A New Power

[Angcuru]

Adrial followed Aasan and Kia to the Dawnsprinter, trying to catch her breath while explaining what she saw. "I was looking around the ship, trying to figure out what all the little lights and screens are. I was checking out this little table in the um...recreation area...that's it, when there was this beeping noise from the front of the ship. I went to look at it, and there were all these little blue dots moving around this screen that didn't have anything on it just a few hours earlier."

They arrived at the Dawnsprinter as Adrial finished speaking, and within seconds were looking at the ship's long-range passive radar screen. From the looks of it, there were upwards of thirty ships on screen, and those were only the ones using active radar that the ship's sensors could detect. Almost on cue, the console-mounted comms station lit up.

"....Dawnsprinter..........ead m-...............ICS Interdictor.........-opy?..-alling the.........inter, do yo-....."

 

[Super Girl]

Kia smacks the comm station in the time honored tradition of electronics users everywhere, letting the unit understand how vexed she would be if it didn't behave. She started to adjust the station, trying to clear away the static. "That sounds like an Imperial capital ship, especially with such a large escort convoy. I don't want to run into the Empire, but I don't want to be here on this planet more." she tells

"ICS Interdictor, this is the Dawnsprinter, come in, I repeat this is the Dawnsprinter. My Hyperdrive got slagged by the jump, and we are stuck on this dirtball. Any assistance you can offer would be appreciated."

 

[Angcuru]

Those at the Dawnsprinter's controls hear a different, more authoritative voice on the other end swear in frustration. "ICS Interdictor to Dawnsprinter crew member, you will identify yourself and all surviving crew immediately. We are sending a transport to your present location, do not leave the area."

Almost as the trasmission is finished, the rest of those who were in the Sethi hut arrive on the Dawnsprinter. Jorran tenses noticably at the confirmation of the Empire's arrival and Kal seems shocked at this voice coming from the controls, while Arias and Miera exchange a quick glance at the mention of the Interdictor.

"Kia," Jorran says quietly, "if the Empire knows the name of this ship, they'll know who owned it as well, wouldn't they? Isn't there a price on your head?"

 

[Super Girl]

"I'm not liking where you going with this Jorran, I am really not liking it." Kia replies, "I think I am going to like where the Empire goes with it even less. Governments are soo not opened minded about insurrection." she sighs in frustration.

"I'm not even 100% sure that the empire would rescue your colony if they didn't get something out of it. Sending a task force this large to answer a distress call is all wrong, I'm small stakes to them, I have no clue whats so important to them here, and if they deem it important enough to send a fleet like this, then they might deem no survivors a good thing as well. Decide for youselves, but I think your best chances, and mine, are appropriating one of their hyperdrives. The empire isn't exactly known for being kind to force users."

"ICS Interdictor, This is Kia Obscurra of the Dawnsprinter, there are no other crew. At the moment I am in the middle of a camp of people who were stranded here when their ship crashed back during the Clone Wars. I request aid and evacuation for them according to Galactic Law." she comms up to the capital ship.

"Either way you decide, it'd be easy enough to tell that your villiage is here when they land, lying when the truth is so obvious isn't worth the effort." she says to the Sethi, loosening her blaster in its holster.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Aasan cursed himself as he got into the cockpit as Kia was finishing her communication to the other ship. Too late now. He sighed(which sounded more like a loud scratching noise through the breather), and said, "The less they know, the better...I don't think our friends would really like any extra company. If it is Imperials, you might have just given them an excuse to come down here with blasters blazing..." he trailed off and tried to think of a way to minimize any more problems, "Don't tell them anything else. And if they send a ship down, tell them to track your distress beacon. We'll move it a good distance out of here so they won't be coming down right here in the middle of everything and we can figure out what these people plan to do."

