Marsh Haunts

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

"Yeah, well, it's easy to get jaded out here. Are you part of it, the Covenant?" Attention turned to the viewport as they broke atmosphere. Life sign readings were off the chart and it didn't look like there were too many dry places to land. Fingers pulled up the missing ship's last landing coordinates.

Strange birds she'd never seen before flew by in the distance.

She gave the wraith a sideways look. "And this vanishing stuff, how does that work, you just do it, whenever?"

Curiosity got the Mirialan.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

"Ain't no cov'nant now," Vexen said with a shake of her head. "All joined the Alliance to fight. Well, Mara is somewhere else now and I ain't seen Laura in a long while."

Vexen moved her paws across the controls to start to bring them down. The maps had picked out several places to land near the target area, but there would be a treck.

"And it's just how I am," she replied. "I can see...Me. But most just see a shadow. Actually if you have a UV light humans can see my stripes." There was an inflection that suggested she thought a great deal of her stripes. They were glorious yellow and green when out under UV bright enough to cause reemission at a longer wavelength.

"I hate walking in the mud."

Vexen was quite proud of her fur in general.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

She just nodded, green-shoulders shrugging. Mara, Laura, all names she didn't know. Just names. She sat forward a bit as Vexen described her murky, shadowy form. "Stripes. Cool." She offered the wraith a warm smile.

Green-nose crinkled.

"Yeah, me too. It's why I wore my tall boots." She smiled and slipped from the co-pilot's seat as the ship settled down gently. Pros of landing on soft, marshy ground. Her stomach full of tacos and cheese silently thanked Vexen and the swamps. She couldn't take another rough flight - or landing, especially not like the kind she had with Elliot Locke.

Bleg.

"I'll grab the bags and search gear." She wandered down to the small cargo area.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

She stepped out into the marsh. Her nose twitched at the scent of new air. Every planet had its own smell. Every atmosphere had a different composition, different minerals in the air. This one smelled mostly of marsh. It was rather overwhelming for such a sensitive nose.

The defel mimicker on her armour was activated and the indistinct blur moved out to check their surroundings. Her paws squelched into the mud. She lifted one leg and look at how saturated her fur was with mud.

"Eugh."

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

Squish-squealch. Slop-slop. Nose crinkled as she almost lost her boot two times. Myrtle-ellipses looked out into the marsh. Half the light was cut out with the canopy of the trees on the ground. It was mostly murky down here.

For a moment she lost sight of Vexen.

Heart quickened a bit in her chest. Fingers reflexively went around the handle of her blaster. "Vex!" She whispered-called, squinting ahead as she moved further and further from the ship. Comm unit came out, checking the coordinates.

"Vex! Don't go so far ahead. It's hard to see you."

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

"S'alrigh'," came a whisper from her left. Vexen had actually paused to gnaw on her paw and the girl had walked right past.

"I'm here," she sighed as she trudged closer. This was easier with Micah. Bonded as they were he knew exactly where she was when they were close.

"Can you sense people with the Force?" she asked.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

"Oh," she nearly jumped and bit back a yelp. "Okay." Usually she wasn't that skittish. Shoulder set. "Yes, I can. Sometimes I can feel emotions too. A healer I worked with once, Avalore Eden, told me I was an empath as much as a healer."

Shoulders shrugged.

Boots squashed and squished in the muck. "But it's hard here. There's a lot of other life around. Do you sense it?"

There was something dark, too. Then again, maybe it was just a trick of the shadows and the force.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Vexen fell into line besides Taheera for a while. There was something in the mirialan's voice that made her feel like staying close for a time would be best.

Her paws spread out across the marsh grass and she managed to make less noise as she went. At times she dropped to all fours - easy for a defel with her long arms - to take her weight.

With a sigh she stretched out her senses. The Force connected all living things and the marsh was densely packed with life. Her mind brushed against the crash site ahead. The downed vessel had disturbed the natural order of things, left a gap that nature would slowly claw back over time.

"Hmm," she responded. She threw her cloaked over her shoulder to make her presence in the Force more clear. Then she stretched out towards Taheera. "Easier?" She asked.

