2nd time's the charm...?

[Zechs Merquise]

Hyperspace wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Especially in a fighter. This one time, at Imperial camp, he had chosen poorly when it came to lunch. That was the worst hyperspace jump in a TIE ever.

Never again.

Zechs now only ate fiber rich foods and greens before really long jumps in a fighter. No grease. No duck bacon. Just lean clean food. He didn't need to clear him self out in hyperspace. Spacesuits weren't made for that. It was awful.

Thankfully again, this was a short jump. The timer was already reaching down to zero and he didn't even have to be a hero! There was even these things called burritos on the world they were going to. They sounded interesting. He was going ot have to try one out. Maybe it'd help him get the taste of grass out of his mouth.

[Neive Undant]

As they arrived at Naboo, Neive sighed. It was a good payday for once, and all of this stuff that took up space in his mining facility was finally gone. Now there was room for more useless stuff to sell to the people who give him his paycheck each month. But there was still plenty of work to do these days, and to be honest, this was a nice change. Nothing going wrong and Neive getting shot at like usual.

[Zechs Merquise]

Zechs pulled back on the controls at 0. It seemed like he had arrived before his comrades. It was nice. A quiet system with ample stuff to trade for the stuff they had brought without the said stuff getting stolen by some very charming Imperials or smelly sith. An XJ and a B-wing were good at many things, but holing the line against a vastly more numerous force was not one of them. Those clashes needed a lot more blasters.

Still, it was a quiet system awaiting the convoy's quiet cargo. They were just in time for lunch. Zechs would buy, if someone else watched the droids. You could never trust droids on a new world. There was no telling who would want to "borrow" them and their databanks. No one needed to read his diary stored in his little astromech. Some things were best kept private.

[Salem Norongachi]

The jackals were beginning to circle. The pushed and they nudged at the edge of his senses, like so many flies buzzing around the dung heap. He banked and brought his patrol route in closer to the staging area, the Blackheart mirroring. He knew that any fight would take place at the knife edge and no further.

The drone of droidspeak came through his com-system and he let a smirk play across his lips "Is a bit of a clown show, isn't it?" was his response to his artificial wingman while they slipped around the back end of the waiting transports and continued their standard and rather boring circuit. Another snarky comment came over his personal com from 7w4t. "They could be using any vegetable to plot the jump, lets not unduly insult potatoes.." his control board beeped then, and the nav-screen updated with the aforementioned jump co-ordinates.

"Lock em in and lets get out of this dump.." Norongachi said to his wingman while his hands danced across the navigational controls and then, with ships firing into lightspeed, pushed the activator and joined them.

[Annan Rainwalker]

Planetary orbit, Circarpous V (Mimban)
Vicinity of Circarpous V Orbital Space Station Halla
Circarpous system, Circarpous sector

"And off we go," Jedi Rainwalker pulled on the YT's launch lever. The sapphire blue sublight engines roared alive, and the YT-2000 took off, leaving behind the orbit of Circapous V.

The young starpilot sighed and leaned back in his seat, punching in the coordinates he had received. Biggie - which was his lesser used nickname for Bigweld - followed Ani, and Ani followed Master Buggie. The Gungan bogey was around somewhere too.

"Yeesh," Ani muttered, as he thought about it all moments before he completed the jump to hyperspace:

Biggies, Buggies, and Bogeys.

What a journey this was mounting up to be.

[Annan Rainwalker]

Hyperspace
Coordinates set for the Mid Rim:
Naboo system, Chommel sector

Swamp gas.

It was to be freighted, and being freighted it was. Whether or not he was speaking to Zechs at the moment, the swamp gas would receive its due freighting. The journey of a thousand miles always began with the first step, and the first step in this case was the jump, and jump was one thing that Jedi Rainwalker had already done. As the blue clouds of hyperspace sailed across the viewports, Jedi Rainwalker sighed and began to sing his own little tune, completely ignoring all the chatter across the comms.

The Force would warn him if either Buggie or Bogey mattered. Biggie was his partner, though; they were chummy chum chums. So only Buggie and Bogey were relevant in this scenario; Buggie for receiving orders, and Bogey for possible pew-pew.

Right now, however, his Danger Sense was silent.

"Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata!
Ain't no passing craze
It means no worries
For the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!"

[Annan Rainwalker]

Theed Spaceport
Theed, Naboo
Naboo system, Chommel sector

And, as was the case most of the time, Jedi Rainwalker and his two ships arrived safely back at his home planet. His birth planet, of course, was Lah`mu, but Naboo had more than sufficed as a home over the past few years. As the young Jedi Knight gazed out of the viewport, he recalled the time, only a couple years ago now, when he had smuggled himself over to Naboo on a freighter. It was in precisely this very spaceport in Theed had little Ani opened his eyes to the Alien Paradise that Naboo seemed to be. Now, he was here yet again, docking his ships, this time as a fully competent and trained Jedi Knight.

The Nostalgia was strong with this one.

[Master Buggie]

"Disengage hyperdrive," Storm ordered the R-1 series astromech droid located near the bank of controls for the heavy freighter.

Slave-linked to the Outland 02 was Outland 01. Once the signal had been passed between the two vessels, they simultaneously dropped out of lightspeed within the Chommel sector, Naboo system. The world that served as Buggie's home planet for years was a welcome sight, as it signaled safety and the end of another successful shipment. The space around the planet was thick with Galactic Alliance patrols, and there was no chance of danger, which had never struck, despite the suspicion that his fellow convoy fliers had shown. As the convoy passed the first checkpoint, the escort craft began to spread out, some advancing to the planet, some remaining with the transports.

"Course set for Theed," Buggie told Storm, "Sending the coordinates to your console."

[Salem Norongachi]

The acid trip of hyperspace danced around the ship, a kaleidoscope of light that strobed the cockpit as they traveled in a dimension outside their own, the ship only protected by virtue of a thin bubble of energy. A ship -a hundred ships- could be on their jump path and they would slip through them like ghosts on the other side of a mirror; as insubstantial as smoke.

Once, more years ago than he cared to count, when he'd originally worn the colours of the Galactic Republic, now Alliance, he'd been involved in an incident in hyperspace. Strange creatures, not of their plane, had boarded a leisure cruiser bound for Zeltros. Try as he might, he couldn't remember how that adventure had ended or how he and those trapped with him had made it out alive.

"Funny old thing, memory..." he thought as the jump computer beeped at him, signalling their imminent reversion to realspace.

[Salem Norongachi]

The two escort ships fired into the Naboo system like bullets from a gun and he was pleased to find the rest of convoy still in formation. The planet hung off in the distance, a bright jewel of blue and green, with its three moons dancing around her. The ships had already begun to move, the freighters flanked by escorts and already he could see the a squadron of the planetary defense fleets fighters racing toward them to guide them home.

Safety and an uneventful trip, although there had been a close call. It was all you could ask for in an operation like this. The squadron of XJ's took up position with the rest of the escorts just beyond the first checkpoint, and no doubt by now the convoy leader was beaming over all the relevant clearance details.

"Wavedancer to Convoy lead. We're bugging out. Until next time." the Helix and Firespray broke formation and banked before the confirmation and the co-ordinates for their rendezvous with the Fate locked themselves into the nav-computer. He gripped the hyperspace activator and then they were gone.