Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Oh yeah! We, like, totally talked to that Grouch guy a minute ago," Freya replied, as she drove the Ballet planet-ward. "Also," she added, smiling predatorally, "A race to the place!" she said, powering the engines to full, and diving surface-wards.

The dive continued until the Ballet was but less than a meter of colliding with the surface, as Freya expertly brought it's nose horizontal. She spared a glance back to Rusty, before focusing on piloting. "Yes. The canyons."

"You're insane," Rusty sighed.

"Nope. Just totally that good!" Freya said, as she expertly weaved the freighter through the canyon leading to the old safehouse that the Starsingers have used for years.

"This is worse than Beggar's Canyon on Tattooine." Rusty muttered.

Freya grinned, even in the face of a rather steep cliff face. "Like, everyone totally hang onto your hats!" she cried out enthusiastically, bringing the frieghter's nose vertical.

As for Gunther, he matched Freya move for move. However, he was at least a click behind, at a more conservative speed. "You win, my sister," he laughed.

"I'll totally put on the tea for ya, slowpoke!" Freya laughed. "See ya when ya get here!"

As the Arcadia picked it’s way cautiously through the asteroid belt, Sia, Link and Reido were situated in the ship’s lounge/conference room, with the Holograph explaining to an attentive Reido what Link had personally discovered not too long ago.

Now brought up to speed, the Rodian tapped his finger on the table both he and Link sat around. He looked to the hologram woman, who was sitting on the table, then to his Jedi associate. “So now what’s the plan? You found the treasure, sure; but what are you going to do with her?”
Link folded his hands into the sleaves of his tunic and looked down at the table in thought.
“This one has not a clue.”

“Well I do.” Sia stated. She nimbly hopped off the table and manifested a holomap in the center of the table. “Since Ive been out for over six decades, I need info: star charts, historical data, new tech- I need to know whats been going on since I went to sleep. In addition I need supplies. My stock of consumables is dry and my systems need to be worked through to make sure there aren’t any kinks or bugs. The last part I can do myself enroute to a place where I can upload Data and take on supplies. I need water, foodstuffs, rawmats for processing, and techno-bits I can tinker with in my free time.”

“Techno-bits?” Reido repeated.

“Yeah. Bits of tech like computer and droid parts. When I’m bored I like to fiddle with junk and see if I can make something useful out of it or upgrade my electrical components with it.” She studied the Holo map and then a section of space was suddenly enlarged and brought into focus Text hovered above worlds and hyper routes spanned the planets like a spider web.
“We’re roughly here.” A small simulation of the Arcadia appeared upon the map, pinpoint their location. “I figure that the best place for me to get supplies and at least basic data would be Junction, over here. Once I’m stocked, we can jump about anywhere with a good university and pull a data raid on their library. However, in order to get supplies, we need cash. Between an itinerant sword swinger and a rodian spacer, we have no where near enough cred to pay for supplies.” She paused and looked to the sword swinger and spacer. “They still use credits right?”

“Yes, Imperial Credits.” Link responded.

“What? Again?”

“The Galactic Alliance folded about four years back after the Sith-Imperial War. The Empire and the Sith are the law now.”

Sia sighed. “Terrific. A Major war. Now my entire databank is outdated. Junction is still there though, right? No super weapons or BDZ’s or maurading alien lifeforms wiped it out?”

Both shook their heads.

“Good. Then that’s still going to be our supply depot. We still need funds, so we’re going to have to go hunting.”

“Hunting?” Reido asked, suddenly suspicious.

“Yeah. Go shoot someone up, take their cargo, and use that to barter with. The Nice thing about Junction is that it’s a free trade world so our cargo, depending on the prize in question, should be able to be sold for a profit.”

“Count me out.” The Rodian said. “I ain’t turning pirate just like that. It’s a black mark on my name. If I’m recognized and linked to piracy, not only will they lock me up, but assuming I ever get out, no one will ever hire me to move cargo again.”

“Fine, jelly spine. You back out. We’ll dump you and your ugly butt ship off on the Hydian.” Sia retorted.

“This one also objects.” Link added. “Stealing is against the law. Such activity is against the way of the Jedi.”

“Tough. You’ve got no say in it.”

“Oro?”

“As acting captain of myself, I forbid it. Reido has an excuse: he’s still legit. You, however are not. Its safe to assume that since the Empire is boss again, your Jedi-hood makes you a criminal anyway. As a fellow Darksun clanswoman, I additionally forbid it. As long as you still call yourself Darksun, you’re obligated to loot and pillage. Its in your blood. And as long as your on me, you’re going to learn the family business.”

“And if this one refuses?”
Link suddenly went flying to the ceiling, hitting it with a crash, then fell to the floor with an equally loud thud.

