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

IC: Fress Colias
Enroute to Port Haven

Fress cursed under her breath wondering who the man was and how he managed to win her heart. She didn't get to look into his eyes or face and he still was a mystery man in her dreams. She noticed they were about to emerge back into real space and it was time to readjust the jump.

Five minutes later she reset the timer for eight hours, soon they would be at Port Haven but she needed to get some more sleep. She closed her eyes beginning to wonder if this is what her future held for her. Who ever he was, he knew her real name. She fell back to sleep hoping to dream some more about him to see who he is.

tag no one

 

IC: SG-12 (Twelve), DLT-5921 (Twenty-One), Mary Formal, Port Haven
Location: Port Haven


The Saber Guard watched the steep, dark, banks passing by on either side of the hovercraft, as they continued slowly along the flooding ravine.

His features turned pensive. Distracted. "I sense something."

"About the Emperor's Hand?" The seated stormtrooper enquired, looking over in interest.

"No. My shuttle crew, back on the beach."

DLT-5921 pointed forward to the two Intelligence analysts in the driver's cab. "What, apart from them?"

"Gibbons and Tozzi? They drive a mean hoverscout, but no, I have actual pilots." Twelve paused, his gaze looking into the distance. "No. Make that pilot....one of my men is dead. We need to turn round. Agent Gibbons?" He called.

"Sir?"

"Belay that." Twenty-One asserted. "There is no turning back until we have the Hand."

"Perhaps even the upper hand." Benny put in, to be ignored by the other passengers.

"I will have troops look in on your shuttle, sir." He put on his helmet to access the comlink. "Seventy-Nine from Twenty-One, do you copy?"

* * * *
Sentinel-class landing craft - interior

Mary had the pilot's flightsuit down to his knees, but their owner was unwilling to let her have them, causing a protracted tug of war.

Salmakk was talking, "No, but I make it a point to stay away from beings that are referred to only by a unique title." He answered in response to her query about a 'Special One'. "Sorry about that cut."

She grunted non-commitally.

"Besides, I’m not sure the Special One is our immediate concern. Or my immediate concern. You seem to have it all figured out, though."

She raised an eyebrow at this assumption. She hadn't much experience at making plans.

"Of course, they’ll send someone to investigate when the pilot doesn’t report in and realize the crew has been killed. Then what were you going to do, just walk around in a pilot uniform. That won’t be odd at all, a pilot away from her ship during the middle of an operation, especially when it’s reported that one of the pilots found dead was stripped of his uniform," he continued sarcastically.

Mary won the tug-of-war, and stood abruptly holding the inside-out flightsuit, leaving the pilot in his military-issue white undershots and boots. "No, actually I was going to sit in the shuttle cockpit as the sole pilot, and hope those troops didn't think to check for IDs." She shrugged as she started to re-invert one of the legs. "I hadn't planned further than that"

The Mon Cal thought for a moment. "If you want to go your own way, then go, but I am going to find the Mercs. If anyone can figure a way off this planet it’s them, and I had heard some of them had arrived earlier. My assistant was all giddy when he saw a few of them at Heaven’s Water."

"Didn't you see the fireballs?" She asked, going for the other leg,
"Several ships took off from the beach, and moments later, burning wreckage plumetted out of the sky to strike the ocean. I reckon there is an Imperial blockade up there stopping any ship trying to leave." Mary sighed and looked up at the fish-like alien. "You really think these Mercs can help? How do we find them?"

Tag: Salmakk, Mara Jade

 

IC: Cain Varss
Hyperspace, En Route to Port Haven

Cain settled into the Z-95 as the stars became streaks. The trip through the asteroid field had been relatively simple and Cain would have to compliment the pilot of the Crusader later. The trip would only be a few hours and Cain almost decided to pull out his datapad for some reading in lieu of sleeping, but he knew he needed some shut eye if there was the possibility of combat at the end of the trip. He put on some music and drifted off.

Cockpit, en route to Port Haven

Cain’s eyes opened. It wasn’t a startled awakening, but he didn’t want the dream to go on much longer. He realized very quickly that was the first time he had hallucinated and had seen Kate. In truth, the hallucination had helped save his life. Cain figured it was his subconscious working faster than his conscious mind. That TYE-wing might have had an opportunity to vape me. Maybe she, or my subconscious, did save my life...

Cain decided to listen to less fatalistic music and changed the playlist. It was then that Cain realized that all music he enjoyed had some degree of fatalism in it, but still managed to fall back asleep.

Tag: none

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

IC: Salmakk Neot, inside Sentinel-class landing ship.
Port Haven

"Several ships took off from the beach, and moments later, burning wreckage plumetted out of the sky to strike the ocean. I reckon there is an Imperial blockade up there stopping any ship trying to leave."

Admittedly, the Mon Cal hadn’t seen the fireballs. The dense jungle canopy had probably concealed them, though Salmakk had heard the screeching TIEs overhead.

“Well, your plan may work, but if they check IDs, you’re fish food.”

"You really think these Mercs can help? How do we find them?"

Salmakk, again admittedly, only had a hazy idea of how to do that.

“I knew there were TIEs overhead. I figured we call in on the ships comms, say that we’re taking fire and we need to relocate somewhere. Then we take the shuttle, head north, land, work to disable the transponder, torture the pilot, and then...” Salmakk thought for a moment, “we monitor communications using the ship. All frequencies. If the Mercs are out there, they will try to get a message off planet, and when they do, we can use that to help us locate them.”

Salmakk realized he had only addressed half the question. “They can help us. Recently, from what I’ve heard, they’ve royally angered the Empire but have still managed to evade them. That’s not luck, that’s skill. I know a few of them are here, and they might have evaded Imperial forces, though that is an assumption, and now they are looking for an exit vector. For all I know, they might even be the reason the Empire has bothered to assault this place, though there are numerous reasons for why they might be here. Either way, I don't see any other way off this rock other than laying low in the jungle until they leave and hope there is a functional ship left after they leave."

"As an alternative,” Salmakk thought for a moment, “you can play pilot for a while and I play captured high value target. That way if they get suspicious of your identity I can have your back and you might not get turned into bits of charred flesh. I can also whip up some nasty explosive surprises for anybody that comes in or near this ship."

The Mon Calamari decided to stop his blabbing and pulled a bacta patch out of his utility belt and handed it to the female, for the cut over her eye. “I still haven’t caught your name,” or speicies, he thought. He wondered if the bacta patch would even help the being before him he assumed was some sort of female. As a former doctor at Big Zoo, he did not like that he was truly stumped as to the species before him. Through in his own estimation though, the being seemed rational enough.


Tag: Sith-I-5, Bravo (for Mara Jade)

 

IC: Fress Colias
Enroute to Port Haven

Fress's eyes snapped open as she noticed they were in real space causing her to frown. Just her and no one else...? "Saber, is something wrong with the X-wing?"

//No, I did an emergency reversion as soon as you said you wished you had called the JOD before reaching Port Haven.// Saber answered for her. //Are you having visions again?//

"Saber I would hug you if I could, and yes, the visions about Port Haven have gotten stronger and more persistant," Fress answered as she straightened herself. Must be talking in my sleep again, but the droid had been with her for too long not to chance it when she talked in her sleep about things suddenly going wrong and needing backup. Saber had done her a great favor indeed. It's a good thing I didn't get a memory wipe done on him. She never planned too either, it helped to have a droid understand you then starting fresh over and over again. The others were still on their way to Port Haven but the visions were becoming more and more persistant. They'll probably wonder what happened to her but she didn't care at the moment. "Saber, get me into contact with the Sword of Justice using the codes they gave us."

Saber beeped in acknowledgement as Fress hit the transmit button. "Guardian Leader to Sword of Justice, do you read me, come in? I need to speak with the Captain immediately."

Bravo, Sith-I-5

 

IC: Commander Hilton, Sword of Justice' bridge
Location: Actualise Station


Hilton used his feet against the carpet under his crescent-shaped console to swivel his chair from side-to-side, as he admired the polished exterior of Actualise Station. It was a very impressive structure, dwarfing even the King-II-class battleships.

He stopped as an incoming transmission was relayed aloud across the bridge. Hilton thought he recognised the female voice as that woman who invaded the bridge, after their extraordinary rendition of Mercs and Rebel Alliance personnel from hyperspace.

"Guardian Leader to Sword of Justice, do you read me, come in?"

The Jod officer leaned forwards, and looked down at the communications' bridge officer who chose to respond with, "Yes, but I don't know how, considering you are transmitting between galaxies from a milking X-Wing!"

"I need to speak with the Captain immediately."

"Nobody just calls to say 'hi' anymore."

Hilton shook his head and raised his voice to step in, "Yeah, Lou', I'll take this one." A light on his console lit up to indicate that he could respond to Guardian Leader directly. He pressed another toggle, so that the Captain could listen in from wherever he was. "Squadron Leader Colias! Commander Hilton here. Sorry, the Captain out of contact at the moment. Can I help?"

Tag: Colias, Captain Stakes

OOC: Colonel Jack O'Neill of SG-1 was the first to sigh that "No-one came by to say 'hi' anymore."

 

IC: Fress Colias
Real space, unknown system

"Yes, but I don't know how, considering you are transmitting between galaxies from a milking X-Wing!"

Fress shook her head, don't ask how Saber did it. She didn't want to know. She was just grateful he managed to get her through. "My astromech patched me through and it helps not to have his memory wiped in over twenty years, don't ask me how either because I don't know how he did it."

"Squadron Leader Colias! Commander Hilton here. Sorry, the Captain out of contact at the moment. Can I help?"

