Star Wars STAR WARS: INTERVENTION (A story-telling style OT starfighter game)---Always taking new players!

IC: Fress Colias
Sword of Justice approaching the hangar bay

As Fress continued heading towards the hangar bay she could sense Kasumi running ahead of her. She smiled grimly to herself as she continued her training. All her training came back quickly. She could sense all those around her as she continued to avoid running into one by hearing boots hit the metal deck letting her know she needed to move to one side of the hallway. She grinned as she heard the Force whisper left. She turned to her left and held out her hands pushing the door to the hangar bay open. She could sense the X-wing and Saber on the other side of the door.

//I am proud of you, my former padawan,//

Fress smiled as she stretched out her sphere locating Kasumi’s signature. She frowned, she could sense her friend was in the hangar bay but not near the X-wing or in the cock-pit. Maybe she wasn’t on the ground, up? A cat walk? She smiled as she felt through the Force for the ladder. She walked towards what she remembered as the far side of the hangar bay. She could sense Kasumi was close by and up?

Fress reached out with her hands and felt the ladder. She looked up towards where she assumed Kasumi was.

IC: Ahsoka Tano ghost form

Ahsoka appeared beside her friend Kasumi as she watched Fress make her way towards the ladder. “I knew she could do it.”

“Yes,” Mace answered as he appeared to the other side of Kasumi. “She has come a long way under my wing, now it’s time for her to spread hers and finish her training. I had hoped she would change her mind after Darin died but the Force had other plans for her. I am proud of her,” he turned his attention to Kasumi as Ahsoka nodded in agreement. “She is a fast learner and I sense you will complete her training.”

Ahsoka nodded in agreement as she looked down to where Fress was looking up. She smiled knowing her friend would finally become what the Force meant for her to become. She was watching over Brice for Fress. She couldn’t let anything happen to her friend’s son. “Kasumi, I have faith in your skills, I know you will guide Fress the rest of the way. The Force does have one other thing in mind. Whatever happens, just let it be for it is the will of the Force.”

Tag Coffee

 

IC: Kasumi
Sword of Justice Hangar Bay


“Kasumi, I have faith in your skills, I know you will guide Fress the rest of the way. The Force does have one other thing in mind. Whatever happens, just let it be for it is the will of the Force.”

Kasumi took the flute away from her lips and bowed with great respect to Master Windu and she turned and bowed to Ashoka as well.

"The Force is ever fluid and moving. What the Force has in mind, even visions don't fully show or understand. The vision is a situation that may happen, not one that will for sure come true. I will do what the Force guides me to do, but thank you...for the heads up as it were Ashoka. Your friendship to Fress has helped her through some rough times, even now. Master Windu, your training never left her she just let it fall to the back of her mind. I am merely showing her that it is still there, and it would be an honor to help her finish what she started so many years ago."

Kasumi watched as Fress made her way into the Hangar Bay and started up the ladder. She smiled as she saw the skills returning. She looked to her right and saw her own former Master standing there. Aayla smiled at her and watched as Fress completed her ascent to the cat walk where they were.

Tag: Fress

 

IC: Captain Timothy Stakes
Bridge, Sword of Justice, Jod Star System


"Time to intercept?" Stakes asked.

The Commander and sensor officer looked at the gathered data on the sensor screen and back to the Captain; the sensor officer spoke, "At the Gettysburg's current speed, twenty minutes. She has seen us, that's for sure. The two other two Light-class Cruisers with her outguns us and outnumbers us in starfighters."

"He has us. He'll pin us in with a triangle and hammer our shields and armor until we buckle," Timothy said in a unhappy tone, "He knew this was the one place I could hide. By the time we get out of the nebula, he'll be almost on top of us. And we'll have no where to run."

"We could deploy gunboats and heavy startfighters. That way, that could give us an extra advantage on running," The Commander said.

Stakes looked at the Commander, "No. That would be a death sentence for those pilots without our cover support. I won't do it," Stakes looked out towards the nebula and thought for a moment then turned to the Commander, "Alert all departments. We're leaving the nebula."

"To where, Captain? There's no way we can stand up against those 3 ships!"

"We're not. We'll let the Northern Stretch do that. We have a Jedi on board to guide us through, it's time we use her."

"But, sir, how are we going to have coverage? There's no starfighter pilot crazy enough to fly cover for us while on the Northern Stretch!"

"I know one, Commander. You have your orders, Commander, see them completed."


The Commander snapped to ridged attention and grunted through grated teeth, "As ordered, Captain!"

As the Commander did a precise parade ground snap around on his heel, displaying bis frustration with the order the gentlemen way, Stakes took out his comlink as red lights and alarms started to fill the warship, "BATTLE STATIONS! BATTLE STATIONS! GUARDIAN LIEUTENANTS KASUMI AND COLIAS, REPORT TO THE HANGER BAY IMMEDIATELY!"

As the King-class Battleship started to move out of the nebula, the whole ship shaking without ease, at the Commander's direction, Stakes took his leave---with two Naval Guards flanking him---and went down to the hanger bay. Once there, he saw the mass of starfighter pilots getting ready for action; he called them to attention; the two ladies were already there, half way dressed in their own flight suits.

Stakes addressed them all, "We are about to enter the Northern Stretch. We are be pursued by 3 Confederacy of Regions' warships, one King-class and two Light-class Cruisers. Our only hope is to run. We don't have time to map the Northern Stretch, so we'll be trusting our fate in---as our ancestors did---in the Jedi," Stakes nodded towards Kasumi, then addressed everyone again, "Jedi Kasumi will lead us through the nebula using the Force. Lieutenant Colias will be leading a free elment of defese through a Wide-Rear Defensive Zone Escort."

There was a hand raised and Stakes nodded towards it, "Captain, with all due respect, Lieutenant Colias is not even a Squadron Leader. And she doesn't know our Jod tactics. Plus, that position requires a lot of experience. Whichever pilots are picked to fly wing with her, will they be safe?"

The Captain looked at the Flight Officer; the other higher ranking Squadron Leaders knew to keep their mouths shut when orders were given. The more youthful pilots had less tact experience to draw from in some cases, "And Flight Officer Hobby, would you want to be writing letters home to the mothers of the dead pilots that you loose today? Because flying that nebula is no easy thing and one miscalculation and you'll be atoms in moments. Or would you want someone that may have more experience in some situations leading the free element of the defense?" Stakes didn't give the young pilot time to respond as he addressed the whole group again, "There are not many of us here who fought in the Clone Wars. Fress was one of them. Show her respect. Get to your fighters!"

As the Squadron Leaders dismissed their pilots to their fighters, Stakes walked over to Fress ad Kasumi, "Fress," Stakes said, "I know you can do this. You'll have what we Jod call a Wide-Rear Defensive Zone Escort. Seven starfightrs to each starboard and port and seven to the rear. Six starfighters above the warship, six below the warship. It's designed for ships running from superior numbers and the starfighters work in zones. Each zone---starboard, port, rear, above, below----handles their own problems. No fighter leaves the zone, especially in the Northern Stretch. One wrong move and they could be taken by a ion storm. Three pilots will be with you and you'll be the one 'free' element in the defense. Stay close to the ship and move from zone to zone, helping out each defensive zone as they need it. Any questions?"

"THIS IS THE BRIDGE," The overhead speakers blared, "WE ARE NEARING THE NORTHERN STRETCH."

Stakes looked at Kasumi and the two Naval Guards with him, "Make sure Miss Kasumi find her way to the bridge quickly, then report back here on the double."

The guards nodded and waited for Kasumi to follow them; Stakes said to the Jedi, "I'm confident you can do this, Kasumi. It's our only hope. May the Force be with you."


Tag Coffee and Falcon

 

IC: Jason Lasso
"The Royal Crown Spaceport and Transfer Center," Central Region, Planet of Jod, 3 days later


Lasso had since done away with the armorweave cape and had replaced it when a hooded brown cloak; appearing more the traveling look, although the cloak didn't hide all of his armored legs and boots, Jason felt less like a comic book super hero and more like what he was meant to be. Whatever that "meant" was suppose to mean. Even with "He" wearing a similar black cloak, the two of them were able to board a military shuttle. While "He" had to use a fair amount of mind tricks to them there, they nonetheless made it. After the ramp had retracted up, Jason removed the hood from his head, as did "He". Jason then removed his helmet, a welcome relief from the constant confines of the helmet.

As the teacher and student settled down at the controls of the Theta-class T-2 c shuttle, Jason asked, "So, you were saying we had to get through to the Northern Stretch. How are we suppose to do that when you say it's infested with plasma storms?"

"I'm not a Elite because I waste my time trying to figure that out. It's called having certain privileges as an Elite. But, none of my other brothers have this privillage. Only I do."

"Really? How is that? You reach a special membership level among the Elite?" "He" stared at Jason, "Sorry," Jason replied, "Just trying to lighten up the whole 'We're about to die' part of our mission."

"He" returned to the controls as he lifted the shuttle off the landing pad, angled it towards the above opening, and shot towards the clouds and space above that, "It's called Jedi Master Zat being able to predict these events and the King trusting him despite the church's political agenda."

"Ah, well---wow," Jason said as the shuttle cleared the planet and entered low orbit above; whole armadas of ships waited in high orbit above the planet, hundreds of different sizes of starfighters and shuttles zooming this way and that between them all, "That's a lot of ships."

