Juviest raises his hands in theatrical surrender as Djebelle snaps at him. "Alright, alright. Don't need to get that snappy about some fossil's ignorance. Far's I knew, everyone doing those weird things with the Force was a Jedi. Young folk always tossing labels left and right.", he chuckles. "On a serious note, though, sorry for my lack of knowledge on the matter.", he replies gravelly, before showing a tobacco-stained grin. "And don't have to worry about me turning you in and never working again. It's more of a hobby, especially without my license.", he chuckles.
He opens his coat, twirling his oversized blaster pistols (or undersized blaster rifles), then holsters them back in. "Well, let's go hunt ourselves a mystery. Might even get to tell the story one day.", he says, putting the flask on his belt, running a finger on the brim of his hat and setting off into the pilot's cabin to put in the final landing coordinates.
outside the ship the air is hot and dry with a slight hot breeze. For the first time you notice the canyon walls have cave openings, more than you can count.
The building, clearly what was a temple, is mostly square at the base 30 meters per side. It rises in a slightly tiered ziggurat like shape for 30 meters coming to a weathered point. A single opening is evident in the structure a small door sized opening facing toward the open chasm floor.
Kara reaches up with her left hand and toys with the comm control. "What did you say?" she asks irritably.
Djebelle's expression changes focus for a moment, as if she's listening to a voice that only she can hear.
Her posture relaxes, and she smiles slightly. "It's ok, I'm expected. You guys wait here. I won't be long."
With that, she heads towards the temple doorway.
Juviest shrugs.
"Don't think nobody said anything, LT.", Juviest replies. "Djeb, I've got a bad feeling about this.", he says, reaching for his flask. "And I was really eager to come just about two minutes ago."
Thrask body shivers slightly and he lashes his Rykk blade in place. When he sees the small female move forward, he can't let anything like fear hold him in place.
He strides forwards and becomes Djebelle's overgrown shadow. "Nothing doing, I was hired as a bodyguard. I'm not staying outside and having to possibly carry a corpse home...well not one I don't create"" he said with a bit of aggression that he shouldn't have. He already seemed on edge and expecting a fight.
"Dammit Juviest, someone said 'do not enter'." Kara snaps. "Keep the comms clear people! This isn't time to goof around!"
She was on edge. She didn't like this place, and she didn't like Djebelle's sudden sense of joy either.
"Negative, Djeb." She growls at the purple-haired woman. "No one goes alone."
Juviest shrugs.
Juviest frowns. "We know, LT. That's why I said, nobody said anything. Could've been you thinking out loud." He grunts. "Like you said, Trandoshan, we either all go in, or none of us do. Djeb, you sure you don't want the mystery to remain a mystery?", Juviest says quietly, putting a careful hand on his blasters. Real tempted to knock her out and just carry her back. Though I gotta live with her after that, and that's going to be real unpleasant.
Djebelle sighs, and turns to face her stubborn companions. "I appreciate your concerns, really, I do. You're better bodyguards than I deserve, given what a liability I can be..." she carefully avoids everyone's gaze. "But this? This is something I can't do with you - you aren't invited. Tell you what." She pats the oversized blaster pistol at her hip. "You hear this go off, or a grenade, or a scream, you come running, ok? But otherwise - you've got to trust me. I'm invited, and you aren't - and that's all there is to it."
The temptation to use her powers to make them do what she wants is almost overwhelming - but she knows that if she takes that route, there's no going back. Nobody would ever trust her again.
Including herself.
If you mess with your friends like that for a good reason, sooner or later you'll do it for a bad reason; and after a while, you won't need a reason at all, beyond 'because I can.'
She vaguely wonders if that's how Palpatine started out.
Aneira cocks her head much as if she was trying to tune in to a delicate comms frequency, her eyes grow almost imperceptibly wider and she shakes her head.
Well whatever the heck is here, it doesn't want us, and judging by Djebelle's response to it, she's expected.
Frowning slightly she sits down cross-legged and pulls out her computer, determined to put the down time to use in some way.
Peering over her shoulder you can see she's cross referencing locations and history files about other architectures similar to the temple.
