The Kessel Run

[Nephill Kilner]

Tre had to admit he was glad for the droid help. He felt more confident knowing T4 was a signal away from unleashing the ship's considerable firepower on the guards.

However, his unease faded away as he adopted a confident, cocky grin as he approached the Arcona. Izal gave a shaky smile in return, and accepted Tre's welcoming handshake with decided unenthusiasm.

"Surely I can't smell that bad. What's wrong, old friend?" he asked, his voice still friendly but strained, with an edge - noticeable despite the muffled sound as it it filtered out of the breath mask. It was clear he was not going to beat around the bush.

"Listen Tre," he whispered, although his voice was still loud and quite audible, although stifled by his own mask, pulling the Verpine closer to him. "You aren't...with the...authorities are you?" he asked, peering around him at the hanging back Belleza with obvious nervousness.

"The authori- Blast it Izal, what's gotten into you! You know I would never cooperate with the pigs," he said indignantly, defeating the purpose of the Arcona's whispering, and Drazon winced. "Not that they would want me anyways," he added as a wistful afterthought.

"I'm sorry. Look, the military has declared martial law here. They arrested the Head Warden. You need to get this on board and get off quick. And they'll probably try to stop you again. You need to make a break for it," he said, his voice normal now but very urgent. It was clear the prospect of being caught with the smugglers terrified him.

"Alright, alright. Here's the money," Tre said, waving for his crew to begin loading the twelve or so heavy crates. He handed over the briefcase, and the Arcona popped the latches open and peered inside, expertly rifling through the notes to make sure they were not fake. The Arcona gave a decisive nod, and the guards visibly relaxed, their weapons falling to their sides.

With that, Tre and his Arcona friend exchanged a brief handshake before the Warden and his security team mounted their speeders, and in moments, disappeared into the horizon, a trail of dust kicked up by their engines. Tre began swearing profusely and aided his crew in pushing the crates up into the hold. He opened up the hidden cargo holds using an elaborate manual lock, which was in the form of a classic Verpine puzzle (OOC: think rubik's cube).

"Hurry everyone, this is bad. In fact, Drazon's going to get caught as soon as he gets back. They're probably watching from orbit. Get ready for a real blockade run. We're going to see action," he said, and all pretense of confidence had faded from the normally charismatic pilot. He was clearly shaken by the prospect and psyching himself up to face a dozen battleships in orbit.

 

[Gaja]

Dammit. That was the dominant thought inside Yuri's mind after he heard that they'd probably have to make a run for it once they loaded up the stuff. While some people would argue that it was exciting and adventurous, Yuri would argue that there was little exciting about being blown up in space. He figured that MOSAIC, T4 and he would have to step it up once they were back on board to help Tre and the Belleza do their thing.

Well it was sort of better that they knew about the situation beforehand rather then getting caught in a tractor beam and having to fight their way out of it. He had to confess something, he'd never broken a blockade before, nor did he attempt such a stunt. So looking at their Verpine pilot the man felt like this might be a first. He didn't say much about it however and moved to move two crates by himself, MOSAIC doing the same. His power armor obviously helped him out in moving so much weight all at once and MOSAIC and a top of the line droid with a lot of horse power under his plating.

The two of them hauled ass and wasted as little time as they could while still watching the merchandise. The little astromech droid, T4 took care of anything from the inside while everyone helped out in moving this stuff in to the ship as soon as possible. Looking at Tre, there was silence for a few seconds before he spoke up. "So if this thing does go wrong I gotta ask. You ever broken a blockade before?" It was an honest enough question and while the blockade didn't cover the whole planet the former gladiator was curious what Tre's thoughts were.

He also looked at their navigator and added. "Just so you know, if you need T4 to do anything don't hesitate to tell him. He's a really slick astromech." Hauling several other crates MOSAIC and the human would move the majority of the load on board as they were the most suited ones for such a job. Besides it wasn't like their job was flying the ship or figuring out the best route, so Yuri was happy to help out in that the other two didn't have to worry about that. He knew fully well that he'd operate the weapons if it came to that but the man hoped that they could get of Kessel without a firefight.

 

[Luster]

Belleza waited until the guards had left to start loading, not that she would put as much of a dent in the collection as Yuri and his droid. That was generally Druid's job if there were no repulsor sled around. And it was a good thing she waited too since she had no idea where Tre wanted everything until he unlocked the compartments. By then she had a single crate ready to be loaded in but she was not moving nearly as fast as the others.

Tre's announcement did not catch her by surprise so much as the change in his demeanor. It was obvious that the massive GA presence in orbit had everyone stirred up but it was very likely that they were either stopping all traffic off the planet or were already aware of this meeting and were trying to catch the crew red-handed. That was something everyone could figure out on their own, but this was the first thing that had broken through the Verpine's confidant shell and he seemed a little.... panicky. It was just odd seeing him shaken so much (sure there were a lot of ships but they would either escape and become legends or in her case die for real) since she was beginning to believe that his sunny disposition could never be brought down.