"Fifteen King-class Battleships and numerous support craft like Light-class Cruisers, corvettes, and frigates to be precise."

"They weren't kidding about the Big Drop," Jason said.

"No they weren't. Most of these vessels, their crews, and their soldiers won't come back alive."

"Are you kidding? A fleet that size?"

"Have you ever been to the Beast home world before?"

"Well...no."

"If you ever do, then you'll understand," He positioned the shuttle for Red Space once they cleared the ships and jumped into Red Space.


TBC

 

IC: Fress Colias
Sword of Justice hangar bay

Fress removed the blindfold as they were summoned to the hangar bay. She smiled grimly and shook her head. They were already here. She looked up at Kasumi with a smile as she saw Mace and Ahsoka her with Secura. “Mace, it’s been a long time.”

”Indeed it has, Padawan. I know you will do well with the task placed before you,” Mace said with a smile.

“Thank you, Master,” Fress nodded to Ahsoka as she turned towards where others were gathering. Stakes was standing at the front as he addressed everyone. She nodded knowing these lives depended on her experience.

"Captain, with all due respect, Lieutenant Colias is not even a Squadron Leader. And she doesn't know our Jod tactics. Plus, that position requires a lot of experience. Whichever pilots are picked to fly wing with her, will they be safe?"

Fress raised an eyebrow towards this officer, he was the only one who spoke out which meant this kid had some experience or very little. “Young people,” she muttered under her breath. She turned her attention to the officer with a retort set but Stakes beat her too it.

"And Flight Officer Hobby, would you want to be writing letters home to the mothers of the dead pilots that you loose today? Because flying that nebula is no easy thing and one miscalculation and you'll be atoms in moments. Or would you want someone that may have more experience in some situations leading the free element of the defense?" Stakes didn't give the young pilot time to respond as he addressed the whole group again, "There are not many of us here who fought in the Clone Wars. Fress was one of them. Show her respect. Get to your fighters!"

Fress watched as Hobby walked away. Out of all of the pilots here, she had a feeling he had the least amount of experience. Shiny she thought with an inward smile. She shook her head. I have nothing to prove, I did that a long time ago. It was time to step back into the squadron leader position. She never thought in the past seventeen years that would never happen again. She had struggled to put that part of her past behind her.

, "Fress," Stakes said, "I know you can do this. You'll have what we Jod call a Wide-Rear Defensive Zone Escort. Seven starfightrs to each starboard and port and seven to the rear. Six starfighters above the warship, six below the warship. It's designed for ships running from superior numbers and the starfighters work in zones. Each zone---starboard, port, rear, above, below----handles their own problems. No fighter leaves the zone, especially in the Northern Stretch. One wrong move and they could be taken by a ion storm. Three pilots will be with you and you'll be the one 'free' element in the defense. Stay close to the ship and move from zone to zone, helping out each defensive zone as they need it. Any questions?"

Wait what? Fress raised an eyebrow as she went over the information he just told her. “We’re not going to you know where now and we’re going to rely on Kasumi to map the path for us. And I’m to lead the escort and help solve issues if they can’t solve them their selves or if they launch fighters and they get lucky catching up with us. I hope I got this right. I will need the information about the formations downloaded into Saber and anything else you feel I need to know about conditions here or how you operate if possible. I told Cody he doesn’t have to be on the bridge but he wants to be there to make sure I’m still communicating with you so I’m the one delivering news to my son, not him.”

Tag Bravo

 

IC: Havah Jeth / Pic
Space, the Northern frontier

Pic quietly handed over the Stokli spray stick, and Havah nodded before watching the others boarded the shuttle before he and the Captain followed them up. At least their would be someone he trusted to survive this and continue on after him. His name would not be left as a nameless diamond decorating some room that no one gets to openly visit. Then again, who wanted to truly visit a mosilium with markers of those that died in action, especially knowing not all died in the continued service for their marker?

Sitting down next to the Captain he securely strapped in and joined in the communal silence that was required by securing the crash webbing, and the Captains spiel that doubled as a pre-mission debrief. If he wasn't feeling nostalgic and inordinately depressed because of the sobriety that he had to suffer the reminders of his old job and deeds done with it, this was sure pushing his face further into it. Although the holes that he had been clued into already about the missions orders gave him some comfort, it meant he had better intel then those he was working with at the moment. After the last major hole in good intel, and the one so long ago, it was a soothing feeling that seemed to lessen the pang of pain that was always with his sobriety.

The trip itself was uneventful, at least to him it was. Traveling with near certain death right outside the hull and begging to get in to kill them all too quickly for them to do more then begin to sit up to the fact that it was happening. It made him feel even more calm, if no one could kill him, there was always nature to fill that void of certainty, that and pilot error. Something which he started to think he was seeing with the delay in one of the shield transfer sequences to get into the stations safe patch in this death patch.

When they finally arrived he disembarked from the ship with the Captain and stayed by the man as he ordered his troops around. The fact that he was carrying a sword, another with a flag, and Havah was walking with his 'stick' brought a grin to his lips even as he saw Pic disembark from the shuttle and stand between the four who were going to stay on guard duty. Raising a staying hand the little droid nodded and patted it's metal hip, a subtle reminder that with the wireless uplink capabilities it could remain in contact with Havah's pad. Nodding in return Havah followed the Captain as he finished giving his marching orders to his teams.

The fact that he was with the Captain and the flag bearer still made him continue to grin as they walked around the hanger. It wasn't until he, the flag bearer, and three extra Jod-ites went to leave with the Captain who changed his sword out for a blaster that Havah settled back down. If something had been going to happen in the hanger it would of been to space the lot of them during the Jod's last minute orders. Without special suites the lot of them except for maybe the shuttle crew would of been flash frozen and died with silent screems in the vastness of space, that is until the plasma patch incenerated their husks and made it as if they never had been here.

Setting his weapon at the ready the Captain had the good humor to ask him to take point. Which had him wondering if the guy was a believer in all this mumbo-jumbo and mystics about his organization of the Mercs being their 'Saving Avengers' or Guardians as if they were spirits that were undestructible due to their destiney. If the Captain was, he was milking it now to try to save his small group by sending Havah on point in an exercise that should use leap frogging positions. If not, the man might merely be testing the salt of the forced member of this task force.

Being careful he led them to the turbolifts but saw nothing that needed him raise an alarm. Going for the lifts he tapped the call button and stood with his back to the space between the two and gave hand gestures for the other team members to spread out in a fan coverage incase there was hostiles alive in the lifts when it opened. If it was empty, he planned on merely taking up position and playing a small diddy on his flute while they rode up to the Command Level.

TAG: Bravo

 

IC: Samantha Irisa, Chief Engineer Tim Williams, Flight Lieutenant Yavscout, Aurora Cradmoon, Sergeant Vestor, Delicate Delinquent bridge and TIE hangar, respectively.
Location: hyperspace


Samantha was frantic, seeing that they had gone into hyperspace. "What about Uncle Yav?"

"As long as he's inside the shields, he should be fine." Chief Williams was less sure than his words conveyed. While a ship's shields provided a second 'skin' which should protect someone from the impossible chaos of hyperspace, jumping to supralight with someone on the hull was hardly a desired option, but rear shields at thirty-four percent, with an unknown number of concussion missiles on the way, called for desperate measures.

"What about Uncle Yav?" A familiar voice enquired from the back of the bridge, and as heads turned, Sam' was out of her chair, vaulting over C.T.'s Comms Station, just missing his head, and slammed into Yav, forcing him back a startled step as her arms swept round his neck, and her face tried to bury itself in his chest, only to recoil slightly as her cheek found how cold space had made his chest armour. "Easy there, Tiger. I'm fine."

The elf eased his niece away, and held her shoulders at arms length to look foldly into her eyes. "Soon as we get the chance, you better hypercomm the Pasarena and quit your job, as I feel you are going to be with us for a while." He looked over at Tim. "Thank you for looking after my ship, Chief. Sorry I could not get what you needed from the Johnny Boy stores."

Williams clapped a meaty hand to the other's shoulder, also finding how cold it was. "Forget about it, Captain." He checked his palm to see if he had lost any skin, then turned and indicated the command chair set front and centre of the four stations he and the others had been using, silhouetted against the mixtures of blues, black and greys of the hyperspace tunnel. "Your command chair awaits."

Yavscout made no move to get there, instead assuming his new role. "Any stormtroopers get onboard?"

"Not that we know off." Tim admitted. "We have volunteer security in the hangars, and a Go Team checking everyone who comes in through the dome."

"Yes, I saw them."

"And there are soldiers guarding the turbolifts, checking everyone for ID badges." He flipped up the orange plastic affair on his own chest. "G.S.O. Guardian Squadron Officer. Notice they didn't give you one." Tim eyed Yav's chest.

"Got the impression there was an emergency on; SOW'ed out of there as soon as I could, and came up here." Yavscout used the Norrathian diminutive for the Spirit of Wolf faster-speed spell.

"I could do with a sit-rep, Chief. Actually, I could do with a sit down." Sagging to the point where Irisa was helping to keep him on his feet, the exhausted elf crossed to the command chair, and sat gratefully onto the black padded leather, turning the chair the hundred and eighty degrees to face it away from the forward ports.

"Okay, we have most of the Johnny Boy crew aboard, plus some of the people we rescued from the Block, but still nowhere to put them."

