The Corulag Maneuver

[Cassius Droma]

Looking sideways and down at the lake below, he could see the thick trail of billowing smoke from the gunship Mara had hit. Scratch another one. Head snapping forward, Cassius focused on his radar readout. Only two left, and they hadn’t even taken any hits, as far as he could tell. Despite seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, he kept his hands firm on the controls, his focus not deviating from their situation.

“Alright, one more pass, and we’re in the clear,” Cassius said over comm, pulling up ever so slightly and to the left for his banking turn. He kept track of not just the enemy signals, but of Mara as well. The ace pilot wanted to make sure that he was going to keep in sync with her and not smack head-first into her A-wing as they completed their next weave.

Just as he was keeping track of his partner’s trajectory, he felt a rumble and shake from behind him. The starfighter on his tail had managed to graze him, and seemed to be desperately firing every weapon he had on his vessel in order to take down the A-wing. Maybe he’d seen what had happened to his friends and wanted a little bit of payback. Or, this guy just really wanted the bounty.

Regardless, Cassius kept his course, dipping and weaving only slightly so as to shake the enemy’s targeting computers. He was on the last leg of his turn now, and he could see Mara’s starfighter out of his viewport. Telling his targeting computer to lock onto Mara’s trailing fighter, Cassius gunned the engines as he passed, pulling the triggers on his laser cannons. At such close range, the fighter couldn’t even dodge, and brilliantly exploded into about a million pieces. Cassius could feel the small shockwave of the reactor explosion, but it was nothing but a bump.

“Yeah!” he hollered as he leveled out with a few rolls. He checked the radar – no enemy fighters. “Mara – let’s gun it towards that mountain range. Doesn’t look like there are any more hunters after us, but I’m sure the authorities aren’t too pleased with us shooting up their airspace. Let’s find a place to set down.”

Aiming accordingly, Cassius shot off towards the cover of a nearby mountain range, hoping that his new pilot friend would follow.

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

"See you on the other side."

Her focus immediately returned to the task at hand, and as they began what was hopefully to be their final weave she let out one long sigh and steadied her mind, focusing in the process. They had gotten this far, against all odds, no doubt helped along by their choice in ships, experience flying them, and communication. By comparison the bounty hunters had appeared more like trainees, fething up their simulations. She was infinitely grateful they had aerial superiority, because if they were back in the spaceport she knew they'd be toast.

When the time finally came, and the last starfighter lay down her sights, she loosed another few bolts in its direction and - as a similar explosion ricocheted behind her - punched forward. Shrapnel from the twin starfighters rained against her ship, and though she pulled back sharply and began to climb toward the sky for a moment there her vision had been so cut off that she'd almost swan-dived into the lake below.

Her heart hammered in her chest, and while she heard Cassius' victory cry through the comms she was too busy regulating her breathing to reciprocate it then and there. When she realized all was well and good she let out a relieved sigh, and then chuckled softly to herself.

"How the feth did we pull that off?" she asked, already setting a course toward the mountains in question, "We make a pretty good team, you an' I."

She knew there'd be some explaining to do when they touched down and waited for the heat to die down, but at this point she didn't even care. It had been a close call for a moment there, and while it had seemed as though they wanted Kal alive - after all, most of the shots had been aimed toward Cass' - the idea of having his blood on her hands hadn't been exactly pleasant.

He was alright for a laser-sword wielding... well... whatever he was.

[member="Cassius Droma"]

 

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius was already looking for a place to set down – the mountains would be a good spot, but there would no doubt be residents and tourists to worry about. They needed to be secluded. The redhead wingman commented on their cohesiveness as a team, and Cassius nodded, despite knowing she wouldn’t be able to see it. “That we do…” Cassius squinted as he looked out over the terrain, only murmuring as he repeated himself, “that we do…”

A warm smile crossed his face as he soaked in the view. Although there was adrenaline still pumping through his system, he felt a strange sense of calm. The site of the mountain, the trees, all from the cockpit of a fighter… Cassius had forgotten how it felt. The isolation of a fighter cockpit was maddening to some, but to the young Jedi it was therapeutic. He had used to take “practice flights” back home on Rinn, and even while he was living on Deneba for a short time.

It was to just get away from it all, to have some alone time. Flick comms off, and no one could bother you. He was able to do a lot of thinking that way – just find a high-altitude place in the sky and sit there for awhile. He missed that.

