Into the Galaxy

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

Exhaling heavily, Cen's worries seemed to wash away in the current of his breath as it left his body. He nodded, climbing onto the wing exhaustively as he called out to the pilot, "Fair enough, just know you won't be getting your promised pay until the lightsabre is returned." He rolled into the navigator seat and lounged with an exasperated sigh in the custom chair. He flipped a switch and the copilot shield fell down around him. He breathed heavily, wiping the collected sweat from his forehead, too tired to fear embarrassment. He had been train extensively to peak physique but he was nervous, understandably so, it had been years since he was forced to confront danger, much less be put under such mental stress. His hand slipped into his pocket, fingering the datachip given to him by the now deceased muun.

Suddenly he leaned forward, speaking directly into the comm, "Usa'ar, I know you've overridden most of the navigation and gunner controls to your astromech, but is there anywhere I can plug in a datachip into this computer?"

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Another twist to this trip, before they had even taken off?

"A datachip? Does that contain the coordinates for your destination on Coruscant or something? Yeah, just plug into the port on your left. But I swear, if this is a virus, I'm hitting the manual eject button and shooting the navigator's seat that you rest in to outer space."

Usa'ar shook his head and contacted the hangar officials on his comm for clearance to leave. With clearance granted, he lifted the ARC off the floor and nosed it around and out the shield door they had entered from.

As much as Usa'ar didn't want to admit it, they had passed the easy part of their journey. Now he had to jump to Sith controlled space and land on Sith controlled planet full of bloody Sith. Lovely.

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

As Cen pressed his thumb against an opaque green button the computer before him hummed to life. Slipping the datachip into the port and allowing the software to boot up, he tapped on the comm mic, sending a wave of thumps into the pilot's cabin. "So while this century-old monster processes whatever happens to be on this datachip, mind telling me what's the purpose of all these controls back here?" He ran an indigo hand along the obsolete gunnery controls, lightly brushing over the cloudy blue panels. "I understand the primary purposes used to rotate between serving as both a forward gunner and copilot but I'm curious to how you've augmented it."

Before he could wait for an answer the computer beeped, the dark and lifeless screen suddenly ablaze with pale green scripts of binary. He scowled, snapping up a flip switch and began his attempt to process the data. "Okay, so what I'm seeing is a directory. Judging by the robotic binary language it was written in, this was probably intended to be used with a droid!" He paused, running his hand along the control panel, "Okay, sorta back to my first question. Is this computer capable of translating binary to Galactic Republic Standard? I want to read it."

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Usa'ar rolled his eyes at Cen's doubt in his ship.
"Weren't you listening when I told you I tricked out this ship with modifications and all that crap? Literally any situation we could come up with, she can handle. State-of-the-art hyperdrive. Flares and chaff. Smokescreen. HE and AP missiles, along with rapid fire M Series blaster cannons. Shield capable of overcharge for 5 minutes. See the wings? Capable of folding back to increase velocity in high pressure situations. The list goes on, bud."

Usa'ar couldn't help smiling as he listed the features of his ship. "And yes, my baby can help you read binary. They weren't THAT primitive back in the Clone Wars, you know."

By this time Usa'ar was guiding the ship in a steady speed towards Coruscant, waiting for the right coordinates for light speed.

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

With that, Cen began to work his magic. Flicking through a few bars of programming the coded lines began to melt away into an intelligible display. What he saw was no simple directory, however. "Uh, hey Usa'ar, think we got a small problem," he chattered through the comm. The screen was bright, ablaze with emerald light as the translated binary threaded into a cohesive list of schematics. He clicked on the [VESSELS] link, a bright pink screen now invading the monitor with intense brightness. He began to scroll through the list of files, until a single one caught his eye.

"Hey, you've been a pilot for a decent portion of your life, right? Well have you ever heard of this starcraft called a, uh..." He trailed off, the sheer intense luminosity of the screen making it difficult to read. "Uh, it's called a... a Tremor-class Voidnought?" He attempted access to the file but the computer simply beeped in defiance, a large [RESTRICTED] popping up above the screen in bright red letters.