"There should be cabins on Deck Eight, if she follows the configuration of the J-77."

The Chief Engineer turned and signalled to C.T., silently indicating that the clone should relay to all onboard, that Deck Eight would be where to find the cabins.

Samantha took up the baton while the Chief was distracted, "Since the Authority sacrificed herself, there are going to be a lot more ships and personnel to come aboard once we reach Berroll's Donn."

"Which shouldn't be too long, it's only a couple of star systems from the Greater Javin."

Yav nodded. "Sort a new alpha site for everyone to emergency jump to; and transmit to all friendlies as soon as we revert."

Tim likewise nodded. He looked over at the technician. "Flavin?"

"On it."

"Captain, recommend keeping the ship on alert status."

The elf paused, touched that the gruff old-timer would defer to him like this. He did not appreciate how long the man had been with Taller, and just how ingrained into the Merc hierarchy he was. Taller had chosen the elf to 'captain' the vessel, and that was all the authority that was needed.
"No argument here."

"C.T., please advise all gunners to remain at their stations, and to consider them their alert stations in a crisis."

"That Mac is a starfighter pilot. Shouldn't he be in his fighter?"

"He's a Merc pilot." Williams glowered. "We use him and any other Merc pilots on operations; for simple ship defence, we use that Jod fighter screen, assuming we can keep them from committing honourable suicide at the first sight of an Imperial probe droid."

"Yeah, we will discuss that later," Yav promised, "Anything else?"

Tim glanced around the bridge, searching the lower walls. "If there is a droid round here, it should have a recording of the damage to our hull from the spacetroopers that were aboard. Navi?" He tried, echoing what the kid had called his automaton. "Mavi?"

* * * *

TIE hangar

Aurora Cradmoon found herself sitting in the left-hand seat in the drivers' cab of the huge, silver Nen-Caervon PX-4 Mobile Command Base parked at the side of the hangar.

She looked sideways at the Jod sergeant sitting to her right. "So what am I doing here?"

"You have been put in charge of the safety of this hangar, correct?"

Cradmoon frowned to herself. "Guess so."

Vestor indicated the view out the slanted window. Her droid, Silver, had long since corrected the atmospheric shield over the TIE hangar's entrance back to transparence, and they had a good view of the myriad vessels parked in the larger hangar across the way, from the rear of a Sentinel-class landing craft, to Palso's YT-1300 beyond. "If an observent enemy notices that we have no hangar defenses outside, this place suddenly becomes the most vulnerable area on the entire starship. One TIE can float up there, and strafe the bay, potentially blow us up from the inside, out."

Aurora blanched. "Lovely."

"Whenever we go to alert status, your place is in here. She is armed with a heavy laser cannon, that can be controlled from the cab. Clear?"

She looked down at the coloured plastic panels before her, then looked quizzically back at the sergeant. "Has a Flight Lieutenant Colias been talking to you?" She knew she had not performed well in the flight simulators earlier. Maybe the woman had passed along her concerns.

"Never heard of him."

"Her." She corrected.

"Haven't heard of her, either."

The silence of the cab was disturbed by her comlink going off. "Probably Silver." She guessed, bringing it up to her lips. "Cradmoon."

"Hey Moon, I’m on my way down to the hanger bay, care to meet up with me? We need to talk some things out."

"Stand by." She looked questioningly at vestor, who shook his head.

"You hear anyone cancel the alert? But if you want him to see you in here, that should be fine. I'm off out." Vestor rose from his seat, heading out the door that led outside. He muttered something about needing a parachute, then disappeared.

"Mac, believe it or not, I'm manning PX-4 in the TIE hangar in case we get attacked. You are welcome to join me when you have finished what you are doing."

She settled in her seat as she waited for Mac to respond.

Tag: C.T., Mac, Navi

 

IC: Kasumi
Sword of Justice Hanger Bay

Kasumi nodded to the request that had been made of her and then she turned to Fress.

"You can do this Fress. Use the "re-teaching" that just happened to help you with the moves that may need to be made out there. Remember that these men are not used to your style of leadership out there in the black, so, be gentle and but lead them firmly. Your skills that you just showed me let me know that you haven't forgotten everything, but only that is has been locked in your mind for a while. It just needs to be dusted off. And my offer to help you with that still remains."

Aayla nodded, "Kasumi, not only does the captain have faith in you, but I always have. Remember that as you are up there."

Kasumi bowed to her master. "I could never forget that."

Begin Music

"THIS IS THE BRIDGE," The overhead speakers blared, "WE ARE NEARING THE NORTHERN STRETCH."

Kasumi turned to the guards and nodded.

"Lead the way."

Kasumi followed the guards out of the hangar bay. Each step that was taken was one of more determination for her. She could sense the uneasiness in the air and she knew that this was a move that had to be made to save lives, but even at that no one knew what the cost would be. Would it be the loss of all life, or would it be smaller losses? Kasumi had a rather large weight on her shoulders as she realized this ship and her crew were ultimately depending on her to get them through this unknown territory. The other plan would have been much simpler, however, there was no time. As the group neared the bridge she felt the tension and uneasiness grow. She hoped that she would bring some calm to those people here, but she feared that any sense of calm would have to wait until after the navigation of this thing.

Kasumi stepped onto the bridge, and suddenly felt all eyes on her. She saw Cody on the bridge and nodded to him. Kasumi found a place out of the way to stand and closed her eyes. She had to clear her mind of everything for this. This was a completely different task then just piloting an X-wing through here.

Tag: Bravo, Fress, Cody

 

IC: C.T./Herc
Delicate Delinquent bridge

C.T. heard the voice behind him and didn't remember anything else other than a blur of a person racing towards him and making a leap. C.T. barely had time to duck a bit out of the way. He smiled as he saw the two reunited and his smile was broken by the motioning of the chief about the cabin location announcement. So, C.T. got on the com and let everyone know that they should locate quarters and places to rest on deck 8.

"C.T., please advise all gunners to remain at their stations, and to consider them their alert stations in a crisis."

C.T. nodded.

"All gunners be advised to remain on alert and to remain at their posts. Situation could get sketchy out there and we need your eyes."

Inside his turret Herc smiled.

"C.T., this is Herc. Understood. Getting kinda used to this place here."

C.T. smiled at his friends response.

Tag: Sith

 

IC: Sounil Mistry, Technician Flavin, Chief Williams, Captain Yavscout, Delicate Delinquent main hangar and bridge
Location: Hyperspace to Berroll’s Donn


Sounil was down in the main hangar, chatting to Wolf, when the announcement about Deck Eight came over the public address system, drawing a bright smile across her face.

“Ah-ha, that sounds like us. If you will tell the next shuttle in, Deck Eight, I would be most grateful. See you later, Wolf.” She nodded at the warrior, and headed to her group by the wall, who started picking up their bundles and packs as she approached. “Alright, follow me. We’re on a turbolift or stairwell hunt.”

“Yay.” Said one, as he and his group followed the female twi’lek from the hangar.

* * * *

Delicate Delinquent bridge

Seated at his console, monitoring ship systems, Flavin answered his comlink when it bleeped for attention.
“Thanks, Vestor.” He said to sign off, then put the comlink in a pocket, his look taking in the Chief and the elf. “Aurora Cradmoon has been installed inside that PX-4 vehicle, to protect the hangar from any attackers when we revert.”

“Is my fighter here?” Yav asked.

“If you mean the N-1, it was brought over from the Sword, earlier.”

“I can take it out to protect the ship while we try to get everyone aboard.”

Williams’ right hand chopped the air sideways in denial. “Absolutely not! You are the captain of this vessel now, and your place is here, providing the guidance to get us through this ordeal.”

“That’s unless Captain Taller takes command of both this one and the Johnny Boy,” the elf pointed out.

A voices identifying itself as Bridge Officer Bob, sounded from the commo board, acknowledging the order for gunners to remain at their stations.

Another followed: "C.T., this is Herc. Understood. Getting kinda used to this place here.."

Williams noted that there were no answering calls from Mac or Palso yet, but of more immediate concern was the lack of defensive firepower on the dorsal hull. “What happened to our topside gunners when that TIE tried to ram the bridge?”

“We had the two secured astromechs, Willow and Fury, up there, but they just signed out of the emplacements, rather than engage the TIEs.” Samantha advises.

“Then the push to get the Imperial droids cleared was a waste of time.” Williams growled, while the elf listened. “Flavin, call your engineer down on Three, and tell him to stop working on those droids No longer a priority.”

“Yes, Chief.”

“Hold on a moment.”

The Jod had a hand reaching for his comlink, and froze, looking questioningly at Williams.

“I want two teams of engineers under my command. Your engineer-”

“Bromley.”

“His team is to be suited for hard vacuum, and checking the damaged area on our bow. Do we have any spare material that we can salvage for repairs?”

“Landing craft that my team used when we first boarded, is a pile of scrap metal in the TIE hangar.”

Williams paced the bridge in thought. “Could be some useful stuff down there. I better take a look. Have the second team meet me there.”#

“Right. Okay everyone, be advised that we are going to revert at Berroll’s Donn in one minute.”

Yavscout looked at C.T. as Williams headed out the “You the communications’ bod, then? As soon as we arrive, signal the fleet. All fighters are to stay out on patrol, while the next shuttle full of Block refugees, has permission to board.”

