I Can Fly Anything

[Alkesh Vizsla]

[SIZE=18pt]Alliance Spaceport[/SIZE]
[SIZE=18pt]Above Fondor[/SIZE]

The Republic had always seen its fair share of action with the Sith. It seemed law for them to be in some constant dance, once pushing and one holding steady in the sudden unease. But wherever one group went, the other was sure to follow as Olivia was quickly learning. Her departure from the Republic’s ranks in favor of the Alliance had shown her the Sith were equal opportunity aggressors when it came to stamping out the Light.

She was sprinting through the hallways of the Alliance Spacestation, on orders from her Master to get planetside on Abregado-Rae as quickly as possible. There had been reports of Sith ships dropping from hyperspace above the planet’s atmosphere only moments before and though it was a contested world in the unclaimed space hovering dangerously between Alliance and One Sith territories, it was a world that would be laid to waste for its resources and strategic location along trade routes. Millions of people would suffer if the Sith were allowed to take over the very beginning of the Rimma Trade Route, monopolizing the passage of food supplies and medicines through its corridor.

Her long legs helped her travel fast across the station towards the docking bay, the roar of dozens of ships coming to life and speeding out in to the stars all she could hear as she came to an abrupt stop, sucking in air. Her eyes darted around, desperate for a transport. She didn’t dare fly hers in to battle only to be shot out of the sky, or a burden on the pilots around her - her craft didn’t have the speed, and she didn’t have the daring to fly in the way one would have to to get planetside without mishap.

“Hey, can yo--” she yelled to a pilot hoisting himself in his fighter, who cut her off before she even had the chance to finish.

“No room!”

She sprinted on and on, either getting a negative response or simply unheard over the haste of the pilots and the roar of engines.

She was starting to think she wouldn’t make it down, that she’d miss the opportunity to try out some more of her training, when she spotted a pilot slipping his helmet on, still outside his fighter. Besides the color in her cheeks, she looked surprisingly composed - surprising to her, at least. Brain racing a mile a minute, she reached out to wrap a hand around his arm to catch his attention.

“I need to hitch a ride.”

A lack of manners was abhorrent to her, but the situation called for it.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Dax was slowly losing his patience with the way the Fleet was organised - he felt like he was operating on his own half the time. There seemed to be so much call for Sith forces to engage on the ground, that up in the air he was becoming a spent force. The Lujo invasion had proved that. Maybe it was time to flex his might on the battlefield if the call to keep the skies clear wasn't there anymore?

However, that was what too much thought did to a man. Thankfully, the sirens blaring out across the Alliance Spacestation brought him back to the hear and now. It was time to act and get out of here to either kill or be killed. The call was out to get down to the surface, and so it was time to protect the skies. This, he could do.

Running from his quarters, he side stepped an astromech droid and zipped up his dark orange flight suit. A look that was a love letter to the glory days of the old Rebel Alliances and Resistance fighters, it was almost a tribute to those that had come before the Alliance, but also a symbol to carry forward for the eyes of the enemy.

Practically gliding down the wide stairwell, he reached the hangar and saw the ships moving out. It was chaos, but organised chaos. Dax looked right towards the roar of the transport leaving nearest to him, and kept running along at a fair pace. Safe to say, he wasn't looking where he was going. He heard a voice seconds before he was forced to abruptly stop from barrelling into the girl before him, standing around like a lost sheep.

"WOAH! Sorry," he said, grabbing out to her arms to stable her. "You better get yourself on a ship and get to the planet, or stay here but get out the way."

Nodding as he moved by, Dax reached into breast pocket and pulled out a small black device, which he pointed out and in the distance a T-70 X-Wing fighter opened its cockpit.

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

She could forgive him for basically ignoring her request. There was a lot going on in the hangar bay - alarms blaring, the shouts of men and women coordinating take-offs and getting in their ships, engines roaring, the stampede of the last sets of feet heading towards the last sets of X-Wings and fighters. Maybe he was hard of hearing, who knew? But either way, she couldn’t fail her very first mission on her own. Her Master would be disappointed, and that was so much worse than anger.

And besides...it was further proof she’d chosen the right path if she could face what would surely be Sith accompanying their lackeys and soldiers invading the planet.

Technically, the pilot had no obligation to help her. His X-Wing only sat one pilot and an astromech. She made it a crowd no matter what. But she was fast running out of options.

He was already far ahead, almost in his seat when she suddenly leapt up over the side of the cockpit, awkwardly wedging herself between the controls and his leg. She’d contemplated sort of bending herself in to a u-shape behind his head but she imagined hitting the top of the cockpit and killing them both instantly as her body cracked the cockpit and let atmosphere in, and that was unappealing. She felt at least sort of stable by his feet. Turning her head over her shoulder to look at him, she looked almost apologetic.

