Faction Where No One Has Gone Before (Outbound Flight)

[Atlas Drake]

Tilon Quill Orrik Drossa Kitter Bitters Tintinallë Nyxara Tyrant 4 Darth Vinaze Soliane Desari Alana Calloway​

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"Outlander Control we are go for pre-flight. All systems green. Jump countdown set for one standard-hour."

Drake's heart was still racing after he stepped off a bridge buzzing with nervous activity. This wasn't his first deep space expedition, but it might be the most ambitious. Her official designation was Outbound Flight-2 but everyone just called her the Wayfinder. She was one of the largest exploration vessels ever designed with self-sustaining systems, a cavernous internal hangar and external docking clamps for smaller transports. Now they could launch missions further into the Unknown Regions than ever before.

"Be advised," Drake tuned his comlink to an open frequency so everyone on the crew could hear, "Report to the hydroponics bio-dome for final mission briefing."

He squeezed out of the turbolift past a hoversled loaded with medical supplies and cycled the airlock for one of the ship's massive umbilical gangways connecting the central superstructure to her capital scale hyperspace rings. Decades logged working on starships and Drake still felt exposed knowing a thin semi-transparent membrane was the only thing between him and dead space.

If Drake didn't know better when he emerged the bio-dome would have fooled him into thinking he was in some garden on Corellia or Naboo. Cultivated flora from dozens of worlds flourished here in a controlled artificial environment. Pioneered by the Ithorian herd-ships, hydroponics tech was an old and proven science. Open spaces were at a premium which made the bio-dome a good place for the crew to gather but aside from logistics Drake wanted everyone to have the best possible view of their first jump and nothing could beat a vitreous greenhouse.

Outbound Flight needed more crew for this mission than ever so many of the faces already gathering were strangers to Drake. Some candidates had specialized training but for many this would be their first scientific expedition into the unknown. Anyone with relevant skills was eligible to board from Outlander Station on the frontier of known space.

 

[Tilon Quill]

Tilon was already in the hydroponics bio-dome for four reasons. The view, the taste of sprout mat, the superiority of plants to people, and — related — to dodge Outlander Station's Jedi contingent. He'd done so at every opportunity and would hate to break his winning streak. Between the sprout mat and the solitude, he'd banked up a decent amount of peace by the time people started arriving.

He saw Captain Atlas Drake , the man himself. They'd been bridge crew together on another expedition, Drake the captain, Tilon a comms officer and translator. An awful lot had changed since those days but, despite Tilon being captain of his own small ship now, those aptitudes and preferences remained.

In among the hydroponics, Tilon listened to the languages of the excited arrivals — mostly Basic, but this far out, also familiar snippets of Sy Bisti, Cheunh, Rammocate. Keeping his Unknown Regions trade languages fresh was one of the many, many factors that had made this opportunity unmissable. And his new prosthetic arm, when he let the palm holo project what it detected, quickly found its excellent databases insufficient to ID some of the species represented on this grand ship's crew. The concentric amber circles of the holo-display, as broad as his splayed fingers, floated just above his palm and showed increasing numbers of icons as more and more people arrived.

 

[Yorn]

Tags: OPEN
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"Come on, we're going to be late!"

"Wait up, these bags are heavy."

"That's why you're supposed to let the droid carry them."

Two young Chiss men in crisp white lab uniforms bickered in Cheunh as they weaved through the busy hangar of Outlander station. At the lead was a bright-eyed young man, and trailing behind was a smaller, younger man burden by a suitcase. behind them, a gaggle of Chiss in different specialist uniforms melded with the crowd. There's so many people here, Yorn thought, so many aliens too. We're far from Sposia now.

"Yor'nov! The ship's not going to leave without us."

"Don't you feel it Ic'ran'ad? This place is so alive! I can't believe we're finally here, we can't slow down now."

