In the void, politics don't apply!

[Hestan Kantrael]

[member="Quinncolson"]
[member="Lahi Te'ala"]

Bloody Core, Hestan loved Kashyyyyk.
All those trees, big, nasty trees, all the smells and fantastic panoramic sights, the sounds he could hear, sounds of life and activity, evolution. These were things he would have never been exposed to had he stuck to his life back on Kiffex, back in the workshop with his parents and clan. But, then again, his modern life was a bit of a mess, to be entirely honest: yes, he had left home in some sort of a hurry the moment he was given the freedom to fly a ship wherever he wanted (barring warzones and fuel prices or hyperlane taxes, of course), but had kept true to his inheritance, the traditions of his family and, in minor way, whole clan. Doing stuff; crafting things; making the inanimate evolve into always more complex shapes and purposes. He had brought to the stars his art and commerce, where things truly happened.

And that time, he had been thrown on the homeworld of the mighty Wookiees because a distant friend of his had told him that there was a particularly interesting asteroid in close proximity to the world of Kulthis, in the Belderone system. It was just outside the Silver Sanctum's space and one of the first worlds of the Oter Rim a spacer would have passed if following the Perlemian Trade Route. Now, Hestan had absolutely no karking idea of what that asteroid had of so important to be labelled as "interesting", but that friend of his was close enough to know his standards of interest-measurement and if he had said "Hey, pal, go there and check that out, sure as the stars you'll like the vista", well, the Kiffar could believe the words of that furball.
Besides, people could always trust a Wookiee: it was one of the Galaxy's bloody constants, like taxes and death. But, hey, then he was getting sentimental and mushy; yeah, not a good thing. So Hestan, who always enjoyed the presence of other like-minded individuals during his hunts, had posted a somewhat cryptic advert on the republican and, why not, Jedi holoboards, asking if there were any volunteers to help "a fellow Kiffar of science unravel one more space's mystery", hoping, well... hoping he would not be paired with the stereotypical stalwart defender of the weak and so on with the propaganda juma.

The interesting thing was, though, that not one single Jedi but whopping two had answered his call! Well, the first was dead sure while the second this had to check in with the details, so he had arranged a lift for both of them to Kashyyyyk, in the capital, Rwookrrorro, main spaceport, docking bay 32, whence he would have discovered the details with them and then hopped onto the Long Run en route to Kulthis.
The only problem was, well, kriff... he only had two bunks. Probably, if need arose, he would have foregone sleep and stayed at the pilot's seat, so that both his companions had all the comfy stuff. He had the impression they were both females, so he thought even more that was the way to go.
Anyhow, he stood on the wooden platform in his full attire save for the helmet, clipped to his utility belt, and the hood that was gently resting on his back, basking in the system's only star's light as he awaited the two transports to land and present him his newly found companions.

Allright, the first meeting point is Docking Bay 32 in Rwookrrorro's main spaceport (try to say that fast and loud 20 times...), where you'll first meet your neighbourhood pilot!

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

Credits weren't exactly easy to come by - especially for a masterless Padawan, and even more especially for a masterless Padawan with no sense of what credits or value even were. Such was the case with the pure white Diathim who sat in the transport she'd secured, as it made its way through hyperspace - she'd secured a cheap one, through a certain method, one that most people would call 'stupid' or 'suicidal' but to her was just 'better'. She didn't have any windows, in the little airlock she stood in, the entire ship was enclosed - no weaknesses that way, she'd supposed. The PA came on as she felt the telltale jerking of leaving hyperspace, "Right, we're in the system above the planet. We'll fly you in close to your meeting place. Doors'll open when we're close enough you wont get lost."

Yep, that's how she arranged transport - see, most of the transports she could have gotten on weren't going to Rwookrrorro, but she did find a few that would be flying past it in route to other places on the Wookie homeworld. It just took a few hours of bartering with them to find one willing to open their airlock and shoot her out it as they were nearby - which was harder than Lahi expected - even showing off her flight capabilities, they seemed doubtful of the idea of throwing her out the airlock. It was really quite boring! But eventually she found someone who cared more about her money than her wellbeing, and they were more than willing to launch her out the airlock like she asked.

------

The small transport was unremarkable as it sped past Rwookrrorro, that is, until the airlock doors opened, and a bright glowing star shot out of it, quickly flying up, and then down, and seeming to orient itself, before rocketing down towards the spaceport, while the transport continued to fly on. A loud, "Heeeeeeelllloooooooooo~!" Screamed to all those near the spaceport, as the star turned into a glowing winged person, who seemed to be enjoying herself far too much as she spun through the air before finally landing in an empty docking space, I am meeting my pilot here! Here for adventuring, journey!"

She flipped up the hood of her - custom made - dress, and moved her face mask up, suddenly very aware of where she was and how many people were staring at her, "Oops, forgot to put on first." There would, hopefully, be not hypnotizing of her fellow travelers, at least! Especially not when flying. her wings wrapped around her shoulders, chest, and stomach, leaving the blue clad woman with a white 'coat' over her.

