Ruvin leaned back in his seat as Preston looked over and asked "let me guess the people we need?" Ruvin leaned over and kissed Preston's forehead "please" Ruvin smirked " I know of about sixty or seventy people on my homeworld of Ryloth that need a job. Plus there are Mandalorians that need funds to help their peoples clans. If we need more we could hire a few of them if we can afford it." They all looked thoughtful for a moment before Laura spoke "let's split up Ruvin and Preston will take the Bucket to Ryloth to find say fifty trained people our hiring wage will be sign on commission of fifty credits and a weekly pay of fifty credits. Also mention they don't need to worry about food water or housing we will take care of all that aboard ship, if they balk at the wages mention we are about to make bank which is why we needed a bigger ship to make it worthwhile. And depending on how well we do shares will go up appropriately" Preston and Ruvin nodded
"While me and Chris" Laura continued "will head to Naboo to find a couple of wealthy clients smart enough to get themselves and their family off world before the storm hits. So we can make a little more money before becoming just as poor as we were before" chucklingand giving Chris a playful smile to show that she was kidding. "Meeting up with you at Bracca to get the ship" she continued again. As everyone nods again they say there farewells and wishing eachother luck Laura damn near trying to put her head outside the say shield in the hanger to call out "Preston you better stay safe Ruvin im counting on you to keep him safe sweetheart!"
Afterwards the Bucket and Starfire split apart again and head off to their respective missions. A few seconds later they both disappeared into hyperspace.
Starfire
Naboo
As the Starfire dropped out of hyperspace in the Naboo system. There was silence despite the rumors of impending attack or at the very least a blockade Naboo looked as it always does peacefully and not care in the galaxy. There were no noticeable defenses and no military activity at all. As they dropped through the atmosphere the only one to challenge them was the Space Traffic Controller "This is Moenia STC to freighter identifying as Starfire, please respond" a look of wonder passed between the two at how long it had taken just for someone to challenge them. "This is Captain Chris of the Starfire requesting permission to land." The controller processed this for a moment before replying to ask a question "what is the reason for your visit to Naboo?" Thinking quickly Chris replied "Pleasure journey sir, we are celebrating our three year anniversary. We come back every year to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of the planet where we met." The Controller replied with a tone of normalcy "Of course sir, welcome back landing is authorized pad eight and have a wonderful anniversary." With that he signed off.
Chris and Laura looked at each other and laughed "Well that was easy... and pathetic " Laura said. Chris nodded saying "its almost like they don't care if we had been a hostile ship we could of…" After the exchange with the STC the trip from low orbit was uneventful and beautiful. As they flew over the well kept and peaceful city surrounded by well-manicured woodlands amd plains touching down with no issue. They handed the ground crew chief wearing a well worn green jumpsuit a five credit chit "fill it up please that's it" the chief nodded as droids and humans pushed a fuel dolly up as they walked passed.
As they walked through the spaceport it wasn't hard to find a bar to start spreading the word that the Starfire was here to evacuate any people who had the credits who wanted to get off world.
They had been sitting for less than an hour when they were approached the first time by a semi famous author who had been paying attention to the situation and wanted to get himself and his family off world before the Federation made it impossible to get out. After some haggling they reached an acceptable price for him, his wife and their two children for a "small" fee of sixty-five hundred credits. Less than three hours later they were full up getting over eighty-five people including twenty children turns out lots of people were trying to get out. Public transport was backed up over a month.
After everything was said and done they earned a whopping three and a half million credits half paid up front the other half paid upon delivery to a dozen different systems. The packed ship left the next morning. Jumping into hyperspace for their closest destination Sedesia they were dropping off thirty five people there for the other half of just over a million credits.
