Outback Trading Co. - Flight 0519 - Blue Star Pirates

[Master Buggie]

Once the convoy had reverted to realspace, Buggie and the rest of the escorting vessels began to take stock of the destination system. With his fighter at cruising speed, Buggie surveyed his sensors and looked for any activity that was out of the ordinary. The sensors told him that there were no vessels approaching at attack speed, which would indicate a raiding party, and the rest of the convoy had arrived as expected. Things were beginning to look as if the convoy had made a successful haul.

To be sure, Buggie reached out with the Force in an effort to feel for any danger or untoward attention being paid to the convoy. The Force remained silent to Buggie, indicating that things were as safe as he had assumed.

"How did the ship hold up on the long haul?" Buggie asked Twitter.

A series of chirps and whistles were translated into text on Buggie's shipboard console. Having built Twitter and spent many hours in the droid's company, Buggie could practically understand every noise coming out of his little mechanical friend, but he still ran his eyes over the diagnostic information that appeared on the screen. Overall, the ship's maintenance had proven to be sound, as there were no major malfunctions reported. That evoked a sigh of relief from Buggie; the last thing he needed was to get the twin Action V heavy transports out of the repair bay and swap them out for a starfighter.

Engaging his helmet's comm, Buggie reported, "Mantis to convoy-- all craft accounted for and I'm picking up no irregularities on my scopes. Assuming a loose formation around the transports."

With that, Buggie maneuvered into position on the port side of the assembled convoy craft. His scanners would pick up any approaching craft, but at this point, Buggie expected no trouble for the rest of the flight.

[Rane DeCola]

With the convoy assembled, Captain Molo looked to Rane to give him the go ahead to make the jump to hyperspace.

"Captain, everything looks to be a go on our part. My counterpart at our destination has signaled that we are should be clear on arrival."

"Very good Mr. DeCola. Once again, you've proved your worth."

"Always a pleasure Captain."


With that, the Captain gave the order to his crew and the Action V bulk freighters of Outback Trading Company blinked out of real space and into the swirling star field beyond. The convoy was destined for Vandor, where Rane would rejoin the Wayward and her crew. It would be a long ride, but there was nothing for Rane to do but kill time.

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OOC: Sorry for the delayed reply on my part, in the process of relocating over the last few weeks.

[Ben Kenobi]

One after the other the twin BFF-1 Bulk Freighters of Kalidor Freight touched down on the landing pads and one after the other their engines began spooling down, it would be a relatively short time on the surface here but even as a short time the process of loading up such cargo would take hours. In the grand scheme, yes it was short, but in reality it was plenty of time to get a little shore leave in. For Ben that leave didn’t mean much more than hitting up the nearest lounge and sampling the freshly brewed, or more likely, stale caf that was available.

However, as he marched down the ramp exit he was intercepted and the dour expression on the load master told Ben that he wasn’t in for the exact shore leave he had been suspecting. Indeed, his danger senses were kicking off and he knew all too well… he’d be spending the shore leave time going over this manifest and then double checking it twice before even the first crate was loaded aboard the Kalidor vessels.

With woe betiding him, he cast his hood over his head to block out the sun’s rays and just as suspected the load master spoke those foul words that the Jedi Master was dreading. “Come with me. The manifest is missing a crate.”

[Ben Kenobi]

The missing crate was found three hours later. Kalidor 02 had been checked, rechecked and given the green light to load its cargo which the crews managed to do within the scheduled and allotted times. In fact Kalidor 02 was even now lifting off the platform and with a plotted course already set she was on her way into the upper atmosphere and on a route to the nearest hyperbuoy. Kalidor 01 however, was grounded. The missing crate had been located emptied in the back room of a nearby cantina and the load master had had a fit about the embezzled goods. Ben on the other hand was silently composing himself the entire time as he had been the one tasked with finding the wayward crate due to his background and while it only took three hours it had been the longest three hours of his life or so it seemed.

Through questioning, prodding in the right places and even an instance where a blaster was drawn but not discharged, Ben had managed to track the crate but only too late as its contents were long gone and nowhere to be found. Upon reporting the incident the load master took his sweet time in correcting the manifest minus one crate. Within only another two hours the cargo was loaded and secured within Kalidor 01’s holds.

Ben signed for the payloads and be was only too happy to be away from this mess. Next time he’d be the one scheduling the contract deals and not his droid…

[Ben Kenobi]

They managed to piggyback in the wake of the primary convoy well enough and in time they even managed to arrive within the acceptable boundaries of the convoy schedule, being late by only forty-five minutes. For lumbering vessels of this size and speed a window of forty-five minutes was not anything to be concerned about and when the twin freighters of Kalidor Freight arrived they were welcomed with open arms.

Receiving a sound flight plan by the orbital traffic controllers the preset course was locked into the computers and within moments the BFF-1’s were maneuvering to comply with their routes while tugs came in the engage scans on the freighters and line up scanned contents with the manifests. Ben was dreading the explanation of why his manifest was off by one crate but that would be a bridge he’d have to cross once he arrived into the unwelcoming arms of the new load master at the port.

Ben sat back in his seat after receiving coordinates to land at a given port of call and he knew with certainty that after the entire exhausting ordeal he wouldn’t need meditation or relaxation after this one. He just wanted his blasted cup of caf…

[Rane DeCola]

Rane was fast asleep when the Outback Trading convoy finally dropped out of hyperspace. A loud knock on the bulkhead though by Captain Molo was more than enough to raise him though. Jumping quickly to his feet and already dressed, Rane was greeted by the broadly smiling Captain.

"Glad to see you didn't decide to completely sleep off the whole jump."

"No, not me Captain. Besides, I take it our escort was here to greet us."

"Yes Mr. DeCola, we were signaled by the Captain of the Wayward upon arrival."

"Good, well, we can expect the rest of the convoy to arrive soon and from there, we should be able to complete the transfer. Again Captain, your service to our cause hasn't gone unrecognized by management."

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Within several hours, additional smaller transports arrived and work began to move materials from Outback Trading's two bulk freighters to the smaller freighters. Once again, Rane had managed to maintain security for the convoy without issue or interception.