The Vathinor Crisis

[Krytos]

Rantar quickly wiped the trickle of blood from his eyes and got back into his defencive stance. Two on one now

It was now morning, almost 12 o'clock, and he'd been jumped after getting out of the speeder he had stolen. He wasn't sure where the three had come from, though they had managed to disarm him before he had a chance to use his blaster. They were armed with pipes and whatever makeshift weapons they could grab. Rantar had been able to knock out one of them, though took a blow in his head as a reward.

"Time to die Rantar!!!" The one on his right yelled as he dived at him. Rantar rolled to his right putting the opponent inbetween himself and the other thug.

Rantar twisted to get his side to face the thug as he stood from his dive and delivered a side-kick to his temples. The thug rolled on the ground and gave one sharp scream before he stopped moving all together.

The other thug, seeing his friend taken out so easily, through his pipe at Rantar. Quick reflexes broguht up his arm blocknig the pipe. Yelling out in agony, Rantar grabbed hold of his injurred arm and quickly swung to deflect any other attack made, Rantar was struck with a sharp jab to his face. Staggering back, he attempted to hold his balance, but gravity got the best of him and he landed heavily on his back.

Staring up, the thug entered his vision again. This time holding Rantar's blaster.

"Good bye Rantar," he said with a lsy grin. He slowly tightened his grip on the trigger. In a blinding flash, the air smelled of burnt flesh and the explosive rip of a blaster bolt shuddered through the air. Trying to focus, Rantar saw the thug drop to the ground dead. In his wake stood Tro'Bar.

Tro'Bar leaned over Rantar's body and with a smile on his face spoke, "I said 11 o'clock, not 12"

[Barkoa]

Naruk, now made Commander, strolled around his new private quarters. He was currently positioned in a barracks facility overlooking teh mining operation. He was in charge of the whole sector's security. He had been very quickly promoted over the last month, which he suspected was the result of higher military upheaval. Things happened, and he'd kept his mouth shut and it'd gotten him this far. Besides, he was a COMMANDER! He had 500 men at his disposal. Things were going well.

 

Walking to the window he looked over the large refinery. Pillars of steam billowed out, and heat waves rose all around blurring his vision of the building itself. They'd been mining like mad recently, and the security had been greatly intensified. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't care too much. He went back to his large chair and sat down. Spinning around a few times, he leaned back, put his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes. He could relax now.

[Krytos]

Rantar squinted in the dark in a vein attempt to see his surroundings. He held a bandage to his arm where the pipe had hit him, and for the first time since the whole incident started - Rantar felt safe. He was in his friend's basment, and was being taken care of by his friend's family.

Though this wasn't any time to sit back and relax - he needed to think about what was going on around him and what he could do to stop it.

He'd been attacked by security officers - from his department! Whatever "the organisation" was upto, they had power and it appeared a lot of it.

Before he could think of what to do next, he needed to know who he was fighting, who "the organisation" really was. Rantar would fight for his planet, though not for a lost cause or the wrong people.

Rantar closed his eyes as he decided it was time to pay "the organisation" a visit. He knew where to go, though should he go by himself? Should he drag Tro'Bar into the fight? Were the Jedi coming for him?

No, he couldn't bring Tro'Bar into the fight, at least not yet anyway. And he doubted the Jedi were coming for him - after all, he left by his decision and the Jedi have their own battle to fight. It would look like Rantar would be on his own again.

His thoughts were broken by the sound of a door hissing open, it was Tro'Bar. Rantar sighed and told his friend what was he was going to do.

"Rantar, I can't stop you - but I can tell you how foolish this is," Tro'Bar said as he lowered his head. "Friend, before you leave - know this: if you are ever in trouble, you can count on me. I'll be there for you no matter what, this I promise."

Rantar smilled at his old friend's sincerity, "Thanks - hopefully I want have to get you to fulfill that promise. I don't want anything to happen to you or your family."

With that Rantar headed out of the house and started on his long journey to far outside the city and to where he would find answers.

[Phytho]

Tython had managed to get his squadron on board, and luckily he had managed to get all the cabins closest to the hangers posted to his men. Tython was determined to be the first squadron in space in every battle. He had to prove to the other captains that he could make a difference.

 

As soon as everything was organised Tython went to the commanders office where he would be briefed on the next mission. After all the other Squadron captains had arrived the Commander opened by saying "As you can all see we are going on a aggressive mission to a local planet. I cannot tell you the location of the planet or the stratergy we will use untill we are all in hyperspace." The commander then continued by saying "I will call all into my office individually and tell you the plan once we enter hyperspace. The order of your briefings will be in your offices. You are all dissmised." The Commander finished.

