Dancing in the Stars

[Coren Starchaser]

Now this was podracing.

No, this was how things were made right.

Yes, that was a good way to think about this.

Coren Starchaser was back in the Galactic Alliance, and as a result, he was able to contact a large number of people in the military. And recently? He had sent out a message to the pilots of the Galactic Alliance and her allies to rendezvous at an asteroid field outside the Sullust system. He had arrived early in one of the Galactic Alliance’s frigate pocket carriers. The ship, the ANS Darklighter, was a carrier who specialized in fighter pilot training exercises. As a result, she carrier a compliment of Alliance X-Wings ready and primed for combat, as well as a number of training vessels and support ships. Mainly tenders for picking up damaged fighters and pulling them back to the carrier.

Starchaser himself had arrived in his new prototype fighter, one that he was hoping to have a few others to test. Still, the message was the same for everyone.

“You are invited to a starfighter training exercise, please arrive at the provided coordinates at the dedicated time. Lets have some fun in the wake of the Dark Side on the war path and fine tune our own skills.”

The place was here, and the time was now. When a pilot arrived, the Darklighter would alert them that this was a training exercise and to power the weapon systems low, so as to not cause actual issues with ships.

The fighter he was in, well, there were a few of them aboard the Darklighter, and they were based heavily off of his own shuttle the Shortfin. A ship that had maneuvering jets allowing it to move forward, but also to allow the forward momentum to carry while drifting the ship to the side, to allow for a completely new scenario for combat. The ship was a basic airframe, centered around the old Delta-7 designs, the ships were great as they were similar enough to the ship that Coren had stolen and was working to reverse engineer, out of the Unknown Regions.

Taking the ship through a few maneuvers, he was working with the standard propulsion before entering the asteroids and switching to the new one, the system he could use to drift around the asteroids. Just waiting for other pilots to show up.

 

[Wedge Draav]

The TR-20, and the skull-faced pilot came screaming from above the asteroid field, and then banked hard, coming to the rendezvous. Wedge had come up a long way from a scared kid, and he was more than happy to participate in some friendly competition- and to train harder. He was hard-pressed to get better, become a better pilot- and this was a perfect chance to do so. He cracked his knuckles and pulled the face shield up, watching [member="Coren Starchaser"] take his fighter through the usual pre-combat maneuvers. Or maybe the guy was just showing off- he wasn't too surely, truth be told.

Wedge looked up and set the final piece of his superstitious habits into motion- when he hung the pair of fuzzy dice from the hook in the center. The chain was short, and they weren't really hanging per-se, because, well, space. But they were locked in place and hanging about.

He smirked and waited for everyone else to show up, and as usual, stayed quiet. He wasn't particularly talkative, or social. Used to be, but that got him heartbroken.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

While, of course, Janick was known to be one of those veterans from Dagobah, thus far her sorties have been a little underwhelming: she fought the rabble of Imperial fighter pilots, on Bothawui and Dagobah, and a few sorties against pilots at a similar level at best. Yes, she knew that the Alliance's enemies treated fighter pilots and attack craft as expendable, but that was not an excuse for the witch to skimp on training. Yes, I did perform satisfactorily in all the combat sorties except for the Arbitration station over Kal'shebbol, but, if history is any indication, it's entirely possible for pilots to be given the command of 11 squadrons without being anywhere near the best as a dogfighter. Maybe today's training session in a XJ-7 would prove that I may as well be better suited for anti-ship, CAS or for taking out herds of fighters in the first pass, she thought, while realizing that pilots came in many different strengths and weaknesses profiles, much like the craft they pilot. And also that piloting is not an area where FUs have much of an advantage over NFUs. She realized this entire time that she was partial to the cluster missiles, and hence to the craft that had the ability to carry them, for a reason. As she waded through the Sullust asteroid field in the unfamiliar XJ-7 (or perhaps Incom) cockpit, with her assigned R9 unit, she found two contacts: [member="Wedge Draav"] and [member="Coren Starchaser"], while the astromech set the cannons to drill power.

 

[Duke Dyson]

Jax was done with training exercises mentally but anyone else who asked he probably needed a few practice rounds. Especially if he was going to be ready for another attack from the First Order or the Empire alike, as a rookie the chances of survival were down to a minimum if he didn't step up his game and endure teamwork. Something that the young pilot lacked in during his time with the Rogues. It would never be admitted out loud to anyone but the particular choice in coordinates had persuaded him instantly to join many alliance pilots on this little exercise.

