Prep the Badgers

[Reyna Solus]

The hull of the Viper rocked gently as it floated in the empty nothingness of space just outside the Imperial Republica border near Taris. It was a safe place, mostly, but it was close to their final destination. If all went according to plan, in about 48 hours Clan Solus would be the proud owners of three new Imperial battle tanks. For now though, there were things to discuss and plans to finalize. Reyna wasn't going to undertake a mission of such grave importance - and lethality, if she were being honest - without being thoroughly prepared.

The rest of her crew was scattered about her ship wherever they had managed to carve out their own space. There was room enough for all of her clan mates aboard her ship - Reyna herself had been in the cockpit, happily alone and quiet. She felt a small vibration on her wrist just a few moments ago, the signal from her chrono that the time had come to call the meeting. She'd neglected to go over much of the plan with her friends before hand, preferring to do it when they were all together - sober - and paying attention. Pressing a button to activate the intercom, Reyna spoke into it with authority. "Everyone convene in the meeting room in the next five minutes. It's time to finalize our plan and get everything where it should be."

Leaving the cockpit, Reyna grabbed a stack of datapads on her way out and headed to the meeting area. She would be the first one there - not because her clan mates were lackadaisical, but because she was the only one with a key to the room - and would take the seat at the head of the rectangular table. Too revved up to sit, Reyna simply stood, lighting a cigarette and letting it dangle between her lips, puffing it occasionally.

If anyone was late to the meeting, she'd put it out on their forehead.

@Painus @christhebarker @Critas @Kraken

 

[Diocletian Solus]

Diocletian stood stripped to the waist in the cargo hold of the Viper. It was not his ship, it was the ship of a clan mate and that made it home either way. Due to their recent action on Kashyyyk, several pieces of Dio’s armor had become damaged. Before they had left the planet, he had grabbed some plasteel pieces from the armor of several Imperials they had escorted from the mortal coil. He had those pieces laid out across the top of a crate that he had commandeered as a work bench.

Working quickly, he used the armor repair tool kit he carried with him to make repairs to his armor. He took several of the better plasteel pieces and cut them to fit his armor. There were cracks in a few places and a hole in one vambrace from an overzealous Kinrath. Working with practiced skill, Dio heated the plasteel and started to work it and shape it to suit the repair needs of his armor. He was making a bit of a mess in Reyna’s cargo hold but he would clean it up.

After a few hours of work, they arrived at the edge of IR space, near Taris. Dio was just finishing his work and had set the various repaired pieces of his armor to cool and harden when he heard Reyna’s call over the ships comm.

"Everyone convenes in the meeting room in the next five minutes. It's time to finalize our plan and get everything where it should be." Said Reyna.

Dio looked at his armor and picked up the pieces, he would have to dress on the way. He made a quick stop at the refresher to splash some water on his face and hands before finishing rearming on his way to the meeting. He was a little amazed when he was the first to enter the Meeting room but took that as good fortune. Crossing the room to the fridge, he opened it and stood in the door looking through the contents for something to drink. Armor repair was thirsty work and if he knew Reyna, she would have the good stuff squirreled away somewhere.

@Painus
@Relent
@Kraken
@christhebarker

 

[Leandros Solus]

Leandros sat in a room he took for himself onboard the Viper, his clanswoman Reyna’s ship. It was a home away from home, as far as he was concerned. Here, surrounded by those he called family; that is what made it home. Granted, the ratio of females to males onboard was a bit dismal, but that was okay, he figured. Better to keep his mind sharp on the eve of battle, anyways. He spent his free time either interacting with the others or in silent prayer to Kad Ha’rangir, asking for protection in battle and for the destroyer’s courage in the hard times to come. Prayer and meditation calmed the mind, especially given the upcoming task. Granted, he had no idea what this upcoming task was, but it was better to have the gods on your side than not.

