Chapter 1
Back in the known galaxy, a modified MC-80 flies through space, with an escort of X-Wings. Upon the bridge of the Scaled Spectre, Commander Meeko Jade "Pappy" Farlain, Commander of Dewback Wing, stands as he looks out the windows. His people are running patrols and returning to the ship from the recent engagement, as well as fixing the Spectre itself. After the last battle that they just jumped from, they have been running from the Super Star Destroyer Daedelus. The Spectre had taken a lot of damage from the battle and was now jumping to various points to avoid running into the Super Star Destroyer again.
A midshipman walks up to Meeko and hands a datapad to him. Meeko looks at the datapad and frowns as he sees the damage and losses. He sighs as he turns to look around the bridge as the Communications Officer, a Bothan speaks up over the noise that is on the Bridge.
"Commander Farlain, Vendetta 9 and 3 are inbound from our last jump. Lucky reports that Vendetta 3 has sustained heavy damage, and requests that the landing bay be cleared. Plus he requests a medical team on the deck upon arrival for Nova." Pappy looks at the Communications Officer and sighs.
"Does Lucky say what type of damages Nova has?"
"Yes sir. Nova is running on two engines, no shields, hull damage and he doubts that she will be able to land safely."
Pappy sighs as he thinks. . o 0 (Great, another fighter down. That will leave us short handed if we are jumped by the Daedelus.) "Notify them, tell them to land as soon as they arrive, but if they are unable to, abort and have Nova eject and she'll be recovered."
"Yes sir." Says the Communication Officer as he sends the message.
"How you doing?" asks Richard Tan, or Lucky to those within Dewback Wing.
"Just fine, although I do not think I will be able to hold on for much longer," says Nova.
Knight beeps with a damage read out from Nova's Astromech and Lucky frowns as he reads it. "We will be arriving to the Spectre in 3 minutes." He says as the two ships travel through Hyperspace.
"Lucky," Nova says to him as she looks at his fighter, which is marked by laser fire, but not damaged as much as hers. "I want you to do something for me, if I do not make it." she says to him.
"Come on Nova, your going to make it. I know you will." He says, as he looks at her battered fighter.
"And you're terrible at lying." she says in response. "I want you to contact my family back on Bajukai, and let them know what happened."
Lucky just nods as he listens "Nova, I will." He says to her "You have my word. Nevertheless, I am not going to let you die here. I made a promise to your family and I plan on keeping it."
"Thank you Lucky." she says to him. "I love you." She adds as Knight begins to beep.
"What?" he says to his droid as he looks over to the damaged X-Wing and sees a small arc of energy forming around the engines "Sithspawn." he says as he looks. "Nova, deactivate your hyperdrive, it is about to ." and before he can finish, the ship explodes just as they drop out of hyperspace. Lucky looks as the debris moves forward, some of her ship is trapped in hyperspace, while the rest floats in normal space. Lucky just looks at the debris as they float with the words in his head that Nova said before her ship exploded.
"Spectre, this is Vendetta 9. Requesting permission to land," he says over the comlink as he watches the emblem of Vendetta 3 float past him. "I know." he says to himself.
Silence is heard for a few moments as those on the bridge see the explosion "Permission granted Vendetta 9. Welcome home."
Richard just looks "Yea, some welcoming." he mutters as he makes his final approach to land on the Scaled Spectre. He knows that he will have to contact her family, since they trusted him with her life and he treated her like a daughter.
Mika Tisor or Bluefire to those on the Spectre walks up to Lucky as he brings his X-Wing in for a landing. As the canopy on Lucky's X-Wing is raised, a figure waits for him at the bottom of the ladder. The blue skinned Twi'lek has her hands on her hips, and looks at him "Lucky.." she says as he lands on the deck, and then goes and hugs him. Others in the Hangar come over and bow their heads at the loss of Nova.
Lucky looks at Mika and gives her a hug, then looks at everyone "Clear the deck for the rest of the fighters." he says to the crew, then looks down at Mika. He gives her a kiss and then he lets go and heads for the locker room to change. Mika just watches him leave, knowing that he is torn inside at the loss of Nova. Mika walks towards the door to wait for Lucky and then will go with him as he will need company right now.
