A Long Ride Ahead

[Greybok]

Star Base on Hoth was buzzing with activity. After the order went out on Al'doleem, Greybok returned to oversee the evacuation of what had been his squadron's main base. So far, the evacuation was going according to plan. The skeleton crew he was leaving behind had their orders, and all of the main computers had either been destroyed or had information regarding flight paths or destinations erased.

The order from Commander Ion had been clear: only the leaders of the newly-formed rebel cells were to know where the rebels were scattering to. The rest were just to load into the transports and trust their commanding officers. Greybok hated such extreme orders, but it was the only way to keep information secure after the incident with Aurora and Arda. Even the skeleton crews weren't allowed to know where they were going, or when or if they would ever return.

The Stormbringer hung in orbit to protect the shuttles as they evacuated the planet and began to jump to hyperspace towards the coordinates Greybok had pre-programed into them—not all of them were going in the same direction, but all were going exactly where Commander Ion and the council had wanted them to go. He would rendezvous with them whenever the last transport was away. The last ones left to evacuate was Star Squadron themselves, and perhaps a few stragglers.

Twobee was busy relaying his orders to the remainder of the rebels in the base, translating his Shyriiwook into Basic. "Star Squadron, gear up! You shall be escorting the last batch of transports to safety! Hurry along now! Get to your ships and make sure you have all of your equipment!" @Wit @Rom @Zay @Kayenta Moenkopi @Lucid @Plebometer @Cazar @Lazy Swordsman @Sreeya

OOC - This thread is open to Rebels and Mandalorian allies who would have good reason to be on Hoth during the evacuations.

 

[Ner Giza]

She had her orders, they all did and it was time for each of them to show their true metal. Keeping busy was the best medicine, a dose that the Twi’lek took often when thoughts began to plague her with worries, but still no matter how busy she couldn’t shake her sense of dread. It was hard not to imagine what horrors Arda would be enduring. After the tribunal had been cleared of all non-essential spectators it hadn’t taken long for the sight of Master Rayth to go marching off to who knew where. Speculation was running high and as she passed by a couple of rebels being quite vocal she snapped. ”Just shut your trap before I do it for you. Jedi business is none of your concern. Get your karken butt in gear. We have an evacuation to tend to and if you don’t find something useful to do other than standing around bad mouthing your betters I sure as shooting will be happy to fix that.”

Apparently arguing with the irate Twi’lek was something both men were wise enough to avoid as they rushed off to start loading up ships for the evacuation of Al’doleem. As for the Twi’lek, she and the crew of the Tempest Hunter were bound for Hoth. There she would take command of the new Corvette, the Nightengale, leaving Ji Hu and Slippken to pilot her ship and the Blue Angel respectively. Seeing the men rush off, she ran for the ship muttering about people who just stood around griping when there was work to be done.

Once she and her crew arrived on Hoth they scattered like ants from a hill that had been stomped upon each going to their tasks and working to load the transports. It was organized madness though and she didn’t see any of the type of behavior from the people working to evacuate like she had from those two men on Al’doleem. This was just as well because she was in no mood to brook slackers and complainers today.

Leaving the Tempest Hunter under the command of Ji Hu, Slippken took the cockpit of the Blue Angel. The freighter loaded to capacity, including the smuggler’s hold, the accompanied Nera as she pulled the big distance corvette away from the frozen wastes of Hoth and took to the skies. Fifty of the Wookies who she had helped to rescue from slavery upon the orbital factory over Nal Shaddaa comprised the crew of the newest capital ship of the Alliance. Their health had improved mightily since then, having the best medical care the Alliance could provide, but who knew how long it would take for them to be back to full strength. Mentally she doubted the scars from their captivity would ever heal. Not that they were letting that get in the way.

In addition to the Wookies, six Bothans she had convinced to join her squad during her mission to Kothlis with Master Luy made up the rest of the crew on the Nightingale. It still kind of freaked her out to know the man was not only Jedi but a Master on the council too! Had she known that at the time she might have minded her manners a bit more. Hopefully he would not miss her too much upon the Grey Lady but she was sure he would understand where her duty lay today.

Taking her last look at the ice ball she had left behind, she was not a bit sorry to be seeing the last of that frigid wasteland in the least. Still, it was a heavy blow to be losing such a strategical location for the Alliance and she wondered what sort of repercussion would now fall upon the Queen of the Anoat sector for siding with the rebel cause. It was too much to think about and best left for better minds than her own. From her command station she cued the comm, a hologram image would appear before Commander Greybok of the Twi’lek and the Corvette’s copilot, Nyassheeeghrorr, otherwise known as Nyash. ”Star Seven reporting for duty and filled to the max. Awaiting orders sir.”