[member="Hestan Kantrael"]​

 

[Hestan Kantrael]

And here he thought "Yeah, boring guardians of the weak and all that Juma"... boring guardians of the weak and all that Juma his backside! Last thing he expected was the shuttle not even arriving or remotely closing to the appointed landing zone and, instead, a piercing scream darting from the heavens high above as a all too humanoid figure literally rained from the kriffing sky.
A man of science and engineering as he claimed to be should have known that there were creatures in the wider Galaxy capable of independent and integrated flying, like both Geonosians and Toydarians, but in that precise moment his "manhood of science", awful name we can all convene, was discarded in favour of the repression of the instinct that was trying to force him to grab his bulky blaster, roll for cover and spray without praying. Lukily for both, his self control won that particular match, as he forcibly brought both his hands on his hips while staring at the, it was to be said, angelic apparition gently gliding onto the ground in the kashyyykian fresh, vegetable air.

He was almost laughing when called for the young white-ish girl, after having double-checked her identity not to be mistaken. That was going to be a bloody handful, he thought, but not as bad as he had foreseen at first.

Hey, you there! That was a hell of an explosive entrance, I'd say!

Hestan bowed gently, as it was proper to both a Jedi and a young lady: yes, scavenger and all that, but not a rude one. Besides, although not harbouring the highest of opinions on the general impression Jedi gave of themselves, that one appeared to be almost as off the stereotype as him was from the one of the ruthless raider.
Yep, that was going to be a bloody handful! In the positive sense, of course.

Are you Te'a... no, Lahi? I'm sorry, I'm terrible at names... By the way, I'm Hestan, from clan Kantrael, and I guess I am your pilot for this run. We're going to wait for another one. Another of your fellows, I guess.

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

"Hey, me here!" She called back to the strange man who was waving her over, and quickly moved towards him, arms out wide as she gave the strange human a hug, seeming extremely happy, as he tried to bow to her and give her a 'proper' greeting. She easily stood a foot taller than the Wookies around them, let alone compared to the human, who she basically towered over, "Is more fun to fly than land. And cheaper transport too!" She released the human soon after her greetings began, wings glowing even brighter than before. Nothing like a proper Jedi, it was clear that the padawan needed quite a lot of training, if they wanted to get the Diathim out of her, and get her to start acting like a proper padawan should.

"Lahi, yes! Is good greetings to you, Hestan, clan Kantrael." As soon as she had introduced herself, she was already looking around, at the trees, at the wookies, she seemed rather surprised by it all, and her wings unfurled, and she started to fly upwards, towards the height of the trees, "Is like we shrink, trees so big!" As soon as she returned to the ground, she rushed towards a Wookie, busy carrying heavy looking crates, and seemed to be comparing heights, seeming pleased about being only half a foot taller than the - rather tall - wookie "And is only slightly shorter. Like this place! Is good!"

Then her head tilted towards Hestan finally, "Ooh, more fellows! Is good, not get much time with them yet! Will be more learned with more eyes, too! Will be good journey-adventure, yes?" She hadn't actually ever gone scavenging, or even considered the idea of it, but finding possibly interesting things, with friends, in positions where they could possibly have things go wrong? It sounded like an adventure if there ever was one, "What fellow is having come?"

[member="Hestan Kantrael"]​

 

[Hestan Kantrael]

[member="Lahi Te'ala"]
Holiest and bloodiest of Cores, that girl was tall. Like, Wookiee-tall or, as he could see right in front of his eyes, Wookiee-taller, something he almost could not believe. Wookiees were in the tallest species of the Galaxy, for stars' sake, and yet they had found a match for their height. Next question was: what species was that very peculiar - and overly expansive - Jedi?
Hestan could glimpse very few details of her physiology, along with the fact that he could not check her ID reference in whatever records they were kept as he did not know which was her faction and, had he ever known, he was dead-sure a random spacer like him did not have clearance of access to consult them. He guessed he had to resort to the old fashioned question, then, but that could wait, for the moment: usually, the socializing bit was best if left for the trip in hyperspace, when there was plenty of time.
As a side note, well, the Kiffar was not entirely sure Lahi was going to fit the Long Run's ceilings... letting alone the bunks, for that matter.

He kind of liked the gal, already: expansive, perhaps a bit too much, but curious. Hestan always liked people who talked about learning and showed curiosity, it was sign of superior minds and intellects. It always was a good sign, even though he had frequently to remind himself that that alone was not enough to grant respect and friendship: galactic history was brimming with examples of geniuses who had turned into absolute monsters.

There's another Jedi who will be of ours for this small hunt. If memory serves me well, her name is Quinn Colson: ever heard of her?

Because he definitely had not. Well, not that he was a champion in frequenting Jedi. Hestan smiled, almost for himself: yep, that was going to be fun, for a change.

Indeed it's going to be a journey-adventure! We're most likely to go investigate an asteroid a friend of mine pointed me to: he thinks there are interesting things there, perhaps mining facilities or even a pirate bay. You have no idea of what kind of treasure troves these places can be!

And then his professional side kicked in, always in the wrong moment.

On a side note: how good are you at flying? Flying a ship, I mean: I see you're way better than I am at, well, making snipers' lives miserable.