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Usa'ar stopped for a moment. Voidnought? That couldn't be right. Impossible.
"Must be an error, or at least listing a myth or something. A rumor spread sometime back about a capital ship-sized prototype the Sith were trying to make. I don't know how that got out, poor guy who leaked it must've been slaughtered by the Sith. Anyway, who I heard it from said that it was bigger than an old Star Destroyer, yet had twice the speed. The prototype, which happened to be called a Voidnought, was said to have more weaponry on it than most fleets have combined. So basically a super fast death machine."

Usa'ar paused. "But that was just used to scare kids. There's just no way they could raise the funding or get the tech for that. Just a hoax." Usa'ar stared blankly at the deep vacuum of space. There was just no way the voidnought was real. He tried to relax himself. "Just a hoax."

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

"Well I guess we won't be finding out. This thing has military-grade firewall protecting it and the entire file is hidden in an encrypted database. If I try to force my way in the datachip may purge, deleting everything." He sighed, exasperated and defeated. "If we want to dig into the mysteries of this thing, we'll need an equivalent high level military-grade decryption software," he said, beginning to play with what little information they had access to once more.

He began skimming the filenames; the names of prototype droids, armor, weaponry, and vehicles surfing across the monitor as he scanned his way to the bottom of the page. "Are you sure this all Sith? Some of this seems a little strange."

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

"Look, pal, I don't know anything for sure. It was just some story I heard some old miners tell me, probably to give me nightmares about leaving the planet. They obviously didn't scare me enough, because here I am. Oh well." Usa'ar stared out the cockpit and looked at the slowly shrinking view of Fondor.

"Anyway, you could probably do a better job analyzing the data than me. Even if you are a farmer," he added. "Do you know what sector of Coruscant you need to get to? I don't want to arrive on the wrong side of the planet and get chased by evil sorcerors across half the planet to get the rest of my credits. And I'd say you just forget about this Voidnought thing. Where'd you even get that data chip?"

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

Cen answered as he grazed pass the [A1-38 Atmospheric Assault Droid] eying the growing list with equally growing concern and curiosity, "Oh, well I bought it during my, er..." Crap, he thought. What kind of break was it again? "On my break, from when I was overcoming my cherry-popping first flight, I happened past a... muun wares store. At the store I happened to notice this on a dusty lower shelf and offered 500 credits for it." He shrugged, pulling to datachip from the plug and stuffing it into his pocket. "It's probably a fake, the names of these designs are... un-Sith-like."

He continued, "While it starts with your typical Star Destroyer and DH-whatever prototypes it quickly divulges into an almost fanatically religious setting, the names revolving around typical astral bodies and mythical figures. At least... up until the Voidnought file."

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Usa'ar's eyebrow raised. "A muun wares store?" Usa'ar was suspicious, but set that aside to continue the conversation. "And isn't the Force and the Jedi and the Sith a religion anyway? I'd say that makes sense to me." He shrugged and checked the ship's course.

"I'm a simple guy, I don't try to get caught up in a bunch of galactic wars and a bipolar religion where one half is good and the other half is evil. It just doesn't make that much sense to me."
He shook his head and eyed the bag of credits he had just earned. "I wonder what I can do with these credits here. Maybe some nice red paint on the side, reading 'Usa'ar freakin' Obath'. Nice ring to it, right?" He smiled at the thought. Something to get his mind off of Sith.

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

Tessek waved a hand dismissively, shutting off the screen and crashing back into his chair. "It's a bit more complex than good versus evil, but primarily, while it is somewhat a religion, it worships no mythologies, no gods, no aspects of the physical and visible world, just the Force. The inclusion of such in the datachip seems almost religiously primitive, which is odd considering how heavily encrypted it is." He removed the chip from his pocket, inspecting it through the rays of light cast by Fondor's fading sun. He found himself slipping into a fixation with the mystery, the shadows of doubt that seem to revolve around this chip's information called to him in a sense, he would be certain to unravel its secrets in time. Or so he thought. "Regardless, in this war we all pick a side eventually... even if that side is our own. The Force is in all of us and as with all things, it calls for balance. The armies of light and dark have gathered, sooner or later you will undoubtedly be drawn to a side."

