Everard woke up, jerking awake to the familiar gentle hum of the LF Drakon. As he looked around recognizing his quarters that had evidently been used as an impromptu medical bay while he was out. He didn't necessarily keep his room the cleanest on the ship, but he could say with confidence there was not a whole host of medical supplies including different syringes and bandages scattered at his desk before he left. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and glanced down at the bacta patch that was stuck on the calf of his injured leg. He chuckled, mentally saying his thanks for Raven before attempting to stand up. His body was sore and standing up strained his muscles, but he was able to get upright, that is until he took a step and crashed to the ground holding his leg. It took him a few minutes of swearing, stumbling, falling, and yelling for help, but he was able to get back to his feet and with the assistance of a cane left near his bed he was able to take a few uneasy steps. He walked into the main area of the ship ready to express his annoyance with his friends for listening to him struggle in there shouting, "You guys are..." he trailed off as he cleared the corner and found the room empty. He conducted the galaxy's slowest search room by room, checking each crew members quarters and finding each one empty. In a panic he made his way to the back of the ship and heard the faint hum of the ray shield as he approached the waste disposal. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the pirate fast asleep mumbling to himself still detained. They had decided the waste disposal with its ray shield that protected the rest of the ship from being sucked into space when it was opened would make a decent holding cell until they reached their contact. With the prisoner still securely stored away Everard went back into his room to put on his actual clothes as the only thing he was wearing was a pair of shorts and whatever patches he had on his body. He struggled mightily trying to put his clothes on but with his familiar blue vest back on he felt a sense of calm wash over him, that and strapping his A180 blaster back to his right hip. He started to make his way to the cockpit to check if maybe they were meeting in there, they definitely should've heard his flailing though so he approached warily. He was just reaching the hallway connecting the main room to the cockpit when he heard a high pitched beep and saw a little R9 unit come rolling around the corner knocking the cane out of his left hand and sending him crashing to the ground once again as it went. Through much griping and many beeped apologies he was able to make it to his feet again with the cane back in his hand. "What's wrong with you R9?" He panted, as the cane fiasco really took a lot out of him. The little droid launched into a flurry of beeps and whistles, and Everard being new to the crew and very little exposure to astromechs before didn't quite get what he was saying, he roughly understood there was trouble in the cockpit, so he told the droid to come with him and they'd check it out. He hobbled his way into the cockpit and found it as empty as the rest of the ship. However, R9's beeps became more frequent. He was starting to get annoyed with the droid when he heard Azalin's voice come through his comm link that was laying on the ships flight controls saying, "We had a deal!"
Everard looked through the cockpit window and felt his heart leap into his throat and his blood run cold. He found his friends standing unarmed along with two people he'd never seen before in the hangar of an imperial cruiser, with an imperial captain in front holding his blaster pistol pointed directly at Azalin's face. He was flanked by four stormtroopers in black armor with the imperial mark blazing in red on their chests and helmets, their blaster rifles glinted like their armor as they were pointed at the rest of his friends. He heard the oily voice of the captain come over the intercom, "Well you see this way the empire wipes out a pirate and prevents another group of smugglers from becoming a nuisance in one single stroke." Everard knew he had to act so he belted orders to the droid making concerned beeps behind. "R9 activate the ships cannons and take aim behind the imperials, on my signal radio in to the others and tell them to get out the way and then fire." The droid gave several excited beeps at the idea of operating the cannons and perhaps would've caused Everard to rethink his plan if he'd had any other choice. He raced, or briskly hobbled down the corridor towards the entrance of the ship. As he went he could hear Azalin trying to talk his way out of trouble with the captain, who seemed to be listening mainly out of a cruel sense of amusement rather than any actual interest in Azalin's proposal. He was just about to hit the button to lower the steps as he heard R9 beep over the comm link telling the others to duck "Damn impatient droid" he muttered to himself as he slammed his fist against the button, drawing his blaster as the steps swiftly dropped. Right as the door opened to where he could see his friends he watched them all fling themselves as far away from the imperials as they could, they were all very familiar with R9's questionable aim after all. The imperials were all blasted forward onto the ground and did not attempt to rise, except for the captain, who recognizing what was coming had flung himself forward as well, he rose with his blaster aimed at Azalin's back, who was already on his feet sprinting to the