Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Ender 8]

Jaim nodded to Nat and jogged off to his fighter, where Hilts was already in his socket behind the cockpit. Jaim scrambled up the ladder and began his preflight check.

"Hilts, I want sensors boosted by 50% once we're in the air. I want to make sure that the Imps don't have any surprises waiting for us."

Hilts tootled an affirmative.

[Vergere 1]

Brier kneeled by her things, trying to get into the mind of being Imperial. She just stared at the ground, and furrowed her brow as memories she'd kept locked away rushed back ruthlessly.

Having closed her eyes to the pain, she couldn't tune out the memories completely. Once again, she felt every punch of the fist and every kick of the shoe that the prison guards and officers inflicted on her.

"You damned pickpocket!" Kick. "What the hell did you think you were doing, trying to cheat my men out of their earnings!" Punch. "Aren't you going to say something, animal? By all accounts, we shoulda killed you when we got you in our patty paws. Save you the guilt and crime of not being human." A few more kicks, making her fall to the floor. "You don't talk much, do you? Do you not understand our language? Is that it?"

A young Brier had heard enough of that clipped, accented Imperial tone to last her a lifetime. She had stood back up, and looked the clean-cut man in the eye. "I can understand every word you have told me. I stole from your people because I was starving. I get a little testy when I'm hungry."

She remembered that the man seemed disconcerted by her gaze; she remembered revelling in the thought that she, a kid, scared a grown man.

She had stared him down with that ice-blue gaze, backing him out of the cell. He had no partner - few people would be intimidated or hurt by a nine year old child. Brier was so mad, none of that seemed to be on her mind; she didn't even realize he was twice her size. She got ready to beat the living sith out of the man, when a tall man picked her up by the collar of her shirt, like one would with a puppy. She swung at everything that got close to her, just wanting to hurt someone or something. She stopped when the man holding her up managed to catch her wrists in his free hand, a hand so large it covered both of hers, and she realized it was a gentle hold.

The man wasn't Imperial - he was Corellian, and if she knew anything about the underworld, he was a smuggler or other underworld operative. He looked at the Imperial that had been hitting her. "I think I'll take this little spitfire with me as well, Lieutenant. I'll be sure to pay your Captain an extra bonus to make up for the... humiliation this girl caused you." He grinned an easy grin, and then looked Brier in the eye. "If I put you down, you'll be a good girl, won't you?"

Brier looked over at the Imperial with hatred in her eyes, but the Corellian made her look at him again. "No hurting anyone. You have to promise to be good."

She tried to stare the man down, tried to make him uneasy with her stare, but after watching the kindness in his eyes, she looked away, unable to look at him. "Yessir." Even as the tall Corellian took her out of that Imperial prison, not having even the faintest idea of who she was but still taking her away, she turned and looked at that Imperial one last time. And he wasn't the only one that had beaten her. She remembered every one of them. She remembered how the Imperials spoke, how they held themselves, how they acted. She had the time to do so. She'd had weeks in jail, able to observe the guards and everything about them.

Brier shook slightly as the memories came back to her, and fought the hate and the pain, wanting to make the memories go away. She only wanted to make the voice and accent stay in her mind, nothing else. She literally jumped when someone touched her shoulder, and all the pain and anger and fear that she'd been feeling disappeared when she was startled. When she vaugely heard someone ask her if she was okay, she just nodded slightly, and tried to get her thoughts together again, frustrated at herself but pretty much back to her normal self.

Edited November 7, 2007 by Tyche

[Drake 53]

Once all together, Tak gave Layla, Arlan and Atuarre a rundown on their mission.

"First off," he said, "Let me answer your first question. Captain Tunon temporarily rearranged the flights roster to suit the needs of this mission. Each person was placed into a flight where they could do the most good for that flight's specific target mission. That said, we four have been put together because..." Tak lowered his voice and leaned in to say, "We're the coolest." He straightened and laughed. "But seriously, we have a very important mission to accomplish. Our flight is to fly halfway around the world, to the mountains of Iriya. Once there, we will need to assault, infiltrate and destroy the foundaries and factories where the Imperials are building their new breed of wardroids. This won't be a simple fly and shoot from the safety of our X-Wings. We're going in to face these walking tanks head-on. I want each of you prepared and ready to go in forty-five minutes. We leave on the hour. Dismissed."

