Patrols Gone By

[Luna Terrik]

[SIZE=14pt]Patrols Gone By[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Location: One standard day out from Dosuun, near Rakata Beta. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Objective: Meet up with the Ardent Redeemer, patrol the outlining systems for the location of persistent pirate attacks on civilian vessels. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Allies: The crew of the Ardent Redeemer[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Enemies: Pirates, hunters, the usual...[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]It shouldn’t have come to this. The first order shouldn’t have needed to intervene on this side of the border, especially because of how close it was to the home planet of Dosuun. The pirates should’ve known to leave well enough alone with the First Order might so close to where they preyed on the innocent civilian ships. But in the last two weeks alone, the pirates had taken prisoner three different civilian ships, as well as the cargo aboard each of those vessels. These attacks had made their way to the high counsel, and, wanting to keep their civilians safe as best as possible, sent Knight Squadron to meet up with the Ardent Redeemer, in an effort to find the small band of pirates and wipe them out totally. And if at all possible, the counsel wanted the military convoy to find out the true nature behind these attacks.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] Luna had been sitting in the meeting area for most of the journey, playing on her holopad to pass the time. To her, this mission was completely unnecessary and there was no reason to send the entirety of an interceptor squadron, much less the famed Knight Squadron, to deal with a few lowly pirates. There was no way they were worth the might of an entire First Order convoy. So a bored Luna continued to sulk her way in the meeting area, waiting for them to finally get to destination, to meet up with the Ardent Redeemer, only to go fight an enemy that would just run away. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt] Warning sirens began to go off throughout the TIE carrier, the Ascendant, which made the extremely bored redhead instantly pop up, dropping her datapad on the table. Quickly moving to pull on her officer’s boots over her colorfully, polka dotted, socked feet, Luna practically ran to the bridge of the ship, almost barreling into Captain Gavel. Murmuring her apologies, she looked out of the viewport to see the Ardent Redeemer, ready to head off to their destination. The captain of the Ascendant handed Captain Gavel the comm, to which he nodded, and began to contact the awaiting ship.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“This is Captain Gavel, squadron leader of Knight Squadron. Ardent Redeemer, are you ready to head off to our destination?” The redhead standing near the back of the bridge listened, awaiting the answer from the other ship. Maybe they would finally get a little action instead of sitting around, traveling all the time.[/SIZE]

 

[Starling]

"Captain Gavel," the radio answered in a clipped, female voice, "this is Charlie-Lima Tango-Charlie-Eight-Eight. Standing by to jump. Over."

In the half-light of the Redeemer's bridge, Shin reached over and poked Erinn in the ribs, "What was all that supposed to mean?"
Erinn's head spun around sharply, fixing her co-pilot with a glare whose ferocity quickly died as she remembered where she was and who was speaking to her. She glanced down apologetically as she answered, "It means we're ready."

 

[Luna Terrik]

[SIZE=12pt]The voice on the other side of the comm made the redhead at the back of the room perk up lightly. She hadn’t expected the other voice to be a female, seeing how she hadn’t met many in high ranking positions like a captain of a vessel. It made her perk up and smile at the thought. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Captain Gavel nodded approvingly at the response from the other vessel, then began to respond while pointing to the captain of the Ascendant. “Understood. We will move our ships into a box formation behind you. You will lead us into the jump, and once at our destination, myself and two others will make our way to your ship to discuss our next move.” He cut off the comm, then nodded to the captain to begin the maneuver. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]The orders were relayed to the other three TIE carrier ships, and the group began to move slowly. The Ascendant moved behind the Ardent Redeemer, back left side, then the other three ships completed the box formation. Once completed, Gavel opened the comm once more to confirm the maneuver to other ship. “We are ready, Ardent Redeemer. Begin the jump to lightspeed.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt][member="Starling"][/SIZE]

 

[Starling]

