First Reply Smuggling Stuff Into The Galactic Alliance, Pursued By Starweirds

[Jerec Asyr]

Tannhauser-class freighter Infinity's Free
Hydian Way
Galactic Alliance Territory, Or At Least The Edges Of It

Jerec flew clumsily. Half his attention stayed on getting as much oomph out of the engines as he could, half stayed on the starweirds in the aft cameras, the third half was dominated by the risk of getting inspected too hard and Alliance people finding the extremely useful Sithspawn larvae in cryo tubes concealed inside his bulkheads behind an entirely legitimate cargo of starsoy, and the fourth half of his attention involved the revenge of last night's dinner of truck stop food.

About fifteen assorted ships, strangers all of them but united in bad luck, zipped through a comet swarm with shrieking space wraiths on their tails. These were bad times for starweird infestations all over the place. Jerec ascribed to the maxim that he didn't have to fly faster than the starweird invasion, he just had to fly faster than you.

 

[Wedge Draav]

OUT OF THE DARKNESS


​

From darkness he came.

He screeched his X-wing from below the axis of approach of the convoy. The jet-black X-wing tore through space, streaking along. It was difficult to keep track of it, black against the endless black tyranny of the stars- the void swallowing his figure, save for the blurring movement.

The Sith magick was absolute, pure evil.
​

But Wedge Draav, Captain Wedge Draav-

He was death incarnate in the cockpit, an Ace Pilot. He was also alone, on a routine patrol when he caught the would-be killer of one of the ships- a Starweird, by all accounts, with a barrage of X-wing fire. Blaster fire was supposedly not good enough, but his X-Wing with the attack pattern open was more than the average sidearm. He flew after the Starweird screeched and rotated back to the rear of the convoy, either to regroup and plan it's next attack- or perhaps just to seethe in rage over Wedge's barrage that sent it flying away.

He pulled up next to a freighter- the local IFF claiming it to be unaffiliated. He hailed the channel, to him and to the other ships in the convoy. Wedge was alone, sure, but he wasn't afraid at all. He didn't see a ship- or a pilot in there, that could match him, his flying, or the speed of his Revenant Squadron X-wing.

"This is Captain Draav of the Revenant Squadron. Ships, please identify yourself."

​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Jerec decided he could allocate a fifth half of his attention to the X-Wing. He would've liked to coordinate his cousins better (they were blasting away at Starweirds from the gun turrets) but six halves was just way too much.

The other dozen-plus hapless ships, all unconnected except by circumstance, began to check in. Jerec's ship had its choice of IFFs and adjustable drive signatures, and right now he was flying as—

"Ithorian guild freighter Son of Momaw Mooblis." A starweird was tearing its way into one of the gun turrets. Another tried to scrape it off and Fourth Cousin Loogo vanished in a ball of fire. Gorrammit. Loogo's grandmother would never let Jerec hear the end of it. "Out of Naboo carrying a load of survey droids and ship parts. Thank the Force you're here, they just killed Cousin Loogo!"

Wedge Draav

 

[Wedge Draav]

​

Perhaps it was a warning, perhaps it was a paranoia, perhaps it was a flex. But Wedge turned on the stealth fields and other instruments on his X-wing, the jet-black ship becoming only visible visually- and given where they were, and the way he positioned himself, easier said than done.

"Didn't ask what you were carrying." He said to the man on the other end of the comms. Probably smugglers. But- maybe not.

"You're now in Alliance space and subject to Alliance regulations, and, unfortunately, Alliance protection. I will be escorting you to your destination." A pause, and by the time he released his mic- the sound of him taking a deep sigh. He wasn't clearly happy about it.

"This part of space only gets worse."

​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Both sides of Jerec's neck compressed disgruntledly. He'd met more than his share of nerf herder border guards under every possible flag and it never got easier. Frankly, some days he thought he smuggled just for some petty win over these kinds of people.

"We're so grateful for the help. Oh Mother Jungle, poor Loogo! I'll never hear the end of it from his grandmother."

The Infinity's Free, ahem, Son of Momaw Mooblis slewed around a dense part of the comet swarm. A comet smashed a starweird or vice versa, and it didn't look like either survived, so that was comforting. That still left a good thirty starweirds to go. They latched onto a Gallofree light transport lagging behind and tore it apart to get at its crew. The mess fell behind before the Ithorian ship's gunners could do much to help.

Wedge Draav