[Closed/IC] 'Humanitarian' Efforts

(ooc: ok for directional purposes i'm just gunna say we're going north to the reindevous)

Oron's face scrunched up a bit. Almost insulted at the insinuation that he would shoot a friendly because of an itchy trigger finger. Still, he let the comment go and after she finished speaking, he simply said:

"Hua."

Moving to the front of the group, he glanced back at Joanne on her return. As she snapped in her ammo pack, he gave a ready to move kind of nod in her direction and then swung back around to face front. He dropped into a somewhat hunched stance as he began to move forward and scan the area for possible threats. Hitting the button on his SFG, he soon disappeared. As they were making their way to the reindevous point through the forest, he could hear many strange sounds eminating from all around him. Everything was going fine for a while. Suddenly his sonic amplifiers in his helmet picked up a sound that didn't fit with the rest of the ambient noise he had been hearing up till now. He switched his mic on so no sound would exit his helmet and only come out over their headsets.

"Hold!"

He said quietly but sternly. He moved a short distance farther ahead to get a better view of what he was hearing. Bringing up his sniper rifle, he scans the area farther ahead through his scope. He quickly locates two groups of Colicoids.

"Ok 3 tango's up 100 yards, 10 o'clock. And another 3 tango's 150 yards, 2 o'clock. Requesting permission to engage closest tango's to the northeast sir."

As he waits for the answer, he trains his sniper rifle on the head of the colicoid in the rear of the group. This should hopefully give him enough time to aim knock out a second one before they figure out what is going on.

---

Will walked over and looked at the damage. Although extensive, it only affected their ability to go to space, fortunately. They still had stuff to do down here. So at least they would have some time to make repairs before actually needing to have these repairs finished. As she finished her assesment and handed him an assignment, he simply nodded in agreement. As she ran out to get parts, he looked around for a welding mask so he could begin. After quickly locating one, he got to work removing the jagged edges of the coolant tank so they could fix it when Penelope returned with spare parts.

Joni snuck next to Oron then closed her eyes, reaching out in the Force.
“Assessment confirmed,” she whispered, opening her eyes, “I’m not doubting your skill, just making sure there aren’t more nearby hiding.”

He closed her eyes again, probing again with the Force.
“I don’t sense they know that we are here but they do seem to be tracking something,” she whispered, “Tell Joanne and Sav to take position off to our right and target 2 ‘o clock group and Ranson to meet with us. Report to me when they are in position.”

She waited for him to relay the orders.

---

As Will worked he probably noticed that it was taking longer than it should for Penelope to retrieve the parts. Around the time Will finished, Penelope returned with Jason in tow, in her hands a variety of parts while Jason held a much larger part.
“Sorry for the wait,” she said, “Where I put the parts in my ship isn’t where the parts happened to be here. I went to get Jason to tell me where they were then when we found them we discovered we had an extra power converter.”

She and Jason set the parts down with a thud. She brushed her hands then turned to Jason.
“That’ll be all,” she said.

Jason gave a nod and about faced to walk back to his post in the cockpit. She took out her hydrospanner and then scooped up a few parts.
“You can patch the coolant tank and install the new power converter. I’ll get to work on the other engine,” she announced.

She turned to the engine and became absorbed into her work.

Oron smirked slightly, but didn't removed the reticle of his scop from off his target.

"No problem ma'am. Better safe than sorry."

Switching back over to general comm, he says:

"Sav, Joanne. Orders are for you two to move into position to knock out the tango's on our 2 o'clock. When you're in position, click your comms 3 times. Don't speak though. Not sure what kind of ability these Colicoids have to pick up transmissions. I will click my comm twice in responce to signal the time to engage. Ranson, Joni wants you here with us. Sidewinder out."

It didn't take long for the experienced duo to move into position on their 3 tango's. Oron soon heard 3 clicks over the comm. This was just about the same time Ranson had caught up with them. Still not taking his eyes off his target he whispers to Joni.

"Sav and Joanne are in position ma'am. Ready to move on your mark."

Oron began to control his breathing in preparation for his inevitable shot.

---

Will was focused too much on his work to really notice how long Penelope was gone. Seeing her arrive right as he was finished though, he smiled and said:

"Ah, perfect timing! And no worries. Took me a little longer than I would have liked to get this thing prepped and ready. So you're good."

Will walks over to inspect the parts when Penelope informs him of his new assignment.

"Sure thing."

He says pleasantly and picks up the parts he would need. As she bent over to work on her engine, he couldn't help but glance over and admire her form. A sly grin formed on his face as he mumbled at a volume only he could hear.

