Fast Freighters and Freedom

[Rekha Kaarde]

[SIZE=12pt]WE ARE GONNA ROCK THIS THING[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]COCK THIS THING[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Me and my gang yeah[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Beer and bonfires[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]WIDE OPEN THROTTLE!!![/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Taloraan bound![/SIZE]​

[SIZE=12pt]Rekha Kaarde stood looking at the ugliest looking ship she had ever seen. This was not pretty, not in any way shape or form and not even in the slightest of her dreams. She laughed to herself, “Well gotta do with what we get”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]A week earlier she had gone to [member="Coren Starchaser"] with a communique from a friend on Taloraan, one thing about Rekha she had friends in high and low places certainly a benefit no matter how you looked at it. Taloraan had been taken over by the Sith, and her friend Rafe was asking her to bring them weapons to be able to fight the Sith. S[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]She wasted no time and got the green light.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She looked at again at the ship, named[/SIZE]The Poppet[SIZE=12pt] why it was named this escaped her. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Coren had even said to put out some feelers for some company. She hoped for enough personnel to protect each other, and the shipment until they could get it into the hands of the Rebels.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]The shipment that required some negotiation, promises of help in the future, and her best two step dance, but by time she had finished talking to [member="James Justice"] he agreed to help. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]And now the feisty emerald eyed brunette waited. Who would show? She was apprehensive this mission like so many others would put people in harm’s way, people she did not know, but yet believed in the cause. It was a burden that she shouldered and prayed that under the weight she would not falter, and that no one would be hurt.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt][member="Julius Sedaire"] | [member="Harmon Taldan"] | [member="Kira Vaal"] | [/SIZE]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

Smuggling weapons into Taloraan to help a rebel group fight against the One Sith? This was right up his alley, and so Julius had quickly signed on when the assignment had 'came across his desk' as it were from various contacts. The Turhaya had landed easily and despite his role in the Green Jedi, well he guessed it was leader in some ways even without being a proper Master in Jedi terms, there was nothing special about his attire, just his typical non-descript spacers gear, with a warden cloak hung over his shoulders to hide the lightsabers at his hip, though as he walked the pommels played peek-a-bo to any really looking, and the MP1 in its' armpit holster was pretty obvious to anyone, really..

Seeing Rekha, he had waved and gave a grin that was famous the galaxy over (in his mind at least) for making women swoon and significant others jealous enough to break his nose a time or two over the years. This would prove to be a fun job, and hopefully [member="Darius"] might show up. In truth, he had been neglecting the boy, and had utterly failed him as a Master - he had hardly seen him since Endor. Time now to get back to his 'space dad' duties he supposed. To that end, he had put out a call to the young lad to 'come home' as it were, and carried a certain crystal in his pocket. Time to start things right, in many aspects of his life.

[member="Rekha Kaarde"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Taloraan was a world the Alliance had moved on to strike at the Sith and their property. The Alliance needed supplies, and more than anything could benefit from the tibanna. How many weeks ago was that? It didn’t matter. What did matter was that Rekha had approached with a request, to help a friend in need behind enemy lines. And, of course, he was going to help. With the way the Alliance operated, it was sometimes easier to fight the Sith as the Underground, and this mission was somewhere in between the two.

Getting weapons on the ground? That would be good, they could work on setting up another cell to strike when the time was right, similar to what Coren was working on at Csilla, and what he assumed Sedaire was hoping to accomplish at Corellia.

“You know, if we do this, and botch it, the Alliance can’t come to our rescue.” Rekha and Coren were part of the Tiburons, this was their turf. Those missions no one was technically a part of. Things that [member="Spark Finn"] could do as well.

The Starchaser ran his hand along the hull of the Poppet and looked to his partner-in-crime. “She’ll do us well.”

Plus, the ship wasn't registered or known to be anyone's, which would help. Undetected.

[member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="Julius Sedaire"] [member="Kira Vaal"] [member="Harmon Taldan"]

 

[Cedric Grayson]

Darius had been through a lot since his old master went off to help rebuild the Corellian Jedi. He'd gone off to Zeltros to further his training under Master Shatterstar, and crafted a basic, temporary lightsaber while there. From thereon, he'd ended up on Dathomir in a hyperspace accident. For two week he fought alongside the Nightsister [member="Mediha"] against the Singing Mountain Clan. In the end they had succeeded, but not unscathed. The young Nightsister's clan was wiped out in its entirety, and Darius was terribly scarred from a Vornskr attack.

