Star Wars: Wild Space (Closed, Started)

[TheDoctor455]

"What the hell do you mean our breaching pod has only has five minutes of fuel right now?" she barked at the technician that had had the bad luck to be assigned to Duval's breaching pod since last week, "I told you to make sure it was refueled two days ago!"


"Well you see ma'am..." he trailed off trying to think of a way to translate the complexities of the fuel rationing system to something a jarhead could understand... due to his arrogance... he kept drawing a blank.

"I don't care where you get the fuel from," she said, as if reading his mind, "Just get it my breaching pod!"

The technician was relieved to see Duval go. There was just something about the massive scars on her face that told him that A) she'd been through a lot worse than this a dozen times over... and had obviously survived, and B) you do not want to screw with someone like that.

Duval stormed off to the pilots in the cockpit.

"We have no fuel ma'am," they said as they saw her approach.

"I know," she said, "Now, what else is wrong with the ship?"

"Not much else," the co-pilot said, "Power checks out across the board... only..."

"What?" she said.

"Our shields were pretty weak to begin with... and now they aren't working at all."

Vora slapped her left palm to her face, "Great... just... friggin' great. Well, do what you can to get it working, while I go tell the captain and then proceed to shit-kick that idiot fuel techie into doing his damn job."

She left, and turned her comm back to the captain's channel.

"Sorry to bother you ma'am," she said, keeping her tone even and apologetic, "But our breaching pod hasn't been refueled yet, and our shields are on the frits again. I think we can still make any trip you have in mind for us, but we're going to need a little more cover than usual to get there."

 

[Redryhno]

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Set had been assigned with Duval's team since he'd been aboard the Endeavor, to his understanding, it had been to keep an eye on him, though that wasn't the official reasoning, to be sure. Something he didn't feel the slightest bit peeved about, seeing as he'd have done the same thing in Captain Telani's position. He'd been a mercenary too long for it to make any sense for why he'd joined up less than eighteen months ago. But he had his reasons, most of them being he liked the Republic better than the cartels, underground, Hutts, and Empire. Plus, the pay was decent, food was in no short supply, and the ship was working. Or rather, had been working, but that was beside the point.

Watching Duval chew out the tech, followed by a good stomping around, he put his weapons away and walked towards her, his body shaking and sweating with every movement, a hand clutching a cloth that he wiped across his brow.

"So,"He began, followed by a wipe across the lips,"You do know tha' yelling at the techs makes the work all that much harder, right? Someone's bound to slip up you keep doing that. But what'do I know? just a cheery sort that got on board for room and board!"

 

[TheDoctor455]

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Set had been assigned with Duval's team since he'd been aboard the Endeavor, to his understanding, it had been to keep an eye on him, though that wasn't the official reasoning, to be sure. Something he didn't feel the slightest bit peeved about, seeing as he'd have done the same thing in Captain Telani's position. He'd been a mercenary too long for it to make any sense for why he'd joined up less than eighteen months ago. But he had his reasons, most of them being he liked the Republic better than the cartels, underground, Hutts, and Empire. Plus, the pay was decent, food was in no short supply, and the ship was working. Or rather, had been working, but that was beside the point.

Watching Duval chew out the tech, followed by a good stomping around, he put his weapons away and walked towards her, his body shaking and sweating with every movement, a hand clutching a cloth that he wiped across his brow.

"So,"He began, followed by a wipe across the lips,"You do know tha' yelling at the techs makes the work all that much harder, right? Someone's bound to slip up you keep doing that. But what'do I know? just a cheery sort that got on board for room and board!"

"I appreciate your advice Set," Duval answered quickly, giving him her best approximation of a pleasant smile, and keeping her comm on the captain's channel in case she responded, "but quite frankly, this guy is incompetent. He was assigned to us last week, and I asked him to refuel our ship two days ago. All he's given us since then is 5 minutes' worth. If you'd like to help, then please keep an eye on that guy for me, and make sure we get the fuel we need. I need to make sure we're just as ready to defend this hangar as we are to leave it."

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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"Wok'la? This is Jevan. The Captain is currently in conference, so you can relay the messages through me. I'll see to it that she gets them. Better that only one of us gets yelled at."