“Then I keep playing with the grav controls until I knock some sense into your thick, puny head.” Sia responded coolly.
Link slowly rose to his feet, rubbing the bumps on his head while casting an irate glare at the dark skinned holo-woman who just brushed it off.

“Now, if you boys excuse me, I have to go start running maintenance on myself. Reido, make sure your ship is secure for the Jump to hyperspace. Blondie, might want to get your stuff off his ship and move into your quarters. If we’re attacked by guys in black spacesuits swinging red shiny-sticks, I’ll let you know.”

As the ship had promised, Reido was dropped off upon reaching the Hydian, and from there he and Link parted ways. It was to be a short farewell, for Sia wished to be on the hunt soon. When the Sullustian Freighter lept to lightspeed, so did the Arcadia. It wasn’t long however before the ship had found a target.

-------------------

For two hours the Arcadia stalked the convoy, undetected by the ships that composed it. Her brilliantly collored hull had shifted to a Matte black, and her stealth systems had cloaked her in relative invisibility.
She made subtle, passive sweeps of the rearmost cargo vessels, sweeps that went unnoticed by the complacent crewers aboard.

They had every right to be complacent. An independant security group was hired on to watch some big corporate vessels makin the run, and they brought with them Sparrow fighters and a pair of Gladius frigates. Coupled with the ten or so superhaulers that made up the center of the convoy, it was a meal too big for most raiders to bother with.

But the Arcadia wasn’t most raiders. She wasn’t after the cargo of the superfreighters. She had found a much easier prize.

Bringing up the convoy’s rear, a handful of cargo barges and light freighters kept pace with the slower frigates and supertransports. One of them was an Ore Hauler, fresh from Bandomeer with a hold of rawmat destined for processing in the Corporate Sector. It was this ship that Sia singled out for pillaging. Raw mat, depending on the material, was a low cost cargo, only valuable in large quantities. But it was untraceable and had worth everywhere. Sia wanted a quick raid, nothing more.

The Arcadia ran parallel to the convoy, keeping several hundred klicks between her and the main body of ships. She watched the movements of the frigates and the fighters, still slipping along concealed from all but a dedicated sensor sweep. She slid nearer to the pack, slowly closing the gap between her and her prey.

Then she rolled back her obtical camo, revealing her bold color scheme and with a thunderous salvo began clubbing the Ore hauler with her Ion quads.
Surprise was complete.

The sudden appearance of the Pirate ship frightened the surrounding ships, the smaller freighters fleeing to the four winds as the bigger ships clustered together to overlap the fields of fire of their defensive guns. They abandoned the Ore Hauler to her fate, the suddenness of the raid negating negating all but survival instincts.
The frigates were dumbfounded by the attack and began to hastily scan the area for more foes. They stuck to their charges and ordered the fighters in to deal with the rogue ship.

As the Ore Hauler drifted, struck dead in the water by Arcadia’s Ions, a squadron of Sparrows roared in to attack. They split off into four man formations and half the fighters released their torpedoes. A spread of twelve warheads made their way towards the Arcadia, yellow tails lighting the void.

Sensing the oncoming torps, Sia flipped to reveal her dorsal side to them and immediately the quad turbos flashed out, batting the torpedoes out of the air with precision bursts. The Arcadia then turned to face the fighters and she suddenly accelerated, matching the Sparrow’s speed in a burst. She fired a forward barrage of both rail cannons and turbos, slicing through the squadron before looping back around in a tight turn.

The speed and maneuverability of the pirate ship gave the fighter pilots a deadly surprise. A four man group was taken out in the first pass alone. The Corvette's turrets kept up the barrage and rapid fire bursts from the rail cannons tore up the remaining formations. The Fighters pulled back to regroup at the frigates, losing two more of their number as they fled.

Arcadia did not pursue, contending herself with her victim. She sent a transmission over, demanding that the ship surrender its Ore containers, which they did as quickly as possible. Releasing two of her modular containers, the Ore attempted to limp back to the safety of the convoy.

Arcadia snatched up the containers, locking them under her wings with magnetic clamps. Prize in tow and with nothing further to gain from the convoy, the Arcadia withdrew, firing a few warning shots in the convoy’s general direction to discourage pursuit.

She ran as fast as her engines could take her, calculating a safe course once the Convoy was out of visual range. And then she jumped.
A quick raid, nothing more.

As the thunderclap of the turbolasers faded for the second time Revak glanced around the site, "Everything loaded?"

Calra hissed as she stepped past him and up the gangway, "Better be."

"Alright... everybody aboard!!!" Revak roared, his ears still ringing from the concussion of the turbolaser shots. He clambered up the gangway behind the last couple pirates and the two slaves that had been liberated from the wreck. As he turned and ran onto the bridge the ship rocked from another turbolaser hit, he leapt over the guardrail as Calra settled into the captain's seat, again.

Revak glanced at the other crewmembers as they took their stations, "Troyr, pull that shield bubble back in and bring all systems to launch readiness."

