Chapter 3: Archaic

[Chickenman 9]

"Since when are you a psych?" Aeric made a face.

"I honestly don't know. That's what I'm wrestling with. In this war, I've learned that sometimes you have to cut your losses and live to fight another day. Is her life worth the death of the squadron? Not even close. Is her life worth more than any other member of the squadron? No. No it's not."

With that, Aeric walked away to start loading gear onto the ship.

[Vergere 1]

Brier just smiled and shook her head, looking around the hangar for another minute before heading into the ship, the Swiftfire, to do some last minute checks on things.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi went over to his ship, the Shadow Runner, and found that it had been painted per his instruction. Instead of black, the transport was now various shades of brown. It had also been sand-blasted and pocked with blaster scoring made by controlled fire. It looked, for all intents and purposes, like a worlds weary smuggling ship.

Additionally, the name and transponder codes had also been changed. For the duration of this mission, the Shadow Runner would now be called the...he raised an eyebrow at the name painted on the hull. "The Loose Cannon?" he said aloud. "Nice."

He dropped the boarding ramp then grabbed the cases of mission equipment waiting for him at the bottom. He packed it away then went up to the cockpit to run through the preflight checklist.

[Ender 8]

Jaim took Brier's lead and left the table, taking the cup of caf with him. Making it back to his room, he picked up his duffel bag, containing his broken-down KX-60 among other things, and his case of tricks, carrying extra fake ID's, several thousand credits from various printers, and spare weapons. With the case in one hand and the bag over his shoulder, he walked down to the hangar, where White Riot was just being finished by the maintenance crew. Her sleek form was now somewhat green and battle-scarred, and bore a new name: Rhyshcate Warrior.

"That deck chief has way too much kriffing time on his hands," Jaim said, shaking his head wryly as he stowed his gear. After taking a walk around the Riot, making sure she was set to go, he noticed Tak at the controls of hs ship, looking rather more dour and stony than usual.

He sighed, and climbed up into the cockpit to start his checks. I really hope that nerfherder doesn't get us all blasted to the Nine Hells for this, he thought.

[Bad furday 57]

Jya looked around her room, making sure she was packed. One duffle bag held her clothes, I.Ds, credits, and anything else she might need. The multi-tiered box held her demolitions equipment, and various small charges. She'd pick up the larger pieces of her arsenal in the hanger bay, and load them onto Jaim's ship.

Bag slung over her shoulder and box under one arm, Jya locked the door and strode towards the hangar.

After flashing her security clearance at the guard, Jya wandered over to Jaim's now greenish ship, and its new name,

Rhyshcate Warrior.

Several cargo containers with her name on them had been placed at the bottom of the boarding ramp. Jya checked to make sure they contained everything she would need.

Emerging from under the ship, Jya could see Jaim in the cockpit, running diagnostics.

He could have brought them onboard for me. I guess I'll hunt down a hoversled...

Jya ran off, looking for a sled. Eventually she found one in a corner of the hangar.

Returning to the Rhyshcate Warrior, she began loading the cargo containers onto the hoversled.

"So that's how you stay so toned!"

Jya turned. "Arlan!"

Arlan swept her up in a kiss.

"I'm hitching a ride with Tak, so until we arrive on planet..." he gave her another kiss. " Be safe."

Jya nodded. "I will."

"I hear Jaim's a womanizer...so I have to do this!" winked Arlan.

Arlan went around to the front of Jaim's ship and waited for Jaim to catch sight of him from the cockpit. When

he did so, Arlan pointed and gave Jaim a mock dirty look, before laughing and heading over to Tak's ship.

Jya laughed, before turning and pushing the hoversled up the ship's ramp. Once she had unloaded the containers in the cargo hold, Jya sent the sled back down the boarding ramp and entered the cockpit.

Jaim was reclining in his captain's chair, looking every inch a swarthy Corellian pirate.

[Drake 53]

Takeshi was just about finished the pre-flight check. Looking at his chrono, the time read 0730...almost time for the meeting at 8. He glanced around at the other ships in the hangar and spotted Jaim looking at him. He gave the Corellian a slight nod then went back to work. Tak knew what the others thought about him. They figured that he was a loose cannon...just like the cover name of his ship. They thought that he would lose focus of the mission and go in with guns blazing.

They didn't know him at all. No one else in the squadron, except Layla and maybe Captain Tunon, understood what was going on in Tak's mind right now. He wasn't a broken shell of a man. No. He was actually the exact opposite. He was thinking clearly. He was focused one hundred percent on doing what he had to do to achieve the goals of the mission and keep everyone alive. Takeshi was fully back into Black Ops mode: cold, calculating, and deadly.

He spotted Arlan, on the security cam, at the base of the ramp to his ship. He switched on the comm system. "Arlan, welcome aboard. I'm up in the cockpit."

[Pandora 77]

Deign glanced at his wrist chrono and finally released Layla's hands. She had such delicate fingers, and despite all appearances, he really didn't want to cause her any physical pain. He took a step back and analyzed the sudden pysiological reaction he'd just noticed. Zeltron! he reminded himself, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to ignore the unsolicited hormones coursing through his system.