“I’m sorry -- I REALLY need a ride!”

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Dax hadn’t even done the strap under his chin on the new helmet before movement beside him caught his eye, soon giving way to fumbling noises and numerous hits to the abdomen and thigh from someone – someone climbing into the cockpit.

"Hey what the hell is this?" Dax exclaimed, body contorted to avoid kicking the stowaway.

Without warning, the call went out for blast-doors closing and shields coming up for the Spaceport to lock down which meant ships had to leave now, or not at all. Dax couldn’t afford to stay cooped up in the Spaceport, and had to get out. But the girl down below his feet in the nose of the X-Wing was a slight issue. The cockpit closed and clamped them in.

He shook his head and fixed the strap, and reached up to flip the four switches that would bring the ion engines to life with a gentle roar heard inside.

"No time for introductions – hold on," he said, taking the yoke, wincing as he twisted his hand for better grip with her body reducing room by a good 60%.

Dax turned the ship, slower than he liked, and it rose. Seconds later, it coasted forward, edging out from the cover of the Spacestation in the darkness of space, the orb of Fondor in the distance. Then, the pilot boosted the throttle and the closed s-foils kicked in; the T-70 shot away with the other ships.

That awkward silence followed as he kept the ship steady for now, the low whistle of the engines filling the cockpit as his eyes moved down to her.

”Alright, so, tell me, who are you and what did you want to achieve jumping in a one-man fighter during a near-evacuation of a Spaceport?"

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

As the ship started coasting, she tried taking one of her hands from the death grip she had around the support rods keeping the control console in place. She thought better of it almost immediately as her body rocked with the inertia of the slow coast, unstable without a seatbelt even cramped in such a small space. She wanted to hold up a hand as if asking for leniency, but instead she settled for her voice: “Um, could you take it easy though, because I’m kind of scared of--”

She couldn’t finish her sentence as the fighter shot out of the spacestation, the bright glare of its white lights giving way to the dark depths of space and its stars.

When he asked her a set of fair and pertinent questions she realized her terrified screaming must have been only in her head, which was good because it would have been really awkward and embarrassing otherwise. She hadn’t noticed the silence he felt uncomfortable in. She’d simply been trying to deal with her heart dropping down below her stomach and the frenzied panic in her brain.

Focusing on the question, she used it to tear her concentration away from the stars above as they shot towards the planet only a few lightyears away.

“I’m Olivia...Olivia Durant. I’m a Jedi, a Padawan. And admittedly I’m new to the Alliance and I wasn’t sure where everything was, so when the alert started it took me a minute to figure out where I was supposed to be going. I could have flown my own ship but it’s not very fast and I’m not good at flying, so I was hoping someone would let me hitch a ride.”

She paused, feeling her heart slow in her chest and trying not to think about how the second they reached Abregado-Rae’s atmosphere she’d really be in the poodoo as far as flying went. Staying as still as possible so she didn’t jostle him from the controls, she looked up at him, offering the same apologetic smile as she studied him. Handsome, roguish, no-nonsense - a description of many of the Alliance’s daring squadron of pilots fighting for good in the Galaxy.

“So yeah, here I am. Thanks. Who are you?”

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Dax kept both eyes on the HUD as he kept a steady path through hyperspace, ready to emerge into the thick of it at any time. The girl – Olivia – talked fast but stated her purpose which was fine and good, on the outset, and it’d have been a welcome face to be introduced to weren’t she stuck by his feet in the nose of his T-70.

"I’m Dax. Dax Ragnar. It’s a pleasure to meet you Olivia Durant, but do me a favour?" He looked at her and moved his hand up to a small lever. "Hold tight."

He pulled it gently and the stars streaked back to the usual blanket that their galaxy was wrapped in, and immediately he caught sight of three ugly looking Y shaped cruisers looming in the distance. A couple more X-Wing fighters and unique Alliance craft overtook him – one soon became space debris thanks to a homing missile.

His eyes went wide, and moved his foot down in a reflex action, quickly pulling it back when he felt soft flesh under it and remembered he wasn’t alone.

"Brace yourself Olivia. We gotta get out of here right now!"

Dax pushed the yolk down, forcing the T-70 down and out of any expected line of fire from the waiting ships. They were ones the bigger Alliance boys could handle – right now, he had to get away from them. The craft shot downwards, the planet somewhere in the distance to navigate to, although he was now responsible for the life of a Jedi.