Even if there weren't any enemy fighters to shoot off the astroid field outside the Sullust system was a challenge all on it's own and colliding into one would certainly be his downfall. Not that he was hoping to die anytime sooner but if this had been a more earthbound exercise then he probably wouldn't have been so enthusiastic to take a chance. He wanted to show all these other hotshots what he was capable off and Jax wasn't about to leave out any details. The T-20 he was piloting manuevered around the ongoing astroid field in a moderate pace, Jax's grip on the yoke being rather tense. His usual reckless nature was being put on hold for the time being. The little handy astrometch droid linked to his fighter proceeded to hand out the coordinates leading over towards the rendezvous point. It wasn't much of a challenge to catch up with the three contacts; the one in charge of the little drill excercise being [member="Coren Starchaser"] who Jax hadn't officially met but had heard of during his time at base.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"] | [member="Wedge Draav"]

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

Kurayami had been doing some training in a full motion simulator using his modified A-Wing's specs for the flight. It was smooth enough and a decent challenge, but it still didn't give him the same rush as diving into an actual combat scenario. There were days where he wished he had more fights to jump into as he stepped out of the simulator and stretched. Grabbing a drink of water he quickly chugged it as he heard a beep from his datapad. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the message to see what was going down. A message about a starfighter training exercise. Should be fun if nothing else. He still had time to get there if he left now.

He did a quick check of his armored flight suit as he made his way to the hangar, sealing his helmet in place as the doors slid open to reveal the line of fighters before him. The Corellian chuckled, why not take the one he had just been using in the sim?

Walking over to the craft he ran his hand over the hull as he tried to envision just how well this would go. It was tough to match this ship in straightline speed or sheer maneuverability. Sure, the firepower might be a bit lower than other fighters, but that wouldn't be the deciding factor. He climbed in and slid the canopy shut, smiling to himself as the panoramic display lit up with a 360 degree view of his surroundings. Once all the sensors were online and he had finished his preflight checks, he lifted off and punched in the coordinates, jumping once he was clear of the gravity well of the planet.

It felt like minutes, even if the travel time was greater as the ship reverted to realspace. He eased the throttle back as he entered the area and received a transmission that due to the nature of the exercise all weapons were to be set to low. No issue there, it helped when you only had laser cannons to worry about anyway. Setting the bolts fired to be little more than a pretty light show, he warmed up the targeting systems as he eased the throttle forward as he moved in towards the asteroid field. As he neared the field he pushed to full military power, and began by making wide turns around the asteroids before bringing his ship closer each pass.

'Yellow 13' was back.

[member="Coren Starchaser"], [member="Janick Beauchamp"], [member="Wedge Draav"], [member="Jax Rhane"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

ANS DARKLIGHTER​

loc://Hanger Bay/Maintenance Depot​

Those TR-20s were needy!

Seriously, the XJ7s and T-70s were a lot less maintenance intensive. That aerospace frame that the Rogues were strutting around in was just a diva with wings. And half the time it was the s-foils that needed work. Especially with the crazy way the four engines were configured on that frame.

The small, cat-eared droid was running back and forth across the hangar bay. There were any number of activities that needed to take place before a starfighter could take off. Systems checks. Fueling. Troubleshooting (looking at you, TR-20).

It was keeping the maintenance droid busy, which was his preferred mode of operation. Connecting a fuel line to a T-70, the small droid scrambled up with a bottle of window cleaner, a squeegee, and a shop rag. Cleaning the transparisteel while he waited for the starfighter to fuel up, the Cathar simulacrum looked out over the hangar deck. His amber ocular sensors took in the myriad of activity unfolding around him.

If anybody needed any mechanical assistance, the droid was there to help prep the starfighters for flight. And, if they were flying the glorified diva T-20... they were likely going to need all the help they could get!

[member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Jax Rhane"] | [member="Janick Beauchamp"] | [member="Wedge Draav"]​

 

[Melissa Corek]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Wedge Draav"] [member="Janick Beauchamp"] [member="Jax Rhane"] [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"] [member="BB-4001A"]

ANS Darklighter
Hangar Bay-Maintenance Depot

Melissa sighed as she took out another bundle of wiring and tested it with a voltmeter. For the last few test flights she had with the her X-Wing it had been pulling to the left slightly and she was convinced this was due to faulty wiring to her stabilizer.

"R9! Reroute circuit B312 to B320! That should give us the stability we need and maybe even give us a bit of extra juice!" Melissa called out to her astromech R9-D9 as he was rerouting circuits in the X-Wing.

"<No! That will cause a overload in the navigational system!>" The droid argued back to his master, rolling up to her and knocking her in her leg, making sure that his annoyance for her modifications was shown.

