Log:Outrider Ride Along

Outrider Ride Along

OOC Date: March 17th, 2016
Location: SPACE
Participants: Aola Ziveri, (not) Dash Rendar, Therous Caavuna, Hex

The short story: Aola, Therous, and Dash Rendar take down some pirates. Hex tries to do less paperwork, ends up with more paperwork.

The long story:

Aola Zirveri was, is and always will be a geek when it comes to ships. With no combat missions assigned the cadet had been effectively grounded and had little to do beyond eyeing the fighters and vessels in the base with dreams and desire. One day, one day soon... For now the young Twi'lek woman was now out on the landing pad and perhaps wandering a little too clse to the T-70 X-Wing belonging to Black Leader. She'd never dare touch it, but those eyes are practically -lustful- for the fighter until noise and shape of a new arrival to the base draws her attention to the Outrider and she watches it land. A YT-Class ship? She'd practically grown up on one of those, but her parents had been much much older then the 2400. Even so it was enough to have her curiously making her way over from the hanger while the smuggle comes walking out.

A few more Resistance-types come pouring out of the Outrider and begins making their way back to their respective positions, some heading to the hangar, some to the medical facilities, and a very choice few going straight to the barracks to get some sleep.

Dash isn't going anywhere, though. He doesn't want any dirty Resistance nerds touching his stuff. Well, except for the refueling crew that he's calling over.

"That's an interesting choice for a shuttle," a voice speaks up. Aola seems to have made her way up behind Dash. Wrapped in the orange flight suit of the Resistance Pilots the young blue twi'lek has her arms crossed lazily over her chest while her lekku rest drapped forwards over her shoulders, giving not so much as a lazy twitch.

Speaking of dirty resistance nerds.... here's Hex, wandering out from the interior of the base. He's frowning at a data pad and talking into a com. "What the hell? I need that thing in space! What? SPACE." He rolls his eyes at something on the other side of the conversation. "No. Okay? You're right. I don't know what a reverse anti-grav stabilizer coil is. Yes. /And/ I don't know how to fix one. I just - OKAY! Okay, I'll figure something else out. Tell engineering to kiss my tails. Make that sound more official though." He switches off the comm and keeps walking, raising a hand, "Hey Aola," and then... oh, there's someone familiar. "Dash Rendar!"

"How do you figure?" Dash asks, looking over to Aola with a smile, resting his hands on his hips in a hero pose. He's about to go on a long diatribe wherein he'd surely defend the Outrider's virtue, but he's distracted by his Twi'lek buddy. "Hex...Hex! I don't know your last name. Twi'leks have last names?"

Foot steps can be heard, as in walks a corellian man of about 25 years in age, and 6 foot 3 in hight. He walks into the tarmak, and gazes about the people there. Seeing a new twilec woman, he gives her a warm and inviting smile, and waves to her. Then noticing hex, he gives him a wave and a smile, before turning to the other man present. "Don't believe i know you. Name's caavuna, therous caavuna. tis a pleasure." He says, surveying the tarmak.

"Wouldn't it get crowded for long distance, that many peop-" Aola questions, the blue Twi'lek pilot interupted by Hex's arrival that earns a smile and a raise of her hand. Dash's comment about last names makes the alien woman blink and her lekku give a twitch of irritation. Hex can field that one. Seeing the new arrival step from the hanger she raises a hand in greeting, but the man is a face she doesn't know either.

"It's Heksash'kuri," Hex says his full name, heading over, "But when humans try to say it you sound like you've got communicable respiratory disease, so you can just bash it into Hex Ashkuri. Or just Hex. So you get that second dance with the Princess?" he grins at Dash, and then waggles his datapad at the pair of them. "Soooo I see two pilots - three pilots, hi Therous - and one poor soldier who just lost his ship that needed to go out because of an anti-grav... something. Is this yours?" he adds to Dash, peering curiously at the Outrider.

