And Ask Questions Later

[Mara]

(((Okay, so this is the thread for those who are signed up in this thread.
I believe the plan to start in space, so I'm skim through the boring stuff of us getting the cargo and get right to the action...)))




[...from One Thing Leads to Another]


The Crimson Requiem, a red-painted Vector-class from the small unknown Ypsilian Ship Engineering was increasing speed, about to leave the atmosphere of Umgul behind, the Balosar Pak Har'endanno at its helm, alone in the cockpit. He always preferred to do things himself even though the ship had a perfectly capable autopilot. There was just no replacing the feel of the yoke in his hands, the rush of adrenaline as the thrusters picked up speed. No other feeling like it in the world. The only other experience that Pak could compare the rush of flying to was one he had never fully gotten a chance to have--pure and utter love for a woman.

There was no real reason for him to be departing the planet so quickly except for that he just enjoyed flying fast. That, and Umgul just wasn't one of his favorite planets. Before earlier that day he had never been there and now already hated it. But then again, Pak disliked a lot of things lately. Beings. The galaxy. His life in general. Things were beginning to look up, though. At least, better than they were.

He and his new "business partner" Rogarr Clawfere had just picked up a shipment of cargo from a hangar down in Umgul City. Pak wasn't entirely sure what was in all those containers now sitting in his cargo hold, but he didn't care. The Amaran was taking care of all the business side of things. Pak was just acting as the transport. It was an agreement they could both live with, coming to terms upon meeting each other back on Ylesia the week before.

Once he had finally accepted the offer to go in 50-50 with the Amaran--it was hard to pass up a 10K payday--Rogarr had immediately gone to make arrangements with the being who wanted his cargo transported from Umgul back to his home base on Nar Shaddaa. Based on the high payment, Pak was willing to bet that the boxes they were going for was more then likely under the radar. High prices usually meant a being was paying for discretion.

The two of the had met up again to go over the directions, landing codes and security codes to get the cargo. Pak only paid attention to which planet he was going to, which city he was landing in. Either way, their plans were set, and he couldn't back out now. No matter what, he was going on this job with a being he barely knew. But he was used to taking certain risks in life, and this one seemed warranted.

On the day of departure Pak had quickly given Rogarr a tour of the ship and then left him alone to his own devices. The Balosar was severely protective of his ship, but he was certain the Amaran wouldn't harm anything, being a pilot himself. Despite his large cargo hold on the Requiem, it couldn't accommodate a ship like Rogarr's and so the Amaran had set it up remotely, not wanting to leave it behind on Ylesia. Pak was a little suspicious of such, but was willing to get the fellow the benefit of a doubt. If the little fighter tried to shoot down the Requiem, the red ship had more than enough firepower to fight back. Their relationship had some give and take in it now. If Rogarr wanted to see his ship remain in one piece, he needed to make sure the job went smoothly. If Pak wanted his share of the credits, he had to give Rogarr enough freedom to get the job done. All in all, Pak figured it was win-win. Plus, if anything did go awry, he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Pak had no idea how Rogarr actually spent the travel time from Ylesia to Umgul. He himself had spent most of it in the cockpit watching the elongated stars whisk by, a bottle of the liquor the Amaran had brought to their first meeting in his hand. It was a relatively short trip since the two planets weren't all that far apart, only requiring one standard night before they arrived the next morning. Then, Pak had left the cockpit briefly to get a couple hours sleep in his cabin before returning to the controls. With the hyperdrive engine engaged, he didn't really need to be up there, but he had a certain compulsion to want to be around in case anything happened, though this ship was perfect in his eyes.

Once the ship was down on planet, he had followed Rogarr's lead to the right storage hangar. Something that had been easier said than done. The units in Umgul City were less than new; most of them so worn down with age that it was difficult to tell which number was what. But after looking around, they decided that they had found the correct one. Strangely, they hadn't needed the provided codes because the hangar was unlocked. Rogarr hadn't seemed disturbed by it, though, since the right amount of cargo boxes in the right sizes were inside. Quickly they loaded them up and got back in the sky.

Where now the red ship was streaking towards space, the atmosphere now behind it. Pak had already set in the coordinates for Nar Shaddaa, but needed to get out of the planet's gravity well before switching to hyperspace. Just a few minutes more, at the speed he was going, and he should have his window. The hard part was over; now they just had to deliver the goods and collect their large payday. If only all his previous jobs had been this easy. Or well-paying.

Before, he had been thinking of quitting the smuggling and transport business. But now, his confidence was up. Things couldn't be any better, relatively speaking. The only thing that could make it better would be for Shenhua to appear. His ship was a comparable replacement, though. And he was thoroughly enjoying having his hands on her controls, Umgul slowly getting smaller in the viewports if anyone was looking from the common area.

Pak smiled as he increased thrusters a bit more, feeling himself press a little more into the back of his seat. This was the life...




EDITED: Slight edit re: Rogarr's ship to match better with current thread/past thread.

[Jazen]

Shine was a very hard man to upset, even now when he basically had been robbed. Not the normal kind of robbed, where a person was knocked out or run into and their wallets stolen. It wasn't a stand up robbery either, where someone held you at gun or knife point and took everything they could. No, this was a robbery of a much different kind. This was the robbery of one's job and livelihood.

A few hours earlier, Shine had received a request from an unknown party about a simple job they had. And indeed it had been simple. Fly to Umgal, pick up a supply of crates located at a certain hangar and then deliver them to Nar Shadda. And the job paid fairly well for such an easy task. There were outside factors to consider, but Shine had been going over them as the cilent had explained the details. As far as he was concerned, the job looked legit. Well, as legit as a smuggling job could look. So, after informing his new crewmates of their first job, Shine had punched in the coordinates for Umgal, kicked the hyperdrive into gear and they were on their way.

