Trevor had resigned himself to ordering the various Techs around after he had sliced his hand open while trying to pull a computer out of one of the TIEs. His hand had slipped and caught a jagged edge of metal from where things had been thrown through the cockpit by the force of the wave and gave him a deep cut. He tried to work with it at first but the pain was too intense and the bleeding wouldn’t stop so he felt it was safer for him to stop and get someone else to do it.

“After you’ve got the scanners out of that one, start working on this one. I want to get everything here done and ready to go within an hour.” Trevor instructed a tech, pointing at the TIE the man was currently working on to one just down the line. The man nodded and adjusted his cap, getting back to work at ripping the sensor computer out of the destroyed TIE. Trevor put more pressure on his bleeding hand and walked to the next TIE, watching as Jeg cut a few things away and Lucan stood against the wall and laughed at him. Trevor was considering yelling at Lucan to get to work, but Jeg accomplished the same feat by throwing a wrench at the lazy pilot.

We’re making good time. If this keeps up, we’ll be ready to go by tomorrow morning. Good thing too, I’m excited to get this back on the move. Can’t let Yamar fall to the hands of some local fanatics or something. He thought to himself as he gazed at the various groups of people working. All of Nazgul squadron and a group of eight techs who knew their stuff, working together on a project this big. Things had to go smoothly.

*** Shortly Later ***

Trevor was leading the group of techs, pilots and hover carts down the streets of the demolished city in a military style escort. The techs and one or two pilots were pushing carts while half of Nazgul Squadron led the way while the other half followed from behind. No one gave them any trouble, although a few people did stop to give them odd looks as they passed by with their carts laden of computer equipment, to Ion Engines that had been salvaged from the TIEs, and one cart that was stacked three high with wings that two master technicians had salvaged from the recon fighters. Not knowing it they would be able to find a suitable power source on the ship that Rogue and Flight two had found for them, they thought it was best to bring their own power supplies; the solar panels on the wings of the TIEs.

Rather then have the techs go through the complicated procedure of removing the solar panels and having them all need to be re-wired, Trevor just had the Techs remove the entire wings and their wiring harnesses. On a boat the size of the one Rogue mentioned, we shouldn’t have any trouble mounting them somewhere. He thought to himself as he glanced down at his makeshift bandage of a few clean rags that were securely taped around the palm of his hand. The blood had soaked through the bandages but from what Trevor could tell the bleeding had come to a stop.

“Here we go!” Trevor said loudly as he sidestepped the manhole and grabbed Jeg’s jacket to prevent another incident like before. Jeg just cast him a dirty glance as if he had been insulted, but then grinned and headed back to where the carts were. This was when Trevor had a startling revelation. The majority of their parts, particularly the wings, wouldn’t fit through the hole in the street. He took a second as if mentally trying to see if a TIE fighter wing could be squeezed through a whole big enough for a man to slid through, then turned to Erin, the tech he had originally met in the hanger. “We’ve got a tiny problem here.. None of this stuff will fit down that hole very easily. But if they haul cargo into here, there must be a few entrances that will be big enough for our carts to slip through, isn’t there?”

Erin thought for a moment before nodding and pointing at a building just up the road. “That’s the base’s cargo bay, I know it’s got an opening into the tunnels. We’ll be able to get down through there.” She grinned, proud of her reply. Trevor patted her on the back and nodded his thanks before ordering a group of techs with the carts and Flight Three to go get in through there while he and Jeg and Lucan went down the manhole. Jeg lead the way, humming to himself as he went. Trevor did his best not to do what Lucan was doing, which was stepping on Trevor’s hands every other rung by descending the ladder to quickly.

Finally Jeg touched foot on the bottom and stepped away from the ladder, allowing Trevor and Lucan to get the rest of the way down and have a quick look at things. Trevor was impressed. On the way down the smell of seawater had intensified compared to the outside, now Trevor realized why. When Jeg had said there were underground canals, Trevor had envisioned small channels just big enough for the boats to squeeze through. In reality, the canals were large enough to fit several ships side by side, stretching at least four hundred feet across. Trevor felt he’d be extremely impressed when they encountered an intersection in the city’s basement.

“Rogue, this is Trevor. I want you guys to send a group of people to find a big door that leads to the military depot and open it for our guys with their carts. Me, Jeg and Lucan are already down the manhole, where do we go?” Trevor asked as he raised his comm. piece to his mouth and looked around the platforms on each side of the river. He caught sight of a few smaller boats within his vision, but mostly just pleasure ships and nothing like what he had instructed Rogue to look for.

“Yeah, once you get to the manhole, head left. You’ll find us just around a really long curve, so keep your eyes open. We’ve already gotten onto the boat and unloaded a lot of the cargo in the hold, mostly household supplies and whatnot. The crew gave no objections to handing over their ship when I told them the Yamar military would cover the costs and any loss of pay they may come across.” Rogue laughed, and Trevor joined in. He wasn’t sure how it would really go, but he was certain that the crew and the captain would be reimbursed somehow. “We’ve got a bunch of floodlights set up around the deck so the techs and us can get to work even if they kill the power in here. I’ve sent the Twi’lek off to find the depot, I’m sure he won’t have a problem.” Rogue explained, and Trevor nodded.

