Seafood and a Show

[Mig Cabra]

Ocean worlds had started to grow on Mig. First Manaan, and now the Mon Calamari system. This time though there would be no time for a real vacation portion of his stay. The Gotal Engineer had work to do and if all went well he would leave without ever touching the planet itself. It made him a little sad but he knew that was what was asked. As the star streaks came to an end and the SP2 Stardancer came out of hyperspace, Mig adjusted his view to see no ships nearby at all except for his partner coming out nearby. Seemed the pair were ready to go and so far clear to head to the planet itself. They were off grid so far it would be surprising to find any kind of heavy patrols.

"Comms are open! All Rebels in the sector can hear me! Wonderful! How is everyone? Does any one else feel like seafood for dinner? I do love the beauty of this place. Any one here allergic to fish? That would be absolutely horrific! But funny!" He ranted over the secured Rebel comm, open to any ships participating on the Galactic Alliance side of the ship battle to possibly come. "Personally I like it roasted. Raw sea food is just too slimy. Some species love that but I am a chewer and chewers do not like slime! In fact, we hate it! Haha! So. Anyone have any good songs for us to chant as we go? If not, I know a traditional Wookiee Life Day song I could attempt to roar for you all!"

A beautiful blue world shone before them. Mig stopped for a moment before singing his song in order to gaze at it for inspiration. They had a short flight to reach their destination on the planet to begin the fun. He would gladly provide his song in the meantime to encourage his comrades. It took a lot of his small pipes to produce such a song, but he enjoyed the challenge. He learned it recently after a drunken night on Kashyyyk for Life Day. It was enchanting to the awkward, sightly special Gotal.

"Grrrrrhhaaaaaaaa! Hrrrruuuuuggggg! Grrruuuaaaa! Grrrrruhhuuhgguuaaa!!" He almost choked over his rolling roars but managed to do it respectably. "Ok that is verse one, I have twelve more plus a chorus but I am trying to remember it..."

@Bran @Deviant

 

[Valerie Tagge]

Theme​

A plethora of flashing lights and audible prompts filled Valerie's vision as she worked the controls of her light freighter. The old mynock-series shuttle had seen its fair share of use over its many years even before Valerie had... Acquired it from the Imps. Nevertheless the freighter served well and was as reliable as it had always been. Her hands flew across the control panel, flicking switches and pressing buttons. It had been a while since she had used Rust Bucket for combat of any sort and she was just doing preliminary checks to make sure the weapon systems were properly armed and ready. The display showed that all of the ship's systems were in order and a light smile crossed her face. It's s'plodey time, she thought to herself.

Valerie's hands drifted to the manual flight control wheel and clutched it on either side. The shuttle shuddered as it exited hyperspace, bringing the large, strikingly blue ocean planet into view. That's a lot of water, she concluded. She shivered at the thought, she had never been one for swimming and just the mere insinuation of a planet covered in water gave her the heebs. Thankfully it was under the control the Old Empire who were decidedly less organised in terms of planetary regulation and monitoring. The freighter drifted lightly through space under her guidance, falling in behind Mig.

Valerie had been assigned a parter for this specific mission and after finding out exactly who it was, she honestly would have preferred to tackle this one alone. The gotal pilot was... Eccentric and overly... Audible. She usually appreciates energetic company that matches her own rambunctious personality however when she does not take kindly to those who sing Wookiee life day music outside of the festival itself. The loud roaring sound assaulted her ears through the voice coms and she swore she could hear a ringing noise afterward. "I think verse one was more than enough." Her words were sharp and irritated. "Leave the wookiee song singing to Greybok." As they approached entering the atmosphere of the planet, she went over the details of the mission in her head. Hit and run, seems easy enough.

@Cazar

 

[Mig Cabra]

Mig turned his head to see the ship in question when Valerie asked him to save the singing for Greybok. She had a much bigger ship that could probably store friends. He quietly wondered if she had copilots inside that were close to her. That was something he wanted but this tiny fighter didn't even have room for a cute droid. It was sad really but perhaps he would upgrade after this mission. The Gotal Engineer had a fantastic idea after a minuscule moment of silence on the comms. His cheerful voice did seem deterred by the request at all.

"Certainly! The pair of us could harmonize! Oh how wonderful! You are right that I should save it for him. I'll be certain to practice a lot though! Don't want to insult him by accident. This ship is too small for letting me stretch and sing anyway. Maybe later I can fly with you and there'd be plenty of room! It would be so much fun. Going on long hyper trips together, smuggling goods together, shooting Imperial together, and spending all our free time together! A crew seems so much fun." The Gotal continued to rant at his partner over the open comm as they approached atmosphere. "Greybok has a ship just like that. I think he has modified it quite a bit as well. I want to peek at it and make sure it is sound! Do you need me to give it the Engineer touch? I can make it run smoothly, or add some nice bonuses if you have the parts! Oh how fun! I'm so excited to get to do this with you."