[Bad furday 57]

Arlan poked his head into Jya's tent.

"Hey Jya, guess what?" he teased. "Tak says that I'm in his group because we're the coolest!"

"Does that mean I'm not cool enough for you?!" asked Jya, her eyes widening in pretend shock.

"Of course not silly. No one could ever be cooler to me than you!"

The smile Jya gave him made Arlan felt as if he were walking on air. He pulled Jya to him and kissed her deeply, savoring every moment.

" I don't know how long it will take our group to finish our mission, but I'll make sure to come back. Promise."

He gave Jay a roguish smile and squeezed her hand.

"Keep safe out there."

"You too!"

Arlan turned to go pack his bags.

"Oh..have you seen Layla around lately?" asked Jya.

"She's in the cool group too, so..." both of them smiled. "I'd expect she'd be in her tent getting ready to leave, like I should be." finished Arlan.

= - = - = - = - = - =

"Layla?"

Jya knocked on one of the tent poles.

"Could I have a word please?"

"Oh! Jya, hi. Come right in." Layla lifted the flap and Jya stepped inside.

"What can I do for you?" asked Layla.

"I don't want to seem like I sneak around, listening to other people's conversations - that's Brier's job" Jya smirked, and was relieved to see a smile on Layla's face as well. Jya pressed on, pacing in the tent.

"But when you and Szen were talking on the log earlier this morning...I... could hear nearly every word you two spoke. Perhaps Szen was having a premonition about these upcoming missions, but....I was badly injured and you were, unfortunately, dead. Szen said someone attacked us. I made a note of her saying someone and not something, despite the fact that we are in the woods."

Jya looked to Layla, reading her reaction. The Zeltron was doing her best to hide her feelings of shock, as if from a sudden realisation.

"And then she mentioned someone firing a blaster. Definitely not an animal. Not even an Ewok."

Looking Layla in the eyes, Jya asked,

"Layla...is there someone out there who wants you dead?"

[Mara 29]

With his X-wing all warmed up and checked out, Kaden relaxed but only enough to make himself comfortable. He refrained from strapping in, connecting his life support systems and closing himself in until they would be off. Artie ran a few more checks while they waited for the lieutenant's signal.

Kaden tried to focus his mind on the present, the here and now, the mission. This was not a time for daydreaming about the past. He had to let it go and use his memories to better his actions in the present. Captain Brier was right about that. He couldn't let himself get caught in the murkiness of the last few months and years again. All of his experiences needed to come together and make himself a better fighter, a better person. One more focused on the mission objective ahead and keeping it as that: an objective, not something that would remind him of far worse time in his life.

This was new.

[Rogue 4]

Layla blinked her gray eyes a few times, growing sober. She shook her head at Jya, offering her a smile. "Szen just had a bad dream is all."

[Vergere 1]

Brier managed to clear her head and regain her composure. She packed up the Krazy Katana with everything that was left over from the camp that couldn't or shouldn't go on the x-wings, including her own items. Once it was all packed up with personal belongings and the like, Brier got on her comm unit, dialing into the Imperial network frequency she'd gotten from the stolen files. Looking over the information one more time, she sighed deeply before contacting the orbital station, beginning to pace as she spoke.

"Yes... this is Captain Syri.?

She rolled her eyes as she got stalled, ?No, Lieutenant, I will not wait for you to finish your simulation, unless you want an official reprimand. I want you to make sure your commander knows that I am on my way up from the planet to inspect the station.?

She laughed harshly at his comment. ?Oh, trust me, you will definitely prefer me alerting you ahead of time that I am coming. You should see the reports I have on your planet-side counterparts.?