Sadly she was wrong.

Yuri though looked like he was taking it in stride but he had to be worried, hell any sane person would be. And his first question directed at Tre was not betrayed by a nervous voice but he wouldn't have asked if he wasn't reevaluating the situation. So Belleza took it upon herself to reassure him. "Thanks for the offer. And I know you didn't ask me but I have run blockades before, several in fact. Honestly we just have to leave the gravity well before we can jump, and I really doubt that the GA expect us to fly like Tre did getting us off Tatooine. If anyone can get us into the void safe and sound it's him,"

She looked over her shoulder at the Verpine and flashed a toothy smile. "And if its ok with you once we're able to jump we do it immediately and not towards Geonosis. I say we head back for Tatooine but cut out at the edge of the system then turn back to the original course. That'll throw off the Navy pukes and only add a few decimals to the final run."

 

[Nephill Kilner]

As soon as Tre is satisfied the crates are secured in the hidden hold, and then in the main hold, he nods vigorously after Belleza's words.

"I've run two blockades already since my career started. And I've run hundreds of counter-ops on the other side when I was in the Academy as a cadet. What worries me is the carrier I saw in orbit. The capships will be enough trouble, but the Angel is a fat little devil. Yuri, you're up. It'll be up to you to dust those fighters," he said, tension in his voice, and for multiple reasons. He was steeling himself for what was coming next. Not too long ago, he could have been, and should have been, one of those pilots. He could very well be blasting men and women he went to the Academy with.

But things were different now, something he always had to remind himself. He couldn't be soft. They wouldn't be on him. The galaxy had screwed him over, and would continue to do so. All he could do to survive in a cold galaxy was to be colder.

Back to the present. He was rushing back to the cockpit now, sprinting, nervously fingering his holstered pistol as he climbed the ladder and settled back into his seat.

"Sounds good. As soon as we get out of the Maw. Hope you planned out a solid course...you got the first jump planned? The planet's gravity well won't mean anything if we get sucked into a black hole," he said tensely, powering up the ship in seconds as the engines roared to life.

"Strap in!" Almost immediately Tre was throttling to max as he buckled himself in, pointing the ship straight up as the engines roared to life, the ship shaking from various byproduct vibrations. The ship was moving. Tre enjoyed these feelings normally, feeling like a blaster bolt shot out of a gun, but the feeling of his stomach churning and the G's pressing him into his seat as the ship roared around him was held down by a icy knot building in his gut. This was the worse it had ever been for the Verpine.

They would have to avoid being blasted to space dust by turbolasers and point defense cannons, evade the starfighters, all the while trying to avoid getting sucked into black holes in the Maw. It would take a miracle to get out of this alive, let alone set a record for speed.

In less then a minute they were in atmosphere, and the sound faded off, leaving only the sound of the engines humming. The shaking faded as well as atmosphere let them go, and the ship leveled out along with its gravity as its compensators finally could keep up with the ship's movements.

Already, two large GA cruisers and two smaller, but still potent Kessel Planetary Defense Fleet capital ships were moving in a steady line, in their assigned patrol routes. Tre noted the GA cruiser that had trapped them earlier with its tractor beam, and steered the ship as far as way as it as possible, putting some much needed distance in between them, at the cost of choosing a less desirable route into the Maw.

This was it.

-----

Captain Grumoc wasn't wasting anytime.

Unfortunately, his colleagues weren't as efficient.

"I have indisputable video evidence of an illegal spice transaction. I don't know why you aren't receiving it. You need to launch fighters before they can escape into the Maw!" he shouted into his comm, his anger and frustration building with each moment as the blip denoting the freighter advanced dozens of meters per second. He was so tired of this dense, overweight human! Blast it!

"XO, bring the ship to intercept course with that freighter! Tell Gold Squadron to launch fighters, half-strength! Tractor beams are to engage as soon as they are able to!" he shouted, gritting his teeth. He would be damned if he didn't do anything to stop it. His crew spun into action, and in moments the silent bridge became a frenzied hub of activity. Deck officers shouting and gesturing excitedly at diagrams and displays.

The ship sprung to life, surging forward on SubLight engines. Val nervously watched as the blips denoting the ship's six RZ-5 A-Wing Advanced Starfighters of Gold Squadron, at half strength, streamed out of the Indominable-class Frigate's hangar bay. He knew the squadron leader well, and trusted him. Six A-Wings was overkill for that freighter, however armed it was. It only had three crew members. Captain Aler, a Duros, was number two of his class at the Academy. He and his five pilots would blow that ship out of the sky - or at least disable it enough so that the Galactic Evolution could pick the scum up with tractors.

The captain of the other GA ship nearby squawked to proceed, a useless gesture. Val ignored the fat man. He would do this himself, following his own intuition. Blast the rest of these fools - what was the point of changing the prison administration if they let smugglers slip through their fingers?