“Sounds good, we’re on our way.” Trevor said, nodding to Jeg and Lucan and pointing down the left side of the walkway. They set off at a brisk pace, keeping their eyes open for anything that could pose a threat or lead them closer to the ship they were looking for. Finally Trevor spotted a small freighter with floodlights set up across the deck and a small group of people milling around the entrance gangway. Rogue waved at them and Trevor slowed down slightly to take a look at the ship. It appeared to be almost brand-new, a sparkling white with a red underbelly and not a speck of rust on her. The name painted on the stern read Yamar’s Light and Trevor didn’t really doubt it. He spotted a convoy of carts coming down the path from the opposite direction and grinned. Still making good time.

As he approached the boat, he could see even better now that she was a work of art. She sat fairly high out of the water for a ship her size, but was low and wide for an increased amount of stability. Stretching two hundred and fifty feet long, she had a beam of close to seventy-five feet, a huge amount when considering it was far wider then most ships are in comparison.

“Good find Rogue, she’ll be perfect!” Trevor called out as he got close.

Rogue seemed excited as he replied, putting his hands on either side of his mouth to amplify his voice. “Good news! The captain said she’s one of the fastest ships on the planet too!”

Perfect.

Trevor followed Jeg back above deck and admired the scene. Activity was going on everywhere, all across the deck. Flood lamps were set up and wires and cables crisscrossed all over the deck, leading to various pieces of machinery. He had put his limited welding skills to use helping to mount the TIE wings onto the ship’s deck in the aft section, behind the wheelhouse. Since then he’d been monkeying around with the laser cannons, trying to get them to feed off the ion engines that they had set up near the bow, just before the raised portion of deck.

He returned to that task after he fetched Jeg, pulling a wrench out of his back pocket and getting to work tightening the mounting bolts. They had lucked out when the ship’s engineer told them they had free reign of his tools and parts, providing them with quiet the equipment locker. Everything from heavy duty welding equipment right down to basic nuts and bolts, there wasn’t a tool that they would need missing from the collection.

“Trevor!’ Someone called him, and he turned quickly to spot Erin running over to him, a nervous look on her face. He stood up and dusted his hands off on his pants. She came to a stop in front of him and wiped the sweat away from her face as she spurted out the news to him. “We’ve had a fire down below, one of the computer systems caught fire. They put it out but I think you should come check the damage.” She explained, grabbing Trevor’s arm and literally dragging him to the stairs. They bounded down the stairs to the control room and Trevor almost choked on the acrid smoke that was in the room. He could see the charred remains of a computer and a table, as well as the foam from a fire extinguisher that still hadn’t dissipated.

“Shit, which system did we lose?” Trevor asked, walking over to the table and prodding at the monitor. It was still hot and he withdrew his finger quickly. As he went to walk away, one of the charred table legs collapsed and the pile of equipment crashed to the floor. Luckily someone had already moved the other computer system that rested on that table to the floor a small distance away, but Trevor was still concerned.

“It was the radiation monitoring system, sir. I really don’t know if that’s such a big loss though, I mean, if it picked up anything, it would have been sure to show on one of the other systems too.” One of the techs that had been calibrating the setup after Jegora left voiced. Trevor nodded and put his hands on his hips, sighing. It was true, and from what they’d been shown during their recon flights, the radiation scanner really was the most useless tool they had. He nodded his head and was about to return to above deck when he spun back around and looked at the tech.

“What started the fire anyways? I mean, it’s not like it would have overheated, there’s more then enough ventilation down here.” Trevor asked, reaching up and rubbing some of the stubble that was forming on his cheeks and jaw. The tech shrugged.

“It must have gotten a voltage dump from one of the ship’s generators. It probably overloaded it with power and caused something inside to get hot enough to burn. The rest just went up with it.” The tech explained, and Trevor nodded. He then shrugged and bounded back up the stairs to get back to work on his cannon system.

*** A Little While Later ***

Trevor stood back, pleased with himself. He’d finally been able to route everything just right and even had the targeting systems set up for the cannons. Feeling pleased with himself he moved towards the next set of cannons and showed the tech who was working on them how to set them up efficiently. Once he had told the tech which pieces went where, he got up and checked to see that the engines were still running ok.

According to what he could tell, they were straining against their mounts but aside from that seemed to be running perfectly. The techs had managed to hook them up to the boat’s power units and carefully set them up in such a way that if they were to break loose from their mounts they would crash into the foreword bulkhead of the raised portion of deck, rather then shoot across the open area of deck and possibly injure some of the other crew members.

Below decks, a good portion of work for some of the crewmembers that were less mechanically inclined had been to set up a sleeping area in one of the cargo holds. The captain had offered all the original crew quarters to Nazgul squadron and the techs and scientists they had recruited, while the storm troopers who had been called in from the nearby barracks would be spending their nights in the cargo hold. The original crew would be trading shifts, meaning they needed less room for sleeping.

