Across the Universe

[Vollen Shai]

Theme​

The Deep Core was awash with problems as the galaxy seemed to drift further and further into war.

On the planet of Vulpter, a new carrier has been ordered to bolster the planets own defense fleet, words of the Republic and Cartel war having filtered down to the Deep Core and prompting thoughts of such violence reaching their doorstep. While constructed, the frigate must make the final journey to the orbit of Vulpter, where it will join the rest of the fleet. But the space surrounding Vulpter is known for being anything but safe. Asteroids, pirates, and any number of dangers awaited pilots often. And so, assisting in its escort are two members of the Jedi Order, Lucian Volante and Master Telunaris, added protection as the ship passes through the void,

"...Nothing on scanners for now, but never say never is all I can promise. Look after yourselves out there, hopefully this is all nothing more than a blue milk run" came the voice of Vollen Shai, through the Jedi's holo-communicators. He'd flown with the Jedi to the meeting point, but sadly couldn't stay any longer, his business taking him elsewhere even now,

"May the Force with you, though I hope you won't need it"

@Korvo @Nefieslab

 

[Lucian Volante]

"So... You're Deucalian right?"

Probably not the best thing to start a new line of conversation with but Lucian was bored and curious as hell right now. He had never had the opportunity to really work with a Deucalian and working with one now made him rather curious about the race and their society.

Both he and his partner were say in the cockpit of their fighters inside the hanger bay of the capital ship. They were it's escort but they couldn't jump to hyperspace themselves so they were hitching a ride until they were needed.

Sometimes technology sucked.

But it meant that they needed to be ready to launch at a moment's notice. Hence why he was ready in his flight suit in the hanger.

And why Lucian was bored enough to ask without any shame.

"Is it true that you grow up alongside large wolves?"

@Korvo

 

[Telunaris]

Now this_was a ship. It was true that the Outer Rim Territories held more variety and diversity in the unknown and wonders to be found, but they seldom could display the sheer wealth that could be found in the Core Worlds. That was the kind of ship his own people would have given almost anything for. After all, Deucalians were raiders by nature. While attacks on foot were more... iconic of them, it was much more common for raids to happen from ships. In fact, many Deucalians spent the majority of their time on_ships, rather than planetside.

To see a ship that beautifully made, even if just briefly from the outside as he was largely restricted to admiring the carrier's hanger from the cockpit of a Chevalier-class Starfighter. Truth be told, Telunaris actually wanted to stay onboard_the ship, but it was more practical to protect it externally, if the time came.

"That's what they tell me, at least", Telunaris remarked amusedly toward his wingmate.

Lucian Volante; Telunaris hadn't heard the name before, nor did he recognize him as being partisan to any particular culture. Telunaris had tended to be more of a lone wolf himself, and didn't know many other Jedi. At least, not as much as he would have liked. Added too, a number of those he did_know fell in battle, thinning an already thin list further. Perhaps it was a subconscious measure, something to help him avoid attachment in times of war, but it wasn't necessarily a welcome one on his part.

"Grow up with them, eat with them, hunt with them", Telunaris said, turning his head toward Lucian with a slight smile. "Might even know a man that dances_with wolves."

Activity in the hanger began to wane, likely an indication that more personnel were at their stations, ready for departure. There was a level of tension in the air, not palatable as with those going into battle, but he could sense the unease of the many. One could say that collectively, they had a bad feeling about this.

"I do know your name, but not much beyond that. So, where are you from? A native of the Core Worlds? Outer Rim? Somewhere inbetween?"

@Nefieslab

 

[Lucian Volante]

Amused by the conversation, Lucian leaned back in the seat of his cockpit as he waited for the inevitable call to action. There wouldn't be any point bringing them in if this was just going to be the Galaxy's most boring shakedown run. They were here because they knew that something was likely to go wrong.

He smirked a little bit.

"Well - they would know, right?" he joked as he looked up at the ceiling of the hanger with a little chuckle before raising an eyebrow, "All of that sounded like a great idea - right up until that last part."

Looking at Telunaris, he smirked,

"Take it the right way Master but that man sounds like he's more than a little bit mad."

Asking about him now? Well considering he had spoken to Telunaris about his own culture, he supposed it made sense. Turnabout being fair play and all that.

