Star Wars: A New Dawn

"Sit down grab some." Ford said dishing a Nerf Steak and some wedges onto his plate.

Hunter joined them digging in.

Saltatha gave an inquisitive growl towards Hunter.

"He wants to know how you like it." Ford said before taking a sip.

"Not bad" Hunter shrugged

Saltatha finished his food and he stood up clearing the table for Ford and Hunter once they finished.

-----

Luke nodded. "I agree, stay behind then. There's a war going on though Neri, you can stay with me and help fight it while the others track down this Sith Lord."

"Absolutely," Neri replied, "I'll be right there alongside you. I'm afraid that with everything that's happening I may also have to give up trying to get my apprentice back."

"We will find her during the course of this war." Luke said. "But she may not be the girl you once knew. You may need to prepare yourself to let her go, and to let Cervana go as well. I know my father was able to be turned back to the Light but sometimes people are too far gone."

"I don't think I can let you kill her though luke. Whatever happens avoid coming face to face with her."

"That was better than I expected" Hunter said

Ford sat in his quarters on the Katari meditating. He began to see a vision.

He was on a landing platform, there was fire all around him. A great battle raged around him, across from him stood a familiar figure. Davik.

Ford turned around seeing a shadowy figure, the figure ignited a red lightsaber. Ford was between Davik and this Darkness. Ford ignited his own saber, it flickered and turned off. He looked seeing the shadow close to him now he looked back Davik was gone the shadow's hand grabbed Ford's throat gripping it tightly forcing him to his knees.

Ford's eyes shot open as he panted, he was sweating now. He signed and sat back. "What is happening to me..." He asked himself.

Ink wrote:

Kitty sizes Beta up. "Well, the Duranium is tough, but we're gonna be up against some seriously heavy hitters. Maybe throw in a personal shielding system. And we can make his rocket arm transformable to he can have two functioning hands. Speaking of which, we can make his hands more... hand-like. You know, so he can actually handle stuff instead of just awkwardly gripping. Oh! And a data port! And maybe fix his blaster so he can alter the intensity and use it for welding. All some pretty simple stuff."

Beta chatters in droidspeak some more as Kitty lightly punches him in the arm.

"Ooh! Flamethrower with alternating intensity. There's an idea," Kitty says. "You really are part battle droid."

Ena grinned, rapping her knuckles against her armor twice. "You can leave the armor to me," she said proudly. "There's nothing I'm better with." She pulled a few pieces of Duranium from the armor stocks in the bay, looking them over for structural flaws or imperfections. "As far as the personal shielding goes, I'm not sure we can justify the energy expenditure involved in having those. We might be better off investing in foldout electro-claws, like a grapple-droid. That way, Beta can at least have a defense against lightsabers, electrostaffs, force pikes, and the like. Between his armor and the claws, regular blaster shots shouldn't be a problem."

Ena listened to Beta's droidspeak, and couldn't resist snarking at Kitty's response.  "Well, we have a choice now. Alternating blaster with the chance of blowing something up, or alternating flamethrower and accidentally setting the ship on fire. I wonder which one is worse in an enclosed  space with three master mechanics?"

Kitty pouts. "Fine. But claws won't do him any good with his speed," she says. "Ooh! Maybe maneuvering thrusters! That'll do the trick!" She taps on Beta's back as well. "I can tweak your jetpack a little while we're on it, too. If you deal with the armor, I can work on his firepower." She grins as she holds his blast arm out in front of her, snickering.

Jil steps into the doorway, leaning against it and observing. "Please be careful with that. I'd like to not have to treat anyone until after we've at least gotten through one mission," she jests.

Jarik walked up behind Jil. "Making ourselves a walking death machine are we?"

Ena smiled and gave a nod to Jarik. "Given the sort of opponents we're going to be up against, a walking death machine can only come in handy. Plus, he's cute. We don't want him getting hurt."

She picked up a few pieces of Duranium and a few other metallics, fiddling with each one to try and determine the ideal composite. Let's see... Duranium for the shell, obviously. Next, he'll want something more heat resistant around the thrusters, so carbide durasteel is probably the best choice. A few high quality ceramics around the more delicate circuitry, and probably phrik, layered similarly to trauma plates, to give him some protection against electrical overload from weaponry.

