Jace Aeryx

The orders to return to Coruscant couldn't have come soon enough for Jace. Sure, getting to know his squadron wasn't the worse thing in the universe, but the rustic setting was a drag and there was nothing happening during downtime. Soon the GA contingent had packed up the ysalamiri they'd gathered, Halo Squadron launched first to do a quick check along outbound hyperspace routes to make sure the way was clear, and they were off into hyperspace back towards the core.

A few days into their little camping trip, Jace admitted that the chance to spend a little bit of time with some of the other squadron members aided in cohesion and would probably translate into better squadron performance in combat, but then one afternoon he was assigned a shift with Commander Janus himself. At first he was determined to keep his mouth shut and just ride the shift out, but it was destined not to last. "So what's your story, Lieutenant?" Janus asked him. Jace was helping to secure a pair of empty ysalamiri cages on a hover-pallet to take them out to one of the harvest teams, and he kept his attention on that. "Not much of a story, Commander. I'm here to fight and win and I'm good at it." "I'm sure you are," Janus responded. "You're also a loose cannon. That stunt you pulled with Tainor in the sims could get you the wrong sort of attention if it happens again." Now Jace turned to face him. "Is this really how the GASC operates now?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed, his voice not hiding his disdain. "Behavioral profiles, carbon copy pilots and micromanaging squadron leads?" "And you've got a real problem with authority," Janus observed passively. "No," Jace argued. "I've got a problem with being treated like a drone, sir. You've got some of the best pilots in the GA flying for you. Respectfully, if you want to see what we can do, you've got to trust us." Janus gave him a patient look, not riled up by the comments at all. "The problem with that line of thinking, Aeryx, is that it focuses more on personal glory than the team's objectives," he said. "Reckless stunts might be able to win small victories in desperate situations, but they also get good pilots killed and lose wars. I'm not holding this post so that eleven pilots follow me around from fight to fight. I'm leading a single unit that's greater than the sum of its already-talented parts. I already know you can fly. I'm challenging you to step up your game and fly as a part of a cohesive team." Jace crossed his arms but remained silent. "Think about it, soldier," Janus said, clapping him on the soldier before turning on the hover-pallet and pushing it out deeper into the forest. "Maybe give it a try. If it doesn't work, I'll fully cooperate in finding you a post that suits you better."

It didn't take long for the "asset procurement expedition", as command was calling it, to turn into "roughing it in the wild for a couple days". The team had brought field rations which were notably worse than even cafeteria food on the Lemon, and the lack of modern facilities due to the absence of civilization on Myrkr had some other downsides. Soon Jace knew more about Myrkr's indigenous insect life than he'd ever cared to, and had almost resigned himself to sleeping in his cockpit as the only guaranteed escape from the myriad pests and creepers that would gravitate toward warm bodies and subsequently hide in any pocket, boot, or hole that they could find. After the first day, Janus started mixing up their pairings to aid in team cohesion. Jace found himself working patrol duty with the Defenestrator, who seemed to be a better pilot than a conversationalist, and it made for a boring few hours. He did attempt to learn a bit more about the strange advanced droid's past, but its answers were vague. It was perhaps millennia old and it had only become a GA pilot a few years back. Before that, it had performed a variety of roles for a variety of employers, but it was unwilling to share details. Jace's guess was that a number of them were illegal, and at least one of them probably involved literally throwing people out of windows, quite possibly to their deaths. Now it joylessly carried out its duties as efficiently as possible, not capable of boredom or laziness or hunger or anything else that might distract it from its single-minded purpose. By all accounts it was the perfect pilot to be serving under Commander Janus. Jace, meanwhile, had all of those vices and owned them. He didn't like Myrkr, he didn't like this assignment, and he was eager to get back to civilization. The only thing that kept him attentive in his duties was a desire to avoid coming under Janus' scrutiny.