The chatter would not end even as the objective came closer. Transports would be launching soon and the pair would need to create a show for the seafood below. Mig loved to call aquatic sentient races seafood. It was quite rude to most but on Manaan it seemed to be a friendly turn of phrase. The locals called him a grass muncher, he called them seafood, and everyone laughed! Such silly local customs on Manaan. Mon Calamari Space was likely similar, in Mig's mind at least.

"I see we are on schedule! Being punctual is extremely important. I am glad you were or I'd have been all alone here. That would be scary. I was alone once in the dark and I cried until a labor droid found me. And then I broke it apart to make a comlink! It shorted out. But I was saved!" The Gotal adjusted the ship for atmospheric entry as he spoke, now humming the tune for the Life Day song over the comms rather than talking.

Now that they were in atmosphere it felt a bit safer. No ships would exit hyper next to them and suddenly cause a fight. Now they could at least see it coming better. Their target was further ahead and they would need to keep their distance else spook the craft into never launching. The song Mig was humming was reaching another verse so he had to hold back the desire to sing. That would come soon though. Valerie would not escape so easily this mission.

@Bran

 

[Valerie Tagge]

Valerie rolled her eyes so far back into her head she swear she could have seen her headache firsthand. She didn't know if she was going to be able to withstand the torture that this Gotal was bound to unleash on her fragile mind. She understood that he was just trying to be nice but there is a very clear line that most people seem to get that he had already managed to cross. Nevertheless she would tarry on and attempt to get the mission done with as little friendly fire as possible. She took a deep breath in and spoke through the voice coms. "My little Rust Bucket is just fine thank you very much, I make it a priority of mine to keep her in tip top condition." There was a slight tinge of condescension in her voice. Fat chance she was going to let that brickhead anywhere near her ship.

The gotal continued to spew absolute nonsense as if he just spoke the first things that came to mind. Valerie slammed her palm onto her forehead and close her eyes. His voice had the unique effect of drilling its way into her skull and beating her brain senseless. "It's a shame the droid wasn't saved instead." She murmured quietly under her breath. She flicked a few more switches, rerouting power to the freighter's shields for the atmospheric entry. After another bout of offkey humming, Valerie decided enough was enough. "I have an idea for a fun game we can play." she spoke enthusiastically, "The first one of us to make a sound over the voice comms has to shave off a patch of Greybok's fur and eat it." She smiled cheekily, the sheer thought of losing a bet like that would be enough to keep anyone silent. "Starting now."

@Cazar

 

[Mig Cabra]

Just up ahead was the launch point for the transports they were intercepting. No one would know the Rebels were coming and if they were lucky they wouldn't see it until too late. Security was fairly relaxed for this as no one expected any real resistance on a world so far from the war. Mig and Valerie were about to prove such assumptions incorrect. The fighter sped up as Mig noticed the transports had begun to launch and were oblivious to his presence. This was where things would start to get real explosive. Six transports altogether seemed to launch with no apparent security besides their own turrets. It was a beautiful opportunity as long as they didn't get too cocky.

"I love games!" Mig said right after she suggested a game over the comms.

Mig listened intently as Valerie described the game. It was a game he was quite familiar with already. People seemed to want to play it with him a lot. The punishment or reward was always different but the game was the same. It must have been a very popular game in the galaxy for everyone to request it. Mig often wondered why he was so bad at it and always lost, but he enjoyed it. This reward sounded amazing. Greybok's fur likely had a nice taste to it.

"Oh how fun! Greybok will surely love your idea! But it looks like I win!" Mig was cheerful as could be about winning this challenge. "But we should be serious now, miss Valerie. We have to blow some things up!"

As the first transport came into range, Mig opened fire on it recklessly with a big grin on his face. They had not been expecting an assault but they were able to fire back before the ship went down. Some turret fire came towards Mig's ship who was not really expecting it. He managed to spin out of the way at the last second but the entire ship shook and he had to take a moment to stabilize. This meant the transport would not get enough shots to make it explode, but it would go crashing into the ocean. Mig would make sure to do a more impressive explosion for the next one.

"Five left!" He shouted over the comm.

@Bran

 

[Greybok]

Greybok was in his element as the captain of the Starbird. The light freighter rocked as it burst from behind a wall of light into realspace. Almost immediately, Greybok began detecting comm chatter from the rebels planetside. He grunted to himself. Those two were being too chatty. If the Imps were to pick up on their communications... Barking back at Twobee, Greybok pushed down on the stick and sent the light freighter into a dive towards the planet's atmosphere.

"Oh, cut the nonsense, Greybok," Twobee, now full-bodied, said firmly strapped into the co-pilot's seat. "You're just as half-cocked as they are. Perhaps even more-so. It's a wonder you haven't already crashed this piece of garbage." Greybok snarled at Twobee. He didn't particularly enjoy insults to his ship. "Well, it's true," the droid continued anyways. "Whoever gave you a pilot's license deserves to get hard time in the spice mines of Kessel."

