Hope is what we need!

[Logen Brunner]

"Forlorn Hope"​

Corellia

"What in nine hells is this?" Logen Brunner scoffed as he entered the secure landing pad where his brand new YV-2000 had been waiting for him. The ship was of top Corellian ingenuity, taking the YV-series into the modern age. She came with all the bells and whistles that a freight operator could dream of and then some. The name was already picked out, was needed for the completion of sale and registry of the ship and insurance. The 'Forlorn Hope' was the agreed upon name, had a ring to it that stuck in your mind and flowed off the tongue with a edge of class. But class was the last thing that Logen saw as he stepped through the hangar hatch and his eyes caught sight of the bulky ship.

"Reggie, what the fek did you do to my ship?" His eyes were glued to the mosaic artwork that had littered the external hall of the YV-2000. Most of the pictures were of exotic under-dressed women of multiple races in luring poses. The art was masterfully done, one could not deny that Reggie had a talent and steady hand in the artistic field. Logen being a man with a wide thirst for life's simple pleasures could appreciate the detail that his crewman had put into the voluptuous curves and new in time he would get use to the women painted on his ship. It was the other addition Reggie had added "Did you think that racing flames were going to make her go faster?"

See, Reggie had been dispatched days before the rest of the crew to buy this ship. Operative word being "Buy", Logen said nothing about personalizing and he sure as hell did not mention every in his life anything that hinted towards liking racing flames. "I knew i should of sent Zyrias" He looked back to see the rest of his crews reaction, ignoring the hopeful look that Reggie had admiring his own work. Zyrias was with Logen as they secured a loan from [member="Gorba the Hutt"] to by this ship.

[member="Greeta Tan"] [member="Zyrias Pax"] [member="Reggie"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Logen Brunner"]

"Meh I like it," Greeta replied, emerging from a side hatch in nothing but shorty shorts and some flip flops. He was showing a lil scale today and carried in his hand a cup of half caf, half bootleg liquor he'd made from the engine room. It smelled faint of starship grade fuel but meh, who knew what the hell he did back there.

Only me. He he he.​

Logan had been away for a bit, so most of the crew had settled in. Including Greeta. Who now had stuff stashed all about the vessel in tiny hidey holes he'd designed. Slicer, mechanic and boxer. After that he was just a drunk Rodian who liked to walk around a bit too naked.

"I suggested a Rodian chick but meh. Twi'leks hotter Cap. Caf?" He asked, holding the cup out for him...

 

[Judah Lesan]

”WHAT IN THE NINE HELLS IS THIS?”

Reggie turned still holding the wet brush, evidence of the work he’d done on the hull of the ship he and Logan had settled on. Well, it was Logan’s ship, Reggie was the tagalong that did whatever the spacer didn’t want to do. The mysterious fat man had no idea where he was from, who he was, but seemed to have a jack of all trades knack for things. Hell, he’d be able to fly the ship eventually. The painting, the idiocy, his humbling nature was a massive misdirection, one Logan knew about, and played along with for the sake of Reggie’s protection. Though, this time, Reggie was certain the man was going to burst a capillary.

”The ladies... figured wha’ better way to look like space truckers than to take them silhouette images to the next level. Painted the twi’lek jus’ fer ya, cap’n.”

The thick accented man scratched his beard and looked at the racing stripes. Had he painted them there because he thought the ship would go faster? Did he dare even reply? Reggie shrugged with a sheepish grin, one that might have been a half hearted maybe. The slight chuckle that came with the motion was a dead give away that he’d painted them for that exact reason.

”Ya can’t have a spoiler without the stripes, boss...”

Reggie put the brush back into the paint and followed Logan.

”Speaking if that youngster... You sure it’s a good thing bringin her an’ all? Not like we’re gettin jobs friendly to keepin’ her safe.”

Reggie, for all his masks, actually cared for people. Sure his main interest was himself and saving his own behind, but he was a giant teddy bear when he wanted to be. Dealing with a Hutt, and having a young girl in the crew was never a good idea. Though the blue haired teen had proven herself before.

He looked to the Rodian.

”No offense... can’t make a Rodain look sexy. Not possible mate...”

