Outland Mining - Flight 1218 - Blue Star Pirates

[Master Buggie]

((OOC: Interception fails. Convoy may proceed as planned.))

[Rane DeCola]

The Destitute Spacer had made the jump to hyperspace safely along with the rest of the Outland Mining convoy. Rane was pleased that he had completed his part to help ensure that the convoy was successful, but knew that security would still be critical once the small fleet of freighters arrived at the convoy's final destination.

"Don't worry Captain. I'm just about finished with the security plan for your review for our offload. I'll have them to you within the hour."

"Good to hear Mr. DeCola," said Captain Molo. "Perhaps you'd like to review our hyperspace course, so that you might be able to involve yourself in route planning for our next convoy."

"It'd be my pleasure captain."

As he looks over the route, Rane notes that the planner has been meticulous in avoiding several choke points and obvious places where the Sith or Imperials could have sprung an ambush from along the course of the convoy's travels. It was apparent that the convoy had gone to great lengths not to be intercepted, which further reinforced to Rane that it was critical that he continue to execute with the same level of operational security that had been expected when he was a member of the Alliance's Starfighter Corp.

"Whomever put this route together really knows their stuff," Rane commented.

"Yes Mr. DeCola, and because of that, we'll all sleep soundly this evening."

The thought of sleep was very entertaining to Rane, but he would not rest yet. He had to finish the plans. There was still a lot of work to be done.

[Ben Kenobi]

Docking clamps thundered aloud as the shuttle slammed into the docking harness of the lead BFF-1 of the Kalidor flight group. Mag-locks engaged whilst the airlock was established and sealed. By the time Ben arrived the door was wide open and the loading droid was already offending the corridor which Ben had to hop over to achieve sanctuary within his own ship. The intercom was already announcing an alert tone of the proximity of enemy vessels in the vicinity, with no real means of defense, Ben realized they were about to be in some very hot water.

He rushed to the cockpit where the pilot droids skittered away from his prevue of the situation. The scanners were reading the motion of the enemy contacts aggressively approaching on the high end of the elevation scale and fast. As swift as the contacts were detected and identified by the scanners, Ben’s hands were dancing over the control panel and the drives of the Kalidor Freight ships pulsed into motion at 100% thrust.

“Apologies for the rush, but we need to break the gravity well as soon as we can, your flight back to the surface will be a bit longer but as soon as you’re unloaded you’ll need to detach and be away from us, we’ll be entering hyperspace in just a few minutes!” Ben’s report to the shuttle pilot was stern, he wasn’t about to allow the pilot to argue the situation and so he cut the comm.-line and focused forward on the situation at hand which was developing rather nicely, all things considered.

While yes, they had enemy fighters on an intercept course, their extreme range meant they’d not be able to catch the convoy before it escaped the planet’s gravity well. He was certainly relieved of this though he wasn’t going to challenge chance. His hand played over the controls and the BFF-1’s shields kicked on, engulfing the freighter in its bubble of protection. Looking down to see the navicomputer was already processing the jump point, a blue glowing buoy appeared over the canopy, projected digitally by the navicomputer as a representation of where the jump point actually was.

With a final green light that the shuttle had successfully detached after downloading its cargo, Ben delivered a sigh of relief as he engaged the hyperdrive and the pair of BFF-1 freighters shot away into the darkness…

[Master Buggie]

**Outer Rim Territories**
**Thanium Sector, Tobali System, R-6**
**Rhen Var, Outer Orbit**

One after another, the convoy's transports emerged from hyperspace, the stars serving as a twinkling backdrop for the frozen orb of Rhen Var in the distance. The convoy had reached the safety of Galactic Alliance territory after passing through several Imperial and Sith-held systems. The Tobali system, which was the home to Rhen Var, a solitary planet with no moons, was a salient of sorts, jutting into the territory commonly recognized as being under Imperial control. There was no Galactic Alliance fleet to greet them in this system, as one might expect. Instead, the standard system patrols could be picked up on the sensors, primarily centered around a small space station that orbited Rhen Var. If Buggie looked hard enough, he could just make out the silhouette of a Kaloth Cruiser against the pure white of the planet.

Engaging his shipboard communications system, Buggie hailed the Kaloth Cruiser, The Dark Reaver, which had been scheduled to rendezvous with the convoy and pick up their haul of cargo taken from the Gordian Reach. Upon confirmation of the ship's identity, Buggie hailed the rest of the convoy, letting them know that they should get into position to commence the docking operations.

With that, Buggie sat back in the pilot's seat and let out a breath. The journey through the Gordian had been uneventful, save for their hasty departure. While the convoy hadn't been tagged for inspection along the way, Buggie wasn't willing to risk another journey along the same route. The convoy had clearly prepared an insufficient escort for this haul, and even a standard Imperial or Sith patrol might have overtaken them if they had decided to pull them in for inspection. Where the cargo he was hauling ended up now was at the discretion of the Pirate Council. After the latest streak of failed shipments, Buggie was glad to have a successful journey under his belt again. As for his next adventure, he predicted it wouldn't be long before he was back in hostile territory, trying to slip once more beyond the supervision of enemy patrols.

[Rane DeCola]

**Outer Rim Territories**
**Thanium Sector, Tobali System, R-6**
**Rhen Var, Outer Orbit**

The Destitute Spacer came out of hyperspace along with the rest of the Outland Mining convoy.

“Nothing on either short or long range scanners captain, except for the rest of the convoy of course.”

“Excellent, keep an eye out. While we may have avoided any unfortunate entanglements up to this point, let’s hope things continue to stay quiet.”

Rane nods in agreement with Captain Molo and continues monitoring the scanners. He is thankful that the convoy has successfully arrived at the appointed coordinates on time and unscathed, but he knows that it will continue to be a struggle for any pirated shipments to make it through to some of the heavily patrolled and isolated areas of the galaxy without some additional friendly support. While this was his first time crewing aboard a ship that was a part of a convoy of this size and affiliation, it re-awakened something inside of Rane that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

He feels like he is beginning to belong again.

[Ben Kenobi]

Emerging from hyperspace in a loose formation came the pair of BFF-1 Bulk Freighters approximately four kilometers distant to the rear of Outland Flight. In all honestly four kilometers was nothing in the span of a millisecond at lightspeed and thanks to pinpoint accuracy on the part of the navicomputer and linked assets within the convoy, not a single mishap was seen. Instead, the crews of the Kalidor Freight vessels were enjoying their moments of short reprieve; yes they’d been engaged by hostiles but only too late and their thrill of adrenaline had yet to subside save for Ben and Asori who both knew very well that next time they may not be so fortunate.

After all, if the Imperials had launched from their berth only three or five minutes prior then they would have had the convoy trapped within the grip of the planet’s gravity well. Whatever the cause for this delay, Ben Kenobi was ever thankful for it, for their escorts today had been slim in number and his experience in the Alliance Navy years ago reminded him that the Empire was no push over in an extra-orbital engagement. Very likely it wouldn’t have gone well for their escort and they’d have been boarded.

Pressing these thoughts away he swiveled around to face the HUD of the bridge. On its face a Kaloth Cruiser was displayed with an open transponder tag which allowed vessels to scan it from afar. When the identification came in he was pleased to see that just as planned the Blue Star Pirates had shown up exactly where they were supposed to be.

Soon enough a set of docking plans were transmitted to the freighters and within moments Ben and Asori had their BFF-1’s cruising respectively towards the Kaloth that the final transfer of goods could be polished off and this day could be called to conclusion.