"Where – hold on - " Dax pushed forward to take the X-Wing dangerously clover over the hull of the enemy to reduce its chance of firing on them. " – Where do you need to get to?"

What she could see or hear from her position was a wonder to the pilot as he focused on not getting swatted out of the sky.

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

She wasn’t the type to lose her cool in stressful situations, but the second he said ‘hold tight’ she was almost there.

“Wait, what?! No, what - no, no, NO NO NO!” She bit back the scream, thinking it would probably be distracting if her best chance of surviving this in one piece was his ability to concentrate. Biting on her lip, she squeezed her eyes shut so all she could sense of her current situation was her stomach rolling around her insides as he put the X-Wing through its paces. She wished she could feel free in a ship - there was a part of her that felt that sensation of soaring as a brilliant weightlessness, a power that let her fly if only briefly. But usually all she could feel was the same panic she’d been thrown in to all those months ago as her ship careened towards the jungle of Onderon. All she could see was her Mother’s face burnt and hollow, seatbelt half undone from where she’d tried to escape, her Father reached out across the gap to try and help her free herself.

She braced and held on and let him do what he had to do, doing what she’d learned to do - trust in the Force, find her peace there. There was nothing she could do to change her situation except have faith in the pilot.

When she finally opened her eyes again, he’d maneuvered his craft underneath the hull of one of the invading ships, the lines and cracks of its thousands of panels whizzing by over her head as they sped by. Even she had to admit it was a pretty amazing thing to see. When they emerged, the inside of the X-Wing was lit by cascading plumes of flaring color, red and green and purple as ships fought one another in the skies above Abregado-Rae. His voice brought her around, her concentration returning to the situation at hand.

“The spaceport,” she answered over the din. “The Alliance had a group planet-side and they called for back-up. Seems they picked the wrong day to try and reason with smugglers bribed by the One Sith.”

Truly, she would work with whatever he could manage. She’d put him in a difficult position and clearly he was meant to rule the skies.

All the sudden her ears were ringing with the incessant chirping of some warning bell from the console of his fighter, a fast beep that seemed to mimic the pace of her heart. It was probably for the best that she wasn’t aware it was a warning klaxon to alert the pilot an enemy fighter had locked on to him as a target.

“What does that mean?!” she said, suddenly holding a death-grip on one of his calves with one of her hands. “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?”

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Between the girl’s fevered talk and the communication from other pilots over the intercom on the dash, Dax certainly had to concentrate in listening and flying low to evade detection. After all, he wasn’t here to fight – he was here to power through this blockade.

"You want to go planet side? Well, that’s just great," he said.

He pulled back a little to get some space between him and the cruiser, and banked slowly left to try and make a decent run to the surface. However, it wasn’t the noise of the HUD telling him an enemy fighter had locked onto their signal that got his attention; no, that he just dealt with usually without breaking a sweat. It was the yelp and the vice-like grip onto his calve from the stowaway, again, one he had momentarily forgotten about.

Dax yelped in pain, flinching and reaching down with his hand to slap her grip away.

"Do you want to get us both killed?" His eyes flicked up and saw the empty void of space to his left to move into without hesitation. "Hold on!"

Next came an effective evasive move that would be over in seconds, but probably stay with poor Olivia for hours.

Dax reduced power to the engines with one hand and pushed forward on the yolk with another, taking the X-Wing into a sheer vertical nose-dive. Then, he pulled the yolk left to spin the craft 360 around, all the while to maintain a wild loop around to shake off any homing missile and interception by the Sith fighter.

Stars went blurry above his view, as he came out of the loop and banked right in a wide circle to come around and give him good sight on where he had been; and there coming down from above was the ugly Sith fighter.

Smiling, he pushed the engines back into action and squeezed stutter fire from his lasers – taking out the shields, the hull and eventually the whole fighter itself in an instant, the vacuum of space ridding the flight path of debris for him to fly through. Now – time to push forward towards the planet and quick.

He glanced down to his feet. "Still with me Olivia?"

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

She must have forgotten herself in her panic and grabbed at him harder than her baseline strength would have allowed for. She didn’t look it - demure, delicate, not willowy by any means but a classically elegant sort of woman - but her true power in the Force lay in acts of physical prowess. Strength, agility, and powerful shows of telekinesis were all within her reach and her grip on his calf was an unwitting display. Though thankfully she didn’t seem to have done any damage by the time he managed to make her realize what she was doing and slapped her away.

There was nothing to do but what he said as she felt the ship lurch and start a completely vertical dive downwards, holding on for dear life as a loud, yawning noise filled the cabin, atmosphere whistling at the hull. The ship seemed to thrill to his command, putting itself through its paces with excitement and ease. She felt that weightlessness again (welcome, far away, but welcome) before the entire craft lurched in an evasive sideways maneuver that would haunt her nightmares.