Refocusing a little bit, he found a nice open field area that he could set down in – big enough for two A-wings. It seemed far enough away from any sort of residential area, but the city could also be seen through the trees. Entering VTOL mode, Cassius carefully maneuvered his craft down towards the field. The grass swayed under the pressure of his repulsors, and the fighter itself hissed as it descended.

Finally, he hit solid ground, and his landing gear locked into place. Turning the craft completely off so as to avoid sensors picking up on his energy signature, he slid the canopy open and hopped out. Yanking his helmet off his head, he blinked a couple of times and left it on the hull as he slid off of it and his boots hit the ground. His legs were still a bit wobbly – the side effects of such a harrowing adventure, but Cassius couldn’t help but smile.

As his friend landed, he stepped over to the midpoint between their respective ships. “You didn’t get hit anywhere, did you?” he asked, giving her A-wing an once-over. For two pilots that had just gotten into a dogfight where they had been outnumbered nearly four to one, they had gotten out of it relatively unscathed.

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

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Corulag, The Core Worlds // Just Outside The City​

Waiting Out The Heat // With [member="Cassius Droma"]​

♫ // Gotta Get Airborne Before It's Too Late​

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Following his lead, Kal was quick to descend into the clearing just after Cassius had shut off his ship, Solitude coming down vertically in order to navigate the somewhat tight space that remained. She enjoyed flying, however it had been much too long since she'd last engaged in dogfighting tactics, mostly using the ship solely for the purpose of getting from a to b.

Like Cassius it was a comfort to her, her quiet place, and though in general she wasn't one for confined spaces, when it came to her ship it was as though such stipulations flew out of the window.

With the landing gears extended, and the ship finalizing its last hum, she opened the entry hatch and stood up to stretch, swaying slightly on the spot. Then she hopped out, slid down the front of the ship, and landed facing the man who was waiting patiently for her.

"She's got a few new scratches," Kal admitted, with a slight shrug, "But it's nothing I can't fix."

She could still feel the adrenaline coursing through her body, and before she fell down she took a seat in the tall grass just beneath the shadow of her ship. Her eyes sought out the skies for a moment, making sure they hadn't been followed by a stray bounty hunter, perhaps someone who had been trailing behind. But the skies were empty, silent. There was only she and Cassius.

"What about you? All good?"

Kal knew she was only prolonging the inevitable; soon enough she'd have to explain herself to the Ace.

 

[Cassius Droma]

“Uh, yeah, I think I’m good,” Cassius said, taking a good look around his fighter. There had been that one more direct hit on one of the fins, but it looked like the shields had absorbed it quite nicely. He gave the hull a good pat, as if it were a loyal Loth-wolf that had come back from a day out. A-wings were rather infamous for their lack of durability at times, preferring to have speed and maneuverability over defenses. People who said that had obviously never been in a scrap with them before.

“I’ve been through a lot worse.” There had been the time where he had jumped to hyperspace in the middle of a firefight right as he had been hit, and had been picked up by a Silver Jedi medical frigate only to spend the next few days in a bacta tank. This had been a walk in the park, compared to that.

Sighing, Cassius leaned up against the side of his A-wing and looked out at the rather pleasant view they had. He looked down at the ground briefly. Better get to the heart of the matter.

“Alright, so…” his gaze finally turned to her. “I’ve got the feeling I just helped out someone who deserved it.” The Force certainly worked in mysterious ways – he just hoped that it hadn’t steered him wrong this time.

“Why were those bounty hunters after you?”

There could be any number of reasons as to why they could be hunting her – a lot of good people were targeted by crime lords for interfering in their affairs. Cassius wouldn’t be surprised if he had a price on his head after liberating a few slaves, not to mention his life as a patrol pilot prior to his becoming a Jedi. Then again… some people who had bounties were rather hardened criminals. Cassius got the distinct impression Mara was the former, but he wanted to hear it from her.

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

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Corulag, The Core Worlds // Just Outside The City​

Waiting Out The Heat // With [member="Cassius Droma"]​

♫ // Gotta Get Airborne Before It's Too Late​

______________________________________________________________​

For a moment after the question had been posed, Mara simply sat there.

Her fingertips ran through the grass, tugging gently but not enough to uproot any of the strands, and her gaze shifted down to the ground avoiding his gaze. How could she know that she could trust him with the truth? Should she lie? Make up some false reason?

