Private Pleasure Cruise

[Mattali Omenza]

Location: Hyperspace Course plotted to Bastion Navel Yards

When she was asked to accompany the Vice Admiral to Bastion for an incident regarding the weapon batteries, a small part of Mirinda believed that she was being handed a court martial. Yet, it didn't fit the way she'd imagine it'd go down, and Vice Admiral Doon seemed a tad more reserved than normal. Regardless, they had the evidence that their ship was being sabotaged, they just didn't know who exactly it was, only that they had placed illegally installed droids on board, and were gifted with a variety of technical skills. Still, they weren't as clever as they thought, given Mirinda had managed to pin it down to a few hundred candidates on board; with a little more time, she could possibly get that as low as a dozen.

Still didn't help things between her and Doon, she'd been tip toeing around the Vice Admiral since their little 'heart to heart' last week, and given the rather abruptness of this meeting, the Zeltron feared the worst. She poked at her console, looking at the eta that it displayed, and frowned. The time was far to quick to be accurate, and yet....the nav data indicated they were on the right heading.

She wasn't much of a pilot, but she knew her astronavigational data, and this was just....off to her. She poked at the screen, pulling up previously plotted courses and comparing them, being a rather busy little Zeltron in the process. So much so, she wouldn't notice the arrival of Tarsa until the admiral wished herself known.

VADM Tarsa Doon

 

[VADM Tarsa Doon]

She had woken from her brief rest, using the facilities to freshen up before moving across the short way of the merely thirty meter Freighter. Opening the door to the cockpit, she would step aboard, adopting her usual stoic appearance, and scowl. She wore no officers cap today. The door sliding open served to be enough warning to the other on the ship that she wasn't alone. It was nearly time to get the show started wasn't it? Though, for now, she would simply bide her time. Moving to sit in the other seat, and begin tapping away at something on her end.

"No Sleep?"

She asked plainly, a genuine question that she would've preferred a genuine answer for. Though she was quite aware the woman had a tendency to be a ball of rudeness, and puns when it suited her. Perhaps, not the smartest of ideas when she was alone with the woman; word of a Vice Admiral, against a newly appointed Warrant Officer, least of all one that still had yet to truly complete her Officer classes. She reclined her seat, then rolled it back some to compensate for her height. resting both hands comfortably along the armrests.

Rites had done good work, and once that list got smaller, Doon wasn't going to play any games with it. She was going to give it to the Regent Admiral... Or hell, perhaps COMPNOR might even enjoy it. Either way, she would be rid of it if she couldn't get a concise read on who was chitting in her breakfast. For now she stared ahead, eyes periodically glancing at the GST reader along the display.

Almost Time...

Mattali Omenza

 

[Mattali Omenza]

Doon's voice startled the hell out of her, prompting a yelp from the Zeltron as she nearly flew out of her chair. "Chit, sorry ma'am, just...checking the data entry here. It looks off to me." Mirinda hadn't been sleeping well, that much was true, but given how much pressure she was putting on herself who could blame her?


"The time doesn't seem right, we should have another hour and a half, yet it's saying we'll be there any minute now." Mirinda had messed around with navigation computers before, which were some of the most complex systems to fool; but where there was a will there was a way. Her time modifying flight hours and routes for various smugglers had given her a little bit of insight into how to edit such things; and she was rather good at that. She made a copy of their flight plan, and began to over lay every flight taken to Bastion in the last two months. The answer it gave sent alarms off in her head. Her head shot up, her hand moving towards the hyperspace lever, as without warning the soon to be ensign would push it up hard. "Doon we need to cut lightspeed now!" She had just managed to get the words out when the tunnel of lightspeed faded around them, and set them hurtling into a field of asteroids.

Some moonjockey had plotted their course right through this little patch of rocky hell. Which would have killed both of them and been listed as a 'hyperspace mishap'. The bastards. "Srry ma'am, I just caught what happened-"

Before she could explain, sirens began to pulse from the computer systems, as it turned out the hyperdrive was now malfunctioning. "What the hell..." The Zeltron muttered, looking over the info scrolling across her screen and unsure as to what it pertained to.

She told herself that it couldn't be happening because if what she was reading was true, they were currently stuck in space with no hyperdrive, in the middle of an asteroid field.

Prospects were not looking good.

