At the end of the twelfth hour of the journey through hyperspace the Rebel felt the familiar lurch as the Handree dropped into sublight speed. Those near a viewport saw that the Handree was now drifting toward a barren world orbiting the system's sun. In the distance is a pink dot that looks like a gas giant. And then, above the ship, you notice an Imperial-class Star Destroyer closing fast.

Tera's eyes open in alarm "So...why are we not surprised there is a Star Destroyer here. If we have the codes we might be able to fake them into leaving us alone."

After their last frantic efforts to repair and regain control, Lyla didn't even get the time to relax before the Handree dropped out of hyperspace. Lyla joined Tera in running to a viewport, peering out at the system and the Imperial Star Destroyer. 'Of course there is. It was probably here waiting for us.' she reflected cynically. 'Maybe if we move all casually to Cloud City they won't think there's anything sus.'

She shouted to the ones who apparently knew how to run the ship. 'Do we have control of this ship yet?'

Nessquik was up on the bridge ready to throw into effect his plan to jam all but a few channels of civilian subspace frequencies.  His program was set to start the moment they jumped back into real space.  He had plenty of hours to write the program into the ship's communications terminal.

But when he looked out the front viewport at an Imperial Star Destroyer looming right ahead, he nearly inked himself.  He hadn't counted on an Imperial Star Destroying being there waiting.  Bespin was supposed to be a neutral star system outside of Imperial control.  There wasn't supposed to be a Star Destroyer visiting here.

Already the Star Destroyer must have noticed that The Hadree came out of Hyperspace blaring a jamming signal.  Who does that?  Pirates and Rebels.  The Imperials will likely be trying their usual hailing channels and finding them jammed.  But Nessquik couldn't take any chances.  There was still one Imperial scout running loose on their ships, or at least there was one by everyone's accounts.  And they hadn't found a transmitter.  He couldn't take any chances that the Imperial scout had hidden a transmitter and it as set to send out their report the moment they hit real space.  And their transmitter is likely sending on a loop just in case it doesn't get through on the first try.

Ness leaned over the communications console and jammed his finger down hard on one button.  He isn't deactivating his program though.  He is pressing on the ship's intercomm button.  The intercomm is hardwired throughout the ship so that jamming will not disrupt internal communications.  "Might I suggest you turn her around and run for it as fast as we can.", he says to Rynn piloting the ship from engineering.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:34, Fri 07 Nov 2014.

'No!' Lyla interjected. 'There's no way we're outrunning or outfighting a frelling Star Destroyer. This ship has the transponder codes we stole already installed. We should register as a legitimate transport. Let's just act like there's nothing wrong, nothing sus, and move calmly to Bespin. Then they should leave us alone.' Lyla moved swiftly to the communications console, hoping it still functioned. She was probably best able to pull off any deception they needed. 'If this ship gets marked as a fake, then there's no way we're breaking the Polmanar blockade.'

Tera nodded "I agree. It's the best plan. Let me talk if the Star Destroyer follows us. I used to be in the Navy and I think I can spin a tall enough tale that the Captain will leave us alone, but we'll need the code cylinder and T3 nearby." Tera chewed her lip, it was mad enough to work, but it would only ever work once.

Ness made a grumbling sound in the back of his throat.  Neither option of running or talking sounded like a sure thing to him.  Fighting though wasn't an option, and that is what would happen if either for the first two failed.  "Well, alright, if you've got Imperial transponder codes, then I guess it's worth a shot.  You'll have to explain the jamming signal we're blaring.  Call it a malfunction that we're working to fix.  I'll see about opening a hailing frequency on an Imperial channel while keeping the other frequencies blocked."

He then looks to the readouts on the communications channel.  There are a number of frequencies that the Empire uses to hail their own ships.  He currently has them all jammed.  He will have to reduce the amount of jamming on one of them so that they can hail the other ship.  And do it right quick before the Star Destroyer opens fire.

He selects an Imperial hailing frequency to unjam.  He then turns the dial, reducing but not eliminating the jamming on that frequency.  That way they can communicate, but it will be staticy.

