Devon raised his eyebrows.
"So in your estimation... he's unlikely to be a threat to us?"

The shipjacker paused and rubbed his hands over his face, stared blankly at the wall for a moment.
"Look, we're flying blind here.  We aint got enough data about anything.  We've only got a couple of half-solid leads and we dont even know enough to follow up on those.  We need to know way more than we do.  For a start we need to at least try an' break into Zyras files."


"First things first though, Mika's gonna fly the Shrike to its new home.  Take Catch along if you want.  Sheila, you helping with that too?   Once you guys have get the Shrike parked, Cor will bring you all back in the L4000.  Take a copy of Zyras files with you - try to crack them 'em. Those files might answer all our questions if we can get into them."

Devon stood up.
"The rest of us?  Our mission is a bit more vague.  We've got from now till the ladies return to get our ears to the ground, pick up any useful data we can and most importantly, we gotta find a way to get some money coming in.  Even if we are just hauling cargo.  Without the funds to keep flying, this whole thing is gonna grind to a halt damn fast.  If anyone has any suggestions on how we might do that, dont hold back."

Mika stands up, "You got it, boss.  I'm good to leave right away.  Kyvarr, Sheila, you got anything keeping us from heading out?  And yea, I'll take Catch just in case."

"Cor, feed me the coordinates once I got on board the 'Shrike.  You gonna handle the locals or you want to give me the details and I do it?"

"Oh, and if push comes to shove, we've made some good money taking out Imperial convoys.  Maybe not the safest way to earn a cred or to stay under the radar, but it's an option."

"Necessary details of the coordinates and the temporary account I have put in place for the payment have already been forwarded to the Nightshrike, Ms Trake," Cor responds.  She taps a couple of buttons.  "They have now been forwarded to Catch, as well.  The relevant staff at the hangar have been contacted and will be expecting your arrival.  You will merely need to make contact, authorise payment and then report to my L4000 which, the Acting Commander will no doubt be disappointed to note, I still have not named."  She spares a smile for Devon, fairly reserved but with a distinct hint of amusement.

"As for Imperial convoys," she adds, "I think perhaps that we have many options before we pursue that avenue, particularly as it would necessitate removing the Nightshrike from its temporary home once more.  Though that is, of course, a possibility - should it come to that."

Kyvarr nodded to Mika.  "If you wish me to join your crew I will.  Can't imagine I will be much use sitting around here.  Intelligence gathering is not something I'm good at."

Fiarr looked to Cor and Devon.  "Perhaps we are going about this backwards.  If Devon's team is going to be searching for information and jobs we should be out there surely, on a planet or at least tapping into communications grids.  Heigren no doubt best serves working face to face, rather than a comm.  I'd have assumed you'd want to maintain this place's covert nature and not have a lot of traffic streaming in and out."

"Cor and Sheila meanwhile can decrypt data from anywhere.  So I'd suggest that Mika and Catch drop off the Nightshrike with Devon and his team in support while Cor and Sheila stay here or somewhere else working on Zyra's computer."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:43, Thu 11 Dec 2014.

"What about the fighters?" came Flash's voice on the comm.  "Did we decide if any of 'em are going into storage with the 'Shrike?"

Mika rolls her eyes at Cor's comment.  "I sure would appreciate it if you could remember that's it's Mika, Cor, not Ms. Trake.  You make me feel positively ancient when you say it like that."

To Kyvarr, "Well, since I don't really have much idea of the details of where we're going or what we'll be finding at the end of it, I'd appreciate having a little armed backup with me."

To Sheila, "You coming or staying?"

She gives a whistle to Catch.  "Come along, we're burning daylight."  See if the droids circuits could untangle that bit of colloquialism.

And lastly to the droid Cor was so nice enough to provide, "Com on 'bot, stop dragging your heels"

"Then I apologise for making you feel uncomfortable, Mika," Cor responds in a light tone.  "Yes, Flash, the starfighter that lacks hyperdrive will be placed in storage along with the Nightshrike.  You can be certain the owners of the hangar took the time to... raise the price accordingly.  Nonetheless I have transferred sufficient to cover it."

"Sure. Let me grab my pack."  SHe stood.  "Cor, can you transfer a copy of the files to my padd, or do I need more storage space?"

She waited long enough to get an affirmative or negative from Cor, then followed Mika out of the room.

"Huh?" Devon looks up at Fiarr and blinks a few times. "Yeah, no idea why I didnt mention that."

