Hailfire

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

Lori chewed the inside of her cheek. "Surrender yourself to them, then? Get to their leader and take him out. If you had a tracker on you, we could follow and help." It sounded good enough in her head.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

"Well, I did plant a tracker on that guy I tackled, like I just said earlier. Perhaps we could follow that signal, and I have an idea in mind once we get there." He told her.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

Silly Lori. How could she forget? Hopefully that tracker wasn't discovered and then dropped onto some decoy.

"What's the plan?" Surely he'd let her in on it....

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Red turned to look at her. He had a slight grin on his face. "That depends. How well do you play the role of bounty hunter?" He asked her.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

Lori snickered. "I lived and trained with Mandalorians since I was 12. I think I can manage." Given her outgoing personality, she figured herself to be a good actress as well. Though sometimes her true emotions were worn on her sleeve.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Red nodded. "Let's hope you're not just exaggerating, your acting skills may be the difference between life and death. You better be very good." He explained to her.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. So what's the plan? Are you to be my target?" Or were the pirates to be her target? Right now she could see it going either way.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Red shrugged. "We'll see how it plays out. I'm still figuring out the details. I'll tell you when I've got it all planned out. I'd rather give you the plan as a whole than in parts." He told her. "So, let's go to the cockpit. I need to give the tracker signal to your pilot, Arla."

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

And here Lori thought that Red had planned everything out already. Hmm...Maybe he was like her and tended to just react more than plan too far ahead. Either way, she still felt out of the loop.

"Alright then. Let's go." Lori set the weapons down before leading Red back up to the cockpit. She climbed into the co-pilot chair from the side and sat down, waiting for Red to give Arla the info.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Red nodded and followed after her. They walked towards the cockpit. Pitt followed after them. They arrived at the cockpit. Red handed Arla a tracker. "Enter the frequency of the tracker in, and the coordinates of the tracker should then be sent to the ship's computer." He told her.

Pitt looked around. "Wow." The little droid said. Then, he noticed Arla. "Hi! I'm Pitt."

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

Arla took hold of the tracker, then looked to Lori briefly. The young Captain nodded to her and so she did what Red told her to do. "Inputting now." She was careful not to move too quickly, which was probably a good thing as Pitt piped up. "Hello Pitt. I'm Arla. What's got you so fascinated?"

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Pitt tilted his head. "Hi, Arla! I'm just fascinated by this ship. I haven't seen anything like it. It is armed with a wide array of equipment. The communications array is incredibly complex. I think that there's a tractor beam. The shields are... extensive, to say the least. The hull is made with a lot of extremely strong materials. And I don't even want to know what's going on with your engines and hyperdrive. Your navigation system is one of the most complex I've ever seen. Distress beacons, Ion shields. And... There's just so much!" Pitt said excitedly. He was kind of obsessed with stuff like this, being a Pit droid and all, as he was made for engineering and mechanics. He was a big nerd at this sort of stuff.

Red sighed. "Great, you've got him hyped up about machines. He loves them, anything to them with them, and how to repair them. He's obsessed with it. Maybe it's because he's a Pit droid, I don't know, but he is way too enthusiastic about this stuff." He said.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

Arla just smiled in appreciation as Pitt rattled off on all of the equipment and specialties of Jaster's Sparrow. "She flies good too. The financier had it made special, just for the Captain here."

Lori snickered. At least it wasn't all doom and gloom in Red's life. This droid annoyed him perfectly. No doubt his antics made him smile or laugh. "Nothing wrong with having a hobby. It's good for him. Do you two have your own ship?"

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

If Pitt's metallic face could change expressions, it would probably show amazement. "Wow! Really? A financier? Why don't we have one?" Pitt asked Red.

Red sighed. "You know why." He told the droid.

"But you were created by a super rich company! They would provide you with anything because-"

"Drop it."

"But-"

"Drop. It." Red said a little more forcefully. Pitt got the hint, and stopped talking. An awkward silence followed it.

Then, Loreena asked if they had a ship. "Well, if we had a ship, we wouldn't be here, on your ship, having you bring us to our destination, now would we?" He asked. "No, we don't have one. It can be tracked too easily. Besides, I normally use military ships, like capital ships, fighter ships, and troop transports. I rarely use public transportation. And sometimes I 'appropriate' a ship from someone who doesn't deserve it, like a criminal, someone who stole the ship, or a corrupt person." He explained to her.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

Lori smirked at the exchange that Red had with Pitt. Yet it gave her more insight into the two of them.

She folded her arms across her chest at Red's almost snarky response to her question. "Hey now, your ship could have been in repairs, or being built, or hidden away because you DON'T want to be tracked on this mission. There are so many possibilities as to why you're using mine. I figured you'd be the type to easily adapt, so....that's why I asked." Red was so matter-of-fact that it was annoying. At least Pitt was nice to be around.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Red shrugged. "Still, a ship requires upkeep. Something I don't have time for." He told her. He was about to say something else, but then something grabbed his attention.

He looked at the tracker Arla imputed into the ship. It showed that what they tracking was coming towards them. It was coming closer, and closer, and closer. "Hey, does anyone else notice this?" Red called, bringing attention to the tracker.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

Lori nodded. She was glad that he wasn't part of her crew. The two would surely be butting heads over pretty much everything. So it'd all be tense on board her ship.

But that tension soon changed. "I see it. Increasing forward shields." Arla flicked a few switches and narrowed her eyes slightly. If the other ship wanted to play chicken, then she was ready, willing and able.

Lori buckled herself into one of the seats, just in case.

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Red looked out of the cockpit. He tried to see what was coming at them from where the tracker was pinging it to be. At first, Red couldn't see anything, then, he noticed them. Three ships, heading straight for them.

"11 o'clock! Three ships, armed. They're in attack formation, and heading right for us." He reported.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Subject 73 Red

"I'm on it, Arla!"

It wasn't as though Lori needed to say it. The two had worked in tandem for a couple of years now. In space combat situations, it was always Arla piloting while Lori manned the guns. It was almost as if they were one person sometimes.

Arla kept them on their flightpath, not deviating at all. She was ready and able to see just how brave these pilots were. The forward deflector shields were in full power, while Lori focused on what was about to happen. Their plan was simple; let the fighters fly past and then shoot them up their backsides. With the Jaster's Sparrow's quick maneuverability, it was sure to turn itself around for another attack.

"Strap yourselves in boys. This'll be a bumpy ride."

 

[Subject 73 Red]

Loreena Arenais-Valhoun

Red looked at a console. "They've got target lock!" He reported.

Then, the ships approaching them fired proton torpedoes at the ship. The torpedoes locked onto the ship and started flying straight for them. Red looked out of the cockpit. "Torpedoes, inbound!" Red called them out.