Kal might not have flown as part of a squadron before, but she did know that flying and fighting alongside Cass' had bridged a gap between them, however small. Lying to someone you'd fought with, someone you might have died alongside, wasn't exactly right.

And though she may have done enough to warrant a bounty on her head, she wasn't evil or even really bad. Just desperate.

"The Empire committed the crew I used to run with to a forced labour camp," she informed him, after what felt like an eternity, "Wrongfully so, we hadn't broken any laws. Just got dealt a bad hand after pirates ruined out ship." Kal herself had been practically a child at the time, though she didn't bother to voice as much. The mere memory of it was enough to set her jaw. "There was an uprising, and I was one of the few who made it out alive. They put a bounty on my head, and I've been on the move ever since."

Lifting her head up, she finally met his gaze. But in doing so she realized she had to give him the rest of the information, too.

"I ain't gonna sit here and lie to you, I've done some things I shouldn't have since then, but only in the name of survival. Moved cargo without bothering to find out the contents, that sort of thing. As the Empire grew, and grew, I had to keep outrunning'em."

And it wasn't cheap, keeping a ship in the air. Even ones as small as their A-Wings.

 

[Cassius Droma]

After he asked the question, he could see the hesitation, the possible deflection as she looked away. She was struggling with telling him, which was understandable – she had only just met him but minutes ago. In that span of time, however, they had flown one of the most harrowing missions either one of them had probably ever seen. Normally, Cassius would be a little more diplomatic about the whole thing – ask where she came from, if she had any family, but he had decided that the more direct approach was best.

It had worked. He had received what he suspected was an honest answer. The Force would have given him an uneasy jolt if she was lying, and he felt no such deception. His posture didn’t change much, however. He was still relaxed against his fighter, arms crossed, listening as she explained. Nodding along, he looked off briefly, trying not to imagine the kinds of hardships she had to endure during her stay at the prison camp. He had the distinct feeling that when she spoke of being one of the few to survive the breakout, she had been the only of her crew to survive.

Mara had the presence of someone who walked a solitary path, again reminding him of himself when he had left Rinn in search of answers. It worked, for a time… but eventually, being an island caught up to you. One needed friends, people to rely and count on in times of trouble.

His face was one of understanding as she hinted at various crimes she may have committed in order to survive and escape the Empire. In recent times, he had met all too many people that were suffering through the same cycle of life. Corrupt officials and governments relied on bounty hunters to get their dirty work done, and sometimes those targeted were just seen as small loose ends that needed tidying up, rather than a sentient lifeform.

“I get it,” Cassius finally said, “I’ve been from one end of the galaxy to the other, and I’ve found that wherever there is good, there is also evil that will try to prey upon it.” Such is the nature of the Force, he continued in his head, but he didn’t want to get mystical with her.

“It doesn’t always have to be that way, fortunately,” he said. “Eventually you’ll find a place or people to settle with.”

After a pause, he decided to ask another question. “So what now? Are you truly just ‘passing through’? Or are you actually trying to get somewhere?”


[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

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Corulag, The Core Worlds // Just Outside The City​

Waiting Out The Heat // With [member="Cassius Droma"]​

♫ // Gotta Get Airborne Before It's Too Late​

______________________________________________________________​

Was she among the good of the Galaxy?

For her part, Kal could not say for sure. She did know that she wasn't evil, or cruel, but she was certainly no hero either. Just a girl with a ship doing what she could to stay alive, to remain afloat, in a Galaxy stacked against her, just like most of its inhabitants. All things considered she was pretty ordinary, worked hard, kept her head down, earned very little yet made do with what she had. Her story had been told a thousand million times over, a story which wasn't likely to change any time soon, no matter how hard the Good fought against the Evil.

The wars between Republic and Empire, Alliance and First Order, they were all so meaningless in the end. Just caused further death and anguish, blockades which choked the economy, stability was a thing rarely seen in this Galaxy of theirs. Most did not care about the big overarching fights. Most were too occupied by the ones they fought each day.

"I had my place, and my people," she told him, a little more bluntly than she had intended to, "The Empire done ripped that life to shreds. No point in trying to replace them, I'm used to the solitude by now."

Her gaze lingered upward for a moment, to the underhull of her beloved ship named after that state of being. Living in solitude together, that was her way of it. And yet she could not deny the thrill she'd felt just now, fighting alongside another again, working as a team. Two A-Wings against the world, or so it felt.

Kal ran a hand over her face and sighed.