The Wookiee was already ignoring the droid. The Starbird's scanners had detected fleeing transports; he assumed this to be the handiwork of the other members of his squadron. He keyed in a few commands and, outside the ship, the groundsweeper light cannon he had recently installed descended from the hidden panel along the bottom of the ship's hull. Inside the cockpit, his main display changed to a laser targeting array which was already tracking the incoming shuttles. The others were chasing them right towards him.

He burst unexpectedly from the clouds, waited until his crosshairs lined up with the nearest shuttle, then pressed down on the trigger. Red lasers lanced out of the cannon and caught the shuttle in three places. The hits were dead on and the shuttle exploded into a cloud of gas and fire. The shuttle behind it immediately behind it took evasive action, but Greybok anticipated that and tugged the stick to the right, pitching the Starbird in the same direction so that it stayed on the shuttle's tail.

Greybok lined up the shuttle with his laser crosshairs again and fired when the main display bleeped, indicating a lock. Red lasers once again lanced out from the cannon and struck the evasive shuttle, causing a similar display to the first one. Unfortunately, Greybok's sudden change of course allowed the remaining three shuttles to continue on their escape vector. He barked at Twobee to contact the others.

"Star Squadron, this is Star Leader," the droid said over the restricted comm channel. Greybok's irritated barks echoed in the background of the transmission. "Give pursuit. We'll swing around and assist." @Cazar

 

[Mig Cabra]

A mighty cheer erupted from Mig as a surprise reinforcement arrived. It was Greybok himself! Maybe he had come down to help with the reward Mig had just won thanks to Val. The Gotal was inspired by his leader's presence in the area and how quickly the Wookiee took down two shuttles. Mig aspired to do the exact same thing here. His ship got on the tail of another shuttle, easily avoiding the turret fire coming from it.

"Star Leader! Hi! It's me! Mig! I mean, Star Four!" He shouted as he lined up his shots and fired.

Mig watched with wonder as the shuttle exploded into tiny pieces. The other two shuttles were trying to escape but now they were outmatched. The Gotal's ship swung around and dodged the debris coming down around it. Another shuttle was almost already in his cross hairs when he reoriented himself. He squeezed the trigger and fired a missile at it.

Kaboom!

The missile struck the shuttle in the engines causing a cascading explosion. There was one left. Mig and Greybok would have it to themselves now. Mig dodged the debris from his latest success and spun to make another round towards the last target. He wondered if anyone down below was watching the show and if it brought them joy.

@Malon

 

[Greybok]

Greybok swung the ship around hard and slammed on the accelerator pedal. The Starbird lurched and jumped ahead as its Wookiee pilot brought it up to maximum atmospheric speeds. Even at that speed, though, the Wookiee pilot knew he couldn't catch up to the fleeing ship—he was too far behind. So, flipping a switch on his dashboard, Greybok triggered the XXX sublight boosters he had installed on the ship to increase its speed two-fold. The Starbird slammed forward in response, causing Twobee to literally scream in the co-pilot's seat.

The Wookiee pilot brought up his targeting display once again, lined up the shot, waiting for the chime that indicated he had locked on, and fired. Laser bolts lanced through the final shuttle, sending it hurdling down towards the ocean below in a ball of gaseous flames. Unfortunately, all of the excess power being used immediately brought an end to Greybok's momentary celebration. The ship was sputtering now and the XXX sublight boosters were beginning to fade.

"Oh, now look what you've done, you overgrown flea magnet!" Twobee shrilled. "You've gone and overloaded the Starbird's power core! We won't be able to use any of your modifications as long as it is still recharging!" Greybok barked at the droid in argument, to which Twobee replied, "We're still deep in Imperial territory, you half-wit! Of course we still need them!" But Greybok wouldn't hear it. He barked at Twobee one last time. "Oh fine," she shouted, opening their comm channel, "Star Four, this is Star Leader! Mission objectives reached! Pull back now, before this hair-brained idiot gets us all killed!"

With that, Greybok brought the ship back onto a course that would lead them up into the upper atmosphere of Mon Cala, switched the ship into autopilot, and then began to make the calculations for the return back to base. It was certainly the quickest mission he had ever flown. But he hoped it was the last he ever saw of Mon Cala. @Cazar

 

[Mig Cabra]

Mig loved the display from Greybok speeding up so quickly to take out the last shuttle. He let out a cheer over the comm in response and spun his fighter wildly as a show of happiness. Their job was done and nothing had gone horribly wrong. That seemed new for Mig. His ship roared under the strain of leaving atmosphere and soon he was on his way back to base. It would be a fairly long flight but Mig was good at entertaining himself. Especially if he could sing to Greybok.

"Star Leader! Shall we sing a Life Day hymn together as we go?" He asked jubilantly as they ascended. "I learned a few this year!"

Without waiting for an answer, Mig began to hum. He would hum it all the way until they jumped to hyperspace. The Gotal was overjoyed with their success and wanted to share with his friends. He wondered what would be next for this squadron, but he knew it would be fun with friends.

fin

@Malon