Samantha turned round momentarily to face the clone.
“Next shuttle is the Unidade Besh.” She swivelled back round to face the front.

“Someone find another star system close by, please. If we are being tracked, we might have to jump around several times and get everyone onboard piecemeal.”

Flavin looked up, "Okay, reversion in nine, eight-"

Yavscout turned the command chair round to face the rectangular window strip,
“Let's get this show on the road.”

“-four, three, two, one.” Already grasping the three joined hyperspace levers, one for each of their sublight engines, the Jod pulled slowly back, while outside the windows, the hyperspace tunnel segued into starlines, which in turn shortened into a new celestial backdrop.

A rag-tag flotilla of Jod craft floated in the blackness

Tag: Mac, Palso, C.T.,

 

IC: Zieleb-Xan ‘Mac’ Macja and Navi
Delicate Delinquent

Navi had no more than received Mac’s message to meet him down in the hanger bay when she heard the grizzled old human, who had been barking orders all over the bridge earlier, call for her. She whistled in reply and turned back around. She rolled up to the nearest input port and uploaded all of the footage they captured of the exterior damage. She sent a message to Mac to let him know that she might be stuck on the bridge for longer than originally planned.

Meanwhile Mac was nearly to an operational turbolift when Aurora informed him that she was in a PX-4 down in one of the hanger bays. He wasn’t sure what a PX-4 exactly was, but he could assume that it large enough for multiple individuals and had firepower enough to repel attackers. As he brought his comlink up to respond it beeped indicating an incoming message.

“All gunners be advised to remain on alert and to remain at their posts. Situation could get sketchy out there and we need your eyes.”

You have got to be frakkin’ kidding me. He immediately turned on his heels and sprinted back to his emplacement. He keyed up Aurora, “I’m going to have to take a rain check on that one Moon. I’m being summoned back to my quad-cannon. I’m sure we can have that talk later.”

As soon as Mac got back into his quad’s pod he put the uncomfortable headset back on and called in, “This is Mac on the starboard side, I’m cocked, locked, and ready to rock.” He decided that this time he wouldn’t leave until he was dead or relieved of his post.

TAG: Sith-I-5

 

IC: Jim Palso
Bow, Delicate Delinquent


Palso looked through the debris; he could see lights peering through the smoke and emergency lights, with those lights, were voices and even a R2 sounding voice. Jim attempted to push himself through the debris that had fallen around him; somehow, he had avoided serious injury or death. His quad laser turret had been targeted by a flight of TIE Fighters and somehow through that situation, Palso's quad laser turret blew a coolant line and his quad laser battery overheated. With no means to fight back, Jim had jumped clear of the turret moments before the TIEs combined firepower destroyed his helpless turret.

His jump had been successful---so had the blast doors closing to prevent decompression of this section of the ship---but the follow-through blast had carried flame and debris through the blast door before it could close. The smuggler had become entangled with the debris that had carried through the blast door.

As Jim pushed his way up, a Jod crew member and two former Block inmates rushed his way, a frantic Bugger (R2 unit) and Walking Library (3PO unit) bringing up the rear; as the Jod and one of the Block members pulled Jim clear, the smuggler watched as the Jod crew member reported in,

"Bridge, this is Volunteer Security Team B. We were doing a sweep through the bow's top decks. We found crew member Jim Palso. Looks like his quad laser turret was destroyed in the action and he escaped it just in time. We have decompression doors locked and sealed on the deck. What do you want us to do?"

As the Jod crew member waited for a response, one of the Block members---a clone---looked at Palso and asked, "You okay?"

Jim nodded, "Yea, thanks. I felt the ship jump to hyperspace, then revert back. Where are we?"

"Berrol's Donn System."

"Sounds like a person's name. Okay, well, best check in with the boss to find out what's going on..."

As the search team and Jim waited for a response, Jim looked out a nearby viewport, seeing a splattering of stars in the far off distance. The smuggler sighed; his long-lost brother was somehow out there and, if Jim's near-death experience was of any note, fighting for his life too. For the first time in a long time, Jim was worried for someone else other then himself...he had a family and he was worried for his brother.

Force, bring him home. Please. Palso thought, hoping his brother would be okay.


Tag Sith, CPL, anyone else



*****************************************************


IC: Captain Rick Taller
Medical Bay, Johnny Boy


Taller stared at the static transmission video with the DD; despite the exit from hyperspace, the communications equipment was trying to adjust still to the reversion to real space, "...I said I need to talk to Yav," Taller said to the Jod crew member on the other end who was having a hard time bringing the equipment back to operating specs on short notice.

When the communication line was suddenly dropped, Taller sighed as he looked to Russel Cook, "I hope that got through. I need to talk with 'Yav and see what is going on. What we need to do."

Russel shook his head, "There is no 'we' in this, Captain. You need to rest. What I did is only there to help keep you stable, not allow you to be fully active. Without a dedicated hospital and specialists in each field, there's not much else anyone---freelance doctors or me out here in the Rim---can do."

"Look Doc, I appreciate it and all. But I have a crew to look after. And over my dead body will anyone stop me from doing it."

"If your not careful, you will be dead, Captain!"


Tag Sith, DD Bridge



********************************


IC: "The Whites"
Corridor, Johnny Boy


He appeared. He wore all white tunics and a robe; a lightsaber hung off his belt. Yes, this was it, the place that the LORD wanted him. Yes, it was good.

For now, no one noticed him. Nor could they. Like sensors and scanners, the naked eye would be blind to him as well. Only a gentle passing of air as one passed you could be felt as he walked down the corridor and towards the Medical Bay. Yes, it was good. The prophecy had predicted this. Captain Rick Taller would have to make a choice.


TBC

 

IC: Captain Victor Paulsome
Corridors, space station, Northern Stretch


Being careful he led them to the turbolifts but saw nothing that needed him raise an alarm. Going for the lifts he tapped the call button and stood with his back to the space between the two and gave hand gestures for the other team members to spread out in a fan coverage incase there was hostiles alive in the lifts when it opened. If it was empty, he planned on merely taking up position and playing a small diddy on his flute while they rode up to the Command Level.


Paulsome echoed Havah's hand signals and watched his men spread out. When the turbolift reached the floor, Paulsome---despite all his combat experience---could feel his heart beat quicken. All the experience in the world couldn't replace the suspense of warfare. Finally, the doors opened; nothing could be seen inside the turbolift, no damage, signs of a fight, no blood. Only a single data-pad on the floor, blinking with a low battery warning.

"Well," the infantry Captain said, "Never knew a fully automated station needed a organic-crafted data pad," the Captain sighed, knowing what his own statement meant, "I hate never getting the whole story," The Captain went for his comlink and spoke into it, "All units, this is the Captain. Be alert for friendlies and or enemy units on the station. Information has been discovered that supports evidence of a organic presence. Paulsome out."

The Captain looked around and saw no other way up but the turbolift; but, he didn't trust it. Someone was here, AI or not, and a turbolift was a perfect death trap, "We'll take the long way. The emergency ladders. This lift could be a trap," The Captain looked back to a soldier and nodded him up and forward, "Pop that hatch, put the emergency brake on the lift, and secure a line to the emergency ladders."


*******************


Some time later...


Paulsome hulled himself over the last rung, watching two of his Jod soldiers secure the turbolift doors to the next level; okay, so climbing three levels wasn't the fastest way, but in the Captain's eyes, it was the safest. And time be Sithed, he was already only getting half the truth from Royal Intelligence, as usual.

As the two soldiers cleared the doors, they waved the rest forward. At least Jeth didn't have to worry about being cannon fodder this time around.

Looking down the ladder, Paulsome waved Jeth, the flag barer, and the last soldier up the ladder, then secured the doors himself. Once the other three of their team had joined them, Paulsome signaled for his two point men to move forward. Soon, the six member strong team burst onto the control deck, blasters and weapons pointing this way and that.

Not a soul in sight. As clean as could be, no signs of conflict, and the only sound was the humming and clicking of the console stations, along with their lights for their various functions.

Like a sore thumb, the cup of cold coffee stood out on one of the console stations, "Yea, and AI needs coffee," Paulsome quietly; quickly, the Captain ordered 2 soldiers to secure the main entrance and 1 soldier to secure the turbolift entrance; then, the flag barer, Havah, and himself were left. Paulsome looked at Havah, "What do you know about computers? We need to try to bring up any last sensor logs and or holo recordings, security or otherwise. And between a data-pad and a cup of cold coffee, are you thinking the same thing I'm thinking?"

Reports started coming in over Paulsome's comlink:

"Holy. All clear. No signs of life or otherwise."

"Zune. All clear."

"Mop, all clear."

"Todder, shuttle secure."


Tag Mitth

 

IC: Captain Yavscout, Samantha Irisa, Technician Flavin, Delicate Delinquent bridge.
Location: Berroll’s Donn


As the interdictor slowed to a stop within the new stsr system, Yav was impressed by the movements of the Jod fleet that he could see out the windows, the starfighters, Incom ARC-170s were spreading out to cover them as well as the existing transports and shuttles, and some that had been lining up to board, automatically turned to line up facing the larger ship.

“Flavin. Maximum range scan of the system, please.”

“On it, Captain.”

“You don’t have to call me, Captain.” The elf instructed over a shoulder. “You and Vestor were part of my original Go Team.”

“All the same, until the combined crew are settled, I think we should use the titles.”