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

Lahi seemed utterly confused as she watched Hestan's expression, her glowing, pupil-less eyes every so often going to him even as she looked around the wonders of the spaceport, with a childlike glee. She had met a lot of humans, most of the people she met were humans, they were all so incredibly different looking - most of her people looked very similar, to each other. There were some minor differences in height, but the same hair, the same body type, the same coloring - it was very similar, but they all felt different, there was something that she felt when she saw other Diathim, that she didn't feel with Humans, or the other races. So instead she focused on the large variety of physical differences, thinking herself something of an expert at picking out different humans now. But this one was different in another way, he was staring, but he wasn't entranced, he was simply interested in another way all together.

Even the Padawans she had spent time with often stared for the hypnotic nature, and not a genuine interest - and it was easy to tell the difference. A few blinks and a nod as Lahi listened to whom else would be joining them, "Brief-met. Is old. Know that much! But not physical old, just from long ago." She couldn't recall that much exceptional about it - apparently for humans, eight hundred years was a fabled long ago time. The Diathim did not track years as closely as humans did, they did not take the time to do so - Lahi couldn't even tell someone how many years old if she tried.

"Pirates dangerous! Should-would be careful, when going. Not-have saber-light, not-like hurt others." It was an understatement of a century, the Diathim knew as much - the mere thought of hurting someone else made her glow dim slightly. A knot in her heart, something that kept her feeling weak now, she folded her wings around herself again, "Hope gone, so no fighting. Will protect if is, best can!"

As the question about piloting was raised, she looked at the nearby ships, and shrugged, "Repaired-broken, flew to Yavin. Only-pilot time. Diathim not have metal whales. Want learn, but is not easy." She remembered scraping together the parts to repair the 'Harmony', and how she almost crashed it anew when she landed on Yavin - she had no doubts that she was not exactly a skilled pilot, but she at least knew how to run a navicomputer now.

[member="Hestan Kantrael"]​

 

[Hestan Kantrael]

Not physical old but "long time ago" old? What the bloody juma that meant?!
The other Jedi got freezed in carbo and stayed there for untold decades without dying for starvation or muscular atrophy? Well, that was something he should have investigated a bit more, for it had picked his interest as sure as taxes, death and Wookiees existed. It was not something that happened every day, right? What facility had her imprisoned? Who were its operators? With which funds the whole thing had been run, and henceforth.
Or she could have come up with something: Jedi were famous to do or experience weird things, as long as the grapevine went. Not that he, as a self-proclaimed men of science, believed much to the underworld's grapevine, but if it had survived for many millennia it meant it was not complete and utter rubbish, was it?

One thing he did not like, though, was this [member="Quinncolson"] person being late. He hated latecomers, as many a stranded would-be-partner could attest in the both recent and not-so-recent past: being on time was both a form of respect, one his parents had almost piston-drilled into his thick skull, and a modus operandi, a way of operating. It told many things about the person, he believed. Because he was going to go to the asteroid along with Lahi and get that thing over with.
His contact for her ride had told him she already had a ship of hers, so at least she was not stuck there on Kashyyyk in case she had really arrived there tremendously late while they were both long gone. On the other hand, Hestan kind of hoped too the asteroid was not the heaven of a band of pirates, firstly because he was no professional fighter, and second because, well, that would have required the local armed of peace keeping forces, which were behind a border. Which would have taken time to summon and then they would have sequestered all the loot present there.
Yeah, bad thing.

Besides, did Lahi just say she was a "Diathim"? Hestan had the impression of having already heard the name, but it did not ring any bell... perhaps he knew them under another, more common name: another thing he would have to investigate further, when all that juma was over.

Allright, then... if our Jedi friend, here, deigns herself of showing up to us mere mortals, we're green to go.

He thought about that perhaps a bit too late, but he had no clue about how these Diathim reacted to sarcasm. Irony was a thing, almost every sentient being in the Galaxy could get it, but sarcasm?

Don't worry about difficulty in learning: everything's hard when you don't know how to make it work and many time is only a matter of practice or getting used to. During the flight I'll show you a couple of things about co-piloting a shuttle.

And not dying of claustrophobia, for what mattered.

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

Lahi turned her head to the side, seeming surprised, and just a little confused by Hestan deciding they should leave - and also more than a bit by the sarcasm that she apparently did not understand in the least - though it did not seem to bother or offend her at all. Just confused the poor girl(?) as they started to move towards the ship they were going to be in, "Is unfortunate no-Quinn. But sure adventures with her come soon, so not worry." Besides, she wanted to get this adventure underway, they'd done so much talking, and so little actual learning or adventuring - and the offer of him teaching her how to co-pilot seemed to light up the dazzling eyes of the Diathim.

"Will try-be good student. Am smart-learner." She wasn't too afraid of being cooped up even in a small starship for a long period of time - after all, she still found every inch of them so fascinating. She wished to learn how they all ticked, what made them run, what to do to really make them run, like she'd heard of pilots doing. There was so much to learn, so much to do, so many things she could focus on, and with a teacher at hand, she had plenty of ability to learn it while they flew. "Will good-best co-pilot, for you! Or try hard be it."

Part of her was sad about leaving Kashyyk for the ship already, but she simply filed away the name of the planet, for later adventuring and exploring. The idea of flying to the tops of the trees, and then into the bottom near the trunks, and how many layers there were - it amazed her. She truly looked forward to whatever adventure brought her there for longer.