Sidir Ganang stood on the bridge of Ly Mantok's Victory Star Destroyer. Since the rebellion had started in the Cloud, Ly Mantok was one of the first people to jump onboard. At first, his motives were unknown, however, he wanted a change in government within the Cloud. He stood next to Sidir, who looked out into the vastness of the Cloud, "I wonder how Del Indigo is doing" asked the one time actor, now turn rebel.
"I do not know Sidir, however," said the reptilian former Imperial Sub-Commander "I know that Aurin Kashe, Xian D'Kar, Ahondrilian have been busy in the Outer Rims. It seems they have been pirating ships and taking their cargo with the help of Ran Jayma, Boccanegra, and the Piorads.
Sidir nods "It is good, for I can only pretend to be Del Indigo until he returns to help. Since he, Aurin Kashe and Xian D'Kar started this change in government."
Ly Mantok nods in turn "Yes, but it is good to have something to do beside patrolling. A change was coming sooner or later," he states.
An alarm goes off as the sensor operator looks up "Sub-Commander, we have detected an unknown ship heading our way at high speeds."
"Is it friend or foe?" Ly Mantok asks.
"Unknown sir, it is not registered within our database." states the sensor operator as he looks at the readout.
Sidir blinks and moves away as Ly Mantok moves over to him "Contact that ship, if it does not respond, destroy it," he states simply and clearly.
"Yes sir," says the communication officer as he sends the message. Ly Mantok just stands there and waits. "Sir," says the communication officer, "We are receiving a message, but it is coded and only one name appears upon it."
Ly Mantok moves over to the person and reads the name as he breaths "I see," he says as the sensor operator turns. "Sir, the ship just made a jump into hyperspace."
"Good, send the message to Talon Karrde and have him send it to Richard Tan. Also, send it to our best slicer onboard. I am curious to see what the message reads."
"Yes sir," states the communication officer as he sends it.
. o 0 (So, this involves Richard Tan.) Ly Mantok thinks as he turns "I'll be in my quarters. Sidir. You have the bridge," and he exits as Sidir turns around and blinks as Ly Mantok leaves.
Onboard Corellian Corvette Chamberlain with the modified YT-1300 of Richard's, the Hyper Bantha in the upper cargo hold, which Aurin Kashe has become quite good at flying since Richard Joined Dewback Wing. The Longstreet, a Maurder Corvette that held the squadron of Z-95 Mark Is; in addition, a squadron of X-Wings was in escort position for the Admiral's ship. Aurin Kashe sits on the bridge as the two corvettes, and the fighters hit another Imperial transport ship and took the supplies then fled into hyperspace.
Aurin Kashe sits back as he was accustom to these types of actions and raises from his seat. "I'll be on the Hyper Bantha if I am needed," he said to the first officer.
"Yes Admiral," returns the reply from the Rodian, which causes Aurin Kashe to stop but he does not correct him like he does everyone else and just continues on. He rides the turbolift to the upper cargo hold, which has been the landing bay for the Bantha since Del Indigo teamed up with him again and brought him two corvettes.
As the Admiral arrived, he noticed a light on in the personal quarters and blinked as he walked up the boarding ramp directly behind the extended cockpit. He looked at the seats and thought back to the times he and Del Indigo, a.k.a. Richard Tan, had taken on a few ships and survived. As he thought of this, Aurin walked the main deck of the ship, before heading to the lift and going down to the lower level, the crew quarters.
As he stepped off the lift, he saw the reason for the light. "Lady Tapani." He says to Xian as he looks "I figured you would be in your quarters."
"I was, but felt the need to come here, as I am feeling a disturbance within the Force." Moreover, the gold skinned girl looks at the elderly Admiral. "What did we acquire from the raid?"
Aurin looks as he thinks, "Food stuff, navigational information on the transports that run in this area, as well as supplies for the ships and for the rebellion."
"That is good." she says as the comlink on the Hyper Bantha beeps. Aurin walks to the wall unit and hits "Yes," he says
"Sorry to bother you Admiral." The voice on the other end says. "But we are receiving a message from a Talon Karrde." Says the Rodian first officer.
