Drama and Subversion

[Aela Talith]

The Subversion
[member="Jamie Pyne"] | [member="Asmus Janes"]

Well.

Things had gotten complicated, or awkward, Aela wasn't really sure which because she'd never been in this particular situation before. What was supposed to have been a simple recon mission had turned into something...more. A little bit of teenage drama, a little bit of her apprentice being rather close to falling to the darkside, and of course a little bit of spycraft shenanigans.

This mission had originally been intended to be a normal shakedown run for a new ship, The Subversion. A stealth carrier to be used by the SIS. Aela had elected to take the mission because it was simple and Jamie had gone on vacation. She didn't need her apprentice for a simple reconnaissance job. Of course, this rather simple mission had turned out to be something a little bit more, with The Subversion being Co-opted to check out what appeared to be some sort of First Order activity on the Alliance border. What made it worse was Jamie had returned from her trip early, and she had...well not been at all pleased.

Aela had been able to sense the rolling wave of emotion that came from Jamie before she had even landed.

The girl practically radiated with anger, despair, and fear. The big three.

She hadn't asked many questions...at least not yet, but she had known that leaving Jamie alone had not been a good idea. Thus she had ushered her padawan aboard The Subversion without any time for her to object or even argue. In the long run it would be better...but first she had to actually find out what the hell had happened on her vacation with Kurt.

Aela let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Please check the sensors often." She told the ensign on the bridge. "I don't want anymore surprises."

She'd had enough of those.

Another sigh escaped her and Aela turned away from the viewport, heading off the bridge and towards Jamie's room to find out what the feth had happened.

 

[Asmus Janes]

Asmus Janes had sacrificed a great deal to be here. Rogue One had come with accolades and had become a much easier job in recent months. They'd been based out of Alliance space or from ground bases and had mostly flown scouting missions or intercepted First Order patrols and turned them back. He'd been well paid, well respected and had a good life.

But Asmus didn't want a good life. He did in fact, but he wanted something else even more. He had been on space from the age of sixteen. His uncle had been brought up with pirates and had felt estranged from his wealthy family of upper class Eriadu merchants. He had stolen the freighter Harlequin from his own family and renamed her the Quintessence. Asmus had been aboard. Taken by the stories his uncle had told of adventures and riches to be found on the move he had begged to stay aboard.

His uncle had obliged for just one trip. One smuggling run. It had been just one more trip for two years before he gave up. Asmus' mother had stopped sending bounty hunters after them following Asmus being hospitalised himself by one.

But despite how desperate he had been to leave the life of trade and accountancy laid out for him back on Eriadu, it had still been home. He had always kept the pain of witnessing the devestating wrought by the First Order.

And so he was here. Discharged from the GADF. He was a Wing Commander only within the secret confines of the SIS. The Subversion was new and raw. Amenities were slim and they would be traveling in deep space for months on end.

But this was where he could make a difference.

He stood behind one of the stations on the lower deck of the bridge, watching Ghost Squadron prepare to launch. The SIS' naval support was a mix of experience and enthusiasm. His flight group commander was particularly wet behind the ears, but he was an affable sort and Asmus had started to take him under his wing.

"Ghosts are good to launch, Wraiths on standby," Asmus called up to the top deck. Captain Amadgener didn't even reply. The burly, dark skinned man didn't seem to like Asmus and he hadn't yet figured out why.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Aela would find Jamie laying on the bed in the room, knees bent, feet tucked just under the blankets as she quietly read a book on her datapad. It was all she could do to keep her mind off Kurt, Kaile, her sister, Naboo, and everything else that had happened over the past few weeks. She was hurt, angry, disappointed, crushed, and entirely alone. Whatever the mission was here she would do what was asked of her, but she was hardly the peppy, chirpy girl she had been prior to her leaving Sullust to see Kurt.