Obbic'yor'nov, or Yorn, as the humans had taken to calling him, had read all there was to read on Outlander Station in preparation for their journey from Chiss space. They were in the beating heart of the Outbound Flight Program, that they had worked so hard to get to. They were part of the select few Chiss to be sent on the attaché to the Wayfinder, and for Yorn it was the wildest dream come true. His entire life's work thus far fulfilled. First he'd received a degree in mathematics, then his masters in Astrophysics. The Chiss host of scientists was made up of the best they had to offer in fields such as Sentientology, Linguistics, Engineering, physics, and Cousin Icran, the biologist. Each Chiss was proudly doing their duty to their house, but also as citizens of the Galactic Alliance.

The Chiss had decided for too long that their technology had been guarded from the wider galaxy, the Second Great Hyperspace War had shown the Chiss what horrors lurk in the Unknown Regions. Never again could they suffer like they had when Csilla was destroyed. Never could they suffer a horde of barbarians like the Brotherhood of the Maw ever descending on the galaxy again from the Unknown Regions. The Chiss took keen interest in Outbound Flight as a result of this, and when the Wayfinder expedition was commissioned Chiss planets in the senate championed it as a means by which they could not only learn more about the Unknown, but they could test out technologies they had long lacked the resources for.

Yorn himself had been a vocal supporter, owing partly to why he was accepted into the program, though it was largely merit if you asked him. He recalled organizing his youth club to petition his Senator to support the expedition initiative, arguing that the bright future the Chiss needed would be found in their acceptance of the new ways, not their clinging to the old ways. His grand idea was controversial: back on Sposia he had been a vocal critic of the ozyly-esehembos, the force sensitive Chiss navigators who could transit safely through the Chaos. It was Yorn's belief that they were holding back progress, and that with the right discoveries through science, they would be able to find safe hyperroutes through the Unknown Regions, and he had worked hard to prove it. Endless hours of mathematical sequencing, working both himself and his protocol droid the brink of exhaustion to try and learn anything about the shifting miasma of cosmic energy that engulfed the far edge of the galaxy.

The thrill of the crowd was a far cry from those quiet evenings, and it was quite overwhelming, but Yorn was ecstatic. Everyone around them spoke in snippets of the latest news from beyond as he danced by: scouts returning from afar giving the all clear for the first leg of the journey, loadmasters ordering the expeditions goods aboard shuttles, dreamers telling stories of the far out stars...

... the stories he imagined when he beheld the Wayfinder paled in comparison. It was a beautiful, advanced ship, and it was going to be their home for the foreseeable future.

The Chiss were welcomed aboard much to their surprise, finding that the humans of the Alliance were an exceptionally cordial and social people unlike their own. Each scientist was escorted to their new quarters by shiny silver protocol droids, the one leading Yorn introducing itself as ZD-10.

His room had an alcove in the wall for his bed, and was primarily taken up by a large desk with computers build into the walls. Yorn found it immediately to be small, but cozy. Much different than the grand academic halls of the Inrokini Academy where he had studied, but also a room to himself, no more of the communal living with other students.

He thanked the droid, somewhat missing his family's own droid, which he could not have brought. He began to unpack his things when the PA system buzzed to life over him, with the captain calling new arrivals to the hydroponics bio-dome. Perfect, he thought, cousin Icran will be there already with the biology team. He dropped the clothes he was taking from his bag onto the bed and grabbed his datapad, exiting out into the hall.

As he made his way to the briefing, he passed through a long stretch of hallway with wide viewports. Billions of stars out there, he mused, billions of new discoveries." He stared out into the cosmos for a moment, taking it all in. All that he could see was part of the Unknown Regions. Its vastness filled him with a nervous excitement. The wanderlust was setting in.

He continued on down the hall, eager as ever to meet his new shipmates. He had heard there were astrographers on board, who he would be working with, and under the guide of their legendary captain, no man better qualified, he had a strong feeling they would make great headway into the Chaos.

