Jedi'ing it up

[Sorel Crieff]

Bakura was a rich, green and blue planet in the Bakura system of the Shiritoku Spur, located on the isolated edge of the Outer Rim, formally a part of Wild Space. It was also on the doorstep of the First Order. It was most famous as the site of a historic truce between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic immediately following the Battle of Endor, shortly before the Invasion of Bakura.

None of which explained why the two Jedi were approaching the planet.

A fleet of starships orbited the moon's primary. Carbon streaks scored the sides of several ships. Droids swarmed around some, performing repairs. Metal shards that had been critical spaceship components, and human and alien bodies, orbited with the ships. Pirate activity in the region had cost the lives of too many and the two young Jedi were assigned to assist in any way they could.

Sorel hustled across one cruiser's landing bay, red-eyed. Passing a huddle of droids, she caught a whiff of coolants and lubricants. She ached, a dull gnawing in all her bones from the longest day of her life. For now, she merely wanted to check on her X-wing fighter.

To her surprise, it was overrun by service crew. Behind and above it, a magnacrane lowered Kaytoo into the cylindrical droid socket behind her cockpit. "What's up?" Sorel asked, standing to catch her breath.

"Oh!” answered a khaki-suited crewman, disengaging a collapsible fuel hose, "you and your fellow Jedi have been asked to scramble. We intercepted a communication to a drone ship - one of those antiques they used to use for carrying messages back before the Clone Wars. Incoming from deep space. We are unsure if it has anything to do with the pirates. But we need to be sure.”

Without waiting to hear more, Sorel spun toward the ready-room. A minute later, she was hopping back and pulling up one leg of an orange pressure suit.

Crewers scattered. She sprang up the ladder and into her inclined, padded seat, yanked on her helmet, then touched on the ship's fusion generator. A familiar high-energy whine built around her.

Sorel closed her cockpit canopy and ran a record speed check of her systems and instruments. Nothing flagged her attention.

She switched on her comlink. “Ready for takeoff."

"Opening hatch, ma’am.”

She punched in the drive. An instant later, the dull ache in her body turned to ferocious pain. All the stars in ers field of vision split into binaries and spun around each other. Crew’s voices babbled in her ears. Dizzily, she reached down inside herself for the quiet centre Master Ike had taught her to touch.

To touch.

There.

Exhaling one trembling breath, she measured her mastery of the pain. Stars shrank into singular gleams again. Whatever had caused that, she'd deal with it later. Through the Force, she quested outward and found Dorne’s presence. Her hands moved on the X-wing's controls almost effortlessly as she steered towards him.

“Dorne, do you copy?" Sorel asked over the subspace radio. She vectored out among the big ships of the Fleet. Scanners indicated that the nearest heavy transport was cautiously moving away from something much smaller.

Spoiler

Left it open for any type of fun adventure given the message could be anything.

[member="Dorne Calato"]

 

[Dorne Calato]

It had been... a month, since Dorne left behind his home world forever, and, to cope with his grief like a man, trained ferociously with star fighter, lightsaber and Force powers. He meditated the rest of the time, trying to control his emotions before they overwhelmed him. Never be blind to the injustices around you. His father taught him that, and being assigned by Master Ike to deal with pirates was just the thing. His mind quickly went to how to create patrols, levy local militias, and chain of supply, but for now he must be more hands-on, like the Jedi Knights of old, who wandered and kept the peace wherever they went.

He had forsaken his noble garb and titles, all of it, out of necessity and found himself now in the humble garb of a Jedi padawan or in today's case, a flight suit. Dorne had wordlessly followed behind, his craft launching a stone's throw away from Sorel. His father's very, very old D7 Jedi Interceptor, along with a very old astromech droid who acted as curmudgeon-y as his age, hummed to life and followed behind. It was perhaps poetic that he flew an antique from the Clone Wars, having only yet been upgraded with basic, modern systems. Upgrades the old astromech droid ba-humbugged, assuring Calato they needed no such things.

“Dorne, do you copy?" Sorel asked over the subspace radio. She vectored out among the big ships of the Fleet. Scanners indicated that the nearest heavy transport was cautiously moving away from something much smaller.

"I read you Sorel, over." Calato said over comms, burying grief beneath duty. He now eyed the debris and remnants of the piracy. The sight of space and the stars were mundane to the former prince, and he focused on the situation. Justice would be delivered swiftly and with little remorse for these crimes against the innocent. He thought.

Calato's droid beeped in a condescending tone towards him, and made some choice words about his unmanly crying. Calato ignored him much like some senile old uncle, but heeded the scans. "I see we have movement just beyond the next asteroid. Moving to investigate, over." The Jedi Interceptor he flew was more faster and more nimble than the famed X-wing, but at the cost of being more lightly armored and less armed. Calato served willingly as vanguard, moving ahead of Sorel but not too quickly as to be out of her range of assistance.

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel spotted the interceptor. Ahead of it was what her scanners identified as a nine-meter-long cylinder, fully as long as the X-wing and almost all engine, a type of drone ship that couldn’t come cheap. For some reason, the drone gave her an eerie foreboding. It was an antique. Why had it been used now?

