Home Again Home Again, Dinkity Dink.

[MikDaTv]

Runt pointed to the throat mic around her neck and then up to his ear. "As long as your within range of a civilized system you won't be alone... well at least not out of earshot."

Runt accepted the little thing though. He reached under his collar and undid the seal that kept his helmet air tight. It released with a hiss and he slid his helmet off. "We don't put much into this good luck sentimentality stuff but i'll hang on to it if if makes you feel better."

He reached down to his belt and produced his pocket roll of duct tape and tore off a smalle length of it. Using the tape, he stuck the bit of silver to the top of his helmet and then put the head bucket back on. "Safest place in the galaxy."

[Deleted]

Leaning forward, Ambellina laid a kiss on Runt's cheek.

"Thank you. It means a lot to me. I'm not so sure that your brothers would be so receptive to the idea. What do you think?"

The young woman had been in fist-fights, knife-fights, and fire-fights without flinching, but she was not immune to the fear of rejection. She did not want them to think that she was silly.

[MikDaTv]

"They'd be as receptive as me, which is not very much. We were trained to trust in our training and each other, not luck." Runt said. "But they'd do it for you." Runt shrugged and grabbed his datapad. "You saved Senior, which means you saved all of us."

[Deleted]

Looking into the clone's dark visor with soft eyes, Ambellina nodded. She couldn't see his face, but could tell that he was just as devoted to his work as his brothers were.

"You are going to have to stop thanking me for that someday...I think I'll divide the Rose more once they have settled in."

Ambellina laid her head on the shoulder of Runt's armor and closed her eyes. Though she had only known them for a few days, she felt as though she could trust Gray Team. They were the closest thing she had had to family since her mentors had abandonned her.

[MikDaTv]

Runt didn't know what to do. Social interaction on this kind of a level was not something they had covered in training. Runt just shook his head. "Only time we'll stop thanking you for that is if we forget it, and my brothers and I have almost total recall so that's not likely to happen."

"RUNT!" Came the shout of Senior from the corridor. The NCOIC walked into the lounge with his helmet under his arm. "Where is my action plan?"

"Senior, we have at least 48 hours before we get to Kashyyyk. You'll have your action plan long before then." Runt said back to him. "Whats the rush?"

"The rush is I told you to do something but your playing patty cake instead." Senior said to him. "We need time to review it, adjust it, make it fit. In other words we need it today. Start writing."

Runt smiled inside his helmet. "Ok dad."

Tank walked out of the cockpit. "The fake transponder is working fine. The tech that put it in did a good job." He stretched his shoulders out a little bit. Keeping his arms extended over his head like that for a time while he examined the device had caused his back to tighten up a little. "How are the supplies?"

Senior gave a thumbs up. "Just fine. The paint on them is just about dry. Doing a pass to set up weapon caches like that was a good idea Tank."

Tank laughed inside his helmet. "Wasn't me. Thank Runt. It was his idea. I just suggested it before he did."

Runt was already on the heels of that joke by pointing his thumbs back towards his chest. "Thats right, this guy. Put that in your action plan and smoke it."

Senior reached out and gave Runt a tap on the head with the helmet gripped in his hand before moving for the cockpit. "I'm going to go hang out with Hefty. At least he knows how to shut up."

Tank smiled and took his helmet off. Placing it next to him on the booth, he sat down next to Runt. "You need help writing up your action plan?" He asked the sniper.

Runt shook his head. "No, i wrote it up last night, right after we got the details for the mission. I just like watching him get all red and inflated."

[Deleted]

As Tank sat down Ambellina removed the rose from her bag again, plucking another petal from it. She offered it to him.

"Run told me that you do not subscribe to trinkets of sentimentality, but...This is a petal of the Rose of Orlais. On my homeworld it is separated between comrades, so that wherever they may carry it they will know that they are not truly alone. It would mean a lot to me if you accepted it."

[MikDaTv]

"She gave me one too." Runt said. "In fact she gave me one first. Do you know what that means? That means i'm the favorite."

Tank punched Runt in the shoulder and looked down at the shard of silver being offered him. He shrugged and took it from her. "For you, of course." He placed the silver petal in a pouch on his belt.

Up in the cockpit, Senior was just settling down into the co-pilot seat. Hefty had finished his power up checklist and was getting clearance from the ATC for takeoff. "I got the course laid in. We should be at Shili in about 15 hours, Kashyyyk another 24 after that"

[Deleted]

Kissing Tank on the cheek and smiling warmly, Ambellina continued on into the cockpit, plucking two more petals from the Rose and offering them to Senior and Hefty.

"Petals of the Rose of Orlais. It would mean quite a bit to me if you would accept them. This way I will know that no matter how far away our paths may take us, we will never be truly alone."

Ambellina waited expectantly. If the other two were any indication, her gifts would be accepted with little hesitation. She had recently realized how much the Grays meant to her, and was extremely comforted by the fact that they were partaking in the splitting of the Rose.

[MikDaTv]

Hefty and Senior looked at each other for a moment. They couldn't see through the visors of their helmets but they both knew the other had a raised eyebrow.

Hefty was the first to accept the silver petal, followed quickly after by Senior. They placed the bits of silver in their survival packs. Senior was about to turn around and warn Sapphire about the dangers of sentimentality on the battlefield but the com lit up before he could say anything. "Johnny 5, this is Murmansk Air Control. We've cleared the pattern for you and the minefield is disabled."

Hefty put power to the repulsors and lifted off the flight deck. "Understood Murmansk ATC." Danny said into the com as Hefty concentrated on flying. "We'll be underway in a moment."

Danny hung up the com and Hefty fed power from repulsors to the main engines and in moments they were outside, in the vacuum of space. They cleared the minefield and headed on an outbound vector out of the system. An element of two E-wings from Storm flight pulled up along side them and waggled their wings before peeling off and returning to their patrol pattern.

Senior locked the autopilot in for their vector and stood by on the throttles. Hefty turned around in his chair and looked at Sapphire. "Well. I'm informed that Hawk gave you some of those new target strobes for the fighters to target but you might not be able to put them in a visible place. You might need to blow something up first hand."

Hefty smiled inside his helmet and stood up. Senior had the helm, he could fly the ship just fine. Hefty slid over the back of the couch so he could sit down in one of the passenger seats. "What do you know about improvising explosives?"

[Deleted]

As the two soldiers in the cockpit were still wearing their helmets, Sapphire refrained from kissing them. She turned to Hefty to answer his question.

"I know enough to improvise a grenade or two...nothing about heavy ordinances."

This was a problem that Ambellina had forseen. She had asked for explosives, but they would be hard to sneak planet-side. However, the strobes would be more difficult to place.

[MikDaTv]

"Grenades are good." Hefty said. "For the big stuff, just drop one of them IR strobes on it. They're nice little gizmos. Small, and nondescript. They almost look like little electrical outlet boxes. Just peel the sticky side and stick it to a flat surface that can be seen from the air. They hide in plain sight perfectly and even if suspicion is raised, no one knows what they are."

Hefty pulled out his datapad and started a search for his favorite chemicals. "But say you need to take out a platoon strength group of goons right away. There's nothing better than one of your home spun grenades attached to some jugs of Chlorine and ammonia."

Hefty went on to describe the process of making lung melting gas from household chemicals.

Danny waited until they were clear of their gravity wells and touched the throttles up to full. The Johnny 5 jumped to hyperspace and was gone.