Nal Hutta

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

Nal Hutta/Evocar
Affiliation: Hutts
Region: Mid Rim
Sector: Hutt Space
System: Y'Toub System
Moons: 5 (Including Nar Shaddaa)
Rotation Period: 87 Standard Hours
Orbital Period: 413 local days
Climate: Temperate
Primary Terrain: Marshes, Bogs, Oceans, Swamps

Nal Hutta (Glorious Jewel in Huttese) is the capital of Hutt Space and is located in the Y'Toub system. It was formerly known as Evocar and was the original home world of the Evocii, who were ousted by the Hutts in 15,000 BBY, who migrated from their original home world of Varl along with their servants the t'landa Til. It was sometimes referred to simply as Hutta at around 4000-3000 BBY. The planet is controlled by the ancient ruling Hutt families, who also rule its moon Nar Shaddaa from Nal Hutta.

During the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Empire established nominal control over Nal Hutta, but for the most part the Hutt ruling families were left to control day to day affairs, with the Empire stepping in only when searching for Rebel sympathizers or other criminals.

During the Yuuzhan Vong War, however, Nal Hutta was conquered in an orbital bombardment by the extragalactic aliens in retaliation for the Hutts' treachery in 26 ABY. The Y'Toub system was surrounded by several of the Yuuzhan Vong's most deadly warships. Several organic creations were sent to Nal Hutta and its moon Nar Shaddaa for multiple purposes. Different types of bacteria killed most of the inhabitants, before processing their remains into the soil of Nal Hutta. All of the technology on the planet was broken down and also absorbed into the soil, thus turning Nal Hutta into a lifeless barren world. However, the Hutts still remained for two years during the Yuuzhan Vong's rule. The Yuuzhan Vong Vongformed the lifeless barren surface of Nal Hutta (into an unknown result) to suit themselves, resulting in the second complete change of the planet's terrain. This process was ongoing, and the Yuuzhan Vong reached out from the Y'Toub system, swallowing all of Hutt Space, and desolating the Hutt Empire in the process.

In 29 ABY, the Yuuzhan Vong abandoned the vongformed planet and moon, prompting the Hutts and the resistance movement to abandon Tatooine and reclaim Nal Hutta. In 29 ABY, there were also criminals that were fortunate enough to have survived the Yuuzhan Vong War who took shelter on the now Vongformed planet as well as Nar Shaddaa.

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

The Burning Claw and the Third Time came out of Hyperspace under false transponders. They were broadcasting signals as the Kappa and the Tengu respectively. They came out in the Y'Toub system not quite near enough to the planet to be scanned from the planet but likely to be noticed by any ships in orbit in the system.

[Galactic Citizen/Worker]

The Action VI Transport Simple Times moved slowly through space near the planet of Nal Hutta, Captain Hessler watched the revolving planet through his view port with a look of distaste upon his face.

"Granler...would you hurry up and get us some coordinates, this place give me the creeps..." He stated with a slight glare towards his navigator.

"working on it boss" Granler replied, ignoring the glare until the Captain looked away and then glancing at the Comm operator besde him and mumbling out the side of his mouth "though I don't know why he keep's taking jobs from this place if it creep him out so badly..."

"I heard that!" snarled Captain Hessler and Granger and the com operative ducked their heads, focusing on their stations once more. There was a bit of truth in thier words he knew...and frankly hessler wouldn't take these jobs if they didn't pay as much, they were far more dangerous then your average smuggling runs after all. But it cost a fair bit of credits to run the Simple Times so they would just have to make due until something better came up.

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

"Alright," Spoke up the man at the sensor station of the Burning Claw, "It looks like we have a bulk freighter in orbit of the planet right now."

Suprised Ool'Avao looked over her shoulder as her lekku flicked around, "Really, what kind of vessel?"

He scanned across the controls of his station, "It looks like... Some kind of old Action transport by CEC, not much armor or weapons."

"Perfect," smiled the Commodore's representative, "Is it loading or unloading? ...Nevermind, it's irrelevent. We're after the ship itself, anyway." She walked over the Comm and adjusted the vocal pickup so that she would be heard over both ships,"Now here this: Our target is the Action transport in orbit of the planet. We want the ship intact ant flyable. Third Time as soon as your are within range I want you to charge and fire that ion cannon it should disable most of the enemy's equipment." Putting down the comm pickup she turned to the ships helmsman and gave the order, "Let's go!"

With those to simple words the ships crossed the system toward Nal Hutta and the awaiting ship still broadcasting their false transponders. Ool'avao knew that becasue the Carrack-class was so swift it would be within firing range very quickly. As soon as it was close she gave the order to fire two shots from the turbolasers across the bow of the target and to release the TIX-wing fighters.

