The Void of Space [Maverick Saga pt.2]

Food! Finally, not only to quiet the ever increasing rumble in Bel's stomach (surrounded by all this food, without any food, is an easy way to annoy somebody from the Sector), but it also provided a distraction from the tension at the table. The thick, almost physical, tension. Pers was clearly completely oblivious, and as he stuffed his face with something that looked unhealthily delicious, Bel gave him 'that look'. The taught lips, pulled off to the side (the side away from the Engineers of course), the slight crease to her eyes, the 'oh man this is awkward/horrible/run for your life there's a rancor in the room' look.

She looked down at her own food, Pers had clearly gotten the Tusk Cat's share of the greasy offering. She had a bit, but then again she had a bit of the standardised (bland) Coruscanti-style grub that the Republic worked on.

Too clean.

Too green.

She grabbed a fork, and chucked her greasy offering of deep-fried Potato Sticks over the green things. Share the flavour. She looked up to Pers as he started talking, eating her own food as he did. She paused chewing to snap out a quick reply, "Sure, good luck getting the buckets to actually do something."

She glanced to the side at Miles as he spoke up towards the pair of pilots. She nodded, fork still connecting hand to mouth, at the Engineer's offer. "Yeah that'll be appreciated. I think Rusty's running a bit behind, think it's getting time for him to go to that place all Droids go. You know, where oil flows freely in rivers and the sun always shines." She cracked a smile, and went back to eating.

((Consider this on hold until I get out of Fallout 4 Hype for a bit))

(Sorry about the short and sweet post, not really much to add right now)

Bel gave a shrug to Erin's comment, and Pers' apparant approval. "Can't say I trust the guy myself but I don't think anybody gets on this ship who isn't right and tidy." she mumbled: "Well apart from this one..." with a slight inclination of her fork towards Pers.

She kept eating while Miles had his say, and only stopped when he'd gotten up and left. It was a nice offer, and the guy seemed genuine about it. She'd definitely have to get Rusty down there for a tune-up sometime soon. She paused to raise an eyebrow at Pers when he opened up with pride at having made some new friends, she grew a grin as she spoke her next comment. "Yeah of course you like 'em, what with you dating that Miles guy. First bumping into him in the hall, now this - your smile. You're smitten, I can tell." She gave him a little wink, and shot one of those all-knowing smiles over at Erin.

She kept her grin as she continued shoveling food into her mouth, by now it was all pretty much gone. So she started slurping on her.. whatever this drink was supposed to be. It just tasted like water that was a bit off. And had been filtered through some bantha fur. What was it with in-flight food? Never as good as the ground stuff.

Perseval snorted at their taunting, "Sorry folks to disappoint you, but I'm afraid that ship ain't launching. I'm only into the opposite gender, a sad state of affairs for any enterprising men out there I'm sure."He'd flash that Corellian grin of mischief, and would grab his food with two hands as he prepared to- finally- take a bite from the main course.

Suddenly, just as Perseval was about to take a bite from his food, the ships broadcasting system came to life: "ALL PERSONNEL, THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING. WE'LL BE LEAVING HYPERSPACE IN EXACTLY FIVE MINUTES. GET TO YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE AMBUSH!"

The system cut out, and the mess hall came to life as pilots and crew alike left food untouched or half-finished, rushing to get to their stations. There was plenty of grumbling, but most people got ready to get to work.

Perseval was no exception, and as he started to rise he'd attempt to grab Bel's arm and yank her up with him. "Come on Bel, we've got to get ready. See you around Erin!" He'd then dart out, not even caring if Bel yanked herself free. His boots clanged down the metallic hallways with dozens of others, the echoing sound rather chaotic in the enclosed space of the ship. The pilots of Maverick were all rushing to get to their X-Wings, while the crew were returning to their weapon stations or other stations.

