Daron walked into the hangar that he'd been notified to head to.  The Zabrak who'd given the address had agreed to meet him here.  The details had been vague but it seemed she worked for a man who might be in a position to emply Daron.  Credits had been tight since reaching Hydia IV and a little mercenary work would certainly bring some needed credits.

Additionally she's promised to get him off-world, something that was certainly ideal at the moment.  Since arriving he'd fallen afoul of the son of a local security chief in an argument that was is no way Daron's fault but had put him on the wanted list by the local authorities.

The hangar seemed largely deserted.  A Lambda-class shuttle sat alone in the centre of the bay.  The ship looked and primed and powered up as if someone was about to leave.  Nobody was visible in the cockpit from where he stood.

Daron jumped as he heard a blaster power up behind him.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:42, Sat 29 Dec 2007.

Seeing who the uninvited guest was, Zyr lowered her blaster and engaged the safety.  "Sorry about that.  I've been expecting trouble and I needed to make sure my visitor was friend not foe."

"My name is Zyra, Zyra Jax.  I've got some colleagues who need my help and I'm about to lift off.  You said you were trained in fighter craft.  I'm hoping you can help me with this baby.  She's fitted to be manned by a crew of one but she runs better with more people.  If you help me out I'll introduce you to my boss.  He'll possibly offer you a job.  At the least he'll pay you for your help and arrange to get you wherever you want to go."

"We could be flying into trouble so we'll be going fully armed.  You're welcome to the pilot or navigator's position.  Whichever you're most comfortable with.  But we need to go now.  If you're coming throw your stuff onboard and strap in whilst I retract the roof.  If you're staying I wish you the best of luck."

Jumped at the sound of the blaster warming up. He thought for sure that, after everything he'd been through, he was going to get blasted in the back over some sort of misunderstanding. He turned around slowly and sighed a breath of relief when he saw that it was his contact.

Daron kept his eyes on her while she explained who she was and why she was here and what they were doing. He nodded as he listened, glancing back towards the lamda shuttle they would be using.

He hefted his bag up onto his shoulder, holding everything he owned, which wasn't much right now. "Of course I'll go with you," he replied. It was why he was here, and it beat getting arrested on Hydia IV and thrown into jail. "I'll take the pilot's spot. I don't have much experience with transports, but I'm confident enough with it."

He took his things and brought them towards the Lamda-class and took it onboard.

He tossed his bag somewhere where it wouldn't be jostling around in a fire-fight and went straight for the pilots seat. He strapped himself in, making sure it was nice and snug before accessing the computers and starting up the lambda-class shuttle.

He ran quickly through pre-flight, not skipping any steps, but rushing them just a tad if her friends were in as much need as it seemed like they were.

"Where's our destination?" he asks her as he powers up the engines and checks the shields on the shuttle craft.

Jax nods.  "Pilot seat for you it is.  Probably for the best as I need to do a few things as we fly.  As for handling this mynock, you'll likely find she handles more like a starfighter than a transport so I doubt you'll have a problem.  Speaking of which be sure to familiarise yourself with the forward weapon systems.  If things get bad you might need to use them.  We also have an aft turret that I can strap into if needed."

"You power her up whilst I obtain departure clearance."

Zyra gets on the comm and quickly convinces the station control to grant them access.  Her ability to lay on a con story is impressive.  Her tale has Daron wanting to believe it and he knew it was a fabrication!

Daron effortlessly lifted off and began maneuvering the shuttle into space.  So far Zyra had not given any indication of where they were going.  She seemed to be poring over the sensors and the comm channels.

Soon she punched co-ordinates into the nav console.  "There's something going on over there.  Some sort of engagement.  Sounds like pirate activity of some sort.  I've plotted a course that will let us skirt the edge of the safe zone.  That way we can look without drawing attention.  I have heard nothing from my team as of yet.  They are probably out of range or already fled.  However if I know them, they'll cause trouble before they left!"