Jevan rubbed his temples, trying to work out some of the stress that had been building up. The work crews were bent over backwards, there were requests from the Hangar technicians for additional fuel cells that they didn't have, and still more orders to fill. Wok'la's efforts were a small beacon of optimism amid an ocean of madness. "Well, with the engines back online, we can move if we have to. It'll take days, but we could reach the nearest system on sublight speeds. There's little we can do about the Hyperdrive. Keep at it, Wok'la, I'll keep you posted. I'll defer to you for prioritizing the repairs."

[hr]

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Reah noted the latecomers, before turning her attention back to Quint. "Mandalorian, I need your ship more than I need your payment demands. The New Republic will compensate you substantially." Typical Mandalorian behavior. Credits first, loyalties later. The Masan-Ru figure was harder to pin down. On one hand, he was a smuggler, a fact he seemed to wear on his chest with pride. On the other hand, he had also admitted to employing an NR liaison, which said more about his previous actions than he might let on. The latecomer, a man named Gareth, was still a wild card. He sat apart from the rest, with a tactical droid almost hovering behind him.

"I suppose if we are to have a working arrangement, you should no our situation." Reah began. "The Medara System has been contested ever since the Remnant forces arrived. Technically, it falls under no jurisdiction, making it a prime target for the Imperials looking to gain a foothold on the edges of Wild Space. Our task force was supposed to engage the Imperial forces here and prevent them from taking the system. Unfortunately, the Empire got here first, and we waltzed right into a trap. Admiral Suurjak's flagship was destroyed along with the rest of the fleet. The Endeavor only escaped after disabling the Interdictor responsible for pulling us out of Hyperspace. As you can see, the fight took quite a toll on her.

"That was three days ago. Our repairs have been moving slowly, and we lack the resources to return Endeavor to her full strength. If you have any supplies we could use to accelerate our schedule, they would be much appreciated. Our immediate needs are fuel and replacement parts for the Hyperdrive. Additionally, your ships will be invaluable in an engagements with Imperial forces we might encounter."

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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Captain Telani's comm began beeping during her conference meeting. It was another "request", which was sounding more and more like "demand" as time went on. She sighed, and redirected the message to Jevan. She needed another aide, before Jevan collapsed from exhaustion.

[hr]

"Oh, another one," muttered Jevan. Both Duval and Wok'la were on the comm system, "Brilliant, yes, another fuel shortage, big surprise. Look, Lieutenant Duval, you know how the prioritization goes. Your breaching pods are meant for close range engagements, ergo their fuel consumption is less of a concern. We have a shortage if you might have seen, and there's little I can do about it. I'll have chief Wok'la see if he can come up with an alternative for the time being. There's more than one way to launch a pod into space. Is that acceptable to both of you?"

 

[TheDoctor455]

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Captain Telani's comm began beeping during her conference meeting. It was another "request", which was sounding more and more like "demand" as time went on. She sighed, and redirected the message to Jevan. She needed another aide, before Jevan collapsed from exhaustion.

[hr]

"Oh, another one," muttered Jevan. Both Duval and Wok'la were on the comm system, "Brilliant, yes, another fuel shortage, big surprise. Look, Lieutenant Duval, you know how the prioritization goes. Your breaching pods are meant for close range engagements, ergo their fuel consumption is less of a concern. We have a shortage if you might have seen, and there's little I can do about it. I'll have chief Wok'la see if he can come up with an alternative for the time being. There's more than one way to launch a pod into space. Is that acceptable to both of you?"

"Er..." Vora decided to proceed very carefully, keeping her tone even, and as polite as possible, "I understand that sir, but with all due respect, we only have five minutes' worth to work with. Which I believe will limit your options, should you choose to use us, to getting the Endeavor much closer to the enemy vessel than would be... well... sane. That is... if you'd like us to have a chance at making a return trip. Otherwise, our only other option would be to hope that they'll have a troop transport conveniently lying around for us to steal. Hold on..."

On the other side of the comm, Duval was clearly being interrupted.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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"Captain Telani might not be willing to risk that, Lieutenant. I'm only telling you what I can, we don't have the resources to evenly distribute among our ships. With five minutes flight time and a full squadron coverage for the duration, you will last longer than going out there fully fueled and completely exposed. I would have thought you'd known that, lieutenant. Relying on fire support is one of the basic tenants of military training."

