Outland Mining - Flight 1217 - Blue Star Pirates

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden set down his tea as the Grand Inquisitor and Agent XX moved into position, along with Captain Vassyl. Technically speaking the Grand Inquisitor was the ranking participant in this little strike force but it seemed Rhoden would be taking the lead.

"Alright Jorvan, Haly, make sure those turrets are ready." he said, switching on his comm. "Inquisitor, Agent, Captain Vassyl." Rhoden said greeting the new arrivals. "With any luck our targets should be along shortly, with any more luck we can deal with them in short order." he said, "In any case, I don't think there's much to be said, we're all profesionals here and we'll perform our duties as such."

Rhoden sincerely wished that he could have brought the Hydra in on the mission, but using his own ships meant that he could reap any rewards from the upcoming conflict. And hopefully those rewards would be great.

[Lady Kota]

When her ship beeped, she first thought it was the escorts, however a full reading indicated that it was the Empire. Kota was glad they joined and heard someone asking if the intelligence was right. "Quiet the coms if they are going to be here it will be soon." She said. Kota moved herself and her other ship into position. She hoped the information was right or she was going to have to answer for it. She quickly ran through her systems in both ships as well, she wanted to make sure that everything functioned. 'Should have done it sooner.' She thought.

[Corran Vellar]

The Agent listened to Inferno leader give a quick speech as they all waited for their prey to show. Agent XX kept in formation with the Inquisitor's vessels. "For the Grand Inquisitor she doesn't have the best starships for battle," he thought to himself. He glanced out his viewport to look at Doren's vessels and was happy to see his weapons of war, a good edition to this small strike team.

The ATR floated just behind Inferno leader, it's heavy weapons on a swivel waiting for contacts. Inside the heavy armored ship was a assault team preparing in case boarding action was required. For now it was a waiting game, they had to catch the convoy here otherwise they'd lose them on the Perlemian.

[Master Buggie]

"R1, we're coming up on our first stop. Get ready to drop us out of hyperspace," Storm ordered the R1-series astromech droid that had been installed next to his console.

Master Buggie had not yet returned from his inspection of the stabilizer in the aft section of the vessel, but the convoy was nearly upon the Perlemian and, with any luck, the convoy wouldn't run into trouble here. This was not the most dangerous section of the journey; while certainly the convoy was far within Imperial territory, active patrols weren't expected until the convoy reached the Gizer system. With that in mind, and left with little other options, Storm gave the signal for the droid to deactivate the hyperdrive and send the hypercomm signal to the droid-controlled Outland 01, which would simultaneously drop that transport out of hyperspace beside the manned Outland 02.

As the stars reverted back into pinpricks against the dark curtain of deep space, Storm leaned forward in his seat and gazed out of the viewport. The convoy was within the boundaries of the Perlemian Trade Route, but all he saw were stars and the innocuous glow of a cluster of YT-series freighters a few kilometers away on the starboard side. Passing off the soft glow of the idle freighters' engines as another convoy that must have arrived from the Drovian system or the Chorios system beforehand, Storm leaned back into his seat and began to check on the status of the Outland 01.

Wait a minute...

Leaping up out of his seat, Storm nearly pressed his face against the transparisteel as he squinted out at the engines, trying to discern what he had originally missed. There, within the familiar glow of the YT-series freighters' engines, were those of Imperial starfighters. It was an ambush!

"Buggie!" Storm cried out over the Outland 02's audio system, "To the bridge! Hurry!"

Flipping the frequency on the comms to the rest of the convoy, Storm directed, "Alert! Shields up, shields up! We have Imperial vessels to our starboard side. Escorts, defend the transports as we plot the jump to lightspeed."

Having experienced this sudden call to action in the past, Storm knew what he must do next. Working the shipboard computer, Storm's fingers danced on the console as he began shutting down extraneous systems within the Outland 02 to power up the shields and engines. It was a blessing that the convoy exited hyperspace behind and perpendicular to the Imperial craft. It would buy the convoy precious seconds to make their escape.

"Droid! Get us out of here!" Storm roared as he shunted the ship's power reserves.

[Professor Mors]

Subscribing to Kota's scruples on stealth, Doren and his counterpart offered only a single comm ping in response to Rhoden's transmission. The Grand Inquisitor, in this instance, was quite correct: to catch a fish, you must do so with care. Any slight indication of trouble could alert one, or even a whole school of potential targets. Alas, the Imperial's net was only so wide, and prudence was of the essence. As Vassyl kept a wary eye on the cosmos before him, he began to thumb the primer for each of his host of warheads. The XM-1's main weapons system was powerful deterrent to other starfighters, and could be equally as persuasive in regards to enemy cargo freighters. Like a flash, he would unleash an unexpected barrage into the enemy, from which the survivors had little chance of a continued defense. That same thought still drifting through his mind, the Captain's radar screen suddenly lit up: they had come after all! Not wanting to afford the enemy a moment's reaction, Doren pinged attack orders to his portside ally, and gunned the Proudclad's SLAM drive. Rocketing past his peers, a small grin darted across Vassyl's face. The day, it seemed, might yet prove itself fortunate.

