Star Wars Intervention: Echoes in Eternity (An Original Trilogy Game; Always taking new players!!!)

IC: 'Ace' Benjamin Totter
Johhny Boy, Storage Closet off Upper Catwalk - Hanger

When the ship lurched a very irritated Totter had the unpleasant experience for being merely rattled around in the closet and feeling what was likely a can of lubricant bounce off his head. Something which he would attribute to his pain more than any hangover. "Son of a Rebel!" He blurted out. Still in the solid dark the noise outside gave him pause. Sounded like that hanger droid was saying something about decompression suits? Better to stay were he was.

With a shrug he pulled out a long necked bottle and was pleased to hear it still sloshed when he moved it. "For ails me." he responded before downing the remainder of the bottle. Spine of the Massif that bit you after all, right? Right.

When his pad started chiming he knew he was done for. If the pad was with him still, that meant he was being called to fight, and if he had the pad and was being called to fight that meant his droid 'Tarentek' was going to be showing up by tracing it to drag him to his fighter. In fact it wasn't long at all before he heard the trundle of the wheels before the door opened to the blinding outside. With eyes closed he grinned at the droid. "I trust you tipped the waiter?"

At the resounding raspberry he figured the droid was saying something derogatory. Truth be told he never learned droid, never learned anything but basic. Why would he ever have had need of such a thing in a civilized galaxy? So far he wasn't dissuaded enough to think of trying to learn such things either. After all, all important information was in Aurebesh basic. The rest didn't matter.

"Fine. Fighter right? Just get me a coffee and I'll come." he replied with a grin still plastered in place and a wave of his hand. At the sound of a panel popping his grin faded. "You wouldn't." A slight whir. "Now I am your master!" *BZZZZZT*

"Yow!!!" He shouted into the air as his pad beeped again. A glance to the glaring screen showed the droid was letting him know the wing commander was looking for him. "You know Momma Vespa would never have stood for her boy to be treated such a way!" the droid turned and squaked and babbled as it trundled away as he got up to follow it at a modest arm flapping jog with one arm flailing a little more than the other.

Within a short span he was changed and settling into his Cockpit as he actively was still finishing the sealing of his flight suit. A garish thing that made him long for at least the black uniform of a TIE Pilot but not the life. "Checking in!" he called into the comm as he dropped the helmet in place. "No-body knows the trouble I've seen. . ." he began singing in a deep baritone as the canopy closed on his fighter.


TAG: greyjedi125

 

OOC: I have adopted Bravo's way of doing dreams, and the film classic, The Godfather, is referenced.

IC: Chief Engineer Tim Williams, Commander Yavscout, bridge crew, Engineering and Bridge of the Johnny Boy
Location: interstellar space near Draukyze, R-6 grid

-Captain speaking.

Williams' coverall-covered body jerked awake at the loud voice echoing through Engineering to discover himself in the wheeled chair that he had dropped off in, and that the chair had inexplicably rolled out of his office-cum-sleep area.

"What in the Original Light?" He mumbled, rubbing fingertips into his eyes as he tried to regain consciousness.

-pace by a unknown source. No enemy tangos in sight at the moment. We are dead in space, I repeat, we are dead in space. Yellow alert, yellow alert. All Command Staff and Support Staff to the Officer's Meeting Room. Please stand-by for further orders as needed

"Wha-? Dead in space?" Now he was awake, staring up at the metal globes almost filling the three deck-high space, that helped to form the corvette's engines.
They didn't sound too clever. "Rachael, Zapp, we got problems!"

****
Bridge

Yavscout nodded in silent approval as Taab pulled his boy off starfighter duty, not knowing the real reason why, and fielded the call from their Chief Engineer, which automatically got routed to his helmet comm system, synced with the bridge's second after Lasso had given him the bridge.

"Chief? I'm sending Deputy down to you. Engines are reading as offline from up here. Can you tell what is wrong with them?" The elf enquired, his attention on the gruff human's voice.

The man had been his second-in-command when he had been placed in charge of the Delicate Delinquent, and had been a great support.

"Not yet, no. I'm going to need my daughter and Zapp down here to help me run through diagnostics. Oh, wait." There was a several second pause. "Zapp's here now."

"You want me to put a call out for her? With a Yellow Alert going, she ought to know to head straight for Engineering."

"No. I'll call back in five minutes if she doesn't turn up."

"Call back anyway. The Captain will want an update."

"Understoo-"

"Oh, wait." Yav had almost forgotten, "Captain says to tell us whatever you need, you can have. People, equipment, dibs on his stamps collection. Getting those engines up and running is our first priority."

"Understood. Engineering, out."

Call finished, Yav looked to Wa Yay for an update on his earlier magcon question, who in turn pointedly looked at the Toong, Herdferd, manning Hangar Control, who in turn glanced nervously at Yav.

"Magnetic containment field holding steady, Commander." Herdferd reported. "Lead Hangar Tech Ler confirms also."

"Good." Yav wanted to give the order for the starfighters to launch, now that he had the assurance that the hangar bay wouldn't vent as soon as they opened it up, but the Mandalorian seemed to be handling that, so he turned to him again. "Chief, roll 'em out as soon as the three pilots and fighters are ready. Also, do security droideka come under your remit? If so, have one meet Commander Streets at the Luck's Gamble. Could come in handy if refuelling at Draukyze turns out to be more than landing at a fuel station. Damage Control."

Ronnie the Xexto, standing at that station, looked over. "Repair Teams standing by."

"Get the first team working on the shields, and all astromechs plugged in running diagnostics on the power couplings, data lines, that sort of thing. I also want four droids on the hull, helping with sensors. Second team to head to Engineering, see if the Chief needs any help."

"Aye, sir." Ronnie turned back to his console, relaying instructions, advising the un-assigned teams to stand by.

"Oh yes, teams three and four on Sensors and Comms, respectively." Yavscout was reluctant to head upstairs to the Command Deck, preferring to remain down here with the troops, where he could see the activity, and boost them with his presence.

"Sir." Ronnie acknowledged.

The elf was troubled. This was not the first time Mercs had been pulled roughly out of hyperspace, and he wasn't thinking of Imperial interdiction tech' either.

"Chief Petty Officer, please collate all available information that we have, and as it comes in, and stream it to the Officer's Meeting Room."

"Of course, Commander." Wa Yay nodded, obeying with surprising grace. She and the elf had had a fractious working relationship when he'd had the DD.

He doubted that either of them were on the other's Life Day lists.

"And...have system logs between when our last jump was initiated, to when we reverted, to my chair. And Herdfeld's station. Herdfeld, I want you looking through the data code too."

Yavscout nodded, though more to himself, and started for the staircase to take him up to the elevated Command Deck.

Taab had seemed to summarily dismiss the idea that Dude might have done anything, and the space debris that their passive sensors had detected would obviously be beyond the droid, but if an R2 unit were so minded, and Yav did not think for a moment Dude was, would it really be beyond their capabilities to shut down systems, or make the bridge believe that systems were down?

Ways to gain self-promotion over the elf's mangled body aside, Deputy had the imagination of a tin of spam, so it really wasn't like him to make up baseless theories.

Halfway up the staircase, he stopped, steeling himself, and looking down first at Taab, then directing his voice to the bridge at large. "I don't want the Captain's droid, Dude, involved in the repairs. If he can be found and confined to barracks, that would be good."

Tag: Bardan_Jusik

 

IC: Chief Petty Officer Wa Yay (npc)
Bridge, Johnny Boy, deep space


"Chief Petty Officer, all this talk about shields being offline, can we make sure we have a working magcon before we start opening up the hangar bay?"

"Yes, Commander," Wa Yay said, looking from starboard to port, "Hanger Control?"

"On it," Herdferd the Toong said, a brown paper bag at the ready and by the looks partly full attached to the side of the desk; the Toong hit a few button on his console board, "Hanger Control to Hanger. What is your status? Do you have Magnetic Field ability? Shields are reporting down ship-wide."


TAG Vehn, Sith-I-5

---

IC: Charlie Watertin
Maintenance Tube, Third Level, Port Wing, Johnny Boy


BANG! BANG! BANG! BAN---CRASH!!!!!


The small maintenance hatch went flying across the room and into the vehicle hanger bay and droid recharging stations on the port side of the ship; the hatch collided with a few items left over by some half-lazy technician who decided to not clean up after themselves after repairing a droid, sending the materials scattering to the floor.