"On it already," The bothan answered as the shields snapped back to a hull hugging configuration.

The helm flickered with lights as the ship's engines came on... Revak saw it, "Alright, bring us to match bearings with that destroyer, shield's to double front! Full sublight power!"

With a flash of motion the Ion Dragon leapt into the air and sped toward the source of the incoming fire, weaving like a starfighter. Revak snarled coldly as the ship climbed, "Bring weapons to full power, have the turrets stand by for counter starfighter fire. Ion-Plasmas, begin overcharging procedures."

Overcharging meant that the plasma-ions would be placed in a continuous charge loop. As the charge built blast dissipation would increase cutting range, and the cannons could overload. It was a risky procedure, but one that would give the upstart star destroyer captain something to think about once they got into range.

Link sat formally in the center of the Arcadia’s cargo bay, stripped to the waist, barefoot, and sweating profusely. His two bokken were on his right hip in the usual fasion he sported them.

Emotion, yet peace.

From the sitting position he burst into movement, snapping into a kneeling position as he slid his Daito free and slashed.

Ignorance, yet knowledge.

He assumed a standing position and stepped forward as he reversed the blade’s direction and sliced down.

Passion, yet serenity.

His Shoto cleared an imaginary sheath, slicing upwards and he took another step

Chaos, yet harmony.

He stabbed the shoto down in a swift, measured action, then spun with his daito out to cut an imagined opponent to his left.

Death, yet the Force.

He relaxed his stance, then slid the daito under his right thumb, a gesture meant to simulate the passing of a cloth to wipe the blade clean. He slid it back through his belt, then followed suit with his shoto, wiping it and then returning it to his side.

He sat again, preparing to go through the Kata once more until an earsplitting screech reverberated through the ship.
Link jumped to his feet, bokken in hand and snapped his gaze around to deal with an onrushing attack.

“Ionite!!! I stole Ionite!!! All fear the pirate Queen, Sia Arcadia Darksun!!!”

Link relaxed again and shook his head. A false alarm.
He slid his blades free of his belt, laid them on the cargo bay floor, and bowed to them. Then he returned the shoto to his belt and shouldered the daito. He walked over to where his boots, shirt and other equipment lay and rumaged through his travel bag.

Later than he expected, the hologram woman materialized; all joy and giddyness.
“I scored Ionite on my first hunt!! Nine Hells yeah!!” She crowed as she danced a victory jig.
Link ignored it, wiping his face with a hand towel from his bag. “Valuable?”

“No!!” She shouted cheerfully as she continued to dance and cavort about the hanger bay.

Link slid his tunic back on and then his boots, confused but letting the avatar have her moment. “So then why are you happy?”

“I swiped enough Ionite to not only restock, but have enough left over for ammo!!”
Link frowned, still not seeing it. “For the rail cannons?”
“No. For the turbolasers. Of course the Rail cannons! Ionite disrupts shield systems! Imagine it: My cannons could slice right through particle shields!! Imagine the havoc that would wreck!!” The avatar’s face turned diabolic for a second as the ship considered the possibilities. “I’m gonna go mill some rounds right now!!”

The avatar vanished and Link shook his head again.
He didn’t want to even think how the ship was capable of something like that. More and more questions formed about the ship that he had found and been press ganged into joining.

“All will be answered in time.” He mused as he drew an MRE from the bottom of his travel bag. The ship had no foodstuffs onboard so Link would have to make do until they reached Junction, a few days away. That he wasn’t worried about.
He was thankful that the ship didn’t require him to participate at all in the theft of the ionite, but he could only hope that such would remain.

To participate in the boarding of another vessel for monetary gain was a concept he did not enjoy comptenplating.

Llednard left hyperspace. He had fallowed the same path that the Ballet made, but he wasn't reading the ship... Or the rest of his squad. He looked around, starting to worry. He flipped his open comm on.
"Come in, all ships within range. This is Skywalk Leader. Hello? Hello? Ballet, are you picking this up?"
His glow of his fighter's engines began to fade, as his ship drifted over the planet...

By now, the whole crew of the Star Destroyer was in a panic. They couldn't defend themselves, and they were basically sitting ducks.

Help, however, came before the ship could make it's new round. The Revenge-II pulled up, along with a few Nemesises and Gladiuses, far more power than the Ion Dragon could possibly defend against. Waves of turbolasers and lasercannons, along with missles began streaming out, torwards the Ion Dragon.

However, instead of chasing the ship down, the line of ships merely formed a cordon, preventing further escape. "Charge up the gravity wells," the captain of the command ship ordered. "If she wants to stay and play, she can."

As the escape vector lessened more and more, an entire wing of fighters was deployed, and all crew was on standby for anything fronm the ship, be it assault, boarding, or even a suicide run.

It's time was running out. Especially if it decided to pick on the Stalwarth.