[LOG] THE AMBUSH

[vosseeker]

WHO: Jane, Starscream, others
WHERE: The Belt, followed by The Steadfast
WHEN: Sometime after this encounter at the Galactic Council
WHAT: What appears to be a routine scouting mission goes sideways as the First Order tries to forcefully determine Jane's real allegiance...
WARNINGS: TBD

---

The modifications that Starscream had asked Knock Out to make to his alt mode were holding up to the unique rigors of space flight, and that pleased him. For all his preening and questionable pedigree, the medic's actual skill was solid; Megatron would never have stood for an incompetent CMO, after all.

The changes Starscream had requested helped bridge the gap between an alt specifically designed for space flight verses the sub-atmospheric model he currently had scanned. More importantly, he'd demanded that Knock Out execute the changes with as little outward change to appearance as possible. It wasn't vanity - the Parliament had put restrictions on allowing him upgrades. He was a high risk individual. In reality, it was just another way for them to exert their control over him.

So Starscream had called in his standing favour with Knock Out. True, he might have liked to hoard that leverage a while longer, but needs must. Knock Out's own censure would almost certainly be extended if the Parliament found out he'd done the work on Starscream behind their backs. He might even lose his position with the Iaconian Medical Division, or be demoted and the care of the protoforms assigned to someone else. So some considerable incentive had to be supplied.

Starscream didn't bat an optic at using Knock Out's deceased partner as a bargaining chip. Sentiment was for fools and sparklings. And if Knock Out hadn't spoken more than a few words to him since, well... he'd get over it. Probably.

In the meantime, Starscream had other engagements to hold his attention. Such as accompanying Jane on what was supposed to be a routine scouting mission into the Dubrillion system, targeting an area referred to as The Belt. It would be tight, tricky flying - apparently pilots trained there to hone their skills - but he suspected neither he nor Jane would have a difficult time with their respective expertise. It would still make for an enjoyable outing.

Comments

[forceshadowed]

The mission had come unexpectedly — straight from the Supreme Leader, no less, a holocall in the middle of the night — but now more than ever Jane couldn't afford to jeopardize her position in the First Order. Not with the things she'd actually been doing behind their backs, between supplying kyber to the Cybertronians and occasionally selling out information to third parties with vested interests.

Kylo Ren was after a Sith Wayfinder rumored to have been stashed away somewhere in the asteroid field near Dubrillion. "You're the best pilot in the Order, are you not?" her brother had baited, and, knowing better than to say or do anything out of the ordinary, she'd rolled her eyes and said she'd have it on his desk by morning.

"I don't know what he could possibly want with one," she told Starscream over the comm as she warms up her Silencer's engines, frowning. "Or if it even exists in the first place. Wayfinders are the stuff of legend." She remembered there being some mention of it in the Academy, but nothing concrete, unlike kyber crystals and lightsabers.

She pulled up a visual of the Dubrillion system, zooming in on The Belt. It didn't look to be a very long trip, just actually several jumps, so they shouldn't be gone for too long. She reached into the Force for the protoforms, wrapping around them like a mother saying goodbye to her children, promising to be back soon.

"Want to drop out of hyperspace on the far side, and we race through it?" she challenged the Commander, grinning.

[vosseeker]

Starscream actually quite disliked traveling via jumps. Whereas Cybertronian space bridge technology compacted subspace - or hyperspace, as organic races often called it - and then punched through, allowing the vast distances to be crossed in one movement, the "jump" method involved slipstreaming through the space instead. For someone whose vessel was their actual body, Starscream found it very disorienting, forcing him to turn off many of his finely-tuned sensors to avoid feeling ill. However there were no space bridge waypoints nearby, and he could not generate them remotely like Soundwave could, forcing him to rely on Jane's method.

But the offer of a race certainly made the thought of multiple hyperspace jumps more palatable.

"I would not be adverse to that," he returned over comms, already settled into his alt mode. "How are we supposed to locate this... Wayfinder?"

The protoforms, meanwhile, pulsed back a collective sensation of affection/contentment/take-care to Jane.

[forceshadowed]

If space bridging had been possible outside of the Cybertron system, Jane would've already been using it, having found it a more efficient means to travel through large distances. She'd even contemplated the idea of a flight suit to go with that technology; it wouldn't be anything like Starscream's actual body, but she hoped it would allow one to fly, say, from one planet to another within the same system. Fly without the need for a ship. That would be amazing.