OOC:  possibly because the controlling player thought he already had? Apologies :D

"We aint staying here. We're gonna need some place we wont attact unwanted attention, and has everything we need - good communication links, opportunities to make some credits...  Nar Shaddaa fits the bill, but I sorta dont wanna head back there - let that part of our trail go cold for a bit.  Nal Hutta?  Bespin?  I dunno.  Any preferences?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:57, Fri 12 Dec 2014.

Catch whistles uncertainly, and spins its sensor dome to focus on Devon.
When its master nods and gestures for the droid to follow Mika, Catch rolls after the engineer.

Cor, letting Devon handle Fiarr's question, shakes her head to Sheila.  "Far too much for a single datapad, I'm afraid, but I will forward what I can of the priority files to you."

Sheila hesitated, "Maybe then,  I should stay with the files?"  Mika would be okay, she shouldn't need anything forged, and the files were important.

"I will have full copies aboard my L4000 and a terminal you can use," Cor assures.  "It makes little difference either way; a few hours out is small change.  It is very likely that this hunt will take weeks.  If you start with the information I will transfer to your pad, it is likely you will still be working on that by the time the trip to the hangar is done."

"SOunds good."  She headed out, found her pack to take with her with a blaster inside it, just in case and joined mika and Fiarr on the outgoing ship.

With the ships already on standby it took only a few minutes to get ready.  While Mika and Catch did their final pre-flight checks, Sheila maneuvered Z-95 Beta into one of the docking clamps on the Nightshrike.  Then she climbed down to the side and entered the Nightshrike just as Mika was ready to lift off.  Kyvarr had already gone aboard.

On the L4000, B2-CC9 had already completed his pre-flights and was waiting in typical droid fashion for everyone else to be ready.

Soon the Nightshrike lifted off and departed Talon Nest, Cor's ship following close behind.  Flash took the liberty of escorting them to the hyperdrive point then watched as the two ship flickered into nothingness.  Then he turned back

Back at the nest Fiarr, Dohr and Heigren waited for Devon to lay out their plan.

Cor, from her place on the L4000, coordinates her droids to maximum efficiency.  Most of them, of course, will remain on the Drifter.  CC9 pilots the L4000 while Cor herself works on the files she's pulled from the Nest.  Setting aside some to allocate to Sheila she readies herself with caffeine and her comfy chair, settling in to the long and extended process of decryption that always seems so fast and easy on the holovids.  Now and then she checks in with her droids to see how the different vessels are getting along, as well as keeping herself available to anyone who might need to talk to her.

It's going to be a long few days.

"Safe journey, ladies.  Stay in touch, an' unless you hear otherwise, we'll see you back on Nar Shaddaa. OK?" Devon listened for any response from Shrike or Cors L4000 and then closed down the comms circuit and looked round at the remaining Talons.

"Which means we got two tasks to be keepin' us busy.  First up we're headin' back to Nar Shaddaa - that place is just perfect for our needs.  Me an' Flash will be piecing together everythin' we can remember about the PHA, then taking Moonshadow out to chase down any leads that are worth chasing."

Devon looked at Dohr, Fiarr and Heigren.
"You guys?  Your brief is a little vague.  Find us some ways to make money.  Cargo.  Smuggling.  Merc work.  Bounty hunting. Shipjacking.  Whatever you can find.  Get us options, don't commit us to anything."

Fiarr nodded.  "I made some contacts when we were on Nar Shadaa last time, I'll look them up again.  However, if there was to be any shipjacking jobs to be considered I would leave them for you to set up.  That is your expertise after all isn't it?"

Dohr nodded too. "I can ask around as well. However I fear my contacts may not be able to offer us much. There might be a favor or two I could collect though." The doctor had been trying to think of a better world to fly to than Nar Shaddaa, but hadn't really come up with anything. It wasn't his most favorite place, but Devon was right about it fitting their situation perfectly right now.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:55, Mon 15 Dec 2014.

Flash grunted.  "Someone get that Headhunter loaded on the Drifter.  By the time I land Moonshadow needs to be in space to cover us."

**TWO DAYS LATER**

It has been an uneventful flight for the Nightshrike.  Making only one extra jump to throw off their start point, Mika plotted a straight course to the coordinates Cor had provided.  Things had been quiet.  Catch had proven more then capable managing the ship in hyperspace leaving Mika time to tinker around with the engines while Kyvarr worked on the gunnery stations.

