A New Power - Rebel Group

[Ambrus]

Datum: We have arrived only a half hour behind schedule.
Considering the hours long stopover at the Reliant station our
hyperspace jump must have been much more efficient than that
of the imperial fleet's. Quite gratifying.

Arley quickly adjusts the shuttle's course to avoid any other asteroids while keeping close to their assigned flightplan. Before Jaess can activate the comm to reply to the unidentified officer's inquiry, Arley calmly says: "How rude. Perhaps you should politely inquire how's he's misidentified our vessel as Deepscan 37 when our transponder signal clearly identifies us as Deepscan 39..."

The patina stained droid uses the sensor data to confirm their spacial position and to validate or adjust their return hyperspace jump as necessary should an expedient departure prove crucial considering the imperial presence nearby. R-LE-1 then begins sweeping the star system for any non imperial vessels of hyperdrive engine signatures, desperately trying to locate the errant Dawnsprinter.


With a half hour's lead it seems likely that an imperial vessel
will locate the Dawnsprinter ahead of us. Our only hope is that
my Code will once again prove more efficient than theirs.
May the Code be with us.

 

[Kemrain]

As the ship comes out of hyperspace and narrowly misses a passing asteroid Jaess winces, expecting impact, and is pleasantly surprised to remain intact. As the ICS Interdictor hails them, however, her blood runs cold. She resists the urge to glance sideways at the LE unit as it speaks, waiting until it finishes to press the button to open the comm channel. "Deepscan-39 to ICS Interdictor, we hit an uncharted gravity well en route and had to re-plot our course, sir. We came out of hyperspace hard and had to perform a few minor repairs before we jumped again. We're fully operational and ready to start our assigned scanning run, sir."

She leaves out who she is and why the Comm Officer isn't responding in her place, hoping that the officer on the bridge of the Interdictor doesn't know enough to be suspicious. Hoping that no one on that bridge will recognise her voice, dispite the alterations.

 

[Angcuru]

"Noted, Deepscan. Be prepared to deliver a copy of your ship's records upon completion of your duties. There has been a change of plans concerning your pre-assigned flightpath. Since you are late, we have already assigned a seperate craft to take over your scan patrol. The Admiral would instead like an evaluation of the unidentified planet's mineral composition, so you will be landing and performing a deep crust scan. Specific coordinates are in transmission. ICS Interdictor out." The image blipped to nothing, and the Deepscan's flight computer recieved a data packet containing landing coordinates.

 

[Ambrus]

R-LE-1 mentally sifts through the unnamed planet's geographical information provided by the Deepscan's improved sensors and compares it with the landing coordinates transmitted to them. As it begins plotting an approach vector, the patina stained droid turns to regard Jaess with its large single photoreceptor. "My spatial scans reveal no trace of a small transport such as the Dawnsprinter within range. If it was in orbit, considering the number of vessels searching for it, it would most likely been have been located and tractored into the Star Destroyer's docking bay by now. Since we will be expected to proceed to these planetary coordinates I suggest that we follow these instructions to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. We can continue to scan this system and the planet's surface during out approach. It's possible that the vessel crashed on the surface and that we may yet find it. Do you concur agent Talori?"

Even as it is speaking, Arley reaches out with its code and begins altering their course to safely carry them up and over the asteroid belt. "If you are unable to locate the Dawnsprinter's distress beacon perhaps you could listen in on imperial communications to determine what they've already discovered in this system and what they yet hope to find."

Assuming Jaess has no objections to Arley's plan, the old droid continues to carry them towards the planet's nearest pole. While passing in close proximity to the asteroids the repair droid brings the Deepscan's powerful sensors to bear on the huge ring of boulders, attempting to discover any signs of a significant mass of refined metals that may betray the presence of a hiding vessel. Once past the belt, Arley begins maneuvering the Deepscan into a wide arcing orbit that will allow it to sweep as much of the planet's surface as possible with its improved sensors before hitting the atmosphere. All the while, the patina stained droid sits motionless in the pilot's chair, mentally sifting through sensor readings searching for the telltale signs of the space-warping signature of the Dawnsprinter's hyperdrive engine.

Finally, forced to make their atmospheric entry or risk arousing imperial suspicion, Arley reduces their relative speed as the Deepscan dips down and begins to touch the planet's atmosphere. "Please angle the shields for atmospheric entry and brace yourself for turbulence."

OOC: Kemrain, if you have anything that would affect this course of events let me know and I'll modify my post accordingly.

 

[Kemrain]

Jaess sighs with relief as she closes down the comm channel, letting her tenseness fade as she relaxes into her seat. As the LE unit speeks to her she turns her head to listen, nodding slowly as it explains its sensor findings and gives its suggested course of action.

"Makes sense," she tells it when asked her opinion. "I wonder how many ships they have on the ground already." She speaks in her own voice again, hoping that no further deception is necessary and mere avoidance will suffice from there on out.

