I've Got A Bad Feeling About This...

[Iona Immarya]

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Iona fought down the fresh wave of nausea that threatened to come up when a fighter zipped by the window a little too close for comfort. The fighter brought up an unpleasant reminder of where exactly she was. Inside of a diplomatic vessel, in the middle of a region noted for attacks against the Remnant, surrounded by allied fighters. Because nothing screamed safety like the need for an armed escort and there was nothing she loved more then the idea of being stuck in a flying metal box floating through the middle of the great black void just waiting for someone to do something stupid and rupture the, far too, thin metal walls and send her blasting out into the cold void of space where her corpse will drift forever. The unbridled mental imagery had her leaning against a wall for support to, once again, gather herself. If the masters could see her now.. They would probably mock her to death for her inability to center herself and make herself 'at peace' with the universe. She was always 'at peace' with the universe... she just wasn't 'at peace' with hurtling through the universe at breakneck speeds in empty metal cans. It didn't help that if an attack did happen it would be outside of her control. The fighters would be doing all the work and she would be here babysitting the diplomat trying to stop herself from bawling like a baby and waiting for the inevitable fiery explosion and death.​

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It wasn't all bad. Another Padawan was out there, Admiral Lokthra Dawning, flying her ship whatever ship it was as, to her, they were all the same terrifying death traps, some just had comfier seats. Iona hadn't met the woman, personally, yet, but then again, there were two types of Padawans. The important ones and Iona. Lokthra was someone Iona knew by reputation, an Admiral, CEO of a ship producer and corner stone of the Remnant. Iona was... Iona, and by that, she was a fledgling Padawan whose only real talent was... Well, when she found the answer to that she would get back to everyone. With Lokthra there, things were likely to go fine, but then that nagging voice in the back of her mind would constantly remind her that if the Admiral was here that meant this was incredibly dangerous and they were going to run into trouble, trouble which she couldn't do anything but sit on her hands and hope said Admiral didn't get her killed.​

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After that cheery thought, Iona started to make her way towards the bridge giving voice to her final thought on her current situation, "I hate ships." ​

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[member="Lokthra Dawning"]​

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Iona Immarya"]

Lokthra was in her personal, modified upgraded Delta-7 fighter. Something capable of fast attacks -- which Lokthra loved. What she didn't love however was the small detachment of fighters to escort the diplomat to safety. Diplomats are VIP and thus should travel in a bigger better ship, and for a matter of fact, the space they are travelling with should be incredibly safe. It was Republic space after all. Although not exactly crawling with ships there was a formidable force patrolling nearby.

She was excited about the mission; it is seldom she got to do much with other Jedi, especially ones as young as her. They had met seen each other before boarding their ships briefly, the Republic was in a rush and hurriedly rushed them into orbit. From that look, she seen of Iona, Lokthra seen something she hadn't seen before, something that intrigued her, something that she lusted to know. All she remembered from reading her files was she despised ships; something Lokthra couldn't fathom; she did, however, let the inquisitive side get the best of her and so opened up personal communications with Iona.

Comms.

"Hello Iona, nice to meet you. Names Lokthra. How are you handling the ships so far? Shouldn't be too much longer"

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona neared the bridge, her steps shaky as she tried her best to ignore where she was. The bridge was an awful idea, she knew that as well as anyone. The large viewing port would show her the great expanse of space that lay behind, of the stars moving past, really hammer in how fast they are moving through the void and how likely she was going to die on the floating metal contraption, but she needed to check on things, well, no she didn't as she couldn't offer any useful advice even if it was going horridly wrong, but she liked to feel like she was doing something productive even if Iona ended up hating herself afterwards. Just before she got to the door, her comms lit up and her stomach dropped, her mind instantly zipping to various worst case scenarios all of them about her ship about to explode.

She nearly sagged with relief when it was the fellow, way more important, Padawan out there flying in an even faster, more fragile, death contraption. Even imagining Lokthra out there zipping around the already speeding ship brought a fresh wave of nausea to an already upset stomach. If this kept up, Iona was sure it was going to riot on her.

"I'm not," Iona replied rather unhelpfully, "I think its handling me," she added after a pause, "You don't have a super low ETA estimate you could give me to make me feel better, do you?" Iona was hoping for something along the lines of, 'A few seconds'.