[Jess]

Afton walked into the hanger that Barkoa had told her would hold her new ship. She called it her new ship but in reality she was only in command of it. She had no idea how to fly a ship but she still felt it was her’s. She walked up to it examining it from a mechanics point of view. It was big, with three primary engines that looked like the big eyes of an alien, it was fairly well equipped and looked quite resent, but still it was not quite what she had in mind for this mission.

 

She was about to walk into it when she heard footsteps coming towards her. She turned and saw Josson looking at the ship as he approached.

“What do you think?â€

[Phytho]

Three hours after entering hyperspace Tython was called into the Commanders Office to recieve his full briefing. The commander opened by saying "As you have probably guessed we have one or more traitors among our captains. So what I am telling you I dont want you to tell any other captain incase they are the spy. We will be attacking the planet Hunover with its multiple ship yards it should hold a small challenge. Your role will be to run intercept for our bombers. At the moment the Movian military could not spare enough commandoes to capture the planet so we intend to totally destroy the defences and production capabilities..... Any questions sergeant?". Tython thought it over and said "No thank you Sir. I will not fail you.". As Tython left the room he thought How bad has the infiltration of our ranks got that the commander cant even trust his own men.

 

As Tython couldnt tell his squadron where they were attacking he desided to take them on simulators that were similar to what they would have to do in the actual attack.

[Krytos]

Rantar peered around from behind the large rock he was using as cover. There it is, there's my answers .

Rantar was staring at a mansion that was on the outscirts of the city, on a private block of land. It took him a long time to find the house, though now he would find answers.

The mansion seemed to be ungaurded - though, Rantar knew that that meant there was going to be other securit measures n the form of cameras, droids, trip wires.

He would have to be careful now. From here on he would also be alone, there wouldn't be anyone that could come and help, their would be no-one rescuing him this time.

Closing his eyes, Rantar swollowed hard and wished himself good luck. With that he left the safety of his rock and headed into the darkness.

[tchar]

"I'm sorry sir, captain Sebala is currently on assignment. He isn't likely to be back for quite some time."

T'char rose from the armchair that had been his home for the last three hours. "Thankyou anyway. Can I leave a message?"

"Sure. I just can't guarantee that he'll get it any time soon."

"No problem. Could you please ask him to send me a message when he returns? I have a buisiness proposition for him."

"Sure. He knows where to contact you?"

"Tell him to talk to Sergeant Tython. He'll be able to direct him to the right place."

"OK. I'll send that off straight away. Good afternoon Mr T'char."

"Thanks."

HE strode from the foyer, and headed back to his ship.

[Phytho]

They had been in Hyperspace for about 4 days now and Tython and his men were begining to get restless. They had all been through all the simulators that where similar to the battle they were going to have to fight.

 

They where all in the mess when suddenly they dropped out of hyperspace and a message came across the intercom system. "We are taking a small brake while we change our course we will be here for about one hour. It is recommended that all pilots go for a test fly to try flying with other squadrons."

[Barkoa]

Barkoa helped Afton and the others get their required parts and ships ready. He left them with two droids that would load their gear and assist them in any modifications they desired. He and Nuri then prepared their gear.

 

***

 

Two hours later they were squinting as the light of the setting sun streamed in through the open hangar doors. Their ship was prepped and ready. Nuri climbed the ladder and sat in the back seat of the Delta Wasp. The ship was moderately small, but was fast, highly manouverable and quite resilient. It only fitted two, and had been customed-designed for Barkoa. Jedi seldom needed co-pilots, but to have a second allowed for more to be done quickly. Barkoa then climbed in the front seat. They would be gone for a while but he was ready to be back into some action. The cockpit hatch sealed with a hiss, and the transparisteel lightened. Barkoa belted himself in and groaned slightly as the ship sped out of the hangar bay.

 

"COmputer, set coordinates for Coruscant," he said as space loomed out in front of him. 30 seconds later they made the jump to warp speed. This was it, they were on their way.

[tchar]

T'char sat at his usual spot at the bar, feeling uncharacteristically depressed. With the looming prospect of being unable to locate Sebala any time soon, he was soon going to be in the state that so much of the district seemed to share - and oddly enough enjoy. He was going to become virtually unemployed.

