Test Flight
"Daddy, are you sure this is a good idea?"
Cyan Ryder, Commander of the Eternal Alliance was standing on the roof of his personal starship, the Defender, which was hovering above the wilds of Odessen . He walked over and smiled at his eldest daughter, as the wind blew through his dark brown hair.
"Don't worry Kira, I'll be fine." he said, placing a stray lock of ginger hair behind her ear. "It works well enough, besides there's a big lake down there that will probably break my fall, in case it doesn't."
"Geez, you really know how to calm a 7 year old kid, don'tcha" said Vette, who was standing a couple of metres away.
Cyan bent down on one knee and cupped his hand on Kira's cheek. "Whenever I've gone away from you, what do I always say?"
"That you'll always come back."
"And have I ever let you down?"
Kira shook her head vehemently. Then she threw her arms around her father's neck and nuzzled into it. "I love you, Daddy" she mumbled.
Cyan smiled and returned the embrace. "I know sweetie, I love you too"
He stood up and checked that the strange contraption was firmly attached to his back. It looked like a regular jetpack, but it was chunkier at the sides, and housed a lot more circuits. Vette was still curious about it.
"You know, you still haven't told any of us what that thing is" she said, gesturing to the device.
"I haven't, have I?" he said walking away from the duo, and fastening a pair of goggles over his eyes. "Well…" and with that, he threw himself off the front of the ship. Vette and Kira ran over the the bow and peered over the edge, Vette gripping onto Kira's shoulder to make sure she didn't fall. They both saw him dive down onto the clouds and out of sight.
"He'll be alright, won't he?" Kira asked Vette.
"Your Dad might be a little reckless sometimes, but he's not completely stupid. He knows it works" she replied, hoping to herself that she was right.
Meanwhile, far below them, Cyan was hurtling headfirst towards the ground at an alarming speed. He checked his altitude on the head up display in the goggles.
5623 ft
He slowly pulled up into a neutral freefall position, which eased his descent. The mountains and cliffs came into view through the clouds and magnified as they came ever closer.
4867 ft
'Good time to deploy, usually it will be used from standing, so if it can do this, then it will definitely work' thought Cyan. And with that, he activated the device. At the base, the jetpack activated, and propelled him forwards through the air. Simultaneously, on either side of the pack, an wing extended out and glowed blue from the shields being generated there. At that moment, Cyan stopped falling and maintained his height, as the wings did their work.
Cruising at 4355 ft
A smile spread across his features as he glided through the Odessen sky. He banked to the right and brought his chest up, and flew headfirst down towards the lake. As he came down to the surface of the water, he pulled up hard, and reached down with his left hand, and skimmed the surface of the water, and it sprayed up behind him in a trail from the force of the jetpack engine.
He pulled up once more and made his way back up to where Kira and Vette were waiting. He gave the jet one more burst of speed and shot up past them. At the peak of the jump, he retracted the wings and rotated back over his head slowly, and as he descended to be level with the two spectators, he activated the wings and the jet suddenly, and hovered in front of them.
Kira jumped up and down with excitement, in awe of her father, and Vette stared, impressed.
"Wow Commander, looking pretty good over there. I see why you kept it secret until the big reveal" the Twi'lek said.
"You look really cool Dad! I want a go too!"
Cyan laughed, but shook his head. "Not yet, this one is much too big for you, maybe when you get a bit older, OK?"
"Awww"
"So, what is it?" Vette queried.
"The base is just your standard jetpack, but the wings I added for greater maneuverability. The wing skeleton is made from durasteel, but the ings themselves are made from shields. Dual layer of deflector and particle shielding to keep the skeleton from being damaged." He landed himself on the roof of the Defender and faced to two girls. A small pad on his right wristband glowed, and the edge top corner of the right wing snapped to it and locked in place. He held it in front of him as a shield. "Shoot me" he said.
Vette widened her eyes a little. "I don't think that's in my contract"
Cyan just laughed. "It's perfectly safe, I said it was a shield, didn't I?"
Vette hesitantly pulled her blaster from its holster, and set it to stun. "Alright." Quick as a flash, she brought the pistol level, and pulled the trigger. The stun blast hit the wing-shield and dissipated against it.
Cyan smiled as Vette returned the blaster to the holster. "Told you" he said, "And that's not all it does."
He picked up a large length of metal pipe which he left on the roof and held it in his hand.
"What's that for?" Kira asked him.
He threw the pipe high in the air and anticipated its return journey. Cyan smiled and demonstrated the new feature. The top of the wing skeleton glowed blue as it came to life with the characteristic hum of a lightsaber blade. He leaped up in the air as the pipe came down, the centre of the pipe clashed with the humming edge of the wing and was instantly sliced in two. The jetpack activated again, the wings retracted into the pack and he floated slowly back down to the Defender.
Vette grinned at him. "Pretty flashy. Don't suppose it's available for loan?"
"Not yet, still needs some work done to it. Maybe you can take it for a spin when it's more finished."
"I'm gonna hold you to that, you know."
"Oh, I know you will. Come on, let's get back in the ship and go home, yeah?" he said, removing his goggles with one hand, and ruffling Kira's hair with the other.
Kira shook her head to get rid of the messy hair, and skipped back to the hatch which led back to the inside of the ship.
Cyan watched her happily. 'One day, you'll have one Kira.' he thought to himself, 'It's why I created it after all. I know you find it hard, not being force sensitive, but I will always help you.' With that thought in the forefront of his mind, he followed Vette and Kira into the ship, already planning on how to improve the wing-pack.