It took less then two hours for the crews to perform their tasks.  Flash's security team found nothing amiss on the four transports.  The mechanics and pilots pre-flighted all the ships while droids moved around moving cargo and stowing it.  Finally, everyone was aboard their ships and the ships were warmed-up and ready to go.  Now they just need to know what to do.



OOC:  So following Devon's instructions, the ship outlay is as follows:

Moonshadow (Firepsray 31) - Devon and Catch
Nebula Drifter (Wayfarer class transport) - Mika, Sheila, Dohr and Heigren
'The Ghtroc' (Ghtroc 720) - Flash, Fiarr and Kyvarr
Unnamed (Make-Eekai L4000) - Cor, CC9 and R2-A9

Up to each character where on their ship they are located.

Kyvarr busied herself with cataloguing, cleaning and storing the weapons in the armoury and left the flying to Flash and Fiarr.

Flash checked his system then flicked on his Talon comm.  "This is Two.  My team is prepped and ready to go.  What's the plan?"

Fiarr sat in the co-pilot seat next to Forim quietly.  Having heard him asking for instructions there was no point in asking what was next.  She couldn't plot a course she didn't know or assist with flying, not that she thought the Duros would need or want her help.  So she sat back and tried to come up with good names for the ship.

Having stowed her gear and securing her swoop in the cargo deck, Mika had plopped herself down in the pilots station and ran the pre-flight.  That done, she brings the engines to standby.  She keys on the intros hip comms, "You guys got everything ready?"

She'd wait to hear back from Sheila, Heigrin and Dohr before reporting in.  Hell, with all of the stuff that Heigrin had bought, it'd probably take him another three days just to get it all loaded and they'd be lucky to lift ship under the weight.

Devon waited till the other three ships had all checked in before sending the next batch of instructions.

Switching over to Talon commlink, Devon looked at the information Catch was sending to his main display.
"OK pilots, listen up.  Catch is going to be sending you jump details, so you're going to need to brief your co-pilots.  The course is set up to make it look like we're jumping to Tattooine, but an interrupt will drop us back into realspace about an hour out from Nar Shaddaa.  Then we'll organize for our jump to the Nest.  If something goes wrong with your jump and you end up in the wrong place, then we'll regroup in the Tattooine system."

As an afterthought, Devon added.  "And yes, that jump is plotted for an x3 jumpdrive.  I know some of you got faster drives than that, but any smart-ass comments about toy ships that cant do the job, and Two gets latrines duty for the next year."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:43, Sun 16 Nov 2014.

"Acknowledged Seven, see in space."  Flash looked over to Fiarr.  "We're heading for Tatooine, at least partway.  Should be getting nav data in a moment."

He switched to regular comms.  "Transport control, this is docking bay thirty-five requesting clearance to launch."

As soon as he gained clearance he would launch.  They could rendezvous in space.

He switched to ship comms.  "Strap in everyone.  We'll be launching as soon as we get the go ahead."

Hearing Flash's announcement, Kyvarr quickly secures any remaining armament and moves to the cockpit where she straps into the system operator's chair so she can watch the launch.  She says nothing so Flash and Fiarr can focus on what they're doing.

Completing his pre-flight sequence, Devon looked around whilst he waited for Flash to finish talking to the control tower.  Around him, the ship - his ship hummed gently with the power of its engines waiting to launch.  Just behind and to one side of his seat, Catch was plugged into the SCOMP link that gave the droid access to most of the ships systems.  The droid watched Devon steadily.

"Well buddy, you ready for your first ever flight?" he asked the R2.
Catch whistled a response and Devon glanced at the text scrolling up a corner of his main display.
***R2-B7:  I am fully functional and ready to assist.***
Devon regarded the message with a puzzled look.  From time spent working with R2-A9 and CC9 he'd expected this droid to have a lot more personality than it did.  Perhaps it was something to do with being factory new - after all, Catch had only been switched on for the first time a day or so earlier.  He made a mental note to ask Cor about it.

For now he followed Flashs example and called Transport Control.
"Control - this is Moonshadow in bay thirty-four.  Request launch clearance."
Once clearance was given, Devon waited for Flash to launch first and then followed his friend up into orbit.

