Into the Void

[Aerion Ivelisse]

Sullust Temple Hangar.

Over the last few weeks he had become a pilot that was sanctioned by the Galactic Alliance.

Astromech and all, he was given permission to fly with Galactic Alliance Fighters in combat operations and everything. Was he that good? He knew it. After his actions in an impromptu skirmish in the Coruscant System over some salvage and junk, and then to rescue Lucius Varad, his skills had become respected enough that he was forced to fly with an astromech droid. No more micromanaging by himself in the cockpit with all of those controls, it was hard to adjust - he still was, but still, the benefits of an astromech were too much to say no.

Off to the Sullust Hangar, he went.

There were no missions as of yet, so he figured he'd prep his Stealth-X for... Practice. Yes, definitely practice.

Down the winding halls he went, his droid was already there waiting for him.

Definitely going to be complaining about not being there first.

He sighed, but then he spotted someone in the orange flight gear and there was an amused look on his face as he looked away a moment later.

At least I don't have to wear that.

[member="Choli Vyn"]

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

Orange jumpsuit?

Check.

Killer aviators?

Check.

One sassy Pebbledrone?

Double check!

A series of chirps and beeps came from Choli's right, catching her attention.

"Hmm?" driftwood brows rose, spare hands coming up to try and make something manageable off of it. It had a tendency to simply go wild and do whatever it would please. More often than naught, it ended up in a thick plait with her bangs shoved back and secured with a few pins to keep them out of her eyes when the Lorrdian wore her helmet.

"Yeah, supposed to be running some sort of check with..." her nose gave a slight scrunch as she tried to remember with whom it was intended to be with.

"Ivelisse??" at least that was the file said. Something, something about stealth fighter.

"Yeah, they are supposed to be out here --" up ahead, hazel eyes caught sight of on particular figure. Dreadlocks framed his angular face, dusky skin, dark eyes --

Wait a minute...

Narrowing her eyes, Choli cocked her head to the side.

"Hey!" she called out, gesturing with a finger at the guy.

"I know you!"

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

He felt someone's eyes on him, but he figured they'd stop looking soon enough.

So he ignored it.

And then the sound of someone saying 'Hey.'

Couldn't be for him, who would be interested in talking to him. Who would want to talk to someone who had a face like his? Sure, it was handsome, but his features didn't look to be the friendliest. His face was always rooted in a position of saying 'why are you talking to me?'

I know you.

Now he knew it wasn't for him, Young Aerion didn't know anyone.

Guess it is.

But it only occurred to him at that moment that some girl was pointing her finger at him, and he slowly regarded her with his frosty gaze.

"I don't even know you," he said offhandedly, but he had been practicing to keep the edge out of his voice. He didn't even sound confrontational anymore, some would even say his lips twisted upwards slightly in a smile, but that was as close as it was going to get. Ever!

[member="Choli Vyn"]

 

[Choli Vyn]

A hearty snort was set towards [member="Aerion Ivelisse"]. Along with the prompt halt of the young Rogue pilot. Tipping her head back, Cho let her hazel eyes sweep from the dusty boots and up towards that attempt at a smile. Or at least Cho hopped it was a smile. It could very well be him struggling with constipation.

"Well I didn't have the shades back then," she told him, R2-D4 giving a small beep and hoot at her feet in confirmation. Yup! This was the guy.

Her right hand rose and pulled off the aviator's, amused hazel eyes shining up at Aerion.

"Late night pilot who sneaks off to do runs on his own?" a dark brow arched in impish humor. Then a thumb gestured to the stealth snubfighter behind him.

"Right?"

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

It took him a moment to realize who he was looking at. He didn't meet many people, so you would've expected him to remember who she was.

Shame his mind didn't like to work in a way that made sense.

"Shades," he said as he looked her up and down. Curious. He guessed she did look kind of familiar. And then her astromech droid made a confirming sound, oh. So he had met them before. He made a face when she mentioned the late night flights and he huffed, looking away, down towards the hangar that he had been heading for.

"I don't do that anymore," he said matter of factly.

"Can't remember your name."

[member="Choli Vyn"]

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

Her eyes rotated in her eye sockets in amusement. Lips went twisting in an even wider grin as she sassed back," Well I guess we have a do-over," she immediately extended her hand out to him.

"Lieutenant Choli Vyn, Rogue Seven, Rogue Squadron," R4 gave a slight back and forth roll, adding his own little chirp to introduce himself properly.

