Leaf on the Wind

[Logen Brunner]

The elongated streaks of stars that rapidly engulfed the view port of the Liberty's bridge captivated Corellian smuggler, who was seated in the pilot's chair. The modified Maka-Eekai L4000 transport was enroute to the Janara system. She was contracted to smuggle weapons to what was left of the Janara defense force and their fellow volunteers. Bunch of Diehard holdouts keeping up the fight against First Order occupation. Mission was dangerous, they would have to get past the FO navy and their tight grasp on the planet and the system. But, the dangerous jobs were the ones that paid the most. Was all risk and reward and Captain Logan Brunner was a gambling man. Seem to do his best work when the odds were not in his favor.

Logen puffed on his shento cigar, his eyes glancing at the red blinking light upon the computer display. The ship was protesting the Captain's unhealthy habit by trying to trigger the fire alarm in the bridge. This was his ship, he was gonna smoke where he damned well pleased. The alarm was silenced ages ago and those that flew with him just had to suffer the delight of second hand smoke. In his mind, they should be paying him for part taking his favorite delicacy.


The timer on the hypserspace jump was getting close to the exit mark. Logen reached for the coms and his wolfish tone of voice broke the silence within the ship "We are almost there Rebel! Best you head up here and get yourself strapped in, never know if we be in for a rough ride or not"

[member="Rebel Sunka"]

 

[Zantra]

Soon as he heard the cap' voice...he launched his pillow across the room. Seemed like the voice was coming from that direction but of course not really. One thing he did well...was sleep, the kid could damn near sleep for days straight if you let him. He sat up and cracked his neck before scratching the back of his head...

ugghhh...

He threw on his boots and strapped em on before grabbing his shirt and hitting the door. Well...this is what he was doing nowadays. He left his Jedi training behind...reasons he wouldn't quite delve into. He was just...existing at this point. Old man Logan came along and hell...this was the new gig.

------

Door to the bridge opened after sensing his presence, what was behind the door? Well...you'd think it'd be a simple task to put a shirt on but...His shirt had gotten stuck over the top portion of his body. He'd been trying to squeeze into it for a couple of minutes now, having lost his patience he was finally able to pull it down and over as he stumbled onto the bridge.

His nose started to twitch just as he pulled on the lower half of the shirt, "Jeez...you and your cigars. I could smell you from my bunk."

He yawned and assumed his nonchalant, uninterested expression; it was really just his face majority of the time. Nothing on purpose. He sat down in the seat while scratching the back of his head.

"You think this is gonna be a tough one huh?" he mentioned after strapping himself in.

[member="Logen Brunner"]

 

[Logen Brunner]

"Listen Kid, you could always ride outside" Logan looked over at his young partner, giving him the deadpan look in rebuke to his snob against his shentos.

The clock was winding down and it was time to button down the hatches and get this oversized bird ready for what ever will stand in their where the moment they broke out of hyperspace. His blue hues moved from Rebel to the many holo displays that he was popping up around him. The data was all the system status from engines to life support, shields to weapons. All showing green, same as the last time he checked five minutes ago.

"To answer you question. If my astrogation was correct and we appear with the Sun blocking our arrival and not in plain view of the First Order's navy, that will be a good start. Then I will have to navigate our trajectory to pin point accuracy using the gravitational pull of the sun to sling shot the Liberty towards the Planet, flying dead stick since we are trying to avoid scanners and blend into floating space debris.. Calculations will have to be exact, take in consideration of the sun's pull and pray to what ever gods that rule the abyss of space that our heat shields can handle the sun's radiation and that I gave us enough thrust to beat the awesome force of the sun's pull. Now, if we don't get microwaved in this oversized coffin and survive the slingshot, we still have to float towards the planet itself. There will be plenty of traffic from the navy and the chunks of ships left from the JDF's navy. Light thrusts can adjust as around large objects, but if we have to do hard burns and quick maneuvers we will give up our position and then have to play cat and mouse with the First Order. " He explained with each said task increasing his roguish smirk into a devilish smile. "So yes, tough is one way to explain it"