As they approached the area the situation became clear.  A Corellian Corvette, Reprisal escorted by four Cloakshape fighters was chasing a Corellian Cruiser, Sarratoga, escorted by a pair of Headhunters.  Both were transmitting Hydian IV Defence Force transponder signals but it was clear the Cruiser was being pursued.

Suddenly, to Zyra and Daron's surprise, the Sarratoga performed a 180-degree turn, nailed one of the Cloakshapes with an ion cannon and then proceeded to go head-to-head with the Corvette.

"Don't worry." Jax told her pilot.  "We wont register as a threat.  We're running a transponder overlay of a transport vessel.  They'll also never expect our sensors can see anything over there, we've had them upgraded somewhat over the base model.  Maintain our current distance from them.  Lets just look like nosy onlookers."

"Roger that," he said to her as he continued to pilot the shuttle around the safe zone of the battle that was unfolding in the space above Hydia IV.

The shields remained down on the craft so that it would not draw unwanted attention. He wouldn't want for either side to consider them hostile and start firing on them, regardless of the fact that they were flying a hydian transponder.

The simple fact that both ships involved in the battle that was taking place before them were wearing the same IFF had him wary and ready to flip on the shields and be ready to give the ship full throttle to take it out of harms way.

Zyra watched on sensors as the space battle continued to unfold.

"Well this is certainly entertaining, watching two defense force ships fight it out.  The problem is without knowing what's going on we can't act.  I don't know if my team is on either vessel or even involved.  If the boss is in one of the starfighters, hopefully he'll pull one of his 'signature moves' that I'll recognise.  He tends to be a bit showy when he's flying.  Other than that I'm open to suggestions."

'Come on you old mynock.  Give me a sign'.  she muttered to herself.

"We're registering as a civilian transport, right? So if I take us in a bit closer, the vessel that is legit HDF should communicate a warning to us to stay our distance so that we don't get caught in the cross-fire. With our shields down, they won't risk a shot across our bow, just because they might accidently frak up and hit us. They won't risk it."

Daron kept his eyes on the consoles and the view-screen in front of him, making sure to keep his distance for the moment. He piloted the lambda-class shuttle at a steady distance from the two battling defense force ships.

"An interesting idea.  But what will it acheive?  If we were warned off all that tells us is one of the ships is controlled by the Hydians.  It wont tell us if my colleagues are on board either ship.  Was there somethimg more you had in mind?"

As the two discuss plans they get to watch on sensors as the two capital ships go head-to-head, missing each other by a narrow amount.  The cruiser then pulled a sharp turn to starboard, pulling behind the corvette.  It looked like the corvette had lost half its shields whilst the cruiser was undamaged.

"Crazy son of a mynock" Zyra gasped.  "That cruiser pilot is either a genius or a fool.  He looks like he's flying that capital ship like its a starfighter.  No rolls to limit shielding loss.  He's obviously a good pilot but not a good capital ship pilot."

"Having said that the man I work for is very experienced in flying capital ships.  That's not his style.  However he has some new but gifted pilots working for him who wouldn't have flown a capital ship before.  The cruiser might be my team.  We need to know for sure though before putting ourselves at too much risk."

"Oh my goodness... that's insane. Who tries to pull a maneuver like that in a capital ship?!" He couldn't believe what he was seeing unfolding as the Sarratoga pulled around the Reprisal.

"So we don't even know if either of these ships are your guys? How did they contact you to let you know that they were in trouble? Do they have an encrypted comlink frequency that you could send a message to them? It would mean that we would have to get closer. We would just have to get close enough to send a short message. Then they would tell us to pull away to keep us out of trouble just in case we get caught in cross fire.

"We pull in close enough to broadcast. It would make sense for us to have our shields up since, even if we are civilians, we dont want to get hit by a stray shot. We send our message, encrypted and sent to their specific comlink frequency. Hopefully the enemy won't notice the message, if we keep it short, since they are in the middle of a fire fight.

