Star Wars Corellia: Reach for the Stars

Gareg
On-Station: Comm & Briefing Room

"Phase One: Trick Some Gullible Types" had proven to be a resounding success. But let's not think of Gareg as a bad drall. He was just an easily bored and unpleasant one with a rotten sense of humor.

In other words, Gareg was a bad drall.

His co-workers introduced themselves. They had names he probably wasn't going to remember and, worse, they were both human, so they both looked very similar, except that one was almost certainly a woman. Or was retaining a lot of water. He had trouble figuring that out, sometimes. "Right, so, you're R," he observed, pointing to Rastafarian. Raschmenenov? Rigellian? Ringalamadingdong? "And you're D," he added, this time indicating the one that was retaining water. Or possibly a woman. Desotoroyah? Demogorgan? Debutante?

"Wait, R&D? ... My god, that's hilarious!" He found himself laughing out loud. "Oh, do excuse me, I just... R&D?!" He had to remove his glasses to wipe away the tears. "Hoooo. Heh. Okay, I'm okay n - R&D?!"

This continued in a rather predictable manner for an additional half a minute.

"Okay, so you're... R&D... and the Selonian is Vanya. Right. Duly noted." His face screwed up as he desperately stifled another laughing fit.

"Look, this isn't working, so maybe one of you could go get me a... a... oh goddammit." There was no alcohol. None. Zip. Nada. Zilch. He knew. He'd looked. "A glass of water. Please." And maybe some rope. No, no, that was the easy way out. His father had always told him "Blah blah blah blah I'm stupid blah blah." And something about life not revolving around alcohol.

Then again, his father was blah blah blah stupid blah blah.

"Alright, so, let's just see what these folks are up to."

He flicked his comm on. "Goooooooooooooooooood morning scavenger teams! Hey, this is not a test. This is Gareg. Time to rock it from TRA0053 to SEL0108! You might know me as being about half your height but with the uncanny ability to bug you as I see fit, whenever I see fit! Fear me, bitches! FEAR ME!" He resisted the urge to cackle malevolently. "I see most of you are making excellent progress - that's good, that's healthy, that's... hey! Hey! Corellia team! Move your asses you lazy bums! We've all got places to go and booze to not drink because there is no booze. Somebody do something about that. Please? For me. Anyway, you guys need to land, like, yesterday, if you catch my drift. And now, I give you the sweets sounds of pre-recorded music. Or I would except the only music player I ever found was broken by superstitious idiots!"

Oh yeah.

This was going to be fun.

TAG: All, especially Corellia Team

 

Lazlo Lundi
Nameless

Lazlo strapped his tools to his belt. Things would work out well. Ringhaven seemed to know what he was talking about, but then again so did Tanial.

The moment was suitably austere and imposing. Silence, and nothing but - save for the whine of some of the ship's systems, that is. Lazlo stood next to Davos and Ringhaven, his small stature offsetting things slightly.

"Do we have a plan?"

Tag: Tralus group

 

Mariisa
Aboard the Shachihata, Corellia

Marissa moved away from the window. Not much she could do there. But the chatter in front of ship sounded much more interesting. One of the other Selonias moved forward, past here to talk to the other in the control area of the ship.

The one known as Sacoor spoke up. "Sir, those are humans, all of them not beasts. Young are the majority if not all present. I am sorry, human ages are hard for me to gauge."

Young? Like her? Well, certainly didnt want to be shooting at young. That tended to bring elders with bigger guns out. Well, that made sneaking in impossible. This was getting more interesting by the moment. Still, there had been no talk about how they had planned to explore this. So Mariisa sat back, simply listening for now. She had no idea how human young beings might act. Might run. Might fight back. Might bring other, older ones back. Again, issues on landing nearby. If kids here, that meant some human settlement had to be close by.

Not her problem.

Let the military types figure it out. She closed her eyes, listening to the conversation, but simply content to wait until she was needed.



TAG: Corellia Team

 

Morgue
Selonia

The cold was welcome. A cool mind in a cool head, as the old Corelinas said, had to be kept cool. She grinned under the scarf she used as a veil. The assault gun in her hands she had takn her assignd position. The rear guard. But it did not keep her from looking at everything else. She did not know these boys, she did not trust them an truth to be told, she did not insist on taking them back if Lisaner forgot about is humanitarian side. But she also realized that as soon as the acton began, she had that instinct. This need t devide the world into hers and theirs and ten keep as many of hers alive at the expene o as many of them as it needed.

The med kept on staring at her. The other guy had listened only half to Lisander. Maybe he was going to do his own thing and maybe she would have to deal qwith it. Disinterest was the sign of arrogance or amateurish traitors. Traitors usually were amateurish these days. There had not been enough time to train professionals, really.