"Dash Rendar, pleasure to meet you, son," the older Corellian says, extending a gloved hand to Therous. A look to Aola and he says, "Most YT-2400s /would/ get crowded, yes. But the Outrider is not most YT-2400s. There's not an inch of space on the inside of that ship that hasn't been torn out and replaced." A look to Hex and he grins, "I think 'Hex' will do just fine." He looks over his shoulder at the Outrider and says, "Yep. My pride and joy. The /actual/ fastest ship in the Galaxy." He lowers his voice and looks around, raising his hand in a stage whisper to Hex, "I've been Resistance longer than you have, kid. Princess Leia and I dance every Satunda." He flashes the soldier a wink.

Therous Caavuna then turns to hex first, "Greetings my friend. How goes for you?" He asks before turning to the twilec woman, seeming to study her closely. "So, you be a pilot? or what is your occupation on base?" He asks her, stepping a little closer to her, extending a hand to shake hers in gentle greeting before turning to dash, accepting his handshake in greeting. "Pleasure to meet you my new friend, seems we be both corellian from the looks of it. Or at least that was where i was born."

"Huh," That's Aola's approximation of the ship's assessment before the Twi'lek shrugs her shoulders. Hex's comment about names makes her grin a little, but she's distracted from Dash's words by the question of her role and she nods, gesturing to the flightsuit she's still wearing. "Cadet Aola Ziveri, pilot unassigned." she does return the handshake, polite enough in greeting.

"I'm enjoying the unique and terrifying thrill of referring to her as Princess when here, she's General," Hex muses, looking around briefly to make sure that no one who outranks him and cares about protocol can hear him. There's a grin for Dash, "I'm glad to see you never lost your appreciation for chaos. Did you just get back? Long trip? You look sprightly. Refreshed." Both brows lift, hopefully, and he waggles his datapad. "On a scale from one to 'yes Hex I'd love to' how do you feel about taking me to some sexy, sexy coordinates? You can show these two how to fly."

"Corellian born and bred, myself, Therous," Dash says with a smile, before his attention returns to Hex. He ponders for a moment and looks over at the crew that are giving him a thumbs up, an indication that they're all done with the ship.

"Yeah, sure. C'mon," the smuggler says, jerking his head towards the ramp of the YT-2400 and moving to march up it. He pauses and turns around, gesturing to all of them, "If you break anything, I'm telling Leia. She'll...probably give you a medal or something, now that I think about it."

Therous Caavuna releaces the twilec cadet's hand after a time. "Ah, i am sure you will get that assignment soon enough, and am sure you will do well. If there be any help you need or any company, let me know." He says, turning to hex, "Certainly! I would be glad too learn anything i can learn." He then turns to dash once more. "very nice ship you got there. How fast does she get up too?" he asks, but his attension is still focused on the cadet, still studying her closely.

It's not exactly an X-Wing, but Aola had been going crazy having been on solid ground for so so very long. She'd grown up on ships, never having stayed anywhere beyond the time it took to load or unload cargo and refuel. Moving to slip into step behind Hex she tilts her head to the side and looks over the interior of the ship as they board. Just how different is the thing?

"YES," Hex is a little too excited about Dash's agreement, the source of which seems to be, "Now there's so much less paperwork!" He pulls out his comm, to speak to the same unknown party from before. "Hey, it's Ashkuri. Suck it, I found a way better ship," Hex says professionally, then pockets the comm again. "Easy stuff. We just go to these coordinates, take a look at the moon there, run a couple scans, make sure the atmosphere won't poison anyone when they step out of the ship and that there's no asteroid fields or some shit... nice, gentle scanning... some unnecessary but super sweet maneuvers that would shame the Falcon... maybe shoot some TIEs if they show up... but they probably won't... easy stuff!"

"If I told you, you'd have to report me to the authorities, Caavuuna," Dash says, wandering up the ramp and into the ship. He'll wait for everyone to get on board and taps the console next to the entry point, sealing the ramp behind them. "Leebo!" he calls out. "Come meet our new buddies. Some rookie fighter-jockeys and a soldier. I'm gonna teach them how to fly!"

There's a moment of dead air before clanking can be heard from the cockpit and a Cybot Galactica LE series repair droid pokes his head into the room, his optics widening as he regards the new passengers, "Oh, so you're going to pass your distinctive brand of 'deathwish' onto them. How altruistic of you, Dash."

The Corellian deadpans before offering a mocking "Ahaha ahaha, shut up. Go pretend to be useful and make sure the hyperdrive isn't gonna jump out of the ship the next time we jump. It's been bouncing all over the place."

