Flash would have rolled his eyes if such a movement was allowed by his Duros physiology.  "Two problems there Doombot.  Firstly, I have no ship to fly.  You wanna drop me in the nest and have me grab a fighter that's fine.  Second, according to our last range shoot, I'm not just the best pilot, I'm the best blaster shot too."

Fiarr listened to B2-CC9's words and nodded in agreement.  Though given Flash's quick response it was possible people would think she was nodding in agreement with the excitable Duros.

"I agree with B2-CC9 that the likelihood of an intrusion of your base is unlikely.  Given your layout there is only two possible entry points - the sealed hangar bay or the comm array when it's up.  Other then that you're drilling through rock which is going to be noticed by a droid."

"Add the fact isn't Cor in contact with her droids?  If they're as alert as CC9 and A9 they would notice if someone breached the hangar.  Unless you think the droids have been reprogrammed somehow.  I imagine you can't open your hangar doors without some sensor system or computer program knowing."

"Now I could probably design a mission which could infiltrate and take over the base, but given the resources I'd need I don't think someone would waste their time.  No offense but do you really think your small group would be worth such effort?"

"I find it more likely that if your base is being watched it will be something simpler.  A probe droid or spy satellite or something would be more sensible.  Though if you suspect Imperials I imagine they'd just blow the doors off, invade with a brigade of stormtroopers then set of explosives to blow the asteroid apart.  They don't do covert much and when they do it's for MUCH bigger fish."

"For the record, I don't think there's anyone in there waiting for us either.  But only a total idiot would land everyone without sending a scouting party in first.  An' when the boss asks you guys how I did, I dont want you saying I was a total idiot."  Devon grinned.  "I'll settle for being just an average idiot, thanks."

He sat back for a moment, thinking.
"OK, here's how I see this going - if you guys see a problem with this, then say so:  We jump in a nice inconspicuous distance from the Nest, eyes wide open as we approach.  If we don't see anything scary, Flash lands the boarding team in the Ghtroc and helps sweep the hanger.  If the hanger is secure, then Flash immediately launches in the R-41.  That way we got the R-41 and Moonshadow providing cover.  The sweep team move into the habitable areas of the base an' as soon as they say we're secure, Mika takes the Drifter in.  Then we can start a full evac of all the equipment we want."

Flash nodded.  "Works for me boss."

"My designation is B2-CC9, shortened colloquially to 'CC9'.  It is not 'Doombot'."  CC9's voice is entirely monotone and he shouldn't be able to express distaste at the moniker but somehow he manages it.  "I am aware of your metrics.  All of them.  I was not suggesting you fly a ship at all, only that you do not have the emotional clarity needed for a scouting mission.  However, to forestall the objection that is almost inevitably coming," he adds levelly, "the Acting Commander has given an order and I will not argue it."

Cor says nothing, rubbing her forehead with slender fingers before noticing something in front of her.  She types away at a keyboard that the hologram does not show.

Flash chuckled.  "I know your designation CC9, I just thought 'Doombot' made a good callsign, like 'Hammer' or 'Flash'."

Fake ID’s… It had been pretty obvious. The Talons (OOC: Assuming the group's name was out in the open too) had been very careful not to reveal too much about themselves earlier using numbered ID’s most of the time. When Dohr had met them (or most of them at least) for the first time, Mika had only been introduced as K. Hell, he hadn't even known what the group was called before today. He could well understand their need for hiding their true identities in their dealings with outsiders. And up till now, that was exactly what the Doc, Kyvarr and Fiarr had been…

Dohr had been slightly surprised at first to see Rian… Devon make the decision of accepting the three of them into the band of mercenaries. Earlier it had seemed obvious to him that although Devon and Cor were in charge of testing the candidates, they were expecting their Commander to make the final decision. But clearly things had changed now that they’d heard nothing about their number one man and his second in command. And Dohr liked it. Not only because the pretense was over and he had been accepted in. But it spoke tons about the team and their way of working. If the acting CO had enough guts to take over of the whole operation, he was the right man for the job.

The leader of the group had been gone for a week too long. In Dohr’s mind Devon and Cor were right to feel they had to assume the worst or second worst thing had happened to them, depending on the point of view: Either the two were dead or the Imperials had tortured them for information. If not, happy times. But as there was no way of knowing now, they had to play it right. The Nest as Devon called their BoO, could have been compromised and precautions had to be taken with that in mind.

