"The Master's Luck"

[Kell Sangros]

Location: Grid R-6
Thanium Sector, Edge of the Tobali System

A Corellian Corvette jumped out of hyperspace, from the outward appearances it had looked it took a beating as carbon scoring from blaster fire adorned the hull. An ID scan on the ship would identify it as “The Master’s Luck” and any check of it manifest would show this was a supply carrier that runs supplies along the Perlemian Trade Route, The battered vessel had been lucky to enter and exit hyperspace, safely. Scans would reveal the hyperdrive was failing and the navi computer was corrupted, the crew was fortunate to not find themselves on the other side of the galaxy. Inspection would show no signs of tampering, all the damage the ship sustained was genuine. The Master’s Luck had been doing a routine run, when it was ambushed by outlaws, they had opened fire without cause on the Corvette, it was sheer luck that the ship was able to enter hyperspace.

Piloting the Corvette was a pair of would be smugglers, alarms were buzzing, notifications flashing on the instruments, the ship was dying by all appearances, and It was. The Ship had a human pilot of middle –age and a co-pilot who was much younger. There was also a small crew aboard, about six individuals, most very recent additions to the crew manifest. They were transporting cargo, something added at the last minute and given a high priority. The Pilot and Co-pilot both had wondered if it was this special cargo that the outlaws were after which if it was the case would raise a lot more questions. Captain Densmore looked at his co-pilot and back to his instrumentation.

“Can we make the nearest planet?” He asked.

The Co-Pilot who was the First Mate, who had gone by the name Max Rylo, studied his instruments with a grim look on his face. “We have one shot at this” he said. “If the readings are right we are in the Tobali system, I doubt we could make it to Felucia, maybe to Galadraan or even Rhen Var but Rhen Var is an icicle. “

Densmore pressed his lips together as in deep in thought. Those three worlds were releatively close together , they needed repairs or they wouldn’t be able to make the delivery. He entered a few co-ordinates and then said .

“We’re heading in that direction when we get closer I will make a decision” and that was good enough for his co-pilot.

The Master’s Luck changed its course and proceeded to their destination, under sublight speed. The Co-Pilot went back to inform the rest of the crew. When told of this development the men were not surprised, not outraged or shocked. The shock would come when Densmore heard the blaster shot coming from the back.

“What the?” but before he could get up from the cockpit he was visited by one of his crew, who had a blaster pistol in hand, who wordlessly shot the pilot. Holstering his pistol, the man who was dressed plainly had pulled the corpse from the pilots chair and then sat down and studied the readouts.

Soon after a second man joined him. “Sir, we got a crew looking at the Hyperdrive and Life Support”

The new pilot nodded “Make sure Life Support is priority we are in the vicinity of our mission, Ready the cargo” The second man nodded and went to carry out the orders.

The new pilot , Kane Pivollt , checked their present course again, he kept it as is as he switched on the auto-pilot

Meanwhile the rest of the crew went to make repairs on the minor system failures. While the Master’s Luck limped along its course.

[Ben Kenobi]

***Outer Rim Territories, Auril Sector - R-6***
***Adega System, Colsassa***
***Independence Fleet, Task Force Liberty***


The fouth planet of the Adega System, Colsassa was a mighty gas giant that was home to eleven moons and the current station of the Galactic Alliance Naval Task Force Liberty. While she wasn’t much, Colsassa was the neighbor of Ossus, which in turn was currently under the scope of the Jedi Coalition; reconstruction operations had begun months ago but were just now getting into full swing and currently Ossus was being orbited by a legendary starship in its own right, the MC80b Home One. Retired from active duty service in the Alliance Navy, she now served in the Coalition and right now the old warhorse was overseeing the Ossus operations along with two escorting Hammerhead Cruisers and seven Consular Cruisers being utilized to ferry cargo and materials from the newly refurbished Knossa Starport.

But it was Colsassa that was playing host to Task Force Liberty. Orbiting the gas giant was the elegant form of the winged MC90 Heavy Star Cruiser Liberty itself and she was being escorted by a pair of MC30c Frigates, the Reef Home and the Startide. The EF76 Nebulon B Escort Frigate Redemption was also in this little formation. Though it would be assured that for these few in number, the rest of the Task Force was nearby on various Alliance Naval operations throughout the sector which included a very close and careful monitoring of the hotzone near Galidraan which was right along the Prelemian Trade Route.