Lyla stepped back, letting Tera at the console. 'All yours. Good luck.' she wished her, then called out 'T3-M8! Come in here!'

'As for the jamming signal... Tell them we're got a virus. If we take it down, they they'll receive a flood of tail-enlargement spam and Rodian 419 scams. No one on Cloud City will want that.'

"Let me improvise Lyla." Tera said "I'm at my best when I need to come up with things on the spot." she smiled "Have faith in me"

Frowning, Lyla thought for a moment. 'You know what, I think I do. Stay cool, sis.' she ended with a trusting smile. After all they'd come through recently, she did trust Tera. And she trusted so few people.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:11, Tue 11 Nov 2014.

Klyn stayed near engineering in case they needed to boost some systems of the ship.

He also did his best to allow communication with the droids and checked again the redirection of the flying console.

The rest was in the hand of their 'diplomats'...  and they would need a big share of luck too.

Rynn's heart pounded as the star destroyer appeared before them. He was about to power up the thrusters when Lyla wisely advised against it. He kept the ship on the course, counting the seconds until they passed by the Imperial ship.


He glanced back the Terra, who suddenly had ALOT of weight on her shoulders, and was glad it was her and not himself. He was happy to fly... though he wished he have time to put the ship through its paces before a situation like this so he knew what the ship could do if needed to.

"If Lyla has faith I guess I do too." He said, only half believing it.

Trusting in the Rebel spies that had obtained the transponder codes the Rebels began to nonchalantly fly the Handree passed the Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The Imperial-class Star Destroyers had been a mainstay of the Republic Navy but was now an iconic warship of Empire. The warship was gigantic and would have on board a full legion of stormtroopers and TIE fighters.

As the Handree flew closer the communications systems alerted the crew that they were being hailed'Starship Handree this is the Desolator. State your destination and purpose' as the warship awaited a reply it continued to close the gap between them.

Tera went to the comms console. "This is the Handree, bound for Bespin. We're here for speculative trade with Bespin, while our engineer decides if our technical issues require a stop somewhere closer to the interior." Tera said.

Lyla, for one, trusted the Rebel spies who had obtained the transponder codes because, after all, she'd been one of them. She and Klyn were all who remained of the original team, the rest scattered or bailed, which she found sad. This was the first opportunity to test those codes. After all this time, cost, fuss, and fighting, they better bloody work.

So, with the greatest stake in this, Lyla waited anxiously for a reply, to hear how well Tera played the Imperials or if they'd be forced to run for their lives again.

The Desolator continued to close the gap as it drew closer to the Handree. Across the comlink the Imperial officer replied to Tera "Handree continue on your present course" no alarms were raised or TIE fighters unleashed by the Imperial wing commander.

Tera acknowledged receipt of the order. "Well....they're following us for now. I think we might need to see what we can do to get this beast out of here, without spinning up the engines or anything else that might be interpreted as hostile."

"And now we wait for them to verify our story with Imperial High Command.", cautions Ness over the ship's wired intercom.  "Let's just hope the HoloNet connection out here is really bad.  I doubt the ECM on this ship is powerful enough to jam a Star Destroyer's communications.  Our little problem for them is likely nothing more than a nuisance.  It does tell us one thing.  Our guests knew there would be a Star Destroyer here."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Thu 20 Nov 2014.

Lyla didn't relax. 'They're still tail-gating us, and pretty much told us not to go far, so we're not off the hook yet. But maybe that's standard procedure.' she tried to shrug off the suspicion that the Imperials were trying to trick them. They didn't have the wit.

'The Wanderer might have passed through Bespin before coming to Isis.' she suggested to Nessquik.

'Still, we're going to have to stop off at Bespin for a while, to make good on our claims. Maybe we should dock at Cloud City, make repairs, do a little duty-free shopping. Cloud City's supposed to have some nice resorts and casinos.' the twi'lek suggested, trying to look on the bright side. Well, while they were here...

"You want to land?!?" Rynn exclaimed, looking at Lyla. "We should just fly to the far side of the planet... maybe they won't follow that far..."

