In the two weeks since Donovan and his team came onboard the Scoundrel,the reported Jaina sightings flooded in from all over the galaxy.Once it was learned that the Alliance was offering a consideral sum for any information leading to Jaina's safe return, it seemed as if every bounty hunter and lowlife imaginable suddenly appeared as if from out of no where. The news reports attempting to say that Jaina went AWOL rather than o on a dangerous mission, enraged Donovan and several others to no end. He knew her better,he knew that some where out there she was in serious trouble. On the Scoundrels bridge, Rocky sat silently staringout the transparasteel window to the sea of stars.He had not moved from that spot in several days,keeping a lonely vigilnot wanting to leave not even to eat. After a while a few of the bridge crew began to bring food up formthe mess hall for him,only to have him completely ignore it. Only after coaxing by Denise on break from her duties in the crewpit would he eat at all. Dev could hardly belive himself everytime he looked at the womprat,he'd never seen the little guy act in this manner in all the years he'd known him. "OK,weall agree Tatooine is a bust" Dononvan said standing in front of a large plotting board, in the large briefing room ajacent to the bridge. "Correct sir,Serina replied "Several of the sensor logs from around the time that Jaina was supposed to have entered the system, clearly indicate nothing smaller than a cargo transport,came into that system as far as the sensor logs Major Cabarra's team sliced into's at the port authority" she stated. "The logs could have been altered"Mac added. "True, Daniel replied "But the Jawa's I spoke to, said that they didnt see any ships touch anywhere else other than Mos Eisly or Mos Espa those that did land other than in the towns were smugglers and they shortly blown away by the Imperial fighters that patrol there . "WHOA wait a min, Dev blurted out turning to Donovan "He can speak Jawa? he asked with an astonished look on his face. "OH YEAH, Donovan replied with a smile "Ok, why then did they tellyou anything, i thought they allways kept to themselves unless they were trying to sell you something" Dev asked "Well sir, Colonel Treece gave them an AT-AT" Serina replied sheepishly "HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET YOUR HANDS ON A WALKER!?? Dev barked looking even more surprised than before. "Simple, Donovan replied with a smile "Major Kyle distracted them while Mac and I snuck inside and took care of the crew'Donovan beamed. "Huh? dev replied. "We were out talking to a bunch of Jawa's, who were salvaging a downed transport somebody had recently crashed not far out of Mos Eisly, when we spotted an AT-AT approaching from the south."We really ddint have enough time to high tail it out of there without them seeingus and raising there buddies, so we sorta distracted them, or shall I asy the major here distracted them" Donovan said with a smile. "Well sir, Colonel Treece pulled the speeder behind a sand dune and told the Jawa's to the same, he them told them if they stuck around he'd give them the walker that was bearing down on us then he went and started a small fire near the speeder. "And.. Major? Thats when Colonel treece suggested I remove everything but my undwerware, climb to the top of the dune and start waving" Laughter filled the breifing room as Dev struggled to keep a straight face. "Then what Major? He said with a grin . "They saw me and and closed in on me very quickly" she replied. "I take it your underware was'nt regulation? Dev asked "Uh no sir it um was'nt" she replied as several of the other troopers TJ, Moogie and a few of the pilots howled with laughter as they pictured the sight. "I see" Dev replied fighting desperately to keep a straight face a he lookked over at Donovan who merely smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "So being typical AT-AT crewman they were they raced to rescue the scantily clad damsel from the perils of the harsh desert" he said with a smile. "Something like that" she replied "Hey, you got a great tan out of it" Donovan added "That's when it kneeled and two fothe crewman exited the walker and came over to me" she continued. " The Jawa's, Daniel and I took out those two while the Coloenl and Mac went in and took out the third" she added. "It seems that the Jawa's had a score to settle, becasue one later told me that the big metal monsters had used another clans Sandcrawler for target practice and killed quite a few of their friends" daniel said interupting her "Donovan had me tell them they could have the Walker and all its contents if they could give us some information, he even showed them how to operate every systemon the walker itself" he added as laughter spread through the breifing hall once more. "After that,the clan leader made us honorary members of his clan and said they would spread the word all over tatooine to other jawa's that one of their clan brothers were looking for their freind, and if they found this girl to give her safe harbor and contact them as quickly as possible" Daniel added "And?" dev asked "Notta" TJ replied "I talked to Biggs's relatives and they said the last X-wing's they saw in that part of space were being flown by Rogue Squadron who were shooting up some imperial ships just outside of tatooines gravity well,that was some time ago" Moogie added. "Gotta take rocky into account too" TJ shot in "look at all the times we would do a mission some where and have the Scoundrel link up with us" he added. "I dont understand sir, what does the womprat have to do with this" Serina asked "Your right"Donovan said snapping his fingers"As soon as the Scoundrel would get into orbit above the planet, Rocky would be up there on the bridge and have his nose pressed up against the window so tightly, you'd think he was looking in a bakery that was giving a way free bagels" he added. "Not to mention his tail would be wagging at full sublight as well" TJ added. "I was up on the bridge when we came into the system, he was like a statue he didnt move at all" Dev stated sadly "I still dont see what that has to do with Rocky" Serina asked "Major, did'nt you have any pets growing up, Moogie asked "No I didnt " she replied "When I was a kid I had this Simboneese Cribbet, the little guy knew when I about come home from school even when I was still a few kilometers from my parents house and I wasnt even a jedi" he replied. "He showed me a holo of it once, TJ said "Ugliest damn mutt you ever saw " he added with a cheesey grin. "Hey, he was really cute when he was little" Moogie protested "So's a baby rancor" TJ replied. "Ok settle down you two, donovan said with a chuckle "its a good bet a Jedi's pet is even more attuned to its owner, than say a normal person" he added. "I'd say so" dev stated agreeing with his friend. "So that takes us back to our original theory" Daniel stated "She had a hyper drive failure, something could have been planted on her X-wing that would show things were functioning normally up until a certain point" "Yeah and there would be someone who would be waiting there for her to pop out of hyperspace knowing full well her systems were fried, and knew there was little she could do but surrender" TJ added interupting daniel. "OK then, what about the story the pres is trying to circulate about her going awol?Serina asked taking a cip of java. "Oldest trick in the book" Moogie Blurted "Have everyone look in one area while the baddies skidattle the other direction clean away" he added. "Or they got ahold of her mission flight plans and had a Interdictor Cruiser waiting along the route they knew she was gonna take then just simply waited and when she popped out of hyper space they grabbed her and took her who knows where" Dev said "Then came up with that story not only make Jaina look bad but gave them extra time to get clean away" Donovan added "sounds like some thing someone screwy like Palpy's grandson...... whats's his name Garrek would pull" he said "Gotta news flash for ya boss, he was listed as being killed in acion months ago
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