Here Be Dragons [ORC Dominion of Drexel]

[Ria Misrani]

"You cannae run foreva!" A pirate shouted after Ria, but boy were they ever wrong! Ria could run, she could definitely run it was the one thing she always did as a cat. Great for conditioning but honestly, she wouldn't recommend anyone dying and being put into a cat. Her feet hit the sand kicking dirt up behind her once more a hand on a log as she vaulted over it. Landing on both feet she kept going, and to think Ria Misrani could have been human again a lot sooner had Ashin Varanin actually remembered that she had Ria's DNA on file. Yeah, who would have ever thought that Ashin would have just y'know forgotten? The former/current/still Sith Lady admitted that perhaps it was due to her age that she forgot, for y'know two years. No big deal, and to be honest Ria did enjoy being pampered and being the center of attention and running whenever Spencer jingle jangled a bag of potato chips.

But this? Running from pirates on the beach? Sounded like a terrible basis for a franchise and her feet.

At least until Ria ran into [member="Kaia Starchaser"], no, actually ran right into her full frontal.

"SON OF A HUTT!" Ria cursed as she put her hand over her face and realized she was arse in on the sand and the gang of pirates still chasing her.

"THAR SHE BE!"

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

It didn’t take much to get landed, Kaia was a pilot, and she knew how to get around the galaxy. Once her ship had touched down, it was time to get out of the hangar. She hated being planetside, but there was something in the Force that was calling out to her. A place she needed to be, and needed to be now. It wasn’t danger sense, nor someone calling out to her, maybe it was the Unifying Force. She couldn’t really place it. Drifter had been assigned to stay behind and deal with the unloading of the equipment, while Kaia took her pack, still in spacer gear, not feeling the need for armor, but definitely a side arm and her lightsaber, and hiked on out.

The beach was nice, like her father had said, where the people with a spacefaring spirit had gotten their start. Sailing for that horizon on vessels powered by wind, and sun.

Turning,though, with the Force directing her, that was when she was hit. Not hit. Not really, run over. Definitely much more run over. The petite dark haired woman fell to the ground and looked up. The blonde, pretty, was definitely in distress.

“Whats after you?” She assumed, she was running.

[member="Ria Misrani"]

 

[Zef Halo]

SAIL BARGE "BARONESS EORA"
DREXEL

The crew of the "Outcast Four", an ORC frigate of specialists in comms, sensors and scanners or what could be called electronic warfare, had been deployed on Drexel to aid the efforts against the signal jammers pirates had set up possibly driving the native Sea dragons mad. Ember wasn't really an official crew member but neither was he exiled or isolated from the rest. He was just different because he was a Jedi. While a specialist in electronics himself, the Jedi Knight had another priority to venture here with the Outcast Four.

[member="Ijaat Mereel"].

The mysterious Mandalorian who had arrived with Jedi Master Orn Pharr to save the day in the caves of Utapau had pinged him a few weeks earlier and a meeting of the two was set to...here. Drexel. Ijaat had been laconic in his invitation, so Ember remained with no knowledge of what the meeting would be about. He had heard a lot about the man and had used the last weeks to research as much as information as there was available that Ember could realistically find but nothing concluded what could be the purpose of their meeting.

Nonetheless, he had learned from Pharr and Ijaat, himself, about the Mandalorian in that plane of separate existence they ventured on Utapau to save Mishel from the Dark. It was information in the form of feelings. Mereel, Ember could describe, seemed as a man with the weight of a thousand lifetimes on his shoulders. A man molded in chaos but learned to control it.

Or that was what the Jedi Knight assumed going by that event on Utapau.

The cool breeze on the hot summer sun caressed the crew of the "Baroness Eora", a sailing barge belonging to a smuggler in ORC space who 'donated' it for this mission only. Men and women of all species worked together on rather old 'appliances' in a collaborative effort against the pirates.

A tickling sense at the back of his head told the Jedi that Ijaat Mereel may very soon arrive.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective 1: Pirates
Location: Drexel

"I'm hit!" Curtain, the pilot of the mobility-killed fighter, shouted after taking a hit.

While, by and large, Villanova and Metronome were lucky not to be shot down, and, in fact, Janick had a glancing quad-laser blow to her craft that still left her shieldless, another one had a blow that caused both engines to be out of commission, but did not shoot down the craft outright. Hence mobility kill. With three large ion bombs still left to go on that craft, the impact against the pirate ship's hull was so hard that it was likened to Arvel Crynyd on the Executor on Endor. It also caused three rather large ion bombs to detonate inside the ship's hull, equivalent to detonating six standard ion bombs in the same spot, disabling the systems near the spot where Curtain crashed into the ship, with less damage further away. Sensing that crash, she regrouped along the arc where the crash occurred, alongside Villanova, while Griet and Metronome were opposite to the crash site and still exposed. One thing is for sure now: their shields were being drained and fast; while Griet and Metronome were engaged in evasive maneuvers to dodge incoming proton torpedoes, the bombs' detonation caused the proton torpedoes to be headed towards the ship itself.