Jevan could hear commotion coming from the other end of the comlink. He silently wished it would be enough to get this latest problem off his back for a few moments.

 

[Ruedyn]

On the other side of the comm, Duval was clearly being interrupted.

Bejo was with the troops, getting them ready with intel. In the absence of suitable higher ups, it was up to him to lead them, for now. He didn't want to give an incorrect information, so he decided to check in with Duval.
"Sir, my men are ready, we just need to know what we need to do and we can start kicking ass."

 

[TheDoctor455]

On the other side of the comm, Duval was clearly being interrupted.

Bejo was with the troops, getting them ready with intel. In the absence of suitable higher ups, it was up to him to lead them, for now. He didn't want to give an incorrect information, so he decided to check in with Duval.
"Sir, my men are ready, we just need to know what we need to do and we can start kicking ass."

"Good, good," Duval replied, turning to face Bejo, "Tell them to ready the hangar's defenses for now and be prepared to take care of any boarders unless we get the order to board them."

She focused on her comm again, and waited for a response.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

"Maintain radio silence unless you've got something to report, Two." She said curtly into the channel. Joking around was for other times, they could be in combat any second and they all needed to be focused on the task at hand. She kept a careful eye, both out her viewports and at her sensor display. Sometimes you could spot a thing with the mark one eyeball that sensors would miss. It wasn't often, but it did happen.

 

[FalloutJack]

With nothing to do other than wait for either the Ex-Imp scientist to call to arms or for the captain to return with new orders, we have one armored Saurian heading down to the hold to check upon the cargo. Of course, there were modified droids watching over things, but Renn never depended on the walking dead when he was a living fighting machine himself. The cargo seemed to be fine, though, a healthy shipment of freeze-dried goods neatly covering up a supply of spice for a buyer. Hmph... Worthless shipping from the worm. Masan-Ru would become immpatient after that, wanting to tear apart another ship and see what it contained. Action, at last. The Saurian grinned at the thought and shouldered a droid out of his way. Back to work...

<_<

>_>

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Yes, that was the beauty of the whole thing. You couldn't cause unrest within the Empire's hold without areas slipping their their fingers and having to be painstakingly recovered. Honestly, the chaos made the pirate's life more exciting, and definitely equittable. Masan-Ru carefully listened to the lady captain's tale. Seemed straightforward enough, even familiar. The Imperials had set up a net to catch fish and found their limit. This was the story of the one that got away. It harkened him back to early memory. Their ship had hit a hyperdrive denial zone as well, then boarded, read the riot act, arrested, sentenced, and Bob's your uncle on Balmorra from then on. So, it seemed he could relate. Good. That meant they could do business. He put his hand up to his chin in musing thought before answering.

"Well, I can tell you right off that our cargo isn't going to help, not unless you're low on rations as well. Let me consult the Rex, hmm?"

From his pocket, he produced a comlink and contacted the bridge.

"Niko."

-Sup?-

"Go into the captain's room, on the desk, and check the Ledger. Let me know if we have anything useful like fuel or parts."

-Alright, just a sec.-

There was a pause and in place of Niko was some sort of tune... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0AzWLc6Js] Masan-Ru stared at the comlink in confusion. After a moment or two of this, he got back on.

-Well, of course, we've got some extra fuel and stuff. Dunno if it's gonna help much.-

"A drop in the bucket, I know. We can always get more fuel. Anything among those parts a hyperdrive assortment?"

-Mostly, the stuff we swapped out of our own. It'll be a hodge-podge for 'em.-

"Gather it up. You and some droids."

That seemed to handle that. Not a perfect arrangement, as it was indeed small compared to the needs of a Destroyer, but maybe they could go somewhere decent. The Rex had had some upgrades because...well...they saw a cool-looking hyperdrive and gutted it on one of their...acquisitions. The old parts were therefore the standard Corvette drive ensemble and whatever Marcus had been fiddling with. Comms off, Masan-Ru returned his attention to the captain.

"Manpower, I can't help you with unless there's something technical your crew cannot handle, which I doubt. Chances are, we would be better off handling unwanted visitors. Of course, such arrivals could hold bountiful cargo which would experdite your departure..."

 

[EmperorZuma]

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Ted spoke up after processing possible solutions to the ship's several problems. "Probability is likely that Captain will be able to repair the hyperdrive."