"We need backup at Port Haven, the Imperials will invade before we arrive there. It's a Force thing and just trust me on this. The Force visions have been persistant since I was on Smugglers Run and Captain Lasso is up to his neck in trouble making his way to the mountain range where an Imperial communications network has been setup. Please trust me on this. I'm sure you know about my Jedi Padawan training days. If not, it should be in that life long file you have on me," Fress gave a grin knowing the other couldn't see her but it was the truth. It may sound nuts but if they were to trust her on this, she hoped they would. "ETA is three hours to Port Haven. How soon can you send backup?"

Sith-I-5, Bravo,

 

IC: Captain Sard, the Hard Eight Lancer-class frigate
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


Captain Sard finished latching the grey armour over his chest and stomach, as he moved through his frigate's vehicle bay, looking at the ship leant to them by the April Dancer to temporarily replace the Gamma-class assault shuttle he had lost at the Delicate Delinquent investigation.

It was a nicely-shaped Katarn-class boarding shuttle, named the Alderaanian Uncle. Chief amongst its assets, were the plasma torches around the airlock nose, which could cut a hole into an enemy capital ship's hull, around which the airlock would provide a seal. His troopes could board an anemy within two standard minutes.

Sard was followed by a pair of stormtroopers, and a maintenance tech, in case he had any questions, but caught, out the periphery of his eye, a figure enter the bay, and turned to see a uniformed ensign cross the dark grey deck, in his direction, and salute smartly.

"Report." Sard demanded.

"Sir. A Bantha-class vessel reverted within the interdiction field, and has clamped itself to the back of the April Dancer's command tower. ComScan believes the 'Dancer has no clue that it is there, and reports that it is doing sensor sweeps trying to re-acquire it. Should we inform the 'Dancer?"

Sard found the development interesting, and not a little amusing, however, he responded, "Negative. Let it play out. That is not why we are here."

The ensign knew better than to question a superior. The Naval Academy had made sure that lesson got learned. "Aye Sir."
The young man trotted off back to the bridge, while Sard turned his attentions to the fifty heavily armed and armoured troops who would be filing inside the shuttle.

Tag: no-one

* * * *

IC: Chief Engineer Tim Williams, Engineer Rachael Williams, Engineer Bromley, Delicate Delinquent Immobiliser 418 heavy cruiser
Location: Hyperspace, less than ninety minutes out of Port Haven

With two hours to Port Haven, the chief engineers among the Mercs and Jod had been roused, and brought together within a conference room in the command tower, with coffeine cups, and sweet pastries brought up from the canteen areas.

Tim wanted to talk through ideas on how they were going to fit the larger SGIS quad gun to the lower hull.

The Kingdom of Jod drew their attention to the various rooms on the lowest deck. "We got several rooms and compartments down there. We could install the gun in there, which would keep it concealed, then roll the section of hull beneath it to bring it into play."

"We would have to severely strengthen the walls and bulkheads aroundthe area, as it would be another point of technical hull breach."

Williams looked pensive. "How would we get it inside the ship in the first place. The DD isn't exactly replete with access points."

Bromley looked across the conference table at the Merc' Chief. "All those ships in the Main Hangar. If we get them out of there, we'll have a free route to drag the gun back from the hangar into the area we want, although we'll need the teams to cut through some of the internal bulkheads aft of the hangar."

"Also, don't forget the hangar is Deck Four; to be close to the hull, we'll need to move the emplacement down to Deck One."

"Alright, lets start sourcing the equipment we need to burn through, and then repair those bulkheads. We are only doing this to protect the ship; I don't want her structure weakened longer than necessary." Tim stood from the table, looking round at his peers, "Thank you, everyone. Dismissed."

Tag: no-one

* * * *

IC: Commander Hilton, Sword of Justice King-class battleship
Location: Actualise Station, a galaxy far, far, away...from Port Haven anyway.

"We need backup at Port Haven, the Imperials will invade before we arrive there. It's a Force thing and just trust me on this. The Force visions have been persistant since I was on Smugglers Run and Captain Lasso is up to his neck in trouble making his way to the mountain range where an Imperial communications network has been setup."


"Port Haven, invade, Smugglers Run," Hilton murmured the salient points from her report, "Lasso, mountain range, Imperial communications network...wow, that is all pretty specific, Squadron Leader."

"Please trust me on this. I'm sure you know about my Jedi Padawan training days. If not, it should be in that life long file you have on me."

Captain Stakes had been all sweetness and light with Colias over her bridge intrusion, but he had lost his fragging mind with everyone else. Hilton didn't think he would be alone in wanting to tell her to stick it; what goes around, comes around, Slitch.

But there was the Prophesy to take care off. and King Alex' desire for his people to roll over and get their tummies tickled if only to keep the Mercs aboard as the only hope for both galaxies.

She hadn't mentioned the Eleventh Hour, he noticed.

Colias wasn't finished, and he could swear she was smiling over the comm, "ETA is three hours to Port Haven. How soon can you send backup?"

"Checking. Stand by."

The SoJ crew were on shore leave before the final push to Project Zero, and while the battleshp was being upgraded. It would take time to get them onboard.

The Vella Gulf was also being patched and re-fitted, but under General Perez, it probably wouldn't take that long to get him aboard, disconnect her from the Station-

Hilton's gaze alighted on a trio of Light-class destroyers that were parked close to Actualise Station but not attached to her.

"Squadron Leader, I can have three Light-class destroyers at Port Haven in thirty, thirty-five Standard minutes. Twenty minutes travel time, ten minutes trying to convince their respective captains that you are not trying to blow smoke up our choobs." The commander took a deep breath, noting that Captain Stakes had chosen not to step in. "To help me knock a few minutes off, tell me, what did your Force visions have to say about the Eleventh Hour, the Light-class destroyer that was escorting Captain Lasso's mission?"

Tag: Colias, Stakes

 

IC: Fress Colias
Uncharted system

"Squadron Leader, I can have three Light-class destroyers at Port Haven in thirty, thirty-five Standard minutes. Twenty minutes travel time, ten minutes trying to convince their respective captains that you are not trying to blow smoke up our choobs." The commander took a deep breath, noting that Captain Stakes had chosen not to step in. "To help me knock a few minutes off, tell me, what did your Force visions have to say about the Eleventh Hour, the Light-class destroyer that was escorting Captain Lasso's mission?"

Fress frowned, she wasn’t aware that they sent Lasso an escort. She knew about the Luck’s Gamble. She closed her eyes as she focused on the past hoping the Force would show her. “Bespin,” she muttered over the comlink. She focused on Cloud City as the Luck’s Gamble was forced to leave the Eleventh Hour’s side but nothing beyond that. “Imperial Interference and the Eleventh Hour destroyed the ship,” so why would they jump without the Eleventh Hour, she thought as the stood behind Lasso and looked behind her. A man was pointing a blaster at Lasso forcing them to shut down communication with the Eleventh Hour. “There was interference from a spy onboard the Luck’s Gamble forcing them to leave the Eleventh Hour’s side,” she relayed in a dream like state as she allowed the images to come to her. “I’m not getting anything beyond that.”

Fress focused on her other vision allowing her to get a sense of what they would be up against. “There is a blockade around Port Haven with units on the ground, no Imperial Star Destroyers, looks like Vindicator-class heavy cruisers, escort carriers and Vigil-class corvettes and there is an interdictor-class heavy cruiser sitting somewhere outside the blockade preventing all ships from leaving and pulling ships out of hyperspace early. I’m trying to locate an escape route past the gravity wells and my astromech is reporting that every channel is being blocked. I’m not close enough to get a visual on how many ships total.”

Fress opened her eyes and shook her head. “Going in without anyway of taking out the Interdictor would be considered suicide. I’ll take anything you can get on short notice that can take on those ships. Without that kind of fire power, we’re sunk," and if she didn't get that backup and she survived. She would have a tough time explaining to the surgeon how the hilt of her lightsaber ended up in Hilton's rear.

Sith-I-5

 

IC: Captured Imperial pilot (nrc), Mary Formal, captured Imperial shuttle.
Location: Port Haven


Mary plopped herself down on the bench at the side of the vehicle bay to start untying the laces on her ankle boots, while Salmakk talked.

"I knew there were TIEs overhead. I figured we call in on the ships comms, say that we’re taking fire and we need to relocate somewhere. Then we take the shuttle, head north, land, work to disable the transponder, torture the pilot,"

"No." The Imperial waved a forefinger of admonishment at that last idea, confirming, "No torturing."

"-and then..." Salmakk thought for a moment, "we monitor communications using the ship. All frequencies. If the Mercs are out there, they will try to get a message off planet, and when they do, we can use that to help us locate them."

Boots off, Mary started to roll down her mauve tights, revealing pale white shins and calves. "I have a V-Wing out there, parked on the beach, that I am not keen to lose..." Her voice tailed off as she realised she couldn't see or hear her droid. She bent low, to see under things.

"They can help us. Recently, from what I’ve heard, they’ve royally angered the Empire but have still managed to evade them. That’s not luck, that’s skill. I know a few of them are here, and they might have evaded Imperial forces, though that is an assumption, and now they are looking for an exit vector. For all I know, they might even be the reason the Empire has bothered to assault this place, though there are numerous reasons for why they might be here. Either way, I don't see any other way off this rock other than laying low in the jungle until they leave and hope there is a functional ship left after they leave."

"As an alternative," Salmakk thought for a moment, "you can play pilot for a while and I play captured high value target. That way if they get suspicious of your identity I can have your back and you might not get turned into bits of charred flesh. I can also whip up some nasty explosive surprises for anybody that comes in or near this ship."

Mary took the proffered bacta patch, and placed it on the bench next to her to use later, and eventually, the Mon Cal asked her her name.

"Mary Formal is the name." She revealed, shrugging at the loss of the droid, and rolling the rest of the tights over her feet, and balling them. "Though I am not wholly sure if that is my real last name."

