MC: AOTE: Rhea

[JasraLantill]

"Oh, they're TIEs, alright," said Beryl, continuing forward. "TIE/e3s. Also known as TIE Interceptor Rockets. It's an experimental TIE interceptor, with the four standard wingtip laser cannons removed, and two fast-fire Missile/Rocket pods. Can't stay in them for long, but, well, we've got suits so we should be okay for a little fun."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

She paused, stopped, and turned to Jana. "Because Seinar make crap radiation panels. Didn't you take 'Principles and Mechanisms of Ion Propulsion?"

[Writer]

Jana couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, I took it..." she answered. "... but that was my 'sleep catch-up class'. Always sat in the back row. People around me were always telling me how damn glad they were I didn't snore, like the one kid at the front of the classroom!" She chuckled softly, remembering. "What was his name?"

[steven]

Jack entered the armory and was surpised to see it full "Wow, I was expecting it to be emptied during the evac."

[starmark2k]

Nic walked in after Jack and looked around the room, It was fully stocked with guns and explosives. Nic thought about what Jack said for a second and walked over to the explosives locker. "I'm starting to wonder if they actually managed to evacuate." Nic grabbed the detanation pack and threw them in a nearby rack sack. "Let's go."

[steven]

Jack picked up a clone riffle and a couple of packs of plasma torches. "Let's go." Jack heard Nick say. Jack walked to the door, his eye being caught on the explosive selfs "Hey captain, think we'd need a few grenades?"

 

((Hey Starmark, just had an idea. How do you think about me introducing the Star Wars answer to Reavers from Firefly/Sereinty?))

[JasraLantill]

Jana couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, I took it..." she answered. "... but that was my 'sleep catch-up class'. Always sat in the back row. People around me were always telling me how damn glad they were I didn't snore, like the one kid at the front of the classroom!" She chuckled softly, remembering. "What was his name?"

Beryl laughed. "I wasn’t in your class, but if he snored, it was probably a Drek brother,” she said, taking one laboured magnetic step at a time across the outer hull of the Rhea. “My brothers said all of ‘em all snored in the boring classes. Let’s see, there was Dion, Ando, Theo and the youngest was…Vik. Bet it was Vik Drek in your class.”

 

Beryl paused just beside the ladder that led down to the open hanger bay. “Okay, here’s the fun part!” she said to Jana. And with that, she gripped the ladder rungs, lifted both feet up and began to guide herself down to the hanger bay. “Woo hoo! Aw, you just can’t beat Zero-G!” she said gleefully. “Just don’t lose your grip, Jana. Don’t want to be free-floating around this wreck.”

 

She eyed the TIEs as she drew closer to them. “You know, these look better than I thought they would,” she said to Jana. As she touched down on the hanger deck, she eyed them over again. “I’m going to take a closer look.”

 

“We don’t have time,” Jana said as she made her decent.

 

“It’ll only take a minute,” Beryl said, moving closer to one of the experimental fighters.

 

“We can look at them after we’re finished in auxiliary control.”

 

“But I only want to see if….” Beryl paused. “Oh, for Galaxy’s Sake!” she complained.

 

“What?” asked Jana, as she touched down onto the hanger floor.

 

“I can actually feel it burning through my suit from here.”

 

“What?! Radiation?”

 

“No.” Beryl slowly turned around so she faced Jana. “The Look. You know, I don’t know how you do it, but it’s a very effective deterrent. You should have been an instructor.”

 

Before Jana could give her another ‘Look’, Beryl said, “You know, Jana, it’s sort of odd seeing these ships down there. I mean, if you were evacuating a ship this size, wouldn’t you launch all of your fighters with evacuees? There’s still nearly a squadron here.” She paused, thinking about her brother, Berasmus. She was positive he wasn’t dead, yet his name had been on one of the bridge crews’ lockers. He had to have been on the command team of this ship at one time. “The bridge crew is usually the last to leave, aren’t they?” she questioned. “I mean, Command Officers of a ship wouldn’t just abandon their crew—would they? Not without a good reason. Right?”

[Writer]

((And yet another joint post from Jasra and WJ ))

 

"Well..." Jana said darkly, "Empire command officers aren't known for their bravery..."

 

"Nuss isn't a...." Beryl abruptly paused mid-sentence. "There must have been a reason why they did it. A good reason."

 

Jana smiled slightly. "Either that or, as a member of the command crew, your brother was dragged away." She shook her head. "I'm not calling Berasmus a coward, Beryl. I'm saying that most command officers are. If they valued him enough, which is why the usually put someone in the command crew, they'd have been unwilling to let him go. So even if he wanted to stay, they may have forced him to leave."

 

Beryl remained silent for a moment. "Let's just get to the aux control," she said and started to head in that direction. But Jana pulled her back.