With that dire future in mind, he quickly slapped a credit disk on the bar, got up, and went searching for a new target.

[Krytos]

Rantar took each step slowly and carefully as he crept through the dark hallways of the mansion. He had slowed his breathing, and kept low to the floor to avoid being seen. Though from the time he had broken into the mansion, by passed security (easy thanks to his years of service with Vathonir Security) and began searching he hadn't seen a single living creature.

It was then, down the long stretch of the hall, light gapped through a crack in a door. Finally, answers.

Rantar quikened his pace, though ever so slightly, he didn't want the person in there to hear him. Not yet anyway.

Rantar was getting anxious, he could feel the urgancy just to run into that room, though he knew better - he couldn't afford to stuff this up. Not now, not while he's so close. Rantar pulled his blaster closer, and headed down the hall way towards his destiny.

[Jess]

Afton had almost finished the modifications to the ship. With the droids that Barkoa had supplied, she put the finishing touches on the tracking system. Turning it on to see if it worked how she wanted it to, she looked at the screen. A small red dot came up and it started to blink on and off.

Good, she thought.

 

She moved over to the control panel where one of the droids was fixing the hyperdrive and switched on the internal commlink that she had also added. This link was only inside the ship and it would help her contact the others from anywhere in the ship.

"Josson could you meet me in the control room." The message was heard throughout the ship and soon Josson's footsteps could be heard coming down the hall.

 

"Yes sir. What would you like?" he replied as he entered the room.

"Have you heard from Solla yet? We need to leave ASAP."

"No I haven't. Shall I call her again?"

"Yes. Then we will give her 5 minutes to show her face."

 

Josson got on his commlink.

"Solla you have Five minutes to get to us, otherwise we leave without you."

Turning back to Afton he chuckled.

"Done. We will leave in ten minutes and counting."

 

Afton asked a question that had been on her mind for a while.

"Do we have access to the supply room? And are we able to name this ship what we want?"

"Yes, and Yes."

"Okay then. C12 can you go to the supply room and get me two more commlinks and some more blaster rifles and ammo. And Josson lets think of a name for this baby."

 

The droid made its way to the supply room and Josson and Afton sat down to talk about a name.

The name of the ship became:

"The Imposter"

[Phytho]

After finishing a test sequence with all the pilots that Tythons squadron was ment to fly with and doing a successful run on the target that had been placed in the local asteroid field. After half an hour of practice Tython called his squadren back to the ship. He also sent a message to the captain of the other squadren who was called Sol Sebala "Captain we are heading back to the ship please join me for a drink when you land." Tython said. Sol answered by saying "Sorry but I have a few things I have to organise before we arrive at our destination. Maybe I'll see you after the battle. See ya for now."

 

Several hours later after getting everyone to have a short sleep before getting into position for the end of the journey. Ten minutes before they were ment to exit hyperspace Tython got the strange sensation that somthing was wrong. Suddenly a message came across the intercom "all squadron leaders report to the Commanders office immediatly."

[Phytho]

Two miutes later after all the captains where seated the Commander opened by saying "All of you where tricked when you came on this mission. When you where told our mission objective you where all told a different planet. We dropped out of hyperspace half a minute ago and we recieved a signal that stated that the planet we had told Captain Sol Sebala about has had a significant amount of military build up in the last two hours. From this we have concluded that he is the traitor amongst us. Who ever was flying with his squadron will now take them on. It seems that he took off as soon as we entered real space. If any of you know of any local bounty hunters would you please inform me as we cannot spare any ships." Tython put his hand in the air and said "Sir I know of a very good Bounty hunter and he has been doing some work for me. His name is T'char he is currently on Phalax he could probably be here in two hours." "That would be great I'll contact him straight away" the Comander said Before desmissing all of them to go about the comming battle.

[Krytos]

For every step Rantar took, his heart thumped louder and louder. It was a deafening beat that was plaguing his mind and thoughts. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate as he approached the door, every metre, every centimetre he took drew him closer to answers - to answer what had been happening to his world and why.

Sweat beaded upon his forehead, his breath was shallow but sharp and his eyes began too loose focus.

It had seemed an eternity since he had started down this long hallway, when in reality it had been less than two minutes. His eyes drew back into focus, and before him stood the ancient wooden door at the end of the hallway - with only a shimmer of light etching through its slightly open form.

Rantar raised his arm, and stretched out his hand. He rested it gently against the wood, and felt the texture of the paint.

With a heavy breath, he pushed open the door and stepped forward into the light . . .