"Thank you, patch it to the Bantha's cockpit." In addition, he looks to Xian "This is going to be interesting, would you like to join me?"
"I would be delighted to. It is nice to receive messages," and she rise and the two head to the cockpit.
In the cockpit of the Hyper Bantha, the two sit as the holoprojector powers up on the console and the form of Talon Karrde appears in front of the two. "Greetings Admiral and Miss Tapani." he says to them. "I am looking for someone that was once associated with my organization, maybe you can help me," says the information trader.
"And who if I may ask might that be?" says Xian.
"Why Xian my dear, you do not remember the one who I sent with you to the Cloud in the first place. Richard Tan.correction Del Indigo, Richard Tan is dead, my mistake." states the man with a mock look of surprise, knowing that Xian D'Kar knows who he is talking about as well as Aurin Kashe.
"I remember, what can we do for you Karrde?" asks Aurin.
"I have a message for him by way of Ly Mantok. It seems that someone is looking for Del Indigo. Since he once worked for me, I decided to look and it seems he is not the only one being looked for." and he smiles at the two. "Your names where mentioned as well as others within your little group." and he goes to read off the names of those that were once with Xian, Aurin and Richard. "I have the message sent to you via the coded frequency built within the Hyper Bantha. If you would be so kind to get it to him, he might want to read it. Oh, before I forget, I will need payment for the delivery of this message. Shall we say 500 credits?" he grins. "I suggest that you two be watchful of things. You are in trouble, more then you know. Moreover, not from the Empire, someone with Imperial ties. However, I do not know whom. Just wanted to let you know Admiral," he says to them as the image of Karrde disappears.
"It's Captain, not Admiral." but it is too late, as the information merchant has already ended the transmission. "It seems that the games a foot." says Aurin to Xian as he keys up and sends the message to Richard as well as the others, with additional information to meet up.
"Yes, it is. Nothing excites me more then games. I do love games so much," responds Xian D'Kar as she and Aurin watch the message that they received.
Back in the known galaxy, a modified MC-80 flies through space, with an escort of X-Wings. Upon the bridge of the Scaled Spectre, Commander Meeko Jade "Pappy" Farlain, Commander of Dewback Wing, stands as he looks out the windows. His people are running patrols and returning to the ship from the recent engagement, as well as fixing the Spectre itself. After the last battle that they just jumped from, they have been running from the Super Star Destroyer Daedelus. The Spectre had taken a lot of damage from the battle and was now jumping to various points to avoid running into the Super Star Destroyer again.
A midshipman walks up to Meeko and hands a datapad to him. Meeko looks at the datapad and frowns as he sees the damage and losses. He sighs as he turns to look around the bridge as the Communications Officer, a Bothan speaks up over the noise that is on the Bridge.
"Commander Farlain, Vendetta 9 and 3 are inbound from our last jump. Lucky reports that Vendetta 3 has sustained heavy damage, and requests that the landing bay be cleared. Plus he requests a medical team on the deck upon arrival for Nova." Pappy looks at the Communications Officer and sighs.
"Does Lucky say what type of damages Nova has?"
"Yes sir. Nova is running on two engines, no shields, hull damage and he doubts that she will be able to land safely."
Pappy sighs as he thinks. . o 0 (Great, another fighter down. That will leave us short handed if we are jumped by the Daedelus.) "Notify them, tell them to land as soon as they arrive, but if they are unable to, abort and have Nova eject and she'll be recovered."
"Yes sir." Says the Communication Officer as he sends the message.
"How you doing?" asks Richard Tan, or Lucky to those within Dewback Wing.
"Just fine, although I do not think I will be able to hold on for much longer," says Nova.
Knight beeps with a damage read out from Nova's Astromech and Lucky frowns as he reads it. "We will be arriving to the Spectre in 3 minutes." He says as the two ships travel through Hyperspace.
"Lucky," Nova says to him as she looks at his fighter, which is marked by laser fire, but not damaged as much as hers. "I want you to do something for me, if I do not make it." she says to him.