For the trip, Shine had mostly slept, locking the cockpit off from the rest of the ship. Not that he thought his new friends would slit his throat while he slept, but because this was the time that Shine liked. Being alone with his ship, letting the lights of space drift him into a deep sleep. It was like being in the cockpit of a fighter again, enclosed and alone, waiting for the moment you needed to spring into action. As time passed, Shine's mind floated on the state of his new crew. Jaheira was nice enough and easy to talk to, but she seemed to keep him at a distance all the time. Perhaps she had a previous experience with a man that had ended poorly, resulting in her natural dislike of them. He'd look into that later if he could. As for Ryder/Taym, there wasn't much to say. The droid had barely left the room it had been given, instead choosing to remain in seclusion for now. Odd, but so was meeting a droid that had dual personalities like they had.

A beeping sound had woken him from his sleep, alerting him that they had arrived. Carefully entering Umgal's atmosphere, Shine groaned as they passed through the thick mist to the location listed in the message. However, when they entered the hangar, they found that not only was the door wide open, but the crates they were suppose to get were gone as well. Shine had to clench his fist to avoid striking the wall, more out of disappointment that he had failed his first task with his new mates. Great for crew morale it was, not earning the money to put food on the table. Shine was about to call the cilent and alert them of the news when he saw another ship, this one exiting from the hangar opposite the one they were in. Eying the ship, Shine watched it shoot off at high speed towards orbit and something in him clicked.

Signaling to the others to, Shine had run full strength back to the Cat, booting up the engines via remote as he approached. As soon as they were all aboard, Shine had kicked the ship off the ground and launched it off into the sky, following the same path from their hangar as the other ship; straight up and out. The mist blocked his view for a few moments but his ship soon shot clear of it, exiting into the darkness of space once again. His sensors picked up one ship, near to his location, exiting the planet's orbit at high speed. Locking onto the ship, Shine swung the ship around to follow it, making sure the guns were ready just in case the pilot decided to make this an unfriendly meeting. The ship was still outside of comm range, so Shine pushed the engines more until he was gaining on the larger ship. Now, if only he could think of a way out of this without risking his ship, their ship or the cargo.

[P.L.U.R.]

Jaheira felt isolated. The captain had locked himself piloting the ship and the android was off somewhere doing whatever. Thank god. Jaheira loved it. She stayed in her quarters and layed in her bed listening to the small hums and creaks of the ship as they traveled. She changed positions every so often and pretty much tried to spend the time clearing her mind and mentally preparing for the job they had ahead of them. This was going to be the first job she worked under this Shine guy so she had to make sure she didn't screw up anything.

When she felt the ship going through a landing procedure she stood herself up and readied herself quickly. Not that she wasn't already ready. She exited her quarters and went towards the exit to meet up with Shine and the droid. She nodded at Shine to tell him she was ready and simply followed im towards a hanger he said that the shipment would be. She entered in behind Shine and the droid and simply stopped in the doorway. She smirked and raised an eyebrow when she saw that there was no shipment to be delivered.

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about break a sweat, now do I?" Jaheira said with a chuckle and in disbelief. She wasn't so much mad at Shine, she was just surprised. She knew the guy would of known better than to take a false job of some sorts, or bait for smuggler busting. It seemed like the day wouldn't be over yet though. Shine had his eye on something and then signaled them to get back on board.

She had to run fast, but luckily for her it wasn't too hard. But the guy and the droid did beat her back to the ship which was sort of annoying, but either way they all arrived relatively at the same time. She didn't hold anyone back. Aboard the ship Jaheira walked towards the cockpit which seemed to have been left open in the hustle and bustle of catching this thief ship that took their paycheck away from them.

"Well there goes dinner," Jaheira said as she watched the ship ahead that Shine had locked in on. The ship was too far away it seemed, or something or another. She wasn't familiar with all that stuff, she didn't know how to pilot, and wasn't really in the ball park of interest to learn for the most part. Maybe later if she ever wanted to just run her own crew for once, but that didn't sound likely. She felt the ship pick up in speed and she looked at Shine who seemed quite determined. Hell, she was ready to just give up and move on to the next job, but somehow she felt that wouldn't be happening. "Looks like they are going to get the cat's fury in a minute," Jaheira said with a sly grin.

[Foxfire]

The time from Coruscant to Umgul was what all trips were like for the two of them, boring. While Ryver rolled around the empty hall ways of the ship via the remote ball droid quietly and silently Taym checked their systems looking for ways of improvement and error removal. Rolling around the halls gave Ryver the time away and needed information on and about the ship. The gun placements, the dining hall, maintenance, cargo, the pilot's cabin though locked, and the other sundries needed for a ship of this size.

Ryver even found the cabin of the other crew member. Stopping to use a scope to see inside. What she saw was unimpressive. The other crew member a female just laid around listened to music or holo-recordings awaiting for land fall. Speaking of which.

Ryver/Taym neither were impressed by the area about where they were to pick up their cargo. Old buildings and even older security systems. While the captain and the other crew member walked to the storage hanger Ryver noticed two robberies and one murder that happened in the shadows of neighboring hangers.

When they reached the hanger and found that the hanger was empty, Taym remotely tried tie into the computer system only to find the system to old for this function. Then the captain and the other female turned and started back to the ship. Ryver kept pace with the captain, while Taym tied into a non-secured long distance scanning system. Finding that a ship was burning the atmo for space and the ship was running heavy.

Taym-
Why is there always running?

All entered the ship and Ryver turned them to find an outside source of the ship. Taym had a time hacking into the computer system, but once again found that the garbage dump files and system were unprotected gaining access to external sensors and weapons. Of course the captain left the weapon systems loose as to not provoke the other ship so Ryver left them till needed. All they could do was wait and see which ship was faster.

[Cirith An'Gol]

((OOC: Sorry folks, I thought Mara was going to post in One Thing Leads to Another one more time. My bad.))


[...from One Thing Leads to Another]

Rogarr sat comfortably in the Main Hold where he and Pak had first shared drinks and talked business. He didn't think it would be right for him to be in the Balosar's bridge, it was almost a invasion of privacy, especially considering how much the Balosar seemed to care for this ship based on the subtle actions and expressions the Amaran had beem able to read. He'd told the Captain of the Requiem that he wouldn't be leaving his ship behind but, had thought that maybe the Balosar hadn't heard him because of the lack of response. ]It could have been there was nothing to comment on too Rogarr reasoned within the confines of his head. From time to time he checked on the flight plan of his now AI piloted fighter The Stinger.

