Tyger, Tyger, burning bright [OPEN]

[fieldpromoted]

It hadn't taken Trudy very long to find out that aircraft and spacecraft were sometimes recovered with their pilots - and when she found that out, she had immediately gone in search of the hangar. She had her rifle and her dog tags - if she had her Samson, she would have everything she needed out of life.

The pod cavern should have prepared her for how huge the ship was, but when Trudy finally came to the hangar, with its assortment of craft in all shapes and sizes, she was thoroughly impressed with the vastness of her new home. The amount of ships here was staggering, and Trudy wandered through them with a grin plastered to her face. Man, I'd love to get inside some of these babies and see how they handle - or how they work...

A flash of blue and orange caught her eye and she turned, seeing her Samson sitting there. The grin on her face faltered a little as she crossed to it. The painted tiger on the door was stitched with bulled holes, and the copter as a whole was scorched almost black with soot. "Hey baby," she said, running her hand lovingly across the nose. "Looks like you came out of this a lot worse than I did. Pobrecita,"

She opened the door and hoisted herself up into the cockpit. The lever that would have popped the hood produced nothing but a tortured squeal. Apparently the mechanism had been damaged in the explosion. Trudy made a face and began digging through the cockpit for her tools.

Comments

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

Wedge had been attracted from his own craft by the squeal. He wandered towards the Samson, a greasy rag slung over one shoulder. He was rather difficult to miss, though, being dressed as usual in the eye-hurting bright orange of his flight suit. He paused, watching the woman and her craft for a moment before approaching. She looked new.

"Looks like you had a rough time..." He gently touched a hand to the holes in the armor. Kinetic weaponry? Perhaps.

[fieldpromoted]

Trudy looked up, her eyes going straight to he man in the flight suit. Wow, that's... really damn orange. He touched the door and Trudy felt her possessive streak rise, hopping down out of the cockpit with her toolbox in her hand. "That's an understatement," she said. "Bebe shows it better than me, but I'm betting I should be dead." She made her way around to the front of the nose, accidentally passing in between Wedge and the door.

She crawled down underneath the belly of the copter, searching by touch for the seams where the metal should join, the hinge that should make it open for her to check the engine. "Does that eyesore you're wearing make you a pilot?"

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

Wedge took a respectful step back. He knew a protective pilot when he saw one. He just smiled and crouched down, watching her go to work. She seemed capable and non-nonsense. That was good.

"It does, actually. I'm General Wedge Antilles, commanding Rogue Squadron here aboard Stacy." He jerked a thumb back over his shoulder towards the x-wings a short distance off.

"We fly the T-65B X-Wing."

[fieldpromoted]

That was not a model Trudy had heard before, and she gave her Samson a quick pat, reassuring it that it was only professional curiosity that made her poke her head out from under the copter and look in the direction Wedge was pointing.

The sleek lines of the X-wings definitely caught her eye. Trudy had never been a fighter pilot - the SO had needed her for evac and there were always more door gunners than copter pilots on Pandora. But every pilot wants the best and fastest - and she was no exception. She gave a low whistle and crawled out from under the Samson. "Captain Trudy Chacon - is that an atmosphere craft?"

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

"It can be. It's a space superiority snubfighter by design, though. Four laser cannons, two proton torpedo launchers, particle and ray shielding, and hyperdrive. One of the most solid and dependable fighters out there." He had to appreciate the admiring whistle. Plus, letting people know about his ships was fun.

"What about yours?" He wasn't trying to be disparaging. To the contrary, he was genuinely interested in the Samson. He'd never seen anything quite like it.

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

Ben would have known that flight-suit anywhere, courtesy of a lifetime popping in and out of Alliance military facilities. And the man's face... "General Antilles!" he called, then realized that his father's friend, like so many others here, was missing something -- a few years waylaid in the pods, a few wrinkles gone, and, if Ben was guessing right, zero knowledge that Luke Skywalker had a son. He gave it another shot. "Commander Antilles?"

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

"General, actually..." He turned to see who the newcomer was. A young man, maybe about Gavin's age with blond hair who looked vaguely familiar.