It was only a matter of time before she was asked about her behavior. It wasn't even a question of if. Jamie hadn't tried to mask her displeasure, there was little point. Aela would be able to tell she was hiding her feelings either way, so the effort wasn't worth the trouble. For everyone's sake she hoped that Aela wouldn't be too intrusive. She'd already snapped at Kurt in the hospital, damaging some property during her tirade. That probably didn't go over very well with the staff after she'd left, especially considering that Kurt wound up stepping on the shards of glass that had shattered and would need further medical attention than he was already receiving. That, wasn't her fault however.

She sighed, hearing Aela making her way towards her door.

[member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Asmus Janes"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Asmus Janes"] | [member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela let the door slip open with a wave of her hand, not even bothering to use the controls. She shifted slightly, getting through the narrow doorway without hitting her head. She found Jamie laying on the bed, looking about as miserable as when she had dug her out in that cave on Lothal.

She looked at her apprentice for a moment, staying silent.

Eventually she wandered over to the bunk that sat opposite of Jamie's, sitting herself down on the comfortable mattress. The thing was surprisingly soft. In truth she had expected just a stretched canvas rack, but apparently the SIS was really shelling out for these new Stealth Carriers. She couldn't really blame them, especially given that they would be the new home for quite a few SIS operatives around the galaxy. A sigh escaped her as she curled her fingers around the edge of the bed.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She didn't feel the need to say what 'it' was.

Eventually it would bubble to the surface, but Aela was willing to give Jamie time.

 

[Asmus Janes]

Asmus left his station and made his way down towards the lower decks. He was a handful of metres behind the Jedi who had come aboard. He'd worked with Choli Vyn in the Rogues and had seen her slowly developing her abilities, but this was apparently a Jedi Master. He couldn't help noticing how young she seemed for the title. Young, tall and leggy.

He had to turn away and take the lift down. The Jedi were holed up in the restricted area of B Deck. His "criminal past" precludes him from getting the clearance to enter the restricted zone where their quarters were. Without an escort at least.

He headed on down towards the lowest deck of the ship. It ran beneath the flight deck, twelve separate maintenance bays for each of the ship's aboard. He had his personal fighter, Thunderstruck, aboard.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Aela's apprentice continued to remain silent for a minute, though she had stopped reading the moment the door slid open by the will of the Force. Her lips drew back to the left, then to the right before a puff of air was blown through her nose rather audibly. She didn't really want to talk about it. But whether or not she wanted to talk about it was hardly the reason Aela was there in her room. She was there because she was going to have to talk about it, lest the woman not let her be to wallow in her self loathing.

"We're through. Kurt and I." She said quietly, oddly calmly. "He got someone pregnant."

Her eyes never left the datapad she was no longer reading. "That's the gist of it."

There was so much more, so much more that happened, but it was still very fresh in her mind, a very bitter and sore subject. One that she didn't quite want to get into at that moment. She wanted to be left in peace, to read and take her mind off of the subject. Jamie wanted to get through this mission without having a mental breakdown or an anxiety attack. She didn't want to cry anymore, least of all in front of Aela.

"I'll be fine. What are we doing here, anyway?"

Anything to change the subject.

[member="Asmus Janes"] | [member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Oh." Aela said quietly.

She knew from the way Jamie looked, from the way she sounded that what she said was likely hardly the 'gist' of the story. There were likely a dozen twists and turns to the tale, but it wasn't her place to question it, at least not now. Jamie was her padawan, but Aela knew well enough that pushing a teenage girl to talk about something she didn't want to talk about was both foolish, and counterproductive. Perhaps in time she would open up, but either way Aela wasn't going to press the subject.

Not now anyway. "Originally it was only supposed to be a short shakedown run for this ship."

Aela decided to move on to the missions, perhaps keep Jamie's mind busy with what was going on in front of them rather than what had happened with Kurt. She knew that keeping Jamie occupied was probably the best way to go about this for now, at least until she wanted to really talk about what had happened.

"That's changed now though." She informed Jamie. "The First Order, or someone, has apparently been stirring up trouble on a border world not far from where we were scheduled to run. Alliance command is sending us to check out what happened there."