“How long till those stormies show up anyways?” Trevor asked Rogue as they sat in the mess hall for a few minutes, taking a quick break for some water and half a sandwich each.

“Not sure. We got a hold of the base an hour ago and they said they’d be sending out a group of twenty or so who had survived the waves and weren’t assigned to help out with the city. I’m surprised they don’t have everyone helping out up there, I mean, things were in a pretty big mess.” Rogue said, taking a long sip from his water bottle and chewing thoughtfully on his surprisingly tasty sandwich. Trevor nodded in agreement as he finished off his sandwich and drained his water bottle.

“Yeah, I know. There are a huge number of people living here, and who knows how many of them were caught outside when that wave struck. A lot of them might have remained on the platforms, but huge numbers might have been washed out to sea with the waves. Not a fun thought.” Trevor said, shuddering. He had been threatened before with being ditched at sea and the thought didn’t sit well with him. Rogue was looking longingly at the lineup of people, almost as if he was ready to go get another bottle of water and sandwich.

“It’s crazy, you know? Still going on with this mission, I mean. Most people wouldn’t have so deliberately ignored orders and gone on with it. Are you sure you’re not going to get yourself demoted for this?” Rogue asked, draining the last few drops of his water bottle and looking through the clear plastic sides, somewhat disappointed that it hadn’t contained more.

“Hell, I haven’t got a clue. I mean, it’s definitely not the first time a Nazgul commander has ignored or disobeyed orders. As long as we come out of it successfully, I’m sure we’ll do fine. However, if someone gets killed or something I’ll probably be court marshaled with the charge of being negligent or something.” Trevor said with a shrug. He pushed the chair out and stood up, grabbing Rogue’s water bottle and plastic wrap that the sandwich had came in, throwing them in the nearest garbage can. “Well, I suppose we should get back to work.” Trevor suggested as Rogue stood up.

“Yeah, we’ve still got a bit of work hooking those TIE wings up so they help power the ion engines. We should have it done by later tonight though, then we can all get a good rest and head out in the morning.” He said with a grin, slapping Trevor on the shoulder and turning to head out the other doors of the mess hall.

Work was proceeding on modifying the “simple” freighter he had managed to acquire for the squadron to use. Of course,  he still hadn't told Trevor all of the details about exactly how he had gotten the captain and crew of the ship to work for them.  He had simply told Trevor that the crew hadn't had any objections when he promised that the Yamar military would cover the costs. 

Well that wasn't entirely true since the Yamar military didn't know squat about the mission they were about to embark on. And that meant they didn't have to honor any of his promises. Rutain had wanted to just force the captain and crew to help them. But that would have just lead to more people getting injured or killed. And if the crew wouldn't work for them, they couldn't exactly take over the ship and run it themselves.  Rogue didn't know of anyone in the squadron who knew how to operate an actually waterborne ship. Between them, they could fly or operate any type of starship in the galaxy, but water traveling vessels were a different story.

Finally they had gotten around to money. No matter where one went in the galaxy, it always came down to credits.  After enough arguing and a bottle of booze, Rogue still didn't know the name of, they had reached an agreement. It was going to cost him a fair number of credits if he couldn't get the Yamar government to pick up the tab. But they needed the ship and its crew.

He had thought of telling Trevor about it over lunch, but he hadn't gotten around to it. Trevor had enough on his mind as it was. During his stint as the squadron CO, Rogue had done his fair share of similar stunts. The mission to Nar Shaddaa was one big disobedience of orders after the first day. Yet they hadn't ever demoted or punished him. So as long as it all worked out in the end Trev would be alright.

He finished tightening the last of the bolts on the wing panel he was working with. The bolts would hold the wing panel securely to the deck, even if the ship was rolling on heavy seas. He hated the fact that they had to drill all the way through the panels to put the bolts in, but it had to be done. They had to have the panels to draw in solar radiation and power the ion engines they brought from the fighters. The engines weren't designed to run on anything else he knew. That was about all he knew when it came to the engines though. He wasn't exactly an engineer. He was a fighter pilot. He knew just enough to effect emergency repairs on his personal freighter.

Suddenly, he felt his stomach growl. The sandwich he had eaten while talking to Trevor had been good, but it had been small. So he was hungry again. He slipped the wrench into a pocket and went looking for something else to eat.

OOC:

WC: 510

Jegora laid down on his bunk and let out a breath. It had been a long day, but they had gotten most of the work done. If they were lucky they could finish everything up tomorrow and ship out the next day.

Jegora was tired. He had finally gotten the cannon in place and had finished up the cable links. So far everything was going good. He enjoyed this kind of work. Almost as much as he enjoyed flying.

He had met the new pilot earlier that day. He seemed like the decent sort. Jegora was happy to have another man in the squadron. It seemed as if they lost members just as fast as they got them.