He sighed, not liking the way things were working out. "Either way, we shouldn't land. That  would the Imps a change to escape... then where would we be? Oh frek... did we disable the escape pods? Wouldn't that be something? To see one of those things floating toward the destroyer?" He said with a chuckle.

"I don't think we have a choice.", replies Nessquik over the ship's wired intercomm from the bridge.  "Our doctor told them we're here to discuss trade with Bespin, and to try to sort out our technical issues.  That Star Destroyer is now expecting to see us land at Cloud City.  It's the only settlement in this system.  Running to the far side of the planet would make us look more like pirates trying to hide.  And hiding would be a bad idea.  We would have to go pretty deep into the planet's atmosphere to escape their sensors.  But the Bespin gas giant is rich in Tibana.  Their Turbolasers can ignite clouds of gas.  It would be like trying to hide in a minefield.  No.  Our only other option is to try to go to Hyperspace now."

Lyla raised her hands. 'Okay, okay, let's just orbit the gas giant. Most speculative trade will be done online, before ever meeting to make a deal. And we'd look like we really were dealing with technical issues — which we would be, in fact.' So, no shopping, no resort relaxation for her. When was the last time she had a bath anyway?

Kly nodded his agreement as the discussion progressed - despite the fact they couldn't see him in engineering.

"If you need us to 'fake' some technical difficulties, just ask.  But we have a hole near the hull, no more light speed and quite a few minor related trouble."

Nessquik looked again at the camera feeds showing the Star Destroyer.  It did seem to be following awfully close.  Hopefully they were just concerned that the Hadree would need to be picked up in their hanger for repairs.  But then he remembered that there is still one Imperial loose on the gunship.  And that person could be doing anything to get his message out.  Ness had thought of communications, but there was a less technologically advanced way of communications that he hadn't thought of before.

So Lyla wants it to look like the ship is having technical issues?  And Ness wants to black out all means of communications.  He doesn't even check the Power Distribution panel to see if what he suspects is being done by looking for power fluxuations.  When he rushes over to the Power Distribution panel, he immediately shuts off power to the exterior running lights.  Let's see that Imperial scout send a message in Morse Code when there's a blackout on the running lights.  And to the following Star Destroyer, that will further make it appear that they are having electrical issues and they are trying to reroute power to get essential systems functioning properly again.

Despite the closeness of the Imperial Star Destroyer once the Handree had it's course set for the gas giant Bespin it appeared to be pulling away from the Desolator. Suddenly however everyone was thrown across the gunship as the Handree shook violently. Apparently the Star Destroyer had turned on its tractor beam. The com unit came back to life "by Imperial law we demand the immediate surrender of the Handree".

'We have enough genuine technical issues.' Lyla had answered Klyn via comlink, then turned to see Nessquik sabotaging everything. Shutting down exterior light, why? 'What the cruk are you doing?!' she exclaimed. 'That's a stealth tactic! Going dark will make the Imperials suspicious and confused. We don't want them suspicious and confused!'

Naturally, moments later, the ship rocked violently and the Imperials demanded their surrender. 'See?! Now turn the running lights back on, quick. Tera, talk 'em out of it.'

"Yeah, that's sadly true" said Klyn.

He heard some words from her next sentence before some of the control screens telling him the outside light went out.

It should not have happened... and he feared some kind of delayed program from the imperials to signal trouble.

His worries quickly got an answer as the ship's movement was suddenly heavily hindered.

"Lyla? What's happening? Why did the light went out? "

'Frelling Nessquik shut the running lights off! The Imperials got us in a tractor beam and are demanding our surrender!' she yelled down the comlink.

Caught in the tractor beam of the Imperial Star Destroyer their fate was grim. The Handree was no small starship however and it was not impossible for a ship their size to break the lock. How far they might run and what repercussion they might face if they tried it were unknown.

The lower levels of the gunship had a launch bay but checking the ship's inventory only atmosphere capable speeders and skiffs were on board. So no escape that way was possible.