Heigren sat in an unused cockpit seat and watched and waited excitedly for the ship to launch.  He'd lived most of his life on Phindar Prime and it was only since the Talons had rescued him that he'd flown on a spaceship.  It was still exciting and he didn't want to miss a minute of it.

With the help of Vyn, Dohr fairly quickly gathered up all medical gear from aboard the Ghtroc and lifted it in the back of a rental hover truck. There really weren't proper facilities or operating theater tools or equipment on the transport, so their job was an easy one.

When the truck reached the bay where the Nebula Drifter was docked at, Dohr stepped outside and took a good, appreciative look at the freighter. Though he possibly had seen a Wayfarer -class ship before, the Doc couldn't remember such an occation. Therefore, to his surprise, the Drifter was far bigger than he had assumed. At well over 70 or even 80 meters or so in length, it was easily twice the size of the Ghtroc. A huge cargo space made up the bigger half the transport, but the main ship wasn't exactly small either. The four of them would fit in very nicely.

Once the medical stuff was in the sick bay and his own gear in one of the cabins, Dohr joined K, Janine and Vyn in the cockpit which unlike that of some smaller ships, was large enough to fit a small fighter in. There were plenty of seats for everyone, so Dohr decided to stay, sat down at a support station and buckled up. "Ready when you are, Captain"

Mika contacts Traffic Control and gives them a heads up that she'll be kicking in a request to depart presently.  She uses the ships sensors to see Dohr's rental van come up and watches as it's unloaded while she runs through the pre-flight.

When Dohr and Heigrin join them on the Bridge, the thumbs the comms again.  "Traffic Control, this is the Nebula Drifter, requesting to move launch time up to immediately."

In anticipation, she brings up the ships engines to standby and gets a thrill from the resulting thrum of power in the slight vibrations.

Meanwhile, she starts plotting the astrogation calcs to head towards Tatooine for an hour and then break out of hyperspace to reorient towards the base.

**HUTT SPACE - TWO HOURS LATER**

The four transports had quickly gained launch permission, which was little more than a courtesy as ships mostly came and went as they pleased.  After clearing the gravity well the four ships set a course for Tatooine, some using Catch's supplied data, others using their own calculations.  At high speed, the convoy quickly cleared the planer's mass shadow and jumped into hyperspace.

After the alotted time the ships reverted to realspace.  It took some time to regroup as jump computers weren't perfectly tuned and not everyone had used the same data.  Still it was less than two hours before the four ships hung in deep space together.  No other ships were on sensors.

Aboard Moonshadow Devon spent several long minutes checking over the sensors, with Catchs assistance.  There was no reason anyone would have followed them off Nar Shaddaa... and even if they had, their course made it look like they were headed to Tattooine - short of having a homing beacon on one of the ships, Devon couldnt see any way they could have been followed.  And Flash had assured him the ships wern't bugged.  Even still, he checked the sensors.  Just being paranoid.  He told himself.

He glanced round at Catch with raised eyebrows.  The droid must have correctly interpreted the gesture as a message popped up on his main display:

+++R2-B7:  I detect three ships in close proximity to our vessel:
   *  Nebula Drifter - Wayfarer class medium transport.
   *  ??? - Ghtroc class 720.
   *  ??? - Maka-Eekai L4000 Transport.

Other than that, I detect no significant objects within scanning range.+++


Devon nodded "Yeah, thats what I got too."  He activated his Talon commlink.

"OK boys and girls - unless anyone has something scary on sensors, I think its safe to say we're alone.  Planning time.  Eleven, by my count there should be at least one M4 droid aboard each ship - can we network them an' use their holoprojectors to set up a sorta conference mode?  Like how you usually join us, only with everyone involved.    I want everyone involved in this so that we can get done as fast as possible."