"Chandrila native." he admitted with a small smile, "Military background - I was training to be a naval officer before I discovered I had the Force."

As he was speaking, the alarms started to sound. Rolling his eyes a little bit, he made sure that he was strapped in before closing up the cockpit and beginning the short taxi run up to the actual takeoff point. Blasting into the void, Lucian quickly took stock of the enemy,

"We've got two light freighters - they look well maintained." he reported to Telunaris, "On you mark, Master."

@Korvo

 

[Telunaris]

"Haven't you heard that old expression? Madness is just brilliance by another name", Telunaris said, joking back toward Lucian. There were more than a few Jedi that were prone to being dour and overly serious. In fact, Telunaris himself had been similar enough during his knighthood, and was even worse as a Padawan. Perhaps it was the era of war that shaped people to be what they were, but it always seemed like there wasn't quite enough of the lighter-hearted Jedi among the Jedi's ranks. This was a pleasant change.

To hear that Lucian came from Chandrila reminded Telunaris of just how many people in the galaxy all seem to come from one place. The Core Worlds was the smallest region of the galaxy, but it always seemed like half of the people in the whole galaxy came from one of those worlds. Even now, it was hard for Telunaris to imagine worlds so densely populated and industrialized that the population reached the tens or hundreds of trillions. That was just too absurd to think about.

Telunaris nodding his head passively as Lucian continued on, remarking about his naval military background. It was Telunaris's initial response to say that he could relate, but raiding usually wasn't quite_what others would've had in mind. Deucalians were more 'warriors' than 'soldiers', and tended to have more in common with specific cultures, like as the Mandalorians or Echani, than actual militaries. Before Lucian could finish his story, however, the alarms blared.

"And of course, an enemy comes. Because for this to go without incident would just be too easy", Telunaris said sarcastically. Strapping himself into his cockpit and fitting his helmet over his head, Telunaris shot out of the hangar in short order, owing to the fact that they'd been on standby all the while to begin with.

"Roger that, hostiles detected and identified. We're going in, adjust deflector shields to double-front", Telunaris said, mitigating shield power from the fighter's rear deflectors and to the foreward bow. They couldn't rightly predict the strength of the two freighter's firepower, or if they'd be accurate enough to target incerceptors, but it generally made sense to boost defensive strength during the closing stage. "Wotan's Weave; let's take an evasive approach with maximize sublight thrust. If they want to hit us, let's make them work for it."

Telunaris was used to piloting in attack crafts, albeit for a much different purpose than now, but opening with an Interceptor Slash_was always the favored tactic back in the day. Hit hard, hit fast, never let them get a bead on you. In dogfighting, this was akin to a cavalry charge and left one vulnerable in the immediate aftermath of an attack. Luckily for them, their opponents were slow-moving freighters.

A flashing indicator lit up on Telunaris's console as a fast and high-pitched alert sounded off, and the Deucalian Jedi gripped his controls and tightened his fingers around the triggers. "We're in range, light em up!"

Immediately, Telunaris began firing his laser cannons on one of the freighters, the one approaching on the leftmost side compared to the other, maintaining his sublight engine speed. He would end up flying past the freighters fairly quickly, but then that was also the point; a small, moving target that quickly would move out of range. Keeping himself ready for intensified evasive action and assuming his attack run was successful, Telunaris would fly beyond both freighters, ideally before he himself could be targeted accurately.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lucian Volante]

Yeah no, he had never heard anyone using that expression and if he did? Well he would naturally assume that they were rather insane since it seemed to be a ready-made excuse for people to indulge in insanity for the sake of insanity and then calling it genius... which was a bit strange to him.

And yes, indeed, the mission going without any problems would have beggared belief wouldn't it?

"You mean, too boring right?"

Well this was a first - someone who actually knew something about space combat! Laughing happily, Lucian pushed his craft into the attack, twirling in the stars with a grin on his fast.

"Let's bring them down!"

Blasting at one of the freighters, Lucian grinned as his blaster fire caused small explosions along the side of it as he scored some solid hits against it's armour before twirling off, avoiding every shot sent his way by means of a counter attack.

Someone you just got lucky on your attack runs!

@Korvo

 

[Telunaris]

Fjandinn!

