Bab 49: Grand Theft Astro
I don't own star wars
"In a history of bad ideas, this might be number four…" Scarlet said, pouring over the map of the Kuat space docks that Newt had given us. We had been contained on the Deterrent for a few hours now and had been essentially left alone only for a brief visit by Kavilla to deliver a few spare uniforms, we chose not to ask why a couple had bloodstains on them.
Currently, there were only two ships docked at the shipyard. The Deterrent herself and my bitch of a mother's prototype frigate. It was large enough to fit the entirety of our ship in its hanger bay. And coincidently that was part of the plan. Newt, Baleen, and I were to sneak onto the ship under the guise of security reinforcements. Newt had forged the paperwork. Milky was originally supposed to come with us as well since she could wear the trooper helmet… but as Newt put it…
'Trooper armor doesn't come in size sexy…'
It just made her look like a stormtrooper-themed stripper (of which I made note of for later) and my mother certainly wouldn't order one for her staff. Ever. So it was just us three. Then we were to wait for the Deterrent to leave, so Tolara and Kavilla could avoid any possible accusations that they could have prevented this theft… They had already thinned the ranks of Altora loyalists so that only those truly loyal to my sisters (and by proxy the empire as a whole) remained. My sisters you see we're still Imperial, they just weren't my mother's imperials anymore… apparently, they broke the instant Newt told them my mother sold me to Korriban to be butchered by Sith…
I actually couldn't have been happier to hear that… it kinda made me cry... shut up.
Anyway, after they left we were to lower the hanger shields, allowing the Rebel to enter the hanger bay and we'd then systematically take over the ship and take it to Zero's rendezvous point somewhere over Manaan. Simple really…
"Still doesn't sound simple…" Scarlet noted, looking at me but I just turned to Newt.
"It'll be fine…" Newt replied, tightening her armor and placing the helmet under her arm. "It'll be quick and clean. In and out… we'll be done before you know it."
"…Alright…" Scarlet said as she watched Baleen don her imperial helmet, "Just be careful." I smiled at her as I got close.
"Kiss for good luck?" I asked, raising my eyebrows suggestively as she rolled her eyes and kissed my cheek gently. "Kiss Newt for good luck?" I asked, looking between them as Newt quickly slipped her own trooper helmet on.
"No." she said, her voice modulated into that of a trooper's.
"…Wow so they really do make you all sound alike…" Scarlet noted surprised.
Milky pouted in her bodysuit as we grabbed the standard-issue trooper rifles, "I should still be going…"
"I much as I enjoyed watching you try to get that armor on." I said, wrapping my hand around her waist and giving her a hug, "And I mean really enjoy it. It just wouldn't work." I gave her an apologetic kiss, "Just help Scarlet alright? She's in charge while I'm gone."
"…Okay sir…" she said, gently rubbing her finger on my armor but frowned angrily, "Ugh… nevermind I can't stand you in that armor…" she said rather flatly, but gave me a teasing smile as she walked out of the hold, "I'll have to get it off you as soon as possible…" and glaring slightly she added, "And not just, you know, for sex."
I rolled my eyes, and sometimes I forgot how anti-imperial she was… still thought… I pulled the helmet on, "You heard the lady, let's get to it." getting from the hanger bay of the Deterrent to the actual docking station was easy as Kavilla had called 'mandatory anti-boarding procedures' earlier that day. So in a single file with Newt in the lead, we moved imposingly past the station occupants who parted immediately at our approach.
I guess it's a good thing you never really forget being a trooper. We kept up the charade all the way to the other side of the dock. As out the window the Rebel 'flew casually' away from the Deterrent as the Deterrent itself undocked from the yard and began to drift away. "Okay, that's one problem down…" I whispered softly to them as a few moments later it warped out.
"We need to hurry or people are going to notice the Rebel is still here…" Newt replied, and we quickly upped the pace. A pair of Kuat security guards stood outside the airlock of the new prototype ship, they stopped us.
"Halt." One said, holding out a hand. "Who are you?"
"B-1453." Newt replied easily, "Transferred from the Deterrent for extra security." She held out a small data pad, "We have information that a unit of republic agents are expected to infiltrate and spy on the project."
The security officer scowled at the data pad, "And you think they're just going to walk on this ship under our watch?" he said pompously.
"No." Newt said, suddenly sounding very intimidating, "I don't. But do you want to explain to the Kanes exactly why you wouldn't let the extra security do its job if they do? I can shoot you now if you like."
Suddenly the implications of that threat hit home. My sisters might be loving to me but they were still feared and respected across the galaxy. They were called the Devils of Dromund Kaas for a reason other than propaganda… not to mention what would happen to this poor bastard if my bitch of a mother got wind of it.