Vera, his Artificial Intelligence, followed Pak's ship at a discreet but still within her scanner range, distance. Rogarr had no idea what this ships sensors and scanners were capable of. So, he had no idea if the Balosar read the small craft pursueing them or not. Rogarr also flipped to a viewport visual from within his fighter, thanks to the link up program Vera had uploaded before their departure. Rogarr had no doubt that he could probably pilot the craft from his datapad, given the proper programs ofcourse. Since he didn't have those programs at this moment though, he had to trust in the well made programming of Vera.

It was a relief when they came out of hyperspace and then set down on Umgol's surface. He programmed Vera to fly in a wide and lazy circle at a high orbiting position until they were done picking up the cargo. As expected, the cargo his employer gave coordinates to was right where it should have been but, the numbered script was so old and rust covered that it was illegible. This concerned Rogarr a little but, after making sure of the dimensions of the cargo, he dismissed his doubts. Soon enough they were burning atmosphere again and preparing to enter hyperspace to deliver the goods on Nar Shaddaa.

He programmed Vera to come into a relatively close position, an escort position and as expected the gold and black fighter climbed rapidly and took up position along side the Requiem. Rogarr detected on The Stinger's sensors that a ship had broken atmo a moment after they had and was climbing rapidly. Rogarr didn't think anything of it, just another ship heading off to do their bit of business he thought. Something told him to keep his eye on the ship nonetheless. Rogarr had survived this long by trusting his gut feelings and so he obeyed his insticts, keeping a wary eye on his fighter's sensors to see if the ship powered weapons.

[Mara]

(((I am gonna post there again, Cirith. Just wanted to get this thread going so the others didn't have to wait too much longer.
For which I apologize for my lateness of this post.)))



A beeping brought Pak out of his thoughts and forced him to look away from the viewscreen and down to his console. This ship was still relatively new to him, and it would be a few days yet before he knew her by heart. This was an unfamiliar sound to him, but after he figured it out, he knew it could be one he would hear a lot. Another ship was approaching from behind, gaining speed. Its signature was registering larger than that of his partner's small fighter. And from the way it was gaining on their six, Pak had the sinking suspicion that this ship was heading towards them on purpose, and not just one of the dozens of other freighters coming to and from Umgul.

He set his jaw and refocused on his flying, pushing the thrusters a little more. The Balosar was not about to let this job go awry, not when everything was going so well so far. Pak would not let he and his partner be easy targets for pirates, not on this day. His ship had weapons a-plenty, but right now he preferred to just run for it. Only a couple hundred more klicks and he could vanish into hyperspace. And right now that was looking much more better than turning back around and fighting, defending his cargo, which he was pretty sure the other ship was after.

But Pak was getting a feeling, with another glance at his console, that this might not be as easy as just outrunning another ship, racing towards to hyperspeed. A small part of his mind was wondering if painting his ship matte red had been a good idea. But he couldn't think about that any more at the time. He had to think of some way to get more distance between him and the potential pirates now on his tail. And only one idea came to the former fighter pilot.

Not knowing where in the Requiem Rogarr was, Pak engaged the whole comm system. "Uh, hey there, Rog... you might want to strap in if you aren't already. We're running into a small problem up here. Nothing to worry about. Should be hitting hyperspace in a few minutes... Hang tight." The Balosar just hoped he wasn't lying to the Amaran as he closed off the intership comm and turned his attention back to his flying. Despite having just met the guy, he didn't like breaking promises.

With everything else taken care of, though, Pak did what he knew best: he took the Requiem into evasive maneuvers as if being chased by an enemy fighter back in his military days. The Vector was a surprisingly agile ship for its size, perhaps helped by its angled design. It was time to for some fancy flying, because with all he knew, the other smaller ship could have better engines than his own. Having only had his ship for a few weeks, it was still all stock. And he had no idea what his pursuer was capable of. Better to outwit, than to outrun.

"Here goes nothing..." he muttered to himself as he tightened his own restraints and gripped the yoke more tightly and yanked it to the right, taking his ship on a starboard barrel role. If he could just surprise the other ship for just long enough, get enough distance between him and the guns the other ship was sure to have... he would have a better chance at escape. And to get to Nar Shaddaa and complete the job and get his credits.

After the barrel role, he pulled his ship into a near vertical dive before straightening out again, and opening up full throttle on pre-set hyperspace vector. Without anyone near enough for his antennapalps to sense, he was feeling a little light-headed, but a quick gulp of the liquor bottle--as he left only one hand on the yoke--fixed everything, calmed him back down. Refocused his attention. Just about a hundred klicks to go until it was safe to jump. Pak hoped they would be able to make it.

[Jazen]

((We love ya for it Mara XD And don't worry about being late, we understand you a busy lady.))

Shine watched carefully the ship ahead of them, doing basic calculations in his head as he pushed the engines harder. At the ship's current speed, it would soon break free of the planet's gravity field and be able to make the jump to hyperspace. If it did that, Shine still had a chance to catch it, but it would take all the luck in the world. There were so many different places a ship could jump to on this vector and thousands of ways they could go from there. If that ship made the jump, then bam, everything would be gone. So he had to catch that ship.

Movement behind him made him turn but for a second, eying Jaheira. In his rush he hadn't noticed she had followed him up into the cockpit. Sloppy in a way but for now, it didn't matter. He cast her a small grin in response to her comment about letting out the Cat' Fury. And that was quite possible, considering the ship had some impressive armaments stored within her. Dual cannons on top and bottom, along with a concussion missile launcher were available to him if he wanted to blast the ship slowly getting away from him. But that wouldn't solve the problem of his missing cargo; only one way to approach this matter then. Motioning with his hand to Jaheira to take the navigation chair, Shine flicked on the ship's inner comm.

"I'd rather not blast our meal ticket to oblivion although it would give me a chance to actually test out the new stuff. Ry-Ta, I need you to go to the engine room and see if you can boost the power of the engines. I think we have the edge there, but we need to get closer faster or the ship will break into hyperspace before we get within comm or weapon range. And be quick about it please."