"We wait as long as we are allowed for a response, then we pull away and drop shields again and take up again what we are doing right now."

Zyra looks out the cockpit at the ships doubtfully.  "I do carry a commlink that only other members of my team are equipped with.  Its encryption is sufficient that it would not be cracked anytime soon.  If we were to use it then an alert communication officer on either ship would probably notice us.  We would have to hope that they are 'too busy' as you put it to chase after us.  It's range will be limited, especially in space, say fifty kilometres, maybe less with the light show going on over there."

She sighs.  "Still it beats sitting here watching and wondering.  Start bringing us on a gently converging path.  Don't make it look like we're heading straight for them, more that we're so busy watching the fight that we've drifted towards them.  We'll try to avoid arousing suspicion for as long as possible."

"Yes, ma'am," he replied to Captain Jax when she gave him permission to move in closer. He had every confidence in his proposal to find out which ship was which, if either of them were. Short of just asking over open communication lines, it seemed to him like one of their only options at this point.

Daron's "orbit" of the space battle began to decay slowly, the lambda-class shuttle dipping steadily closer to the two fighting capital ships. "Give me some extra power to the engines and the shields, just in case. Take it from weapons." Daron kept his eye on the two capital ships, waiting to raise the shields until they were closer to the ships' weapons range.

Daron adjusted course slightly and the closure rate began to wind down significantly.  The extra power Zyra switched to engines gave them a kick that the pilot originally didn't expect.  Clearly this shuttle had plenty of power under the hood.

As the range closed Zyra pulled out a commlink, one that looked military issue to Daron.  Probably bought at a surplus store or on the black market, he mused.  At 5km intervals she began speaking into it.

"Nine to any Crusader, respond.  Nine to any Crusader respond."

At seventy-five kilometres she got nothing but static.

So far neither ship was responding the shuttle's intrusion.  The corvette and cruiser were busy slugging out with the corvette taking the worse of it.  Two of the four cloakshapes had been destroyed and the corvette had nearly lost all its shields.  On a military channel Zyra had somehow tuned in (clearly the comms were upgraded on this shuttle too) a repeating message was being heard.

"This is Hydian IV defence corvette Reprisal requesting immediate aid from any nearby milistary ships.  We are under heavy attack from heavy capital ship and require aid.  I repeat, this is Hydian IV defence corvette. . ."

Daron listened to the call go out over the communications console on the shuttle.

"So, unless your men are requesting assistance and acting as HDF, I would say that rules out the corvette being your men. That doesn't mean that the cruiser is them, though."

He dialed back on the engines a little. He hadn't intended to jump forward like that. Daron had just wanted the power there just in case it had been needed, if they were being fired upon or chased by one of those cloakshape fighters. He made sure to keep them as inconspicuous as possible. He piloted the shuttle a few kilometers closer to the cruiser so that Captain Jax's message could get through if those were the Crusaders.

Zyra receives know reply as the shuttle continues to edge closer.  Meanwhile the battle was taking an interesting twist.  The corvette had slipped in behind the cruiser, where she had no guns.  However the corvette had already lost all shield power and was taking several hits from the cruiser's heavy ion cannon.

Meanwhile the fighters were still doing their dealy dance.  Two of the four Cloakshapes had been knocked out of commission and now the headhunters had taken their first casualty, leaving two Cloakshapes pursuing a lone Z-95.

Without warning, Zyra finally received an answer on her comm.

'Nine this is Eleven; Good to hear a friendly voice - could use a little help over here.  Corvette Reprisal and Cloakshapes are hostile.'

Daron looked over towards Captain Zyra. "Can you authenticate that? Is there any chance that's a set-up? I don't want to go flying in towards two capital ships if it's a trap." Despite his reservations, Daron continued to decay his orbit of the battle, moving closer steadily towards the Reprisal.