Her hand is already in motion when Arley suggests eavesdropping on the Imperials, and she turns the comm station on to recieve transmissions on every Imperial channel the ship can detect, including some that she had used in her time as an ISB operative that might still be in use. Any covert transmissions will probably be encrypted, but there's a chance that the LE unit could figure it out, or at least recoed it for later analysis.

When they reach the planet she checks her restraints and angles the shields as requested, protecting the shuttle's hull from the friction of reentry, glad the droid gave her some warning this time.

 

[Ambrus]

"I wonder how many ships they have on the ground already."

"I'm currently reviewing the scan data taken during our orbital pass. It should reveal the presence of any imperial vessels present there. Hopefully we'll also find some sign of the Dawnsprinter." The patina stained droid pauses momentarily before continuing. "Perhaps you are unaware, but now that we've entered this planet's gravity-well we can no longer enter hyperspace without first returning to orbit. We will not be able to flee should the empire discover that we are impostors and seek to attack us while we are on the planet."

 

[Kemrain]

Jaess consiters this for a moment before nodding asking in her faux-Triss voice, "Hadn't occured to me, but now that you mention it... I know these sensors are built to detect ships, but can they scan for lifeforms too?"

 

[Ambrus]

Arley continues to regard Jaess with its peripheral sensors for a moment before answering. "Lifeforms specifically? Generally not, no. Our conventional sensors simply detect the presence of objects according to their size and shape. The Deepscan's enhanced sensors are specifically calibrated to extend our range and to identify ships like the Dawnsprinter, distress beacons and the space-warping signature of hyperdrive engines."

The Deepscan begins to vibrate and shake slightly as it plunges ever deeper into the planet's thickening atmosphere. The patina stained droid continues to fly towards their assigned landing spot while slowing the craft down and keeping to a high altitude to ensure their sensors can sweep as much of the planet's surface as possible.

Without turning, Arley begins speaking again: "We should probably discuss now, while we have the chance, what we will do should we discover that imperial agents have already retrieved the hyperdrive engine." The old repair droid pauses to turn its head to face the female sitting at the communications console. "Since we are grossly outnumbered and outmatched it seems unlikely that we could successfully accomplish our original mandate of retrieving the engine and escaping. We cannot however allow the empire to retain such a superior hyperdrive engine if it does indeed exist for the Rebel Alliance would quickly fall. If such a situation were to develop it would appear that we will have little choice but to attempt to destroy the engine in a surprise attack, most likely sacrificing ourselves by doing so." Arley pauses to gauge Jaess reaction to its fatalistic conclusion.

 

[Kemrain]

"Now you know why I wanted to know if they could detect us on the ground." She shakes her head, "I doubt I'll have to get myself killed to destroy the hyperdrive. I know how to move about unseen, and I can probably get explosives planted without them detecting me at all, or even better, with a well planned diversion- they won't even be looking for me. Then again, there might be design specs in the ship's computers that we'd need to copy and destroy, and we'd probably want to recover or destroy any storage medium that the Imperials have with them, just in case they found it first. This won't be an easy mission, but the explosives will help lots. I'm hoping we can get the cover of darkness on our side, too."

"I doubt I'll have to get myself killed to be successful," she says again, "It's just unlikley that we'll then be able to leave the planet until the Empire clears out and we can get picked up by alliance ships. I have a feeling that our transport will be bombarded from orbit, so we should be thinking of a plan 'Besh'."

OOC: It should be becoming obvious that Jaess isn't expecting Arley to accompany her on the infiltration portion of the mission, though, she figures he could make a mean distraction. Please also note the Aurebesh reference.

 

[Angcuru]

Jaess sifts through the Imperial communications as she converstates with the droid, trying to sift out any useful bits of information from the general chatter. Eventually, she picks up a signal that is moving towards the planet just ahead of them. The computer adjusts the frequency pickup until the garbled speech becomes coherent.

"No way, I want to be the first off the ship. First to set foot on an unknown world and all that." One voice says behind classic Stormtrooper Helmer-induced staticy voice.

"You idiot, weren't you listening during the briefing?" Another replies.

"Of course I was. All five seconds of it as they rustled us out of our bunks and on to this clunker of a transport."

"Well, there is that, but there are already people on the surface. Have been there for nearly thirty years."

"Thirty years? Hell, the system was only just discovered!"

"By us, but from what the Commander says, a refugee transport probably went down there during the Clone Wars after a botched hyperspace jump."

"Well, damn. Ok. First Stormtrooper to set foot on the uncharted world."

"Good luck with that, we're in the back."

"...Damn. Well, at least I'll get to kill something to vent my frustrations. No survivors, right?"

"They want us to leave one or two alive for interrogation, but other than that it's open season on anything that moves, anything that looks capable of movement, and anything that used to be moving but isn't now, just in case it's faking. The not moving thing, that is."

"Stop thinking, you're going to hurt yourself."

The comm turns back to static.