"Standard Imperial frequencies were disrupted by a magnetic anomaly generated from a nearby asteroid. Tau 2 and Tau 3 were *ordered* to investigate while we hold position. Tansmitting authorization codes momentarily."

Let's see. Authorization codes..

Jorm privately comms Dutch. "um sir, could you see if one of our friends will be kind enough to provide authorization codes. I'm going to try and spoof them, but the real deal would be wonderful."

Jorm sets to work on spoofing some codes.

Quote:

Quote: from Aihal the Silent on 10:12 am on Dec. 5, 2005

Jorm privately comms Dutch. "um sir, could you see if one of our friends will be kind enough to provide authorization codes. I'm going to try and spoof them, but the real deal would be wonderful."

"Crewman Taben, I'd love to do that but one of our guests is currently going nuts in the cargohold...might have a Mynock inside with him." chuckles Dutch, now working out a safe solution to -both- problems.

"Until I can get a straight answer...stall 'em."

Dutch quickly clambers on top of the cargo container, cutting a hole in the top and dropping a glowstick inside. He peers in using the mirror as the Imperial's banging and shouting stops. The man's catching his breath, leaning against one of the walls. He picks up the glowstick, saying "Sorry about that. Must have been my imagination."

Jorm feverishly taps out some possible code combinations, testing them against the shuttle's own admittedly-sketchy transmitter before he feels confident enough to send them. If I'm wrong and they report back, they'll change the codes and 12th Wing's codes'll be useless... the entire operation falls apart...

*Roger that on Tau 2 and 3... please transmit auth-codes now.*

Aurelia bursts onto the shuttle bridge, skidding on the deck, datapad in hand.

Quote:

Quote: from admiralducksauce on 9:54 am on Dec. 7, 2005
Dutch quickly clambers on top of the cargo container, cutting a hole in the top and dropping a glowstick inside. He peers in using the mirror as the Imperial's banging and shouting stops. The man's catching his breath, leaning against one of the walls. He picks up the glowstick, saying "Sorry about that. Must have been my imagination."

Dutch grumbles at the effort put forth to just find out this Imperial asshat was lying.

"Don't go anywhere. Ok?"

Dutch comes back with a portable welder and a small sheet of steel.

It's a good thing most of the consoles are destroyed because if they weren't, the sweat running down Jorm's forehead would ruin them.

"Here goes no--" begins Jorm with his finger hovering ofver the 'Send' button as Aurelia bursts onto the bridge of the shuttle.

"Oh thank god!" says Jorm upon seeing the datapad held triumphantly in the pretty mechanic's hand. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

"This is Tau Leader *kicks console to create static* we are under attack by *kicks console to create static* systems failure *kicks console to create static* reactor breach *static*"

Jorm cuts the transmission, hoping that'll explain their sudden disappearance. He sends rendezvous coordinates to the wing, and one by one Vandal Squadron jumps to hyperspace. Less than a minute later, a Star Destroyer jumps in, well back from the asteroid field. Four Skipray blastboats pop in closer to the field, but their scans show nothing but the debris left behind by the shuttle's escorts - and may well attribute the entire fiasco to poor navigation and some well-timed asteroids.

Dutch feels the lurch as the Dagger makes the jump - he's welding steel back over the hole he cut in the cargo container.

Safe for now, you have a roughly 15 minute jump back to the Sword of Alderaan. Then it's back into the black to deliver these Rancor-cursed shuttles to the Rebel commandos who'll use them to infiltrate the Imperial buildup on Anoat.

Mandall leans back as his X-Wing glides through Hyperspace.

Well, that worked, kind of...