Galidraan was host to a pair of worlds, Rhen Var and Felucia. Rhen Var was the site of nothing more than a Galactic Alliance Outpost orbiting the world, a single starfighter squadron of RZ-1 A-wings was housed at the Outpost for swift reaction and quick response. The outpost was utilized by observation equipment that kept eyes on its own neighbor which was the Imperial controlled world of Felucia, while Galidraan in turn was under the banner of the Galactic Alliance. Out of the trio of worlds Galidraan was the most heavily populated and therefore it was Galidraan that was station to a force of Alliance Military assets on the ground while Task Force Liberty out of the Adegan System patrolled the outlying sector and maintained active skirmishes with the Imperial Navy that occasionally lurked nearby.

The sounds of the hangar were commonplace whilst twelve pilots and one smartly dressed Alliance Navy Officer stood in a semi-circle beneath the looming shadow of a prepped squadron that sat outside of the loading racks and were standing by for launch. Senior Lieutenant Garner held his datapad in front of him as he casually briefed the pilots of the veteran Rimfire Squadron on their up and coming patrol mission; a mission they’d executed a hundred times before and this time was no different.

Squadron Commander, Captain Arrik Rhodes, stood with his helmet on, the chin strap was dangling and his gloves were off and tucked into his belt as he took down notes onto his own datapad. “Not a standard patrol then?” He questioned to Garner as the officer reported to them that they’d be linking up with Red Squadron near Galidraan and together they’d be making the Prelemian Trade Route’s run because Alliance Intelligence was showing a pair of Imperial Carrack-class Light Cruisers moving through the area and a possible high value target was onboard. Then again the intel could also be bad or flight schedules changed and the squadrons wouldn’t intercept anything but deadspace… but a mission was a mission and Rimfire wasn’t about to shirk their duties.

After confirming the operation the Lieutenant bade the squadron good luck and departed. Captain Rhodes turned back to his pilots. “Alright boys, I don’t think today is going to be very exciting. I doubt the Imps are going to be running a pair of Carracks near Felucia, it’s too near the front. But what the brass wants, the brass gets.” He started pulling his gloves on. “We’re gear up in two! Let’s ride Rimfire!”

[Kell Sangros]

=Aboard the Magnetar, Orbiting Sojourn’s Primary Karza=

Warvanus was on the bridge when the communications officer reported a incoming transmission addressed to a Jaysen Moaran, it was the alias Warvanus had used when he had hired a group of pirates. He rose and told the officer to patch it to his office. He rose and entered the spacious and decorated office. He took a seat behind his desk and flipped the switch. It was not a live transmission but pre-recorded. He leaned back in his chair and listened.

“Jaysen, the job has been done but the Master’s Luck escaped, awaiting further instructions, Crimson Sun out” the transmission ceased. He had hired them to attack the Master’s Luck, not to destroy the ship but to give the hull a redecoration. The ship made it to hyperspace so it was not destroyed , the Outlaws had done their job and done it well. Turning his attention to his desk terminal he entered a few keystrokes and after a couple of minutes it was done. He had wired their payment through untracable accounts that could and would never link it to the Sith. He flipped the transmitter switch

“Crimson Nova, you have done well its survival is of no consequence , you will find your payment sitting in your account” he paused “Jaysen out” Warvanus sat there of course he did not tell the team that was disguised as smugglers that their ship would be attacked. It made their story more believable. He sat back again and folded his hands in front of him. Now he would await the report from the team itself. He did not expect them all to survive but if they did then they would be better qualified than he thought originally. If not then it was of no consequence. He would then send another team if they failed in their mission.

=The Master’s Luck=

The ship limped to the Adegan system having changed their course that would take them to both Rhen Var and Galladraan the ship carried on. Aboard the crews had stabilized power and was able to fully restore life support. The ship had began to do their survey of the system. They had made special care to not cross Felucia’s space as it was an Imperial controlled world could be seen as a provocation. The crew had also restored weapons and shields though not 100% the outlaws attack had really hurt the ship they should have turned around right after the attack to get a better ship. But what was done is done.

The commander of the crew a man who went by Bryce Morningstar he was a Lieutenant in the Sith military in the special ops recon dept. Though in this mission he went under the alias of Raajan Pinster, it was a cheesy name to be sure but would serve its purpose. The cargo they had been picked up was not harmed , which was good, hopefully they would not have need of it as the cargo had contained field survival kits, weapons, and explosives, and each member was issued a sidearm but Bryce had been issued with a special transmitter , encrypted it would send its transmission directly to the War-Bringer.