Logen pointed to a helmet with specialized goggles above Rebel's head. "That there will give you full control of each gun turret the Liberty has. I slaved them all to be fire control centralized in the bridge. Cuts costs down on crew and keeps all the fun up here. If we get made, I am gonna need you to keep them fighters off us while I do my thing"

[member="Rebel Sunka"]

 

[Zantra]

"Yeah? Then who'd listen to your boasting?" he teased back

In some ways...Logan reminded him of Jed. He supposed that could be a good thing, but

The Corellian devil started talking about the set of tasks as it related to the difficulty of what they were about to do. In the beginning he could follow, even nodding his head and agreeing, probably mouthing a few words as he knew they were coming. But somewhere in there, he got lost. His head slowly turned to the Cap and his eyebrows rose as clearly his eyes told he was lost.

"Wait microwaved!?" He turned and looked out the window into the blue hyperspace tunnel, almost like he had to internalize it, "Alright...Lets do this for the JDF." he released a sigh of air.

"You Corellian devil you..." he took the helmet, and put it on before tensing and easing up ion his fingers until he heard the crack. "How long until we hit realspace?"

[member="Logen Brunner"]

 

[Logen Brunner]

"Under a minute!" Logen replied, his mind racing on anything else he needed to inform Rebel before they got to work. He looked looked down and saw the oxygen tank he had placed beside his chair and remembering he had also did the same to the copilot's chair. "When we exit things are gonna move fast. Once I get the liberty on course, we will be shutting off life support and all power to the ship. You have a oxygen tank with mask beside you and a winter jacket on the back of your chair. "

Warning alarm rang through the bridge, informing the occupants that they were about to exit hyperspace and into realspace. The stars began to slow, animating back into bright blips in the far distance instead of endless streaks of light zipping past their viewport. Klaxxon warnings began to sound, which Logen silenced quickly. He did not need to be reminded how close they were to the sun Janarii. The Liberty has exited exactly where where she was meant to, the bulwark of the sun blocking their entrance from the First Order's fleet beyond.

The Corellian took a deep breath and silently prayed while gripping a gold coin tied around his neck. He pressed the coin to his lips after his moment of silence was completed and quickly went to task at hand. His fingers were dancing on the keyboard. perfectly choreographed with confidence. Logen was plotting the course, not just the sling shot but where to exit the trajectory and how much booster thrust needed to give off set tumble to the Liberty to keep with the guise of debris and abandoned.

"Any last words Kid?" The old man chuckled as he increased the throttle angling off the galactic west of the sun. "Here goes nothing!" The moment his speed was correct he quickly ignited aft and starboard thrusters to put the ship into a awkward spiraling tumble. With a few clicks of switches the engine died, the lights went out and everything went silent. The only noise was the mechanical moving bits slowing down after shut off and the noise of the two human's breathing.


"Now we wait!" Logen muttered, reaching for his air mask. The plan was risky, but corellians had rocket fuel for blood and were always mavricks fighting against the odds while flying on the edge.

[member="Rebel Sunka"]

 

[Zantra]

"Roger that old man cap!"

He signaled with his off hand, forming a hand sign; he understood.

His eyes bounced from one side to the next when the alarms went off, there was always a feeling he'd get before a job like this. It never really came until they entered real space...but he supposed that was all the fun stuff anyway. There was very subtle turbulence, and visually he could tell the jump was about to happen given the stars literally being stretched before him. He leaned back in his seat, slightly being forced to rock in his chair.

Bam. The sun...guess that meant they were we they needed to be eh?

He turned to Logan, "Hell I just hope you didn't leave me out of that prayer of yours...Plus I don't think i'll be all that good baked up!"

Soon after the power died, he reached for his air mask and sat back.

He couldn't help but think just how much had changed in the last few years. This wasn't his plan at all...

[member="Logen Brunner"]