Dead pirates don't say "arrgh".

[Ronneh]

THE STORY CONTINUES! OR SOME SHIT LIKE THAT.
- - -
Short, fat columns of dust and vapor shot out in every direction as Fortunato, newest conquest of Captain Ron of the Osk Company, slowly landed within one of the many hangars on Osk 91. Like most of the early YT series, Fortunato was about as presentable as an outer rim trash barge- and certainly had seen about as much service as one.

"Alright, big systems update." Ron said, as he exited the cockpit area. I want a full status report!" They had spent the last day and a half orbiting the planet while making checks on the ship, and this the morning after marked the last of them, as well as the actual landing date.

"Not again; who died and made him Captain?" Nova grumbled to herself.

Practically speaking Fortunato shouldn't have even been airborne, at least not in the current day and age. Ancient by all accounts (she was released at the tail end of her model in 80 BBY), and outdated in nearly every way; it was a miracle that she even continued to see use. Fortunately, the ship had a few invaluable qualities to it which made it nearly impossible to discard her for another. She was the best when it came to Navigation and Stealth, and she had one of the best damn power generators that ever came out of the shipyards in Kuat.

"Dmitri," Ron continued, "what's what with the power system?"

The power system of the ship was out-rigged, over-sized, and produced three times as much power as any normal ship of that size required. Originally designed as the power supply system of an Imperial capitol ship, it was incredibly massive (its width was the full length of the bow of the ship)- even though four generations of previous owners did their best to scale it down to a workable size. Eventually it became evident that the repairs would soon become redundant, and rather than risk further damage to the ship, the third owner decided to think outside the box. The power system was removed from the engineering room, an open hole was cut in the hull of the ship, and the power engine was lowered in halfway. The edges were sealed, and ramparts were built over it so that mechanics could access any part of it with ease. A protective shield was built around the lower half to prevent damage from space and atmospheric particles.

"Seems fine to me, but I'm no mechanic." Dmitri replied. Satisfied with this answer, Ron called down the walkway to the main terminal chamber.

"Nova, nav system update- pronto!"

The navigation system was the crown jewel of the ship, as well as the newest installation of modifications. Stolen in 2 ABY, the v system was originally imperial hardware that was stolen before it could see action. Though it was unclear to anyone exactly where or how it was stolen (no one of the current crew were part of the job) it was assumed that the extremely expensive technology was going to be installed aboard a Star Destroyer of some kind. Their loss.

Regardless of it's lucrative obtainment, the nav system was one of a kind in two ways. First, that it was completely maintained and ran by an artificial intelligence computer. If sex counted for anything, the AI was of the female persuasion, and was nicknamed "Brandi" by the captain who claimed her (after his favorite alcoholic drink). She was smart, observant, and sexy in so far as her self designed holographic form allowed her to be. She had databases full of information on every known planet in 2ABY and was constantly adding to that information as time went on. The nav system was probably the most useful thing on the Fortunato. And Ron was completely oblivious of the fact. As he had not had the time to inspect the suspiciously complicated looking nav system, he had no idea that the ship was partially under the control of a pirated imperial project. His loss.

"Looks fine to me." Nova shouted back. She didn't know about the AI technology either, only Jev did- and he purposely made himself busy in the cargo area just for that reason. "Can we leave now?"

"I guess." Ron said. He turned away and headed for the exit ramp just in time for him not to notice Dmitri hiding away beneath the floor panels of the engineering room.

The last modification of the Fortunato was the most dangerous of them all. An experimental cloaking device not only capable of distorting all sounds and signals produced by the ship, but also capable of temporarily rendering the ship invisible. It operated based on a poorly rigged, hardwired stygium crystal. Both extremely rare, and incredibly illegal in nearly every known system- it was very nearly not worth the trouble of smuggling it away on the ship. It was very small in comparison to the other modifications of the ship, only about four feet long and a couple feet tall. But it required an incredible amount of power and was the soul reason why the Fortunato was so generously powered. A small log terminal beside the device was kept for whenever the cloaking ability was to be used. Many times the logs read that the ship was very nearly killed from the near-instant frost because of the power loss after initiating the crystal The cloaking device was rarely used, and was only known to a few of the many crew members aboard the ship. Dmitri discovered it by accident.

