Log:Ebon Guard: Slicing the Satellite

Slicing the Satellite

OOC Date: October 19, 2017
Location: Space - Mandalore
Participants: Vraag Rengh, Tig Follox, Barquo Dentoo, Jarret Sur, Tess Ul'Datha, Ebon Guard

The blue tunnel of hyperspace flies by the cockpit viewports of the Firebrand as it hurtles through space. At one of the seats is the slicer of the Ebon-guard working away at a computer terminal. His light brown eyes flit over the screen as his hands type away sorting through data. He hums a little tune to himself, poorly, but he still hums.

Jarret Sur, for his part, sits at the engineering station, watching the displays impassively as the ship hurtles through this...extradimensional layer. He just sort of lurks, really, when he's on the job. Turns into a machine all his own.

Tess hates star ships. It is probably her biggest fault, to be true. The idea of hurtling through unknown reaches of space that boarders on some obscure tear in reality at speeds that no human was ever meant to travel is enough to drive her insane. So getting her here is some sort of miracle.

Which none of the present individuals are capable of. Which is why she's still on Nar Shaddaa.

Tig Follox is in the pilot seat, leaning back and holding a 'finger gun' at the viewport, her opposite hand cradling the fleshy formed blaster. "Pew pew pew," she murmurs in a lazy tone, popping out fake shots at the larger blur of stars as the glob past the screen. Her armor is on, heltmet off and hung on the peg next to the pilot station. She leans back in the chair, her dark and cyan colored hair mashing into the seat as she squirms. "Nooot much longer," Tig Follox wills aloud. False. It is a long journey. "Anyone brewing up some caf?" the woman wonders, turning her head against the seat to look behind her.

"So like I was saying," Vraag continues from a former conversation lost to the ether. "When we get back on Nar Shaddaa I will be investing in a hangar for us. I purchased a Skipray Blastboat and a CEC HLAF fighter for us last night. I figure that it is inevitable that we run into some air combat the more we upset the status quo on Mandalore."

"I shall endeavour to ensure the ships are well-tuned for combat, Vraag Rengh." This from Jarret, of course, who does not look up from the displays. "At some point, if we can afford it, perhaps also a workshop so that upgrades can be applied directly. I have decided to pledge my earnings as an engineer to the group so that all might benefit. You have fulfilled any needs that money might reward."

The slicer looks over his shoulder and says "I don't know much about space combat but from the stories I've heard a blastboat is heavy firepower. You really think that we'll be up against that kind of firepower as we upset mandalore? The crew we ran into had relatively weak armor, don't you think the armorment on the firebrand will be enough?" he leans back in his chair and puts his boots out in front of him.

Tig slaps her hand on the back of the chair as she turns to haul herself up. "Fiiine," she mumbles as she pushes out of the cockpit. "I'll get my own damn caf. Ya lazy sods." Tig straightens as she marches past Vraag, hooking her thumbs into the belt of her armor and adjusting it with a surly heave. "I'm pretty damn excited," she assures Vraag, shooting a look around at the naysayers. "I mean, unless you already have pilots lined up for the new ships?" Tig reemerges from the back section of the ship with a thermos in hand. She dumps a silver packet of dust into it and pokes an armored finger into the drink to stir it around.

Vraag looks from one to the other as they react to his news, clearly debating on what order in which to address the comments. Finally he nods his head to Barquo. "I forsee more resistance to our meddling there than what we saw before. We caught that crew by surprise. The more we build up the villages, the more trouble we cause, the more I forsee these Warlords banding together against us. I doubt that shoddy armor they had is the pinnacle of their power." His attention shifts toward Jarret to whom he says, "I would expect no less, and will not forget your service to the group. Thank you." To Tig, "I had planned for you and Rail to man them initially. I can pilot the blastboat well enough to keep us in the air, but the weapons will take some training. We will all have to pitch in. Once we recruit more soldiers, one of you will be rolled to pilot the Banshee(Blastboat)."

Barquo winces as Tig calls them out for not helping her with the Caff "Sorry Tig. I got lost in thought..." he looks over to Vraag and nods "Have you thought any more about how to get us a bit more intel into whats going on on mandalore? I hate not knowing how many bands of warlords there are and which ones are the biggest threats." he looks sheepish. "I just try to know as much as I can."

"Begging your pardon, Vraag Rengh," says Jarret from his station - finally looking up now. "But if I can, I would like to suggest rotation of pilots among our craft. My clan, forgotten of honor though they are, /knows/ how to keep a small spaceborne fighting force in order. We found that with all pilots knowing how to operate all craft, and having no specific assignment, any emergency or losses could be easily covered while replacements were trained."

"Krif. Yeah," Tig woots, hefting her shitty, dust packet caf in the air with just enough caution that it only dribbles a few drops down the side of the sleek metallic surface. "Blastbooooat." She makes back for the pilot chair, mock ear-cuffing Barquo as she moves past him with a half grin of cheekiness as she slumps back into the chair and spins it as much as it'll go, half facing the other mandos. Her eyes seek out Jarret. "You don't need to worry your helmet hair over piloting. I can fly any one of those," she mentions, drawing a sip of the drink. Quickly she changes the subject. "We could, uh, fake a whole warlord faction and get one of our own in there? See what's up? Maybe that's too ambitious." Tig scratches at her chin, realizing it's the same finger she used to stir. She curses to herself and looks around for something to wipe the brownish liquid off with. "One of us could infiltrate another warlord's camp? I'm game."

