Chasers of Stars

[Coren Starchaser]

Laekia

Coren Starchaser was the impromptu patriarch of the Starchaser line. That meant it was up to him to try to keep them all in line, from the ones who always followed his lead, to the ones who were as far from a useful Starchaser as possible. That latter one was Marek, but Coren had a few ways to watch the wayward nephew of his. Besides, Token had made all sorts of racket that the man was mostly holed up, away from the Force and away from most people. She didn’t know what he was doing, but it seemed that he was, for all intents, retired.

Coren wasn’t sad about that. But today, he was back at the home base for the Starchasers, the Imperial Star Destroyer Dawn Treader. She was around Oswaft Station, in the Laekia System. The Treader was home to more than just the Starchasers and that was an important thing, but they had also a few more ships showing up. A few Forerunner Class vessels and the newest ship to come off the Silk Shipyards, an MC-70 Ackbar Class Star Cruiser, designed for defense. This new vessel, dubbed the Argo. She was going to be the command of Captain Jared Starchaser, who had elected to remain as an instructor at the Levantine Astro Academy, instead of make the trip out to Kathol.
He would be working with the students to make a way to create a rift between Laekia and wherever the Dawn Treader was, in case of emergency. The Warbirds would remain with the Treader, and Starchasers, while Jared was taking Kite Squadron and repurposing them as a defensive group.

What was certain though, was that this was the first time in a long time when all the Starchasers and necessary people were together, back on the Dawn Treader. There were plans in the works to move the Treader to the Kathol Rift, a place that would keep them safe and needed their safeguards.

Coren would be on the bridge of the vessel, meeting with a few people while the family was working to arrive.

[member="Audrey Starchaser"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] (If she gets dragged)
[member="Odelia Starchaser"]
[member="Tykan Starchaser"]
[member="Marselia Urstalis"]

 

[Odelia Starchaser]

[SIZE=12pt]Home, a familiar place where the hum of the engines droned on whispering a lullaby that made sleeping much easier than being planet bound. Waking up to such surrounding gave Odi the peace she had been craving since joining her wayward brother over in the Galactic Alliance.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]All their nieces, nephews, cousins, and shirt tails were to be summoned home, well invited home. Odi stretched in catlike movements waking her up. A single move and her bare feet hit the floor, warm and yet cold. She smiled.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]She needed some exercise this morning, and then she would meet with Coren and the family. Dressing in her workout clothes, and grabbing the staff from the closet Odi headed down to one of the cargo bays to practice. She hated the training rooms they made her feel on display for every time she looked someone was looking at her.[/SIZE]


[SIZE=12pt]Inside the cargo bay she locked out all doors but one and there were no windows, and she disabled the cameras. She was in control, she found the box of training droids and set them free.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]The chirped at her she smiled,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]“Ok, level 1 today I just need to warm up”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Odi went to the center of the bay, closed her eyes felt the staff in her hands her fingers curled tightly the training droids went silent. Odi moved into a defensive posture extending her arms holding the staff level to her shoulders began to lower, when the first droid made its move.[/SIZE]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]
[member="Audrey Starchaser"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
[member="Tykan Starchaser"]
[member="Marselia Urstalis"]

 

[Jared Starchaser]

It had been a while since Jared Starchaser stretched his legs. The former Commander of the Wing was doing a few new things now. Wing command had fallen to Ellie Ardellian, his ‘aunt’s’ daughter. And that was fine by him. Ellie was a great pilot, but Jared was a bit sad of the reason the family was together now. He was moving his own career along, working with the Levantine Astronautical Academy as a pilot, and from there, he would be able to teach the next wave of pilots and defend the station.

Dawn Treader had been home for so long that he was sad to see the old girl go, but he’d be with her every step of the way out to the Kathol Outback, when he could be away, he’d be flying with the Wing, and when it came time for finals, or him needing to be giving first-hand flight training? He’d return to the Argo and Oswaft Station. But for now, he and Lia were walking the halls of the ship.

He knew he had seen his sister around, which that was some miracle work on his father’s part.