Sorel whistled. "No, wonder they wanted someone to take a look.”

Closing in, Sorel reversed engines with care. She used short, delicate engine bursts to match her momentum with the cylinder. Her fellow Jedi was already in position.

“Kaytoo," she called, "what's the reach on your manipulator arm? If I got in close enough, could you connect with it?”

‘No--2.76 meters short at optimum angle,’ appeared on her head-up display.

Sorel frowned. Sweat trickled on her forehead. Anything small, solid, and disposable would help. If they didn't hurry, who knows what safety features the device had and it could explode at any moment.

“Ideas?” she asked over the open comms channel.

[member="Dorne Calato"]

 

[Dorne Calato]

Calato tried to make good of what he saw, some manner of unmanned craft, it's purpose and intent unknown. Short of getting out of his interceptor he would not learn anything. He knew nothing.

"Let's see how it reacts to debris." Raising one hand and gesturing with it, he demonstrated some knack with telekinesis he reached out to a piece of floating ship hull the size of a speeder. He shuddered a bit to see a space suit... with the owner still inside... and had the debris bump into the droid ship to elicit a reaction.

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel saw what Calato was doing. His effort didn't cause anything to happen, which she found a little reassuring, given how close they were to it. The last thing they needed was for it to explode.

She closed her eyes and entered Force Sight. The hull was metal but thin, and so she could see through it from this distance. Inside were what appeared to be standard ship parts but in addition she saw what she assumed was a small explosive and a device. Some sort of booby trap.

She made sure her face-mask was secure and popped the hatch open. She allowed one of her sabers to drift free before closing the hatch again. Clenching her teeth, Sorel eased into a closer accord with the saber, controlling it. All her practice in Faalo's Cadences was paying off. So long as he focused on the saber, she could maintain control. "Se felt the saber, the crystal that comprised the key element of the booby-trap, and the critical gap, all as parts of the universe's wholeness.

Sorel's saber cut into the hull. A crystal soared free, reflecting a whirling green kaleidoscope onto the X-wing's upper S-foil.

Sorel bit her lip in concentration. She stabilized the tumbling saber and deactivated its blade. She breathed a sigh of relief and pulled the saber back to her ship.

"You can reel it in and see what it has to offer," she offered to her fellow Jedi.

[member="Dorne Calato"]

 

[Dorne Calato]

So far, so good. Ser Dorne projected confidence at all times and kept his worries to himself. He saw that Sorel had deftly cut into the ship and extracted something. He flew closer as well but stayed in his Interceptor, using his Telekinesis to steady the ship and turn it around to get a better view for himself and Sorel, keeping a nearby asteroid handy as cover.

Calato huffed, as the manipulation felt like good exercise. Now he join Sorel in space, the vast silence dissonant with the scene of carnage. Using his suit's CO2 thrusters he drifted closer, within arm's reach of his ally. Not quite proficient with the more subtle applications of the force, he carefully opened up the ship for them, while warned of the explosive. He removed that and sent it towards a nearby asteroid, then looked at the contents. Over the comms he spoke, "This... this is scrap. Perhaps we are dealing with simple looters, and the droid is automated to collect salvage? Quite the defense though... unless they intended for it to be found and tampered with." He speculated as best he understood the situation, sharing his insight with Sorel.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

"Somewhere, somehow, there's a message on that hunk of metal. A message important enough to place on this. We need to find it. It could be something physical or data encrypted in the ship's memory. So let's have a look shall we?"

Sorel spoke to her droid. "Fancy going over there and helping out? You could find something to plug into."

The droid bleeped a response.

"I'm here to make sure you're OK, trust me."

The droid bleeped again and left the X-wing and headed over to the now drifting ship.

[member="Dorne Calato"]

 

[Dorne Calato]

The young lordling readily assisted Sorel and Kaytoo in the endeavor, figuring out where its access panel would be.

Bored, Calato's droid started beeping on the comms over the lack of action. "...We will see battle in time, Navi. Justice may be blind, but it knows only to punish the guilty." Calato responded to Navigator's remarks with such a boring, high-nosed maxim.

Navi continued beeping, this time taking a jab at K2. "Your age does not make you superior to Kaytoo, Navi. If anything you should have retired by now, perhaps teach young astromech droids their arithmetic." Calato retorted again, trying to pick a word fight with his droid.

But alas, Calato was lacking in his verbal sparring. NV-G8 made a precise low-blow about how Calato looked at Sorel back on their home ship. "Sorel is a fellow padawan of master Ike! I don't..." Calato blushes and loses his cool for a second, and pauses to compose himself. He speaks to Sorel without looking at her, turning the droid ship telekinetically and finding an access port for him.

"I apologize... Navi is ancient, like an annoying uncle who's had much to drink. Kaytoo, whenever you're ready."

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel was too focused on the task in hand to worry about what the droid was saying, or her fellow Jedi for that matter. "No worries," she said dismissively, "no need for apologies, we have a job to do."