"Let´s move." She suggested to Lisander and then followed the group to whatever entrance those maps showed. Holding the gun tight and feeling the hum of the energy cell she found comfort in her weapon, as always. The assault rifle had killed many men who had dared to cross their paths. Having it with her was like having an old friend around. When she had asked about Lsiander´s bad feelings hse had been serious. He had those quite often and she felt . . . definitivley felt as if this time they would hold some truth.

"Stay together, follow him." She sighed and kept on aiming into cold. She had expected more life around here. But now she realized this mine was quite a bit higher then the one they had worked on all month.

Tag: Fin, tjace, spy, Xany

 

Calcin
Shachihata: On Approach to Corellia Site

Calcin awoke to a voice blaring over the comm. "--EAR ME! I see most of you are making excellent progress - that's good, that's healthy, that's... hey! Hey! Corellia team! Move your asses you lazy bums! We've all got places to go and booze to not drink because there is no booze. Somebody do something about that. Please? For me. Anyway, you guys need to land, like, yesterday, if you catch my drift. And now, I give you the sweets sounds of pre-recorded music. Or I would except the only music player I ever found was broken by superstitious idiots!"

She rolled over and threw a tool of some sort at where she assumed the comm was. Stupidstupidstupid. Who yells like that this early in the morning? ... ... Booze? What booze? No booze, cafeteria not have any... Oh! On ship! Er, deathtrap... Why is comm on, then? At this point she remembered that she had left the comm on in case Anders needed her. Growling, she got up and stretched (or tried to, at least). "Shut it, Drall," she mumbled, stumbling forward to the cockpit and rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

There seemed to be some sort of commotion. Scholar yelling, Younger sniping (inside ship?!), Anders ordering around, Youngest standing to the side. Curious, Calcin looked out the viewport to see tiny figures crawling over the crash site. "Oh. Problem."

TAG: Corellia Team, Ramza, Xan

 

IC Major Ric Anders
Shachihata, Atmosphere, Corellia

Things were tense aboard the Shachihata. Hours of low level flying was taking it's toll on Anders as he was forced to re-route their course several times to avoid detection. He assumed he was successful in his efforts as no Nork fighters came to intecept them.

The tension was amplified by the dynamics of the crew aboard. Mostly Selonian, which in itself didn't bother Anders much, he just didn't know as much about them as he figured he should. His resistance cells had been mostly human during the wars. Besides he figured he actually had more in common with them than he did with the only other human on their expedition. Though Graf hadn't voiced his opinions on Ander's interpretation of their mission, it was quite clear that he had disagreed with them. No use fighting over it now, Graf's expertise would be needed to figure out just what was valuable and what wasn't.

Finally they came up on the target area, Anders was relieved to see that it was easily recognizable from the air, they would have to waste even more time setting up a search grid. As they flew over the area though he saw movement around and on the target ship.

Graf saw them as well. "I will not have the site tainted! Don't you have something on this bucket to scare away those beasts? They don't know what they're dealing with!"

Excitable much? Anders would hate to see the man actually under fire. Things never went as planned under fire, the enemy had their plans too. "Calm down Graf, lets overfly the area and get a better idea of what we are dealing with."

Anders slowed the ship further, so everyone could get a better look at what they were dealing with. Than Sacorr chimed in. ?Sir, those are humans, all of them not beasts. Young are the majority if not all present. I am sorry, human ages are hard for me to gauge.?

Anders looked again, they sure did look like a bunch of kids down there. "Good eyes Sacorr." It always helped to encourage the younger soldiers in your unit, especially when they appeared to be unused to working with humans.

Young kids on speeder bikes? Anders doubted they could put up mkore than token resistance to the military professionals aboard. They could land about klick away and aproach on foo....

Anders' thoughts were derailed as screaming and screeching came though his headset, "Goooooooooooooooooood morning scavenger teams! Hey, this is not a test. This is Gareg. Time to rock it from TRA0053 to SEL0108! You might know me as being about half your height but with the uncanny ability to bug you as I see fit, whenever I see fit! Fear me, bitches! FEAR ME!"

Anders tore the headset off his head in frustration, it wasn't exactlly his idea of command and control. Besides that much electronic noise was bound to picked up by Nork forces in the area, if he responded they would certainly send a patrol out their way.

Nork patrol? That gave Anders an idea. The kids down there were deep in New Corellian territory, their actions certainly highly illegal under Nork law. If they were attacked and any survivors escaped they might report their attackers to the Norks, but if they thought they had been run off by the local authorities, than they certainly wouldn't want to turn themselves in.