Salmakk

 

IC: Salmakk Neot
captured shuttle, Port Haven

Salmakk observed Mary, as she gave little weight to his plan other than she didn’t want to leave her starfighter behind. The Mon Calamari knew they were trapped one way or the other. If they flew out, they’d get blown out of the sky. If they went to ground in the jungle, the wildlife on Port Haven would be an issue. If they moved the shuttle somewhere, a plan contingent upon getting the access codes from the pilot, they would be tracked and hunted. The Mon Cal decided finding the Mercs was secondary to their current predicament.

“Well Mary, dear, I think we’re trapped for the moment,“ said the old Mon Cal as he pulled off his backpack and put it on a metal crate. He pulled out some restraining ties he used on rare occasion to keep patients from hurting themselves and walked over to the pilot. Salmakk pushed the man to the ground face first and dug his knee into the man’s lower back as he pulled his arms behind his back to get the restraints around his wrists. After some doing, the man was bound.


“So in light of that conclusion, I should interrogate this man and try to figure out why the imps are here and any other useful intel he could provide since moving at the moment seems to be a suicidal option,” he said, knee still planted firmly in the pilot’s back. “If you want to stay here, it would be wise for one of us to monitor communications and troop positions. Unless you know how to keep a human from ODing on painkillers and other substances while also pumping him full of enough drugs to get him to talk about anything, then I should be the one interrogating which leaves you to the monitoring. I could take him into the cockpit and conduct the interrogation there if you think you could help with the interrogation. You could monitor the systems at the same time, too.”

Tag: Sith-I-5

 

IC: Privates Philippa and Casey nrcs (Go Team Beta), Kalka’tech the Wookiee, Delicate Delinquent bridge
Location: Hyperspace


The colours of hyperspace illuminated the interdictor’s bridge, which was manned, and, at least for now, Wookiee’d, by two Kings Army soldiers from the Go Team that had arrived on board the ship.

Male and female soldiers, the former was noticeably utterly bored with the trip through hyperspace, half-turning his chair while lounging lazily over it, and moaning, “When will we be there? How many more parsecs?”

His pony-tailed counterpart sat at her own console, one of her boots up on the panel for her to polish with a blackened rag, while she also eyed the Wookiee who had only recently turned up, while the latter explored the bridge.

Kalka’tech had woken up when his girlfriend, Rachael Williams, had, and followed her to the bridge. Now, it transpired, after her meeting with her father, and other engineers, she was not coming back to bed.

So he was killing time on the bridge with the skeleton crew made up of these two earnest looking youngsters, studying the crib sheet that Petty officer Wa yay had left for these two.

Apparently the Gossam had found some sheets of white flimsy, thick blue markers, and a calling as a primary school teacher.

The first sheet had a quick sketch of the bridge windows, and some stars. If the two could see stars out of the windows, the instructions directed them to check the nav-puter’s countdown to see if it had reached zero.

If it had, they were to relax and call the captain to the bridge.

If the nav-puter had not reached zero, the pair were instructed to raise main shields, hit the alarm, call the captain and senior officers to the bridge, wake her the frag up, and then listed various iterations of getting the crew to battle stations over the public address system.

Kalka’tech shook his furry head at her audacity, and caught something at the edge of his vision, turning to see that the hyperspace tunnel had disappeared, to be replaced by the blue, white, grey starlines that preceded a return to real space.

The starlines shortened, and white pinpoints. Stars.

Kalka’tech stared out the windows, narrowed his eyes to better focus, then turned to the Jod and roared.

“It’s alright, it’s alright,” Private Casey reassured, leaning over the navigational console, his eyes trying to get to find the correct readout, “I’m checking now.”

Seated at the Communications Station, Private Philippa had turned her chair to watch her squadmate. “Yeah, keep your hair on.”

The Wookiee strode first to Casey and grabbed the scruff of the younger man’s jacket in his huge paw to haul him from his seat, then did the same to Philippa – trapping her ponytail - on the way to the front of the bridge, where he released them and pointed a hairy finger out the window at the distant grey diamond that was the rear of another Immobiliser 418 heavy cruiser.

“Ow! My hair!.”

“Rarragharrrr!!!” Kalka’tech emphasised.

“Yes yes, stars. We know milking stars when we see them.” Casey’s eyes almost popped. “In the King' Name!”

Between them, the hangar tech bounded back to the command console and jabbed the General Quarters button.

The familiar mournful two-tone klaxon bellowed throughout the ship.

WHOOOO-oooooooooo!!!

WHOOOO-oooooooooo!!!

Tag: Wolf; Mac; anyone else on the DD

 

IC: Various officers and crew, Delicate Delinquent
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


Yavscout was under a tall set of trees, one shoulder leaning against the white bark, chatting up a cute wood elf with long blond hair, and a sort of shoulderless minidress made of animal skins, when he heard the elephant.

“So how long does it take to shave those legs, anyway?” His chat up lines weren't that sophisticated. But she wasn't walking away.

WHOOO-oooooo!!!

“Did you hear that” Yav straightened, and looked into the distance. “Strange to hear one of those outside the South Karanas grasslands.”

WHOOO-oooooo!!!

Yav jerked awake with a start, and sat up to find himself sitting on the slatted metal catwalk above the forward shield generators, the brown blanket that had been laid over him, falling down his chest to fold into his lap.

“What in Flamewind?””

WHOOO-oooooo!!! blared throughout the huge chamber. The elf moved to the railing and looked over it. As far as he could tell, the place was empty, silent.

Well, silent apart from the-

WHOOO-oooooo!!!

C’Boath on a bike, that was deafening!

Yav barely heard his comlink bleeping for attention. Ah, maybe the bridge were calling to see where he was.

“Yav here.””

“Ah-ha. We meet again!””

Yavscout almost went to Brown Alert right there. He could not fail to recognise that voice, from when Deputy had put the other’s comm call through, when his Go Team had been on their way off the ’Delinquent, the first time, when the objective had not been to capture the ship.

WHOOO-oooooo!!!

Yav winced. “C-Captain Sard.””

“You remember me!””

The Merc facepalmed with his free hand. “How could I forget? How are you? Will we be seeing you soon?””

“Alas no. My presence in-system is not to capture you. I shall endeavour to ensure you do not feel left out. Sard out.””

The comlink went silent in his fist, the Surefall Paramedic just staring at it.

* * * *

Deck Eight – Cabins

WHOOO-ooooo!!!

Nate hurriedly got dressed next to the bunk that he had shared with the twi’lek, the both of them elbowing each other and the bulkheads in their hurry to get clothed in the narrow space.

“Wonder what is going on?”” Sounil asked as she shrugged into her oversized Kings Army shirt. “I have no idea where to go during an alert. You?””

“I’m going to the quad laser emplacement that I got trained on. Defensive station.”

WHOOO-oooooo!!!

Nate looked at her, “You decent?”

She nodded, prompting him to open the door to the corridor, where they could see bodies milling about in confusion, and voices raised, then a voice raised further still, calling for attention, and issuing instructions.

Nate stepped out into the corridor, looking up the corridor in the direction of the turbolifts, where the tall black Jod liaison officer, Lieutenant Zotoman was taking charge. “Merc and Block security personnel, you are Security Level One. Guard intersections, and seal blast doors. Jod security personnel, you are Security Level Two. Split yourselves between the two entry points. The hangars, and the dome entry point. Also, secure the command tower. People trained as gunners, get to them now, and once you are strapped in, report to the bridge.”

WHOOO-oooooo!!!

Nate pushed through the crowd in the direction of the turbolifts, while Sounil looked round at faces, trying to find anyone she recognised as security.

“Pilots,” Zotoman continued, “get to your ships, and wait for orders from the bridge.”

* * * *

Bridge

Yavscout SOW’ed up to the bridge, and stepped through the open rear doors onto the command deck problem, holding his comlink up for the people present, the two Jod soldiers, and Kalka’tech, to see.

“Guys, we may be getting company.”” He announced as he stepped forwards to the manned consoles. “Kill that fething alarm, and get us out of here.”

“Sorry Sir.”” Philippa announced from her seat, while Kalka'tech killed the klaxon.

WHOOO-

“We dropped out of lightspeed due to a gravitational field, yet we aren't near any of the planets. And we have detected the presence of an Imperial ship, the-”

“The Hard Eight?” Yav interrupted, his certainty borne of having been called by her captain.

“Negative." Casey chimed in. "We were going to say the April Dancer. Sensors paint her as the source of the gravity well. She's an interdictor.”

“Oh, we’re fethed. ” Yav collapsed into his chair, the black leather squeaking under him. He rubbed at his own temples, then straightened and injected a false vein of bravado into his tone. “ Okay, let’s find out how bad this really is. Do a long range scan. And by the way, where the frag are we? Did we reach Port Haven?”

Tag: Any

 

IC: Beskaryc Taab and NPC group.
Port Haven, Paradise City.

"Looks pretty peaceful" Al'kesh whispered as he looked down at the quiet and seemingly empty fishing village situated below them. "Looks can be deceiving." Hallomar cautioned. Taab looked at him through his T-Visor. "Trap." It was more a statement than a question. "Trap," Hallomar confirmed.

The trio were laying prone on the last ridge overlooking the Tree People's village. True to their name many of the settlement's "buildings" were situated high in the trees, but parts of the village extended out over the beach and into the nearby sea. Those building were connected by a small foot bridge and kept above the water's surface by a series of stilts. Currently small wisps of smoke could be seen rising from several parts of the village. Probably cooking fires, there wasn't enough smoke to be the result of an attack, nor was there any other visible sign of battle here.

Taab magnified the view in his HUD. "Hmmm" he mumbled. "What is it?"

"I see no signs of movement down there at all. Aside from the fires, no sign on habitation." Taab examined the coastline in more detail when realization struck him. "There's no boats."

"Well I'll be damned...you're right."

Taab and Al'kesh both turned to Hallomar. "Makes sense. They had to see the Imperial flights coming down. They wouldn't have stood a chance so they evacuated in their boats."