A cigarette smoking, grease covered, wired covered, and a man of very colorful language came crawling out of that tube feet first and falling to the ground from the chest high tube.

"Next time," Charlie said to no one in particular, except for a single astro droid recharging at the moment, "Someone decides to slam on the breaks, they better do it when I'm not trying to replace a wire in a sea of wires and lubing up a recycle power converter! No good, low thinking, sith mother loving pieces of---ahh!" Charlie slipped and fell right on his butt from the grease still on his foot! "Emperor's mother!" Charlie blurted, the captain's announcement cutting off further retort.

"This is the Captain speaking. We have been removed from hyperspace by a unknown source. No enemy tangos in sight at the moment. We are dead in space, I repeat, we are dead in space. Yellow alert, yellow alert. All Command Staff and Support Staff to the Officer's Meeting Room. Please stand-by for further orders as needed."

"Just my luck," Charlie complained, taking a drag of his cigarette, "Just my luck," he repeated as he exhaled, grabbed his comlink and said, "Tayc, Watertin. Report to engineering. They're going to need all the help with those engines. I'm going to back trace any energy feedback in the lines from here. Comm me if you need anything. Watertin out."


TAG Sith-I-5 (Tayc)
OOG: Sith, did I ever get a NPC character sheet for Tayc to post for the QR?

---

IC: Dude (Astromech Droid, npc)
Troop Hygiene, First Level, Johnny Boy


It was his new favorite spot. The place was hardly used, since the Johnny Boy didn't have any dedicated combat troops. But the cleaning droids kept the place eerily clean. A clean area of the ship with little to no use. This was the stuff horror vids were made of!

But for Dude, it served a much more personal purpose. No one would expect power surges, here and there, going up to a vacant part of the ship as any concern. The surges were only twice a week and were rather routine, leading any seasoned technician to reason it was something the ship itself had already learned to regulate and adjust with. No biggie. But for Dude, the indusrtrial sized power cord he had "borrowed" from the Hanger Bay's storage bays (and most likely not missed hence why in "storage") was all the reason---and pleasure---in the galaxy. While Ler may of ruined his hanger bay trips for such pleasure seeking, Dude had realized he could achieve almost the same affect---at a lower voltage since the power was more controlled verses the more raw power needed for the hanger bay's duties, but more constant and private (verses hiding in one of the hanger bay's storage closets) in the near forgotten troop hygiene area. So for weeks now, the area had served as a area of privacy and secrecy for Dude, a place where a single power cord was tucked away in one of the storage closets and kept his secrets hidden.

This morning was no different then any other. It had been well over an hour of "tripping" on the energy for Dude, his "Peace and Love" bandana wrapped around his dome, while a energy cord was snaked up to his outlets from a nearby wall outlet. His panels were open, some fluids were slowly leaking out, but Dude's operational routines were flashing a variety of colors as Dude controlled the power kick with a remote control attached to the industrial power cord. To Dude, it had only been moments, maybe minutes, as his programs and routines eased their way through a series of energy roller coasters, freeing his "programming" and allowing him to experience a state of true "peace" as the sensations were unspeakable.

Dude was positioned facing the outside view port, as he usually did, looking out over the rear of the Johnny Boy. The blue tunnel of hyperspace, staring at it, helped his programing reach that "free" state and so he used it as a tool to achieve the sensation he wanted.

But today, that same view provided him with a unspeakable nightmare.

The power cord was off to the ground, deactivated, and the droid was rocking back and forth, making soft beeps and whistles and moans. Through his post-tripping programming mindset, he could only keep repeating one thought over and over and over again,

FORCE HELP US! WHAT IS THAT THING! IT'S HUGE! NO, ITS GETTING CLOSER! CLOSER! I MUST WARN THE CAPTAIN----AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

So the droid sat there, rocking back and forth, his "mind" trapped in a repeating sequence of events in a circular fashion with no way out from a "overload" mid-tripping when the Johnny Boy's electrical system was jolted when they dropped out of hyperspace unplanned. His sensors, his "eyes", his memory bankds held the clue that the command staff of the Johnny Boy needed to know. Dude held the answer. But he was helpless to help himself at the present moment, let alone anyone else.

So he sat there, rocking and back and forth, moaning in a repeated series of beeps and whistles, having the same thought and memory replay again and again and again about the strange ship he saw in hyperspace.



TAG Sith-I-5 (?), Bardan_Jusik (?)

 

IC: Winterkill
Johnny Boy, Hangar Bay

Edge answered the nagai without a hint of hesitation.

“Negative, I never met ‘em.” She said of Pilot ‘Ace’ before sitting back down.

“My fighter’s ready to go. You gotten any intel on what we could be expecting?”

From what Winterkill could infer from the woman’s body language and voice tonality, she was telling the truth. She'd smoothly segued to her question without missing a beat. It was a good question, but Winterkill raised a hand, silently asking her to hold on. His keen eyes had picked up motion near the starfighters.

There was a male pilot clambering into one of the T-65 X-Wings. A rather loquacious droid was not too far behind. Winterkill watched all this with calculating interest. A short moment later, a male voice was heard via communicator.

“Checking in!”

Before anything else could be said, or he was acknowledge, the voice began to sing- much to the nagai’s silent disbelief. The mask never faltered, so this was not apparent on his countenance.

They hadn’t even launched yet and things were already 'too interesting’ for the nagai.

“Pilot Officer Totter, Pilot Officer Tinovorsh, call signs Ace and Edge. This is Flight Lieutenant Winterkill, callsign Specter. I’ve been assigned to direct this CAP op.”

The was done to both cut-off the man’s singing and to get his attention. Winterkill was already formulating opinions about this 'former' Imperial pilot, but it was still too early to arrive at anything conclusive. For some reason, he had little doubt he would have to wait very long for that. Already he was weighing options and countermeasures should he have to take any action. In an op, a series of bad circumstances, like those on Craci Prime, were excusable. Abject lack of professionalism, he would not abide.

“As you know, our ship has dropped out of hyperspace; reason: undetermined. We are dead in space, near the Draukyze system. Shields and weapons are currently off-line. We’ve made no contact, enemy or other. In response, we’ve been assigned to Combat Air Patrol. The focus of our mission is the protection of this ship and its crew.”

Winterkill paused for a heartbeat. He very much disliked making speeches, but it couldn’t be helped. This was not about him. Besides, speaking wasn’t fatal, at least this time around.

At that very moment, he received a message from 'Ghast', informing him that the pre-flight checks were complete, 'all systems green'. A mere breath after, the deck hand he'd asked to do the pre-launch checks also confirmed the completion of his task. Winterkill gave the man an appreciative nod in thanks before continuing.

“Once we launch, we’ll take position at a 2km diameter from the ship. For maximized efficiency, we’ll run a figure eight looping path around the Johhny Boy in single file formation. I’ll take point, Edge the middle and Ace will cover the rear. On our first pass, we’ll maneuver our positions so that, at the mid, and end of a rotation, we simultaneously cover the bow, stern and mid-sections of the ship. The first CAP phase will be reconnaissance. Report anything suspicious without delay. Depending on what we find, we’ll adjust our formation accordingly.”

Wow, that was a lot of talking. Definitely not a fan.

“Any questions?”

Tag: @Heavy Isotope, @Mitth_Fisto, @Bravo

OOC: Egads! I feel like a fish out of water! floppitty flop flop.

 

IC: Kalka'tech, Ler, Silver the Astromech, Mary Formal, the Luck's Gamble, and the Johnny Boy
Location: interstellar space near Draukyze, R-6 grid


Kalka'tech sprinted through the cruiser with his head ducked, and made it to the cockpit in record time, stopping at the pilot stations to start flicking the switches that would start powering up the craft and bring her systems online.

Lights that had been dull with their underlying lighting off, started to brighten, flashing red, orange or green predominantly.

The Wook' watched them for a moment, then satisfied that the startup sequence was going as normal, he turned to the chairs, and the cockpit in general, ready to start tidying and make it look more ship-shape.

* * * *

The Lead Hangar Tech, Ler, had returned to the hangar floor, and seeing his subordinates already busy working on the first starfighters, and interacting with their crews, he was unsure who to hand off the shopping bag with the medical supplies to.

The Medbay might need these more than ever now, but he really could not spare anyone to take it.