"This is Arr-Four, he's my Pebbledrone Astromech." she added, hazel eyes dancing with mirth. Tucking her datapad away in her hip pocket, she quickly snapped the ends of her shades and tucked one end into the collar of her blouse.

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

Suppose he was going down the path of being a nicer person.

That should be fun.

She raised her hand and extended it to him, which he did note, but he didn't raise his own hand in a reasonable time. It took him a moment to gather himself before he did shake her hand.

When he did, he said, "Do over," echoing her earlier statement.

"Aerion Ivelisse," he introduced himself as. No Bouqi name in site. "...Jedi."

"Mine's in the hangar. Probably aggravating someone," he said. An attempt at a joke? Who knows. "Why are you here?"

[member="Choli Vyn"]

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

He was certainly an odd one. A slight scrunch of driftwood brows and the teenager arched an eyebrow a little higher. Well, he was new, so maybe that had something to do with it? He certainly seemed a little tense.

However, once he told her his name, things clicked.

"OH! So you're Ivelisse?" her smile grew broader, her olive face brightening.

"Guess I'm working with you for the time being," she told him, taking her hand back after his curious hold up at the handshake. A pause, then she asked, "Do you get out much?"

Choli wasn't one to hold back the punches. If he wasn't used to social ventures, that was all right. Choli wasn't one to judge. The bulk of her life dealt with Tusken Raiders and Jawas after all.

"You seem as if you are a bit uncomfortable," a finger gestured to the general area.

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

[member="Choli Vyn"]

Do I get out much?

"Sure," he said. He wasn't lying, really, he wasn't! "Just not with other people." Smooooth. But if he cared about what she thought of that it hadn't made itself known on his face. Instead, he raised a brow at her last words.

Was he uncomfortable?

Most likely.

Working together with this girl? He didn't even know her.

"I am," he said, though he couldn't give a reason as to why. "That jumpsuit doesn't match my style," he offered with a lopsided grin.

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

Choli blinked. She was also unable to hide the small twitch on her upper lip at the, ' just not with other people.'

However, with that confirmed she at least knew enough to know that it wasn't her that was making him a bit skittish. Well, insomuch as not her personally as much as the orange jump suit.

"What? This old thing?" her dark head gave a dip, the thick ponytail swaying just along her shoulder as she gestured to her jumpsuit.

"Don't you know orange is the new black?" she managed to quip with childish devilry. If anything, perhaps a few jokes will help ease the tension for the guy.

"Well, don't worry." rolling from her right side over to her left, the Pebbledrone gave another chirp to remind them that they had things to do.

"I won't make you wear one." she gestured for him to lead the way with what they were supposed to do.

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

[member="Choli Vyn"]

Even if he barely socialized, he could still laugh at jokes, right? That was allowed, he knew.

"Funny," he said, his lips cracking into a smile. A nice one too, especially considering how frequently his features were deadset in their 'determined' default.

The peddble droid made a sound, and he spared a glance to the ground at it before looking back up at her.

"Aren't you gracious..." He said drily, and then he waved a hand at her droid, "I think its trying to tell you something."

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

"Yeah," the Rogue would agree, glancing down at R4-D2.

"He always has something to say." came her half chuckle. "Something something about responsibility and not getting on the Captain's bad side."

Turning those hazel eyes to meet the light blue of Aerion's, the straight slash of her brows gave a quick pop up in humor.

"You got the mission brief?" she asked him. It was a standard scouting mission, but one where they'd be able to test out some new prototype that was very hush-hush and supposed to be cool. They were to deploy in about an hour or so, which left them some time to get to know each other a bit more and learn more about this prototype. Research and development was all about trying new things.

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

When she glanced, his eyes followed down to the droid, and he nodded along with her statement.

Don't they always.

And then he was crossing his arms over his muscular chest. Whereas Zaren's clothes tended to be crisp and fit him perfectly, not that anyone would really know because he was always in that suit of armour of his, Aerion's clothes were more befit of a bum. A clean, not badly smelling bum. A bum that took care of their hygiene and their clothes.

All about the presence, not the appearance.

"Mission brief?"

He blinked at her dumbfounded.

"Uh... Oh." He said finally realizing. He didn't know about the mission, but he had figured it out. "That's why my droid was bugging me to come down here." He nodded.

"What's the mission?"

[member="Choli Vyn"]

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]


He made her give a half snort smirk. Shaking her head, Cho beckoned him with a finger for him to follower.