The interior of the ship was in disarray, the ship was back on full power so the emergency lights were off, but there were still sections of the ship that was bleeding. Either smoking, or leaking coolants, or lubrication fluids for the various systems. Morale in the crew was high, they were all committed to their task and would give their lives if it called for it. All in all it appeared to be quiet so far they had no incident but they suspected the closer to Galladraan they got the more traffic they would see, would they see Alliance assets hopefully they would not encounter any Jedi in this mission. Especially since no Sith Lord was among the crew. Back in the Sith Military they were called Code Zero, they were the first ones who were sent to scout and scope out potential targets, they were among the best in the entire Sith Military.

They were still a few hours away from entering the edge of Rhen Var’s space in the meantime they continued to facilitate repairs on critical systems.

[Ben Kenobi]

***Tobali System, Rhen Var***
***Alliance Listening Post QV-87a***

Lightning Squadron's RZ-1 A-wings, sat on the hangar deck of the listening post and awaited further commands. Two Flights were already out on patrol through the sector and this Flight Group was on call as a quick reaction team. Flight Lieutenant Jorin Rivers was sitting in the Ready Room of the Listening Post going through scans that were coming in from the other Flight Groups in the Sector. Being along the Prelemian Trade Route the activity was quite high and their scans showed a lot of activity though most of it was traffic passing through the region. One occurrence however seemed to catch Jorin's eye.

Still a good distance out the first of the Flight Groups had just detected a Corellian CR90 Corvette out on the outer edge of the Tobali System. The system itself was home to three worlds, two gas giants and then Rhen Var itself. There was also an asteroid belt through the system. This made for a relatively quiet posting and when a CR90 came up on the scopes it was most certainly not to be overlooked.

He acknowledged the screen. "Lightning Flight One, we'll take this one. Call it in."

Four A-wings launched from the Listening Post and were now heading towards the Master's Luck.


***Adegan System, Ossus***


Jedi Master Ben Kenobi reached above his head and activated his Eta-2's transmitter which shot a data package to the accompanying Eta-2, that of his Padawan, Evelyn Swann. The data package involved the access codes for the hyperspace ring which would attach to their Actis-class Interceptors and allow them to enter hyperspace since the actual Eta 2 did not have its own hyperdrive.

Together they were getting in some flight training as well as they were going to link up with some of the Alliance patrols in the area and get some mission time in. A basic flight patrol would be some wonderful experience for Evelyn and Ben didn't mind the change of scenery, he'd always enjoyed flying. It was a great time to reflect inwardly and as a Jedi there was always some meditations to be done. He reached down and activated his combat multiview display (CMD), the two hyperspace rings popped up onto his screen along with the buoy they were supposed to head towards.

Also in the far distance was the icon of a group of ships and they looked to be heading towards the Galactic Northwest as well. After a few minutes of time their distance closed and he recognized the incoming ships as a full squadron of Alliance Starfighters. To be more specific it was the Incom T-65XJ X-wing Squadron, Rimfire.

His communications gear crackled to life and on the other end came a voice Ben was very familiar with. "Master Jedi, this is Rimfire Leader. We're coming in on your port side. From your flight route I am showing that you're heading into the Thanium Sector. So are we. If you'd like to join our flight then you are more than welcome."

Ben responded, "Affirmative Rimfire Lead, we are heading into Thanium. Our callsign is Sword One and Two."

He switched channels over to Evy's link, "Evelyn, looks like were going to be having some company on this run. We're going to link up with Rimfire Squadron for the journey to the Thanium Sector."

Slowing his throttle down he eased up to his Eta-2's hyperring and within moments the ring connected to his Interceptor. Once the status lights all switched to green he activated the throttle again and banked thirty degrees to bring his Eta-2 onto an intercept course with the incoming XJ X-wings. Again he flipped open the channel to Evelyn, "Hope you brought a snack Evy, this one is going to be a long flight and probably a very uneventful one, which is a good thing. Usually the Thanium Sector is pretty quiet even though neighboring Felucia is actually Imperial but Galidraan and Rhen Var is Alliance."