[member="Lokthra Dawning"]

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Iona Immarya"]

Lokthra sensed the unease in her voice and her mind. With this, she tried to entertain and distract the young padawan away from her fearful ways, she thought as she recalled the old code. It is the very least she could do to help her.

"Not too much longer, another 20 in hyperspace and just gotta travel to the planet's surface. You ever been apart of a diplomatic escort before?"

Lokthra temporarily closed the comms to Iona and opened comms with the diplomat (imagine someone who sounds like Bail Organa)

"How are you, your honour? Enjoying the trip so far?"

"Why yes, I am so far. I'm eager to start diplomatic discussions through"

"It's only a matter of time, not much longer until we have arrived. My nav-computer tells me about 30 minutes and we shall arrive at the planet's surface"

"Excellent"

Lothra felt a disturbance in the force...

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona fought down the groan that threatened to erupt from her, twenty in hyperspace then another ten or twenty in real space. Thirty to forty more minutes of torture then, once the mission was over, she would get to do it all over again. She let her hand rest against the back of the captain's chair and leaned against it as she tried to regain her breath. The captain turned his head to bark at whomever dared to touch his chair, but one look at her face, and the slight green sheen to it, convinced him that he did not want to disturb her mental state at the moment if he wanted to walk out of this clean.

"Almost there, Jedi," Captain Dorgona said, his voice rough but with the slightest edge of concern, if it was for her or from fear of being vomited on, she wasn't sure.

Iona gave a half-hearted nod but stopped, for a moment, just a moment, she felt something, her instincts told her something was dangerous that something was wrong, but it was just for a moment as her stomach preformed a somersault in her belly. It was probably nothing. She got a similar feeling every time she stepped onto one of these deathtraps.

[member="Lokthra Dawning"]

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Iona Immarya"]

"So exactly did you score this assignment, considering your opinions and all?"

Lokthra was extremely bewildered as to how anyone would give a mission about ships to someone who can't handle them, perhaps a few doctors could fix her out -- if she wanted to be that is. On top of all that, she really should have had some serious conversations with her superiors. She believed it was just the nature of a Padawan's training, but even then... She went on like this for some 10 minutes.

....

Screen flickers. Warnings boom throughout the cockpit. Hostiles; three of them. One Corvette and five fighters. Lokthra full of determination and panic tried to take operational control, but after ordering the escort ships to break-off and pursue the fighters, she struggled to attack and order.

Open comms.

"Iona, you're going to have to take command. I can't do much from here".


Our Fleet

Spoiler

• 1 x Delta Arthropod Fighter
• 2 x E-Wings
• 1 x Amanthia Class Corvette

Pirate Fleet

Spoiler

• 1 x Bolt III- type picket corvette
• 5 x Chela S250

 

[Iona Immarya]

"Wrong place, wrong time," Iona said as he closed her eyes to block out the sight of the stars zipping past the windshield, which was the truth. They needed an extra representative to stay with the diplomat during the journey, and she just so happened to be the only one there when they were looking, everyone else other out on missions, in lessons or not experienced enough to go out on such a 'high risk' mission, so, in essence, she was slightly more expendable then the others.

What felt like an eternity later, as it tended to be during space travel, the alarms started screeching.

"Contact!" A crew member said looking at a console, although all Iona saw was some weird bleeps and rings, but her stomach dropped at their words, 'Oh come on! Its alright, Admiral Dawning is here, she can do this. I just need to keep my head down and put on a restraint so I don't get sucked out into the void when a hole is blown into the hole.'

"Identify!" The captain of the ship roared to the startled crew member who began tapping away at his console, a replica of the enemy ship floating before him as he read the various technical readings,

"VCP-B3 'Bolt 3' corvette," the crewmen flattered for a second, "H-Heavily armed and fast, sir!"

"Is that bad?! Is that good!?" Iona asked feeling a little like a fish out of water... and about as comfortable.

The captain didn't look at her, but answered anyways, almost as an afterthought or without realization he was, "Probably can't out run it and its got more guns then we do. We may have stronger shields but.." The captain let the words go unsaid. If they couldn't outrun it, and it had the superior armaments then even if they were more durable, they would lose the slugging match.