Dmitri was the last to leave the ship. He stood besides Ron, proud and happy to be a pirate at last, as Ron addressed the rest of the crew.

"This is it." he started. "Thanks for helping me get here, I couldn't have done it myself." He tossed a datapad to Jev the bothan. "I wrote down some tips on the best vendors here for when you sell your goods. Most of them are dirt bags, but there's a few I trust."

He shuffled awkwardly and said to Dmitri, "You any good at making goodbye speeches?"

Dmitri shrugged and grinned at his former crew members, "Thanks for leavin' guys. I get a bigger cut of the loot now!"

After Ron finished his half-hearted goodbyes, and Dmitri offered his full hearted gratitude, the rest of the crew headed off to sell the goods and use some of the proceeds to get them off the Osker planet. As they all followed Jev, who was pushing the cargo on a rented hovercart, they all had regrets about leaving their ship behind. Regrets that would increase very, very quickly.

It was only moments later that they wished that they had all been back on the Fortunato. Before they could even leave the hangar, they watched in shock as their former captain stormed into the spaceport main lobby, dragging behind him a young woman with a shock of long red hair, and pointing a blaster straight for what he considered to be their 'mutinous little party'.

"There they are!" he yelled. "The mutineers!"

It was only a matter of seconds before the entire crew was turned around by the fear of the former captain. Each one of them secretly hoped that Ron would be ready for trouble by the time they got back to the Fortunato. As foolhardy and reckless as Ron was, his antics and leadership were head and shoulders above the man who wanted them dead. Perhaps they were destined to remain in the company of Ron for a longer time than they expected.
- - -
TINK IS NOW IN SHOOTING DISTANCE OF HER NEWEST HOME, AND EVERYONE IS BACK FOR THE FAMILY REUNION. DON'T MAKE MY POST LOOK LONELY.

[jegora]

“Son of a bitch,” Jegora muttered softly, shifting in his seat slightly. He was sitting in the room that was temporarily serving as the command center’s med bay, nursing some bruised ribs and a battered face. Sitting next to him was fellow pirate captain Tanus Solvona, who was also looking worse for wear. Taking inventory of their various cuts and bruises, Jegora had to admit that he hadn’t come out so poorly in a fight in a long, long time.

Then again, he thought to himself, [/i]I haven’t drunk that much in a long time either.[/i]

The only thing that brought him any solace was the fact that there were several pirates who were in even worse shape than Jegora or Tanus, and many more who were in similar condition. The pair may have taken a beating, but they handed one out as well, and try as he might Jegora couldn’t help but be proud of that. In fact, he was starting to feel pretty good about himself again…until Em walked in.

The young woman took one look at Jegora and had to repress a huge grin that threatened to appear on her face. Mastering her expression, she wore a mask of the utmost concern as she approached. Jegora wasn’t fooled, and he mentally braced himself for a ribbing unlike anything he had ever taken before.

“Jeez boss what’d you do, piss off a whore?” she asked when she had finally neared. Jegora just grimaced, while next to him Tanus let out a laugh that quickly turned into a snort of pain.

“Very funny, Em. How’d you know I was here?” Jegora grunted.

Her melodic laugh echoed through the room. It made Jegora cringe. “Sharpe told me. Seems she was quite worried about you two.”

Shaking his head, Jegora pushed to his feet and stood unsteadily. “Does the whole damn place know? No matter. I assume you brought some kind of transportation?”

Em just nodded, now eying Tanus as Jegora started to make his way out of the room. “I thought you were supposed to be some big shot fighter-warrior thing?” she asked Solvona as he stumbled along behind Jeg.