Gareth looked back at the droid with a raised eyebrow. "I will?"

Ted nodded as he projected a few scenes of Gareth tinkering with the Lone Wanderer's engines and hyperdrive. "I have no less than four recorded instances where you have been able to repair our vessel's hyperdrive to an operable state with spare parts on hand. However, inspection is required for 100% accurate estimate."

Gareth blushed a bit as he wafted the fading hologram out of the air. "Yes..w-well, I guess if you'll let me look at it, I can do what I can."

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

:3

Wolk'a twitched his nibblers in annoyance. The Endavor had lost a fair amount of it's crew, and was no condition to get anywhere close enough to attempt boarding actions.

"Why is any of the fuel going to the breeching pods?" Wolk'a asked, back turned to the comm as "he" put RAM back into the navigation computer, "How can we possibly hope to overpower any crew of a Star Destroyer in our condition? Even a cruiser has enough firepower to threaten our hull, and I haven't been given casualty figures. We need as much fuel down here as possible, the engines are still working very inefficiently at the moment."

Wolk'a turned back to Comm, "Also, why is the captain having a conference now, and why wasn't anyone in engineering informed?"

 

[TheDoctor455]

:3

Wolk'a twitched his nibblers in annoyance. The Endavor had lost a fair amount of it's crew, and was no condition to get anywhere close enough to attempt boarding actions.

"Why is any of the fuel going to the breeching pods?" Wolk'a asked, back turned to the comm as "he" put RAM back into the navigation computer, "How can we possibly hope to overpower any crew of a Star Destroyer in our condition? Even a cruiser has enough firepower to threaten our hull, and I haven't been given casualty figures. We need as much fuel down here as possible, the engines are still working very inefficiently at the moment."

Wolk'a turned back to Comm, "Also, why is the captain having a conference now, and why wasn't anyone in engineering informed?"

"We're not hoping to overpower them," Vora said, "We're hoping to catch them with their pants down and sabotage whatever we can before bugging out, though if you don't want to give us fuel... I have an alternate strategy in mind... but, I'd rather wait for the captain to be available before I say anything. More efficient that way."

 

[Redryhno]

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"Duval, stop it. We're not going to get close enough to any Imperial ship in our condition. Having the fuel is just going to be a big waste of time when we should be bugging out. Until we get all the holes plugged, we're sitting ducks, a return trip's never going to happen if we can't get out of the hangar because a dozen fighters come down on us."

Set wiped his face again, the gear really added another layer of heat, he was sure of it.

"I didn't come all this way to get killed by Republic hate. You don't fight when you don't have the power, and right now sister, we lost most of our power three days ago. Merc Rule Number 1, 'don't take a contract you can't follow through on'. It applies here too kid. Then again, we might get lucky and have the whole fleet out there looking for us get swallowed by space slugs,"He chuckled, the insulating fat jiggling with the force of his amusement,"But something tells me their pilots are smart enough not to fly directly into them. Just let the techs do their thing and we'll be out of here soon enough. Not like being lazy right now's going to keep them alive when we're still barely under the radar."

 

[TheDoctor455]

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"Duval, stop it. We're not going to get close enough to any Imperial ship in our condition. Having the fuel is just going to be a big waste of time when we should be bugging out. Until we get all the holes plugged, we're sitting ducks, a return trip's never going to happen if we can't get out of the hangar because a dozen fighters come down on us."

Set wiped his face again, the gear really added another layer of heat, he was sure of it.

"I didn't come all this way to get killed by Republic hate. You don't fight when you don't have the power, and right now sister, we lost most of our power three days ago. Merc Rule Number 1, 'don't take a contract you can't follow through on'. It applies here too kid. Then again, we might get lucky and have the whole fleet out there looking for us get swallowed by space slugs,"He chuckled, the insulating fat jiggling with the force of his amusement,"But something tells me their pilots are smart enough not to fly directly into them. Just let the techs do their thing and we'll be out of here soon enough. Not like being lazy right now's going to keep them alive when we're still barely under the radar."

Vora Duval turned her comm off and turned to face Set. There was no hint of rage on her face, nor any of the frustration she had been dealing with from the past few weeks. The same frustrations that everyone else had been dealing with for the past few weeks. She didn't speak for several moments, but when she did, her voice had a deathly calm to it.