It was then that Ena noticed something odd with the armor. She could see all of the structural imperfections, minor though they were, as well as how she wanted each piece to fit together. No... perhaps it would be more accurate to say how each piece of armor would fit together best, rather than how she wanted it.

"Again with this," she muttered, rubbing her temples. "Mechu-deru isn't supposed to do things like this." She turned away from her work momentarily, eyeing the Cathar as she carefully weighed her words. "Jil... I feel like I should apologize. Back on Byss, I made a comment about your plan being 'just the Jedi's style'. And... I felt that it... not quite upset, but annoyed you. And I'm sorry for that." Ena awkwardly scratched the back of her head, not really sure how best to put it. "It might seem like such a small thing, but I never meant to offend you. So, I'm sorry."

***

Serra lounged absently in the Captain's chair aboard the Requiem. She'd ordered the group to split up and get aboard her ship or the Katari, but she hadn't cared enough to specify which ones went where.

"Commander Praestylin, status report?" she asked languidly.

"Reactors running at maximum efficiency," her grey-haired, hawk-eyed 2IC reported. "Weapons systems at full. Shields spinning up... no problems. Troop complement at capacity; all essential personnel accounted for."

"And our guests?"

"Master Sazen and Major-1 are aboard, ma'am. The rest are taking their time."

"Not really surprising," Serra said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "Given how important this mission is, I'd put money on the fact that everyone is preparing as much as possible to make this go off without a hitch."

Praestylin raised an eyebrow at that. "Is it really so important?"

"Honestly, Emmett? The fate of the galaxy could literally rest of the success or failure of our mission." Her calculating steely eyes slid over to her frozen second. "In the event that I'm deployed on a ground mission, you're going to be in control of the Requiem. Can you handle that?"

The corner of the Commander's mouth turned up into a slight smirk. "...honestly ma'am, under your command, I've handled worse than the end of the galaxy as we know it."

That actually drew a bark of laughter out of the normally stoic Serra. "Still upset about the time I made you jump to hyperspace through an asteroid field at Praikth?"

"I'm fairly sure there will never come I time when I'm not upset about that traumatic experience."

***

Tamil was just finished putting his luggage case under his bunk on the Requiem when a shiver of warning from the Force went down his spine. He stiffened up momentarily, then flopped over onto the bed with a groan. "Oh god. Our new pilot is even more reckless than Ena..."

***

A transmission from Calspur came through to Desir's shuttle. "Darth Desir," the black-furred Nalroni said, inclining his head fractionally in what amounted to a gesture of respect from him. "Your landing on Anzat has been secured. You and your party can meet up with us at your leisure. I've already taken the liberty of scouting a few temples discreetly, and we can safely cross those off the list."

"Good, I shall be arriving within the hour." Désir said. "I shall see you soon." She said before ending the comm. She looked to her ship's captain. "Engage the cloaking device, we can't have anyone knowing we're here."

"Yes my lady." The captain said before issuing orders for the Ziost to make it's final approach.

"Do you think we'll meet much resistance?" Talia asked coming up next to Désir.

"Anzat may be in Republic space but it's mostly controlled by criminals and assassins, we won't have much trouble from them." Désir said.

-----

Jarik nodded sizing the droid up. "He'll be of great use I'm sure." He said. "Curious how a B2 got Astromech programming though."

EonArashi wrote:

A transmission from Calspur came through to Desir's shuttle. "Darth Desir," the black-furred Nalroni said, inclining his head fractionally in what amounted to a gesture of respect from him. "Your landing on Anzat has been secured. You and your party can meet up with us at your leisure. I've already taken the liberty of scouting a few temples discreetly, and we can safely cross those off the list."

Quinn puts herself in the way before Desir can close out the comm. "Doggy!" she says, as she slips into view. "How are you, boy? Have you learned any new tricks?" She feigns a pout for a moment. "Oh. I wish I'd thought to bring you some treats. There were plenty of them just lying around on my last mission."

The Captain wrote:

"Anzat may be in Republic space but it's mostly controlled by criminals and assassins, we won't have much trouble from them." Désir said.