Yav sighed. “Your call.”

A call up from their third volunteer gunner filled the bridge momentarily. “This is Mac on the starboard side; I'm cocked, locked, and ready to rock.”

“Copy that, Mac.” Irisa responded from her station. “We have reverted at Berroll’s Donn, and need you gunners to remain in position until we have everyone from the Block, and the Authority aboard. Bridge out.”

Since no-one had come back to him about a second alpha site, Yavscout took on the task of searching for one himself. He had previously connected the command chair with the navi-computer’s planetary database so that he could find the planet Pantolomin, where the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service maintained a discrete base. “Alright, got one.” he announced, a floating holograph of world and system names by his left knee, glowing in the dimly-lit environment. “Keskin. Ooh. No wait, cancel that. Imperial base there. Alright, Absit. Just a bit further on, Galactic West of this position. C.T., please encrypt and advise all friendlies that the Absit system is our backup site if we have to evac again.”

Sam looked over her console at him, “You sure about this one?” She asked in a mischievious tone.

“Yep, no Imperials according to the database. Homeworld of the Yatir.”

“Bridge, this is Volunteer Security Team B. We were doing a sweep through the bow's top decks. We found crew member Jim Palso. Looks like his quad laser turret was destroyed in the action and he escaped it just in time. We have decompression doors locked and sealed on the deck. What do you want us to do?”

Yavscout turned to answer, but watched the young woman take it.

“Bridge here. What deck are you on, and do you need a medical team?”

You are wasted as a waitress, Yav thought wistfully, wondering what her aunt would say about Irisa getting involved in a pan-galactic struggle as deeply as this.

She continued, “Also, sensors up here are not reading the damage to any of the quad lasers. Do you have an astromech down there that can hook into the local systems to see why? There might be an overload?”

As she waited for a response, Flavin made the sour comment, “Well, that’s pretty pants.”

Samantha jerked as if stung, and twisted in her seat, feeling round the waistband of her skirt. “Are they showing?”

“Pardon?” Flavin shot her a confused glance. “No, I was referring to the state of our shields; being overwhelmed by the lasers of a fragging TIE enough for us to take structural damage?”

Samantha blushed, turning back to the front, while Yavscout looked from one to the other, then jumped up off the command chair. “Flavin, you have the comm.”

The Jod looked startled, "Why, where you going?"

“Someone has to man one of the dorsal turrets, and as long as I am still contactable, I can still be in charge there.”

"What? You heard what happened to Palso."

“Draw power from another part of the ship, and double the strength to the shields. If fragging TIE fighters can hit us that hard, we want to stop them getting runs on us.”

The bridge doors hummed shut, sealing as the elf approached. He glared up at them for a moment, then turned to Flavin, C.T. and Irisa.

“Really? Well unless the ship has a mind of its own, and Imperial ships are not that sophisticated; one of you three did that.”

"Chief Engineer Williams said you had to stay here."

“Well, unless Taller himself orders me not to operate my own guns, you can't stop me. And F-Y-I, this has got to be the fastest mutiny in history.”

“-I said I need to talk to Yav'!”

Yav recognised Taller's voice of course, but the timing was too perfect. “Oh ger-reat, one of you is half ventriloquist, half impressionist, now?”

Flavin checked his console, flashing a curious glance at the clone sitting to his right. "Actually, I think that came from the Johnny Boy, but the link just dropped out. Re-establishing."

“Frag, put him through.” The elf hurried to his seat, waited for the technician to tell him he had an open comm-line, and leaned towards the armrest controls as he pressed them to respond. “Captain Taller? Yavscout here.”

Tag: Mac, Palso, Taller, C.T.

 

IC: Captain Timothy Stakes
Bridge, Sword of Justice, Jod Star System


“We’re not going to you know where now and we’re going to rely on Kasumi to map the path for us. And I’m to lead the escort and help solve issues if they can’t solve them their selves or if they launch fighters and they get lucky catching up with us. I hope I got this right. I will need the information about the formations downloaded into Saber and anything else you feel I need to know about conditions here or how you operate if possible. I told Cody he doesn’t have to be on the bridge but he wants to be there to make sure I’m still communicating with you so I’m the one delivering news to my son, not him.”


Stakes nodded, understanding the Flight Lieutenant's concern, "You have it right, Lieutenant. We don't have the time to give you a proper rundown of Jod tactics; however, know this Lieutenant: being a Kingdom of Jod starfighter pilot means you are above the rest in every way, as we carry the proud starfighter tradition from our predecessor government of the Red Rock Kingdom. Know that the pilots will stay in formation within their zones and the pilots who are attached to you will follow your orders without hesitation. Your R2 unit will have the formation downloaded to it's systems before you lift off. With that, Lieutenant, we could use your protection outside of our vessel. May the Force be with you."

With that, Stakes made his way to the bridge; entering just after Kasumi, the Captain could see she was nervous. Truth be told, he was nervous too, but he relied on his academy training and God-given skills to mask that nervousness and pray that they were enough to ensure that his orders were the right ones. Stakes said to Kasumi, "I know you are nervous, Jedi. But. when you find that calm; this is what I need: as you are given the path of travel by the Force, tell the helms station and they will make the necessary corrections. Remember, Kasumi, this is a capital-ship sized warship and not a starfighter. We need as much notice as possible to make adjustments. Good luck and may the Force be with you."

With that, Stakes headed towards the view ports looking out towards the Northern Stretch that was now filling the whole forward view port, "Status, Commander?"

"All departments report ready. Engines are green. Damage control is standing by," Outside the viewports, multiple ion trailing dots, representing starfighters, started to form around the Sword of Justice; Stakes could see the lone X-Wing, representing Fress' starfighter, out of the starfighters; the Commander sighed, "Captain, I want to apologize for my attitude earlier. It was unbecoming of a naval officer of the Kingdom's Navy. I accept full responsibility and accept any actions you take against me."

Stakes looked at the Commander, "Apology accepted. No more will be discussed of it. A clean slate, Commander. Our ETA?"

"Forty seconds to the Northern Stretch; the Gettysburg and her escorts within thirty seconds of long range guns and closing at flank speed."

Stakes nodded, "Take us in, Commander. Reduce speed by one half, shields to max, all weaponry on stand-by. The enemy can't retain flank speed for much longer, especially once they reach the Northern Stretch."

The Commander looked at his Captain, "Enemy, sir? The Gettysburg..."

"Is now the enemy. They have aligned themselves with a government that has taken hostile actions against the rightful government of the Kingdom of Jod. Until they cease such alignments with a hostile government, the Gettysburg and her crew will be considered a enemy contact. Such notions of brothers-in-arms and family was drowned by the opening blaster shots of this civil war against our people."

Now the Sword of Justice and her starfighter escorts entered the Northern Stretch...



Tag Coffee, Falcon

 

OOG: Sith, from all of my sources, TIE Fighter lasers are extremely powerful. But, I believe the R2 unit can find some problems...


IC: Jim Palso, Volunteer Security Team B, Taller
Bow, Delicate Delinquent


“Bridge here. What deck are you on, and do you need a medical team?”

The Jod crew member nodded, "Deck 1; no medical team needed, Palso looks fine."

“Also, sensors up here are not reading the damage to any of the quad lasers. Do you have an astromech down there that can hook into the local systems to see why? There might be an overload?”

"We have a astromech; I'll get on. Team out," the Jod crew member looked back, "Bring that astromech droid up here."

"He has a name," Palso said.

"What? It's a droid!"

Jim straightened himself to full height, "His name is Bugger. And he's my droid. So watch your tongue, soldier."

"Yea, whatever. Lets just get this done."

"So much for respecting ones chosen by the prophecy," Jim commented.

"Yea, I didn't see your name listed in the prophecy. But if it is, I'll make sure I pray 5 times, so I don't go to hell."

"You know, for being a Jod, you have a very sarcastic view of your faith."

"Yea, well, not everyone shares that faith. My brother was taken advantage of by a Shepard when he was a young boy and the church did nothing to stop it. So I stopped it and killed the Shepard. Only thing that kept me from the death sentence was a deal my family made with the church. Lets just get this done."

Palso shrugged and looked towards Bugger, "Come on Bugger."

The R2 unit beeped and whistled and moved forward; finding the nearest data jack, the R2 unit plugged into it. After a few moments, the droid had a hologram projection from his dome projector onto the floor; the Jod crew member watched the holo projection and said into his comlink, "Bridge, volunteer security team B. Looks like there was a malfunction in the shield array at Point Two-dot-Three-dot-One. A brief surge of power let the shields down for thirty seconds at Point Two-dot-Three-dot-One. Also, looks like the Quad Laser turret itself is intact; however, a darn lucky shot went through the viewport and cooked the insides of the turret, that then blew out into the corridor here. If we have some space suits, we can probably get a repair team outside to repair the damage inside."


**************************************************

OOG: And now the back-story for Intervention: Allegiance begins...



Medical Bay, Johnny Boy



“Captain Taller? Yavscout here.”

Taller responded, "Ah. Good. 'Yav. Good to hear from you. Look, get what techs you can down to the JB. Once the hyperdrive is operational, we won't be dead weight, and the techs can head back to the DD. You did good out there, Yav, really----"

The lights dimmed as power was lost---lights flickered on console boards---then the starting hum and clicks of consoles starting back up could be heard; however, when Taller pressed on the comm, the comlink was dead. "Doctor, what was that?"