Leebo grumbles something and makes his way towards the rear of the ship where he'll do his best to ensure this isn't a one-way trip.

"That's Leebo. He's my best friend," Dash says with a grin, beckoning the rest of the group to follow him through the walkway into the cockpit.

"I can fly, maybe even better then you," Aola protests as she comes walking up the ramp behind the others and pauses a little in suprise at the ships first mate being an old, mouthy droid. Really is strange the things you can find when you're hanging around outer rim pilots. Shrugging her shoulders she moves towards the cockpit and looks over at Hex, raising a hairless brow. "So where are we going now?"

Hex follows Dash into the ship; he's no pilot but seems to view it all with nothing except for a pleased sort of appreciation. There's a grin for the other Twi'lek's piloting prowess, and he tsks, "Oh, honey," but doesn't comment beyond that. Instead, he addresses her question. "Into the unknown, Aola. Semi-unknown. Brass wants a fast and nasty outpost on this moon as fast as we can get one, if it's possible - it's a little close territory that might be hot. I need a scan of it that's a little better than a probe before we commit ground troops, though." He hands Dash the coordinates, rather than try to muck about with entering them anywhere himself.

Therous Caavuna quickly and quietly boards the ship, and follows the other three to the cockpit. he then responds to dash. "Well, might be in the same boat with you. I have a personal yacht. She'll make .75 past lightspeed. She's fast and eligant." he says with a grin, as he looks around the cockpit, but then stands quietly straight as a board, listening to hex, not saying much after that.

Dash Rendar grins at Hex and moves to have a seat in his pilot's chair. Dash takes the coordinates and slides over to the nav-computer in his chair that's suspended by a hydraulic arm, allowing him full range to get to everything inside of the cockpit. He taps the specifics into the computer and slides back to his station, where he begins flipping switches and pushing buttons, seemingly at random. That is until the ship's engines roar hum to life and the repulsorlifts begin with their signature whine, the ship now hovering over the tarmac. When Therous begins listing the specifics of his own ship, Dash remarks, "That sounds pretty cute."

The mention of the yacht makes Aola blink and tilt her head to the other side. "Never seen anything like that on the landing pad," the Twi'lek comments lightly before moving to take a seat for herself. Even with the ship taking off the young alien looks fairly steady on the ship while it takes off. The mark of a real native from the starlanes. "One ship, no fighters, this just a scouting run for the outpost?" the cadet questions Hex lightly.

Therous Caavuna only gives a chuckle, but remains where he is for a time, but then quickly and quietly takes a seat in one of the seets in the cockpit, keeping his hands tightly folded. "I keep my ship on corellia. Keeps things less complicated for people, and keeps my ship out of bad hands." He says, keeping his hands folded tightly in his lap as he speak, his eyes scanning unblinkingly straight ahead.

"You should donate your yacht to the Resistance," Hex advises Therous, "So that I can requisition it for something frivolous. Which probably counts as it falling into bad hands, but, eh... we can't all be good." He's not a native to the starlanes, at all, and he completely lacks Aola's grace during liftoff. There is a lot more bracing against sturdy infrastructure. "Yeah," he confirms. "Some of our people ran into some TIEs close to here, but I don't think we'll run into any in this system, exactly. Or if we do, well, Dash turns them back into their constituent atoms and I'm back doing paperwork again to comment about it. Part of this exercise is to get me the scans I need, and part of it is to get you in the company of someone who's flown through history, so if you got questions, speak up, otherwise, watch and learn. A ship like this is more versatile than a fighter, and your captain is a force to be reckoned with." He peers at said Captain. "Look at you! You're mentoring the Resistance! You're mentoring the shit out of it."

"Not so sure about that, Therous. Some of the worst hands I've come across were on Corellia." Sabacc joke. Dash smirks at his own wit and pulls the stick back just a bit before he starts slowly pressing the throttle forward. In no time at all, the old freighter is reaching speeds that a T-65 would be jealous of. "Either of you know how to work a turret?" he asks, hearing the news that there may be trouble. "I've got them slaved to my targetting computer here, but if we run into some action and you want some training, they can be freed up and you kids can have some fun."