"Gold Leader, execute Plan Wasp Alpha," he radioed, and then turned to his communications officer. "Get Captain Greenbark in position. That's a man who knows his duty."

---

"Blast! That was quick," Tre muttered, his sensors squawking as the Indominable-class Assault Frigate sprang into action. Maintaining his distance from it was paramount - turbolasers were just one problem; tractor beams was what he was concerned about. Tre had chosen a route that exploited the largest hole in the blockade, but the capital ships were coming around to close that gap quick. A Kessel cruiser was barely a few kilometers away.

Six signature blips registered immediately on the Angel's sensor array, and the targeting computer began tracking them with red squares. The distance between the ships began shrinking fast; the A-Wings were quick. They had a fight on their hands, that was for sure. They would be within concussion missile range in less then a minute, and laser range in a full minute.

"Yuri, keep them off of us! They got speed and maneuverability on us, hyperdrives, blaster cannons, ion cannons, and maybe even concussion missiles! They don't have to destroy us - disabling us just enough for that capship to catch us in a tractor beam is enough! I"ll keep juking but you gotta blast em!" Tre said, his face set in his battle face, his hands gripping the control yoke in a death grip. A thousand tricks ran through his mind in a second. He would be damned if he didn't manage to still outfly these fighter jocks even in a freighter.

"Belleza, get our course plotted into the navicomputer! We'll be exiting the gravity well in two and a half minutes." Tre pushed a few buttons, and a countdown along with a distance calculator popped up into the HUD, big enough for everyone in the cockpit to see, the numbers decreasing, but molasses slow compared to the nimble A-Wings, further building tension in the cockpit.

The frigate was three minutes behind them, but Tre was going to keep that distant out of his mind. Too many things to stress about, and he would be overwhelmed. Fighters first. Evade the fighters, and the frigate was irrelevant. He would worry about the capital ship and its patriotic captain when he needed to.

He would, however, have to run alongside that Kessel cruiser's batteries. No way around that. It was smaller, lesser armed, and less modern then the GA ships, so he would take his chances. They would cross over the cruiser in a minute.

Here we go, he thought, as the A-Wings assumed an offensive wedge formation and entered concussion missile range...

OOC: GA Ships

 

[Gaja]

It was going to get interesting and all three of them knew it. But all three of them were skilled and ready. On top of their ship they also had several slick droids to depend on to help out wherever it was needed. But the one thing that allowed Yuri a breath of confidence was the fact that both Tre and Belleza had run blockades before, because well, he hadn't. And he damn sure was going to make this his first one. With all the plans he had the man wasn't about to get arrested on Kessel or get blown up. With MOSAIC around and his own skills as a gunner he'd give those boys a run for their money, and then some.

Once everything was on board the muscular man entered the ship with his newest coworkers and quickly took a seat at his station. The laser cannons worked and were ready to rock, and so Yuri leaned back as he awaited the ship to fly of. "Well then let's get it done guys." He was aware what they were about to face, fighters trying to stop them, tracktor beams, black holes and maybe a few other things but the human remained calm.

His heart beat fast but he took deep breaths, and eventually the beating of his heart that he heard through his ears turned in to focus as he tapped a button and saw a radar pop up. It was time...

The time was anything but relaxed and comfortable, they had to be fast and their pilot was proving to provide just that. Speed, and lots of it. The Angel was moving at speeds that few beings would consider safe, but one crew member trusted in his skills to pilot this craft and make them all a whole lot richer.

The flying was a rush, adrenaline was pumping yet the focus in his eyes remained as he gripped the controls and directed the laser cannons at their pursuers and fired of about six or seven shots at their incoming pursuers. Too far for missiles, but close enough to mess up their shields for a second round of shots. With MOSAIC operating the ion cannon at the underside of the ship Yuri was confident that his metal friend would have a surprise or two once their pursuers gained on them some more. An explosion to the face.

"How much longer Miss Navigator?!?" Yuri called out, his fingers pressing down on the command to fire another round of laser bolts at the incoming fighters. He still didn't rid himself of the power armor in case they did get caught in the tracktor beam... Though he knew that him dying would hardly help out if they did get caught, but they did have a few droids in case it really went that way...

But that was a last resort, right now all the former gladiator thought about was finding a home for his precious laser cannon bolts!

 

[Nephill Kilner]

The laser shots strafed the fighters inevitably with energy, softening up their shields. But it did little to stop an equally inevitable strafing run.

The squad leader and his wingman led the soiree, branching apart and lacing the freighter with powerful blasts of ion energy. The A-Wing Advanced Interceptor was known for its short bursts of powerful cannon fire, suitable for fighters of larger stature - the drawback was a lack of ability to sustain fire. A drawback of course, lessened when six of them were attacking you.