Taab nodded. As Al'kesh let out an excited question. "Where did they evacuate to though?"

"Doesn't matter. We're here to capture any Imperial officer and comm gear that comes this way."

Now it was Hallomar's turn to nod. "Where ever they went, I'm sure they left some goodies behind for the Imps."

Taab's smile was hidden by his T-Visor, but they could all hear it through his voice. "Good, then we wait for them to trap their hands in the Gundark's nest, then we attack. Let's go."

---

The trio made their way back to their temporary base camp, currently guarded by Hallomar's men. It was well enough away from the village, and the pathway leading to it from the Port Haven settlement, to remain undetected. They had used the camp for their initial rest upon arriving in the area. Taab had used that time to reinitialize his buy'ce (helmet) and now all of his beskar'gam's systems were operation. He had breathed a sigh of releife at that. He would need everything his Mandalorian Armor had to offer if he encountered the red headed Emperor's Hand again.

But for now they had other more pressing matters to worry about.

"OK, eyes on me." Taab took a knee in the center of the group. Hallomar and his men followed suit while Al'kesh remained standing. "The village is abandoned, but probably left full of booby traps for anyone who goes for a stroll inside." One of Hallomar's men giggled slightly at that. Taab activated a holo emitter on his gauntlet and a holographic representation of the village coalesced in front of them, courtesy of the scans he had run with his buy'ce earlier.

"It's a decent size settlement, and the nature of the buildings means they are going to have to go with a house to house search." Everyone nodded their understanding at that. The homes in the trees and out over the water would be inaccessible to armored vehicles. "That's grunt work, and not very pleasant grunt work at that." Taab knew all too well the horrors of room clearing and house to house warfare. "That means infantry or Stormtroopers, and possibly lots of 'em." He looked out to the small group, there were only six of them. It would be a tall order for them to take on any sort of Imperial infantry unit.

"So...what do we do?" asked one of Hallomar's men. He hadn't heard Taab's earlier comment on the ridge line.

"We wait in ambush, track the Imperial movements. When they are well and truly stuck among whatever traps the villagers left behind, we move in and attack." Taab hefted his flechette launcher. "The element of surprise will be our strongest ally. We take out the grunts and capture any officers we can." The group all nodded one last time. Taab could see how resolute they were, ready for action though frightened. He hadn't told them the worst part, and none of them had asked. They were only six men, none but Taab was a real soldier, and they were going to attempt an ambush of a force of unknown makeup and size. It very well could be a suicide run, but Taab didn't think so.

"Until then we pair off. Two on watch over the path. Two on guard here, the other two resting. We don't know how long it will take the whiteshells to arrive." With a grunt he stood up. Resisting the urge to rub at his knee he deactivated the holo-emitter and assigned their pairs. He didn't know it, but they didn't have long to wait.

---

IC: Major Maximillian Payne (NPC)
Aboard the 1-M command vehicle, Task Force Kingfisher, enroute to the Fishing Village, Port Haven.

Major Payne inhaled deeply, savoring the dank jungle air as it filled it lungs. There really was nothing better than being planet side. The processed atmosphere of a starship may have been able to sustain life, but it never made you feel alive. He exhaled loudly through his nose, enjoying the scent, he was glad his troop had been tasked for this mission, and he had been all to eager to accompany his men out into the field for what should be a routine search and destroy mission.

They had received their orders planet side not long after supervising the prisoner tranfers aboard the Cimmerian. Most of the infantry, along with the heavy armor and the scouts were sent down to assist in "holding the planet". Rumor had it that the stormtroopers had botched some sort of retrieval mission and now it was up to the Imperial Army to save the day. Typical whiteshells, after being unable to accomplish their own goal they were now spread out all throughout the jungle, looking for whoever or whatever it was they were looking for. The Army had been called in to secure the remains of the main settlement as well as any others encountered. It was the latter part of their mission statement that found Major Payne and his troopers on this jungle lined pathway at the moment.

A small fishing village of some sort had been sighted by a recon flight, and a reinforced platoon was headed out to secure it. Payne had volunteered to maintain command and control of the group between its various units. It was a job that a platoon leader should have been able to manage, and certainly a company commander could have handled it. But Payne was aching to get back out into the field, and sitting on his butt back in the remains of the Octogon didn't scratch that particular itch. So, what had once been a platoon of infantry escorted by a lance of four scouts on speeder bikes had added an armor element.

Payne occupied the command seat in the 1-M command hover tank. From here he would be able to communicate with the main base camp they had just left, or with any of the starships out in the system. he didn't foresee a need to call in any sort of air support or orbital bombardment, but it was nice to know the ability was there. Marching along with it were two AT-ST's, one in front of the command tank and one behind. There should have been a third, but it had been left behind on the Cimmerian with mechanical issues, so it was just the pair of armored walkers.

Behind them were the troops of 4th platoon, marching in column by squad. Ahead of the armored vehicles the speeder bikes scouted the route ahead. Payne expected little resistance from the locals, they might not even know what was going on yet. This was going to be cake walk.

---

IC: Beskaryc Taab
Welcome to the Jungle.

"Taab, you're going to want to see this." came through on an encrypted short range channel to Taab's buy'ce. It was Hallomar and one of his hunters, from their position watching over the trail. He didn't sound happy. "On my way," the Mandalorian responded back, clutching his flechette launcher as he hustled to the hastily made observation post. Even before he arrived he knew things were already going worse than he would have thought.

Hallomar had scraped out a small dug in position from which to observe the trail, and as Taab crawled into it he was surprised at how small it was. Mandalorian trenches tended to be a tad bit larger to accommodate the bulk of their armor. Still, though it was a tight fit, Taab managed. "What've you got?" he asked bluntly.

"Two pairs of speeder bikes just ripped down the pathway." That didn't surprise Taab, he knew there would be some sort of scout force ahead of the infantry. Though he figured it was a 50/50 shot between scout troopers or just a line of skirmishers. It looked like luck wasn't on their side just yet. Speeder bikes added complications to their plan, such as it was. But that wasn't the worst news.

"Of course, now there's that."

Taab had been looking down the trail towards the village, where the speeder bikes had recently run past. Under Hallomar's direction he now looked up trail, and saw the one thing he hoped they wouldn't. It was a pair of walkers, AT-STs escorting some sort of hover tank. Behind them Taab could barely make out at least two squads of Imperial Army infantry, probably more making their way up the trail.

"So. Now what? We can't take those on."

Taab and company ducked back further into their dugout, evading detection as the walkers went past. Taab poked his head up, allowing just his range finder over the lip of their trench. It's passive scanners fed an image to his HUD as he made a count.

"OK, it's just the one platoon, plus the armor and scouts. No stormies. We can do this."

"How? How can we against two walkers and a fracking tank?!?" Hallomar's man was starting to become unglued.

"That's no tank, it's a command vehicle. You can tell by the extra comm antennae." The man still didn't understand, but Taab saw that Hallomar did now. Still he explained it. "Vehicle like that has the comm system we need, and an officer that can access it. It's our primary target."

"But what about the walkers?"

Taab caught Hallomar looking at him now as well. "Leave that to me."

To be continued...

OOC: This post is the first of three that started out together but I have split up due to size and stylistic reasons. This one is mostly battle prep, the second one will be a short battle, and the third wrapping up the battle and it's aftermath. I should have part two up tomorrow.

 

IC: Wolf
Delicate Delinquent,
Location: Whendyll System outskirts

Wolf jolted awake as he heard the ships alarm go off. He wasn’t sure what was going on but he suddenly had a bad feeling about this. He grabbed his blaster and walked out as he heard someone yell about securing blast doors. He looked at the personal under him. “We have a job to do, let’s get to it. Everyone split up in twos Secure all hatches and blast doors.”

Everyone split up in twos and went about securing hatch ways and securing blast doors. “Wolf to bridge, what’s going on out there?”

Sith-I-5

 

OOC: As promised, Part II. Part III will be posted tomorrow.

IC: Major Maximillian Payne (NPC)
Outskirts of the fishing village. Port Haven

Payne stood up, exposing his head and upper torso through the command vehicle's hatch as he watched the unit deploy for its mission. The speeder bikes had made a complete circle around the village, reporting no activity. They would continue their patrols around the perimeter until the operation was concluded. Meanwhile, the command vehicle and its two escorts had stopped at the trail head, just on the outskirts of the village as the infantry commander split up his platoon for their room to room search of the village. Only after every nook and cranny had been searched would it be considered secure.

"First squad, second squad, take the buildings in the trees." the Lieutenant bellowed out to his men who fell out of formation to comply. "Third squad, take the aquatic side." More men now moved out, headed towards the smaller portion of the village which stood on stilts over the calm waters. "Fourth squad, remain here with me." The LT. looked to Major Payne who gave a thoughtful nod in reply. The man was a young officer, and his looking to the Major to approve of his plans was only natural. It took no effort on the Major's part to reaffirm to the LT that his deployment was correct. It would take at least the two squads to root out any opposition in the tree village, and leaving one squad as a reserve force should either search turn up trouble was only prudent. The walkers would be able to provide extra fire support should things go terribly wrong.

But so far nothing was going wrong. The search teams were going room to room, building to building and were all reporting the same thing. No activity, the village thus far seemed empty. Major Payne became suspicious at that, this was smelling too much like a trap. But there was nothing he could do about it just yet, besides he doubted the villagers could come up with anything to cause major harm to the Imperial forces now ransacking their village. But he still felt uneasy at how quietly things were going. He was almost happy when he heard the first report of blaster fire. But that happiness soon turned to fear as he realized that it had come from behind him.

---

IC: Beskaryc Taab
ambush position aurek, outskirts of the fishing village, Port Haven. Moments earlier.

