I Can Fly Anything

[Alkesh Vizsla]

Losing both parents in one fell swoop had been - in the understatement of the year - hard, and each in their own way. Her Mother had been unable to move fast enough to unclip herself and move back from the nose of the ship in time to avoid her lower half getting crushed with the impact; she’d still been strapped in to the co-pilot’s seat, fingers curled around the release hinge. Her Father...that was what haunted her. She saw his hand outstretched, the top half of his body straining across the space to reach and help his wife. He couldn’t, but it was the idea that stuck with her - selflessness, even with his own death staring him in the face, looming large as a planet rushing towards him.

She shook the thoughts from her head with the gentle wave of Dax’s sympathy, taking a deep breath and nodding.

“I do hope they’d be proud,” she said, sounding like she truly thought they might be. She was trying.

“I’ve been on a few battlegrounds, fought a few Sith. Mostly just their Acolytes though, I haven’t faced a Knight or...a Lord.” The idea of the latter used to fill her with dread before she’d really started her training, but now she viewed it as opportunity one way or the other. She wasn’t walking around with a head full of foolish daydreams of the promise of martyrdom - she’d much rather walk away from the confrontation. But if she were to die taking just a little of the darkness from the galaxy with her, it would be what she set out to do. She would be happy. “How about you? Can’t imagine the Alliance could pass up a pilot that apparently has no fear.”

Her comm crackled to life again as they drew closer, her face settling in to concerned confusion as only a few words sailed across the connection: “Walkers--sent troops--need help--” It was weak and thready, barely enough to go on though it didn’t matter as their speed had brought them the couple dozen miles in record time. A battlefield opened underneath them as they approached the signal and she could see what the Commander had been trying to say - the Sith had dropped huge, armored walkers to grind slowly along the ground among their footsoldiers. Several other Alliance pilots had joined the fray, dipping and weaving through the air to take shots at the walkers, blowing soldiers on their feet and kicking up massive explosions of earth with the force of their shots. But none of them had the element of surprise the pilot & Jedi momentarily disguised in the Sith ship did.

“Can you take those out?!” she asked Dax, already prepping herself for the incoming panic and nausea associated with his flying.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

His eyes moved between a cramped Olivia and the horizon that flew fast to them, the ground a blur. Funny, how certain situations forced you literally to grin and bear life-and-death situations with others. From knowing nothing about the Alliance Jedi, to now flying in two crafts with her, both squeezed in one cockpit taking on dark forces? This could be a holo-drama.

Dax nodded slowly. "They’re proud. And I have lots of fear, but if I show it then - "

He stopped, to listen to her incoming message, as garbled as it was. His stomach sank at the words picked up. He let out a sigh and flexed his fingers for what was to come. The signal picked up as the craft came across the water and past a large crater to come to see a battlefield spread before them. The pilot frowned a little – this was the drop-off point? It couldn’t be as they hadn’t racked up that many miles, had they? Still, all hell had broken loose and the stolen Sith fighter was now, awkwardly, going to be a target for the very people they were fighting for and an ally to those they were trying to thwart.

She asked the question. He genuinely shrugged an answer.

"On my own?" He looked at the lumbering monoliths. "Guess we will find out!"

Dax kept the fighter as low as possible to avoid attracting attention from above – he was a ticking time bomb. Either the Alliance would blow them out the sky, or the Sith would blow them out the sky as soon as they attacked. He had to form a plan, and quick! The warmth under his collar was increasing now; this was a situation he’d never faced and hoped to never face again.

The vicious Sith fighter zig-zagged across the battlefield, pretending to evade nothing and avoiding firing on anything. Trying to blend in. Ha! Blend in, what a joke. Dax looked out sideways at a walker – the obvious weak spot shouted out to him; the 4 legs. Failing that, the underbelly. Looking over his cockpit, an already alien design, he primed the laser canons and accelerated up and around for a decisive run. He came in fast towards the walker and launched a heavy burst to the legs and rear of the walker; it was an impressive display, but nothing came of it.

"Damn!"

”Admiral, report! What are you playing at?!” The com crackled.

Dax looked surprised, and glanced to Olivia. "You took out a Sith Admiral, well done." He activated the com. "Alliance fleet this is Dax Ragnar and Jedi Olivia Durant in the Sith fighter – walker armour is too strong for blaster fire from above; take out the legs or underbelly!" He looked at the girl and smirked, chuckling a little.

”Your game is over, Rebel scum.” The com crackled off and an eerie silence followed.

"Rebel scum. How original. Hold on, Liv!"

He let out an excitable yell and pushed hard to come around again on the first lumbering walker as a convergence of Alliance fighters swarmed in unison to distract the walker’s cannons and work on the ground forces escorting it. Dax took out a speeder bike convoy with effective efficiency.