Jegora sighed. He wasn’t too thrilled about this whole ground thing. He had procured a DL-44 from one of the stormtroopers and had practiced a bit with it. He wasn’t a bad shot, but he preferred to just not have to shoot anyone. He usually used his size to simply intimidate any opponents.

Jegora sighed and focused on sleeping. He let his mind relax and wander. He took deep even breaths, tensing and relaxing his muscles. He quickly fell asleep.

When Jegora awoke the sun still hadn’t rose. He decided to go see if he could find any caf to wake him up. He wandered into an area that appeared to be some sort of mess hall. Very few people were up, but a young man was serving caf at a counter. Jegora lumbered over and got a cup, along with some sort of food that he didn’t want to think too much about.

Jegora sat down and begin to eat breakfast.

Trevor woke up the following morning, feeling fairly rested and ready to go with what he needed to get done. They basically were ready to go, although the final last minute things needed to be set up, like where they were going to do their initial search and someone needed to chart a search grid. He had taken that job up himself, planning to initially search in the area where they had encountered the underwater hanger, then heading farther out to sea and beginning a zigzag pattern.

He ran through the ‘fresher like normal and got dressed in a pair of casual pants and a t-shirt, accompanied by his brown leather jacket. He wasn’t aiming to look great; just to be dressed well enough for a day out at sea. His first stop was the small mess hall on the ship, looking for breakfast. He was not surprised to see the rest of the squadron was already up, and most of them were dressed casually too, having borrowed clothes from the ship’s crew or having brought their own clothing along. The Nazgul pilots seemed to be grouped at their own table, enjoying a variety of foods, while the crew seemed to be at various tables, and the storm troopers had taken their own tables too.

Looks to me like some school cafeteria. Everyone’s sitting with their ‘kind’ and no one wants to get too involved with the other groups. Of course, here everyone is going to be forced to live and work together for awhile, so I’m sure they’ll begin to work together sooner or later. Trevor thought to himself as he stepped into line to get his own breakfast. He filled his tray with eggs and some sort of meat that he didn’t recognize but seemed to taste good regardless and made his way to the Nazgul table.

“Good morning, gentlemen. How’re we doing this morning?” Trevor asked, sitting down at the table and elbowing Jegora and Rogue to get himself some more elbowroom. Most of the pilots looked fairly cheery, although a few had dark rings under their eyes from a lack of sleep, presumably the few who had remained awake later then the rest to help configure the ship’s systems.

“Not bad.” Rogue replied between bites of a breakfast sausage. The rest of the squadron seemed to have the same feelings, but Trevor didn’t stick around for too much extra conversation. He finished his meal and was preparing to get up when he decided he better at least make sure everyone knew what their orders were.

“You guys are going to be all at your various stations, eh? I understand that as pilots you might feel a little out of place on a boat, but we’re going to have to make due. Give the crew and the techs any help they need, and keep the things you know how to run running.” Trevor said with a grin before turning his back on the group and headed towards the mess hall doors. He pushed one of the swinging doors open, held it for a female crewmember and then headed up the stairs towards the wheelhouse. He was going to have a chat with the captain and see if he couldn’t get his planned course plotted into the computer.

He found the wheelhouse to be full of life, with various crewmembers tending the different stations preparing for launch. The captain himself was standing behind a control panel and computer monitor, going over various system checks. He didn’t notice Trevor step up next to him until Trevor took a moderately noisy breath.

“Good heavens, you surprised me.” The captain said, jumping slightly and reaching out to shake Trevor’s hand. “I’ve met your XO, Rogue, but I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. Paul Kemprecos, nice to meet you.” Paul said, his voice sounding as calm as the waters around the ship looked. “We’ll be leaving here in a few minutes, headed towards the west side of the city and out one of the doors over there. That is where you wanted us to leave, right?” Paul asked, pointing at a flashing line on the monitor in front of him.

Trevor glanced at the line and nodded, then pulled a disk from the pocket of his jacket and handed it to the captain. “This is the search pattern I’d like you to take us through first. It takes us right over an underwater hanger that we saw on one of our recon flights.” Trevor explained as the captain fed the disk into his computer and watched the screen. A new window popped up, this time with Trevor’s programmed search grid and a small x marking the spot of the underwater hanger.

“I don’t know, son. I’ve been over that spot multiple times and never come across any sort of underwater hanger. I mean, there’s a chance we’ve missed something, but I really don’t think you’ll find anything.” Paul explained, typing a few commands into the computer that loaded it with Trevor’s course. Trevor shrugged.

“We’ve been told a lot of what we’ve seen hasn’t happened, so I’m really not surprised.” Trevor said. The captain laughed and patted him on the shoulder but didn’t say anything back, taking that as a sign that they were finished, Trevor shook the captains hand once again and headed out of the wheelhouse onto the main deck. It was still dark and gloomy in the somewhat cavernous area, but he was glad to know they’d be moving out soon and hitting the open sea. I bet you it hurts the eyes once we get through that door. He thought to himself, knowing that the artificial lighting in the tunnels wouldn’t compare to the brightness of an unveiled sun.