Anders swung the Shachihata around and powered up all the external lights, focusing them as much as possible on the scanvengers below. Than he activated the external loudspeakers. "This is the New Corellian Police vessel Blue Falcon, you are all in violation of New Corellian law. Stand down and prepare for processing."

If they were just local kids down there that should send them scattering, if not they would have to set down and take them out by force.

TAG Corellia Team

 

IC: Davos Reemus - Cadelmin - Tralus

After Ran's confident remark Davos prepard all his weapons and placed them in their appropiate places on his belt and back pack. He came to the loading ramp and came up to Ran and Lazlo. Each was in their own mind waiting for the ship to hit the surface of Tralus. Suddenly over the comm a too excited voice blared, "Goooooooooooooooooood morning scavenger teams! Hey, this is not a test. This is Gareg. Time to rock it from TRA0053 to SEL0108! You might know me as being about half your height but with the uncanny ability to bug you as I see fit, whenever I see fit! Fear me, bitches! FEAR ME! I see most of you are making excellent progress. That's good, that's healthy, that's... Hey! Hey! Corellia team... That was when Davos turned down the volume on his comm and figured if the rest of that was important than Lyle or someone else would advise him of it.

Davos started to wonder about that outburst as comm silence should have been important especially early on during the mission. From the sky the area looked calm with not a lot of activity. Cadelmin looked deserted but that did not mean that there was no one there. Anyone could be hiding and waiting for them, most certainly they would know the team was coming after that open comm message. Stealth perhaps would be better in this instance and Davos would want to scout the area before they approached the ruins. Suddenly as Davos was preparing for the landing Lazlo spoke up with, "Do we have a plan?"

Davos quickly replied with "From the sky the area looks deserted, but I would like to verify that before anything else. Davos coomed Lyle up front hoping the pilot's mood was better than the last time they had spoken. "Lyle, this is Reemus. Can the ship's scanners verify that there are no life forms on the ground? Could we expect any surprises?"

TAG: Tralus Team

 

IC: Sacorr
Corellia via the tin can without a string

Taking a steadying breath as the elder came in, how she had slept through their perilous journey was a mystery to her, she stepped to the side in the cramped space. The security boss for this mission complimented her eyes, to which she tilted her head. ?It was the scope.? She replied perplexed by the inaccuracy of her commander. Didn?t his division have anyone with far-seeing technology? Her scope compared to some cone-heads tech was dismally inadequate, why vaunt even that when something better was known to exist? Humans.

That was her final conclusion, one word, humans. Both seemed to galling states of inaccuracy. Then the security head did something that left her with her mouth hanging open. He lied!

It was bold, it was blatant, and caused her to look with only disparaging glances at the people below as she waited for the Elder to say something. Somebody had to say or do something to such a terrible moral crime! Wouldn?t they?

TAG: Xan, Corellia Team

 

Lyle Zahara
Tralus, Ruins of Cadelmin

"I see most of you are making excellent progress - that's good, that's healthy, that's... hey! Hey! Corellia team! Move your asses you lazy bums! We've all got places to go and booze to not drink because there is no boo-"

"Frakking dumbass," Lyle murmured upon flicking off the comms. He would bring them back up again but later; specifically when the speaker - a Drall it sounded like - decided to shut up. Granted, Lyle was at least being shown some respect as he was apparently faster then whoever the poor sods were that were going to Corellia but, really, he didn't need someone yapping idiotically in his ear.

That and he did not need to be reminded that there was no booze waiting for them back at the station.

He took notice of someone beeping him on his Tralus-team-only channel and Lyle flicked it on in time to hear one of his passenger's speaking about being sure that the area was deserted. It was a good thing that the passenger named himself as Reemus because, other then Ran, Lyle had no idea as to the names of his other passengers. After yelling at them he had sealed himself back in the cockpit and made sure that the door was locked so as not to be bothered. This was his relaxing, flying time now and he didn't need any annoying passengers barging in, sitting down, and then retelling the entire history of the entire planet.

Still, Reemus's question was valid and, feeling so much better now after a few hours of flight time, he had no problem with checking his ship's scanners and-

Oh right.

Once again he was reminded of his ship's current condition and Lyle immediately doubted that the scanners would work. Nothing useful ever worked; that's how things usually went. He was surprised that the scanners actually turned on but a flickering informed him of his unstable condition. For a brief moment Lyle thought he saw a couple blips come up but he had no idea if anyone was actually alive and walking or if it was just a glitch in the system. They were gone after another flicker so who the hell knew.

"I got nothing," Lyle finally called back. "Though that doesn't exactly mean dive head first into the abandoned and possibly dangerous Rakata facility. May not be something down there now but could be later."

