Metal under tension (Underground, Kalee to Muun)

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren Starchaser was definitely part of the Fringe, but he was also… not quite. He wasn’t part of their military, not part of their citizenship. He based himself on a starship that helped the Fringe, and it was for the mission of their protecting the galaxy from the Unknown Regions. Something he felt was probably the best option they had. He’d seen the people who called Fringe Space home, and they were definitely something. The one thing that he did know, was he chased all leads that felt they could assist him around the galaxy. And that was partially why he was working on the Underground.

This trip, for Coren, was happening before he realized what he was doing. Before he realized that the hyperlane was going to be something he wanted to work on. It was the inspiration. Knowing that it was there, and knowing he had a knack for navigation, even if he didn’t recognize it as some latent Force skill. Just knowing he felt comfortable behind the stick of his ship. Granted this wasn’t the Tachyon Rising, his original home, no, this was the Tiburon a refurbished D-5 Mantis from an age way too long gone.

The ship was nice, it was armed, but it lacked the speed he needed. More war vessel than he preferred, but for now? He hadn’t time to run home to get his other ship, and it was no where near operationally sound after its previous engagement. Working backwards, Coren had decided to hop on the Highway mission that came up on The Underground board and he figured the leg he’d hop would help both Fringe and Underground. Kalee to Muunilinst. He knew he’d be arriving at Kalee soon, and wasn’t sure if he’d be taking pictures on his own, or if anyone else was going to be there.

Meeting times and all.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The ship pulled into real space around Kalee. It was one of those worlds near the edge of the Unknown Regions, wild and tough. And this world was no different, it raised warriors. It was the first stop on this leg and he activated the sensors on Tiburon, hell, Coren even turned down the music. Watching the world come into view, he pulled his ship closer to it, figuring this trip would take a bit of time. He was accessing comms on all levels and streaming, and logging the data. He was near to the Mando space, and was hoping his ship would at least cause confusion, sound any Mandos get a bright idea to come visit him.

He’d run, that’s what he did.

The cuttlefish. Who fought to run away. Coren could respect that. This ship was a ship more for war than his freighter, but he was only here for information. Listening and moving on to the next stop. It wasn’t a long road from here to Muun, but he wanted to take his time, make sure he mapped it out proper. What he was looking for was the stop in between the worlds. People needed a shake down from their ship, no matter how large it was.

He was being choosy in what jobs he took, but he could live pretty well as a retired Wing XO aboard their starship. Still… Listening, that was smart. Kalee was… well, he wasn’t too keen on the world, but he was here anyway. What he needed was the stop between Kalee and Muunilinst. That was where the real fun would be.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

There was profit on Muunilinst. That was the reason the world was connected, that was just the HoloNet and Coren’s own recollection of the world. He was going to have to slice into a satellite along the route, or listen from the stop along the way. There would be a few… From what he was gathering off the local channels he could break into, which were basically public help and the construction channels, the latter hardly ever encrypted, or at least not that strongly, since there seemed to always be contractors, it was a bit like having too many hands in the pot. And someone always figured things weren’t that important.

Moving his ship away from Kalee and checking the flight plans, and where the platforms would be located, he was not looking to cause any issue and all his weapon systems were down, the retractable triple laser was pulled in. And he was hoping that the Mandos wouldn’t create any fuss of a Mando inspired ship near their space. Turning to his navicomputer, he couldn’t wait to get back on his freighter. There would be his astromech and things would just go a bit smoother.

Maybe one day he’d upgrade to an actual exploration craft. Silk had some nice ships. But really, if he could keep things moving, or upgrade a Corellian vessel to do what he wanted, that would be the best bet. Represent the homeworld and do his best to explore. He’d have to see who gave him sponsorships. Not like he’d be flying a rice rocket through space but who knew?

Right, course laid in. And next jump.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Turning from the viewport, he knew his jump was a microjump, but the ship was going to pull from hyperspace on its own. But there was something about the music that just wasn’t fitting with the Corellian right now. Checking the current play list, all conveniently pirated from the HoloNet it was definitely setting the wrong kind of mood. He had a pretty high BPM set up going right now, and if he was going to be sitting and watching a hyperspace stop, he felt it was time to slow it down a bit. Something more low-tempo, chillstep, the kids were calling it. He nodded as he put the new music on and the ship reverted to real space. Pulling the ship off to the side, into one of the predetermined safety zones, he opened up all his ships comms and recording devices.