Flicking off the comm, Shine focused on keeping up with the ship, which was harder to do than he thought. The ship was strangely nimble for its size and right before Shine's eyes, it snapped into a barrel roll. The sheer brilliance of it caught him off guard, and even he had to admit how impressive the move had been. But he snapped out of his distraction quickly. Snapping the Cat to the side, Jazen tilted the ship to follow, just barely keeping the craft in view. It was getting closer and closer to the safe zone. Groaning, Shine pushed the engines to the max they could go, hoping Ry-ta would be able to give them an extra push. In the meantime, he had to attempt to stall the other ship a different way.

"Okay Jaheira, two things you can do. One, activate the guns and be ready to move to them if the ship opens fire. The second is to try and calculate where they would go from here. Don't care how, just give me a guess on what planets they most likely would head for. I know its not your forte, but I'm sure it'll be a good learning experience."

Sending her another grin of confidence, Shine turned on the comm and set it to broadcast on all channels, hoping they were close enough for them to hear it.

"Unknown vessel currently outbound from Umgul, this is Shine Albartos of the Black Cat. The craft behind you, if that wasn't obvious. Now I know this looks bad, us suddenly chasing you but I think you may have picked up our order my mistake. So, if you could slow down, maybe we could talk about this situation we find ourselves in."[/i]

[Foxfire]

Ryver/Taym heard the coms and moved toward the engins without a word. Upon arriving at the engin room they found it a mess. Though the engine had up grades Taym could hear the imbalance of it.

Bhaa.... Pilotes. They think that once installed it fix's it self. There is much work to do.

Shut up and get fixin' will ya!

Eh? A to Ryer-cliese? Now I thought you were diffirent. Oh well and here I thought I was the mascline persona.

Taym went quickly over to the engine comps and rerouted the energy flow from the life supports of the engine room to the engines and also he stole energy that was for his room and all but the main energy that feed the kitchen. Ryver mentioned busting the engine by rerouting the weapons energy as well, atlest until they were needed. Then manually recallibrated the engine balance to maximum. Also he noticed fuel flow trouble. Who ever worked on the engines last wanted this ship to run slow and eat the full like a starved Hutt-ling. Now with the engine running slightly better at lest with out a shut down and full retune that was all Taym could do.

[P.L.U.R.]

Jaheira noticed that Shine had took a slightly movement outside of the norm of piloting out of the peripheral vision of hers and looked at him. He was grinning at her and Jaheira rolled her eyes. This man here, would she get used to his little quirky male antics. The antics she learned to hate so much, it was a pain in her stomach. He was her employer though, and so she had to deal, which she pretty much had trained herself to do for the most part, she was taking park in questionable activity to begin with. That was something of a cope also.

She looked down at the navigation chair and then looked back at him questioningly. Too late, he was busing himself talking to the robot now over the inner comms. She stared at the navigation chair for a moment. Did he really think she could do this? Hell, she might even hit the button that self destructs them without even knowing what she did. Flushing the toilet for all she knew she might be doing. A quick jerk in the ship caused Jaheira and stumble forward and grab onto the chair for stability. She slid her body into the chair quickly and looked down at her panel. It seemed pretty simple enough with buttons labeled and what not. But as she started to scan more and more of the buttons and controls available to her she felt a bit nervous. Man, this guy was out of his mind laying it on her like this.

She turned and listened to his orders. Okay activate guns, sounded easy, but get ready to open counter fire? Oh god, not that crap again! Jaheira nodded smirked in a less than pleased fashion as she heard the rest of her orders and turned to the control panel. There was no getting around it, she leaned over the panel and quickly started to going through the procedure in powering up the guns and getting them armed and ready for battle.

Well it seemed pretty easy, she did run into a few wrong turns in her navigation of turning on the guns, but she got in pretty quick, within a couple of minutes. That wasn't so bad. She smirked smugly, shoot, if this was how easy it was to pilot than she could handle this job solo like quite well.

Well, that's what she thought until it came time to calculate. She could hear Shine trying to communicate with the other ship. She was busy pressing buttons and trying to pull up diagrams of the galaxy mapped out. What was all this, she didn't understand. She started messing around deeper trying to triangulate or circulate their distances, but all this flying around kept making the numbers bounce all around.

"Damn! I can't very well calculate anything with constant reading changes!" Jaheira said as she looked frantically over everything. What the hell was he expecting her? Some instant mathematicians business? Taking a deep breath and clenching her fist she was becoming frustrated with this whole system altogether. Then she finally spotted what she believed she was looking for. There was Umgul. There seemed to only be a possible three planets nearby to run to. It was hit or miss at this point, she either had read it correctly or wrongly, and an answer was better than none.

"Naboo, Vondarc, or...Malastare. I think! I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but if this is Umgul then it should be right!" Jaheira yelled out loud to Shine. It wasn't like he was that far from her, but after being frustrated in having to rush in such a situation. He hadn't even taught her any basics of this crap, she was pushing buttons randomly. She leaned back and just stared at the panel. So help him if he asks her for anything more.

[Cirith An'Gol]

"Uh, hey there, Rog... you might want to strap in if you aren't already. We're running into a small problem up here. Nothing to worry about. Should be hitting hyperspace in a few minutes... Hang tight."

Pak said as his instruments undoubtedly picked up the same thing, Rogarr's sensory readings from his prized snub-fighter, The Stinger told him. They were being followed by another ship. Then a few seconds later Rogarr felt the deck beneath him pitch as Pak spun the Requiem into a starboard barrel role, then climbed vertically in an attempt to undoubtedly suprise and put space between the two ships.

Rogarr decided that it was probably best if he was on the bridge with Pak, and so decided to unstrap himself and walk to the bridge. He got there a few minutes later, thankfully unharmed. "Hey Pak, have they tried to make contact with us? Because if they're not pirates then maybe we can talk this thing out. Annd I can always distract them with my fighter so we can make a clean get-away if they do happen to be pirates" Rogarr said as he strapped himself into a seat on the bridge. Just in case it was the latter, and they were indeed pirates, Rogarr sent a command to his AI, Vera, to slow the fighter down and drop back behind their pursuers if they charged their weapons.