The camp went up quickly, and soon teams of Galactic Alliance experts were leading expeditions into the forests, armed with specialized equipment that would make the extraction of ysalamiri from the olbio trees possible without killing them. Jace and the other pilots of Halo squad accompanied these groups as an extra pair of hands and a blaster in case there were vornskrs. According to Janus' briefing, the predators were territorial and aggressive, and they hunted with the Force. The GA teams were large enough that most packs wouldn't want to take their chances against them, so it was probably safe, but if anyone strayed too far alone from the main group, there was associated risk. Commander Janus continued to run the Halos like he had during their initial training exercises in the sims. He demanded everyone diligently perform their duties at all times and handed out specific assignments so that he could account for everyone's locations at any given moment. Jace found it frankly stifling, but Janus kept the wingmates paired up on the ground just as they had been in fighter cockpits, so the silver lining was getting the chance to interact a little more with Tainor. Jessa Tainor, it turned out. In their brief, mostly-formal interactions so far, the squadron hadn't found much use for first names, but in the more relaxed environment, she started to lower her guard a little. It helped to know the person you were trusting with your life every time you flew into an engagement. "So where you from originally, Jessa?" he asked her casually as they walked a perimeter around one of the ysalamir extraction teams that was trying to coax one such stubborn reptile's claws out of the wood from which it drew its sustenance. "Tralus," she answered. He smirked. "Thought you sounded a touch Corellian. How'd you get involved?" "I'd been flying for a while, helping out with my father's shipping business," she answered. "Always thought I had the aptitude to fly combat missions, but it took the Arach'tar to shake me out of the comfortable routine of steady private work. When they came and took Centerpoint Station, when we realized the destructive power they had... well, it became hard to ignore." Jace nodded. "Flying against them was something else," he said. "I wasn't there for Centerpoint, but I managed to get into some of the other battles. Ilum, for one. Skirmishing against the Empire... I dunno, it almost gets comfortable after a while, knowing the other guy is a lot like you, just with some different ideas in his head. But the Arach'tar, not only were they totally alien and had tech like we'd never seen, but their campaign represented a threat of a magnitude we hadn't seen either. If they'd won, everything would just be gone. The idea had the whole New Republic going nuts. It almost took the fun out of it." Tainor gave him an appraising look. He found it ridiculously attractive, like just about all of her other looks. "This really is just all about fun to you, isn't it Jace? Do you actually care about the cause?" "I don't have much use for causes," he answered. "I grew up dodging Espos in the Corporate Sector. Not much room for idealism when you're scraping by under the thumb of the CSA." "You must've joined the New Republic for some reason other than thrills," she said. "How'd you end up doing this instead of flying a TIE?" He shrugged. "Fewer rules, plus not having to live on an Imperial world. Better starfighters. Plus orange is a good color for me, don't you think?" he asked, glancing down at his uniform. Jessa ignored the question. "You must hate Janus so far," she commented dryly instead. "Don't get me started. Guy could learn a thing or two about trusting his pilots." His words sped up in his annoyance. "We wouldn't be here if we couldn't handle ourselves. What he wants is a bunch of droids." She shrugged this time. "You can't deny that we're pretty efficient doing things his way. He's been leading Halo Squadron for years. He's got to know what he's doing." He supposed she wasn't wrong, and he was going to stick it out for a bit. Halo was going to get the best assignments -- lizard babysitting notwithstanding -- and the action would make it worth it. But a man like Janus was something he could only tolerate so much of, and if it came right down to it, he would put in a request to transfer out to find a better fit.

Halo Squadron emerged from hyperspace, soon followed by a number of transports dispatched from the Steadfast that they were charged with escorting. "Spread out and secure local airspace," Commander Janus ordered. Jace thought the assignment was a bit odd for one of the top E-wing squadrons in the Galactic Alliance fleet, but the war with the Sith hadn't ramped up into open conflict yet and it seemed like GA leadership was still trying to avoid any conflict with the Remnant, so it wasn't taking them away from any real action. The fleet was still a shadow of its former self from the end of the last war, and there would definitely be a period where everyone would need to be flexible to stretch the manpower they had. In any case, a few minutes of poking around the system soon indicated that the most dangerous thing they were likely to encounter here was the wildlife. The transports found a clearing on the edge of one of the planet's many Olbio forests and began to establish an operating camp. Halo Squadron stayed in orbit for a few minutes before descending to join them. Though they were starfighter pilots by specialization, they had all been through other sorts of training and at the very least they were extra sets of hands for moving equipment around and eyes for watching for Vornskrs. Setting down next to his wingmate's ship, Jace climbed down the extending ladder, telling his R9 unit to keep an eye on the long-range sensors and alert him of any incoming ships. "First time here?" he asked Tainor as he approached her. She nodded. "Doesn't seem so bad. You?" "Yep," he answered. He looked her over not quite subtly. "Really quite lovely, actually." She shot him an annoyed look, but there was a touch of humor in her eyes. "Try to stay focused on the mission, Aeryx," she said dryly as she headed toward the transports to start helping with the unloading process. He grinned and followed her.

JACE AERYX Identity Real Name: Jace Aeryx A.K.A: Halo 3 Homeworld: Etti IV Species: Human Physical Description Age: 31 Height: 5'11" Weight: 170 lbs Hair: Black, with a well-trimmed beard Eyes: Blue Sex: Male Equipment Clothing or Armor: Often his orange pilot's uniform. When off-duty, a variety of civilian clothes that fit well, often a nice jacket. Weapon: His wits and a DL-44 blaster pistol as a sidearm. Common Inventory: Commlink, rank cylinder, credits, data disks. Faction Information Non-Force User Alignment: Chaotic Good Current Faction Affiliation: Galactic Alliance Current Faction Rank: Lieutenant History: Force Side: n/a Trained by: n/a Trained who: n/a Known Skills: hell of a pilot Background: Growing up on Etti IV, Jace's family was under the thumb of the Corporate Sector Authority like everyone else. Dealing with relative poverty, Jace picked up whatever skills he could to get by and in his late teens he took to piloting whatever he could borrow, steal, or buy. Soon showing a knack for quick thinking and getting out of stick situations, he started taking high-risk jobs smuggling illegal goods past Espos. Successful, he took the money from these jobs to relocate his parents and get himself far away from the CSA, heading all the way into the Core to join the New Republic starfighter corps in their struggle against the Empire. He flew several successful missions before the end of the war but found himself out of work during the resulting peace. Now things are heating up again, and like a moth to the flame Jace is heading back to reactivate his commission. Ship Registration Name: Class: Snubfighter Model: E-wing Manufacturer: FreiTek Length: 11.2 meters Armaments: 3 laser cannons, proton torpedo launcher with 16 torpedoes Armor: light Anti-Personnel Defenses: standard Appearance: Standard E-wing with a little bit of custom paint -- kill silouettes and red/gold accents Modifications: None, other than paint and minor decorative customization of the cockpit interior