"Come on Nova, your going to make it. I know you will." He says, as he looks at her battered fighter.
"And you're terrible at lying." she says in response. "I want you to contact my family back on Bajukai, and let them know what happened."
Lucky just nods as he listens "Nova, I will." He says to her "You have my word. Nevertheless, I am not going to let you die here. I made a promise to your family and I plan on keeping it."
"Thank you Lucky." she says to him. "I love you." She adds as Knight begins to beep.
"What?" he says to his droid as he looks over to the damaged X-Wing and sees a small arc of energy forming around the engines "Sithspawn." he says as he looks. "Nova, deactivate your hyperdrive, it is about to ." and before he can finish, the ship explodes just as they drop out of hyperspace. Lucky looks as the debris moves forward, some of her ship is trapped in hyperspace, while the rest floats in normal space. Lucky just looks at the debris as they float with the words in his head that Nova said before her ship exploded.
"Spectre, this is Vendetta 9. Requesting permission to land," he says over the comlink as he watches the emblem of Vendetta 3 float past him. "I know." he says to himself.
Silence is heard for a few moments as those on the bridge see the explosion "Permission granted Vendetta 9. Welcome home."
Richard just looks "Yea, some welcoming." he mutters as he makes his final approach to land on the Scaled Spectre. He knows that he will have to contact her family, since they trusted him with her life and he treated her like a daughter.
Mika Tisor or Bluefire to those on the Spectre walks up to Lucky as he brings his X-Wing in for a landing. As the canopy on Lucky's X-Wing is raised, a figure waits for him at the bottom of the ladder. The blue skinned Twi'lek has her hands on her hips, and looks at him "Lucky.." she says as he lands on the deck, and then goes and hugs him. Others in the Hangar come over and bow their heads at the loss of Nova.
Lucky looks at Mika and gives her a hug, then looks at everyone "Clear the deck for the rest of the fighters." he says to the crew, then looks down at Mika. He gives her a kiss and then he lets go and heads for the locker room to change. Mika just watches him leave, knowing that he is torn inside at the loss of Nova. Mika walks towards the door to wait for Lucky and then will go with him as he will need company right now.
Sidir Ganang stood on the bridge of Ly Mantok's Victory Star Destroyer. Since the rebellion had started in the Cloud, Ly Mantok was one of the first people to jump onboard. At first, his motives were unknown, however, he wanted a change in government within the Cloud. He stood next to Sidir, who looked out into the vastness of the Cloud, "I wonder how Del Indigo is doing" asked the one time actor, now turn rebel.
"I do not know Sidir, however," said the reptilian former Imperial Sub-Commander "I know that Aurin Kashe, Xian D'Kar, Ahondrilian have been busy in the Outer Rims. It seems they have been pirating ships and taking their cargo with the help of Ran Jayma, Boccanegra, and the Piorads.
Sidir nods "It is good, for I can only pretend to be Del Indigo until he returns to help. Since he, Aurin Kashe and Xian D'Kar started this change in government."
Ly Mantok nods in turn "Yes, but it is good to have something to do beside patrolling. A change was coming sooner or later," he states.
An alarm goes off as the sensor operator looks up "Sub-Commander, we have detected an unknown ship heading our way at high speeds."
"Is it friend or foe?" Ly Mantok asks.
"Unknown sir, it is not registered within our database." states the sensor operator as he looks at the readout.
Sidir blinks and moves away as Ly Mantok moves over to him "Contact that ship, if it does not respond, destroy it," he states simply and clearly.
"Yes sir," says the communication officer as he sends the message. Ly Mantok just stands there and waits. "Sir," says the communication officer, "We are receiving a message, but it is coded and only one name appears upon it."
Ly Mantok moves over to the person and reads the name as he breaths "I see," he says as the sensor operator turns. "Sir, the ship just made a jump into hyperspace."
"Good, send the message to Talon Karrde and have him send it to Richard Tan. Also, send it to our best slicer onboard. I am curious to see what the message reads."
"Yes sir," states the communication officer as he sends it.