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Usa'ar mulled Cen's words for a bit. "I suppose that makes some sense... I never really learned much about the Force. But I don't like all this 'taking sides' business. I wish everyone could just live their own lives. That's too much to ask, I guess."

Usa'ar's astromech beeped, so he checked the droid-to-basic translator on the screen in front of him. "He says we need to jump to light speed. There's supposed to be a big solar flare in this system that might mess with our electronics. We'd better get moving."

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

"Understood, Captain," said Cen, giving a small mock salute before buckling in. The leather straps fit tightly across, forcing a deep cough from him as he attempted to get comfortably situated. "I guess we all wish we could just live our lives own lives, but until one of two things happen, this war is just going to continue for another thousand or so years, just like it always has." He stiffened himself, staring out from the glass canopy into the deep void of space, almost longingly. He had come to hate hyperspace and now must steel himself before the jump, lest he vomit. "Either through diplomacy the dark side and light side find complete balance and give up their campaigns of influence and power, or they both die out. I doubt we can expect either to happen."

He lit up the computer again with the flick of a switch. "Tell you what, you work on the piloting, I'll put my navigational skill training to the test. Got trained by a good friend of mine back on Tattooine, but I guess I never had the chance to apply my skills until now. Should make the ride a little bit easier, right?" As the hyperdrive began to buzz to life, Tessek activated a map of the galaxy, brightening the dull monitor with a illuminated 2D picture of the Core. "I'll direct us to Wicko District of Corsucant, you focus on avoiding detection by the Sith unless you got the paperwork or the firepower to keep them off us."

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Usa'ar smiled. "Avoiding detection AND firepower is my speciality," he responded. "But I'd say we want to do more if a stealthy entrance in this... Situation." Usa'ar finalized the coordinates for the hyperdrive.

"Ready for round 2?" Usa'ar joked to Cen, knowing his dislike for light speed after he had discovered the puke in the navigator's seat. Usa'ar pulled the final lever and the ship paused for a moment before lurching to light speed.

"You ok back there?" Usa'ar asked back to Cen. "Now they'll almost immediately pick up our warp signature, so I'll have to improvise. They might question what we are doing, tail us, or just start shooting. This is where the fun begins!" Usa'ar covered his nervousness with an unconvincing laugh. At any moment, they would be right outside Coruscant, and right into Sith territory.

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

Cen inhaled slowly through his nostrils, clenching his hands together tightly as he stared out into the void of space with bleary eyes. "Yes," he said, a slight hint of hesitation in his voice. "I am ready." He exhaled heavily and freed his hands, inputting coordinates into the navigation computer. "Alright, you should be seeing the correct coordinates: 0,0,0. We'll be heading to Wicko District, a junkyard, near Sector 63." He continued typing than pulled a level, a lazy hum emanating from the screen.

He pressed a hand onto the roof of the glass cockpit and scooted back into his chair to brace for the jump. "If we get caught in a tractor beam it's over. I bet that lightsabre of mind will be considered contraband and this datachip..." He brushed a hand along the exterior of his pocket. "This datachip, if it is Sith technology, we don't want them to get it. Once we leap out of hyperspace I'll continue my attempt to access the files, but make sure you keep us out of sight. I don't want them to get backdoor access into the computer somehow and see what I'm trying to look at."

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Usa'ar felt the tingling in his stomach that signified that light speed was just about over.

"Why on Mygeeto did I agree to this," grumbled Usa'ar. With a sudden jolt the ARC pulled out of light speed and the vast, shiny surface of Coruscant filled up most of the view. Quickly, Usa'ar checked the surroundings. A space station far to the north side of the planet. He checked the radar. No ship in the immediate vicinity, but there were what looked like patrols close enough to poasibly notice them.