"A turret?" All the guns she'd trained with had been fixed mount to the front of the craft. Besides, she'd never liked having to rely on someone else to chase what she's shooting. Shaking her head as one lekku gives a self-concious coiling around her neck, the Twi'lek glances towards Therous to see about his answer.

"I might consider it, as soon as i get her payed off." Therous replies to hex, also sitting back in his seat calmly as the ship takes off, giving a little smile as he feels the affects of liftoff. "Mmm, your ship has some nice handling on it good sir." He says to dash, then gazing over at the cadet, he gives her a long look before looking straight ahead once more, his eyes still unblinking and focused. "Aye, i know how to operate a turret, trained on lots of those during my academy days, and you might have hex tell you about the mission i accompanied him on. And good point, i might consider moving her to base once i get the coords to base." therous points out to dash, not breaking his composure as he says this.

"He's not a good sir. Just a regular one," Hex grins at Therous's address of Dash. He hand-wobbles. "More of a Sir Depending On Context and Circumstances. Hopefully we won't run into much but if we do, well, target practice then." He raises a brow at Aola, "No turrets? Fighter corps for you, eh? Or, the Mud Bug." A grin, "Nah, I'm kidding. I'm sure Poe will cram you into an X-wing or a Y-wing."

"Well, against my better judgement...you may get to fly if the going gets rough," Dash says, twitching with every word. He shakes it off as the ship makes its way further and further away from the planet. "Alright, kids, let's see if Leebo's worth keeping around." He taps a command into the nav-computer and slowly pulls back the hyperspace levers, causing space to bleed away into a streak of lines, before exploding into a field of pure white.

"Fighter corps," Aola answers Hex a little too quickly. No way in the Galaxy had she left a life of flying freighters for her parents to go flying for the resistance. Crossing her arms over her chest, there's a tinge of purple to her features suggesting she's more then a little embarrassed at being a little lacking in gunner skills. Dash's offer however makes her look up in surprise.

"And i can guide you through flying them if you have any problems." He addresses to aola. "As i said, i prefer to help other pilots the best way i can. We all benifit from one another if we help each other. it would not be the resistants if we didn't." He says to Aola, giving a smile to her as he speaks. "Well, call me formal, but its how i prefer to be." He flashes hex a sidelong grin as he speaks, giving the same look to dash.

Hex cringes a little as they jump into hyperspace, like he expects to get smacked in the face of suffer an instantaneous and painless death. Neither happens, and he relaxes. His lekku twitch in amused surprise as Dash offers the temporary piloting of the Outrider, and Hex raises a brow at Aola. "Oooooh, girl. Don't break his ship, or your blue ass is grass." There is a grin for that though, and he looks back out the view screen. "It appears Leebo is worth keeping around. Or, I mean -- I guess I could wait to say that until we appear somewhere other than like... inside the middle of a planet."

Dash Rendar swivels the pilot's chair around and crosses his arms in front of his chest, looking around the inside of the cockpit at the rest of them, "Alright. We'll be there in no time. This pretty lady runs point five past lightspeed, so no journey ever takes to long." A look to Hex and he says, "So, some sort of scouting, huh? Setting up an outpost." Dash was at least half-way listening to the Twi'lek, it seems.

"I think if the astrogations glitch out," Aola says quietly, "We'd probably never notice." 0.5 past lightspeed is impressive to say the least, but she doesn't comment on it aloud. Instead she's looking through the cockpit window towards the familier lights of hyperspace, they'd always been so very reassuring. Hell, that lurching into speed was comfortable to her at this point.

Therous Caavuna continues to stair straight ahead as they continue the journey through hyper space. Having said his piece, he stays quiet, and keeps his pose, listening to the conversing.

Hex nods confirmation to Dash. "Yeah. There's a couple of system options; this one's a little less out of the way and might be a little more tame based on the probe results, but if there's a reason not to use it, there's a backup to look into. Are we almost there?" he peers at the instrument panels, without any particular comprehension. "Should be nice and quiet when we exit hyper. In fact, I'll bet on it, anything you like." Gambling, scouting, star power, this trip has everything.