[member="Greeta Tan"] [member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Zyrias Pax"]

 

[BX-22222]

The droid sat silently on the bunk. If it wasn't for the glowing photo receptors one would think he was deactivated. But as it were he was fully functional, or as functional as the droid formerly known as BX-22222 could be.

Once a part of a highly classified commando unit that had been given force sensitive, sentient, crystal shards BX-22222 was a prototype, along with the others in the unit. But quickly it became apparent that it was a mistake as the majority of the unit suffered from malfunctions. Faced with the reality of being decommissioned and dismantled BX-22222 was accepting of his fate, but Splinter the shard embedded within was not as compliant.

So they deserted.

Following Splinter's experience they quickly found work as mercenaries, which was quite a new outlook. But the influx of credits gave them an opportunity to upgrade which changed his look from a typical BX commando droid. Now he had four arms, two which were controlled by Duece, the A.I., and the lower arms by Splinter.

Rising from his bunk he reached out and held the long trench coat in his metal hands.

Just put it on you tin can.

"I am complying."

Fraking a, stop complying and just do it.

Placing the coat on both his right arms reached for the Stetson knocking it to the ground. The lower arm reared back and slapped the droid in the face.

Never touch my hat.

"We are self integrated. Possessions belong to..."

The lower arm smacked the face again causing the Droid to stagger from the attack.

"Self preservation is in my programming. Cease and desist."

Listen here you bucket of bolts, if it wasn't for me you'd have been melted down into a nice bulkhead by now.... What are you doing ... Now you stop that, we talked about this boy ... .

Duece kicked the Stetson across the floor.

"Our integration requires seamless compliance. The bylines of our contract states, ..."

At this point both lower arms began punching the droid in the face again. As the four arms began wrestling with one another the droid fell over and began thrashing about.

TEN MINUTES LATER ​

Duece walked down the ramp and toward the Captain. The Stetson rested upon the chrome head but in each of the lower hands rested the upper arms that had been pulled free. Sparks could be seen dancing across the brown leather of the duster. Pausing in front of the captain, Duece spoke.

"Duece has had another malfunction requiring attention."

Bwahahahahaha boy, tell him I whooped that ass again! Tell him or ...

His lower right arm held the sparking upper arm up seemingly showing the captain, but in truth Splinter was preparing to slap the face with the severed arm, again.

"The shard designated Splinter removed my arms again."

If a Droid could look ashamed, it would be written across Duece's face right now.

[member="Reggie"] [member="Greeta Tan"] [member="Logen Brunner"]

 

[Zyrias Pax]

Having a lot of credits at her disposal wasn’t a problem, but where to hide it all was. Zyrias had more money than she knew what to do with, but in her typical manic way, she found herself unable to slow down at all.

Can’t stop, won’t stop.

It wasn’t as though she were back in Junktown. Zyrias couldn’t hide her meager lump of credits in the secret compartment of an Astromech. So she lined her pockets with a couple of chits and opened an account at the First Bank of Coruscant like a proper member of society.

But on the outside she was still a Rimkin, and for now that’s how she’d stay, despite how wealthy her Kur’s Dozen assignments had been. She’d let Logen haggle with Gorba for the dough, even translated for him at heated moments. But no one on the crew would know that young Zyri could have bought that ship outright. And that’s the way it would stay.

A wide grin spread across her freckled face. “I like it too, Greenie. Can’t go wrong with sexy Twi’leks.” Today she wore her blue hair pulled back tight and a pair of too-big coveralls that almost fit her as bad as Reggie’s clothes had when they first met.

“Cool hat,” Zyrias said finger-gunning at the droid. “Why are we still standing around gawking? Let's break out the champagne and christen the Hope.”

[member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Reggie"] [member="Greeta Tan"] [member="BX-22222"]

 

[Dedata | Celty Ree]

[member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Greeta Tan"] [member="Zyrias Pax"] @Reggie @BX-22222 [member="Kait Holden"]

Celty walked into the hanger a few moments after with her datapad in both hands. The girl had her helmet on like always, She didn't really know these people, and these people would definitely not know anything about her. Really on the out side Celty wasn't anything special, what she lacked in physical abilities she more than made up for it in her use of anything that had a circuit board in, and software running through its wires. Although that was not her profession, slicing came with the territory, a required skill amongst many others. She was an information broker. Anyone who met her for business would only know her as Dedata.

