Brave New World (Open)

[Deleted]

Luckily for everyone involved, the readouts on the different instruments were not too difficult to figure out, and everything was safely within operational perameters, though it did take The Lady longer than it would have taken a trained pilot to check everything. Ambellina strapped herself to the couch, even though doing so made her feel unclean.

"Everything is in order...bringing up the traffic scanner now..."

Ambellina sifted through the information quickly. On average she read about three times as quickly as the next person.

"It appears as though we're in luck...there are quite a few recent departures from the system by the regular Empire crowd. This lane is open, especially if we hit it hard."

The young woman pointed out the best route. During the silence in which she was directing Hefty, she heard the music and resisted the urge to run her palm over her face.

[MikDaTv]

Danny came forward into the lounge just as Runt was climbing out of the belly gun. Danny pointed his head to the intercom music and shook his head.

Runt smiled. "At least it's not the theme to the Love Boat."

Danny had to agree. There were worse options. "Or Fireball." He said.

Over in the cockpit, Hefty pulled on the yolk to guid the ship towards the indicated route that Lady had pointed at. She told him to hit it hard and that is exactly what he planned to do. He pushed the throttles up and the ship lurched forward at surprising speed. Hefty even had to pull them back a little in order to keep better control. In just a few moments they were in low orbit, blending in with the planets regular traffic. Or at least blending in as much as a bright orange freighter can blend in.

Tank unplugged his datapad from the ships computer and sat back in his chair behind Tank and Lady. "The ships registered as the Johnny 5. I've put our coordinates into the navigation computer, just fly there and wait."

Hefty nodded and put them on course. He breathed a sigh and let himself relax a little into the couch. Danny and Runt walked in and leaned over the passenger seats. Runt was extatic. "We just escaped one of the most heavily guarded planets in the galaxy by stealing a bright orange freighter with a couch instead of a pilot seat and a soundtrack playing over the intercom. I can't wait to write up a mission report. This is awesome."

[Deleted]

"Whoever modified this vessel in such a way was clearly not altogether sane..."

Turning to observe the rest of the cockpit, she spotted the pulley system and the look on Runt's face.

"Folie à deux, it would seem..."

Her severe expression then lightened, however, and she let out a slight sigh as she unbuckled herself and began to remove her combat vest.

"I suppose it was a good day's work, though..."

[MikDaTv]

Hefty laughed when Lady insinuated that Runt was sharing in the delusion of whoever had modified the ship. Runt just pouted and sat down in the other passenger seat. Danny just smiled at him and remained standing in the back.

Hefty returned his attention to the ships controls and pulled the throttles back to nothing, then applied some forward thrust to stop them in relation to the planet behind them. "We're at the coordinates." Hefty said.

Danny reached under his arm pressing a finger into his left armpit. "Locators on." He said.

The other Commando's did the same, reaching under their left arm and pressing their fingers into their armpit and holding it for a few moments. There was a beep in their ear implants to let them know that the small subdermal, short range beacons installed in their shoulders were now actively broadcasting their location on a encrypted, short wave radio frequency.

After only a few seconds there com system came to life with a encrypted channel. "Tank." Danny said pointing to the com.

"Oh, sorry." Tank said before plugging his datapad in and uploading his encryption key to the com computer.

The com went from giberish static to a clear voice. "Attention Gray Team. Your locators have been spotted. Adjsut coarse to Zero Nine Zero Mark four five relative. Maintain present speed and lower landing struts."

Hefty pulled on the landing strut lever and turned the ship to starboard ninety degrees and nosed the ship downward forty five degrees. The voice on the radio waited until they were in the desired position before resuming instruction. "Standby for capture Gray Team. Welcome aboard the Romulus."

A few seconds later, the empty space in front of them shown in a brillient slit of light that slowly widened. Like some kind of strange window in space, a hanger deck appeared before them that closed the distance and swallowed them up. The Ranger PMC was in possession of the Romulus a ship which possessed the Galaxies foremost stealth technology. Cloaking device, heat sinks, gravtiy blinders, sensor absorbent material, everything. The perfect ship to send deep into enemy territory to pick up a wayward ground team.

Hefty set the Johnny 5 down on the flight deck of the Romulus and began power down proceedures. Danny patted Hefty on the shoulder. "Home again, home again. Nice flying Hef. Team, final checks, then assemble on the flight deck for debrief. I want full mission reports in 3 hours. Make sure to check your spelling Runt."

Runt and Tank got up and rushed out of the cockpit. Hefty went through the final landing checklist step by step and Danny hung around to talk to Ambellina. "You'd best come to Ma'am. Pretty sure our superior will want to get at least a verbal report from you."

[Deleted]

There it was...the thing that rubbed against Ambellina's nature: Authority. She had grown very much used to being on her own in the time since she had been left by Mariah and Leliana. This maverick way of thinking had been beaten into her since she was thirteen years old. However, for the time being she knew that she would have to play along.

"Of course, anything for the men that just saved my life."

Ambellina gave a sweet smile and stepped over the back of the couch, heading for the loading ramp, carrying her vest on one arm and unloading its contents back into her own bag.

[MikDaTv]

((OOC: Sorry, this will be a long one.))

Danny, Runt, Hefty and Tank walked down the boarding ramp of the Johnny 5 and stood on the flight deck of the Romulus. It wasn't a huge space as the cruiser sized ship was small for it's class but there was plenty of room to house the Light Freighter and other various forms of equipment.

A man wearing the basic operational uniform, but bearing no name tape, rank insignia or identifying marks of any kind approached them. Danny and the rest of Gray Team saluted in perfect unison. "Colonel."