The glittering explosion, fire licking small debris as the Sith fighter exploded, dazzled her. It fell along the viewport in smattering clacks as they sped off from the aftermath. Abregado-Rae was green and welcoming beneath - well, at least in comparison.

Truthfully, she liked the casual grin on his face while flying like an absolute psychopath, but she felt sick to her stomach.

“Force, I hope so, because if I died and this is the afterlife, I did something really wrong.”

The screaming howl of Sith fighters falling in to formation behind Dax’s X-Wing was unmistakable, two falling in to flank a specially designed fighter resembling the TIE/FO’s of old. She could feel the pilot’s presence even across the closing distance between the craft. Sith mostly left their fighters to highly skilled pilots, choosing to fight their battles either in their enormous warships or on the ground, destroying everything in their path. Few took to dog-fighting...but this one…

“There’s a Sith on-board that middle fighter,” she said, narrowing her eyes as she tried to concentrate on his signature.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Twisting his head starboard side over his shoulder, Dax caught side of the wing of one of the escort fighters – they were too close, which meant they had to move and fast. He span his head around to the HUD, reaching up to ready the s-foils. He sucked breath through his teeth and half shook his head.

"I’m taking us planet-side – need to shake them. If you’ve got those Jedi powers, feel free to use them anytime, Liv."

Dax closed the s-foils to streamline the X-Wing and pushed forward, taking the craft down through the atmosphere of Fondor below, seemingly the wrong side of the planet to where Olivia needed to be, but right now this has turned from an impromptu hitchhike to a flight for survival.

"This is Ragnar heading down with 3 fighters on my back – any help would be hot to secure a landing. Thank you." He smiled to himself at the causal manner used in delivering his message.

And so the atmosphere cracked around the T-70, the viewport nothing but hazy white, dark green and smouldering brown as the planet came closer, and Dax soon was the recipient of enemy fire. It seemed to be try to corral him into making a mistake; toying with him. He kept pushing, edging left and then right, making him a harder target. He even circled up and over himself and back again to confuse his pursuers.

The HUD showed that they were breaking off – one escort flying away, which he saw as a move to attack from the front and cause Dax to veer off into the sights of their pursuer. Not this time.

The tall towers of what looked like an industrial site were on the horizon, out in the water, and that was the best place to play nexu-and-womp rat with them.

The lone fighter was spotted coming down ahead through the cloud. Perfect time for Dax to open the s-foils. The wings parted as power went from the engines to the lasers, and he rattled of his attack first, rattling the fighter with whizzing blasts that struck and picked off the wing, allowing gravity the honour of spiralling the Sith craft down and down to the rocky peninsula below.

Now there was just 2 – well, 1. The Sith inside was a different matter altogether. Once more, Dax was focused on flying towards and then around the industrial site, once more forgetting about his stowaway.

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

If she were a Master she might have a dozen different tricks up her sleeve to put off their pursuer, perhaps ripping off some non-essential piece of the factory to send the Sith pilot veering off their course and allowing them the chance to get some distance. As it stood, her power remained budding - such feats would have to wait, if ever they appeared.

She was left with a Padawan’s greatest asset: creativity.

Her fear was still there, but since they’d at made it at least this far she could find it in her to concentrate on the problem at hand.

Fondor opened beneath them, a deep-purple world dotted by industrial grays and browns. Lights from shipyards blinked in ordered streaks, reminiscent of Coruscant without the billions of beings roaming this way and that. Smoke curled in lazy tendrils from factory stacks, reaching up to meet the clouds the dueling fighters had broken from high above. Though...not so high now. The ground was approaching fast, as well as the opportunity for cover.

The Sith fighter was close enough for her to see the dark, round viewport overtaking its front like an all-seeing eye. She could only make out the red glow of what she assumed was the control deck glaring over its insides - they were too far away (blissfully) to make out the pilot. But she wondered…

“Alright, I’ve got something I can try!”

Closing her eyes, she sank in to the Force like warm, tropical waters off the coast of Hapes, letting things come as they would. Once she’d tried to control her gift, but her Master had taught her otherwise - you let it happen to you. It would be there to guide you. She felt the fighter sway underneath her hunched form as Dax angled around buildings and bridges, the detritus of an ecumenopolis that was their only chance of getting away in one piece.

Reaching out for the Dark presence creeping up behind them, she repeatedly thought of the sensation of falling, the sort of knee-jerk snap of waking up from a dream in which one had suddenly been tripping off a sidewalk. It was simple, easy...she felt a confusion not her own, just enough. Her tenuous connection severed as the Sith pilot’s ship shuddered with his split-second confusion, dropping down with a lack of direction. It dropped from her view - not difficult, as her line of sight was extremely compromised by her position hunched on the floor.