Speaking of down there, Lyle was bringing them there now. He did a sweep over Cadelmin to check for a sufficient landing zone in that mess - and to see if he could spot anything moving - and, what do you know, there was a wide open landing pad as if it had been waiting just for him. There was nothing moving but, hey, Lyle already warned them. Besides, they were the ones that were going to go to base while Lyle was just gonna sit back, relax, and not have a drink. Oh, and repairs. Make repairs while not having a drink. Damn it.

Ah well. Keying the landing gear, Lyle was happy when they didn't get stuck and actually locked into position like they were supposed to. However, upon setting down as gently as he could, he nonetheless heard that clunk that made him wince. Stupid damn Drall why the hell would you fix the fuel lines and not lubricate the landing gear or something useful?

"Alrighty!" Lyle spoke into the comms before keying the loading ramp open. "Off you go! Make sure to bring back a souvenir for me!"

TAG: Saintheart, Peng, MasterSkywalker

 

Bardan_Jusik, docking_bay94, HanSolo29, Ktala, Mitth_Fisto
Corellia: Atmosphere

The Shachihata swung around and hovered right over the crash, lights and speakers blaring.

It was a good idea. It certainly scared the living hells right out of the youngsters: most scrambled out of the way as soon as the lights came on, and by the time Anders' voice shouted out over the external speakers, a handful were gunning their speeder bikes away as fast as they could.

But a handful remained. They could see one figure in particular grabbed a would-be runaway by the collar and drag him bodily off a speeder bike; Sacorr, if she was still looking, would note that he appeared to be shouting at the others. There was no way to make out what was being said from this distance, but he was evidently yelling at his friends to stay.

Two more boys, emboldened by his example, grabbed hunting rifles off the bikes and waved them at the ship. (Evidently this was supposed to be threatening, but it was laughable to expect handheld arms to hurt a spaceship.) All in all, perhaps half a dozen remained, armed in an assortment of slugthrowers and knives.

The ringleader had grabbed a rifle as well and stalked out in front of the crash, daring them to land.

---

DarkLordoftheFins, SirakRomar, spycoder9, tjace
Selonia: Base of the Cloudland Peak

Lisander led the way, followed closely by Axel and Carek. Morgue brought up the rear, holding a weapon primed and ready.

The wind bit through their clothing as they left the landing site. Lisander and Morgue held up well - they'd been to Selonia before, although not precisely this part of Selonia - but Carek had left his jacket behind, and was soon shivering from the cold.

After what seemed like a very long trek over rocky exposed terrain (but couldn't have been more than three hundred metres) they reached the tree line, giving them some cover from the wind. Not far ahead was the mine entrance, just as the maps indicated. Next to it, a small radio transmitter was staked into the ground. The missing scout's work, perhaps? She had been submitting reports from underground, after all.

---

Jedi_MasterSkywalker, Penguinator-176, Saintheart, Sarge221
Tralus: Ruins of Cadelmin

Having been cheerfully turfed out of the ship by their pilot, there was nothing for Ran, Lazlo and Davos to do but walk out into the ruined town.

The silence was eerie: not a single bird, insect, or other kind of animal noise was to be heard. There was not even any wind. It made a big change from the very clanky, temperamental ship they had just spent a day on, and was perhaps even more eerie for that.

All of them left very obvious footprints in the dust wherever they went, reinforcing just how deserted this place was.

Being on the ground only reinforced what they had seen from the air. Most buildings seemed mostly intact, though damaged by war and ten years' disrepair. The communications array, unbelievably, looked even more unstable up close. Its door was ajar and half blown away, although it was no longer possible to tell whether it had been the rebels or Rakatan soldiers who had done it.

And of course, at its base lay the entrance to the underground base that had so unsettled the rebel strike team.

---

darthramza
On-Station: Comm & Briefing Room

Destyan leaned over and killed Gareg's comm transmission, frowning. Beside her, Rigel merely rolled his eyes. Neither of them looked particularly surprised, however, which probably meant they had read Gareg's file, or had simply talked to Captain Ferrault in the last two hours. (Fenor kind of shuffled nervously in place, which was exactly what he had been doing the entire time anyway.)

"The comm," Destyan said severely, "is for mission-critical communications only. You are risking the lives of -"
"Oh, come off it," Rigel interrupted, coming around. He was still smiling, though the expression did not quite reach his eyes. "We're encrypted to hells and back. And besides -"
"Encryption can be broken, as you know full well!"
"B

 

Morgue
Selonia; Mines; Entrance

When they reached the entrance she finally gave up her position and moved forward to Lisander. She saw what he saw immediately. the radio-transmitter. Comm-unit, whatever scouts called their equipment to contact their basecamps. It was there and it was intact. "Dammit." She sighed and shook her head. Looking around she pulled the lever on her blaster to high-charge ammo and looked at Lisander. "This is bad, is it?" She sighed. It meant the scout could have called for help anytime. It meant the scout could have contacted the outside world. It meant the reason why the scout had not, was because THE SCOUT could not contact anyone, equipment ready or not. It meant that it was more than likely, he was dead!