Almost immediately Rogarr saw the distance slowly start to slip between The Stinger and Pak's ship. Now all there was to do was wait to see what the other ship would do.

[Mara]

In his mind's eye, Pak could see the meter running down as his ship continued towards the invisible line that meant he was past Umgul's gravity well and would be safe to slip into hyperspeed. His focus was entirely on that now; no longer was he even thinking about the other ship that was so obviously chasing him for unknown reasons, no was he paying attention to his partner's small fighter that was also tagging along. His pale blue eyes stared unblinkingly through the cockpit viewport, his hands steady on the control yoke, feet leaden on the thruster pedals. Almost there...

With his consciousness busy elsewhere, he had no knowledge that the other ship was slowing gaining ground on him. Or that it had activated its weaponry. No locks on him yet, but if he didn't notice that fact soon, it could be too late. He might not have enough time to react if he didn't realize it soon enough, even with his Balosar ghetto- and Republic-trained reflexes.

He might not even have noticed the blinking light on his comm board if it wasn't for his new partner Rogarr coming into the cockpit to interrupt him. Briefly he took his eyes off what he was doing and glanced at the Amaran before turning back to his piloting. "No." He said in answer to Rogarr's second idea. "Keep your ship out of the way for now. Just in case things go bad." Though he wasn't exactly happy that the other had deemed it necessary to take his fighter along either as babysitting duty or some lack of trust in spaceport officials or whatever, Pak was realizing now that perhaps it was a good thing. If things did go bad, if for some reason that ship got to him before he could escape... it was better to have a surprise to show at the last minute instead of showing all your cards at once.

And with his mind partially distracted for the moment while talking to his new Amaran friend, he noticed it then--he was receiving a message. He had shut down the comm system earlier, but it was still alerting him of some kind of general message in the area. Likely that it was from the other ship barreling down after him. It hadn't looked official; in fact, Pak wasn't even sure that Umgul had much of a security patrol. His earlier conclusion, and Rogarr's as well was that they had to be pirates or other some such. But talk to them?

Pak groaned and jabbed the button to hear the message. He had a distinct feeling he wouldn't like it, but just listening to it couldn't hurt. There was no obligation that he had to actually reply to it. Besides, like Rogarr said, perhaps he could reason with the other vessel. Somehow.

A sharp laugh escaped his mouth as he heard the message. It was so ridiculous that he had to listen a second time before shutting the comm off again. He had grabbed the wrong cargo? His partner had been sure that they had gotten the right hangar. Pak didn't even bother thinking that Rogarr was some kind of traitor. He might be a lot of things but not that. There hadn't been any sense even close to betrayal that he had sensed when speaking with the Amaran later. No, Rogarr didn't set him up. Both of them had truly believed they had the right cargo. And he was still sure they did. This had to be a pirate trick.

One that was so funny and transparent that Pak found himself actually replying to the message after a couple of minutes. He double-checked his position and vector and after noticing he was close to being home free, moved his hand to the comm board. "Ahoy, Black Cat. This is the captain of the Crimson Requiem, the beautiful red ship speeding away from you pirate slime. Shoulda picked a slower target, fellas." He laughed. "Ain't no way you're getting close to this baby. Or my cargo. Better luck next time! Pak stabbed the comm, ending his message but keeping it open for a reply. As if it mattered; he was only a dozen klicks from entering hyperspace.

Attention turned back to what he did best, and as if to emphasize his point--after waving for Rogarr to sit in the co-pilot's seat and strap in--he took the Requiem into another maneuver. Instead of keeping heading straight on the quickest line to leave the planet's gravity, he juked and jinked the ship, spinning it around. As if to say to the pirate slime trailing him, "nice try! But I'm the best pilot around!"

[Jazen]

Shine smiled as he felt the ship suddenly accelerate, his sensors showing a massive increase to the power of the engine. He had to admit, having Ry-tam, who could do that request in minutes, was worth all the patience he had to give because of the dual personality thing. Seeing that she was diverting power from other areas of the ship, Shine sealed the cockpit off, just in case Ry-tam accidentally shut off life support in the main area as well. Flicking switches and controls to balance the increase in power, Shine brought the Cat to bear towards the fleeing ship.

The sound of Jaheira fumbling and groaning behind him made Shine turn his head to look at her. Frustration was on her brow, probably from the items Shine had requested her to do. From what he could see though, it wasn't because of the guns that she was upset. It was the navigation information that was causing her to fume. Shine winced, realizing he had asked her to do something she was unfamiliar with. He mentally smacked himself for not checking to see if she knew that kind of stuff first, or better yet, taught her how to. He'd have to remedy that at a later date.

"Alright alright, relax. Sorry about that, I made a bad assumption. I'll make it up to you later. For now, thanks. Have the cannons ready in case they try to make the jump to any of them. Aim for their engines, medium power shots to make sure we don't rip the ship in half. The controls for the aiming systems are there and that dial controls power."

He indicated the two instruments he was talking about with his finger, then turned back to focus on the fleeing ship. He mentally reminded himself to invest in ion cannons and a tractor beam if he could. It would make chasing and stopping ships just that much easier. Course, it would make him look more like a pirate if he did that but you had to give something to get anything in return. Silence followed, Shine's mind locked purely on following the ship in front of him. Had they heard his message and ignored it? Or had they not heard it at all? Knowing he was running out of time, Shine was about to try again when his comm responded.

Even though he tried his best not to, Shine's mouth still dropped in shock at the response. He had to clamp down on his tongue to keep from laughing. They thought he was a pirate! Amazing! True, there was that possibility, but Shine knew only an idiot would think someone trying to hail them politely was a pirate. Pirates only spoke to their prey when they were demanding or acknowledging that they were about to board. In almost all the stories Shine had heard involving pirates, they used weapons to do their talking. So distracted was he by these thoughts that he almost didn't notice the ship, now known as the Crimson Requiem, jerk suddenly to the side. Returning to his state of concentration, Shine jerked the Cat to follow it, diagonally slipping into the Requiem's wake. Flicking the comm switch, Shine decided to try again. First though, he needed to check something.