Telunaris had been gone from space too long. Overshooting his target, only minimal fire hit the freighter he was targeting. Making matters worse, he was partially intercepted by oncoming fire from one of the freighters, albeit managing to avoid half the barrage. It wasn't the best situation, but it the battle was far from over. As Telunaris flew past the leftmost freighter, he immediately began his follow-up maneuver, performing a Gandder's Spin, momentarily cutting power from his primary engines to engage his forward port and rear starboard side thrusters in order to rapidly spin his starfighter about a full 180-degrees.

Lining himself up to engage once more, Telunaris re-engaged his engined flew his ship downard. Moving to strike the freighter from below, Telunaris briefly fired his rear and forward starboard thrusters and barrel-rolled his ship, spinning forward while simultaneously taking action to avoid potential oncoming fire. Luckily, the majority of Telunaris's fire hit the mark, although he again was struck in part by enemy fire.

If this was going to be a battle of attrition, Telunaris had to make sure his future attacks would be more decisive.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lucian Volante]

Alright so the first run had been somewhat successful but he knew well enough that sometimes luck just wasn't enough to work out very well. Grimacing a little bit as he saw the level of damage the Jedi Master was accomplishing on his own, he connected to the other Jedi via the comlinks,

"Master - shift focus onto the same freighter as me in the next attack run." he suggested with a grin, "We can try a Drexl's Maw!"

A Drexl's Maw being where one ship attached from above and the other from below. But that was for their next attack run - they were already locked in for this attack run. He strafed along the ship again, blasting deep into it's armour and causing it to begin to lose mobility now.

"Mother...! Alright so their aim is improving..." he muttered to himself upon taking a few glancing blows as he moved to climb up above, "I'll be the top jaw, you be the bottom!"

@Korvo

 

[Telunaris]

"Good call, diverting target now!"

It'd taste a lie if Telunaris said aloud that he was glad to switch targets. This_freighter was tenacious, but it had gotten to the point where it was just annoying. Besides, with what Telunaris had in mind, perhaps their circumstances would soon change. After all, as the expression went, fortune favored the bold.

It was time to see if there was any real truth to it.

"Combine arms, launch a torpedo with your attack, we might be able to overwhelm them in one go! Your call, but trust your instincts!"

Torpedoes were a precious commodity with starfighters, especially interceptors. The Chevalier-class starfighters only had a payload of two in the first place; they could not afford to be wasteful with them, but this was worth it. His own_instincts were at work now.

As the enemy fire came, Telunaris found his proverbial footing at long last. As the enemy attack came, it was as if the controls moved as his thoughts came to him, weaving about the hostile laserfire. Spiraling his ship toward the vessel from beneath, Telunaris fired a flurry of laserfire while launching a single proton torpedo at the freighter's underbelly before breaking away. The light from the explosion polarized the glass as the torpedo hit, even as Telunaris flew round about to ready himself for a follow-up attack. They'd neglected one of the freighters now, and it was urgent that it didn't reach the new carrier.

 

[Lucian Volante]

Many hands made light the work!

They both attacked the same freighter and between the two of them? It was destroyed in their combined attack, the ship exploding before breaking apart into smaller pieces that they avoided as they flew. He grinned a little bit as they flew through the stars, revelling in their victory, if not the deaths they had caused.

Still, they were not done.

Lucian's ship shook as it was scraped by yet more fire and he was beginning to feel the weight of these attacks beginning to pile up on his little ship.

"Gods be good..." he muttered before contacting Telunaris on the coms, "We need to hit the other ship before it can reach our target. You hit right, I'll hit left?"

@Korvo

 

[Telunaris]

As the ship exploded, the sheer amount of fiery light made Telunaris wince, even through the polarized transparisteel. A brilliant display, even if holding a level of tragedy in what it represented. It was never worth celebrating death by necessity, but a necessity, it indeed was.

"Lucien! You alright?", Telunaris hastily yelled over the com system. He'd taken more than his own fair share of laser cannon fire himself, but Lucian's starfighter appeared even more rattled than his own. And Telunaris had seen enough allies die around him; he didn't care to see it again, or to be_the casualty.

"Sounds like a plan! Let's see it done", Telunaris affirmed, speeding his interceptor for the attack run.