BONG, bong bong, drew his photoreceptors to a Mandalorian helm bouncing across his deck from one of the X-Wings, and he looked back to see the scowling countenance of Guardian Two, Pilot Officer Atin Taab.

Didn't look like he was going to be flying, then.

Guardians Seven and Three, Masha Tinovorsh and Lieutenant Winterkill, respectfully, spoke to, or nodded to the lad, on the way to the pilot's ready room.

Ler stomped across to the T-65, clanked up the short ladder without hesitation, and regarding Atin with his red photoreceptors, dumped the torn shopping bag into his lap.
"If you are not going to be flying, Guardian Two, you can make yourself useful and drop these off at Medbay. Oh, and that," He turned stiffly on the ladder and indicated the slowly spinning buy'ce, "I won't have that kind of behaviour in my hangar-"

"For a start, you'll make yourself dizzy," quipped Winterkill's deck hand, standing near the Nagai's fighter.

"Quiet. I'm trying to make a point here." Ler returned his attention to Atin. "You're still young. Don't worry, there will be other star battles."

****
Random external hatch

A circular panel of metal slid aside on the hull, allowing a halow of yellow-white light out into space. Up rose the dome and then torso of a standard R2 unit.

Silver, whose nominal master, Aurora Cradmoon, was serving aboard the Delicate Delinquent, bleeped gently to itself as it monitored and analysed what it could perceive initially.

Its rollers magnetised to the hull, and it went for a wander, examining the hull and establishing a datalink with the sensor station on the bridge.

"Okay, I'm getting you loud and clear, Silver." The Sensor Officer's voice sounded through the droid's internal comlink, "Hold position there and continue your scans, more so the area of space around us, than the hull."

* * * *

Mary zipped up her flightsuit, gathered up the rest of the confestionaries in the blanket, and basically took it with her when she left the cabin.

Although she was under no obligations to listen to the hyperdrive engineer on the matter, she did feel that it would be important for the hangar staff and any pilots down there to keep their energy up, and she was heading down there anyway.

She headed the short distance aft to the turbolift that would drop her down to the Hangar on the bottom-most Third Level which was right beneath the crew cabins.

She encountered one security team which promptly challenged her on what she was carrying, so she had to show them the contents, and handed them one each to carry around for later, then headed on her way.

Soon, she was walking past a B1 security droid, who nodded at her as the double blast doors opposite it, hummed apart to allow her entry into the rear of the hangar.

Talka'pa the Wookiee stepped out of one of the changing rooms, clad in the over-sized white vacsuit that he'd had to get to fit him, and ruffed a greeting to her.

"Hey, Talka'," she waved, looking for Ler.

"Guardian Sixteen." The droid greeted from the steps of an X-Wing that she could only see from the rear. "I have had no word from the bridge that you have been assigned to any ships."

Formal paused. "Not even the 'Gamble?" she waved, looking for Ler.

"Commander Streets is assigned to her. Grab a helmet from the pilot ready room, and take one of the X-Wings."

"Hey, Ler?" Mary looked around, over the deck space. "Where are all the astromechs"

"If they are not on Combat Air Patrol duty, they are off with the repair teams."

"Ah-ha. I'm not rated for a starfighter just yet. You know that don't you?" She looked anxiously at the droid, thinking that she never would have reached Port Haven from Flitter, if not for the R2 in the V-Wing she stole.

Tag: Bardan_Jusik (Atin), greyjedi125 (Winterkill), Heavy Isotope (Masha and Ellie)

 

IC: Sunri Lasca
Johnny Boy

If Sunri believed in a higher power, he would probably be wondering what he had done to annoy it, as his rest was rudely interrupted. One second he was laying down, looking up at the ceiling as the soothing feeling of a ship in hyperspace made him drowsy. The next, he was flying off his bed, as the Johnny Boy suddenly dropped out of hyperspace...with no warning whatsoever.

"OWW!!!"

And, of course, he landed on his head. Getting into a sitting position to make sure he didn't have a concussion, all the while cursing the fact that it seemed to be a running joke for him to land on his head, the young pilot waited for some report on what had happened. He didn't have to wait long, before a message came over his comlink. That was currently sitting somewhere underneath his bed, where it had fallen during the jerky return to realspace.

Sunri dug underneath the bed, and came back up with the comlink. And a familiar voice coming out of it at that.

"Lieutenant Colonel Streets and Pilot Officer Lasca report to the Luck's Gamble. Your mission parameters will be waiting for you there."

Of course it was Taab giving the orders.

"Why the Gamble though?" Sunri wondered, as he gathered himself and set off for the armory to retrieve his weapons...better safe than sorry after all.

TAG: Anyone he runs into.

 

IC: Masha Tinovorsh
Hangar Bay, Johnny Boy

"Any questions?"

"None, I'm good to go," Masha replied standing up, "I"ll be waiting for the deployment order," she said as she began to walk away, she'll be ready to follow on his lead. As Masha walked quickly through the hangar bay she saw some weird looking droid talking to Atin, then as she neared her ship, Ellie was sitting reclined along her ship still. Though she was done with her work, so she was just sitting there... Staring blankly at the hangar bay.

"Ellie, aren't you supposed to be in vacsuit by now?"

"Oh... Uh... Yep... Yep," she said, snapping out of her daydreaming. Sliding down the ladder with her datapad slung to the side, she went to the locker next to Masha's and pulled her boots off, almost falling over in the process of hopping around on one foot whilst doing so. Masha shook her head and ascended the ladder as Elizabeth put on her vacsuit, stuffing her cap in a cargo pocket before sealing the suit and putting her boots in the locker. Rigging herself to a hook on the floor, she pulled the ladder from the side of the Blade Dancer.

[Music]

"Prepare for take off," she called over the radio, while Masha put her visor down on her helmet and closed the fighter's canopy. Activating the comms data from Ellie, she keyed the channel, "Edge to Ace and Specter, comm check, over."

"Power systems active, cockpit is sealed, life support on, no venting detected," Masha said, flipping switches, "Engines on."

The Blade Dancer, a Variant Z-95 Headhunter, roared to life. It's sound hummed in the cockpit and thundered through the hangar bay, the power resonated through the seat as it idled. "Weapons safe, artificial gravity generator on," she pressed a button to bring her targeting computer forward, "Targeting computer... " the screen blinked to life, "Good to go." She shut if off and it retracted behind her.

"Roger, Edge, stand by for launch orders," Ellie said standing in front of the Headhunter and holding up a glow rod towards the fighter, she faced the viewing area and held another glow rod up to signal ready.

"Edge to launch control, awaiting launch order, will follow on Specter. Crewman Hart awaiting authorization for ground guide."

TAGS: greyjedi125, Mitth_Fisto, Bravo

OOC: Tagged Bravo cause dunno who's doing launch control. Let's rock!

 

IC: Winterkill
Jonny Boy, Hangar Bay

There didn’t seem to be any questions at the moment. Good.

“I’ll be waiting for the deployment order…” Edge informed as she began to walk away towards her ship. Winterkill acknowledged with a silent nod as he began to move towards his own ship.

He had to admit, it did feel good to be going on a flight mission, but he was not going to let mere feeling lull him into a sense of comfort. He’d learned that lesson a very long time ago.

A sound drew his attention, and he immediately recognized Ler. Was the droid berating young Atin? It sure sounded like it but he couldn’t be sure. Today seemed to be a day of trials and challenges for the young mandalorian.

[‘Ghast’, transmit flight coordinates and vector paths to both Edge and Ace.] The nagai instructed his astromech with a quick message.

After smoothly donning his pilot’s helm, Winterkill received conformation from his deck-hand that all clamps had been released and cleared. The helmeted nagai released his aide from his duties, then boarded his assigned T-65 X-Wing Starfighter.

Ghast tweeted a welcome.

“Thanks. Do open a channel to all wings and flight control.”

There was a click denoting compliance, which came not a moment too soon.

[“Edge to Ace and Specter, comm check, over.”]

“I read you loud and clear, Edge.” Winterkill replied.

He listened to her sound-off as he performed similar checks of his own, so far everything looked good and all systems were green. Engines, engaged.

“Specter to Flight Control, awaiting all-clear on Hangar Bay.”

The three starfighters did not have to wait long for the all-clear to be given. It was moments like these that defined what those enlisted as Mercs could really accomplish. The Hangar Crew, worked with impressive alacrity and efficiency to allow a hazard free launch.