Then there were the Black Ravens. The padawan was given command of the military group simply because he volunteered. Now he spent his days helping the Nightsister refugees he'd gathered acclimate to the Alliance, drilling the Raven men, and returning to Zeltros for the occasional lesson. Not the future he'd envisioned for himself, but it worked out alright.

Of course, when his adoptive father put out a call, he would always respond.

He was clad in the combat fatigues the alliance had provided him. Normally he would go for the robed look, but they needed to be inconspicuous. His gaze passed by @Rehka Kaarde and [member="Coren Starchaser"]. The former being the mastermind behind this little op, the later having terribly long hair. Fix that Coren.

He went right for his old master, and...pulled the larger man into a big bear hug. "It's good to see you master," Darius cracked a big warm smile. It wasn't often he got to see Julius given the galaxy's current state. He cherished those times. "Who are we liberating today?"

[member="Julius Sedaire"], [member="Harmon Taldan"], [member="Kira Vaal"]

 

[James Justice]

James loved ships. James loved guns. James loved anarchy and rebels. So when he was contacted to do all three--he seriously wondered if someone was pranking him. The People's criminal let his Abattoir-class Lost Angel land on the quickly crowding landing pad. He strolled down the loading platform towards [member="Rekha Kaarde"]. He had never worked with this woman but she had panache--and cash and those were the only things he wanted in employers. Reed, R3-D8, was trailing behind the spacer, as usual. The battered yellow astromech droid had been with the billionare businessman when he was a ragged, poor spacer with barely two credits to rub together.

So what had empowered him to come to such heights? James was honestly without a clue. Was it his extreme skills of persuasion? Was it his business sense that was almost like a third eye he had? Or perhaps it was something even more basic--dumb luck? A combination of all of the above, he figured. Truth be told he figured it had more to do with those who worked with him like [member="stardust"], his admiral, or [member="Rose Blade"], his medic chief, and [member="Kylo"] Kry'ram who had been with him since the early days. He shrugged. A problem to solve later, he guessed.

The spacer checked his watch as he lit up a cigarette, the rest of his crew would be here soon. Until then, it was time to get to know these new faces. He offered his free hand to one of the men standing by.

"Captain James Justice, nice to meet ye," he said with a broad smile.

 

[Harmon Taldan]

Harmon stepped through the space port with a calm, nonchalance of easy practice. In the year or so since he had left his home, he'd felt very comfortable among the strangers in starports. This time, he might be carrying a large case that held his armor and main weapon, but so were any of a dozen other people, so he didn't stick out in that way either. His current attire was what was left of his mercenary combat uniform, just with all of the identifiers, insignias and rank, removed, leaving a battered looking mottled brown button up shirt (left unbuttoned to reveal a shirt with some random galactic level soft drink brand on it), and matching pants bloused into combat boots. His hips carried his revolver blasters, and a plain knife rested in a sheath in the small of his back. To anyone looking at him, he was just some soldier of fortune out to make his fortune.

He came up to the right slip, and moved through the hatch to where his comrades were meeting. He saw instantly that the majority of the space was taken up by a rather unbecoming looking ship. Harmon instantly fell in love with it. Wordlessly, he moved up to the group standing there. A few he'd met before, but others he'd just heard about on the grapevine, and at the moment he wasn't the most comfortable starting conversations with them, so he fell back on humor.

"Man is she a beauty." He said as he gazed at the ship with a smile on his face.

[member="James Justice"] [member="Darius"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Julius Sedaire"] [member="Rekha Kaarde"]

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

[member="Julius Sedaire"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darius"] [member="James Justice"] [member="Harmon Taldan"]


Rekha waved back to Julius as she turned to Coren, "Yes she best hold together and we'll do our best not to fly her apart." she looked at the others gathering, "I know there are more coming" She saw another figure coming towards her, well she believed it was towards her. She recognized a familiar gate, an air of confidence that must be James Justice. She couldn't help but laugh most likely her nerves getting the best of her.

An unfamiliar voice caught her attention she slowly turned to see Harmon running his hand on the ship, "Best becareful cupcake you have to buy her dinner before she purrs for you" Rekha had an odd sense of humor, it often took being around her to get use to it.

"Well" She lifted her voice, "We'll wait a bit more and then we'll get this show on the road" She looked to James again, did he bring the weapons?

