Sunburns & Hyperdrive Troubles

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kaile only heard a fragment of what Kurt said. It was more the tone that caught her wandering attention more than what was said.

"Huh?" the Lorrdian was still caught up in keeping an ear out for any of the clones. The last thing they needed was to be caught unawares. Her eyes slipped from the entrance back towards Kurt, mild confusion turning into curiosity as a slight frown went furrowing over her brow.

"What is it?" she gave a half turn back towards the entrance with her torso, then went glancing back at the courier. He was studying a particular vessel. Kaile wasn't too familiar with ships or starfighters. That wasn't her expertise. However, the expression of intensity that went bathing Kurt's visage stated that this was something out of the ordinary.

"Is something wrong?"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

He didnt meant to ignore her, he wasnt trying to be rude, he was simply transfixed. The ship had caughr his attention, and without another word Kurt had begun to explores.

The Courier didnt even catch Kaile's questions, didn't event realize she had asked, he simply began to poke, prod, and perhaps even play. Before long he had dragged himself into the cockpit of the ship, making strange urging noises for Kaile to come and see the odd specialized equipment that had been placed inside of the vessel. As he sunk into the oddly comofrtable chair he knew for certain.

This wasnt a normal interceptor.

It was different. Better.

He knew that he wanted to fly it. "It's like nothing I've ever seen before, Kaile."

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

He certainly appeared comfortable.

It was easy to see how Kurt slipped into a starfighter as if it were a second skin; a mere extension of self. If there was any place that the courier seemed to be at home, it was in the cockpit. A thought would cross Kaile's mind, at how Kurt had been back then during his time in the Republic. Further still in the glory days a three-time Podrace champion.

"How so?" she asked, still on the look out but none the less taken in for a moment at the growing amount of energy coming from the pilot. This was like a new toy, much like how she had reacted to the prototype computer spike. The twitch of her lips couldn't help but curve into a small smile.

He was born to fly.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"It's different." He said pointing to the controls. "Slimmer, but...there's more."

Kurt started to quickly read off a list of systems, checking every one and scrolling his fingers over them. "There's a stealth system, afterburners, weapons...masers I think. There's half a dozen things that I've never even heard of on board this ship."

He waited for a moment.

"Look at that." Kurt pointed to one of the manual dials. "That's the power readings for the generator, that thing spikes at triple what The Mesa has."

That number seemed almost impossible to him. By all accounts, well, more his and Kaile's account, The Messa was the fastest ship in the galaxy. The two of them had worked hard on that vessel, they'd upgraded it, added to it, took away from it, made it their own. They had worked on it until it had become one of the best, if not the best ship in the galaxy. This thing? This thing apparently had triple The Mesa's power output while being half as big.

That was insane.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

“What?” Kaile would exclaim, “Triple?!” Now that was crazy, even for her. She may be a mechanic, but even she knew the danger and amount of jiry rigging it took to get the Messa as fast as it is now.

“That’s insane!” she’d echo his thought aloud, only to quiet herself down a second later as she recalled exactly where they were.

“I’m going to look around.. See if i could find anything that would open up those blast doors.” she told him. He was completely enraptured by the starfighter -- not like they were going to be able to take it. At least, that’s what she initially thought.

It would figure that Kurt would have other ideas…

“We can’t stay long here!” she told him, hopping off to hit the ground. Her boots made a soft echo, and the Lorrdian gave a small half spin. Wait, was that another control room?

Time to find out.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt busied himself with the toy that he had found.

Part of him was already saying that he couldn't keep it, after all, it wasn't like they could just fly out of here, but the child in him, the one that loved to go fast was telling him that he needed to get away with the interceptor somehow. His mind worked fast, but his hands worked faster. He flicked switches, pressed buttons, jabbed a control panel or two, and then kicked the thrusters half into place when the engine wouldn't immediately come on line.

There was a slight whistle, a spurt, then a resounding roar.

The TIE Interceptor let out a loud screeching roar, it's engines pressing forward, the ship slipping across the metal floor of the hangar.

