[LOG] i'm reading a book about anti-gravity

[forceshadowed]

WHO: Jane, Starscream
WHERE: 7G Sector, Unknown Regions
WHEN: after Kylo gives Jane her new ship
WHAT: Jane is sent to Ilum to pick up samples from a newly discovered energon kyber crystal cave, and to flight test her new ship.
WARNINGS: Some language, snark, things being shot at? Explosions?

A supply run? His Supreme Leaderness 'gifted' her a new ship for a kriffing supply run?

If looks could kill Kylo Ren would already be dead, but he simply smiled like an indulgent parent and waved her off to attend to the next order of business. Seething, she stepped aside and bowed stiffly, her mouth drawn into an angry, thin line. There was no doubt that she was among the First Order's finest pilots. She could fly anything, through the nastiest of routes and the most dangerous of terrains, and she had a 97% accuracy in the battlefield. (Records, of course, that would inevitably be tampered with once entered into the official database.) She should be an officer by now, or at the very least commanding her own squadron. Yet she was being sent on an errand? And on a faulty, unreliable ship that nobody wanted? Gift, her ass.

"Was there anything else, TN-3154?"

Her nostrils flared, but all she said was, "No, sir," before pivoting sharply on her heel and walking away.

—

To be fair, though, it was a sleek vessel. It looked beautiful and fast and dangerous, far more than the Supreme Leader's own ship. But she knew better than to trust anything that the First Order so conveniently put her way.

She steps inside, expecting the AI to begin the pre-flight sequence now that she's on board. When she hears nothing, not even a programmed standard greeting, she drops her helmet on the pilot's seat and frowns at the controls, resting one hand on her hip and the other on the back of the chair. "What, no welcome?"

Comments

[vosseeker]

The deal that the Quintessons had struck with the First Order had made entities from one end of the universe to the other sit up and take notice. Leaders of the Pan Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere, they were an economic and financial powerhouse on the galactic stage, much in the same way that the former Empire and now the First Order were in terms of weaponry and military might. The Quintessons had been courting the Empire for business matters on and off for centuries, but it was the First Order that had pulled the trigger on establishing a large deal.

And it was one that could, depending on the point of view, be rather concerning.

The Quintessons had offered hundreds of transforming robots, most customized into machines of war, as the first stage of delivery. Nearly all of the initial delivery had been space-flight capable ships or heavy mining units, but there were more specialized constructs planned for the second and third stages.

Artificially sentient units, the Quintessons had promised. But not sapient. Machines capable of self-repair — ships that will heal themselves. Advanced AI, fully programmable. Predictive assessment logic cores. They can't think, but they compute at such speeds you'll swear they could. Incapable of transforming without user input, but highly versatile. Truly they will be a force to be reckoned with under the Supreme Leader's military prowess.

And for the most part, the ships lived up to the sales pitch.

But this one, formally designated VS-1920118 (though called less kind names by most) had been nothing but problems since it's delivery. In and out of the repair bays all the time, every pilot assigned to this jet had complained of inconsistent behaviour, a slew of malfunctions that mysteriously stopped whenever it was docked for repairs, and a downright querulous AI.

The latter appeared to be starting from day one for Jane, when the male voice — slightly nasal, gravely — replied snidely, "Lack of preprogrammed greeting acknowledged."