Chapter 1: Baptism By Fire

[Rogue 4]

Layla laughed. "I doubt he's nearly as vindictive as you are."

[Drake 53]

"Then I will need to train him better. Soon, we will come to an understanding on the way of things."

Takeshi then asked Aston, "Did you find out any information on that knock-out gas? How long does it last?"

"About five hours" said Aston.

"That gives us around four." To Layla, he said, "Hey Legs, get Two to try and hack some droids into helping to move all the bodies. Let's store them in the detention block and when that's full, the gym or mess hall."

Edited July 27, 2007 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

"I'd relay your orders, but they've already been issued. It seems everyone thinks alike." She smirked.

[Drake 53]

"Great minds think alike, I guess!" Tak chuckled and then almost tripped over a fallen piece of debris. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have some tidying up to do before we meet the Admirals."

[Rogue 4]

"Takeshi Beskar--Galactic Janitor." He could hear her grinning on the other end. "Has a nice ring to it. "

[Drake 53]

Tak smirked. He had missed Layla's witicisms and humour during this mission. "Yeah, laugh it up, girlie. Just get back up here so that I can make you do it."

***

Aeric led the group to the medlab. Following him was Jya pushing Nat on the hoversled and Nima walking along next to it, occasionally bending down to check up on the injured Twi'lek.

When they finally reached the medlab, they walked in to find five members of the medical staff unconsious around the room. Aeric went over to the nearest bio-bed and cleared it off for Nat.

[Rogue 4]

"Sure, you say that, but what you really mean is "Layla, get up here so I have something better than Kaden to stare at." She grinned. "I'll be there in five minutes. If I don't change out of this armor I'm going to go crazy."

***

Nat's starburst eyes were, like his skin, paler than usual as they stared up at them. "Wha..what happened?"

[Drake 53]

An image of Layla disrobing suddenly flashed through Tak's mind. He shook his head and tried to focus on something else. "Uhh, yeah. They can get a little stuffy, especially if they aren't the right size. I don't mind them, though. I guess I've gotten used to them."

He picked up a charred chunk of metal and tossed it onto the slowly growing pile of debris the squadron was forming. Right next to it was the pile of dead Stormtroopers. He made a general comment to no one in particular, "Somebody want to move these bodies off the bridge before they start stinking up the place?"

[Andy 60]

The Squad's astromechs trundled onto the bridge, looking expectantly for their masters. Bucket stopped in the middle and scanned around the room, searching for Jareth. Aston, who was astromech-less, having lost his to damage in the space battle earlier, went over to him.

"Sorry buddy, he didn't make it."

Bucket let out a mournful tone, then suddenly pushed past Aston and plugged himself into the console.

"Hey!" Aston cried, "I was using that!"

Bucket chirped a little cute sound then blew a raspberry.

"I think he likes you," Kaden chuckled.

"Meh," Aston wasn't impressed, and figured that with Bucket on his console he'd help clear the bodies from the bridge.

"There's a locker-room just down the corridor on the right," Tak suggested, "seems big enough, so we'll just shove them in there for now."

[Princess 35]

Nima pulled a chair up next to the bed. "You were injured pretty badly. You shut off the gravity well generator and then passed out from blood loss. I removed the pipe from your leg and stopped the bleeding, but as soon as I can get it set up, you're going to be floating in the pink stuff for a couple of days."

[Ender 8]

Jaim looked over at the pile of bodies. "Damn, where's the Mynocks when you need a job done?"

[Mara 29]

Kaden had been clearing away some debris when all the astromechs came in, including Artie. The droid came up to him and whistled.

"Great, Artie.. you can... " he pointed to some destroyed consoles. "Fix some of those, preferably the most important systems first." There was no time to chitchat now. They would be coming into realspace in a few minutes. And the more things that were fixed, the better.

Then he went to help move some bodies closer to the gaping destoyed door in order to clear some more walking area inside the bridge. He needed to stay nearby for the revert from hyperspace, just in case something went wrong.

He dropped another heavy stormtrooper by the door, when he heard the alarm chirping. Kaden jogged over to the controls.

"We're coming out, everyone."

The Interdictor dropped into realspace into a barren area without any nearby planets or systems amid a rumbling clunk down below.

"Sounds like the engine..."

Kaden ran a hand through his hair and bit his lip, trying to think. He and Artie had repaired ships and engines before, but nothing like this. It was usually just the odd starfighter.

