After a long pause the voice of 'One' comes back.  "Negative starfighter, you have your orders."

Rann takes over the comm and begins to negotiate with the Starchaser pilots over an open channel, offering them their freedom in exchange for their fighters.  The debate continues for some time and becomes quite heated in places.  Finally the pirates offer a deal: forty thousand credits each and safe passage to a neutral spaceport in exchange for their surrender and ships.



OOC:  This is going out over an unsecured net so any of the starfighters or freighters can hear this.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:01, Mon 11 Apr 2011.

Devon nearly swallowed his tongue when he heard what the two Starchaser pilots wanted for their ships and safe passage... but he knew it could have been a lot worse.

Over his Talons comm, Devon told Rann.  'Right - keep them talking, dont agree to anything yet.  That eighty thousand bite they want would pretty much clean us out... and I'm counting the pay we get from this mission in that too!  Better hope Phindar decide we've earned a bonus...'
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:13, Wed 13 Apr 2011.

"Perhaps we should include a luxury cruiser with some Twi'lek dancing girls on board."  Jamie growled over the comm.  "We don't have those kinds of credits and even if I did that's rich for a bunch of pirates facing Imperial prison."

He paused a moment.  "Hey Seven, maybe two and I should just blow them away, like you did with that YT-2000 remember?"


*NPC'd by GM*

OOC:  Nearly 2 weeks with no posting.  Need to pick it up guys.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:53, Mon 25 Apr 2011.

"Guess we'll take our chances with the Imps then." the pilot responds to Jamie's threats.

Flash grins to himself, though more in frustration than humour.

"Ahhh, see, no.  You're not getting it," he snaps over the comms.  "This isn't a negotiation, pirate.  It's not a shipyard sale, it's not a peace treaty.  You're surrendering your ships and you're doing what we tell you or the only thing the Imperials will find when they finally get here is space dust.  No credits, no side-order of Arkanian space cookies, just you giving up in fear of your life.  Got that?  We don't need to leave you alive."  He grits his teeth.  "We're trying to be nice."

Flashs stared at the Starchaser in his targetting reticle.  With now shields he could destroy the ship in one volley, maybe two.  His finger nuzzled the trigger.


*NPC'd*
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:52, Thu 28 Apr 2011.

“What my trigger happy friend is trying to say is this:  when we took this job it was to stop pirates preying on freighters – not to be nice to people.  Now we've already stopped you, but my  friend seems to want to pick up the 'we killed them all' bonus.  Something for you to think about.” said Rann, after flash's outburst.

Devon smiles to himself as his volatile Duros squad mate metaphorically twists the pirates arms a little.  Then he got back to the numbers he was working on, plotting hyperjumps, thinking about relative velocities and elapsed times.

Finally he convinced himself his plan could work (although a small and paranoid part of him argued that could work didnt mean would work).  Keying his comms, he waited for Flash, Rann and Jamie to all settle down, then waited a few moments longer for the pirates to digest what his wingmen had all said; THEN spoke up himself.

He kept his voice level and business like
'Listen up, pirates: I just got passed some fresh instructions from Talon Lead:  He rejects your demand for 40,000 credits each.  We tried to be nice and you got greedy.  Now we're back to square one:  your unconditional surrender.  You will immediately turn to heading 279 or be destroyed.  Talons Two and Five, if they disobey, vape them.'

Devon waited, slightly nervously to see if the R-41 pilots would obey...

Flash remains silent through the 'conversation', keeping the more injured of the two well within his sights.  When the final ultimatum is laid down the Duros makes sure his ship's weapons are locked on and powered up.

"You've been given the order, scum.  Now...  Do me a favour," he says, a snarl in his voice as his fingers settle.  "Refuse.  Please."

*NPC'd*
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:20, Thu 28 Apr 2011.

"Well I never would have believed you if you'd offered us the credits anyway, I aint that stupid.  So, my wingman and I can either risk Imperial justice, which I know exactly what will happen or I can go with you, which is an unknown.  Why should I turn down a few years jail, maybe an escape for you?"

Without comment or hesitation, the Duros flicked the safety off his weapons, ensured the target was still central in his crosshairs and opened fire on the starfighter in fornt of him.

*NPC'd*

With shields down and not maneuvering, the already crippled fighter was caught completely off guard.  The R-41 blew apart in a shower of exploding fragments.

"Get it now?" Flash says before the flare of the explosion has even died away. "It's not a choice between us and the Imperials, brainwipe. It's a choice between us and death."

A series of curses came across the comm, several in Huttese and Rodian.  Finally they died away and the pilot said simply.

"Coming to course two-seven-niner as instructed."  The Starchaser smoothly turned and adopted the new course, Jamie and Flash close behind.

Devon winced and cursed to himself as the crippled R-41 was destroyed.  He had hoped to avoid this.  It was him who had given the order that resulted in that pilots death.  Could he have done something different?  Perhaps if he had -

'No time for that now - still got stuff to do.' he muttered to himself and activated his comms, dialing down the transmission strength as much as possible.  Ideally he only wanted 'One' and his crew on the freighter to hear.

