Cramped Recon (Ava)

[Aster Jace]

To be completely honest, Chaff wasn't thrilled about the prospect of being cooped up in the back seat of the T-95, just as R4-F3 wasn't fond of the mission in general, letting out a series of expletives about how risky it could potentially be sending them out on recon alone, or how it could also be ridiculously boring, or how he barely trusted Chaff to fly and now he had to let another replacement take the controls.

While the pilot nodded in silent agreement on the first two points, he quickly shot the astromech a glare of disapproval on the last comment.

[member="Ava Cartwright"], or Black Eight, was a relative unknown to him. Aside from her callsign being 'Goldilocks', and that she was in Second Flight, he knew absolutely nothing of the woman.

Standing idly with his flight helmet tucked under his arm, he looked over the larger X-Wing quizzically. He prayed the two-seater was just as maneuverable as its counterpart he'd grown fond of ever since being shoved into the still bloody cockpit of the T-70.

Wordless for once, Chaff ran a hand through his hair as he waited for his partner to arrive. She'd be here soon, the mission's time-frame demanded it for one, and he felt it in his gut for two.

 

[Ava Cartwright-Pryce]

RNS Solemn Purpose​

Somewhere in the NW Quad, Coreward​

[member="Chaff"]​

​

Ava wondered curiously how the selection process was done for this particular high stakes recon mission. The Ralltiiri being only a recent replacement pilot put her at the low end of Black Squadron's totem pole so to speak. Was it just that easy of an explanation or was there more merit given to it. She hoped it was the latter as Goldie's SIM scores were solid; maybe not the highest of the elite rebel pilots, but consistently in the top tier.

It didn't matter in the end really; the how's and why's of the decision. The Flight Officer had a job to do, and do it to the fullest of her capabilities she would. Second best just wasn't good enough as the margin of error was slim to none when playing the dangerous game the Resistance was involved in.

So this Black Four, whom she'd never met before today. What had the poor guy done to deserve to be stuck with her? He was to be Goldie's Radio Intercept Officer or RIO for short as they had been assigned one of the T-95 Tandem X-wings; an honor or a nightmare depending on the outcome. If Ava wasn't nervous before, now she certainly was. The starfighter was brand new for Force sake and Goldilocks was going to be the one to "break" her in. Hopefully break was figuratively used not literally in this case.

The mission was to do reconnaissance along the proximal section of the Celanon Spur, which was sandwiched between the Mandalorian and Sith Empires. With the Hydian Way closed to them now, the Resistance had to find another "safe" hyperspace route to get to Celanon where a benefactor had weapons and supplies waiting for them at a warehouse near the spaceport to be picked up. That is, if the rebels could get there and out without too much risk. Word had it that the Mandos and Sith had an alliance and the area along the hyperlane between their two factions was being "watched". Eight and Four's objective was to see to what degree so the Resistance could determine what assets they would be able to send in to retrieve the much needed goods.

Exiting the turbo lift, Black Eight entered the port side hangar of the Home One-class MC-80 that the Resistance called home carrying a flight helmet under her left arm and a pair of black gauntlet gloves in the other hand that swung by her shapely hip. The blonde was dressed like all the other pilots... in a snazzy *insert sarcasm* rebel orange flight suit. Good thing Ava could pull off the color, not that it mattered really just that they lived in them 24/7, well almost.

Steele blue orbs caught a glimpse of the other pilot flying with her today. She beelined for the snubfigher and stopped just shy of where the dark-haired man was standing in a somewhat patient manner. Ava transferred her gloves over to the other side, and offered her hand for a shake.

"Flight Officer Chaff I presume? I'm Flight Officer Cartwright. I'll be your pilot for this mission," Ava greeted with a smiling nod, then inquired as eyes peered over the craft briefly. "Is she already pre-flighted?"

 

[Aster Jace]

Turning to face the voice that spoke to him, Chaff found himself face to face with [member="Ava Cartwright"].

"Pleasure to meet ya Miss Cartwright!" Chaff responded jovially, a friendly smile across his face, shaking the blonde's ungloved hand with his own. "Assuming my friend up there has done his job, then she should be ready to go." He replied to her inquiry, nodding to R4-F3 who let off a series of annoyed bleeps at the use of the word 'friend'.