[“You are cleared to Launch at will.”]

“Roger that control”.

This was it.

“Edge and Ace. Proceed with launch at four seconds interval. On my mark.”

Specter’s X-wing began to inch itself off the deck as the engines roar grew louder.

“….and mark! Specter away!”

In an instant, Specter’s X-Wing dipped and shot out of the Johnny Boy’s underbelly and quickly accelerated to main speed.

For the briefest second, the nagai allowed himself to take in the vastness of space and his unscheduled, but still welcome return to space jockeying. He’d missed it more than he realized.

As he corrected his course, he spoke into the shared starfighter channel.

“This is Specter. Commencing operations. Setting course and threading flight path. Copy?”

To ‘Ghast’ he relayed a new set of orders.

[Set sensors to maximum. Advise as soon a Johnny Boy’s defensive systems come on-line.]

He was now coming up on the starboard side of the ship; two more seconds before he’d need to loop around. Nothing looked out of order. On the ship’s hull or far away in the distance.

He already knew it was too much to hope for things to remain so peaceful.

Yet, still, he dared to hope.

Tag: @Heavy Isotope @Mitth_Fisto, @Bravo (for story)


OOC: Apologies if I launched prematurely. I was getting the impression to go ahead by what I was reading OOG.

 

IC: Chief Engineer Tim Williams, various crew, the Johnny Boy
Location: interstellar space near Draukyze, R-6 grid


Williams was in the middle of instructing the attentive Givin hyperdrive engineer, Zapp and the Commander's droid, Deputy, where he wanted them to start, when in hurried Rachael and Taycie.

"Aww, you've brought a little friend," the older Merc sniped.

"Dad, this is Taycie. She hasn't orders yet-" She paused at the sound of the Twi'lek's comlink beeping.

"Though that might be about to change,"Tayc quipped as she took the C1 personal comlink that she had managed to grab from her bedside when Rachael had come into her cabin to retrieve her.

"Tayc, Watertin. Report to engineering. They're going to need all the help with those engines."

"I just got here," She told the Boatswain.

"I'm going to back trace any energy feedback in the lines from here. Comm me if you need anything. Watertin out."

Taycie tried to put the comlink away, then remembered there were no pockets on the toga. A fist shoved a spare toolbelt under her nose as Rachael returned to her side.

"Thanks." Tayc quickly put the worn synthleather item round her hips, below the thin gold rope that gave the outfit form, and found an empty pouch for the comlink.

"Anytime."

Both women shuffled in to the line composed of Zapp and Deputy as the Chief walked back and forth in front of them with his quick briefing.

"Bridge informs me that the main hyperdrive went down when we reverted, and that their systems are reading her as offline. Zapp, I want you checking the power couplings and smaller linkages for burnouts. Deputy, start diagnostics." He paused, seeing that the new girl had raised a tentative arm. "No need to put your hand up; you're not six. What is it?"

"Main engines went wrong when we reverted, I get that."

You do? Williams thought in surprise, cos frankly, his first impressions that she was bit of a dipstick.

"Aren't we supposed to have a backup hyperdrive?"

He frowned. "Yeah. Class 8."

"Presuming it was offline when we were using the other one, it shouldn't have sustained any damage. Should it?"

The senior Merc's bushy white eyebrows rose at that. "Worth checking." Tim brought up his comlink, a twin of the one carried by Tayc. "Bridge, from Engineering?"

* * * *
Bridge

Herdfeld caught the comm call from one of the starfighters. "Edge to launch control, awaiting launch order, will follow on Specter. Crewman Hart awaiting authorization for ground guide"

"Edge reports ready to launch."

Yav waited a moment for Taab to respond, then went ahead himself. "CAP fighters can launch at will."

"Copy that. Edge, Specter, Ace. Launch at will, launch at will. Hangar Control to Crewman Hart, guide authorisation approved. Magcon power steady. Opening hangar doors."

"Specter is away."

"Bridge, from Engineering?" Sounded in Yav's helmet.

"Bridge, copy."

"Bridge, have you tried the backup hyperdrive? What's our status on that?"

"I...don't know." The crew's damage report had not mentioned it at all.

Yav paused the upward-scrolling curtain of holographic system data hanging in the air before his knees, and stepped through it to grab the safety railing, lean over it, and glare down at Wa Yay's head. "CPO, try the backup hyperdrive, please."


Tag: Heavy Isotope (Masha and Ellie), Bravo (for backup hyperdrive attempt)

 

IC: Terrel Vacks
Blood Moon, Docking Pad 97, Cloud City


Vacks nodded to the instruction, "Will do Snake. Call me Darkness," Terrel said, using a old callsign he hadn't used in over a decade with the Mercs. Vacks left without further comment, making his way to hear gear. He did as instructed and kept his weaponry to just the sidearm. Leaving his sword behind felt weird, felt alien, felt wrong. But its what the op called for. Terrel had a feeling the Mercs' symbol on the torso armor might present a problem, then decided it may come in handy as the perfect "confusion" the Mercs needed to create with Hilick Soal and the rest of the Empire. And if anyone asked about the symbol, Vacks knew it could be explained away as a spec ops unit with a need to know basis attached to it and unless your name begun with General or Admiral, you didn't need to know.

As Terrel resumed to the cockpit, helmet in the crook of his elbow as he sat down, he thought briefly at Snake's last comment about not wanting to be a mass-murderer. And smiled inwardly. The young Imperial turncoat would soon discover that in order to defeat the Empire, one had to bleed the Empire dry of personnel.


TAG Tim Battershell

 

OOG:

Sith-I-5, the back-up hyperdrive fails. An error message appears on the screen: insufficient power supply. Further inquires into the problem via the computer system note that the problem is somewhere deeper inside the ship, possibly somewhere off near Charlie Watertin in the port wing where several power lines intersect for the whole ship. You can either send Watertin to investigate the problem further or someone (or droid) else.

---

IC: PAD
Outer Hull, Port Wing, Johnny Boy


He slid down the port back spin of the Marauder-class Corvette, hoping to stay out of view of those starfighters coming from starboard! So far, so good! Everyone else had made it inside the ship, but PAD knew to never taken anything for granted. His small metallic body propelling him, PAD quickly located the less then .30 of a hole in the hull, just large enough for his friends and him to file in one at a time (and he was the only one of 12 that hadn't gone inside the ship yet). And at exactly the right moment when the ship dropped out of hyperspace, making their entrance almost undetectable by the other chaos going on. Yes, their mission would not be seeing them come home. But for PAD and his eleven other comrades in metallic arms, their programming was updated with very specific, if bizarre, "enhancements". And his orders echoed that bizarre programming update.

But PAD did not have the programming required to override his orders. Only see them through to the end...and then contact the mother ship to come in and finish the mission...


TAG CAP

 

IC: Priest
Location: Mercs' Outpost Nowhere, Rhen Var
"Getting closer and closer and closer! He felt the rock surface, turned around and started waving, "Come on! Come on!" he yelled out-loud as he padded each soldier through the cave opening for a count. His helmet sensors were still identifying several heat signatures out there in the cold as the storm was almost on-top of them, now sending boulder-sized chunks of hardened snow raining down on them!"

Priest was a man of science. Everything had an explanation; things just didn't happen without cause. But Priest was also a man of Faith, albeit a muted faith, he still recognized that sometimes that reason was forces beyond the explanation of the current situation. As was this current crisis. Without warning the weather turned deadly, no indicators had arisen predicting this storm. It was as if someone willed it into existence. But there was no time to debate this philosophically.

Priest turned up the gain on the heat signature overlay, which blurred out many other details of the landscape and terrain, but helped him see just a little farther in the dropping temperature. He saw the Lieutenant run headlong into a cave system A cursory glance around him noted several operators were disoriented and having a hard time finding their commanding officer. Priest whipped his rifle off his shoulder and pulled a clip from his bandoleer. Taking a knee, he loaded and charged the weapon. Unlike many traditional blasters which fired supercharged particle blasts, a slug thrower fired actual physical projectiles, which, depending on the configuration, may or may not also have certain energetic properties to them. Priest aimed above the entrance to the cave and pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked against his shoulder and a bright crimson bolt exploded from the muzzle of the gun. As the round passed through the atmosphere, the outer coating began to burn away, flaring to a bright red light. It impacted the side of the cave, the incendiary reaction still taking place as the shell of the projectile fragmented and melted under the heat of the chemical reaction. The bolt burned bright as it clung to the maw of the cave. Priest reloaded and fired three more as fast as he could.and then he ran for the mouth of the cave himself.