Rick was too busy with finding the problem that he didn't see Russel's stare across the medical bay; finally Russel could stamper out, "Captain..."

Rick froze; he knew that sound of voice and before he turned around to face the direction Russel was, had his blaster pistol out and pointing that direction. The dark clothed man---wearing black tunic and long robe with hood---had light skin; his eyes were sunken within his skull, black circles around his eyes, and a sickening pale appearance was to his face; his lips looked lifeless, with his teeth crooked and yellow stained. Black leather gloves covered his hands, while a black belt supported a double-handled lightsaber.

"Captain..." The man spoke in a menacing dark voice.

"And who are you?" Taller spoke, ready to blast this show-boat off his ship.

"He was just leaving," Spoke a man, wearing similar clothes but in all white, from behind the dark figure. "I would advise you get your crew off this ship, Captain. Everyone."

"I'm not going anywhere," Taller spoke, "This is my ship."

The white clothed man nodded, "So be it. The doctor may stay. But everyone, please, for their sake, get them off this ship now."

"Why, your ruining my fun...and my brothers..."

Outside the medical bay blast doors, screams and blaster fire could be heard along with multiple lightsaber ignitions.

Taller leaned over to the console and hit the one button that even emergency power would keep online at all times: abandon ship; Doctor Russel Cook sent a quick data-burst, via his datapad, to the DD; it simply read: TAKEN OVER BY ENEMY UNITS. BEWARE OF ESCAPE PODS WITH FRIENDLIES. GOD HELP US.

As escape pods started to fly from the Johnny Boy, the Corvette seemed to shimmer with a mixture of gold and dark energy and then...disappeared as if launched into hyperspace by something more powerful then any hyperdrive or Red Rock equipped drive could muster. In the darkness of space, a handful of escape pods drifted in space helplessly, waiting for pick-up...


Tag Sith

 

IC: Fress Colias
Hangar bay/leading defence through the Northern Stretch

"You have it right, Lieutenant. We don't have the time to give you a proper rundown of Jod tactics; however, know this Lieutenant: being a Kingdom of Jod starfighter pilot means you are above the rest in every way, as we carry the proud starfighter tradition from our predecessor government of the Red Rock Kingdom. Know that the pilots will stay in formation within their zones and the pilots who are attached to you will follow your orders without hesitation. Your R2 unit will have the formation downloaded to it's systems before you lift off. With that, Lieutenant, we could use your protection outside of our vessel. May the Force be with you."

“May the Force be with you, Captain,” Fress returned with a slight bow before she turned towards her fighter as engines were being ignited. It was beginning to get loud in the hangar bay she thought with an inward frown as she pulled on a flight suit. “Saber, unlock the couplings, we’re going.”

Saber beeped in acknowledgement as she climbed up the ladder. She couldn’t help feel a tad bit nervous. This was a dangerous mission. The only reassurance she had was they should follow her orders without hesitation. She climbed into the cockpit as she heard a voice letting her know that the formations have been downloaded into Saber. Saber beeped causing her to look down and smile. The formations appeared on her radar. “I copy Bridge, stand by,” she took the engines off stand by lifting the fighter off the hangar bay floor.
-------------------
Fress swung her fighter into place after checking in with the rest of the squadron leaders. Everyone was in formation and ready to follow her on this daring mission. She had chosen Hobby and another Jod pilot by the name of Rick to take up her wings. Hobby didn’t sound too pleased but he didn’t refuse her request either. She took deep breath and slowly released it calming her nerves. She centered herself in the Force keeping an eye on her charge. Things could turn ugly quickly. “Lead to bridge, everyone is accounted for and in formation. Firecracker to Phoenix, we’re ready when you are. I know you can do this Phoenix, trust in yourself and trust in the Force. Lead to squadron leaders, keep close to the ship and in formation. May the Force be with us all. Com silence starting now.”

Tag Coffee, Bravo

 

OOG: Falcon, feel free to RP all necessary NPC actions in terms of the fighter escort, both friendly and enemy. No need to tag me for NPCs, unless your tagging Stakes or the Bridge.


IC: Captain Timothy Stakes
Bridge, Sword of Justice, Jod Star System


Timothy had heard stories if the Northern Stretch; how pilots who had wondered into it and got lost, lost their minds with the multiple near death experiences with barely avoiding the random plasma storms, and other stories no living being should ever hear about. Like the story of the Northern Royal, a civilian cruise star ship that had been disabled by pirates and drifted into the Northern Stretch and got caught by a ion storm; drifting disabled for months within the Northern Stretch within the few "safe zones" in the Stretch, by the time a rescue party got to them through the random ion storms off of the "safe routes", the crew and passengers of the civilian cruise ship had turned to cannibalism for survival. The rescue party had stated that many of the passenger and crew had also gone insane, having formed a short of cult off of human sacrifice and "prayer" to the ion storms, which they saw as "gods" of judgement against them. In order to please these "gods," they had turned their cannibalism into a religion. The few crew and passenger left alive that hadn't gone insane told stories of unspeakable horror, of nightly slayings, hunting each other for food and power over the people, unspeakable acts of murder, lust, and passion wrapped up into a sickening display of evil.

There had been myths and stories created about the many lost ships lost to the Northern Stretch. The most famous of all---and not a bedtime story favorite, but one spoken by spacers---was of the Unspoken. The "Unspoken" had it's beginnings when stories were circulated around about spacers lost in the Northern Stretch, which that the various stories gained popularity with the tragic story of the Northern Royal. It had been said that the ion storms could "twist" a person's mind if one looked at them or were around them for too long, make them think and do things no sane person would ever do; the Unspoken had turned into a monstrous display of primitive evil, once good Jod citizens, these "converted" people had turned into the Unspoken. Stories ranging from zombie-like appearances to mutilated flesh and body pieces to body mutation covered the various reasons for the appearance of the Unspoken. Although, even a popular story, no one had ever seen a Unspoken...or more importantly, none had ever survived to tell the tale. Except, a course, the Northern Royal. But even then, if no one survived to tell the tale, how did the story of the Unspoken get started before the accident of the Northern Royal?

It was for the lack of evidence that Timothy chose to take myths and legends with a slight nod and weary eye, not fully giving them the benefit to be real. If stories of the Unspoken were true, Stakes assumed that the AI droid defenses and multiple sensor and communication satellites would have either caught them on holo record or had destroyed them by now and neither had happened as of it. Considering the centuries' old of some of these Unspoken stories, Stakes highly doubted the stories were true. It was even reported that the Unspoken had their own planet deep within the Northern Stretch; safe zones were barely large enough for a task force worth of warships, much less a planet of any worthy size to not be considered nothing more then space rock.

The frontiers of any civilization always gave rise to stories that captured the imagination, but had little, if any, truth to them.

As the Sword of Justice traveled within the Northern Stretch, the ion storms giving all worry, Stakes was busy keeping a close eye on the Gettysburg and her escorts. It was Kasumi's job to get them through the Northern Stretch, Fress' job to keep enemy startfighters off of them, and Stakes job to ensure the Gettysburg didn't get the chance to knock them out of this fight. As the Gettysburg's long range guns opened up, plotting the SOJ and her starfighters with the limited firepower a King-class Battleship had on their bow, Stakes knew that the Gettysburg would have to force the issue with a side barrage for any hope of success. And, with the COR government probably hot down their necks about capturing such a loyal and close naval officer to the late King as Stakes had been---not to mention the House of Royal Intelligence and Queen's Guards elements on the SOJ as well.

"Captain," Reported the sensors station crewmen, "We have new contacts. Squadron and a half of enemy starfighters heading our way from the Gettysburg; one fighter squadron supported by six bombers."

Stakes nodded, "Their starting early and in earnest."

"Fighter escorts," Said the communications officer to the fighter squadrons, "You have enemy contacts heading your way. Eighteen enemy starfighters, one squadron fighter escort, six bombers. Free element, your assignment are the bombers. Engage at will."


TAG Coffee, Falcon

 

IC: Kasumi
Sword of Justice

Begin Music

"I know you are nervous, Jedi. But. when you find that calm; this is what I need: as you are given the path of travel by the Force, tell the helms station and they will make the necessary corrections. Remember, Kasumi, this is a capital-ship sized warship and not a starfighter. We need as much notice as possible to make adjustments. Good luck and may the Force be with you."

Kasumi nodded to the Captain.

"Firecracker to Phoenix, we’re ready when you are. I know you can do this Phoenix, trust in yourself and trust in the Force."

Fress' voice was a welcome one. Kasumi had found her peace. She also had to make sure that not only was this course run as smooth as possible, but that the formation of fighters out there was allowed to do their job.

"Thank you Firecracker. We will see you on the other side. May the Force be with you."

Kasumi stepped out of the corner she was in. She heard the call about the other fighters being released and coming after the ship. Kasumi closed her eyes, put out the Force Illusion of more protector fighters with Fress and the rest of the group. The hope was to give the others enough of a scare that they would hesitate long enough for the fighters to do their jobs, and save on the need to waste ammo.

Kasumi then turned her attention to the Northern Stretch. She had to make sure that the directions she gave were accurate. Then a thought came to her.