'One, Seven here.  I need to send a hypercomm message, but this dinky little Z-95 cant do it.  Your freighters fuly equipped though - how about a helping hand?'
Once the freighter crew had acknowledged and were ready to relay his message, Devon gave them the frequency details.
'Message begins:  Bravo Tango Seven, ident: Delta Kilo to Bravo Tango Lead - immediate rendezvous required.  Co-ordinates are...' Devon spoke carefully as he gave the co-ordinates; if he screwed this up, it would be more than just his ass on the firing line.
'...Message ends.  I doubt we'll get a response, but listen all the same.'

Now all I can do is sit back and wait. he thought to himself.  Say, thirty minutes to an hour for arrival, another hour at worst for rendevous...  then just run for the jump point.

Fretting, Devon tapped a couple of keys on his control console and set a timer running.

Activating his talon comm, Rann talks to Devon: “ okay, so I take it Talon leader is coming to join the party? ” he laughed to himself   “ This is going to get interesting.”

Responding on his Talon comm, Devon said: 'Yeah, I'm hoping he doesnt take too long to get here.  I'd like to get that R-41 picked up and out of here before Imperials arrive...' he paused for a moment.  'Think of it - the navcom on that fighter probably has details of the location of the pirate base in it - if the pilot hasnt wiped it - we could strike at the base itself and knock the whole group out...'

Around ten minutes later, Devon and Rann suddenly noticed their closure rate with the rear freighter had increased.  Checking their consoles they noted that the freighter that the pirates had apparently hijacked had stopped moving and had apparently powered down it's engines..

Rann calls Devon on his comm “Seven something is not right here, we need  to check out that freighter” he said as he continued towards the freighter.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:46, Fri 20 May 2011.

'yeah.  No reason pirates would power down of their own accord - they WANT to run for a jump point.  So either that blast we saw did more damage than I thought and they had no choice... or we still got friendlies on board and that power down was sabotage to stop the pirates escaping.'
Devon mulled things over for a few moments. 'Cant see any option but to take a closer look.'

Switching over to the frequency the escorted freighters were using: 'One, this is Seven - your sensors seeing the same as ours?  freighter 3 is dead in space.  No reason the pirates would do that if they could avoid it.  I'm wondering if the situation over there is... more fluid than you said?'

Whilst he waited for 'One' to answer him, Devon busied himself with the most detailed sensor scan of the third freither he could manage.

<Ten minutes later>

Ten long minutes had passed since the freighter had powered down.  In that time a few systems had come back online but the ship still did not moved.  Rann and Devon had got little information out of 'One' who seemed flustered and unsure what to say.  However, this was no longer necessary as the pair were closing to under one hundred kilometres of the lead freighter, the one 'One' was supposedly aboard.  Their encrypted comms had a range of 50-100km so soon they'd be able to raise any Talon on board.

In the distance travelling the other way, the Cloakshapes and R-41 moved silently towards the edge of the gravity well.  It had been twenty minutes since Devon had called the Nightshrike so it was too early to expect her.


OOC:  Moved you forward to keep you in synce with the freighters.

Rann & Devon ae closing fast on the two freighters fleeing towards you (the ones the Talons supposedly 'liberated'.  You'll catch them in under three minutes.  The other freighter (the one supposedly the pirates took) is still stationary about 400km away.  You'll catch it in about 25 minutes (if it doesn't move).
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:41, Sat 21 May 2011.

<Another five minutes>

There had been no communication on the secure Talon comms as the Headhunters approached the two freighters suggesting the person claiming to be 'One' was a phony.  This was no surprise to the pilots but it had borne some checking.

The Z-95's now swooped past the freighters and had to make a choice.  They could choose to board one of the two freighters, maybe get some answers or they could chase after the still dormant third freighter which was still a good 20 minutes away.

---

OOC:  Well the Z-95's are now passing the two freighters.  Nobody is responding on the encrypted comms so either there are no Talons on these freighters or they're in no condition to answer.  You could board these vessels through the force cylinder airlock but this would take time.

The other freighter hasn't moved and is floating in space ~350km away

Devon spent several more minutes watching his sensors with great interest, then reached a decision.  He switched his comms on:

'R-41 pilot, you will come to a full stop BEFORE you leave the planetary gravity well.  Two, Five - please make sure he does.'

Then he switched across to his encrypted comm.  'Six, how about you go check out that stationary freighter?  See if you can raise any one on encrypted comms.  I'll stay here and fly escort just incase.  Don't report anything over an unencryped channel, OK?'

Swinging into close formation with the two freighters, Devon settled into wait some more.

“Seven, I'm going to check out the third freighter, can you cover me?” Rann asked over the Talon comm as he set course toward the stationary freighter.

As Devon held position with the non-responsive freighters, Rann took off in pursuit of the final freighter.  Nearly 30 minutes later he was pulling close to the freighter.  Activating his encrypted comm, he began calling.

"Six to any Talon, over."




<Thread Closed: Move to Freighter Convoy thread>