Episode 5

"'You seem very confident of your ability to resist their wrath.' - Nox to Duke Dimmock"'''Having somewhat successfully navigated Piddock's private party and gathered valuable information, the Party took some time to rest. Now they just needed to convince another Duke to turn his back on their nemesis Teemo. Determined to get their way, rough weather was the least of their worries...'''

Communal Breakfast
The group had all gone to sleep in their favourite rooms, K'ruhk at his seat in the cockpit, Hikaru slumped beside and under the fridge, Nox cradling their hyperdrive and Whitefang in his room. While not exactly comfortable for any of them, it was little Hikaru that suffered the worst hangover, his haphazard sleeping position keeping him from properly resting and leaving him a six-limbed ball of grouchiness.

As they all stretched and woke up, K'ruhk called over the intercom for breakfast and a group meeting in their 'common room'. Hikaru brewed up some Galactic Coffee and Twi'lek Tea, handing out two of each. Whitefang cooked up a solid feast using their remaining rations and the good pieces of fresh meat they had purchased back on Ryloth, having forgotten to put that in the fridge. The result was a mound of eggs topped by a thin slice of bacon for everyone, which was quickly devoured.

Taking the chance to apologize for his actions the night before, saying he wasn't in the right state of mind and it wouldn't happen again, Whitefang toasted to their success in the meeting ahead.

As everybody filled up on food, he then took Hikaru with him to try and apologize to Orpa and Wex Vio for the same reason. Navigating the winding tunnels of Gogum Hive, they found it nearly deserted and the cantina shut. Granted it was early in the morning, but they had hoped to find them there. Once they returned to the Krayt Fang, the two of them then asked Nox and K'ruhk if they had any ideas. Knowing they were on the lookout for a Nova Courier-class vehicle, shared by Hikaru, he tried to remember if he had seen anything of that make when they flew in, but drew a blank.

Being roughly familiar with the design however he informed the guards outside the ship that they were going to circle around the Hive to look for something. The winds had picked up since the day before, causing a rough sandstorm that obscured a lot of vision and made flight dangerous. Fortunately, K'ruhk was able to overcome that obstacle, but did not see anything fitting their ship on any of the landing pads. He did, however, see that two vehicles were still docked. One was fairly opulent, akin to a pleasure vehicle, clearly designed for somebody with a liking of both design and beauty. The other was a pretty standard vessel, of a design he had seen a fair few times over the years, but still clearly not up to scratch as a ship for 'free traders', being too bulky and likely to be hard to manoeuvre.

The others helped him to look, though none of the others were able to pick out details, Hikaru forgetting that he was barely able to see out of the window as it is. While upset that he couldn't apologize, Whitefang admitted that they could do it at the next Hive, so the group buckled in and flew due west to Trellik Hive.

Private Developments
While the flightpath was uneventful, the ship itself was anything but.

Truly proud of his newly acquired weapon, Whitefang was keen to make it his own, and so decided to try his hand at painting it. He spent the next little while scouting around the ship until he found what he sought. The upside was that he had come across a primer spray can, brushes and a pot of paint in each of the primary colours. The downside was these were all from Nox's personal collection and stashed in his part of the ship. The Selonian didn't care however, sneaking in and out with his new toys. He may have been caught, were it not for the fact that Nox was hard at work trying to fix together a droid from the parts leftover by Trex. Somehow, Hikaru was aware of this, and said into his comm that the Selonian should mix the red and the blue to make purple. Forgetting that his comm went straight to K'ruhk's comm, not to Whitefang, the Whiphid misinterpreted and pressed the red and blue buttons on his dashboard. This caused two conflicting radio stations, one a repetitive, ad-filled pop station, and the other filled with audio dramas, to be playing in the cockpit, concurrently, for the rest of the journey. Whitefang then returned to his rifle, and spent a majority of the journey covering it in a purple undercoat, his initials 'WF' painted in yellow on the right hand side of the barrel.

Eager to show it off, he went straight to the cockpit and K'ruhk, who was impressed and immediately demanded that he paint his new blaster pistol as well. Whitefang didn't have enough time to however, and just gave it a primer coat before returning it ten minutes later.

While this had been going on, Nox was as aforementioned in his cargo hold. He spent the entire journey working on the droid, not helped in any way by his crewmates. With Hikaru distracting him with mimework, Whitefang stealing paint supplies and K'ruhk purposefully flying the ship poorly to mess him around, he still managed to finish work on the right leg of the astromech.

Hikaru meanwhile had taken a seat in the common room, in front of the holochess table. Having dabbled a little bit in his youth back home, he tried his hand at a beginner's game against the AI. Expecting a pleasant and easy win, he instead wound up in the worst kind of draw - King vs. King, or the King's Cross. Initially annoyed that it just kept going on and on, he eventually started enjoying and laughing at the blustering holoforms of two identical Kings constantly butting into each other and muttering under their breath.