"He said I should be able to just... feel it." She'd known how silly that was going to sound, but she felt sillier having said it out loud. "In the Force." Like how she could feel the protoforms — not that she'd revealed that information to any of the Cybertronians, not Starscream or Knock Out or Contrail or Bumbleebee. "A beacon of sorts. I guess I'll know when we get there."

She punched in the coordinates. "See you on the other side?"

[vosseeker]

Well, that was helpful... except not. While Starscream didn't mind lending his extensive scanning capabilities to this endeavor, if their target was only discernible through the Force -- a phenomenon Starscream still didn't fully understand -- then he wasn't going to be much assistance.

"Understood," he acknowledged, and ran a system protocol to dampen his external sensors. It was a fine line -- if he turned off too few, the jump was nauseating... but turn off too many, and he risked hampering the thousands of minute calculations that maintained a steady flight path. While being flung out of hyperspace mid-slip might not kill him, it would assuredly not be pleasant.

Several jumps later, Starscream emerged on the edge of the densely packed asteroid field, his sensors reorienting as he reactivated his full tac-net.

"So unpleasant," he griped over comms to Jane.

[forceshadowed]

In all honesty, Jane had long expected the Cybertronians — Starscream and Knock Out, at the very least — to grill her about the Force. While she'd not told them that she's able sense (even communicate with) the protoforms in that manner, she'd not hidden her sensitivity from them in the way she'd done in the First Order, and she'd been fairly open when it came to topics like the Jedi and the Sith and Kylo Ren's powers. She supposed they'd ask once the topic became relevant; the Commander would want more information after this, no doubt, especially when they had the wayfinder in their possession.

The jump's not too uncomfortable for Jane, but it took her a little slower to get to the starting point of their race, cruising to catch up with her companion. Enough for him to have the time to recover his bearings, though she would've afforded him that in any case, since despite her competitive nature, she wanted to race with him for fun.

"I can't imagine," she offered, frowning as she checked her own instruments and made the necessary adjustments. She used to say that when she flew in her ship, she felt one with it, soaring through space like she had wings herself, but since knowing Starscream she'd realized she could not even hope to compare. "Whenever you're ready?"

[vosseeker]

Ironically, the only reason that neither Starscream and Knock Out were prying into the Force was because there were other mecha already set on the task, in much more subtle ways. As mystical as the Force was among many races of the universe, it remained an anomaly - but still distinguishable one. In theory, it could be measured, and categorized. And the Cybertronians were determined to exhaust scientific methods of acquiring that information before turning to esoteric ones.

Starscream rolled his wings as his tac-net reengaged, his thruster exhaust burning bright against the backdrop of the asteroid field. "At your mark."

Like their race through the Sonic Canyons (how long ago had that been now? it seemed distant), the constantly changing landscape of the debris meant that they were on equal footing when it came to navigation. Even though their ship designs were vastly different, they both had the high level of agility required to maneuver through such tight quarters.

Something tickles at the edges of his sensor range, unfamiliar. The asteroid field is rife with electromagnetic interference, but he wasn't made Air Commander for ignoring his instincts. He almost misses a particularly tight bank to avoid scraping his underside on a craggy chunk of rock.

"Are you reading anything out of the ordinary?"

[forceshadowed]

Like their race through the Sonic Canyons, Jane lets herself sink into the currents of the Force, and the ship begins to feel like an extension of her body instead of being an entirely separate object. Nothing like actually, physically being capable of flight, of course, but enough to allow her to just think it and her ship would go in a certain way. And there, too, is the way she's now able to perceive the vast expanse of the asteroid belt; not as keenly as she would've liked, but she's not had much occasion to practice her Force powers, at least not while within the confines of the First Order. Still, it should give her enough of an advantage, allow her to sense if something's amiss, possibly if there's a Sith wayfinder floating among the debris.

"Three, two, one... mark."

She speeds through the belt, certain that she and Starscream are, at least at this point, more or less evenly matched, weaving in and out of the rocks and debris like it's second nature to them. She feels it in her bones, an exhilaration like no other, one that's only ever awakened when she's in flight—

Then something. She's not sure what; it's distant, something just out of reach. She feels it at nearly the same time as the Cybertronian picks up on it.

"There's..." She grits her teeth, rolling her ship as a rather large piece of rock almost blindsides her. Yet that's not what makes her queasy, but rather the steadily increasing sensation that something's not right. "I'm feeling something, but I don't think it's—"

Her eyes widen as her ship's alarms go off.