Kurt almost immediately pulled back on the throttle, ripping himself away from the controls and folding back into the seat as a face of pure panic began to form. Kaile turned around, staring directly at him with a visage made purely of disbelief. The courier looked at her, then gave her a slow, smiling shrug.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kurt might have thought nothing of it, but Kaile was already waving her hands at him to stop. Was he crazy? Her eyes had grown wide, almost bulging out from their sockets at the risk he was taking. Did he not realize what he was doing? They were trying to keep a low profile. There was nothing low about turning on the TIE interceptor in the Auxiliary hanger.

"What are you doing?!" she would hiss out at him. He didn't know if the place was rigged with alarms or anything?! Why was he -- Just then alarm klaxons went blaring overhead. Kaile's heart sank and her stomach felt as if it was going to turn inside out.

Damnit. Gorram it!

"GET OUT OF THERE!" she yelled out at him, shaking her head at how he could be so reckless. They were in a facility with twenty-one levels full of clones from an Era they've no real information on. Clones who had not an hour ago attempted to kill them.

Clones who were now being summoned right to their location. Rushing towards the blast door, the Lorrdian moved to shut the entrance.

Damnnit Kurt!

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Kurt called as he pulled himself halfway out of the cockpit. The truth was that he hadn't. He had simply wanted to power up the engines to see if they actually worked, he hadn't meant to turn on the thrusters and actually move the damned thing, just start up the power core. That wouldn't have made much noise at all, certainly not enough to ring throughout the bunker. His stomach dropped slightly as he realized what was about to happen.

No doubt, it wouldn't be good.

"Close the doors!" Kurt yelled, pulling himself fully out of the ship and rushing towards Kaile. "I'm sorry!"

He really hadn't meant to do it, he wasn't an idiot.

Shifting his weight Kurt plopped alongside Kaile just as she managed to fiddle with the controls enough to close the Blast Doors once again. They heaved for a second, then made that odd mechanical screech that hydraulics were prone to. For half a second they held fast, then almost in an instant they began to seal shut. Just as the doors closed Kurt caught the tail end of the tromp of Stormtrooper boots. He frowned slightly, pulling Kaile back and pulling out his blaster. "Check that other room, see if we can get that blast door open....please."

The Courier realized he was in the doghouse now.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

He totally was. Kaile was upset, and she rarely was upset. Kurt may have not meant to do it, but he should have known better. Especially here and now. After everything; touching things and exploring things in here had gotten them into this situation. They were already walking on a vibro-shiv's edge.

"Just... don't turn on anything else!" she said, visibly frustrated that they were once again in the thick of things. It likely wasn't fair to Kurt, he didn't really mean to do it. However, playing with things that they had no clue about resulted in this new situation. How were they ever going to get to the Messa now?! What if they couldn't get those blast doors open?

With a shake of her head, she left Kurt there to keep watch. To the right was that room that he had mentioned earlier, and Kaile went rushing into it. The wailing klaxon was pounding through her head, red lights flickering on and off. Gorram it! Why did this have to happen now!? In her rush, she barely registered the pain on her knee. It was already bleeding again, red dotting through the fabric in a crimson stain.

Feth, how were we going to get those blast doors open? They no longer had the luxury of extra time they could spend low key searching. Now, she had to rush. Think, Kaile think! There were several data terminals, and Kaile went to the first one. Time was ticking, and already, Kurt would be able to tell that on the other side of that blastdoor, the Stormtroopers were already attempting to open anew.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

So...

What was he supposed to do now?

She had told him not to turn anything on, and in this room that basically meant not touching anything, which was difficult since the hangar bay was quite literally stuffed with ships, speeders, and half a dozen other things that Kurt didn't quite recognize. He wondered for a brief moment what exactly Kaile expected him to do, though he suspected the answer was a resounding 'nothing'. Of course, Kurt being Kurt couldn't quite handle that answer, and instead of simply standing there he began to once again wander towards the Interceptor.

This time however he didn't climb inside the ship, nor did he go anywhere near it's controls.

Instead he carefully began to inspect it's outside, watching every angle and trying to line it up perfectly, seeing where everything was, simply getting to know the hard edges of the ship. He found it intriguing, and also found that some of the corners of the vessel were...off. They were designed differently, shaped so that they were just a bit more rounded then one would expect from a TIE fighter. It was clear that this ship had been designed apart from its cousins.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kaile was too busy to keep up on what Kurt was doing. She could only trust that he wouldn't pull something so reckless again.