"Mmmm mmm mmm."

Before she could turn around and catch him admiring her though, he thought it prudent to turn his attention toward his own mess of an engine and get to work making the repairs. He too gradually became absorbed in his repairs. If Penelope finished before Will (quite likely) and walk toward his direction, she would hear him grumbling about how shoddy the craftmenship was with this engine. Will always hated on working on other peoples ships. They never seemed to be up to par with how he liked the engines to run. He often found himself "fixing" more than what he set out to originally take care of, just because he knew it could be improved. There was the rare exception, usually it being a fellow smugglers ship of course. In this case though, the standard republic issued ship was not going to be one of those moments.

Ranson came up on Oron’s right and gave a nod two the duo, signaling that he was ready.
“Take the first shot, Sidewinder,” Joni, the only one without a helmet, whispered, “Wait for my mark.”

She closed her eyes as she reached out in the Force. A few moments passed then she finally opened her eyes.
“Now,” she said.

---

Penelope knew that Will’s eyes were hugging her form; she didn’t need her own to see it. Being a Zeltron, she had an empathic ability that allowed her to read and sometimes feel other people’s emotions and the ones that she picked up from Will she knew all too well. However, she just continued working. She knew that she was incredibly attractive so she adopted a ‘look but can’t touch’ policy. She was comfortable with Will so she simply let the incident slide but grinned to herself as she worked.

It didn’t take too long before Penelope finished her engine. She did some final touches before she patted it then closed the hatch. She walked over to see how Will was doing.
“Need some help?” she asked.

Oron clicked his comm twice to signal the second team that the time had come to attack. Quickly returning his attention to his own target, he took one final deep breath and took aim. A split second later, the crackle of Oron's rifle shattered the silence that had just been there a moment before. The heavy blaster round streaked through the air and quickly connected with its intended target dropping the colicoid instantly with a low thud. A small smirk appeared on his face as his rifle hummed a quick recharge sound.

He quickly took aim at the second colicoid, but its reflexes were too quick. The second round landed, but left the creature alive, if stunned and wounded. His smirk disappeared as his rifle recharged for the next round....

---

His grumbling quickly stopped when he heard his partner approach. A small spark and pained grunt could be heard, followed by the hum of the engine as it powered up. He slid out from under the engine and looked up to Penelope from his current position on the floor with a grin on his face. Removing the goggles he had over his eyes to get a better look at her he says:

"Well she's up and running, but I still got a few more tweaks i'd like to do before I say she's ready to go. If you like, there is the stabilizers just above me right there that could use a little tweaking. The stock settings don't really help us when it comes to maximizing the power output of this piece. If you can take care of that, i'll finish up with the couple small patches that are still needed on the coolent tank down here and we should be good to go."

With that, he replaces the goggles over his eyes and slides back under the engine. Soon, welding could heard taking place on the coolent tank.

At the sound of the three clicks, Joanne opened fired on her targets. Her shots were quieter than the loud crack of Oron’s rifle but they can be heard all the same. One shot, head shot, two shot, head shot, three shot, body shot. The loud fire of Sav’s heavy blaster can be heard as he finished off the last colicoid.
“Clear,” Sav said over the com.

Before Oron could fire again, Joni fired three shots with her pistol and finished off the second colicoid. Ranson open fired on the last colicoid and managed to pin it down behind a tree, ripe for Oron’s taking.

---

Penelope took Will’s suggestion and walked over to the stabilizers. They didn’t look too bad but they could use a little tweaking as Will said. She took out her hydrospanner and began working on it. As she worked her thoughts drifted to her own ship, The Pink Fury. It was the same ship model as this one but with some improvements and modifications.

“What kind of ship do you have?” she asked as she worked.

As Sav gave the all clear over the comm, Sav and Joanna hear loud roar despite the distance from the last Colicoid charging Oron's position. Another crack from Oron's rifle was followed by only silence. A couple seconds later, Sav gets a reply over the comm:

"Copy that sir. All clear here as well. We're moving up toward your position. Eta 30 seconds. I recommend we move out of this area quickly. It won't be long till reinforcements arrive to investigate the disturbance."

It wasn't long before the trio caught up with Sav and Joanne. Seeing the carcasses of the 3 colicoids, he noticed which ones were obviously sniper kills. Slightly amused that he and Jaonne had essentially the axact same results in their shooting, he turns his gaze toward her and nods. Although he knew she couldn't see his smile, he nevertheless said:

"Nice shooting. Now we just need to see who is better at hand to hand, since we seem to be tied for shooting expertise."