Aristi goggles at the others. "Force? Jedi? I thought all that was a myth!" Just when I thought I was getting to know this crew! He scowls a bit as he mulls over all the implications of this information, but in the end decides to support Djebelle out there on the surface facing whatever it was she needed to face. However, her insistence on facing this alone and a powerful, physical urge to stay away from this place causes him to hold back.
"Hmm, maybe I'll stay by here with the ship. I'll keep checking the scopes for any surprises." He busies himself with gearing up the ship for a detailed sensor sweep of the area.
Computers check to perform sensor sweep of environs for any other ships or lifeforms or energy readings - 2 successes, 1 threat
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Thrask snorts and stares down at Djebelle sizing her up for probably the uptenth time since the group has been together. His jaw clenches as he looks at the tiny female then up at the building then back at her. A long low hiss leaks out before he finally says something.
"I charge extra for waiting, and even more for running after someone...you better be able to pay up" he said staring her down.
Kara looks at Djebelle for a long minute. Then glances at the others, finally taking in Thrask's response. She sighs.
"Fine." She says, looking back at the temple...building...whatever. She pulls her helmet off and sets it on the ground, using it as an impromptu seat. "We'll wait."
Djebelle smiles impishly up at the Trandoshan, and at Kara - if they're willing to back her on this, she's good to go. Time to get going, before anyone changes their mind.
Turning quickly, she paces up to the door and opens it - but not so quickly that she's hasty. Look before you leap, and all that. Well, she's going to look. If she gets herself killed doing this, Kara will never let her hear the end of it.
Aristi looks up from the ship controls. "Nothing on the scopes. Not sure who she's planning to meet out there, but there's nothing in sight."
Juviest points out towards the bone pile. "Well, that's a bit disturbing. Reckon that qualifies enough for us to go inside?", he asks, lighting up his cigar calmly. "I'd rather be in a firefight than here right now.", he remarks on the eerie mood. "Hopefully that's not prophetic. Universe isn't exactly keen on making my wishes come true." He bites the cigar, exhaling a cloud of fumes. "Anyone feel like telling an interesting story, now's the time. Even if it's about their people's ancient history. Folks always wanna talk about this one."
Djebelle's face is suddenly wet as half-buried memories flood back. She never allows herself to remember this; and yet, here it is. This must be just before the Great Sickness took them away (along with half the slums on the planet) and she was fostered. You wanna learn how to read people, how to charm them, how to get what you want when everyone around is bigger than you, more entitled than you... Face it, hon: you couldn't have asked for better training.
She dries her eyes, mopping her face with her cloak. Where she's come from has made her what she is; these are sad memories, but that's all they are. This isn't real, now. It is past - a past she can own, if she has to.
Funny how she can remember their voices, even what they argued about, but not their faces. Actually, not that funny, really.
She swallows the lump in her throat and pushes the door open.
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Kara pulls her knife and starts cleaning under her nails. She doesn't really need it because of the gloves she wears with her armor, but...well...habits.
"I'll tell you a story old man," she begins, focused on her nails and not looking up, "maybe pass the time."
She sighs. "We were on Tanis, simple sector sweep, looking for a rebel base. We got the intel from a captured reb spy," she flicks a quick glance at Aniera, "and we were pretty confident we knew where to look. Of course Tanis had been overrun by the rakghoul plague, so we were wary. But, ImpSec told us that virus had run it's course decades earlier. he assured us there were no traces of the virus left on Tanis. Guaranteed it, even."
"So we conducted the sweep by the numbers: aerial recon followed by a ground recon. As usual, the flyboys were useless. Only this time I couldn't blame them, that jungles and those ruins could hide a starship. Turns out, they did. Hide a starship, that is. We found the Indomitable late on the second day of the op. Our team leader decided to make camp inside the wreck. 'More defensible', he said. Hard to argue with that, we had already had run-ins with the local fauna. They didn't exactly recognize humanities inherent superiority, if you know what I mean. Those nexu are fiercely territorial, and aren't afraid of anything. So we set up in a bay just inside the ship, and barricaded the doors to the jungle side. Sensor sweeps didn't reveal any lifeforms inside, so we just posted two sensor droids to check that side. Otherwise, standard operating procedure: two on watch, hour rotations, that sort of thing."