The grin Tanus had been wearing at Jegora’s expense quickly turned into a scowl. He muttered something that sounded vaguely like ‘bugger off’, and then pushed past Jegora, limping his way out the door.

Jegora caught Em’s eye as she winked at him, and he couldn’t help but grin as well. He followed Tanus out into the all-too-bright Osk day, shielding his eyes as he did so. The light was all too bright for Jegora’s hangover and head injuries, even through the smog-ridden Osk 91 atmosphere. Taking his place in the small landspeeder, he turned to Em, who was settling in behind the controls.

“So where are we off to in such a hurry?” he asked as his XO floored the accelerator and sped off, navigating the twisting streets with relative ease.

“Sharpe wants to talk with both of you,” she said shortly. Jegora could only sigh.

“Awesome,” he said. “I love getting yelled at when I have a hangover.”

Ten minutes later Em slowed to a stop in front of some non-descript building Jegora didn’t recognize. “This is it. Off you boys go,” the young woman chimed in unnecessarily.

Shooting her a glare Jegora hopped out of the speeder, followed by Tanus. Together the pair made their way inside, where they found Kami waiting for them in the building’s main room.

“Kriffing hell, look at the pair of you,” the senior Osk captain fairly shouted. Jegora cringed, and Tanus raised a hand to massage his temples.

“Easy there, Sharpe,” Tanus ground out. Jegora could only nod his assent.

Kami looked ready to kill someone. “Easy? Easy? Do you have any idea what we’re trying to accomplish here? We have to set an example, but then you two go off and get yourselves into a bloody bar fight!”

Jegora frowned. When she said it like that, their actions did seem quite irresponsible. It was rather unfair.

A moment of silence stretched throughout the room, growing quite uncomfortable. Finally Kami shook her head, and some of her anger seemed to dissipate. “It doesn’t matter. Just tell me we’re going to be ready to go?”

Tanus nodded. “I have an initial strike team. We’ll make a hole for you guys to follow us in.”

“And the fleet preparations are under way,” Jegora added, trying to sound useful. “We’ll be ready, Kami—at least, as ready as we can be.”

Nodding to herself, Kami seemed lost in thought. “Good, I guess,” she said softly. “Nothing else we could do, then?”

Jegora shook his head. “Nothing but wait.”


* * * * * *


Standing on the bridge of the Charlotte, looking out over the fleet assembled before him, Jegora couldn’t help but ponder what they were about to do. Before him were arrayed tens of vessels, ranging from light transports to heavy freighters to military warships like the Charlotte herself. Here, now, in this small corner of space, the entire worth of the Osk Company was assembled. It was an impressive display, this strange and eclectic menagerie of spacecraft. Nearly every ship present was upgraded in some way, with either advanced weaponry or military-grade engines, or even enhanced sensor arrays or shielding. They were more than mechanical vessels, these ships. They were homes for hundreds, if not thousands of individuals. They were the physical manifestations of the soul of the Company, and Jegora was about to risk them all on what very well could turn out to be a wild goose chase at best, and one giant clusterfuck at worst.

Shaking his head, he tried to clear his thoughts. There wasn’t much point in dwelling on the flaws in the plan; he had done that enough over the last few days. The only thing he, and the rest of the senior captains, could do now was stick to the plan they had developed and hope everything went as calculated.

Pacing back and forth across the bridge, Jegora ran through a mental checklist. The ships were assembled, briefed, and readied. The Charlotte herself had never been in better condition, thanks to her recent time in dry-dock and due in no small part to Em’s expert management. Jegora may have had his doubts about his XO at first, but he had to admit that she was damn effective as a second in command. She took care of most of the crew issues before Jegora himself even knew about them, but at the same time she didn’t hesitate to bring a problem to his attention if she felt it was warranted. Usually, it was; above all else, Jegora had learned to trust the younger woman’s instincts and judgment almost as much as he did his own.