"I've nowhere to get to, so I roam. I'll probably seek out some sort of job while I'm here, gather up some credits to tide me over til I hit the next world, and so the cycle continues."

It wasn't the nicest way to live, forever working just to keep going, she had no real worldly possessions, no friends or family to speak of, nothing tying her down, just the open lanes of space betwixt the void.

"What about you? What brings you here? And... Come to think about it, how the kriff did you get your hands on a damn laser sword?" Kal had never believed the tales of Jedi and Sith, of the Force, she'd never really encountered any of it before, even if she'd been under its influence at the hands of the Alabaster Man and the Kiffar. Memories she all but blocked from her memory, far too agonizing to think over.

 

[Cassius Droma]

Mara seemed rather against the idea of settling down, and once again Cassius nodded his head in understanding. Some people would rather cut themselves with making deep connections like that again just so they could avoid that same pain of loss. Cassius certainly wasn’t the most sociable creature – he spent a lot of time alone, just to get away from others. However, life was given so much more meaning when he was able to live it with others.

Just roaming that galaxy, completely aimless… now that was something Cassius couldn’t exactly relate to. For as long as he could remember, he had a purpose. On Rinn, it was protecting the colony and its shipments as a patrol pilot. When he left, it had been to find out more about the Jedi and how to become one. Ever since, he’d had some sort of mission, whether it was to study ruins as a budding archaeologist, train in the ways of the Force, or pilot a starfighter in defense of a faction.

“You ever feel like…. you’re supposed to do something different? Something more?” Cassius asked, as casually as he could hope for, but that sense of wanting her to feel like she had more potential seeped through his speech. “Now, I’m not saying go sign up for a starfighter corps or seek out the Outer Rim Coalition or the Silver Jedi or something – I think we both know any institution can fall at any time.” The recent collapse of the Galactic Alliance was proof enough of that. Some parts of Coruscant were still burning.

“What I’m saying is, there’s something for you to do, always. It can be small – it can be just you. Either way, you can start making a difference in not just your life, but the ones around you as well.” He wasn’t exactly sure what he was getting at with all of this. It sounded like a pep talk or even a recruitment… a recruitment for what, though? It’s not like Jade Squadron was around anymore. Although, maybe it could be, once again.

She finally asked how he got a hold of his ‘laser sword’, and Cassius couldn’t help but try to suppress a chuckle as he looked down at the ground, stealing a glance at the weapon on his hip. He finally looked up, saying, “The lightsaber? I built it, actually. I’m a Jedi.” It shouldn’t be so hard to believe – Jedi seemed like a dime a dozen, at least where he’d spent the last couple of years. “When the hunter in the bar suddenly moved his arm away from you, that was me.”

He felt a need to display his abilities so that he didn’t sound like some sort of lunatic. Unclipping his lightsaber from his belt, he laid it flat on his palm, then levitated it using the Force. The afternoon sun glinted off of the etched metal, almost looking like it was sparkling.

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

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Corulag, The Core Worlds // Just Outside The City​

Waiting Out The Heat // With [member="Cassius Droma"]​

♫ // Gotta Get Airborne Before It's Too Late​

______________________________________________________________​

While his observation was a fair one, it wasn't necessarily the truth of the matter.

It wasn't that she was opposed to the idea, merely that she wasn't the type to simply settle down needlessly, to give herself to a cause she didn't believe in. And in this Galaxy? Well, there was plenty not to want to affiliate oneself with. It was easier for her to keep on truckin' on in her own little bubble, knowing that her actions rarely touched anyone else. She couldn't do any harm if she didn't do much at all.

And she couldn't lose that which she held dear if there was nothing sacred in the first place.

"I used to," she retorted, with a loose shrug, "When I was younger, and first joined the Solar Monarch," How long had it been since she'd uttered the name of that illustrious ship? Or spoken directly of its crew? The girl swallowed, her neck constricting in that brief moment, and turned her attention back down to the grass. Some of the confidence she usually emitted was subdued by the conversation, as well as the adrenaline crash she was facing. Truth be told she was exhausted, and had his company not been somewhat refreshing she might have up and left.

Instead she planted herself further against the ground, ready to wait it out alongside him.

"Realized quickly that there ain't nothing the likes of me can do to make a difference. Heck, couldn't even keep that crew from their fate. They were better people than I am, great men, yet they're gone, and I'm here."