And that meant omething had killed him. Until they saw proof ofr an accident, security consciousness dictated to work with that premise.

Something would therefore come to kill them.

Tag: Fin, spy, tjace (when back), Xany

 

Lisander Olic
Selonia, Mines


He looked at Morgue and he knew that she knew. they had come to the same conclusion and although it was totally possible the scout fell into any of the deep shafts inside the mines he felt they should prepare for something worse, too. He tightened his glovs over his hands and took out his blaster. "Yeah, this isn´t good. The scout is not calling back because he had an equipment malfunction. But that is priceless technology we got here. What would have been the chances we were that lucky, hm?" He smiled, but it was more to keep up the morale. "Anyway, no point in freezing to death. Answers and our mission target are down there so let´s get inside. Underground it should be a lot warmer."

He nodded to Carek and Antilles and entered the mines first, activating his lights attached to his coat. The gun as ready, not pointed anywhere but ready to raise and shot anything. And inside he looked around and made his way deeper into the mines. Before he did that he gave Morgue a last, long look. Be careful. He told her without saying a word. Be very careful.

He did not wanted to jump to any conclusions, but instead he jumped right into the lion´s den. As if that was any better, he wondered. And this time the smile upon his face was genuine.

He loved that kinda work. It simply never, ever got boring.


Tag: Sirak, Xany, Spy, tjace

 

Gareg
On-Station: Comm & Briefing Room

They just shut his comm off.

Without asking.

If Gareg had not been a drall, it's almost certain that violence would've broken out. Not the lethal kind - murder was such a vulgar, unsporting thing - more the "These fellows rub me the wrong way" kind of bloody scrap. He was not the sort of fellow who didn't like getting his own way. But because Gareg was a drall, he sat, assuming an air of calmness, quietly seething underneath his calm, fuzzy exterior.

"You don't care about that, do you, Gareg?"

Oh, hello, what's all this then? Pink skin with a brain? What a wholly unprecedented biological phenomenon! This could be the biggest thing since absolutely everything their former captors had ever done!

Eh, it was a bit underwhelming when you put it in context like that.

Passive aggressive. Rigel - because that was his name, and Gareg was going to remember it just so he could put a giant star next to it on his mental poodoo list - had a bit of a nasty streak to him. Good. He'd need it.

Because he was going to be broken.

"Are we clear, Gareg?"

"As an unmuddied lake, Rigel. As clear as an azure sky of deepest summer. You can rely on me." Gareg smiled. It was that honest sort of smile that indicated general understanding. It was also a load. "Now, all this intensive scrutiny has only made my parched throat all the more apparent, so, Fenor, if you could get me that glass of water, I would be much obliged."

TAG: Xan

 

darthramza
On-Station: Comm & Briefing Room

"Good." Rigel straightened and smiled, clasping his hands behind his back. "Glad to hear it. We'll leave you to your work."

He nodded, a picture of courtesy, and left. Destyan lingered a moment longer, looking worried, but she only shook her head and followed her fellow lieutenant out of the room.

"Ah, here, sir -" That was Fenor, hurrying over with a glass of water.

Just at that precise moment, in an entirely coincidental fashion, the comm pinged. Incoming transmission.

 

Gareg
On-Station: Comm & Briefing Room

"Glad to hear it. We'll leave you to your work."

"Thank you kindly." I am going to eat you alive, you bastard.

Injury? Nah, too obvious, too fleeting, easily recovered from. Overworking? Too convoluted. Not reliable. Easily remedied with a sick date. Public humiliation? Therein lay some pos-

The comm pinged. "Hold that glass, Fenor, I better take this. Actually, bring the glass. Thanks."

Poor lad. About to become a piece in a game he didn't even know existed. Gareg flipped the comm on, after taking a moment to adjust his glasses. Would not be a good idea to hit the wrong button because of eye strain. "This is the 'Eye in the Sky', looking at you." That codename was moronic! "You are on a secure channel, please proceed with transmission following standard identification, you know the drill."

TAG: Xan

 

darthramza
On-Station: Comm & Briefing Room

There was a pause, and then a raspy voice said, "Eye in the Sky, this is Rock, looking right back."

