Mayday on Prakith (Open)

[Thessa Kai]

Near Prakith

"We're almost home, Sparky. Just got one more jump."

The R2-unit warbled in the Galan's headset. She adjusted the flimsi of [member="Judah Dashiell"] and Makai that was stuck to the orange-tinted canopy while her other hand set-up the coordinates to their last jump. Red-lights of warning lit-up the cockpit and years of flying with the Republic and rebels enabled her to twist the modified X-wing hard-port.

Scarlet lights of fire burned off the tip of her starboard wing.

Sparky screeched and booped.

"I see 'em! I see 'em! What do you mean the star map isn't updated? I thought we were in friendly territory!"

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

Why was this X-wing so cramped? Why did he have such a bad headache? A groan escaped the young man that sat in the mermaid's lap as she attempted to fly the modified X-wing through perilous combat. Wait. Flying, in perilous combat?

"THESEA!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! TURN LEFT!" He couldn't help it, he spazzed, his left foot jerked out and kicked her hand that grasped the control yoke. Why did these things always happen to the Dashiell family?

[member="Thessa Kai"]

 

[Thessa Kai]

A. She was seriously tripping from an unknown drug-substance exposure because an adult male other than Judah was sitting on her lap in a confined space.

B. [member="Isaiah Dashiell"] was really a space ninja and had teleporting capabilities.

C. She had reached an almost perfect level of zen and managed to temporarily forget about this wayward family member, whose behind she saved from a gambling house halfway across the galaxy.

We'll go with C.

"Kriff it-Isaiah!" A string of Galan curses left aqua lips as his foot connected with her hand and so did a shot from the bogies on their six. The restraints kept her from completely face-planting into the back of his shaggy-haired head.

What was with the Dashiell men and their hair???

And hopefully his makeshift restraints kept him from exploding out of the orange-canopy.

She craned her neck around the wayward mop of hair, re-gripping the controls, and dropped the snub-nosed fighter into a steep dive. "Next time I want a creditless drunken man's opinion on how to fly, I'll ask," she growled through clenched teeth behind his ear.

A razzle filled the cockpit. "Yes Sparky, I can see that shields are at 35 percent! Switch power to the aft shields!"

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

"Excuse me, but I'm one of the only Dashiels you know who got their fliers licence legally!' the young man protested, offended that the blue haired maiden thought that he couldn't fly. Well..technically right now he couldn't...He was strapped awkwardly between Thesea and the control yoke and...probably intoxicated.

The world spun around him and to regain a sense of balance he shook his head, the remnants of spice falling from his shaggy hair.

Or maybe he was just really kriffing high.
[member="Thessa Kai"]

 

[Judah Dashiell]

Ceto | 2:30 AM | Dashiell Home


Snoring was interrupted by the sound of loud crying. Judah awoke with a start, hearing his young son crying in the next room. Groggily he looked over at the chrono. It was too early to be up. No one told him that just as a baby was learning to sleep through the night along came teething. Which meant many more sleepless nights. Seemed like something folks conveniently forgot to mention while gushing over the small little creatures.


Pushing himself out of bed, Judah managed to make it to the next room, greeted by a loudly crying kid. "Easy there, I think your scales are going to turn from blue to red with all of that hollerin' going on." Yawning, Judah picked up Makai, the young boy crying and whimpering against his shirt. Rubbing his son's back, Judah made his way down into the kitchen, doling out the red-liquid pain reliever that had become like gold in the household. More always seemed to get on himself than in Makai though, unlike [member="Thessa Kai"] there was a bit of struggle on his part. Next he handed his son a cold washcloth that was damp and sitting in the fridge.


"Worked for me growing up -- or so my Ma says."


Soon enough Judah was back in the master bedroom -- only Makai joined him. The boy laid against him, gnawing on the cold washcloth and drooling. Digging around, Judah found the remote for the holovision and turned on Makai's favorite show Xander the X-Wing. The show followed around a cartoon talking X-Wing and his friends. Unknown to both Dashiell men...well, man and a half, that their mermaid was in her X-Wing dealing with her own battles.


"Sure hope your Ma comes home soon. Think she said she'd be back by mornin' "

 

[Vorhi Alestrani]

Prakith--space--the lousy frontier--the Huute Haamu




"Feeeeeeeeeth!" Vorhi stumbled, clearly not awake, wearing his pajama pants, glaring at the pilot droid. "XB-8, why did you jsut crokscrew me out of bed?" He said, with the kind of warm, polite demeanor a man in severe need of caffeination and/or violence gives. "Keep in mind that I was having a very nice dream with a cute brunette and a good breakfast, so your answer best be good," he said coolly to the droid.



"My apologies," the droid began. "I was about the leave orbit, but an X-wing almost rammed us."


"An X-wing? They still make those damn things? Fine, hail them. I'm going to lodge a complaint, damnit."


A page would come in on the com, waiting for the ship to respond, on multiple frequencies. "Why'd you almost run me over? You in trouble or something?" Vorhi's voice said, surprisingly nonchalant, but still friendly. After all, just because they woke him up rudely didn't mean he couldn't be amicable. Maybe his cute brunette was prophetic. As if he were that lucky.

 

[Thessa Kai]

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"] [member="Vorhi Alestrani"] [member="Judah Dashiell"]

An incoming frequency twittered on her headset as she performed a a steep-climbing barrel-roll and let off a string of answering scarlet-fire at the unknown, enemy squadron of fighters.

"Oh, feth, wha--aaaahhhCHOO," Isaiah's leftover spice trickled up her nose and her sneeze filled the cockpit. "Stars, Iz! Make yourself useful and answer this mystery hail from this clown while I deal with these other mooks," she jerked the snub-nosed fighter hard starboard, iced-azure gaze darting between sensors and what she could see out of the obscured view-port.