"I wasn't aware I needed your approval for this op, Set," she began, "And if you'd allow me to finish, I will now outline my strategy to you. It does not involve using any of our fuel. My plan at this stage is to use our vulnerability to our advantage. By focusing our defenses everywhere except this hangar, we can draw their boarding party here, kill any troops they send over, steal their ship, and fly it back to their ship, and screw up whatever we can in theirs. And - "

Duval stopped herself from almost stupidly blowing her cover.


"And," she recovered quickly, "This isn't about hatred. This is about something much more practical."

 

[Redryhno]

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Setnax smiled and replied, sitting down gingerly so as to not damage his equipment.

"A good enough plan, I suppose. But you're forgetting something, Imperials don't board wreckage. The easiest way to get rid of us is blowing more holes in our sides until we all suffocate, burn, or generally end up non-living. I doubt even Thrawn would've actually tried to board and take this Destroyer back,and he's one of the few Imperials I would've grabbed at a chance to get a contract from. There's barely enough keeping life support online, much less enough for us to use this little plan of yours. I'm all for suicide missions, so long as there's an actual chance we can get something done that'll actually help. They find us here, and we don't have the fuel to get out, we're dead, plain as that."

 

[TheDoctor455]

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"Fair enough, but..." Vora trailed off as she saw the fuel techie dipping into a cleaning supply closet, "Oh what in the hell is that idiot doing now!?!?!"

She ran after him, and forced open the door just as the idiot techie had been removing a hidden panel in the back of the supply closet. She leveled her blaster rifle at him.

"Don't move," she ordered tersely, then, she called out behind her, "Hey Set, come check this out."

Turning back on the techie she said, "Open that panel, NOW."

Glumly, the fuel techie pulled the panel apart, revealing a larger room hidden behind it... with at least several dozen large containers of fuel. She glared at him.

"Hands where I can see them traitor," she growled through clenched teeth.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

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Wolk'a clicked his fingers in confusion as Vora turned off the comm. Go onto their ships, and try to damage as much as possible before turning tales and run? That just had to be the single most suicidal plane "he" ever heard of. Isn't the first thing any captain worth their sticks order is to send troops to any vital system, if not the first reaction to just seeing the pods?

Wolk'a turned back to "his" work, grabbing a tool box and being a spotter for a worker repairing a fuel line under the floor. "Jevan, give a request to the captain to take the fuel from any other starship that isn't a fighter or an escape pod. Any other ships would be deadweight if we are attacked, we need fuel on the Endeavor to go as fast as possible in a retreat."

 

[Soviet Heavy]

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"Whatever you can spare will be put to good use, I assure you," said Reah. "Gareth, your droid says you can fix our hyperdrive? See to it then. Speak to Chief engineer Wok'la, he can give you the details. Furthermore, we could-"

Reah was suddenly cut off by the sound of the Alarm klaxons blaring.

She immediately linked into the alarm comm system. "Jevan, what's going on?"

[hr]

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"Commander, I'm picking up a pair of ship signatures exiting hyperspace." said Devin. "Moving to identify, cover me Glaive 3." Devin's X-Wing peeled away from Mira's ship, followed closely by the second wingman. Streaking away with burning ion trailing behind them.

"Glaive 2, this is Glaive 3, my scope's negative. Are you sure?"

"I'm positive, the nebula plays havoc with our sensors, but I picked up their hyperspace discharge. Something's out there."

"Whatever you say."

The pair of fighters dipped between the swirling packets of cloud, hugging their edges to scramble any sensors that might pick them up. Devin was scanning the entire field on eyesight alone, following Mira's advice. The slightest change could tip off whoever had just jumped in system. His astromech, Tandem, whistled irritably into his comlink.

"No, Tandem, it's not the sensors playing tricks on you. There's something out there." the targeting system started blinking. "See? Told you so. Glaive 2 moving to intercept."

Devin dipped into the cloud, powering down his engines. A large ship was passing through below him. Through the swirling mists, he could make out the unmistakeable shape of a Star Destroyer. Devin's blood froze. The Empire had found them. He reactivated his engines, screaming out of the cloud. "Glaive 1, this is Glaive 2. Two Imperial Star Destroyers on heading mark 0415. They're moving against the Endeavor! Sound the alarm!"