“The Kathol Outback seems to be the best spot, but I’m going to miss Laekia. Its going to be hard, being split from Oswaft and the Treader,” he said to Lia. He knew that he’d run across Odi or Coren sooner or later, so a stolen moment like this was worth it.

[member="Marselia Urstalis"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Odelia Starchaser"] [member="Jared Starchaser"]

Somewhere in a galaxy far, far away but not a long time ago...

Kinsey paced restlessly in the halls of [member="Sage Bane"]'s work-site for the palace to be. Promises of being his Dark Queen were beginning to lose their edge of vibrancy, ever since she met [member="Darius"] and that force bond was formed. And for once, in a very long time she thought about Coren. She didn't just think about him, she really thought about her uncle.

A pang of homesickness wormed its way through her gut. And an edge of determination.

 

[Audrey Starchaser]

Poignant threads of nostalgia tugged at Audrey when she landed Pulsar in the hangar of the Dawn Treader. I am home, thought the young Starchaser. She'd been on Sullust with Coren and Odi for so long, she almost forgot what the Treader looked like inside. As she descended the loading ramp, it all came back. Between the hum of the engine and the hurried footsteps of the Nightsingers, it seemed like she'd never left the Imperial Star Destroyer. Audrey briefly wondered if her old room was still just as she'd left it. On second thought, she hoped not. Those posters of that Twi'lek boy band were kind of embarrassing.

She could feel Pulsar pulling at her as she made her way through the hangar. With a sigh, she stopped and turned. Audrey walked to Pulsar's organic tissue hull and ran her hand along her side, as if she were petting a prized mount.

"Come on, girl," she griped. "I won't be gone that long. You might even have Crosscurrent to keep you company."

The ship perked up at the mention of Coren's ship and relaxed its ethereal hold on her.

"Good girl," praised the Starchaser. Audrey turned and hurried out of the hangar, humming loudly to drown out the ship's dim whining behind her. Pulsar was a great ship, but by the core, she was needy.

Now where might she find the rest of the Starchaser clan?

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Coren Starchaser"][member="Jared Starchaser"] [member="Odelia Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren ran his hands over the rail near the captain’s seat of the Dawn Treader. It was a seat typically filled by his partner-in-crime, Lily Ardellian, while Scall McLean lead the away team on the ground. Between the pair, and with his son as Wing Commander, the Treader was in good shape. But it was going to be taking a new spin with Ellie standing in charge of the Wing. Jared was going to be taking the CAG role, which meant he would be taking the spot of supreme fighter pilot, over the Wing Commander.

“Ensign, where is everyone?”

Coren needed to get the family, and related personnel up to the bridge.

The call had gone out to [member="Odelia Starchaser"], [member="Marselia Starchaser"], [member="Audrey Starchaser"] and the rest of the NPCs to show up on the bridge.

They'd talk the move, and finding where [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] ran off to.

 

[Odelia Starchaser]

Odi was mid swing when the call to come to the bridge, she laughed to herself. Taking a step back making the single hand motion that would deactivate the training droids. She exhaled very slowly. She'd need a shower, and a change.

Half hour later she walked onto the bridge smiling and nodding to family, friends, and all other npcs that were there. She looked over to Coren wasn't she covering his six the last time she saw him. "Nice to have so many come home, hello [member="Coren Starchaser"] " She walked over put her hands to Coren's cheeks' and brought their foreheads together in greeting. She smiled broadly at him, and then greeted everyone who she had not seen in the same fashion.

Odi was if nothing else, consistent.

[member="Audrey Starchaser"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Jared Starchaser"]

 

[Marselia Urstalis]

Being away from everything she knew wasn't a new experience, this time. The Dawn Treader had been home-away-from-home at first, but over the years that almost amounted to a decade, it had supplanted the world of her birth and become home. When her husband spoke his concerns, she slipped a hand over his shoulder.

"We'll manage," she said, "and this isn't the first time, for me, remember? Not the first time I've left what I've called 'home'. It's never easy, but they'll be okay, we'll be okay."

The shoulder was given a light squeeze, and her hand slipped away again, dropping to swing at her side as they made way to the bridge. A bridge she would miss, corridors she would miss, but Oswaft Station was already familiar, and having him there made the days and nights a comfortable constant.

