Man it has been a hot minute since i posted anything. just trying to fill some time gaps with some writing right now. hope there are still people willing to read this out there!

Holden eased his hyperdrive back allowing the system to shut down as he was shunted back into real space, letting out a small sigh. He had spent nearly a full day in his cockpit now, not having a chance to get out as he jumped past several different systems. "Alright Chirps, how far are we from Point Tango's rendezvous?"

His Astromech responded with a series of beeps and chirps, being a pattern Holden didn't understand. Thankfully, translated text appeared on his screen before him, nothing more than a heading and a distance for an orbital point off the planet that was the actual destination for them. Of course, that was after they linked up.

The planet in question was a brown dustball barely capable of sustaining life, scorched by its binary stars. There wasn't even a speck of water on the world. But, being the location for the head of the Hutt clans, Tatooine made for a brilliant location to disappear. Even with the occasional imperial presence on world, everyone knew the Hutts still controlled the world. Which made it a great place to lay low for a while. At least until the Empire cooled off from their little attack. He still hated their lack of success, as it had burned a huge chunk of their torpedo reserves for no gain what-so-ever.

He let out a small sigh as he guided his ship to the rendezvous, checking his scanners for any sign of the others. The Redeemer was already parked in wait for him, but he had no sign of Madelyn's fighter yet. "Renegade Three, do you copy?"

"We copy one, glad you could join us." Roy's voice was the one to respond as the Redeemer became visible to Holden, slowly growing in his vision.

"Any sign of two yet?"

"No sir, planning on laying low here for a while?"

"That's an affirmative Three." Holden slowed his X-wing to a crawl beside the Redeemer, looking over the ship to see if he could spot any sort of actual damage.

"Roger, I know a pair of hands on the surface, with your permission, we could go snag us a port sir?"

"Go for it three."

"Roger, will update you once we're on the surface one. Out" as Roy responded, the Redeemer turned for the planet and gunned its engines, accelerating away from Holden.

Holden let out another small sigh, settling in to wait inside his cockpit. Minutes slowly dragged into hours as he waited, not wanting to leave but knowing it could be several days before she actually arrived, depending on the route taken. While he waited, he received a short burst transmission with nav data and a callsign from the Redeemer. Eventually, his fighter beeped at him, warning him of a new contact on his sensors. The IFF system immediately pinged the craft as friendly,

"Renegade two, good to see you finally joining us."

"Good to be here one. Nearly got snagged by an imp patrol a few jumps back. Had to hold put till I could squeak by. I assume three made it?" Madelyn's voice cracked back at him as her X-wing came into view, gracefully pulling up to Holden's fighter. A quick visual inspection came up clean, no signs of battle damage to her ship.

"That's a good copy two. Three went to snag us some parking."

"Sweet. They succeed?"

"That's an affirmative. On me." He eased his throttle forward, giving Madelyn ample opportunity to snake onto his wing.

Flame licked and danced on the viewport of the Redeemer as it pummeled into the atmosphere. Kyra hadn't been allowed to talk on the comms since Roy had contacted someone on the surface, who had fed them a flight plan and landing point. If she was reading her maps right, it was dropping them out in the Dune Sea, nearly twenty kilometers from the Anchorhead space port. The flight plan had them dropping into atmosphere a few hundred clicks away from the port city, following a canyon into the Dune Sea before flying dangerously low until they reached the location. Not that she was complaining. It meant they would be below the port's sensor horizon, and would keep them entirely undetected.

"So who is this we are joining?" her eyes flicked to Roy in the co-pilot's seat as she spoke.

"Old team." He shrugged, his eyes staring out the front viewport.

Huh… so, Task Force Nexu? I was kind of curious what they're like. More like him I'd bet. The flames finally fell away, gaining Kyra's focus I as she followed the flight plan as closely as she could. It made the next hour or so feel utterly boring, despite the intricate flight. The end destination was a series of small homestead buildings with a massive open roofed hanger building in the center of the complex. Aside from the hanger, it looked more like a farmstead than any kind of military installation. And even the hanger could be passed off for storage for farming equipment.