Then, unexpectedly, the boat jerked forwards and away from the wall of the tunnel. Someone had thrown off the lines while he was talking to the captain, and now they were underway. He grinned and sat down in one of the chairs that had been scattered about the deck for the crews to lounge in in their spare time. The funny part about all of this is that when off duty, it’s like being on a big cruise ship. Just sit around and relax in the sun, enjoy the time spent off, and still get paid. He thought to himself, ignoring the fact that a Nazgul vacation didn’t tend to go well. It’s not a vacation though, it’s just a working break. He told himself, grinning.

The ship was moving slowly through the tunnels, luckily not having to worry too much about avoiding traffic. Everyone else was working on getting things stabilized above ground, therefore no one was on the ships below ground, except for skeleton crews to protect against theft. Slowly the rest of the squadron had surfaced from the ship’s mess hall and had come to watch themselves get to the end of the tunnels.

Trevor felt incredibly amazed as they approached an intersection in the tunnel, where the captain slowed his ship down and cautiously crossed the sixteen hundred foot gap between the tunnels they wanted to go through. Ahead of them Trevor spotted a dead end, what he presumed to be the large door that would release them to the sea outside. He prepared himself to be blinded by the impending sunlight.

*** In The Bridge ***

Captain Kemprecos was on the radio, letting the people who worked the gigantic doors know that they were coming. “This is Kemprecos, captain of Yamar’s Light. We’re approaching West door A4 and would like it to be opened for us.”

“Yes sir, Captain Kemprecos. The doors are being opened now, have a good trip.” An automated voice replied to him, cause him to shudder.

“I hate how they’ve replaced the wonderfully sexy sounding female door operators with those stupid droids. Can’t even have a decent conversation with one while you wait for the doors to open.” He grumbled to the nearest bridge member, who couldn’t help but snickering at the captain’s joke.

*** Back on Deck ***

Trevor listened and heard the huge gears that helped to pull the doors open begin clashing together, and slowly he saw swirls appear in the water where the two doors met. A few minutes later the doors began to tug themselves apart, and Trevor readied himself for the burst of sunlight that was going to enter the underground tunnel. As the doors separated, a small sliver of light entered, but nothing near what Trevor expected. The doors opened further and the ship finally pushed itself out of the city, onto the expanding sea ahead of them. Trevor gasped, but not because of the sight of the sea. It was the things in the air that made him nervous.

Above them was a swirling mass of grey clouds that extended beyond the distance he could see, blocking out the sun quite effectively. Lightning arced between the clouds and far off clashes of thunder could be heard, but Trevor didn’t see any lightning striking down towards the water. There was a light wind, but the feeling of the wind better suited a spring breeze rather then the storm that was raging miles above their heads.

Jegora watched from where he was leaning up against a rail as Rogue spilt a cup of caf all over himself. It had to be one of the funniest things he had ever seen. The lieutenant had jumped at a lightning crack, spilling his hot caf all over his uniform.

Jegora turned his attention back to the sky. It wasn’t so friendly, and Jegora didn’t like it. What really disturbed him were the calm seas. He knew for a fact that when there was a storm above water, the water usually reflected it. Apparently this wasn’t the case on Yamar. Either that, or this storm wasn’t natural.

Knowing what he knew, Jegora was willing to bet it was the latter. The storms seemed to be brought upon by some sort of magnetic interference. As Jegora jogged down the stairs and into the cargo area where the command center was set up, he called for a tech to check the magnetic monitors. He wanted to see if the storm was indeed being caused by a manipulated magnetic field.

Jegora took a look at the monitor that displayed the results from the mag sensor. It was spiking off the charts. It would appear as if Jegora’s theory was correct. This was no natural storm.

Although the skies above were cloudy, Jegora knew he had little to worry about. Unless a water spout or a whirlpool, or one of those gigantic waves formed near the ship, there was little damage the storm could to do them.

Jegora knocked on the wooden table.

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259

Rogue stepped into his borrowed quarters and kicked the door shut. He turned long enough to make sure it was shut and dogged, before he crossed to the bunk. He sat down and yanked off his boots, before standing up and undoing the seals on the flight suit. He paused long enough to unstrap his blasters from his hips, then unloaded all the pockets on to the bunk. All that done, he peeled the soaked flight suit off and threw it across the room.

He dug into his bag and pulled out another flight suit in imperial black. He stripped off the black t-shirt he had on, and replaced it with exact duplicate of it from his bag. Then he pulled on the new flightsuit and sealed it up. He pulled back on his boots and sealed them too. Then he strapped his holsters and the blasters they contained back on to his hips, before stuffing all his various items back into the various pockets.

I probably have way more stuff then I will ever need in these pockets. But hey, no sense in taking chances. Who knows when some of this stuff will come in handy.

He undogged the door, then opened it and stepped out into the corridor. At least it the names for things were the same on the water as they were on a space ship. A bulkhead was still a bulkhead, a corridor a corridor, a refresher a refresher. He headed down the corridor toward the command center. If he knew Trevor, thats where he would be.