"Just a hop, skip, a jump and...we're here," Dash says, pushing the levers forward. The ship lurches as it reappears in realspace, completely stationary. "Sithspit!" Dash remarks, looking at the scanners, "Looks like pirates." Two Z-95 Headhunters and a Skipray Blastboat are patrolling the system, likely out to pillage travellers on the hyperlanes. Read: Dash and co. "Therous, get on the bottom turret, I'll go topside." He swings his chair around and stands up, a finger pointing to Aola, "Blue, take the controls." He pauses and looks at Hex, "And you...just uh...y'know."

The Captain tears off through the hatchway into the center of the ship and makes it to the central turret tower, which he begins climbing.

There might have been a meep, but only due to the fact that things are moving so fast. Even so, she's quick to dive from her chair to the controls, sliding into the main seat she takes a breath and then sets to work, banking the ship to zero the guns in on their target. She might not be all that good at using the guns, but she sure as hell can line them up it seems.

Therous Caavuna then quickly follows, standing up with surprising speed, and folliwing the captain to the central turret control, before climbing down to the bottom gunner's turret, slapping on a headset, and keeping watch. He cals over the headset to the top turret where the captain is sitting ready. "Ok sir, i'm ready. I will follow your lead if you wish to call the targets sir." Therous says promptly into his headset microphone before adjusting the gunner's controles, preparing to shoot.

"Ships? Koa! What the frotz?!" Hex is surprised into a half-Basic, half-Ryl patois that Aola can probably recognize as some vulgar language. He proves himself pleasantly adept at getting out of the way when Therous and Dash scramble for - or dash for?? - the guns, and he parks himself in the seat next to her, where he will be incredibly useful doing, uh... y'know. "Great, just, great. Now I'm gonna have to report on this shit. Unless we die," Hex adds, and spends a moment contemplating what's worse, fiery death in the soulless vacuum of empty space, or paperwork.

"Call me Dash, kid. I'm not your dad," Dash remarks over his headset. "Concentrate fire on that blastboat, I'll see about scrapping these Headhunters," he says, flipping the switched on the turret console to un-slave it from the central targetting computer. The heavy quad-turret swivels around under Dash's control and fires two concentrated blasts. The first one screams past one of the Headhunter's noses, but the second tears holes straight through its engine block, sending the ship exploding into a cloud of blood and pressurized gasses.

Eventually, those other ships are going to be shooting back, but Aola's not going to be a sitting duck. The YT-2400 is similar to the crafts she'd grown up on, but it's newer, faster and certainly packs more punch. With the guns unslaved to her control she yanks the controls to bring the ship in on the blastboat, keeping up the chase. She's familier with those ships enough to know that they'll have a hell of a time hitting them back if the Outrider is right behind them. The craft sweeps between the blasterbolts, untouched as the Twi'lek puts her credits where her mouth is. "Those fighters are gonna be right on us," she says over the comlink. "Hit them fast"

Therous Caavuna eagerly complies, taking careful aim at one of the blastboats nearby, firing wildly at it once it is centered. The shots score a critical hit on the shield generator, crippling it in only a few shots. he then takes careful aim once more, firing a steady but fast stream of laser fire, crippling the engines completely.

Hex sits back and enjoys the show, since he's functionally useless unless someone tries to board the ship. "Well, there's one. Nice flying, numa." Sister. "Not so bad even though it's not an X-wing, eh?" She's busy; he seems to be making rhetorical statements rather than expecting particular answer. In case the com didn't go through, he helps out by yelling down the corridor, "DASH, KILL THEM OR I'M GONNA BE SAD."

Dash Rendar swings the turret around and releases another burst, sending the other Z-95 to a similar fate as its companion. Swivel. Swivel. He squeezes the trigger one more time and fires one final barrage into the unshielded cockpit of the Skipray, ripping through the bulkhead and spacing the unfortunate crew inside. "All targets down," Dash says, "Aola, give me another three hundred sixty degree scan, just to make sure we're in the all-clear." The scoundrel leans back in his turret chair and grins. "Still got it."