"Come on: we have a window of opportunity for disabling the pirate ship, or even cause them to scuttle it!"

Spoiler

Attack craft:

11 Alakaha elite fighters

 

[Saffron]

In Orbit of Drexel
Arceneau Trade Company Frigate

Drexel, a wild world where spacer stories of beasts of legend spanned from one end of the ‘verse to the next. There was beauty in such an untamed world, but dangers as well. The Outer Rim Coalition was already in the process of trying to cull back the pirates that had made it their havan here.

“Are you sure of this plan, Mistress?” BeeThree, her protocol droid, came waddling in behind her. The flaps over his ocular sensors gave a disapproving swish.

“The odds of being swallowed alive by one of those creatures are --”

“It is alright, Bee Three.” Saffron replied with a soothing tone, her hand coming to rest alongside his shoulder. She gave the cool metal a small pat.

“We are just surveying the area from a safe distance for now. Let’s stay away from any of the fighting.” there was a chance that perhaps she’ll meet up with someone from the Outer Rim Coalition, but for now, they were simply going to deploy the drones to gather information on the world and what creatures they could find. The intent was to understand if Drexel could provide an opportunity for tourists to observe these creatures from a safe distance. If so, then construction of a station and a refueling port would be in the plans to ensure minimal impact to the world below.

 

[Sortz]

Objective 3: Find a legacy.
Allies: [member="Daro Tarsi"]

"Uuuuuuuhhhhhhh sec," she muttered, leaning over the control panel he swung out her way.

Honestly, she had no idea how she was with it until she started typing. Fingers too big to use the keypad Daro preferred comfortably, she was slower than she might have been, picking out each key carefully, one claw at a time. But it was with intent after the first one or two slow taks, the process picking up speed as she went.

"Okay, we just need to set up the relay between the Delilah and your-"

She stopped, looking up.

"Daro?"

The cockpit was empty.

Sortz sighed.

She found him in the engine room, and after explaining what needed to happen they set to work. It wasn't a quick process, not if he didn't want someone else to be able to remote slice into the Delilah in return.

When she'd mentioned that she didn't think she'd ever heard cursing so colourful, even from him.

So they took it slow, and the sun was already setting over the water by the time they were done.

 

[Arage Bao]

Objective 3: Find a legacy.
Allies: [member="Sortz"]

While Sortz went to figure things out on her end Daro had already gone into the engine room to start working on it.

Of course, that meant that once she came in, they had to spend even more time fixing his oversights. It only served to foul his mood more after that slicing remark. Not that that was her fault, so he did his best not to put that on her... too much. "Here, see? You cross the blue wire with the pink one, then it serves as a shortcut, that should give us.... four less seconds of delay." And the less delay they had between commands given through the digi-pad and received by the ship the better.

It would have been amazing if they could make it seamless.

But they didn't have any specialized equipment here.

All they had were their two brains, her brawn and a metric fethton of tape, what else did an outlaw tech really need? "You are really good at this, you know?" Daro finally managed to say once they started finishing up the job and closing down the wires.

"Couple of years and you might be better than me." Less, if he kept drinking at this rate, but Daro didn't want to think about that.

There was something about her... a natural talent. She got things so much faster than she had any right to. Complex equations and algorithms seemingly just being absorbed within the span of a single conversation and with no need for further explanations. It fascinated him- it also made him focus her less on the brawn jobs and more on his real work. The stuff that happened on the HoloNet and in between the datalines, where the real money was made.

That needed trust though.

Tough thing to have with Daro Tarsi.

 

[Nick Sept]

Objective: Get out of the jar, alongside objective 2.
Location: In a jar.


Nick Sept was annoyed. Not because of the humidity, or the air, or how loud everything was, but because he was stuck. In a jar. A small jar, no bigger than a human fist. And his strange, ghostly, not-quite-physical physique had been sealed in this jar by some cranky sorcerer. He wasn't even sure what planet he was on, he'd just been stuck in this jar for a while. His nose was itching. He didn't even have nerves, deep down he knew the nose itching was psychosomatic, he was a ghost in a jar, he didn't have a nose. Still, the time had come. He just needed the right time, for someone in a situation to open the seal, and boom, out in the air.