Before Jax could answer another message came through her comm.

"Nine. Four here. Welcome back and good timing. We are cruiser Sarratoga, currently under fire from the corvette Reprisal and two cloakshapes."

Zyra looked over at Daron with a shrug.  "It certainly sounds like them.  I admit I don't know them well enough to tell if they're being faked or coerced.  There is only one person in the team whom I know well enough.  If I can get hold of him we have a couple of verbal checks we use to let people know if we're under duress."

She pulls out the comm.  "Four, this is nine again.  Can you put one on the comm please?"

She looks over at Daron.  "No point being subtle now.  Start bringing us closer to the fight.  Project the course of the Headhunter that has been destroyed.  We're not really built to taken on a corvette.  We might be better off tangling with the Cloakshapes or even better, serving as search-and-rescue if the pilot of that Headhunter is still alive.

She switches to the internal comm.  <b>"Oh Zenna, would you please join us up in the cockpit?"

Several seconds went by as Zenna made her way to the cockpit of the shuttle. The door hissed-snapped open and a young woman entered the cockpit, in her hand was a Blastech DL-22. She holstered the weapon when she saw it wasn't needed.

"What's the situation?" Zenna sat in an open seat and began to check the screen as she waited for a reply.

"Yes Sir," he replied and plotted a course towards the explosion of the headhunter. He had thought it would be a simple enough course to pull up behind the Reprisal and target its engines in the corvette's blind-spot. It would be important to pick up the pilot if they were extravehicular. He angled the shields on the lambda-class shuttle towards the Reprisal and made his way towards the headhunter debris.

Zyra watched Daron's apparent lack of reaction to Zenna's mysterious appearance.  'Must be good at keeping his emotions in check.  There was no way he could have known she was here' she mused.

"Zenna, meet Daron Fellinx.  He's interested in meeting the boss.  He sounds like his skills are similar to yours.  Perhaps you can arrange some testing for him at a more appropriate time."

She gestures Zenna to the commander's chair.  "Pull up the sensors and you'll see the situation quickly enough.  We're running under the belief that the Cruiser and Headhunters are being operated by members of the team.  The corvette at Cloakshapes seem to be members of the Hydian IV defence force.  We're going to offer what aid we can.  I've tagged a destroyed Headhunter, pilot status unknown.  I think a little search and rescue is better then gettinginto a dogfight."

"So I need you to power up the aft turret in case we need to operate it.  We also made need to suit up to recover the pilot or at least his transponder.  Either of you trained in Zero-G?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:34, Fri 18 Jan 2008.

"Nice to meet you," Daron said without looking back to the newcomer. He kept his eyes on the situation in front of him, not wanting something to get the drop on them. He shook his head no when the Captain asked them if they were zero-g trained. Daron much prefered the cockpit of a fighter than floating dead in space.

Zenna slid into the Command chair and began to pull up data on her screens. "That's a negative on the Zero-G."

"Aft turret is powering up." Zenna checked some of the readings on the screen. "I'm going to have to rebalance the power matrix. Seems that all the power for weapons has been redirected to the engines and the shields."

"That would be me. We were outside our weapons range and I wanted the extra power just in case it was needed," Daron explained. They would certainly need the weapons since they were going in closer to the action. The shuttle continued to angle towards the headhunter, hopefully reaching it under good circumstances.

"Rediverting power back to weapons."  Zyra spoke as she worked.  "I've got a heading on that downed Headhunter, plotting a course now.  We should have convergence in under a minute."

"Since neither of you has zero-G experience, it looks like I'm elected for retreival.  Now that turret does have an automatic function but it works much better if operated manually from the turret itself.  I leave it to you Zenna to work out where you're most needed should trouble start.  You're in charge while I'm EV."

"Guess I'd better get suited up."  Zyra moved into the cargo hold to put on her space suit.

