"That's not an option," says Doon. "The Bureau has quarantined this planet; there is no regular traffic. No, your ships are our only choice."
He activates the holo-projector, which displays a visual reference, Star Wars style, to everything that he is talking about.
"First of all," sasys Doon, "we get to our ships, by passing the Osokans in whatever way we deem fit. During the escape, we disable the local transmitter/receiver they will have placed here by now. That gives us a short amount of time in which they will not be able to track the transponders whilst they replace it or launch more probes."
The holo-field shows your ships streaking away from the planet.
"For a short amount of time, we drop off their radar. Of course, within, I'd say, two days, they will catch us again in the local area. They lock onto our transponder signals. Immediately when we scan them, we flee. They'll have interdictor vessels with them that will prevent us making a hyperspace jump if they reach our vicinity, so we won't risk it, instead making our way to light speed immediately."
The display moves along a few stars.
"We are low on fuel and options. Nearby is the Serjanius sector. This is where we run to. Serjanius' stars are unusual, being in close proximity to a black hole that creates an unstable subspace field that enables enterprising travellers to perform high-speed, long range, low fuel jumps. Or at least they did until a few centuries ago, when such jumps were banned under safety legislation- the area had become so unstable that up to one third of travellers found parts of their ship dropped out of hyperspace halfway through, which was followed very quickly by the demise of all concerned as the ships mostly atomised. It's risky, but the only option we have- in one huge jump, we will outrun the Bureau and flee for freedom. Unfortunately, what we don't know is that a solar flare from the central star system three days ago has made the system even more unstable than usual. NO ship can get across safely. When we try, our ships are destroyed less than a quarter of the way into the journey, and we are all killed."
The holo-display shows your ships coming out of hyperspace in pieces, and tearing apart.
"Rather sad, really..." comments Doon.
"They've not been here long, so the transmitter/recevier will be at the starport.
"And Galder has rather caught onto the spirit of things! The solar flare is very real, but they have no reason to think you know it is there- heck I doubt they do, unless they check it out.
"No, the essence of this plan is in those two days when we are off their radar. See, we aren't just twiddling our thumbs in those days. Just witihin range of here there is a quite sizeable dockyard/junkyard. It's actually nicknamed 'the Graveyard'. It's well used by all kinds of... uhh... 'disreptuable' types? I'll put it plainly; it's a legitimate business, but it's actually a front for it's sideline in stealing ships, stripping the parts out of them, and selling them on to customers. Quite profitable. Place looks like a goddam mess, but it actually sells high quality stuff.
"Three weeks ago they got in a shipment by special order for some seedy organisation in the next sector along. That shipment has still not yet been collected. Part of that shipment... is half a dozen stolen ship transponders that are as clean as a whistle. Techno Union has no clue that they were never installed on ships and they aren't on the blacklist. They're fireproof. We're gonna go there and 'boost' those transponders. I am sure there will be certain difficulties... which I am sure we can bypass.
"Meanwhile, I'll be visiting a scrap dealer I know there. It won't be perfect, but I can rig together some basic ship chasses that will vaguely resemble your vessels. When we switch the transponders, we will put your current ones into these dummy ships. We'll also need to boost some autopilot units whilst we are there. They go in the ships as well. I've got the mathematics for the jump worked out already; we just need to feed it into the autopilots.
"Then, we let the ships go. The Bureau gets their signals. We appear to flee immediately before they get into visual range, race to Serjanius... and all perish in that insane hyperspace jump. Meanwhile, in reality, we've strolled out of there in our own ships and the Bureau's transponder analysers won't notice a thing- unless they get a visual, which in the vastness of space is almost impossible."
Doon shrugs.
"If they launch a full forensic investigation, they might catch onto the fact that the ships were faked. But so what? That would take them months, and we'll all be way away in safety by then."
"but use dummies in the first place? why not putting those new transponders on a brand new ship....which i assume we could steal from the graveyard and send our current ships to be atomised on serjanus. this way we'd be sure they are certain of our deaths. Unless our current ships are irreplaceable, ofcourse....for our roads to come. Either way...we can't just walk to our ships as it is.."
"Well, first of all, Takuan, I'd rather keep my ship. I am pretty sure the rest of you would rather keep your ships as well. Secondly, the more hardware we steal, the harder it is going to be. Stealing new ships, which have to be of a useful type, is way harder than knocking together something that we're planning to destroy anyway- and you never know what kind of nonsense the clientele at a place like that has wired into their vessels.
"Fact of the matter is... you HAVE ships, why bother to steal new ones? If they launch a full investigation they'll clue in anyway, Takuan. Sooner or later they'll piece together the raid we're going to make at the Graveyard as being down to us. That's the only trouble with you guys- you're distinctive."
"Oh joy!" Galder hisses.
"Also, should we plan other things in advance as well? For the starport, it is obvious that we'll have to fight at least two dozen Osokans...and I bet they'll be guarding the sewer exits...but we can get as close as we can to the airport. I'm sure they have SOME entrances close to or inside the starport..."
"If we keep together this time, it may go much much better," Nume says. "They always manage to catch us unawares and separated. Rianna and I had a hell of a time even keeping ourselves alive, let alone get to the others. Luckily Galder is a skilled fighter, or he would have been flogged to death. Heed my advice next time, Starkiller."
"Not wanting to doubt the abilities of you guys... but look at the state of you. You're not in a position to take on four Osokans, let alone two dozen I'm really not looking to make a straight fight out of this.
"You have to understand that these guys are serious. A fight with you is what they want. Because they are one of the very few species in the Galaxy that can take a sabre blow without dying, and because they love the figtht anyway, they won't fear you, and they won't break and run. They're tracking down everything to do with you that they can find. Rah, they killed your old criminal contacts already. Galder, they retrieved your sliced lightsabre on Damagran to get a DNA sample from you. The resources of the Galaxy have been turned against you. You gotta understand... run headlong into these people, and they will win.
"Now look, I can help you. One way or another, we have to get onto those ships alive, and take out the transmitter. But I really wasn't after just running in there, sbares flashing. Now, I can talk my way past people, or sneak in somewhere and blow something up for you. And in a pinch, I can fight, but I just don't think that's the best way. But they are your ships, I thought you would want to plan how to get to them. I'll make my own way to mine."