Vraag nods his head as he considers both his and Tig's positions. "The reason that I said both of them will pilot the fighters for now, is because I cannot hit the broad side of a Star Destroyer with a ship weapon. If I can even fit in one of those fighters, I would be next to useless in one, in any capacity that was not crashing into things. They are the most fit for those crafts. Plus, this route lets me put all of the shooting on the rest of you. I'll fly the blastboat. You lot have to do the shooting." There is the ghost of a smile before he considers Tig's strategy. Rather than answer he looks toward Barquo and gestures toward the man. "What do you think of that idea?"

"Doing an infiltration mission would be valuable but we'll have to be careful. I Don't know if I'd be able to fit right into a warlord band." Barquo shrugs and then says "Getting an eye on the ground is probably useful though, I'd also like to figure out if they have any orbital devices, see if we can get into their systems that way."

Jarret Sur nods once. "You are the leader, Vraag Rengh. We follow your lead." (repose)

"Pew pew pew," Tig says, making that gun finger again and papping around the capping at nothing. "Got it," she agrees cheerfully. "Yeah, so, infiltration will be hard. But. I think I can do it. Woeful take of a widower Mando, lost my husband, looking to find myself back into the culture. We eat shit like that up!" Tig cuts a look to Vraag. "It'd take me a bit to get into high ranks, but I dunno if I'd even have to do that. Get a look at the camps, take stock of their equipment, then I'm out."

Vraag nods his head as he says, "Very well. It will be something to consider. We have a lot of work to do whichever route we take. As for satellites..." A light begins to blink and beep on the dash before all at once the ship leaps out of hyperspace, seeming to almost stand still with sickening abruptness. There looms the dull red desert world of Mandalore before them. "Now's your chance," he says toward Barquo. "Find us a satellite."

The slicer looks a little uncomfortable about the idea of piloting a ship "I'm glad that you all are here to pilot. I think I'd crash into a moon if you put me at the helm... and that in a system with no moons." he chuckles and when the ship comes out of hyperspace he looks a bit surprised. He looks at Vraag and then gets a big grin on his face as his fingers start dancing over the console. His smile disappears for a moment before he finally says "Ha! Got one!"

"Don't worry big guy," Tig Follox assures Barquo. "I can pilot as well as ten tie fighters boneheads strapped together." She sets the caf thermos down into it's holder at her helm, spinning back to the controls. The girl cracks her knuckles, snags her helmet to put it on, and starts to pilot them down smoothly. "Rendezvousing at the coordinates. Thanks, Bar. Got a good lock on it. Orders upon arrival, Vraag Rengh?"

Vraag nods his head with a tight lipped smile toward Barquo as the slicer locates the sattelite, then watches as Tig beins to pilot the large Sentinel class ship toward it. "Just don't bump into it. That'll be a sure way to let them know we're tampering, not to mention scratch our hull." He eyes the device as they close in, then looks to Barquo, a seriousness in his expression. "Think you can slice into it without them finding out? If so, I want you to reprogram it to send whatever it is sending its owner to us as well. They gotta keep getting their feed or they'll know something is up. But if it sends us a duplicate, maybe they'll never notice."

The slicer watches the sattelite close in on the sensors with an intense stare. He says over his shoulder almost casually to Vraag "I'm sure I can slice it without them getting much of a clue that I've done it. It'll seem more like interference for a moment than anything else if something goes wrong." his fingers are flying over the panel as soon as he gets a connection. He doesn't say anything for several moments except a slight "Huh..." his fingers pause and then they begin flying over the console again and then he says "There it is... lets get in through here." he smiles and then says "Alright we should be getting an occasional burst of information from this sattelite now." He turns around in his chair to finally face Vraag "The sattelite should talk to us once every couple of hours as it's on the far side of the planet from the center it's talking to on the surface. It narrows the possibility that someone will notice that it's sending information elsewhere."

"Pft," Tig snorts as she glides the craft in close. "Do you even know who you're talking to?" she asks Vraag with a healthy roll of her eyes. Under the visor, of course, but you can tell from her tone. Sass. "Bump it. /Please/." She leans back, hands at the ready, and waits for Barquo to work his magic. "Atta boy," the pilot chirps as she pushes up a tad in her seat to gaze at the satellite from the viewport. "Permission to scuttle, Vraag?" she asks the main-man Mando without breaking eye contact from the 'port. "I don't want to risk being seen up here. Then the whole thing goes to shit."

Vraag nods to both, finally looking toward Tig and saying, "Take us back home. We'll set up a computer bank in the hangar that Barquo should be able to tune in to that relay he just made up. With any luck, we'll be able to use the feed we get to plan out a strategy."

Barquo Dentoo leans back in his chair smiling and says "I love it when I can do something to help out the civilians of this planet." he chuckles and then says "Just not the bloodsucking warlords who don't truly understand what it means to be Mandalorian." he chuckles and laces his hands behind his head and relaxes.

"Aye aye!" Tig hums as she spins the ship and kicks it forward. "I'll go into hyperdrive once we've put some distance between us and that talkative little info dumper. Don't want to risk having our radiation picked up on sensors," she explains as they cruise away from it and Mandalore. "Too bad. I'd love to see the damn place. Eh, maybe once we cull the trash." Tig sucks in a breathe of air as she starts tapping out the coordinates and running the trajectories in the ship's computer. "Let's go home and check out this hangar. And /maybe/ we can get an astromech or two, V?”

Vraag nods his head toward Barquo, clearly happy with what the Slicer has said. At Tig's words, Vraag snorts and jerks a thumb in her direction, reaching out to clap the slicer on the arm. "You hear that? I set her up in a brand new fighter and damn if she doesn't want a droid!" The hearty laugh following shows the big bear of a man is kidding.