Without needing to be prompted, Fenor tapped a few keys. Information blossomed on the screen. Rock, it seemed, was one of their official contacts: a Coalition military officer tasked with collecting and passing on any leads that he might find. Nothing was known on his position or rank (it looked like security was a double-blind here) but given the information he had already passed through, he was a fairly high-ranking Intelligence officer. Among other things, the flatpic the team on Selonia was currently investigating had come through him.

"Got something for you - it's a bit thin, but - well, judge for yourself. This was submitted by a patrol yesterday."

The profile on Rock disappeared, replaced by what looked like a patrol report excerpt.

At 2100 hours Pvt Merd swore he could hear noise, so he and Pvt Nilo broke camp and crept up over the ridge to investigate. They saw a group of people clumped around this man who was speaking loudly to the group, and behind the man was a glowing item which he gestured at often over the course of his speech.

"It's not much," the raspy voice said again, "but only Rakatan items glow. I'd wager they found something. A tribe, maybe."

 

Calcin
Shachihata: On approach to Corellia Site

"This is the New Corellian Police vessel Blue Falcon, you are all in violation of New Corellian law. Stand down and prepare for processing."

That jerked Calcin awake. Eyes popped open, muscles tensed. Younger's jaw plunged toward the floor, then started digging. Calcin placed a calming hand on Younger's shoulder. Might not be calming, though. Muscles too tight... Liar! Liarliarliar! Anders, you fiend, how could you? Calcin respect for the man plummetted to new and unexplored lows. Living with humans, you'd think I'd expect this...

Despite her newfound personal issues with Liar, she held her tongue. Respect chain of command, respect the Major. See how this works out...

It turns out it didn't. The bluff wasn't a complete failure, but enough of the children stayed to present a threat. Especially if they were armed. Hard to tell at this distance with her old eyes... "Great plan, Major. Now what?" Her voice dripped sarcasm.

TAG: Corellia Team, Xan

 

IC: Major Ric Anders
Shachihata, On approach to Corellia Site

Ander's tactic hadn't worked as well he had had hoped, but probably about as well as could be expected. He missed the reactions of Sacorr and Calcin, as he watched most of the kids below scatter. Even if he had noticed it, he would not have understood. Instead he was focused on the one below who seemed to be in charge. A bigger kid than the others, he had managed to keep maybe five or six others with him.

"Great plan, Major. Now what?"

Anders snapped his head over to look at Calcin. What was she so upset about? They had culled the number of potential hostiles signifigantly, without firing a shot. He shook his head. No time to deal with this now, we can go over it in the mission debrief afterwards.

He turned his attention back to the remaining opposition. They appeared armed and were brandishing their weapons as if ready to fire on the Shachihata. They had to know their slug throwers had no chance to penetrate the thick hull of the freighter. Still he stopped their approach and began to hover a good 300 meters away and 20 or so meters of altitude. That should be a tough enough shot for some untrained kid, but a walk in the park for a trained sniper, like Sacorr. After ensuring their hover was well established he turned to her. "Ok Sacorr, lets see that great shooting of yours. Pop the hatch and take out the one in charge down there. That should get the rest of them running." Seeing their leader's bravery turned to pink paste by a well placed shot from the unit sniper should be enough to get the stragglers to run off too. And if not? Well than Sacorr would just have to repeat the process until there were none left.

TAG: Corellia team, Mitth especially.

 

OOC: How odd..had my last post disappear into the ether. Oh well...trying again!


Mariisa
Shachihata: On approach to Corellia Site

Marissa sat back, simply content to listen to the others as they swooped around their objective. Both of the elder ones were now out, and looking at the situation as well. Nothing new there...until she human pilot swung the ship around, turned on the ship's communications devices for outside the ship, and then spoke.

"This is the New Corellian Police vessel Blue Falcon, you are all in violation of New Corellian law. Stand down and prepare for processing."

Eyes went wide as she heard that statement. The human pilot LIED! Full out lie! As she sat up, she saw that the other two had also noticed it as well. She had heard of such things with the humans, but she did not expect such a blatant lie. She turned, and spoke in her native language, not speaking towards the two older ones, but to her bag. /Did you hear that!?/ she asked softly. She was answered by a series soft beeps and whistles. Lies never good. Lies always cause more trouble....

Mariisa turned, and looked out of the window port once more. Some ran. Many ran. But some stayed. And the ones that stayed, seemed to be waving things into the air. It did not look friendly at all. Weapons? Not good. Her thoughts were interrupted by a comment from Calcin.

"Great plan, Major. Now what?" Her voice dripped sarcasm.

Mariisa heard him pause for a moment. Then the human pilot Anders spoke to Sacoor. "Ok Sacorr, lets see that great shooting of yours. Pop the hatch and take out the one in charge down there. That should get the rest of them running."

