MC: AOTE: Rhea

[JasraLantill]

"Then let's get out of here," Beryl said, heading for Rusty's ramp. "And hopefully, Jack has some charges we can use to blow the hull door latches. He's got to have some kind of crazy stuff like that in that room of his. Probably using them as paperweights or something," she added under her breath.

 

She stopped, then turned to Ryshana. "Oh, sorry. You didn't hear about that little problem, did you? The cargo bay controls on these behemoths have to be opened manually from the cockpit. So far, we've come up with two options. Option one is leaving me in the cockpit to activate them to get the Echo out, and then have you guys come and pick me up from the airlock, providing the Imp's don't discover Rayne's stolen ship by then. And option two is to try and blow a hole in the freighter with all of us already on board the Echo." She grinned. "I don't have to tell you which option Nic suggested, do I?"

 

She quickly headed up the ramp into the freighter and darted up the ramp of the Echo parked inside it's massive empty hold.

 

She breathed deeply. "Ah...," she sighed gratefully. "Recycled air. It's good to be home.

 

"HEY, JACK!" she called as she jogged through the Echo's cargo bay and then hurried up the ladder to the corridor. "You got any spare explosive charges lying around that we could use to blow up some cargo bay doors?"

[steven]

"Sure," Jack shouted back "How big and thick exactly are the cargo doors? And any sort of effect you want to go with the explosion, e.g. Fire,lights, crackling things?You know the sort stuff you'd see at Nabooian firework display?"

[JasraLantill]

Beryl finally reached the cockpit and Jack.

 

"How thick are the bay doors?" she asked him. "Well, the doors are about 700 centimetres thick, but the hinges are only about 15, and that's all we'd really have to blow to get them open. Oh," she added, "and did I mention that we'll still be inside this beast when we blow the bay doors and you won't be able to use the shields? As much as I'd like to see you whip up something like a Nabooian firework display, I wouldn't want to be the firework display, if you get my meaning.

 

"But you know the Echo better than I do, so if you think she won't get damaged, then go for it. Nic seems to like things that go 'boom.'

 

"We don't have much time though. We need to set the charges and rig some kind of remote firing gadget, and we've only got a half an hour to get this thing in orbit and the Echo out of it before the Imps start seriously looking for the 'ol Rusty Mudcrutch. So, what do you have in mind?"

[steven]

"The Rusty Mudcrutch!? What dumbass named it that? On second thought I don't really care." Jack paused to think "I can set two explosives. A small one that will destory the locks inside the door which will able to be openned by the force of the engines starting and a second explosive which will wipe all evidence that we were even here. Whatcha think?"

[JasraLantill]

Beryl grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me. The others will be here soon," said Beryl, looking hopefully over her shoulder. "Think you can get your stuff ready while I go and start up the engines on this beast? I'm sure Ryshana and Jana could help you if you need it. But Nic will probably want to know about... hey, you did analyse those files we got from the Moff, right?"

[stingerhs]

As Beryl went running on board looking for Jack, Ryshana looked over at Nic and noticed his wind swept hair from riding in the speeder. Smiling a bit, Ryshana then said, "You know, Nic. You could really use a comb with your hair like that."

 

Without waiting for an answer, she turned and walked inside the frieghter. It was a pretty good fit, but definately not a very tight fit for the Echo. Nodding a bit to herself, Ryshana knew that she was right where she needed to be, even if it meant that she was always on the run. Heading inside the Echo, Ryshana went straight to her cabin. If they had a half hour before the freighter was declared stolen by Rayne, that gave her about 15 min to get cleaned up. All the sweat and even a bit of blood from the cut made her feel just a bit dirty.

 

Locking the hatch behind her, Ryshana stripped down and went straight for the shower.

[starmark2k]

Nic watched Ryshana walk away and laughed to himself, "My hair, That's what she worries about." Nic said to no one in particular and ran into the ship.

[JasraLantill]

Satisfied that Jack would take care of setting the explosives, Beryl left him and headed down the corridor to exit the Echo and head up to Rusty's cockpit.