Flipping a switch, he primed a missile and was ready to launch when an explosion to his left near blinded him and forced him to pull up.

An artillery shell had struck the rear underbelly of the walker. Then another and another. Three hits, and the rear left leg joint buckled. It happened in near slow motion as the front leg walked forward and pulled the two behind; with no support, the walker’s broken leg came down and gave way and the whole machine came down at an awkward angle in a billowing cloud of dirt. Dax laughed and looked to Olivia with a nod. It was then he made his run and sent the missile into the exposed rear of the walker and sent it back to the heavens in a shower of fire, smoke and twisted metal thanks to a wonderful explosion.

Two more walkers to go, but it seemed the Alliance knew how best to target them and to work together doing it.

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

All around, they didn’t have a lot of appealing options. Get blown out of the sky by their own self-chosen allies, get blown out of the sky by Sith once their ruse was up, get blown out of the sky by something completely random, fall out of the sky when she vomited all over the viewport and prevented Dax from seeing where they were going. All of them sucked. But there was only one way to possibly avoid all of them: do something stupid.

Olivia, though not too proficient in the more esoteric facets of the Force, was incredibly empathetic and the moment she felt Dax shift in to something like intense concentration on the task ahead she closed her eyes and attempted to diffuse the cabin of the small ship with something like calm. It should have been difficult to find the sort of emotion she was trying to give him considering their current predicament but it was important and his flying was important - and truly, the only thing keeping them alive at the moment as the whole cabin rattled with the force of one of the Alliance’s fighters nearly skimming them in its attempt to get in close and shoot.

Her concentration was broken only by the sound of the comm crackling to life, some angry Sith suddenly becoming even angrier once Dax clued the Alliance forces in to the ‘game’.

Olivia actually found a grin on her face - a real live grin - as Dax lurched the fighter around to fall in with the Alliance ships in attacking the walkers. For a moment, however brief, she thought she felt maybe a tenth of what he loved so much about being up there in the sky. It was almost immediately forgotten however, when an explosion rocked next to them and forced Dax up and away, her nausea and anxiety immediately flooding back in to the picture.

“I’m useless up here!” she said once the sound of the walker groaning in its mechanical death had subsided. “Can we do like a...drive-by drop off? Can you just sort of hover and I can sort of...roll-out?!”

By the end of the day, Dax would probably think her insane.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

The Sith fighter, over-sensitive on the turning, lurched sideways as Dax took the controls too heavy to avoid a walker that seemed to lurch in from nowhere, and both he and Olivia were thrown a little at the sharp manoeuvre, and then he had to force himself up in the ship to get his bearings again. Once he had, a relieved breath escaped his lips. It was those split-second, heart-stopping moments that made you remember you were nothing more than flesh and blood and each move you made could be your last.

"Whoops. Sorry about that. Hold on."

All he ever did was say “hold on”, “hang tight”, “brace yourself” – well it was for her own good!

As he came around, Dax flew behind the picket line of what looked like artillery forces as shots whizzed by and a missile launched behind them to attack the infantry of the Sith. He kept the wings low, and the engines warm, rady to make a break for it as he hovered inches above the ground and pushed up the cockpit. He stood, making way for Olivia.

"Ok, Jedi. This is your stop on the tour. Try not to get yourself killed, and hopefully we may meet again after."

With a nod and a small salute, he smiled and let her disembark carefully and wondered how she felt being back on solid ground. Looking over at the battlefield, the smouldering walker a nice pyre to focus on for the Alliance victory, the fight wasn’t over, and he had a job to do – but he hoped Olivia wouldn’t get into much trouble away from him. Hopefully he’d see again after this fight.

There were two walkers left; take out the heavies and the little grunts would be lost.

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

As quickly as their adventure had begun, it ended. Despite being on merely a few battlefields she’d learned that they rarely delivered the expected - and this one had been absolutely no exception. Perhaps the strangest yet. But there was nothing wrong with that. She actually laughed when he advised she avoid death, nodding. “Good advice Dax,” she chuckled as she made sure she had everything, the last thing she wanted to have to find him again and ask him if he’d happened to find her second lightsaber by any chance. “Thank you for helping me, and may the Force be with you.”

The ground felt strange but good underneath her feet after she gracefully pulled herself from the ship, watching as the TIE hissed back up.

The strands of her hair that had escaped her short ponytail whipped around the edges of her face as it lifted and shot off like a bolt, leaving the Jedi a small speck with a glowing green blade at her side looking up at a bird taking the sort of flight she’d never be capable of.