Perseval strapped on his helmet, and began settling into his X-Wing as his droid was lowered into it. The canopy of his X-Wing lowered, and his hands drummed on the dashboard of his star-fighter. "Looks like we finally might get some action Archie!" He let out a whoop, off-comms, just for him and Archie. Archie sent back an enthusiastic series of beeps, as well as a word of caution. "Don't worry, we'll be fine Archie. We're dealing with pirates." He was grinning from ear to ear, the only response his body could think of to deal with the sudden mixed feelings that were spreading throughout him. This would be their first action, a chance for them to prove their reputation and training hadn't been for nothing. There was anxiety mixed in with eagerness, mixed in with the cold grip of fear which the young pilot viciously shoved down.

Ea'rl was settling into his own X-Wing as well, and he opened up his comms to his squadron. "Alright Maverick, this may be it. Stay with your wingmates, watch eachothers backs, and protect the Alderaanian Wraith no matter what."

----------------------

However, when the Alderaanian Wraith slipped out of Hyperspace, there was nothing. Not a ship was stirring, all throughout the starry night. The space station was there, but no ships buzzed around it.

On the bridge, Orion's brows had furrowed. "Ensign, begin scanning for energy readings and possible life forms. I don't like the look of this." He then opened up the system comms again, and spoke directly to Ea'rl. "Commander, something about this isn't right. I recommend launching X-Wings in a screening formation around the Alderaanian Wraith, in case these pilots are more clever than we expected."

"Roger Captain, we'll launch-" He switched comms, and what went unsaid between the two men was that if the Wraith was hit, then at least the pilots would be off of it, minimizing potential casualties. "Alright Mavericks, who's ready?!" There was chorus of whoops and shouts and affirmatives from the various X-Wings, and Perseval struggled to make his the most noticeable. "Then let's fly, on me Mavericks!"

The Mavericks commanders X-Wing lifted off from the hangar, and then launched out from the hangar. He was followed by his wingman, and it went down the line until Perseval and Bel were up. "Alright Bel, you ready?" The Corellian asked over their private comms they had hooked up, attempting to keep the anxiety from his voice. His X-Wing would thrust up from the hanger ground, and then shoot out to join the rest of the squadron in the backdrop of space.

On hearing the announcement for the crew to get ready, Erin's first instinct was to get up and head for the hangar, mostly just on those ancient reflexes and her own conscience speaking. However, it was a brief reaction, which she didn't even get as far as leaving getting away from the bench when Pers simply said an excited farewell, which snapped her out of that initial reaction and got her to stop and simply told both of them with a thin smile, "Watch yourselves kids, see you on the other side." However, she didn't stop to watch them leave, because she had her own set of orders. Of course, as she waved for Cam to follow her, that didn't meant that her thoughts weren't with the pilots as the ship approached its destination. If they were lucky, this would be a minor skirmish and there would be no losses on their side; did she ever wish she had that kind of gentle working in. But, that said, she fully expected there to be some empty bunks tonight. As nice as she was being to the other pilots, she was doing it for their sake and for the sake of her work; she knew damn well that if she actually grew attached to anyone that was a one-way trip to heartache. That said... she had a bad feeling Bel and Pers would be a bit of a pain in that regard.

Still, every fiber in her body would rather be behind the seat of her X-wing than on the ship recording the events for intelligence. It was humiliating. Actually, she'd rather be in the cockpit of her old Avenger, but one miracle at a time. Regardless of her mission though, the first thing she did once the kids were out of sight was ask Cam quickly, "Gimme my headset." The droid quickly complied and provided a thin little one-eared headphone with an antenna on the phone side. Simply put: it was a receiving radio that she set up to Maverick's comm. channel--she intended it to just keep tabs on their chatter and record for RI... though she also liked knowing if they needed emergency support. Because, frankly, if things got too ugly, she was going out there, not sitting here and waiting to lose the whole squadron.

Before long she came to the bridge and, after bidding Owen a simple greeting of, "Captain." found herself a place near the sensor officers to watch the events. Part of that was business, again Cam was getting to work on his recording duties as unobtrusively as possible... though he was still about as subtle as a gundark. That said, Erin also was trying to keep her distance from Orion. She knew they didn't get along, and him being Alderaanian wasn't exactly doing anything for her comfort levels. As far as she knew, he wasn't aware of her allegiance, but even if he did so long as he kept professional she saw no reason to cause a ruckus or provoke him--they were here to do jobs and she intended to do her own. It was just irritating that her job was so far away from the fighting.