TAG Bravo.

 

IC: 'Ace' Benjamin Totter
Johhny Boy,Hanger

With the call to be quite he sat then in silence and tried to look important as he pushed a button here, toggled a switch there, wished there was a keg spout here, and finished up his check list. When the calls came through he simply nodded as Edge and Spectre gave their greens before he replied, "Good enough here." with a very bored tone. From the sounds of it, pattern flying? Ugh, if there was one thing to look forward to being out of the Imperial service was no more formation grid searches.

Well, perhaps grunt work is grunt work. So long as it paid the fuel for himself and gave him a ship he was happy.

Once CAP lead was away he waited impatiently for Edge to go through the open floor drop doors. With a goosing of his own repulsorlifts he edged over and lifted his landing treads before performing a hard drop burn. Where he reversed the repulsors so that he was shoved straight down out the mag field before giving a two second burn at max to catch up to be right on Edges tail. Inverting his ship he swayed it side to side as he followed the woman's four burning engines.

"Hmmm. I wonder if she notices." he said with a bemused grin for a couple seconds before dialing it back to let her have a touch of her lead back. "Well at least it isn't venting fire." he muttered as he finally looked up. Although to be more honest he was more glad that his fighter had a hyperdrive and could get him to an inhabited system if his ride didn't make it.

TAG: greyjedi125, Skywalker_T-65

 

IC: Aidan Dodd
Blood Moon, Hyperspace - en route to Depot Station Nine

I return to the cockpit and instruct 'Passepartout' on things that will need to be done when we reach our destination, namely getting the Battle Droids into the bunkroom and locking its door. 'Passepartout' can stay where he is, although I do task him to lock the cockpit when we leave the ship.

Sooner than expected, 'Darkness' joins me in the cockpit wearing the requested kit and carrying the specified limited armaments. I regret he cannot take his sword along but they've gone out of fashion in the Imperial Military (even in outfits like 'Adjustments' that are normally tolerant on the subject of Operatives' weapons' choices), probably because they're considered too Jedi-like. For my part, anyone who gets into sword range of an enemy is also almost within range for a vibroblade strike; and a vibroblade is a lot easier to conceal!

The remainder of the flight is uneventful, reversion is normal and Depot Staton Nine is, somewhat to my surprise, almost exactly where it should be. Deep Space Stations, unless orbiting something or other, or parked on a Lagrange point, have a tendency to wander quite a way from their assigned coordinates.

I'm very confident that word of my 'death' won't have reached my handlers yet, far less that there would be any thoughts of my having 'Run', therefore this visit should be purely routine; so I hail the Station as I normally would.
"Dee-Ess Nine, we are an unscheduled Imperial Intelligence Flight in search of some supplies in support of Ubiqtorate Operations. Please vector me to a private Hangar Bay and ask the Station Commander to meet me at his earliest convenience.... Clearance Code transmitting now!"

That should do the job; provided the Station Commander's conscience is clear, and/or he manages to avoid a heart attack due to being summoned to a private meeting by an Ubiqtorate Operative - those sometimes can and do have a fatal outcome, though more usually it's from an ISB summons! In fact, I could (in my former life) have said 'meet me right-the-kark now' and made it stick, but there's no point in rubbing-in the fact that an Ubiqtorate Operative outranks a Space Station Commander by several orders of magnitude. I want the guy (reasonably) unthinkingly cooperative, not with his back up over an obvious slight.


TAG: Intervention


OOC: Station responses (if any) left to you!

 

IC: Lieutenant Hawkins
Location: Valley, Rhen Var


Priest's flares were the only warmth in Lieutenant Hawkins' icy cold stare as the last of large ice boulders fell into place over the cave entrance, blocking their way out.

"Report First Sergeant," the Lieutenant finally asked as he turned around as the group either cluttered up near the entrance or slowly made a recon further into the cave system, their rifle-mounted flashlights dancing off of the cave's walls.

"All accounted for Lieutenant," the First Sergeant said, putting a little piece of flimsiplast back into his chest pocket along with a small writing tool he was keeping track of numbers with, "Just small bruises and scrapes. We're lucky, sir."

"Yea," Hawkins said, noting the dancing reflection of a fire against the distance walls, "We're about to get more lucky. First Platoon, move it out!"

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


"Well," Hawkins announced with no great amount of surprise, "Someone was here," the officer looked over the campfire made of rocks and filled with fire wood, "I guess we can rule out Rhen Var being a dead world, hard to be dead if there is wood," Hawkins' tip of his blaster ruffled the sleeping blanket while another soldier looked through a small array of items left in a small backpack; all around, the soldiers kept watch all throughout the three different tunnels that branched off in different directions, all heading into darker, deeper parts of the cave system. There were no foot prints and no other signs of movement to give the soldiers an idea of who was here and where they had gone.

"First Sergeant, take a squad and take that tunnel to the far left. Staff Sergeant Franklin, take a squad and head down to that tunnel to the right. Sergeant Barnes, split up a squad, keep most of them here guarding this site and have three soldiers guarding that entrance. Priest, your with me. We'll take that tunnel," Hawkins leveled his barrel flashlight down the darkest and biggest of the tunnels, "We're headed down that tunnel. All squads, stick together to your main detachment. No heroics. Keep a safety line out from here and have it follow you, so you can find your way out. We meet back here in twenty minutes. Remember, your comms won't work in this cave system, the rocks will bounce your signal everywhere. So keep in visual range of each other. Priest, if you'll do us the honors, I have a feeling your equipment is better suited for this then ours is."

With that, the squads started to move about to their assigned tasks, leaving Hawkins wondering if Priest would take point or didn't feel like being the advanced warning system for enemy contact...


TAG Wildwookiee
OOG: WW, you may describe what you want of the tunnel (if you take point that is).

 

IC: Mary Formal, Lead Hangar Tech Ler, Talka'pa, Johnny Boy hangar
Location: Open space, near Draukyze

Formal scowled and spun away from the Headhunter as the wall of sound hit her, bouncing off the walls around her.

Ler saw her go down, crumpled across his deck, and gestured desperately to Masha through her canopy. "No afterburners! No afterburners in the hangar! Repulsorlifts only!" The noise was too loud for anyone to hear him, even for his artificial voice, but he still tried, turning his attention to Ellie as Lieutenant Winterkill's craft relatively silently moved to the opening belly aperture, and dipped its nose through the invisible magnetic containment shield. "Get that starfighter out of here!"

Talka'pa scooped his arms under Mary's lolling form and easily lifted her with him, shuffling her to the blast doors at the rear of the bridge.

His sensitive Wookiee hearing was protected by ear-seals that he had put in already, not because he knew of what Tinovorsh was going to do, but because these people, these pilots, were mercenaries, privateers, a breed that were unpredictable by nature.
What were you going to do? Stick 'em on the naughty step?

The blast doors hummed aside at the Wookiee's approach, and he gently laid the unconscious reserve pilot on the corridor floor to the side of the opening, and grunted a command to the B1 sentry before slipping back inside the bay.

"Roger roger," The proboscis-faced droid acknowledged, activating the backpack comm unit. "Medics to the hangar doors, please. We need medics down here."

* * * *
Medbay

“My best guess…” Mahaben had calmly answered, “It would seem that we’ve experienced an unscheduled drop from hyperspace.”

"Oh." Ulrike nodded. "Must be a Taungsday." She quipped.

“Perhaps we should inquire about it?” He suggested, only to be interrupted by the Captain's voice over the public address system.

"Nothing for us to do until the casualty calls start coming in." The nurse wanted to concentrate on healing the Cathar on the bed she stood at, but if Doctor Cook returned and saw all the utensils and silverware scattered over the floor, he would do his nut.

"Hold on, Mahaben." Ulrike looked across to the line of deactivated med-droids. Time to let one of them earn its living. "Gary?"

One of the three flat-headed GH-7 med-droids lit up it's glowing teal photoreceptors, and floated up out of its recharge bay. "Good morning, Nurse Ulrike."

"Good morning. Pick all this stuff up of the floor and steril-" She paused as a call came in over the Medical Bay-specific comm system.