VADM Tarsa Doon

 

[VADM Tarsa Doon]

She gave the other a strange chair at her not very Stormtrooper response to the sudden entry. The hell... In any case, she had forgotten, and moved past it. Guess she wasn't kidding when she said she was more of a support than an assaulter. Still, she needed to know how well Rites could perform under stress, so she had put together an elaborate simulation to see just that. Given, if Rites died it would've been a problem for her; so she decided she would be riding shotgun when Mirinda took the hotseat. Extremely calm for someone who was hurtling into death.

Of course for her death was just a pathway to be with her family, she also was pretty good at crafting good soldiers through iron and fire. Her head snapped over when Rites suggested cutting lightspeed, grasping at the chair as they were dropped into an asteroid field.

"Release ship controls to me... Figure out what the hell is going on with the ship, I don't want to be late..."

She said calmly, diverting most of their power to the deflector shields. There was another surprise near the reactor room waiting for Rites. In the form of a single battle-droid. And it certainly wasn't prepped with stun rounds. The Battle Droid stood there even now, a little worse for wear, with purposely sluggish tracking systems, and an already somewhat busted carapace. A single well placed blaster shot should have done it. A few at most... Or she could hesitate, and it may have killed her.

Before Mirinda left the cockpit, Tarsa would take the controls, and begin maneuvering the field with relative ease. The deflector shields immediately taking small hits from smaller chunks of space rock. Even still, she would turn before Rites left, and offer her a cryptic message.

"Don't forget to take a weapon with you, we don't know what's going on yet..."

She said, glaring at her, then glancing down to the ground briefly, before focusing her intention on getting them out of the death field.

Mattali Omenza

 

[Mattali Omenza]

She had expected the admiral to be furious, demanding an explanation for how she hadn't caught this flaw in their hyperspace route before. To her surprise, that hadn't occurred. Doon seemed unfazed, simply asking to take over the controls and telling Mirinda to sort out the hyperdrive. Locking eyes with the woman, there was a degree of confusion in her gaze, though she would follow the admiral's orders regardless. Maybe Doon could see how exhausted she was, that she had been pushing herself hard for the last few weeks. Maybe that was why. Rising out of her chair, the engineer was already pondering what she needed to do, her mind busy with solutions that needed to be worked.

Then Doon advised her to bring a weapon, to which the ensign paused. "Ma'am?" She questioned, the Zeltron tilting her head to the side, unsure as to what Doon was talking about. It was just the two of them on the ship...right? Her hand traveled down to the blaster pistol she kept secured to her utility belt, and reluctantly unholstered it. She wasn't comfortable with blaster weapons. In fact, she'd rather not use one at all if she didn't need to. But...there had to be a reason for it, right? "Be back shortly."

She headed off, a bit of haste in her step, the words of Doon concerning her that perhaps someone else was on board, and that this was another scheme someone had hatched to kill both of them. Her durasteel tipped boots rang out against the deck plates, as she continued forward, unease scrapping at her stomach, tension saturating in her muscles. She reached the reactor, planning to start her diagnosis there, as she used her free hand to reach for her datapad, her blaster hand keying the door control. She had just thumbed the diagnosis app on her pad when she noticed movement before her, a rather bulky construct in fact. Mirinda gasped in shock, stumbling back, her pistol discharged, though her accuracy was anything but spot on. Her shots when wide, and she soon found herself struggling to stay on her feet.

The droid was badly damaged and hardly considered to be operational, but she was a petite Zeltron who had her mind half focused on the terminal, and the other on the plot that was going on here. She hit the deck, the droids blaster shot discharging over her head and striking the ceiling; hot sparks falling on her in the process. Laying back, Mirinda panic fired, draining her energy cell dry and she struck the droid several times, though the damn thing continued to trudge forward, sparks and metal bits flying off it from each impact, before it finally toppled before her; nothing more than a smoldering piece of slag.

She panted, trying to catch her breath, fear gripping her heart as she fumbled for her comlink. "A-Admiral, Admiral we have-combat droids, in the react-." The comlink slipped from her hand, hitting the floor as it would go quiet for a moment, before the Zeltron secured the device, getting back to her feet, though still shaken from the ordeal. "I-I destroyed it but I have no idea how it got here." She gave the droid a cursory glance, but moved on to inspect the droid briefly, though moved to the reactor after seeing there was little to gain from inspecting it at current. She plugged in her datapad, letting the info trickle into the device, and began to map out what she would do next.

Something was going on here, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

VADM Tarsa Doon