Brave New World (Open)

[MikDaTv]

"Ok, brief time." Danny said. The other clones turned to look at him with their full attention. "We're going in fast and hard. Once we make our doorway, we head south down the corridor 50 meters to the ship occupied bay. Right now it's registered as a light freighter so we should have no problems fitting everyone on board. Tank, your going to be our door security. Hefty, you keep your hands close to those EMPGs in case we need them. Runt, you'll have point for this op, eyes open."

"Always are." Runt said.

Hefty tugged at his grenade bandolier signalling that it mostly held EMP Grenades.

Tank held up his arm to show his datapad tide to his wrist.

Danny issued a thumbs up. "Ok. We have a newcommer to the team for this one so stay on coms. She doesn't know our hand signals. Runts at point, Hefty you bring up the rear. Lady, since you are the lightest armed you'll cover Tank while he works on the security doors. Any questions?"

Hefty raised a finger. "Any idea of what ship we're flying out of here?"

Danny shook his head. "Negative. only that it's in a bay registered for a light freighter and that it's occupied."

Runt was next. "Any estimates on the number and placements of targets?"

Danny again shook his head. "I've marked all the probable security choke points on our map. We'll avoid 90% of them by making our own entrance but be ready for the unexpected. We know the owner has purchased battle droids and may have a small organic security force. Any more questions?"

[Deleted]

"No...that will work nicely, I think."

With a lighthearted smile, Ambellina shifted, moving to a crouching position in anticipation of exiting the van. She also drew her Westar and deactivated the weapon's safety measures. Looking to Senior for the cue, she let out a calm sigh.

"I'm ready when you are...Bonne chance, gentlemen."

[MikDaTv]

"Ok." Danny slid the side door of the van open and stepped out.

Runt came out next and with the exterior of a man doing nothing more than crossing the street, he began walking. There was little traffic on the street as it was a more out of the way area but even the odd speeder or two gave way to the man with the rifle strapped to his back.

Danny followed after Runt, who in turn was followed by Tank. Hefty brought up the rear carrying a small backpack with him. When they reached the wall, the four of them huddled together and Hefty placed one of his squarish detpacks against the side of the wall. "Set." He said simply and then the four of them stood back.

Hefty produced a wireless detonator from one of his vest pockets and clicked the button. The shaped charge in the detpack exploded, collapsing the wall inward and showering the interior of the sales yard with debris. Runt jumped in first, pistol at the read, scanning left and right to make sure the corridor they just blasted into was clear.

Danny drew his pistol and followed after, keeping his weapon up and ready. It only took a few moments for the security alarm to go off.

[Deleted]

Ambellina followed suit, standing behind Tank as the blast went off. She had never liked the sound of explosions, and in a somewhat childish gesture covered her ears as the device did its job. As the group stepped through the opening, Ambellina swept the hallway with her blaster, not seeing anything. Then the security alarm went off.

After only a few moments, the spider-like form of a Mark IV assault droid came around the corner to the left of where Gray Team had entered. Luckily they were heading right. As she tended to do, Ambellina took the first shots, firing twice and rolling backwards into a crouching position. Both bolts found the droid, stunning it momentarily, but otherwise not doing any significant damage.

[MikDaTv]

Tank recognized the sound of the battle droid immediately and shouted. "Contact rear!" over the sound of Lady's blaster fire. Tank followed up her shot with a quill from his bowcaster and hefty yanked his ACP gun from it's back holster and layed into it with 3 powerful blasts.

Danny and went back to back with Runt to examine the fight behind them, while Runt kept his eyes forward.

[Deleted]

From her crouched position below Gray Team's fire, Ambellina watched as they tore the Mark IV apart. If it had been upgraded with shielding, it hadn't had time to deploy them. Meanwhile, in the front, four guards rushed around the corner, having decided to do so with blaster pistols blazing. Rising, Ambellina tapped Tank's shoulder to warn him of the danger from the front. Her warning came just as the other Mark IV, blue energy field in full effect, came around the rear corner. Gray team was in a vice. Ambellina loosed another shot that landed squarely on the chest of one of the organic guards, blowing a hole the size of a soda-can in him.

[MikDaTv]

"Contacts front!" Runt shouted as the guards rounded the corner with their guns blazing. The SOP was to destroy the droids and stun any organics they came across but in moments, they buildings security forces had pushed them into a pitched defensive battle. Runt's pistol sang out 3 shots, each of which connected with a guard's center of mass, sending the smoke of vaporized flesh into the air.

Tank shifted his fire to the new droid, hammering on it's shield with his ACP array. It was doing very little against the shielded droid but he figured it couldn't hurt.