After the Imperial column had passed them by, Taab, Hallomar and the man who Taab hadn't bothered to know had made their way back to base camp. Taab had explained the situation to the rest of them. No one seemed impressed by the current odds, though Taab had attempted to keep their spirits up. "Child's play" he had told them, though he no more believed that than they did. Still he needed them to buy into this attack if it stood any chance of success. He outlined the plan to them, they seemed no less enthusiastic about its chances of success, but they were willing to try. Taab just hoped Hallomar was as good a shot as he boasted.

Minutes later they had taken up their positions, just outside the perimeter the scouts on their speeder bikes had established. Before them, towering above the low lying bushes, but well below the jungle canopy were the AT-ST's. The walkers were facing inward towards the village, so Taab and Al'kesh were behind them and out of the arc of their guns. Several hundred meters off to Taab's left Hallomar and the most frightened of his men were set up in ambush position Besh, sitting on the flank of the walkers, and hopefully with a clear line of sight to Hallomar's target. Several hundred meters in the other direction were the last two members of their team, in ambush position Dorn (Taab had skipped Cresh, it just sounded too much like Besh on a comm circuit).

Everyone was in place, that much Taab knew by the clicks in the static over the comm lines. Transmissions would be kept to a minimum until the fighting started, fighting that would be initiated by Hallomar's (hopefully) well placed shot. Taab for his part lined up his targeting reticle on the walker to his right. he took note of the squad of soldiers milling about among the armored vehicles. Everything was ready, but he was surprised at the lack of activity from the village itself. If the villagers had left any surprises for the Imperials, they hadn't been set off yet. That was concerning, Taab was counting on that to keep the Imperial's attention. Nothing Taab could do about it now, they were committed. He would have to figure out a way to deal with them later.

A pair of speeder bikes flashed past Besh, and then Aurek before gliding past Dorn. It would be another 60 seconds before the other pair faced them. If it were Taab he would take the shot sometime in the next half minute then. But they had to wait on Hallomar, only when he was ready would the fighting begin.

IC: Hallomar and his rifle (NPC)
Ambush position Besh, Outskirts of the fishing village, Port Haven.

Hallomar tried his best to slow his breathing as he sighted down his blaster rifle. He was an excellent marksman, renowned among his peers as a hunter and sharpshooter. But he had never tried anything like this. Everything depended in this shot. His heart beat quickened, and even before he could feel it he could see it in his sights. He closed his eyes for a moment, calming himself. "I am a stone"* he whispered quietly to himself and opened his eyes again as a pair of speeder bikes zoomed past. It was time.

He looked through his sight aperture, focusing on the target, the gyro stabilization system located between the legs of the closest AT-ST. Taab had assured him that a blaster bolt or two through that critical, and relatively unprotected, area would cause the walker to come crashing to the ground. Hallomar wasn't so sure, but he had been forced to trust the mysterious Mandalorian. He exhaled his breath, and just before he started to inhale again, his finger pressed the trigger.

*Borrowed unabashedly from the film Enemy at the Gates.

---

IC: Beskaryc Taab, Hallomar (NPC), Al'kesh (NPC), et al. / Major Maximillian Payne (NPC)
What would become known as the Ambush of Task Force Kingfisher.

The shot rang out, surprising even those who had been expecting it. For Taab and his group, it seemed to hang in the air for a moment before striking home. For the Imperial on the receiving end it caused many to drop to the ground. Hallomar though watched with pride and then horror and even disbelief as his shot impacted against the target. Perhaps by necessity, he had found himself believing the Mandalorian that his one shot could fell the mighty armored beast, but either his shot had missed the small target, or the Mandalorian had lied as the walker shrugged off the hit and began to turn its giant "head" towards him.

"Shab!" Taab yelled out as the Hallomar's shot proved ineffectual. He was reminded of the old adage about plans never lasting the first 30 seconds of combat, but this was critical. "Re-engage, re-engage," he shouted out to Halomar who had frozen after that first shot. But Taab could do nothing more for him at the moment. His own primary target came first. Blaster fire began to pepper the Imperial squad closest to them as Taab fired upon his own target.

Suddenly a great WHOOSH and a flash of light came across the battlefield as Taab launched the warhead mounted on the top of his jetpack. It corkscrewed across the small battlefield before exploding against the second walker's right leg. The leg shattered under the impact and the walker crashed to the ground where its command module exploded showering the nearby infantry with shrapnel. One down. Taab brought up his flechette launcher, firing round after round of the dart like projectiles into the survivors of the enemy platoon's reserve squad.

When the first shot had sounded Major Payne had looked over his shoulder in surprise, but he quickly regained his senses. So the villagers hadn't left entirely and were attempting to fight back. Good, the Major thought, he doubted they had anything that could even scratch the paint on one of his walkers. Still he dropped down into the protective confines of his command vehicle and closed the top hatch. It wouldn't do to be taken out by some random blaster bolt. Moments later the remains of one of his AT-STs pinged off the roof of his 1-M, the vaunted walker had been felled by some sort of rocket. Just who was he dealing with here? Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, all hell broke loose.

To be continued...

 

IC: Pit Lieutenant Joel, Captain Sard, Commander Chantrey(npcs), Vindicator-class heavy cruiser, Cimmerian
Location: Port Haven


Running the ship, and overseeing the operation in Commodor Norris' stead, Pit Lieutenant Joel felt himself being spread very thin, but relished the challenge and the responsibility.

His peers on the bridge, his crew for the moment, doing their best to keep him updated.

At the moment, he was listening to a report from one of the aquatic patrols, relaying that they had been asked to check out a ship parked on the beach, east of the pirate settlement.

"Lieutenant?"

Joel turned at the call from the ComScan operator. "Yes?"

"Sir, two holo-calls coming in from the Hard Eight and the April Dancer."

What do they want? He wondered, stepping over to the black circle on the deck that was the holoprojector where Norris could be seen conversing with the other commanders.

The two ships were at the edge of the system, while the main business was happening here, around the third planet.

As he stepped into the circle, two usual foot-high translucent blue holos sprang up, two images that he had only seen at a distance before, now close up.

"Where is Commodore Norris?" Sard's holo on the left, was the first to demand.

"Resting, Captain. Whatever you were going to say to him, you can say to me. I am Lieutenant Joel."

"Get Norris. We'll wait."

Joel glanced at Chantrey's holograph, who only shrugged minutely. Joel did not get the impression that the commander knew what this was about any more than he did. "You'll be waiting hours. I'm not waking him."

"Fine." Sard sighed. "You'll never guess what's happened."

Joel said nothing. Though the Commodore would likely defend his right not to be browbeaten by a superior officer from another ship, it would be bad form, perhaps a career-ending one, to ask Sard to just spit it out.

"The Delicate Delinquent just turned up. Got caught in the April Dancer's artificial gravity field."

Joel had heard the name recently. There had been orders from the Admiralty relating to her. "A moment gentlebeings." He stepped back out of the holoprojector circle, and looked towards his crew.

"Delicate Delinquent?"

A crewman, checking the library computer, looked up after a moment. "Immobiliser 418 interdictor cruiser, Sir. One of ours."

"Thanks." Joel stepped back into the holo, "Okay, so we have another interdictor turn up. We can deploy her to the Dancer's starboard-"

"Except we cannot. She is no longer in Imperial hands, Lieutenant." Sard sounded almost gleeful about this update. "Contact with her was lost, and Imperial Intelligence tasked me to go investigate what happened. I regret to say that an unknown group nipped off with her, and my ship was heavily damaged in the encounter. Don't you see?" Sard paused, looking at both men, "She's here and Dancer has her trapped like a fly in a web."

"Commander Chantrey!" Joel demanded the other's attention, forgetting his place.

"Lieutenant?"

"With her hyperdrive down, the Delinquent will only be able to move in real space. If she tries to manoeuvre clear of your field, move your ship to stay with her and keep her trapped. I'll despatch one of the Vigils to keep her honest."

"Understood. This one won't get away," Chantrey determined.

Joel caught the other's tone. "What do you mean, THIS ONE?"

The commander looked embarrassed at the interrogation. "We brought a civilian Bantha-class out of hyperspace, but she vanished off our scopes before we could send TIEs. No sign that she re-jumped, but we have no idea where she is. Sorry."

"Oh, her." Sard retorted dismissively. "She's latched to the back of your tower."

"What?! When were you going to say?"

"I'm telling you now. What more do you want?"

"Professional fething cooperation, Captain; how about that for starters?"

"Captain! I mean, Lieutenant." The shout from the back of the bridge startled Joel, and he just managed to suppress a jump in front of the arguing ship commanders.

"Gentlebeings, I shall leave you to deal with it. Cimmerian out." He stepped out of the circle, and drew a finger across his throat to indicate to his people to kill the holos. "What's is all the shouting?"

"Sir, Task Force Kingfisher is under attack."

Joel rolled his eyes. "Oh great. What in Oseon is going on around here?"

Tag: no-one

---

IC: Chief Engineer Tim Williams, Petty Officer Wa Yay, Private Phillipa, Captain Yavscout, Delicate Delinquent bridge
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


Williams appeared at the bridge doors first, then stood aside to let the Gossam petty officer precede him inside. "After you."

"Thank you, Chief." Wa Yay walked in, pausing by the seated Casey's shoulder to note the readouts on his screens. She nodded at her fellow Merc, the Wookiee.

"Captain, what's going on?"

Private Phillipa called from her station. "Long-range scans paint numerous Imperial vessels around the third planet."

"The third planet?" Williams echoed, coming up beside Yav', "Port Haven?"

" Affirmative, Port Haven. But the Empire got here first."

Tim sighed, his mind turning to the Heaven's Water watering hole, and the Octagon. "Well, never that fond the place. Get us out of here."

"Well, gee, why didn't I think of that?" Yavscout retorted as one of the crew called in for an update.