"Medics to the hangar doors, please. We need medics down here."

"Ah, sith." ulrike scowled at the interruption.

Tag: Heavy Isotope, greyjedi125

 

IC: Priest
Location: Valley, Rhen Var


************************ "We're headed down that tunnel. All squads, stick together to your main detachment. No heroics. Keep a safety line out from here and have it follow you, so you can find your way out. We meet back here in twenty minutes. Remember, your comms won't work in this cave system, the rocks will bounce your signal everywhere. So keep in visual range of each other. Priest, if you'll do us the honors, I have a feeling your equipment is better suited for this then ours is."------

Priest ejected the flare magazine and grabbed a scattergun magazine which when fired would use a combustible gas cartridge to project multiple metal bearings. While it was not accurate at range, at close quarters they would tear up everything in their path. He also checked the charge on his pistol which was more of a calming routine more than worry that the blaster that was completely charged not two hours prior had somehow drained.

Priest took a moment to change settings on his implants. Priest overlaid a second layer with ultraviolet spectrums. In the low light, the cave wall suddenly became visible. He also augmented his aural implant which started quietly popping rhythmically. The aural implant started to pickup subtle reverberation and the processor began to run contours of the corridors beyond line of sight. This would also pickup possible sources of movement.

Priest thanked his parents silently again for the gift; without the upgraded processor implanted at the base of his skull his visual cortex would never had been able to make sense of the data. The last thing he did before hefting his rifle and walking into the point position was to slap a small receiver into the palm of the Lieutenant's hand. "Plug it in, see what I see."

They headed down the corridor. The corridor began to descend sharply, The radar system analyzed the rock content. Looking at the data it could have been a natural formation, however the consistent distance between the canopy and the floor screamed non-natural to Priest's subconscious. The canopy started to descend and Priest was beginning to think that the cavern was ending its end when he stopped at a seemingly non-discript wall.

While he didn't doubt the Lieutenant's intelligence he didn't know how much of the data the man was receiving made sense to him, or if he was able to get it working. "Lieutenant, the wall to this point is at least three meters thick, it drops to half a meter for about three meters and the. Increases in thickness beyond three meters. Hold on one moment."

Priest detached a small cylinder from his armor and smashed it into the wall. Priest cut the feed from his enhancements and everything went dark until the small bright pop of the detcore went off. The explosion was very small and shaped inward. A small hole crumbled out of the wall and priest gasped as the readings began to come in.

5...five kilometers deep and wider than his sensors could read. What was this place?


TAG Bravo




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

IC: Masha Tinovorsh, Crewman Hart
Hangar bay, Johnny Boy

The order came through for launch, "Roger, out," Ellie responded. The engines of the Blade Dancer grew louder as Ellie began to guide her out.

"No afterburners! No afterburners in the hangar! Repulsorlifts only!"

Ellie's comm screamed at her, Ler, more accurately. Aw nuts, she thought regretfully. She dropped one of her glow rods and rapidly signed kill engines with her hand making cutting motions in front of her neck, "Edge, repulsor lifts only, repeat, repulsor lifts only!"

Masha cut her afterburners, the engines were still quite loud on their own, she had never had a problem with this before. That wasn't even full power... She thought, getting frustrated. Back in the Defense Force they'd launch with burners, their entire hangar crews were droids, therefore rapid deployment was possible. She still had some getting used to around here then....

Ellie picked up the glow rod when Masha signaled she was good to go, Winterkill's X-Wing moved past, time to go. Guiding her out to the center of the hangar, Ellie positioned her in the line and gave a salute with the glow rod as Masha glided past and quickly moved to the exit, dropping out of the belly of the beast.

The blackness of space...

It wasn't a soul crushing blackness, or the dark of a lonesome night's sky, it was an all encompassing veil. One that separated her from everything else. It was in it's very name, space.

Before she felt the artificial gravity take over, that small moment of weightlessness, she felt free. Far away from the distractions of her life aboard the ship, her old life back on Danoor, and whatever her short comings may be. Those sleepless nights.

There were none while she was in the blackness of space.

"Edge to specter, executing flight plan," She smoothly maneuvered into line, slowing her speed to fall into Specter's flight plan.

The pilot behind her was following closely, "And Ace if you want to damage your engines taking in jet wash be my guest, just don't blame me once you're drifting along without thrust."

---

"Edge is away," Ellie said to flight control, her voice heavy with guilt and embarrassment. It was as much her fault for forgetting procedure as it was Masha's. She'd never sent any of the pilots away before, hopefully her newer status would keep her from getting tossed out the airlock. She went to the Blade Dancer's berthing area and set about preparing it for the fighter's return.

TAGS: Sith-I-5, greyjedi125, Bravo, Mitth_Fisto

 

OOC: If my posts sometimes read like an epileptic monkey wrote them, I apologize. I am NOT good at typing on a mobile interface; however that is sometimes all I have.

 

IC: Beskaryc Taab
Bridge, Johnny Boy

As the CAP prepared to get under way, Taab checked in with his security teams. Most had managed to ditch their security scanners back at the armory and draw blaster carbines or rifles in their stead. Those that had armor (rudimentray armor in Taab's opinion) were hastily donning that as well. He hadn't heard back from Atin yet, hopefully the lad knew enough to follow simple orders. If not Taab would have to issue the appropriate "corrective training" to his son. In the meantime Taab listened in as Yav took command of the damage control situation.

Taab nodded at the Elf's orders, he knew how to take charge and what to do. That made for a confident crew when the unexpected cropped up. "Chief, roll 'em out as soon as the three pilots and fighters are ready. Also, do security droideka come under your remit? If so, have one meet Commander Streets at the Luck's Gamble. Could come in handy if refuelling at Draukyze turns out to be more than landing at a fuel station."

"Rog.." Taab started and stopped. Droidekas? There were no destroyer droids aboard the Johnny Boy. Taab reinterpreted the order and sent one of securities precious B2 Super Battle Droids down to the hanger deck to meet with Streets and Lasca. There were only twelve of the B2 series aboard ship and Taab was loathe to part with one when there was still so much unknown about their situation, but the Luck's Gamble crew might need the automaton more. Besides, it had been an order.

As he did so he heard permission to launch given to the CAP, Taab simply nodded his approval. He had made sure that the hanger shields were still good to go before he had checked the status of his anti-boarding teams. "I don't want the Captain's droid, Dude, involved in the repairs. If he can be found and confined to barracks, that would be good." Again with the Skipper's droid. The commander really seemed to have a stick up his shebs about that. Taab didn't have the manpower to spare to go searching for the droid, especially after assigning one of his already overstretched droid detachment to the Luck's Gamble.

He did have Atin though. He hadn't reported in yet, and Taab had wanted him assigned to the security teams until they knew what was going on. The status of his board said that all security teams were now at their designated "anti-boarding" stations. Atin had no such station and thus could be spared to go on a droid hunt. Taab activated his comm. "Atin, Security. Commander Yavscout wants the Captain's astromech found and confined to barracks. I don't have the troops to run a sweep for it so it's on you. Handle it and report in."

A forlorn "Roger that," came back after a few moments, Taab could tell he wasn't happy about being bumped from flight status in order to search for a lost droid. Too bad, soldiers had to follow orders they didn't like all the time. Why should Atin be any different?

Taab turned to Yav now. "B2 SBD deployed to the Luck's Gamble and I have Atin looking for the the Skipper's droid." He checked his panel one last time. "Security is standing by at anti-boarding stations and the CAP is out."

TAG: Sith-I-5, Mitth_Fisto and Skywalker_T-65 (for assignment of B2 to Luck's Gamble.

---

IC: Atin Taab
Johnny Boy hanger deck

Atin was still fuming and ignored Edge's lighthearted gesture. Oh, it was easy for her to be happy, she was at least on this assignment. His eyes blazed at the nod he got from LT Winterkill, but he had enough of his wits about him to not respond verbally and just nodded back. Atin didn't trust himself to say anything just yet.

His bucket was still spinning lazily on the deck when the ladder up to his cockpit started shaking violently, accompanied by the loud clanking and thumping of a droid. Something was dumped in his lap as LER stared down at him. "If you are not going to be flying, Guardian Two, you can make yourself useful and drop these off at Medbay. Oh, and that..." Atin looked at his helmet dejectedly. He knew he shouldn't have done that, his father would have his shebs if he knew, but sometimes his anger still got the better of him. He looked back to LER. "You're still young. Don't worry, there will be other star battles."