[Barkoa]

The Delta Wasp pulled out of hyperspace. With a small boost, it lifted out of the long-range carrier it had used for the long journey. Barkoa came out of his jedi trance and looked back at Nuri. She still sat there with her eyes closed. They had been in hyperspace for nearly two weeks, and the Mouvian System was at its closer part of orbit. Nuri opened her eyes, and blinking a few times, woke up.

 

"Are we there already?!" she said lazily. Barkoa didn't answer, but put the ship on to full thrusters. Coruscant was the center of the galaxy by location, but not by popularity, yet. Increasing trade to the area was making it more popular. The planet's cities were growing and taking over the forests. Barkoa headed for the largest city, Coruscant Prime, which covered around 1/8th of the planet.

 

The Wasp entered the atmosphere, and streams of red and orange flame licked around the shield of the ship. As they descended lower through the cloud, they saw one building just starting to poke through the lower levels. None of the other building were quite so tall, but they too were growing. Barkoa headed for the floating main hangar in the upper eastern sector, and after a few minutes was preparing to land. The gentle hiss of releasing gas was followed by a slight jolt, and they were down. Barkoa opened the cockpit. The warm, musty air hit him. He coughed. The polution levels on this planet would need to improve before it became anything important...

[tchar]

The call came just as T'char was wrapping up yet another unsuccessful business meeting with a potential client. The Rodian businessman was having problems with a rival who kept prying into his secret dealings, but like many of the locals seemed reluctant to hire an offworlder to do the job properly, when he could easily pay off one of the city's minor gangs to do it for a fraction of the cost.

 

Tython's face appeared on the commscreen.

 

"Hi T'char. Uh, I might have a job for you. I know you're probably kinda busy, but we've run into a slight problem over here. It seems one of the other squadron commanders - a captain Sol Sebala - has turned traitor and has been selling information to the enemy all along. We tried to apprehend him, but he escaped into hyperspace before we could nab him. It seems from his escape vector that he's heading back toward Phalax. As i said, i know you're busy, but the command types here are willing to pay up to 10,000 credits for DNA evidence of his death. He left almost three hours ago. I'm going to be hanging around here for a while, until the current campaign is over. I guess I'll see you in a couple of days. If I make it, I'll even buy you a beer."

 

The commscreen dissolved into static.

 

Sol Sebala? That couldn't be right. He played the message again, and was delighted to find that it was actually the case. He noted the transmission time, almost two days ago. If Sebala's ship was making any decent progress, he'd be in the system within 24 hours.

 

He headed for the NightHawk at a brisk trot.

 

OOC - Coupla things - Sorry for playing Tython so much Phytho; and ive got no idea what a decent bounty is - is 10,000 credits too much or too little?

[Krytos]

The light burned Rantar’s eyes, the same eyes that had spent an hour adjusting to the pitch black of night. The room was a small workroom, at the far end there was an expensive chair facing the other way pointing at a holodisplay. An old holo drama was playing, and who ever sat in the chair hadn’t noticed Rantar’s entry. He crept up to the chair, every step painful with anxiety racing through his body. Placing his had on the chair’s edge he spun it around to confront his journey’s end.

[UlicHorn]

Solla's comlink beeped and she hurried herself to the hanger and had her gear stowed shortly. She found Josson and reported in. "I'm ready to leave when you need me sir."

[Phytho]

Tython was screeming along jinking to the right, diving to the left taking a snap shot and flying through the enemy ships debries.

 

The Sirius V had quickly flown up to the planet and the local protection had taken off from the surface. The resistance consisted of 20 fighter squadrons and two corvettes. Tythons two squadrons had both flown intercept for the bombing run on the shipyard. After the bombers had done their job they had been freed to go and help destroy the rest of the local fighters. As Tythons squadrons had flow up he noticed that the fighters from Phalax where not doing well at all. As Tythons squadron went of to engage the enemy Tython had stayed behind to rally the fighters that seemed to have stalled in their forward thrust. Tython quickly contacted all the Squadron captains and started coordinating their efforts so that they supported each other and quickly took advantage of any weakness the enemy had. Through all this time Tython was also fighting and had successfully shot down 15 enemy fighters and he didn’t intend on stoping there.

 

As fast as the fighting had started it stopped again and the only enemys where receding spots on the horizon. All the fighters were then called back to the ship where Tython was looking forward to hearing about how well his old and new pilots had gone.