Dohr kept silent listening to the discussion across the holo connection between the four ships. He considered Kyvarr’s plan a good one, but like the “Doombot” said, it was probably a bit too much. Cor’s droids would’ve picked up an intrusion in case of one, but they could’ve been reprogrammed or wiped clean. The Kel Dorian also agreed on her thoughts on the spying part. It was the more obvious approach unless the one in charge of the opposite side was a complete fool. If indeed something had happened to the Talon leaders and the Imperials were behind it, they’d want to get the whole group not just the top people.

Once the exchange between Flash and CC9 was over, Dohr spoke up: ”Plan sounds good to me too. But I would suggest, and I am sure you have thought about it already, that we calculate a route to some location we can regroup at in case there is an Imperial fleet waiting for us and we need to evacuate immediately. And preferably via at least two different routes or even four so they cannot follow us all.”

Fiarr listened as the various people, finally Dohr offered their ideals.  She was heartened that it was the three 'new guys' offering a lot of ideas.  She wasn't sure if it was deliberate or not.  Perhaps they were being given a chance to show their worth, even in such a situation.

"I agree with Dohr.  I'd also suggest Moonshadow does an initial area recon while the rest of the transports wait at a jump point.  Devon's ship is the fastest, is the only one armed and best suited to escape an armed response.  Once he secures the area, then the Ghtroc could go in while the other transports wait.  Then when the boarding group secure things the rest of us could come in while Devon and Flash protect us in their ships."

"And I'll stay nice and safe near the jump area on the Nebula Drifter.  You hero types can go and have all the "fun".  He accentuated the last word, suggesting he thought the proposed activity was anything but fun.

"Speaking of ships Commander, since B2-CC9 needs to come aboard the Ghtroc does that mean I should transfer to Cor's vessel and take over pilot duties?  An alternative is I stay here and launch a second fighter with Flash.  I'm happy either way."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Sun 23 Nov 2014.

"I can grab the other z-95.  THat will cover the three fighters."   Either that or she could sit on this ship like a lump.

Devon shakes his head.
"No.  Every fighter we launch is another fighter we gotta recover before we leave.  I've seen how fast Flash can dock when he wants to.  We launch the R-41 and that's it.  Once the sweep team says we're clear I want everyone working on clearing the Nest as fast as possible."

Devon started indicating areas on the projected deck plan.
"Our armoury is here, all small arms.  Kyvarr - you'll be hitting that.  Take everything and add it to the armoury on the Ghtroc.
Medical - such as it is - here.  Doc, Sheila. That's yours.  Clear it and get everything to Docs medbay on the Drifter.
Mika, Fiarr - get Z-95 Alpha loaded into the Drifter.  Beta isnt hyperspace capable, so I'm seriously thinkin' about leaving it behind - there isnt room for three fighters inside Drifter, so we only take ships with us that can run if they have to...  Unless anyones got a spare hyperdrive they aint told me about?

Heigren, I'm trustin' you to get everyones personal stuff.  Our quarters are these rooms along this corridor here.  I think some of us - me included, also have gear stashed on the Shrike.  Just grab it all, shove it into boxes an' get it onboard the Drifter - we can sort out what belongs to who later.

CC9 - I want you an' the B1s ready to respond to threats.  If we run into something we dont like whilst we're busy loading, I figure everyone falls back to the hanger and meet them there."

Devon sat back, thinking.
"Cor will make sure all our other droids help you guys efficiently and are with us as we leave.  Which means there's only a couple more things I can think of that we'll need to worry about before we leave...  first up - Z-95 Beta and the Shrike.  The one aint got a hyperdrive an' I figure the other is too damn expensive for us to run for long.  Our choices then are either leave them here an' hope the place doesnt get found, or relocate them some place else and hide them."

The acting commander paused to think for a moment more.  Frak he told himself.  What idiot put me in charge?  oh wait, it was me.
"Any Talon computer systems we leave behind are going to need to need their memories backing up and the original wiping.  We'll have copies of everything but wont leave any data behind.  Same for navcoms on any ships."

"My R2 units can handle data management," Cor notes, "but I recommend we dock the Z-95 Beta to the Nightshrike and take both with Mika as pilot.  We can find a safe location for the capital ship and even if not we can find some location to hide it.  It is tremendously expensive to run, yes, but is a stable platform if we are not moving it, using only enough energy to maintain life support functions.  Parking it in the black space between systems far from any hyperspace lanes may be enough to keep anyone from stumbling across it.  Space is, after all, an awfully large place.

"Regarding my L4000, I will not require a pilot but thank you for the offer, Fiarr.  If you have no other duties as we leave then feel free to come aboard if you like, but I am confident in my droids' abilities to fly.

"Also, if more space is needed, my L4000's holds are quite... expansive."

