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Eli13778
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[VE-NAVY] Leading Crewman

Post Number: 45
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Eli: A History of Scars

May 20, 2012 1:23:37 PM

Somewhere in Sinear Fleet Systems testing territory. 6 ABY

Eli walked dutifully into the engineering block of the SFS Creation space station. He scanned the many booths and tables until he spotted the familiar green head and hunched over back. Eli then strode over behind the being. "Okay, this is it. I'm taking the TIE Cyclone out," Eli announced to his father, Dreezeil, who was stooped over the engine of a TIE Oppressor.

The elder Falleen's head snapped up. Dreezeil frowned and turned to his son. He put a hand on Eli's shoulder and looked into his eyes. "Are you sure, Eli? It's only even been an idea for three months. Perhaps more testing would be a wiser idea," Dreezeil cautioned, softly. Eli just shook his head.

"I built this thing from the ground up. It isn't like previous models, dad, that I could jury rig the TIE cockpits and arm braces to already made wing panels. I had to piece it together from scratch. I designed new engines and maneuvering thrusters, just for this model. It's even got the new ionization reactor in it, and that YOU designed. I have put all the data into the simulation programs a hundred times. My engineering team has already cleared the launch. All I need is your blessing."

"You will not even consider my advice?" Dreezeil asked. Eli shook his head disdainfully. "Then you are a fool. Your arrogance has gotten into your head. Just because your past designs have been successful, doesn't mean this is too. You worked longer on the other designs, knowing by logic when they were done. Now with the TIE Cyclone you are following your imagination and gut instinct, and it will not end well."

"You are an old coward and a fool! You know how hard I've worked on this!" spat Eli, the harshness in his voice palpable.

Dreezeil looked stricken. "Fine son. Do what you want."

Eli would have left then, if he had not seen the pain in his father's face, as the Falleen turned back towards his work. "Dad, I'm sorry," Eli soothed putting a hand on his father's shoulder, "I didn't mean to explode like tha-"

Dreezeil shrugged Eli's hand off and said, almost mournfully, "Go. Do the test. If you believe it is ready, I should not have questioned you."

Eli simply nodded, and left his father to complete his work.

Thirty minutes later, Eli was getting in the new prototype, the TIE Cyclone. The starfighter was a beauty. It was a tri- wing design, with the wings of a TIE Interceptor placed at equilateral points around a TIE's ball cockpit, two on the upper right and left and one directly below. Grinning, Eli climbed in, commed in his test run, disengaged the specialized docking magnets, soared out of the station's hangar, and flipped upward 90 degrees, climbing along the hangar's outside wall. The g-force packed on his chest was massive.

Jeez, this thing is so agile, the inertia dampeners can't compensate. Just like I designed it.

Eli turned away from the hangar's wall and into open space. Looking at the screens, he began plotting his test course. Suddenly, his panels began winking out on him.

"What the Hell..." muttered Eli, as he looked up and out of the viewport. The space around him was a tick foggy grey. "Ah, just a cosmic cloud... I'd better return to the hangar till it passes." Eli pulled up on the control yoke, flipping end for end. Again all he saw was stellar fog. "Did I turn too far?" Eli wondered, out loud. No, that's not it. This cloud is just moving fast. Maybe, if I stay put...

At that precise moment, a large rock popped into view. Eli yelped, and rolled out of the way. The rock bounced off of the Cyclone's top right wing, angling the ship slightly downwards. Panicking, Eli threw the Cyclone into full throttle. Moments later, the fog faded, revealing the inside of the hangar Eli had just left, only minutes before. The floor of the hangar came rushing up towards Eli.

The Falleen jerked up on the control yoke, leveling off with the floor. The Cyclone's bottom panel scraped across the durasteel floor, throwing sparks in it's wake. The left side- panel of a TIE Fighter, hanging in it's docking rack, clipped the Cyclone's upper right panel, spinning the prototype on its side.

Eli's world spun, as the Cyclone half rolled, half bounced across the hangar floor. Three agonizingly long seconds, and a hundred meters later, the TIE Cyclone smashed into the hangar's back wall, mid bounce, and disappeared in a fireball. Eli lost consciousness immediately...