 

"Beryl, don't shut me out," she pleaded. "I can tell you've got a lot on your mind... about your brother and finding his name in there. Please. I'm not just your commanding officer. I'm your friend, too and I care about what matters to you."

 

"I know." Beryl was silent for a moment. "I just don't want to think about it, that's all."

 

Jana sighed softly. "Well if you ever do want to think about it, come find me. Time of day doesn't matter. I'll always be an open ear. Promise me you'll make use of this offer."

[JasraLantill]

Beryl's finger hovered over the door controls. She knew that once they were open that Cloud and Oliver would be able to hear their transmissions once again, and she didn’t want anyone else to hear what she was going to say. "Jana, you know that I was the pilot for a blockade runner before I met Nic in the casino, right? And that we got caught?"

 

"Yes, I do recall."

 

"Well, the reason I and the rest of the crew escaped arrest was...because of Nuss. He was the commander of the ship that caught us. And, as a condition for letting me off the hook, he… offered me a job." She hesitated again. "As a flight instructor." Again a pause. "For the Empire.” She lowered her head. “And I promised him I'd take it if he let the rest of the crew go free. And he did.” She sighed. “And then I ditched him on the way to the shuttle to Carida."

 

"So that's how you know he's alive," Jana murmured.

 

"Yup. Alive and angry." Beryl pushed the button to open the door and it whooshed open. “And that’s also why I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” They stepped into the airlock, and in another moment, they were in auxiliary control. It was dark.

 

“Cloud? Do you read me?” Beryl said into the com. “We’re in aux control now.” Beryl checked her gauges. “Radiation levels seem okay,” she said, looking at the lighted dials, “but we need to get life support working in here, Jana. And lights. Can’t see much with just these helmet torches.”

[starmark2k]

"I Wouldn't risk it," Nic replied as he finished packing some more equipment into the bag. "This ship dosen't seem that sturdy and i don't want to risk any explosions that could breatch the hull and have us all blown out."

 

((OCC- It's your story you can do whatever you want.))

[steven]

"Fine." Said Jack as he finished picking up all the ammo he needed "Ready? The creaking sound that is coming from the ship is driving me nuts..." Something then hit Jack "Captain, I've just noticed at creaking sound is coming from the intercom. Some file must be corrupted in the sound system. I reckon Cloud or whoever still at the bridge could easily turn it off. Or we could just put up with the sound, it makes no difference."

[JasraLantill]

“Cloud?” Beryl said into the helmet comlink again. “Do you read me?” There was some crackling sounds and some broken conversation, but Beryl couldn’t make out any words. “Cloud, I can’t make out what you’re saying,” she replied to the static. “There’s too much interference. I’m going to try and re-route the power to this control station like we talked about earlier.” She turned towards Jana. “First things first, we need lights. And the next thing to do is get life support working in here and get these helmets off. My nose is itching.” She went over to the main control station and pulled the lower cover off.

 

“Wow.…”

 

“Problem?” Jana asked, walking up behind her.

 

“No. Just the opposite. This is going to be easy.” Beryl reached for a circuit cartridge, but it was tedious to pull it out with the thick environmental gloves she was wearing. “Strike that,” Beryl said. “It should be easy, but it’s not with these gloves on. But, nevermind. I’ll get it. It’ll just take a bit longer.” Finally, after a few moments and a few more swear words, the lights came on.

 

Beryl lifted her head and looked around. “Kriffin’ hell, Jana,” Beryl said with disgust. “Would you look at this place? Whoever managed this area was a total Hutt slug of a slob!” Indeed, the auxiliary control they were in looked more like a storage closet, with spare parts for TIEs, droids, and other machinery scattered about the room. Beryl grinned. “It’s worse than your room.”

 

Beryl ducked back down under the panel to see if she could re-establish power to life support, and to escape any stray ‘looks’ from Jana, and soon the hiss of air could be heard filtering into the room. “We got sound,” Beryl said to Jana. “That means we got atmosphere. There should be power to the LS station now. See if you can get the life support regulated. It’ll be easer to do the work we need to do without these bulky spacesuits on. And, maybe then we’ll be able to contact Cloud and Oliver.” She paused a moment. “Wonder how Nic, Jack, and Ryshana are getting on?”

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

(Meanwhile, on the bridge….)

 

“Beryl?” Cloud said into the com, as Oliver breathed a sigh of relief. “We lost contact with you for a while and were wondering what happened to you guys. Are you alright? Did you make it to the hanger?”

 

“Cl… n’t ma…out… urs… ying,” came Beryl’s broken voice. “..mu… erence. I … ry… out… pow… con… ation li… ed ab… lier.”