"Captain, while my skills can help with this, we are going to need a bit more help. Sensors are not long range in there, but is there anyway to rig up an echolocation device that can help navigate as well? I want to ensure that we get through this with as little issue as possible. The more we are able to know about the surroundings the better."

As she waited for the Captain's answer Kasumi focused in the storms ahead of them.

"Helm, the two storms straight ahead are gaining in strength. You are going to have to angle in between them."

Kasumi walked over to the helm, closer her eyes one more time to be sure of what the Force was telling her and then quickly gave them the instructions needed to get through that portion.

"Bring us about to bearing 300 mark 10."

Tag: Bravo

 

IC: Captain Timothy Stakes
Bridge, Sword of Justice, Jod Star System


As the Force illusioins of other starfighters appeared around the ship, the Commander looked on at awe, "Ah...Captain?"

Stakes smirked and then looked at the Commander, "Jedi, Commander."

The Commander nodded nervously, "Got it. Jedi. Yea...sure."

Stakes kept his smirk as he looked out at the Northern Stretch.


"Captain, while my skills can help with this, we are going to need a bit more help. Sensors are not long range in there, but is there anyway to rig up an echolocation device that can help navigate as well? I want to ensure that we get through this with as little issue as possible. The more we are able to know about the surroundings the better."

Timothy nodded and turned to the Commander, "Commander, see to the Jedi's request."

"Yes, sir."

"Helm, the two storms straight ahead are gaining in strength. You are going to have to angle in between them."


"We see them," Reported the helms officers, "Correcting course."

The King-class Battleship angled between the two storms; from the bridge, the view titled as the ship did it's angle and made it through.; smaller ion storms picked at the warship's shields, but as long as they avoided the massive funnels and larger ion storms---like the two the flew through---they would be okay.

"Captain, the echolocation is ready," the Commander said, walking back to his post by the Captain up at the forward view ports.

Stakes nodded and turned to Kasumi, "Jedi, your echolocation is ready. At your command."

Kasumi walked over to the helm, closer her eyes one more time to be sure of what the Force was telling her and then quickly gave them the instructions needed to get through that portion.

"Bring us about to bearing 300 mark 10."

"Copy. Adjusting course."

Outside the viewports, although the Force projections had given the COR pilots some hesitation, they pushed their attack; hopefully the hesitation gave the Jod pilots the edge they needed against the enemy starfighters. As the starfighters formed up for their attack runs, Stakes looked over to the comm station, who nodded, and spoke to the starfighters, "Fighter escorts, what is your status?"


Tag Coffee, Falcon

 

IC: Captain Yavscout, Technician Flavin, Samantha Irisa, Delicate Delinquent
Location: Berroll's Donn


Yav felt comfortable chatting to Taller, and relaxed into the chair as the lead Merc's voice came over his comlink.

"Ah. Good. 'Yav. Good to hear from you. Look, get what techs you can down to the JB. Once the hyperdrive is operational, we won't be dead weight, and the techs can head back to the DD. You did good out there, Yav, really----"

Not thinking there was anything wrong with the pause initially, Yav tried not to preen at Taller's praise, but the pause went on a little too long. "What happened, did we lose them?"

"Whoa, I am reading a loss of power all over the Johnny Boy; their tractors have disengaged for a start. Okay, they are re-powering."

There was a tone of worry in the Jod's voice which galvanised the elf. "As soon as you can, open a channel."

"Of course! Oh stang-!"

Even as the tech swore at something, a bleep from Yav's waist had him bringing up his Merc-issue datapad, and though there was a jagged diagonal crack across the screen, it was working enough to read: TAKEN OVER BY ENEMY UNITS. BEWARE OF ESCAPE PODS WITH FRIENDLIES. GOD HELP US.

"Yav', enemy units aboard the Johnny Boy-"

The elf jumped out of his chair. "Lock tractors on her. Scramble a Go Team, and open those doors. I'm going over."

"We don't have tractors!" Flavin reminded as Irisa put out a general call.

"Transports Besh and Cresh, lock tractors on the Johnny Boy, I repeat..."

"We have escape pods."

The Corvette seemed to shimmer with a mixture of gold and dark energy and then...disappeared as if launched into hyperspace by something more powerful then any hyperdrive or Red Rock equipped drive could muster. In the darkness of space, a handful of escape pods drifted in space helplessly, waiting for pick-up...

"PURSUIT COURSE!"

"What about the others?" Irisa enquired.

"Frag 'em!" Yavscout shouted her down, and rounded on the Jod, "Pursuit course. Now!"

"That wasn't sublight; we'd need hyperspace coordinates to jump to."

"Can we track them?"

Flavin raised an eyebrow. "That jump wasn't made with a Red Rock or hyperdrive, so I don't think so."

"Don't give me that; as long as your Prophesy has been going on for, I can't believe the Johnny Boy is the first ship that that has happened to."

"If it happened before, the House of Royal Intelligence would know, but they were aboard the Authority when she blew."

"Pull the sensor logs, and transfer them to the captain's, my, ready room." The elf stalked to a doorway that was left of the bridge, where they had discovered the former captain's room during the initial hijack.

"What are you going to do?"

Yavscout sighed; this was a big decision, but Havah's sister, Palso's brother, the Merc's leader, their vessel, and his droid, Deputy, were all missing in action now.

It was time.

"I'm bringing in the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service."

"Secret..." Flavin frowned. "Never heard them."

Yav usually loved answering this one, but even as he said the words, his heart wasn't in it. "And if you had, they would just be the Galactic Intelligance Service, would they not?"

He disappeared into the room, sat behind the cluttered desk in the black leather chair, and activated the hypercomm. He had to wait for Flavin to send the sensor data through.

Even though Flavin was right next door, Yavscout used his own comlink to call the other. "Proceed with getting the other ships aboard. No-one with tractors docks without picking up at least one escape pod."

Tag: C.T. is on the bridge during all this, so feel free to post

 

IC: Fress Colias
Northern Stretch

"Fighter escorts," Said the communications officer to the fighter squadrons, "You have enemy contacts heading your way. Eighteen enemy starfighters, one squadron fighter escort, six bombers. Free element, your assignment are the bombers. Engage at will."

"Thank you Firecracker. We will see you on the other side. May the Force be with you."

“May the Force be with you,” Fress answered with a slight smile. “We’ll see you on the flip side, Phoenix,” she said as she gauged the radar screen. She noted twenty-five blimps were catching up with them. Then she watched as several appeared around her and the Sword of Justice. She smiled to herself. Nice elusion, Kasumi. She studied the formations deciding to keep the squads below and top of the star fighters in reserve. She bit on her lip hoping this was the correct decision. One wrong move can leave the SOJ vulnerable. They couldn’t leave the ship alone.

On the other hand if they ran into any storms and the SOJ made adjustments without notice would put those pilots into immediate risk. “Firecracker to Red Lead, engage fighters at will,” she commanded knowing the fighters at the rear would be the first defense Zone those bombers would strike at. “Take those bombers out.”

“Understood Firecracker,” Red lead answered as the fighters to the back lined up to engage the bombers.

“Firecracker to Red Lead, there is two storms ahead and looks like we’re going between them. Adjust your course accordingly.”

“Copy Firecracker.”

Fress adjusted the path they were taking as the SOJ adjusted. She sent the adjustments to the other fighters. This was going to be a tricky path to take. “I’m downloading the adjusted flight path.”

"Fighter escorts, what is your status?"

“Engaging the bombers now,” Fress reported with a frown.


IC: Flight Lieutenant Dave Calum
Engaging the bombers

Dave swung his fighter around just after Fress downloaded the adjusted coordinates. They were to slip between two storm systems and this could get tricky. He didn’t like the thought of going up against his comrades, but what choice did they have? The captain was counting on him and the others to follow through and keep those fighters away from the Sword of Justice.

What ever this prophecy was about, he hoped it was worth the amount of lives that were lost since the Kingdom of Jod split up. He dove under a bomber as he came face to face with another bomber who seemed to anticipate his maneuver. He aimed his lasers at the bomber striking a known weak spot in their shields.

Dave did a scan noting there was a fifty percent effective. The bomber unleashed lasers of his own causing him to dive his fighter down as the lasers brushed by him. He noted he was down to ninety-five percent on his shields.

Time to finish this, Dave thought as he swung his fighter around to face the bomber. He unleashed a barrage of lasers striking the weak spot five times over causing the bomber to explode in a ball of flames. Debris expanded outward clipping the Bomber coming to the other’s rescue wing taking it out.

“Nice shooting, Red Lead,” Fress’s voice came over the speaker and new coordinates were downloaded into his navi computer. Not only was she directing the fighters but keeping them updated on how they were fairing through the Northern Stretch. It was becoming clear why she was placed in charge of the free defense. She must have her astromech keeping track of how they were fairing back here.

“Thanks Defense Lead,” Dave answered as he noted four of the six bombers were now permanently out of the fight which only left two. Two and Three had formed a team going after the final two bombers.

IC: Commander Jerry Bengen
Lead Fighter

Jerry noted the fighter at the front was not of the Kingdom of Jod. This fighter was unknown though it was rumored a certain amount of X-wings were stolen from the factory. Could this fighter possibly be that new fighter he heard others talk about? It didn’t matter, he planned to turn it into scrap metal, without their lead the Free defense will fall. It didn’t matter, who ever was behind the fighter was his and his alone. He had made this clear to everyone else.

“Lead to Yellow squadron, engage at will.”