"Once we land, no names. I'm Bucket, you'll be Sparks. Captain will be Cappy, Stodel, Goofball. They should be tracking."

"Uh… what?" she was bringing the freighter to a crawl, making sure the repulser lifts were operational.

"Nexu doesn't use real names. It keeps soldiers from knowing anything about one another. A few of us know each other's real names, but outside the CO, no one is supposed to. It's codenames from here on."

"Sparks? Sounds like you're 'codenames' are just bad nicknames." She shook her head, easing the craft into the hanger to let it settle onto its landing gear. There was another ship in the hanger, but it looked to be an old fighter of some sort. Not a design she recognized, all grey with a forked fuselage and two short wings at the back.

"So what if they are? Still not your real name is it? And more likely to be used in normal conversation."

"So they intentionally sound like nicknames?" she slipped out of the seat, stretching. The nice thing about flying the freighter was the fact that she had been able to move around during their journey here, but she was still sore from that last few hours of flight.

"Yes." Roy was already ahead of her, leading the way into the cargo hold of the ship, where he moved to the starboard side of the ship and used the release for the ramp. The hydraulics whined as it lowered, a single figure at the foot of the ramp clad in full black armor. Despite the feminine form, the T-shaped visor on the full-face helmet was unmistakable as anything but a Mandalorian.

"Shocked to find you here Mandy. Where's the rest of the boys?" Roy trotted down the ramp, coming to a stop beside the Mandalorian at the foot of the ramp. Kyra only tentatively followed, staying on the ramp of the ship.

"R and R trip. Didn't feel like going. Some beach sounds boring as hell! Plus I wouldn't have been able to bring my guns!" she plopped her hands on her hips, just inches from dual pistols, both blocky in design. She also had twin bandoliers filled with grenades over her chest, and what looked to be a small carbine slung loosely on her side. Since she wasn't quite facing Kyra anymore, she could see the woman had what looked to be a small, single engine jet pack, if Kyra was recognizing it correctly.

"Sounds like misery to me too. Gang all good?"

"Of course! And who's this young lady ya got following you like a lost puppy?"

"Sparks. Part of my new team. Mechanic. And a damn good one."

"She cleared?"

"No. none of my team is. We just hit some nasty luck. Needed to lay low."

"Well, so long as they are alliance and trustworthy, they can use the hanger at least. Should be a couple weeks before the gang gets back. They'll have to stick to the hanger. You, Roland, are welcome to swing by my quarters though." She artfully popped her helmet off, revealing her dark skin and braided black hair, tied tightly to her head.

Roland? I've never heard that name before… is that what he gets Roy from? But… he always said that was his only name…

"Mandy… you aren't supposed to use real names. You know that."

"Awwwl, but I like your real name so much better than 'Bucket'!" she was smiling broadly at him, earning a bit of an eye roll.

"So if we wanted to head into Anchorhead, would we be able to?" Kyra spoke up from the ramp of the ship, gaining an actual look from the brown eyed woman.

"Yeah? It's a shit hole though, and I can't loan you a speeder. What would you possibly want to do there?"

"Supplies. We are rather low on them. And I don't know if our ships took any damage. If they did, I'll need parts to fix them. Plus, the X-wings are going to be dangerously low on fuel. We didn't pack any reserves." She shrugged, slipping her hands into the pockets of her coveralls.

"We can top off your fuel, and if it's in the hanger, we can give it up for ol' Bucket. We don't have much though."

"Thank's Ordo."

"Weren't you the one just giving me crap for using real names?" the woman gently punched Roy's shoulder.

"Crap." His shoulders slumped, but any other conversation was forced to wait as the roar of the X-wing's engines overwhelmed the area, the two fighters gently squeezing into the space available and setting down.

Well, time to go see what the ships need… she let out a sigh, slipping the strap for her tool bag a little higher onto her shoulder before trotting toward the two fighter-craft.