Yeah, Atin thought to himself. Other battles. He would never get this one back. He snorted angerly. "Find another gopher boy, I have orders to report to security." He scooped up the mess in his lap and handed it back to the droid before lifting himself up out of the fighter. "Specialist," he turned to the astromech that was now being unplugged from his fighter. "See what you can do to help out damage control." It didn't look like either of them would be out fighting, so the droid might as well be useful somewhere.

Atin scrambled down off the fighter and picked up his bucket. It had finally stopped spinning. There was another message waiting. "Atin, Security. Commander Yavscout wants the Captain's astromech found and confined to barracks. I don't have the troops to run a sweep for it so it's on you. Handle it and report in."

The young Mandalorian's eyes flashed again. So now he wasn't even good enough for a security assignment? Instead he was being sent on a wild bantha chase after a droid? He might as well have just made LER's delivery for him for all the good he was doing here. But he had no choice. He commed back, "Roger that," and made his way to the armory. He would draw arms and then start his search for the little wayward droid from there.

TAG: Sith again, Bravo

 

OOG: WW, I hope you don't mind. I'm going to take a small bit of liberty with your technology for storyline purposes for a quick moment. If you mind, just void the most of your own free will.

By the way, PERFECT post.


IC: Lieutenant Hawkins
Location: Valley, Rhen Var


Priest detached a small cylinder from his armor and smashed it into the wall. Priest cut the feed from his enhancements and everything went dark until the small bright pop of the detcore went off. The explosion was very small and shaped inward. A small hole crumbled out of the wall and priest gasped as the readings began to come in.

5...five kilometers deep and wider than his sensors could read. What was this place?


A holograpic display came to life, displaying the eerie sensor imagines from within the "room" between Priest and Hawkins. And a room it was! The hologram's light brought to life the particles in the air as it showed a ghostly scene.

Rows upon rows of stone structures were in there, some fully upright showing temple-like structures about twice the size of a average human, while others were half crumbled or showed other signs of decay or destruction. Along the walls, ancient fire torch holders lined the walls while, in the far distance, further then the sensors could scan correctly, the rough-outlines of a larger structure could be confirmed, but in-depth details were not available because of the range. Twelve statues of various states of disarray dominated the closed off area along the walls on elevated platforms of stone overlooking the miniature temples, all of them looking like the following:

"By the Force..." Hawkins breathed.

Somewhere off in the distance of the tunnels, somewhere off back the way they came, the tell-tail signs of hurried feet could be heard. Hawkins wasn't the last to turn around, but he wasn't the first either. It was a soldier sent on as a runner.

"Lieutenant," the soldier breathed, "We found someone."

"Someone?" the Lieutenant repeated.

"An alien, sir. A small alien."

Hawkins looked to three soldiers, "You three, stay here. No one enters, no one leaves. Priest, scan this room. Do not enter it. Give me the best you can from this distance. Temples in row in a sealed off room give me a bad feeling. I want everything, from temperature samples to air samples to anything and everything else. These soldiers here will protect you and help you. I will be back in fifteen minutes to check on your status. Okay, the rest of you, with me!"


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


Far left tunnel


Hawkins followed the "runner" back to where he had come from. It was the tunnel on the far left and it seemed, the owner of that campfire.

When Hawkins came down the tunnel to where the alien was standing, he looked down, seeing a small green alien with pointy ears.

"Took long enough, you it has," said the small alien.

"And who are you?" Hawkins asked as two soldiers guarded the small alien.

"Question is, who are you?" asked the alien, "My home, this is!"

"Since when!?" Hawkins replied, "We scanned this planet top to bottom. No life. Nothing."

"I know. Move in today, have I," the little alien said.

"Moved in?" Hawkins asked.

"Come long way have I, long way to protect you. And seek you hard have I on this planet. Many weeks have I looked. Good hiding you have done. And found you I have at last. Now I want food and warmth. At your base. Yes, at your base."

"Protecting us from what?" Hawkins replied...


TAG Wildwookiee

 

IC: Winterkill
Johnny Boy, CAP

As Specter’s T-65 X-Wing looped around to continue its run on the port side of the ship, Winterkill took another moment to regard the listing ship. Though dead in space, she looked at peace. The ship was dark, except for her running lights, illuminated port holes and observation panes. Such peaceful moments were all too fleeting and infrequent…and sadly, mostly referential.

It suddenly occurred to him that the galaxy eschewed peace in favor of conflict. A ghost of a rueful smile tugged lightly on his lips as he shook his head.

Pushing such thoughts aside, the nagai went back to the business at hand.

[‘Ghast’, you got anything on sensors? I have nothing on visual so far, but something doesn’t seem right about all this.]

It was hard to see in all this darkness, that’s why the nagai wagered that something was likely in progress. As one who was used to using the darkness to his advantage, he knew there was no better time to do just that. Seize the opportunity. Besides, he had learned never to second-guess his own suspicious nature. It was always better to be safe than sorry.

Always.

[Edge, Ace, I’m not picking up anything so far, how about you?]

Tag: @Heavy Isotope, (@Mitth_Fisto) @Bravo ( for sensor results)

---

IC: Mahaben
Johnny Boy, Med Bay

The Captain’s ship-wide address helped to put things in perspective. The ship had indeed dropped out of hyperspace, but for reasons unknown. Being raised as a Jedi and proclaiming himself to be a disciple of the Force or rather, Ashla, it was clear to Mahaben that nothing in the galaxy was ‘mere’ coincidence.

True to her professional diligence, Nurse Ulrike activated a nearby droid to help with the ‘house cleaning’, but just as soon as she had done that, another situation arose.

[“ Medics to the hangar doors, please. We need medics down here.”]

The blind miraluka found himself wondering if the good doctor had managed to get his nap. He highly doubted that.

“Ah, sith.” He heard the nurse say.

“Go ahead. I can manage things here.”

He glanced down at the cathar, then back at the nurse.

“Her purging cycle has just ended, it’ll be alright.”

He offered a nod and a soft smile, which he hoped were reassuring.


Tag: @Sith-I-5

 

IC: Terrel Vacks
Blood Moon, Hyperspace - en route to Depot Station Nine


"Dee-Ess Nine, we are an unscheduled Imperial Intelligence Flight in search of some supplies in support of Ubiqtorate Operations. Please vector me to a private Hangar Bay and ask the Station Commander to meet me at his earliest convenience.... Clearance Code transmitting now!"

Vacks listens in quietly to the conversation as he dawns his helmet, sealing it into place for added peace of mind.

The communication officer's voice comes back, a bit shaky and uneasy, after a expected longer then normal pause over the open comm, "Copy Intelligence Flight. Clearance granted. Station Commander Jeprid will meet you in the private Hanger Bay."


TAG Tim Battershell
OOG: Take us in Tim, I will NPC Jeprid once you land us.

 

OOG:the liberties made absolute sense. Awesome.


IC: Priest
Location: Valley, Rhen Var


Hawkins looked to three soldiers, "You three, stay here. No one enters, no one leaves. Priest, scan this room. Do not enter it. Give me the best you can from this distance. Temples in row in a sealed off room give me a bad feeling. I want everything, from temperature samples to air samples to anything and everything else. These soldiers here will protect you and help you. I will be back in fifteen minutes to check on your status. Okay, the rest of you, with me!"


Priest looked into the utter darkness of the expanse. The only way anything could be seen was through the false imaging of his sensors. Below...way below...was what looked like a ritualistic or ceremonial site. There was no reason that priest could figure would require a room at this expanse. The final dimensions were impossible to accurately measure with the limited equipment on hand, but assumptions could be made. First, assuming the cavern was consistent using a little trigonometry revealed that the probable size of the cavern could easily house an Executer-class Super Star Destroyer, and a small support fleet. The cavern was so large that his sensors were detecting weather patterns forming. The scanning of the walls revealed sheer faces with uniform striations, which indicated construction instead of natural formation. There did, however, seem to be a path that wound down from their current position to the kilometers distant constructs.

All around the atmosphere felt charged, as if something ancient slumbered below and suddenly began to wake.


TAG Bravo

Ooc: tired and heading to bed. Feel free to expand my description


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

OOG:

• Does everyone have a"job" for this mission? If you do not, please let me know in the Rocketjock immediately so I can adjust that!