[member="Hestan Kantrael"]​

 

[Hestan Kantrael]

Hestan nodded with an amused smile on his face as he went through the starport's corridors, slowing down his pace so that Lahi could always keep track of him and not get lost in the maze-like, multy-dimensional wooden halls and walkways typical of the Wookiee architecture. He was going to Docking Bay 99, some 67 bays over the one they had just left, where his own starship was docked and, he had to admit that, very lovingly tended to by the various mechanic droids.

§ § §​

​

Docking Bay 99 was very similar to the one they had "just" left: a circular plaza of enormous size, big enough to fit a small diplomatic cruiser or one of those big frigates that ferried ores and other goodies from one commercial stockpiling place to another waiting for all the selling to happen. In its centre, perched on a rotating platform that had just sunk into the wood-'n'-steel floor with a hiss of hydraulics, sat a roughly triangular black shape, almost reminiscent of some sea creature of old, upon which hull hummed and buzzed various positioning and marker lights.
Hestan put his hands on his hips as he was once again drinking in the sight of his voidfarer, his home and den of wonders, smiling with satisfaction until he spread his arms and made a welcoming gesture to Lahi.

Lahi of the Diathim, allow me to present you the Long Run. My starship, my mobile home, the place where the vast majority of my creative juma takes place!

He close the vessel's soft belly, passing between the strong landing stanchion as he closed to the entry ladder, which extended from its housing to the turning of a heavy duty plastoid switch.

Long Run, she is Lahi Te'ala of the Diathim and she's going to be our copilot for this endeavour.

Talking to his ship. Yes, many spacers did that, so what was the problem? Not that there were people listening there!
He then turned to the Diathim, motioning her to come closer and follow him.

Allright, here we go: I'm afraid is a bit cramped inside, but, you know, craftsmen need a lot of things and spaceships cost so many eyes of the head that you're most likely to need a Gand to cover all the expenses. And it would be still cheating. Climb up this ladder and then turn right for the cockpit, but mind the ceiling. Isn't that sort of phasing of yours going to help, is it? Because, you know, a hurt copilot, or even a hurt passenger at that, I mean, is, well, not so nice.

He then clambered up the small ladder, left his cape and hood on the first free spot he could see, and made for the pilot's seat as an electronic feminine voiced welcomed him and Lahi aboard.

Allrighto! The full description of the Long Run is in my character sheet ^^ the video is by far the best indicator you can have of the interiors, but don't consider the guns he says the ship has.The Long Run has only 2 twin-linked laser turrets as stated in the ship's integrative description I wrote for her ^^

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Quinn runs in very startled "Sorry I'm late got caught up in training." She says as she looks at The long run very impressive. She looks at the people assembled before her. She ran and yelled up at the ship "Hey

[member="Hestan Kantrael"]

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

A walk was tiring on Lahi, and so she did not even attempt to make the trip on her feet, instead lifting off the ground, a slow flight that allowed her to practically hover along with Hestan - though the slow flight was interspersed with the hyperactive Diathim flying off to look at some plant or pile of goods or what not, only to return just as quickly, after she had looked at it. The long trip up didn't seem to discourage or tire her at all, as she floated around on those glowing wings of hers, like some sort of fairy creature. A few little pieces of vine were quietly ripped off where they lay on the trees, and stuffed into a little satchel around her waist, a form of souvenir.

And then the arrived at the platform, and Hestan seemed so happy with his own ship, that she could not help but share the sentiment. It, perhaps, was a little small for the landing platform, and a large ship could have fit to it, but that was in no way a bad thing for it. It was sleek, and while the coloring was boring, it was also practical, and she knew that much at least. It had rather nice looking guns, at least to her, but she did not know that much about ships - or weapons, really, she actually knew more about ships than she did weapons.

"Hello, Long Run." The padawan gave a little bow to the ship, as she was introduced to it, and it introduced to her. She seemed to regard Hestan speaking to the ship as no oddity at all, and even moved a hand to softly run down the metal exterior of it, as she followed him to look over the ship, and enter it, "Not mind ducking. Am used to." Everywhere she'd gone since leaving home has been at least a little too small for her, barring the impressive temples which seemed designed for true giants, judging by how high their ceilings were.

However, as she was ducking to properly enter, she could feel something behind her, and turned back to smile at Quinn, "Appears we brought together, regardless of late. Hello. Just going, we were. This Long Run, should say hi." She motioned over the ship, and up into it, moving her way inside without any real issue to bending over, and keeping her wings folded over herself quite neatly to allow her room to walk towards where she was directed - allowing Hestan and Quinn to speak.

[member="Quinncolson"] [member="Hestan Kantrael"]​

 

[Hestan Kantrael]

[member="Lahi Te'ala"] [member="Quinncolson"]
Lucky her, Hestan had not fired the engines up... yet. With a grunt of displeased acknowledgement from what the ship's proximity sensors had reported, he turned on the marker lights in proximity of the entrance ladder so that the latecomer would have had some clues on where to enter the Long Run.
At last, finally, the group was reunited, yeah; they could depart for the bloody asteroid.

I hope you have a darn good reason for this "rocket-league" apparition, miss Jedi. I don't stand latecomers very much.

