Faction Outbound Flight: One Small Step

[Kessa]

"Welcome aboard, Kessa," the scoundrel with silver hair spoke with a heavy outer rim drawl, "I'm Atlas. Atlas Drake. Our scruffy looking green pilot is none other than Kaia Starchaser. We could always use a good meknek."

"Don't seem so scruffy to me," Kessa declared in a friendly tone.

Kessa settled into her seat with a contented hum as the shuttle's engines ramped up to a smooth, reassuring thrum. She buckled the harness across her chest, fingers drumming lightly on the armrest while she watched Kaia and Atlas work the controls in easy tandem.

The pair clearly had history and it made the cabin feel less like a High Republic showroom and more like a proper crew space. She liked that. No stiff protocol here, just people who knew how to make things fly and stay flying.

"See that structure? Let's head there. Atlas, you still good to run and shoot? Kessa?"

When Kaia called back about the structure on the scans, Kessa leaned forward as far as the harness allowed and craned her neck toward the viewport. The jungle canopy below blurred past in streaks of green and shadow, but she caught glimpses of something angular poking through the foliage, too regular to be natural. Her green eyes narrowed with interest.

"Still good to run? Me? Always, love," she replied brightly, patting the holstered blaster pistol at her hip.

"I didn't exactly sign up for shooting."

She sounded just a touch nervous.

"If there's any tech worth salvaging or patching, I'm your girl for that too."

She unclipped her satchel from the netting long enough to pull out a compact multi-tool and clip it to her belt, then tucked everything back securely. The shuttle dipped slightly as it descended toward the landing zone, and Kessa felt a familiar thrill bubble up.

"If it's an old outpost or something pre-Republic, we might find power cells, data cores, maybe even a working console. Fingers crossed it's not crawling with nasties yet."

She flashed a quick grin toward the cockpit. At this position life form scans were no good. They simply identified a whole lotta bio-matter right beneath them.

As the shuttle set down, Kessa stepped forwards. She frowned.

"Place is at a bit of a weird angle," she observed. "Either that's sinking or that's a ship reclaimed by the jungle."

Kaia Starchaser Atlas Drake Ishtar-Array

 

[Dominic Praxon]

Dominic's face became more neutral in expression the further the conversation went. Not for any degree of upset or annoyance, but his politician's mind reengaged. Though Tatiana had surely had many interactions with others on this ship, it was in some form a First Contact of its own. And in some, small way, Dominic felt deceived. Which lead him to not wanting to give away anything more, for the time being.

"If I catch you meaning? Explain it to me like I have never seen a ball before," he said, tone flat but not unkind.

She did not answer him. That alone was informative.

"What?" He said, caught off-guard by the question about droid sentience, "the droid?" His foot was firmly in the droid as tools camp, but not without significant caveats. His stance on the matter would be largely conveyed by the tone of his rhetorical question.

"I understand and sympathise with the droid-sentience movements philosophical argument," he added, for clarity, "a droid is a machine. But it's programming so close to that of sentience that I believe social pressure should be applied to insure that mistreatment of droids is avoided. Someone that is willing to torment a droid is just as likely to torment a sentient being."

His shoulder's squared. Eyes narrowed. The possible storm in space was forgotten entirely.

"You avoided my question. I am rather curious to know your assessment of our civilisation." And she better believe he was not leaving the other thread alone — her species was hard to explain, but an attempt to leads to questions about droid sentience?

Who are you, Tatiana Sah?

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

While Dominic had spoken, Tatiana's expression hadn't altered. A slight nod had accompanied his explanation that droids were close to sentient, but not regarded as fully-formed, autonomous entities. It wouldn't be the first time she'd heard such opinion; it was far from rare in the galaxy.

"Did I use the phrase wrong earlier?" Tatiana's head rotated a bit to one side as she stared at Dominic. That was how they used it, wasn't it? 'If you catch my meaning?' Dominic had nearly sounded offended as if she'd tried to talk over him. Perhaps it was one of those sayings people might misread in tone.

She didn't wait for his reply, however, as Dominic seemed keen on a response regarding their civilization. "This galaxy is filled with a shocking diversity in lifeforms and cultures. My people have never seen anything like it. So an 'assessment' would be better contextualized for clarity, but if the galactic civilization as a whole were to be summed up in a word?" There was a pause as the blonde checked to see if Dominic would object. "It would be 'Young.'"

"Dee is also very young, and limited by their current electrical and mechanical construction. Both show great potential." A slight shrug followed. "Provided the destructive elements don't continue to consume resources, which hold back collective development."

"Senator, is there something specific you'd wish to ask me? I'd gladly converse whenever there is time during our journey. I meant no disrespect not to describe my own civilization earlier, but it would take considerable time to explain the nuances and I did not want to distract you from the rare opportunity presented today."

