Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Mara 29]

The captain's voice jolted Kaden out of his thoughts, and he quickly put away his datapad and strapping in tighter.

"Input those coordinates as soon as you get them, Artie."

Kaden quickly gulped down the rest of his half-eaten ration bar and got ready to push off when everyone had the course plotted. Everything he had been thinking about immediately disappeared as he focused entirely on the mission ahead.

"Now it gets fun..."

Artie whistled energetically and sent over the coordinates to Kaden's display and navicomputer.

Once all the Revenants were plotted, Kaden and the others jumped to hyperspace.

[Ayingel 24]

I'm not quite sure I'm satisfied with that answer... Szen looked over at Aston and tried to read if he believed her answer at all, and he didn't seem to either. Seeing her bag tho, she went up and checked it.

"You got everything?"

[Vergere 1]

Brier gave Szen a mock-irritated glare. "Nope, I left it all in the hotel for scavengers to get. Of course I got it all." She smiled faintly, but distantly. "Don't worry."

[Drake 53]

Takeshi slung his own bag over his shoulder. "Good work in there, you three. I'm glad to see you made it out safely. However, we can all swap stories later. Right now, we need to get back to the ship and out of this city. Follow me."

He led the Revenants across the street, between two buildings and down an alley. They followed the back street behind the line of buildings until eventually emerging near the duracrete ramp leading up to the spaceport terminal. The entrance was being guarded by half a dozen Stormtroopers.

"Good. None of those blasted killer droids." Tak turned to Layla. "You still have that badge I gave you?"

[Rogue 4]

"Yeah..." Layla gave him an expression halfway between a smirk and a grimace. "Funny story about that though...It wasn't all that helpful unfortunatly." She reached into her pocket, removing the ID badge and handing it to him. It felt good to see him in person, to see that he was all in one piece.

[Drake 53]

"Well," said Tak, taking the badge, "Let's go tempt fate then. All of you, stay behind me. If it comes down to a firefight, be ready."

He led the group up the ramp and was stopped, before passing through the doors, by one of the Stormtroopers.

"Halt!" The armoured soldier ordered. "The spaceport is under lockdown due to terrorist activities. No unauthorized departures. I'm going to need to see you ID badge and those of your companions."

"I believe mine will vouch for myself and my friends," said Tak, showing the trooper the badge. "I certainly hope, for your sake, that a member of Imperial Intelligence is authorized to leave."

The Imperial stiffened then snapped straight into a salute. "My apoligies, sir. Of course Intelligence is free to come and go as they please. But...I must ask, which ship is yours? So that the tractor beam can be disabled."

Takeshi gave the Stormtrooper a genuine smile. Not out of kindness, but because he knew they would get through without having to kill a whole lot of people. "The YT-2000 light freighter, Krazy Krakana. Landing platform C2."

"Of course, sir. I'll get that platform's tractor beam shut down immediately." The soldier stepped out of Takeshi's path.

"Thank you, trooper." Tak led the way through the doors and into the terminal. The interior of the building, unlike after their arrival, was practically empty. The Imperials were taking the lockdown seriously.

After several minutes of walking through the terminal and a series of tunnels leading outside, the Revenants were safely inside the Krakana.

[Ayingel 24]

"No fancy maneuvers this time, I hope." Szen really didn't say it to anyone in particular as she sat down.

[Princess 35]

As the rest of the squadron was hurtling through hyperspace Nima was busy making plans. "E4, I don't know what we're going to face out there when we revert to realspace, so I want shields ready at full. We're going in nightside, so passive scanners only, don't want anyone to pick up on us. Keep Jya's fighter tight with us, but leave me enough room to maneuver in case we run into some unfriendlies."

The timer chimed. "Thirty seconds and then we liberate a planet that may not like us. May the Force be with us."

[Rogue 4]

Layla walked up to the cockpit and slammed her fist into the only bare wallspace she could find. Unfortunatly it was metal, and instead of punching through, her fist recoiled. "Echuta!" She exclaimed, clutching it protectively.

I really screwed that up. If that Force-forsaken droid hadn't shown up we'd all be dead, or in Imperial interrogation right now! She groaned. And that kriffing HAX-model droid just had to find my file...now Aston and the new girl are both going to suspect me...All they have to do is research that Bounty and this whole thing will blow up real quick! Maybe that's what that bad feeling I've had all day's been about...

Edited September 25, 2007 by Rogue

[Vergere 1]

"I doubt they'll be showing off this time around, but if we hit trouble, it's no holds barred." She nodded to Szen. "No worries, okay?"

[Ayingel 24]

Szen smiled. "Got it." Nonetheless, she put on the webbing and braced herself anyway.

[Drake 53]

Tak entered the cockpit slowly. He saw Layla punch the wall. He recognized the emotions that danced across her face and was saddened with the thought that, whatever he was about to do to try to comfort her, she would most likely push him away again.