Mika gives a nod.  "Yeah, Cor's right about the 'Shrike.  Hell, we can always sell it later on if we need the funding and can't manage the upkeep, but it's too valuable to just leave her be.  Plenty of storage space there to load up whatever we want and then some.

That leaves the 'Drifter without a pilot though.  Since Cor's got the L4000 covered, maybe Fiarr could cover the 'Drifter?"  Mika wonders for a minute about how to move her swoop from the 'Drifter to the 'Shrike, but she could always worry about that later too.

An unremarkable asteroid among a field of asteroids in a sector with nothing more to offer then proximity to the Hydian Way.  In all it was a hunk of rock in the middle of other lumps of rock that nobody had any reason to be interested in.  Seventy five years ago a mining corporation had extracted all the deuterium from it then abandoned it.  Now even those records had been erased by Zyra.  In all, Talon Nest was a great base of operations for the Black Talons, but now it was potentially compromised.

Into this area of blackness came four ships, reverting from hyperspace several hundred kilometers away from the asteroid field.  While three ships hung there, a solitary Firespray-31 known as Moonshadow flew in.  The asteroid field, while large, was not overly dense and the small patrol craft effortlessly flew through the sector.  Finding nothing of interest the Ghtroc was called in.

The boarding team consisting of Kyvarr, B2-CC9, Flash, a pair of B1 droids, a DRK-1 spy droid and nearly a dozen M4 droids flew in quickly.  As they neared, Flash triggered the code to open the hangar doors to the nest and flew in.

On landing the team unloaded quickly.  As nobody had okayed Kyvarr's plan to vent atmosphere, the hangar had minimal life support, but enough to prevent the need for vac suits.  Kyvarr wore her trooper armour while Flash settled for a flight suit.  They quickly found the hangar was free of hostiles.  The only beings present were a few maintenance droids doing routine maintenance on the ships then continuing work on a spare pod for the Nightshrike they were dismantling to convert into a hangar pod.

Finding the hangar clear, CC9 ordered the spy droids to commence reconnaissance while they held the hangar.  Flash ordered the hangar droids to get the R-41 Starchaser ready while he jumped into the cockpit.  Kyvarr signaled all clear to the other ships.

By the time the other two transports landed, the R-41 had powered up and taken to space to patrol.  With Flash taking over surveillance, Devon landed his ship in the hangar next to the other transports.  By this time, the droids had cleared the living and maintenance areas of the Nest and found no abnormalities.  The droids moved deeper into the mine shafts.  There was still many kilometres of unused tunnel to check which would take several hours.

---

OOC:  Well the 'lived-in' areas of Talon Nest are secure.  This means you can load the ships while the droids finish their sweep. Everybody has now landed in the hangar bay (except Flash who is on combat space patrol in the R-41).

Now you have loads of cargo space on each ship so you can load your personal effects/weapons on any ships.  Dohr/Sheila need to decide where they want to put the medical supplies, ditto Kyvarr with weapons.

The main issue is the fighters.  You have three - 2 x Z-95's and 1 x R-41.  You have the following options:

The Wayfarer can house two ships and even launch them in space like a mini-carrier.

The Nightshrike has docking clamps for two Z-95's

One Z-95 and one R-41 are hyperspace capable.

Additionally the Nightshrike needs a minimum of 2 crew to operate.

So need to decide what goes where and who flies what!  A complete list of gear is in the two threads dedicated to equipment - ('Current Inventory' and 'Equipped Gear')

This message was last edited by the GM at 11:06, Tue 25 Nov 2014.

The Nest... In all it's unremarkableness the place was most remarkable. When the Drifter dropped out of hyperspace and Dohr first lay his eyes on the cluster of asteroids, his initial thought was: This cannot be it. He did of course know better as Devon had already showed them the holovid of the area, but still he couldn't stop the feeling of doubt from surfacing. Not much of an actor, the astonisment probably was clearly written on Dohr's face even if he quickly forced it away.

As Mika guided the Wayfarer into the hangar and landed it softly, Dohr noted the size of the place. As a former mining colony it certainly had needed a large docking space, but even with the cruiser already in there the new ships all fit in nicely. (OOC: Assuming the Nightshrike is in there) Despite the fact that there were no enemies present and everything seemed to be as it should, the doctor knew they could not afford to stay for any longer than what was necessary. And he was slightly disappointed by the fact. He'd met a number of small underground movements and some bigger rebellious groups too, but already the Talons and the Nest had made a bigger impression on him than any of them.

Not wasting time, Dohr asked one of Cor's droids to join him and followed Sheila to the medbay. He was half expecting to see a fully equipped operating theatre with a bacta tank or two and wasn't disappointed by much. The tanks were missing, but otherwise the medical facilities were impressive. There wasn't anything resembling a sic bay on the Drifter, but there were plenty of large cabins available for turning into one.

