Kaminari shook his head as he awoke, trying to get the ringing out of his ears. The sudden explosion had knocked both him and Bantha off their feet, and left the entire room covered in dust and shattered plasteel. Kaminari could feel bits of material sticking out of his uniform, and his arms were stinging where they had been scratched by flying shrapnel. The smell of smoke filled the air, and Kaminari coughed as he pulled himself up by the edge of a table, looking around the room.
Things were a mess. Drinking glasses were spilled and broken on the floor, next to similar puddles under patrons that had been more scared by the explosion than they cared to admit. The loud, erratic dance music was still playing, lending to the confusion of the scene. With all the smoke floating around, Kaminari could barely make out any details of the room around him. People were starting to move again, though most were too dazed to even shout in fear.
Kaminari crouched behind the table, trying to keep it between him and the direction that the blast originated from. As the smoke began to clear through the shattered windows, Kaminari could see the forms of three or four humanoid figures holding some kind of weapons. Off in the distance, he could hear the sirens of the local police, but he knew it would be a few minutes before they got there. Kaminari frowned; obviously these people were the ones that tried to blow up the bar. He knew that they would get away if he didn't do something, but at the same time, he was no Army trooper; his odds in a fight against four people with blasters were risky at best. He'd left his sidearm aboard the
Atrus as regulations required, leaving him with only his handful of melee weapons and whatever else he could find on hand.
Behind him, Bantha groaned and rolled over, trying to push himself up. "What the hell..."
"Stay down." Kaminari waved his friend back to the floor, trying to keep him from making too much noise. Too late - the figures spotted them, and began moving towards the table. Four men, Kaminari could see, carrying blaster rifles and wearing bandannas over their noses and mouths. He grumbled to himself and ducked behind the table. His hand brushed up against a miraculously solid ale mug, and he grabbed it, hefting it in his hand and trying to track the four men by sound.
Kaminari waited a moment, and could hear the footsteps of the men approaching. They spread out, apparently deciding to cover the exits, and left only one to deal with him. Kaminari closed his eyes, focusing tightly on where the sound was coming from - there, to the left. In one fluid motion, Kaminari stood up, took a quick glance at where the man was, and heaved the mug. It hit the man square between the eyes, knocking him to the ground.
The other three men looked over and shouted something. Kaminari sprinted for the now-unconscious attacker and dove as three blaster bolts sizzled through the air around him. He hit the ground and rolled, and grabbed the spare blaster rifle as he ducked behind another table. He could hear the police sirens approaching, and he knew that the men were getting desperate. They shot again, the bolts burying themselves in the plasteel tables with the acrid smell of burning chemicals.
Kaminari flicked the rifle over to stun mode and took a deep breath. He popped up to a standing position behind the table and fired once, twice, three times before ducking back down. Before he was completely obscured again, he saw one of the men fall to the floor and another sag against a doorway, struggling to stand up. He missed the third, who returned fire with equal inaccuracy. Kaminari idly hoped that he'd perform better than this in his next simulator run.
Again, Kaminari popped up over the table. This time, he fired three stun waves at the remaining bandit, who dropped like a sack of bricks. However, Kaminari's target had time for revenge - a blaster bolt scored Kaminari's side. He grunted and dropped to one knee, holding the injury.
Just in time, the police sirens blared from the outside window. Kaminari dropped the blaster rifle, suddenly conscious of what it would look like for him to be holding a weapon when the riot control troops came in. Just the thought of facing the riot police again made him cringe; he hoped that none of the officers recognised him from the last time he was on-planet.
Predictably, as soon as the police came in, they knocked Kaminari to the ground and put magnetic restraints on him, despite his strenuous objections and insistence that he was an Imperial pilot. Within half an hour, he was stewing in a holding cell.
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FM/CRW Kaminari/Kaph 2-4/Wing I/mSSD Atrus/DEF/VEN/VE (=A=)