Fly Fly!

[Lira Dajenn]

Lira stood inside of one of the Hangars of the Jedi Academy on Ossus. In front of her sat twelve brand new J-1 Light Interceptors, designed, built, and tested by Lira herself. She stared at the vehicles with a certain hint of pride that come only come from someone who had accomplished something great. Each of these fighters was custom made by Jedi, for Jedi and would be flown across the galaxy to help in the War with the One Sith.

This was her contribution.

This was what Lira had given back to the Order for Rescuing her.

These two squadrons were only the first of many. The Jedi Order had created a contract with Kuat Drive Yards in order to produce these on a mass scale for the Jedi, keeping the plans limited to the Order of Course. These six were the only ones custom built and constructed by the Order and Lira herself. They were the prototypes, and in a way they were far more special than any other ships would be, though they were exactly the same.

She smiled slightly, and then looked around the hangar bay.

Lira had invited some of the Order to the hangar to test some of the new Ships. They were all ready to be flown, and Lira had already flown every one of them, but it was time to see how others did.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

For a Corellian native, Corvus was atypical in being ambivalent about ships. In her early days on Ossus she remembered one of the flying instructors labelling her a disgrace to her home planet for not volunteering for training.

It was a good-natured jibe - but it had stung. Corvus was well aware how many hours in the day there were and if she could study every subject she wanted there would be no time for other things. Like sleep. She'd even tried it for a while. It was not conducive to learning.

But a chance meeting with a pilot for the Republic - Silara - meant she'd undertaken some specific fighter training and with the need to travel all over the galaxy, she'd been flying more and more. So the chance to get back into the cockpit of a single-seater again was one she was keen on. The fact that it was a fighter designed by a Jedi and for Jedi, made it all the more exciting. She she turned up early and was surprised that Kian wasn't already there. He'd suggested he'd already chosen a colour scheme!

Seeing Lira, Corvus walked over and bowed. This was a Jedi she knew by name and sight but had never formally met. "Corvus Raaf." She looked at the interceptors in front of them. "You did an amazing job. If they fly half as well as they look, we're in for a treat." Corvus smiled widely. She was clearly looking forward to the first flight.

[member="Lira Dajenn"]

 

[Marcello Matteo]

Marcello entered the hangar quite unceremoniously. There were a handful of other works scurrying about various tasks readying various spacecraft for various people, but the Jedi Master's glacier-blue gaze fell not upon his own modified N-1T resting idly in a parking spot but of the new designs that had recently been flown in from KDY. Stepping forward, Marcello's gaze eventually swept to the two women assembled. He afforded them a characteristic thin smile as he inclined his head in the direction of [member="Lira Dajenn"] and [member="Corvus Raaf"], "Ladies."

The greeting dissipated as his smile equalized into a more neutral expression and he stepped up to one of the J-1s. Having read the specs on them, Marcello, a career pilot long before he was ever a Jedi, allowed a more satisfied smile to spread across his lips as he ran a hand gently over the surface. For the next several moments, he walked around the spacecraft, committing every line and aerodynamic subtlety to memory.

Without really asking or even so much as uttering a word to Lira, Marcello climbed up to the cockpit of the J-1 he'd been inspecting. Sitting on the lip of the cockpit, he gazed inside at the controls. Intuition and experience in the field guided his hands as he briefly activated the power to the reactor to peruse the systems set-up and general functionality subroutines.

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian was walking so fast it might have classified as running, as he entered the hanger and froze in his tracks. They were as beautiful in person as they were in the file he had been reading. [member="Lira Dajenn"] had informed him and several others that they would be there for testing, but seeing them set out before him was enthralling.

Kian wasn't much of a pilot. His flying skills typically were used for getting from point A to point B. He hadn't ever been involved in an actual skirmish....nor had he planned to. Until he saw the J-1 Light Interceptor. Kian had done flight simulated battles at Carida and while he surprised himself by being adept at it, he wasn't going to impress anyone with his flying.

"I'm gonna need to learn to fly!" Kian said excitedly. Turning he saw that Lira and [member="Corvus Raaf"] were standing together and he rushed over, inclining his head in greeting to Master [member="Marcello Matteo"]

"Jedi Dajenn, I have to congratulate you, these ships are impressive......I can't wait to see how they handle." Kian said smiling broadly beneath his mask and bowing slightly to the girl. Then turning to Corvus, Kian knudged her with his elbow. "I'm thinking blue and light green.....and maybe a little dark grey!"

 

[Haytham Kaze]

There was a message to members of the Jedi Order about ships that had been designed by a Jedi Padawan by the name of [member="Lira Dajenn"]. On his way there, Haytham had taken out his datapad, curious to see what they looked like before seeing them in person, but instead he replaced it back within his brown and cream coloured robes.

I'm nearly there, I can wait a few seconds.

He heard the faint sound of voices, and then he had passed through the threshold and was within the Jedi Hangar.

The ships were truly quite remarkable. Beautiful even, or so he guessed if he knew a lot about starfighters.

"Wow."