Tre let the first blasts connect before throwing the freighter into a violent downward corkscrew, throwing off the next pair of fighters right on the leader and his wingman's tail. He would be damned if he made this easy. The Verpine and his crew were pressed into their seats as the ship's gravity generators struggle to compensate in the sudden shifting of movement, and Tre pulled them in an equally violent pull up to level out. The second pair of fighters, readjusting to the freighter's downward path, were able to get a volley of shots in, but the last few shots went wide as the ship's flew past one another in opposite directions within collision distance. The closeness of the fighters allowed Yuri to get in a good round of fire back at their attackers as Tre pushed the ship forward again, full speed, to take advantage of the shaken fighters and get them closer to jump distance.

The Verpine's face was scrunched in determination, and he made no noise as his hands gripped the ship's controls tightly, one hand dancing over the ship's control panels as needed. The tired planet below was rapidly disappearing as Tre abruptly moved the ship up once more to put distance between them and Kessel. The planet's horizon receded to the bottom of the Angel's viewport, even as a distinctive glint of metal appeared in that crack of dawn, reflecting the Kesselian sun's rays into the edge of the crew's peripheral vision...

---

"Blast!" Captain Grumoc let out quite loudly, making his bridge officers cringe. Lowering his voice, he muttered to himself, "Damn good pilot..." Which will only make his arrest all the sweeter, he thought grimly. He had never seen Captain Aler's crack squadron get shaken like that, and watched the surprised pilots reassemble into formation as blips on his tactical display.

That's why he didn't trust just the pilots. He tapped his fingers impatiently on the tactical display's chrome keyboard, counting down the seconds in his mind. Almost ready....

 

[Gaja]

The ship got hit several times, though only one made a real impact as it hit and before Tre hit the corkscrew move to avoid the star fighters and Yuri let more laser bolts their way. "Some lightspeed would be good about now!" The rugged human in the power armor yelled out as his shots hit and this time actually destroyed a fighter. For a fraction of a second he looked to the co-pilot and what he saw surprised him.

It was Belleza, she was knocked out, mostly likely by that last hit. What in the blue hell would they do without a navigator in this spot? The Verpine continued to show his badass piloting skills and Yuri continued shooting, anticipating where the fighters would be coming from and intercepting their path with his lasers and missiles. The reason why he didn't bring the missiles in at the very beginning was because he knew that the fighters would have shields and that the missiles would most likely be wasted that way. This way he'd actually be able to take them out, and he actually shot two of at the two closest enemies.

Quickly turning to the side he saw that the woman was still out and his brown eyes quickly settled on a familiar figure. "T4, get in there and get us to lightspeed. The shield is taking damage." It was an unfair fight really, six on one? Hardly fair indeed, but just because it was like that the two conscious members of the team wouldn't quit. They didn't want life in jail, no sir! Or death in a space explosion.

So Yuri's little red astromech quickly rolled over there and saw to it that they make that jump as quickly as possible, Belleza had already done most of the work so Trooper would only need a few seconds before he was ready. His beep came soon enough, indicating to Tre that they were ready, hyperspace coordinates were punched in. All he had to do was push that lever and get them the hell out of there when he was ready. MOSAIC and Yuri both saw to it that their back was clear as they unleashed more metal melting fire on the skilled Alliance pilots...

 

[Nephill Kilner]

Tre could only spare a brief moment in his concentration to process the statement that Belleza was out of the fight, along with an accompanying mental curse. Just what they needed.

Luckily, T4 was able to save the day. Although Tre was skeptical of a mechanical's ability to take the intuitive leap needed for unplotted and masterfully construed Kessel Run jumps, he didn't have very many options - escape was paramount. A record was nothing if they were blasted to space dust.

Meanwhile, the GA fighters meticulously reformed into an attack pattern, making them an easy target for several precious moments. On-point fire by MOSAIC and Yuri resulted in several hits, in which A-10 shields were blasted offline - two were now open to death blows.

The fighters were coming around for another attack run, this time Tre focusing on speed over maneuvering, banking that he could cross the few hundred meters necessary to clear Kessel's gravity well and escape.

The fighters were going to reach them before they could, and Tre's heart sank. He could only pray Yuri could pick a few of them off and that the Angel's shields could withstand another volley. As the fighters split for their attack run...

...they flew wide and clear of the freighter, spinning in evasive maneuvers to shake off Yuri's fire....

...To give way to a much bigger threat. A GA ship of the line turned around Kessel's horizon, bearing onto them with uncanny accuracy and speed. Their current path was moving them straight towards the cruiser.

As soon as the cruiser had rounded the planet, it began unleashing volleys from all of its shipboard turbolaser batteries - explaining why the fighters had broken clear off. Bolts of heavy energy, slow and unable to keep up with the freighter's movements, were nevertheless a major threat in that they filled the space around them with numbers and sheer power.

