Rand galnces round the cockpit.

I get the basics. I've been flying Swoops since I could walk.

Somewhere, somehow, Daylin feels a gret disturbance in the Force, as Rand takes the controls of the massive, ion powered, hyperspace capable, flying hunk of steel and electronics that they are all riding in and depending on.

*shudder*

As Rand sits down at the controls he grins broadly.

Daylin is going to through a fit about me learning to fly a ship. He's been against me flying anything since we used my Swoop to bug outa a mission a whiles back.

(assuming we go to hyperspace at some point...)

Daylin shuffles back into the general quarters/lounge of the ship, taking in the sabbac game going on at the small table. He takes a moment to scribble out some notes on several small pieces of paper before joingin the younger men at the table. To each, he distributes an even handfull of papers with such scrawling on them as "garbage", "clean the refresher", and "cook". He slides up in one of the chairs, patting Rand on the shoulder as he passes, and indicates to be dealt in for the next hand.

When I served in the Republic Corps, we didn't have a lot of pay to go around, so we'd use ship chores for collateral instead.

He takes his hand and looks it over for a moment, his gray hair sticking out a bit, making him look a bit disheveled. His voice is raspy as well. He puts down two cards, tapping the table to indicate he needs replacements.

We used to have this one guy in our unti, Jarev Yorn. Real sour type, never in a good mood, always complaining, the kind of guy that always wants you to carry his pack, then wouldn't take anyone else's later. Always cheated at sabbac. Shifter cards. The card face would change when he tapped it jsut so. Everyone knew he carried them. Only the new guys would play with him. It was the beginning of the war so we had a lot of new guys.

Rand, you mind grabbing me a glass of Juma juice? Thanks.

He smiles, then goes back to the game.

Three stars, two sabers. Daylin sets down his cards and collects a few chores he no longer has to do, then waits for the next deal. When Rand hands him the glass, he nods his thanks.

We were all stationed on the Angar's Fury in the beginning of the war, in orbit over the planet Coyn in the Elrood sector. All army, so we had nothing to do when the droid Battleships and Destroyers came into orbit. Nothing but play cards anyways.

So we're up there in orbit, taking heavy fire, playing cards 'cause we've got nothing else to do. Jarev's just cheated some greens out of a bunch of chores, when we hear the alarm for a boarding action. We get up and get our gear, as we've been waiting for hours already. But them droids are on us fast. They blew a hole right through the hull and just came in. The driods liked to do that a lot. They'd blow out a bulk head and just swarm in through the hl, shooting anything that moved, and a lot that didn't. They obviously didn't need oxygen, and we obviously did.

Anyway, they're on us fast, and we're pinned down, firing back with what we've got. Heavy weapons are still in lockup. You don't leave that kind of stuff sitting around when the ships rolling from turbo laser hits. Se we're taking fire, a real nasty light fight, for a good ten minutes We take wasily three times our number, but the droids keep coming. Then out of no where, this young Jedi that came aboard a few liberties back comes running down the hall. Takes a few shots across his saber and gets down with us.
"Ill hold 'em off, you make a run for it." he says. And then just like that, he's off, right into the line of fire of some forty droids. He takes a good twenty of them with him before a blaster finally grazes his leg. That's the damn thing about Jedis with a saber. They're worth their weight in spice 'til they take a hit. Then that one slows them down just enough that antoher gets through. Then one more, and then that's it. Never got a chance to tell the kid that we had to hold there, had to get to the weapons locker. He bought us some time sure, took out almsot as many droids as we had by himself. But it hadn't gained us anything.

So we're regrouping, trying to figure out what to do...

Two sabers, two banthas...

Again Daylin takes the small pot.

We're trying to figure out what o do, and the damn droids throw in a Rodian hunter bomb.

Now, anyone tells you that rodians are "hunters" , you tell them, "yeah, and a rancor eats a lot." Rodians don't hunt, they kill, and they do it a lot, and in the nasiest ways possible. Don't believe that 'hunter' buunda, that's just them trying to put a nice face and being nasty cusses.

A rodian hunter bomb is about twice the size of your standard frag grenade. 'Cept it doesn't blow up and trow shrapnel everywhere. What it does is use extremely powerful magnets to charge a spin to about 300 tiny razors, honed to a mono-edge, and then shoots them everywhere in about a 10 meter radius. If you're in that radius, you'd be lucky if you could even still conceive of what swiss cheese looked like. You're dead, and that's it.

Anyway, this ...death bomb lands right smack in the middle of us. We all see it, and we all know we're dead. There's nothin' for it, we're dead. Out of no where, Yorn comes in this flying leap, and lands himself right on top of this thing. His arms and legs are all out, he's spread over it, and we all duck to avoid getting blinded by his blood.

Nothing happens.