"And it's not forever."

She slipped him a private smile, and the doors opened, admitting them to the bridge.

[member="Jared Starchaser"]

 

[Audrey Starchaser]

Oh, they were being called to the bridge. Sithspit! Audrey flicked open a compact and made sure that her bangs-to-face ratio was perfect then scurried through the Treader's winding corridors. Sadly, she got lost a couple of times. It had been so long since she'd been on the ship, and directions were never her thing. There was a reason that she flew a living ship, after all.

When Audrey came bursting through the doors, her big blue eyes panned around the bridge. She saw Odi and Uncle Coren and a whole mess of family members she didn't know as well. Was that Jared and his wife, Marsela-something? Looking around the bridge at all of the Starchaser-blue eyes (yes, it was a real canon color now) she couldn't help but wonder if the Starchaser brood were all allergic to latex or something. Someone very important was missing though, and when Audrey realized who it was, her stomach knotted up.

"Where the feth is Kinsey anyway?" she blurted out loud to no one in particular. For some reason it came out louder than she'd expected it to.

[member="Marselia Starchaser"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Odelia Starchaser"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Jared Starchaser"]

 

[Jared Starchaser]

So, this was a character that existed.

It wasn’t that Jared got homesick, he was a pilot, he’d done time away from the ‘Treader, he had worked with the Fringe to try to bring some peace to the Unknown Regions. But they were heading to… what? Their fourth world? Somewhere closer to the Alliance, sure, but the life was simple out by Laekia. It was helping the Jedi. And that was what Jared wanted to do.

“I know, and they’ve got to protect the Rift, I understand that, but… We’re doing good work out here. Just a bit odd to break it up.” Not that the Treader wouldn’t be making the rounds, truth be told, they’d probably adopt a second cruiser to hold the Rift and bounce back and forth.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.” He smiled. It was nice that he got to wake up with Lia every day. Odd still, but nice.

He grinned as he stepped onto the bridge. He knew Kaia wasn’t here, but she would be coming back around before long. She had to do her thing, though, and it was important. Still, the fact his father was here? And Aunt Odi? Both very good things.

“Well, look who the space-cat dragged in.”

Yes, space-cats were a thing.

[member="Audrey Starchaser"]
[member="Marselia Starchaser"]
[member="Odelia Starchaser"]
[member="Tykan Starchaser"]
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Getting the family all in one place was definitely something else. One of his covers as a smuggler had been Vagabond, and that was for good reason. This family existed around the stars, but calling the Treader home, that was something that they all had in common. He looked around as the assembled were called. Some Starchasers, some Ardellians, McLeans, and so forths. But the first one he recognized was [member="Odelia Starchaser"]. And he smiled when the two butt-heads. “Good to see you, when we’re not getting our asses shot at.” He laughed.

He looked to his niece, [member="Audrey Starchaser"] and nodded. “Last Kaia had seen them, they were on Nar Shaddaa. Both Kins and Dax. She’s been looking high and low for them. We’re not giving up, but we just… don’t know.” And that killed him a little bit to admit. They'd get [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] back.

“And the newlyweds, thanks for taking time out of your day.” He laughed as he gave Lia a hug and slapped Jared on the back.

Point to the table, he offered Lily Ardellian, the Ship Captain a seat before taking one of his own, waiting for the rest of the gathered, Starchasers and other family-crews of the Treader to get comfortable. Because Corey could godmod his own characters, Jared would opt to stand behind [member="Marselia Starchaser"]. “So, we’ve been talking for a while now. We need to keep the Treader moving, that means hopping again. With Corellia and Csilla under siege from the One Sith, and this being a large war ship, we need to keep her moving. I don’t want to bring the negative attention to Oswaft Station, so the SSC had allowed us the use of a crusier, and we’ll be basing our protection detail off of that, under Jared’s command.

“As for the rest, the Dawn Treader and our two corvettes will be making our way to the Kathol Rift, or at least just outside of it. A bit of Force secrets out there, and not many people step into the Rift, the families on board should be fine.” At least that was his hope.