OOC The Handree will move 1 starship square per round toward the Desolator unless Klyn attempts an opposed Grapple to pull away. The Handree is a frigate which has a Grapple of +50, Klyn will be aware that the Desolator is cruiser size with more powerful engines and subsequently a larger Grapple bonus.

Tera opened the commlink to the Star Destroyer, tight beam. Her face looked stern as she stared into the video pick up. "Put me in touch with your captain immediately" she said with the imperious tone of someone used to giving orders. "Run a database search on me and my identity. You'll have me documented in the records as Lieutenant Tera Inkari, Imperial Navy. There should be warrants for my arrest for genocide. Please confirm this and inform the Captain of these before opening communications again."

Lyla did a double-take, surprised Tera would say that. 'You sure, T? That'll just make them want to capture us more.' she asked softly once Tera had closed communications. Things had gone from bad to worse to worst and something else entirely.

Nessquik's eyes widened in surprise.  Not because he was surprised to see the Imperials not believing Tera's first story.  She had made the mistake of giving too many details.  It didn't make sense to him that the Empire would look into trading with Cloud City.  That mining outpost is too small for the Empire to bother with.  Ness had left civilian channels open.  The Star Destroyer could have tried to confirm Tera's story of trade investigations with the local administrator.  That lie was so easily seen through.

But this new lie?  A war criminal?  It's outrageous!  But still... 'Now this lie has a flare of the dramatic.  Now she has to drive it home.  Give them a reason to let us go.  If it were me, I'd say you created a plague ship.  Surely they've done a scan for life signs on us.  Only a handful of lifeforms left alive is what you would expect to find on a plague ship.  That'll make sure they won't want to come within ten kilometers of this ship.  Although, they might just blow us out of the sky to be safe.  Or, knowing the Empire, they'll want to capture us so they can study this plague.  Nope.  Can't see much reason why they would let a plague ship go.  And risk spreading the plague to some random planet?  But a planet of their choosing?  That'd be different.  Only they know Rebels wouldn't willingly carry a plague back to a Rebel planet.  They'd fine a way to force us.  Oh, dungst!  I can't see how this new lie is going to make things any better for us.', Ness thought to himself, his mind racing at the possibilities.

On the comlink came Klyn's voice, a bit stressed.
"Lyla? What's the plan?  I could try to get us out the tractor beam, but it would only help us that much: we have nowhere to go... And I don't think we can take that destroyer by ourselves."

'Hold on, she's talking to them.' Lyla relayed to Klyn, then patched Bridge communications through to Engineering so he could hear and stay in touch.

Just as Tera commanded the comlink was cut off. The Desolator's intercept course with the Handree was not halted however and the pull from the tractor beam dragged them closer still.

In the silence the tension built up until the comlink buzzed and the Imperial comms officer relayed his new orders "Lieutenant Inkari by the order of Admiral Grendreef you are relieved of command and thereby ordered to cede command of the Handree to Captain Tonth immediately. Non compliance with this order will have severe repercussions, the Admiral awaits the call from Captain Tonth".

Lyla swore. 'They know Tonth's on board. They know everything.' she hissed, frustrated and fearful at this turn of events. Then she sighed, remembering the old Twi'lek adage: ride the storm, don't try to defeat it. Let the winds blow you. 'And of course they do. Why would we be allowed to affect this story before it's done playing us?' she groaned.

'Tera! Talk to us. What's the plan?' she demanded. 'Unless you've got something up your sleeve right now, I'm telling Klyn to gun it against the tractor beam.'

'Darn it, this is taking too long, and it's getting us nowhere closer to getting free.', thought Ness to himself.

Since he was up on the bridge and in charge of the ship's communications system, he decided it was time for him to crash the party.  First he made sure that the camera system was deactivated.  It would ruin everything if the Imperials saw his face.  Then he broke in on the communications channel Tera was using.  Ness puts a tenure of desperation and fear in his voice.  "Don't do it, Captain!  That's just what she wants!  Inkari has created a plague!  It's not perfect though.  Some of us crew survived!  Inkari is looking for more guinea pigs!  That's the real reason why she's headed for Bespin!", he yells on the com channel like an Imperial survivor desperate to prevent a disaster.