Mariisa was standing up now, her ears turned as she could not believe what she had just heard.

"You...you want her to shoot young?" Mariisa blurted out, obviously aghast at the mere suggestion of such a thing. Not just shoot the child, but kill him? Obviously, what she had heard about humans, and the few things she had learned while she had worked with a few of them, was NOTHING like what she expected for this mission.

She whipped her tail about, as she plunked back down, her ears back. And these were supposed to be better than the others? Her tail whipped around her body, as she made a distressed sound, but making sure that the human pilot did not hear her. He might be tempted to do something ... unpleasant. More soft bleeps issued from her back, as she scooted back, looking from the front of the ship, to the window.




TAG: Corellia team

 

IC: Sacorr
Corellia via the tin can without a string

Instead all she felt was a tense hand upon her shoulder from the elder, was that agreement or restraint upon her? She did not know, but the words dripped with enough sarcasm from the Elder that even the human had to of noticed it.

Still he merely paused before asking her to shoot the young of his own kind who only moved to fight them because of his lie. Finally someone cried out at all this atrocity, the Youngest spoke up. She was even more distressed then Sacorr. Dragging her gaping mouth closed she looked at the security Major with contempt, ?I protest!? She ground out from behind barred teeth, she hoped that was the correct human word for her feelings. She did not want to compound his evil ways and stain herself as accomplice. ?Would wounding be sufficient?? She had to give that, an alternative, something, anything. Too much evil glared from this man, he was no better than a cone-headed one.

TAG: Xan, Corellia Team

 

OOC: Catchup post here for the last two updates.

Ran Ringhaven
Tralus, leaving the Nameless

For several moments Ran glanced around at the others, blinking. They seemed to be looking at him. And then the engineer, Lazlo, was speaking...
"A plan?" he echoed for a second, bringing him out of his surprise. He hadn't really imagined himself the leader of this group, more a consultant.

Enough of that! snarled the voice of a very ugly and foul-smelling drill sergeant from back when he'd mustered in. From here on in, you only have three answers to give me: yes, sir; no, sir; and no excuse, sir!
"Well, that--"
"Alrighty!" Lyle spoke into the comms before keying the loading ramp open. "Off you go! Make sure to bring back a souvenir for me!"

Something about the sarcastic tone cut through to Ran, and he gritted his teeth, marching over to the nearest speaker and stabbing at a button. His voice took on a sudden sweetness. "Most kind of you, captain Zahara. Incidentally, did I mention on the way over here how frequently ships left on landing platforms were prime targets for resistance fighters or plain ship raiders? It was the captains' habits, you see. Historically, raiders love docked ships. Not so much for the fact the ship is on the ground and thus a sitting target, but more to do with the fact that the ship's pilot would invariably remain with the ship. Alone. And usually not terribly well armed. You see, it's hard to grab an entire ship ... and, in some of the more desperate quarters of the war, on Corellia, mind you, food was rather short. Some isolated cells actually turned to cannibalism, can you imagine?"
He didn't think this was actually true.
He smiled. "Enjoy the quiet, captain. We'll report in soon, I'm sure."

Ran snapped the comm off and turned to the others. "Let's get moving."

On arriving in the town, and taking a look around, he put his hands on his hips, frowning. "Well. Never let it be said that there aren't surprises to be had from historical investigations," he said. "I'd have expected this place to have been teeming with settlers. But instead it's looking exactly as the intel report said. Deserted."
He didn't add, of course, that this in itself had nasty implications. What would cause a place like this to be avoided so assiduously?

He looked, once again, at the crater that exposed the route down into the Rakatan base. "All right," he said. "Although I'm as anxious as anyone to look in there, we might look through the ruins of the town topside first and see if there's anything that points to occupation of these ruins, or anything useful to be found. Let's get to it."

TAG: Sarge, Peng, JMS, Xan

 

Mariisa
Shachihata: On approach to Corellia Site

Things were going from bad to worse. Sacoor made her objection known.

"I protest!" she told the humans. As a compromise, she added with a question, ?Would wounding be sufficient??

Suddenly the human Graf Eyrk spoke up. "Godsdammit!" he yelled, and Mariisa was certain that that comment was not complimentary at all, as he glared at Sacoor. "Fire the damn weapon or I'll do it for you! This isn't a game!" He pointed down towards the crash site and where the kids were making their stand. "They have every intention of hurting us! Now, hurry up! You're wasting time!"

Mariisa abruptly stood, and she suddenly hissed, showing fangs, as her tail whipped about. She might be young, but compared to these humans... Lie and then insult, and then threaten. Not good! Not good! Bad start. She was youngest. Think! She was smart.

