Welcome To New Dorin

[Jamie Pyne]

Whilst Lily took a gander at the surroundings to her left and right, the Jedi Padawan kept her eyes above, towards the atmosphere. That which held the most hostility would be found above in the form of acidic downpours and fierce gales, thunder clouds, and Force knew what else Dorin had in store. As if the toxic air wasn't enough of a problem in and of itself, in the blink of an eye they could find themselves in real trouble if the planet decided it was time for a bit of a Sith Show.

"So how'd you end up as a pilot, Lily?" Jamie asked, figuring that if the two were to be spending a prolonged period of time together it would be good to get to know one another a bit.

It wasn't like there was much else to do, given the rather desolate sights to take in the further they got from civilization.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

The woman thought for a moment, biting her lip in thought. It wasn't the happiest story. And not one that she'd share on a whim. But the woman who sat next to her was one of the few truly kind-hearted people she'd met. Perhaps, with her, she could.

"Well, when I was little my home planet was bombed when the Sith we're attempting to conquer it. I must've been eleven at the time. I lost my parents then. But the Alliance sent relief. Pilots dropped care-packages from the skies, medics exited dropships. They gave us just a little bit of hope. One of the pilots took me under his wing while he was stationed there. I wanted to be like him. So I studied and went to the academy, graduated and here I am." The Lieutenant told the story with a very matter-of-fact tone of voice. She tried her hardest to keep her voice from cracking at the mention of her family. She missed them. She wasn't quite sure if her mask had cracked in that moment, but she prayed it hadn't. How embressing would that be!

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I see." She said, looking off to the side. She felt somewhat guilty for unintentionally forcing the pilot to reminisce about the tragic past. "I'm terribly sorry for what happened to your family and home."

Jamie had never suffered any kind of tragedy like that. Her life was rather pleasant, all things considered. She had money, a very nice home, a prominent position, a well respected family. The galaxy was at her fingertips really. Or, at least in terms of Naboo. She would later be appointed a member of the royal court, reporting to the king. She had been gifted with the Force and the grace to control it under the guidance of her master. She was honestly free to do whatever she pleased.

That being said she had been taught compassion and empathy, even long before the Jedi or the Force had any involvement in her life. She had a pure desire to help those in need, to see justice served, and to comfort those in dire times.

"That sort of story is why we're here. To help make lives like yours better, and to hopefully, some day, somehow, prevent them from happening altogether."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily smiled a little and glanced at the other woman and then back to the road, "Yeah, well, like I said, these people will definitely appreciate all you're doing for them."

The Lieutenant looked up to the sky, assessing the clouds. Not that she was any good at that here on Dorin. "So what made your family get into all this humanitarian stuff?"

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie rested her hand on Lily's shoulder, offering a warm, genuine smile. "What we're doing." She wanted the other woman to know that she was part of this, not just Jamie's escort.

Allowing her hand to fall back to her lap she addressed the lieutenant's question more directly. "My parents? I honestly don't really know. For as long as I've been alive this sort of thing is what they've done. It's their mission, calling, I guess you could say. Despite the wealth of their combined families, the spend most of their time traveling the galaxy on these kinds of excursions rather than vacationing on Spira." Jamie had been raised that way as well, to be giving and empathetic and compassionate, even though she had never been permitted to go with them due to the sheer danger of stepping foot onto a war torn or disaster or plague ridden planet.

"They, as well as I, serve the Naboo royal crown, on top of these duties. And I, in addition to that, also try and make time to learn how to be a Jedi. Very busy agenda, but I do my best."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

The Lieutenant appreciated the Royals small gesture. She was a part of this, even if it was another assignment. She was doing what she'd always dreamt of. Helping beings.

The younger woman listened to the other as she told of how her parents had always been generous, always been humanitarians. And then she told of how she was studying to be a Jedi! "You certainly have you hands full ma'am!" a tone of interest coloring her voice, "I have a bit of an odd question. What does the Force feel like?"

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

That was a bit of a loaded question. "I grew up never knowing about the Force. It wasn't until several months ago that I really understood what it was to feel the Force." It was even more difficult to explain that feeling. "Ever since I was a kid I guess I was naturally gifted at certain things. Seemingly small things really. I had better hand-eye coordination, and was pretty quick when it came to reflexes. Of course I wasn't using the Force or anything to lift objects through the air or twirl lightsabers, but the Force naturally elevated my senses in a way I hadn't thought possible until it was explained to me."

She looked back to Lily for a moment, away from the passing mountains and desolate land.

"When I discovered my abilities, it was entirely by accident. I felt a well of energy, almost like adrenaline inside me, I released it, also by accident, and it came in the form of a rather spectacular Force Push during one of my fencing championship finals. You should have seen the look of the audience, and my opponents' face."

She could help but laugh. "It was all pretty remarkable."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

The Lieutenant laughed as well, the sound ringing out, even through the mask that covered her face. A sweet sound. "I'm sure you caused quite a scandal." the woman joked. "It must be amazing to be able to tap into all that power. I can't even begin to imagine what that's like. I get overwhelmed dealing with my boys." she said with an affectionate tone. Those men could certainly be a handful sometimes. More often than not it was like dealing with a bunch of kids during Lifeday, rather than battle-hardened pilots.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"For quite some time a lot of what I was capable of came about in the form of accidents, and rarely did they ever end on a positive note. Eventually though I was able to research information at various Jedi archives and temples, and even managed to find someone to mentor me. That made things far less difficult, and far less dangerous as well."

