Chapter 3: Archaic

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric watched him go.

Hopefully that'll get him thinking, at least.

Aeric pulled the datachip out of the projector. He caught his reflection on a polished surface in the room.

Not that Kaden's the only one is this squadron who needs to take a cold hard look at himself.

He waited a good five minutes for Kaden to get clear and back into the hangar before Aeric headed there himself, closing the door behind him.

[Andy 60]

"I only just got here," Aston sighed as he placed his things on a side inside Tak's ship, and followed him out into the hangar.

[Mara 29]

Fully inside the hangar now, he stood around with his fellow squadronmates, waiting. Kaden finished the ration bar and stuffed the wrapped into a pocket.

[Bad furday 57]

Jya laughed. She smirked at Jaim.

"If by 'home' you mean your lap, I've already got a kingdom!"

[Ender 8]

"That's pretty much all the room there is around here." Jaim swung his arms about the cramped cockpit. "But you have to promise me that your boyfriend isn't going to assemble an army of warrior droids hell-bent on my destruction."

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric walked to the entrance of the Swiftfire and stood before it, waiting for his squadron to assemble. He took a breath, wondering what the hell he was going to say.

[Rogue 4]

Nat was one of the first ones to assemble, in the plain-clothes Corellian attire that was the requirement for this mission. He was clearly not in good spirits today, with his arms crossed and a deep frown on his face. His yellow eyes were clear though and showed no sign of hangover---probably because he hadn't had enough to drink to cause one. Nima and Atuarre could think that he was under the influence when he yelled at them last night, but he knew he hadn't been. He had just been angry, for the first time in a long time.

[Chickenman 9]

The squadron fell in before him. They weren't in the precise military lines that all starfighter units usually fell into. Rather, they were a huddled mob. Aeric liked that. The less they resembled a military squadron, the better.

"I'll keep it short, guys. Today we go into unfriendly territory to bring back one of our own. You all know your jobs. Let's bring Layla back."

((I'll explain the jobs in a forthcoming post.))

Edited July 3, 2008 by Chickenman

[Bad furday 57]

"I'll be sure to remember to tell him. Sometime."

Through the cockpit windows, Jya caught sight of Aeric and some of the others meeting in the hangar.

"Hey, there's a squad meeting of some sort. I think we'd better join up."

* * * *

Arlan looked over to Jaim's ship as he and Aston followed Tak to the "pre-mission huddle".

Jya and Jaim had still not appeared.

Maybe I didn't give him a dirty enough look! mused Arlan.

[Princess 35]

When Aeric paused Nima smiled at Szen. "From what I saw in the sims last night, you're getting the hang of that thing or I never would have signed off on your medical clearance. I would have liked to see some close combat maneuvers from you too, but maybe we can get some of those in on the way to Corellia if someone feels like obliging." She turned her attention back to Aeric.

[Chickenman 9]

"So that's about it." Aeric said, embarrassed that people were hanging for more words. "Stay safe, and good luck. Let's roll out!"

[Ender 8]

Jaim glanced out the viewport. "Stang. The man may be an officer, but he has no sense of timing."

[Vergere 1]

Brier started showing people into the ship as the briefing ended, showing people where they could sleep and the like if she hadn't shown them already.

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric found a room and sat down with his datapads, intending to study them for the duration of the trip.

[Vergere 1]

After making sure everyone was settled in on her ship that was supposed to be there, Brier went and plopped into the pilot's seat. She pulled on a headset that allowed her to talk to her droids, and Zak came up and sat next to her, helping her with takeoff. Switching her frequency to that of the ships intercomm system, "Hello ladies and gentlemen. I hope everyone's situated... time for take off. Sit back and enjoy the ride." She switched back to the droid frequency, and with the ease of someone who is accustomed to their ship, gently took off and went through atmo without much jarring of her passengers - pretty much as smooth as was possible with her ship and Coruscant's atmosphere. Pushing it into hyperdrive, she put it on auto-pilot and sighed, watching the hyperspace lines pass her by.

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric finally looked up from the datapads, blinking his eyes against the light that wasn't coming from them. He took a sip of water and then went back to work. It seemed as good a plan as it had last night. An emphasis was put at collecting as much data as fast as possible in order to find where Layla might be held.

Archaic is a galactic criminal syndicate, but there's almost no information on their activities on Corellia. They've got quite the operation going on. Its got its hands in nearly every pocket on the planet, and yet there's nothing to trace back to them. He took another sip. He had all the information Intel had, and it amounted to nothing. Unless Brier's holding out on us. Years of working alongside Intel operatives had taught Aeric that Intelligence was as much about information denial as retrieval. Maybe more so.

Let's see...the squadron is divided into teams. Team Red is Jaim and Jya, who will land in Tyrena, hitting up the cantinas for information, and utilizing some of their old smuggling contacts. Jaim's a bit of a loose cannon, but I think I can trust him to not cause any scenes. Or I trust Jya to put a stop to them before they start. I hope. They probably wouldn't find much, but the inebriated often gave away more than they should.

Meanwhile, Team Gold, Arlan, Aston, and Tak, will land in a separate Tyrenan docking bay, with the mission to infiltrate an Archaic office of some sort, even a front, in order to investigate there. Aeric frowned. That one could be time consuming, but if they succeed, it's our best way to figure out where they're holding Layla. Aston will slice the computer networks, ostensibly working for them. Arlan will plant listening bugs throughout the building. And Tak will make sure they don't get themselves killed. And probably do some investigating for himself. Aston and Arlan were experts at their respective roles, but I'm worried about how convincing they are. Tak shouldn't be a problem.