"Scouting mission. Testing out how well your girl can handle moving into potentially hostile territory for gathering information." the First Order to be exact. This was just a training run, not the real deal. The objective was to use new intel gathering technology that would allow them to remain stealth while picking up long distance movements and, with the use of especially cloaked probes, be able to redirect encrypted information back to a point where Alliance agents could be able to attempt to decrypt.

"What's your experience with intel missions?" she asked him, looking over her shoulder with a half smile.

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

[member="Choli Vyn"]

"It's the best at doing it, when it comes to X-Wings," he proclaimed. Better than the regular everyday X-Wing that he had seen other members of Rogue Squadron flying. They weren't Stealth-X's, he was proud of that fact. Though he had no illusions that the Stealth-X wasn't the best, end all be all for stealth ships. I mean, it didn't even go invisible!

It certainly had the other aspects of being invisible though.

After all, he had gotten onto Zarnathea and off of it without being noticed by the First Order when they were subjugating all of those people before they had gone and seized the entire planet.

"Zero," he said, looking over his shoulder after a moment, wondering why in the kark she was smiling at him. "Shouldn't be too hard, right? I've done plenty of intel type stuff... Just not... Officially."

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

"Well, any kind of experience is better than none. A bit of intel works just as well, " she assured him.

"This will be my first official test flight with the prototype," Choli admitted. Perhaps that might help ease a bit of the tension there. Another twitch at the corner of her mouth came when they locked eyes again. Most wouldn't be quite used to Choli's sense of humor, but it had the ability to grow on people.

Well, one hoped.

"So where did you get your fighter at?" it certainly wasn't any of the standard issue. Back in Rogue Squadron, there were a few mix matched snub fighters, some of which had come along for the ride with their pilots.

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

[member="Choli Vyn"]

Aerion shrugged. Any kind of experience was better than none, he silently agreed.

"Don't think I need this prototype," he said drily, and he looked past her to see where they were going. He spotted that twitch at the corner of her lips, and he pressed his tongue against the back of his teeth, but he kept his mouth closed.

Well that was an easy answer.

"It's a Stealth-X," he explained. "It's for Jedi," as if that explained it all. Where did he get the ship? He couldn't say, he had had it for quite some time. "What about yours?"

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

"No, I've a doubt you need the prototype." she said wryly. That was going to be hers. However when he mentioned the Stealth-X, Choli was noticably intrigued.

"Really?" her voice rose an octave. To be fair, the young woman hadn't ever really had a close look at Incom's infamous Stealth-X's. They were few and far in between, and having the luxury to fly one was rather rare among Rogue. Her squadron had a tendency... well, to crash. Given them access to expensive stealth starfighters was not high on the list unless it was required for a specific mission.

"How you manage to nab one?" she seemed to ask with a bit of awe.

 

[Aerion Ivelisse]

[member="Choli Vyn"]

The Stealth-X had appeared to interest her. 'Stealth-X' was an interesting name for an X-Wing, who wouldn't be intrigued by that?

How did he get one?

Zaren Bouqi had had an X-Wing and had traded it in to Incom some years ago to purchase it for him. An XJ-7 Prototype, back from when he was a Jedi Knight. Aerion had learned from flying the XJ, but one day it hadn't been there, but within a week, the Stealth-X had taken its place. He had never thanked his father for the gift, and he never appeared to want one.

"My Father flew a lot in the Galactic Republic," he said with a shrug. "Not as notorious as Rogue Squadron," for whatever reason they were well known for, his father had never made it among their ranks, whether he had been good enough or had wanted to, Young Ivelisse couldn't tell. "Traded it in."

 

[Choli Vyn]

[member="Aerion Ivelisse"]

That must be some heck of trade in, Choli mused with an expression of wry befuddlement. Either his dad was some bigshot or he had some fantastic luck at salvaging one of those. There were few models scattered between here and Silver Jedi Territory, but the Stealth X had seen some time in battle. Rumor had it that some of the newer models were rather neighed on impossible to salvage or reverse engineer. Personally, Choli didn't give much stock to that.

Give a stealth x to a Jawa clan and see how resourceful they were at making things work.

"Oh wow," they came into the secondary hanger where the new prototypes were stationed. However, Choli's interest was on Aerion.

"So was your dad part of the Galactic Republic Navy?" some of those Stealth X's if she recalled correctly had also been given to the Jedi Order there. However, it was more likely that someone outside of it would have access to it.

"Long ways from there. Where's your homeworld?" she was a rather curious cat, but Choli didn't mean any harm.