 

[Coren Starchaser]

This was Starchaser. When there was a ship anywhere near him, it was the apple of his eye and he was going to see what it could do, see what it was capable of. Ships, to him, were like pets were to most normal people. Sure, there was a Corellian Sand Cat that lived on the Tyrene and sometimes accompanied him on his freighter, but that was about it. Running his hand along the hull, he looked over as he could sense [member="Darius"] come into the room.

Good kid, that one. Good soldier. Was looking forward to working more with him. The team that they had here? They looked good. Even Porter, Coren’s astromech seemed to approve. “Check the ship out, yeah? Upload some star charts.” It was Coren, he didn’t go anywhere without his star charts. Which were basically from Jorus Merrill, with his own additions. He thumbed the droid up the boarding ramp.

He laughed at Rekha giving the other, what was his name, Harmon? A hard time. “Not sure if she’s talking about herself, or the ship. Most likely both.” He tossed a wink to his partner-in-crime. “What do you fly in?” This was directed to Harmon.

[member="Rekha Kaarde"]
[member="Harmon Taldan"]
[member="James Justice"]
[member="Darius"]
[member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Harmon Taldan]

"Best becareful cupcake you have to buy her dinner before she purrs for you"

Harm grinned, a little flush coloring his cheeks as he opened his mouth to respond.

“Not sure if she’s talking about herself, or the ship. Most likely both.” He tossed a wink to his partner-in-crime. “What do you fly in?” This was directed to Harmon.

The flush grew into a blush, and Harm grinned. He could spend time cursing his complexion, or he could get over it. He was new, and being overly sensitive wasn't useful in any form of business.

"Back home, I flew everything from dropships to interceptors to cargo haulers for my merc company. I had a converted cargo hauler I picked up on the cheap at a way station in the deep, but it crashed on that ORD prison planet. I'm still trying to earn enough to buy a reliable craft." He said as he turned to be able to see both Rehka and Coren at the same time, so he wasn't excluding either from the conversation. "I'm Harmon Taldan, though most call me Harm.". He was sure that someone like Coren met more wayfarers than most, and he'd never met the woman before.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Rekha Kaarde"] [member="James Justice"] [member="Darius"] [member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[James Justice]

James nodded to Rekha's mention to starting this endevour. He put two of his fingers to his lips and let out a shrill, ear-piercing whistle. A few loading droids hovered from James' Lost Angel and went to a stack of nearby shipping crates stacked to the height of a four-story building. Opening the metal canisters they began moving smaller crates, first loading the Poppet, then all the other ships that had signed on for the run. The task took quite a while, however the droids had a few advantages over their organic co-workers; they were reliably honest and all but incapible of theft, they did not grow bored, and they were diligent to a fault.

When the work was done, they quietly left in the same manner they appeared, stowing themselves aboard James' ship. The weapons they had loaded were enough to arm a small army--or three. James chuckled as he let out a cloud of smoke, "Be that enough weapons for ye, missy or did ye want me to pick up a few more on the way, eh?"

[member="Harmon Taldan"]
[member="Coren Starchaser"]
[member="Rekha Kaarde"]
[member="Darius"]
[member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

Rekha watched and marveled, "OH James my dear, ya did a fine fine job. Reward waits for you boyyo" Rekha laughed, "OK let's get this thing shaking, I got feathers to preen" Rekha looked at Coren, did he remember the red feathers?

She looked at Harm, "Well cupcake you are with the right group, for credits, adventure, and flying by the seat of your pants" That was Rekha the fly by her pants girl, she had a few things she had to do to get the Poppet in high gear, she looked at everyone gathered and just grinned.

Rekha headed inside she would fly for a bit and then let someone else, she didn't mind sharing flying. Once inside, and settling into the cockpit she began to run through the preflights to get them out of there.

[member="James Justice"] [member="Harmon Taldan"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Darius"] [member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Julius Sedaire]

"Not specifically liberating... More of... Well, smuggling to be honest. Some fine people need guns. And we have guns. So therefore, we are going to give them the guns so they can shoot some not so fine people. Preferably rather fatally, and in not so nice ways. Sith type people."

Julius follow Rehka, though he hung back for the most part, merely watching at this point. His was a particular skill set, and it wasn't of use. Not yet. He was no great mystic, nor a particularly sneaky individual, though he could be when he put his mind to it. What he really excelled at was straight up combat, and command therein. Be it a commando raid, or a protracted siege. True, large scale command he was still iffy on, and he was green at any sort of it in a way, but he was showing a real knack for knowing people, and how they worked together. And in that regard, he spent his time inspecting the others as they walked, as covertly as he could.

