"How soon'd y'all say them hunter droids would get there? That bast-... what in the hades is THAT?". A massive shapes looms overhead.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Sat 06 May 2017.

"That, is an SSD Mark Two."  Ayce rolls over to a socket and extends a complicated manipulator that seems to shift shapes until it looks like the regular missile-shaped connector droids use to interface with computers.  He spins it a couple of times, then rotates his dome to the front viewport.  "Hyperspace route charted.  A-wing slaved to this navicomputer.  Let's hope we don't have a burnout."  His voice does not seem optimistic, but that may just be the nature of the recording he is using from the former captain.

The ship rotates away from the hail of green and toward open space.  Suddenly, the stars elongate and begin to spin around the ship until they are a morass of white energy around small black center.  There is no feeling of acceleration, only the visual.

Irin gasps as the ship leaps forward into the tunnel of light.  A moment later she bends over away from her station and vomits all over the floor.

Seeing the blaster bolts hit the surface, he slowly starts to turn back around. "Hmm?"

The shadow over an insanely large ship starts to eclipse them. "Now that doesn't seem fair at all..."

Django tells Tump to "Take the reigns" as he gets up to go assist Irin. "I'm sure your dad's probably fine. Those blasts looked aimed at us, probably centered on the ruins". In his mind, his thoughts wander to Tila.

Tump nods. "Those blasts are far too inaccurate to have really hit anything down there. More of a scare tactic, I'd wager."

Irin angrily punches keys at her station.  Tears fall freely now.  A picture appears in the screen in front of her.  She stares at it for a second then abruptly stands and flees.

On the screen is a picture of the shanty town and the surface of the ruins, captured before the Falcon jumped to hyperspace.

There is nothing left but a perfect circle of smoking rubble.  Nothing remains.

Django stares at the screen, a sick feeling forming in his gut. "I'm gonna personally deliver a slug to that son of the banshee's forehead when we come back. That's a promise".

He walks back over to his seat in the cockpit and plops down in the chair, seething. "So what now, Vyc? How long til we get to where we're goin'?".

Tump sighs heavily as guilt sets in. "We caused that...", he says softly.


After Django returns back to the pilots chair, he looks back at Vyctor. "Where are we going?"

Vyctor pulls his eyes away from the screen and looks out at the tunnel of light beyond the portal.  He finally shrugs, his voice quiet when he speaks.  "Ayce set the coordinates."  The man doesn't seemed dazed so much as thoughtful about the events of the past few minutes.  He frowns in thought, rises, and leaves the cockpit.

Django mutters to himself where only Tump can hear him. "Prolly shoulda waited a bit before I asked that. Mighta came across pretty stone hearted".

Tump looks over to Django out of the corner of his eye. "I can't say that I know you well enough to judge you, but I've seen enough to know you aren't a bad guy. Folks react to situations like this in different ways."

He sighs heavily. "The best we can do right now is make sure we live long enough to make it right."

Leaning back to Ayce, he asks "Where's our heading taking us, and what do you expect we'll find there?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:48, Sun 07 May 2017.

"We are heading to a place not under the control of the Star Demons.  It is a place that has been long forgotten as no organic forms live there any more.  It is the place of my birth.  Mechis Three."

"Well did Vyc inform you why we's goin' there?" Django asks Ayce.

"It may not have been Vyc's call. I think Ayce here is the one that plotted our destination. Thankfully, it's beyond the reach of Vex and his lackeys, but are we gunna be able to do what we need out there?"

"Tump is right.  Vyctor did not choose our destination.  I did.  Mechis Three will be a place to regroup and figure out what we're gonna do next."

Ayce's head swivels between the two men.  "You will have a little time to get used to your new roles as pilots among other things.  For now, the trip through hyperspace is self-regulating for the most part.  We have a week of travel since we are leaving the Core Region, which is a Galactic Region not to be confused with the improper modern name of Corellia, though they derive their names from the same origin."