"Holy kriff. Incoming!"

[vosseeker]

Alerts shriek across Starscream's own proximity network at the same time, and instinctively he peels off with a hard vertical climb as energy blasts strafe across the space he'd occupied just seconds before. He wheels, his thruster a bright cone of propulsion, stark contrast to the near-invisible exhausts of Jane's TIE and the incoming Resistance crafts.

Starscream feels the tickle sensation of a scan passing over him once, twice, and no doubt the incoming fighters are trying to make sense of his alt mode, an aerial vehicle clearly not designed for spaceflight at all, let alone space combat.

Good - let them underestimate him. It would be their downfall.

It was time to put Knock Out's modifications to the test, and the Seeker engaged his secondary thrusters, at the same time transforming out his nullray blasters. Missiles were too imprecise in zero gravity, even for him, but the slim canons packed explosive power that could be tuned to slice through armor plating.

He pulled a hard bank with ease, withstanding g-force that should have ripped such a craft to shreds, and tore after the nearest fighter like a guided bolt. His spark pulsed hungrily, his core coding - his base instinct - to outmaneuver and outfly these pitiful organics who could never hope to match a Seeker in aerial combat...

[forceshadowed]

The last thing Jane honestly expected to happen in this mission was for Resistance fighters to show up from out of nowhere, and yet there they were, winking into existence at the edge of the asteroid field. She had no idea why they were here, though it certainly couldn't have just been coincidence; it wasn't like the Belt was a tourist destination, and the Resistance was spread far too thin in both resources and manpower to attempt cursory, tentative operations. Especially when—

The Falcon dropped out of hyperspace last, but it came in so close to the tumbling debris that it was clear it was leading this pack — and that it was about to dive head on into the turbulent mass of space rocks and come after them. She didn't have to reach out with the Force to know who was piloting. "Dameron," she muttered under her breath, loud enough for Starscream to hear over their comm line, as she maneuvered her ship to momentarily hide behind a fairly large asteroid.

Another alarm. Incoming transmission. Guess she's about to find out what the hell the Resistance was doing out here.

"Jane. I know it's you." Poe's tone was serious, but it had an undercurrent of familiarity that even the Cybertronian would catch. His opener was followed by a wailing of sorts; it was Chewbacca, speaking in Shyriiwook, which Jane didn't need any help translating, having grown up with the Wookiee. Jane. We need to talk to you. It's important.

"What are you doing here?" Her reply was cold, curt, betraying no hint of emotion. It was something she'd learned in the First Order, and it was the same way she would usually speak to her brother, especially in official capacity. But, deep down, she was desperately shoving away all memories that this encounter was trying to bring up to the surface. Her father's ship. Her father's partner. Her father. Murdered by Kylo Ren.

"We need you back, Janey."

Something within her flared, a complex mix of emotions that she couldn't hope to untangle and identify at the moment. "Don't call me that—" she started to say, only to be interrupted by the sounds and signs of battle. Starscream. Kriff.

Of course, the Resistance fired back. Why wouldn't they? And while they were extremely confused by the strange ship that accompanied Jane's TIE, it wasn't hard for them to come up with their own conclusion: a prototype of a new First Order starfighter that had long been in the works. Why else would they be in an asteroid belt? Why else would the test run be a race between the new craft and a ship of Caedus' caliber?

"Don't make me do this, Jane!" Poe said in between shouts to Chewie to get ready to enter the Belt.

She gritted her teeth, her grip around the controls tightening a little. "You want me, Dameron? Come and get me," she challenged, before cutting off the line and launching her Silencer off the asteroid and into the opposite direction of the incoming Resistance fighters.

She took a moment to consider the size of the enemy force. Not a fleet, but large enough to overwhelm her and Starscream if they're not careful. That is if anyone other than Poe would be able to follow them safely through the obstacle course. "Stay in the belt," she said to Starscream. Her attention was now divided, half on flying, the other half on locating the Wayfinder. "Skrag, I can't find the damn thing."

[vosseeker]

Starscream hissed static across the line at the familiarity with which the Resistance group leader addressed Jane. Yes, he knew academically that she was a double agent, that of course she would have contacts within their organization (that extended beyond, obviously, her mother) but they were shooting at him.