For the past few hours, he lounged about, doing whatever he felt like. There was not much else to do in his situation. He had already offered libations to the gods and gone through his prayers. Now he just eased the body before battle. His facial scar was still not fully healed, but was beginning to turn a soft pink. He massaged the skin, hoping to smooth the flesh out and make it less gruesome-looking. Having a face that looked like someone slapped clay on it was not good for picking up the ladies, though it did have a way of showing that he survived where another did not. Double-edged sword, that one.

Finally getting the call to assemble, Leandros picked himself up and sauntered over to the meeting room. Upon entering, he nodded to his host (@Relent) and to his clansman (@Critas). ”Reyna,” he said, taking up a seat to the right of the woman, placing his helmet on the table. ”Iupe at ret' ru echoy'la gar cutuba vaal gataya.” He spoke in perfect Mando’a, something he exclusively did around his peers, as dictated by the Resol’nare. He panned his head to Dio, looking over the man. ”Bal gar, Dio. Gar jivaor emuurir gar ganar cuyir o'r a ramurapr.”

He turned back to Reyna, giving her a firm nod. ”Gar ganar cuyir biaye yirhaou dajun ibic meye gataya.” He leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table.

@Relent @Critas @Kraken @christhebarker

 

[Arturo Solus]

Arturo hadn't been on many starships before. Well, none like this anyway. Sat in the Viper's mess hall, Arturo counted the minutes as they ticked by; Silent in his solitude, he found that counting helped ease the queasy feeling that had settled in his gut. He had always been prone to seasickness, and he had never discovered the reason why. As far as he was concerned, boots on the ground beat floating in space hands down. Maybe it was the artificial gravity or the fact that a hull breach could leave him lost in the dark with no real hope. One of the two.

Taking slow, deep breaths, Arturo calmed himself, thoughts already drifting to the near-future. He had been relatively safe these past few days. The Viper -as much as he hated to admit it- had become a haven of sorts. Alone in the void, and against his better judgement, the ship and it's inhabitants had wormed their way into his heart. If he wanted company, he never had to walk far to find it. If he wanted a fight...well, almost all his clansmen were ready to spar at the drop of a hat. And as for drink, they had plenty of that too. It was almost enough to make him give up the hunting profession and go pirate. Almost...

A blip from his Holo dragged him out of his reverie, the voice of Reyna ringing loud and clear as she summoned the crew to the meeting room. Time to rally the troops, Arturo mused, downing what was left of his lukewarm coffee before slapping himself awake. Time slowed to a crawl as he hustled from the mess, and within a few heartbeats he was outside the meeting room. He sidled to the left as soon as he was through the door, taking the first seat he came to.

He nodded to each of the room's inhabitants as he settled down, making a subconscious note of who was here and who wasn't. "Su cuy'gar alor'ad, vod."

@Relent
@Painus
@Critas
@christhebarker

 

[Tanx Solus]

Tanx wasn’t a fan of space travel not since spending 5 years rotting in a prison barge, it tends to make someone not want to send anymore time in space but space travel was a necessity so he didn’t really have choices in the matter though he had more options to distract himself than he did on the barge.

Tanx was sat in the common room, one of his blaster pistol was disassembled on the table in front of him, past couple of hours he had been cleaning and checking all his weapons, a ritual of his he does before every mission, his pistol was last one to do he began to assemble when his comlink lit up, Reyna announcing to meet her in the briefing room, he quickly reassemble it, sliding it into its holster and made his way to briefing room.

Entering the briefing, he found a seat at the far end of table, pushing his chair back away from table he took his seat, rising his feet on to table and crossing them with his arm folded, waiting for briefing to begin.

@Relent @Painus @Critas @Karken

 

[Reyna Solus]

Reyna's eyes fell onto each man as they entered the room one by one, judging them intently as if she were a school teacher inspecting the children as they returned from recess. The cigarette still hung loosely from her lips, small plumes of smoke rising in tandem with the slow breathes she was taking in and out.

She ignored Leandros for the time being, returning his lame attempts at flattery with nothing more than a disappointed glare. She appreciated the silence from Dio and Tanx. Sliding a datapad to each of her vod, Reyna clicked a button on hers that would display some pictures and descriptions of what she would be talking about so that everyone could follow along.

