On an Outer Rim planet, nearly one week after the battle of Belgaroth...

Aelin glanced around what could in the loosest sense be considered a docking bay. Repair kits lay strewn about on the dusty stone ground, and a collapsed section of wall allowed full access to the 'street' outside. All that mattered to her at that particular moment was the battered but vital hulk in front of her. Not that anyone would guard such a piece of junk, anyway. She would've assumed that what was left of the Corellian frigate was nonfunctional if she hadn't seen it landing the other day. There were more dangling cables and shattered hull plates than there were inhabitants on the entire planet. Well, at least it can get me off this blasted mudball and back to civilized space. If only I hadn't been such an idiot and let myself get stranded at Belgaroth... She saw the hatch open and watched a Gran, the owner of the ship, walk down the breezeway and out into the bay. She slipped around him in the deep shadows and pulled herself onto the ramp as quiet as she could. The shadowy movement startled him, but a large scurrying rodent provided an easy explanation. He remotely closed the walkway, unknowingly sealing Aelin inside.

Frak, and I thought it smelled bad on the outside. She stumbled through the ship in the dim lighting. The layout of the ship was convoluted and disjointed, with doorways stacked to the top with electronic equipment and holes where there should've been nice, solid wall. She wormed her way into a pile of machinery and waited. I'll wait until he comes back, then kill him before he can shut the ship down. Then it's somewhat smooth sailing back to the Empire.

She sat there for several hours, barely moving. At one point she started getting hungry, but a few good sniffs of the air killed her appetite. He should be back any second now... Her thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of voices coming from outside. She strained her ears to pick any of it up, refusing to abandon her hiding spot.

“...well, here's your new ship... try not to crash it. I spent the last seventeen years of my life keeping it in shape.” An excited squeal came in reply, and then the hallway filled with light. So the Gran lost his ship gambling. That complicates things. Well, as long as the new owner's not too- oh, kriff. A diminutive furry creature scuttled right past her pile of junk.

He's an Ewok.

She quickly amended her plan. The Ewok probably couldn't even reach the controls of the ship. There's no way the freighter would even make it off the ground before some fatal accident. She couldn't kill him either, though. The old owner wouldn't have given up his physical keys, so the furry critter would be the only one capable of starting up the ship.

She sprang out from her hiding spot and approached the cockpit at a somewhat brisk pace. He's probably not that smart. I'll say I'm his personal pilot or something. She opened the door and found herself face-to-face with a sharpened stick.

“Don't move, blue-head!” The Ewok said in surprisingly clean Basic.

Aelin raised both arms in the air and backed away. “I apologize for the intrusion. I'm master Urek's pilot. I was wondering if you required assistance.”

He glared at her untrustingly with his giant, beady eyes. “Wrong. You're a bad liar, you know. Lemme guess... Imperial pilot that wandered off?”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“Well, luckily for you, I have some business on Tadath. Privateer Kettch at your service. Oh, and, by the way, I don't need a pilot. I'm perfectly capable of flying this class of vessel myself.” He reached over and withdrew several metal pole-shaped objects from a sack. He attached them to his arms, extending his reach drastically. “But I suppose I can allow you to accompany me on this trip as a copilot. In addition to whatever other chores come to mind, of course. Starting with cleaning out all the junk on the ship.”

“All of it?”

He thumped his left arm prosthesis against the floor, causing a deep reverberating echo. “Every. Last. Bit.”

By the time she'd crammed the last musty sackful of food leftovers into the airlock, the freighter had made it out of the system and gone to hyperspace on a path towards VE space.

OOC:

I might do a second post later to wrap this one up.

Down The River

Hale Firekeeper "aka Rocket" sat at bar on the planet of Abrae sipping on a spikedriver when the bartend looked at him and said "The lady over there bought this for you." said pointing a woman sitting at a table by herself. Rocket looked at her and waved the woman had red hair and a petite build, and finished his drink and the one the woman bought for him and went over to the table and said, "I am Hale but you can call me Rocket." extending his hand after finishing speaking. The woman looks at him and says, I am Athena nice to meet you Rocket, so how long have you been around these part's?

"Well I live here when I am not out in my ship."
"So you in the military then."
"Yeah I guess you could say that, I prefer to think of it as a lifestyle."
"So I am gonna put a guess out there and say that you are a pilot right."
"I used to be one, but...not anymore at least for now."
"So you gonna buy me a drink or we just gonna keep talking. I am it's not every day that I meet a guy keeping to himself at the bar, because he wants to."
"Well I didn't realize that I stand out that much I guess I gotta start making myself more inconspicuous. And let me go get you one what will it be?"
"Well I will have whatever you are drinking cause I think that I might like the taste of it."
"Okay then I hope you can handle it."

Rocket walked up to the bar and said, "I will take two spikedrivers if you would Dan." "So how's it going over there I haven't seen you talk to anybody here expect me for a long time it's good to see you talking to people, at least to someone besides myself.""Thanks I guess," Rocket grabbed his drinks and sat back down at the table with Athena, and handed the drink to her.

"Well here you go so what brings you to Abrae?"
"I am here on business, but also to have a good time which from the looks of it may be with you."
"Really I guess I am in luck then I thought it was just going to be me drinking by myself and talking to Dan again like usual."
"So how many times do you come to this bar?"
"I come here whenever I just want to be away from everyone."
"I see so have you had a good time since you have been in the military?"
"Well it has been interesting to say the least I mean some of it has been hard, but most of it has been fun, I usually just do my job cause it's what I do."
"Okay that kind of answered my question in a way but not really, So what else do you want to know about me?"
"So what do you do in this wide galaxy?"
"Well I am the owner of a transport ship, and that's how I keep myself from starving to death,  I mean it isn't the greatest thing to do in this world but it's something I guess."
"Well that sounds like fun I recently started to get into the shipping business, but work isn't very easy to find around here unless the jobs are somewhat illegal which I tend to stay away from because it can come back to bite me in the end."