[Evelyn Swann]

- Adegan System, Ossus -

When the transmitter blipped at her, Evy switched it on and let the incoming data package with the access codes activate. Fumbling slightly with the control system in front of her, the young brunette was rather new at this. The last time she had controlled a spacecraft was back when her father taught her. Using the public transports throughout all these years, she was quite rusty with her simple flight skills, though this was about to change very soon. Her friend and mentor, Jedi Master Ben Kenobi had taken her out here to teach her more about flying and this was completely fine with her. It was exciting to try something new, and Evy was all in for this kind of learning. She had never been on flight patrol before. Though she had to admit to herself that when they would eventually tag along on a possible mission at some point, then the young Padawan would have to prepare herself to do good on said mission. She had much to learn, but from her life experience, the greatest way to do so was to jump right into it. She had watched her Master closely in how he maneuvered his Eta-2, and Miss Swann did her best to do the same. Getting comfortable enough to feel one with the ship was important if she ever hoped to get the hang of it.

She knew Ben had noticed the group of ships far off in the distance long before her, so she wasn't worried about them approaching since he seemed to be calm and collected about the situation. Nothing disturbing could be felt through the Force as she reached out, everything was just fine. Taking a deep breath, she followed suit with her Master. Upon closer inspection, Evy saw that it was a squadron of Alliance Starfighters. Interesting... she thought to herself before her communications gear popped to life and a so-called Rim Leader spoke to Master Kenobi. Through the brief conversation through the channel, it would seem that they too were heading to the Thanium Sector. And when her Master approved of their offer, she raised a brow and tilted her head to the side. The possible mission and flight patrol would seem to have come quicker than she first had anticipated.

Flipping on a few controls, the brunette prepared for a linked up flight together with this squadron. As soon as she had made everything ready, Evelyn heard her Master's voice through the channel. Nodding in agreement, she responded. "So it would seem Master, I don't mind. Let us do this." Smiling softly to herself, Miss Swann was right in Kenobi's trail before she shifted the direction of her Eta-2's destination with just a few degrees. Ben had connected to his hyperring, now it was only Evy who needed to place herself right in order for the Interceptor to attach to her own hyperring. Once that was done, she waited patiently for all the lights to turn green, as if saying good to go, move along now.

Almost jumping in her seat by surprise as her Master spoke through the channel once again, Evelyn thought for a moment that she had done something wrong by accident and missed the ring, but as the Force wanted it, she succeeded and was good to go. "Funny Master, I got everything I need, though still new to this Eta-2, I would certainly appreciate a few more lessons on how in the bloody galaxy I control this thing more smoothly." Chuckling a bit, she flew the ship closer to the rest and prepared for the trip ahead. "Sword Two standing by." Evelyn said now with a more serious tone in her voice. She had to be professional about this and not fool around.

[Kell Sangros]

Despite the best efforts of the crew of the Master’s Luck who worked valiantly in facilitating repairs to the bleeding ship. Despite their best efforts the repairs they had performed did not fully fix various systems as throughout the ship conduits would fail causing various systems to fail. In a heartbeat weapons had gone back offline, they once again had to reduce the efficiency of both main power and life support. In short the Corvette was bleeding to death. In the hanger bay , the crew had moved their sealed cargo into the lone shuttle that was berthed. But if it came to it, they would abandon the ship to the shuttle, but they would effectively be stuck in Alliance space as the shuttle had no hyperdrive, and it was not like the Sith would send a recovery team they were on their own.

The last round of conduit failures had taken two members of the crew, died of severe burns suffered from the failing panels. In the cockpit, the pilot and co-pilot were monitoring communications with their limited range, and collecting data from their limited sensor sweeps, they had collected nothing of importance. It was quiet until the Co-Pilot noticed several blips appearing at the edge of its’ range.
The only data that any ships scanning would detect would be that the ship is registered as the Master’s Luck, and that it was heavily damaged, of course once closer, any pilot would see the damage for themselves and sensors might pick up several systems failing or had failed. The shuttle that is berthed has no hyperdrive, which the crew knew was a last ditch effort and the shuttle had very min. of defenses.

All the crew knew about the incoming ships was it was several, and that chances are they were Alliance ships and not pirates or outlaws. They based that on the fact that they knew the Alliance patrols their borders well. The Crew hoped they would make their destination.
The Pilot sent out a message to any incoming and surrounding ships.

“This is Captain Nova of the Supply ship Master’s Luck, we request assistance, were attacked by pirates, ship in bad shape, most of the crew is dead. Requesting assistance” the Pilot repeated the message as many times as he could, he was sure that anyone receiving it would get it fragmented, or static interference filling the message.