Were his only words as he stopped nearby to the other Jedi and looked on.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="Kian Karr"] [member="Haytham Kaze"] [member="Marcello Matteo"] [member="Corvus Raaf"]

Lira smiled when she received the compliments, looking at the ships, then at the various Masters, Knights, and Padawans with a certain hint of pride once more. This was a good thing, they were all happy, all excited.

It was slightly troubling though that one of them said he didn't know how to fly.

“Perhaps you should start on something slower Master Kian.” Lira suggested. These ships were not exactly easy to control, being quite fast and maneuverable. Of course perhaps being a Jedi would help with that particular aspect, given that one could sense when something dangerous or off putting was about to happen, but still! She didn't want the Jedi Knight crashing into a mountain side of something silly like that.

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian laughed and shook his head at [member="Lira Dajenn"]'s comment. Kian's rather dry sense of humor and the fact that his face was obscured often meant that his comments were taken to be serious when they were not. Turning to Lira, Kian corrected himself.

"My apologies, it was a poor attempt at humor." Kian said placing his hand on his chest and bowing his head. "I can fly.....though I won't be winning any medals for it." Kian said. He was aware of his shortcomings and flying was one of them. He wasn't a bad pilot, but nor was he an impressive one. However, now that he was being given access to the J-1's he might have to make it a priority to increase his abilities.

"I had a particularly good lesson once at the flight academy on Carida......of course that ended pretty abruptly when the One Sith invaded the planet." Kian said smiling once more. That had been his first taste of war.

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus counted the heads and the ships. Sooner or later there would be more Jedi than interceptors, so she subtly moved towards one. Master Matteo had already started to examine 'his' so she walked to the one that was at the far end of the line. They were identical in each and every way. From the first circuit to the final switch. But this one was the one she wanted to fly.

She ran her hand along the sleek lines, as she had once seen Silara do. And hadn't she thought it odd at the time? Corvus hand snapped back to her side and she glanced around, wondering who might have seen her.

So she mirrored the Jedi Master and stepping up, opened up the cockpit canopy and took a look at the controls. Fortunately there was nothing out of the ordinary and so she started to familiarise herself with the lay-out - the spacing of the switches. She had her back to the group now, so nobody could see the broad grin on her face.

[member="Lira Dajenn"] | [member="Marcello Matteo"] | [member="Kian Karr"] | [member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Kian Karr]

"I hope you don't mind." Kian said as he began to walk away, "I don't want to be the only one to not go check out the ships!" He yelled over his shoulder as he walked towards the nearest one.

Stepping up to it, Kian opened the hatch and peered into the cockpit. It was a pretty standard setup, though it was organized a little differently than the last ship he had jumped into. Settling into the cockpit, Kian began the preflight preparations and familiarized himself with the ship. He closed his eyes and focused on the ship in the force. It felt like a Jedi's ship, and as he nestled back into the comfortable seat, he ran his hands over the controls.

He could certainly get use to this!

[member="Corvus Raaf"] - [member="Lira Dajenn"] - [member="Haytham Kaze"] - [member="Marcello Matteo"]

 

[Marcello Matteo]

Marcello tilted his head slightly, a small expression of satisfaction crossed his features before dissipating entirely. Rather than bleed the power dry running all the systems without having the engines running, Marcello, of course, slipped his large frame into the snug cockpit. He'd brought his own flight helmet, of course, but left it sitting on the deck beneath the spacecraft for the moment.

With a practiced familiarity, Marcello navigated the controls to activate the auxiliary power units. The low whine of the small engines that, really, were only used to help start the much large sublight drive and bring the repulsors online touched his ears in a report of success. Utilizing the Force, he levitated his flight helmet from the ground to his position before snatching it out of the air.

Pulling the helmet over his head, he quickly attached the communications chord and activated the avionics suite. As the radios gradually came to life, Marcello lowered the boom mic to his lips and punched in the appropriate frequency for departure control as well as Port Authority on the standby frequency. He...wasn't actually sure of the callsign for the squadron the vessels would be assigned to, so he just used the one that he typically used when flying his personal vessel. He flew often enough that they'd get the point. "Ghost 6, VFR departure to the east."

A brief pause followed before a hurried response was received. "Ghost 6, cleared VFR to east, flight following?"

"Ghost 6 copies clear VFR to east.." As Marcello spoke, he reached down and activated the switch to close the canopy before sliding his hand over to depress the engine start button. The sound of the much larger engines spinning up quickly filled the hangar and the cockpit until the canopy had sealed around Marcello. "...we'll need flight following as well. Vector...Charlie 1 to orbit."

"Copy Charlie 1, number one for departure, contact Port Authority on 127.55 prior to initial."

The nimble fighter rumbled slightly even with the main sublight bank operating at idle power. He'd read the information on the J-1, so he would undoubtedly start out a little more tame than was in keeping with his personality behind the controls. Activating the repulsors at three pecent, he immediately felt the fighter lift roughly five to six feet into the air. "Number one, 127.55 on initial, Ghost 6." Rotating the control column forward and to the right slightly, Marcello gradually added power to the repulsors to keep the vessel stable over the ground before inching the power on the sublight drive forward just a hair.