"Don't mind him, he lost his pilot back over Thyferra and hasn't been keen on me as a replacement." He said with a shrug, he was sure the woman could relate to a degree given the relative inexperience shared by most of Black Squadron. If he recalled correctly, spare an Alliance veteran or two, the only pilots with an experience prior to Black's formation had flown TIEs for the enemy before defecting.

Chaff knew the mission wasn't going to be the safest of endeavors, Sith-Mandalorian Space was a dense concentration of every pilot's worst nightmare, random patrols, mines, the works. If he said he wasn't nervous, he'd have been lying through his teeth. Command even let him get some rest in an actual bunk rather than in the cockpit of his T-70, which was how he knew things were getting bad.

On the upside, Ava seemed like she'd be pleasant company based on first impressions. She came off as a kind woman, and had SIM scores that beat out his own, maybe he'd pick up a trick or two.

 

[Ava Cartwright-Pryce]

Hangar Bay​

Solemn Purpose​

________________​

​

The corners of the blonde pilot's lips curled upward into an amused grin as her RIO's astromech droid reacted rather opinionatedly to his comment.

"Well that is understandable... I too am in the same predicament being a replacement for another soul lost at Thyferra, though I'm sure we can all work together so that doesn't happen again," Cartwright replied with her steel blue gaze going up to the R4 unit already in his socket, then back to [member="Chaff"].

"I know I will give it my best effort as I'm sure you two will also. Our mission depends on it," she added reassuringly with a soft air of confidence, then pivoted on her booted foot and moved closer to the port side strike foil.

"I'm just going to do a quick walk around the snubfighter before launching... It's just something I like to do when time allows," Ava announced as her hand ran along the edge with eyes visually perusing the fuselage. "I know this craft is brand new and all, but never hurts to inspect it any ways," the Ralltiiri added as she moved around to the other side of the wing to look at the engine; peaking inside the assembly briefly. Ava was by the book to a degree, though had learned to improvise when the need arose while with the Ralltiri Underground.

After doing a complete 360 tour of the T-95, Ava pulled on her two black gauntlet gloves, then followed by donning her flight helmet. "She's good to go on my end," Goldie reported with a thumbs up sign, then ascended the access ladder to the cockpit and eased herself down onto the pilot's couch; attaching the crash webbing across her body as the transparisteel canopy closed down and the ladder was removed by the hangar tech.

"So Chaff... Do you have a callsign outside of being Black Four? Mine is Goldilocks or Goldie for short, and I think you can guess how I got it," Ava quipped softly making small talk as her gloved fingers went to work flipping levers and pushing buttons to bring the X-wing to life as the ship sat on the flight line in the voluminous hangar bay of the Solemn Purpose.

 

[Aster Jace]

"You can count on me to pull my weight, him too I suppose." Chaff joked as he slid the black gloves, taking a quick jab at the astromech as his crewmate gave the ship a look around. She was the careful type, thorough in her inspections even of a starfighter fresh off the line. Chaff liked that, it gave him some comfort knowing that even if the stick wasn't his to use, that he was in good hands.

Following suit, just so that he looked like he knew what he was doing, the amnesiac pilot walked around the fighter, checking for anything that might've been out of the ordinary and found nothing. That was a good start he supposed, he hoped it held up once he and his golden haired acquaintance were soaring through the inky abyss with no friendlies around.

Green eyes ran along the X-Wing one more time before he began trotting towards the ladder up into his station. Everything from now on was on them, it would be their own skill that either saw them through the fight, or ended up with them dead. As of the present moment, Chaff liked his odds.

"Y'know darlin', I don't think they call me anything besides Black Four or Chaff, hell I can't remember ever being called anything else frankly." The pilot said through his Outer Rim drawl, giving a shrug as he stepped foot onto the first rung of the ladder.


"Goldilocks, huh? Why they'd ever call you that must be a real mystery." He teased, looking back at [member="Ava Cartwright"] with a playful smirk, some banter between the two promising rookies couldn't hurt.