beginner's luck

[Neive Undant]

Neive sat in the cockpit of his Z-95 headhunter as he followed behind the transport that held his cargo. Although his mining facility on Malastare had been quite productive, Neive had not sent any of his resource units to the alliance as of yet. Perhaps he had his own reason? Nah, he was just lazy... and likes to horde things like this, from time to time.

"Formation forming around transport" said one of his droid pilots.

The two ships that his droids had taken the helm of, one of them his ETA 2-class interceptor and the other one a trilon aggressor, moved to either side of the transport as it moved along, Neive sitting behind it in his headhunter. Smooth sailing for them so far, but with the open escort invite on the private alliance comm channels, he hoped that he wouldn't need the extra muscle he had asked for.

[Zechs Merquise]

Zechs leaned back in his lovely little YT. This was a trip where he'd have to do nothing. The great and wise Deeth was getting her first lessons in piloting a craft. There weren't many ewoks who could claim to have been trained in spacecraft operations. Deeth was going to be the first she knew of and probably the only one Zechs would care to teach. She was off to a grand start.

The YT floated in formation upside down. It wandered a little too close to its XJ escort, but the veteran fight pilot was quick to duck out of the ewok's way. There were many souls one was wise not to cross. An ewok far from home and hungry was top of the list. Second to that was a pilot with a hangover. That was Zechs. He had eaten too much pie the prior night, and the sugar rush had long since become a crash.

Deeth grunted her native tongue through the comm, letting the leader know she was ready.

**
YT
XJ
2 Pilot Nerds

[Salem Norongachi]

The Wave Dancer and Blackheart moved with the escort formation. A casual circuit around the transports whose bellies were laden with cargo ripe for the pilfering. 7w4T opened a channel from the Firespray, Blackheart, to his right and Norongachi listened to the monotone beeps and groans.

"I dunno why its upside down," he responded, glancing out of the viewport of the Helix Class Interceptor at the offending YT transport. More droning through the com. "Worry about your own flying." Salem snapped before the YT veered directly across his flight path and a frantic moment of rapid course adjustment sent his cup of caf spinning around the cockpit.

"Was that a bloody Ewok?" he spoke to the ether as caf dribbled down his console.

OOC:
Escorting
Wave Dancer (Helix Class Interceptor, Salem Norongachi)
Blackheart (Firespray Class Patrol Ship, '7w4T' Pilot Droid)

[Raphael Xandir]

Silver eyes peered over the dash of the pristine Z-95 Headhunter. It hadn’t seen many scratches just yet on his travels, but that might soon change as his targets were within his sights. The young man had been practicing a little more with Flight Simulators in preparation for this assignment, in fact before he had launched himself into space he had been practicing intensely. All was well in practice, but this was the real deal now. Raphael had counted four of them so far; three escorting the larger YT-2000 transport ship it seemed. From a distance he could tell that these starships had seen far more action that he could imagine.

Floating through the vast emptiness of space, Raphael maintained a distance far enough that he hoped he would remain undetected. The young Sith had followed them to this point, stalking their every move as they went flew about space casually.

Tapping away at the console in front of him, he intended on sending a message. It was intended to be a quick one, a message to bring the cavalry in.

His transmission opened up as he spoke in Ancient Sith, “Father. I count three escorting the transport. It’s time to release the pack.”

With that, he thrust his ship forward at a slightly faster pace. Raphael intended to close the gap a little for when the pack arrived.

**********

OOC:

Intercepting
Z-95 Headhunter
Flight Simulator

[Slade Xandir]

Blood's own sources pointed the location of these passingby ships seconds before Raphael; the boy was getting more and more accustomed to scouting. And while he was becoming accustomed to it, he was bettering himself in the process. This pleased Blood more than some simple tracking mission's success, as he knew this would benefit them all when the time came.

Regardless, the Sith Lord was immediately behind Raphael as Valkyr brought the ship out of hyperjump. Lidmor wasn't here with him, as he stayed on the Naga awaiting Blood's return, but the Sith Lord had taken the simulator off of the Dreadnought and replaced it on his own Infiltrator. Currently, he was where he left off, trying to see if there were a way to stealth behind the three TIE Fighters, and so far, he had snaked one. Venturing too far off to the left, he saw the easy picking, but as all things were, they came to have consequences as well. The other two were alerted with the disappearance of their partner, and immediately whirled around to scope out the spot their partner vanished, jeopardizing his own space.