He sighed, waving a hand in a motion to mean that he had nothing more to say about that argument and pointing the co-pilot's seat to Lahi. He turned on the main battery-group, one of the vessel's main features energy management-wise, as the newly restored power surged through the ship's hull thick cables and the various monitors and lights flickered back to life showering both the Jedi and Hestan with numbers and parameters. He started running through the ship's main systems, thinking out lout so that Lahi could listen. He was not technically going to hold "co-piloting 101" class, as that would have come to a bit later moment: as he was preparing the Long Run to leave the spaceport, he was going to give her a brief lesson on that particular procedure since she would have used it very often in her future.

Allright: main power plant, check. Secondary power plant, check. Long range sensor suite, green; proximity sensor suite, check. Life support, check. Shield banks, check. Guns, online; gun controls...

He grabbed the stick that controlled both laser turrets, keeping an eye on a monitor at his upper-left, showing what both turrets were aiming at. Before tickboxing the weapons, he filtered through the various vision modules.

Usually, main systems checking is left to the pilot and, when present, the one for secondary systems is up to the co-pilot: light switches, various monitors, light bulbs and the like. Basically, all the "inside stuff" you can see here. Checking all systems is paramount as when you are out there, in space, everysinglething has to work top-notch quality, otherwise you're seriously risking fancy things like being stranded or suffocating to death, or whatever.

He straightened up his spine resting both his hands on the ship's main controls. Yup, the old Run was going to fly again.

So, next up, when you leave civilization, is making the space port flight control, or whoever is the authority there, that you are leaving. Usually, it is about telling them your ship's designation, what are you carrying, where and why are you going there so that they know how many vessels're in transit at any given moment and can direct you to a flux that has lesser affluence or whatever they see fit.

Hestan smirked and shot a glance at her pupil-less eyes, almost fatherlike, even though he had no clue about her age. He was almost feeling like the extravagant uncle bringing his nephews on a countryside trip, not a scavenging run. Well, who knew, perhaps even Quinn could learn something she did not know before, eh?
Yeah, clan mentality his cargo ramp... so much for being a professional.

Just stick to their directions: they tend not to make much sense, but usually at tower control they know what they're doing. If they tell you to reach atmo via the most crowded sky-lane, there must be a reason behind it other than "They've gone complete banana".
Most of the times, at least.
Don't worry, we're going to talk co-pilot real soon.

He fiddled with the comlink commands, opening a communication channel with said flight control while, at the same time, one side of the closest monitor showed traffic graphs and fuel diagrams.

Rwookrrorro flight control, this is KDY-EV 1521, docked in Bay 99, requesting permission to take off and a route to clear orbit.

From the other side, a metallic, droid-like voice answered with no inflection. Often Wookiee spaceport did not have native personnel unless they were for internal traffic, as shyryywook was completely incomprehensible to the other species and those who understood it were an appalling minority, let alone those who could actually speak it and be answered to in a satisfactory manner.
Mental note: he should have to learn it, one year or the other.

Rwookrrorro flight control to KDY-EV 1521, please state the nature of your cargo and purpose, copy.

I have two Jedi aboard and exploratory supplies and am directed to Silver Sanctum borders for an excavation effort, copy.

It was vague, perhaps even not completely true, but droids did not need to know everything as their communications were tracked and registered somewhere. Was someone going to pilfer through tons of terastacks of data only to get that particular conversation about something almost trivial? Not likely, but every risk he could avoid taking was a plus.
After a couple of seconds the droid's voice rang again in the small cabin.

KDY-EV 1521, you are cleared to take off and lead to sky-lane 382 for atmospheric clearance. On behalf of the Rwookrrorro population and the Kashyyyk elders' we wish you the smoothest of travels.

With that out of the way, Hestan gunned on the engines, motioning the Long Run up and forwards as beneath her the land shrunk faster and faster. He drew a breath of relief: that was one of the most boring and irritating part. Bureaucracy.
Now started the really interesting one: as they were leaving Kashyyyk's fair atmosphere, he called the local starchart on the holographic projector between both seats, showering the cockpit in the white and light blue of holograms, and typed the asteroid's coordinates into a small keypad.

If you want to do the honours, Lahi, that is the hyperspace lever. You pull that, and the Run will do her greatest magic.

He then turned to face Quinn, a not-so-approving look on his face.

And about you. We're going to scavenge an asteroid which, presumably, has some sort of installation in it. I don't know its nature, but when we get there I will need everyone's utter cooperation of we're going to get tea-bagged in a few seconds.

Perhaps he should not have been so hard on her? Perhaps he should have. But, come on! He asked for a companion! Not a late-arriving teenager! Holy Core, that was going to be a handful: he had already thought like three times, yes, but that was the case for a fourth one.
To be as objective as he could, the first impression was not of the best ones.

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

The Diathim seemed a little wide eyed as she was sat down in the copilot seat, and watched the expert pilot go over every bit of system that had to be checked and armed, and then began to direct her to her side of the cockpit, where she had to begin, "Monitors." She flipped one switch, causing a few displays to go up and bright, reading various types of information important to her and Hestan, various dials and numbers all of which were labeled - coolant levels, fuel reserves, heat ratings, exhaust levels. More readouts on the other side of the cockpit showed the more important information to the actual pilot - energy reserves, shield levels, weapon heat. Between the two of them the radar signatures were shown upon the monitor, able to track other ships in space - as well as other large objects.