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WC: 265

“I dunno” Rogue replied, then asked. “Do I look like I know everything?”

Trevor didn't answer, but instead gave him that look that meant shut up you smart ass.  The bay doors were a temporary solution for now. But if the weather did get bad, the doors would have to be closed. Another solution would have to be found. No one could work in this heat, especially the computers. He had only been in the room a few minutes, but it was enough to make Rogue undo the closures at the end of his sleeves and roll the flight suit's sleeves up until they were above his elbows.

“Well its too hot in here for me. I'm going back up on deck Trev.” he told his CO. “Let Jeg run around and check on everything. It will be a good learning experience for him.”

With that, he spun and left before Trevor or Jeg could say anything. If Rogue knew Jeg, he would be sputtering about Rogue passing off the question Trevor had for him to him.  But he would get over it. Course that didn't stop Rogue from chuckling to himself as he climbed the stairs back to the main deck level. He exited the superstructure and made his way to the rail. The breeze had picked up some out here. It was different enough from the heat down below to make him pull his sleeves back down.

He stayed at the rail a few minutes, watching this storm or whatever it was, boil and grow across the sky. But it didn't feel like a storm was coming. The wind felt like it was only going as fast as it was due to the ship's speed through the water.

Hrmm. I wonder whats causing it to do this.

He left the rail and returned to the superstructure. He started making his way up to the bridge to ask the captain.

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WC: 323

Trevor as still sitting in a chair and looking at all the various monitors when one of the crew members came running up to him. The short man was out of breath and bent over, putting his hands on his knees. After a moment of heavy breathing he relaxed and looked at Trevor.

“There’s a fight going on with some of the storm troopers and one of your pilots. Started out as a demonstration of fighting technique but I think it’s become serious.” The crewmember said, pulling himself back up to his full height and looking at Trevor. Trevor rose quickly and motioned for the man to lead the way. they left the control room in the able hands of Rogue and Jegora, bounding up the stairs and headed towards one of the other bays. As they dashed down another set of steps, Trevor heard the sound of a body hitting the floor alongside cursing.

As he burst through the doors he was met with a strange sight. Aslond was preparing to deliver a strong blow to a man who had been knocked down a second ago and was attempting to get up. Quickly interjecting himself into the situation, Trevor threw his hands up and raised his voice.

“Cut it out, right now, all of you! I don’t really know what to say to you stormies, but as for you Aslond, I want you to explain what’s happening here.” Trevor said, looking from person to person in the room. He spotted a few storm troopers who looked as if they had been pushed around pretty good, and one who appeared to have a broken leg. At least he’s on my side. Trevor thought to himself as he returned his gaze to the blue Twi’lek in front of him.

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WC 300

Trevor watched as Aslond turned away from him, headed back towards the storm troopers. As unsure as he was about reaching out to stop his slightly psychotic pilot, he felt it was in the best interests of things. If worst came to worst, the blaster strapped into his shoulder holster could put an end to the problem in a hurry. He stepped after Aslond and called his name again, his voice sounding firm.

“Aslond! Stop this instant.” Trevor ordered, but it was as if Aslond hadn’t heard him. He continued to advance on the storm troopers, some of which had gathered around their one friend, all of them ready for any sort of fight that would break out. When Aslond didn’t respond to Trevor’s call, he reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling hard to jerk him back around to face the commanding officer.

“I told you to stop it. Are you going to calm down or what?” Trevor asked, staring hard at Aslond. He didn’t feel particularly intimidated, if he was supposed to be feeling that way. Aslond looked at him for a second, then something seemed to snap back into place behind his blue eyes. He glanced back at the storm troopers and then looked back to Trevor.

“I apologize, sir.” He said, staring back at Trevor. Trevor nodded and looked at the crewmember that had alerted him to the situation.

“Thank you for your help, now please go fetch a medic and get this man some help.” Trevor said, pointing to the man with a broken leg. The crewman nodded and launched himself back up the stairs, headed for one of the three medics on board.

OOC:

WC 281

Trevor headed back to the captain’s quarters and plopped down at a small writing desk nestled in the corner of the room, thinking over the situation he had just seen. Yes, Aslond had caused some serious damage to a storm trooper, but at the same time he had given a display of power that Trevor hadn’t seen since the last time he’d watched Darius fight someone in hand to hand combat. He was trying to come to a decision of how he could go about this.

On one hand, I could not punish him and promise to get him whatever he needs to keep practicing his skill, as long as he didn’t use it on any of my pilots or our allied forces. I’m sure he’ll have more then enough of a chance to use his skills during his time with us. On the other hand, I could always punish him but say his punishment is to not fight with any more of our men and save it for the bad guys. Trevor told himself, hearing the door buzz and standing up to go and open it. Nah, let’s go with the not punishment one. He thought to himself as he opened the door and stepped out of the way so Aslond could walk inside.