"So boys, I'm gonna just cut to the chase on this one," Reyna said simply, flicking her old cigarette onto the ground and pulling out a new one. "The name of the game this time is we're going to steal us some tahla'ada ahbepr." She paused for a moment, letting what she had said sink in a little bit. She was sure that the word "tanks" alone would be enough to excite her brothers. But it wasn't even the best part. "And not just any tanks - Imperial tanks."

The image on the screen would change to an image of a Humbler assault tank, rotating slowly. "We're going to intercept an Imperial motorcade on Taris. Intel says they'll be carrying the tanks to a new location via haulers, so we're going to hijack the haulers and kill as many Imperials as we can doing it." The plan really was that simple, and simple - as Reyna had found over the years - was what clan Solus operated the best with. Complex plans required complex solutions.. and caused unnecessary complications.

"You'll only get one chance to back out. To pull this off, everyone will need to be on the same page with no reservations. This would also be the time to make suggestions, though I'll probably just tell you to shove it up your ass." She eyed Leandros specifically. "Make your choice."

@Painus @christhebarker @Critas @Kraken

 

[Diocletian Solus]

Diocletian had acquired his beer from the fridge after having to dig for several minutes to find one. A quick pull on a vambrace popped the top and he settled in a chair just before Reyna started speaking. He exchanged non-verbal greetings around the room with a general chin raise that was the intergalactic sign for “sup”. He caught the data pad that was slid in his direction and started looking over the schematics for that Reyna was proposing.

The screen lit up on the data pad and showed a diagram of the tanks that Reyna wanted to steal. Still listening to Reyna speak, Dio had just hit the enhance button the symbol as Reyna said, “Imperial tanks.” Looking up, a devilish smile crossed Dio’s face. They had been giving the Imperials a bloody nose of late, it seemed that was going to continue.

"We're going to intercept an Imperial motorcade on Taris. Intel says they'll be carrying the tanks to a new location via haulers, so we're going to hijack the haulers and kill as many Imperials as we can doing it." said Reyna.

The plan seemed as simple as could be and Dio liked simple. If you made a plan too complex, then one thing going wrong could cause the whole house of cards to collapse on your head. Keeping it simply meant easy adjustments and transitions to unknown situations. Easy adjustments leant to successful missions and Dio was all about success. Bringing up the specs for the haulers he compared their top speed against that of his 88-V Ranger and it was just as he had thought, the Ranger was much faster, that would help tremendously.

"You'll only get one chance to back out. To pull this off, everyone will need to be on the same page with no reservations. This would also be the time to make suggestions, though I'll probably just tell you to shove it up your ass." She eyed Leandros specifically. "Make your choice."

Dio was the first to speak after Reyna’s ultimatum of sorts. “I am in Vod.” He said it matter of factly as if there should have never been a doubt. Looking at the schematics again he opened a diagram of the route of the transports and started making notes in another window on the data pad, waiting for the others to respond.

@christhebarker
@Kraken
@Relent
@Painus

 

[Leandros Solus]

Leandros expected Reyna’s glare. It was funny. He gave a shiteating smirk, then focused his attention on the datapad before him. As Reyna spoke, Leandros’ brows raised in interest. Tanks? Hell yeah. She let the word hang in the air for a moment, giving her words weight, before she added that they were Imperial tanks. The clan had been absolutely ruining the Empire’s day recently, and stealing something of this caliber from them was pretty exciting. Leandros grinned, scrolling through the datapad. The Humbler was a pretty impressive vehicle with some powerful armaments that would be a real pain to deal with once in the hands of the Mandalorians.

The plan was fairly straightforward. Leandros probably saw this same scenario in a holovid at one point, so that was neat. Hijacking haulers and getting the tanks off-planet would be a difficult task, given the degree of security that would presumably be with the tanks. Security, however, never stopped the badgers before.

