Tue May 24, 2011 8:44 pm by Templus Cro
*Jedi Knight Roethe Dor entered the busy hangar of the Jedi Temple from a side door and readjusted the pack on his back before taking to a jog. He noted his Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor waiting for him, with its gray paint accented with orange. The built-in astromech swiveled in response to the tip-tapping of his boots on the durasteel hangar floor, and it tweedled a brief hello. Roethe and his droid had known each other well enough. Having some mechanical prowess above the average Knight, Jedi Dor was allowed his own personal maintenance to his ship, and had elected to let his droid develop a personality rather than routine memory wipes. He called the unit Tarheel.
"Good morning Tarheel. Warm up the ship please, while I stow my gear."
The droid tweedled in the affirmative and set to work activating the engines and electronic functions of the starship, including weapons and shields checks. Normally, the council would have sent Roethe in an Aethersprite-class starship, one with less offensive capabilties and more built towards recon, but since this mission involved suspicious warships in trying times, the more war-capable ship was elected. Roethe didn't mind, and it seemed to please Tarheel to no end that the ship it was master over was of higher technological capability than usual. Roethe had to smile at that.
With his pack stowed in the cargo pod at the rear, Roethe used the Force to activate the canopy latch and send the transparisteel half-dome upwards on its hinges. Climbing up carefully, Roethe gathered his flowing cloak about his waist and flopped into his chair and clicked the command to send the canopy back down again. Finding the comm headpiece waiting for him on the control yoke, Roethe placed it on his head and flicked the in-flight comm on, and began receiving start-up reports from Tarheel. Everything was working at optimal condition, minus the shields, who would need a few cycles before reaching more than 94% efficiency. Roethe could only sigh halfheartedly at the meticulous nature of his machine friend.
And then Roethe gunned the engines, and the craft lifted nicely into the air. Tarheel squealed disapprovingly, having kept Roethe from sending the starfighter too high, likely causing a protocol breach. Roether replied,
"Oh dear, I'm sorry. How about you escort me out into open air?"
Tarheel tweedled like an exasperated parent would to an upstart child and navigated the craft through the hangar and out into open space. From there, Roethe scanned the air in front of him for any traffic lanes he'd have to dodge, and then he truly gunned the engines, accelerating almost recklessly at a 60 degree angle from parallel with the planetary surface. He literally was moving like a rocket. Tarheel disapproved, but the Knight retorted,
"Don't worry! The Council trusts me, so you should too! I haven't flown such a capable craft as this, though!"
Tarheel replied with as much a sigh as a droid could muster.*