Her voice slowly rose to a yell as she spoke. ?Shut up, Lieutenant, and get your boss on the phone.? She paused, and by her response, the unit switched hands on the Imperial side. ?You had better straighten out that Lieutenant of yours before Admiral Renair hears of it. I do not accept people who do not follow orders. Now, let?s talk about this, Captain to Captain. I am??

Brier?s voice had begun to be more reasonable, but then went right back up to angry and loud. ?You had better damn well respect me, regardless if I?m male or female. I?m the one writing up the report on your station, and the more hell you give me, the worse you?ll come off as, got it? I have got the authority to do whatever I need to during this inspection. I suggest you use the next half an hour to get everything prepared for my arrival, as well as to copy files on your base about your star-fighters being made and that already exist, as well as the HAX droids that I know are up there. I want to make sure that information checks out, and that you boys aren?t lying to me, or my bosses, in the information you give us. I have the official files, pray you give me the right ones so that when I double check your information, it matches. If not, you are in deep trouble, Captain.?

She paused as he spoke. ?Of course I want dinner with that, you imbecile! I want a tour of the entire building, I want the files on the HAX droids and your production of starfighters, and I want dinner! This visit isn?t free, you idiot! There?s a reason I?m giving you a heads up to my visit! Besides the fact that the Admiral has a bizarre appreciation of your commanding officer, he expects you to treat me well and show me everything I ask for. If not, I would have already been on your station and taken the information myself, like your hapless counterparts down here. Do not disappoint me as they have. Be prepared. You have a half an hour.?

Brier turned off the comm, and just grinned wickedly, looking very much like her lifeday had come early. ?I love my life.?

[Bad furday 57]

Jya still wasn't convinced that something was not right. However, if Layla didn't want to discuss it, no information could be gained in pushing the matter further.

"Alright" smiled Jya, "Tell Szen that dreams aren't definate."

Jya paused, remembering that Layla had to finish packing for her group's mission.

"Well, keep safe out there."

She hugged Layla, then turned to exit the tent.

[Rogue 4]

"You too." Layla said biting down hard on her lip. She had lied to her, and felt guilty for that. Guilty. And for how long had lying been a part of her life?

But she was scared too. She could put up whatever confident or stouborn front that she wanted...but she knew she was scared. She had faced death in it's beedy little eyes once and walked away. She wasn't sure she could do that again if death was coming for her. A chill ran up her spine. And if that happened, if she did die in this upcoming mission there were matters left undone, uncared for. She knew Sena would find a way to survive without her, and the Captain would probably send the girl into hiding, or enroll her in witness protection, but Ayana...

"Wait, Jya..." Layla frowned, her mask disolving, and her fear showing through her eyes. "Can I ask you a favor?" She bit down on her lip as she pulled a small holo-disk out of her pocket. "A big favor. A huge favor...normally I'd ask Tak...but I'm not so sure right now."

[Drake 53]

After the briefing, Tak returned to the crew tents and got changed into something more suitable for the upcoming mission. He set his specially designed, sensor-packed glasses aside for now and took off the regular clothes he had changed into after their mission to the Planetary House. Tak put on his black flightsuit followed by a body armour chestpiece, leg gaurds, and gauntlets. Returning the glasses to his face, Takeshi felt like this was the closest he was going to get to wearing his Mandalorian armour without actually doing so and raising suspisions.

After finishing the ensemble with a few holstered weapons and a grenade belt, Tak went to his X-Wing and helped Sixxa into the fighter's droid socket.

[Bad furday 57]

"Sure Layla. What is it?" asked Jya, eyeing the holodisk.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Arlan stepped back and looked at his empty tent. He had managed to fit everything into two duffel bags, which now sat before him.

One held his clothes, and some weapons. The other contained all of his droid programming/hacking equipment ( restraining bolts, mini datapad, aerial transponders, and the like) as well as survival rations.

Arlan gave a small laugh as he realised that if he was separated from either of his bags, he would either be armed and have clothes yet starve, or naked and weaponless, but fed and able to program.