The only thing that worried him was coordination. While the Osk men and women might have been excellent spacers, they were used to operating independently, used to doing things their own way. An operation of this scale, Jegora knew, required discipline and purpose beyond what the Oskers might possess, and he just hoped that when the time came to follow orders they would not hesitate. No novice to space combat, Jegora knew that any hesitation in a battle the size of the one they were about to initiate could, and probably would, be disastrous.

He was still pacing, still thinking, when Em’s voice pierced the relative silence of the bridge. “Time, boss.”

Nodding, Jegora turned and moved over next to where his XO was standing near the center of the bridge. “Alright. Open a line to the captains.”

One of the comm. techs hit a button on their console. “Ready,” the man stated.

Jegora nodded again. “Are we ready, ladies and gentleman?” he inquired of the other senior captains.

A chorus of voices responded. Solvona answered first. “Aye Jeg, we’re good to go. Waiting for the order.”

Jager’s voice broke through the static of the communications link. “Ready, two-fists. Give the word.”

“Can we just get on with it,” another voice answered, a voice Jegora recognized as Ron’s.

“The Divinity is prepped for hyperspace,” Angel stated after a moment.

Finally the voice Jegora had been most anxiously waiting for crackled to life. “We’re ready Jeg. On your mark.” Kami Sharpe sounded as calm and confident as ever, but Jegora knew that she was dealing with the same doubts that he was.

“Right,” Jegora said, turning back to the comm. officer and motioning for him to open a fleet-wide channel. “Hyperspace on my mark, Oskers,” he ordered when the link was establish.

Taking a deep breath, Jegora composed himself before speaking again. He pushed his doubts aside, buried his concerns. He was dedicated now, as calm and as cold as ice. “Hyperspace in 3…2…1…mark.”

Through the viewport of the bridge, Jegora could see the stars start to stretch around the Charlotte. He noted absently that some of the smaller transports punched it a little early, but he wasn’t concerned. Suddenly the stars lengthened and then disappeared completely, replaced by the blue-ish tunnel of hyperspace.

“ETA?” Jegora questioned, turning to his XO.

Em studied a display for a second before answering. “Two hours, give or take. Fleet seems to have stayed together fairly well too, as far as I can tell.”

Nodding absently, Jegora started to make his way off the bridge. “Let me know when we’re half an hour out,” he instructed as he left the bridge.

“Aye aye, cap’n,” Em responded sarcastically, but Jegora was already out the door.


____________________________________________________

The Plan:
We basically just sent the entire company after a very specific treasure—we’re just not sure what that treasure is. The facility we’re raiding is located on a moon with no atmosphere, so it’s rather tricky to get inside. That’s for later, though; right now, we have our own problems, problems such as:

• Other pirate fleet already present at asteroid
  
• Large military defense force present at asteroid
  
• We have to work together, which is not something pirates do well in general.

Keeping those issues in mind, two things must happen before we can physically raid the facility:

• We have to ally with the opposing pirate group in order to defeat the military forces
  
  and
  
  
• We can’t let the other pirates anywhere near the treasure.

Good luck.

[raziel]

Kami was surprised at how easily she found him. She had half expected that somehow he would have vanished from the face of the planet already. But there he was, bartering with one of the crew at the dock, probably for the price of refuelling his ship. She didn't really know if approaching him again was going to be the wisest decision, nor was she entirely sure why she had decided on this course of action. Perhaps it was becoming an obsession to collect disillusioned ex military personnel from her past, maybe she honestly thought he would add to the skill set of the Osk crew. After all he had succeeded in obtaining the information she was after where no one else had. Perhaps she actually believed that he genuinely needed help, the way he had reacted when she had spoken his name explaining the details of the Paladin attack over a comm channel had concerned her. Whatever her motives now was the last chance to try and convince him to stick around.


