Open Orbit

*As Red Squadron closed in on the yorik-vec, so too did the gunship on the quarry it was attempting to track. Its dovin basals helped to sift through the debris, acting in the capacity of a tractor beam, pushing refuse from its path while its arrest tentacles swatted away any smaller chunks that might have gotten through. It wouldn't be long before they uncovered Odet's position.* *Following which, just about anything could happen.*

*Kronn grinned sadistically as he listened to admiral. Casually he waved his hand, ushering the warrior-seer forwards so he could get out whatever it was he had to say. Fortunately as he leaned in to whisper, the words to follow were very relevant to the asteroid idea proposed by the infidel woman. It took the Intendant only a moment to decide what to share with his new found business partners and what to leave out.*

*In basic* :: By all means, search away. Though if there is someone out there, I would prefer to take them alive. We've been away from port for several weeks now and our supply of sacrifices has dwindled down to the last few dregs. The Yun'o are temperamental, Yun-Yammka more than most. The pained screams of a captured spy as the priests harvest their organs would do much to please His ear. ::

*Continuing* :: A mutually shared storehouse sounds practical. As it so happens, we have recently come across two regions that could potentially host such a commune. We have units currently deployed in the asteroid fields your kind refer to as the Cron Drift and Roche Asteroids. Both could potentially sate your proposal, although one of the two would better serve as an initial test of the compatibility of our...alliance. Killik slaves inform us that there is a race of infidel insectoids located in the Roche Asteroid field. Our intelligence network has gathered that the bugs are wealthy in technology (Slayn & Korpil, Verpin Shattergun, etc) and resources that might be of interest to you. Obviously our interest is in the bugs themselves. Strong backs you see, very valuable as slaves. If we were to join forces and sack one of their colonies, we would have our proposed base and both be wealthier for it. ::

[narration:g9enhhwu]It had been at least a good five minutes since the Vong had entered the system and Odet had released himself in hopes that he would look like another piece of rubble floating amlessly. He figured since he had died yet that it was safe to return a small amount of power to the comm, after all if they are sitting their sizing eachother up that means they could be talking. Turning it on he caught the last of a message[/narration:g9enhhwu]

[quote:g9enhhwu][comlink:g9enhhwu]you and blow our pretty little intruder to pieces for spying?[/comlink:g9enhhwu]
[/quote:g9enhhwu]

[narration:g9enhhwu]At this he felt his heart sink, he had been noticed and they were coming after him. He could survive for a while weaving through the debris but eventually he would be cut down. That only left two options escape, or join them and bide his time.[/narration:g9enhhwu]

[comlink:g9enhhwu]Hey hey hey cmon now did it ever occur to you that all I wanted to do was wait until you left and escape. Maybe I wanted you two to attack eacother so I could get away. Seeing as enither of these are going to happen anymore I propose another truce. I had no ties to these guys I was just a hired gun... I join in on your fleets and help with whatever you have in mind?[/comlink:g9enhhwu]

[narration:g9enhhwu]As he said this he effectivly turned everything back on and started weaving through the debris field trying to avoid capture for as long as possible and if he was lucky escape, if not he would have to join the pirates.[/narration:g9enhhwu]

Finding it odd one could crack a military grade encryption so easily, she is somewhat impressed. She motions for the Admiral to take care of the pesky little intruder, even as Red Squadron bears down on the craft, the Yuuzhan Vong slightly ahead of them.

::Roche you say... now that there IS indeed prize and worthy of an appropriate storehouse. Yes indeed we should go there if as you say their are quite abandoned militarily. I suppose after dealing with our intruder here we can go about securing those juicy Verpine asteroids.::

She has the communications switched over to open broadcast so that the intruder can now hear her.