"Targets confirmed ahead of us, Alpha X," Valkyr's mechanized voice called to him from his headset. He confirmed the matter, knowing where they were, and returned his attention to the almost checkers-type puzzle before him in the simulation. He could wait it out, and allow them to drift apart more in their search-

"The docking mechanism is primed for release, Maker."

His sigh was all it took for the cyborg Cathar to silence herself. But the deed was already done; she had easily pulled his concentration from the simulation, and pausing it, he stood from the booth. He knew it would have been wise for him to wait for the TIEs, but in this case and not that one, reality had a way of forcing your hand. They weren't in a game, right now, and this required his attention immediately, as opposed to that one. The Sith Lord ultimately could have singled those fighters out with mere time...

But what of these fellows?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Infiltrator
Flight Simulator

[Harboring through Side Docking Grasp Clasp]
Rahab's Sith Star Fighter

[Kell Sangros]

Warvanus had been spending a lot of time with the flight simulators as he wished to improve his piloting skills. He had taken a liking to piloting his R-41 Starchaser that he had dubbed Scimitar, on top of training in the Force and his martial skills and physical conditioning he had devoted some time to training himself in the manner of piloting and ariel combat.

He had been fresh off a session when he was summoned to the hanger, and was given his mission, he wasted no time in prepping his fighter for take off. Short time later he was departing Sojourn. Once in space, he had applied a docking clamp onto Kressara’s fighter as she had no hyperdrive. Once the clamp was secured he set course for their destination.

His starfighter came out of hyperspace with no issues on the docking clamp. He could identify both Lord Blood’s and Silver’s starfighters. He commed Kressara

“Ready to be released ?”

His changed the channel “Lone Wolf in system” the msg would go out to the other Sith fighters, mainly Lord Blood and Raphael

OOC:
R-41 Starchaser
Flight Simulator
Harboring from underneath docking clamp
Kressara’s starfighter

[Kressara Thryn]

Kressara’s starfighter was harbored with Warvanous’s ship, allowing her to focus on setting up her systems for the coming battle while he piloted them closer to their enemies. The girl was quite the newborn behind the controls of a spacecraft, so like many of her comrades she installed a flight simulator to help guide her. From the roof of the cockpit a little crow charm dangled that when squeezed made sounds which crudely resembled the caw of a scavenger bird. Kressara pinched the little bird before straightening the collar of her hooded jacket which as usual, covered her armor. Readied beside her in a holding rack sat her vibroblade just incase she needed to handle any confrontations face to face, though she doubted things would come to that.

Her fellow sith’s voices sounded over the communications system, to which she engaged with a sigh, “Crow here, ready for action.”

She disengaged the comlink and flipped a few switches to power up the ship’s thrusters and have them prepared for takeoff whenever her ride released hold of the starfighter. The girl took a few deep breaths and started talking to herself in an attempt to calm her nerves. Oh how she loathed piloting.

“It’s all good. I can fly. I know how to do this. Aaaaaall good.”

Fancy that, a crow afraid of flying.


——————————————————————————————-


OOC:

Gear/Equipment.

Starfighter.
Vibroblade.
Flight Simulator.

[Rahab Aapofi]

A Sith Starfighter, with its wings of composite metals folded, was in the secure grasp of a clasp in the side dock of Lord Blood’s ship, an Infiltrator. The craft’s pilot, Rahab Aapofi, had no practical experience with the vessel. She had only recently been acquainted with the starship through simulations, running the program through basic maneuvers and learning its controls. And while she did take to the virtual practices, for games of planning and logic were something she enjoyed, it did not compare to having her hands on the physical controls. She had received the Starfighter as a gift, and it had been used prior, evidence by a few wear and tears of the interior, but it was in good working order. Rahab had named the ship The Recourse.

