Bucket
Ryloth
Same time
After parting with his mom and the old man Preston and Ruvin sat on the bridge just long enough to see the Bucket into hyperspace. As soon as the star streaks of hyperspace filled the viewport they left to play in the Main Cabin they had a state of the art hologame table to play Dejarik as well as a small cabinet with other games cards, boards and dice, over the next hour they played two games of Dejarik Ruvin dominating as she usually did but complimenting him on a good game. Prestons time to shine next as they played Sabacc betting ships chores or dares, by the end of the four hands preston had his shoes on the wrong feet and Ruvin had a video of him running around mixed talking like a Wookiee and Gungan that she found hilarious. Preston however felt like he won as she sat there holding the chips for almost a month's worth of chores. BZZZZzzzzzzz the ship's timer went off letting them know five minutes till they dropped out into normal space. They quickly put the cards and chips back into the box as she headed to the bridge and he to his fighter. The moment Bucket dropped out Nuts launched. Ryloth never had much of a defense force from the number of civil wars and revolutions they could never afford to build or buy more than a few fighters and a corvette or two. Whatever they had they had less now a Marauder-class corvette was drifting dead in space another Marauder was on its last legs half its weapons smashed shields barely holding on and a few Z95 fighters all fighting a losing battle against a trio of Aurore freighters and a pair of Heraklon- class transports cruising away from the planet in the seconds before contact they saw another Ryloth Z95 explode as it was caught between two Aurore's.
The new arrival was immediately targeted by the closest Aurore. "Their shooting at us Nut shields at seventy percent" Ruvin called out. Preston called out "Then we help the Ryloth forces''. Triggering his heavy lasers in a powerful stream of blue bolts followed closely by a single torpedo the heavy lasers knocked out the targeted Aurore overtaxed shields and the torpedo slammed home, one of the engines exploded violently. A moment later a Z95 pulled up alongside looking over Preston saw the pilot a twi'lek point at his ear and hold up four fingers then one then seven, Preston nodded and tuned his radio to local channel 417 within a second a heavily accented basic voice called " Aurek fighter at my side, can you hear me?" Preston held his thumb up as he replied "Copy Ryloth fighter call me Nuts". Before the Ryloth pilot could respond, another Aurore tried to move up behind them. As the red bolts fired past the fighters split up and down coming back to fire on the freighter in the middle of their turn the Ryloth fighter called out "these are slaver freighters we believe they have captured people from the surface try to disable if you can…." he broke off as one of the Heraklon transports blew its top off and exposed a cut down Mass driver from a ancient Cal-Class battleship seeing their plans Preston called out for the "Damnaged Marauder I believe they are going to target you with the mass driver recommend you abandon ship immediately" the freighter skewed and fired just a few moments before the shot hit two large landing barges blasted out of the hanger followed by a pair of Ministry-class shuttles as well as another pair of Z95s but they were swallowed by the driver round hit sending pieces of the evacuating Marauder in all directions a flight of six Z's and Bucket were able to sweep over a lone Aurore disabling it before it got too close to the others the surviving Aurore and the other Heraklon closed in on the mass driver ship to protect it as it recharged for another shot it was at this time the other Heraklon shed a third of its large hollowed out cargo area to expose half a dozen quad laser cannons just in time to claim another pair of Ryloth fighters. Looking around Preston saw the Bucket backing into a disabled Z95 she was doing Search and Rescue. The remaining fifteen Z95s were split protecting the disabled Marauder and the landing barges and shuttles that managed to get off the destroyed corvette who were in turn moving to intercept the two disabled Aurore's with no way the surviving forces to fight the slavers and survive it was decided to let them go it dampened everyone's spirits but they had managed to rescue two freighters of twi'leks who would have been slaves otherwise. The surviving slaver ships jumped. Finally planetside after using the tugs within the Bucket to lower the disabled corvette to the surface for repairs along with the two captured Disabled freighters the dead were counted they lost eight Z95s and their pilots the Marauder corvette Lessuafter their capital city was destroyed as well as fourty of her crew, the other corvette Kala'uun lost sixty people but they rescued almost one hundred people including many children. After a short rest for many as engineers worked endlessly to repair the Lessu using bits pulled from Kala'uun wreckage and spares while scraping one of the captured Aurore's to get the other two back up they met with Governor Rar the leader and the only Available leader of a alliance of several dozen cities and towns that had acquired the ships that had been involved in the fight and people had been abducted "I would normally never greet with freighter captains but today's tragic events aren't exactly normal but I wish to thank you from the bottom of my and my people's hearts" he bowed deeply