We all look up for a second, and realize that we're all still alive, and he's still alive. Then we hear the noise, and look up over our cover, and see all the droid srunning down the corridor at us. They followed right behind the bomb, figuring to hit us right after it did. We've been to the front, we're all veterans, we don't hesitate. We cut them down with out blasters in seconds. They've got no cover, no where to go. We hold, get to the weapons locker, and fight off the boarding party. The Fury makes it through, and the Republic wins the Battle of Coyn.

Four months later, Yorn takes a blaster bolt in the chest, goes down in the soil of Dantooine of all places. But let me tell you, no one lived the last four months of their life like he did. We bought that boy so many drinks...

Daylin looks up for a moment as if recalling something.

We asked him once, why he did it. He said "I dunno. Just seemed right." He had family, no wife or anything, but it wasn't like he had nothing to lose. But it always stuck with us. Wasn't like the Jedi kid, going out in a blaze of glory. His sacrifice was ... more somehow. Because he didn't expect to be remembered, he didn't do it to be a hero. He just did it because it had to be done. Sad thing is, none of us even remember the Jedi's name. Just goes to show, there is no glory in war. There's just what you have to do. The kid's problem wasn't because he was a Jedi. I think it's because he thought he was a Jedi. All the Jedi that went bad in history, they were all absolutely convinced they were "Great Jedi."

You ask me, there's no such thing. There's just "Jedi." You call your self "great", even think it, and you just lost it.

Daylin puts down his cards, another two large pair, collects some more chores, and gets another drink of juice.

Rand shakes his head, Another mission, another story, wouldn't seem right with out them.

He glances at his cards and grins. So is that why you're so damn good at Sabbac?

Daylin grins and gives Rand a wink, pleased that he saw past the story.

No, I'm good at sabbac because I'm good at telling stories.

And because I learned to cheat from Yorn. You're emotions are pracitcally jumping off of you boys for those that know how to feel them. Maye someday I'll show you how to keep that under wraps. But for now ... no more chores for this old hand.

Daylin just smiles.

Jeryk walks back into the room catching the end of the story.

Well thats strange..

Hey boys, mind if join you?

The ship comes out of hyperspace, without problem, at a beacon near Thyferra. After a moment checking coordinates they continue on to Fondor.

Slide in. Once I'm done relieving you young men of all of you ways to slip out of chores, we should go over the mission. Have any of you been to the Tapani sector? I have, but it's been years, and it's politics can change pretty quickly.

We should probably pull up what information we can get off of the hyperlink once we get in system on where we're going. Familiarize our selves on our new identities, and make up some back history for ourselves as well incease we need to expand on our cover stories.

Rand scans over his new I.D.

Nothing to out of the ordinary. I'll be Conn Rastan, a wandering dock worker, looking for new pastures. Signed on with you guys to help load and unload the shuttle. Once we're on the ground I'll have a look into the local ariel security and see if I can pull off a fly past on my swoop. See what I can see.

Ship's mechanic here. 'Nojbu Arpor'. Shouldn't be too hard to remember..

Daylin looks over Jaryk's shoulder and grins, patting the young man on the shoulder. Looks like we've got our captain here.

Jeryk smiles.

Alright. Captain Ryker Majere. Has a nice ring to it. Jeryk says over again. Captain.

Yer kidding me right? The noble lets out a small strangled sigh.

Guess that makes me, Jon Mathi the ships pilot, then. Alright. Captain, you own this boat or we got owners somewhere in the sector? Like to know who's cred I'm losing.

Would you believe someone as young as me would own a ship?

I've seen younger. We'll pass ourselves off as 'new members' or a small freighters guild. The Imperials now how it is. A young captain is eager to own their own ship, invests themselves in a small freighting concern, they front him a ship. Then they start leaning on them to being smuggling for them, using the 'new ship' as leverage. Since we don't have any cargo, or even smuggler holds, there's nothing for them to find. So all they can assume is that we're very bad at our job. That should back up our cover story that we're wandering the docks and catinas looking for work.

Or between me an the old man we can make you look like a rich boy out for a bit of fun. What you say old timer any houses out this way we can pass the kid off as part of?

And guess what old timer, full banthas. Read em and weep.

There's well over 600 noble families in the Sector. Shouldn't be too hard, except that we don't actually have any money. Unles you plan on 'requsitioning' some funds at the sabbac tables. Daylin grins.

My former master used to teach me about noble families and such. Jedi and Non-jedi alike.

Well if you have enough nowledge to pass it off, then we may be able to use that as well. We could be in trouble if we're caught impersonating a noble though, and there's still the matter of not haing the credits to back it up. I think though that it might be a good idea to have preparations in mind for two aliases; the smugglers and the nobles.

Daylin sits back, making clear that he's only adding ideas to the pool, and in no way trying to make a decision for the group. He's content to toss out ideas and let the younger crew take the lead.

Cred isn't hard to come by, at sabbac or other ways. Dad had some contacts out this way. I can drop the family name, see what happens. I warn you though depending on the person and their commitment to the new Empire it might get ugly. Meh, maybe save that till we need it. Don't suppose old Stone Face dropped us any creds?