Sparky warbled.

"What do you mean you put in a call to Judah? Doesn't it look like I can handle thi-," she paused and blinked hard, swearing she just saw Jorus Merrill fly by in just his boxers riding a gundark.

Her sensors lit up with another warning. Another squad of un-friendlies was approaching. She checked the readouts and saw the hyperdrive got damaged in the last hit.

"Sparky, what's the closest planet?"

She jerked hard-port, beyond caring if the man in her lap was violently jostled around.

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="Thessa Kai"]


Just as quickly as Judah had gotten back into bed he had fallen asleep. It wasn't long before his slumber was interrupted once more. This time it wasn't by a curly-haired little Galan, but his comm. It wasn't unusual to have to answer something for business in the middle of the night. Salacia Consolidated was not only in the Southern end of the Galaxy now, but also in Levantine Space. Groggily rubbing his eyes, Judah found that Makai hadn't rolled off the bed (thankfully) and was drowsily gnawing on the washcloth, eyes fixed on Xander the X-Wing. Comm taken from the bedside table and Judah focused to look at the message.


I don't trust her anymore. Excessive turbulence. Fighters inbound.


Following the message were a series of coordinates. Judah couldn't pick them up off the top of his head, only knowing they were north of Ceto. The sender was Sparky, their plucky little R2 unit. The message was starting to make sense to his sleep-riddled brain. It was hard for Judah to tell if the droid was being dramatic or if things were just rocky but Thessa had them under control. He had all the confidence in his wife's abilities. Yet she had been a stay-at-home Mom for what....at least five, six months? Judah doubted the Galan had ever been away from the cockpit for so long.


Sparky, keep me updated. If its looking like a crash send me your last coordinates.


Judah set the comm next to him, only mildly concerned at this point.

 

[Isaiah Dashiell]

"Coms?"

Fumbling around in his seat he struggled to see through his bushy hair. He could see the little green light blinking that told them someone was trying to contact them. Pressing his finger lazily to the button he answered.

"Did you not see the fightes behind us? Of course we're in trouble! But seeing as how I already owe people a lot of credits, I'd rather like it if you didn't help so I don't owe you my life. Thanks."

Looking over to his cousin-in-law with a sly grin he waggled his eyebrows. "Pretty smooth eh blue lips?"
[member="Thessa Kai"]

 

[Thessa Kai]

[member="Isaiah Dashiell"] [member="Judah Dashiell"] [member="Vorhi Alestrani"]

"Don't get, cocky," another hit from the enemy-squad lanced across the orange-tinted canopy, "Iz." The Galan swore thankful that Makai wasn't around to hear it, while blinking the spice-induced Jorus hallucinations away.

Veteran starfighter pilot.

Semi-retired naval officer.

Wife, mother of one.

None of these roles prevented an enemy cannon from slamming into the starboard wing. That previous experience and those roles, however, did keep them alive. An electric surge carried up across the instrument panel and zapped her fingers.

"Ouch!"

Sparky booped and whistled as the cramped-cockpit filled with alarms of its own. Smoke billowed off the wing as they entered the upper atmosphere of Prakith.

"Hang on, Iz. This landing's gonna be rough."

Sparky had already transmitted their coordinates to Judah.

White-knuckled grip remained on the controls as they were jostled around, iced-azure gaze frantically looking for a suitable landing-spot. They just needed the ship to hold together. C'mon baby, hold together.

 

[Vorhi Alestrani]

He frowned as the Haamu took on more fire. Fethitalltochaosinahandbag. He couldn't keep this up. One shot. He had one shot. "Lucky you, they're firing at both of us. So, you get no choice, I'm still interfering!" He yelled over the com as he maneuvered in the most asinine way possible, cutting between the fighters and the crashing vessel. "XB," The blind master said. "Drop the noisemaker," he said, commanding him as if this was miltary operation.


With that, XB-8 activated the Huute Haamu's only weapon system. A drop pod full of junk, light grenades, and various other pieces of junks designed to "distract" sensors with false readings and overload holocomputers. The fighters chased him into the cloud of sensor-wrecking junk. He grinned and dove down, following the crashing vehicle. "I'll follow from behind, see if we can lend a hand, or at least some cover-fire. My present should have bought us some time, fried their sensors," he said calmly, breaking at the same steep angle as the X-wing. Smegging brilliant. This was gonna be hard on the landing gear.....



"XB, prepare for a rough landing. I'm going to get dressed. Follow that X-wing," he grumbled, walking back to find his robes as the cabin shook violently. Another day, another credit. Maybe.




[member="Thessa Kai"] [member="Isaiah Dashiell"] [member="Judah Dashiell"]

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="Vorhi Alestrani"] | [member="Thessa Kai"] | [member="Isaiah Dashiell"]



Snoring was interrupted by another comm message from Sparky. Judah fumbled around, forgetting the comm was on his chest for a moment. Eyes squinted a moment to read the text. Judah supposed the following message perhaps wasn't a complete surprise. All great fighter pilots had to crash sometime, right? It was a short message, just "Crashing" followed by the coordinates.


Makai was now sleeping next to him. Tiny hand gripped the washcloth, little snores coming from the boy every so often. Like father like son.


Getting out of bed, Judah sent word down to the hangar bay to start preparing the Sirena. It was a glorious vessel. Ocean-blue exterior, custom leather and exotic wood interior. Super charged package. Judah had spared no expense when ordering the vessel for his wife -- who promptly never used it. It was faster than the Siren's Song by far and Judah planned to test out just how fast on the trip to drag Thessa off world.


Carefully he picked his son up, the boy stirring slightly.


"No time to drop you off at Grandma's. Time to fire up Ferox and go rescue your Ma. I think you'll make an excellent co-pilot."