And regained it seconds later. His vision was rimmed with dark shadows, and filled with white blotches. His entire body ached. He leaned forward and began to crawl out of the Cyclone's shattered viewport. The front of his flight suit caught on fire, as it passed over the molten glass.

He managed to drag himself halfway out, before his arms gave away on him. For a moment he hung there, helmet sliding off his head, before he tumbled head first out of the viewport, landing on his back. When he hit the floor, a horrible crunching noise emitted from his chest and left leg. He barely heard it over the painful ringing in his ears. Dimly, he realized that his leg and ribs were probably shattered. And, most likely, he had a concussion.

Suddenly, an terrible burning feeling covered his face. The fires must have traveled up from his flight suit. Then, once more, Eli's world went black.

======================

The senior medical officer watched as the burning being fell out of the wreckage. "Men! That pilot's alive! Grab those flame dousers, and let's get over there!" The medical team quickly obliged, and minutes later the Falleen pilot was doused and pulled away from the crash site.

"Ok, men," said the SMO, "let's get this guy to the sick bay and hand him over to Doc."

=====================

Eli woke up for the first time, three days after his accident. His vision seemed too bright and everything pulsed. He laid still for a few minutes, and it passed. He was laying in a bed in the sick bay. The chief surgeon, a human nicknamed Doc, sat at the end of the bed. Eli groaned and Doc's head snapped up.

"Ah, you're awake," the human began. "I know you must be tired so I'll keep this brief. As you well know, you had a horrible crash a few days ago, which left you pretty beat up when you were handed over to me. I was able to fix your broken ribs and leg. I was forced to place a metal plate in your head, in order to brace the concussion. Don't worry, it's not noticeable. I also managed to preserve your perfect eyesight. However, by the time I got to cosmetics, your face had already begun to scar. I CAN take them off, but it requires surgery, and it's your choice."

Eli opened and closed his mouth as he tried to process all of this information. He felt himself begin to shut down again. Doc noticed it too.

"I know, it's a lot to take in. I'll get back to you on you decision. Now-"

Whatever Doc said then, Eli did not hear for he passed out once more.

Eli woke again a few hours later. He saw his father standing over him. Eli tried to smile, but it sent excruciating pain through his face, so he stopped.

"Oh, Eli," Dreezeil said shaking his head.

"Dad, I- I'm," Eli began.

"Don't call me dad," Dreezeil said coldly. "You will address me as 'sir'." Then, the elder Falleen turned heel and walked away. Eli passed out again, soon afterwards, still weeping for his loss.

Eli woke for the third and final time, a day later. This time, Doc was standing over him. "So," said the surgeon, "have you made a decision?" Eli nodded. "Good. I'll prep the reconstructive surgery team at on-"

"No," Eli said firmly.

"What do you mean?" asked Doc, bewildered.

"I want to keep the scars," Eli said in a tone that ordered finality. I want a reminder of this time. Of the time I lost my father.

OOC:: Word count: 1,373

Just the history of the scars on Eli's face. Not much CD but an ok story in my opinion. Please, post any feedback or criticism you have. I need it.

FM/LCW/Eli "Lucky Bolts" Long/B-3/S:137 "Raptor"/W:52"Javelin"/PLF Cappadocious/TF:TH/3Flt/SC/VEN/VE

When you strike your opponent do not bruise or even bloody them. Hit them so hard you take away their capacity to fight back.

[This message has been edited by Eli13778 (edited May 20, 2012 3:19:29 PM)]
[This message has been edited by Eli13778 (edited May 21, 2012 5:51:01 PM)]

Eli13778
ComNet Novice

[VE-NAVY] Leading Crewman

Post Number: 54
Total Posts: 135
Joined: Apr 2012
Status: Offline

RE: Eli: A History of Scars

June 15, 2012 2:38:04 AM

Somewhere in Sinear Fleet Systems testing space. 6 ABY

"Hey, Eli," called out Rocollo. "Come see this. I've got the sims for the TIE Protector up and running. If you want we can run a holo projection now."

The Habeen human looked over at the middle of the room where a large durasteel table sat. On it was a scaled up SIE TIE engine unit in the middle of a sea of wires and random parts. This engine model was to be used on a TIE Arkangel. Eli stood at the far side with an arc welder, installing maneuvering deflector nozzles on the twin engine outputs. The Falleen stood up, lifted the hood of his welding helmet and stared at Rocolo's terminal thoughtfully. "What time is it?" answered Eli.