[Drake 53]

Aeric heard the rumble and clunk from down below and called up to the bridge. "Somebody tell me what's going on?"

Tak ran over to a console that displayed a general overview of the interdictor's systems. The communications array, that was hit earlier, was flashing red. So were the engines.

"I think our engines overheated, sir." Sixxa rolled up and jacked into the console. After a moment, he chirped and beeped. Tak nodded. "Confirmed, Lead. The coolant system has been damaged. The engine has a failsafe that shuts down the whole system before it overheats and goes critical. We're going to need to fix it before we can jump again."

He looked around the room and said, "Anybody happen to know how to fix a starship engine coolant system?"

All of the astromech droids gave a cheerful toodle.

"Well that makes half of us," Tak said with a relieved smile.

Edited July 27, 2007 by Drake

[Rogue 4]

"Engine trouble?" Layla asked, leaning in the doorway in a new set of clothes.

***

Nat picked his head up, looking down at his leg. Indeed the piping was gone. "Th...thanks. A couple days in ....bacta though? Sure you couldn't be merciful ...and kill me?"

Edited July 27, 2007 by Rogue

[Princess 35]

Nima smiled. "Sorry Nat, but that'd land me in the brig. It won't be that bad. We'll all be here when you get out. And you may not be the only one floating in bacta."

[Rogue 4]

"Tastes like...chalk." He replied, laying his head back down on the bio-bed. "Who else...was injured?"

[Princess 35]

"Well, you're not supposed to drink that stuff. According to what I've seen, most people just have minor scrapes and cuts and burns, but I believe that the Captain is limping a bit too. We lost Atzena and Jaereth." She paused and looked at Aeric. "Captain, what happened to your leg?"

[Rogue 4]

"I got hit with some shrapnel when a frag granage detonated." Aeric told her.

"Daragon...he's still in the engine room." Nat told them urgently. He was relieved to hear that nobody else was seriously wounded.

My own fault...I timed that whole thing wrong.

[Princess 35]

"Get over here then." Nima pulled Aeric over and sat him down. "That looks pretty ugly Captain. I'm gonna give you a painkiller then start picking out the shrapnel."

[Rogue 4]

Aeric sighed. He'd kind of prefer for her to look at the rest of the squad first, but he knew from experience that arguing with Nima was a bad idea. He nodded, hiking up the leg of his flightsuit.

[Princess 35]

Nima injected Aeric with a painkiller and then cleaned the skin on his leg. Aeric gasped as the antiseptic cleaned out his wounds and Nima took that as her cue to start digging out the shrapnel. She picked out the biggest pieces and watched carefully for any surprise bleeders, but the sharpnel missed most of the blood vessels. She worked carefully and finally got all of the shrapnel out of his leg. She placed some bacta bandages on his leg. "Ok, that'll probably be a little tender for a few days, but if you're careful, you'll be able to avoid the bacta tank. Everyone else that is injured needs to find their way here too Captain, so that I can patch them up."

[Mara 29]

When Artie tootled in his expertise, he also beeped at Kaden.

He knew what that wondering beep was for. "Uh, no, I don't think so, Artie. This isn't like a little speeder. You go along; I'm needed up here."

Kaden shook his head as Artie and a couple of the astromechs downloaded a map and some schematics of the Interdictor's engine system and headed out to find it and fix it. He wish the droid didn't always think so highly of him. He was only a human.

With the ship sitting dead in space for probably the next few hours, he headed back over to the other side of the bridge and began helping to clear debris and dead bodies.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi looked over to Layla as she appeared from the doorway. "Yeah, the coolant system is busted and we need to fix it before we can jump again."

Sixxa bumped into the back of his legs and toodled at him.

"Hey! You can go to the communications array and work on getting that back online. Once we get to Coruscant, we'll want to be able to identify ourselves. Ask Sexy to go with you."

Sixxa chirped then rolled over to Layla's droid.

[Rogue 4]

"Wonderful. So we're dead in space right now." She frowned. "Well, nothing these little Astro-droids can't handle. So what are your orders, mock-Captain?"

She saluted smartly.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi rolled his eyes. "First Adarra and now you." He looked around the bridge. "You could check up on everyone. See what kinds of injuries everyone has. I'm sure Nima will want to check up on everybody."