fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars [OPEN]

[sonofalderaan.livejournal.com]

Tycho was glad the squadron had so many new recruits, and he certainly didn't mind the sizable increase in his work-load that went along with it. After all, that's what his job as squadron XO was; making sure everything was organized. Still though, when it came down to it, Tycho was a pilot. He felt far more comfortable in the cockpit of a fighter than he did anywhere else.

Today, today he could use the distraction of some demanding piloting. Today, he wanted to go fast.

The sensoriums resolved themselves into the familiar hanger bay of the Mon Cal star cruiser Home One. The atmosphere was tense, buzzing with the familiar adrenaline high of before a major battle. With a grin, Tycho hoisted himself into the cockpit of his temporary ship, an A-Wing. Expertly, his fingers flicked over the controls, even as he logged into his squadron's com channel. "Green three has four lit and ready when you are," he informed Green Leader. Then they were off, forming up in a screen with the other fighters, ready to make the short jump to Endor.

Back in realspace, the fighter screen streamed towards the half finished Death Star, until there was Lando's voice on the coms, barking at them to pull back. It was a trap, the Death Star's shields were still up- even knowing it was coming, Tycho's stomach still clenched. But now, now here's where the fun part came in. He allowed himself a small smile as his craft turned to engage the oncoming wave of TIE-fighters. His A-Wing danced, his A-Wing soared, and TIE after TIE met their ends.

Tycho was a different pilot than he had been at the actual Battle of Endor 9 years earlier. He was older, more experienced. Still, he got the same joy out of flying that he always had, that same feeling of this is what I was meant to do.


[OOC: if anyone wants to come in and observe the battle, or hop in another fighter and join in, that's cool! Tycho's mostly just vapin some Imps to blow off steam. If you're not familiar with the Battle of Endor (the fight against the second Death Star) the video is here]

Comments

[on-an-impulse.livejournal.com]

Following the holier-than-thou XO led Shinn to the Sensoriums once again. This time, though, the room was already in use as an unfamiliar hangar, reeking of lubricants and some sort of fuel, and ringing with alarm klaxons and barked orders. Outside – there wasn’t even an air-lock, just a faintly shimmering window to the stars – he could see strangely shaped ships swarming around a nearby moon, exchanging a colorful web of plasma fire.

There was a ship in front of him, a tiny fighter that looked like it was all engines. A split second later, he recognized it as an A-Wing. Looked like the XO was gunning to relive his glory days. Whatever. Shinn wouldn’t let that idiot’s joyride stop him from testing one of these speedsters. He scrambled up the ladder and into the cockpit, noticing with a grimace that his red and white normal suit had been swapped out for something eye-searingly orange. He half-listened to the instructions coming over the comm systems, matching the controls before him to the ones he’d seen on the omnicomm’s specs. Compared to a mobile suit, the weapons were fairly limited – but they made up for it by being exponentially more powerful. It wasn’t a terrible trade-off. He launched when they told him to launch, flew when they told him to fly, and – what, wanted them to fall back? What kind of simulation broke off in the middle of an attack run?

His friend-or-foe system was a wave of red as he pulled away, and the comm system erupted with chatter . It looked like this was where the simulation got interesting. He targeted one of the nearest enemy blips and fired at the wing-like part to one side – damn! He hit his mark, but the compact little fighter just veered off course. He fired again, clipping its other wing after a few stray shots, but it still didn’t blow. Where was this thing’s weak spot? He fired dead in the center, hoping to at least take out the cockpit, and a salvo later was rewarded with a gratifying fireball, which his hurtling fighter had to swerve awkwardly to avoid. Halfway through the maneuver, a high-pitched alarm went off behind him, and the display lit up with a warning that an enemy fighter had locked on to him. Ignoring the imperative how did the ship know, anyway?, he pulled up hard to face off his opponent, and realized a heartbeat later that he couldn’t whip around instantly. The enemy fighter followed reverse-turn easily, still locked on.

So shaking the thing wouldn’t work. He embarked on an erratic, evasive course to buy some time, jinking and juking wildly to avoid the constant streams of hostile fire. If he could get to an enemy capital ship, he might be able to pull something off, but – dammit! Running away from an enemy was the worst!

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

There's a sudden flash of bright red laser fire past Shinn's fighter and an X-wing in Rogue Squadron markings came blazing down from overhead to incinerate the enemy fighter in a sudden attack. The fighter rolled over to one side and then popped up onto the A-wing's wing with a waggle of its wings. Wedge's voice crackled over the comms, a bit distorted by battlefield interference.

"Doing alright, Green Nine?" Wedge turned his head and waved at Shinn from the cockpit, smiling.

"How do you like the A-wing?"

[on-an-impulse.livejournal.com]

"I was doing fine!" he snapped. "I had it under control!" He punched a few angry shots off at one of the enemy ships.

[yubyubcommander.livejournal.com]

"Of course. It's just handy to have some help on hand." Wedge rolled over to sit comfortably on Asuka's wing, managing to keep up with him for now.

"A-wings are fast little ships, but too finicky for me."

[on-an-impulse.livejournal.com]

"Nothing's too fast for me!" Like hell was he going to let this guy tail him for the whole simulation. Shinn pulled back on the throttle and kept after his target fighter, pulling off some sort of shot that sent it veering wildly in a new direction.

[sonofalderaan.livejournal.com]

"They're not finicky, you just don't have a delicate enough touch, Rogue Leader," Tycho's voice crackled over the coms, as he pulled up next to Wedge's X-Wing. "But that's okay, the navy needs people who can fly slow ships as well."

Then Shinn took off, and the sound of Tycho's sigh could be heard. "Don't worry, Rogue one, I got him." Tycho's A-Wing lept forward, pacing Shinn's.

"Green nine, green three. I'm your wing."