He cleared his throat and stepped aside, "I'm sorry sir. Just doing my job." Silently we passed him, entering the ship. It was very spacious I'll give it that; Just enough luxury to hold a party, but compact enough to be efficient if under attack. But to be honest I certainly wouldn't want to live here… it was too sleek.
Technicians and a few officers marched about the ship looking for flaws and issues that could be corrected. As we entered the hangar there were much less of them but one stern-looking older officer noticed us and began approaching.
"Who the devil are you?!" he said firmly, "I was not notified that troopers would be arriving!"
"Security transfer from the Deterrent. We have reason to believe…" Newt began holding out the data pad to him that he instantly snatched it out of her hand and began reading.
"Republic spies? Don't be absurd!" he said, finishing and tossing the pad back at Newt, letting it bounce off her armored chest and clatter to the floor. "There are no spies in Kuat! Everyone here has been thoroughly vetted and cleared. Only thirty of the finest Imperial personnel occupy this ship, Altora Kane selected them herself! This ship!" he declared dramatically pointing "Is the highest form of stealth and transportation technology! Undetectable by scanners, completely silent and capable of transporting dozens of our soldiers behind the battle lines. Unnoticed by our enemies." wow he liked to talk.
I aimed at his back with my rifle, a strangely uncontrollable urge to shoot him, but Newt rested a hand on my blaster and casually lowered it. "Is that so Captain?" she trailed off, unsure how to address him.
"Sabast." He provided sternly, glaring at her un-intimidated.
"And you are the commanding officer here?" she asked casually.
"I am." He said firmly, proudly in fact.
"Okay then." she leveled her blaster at his face and his eyes widened in surprise. "…Tell everyone to report to the cafeteria please…"
"What are you…" he began but the realization of what was going on, hit him fairly quickly and it showed on his face followed quickly by one of annoyed acceptance. "…god damn it."
A handful of technicians watched horrified as Baleen and I aimed down at them, "Alright nobody do anything stupid and I won't have to kick you out an airlock…" priming my rifle I added, "I assure you, I'm a much better shot than you hope." On tried to run for the alarm and I fired immediately blasting a burn mark near his foot making him stop immediately, "…That was the only warning shot you're all going to get." I said, aiming down as Newt led Captain Sabast to a ship com.
He felt the cold barrel of Newt's rifle press against his head, "…All staff report to the cafeteria immediately. I repeat. All staff report. Newt pulled him away and looked around for the hanger bay doors. Finding it she opened it, and just a few seconds later the Rebel flew in and landed daintily on the hanger bay, just barely fitting as Newt closed the hanger behind it.
"What the hell do you want?" Sabast said angrily as he and the other technicians were led toward the cafeteria.
"I want a new ship…" I said with a smile under my helmet but Baleen slapped me as Newt answered.
"We want the ship. We are taking this ship…" she said simply.
"And me and my people?" he said coldly, sternly, trying to save face and keep calm as the other technicians looked to him.
"No harm will come to you or them if you don't make us." She replied, and shoved him into the cafeteria with the technicians to the shock of everyone else inside. "Attention crew…" she said, firing rapidly into the ceiling, "This is a robbery…" she said simply, and I looked at her. "I always wanted to say something like that. "As of this moment I own this ship." She said simply, watching them all under the helmet, "Do what I say, behave, and most importantly don't do anything stupid and you'll eventually be released… now, who hear can actually pilot this heap?"
Nobody raised their hand or volunteered. She sighed, "No one? Really? Fine we can figure it out…" she turned to me, and whispered, "You, Yura and Short-round get us going…" she said, "Find the bridge while Baleen and I secure the hostages."
"Seriously? What are we going to do with them?" I asked.
"Just go okay?" she said, "And tell Milky and Scarlet to guard the outside…"
Doing as she asked Short-round literally skipped around the bridge as Yura manned the helm. "Need me to do anything?" I asked looking over her shoulder as she frowned over the controls.
"There should be an airlock detachment over there…" she said sourly, "Go hit that. Short-round find the navigator and punch in Manaan." I found the airlock detachment no problem, quickly hitting it as Short-round clambered about the consoles until he squealed in delight and began hitting buttons. Suddenly we were propelled back as the ship immediately entered hyperspace.
"SHIT!!" we screamed together before Yura managed to pull us out of it. "…Everyone okay?" she mumbled, as Short-round groaned on the floor.
"…Been better…" I grunted, taking my helmet off and tossing it onto the console as Yura let us drift slowly into space. Off in the distance, we could see Manaan but it was an hour of two away. Yura increased that pace to an hour and smiled at me.