[member="Coren Starchaser"] he knew, if not precisely intimately. The rest, besides Darius, were unknowns.

"But take time, and heed... We're not exactly the most stealth types, you and I. Nor are we techno slicers or pilots, unless you've grown up a lot. So we fall to command, if there is conflict, and muscle. Use your intuition, and your mind. Assess those with us, and tell me what you think they will do best at, and where their shortcomings lay, should it come to battle."

[member="Darius"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He looked to the other pilot, this one known as Harmon, and nodded. “Ah, jack of all trades then. That’s a good sign. Never know what you’re going to get thrown at you when it comes to the war.” He was in the Alliance, and if someone was near Coren Starchaser, the Corellian expected them to work for a living. And that included dealing with the enemies. Flying a fighter, or attack craft, was only one way to work against the forces of darkness.

No, he wasn’t the Slayer, but he could’ve been. If he was a she. “Nice to meet you, Harm. Name’s Coren Starchaser.” And he was a Commander in, not of, the Alliance. But that didn’t matter, he loved these kinds of runs. “You’ll do fine, keep working with this crew and it’ll be easy for ya to afford somethin’ new.”

How could Coren forget the red feathers? He looked over at Rekha with a smile. “So, we’re loaded, take the Poppet, make the delivery?” He made his way after Rekha, following his partner-in-crime to the cockpit. With her warming up the ship, he slipped, semi-awkwardly, into the co-pilot seat. "You trust the delivery man?" Coren didn't know James, so he needed to get a positive review from at least someone.

[member="Julius Sedaire"]
[member="Rekha Kaarde"]
[member="James Justice"]
[member="Harmon Taldan"]
[member="Darius"]

 

[Harmon Taldan]

"Well cupcake you are with the right group, for credits, adventure, and flying by the seat of your pants"

“Nice to meet you, Harm. Name’s Coren Starchaser.” And he was a Commander in, not of, the Alliance. But that didn’t matter, he loved these kinds of runs. “You’ll do fine, keep working with this crew and it’ll be easy for ya to afford somethin’ new.”

Harm smiled at Rehka and Coren in turn.

"I'm thinking we'll get along well." He said in response to both of them.

Coren and Rehka made their way into the ship, Harm took a few moments to look around. After, he took his armor case and boarded as well. He moved into the ship and found the closest crew quarter to the cockpit that was open and empty. He pulled his case in and picked the bunk on the left side of the room. He didn't know if they'd be sharing bunks on this trip, but he didn't have much luggage in any case. He locked his case down to the deckplating at the foot of the bed, then opened it and did a quick run through to make sure everything was in working order and easily accessible.

Once he was done with that, he walked out of the quarters and moved back to the ramp and down it. He leaned on his elbow on the ramp, his other hand resting lightly on the revolver holstered to that side. He hadn't been assigned a job on the ship yet, but everyone was responsible for ship security, so he made sure he had a good view of the crew and cargo entrances to the berth they were docked at and waited for the last few crew present to load up on the ship.

[member="coren starchaser"] [member="rekha kaarde"] [member="james justice"] [member="julius sedaire"] [member="darius"]

 

[Cedric Grayson]

The presence of the two Jedi would be helpful if the group was drawn into a firefight. Right now? Darius could look pretty, and Julius could try to hit on the other pretty ones. If they had need of the duo, then they would ask. The padawan remained silent as each member of the crew went about explaining themselves, moving cargo, and the like. He shoved his hands into his pockets and simply watched, half-listening to the exchange between Rehka and her people as Julius.

"Commander Starchaser will shoot people. The rest...well, they seem nice," the by shrugged. He didn't really have much to say, truth be told. If anything, he was the least qualified of the group to be here. Still, he would do his best to pull his weight. He followed after Julius as they ascended into the ship, and chose to wait near the entrance of the cockpit, arms folding over his chest.

"I'll follow your lead Master. Just...try not to get us trapped again. I don't want to repeat that business with the Hutt back on Telos. I still can't bring myself to eat fish because of that bastard."

[member="Harmon Taldan"], [member="Coren Starchaser"], [member="Julius Sedaire"], [member="Rekha Kaarde"],

 

[James Justice]

James found his way onto the Poppet. He wasn't usually a passenger--and by wasn't usually a passenger, he meant that he rarely ever went in a ship without his hands on the yoke. Something about it made him uneasy, like hearing a favorite song without the right words in it.

He found a bunk and tossed a duffle bag under it. One of the loading droids soon followed after carrying a heavy case that was set beside James. The spacer pat the droid on the head before it droned away.