“Copy Lead.”

Jerry watched as twelve fighters head towards the six fighters that engaged the bombers, the final two were ganged up on by a half of the squadron and was taken out faster then the blink of an eye. He watched as six more fighters appeared from underneath the Sword of Justice.

Who ever was directing the defense was experienced and would not risk sending everyone back here at once. He watched as the fighters were evenly matched. “Lead to remaining fighters, engage at will.”

Jerry watched with horror as a third of his fighters were swept up into a funnel as the fighters from the Sword of Justice sat back and watched. How did they know that was there? Who ever it was must be keeping an eye on the storms he mused to himself as the fighters exploded and the amount of fighters suddenly turned in the other’s favor. He gripped the firing button and joined the fray careful not to get caught up in the smaller storms.

To be continued
Tag Bravo

 

IC: C.T.
Delicate Delinqent Bridge

“C.T., please encrypt and advise all friendlies that the Absit system is our backup site if we have to evac again.”

“Yes sir, message is on it’s way.”

While C.T. was trying to clear things up and make sure that the messages went out, he heard the call from the captain and did his best to clear it up. Taller definitely had a fight in him that C.T. and his brother’s could understand. And for that, C.T. respected him greatly. C.T. heard the panic when the jump happened and then saw the shimmer.

“What in the name of….”

Then he heard the order to leave the others. No, no one would be left behind.

“Sir, may I suggest that we work on the repairs while getting the escape pods safely aboard. During that time, we could use what resources we have on board to determine what that thing was. I could have the sensor readings sent to Herc and Circuit to see if they know of something, or if any of the others from the Block may know.”

C.T. waited for a response.

Tag: Sith (Yav)

 

IC: Havah Jeth
Corridors Space Station, Northern Stretches first line of defense

The pad in the lift was a surprise, and an unwelcome one. Either the stations AI had commandeered maintenance droids to stage something or the Jodites were acting off bad intel. Already whoever was hear would of had enough time to bug out, booby trap, or just make all their days worse if they were here. The fact that this also added climbing to the days activities was a depressing truth that had to be passed. Each rung and resounding noise from their groups ascent echoed like the death nails upon their coffins.

But nothing happened. No one died, nothing exploded, no traps were traversed, and not a single droid was seen.

They finally reached their destination and all burst in, the Jodites covered with blasters as he scanned the ceiling from his further back position as they swept the level and ground. But there was nothing. Nothing, but a cup of cold caf. With his vision he didn't have to touch it to know it was cold, and that it had been there long enough to cool, but not long enough to evaporate. Nodding at the leaders words he moved to a console, the only things besides them that were making noise in the thrice cursed place. The leader called in the groups and gave/got a sit-rep. Still as he read the labled consoles he got a question of if he could work them. That's what he got for learning to read and demonstrating it.

"If I wasn't thinking it, you would have an extra meat shield. Let me see what I can do." he muttered as he found one labled for security, a station that had a screen and a small halo-disk inset into the console to give three dimensional displays as needed. Somewhat reminded him of old Empire setup for such a station. Touching a few keys he carefully and methodically approached the systems access to see about bringing up a twenty-four hour replay of events. Any longer and the caf would noticeably have lowered and left rings. "Check the caf for evaporation rings." he called off as he realized he hadn't looked that closely when he had noted the cup.

TAG: Bravo

 

IC: Lieutenant Zotoman, Technician Flavin, Samantha Irisa, Sergeant Vestor, Corporal Loretta, Flight Officer Aurora Cradmoon, Unidade Cresh Senhtinel-class transport, Delicate Delinquent bridge and Deck Four.
Location: Berroll’s Donn


Out in space, his craft manouvering in behind the lead transport, Kingdom of Jod Navy liaison officer, Lieutenant Zotoman had been quite relieved when the interdictor cruiser showed up, slicing into view with the Merc corvette in tow.

He exchanged a startled glance with the pilot at the urgent demand from the ‘Delinquent to lock tractors on the corvette.

“We don’t have tractors!” The pilot blurted.

“Well don’t tell me, tell them!” Zotoman rejoined, pointing out the front window just as the Johnny Boy coruscated with orange and dark energies, and suddenly accelerated out of sight!

“What in King Alex’ Name happened there?”

* * * *

Delicate Delinquent bridge

Flavin heard the clone to his right jump onto the running boards of the exclamation band wagon, but the Ready Room door had already closed behind the elf while C.T, was still saying:

“Sir, may I suggest that we work on the repairs while getting the escape pods safely aboard. During that time, we could use what resources we have on board to determine what that thing was. I could have the sensor readings sent to Herc and Circuit to see if they know of something, or if any of the others from the Block may know ”

Flavin turned to him. “The way the Empire has been jumping over us with increasing regularity, I don’t know how much repairs we can get done before the next crisis, but that is what Chief Williams has gone to deal with. As for the sensor readings, make multiple copies, please. Send a copy each to the Captain, your Herc and Circuit, and Chief Engineer Williams. We also need to get a Royal Engineers team on this; there should be a room on this behemoth somewhere where they can set up.”

The tech looked up as Irisa turned from her station, headset held in one hand. “We are going to have a problem with those escape pods. We have no tractors; the shuttles have no tractors. How are we supposed to get them aboard?”

“Did we get assigned any jedi?” Flavin wanted to know, “Don’t they have telekinesis as one of their powers.”

A look of realisation crossed her face, and she punctuated the thought with a snap of her fingers. “The Detective Wyms has one! A tractor projector!”

He recognised the name of her personal starship, the Kuat Systems Engineering Firespray-31 patrol craft down in the hangars, but was distracted by a sudden thought of his own. He paused, then focussed on her, shooing her off the bridge to get to her ship, while reaching for his own comlink.
“Vestor, this is Flavin. We need you to take the Gamma out; we need her tractor beams to pull in escape pods from the Johnny Boy.”

The technician glanced at C.T. while the Jod soldier asked, “Why? What happened to the Johnny Boy?”

“Something has taken her.”

* * * *

TIE Hangar

Sergeant Vestor had turned away from Tim Williams and his group of eight engineers as they milled about the pile of scrap metal that used to be one of their landing craft; to talk to the bridge. “Some thing?” He echoed, cutting the bridge off, and calling the girl in the PX-4, while waving over the that Corporal Loretta, who had returned from deck hunting.

“Cradmoon, with me.” He looked towards the Merc female up in the Mobile Command Base’ high cabin, and was relieved that she could see him, otherwise he would be reduced to throwing pebbles at her window like a Southern Region merchants’ son in forbidden love with the noble daughter of a rival Central Region family. “Corporal. You too.”

The sergeant sprinted from the hangar into the corridor, followed closely by the corporal, although Cradmoon dawdled when she spotted the imposing Atgar Fd.4 laser dish set up in the middle of the hallway for the first time.

“Uh, should that be there?”

“Come on!”

“Alright, I’m coming.” Aurora griped to herself, as she ran after the others as they steered into what she assumed to be the larger docking bay, having seen it from her own, putting on a little Force Speed to catch up.

As she entered, the Sentinel-class landing craft sitting in the middle of the hangar, seemed to be right in front of them, a pilot dawdling on the deck under it’s downward hanging cockpit nose.

Vestor instead directed them to the white oblong-shaped ship with the many windows, tucked against the far wall, while he veered towards the pilot. The man clearly dropped something to the floor, and flattened it with the sole of his boot. There was a hint of burnt herb in the air now.

“What, the hoverbus?” She recognised Mac’s starfighter parked close by.

“It is not, a hoverbus.”

Aurora exchanged a look with the ponytailed female soldier in the red and black
“That sword must bruise your legs something rotten.”

“You get used to it.”

The Jod was a woman of few words, Cradmoon observed. She reached the ship first, pushing open the heavy white outer hatch, giving them access to a spacious cargo area, with twenty cabinets or columns fixed to the left and right bulkheads.

Cradmoon paused, and cocked her head. Listening.

“You hear that?” She asked, slowly pulling one of her blasters as she turned to face the sealed airlock door leading into the cockpit

Loretta was silent, observing the younger Merc, and tugging her own DE-10 blaster pistol from her mid-thigh holster to hold it in a double-handed grip, but pointed at the floor.

* * * *

The cockpit had a one-seat, crescent-shaped command console behind and centre of the four pilot stations just below the wide front window.

Both girls were seated at the pilot and weapons stations, powering up the engines and checking the ammunition store, when they heard what they assumed to be the Sergeant, enter the shuttle behind them. They heard and felt the action of him pushing closed the outer hatch.

Loretta turned as Vestor pushed into the spacious five-person cockpit,
“Sergeant, did you forget to tell us something?” Loretta enquired sweetly as he appeared.

“You two are on tractor beam duty, and we are going to be picking up life pods.”

“Not what I meant.”

“I don't know what else you could mean. Oh, Walking Library!”

That was the the wrong one of Palso's two droid names for the situation of finding the bound-and-gagged Imperial crew on the floor from before the interdictor had been called to the Block, but, there were ladies present.

Aurora suppressed a smirk, silently relieved and pleased that not everyone around her was perfect. “Forgot about them, did you?”

“Ignore them. We've got people depending on us.” Vestor stepped over the nearest wide-eyed form and settled in at the command chair, while the Naval Guard and the Merc flight officer faced the front.

“As ordered.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

Tag: C.T.