::Current closure rate puts our combined forces at just under two minutes away from your stricken craft, even with your so called maneuvering my new friends here can snatch your craft and subject you to their very painful and lovely torture methods, while my squadron would be content to let you have a couple of torpedoes up your tail pipe. You could do the sensible thing and say you have valuable information on SOMETHING worth raiding, and maybe Yun Harla might be a bit impressed with you enough to let you be among the first onto our next boarding action.::

*In basic.* :: Excellent, then we are in agreement. ::

*Kronn swivelled in his seat, listening as the ozzgil picked up the open broadcast from first Odet, then the Mistweaver. He contemplated the infidel woman's extended offer to the life form, whatever exactly it was.* *At first he thought the being a coward, having heard of his plan to escape. Then the scheming part of the Intendant's brain picked up on "hired gun", taking him on a stroll down memory lane. During the war, the Yuuzhan Vong had made use of such mercenary units, even going so far as to give them a name by which the galaxy would know them. The Peace Brigade, consisting of pathetic infidel weaklings, but useful none-the-less. The war might be over, but the Praetorite's need for coerced lifeforms was now greater than ever. So while killing him might prove entertaining, he felt certain they could find a more suitable purpose for the fleeing whelp.*

*He snapped his fingers at one of the crew in charge of the villip choir.* *The deployed yorik-vec didn't possess an ozzgil so the Dark Corsair's crew would have to translate and broadcast the message to them via villip.* *As soon as the crew of the gunship were informed, the Commander ordered them to approach less aggressively and allow the yorik-vec's yaret-kor to cool. Gently its dovin basals shoved aside debris, still on Odet's tail, but pursuing him with far less menace.*

*With an ear to the open broadcast channel, Kronn waited for the alien's reply to the pirate woman.*

*Odet racked his brain for a way for him to get out of this but his options were truly limited to two desirable outcomes, he gets shot out of the sky or he joins them. He had an idea that might just save his life.*

:: I am familiar with the carbonite run and I know of a few prospective plants you may be interested in attacking. If this is not a preferable choice then if it's all the same to you I would prefer to get blown up. ::

::Well my pilots do have some itchy trigger fingers.... however provided your information is good we'll let you live. Turn back on a heading towards us, lower all shields, and power down all weapons and long range comm arrays. We see any of those on your approach in we put a turbolaser down your gullet. Come near and we'll tractor you in. Resist... and we'll you won't have time to think before your free floating atoms like your former employers ::

Already she is thinking how best to use this turn of events. Sure Roche was a nice big juicy target but that would mean protecting it somehow, an annoying yet necessary task. But the wealth of addition places to raid, especially on such a Trade Spine like the Carbonite Run could indeed prove profitable. All she had to do was give the majority of the crew members to the Vong and she'd be set. No major foul-ups among her crew and the Vong would stay loyal.

The Admiral moves to make preparations for the newcomer. A security detail, an interrogation room, a scanning team, and a repair team are all summoned to the Secondary Docking Bay where visitors came, packed with shuttles and fighters. Crews clear the bay and move gear back into the storage areas to clear enough room in case it's a trap. All Weapons crews remain on alert in case it was a trap to get close to the ship.

*Again the Commander listened to the exchange, nodding to his crewman in charge of communications to relay the message to the yorik-vec. The two pilots of the vessel were reluctant to pull off their pursuit of capture, but they followed the orders given to them by the fiery eyed Intendant. Kronn made a special note to thank Domains Lah and Choka for breeding their warriors to be so compliant. Through the main view-spider he watched the gunship pull off its pursuit and swing around in an attempt to cut off Odet's path in case he decided to flee.*

*The Ro'ik chuun m'arh "Dark Corsair" continued to hold its position. Aboard, slaves were whipped into a frenzy by their cruel taskmasters, preparing the ship for another interstellar jump. Coordinates for the Roche Asteroids were programmed into the frigate's navibrain, while Susan (Yammosk) began to focus the dovin basals slaved to her will on the task of opening up a darkspace rift. In the briefest of periods the warship was ready.*

*The only thing to do now was to wait until the pirates had the mercenary infidel aboard and the yorik-vec had re-docked with one of the Corsair's luminous coral arms. After that, according to the update they had received from the Miid ro'ik warship "Praetorite Command", already deep within the Roche field, it would be smooth sailing.*

*Kronn opened a channel to the Mistweaver.*

*In basic* :: Once you have the infidel aboard, we'll make the transition to light speed and meet your fleet at the edge of the asteroid field. We already have a Miid ro'ik warship, analogous to your destroyer, in the field awaiting our arrival. Between our combined forces I do not expect the Verpine to pose a great threat, but if they are anything like their killik cousins, I suspect they will be overly resistant to surrender. It should make for an entertaining encounter. ::

*Odet complied with these demands of the woman who had talked to him. He flew straight and true towards Mistweaver hoping against hope these ilk would remain true to their words. After a short time of flying through the debris field he felt the tractor beam grab hold of him and his ship and awaited for his true fate.*

They haven't broken their word yet who knows maybe they won't....