*** Hours Later ***


His ship drifted through space at great speed, every now and then a burst of thrusters would make a minor alteration to its course. The computer systems on the ship was the only thing which seriously deterred the weight to thrust ratio and had cost a minor fortune, yet it had still taken a while to plot a course that would keep his ship between the systems star and the asteroid over the course of the approach vector. With the star behind him emitting an intense black body spectrum and given the small size and high absorbency coefficient armour plating of his ship he was virtually guaranteed to get within sensor range undetected.

He still didn't know what he was really doing here, he was getting paid a fraction of his normal contract fee and the mission hardly required his usual skillet – just the equipment on his ship.

”Is that an avanti mk 3 sensor package you've replaced the prow weapons with?” she had enquired of his vessel. “How about just one more contract for us and you can go on your way”

During the hyperspace journey he had made up his mind, after this mission he would be on his way again. There were far too many people around who recognised him and it made him feel intensely uncomfortable.

The screen on his left displayed a visual representation of the distance to the lone asteroid. His ship was spiralling outwards away from the star and would intercept it soon. He would settle in the L1 Lagrangian position and start scanning the base and then turn and make his way to the Osk fleets jump destination. If all went to plan the fleet could jump in and immediately be provided with a full layout of the installations defences and overwhelm them before suffering much damage and he could keep his barely armed ship well away from the combat. A beep from the console in front of him signalled that it was time to shut down all unnecessary power systems to keep the detection probability within five percent. He obliged and settled back into his chair, letting the computer do all the work.





As he approached the effective range of most wide field sensors that could be installed at the asteroid he felt comfortable enough to start ramping up the engine power. The recon mission was complete and he needed to meet the incoming Osk fleet. So far it seemed everything had gone well, if the installation had detected his ship in any way it had shown no signs of having done so. Unless they had sent out a message on a very narrow signal beam they had made no plea for help. The Osk fleet would be arriving in six minutes and he was nearly at the point where they would drop into realspace.

A moment before he considered restoring full power to all systems his ship picked up some unexpected signals. He killed the engines and activated all passive sensors. The HUD on the viewscreen in front of him started displaying signals detected from a range of sources directly ahead. Either the Osk fleet was early or . . .

“Shit”

The ships started dropping out of hyperspace just away from his course. His ships resources were stretched to the maximum has they processed the incoming data. People tended to forget the software aspect of scanners, typically they came with a very basic package. He had paid handsomely for some optimized routines which could extract significantly more data - and faster - than the standard interface.

A small fleet of ships were dropping into real space in an incoherent pattern. He would have taken it for the Osk fleet, but none of the vessels on the scanners matched the make up of the Osk fleet Kami had given him information on. This fleet was more numerous but made up of a lot of smaller ships, what appeared to be a wing of Z-95 headhunters were beginning to take up an appallingly shaped formation ahead of the larger vessels.

They were on a direct course for the asteroid. The fleet must have been focussing all sensors at the asteroid as they hadn't reacted to his presence yet. He quickly checked and realised that the Osk fleet would drop right on top of this swarm of vessels. Chaos would surely ensure. A spike on his sensor reading also revealed that the asteroids base had sent out a very powerful narrow band signal. It was a relatively short range band, but he had no time to consider that. The element of Osk surprise had been lost and bad things were going to happen in two minutes.

There was one possible course of action. His ship was directly in line with the Osk hyperspace route, if he put a large amount of power into the comms and repeated a compressed message over and over they might pick it up.

“Not alone. Unknown fleet in way. Suggest cut short hyperspace deployment by 1000 klick.” he typed into the system. That should give the fleet time to decide a course of action. He started beaming the signal on a very narrow beam straight ahead.

The power spike must have given his position away however as a pair of ships broke off from the fleet and veered in the general direction of his ship.

“So much for avoiding combat,” with sensor jammers to full he accelerated as fast as possible. In one minute all hell could break loose and he wanted no part in it. He reactivated the ships active scanners and put them to work, no point in relying on passive sensors to gather information now they knew where he was!