Between them, they were able to identify the source of the hidden message. It was encrypted data that the droids between them were able to decipher. With a triumphant beep, Kaytoo put the message on to the displays of both pilots. It was coordinates. No sooner had the numbers and letters been shared than its relevance was also shown.

What it revealed was not obvious. But the where was. Hoth. "I hope you packed something warm," Sorel said, "looks like we're going somewhere you'll need gloves and a scarf."

[member="Dorne Calato"]

 

[Dorne Calato]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

"Did I mention I came from an ice world from the outer rim?" Calato said with a smirk, the mention that they'd be going to another making him unfazed. Not to mention he had some of his old clothes.

He returns to his interceptor, and commands his droid again. "Well then. Navi, set a course for... Hoth."

The droid beeped in reply, feigning deafness. "Not home, Hoth." He said impatiently, the droid still getting on his nerves. He prepared to follow Sorel to Hoth and see what this merry chase was all about.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel smiled, "No, you didn't mention it - but it's a good thing. I've been there once before and it's fair to say it's very, very cold."

Kaytoo set the coordinates and Sorel took advantage of the hyperspace journey to meditate and recover. Once the blur of lights returned to pin-pricks, she felt refreshed and checked the coordinates against known records.

She opened a comms channel to Calato. "Wampa Valley, that's where we're headed. Not surprisingly, it's home to a large number of wampas. Apparently it was linked to something called Echo Base via a tunnel, which was blocked off by someone called the Rebel Alliance, but was reopened during the Battle of Hoth. At the end of the valley, there is apparently an abandoned Rebel Base. Any ideas what we might find there?"

[member="Dorne Calato"]

 

[Dorne Calato]

They arrive above Hoth, and once again he hears from Sorel. "We will have to find out, won't we?" He assured her. He examined the planet's data, trying to discern what he could.

Once they'd made planetfall on a high point above the Valley, Calato put on his old vestments from home, the black fur lined coat making it warm for him. He even had a spare coat if Sorel wanted, it was warmer yet also more luxurious than any standard winter gear. It was also very chic and black. Pricey, fitting for a former prince. "...Feels just like home. Wish I brought my Kybucks." he commented, as he surveyed the world, the sheer white landscape almost glaring. "What's a Wampa?" He asked, not familiar

As usual, Navi had such a snappy remark I won't write down what it was. Calato frowned at Navi. "...I'll leave you to the Wampas, Navi. Watch the ships and Kaytoo."

"Well then. I suppose it's downhill from here. Keep your senses about." He said to Sorel, reassuring himself by clutching his lightsaber's hilt.

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

“Now this is what you call cold!” Sorel said as they landed. Her voice broke the silence that permeated the frozen planet. Save for the sound of the wind, there was nothing to hear.

She stared at the white wastelands of Hoth, there was an overwhelming feeling of loneliness here. No intelligent lifeforms existed on this cold planet. All that she had seen on her previous visit was barren white plains and ranges of blue-tinged mountains that seemed to vanish in the mists of the distant horizons.

Sorel smiled at how well wrapped her fellow Jedi was. She was dressed no differently to how she was on the ship — standard robes and a cloak. Around her wrist was the bracelet her Master had gifted her. It’s uses were simple. Firstly it filtered out toxic elements in the air around her — meaning she could not be poisoned by a gas. And secondly it kept her cool in warm climates and warm in cool ones. Right now she could not feel Hoth's frigid winds. But she was still peering out at the icy wastes through her goggles — the bracelet could not stop snow blowing into her eyes.

“Wampas? Can’t say I’ve met one and to be fair, I’m not hoping to. Now, let’s see what was so important we had to come here to find it.”

[member="Dorne Calato"]

 

[Dorne Calato]

Calato was being the gentleman and blazed the trail for them, following the holo-map to the location of the hidden base. Snow began to collect in his growing beard, while he navigated the snow with familiarity.

After what seemed like an eternity, they made their way to the massive Blast Door that served as the only visible sign of the old base. It barred their way in. "Well... here it is. Is the power even on?" He asked, looking around for the door's controls. He was being a good guardian and always scanned his surroundings, and keeping his saber within reach.

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel followed Calato through the snowy wasteland. “The winds are picking up,” she said. “And these chilling winds bring unendurable temperatures to the plains after nightfall, so we need to make shelter before too long or turn back.”

At the point where returning to the ship became the sensible call, they sighted the base and pressed on — spurred by the view of shelter.

Finally they reached the blast door. Sorel attempted a smile, but in the cold it just came across as a grimace. “In the absence of a door-bell, there has to be some way of getting in.” Sorel closed her eyes and using Force Sight scanned the area in front of her. The doors were too thick to see through, as were the walls — but the area of electronics that served as a lock showed in her vision and when she opened her eyes, she realised they were effectively camouflaged by the build up of ice and snow.

Rubbing the area she knew the plate to be hidden, she brushed away the snow and revealed the panel. “Here we go.”

[member="Dorne Calato"]