Danny took this opportunity to open fire with his pistol on the shielded droid. "Hef, EMP that thing!"

The eavily armed clone ripped an EMP grenade from his bandolier and hurled it overhand at the droid.

[Deleted]

From her guarded position in the middle of Gray Team, Ambellina assessed the situation. It seemed that somewhere in the building there was a sensor that told the security guards if and where the building had been breached. The organic guards were down. Security more than anything else, they hadn't even been wearing armor. The Lady looked just as Hefty's grenade went off, washing against the shield of the droid just as it was about to open fire. The shield flickered and went down and the droid sagged slightly as it began to shift through the ion interference.

"Hammer it! Take it down!"

Holding her blaster at arm's length, Ambellina aimed down the sight. She squeezed the trigger and sent a well placed bolt, hitting the droid directly in one of its primary sensor units. It stumbled and began to advance, firing blindly at the group with its heavy battery. Ambellina quickly pressed herself against a wall, avoiding the fire and taking out the other sensory unit.

[MikDaTv]

Danny returned fire with his pistol, striking the droids center of mass with several shots until one of the droids heavy cannon shots grazed his arm. He gasped and grabbed at his arm, applying pressure while firing weakly with his injured arm.

"Should have brought the conc rifle Tank!" Runt shouted as Hefty finished off the droid with his ACP array gun.

Tank yanked a bacta spray from his vest pocket and sprayed it on Danny's wound. Then he wrapped a bacta bandage around the graze and tied it tight. "Rifles everyone, we'll need the extra firepower. Hef, make this place uninhabitable."

Danny holstered his pistol and grabbed his rifle from his chest. Runt did the same. Hefty pulled a hand held fragmentation mine from his vest and placed it against the corridor wall, down low where it might be confused as some of the rubble from the hole they had blasted in to the wall.

"Go Runt go. double time it, we need to move." Danny said and patted Runt on the shoulder.

The sniper quickly moved forward, clearing each corner of the corridor with his rifle up at his shoulder, aiming down the site with one eye. Danny's arm stung but was already starting to numb as he lifted his own rifle up to backup Runt. "Lets go Gray Team. We got some ground to cover."

[Deleted]

Ambellina moved lightly, keeping pace with the team and staying alert. However, it appeared as though they had just breached the outer wall at the wrong time. It was several minutes before they came across another guard. The man was obviously on alert, but otherwise alone. Ambellina holstered her blaster and broke into an incredibly fast sprint, closing the distance between the corner and the guard in an instant. She grasped his arm, pulling him off-balance and slamming a powerful knee into his chin before he could draw his weapon. She let him fall softly before giving the signal to advance.

According to the schematics, the next door led to the ship that they were to steal. Drawing her weapon again, Ambellina peaked through it.

"Five guards...It looks like we may have chosen their best ship. I would guess that this establishment would have at most twenty guards on duty, and the bulk of them are concentrated on this pad...we may have our work cut out for us."

[MikDaTv]

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Danny whispered slightly as Lady ran out ahead and beat the crap out of the poor guard they happened across. "Don't break rank." He said to her when she returned to the group. "We could have just stunned the poor bastard at a distance."

As they reached the door Danny hand signaled Tank to get working on the security codes. Tank raised his arm with the datapad and started typing one handed on it to disable all the automated security.

"Hefty, do we have any ordinance to throw surprise party?" Danny asked.

The heavily armed clone pulled two grenade sized devices off his bandolier and handed one to Danny. "Flashbangs, nice. Ok stack up. Set for stun."

The four of them moved to either side of the doorway, Danny and Hefty on one side with Runt and Tank on the other. Danny pointed to a spot behind them on the left side of the doorway for Lady to stand. "We stun them, grab one of them, board the ship and lock it down. If he gives us the codes to open the hanger door before Tank can Slice them then we're out of here a few seconds faster."

He held up three fingers and slowly counted them down to one. Tank hit a button on his datapad and the door slid completely open. Danny and Hefty hurled their flashbangs in and the extremely loud pop and flash followed not long after. Runt rushed in, rifle up and Danny was right behind him.

Blue flashes strobed from the end of their guns as they washed the five disorientated guards in stun bolts. The guards dropped to the floor, their nervous system overwhelmed by the power of the stun bolts. “Hefty!” Danny shouted, pointing to one of the guards.

Runt stopped to look at the ship they were about to steal. “This is awesome.”

Danny stopped to look at it too. “No Runt, this is not awesome.”

Tank did a face palm when he noticed the ship and Hefty just shrugged his shoulders before grabbing one of the downed guards and dragging him towards the boarding ramp.