He then resumes point position and leads the team on. They don't encounter any more threats....at least that require elimination. Several more patrols of colicoids are spotted, but they are far enough out of the way that the team is able to slip by them unnoticed. Eventually the team makes its way to the base of the mountain and the location Joni pointed out....

---

As they worked Penelope asked about his ship. A small smile appeared as he thought about his baby.

"Well she's actually a Dynamic class freighter from Core Galaxy Systems. It an older design I know, but it suits me just fine. Also with the amount of mods I made to the thing, she bears little resemblence to the simple frieghter she once was....at least on the inside. Also another reason why I love that ship. Most people nowadays think she's outdated. Gives me an edge when people try to mess with me on my runs. They think their tangling with someone who won't be able to put up a fight or be able to meanever then, BAM!"

He lets out a somewhat quiet laugh as he recalls a few of his encounters by pirates who thought he was easy pickings.

"Let's just say there are more than a few people who won't be writing holiday cards back their family after messin with me and my baby. Course I have had to run a few times as well. But that's where the engines and shields come in."

He let's out another chuckle as he looks over his work making sure everything was up to par.

"Kriff. Speakin' of engines, I still can't believe you got us past that blockade with the pieces of poodoo that are in this hunk of junk. That really was some nice flying."

He slides out from under the engine and smirks. Getting back on his feet he finally continues:

"I mean seriously, with way you can fly, fight, drink and repair just about anything, I swear I don't know what those idiots you mentioned before were thinking when they started treating you lie crap or cheatin' or whatever it was."

He rubs his hands together to get the dirt of them, then says:

"Anyway, that should about do it. Care to put this bucket of bolts through its paces once you finish there?"

He then headed toward the cockpit, so they could test and make sure their repairs were ok. As he walked he realised he may have been again, a bit to flirty. Although he was growing to like her more and more each day and more than for just her looks, he realised that he probably had little chance with her unfortunately. He wondered if she had simply had one to many bad experiences recently to be interested, or perhaps she didn't even care for humans. Either way, he decided he would stop any types of flirtatous comments since it appeared she only wished to be friends at best anyway.....

Though no one could see it, Joanne was smiling under her helmet.
“You caught me on a good day. However, if you give me a knife in my hand I can guarantee you I will win that brawl,” she said.

When she turned to Joni to see what they did next, she caught her staring intently between her and her lightsaber.
“I’m not going to kill you,” she said slightly hurt, “I got that lightsaber from other means.”

Joni stared for a moment more before she realized she was being talked to. Looking slightly uncomfortable, she refocused her attention on the mission.
“No, I’m not worried about that. I was thinking of…something else,” she explained, "You got to tell me that story later but we have somewhere we have to be.”

They hiked through the forest with Joni and Oron at point, dodging colicoid patrols, until they reached the base of the mountain. There Joni raised a fist so the group halted. She closed her eyes and concentrated then opened them with new certainty. She studied her data pad for a moment to reaffirm their position then turned to the group.
“I have to approach them alone from here. Stay here and try not to attract too much trouble. Until I get back, Sav’s in charge,” she said.

She was about to turn then remembered something.
“Be prepared for an ambush but don’t shoot right away. These rebels wouldn’t be here if they didn’t have some way of being stealthy after all,” she said then finally went on her way.

Ranson took the moment to pull off his helmet and grab his water canteen.
“Everyone take a drink,” he said, “We’ve been traveling for awhile and no one is getting dehydrated on my watch.”

Sav seemed to be staring off after Joni, his stance suggesting some worry, before he took the Corpsman’s advice and took off his helmet to take a drink. Joanne simply stood, alert for any trouble as they took a moment to rest.

---

Before Penelope could reply to anything Will said, she turned and saw that he was gone. He probably already knew her answer anyway. She continued her work on the stabilizer as she neared completion.

When Will reached the cockpit, he almost ran into Jason. He backed up and stood back into his default stance of attention. He was calm and collected as ever but there was a sense of urgency about him.
“Oh good. I was just about to see you and Miss Bluestar, Captain,” he said, “I intercepted some transmissions and the Empire is sending interceptors this way to scan the site for any crash. We are going to go dark as people may say. Inform Miss Bluestar of our predicament and cut all power going to the engines. When you are done report back here so I can give you a full debriefing.”

With that Jason did a crisp about-face and began to shut down the various systems of the ship. The most obvious evidence of this was when the lights dimmed. Sounds of things turning off were heard throughout the ship.