Tre pulled the ship up to break off their course towards the cruiser, opening up the freighter's belly to fire - with one turbolaser bolt slamming home. The cockpit's arrays of sensors screeched as shields went from 84% to 22% in just that one blast.

Tre let out a series of extremely profane curses in his native language.

Their worries were far from earlier. By diverting from a path away from this incoming cruiser, they were once more turned against the destroyer bearing on from them behind, with the fighters coming around for their real attack run, carefully coordinated in between turbolaser volleys...

"Yuri! Keep them off our tail! I'm going to pull some crazy stunts here!" Tre hollered as he yanked on the Angel's control yoke...

----

Grumoc watched from his ship's bridge as the GA cruiser Star of Freedom unleashed a full broadside onto the small, zipping freighter. All of the deck officers, despite their experience, could nonetheless be awed by the firepower displayed by a fully fledged battle vessel of the Alliance. Nonetheless, the pilot did a masterful job at evading in between the fire arcs, only taking one hit.

It was nothing. They were being wedged in - with the fighters to harry them while the cruiser's closed in.

"Weapons Officer! Distance to tractor range!" Grumoc called crisply.

"2,000 meters and closing, Captain! We'll have them in moments, sir," the sweating Duros replied, typing furiously at his console before turning to scream at his equally nervous weapons crew.

"Very well. Turbolasers on standby. Keep our fighter jock friends on track," Grumoc proceeded smoothly, expertly masking the vortex of emotions in his stomach. The criminal crew of that ship was good. Their laser fire was too accurate for comfort, and the pilot's skill easily matched, or perhaps even surpassed the aces of this GA fleet. He wanted these guys roped in now.

 

[Gaja]

Tre's voice registered with the rugged human as he skillfully pulled the console towards his left in an attempt to destroy another fighter. His move worked and one Alliance dude less was the result. What he missed however was that they were running in to the tracktor beam field of their pursuers, as he was entirely focused on allowing Tre to set them up for the jump to lightspeed.

Luckily for everyone involved they had two little 'geniuses' on board that informed them about it once Tre hollered, with T4 beeping something that Yuri didn't quite get but MOSAIC made an effort to remind everyone. "We are risking entrance in to the enemy tracktor beam field." The raised volume of his voice was enough for everyone on board to hear. Even Yuri who really had to focus on keeping up with all those guys behind them, these guys were good. He had to admit it, they were really good. Really skillful pilots that worked well together. Luckily for the criminals their weapons packed quite the punch, so they more of less managed to defend themselves, aside from that big shot they got hit a few seconds ago.

"Kriff..." The man said under his breath, his teeth clenched together as his brown eyes tried to follow everything that was going on, all the sensory input, the radar, the aim, the fighter, which one was closest to them. For a moment he considered calling out to Tre and asking how long before they could make the jump but he figured that the Verpine needed little reminding on that matter. He'd do it when they were ready, after all this all was pretty pointless if they ended up crashing in to a star... So he stayed quiet and kept on shooting, luckily for him he was on a roll and everything more or less seemed to be going in their favor.

Their pilot was creative and unpredictable, which made it difficult for the Alliance folk to keep up efficiently and hit them often, and also it allowed Yuri to fire of shots when they spun around to follow and nail them properly. It also helped having MOSAIC there to operate the other guns, and T4 to help out with the navigation since the red haired lady was out... Yep, everything was going just fine...

 

[Nephill Kilner]

The advantage of a closely coordinated formation on offense became a disadvantage when on the defensive. Yuri's precise cannon fire struck several of the fighters in the formation, and one sustained critical damage to its engine block. Spinning out of control, it collided with its wingman, sending both twirling away in the opposite direction of the Angel.

"Great shooting!" Tre noted, and with a sympathetic glance at the limp Belleza, began executing a series of his most complicated maneuvers. Failure to execute them perfectly would result in their capture - no way around it.

His left hand began scrambling all over the dashboard, punching buttons and shifting interfaces as his right hand began pushing viciously with the control yoke. The freighter spun and executed a tight 70 degree turn, which tore at the hull and at the crews' bodies, the G forces felt clearly as they pulled at their flesh. The sensation subsided in a few moments, replaced by nausea as the ship's rocking and irregular movements disrupted them. The ship's gravity compensators, despite being top-of-the-line, simply could not handle the punishment being dished out by its Verpine pilot.

The remaining fighters were completely shaken by this abrupt course change, the leader clearly not expecting in a thousand moons that the freighter would attempt such a deadly move. But it was nothing compared to what came next.

Tre began spinning the disc-shaped ship in patterns while juking and jiving in a zig-zag, all the while pushing the engines to beyond safe operating standards that came within deadly proximity to overload.

The ship's engines screamed as they attempted to keep up with the energy output demanded by the ship's system, and the hardened hull nonetheless screeched and creaked through the forces being exerted onto it.