[ooc: hope this is ok. For refence Raziel is using a fairly standard courier ship that was been gutted and stripped of weapons and refitted with some serious engines and sensors. (his last year of work has been fairly lucrative) Something like this: www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ppxrr/ship.png I might add in the converation with Kami that led to me hanging around later or let her do it when lappy is working]

[Havock]

Well this sucks.

Tinker eyes were like daggers as they swept through the spaceport, not that she had free will to look at what she wanted to. The oversized smelly ass hole holding her hair and dragging her like a child dictated what she would be looking at this trip to the asteroid.

She gazed at the 'crew' the man was barking at and had to roll her eyes. His attention sufficiently diverted enough for her to reach one hand deftly into her jacket pocket to press a single button on the small device that was concealed within.

"Where are you goin', huh? Runnin' back to him? Nova!" With a grunt and an even harder pull on her scalp the man stomped after the retreating figures of his former crew. He started to mutter to himself as he pushed random people less because they were in his way and more because he just wanted to and they were near his path.

"I don't know, man, I don't think she likes you 'that' way." In a swift rage influenced motion, the former captain yanked Tinker up by her hair and screamed a primal yell into her face. When he was finally silent save his heavy breathing she smirked. "Yea, your right your breath may have been a factor. Next time a sample is not necessary."

"Argh stupid girl" With that he continued stomping towards the hanger, mostly dragging the red head in his wake. She was glad the play had worked and bought her more time.

They arrived at the gang plank of an old but heavily modified ship and staring down the barrel of a fairly impressive blaster pistol.

Tinker raised a single eyebrow has high as her forehead would allow. "That?!? That is what your so pissed off about? You have GOT to be kidding me man. Did you rob a museum?"

Ron blinked behind the gun. "That is one loud carry on bag you got there."

The former captain sneered and stepped to advance only to yelp in pain as he was shocked at about thigh level by Tinker's R2 droid, Junkie. He promptly dropped the red head and swatted at the droid, but everyone paused when Ron fired a shot just missing the man's head.

"Bout time Junkie, go out for oil on your way?" The orange and gray droid replied in equally frustrated tones, probably angry that Tink called him from his daily re-charging routine to save her ass.

"Quiet." Ron spoke in a normal tone, which only seemed to add menace to his voice and she had to admit was far more effective for him than yelling. "Anyone here want this guy around?"

The crew slowly shook their heads in a negative but remained silent. Tinker reached over and yanked the two pistols off the former captains holster and examined them for a few moments. "These will do, for now. I think the answer to your question is 'no we don't want him around'." She winked at the guy who had really ruined her day and watched as he sulked away.

Tinker scoffed at his backside, then looked up at the crew. "So who are you?"

"Ron, this is my ship the 'Fortunado'. That one, Dimitri is part of my crew, I'll have to consult with these others as to their employment status." Dimitri made an aggravated sound she knew well, it was the sound of someone losing credits at a rapid rate.

The red head nodded. "You can call me Tinker, need a mechanic?"

=====~~~=====

Tinker wandered the corridors of the Fortunado shaking her head every now and then at the outright insanity of the modifications she was looking at. She had to admit, part of her couldn't wait to figure out how this Ron fellow got this thing to stay in the stars.

She heard voices on the comm and approached the cockpit getting a glare from the woman she learned was named Nova.

"Can we just get on with it.” Ron voice didn't disguise his frustration, he had his foot propped up on the control panel and looked utterly bored. She knew that he had already been the last ship to arrive in the fleet which seemed to bother the hell out of him.

Tinker watched some of the other ships start to enter hyperspace. "It would appear we can, Captain."

"And you are not strapped in why?" He immediately started flipping switches and Nova put her hands on the controls. It was quite obvious neither of them was going to wait if she decided to linger. Cadie plopped into a chair within eyesight of where she left Junkie to his recharging pleasures and settled in for one hell of a trip.