Melissa rolled her eyes under the goggles she was wearing, her father had gotten the droid to watch over her when she was fifteen and she always thought the reason he got this specific droid was because his personality matched with his own.

"But navigation is what I have you for buddy." She said as she patted him on the dome. "Besides, when the advanced navigational system upgrade I bought comes in we won't have to worry about it." She said as she began to close up the panel she had been opening. Making sure his disagreement was known R-9 went off to obey his masters orders.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The prototype fighter was definitely something fun to fly. Sure, he had seen pilots drift their fighters and spin them around, but that was all with really well controlled bursts from rear propulsion. This ship was allowing for a bit of extra play. And that meant the right pilot, with the right system and motivation, could do some things that would just throw another pilot off their game. Starchaser was the type who liked to push the boundary of ship designs, and hope that someone would pick up the design and keep up. His contract and connection with Silk allowed for a lot of that.

The ship was playing some sort of music in the background, something Coren added to his ships, and well, Porter, his trusty Astromech, always was game for some music. Was nice on this ship, to have the Astromech back. He could just hope that the full design of this fighter would put him ahead of the game.

Another roll and burst of the full throttle after the seconds of change, he nodded. Maybe he was going to need to do something to allow for absolute control of the ship’s systems at all times. What he needed though, was to make sure he could use it safely in a combat exercise. And a drill among the Alliance and Light Side pilots? Hell, best option he had.

Started to see his subspace scanners fill up, he grinned. “Darklighter, Starchaser, can you open up a channel, give me control.” He nodded when the response came through and Porter let him know it was open.

“Hey pilots. Welcome to the suburbs of Sullust. Just figure we need a shakedown. Anyone up for tag?” He laughed as he checked his systems, yep, all set for drill. He pushed the throttle, running back towards the Darklighter.

OOC: Coren’s working on testing a new ship. Its going to have a flight system similar to the previously linked Shortfin, or more readily the Vipers from BSG on an airframe similar to the Jedi starfighters. Those are in the Darklighter for anyone who wants to play around with that. Astromechs can be provided, obviously. Also, some tender ships so if you get disabled, can bring it in for our friendly robocat mechanic to play with, and probably knock off the hangar floor.

[member="Melissa Corek"]
[member="BB-4001A"]
[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]
[member="Jax Rhane"]
[member="Janick Beauchamp"]
[member="Wedge Draav"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

ANS DARKLIGHTER​

loc://Hanger Bay/Maintenance Depot​

The small droid finished up cleaning the canopy of the T-70.

Hopping down from atop the nose of the iconic starfighter, the simulacrum checked the status of the refueling. Looked like the tank had been topped off. Uncoupling the fuel line, the Cathar cub-bot cast off the lines and made a notation that the craft was serviceable and ready for take-off.

Taking the fuel line back to the power station and depot terminal, the droid's processors worked to identify the next maintenance priority for flight checks.

There was a craft of unknown configuration on the deck.

Several of them, as a matter of fact. Records in the ship's manifest indicated that these were prototypes of a new vessel to be fielded by the Alliance.

...well, with a mystery like that on his hands, how could the cub-bot not go over to check it out?

Making his way over toward one of the new entrants to the Alliance fleet, the BB-4001X began cataloging and taking note of the design work. The hard points on the frame. The maintenance access hatches. The welding and the riveting. His mind was working to calculate the likely stress points.

These were all things he would need to be familiar with when one of these arrived for maintenance.

Was there a manual on them? The boy should go and see if it was available for download if there was.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]​

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Already I can feel that the XJ-7 is more for a dogfighter than a CAS/tactical bombing pilot, she thought, while realizing that the XJ-7 is going to be more maneuverable than the craft she piloted in the tactical bombing missions she flew in, and also having memories of her major combat sorties flashing in her mind: most of them were more heavily leaning towards anti-ship than dogfighting. Not that she could exactly run circles around [member="Coren Starchaser"], but she also realized it was much better than the Alakaha in that respect. She had to relax to the best of her ability, as was possible when each sortie can get her killed, now that she was flying inside an asteroid field where maneuverability is more important than speed. Janick heard about Coren's offer over comms as she was still experimenting a few maneuvers with it, those very maneuvers she knew would be useful as commonly encountered in air and space combat, and not end up like Syrena Colsin on Thyferra. (Cale Gunderson is another story; he was flying right through an entire battery of anti-aircraft in a strafing run without backup) Maybe [member="Melissa Corek"], [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"], [member="Jax Rhane"] or even [member="Wedge Draav"] would be fair game, but [member="BB-4001A"] was simply ensuring that craft would be maintained.

"I'm up for it" she responded to Coren's hail.