And in light of the aborted conversation between Jane and Poe, he's not even sure if he's supposed to be shooting back. His call sign indicators are all dark, all means of identifying him disabled — this isn't an official mission, and its purpose was supposed to be clandestine. So the Resistance has no clue they're shooting at a Cybertronian, let alone the Air Commander himself.

Laser fire grazes along his upper right wing leaving score marks, and he dives to escape it, slingshotting himself around a large asteroid chunk and following Jane deeper into the debris field. They weave and dodge, using the landscape as cover, protecting the rear vector.

Starscream wheels and flies straight at the Falcon's front view port, fearlessly playing chicken as it gets too close to Jane's TIE to drive it off, despite the Falcon being many times his size. The distance between them closes shockingly fast, but Starscream doesn't budge his trajectory.

[forceshadowed]

The familiarity is not because of her being a double agent, but because of her life from before she'd defected to the First Order; not that the Cybertronians would know, since she tries not to mention her past as much as possible. (Except perhaps if she accidentally revealed some secrets to Knock Out or Bumblebee or Contrail.) Poe had been a family friend, someone she had idolized as a young girl for his piloting talents, and they saw each other often enough to consider each other more than mere acquaintances.

Not that she thinks of him as a friend right now. Her mission is to locate the Wayfinder, grab it and get out. Whatever the Resistance is doing here, well, she'll figure it out later. But she sure as hell isn't going back with them, not because she considers herself loyal to the First Order but because at the moment the Resistance was the losing side.

She frowns at the flurry of activity and the wailing of her Silencer's alarms, but a moment later she catches the game Starscream's trying to play, and if they had more time, she would've thanked him for the save. Instead she lets go of the battle for a couple of seconds, diving into the Force to shift her full attention to the Belt in a desperate attempt to sense wherever the Wayfinder might be. But there's nothing out of the ordinary, nothing but rocks and debris; by far Starscream was the strangest part of the scene.

"Nothing," she practically snarls as she pulls herself back to the here and the now, steadying her grip on the controls as she veers away from what could've been a collision course. Her stomach clenches as she realizes what this might all mean. "This was a set up."

a million years later.......

[vosseeker]

Poe and Starscream split at the last second, peeling off to opposite sides so closely that his thruster burn scorched a trail across the Falcon's hull.

Jane's assertion over the comms confirms what Starscream was already suspecting when the Resistance appeared. But the question was, was it a setup by the Resistance, or by the First Order? At this point, they were looking equally likely, and he didn't like it at all. Compromising Jane's position and her agenda put his agenda in contention, and if it was one thing Starscream was guaranteed to do, it was look out for his own interests.

But his thoughts ran parallel to hers: at the moment, there was a clear advantage in sticking with the First Order.

"Time to regroup elsewhere," he said curtly, choosing a new flight vector that would clear them as quickly as possible to the edge of the asteroid field where they could leap to hyperspace once again and leave the Resistance behind.

A stray shot caught his wing at a lucky angle, rather than skirting off the planar surface, it burned through the sensitive plating. Starscream cursed in Vosian, the epithet click-trill sharpened by pain. His flight path flagged for a moment as energon — blue and glowing against the starry backdrop — splashed out, leaving a trail of droplets suspended in zero gravity.

omg same lovely sob i'm sorry ;~;

[forceshadowed]

The part of Jane that was made of emotion wanted nothing more at that moment but to scream and lash out. Partly because of the frustration, and the betrayal, and the confusion for who might have actually set her up. But at the bottom of it was really just the anguish and guilt and rage unearthed by the sight of the Falcon, for she loved her father and his ship reminded her of the memories she'd been desperately trying to keep away. She had not forgiven Ben for killing him, and she never will. That and there was the irrational thought that the ship should've been hers, not being piloted by some dumb Resistance fighter — even if he happened to be a decent pilot.

She barely heard Starscream at first, even, as she seemed to have slipped into some sort of autopilot mode, her emotions roiling within her like a storm. But the Commander's curse and the pain that followed jolted her back to the present moment. What was that? She couldn't have possibly sensed—

"Are you okay?" Even as she was asking that, she was flipping her TIE around to take down the fighter that had scored a lucky hit. Or at least one of them. It didn't matter which one, if it was the right one at all, only that she had to get back at them somehow. That and to make sure Starscream could get away safely. How strange, for her to suddenly feel protective, in a way that was frighteningly personal. "Go on ahead, I'll see you back in Cybertron!"