“I think I did--”

The Sith pilot suddenly reappeared, gunning for them even harder. She could feel his rage.

“Oh…I just made him angry.”

Her only hope was that the few seconds she’d managed to trip him up had given Dax time to get some distance or formulate a plan.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

He kept pushing forward, taking it like had across Lujo - low to the ground to keep the enemy on their toes. The enemy fire was blind, but it reminded him they were still there and weren't getting bored. Water spat up behind him as he flew over the harbor, and into a line of chimneys.

Dax looked down at Olivia once...then twice, then again...waiting...she said something, but stopped.

"Well? Did you do anything?"

Another lock on alarm sounded. The Sith wasn't playing now.

"That's a no then - hang on!"

He clamped his mouth and tensed as he pulled up and banked right to go high and hopefully spin out and lose the lock. But something felt off...the ship felt heavy....Dax looked over the cockpit quickly and the LEDs started to flicker. And the ion engines cut out. His face fell, and he looked to Olivia.

"Either you did something or he did but we need to make a bit of an impromptu landing..."

A warning siren sounded overheard on the cockpit door and the X-Wing's s-foils automatically closed to make the ship more streamline and it took both hands and gritted teeth to pull on the yolk to near glide the craft, which was nothing but a dead weight, down to the water below across from the chimnies.

"Hold on!"

The water came rushing underneath and Dax pulled back on the yolk at the right time to send the T-70 belly skidding over the calm water, and the world shook around them for a few seconds before the weight of the ship stopped them to be a floating target. No time for thinking how to get the ship out - Dax quickly pulled his buckles off, flipped the hatch and pulled it back with both hands, followed by his helmet. Standing up, his dark hair matted down with sweat and glanced around, hearing the fighters above circling like vultures. He threw his arm out to Olivia.

"We gotta get out of here quick Liv," he said, quickly and with urgency. "I hope you can swim!" It wasn't far to land at all, but they were going to get wet!

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

She had to close her eyes again as he battled with the ship sleeping beneath their feet. It felt like that day with her parents all over again, the earth coming up too quickly in the viewport, a sort of out-of-control moment that ended no differently no matter how many times it replayed in her head.

By the time they’d hit water, she let out a hiss of relief - strange, considering the situation just past the hatch - that matched the skidding sound of the sluice just outside. She was more than a little eager to follow his lead, finally straightening herself out to stand up and look out over the short distance between the downed fighter and dry land.

Looking down at the proffered arm, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it. It was certainly a gentlemanly gesture, but instead she sort of patted it as if to say ‘thanks anyway’ before checking she had her lightsabers and jumping in to the frigid water. It took her breath away, but she swam as fast as she could for the industrial looking sidewalk jutting up to serve as the edge of the harbor. Evening was starting to fall on the planet and the water was dark underneath her, lights from the factories glittering off its surface as two dark heads of hair sped across its surface before pulling themselves, sopping wet, from its lazy waves.

Wringing out the armorweave wrapped around her shoulders, she looked over at Dax.

“You okay?”

No sooner had she asked when she felt the same presence that had tagged the ship following them reappear.

The Sith jumped down from a sidewalk high above the edge of the harbor, the pavement shattering underneath his feet with the force of his landing. As he lifted himself from the crouch he’d landed in, the red glare of his lightsaber ignited in his right hand, humming as he flourished it slowly. He wore a mask, hideous and angled so she couldn’t discern his species, but he was enormous and built like a tank - at least two feet taller than her, and outweighing her by well over a hundred pounds in her estimation.

“They’re persistent, you have to give them that.” Pulling the earpiece from her head, she pressed it in to Dax’s palm. “See if you can figure out where the team of Jedi are - the only line on there goes right to the Commander of their team. I’ll take care of this guy.”

Taking a few steps forward, she pulled her lightsaber from her waist and let the blue blade hiss to life.

The Sith met her head-on, like being hit by a train as her saber met his. Driving her weight forward towards the hilt of his, she managed to tip him forward in his effort stop her blade from shaving off the backs of his hands, leaving him vulnerable as she immediately disengaged with a kick to his knees that left him off-balance. Taking the moment of advantage, her free hand let loose with a blast of telekinetic power, knocking him off his feet on to his stomach.

Not to be caught unawares twice, a flare of blue-purple lightning streaked from his fingertips as cover as he flipped himself back upright, absorbed by her saber though in using it as a guard she was caught unawares as he swung at her, slicing through her arm just enough to burn through flesh before she angled herself away with a hiss of pain.