That gives us a few options at least, which is good. We need to see what sort of clearance we need for Fondor and the ship yards there, as well as working on finding some spit of rock, or even just spot we can lay low, in case the Empire gets on to us and comes looking for us. It shouldn't be too hard finding people with no love for the Empire in the Free Worlds sector.

After that we'll need to figure out just how we want to do the reconaissance. Rand and his rather innocent apearance could probably wander the port for hoursscouting ,and end up getting directions from an officer instead of a warning. Daylin grins, enjoying the long running joke with Rand about his baby face.

Not my fault I'm so pretty old man, you should have looked after yourself properly, which I'm sure would have been harder during the Clone Wars, but you should have tried.

Rand grins broadly, this whole routine seems to be a familiar one.

Scouting around seems good to me, I tend to avoid the cerebral stuff. I'll chase leads and such all you guys want. Nothing like a few interesting risks in a good cause.

In my opinion, we should go for the captian and crew story, other than the noble thing. Seems more beleiveable.

You don't know nobility very well do ya kid? Trust me there are plenty of bored rich kids out there, some of them looking for more excitement than sitting around and spending daddy's money. There are a few options, the pilots academy, the bureaucracy or trying to be a sumggler.

Jannel shrugs.

But it's up to you. Whatever we figure out we gotta stick to it. And stick hard or we're going to be toast.

A simple majority vote then?

I'm for the captain and crew thing.

Daylin nods at Rand, then looks to Jeryk to see where his two creds will fall.

Jeryk, now noticing everyone is looking at him.

What do they want? A decision?! Oh.....Well...I suppose...

I suppose the captain and crew thing will work, and I agree with Jannel. Whatever we choose, we need to stick too. It needs to look convincing.

Daylin then looks to Jannel, to see if he will simply go along, or if there is more debating to do.

Whatever, now what's the rest of the plan. Walk around, make nice with the locals and see what we can dig up?

That doesnt seem too far from neccessary. Turns towards Daylin
What do you think?

The small band of Rebels continues to make plans as the ship hurtles through the mottled blue and grey of hyperspace. The ship drops out near a navigation beacon not far from the planet. The view through the forward viewport shows a planet with the sun aparently rising on the right side.

The momentary reprieve is broken by the sound of the comm system.

Cygnus Theta-class shuttle. Please identify yourself and state your business in the sector.

As the ship breaks from hyperspace, Daylin sits in the cockpit with the rest of the crew. Not sure if he trusts Jeryk's mouth just yet, and sure that he doesn't trust Rand's, he nudges Jannel to give the reply.

Jannel shrugs as the Jedi gives him a nudge.
What does he want from me...... Oh right.

The noble fingers the ships com and flicks the equipment to life.

As he speaks the rest of the rebels are amazed to hear a Corellian drawl instead of the noble's standard sneering voice pattern
This is the Serenity Now, out of Corellia. Ship's pilot Jon Mathi speaking. We're hauling some food and ag equipment. Hoping to get some more work out Tapani way.

... Serenity Now....?

*shrug*

Serenity Now? Interesting. Has a nice ring to it

Buy it, buy it buy it.

Rand glances at Daylin. It's clear that Rand's 'love' of space battles is making him nervous again.

Serenity Now proceede to Docking Bay 12. I am transmitting the necessary landing protocols to you now.

Understood docking control. Be seeing you in a few.

Jannel snaps off the com after recieving the landing protocols.

Everyone ready for this?

Lets get down there at get to work. Rand does a fair job of hiding his nerves.

The Rebel ship slides through the atmosphere and down to the docking area. Traffic in the system is crowded today for some reason. Upon landing, the crew is confronted with an argument between a bantha farmer and a seriously pissed off dock clerk. The smell is understandably unpleasant. No one seems to be paying any attention to the group.

Jeryk whispers to Jannel.

What do you say we take advantage of this?

Sure yer not a Jedi yet kid, cause you just read my mind. Jannel whispers back.

The nobleman gestures for the group to remain silent, hitches his duffel over his shoulder and deftly manuvers his way into the spartan dockside crowd.

Rand checks his blaster pistol and pulls on his heavy leather jacket as he follows Jannel off the ship. He flashes several friendly grins to locals while looking for some sort of sign of a bar or lodging house.

The group is confronted with a large humanoid figure who demands some money as a tribute to his kingship.

Rand grins broadly at the man.

Your king of this? Your very brave to admit that. I honour you courage. And that's all the tibute you're getting from us.

Rand's manner is calm, calm and cocky. His stance solid and ready for action but not exactly aggressive.

His "kingship" smiles at Rand before throwing the first punch.

Roll Dodge there buddy!

Daylin stands back, rolling his eyes. He seperates from the group a bit to see who's watching them. This wouldn't be a bad distraction for a pick pocket.

Jeryk backs up alongside Daylin.
Oh for the love of..

He turns to Daylin
Another day in paradise?

Daylin glances around. Boy, if this were paradise, I'm fairly sure there'd be some scantily clad twi'lek dancing girls around here somewhere.