Rocolo glanced at his chrono and said, "0603."

Eli nodded and responded, "Ok let's do it and be done by 0645. Meanwhile," Eli turned to Tweez and Marc Feal, a Jawa and Human, and continued, "you two take this down to the vacuum lab and set it up for testing. Bring the R7s with you. If I'm not down there by 0700, go ahead and run the standard tests. You know them."

"Ok, I got ya," Marc said, as he activated the table's repulsors, and began to guide it out of the room. Tweez clambered up onto the table and began to clean off all the spare parts and tools.

Eli turned an walked towards Rocolo, who still sat at his terminal. "Pull up the training program TIE Defender Raid and integrate the Protector's schematics and statistics into it. I'll run the trial in the sim."

Tapping on his terminal's screen, Rocolo set up the testing program. By putting the schematics and stats of a starfighter into a training program, research teams could enact battles and other situations to see if the base starfighter design work well or if, say, there was too much stress on the wings and they ripped off when going into a spin, or diving. TIE Defender Raid was the hardest simulation of all. It set the pilot against a flight of TIE Defenders with one objective: protect the unarmed Carrack- class cruiser. When Eli had run the sim on veteran pilots, who were in TIE Avengers, the average pilot got one kill and lasted under 45 seconds.

Rocolo watched as Eli dropped into the sim module and shut the hatch. The training program had already been activated, and Rocolo knew that Eli would go over it over, and over, till he knew the craft he was piloting could withstand every maneuver and stand up to increased fire.

So the Habeen decided to sit back and mentally evaluate his project manager.

Rocolo had worked with Eli for three years. At first Eli had been fairly free-spirited. It was odd, for Eli was a Falleen, a species known for its cold, calculating mentality, and its tendencies to not venture off Falleen very often. Dreezeil, Eli's father, broke both of those habits, for the most part. And thus Eli was calculating, yet he showed emotion clearly. He worked well in the Research and Development section of the Sinear Fleet System's space-fairing station the Creation. He took in TIE projects like air and breathed out exemplary results. And, he was only 12. That all changed, however, when Eli crashed the TIE Cyclone after an argument with Dreezeil. And, word was that Dreezeil had privately disowned his son. Whatever the case was, Eli came out of the accident changed. He was now a cool, calculating perfectionist. All business, creativity only when the situation demanded it. He was promoted to Chief of TIE craft R&D on the Creation and was assigned, by Raith Sinear himself mind you, the extension of the TIE Defender project. Rocolo still remembered the specified orders. If anything, the craft were meant for the buyers to have affordable, TIE Defender based craft to build a fleet. There were three ships assigned for Eli to produce; the TIE Protector- a space superiority fighter, the TIE Guardian- an assault fighter, and the TIE Archangel- a bomber meant to take on capital ships.

What had confused Rocolo, was the buyer. The Emperor died a little over a year ago, and the Empire had broken into factions. To Rocolo's knowledge, none of the factions had enough financial status to purchase and maintain anything over TIE Interceptors. Eli had guessed that Sinear wanted sturdy designs for when the time came. Rocolo had to accept that explanation for lack of a better option.

Eli had been excellent in creating designs to fit the exact specifications. Now, a year and a half later, Eli and his team, Rocolo, Tweez, and Marc, were in the process of building the three craft and pushing them through the final tests. Eli worked obsessively. He was a perfectionist, drawing out every detail. He was working himself into the ground. Everything had to be exactly right when these models were done, because if they weren't, Eli believed he could never re-earn the respect of Dreezeil.

That, Rocolo could understand. His own father had deserted him at a Sinear recruiting station, some years back, with no money or way to get off the world. That was how Rocolo had gotten to where he was now, working on the Creation. And, if Eli felt similar to Rocolo, the scars on the Falleen's face weren't the only ones he'd gotten from that crash.

OOC:: Word count: 892

This post keeps talking about Eli's position and job on the Creation from a colleague's point of view. It gives some insights on the effect of Dreezeil's final words to Eli.

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