A Mandalorian mission

[Rae Anne Jarrus]

Location: Vengeful Spirit
Destination: destination unknown

Maia had just gotten a notice that she'd be going on a mission with someone and they'd have to leave immediately. She was unsure what the mission was for or the destination they would be heading to, but she made sure that she had her WESTAR-35s and her lightsabers from her parents. She wasn't a trained Jedi, but she at least knew how to use the force and wield a Lightsaber or two... Which she hoped would keep the two safe enough. Yep, she had her sabers and her pistols. Good and good.

Now she just needed to find the Mandalorian she was supposed to go on a mission with. Just who was it? She wondered if it was maybe someone she ran into while getting breakfast... Who knows, right? At this point, she was extremely excited to see who this guy was. She grabbed her helmet that had colors spray painted all over it and put it on her head as she walked to the place she was told to meet him at.

@Ral Aran

 

[Ral]

They had a mission to do today. If everything went well the Mandalorians would end up gaining another world for them to put a base on, another outpost world to call their own in the wake of the loss of their original worlds. Ral Aran was rather excited, perhaps almost unusually so in that he would be working with a young, new recruit named Maia. He didn't know much about her other than she was a Force Sensitive, and that she could use a lightsaber. With piqued interest, Ral made his way to the hanger's disembarkation deck where he was supposed to meet the young woman. As he walked his metal rimmed boots clanged against the black durasteel flooring, letting off a rubber and metal tap-tap-tap as he moved. Naturally, he was in his full armor with power shirt liner, and up-armored durasteel plates designed to take glancing blows from a lightsaber and to dampen direct blasts from blaster weapons.

With his helmet tucked under his arm, Ral entered the disembarkation deck looking like a metal avatar of war in shiny chrome and metallic teal armor. On his back he had a jetpack with a retracted vibrospear magnetically attached to it. Seeing the young woman in her colorful armor, Ral approached her, a pleasant smile on his face, he didn't want to make her anxious or worried after all. "Maia?" He asked inquisitively as he raised an eyebrow. Extending a gloved hand to her he continued, "I'm Ral Aran. It looks like you and I have a mission to go on today."

 

[Rae Anne Jarrus]

Maia was standing by in the entrance of the hanger, looking her helmet over seeing if she could fit more colors on there. She was sure she could. Next thing she knew, she heard the tapping of metal boots coming towards her and she looked up as he came towards her and put his hand out. She saw his smile and smiled back. "Hi!" She tucked her helmet under her arm and took his hand. "Its nice to meet you. You obviously know my name, but Maia Thorne." She said smiling with a small nod, giving a little bit of an introduction. She was definitely excited for the mission and couldn't wait to start.

"So, do you know what this mission is about?? I was notified early this morning, and they never told me what it was." She said with a tiny giggle. She guessed that they were trying to test her patience or see how sneaky they could be.. or both.

 

[Ral]

Taking her hand in his, he gave it a squeeze and a firm shake. "It's good to meet you as well," he replied, his voice somewhere between baritone and tenor in pitch as he politely introduced himself to the young girl before him. The excitement on her face and in her smile clearly indicated that this young Mandalorian was eager to get on with the mission. Hearing her voice as she spoke up, asking about the mission they were going on caused him to give one of his toothy jovial grins. Humming something like a laugh to himself, Ral nodded before responding, "Yes, of course I know what the mission is. I'm the one that designed the mission plan!" He laughed lightly at the reveal watching how Maia would react.

"We're going to the planet Reytha. There's an old Imperial fortress no longer in use there. We're going to clear it out of all the thugs and squatters and whatever else may have taken up residence, mercenary scum and the like, so that the rest of our people can start delivering the base materials. Sound fun?" He asked rather humorously as he motioned for Maia to follow him to one of the nearby Komr'k Dropships. "We'll be leaving as soon as the Spirit drops out of hyperspace."

 

[Rae Anne Jarrus]

Maia smiled when he shook her hand. She looked surprised when he had said he'd been the one designing the mission. Her smile got wider as she did a silent giggle. "Oh, ok!" She laughed a little more and was careful not to laugh hard. She generally snorted when she laughed hard. She then listened as he explained the mission. She nodded after he finished asking if it sounded fun. "It sounds great! I cant wait to get started." She said with another smile.

She followed him over to the little ship he motioned her to as she adjusted her helmet under her arm. She nodded with a small smile when he said they'd be leaving as soon as the ship came out of hyperspace.

 

[Ral]

"Glad you think so," Ral remarked as he led her over to the dropship, giving her a little smile as they walked over. Walking up the ship's boarding ramp, Ral sat in the pilot's seat and waited for Maia to take the seat beside him. Once she got settled down he would look to her and ask, "So, how long have you been with the Confederacy? What did you do before you joined up?" Ral was honestly curious to get to know this blonde girl sitting next to him a bit more before they go on a mission and potentially into a fight together. Watching her patiently he also asked, "And what do you think of the Confederacy so far?"

Suddenly, Ral could feel the slight deceleration of the Vengeful Spirit as the large Hyperion-class Star Destroyer exited hyperspace. As the stars solidified into pinpricks of sparkling, twinkling light, Ral started the engines up. "Time to get this mission started." The man said with a smile on his face as he pulled up on the controls of the dropship and exited the hanger, the angular ship zooming forward with enough speed to throw both Ral and Maia back into their seats. "You gone a lot of these sorts of things before?" Ral asked, "Seen a lot of action?"

