Dropping Hot

[Shalin 0]

Shan ran from the transporter room up the scaffolds and through the corridors to the hangar, having been paged by the deck officer. Many would consider his hasty run not to befit an officer summoned by a subordinate, but Shan never did grasp the concept of hierarchy. Someone needed him, and that was all that mattered. Stumbling into the hangar, he turned to face the paging officer. "Hey - there's a problem?"

 

The deck officer nodded. "We've been ordered to drop a shuttle to collect the Captain and party; traffic indicates trouble coming. The only thing is: we're all pretty much fighter pilots here. If there is trouble, we'll be needed to fly cover and the officer taking helm right now is only qualified on console. Your bio lists you as qualified for console, stick, and yoke ... right?"

 

Shan nodded, though a little reluctantly. He was, in fact, qualified to move practically anything anywhere, using any method. "If it's that important, why not use transporters?"

 

The deck officer shook his head. "No transponders to lock on to, so too great a chance for mistakes to be made. Besides: we don't want to tag ourselves as anything other than we are - a transporter trace would look suspicious. It has to be shuttle."

 

Shan nodded again. "Warm it up - I'll be ready in five." With that he left the hangar, making a beeline for the security station. There was only one thing worse than going down to a lawless planet of mercenaries, and that would be going alone. Entering the security office he looked about. "Excuse me: is anyone available for a little jaunt planetside?"

 

Sakura looked but from a console ready to rip her hair out. "I'm going stir crazy; get me out of here." She was never too good at having nothing to do. The other security officers were getting bored, asking her questions that were a little less than professional and a little more than personal. Sakura understood though; they were only curious. She had pink hair for chris-sakes! Sakura moved over to the door after politely dismissing herself. She grinned and gave a small bow. "Haruno reporting for duty," she chuckled. "And I owe you BIG time."

 

Shan looked to Sakura curiously. She seemed to want to leave the ship about as much as he wanted to stay on it. Still, having the head of Security riding shotgun probably wasn't a bad thing. With a friendly gesture he signaled the door open. "Right this way to Bay Two – we have to be off now."

 

Within the allotted 'few minutes', Shan was in the pilot seat with Sakura nested in the monitoring station. It was always a help to have someone watching the scanners so that he could focus on where he was going. He could do it himself; every well-trained shuttle pilot could. It's just that he preferred not to.

 

"Box-Two to Imperious: we are clear of the hangar." As the shuttle darted out of the docking structure, Shan looked over to Sakura. "Tell me - what idiot thought that 'Imperious' would be a good name for a merchant ship, or even a mercenary vessel? Merchant ships have happy names like 'Aurora', 'Packrat', or 'Tinkerbell'. Mercenary ships have cool names like 'Black Lance', 'Nagamaki', or 'Dragonfire'.

 

" 'Imperious' is the name of a command cruiser or a dreadnaught. We're practically announcing that we're a military vessel. I'm surprised we haven't been bombarded already." Shan sunk in his seat even while toggling on the piloting yoke. He was very particular about his control preferences: board for captial ships, yoke for shuttlecraft, and stick for fighters. It gave him the best feel for what he was doing and just how much danger he was in.

 

Sakura looked up from the scanners at Shan, and shrugged. "Haven't been attacked yet, so that's good. Though I suppose they could have chosen a better name... Nothing on scanners." She rolls her shoulders back and sighs, "They better not be getting into trouble down there."

 

Sakura always had a problem with her commerades putting themselves in danger when she wasn't there to protect them. People always labeled her kind as killers, assassins; she saw them as protectors, peace makers, if you will. Sometimes people had to die to have progress for the rest. Sakura just didn't want any of her ... friends to be the sacrifices. "Remind me what they're doing again, and why it’s taking so long."

 

Shan remained focused ahead as he replied. "The assignment was to arrest the head of the Black Kris, and/or disrupt their operations. Personally I have no idea how a handful of officers and crew are supposed to do that, but thankfully that's not my problem. From what I've heard, about half the officers and most of the crew have Special Forces training.

 

"Now me ... I'm just the bus driver." Shan smirked at Sakura.

 

He typed in a digital com message to planetary traffic control, and snagged a fairly well-placed bay. "Ok - I've got clearance for a pad that's only a kilometer from the Captain's last known location: a lovely dive called J'bba's Palace. The place is probably a strip club, so if you go inside, expect to be treated as entertainment."

 

Shan settled into the pad smoothly. "Otherwise, we can just stand by here until called." He sent a tight beam packet-link back to the ship with the shuttle's location. He hoped that all would go smoothly, even though his gut already told him otherwise.

 

Sakura considered going in to retrieve the crew; her old profession had her doing undercover work, which sometimes required some less than honorable activity.

 

"I'd rather not go inside if I don't have to," she mumbled, keeping her eyes on the scanners. She hoped everything would go well, she always did. But if she learned anything from her years of training, it was to trust her instinct. At that moment her instinct told her to go inside, but then again it told her that that wouldn't be a smart idea.

 

"... I have a bad feeling about this..."

[Crash Calestorm 0]

"... I have a bad feeling about this..."

 

Do you hear the rain? Grab your guns and bring the cat in...

 

Nice log guys!