Kara pauses cleaning her nails, staring at the ground in front of her. "I was on watch, probably 0300, when the droids started beeping alarms like crazy. We barely had time to turn before they were on us. Rakghouls. Dozens of them. Fast as a nexu, and more agile. And they never made a sound, not when they were rushing us, not when they were hit, not when they tore a man's arm off... It was nightmarish. The blaster fire, the screams of the dying, and those damn rakghouls, silent as the grave."
"We fought for our lives. The rakghouls weren't looking for victims to add to their numbers, they were looking for food, and that ain't no way to go." Kara's voice becomes tense, grated. "The 3rd may be hard, but we never faced anything like that. In the end, it was Captain T'kellen that saved us. I was down, blaster empty, and had one of those things on me, trying tear my throat out. I managed to gut him," Kara holds her knife just so, "but he kept at me. Then there was this tremendous explosion, shredding that ghoul and knocking him clear. The blast deafened me, and I was dazed for what seemed like hours. When I finally could stand, bleeding from the ears and nose, I looked around. First thing I did was reload my carbine, but in that state, if there were any more of those things, I was easy meat."
"Apparently the Captain had detonated the breaching charges we brought. He killed himself, but that blast saved us...sort of. We were in bad shape. Of the twelve of us that went in the Idomitable that night only two of us lived. Me, and Kessler. I only survived because that rakghoul had me down behind some heavy shipping container. Otherwise, I'd be hamburger back there like the rest."
Kara pauses for a long while, still staring at the sand by her feet. "I called for a dustoff. Kessler needed a medic asap. They told us it would be 10 minutes, so I did what I could for him. I was bandaging the tears in his gut when he grabbed my arm. Scared the hell out of me because I thought he was unconscious. He dragged me down so I could hear him."
'Kill me.' He whispered, breathing hard.
'No damn way, Kessler.' I said. 'Medevac is due in ten mikes, we're getting outta here.'
"He gripped my arm harder, pulling me down almost against his face."
'Kill me, Savyn!' He croaked fiercely, 'You know what the rakghoul virus will do! You know! Kill me!'
"That hit me hard. I did know. We'd all had the briefings before we hit Tanis, but that damn IMPSEC..." Kara puts her knife away and grips her knees with both hands, but doesn't look up. "I pulled my arm loose from Kessler and stood up. Like some kind of machine I pulled my pistol, and pointed it at his head. He looked me in the eyes, then closed his slowly. Then I pulled the trigger."
Another long silence.
"I was sitting outside the Indomitable when the dustoff arrived ten minutes later. The bay burned behind me - I had set a few thermite bombs off to clean up the mess."
'I want a full report, Lieutenant! What the hell happened here?' The ImpSec officer shouted, in my face once I boarded the evac shuttle.
'Go screw yourself.' I replied, over the roar of the engines as we lifted off.
'What did you say, Lieutenant?' He yelled again, this time up in my face.
'I said...go screw yourself...sir.'
"His face got all red, and he grabbed my arm." 'I'll see you court-martialed for that, Lieutenant! I want to know what happened down there, and you'll tell me NOW!'
"I looked at him, down at his hand on me, and back in his face. Then I grabbed him by the collar and by the crotch, and heaved him out the open door of the shuttle. The pilot just looked at me, all blood and tatters, and said:
'I never liked that sonuvab@%@~ anyway.'
Aneira raises an eyebrow at Kara's story, grinning at her final line, but she then tilts her head as if concentrating on something.
Hmm, I think I ought to go and check the perimeter, be back in a minute...
She waves off any offers of help and heads straight towards one of the nearby caves.
Juviest listens to the story attentively, offering his flask. He lights up his cigar as the scream sounds, calmly patting his duster backwards. "Helluva story, LT, I mean it." He says, looking around the planet, fingers moving cautiously. "Force, you might've even convinced me there's a person under all that soldier. Had me fooled a couple of times." He talks slowly, trying to look all around for danger. As Aneira starts leaving, he raises a brow. "Now, you think that's wise? Whatever we're facing, we're outgunning. Hadn't felt like the only one in my head since we landed, and I doubt Admiral Handell's Aged Corellian's going to silence the voices, and he's had a couple of admirable attempts already." He turns around, trying to cover other fields of view. "I say we stick to each other. Back me up here, someone."
