trainingwings | (no subject)

Player Name: Ryah
Are you new?: Yes
Character Name: Anakin Skywalker
Character Fandom: Star Wars

Notes: Both threads take place in the Battle Dome, two separate simulations. In the first, other characters are welcome to be fellow pilots on a mission with Anakin or rival combatants.

Anakin didn’t know if he was irritated by the fact he could just barely tell this was a simulation (and his belief he could tell this was fake might all be just from knowing beforehand this was a simulation) or if he was actually just impressed with the whole thing.

Either way, this felt like flying so he would try to accept it as real flying.

After taking the yellow starfighter through a few maneuvers to gauge the ship’s agility, he leveled out so the simulation’s obstacles were before him and on the same orientation as his view field.

He clicked the comm to raise his companion.

“Ready when you are.”

Though not as exhilarating as barrel rolls or dodging blaster fire, Anakin still found the mess of engine parts before him just as compelling. Like pieces of a puzzle, he could lose himself in these components, taking them apart, putting them back together, finding the broken parts and fixing them. Almost a kind of performance art for him and certainly a means to calm and organize his mind.

The gutted yellow starship was only meters away, reminding him the end goal of this simulation was to put this all back together again in working order.

He was so focused on his work, he didn’t notice someone approaching from behind until they were almost on top of him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Anakin was here under similar pretenses. Luke was showing just how much of his mother had carried over into the next generation. Anakin was going to grit through this as best he could and pray it didn’t last an eternity.

With all participants established in the simulation, it began. The battle popped into existence before them, still some klicks off so they weren’t right in the middle of the fight. It was a mash up of a few battles Anakin had participated in during the Clone Wars. He blended them so that he wasn’t coming at this with a complete tactical advantage over Han – he wasn’t that mean. So he might know the individual elements but he couldn’t predict how this theater would play out.

Anakin was also kind and littered their ‘side’ with cruiser and frigate designs from Mon Calamari and the ones from the Kuat Drive Yards that were less than triangular in shape. (Except for the Delta starfighters, but it wasn’t their fault they bore a striking resemblance to star destroyers.) Rounding out this side of the fight were the too many to count star fighters: Deltas, as previous mentioned, Eta-2 Actis intercepters, ARC-170s, and all the y-wing bombers the Republic would have sold the Out Rim to have during the Clone Wars.

The other side was the standard Separatist fare – cruisers, frigates, a battle station or two. So many vulture droids they changed the black landscape of space between ships an endless sea of hellish grey.

And he couldn’t help himself, he had to drop in the Malevolence. Because it was just more fun when one shot from the enemy could reduce one of their cruisers completely inoperable.

What he didn’t mind was how close to fifty years outdated this may all seem to his son-in-law.

“Two ways to win,” he commed. No preamble to welcome Han to the battle. They weren’t that close. It was easier to just think of him like just another clone in this fight. “Take out the Malevolence." Which made Anakin cringe, because to do that, they would need to cooperate. "Or most kills at the end of the scenario. For the second option, kills by the enemy will be split against us at the end. So it will help to keep your allies alive.”

He almost didn't ask it, but because he at the very least wasn't trying to make things worse between him and Han, he added, "Any questions?"

That was pretty standard. Keeping your allies alive, even if they're simulated. It's something you generally want to teach new recruits for when their allies aren't simulated.

THere's one question. Pretty obvious given the time discrepancy. He wouldn't have to ask if if Luke had let him go for Imperials. "There any precedent for a small craft taking out something that size?" Not that the rebel alliance ever worried much about precedent.

Anakin’s answer came quickly. “That depends. Are you carrying a compliment of about a hundred torpedoes and a moon?”

The Malevolence’s weaknesses included: a penchant of its primary weapon overloading when its base mounts suffered structural damage just before the weapon discharged, and an inability to fly through solid celestial satellites. Sadly, it possessed no exhaust ports leading directly to its engine core reactors. And even after its primary weapon was brought off line, the beast of a ship was not lacking in blaster turrets, torpedo launchers, squadrons of vulture droids or a tough bulkhead that could absorb a lot of damage.

“I’ve uploaded its tactical specifications to the simulation, you should be able to access them via your console.”

"Eight concussion missiles and no Ewoks." Did he care that Anakin didn't know what an Ewok was, much less that they can be substituted for just about anything in a pinch? Not particularly.

Even the quickest glance at the specifications makes one thing abundantly clear. "So the direct approach is out, then." Time for some rebel style thinking, it seemed.

"What's an Ewok?" Anakin couldn't not ask; seeing as they weren't a space-faring culture and didn't get off planet often, they were relatively unknown to the greater parts of the galaxy.

"The direct approach didn't work the last time I encountered it, no."

"Native species of a back water moon. Experts at taking out spacefaring tech with sticks and rocks. Nice to have in a pinch." Of course, they didn't have them, so the question was really academic.

"Sounds like we need sneaky." Which was actually fine by Han. He liked sneaky. Preferred it, sometimes. You pulled a lot of sneaky when the other side had a guy who could choke you with his mind if you just walked up to him. "They'll be expecting us to charge in."

Anakin blinked away his confusion. There was something he was missing here but now was not the time for joke clarifications.

Sneaking, however, was never Anakin’s strength. On the other hand, being loud and obnoxious so that others could do the sneaking was something he could do very, very well.

“Lay down suppression fire while I land in a hangerbay. Then I’ll draw their attention inside, lead them around in a few circles, while you can attach to either a port or starboard side airlock and sneak in. Once inside, comm me and we’ll go from there.”

"Right. You be flashy." Jedi were generally pretty good at that. It was the lightsabers. "I'll do the rest." He made a good distraction. But he could sneak sometimes.

The quad lasers were better when operated from the turrets proper. But when it came to suppressing fire, he could manage by controlling them from the cockpit. Which is just what he starts doing as soon as he's in position.

The other reason Anakin opted for this approach was because he was in a small starfighter that he couldn’t connect to an airlock. Sure, this was all just a game and he didn’t have to fear the vacuum of space, but ‘dying’ in the simulation would effectively end the simulation. And once Anakin set his mind to doing something, he didn’t give up on it easily, even if that thing was enduring spending time with his son in law.

But he was also doing it this way because it was flashy, no reason to deny it.

He opened fire at about the same time Han did. Might as well take out a few vulture droids and gun turrets while they were at it. And more than a few ships and towers went up in blazing balls of simulated gas.

“See you on the inside.”

Anakin broke off from formation with the Falcon and angled his fighter to aim for one of the hanger bays. He chose one more towards the center of the clustered openings. He kept firing the whole way in to spread the confusion for the droids on deck. He slowed his ship enough to make his momentum something less than neck-breaking and hit the cockpit hatch release. Relying on the Force the buffer his landing, he leapt free.

He didn’t pause longer than it took to right himself on landing. He activated his lightsaber and used the mayhem sown by his still-moving starfighter (about to crash into a portion of the back wall of the hanger bay and explode) as cover to run towards one of the corridors leading deeper into the ship. He took out the droids that took notice and attempted to stop him, but he made it unscathed to his destination.

As he closed and locked the blast doors behind him, he commed Han, “You in yet?”

Once Anakin was down and flashing about, Han started watching for his moment to mosey over to an airlock. You had to time a move like that properly, or it attracted a whole lot of attention you didn't need.

The initial message comes through when he's made it onto the ship, but not in a position for a chat. He clicks the commlink in acknowledgement, but waits a few minutes until he's in better cover. "In position now. Down the starboard corridor from your position." At least that was the impression he'd gotten from the specifications he had admittedly not had much time to familiarize himself with.