 

She was running so fast that she nearly knocked Nic off his feet as he was heading to the bridge.

 

"Sorry Nic," she said hurriedly as she spun him around in a 'sorry-I-bumped-smack-into-you' kind of dance. "But I've got to get this behemoth fired up and take off, or we're going to run out of time. I'll contact you when I get up to the cockpit." She was now jogging backwards. "Jack's got some charges for Rusty's bay doors, but he might need some help from Cloud or Jana to set them."

 

She was just at the ladder now. "Oh, and Nic? Jack's analysed the data we got from the Moff," she reminded him. "Sure hope it was worth all the hassle." She paused. "And that kiss." She grinned quickly. "Which I'm still planning on getting you back for, you know."

 

She abruptly disappeared down the stairhatch, sliding down the rails instead of using the steps. She darted out the Echo's cargo bay and headed at a run up the stairs that led to the Rusty Mudcrutch's cockpit.

 

Well, it wasn't exactly a cockpit, she thought, once she arrived there. More like a posh control room. These types of freighters were big and slow and very hard to manuoevre, but then again, they were mostly used to transport food and bulk necessities in convoys, so they didn't need to be speedy or efficient. She grabbed a communications headset from the console, and then tuned it to the Echo's com freq.

 

"Jack? Jack can you read me?" she said into the mic of the headset as she reached across the console and began to flip the switches that closed Rusty's exterior doors. "I'm closing Rusty up now. You can set your charges anytime."

 

She plopped herself down in the command chair and began prepping the engines to start. She shifted in her seat. She didn't remember the chairs in these heavy freighters to be this uncomfortable. Then she frowned and looked down at herself. "'Kriffin' hell," she said, rolling her eyes. No wonder she felt odd. She had just noticed that she was still wearing the waitress outfit from the Frosted Crab. She tugged the short skirt further up her thighs to a more comfortable position, and continued with her pre-flight.

 

"Jack?" she said again into the com. "I'm starting the engines. Should have this baby running and up in the air in about five minutes. I'll try to keep the launch smooth as I can, but let me know if you experience any turbulance."

[Writer]

"You gotta stop kissin' your pretend wives to get out of sticky situations," Jana observed, coming up behind Nic from the bridge. "Unless it's your plan to get slapped a hundred thousand times... then, keep up the kissin', 'cus you got a long way to go."

 

With a slight frown, she turned and headed back onto the bridge. "Jack, pull out your explosives. We work together and we'll get the job done twice as fast. Let's get a move on. We don't have much time."

[starmark2k]

"Well, She wou;dn't shoot me in leg so i had to go with what i knew." Nic said following Jana into the cockpit. "And no need to get jealous, you're still my favourite." he jokingly continued with cheesy grin.

[Writer]

"Aw, thanks Nic," Jana fired back, playfully stretching up on her toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. "That means so much to me."

 

Turning to Jack, she said, "So... explosives now?"

[steven]

"Just a second," Replied Jack as he pressed a few buttons at his piloting consel before jogging to his room where he pulled out large metal case which he opened. Inside where several different shaped objects which were explosives. He pulled out a small dome shaped explosives,he then closed the case, slipped it under his bed and then run out to the Rusty Mudcrutch's exterior doors. He planted the explosives and set the timer for one minute.

 

Instead of going back to the cock pit of the Echo he went to Beryl who was in the cockpit of the Rusty Mudcrutch. "Beryle I need to know if this ship.... why are you wearing a waitress outfit?You were only gone a hour or two and in that time you were able to get a job... Anyway I need to know two things, does this ship have autopilot and is that Star Destroyer still in orbit?"

[ExtreamJedi12]

Cloud looked outside. He seen the charges, but only one of them was at a weak spot in the ship. "The door won't open." thought Cloud. He immidately ran for Beryl and Jack. "How much time is left on those timers?" asked Cloud as soon as they got there.

[JasraLantill]

Beryl hated heavy freighters. They took forever to get moving. And once they did, they were hard to control. And what was worse, they had a deadman control. Take your hand off the steering control and the ship's engines would slow, then eventually stop. She was just entering the shipping lanes over Corellia when Jack entered the cockpit.