Gritting her teeth, she concentrated on sending a quick blast of a telekinetic push at his feet which he responded to predictably by jumping. This left him with no footing, the perfect moment for her to raise her hand by a mere five inches and let out a more powerful shove towards his chest, sending him flying backwards to smash in to the wall bordering the harbor sidewalk.

Twirling her saber slowly in her palm, she waited for him to surrender or get back up.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Wading through the water was easy for Dax with his thermal flight suit and safety jacket that was airated for just such a landing. However his K-9 blaster was probably defunct now as would be his charges on his back. Never mind.

He didn’t pay much attention as he climbed up and out following Olivia, water dripping from his chest down but the temperature and light humidity helping him feel warmer than he should.

"I’m fine," he said, turning to see the floating X-Wing in the water.

Above, the TIE was hovering and making a play to land, which meant this was a capture or kill order. Slightly disconcerning that notion, seeing as most fighters would happily take them out from above. No – this piece of work wanted to take the prize himself and probably found one or both of them a worthy trophy to take back for grilling.

Dax tried to lead on across the harbour with heightened urgency, but the Sith stopped him in his tracks, but not Olivia. She took over the situation, the ear-piece shoved into his hand as he never took his eyes off the hulking warrior ahead. He’d never seen a Sith up close and personal.

"They do like their theatrics," he muttered.

Popping the earpiece in and fumbling with the signal on the lead coming down from it, Dax connected it to the transmistter on his chest which should give enough power for the transmistter to work. He knelt down on the edge of the harbour facing Olivia and her opponent. Fingers fumbled up and down the lead to find a signal as he watched the two Force warriors engange in a nasty looking battle of strength and shock tactics. She was good – nothing like he imagined, and even now he’d never seen a Jedi in battle up close.

The ringing in his ear shook him, and snapped him back to reality as a voice came through.

"Hello! Hello?" He looked down and tweaked his transmitter, and pushed the piece in his ear tighter. "This is Dax Ragnar of the Galactic Alliance flying with Olivia…" he paused, trying to remember, "...Durant. Olivia Durant with the Jedi."

He didn’t know what the hell she called herself!

”Copy Ragnar, this is General Spencer with the Alliance. Sorry son but you’re a good 100 miles or so from our group. We move out at sun-rise so get her over here before then or you’re on your own.”

Dax blinked and recoiled as static filled his ear.

"Hello? General…he – dammit!"

He picked out the ear piece and snatched the wire from his transmitter. Resting a hand on his knee, he shook his head in annoyance and disbelief at the General’s blunt rudeness. A tremor on the harbour ground shook Dax, and he turned around on his knee to see Olivia moving towards a fallen opponent. His eyebrows raised slightly. The girl seemed to be in control. Standing, he pulled out his K-9 blaster as a sign of support – fat lot that would do – and slowly walked forward towards them.

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

There were many things she was not good at. Flying was obviously one of them. She was a terrible singer. She was obsessed with good food to the point of distraction. Traveling at night with her was equal parts hilarious and annoying due to her species’ poor night vision.

But combat...in that she excelled.

Everything elegant and regal about her translated in to a strong grace in battle, a Jedi’s calm personified in long limbs and tranquil expression. The Sith lurched from the ground, letting out a grunt as he shook dust and rubble from his shoulders. His form had made an impression in the wall, less from the force of her push as from his bulk. He was massive but that was advantageous only against someone smaller and more frightened than Olivia. Clearly this one did not possess the brains to complement his brawn.

She could hear Dax speaking in to the earpiece though eventually it seemed he lost contact. Sensing his frustration, she pushed aside its’ distraction as the beast came for her again, his eyes ringed in yellow.

One, two, one, two - the sidewalk shook beneath her feet as he drew closer. Taking a deep breath as the red glare of his saber grew ominous in her vision, she raised her blade to meet him again, bracing herself with a foot behind before slipping under his bearing down. Their conflict lasted a minute or so, engaging in her favorite dance - so much better than all those repetitive ballroom steps she’d had drilled in to her head all those years ago. Concentrating on her breathing, on letting the Force guide her movements without a stitch of her trying to control it, she eventually felt the resistance of flesh as her blade cut through the Sith and he felt backwards with a final sigh.

One more deep breath.

She turned, cutting her way back over to Dax, putting her lightsaber back at her hip next to its back-up.

“Any word? Oh and um...sorry about your ship,” she said, pointing to the water with a guilty expression.