as Preston and Ruvin returned the bow as the governor waved them to a table as they sat a attendant offered refreshments after a few sips they settled down to business Rar asked them "As Grateful as the people of my alliance are for your timely arrival what brought you to Ryloth?" Preston noded to Ruvin who started moving her hands Lekktu and sounds from her throat as she "spoke" Ryl the native language lacking lekktu Preston couldn't follow but she had taught him "honorable Rar we came here as a armed merchant company looking to hire crew and fighters to add to our ranks my father spoke highly of you before he passed years ago complementing on how you run your alliance projecting not only freedom and justice but also a prepared to defend yourselves and your people with a honorable ferocity that he admired I knew in my soul that people here would be the best choice" Preston who had been watching and listening nodded and spoke aloud "Yes sir, I agree and based on the skill I saw today of your people in combat I'd be honored to fight alongside them" Rar looked between them and bowed his head gracefully at the praise of his men and is governmental policies. He sat for a moment before bringing his com link out "would you mind if I called for my space forces Commander to join us?" Both of them nodded that they didn't " Commander Kar would you join us for a moment?" They didn't hear a reply but almost instantly a quick rap at the door and a human in a dark orange uniform walked in, placed his fist over his heart with a slight bow and followed the governor's unspoken wave to being introduced around the table Preston started "Commander it's a honor to meet you and please accept my condolences for your losses today" Kar nodded his thanks "Let me thank you as well. Without you I would of lost them all and who knows how many on the ground" Preston returned a solom nod. Governor Rar looked to the Commander and told him the situation then asked "tell me Commander when we get the Lessu combat and space capable again as well as the two Aurore's the upgrades and repairs…" at the questionable glance from Preston and Ruvin he paused giving a quick explanation to them " we managed to salvage five of the Z95s that were destroyed weapons and Shield generators as well as ripping out the two medium laser cannons from the Aurore's and installing them in both of ours that we have renamed the Lylek and Gutkurrs to cut down on their cargo space and up their firepower to add to our small fleet" Ruvin and Preston impressed nodded as he looked to the Commander continuing how many men will we have extra without a ship to serve on?" The commander pulled out a data pad and looked it over "after crewing the Lylek and Gutkurrs we will have approximately fifty men extra" he nodded "I have a proposition for you we need credits to buy more ships or acquire some so I propose to second those fifty men to you as volunteer crew you provide supplies and a third of their pay we pay the rest. As well as call for any volunteers to be trained to be sent with you on the deal that thirty percent of your salvage comes to our alliance how's that sound" after some haggling they settled on twenty percent of salvage would be sent to Ryloth and and half the Ryloth forces pay. The next morning the fifty RSDF volunteers were aboard the Bucket as was their equipment. The governor and commander were there to see them off just before they left Preston gave them a data chip with the old mans contact on Barcca "this is my oldmans contact at the ship breaking planet of Bracca. We use him to buy ships scrapped by other planets that's why we need people. We are on our way to buy a Foray-class blockade runner. It's one of three Christophis just discarded for two new Pelta-class frigates if you can afford it they have two others as well might be worth looking into if you can afford it" they processed this info for a minute as they both thanked them for the they left they decided to head to the Oshira a few hours away. As they took off from the spaceport so did the Lessu, Lylek and Gutkurrs they were fully repaired and the upgrades had finished being certified a few hours before. When they reached orbit the battered survivors of the corvettes fighter squadrons eighteen Z95s six Ministry-class shuttles who had been sleeping in shifts in their cockpits in orbit finally got the chance to sleep in beds either on the Lessu, Lylek and Gutkurrs or on the planet. Lylek and Gutkurrs had their slave pens removed and could now hold a pair of Z95s each. They all bid each other farewell, and good luck. Pushing the levers forward they were off with the troops they needed to out of hyperspace in the Oshira system. The Bucket vilontly rocked under a single mine strike that blew off the atmospheric pylon wing They came face to face with a Aurore freighter and a YT-1210 freighter modified to act as a small carrier, three Starguard- class fighters and a single Cutlass mounted on hard points. at the planet their sensors were just able to detect a Heraklon missing a third of its top cargo space about a third of the way between them was a cluster of five ships sitting adrift in space a pair of Dynamic-class freighters a Quartermaster-class supply carrier and two CSS-1 Corellian Star Shuttles with another Aurore moving toward them from the Heraklon probably with prize crews Preston thought as his fighter launched he moved to engage the closest Aurore the shields must of taken some damage before they only stopped the first two salvos of lasers