He cracked the case open and revealed its contents: enough alcohol to make a den of Rancor's hammered and cigarettes to give them lung cancer. Or just enough to make the spacer feel comfortable. Cracking open a bottle of ale, he took a swig and sighed contently. He could go for this. Some brought heavy cases of armor--James not so much. He preferred to fight with his trusty DeathHammer and whits. He was a man of simplicity, anyone could tell that. Restocking his cigarettes, James locked the case up before leaning down to Reed behind him.

"Get in the Lost Angel and ye follow us, just in case we run into trouble. Stay at a distance, and keep yeself scarce. I dun't want any trouble," he whispered.

The droid trundled away and James, armed with his ale, went on the conquest to turn these strangers into friends--and allies, of course.

[member="Darius"]
[member="Harmon Taldan"]
[member="Coren Starchaser"]
[member="Julius Sedaire"]
[member="Rekha Kaarde"]

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

Rekha was already pulling back and getting the ship ready to climb out to space, the humm of the engines was a bit surprising she thought it would be more like hiss pop pop boom but hope hmmmmm all way.

This was also another way for everyone to network make friends and see about making things happen on other missions, she was a social director of sorts with the bar and all so why not with smuggling missions too.

Within moments they were in the black and she was programming the navcomp to take them to Taloraan. She looked to Coren to make sure he was watching the gauges that had not caught her eye. She could fly sometimes the different designs through her, The Poppet was new so...

[member="James Justice"] [member="Darius"] [member="Harmon Taldan"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

It took a bit for the Commander to give people the seal of approval, but for whatever reason, Coren was feeling a bit better about this Harmon man. It was nice to see someone new and fresh in the Alliance. It was what they needed. Perhaps he could even sway the man out of the New Jedi Order and into the Galactic Alliance Defense Force. They needed more people like that.

“We do our best. And Rek and I go way back.” Well, they weren’t, either of them, old, but still, life took them on a lot of twists and turns and adventures. He was glad to have a trip that just included the two of them and not others of their group. Not that he was avoiding Spark Finn, but… just the same.

He could sense where Harmon was going, and the id had his head on straight, Starchaser would give him that. His hands were on the controls as Rek plotted the course, and he only looked over for a second. One of the Corellian’s gifts in the Force was navigation, but he’d let Rek plot it. "Hows the course?" Didn’t need some super combat focused plot that would land them on the planet when they came out of light speed.

He hoped.

[member="Rekha Kaarde"]
[member="James Justice"]
[member="Darius"]
[member="Harmon Taldan"]
[member="Julius Sedaire"]

 

[Rekha Kaarde]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="James Justice"] | [member="Darius"] | [member="Harmon Taldan"] | [member="Julius Sedaire"]

[SIZE=12pt]The Poppet was cruising, no hiccups no burps, no abnormal jumps like she thought would happen so hey maybe the hunk of ugliness was going to work out for them anyhow.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Rekha pulled up the codes that the contact had given her, they’d get them past security and onto the planet. She felt a bit nervous, first time for that in a long time. She looked at her hand it trembled slightly, she knew why.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]It hung over her but she was going to beat it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She wanted to be sure to be giving the signal the moment they came out of hyperspace.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She looked to Coren he was talking and being friendly, yeah Coren the social butterfly. She laughed yeah he was that.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She programmed the codes to broadcast.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Ok ten minutes, and we’ll be there, ready?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She was.[/SIZE]

 

[James Justice]

James swung around the corridor into the cockpit. Apparently this was where everyone was. He could have sworn they started out with more people but--oh well. He could worry about that later. For now he was more intent on making friends and allies out of the bunch. He never knew when they would come in handy after all.

He surveyed the area. Coren was a legend, he was already busy talking it up to some other fellow he didn't know--but James was sure he would soon enough. For now Rekha seemed... nervous. To say the least. He let out a billow of smoke as he sauntered closer, offering a cigarette and his bottle of ale. Those, he found were the best cures for nerves and the easiest social oils.

"So," he said leaning back on the console and looking at her, "Why we be going Taloraan? I know four worlds this could fetch three times the price--even one where it could be five," he shrugged, 'Granted I don't be caring either way. Ye will pay me and the weapons will be shooting the sith, but I be curious," he quirked an eye brow, "Why this one?"

[member="Rekha Kaarde"]
[member="Coren Starchaser"]
[member="Harmon Taldan"]
[member="Darius"]
[member="Julius Sedaire"]