Dominic Praxon

 

[Atlas Drake]

Kaia Starchaser Kessa Ishtar-Array​

---

"Might be a crash site," Drake agreed with the meknek, "Or something stranger."

The shuttle's boarding ramp descended in a plume of steam and the uncharted world's tropical weather struck them like a wave of humidity. Captain Drake fiddled with the dials on a battered old EnhanceScan portable scanner. One small step and he was planetside. Confusing oscillations on the device he held troubled the scruffy guide.

"Whatever this thing is, I'm picking up faint energy readings. Definitely some kind of artificial power source. Can you take a look, Kessa?"

He offered the girl his scanner while taking a better look at the unknown outpost. If it was a wrecked ship of some kind Drake didn't recognize the architecture, although the scale made it difficult to be sure. Some kind of alien structure and yet something about it did not seem meant for this place. He looked back up at the stars and thought about what to do next.

"Setting up base camp can wait," he told the others, "We need to know if this site poses a threat to anyone else the expedition sends down here. Good thing we all seem to have salvage experience."

 

[Dominic Praxon]

"Young," Dominic smiled, despite himself. "I will try not to take offence," he said. It was a joke, but his tone was dry.

Relaxing, and turning largely back towards the windows above them. "I guess we both have things to learn from one another," he said, quietly.

He left off speaking for a moment, mind trailing to the realities of the galactic civilisation. War. Oppression. Vice. To call them 'young' was apt in more ways than one, but also rather charitable. The Republic was one of the small bright spots in the galaxy. Despite its own youth — by galactic standards — Dominic believed whole heartedly in its potential. But the subtlety of political manoeuvring had put him on this ship, away from where he could do the most good.

A knot settled in his stomach.

"The galaxy as a whole does seem bent on its own destruction. Should that energy be turned to good...to progress...who knows what Dee could become?" he said, thoughts elsewhere. He looked at her momentarily. "What we all could become..."

"I would very much appreciate further meetings. I believe we have much we can learn from one another. And maybe next time I will ask that big, looming question," he said, before quirking his eyebrows playfully, "What do you say? Perhaps we can add a lesson on colloquial sayings?"

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

Tatiana blinked as Dominic seemed less... pensive than a moment ago. That was good. And he wasn't wrong, obviously. Despite her time among these strange worlds, there was still much to learn. A fact she hoped would extend her stay even longer than the requirements of this five-year mission would already demand.

It was surprising to hear Dominic refer to Dee when next he spoke. His opinion couldn't have changed so quickly. Perhaps this was the 'politician in him' appealing to a subject of interest? Though the man might be curious to learn what Tatiana expected of the astromech as well.

"I would like that, Senator. My objective is to learn how our people can work together. Learning how to avoid misunderstandings would be quite useful, and I would gladly exchange information in return." Though there were certain topics Tatiana was forbidden from discussing. Most of them should be pretty obvious even to outsiders. On the other hand, she wasn't entirely sure what actually was obvious. She hoped Dominic would be as eager to engage as she was.

Arched brows and her eyes being turned upward preceded a question, "Would 'lightning in a bottle' apply here?" Well, Tatiana was young in her own way.

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

The nebula had its first moment of brilliance. A short, sharp flash of light that pulled Dominic's attention upward. He missed the moment, but was focused now on a repeat. Whispers about them spoke less of a bolt of energy and more a flash of light. He turned his head toward a young couple that seemed eagerly chatting about comets. Their enthusiasm was almost as infectious as the explanation that Tatiana had given.

He looked back briefly to her. Offering a smile, one that she hoped she would see as sincere. "Perhaps by working together ourselves we can forge a greater understanding for the collective."

A second flash of light pulled his eyes upward again. A frown creased his brow for missing the second moment. "'Lightning in a bottle'? It will do for now."

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Luke Montann]

⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Locations⠀ Space --- Surface
Objectives⠀ Take the shuttle, setup camp, find out.
Tags⠀ Atlas Drake l Kessa l Kaia Starchaser l


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀LUKE MONTANN.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Engineer.
"The stars are ours to see, the galaxy is ours to set foot on."
Follow the stars..

═ Man's Gotta Earn a Living⠀═

Luke leaned forward in his seat. He'd stayed mostly silent during the ride- letting the others play out their talking points. He'd been busy observing the scanners and equipment he brought. His helmet retreated back into his neck, a series of folding metal pieces collapsing into a neatly-compiled apparatus on his back.

"I'll stay back here and setup camp and a comms unit. We might be here a while. I'll try and cross-reference the energy readings with anything we have on file."

He stood up, his communications system and his status display module lighting up on his back as the ramp came down. His helmet popped back over his head, and the Engineer began to get to work, pulling boxes, crates and the tedious task of arranging a suitable short-range communication array. Luke was a worker bee, a man who advocated for nothing more than the honest work he was doing.