With the distance between him and the second freighter, Telunaris was able to easily maneuver in such a way to avoid the oncoming blasterfire from the enemy's laser cannons, although his own attacks were beyond effective range. Although his attacks landed as Telunaris released a volley of laserfire toward the freighter's starboard side, its intensity dissipated and became only partially effective against the enemy craft. He had to get closer. Even as a closed proximity made the situation more dangerous, he had a duty to fulfill, and he would..

 

[Lucian Volante]

Checking over the instruments, Lucian tutted in annoyance at one of the lights. It was beeping at him as well and it was bright red. Most holovids would assume that this was important but Lucian knew well enough that the alarm and the flashing red light were not important.

Why?

Because it was the alert to tell him that the fuel cap wasn't properly closed.

"I'm fine - holding steady, don't you worry about me." he assured Telunaris across the comes and he finally had enough and just smashed the light to make it stop blinking at him, "Though I wouldn't mind if they were a little bit more even in their return fire!"

Indeed, Lucian took another two glancing shots while on his attack run but Telunaris had none. What Lucian did manage to do better than the Jedi Master though, was in scoring a half a dozen hits with his laser canons that had the ship beginning to list.

"One more round?"

@Korvo

 

[Telunaris]

Telunaris wasn't blind, he could see that Lucien's craft was still whole and functioning, but there was something about a verbal confirmation that just put the mind at ease in a way sight simply didn't. Or perhaps couldn't?

"Bróðir, these fighters aren't cheap. We bring them back broken, I'm_the one the Council's going to be scowling at", Telunaris said humorously. Still, Lucien's observance was correct, he had been taking a lot of enemy fire.

"The freighter's ahead of us now, the stern's exposed. If I hit their engines, we might be able to hit them where they're vulnerable and_slow them down."

Accelerating forward, Telunaris flew his ship in a spiral once again, putting forth additional effort to let the Force guide the way he instinctively handled his controls as he maintained the tactic of actively making any lock-on toward his craft as strenuous as he could make it. Even before he came into effective range, Telunaris unleashed a barrage of laser cannon fire toward the freighter's exposed engines, evading part of the enemy fire coming his way.

It only made sense that the enemy would be aware of their vulnerability, but this also served the purpose of hopefully diverting fire that would potentially be directed toward Lucien and give him an opening. If they hit hard enough and fast enough, they could end this battle with this final attack run.

 

[Lucian Volante]

Lucian just smirked a little bit at the humour - he did enjoy having a little bit of camaraderie between himself and those he went on missions with. Without it, he found that the missions tended to get dreadfully dull incredibly quickly. He readied himself for the attack run but one thing that Telunaris had said stood out to him.

"Also, what does Brodir mean?" he asked with a chuckle, "I ask because I really hope you haven't just called me a dirty name in Deucalian or something..."

Alright, he could... get behind... that.

Even puns in the comfort and privacy of his own mind brought him some measure of shame to have been thought of it had to be said. Sighing a little bit, Lucian gritted his teeth as his ship shook, more violently this time, as more sporadic laser fire came for him, striking along his ship.

Thankfully, it didn't matter.

Lucian stayed the course, knuckling down and ignoring the way his ship reacted, firing a concentrated burst of fire at the rear of the enemy ship, hitting it's fuel after Telunaris' shots had loosened it. The freighter exploded and the carrier was safe from harm... Lucian relaxed a little bit.

"We need to bring bigger ships to our missions." he muttered with a sigh, "You know what I would really have enjoyed using here? A corvette."

@Korvo

 

[Telunaris]

Telunaris was almost mesmerized during the final attack run, but he did hear Lucien's passing query. It really shouldn't have been the case, but the first thing he could not help but notice was Lucien's attempt at the proper pronunciation of the word, saying 'Bróðir' as 'Brodir'.

"Sorry. Never heard the word before", the Deucalian pilot said with a smirk as he finally caught sight of the enemy freighter igniting and detonating.

"I don't know what they teach you on Chandrila, but you never_take a corvette over a superiority class fighter. Speed and maneuverability always take it when you're at 'knife-fighting' ranges", Telunaris remarked, setting his course back to the carrier. Their job was done, and although it was regrettable that it came to blows, the carrier was safe and unscathed. "But I suppose you could always ask the Council. I know Master Corliss would be thrilled to hear all about it."

/endthread