Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Rogue 4]

Nat met her down there, using the walk to clear out his thoughts. He tried to force some away, the thoughts that he felt he shouldn't be having.

I'm the XO of this unit...I shouldn't be thinking of any of my Officers this way.

When he saw Nima waiting in the Gym in her tight-fitting work-out clothes, a smile on her face, he knew that was going to be difficult.

[Princess 35]

Nima was stretching on the floor of the gym, practically doing the splits. She leaned forward and back and then realized that Nat had walked in. "Oh hello. You ready to get started?"

[Rogue 4]

Nat nodded, smiling slightly in amusement. "Don't expect any splits or acrobatics from me though."

[Princess 35]

"Oh by the time that we're done with this routine, you'll be doing splits like this. Let's start out with some jogging."

[Drake 53]

"Now it's a simple matter of reversing the prank," Tak said, removing the listening device from behind his ear. "They said that the cameras in the hangar will be down at 2200 hours tonight. They also mentioned the use of red paint. That leads me to assume that they were planning on painting our X-Wings. Now all we have to do is turn the tables and paint theirs."

[Rogue 4]

"Which means we need to steal the paint, and acquire the manpower to paint twelve X-wings." Layla remarked excitedly. "Only problem is the paint color...I'm sure we can find some white around here to mix in. It's only the color of half the base."

[Drake 53]

"Jor said the red paint was in storage, right? That would be the best place to find the white. First, though, I think we should talk to the Captain about it. As soon as the Mynocks see pink, it won't take much to guess who was behind it," Tak said as he poked the skin of Layla's exposed stomach. "If we get the Captain's blessing, we won't get in too much osik."

[Rogue 4]

Layla nodded excitedly, grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the door. "Let's go! You explain though, because I get in enough poodoo around here."

[Drake 53]

He stopped, pulling her back in. "I don't mind but the Captain might question the outfit. I would suggest changing back to your normal clothes first."

[Rogue 4]

"You know what I'm going to say....so I'll spare you." She rolled her eyes, shutting the door and brushing past Tak to the dresser. She pulled out a fresh set of clothes, and began to disrobe, putting on the clean and more modest outfit she'd chosen.

Edited August 20, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

Tak leaned up against the door frame as she changed. "Yeah yeah, modesty. Who needs it? I think the Republic was founded by prudes who didn't get any so they had to see to it that everyone else had a hard time getting any as well." He paused then said with a grin, "If I said you had a very nice ass, would you hold it against me?"

[Rogue 4]

Layla laughed. "Ha! You'd like that wouldn't you?"

She winked at him over her shoulder before slipping her top on. Now dressed she sat on the bed, pulling on her boots. Zipping them up she pulled out the hair that stuck in her collar. "Before you're complaining because you don't get to watch me undress, now I let you and you're not satisfied? Are you ever satisfied Takeshi Beskar?" She grinned.

Edited August 20, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Although I do appreciate the sentiment of letting me watch you change, I must admit that it will take more than seeing a little pink skin to satisfy me."

[Rogue 4]

Layla returned the smirk. "Maybe some other time flyboy... Lieutenant Riamor will be done with his physical therapy in a half hour and I'd like to talk to Captain Tunon without his more stern half around."

[Drake 53]

Tak nodded. "Good idea. Let's just hope Nat's getting some special attention from Nima. It would certainly serve to loosen him up a little." He laughed and led the way out the door.

[Rogue 4]

A few moments later they were knocking on the Captain's door. "Permission to enter, sir?"

[Chickenman 9]

"Permission granted." As the entered, Aeric tiredly looked up from his stack of datapads.

"Yes?"

[Drake 53]

"Sorry to bother you, sir," said Tak. "I can see you're busy so we'll make this quick. This is going to seem like a strange request but...Officer Nasrin and I would like to request permission to paint the Flying Mynock's fighters pink."

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric immediatly abandoned all thoughts of the mission and leaned back in his chair.

"Any particular reason why, Officer Beskar? Officer Nasrin?"

[Rogue 4]

"Uh, well sir," Layla took a step forward. "I'm sure you remember the ah, prank two weeks ago regarding the Flying Mynocks...well we have reason to believe that they're planning to retaliate by painting our own fighter's red. We were hoping to turn their own plot against them."

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric leaned forward. "How'd you arrive at this deduction?"

[Drake 53]

"Well, sir, it all started this morning in the hangar." Tak started. He told Aeric all of what had happened with Sadro and Layla's X-Wing then of the plot to plant the listening device and what the Mynocks had talked about. However, he left out the part about Lieutenant Rath ordering his comrades not to go through with the prank. "So, you see sir, if we don't act quickly, the Mynocks will get the jump on us tonight."

[Ender 8]

Jaim walked out of the firing range, having run through every sim they had. On his way back to his room, he noticed Kaydi, the Mynock pilot, typing furiously at a work station, with Kai Solara, another Mynock, keeping watch for her. He caught sight of Jaim coming around the corner, tapped Kaydi's ankle with his toe, and immediately she stood up and glared in Jaim's direction.

"What are you doing here, Adarra?" she sneered.

"Well, gee, it's such a long story... see, I was driving this speeder..."

"Stolen, no doubt," Kai snorted.

"I prefer 'creatively acquired,' thanks very much."

"Get out of here, barrel-scum. Better yet, go right on back to Coronet and hand yourself to CorSec. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to see you."

"No doubt. Especially after I left your brother in a puddle of his own drool last time I was there."

This was too much for Kai. He pushed Kaydi aside and charged at Jaim, fist raised to punch. At the last moment, Jaim rolled aside, kicking his feet out from under him and sending the Mynock flying onto his face with a sickening crack. Before Kai even had a chance to groan in pain, Jaim had a vibroblade against his kidney.

"Oooh, looks like your nose might be broken. Sorry about that. No, actually, I'm really not. So why don't you and your girlfriend get out of here before I cause you even more damage?"

Kai didn't even bother to speak, just glared daggers at Jaim and walked away, Kaydi fast behind him.

Jaim chuckled as they walked around the corner, and walked over to the workstation. Amateurs. Now, let's see what you're up to.

[Mara 29]

After changing into clean, fresh clothes, Kaden found Artie in the pilots' lounge beating up on a fellow droid in a not so friendly game of dejarik, and they both decided to walk slowly through the halls, seeing if they might run into anyone.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, strolling aimlessly.

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric sighed. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with this kind of thing right before a mission.

"Okay, but you're going to need the rest of Revenant Squadron to help you out if you want to be done tonight. Scratch that, don't get Nat. In fact, don't breathe a word of it to him. And I didn't know a thing about this either, copy?"

They nodded. He glanced down at his datapads.

"That means I'm going to have to push the briefing back...Okay, when you guys are done, try to get some rest. The squadron is going to meet at the briefing room at 0400. We're leaving tomorrow, and will want to get out of here by 0700 or so, before the Mynocks get a chance to see what you've done. Dismissed."