OOC:  Gonna assume that IS possible and keep things moving.  Worried Flash might beat me up if I dont.  ;)

Devon sat with his back to Moonshadows controls and looked at the collection of miniature holographic people that Sev was projecting into the air in front of him. He knew everyone one else would be looking at similar views.
"OK, we got a mission to plan here.  First up though I wanna clear something up:  Fiarr, Kyvarr, Doc - as you may have guessed we've been using fake IDs the entire time you've known us.  That was for our security whilst we were visible to the public.  For now though I think we can dispense with that.  I'm Devon Kismet." 
Devon went round the group, introducing everyone all the Talons, but not lying this time.  He waited a few moments for the inevitable chatter to die down.
"Moving on.  To remind everyone of the situation:  our CO and XO are overdue back from a mission and we're facing the possibility that they have been captured.  If they've been captured, then they may be interrogated.  And if that happens, we could be compromised.  So right now we're heading back to our base - we call it the Nest - as fast as we can.  If there's no-one there waiting for us, then we clear the place of some needed supplies, refuel and we run.  Once we're clear of the Nest, then we'll assemble a plan for tracking down our missing friends.


Cor is trying to make contact with a few of her droids that she left back at the Nest, they may be able to tell us what - if anything - is going on in there.  But I figure that when we arrive, we treat the place as potentially hostile.  I want to land a team in there to sweep and clear the place.  Once its clear, we land everyone else and take what we need.  CC9, Kyvarr - you'll be in charge of the sweep.  Tell me what you'll need."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:29, Tue 18 Nov 2014.

Cor, having no nickname for her ship, transmitted the docking codes for her new vessel instead when they left Nar Shaddaa.  She figures Traffic Control probably don't care about ship names, in any case.  Leaving without incident and letting her droids ready the ship for the jump, she had simply gone about the process of making her cabin - in many ways her new world - much more comfortable.  Stock freighter ships are nice and adaptable, of course, but they don't scream 'luxury!' right off the bat.

She'd confirmed the process of the M4s being able to transmit a conference call - "If everyone is comfortable meeting in such a manner, that is," - and set up the needed frequency settings for the space-Facetime.  After all, this kind of functionality was part of what the M4s were intended for.

Now she sits in the ergonomic chair that she's usually in during calls, dressed in the durable but comfortable clothes of a technician.

"I have received word," she notes, "that the droids at the Nest have noticed nothing untoward.  The Nest's sensors have noticed nothing in particular approaching; whether or not the Commander and Ms Jax have been captured, it seems the base has not yet been compromised."  She tilts her head slightly to one side.  "That may change, of course - or it may not."

Mika finds the virtual meeting less to her liking.  It's hard to get a read of someone from a miniature holo-vid, makes Mika feel like everyone's got something to hide.  She wonders briefly if others feel the same about her, since she's in their view as a miniature holo-vid.  But such thoughts never hold a place long in Mika's thoughts.

A paranoid little thought comes to mind and Mika chimes in, "Or maybe the bad guys are holding just out of sensor range waiting to pluck up whatever passer-byes happen to be in the neighborhood."

"Yes, Ms Trake," Cor replies after a very slight pause, "that is why we will be sending someone in to scout the Nest out before approaching it."

Kyvarr considered.  She hadn't spoken to CC9 of course but there was no doubt what they would need first.  "What we'll need is a full description of this 'Nest', surrounding buildings, layout of the structure, access points and such.  Then we can work out a plan what resources we'll need."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:56, Wed 19 Nov 2014.

"The Nest is a long defunct asteroid mining facility that we re-purposed.  So far as I know, everyone except us has forgotten about the place.  A9 can you give us the layout, please?"

Devons holographic image was replaced by an image of a fairly sparse asteroid belt.  The view zoomed in on one of the larger rocks.  A scale measure alongside showed the rock was almost 20 kilometers across at its longest point.

"From the outside it just looks like a rock - no external comms, sensor arrays or anything else to draw attention.  If you're passin' by, it just looks like one rock amongst a load of other rocks, unless you get in close and inspect it - an why would you do that unless you knew what you were looking for?  The only access point is through a concealed hanger entrance here - its big enough to pass small capital ships, so our diddy little freighters will have no problem.  If theres any sorta organized defence, I reckon it will be in the hanger - its the only entrance and the only choke point.  If the place is undisturbed, then the only vessels you should see in that hanger are our cruiser - yes we have a cruiser - and three starfighters.  Two Z-95s and an R-41 Starchaser.  You spot anything else, then someones bought it here without telling us."