As Zyra left, Daron fixed his course to converge with the Headhunter.  As he did so he noted that the other Headhunter might soon be joining his friend.  A pair of missiles was fired by each attacking Cloakshape.  No matter how good the pilot was, dodging four missiles and two enemy fighters would challenge anyone to breaking point.

"The other headhunter is in trouble. Targetting missles and requesting permission to assist," Daron asks, flipping a series of switches on the console  before him, measuring the range to the missles, hoping it was inside range of the lambda's twin-linked blaster cannons. He didn't figure they were, keeping his shields angled towards the corvette.

Zenna wasn't sure who was in the Headhunter. Two fighters against a single headhunter were not good odds. She knew that the captain was thinking the shuttle was going to be on a recovery mission, but she figured it would be better to have one recovery mission than two. Besides, there would still be two enemy fighters bearing down on them.

"Daron, you've got a green light. I know what the captain was thinking, but we can't ignore the threat right now."

Zenna focused a tight transmission bean to the headhunter. She hadn't been briefed on the communication codes, so she decided to go with an older one. "Headhunter, headhunter. This is Grey 6 in the shuttle. Break right and we'll try to give you some cover. Grey 6, out."

"Copy that, sir. Aquiring a shooting solution." Daron altered their course slightly to bring them in line with the active Z-95 Headhunter and the missles that followed after it. With the capital ships occupied with one another, Daron angled the shields towards the cloakshapes.

The shuttle began closing with the battle. Though they were still a good 25 kilometres out, the range was closing quickly.  Zenna's comm was quickly answered.

Shuttle - I cant accept that ID without some form of proof; and we're a little busy here, so talk fast.

As he spoke the Headhunter went through some wild maneuvers, trying to shake off its pursuing missiles.  One of the gunners on the cruiser, nailed a Cloakshape with a turbolaser volley.  The Headhunter then dived at the Corvette and skimmed it so closely, Zenna and Daron swore it had to crash.  Somehow though, the pilot avoided the corvette, and skimmed its surface from stern to bow.

The missiles were not so skilled.  Locking on to the heat of the corvette's big engines, they smashed into the them with incredible force.  Combined with several hits from the cruiser, the corvette had lost half its hull integrity and several key systems.

Seeming to realise it was overmatched, the corvette ceased firing and began to try and limp away.  As it did a message cqame in over the comm.

"This is Hydia IV defence corvette Reprisal.  We have taken serious damage and have numerous casualties.  We are withdrawing from your secotr and ceasing hostilities.  I repeast ceasing hostilities and withdrawing, over."

"Daron, returned to pilot retrieval mission."

Zenna turned her attention back to the communications console. "I repeat. This is Grey 6, Grey 6."

"We are not a threat. This is a civilian transport."

Zenna tapped Daron's shoulder as she turned off the transmitter. "Do you have a fix on that downed pilot? I want to get there fast, and keep those shields up."

He nodded, remaining calm inside the pilots seat in the lambda-shuttle. "Yes sir," he said when Officer Kern asked him to resume the hunt for the destroyed Headhunter, turning the craft back in the direction of where the sensors were keeping track of it. He adjusted the shields, spreading them back out to cover the entire craft.

Daron swiftly turns the shuttle and flies towards the stricken Cloakshape.  Closure takes less than a minute and soon he has the shuttle pulled in front of the wreckage.  Matching speed, he drinfted close in front.

At the commander's station, Zenna watched the monitors as Zyra donned her space suit, depressurised the airlock and then opened the exterior doors and floated out.

It took less then three minutes for Zyra to reach the ship, extract the pilot and return to the ship.  Soon Zyra was safely in the hold and the airlock was repressurising.

On scanners, Zenna also notices the cruiser Sarratoga was bearing down on them and was less than 5 kilometres away.

"Zyra to the bridge.  Pilot recovered.  He's alive, but in a critical condition.  He needs urgent medical attention."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:19, Sat 26 Jan 2008.