"I've got my share of skills," the younger Twi'lek winks at Hex as she brings the ship around with the last craft exploding into nothing, letting the woman give a little woop of enjoyment before she acknowledges Dash's instruction with a rather pointless nod and reaches out to flick the scanners while sweeping the craft in a passive defencive maneuver. At least those controls are pretty much in the same space as the old models. "Looks clear, if someone else was hiding around here they're not jumping in."

Therous Caavuna relaxes in his turret, still keeping a lookout just in case something is still out there.

"Oh, man, I need a smoke," Hex declares, lekku slack with relief as the last of the pirates get dusted. "Aola, you want to take an orbit around that moon and get some readings for me? I dunno that it's so attractive to paste up an outpost here if it's a pirate hangout, but I might as well finish the job anyway. Make a mission report, too," he slaps her with.... PAPERWORK. "So that Poe gets off his perky orange-fightsuited ass and places you in the fighters."

"Alright, good. Now get out of my chair," Dash says, climbing out of his turret sear and moving to slide back down the ladder and into the body of the ship. He makes his way into the cockpit and runs a hand through his hair, "So, how about that, huh?" His hands rest on his hips and he looks out the viewport. A glance over to Hex and he says, "I should see about getting one of those X-Wings. Think Dameron would notice if his just went missing one morning?"

Therous Caavuna then quickly and promptly follows suit, standing up out of his turret seat, and heading back up the ladder, then slowly walks back into the cockpit, taking his seat once more, quietly surveying the stars out of the viewport.

"You're welcome," Aola says with a small pout, but the pilot slips out of the chair and back into her first seet and then clipping back into her harness. "Those pirates must have been out a little desperate to be out so far. Can't be that much traffic coming through here.

"Probably?" Hex guesses, shrugging as he vacates the copilot seat, probably intending that Aola can occupy it as they play musical chairs. "Poe's pathologically nice though, he'd probably be pretty chill about it. Leia, you know... likely a lot less chill. Probably a lot less nice about it. You'd have to practice your dancing, man. How are my scans? Are you gathering copious amounts of data for me to pretend to be interested in, later? Soon as that runs, we can head back to D'Qar." Aola's small pout sparks a broad grin, "It's how he says thank you. But if you want, I'll write you a poem of gratitude." He ponders a moment, then, "Aola Ziveri flew our ship, quick and fast and true; she's sound of mind and pure of heart with skin that's hella blue. She flew so brave and flew so fine, there were not any hitches, allowing Dash to frame the shot and shoot the little bitches."

Dash Rendar moves to retake his seat, hands moving to pulls the harness back over torso. He pushes forward on the throttle a little bit and manuevers the ship closer to the celestial body in question. A few inputs on the console and the scanners begin their work. He looks over his shoulder at Hex's verse and he says, "Y'know, I almost regretted not hearing your poems about T'ssolok. Now...not so much."

"Leebo, how are we lookin'?" he asks across the ship's closed channel.

"Operating nominally," the droid responds, "Though, I noticed we didn't do quite so many spins as I'm accustomed. Was there actually a trained pilot fly-"

"Oh noo, the comms failed," Dash says, a handful of wires in his hand that he definitely didn't just pull out of the console.

Therous Caavuna can only help but chuckle at hex's remark, placing his face in his hands to avoid laughing any harder out of imbarrissment as he then looks up once he has gained a fair composure, as he remains quiet still, watching the others.

"I'll...stick with just the chance to fly the ship, thanks." She says with a blink at Hex before she leans back in her chair, one hand unconciously brushing her lekku while she waits for the ride to come to an end now that she's finished her part in it. Leebo's comment however makes her laugh a little, a soft chuckle passing her lips.

"Come on! Hitches? Bitches? I'm genius!" Hex defends his poetry. "You guys don't even understand art." He doesn't seem too broken up about it. "Dash, quit breaking your ship and point it back to base. If you find a way to bill the Res for two-fifty worth of busted wires... actually, you should do that, they'd totally pay for it."

Dash Rendar sets the handful of wires down on top of his console and says, "Yeah, yeah. We're goin." The scanner beeps in completion and Dash turns the Outrider around, pointing it back towards the deep nothing. The nav-computer chirps as it finalizes the jump vectors and Dash pulls back the levers, sending the ship rocketing back into Hyperspace, "Y'know, I think that went pretty well." A look over to Aola and he says, "You did good."