They dropped out of hyperspace they were instantly challenged as the display updated they saw over three dozen warships and must be a hundred freighters moving from planet to planet or station to station throughout the system as well as a small shipyard in orbit of the primary world with four partially completed hulls its good to see at least one system can see what's coming they also spotted another small shipyard being built at the gas giant Fifth from the sun an-"Attention freighter Starfire, Please state your intention in Sedesian space." The hail was coming from one of five battle groups each centered around an old Valor-class cruiser they could see as they watched a squadron of Aurek fighters launched and headed in their direction. "This is Captain Chris of the Starfire we are friendly we're here to deliver thirty five people who wished for passage from Naboo to Sedesian space" there was a small delay this time probably bumping the problem up the chain of command "You are instructed to dock with the valor class cruiser Vao Mission" as he speaks a marker appears at the center of the closest cluster of ships. "Do not power weapons or divert course or you will be fired upon." As the squadron of Aurek fighters surrounded them Chris replied simply "Understood."
The escorted trip while nerve wracking both constantly checking to make sure they were on course and weapons remained powered down. As they near the flotilla to see through the windows the massive Valor surrounded by eight other warships: four Carrack-class light cruisers, two DP20 frigates and two CR70 corvettes.
As they neared the flotilla they suddenly jerked as the Vao grabbed them with their tractor beams pulling them into their primary hanger as they were pulled through the hangers atmospheric ray shield they found themselves surrounded by dozens of human, twi'lek, rodian, Grans and a few Wookiee's all of them armed with a variety of weapons. As they were pulled into the hanger and saw the mass of troops Chris and Laura headed down to the boarding ramp her blaster and his modern built slug thrower remained in their holsters hands far from their hips but not quite raised. As the ramp lowered they walked down leaving their passengers behind.
The moment their feet hit the deck a man in a blue uniform approached "My name is Arbiter Philip Coleman commander of this task force on the radio you said you have people from Naboo who requested to come here" Chris shrugged "With the rumors flying around quite a few people want to get out before any attack happens and Coleman? Just before we left hyperspace I was asked by one of my passengers if she could send a message to her broth.." Chris was interrupted when Arbiter Coleman suddenly said ``do you mean Janet is wi…." he in turn was interrupted by the lady in question as with her two children coming down the ramp.
The kids unable to control themselves ran past us and almost tackled the Arbiter under screams of "Uncle… Uncle" the hard faced man before us melted into that of a loving uncle and sibling as he saw his sister smiling and laughing abruptly remembering where he was and what he was doing he looked at Janet and asked " Jan what's going on we have heard rumors are you all alright?" Janet broke from the hug she was giving him "we are alright after the federation broke off trade deals with us speaking of outrage as soon as rumors started coming in of possible retribution we started trying to get off world however more people had heard of it before us so all the passenger shipping started getting backed up and raising their prices to the point even if we could of afforded to get passage it was going to be over a month before we could get out."
An hour later the story was told and they were thanked and the rest of the payment was transferred. As the refueled ship free of charge as thanks pulled out of the massive hanger they had the navicomputer started calculating the next jump Laura looked into the bridge to ask "where are we heading now?" According to the flexiwork we have thirty- tw… three people to drop off in the Farstine system and then the last seventeen in the Anaxes system." Chris nodded "should be interesting then". Laura looked confused and Chris continued " Anaxes has some massive shipyards they keep raking in money by almost Continuously building everything from freighters to dreadnaughts and tugs to fighters what they don't immediately sell is moved to a secure orbit and posted on the Holonet so anyone in the galaxy can see if they have the credits and buy it so after we start making more money that will be the place to go."
The drop offs were boring, nothing exciting happened other than getting paid. Now en route to Barcca with an empty ship and a full wallet. The last minute of hyperspace passed slowly. Laura watching the timer a worried look on her face seeing it Chris reached over and rubbed her shoulder "Preston is fine babe he is a smart kid plus Ruvin is with him." She nodded "I know but…" she breaks off as the jump comes to an end.
They immediately get a ping from the Bucket as they came into visual range Laura gasped and reached for the comm. As Chris looked at the gasp he saw why the swing wing under the ship was gone and it wasn't alone there was a YV-865 Aurore-class freighter sitting next to it. As soon as the bucket detected Starfire a message came in Preston siting in his fighters cockpit "hey old man hi mom umm… I found some crew just like you wanted" he smiled "Details to follow."