"Er, I'm afraid you have the advantage over me when it comes to names."

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"Ben Skywalker," he offered. "You know my dad pretty well."

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

"You're Luke's kid? I didn't even know he had a kid. Stang." He slipped from under his x-wing.

"Good to meet you, though. You just woke up, I take it?"

[escapednothlit.livejournal.com]

< I hope whatever fight this was, you had come out a bit better than your ship, > Elfangor said. He liked exploring the Hangar, just to see what ships were there and had seen her approach this one. Considering what shape it was in, it was perfectly logical to assume it was because she knew the ship type if it wasn't her own.

At least this blue alien wasn't as tall as the ones Trudy was used to?

[fieldpromoted]

The thought-speak made her jolt, smacking her head on the doorway of the cockpit hard enough that it made her teeth click together. "Fuck, ow." She turned to look at the alien, taking in the eye stalks, bladed tail, the hooves... he was so beyond her experience that Trudy couldn't help but stare for a moment.

Then she shook herself out of it. "I'm willing to bet that if Stacy hadn't nabbed me and my baby here, we'd both be in several pieces right about now." She patted the bulkhead. "What kind of alien are you?"

[escapednothlit.livejournal.com]

< Are you all right? > Elfangor asked as she hit her head.

The eye stalks scanned over the ship again. < Very possibly. If the fight wasn't near over, it'd be very lucky to keep this ship together, even for a skilled pilot, > he said. He should know. He'd flown some junkers in crazy situations and he still wasn't sure how he wasn't dead.

< I am an Andalite. My name is Elfangor. >

[fieldpromoted]

"I'm fine, just not used to the whole telepathy thing," Trudy said, hopping down out of the cockpit. Even if he did look pretty threatening, so far he seemed a lot more polite than some of the other aliens she had met today.

She ran her hand over the tiger painted on the door, her fingers lingering on the bullet holes. That had been a near miss regardless of the missiles screaming toward her later. "The odds weren't great in the first place," she said. "We were outmanned and outgunned... practically a suicide mission. Waking up alive and in one piece is a definite improvement. I'm Captain Trudy Chacon - does your species shake hands?" The Na'vi didn't, she knew. Although maybe it was because they would have to bend practically in half to shake hands with a human.

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

He'd spent most of his time exploring the ship just to observe, but here, in the sprawling hangar chamber, he had a more personal goal: to find the Jade Shadow tucked away behind a yacht or gunboat. He passed at least a squadron's worth of X-Wings, the familiar disc of the Millenium Falcon, and ships he didn't recognize at all, even after years of watching the Coruscant skyline.

But the Shadow was nowhere to be seen.

That made sense, he thought, with a passing twinge of bitterness. The Shadow wasn't his ship, after all. Legally, it was his father's, and, even years after her death, the heart and soul of the ship was still his mother's, from the engine to the most insignificant switch on the control board. And if Mara Jade were too young to get along with his father here, there was no way she'd fly anything that had been a gift from her future husband.

So Ben went back to examining some of the unfamiliar craft, taking mental notes on repulsor capabilities and weapons turrets, until he came across one exceptionally tortured-looking hunk of metal. Stang. With all the holes in the exterior, it looked about as space-worthy as a flimsibox. He called to the woman inside, "Is she yours?"

[fieldpromoted]

Trudy had moved on from the access panel and was currently wedged under the control board in the cockpit, soldering loose wires together. At the sound of Ben's voice, she thumped the heel of her boot against the side of the door and said, "Yep, me bebe, every scorched-up inch of her."

She squeezed out from under the panel and sat up, looking down at the kid and running her fingers through her hair. "Aren't you a little young to get nabbed as a savior of universes?"

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

Ben rolled his eyes. He'd already heard enough of that to last a lifetime -- or, at least, until he hit whatever the arbitrary age for hero status was. "Maybe you're a little old," he retorted.

[fieldpromoted]

"Hey, watch who you're calling old, runt," Trudy said. "And watch how you talk to your elders. I swear if I was your mama I'd whoop your ass for that."