It took a moment for the woman to tune into the conversation. She walked closer to Logan as her thumbs moved rapidly on the pad. She faced the screen towards him showing him what she just typed. "You should see what he did to my bike!!! It matches the ship, like literally i sleep for an hour and I wake up to find he defiled it just like the ship. The man is out of control. v.v" The text said. It wasn't that Celty was a mute but rather the fact her helmet prevented sound escaping. Typing her words was simply the trade off for not wanting anyone to hear how you sounded. She took a look around at the few others, all of them been able to see their reflection in the visor. Once again her thumbs tapped away typing more. "I will admit though, I kinda like it. It errrm builds character I guess" She said as the baby porg's head emerged from in between her cleavage, the poor thing was a rescue from a job. The scumbag had ripped its legs of... lets just say a door crushed his. Its beady little eyes seemed focused on the bright colours of the paint as it meeped quietly.

 

[Kait Holden]

Welcome to Corellia, shattered world, mass grave and home to the gates of Chaos. Somehow through all that happened, people or more specifically corporations had brought it back up and running. It was a sithhole, but it had most of the old infrastructure intact and plenty of rare resources to go around for the unscrupulous. In other words, a smuggler's sanctuary.

Not for the first time, Kait wondered what she was doing with these lunatics. It hadn't been long since she found them in that cantina, and somehow wound up tagging along. It felt like one long blackout, in fact there was a good likelihood that was actually the case. Nevertheless, she kept her word and made her way to the hangar albeit a few ticks late. Punctuality was for suckers anyway.

Rolling up and haphazardly pulling over her expensive landspeeder of dubious ownership, Kait steeled herself before swiping open the door and stepping out. Cacophony ensued, a small avalanche of forgotten empty cans tumbling out of the speeder. She shrugged off the blunder, getting a good stretch in before going up and slapping the captain on the back. "Gentlemen. Ladies."

Taking in the ship, someone, probably Reggie had decorated it with all kinds of schuttas. Her palm twitched but refrained from smacking to her forehead. "That's a, uhh... lotta lekku." She turned to the crew with a look, half judgemental, half inquisitive. A weird bunch, no matter how many times she saw them all together it always seemed to warrant a double take. "Shall we?"

Spoiler

[member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Greeta Tan"] [member="Reggie"] [member="BX-22222"] [member="Zyrias Pax"] [member="Celty Ree"]

 

[Logen Brunner]

The droid was having issues again " I swear Deuce, this cybernetic bi-polar syndrome you have going is getting old". The droid was in pieces again, self mutilated by no joke, a domestic dispute between his alter ego... or something along those lines. He called a shard but all Logen heard was blah blah, Force Wizard hoodoo pebble thingamajig. " If you were not a free independent droid i would of removed the rock the moment I had ownership" He actually offered many times to remove it for him but Deuce, free will and all, declined. "Get back on the ship, I'll put you back together in a few.......and while you're at it get the pre flight checks started, certain thats a task ya can do missing a limb"

Now back to Reggie's Art. It was true, Logen did have a thing for the lekku endowed females and he was not going to deny that fact. Its just now the ship screamed Lekku pervy fetish, but the art was beautiful and he knew he wasn't going to have it repainted anytime soon....racing flames and all. This was now the Forlorn Hope, unique in her look and just as unique as the crew that will call her home. "It'll do Reggie, it'll do!" The captain conceded to the crews common like for the man's work, his voice pinged with defeat but his facial expression was any of the sort. He had a sharp one sided grin that matched his slim wolfish features.

The overly shy women, clad in leather and forever hidden in her kitty eared helmet approached while he stood their still in awe of the ship before him. She pushed her datapad, her way of communicating, in front of his view. The old captain laughed "Of course he did!" He answered back to celty's message "And yes it does" His eyes went back to the freshly painted meters long busty women that she said added character to the ship. "Yes it does!"