An ooc note:

I'm happy for you to post any comms to the Sarratoga directly into the main thread (ie. Act 4: The escape) to save time.  Any shuttle-based comms can be kept in this thread to avoid confusion.

Daron lets Flight Officer Kern take the call from Captain Jax as she's in control of the bridge of the lambda shuttle. He starts to turn the ship away from the wreckage of the headhunter, taking it back towards the cruiser.

"Acknowledged Zyra."

Zenna nodded appreciatively as Daron turned the shuttle towards the cruiser. She hoped that they had medical facilities. But they needed clearance first.

She didn't know any of the pass-phrases or if the squadron had changed communications protocol. Zenna changed the frequency of the transmission to one she used a long time ago.

"Cruiser, this is Grey 6 requesting landing clearance. This is a medical emergency. I repeat. This is Grey 6 requesting medical emergency landing clearance."

Zenna stared out the view screen at the cruiser as it was getting larger and larger as they neared it.

OOC Note:  You are less than 5km from the cruiser.  You can close the range in one round.  Unfortunately until they slow, drop the port shields and activate the docking clamps there is little you can do but stare at the cruiser.

Daron pulled the shuttle up beside the cruiser, matching its speed with the larger capital ship. He awaited permission from the cruiser for them to dock so that they could move the wounded headhunter pilot onto their ship.

As Daron maneuvers the shuttle into position, a message comes over the comm.

"Grey 6, this is cruiser Sarratoga, identify your location and crew."

At the same time he notices that the cruiser has positioned itself to allow him to access the port docking hatch, matching speeds and trajectories.  He has not however received any permissions to dock, nor has anyone activated the docking clamps on the cruiser.

On sensors, Zenna notes that the sole surviving Headhunter had dropped in behind the shuttle.  He had no target lock on the craft but it was clear the fighter was getting ready to shoot if needed.  As the craft moved into position, a different voice came over the comm.

"Grey 6, this is an unsecured frequency so don't use real names - but we do need to be sure of who you are...  If you are who I think you are, I was once your wingman.  Last time we flew together what was my call sign, and who got shot down first?"

Zenna watched as the Headhunter moved behind the shuttle. "Daron, take things easy. We've got one on our six so don't flinch." She didn't know who was piloting the Headhunter, but she did wonder if the pilot knew that the aft turret was powered up. She made no move to turn the turret one direction or the other. There was no need to have a jumpy Headhunter pilot with a fast-trigger.

"This is Grey 6. I'm aboard the shuttle. There no reason to go over the details of the crew beyond the fact that we picked up your pilot who needs emergency medical training."

"Make sure that pilot in my six doesn't get an itchy finger!"

A smile came to Zenna's face as the second voice over the comm asked a series of questions. "As I recall, I was Grey 5's wingman until he got shot up pretty good. Then you allowed me to take the lead. Why is it was you're not in a starfighter? Did you get shuttled over to a desk job?"

"Who got shot down first? Don't know if you're trying to trick me. Green 1 got blasted first, but Grey 4 if you're only referring to the squadron."

Daron kept the shuttle steady alongside the cruiser, not worrying about the headhunter behind him. If it came to it, he could defend them against the headhunter but it wouldn't matter with them being right along side the corellian cruiser. They would be toast against that capital ship.

So Daron concentrated on flying the craft until they were given permission to dock and transfer their living cargo.

Less than two minutes later, docking clearance was granted.  The docking port lit up and the landing clamps were engaged.  Daron effortlessly maneuvered the shuttle over and wait until it docked with a thump.

As soon as he had good seal, Daron began powering down his systems.


OOC:  Now that you're docked watch the main thread (ie. Act 4: The escape) for posting.  Use this thread only for private conversations.  As soon as I post to the other thread (ie.  They board you) then you can start posting over there.  I intend to get that post out today (time permitting)