"Hey, Cen," Usa'ar quickly blurted out. "If you have to say something, run it through my computer. Radio silence effective immediately." He desperately hoped no ships could've picked that up.

The ARC slowly and quietly descended closer to the planet surface, like a mynock wandering into the lair of a rancor.

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

Cen nodded, unbeknownst to Usa'ar. He slipped the datachip into the computer and resumed his work, quickly editing it with the binary translation and began attempting to access the various files. He tabbed out for a moment, computing a message for Usa'ar to see.

NAVIGATOR: R U HAVING FUN? ENCRYPTIONS ARE BANTHA POODOO

He resumed operation in vain, every click or type resulting in the usual, bright red [RESTRICTED] or in the ever so rare [FILE NOT FOUND]. It was not long until Tessek began to doubt the authenticity of the chip itself, convinced nothing rested on the chip but a joke, a tease to some myth revolving around the dangerous, prototype ships created from the same icky stuff from which nightmares are conceived. That is, until he reached the bottom of the list, towards the more aptly-titled and more evidently Sith-esque files were located. He noticed a file by the color, a darker shade of green, evidently previously opened by the chip's former owner. [Aggressive ReConnaissance Fighter - 1280] Intrigued, he clicked, his eyes nearly glued to the computer screen as the bright green text floated above all others. [ACCESSING FILE]

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

This was the longest planetary descent in Usa'ar's life. He could feel every heartbeat as the seconds ticked by. His eyes were glued to the radar, memorizing the routes of the patrols in relation to his ship. One in particular was dangerously close.

Suddenly, the blip on the radar that symbolized said patrol changed course and began moving in Usa'ar's direction. Closer and closer it came. They're on to us, thought Usa'ar. Without thinking, Usa'ar gunned the engine as hard as he could and the ARC roared with the sudden straining on the engine. The ship hurtled down to the outer edge of the planet's atmosphere.

Usa'ar's eyes went back to the radar. The Sith patrol ship had fallen far behind, but it could be contacting for surface reinforcements. Usa'ar then realized he forgot to jam its transmissions. He frantically located the button linked to the com jammer and selected the patrol ship.

He couldn't tell if it was in range to jam the communications or not, but when they reached the interminable skyline of the surface, they would find out.

 

[Cen Tessek]

[member="Usa'ar Obath"]

Cen had nearly melted into his seat as Usa'ar gunned the ARC-170 into Coruscant's atmosphere. As his eyeballs seemed to sinks slowly into his head and puncture through the back of his skull he managed to peel himself free and slam on the communication system. "You know, I don't think we could have been less suspicious if we painted 'totally not spies' or perhaps 'absolutely not going to firebomb your houses' on the side," he yelled into the microphone. "You know what? Why don't we just land right in-fething-front of their command center, Yoda knows where, ignite the freaking lightsabre, then proceed challenge the Emperor! What? You think that's a bad idea?" He mocked gasped, a hand gently rising in front of his mouth as he exhaled sharply.

Then his brows seemed to fuse together as he scowled, leaning forward so that his mouth practically kissed the microphone, "THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU BLOW PAST THAT SQUAD?" He threw up his hands, thankful he was disarmed of the lightsabre right now. "We could have just jammed communications, shot them down, and used that window to escape, drop me off, then hyperspace to one of the infinite-fething-corners of the Galaxy, but no, you had to NEIMOIDIAN it!"

 

[Usa'ar Obath]

Usa'ar shouted back into the mic. "Hindsight is always 20-20, ya know! Oh, and 'shoot them down?' SHOOT THEM DOWN? Yeah, it'll be freakin' easy to pull a 180 and shoot down evil Force-using wizards who were in perfect position to hit us!" He frowned intently as turbulence of atmospheric entry rocked the ship.

"I'm slowing down, now, and we're real close to your drop off spot. You should thank me." The ship descended to the height of the skyscrapers, and Usa'ar made a swift turn around one particularly tall building and headed to Wicko District. "We've got 2 districts in between us and Wicko," he stated. "Almost there."