On the hanger deck was a single, YT-1300 Freighter. It was beat up and obviously old but that wasn’t what had caught the clones attention. The thing that had given them pause was that the entire freighter was painted a bright, neon, headache inducing orange color.

[Deleted]

The Lady flipped her Westar and holstered it without firing another shot. The job was almost done and she scanned the area for anymore threats, finding none. However, her look at the ship told all. An eyebrow arched and her mouth hung open slightly.

"Generally I wouldn't be caught dead in such a thing...whose idea was this?"

Ambellina moved towards the access ramp of the ship and ran her fingers over the plating with a disapproving look.

[MikDaTv]

"The listing just said it was a Light Freighter... i guess this explains why he couldn't sell it even at such a low price." Tank said.

Danny shook his head. "To late now. Lets just hope everyone else assumes a secret commando team and their escort wouldn't be caught dead flying something like this and leave it be."

Danny walked up the ramp and tapped Hefty on the shoulder. "I'll take care of interrogating our friend, you head to the cockpit."

Hefty nodded and rushed off to the forward decks. Danny propped the stunned man up against one of the ships corridor walls and slapped him across the face. His eyes fluttered open and Danny placed the barrel of his pistol against the man's forehead, right between the eyes. "Hanger code, now."

The guard shook his head lazily, still not quite out of his stupor. Danny emphasized his point by shoving the mans head against the wall by pushing on it with the barrel of his gun. "Is your life worth this orange monstrosity?"

Snapping out of it partially, the guard looked up at him and shook his head. "Three One Four Alpha Two Nine." He said.

Danny smiled at the man then clocked him over the head with the but of his pistols handle, knocking him out cold. "Runt get this guy off my deck."

Runt smiled and grabbed the guy by his armpits, hauling him up and then throwing him down the boarding ramp.

"BOSS!" came the voice of Hefty from the cockpit. "Your gunna want to see this!"

Danny sighed and rushed forward to the cockpit. Hefty was standing at the door way with his finger pointed to where the pilot seat should have been. "What the hell is this?" Hefty said.

Danny looked where the finger was pointing and immediately observed the issue. There was no pilot seat. In fact there was no co-pilot seat either Both of the forward pilot seats had been removed and replaced with a trashy, yet comfortable looking couch. It looked like it would be more at home in someones basement home theater than in the cockpit of a light freighter but there it was.

Runt rushed in behind them to see what was going on. When he saw the couch, he started to chuckle under his breath. "Told you... awesome."

Danny signaled for Runt to shut it then shurgged his shoulders and Hefty. "We don't have time to find another ride. Just do what you can."

The explosives expert growled slightly and climbed over the back of the couch to sit at the pilots controls. He began the process of powering up the ship and fed the code to open the hanger doors which began to slide apart. Tank walked into the cockpit and sat in one of the passenger seats, linking his datapad up to the ships nava-computer.

Danny ran back to the boarding ramp and hit the button to start it closing. This was going to be interesting.

[Deleted]

Ambellina walked through the ship as though she was hesitant to touch anything. When she got to the cockpit she stopped dead, eying the couch. However, she reluctantly stepped over the back of it and lowered herself into the seat with Hefty. She set herself to observing the controls, using her incredible intelligence to figure out what everything was by watching Hefty and making her own inferences.

"Do you need me to do anything, Hefty?"

[MikDaTv]

"Yeah" Hefty said. "Run through the preflight checklist as fast as you can, then jump on the sensors and find me a hole through traffic."

Outside, two more combat droids scurried there way through the door they had come through and brought their shields up and started blasting at the underside of the ship. Danny made sure the boarding ramp stayed closed. "Hef!" he shouted. "I don't want to rush you or anything..."

"I'm working on it" Hefty growled as he brought the engines fully online and started up the ships repulsorlifts.

Runt dropped his rifle and ran back towards the ships lounge and started to climb down the ladder into the belly gun. He climbed into the gunnery chair and pressed his throat mic. "Hefty, just lift us off and get me an angle. I'm in the belly gun."

Hefty grunted again and pulled back on the yolk. "Everyone fasten your seat belts!" He hauled the yolk left, turning the ship to port until it's nose was pointed into the hanger.

Runt smiled as the two droids came into view. He sighted them in the electronic gun sights on the belly turret and pulled the trigger. A series of automatic laser cannon shots rang out from the belly gun and completely vaporized the droids. Danny breathed a sigh and headed towards the maintenance section of the ship to check on the engines. It was then that he noticed the faint sound of Come Fly With Me by Frank Sinatra playing over the ships loudspeakers. He briefly wondered who had owned this ship before them and continued to the rear of the ship.

Hefty backed them out of the hanger bay and flipped the ship around to make a break for orbit.