Thrask listens intently, there was nothing like a tale of the hunt to pass the time. His eye ridge raised and he looked off towards the first noise and his nostrils. His hand goes the the Rykk blade and checks the lashings.
He looks up at Juviest "I can survive a quick look...that shriek could've been the tiny one." he said as he started walking down towards the first scream. " Stay together, if I have to sniff you all out, I'm gonna be pissed if I'm walking all over this planet" he said not noticing the red female leave.
This place put Kara in a mood - a bad one. She barely acknowledges Juviest's comments, just a quick nod without looking at him. her snaps around at the first scream, then the second. Then Aniera gets up to go off alone, followed by Thrask in some other direction, and Juviest in another.
'...has everyone lost their minds?'
She looks around at the group breaking up for the separate caves and shakes her head. Then she looks at the Folly.
'...I can fly that thing...'
She puts her head back down, coming to a decision. Let them go. She's not in the mood to babysit.
Aristi looks up from the ship's controls to see much of the group heading off. "Uh, guys? Do you really want to go in there?" The Bothan suddenly realizes he's alone. With Kara. Gulp.
A third scream shouts out from yet another direction. This time a reponse from the first two directions.
Aristi observes Kara. Outwardly, she seems utterly calm. Aristi shakes his shaggy head as he turns back to the controls, trying to boost and refine the sensors. "I'm going to see if I can boost the sensor system to track everyone's progress within the cave." As the systems are recalibrating, he also works away with the comms. "Juviest? Thrask? Aneira? You reading? I'll try to track your position, so we can find you if something untoward happens."
Computers check to rig sensors to track members of the party within the structure. - 2 Success, 2 Threat
Djebelle hesitates; the memory of Benjamon is strong, and this resemblance to him is uncanny. This is not the same scene, however, and the emotions she felt then - desire, hope, and yes, the beginnings of love - are now overlaid with the subsequent betrayal. That's not a scene she wants to revisit.
With some difficulty, she tears her gaze away from Benjamon and toward the other figure. "This is a test, isn't it? Bad memories from my past? What's next - the scene where I couldn't shoot the storm-trooper, and Kara had to rescue me?" Reaching out with her mind, she tries to subtly influence the other's decision making. "I think you've done enough - we can stop this, now. Whatever the test is, I've passed."
The Force is amazingly strong with her, present to a degree that she has never experienced before.
She approaches, calling out softly
Hello?...
Thrask licks his lips when he saw the creature. He heard over the comms the furry little bothan and clicked his comm in the affirmative. He hunkered down a bit low and began to stalk after his prey, at least something might appease the Scorekeeper on this planet.
His hands moved over the floor attempting to find the tracks, it was rough.
He tried to rely on his senses to get him along but the sounds bouncing off the cavern made it difficult.
on the chasm floor the screeches are starting to increase in number and intensity.
Djebelle is - momentarily - speechless at the question; dumbfounded.
"You what?!?!? ANGRY?" The disbelief in her voice is almost physical. Suddenly she starts to laugh, and can't stop: huge waves of hiccuping, bubbling laughter, welling up from within her. She doubles over, wheezing with mirth.
Hugely inappropriate, most likely. Undignified, almost certainly.
Between fits of the giggles, she tries to explain.
"Of COURSE I'm not angry with her - she saved my life - she's my friend - gah - if you want to see anger, you should try this test of yours on her..." That thought is enough to set her off again; it's some moments before she recovers.
Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, she does her best to answer the question more seriously. "Ahem. No. Not angry - I'm grateful to her for saving my life. I'm grateful for all of my friends; they brought me here, and they're standing out there, waiting for me, trusting me even when I said I had to come in here alone. I wouldn't be here without them. Like, literally not here. I'd be a corpse on the floor of a space station."
She looks at her questioner blankly. "Sorry, but that's the best I can explain it. If you don't understand now, you won't ever."