 

Beryl, I need to know if this ship.... Why are you wearing a waitress outfit? You were only gone a hour or two and in that time you were able to get a job?"

 

Beryl stared at him deadpan. "Yeah. But I quit. The pay was crap. Whatchya need?"

 

"Anyway I need to know two things, does this ship have autopilot and is that Star Destroyer still in orbit?"

 

"Autopilot? Yeah, sort of." Beryl scanned the control panel in front of her. "Wait...." Where the deadman override switch used to be was an empty hole. Beryl sighed. The override switch was on a timer, so it only worked long enough for the pilot to perhaps use the fresher. But Rayne was a stickler for having his pilots in full control of the ship at all times. She could only surmise that he had removed the switch on purpose so they wouldn't have a choice but to pilot it manually. She looked at Jack, then pointed to the hole in the console. "Erm... no."

 

She checked her scanners. One very large single blip appeared among several smaller ones in high orbit around the planet. "And in answer to your second question--yes. I'm too far away yet to postively identify it, but I'd bet money that's a Star Destroyer. It's too large to be anything else."

 

She paused for a moment, thinking. "I've got an idea how I can autopilot this thing," she said. "But I'll need Jana for a bit." She activated her com link. "Jana? I need you up here. And bring a long piece of string or cable or something with you. About..." She looked around her. "...two metres long. I'll need that, too."

 

Cloud came in to the cockpit and asked about the timers. She turned to Jack. "Maybe you'd better go with Cloud and double check those charges of yours. 'Cause we only got one shot at this."

[steven]

"I've set the timer for one minute however I haven't started the timer. I want to make sure everyone is in the echo first." Jack replied "If we can set this thing to autopilot towards the Star Destroyer, we can just let them destroy our evidence for us. But just incase I'm going to set a few more bombs."

[Writer]

"Somewhat odd request," Jana observed, "but we're in a hurry, so I'll ask questions later."

 

She ran off to find a cable long enough. In about three minutes, she made it to the bridge. "Brought the cable you wanted... so what's with the..." Then, she saw the missing override switch and shook her head. "Your brother loves to make things harder, doesn't he?"

[JasraLantill]

"Great," Beryl said to Jack. "Cloud should be able to show you where to set the charges for the most effective impact. We won't be in high orbit for a few minutes so you've got time."

 

Just as Jack and Cloud were leaving Rusty's cockpit, Jana showed up with the length of cable.

 

"Brought the cable you wanted... so what's with the..." Then, she saw the missing override switch and shook her head. "Your brother loves to make things harder, doesn't he?"

 

Beryl nodded to Jana in acknowledgement. "Now you see why I don't want to work for him? As a brother, he's alright. As a boss?" She snorted. "He's a real prat." An alarm started to go off, and Beryl pushed the throttle forward to give Rusty's engines more thrust for its final ascent into the upper atmosphere.

 

"Ugh! I hate flying these things!" Beryl complained to Jana. "They're bulky, and slow, and unresponsive, and slow, and hard to..." She pulled hard on another lever, but it wasn't moving. Frustrated, she finally punched it with the heel of her hand to get it to move. "Ow...hard to control, and slow, and boring...." She looked at Jana, and gave her a cheesy grin. "And did I mention they were slow?

 

"Right, Jana, since Rayne has taken out the override switch, we're going to make our own autopilot. But, see, the trick with these deadman switches is that they depend on weighted pressure as well as specific position. If it's not right, the engines just cut out after about 30 seconds. And if we want to send this baby into that Star Destroyer, she needs to have steady thrust." Beryl nodded to the other side of the cockpit. "See that lever over there? The big, big blue one? See if you can rip it out."

[Writer]

Jana laughed. "Beryl, haven't Nic and I told you about the time I threw a Trandoshan? I think I can manage ripping a lever out." After a few moments, the lever came free in her hands. Unsure of what to do with it, she carried it back to Beryl.