“I’m guessing I’m here for some sort of punishment?” Aslond asked, turning to face Trevor, still carrying the durasteel case that Trevor had seen him with before. Trevor shook his head and folded his hands behind his back.

“On the contrary, I’ve asked you here to let you know that I was deeply impressed by what I saw back there. On the same note, I’m disappointed you resorted to fighting with our soldiers, but I know that you’ll be able to use your skills with lethal efficiency against any enemy. Because of this, I’d like to offer anything to you and condone the use of your skills, under the condition that you don’t fight with our men or anyone on the same side as us while you’re under my command.” Trevor said, pacing back and forth in front of Aslond. “Fair enough?”

OOC:

WC 361

Rogue sat in one of the two chairs on the bridge, watching for some sort of clue to this weird weather. Trevor had technically left him in charge of the control room, while he went to find out who was fighting with the stormies. But Rogue hadn't stayed down there for long. It was way too hot down in there for him. So he had passed that duty on to Jeg.

But the trade off was that he could feel the effects of the water on the ship like it more up here. It wasn't bad for what the sky looked like, which is another thing Rogue didn't understand. From what he could see, it looked like a major storm, with lightning flashing across the sky and thunder booming. But for some strange reason, none of the lightning was coming down.

Now I've seen heat lightning race across the sky like this before on other planets. I've also seen “lightning” flashing across a nebula too. So something has to be causing this. But what?

“Captain, have you ever seen anything like a storm such as this?” Rogue asked the occupant of the other chair.

“No I haven't.  Which is strange. Since like I told your CO. I've been through this area multiple times, and I haven't encountered anything strange.” Captain Kemprecos replied. “No strange weather, no hidden underwater hangar.”

“I believe you. I've flown either through or over quite a few severe storms in my days. But nothing was like this.” Rogue explained and asked. “Shouldn't the waves be going up and down? Causing us to do the same, and roll from side to side?”

“Yes it should. Which is even stranger. If we were this close to a normal storm, the waves would be tossing and churning. As would the wind.” Kemprecos replied.

“So we we be doing the same? “Rogue asked, thinking about his stomach.

“Not really. The Light is heavy enough with a load of cargo to push through the waves. Now we don't have a full load of cargo on board, but with your equipment and modifications, we should be heavy enough.” Kemprecos replied. “So you don't have to worry about getting sea sick Lt.”

“Huh?” Rogue was caught off guard. “How did you know thats what I was worried about?”

“Oh, easy lad. I've been sailing on the sea for many years.” Kemprecos replied. “You guys may be hotshot fighter pilots in space, but now your on the water. And  the ocean has a mind of its own. If you respect her, she will respect you.”

Rogue thought about that for a minute, it made sense.

“Besides, every time we get someone new on board, thats the first thing they worry about.” Kemprecos bragged before laughing.

Rogue couldn't help but join him in laughing. It was at his own expense but it was funny. It showed he and his squadron mates could be just like regular people.

OOC:

WC:496

Max hopped the stairs two at a time up the sensor station area that Nymall was working at. Nymall had called him thirty seconds before.

  "Sir, you better see this." Max replied,

  "Affirmative Nymall, I'll be there right away," before heading to the room. He saw Nymall seated in the chair looking out over the water. A solitary vessel, not much larger than a personal fishing boat, was speeding towards them over the water. Each time the craft hit a wave, it bounced into the air, creating a wash of sea-spray as it returned to the sea. It turned and headed straight for the ship, it's light frame no match for the freighter's bulk. Max tapped the station controls. Nothing there. He checked the others. The same. That ship was invisible to the radar, and it appeared to be gaining rapidly. He didn't notice Trevor arrive behind him.

    "Status Report, Max?"

    "Light craft approaching rapidly Sir, bearing 257, 867."

    "Radar confirmation?"

    "No Sir," replied Max, and walked over to the console. "Invisible to radar." Trevor clucked his tongue.

    "Right, get everyone to a gun post. I'll buzz it. If it doesn't reply, fry the damn thing. Understood?"

    "Yessir," replied Max and Nymall together as they left the deck. A few moments later, Max and Nymall were manning cannon positions on the bow. The ship was coming closer, and everyone knew that the order to fire could come through at any time. The ships loudspeaker crackled into life, as Trevor began. The signal was, at the same time being transmitted to the ships radio.

    "Unknown craft, you are approaching a restricted access military vehicle. State your intentions, or turn away. If these instructions are not followed we shall open fire on you." Silence. "Unknown craft, we are prepared to fire, do you copy?" The ship merely continued towards them. "Right," said Trevor indignantly. "All guns, commence firing." Max squeezed the trigger on his own gun, and watched the tongues of light arc towards the anonimous boat. It swerved to avoid the shots, before the ringing of the speakers announced a reply to Trevor's challenge.

    "Military Ship, Serial Code 5556754, we would like a chance to communicate with your CO." Trevor was out on deck like a light, and walked defiantly to the ship docking area. The freighter had stopped moving, and the boat quickly drew up alongside it. After towing ropes were tied between the two to secure the smaller craft, there was a hissing noise and the hatch on the speeder boat opened.