"Ry-tam, get to the cargo hold and tell me what's in those boxes we had to pick up instead. And go fast, before our guest leaves us in his dust."

Switching over to the same channel he had used to contact them the first time, Shine thought of what to say that might get them to listen.

"Pirates? That hurts you know. First off, if we were pirates, I highly doubt we would have tried talking first; your engines would be bleeding energy instead. Second, have you checked to make sure the cargo you picked up is what you were suppose to collect? Then again, of course you must have. Any smuggler worth being called a smuggler does that before they even leave the ground, so I'm sure you did. I'm just confirming. Being sincere here, I think you have our order and we have yours."

[Foxfire]

Ryver did not respond she just ran to the hold will all their speed. On getting there she slowed them. One hand she riped the weathered crate top off revealing sealed high grade glitter spice. The next crate she opened with less vigor. It contained modified heavy battle rifles and munitions. The smaller crate was not as worn as the other two but held more fast. Taym's logic processors skipped ant seeing the latest Quad-form gel drives. With in the crate was a case locked with an encryption code. Taym locked into the case and cracked the case opening to reveal an holo-chron of an ancient time period. Before putting it back Taym jacked-in and copied the contents.

Ryver speaking-Sir the cargo is on the bingo list. All illegal.

Taym interrupting-Sir you've want to unburden your self with this cargo as soon as possible, It's SITH.

[Cirith An'Gol]

Rogarr held onto his seats arm rests as Pak put the Crimpson Requiem through some agile manuevers, the feeling of the G-forces were better felt up in the co-pilots seat rather than the main hold. In the confines of his fighter he felt every turn, twist and tumble, along with the pressure of the g-forces but, he'd always known that if his seat straps ever failed that he most likely wouldn't go very far. In the co-pilots seat of Pak's ship, the feeling was very different. The knowledge that the spaces in the ship were bigger than he was used to was upon his mind readily. The Requiem was also much faster than he originally thought.

The option of bouncing around the ship if something happened and the straps failed or gave way was foremost on his mind. He pushed the thoughts away, thinking the whole idea rediculous. He smiled as Pak responded to their pursuers but, was suprised a moment later when they responded back. If they were pirates, wouldn't they just attack? Why bother comming us and then responding? Why not just fire on us and board us? Rogarr thought as Pak flew the red freighter, desperately trying to make it to the safe zone for the jump coordinates on his screen.

The more the Amaran thought of the whole situation, the more it bugged him. They can't be pirates, they're not acting like it. They must be legit mercs like us. Could we have picked up the wrong cargo? The numbers were pretty rusty. I could have gotten confused and misread the hangar number. It is possible, I guess Rogarr thought rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Rogarr leaned back in his seat and clenched his fist, his mind made up. If they did have the wrong cargo, then it was an honest mistake, if it wasn't then Rogarr would get to prove himself in battle, whether in space or on the ship. Rogarr didn't particularly want a battle but, if it was going to be unavoidable then there was no use crying about it. "Pak, try and not bump me around too hard. I'm going into the cargo bay and checking the cargo. This doesn't seem right. If they were pirates they would have shot at us by now. I may have accidently grabbed the wrong cargo. I don't think I did but, I better double check in any case" Rogarr waited until Pak leveled out again before getting up and making his way to the cargo bay.

[Mara]

(((FZ has given me permission to skip over PLUR and go ahead with my post))).



Pak couldn't really pinpoint it, but he was feeling the best he had in months. Well, the best he had felt since resigning from Republic Starfighter Command. Since... since his life seemed to suddenly go from vibrantly full to hideously empty. Maybe it was the adrenaline of the current moment, trying to evade what he believed to be superbly stupid pirates. Or maybe it was just the fact that he was flying again, really flying, even though the Requiem wasn't quite as nimble as his old fighter. But whatever it was, he didn't quite want the rush to end right now. Because once he and Rogarr got to Nar Shaddaa, it would be all over again. He'd be alone again. Richer, but alone.

And so he decided not to push his engines too much, slowing them down just a tick. Not enough that the other ship would notice it, but enough that Pak knew he wasn't racing full-tilt towards his hyperspace lane. In fact, all his bouncing the ship around and other maneuvers had actually taken him a bit closer to Umgul's gravity, not farther from it. It wouldn't hurt to have a bit more fun with these silly amateur pirates before he and Rogarr split.

Just to prove his point, as if to say he had all the time in the world to hit his coordinates, wondering if the other ship would actually respond back to him, Pak took the red freighter into another dive, turning it into a backwards 360 and ending up back where he was, but a couple meters lower in position. Once the circuit was complete, he slowly weaved the ship back and forth, as if he was lazily avoiding cannon fire from behind him, though he knew the other hadn't even shot at him yet. The Balosar was actually contemplating turning around and aiming his own weapons at this Black Cat with this what's-his-name Albatross guy and ending everything once and for all. But that would spoil the fun.

His thoughts were interrupted then by the comm, the so-called pirate responding back. The man was trying to explain to Pak that he wasn't a pirate. That he had picked up the wrong cargo. It had to be a lie; there was no other excuse Pak could think of for this other ship to just start chasing him. It was just cargo. You win some, you lose some. It had to be a trick to get Pak to slow down and let the other party board, as they pretended to want to switch loads. No, he wasn't going to let that happen. He--

He looked over at Rogarr as he started speaking, not allowing him to further his idea in his mind. His Amaran partner was actually believing this man in the other ship? Pak was amazed and almost lost his concentration before turning back to pay attention to his flying. Yeah, the boxes were a bit worn, and so was the bay markings, but... Wait... what if it was a mistake?

"Kriff! Er... maybe that is a good idea, Rog. I'll hold steady." Suddenly the idea of getting into a firefight with this strange ship wasn't seeming such a good idea anymore. First this Albatross guy, now Rogarr... yeah, it would be a smart move just to check.

Pak had planned to comm back with some kind of sarcastic smartass comment but decided to hold silent for now while the Amaran went to check. Better to keeping playing the same card for now until he knew what they were all dealing with. He took his ship into a large arc, still keeping distance from the Cat but also keeping himself close to the vector.