Hot air burned at Roy's skin. It helped that he was only wearing a t-shirt now, his fatigues top stuffed away in one of their two speeder bikes. Which had been left on a pair of shifty looking mag locks. The hustle and bustle of Anchorhead's main market street was a massively different scene to anywhere he had been since this operation started, flooded with people of all races.

"I'm not sure what to think about this op…" Holden was quiet, marching along beside Roy, the pair following along behind Kyra and Stodel as they were all heading the same direction for the moment.

"Agreed sir. Whatever the Empire is doing in that system clearly not mundane or normal. Some sort of military research I would wager." Roy responded as he continued to scan the crowd, trying to find anything of use to them in the stalls.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's got a pretty heavy presence and no heavy traffic. No freighters or transports in and out, sir."

"Yeah… the question being what are they researching? And for the last time, cut the sir yes sir crap, especially in public!"

Roy shrugged, having no real desire to drop his discipline. He was a soldier after all, it was hard to not act like one. Ahead of them, Kyra and Stodel had split up, Stodel looking to be talking to a local food vendor. Kyra on the other hand, was across the street, kneeling in an alley mouth.

Kyra's position kept Roy's attention, curious as to why she had stopped there. She seemed to be interacting with something, a small feline slipping into view as Kyra gently scratched behind its ears and rubbed along its back. The animal was visibly happy to see her, rubbing against her legs and head butting her near constantly. Roy smiled as he watched her, having seen similar in the past. Animals had loved the girl the from moment they met, at least as far as his experience knew. Something about seeing that small and simple natural connection always brought a smile to his face. Though, he also felt a hefty dose of jealousy. Animals usually hated him, even when he tried to be friendly with them. At least, they had since he became an adult.

They can probably tell how gentle of a person she is… and how much I am not… He shrugged his thought away, or tried to at least. It wasn't quite that he had negative feelings on the matter, if anything, he usually hated gentle people. Gentle people don't win battles after all. The best description he could put on his thought was concern for her. She wanted to fight after all, and that meant having to kill. Act's of violence tended to change people like her into more violent people. Her gentleness was something he liked about her after all and didn't want to see her lose it. Or her life for that matter.

The emotions on that matter also confused him. He had promised himself years ago to protect her, yes, but that promise had no merit for the emotions he felt for her as he watched her now. It was something he never really felt before. Of course, it could easily be equated to her being the first non-soldier he really interacted with since he was a child.

Holden let out a sigh beside Roy, snapping Roy out of his thoughts. "I have no idea what we should do next… We used so much of our ammo and got nothing out of it!?"

"We just need to lay low. No point in worrying about what to do next until there is a new moment for a next. Just work on our combat power and bide our time." Roy found it difficult to keep his attention off Kyra, despite the conversation at hand.

"Yeah, that sounds solid enough…."

"Kyra, Gary! Come check this out!" Madelyn shouted from across the market, finally breaking Roy's focus on Kyra. Madelyn was gesturing at a sign down the street, a flashing neon affair sparking in and out of life depicting three starships, the words below in galactic basic proclaiming it as a used ship lot. "You three thinking what I'm thinking?"

"It would be worth checking out at least." Kyra shrugged from where she had trotted back up to them.

"Agreed. Let's go." Holden led the way into the shop, finding the two-story building to be a warehouse stuffed to the absolute brim with shelf after shelf of ship components, wiring harnesses, bolts, and everything else one could need for a starship. There were signs leading off to a back door, Kyra making a beeline for the door. The owner clearly tried to intercept her, but Holden had her covered in that, striking up a conversation with him. So Roy decided to follow Kyra out.

The door clearly led to a back yard area and had at least two dozen ships in various states of decay. Most were small freighters and luxury ships, a few atmospheric only craft, with the biggest he spotted being a gallofree medium transport that was listing to the side rather heavily. Likely worn out landing struts. Kyra though was clearly having a hay day, trotting excitedly through the various ships, chattering almost to herself about various parts and capabilities on the ships as well as small tidbits of random information. All of which was going right over Roy's head, save the occasional talk of the shipboard weapons at least.