Sheila spent most of her time focused on the data packet Cor had sent her.  It seemed to be data the XO's computer had been recording from a hyperspace comm bouy located near the nest.  Clearly Zyra had tapped it to collect the data.

Seeing how much irrelevant data there was, Sheila spent much of her time developing an algorithm to sort useful data.  The program worked smoothly and by the end of the trip Sheila had a synopsis of most of the data.  While some may prove useful for other purposes, none of it gave any clue as to where Mark and Zyra might have been going.

Cor meanwhile had spent most of her time trying to break the encryption on Zyra's computer.  It was good, very good.  Whomever Zyra had got to prepare her security (the Umbaran didn't believe for a second the Zabrak had done it herself) had been top of their game.  To date Cor had determined that Zyra hadn't accessed any of her numerous accounts in a week.  This was unthinkable for an information broker unless they were in trouble.

Everyone gathered on their respective bridges as they approached the destination.  Dropping out of hyperspace they were treated to an impressive site.  Fxz'et's Ship Storage was a large shipyard that contained hundreds of ships, many of which made the Nightshrike look insignificant.  Passing between two Acclamator-class assault ships and even a Venator Class Star Destroyer, the Nightshrike knew that nothing smaller than an Imperial Battle Group could give this place any challenge.  Given it's location well outside Imperial space it was unlikely the Imps would commit the resources necessary for so little gain.

The storage of the ships was smooth and efficient.  Nothing less was expected given the shipyard was run primarily by Verpine.  Mika quickly moved the Nightshrike to its assigned berth, Cor handled the payments electronically while continually receiving offers for various 'upgrades' on the Nightshrike.  One offer that seemed a possibility was a hyperdrive upgrade for the Z-95.


OOC:  The Verpines offer to install a Class 1 Hyperdrive in the Z-95 for 5000 credits.  They'll offer perform other modifications that you request while the Nightshrike is in storage.  If you have any work you want done I can provide a quote.  Verpine aren't big on haggling so what they charge is final.

So once aboard the L-4000 where to?  Join up with Dohr and co on Nar Shadaa?  Or do you guys have other plans?

---

For the three ships making up Devon's fleet, the trip was equally uneventful, arriving at Nar Shaddaa a little over a day after leaving the nest.  Landing on the opposite side of the planet to last time, nothing looked vastly different to the groups.

Devon quickly arranged to pay hangar fees, leaving Dohr, Fiarr and Heigren to plan.  Flash transferred his gear to the Moonshadow, determined to go with Devon to hunt for the PHA.

Keeping the 'Shrike moving slowly, Mika looks at the other ships about.  She gives a whistle as they pass the pair of Acclamators.  "Now those are some big ships.  I'd like to have 'em, but too big for me to handle without a whole mess of crewers."

Mika leads her crew off the ship to meet with the Verpine."Hi.". "Hiello."  "Greetins."  "No thanks, maybe next time."  "Thank you, no.". And so on.  But she perks up at the mention of a hyperdrive for the snub.  "Well, now, hat does sound interesting.". It doesn't take long to convince her to pony up the 5000 creds for the upgrade.

All that done, she looks to Sheila and Kyvarr.  "Doesn't seem to be much trouble around here, ready to catch our ride?"
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 04:40, Wed 17 Dec 2014.

"Sounds good to me." THe last two days had been frustrating, given that she hadn't gotten anything good on where the "administration" had been going.  Although the hyperdrive did seem like a good idea, all the ships they had should be hyperdrive capable.

OOC, any thing in that mess good for finding a job with?"

Catch rolled along behind the three Talons, quietly warbling to itself as it it took in the sight of the massive storage yard.  The droids quiet vocalizations rose to an alarmed squeal when one of the Verpine offered to fit the R2 with various 'minor' upgrades like extra retractable limbs, refrigerated storage compartments, a flame thrower or a full brain transplant.  The fact that the Verpine in question was already holding the tools it would need to saw Catchs head off probably didnt help either.

Hurriedly accelerating, Catch rapidly closed the distance between itself and the others, almost bumping into Kyvarr in its rush to keep away from the Verpine droid engineer that was eyeing it.

Lurking behind the Cathar, the R2 hooted in response to Mikas question.
"[Language unknown: K ha m atntee er.  Ma ntca rea llive ithromtining a.]"