Kal turned quickly at the voice. His face brightened slightly at the words, but then his eyes went wide at some of what she said. He got caught awkwardly raising his hand to salute when her hand was put out to shake. He hesitated halfway up and then instead shook the offered hand.

"Kalidyn Sunrider." He gave a nod after that. "Yes, ma'am." He gestured around. "First time on a ship this big." He restrained a frown as he kicked himself. Ugh! That was a dumb thing to say!

"Well, they don't make 'em much bigger than this. Except for the First Order perhaps. Must be compensating for something when they keep trying to make these huge space stations..."

She motioned for you to follow her through the hangar "The person assigned to be your sponsor is out on leave for now, so you get to deal with your crochety Wing Commander. I'll show you over to our ships."

She hollared as she walked to be heard from the noise, keeping her eyes in front as you walked behind. "I'm sure you've got questions, so don't be afraid to lay em on me."

Kal gave a nod at her words. He smiled a bit at her jab towards the First Order. He didn't know if it was true, but bigger wasn't always better he knew. Plenty of military history showed that.

He frowned a bit about his 'sponsor' being out on leave. That was...interesting. Possibly it didn't mean anything. On the other hand, the timing of it could be...important. He filed that away mentally for later.

He thought about saying something about old meaning experienced and a survivor, but he didn't want to seem like he was kissing up. So instead he just said, "I'm sure it works in my favor."

Then he asked, "If I may, do we have a current mission? And what are we....well, what will I be flying, ship-wise?"

"That's where we're headed. Hope you're ready to make a good first impression, as you're about to meet your first and only love..." She looked back and smiled as she spoke, not answering about the mission.



"Well, here she is"

Kal had a small spring in his step. He was excited. He didn't know what to expect but so long as it was a good ship, and preferably a bit fast, he would be fine with it. Honestly, as long as it wasn't some slow junk freighter, he'd probably be great.

He noted that she was being closemouthed about the mission as of yet, which made him a little nervous.

He stopped when he saw the ship, eyebrows shooting upwards. A smile tugged at his lips. "Yeah? Okay! I can definitely handle that!"

"I hope so. We don't have the luxury of trainers anymore, so you'll have to learn on the job. You have a good squadron around you, we'll do what we can to support one another. And, you already have a partner in crime..."

As she said it, around the corner of the ship, came a small, peculiar Astro-Droid

"This is DD-3, your co-pilot"

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d3/5...c21e2acea10e65cf.jpg" data-lightbox="images-msg-11">https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d3/5...c21e2acea10e65cf.jpg" alt=''>
This message was last edited by the player at 19:00, Sat 20 Feb 2021.

Kal nodded at the ship and then flashed a quick smile at Marghan, "No worries. I won't let you down. It's not my first time flying, so hopefully I'll be alright. And I try to learn fast normally." He nodded again. "Good. About the squadron. It will be nice to have support."

He turned and looked at the droid. Then he knelt down in front of it, smiling in a wide and friendly fashion. "Well, hello there, DD-3. I'm Kalidyn Sunrider, but you can call me Kal. It's nice to meet you!"

The droids ocular sensor twitched for a few seconds, looking you over, the droid remaining very still. DD-3 Than made a very loud series of beeps before scurring away

[Language unknown: "Fofor!"]

"Sorry about that. It's not you, I promise. Little guy was very attached to its last pilot, got through a lot together. It's trying to work through it's grief, I think, but it doesn't even really understand what that is."

Kal blinked a few times in surprise at the droid's response. He certainly was a bit taken aback, not having expected rejection from a droid like that upon being introduced. He set back on his heels and slowly tore his eyes away from the retreating droid.

He stood once more and turned back to Marghan. "Uh. Okay. I can respect that. So, less a partner in crime, and more an unwilling accomplice." He pursed his lips. "Grief. Okay." He gave a nod. "Well. So long as they agree to work with me...otherwise...I'll have to do without if there's not another droid."

His eyes narrowed. "Ah. Wait. Was the previous pilot of THIS ship the one the droid lost?"

"He was." She nodded as she tapped the hull of the ship "Don't worry though, he didn't die in the ship or anything like that. The previous pilot went missing. He was on a mission to find something, and never came back. We had to go there with a spare pilot and bring this back. DD-3 insists that Mark, the previous pilot, is still out there. Maybe the little guy is right, but hope is a scant resource nowadays. We have to focus on the battles we can win."

"Don't you worry though, when the mission starts, there's no more dedicated droid than him."

Kal's eyebrows rose up as Marghan spoke of the previous pilot and what happened. Or, at least, what little they seemed to know. Unless they were holding back information, but why would they for him, some recruit?

He looked after the vanished droid thoughtfully. Part of him wanted to see about helping the droid, helping the missing pilot to be found...or at least, find out what happened to them. But how would he without disobeying orders? When they let him fly, it was unlikely they would let him fly off to find Mark.

"Was a search-and-recovery mission sent out after 'Mark'?

"Not as extensive as I would have liked, but yes, we looked. When the Admiral says we're leaving, that's the end of it. We're surviving and winning this fight by moving too fast for the enemy to react or predict. Hit them where they're weak and don't give them a chance to hit back. That's the strategy, for now. Until we can get some more ships like this out in the field, that's how we have to fight, and our Squadron is a big part of that. We're looking for those vulnerabilities to exploit, and maybe even create them if we get the chance."