Mika deftly nudges the 'Drifter into the docking bay at Talon's Nest.  As soon as it's secure, she clicks the internal comms.  "We've arrived.  I hope you had a pleasurable trip and thank you for flying Nebula Drifter freight."  She chuckles to herself.

She then keys in on the Talon comm channel.  "Boss, want me to stay with the 'Drifter or should I shift to the 'Shrike?"

Fiarr watched all the gear being moved to the hangar and quickly approached Devon.

"Just a thought, but do you and Cor plan to assign 'mission profiles' to your ships?  What I mean by that is that each ship should really have a purpose.  Your cruiser is a weapon of war, no doubt about it.  I'm assuming the Wayfarer will be converted into a 'pocket carrier' for you fighters.  That leaves the Ghtroc and L4000.

Now the problem with the other ships, including the Moonshadow is that in some ports they're going to gather far more attention then we'll want.  I suggest we set up one of the two remaining ships to be as inconspicuous as possible so we can move around covertly when needed.  I think a decision like that needs to be made before Kyvarr loads heavy weaponry and high explosives aboard a ship meant to be a civilian transport."

Kyvarr took some labour droids and quickly moved the Talon's armoury into the hangar.  She moved over to Devon while examining a grenade launcher she'd found.

"You have some nice gear sir.  Where do you want it all loaded?"

Apologies for the delay, spent most of the past couple of days being very ill... recovering now.

Almost as soon as Moonshadow had landed, the main ramp was lowering and Devon was hurrying down it, four cargo-handling droids and his R2 following.
"You three, report to Talon Eleven for your assignments," he was telling the cargo droids.  "You - head down to stores on level B and find a box of commlinks.  They look like this."  Unclipping his ear-piece commlink, Devon held it out for the droid to see.  "Bring the commlinks straight back to me.  Catch, see that lady there?  Go help her."
Chattering and whistling to each other, the R2 and DUM series droids hurried off to complete their tasks.

Nodding to Hammer and Fiarr, Devon clipped the commlink back into place and listened for a moment.
"huh?  Ten, leave all your stuff on the Drifter but prep the Shrike for launch.  We're gonna take her out of here and hide her some place else.  Need you to fly her out.  I'm sendin' Catch to help you.  We'll dock Beta to Shrikes external clamps, an' load Alpha into the Drifter along with the R-41."

"Eleven, three of my DUM droids will be reporting to you for orders - make 'em useful and..."
Devon paused and his lips moved silently as he counted the various droids moving through the hanger.
"Eleven... where did that DRK droid come fro- did you borrow Idayas droid, you sneaky little Umbaran?"

Shaking his head and grinning, Devon finally turned to Fiarr and Kyvarr.
"Hey, welcome to the Nest.  I got DUM-4 headed down to stores to grab encrypted commlinks for you guys.  Meanwhile, let get this armoury set up.  Fiarrs right - an since the Ghtrocs' got about five different transponders we can switch between, it'll be our primary 'legal' ship - maybe falling back on the L4000 when we have to.  So lets have some arms on the Ghtroc, but only stuff that wont blow her cover - civilian issue stuff.  Load the rest into the Drifter."

Devons R2 unit rolled over to Mika and chirped a greeting.
[Language unknown: M foiciteent ie Whioerich.  El ome men presanons-larnte u sommenset nt.  Saiv pl anet thithance?]
This message was last edited by the player at 19:54, Thu 27 Nov 2014.

Kyvarr nodded to Devon and simply responded.  "Yes sir."  She then directed the droids to load the majority of the gear on to the Drifter.  For the Ghtroc she prepared a small selection of blaster pistols, blaster rifles, stun batons and a single case of stun grenades.

"Not 'borrowed' as much as 'appropriated,' but yes," Cor responds, quite unruffled.  "When she left Idaya neglected to take her droid so I decided we might find a use for it."  She taps out instructions for droids from her private quarters on the L4000.  "As I have no need or desire for such a droid myself, for several reasons, I have programmed it to respond to the Talon command structure above all else.

"Regarding future hauling tasks, the Ghtroc's flexibility make it an ideal choice.  My L4000 is also an entirely legal ship; I would need to install new transponder codes before taking on freight jobs that step outside the realm of legality but it is still certainly quite possible."

Mika notes the approach of the droid smiling as it chirps.  "Let's head over to the 'Shrike and get her pre-flighted.  Have you been programmed with cap ship operations?"

She leads the way to the 'Shrike and ushers the droid with her up to the bridge.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:47, Fri 28 Nov 2014.