Trevor frowned as he read over the orders that had been given to him by the VE messenger as he walked towards his borrowed quarters. He’d just given Rogue the call to go meet him and wouldn’t be surprised if the XO were to beat him to the room. He hauled himself up a flight of stairs and rounded a corner, stopping in front of a grey durasteel door and tapping a few buttons on the control pad. It whooshed open and Trevor smiled to himself, he had been right. Rogue had beaten him to the room and already let himself in.

“You wanted to see me?” Rogue asked as he looked up from a drink he was preparing. Despite that fact that Trevor rarely drank while on the Atrus or when Tokijin was around, when he was away from her he tended to let the various ales and whiskeys of the worlds he visited soak in. Rogue had found a stash of liquor and poured a small glass, topped off by a pair of ice cubes.

“Glad to see you found everything ok.” Trevor said sarcastically as he set the data pad down on the table and glared at it for a moment. “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about our new orders. Command said there’s something urgent we’re needed on, right this instant. They’re sending a high speed transport that should be here within a few hours, and the Cyclops is sending down a shuttle for us right away, despite the incredible amounts of disturbance in the atmosphere.” Trevor explained, watching Rogue rest his chin on his hand and think for a moment.

“Perhaps some sort of punishment for disobeying orders?” Rogue asked, finishing off the drink and making a face as the liquid burned his throat on the way down. Trevor shrugged and looked again at the screen of the data pad.

“You know, I highly doubt that. The message said that they’d give us further details once we arrived back on the Atrus because the details are too sensitive for regular messaging. I think it might actually be something big.” Trevor said, frowning at the empty bottle on the table. “You finished that one off?”

“There was hardly any left in it.” Rogue shrugged, grabbing the data pad and reading the message for himself. When his eyes finished moving back and forth across the text, he set the pad down again and stood up. “I think you’re right. That shuttle will be here soon, I’d better gather everyone up and tell them we’re ditching. We’ll leave the rest of the crew in charge though; they might be able to finish what we’ve started.” Rogue said as he walked towards the door. Trevor nodded and glanced around the captain’s quarters.

“To be honest with you, I’ve had enough of these kind of boats anyways. My last vacation involved two of them, and that didn’t go over too well. I’ll be glad to get off this one before I cause it to meet the same fate as those two.” Trevor said, mostly to himself. Rogue nodded and left without saying anything else, leaving Trevor to his thoughts of the last vacation that he and Tokijin had gone on where they had cause two ships to sink. He shrugged off the thought of causing this ship the same fate and picked up the data pad to give the Cyclops their current location.

*** Forty Minutes Later ***

The seas were still fairly calm as Trevor and Rogue gathered Nazgul squadron on a large portion of deck that had been cleared for the landing of the shuttle. The crew of the ship and all the techs and storm troopers had agreed to continue the search for the weapon and not give up until they died or succeeded. Trevor hadn’t expected quite so much enthusiasm but promised that he’d do his best to have some sort of civilian bravery medals awarded to them either way.

The clouds above were still swirling and Trevor was shocked at how deafening the thunder cracks had become. It was to the point where he was tempted to hold his hands to his ears to keep the noise out. Even yelling as loud as they could, it was a challenge for anyone onboard the ship to communicate with the person right next to them, while on deck. The ship itself was soundproofed, so the loud cracks of thunder were greatly decreased in volume on the inside of the bulkheads.

Above their heads Trevor could see a lighter grey dot descending slowly, all the more visible against the black background of clouds above it. There were lights on the edges of the blob and Trevor knew before it was even in sight that it would be the shuttle coming to collect them. As it got closer Trevor could see it bucking and getting tossed about by the winds a few hundred meters above sea level. I suppose the calm weather down here won’t last much longer, the wind is probably working its way towards the surface. He thought to himself as the details on the shuttle came into view.

It was only a few more seconds before the shuttle touched down on the deck near Nazgul squadron and one of the boarding ramps was lowered. Trevor ordered his squadron onboard with hand signals, including the newest pilots, and then turned to face the captain of the ship, who had come out to see them off. Kemprecos saluted Trevor and held the position until Trevor returned the salute, then turned his back on the squadron and headed back towards the bridge. Trevor dashed towards the boarding ramp and ran inside, taking a seat next to Rogue in the shuttles passenger bay.

“Everyone on board? Good. Be prepared for a very turbulent ride up, we’re going to do our best to keep the craft stable though. This shouldn’t take too long.” The voice to the shuttle pilot came in over the loudspeakers in the passenger compartment, safely sealed off from the loud thunder outside. Trevor felt the craft’s engines power up and the landing gear relinquish their stance on the deck of the ship, then retract into their holds. They were airborne and on their way towards a new mission.

We’re on our way now, I suppose. Hopefully everything works out for the people down here. I hope everything works out for us too.

*** MISSION COMPLETE ***

*** COMPLETION STATUS: UNRESOLVED ***