"Times are different, Layla." Deign's eyes settled on her throat, pink and smooth and enticing... Eyes, Deign! He forced himself to look back up to her eyes, refusing to focus on her lips as his glance moved. He couldn't consciously detect the pheremones in the air, but he recognized all the biological indicators. She was getting the best of him, and the thought of losing--anything, the argument, his family... control--enraged him.

He spun to the guard on duty. "She gets no meals until I give you explicit instructions to the contrary. She can have water, that's it, no more than a liter in the next two hours."

He turned back to Layla. "You will not best me this way."

[Rogue 4]

"Relax, I'm not trying to best you." Layla rolled her eyes just a bit. "I'm trying to keep those guards on their toes. Think of it as giving them a little extra training that you forgot." She gave a small smirk of amusement as she looked to him. "No need to be so harsh, okay hun? Come on, let's just go back to your appartment and talk this whole thing out."

[Chickenman 9]

His gear stowed away, Aeric was underneath the Swiftfire, assisting in the preflight check. Noticing Kaden walking in, Aeric waved at Brier that he was going to take five and walked straight towards Kaden, intending to intercept him before he got to his gear.

[Bad furday 57]

Arlan walked up the ramp and found his way to the cockpit.

Tak was there, doing pre-flight checks.

"If you're all set here, I'll go bring my things onboard" said Arlan.

[Andy 60]

Aston hastily followed Arlan into Tak's ship, with his slicing gear safely stowed in his backpack.

"Is it alright to come aboard?"

[Bad furday 57]

"If he says 'No', you'd better run off pretty quick!" smirked Arlan.

[Princess 35]

Nima came into the hangar with her bag of clothing and a large box of medical supplies. She headed over to Brier's ship and stowed the medical supplies in the cargo area then waited for the rest of the squad to show.

[Mara 29]

Kaden glanced over to his side at Aston's comment and blinked at the younger man. Before he could even think to reply, though, Captain Tunon had swept up to their table, reminding them that this was not entirely a social breakfast. They had a job to do.

The team left the table by ones and twos, slowly making their way out to make preparations. One of the last to least, Kaden finished up his breakfast, cleaning every last morsel off his tray. Then he also left the cafeteria, going straight to the hangar to find Brier's ship, already having all his belongings and gear along with him in his shoulderbag slung around his neck.

Halfway to the Swiftfire, he was bumped from behind and greeted with a few beeps. Kaden's surprise melted away as he spun around to face Artie.

"Hey, how'd you... nevermind." Kaden sighed and ran a hand over his face. "You better go back to where the others are, Artie."

Artie "oooh" at him sadly.

"Yes. I know. But...you just can't come this time." He crouched down to face his droid at eye-level. "Don't worry about me. Okay?"

Artie whistled, not entirely convinced.

Kaden stood back up. "I'll be back before you even have time to miss me."

At that moment, Artie opened up a compartment in his dome and shot up something small and metallic. He twittled. Kaden quickly caught it--a comm.

"All right. If it will make you feel better, and keep you on Coruscant, I'll carry this with me."

Artie beeped.

Kaden put the comm inside a small pocket on his bag and then bent over to give his droid a hug before he wheeled away, not feeling at all awkward for doing so.

[Pandora 77]

Deign shook his head sharply. "I'm not buying it, sweetheart. So you just sit there for a while and stew. I'll come back later and ask you again. And if you're still trying to drown me in pheremones, I'll take an alternate course of action."

He turned from the door, the lack of reserve his body displayed bringing him no small amount of fury. If he hadn't turned away when he did, he would have opened the door and struck Layla so hard it would have made his backhand to her cheek look like a love-tap.

[Ender 8]

Jaim folded his hands behind his head and grinned at Jya. "Welcome aboard, my dear, to the Rhyshcate Warrior. It's kind of its own independent nation, where a man's only requirement is to love his fellow woman. Make yourself at home."

Edited July 2, 2008 by The Stig

[Drake 53]

"Permission granted," Tak said over the comm. "You two can stow your things. There's room in any of the aft cabin compartments so just pick one. I'll be back in a minute."

He finished up his preflight checks then joined the two other men in the rear cabin. "It's just about time for the pre-mission huddle and high fives. We better get out there." Tak walked past Arlan and Aston then down the ramp.

Edited July 2, 2008 by Drake

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric caught up with Kaden.

"Officer Staal, we need to talk."

[Rogue 4]

Layla watched him leave, knowing that it was better to back down and try again later than to keep going with him as angry as he was. She retreated into her cell to take inventory of her situation.

The pheromones that used to excite him when he was younger didn't seem to want to work on him now, causing him only a paranoid sense of anger. Truthfully at the end there she had tried to manipulate him a little, but she had to confess if even to herself that their original banter at his arrival had her remembering good times and old feelings. It had her getting a little excited, and she had to admit that it had her feeling a little guilty. Just thinking about him like that, even though in her home culture polygamy was accepted and most often practiced, made her feel like she had betrayed Takeshi. Tak, please be okay...