Iona starred dumbly for a second as the Admiral came over the comm. She blinked once, then twice, then a third time for extra measure. She wasn't a member of the navy! She held no rank or authority here! She had no place even being on the command bridge during a situation, she was just getting in the way, "I don't know anything about ships!" She yelled back through the comms, "I don't even know the type of ship I am standing on right now!" Which was entirely true.

She let her blue eyes gaze around the bridge, "Ideas?! Anyone?"

"Sir, they are opening fire with their turbolasers, I read two boogies! They've fired torpedoes, Jyykle, sir, Ion, they are trying to disable us!" The crewman said, his eyes wide.

The captain bit his knuckle as the lasers smashed into the shielding, "Redirect power from rear shields to front, keep them to our front and return fire, concentrate on their bridge," the captain roared. The crew jumped to do his bidding as they moved around the bridge.

"If they are trying to disable us then.." The captain started, but Iona finished for him, "They want us alive.." For some reason, that revelation did not make her feel better.

[member="Lokthra Dawning"]

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Iona Immarya"]

"Iona, what can you see from there? I can only see basic readings and movements. I can't help much. You NEED to take control. Consider it a field promotion, consider yourself an acting commissioned officer, equivalent to that of a captain" Lokthra didn't like this situation any more than Iona did; but it had to happen, Lokthra can only do so much from the cockpit of her fighter, she didn't have any more details than there basic locations and if they were shooting at her, it's not much to command from, but if Iona couldn't handle it they would have no choice but to trust Lokthra's judgement.

As Lokthra was about to engage her first fighter she noticed a friendly fighter had already destroyed one ship, the third friendly fighter, however, was pinned down. She must remember to help them out after she destroys this ship, after engaging with it she recalled a blind spot in the underbelly of the craft about a metre from the engines, she informed the other ships of this weakness.

"One down. 3 more to go. Then the big ship"

Our Fleet

Spoiler

• 1 x Delta Arthropod Fighter
• 2 x E-Wings
• 1 x Amanthia Class Corvette

Pirate Fleet

Spoiler

• 1 x Bolt III- type picket corvette
• 3x Chela S250

 

[Iona Immarya]

"I'm not even in the.." Iona let her voice cut off as her mind screamed. She wasn't even in the navy! How could she be field promoted?! Why would anyone field promote someone who can barely fly on a ship must less command one?! But it was pointless to scream at the other Jedi as much as she dearly wanted to, not because she was truly upset at the other Jedi, but because it made her feel like she was doing something and something was better then waiting to die.

Iona paced back and forth on the bridge, her stomach threatening a revolt as her mind tried to come up with something. In the background, she could hear the Captain yelling orders to the crew, but nothing was coming to mind. No great gambit or scheme, no great maneuver, she knew nothing about space combat because it was awful.. but she did know a thing or two about surviving. Survival, then the coin dropped and she had an idea.

"Captain! Are they still trying to knock us out?" Iona asked, her stomach rolled as she spun on the balls of her feet to face the old captain.

"Yes, I'm Bu.." the Capatain growled, irritation on his face at the interruption.

"Perfect, let them!" She said with a large smile that was only slightly forced.

The captained sputtered a few times, "Are you mad!?" he finally shouted.

"Extremely!" Iona shouted as she flung her arms out, "But trust me! We'll play dead!"

The captain glared then... the glare disappeared as the idea slowly wrapped around in his mind, "That..." He started, "That may work. Next time they hit us, if we shut off the systems, make it look like they were knocked out, they will come in close to board to get the emissary..." He said as he let the idea roll around in his head.

"Yes! This way the ship doesn't get damaged, we buy time for the fighters and we have a better chance at resisting the boarders then we do fighting that thing!" Iona said nearly jumping from foot to foot.

"And they won't know the ship is fully operational... We can surprise them, unleash a full broadside while they are unaware once they board.." The captain finished which, in truth, wasn't something Iona considered, but if it got the old man on board, she didn't care.

Iona was about to tell Lokthra but the captain stopped her, "Don't. This needs to be perfect. If the fighters don't react to us going down right, they might not believe it and could scare them off. We are only getting one chance at this," he turned and started issuing orders.

The next time the picket corvette fired, its ion cannons striking the Amanthia the shields fluctuated, engine died and the internal lights snapped off... only to snap back on a few seconds later as a dull, flickering red as the emergency power kicked on. They were dead 'in the water' as it were.

"I hope this works," Iona whispered under her breath.

[member="Lokthra Dawning"]