[Galactic Citizen/Worker]

"Captain...we have two vessels incoming swiftly on an intercept course" Came the slightly raised voice of Sue'zan the Twi-Lek in charge of the Simple Times modified sensor suite. "Sensors read them as Kappa and Tengu, sensor parameters read them as a Carrack-class Light Cruiser and GS-100 Salvage Ship" she continued while working furiously at her station.

Hessler cursed silently, even before the vessels were in range to make their demands he had a pretty good idea of what was coming. Pirates were hardly a new thing around Nal Hutta after all and thinking quickly Hessler tried to come up with a way to loose the pirates before they got close enough to fire. Speed wise the Simple Times would be greatly outclassed by the Carrack...but if the pirates thought he would just roll over and submit to their plundering they were sadly mistaken.

"whats that over there?" he pointed out the view port as a large floating station off their port side.

"IFF has it labeled as an older manufacturing station sir" came Sue'an's quick reply "still operational but only in certain sector of the station" she continued and Hessler nodded

"It'll do, Granlar...take us under the stations belly..close, close enough that the station starts to yell and skim its surface along to the other side" He ordered and Granler under his Captain's instructions rolled the transport so that it ducked under the stations cover just as the Carrack came into firing range.

The station began yelling at them over the communications line but after a few winces from Hessler the comm operator silenced the line. "Switch transponder's" hessler ordered as the station brought them temporarily out of sight of the pirates.

With the flick of a switch 'Simple Times' disappeared from radar, replaced by the 'Free Spirit'..and Hessler hoped that their signal would be confused and lost among that of the lowly manufacturing station and the ships they were currently servicing.

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

As order the Carrack's gunnery crew fired to shots across where the bow of the freighter *should* have been. Unfortunately the target had moved and the shots were a waist moving harmlessly through vacuum now.

Similarly the three fighters were released but had no target in view. They swooped around away from the Carrack and, while keeping each other in view, acted with nothing close to military efficiency as they closed on the station scanning for the Action transport.

Ool'avao watched the freighter dart behind a nearby orbiting space station and then simply disappear. She had a crewer comm Third Time since it was now in close enough to hit the space station and anything behind it. She had the relay her orders, "Hold your position here. Start charging that Ion Cannon and fire it when you have a clear shot on the target."

When she finished and was turning around to speak with the man operating the sensors and find out what had happened to the ship she was interrupted by a return from their ally. "What target? Where the hell did it go?" crackled the speakers.

Ool'avao didn't respond but asked the man she was looking at, "You heard them, where did it go?" At his blank look and shrug she back handed him and walked toward the engineering crew, "Take us around behind that station we'll either find it or drag it out be shot by our friends." As the shuttle came around the station it lost line of sight visuals with the fighters because they had taken opposing paths around the station.

[Galactic Citizen/Worker]

"They shot at us!" Sue'zan uttered in slight disbelief, her voice held a note of panic and Granler looked over at her with worry, they really couldn't afford for any of the bridge crew to fall apart right now.

"Of course they did!" Hessler snapped at her "Their pirates!" he concluded before returning to pacing the bridge. Granler sighed and turned back to his station.

"what do we do now sir?" he asked and Hessler looked up, he wasn't sure exactly how to deal with that situation, the Simple Times aka Free Spirit was no match for the cruiser.

"We make a run for it" he stated "we only have to make it far enough to jump..." he continued at Granler's look.

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

When the Carrack Cruiser and its fighters came around the station they would be able to catch the IIF signal of Free Spirit as it made a run for freedom.

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

The Burning Claw aka Kappa came around the station at nearly the same time as the TIX-wings. All four vessels saw an array of ships among which the target could be hiding. As they watched, however, a ship matching the one seen earlier but flying under the IFF code Free Spirit not the one they had shot at.
As the sensor operator called out these very same things on the Bridge of the Carrack the Third Time commed over, "We're charging Oola, did you find that target yet?"
Ool'avao yelled across the bridge as she sat down in the command chair, "Comm, tell them to fire at that ship on tracking data we'll send them as soon as it's within their sites. Engines put us over the top of their firing arc and stop tip us onto the port side. Weapons get a tractor-lock on them stop them from making the jump."
She leaned forward onto her left arm, her lekku gyrating wildly. "Could they stop them?" she asked herself, "If we can get the Ion cannon charged before they go we're good. If not..." She didn't finish the thought.

[Galactic Citizen/Worker]

Free Spirit...like most ships of her class was unfortunately not the fastest ship in the Galaxy, and although she had gained a bit of time with the Captains maneuver - in the end it had just prolonged the inevitable.

"Captain! They have a lock on us" Granler cried out as the Free Spirit began to blare alarms from various locations.

"Yes thank you Granler" Hessler replied as the alarms went off "Someone shut those Sithin things off!" He yelled and Sue'zan complied as the Captain rubbed his temples. "How close are we to being able to jump?"