Given that she had nearly gotten herself killed a number of times before receiving any substantial training, it was best that she found a teacher.

"It's something that takes a lot of understanding and practice to actually learn to control the Force. I found that out the hard way time and time again."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"How'd you manage to gain access to Jedi Archives? It doesn't seem like they'd just let people roam around per say." asked the Lieutenant. She had never met a Jedi until now, but she'd heard a lot about the extensive knowledge their archives held. It wasn't exactly a jealously guardsd secret but it was beyond the reach of commoners such as herself. She would jump at the chance to one day browse through the endless amounts of information held within those halls.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Coincidence, mostly." She said with a laugh. The blonde crossed her leg over the other, leaning her head against her open palm along the side of the speeder. "I was brought to Sullust by a person affiliated with the Order. They agreed to let me stick around for a bit, perhaps look for someone willing to take on a student of my age. Most begin training as small children." It wasn't entirely uncommon, but rare enough that there were no other completely untrained teenagers in the temple.

"I had some basic understandings of the Force, but it was very rudimentary. I wanted to find someone willing to teach me. Thankfully I did eventually find one."

How that happened was rather amusing as well, enough so that it put a smile on her face thinking about it. "The woman training me quite literally ran into me."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily laughed. This Jamie certainly had an interesting life. "Well that must've been an interesting start. I thought Jedi we're all 'one with the Force' and sensed stuff around them." she joked.

Lily looked down briefly at the small navicomputer that the crawler miraculously managed to keep alive. They had perhaps traveled thirty kilometers? So that left roughly forty to go. They were making some decent time.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Yes and no." It was a difficult thing to explain, something she wouldn't have understood either if it had been explained to her a few months prior. "It was something I didn't know I had. Small things would happen, things that were simple enough to pass off as coincidence or quick reflexes. Nothing extraordinary. The first time I really knew something was up it was something that couldn't be explained, something that would have been impossible otherwise."

Using the Force to throw a fully grown adult male a dozen meters away wasn't something she could have done on her best day.

"Like most things though it requires a lot of training and guidance to understand and control."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Just like flying." Lily said, a smile on her face. It had taken her years to get to where she was today. To learn to feel the putch and yaw, and all the small movements of the ship. Even longer to be able to stay calm and maintain ckntrol while someone was firing at her. "I guess you've tried flying before?" she asked.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I don't pilot..." There was a drawn pause. "Anything." She added. "Ground, atmosphere, or space. I don't pilot. Not unless you want to die, that is."

If there was an award for Worst Pilot In The Galaxy, she could have been a competitor for it.

Everything she flew crashed, collided with something, or broke when she touched it. The Force itself couldn't help her pilot a starship. She could run a speeder, so long as it was in a straight line, with plenty of room to stop and no obstacles in the way at any point in time.

That was how truly awful she was.

"But yes, the idea is the same."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, I doubt your that bad. And even you are, you're definitely not unteachable. Maybe later we'll play around with this old thing." the Lieutenant said, patting the dash affectionately. "She's survived all this, I'm sure she can take whatever you can throw at her." There was nothing to hit out here anyways. Surely the two would be safe. Unless a rogue lightning bolt descended from the sky and decided to strike the hapless speeder....you never knew!

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Lily had never seen Jamie attempt to pilot something, otherwise she would have not made such a claim.

"I hope you've got a will made up for your family."

That might come off sounding like a joke, but when even the Force turned its' metaphorical back on you? That was when you should take the hint that you weren't meant to do certain things. For Jamie, that meant being behind the controls of anything motorized. The speeder they were using may have survived the decades, but it had never met this girl.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"You forget, I'm a military girl." the Lieutenant said with a mischievous grin, "Only things I own are my guns and my boots. And really the military owns that too." a light laugh left her lips even thunder from the far off storm could be heard. "Hey, if we get caught out here in that storm, the rain's not acidic right?" she asked. If it so happened that the rain was acidic they could be in a world of trouble if they weren't able to outrun the storm.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"That might be for the best, then." She said with a smirk. "You might really die. Its' nearly happened before." Several times in fact.

Right...The rain. "Yeah, it's deadly. We don't want to be out here if it starts to rain." That was why making these deliveries as soon as possible was a concern.

"It will tear through your clothes and burn skin. I don't know by experience thankfully. But I was warned before hand."

They would need to find shelter, or, well, they'd both quickly learn the consequences of lingering outside in a Dorin storm.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"I'm not worried about us." the Lieutenant said, looking up to the sky for what must've been the fifth time. Lily rubbed the dash of the crawler affectionately. One might think that she was in a relationship with the machine, if it could speak. "I'm worried about her. Acidic rain is gonna right through her. And then we'll have no transportation. I don't know about you, but I don't wanna carry these crates, I can hardly breathe as it is."

Sure, everyone who went through the academy had to go through a rigorous course to ensure they were up to par in their physical abilities. But that didn't mean Lily had to enjoy doing anything of the sort. Not unless she had to of course.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]