Just simple recon, maybe more if they found something bad.

 

[Asmus Janes]

The bay housing his ship was fully lit, but he couldn't see any engineers. The refuelling pumps had been detached and there were no ordnance trays so she had probably been loaded. Yet there were tools spread across the ground.

"Hello?" He called.

"Oh!" Came an exclamation from beneath the ship. A shock of bright red hair appeared. An engineer in filthy overalls slid out on a wheeled tray and drew herself to her feet.

"She ready to go?" He asked.

The girl flushed slightly. "Hi, I'm Petty Officer Cheville, or Lucy."

"Wing Commander Janes, is she ready?"

"Erm. No," she replied, seemingly disappointed by the curt introduction. "Does this thing even have a manual?"

"Ah," this time Asmus looked abashed. "Not exactly no. I have some bits of pieces and the notes we made when we rebuilt her."

Lucy shrugged. "Better than nothing. I have no idea what's going on inside her. Someone loaded an Alliance firmware so at least I can get diagnostics, but it's reporting a fault on the secondary buffer panel and I have no idea...Where it is?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The acceptance of her master in changing the subject allowed the girl to loosen up a bit. She turned her head, setting down the datapad beside her, acknowledging Aela's person finally. With a quick turn she slid to the edge of the bed, dangling her feet over the side while blue eyes focused on the Jedi Master's own.

"I see. What kind of trouble?" Just how much trouble said people were causing was of interest to Jamie. "You think it's really the First Order?"

The two had discussed briefly the First Order before, how tensions were rising between them and the Alliance. It had given her something to think about before, but with everything happening with Kurt as of late it had fallen out of mind until now. If they were sending a single ship to check things out either they must have been pretty confident that it was a minimal threat. Either that, or they were hoping it was simply a false alarm.

Perhaps for now she could try and put Kurt behind her.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"It makes sense it's them. The planet is on the southern edge of their territory bordering us." The world wasn't really anything to talk about, mostly a barren moon with some heavy foliage, that was about it. That was why the disturbance was so strange.

"We have an outpost there." She told her padawan. "Two days ago we lost all contact."

Which was very odd indeed. Members of Alliance command grew rather nervous when one of their outposts went completely dead, especially when said outpost was on the edge of the border with The First Order. Listening posts like the one located on that world acted as forward observation points for incursions by fleets and other stellar objects. Losing one could be a sign that an invasion force was coming. It could also just be a comm-error of course, but that remained to be seen.

"We're not sure what happened, but they haven't checked in and all relays in the facility seem to be down." The Subversion just happened to be the closest ship that could go and check it out without diverting an entire sector patrol fleet.

Made sense really, she only hoped it was a coincidence rather than the pretense of an invasion.

 

[Asmus Janes]

Asmus felt rather than heard the prow bay doors closing. The second Flight from Ghost squadron had been launched in recon mode. Having the bay doors open ruined the Subversions stealth configuration so the three vessels had been launched before the ship closed on their target world.

If Wraith squadron launched it would be in full combat mode, ready for a fight. But that required his ship to be cleared to launch.

Asmus didn't even reply to the technician, he strolled under the nose of his ship and scooped up a hydrospanner. Immediately he set to work on a hatch on the far side. He very carefully slid the panel free, careful to disentangle several wires.

"Well what is it doing there?" Lucy asked incredulously. It seemed the redhead wasn't shy on voicing her opinion.

"Because...I put it there?"

"Well you can damn well knock me up full set of engineering diagrams if I'm going to be looking after her."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She wiggled her nose, pulling her legs up to rest her feet on the edge of the bed, her arms locking them in place so she could rest her chin on her knees. It certainly sounded bad from what Aela was saying. "Could it be a storm or something interrupted their communications?" Maybe something got damaged and they couldn't transmit anything. This was hardly her expertise, and she had no idea of what the atmosphere and terrain were like where they were going. The other troubling aspect was that it bordered First Order space.

"If they were attacked, we could be flying into a trap." One ship might not be enough. "Why else would they attack a small outpost?"

