**The Final Descent**

It would end up being Kalen's last trip down the long lift ride through the umbilical that connected Zerek to the Citadel below. Though he had only been there roughly a dozen times in the past four and a half months, reporting to the Ventressian HQ had become a familiar part of his routine. He even had his own set of quarters there that he had rarely used and had never left any possession in.

“You'll do a great job heading up the Outreach Corps Kalen, TuQ hand picked you for the job.” Tahiri said as the lift began its approximately 3 minute descent down to the Citadel.

“I still can't  believe they're giving this guy a frigate.” Blackhawk, the new Ventress Aedile chimed in.

“I mean, he'll be in command of it, not actually flying it.” Tahiri replied genially.

“Hey! I'm standing right fracking here. And 3 of those crashes weren't my fault!” Kalen was a bit offended. The first crash, had actually been the result of him taking ground fire while circling a drug cartels base of operations while trying to save Blackhawk(who didn't need any saving at all at the time). Another crash had been the result of a docking tractor malfunctioning at the new Naga Sadow space station, and the most recent crash had been caused by the annoying and quasi-sentient Corvuns.

“We know, we're just having some fun at your expense.” Tahiri grinned and patted him on the arm.

“But no, seriously, a Pelta class Frigate is a serious piece of hardware, you should probably let your navigators handle the flying.” Blackhawk snuck in another barb.

“Yeah, yeah. Those RZ-2s, though, I'll be using my ‘Commander’s prerogative’ to take one of those bad boys for a test flight, mark my words.” Kalen smiled, having read the specs on the A-wings he would have as a part of his ‘Corps’.

“Just don't make yourself a mark on the side of an asteroid, hehe. For being 35 years old they're still some of the fastest production fighters in existence.” Blackhawk continued his chiding.

“Fair point.” Kalen relented.

“When are you heading out?” Tahiri asked, having only seen the orders herself the day before.

“Uh, later today. Apparently the team is assembling at Hellas Yards now. I'm going to have Karracca drop me off there and go and pick up that new Defender class Corvette I just bought.

Tahiri just rolled her eyes. She had unintentionally predicted Kalen trading in the Corra 5 for the Corra 6 a few days before in landing the landing bay above them.

“The Defender isn't a corvette dude, it's just a big, long range assault ship.” 

“You can just shut up Hawk, it is a corvette, it's literally in the name bruh.” Kalen said as he pulled up the ship specs on his datalink and showed him.

“See, right there, in the title line, Defender Class LIGHT CORVETTE” The jedi added.

“Gotta hand it to the advertising consultants for recommending that moniker.” Blackhawk laughed.

“Yeah, it's a cool name” Kalen agreed, totally missing the fact that Blackhawk was implying that Kalen had fallen for a classic marketing ploy.