Rhen Var's Open Orbit

Rhen Var was a planet of absolute lifelessness. Ice and snow covered the terrain, having destroyed all civilization on the planet and eradicating all natural life. Hoth had it's wampas and other fauna, but Rhen Var was dead to all but the Force itself. It was not Malachor V, it still had the Force, but there was nothing to bend it, or use it, except the ghosts and spirits which were hidden away in the tombs of the ruins that remained above the snowpack that sometimes threatened to obscure the gray and dreary monoliths as they stood against the test of time and the elements.

It was in that curious way that the Force kept its own from being buried in history.

Dyvius, the Togruta Grey Jedi, felt the same applied to him. He sat at the cockpit of his Aka'jor Mandalorian shuttle and tapped a few fingers against the knee of his cyberntically replaced leg. In one bad incident on the planet Shili in what seemed a very distant past, he had lost that leg to a flesh-eating virus wielded as a weapon. The leg was fitted with phrik plating which meant no lightsaber had a chance of taking it from him again. That flesh-eating virus attack hadn't stopped there, either. There was a patch on the his left rib cage where skin should have been but colored-to-match bio-phrik was used to patch the results of the virus. The same but smaller patches were also in place on his right bicep, right hip, left shoulder blade, and left thigh. But the less-than organic Togruta was even further marred after an incident on the planet Serenno had left Dyvius missing both an eye and the bone structure in his left hand. The eye was replaced with a cybernetic which had an infrared, ultraviolet, and normal range spectrum. The hand's bones were reconstructed and enhanced with bio-engineered durasteel which meant only the synthflesh over the top of it all could not stand punching through walls.

And still the man believed in the Flowing Force through all things.

Be that as it may, he stood, and looked over to his green-and-white R6 astromech unit which was sitting patiently at the co-pilot station

"Take us down, Sixer."

Dyvius took stock of his gear, knowing that his knowledge of Tapas would keep him warm beyond the cloak and clothing he was wearing. He came to Rhen Var for the purpose of archaeology, in order to further his understanding of the past of the Jedi and all they dealt with. He did this all over the galaxy, but for some reason there were mysteries here that were as of yet undiscovered.

The shuttle began to descend into the frigid atmosphere and Dyvius began to center himself in the Force, reaching for its ebb and flow and finding how to place his own personal flow within its currents seamlessly.

Rhen Var was probably not the most expected place that Pixy had intended to wind up - the frosty “middle of nowhere” far outside the bounds of First Order jurisdiction. A most decidedly average world, with an average history, on what ordinarily would not have been an average journey to Bastion for some sort of grand event - indeed, they said the emperor himself might be in attendance. Sadly, hyperdrives did take time to recharge, so the ADF-01 Galm would be silhouetted against the white background of Rhen Var, twin homing missile pods suspended on its hardpoints, and its pilot blissfully unaware of the implications of her chosen stopping point, as the drive recharged.

In the cockpit, the pilot of the aircraft, Pixy, set the fighter to autopilot before relaxing for a little bit, pulling out a small nutrition bar in order to munch on something while she waited for the hyperdrive to recharge. She hated excessive technology, true, but after flying for 17 hours straight, she had to appreciate the kind of convenience it could provide. Plus, she couldn’t eat and fly at the same time.

“Stupid white ball… gettin’ the light in my eyes”

She oriented the fighter in such a manner that its tail was pointed at the planet itself, with her radar set into a passive tracking mode - she wanted to avoid detection if at all possible.

“Sky Eye, how long before the drive is recharged?”

The computer made some noises before returning an answer in its monotone, female voice.

“Hyperdrive charge is currently 10%. Estimated time to full charge - 67 minutes and 9 seconds.”

She sighed before resting back into her seat. This was going to be a long hour.

All was quiet in the cockpit of the Galm, with the passive radar tracking two targets which had entered the system, the soft pings occasionally breaking up the silence within the cockpit, the only other sounds being those of the various computers which kept this spiteful hypermaneuverable fighter craft actually flying. Well, that is of course until a loud voice, almost like that of an announcer, would punctuate the entire cockpit at once

Anyone out there?

Pixy, who had been drifting off to sleep, her bites out of the nutrition bar having been reduced down to mere nibbles by the passage of time, would be startled awake by the loud series of sounds, not expecting that firstly, anyone would actually be out here - for she had assumed the marks were probes or some such - and secondly, that their voice would ring out with surprising quality throughout the cabin of her fighter. Though, that was more the fault of the extremely advanced stereo systems the Galm had

"Oh for KRIFF'S SAKE. Can a girl not GET SOME SLEEP?!"

She had to admit, she had absolutely no idea what was going on here. She'd specifically chosen Rhen Var for her pit stop specifically BECAUSE it was so quiet. And now it looked as though someone was going to disturb her peace and quiet anyway. Yelling about some "show" as if this was the opera on Coruscant

"Oh, we got a wise guy huh? Sky Eye, isolate the source of that signal"

Affirmative. Signal appears to be emanating from a Scythe-Class Fighter. IFF tags read it aligned to the Mandalorian Assembly, Clan Australis

"Mandalorians," she thought to herself, "out here?" Now this was starting to get interesting. The Mandalorians were well known to constantly be spoiling or a fight, and a lone one all the way out here issuing what seemed to be a challenge didn't bode well for things. And yet, she almost felt as though she absolutely needed to accept, just for the sake of proving her worth as a combatant. Not directly, though. That would be too easy

"Sky Eye, set to hunter killer mode. Prepare to move to combat mode, I'll say when"

The the lights in the cockpit, initially a bright white, would be dimmed to the absolute essentials as the craft moved power to the weapons systems and such, as well as to remove an obvious target indicator

She would ease the fighter into something of a holding pattern, ensuring that she stayed on the six of the other pilot, in order to avoid being jumped and ambushed, all while keeping an eye on her radar display. Looked as though there was another craft too, though it hadnt made its move yet. Another thing to keep an eye on

Making no use of its advanced thrust vectoring nozzles, at least for now, and primarily relying on the gravitational effects of the asteroids to sling her along, Pixy maneuvered the Galm up and over the asteroids with as much care as she could, careful to move slowly in order to appear to simply be another asteroid floating through the large debris field. Her soft breathing was the only sound to be heard in the cockpit as she gently teased the stick, from left, to right, then back again, in order to continue moving the fighter along on its ascribed path, the black coloring making it simply look like a strangely shaped asteroid

In an environment like this, well, the Galm's large size might be an issue, but its targeting systems and, crucially, the arsenal of missiles which covered the craft would come in great use - seeing as how line of sight was going to be difficult to obtain when it came to the use of laser weapons. The fighter was running low emissions right now, not really letting off too many easily detectable traces of its presence - the lack of any real use of the ships engines beyond some small correctional maneuvers would see to that. Eventually, the voice filled the cockpit again - had she just walked in on some sort of battle challenge? The prospect was, indeed, an exciting one

After cresting the asteroids, Pixy would let off one final burst from her directional thrusters, bringing the craft to rest as she looked down upon the small scene playing out before her. With the craft essentially powered down as it was, it would take a miracle for her to be spotted in her current position - but one could never be too careful

"Sky Eye, be ready to power up systems on my mark"

Affirmative, commander

With that, she leaned back and waited, keeping an eye on her sensors to see when the fighter would move out of its vulnerable position so she could engage it honorably. Keeping another on Ghost Eye, waiting to see what sort of transmissions it might pick up, not unlike a bird of prey, circling above an unsuspecting victim