This easy job that had seemed so easy the day before wasn't sounding so good anymore. And Pak was beginning to regret this new partnership. The adrenaline rush from earlier was leaving him paranoid and more aware of everything, his attennapalps on overdrive. Now more than ever, he just wanted to get this over with, get his money and leave. Go somewhere and just hide and drink. Drink a lot.

[Jazen]

As Shine waited patiently for Ry-tam to report on their cargo, he kept most of his attention on the Requiem. The ship was continuing on its course for the nearest hyperspace lane, its mass edging ever closer to escaping. As he kept his hands steady on the controls, his cat like eyes watching and responding to every move the ship made, Shine had to appreciate the other captain's skill. The other ship wasn't a starfighter by any means, but he was making moves many wouldn't even think to try in a freighter of that size. Then again, Shine was following suit, so maybe they were both that crazy. Despite the other captain being one of the rudest people Shine had ever met, he got respect for his skill at least.

Shine eyed the ship as it drifted closer to Umgul, weaving slightly just in case the captain finally got fed up with their pursuer and decided to fire. The Cat had shields, but Shine really didn't want to test how much they could take today. The dive would have caught Shine by surprise, had he not been so focused on the craft. He followed it, but drifted down slowly, keeping the ship within his sights. He was a little farther behind the ship when it returned to the spot it had before, but it was still within sight, within reach.Something seemed off though, like there was something the other ship was doing that Shine wasn't seeing. Being a previous starfighter pilot, Shine had learned to trust his instinct as much as his skills. Tilting his head slightly, Shine clicked on the ship's rangefinder, using the weapons systems targeting to identify the target for the rangefinder. The idea wouldn't trigger the enemy ships warning alarm, which was the last thing Shine wanted them to do.

Shine's hunch paid off. It wasn't a great margin, but Shine was slowly gaining on the enemy craft. This could mean any number of things though. The captain could be having doubts about their cargo and was slowing in an attempt to check it out. Or perhaps he was just toying with Shine. No matter what the reason, the fact that he was slowing gave Shine a chance to get closer. And he would gladly take it. He copied the ship's jerking motions, approaching the ship like a starfighter would, keeping the ship firmly locked with its weapons.

Then the ship finally stopped jerking. Shine's eyebrow raised in surprise, but it was then that the in-ship comm pinged and Shine flicked it open without even noticing. The words that came from Ry-tam made him freeze for a moment, but he quickly shook it off. If they were Sith related items, the Jedi would probably want to get a hold of them as soon as possible. Perhaps they would pay better. Then again, if those were the intended cargo for the other ship, then not delivering them could be a death sentence for the failing crew. Shine bit his lip, thinking over the best way to approach this matter. At least now he knew that he had the wrong order; they had been sent to pick up spice, not Sith items. Made him wonder who had sent the other crew. Snapping the ship to ship comm open again, Shine took a breath before speaking.

"This is the Black Cat again. Now, I don't know if you've checked your cargo or even if you care to check your cargo, but I'm telling you this. We came to collect a spice shipment. If that's what is in your cargo, then what I'm sending you will tell you exactly what kind of spice it is and the approximate amount, as per the one who hired us request. Also, a warning about what you were probably sent to collect; its Sith artifacts. I'm not sure why you were sent to collect these but I'm certain of one thing; if you show up to the drop off point and you don't deliver said items, they will probably kill you. Not a threat mind you, but it would be a bad idea to mix up the order then, wouldn't it?"

[Cirith An'Gol]

Rogarr had heard the Captain of the Black Cat loud and clear, and the thought of the cargo they were holding being Sith items, sent shivers down his spine. He'd heard of the Sith ofcourse, everyone had and like everyone he knew, he hoped to never have to meet one.

He'd been led to belive that his cargo would be armor, weapons, survival gear and other items when he'd spoken to his employer and maybe those items were in there, but, there had been no mention of Sith items. The possibility that they'd convientiently left out that little detail came forefront to his mind, and he inclined to believe his instincts. They left that bit out, which means they want the upmost discretion, that or they've got someone else's cargo Rogarr shook that though from his mind, things were hard enough without overthinking the matter. Besides, if he was wrong and that was his actual cargo, they probably would kill him for the mistake. If they were Jedi, they'd probably just reject the cargo and not pay but, that was a verry verry big if. Better safe than sorry Rogarr thought as he walking into the Requiem's cargo bay.

Rogarr did what anyone would do in his situation. He checked their cargo, getting the Captain of Black Cat's dimensions and specifics of their spice on his datapad as Pak relayed the information from the bridge. When Rogarr cracked open the box and took a look inside, there it was, a box full of glittering spice and in the demensions that were specified. The fiery colored Amaran groaned and wiped a fur covered hand over his snout. Pak's not going to like this and I don't blame him. This was supposed to be a cake run Rogarr thought as he headed back up to the bridge.

"Captain, we have a problem" Rogarr said with a sigh "They're telling the truth, the cargo in your hold isn't ours it's their spice". The Amaran flopped into the co-pilot's chair and sighed "Well, atleast we haven't been shot at and this is only a minor miss-hap" he said trying to remain positive despite his embarassment.

[Foxfire]

Taym was montering the coms and was well into the readying of the swap of goods. Sith or not it was not good business to drop off the wrong goods no matter how valiuable they were beside they already got a copy of the holo-cron anyhow.

Captain the goods will be ready for swap in 15 mins. Any further instruction about our goods? Is an armed escort nessary for this or will the other companion be enough?

Ryver was not one that like questionable situations where info was lacking and this was one of those times.

[Mara]

(((Okay, until/if PLUR returns, we're just gonna keep skipping over him until/if she hops back in.
If anyone knows how to contact him, please do.)))


The previous elation Pak had felt at finally having a good turn of events in his life continued to plummet as he contemplated the fact that he and Rogarr had just made a very big mistake. Perhaps this Albatross was right; maybe they had picked up the wrong cargo. The implications of this didn't sit right with the Balosar. He was beginning to second-guess this partnership with the Amaran, wondering what Rogarr had gotten him into. Big payday, yes, but would he be able to use it at all?