In the image the asteroids surface vanished to reveal a floor plan of the rooms inside the rock.  As Devon talked about the bases various features, different portions of the image obligingly highlighted themselves.

"Crew quarters.  Life support.  Administration.  Med bay.  Engineering.  Its a big place.  Only inhabitants right now should be a bunch of droids performing various tasks.  All non-combat models.  There shouldn't be any living inhabitants at all.  If there is, I want them alive."

The image changed again to add in a massive warren of tunnels and caves branching off from the base proper - the image was heavily tagged with tunnels that blurred out into nothingness and annotated with ??? marks.

"This is our big problem - the mine workings.  You could hide a goddamn army in there.  We never bothered with the tunnels - no time to explore them properly, so we just marked off the entrances and stayed out."

Fiarr looked at the setup.  She was impressed with it's covert nature.  She'd seen many a secret base or pirate hideyhole given away by an overabundance of defensive weaponry, comm arrays or other signs of habitation.  This one looked like a rock amongst other rocks.

"Impressive design.  But I'm curious.  If this base has no external comm arrays or sensors how does Sola. . .I mean Cor mean to contact the droids there?"

Devon nodded to Fiarr before he remembered the others were looking at an asteroid, not him.
"The Nest has a short range antenna mount - only about a meter across, concealed and retractable.  Lets see you spot a hidden meter wide antenna mount on a 20 kilometre rock.  It just sits there passively listening - no transmissions or other energy emissions unless someone inside the Nest actually sends a message.

We broadcast to a nearby comm-relay satellite - any incoming message for the Nest is just broadcast as a blanket transmission with no specific target, our antenna picks that up just fine.  Since all our traffic is encrypted, anyone else just hears static in the background of legit messages."

OOC:  I had to ask the Gm what the answer was to Fiarrs question :)

Kyvarr considered the layout.  "Only one way in or out.  Limits our options."  She turned to Devon's image.  "Sir, I recommend that if the asteroid has any life support on it's turned off.  Drop temperatures to as low as your droids can tolerate.  Lower the gravity too.  Any droids without magnetic feet secure themselves.  If there is an enemy he should be uncomfortable."

"The size of this rock is the problem.  I would recommend CC9 and I go in with as many of these messenger droids and any other spy droids you have.  CC9 and I secure the hangar and sweep the ships.  The droids fan out and do a thorough search for us."

She straightened.  "Should you approve this I'd recommend only B2-CC9, R2-A9 and I go.  We take the Ghtroc, perhaps Moonshadow could provide an escort and patrol.  Once we dock, A9 remains on board to collect the droid data and to get the ship out if there is trouble.  I would need a full space suit and weapons rated for the cold of space.  Once we secure the asteroid, the rest of you could dock."

"Don't think for a second you're going in without me."  Flash butted in.  "I'll be damned if I sit on some old junker while you guys have all the fun."

Devon grinned, he couldn't help it - Flash volunteering himself had been utterly predictable.
But if Flashs contribution hadnt been surprising, CC9s lack of input definitely was...
"So far I'm only hearing from Kyvarr on how we sweep the place - CC9, you agree with her?"

The droid waits for a moment before responding to Devon.  "I calculate the likelihood is very high that the plan to sweep through the Nest is an excessive use of resources - what organics would call 'overkill.'  If the droids present at the Nest have not observed intruders - as my mistress has stated is the case - then it is highly unlikely that there are intruders.  Nonetheless it is a possibility, if a slim one.

"I have nothing to add to Talon Recruit Kyvarr Dulvan's plan otherwise; however I calculate that it would seem a more suitable use of resources to comb the local portion of the asteroid field before approaching.  Probability is higher that the Nest is being observed rather than occupied."  CC9's image turns its head slightly as if to stare at something.

"I would recommend that Talon designated 'Flash' be kept out of this mission.  Metrics show his skill as a pilot to be unsurpassed within the Talons; however, psychological profiling and observational data also indicate that his levels of raw hostility and impulsive action are also unsurpassed.  He is suited to ship combat rather than scouting."  Considering that this has been said by a droid built and designed for the express purpose of making organic beings die, that's saying something.