before shields failed Preston was pushing to come back to engage the fighters when he saw Bucket right above the now shieldless pirate ship as a dozen figures in Vac suits jumping from the bucket to the Aurore. Within a few moments the freighter turned and started firing on the fighters destroying one and damaging the other the last pushed his engines to redline toward the planet and reinforcements before anyone could get him. Both Bucket and the captured slave ship moved quickly to the cluster of vacant ships and RSDF with jet packs moved to board the YT freighter/carrier both ships crews jumping aboard like the others or when they ran out of the suits physical docks first the Quartermaster came alive then the two Dynamic- class's powered up. Within five minutes all five ships were fully powered up and ready to go and not a moment to soon the Aurore with prize crews came in firing and every ship that could bear returned fire carefully scaled down to only knock the shields down as Bucket and three other ships force docked and after a few minutes of fighting claimed took control of the bridge. Preston breathed a sigh of relief these RSDF guys were no joke eight ships captured a fighter blasted to a husk another disabled and captured...watching as the disabled fighter was pulled inside Bucket's cargo hold by a tug as with the destroyed fighters husk as looked at the speeding fighters now turning around in company with the Heraklon and continuing to close with no idea what weapons or other tricks it might have up its hull sleeve. Preston pulled out the personal com link that all the RSDF had that was scrambled "Ok boys and girls let's get out of here while the getting is good we have eight ships and a fighter let's not risk it with whatever that Heraklon might be hiding remember Ryloth so set your navigational computers for Rodia it's almost back to Ryloth and will be safe enough for us to have a chance to decide the spoils" heard back eight "affrimitves'' and waited as the navicomp chugged away the calculations a minute later just as the fighters entered firing range everyone fired moments before the timer hit zero as one the makeshift fleet jumped.A short jump only forty eight short minutes later the nine ships dropped to normal space. Nothing greeted them beyond the two small Rodian clans defense fleets: a pair Hammerhead-class cruisers, four Foray-class blockade runners in one where the other had a single Valor-class cruiser and three Foray's . The small flotilla moved into empty space away from shipping lanes with a quick message for the defense force commanders "this is Captain Preston of the freighter Bucket we just escaped from a force of pirates in the Oshira system sustaining some damage we will be moving away from the planet and all shipping lanes to make repairs before moving on to our destination of Barcca if there are any issues we will be happy to comply with any request" over the last hour and they were still butting the final touches on their computer recording of what happened altered to show the nine ships convoying together followed by the the copy and pasted Heraklon's and Star guards attacking their ships before they managed to jump in case they asked for a copy of their ship records. The replies came just under an hour later not from the ships but from the planet. They must've bumped it up the chain of commands the first from the Chattza clan "You will hand over all information on these puny pirates and leave as soon as repairs are completed or be destroyed" what a bunch of puddou droppings Preston thought as he went to listen to the second message from the Tetsu Clan was more optimistic "Greetings welcome to Rodia. The thought of a pirate base nearby is troubling news. If you have any records of their forces it would help prepare my forces should we dispatch a task force to deal with them. If you require any assistance with repairs let us know". To the Chattza they provided the doctored record to the Tetsu they provided the closer to truth record showing the ships drop out of hyperspace hitting the mine a dozen of fighters and two Heraklon transports moving forward after a short message "I appreciate your willingness to help but we should be ok as to the pirates I have no clue of their armaments but we have come across two before one with a ancient Mass driver and another with six quad medium laser cannons over Ryloth so be watchful of them". As the next hour passed it was decided that Preston would keep the Bucket of course and a Aurore they decided to name Bolts with the captured Star Guard fighter given the sign screwball stowed where the pens were cut away they would send other Aurore as well as the two Dynamic-class's back to Ryloth and sell the Quartermaster, YT-1210 freighter and two CSS-1 Corellian Star Shuttles and redistribute the crews and move on thirty minutes later the Ryloth task Force left with a total of nine people aboard they contacted the Tetsu stating they had ships to sell for cheap and from the looks of his forces we would rather sell them to you guys cheap, then the Pudu pile from the Chattza for double after some haggling they settled on a million credits for the four ships the Hammerhead's and Foray's of Tetsu's fleet moved to crew their new ships as soon as the transaction was completed they said their good bye to the Tetsu and jumped. They came out of hyperspace in the Bracca system just in time to see the Starfirer arrive a few minutes later. Preston with a sheepish smile called " Hey old man Hii mom…."