In the meantime she would be providing cover for the fleet as it prepared to head out into the unknown. It kind of made her hungry.

@Malon

 

[Eisa Swan]

Well this was certainly a shake up and a half! The young Jedi Padawan had barely just started to unpack the contents of her holdall within her quarters before the order to evacuate came through, the unpacking soon turned into the complete opposite, as the cyan haired teen started to stuff and pack away all her possessions into the canvas bag. The fortunate thing about having grown up a space brat however, meant that she knew how to travel light, making short work of packing up her possessions into her holdall before abandoning her quarters as instructed, being sure to leave no articles that could be traced back to or incriminate the teen as being part of the Rebellion.

No sooner had she finished packing, the teen had made her way to the main hanger. The teen's brow furrowing has she started to contemplate the gravity to the situation that had started to unfold around her. Owing to the actions of a few within the Galactic alliance, the secrecy of the growing rebellion had been compromised, whether intentional or not. The end result however, was taking place all around her, the hours of toiling away helping to establish the rebel outpost on Hoth had now been lost, the base would soon be abandoned and left either for the Empire to come and seize, level or just ignore outright for raiders to commandeer and take over. It was a saddening thought for the cyan haired teen, given the hours she had happily toiled away tinkering with the base's systems and installing the new equipment that would serve what had became her home.

But despite having grown to see the outpost on Hoth as a home of sorts, the teen had long been conditioned with not being in the same place for long. It was almost second nature to her, but then again having since moved away from her life as a space farer she had grown towards having a spot that she could call hers. Still she had what she needed in her holdall, as well as what was sitting within the hanger.

Stepping into the hanger, the teen's emerald hued eyes panned over the cavernous chamber, taking in the hive of activity as the ground crew readied the ships and loaded equipment and supplies into the larger transport craft. Her attention soon shifted over towards a single bay in particular, where a ship sat covered in a protective tarpaulin, beside it was a hovering droid that was struggling to remove the covering draped over the ship. A light grin crossing her features as she approached the ship and the struggling droid. "Told you Ditto it's a two man job" Eisa commented to the droid as she dropped her holdall onto the ground before reaching down and picking up one side of the cover and helping to draw it back, revealing a fighter that was designated to the teen, the Cygnet.

"Ditto, I'll get our stuff stowed away, can you get the Cygnet fired up and carry out the pre-flight checks" the teen requested as she started to fold up the tarpaulin before stowing it into the small cargo compartment, to which the droid simply chirped back in response before hovering over to the ship and lowering itself into the adapted droid socket. Stepping back over towards her holdall the teen partially opened one of the pockets and retrieved two items, being sure to stow them within the cockpit without anyone noticing. The word of the Jedi's existence had started to spread throughout the galaxy like wild fire, making it increasingly more important for those within the Order ensure that their identities remained as clandestine as possible, leaving it so that only a few trusted members within the Galactic Alliance were aware of the identities of those within the ranks that were Jedi.

As soon as her holdall was stuffed into the small cargo hold, the teen reached into the cockpit of her fighter pulling out her flight suit and hastily throwing it on over her current attire. Once she was dressed and ready, the teen climbed into the cockpit being sure to tuck away her earlier retrieved light sabers into the pockets affixed to the legs of her flight suit. As she started pulling the helmet on over her head, the teen watched as some of the ground crew made their way over towards her fighter, to assist with the preparations. The movements of the crew around her faded out of the teen's mind as she powered up the cockpit, and reading the displays as the fighter fired up into full operational capacity.

Satisfied that all systems were operational the teen opened a channel up to the flight control. "Flight control this is Star Three, all systems functional, awaiting clearance for takeoff" Eisa reported in before giving a thumbs up to the ground crew, giving them notification that she was ready to go and they could finish priming her ship before takeoff. ++Star Three acknowledged, proceed with take off and maintain covering presence for the remaining transport craft++ a voice rang back in a belated response to the teen's earlier message. Turning her attention back towards the ground crew around her, the teen gave a secondary gesture to the crew to signify that she was about to commence her take off. The crew acknowledged, and proceeded to detach the ship from the various hoses and cables that had connected her fighter to the various fueling and charging systems whilst the canopy of the cockpit gradually lowered itself down.

"Flight control this is Star three, Acknowledged proceeding for take off" Eisa responded as the canopy seal locked in place. Before firing up the ships engines and maneuvering the ship up off the ground and out of the hanger using the fighter's atmospheric thrusters. As soon as she was clear of the main hanger door, the teen pulled the craft up and pitched off into a wide circling roll around the hidden base. "Star Commander, This is Star Three reporting in, currently circling Star base to provide cover for the next flight of transports to depart" the teen reported in to the Wookiee who was currently ahead orbiting the frozen planet.