It was a possibility that it was also a random attack, as small as it were.

Regardless they wouldn't know for sure until they arrived. Hopefully it was just an unfortunate power outage or something. Jamie wasn't quite in the mindset for battling Sith, or Ren, like she had on Ossus and Lothal. "Where exactly is it we're going?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"There's no storm activity on the planet, Long range sensors have already told us that." She wished it was just a storm, then she could get all of this out with Jamie instead of having to focus on a mission.

The Jedi Marshall sighed.

"I don't know." She admitted to Jamie's other question. "But this is a stealth ship, or carrier. They won't be able to see it coming near or into the system. That's another reason why we were sent. If it is a trap, we're the least likely to get caught in it."

Small mercy really. Hopefully though it really was just a mechanical glitch. Aela hoped to all hells that this wasn't the precursor for a war with the First Order. She had just gotten done fighting a war, and in truth she couldn't imagine going into another one. Her time with Jacen on her last missions had made her...more than weary of battle and fighting. In truth Aela just didn't want to do it anymore, she was sick of fighting, sick of always having to lead the charge.

She wanted to sit and relax on a beach.

"Niril. It's near Javin." A no name world really.

 

[Asmus Janes]

Asmus stood back as the engineer went to work. She tutted several times as she went about her business. He wasn't used to other people getting into the guts of his starfighter. Not this one anyway. He'd rebuilt it from the abandoned old prototype models with his uncle back on their freighter. Or Mal's heavy freighter. Wasn't like there was room on the Quintessence for a pair of fighters.

The intercom crackled. "Janes, you down in the bay?" It was Odennus' voice.

Asmus meandered towards a panel and thumbed the switch. "I'm here, just trying to get my ship cleared."

"What are you doing that for?" came a much deeper voice. The Captain.

"So...I can fly her? Do that flying and shooting stuff thing?"

"Squadron Leader Janes you need to check your brief. You're taking a shuttle."

Asmus stoof by the intercom dumbfounded. Their first mission and he was relegated to transport duties. His first chance to prove his skills in front of his new wingmates and he was going to fly in a glorified bus. "Sorry, what?"

"Don't take that tone with me. You're flying the shuttle because you're the ranking pilot and we need to get a very expensive cargo down to investigate. Namely the two Jedi, one of whom apparently doesn't much like flying. So keep it smooth and use that disarming smile you keep flashing at my bridge officers."

The intercom snapped off. Asmus balled his fists by his sides.

"Disarming smile eh?" came an amused call from beneath his fighter.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

A sigh pushed her head upwards from her knees before falling back down. No storms meant it was most likely, probably, an attack then. There went any likely chance that Jamie could simply stay in the room and mope about for the length of the trip. At the very least even if it was a trap they were flying straight into then hopefully the stealth capabilities of the ship they were on would slip them into and past whatever was waiting. Silver linings were hard to find as of late, despite how much she searched for them.

"Never heard of it." Not that that was anything new. She hadn't heard of many planets, especially ones that hardly anyone else knew of. "But I guess that means I should get ready, huh?" Stepping into a potential fight in casual clothes without shoes was probably unwise. "How close are we?" How soon she had to motivate herself would be entirely based on how long it would be until they arrived in orbit.

Before Aela even answered her, her Padawan pushed herself off the edge of the bed and began to change into more appropriate clothing.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"You have an hour or so." Aela told her padawan, still sitting on the bed. She was of course already dressed for combat, or rather how she went into combat. More and more as of late she had foregone wearing of armor and had more stuck to civilian clothing. Perhaps it was because of her status as an SIS agent or perhaps it was because it made her feel less like a soldier, but either way the young woman was simply not the same as she had been before.

"Shower, change." She told her apprentice as she finally stood. "I'll go make sure everything is set with the shuttle."

The Subversion wasn't a ship meant directly to drop into orbit, rather it stayed at a distance and acted more of as a home base than anything else. The craft was eventually meant to be a long range home base sort of thing, allowing SIS agents to have a place to return to incase a mission in deep space went sour. Aela liked the concept, though she hated the idea of living on a starship for any amount of time.