It was ludicrous, to tell the truth, and she knew the only reason she hadn't perished when the pirates attacked was because of Kilian's sacrifice. She had no right to be alive, no right to be the only one left to carry the tale of the Solar Monarch, but that was how the story played out. Whether she liked it or not.

"I will say, though, what we did today? That... Felt pretty good. I ain't gotten to fight alongside someone in so long, to fly with a purpose. If you hadn't come with, I'd be the one sinking beneath that lake right now."

When the laser sword was brought up, Kal could see within his expression that he was all but bursting at the seams from refraining to laugh, and she gave him a playful glare before smirking herself. So maybe she'd said it wrong, came off like an idiot, it wasn't as though she knew the technical terms for all the mystical mumbo jumbo she sought to avoid in the Galaxy.

But when he spilled the beans and revealed what he was, that humour drained from her face. She sat there perplexed, a mixture of awe and pure fear behind her eyes when the laser sword - lightsaber - levitated from his hand.

"You have got to be fethin' me," she mumbled, "It's real? All of it? The Jedi... The Sith?"

A shiver ran down her spine then, when she uttered that word aloud for the very first time, and her skin turned pale and clammy as the realization that she'd come face to face with such before set in. Twice, no less. Twice those demons had come before her, and somehow she'd walked away relatively in tact.

"How? How do you do... this?"

 

[Cassius Droma]

Cassius kept silent as she went on, lamenting over the death of her old crew. He frowned slightly, almost in reverence. Survivor’s guilt – it wasn’t a feeling unknown to him. In his time, he’d seen a lot of great men and women he served beside, and even those he had led into combat, fall by the wayside, crash into fiery plumes of smoke. If he could trade his life for theirs, he would, every second of the day. He couldn’t do that, though – he had to keep going, to make sure that their sacrifice meant something.

“You can always fly with a purpose,” Cassius told her. “I tend to go around and help where I’m needed, whether that’s in my freighter or in my A-wing. If you ever wanted to tag along… you’re more than welcome to. That comm frequency I gave you should be able to reach me wherever I am in the galaxy.” It was a strange offer, as he didn’t consider himself a part of any sort of faction for the time being. That didn’t mean he could start something himself…

Then came the big reveal – his status as a Jedi. She seemed amazed, as if she had never seen a display of the Force before. Cassius found this to be rather unusual. For the past couple of years, he had seen and interacted with Jedi on a daily basis. It had become second nature to him, knowing that these people existed.

He gave a solemn nod to her question. “Yes, very real.” While it was magical and incredible in its own way, it was also somewhat sobering. He had seen so much of what the dark side had done, especially recently in the Core. Such was the duality of the Force – the galaxy could be a more comforting and yet more scary place at the same time.

The lightsaber floated over to Mara, the bottom of the hilt facing her. If she wanted to grab hold of it and inspect the weapon, she’d be more than welcome to. Despite having just met her, he trusted her to not run off with it. He’d be able to call it right back to himself anyways, if needed.

Then there was the question he himself had asked so long ago: How? It was hard to put into words, but Cassius knew he had to try to make her understand. “There’s this… energy field generated from all living beings that binds the entire galaxy together – we call it the Force. Some people have the capacity to harness it, to wield it, and perform extraordinary feats with it. It can also lead you and guide you in certain directions… I let it guide me all the time. I feel it’s what brought me to you.”

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

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Corulag, The Core Worlds // Just Outside The City​

Waiting Out The Heat // With [member="Cassius Droma"]​

♫ // Gotta Get Airborne Before It's Too Late​

______________________________________________________________​

"What sort of help could I possibly provide?" she asked, with one raised brow, words spoken with complete sincerity and expression only adding to her apparent confusion. Kal could barely help herself most of the time, the very idea of putting someone else's life in her hands again was horrifying to her.

Then she thought back to the dogfight they'd just been apart of, and a look of longing crossed her face. Not necessarily for the next fight, no if she had it her way peace couldn't come sooner, but for doing something with a reason other than credits. Life and death, and not necessarily centered upon herself.

"We did make a good team..." she mumbled under her breath, before looking his way and nodding softly, "Maybe I'll make use of the frequency, when I know there aren't more of those buffoons on my tail."

Her attention was caught by the strange spectacle that was presented to her, and the words he'd uttered.