"That went better than expected…" she said, "So…" she stretched her arms, "Is it nice?"
I frowned looking around us, "…I don't know… it seems a little big for what we need. Somebody will always have to be here… we'd have to keep it in orbit… besides we aren't keeping it we're giving it to Zero. For some reason." I added not truly caring, it was going to piss off my bitch of a mother that's all that mattered to me.
Yura sighed, but she was still smiling, "I know it's just nice to be able to stretch my arms without feeling cramped."
"This place sucks it doesn't have any vents!" Short-round scowled opening a console and reconnecting a few wires, "And they were awful setting this up! They'd save on response time if they did this… and this…" as he buried himself in his work a large red button on the helm console began to flash. I stared at it for a moment…
Then I poked it.
The face of my bitch of a mother appeared on a holo-screen before us. And she actually looked emotional… She was unquestioningly furious. Her eyes bulged in fury, her hair was disheveled from what looked like stress pulling and she was almost frothing at the mouth.
"AIDEN…" she hissed through her snarl like an angry dog ready to bite, her eyes widening as she saw me as if she couldn't believe it. "…I am going to KILL YOU!!!" she roared, grabbing the device she was using and shaking it violently as if it was my neck. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
"Yeah…" I said dismissively, "Later mother…" I said, turning off the call…
"…Wow, you weren't kidding about your mother…" Yura said, looking distinctly nervous as I wrapped and arm around her comfortingly.
"My bitch of a mother." I noted offhandedly.
"Must you keep saying that?" she asked, rolling her eyes at my insistence.
"Consistency is important. Don't worry about her… let's just get this heap to the rendezvous…" I smiled. "I don't suppose it flies itself does it?" I asked, slipping my hand down to the small of her back. She sighed and shook her head, I frowned and put it back on her shoulder, "Darn."
I frowned over the console as Yura suddenly elbowed me. "Is that a ship?" she asked pointing, as sure enough, a small vessel began drifting towards the airlock. "Should we let it dock?" she asked me as I dashed towards the airlock with her. She drew her pistol and aimed at the door with me as it slowly decompressed.
An attractive blonde in an imperial uniform too tight for her smiled politely at me and held out a communicator. "Aiden Kane?" she asked simply as Yura glared at her. She was extraordinarily calm all things considered. "I have a message for you."
Hesitantly I watched her smiling face and sighed, dropping my guard as I activated it. "Good work Aiden…" Came Zero's voice over the com sounding legitimately proud; like a father. "I'm sorry I can't be there to congratulate you in person but I'm afraid you would have deeply upset Altora at this point and she will be most assuredly try and blame me for what happened. I glanced at the woman who nodded reluctantly, confirming the information. "But if it makes you feel better you can keep the ship…" I stared at it for a moment. "…However if you really want to anger your mother, you won't." He let the sentence hang for a moment and continued, "Personally I think it's too big for you and your crew, you might want to consider trading it and its contents for something more… compact, and custom-made for you."
I blinked thoughtfully at the com for a moment, and a rather lucrative idea crawled into my brain. "…Oh…'" I breathed, "Oh he is clever…"
"Haley if he's as smart as I think he is he would have figured it out by now…" I stared annoyed at the com as the blonde's smile broadened, "But just in case he hasn't, please inform him."
"I figured it out." I said coldly, and she nodded her head.
"Now please give this back to Haley and allow her to leave. We have dinner plans later tonight and I will need to relax after dealing with your mother."
"My/your bitch of a mother…" we said together and I stared nervously at the creepiness of his accuracy. I handed back the com to Haley who bowed her head politely to me and turned in place before heading back to her ship. I could not help but notice that her uniform was definitely too tight for her.
Haley and her ship had sped away as Yura shook her head looking confused, "What the hell just happened?" she asked.
"…Zero gave us what we need to get a new ship." I said, suddenly heading towards the cafeteria, "We need Scarlet to call her superiors. We're going to trade this ship and the hostages for something sleek, new, and custom to our needs." I said as we eventually turned a corner to find Scarlet and Milky talking animatedly. "Scarlet…" I tossed her my com, "I need you to contact you, people…"
She blinked at me, "Okay. why?"
"Tell them I want to arrange a trade." I said smiling, gesturing to the ship. "This ship and our hostages."
Milky suddenly smiled, slowly realizing what I was getting at. "Ooh… what are we trading it for?"