He tried to think positive thoughts as he held his ship steady, keeping a good distance between him and the Black Cat, equal distance between Umgul and his hyperspace vector. Just in case this was a mix-up and he did have the right cargo, and these were pirates, he wanted to be ready for it. But the positivity was wavering. One hand on the helm, one eye out the viewport, he awkwardly reached around his feet looking for that bottle of liquor he had had earlier. A little swig or two might improve his outlook on the situation. Or at least just make him feel better.

Pak had his head back, prying the last little bits of liquid gold from the bottle when his comm lit up again. Rogarr hadn't come back from the cargo hold yet, but he listened anyway. The bottle crashed to the floor of the cockpit and Pak sat up straight. Sith? What? He muttered a prayer to anyone or anything who would listen that he did not have spice in his hold matching the specs that were pouring over his display at that moment. Because if they had the spice, then the other ship had his load: Sith things. Pak briefly wondered if Rogarr knew what their cargo was and if this had been a setup all along, but shoved the idea away. Right now that didn't matter.

When the Amaran finally came back to the cockpit, all thoughts that Pak had had that maybe even if it was a mixup, it was between more than two parties. Perhaps they both had the wrong cargo, but the Sith cargo hadn't been meant for either of them. Or something. He just wanted to believe that he wasn't transporting (or supposed to be transporting) items for the Sith. Coming from someone who used to be in the Republic military, he always had a bad taste for those lunatics always threatening his good station in life. The military had saved him, in more ways than one, and to think that he was now possibly aiding the other side, being a traitor to the Republic... Pak wanted to just run away and drink himself to death.

But it wasn't to be. Rogarr confirmed Albatross's suspicions. Even if they simply just linked up and switched cargo, Pak knew there would still be trouble. Maybe these Sith had a problem with late deliveries. Maybe they would be paid, and then executed because they had seen what they looked like. Maybe he would be just captured and tortured, made a slave. Maybe... No, those thoughts would just force him farther and farther to the drink. And right now he needed to be fairly clear-headed to get out of this mess. One step at a time.

Clearing his throat, he flicked his comm back on to reply, trying to relay nonchalance into the channel. Something that the Amaran had already been doing much more easily with his last comment. Somehow Pak didn't feel the same way. "Albatross, my partner here has confirmed that our cargo matches your spice. You know how all those containers all look the same, right?" He laughed nervously. "Anyway, just bring your ship over here and dock up. My partner here will be waiting. We'll exchange and be on our merry way. No one the wiser. No hard feelings, man." It wasn't much of an apology, he knew, but he wasn't really big on that sort of thing anyway, especially because he didn't believe it was his fault to begin with.

At least Pak hoped there would be no hard feelings, and both ships could just get back to their own business and forget about this whole mess. Then he could worry about delivering his even more unsavory cargo and trying to escape with his life.

Clicking off the comm, he nodded over to Rogarr. "Get us ready to dock with the other ship, Rog. Let's make this as quick and easy as possible." And then I'll deal with you later.

[Jazen]

Shine sat patiently in the cockpit after his latest message, waiting to see how they would respond. Any number of things could happen and he was ready for them all. Should the ship try to flee again, Shine's hands were firmly on the controls, ready to pursue if they did. If they responded with another pirate comment, he was already preparing what he would say in return. Should they finally believe him, then he knew how to response to that as well. A beeping from the ship comm, the one indicating a message from in ship, drew his attention and with a sigh, he flicked it open. Ry-tam's metallic voice echoed over the comm, informing him should the cargo need to be transported, it was well on its way to being ready. She also asked if she would need to oversee the transport.

"Nice to see your already on top of things down there Ry-tam. Just in case, record and copy a list of everything in those boxes. Get only the ones that don't belong to us ready though. And sure, you can oversee the switch but keep your blasters to yourself for the most part. We wouldn't want to break what little band of trust we actually managed to get with these guys before we get rid of a death sentence. I'll meet you down there when, if, we dock with them."

Switching the comm off, Shine went back to waiting calmly in the pilot's seat, his yellow eyes locked on the ship ahead. The wait for something to happen felt like hours, although part of Shine knew it was only minutes. Time always seemed to slow in this situations, where your entire body felt the pressure of waiting for an event to happen. Muscles tightened, nerves bounced on edge, the brain thinking of what could go wrong or right at lightspeed in those slowly ticking seconds. It was something a pilot experienced many a times in combat and Shine was well aware of how much time had actually passed. About ten minutes after his last message, the comm board blinked to life, bringing Shine out of that delayed world of time. Taking a breath, he let the message play.

He almost hooted out a laugh at what the message said. Well, not so much what the message said, but the underlying tone of the man giving the message. It was collected and calm, but Shine could hear the little hint of Oh my he was telling the truth in it. Shine finally gave a small chuckle and leaned back in his seat, letting out a sigh of relief. Finally, something he wanted to hear. Gripping the controls a little lighter than before, Shine brought the Cat towards the Requiem, careful to make sure his movements were calm and not threatening.

As he came to bear on the ship, he switched the controls into docking mode. Once he was close enough, he extended the docking arm, waiting for the tell tale sound of the two sides connecting. When he heard those needed sounds, Shine switched the ship to auto pilot, then connected the ship's comm to his personal one so he could speak while he walked. Making sure his blaster was at the ready, Shine spun in his chair and headed for the airlock. He clicked the comm to life as he did, first sending a message to Ry-tam, then a response message to the captain of the other craft.

"Ry-tam, bring the stuff to the airlock. We're gonna rid ourselves of that death sentence now. And remember; no weapons visible unless I say so, understand?

Well my fellow captain, I'll avoid saying I told you so because that would just be rude. Myself and one of my crew will meet you at the airlock to oversee this swap. As you said, let's just make this swap nice and clean and head off on our own paths. With any luck, no one will even know we made a mix up.

I must say though, your quite the pilot. I haven't had to actually try to evade or keep up with another ship in a long time. Your skills are most impressive. You wouldn't happen to have been a fighter pilot at some point, would you?"