The tractor beam draws the vessel into the hangar bay, while fighter return to the ships. The whole fleet prepares to jump to hyperspace, and battle sirens are sounded. Missiles are loaded, turbolasers primed, shields raised, and all soldiers report to their designated points. They have a short hop but the crews will try to be well rested when they jump from hyperspace.

Inside the hangar bay the four groups are waiting as the shuttles is landing. The soldiers are in a double line, blasters and rifles raised at the entrance ramp. A scanning team awaits on one side of the hangar bay, the repair team on the other. A second security team waits in an interrogation room a few rooms down from the hangar bay.

On the bridge the crew prepares for the jump to hyperspace. Coordinates are laid in for optimum battle range, ad the Admiral sits down in her command chair, the holotank engaged in front of her. They had spent the last hour while she was negotiating with the Yuuzhan Vong, looking up all sorts of information on the Roche System, including previous defenses, and military installations if possible. She maintains her position looking out the view port at the space before the ship.

::We are ready. Jump::

The pirate fleet jumps to hyperspace bound for Roche.

*Once the yorik-vec was secured to the coral arms extending from the Dark Corsair's side, Kronn gave the order to make the light-speed jump to darkspace. Dovin basals warped gravity, forging a singularity through the dimensional barrier and projecting the Ro'ik chuun m'arh into the realm between real space and the unknown. Gracefully it departed the system, streaking into the great beyond while stalking the trail left behind by the larger pirate fleet.*

*Out of hyperspace, two ships appear in M'haeli's orbit. Both vessels bore the insignia of the ISHS and the NOE. The Victory-II Class Star Destroyer and the Marauder-Class Corvette continued their patrol in orbit around the planet, while scanning for any anomalies.*

*A J-Type Starskiff burps from Hyperspace, and the vessel swiftly steers for the planet surface, the little brown alien at the controls still palpitating from his shocking experience at Korriban.*

*A modified Star Courier reverted to real space with a flash of silver arnour. Coming along on the same approach vector as the J-Type Starskiff it cruised slowly towards the planet.

Gazing out of the viewport from the shoulder of Malus, Caeds expression showed his disdain and barely controlled hatred for the other man. Being cooped up with Malus for the trip out here had been trying for the normally recluse Sith. The others constant wheezing and stumbling around could annoy a stone and it was all he could do not to space himself. It wasn't as if there was much space on board the ship to keep their distance and the mutual dislike was like an open sore waiting to be scratched by saber, parong or turbolaser.

The planet below didn't look to appealing. That fact that he had never heard of it was telling. Talk about a backwater. He had checked the planets history and geologocal features, coming to the quick conclusion that it wasn't worth visiting aside from their current reason. He'd go to hell to end Jedi lives.

Bored with thinking about this stuff and weary of narrating it for you fools he turned his attention back to the one thing that had kept him sane during the trip.

Baiting Malus.*

<< Can't you breath any quieter? The Jedi will hear you coming at this rate. >>

*He straightened and folded his arms, watching Malus' reflection in the viewport with his trademark sneer in place.*

*The ship rose from where it had descended less than four hours before and lazily drifted out of the planets gravity well. Below the white orb seemed to shimmer as the storms picked up pace, blasting the landscape with blizzards that forced most life, the life that could, into hibernation. The storms caused by the excessive use of the force caused a global climate shift that would torment this world for the next several thousand years and encase the land in a cocoon of glaciers.

The ship zipped into hyperspace, indifferent to the chaos it leaves behind.*