Arlan switched some food, weapons, and clothes around between the bags. Picking them up, he walked out of the tent. Even though he was part of the 'cool' group, Arlan was nervous. Not about flying though. Nima had worked to cure him of that.

This mission was considerably more dangerous than infiltrating the Planetary House. Arlan reminded himself that it was crucial to not make any mistakes.

Arlan had now reached the place where the X-wings were parked.

[Rogue 4]

"I just...." Layla scratched at her red mane as she handed the holodisk to Jya. "In case anything happens to me...There's a few things I'll need someone to take care of, someone I trust. All of the information's on there. I hope you don't have to use it, but just in case..."

[Mara 29]

Kaden stifled a yawn and glanced at his chrono. "Maybe we're a bit early, Artie... Jaim's the only other one in a fighter."

The droid bleeped a short reply.

"Yes, I know... there's no such thing as being too early. I know. Just... keep busy."

[Ayingel 24]

Szen made herself busy by going through her bag; packing, unpacking, repacking. She kept up that pattern until she knew she memorized every time she had with her at the camp. Not that she didn't trust the Revenants, but she wanted to make sure everything was there. Smiling, she put her bangles into the bag last. They were still just as pretty as the day she had bought them. Szen looked at them, then pulled them out of the bag again. She slipped them over her right arm and let them clink together. Just as long as these are to be memorabilia from a good mission. Szen placed them back into the bag. Looking around, she spotted her hairbrush. "Good thing I didn't lose you." Letting her hair down, Szen pulled the brush through it. She ran her hand over where she had just brushed to make sure that all the hair stayed smooth. Satisfied, she put the brush away and left her hair down; she had some elastics in her pocket, so if need be, she could pull it back up. Szen looked around the area by her bag one last time, just to make sure she had everything. "The only thing left to do now is changed. But I'll wait for that." Szen got up and left the tent, and made her way to the X-Wings to find Comet.

Edited November 9, 2007 by Ayingel

[Andy 60]

Bucket assisted Aston in checking out the X-wing. Aston felt he'd already come a long way since he joined the squadron, but still needed pointers with the external pre-flight checks and maintenance of the ship. In the past he'd never once imagined that he'd be flying X-wings for the New Republic, and sometimes felt a bit overwhelmed by it all, although he tried hard not to let it show.

Once Bucket was seated in the fighter, Aston climbed into the cockpit to run through the systems checks. He was more confident with that kind of business, although occasionally wondered idly about whether he could rewire the console... But always decided it wouldn't be the best of ideas.

[Bad furday 57]

"Oh." Jya grew sober as well. She genuinely liked the Zeltron, and the thought of anything happening to her wasn't a pleasant one.

"Sure, Layla"

Jya pocketed the holodisk and with a backwards glance at Layla, exited the tent.

[Princess 35]

Nima changed out of her dancer's clothing and washed the tattoo ink off of her lekku and changed into her flightsuit. She grabbed the protective stockings for her lekku. She stuck a few necessary medical supplies in her deep pockets and packed the rest in the medical bag that she kept stashed under the seat in her X-wing. The rest of the supplies that she wouldn't need, went into the storage compartment. When she was happy with how everything was packed, she went to catch up with Szen, Jya and the Captain.

[Rogue 4]

Layla geared up, putting all possible impliments of destruction that she could find amongst her stuff on her person, attaching it to belts, sticking it in pockets and a small backpack so that she would be easily manueverable on the ground, but still have everything she needed to get the job done. That included her blaster, hold out blaster, basic first aid supplies, her holographic image disguiser and a datapad filled with slicer programs Sena had made a couple years earlier. She was sure it wasn't nearly as complex as what Aston carried, but they were dealing with factories, not complex computers.

Satisfied, she sashayed out confidently towards her group, keeping her pheromone output to a minimum. She hesitated slightly as the action of lowering them forced a realization. If something happens and Tak suddenly proves all my fears true...my pheromones will do nothing to slow him down.

Still, she hummed an old Zeltron song to herself as she double-checked everything on her fighter externally while she had Sexy run another diagnostic, just to be sure. If he was checking everything for her before, she had to be sure.