This little escapade was eventually interrupted by Whitefang, who sat down beside him and asked if he could play a game. Confident in his abilities against the presumably inexperienced Selonian, Hikaru agreed. Intent on following his favourite formation, he took the defensive route, castling his King and forming a solid defensive line. Despite this preparation, he fell into the common trap this formation always falls into - when the line breaks, there is no plan B. Hastily trying to repair the line or stop Whitefang's advance, Hikaru sacrificed important pieces only to wind up defeated by a new player.

Towards the end of the journey, having had his fun screwing with Nox by constantly changing direction or altitude, K'ruhk came upon Trellik Hive and touched down on the landing pad, making sure it looked super cool before emergency stopping one last time to throw Nox around the ship. He then tried out a few of the other radio stations, now that he had found the buttons for them, eventually settling on an alternative station. The song was a hit with everyone else, and when played over the intercom caused Whitefang to break into dance. Joining the rest of the group in the common room, admiring Nox's groggy state, they took a few minutes to enjoy the track before disembarking.

Set on making an epic entrance to the Hive, it was anything but. K'ruhk walked at the back, and was the only one to keep his composure and look badass, while Hikaru over-eagerly swaggered forth, backhanding the other two accidentally and thus throwing them off entirely. Disappointed and letting out a sigh, K'ruhk just asked the guards that had emerged from the Hive entrance to escort them in.

In Hyperspace, We Plan!
Knowing they had about fifteen minutes before they could properly jump to hyperspace, K'ruhk headed straight for the cockpit, leaning against the doorway to just observe the siblings in action. Being the only pilot in the group, and not having had a co-pilot for a few years, he couldn't help but be impressed by the synchronicity Orpa and Wex displayed, rarely ever exchanging words or glances, as if it all just came naturally to them. His awe left him silent, and reminiscing on perhaps happier times...

Hikaru headed to their common room, going straight to their gaming table. Much like everything else on this ship, it was more advanced than those aboard the Krayt Fang''. ''While theirs just had a chess setting, this one had a whole  slew of options including dejarik, sabaac and chess. He decided it was better not to try something new just now, and played against their AI.

Nox headed straight to their engineering bay, admiring the more up-to-date mechanical components and sleeker design to the vessel, growing envious compared to his own facilities.

Whitefang went straight to the kitchen, intent on apologizing to the twins by cooking them a fantastic meal and presenting it to them. Granted, it was with their own food, but he felt it was the thought that counts. However, none of this went to plan. Over the next fifteen minutes he either undercooked or burned their food, producing nothing useful, and using up most of their supply. Frustrated, but eager to cover it all up, he tried to hide the fact he had done so, only to leave marks on the walls. However it may have been intended, it was now obvious that their new passengers had raided their stores.

It was at this point that the Lucky Guess jumped to hyperspace, everybody holding on for dear life. Nox still wound up being nearly thrown around the ship, as he intimately hugged the active engine and got scolding hot burns.

After the initial momentum shift was overcome, Whitefang then went rapidly over to Hikaru at the table and sat next to him. Rapidly explaining that everything was fine and he had done nothing, before the Xexto had even said a word, he then explained what he had done and how upset it made him. Pulling out a travel stove and his signature kettle, Hikaru listened intently as he poured a mushroom tea for his friend. Saying everything would be alright and passing it to him, Whitefang instantly grew more placid and calm as the drink did more than soothe his nerves, sending him on a minor trip that saw Hikaru shift into a half-pitch black and half-pale white individual, while K'ruhk slowly grew a majestic mane when he eventually entered.

While that had been going on, Wex turned around in his chair to face K'ruhk. He informed one of their new passengers that the trip would likely take around eight hours, and so to simply "do what you gotta do". The Whiphid then warned them that the rest of his troupe were likely to be causing havoc around the rest of the ship, to which Wex responded that they were getting paid quite a bit for this trip, so while he appreciated the warning, he needn't worry. As the male sibling then stood up and began inspecting various toggles and displays around the room, K'ruhk complimented them on their flying skills, stating that he had forgotten what it was like to have that support. Wex went to shrug happily, but his sister chipped in and told him to cut it out, which caused K'ruhk to laugh loudly. Thanking the Whiphid for the compliment, she never broke her gaze from the viewport. Satisfied that they were in good hands, K'ruhk then joined his fellows at the table to figure out their plan of attack.

First he asked what had happened to Whitefang, who was still spaced out and enjoying himself. Offering a cup of the same tea to K'ruhk, who instantly got a little dazed from the smell alone and rejected it, Hikaru then downed the whole thing to no ill effect. To the Whiphid however, the Xexto was now bathed in a faint glowing aura, and when he grabbed Nox from engineering to join them, the Nautolan's eyes were slightly larger than usual.

Once back together, they began planning their assault on Teemo, only to realize this was going to be far more complicated than they initially thought...