[Krytos]

Shock and terror possessed Rantar as the figure on the chair drew into focus. At once Rantar felt betrayed and confused, and all the fight in him had in that instant been washed away. He stepped backwards, only to find his legs betray him as well. Falling backwards, Rantar quickly rolled to his feet and reached for his weapon.

“You wont need that here Rantar, my old friend,â€

[Phytho]

Tython walked into his debriefing room and looked around for all the empty seats. There where only 3 missing pilots and of those pilots one of them had manadged to edject before his ship was destroyed and he was currently in sick bay.

 

Tython smiled and said in his best encouraging voice "Well done men from the recording of the battle we have a confirmed total of 64 enemies shot down. most of the kills were done by my original squadron. As I have now been given full control of Captain Sol Sebalas Squadron then I intend to change the way things are arranged. All of then new pilots will get a ship that most compliments their flying and fighting style. After all that has been done I will get all the pilots flying the same ship to fly together as they will compliment each other the best..... Oh by the way Congradulations you are both now officially part of Alpha wing and you are going to be given the main responsibility in all the up comming battles. I hope you enjoy the honor." He finnished by starting a cheer that ran through the entire group.

 

Several hours latter all of Tythons revised squadron had thier new ships and were reorganised so that they could do the most damadge at short notice if they were attacked.

[tchar]

T'char was well into his eighth orbit of the planet, and finally starting to get sick of waiting for Sebala to arrive. The only thing really keeping him awake at the moment was the occasional false alarm as small freighters and fighters on training runs popped onto the sensors. Even those were few and far between - hed only seen 5 other craft about the planet, beside himself. He was preparing the thermal converters for another trip onto the dayside of the planet when the sensors picked up a debris field that had been masked by the planet until recently. Strapping into the command seat, T'char accelerated NighHawk toward the mass of glittering metal shards.

 

* * *

 

An hour later he pulled up beside the wreckage, which by now had resolved itself into a mess of glimmering hull fragments and the occaisional intact subsytem. Suprisingly the sensors were still able to pick up a transmitter operating from within the wreckage. He pulled up the transmission on the com screen. It was a standard mayday call, accompanied by an overview of what was left of the ship's systems. Major damage it said. T'char couldn't help but laugh at the irony and understatement of that. Yeah, I can kinda see that. What was even more interesting though, was that it was indicating that the reinforced cockpit was still functional, and that all life support systems were on line. He couldn't have survived that?

 

He carefully nudged the nighthawk through the debris field toward the gyrating cockpit section, eveloped in a mist of evaporating coolant. He manouvered to withing 100m of the craft before bringing his advance to a halt. Judging by the damaged cockpit's rotation, matching rotation and docking would be possible, but would be difficlt, and would waste a lot of fuel. No, there was an easier way.

 

Moving to the weapons console, T'char booted up the ship's magnetic grapples and targeted the cockpit airlock at the back, and the transparisteel viewport at the front. Moving to the helm again, he strapped himself tightly into his seat before nudging closer to the ship. The closer he was, the less force required, so the gentler the manouvre would be...

 

"Computer, fire mag grapples one and two."

 

With a whine the gauss rails flung the grapples at the tumbling wreckage, where they attached themeselves to the points he had selected. He watched carefully as the slack was taken up by the wreckage's rotations. Slowly NightHawk began to rotate, being pulled along by the wrecked cockpit.

 

"Computer, tighten grapple lines."

 

The powerful winches began to haul the grapples in, drawing his ship closer to the wreck. By now the starfield outside was windmilling crazily around his head as his ship began to match the wreckage's rotations. Moments later, with a dull thunk the ship made contact with the cockpit. Now for the hard part.

 

Making sure that he was firmly connected to the preyird's cockpit, he began the labourious process of bringing the two back to some sembalence of control. Being a cold-blooded reptilian he didn't sweat, but his nictating membranes were working overtime to keep his eyes moist and functional. Finally, the planets and stars stopped revolving about his ship, and he was able to make his way out of the deris field.

 

Suiting up, he stepped out the airlock and made his way to the other ship's airlock. Ducking around the grapple line, he stepped in and waited for it to cycle. Removing his helmet, he stepped through into the chaos of the cockpit. Seated in the pilot's seat was a captian of the Vathinor Defence Force.

 

"Hello, Mr. Sebala."

 

OOC - sorry 'bout the rather lengthy post - i kinda got carried away...

Edited October 10, 2004 by tchar

[Krytos]

OOC: The longer the better in my opinion Tchar

makes for a good read