“They’re taking heavy losse--push them ba--we can d!--”

Turning on her heel, she started a head-long dash, leaping over debris, dashing and cutting her way through enemies to make it where she needed to go. Dax was in the sky doing what he did best, and now it was time for Olivia to do what she did best.

____________​

“I’ll personally oversee getting that X-Wing out of the sluice-river myself General, if you don’t have the men to spare. If it weren’t for that pilot I wouldn’t have made it to the planet at all, let alone safely.”

“And we will, Olivia,” the General said, letting out a laugh as she pushed off the table displaying their clear victory over the Sith an hour prior. “Just enjoy yourself for a minute. You worked hard out there.”

Olivia huffed, blowing a strand of hair off her forehead...though she couldn’t help but smile.

At that moment she caught a flash of orange, dark hair, out of the corner of her eye. Following it on a hunch, she saw Dax - grin, white teeth, sharp jawline, surrounded by a bunch of pilots clapping him on the back and yammering excitedly about the TIE fighter, asking what it was like to fly it. She paused, leaning against a wall with her shoulder and crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for them all to get it out of their systems. She didn’t really get it, but it must have been something like getting a new lightsaber hilt for a Jedi - you just had to know what made it so special. Besides, it gave her a chance to watch him without the interruption of impending doom. The others seemed to respect him, nodding and grinning as they discussed some technical words that made Olivia’s head spin.

Eventually it seemed they were all called away to other things and Olivia trotted forwards to catch up.

“Dax! Hey…” She grinned up at him, more relaxed than their first meeting but similar in just about every other way. “I convinced the General to make sure your X-Wing is pulled out of the water first thing before we leave the planet. Just waiting on her go-ahead to go supervise if you want to come with. Otherwise I’ll make sure it gets back to the spacestation for repairs and uh...a drying-out.”

That sheepish look again.

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​

 

[Connor Harrison]

The dogfight raged on – Dax worked with the X-Wings to take out the TIES and pirate ships in his Sith fighter, clearly showing the Alliance just what side he was fighting for. The clouds whipped past as they took to the high atmosphere and kept away high assaults as the ground crew worked the final walkers, and Olivia probably cleaving more of the enemy with her saber.

And it was over as soon as it had begun – the Alliance toppled the walker, and the remaining fighters retreated.

---------------​

Solid ground beneath the feet of a pilot was like a soft mattress under a sleepy traveller – bliss. The fresh air was a godsend and the sights and sounds of the surface he landed on was a welcome greeting as Dax made his way down with the others to congregate and applaud their push-back of the Sith force.

Excited chatter, exaggerated hand gestures dictating flight paths and close calls were used as the pilots welcomed Dax back to the fold and introductions were made, each pilot narrating a little of their story in the battle. While he didn’t know names or faces, he knew they were all fighting on the same side, and that was good enough. They were all brothers and sisters of the skies.

And then a voice caught his attention as the pilots broke away – Olivia. He smiled and met her, a reassuring clasp on the shoulder. She looked a little grubby, but was holding herself like a solider, not a stowaway now.

"Hey kid," he smiled, grateful to see her alive AND to hear about the T-70. "I appreciate that, thank you. And the fact you’re still here, that’s always good."

He started walking slowly from the Sith fighter, happy to see the back of it.

"I don’t report here so I’m happy to escort you where you need to go. In a ship fit for TWO people this time. I don’t fancy you sitting on my knee again." He side-looked on at her, an amused smirk on his face.

[member="Olivia Durant"]

 

[Alkesh Vizsla]

He was a hard one to figure out.

One second he was calling her ‘kid’ much like one might to someone they were trying to politely, albeit obviously, keep at arm’s length. The next second he was - well, she thought it was a sort of flirty thing, but she was admittedly pretty bad at discerning that because back home a guy might have been imprisoned or executed for saying the wrong thing to her. Was that normal? What was happening?

Hoping she didn’t look too openly confused, she nodded. “Sounds good to me. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can get a real break from flying around all over the place.”

With a resigned sigh, she followed him off towards a free ship to take towards where his T-70 had fallen.

________________​

“Good news sir,” the Alliance reclamation team leader said, adopting the strange vernacular many did when speaking to Jedi. The first time someone had called her ‘sir’ she hadn’t responded, assuming she wasn’t the one being spoken too as she was most assuredly female. But alas it was just one more thing she’d had to get used to. “The T-70 remains fully functional. From what we can tell, no systems were damaged beyond a few cosmetic repairs that will need to be made. I expect it will be back online within a day or so.”

“You’re right, that’s excellent news,” she said, garnering a smile from the man who clearly took no small bit of pride in his work.

With a sigh, she turned to Dax.

“Alright. Mind taking me home? You know, since you haven’t helped me out enough today.”

[member="Dax Ragnar"]​