"Gorram it!" she would curse under her breath, her heart kicking in her chest a parsec a second and adrenaline sweeping through her veins. They had no time. No time at all. Aurabesh sigils and forbsbasic went streaming across the data terminal stream. She had to slice through the primary pyrowalls and get to the security access.

Every now and then, brown eyes went glancing up towards the blast door. So far, it was holding. A hand came up and brought up the live holographic camera feed. There were at least a dozen Stormtroopers out there. Chit.

Nostrils flaring, Kaile typed furiously, sending in more commands to get to her objective. What will they do now? How were they going to get to the Messa? All of those concerns would swell in her head, biting her lower lip in growing agitation.

"Come on... com--" her eyes suddenly went wide. Yes! Found it. Okay. She would be able to get the Auxiliary Blast door open. A few more taps of the keys and then to the far end of the hanger, a loud rumbling noise resonated. Light from the approaching afternoon sun and fresh air came swarming in.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

The blast doors started opening.

That was all he needed.

All he wanted.

In an instant Kurt reached up to the top of the ship and began to clamber his way into the cockpit, he called out to Kaile, waving wildly. "Kaile, get in the ship!"

He could hear them now. They were cutting through the doors. It would take time, quite a bit of it, but they would make it through, they would get to Kurt and Kaile and then they would get to everything that was in this hangar. Kurt couldn't let that happen, he couldn't let all of this fall into their hands and he certainly couldn't let them get Kaile. The Courier may have messed up, but he was smart enough to know when to take back control.

Even if he had to do it from the doghouse.

"Come on!" He shouted as the outer blast doors slowly slid completely open. "We're getting out of here!"

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

She barely heard Kurt; more like saw him wave his arms wildly in the cockpit of that starfighter. Wait what?!

Was there even any room??!!

“Wha--” there was no time to think. Only act. “Gorram it!” she would curse, taking her computer spike and rushing out of the office. Behind her, the clones were almost done with cutting out a small path for them to charge through.

Heart thumping in line to her strides and hair flowing behind her, Kaile ran over towards the starfighter.

“I won’t be able to fit!” she said, coming to a halt. There was no arguing with Kurt, not when he yelled out, “Get on!”
“But the Mes--” A boom came behind Kaile, as did the sudden volley of blasterfire downrange. There was no time to think; Kaile’s eyes went wide and she scurried up the side of the starfighter. A hand took hers, dragging her in.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

By the time Kaile managed to squeeze her way into the cockpit Kurt had already rammed the engine back into life. Blaster fire seared against the hull of the Interceptor, singing black panels before the small deflector shield suddenly popped into life around the vessel and deflected harsh red bolts back onto the ground. The vessel shuttered for a moment, it's twin ion engines burning for half a second before there was a sudden lift, and then push as Kurt sent the ship rocketing out of the hangar.

Kaile pressed against him, gravity pushing the two of them together.

There was no reason to wait, not if they wanted to live. The ship went blasting out of the hangar almost as soon as Kurt pressed the throttle forward, the engines screaming loudly as the vessel cut forward and jumped into the open maw of the volcano. There was a slight rush as Kurt pressed forward on the controls, the ship suddenly taking a hard dive before he jerked to the left and pulled the ship upward. Within half a heartbeat the TIE soared above the volcano, slashing through a cloud.

"Holy chit!" Kurt screamed as the TIE shot forward.

There was no other word for the pure speed that they were experiencing.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"Oh my --" her scream was swallowed up by the amount of pressure that hit her body as the interceptor blasted out into the sky. Kaile shut her eyes tight, going momentarily into shock at the sudden shift of her senses. This was not the same as the podracers; this was the rush and almost mind-numbing, stomach twisting, adrenaline boosting charge times twenty -- no fifty.

The small cockpit was tight. There wasn't much to move. Oh my god what about the Messa? What about BOBO!

Panic rose. Fear made her pupils dilate and lids snap open. No. Not Bobo. They couldn't leave him behind. No, she couldn't lose him. Now now. Her stomach immediately sank, and she went screaming out, "We can't leave Bobo behind!! We can't!"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"We're not!" Kurt assured her as he slowly leveled the controls of the interceptor.