ship. Everard raised his blaster pistol at the captain and took aim, he fired and a flash of green seared its way through the air and burned its way into the captains shoulder, causing him to drop his blaster in pain. "COME ON!" ,Everard bellowed at his friends, the others were more dazed than Azalin but, Everard's unusually stern command got their attention and they stumbled to their feet and begin to race towards the ship as well. However, unfortunately the other imperials in the hangar had recovered as well and were beginning to fire towards the crew right as they began reaching the ship. The majority seemed intent on disabling the ship but more than a few deadly bolts arced their way past his friends close enough he was sure they could feel their body hair searing off as they filed one by one past him into the ship. He tried to return fire against the imperials, but he was basically firing blind as the blaster bolts ricocheted around him at the top of the steps throwing sparks everywhere blinding him. The last one inside was a tall dark skinned man Everard didn't recognize but the man grabbed him around the chest and pulled him inside as Rikki slammed his fist on the button, closing the door. Ely had already raced down the hallway, with Tye hot on his tail to copilot the ship. The remaining eight people were catching their breathe in the hallway immediately behind the doors until they were suddenly and harshly thrown into the wall and each other with an incredibly swift jump of the ship. After a rough couple of seconds the acceleration slowed and the crew was able to rise to their feet again, Everard assisted by the same man as before as Rikki handed him the cane. He hobbled his way into the main room throwing himself down on the sofa thoroughly exhausted, and shortly R9 was given the controls as the entire crew and the newcomers settled around him.
Ely reported with a mad grin on his face that they had barely cleared the hangar before jumping into hyper space, Everard while impressed was also quite sore from both hitting the walls of the ship and then having Rikki crash into him as a result to show his admiration however. The two newcomers introduced themselves as well, the man that had been helping Everard introduced himself as Jhulian while the small dainty woman with him called herself Ahri. They were evidently fellow smugglers set up by the empire in the same way as the crew of the Drakon. The group swapped stories in a moment of relative levity before Azalin's cold voice cut across the chatter, "I'm glad we got out of that unharmed, but we still have a pirate hostage aboard with no funds to show for it and we're dangerously low on credits." He turned to the newcomers and added, "Jhulian, Ahri you're more than welcome to join our crew seeing as the imperials will be after you now and they still have your ship" Ahri grinned and replied, "You guys saved our lives, we'd love to join you!" Azalin nodded his approval before turning back to the group, waiting for suggestions. Everard going firmly against his nature said, "We should bring him to the republic, they've placed a bounty on his head as well. Immediately the group erupted as he knew it would, until Azalin raised his hand calling for silence and said, "The only problem with that plan is the republic has placed bounties on our heads as well" "Obviously I know that, but we're out of options, the imperials will kill us, the pirates won't want him back and they'll kill us, if we release him he'll hunt us down and kill us, or we kill him either way we don't make money... Our only choice is to hope the republic will forgive our petty crimes in exchange for giving them a dangerous criminal." There was a long heavy silence as the group weighed their options. Finally after what felt like an eternity Ely said, "I don't like it, but the kid's right we need money and the republic is our only realistic shot to get it." Everyone else even the two newcomers muttered their solemn agreement. "So it's settled, set a course for Coruscant" Azalin said before walking off into his quarters and closing the door. Ely retired to the cockpit with his wife, Jen, joining him. The remaining members sat around casually chatting and checking out potential jobs or distracting themselves with other various things on the computers, all except for Raven who was busy fussing over Everard's wounds. "Do you know how much damage you could've done to your body pushing yourself like that!" Everard mumbled grudgingly, "Well somebody had to come to the rescue." Issei looked up from the screen in front of him glancing at Everard's cane and said, "Oh why thank you grandpa Eve!" his voice dripping with mock gratitude. "You know I could've let the imperials keep you" he retorted as the rest of the group chuckled, with Raven throwing up her hands and asking Issei not to taunt her patients. The crew slowly staggered off one by one heading to bed until the only ones remaining were Everard, the new guy Jhulian, and Raven, who had shown Ahri and Jhulian where their respective quarters would be prior to Ahri going to bed. Raven was fighting her hardest to stay awake, and Everard knew it was because of her concern for him. He nudged her awake and told her to go to bed, and she groggily agreed. Everard was only not in bed because he simply didn't think he could get up to go do it, Jhulian recognized this and offered him a hand which Everard gladly accepted. Leaning heavily on both Jhulian and his cane he finally made it into his quarters and passed out the second he hit the bed.