It didn't sit well with her.

"Meet me in the Hangar when you're ready." She told Jamie as she headed towards the door.

 

[Asmus Janes]

Odennus was visibly nervous giving his first briefing to Wraith Squadron. He'd been out of the academy for a remarkably short time, but aptitude test and a lack of SIS volunteers had given him the job.

Asmus did his best to help, filling in some of the blanks and answering some questions from his own squadron. He wasn't certain if it was an attempt on his own part to make his mark, or if the captain's rude comments had steeled him to prove himself. Normally he would be the first to poke fun at a junior officer out of his depth.

"So I know you've only done a handful of launches from the vessel and mostly worked in sims but we're going to do a rapid launch and turn. Front bay doors will open the moment we exit hyperspace. Ghost squadron are ten minutes ahead and will send back their aerial report. Wraith fighters will be followed by two shuttles with Jedi and marines. The moment you're clear we're pulling hard aside and taking the long route around the third planet in the system. They puts the Subversion out of sight, but closer for a rapid extraction or to provide further support. Ghosts will land, refuel and be on standby." Odennus finished his closing summary and Asmus gave an affirmative nod. Nothing else to do but go and get his shuttle prepped and meet his passengers.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Passing up the opportunity to properly get ready would be almost sinful. She took the time to shower and gather her belongings like Aela had suggested. The full hour was also squeezed down to the last minute. Something the Padawan had been working on for quite some time was finally finished. It took longer than expected, due to the difficulty in obtaining some of the material and additions, and certainly would have been much nicer to have while on Ossus, but such was life. She had it now, and that was what mattered.

Aela hadn't seen the small project she'd started a while back, so she was almost as giddy to surprise her with it as she was to actually try it for the first time. Given the situation, it seemed an appropriate opportunity to give it a go.

Assuming she would find the Jedi Master in the hangar of the Subversion, that was where Jamie headed to meet her as was requested. The light clanking of boots against the durasteel flooring rang out against the inner walls as she stepped into the hangar, trotting down the few stairs to see Aela speaking with a few of the crew.

"Ready to go." She said, standing behind Aela, outfitted.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela turned out, then perked an eyebrow. A whistle escaped her lips. "Snazzy."

She felt almost under-dressed in her simple jacket.

The soldiers of the 5th Legion behind her seemed to share her sentiments, a few of them joking about how Jamie had nicer armor than they did. She smiled at her padawan and wandered over to her, inspecting the armor for a moment, poking Jamie's side as if it were enough to test it's strength.

"When did you get this?" It was a quesiton of curiosity. "Or did you make it?"

It was clear that the Jedi Marshall was more than a little impressed. Usually she just wore whatever the Jedi Order tossed her, something made by Vanir Technologies or another corporation. If Jamie had made this herself...well then Aela would be more than a little proud of her padawan.

 

[Asmus Janes]

Asmus didn't have any fancy armour. As a shuttle pilot going into a potentially hostile zone he had been given a light flak jacket at least. Apparently a millimeter of duraplast was quite effective. But then he'd seen stormtroopers cut near in half by heavy blaster pilots at close range so he doubted the effectiveness of his jacket.

One of the Jedi was wearing something rather advanced. Though it did appear to offer a great deal more protection to get tits than her head. Priorities, perhaps. She did at least look far more of the fearsome Jedi warrior he had expected. Wait, did they read thoughts just out of habit?

No point trying to keep his racing mind quiet, so he just proceeded formally. The taller one was apparently a Marshall.

"Ma'am," he called with a crisp salute. "Shuttle is up on the flight deck ready for you and your team."

There was a loud clunk as the platforms carrying four fighters finished rising into position. The two shuttles were on their pads behind them. Flashing lights came into life down the ceiling and all engineers started to clear the flight deck. They didn't have air marshalls with batons, but there were lights inlaid down the deck to guide vessels in and out.