Action: Aid Tera's Deception Check
Nessquik rolled 16 using 1d20+11. Deception.

"My plan was to go big, tell th4em I'm on a mission for Imperial Intelligence that means I cannot be detained and that Captain Tonth is now working for me. My file will have been doctored by them to prove I'm guilty of genocide, so the marks on my file will be there."

Lyla swore. 'You could've said something to us... Is it too late to tell them the Quarren's an idiot?'

Klyn has some trouble to follow the situation:
"What's going on? I thought Tera was talking to them? What's that nonsense about 'military disease'?  That's more imperial-like than anything the rebells would dare to do."

There was no way they could talk themselves out of trouble now... if there was any chance at all.

"The way I see things, I have two idea:
Either we successfully get out of the tractor bean and then hurry toward the city, even to crash land, and try to either find a escape ship, or dig ourselves in to hide.

Or we go the other way around: full speed TOWARD the imperial ship.  With a lot of luck they cut the beam and we survive the close call to go back to option one.  Or we die and destroy the imperial ship."

He stays silent a bit before adding:
"Any option will need our captive to be dealt with: they can tell what they know."

"We're running out of options and these medical supplies have to get through. I suggest we try to break the tractor, if that doesn't work, then the only thing for me to do would be to try to bluff them again. Let me stun you all into unconsciousness and try to bluff my way past the captain." Tera shrugged looking despondant "What other choices do we have?"

"If we are going to get caught we need to wipe the Nav computer and kill the captives like Klyn said. We can't give up the rebel base. If we are going to try and break the tractor beam let me know so I can give it a go and outrunning that ship."

They were in a bad place, and Rynn didn't like their odds at making it out, but better to get killed trying to escape than be a prisoner of the Empire.

'They already knew Tonth was on board.' Lyla stressed. 'We have to know what they know before anything else.' She looked at the communicator, half an idea coming to mind and she was sure the other half would follow. They wanted Pilia Tonth, she could give them Pilia Tonth.

'Let me have another go talking them down, I'll pretend to be Tonth and try to salvage this mess.' she suggested. It was a desperate plan, but this was a desperate situation. 'At least, I'll try to buy enough time for you... to do what you need to do.' Murder the prisoners? Lyla didn't want to know about it.

"Use the coder ring. They might have a voiceprint on file though..." Tera said, hoping it would work.

'Coder ring?' Lyla repeated, not getting what she was referring to.

Tera tossed Lyla the code cylinder she'd retrieved from Captain Tonth. "This...I think we're too far gone to do much with it. I was going to use it as proof of the fact I was an embedded Imperial agent."

When Nessquik took over the comlink and began to stir panic the Imperial operator was thrown off guard "identify yourself. Who is this?" they barked in response.

Catching the code cylinder, Lyla pounced on the communications panel. She double-checked the video feed had been turned off, and slightly detuned the signal so she'd come through a bit fuzzy. Finally, she gaze Nessquik a "zip it!" motion with her finger across her lips.

Show time! She hit the respond button. 'Desolator! This is—' Suddenly she fired her repeating blaster rifle, sending a brace of bolts into the roof, the pew-pew-pew and the hiss and sparks coming through loud and clear. Lyla breathed hard, clutched the mike again, yelled back in a hard voice 'Desolator! This is Captain Pilia Tonth! Report I'm now in command of the Handree. Report now in command of the Handree! Stand down!'


OOC: Deception 14, rerolled to 10. Add a Force Point, 1, for 11. Well, that was disappointing. :(
11:57, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 14 using 1d20+8. deception like a boss.
11:57, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 10 using 1d20+8. and reroll.
12:03, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 1 using 1d6. force point.

It seemed that nothing they did quite turned out as planned. The Force remained elusive as if their Destiny was to be found on this path and that it would not be swayed. The comlink clicked ominously and nothing but static was returned. The Desolator crept closer and even with Klyn firing the Handree's engines the gunship as dragged into the massive hangar area.

The starship shook as it was forcibly docked and internal alarms sounded as stormtroopers broke in and flooded the ship.