---

"How's everything look, Officer Kendall?" Nat asked as he checked the hull of the X-wing next to his. "I appologize...despite the fact that we're wingmates my injury hasn't afforded us much time to fly together."

Edited November 9, 2007 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

After briefing his own team and sending them off to prepare, Aeric returned to his own tent to get ready.

After all that we've been through, he thought, this will be our greatest trial yet. Don't fail them again, Tunon.

Once finished, the Captain left his tent and went to his X-Wing.

***

Takeshi checked his chrono. 0100. Time to leave. He switched on his squadron-wide comm. "Captain Tunon, this is Lieutenant Beskar requesting permission for Flight Three to leave."

"This is Tunon. Permission granted. Good hunting."

"You as well, sir." Tak switched the comm to within the flight. "You heard the man. Let's fly, boys and girls."

He brought the X-Wing up with its repulsors until just above the surrounding tree level. "Our coordinates have already been uploaded to your navcomps. We'll be following the night side on a course that will bypass any major sensor grids. It's going to be low altitude flying too, so try not to doze off and nose-dive into the ground. That would be a bad thing."

Once the other three had risen with him, Takeshi set his X-Wing off onto it's course around the world.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen hurried back to her bag after the briefing. She put on her flight suit and pulled her hair back with the elastics at the base of her neck. Closing her bag, she grabbed it and walked over to Comet and her X-Wing. "You ready to go?" Comet whistled a response. "Good. Thanks Comet." She smiled and put her bag into her X-Wing. Even though Comet had run over the X-Wing while she had been gone, she looked it over one last time and asked Comet to be doubly sure of the first checks he made. "You should know we can't be too careful." Szen nervously played with her hair as she checked the body of the fighter.

[Vergere 1]

After getting everything set up on the Krazy Katana, Brier commed Aeric to alert him to her departure.

As she was getting close to the orbital station, "Captain Syri, requesting landing." Getting a confirmative, she went and landed in one of the main docking bays, and took a deep breath before she went out to meet the Imperials.

[Rogue 4]

"Aw, damn...no sleeping on this trip?" Layla mock-complained over the comm as her own X-wing lifted off the ground behind and to the left of Tak's. "Don't tell me we're maintaining comm silence on this trip as well."

Edited November 9, 2007 by Rogue

[Vergere 1]

Brier walked out to meet the officers with clipped step and a sharp salute. "Gentlemen... thank you for meeting with me on such short notice."

"Of course, Captain Syri." The other Captain looked nervous around her, and handed her a datachip. "The information you requested, ma'am."

"Thank you." Brier pocketed the datachip, resisting the urge to grin. "Now, if you would, I would like to have a tour of the ship before we eat."

"Yes ma'am." The Captain nodded to a Lieutenant there. "Lt. Brenar will show you around, ma'am. If you need anything else, comm me." The man nodded as the Lieutenant began showing Brier around the station.

[Mara 29]

Kaden watch Tak and his new flight take off, then strapped himself in because the rest of them would be leaving soon after. He checked the crash webbing a second time before powering up his X-wing and running his preflight checks. After putting on his helmet, he turned on the comm to await further instructions and to communicate with the other three going on to Evyani with him.

Artie whistled in excitement.

Kaden switched to his intership channel. "Stay in your socket, Artie. We're not blowing things up quite yet."

The droid blew a raspberry.

"Just keep tabs on when Lt. Riamor sends the coordinates for the locations. Stay sharp."

Stay sharp, Kaden...

Edited November 9, 2007 by Mara

[Drake 53]

"Of course not," Tak said, smiling. "That would be awefully boring if we did." Switching his focus to the mission, Tak added, "Running lights only. Fly by sensors and follow my lead."

He accelerated into the night, keeping well above the tree tops. The only light coming from the two moons of Ithyari, the field of stars, and the red and green X-Wing running lights.

"You can fly casual. Just be ready to return to formation if anything happens." A thought struck him. "I guess this flight formation isn't that big of a change for you guys, is it?"