Chapter One
The two men stepped out from the Humanitarian relief senate meeting ecstatic. They were now one of the few independent freighters chosen to take relief supplies to Mandalore. As they climbed into the rented speeder to the spaceport they continued talking. Captain Chris of the Starfire G9 light freighter looked to his step son Preston also a Captain of his own G9 the Bucket "We lucked out with this gig kid the credits we are going to make on this will get our name out there no more of these little trash jobs for us."
Preston looked over from where he was relaxing and smiled wide "Yes it will old man, if we never have to carry another load of falumpaset it will be too soon" Chris nodded enthusiastically commenting "Exactly, no matter what you did how much you cleaned you never got the smell of them out of the freshers even venting the hold to space barely help and fresher cleaning were not cheap.
They stepped out of the airspeeder to the durasteel hanger, their freighters being loaded both by organic and droid loaders. A human female Laura saw them get out and rushed over to see them giving Preston a hug and then kissing Chris she squealed in delight as he picked her up and twirled her around "We got the contract babe two full holds for two thousand credits upon delivery to a republic official..." he looked into her eyes "...each" he finished. Her eyes lit up as it hits home this one job would pay after cost for fuel thirty-nine hundred credits carrying falumpaset they would have to carry four cargos of almost two hundred of those stinky beast for the same price as they were doing this Preston's boyfriend a dark blue twi'lek Ruvin had just come out of the Bucket also getting a hug had caught the conversation on the stopping us as we started to fill him in on the great news.
It took less than an hour for the two ships cargo areas minus the small hanger space... the Starfire has 3 Class-1 tugs whereas the Bucket only had a single class-1 and a old Aurek-class strike fighter he got cheap after selling one of his tugs as well as another nine hundred and fifty credits saying "I'd like a little more protection just in case"... to be filled. Less than ten minutes later they were leaving the city planet that was Coruscant.
Looking over as Laura finished with the course plot Chris called the Bucket "Hey kid you ready to jump." Ruvin answered "Aye Captain…" Preston answered a second later from inside his fighter Nuts " I'm ready to" Chris and Laura look at each other and sigh ever since he got that thing working he always insists on flying "Escort" A few seconds later their linked navacomps jumped into hyperspace.
Two hours later the timer counted down 04..03..02..01.00 the star streaks of hyperspace disappeared and the moon of Concordia filled the viewport. In orbit around the planet was a Coalition flotilla from the worlds that had petitioned for the relief mission. Alderaan ,Naboo and Chandrila a dozen older Nebula-class freighters from Naboo alone all escorted by an even dozen warships from the coalition worlds ten Thranta-class Corvettes and a pair of larger Hammerhead-class cruisers as the Bucket, Starfire and Nuts came into range a mixed squadron of N1 Naboo and Aurek star fighters on patrol moved to escort them their coms crackled to life "this is commander Jaris to unknown freighters entering the task force space. Please respond" Chris and Laura looked at each other before tying in Preston replied "This is Captain Chris aboard the freighter Starfire navigator Ruvin aboard the freighter Bucket and Captain Preston piloting the Aurek call sign "Nuts" bearing relief supplies on contract from the galactic senate over."
A few minutes pass before Commander Jaris responds "descent into Mandalore's atmosphere is authorized transmitting landing positions for each of your freighters if your fighter can dock it is recommended to do so the locals are still weary of our ships here and a fighter even broadcasting non task force codes might cause issues" Chris nodded as he replied "yes sir no problem were here to help" Chris switched to a private frequency "Nuts dock it up we don't want to cause a rift here at least until after we get paid." Preston laughed "Copy that docking under way. Here we come payday"