It was the first time she’d been able to take a minute and really look at him without some sort of imminent threat or urgency hustling her. Dark-haired and dark-eyed, he managed to scoot her out as far as height went. It never really mattered to her, but she noticed because most Hapan men had always been shorter than her.

They were still in the middle of unknown territory, the threat of Sith at their backs, and apparently without any real help from the Jedi on-planet if Dax’s expression was any indication. Maybe it was just the Jedi in her, but she felt good about their odds.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

With a slightly bemused expression, Dax holstered his probably useless K-9 and look past Olivia at the downed assailant.

"Yes. We’re in trouble. Apparently you’re wanted over 100 miles away and we have unitl dawn to get you there otherwise you’re on your own."

Placing his hands on his hips, he turned to look at the floating T-70, cockpit open, and lookingas if, were it not a spacecraft, a mighty sea vessle.

"Don’t worry," he said, "because I’m sure I can get it salv -" Dax stopped mid-sentence and turned on his heel to Olivia. He pointed his finger at her. "I got an idea. Come on!"

He walked past the girl a few steps and gingely stepped over the fallen Sith, eyes noting the grizzly injury the girl had inflicted. Wincing, he tapped a signal into his wrist com, under the arm, and held it to his mouth as he walked.

"Commander this is Dax Ragnar on the ground. I’m escorting Olivia Durant but seem to have attracted a little company." He turned to see if she was following, walking away from the dock. "Can you lock in on my T-70? You’ll see it. It’s the one bobbing about in the water off shore. If you would be so kind."

With a smile, he signed off and started a little jog up and over the small incline where the Sith had come from. And there he saw it – the Sith fighter. A sleek, ugly craft. Perfect for one. Or two. He continued to it.

"Sorry but you’re going to have squeeze in a little longer. Nice of your friend to leave up his ship, wasn’t it?” Standing below the craft, he nodded and climbed up the wing and across, into the dark cockpit, adjusting his body to fight better and moving his kit on his arm and chest. He peered over the curved edge. "You coming?”

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

Apparently, you’re wanted over 100 miles away.

When she’d first joined up with the Republic, she could have sworn they dreamed up nearly impossible tasks for her to complete just to watch her squirm. She’d quickly realized however, that this was the life that Master Harrison had been referring to when he’d warned her that the life of a Jedi wasn’t easy. She had always wanted to point out that the Force wasn’t magic - it didn’t give her the power to teleport or defy the laws of physics. But in the end...she’d realized it wasn’t magic, no. But it was magical. And how she chose to use it could be too. It gave her the calm to tackle whatever was placed before her, even if she needed a minute to digest it.

“Oh well, you know - what else is new, right?” She grinned at him.

That his ship could be salvaged was good news. She would’ve felt horrible if she’d been the one to cause his ship to become a wreck, AND caused his death. Just one or the other she could probably handle.

She was a little startled when he pointed at her - something he seemed to have a habit of doing, though it was kind of endearing - and started moving off in the direction of the ground high above their position. Following him, she listened absently to his coordination of a pick-up for his ship. She noticed him step gingerly past the dead Sith, a small frown tugging at the corners of her lips. She got no joy or satisfaction from having to kill another living being - sometimes, it was unfortunately and just simply necessary. With a small nod to the dead creature, she trailed after Dax who’d picked up a run over the hillock.

It was all she had not to let out a groan when she realized what his plan involved. She should have known! The Sith fighter seemed to embody her fear, a dark and angled thing built for intimidation.

She was still looking up from the ground as his face appeared over the lip of the cockpit asking if she was going to join. With a deep breath, she hoisted herself up and wedged her body in the least obtrusive place possible. Thankfully this fighter was built with just a little bit more room, allowing her to wedge herself in without feeling like her knees were inside her stomach. She let out a hum as the ship did in its start-up, clutching her fingers around her calves as it shook with its own power and rose off the ground. She hadn’t even thought to ask him if he knew how to fly one of these things - it struck her as a stupid question honestly, borne out of her fear. He’d just managed to land them out of a situation she would have had a heart attack and died during. The basic principles were probably the same and the rest he could figure out. Probably? Hopefully? Think about something else. Anything else.

“So, what could you possibly like about flying?” she asked, the teasing tone obvious in her voice despite it being tense with nerves.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Looking away whilst Olivia came up and over into the wider cockpit, letting her adjust herself accordingly, Dax saw his T-70 over in the distance bobbing on the water. A slight, puppy-dog look creased his brow at the sight of the ship just abandoned; he hoped the Alliance would salvage it and not let it become the greatest fish bowl in the Outer Rim.