One by one, she went through them, "Coolant green. Green good. Fuel full. Heat little. Exhaust also green. More good." She turned a nob all the way, before leaning in to read what the little nob seemed to say, "Internal Temperature..." She read what it said, and then quickly flipped it back down to a tolerable level - luckily before it heated up inside, "Normal heat. Sorry." That could have been slightly bad - for everyone else, not really for her, but still, hurting the others would be being a very bad co-pilot.

Listening to them taking off, and the conversation with the droid, Lahi was struck, a little, with how much of the galaxy relied on them - she had heard the Wookies speaking, just a little, and she couldn't imagine actually learning to speak it herself - the basic tongue was hard enough. And though she personally had ways around it, she marveled at how other people had found ways around these things. With their lack of flight, space ships, with their need to understand languages and translate, droids. It was so industrious - not at all like her people.

And then she was told that she could hit the hyperdrive, while Hestan was talking to Quinn. The bright glowing girl grew even brighter in the cockpit, as she put her hand on the hyperspace lever, and very quickly counted down, without the barest of pauses between numbers, "Threetwoonego!" The lever was thrown, the hyperdrive engaged, and the Angel giggling happily as she did it!

[member="Hestan Kantrael"] [member="Quinncolson"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Quinn climbed in with her head hung low and sat behind the pilot whom she new she made mad. She always seemed to have a way of diffusing anger instead of bringing it down on herself.

[member="Lahi Te'ala"] [member="Hestan Kantrael"]

 

[Hestan Kantrael]

[member="Lahi Te'ala"] [member="Quinncolson"]
As the stars turned into long white-bluish stripes around them and the Long Run accelerated to hyper-speed with a loud crack of matter being pushed aside, Hestan double-checked the navigational instruments for the last time, making sure they were going in the right bloody direction, and then pulled the local section of the astronavigation galactic chart. First, a bit of nav-lesson, then co-piloting. It was some sort of rejuvenating to see Lahi's almost childish joy as she had pulled the lever, really, that was something not too frequent.
He felt like he was back at school, only on the wrong side of the desk.

So... we're going to pass Togoria and then leave hyperspace close to the Roche Asteroids for the hyperdrive to cool down and a quick recharge of the main batteries. We should spend there as least time as possible: it's still Republic space, but it's frontier one and I don't want to be caught by any clone people or whatnot. Then we'll jump again, this time following the Perlemian Trade Route, this time for good, dropping out in the Belderone System, close to the planet of Kulthis, where our asteroid is kindly awaiting. Be advised that we'll be right on the border between the Mid Rim and the Outer Rim, basically between slums and no man's land, so some pretty bad pooddoo might happen.

In case both Jedi did not know. Hestan had assumed it as some sort of general rule: always tell Jedi the perils of travel, since they might have grown a bit detached from galactic life. Plus, Quinn appeared to be extremely young and probably did not have the actual time to scour the Galaxy as he had. Sort of. He was young too, that was true, but at least had had the chance to have a bigger part of his fill.
On Lahi's behalf, instead, he had no clue, so he thought it was safe to assume that she did not know anything. Best case scenario, what he had said was useful to her; worst case scenario, she already knew and only had confirmation from his words. A win-win for everyone either way. Aside of that, it was always good to give others a small glimpse of the Galaxy's true scale and magnitude: hypertravel had shortened the distances a tremendous amount, yes, but still it had its limitations.

§ § §​

With a thunderous crack that resonated like an artillery impact in the inside of the cramped cockpit, the Long Run exited hyperspace, floating in the weightless space as an elegant sea-creature of yore. From a distance were visible enormous chunks of swirling and churning rocks that rotated and pivoted as if buffeted by some invisible forces that toyed with them at their every whim.
Hestan was not deeply in love with asteroids and their various belts and fields, but he could tell beauty when he saw it, and that was one such case. Nothing to do with nebulae, though.
So, back to brute business: refuelling operations.

All right, Lahi, here we start. While I check the hyperdrive's heat levels and initiate the cellbanks' recharge, I need you to keep a constant eye on the long range sensors, that fancy screen with blue radial on your bottom-right. Moving red dots are small crafts, moving red squares are something between shuttles and frigates, while the red triangles are cruisers up to capital ships.
The good co-pilot's main task is that of checking what the pilot cannot and, as such, splitting the load of directing the whole ship between them so that more concentration can be devoted to each task. You will see pretty quickly what boon a co-pilot is to a pilot who knows their worth.
Quinn, grab that monitor at your forehead-high and tell me the red gauge's level.

That said, frenetic activity was soon to fill the cramped cockpit. He dismissed flight controls to the upper-left monitor for he did not need their intrusion in the immediate moment and called the hyperdrive's suite readout: being a shuttle and not a cruiser, the Run's was not that powerful to allow a two or three-sectors jump in one go without melting and nobody wanted to actually know what happened when that kind of pooddoo happened during hyperspace. Seriously, scientist could love their job so much, Hestan included, but to everything there were limits.

Hyperdrive's heat at 75%, dropping 3% a-second. Estimated time before optimal operation temperature: fifteen seconds. Bloody Core, for a second I thought much worse: for this kind of jumps it gets around ninety-ish as the whole thing is not power enough to handle that much activity.

They had some twenty or thirty seconds to get the maximum out the local star, energy-wise: that was one of the pains and perks of having a cellbanks-run starship.