The squadron comms were nothing unusual so far, though Erin herself was curious about the lack of ambush herself (she didn't hear Bel, it was just her train of thought). Personally, she just figured the area was a bit hot and the man was being cautious, that or he had a good sixth sense. Or... feel for the Force. Now that she thought about it, Erin was getting a bad "gut feeling" too. There was nothing that she could rightly call a legitimate source of that concern, but after her laughably failed Force training she had come to learn to trust her gut, damn near the only practical thing that had come of it. However, she was checking the sensors and, currently, nothing was there. Probably just a good hiding place; the odds of them dealing with Phantoms were slim to none. That said, if those things popped up, she was getting in the cockpit IMMEDIATELY--because you didn't want green-as-grass rookies going up against those.

"ALL PERSONNEL, THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING. WE'LL BE LEAVING HYPERSPACE IN EXACTLY FIVE MINUTES. GET TO YOUR BATTLE STATIONS! PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE AMBUSH!"

“Finally, I get to kill something,” the cyborg grumbled as he pushed his way off a cargo box he’d found himself on. He took a quick look around the cargo bay as he left. It was quiet in the cargo room for the most part, which made it a perfect hide-away for a guy who hated constant chatter.

Whilst he had sat there he had been thinking of all the ways he could screw with the guy. Back on Dunvar’s ship, if he had this much of a problem with someone, he’d have just smashed through the nearest terminal. Now he had to play nice…. At least for the time being. He couldn’t exactly do anything that would get him thrown back in jail – even if a republic jail was largely cushy in his opinion. This time it would have to be a whole lot more subtle.

Any revenge would have to wait however, as the alert came and he had to get up to the hangar.

Quickly he ascended up the ladder that opened out into the hangar at the back. As he opened up the hatch and started climbing out, he heard Bel and Perseval storm past. Eldramech paid them no mind as he locked eyes on his x-wing and Reid, which was being lowered down into its hatch. In a shot, he was climbing up the steps as the various crewmen worked around the hangar. “Reid, get the engines on.” He commanded as he was handed his helmet. Quickly the helmet was put on and Eldramech slid into his seat. Soon enough he flipped on the switches and made the final flight checks as the engines powered on. Suddenly there was a loud bang behind Eldramech and something landed with a heavy thud on the hangar floor. “The ‘ell was that?!” Eldramech shouted, instantly being responded to by the R3-series droid sat behind him. “… What do you mean the bolts have broken?” He sighed loudly. “Can we get the engine online? You don’t know? Try again!”

The engines whirred into life but shuddered shortly after and the cyborg quickly shut the engine off. “Urgh… We’re not going anywhere.” Eldramech grumbled, pulling off his helmet and pushing out of the fighter. “Let’s have a look at this.” He told dropping his helmet on the fighter’s hull. “Reid, go contact the kriffing engineer and his team. I want them up here.”

Getting on his knees, he watched as the others whooped and shouted in response to the captain’s words.

Underneath the x-wing were an engine panel and the remains of at least two bolts. As he moved closer he sniffed. The scent of melted metal of other such things was enough to repulse him. Wrinkling his nose, Eldramech picked up the bolts and scanned them with his implant. “What… is…” The implant gave a whirr as he focused on the piece. “Is this their idea of a prank?!”

By now, the rest of the Squadron had shot out of the hangar leaving Eldramech and Reid alone with the crew that were pushing back various pieces of equipment into their specific places. Now though some had noticed Eldramech was still in the hangar and proceeded to gather at the spectacle.

Reid, having been plugged into the wall and failing in its attempt to contact engineering rolled back over to Eldramech. “Wha. You can’t get a hold of them?” He asked pulled out some shards of metal from inside the engine. The shard was followed by several more until there was a messy pile of engine remains. A look of suspicion started to grow on his face as he leaned down to look into the hole in his ship. “If I found out they did this they’re going to…” Eldramech thumped his hand on the side of his fighter. It wasn’t going to fly, no way. Even if he could get the engines on, chances are it would’ve made matters worse. “I’m going to go find these guys. Reid, you’re with me.”