Tre's stomach was balled into a solid, iron knot, controlling the nauseous feelings, and his body as set as rigid as a corpse's - the only thing moving randomly were his agitated antennae.

"Launch missiles, we're still easy targets for interceptor fire computers! Don't have a chance of getting lucky with the cannons!" he shouted over the whine of the ship.

Already, the two A-Wings had compensated for the course change and were carefully sighting in the freighter, and Tre's mind was straining to come up with good enough random patterns so that they wouldn't be able to predict his course changes.

The A-Wing which had been shot earlier was out of the fight, but its wingmate had escaped with minor damage and was zipping along. Soon, there would be three fighters, and the turbolasers of the battleship were clearly training for another massive barrage...

Not waiting to see what Yuri did, Tre pushed the engines within a hair of overload. The ship was rocketing as fast as a comet, and Tre ceased his evasive maneuvers to increase their speed - traveling in a straight, unchanging line made them significantly faster...

Eying his sensors tightly, he allowed his left hand to grip the Hyperdrive throttle...

...and pulled it. With a massive bang, the stars turned into lines and the ship lurched forward to lightspeed.

Tre collapsed in his seat, panting with the exertion as he nervously performed a system check for the now relieved SubLight engines.

"Did you nail any of em right before we jumped? And I think you should send one of your droids down to take a look at the SubLight engines. They've gotta be pretty worn out." He paused, his mine struggling to exit the one-track mode of extreme piloting.

"Oh yeah, where exactly did you even plot a course for?"

---

Grumoc slammed his fist into an expensive battlefield tactical display, letting out a steady stream of some of the foulest curses known to Devaron.

They had been right in their grasp! Two battleships and a squadron of their best pilots wasn't enough to stop one lunky freighter piloted by some criminal scum?

But the GA captain had to admit that the freighter's crew was talented. He hadn't seen shooting like that, or piloting like that since watching Academy Highlight Films. This was no ragtag crew of self-trained discontents; no no, these were professionals.

Very well. He liked a challenge, anyways. More glory to be won. His temper settling down into his normal disposition, he turned to his absolutely silent crew, who were clearly dreading the worst.

"Do you have their course?"

"I-I think so, sir, they're - "

"Plot it in, and all pilots to their fighters. I want them ready to go. We will get them. I know a few tricks myself about the Maw...." he said, voice trailing off.

His crew turned back to their work, clearly relieved to be spared of a captain's righteous fury. With their tasks to do, it was moments before the ship was in Hyperdrive range and an alert was sounding for the fighters.

"Sir, the Admiral requests what we are doing and demands we reform the blockade line. He says that one GA ship isn't worth risking the blockade!" a junior comms officer called out.

"Punch it," Grumoc said with gritted teeth, and Navigation reluctantly jumped them to lightspeed.

 

[Gaja]

Missiles, one, two, three, four of them were sent the other way and explosions followed. Yuri managed to stay in his seat though he had to admit that he only once felt pressure like that on his body, and that was when he was flying with his partner in crime Shyra. And that spoke volumes about Tre's skill as a pilot, because Shyra Dervish was a pilot that navigated the Vergesso Asteroid Belt on her own, making her one of the very best pilots in the galaxy today. The crack shot pilot, that was the Verpine, managed to get them in to position and pulled the lever, and with a few explosions going of behind them Yuri saw several ships explode.

As they jumped to lightspeed Yuri leaned back in to his chair and breathed in and out for a few seconds. He could hardly believe it that they made it out of there alive. Not because of the fighters but because of that giant ass ship, it's massive canons and tracktor beam. Not that the fighters weren't skilled and dangerous on their own. Looking over at the pilot and the co-pilot Yuri remembered that Belleza was knocked out cold.

His seat spun around and he turned towards Tre, standing up and walking towards him. "Phew that was intense... But yeah I got two or three more. The third got hit but he didn't explode like the others when we made the jump... But I'm pretty sure his fighter was out. But that's a good question, T4 where are we going actually?" That showed how little idea Yuri had about navigating this sector of the galaxy. T4 beeped a few times and Yuri turned towards MOSAIC for translation, because he couldn't quite understand what the little guy was saying.

"Our next destination is the planet Formos. Though it appears that Miss Belleza plotted 6 mini jumps to get us there. But according to my calculations we may be able to do it with five. Such a strategy would enable us to match the original plan, though our positioning will have to be precise." Yuri looked at the blue droid, now quite a bit more relaxed. Figuring they already left the Alliance guys behind he turned to look at T4. "I don't know... I'll take Belleza to her quarters. T4, you give MOSAIC the coordinates and codes, then go and check on the sublight engines, will ya?"

The droid beeped and booped cheerfully, glad that it had something to do. So it ran of in quite the hurry. Picking up the unconscious navigator it would seem that it was only Yuri and Tre now. Holding the red haired woman in his arms the human looked at the green Verpine and added. "Listen I'm going to take her to her room. You decide what you want to do. Doesn't matter much to me. After Formos we've got Hutt space on our side and then former Mandalorian space..." Slowly moving the red haired woman downstairs Yuri it would be a minute or two before he came back to check upon the pilot.

