Iden smiled as Flash went silent.  "Must be a really good story.  Don't stress, I'm not the Imperial Judiciary.  Tell you what, let's all head back to the common room and have a glass of Corellian whisky and I'll tell you the tale of how we acquired the Starflower.  It wasn't at a used-ship auction that's for sure."

He leads everyone out of engineering and back towards the common room.  As they move through the cargo bay several of the Talons note that the gunbelt has now vanished.

When they reach the common room, Raiwaw is sitting in the room alone, sipping a glass of water.

"Hey captain, I was just about to tell the story of how we got the ship."

Raiwaw sighs and waves a hand at Iden for him to continue.

Iden smiles.  "He gets tired of me reminding him how I saved his life.  So I'll grab the whisky and be right back.  Anyone want anything else?"

He takes any requests and then leaves the room, leaving the Talons (minus Jamie) and Aryan alone with the Ithorian.

Aryan sits silently next to Raiwaw, ordering some water.  He leans back in the seat, looking around at the new group on the ship.

Xil takes a seat, nods at Raiwaw and waits for Iden to return.

When he does he comments "This should be an interesting story, can't wait to hear it." he looks quickly around at the gathered Talons and says "Hopefully our story on getting the Nightshrike will match it."

He sits back waiting for the story to begin.

Iden returned a minute later laden with a tray containing several glasses and mugs, a decanter of water, a bottle of whisky and a pot of caf.  He placed them all on the table and began pouring out drinks.  When done he poured himself a glass of the whisky, which he downed with a single pull then poured another and settled back.

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" he exclaimed with a gasp after downing the first shot.  "Now to the tale."

"It was just over two years ago.  I was an out of work soldier for hire.  I'd been hired for a job, politician's daughter kidnapped by a pirate group.  The politician put together a team of mercs to rescue the girl.  A few hired guns like me, but the real suprise was Raiwaw1 there and Lumin, our engineer.  Both were mechanical experts and Lumin was skilled with a blade but our friend here was a pacifist.  We thought the guy was crazy sending Raiwaw with us but he was the one the politician knew and trusted."

"Anyway we tracked the pirates to their vessel orbitting a nearby planet.  Raiwaw and Lumin manage to sneak us aboard without detection and a few stunned pirate crew later we've found the girl."

"Now the smart thing to do at that stage would have been to get out of there but we must have been high on glitterstim because we decided we were going to take the pirates down so we made a plan to take the bridge.  Raiwaw and the rest of the team went straight for the bridge and I gain access through a ventilation duct.  Plan was for me to drop a stun grenade on them while the main team distracted them."

"Well sure enough the pirate boss and his lieutenants were on the bridge like we planned.  What we didn't plan on was the old droideka battle droid the pirats had as a bodyguard.    It had no shields but its blaster cannons worked just fine.  It took out one of our team before we even knew he was there."

"Well while the droideka had the others pinned down I had the perfect vantage point, being in the roof over it.  Some blasterfire to its rear and it was soon molten scrap.  After that the other pirates went down to more conventional tactics.  Even Raiwaw took one down, stunned of course."

"So the girl was returned to her father who rewarded us handsomely not only for the mission but also for taking out the pirate boss and his cronies.  Turns out they had a big bounty on their heads for slavery and other untasteful jobs.  As a bonus, he also allowed us to keep the ship."

"So Raiwaw, Lumin and I stayed together, the rest of the team went their own way.  We re-registered the vessel 'Starflower' and we've been cruising the spacelanes since.  Rhu'tah joined us after a particularly nasty encounter was an Imperial Army Captain and he's really helped with the mercantile side of our operation.  We each have our own jobs but we split our profits evenly.  It's worked for us so far.  Can't take Imp jobs as they don't think much of a mostly alien crew but then again we're not exactly fans of the Empire anyway so no tears shed."

Iden stopped and took a long pull of his whisky and poured another.

"Well that's our story.  I could embelish my noble rescuing of my captain at the risk of my own life but I'm far too humble for that!"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Tue 25 May 2010.

The Ithorian let out what sounded like a snort and began shaking his head, one hand over his face.

Jace sat quietly in the corner, a glass of the whisky in his hands.  Whilst appreciating the flavour of the whisky, he was carefully sipping it, rather than trying to empty the bottle like Iden seemed to be.

He listened with interest to Iden's tale.  Of greater interest though was the story of how the Nightshrike had come into the Talon's possession.  Like Iden, he'd been amazed to hear the group had a Corellian Cruiser in their arsenal.  The group hadn't seemed to have that level of finances to buy or training to capture a capital ship.  The story proved to be interesting, if it was told.

Xil let out a little chuckle "Sounds like you had some fun with that episode."

He took a deep breath, had a quick drink and gathered his thoughts. This wasn't really his thing but he would have a go at telling their story. "Where to start ..." he muttered to himself "I suppose from when we got the fighters ..." He looked up and realised that he had been talking out loud. "mmm sorry, let me start"

"We were rescuing prisoners or slaves, take your pick. We had cleared the compound and luckily for us there were a nice pair of Z-95's and cloakshapes plus a Barloz freighter for us to use."

"Unfortunately by the time we had managed to bypass the ships systems and prep them, the local security forces, in the form of the Corellian cruiser and a couple of fighter escorts, had turned up to investigate some of the noise we had caused."