She grinned a little - only a little. She was joking, but not much. Wiseass kids were not her favorite thing to deal with.

[sly-knife.livejournal.com]

After the rather humiliating experience on the observation deck, Sly Knife had left to think and explore the ship. Even if he was going to be stuck here with a bunch of Oomans and not allowed to hunt any of them he was at least going to explore this new territory thoroughly. It wouldn't hurt to know where the best bolt-holes and observation points were, after all. After a time, he found himself in a massive hangar - bigger even then some of the Yautja mother ships he'd been on. Helmet still firmly affixed over his face and head, he trod across the plating. He wasn't sneaking about cloaked anymore - he needed to conserve the energy for now. The Oomans already knew he was aboard anyway.

Which didn't mean he was going to let them have his technology of course. He'd die before he let any Yautja technology fall into their hands. For now, he would live, if only to avenge the supposed lose of his species and to eke what honor he could from hunting these Ohm. They would be a larger challenge than even the Hard Shells.

He paused, catching sight of the female he'd encountered earlier. She was working on one of the Ooman's primitive flying craft. He altered course. Maybe he could just watch. See if she still had mettle.

[fieldpromoted]

Trudy didn't have heightened senses, or psychic abilities, or any kind of sixth sense intuition. So while she was busy with the control panel open, a soldering iron in one hand and the screwdriver in her teeth, she didn't notice Sly Knife coming.

She did, however, have her combat rifle sitting next to her on her pilot's chair. She wasn't used to this place yet and she wasn't about to let it out of her sight.

The connectors on this multipin were loose. Trudy growled something unintelligible around her screwdriver and put the soldering iron away for the moment, pulling the connector into her lap and taking the screwdriver to it with frustrated force. "Tell you what, bebe, I thought you were built to hold together better than this. One lousy rocket and all your circuitry is caca." A grunt of effort, and the cover came off the connector, exposing its wiring. "I ever get you running again and I'm going to have to see about taking care of that, eh?"

[sly-knife.livejournal.com]

Sly Knife hovered, watching her curiously. He'd observed Oomans before of course. He still didn't understand their penchant for talking to their machines - they couldn't talk back, after all. Then again, he knew he had a very deep and personal connection to his own gear. The helmet he wore now he'd worn on his first hunt. It was battered, but it had survived, been upgraded - along with his trophies. At least most of them had come along. Some of the larger ones he hadn't seen yet.

He clicked curiously and stuck his head into the cargo area of the 'chopper, giving it a look. Some nasty human weaponry had hit this thing. He knew that much. He'd had some of that same weaponry pointed at him before and had one or two scars to prove it.

[fieldpromoted]

Clicking was not a sound that Trudy generally associated with her chopper. She set the circuitry and the tools aside and nudged the cockpit door open a little further-

The rifle was pointing at Sly Knife now. "Alright dreadlocks, you better say 'I come in peace' real fast." She considered for a second. "I'd even settle for 'I'm not hunting you right now.'"

[sonofalderaan.livejournal.com]

"And here's where the X-Wings are-" Tycho was saying to Kyle as the other man followed along beside him. "Now Wedge should be around here somewhere ..."

[mercjedi.livejournal.com]

"I can't imagine how happy Wedge was to find these here." It was nice to see the familiar lines of the fighters. A little piece of home. The last of their kind. "They actually look in pretty good shape. Been able to take them up yet?"

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

Wedge glanced up at the sound of familiar faces and waved at the two men from where he half-perched, half-sat on the ladder next to his x-wing, apparently going over x-wing basics with Trudy, who sat in the cockpit.

"Tycho! Kyle! Good to see you. I'd like you to meet Captain Chacon. She's our latest volunteer."

[fieldpromoted]

Trudy hoisted herself up to sit on the edge of the cockpit, leaning over to offer a wave. "Can't sit around the ship and do nothing, my head would explode from sheer boredom."

She looked over the newcomers with interest. They clearly new the General, which probably meant they were from his universe.