"Wolf to bridge, what’s going on out there?"

The elf pointed out the windows. "There's another interdictor out there, less than a hundred klicks in front of us."

"Okay, you answer this Wolf character. Wa Yays, start moving us beyond the gravitaitional field. We want to clear it before the Empire thinks about re-capturing its ship."

"On it." The Petty Officer moved to the Helm. "Captain, Wolf is one of our Security people; you can tell him what is going on." She turned to ask the Jod if the shields were up.

Yavscout pressed the comms button to respond to Wolf. "Wolf, Yav. We have reverted at Port Haven, but there is a heavy Imperial presence here. No sign yet that they are coming for us, but as we are a hijacked ship, probably more likely to try to board us than a ship-to-ship engagement. Feel free to pass that on."

Tag: Wolf

---

IC: Mary Formal (npc), Sentinel-class landing craft, beach west of the Alley
Location: Port Haven


One of the Imperial Amphibion patrol boats ran aground several metres up the beach, Imperial troops in grey semi-armour and combat coveralls, not stormtroopers, jumped over the angled armoured hulls on both sides to cover the twilight shore in both directions.

One squad's lieutenant stopped, the surf bubbling over the toes of his boots as they retreated into the ocean, with his hand held to the side of his helmet as a message came over his DH97 headcomm set.

One of his men, his own boot hitting something metallic as he strode further inland, bent to haul a bag containing a spherical Q7 droid up into view. It politely whistled and ran its running lights.
"Look Sir! Droids!"

"Look Sir, twaks!" Another trooper sniped.

The lieutenant indicated the dark Sentinel, less than a hundred metres to their right. "We have been tasked to check that ship out. You two, cut round to the front."

* * * *

Inside the craft, Mary felt charmed by the Mon Calamari's familiarity when he said "Well Mary, dear."

She stood to zip the front of the baggy black flightsuit up to the front of her neck as he continued to lay out his plans, then turned the pilot over onto his stomach, and went about binding the others' wrists.

"-Unless you know how to keep a human from ODing on painkillers and other substances while also pumping him full of enough drugs to get him to talk about anything, then I should be the one interrogating which leaves you to the monitoring. I could take him into the cockpit and conduct the interrogation there if you think you could help with the interrogation. You could monitor the systems at the same time, too.”

"Look, Man," the pilot said with his face half on the floor, "no need for drugs. I just fly the shuttle; they don't tell us anything." He was thinking though, if he lived through this, he could pass some information along about the Mercs if he kept his ear to the ground. He chuckled quietly at his current predicament, since thanks to this big fish, his ear was already to the ground.

"What is all this about codes?" She queried aloud, as she stepped round the pair to move forwards towards the dark hatch that led into the cockpit, stepping through to look at the five high-backed seats. "Did you consider just coming and pushing some buttons?"

A bright white glowrod beam stabbed through the windshield to wash across the ceiling toggles above the pilot positions, Mary dropping out of sight to hide under the control boards, where the pilots legs would normally go.

Sending her right hand sneaking up to the flight controls like a periscope, she jabbed blindly at the coloured buttons, hoping to hit something useful.

Tag: Salmakk

 

OOC: and now the conclusion...

IC: Beskaryc Taab, Hallomar (NPC), Al'kesh (NPC), et al.
What would become known as the Ambush of Task Force Kingfisher.

Despite the survival of the first walker, Taab was faily pleased with the way the battle was unfolding thus far. The walker he had targeted was gone, dashed by his jetpack's warhead. The Imperial's reserve squad had been nearly annihilated by the combined fire from his rag tag group. Hallomar had tried to re-engage the first walker, but to no avail. His blaster had since gone silent as the AT-ST advanced on his position.

To Taab's right, the other two members of their team were engaged with the command vehicle. Currently they were hunkered down, pinned by the repeating blaster mounted on top of the command vehicle. This was concerning, but as it happened, necessary to his plans. To his front, though the majority of the reserve squad had been taken out, the other three squads were beginning to emerge from various dwellings in the village. they would be making their way into the battle soon enough.

But Taab couldn't worry about them right now. The command vehicle was his primary target, but it would be worthless unless that first walker could be taken out. He watched as it continued to advance on where Hallomar and his man had taken been. Suddenly a small eruption of blaster fire erupted from the tall grass, impacting along the AT-ST's command module. It was no where near enough to penetrate, and after a few return blasts from the walker's chin mounted cannon the firing came to a halt. The walker paused now, rotating its head back towards ambush point dorn. That thing alone was going to wreck this op.

It started to turn around, such an ungainly thing. Like a bunker on stilts. A bunker! The thought gave Taab an idea, but before he could implement it all hell broke loose. Suddenly the stilts supporting the huts that were over the water were rocked by a series of small explosions. They shattered, and the huts and bridging network above them careened down into the water below. An entire squad of soldiers followed them into the water, the armored men weren't buoyant enough to stay afloat and they all slid beneath the waves.

"Not bad." muttered Taab as he took stock of his new target. He handed off the flechette launcher to Al'kesh, who was busy sniping away at the squads now emerging from the forest huts. "Cover me, and mind the backblast." He took a step forward and then launched himself into the air with his jetack.

He angled quickly over to the first walker, it was well forward of any infantry support now and was primed for just this sort of attack. Alighting on roof, Taab leaned over before pulling a concussion grenade from his pouch. Several shots rang out nearby. A soldier from first squad had seen his maneuver and was attempting to shoot him from the Walker's roof. Taab fell down prone, clinging to the top of the walker, trying to make himself a smaller target. The grenade he had been holding fell from his grasp and rolled off the walker, exploding at its feet. Another bolt rang out now, this one much closer. Taab glanced over to its origin, down on the ground and a dozen meters away. He caught sight of Hallomar as he picked off the offending soldier. Good the sharpshooter had survived. Hallomar continued to lay down covering fire for Taab who now pulled a second conc grenade from his pouch.

Pulling the pin he rolled the small explosive through the walker's open vision slits, much in the same way one would toss a grenade into the firing ports of a bunker. He then shot off the roof with his jetpack as only a moment later the grenade exploded. The walker's command module came apart at the seams, as the legs just stood there for a moment before they came crashing to the ground. Taab landed a short distance away, next to Hallomar. "Good to see you've made it this far." He said as way of thanks. "Me too," came the reply.

Before Taab could answer though a pair of speeder bikes made their appearance felt on the battlefield, swooping in over them blasters blazing away. The Taab and Hallomar again hit the ground as the scout troopers sped on, now headed for where Al'kesh was fighting on alone. Taab quickly drew his remaining Westar-34, but it was too late. Hallomar sighted quickly down the barrel of his blaster rifle and put a shot through the back of each scout trooper before they could fire on the Devaronian. "Nice shooting."

Their respite was short lived as the second pair of speeder bikes dove down upon them. This time Taab holstered his hand blaster and squeezed off a short burst of flame towards the incoming scouts. Both speeder bikes flew through the ball of fire and their riders burst into flame. Leaving a trail of fire, they sped past Taab and Hallomar before exploding in the jungle beyond.

The battle had now swung decisively in their favor. Two squads of enemy infantry had been wiped out, both walkers were rubble and the Imperial scout element had also fallen. All that remained was the command vehicle still engaged with the two men off on the right flank, and the depleted two squads of infantry still emerging from the tree houses. Now the odds tilted even more in their favor as a number of blaster shots rang out from the tree line, cutting down the now exposed Imperials.

"Who the hell are these people?" came from Al'kesh as Taab and Hallomar sprinted over to his position. "Doesn't matter, so long as they aren't firing on us," responded Taab, though Hallomar had a more insightful answer. "The Tree People, they know this jungle better than anyone. They probably saw our approach and decided to launch an ambush of their own." Taab grunted his agreement. It made sense, though he didn't like it that someone had essentially snuck up on them.

With the Tree People now keeping the leftover Imperial infantry busy Taab, Hallomar and Al'kesh were able to creep up on the command vehicle, the reason for this entire attack. It had spent much of its time pounding away at the dug in members of ambush point dorn. From the level of return fire from Hallomar's men there the trio could tell that one of them was at the very least severely wounded, or more probably dead. Still there was enough intermittent fire to draw the vehicles attention. Whoever was inside had clearly become fixated on their target and didn't realize that they were now without support.

With their attention elsewhere Taab readied another grenade and moved in for the kill.

---

Major Maximillian Payne (NPC)
What would become known as the Ambush of Task Force Kingfisher

Major Payne was enraged as third squad was wiped out in an instant when the seaborne portion of the village fell into the sea. How were these simple villagers doing this? Somehow they had managed to take out two squads of his soldiers and one of his precious walkers. Blaster bolts began to ping off of the 1-M's armor, drawing his attention. He would make these savages pay for this. He started to order the tank forward but then thought better of it. These villagers had already drawn him into one ambush, how did he know if this was just the opening gambit of another. One designed to draw him into some sort of tank trap. No he wouldn't take their bait.

Instead he ordered the command vehicle to hold its position and blast away at the enemy that had revealed itself. They would wait for the infantry to make their way out of the village and then assault the ambush together. He commed the squad leaders, ordering them out of the village and to form up on his vehicle. The surviving walker would be used to...a flash of light on his display panel caught his eye and his rage grew. These near primitives had somehow taken out his remaining walker.

He ordered his lance of speeder bikes into action. These villagers may have prepared this battlefield for the walkers, but there was little they could do to lay traps for the rapidly moving and erratic speeders. He continued to concentrate his fire on the one known enemy position confident that the scouts could keep the unseen enemies away until the infantry could arrive.

The enemy fire on him slackened now, he must have killed or maimed some of them. His driver kept asking permission to move forward, but Payne wouldn't allow it. They could still win if they stayed out of the enemies snares. But he felt blind in here, where was the damn infantry? Without their support he couldn't open the hatch and see what was going on with his own eyes. He only barely trusted the sensors, especially with all of the super heated plasma criss-crossing the battle area.