Stepping to the back, he went to fold up one of the collapsible hammocks. Normally he had these on all his ships, for passengers and sometimes something was acting up on one system or another and instead of running from the master suite, he could just… sleep near the issue and be ready to fix it, should it act up. But now? He had a magazine and brought the hammock up to the cockpit, he could see the monitors and out the main viewport, as well as here transmissions.

What did the Underground want for data? Right, anything on construction. He’d give it a few hours, take a break, and just hope his scanners alarms would go off. Right, laying in the hammock, feet up and the magazine open to one of the sporting sections, Coren liked to keep up to date on the galactic extreme sports media. Especially the ones related to aquatics. As far as dark-siders went, Coren and most of the Starchasers, Marek being the exception, were pretty standard middle-dark grounds. Lawful evil, and opposing the extreme sides of the Force, and working to keep the balance. Was why he found himself here, was why he found himself in the Fringe, mostly.

But right now? It was credits. And until the time where he earned them? Wave forecasts for Dac…

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He really missed his fething ship. Sure, right now, Coren Starchaser was asleep aboard the Tiburon, the ship that he built in honor of the hunters of the sea on Corellia. A strike vessel that would have fit in as a strong support craft for Warbird Wing. Enough to punch through fighter screens to deploy Nightstingers on a planet. What the ‘Birds really needed was to update the Dawn Treader as much as he loved the ship. They didn’t need all the room, and with the emerging technologies in the galaxy, they could still automate part of a ship that size, and maybe convert something else.

He was thinking about Interdictors before he dozed off. Maybe because they would be able to provide the net to trap enemies in place while the ship and Warbird Wing dispatched them. And the ships were typically smaller, what, they had three full squadrons, a support squadron of a variety of odds-and-ends craft and a dozen personal vessels? One of the galaxy’s interdictors could be their new home.

But right now it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the proximity alarm going off. He heard the second klaxon go off and jumped to his feet. He instinctively reached out to the Force. That was… new, and easier. Instinct was always better for him. Dark Jedi ran on it, they fed on the passion and excitement in the Force. Or at least he did. Looking out the viewport, he nodded. Moving his ship with small thruster pushes until it evened out again. Accessing the ship’s computer, he started recording the traffic incoming. Construction craft mostly. That was boring, but still, information was information.

Oh look, cargo.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

So, this was a wash, wasn’t it? Construction ships, here to work on the station. That was boring. Still, it was something. He made sure to snap some images of the ships and moved the camera lens in to the cargo ships. He figured knowing who was running the shipments would be useful. If the Underground wanted to touch the cargo, they could. Well, it was something, wasn’t it? Shipments, could probably get the delivery times. Local and … they were coming from Muunilist. So that meant checking departures, what companies were supplying the line from the Mando space to the Fringe space? More importantly, what type of fething gear was going through the Unknown Regions?

That type of work could use a bit of research. He figured he’d check into it. Right, the ships were docking, and video feed… Coren flipped a switch, was on. Thankfully the gun-camera on the triple blaster was ready to record video footage, a common process used to identify pirates and the like who went after ship lanes. What he was worried about here wasn’t necessarily Underground information as he was more concerned with just who was going through his Unknown Regions.

Yeah, his. As much as he worked for the Underground, he picked his targets, and the Fringe Federation would be safe form his motions. He’d ignore whatever the team wanted to do with the Fringe and stand back, that was between them. The Fringe was doing important work, keeping the monsters at bay. The Sith? Well, sure, maybe his ships were aligned with the Fringe itself, at least Tachyon Rising and sure, the Tiburon was… but he was making plans to move the latter ship to be his ‘Underground-exclusive’ ship. He wasn’t worried today, this was just fact finding, something even the Fringe would do. But after this? He’d take the time to modify the IFF so that it had a home port of Rebellion Actual.

Not really for either the Fringe or the Underground, it wasn’t a secret where he was spending his time, but the Fringe was doing a lot of good work. The rest? Well, he definitely was not a fan of the Sith, but he didn’t need to admit that to everyone. It was his past. He could work with some people and not deal with their friends. Life for Coren was complex.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Still, he had something to focus on here. He was watching the shipments. Probably something from Arceneau Trade or Azure Executive, but he wasn’t sure. Couldn’t be. Space-tight freight containers weren’t exactly marked with what was on the inside. All he could do was log the ship names, their IFF recordings, gravitational anomalies, all the data he could grab from them. That included the direction they entered the system from, but he had made that assumption, and to him, it wasn’t a hard assumption to make. They came at him, and he was coming from Kalee, so the next step over was Muun.