"Oh? I think we just found a gem!" she rushed off behind one of the bigger ships, what ever she was looking at out of Roy's view.

It took several moments for Roy to trot after her, coming around the worn-down freighter she had run behind her to find her inspecting the first starfighter he had seen in the whole lot. The massive frame was both familiar and foreign, it's aging yellow and white paint blackened in several places. It was most definitely a Y-wing though, much older than the model currently in use by the alliance. It was sitting on its hull, the canopy completely gone save where the fighters manned gunnery station was. One of the engines was a blown-out hulk as well, much of the ship looking beaten and damaged. But, despite that, the paint was surprisingly fresh for a thirty-year-old ship, not a spot of rust or decay on the metal.

"She needs some work, but if I'm right, her reactor is still solid." Kyra was already climbing on top of the ship, using tools from her bag to unbolt an armor plate off and flip it clear with a spectacular clatter. "Yup, reactor's in one piece, guns look intact. Needs a new cockpit and canopy, but that's not too hard. Engines will be the hard part. Both look to be shot. My guess would be this ship's previous pilots ejected…"

"Kyra… you probably shouldn't just start tearing a ship apart… you break it-" Roy didn't get to finish.

"You buy it. that's right. But honestly that ol' thing? Not had a lick of interest since I got it in a few weeks ago. Some scav's dropped it off with me, tried to demand a killer finders fee. Owen Gribson." The voice came from a middle-aged human, who was offering Roy his hand, Roy politely accepting the handshake.

"Roy and Kyra. How much you pay them for it?"

"That blown out piece of garbage? Two thousand. Idiots thought it was a good deal for em too."

"Oh! Hey… that's… sketchy!" Kyra called out again, only her feet showing as she was half inside the ship.

"What's sketchy!?"

"Nothing Roy! But you should tell the captain we need to buy this ship!"

"And what makes you say that?"

Kyra finally slipped back out of the ship, walking to the edge of the hull and plopping down. "Roy, this is a genuine gem of a fighter! The B-T-L B model was discontinued and almost entirely scrapped twenty years ago! There's only a few left out there! She's a good bit bigger than modern models, and her payload capacity is massive! Ten heavy torpedoes, dual launchers, as well as a proton bomb bay that can hold up to twenty bombs at the same time as the torpedoes! Plus, with how thick this armor is, it's one tough craft! These things can take a beating! A few tweaks to the shield arrays, some newer model engines, and some scratch-built armor plates and she will be more than a match for modern weapons fire!" Kyra was grinning broadly, and visibly vibrating.

"That sounds… expensive Kyra." Roy winced as he looked at the man beside him.

"Fifty thousand credits. Minimum." The man crossed his arms, smiling.

"Oh, no, no no! I might be a mechanic, but I know the value of a ship!" Kyra hopped off the hull as she pointed at the man as though her finger was a loaded weapon "In perfect flying condition, a B-T-L B costs sixty-eight, top. They are old, outdated fighters! Top that off, this gal needs far more than an overhaul! Every single control board in the cockpit needs to be completely rebuilt, it needs a new seat, both ion cannons on the gun are going to have to be replaced, one of the medium cannons on the nose is destroyed, both engines are shot to hell, the repulser system is probably gone, shields fried, reactor likely won't even start, several armor plates that need replacing, and a whole new canopy. Just the ship? We won't pay you more than three thousand credits! I'm one woman. The amount of man hours alone needed to get this thing flying again is probably twenty-thousand in the hole, add to it parts and we would barely make a profit at steep discounts!" she crossed her arms as she finished.

"My shipyard. I set the price!" the man coolly glared right back at her, Roy just silently watching. All of this was outside his realm of expertise, that was for certain.

"if you have the parts for me to fix it, I might be willing to give you twenty thousand for it! would still be a massive profit for you!"

"Twenty thousand for what?" Holden broke into the conversation, his eyes bouncing between Kyra, Roy, and the salesman.

"That shot down piece of junk." Roy jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the Y-wing, shrugging.

"Kyra… no."

"Gary, yes. I'm telling you, we can turn a good profit with it if we just give it the TLC it needs!"