A hand and arm wrapped around his shoulder, more as if to use his body as a crutch than a friendly jester. Kait was drunk, more than usual this time and was heavily evident in the way she swayed while trying to stand still and hold onto him with effort. Her voice was also slovenly tainted with inebriation. And this was his co pilot. The young women certainly had the taste for booze, a fault that Logen could not hold against her for he himself kept hydrated with the liquid spirits. Just usually never to the point where his wit and will along with hand-eye coordination were affected. "Alright there sweetheart, Best you get on that ship and take this" Logen gave her the fresh cup of tapcaf that Greeta had brought him. "Need you right for this ship's maiden voyage!"

"Alright, you all heard Zy! Lets break a bottle and get this baby in the air!" Logen reiterate what Zyria was insisting upon. She was just as excited as he was to get this brand new YV-2000 into space. He put his hand into the crate he was carrying and pulled a bottle of corellian spiced ale from it. He twisted the top off and took a long swig of his favorate, before handing the bottle and lid over to Zyria "If you don't mind doing the honors and christen the Forlorn Hope!"


[member="Kait Holden"] [member="Celty Ree"] [member="Zyrias Pax"] [member="BX-22222"] [member="Reggie"] [member="Greeta Tan"]

 

[Judah Lesan]

Reggie wore a stupidly proud grin when the crew spoke up about the good work he did decorating the ship. Even Logen liked it, despite his initial outburst. The bold man was suddenly a little sheepish as he waved a hand at the compliments. Naturally his attention was captured by the nice speeder which pulled up to the ship, and the drunk pilot stepped out. She was supposed to fly this thing? Reggie would normally protest about putting his life into her hands, but shrugged it off this time. He was asking the crew to trust him, and he acted like an idiot most of the time. That didn't inspire confidence, but it did keep his real skills and talents out of the public eye.

"Hey, naw... You ain't gonna waste a perfectly good bottle of ale on this..."

Reggie took the bottle before Zyrias could take it. He dug into the box for an off label and bad year champagne. Of course it was bad luck to be cheap about this, but no one was going to drink the champagne so it would never be a waste.

"Use this instead... the ale we use for a toast!"

[member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Kait Holden"] [member="Celty Ree"] [member="Zyrias Pax"] [member="BX-22222"] [member="Greeta Tan"]

 

[Zyrias Pax]

There seemed to be quite a few slicers in the crew, which was fine with Zyri. The less she actually had to do, the better.

“Oh look a Porg,” said the teenager, distracted by anything shiny and cute. She didn’t want to infringe on Celty’s personal space so she just inched closer hoping to eventually befriend the little beasty. As long as she didn’t have to clean up any poodoo, she’d have no problem with the diminutive pet on board.

Zyrias smirked as Kait rolled gangsta-style out of the speeder, empty cans pouring out onto the ground. I guess if it was one thing they had in common it was a love for alcohol. Hopefully someone wouldn’t be too drunk to fly The Hope.

As if on cue for drunken shenanigans to begin, Logen handed her the ale and she raised her scrawny arm, just about to break it off onto the hull, until Reggie grabbed it from her.

“And this is why I carry a flask,” she grumbled rolling her eyes at the big teddy bear of a man. Zyrias pulled out a silver flask studded with small rainbow gem - stolen from Fountain Palace during the rebellion of Hapes - and took a long pull from it, heading towards the ramp.

“Fine, fine.” More alcohol all around. Except for the droid. Damn, it was a good thing one of them didn’t drink.

[member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Reggie"] [member="Greeta Tan"] [member="BX-22222"] [member="Kait Holden"] [member="Celty Ree"]

 

[BX-22222]

"I will comply captain."

As the droid headed in Splinter roared with laughter. Back to their bunk they dropped off their extra arms for later reattachment and moved to begin the pre-flight checks on both primary and redundant systems. The work was tedious as Splinter was doing the work and Duece was giving the direction which led to several new dents upon the head of the Droid as Splinter whacked himself with a hydrospanner on multiple occasions.

I swear to the maker gods that one day I'm going to either kill you or get you laid

"Your statement does not compute. We often get laid down for our oil baths."

Virgin Crystalline Goddess, save me from self destruction

"There has never been a documented case of a higher power recorded, so your statement is without-"

The hydrospanner ricocheted off the droid's temple again. If Duece could sigh he would, as they finished up their system diagnostics with several more self injury incidences to be made.