The astromech whirred and followed after the cyborg as he made his way back to the hatch that led down to the maintenance bay.

-----

“Signal received from the station, sir. They have arrived. Orders?”

The Dragon was stood on the bridge of his ship, staring out at the stars that shot passed as they moved through hyperspace. Rica didn’t mind being diverted if it meant giving the Republic a swift smack to the face. Now they were flying to intercept Republic forces on route to a small station. The alert they had received was an interesting one, something of which didn’t come often. Who exactly had alerted them to an incoming imperial vessel? He’d ordered the station into hibernation mode, whilst they awaited the Dragon’s Tooth’s arrival. It was to invite the sense of an ambush, to slow the attack. A viable tactic when time was needed for reinforcements. The officer who stood next to Rica, had alerted him to the current situation. “Battle stations, bring us out of hyperspace and prepare to power on the gravity well generators. Allow station security to engage the forces of the Republic before launching our fighters.”

The officer hesitantly looked over the stern features of the dragon, as if waiting for an explanation. When one came, he began to ask. “Ca-captain? We outnumber the enemy forces greatly, surely it would be best to outnumber them and deal with them quickly...”

The captain’s eyes slowly fell upon the officer, an instant expression of absolute distain swept over his face. “You will not question my orders again, is that understood? Carry out my orders immediately or you will be placed in the brig and one of your subordinates will find themselves with a surprise promotion.”

The officer immediately stood to attention. “Yes Captain, as you wish.”

Rica folded his arms behind his back as he watched the stars cease to move and the Alderaanian Wraith appear in front of them. His eyes caught the sight of it in the distance. With a smirk, he waved forward ordering his ship closer. Immediately as they arrived out of hyperspace the klaxons began across the entire breadth of the Dragon’s tooth.

“All hands to battle stations, I repeat, all hands to battle stations!” came an Imperial voice over the comms. “All pilots report to Hangar B, all pilots report to Hangar B.”

Suddenly there an odd movement from the Corvette, as if something had happened. Rica stepped forward to the nearest console. Looking over the railing, he asked “report?”

The crewmen tapped on the console and waited for all of a minute before looking up at Rica. “Captain – their hyper drive seems to be… inactive.”

Rica grew a smirk on his face and gave the crewman a nod. “Good. Divert energy from the gravity well generators and redirect it to the laser cannons, though keep some energy in reserve as a precaution, this could be a ruse. When we are in range, hold fire on the Republic vessel until the station fighter wing has engaged.”

-----

Back aboard the wraith, Eldramech had stepped into engineering, with Reid behind him in tow. “Huh… They’re not here-wait where the hell would they be at this time? Reid, plug in and ask the computer.”

The astromech slid across the floor and out popped the scomp link. Once inside Reid turned its head to look at Eldramech and beeped a bit. “They’re going where? Wait I can hear something.” Eldramech turned his head slightly towards the hyper drive in the far end of the maintenance wing. Eldramech turned his eat towards it and that moment there was an explosion. Eldramech was knocked right off his feet by the shockwave, thrown hard against a bulkhead. Reid meanwhile was hit by an electronic charge that followed, spurting electric charges that covered the droid and threw it against the wall like its master.

When Eldramech finally got up to his feet, he looked over to the motionless and inactive Reid and grumbled, though it soon turned into a cough as smoke began filtering through. Eldy’s eye widened as he realised what would come next. Abandoning Reid, Eldramech pulled himself up the ladder and into the hangar, just as the bulkheads came down and sealed the maintenance bay to suffocate the flames. Slowly he pulled himself to his feet, though one of the maintenance guys ran over to him to assist. Eldramech instantly pulled away. “They... did something to the hyper drive. We’re sitting ducks.” He explained as he stomped his way over to his locket behind his x-wing. Quickly he smashed the door open and he pulled out his gun holster and quickly pulled it over his shoulder. Once it was on, he grabbed his fusion cutter. “Reid said they were heading to the bridge, so they’re probably there by now, which means the captain is either dead or held hostage – has anyone been able to contact the bridge?” He asked the crewmen as they began to move.