"Listen, kid, you aren't touching that ship for anything less than twenty without parts! You said yourself, she's a rather rare ship these days!" the salesman was smiling greedily at them, glancing between her and the captain.

"Look, I'm sure we can work out a fair price. Let my mechanic gather the parts she needs for it, then, once you have that total, we can work out a deal, sound good?"

The salesman shook his head, crossing his arms. "If you are trying to scam me as bad as your mechanic is, no deal!"

"She's not, I swear, she knows her stuff. So give us a chance?"

"Besides, you said no one's shown any interest in it yet. It would get a massive paper weight off your hands and quick. Just give us a chance?" Roy tried to sound as persuasive as he could. Not that he felt he did well in that.

"Fine. Find your parts. Then we can negotiate."

"Splendid, do you have somewhere you and I can wait? I'd love to know more about how you acquired the ship?" Holden nodded to Kyra before letting himself be led away by the salesman.

"Alright Kyra, fess up?"

"She's fully loaded."

"What?"

"You heard me. Ten torps, twenty bombs. Every single one intact and functional. May have up ticked her condition a little though. Repulsers definitely work. Reactor should start with fuel. Buuuut she does need a lot. Come on, we have a lot of parts to find!" She skipped off without giving Roy a chance to respond, Roy only able to shake his head and follow her.

"Alright, I want everyone's thoughts on this before we decide." Holden spoke as soon as the salesman was far enough away to not be heard, glancing his way just to be certain. "Kyra, can you fix that fighter.

"Of course. I found everything I need. It won't be perfect, or to spec, but that honestly might be a good thing."

"And you are certain you found every part you need?"

"Yes."

Holden let out a small sigh, running a hand through his hair. "With the parts you picked out, he's willing to go down to thirty-three thousand. Two E-webs?"

"Yeah. I saw em, and I can jury-rig them into the turret housing. Wont be as powerful as we would like, but it will do the trick. And I managed to find the guts to fix the damaged nose cannon."

"If you could let go of those, he would have been will to do as little as twenty-three. But I feel you. That would leave us with about six thousand credits total. We never had much for this op, plus, do we even have a pilot?" he was more thinking out loud, but by voicing his thoughts, he was making sure the others knew them as well.

"Well, we don't need to worry about fuel. Or food." Stodel, calm, and almost bored by the whole conversation.

"True."

"I can fly it. I know enough. Flew a couple strike's with Nexu. Usually bigger ships but should be able to handle it fine." Surprisingly, it was Roy who spoke up.

"Are you sure? We need it to be effective. Those torpedoes and bombs would be a massive boon to our armaments."

"Definitely can. You two would probably do better, but you two are dedicated pilots. I just know enough to get by." Roy shrugged, staying focused on Holden.

"I say we buy it. I can fix her up and it would give us a true strike craft. At worst, you fly it for the occasional mission to cover ground forces, and Roy only flies it when we need it and the X-wings. Plus, I think the Courageous can make parts for it in the future, if we ever get some way to set up a supply chain with her."

"Not likely to happen. But I agree with Kyra. We should get it. You never know when you might need something with more punch than an X-wing. One of those things could probably tear an Arquitens apart in the right hands." Stodel again.

"Roy?"

"I think it's a bit exorbitant to be honest. We could really use munitions over another ship. More ships mean more maintenance costs, more parts needed, more time spent in the hanger by everyone. For the same cost, we could get several tibanna gas tanks for the blasters, and at least one PLEX system and a few dozen rounds for it. Which, to be frank, we desperately need some ground based anti-armor. So I say no."

Hmm… two to one. I guess it's still entirely my decision then? Holden let out a small sigh, but eventually nodded. "We'll take it. We need the firepower in space more than the ground so far. I mean, we can always use it to kill that armor you are worried about Roy."

"Yes sir." Roy simply nodded calmly, unfazed by being overruled.

"You're the boss!" Madelyn smirked.

"I promise, you won't regret it captain!" Kyra was positively beaming at Holden, hanging onto the strap for her bag.