"You no think!" She shouted at human Graf. "You shoot young, and others will tell. That will bring more humans. Adults. Adults angry at someone shooting their young. More adults with bigger weapons." Mariisa growled. "Why you think briefing had stated that local armed resistance was probably very high, yes? And they had said we should sneak in. That is what concealment means, yes? Too late now."

She then looked at the other Selonians, and the pilot, since he knew more about the ship. "Can we not knock them out or contain? Use ship? Shields? Drugs?" Mariisa tried to think so something - anything for an alternative to what the humans were proposing. Her head then shot up. "Sacoor. You think you could shoot out weapon from leaders hand? He act brave, to show others. Like pack. If he disarmed, maybe others will back off?" she asked, desperately hoping Sacoor could do it.

She was angry. She had actually thought of human Graf as being decent. But he was acting like the Rakatan. Take what want, no mater who got hurt. She sat back on her haunches, quiet once more. She felt horrible. One of her tiny droids beeped at her softly, as if trying to comfort her.



TAG: Team Corellia

 

IC: Major Ric Anders
Shachihata, On approach to Corellia Site

Anders' time in the military hadn't prepared him for what followed his order to neutralize the gangs leader. Instead of a simple "yes sir", and movement to comply, he got an arguement. This was why the teams should have all had dedicated military support.

First came the protests from the non-military Selonian. "You...you want her to shoot young?" Her thumping tail provided all the exclamation she needed to express her outrage. He could almost forgive her naive attitude, he was pretty sure she had no combat experiance. But it didn't end there.

?I protest!" Anders had thought better of Sacorr, thought the time fighting Conies would have given her a hard edge when it came to doing the things that must be done. ?Would wounding be sufficient??

Anders hadn't even considered it. When he fired upon an enemy it wasn't to kill, or wound, it was simply to neutralize. Whether the target died or not was immaterial so long as they were combat ineffective. His confusion only allowed a chance for the others to pipe in.

"They have every intention of hurting us! Now, hurry up! You're wasting time!" At last, Anders found a time where he agreed with their resident egghead. Despite the fact that these were just kids, they had weapons and the knowledge to use them. That was a danger to them and it was Anders' job to protect them from that kind of danger.

Besides how many times had he seen kids younger than this used to strike at the Conies? Nine year olds, their own parents slaughterd by the Conies, sent off with bombs strapped to their backs to exact revenge on their opressors. Or even entire units made up of "fighting kids", kept in line by a combination of parental authority and drink. A bullet fired from the gun of a child could kill a man just like that fired from an experianced marksman. You had to honor the threat.

If he could Anders would have gone and taken the shot himself, but he couldn't leave the controls of this rustbucket. He didn't trust it to not fall out of the sky without him watching over the controls. He heard Mariisa's suggestions, it was true that if they were fired upon it would eventually bring others out to see what had happened. It was why he had hoped to scare them off in the first place. There was nothing on the ship that could do what she had asked, their options seemed limited to firing, leaving and sneaking back later or aborting the entire mission.

"You think you could shoot out weapon from leaders hand? He act brave, to show others. Like pack. If he disarmed, maybe others will back off?"

That would be a tough shot, under any conditions. But even if he missed the weapon, Mr big shot down there would still get hit, again wounded or killed Anders didn't care. But such an action, if it could be pulled off by their sniper, would still just scare the kids to the point where they wouldn't report the incident.

Anders nodded his head. "Sacorr, this is an order. Engage the target down there. If you can pull it off go for the weapon."

Tag: Corellia Team.

 

IC: Sacorr
Corellia waiting in air

The situation rapidly degraded like untreated gears in salt-water. She resisted successfully the impulse to beat the civilian human, still her teeth bared at the notions of such disrespect for their own actions. If they had not lied to begin with then possibly they would not have the humans attempting to shoot at them, for all they knew these young humans were aligned with their own government but stuck behind the others land claim. The younger added another option one which was ludicrous in a way all it?s own.

Then the major made an order and she nodded her consent, the end might still be the same, but this left a small chance that those below might yet survive the Major?s lies. One could only hope.

Moving to the door she first took a blanket and draped it over herself to hide somewhat who and what she was. Also to minimize the human?s ability to make out their target. Once in position she used the tip of her rifle to tap the button to open the door, tucked under she sited as the door opened for the leader. Taking in the winds or lack thereof, the difference in her currently higher shooting position relative to theirs with the effects of gravity, she lined up and aimed at the kids mid-section.

When he steadied himself to fire she would adjust and fire, either she would hit the weapon, hit the weapon and still kill the human, or miss and hit the human. Any way it went it came down to a single shot, and if the others fired she would have to neutralize them, one way or another.

TAG: Xan, Corellia Team