 

“Beryl? Repeat your last transmission.” But the only reply was more static. Cloud sighed and looked at Oliver. “Great. Either she can’t hear me, or we can’t hear her.”

 

“Both,” said Oliver.

 

Cloud gave the medic a funny look.

 

“Well,” Oliver explained, “she said she couldn’t make out what you were saying, so I’d say both.”

 

“You understood that garble?” Cloud asked.

 

Oliver nodded. “Sounds like she’s had too much to drink, but… yeah. I understood it. She said there was too much interference but she’s going to fix the power console.” As Cloud was giving him a second strange look, Oliver added, “I’m paraphrasing, of course.”

 

“Of course.” Cloud shook his head. “I’m going to try and contact Nic and the others again. He tweaked the console a bit and as he did there were more creaking sounds echoing through the speakers. “Nic? Jack? Ryshana? Does anyone read me?”

[steven]

Not long after leaving the armoury Jack's comm link started beeping. After acivated he heard Cloud's voice “Nic? Jack? Ryshana? Does anyone read me?”

 

"I read you Cloud. How's everything at your end?" Just after asking several bleeps from the ship's radar. As Oliver looked it read showed that two broadside cruisers had exitted hyperspace. Moments later the broadside cruiser hailed the Echo.

 

"Captain White has been arrested and murdered for his betrayal against the empire. Since you work for him you will also die on this ship. The most stupidest of all things it that you thought you could overthrow the emperor yourselfs. Ha! Like that's going to happen anytime soon. Goodbye traitors.

 

After hearing the message from the broadside cruisers, Jack turned to Nick "Errm Captain. I suggested we forget about blowing it up and just let the imperials do it. Our involvement in this will just be brushed under the rug as a petit attempt to destroy the empire. Without that Dreadnought captain, there's no reason for us to be hear. We should just get the hell out of here as just as we could."

[starmark2k]

Nic stood there looking confused for a second and began to pat himself down. "Did that guy just say i was dead?"

 

Suddenly the ship violently shook. "Ok not the time, Let's get the hell out of here."

[steven]

"Most sence you've made all day captain..." Jack began to run but stop to ask "Am I the only one who hear footsteps that don't belong to us?

[starmark2k]

Nic stopped behind Jack and listened, It still seemed too quiet, not even the engines were active anymore. "N..." Suddenly the sound of an old door motivator sounded meaning that a door had just opened

[steven]

"That didn't sound inviting. Shall we check it out or not care and bugger off? I'm up for both really. But if you choose option two remenber those Broadside cruiser specializes into blowing up ship's like this."

[starmark2k]

"So you don't care if we hang about and get blown up by the imperials." Nic said shaking his head. "Well i ain't ready to die again so let's get out of here before our limbs and Ryshana's headtails are scattered across the big black coldness of space..." The ship violently shook again. "MOVE!"

[steven]

"Hang on Captain, what do you mean "die again"?" Asked Jack just before the Ship violently and the sounds of footsteps got louder.

[starmark2k]

"Jack, There's a time and place for everything, An imperial ship thats being shot at is'nt the place and we're running out of time." Nic replied as the footsteps kept getting louder. "And i don't think we want to know what those belong to."

[steven]

"Speak for yourself. I'm accutally quite interested now." Jack said just before a man walked around the corner. The man was at average hight, he was musclare, he had blond hair and blue eyes and only wearing a bair of what seemed to be swimming trunks. The stared at the group, giving the three a wicked feeling.

[starmark2k]

Nic looked at the strange man and turned to Ryshana and Jack. "Anybody else feeling a little over dressed." Nic turned back to the mysterious man "Hey are u O.K!"

[steven]

The man didn't not reply, he just stared at the three. "Errm Nick old buddy, I think I know this person..." Jack said, his fist firmly clentch around the trigger of his new gun."I do, defentally... but I don't know where from..."

[starmark2k]

Nic looked back at jack obviously confused by his remark. "Really?" Nic asked turning back to the man. "Cos if i ever met a strange looking guy running around a republic ship in his underware, i'm pretty sure i'd remember. Unless you've a few then i'd understand your sketchy memory."

[steven]

"I'm pretty sure he was wearing clothes at the time..." Jack replied. The ship once again shook viloently "Wait a second... no it couldn't be..."

[stingerhs]

Ryshana was a bit confused. It wasn't standard policy for the Imperials to just blast away dissidents. It was much more common for them to to board their vessels, capture them, and then make public examples of them.

 

For some reason, this began to weigh on her mind a bit as they ran down the hall towards the Echo. However, the thought was abrutly ended whenever Ryshana had felt a man approaching up ahead. Instead of keeping up with Nic and Jack, Ryshana stopped running and started to walk almost aimlessly as she tried to get a gauge through the Force as to the intentions of the man.