"The Force?" She shook her head, inspecting the laser sword - Lightsaber - with her eyes for the time being, though there was a deep rooted part of her which longed to reach out and take it, "I had heard stories, but I never believed... It seemed so far-fetched..." At this point her hand moved, fingertips grazing the cold metal hilt. A shiver ran along her spine despite how fleeting the touch had been, and after looking to Cassius to make sure he wasn't going to stop her she grasped the ancient weapon and held it in one hand.

Its weight was deceiving, and she wondered how it would fare when the actual laser-part was active. Far as she could tell, that shouldn't have a weight to it which meant it would be horribly off-balance. "How would you even wield something like this?" she asked, brows furrowing together, the mechanic in her wanting nothing more than to take the damn thing apart to see what made it tick. Of course, she shoved that idea right down.

Her other hand reached down to pull the blade free from its boot-holster, and she compared weights with a soft little "huh," before handing the hilt back toward Cassius.

What a strange Galaxy they lived within...

 

[Cassius Droma]

It was a good question – how could she help? Cassius casually shrugged though, as if it were such a simple thing. “It doesn’t have to be much. Maybe you help escort a freighter that’s traveling the same way as you, or you just offer to help fix someone’s dead carburetor. Eventually, you’ll see that the favors get returned, and you’re not so alone in the galaxy anymore.”

He was happy to hear that she would consider using the frequency to contact him in the future. He wasn’t exactly sure what he would need her help with, but there was never anything wrong with having more pilot friends. Also, if she were to ever contact him, he would try to help in any way he could.

Her face was one of wonderment as he explained, in the simplest of terms that he could muster, the nature of the Force. Of course, it was so much more, so much deeper, than any words could contain. He knew that for himself, after training on Ando Prime. Men and women spent their entire lives just trying to wrap their heads around it, and he knew that if he had the time, he could talk to Mara about it for hours.

The elementary explanation would have to do for the time being, and he floated the lightsaber over for her to inspect. She commented on how incredulous it all seemed, and Cassius nodded. “I thought the same way, before I found out I had the power to harness it. I used to just be a patrol pilot out in Wild Space. Now look at me.”

Cassius was rather amused watching Mara inspect the weapon. He could see the gears turning in her mind. She reminded him more and more of himself with every passing moment. It brought him back into that cold and impossibly dark temple he had found under his colony on Rinn, holding a lightsaber for the first time, wondering how it worked.

“It’s easier than you might think,” Cassius explained. “Takes a little bit of practice, but I’ve never seen a deadlier weapon in my entire life.” He reached out his hand, calling the weapon back to him, and holding it in his palm for a few moments. It had taken him a solid week of work in order to build the whole thing. Clipping it back onto his belt, he stole a glance over his shoulder, at the city beyond the trees. Still no sirens, yet.

“So if you’re heading down the lane, what’s next… Chandrila? Ever been?”

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

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Corulag, The Core Worlds // Just Outside The City​

Waiting Out The Heat // With [member="Cassius Droma"]​

♫ // Gotta Get Airborne Before It's Too Late​

______________________________________________________________​

Kal nodded, and it was obvious that she was deep in thought.

Truth be told she hadn't felt as though she connected with someone this quickly in a long time. Perhaps not since Ar'ekk and Lithios, though the circumstances there had been different. It had been out of necessity, to find a job, and the rest had simply followed as a byproduct of that. This though? It had been instant, since the moment she'd spotted his ship in that spaceport.

"Listen," she said, softly, without looking up from the grass, "I may have told a lie."

Was she really going to do this? Letting out a very long sigh she finally looked at him and steeled her nerves. She had not shared this information with anyone, in fact Kilian had been the last to know and had been the one to help her figure out the lie. She'd been just a kid then, hadn't uttered the truth in all those years. But flying with someone in a life or death situation like that, with the promise of more in the future? Well, for whatever reason that had her wanting to.

"You probably already guessed, but my name isn't actually Mara." He was a Jedi, after all, couldn't they read that sort of thing? "My name is Kal... Kalyn. But you're the only one to know so, I'd appreciate it if you didn't scream it from the rooftops or nothin'."

To most the revelation of their name might not be a big thing, but to one such as Kal? Who truly believed in the weight of names, and the power those who knew it had over you? Well... It was a pretty big deal to her. Showed a lot of trust, not that she'd tell him as much. They'd known each other for so short a time that it was probably weird to him, yet some things could not be explained.