After talking with Athena for awhile he heard Dan say that the bar was going to be closing so he looked at Athena and said, "I better get going because it is starting to get pretty late and..."
"What you are just gonna leave a lady to fend for herself at four o clock in the morning I thought that you would be more of a gentleman than that."
"Your right my apologizes." After Rocket finished saying that he took her hand and said, "So where to my lady."
"I think that it would be nice for you to see where I am staying and maybe..."
"Then I shall walk you back to your place of residence that you are currently staying at."

---In Athena's Room---

Rocket looked around the room that Athena was staying in and looked at her and said, "Well it doesn't look all that bad it kind of looks like one of the rooms that I stay in while I am aboard a ship."
"Oh how sweet sarcasm must be nice to be able to say that with a straight face."
"Well I didn't mean it like that...just never mind forget that I even said it."
"Well don't get all defensive on me now."
"Sorry it's been a long time since I have been out with anyone that I don't work with."
"You don't have much of a life do you?"
"I mean it's hard to do with my job that I do."
"Well your with me now that means you can let loose and have a little bit of fun for yourself since you probably have been on a ship doing military things for awhile now."
"Yeah your right I should have some fun that sounds like a great idea right now."

It's been a long time since I have hung out with somebody that hasn't been connected with the Vast Empire. I wonder how this is going to turn out. I just gotta play it cool and try not to rush things cause that might ruin whatever that this might turn into.

"You thinking about something you have not said anything in awhile."
"Yeah I am fine just thinking about my past which I tend to do a lot now."
"So have you changed any since you come into the military?"
"Yeah I have changed some of it has been good and some of it has been bad."
"Okay well on that note" Athena stood up and walked to the only appliance in the room and fished out a bottle of liquor that was in there and grabbed two cups and poured two glasses, and handed one to Rocket.

"So what do you want to cheers to?"
"Let's cheers to good company and to relaxing."
Rocket drank the cup of liquor...

OOC:

1,056 words-Been awhile since I did a post

Econd quickly banked right and pulled up trying to get rid of his attacker.  The X-Wing pilot continued to follow him.  Blades could not get rid the X-Wing no matter what move he pulled.  I am so glad this is just a simulation, but I will need to work on flying these things quickly.

Econd quickly pulled off a barrel roll and was surprised to find out that it worked.  Now he just had to keep the X-Wing in front of him long enough to get a lock.  Stess continued to fire his quad lasers in short burst trying to center the X-Wing in his screen.  The sound of a successful lock began to ring in Econds’ ears and he quickly fired two missiles before he lost the lock.

The X-Wing took a direct hit and began to spin out of control.  Econd started to continue to the rest of the squad not realizing he entered into the range of the AA tower.  The bolts slammed into his shields dropping them down to 50%.  Then out of no where a second group of X-Wings appeared behind him and began to chase him.

A few seconds pass when Econd suddenly feels a shock-wave jolt his craft.  I guess their missile was detonated  really close by.  Econd tried to see if he could spot what caused it to detonate before it reached.  He continued to try to evade the X-Wings he though was still there.

“Raptor Seven what is going on over there?” Raptor Four asked.

“What do you mean Four?” Econd asked.

“Your still trying evasive moves against nothing.”  Four said.

“Oh was the X-Wing was killed, because I can’t tell my sensors are fried and I am flying blind.”  Econd replied

“Yes the X-Wing was taken out, so I guess I’ll be your eyes for now Seven.” Raptor four responded.

Econd began to follow Raptor Four back towards the rest of the squad.  Econd began to wonder how many of them were left.  He tried to count but was quickly confused by the fast moving crafts. Econd gave up trying to find out how many Raptors were left, when three X-Wings broke off their formation and began to engage them.

Econd banked right with Raptor Four and was able to dodge the salvo from the trio of X-Wings.  Econd just began to sway left and right trying to stay out of the cross-hair.  He saw the bolts pass his craft, suddenly his craft started to shake as a few bolts slammed against his shields.  He started to look for the screen that showed their integrity.

He looked at each screen at least twice until he found the screen with the shields strength and hull integrity on it.  The shields were down to 33% and falling at a steady pace.  Econd flipped a few toggles and switches and found the problem was a power leak that.  Econd was able to stop easily.  The shields stopped falling at 30% until a third burst slammed into the rear of Econds’ craft.

He found that the shields were down to 25%, and he didn’t have time to try to transfer power to them.  As another salvo flew passed the view screen and he heard Four mumble something, but before he could ask what was going on he saw Four get behind one of the X-wings and destroyed it.

Raptor Lead came over the com systems. “We are the last four out here.  I need everyone form up on me.”

“Roger that Lead we‘re moving towards you now.” Raptor Nine, Raptor Four and Econd replied.

Econd followed Raptor four towards Raptor Lead, and Raptor Nine.  They were still trying to shake off their pursuers but were finding it impossible to lose them.  They made their way to the remaining Raptors.  They quickly fell in line behind Raptor Lead, and they quickly began to attack the remaining squad of X-Wings.

Raptor squad was greatly out numbered, and one by one the rest of the Raptor Squad was turned into space dust.  Econds screen went black as a missile impacted the Interceptor going right threw the view screen.  A few moments later the Simulator began to open up.

I have got to get more time in that simulator before my next mission starts.  Econd stood up and got out of the Sim and went to get his gear and he walked over to one of the Trainers, and asked if he could reserve a simulator for a month.

OOC:

751 words post #2