Ayce pulls up a map of the Galaxy.  "Mechis III is in the Inner Rim along the Corellian Trade Spine denoted by the number 3 in orange.  Since we are fleeing the galactic core, travel takes longer.  You should get some rest and get your heads on straight.  This is not going to be a short adventure by even human standards."

{Map Ayce showed is too large to add to RPOL to get the detail needed.  Here is the link instead.  Might want to keep this one handy as it will be used for a long time in this game.

http://img12.deviantart.net/3b...y_offeye-d4xypv3.png}
This message was last edited by the player at 03:39, Mon 08 May 2017.

"A whole week a' sitting in this metal coffin... well.. aight then.  We're good to just let the ship fly? Don't seem safe".

"Yes, Captain Blint.  Once the calculations have been made and the jump has happened, the ship will follow it's course to the calculated destination.  The only thing that would pull us out early is if we did so manually, for which we have no reason, or if someone had installed an artificial gravity well along our path."

"Well, let's just hope that in 1000 years, no one has decided to put up any of those gravity wells in our way." Seeing there isn't anything to do at the moment, he gets up from his chair and heads back to check on Irin.

"Hollar if you need anything."

Irin is in the main crew hall slumped over an old, not working holotable.  Her head is buried in her arms and she is sobbing.

Django crawls into his rack. He just lays there, staring at the uncomfortably close ceiling of the rack above him, trying to process the day's events. He stays for what feels like hours, but he doesn't have a clue on how much time has actually elapsed. Visions of the townsfolk of Ant Hill Ease race through his head, each one ending in a searing flash of green. Yolte. The Void Chasers. Namben. Stacia... Tila. The only individuals he doesn't feel a pang of anxiety for are Dafe and Nerra. "Even they deserved to go down with a shred of dignity though. Hail of gunfire or somethin'" he thinks to himself.

After being unsuccessful at sleeping, he goes to find the cache of rifles and small arms he and Tump discovered, to begin looking them over and studying them inside and out. If he can find Ayce not busy, he plans to ask the droid to look them over with him, in the hopes the astromech will have some sort of knowledge on them.

Tump walks over to the busted holo-table and sits down next to Irin. He places a hand on her shoulder and says quietly, "I'm so sorry, Irin. If you want to be alone, I understand, but I'm here if you need someone to talk to."

Irin looks up at Tump for a moment, then throws herself into his arms.  A new round of sobbing comes from her face buried in Tump's chest.

She stays that way for a long time, but eventually calms down.  When she finally catches her breath and looks up, her voice is barely a whisper.  "Wh.what about Inarra?"

"Her A-Wing is following right behind in hyperspace."

He looks forward to the cockpit. "We could try to get her on comms if you'd like." Tump stands up. "Tell ya what. I'll get Ayce to hail her ship, and as soon as we get her, I'll patch her through to you."

Irin nods, but decides to follow Tump back to the cockpit.  Once the idea is passed on to Ayce, the droid interfaces with the communication station.  The screen crackles and remains staticky, but Inarra's tear-streaked face appears.

"Inarra, I'm sorry you have to be alone right now."

Inarra wipes her eyes clear.  "No, it's okay.  I lost some good friend's today and even though I'm kind of physically by myself, it's good to know that my new friends are still with me."  Her face hardens.  "My friends with the same goal...to crush that bas-"  Static washes out her last word before clearing up again.  "This thing has a sleep mode on it.  It's not quite hiber--tion, but it will get me to this -chis 3."  She touches the screen.  "I'm so sorry, Irin.  Hance was a good good man.  When we get out of this tunnel and land, I owe you a huge hug."

Irin's tears fall freely, but she does not sob again.  She nods and gives Inarra a sad smile.  "Sleep well."

Inarra nods and looks at Tump.  She simply nods then cuts the feed.

Irin shakes her head and gives a soft chuckle.  "She's so strong."  Once again she folds herself back in Tump's arms and just leans against him for a few.