When she was set, the pilot pulled down the cockpit which was heavier than expected and glanced over the controls. What the Jedi and Sith were opposite, they were not that different when it came to building ships. The Alliance had a similar set-up here; thrusters, the yolk, what looked like missiles and canons, and that seemed to be all he needed. His eyes scanned the various buttons and read-outs, but what he didn’t need, he didn’t touch.

"Ever had that moment as a child when you look up and you see a craft swooping through the air in a blur of magnificent colour and speed? I have, and from when I was 4 I wanted to be a pilot. It’s all I’ve known – navigating, smuggling and piloting."

The engine roared into life after a number of attempts, and he cheered himself at finding the right sequence.

"It’s just you and your craft, and you can fly anywhere, accomplish anything and can do a heck of a lot of good sat here than most people can charging around down on the ground getting picked off one by one." The Sith fighter rose as Dax took control. Surprisingly it was a lighter handling craft than the T-70. "Fly fast, shoot fast, save the galaxy." He looked at her and shrugged. "What else does a guy like me need, eh?"

Looking out the cockpit, some ego-tistical makeshift claw-like spirals blocking some view to try and give the ship a dangerous look – that worked out for you, pal, didn’t it? – Dax did a couple of small laps of the harbour to get his bearings and set the coordinates of the one used to contact the Alliance on the ground, and on the 3rd loop continued out and over the water. Even the engines sounded dirty in this thing.

"Here," he handed a cramped Olivia her ear-piece, "thanks. Now, question to you; what could you possibly like about being a Jedi Knight?"

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

It would have been easy to say “nope, I’ve never once even been tempted by the wonder of flying.” It was her knee-jerk response. But she was a good listener for one, and she genuinely wanted to understand him for two. So she thought back to the first time a speeder had roared over her head, speeding off to who-knew-where in pursuit of things she’d never reach without its aid. She hadn’t been scared back then. She could at least understand his fascination and love, even if she didn’t share it.

“I had that moment, and I can see where that would lead you to be where you are now. You know, do what you love and all that? It’s really not as bad as I make it out to be, I know that. I lost my parents in a ship crash, so I just have a hard time getting back in one.”

She paused, getting her bearings as he got settled in to the flight mechanisms and leaving her explanation there. She had no wish for pity - what was done was done, and she was honoring the memory of her parents by embracing a life they would have been proud of, that exemplified all the reasons they’d left Hapes behind.

“For a second when we were up there and not being shot at and spinning around and suddenly changing directions and nearly crashing in to other ships, I even enjoyed myself.”

It wasn’t until he posed his question about being a Jedi that Olivia realized her life choices would seem just as strange as foreign to him as his flying was to her.

“Well, I’m still just a Padawan. But when I was told I had the Force I either could ignore it or do something with it. It was kind of hard to ignore it because I had a tendency to throw things harder than I meant to, or break tea cups. Where I’m from, that’s about as close to a sin as you can get but the real thing,” she explained, laughing a little at the memory. “We left Hapes for a lot of reasons, but for me it was mainly because if I had this thing called the Force, I wanted to do something good with it. Still sort of figuring that out.”

She might have asked him more questions if her commlink hadn’t crackled to life in her ear, having been hooked back in place when he’d returned it to her.

“Olivia - I don’t know where you are, but get to the coordinates I’m sending you as fast as possible. The Sith are mounting another attack and Master Po-dowi has suffered too many injuries to continue fighting. We need everyon--” The connection cut out, and she watched as the coordinates materialized on the small link at her wrist.

“Well, this is only 70 miles away,” she quipped to Dax, always trying to make the best out of an increasingly spiraling situation.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

Dax flexed his fingers on the double-grip yolk and listened to the Jedi talk, cramped beside him.

The Sith fighter moved faster than the T-70, handling wise anyway. He wasn’t going to gun the engines to the approximate speed of 2,000kmh; it was faster than he’d ever gone in atmosphere, and Olivia would likely kill him. Throw up on him first, then kill him.

Instead, he kept the hawk-esque wings low and hugged the water as best he could to reduce any interest in the Sith fighter.

"That’s a sad story to hear, Liv. I’m sorry for what happened to your mother," slightly, he slowed the ship. "Going by what I know of you already, I’m sure she was a real nice woman to be around and be brought up by. She’d be proud of you – a Jedi, all noble."

He looked over the cockpit, and then at the HUD readout, and even the font looked as dangerous as the Sith. Dax shook his head in disgust and took note of the distance to the coordinates Olivia gave, banking right to take them in a new direction.

"You ever been in any battles, Liv? Seen much of the galaxy away from Hapes? You were pretty hot with the lightsaber back there, and I know a Padawan is a trainee, but you look like you could handle yourself on your own…which you did.”

[member="Olivia Durant"]