As the J-1 surged forward, Marcello traded vertical stabilization for horizonatal velocity as the fighter cut a tight, low arc across the deck of the hangar and towards the exit. Once the vessel had been completely righted and he'd crossed over the departure point which was, in truth, merely a point where full power could be applied without casuing damage to people and spacecraft inside the far recess of the hangar, Marcello applied full power to the sublight drive and was promptly thrown hard back into the cushions of his seat by the gravitational forces. "Holy..." It was almost all the Jedi Master could do to immediately reach down and deactivated the repulsorlift engines along with the APUs.

In short order, Marcello got a feel for the nimble little fighter, throwing it into a series of sharp maneuvers. With a keen eye on the performance and response of the fighter, Marcello performed a series of high-performance maneuvers in sequence - pushing the nimble fighter closer and closer to its limits. It wouldn't have taken long for the Jedi Temple to become little more than a dot on the horizon, but he worked to keep himself close to the facility until some of the others had departed the hangar.

[member="Lira Dajenn"] | [member="Corvus Raaf"] | [member="Kian Karr"] | [member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

It was time to start moving.

There were a few Jedi already there, and the chance of other Jedi coming along that were interested in the ships were too high. Maybe it was being selfish, but, if you snoozed, you lost. Pretty sure there was an animal that experienced that...

He watched as the other experienced Jedi claimed their ships and he immediately claimed his after throwing a brief grin at [member="Lira Dajenn"], and then popping open the cockpit and sitting in the chair. It was... Comfortable to say the least, and it should if you were possibly going to be in it for several hours.

He closed the cockpit and began the start up for the ship.

Was it time to leave the Hangar? He had no idea, but he'd definitely take his time with this new Interceptor and follow everyone else out rather than rushing out.

[member="Kian Karr"], [member="Corvus Raaf"], [member="Marcello Matteo"],

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Seeing Master Matteo leave and Kian enter the cockpit of the craft he'd chosen, Corvus decided to follow suit. Before she'd performed any of the pre-flight checks, she was aware that the new Padawan had entered another of the craft.

So she closed up the canopy and after a double-check on the controls she fired up the engines. Receiving clearance to take-off she started slowly - never a good idea to prang a ship on its maiden voyage. 'Raven' had quite a few missions under its belt before its first crash - which clearly wasn't her fault. At all.

She'd flown a Republic fighter before but this felt...different. More responsive, quicker and more in tune to a Jedi's way of flying. She watched the impressive acrobatics of the ship already flying but didn't attempt to emulate them. For now she just wanted to get to know the controls until their position was second nature. Finding out the limits of this craft could come later. But not too much later!

[member="Lira Dajenn"] | [member="Marcello Matteo"] | [member="Kian Karr"] | [member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Kian Karr]

Seeing as [member="Corvus Raaf"] and [member="Marcello Matteo"] had taken the J-1's out for a test drive, Kian decided it was alright if he did as well. Once Kian had received his clearance, he took the ship up and out very cautiously. From the moment Kian touched the controls he began to get a sense for just how fast the ship was, and he exited the ship at a speed he wasn't quite intending to. Once he hit open space however, Kian slowly began to accelerate giving it more and more as he got further away from the others.

"Wow." He muttered to himself. The ship was already moving faster than any fighter he had flown, and it certain was faster than the shuttles he typically took on missions......and he hadn't even maxed it out yet. Kian began to take the ship through a series of small, uncomplicated maneuvers to get a feel for it. He banked side to side as if avoiding laser fire, he dipped down and up, pulled the ship to the side in intricate angles. He didn't flip it, or spin it....not yet, but he did begin to get a good sense for the sensitivity and the speed of the J-1.

When he felt a little more confident, Kian gave it all and was jolted back into the seat as the ship raced off. He circled around, keeping the others in sight. Kian had never really enjoyed flying before.....it had always been something he'd done just for necessities sake......but this was something else. The ship just felt natural to him....it just felt right. Kian realized why too. The ship was designed by a Jedi for Jedi and [member="Lira Dajenn"] had done an excellent job of blending the two. It was impossible to fly the ship without relying heavily on the force and in so doing, flying became almost meditative.

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Lira Dajenn]

Lira didn't bother getting into any of the ships. She had already flown them after all, there was no point in flying them again. It also helped that she had already secreted her away her own craft, a single jetblack J-1 that she herself had painted and customized. On one of its wingtips was a single halfwing, the mark that all of her creations would bare. She smiled slightly as she remembered it, then turned away from the remaining fighters.

With slow deliberate steps she marched out into the open.

There, she gazed into the sky.

She could barely make out some of the movements from the fighters. Quick flicks and turns, fast approaches and even faster dashes through the sky. It was nothing but amazing of course, the way those craft moved. The Auxiliary thrusters fired every few seconds and kept them on course, and then they dashed and flailed to the side.

Her grin widened slightly as she watched one of them maneuver.

Yes, she had succeeded.