He heard...fighting? Somebody had said "crash" a while back. Now there was fighting. Maybe the weird crate he was supposed to be cargo in was debris now? He could be salvaged, that'd be nice. He didn't even know what system he was in. He was certain that weird old witch had sold him off as a souvenir. Feth her. Feth 'em all, honestly.


He frowned. "I deserve this," the ghost mumbled grumpily. "No cigarettes, no movement, no one to even bother. Great little budget version of hell," he mused, swirling in the jar. He smirked as he got a stupid idea--well, more of whimsical smoldering roil of smoke, but it felt like a smile. The Force got him into this mess. Maybe the Force could get him out. He meditated. Whispering words, hoping that maybe someone would hear them. Maybe. He hoped.


"Find me," the small, grey jar would seem to intone. "I can help."


(OOC: whomever wants to join in the fun, tag me and open the jar. One objectively awful genie, made to order.)

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective 1: Pirates

Pirates weren't panicking hard enough just yet, but their ship wasn't mission-killed just yet; however, with the ordnance loaded onboard the ORC's fighters, they couldn't do more to the pirate ship than mobility and firepower kills. Maybe a prison ship will come to collect these guys once their ship is disabled, she thought, while having a flashback of that botched mission of saving one Mishel Noren, but she initiated another pass with the aim at dive-bombing their command tower, hoping to disable their sensor array and their fire control systems, and maybe their engines as well. And the distraction caused by the flashback caused her to prematurely drop her bomb, and the ion bomb instead hits the bow, with more erratic maneuvers coming in, and a lot of near-misses. Of course, with the fire control already affected, the gunnery crews were having difficulty firing at the speedy fighters buzzing around the ship and dropping ion bombs all over it. She opens a channel to the ORC naval patrols, once the ship is disabled under the effects of dozens of ion bombs detonating against it over the course of a few short minutes:

"Prison authority, this is Alchemist Actual: I would like to have a prison transport ready to dispatch to Drexel: we have disabled a pirate ship"

Spoiler

Attack craft:

11 Alakaha elite fighters

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Joza Perl"]
#3

He kept his emotions relatively under control. He didn't need to give any extra ammo to a woman who already had more than enough. He looked straight ahead and noted they were already nearing Drexel.

"I would have married you sober." He said calmly but to be honest her snarky responses were enough to make him want to laugh.

He might have actually went through with it sober. And drunk he probably thought he was signing the tab but who could say.

"Not everyday you meet someone with a hook like yours." He continued probably signing his own lease as couch resident. "And you got the best pilot this side of the core. Win win if you ask me...which you didn't."

He killed the warning klaxon half a second before it went off and the stars appeared as long white lines before snapping into position while the giant blue planet appeared in the viewport.

"Here we are , dearest wife." He said and immediately regretted it, "Drexel."

He fired the sublight drives and began the trip to the planet. He had survived this part. Looked like his luck was holding for now.

 

[Saffron]

In Orbit of Drexel
Arceneau Trade Company Frigate

“We have deployed the drones, Mistress.” Bee Three would inform Saffron, his gold tinted chassis reflecting under the soft glow of the overhead light of the bridge.

“Thank you.” her eyes went drifting beyond the viewport. Off in the distance, one could see the ongoing fight between the Outer Coalition forces and those of the pirates.

“We will maintain our distance to ensure our safety.” BeeThree said, stating for his own concerns as well as hers.

A quiet nod was Saffron’s reply.

“What information do we have coming in?”

“It was a water world, home to the sentient Sea-dragons.” an endless water world.

“Do we have locations of their nesting grounds?”

“We are in the process of confirming that information.”

 

[Rakaan Horne]

DREXEL

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ORBIT, SMUGGLING VESSEL

"You're not very good at this." Spoke a gruff voice that came from a worn and torn Weequay, whether he was aged or that was just their stoney exterior, nobody could quite tell. Pirate clothing and insignia's were clearly apparent, as was the blaster pistol conveniently placed upon his hip.

"50,000. No more, no less." A slightly younger voice of a Human retorted, firm in it's delivery. There was no way he was going to waver on the price he set. "This spice is quality, some of the best we have." By we he meant those circulating in Shadow Town on Nar Shaddaa.

​Kole stood in a doorway, his hands over his head and resting upon the lip of it to keep himself from falling face forwards. It became increasingly common he left Nar Shaddaa these days. Never on personal trips, mind you, only the kind that landed you in big trouble if caught- maybe that's why they sent him. Kole didn't have too many friends, in fact he didn't have any. Just people he associated himself with, and even then it was with reluctance. His blues scanned the room, taking in the armed guards on both sides. These types of shipments often went well with pre-arranged prices, drop offs and collections. These pirates, however? They were interested in getting it dirt cheap and negating whatever pre-arranged price they provided. If Harper had one thing it was a bad feeling about this.