. o 0 (So, this involves Richard Tan.) Ly Mantok thinks as he turns "I'll be in my quarters. Sidir. You have the bridge," and he exits as Sidir turns around and blinks as Ly Mantok leaves.
Onboard Corellian Corvette Chamberlain with the modified YT-1300 of Richard's, the Hyper Bantha in the upper cargo hold, which Aurin Kashe has become quite good at flying since Richard Joined Dewback Wing. The Longstreet, a Maurder Corvette that held the squadron of Z-95 Mark Is; in addition, a squadron of X-Wings was in escort position for the Admiral's ship. Aurin Kashe sits on the bridge as the two corvettes, and the fighters hit another Imperial transport ship and took the supplies then fled into hyperspace.
Aurin Kashe sits back as he was accustom to these types of actions and raises from his seat. "I'll be on the Hyper Bantha if I am needed," he said to the first officer.
"Yes Admiral," returns the reply from the Rodian, which causes Aurin Kashe to stop but he does not correct him like he does everyone else and just continues on. He rides the turbolift to the upper cargo hold, which has been the landing bay for the Bantha since Del Indigo teamed up with him again and brought him two corvettes.
As the Admiral arrived, he noticed a light on in the personal quarters and blinked as he walked up the boarding ramp directly behind the extended cockpit. He looked at the seats and thought back to the times he and Del Indigo, a.k.a. Richard Tan, had taken on a few ships and survived. As he thought of this, Aurin walked the main deck of the ship, before heading to the lift and going down to the lower level, the crew quarters.
As he stepped off the lift, he saw the reason for the light. "Lady Tapani." He says to Xian as he looks "I figured you would be in your quarters."
"I was, but felt the need to come here, as I am feeling a disturbance within the Force." Moreover, the gold skinned girl looks at the elderly Admiral. "What did we acquire from the raid?"
Aurin looks as he thinks, "Food stuff, navigational information on the transports that run in this area, as well as supplies for the ships and for the rebellion."
"That is good." she says as the comlink on the Hyper Bantha beeps. Aurin walks to the wall unit and hits "Yes," he says
"Sorry to bother you Admiral." The voice on the other end says. "But we are receiving a message from a Talon Karrde." Says the Rodian first officer.
"Thank you, patch it to the Bantha's cockpit." In addition, he looks to Xian "This is going to be interesting, would you like to join me?"
"I would be delighted to. It is nice to receive messages," and she rise and the two head to the cockpit.
In the cockpit of the Hyper Bantha, the two sit as the holoprojector powers up on the console and the form of Talon Karrde appears in front of the two. "Greetings Admiral and Miss Tapani." he says to them. "I am looking for someone that was once associated with my organization, maybe you can help me," says the information trader.
"And who if I may ask might that be?" says Xian.
"Why Xian my dear, you do not remember the one who I sent with you to the Cloud in the first place. Richard Tan.correction Del Indigo, Richard Tan is dead, my mistake." states the man with a mock look of surprise, knowing that Xian D'Kar knows who he is talking about as well as Aurin Kashe.
"I remember, what can we do for you Karrde?" asks Aurin.
"I have a message for him by way of Ly Mantok. It seems that someone is looking for Del Indigo. Since he once worked for me, I decided to look and it seems he is not the only one being looked for." and he smiles at the two. "Your names where mentioned as well as others within your little group." and he goes to read off the names of those that were once with Xian, Aurin and Richard. "I have the message sent to you via the coded frequency built within the Hyper Bantha. If you would be so kind to get it to him, he might want to read it. Oh, before I forget, I will need payment for the delivery of this message. Shall we say 500 credits?" he grins. "I suggest that you two be watchful of things. You are in trouble, more then you know. Moreover, not from the Empire, someone with Imperial ties. However, I do not know whom. Just wanted to let you know Admiral," he says to them as the image of Karrde disappears.
"It's Captain, not Admiral." but it is too late, as the information merchant has already ended the transmission. "It seems that the games a foot." says Aurin to Xian as he keys up and sends the message to Richard as well as the others, with additional information to meet up.
"Yes, it is. Nothing excites me more then games. I do love games so much," responds Xian D'Kar as she and Aurin watch the message that they received.