Private Misadventures of a Strange Breed

[Kir Dantos]

Hyperspace
En route to the Caldoni System
Aboard the MCX-1150 Light Freighter, Emerald Explorer
Auteme

​

"What is it we're even looking for?"

Kir Dantos moved his hands across the multitude flashing panels and control switches that lined the cockpit of the Emerald Explorer. He'd questioned what they'd sent him to find, ever since he'd been assigned with his ship. It was extremely hard to believe that an ancient droid controlled ship went across the galaxy doing vigilante missions, an almost laughable concept, but he'd been forced to put it in the realm of possibility which discomforted him. "We got ETA ten minutes before we exit lightspeed at the Caldoni System." He said, leaning back in the chair and attempting to source some comfort.

"I hope you've got some hard information on this ship, and no, I'm not talking about the countless Spacer and smuggler's rumours." Being a proponent of facts, he wasn't keen to trust data that was passed around through word of mouth, due to its tendency to become warped as it went around, resulting in a number of 'legends' that were completely fabricated by a bored scoundrel. A pang of fear entered his head as an image of the object started to form in his head, they weren't counting on it being hostile to them and the freighter wasn't known to well for its ability to fight a battle, but he surmised that if it was helping people then it had to be friendly to some extent, he hoped at least.

"Scatty, come and take over and tell me when we're there, I'm afraid I'll end up drifting off at the controls." He exclaimed down the hall, just as his green and blue astromech wheeled into the cockpit area, grumbling in the warbled bleeps of his language.

"Stop complaining, I need some rest too." He shot back which seemed to shut the droid up as Scatty wheeled up to the interface port and extended his scomp link, plugging into the ship's computer interface and using it to keep the freighter steady until the two Jedi were needed. Kir laboured to exit his seat, yawning as he left the front part of the foremost section of the Emerald Explorer. Swiftly advancing into the hall, he entered the lounge, a roomy space which often seemed like the best place to unwind. Plopping himself down on the couch, he attempted to get the Dejarik board working, it was a favourite past time.

He wondered where his companion went, struggling to power up the board. It'd seen a battering, just like the rest of the ship, which people often attributed to reckless flying, but he liked to frame it as 'adventurous flying'.

"Auteme! Hope you like dejarik, and if you play, I might even let you hit me with some of those useless facts that you always enjoy telling me." He took a second to ponder his prior statement, knowing that his fellow Jedi would most likely bore him to death, but there was no use repealing it now, at least he had the table to distract him.

 

[Auteme]

Kir Dantos ​

A low groan floated from the crew quarters where Auteme had taken up a temporary residence. She'd been laying on the bed reading her book on purrgils -- after her date with Charlie, she thought she needed a bit of brushing up -- when Kir called to her from the lounge. She'd just gotten to the part on Clouzon-36 and had started to make notes in the margins about studying the crystalline asteroid field they'd come across while observing the migration. It was one of her favorite parts, and now Kir wanted to play dejarik?

She sighed. Maybe she shouldn't have been so frustrated by him. She just couldn't understand why he chose to ignore the information she was so freely providing. In fact she'd given a detailed explanation of their mission along with historical references, and Kir's self-talk had so loudly revealed that he hadn't listened to a single word she'd said. One of the most important tenets of the Jedi Code was 'There is no ignorance, there is knowledge', so why was it that every Jedi she knew in the field was so intentionally ignorant of so many things?

Auteme took a deep breath to calm herself. No, no, it wasn't right to laud her intellectual superiority over others. That was a route to arrogance and thus ignorance. Everyone could be learned from. Kir surely had some great talent or insight that was yet hidden from her. She just needed to find it, then she'd understand him and be less frustrated.

As the old adage went, you learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a lifetime of conversation. They could play dejarik, as Kir had made it abundantly clear that he was not listening to her, and she could learn why they had been paired up for this particular assignment.

And she could teach him a lesson on why listening and learning could be quite useful.

The padawan emerged from her quarters and walked to the lounge.

"I wouldn't mind playing some dejarik. Though, I don't play very often, so I'm not very experienced," she said, taking a seat across from Kir. "Are we playing regulation, or the five-piece variant?"

 

[Kir Dantos]

Auteme

​

The padawan popped a quick grin, finally turning on the board after a few minutes of trying to find the switch. He was honestly surprised she'd come to play Dejarik with him, his anticipation had been that she'd most likely ignore him and perhaps scold him on his lack of adherence to the knowledge that she gave to him. "Five piece variant of course, I've got some credits but I'm not that loaded." Perhaps she had the regulation version which he secretly wanted to see but he'd never been able to obtain it.

Repairs to the ship come first Kir, you can think about the playing board after you get some new power converters. He could almost hear his Master's voice in his head, lecturing him on caring for both the freighter and his starfighter. "I hope you're ready, I always win." His astromech gave the equivalent of a scoff and contradicted the statement from the cockpit, along with some more grumbling. Kir gulped, feeling slightly sheepish.

"Well maybe not always.."

Studying the board, he glanced towards Auteme and her side of the board, the helpful thing about a virtual board was that there was none of the tiresome cleaning up needed and he'd lost his fair share of physical pieces, to the dismay of potential players. Hitting a button on the panel in front of him, he set up his own side, his Mantellian savrip, Kintan strider, Grimtaash, K'lor'slug and Monnok materialising in their diminutive forms, though equally as menacing. From his constant losses at the game, he'd learned that the victor always started first, hopefully his opponent did not know that.

"I would like to go first actually, you know just to give ya a fighting chance." He smiled, hoping she hadn't figured out his little ruse, evaluating his lineup, he remembered from the playing manual that his Savrip was his most powerful piece and if that went, then the game was likely lost, and his non existent reputation as a Master Player would be destroyed by someone who didn't play regularly and he wasn't about to hand over the bragging rights.

His next valuable piece was the Monnok, which would also have to be kept in reserve also, he was about to start his move, when he felt a sudden lurch of the ship as he was violently thrown off his seat, managing to catch himself.

"What in the Emperor's Black Bones was that?!" He exclaimed, thinking to his astromech droid who was still located in the cockpit. A retribution prank? No. He knew this was not the doing of the droid, he could sense that something wasn't right.

 

[Auteme]

Kir Dantos
​

"You realize this board is equipped for standard, too, right?" She raised an eyebrow. Regulation dejarik was only one piece less for each player than five-piece. Still, his choices for pieces showed he wasn't a complete novice. Maybe he didn't know much about the game, but at least he'd played it before. Experience could often count for more than knowledge.

But knowledge and experience? That was the perfect combination. She wouldn't dare underestimate Kir but she wasn't going to lose either.

She surprised herself with her own competitive spirit. Kir had annoyed her, and he was being intentionally abrasive, but she rarely felt the need to 'prove' anything. Not like what she was feeling then. She took a deep breath and began putting in her selections-

Auteme had been sitting on the edge of the semicircular booth. As the ship lurched from some unknown impact, she was launched out of her seat and sent tumbling towards the rear of the ship. She landed upside-down against the far wall of the room, her side and head throbbing with pain.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow." She rolled over and got to her feet after a few moments of wallowing in her own pain. Any competitive spirit or annoyance was irrelevant now. Something had gone wrong; she needed to figure out what. Her guess was that the ship had come out of hyperspace and collided with something. But what? Kir had said they'd had ten minutes before they dropped out of hyperspace. If he'd just straight up lied to her, she'd have some words for him. Or what if they'd been interdicted? That would be worse. Much worse... still, she doubted it -- the ship's systems still seemed to be active.

The padawan walked to the cockpit of the freighter and looked out the window, into... an asteroid field? "Does this ship have a functioning navicomputer? How did we come out here? Does it not have particle shields?"

She glanced around the control board, then moved up and slammed the brakes. The ship rocked and slowed. The asteroids, well, they weren't exactly going anywhere fast.

"Your ship needs work," she said, sighing and glancing to Kir. "I guess... we're here?"

 

[Kir Dantos]

Auteme

​

"With all due respect Miss Auteme Denko-Durren, shut up and get in the cockpit, we're going for a ride. Oh I love asteroid fields."


Kir stumbled into the sizeable cockpit, flopping into the pilots seat before sitting up ajar and readying himself. The hands of the young Jedi moved rapidly across the many controls panel positioned in front of him. His hands were a flurry of actions, so fast that it was almost hard to see them. Sitting back in the chair, he seemed quite content, almost as if he was enjoying himself. Flying was something that had always come natural to the padawan, it was something that he'd had to learn but that he'd never really struggled on. Perhaps it was to do with his being Corellian, Corellians seemed to be naturally inclined to the stars as a was often said.

"Well, now that you mention it, navicomputer is a bit shot but hey-ho, what can you do." He pushed his foot down on the right rudder pedal, boosting up the thrusters. "We're looking for a droid ship, why not have a little bit of fun while we do it." He got pushed back in his seat a little with the force of them hurtling through the asteroid field. Kir promtly pulled up, executing a number of close turns before snaprolling out of the path of a larger asteroid and looping round it to find an even bigger one. Pushing down, he forced the freighter up slightly as they almost skimmed the surface of the almost moon-sized asteroid.

"Give me a shout when you see the ship!" He told his rudimentary co-pilot. "Let's get out shields up to full Auteme, I have a feeling we're going to need them in a bit, this is fun isn't it." He laughed, as he went into a perpetual spin before hitting the joystick to the starboard side. Kir heard a thud from behind him which was most likely his astromech droid hitting into the wall. He brought them back up, weaving between a cluster of medium sized asteroids, one lightly grazing the side of the ship. "Where are those shields AUTEME!" He barked as a red light flashed in the cockpit, indicating to him that countless numbers of tiny asteroids were grazing the ship. He hadn't anticipated that the barrage would be this bad.

Checking his monitor, he was alarmed to learn that their target wasn't at the place it was meant to be. "That's really weird, it should have been here, but it's not." He brought the joystick around, slamming the frieghter to the side again to put it into a vertical inverted position. Shooting through the hole, he looped back, keeping a close eye on the monitor before veering out of the way of another target. "Auteme, keep a close eye on that monitor. Also, I'll link you control of the quad laser cannons, shoot any of the small ones if they come near us, the shield generator is also a bit shoddy." He flicked a switch at the roof of the cockpit which gave her control.

 

[Auteme]

Kir Dantos
​

At least the inertial compensator was working. There was a little jolt as the ship accelerated, but Auteme caught herself on the copilot's seat. She sat down and strapped herself in for the 'ride'. Jeez. She could never do anything like this. She wasn't even in control and she was scared out of her mind, mostly because the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field were approximately three-thousand seven-hundred and twenty to one, and that Kir seemed the type to prioritize his own 'fun' over the safety of his passengers.

Worse, he kept asking Auteme to do things that she had no idea how to do. Shields? How come he couldn't turn them on? This was a small ship and she was pretty sure he didn't normally have a copilot. None of the buttons or switches were labelled, anyways. She didn't know how to turn on the shields. She didn't know how to fire the weapons. The one time she'd flown a ship she'd had Loske teaching her, and the only thing she remembered how to do was-

Oh. She remembered how to do that.

Auteme found the brakes and slammed them, hard. The ship jolted again as its momentum was stopped. Just as she was almost launched out of her seat, she launched into her rant to Kir.

"WHAT are you doing? Do you have ANY IDEA how dangerous that was? This ship is barely holding together as is and you just think it's a fantastic idea to go full speed into an asteroid field without turning on the particle shields, having a working inertial compensator, having your droid at the controls to assist you, or scanning the surroundings first? What is WRONG with you? We are not here to have fun. We are not here for a joyride. We are here to investigate the appearance of what is suspected to be the Crusader XX-777 prototype droid frigate which, if you had listened to what I had told you, WE DO NOT KNOW IS IN THIS SYSTEM SPECIFICALLY. There is a REASON for why there are a whole bunch of sensor beacons in the cargo hold and that is because we want to find it by not just relying on dumb luck."

She took a deep breath, then began to unstrap herself out of her seat. "You are going to turn on the shields. You are going to take us out of this asteroid field, slowly. If you do anything stupid like that again I swear I will build myself a lightsaber for the sole purpose of stabbing you."

She stood and walked to the back of the cockpit to help the droid up from its fall.

 

[Kir Dantos]

Auteme

Kir found himself zoning out quickly, Auteme's voice quickly joining the background noise of the ship. He stared out into the black abyss, shutting his eyes to concentrate. Lately, the young Jedi had discovered a nascent ability that he had spent some time practising. Kir slowed his breath and allowed himself to be taken. He placed his hands on the stick and nudged it forward, ignoring Auteme and his astromech's continuous rants which by now he was intentionally blocking out. The freighter moved forward with a lurch and he continued on, slowly, but surely navigating through the asteroid field. It was almost asif the Force was mapping out the path for him, sensing a large object, he cut to the left, gliding past the rock.

Suddenly, he brought the ship to a stop just on the borders of the field and as he finally "awoke", and sure as day, a blockish ship of dull grey sat motionless in space. He looked to Auteme with a cheeky smile, "Is this what we're looking for?"

"I think I'd better go check it out, stay in the cockpit and please don't touch anything. Buddy stay here and keep an eye on her, I'll bring us in closer." Kir unstrapped himself and hopped out of his seat, heading towards his quarters. A few minutes later, he returned, fully suited in his EVA suit, in his gloved right hand, he held a clear circular helmet and in his left, he held his lightsaber.

Spoiler: Environment suit

"Suited and booted." He pulled his jetpack straps over his shoulders like a rucksack and tied to straps to his suit. Ensuring they wouldn't come loose mid-flight.

"Since it's my ship, we gotta set some ground rules, don't touch anything in the cockpit, or those little dice I keep in the glove compartment. To be completely honest with you, many of the nobs don't work, but don't touch them either way. We got live feed, so I can keep communication with you for a decent amount of time. I trust ya, now, time for me to take the leap of faith." Kir stepped towards the airlock, clunking in his large suit, which was one size too big for him.

"As soon as I open that airlock, hold on to something." He warned, placing a hand on the handle, and opening it with a mighty push. All hell broke loose, as many objects in the hold began heading towards the airlock, which meant towards him. Quickly pushing himself out of the airlock, he slammed it shut, most of the objects dropping on the floor. Weightlessness was not always something Kir Dantos had the luxury of experiencing. Mostly, he was in his X-Wing zooming around the place. Now he knew what the X-Wing had to go through. That peculiar feeling of nothingness was negated by his suit, which naturally, was pressurised. Hoping his likely still mad companion wasn't watching, he completed a small flip.

"Time to see what this jetpack can do."

Setting his sights on the Crusader, he hit a button on his chest panel, getting into position. He almost leapt forward, the pack propelling him towards the target. "YAHOO!"