"Not far Sir! if they hold off firing just a bit longer we might just make it out of here!" Granler answered and Hessler crossed his arms and prayed to whatever gods would listen that the pirate crew would hold off.

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

As the Free Spirit came around into view of the Third Time the captain commed to the Burning Claw, "We've got it charged over here. Tell us where to shoot."

Smiling Oola'vao sat up and smiled. She waved a hand toward one of the bridge crew, "Send them the telemetery data, two shots from that thing should cripple the entire vessel." The crew did as ordered and then three bright shots of light launched through space toward the freighter. As they stabbed closer one of them skimmed along a TIX-Wing taking out of commission immediately sending it off on a straight line course only affected slightly by Nal Hutta's Gravity. Assured that those shots would end the chase Oola ordered the boarding craft launched before even the TIX-Wing had been hit.

[Galactic Citizen/Worker]

Granlar had no sooner uttered those words then the Free Spirit was hit by the first Ion Blast, the lights flickered and died Sue'zan began to list off systems that had been shut down - which seemed somewhat pointless when the second and third shots hit rendering the Free Spirit dead in space.

The bridge crew turned to look at Hessler as the ship started to drift, the looks on their faces seemed to ask just one question..now what? In response to that look Hessler pulled his blaster out of its holster and checked the charge on it.

The rest of the crew left the bridge and hurried through the ship to gather their own arms.

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

The boarding parties were gathered in the two ships making there way across the empty space between the freighter and the Carrack cruiser. As they traveled Ool'avao started to comm their demand in the open before realizing that the freighter's captain wouldn't be able to hear a thing she was sending. She threw down the transmitter in disgust at her mistake. Looking at her bridge crew she answered the looks, "It's up the boarding crew now. Let's see how this new tactics work, shall we."

She was refering, of course, to the newly installed v-150 on board the Third Time. The pirates hoped that it's use would allow them to capture ships more easily and to unload them without damaging or destroying the precious cargo.

The boarding ships were fairly manueverable and thus crossed the distance in good time. The first, commanded by the dug, Tardrix, a very experienced criminal, came alongside the portside of the vessel and began to manufacture their own port. The vessel lined up its specialized dock along a portion of the freighters hull. From there the began to test airlock porcedure the pilot called out as he initialized and tried the various methods.

"Chemical Lock One Initializing... Failed, Chemical Lock Two Initializing... Failed, Mechanical Lock One Initializing... Succeessful." He declared over the comm. It wasn't suprising, of course, that the Mecahnical Lock was successful. It consisted of an array of small charges forcing barbs into the opposite hull and then pulling the ships to be nearly airtight and sealing the area with foam.

Taldrix ordered one of his men into the airlock with a fusion cutter and proceeded to start cutting through the hull. He kept the airlock open so that his team would be ready to board as soon as the hull was breached.

The other boarding ship came around to the far side of the ship so that the ships defenders would be forced to fight on two fronts within the vessel. They brought their ship around to the starboard side and proceeded to follow nearly the same proceedures as Taldrix's team.

[Galactic Citizen/Worker]

The ships hull creaked and clunked as the boarding vessels gained hold. Granler glanced at Sue'zan over Hesslers shoulder as they crouched in the dark awaiting the arrival of the boarding party, the rest of the crew sat ready on the other side of the room - they had chosen a central room to make their stand, for the team it had functioned as a gathering place and now it would be something more - possibly their graves.

It was a relatively simple room two incoming hallways lead to a medium sized rectangular room, you had to pass through said room to reach the hallway leading to the Bridge and so Hessler knew he boarding party would have to come this way, he hoped to use the narrow hallways as choke points and give his crew somewhat more of a chance then sending them blindly through the ship to be picked off b the boarding party.

[Senator Korbath Fraan]

Taldrix's team was connected and air tight before the other and thus fanned out to secure the ship first. He walked thought the hole in the ships hull on his massive hands hold a blaster rifle in his feet. The dug order the pilot and another to stay and guard the ship and sent two other back to secure the engines. Meanwhile he began to slowly advance toward where he, correctly, thought the bridge should be. His team was steps away from falling into the crewers trap. They were, however, wary of not having seen anyone on the ship. "It couldn't be a droid ship, could it?" thougth Taldrix.

As Taldrix was disbursing his men the other team sealed their ship and finished cutting through. They began to advance on the otherside of the ship. Although this team was almost aping the Dug's movements this team was physically more imposing. It was composed mostly of Human men of brute size and led by a Devarion. To some victims this made it seem as if demons were descending on them, and just increased their fears. The pirates did little to alliviate these fears.

[Galactic Citizen/Worker]

Hessler and his crew waited in silence for the Pirates to make it to them - muffled footsteps from down the hall suggested they were getting close. using hand gestures Hessler communicated with his team telling both units to be ready as they watched their respective doors, they would open up with their assorted blasters at the first sight of the pirates.