• Grey, your sensor sweep comes up with nothing but a fading (very small) energy signature that is all too soon incorporated with the Johnny Boy's overall (and larger) energy signature, thus making any confirmation very hard to make sure of
  • However, Grey, sensors do read (on all starfighters) several "in and out" sensor pings on the edge of sensor range, happening every minute and a half; the contacts are out of CAP range to safe guard the Johnny Boy and are too quick to get a accurate reading on type of sensor ping; but by the size of the sensor ping, one would suggest a very large vessel moving almost like a starfighter in speed and agility.

• It should noted (Sith, Grey, everyone) that small bits of debris (ship hull, barrels, personal belongings, 1 deceased body from decompression, and various equipment) are floating within visual range of the CAP and the Johnny Boy; the debris is very thinned out and not clumped together, making note that it is most likely the edge of a very long (or large) debris field.
  • It should also be noted that the debris is "unusually big" for a collision that barely touched the Johnny Boy, making it all the more odd.
  • Potentially (I'm not 100% sure on this as a OOG reference to be workable in this situation, so feel free to discard if you so desire), bits of Cronau Radiation can be detected in very thin amounts at the moment, but should get thicker as you approach the unknown wrecked ship

• Remember, we are just under an hour away from the unknown ship via thrusters on the Johnny Boy

---

IC: Captain Jason Lasso
Officer's Meeting Room, Johnny Boy


Lasso was a man of action. So it was no surprise that the young Corellian mercenary had Dak bring him his gear and more in specific his Extreme Encounter Suit or EES. Before anyone had even arrived, Lasso had the suit on and checked, everything except for the helmet, which was retracted at the moment to around his neck collar. He was putting away the last bits of ammo jungle clips into their ammo pouches (his newly modified, by Taab, A280 Blaster Rifle on the table as well), various data running off by the wall screen in the meeting room, and Dak standing by impatiently and trying to talk the Captain out of his plan.

"...it is too risky, Captain!" Dak was saying for the hundredth time, which was really starting to annoy Lasso, "The Speedy Trial only has room for two people!"

"It has an escape pod," Lasso breathed with a sigh as he finished with the pouches and started checking his blaster rifle, loading the scatter shot rounds into the weapon and making sure the 3 breaching rounds were secure with the other scatter shot rounds along the stock of the rifle, "We can fit two extra people in there."

"And life support?!" the droid blurted in angry protest.

"Seriously?" Jason asked, finished loading the scatter shot and pumping it into action and applying the safety as the weapon stood on it's stock facing upwards on the meeting table, "It'll take us less then twenty minutes, probably fifteen minutes, to get to the wreck on the Speedy Trial. I think the life support can hold two extra bodies for that long."

"And prisoners or wounded to come back?" Dak replied.

"That's why," Lasso said in a bit of a bold sarcastic tone back, "We're leave here shortly. Not now, but shortly. Which means, by the time we launch and get to that ship, the Johnny Boy should always be within range and we can worry about that stuff when we reach that bridge. Any other stupid questions for the day?"

"The only stupid question is not one asked," Dak replied, crossing his arms over his metal chest.

"Until you open your mouth," Lasso replied, ignoring the droid's dramatic tone of shock and turning to the view screen on the wall and pointing along as a picture showed the Johnny Boy heading towards the unknown wreck, the Speedy Trial launching towards it, and the CAP surrounding all three in a exterior patrol.

"The Johnny Boy will keep a safe distance away when she arrives," Jason was saying with his finger pointing at the wall screen, "in case this is a trap, that ship blows, or whoever caused this outside of our two ships returns. The Speedy Trial will launch with myself, Atin, Taab, and Havah. We all have space rated armored suits, so we are combat prepared and have the ability to operate in space, even if for a limited amount of time. Its better then the bulky EV suits, even though they have more oxygen capacity, they're not made for combat. We're land at the wreck, assess the damage, find out what happened, locate survivors, and gather equipment and supplies for the Johnny Boy. Assuming everything goes as planned, no survivors, no problems, we're in and out in less then an hour; by then, I will hope the Commander has made some progress in our repairs. We'll make sure the Speedy Trial has additional oxygen supply bottles for our armored suits for the extended mission time as well. If we encounter problems at the wreck, the Johnny Boy will act accordingly to the threat in light of us being on board---we'll try to make a quick escape so the JB can use her weapons if need be and we'll plan to adjust when and if we cross that bridge. If we are engaged by an exterior threat, the CAP will engage all hostiles as far away from the Johnny Boy as possible as to draw enemy fire away from our ship. We will launch additional starfighters and support as necessary. Commander Yavscout, Hanger Chief Ayres, and Chief Engineer Williams will act as ranking officers on the Johnny Boy. You will support, Dak, as will Master Chief Petty Officer Wa Yay. Chief Medical Officer Cook will handle medical duties."

"Captain, Atin is on a security sweep for your droid, Dude," Dak pointed out.

"On who's authority?" Lasso asked, then added, "And why?"

"Commander Yavscout gave the order, sir," Dak said, "I can bring up the communication log if you would like."

Jason shook his head, "Negative. Pull Atin off that sweep and have him report with Taab to the Meeting Room; find someone else, maybe even you, to do that sweep. I need bodies and I need firepower. And that father-son duel is about as good as a tank company in my book. While I'm sure Havah and I can handle it by ourselves, it doesn't hurt to have some firepower on our side."

"And someone that is sober, Captain? Remember Havah's...problems? The security cams caught him again the other night near the flight simulators right after we left Craci Prime. Drunker then drunk less then twenty-four hours after mission end."

Lasso sighed, "I need bodies and I need firepower, Dak. If I leave Havah here, it'll drive him to drink more. As long as he can add two plus two and get five as the answer and have as good of a blaster aim as a soccer mom, I'm alright with that. For now."

"And later, when he gets worse?" Dak asked.

Jason shook his head, "I've had my run-ins with the bottle too, Dak."

"Off duty, Captain, yes. But Havah has on-duty. He's a risk."

"He's my Tactical Officer and need him on this operation," Jason replied firmly, to end the debate.

"You have Taab," Dab pointed out after a moment of silence.

"I don't know if I do anymore," Jason said, adding for clarification, "He was hiding it and hiding it good when I got my weapon from him. But he's thinking on something. Thinking on something hard for a while now. He's not here because he's a freedom fighter, Dak. He's a mercenary's mercenary. He won't tell me who hired him or why. All I know is that he is here. And he's loyal."

"For now," Dak finished.

Jason nodded, "Precisely. Until the next client offers him more. I'd hate to loose him, but I'd hate more to have a knife in my back for the right price."

"You think he would do that?" Dak asked.

Lasso shook his head, "No. At least not here. Not with his son here. He may be a mercenary, but a father is a father nonetheless: he'll save that dark side of himself from his son as long as he can. Somewhere else, away from his son...lets just say I can't rule out the answer no."

"So what do you want to do?" Dak asked.

"I have nothing but what I see, no hard evidence to support what I see. I'm about as trained in the Force as a young kid still wet behind the ears. So the Force doesn't help. So, all I have is one person who I can count on. Another trained killer. Another trained mercenary's mercenary. But someone who taught me a lesson one time after beating my face into a holoprojector in the old meeting room."

"He?" Dak asked.

"Yea," Lasso said, "He talked to me once. I can only hope he will talk again, so I have answers."

"First, I'm amazed he talked. Second, we have to find him. Which right now, is pretty low on the priority list if you know what I mean."

The buzzer rang for the conference room and Lasso said, "Time to get this show on the road. Go get Atin, Dak. We need to hurry."

Dak nodded, grabbing out a comlink and heading for the door to answer the buzzer and find Atin.

Lasso, for his part, grabbed his own comlink and spoke into it, "Commander, Security Chief, Major Jeth, and Pilot Officer Atin Taab to the Officer's Meeting Room immediately."

For now, the wall screen went back to what Jason was studying earlier. It showed the data he had sent from the bridge for what the ship was processing in hyperspace. And while Jason was no "expert," far from it, he was able to notice a thing or two out of place on the data he got. And that "thing or two" had him a bit more then concerned.



TAG Bardan_Jusik (Taab / Atin to meeting room and Dak comlink to Atin as well), Sith-I-5 (Commander comlink), @Mitth_Fisto (Comlink / door buzzer, maybe???)