"The allied ships have fallen into position astern, Captain," Shin reported, glancing up from the scanner , her face illuminated in the darkness by the glow that emanated from the holographic display.
"Alright. Find something solid to hold onto," Starling's hands danced across the control panels, flipping switches and turning knobs, "All systems nominal. Compressor is green. Setting control override to Drive... we are GO. Jumping to lightspeed." She placed her left palm on the Hyperdrive throttle, driving it slowly forwards. The spacecraft shuddered. The sounds of the engines gained suddenly in intensity. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the ship, the high pitched whine of the hyperdrive began to resonate, growing steadily louder.
The stars ahead of them stretched out into elongated trails, merging together to turn the whole sky a piercing electric blue, which opened up into the familiar, endless racing tunnel, down which Erinn and her ship dropped like a stone.

[member="Luna Terrik"]

 

[Luna Terrik]

As soon as the Ardent Redeemer locked onto a solid object, they transferred their navigational coordinates to the Ascendant and her following vessels. These coordinates were plugged in directly to the navigational computer, so as soon as the larger frigate jumped to lightspeed, the TIE carriers quickly followed it down the spiraling, blue, starry rabbit hole. The sight was surely one to behold, and even a seasoned pilot like Luna still took a moment to take in the beauty of hyperspace.

The hard, commanding voice of her squadron leader shook her from her thoughts, making her quickly turn in attention to the grey haired human. He raised an eyebrow, no doubt unhappy about her dozing off into her thoughts, but shook it off. “Private Luna, head to the airlock. You, Y, and me will be the three to go aboard the Ardent Redeemer when we come out of hyperspace.” Saluting, her boots pounded against the metal flooring and she rushed out of the bridge.

It puzzled her why she would be picked to be one of the three to go aboard. Perhaps the grey man wanted a commanding officer still on the Ascendant, which was the only thing that made sense to redhead pilot. It would be cool to see a planning session in person. Perhaps she would even get to have a word in about the plan!

It would only take a few minutes for all five ships to come out of hyperspace. The Ascendant then moved to the left of the Ardent Redeemer, so that their airlocks could be connected. Luna was leaning against the corridor wall, awaiting the other two boarders, and for the airlocks to connect so they could board.

[member="Starling"]

 

[Shin’Kazé]

The two vessels drift together as slowly as the dance of mountains, two colossal aggregations of steel parallel parking at fifty times the speed of sound. The gentle flickering of thrusters coruscates across their hulls, keeping the ships steady and on course as their docking ports come silently into conjunction. With a mechanical, almost insectile motion, latches snap into place, bridging the gap between the two ports and locking the ships firmly to each other.

Shin shivered in the cold of the airlock and drew her cloak tighter around her. The amenities- or lack thereof- onboard these warships simply screamed "government work". One would think they could at least find a way of heating the airlock. They were pumping air in and out of there all the time... weren't they? Shin wasn't sure and, honestly, didn't care. She just wished she was warmer.
She felt a soft thump reverberate through the deck as the two ships' airlocks bumped. There was a moment of tense silence, before the docking latches slid home with a mechanical clicking and the airlock was alive with a series of clunks and hums as the two ships began to communicate with each other, sharing air and reactor power through their connection to equalise any resources one or other vessel had run low on during the journey. After a minute or so of quiet mechanical noises, Shin felt a faint breeze stir the hem of her cloak. A light turned green on the airlock control panel and a mechanical woman's voice announced, "Pressure Equalised." The airlock door jerked, stopped for a moment as if unsure of itself, then slid open.
Across the threshold stepped three figures in full dress uniform. Shin suddenly felt underdressed in her cloak and leather slacks. She pulled back her hood, her one remaining blue Lekku flopping down across her shoulder. In the place of the other was a blackened stump.
"Greetings, Lady; Gentlemen," Shin announced, adjusting her bronze headdress self consciously. She flashed a smile at the woman, a redhead barely out of childhood, "Welcome aboard the Redeemer."

[member="Luna Terrik"]