He did not lie the crew compromised of 8, were now down to 4 total. The pilot hoped that the incoming ships would escort them to either Rhen Var or Galladraan or if they were lucky to both locations. Of course they could also just finish the job. Captain Nova hoped it would not come to that.

[Ben Kenobi]

***Tobali System***

The four tan colored RZ-1 A-wings swept in on the lone Corvette and conducted a close flyby to establish a visual pass. The fuselage of the CR90 was ravaged by carbon scoring and the identifiers checked out that she was indeed the Master's Luck. Further scanning seemed to corroborate Captain Nova's story and clearly the ship was in seriously dire straits. Banking back around the four A-wings cruised back to the aft of the Corvette and then bracketed the small ship; two remained to the rear and two accelerated to position themselves ahead of it. "Master's Luck, this is Lightning One. If you think you can make it, we're going to bring you in to Listening Post QV-87a, its an orbital station currently on the sunward side of the world, should accommodate your approach nicely with minimal effort."

He switched off the comm and switched frequencies and from there he first sent an alert to QV-87a. "Prepare the airlock, we have an incoming Corvette that is heavily damaged and with incoming casualties." Acknowledgments came in that a medical team was being activated along with engineers to move in to the CR90 and stabilize it so that it wouldn't go down and cause collateral damage to the station in the process of this recovery effort.

Next he sent a dispatch out to Task Force Liberty. Since the Task Force was in the area they were in jurisdictional command of any and all Alliance Military operations in the Sector and beyond. Informing them was prudent.

[Evelyn Swann]

As Evelyn waited for the rest of the group of ships to get ready to jump into hyperspace, their destination the Tobali System, the young lady took a deep breath, trying to open up her connection more between herself and the Light Side of the Force. Out here in space, it was so quiet, so it felt a bit easier to tap into the Force for Evy. Why this was so she had no idea, but it felt nice.

Master Kenobi seemed to speak over the general channel to the Rimfire squadron before the Rimfire Leader went silent for a moment. This felt slightly weird to Evy, but she just shook the stray thought away as quickly as it came. Until moments after the message came. Both Jedi Master Ben Kenobi and Jedi Padawan Evelyn Swann were told by the Rimfire Leader that a lonesome Corvette had been attacked by pirates near the Tobali System and was heavily damaged and with incoming casualties to the orbital station Listening Post QV-87a. The Lighting One had transmitted the message out to all nearby Alliance patrols to be wary of possible pirate threats in the nearby systems and had asked the Rimfire squadron to assist in this matter as quickly as possible.

It would seem that they all had to get going and quick. This couldn't be good at all...

After the two Jedi received the more exact coordinates from their new teammates as to where in the Tobali System they should be, they all put in the set destination to their ship's systems and prepared to jump into hyperspace. "See you guys there!" Evelyn spoke out before pressing on the control system to take off into hyperspace. Simultaneously the group of ships took off and left the stars around them to a mere blur as they darted away with a blink of an eye.

[Kell Sangros]

The Captain heard the message , they were Alliance ships as far as he could tell, and they were going to provide aid. This pleased the Captain. As he was going to reply acknowledging the message there was an explosion inside the corvette along with some screams. The power dimmed and it was reported that the Primary Life Support system overloaded and that caused the explosion. Smoke filled the inside of the ship. He really wondered if the Corvette would hold out.

The rest of the crew scrambled to contain the fire, it had seriously injured two members of the small crew and had killed one. Through their training they contained and extinguished the fire and reverted power to the backup. It was un-damaged surprisingly. When the fire was neutralized the Captain acknowledged the transmission and had informed Lightning One of having wounded.

The Master’s Luck continued it’s limp but now under Alliance escort, smoke now pouring out of new areas of the ship. In the cockpit of the Corvette the Captain, had taken out his datapad and made a few notes, based on sensor readings, though nothing of a classified or even a military nature as none of his scans had produced such data he did make a notes of the brief survey they had done of the system.
If the team learned the Sith had staged the attack they would probably defect as this little ruse had killed some of the team. He had wondered if the Sith had planted explosives on board to go off on a timer to further collaborate their story. They did not know, in fact they knew nothing.

“Captain” came over the comm.”Reyes is dead” Reyes had been one of the men injured in the latest of system failures on board the dying Corvette. Now this attack had cost him two members of his squad. He looked out the port and focused on piloting, and getting them to this listening post. They had to make it, he owed them that much.