In the cockpit of The Recourse, Rahab attempted to soothe her nerves. Travel through hyperspace rarely sat well with her but this trip had been, somehow, worse than any other that she could recall. The battle craft was a precision tool, and, if her queasy stomach and clammy skin was anything to go by, its engineers had not placed the comfort of its operator at the forefront of their minds when designing it. Rahab could feel herself trembling as she mirrored the system checks she had practiced only a short time ago though the simulator.

She was moving her lips soundlessly as she tested what she could while being holstered, a silent prayer for herself as she made peace with what she was being tasked to do. She felt awful, but despite that, Rahab liked being in the ship by herself. Just her thoughts and the machine’s interface. Checking the final switch, The Recourse was ready to be released.

She awaited orders.


[OOC:

Sith Starfighter
Flight Simulator]

[Shayrina Tarthus]

An A-Wing swerved in from the side toward the group of personal craft, having launched last. It's general wedge shape was decorated with Dark blue accents, and a darker gunmetal swatch around the canopy, and the engines.

Sitting in the pilot's seat was Shayrina Tarthus, giving a near-bored exhale. "Alright. Looks like we've got a party going on in that freighter. Someone bored?" She smiled from beneath her helmet and visor, looking over to the TY, flying inverted.

Her gloved hand was casually clamped around the control stick, and she adjusted her seating. Light eyes swept over her nav, as well as her instruments. Everything seemed fine. No sign of resistance. Shay'd flown several escort missions before, but never without the rest of her team. Even more live escorts- she'd flown an inordinate amount of simulated flights as well. Regardless, she was happy to be involved.

She assumed she was tapped for the assignment as a close proximity and current open availability. Though she just counted this as another opportunity to impress the top brass to improve her station later down the line.

Hearing Salem's transmission and her eyes widened, and her brow furrowed.

"Wait- did I just hear 'Ewok'...?" her voice chuckled over the radio.

--

OOC:
Per Zechs- I'll save my escort info for now, waiting for SLIU to go through.

[Annan Rainwalker]

Jedi Knight Annan Annakin Rainwalker meditated, floating in the Force cross-legged over the pilot seat in the cockpit of the YT-2000 light freighter Scintillance. It had been a long time since he had been alone on a dispatch. Of course, he still had his droids with him, but most of the human members of his crew were currently quite indisposed.

"Hmm?"

A lone green eye opened from his Floating Meditation to spare a glance at the Disturbance in the Common Sense he had felt. There be Zechs' freighter, and upside-down it was. Ani heaved in a sigh. The white-haired dolt was probably knocked out somewhere in the cargo bay of his ship while his Ewok took the helm.

"Alright. Looks like we've got a party going on in that freighter. Someone bored?"

It was that moment that Jedi Knight Annan Annakin Rainwalker, grinned a rather Sidiousine grin (yes, that is now a verb), before relinquishing his meditative stance and jumping into a sitting position on the pilot seat, assuming manual control from O.M.5, his droid co-pilot.

<"Don't even think about it..."> Bigweld 2.0's voice came through the comm channel. He did not even need to be in the same ship as Ani to compute what his partner could possibly do next, as the Droid was commanding the YT-1300 freighter Effulgence. Without his Aunt with him for the very first time, he (rightfully) expected Ani to act like an unsupervised child.

Ani opened the general comm signal, hailing all frequencies: "Hey, Bigweld--"

<"I said no!">

"Has anyone ever gone into hyperspace upside-down?... Is there even an 'upside-down' in space considering there isn't really any 'up' or any 'down' without gravity?"

<"ANI!!!">

With one swift pull on a control stick, Ani's YT-2000 light freighter jerked in space dramatically before spinning around its long axis and coming to lie upside-down, precisely as Zechs' transport and directly above it, forming an Upside-Down YT Sandwich. He remained on his seat using his seat-belt: everything else on the floor, including his pilot droid O.M.5 and all the Cargo in the Hold, fell onto the ceiling with multiple loud thuds.

"Tche," Ani scoffed into the general comm, replying to the A-Wing pilot who had transmitted earlier: "It's all for science, Ma'am."

... He really did wonder if they could go through hyperspace upside-down, though.

#

YT-2000 Scintillance: Ani, O.M.5 (RX-24 Pilot Droid)
YT-1300 Effulgence: Bigweld (SEP-1 Security Droid), RX-24 Pilot Droid, Drop (Espionage Droid)