"How'd you know you had it?" she asked, tipping her head curiously to the left, "That you had the Force?" That was how it worked, right? You either had it or you didn't? Bah, it was all crazy talk in her eyes, yet she'd seen some things that day which could not simply be explained away, so she figured she'd try to learn a little more rather than plugging her ears and pretending otherwise.

"And yeah, Chandrila - never been, no, but that's the case for most of these worlds. What about you? Where you headed?"

 

[Cassius Droma]

His eyebrow quirked. A lie? He wasn’t exactly surprised. While he could tell that for the most part, she was being genuine, he could tell that there was something she was holding back. Cassius hadn’t thought much of it – people like her tended to keep secrets. It was a way of life, and sometimes it was the only thing that kept you from getting a blaster bolt in between the eyes.

Kalyn… there was a little more punch to it than a name like Mara. Mara was a name he had heard across the galaxy – he should have guessed it was an alias. Cassius didn’t see it as much of a big deal that she was telling him her real name, but he could see how much it meant to her. He nodded deeply, almost like a light bow, before saying, “My lips are sealed, don’t worry.”

After all, there was always the chance that someone would recognize the name, or look her up in a database.

Mara… or, Kalyn, rather, then asked a very interesting question. It wasn’t something he had thought much about before. There wasn’t a specific moment that he could remember, no sudden revelation. “I guess… I always knew,” he finally said. “I was always faster than the other pilots, quicker in my maneuvers, almost as if I could see the enemy fighters coming. And I just had this… intuition, about things. I could feel other’s emotions. When I was told I had this… this power, everything just made sense.”

“It was like… realizing you’ve been walking around with a blindfold your whole life. The veil is lifted, and suddenly, you can see, and you figure out that the galaxy is so much bigger than you thought it was. That’s why I left. I had to figure this all out.”

When she answered his question about Chandrila in the negative, she asked where his path would take him next. “I… I’m not really sure,” he admitted. “At the moment, I’m based on Kashyyyk, where the Silver Jedi are. Been thinking of maybe moving to Naboo, since that’s where my mentor recently bought a house. Honestly, I just need a place to put my A-wing and my Stardust, and I’ll be alright.” He’d spent so many nights on his beloved freighter that it had become like home to him. Living on a ship, though, when there was so much real estate out there… seemed a little silly.

“You’ll like Chandrila, though. Very beautiful, a lot more calm than this. I do some consulting work for the Hanna Institute for some extra cash every now and then.”

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

To say that it was a relief to finally tell someone would be an understatement. An intangible weight had lifted from her shoulders, and she physically relaxed when he made his promise to keep it between the two of them. Again her gaze strayed to the horizon, but once more she found that nobody was coming. Not from the city, or friends of the bounty hunter. All was quiet.

"How did you go from havin' intuition to... That?" she asked, gesturing mostly to his person and the lightsaber he'd previously been levitating. "It seems like somethin' else entirely."

Moving things without touching them? Now that was insane to her. Yet she had seen it with her own two eyes, and such empirical evidence could not easily be rejected. Not by a girl such as she, who was hard pressed to believe in more metaphysical mumbo jumbo.

But you saw it. You know what you saw.

So how could she possibly deny it?

"Maybe you should come to Chandrila too," she said, with a shrug, though she knew the likelihood of him taking her up on that offer was slim to none, "I ain't much of a fan of Naboo myself, though, maybe it's nice for you." She thought back to the situation which had gone down there, and frowned for a moment, before shaking her head. "What kind of consultin' work?"

[member="Cassius Droma"]

 

[Cassius Droma]

Something else entirely. Cassius smiled and nodded a bit as he thought about that. To say that his life changed after he became a Jedi would be a massive understatement. It had somehow become more harrowing and yet more enriching than he ever thought possible. In his later teen years, he always thought that he would live his life as a fighter pilot, get married, grow old, retire, and die peacefully in his sleep. Now… he had no idea what the future held.

“I just… I started to try things. I had found an ancient temple under my old colony on Rinn. There was a hologram there that activated due to a Force Sensitive presence – me.” He could still hear the crackling and sparkling voice of the Jedi Master as she instructed him in his first steps. “It taught me a few things, and when I learned everything I could from it, I left and tried to find other places to train.”

He looked back at her again. “Some people have this power and don’t even know it – even you could have it.”

She didn’t exactly seem like a Jedi type… but someone who could maybe hone their Force Sensitivity into becoming a better pilot? Maybe. Cassius would have to spend more time with her to determine if she was indeed touched by the Force.