Once he was back the muscular gunmen asked. "So any thoughts on what MOSAIC said? He'll do what you decide..."

 

[Nephill Kilner]

Tre gave simple nods at the words, and upon Yuri's exit pulled up the charts that T4 had plotted.

A sense of tension and urgency gripped at him as he reviewed the critical part of their course that they were flinging themselves headlong in to every second that passed. Carefully, he examined the route around the approximated positions of the series of black holes known as the Maw, and the narrow strip between the Maw Nebula known as the Pit.

Fear rendered him rigid at the numbers. [i[2.3% chance of miscalculation.[/i] Too high!

Only sheer terror allowed his shocked muscles to move, and he shakily grabbed at the Hyperdrive throttle and yanked back. With a crash, they dropped out of Hyperspace, Tre revving the SubLight engines to max -

- as the ship promptly began to drift in the opposite direction of the SubLight thrust, into the gravity well of one of the members of the Maw!

Just then, Yuri returned as the ship began to slowly accelerate in the wrong direction.

Tre was swearing liberally in his native tongue, a series of angry and hate-filled clicks and clacks whose meaning was universal.

"Blast me! It's my fault Yuri - no time! Get into your seat and activate co-pilot setting! We have seconds!"

If the insectoid could sweat, he would be drenched. His body was trembling violently as he attacked the switches and dials on his dashboard, yanking the SubLight engine output up violently - momentarily stopping their passage towards the black hole and propelling them forward several precious dozen meters forward.

"Get one of your droids to the SubLights, crank them for all we got without overload!" Tre screamed, without the luxury to explain. Only SubLight power could save them; jumping back to Hyperspace, while caught in the gravity well of the black hole, would shred them. They were just on the edge of the black hole's well and had a chance to escape - given that the Angel's engines could withstand the pressures demanded. He would only have to hope that the engine's stability compensators could match the instability required.

"Get another droid to use the sensor array, get real time data of the route, and plot a new course - just through the Pit! It needs to be below 1% probability of failure, this is crucial!" Tre said, his entire body straining as the control yoke simulated the resistance of the engines' thrust was facing against the gravity well. Their acceleration was slowing as Tre feared to push the engines any farther without the droid's advice/attendance, and the ship began to slip ever so slowly backwards...

"We have less than a minute! The other black hole is shifting our way...even if we escape this one's well, we'll get caught in the new one's! This is it!"

The engine's whines slowly began to build, an audible representation of the tension that hanged tangibly in the air of the cockpit...

 

[Gaja]

The sudden change in their speed caught Yuri off guard, making him grab something to hold on to as he heard Tre yell out something in his native language. The human didn't understand the language of the Verpine people but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the pilot was pissed. Moving towards him with a sense of urgency the former gladiator thought that maybe one of the hyperdrive engines got shot or that maybe they suffered some damage that they didn't see until now. So figuring that the problem was fixable Yuri was gonna move towards Tre and see what it was that needed to be done.

To his surprise he was met with an order to get in the co-pilot's seat and have T4 crank the sublight engines all the way up. According to the Verpine pilot they had seconds, which prompted Yuri to not waste any time in doing exactly as he was told, relaying the order to T4 the very next second. "T4, you heard the man!" The little guy quickly connected to the engines that had previously been pushed hard in their getaway. But the brief hyperspace jump gave them some time to cool down. Hopefully enough...

Yuri did as he was told and without even having to tell him anything MOSAIC was already on the sensor array station and was filtering out the live feed while the two organics struggled to escape the grip of the first black hole. "Sharp Commander. Live update suggests that Ar'tre is correct in his assumption. Recalibrating data... 15 seconds..."

It would be a long 15 seconds but the droid would eventually add to it. "Transferring of new data complete. Margin of error 0.34%." It was all up to the two organics now. Yuri was waiting on further orders from their Verpine captain while the clock ticked down...

One had to wonder though, were their Allaince pursuers in the same situation as they were?

 

[Nephill Kilner]

Tre tuned out the background noise around him, acknowledging only that the engines were as good as they were going to get. They hadn't failed him before, and if they did now - well, he wouldn't be around long enough to regret it, would he?

Pushing them up to within a hair of overload, which caused them to fill the entire ship with an intense shriek and send vibrations through the fuselage, the ship began to crawl forward - slowly. But it wasn't going to be enough. The engines would overload before they could get clear.

Only one thing could possibly work now. He didn't have time to get Yuri on board, so the Verpine used his own console to release the entire first row of concussion missiles. Giving them half a second to fall and be drawn towards the black hole, he remote-detonated them - the resulting explosion annihilated their rear deflector shields, but he explosion was just enough to push the ship a much needed jump forward. The explosion only worked because they were on the outskirts of the shield's gravity well - and even so, it took another two seconds for the ship's SubLight engines to squeeze out enough thrust for them to clear it.