She had loved two men in her life, and was confronted with her feelings for both at the same time. Kark it...I just admitted my feelings for them, if only to myself. Now I have to live with it.

She sighed as she sat down on the bed and stared at her hands. "Good thing Deign doesn't realize that all he would need to do to break me is be good to me..." She muttered. He could probably make her fall apart in just a matter of days that way.

[Mara 29]

With his final good-byes to Artie done and the droid on his way out of the hangar, Kaden started at the sound of the captain's voice. He spun and snapped off a quick salute.

"Yes, sir?"

[Ayingel 24]

Szen quickly made sure she went over everything. She didn't have all of her things yet, but what she had would do. Her usually much heavier bag was a lot lighter for this mission. Running her hand over her blaster, she headed out the door of her room and made her way to the hangar. Walking in, she saw Nima near Brier's ship and made her way over. "Nothing like testing this out on the real thing?" Szen smiled as she set down her bag and flexed her arm a little.

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric motioned for him to follow him outside the hangar. Aeric found an empty conference room and ducked inside. He strode to the holoprojector in the middle of the room and inserted a datachip. The holoprojector began to play a video of Kaden's sim run from the day before. Aeric fast forwarded to a moment, just before the sim had been cut short, where Kaden's ship sharply veered away from Szen's in order to pursue enemy fighters elsewhere. Aeric paused the video.

"Do you plan on telling me what you call that little manuever?"

[Mara 29]

A little confused, Kaden did as he was asked and stood near the projector, hands clasped behind his back. He recognized the holovid immediately; he had gone over it enough times on his datapad himself. There were a million things he could say, a million things he could have done differently in that sim, but he decided to go with the truth.

"Officer Braenen appeared to be handling herself at the time being, so then I made a snap decision to try to lead away as many of the eyeballs from the original entanglement as possible. Hoping that some would get caught in the friendly fire of the destroyer. Sir."

He waited, hoping that Vadrov Prime wasn't now starting a trend.

Edited July 3, 2008 by Mara

[Chickenman 9]

"Interesting tactic. But the thing that worries me here is that you broke the number one rule of squadron combat. You left your wingman. You left your wingman wide open. You said she could handle herself. Not without her wingman, she can't. Not without someone watching her back in the thick of it. I'd rather take on ten squadrons with a wingman than one squadron alone. The squadron that flies the best isn't the one that lives to fight another day. It's the squadron that works together the best. Abandoning your squadronmate in the thick of battle is inexcusable. And if I ever see you doing it in combat mission, I will kick you out of this unit faster than lightspeed."

He paused, examining the video for another moment. Kaden appeared to think this was his cue to leave.

"Hold, Officer Staal."

He continued looking staring at the video before he turned around, his facial expression an iota more compassionate this time.

"I've noticed in the sims you like to play the hero a lot. Like this, lead the enemy into the crossfire of the Star Destroyer's turbolasers and such. When I talked to you about this last time, I thought it was arrogance. I still see some arrogance there, but I think that's only a byproduct of the root cause of the problem. What I'm seeing now is an inability to trust other people. Maybe it's shyness, maybe it is indeed arrogance. I think it's something deeper than that. But let me tell you about it's effects. You've distanced yourself from the squadron. It's created a rift between you and the people that count on you to save their lives, and vice versa. As I said, this is a team. If the squadron doesn't work as a team, it dies. It's like you're wearing this shell to protect yourself from getting hurt. But it is hurting. It's hurting the squadron. By extension, it's hurting you. You don't have to tell me what's going on in your head. But your squadronmates, your family, have been trying to break through that shell from day one. Not just because they want to be your friend. But because they need to trust you. And they need your trust. We're about to go on a dangerous mission to save the life of one of own. And as it stands, I don't know if I can trust you in the heat of battle. And that scares me more than Darth Vader's ghost."

He saluted Kaden.

"Dismissed."

Edited July 3, 2008 by Chickenman

[Mara 29]

"Yes, sir." He saluted and left the room, heading back to the hangar.

Once out of range, he allowed himself a sigh. Kaden knew he had messed up the sim, and whether or not there was a glitch in the system, was not the point. In his self-centered vision, he had thought that leading away some of the TIEs would be saving his wingmate more than staying with her was. At least at the time, during the moment. Now he completely saw the error of his ways. Now and last evening when he watched the vid play over and over on his datapad. His ten-plus years of training had seemed to desert him at that moment.

He had never thought of himself as a hero, faux or not. Far from it. But Kaden recognized the signs of it, and it almost made himself sick that he found it in himself more than once. He couldn't let it happen to him again, no matter how battle-ready he became. He didn't want to spend another year on Coruscant doing "desk duty" on "administrative leave."

Kaden pulled a ration bar out of his shoulder bag and began to chew on it. He thought he had been making headway with his squadronmates, but, he realized, he must be more damaged than he thought he was. Perhaps Brier had been right, that night before they started the Ithyari mission. A mission he felt, looking back, that he had done well on.

But now this was a new squadron, a new mission. A new life. It was time to start over again, get a blank flimsisheet.

Edited July 3, 2008 by Mara