Kara is stirred from her reverie by the increasing sounds all around her. "Juviest, best get ready. I don't think these are screams of joyous rapture if you know what I mean." She says to the old Sullustan next to her. Then she trips the group comms channel. "Team. Heads up. Things are starting to get hot out here. Everyone check in."
The Chiss soldier takes her helmet and shakes out the loose sand. Then she sets it on her head, clearing the filtration system. She hefts the Czerka carbine and makes sure the action of the weapon is clear. Lastly, she moves to the ramp of the ship, placing herself so that whatever is making those shrieks can't get at her back.
'...now we wait...'
Thrask stops and stands still trying to get his bearings and let his eyes adjust. He taps his comm "We're not alone, many beasts...." he said as he let his Rykk blade tap the floor and start to scrape. He was getting annoyed at their ability to hide so perhaps a little noise might bring one in for him to examine.
Juviest lights up his cigar. "Well, I ain't never heard a scream of joyous rapture. They're more like, cries, if you know what I mean." He unclasped his holsters' safety. "You take left, I take right?", he suggests, letting out a cloud of smoke, then offering his flask.
Kara takes Juviest's offer, taking a quick hit from the falsk. Then she let's out a short laugh. "Never drank before an op, next thing, you'll be having me smoking those things too."
Then she gets serious. "Roger that. Stay together, back to back so we can't get flanked. Keep talking so we know how we're doing. I don't want to find you have more than you can handle when the claws or whatever come tearing up my back."
Kara trips the comms again. "Roger Thrask. Multiple tangos. Unknown type. Don't be a hero, big fella. We are keeping access to the ship clear. Aneira. Djeblle. Finish the seance or whatever you're doing and let's go. Aristi. Keep those sensors working." Then she settles into a scanning routine: left to right, up and down. Opening her peripheral vision to try and catch any sudden movements.
"Roger that, Kara. These rocks are making for hard work for the sensors, it's hard to get a fix on everyone. I'll keep engines prepped in case we need to get out of here quick." He keeps scanning the sensor systems to try to make some sense of the situation outside.
Juviest grumbles, chomping his cigar. "Well, I ain't offering them. Way too expensive. Can lend you one, though.", he smirks, letting out a puff. "'m I the only one thinking those things are probably smarter than half our crew? Myself included, 'course.", he comments. "Whoever gets more, buys the rounds in the next watering hole. Sounds fair, LT?" He pulls out his oversized blasters, twirling them around and aiming them at the beasts. "Hm. Reckon those things fetch a good price? Aristi, what's your estimate? And once you're done with that, tell everyone to get the hell here.", the old bounty hunter asks casually.
"Dammit people. WE ARE OUT OF TIME!" Kara snarls into the comms. She didn't know how she knew, but she just knew.
They were coming.
"You're on old man." Kara turned to put her back to Juviest's and leveled her carbine.
Perception 2S
Scanning the ravine on her side she spotted them, moving on all fours, but with the capability to use two limbs. '...bet they're fast...' She doesn't intend to give them the chance.
Blaster Carbine 3S, 2T
The sounds of the Czerka firing rolls down the ravine, the deep thrum of the round drowning out the shrieks. Her shot hits one of the beasts square in the chest.
Suddenly she is back on Tanis. Back in the hull of that damned ship, the rakghouls on her squad, tearing...biting...the screams... Her heart thumped in her chest and her breathing grew harsh as the memories flooded back.
Djebelle rolls her eyes at the lecture. She must be dealing with Jedi - they have nothing in the way of a sense of humour. "No wonder you guys all got wiped out... forgot how to have fun" she mutters under her breath.
Nevertheless, she does as she is told and continues walking down the passageway.
"I prefer aged, LT.", Juviest replies with a sly grin, opening fire on the incoming beasts.
2S, 1A, taking Aim as a maneuvre.
Two blaster shots dart in the distance, the smell of ionised air leaving the barrels. A shot lands straight in the neck of a beast, and another one lands on the leg. "Pudu!", Juviest exclaims, as he sees the swarm emerge, using the barrel to prompt his hat up. "There's going to be someone in the endangered species database, so let's make sure it's them, rather than us!" The old Sullustan is seemingly enjoying the situation way too much.