The man in ODU’s returned the salute. “At ease Gray Team. I can’t wait to hear this one.”

The Grays dropped their salute and relaxed their stance. “Report mission failure Sir. None of our original mission parameters were met except for making contact with the Lone Gunmen. We have no excuse.”

The Colonel looked from one end of the four man team to the other. “Failure? You failed to disrupt the Imperial military infrastructure in any way? I find that hard to believe.”

Danny shook his head. “Our team was compromised within the first operational phase. A Sith showed up and interrupted the plan. It took considerable effort to retreat from her. We only managed to do it because we had some civilian help.” Danny, despite knowing that Ambellina said she was an assassin, he wanted to withhold that information as long as possible. He didn’t know what the Colonel would do with that information. Danny would eventually have to put it in his report in the interest of full disclosure but there was no reason he had to mention it now. Plus it was true that she was a civilian as far as he knew.

“I see.” The Colonel said. “Any injuries?”

Danny nodded. “Myself. Some broken ribs, maybe other internal injuries and a blaster graze on my arm. Nothing serious, all patched up in the field by our field medic.”

“Very well. I want full mission reports by tomorrow. Who is this Civilian that helped you?” Colonel asked, eyeing Ambellina over Danny’s shoulder.

“Code Name: Lady. She proved to be invaluable on our escape. I can vouch for her trustworthiness. She risked her life helping us against a Sith.” Danny said quickly.

The Colonel eyed Ambellina a little more before returning his attention to Danny. “Trustworthy eh? We’ll talk about that in private. For now, get your men squared away and get me your reports. I’ll tell the OOD to have a passenger room made up for our unexpected guest.”

Danny nodded and Saluted. The Colonel returned the salute and then walked away. Gray Team let out a collective breath and turned around to handle their own gear. “What happened to the Captain?” Runt said. “I liked him a lot better.”

Tank took his vest off and started removing all his gear from the pockets. “He’s on the Halcyon where he’s supposed to be Runt.”

“We can’t talk to the big boss after every mission Runt.” Danny said. “Although I have to agree… this guy’s got a stick up his but about something.”

Tank pointed to Lady. “What about her. We can’t lie on our mission reports. Once he reads them he’ll know he has an Assassin on board. What do you think he’ll do with that information?”

Danny hand signaled sharply for him to shut up but it was too late. Danny didn’t want her to hear that. “We’ll see what he does but let’s maintain some composure here. Right now the Colonel is our CO and the CO of this ship. He’s not a member of an official government though. This is a Private Military Company on a privately owned warship. He’s not under any legal obligations.”

Hefty raised a finger. “But that information is still pretty valuable.”

“This isn’t the time or the place for this discussion. Pack your gear and write up your reports. If it becomes a problem we’ll talk directly to the Captain. I doubt he’ll stand for any kind of harsh treatment of guests aboard one of his vessels.” Danny said. He turned and looked Ambellina directly in the eye. “Don’t worry Ma’am. You helped us out, and we’re not going to let you down.”

The four of them nodded in unison.

[Deleted]

"I appreciate it greatly and am indebted to you and your team, Senior."

Ambellina had finished unloading her vest and handed it to the team leader. If she was tired from the endeavors of the day, it did not show in the bright smile that she gave while thanking the men. Walking down the line, she kissed each one gently on the cheek.

[MikDaTv]

Danny accepted the vest and tossed it in with the rest of their gear. After getting the thank you kiss on the cheek they turned back to packing it in.

Runt was smiling. "She kissed me." He whispered to Hefty.

"She kissed all of us moron." Hefty replied.

"She kissed me better." Runt said back. Hefty replied by smacking him upside the head and pointing to their rifle bag.

Runt shut up and started loading his rifle into the bag. Danny unclipped his vest and laid it down with the others, then unloaded his pistol but kept the weapon in his gunbelt. He stood up and faced Ambellina. "Come on, lets go find you some suitable quarters."

[Deleted]

"Certainly..."

Nodding to the other three members of Gray Team, Ambellina threaded her arm through Senior's, settling her pack over shoulder.

"This is a nice ship. I hope it would not be inappropriate to say that I look forward to exploring it while I'm here."

Of course Ambellina would explore it whether she was permitted to or not. It was just how she was.

[MikDaTv]

((OOC: If you don't mind, i'll jump us out of Coruscant and the thread can be continued in hyperspace.))

"Maybe not the best idea ma'am. The Romulus is kind of... special." Danny said, guiding her down the hall. "It's a stealth ship as you saw and extremely valuable. The Colonel won't be happy to find out a civilian is wandering his super secret ship."

He brought her down to the personnel deck, all the way to the end where he tapped a few keys on one of the empty room's door controls. The door to the room slid open. It was a very simple officers quarters with a refresher room attached. One bed, a foot locker under the bed and a small desk against one wall. Given the size constraints on warships, it was comparable to a medium class hotel room. Gray Team for instance would have a room about the same size but for all four of them to live in instead of just one.

* * *

Colonel Ryan stood on the bridge of the Romulus. Sensor data was feeding into their computers, giving them their exact position since with the cloaking field activated, any visual data they acquired was inaccurate.

"Course plotted Skipper. We're ready." The helmsman said.

The Colonel double checked the figures real quick before looking up to the helmsman from his command chair. "Make the jump."

The Romulus leaped forward, accelerating quickly to the speed of light. It's cloaking field dropped and all of it's stealth systems shut down as power was shunted into the hyperdrive. The ship winked out of existance, making the jump from real space to hyperspace.