“No – but then I don’t think anyone’s tried – the uh… marines are stuck in their quarters though.” The crewman spoke quickly, though there was nervousness in his voice. “The hyperdrive-”

Eldramech cut him off. “We can’t think about that now, we have to secure the bridge, but that means getting the marines out of their room. Grab a fusion cutter and come with me.”

With that said the crewmen grabbed a fusion cutter and headed up to the marine quarters to slice the door.

Erin's eyes narrowed when the TIE's came up on the sensors, frowning momentarily as she started watching to see what class of fighter they were, any markings they might have had, and where they were coming from. Of course, the presence of the 418 answered the last question. "Not good..." she said to herself. Fortunately, the other commanders were already on her train of thought and looking to get out of the area, which stopped her from going to her own fighter... only for the ship to be rocked by an explosion. Orion was quick to respond to it and she herself was put onto a chair as she held on; she could worry about apologizing to the poor sod in it later. Before Orion had his answer or she could voice her concerns, Cam, acting somewhat of his own accord, decided to investigate it himself, plugging into one of the sockets and starting to investigate things. Almost immediately he started investigating the mysterious lockdown on their marines' door... and in the last few moments before the answer was revealed the droid chirped out his answer, which had Erin's eyes wide enough to land a frigate on. "He says it's got an Imp--"

And at about that moment the door opened and the four troopers entered, cutting off her words. Her first reaction was to go for her pistol, but as one of the beasts raised his rifle at her she froze and slowly moved her hand away... but hearing the leader's voice sent her blood boiling. There were no words going through her head, just instinct, her fight broiling furiously as she desired nothing more than to blow this traitors brains out. But she held her place, knowing damn well what would happen to them if she did... this was a situation that needed to be handled smartly and carefully. The 'Miss Erin' jab was lost on her, as was his threat--oh, she acknowledged it, she knew what he was saying and registered the consequences of certain actions, but her concern over the rookies was currently paling in comparison to that of the whole damn crew. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead on the spot, and if he was particularly attentive he might have noticed that the screen closest to her wobbled a little bit for a few seconds. Still, Erin didn't say anything. She simply slowly reached down for her pistol and held it by the frame before lobbing it lightly at 'Miles.' She let him do all the talking; he wasn't going to get the satisfaction of a reaction from her. As it was, she was already trying to come up with a plan on how to get out, looking around her for some way to get them to stand down... and as she reached down to get the knife from her boot, she was keeping in mind the other things she had on her person. He asked for weapons: but if you asked someone for everything they could turn into a weapon they would be there all day. The vibroknife she didn't through, but rather turned over handle first. Still though, she stayed silent.

---

In the meantime, Cam made sure to unplug once the threat was delivered; protocol dictated that he was to do nothing which could lead to the death of his master or any other sentients, and there was a 95% probability that if this commando was telling the truth then his mistress would die if he remained attached. So, he acted like a scared droid, hiding behind Erin and trying not to draw attention to himself. But while he might have been an R4 shell, he wasn't exactly stock; he was working for Republic Intelligence after all and he was proud to be an advanced spy unit... because spies are awesome (this is just the droid's thoughts, mind; though he has been lightly modified, but he's not a 'spy unit'). Watching silently, the droid started searching for any nearby friendly R-series on the ship, and soon found Reid. Rather quickly Reid started receiving communications from Cam, though he referred to himself as "Agent Hammer," and started giving the droid a live feed of the happenings on the bridge, identifying the attacker (or at least as Cam would know him), and telling about the status of the marines and where they were. That said... the way the R4 talked was a little... full of himself. He tried to do everything he actually said as commentary in some sort of code, but not in the sense of stuff that one would need to know how to understand from a cypher. 'The emperor wore mechanic's clothes.' 'The head of the ship has a sword over it.' 'Fire is riding on the X-wings.' Etc. And if Reid got angry with him he'd stop it, though grumpily.