 

"So Nic kissed you, huh?" she said casually. "Please tell me you hit him for it." Then, lifting the broken lever, she asked, "So, uh, we don't need this any more, right?"

[stingerhs]

Ryshana quickly finished up with her shower and changed into some fresh clothing. Heading to the cockpit, Ryshana caught sight of Jack, Jana, and Nic. Before Ryshana even had a chance to lean against a wall, though, Jack quickly moved past her to get the explosives. Standing behind the pilot's chair, Ryshana thought for just a moment.

 

So much had changed since she became a Jedi. Heck, she was never even truely meant to be anything more than a sage of sorts for the Jedi. She was still to be the last of her kind even before the Clone Wars. Still, to be the last of the Jedi...

 

Ryshana shuddered a bit to herself as she suddenly felt a chill. Crossing her arms over her chest, Ryshana looked back up outside the cockpit window at the empty space of the cargo hold. It all seemed just a bit hopeless.

 

Suddenly a bit of movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was Jana going to go get the cable Beryl needed. Well, time to deal with the situation at hand, she thought to herself.

[starmark2k]

Nic walked up behind Ryshana who was looking out side the window just staring out of the view screen. "Not much of a view, unless you like the construction methods of the CEC." Nic joked stpping forward and standing by her side. "So what's on your mind."

[JasraLantill]

Jana laughed. "Beryl, haven't Nic and I told you about the time I threw a Trandoshan? I think I can manage ripping a lever out." After a few moments, the lever came free in her hands. Unsure of what to do with it, she carried it back to Beryl.

 

"So Nic kissed you, huh?" she said casually. "Please tell me you hit him for it." Then, lifting the broken lever, she asked, "So, uh, we don't need this any more, right?"

 

"Erm..." Beryl was momentarily flustered by Jana's first question, but since Jana hadn't really waited for an answer, she decided to ignore it. "Tie it to the end of the cable," Beryl said to her, "then thread the other end of the cable through that support bracket up above my head." She looked up at the 'U'-shaped bracket. "Just make sure that you thread it so that the lever will act like a counterweight. As soon as I get this baby at cruising speed, we'll tie the cable to the steering control grip. The weight of the hanging lever should be enough to fool the deadman's switch that someone's still physically holding it back, although I might have to adjust the gravity field a bit to make the lever weigh more."

 

A small bleeping began and Beryl's eyes shot back to the scanners. "Son of a murglack...." she muttered. "That Star Destroyer is changing course. It's heading our way." She checked her nav readout. "But we've cleared the outer atmosphere, so we should be picking up speed soon. Well, this thing's version of speed, anyway," she added under her breath. "But if that Star Destroyer is heading in our direction on purpose, then we don't have much time."

[stingerhs]

Ryshana smiled at the comment. "I'm sorry," she stated. Looking over at Nic, Ryshana then continued, "It's just personal stuff, that's all. Don't worry, it won't be in the way of anything."

 

Looking into Nic's eyes for just a moment, Ryshana could almost make out a true sincerity about him. It was something that Ryshana hadn't felt from anyone for a very long time. Suddenly feeling a bit chilled again, Ryshana nervously looked away.

 

Smiling for a second, Ryshana then said, "Don't worry about me so much, Nic. I might actually start thinking of you as a leader that way."

[starmark2k]

"I'm not a leader, I'm just the guy who gives orders." Nic said smiling. He never liked the term leader, a leader was respected and deserved. Nic didn't not because of what he was and who he was. He found himself Thinking about the past again, the day he became Nic White and left his home behind. He shook the thoughts out of his mind and looked at Ryshana. "Hey it's in my nature to worry, If i didn't we'd all end up dead."

[Writer]

"We didn't have much time anyway," Jana pointed out, taking an end of the cable and tying it to the broken lever. Then, her mind wandered back and she said, "So you hit him, right... Nic, I mean. When he kissed you?"

[JasraLantill]

Beryl shifted in her seat. "You know, you'd think they'd make these chairs more comfortable, seeing as you'd have your backside planted in it for hours on end," she said, avoiding Jana's question.