 

[Rae Anne Jarrus]

Maia smiled in return to his response with a little nod. She followed him onto the ship and after he sat down in the pilot's seat, she sat down next to him in the co-pilot seat. She looked at him as he asked how long she had been with the Confederacy. "Well, its not been too long. Its been almost a year." She responded. She wasn't exactly sure on how to respond to the question of what she did before she joined. "I mainly rebelled against the Empire and stole their information. I had done that for a long time. Until I found the Confederacy from a friend bringing me here not long ago. But so far, I think the Confederacy is great. Ive never met anybody like the Confederacy." She explained.

She noticed about the same time when the Ship emerged from hyperspace. Maia smiled when he said it was time to start the mission. Once the little ship exited the Vengeful Spirit, she looked at the endless sky of stars as they sped forward. Maia giggled softly when she asked if she had seen alot of action. "Oh, I've seen lots and lots of action. This will be my.. sixth mission. I gave missions to myself when I was stealing from the Empire. I was a little girl with big dreams that came true." She smiled still looking out at the stars.

 

[Ral]

"A year, huh? That's pretty good. I've been doing my best to ensure the Confederacy grows and gets stronger. After the Genocide against our people it's been hard to find a safe place, but with our friends in the Rebellion, we finally have a new home, and something we can rally behind. I'm glad you like the Confederacy, though. I've been trying to make it a safe and welcoming place for all Mandalorians. Make it a place where our people have more than just a future, but they have a bright and hopeful one where we grow strong again." Ral looked to Maia to see how she was receiving his words. He hoped she understood and could get behind him and his vision for the Mandalorians. Taking a deep breath, he continued, "So, often we have to do missions like this where we go to other planets and make them places for our people. We set up bases after clearing out the riff raff."

As he started pulling the ship out of the hanger, Ral couldn't help but smile a little at Maia. "Six, huh? That's not bad. I'm sure you were plenty active before you came to the Confederacy. I plan on putting all of those skills you've gathered from your years fighting the Empire to use today!" He smiled a little at Maia, "So what other dreams do you have? Any you've accomplished yet, of are close to accomplishing?" Ral continued to pilot the Dropship towards the planet. He waited for the young woman's response as the planet drew closer.

 

[Rae Anne Jarrus]

Maia nodded agreeing with him on his view of the Confederacy. "Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. And missions are always exciting, I've always loved taking over bases and putting the Empire to shame because they lost something. But yes, when I joined, I felt very welcome in with the other Mandalorians. Some found it odd for me to be force sensitive, but what I found out was that my father was a Jedi and my mother was a Mandalorian. So I was born on Mandalore, but I jump from there to Lothal every other month." she replied. Maia didn't realize that she had gone off course with what she said and immediately went back to answering his second question.

"Oh yeah, I was very active. Too fast for the sith lords, thats for sure." she responded with a small smirk. Maia liked the fact he was hoping she'd use her skills today, because she definitely would. She looked over to Ral and nodded responding to the one question. "Yeah, I've actually been working on flying. I've only gone back and forth from Mandalore to Lothal and that was with a TIE fighter. I've been slowly making my way up to the transporters." she said looking out the port window.

 

[Ral]

Nodding solemnly back at Maia as she talked about going back and forth from Mandalore to Lothal. "That must have been before the Empire attacked the Mandalorian Sector and drove us from our worlds lest we be turned into glass like our homes," Ral's voice was clearly bitter. Losing one's home to an unjustified bombardment was something one never really got over after all. "Well, at least you're old enough to remember our homeworlds, many are alive today who are too young to remember. It's good you were able to make it through the civil war and the genocide at least, especially being as young as you are."

They were entering the atmosphere of the planet by now. It would only be a few more minutes now before they were getting into the meet of the mission. "Alright," Ral finally said to Maia as they drew closer to their target. "We're on our final approach, if you need to do anything last minute, I suggest you do it. Otherwise, bucket on, because this might get real rocky real quick," he stated as he grabbed his helmet and slipped it onto his head, sealing it. Ahead he could see the fortress they were supposed to take, but something didn't look right to him. There was too much activity, too many guns in place. "Damn it," he whispered, "Real rocky indeed!"

With that guns from below started firing at them as yellow and red bolts of energy arced through the air to meet them, exploding around their dropship. "This is it, I'm going to have to put her down a little ways away so we don't get shot down before we get there!"

 

[Rae Anne Jarrus]

Maia nodded in response to what he said. "Yes, it was right before that happened. But I do remember it as I helped some of the other Mandalorians. There was a huge place I used to live in, that I remodeled so I could house more than just me in that house. If I remember correctly, it was an old mansion. And some of our people that went there, I housed and helped." she said pausing for a second. "But yeah, the war and the genocide, that was crazy. But they were always so surprised to find a Mandalorian with a Jedi background." she finished off, offering a small smile.

As they were entering the atmosphere of the planet, Maia looked at it in awe. The landscape of the planet was so interesting. "Well, it's a good thing I don't have anything to do right now." she said as she pulled her color ridden helmet onto her head. Maia's force sensitivity kicked in at this point and she sensed something wasnt right. And she was right. She heard Ral cursing next to her in a whisper as they saw guns pointed from the fortress they were supposed to take. "They're prepared. It's like they knew we were coming." she stated as she then though of something. She remembered that with the force, she could help deflect the blasts from the ship. "I have an idea. Maybe using the force, I can redirect or diffuse the blasts being sent this way. Now I don't use the force too much so let's hope that it'd work." she suggested.