He turned his attention back to the enemy position. They were very well dug in, else they would have been vaporized by now. He was tempted again to pop the hatch and eyeball the vehicle's way forward, but he resisted. Instead he turned to his charts noting their position. He glanced towards his command display and was crestfallen to see that his scout troopers had fallen and the infantry was pinned down. It was time to call for help.

He grabbed for the headset to the comm system and made a brief report. As soon as he had finished, the upper hatch was suddenly thrown open and a small object thrown inside. There was a loud hissing sound and an acrid smell. Then all thought of communicating back to base was lost as his eyes and throat felt like they were were on fire.

---

IC: Beskaryc Taab, Hallomar (NPC), Al'kesh (NPC), et al.
Aftermath of what would become known as the Ambush of Task Force Kingfisher.

Under cover from his comrades Taab pulled the vehicle commander from its armored cupola. The Mandalorian glanced at him quickly, looking over his uniform. Imperial Army, and a Major. Fortune had smiled upon them. He would most certainly have the codes needed to circumvent the communications block out. Taab set the man against the hull of the vehicle, keeping them both safe from the blaster fire still emanating from the village. "Go help them." Taab ordered to Hallomar, indicating the pair of his men assigned to point dorn. The man ran off with Al'kesh in tow. They would leave the mopping up to the villagers.

The Major was still suffering from the effects of the riot gas grenade that Taab had thrown into the tank. He had wanted to disable it, and them, without permanently affecting its systems. Taab let him alone for a moment as he pulled two other crew members from the vehicle. The rest he shot in place with his Westar-34, throwing their bodies to the ground near the tank. There was no need to take more than that prisoner. Two others besides the major should suffice.

"Hey ner vod (my brother)," Taab said mockingly. "Looks like you've lost this one." The Major wretched and then threw up all over his uniform. He really had gotten quite a whiff of the riot gas. He tried to muscle his way through a coughing fit and tell Taab something, but his words were unintelligible. Still Taab took their meaning. This man would tell them anything. Not without some encouragement anyway.

"Oh you'll talk ner vod." He looked carefully to the Major. He doubted he could see what was about to happen through his red rimmed, watery eyes. But he knew the man would hear it. Taab removed a small knife from a hidden sheath in his boots. It was a small blade, but devastatingly sharp. He pressed it to the Major's cheek cutting him lightly to let him know what was about to be done.

"You see I am going to flay the skin from your Corporal," Taab looked at the man's ID tag, "Gamble here, until you tell me what I want to know."

"You wouldn't, no one..."

But the screams of Corporal Gamble showed the Major's bluster for what it was. They echoed out over the battlefield, and everyone paused for a moment wondering what horror had caused such a high
pitched reaction. "I'm going to continue this until you tell give me the communication codes for your wonderful piece of engineering here." The screams started up again, as did the battle around them.

"When I am finished with Gamble, I will get to work on the Private there. After that, it's your turn ner vod."

Taab let that sink for a moment. "Or you can tell me what I want to know and I'll let you go." The screaming started again in earnest now. Then the Major began to blubber about. "My men, what about my men?" A blaster shot rang out and the screaming suddenly stopped as Taab put the Corporal out of his misery. "Well nothing we can do for Gamble anymore. Let's see how long the PFC will last."

"No, wait!" He spat out between another coughing fit. "I'll tell you what you need to know. If you promise to let us go, unharmed."

Taab knew the man would break eventually, they all did, but was surprised that it had come so quickly. An Imperial officer that actually cared about the welfare of his own men? How curious. Still it had gotten Taab what he wanted. "I give my word, as a Mandalorian." Taab knew there were those who would claim that this was no good, that they had known too many Mandalorians, but the Major wasn't one of them. He was desperate and had fully bought into the hope that he could somehow walk away from this. If Taab had cared he would have found it sad really.

The Major broke down and told Taab everything he needed to know about not only running the comm system, but the tank as well. He finished up by giving Taab the command codes required to bypass the
system. Taab considered that he might be lying, but knew that the Major had told the truth. By the time he was done, the battle was over. The remaining Imperial troopers had been routed by the angry villagers. The few survivors would soon wish that they hadn't been captured.

Al'kesh, Hallomar and one other surviving member of their crew approached Taab slowly now, looking in wonder at the gore around him. There was another with them, a four armed, blue furred Pho Ph'eanian. Taab calmly cleaned off his blade before replacing it in its sheath. "What happened here?" asked Al'kesh. "Best you don't know, probably best the Skipper doesn't either. Who is this?" he indicated the garishly dressed newcomer, who was clearly unhappy with his dirty and matted fur.

"His name is Alo'zhan Ghevar, a tech that made it out of the initial attacks and fell in with this village." answered Hallomar. Taab snorted. "And what's he want?" Taab still hadn't addressed the newcomer. "He wants to come along with us." Taab looked the alien over. "uh huh. I bet he does." Taab stood up now and began to clamber aboard the vehicle.

"Is this is?" Hallomar looked saddened for a moment before his own reply. They had lost two of their own while attacking the Imperial platoon. They had done well, but the loss still stung him. "Yes, we're it. I've spoken with the village chief. The explosions on the docks were their doing. Ghevar here rigged up fuel cells from their fishing boats to blow on command. When they saw us attacking the Imperials, they decided the time was right to join in. They were hiding in the jungle all along..."

Taab nodded. "And their intentions now?"

Hallomar looked sullenly away for a moment. "They plan on fading back into the jungle, their women and children are already scattered at secret campsites. After the men here kill their prisoners, they plan on joining them."

Taab nodded again. "Good, time for us to leave then. Mount up, you too Ghevar," he gestured to the being. He had proven his worth and earned his passage in Taab's estimation. "I'm sick of walking. Let's drive for awhile."

Everyone started to follow Taab aboard, the vehicle's air scrubbers systems had already purged the interior air of the riot gas. "What about those two?" Taab didn't even bother turning around. He knew who Al'kesh was talking about, the Imperials. Instead he looked over to a crowd of the villagers approaching, all with fillet knives to hand. "I promised I would let them go, and I am. Leave them for the villagers."

Al'kesh swallowed hard at that but complied, as did the others who boarded the tank. Al'kesh drove while Hallomar and his man took the gunner positions. Ghevar seemed content to sit in the troop compartment for now, though he was looking on at Taab as he worked the comm gear. Taab for his part was relieved that the Major had indeed given him accurate information. Engines thrumming, the tank began to move off, out of the battle area, leaving the Imperials behind. Moments later the screams of the Major and the Private could be heard over the vehicle's engine as Taab began to hum.

TAG: Bravo, Sith-I-5, Mitth_Fisto

OOC: Borrowed the bit about not trusting a Mandalorian from The Princess Bride. See my comment in the OOC thread regarding Ghevar.

 

IC: Wolf
Delicate Delinquent,

"Wolf, Yav. We have reverted at Port Haven, but there is a heavy Imperial presence here. No sign yet that they are coming for us, but as we are a hijacked ship, probably more likely to try to board us than a ship-to-ship engagement. Feel free to pass that on."

"Sounds like an Imperial Blockade around Port Haven. I hope Fress gets a premonition, if she does she will attempt to convince Jod to send backup. Will do, Yav. I'll have men cover the hangar bay and emergency docking areas, Wolf out," Wolf shook his head as he relayed new orders to the crew below him. If this was a truly hijacked Immobolizer, he had not doubt in his mind the Imperials will attempt to get her back. "Listen up, there is Imperial Blockade around Port Haven. The Imperials may attempt to get the Delinquent. I want all the split pairs to cover all emergency exits and docking, and the hangar bay. We can't let anyone come on unless they have authorization to do so. Wolf out."

tag anyone on the security team Sith-I-5

 

IC: Commander Hilton, Sword of Justice
Location: Actualise Station


Hilton remained patiently in his seat as the images of the captains of the three =class destroyers, came onto his screen.

He reached up to angle the screen so the ceiling light did not shine off it, and nodded to each as the commanders of the Dawn Treader, Snap Dragon, and the House of Vimal, came up.

"Gentlebeings, we have a problem brewing in the other galaxy. One of the Mercs, Squadron Leader Fress Colias has a had a Force vision-"

"A Force vision?" The master of the 'Vimal retorted in surprise.

"Yeah, believe me, I know how it sounds. She believes Captain Lasso is at Port Haven, and that the Empire is trying to acquire him there."

"Does she know what I am doing with my-"

"Probably." Hilton interrupted. He sort of hoped Colias was right about the threat at Port Haven, as he did not want to contemplate the fallout if this turned out to be a false alarm. "Just head down there and act on whatever you find."

He addressed the 40-year-old Captain Darkins of the Snap Dragon. "Ron, are you alright with this?"

Tag: Snap Dragon, Dawn Treader

 

IC: Captain Ron Darkins
Snap Dragon Actualize Station

"Ron, are you alright with this?"

Ron Darkins turned towards Major Tom Rompkins who looked like he was getting to burst. He raised an eyebrow at his first mate as Tom raised a hand and grinned. “One minute, Commander Hilton, it looks like Major Rompkins is getting ready to burst with delight on me.”

“All right, Major. What do you know about her?” Ron questioned with a frown knowing that Tom had studied the Clone Wars and who did what during that time frame. Who ever this Colias was, sounded like a fake to him.

Tom grew excited as he cleared his throat. “Fress Colias was one of the youngest Commanders to fight on the front lines during the Clone Wars. She was fourteen when she was promoted to Blue Squadron Leader. She was partially trained by Mace Windu but left the path of the Jedi for love is what I gather from what was written in her files. The first time she had a premonition of where the Separatists would be, they didn’t believe her until the vision came to pass. She barely made it out of the situation alive with only a third of her squadron. After that if she called for backup, they didn’t hesitate. Fress was given permission to reprimand the officer who refused her.”