"A new ship." I said smiling, "Seems fair right? A prototype frigate and its crew, and we can get something custom made…"
Scarlet rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the smile on her face. "I'll see what I can do…" she walked off, sending out the call. I grinned feeling remarkably lighter…
"You do realize it will take forever for someone to get out to meet us right?" Yura pointed out and my frown dropped, "…And we have about thirty people to feed and take care of until then."
I glared at her for a moment, "Could you just…. Think about what you want for our new ship?" I asked a little frustrated, "I'm thinking two-person bedrooms…" I said thoughtfully, "Instead of those rusty bunks we have now."
"Considering you've never slept in them I don't quite think you have the right to complain." Yura said with a smug smile, but her mind seemed to drift at the idea, "I want a state of the art hyper-drive and custom leather seats. The crap we have now seems like we bought it at a second hand's second-hand shop… that's like four hands."
"I want a stove that I don't have to switch the knobs to turn on." Milky said blissfully, leaning against the wall and staring up at the ceiling.
"I'd like a workbench with a bed underneath it." Short-round said suddenly next to me and I jumped.
"Gah! Short-round how long have you been there?!"
"A while…" he mumbled, apparently messing with an imperial blaster pistol.
"...You don't want vents leading all over the ship?" I asked curiously, knowing his favorite habits.
"I sleep in the vents because for the last 25 years of my life I've slept in small spaces like that." He said firmly, "…I don't feel safe if I'm not somewhere cramped." He stared down the back of the blaster before taking one of my blasters out of my holster and replacing it before he began to tinker with the new one.
"Why?" asked as he did.
"…Why what?" he replied, blinking up at me curiously, completely unaware of what he had done.
I sighed, you just had to roll with it with Short-round. "Aiden.." I looked up as Scarlet approached me, looking a little… concerned.
Suddenly my hopes fell and I felt less confident about this. "…They didn't bite?"
"No they did, they kind of agree…" she sighed, watching me for a moment as if trying to figure out what to say, "…We need to get Newt off the ship." she said, "They're sending a Jedi to negotiate and I don't think he'll take a Cipher Agent being here very well…"
I scratched my head, "Huh alright then… well, we'll wait here." I said, turning to Yura. "Can you take Newt to the nearest spaceport on the Rebel Yura?"
"Sure." She said easily, "I'll take Milky for company…" she added as she drew her pistol and entered the cafeteria. Milky looked a little reluctant but leaving Yura alone on the ship in space was just asking for trouble, there were always pirates and patrols of some sort and I wouldn't want them caught alone.
I kissed her forehead and she smiled at me, pushing away from the wall and heading towards the hanger. "I'll go prep the ship." She said airily, swaying her succulent rear as I watched her go.
"Maybe I should go and help her…" I noted, about to follow only to have Scarlet grab my arm holding me back, "Aw…" I mumbled.
"You need to be on your best behavior." Scarlet scolded me, "You need to make a good impression with the Jedi…"
I whined petulantly, "Ah come on… it's just a Jedi. If I don't piss them off we'll be fine, that's why they're Jedi. If it was a sith lord I'd be concerned…" then as I wrapped my arms around her hips I smiled as she reluctantly embraced me, but returned my cheeky grin. "…So we were talking about what we want for our new ship." I said, slowly dancing with her, "What would you like?"
"…Maybe a full-on gym…" she smiled, "With padded floors so I don't have to be too concerned about breaking you."
I placed my forehead on hers and said softly, "Would you settle for a retractable stripper pole?" she blushed and slapped my shoulder. "Ow! Okay I get it…" I laughed, "…Seriously though stripper pole."
"What about a stripper pole?" Newt asked, exiting the cafeteria with Yura, "…Do you really need strippers with Milky around?"
"Hey! it's a legitimate exercise!" I declared firmly, smiling at her, "…Before you head out." I said, letting Scarlet go and approaching her, "You got any requests for our new ship?"
"High velocity, 360 blaster turrets on the port and starboard sides." She said adamantly, only for us to stare at her, "What? I'm practical."
She grinned at me as I kissed her cheek, "See you soon?" I asked as they began to head towards the hanger.
"I can try…" she noted hopefully and waved as she left, waving a hand over her shoulder.
Scarlet took out her pistol and one of my own before approaching the cafeteria door, "I'll help Baleen with the hostages. The Jedi should be here in a couple of hours you might want to check around, maybe there's some valuable info you can add to sweeten the deal…"
"Should you be saying that about your republic?" I asked with a humored smile.
"Do you have any idea how many times I asked them for my own ship?" she said scathingly before giving me a smile and going through the doors. Leaving only me and Short-round in the halls…
"So… want to go through the captain's dirty laundry?"
"Beats going through yours…" he said following me towards the crew quarters.
End of Chapter
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone