Mission: Expansion

[Coren Starchaser]

There were a few things that Coren Starchaser was capable of teaching. And the major one? That was the art of instinctive astrogation. The pilot had set a course to pull the freighter, the known Tachyon Rising, under a false moniker of Jakku Star, out of hyperspace beyond the arm of the One Sith, and in the former Fringe Federation territory. What he was doing was shopping for a location. A place to start a forward strike base, a place that could be flagged as Team Light Side right around where the Empire was cropping up and near the One Sith.

A place that a war could be fought that wasn’t going to affect any major nation.

But it was a matter of getting people to follow, and getting a place. “So, the first thing is first, we’re going to need to find the world we’re looking for. We’re going to be beyond the Sith, in the former Unknown Regions, around a world that I’ve used for a jump point on the Blood Trail.”

The pilot walked up to the map that the ship, not some droid, Porter was off… doing droid things, was projecting. “Well revert here, Verkurl. And use it as our point of reference. Now, we’re hoping to score a place where there isn’t much going on any more.” He put two hands to the map and threw them out to the side, expanding the Moddell and Ablajeck Sectors to fill the room. What data they did have were displayed near the planets, habitable worlds were lit brighter than non-habitable, and the stars were lit as well.

"Any ideas?" This was military training that would give them a chance to stretch her legs with instinctive astrogation. And it'd help her have the ideas and strategies of the Underground in line.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Astrogation was as natural to Coren Starchaser as breathing and sleeping, but to Chevu? While not Audrey Starchaser bad, the Mirialan student didn't have the ability on lock down just yet. So as the two Forcers drifted through former Fringe territory in "Jakku Star," Chevu was hoping that Coren's training would stick. One day Chevu would be a Master herself, and while right now, she and Coren tag-teamed the Sith, they would be soon be flying on separate missions, and she'd need to be able to make lightning quick jumps as an exit strategy. Or as a surprise attack.

It was the kind of skill that made Chevu stop and marvel at the Force and its mysteries, where trusting in the Force could allow one to tap into incredible amounts of complex data, like abstruse mathematical equations, and bend all of it to one's will. It was pretty mind-blowing if she thought about it.

Dressed in a tank top and jeans, a low slung gear belt around her hips, Chevu let her narrowed onyx eyes span the map as she paced around the Hologram. Bakura came to mind as an under-the-radar world, but proximity-wise it was practically up the nose of the One Sith.

"How about Cerea or Trenwyth?"

Both worlds seemed like ground in which they could plant some seeds without getting too much heat.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

There was a difference in the art and science of Instinctive Astrogation that an attuned pilot could handle and the lightning fast reflex microjumps that students of the skill could learn. It would take moments for a navicomputer to make a simple jump, but knowing where you were going in a fight? To leap way from the enemy to turn the battle in your favor? That was important for anyone. Sure, he might not be able to impart his abilities to smooth out hyperspace and find the backdoors around the galaxy, but he could get her started on the path.

Especially if the way he was looking at things was going to come to fruition. Freighters, fighters, small crafts, anything that could strike the enemies of the light side, would help the galaxy. He needed to have her ready to strike the darkness and to keep the Alliance away from it all. There were too many people worried about playing house, they wouldn’t be ready for the dark side when it came a-knocking. So, if Coren could get them to focus elsewhere? He would.

“I thought about both of them. But if the Sith, or Imperials turn their attention to us, like I’m hoping they will? It could go bad for those systems. I’m thinking something smaller, something more remote.” He was looking at a few different stars, reaching out to the way the map looked, and in actuality reaching out beyond the bubble of the ship, looking for the gravity fluctuations. Looking for what he could feel.

A moon? Something that wasn’t used any longer? "Look at the history. The Rebellion during the Galactic Civil War, they based on Yavin Four while their fleet and seat of power were elsewhere."

Yes, the Rebel Alliance and Underground were giving him ideas.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

"Cerea has a single moon," she murmured, eyes intently on the Mid Rim. "So does Koba."

Coren was reaching out with the force, using it as an atlas, and although not as well-versed in what to look for as he, she tried joined him. She began to feel things, signs of life flickering in distant places, but she still wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for or how far away it was. She felt things that could be a mile away or over in the next sector, but she had no way of knowing which. Grunting in frustration, the Mirialan opened her eyes and went back to the Holomap.

"If we want to set up a camp on a moon, this gas giant, Allmittal's got sixteen of 'em. Talk about a needle in a haystack."

They could really build anywhere if the hunk of earth was large enough. She crossed over to where he stood, and suddenly realizing how indulgently alone they were, wrapped her arms around him smiling. Testing the waters.

"What about an asteroid?"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Once they picked a world, it was all a matter of finding the right Alliance men and women to live there, to set up base and start running raids and strikes against the Empire and the One Sith. Coren was looking forward to that. Nemo Ven had made him a Commander because he thought outside the box, well, what he was going to do was make it so that a lot of chaos was going to be surrounding the dark side factions of the galaxy.

He had plans, and all he needed was a team.

And a shelter.

“Moon is better than an asteroid. Living in vacuum is fine, if you’re moving. Dawn Treader is a testament to that. We don’t get hit because we don’t stay around long enough to get noticed. An asteroid, that’ll keep us private, but getting in and out will be a hassle, and if we need to rabbit, then we’re Es Oh El.” He shrugged. “Not a bad call, but the moon, that would be better. Set up a course, get us to that system. We’ll go from there, see hwat we can see when we get out there.” He grinned at his apprentice. She was going to learn the art of frakking with everyone sooner or later.

Yes, he was saying this with her arms around him. He was in 'kill the dark side mode' and was looking at the map. It wasn't until he gave her a task that he noticed what she was doing. "Y'know... when you get a second." He grinned.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

His grin made her stomach do a slow somersault. Chevu returned his smile, but looked down at her boots, suddenly and inexplicably embarrassed. Not that either one of them would have minded, but time and a place.

“I think I can clear some time off my calendar,” she quipped, lowering her head in a slight, shy nod.

Reluctantly releasing him, she crossed to the navicomputer and hunched over it. She was nervous. One miscalculation could literally kill them. With a whistle, she was followed by Two Bit, the banged up astromech she’d found on Halm. Two Bit had a memory wipe and no serial number, so discerning his previous master was nearly impossible. For better or worse, the BB-8 unit was hers now, and was often annoyingly underfoot, and currently tangling her legs.

“If you can do this, I can do it, right Two Bit?” Chevu laughed, patting her little droid on the top of its ball-like head and rolling him away.

“Go on. Go play dejarik with Porter or something.”

Turning her onyx eyes intently back to the computer, the Mirialan carefully typed in the XYZ coordinates to the Malastare system. Soon they’d make their jump.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Some time off her calendar? Yeah, he could think of a use for that time, but that use was going to happen once they were well underway and he felt secure in the track they were using. This area of space was not too foreign for the Alliance Commander, having been a trailblazer in the Unknown Region for a number of years. Now he was working on teaching a new person how to fly. And not just any person, his apprentice, and… whatever they were calling themselves. Sure, maybe definitely the least romantic being in the galaxy, Coren had a job and a goal right now. They could burn a few hours horizontally later.

Once they were in the trek to the new location.

The pilot looked at the map as Chevu stepped away for a moment. Porter was busying itself with a part of repair, as the Tachyon Rising could always use another repair session. That was what happened when you became the work horse for a galactic commander hell bent on saving the galaxy. But would it be worth it? Time would tell.

He spared a look at Chevu as she stepped towards the navicomputer. He was doing his best to feel his way through the wrinkles and tangles of the trip before stepping up to Chevu, and looking over her shoulder when he got the sense she felt she was ready. “So, hows it feel?” Not how does it look to the navicomputer, how did it feel to the Mirialan. He had a hand on her waist as he was looking over the course.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

How did it feel? The art of using the Force to sense another Force user, or an imminent local threat, she had mastered. Reaching out in the Force to sense a broken comet, or a Sith fleet, or a mass shadow? Totally new thing to her. Closing her eyes, she cast out the Force into space to see what it would return. A rut formed on her brow. She was concentrating to the best of her abilities, but felt nothing, almost like being Force blind.

Right. Coren's hand on her waist was too distracting.

Inhaling deeply, she placed her hand over his, using Coren as a conduit to reach more deeply into the Force. In a few moments, Chevu could feel them: distinct sensations that returned from realspace places along the course.

"It feels too dangerous," the Mirialan announced. "I think I might have put us too close to a gravity well. Perhaps from a nearby star or Allmittal itself."

Her eyes snapped open and with head shaking, she began to adjust the course. Once she was satisfied, she panned a hopeful gaze to Coren. Fingers absently intertwined with his.

"What do you think, Commander?"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

For him, the art of running between worlds was really simple. The Force gave him the way, and as was typical for Starchaser, he was just doing. Touching her was another one of those things. Was it disrupting her thought process, and concentration, on the hyper lanes? Probably, but he was trying to get a fix on her. And on how she was thinking. Looking at the course she laid in, he was somewhere between the ship and the stars, his aura not really meeting with him on the ship right now.

“Not a bad course. Looks like we can make it. Malastare though?” He looked down at her. Mainly because Corey couldn’t find it on the map, but Coren did want to see his student’s reasoning. Could it keep them clear of the Sith and the growing Empires in the Outer Rim, but close enough to run fast strikes and fade away.

He felt her fingers with his and smiled.

Still, there was work to get done, and a hyperspace jump to do.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

The route was alright, but Coren didn't seem sold on the location yet. "Malastare contains Allmittal and all its moons," Chevu explained. It had been a while since she'd studied physics, so she wasn't as confident about her answers as she could be. "Might be tricky to get in and out of there quickly because of the gravity wells." With a laugh she added, "With sixteen moons, rush hour must be a nightmare."

She fingered the silver collar around her neck, the one Coren had given her a few weeks back. It was a nervous habit she'd developed.

The Mirialan looked at the map again, pondering.

"What about Lorta? It's not as close to the nexu's den as Cerea, and it has a moon. What do you think?"

While he answered, she began to use the Force to ply through the stars around Lorta's system, sensing how safe it was for a jump.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He nodded and took the apprentice in, both through the Force and his own eyes. Sure, he wasn’t some Darth Vader knock around, but he used his own senses, those of a Non-Force User, just as much as he had his other senses. “Hmm. I mean, it’s a lot of moons, gives us the cat and mouse game. And a bit of chaos on our side if we do the retreat right. Pick the right moon, we can see the enemy coming.” Plus using a ship like Stinger, and her gravity well, they were in fine territory.

“Does it give us enough to watch that First Order? Alliance Brass have been tracking them as best we can since Eriadu…” His eyes caught the silver collar and he smirked. Well, she was a it nervous, but with him on the ship, he’d pull them out of light speed well before they became a flash on a planetary shield.

“Lorta doesn’t sound so bad. We can check it out, see if we can find a world in the system to base on. Run a few supply lines out here, and start causing property damage.” Mark the ships something weird, and then it couldn’t get traced to the Alliance, they could keep doing their thing and well, he could do his, a bit more effectively.

Was he thinking about leaving? Yes. Was he thinking about abandoning the mission? No.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Two Bit gave out a long chirp from the other room where he was presumably getting his round ass kicked by Porter at dejarik. The droid had the attention span of a fly and couldn't play the game to save his master's life.

"That's right, Two Bit, Coren can't make up his mind, can he?" She winked at Starchaser and began to plot a course for Lorta. She placed her hand squarely on his chest this time, using him to tap into that more powerful well of the Force. The power thrummed through them both as she spent the next few minutes in the stars over Lorta.

"Ok, I think we're ready to jump."

----------------------------------------------------

The stars stretched into elongated beams as Rising screamed into the realm of hyperspace. Space unfolded around them once the jump was complete, and Chevu grinned. It was free and clear of disaster. Soon the Stinger hovered in realspace over the world of Lorta, with not a pirate ship or a black hole in sight. With a proud nod of her head, Chevu turned and draped her arms around Coren's neck. Breaking out in a smirk, the Mirialan lifted a brow as she let her hands tickle the nape of his neck.

"Looks like we gained an hour, Commander," she said, showing him the time on her chrono.

"Whatever are we going to do with all this free time?"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The thing about Porter was that he was very very good at Dejarik. Coren wasn’t sure how the droid learned it that well, but still, the droid beat him more often than not. Luckily, Porter hadn’t learned sabacc yet, and Coren could at least have that to win. But the game of Dejarik and the astromech were very well matched. He’d plow through a lot of lesser droids and even organics in his quest for victory. The trick was that Porter lured enemies into traps.

Kind of like how Coren wished he worked. Feeling Chevu’s hand on his chest, he smiled. She wasn’t going to get much from him, in the way of Force reserves, but she’d get the focus and concepts down a bit further. She was going to learn this skill, if it was the last thing Starchaser did.

***​

When she turned to him, the pilot grinned. What were they going to do with an hour? He wrapped his arms around her waist and hoisted her up. It was clear.

[member="Chevu Visz"]