Ron’s face fell at the reprimand reference. Meaning Fress was most likely not pleased with the captain who gave her the cold shoulder and didn’t act on it. “So you’re saying we should go?”

”Yes sir, I am,” Tom answered with a serious expression. “If Fress is calling for reinforcements a head of time. She’s had premonitions that it will be bad and going in without backup will be suicidal. My brother is aboard the Sword of Justice sir and he said Fress intercepted a freighter based on a gut feeling during a patrol. She must have sensed something out there and she led a web of defense successfully with a minimum loss of four for Captain Stakes. We can't afford to push this aside.”

“In that case, we should not risk it. And it’s what the Kings wishes would’ve been,” Ron said with a frown as he pressed down on transmit. “Commander Hilton, we’re going. Major Rompkins is familiar with Lieutenant Colias’s background. He says she led the Clone War deployments to a couple of the separatist’s bases due to premonitions. The first time they didn’t believe her, she barely made it out alive with a third of her squadron. After that they sent backup with her without question.”

Sith-I-5, Bardan_Jusik, indirectly if he's listening in...

 

IC: Agent Sounil Mistry, Nate Legnash, Nurse Ulrike, Samantha Irisa, Delicate Delinquent
Location: Whendyll System outskirts


Sounil had been looking for familiar Security faces and gravitated to Wolf's side once she saw him. Though he shared the looks of many of the clones...okay, all of the clones, this had to be the first time there was an advantage to his loss of an eye.

The klaxon had stopped, and there were several beings about who were unsure if that meant the trouble, whatever it had been, was over.

Nate had disappeared, so the twi'lek concentrated on Wolf, as he ended his communication with the bridge. "Listen up, there is Imperial Blockade around Port Haven. The Imperials may attempt to get the Delinquent. I want all the split pairs to cover all emergency exits and docking, and the hangar bay. We can't let anyone come on unless they have authorization to do so. Wolf out."

Sounil looked at Wolf, nodding to herself. Clearly the emergency wasn't over yet.

"Okay, where do you want me?" She asked, "I mean, we have that Atgar laser cannon in the hangar corridors. If you want, I can take a group of men down there..." Her sentence trailed off.

Her fighting had taken place prior to the Clone Wars, in Secret Galactic Intelligence Service police actions. She knew there was the anti-vehicle laser cannon down on Level Four, but not whether it would be needed if Imperials tried to board, or whether her E-11 would be sufficient.

* * * *

Nate was in a turbolift with three other worried looking people, heading up to Deck Fourteen, and exited with them, heading for the corridor and hatch that he had done his gunnery refresher training in.

Stopping before the hatch, which snapped aside as he pressed the door controls, he started up the dimly lit ramp to the transparisteel and durasteel bubble where his high-backed chair was.

Belting himself in, Nate activated the systems and fed power to the four-barrelled gun that was outside the bubble, and he could see the view outside sweeping to the left as the gargantuan - to him - cruiser began to turn in the other direction.

* * * *

Nurse Ulrike glanced out the window of the medical shuttle in the main hangar, as behind her, the Irisa girl who had lost consciousness in the refectory, was hurriedly getting re-dressed.

Talking without looking at the younger woman, she asked, "Are you sure about this?"

Irisa was pulling her t-shirt over her head and getting her arms through. "I have the strong feeling that we will need my ship's firepower in whatever the current emergency is."

Ulrike could see the men of a Jod Go Team, in their now familiar blue and gold semi-armour, running across the crowded deck.

"So what happened to me? I felt a lot of screaming, like millions of voices."

Ulrike shrugged. "I have no way of knowing. If you were Force Sensetive, I would think something terrible happened somewhere, and you got tuned into it, but you aren't, are you?"

Samantha chose not to reply, and continued getting dressed.

Tag: Wolf

 

IC: Captain Reep I. Cheep (NPC)
In command of the Kingdom's Navy Vessel Dawn Treader. Actualize Station.

Captain Cheep did his best not to fidget as Captain's Vimal and Darkins commented on the validity of the intelligence that had come their way. He hoped his impatience didn't show through the screen as he fingered the cortosis sword at his belt. As the most junior of the Capatins on this conference call his opinion didn't not carry the weight of the officers his senior. Still, if he were being honest, he found the information to be of ...dubious origin. He was a naval officer and commander of one of the Kingdoms warships. He dealt in absolutes, not theories or visions.

But the nature of the information was irrelevant. Commander Hilton had relayed to them their orders. They were to head to the Whendyll System. After that their orders were less clear, to "Act on what they might find" could mean almost anything. Captain Cheep was not an imaginative man, he preferred to have clear, concise and definitive orders. Orders that left no room for interpretation. But again he was the junior Captain in this task force. He would go where ordered and follow the leads of his fellow captains.

Captain Cheep was also a short man, barely over 1.5 meters in height, who had endured much ridicule throughout his life due to his stature. He had never been the best or the brightest at anything. He had never been athletic or popular among his peers. But he was one of the hardest working, most determined officers in the fleet. That determination had always paid off in the past, and his hard work had eventually earned him his position as commanding officer of the Dawn Treader.

So despite his junior status he spoke up, after all he had not gotten as far as he had in his career by being silent. Clearing his throat he began. "If I may gentlemen. The veracity of the information in our hands is not the question. Only the tactics we are to employ upon our arrival." He paused for a moment to lick his lips. Wondering how the more senior officers would take his "suggestion." "We have orders to proceed. I suggest we prepare our vessels for immediate departure."

TAG: Sith-I-5, JediFalcon

OOC: Whoever doesn't get the obvious references in terms of the character and starship names posted here gets their nerd card revoked.

 

OOC: *Throws nerd card on the table*

 

IC: Wolf
Delicate Delinquent

"Okay, where do you want me?" She asked, "I mean, we have that Atgar laser cannon in the hangar corridors. If you want, I can take a group of men down there..."

Wolf nodded in agreement as he received reports from others as they guarded entrance points. “That’s not a bad idea. I have a feeling we’ll need to defend ourselves. Take a group of men and get them on the cannons. I'm going to make rounds to make sure everyone is where they are supposed to be."


IC : Ron Darkins
Snap Dragon, Actualize Station

"We have orders to proceed. I suggest we prepare our vessels for immediate departure."

Ron gave a nod as he glanced to Rompkins. “Captain Cheep makes a good point. Major Rompkins, prepare the Snap Dragon. We’re to leave now.”

Bardan_Jusik, Sith-I-5

 

IC: Josch Decinchi alias Zieleb-Xan ‘Mac’ Macja
Delicate Delinquent

WHAAA!! WHAAA!! WHAA!!

“Josch, sweetheart, it’s your turn to get up with the baby,” rang a beautiful yet sleepy female voice.

Groggily the old pilot rolled over in his bed and through mostly closed eyes he spotted the familiar strawberry-blond hair of the woman of his dreams. He drew in a deep breath through his nose and found the wonderful scent of vanilla. A new clue to who this mystery woman really was. “I’m sure I got up the last time, honey.”

WHAAA!! WHAAA!! WHAA!!

Out of nowhere a pillow smacked Josch in the face, “Try again Flyboy. Get up out of this bed and go take care of your daughter. That is an order.”

“Ahh! I knew there was a drawback to marrying a ranking officer,” he said with a slight grin on his face. “Alright, I’ll go check on her, Ma'am.” He leaned in, gave her a kiss on the back of her neck, and threw his legs over the edge of the bed.

WHAAA!! WHAAA!! WHAA!!

Josch rubbed he eyes as his booted feet hit the metallic deck in his quarters on the DD. He glanced down at the chronometer on his wrist and discovered that he had gotten about two hours of rest. Before falling asleep he had preformed some Jedi relaxation techniques in order to enhance the effects of whatever rest he got. So instead of sleeping for two hours it felt more like four. As he opened his eyes fully he noticed that the lights in his room were flashing.

WHOOO-ooooo!!!

His eyes shot open. “FRAK ME!” He hopped up, grabbed his gear that was laying on the back of his desk chair, and ran as fast as he could down to the flight hanger. “Why the frak are we at alert status?” he asked to no one in particular. As he was running he was throwing on his flight gear so that as soon as he reached his fighter he would be ready to go.

WHOOO-ooooo!!!

On the hanger deck he noticed that he was one of the first ones to make it to his fighter. “Navi are you up?” Josch finished strapping himself in and started running his pre-flight checks.

{{HEY! I’m here sir. I started getting the Arrow ready as soon as the alert went out.}}

“Good,” he looked over his board as he put his helmet on, “Well we got two hours to sleep this time.”

{{LISTEN! At least its more than the time we were jumping every 33 minutes for the better part of a week because we kept running into Imperial patrols.}}*

Josch just chuckled, “I know. I can’t even remember a third of the systems we jumped into before you plotted us on a course to the Outer Rim burning up all of our reserve fuel.”

{{LOOK! If we hadn’t we would never of discovered that interesting planet with the cantina with a funny name.}}

Josch shook his head, “You mean Barpotomous Drabble’s tavern on Keyorin. You know there is a reason that place is nicknamed Hunter’s World, right? Not the best place for someone with a price on their head.”

{{HEY! I guess your bounty hadn’t reached them yet, or they were after larger game.}}

With his fighter ready for action Josch maneuvered it into ready position, “Alright reminiscing time is over. Let’s get down to business.” He toggled over from his internal comms to the bridge’s frequency, “Bridge, this is Mac in the Arrow, I’ve got one lit and green across the board. Where do you want me?”

Josch patiently sat in his fighter performing centering techniques to ready himself for combat, while waiting further orders.

TAG: Bravo Sith-I-5


OOC: *Reference to “Battlestar Galactica #101” 33