With three seconds to spare as the second black hole came around, Tre assumed that the droid had managed to program an acceptable Hyperspace route, and with a violently trembling hand, pulled back on the Hyperspace throttle.

He hadn't ever been so happy to see the vortex of lightspeed.

Visibly exhausted, Tre reclined back into his chair to take a breather. "Have T4 get on those SubLights. Just a centimeter from burnout. That was the closest I've ever gotten to it all ending...It's just a hop through the Pit before we have to drop out and reprogram. And we got the GA and pirates to worry about. Both know all smugglers have to pass through there. It's a perfect ambush point....sorry about those missiles. Guess it's back to basics with the cannons..." Tre trailed off, deflated from his earlier bombastic personality. It was clear he had no illusions about the difficulty of the mission, which was straining at the seams to stay together.

 

[Gaja]

Much like Tre the rugged human was in his seat, contemplating what in the blue hell went wrong. Did Belleza completely miscalculate the jump?!? Apparently she did and Tre caught wind of it when MOSAIC informed him of the error probability. At least that was Yuri's guess. But rather than being angry, sad and scared the man was happy that they made it. And for whatever reason the one thing on his mind were the missiles! Whatever it was that made him save the missiles and not fire them at the GA fighters, you had his thanks, for those very missiles saved their asses!

And even if it was back to just basic stuff, the ship had outstanding weapons and Yuri and MOSAIC would deal with it either way. They had to! The important thing was that Yuri, when he looked out the ship, saw that they were traveling at light speed. T4 didn't need anything to be said, as he quickly adjusted the engine output to what Tre suggested. By now the little guy accepted Tre as the pilot and put his commands as worthy of being followed. After all Yuri didn't object so the little guy just did what was asked of him. Even he was scared a little about his circuits being fried!

After about a minute everyone probably calmed down and Yuri once more looked at the expert pilot. "Well that was exciting." If that wasn't a huge understatement nothing was. But the human seemed to have calmed down, even though the experience was still very fresh in his mind. But the Verpine was smart and looked ahead. And Yuri could only agree that they needed to be ready. "So what do you think? Back to being the shooter for me?" Yuri wasn't familiar with this part of the galaxy all that well so he largely depended on Tre to tell him whether or not to expect pirate or Alliance company. Either way he was ready to shoot, just that he thought maybe the Verpine pilot had more of a clue on what was next. It was human nature after all...

 

[Nephill Kilner]

"That's right. And if smuggler's tales are to be taken into account, even with the smallest amount of salt, there will plenty of shooting for you to do," Tre said quite grimly, as he melted into his seat to enjoy the brief respite.

After a minute of rest, his body tensed up into combat mode again and he forced all vestiges of fatigue from his mind. He was back into the frame of mind that he had learned at the academy; the type of mental and physical endurance that had allowed him to study for days at a time and push in a simulator when all of his other classmates had retired to bed.

Tre ran a quick diagnostics check, and saw that T4's work had at least managed to restore the taxed SubLights to acceptable operational levels, which would have to be enough for now. Tre made a promise to get the whole thing redone once they had their cash in hand.

"Okay, we're coming out of the Pit...we'll have to reprogram again. Get ready to plot a route and standby on those laser cannons...it's too bad we don't got those missiles now..." Tre said, gripping the ship's controls as he stared at the ship's sensors.

In seconds, the ship dropped out of Hyperspace.

They hadn't crawled forward twenty meters before alarms started going off.

There were two problems.

The first: The SubLights were apparently even worse off then the sensors told the crew; they had immediately started smoking and fuming and were on the verge of catastrophic overload - apparently some inhibitor or other had broken down.

The second: A heavy transport-sized capital ship was bearing down on them, hard, with pirate insignia emblazoned on its side. Heavy ion cannons began spewing energy at the helpless ship, and without his thrusters, Tre's maneuvers were for naught.

The battered Fallen Angel took most of the shots head on, and the ion energy ran through the entire hull - the power gave two flickers before winking out. A few seconds later, with a disturbing crackling noise, red emergency lighting turned on as most of the ship's systems remained online.

It had happened so fast Tre hadn't even had the opportunity to swear. He began jabbing at the ship's dashboard angrily, swearing and visibly becoming unhinged. Meanwhile, the pirate ship was on an intercept course and was quickly and efficiently lining up for an imminent boarding action.

Resigned to their fate, Tre turned away from the broken ship and grabbed a verpine repeating shatter carbine that was hidden in a wall compartment.

"See what T4 can do to get us booted up again. There goes all of that money to revamp the circuits...we'll be getting kriffing boarded any second now." Tre looked mad enough to take on the entire Alliance army himself.