[Annan Rainwalker]

YT-2000 light freighter Mahmudiye Scintillance
Near Abhean System, along Perlemian Trade Route

“No, no, no, I'm not listening!” Ani had his mechanical hands firmly clutching his ears to drown out the voices of Bigweld 2.0.

<“Then it turns out that Barbossa was the woman's--”> Bigweld 2.0 would have continued to torture Ani with that relentless bombardment of spoilers, when suddenly, they Convoy Leader's transmission flooded the comms.

“Alert! Shields up, shields up! We have Imperial vessels to our starboard side. Escorts, defend the transports as we plot the jump to lightspeed.”

Nothing was said for the next few moments, nothing needed to be said at all. Annan Anakin Rainwalker immediately opened himself to the Light Side of the Force, a serene but determined expression on his face. Bigweld 2.0 forgot all about pirate movies and spoilers, promptly slipping into security and tactical analysis mode as he assumed his position in the cockpit next to O.M.5., who, glitchy circuits overloaded, frantically swung his three arms about in work as he localized the Imperial vessels and implemented Bigweld 2.0's strategically planned out instructions.

<“Mesudiye Effulgence,”> Bigweld pressed the comm-button and contacted Zulara over on the other freighter. <“Approach Outland 01's starboard side and man the guns on your starship,”> Bigweld 2.0 instructed, as he picked up a comm receiver from the cockpit and inserted it into his audioreceptor. Giving the Jedi Knight in the co-pilot seat a nod, Bigweld 2.0 himself got out of the cockpit to man the quad laser turrets of their own YT-2000.

Jedi Rainwalker's mechanical hands clasped the controls tightly as he assisted O.M.5 in steering his Mahmudiye astarboard of Outland 02, in his peace-loving nature silently hoping that Master Buggie's ship would successfully finish plotting their jump before there were any casualties.

“Remember, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force,” he heard a voice, one of the murmurs of the Force around him as he mentally caressed it, it was inside him, speaking to him; and Jedi Rainwalker's green eyes glistened as they took on a faraway look. The Force was with him, he could feel it, and he was ready to face down this threat, should it come down to it.

[Zechs Merquise]

The jump ended in a much splendid fashion. The stars of the vast beyond tickled forth against the black heart of space. The gentle hum of the TIEs systems floundered under the swaying of colorful alerts of less than welcoming guests in this stellar neighborhood. What might have been didn't registered in the what was. Instead, the call to action sounded from the lead ship.

Zechs snapped his TIE around. He brought himself to bear on the soon to be troubled troublemakers of trouble in this turbulent tangent of space. A delay was asked by their glorious convoy leader. A delay they could provide.

His TIE with an XJ falling in its wake broke free from the slower craft. A bit of thrust they put forth to offer some mild separation and offer, perhaps, a second more of stalling. It was far from an elegant maneuver. It seemed sluggish compared to the expert dances of old, but it got them in the direction they needed to be pointed in a timely manner. The rest would tend to itself once the infernal was passed between crafts.

[Rhoden Carbine]

Rhoden threw the freighter into a sharp turn as the hostiles came out of hyperspace. The positioning may have been off, but not too terribly. The Starwing swerved around and took up position beside the freighter.

"Here they are, doesn't look like too terrible a challenge." Rhoden said, which was stretching the truth for as far as he could tell they were at best evenly matched. Rhoden's grip hardened as he adjusted his course slightly, the fighter escorts he could leave to the others, he would be targeting the other YT freighters.

Rhoden checked the missiles, ready to fire. Jorvan confirmed his readiness on the ion cannon, and Haly gave Rhoden a nod from the copilot's seat. "Combat ready." Rhoden said.

[Master Buggie]

((OOC: Sorry guys, I wanted to keep going because this is a lot of fun, but the responsible thing to do is let you know that Jay rolled this and determined that the interception has failed. The convoy may proceed as planned, but that doesn't mean we can't make a fun fight out of it!))

[Lady Kota]

When they jumped out she was ready and began to go to combat. She started to fire on the first ship she saw within her sights. Her other ship started to fire on another ship. Kota hoped it would be successful, but she wasn't sure.