Don't worry, next post is going to be it, we're going to arrive I wanted to do this little delay as Lahi needs a bit of piloting lessons and it is an aspect usually overlooked at because the average reader might not find it cool enough, but I think it adds tons to the immersion!
So: [member="Lahi Te'ala"], on your screen you see that the radar has picked up two red squares some tens of thousands of kilometres, closing in on the Long Run's position. A small label on their marker reads "Kymogila heavy fighter". [member="Quinncolson"], instead, your screen reads a host of data about cellbanks covering the ship's various energy needs and the red gauge, the "Master Energy Readout", is about 87%.

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

Being in the back of a ship as it went through hyperspace was one thing, but being in the cockpit, controlling it, being able to watch the lines of everything passing by, the light passing faster than Lahi could even think - the idea of how quick they were moving, all of it amazed the Diathim, who kept her hand on the lever for far longer than she needed to, as if it would make it go faster. But she eventually let go - Kestan discussing where they would be going and how they would get there, she nodded along, remembering names and words, but not recognizing most of it, until he started discussing the outer rim, "Ooh, Lahi from out-rim." She looked towards the navigational map, and stared for a few moments, before pointing to a large unmapped area on the very edges of the outer rim, "Here. Is hard get to."

And then suddenly Hestan and pulled them out of Hyperspace, and she jerked just a bit, barely missing hitting her head on one of the monitors that were basically right at face level with her. "Woah~!" She giggles as she holds herself from hitting it, then smiles as Hestan starts explaining what they need to do, "Right, you charge, I look red dots-triangle-squares" She gave a salute, in a gesture that she'd only ever seen once or twice, but found infinitely amusing - and then almost instantly got to work, staring at the display in front of her. Nothing was going on, but she could at least still listen to Hestan teaching.

And then suddenly two little squares appeared, and Lahi reacted with a loud, "Ooooh red Kymo-ly fighter-squares! Am coming towards here. More refuelings?" She grinned as she looked back at where Hestan was, clearly imaginign some kind of meeting in space, with new people - one could not say she was not an optimist, at least.

[member="Hestan Kantrael"][member="Quinncolson"]​

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Quinn had felt hyperspace many many times before and it had always made her feel happy but now it did not have the same effect mainly because she couldn't be happy while someone was mad at her she sits hanging her head low and looking at the Diathim remembering her first time being an co-pilot in a ship of this type.

[member="Lahi Te'ala"] [member="Hestan Kantrael"]

 

[Hestan Kantrael]

[member="Lahi Te'ala"] [member="Quinncolson"]
Lahi's words were exactly what Hestan had feared. He stretched his neck to have a look at the radar and dialled a fast command in the console to have a more precise reading on the two fighters' livery, conditions and, more important, load-out. What he saw made him almost roar a mighty curse that, most probably, would have made the two Jedi vomit their own innards and, as much as he was curious to see what Diathim's bowels looked like for the glory of science, that was a tremendously un-polite thing to do as a host.

I am afraid these are not friendlies. Kymogilas, as the utter majority of ships, are run with conventional plasma engines, meaning that to refuel like we do they'd need an uhseewhatsy... a plasma scoop, right. Imagine a giant invisible hand with a spoon the size of a small moon that takes plasma from the corona of a star and pours it into the ship's reactor. Basically, that's it... in a tremendously simplified nutshell.

That was a pretty fancy imagine, he had to admit that. And bloody Quinn had decided she definitely did not want to cooperate, to hell with what he had just said prior departure... oh, well, since starting to belch profanities until she had died of shame, in the best prison-guard fashion, was not an option being absolutely counterproductive, Hestan called her screen's reading in a corner of his own and checked for himself.

90 plus percent and growing, and these nice fellows are bloody pirates: as you can see on the radar, they have the Burning Claw marking on their hulls. It's a pretty diffused "I'm a bloody bad-ass" thing between those fine gentlemen. So... let me double check again the hyperdrive's temperature... five seconds left, mighty fine by me!

The Run was running on silent mode, meaning everything safe the most essential of systems were turned off in order to reduce its heat and electronic signature on encroaching crafts' sensors. Attacking to pirate fighters was out of the matter: where there two, there usually were also frigates and other small ships to translate in at a moment's notice and swarm their prey; in addition to that, he would have surely needed both turrets to strip the first ship of its shields, loosing the surprise-factor. Not a chance.

Screw that... we're green again and I say we GTKO of here: coming to fisticuffs with pirates right now is not the brightest of ideas.

With another pull of the Great Magic Lever, the Long Run jumped again in hyperspace, this time travelling along the much calmer Perlemian Trade Route to its final destination: Kulthis.

§ § §​

​

Hestan had not given any thought about it, but... when Lahi had pointed her birthplace on the navigation map, she had basically put her fingers on the Extrictarium Nebula. That Nebula, yes. The Dark One, which content was obscured and thus absent on virtually every starchart; the one that contained the system of Iego and its many moons. How did galactic society know of that place if it was so secluded, Hestan ignored, but what he and every other spacer out there knew was that Iego inhabitants, the Angels, were one of the biggest myths they could hope to solve, if not the bloody biggest ever.
And he probably had an Angel in his canopy without even knowing it. Realization struck him almost dumb as he was checking the chart for utterly different reason, petty motives like keeping track of distance, and when he thought about it he turned speechless to Lahi, staring at here like a complete idiot.