Spoiler: Crew

[member="Logen Brunner"], [member="Reggie"], [member="Celty Ree"], [member="Zyrias Pax"], [member="Kait Holden"], [member="Greeta Tan"]

 

[Kait Holden]

Perhaps the clattering ghosts of booze-ups past gave off the wrong impression, but if Kait ever was going to care how people saw her it wouldn't be today. Suffice to say, she wasn't any more intoxicated than normal. "Don't coddle me sonny Jim, I'm right as rain," she growled. Still took the half and half and downed it though, if only out of spite. Foul taste be damned.

Zyrias' flask didn't escape her attention, but she knew of course that was off limits and only admired its style, unusually ornate considering the purpose. "Well, if you don't want it..." she trailed off, hopeful eyes darting between Pax, the cheap sparkling white and Reggie who proffered it up.

Spoiler

[member="Logen Brunner"] [member="Greeta Tan"] [member="Reggie"] [member="BX-22222"] [member="Zyrias Pax"] [member="Celty Ree"]

 

[Dedata | Celty Ree]

[member="Kait Holden"] | [member="BX-22222"] | [member="Zyrias Pax"] |[member="Reggie"] | [member="Logen Brunner"] | [member="Greeta Tan"]
Celty looked at the woman who had gotten closer to her looking at the porg between her cleavage. She knew exactly what the woman but kinked her head side ways. The porg meeped a few times as it flapped its wings. Her hands scooped around the body of the legless porg making sure to get its small blanket that hid the fact it had no legs. Each finger would move up and down against the back of the animals neck making it let out a sound of enjoyment. Celty found the porg adorable and it seemed someone else on in the crew shared that sentiment.

The next few hours was going to be a learning curve. All this time Celty refused to be tied with partners or crews and gangs. For so long she was a one woman operation. Now though she was wanting a change of pace. Even if it had her on edge.These people, she didn't know them. Besides the fact there was a droid that was messed up with its passenger, A drunk Co-Pilot that seemed a little quick to anger, a woman who had more wrap sheets than the rest of them combined, and as for Reggie and Logen they where a bigger mystery. Yet those two seem close and it was those two that requested her to join. Celty began to make her way into the ship rolling her eyes over the petty squabbles of alcohol besides she'd already claimed her room it just needed her things, for now she had her most basic set up and it would have to do.

 

[Logen Brunner]

CREW:

Spoiler

[member="Kait Holden"] [member="Celty Ree"] [member="Zyrias Pax"] [member="BX-22222"] [member="Reggie"] [member="Greeta Tan"]

"What a bunch of cheapskates!" The old man judged harshly of his crew and their nickle and diming of the booze rations. He shook his head in disapproval and grabbed for a fresh bottle of Corellian Spice. "We do this right, my darling here only deserves the best and not that carbon flush you want to sacrifice!" With that, he sent the new bottle flying without a alcoholic's hesitation. The shattering of class echoed through out the hangar as the bottle smashed into the durasteel haul brilliantly. Logen nodded, pleased with himself as he walked up the loading ramp knowing that the sacrifice was just. Corellian Ale, for a Corellian ship, captain by a Corellian. Just makes sense. "lets go!"

Logen knew the cargo hold was huge but the vastness was underestimated, his eyes ravaged every corner, length, width and height. All he was seeing was future profit along with the eight fuel pods adding more icing to the cake. The worry of getting into bed with Gorba the Hutt with the substantial loan for this ship was now less frightening. Still scary, but less in a good way. Logen kept walking towards the starboard side, there was a door there that would lead into a stairwell going up. The ship was huge, many maintenance nooks, engineering rooms and such. One could of gotten lost if there wasn't signage giving direction.

Wasn't long before he found himself on the bridge. Duece was already working on the pre flight as asked. Logen moved towards the pilot seat, climbing into the chair and having it mechanically turn and move forward into the operators ready position. The 'W' styled yoke raised form the indentation on the dash, its bed, coming to life and awaiting to be handled. The corellian gripped the controls, his heart skipped a few beats as if he was falling in love for the first time. "You are beautiful!" He openly praised.

The rest of the crew wouldn't be that far behind him. They all would want to be on the bridge for the first take off. "Duece, how is are all the systems looking?"