When she casually dropped the suggestion of him also coming to Chandrila, he knew that it wasn’t such a light thing, coming from her. A woman who lived her life alone, suddenly asking a man she just met to accompany her on a voyage to an unknown planet? He wanted to say yes, but remembered that he actually came to Corulag for a purpose. “I’d like to, but I still need to head over to the Dammon Institute. They asked me to take a look at something…”

“Archaeology, actually,” he answered. “In addition to being a pilot and a Jedi, I also like to explore ancient ruins and learn about cultures. Sometimes, the Hanna Institute will want me to study an artifact they’ve acquired or go on an expedition for them.”

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

The very prospect of her having a connection to the Force made the woman laugh, her head shaking.

"No, most definitely not, I'm square as square could be."

It was honestly a little strange to think about, given that up until five minutes ago she'd had no cause to believe in all that mumbo jumbo, but the mere idea seemed ludicrous to her. Still, the idea of the hologram was intriguing to her, and she tilted her head slightly to one side.

"A hologram? Maybe I should go seek out this hologram, just to make sure."

A slight grin of amusement, because she knew that would never fly as an idea, before she leaned back against one of the landing gears.

"Archaeology, eh? Interestin', I've moved some relics before for some institute or other. Didn't pay that well, though, so I've avoided similar jobs since then if I'm gonna be honest with you." Of course she'd never been part of a dig before, she wasn't the type. "Bet it's a nice adventure, though." Now adventuring? That was certainly something Kal enjoyed.

[member="Cassius Droma"]

 

[Cassius Droma]

A wry smile came to him as he thought about that sparkling hologram. “It was pretty degraded when I found it,” Cassius said. “I doubt it works anymore – its memory banks are more than likely fried, from all of the training I did.” Not to mention the fact that the cold utterly decimated the circuitry over time.

She mentioned hauling freight for an institution or two in the past. Cassius chuckled a little “Places of higher learning tend to be very stringent when it comes to how they spend their money. I get paid a little extra since I’m apparently one of the few Jedi they actually like to deal with and doesn’t want to just keep everything for some sort of Order or faction.” There were of course a few relics he would have liked to keep for himself, but he knew that rattling around in the Stardust Melody certainly wasn’t as safe as being at an institute where they would be carefully studied and stored.

“It can be adventurous, sure… it can also be boring… and also horrifying,” Cassius’s eyes glazed over a little bit as he thought about some of the more harrowing expeditions he’d been on. Some had been relatively easy, like the Valley of the Jedi, and others, like the one on Ansion, were best left for logs and records. As a Jedi, he was sent to a lot of places that were a little too dangerous or mysterious for normal explorers.

Checking the chronometer on the underside of his left wrist, he checked the time, then looked back out at the skyline. Still nothing. Looked like the coast was clear. “Listen, Kalyn, I’ve gotta get to where I was going before, well, all of this. Keep in touch, and let me know if you ever need anything else.” He clambered back on top of his A-wing, opening the canopy. Sliding in, he looked back over to her as he clipped in his crash webbing. “Oh, and don’t be surprised if I call you up in the next few weeks. I never know when I’ll need a good pilot.”

Giving her a casual salute, he closed the cockpit and slowly lifted off.

[member="Kalyn Shif"]

 

[Lief]

Well there went that silly idea, deflated before it had a chance to gain any traction. Not that Kal really minded, she knew she'd never have gone looking for it anyway. Even if she was able to use the Force, she knew she wouldn't. She had lasted this long without it, after all.

"Hey, man, havin' someone willin' to do a job and then not screw you over at the end of it is important." She said, when he mentioned how other Jedi and the like were more inclined to try and keep anything they unearthed, "I'd probably want to pay the one guy who kept his word a little more, too."

And then the day wound down, their little adventure coming to a close, as the reminder of duties to carry out was placed before them. She gave a short nod of her head, rising up from the ground and brushing off stray debris in the process.

"I look forward to hearin' from you," she told him, with full sincerity, lifting a hand to wave farewell as the man pulled back the canopy and slipped into the cockpit. He was gone, then, after a salute - one the woman returned, much to her own amusement - and she clambered up onto the top of Solitude and began glancing over the grazes on her body.

"Let's go get you cleaned up, girl," she mumbled, with a pat to the top of the ship, before she too opened the canopy and slipped inside, ready to see what other adventures awaited her along the 'lane.

Et Fin