​A sudden movement from the pirate in charge, and everything seemed to move in slow motion...

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[Micah tol Powl]

THE PLANET DREXEL​

OBJ//2//EXPLORATION​

CODENAME: OPERATION BRING THE NOISE​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEOXCQj_Zvs​

Where was [member="Makai Dashiell"]?

The party brah was seriously slackalackin on the house party.

With the rave underway and the SoundLinks chained to the rythmn of the playlist that Zak had thrown together, the young Nautolan temporarily abdicated his disk jockey throne. Sliding underneath the turntable, the small youngling slid out onto the dance floor.

A glowing baton twirled in either hand, the boy's entire body in motion perfectly timed to the beat that resonated through the water.

A swirl of bubbled hugged around his slight form, as the child spiraled upward. In an instant, he was the spectacle at the center of the dance floor. And Zak couldn't have claimed to have felt even a single eye on him. He was, instead, lost to the music. Every movement blurring the line between where the music ended and the Nautolan began.

The party was doing down on Drexel.

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective 1: Pirates

It turned out that the jammers were, in fact, so deeply fried that they would need to be disposed of to ensure that the hulks wouldn't cause problems to the planet's residents. When the prison ship arrived, it also tractored the jammers in, and not simply attempt to seize the pirate ship which was in no condition to fight back, although it wasn't per se shot down; however, the effects of the pirates' own missiles being fooled by the gigantic flares the ORC called ion bombs assuredly caused some hull damage and some casualties, and some of them being vented out in the process, and others running out of air. Hopefully the ship could be repaired and patrol somewhere else in ORC territory since the ORC Navy tended to use captured, reconditioned pirate ships on the more routine patrol jobs, and sometimes catching a pirate or two off-guard. And yet Janick and her squadron simply circled around and around in space while the remainder of the dirty work was performed inside the pirate ship by the police. That was too quick to be true; however, these guys were using heat-seeking missiles; practical in space, given the sheer cold of the background noise, but not as much in atmo, she thought.

Spoiler

Attack craft:

11 Alakaha elite fighters

 

[Rakaan Horne]

DREXEL

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ORBIT, SMUGGLING VESSEL

The Pirate's left hand sliced through the air, diving downwards towards his own hip. Within the leather holster that rest on his exotic belt was a blaster pistol, and it's that item in which his open palm so desperately desired. An expression of smug fury rest upon his face with gritted teeth. Some were just more inclined to violence, unwilling to cooperate with their fellow man to achieve a mutual agreement. Kole couldn't quite blame people who were like that, it's just who they were, and when it's so much easier to take then why not? Decency? This was the Outer Rim. It didn't exist all that much.

Red lasers pierced the air around the men and women inside the vessel. It's grey walls weren't going to be as spotless as they are now in a few moments. Volleys were exchanged, and flesh seared away with their items of clothing, pained expressions and the glare of dead men stared into one's soul. When in such close range there was never much left over. It was a deadlock fight, or so it seemed. Individuals scrambled for cover whilst those in the open were cut down where they stood.

When superheated energy tore through the air there wasn't a lot to think about, really. Some felt inclined to shoot back into it, but those were often the ones who had the armoured protection- like, say, a Mandalorian. Kole, though? A man in simply clothing with a blaster pistol resting in his back pocket, not even in a holster? Well, you can sure bet he ducked away with an expression of shock slapped across his face. Laser tearing past him, scorching the wall in it's wake.

This wasn't good, and by the looks of it? The crew he was temporarily assigned to didn't seem like the type to come out on top of this engagement.

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[Ria Misrani]

Drexel​

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Don't Die. Again.​

​

Ria got a second to look at [member="Kaia Starchaser"] before the gang of pirates turned the same corner. "THEM! GOTTAGOBYE!" She rushed all the while scrambled up to her feet and took off without a second thought. Blaster bolts whizzed by the blonde and surely the brunette, as well as the Blue Scourge of Drexel, waved his vibroblade in the air demanding that his men grab the blonde and the brunette while they were at it because who cared if the brunette was involved or not. The blonde found herself at the docks and leaped up to the top of the docks her eyes spotted the rope and anchor of a few boats. "Here's to hoping all that flow-walking pays off Spencer."