Team Blue, named after our XO, Aeric smirked, will stay at Brier's house. It consists of Nima, Nat, and Brier herself. They will handle the researching and data sorting. Their job is unfortunately the dullest, but Nima needs to be on hand in case she is needed by any of the squads. Nat isn't much of a commando, but is terribly efficient at paperwork. Aeric felt a pang of guilt at that. I dump too much of that stuff on him. I have to stop doing that to the guy. And Brier's an intelligence officer, so she knows exactly what to look for and where to find it.

Team Green consists of me, Atuarre, Szen, and Kaden. Operating from a cheap motel, we're going to handle old-fashioned reconnaissance. Chasing down leads from Blue Team, as well as our own investigations. Atuarre and I should be right at home, her coming from the Trianii Rangers and me coming from Spec Forces. Szen I'm worried about. She's still recovering from injury, but a communications officer could be handy. Kaden isn't much of a fighter and has no special operations training, but he'll learn. And it'll be better than leaving him with Team Blue. Cooping him up inside a house is just going to make him mope. Aeric paused. He hoped he hadn't been too rough on the guy. He had performed very well at Ithyari. But that sim run could not go unnoticed.

And of course, Brier is the thread that holds it all together. She's the link between the squadron. She's the one who's going to pickup and send information to the other teams through dropoffs and exchanges. Aeric grinned. This must be her element.

He checked and double checked and triple checked the plan. It was solid. Not perfect, but solid. Aeric didn't even notice falling asleep.

Edited July 4, 2008 by Chickenman

[Drake 53]

Tak, Arlan and Aston returned to the Loose Cannon after their brief and altogether pointless pep talk. Tak supposed it was good for moral, at least.

He boarded, waited for the other two men to join him, then hit the hatch controls to close up. Moving through the small cabin and passenger seating areas, Tak went up to the cockpit and took a seat in his chair. "Find a seat and buckle up back there, boys. We're taking off."

Takeshi fired up the engines and brought the ship off the hangar deck. Moments later, they were in open air, flying up past Coruscant morning traffic. Moments after that, they were out of the atmosphere and into the dark of space. Once clear of the planet's gravity well, Tak set the jump coordinates and throttled into hyperspace.

Each of the three ships would be making different hyperspace jumps so they would each arrive at different times and from different directions. The Loose Cannon would arrive several minutes after the Swiftfire and Jaim's Rhyschate Warrior several minutes after that. For now, though, Tak set the computer to alert him a couple minutes before the reversion to realspace then went to join his two teammates.

[Rogue 4]

Nat Raimor found a seat somewhere in the back of Brier's ship, the Swiftfire, hoping that the other Twi'lek Revenant Squadron passenger for this 0800 flight from Coruscant to Corellia would keep her distance. The Lieutenant just simply wasn't in the mood to deal with her careless need for attention right now.

He shifted, trying to make himself comfortable and kicked the bag at his feet just slightly. His gear bag was filled with practically nothing. He had his blaster rifle tucked in it's case at his side, but he doubted he would be using it. No, Captain Tunon had wanted him to stay behind with Brier and Nima, going through data and old paperwork during the duration of the mission. While everyone else got to do something active. Nat understood that his part of the mission was still as important as the others, but he felt that someone less combat-experienced, like Kaden or Szen for example should have drawn those straws while he put his more tactical mind to use where it belonged.

Edited July 4, 2008 by Rogue

[Ayingel 24]

Szen sat down near Nat in the Swiftfire. She was close enough to hear any conversations, should he start one, but far enough that he might not want to. She didn't really want to talk with all of the thinking she needed to do.

[Vergere 1]

Brier and Zak got up after a while to walk around, but sensing the unusual silence in the ship, talked in very low voices to each other as they went to get some caf. They smiled faintly at anyone who glanced over their way, but made no effort to start any conversation.

[Princess 35]

Nima found an open space on the ship back near the cargo hold and went through a complex series of stretches that took her about a half hour to complete. Then she wandered forward to find Szen. "Hey girl, let's test out that arm and eye with a little hand to hand, what do you say?"

[Ayingel 24]

Nima broke Szen's silence. "Sure, that would be great." She got up and followed Nima. She began stretching her legs and arm in preparation for the sparring match with the Twi'lek.

[Princess 35]

Nima assumed a basic sparring position and started feeling out Szen's defenses

[Mara 29]

Kaden sat in the lounge of the Swiftfire, his eyes completely focused on the datapad he held in his hands.

[Bad furday 57]

Arlan thought about their mission objective as he sat in the passenger seating area. Infiltrating an enemy organization was something that thrilled and

scared him at the same time. It was just like one of those crime holos, except this time it was real. No room for mistakes.

He stood up and went to one of the cargo containers he had brought onboard, mentally thinking about which type of listening device

would go where.

Arlan looked up as Tak entered the cabin.

* * * *

Jya wandered around the cargo hold of Jaim's ship as he continued with his prefilight. Jaim seemed to be taking a long time going over everything.

Either he's a stickler for exactness, or there's a problem thought Jya. She headed towards the cockpit to see if Jaim needed help.