"Dessie should know," Quinn chimes, looking to Desir over her should. "Once she came here on a mission and killed a whole family of assassins with the Inquisition. All but one. Have you seen her lately, Dessie? She made Lord Maeror so very angry, but I miss her. Next time we see her, we should all play a really fun game."

---

Jil looks up upon being spoken to. "Huh? You felt... oh. Uh... it's no problem. I probably shouldn't get irritated by something so small anyway. No worries." She leans against her staff while observing the girls at work.

"No idea how he got it, but so much the better," Kitty says. "All it does is make him more versatile. We can add hardware to this sucker that a normal B2 couldn't make use of. Besides. The more heavy infantry on the ground with you guys, the better, right? What could be better Heavy Infantry than a six foot death bot?"

"Are you sure you're just a smuggler?" Jil asks.

"Plop a shield generator on him and he'd be nearly unstoppable." Jarik smiled.

-----

Désir smiled. "If she's still alive. We'll have plenty of people for you to play with shortly Quinn."

Cervana had escaped but barely. She now knew that she was on her own, and it angered her. She would take her rage out, no longer on the woman but the child that held both Maeror and Angalacon's attention. It would need to be done carefully for Case was right by his side.

Qui Gonn decided to go find Luke, he was starting to have second thoughts about helping. They seemed to have more than enough people to fight their war.

Ena waved off Jarik's comment. "Can't justify how much energy that would take. We're giving him electro-claws and better armor than a T4-B MBT instead." She linked up the last of the armor supports and hooked in the new chassis, then gave Beta a pat on the arm. "Now we just have to get those thrusters installed, and you'll have some brand-new armor all to yourself."

***

"Woof woof," Cal said amusedly, mouth quirking up in a fang-filled smirk. "If it isn't Daddy's Little Princess. Long time, no see. And no worries. Given the way this mission is likely to go, I'll likely be full up on 'treats' before it's over."

"If we could stop somewhere that I could get my hands on some better resources, I could totally work on adjusting him to make him generally more energy efficient," Kitty says.

Beta chatters in droidspeak.

"Sure thing, big guy! Just a few minor tweaks and and there and you'll be golden."

"Kitty, if he's worried about blowing up, maybe you should just let it rest," Jil says. "Is it even possible to increase the output without compromising efficiency?"

Kitty glares at Jil through the corner of her eye. "You underestimate my power," she says. She closes the hatch on Beta's arm.

A bit later, Kitty and Lazuli wrap up their modifications. Kitty claps her hands together. "There ya go, fella! Slick, shiny, and ready to whack some Sith!" She proceeds to stow her tools before trotting off. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a ship to pilot."

"Zora says Intel picked up traces of something near Bakura. She wants us to stop by there first," Jil says.

"Sure thing, Whiskers!" Kitty says.

"Did she just-..."

Beta chatters in droidspeak.

"Well I know she's not going to call ME Kitty, but of all the nicknames..."

In a matter of moments, Kitty sits up in the cockpit of the Raptor, prepping the ship for departure. The engines rise from a hum to a roar as the freighter preps to leave the hangar. "Next stop, Wild Space," Kitty says. "Hold on to your hats, cowboys." The instant the Raptor clears the hangar it bolts off into the void at hyperspeed.

---

"I can't wait to see you, again, Doggy. We can play fetch, like before! I just have to find a dolly I don't mind getting all messed up," Quinn says.

Jarik was in his quarters now, getting ready for their stop at Bakura.

-----

Ford and Saltatha were in the cockpit of the Katari preparing for departure.

Cassus had loaded his things onto the Requiem finding himself a bunk.

prydeman wrote:

Qui Gonn decided to go find Luke, he was starting to have second thoughts about helping. They seemed to have more than enough people to fight their war.

Luke was speaking with a couple Jedi near the Jedi shrine on Dac.

Qui Gon headed for Luke ignoring the other Jedi "Hey Skywalker, we need to talk."

Luke glanced over at Qui-Gon then to the other Jedi. "Excuse us for a moment." He said before turning to Qui-Gon as they others left. "What can I do for you Tytus?"