 

[Super Girl]

"The transport is already on its way here Aasan, it is going to see the villiage whether we tell them about it or not. It already had a fix on this location because these were the coordinates the distress beacon was broadcasting. We cannot change that, telling them what is going to readily evident to them when they get here doesn't cost anything, since they will find it out no matter what." Kia says with a shrug. She turns to the Sethi Masters, wondering what they would have the settlers do.

Whatever the Sethi decided, she could at least ready the ship for immediate take off, she might not have to lift off, but if she did, it would be nice to be ready. Kia also set about making sure the ship's armament was as ready as it could be.

 

[Angcuru]

Jorran watched as the radar screen showed the Imperial Fleet closing in on their location. The computer calculated their arrival to be within 2 hours.

"If the Empire is as brutal as you make it out to be, I doubt they intend to leave any survivors." Miera said.

"Any right-minded strategist wouldn't let any non-military personnel leave the system." Arias added, "Think about it. The Empire is fighting a galaxy-wide civil war. Here they've found a previously unknown system, with unknown stocks of resources and potential locations to set up military bases. As far as we know, the Rebellion is clueless about the whole situation, and I think the Empire would want to keep it that way. And the best way to do that is to make sure that no one lives to tell them about it."

An audibal *gulp* simultaneously escaped Kal's and Adrial's throats.

"Kia," Miera asked, "how many people can you fit aboard this ship? Not for a long journey, but packed in for about ten minutes tops?"

 

[Super Girl]

"If it were just for a short period, I could probably get 80 to 100*, if they were in the cargo bay, this is a transport ship after all, people are much smaller then my usual cargo. The only thing in there now are, or were, my upgrade components which I canabalized a bit to get her in the air again, get people in there, and the corridors, I just wouldn't want to be responsible for the jouncing around they are going to get, especially when we are chased." Kia offered.

*thats being very conservative too, this class ship has cargo room for 100 tons of cargo, and that doesn't include the people you can pack into the corridors, passenger rooms, etc.

 

[Angcuru]

"Good, that's more than enough." Miera said, sounding a bit relieved

"Good how?" Jorran asked. "Without a hyperdrive, it's inevitable that they'll catch us and then, well..." He drew his finger across his throat, clearly making his point.

"We don't need to outrun the Empire's thugs, just to hide the innocent people in this village." Meira glanced towards Arias, who nodded. "There is a subterranian cave a few hundred kilometers out from the village where we could easily hide them."

"But they're tracking this ship." Kal added, "The Empire will know where we're moving them to, and slaughter them all."

"Not exactly." Nakima chimed in, "They're tracking the Dawnsprinter's IFF transponder. If we remove it from the ship and hook it up to the village's power generator, we can move about with the Empire being none the wiser, as long as we stay close to this planet's surface."

"That's all well and good," Adrial piped up, "but what do we do after they're hidden away? We can't just sit here and wait for them to come kill us!""

 

[Super Girl]

"Ok, then thats what we'll do, gather up your people, and I'll start working on the transponder with Aasan, and Nakima if he'll help. Once your people are out of here, I'll come back, and get ready for the Empire. If I can get their transport's hyperdrive, we can repair the Dawnsprinter and get the heck out of here." Kia says, sounding positive, like it'd be a stoll in the park, then again, she is a Corellian.

The Jedi hopeful turns to the transponder once she finishes double checking the ships armaments, and starts getting it ready to pull out of its casing. (+7 repair, taking 10, +17, not sure if there is a synnergy from computer skill 5 ranks, if Aasan and Nakima do help, then she'll just do aid another since they are better techs then she is, not that its a hard task or anything, just speed is probably key)

"Do you have any weapons leftover from your crash ship? The Dawnsprinter is, or rather was, a CorSec Patrol ship, so she has better armament then a normal YT 1300, but I don't know what there transport will be, maybe a Lamda, but it might be something worse, like an Assault Shuttle." Kia says with a soft sigh. "I think the best bet would be to ambush the Stormtroopers. 10 Troopers per squad, probably 2 or 3 squads to secure this area, and then whatever crew on the transport, makes it 35 or so." she says, not sounding terribly pleased.