Reyna concluded by offering an opportunity to leave or offer suggestions, giving Leandros one of those looks. The man looked at her intensely, considering offering up a witty quip of his own, but opted to just wink at her instead. He simply spoke up with a, ”Rala mhi chakur bathas ahbepr,” and turned his gaze to look at the others. This was going to be wonderful.

@Critas @Relent @christhebarker @Kraken

 

[Arturo Solus]

There was a sudden, tense anticipation as the gathered group listened to Reyna's briefing. It had only taken the mentioning of two words to start it all off, and those words were: Imperial Tanks. Humblers, to be exact. Arturo didn't know much about them, so when he was slid a datapad from further along the table, he took the chance to study it in detail. Big, hulking mounds of metal, the Humbler's spinning 'Three-Dee' model highlighted both the tank's inner workings and its exterior appearance. Hmm, gonna be a tough job to pull off, Arturo thought idly, an eyebrow perked up by curiosity.

It was a simple enough plan, he s'posed: Hit the haulers whilst they were in transit, kill the guards, and give the Empire a bloody nose and the Mandalorian's -His clan in particular- three, shiny new tanks. Only it's never that simple. Arturo's expression grew solemn. He knew, and assumed the others knew that there was so much that could go wrong given half a chance; The Imperials were no pushovers, and it would be wrong to underestimate their ability to fight back. They would fight tooth and nail to stop the tanks from falling into enemy hands. But then, so would we.

Casting a long, measured look at Reyna, Arturo pondered the questions racing through his mind. His fingers danced a merry jig on the pad's touchscreen, bringing up minute details about the hardware they'd be jacking, and the expected guard detail, as well as the route. They could pull this off, no doubt. It would be tough, though, moreso than some of the missions he'd undertaken so far for the Clan.

Yeah, but since when has that stopped us before?

Smiling wanly, Arturo placed the datapad gently down on the table, his hands knitting themselves against his chest. He had made his decision. "I'm in." He said simply. "Just one question: I assume the Imps are smart enough to track the haulers while they're on the move. So how're we gonna deal with them when the time comes? Jammers?"

@Relent
@Painus
@Critas
@christhebarker

 

[Tanx Solus]

Tanx picked up the data pad, scanning through the information on it, he recognised the tanks specs, humbler, he had rood in one once or twice during his time in the military. Not exactly the most comfortable ride but nothing in the imperial war machine was designed for comfort.

Stealing tanks is a good move, since they yet to make any home grown designs never mind put them in production. The tanks would likely be heavily guard with the recent raids and be right next door to mando territory it would make sense. He wouldn’t be surprise if they had some ships waiting the wings to reinforce it there’s any trouble.

“So what kind of resistance are we looking at?” he asked he liked to know what they’re up against so they can plan accordingly and make sure she’s done her homework on her school project since he didn’t want to die because her information was wrong.

@Relent @Painus @Critas @Kraken

 

[Reyna Solus]

Reyna was glad that her fellow vod didn't back down from the mission after her briefing. She had already known it was a hefty task to ask of others, but she had been slightly confident the badgers would be more than willing to dive head first into the fire to retrieve such precious and useful cargo.

Taking a moment, Reyna pondered Arturo's question. It was a valid one, though she was pretty sure she had that covered. "Intel says these are fresh off the boat tanks being taken in for final inspections. So it's likely they don't have tracers on them at all yet, but if they do we'll get one of our guys to scrub them before we go back to Mandalore." Her eyes turned to Tanx, Reyna giving him a shrug. "Likely heavy resistance, but nothing we can't handle. The Imperials have grown complacent and lazy. Air support should be nonexistent, so we'll be dealing with boots on the ground troops for the most part."

Closing her own datapad, Reyna looked around the room again, her eyes falling onto each of her clan mates for a moment before moving onto the next one. "If no one has any further questions, I think it's time we get this party started."

Reyna would walk out of the meeting room if no one stopped her, heading for the cockpit to bring the Viper into Taris space to wait out the motorcade.