His eyes scanned over the weapons charts, he knew that he'd seen it somewhere. A frown leveled at his lips, and then there it was. A baradium bunker buster. The weapon was precise, designed to take out heavily armored targets. No doubt this ship had been intended for some very quick, and very deadly hit and run attacks. He shifted the controls slightly and leaned over to flip the switch, his eyes closing as he made a small prayer to whatever deity he believed in.

"Hang on Kaile." He pushed the controls forward. "And prey to the force that I don't hurt The Messa."

Bobo would be fine inside the ship, he was more worried about harming the engine.

The Interceptor dipped slow, screaming into the Volcano as Kurt released the missile and them immediately pulled up. There was a large thunk and then an explosion as the outer Blast Door to the main hangar was blown apart at it's very center.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]


"Wait.. what are you --" it hit her on the last second. Kaile didn't need to catch the look of determination as Kurt's brow turned into a scowl of focus, panic, and a desperate prayer for luck. Time seemed to slow then. Funny how that always seemed to happen during chaotic times. Made Kaile wonder if that was just the will of the Force or just the adrenaline pumping so hot through her veins that it made everything else seem slow in comparison.

The missile blasted through the air with a deafening scchrweek---BOOOM!

There was no time to think. To even pray for the well-being of the Messa. The blood simply drained from Kaile's face as she blanched, while metal warped and ordnance blasted out in a fiery ball of shrapnel and debris. Considering they had just went through a few of the repairs from when the generator blew up, this wouldn't make any difference to the damage that old girl had seen.

Talk about a few more scrapes.

How were they even going to get the Messa out now?! Whatever clone troopers weren't blasted into bits within that thickening cloud, then there were sure to be more coming fast.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

The blast tore the doors into scrap metal, leaving a massive gape within the durasteel that had formerly barred their way. Kurt eyed it for a moment, then quickly moved the TIE Interceptor through the new entrance. There was a slight lull as Kurt's eyes adjusted to the now darkened hangar, his eyes following several burned husks on the ground.

Stormtroopers of course.

For now he saw no others making their way into the far hangar, though he quickly realized that they would be coming soon. The Interceptor slowly drifted towards the back on the Hangar, Kurt making sure to keep the blaster cannons armed and ready to fire. He pointed towards The Messa with his off hand. "Go, get ready to take off and get out of the hangar."

He could cover Kaile from the Interceptor, they would just have to move fast.

Very fast.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Wait, was he... was he being serious?

There wasn't enough time for Kaile to gape at Kurt. No time to register that he was flying them back into the main hanger so that she could jump down and rush to the Messa to fly her. Could this day get any more crazy? It was like they were both stepping into an action packed holoflick set to infiltrate an enemy base complete with gratuitous blasterfire and a daring escape.

And I'm supposed to be the real spy here!

"I.. ah.."

"GO!"

Since the interceptor was hovering, the drop down was higher than what Kaile was used to. She had already hurt her knee, and this was not going to go well for her at all. A cry came ripping out of her mouth in pain when she hit the deck, stumbling down onto her hands and knees. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping her up, allowing her to scramble onto her feet. Something warm went trickling down her leg. Blood. The red stain had now spread, and she was limping as she ran as fast as she could to the Messa.

They wouldn't be alone for long. The first blaster bolt made Kaile duck, her sweat grime covered face blanching as she went hiding behind a cart. But Kurt was covering her. All she heard was the blast of his canons behind her head.

Chest sawing, the Lorrdian gave a glance up. There she was. The Messa.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

All he had to do was protect Kaile was she was getting to The Messa, that was enough, that was easy. Or so he thought. There'd been a few times in his life where he'd had to fight ground troops in a fighter, the result had always been rather devastating. That was really just the way of things, air support always beat ground. Of course this time it was a little bit different, mainly because he was positioned perfectly at the very edge of the hangar, and perfectly in the line of sight for any stormtrooper with a PLEX launcher.

That was why Kurt took harsher methods.

He opened fire as soon as he saw the first glimmer of white armor. The stormtroopers managed to get a few shots off, but a second later and they were vaporized by the combined firepower of two maser cannons and two repeating blaster cannons. Kurt shot indiscriminately down the path of the hangar. Explosions and fire bloomed as he tore apart the line of stormtroopers, biting into them and obliterating them in an instant.

He felt no guilt.

He did this for Kaile. For himself.

So they could survive.