He arrived bright-eyed to the hydroponic dome. The scent of exotic flowers filled the air, as did the bustle of the congregation. Yorn waded into the crowd, looking for Icran, wondering who else he might stumble across.

 

[Tintinallë Nyxara]

Objective: Meet others, get directions
Location: Crew Quarters, Outbound Flight-2/Wayfinder
Outfit:Pink Flightsuit
Accompanied by: Hyartë Vaelune
Tags: Atlas Drake | Tilon Quill | Tyrant 4 | Yorn | Alana Calloway | Orrik Drossa
"What the heck are we doing here Tint?," Hyartë whined. The duo didn't always have to be together. Tintinallë was the explorer, the pilot. Hyartë was a hunter, a warrior. When Tint engaged in a transport that did not require security Hy would find something more exciting to do. This endeavor that was to be undertaken however was not something Hy felt comfortable allowing Tint to go alone. Even though there was an entire team going along as well. Hy didn't know the team. And she wasn't going to trust her partner's safety to them on something this big.

Tintinallë knew that Hyartë thought that the mission was something they didn't need to do. The hunter's spirit was something that heard the call of a very different kind of adventure than the explorer's heart. "Do I tell you that the dangerous beings you hunt aren't worth it? This is my hunt Hy…You need to let it happen. And no one said you needed to come along." Tint gave a giggle as she zipped her flightsuit the rest of the way up.

"If it is so important why aren't you leading the mission. You're a captain. And it's not like any other crew members are from outside this galaxy," Hyartë continued to whine as she gave the plates of what counted as armor to a Quendesh follower of Lyshara. The "magic" hunting gems were affixed properly to Hy's forehead, and she huffed her readiness to leave when Tint was.

Tintinallë shook her head as she looked over Hy's attire and then looked up into her eyes. "I'm the captain of a small smuggling vessel. And we're not from outside this galaxy. Our ancestors are. Who knows where the humans originated? Who knows what this Captain has accomplished in his career? I have no experience commanding a crew this size. I just bark out orders to you when I need something. And half the time you ignore me if you don't think it is important. So I think I'm quite alright being a helmsman or navigator or whatever job they put me on. This is about an adventure not a power trip. If you can't keep your words constructive just stand in the back and look pretty til I need someone to save my life," Tint giggled again and didn't wait for a response instead stepping out of their quarters and into the hallway after hearing the announcement for final mission briefing.

The lift to the biodome was easy to find. As they arrived at the level, Hyartë gave an exaggerated wave of her hand for Tintinallë to take the lead. The shorter Quendesh rolled her eyes and moved forward into the biodome. Hyartë fell a few strides behind and remained silent as Tintinallë moved towards the gathered group. "Good day Captain. Eager to get this mission underway." Her eyes shifted to the blue-skinned men who were also in the biodome as part of the crew. "Hi there. I'm Tintinallë. You can call me Tint. My bodyguard back there is Hyartë. She'll be remaining silent."

 

[Tilon Quill]

He arrived bright-eyed to the hydroponic dome. The scent of exotic flowers filled the air, as did the bustle of the congregation. Yorn waded into the crowd, looking for Icran, wondering who else he might stumble across

Among the chaos on Tilon's palm holo, the display flagged a Chiss bio sign. Few were attached to this expedition, and Tilon came out from the hydroponic shelves to squint across the crowd for red eyes and blue.

There — that was the science delegate or something like it, a physicist, he'd heard. Not necessarily someone to practice basic Cheunh with, but very much worth at least meeting, and he looked excited.

Tilon navigated the crowd and came aroundn for a visible approach.

"Welcome," he said in Cheunh, knowing he had a bit of an archaic pre-Gulag accent but was comprehensible. "I'm Tilon Quill, a communications specialist." It occurred to him belatedly that he might be taken for some kind of Chiss offshoot himself; he wasn't, but it had happened before due to general coloration.