He idly wondered if they were setting up gaming at this station or not. That would bring in some sort of clientele, Twi’lek and other escorts, lots of credits, which would result in pirates. And who was going to be running security? That was another thing he needed to look for. No security ships came in to escort the cargo ships. So that meant they were behind the freighters, which was unlucky. Zooming in on the freighter, he nodded. Some weaponry. Not much, enough to fight off a few ships until they could jump to lightspeed.

It could be that there were stealth or cloaked ships in the local area. That was not going to go well… Coren shook his head, and closed his eyes, reaching out to the Force. He still wasn’t that confident in the powers he had and shook his head. No, the escorts were still on their way, huh?

That was not a good sign. What were they bringing in?

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He wasn’t supposed to be here for combat. That wasn’t part of the plan. And really, the Underground wasn’t supposed to be seen out here. Hell, Coren was not really one to be seen around the Underground, because some of their targets were allies to the Fringe Federation, the place he was currently calling home. But like some people, Coren wasn’t after patriotism, unlike Marek. Coren preferred a mission, a purpose of being, and the Fringe? They were granting him that.

That was the dichotomy of his life, being in the Underground and gun-running and taking targets out from the Empire. He followed a loose set of morals. Make space safe for spacers, and the whole Outer Rim and Unknown Region code of conduct, make the galaxy safe for an Empire, but the Empire of the Hand, not the radical Sith Empires. And to make sure that the larger religious groups of the galaxy didn’t go crazy over the whole of existence.

Despite his standing in the Force, he knew where his skills lay. Slowing people down, weakening them with the Force, and deflecting blaster bolts. Beyond that? Get him in a vehicle, anything that had a repulsor and thrust and he was safe. That was why he enjoyed life among the Underground, plenty of opportunities to fly. And well, this was a hyperspace lane. Maybe he could double dip. It wasn’t going to hurt to make the galaxy more connected.

And it’d keep him close to the One Sith, in case any of them popped up as power hungry and felt like eating worlds.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Right, reverie. That was about where he was. The Starchaser wasn’t the biggest of weapons user, he at one point learned Shien, and now? It was Stunning and Drain with the Force that he trained. The other abilities in his repertoire, one he could positively identify as psychometry and the other he was only starting to understand as instinctive astrogration, were more latent powers. He was a natural for them. Or at least, he was getting better. And spending a lot of time ship side? Clearly that helped. He just was waiting for his Tachyon Rising to get upgraded. Sensors, weapons and he’d pick up supplies along the way for whatever he needed.

She’d probably be a better ship for this mission than the Tiburon, but he was keeping this one for Underground missions. He’d need the firepower for blockade running, and well, he’d move her to Rebellion Actual, and maybe even go after those other Rebels. Forcing political beliefs on a group of people you’re ‘liberating’? Something about that didn’t sit right with Coren.

His ship was taking images of the arrivals and running them through IFF, identifying the types, and probable points of origin. Simple, right? He nodded to himself as he made sure to log it into a spare hard drive and send it through heavily encrypted channels to the Rebellion Actual. They’d be able to use it for something, but so long as they didn’t go after explorers and civies, but Merrill was the kind of man who had his head on straight, so there was no need to worry, from what Coren thought.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

And that was his cue to leave. Right, ships coming in, weapons on. Yeah, he wasn’t in a stealth ship, and he was in sensor range, hopefully just barely, so they’d see him as static. But he wasn’t supposed to be running that sort of risk. Wasn’t his call. Starting the engines back up and warming them up, he moved to make sure he logged the names of the vessels with guns, what type, probable location of origin and if they were associated with any one galactic nation.

He kept his weapons systems up and pulled his sensor readings in. What he was going to need to do is invest in some probes. That’ll help give him a wider view and keep him safe. Make a note and he’ll get it on the Tachyon Rising. For now? He was closing his eyes, and reaching out to the Force. Something that was happening on instinct and started plugging in a hyperspace route. Out of the system and away. He didn’t bother checking, just feeling as he pushed the ship into lightspeed.

A few moments later, he was … well, what world was that? Not Fringe, but… Chiss space? That made sense. Right, from here, he turned and saw the route he was going to take. Hop to Csillia, and then back into the galaxy at large. And back to Rebellion Actual. Put enough trails down and people would have trouble following.