"Obviously we didn't hang around and cutting a long story short there was a fight. We lost one of the cloakshapes, destroyed one of theirs and chased the other off. The freighter played chicken with the cruiser and when it disabled the freighter, we managed to trick them and get a boarding party onto the cruiser."

"Our party was able to take over the command deck of the cruiser and eventually secure it. We transfered everyone over from the freighter and got ready to leave. Unfortunately one of the cruiser's crew had sabotaged the hyperdrive."

"You would have thought that the local security forces would have learnt but they sent up a Corvette and more fighters. So once again into the fray we went."

"Another battle, lost one of the Z-95's this time, got rid of some of their fighters and eventually managed to chased off the Corvette and the remaining fighters."

"We fixed the hyperdrive, dropped off our guests and kept the cruiser, plus the fighters."

"Our story in a nutshell"

Xil took another drink and looked around. It was a short re-telling of what happened, and didn't do it justice, but it was what came out of his mouth. One of the others that had been around at the time would have done a better job. With neither Mark or Jamie around he felt that he should be the one to speak.

"So you're saying that not only do you have an intact Corellian Cruiser which you somehow boarded in mid-battle, you also have a Headhunter and a Cloakshape for escort?  Wow.  I'll bet there's a lot more to that story then you're telling.  We had a tough enough time capturing this baby and we got on board undetected.  YOu took a whole cruiser during a firefight.  Hmmm, don't steal my home while I'm not looking will you.  Sounds like you've got quite an arsenal already.  What are you planning to do with it?"

Aryan looks at Exilim and lets out a whistle.  "Yousa be either very skilled or very lucky to pull of thatsa sort of thing..i'm impressed.  The gungan looked at the team with a half smile.

"How did yousa get together as a team?"

Xil looked at both Iden and Aryan "A combination of luck and skill, in some places probably more luck. As for what our plans are, well, we'll have to see what comes up."

He looks around the room before saying "As for how the team got together, well that's a whole set of different stories."

SHeila is sitting in the corner with her glass, learning how the team got their ship.

Jamie strolled into the room warily.  He was dripping a little and had scratches all over.  A few twigs were tangled in his hair and stuck on his clothes.
He looked over at Raiwaw.  "No power abuse, no killing," he said mysteriously.  Then, a little more sheepishly, he added, "You, uh...may want to have your sprinkler system checked out."
He looked at the rest of the team and smiled.  "How was the tour?"

Devon looked up from the whiskey he was nursing with a mock offended expression.
'Hey! It was pure skill when I stole that YT-2000!  Luck had nothing to do with it!'  Devon was secretly glad he had never told anyone the actual details of how he had captured that ship...

He turned to Iden with a hurt expression on his face.  'And then they made me give it back...' he said in a small voice.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:15, Thu 27 May 2010.

"That wouldn't be MY YT-2000 by any chance?  The one that was on loan to me from a Hutt crime lord?  The same Hutt who'd implanted a bomb in my skull?  Yes, I'm devastated you had to give it back."

“Before I hooked up with these guys” said Rann as he sipped his drink “ I worked for Coruscant Spaceways.  First as a gunner on one of their transports, then they moved me to stores.  Which I did for a while, till there was a disagreement over the location of some stock. Then I was a enterprising businessman till I meet these  guys.  But that's a different story. ”

Sheila is watching Jase as Devon, he, and Rann spoke, probably formulating her own answer, but she doesn't actually speak, just swirls the drink and she slowly sips it.

Iden looked at Jamie's clothes with amusement.  "If I'd know you were going to wash the clothes and mow the lawns I would have put out my dirty shirts.  You look like you could use one of these."

He pours a large glass of Corellian whisky and passes it to Jamie.

Realizing Jamie had arrived in the middle of his rant, Devon glances up at his team mate, then takes a longer look.

'Ok, I'll bite.  What happened?'

Jamie looked longingly at the glass of whiskey from his home planet, but turned it down politely.
"Thank you for your generosity, sir, but I should not be drinking right now.  I am on the job.  Another time, perhaps?  I'd love to taste the homebrew again."
He couldn't help but smirk at Devon's question.
"I was attacked by vegetation.  Have no fear, I made it out alive!  It was in the hydroponics bay.  I went in there for a tour with our Captain, and we talked about our business.  On the way out I lagged behind a little."

Xil grinned at Jamie's explanation, he was sure there was more too it than what he was saying but figured that the story would come out in time. "Looks like you should have kept your distance from the plants." He turns to the captain "Your hydroponics bay is a very interesting place it appears."

Addressing Jamie again "I'd suggest using the facilities and all that sort of stuff, looks like you could do with some refreshing."

"That bad, huh?"
Jamie pulled a twig from his hair and examined it as if to verify Xil's comment.
"I'll make my way over there in a few minutes."

"No problems." Xil replies to Jamie. "You can join us for a getting to know you session, unless you have anything that is more important."

He will wait to see if Jamie has anything to say before giving a very brief account of how he joined the Black Talons to the crew of the Starflower.

Aryan, although a little ammused by the appearance of jamie, shows no sign, looking serious as he drinks his water.  Aryan had heard about the hydroponic bay, and this was the first evidence of teh stories he had heard.

looking at the group dynamics, Aryan looks at jamie.  "can isa have a word with you, if yousa have the time?"