Kal nodded slowly as he listened. He waited for her to finish, absorbing what she had to say. After a small, quiet moment, he spoke once more. "I see. you can only control what you have control over." He looked down. "It's never fun to lose someone, especially if you don't know what happened to them. I'm sorry."

He took in a deep breath and looked over at the ship once more. "Got it." He looked back at her. "So do we have a mission right now, or are we moving somewhere to get to a mission? Do I have time to get familiar with the ship before getting sent out?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 17:51, Sat 03 Apr 2021.

"There's no time like the present." As she motioned towards the ladder up to the cockpit "Any time you spend knowing the ship before we get moving will pay dividends. They don't have the firepower of the X-wings, but you'll be able to dance around the First Order if you can pilot it right."

Kal gave a small smile and then nodded, clearly excited at the prospect of checking the ship out, but also of piloting again. He hesitated when she gestured, waiting for her to finish talking first. He replied, "Understood."

He then quickly headed to the ladder on the side of the ship and had to restrain himself, slowing his steps. They weren't in a combat situation or anything when there was need to go up quickly, and falling and hurting himself would be stupid. He climbed in to the cockpit and started looking over the controls to familiarize himself with the unfamiliar craft.

As you become familiar with the systems and the layouts, the ships engine starts on its own. Looking over everything, you see that DD-3 has entered into the ship through its port and has begun going off on its own plan.

That plan seems to involve plotting a Hyperspace Route...

Kal frowned lightly as things started happening, things he wasn't doing. He looked this way and then that way. Finally, he got it - it wasn't him at all. He called out to the droid, "Hey...DD-3...whatcha doin'?"

He asked that, but he had a pretty good idea what the droid was up to - wanting to look for his missing former pilot. Meanwhile, he began to try and shut down the hyperdrive and the ship itself, trying to override what the droid was doing.

He also tried to com anyone as well outside the ship, "Hey, can anyone hear me? I think DD-3 is trying to take me for a ride." He tried to keep his voice calm for the moment - and tried to STAY calm for the moment also.

Members of the ships crew came hustling over to the small fighter, although there was nothing that they could do about it.

A warning sound echoed through the hangar of the ship, followed by a voice through the 1MC.

"All hands, prepare for hyperspace. Repeat, All hands, prepare for hyperspace."

The engines and systems of the ship quickly powered down. You even hear a thud outside the ship as DD-3 departs the ship. He left a curious thing on your monitor before he left. Details over a planet, one whose name didn't immediately jump as being important or remarkable.

Tython.

Kal immediately felt a little bad for nearly panicking and for calling out the droid. But he didn't know DD-3, and wasn't sure if they had been about to jump to hyperspace on the droid's mission to find his old pilot. Or not.

He hesitated a moment and looked over the information on the planet that had been left behind, frowning slightly in thought. Tython. Was that where the previous pilot had gone missing? Or was it something else?

He finally climbed out of the ship and started looking around for the droid and asking around to see if anyone had seen where DD-3 had gone.

DD-3 had actually not gone far at all. No further than the aft of the ship he was trying to take off. The rest of the crew who had approached for a possible emergency dissipated as quickly as they had arrived; if they were going somewhere, there had to be a reason, and whatever mission they were about to go on required preparations.

Kal wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing on the huge ship about to go to hyperspace. Usually he'd been on freighters, where he was the pilot and he was to be at his station, or he was on a single-crew ship like the one he'd just gotten out of - and they usually didn't have the capability to jump to hyperspace.

He turned when he saw DD-3, though, and walked slowly over there. He looked around to make sure no one was too close and then knelt down in front of the droid. He spoke in a very quiet voice, not quite leaning in towards the droid. "Hey. I saw the planet you put there." He glanced around again, but was trying to look a bit casual. "Is that where your pilot went missing? Near there? On there?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:18, Sun 14 Mar 2021.

The droid looked around with it's ocular sense before answering the question.

[Language unknown: "Er. Sa oul lopr thpl elacil ce resaintio u k. No outas ekhe li le dinalltic p m esdiee le a tedbe evllth. Ietrurdi wer erileimo."]

Kal listened to the droid and frowned lightly. He looked down for a moment, his lips pursed as he thought about things. After a long moment he spoke quietly again. "But you don't know what he was looking for? Or why he wanted to go there other than...'searching for...something'?"

He let out a small sigh. "And you want to go there to try and...pick his mission?" He looked at the droid again. "Was this an official mission, or do you know where he got his information?"

"He said I wouldn't understand because I'm a droid. Something about an energy field. He said it could change the outcome of the war."

Kal muttered, mostly to himself, "that's kinda rude." His lips twisted in to a frown. "a droid might understand a lot."

He shook his head. He needed to focus on the present. He drew in a deep breath. "Alright. Anyway. So. I'm new here and doing what would amount to stealing a ship I've just been authorized to fly might not go well. I mean...this ship we're on has tractor beams, right?"

Why was he even thinking about this, talking about this? He waved a hand. "Never mind. Look. Let's take this slow. Maybe we can do some research about the planet, try to figure out what the...energy field?...he was talking about are. Don't want to go off half-cocked and disappear too, right?"