Feet against the wooden docks as it jutted out into a pier, onlookers stopped and stared while others filmed it for the holonet. Grabbing hold of a rope, Ria swung around and around, "okay this looked way easier in those cheesy flicks." Mistiming, she let go and fell on top of a pirate or two, "stupid scourge!" She cursed and grabbed a blaster from the pile of pirates the blonde got back to her feet and aimed the blaster at the pirates. "Ha ha, today will be the day that you'll re- wait." She paused a moment, "you guys wouldn't happen to remember the signal jammer codes right?"

Swing of a vibroblade, dodge of said vibroblade and Ria aimed the blaster dead center of the pier and shot.

 

[Sortz]

Objective 3: Find a legacy.
Allies: [member="Daro Tarsi"]

"My hands are too big for it," she muttered at his first comment- but her attention was only half on him, the other half on what she was doing with those wires. Her tongue stuck slightly out of the corner of her mouth as she secured the casing back over them and stepped back.

Then she blinked at his second.

"I don't think so," she muttered again, this time for different reasons. Didn't mean she wasn't pleased by the compliment. Just that he was wrong. In truth, she disagreed with him a lot, she just saw little point in arguing over it. Given her choice, Sortz didn't like conflict. Of course, when conflict found her, well.

"Okay, I'll get the descender," she turned away, better for something to do than a reply on that one.

They rigged up ropes out the cargo hatch. Wrapping one arm easily around Daro's waist, she eased them down and out. She had been strong when he found her, but she'd been specifically working out and was getting stronger by the day. It made the journey down to the tarmac from the hovering ship smooth and easy.

She let him down gingerly, letting him test it first- because honestly if it couldn't hold him it couldn't hold her. Once he was steady she put her weight down, unclipping the descender. The old durasteel groaned, but she wasn't sure if it was the movement of the waters twenty meters below or their weight.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Right, try to do something nice for someone and they just kind of run away. Still, the woman was cute, right? Is that what she was? What Kaia was seeing? She thought so, but really, pirates. Wasn’t that just too… holoflick for a world like this? As a Warden, sure, she spent a lot of time fighting space pirates, but this was a world, with islands, and a sea. Still, the girl was now running. Turning to see where she had come from, after watching her start to run, Kaia noticed the bolts.

Her hand was on her hip, where her lightsaber was, very quickly. Yeah, that was not going to go well. She took a few steps backwards, before turning and running.

“Time to go?” she called to the blonde who was talking to someone? Herself? Right, batting away another bolt, Kaia extinguished her blade to keep running.

She hurried after the now spinning girl, reaching to the Force, to see if she could make a jump, well, just about anywhere. Away from the pirates. She only wished she actually spent time among the Aing-Tii when her father had taken everyone she had known growing up and dumped them in the Kathol for… however long that was. Time was weird there.

Still, a bit of fighting sense and art of movement helped her. She ran for the blonde, at least she could throw up a barrier if need be, but she had it… handled?

[member="Ria Misrani"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Objective 1: Pirates

"In fact, we found slaves onboard, Alchemist Actual"

"Really? Did the pirates enslave the crew?"

Slaves... there are tons of slavers in this region. It's more than just the Ta'jar Blood Gang that engages in those activities, but I am not privy to all of the slaver groups operating in our corner of Wild Space, she thought, while having flashbacks of the last attempt to rescue slaves, which ended in total destruction of the ship and many dead slaves. Here it seemed that the actual pirates had slaves perform the more menial tasks onboard, but did not have them perform combat duties. Perhaps that sortie vindicated her attempt to rescue one Mishel Noren from another slavers in her mind, but only time could tell, while a skeleton crew was brought in to man the ship to the nearest repair yard, and for that purpose only; the ORC correctional services had a cadre of personnel specifically for the purpose of ferrying pirate ships for reconditioning. She'd rather hope that their freedom will actually prove productive even though the jury is still out on Mishel's at this stage. At this point, the jammers were back into the prison ship's hold, where their contents are to be salvaged to the extent it was possible to do so.

Spoiler

Attack craft:

11 Alakaha elite fighters

 

[Saffron]

In Orbit of Drexel
Arceneau Trade Company Frigate

"There might be a problem, Miz Saffron." Bee Three alerted the young blonde woman of the ongoing scans. Catching her attention, Saffron with a slow amble came to a stop beside the protocol droid. With a gesture of his hand a map came into view in a three dimensional hologram. There displayed, was the world of Drexel. It was slowly being pieced together section by section by the exploration drones.

"The fighting is preventing us from scanning this part of the hemisphere." Bee Three informed Saffron.

"As it would. We can scan those areas another time. We do not want to get in the middle of that conflict."