Catch me if you can!

[The Upright Man]

A lone YT-2400 glided through space at a cruising speed of 350km/h. It was an old starship. Some less-than-polite fellows would whisper a joke to one another at a bar once in a blue moon, saying "The only thing holding that ship together is hope". Maybe they were right. Even at this speed, the ship shuddered, trembled and groaned. Paint had slowly over the years peeled off the ship, and various laser burns had scarred the vessel. It had clearly been around for some time, and this was not the first owner of this girl, but maybe he would be the last. It was on the outer fringes of the Dagu System, skirting just out of sight of military patrol ships.

Lukce sat in the small main room he had fashioned into a makeshift cafeteria. It was nothing to brag about. In the centre of the room was a single table with three chairs. To the far left corner were a bench, sink and basic cooking machines. A cupboard sat all the utensils, plates and bowls. It was deathly quite but for the dying moan of his ship, and the rattling of fine china against each other. The table wobbled as the ship shook as it always did. It took a while to get used too. He sat in his ALS-XI power armour, without the helmet. His bleached blonde hair cropped tight against his scalp. His blue eyes analysing the data pad on the table.

Suddenly the article he was reading vanished from the screen. He frowned. The data pad flashed a warning across the screen as an alarm blared. The data pad was connected to the ships internal systems and thus whatever warnings the command console sent, the data pad received. WARNING: UNKNOWN SHIP ON APPROACH VECTOR. Well, this was certainly something. He stood himself up, hands throwing the helmet over his head. He marched across the deck of the ship, body swaying as the vessel rocked with it's deathly throes. Alone in space, in a tight and small ship. It was sometimes haunting. Especially when someone was after you. He sat himself down into the leather throne, gloved fingers jotting at buttons and thumb flicking switches. Shields Online. Weapons Online. Hyperdrive Preparing for Launch. His right hand clasped the acceleration lever, slowly pushing it forward. The ship moaned aloud, trembling as though an earthquake had just hit. Speed increased to maximum 800km/h.

Suddenly the YT-2400 that had been gliding through space, shot forward like a bullet at alarming speed. Proving that the old beast wasn't ready to give up just yet.

@[member="Krest"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Krest lounged in his ship. In truth, he wasn't one who flied his ship, instead he used a droid. He had been tracking @[member="Luminous"] for a while now. The bounty wasn't something he'd pass up, but in trust this wasn't his setting. The most he could is sit back and wait till they hit land.

Hopefully that would be soon.

 

[The Upright Man]

Luminous gazed over the ships systems. Everything was as normal as it got on this old, rusty bucket. Fuel was low, but it could get him to the next hospitable solar system, and then some. He looked over the visual display before him. In the corner of his eyes he spied an asteroid field. He was no expert pilot, but this was his best bet to lose someone who was on his trail. Give himself enough time for the drive to be ready for launch. With his right hand on the accelerator, and left on the steering lever. He twisted left. The YT-2400 suddenly banked hard. He held his hand down, the ship performing a series of barrel rolls as it shot downwards towards the field of flying earth. He righted his steering and the ship levelled itself out. He heard something literally rip itself off the roof the ship from the sudden turning. Well there went his repair drone, whatever use it had in the first damn place. He pivoted the nose of the ship downward and fell into the maze of rock, weaving through the stone, left and right. His chair wobbling as he continued the evasive manoeuvres.

@[member="Krest"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Krest frowned at the site of the field. He had no intention of following the man in with just a robot pilot and his terrible piloting skills. Instead, he circled around it, waiting to see if @[member="Luminous"] popped out the other side or not.

 

[The Upright Man]

The ship dodged it's way throughout the field. His eyes only sparing a second to glance at the radar. The ship wasn't pursuing. Good. He circled through the field, twisting and turning as he went. The metal pulled and slammed against each other, unused to the sudden strain put on it. Luminous barrelled out of the field, flying straight past the opposing ship. For a split millisecond, he saw into the cockpit of the other ship, but as soon as he had seen his foe face-to-face, the time had passed and he was increasing speed. The console reported. Hyperdrive Ready for Launch. He flicked the switch. Time seemed to slow down as stars expanded into long lines of white across space. Then he was gone.

WARNING. WARNING. HYPERDRIVE MALFUNCTION. LEAVING HYPERSPACE. EMERGENCY LANDING VECTOR ALLOCATED. AARIS SYSTEM. AARIS III. It all happened so suddenly. The ship had shuddered unlike ever before. It felt like the entire thing was tearing itself apart. Luminous was almost thrown from his chair, if not the harness holding him in. The white streaks across the galaxy turned back into their sparkling, tiny lights. A dark, green planet loomed before him. He was close, too close for comfort. He slammed into the atmosphere, throwing himself forward. He shook his head, disorientated. He threw back the accelerator lever, slowing his vessel down as he followed the suggested landing approach. The ship wobbled, something then shut down. It was the engine. The ship glided through the air, decelerating at a heart-racing speed. Luminous dug his fingers into the accelerator, slamming it forward in an attempt to jumpstart it. No use.

The ship was falling towards a thick lime canopy. Fingers racing to restart the engines, but they were dead. He slammed his fist into the console and clenched the armrests, preparing himself for the crash landing. He had been wrong, it looked like the ship was on it's last legs. He slammed through a series of trees, tearing them in half. He tore into the earth, sending a storm of soil up into the air before crashing back down. He was thrown forward again, head slamming against the console. The vessel coming to a grinding halt in the jungle.

@[member="Krest"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Krest had the droid keep his eye on the radar. Once @[member="Luminous"] broke through the asteroid fields and went off into hyperspace, the droid followed the signature. Between the lines of light Krest leaned back in his chair. He really needed to learn how to fly if he was going to do this. He snapped back into reality as the ship suddenly exited hyperspace. Krest moved his way up beside his droid, patting his head.

"There a reason why we stopped?"

"A ship just crashed on the planet sir. Whether or not this is your bounty, don't you wish to help?" Naturally the droid was right. It was part of the Zabrak's job to help people. Besides, chasing someone through space wasn't his thing. Going onto the jungle planet of Aaris III most likely filled with large beasts was. The droid brought the ship down, finding a clearing a good hike from the crash. That's the issue with a jungle, never really any clearings.

Krest pulled his hood over his head, making his way to the ramp. It was going to be quite the walk to the ship, but maybe a good force imbued job'll make it go by that much faster. He took off to the line of smoke spewing from what he could only assume was the crash site. At least it wasn't on fire.