feet.

[beige-4]

TOO COOL !"!
im telling tamer !

[Commander_Kurgan]

Part VI:

He spoke into the comm device strapped to his left wrist: “Errand, call the speeder back to the craft and prepare for departure.”
Within seconds he received an affirmative signal.
The Ranger pushed Magoo forward towards the beat-up cantina speeder.
“Shift it, perp.”

It was difficult for Magoo to climb into the cargo compartment of the speeder with his hands cuffed behind his back, but some physical encouragement from the Ranger helped him along. Nish closed the hatch behind his target and darkness fell around the gunman.
It was unbearably hot in the cargo bin as long as the engine was turned off, but it got tolerable as soon as the Ranger fired up the speeder.
He didn’t want to let too many people see whom he was flying around. After all, the gunman had some friends in Mos Eisley.

On the route to the Hangarbays the speeder was followed for a short while by a Swoop bike of the Mos Eisley police force. The traffic cop flashed his lights and turned on his siren to let the Ranger know he wanted him to stop and pull off the street.
The Ranger complied with the request and turned off the engine while the traffic cop swung in behind him, dismounted from his Swoop and opened the visor of his blast helmet.

“Good evening citizen.” the Cop said. “Mos Eisley Traffic Control. I need to see your ID chip.”
The Ranger handed the Cop his ID chip who put it in his reading device and listened to him whistling in his teeth.
“A Sector Ranger. A Special Enforcement Officer even.” the Cop said. “What’s your business in Mos Eisley?”
“None of your business.” the Ranger replied. He knew that many police forces were full of officers who were moonlighting for the crime lords and thus could not be trusted. As a Ranger he also did not have to answer to a local policeman.

The Cop tossed the ID chip back.
“I know everything about you Rangers.” he spit. “You think you’re some class of your own. Come and go as you please and enjoy some almighty powers. Do you think you’re some kind of Jedi, eh?”
Nish looked at him.
“You’re stealing my time. Now be a good boy and piss off before I note your badge number and report you to your boss. Have a great day.”

He let the engines of the speeder roar and got back on the road.
Behind him the Cop opened his jacket and took a comm device from an inside pocket and sent a bust message out...

As the Ranger was approaching the Hangarbay where his craft was waiting, he noticed the Traffic Cop leaning on his Swoop.
“This is getting better.” he though and steered the cruddy old speeder towards the gate to Hangarbay 12.

He had a gut feeling that something was amiss. This OP had gone too flawless for too long.
“R1, I’m almost there. Standby for cover fire.”
“Affirmative, Ranger.” The Astromech replied through the craft’s computer.
The Ranger preferred computerized or droid-guided cover fire. His biosignature was programmed into the craft’s targeting system so there would be no friendly fire accident, unless he himself did something incredibly unfortunate or stupid.

The speeder came to an aprupt halt close to the IPC’s airlock.
In the shadows of the maintenance areas there was movement to his left and right. Whoever was creeping around in the dark was trying to cut him off from the gate to prevent a swift escape into the streets of Mos Eisley.

He opened the cargo hatch of the speeder and dragged the sweat-covered gunman out. The heat had taken its toll on Magoo. He felt like the limp end of a Bantha tail as the tried to stay on his feet, swaying from side to side as he was trying to keep his balance.
The Ranger held him by the collar of his finely crafted jacket and forced him to stand up.

“We will take care of him, flatfoot.” came a voice out of the shadows.
The Ranger grinned viciously. “Come and get him!”

[Commander_Kurgan]

Finale

Six beings stepped into the daylight. They spread out so that two of them were covering the center of their line, two went half left and half right while the other two stood ready to flank the Ranger.
By the looks of them, they were a tough gang and the way they confronted him seemed pretty well choreographed.
He could not spot any body armor on them and the Bantha hide jackets were not going to stop shots from his heavy Blaster pistol.

Their leader, a rough and ready Weequay, said: “We are more than prepared to take Magoo by force. Do yourself a favour and hand him over to us. Then we might spare your crappy life.”
He sounded as if he really believed what he said.

Behind the Ranger, the IPC opened two hidden hatches revealing twin rotary Blaster cannons.
The menacing guns swung around and showed the mobsters their hot ends.
“Drop your weapons.” the Ranger said. “Otherwise, we will blow you to pieces.”

Whatever led to the following event could never be fully cleared. Maybe somebody sneezed, maybe somebody simply lost his nerves, maybe somebody thought he could outdraw and outshoot a computer.
The twin rotary Blasters laid down a withering barrage of fire on the gang, literally blowing four of them apart so that only small heaps of bloody tissue remained.
With two short bursts the Ranger brought down one of the remaining gang members and with another wounded the Weequay badly.
The gangster went to his knees, clutching the abdominal wound with both hands and tried to stuff his entrails back into the gaping hole. His Blaster lay at his side. Although he had had it already drawn, he had not managed to get out more than one shot.

The tall frame of the Ranger was towering over him.
“Who sent you, perp?” he demanded.
The Weequay coughed blood. “Kiss my…”
He drew his last breath and fell over to a side.

At the speeder, Magoo was struggling to his feet. When the shooting started, the Ranger had pushed him behind the vehicle to keep him from getting accidentally shot.
“Damn.” he muttered. Those six guys had been some of Jabba’s best henchmen and now most of  them were not even smoking corpses. Jabba was not going to like this one bit.
He saw the Ranger walking towards him, spinning his Blaster pistol before holstering it.
Magoo looked away.

With a pneumatic hiss the airlock of the craft opened.
The Ranger pointed inside.
“Saddle up. The holding cell is to your left when you get aboard.”

As the airlock closed behind the Ranger, R1 rolled into its alcove.
“Good shooting, Errand.” Nish complimented the Astromech, then took his place in the cockpit and punched new co-ordinates into the craft’s computer.
Port control signalled their affirmative for the IPC’s takeoff and moments later the craft was shooting up into the atmosphere over Mos Eisley.
The Ranger enjoyed a quick look out of the cockpit’s canopy, the twin suns were sinking over Tattooine casting gleaming red light over the desert.

THE END