"You know," he said softly, "I find that punching cushions is a safer bet than durasteel." He gave her a small smile and said, "You don't know how happy I am to see you safe, Layla."

[Rogue 4]

"Yeah well, it's more satisfying punching something solid." Layla looked over to him for a moment before sighing, stalking over to the copilot's chair and taking a seat.

"I screwed everything up. If your karking droid wasn't there Aston, Szen and I would be in an Imperial interrogation right now. Both of them were looking to me for guidance and leadership. They trusted me to get them out of there in one piece and---" She rest her elbows on her knees and placed her head in her hands. "And I screwed it up."

[Drake 53]

"My droid...you mean Teroch is here? That sneaky, rodding, little..." he shook his head and sat down in the pilot seat. Tak quickly set the auto-start-up sequence then turned his chair to face Layla. "Sure you screwed up. We all do sometimes. Hells, even I do. The point is, is that you and your team made it out alive. You helped them survive. We're all going to face seemingly impossible obstacles, far more dangerous than a walking tank, and the only way we can have a chance at toppling them is by having our wits about us. Don't let these little things get to you. Don't count yourself a failure when you stared death in its beady red eyes then kicked it between the legs and ran. You lived to survive another day and you accomplished an objective for the squad. I'm proud of you, babe."

With the start-up sequence complete, Takeshi turned back around and took the controls.

The Krazy Krakana lifted off the landing platform, on its repulsors, then flew smoothly away from the docking rings and Yarin City.

[Rogue 4]

Layla straightened up and ran her fingers over her own controls, staring ahead at the back of Tak's head as she considered his words. It wasn't until they were up in the air that the faintest of smiles pursed her lips. "I'm glad you're safe too, Tak."

She looked back down at her controls. "I guess this means I owe Teroch one. Well...two really. He came at the most convenient of times."

[Drake 53]

Tak nodded. "He does tend to do that. I think he just likes you." He tried to supress a chuckle.

The YT-2000 rose higher into the air. Tundra spread to the horizons and Yarin City quickly shrunk into a speck, before finally disappearing altogether. A few minutes after that, the tundra changed into a more temperate region, first with vast fields of green grasses followed by forests of towering conifers. In the distance, they could see a mountain range stretching from east to west as it tore a jagged line across the horizon.

"I'm bringing us into one of Yarin's dead sensor zones. I'll set us on a course that, to any Imperial watching, will look like we're heading to space. In reality, we'll drop back down and land at the rendezvous coordinates."

[Rogue 4]

"Sounds like a solid plan." Layla agreed from her station. "And as for Teroch, as long as he doesn't sneak into my room in the middle of the night we're good."

[Drake 53]

"Yeah. Besides, there's a higher likelihood that I would be the one doing the bedroom sneaking." He turned to her and winked then returned to the controls and brought the freighter into a climb that would eventually bring them out of the planet's atmosphere.

After a moment, Tak's console beeped. "We're in the dead zone now." He decreased the Krakana's elevation in a gently curving downward arc towards the forest below. "We'll make the rendezvous in eight minutes."

[Rogue 4]

That left them with eight minutes to settle everything so that it wouldn't be a problem groundside. "Well...now that I think I have Szen and Aston suspecting me of every crime imaginable...I think we should have that talk..."

[Drake 53]

Takeshi set the Krakana to autopilot and hit a button to close the cockpit doors. He turned to face Layla and said, "Yeah. Where should we start?"

[Rogue 4]

Layla took a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts before she looked up to meet his gaze. "I'm sorry about before. To even imply that you're anything like him...it was paranoid, and wrong of me. But that dream Takeshi, I just...it was very vivid, and frightening and it brought back a thousand memories I have to fight day after day to forget. It reminded me why I'm here but it also reminded me of what happened the last time I got seriously involved with someone...and my first reaction is to make sure that what happened on Corellia doesn't ever happen again."

[Drake 53]

He nodded. "I understand and.... I suppose I can promise you the galaxy but that won't change what happened in the past. I suppose all I can do is continue to show you that things can be different...and all you can do is learn to see it." He smiled. "I won't be offended if you want some space for a while."

[Rogue 4]

She shook her head, reaching out to take his hand. "No...I've had plenty of time and space to myself...years of it and despite everything I've just said...I enjoy the time I spend with you more than you know Tak, and I don't want to ruin that."

[Mara 29]

Kaden checked his timer and folded his hands over the control stick, ready for when the squadron hit realspace.

"Artie, full alert."

The droid beeped in response and set full power to all the shields plus putting in a bit of extra energy to the forward shields, just in case. Then he prepared everything else including friend or foe software, immediately listing all of the Reveants as friends and ready to mark anything else as foe.

Artie couldn't wait to get back into battle. He whistled with excitement.

[Vergere 1]

After a few minutes, Brier leaned back and ran her hands over her face as if trying to wake herself back up, and then just leaned back against the wall, idly staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.