Wait a second... I don't want to sound invasive or what, but... do you really come from the Extrictarium Nebula?! Iego and such?

Science demanded that he took samples, wrote reports, took both vocal and video feedbacks and so on, give galactic society another confirmation of their actual existence but... perhaps it was better he did not: another harmless being's life would have been made miserable. He was man of science, that was true, but as he had said before everything had its own limit, even what his more established colleagues, e. g. those who did not get their hands dirty with deep space travelling, called "progress".

§ § §​

​

And there they were, eventually: the famed asteroid. A titanic lump of churning rock, of roughly oval shape, that rotated in unison with other tens and dozens of its kind close to the planet of Kulthis. In close distance to the targeted one, others slammed into each other or placidly went about their business, not caring in the slightest about the newly arrived starship.
In a cavity, some relatively big cavern that looked mostly like a gaping maw, came the flickering of artificial lights, so Hestan grabbed the throttle and stick and carefully drove towards those randomly intermittent specks of, perhaps, civilization, the Long Run sluggishly gliding through the void as if stretching from a too long kept constrictive position. The console's first readings did not indicate any support crafts or superstructures.
That was weird, to say the least. For safety purpose, Hestan set the scanners to blip when they picked up something, as he could not constantly control them while flying: he needed eye-contact with the view from the reinforced glass view-port.

Here we go... I think we have found our station, ladies and gentleship. Lahi, please run a diagnostic on those lights dead ahead of us: geologic structure of the local bedrock, if there actually is an installation, if it still has gravity and atmosphere, this kind of juma. Everything you get helps.
And, while you're at it, can you keep track of the radio-chatter? Is that small screen to your dead left: it should represent, if any, a graph of frequency by time. I don't know about you very sensitive people, but I have a horrendous feeling about this.

Riiiiiight. Yeeeeees.
Bloody Core, not! That thing stank like rotten ronto: an installation without support crafts? Usually either a smuggling black cache or a pirate forward outpost from which launch surprise raids on the unsuspecting. Flickering lights? Possibly out of main generator power, down to back one; reasons? Suffered an invasion? Possible. Local Silver Sanctum police had exited their borders to deal some quick frontier justice? Not that probable, but still possible.
Other pirates razing and sacking their local competitors? That made some sense, too, but who could say without sticking their noses into the matter. It might have been some sort of instrument failure, too, prompting everyone to abandon ship and flee.

Here we are! If you concentrate into the Force, you can sense that the asteroid emanates a very thick pall of negative emotions like hatred and fear, although you can almost recognise the entire spectrum of "Dark-sidey" feelings.
Lahi, instead, the sensors tell you that there this enough metal and concrete to build a very small station into that hole, that whoever built it was smart enough to choose a spot where the structural integrity of the asteroid was enough to withstand kilotonnes of mass with the pull of gravity and that there are no active atmosphere and gravity generators. Basically, it looks abandoned.
The radio analizing console, instead, shows you that there is only one comm-signal in the area: a binary message emanating from within the station that, when decoded, indicates its designation and asks for help.

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"Master energy readout 87 % and dropping fast." Quinn says knowing thats not too good

[member="Hestan Kantrael"] [member="Lahi Te'ala"]

 

[Lahi Te'ala]

Lahi blinked as Hestan described the idea of 'pirates' to her, people who would hurt others were terrible - but as much as her expression showed her distaste for that, it also showed an incredibly amount of interest in the 'plasma scoop' idea, "So pirate take-sun energy. Run ships. Then take from other ships. Is lots of taking." She suddenly started to stand up, "Can go out, distract?" She made her offer, only for Hestan to suddenly move towards the console again, talking about five seconds - she couldn't do much in five seconds, they'd be gone before she could even get out an airlock, so the Diathim moved back down in her seat, in time for Hestan to rush to put them back into hyperspace.

Once they'd taken off, the pilot seemed to finally realize what she was, a fact that made the angel giggled to herself and nod, "Not Iego- is demon planet. Is from moon of demon planet, yes." The Diathim who survived on the planet's surface were much... harsher than the young one in front of Hestan, used to fighting battles with the 'demons' who lived below the ground. She never made friends with many of them - or any of them, really. They mostly kept to themselves.

She didn't seem to know any of the weird thoughts going through Hestan's head, instead focused entirely on looking at the various monitors so intensely, even as she answered questions. Like a single mistake would make everything go wrong and it would all be entirely her fault. As they left hyperspace and orders were given again, she... actually didn't seem to get them, at first. She shivered, not from cold - she had never truly felt the cold - but from something else. A hollowness, an emptiness, running its fingers down her back.

At the same time, the feeling wasn't unknown to her, but it wasn't something she could identify - neither bad, nor good, and yet somehow making her feel sick to her stomach, "Have bad feeling here-about too, Hestan." She stared at the pilot for a few moments, and then moved her fingers, slowly, to begin the scan of the area, readings coming up on her monitor not making her feel any safer about it, "No air-gravity. Life-support nil. Only message distress. Abandoned. Bad thing happen?" She was watching the more senior space explorer, waiting for his take on it.