"Gonna take hours to get this outta my fur," she bemoaned. "And I know Avalore." Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "She kinda screamed at me and said she was afraid of dogs." That still hurt. Even if she was a wraith, it still hurt when someone reacted so badly to her presence.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

The Mirialan's eyes widened. Vexen seemed to be just a shifting and murky shadow in the force and by sight. But now, at least the sensing thing, was crystal clear. It might not have been the safest thing considering this mission, if any malevolent force users were around.

But Taheera appreciated it. Made her feel not so alone.

"Yes, much." Then a snorting, laugh left her purple-lips. "She called you a whaa-ahahaha," hand fell to her side. Sometimes it was easier to laugh at the awkward things. Maybe better too. "I'm sorry," she tried to control her sudden fit of nervous giggles. "I mean, I know that must've been really hurtful." The empath could definitely feel the raw-hurt there.

"I bet she would've called me a green-bean if she'd...," voice trailed off. Avalore hadn't met her as a Mirialan. "Nevermind," she quickly stammered, afraid of having to explain it all. The crash was up ahead, though, much of nature had already claimed the land the impact had made. In just a few short, standard days.

One of the cargo doors was unhinged and wide open on the half-buried craft.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Vexen held up one paw for quiet whilst the other took a stunning baton from her belt. She turned her hear back and forth as she scanned the ship. She let her goggles become more opaque as she studied the darkest recess with eyes so sensitivite that sunlight was.blinding.

"Wait here a moment," she whispered. In a few strides she was gone into the darkness. Just a rustle of long marsh grass.

She approached the opening slowly. Her head went first, allowing her goggles to once again adjust to the darkness. The floor was out of sight, mud had seeped through the door to fill the cargo bay up to the level of the marsh. There was an open door on the other side, through which she could see metal deck, sloping slightly away from her. Turning around she thumbed her stun baton to give a flash of blue and a wave.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

Taheera didn't follow orders very well. Plus, she would be essentially left alone in the dark, freaky swamp. Hard pass. Boots squashed quickly behind Vexen. She did lose sight of the wraith, once.

Her presence was still easy enough to pick up though. Still...

"Frex," she whispered. She made it to the door as saw the flash of blue as Vexen turned on a weapon. But something gave her pause on the outside of the ship. Something she missed on the doors. Grimacing, she knelt down, knee plopping in the soupy-swamp.

What caught her eyes was hard to see because much of the muck from the swamp had already tried to claim the doors. Fingers slowly brushed the sludge away.

"Carbon scoring marks," she whispered. "Vex!" It was not a yell but an urgent whisper. Hands brushed more of the muck away. The marks were longer here. As if from a...lightsaber.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Vexen slipped the stun baton into her holster and moved beside Taheera. The amount of light they had was beyond brilliant daylight for Vexen, which was why she had the goggles.

"Yeah, just from where it..."

She trailed off and cocked her head to one side. She'd assumed the black marks were just from re-entry.

"That's..."

She boldly slipped into the cargo bay and trudged through the muck to the far side. It had been given the same treatment. Someone had cut a path through here with a lightsaber. She'd never taken to the weapon, preferring to spar with Micah with stun barons. She preferred something a little less...Dismembery

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

The mirialan followed after the wraith. Purple-lips pursed. Even darker in here, that soft, swamp light. She squinted. Of course, her species was more aware of her surroundings than full humans. Senses were definitively heightened. She could even smell burned carbon in the air.

"I don't think it was that long ago," fingers brushed against the lightsaber hilt against her thigh. The weapon was on a low setting. The healer preferred that. She wasn't much into dismemberment, either.

She wondered if Trextan would make fun of her for it. Why was she even thinking about him? Thoughts quickly cleared.

Wandering over to an upturned crate, she peeked inside. Most of the contents were gone but there was one or two left. "Look," she held up a crystal that seemed to pulse lightly with the force.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Vexen raised her nose and sniffed the air. The marsh brought so many smells of its own it was difficult to pick out anything else. Adrenaline. Human adrenaline and some other species.

"It weren't long ago," she agreed. "People were scared here and not long ago. Can't normally smell..." there was a word for the stuff people gave off with strong emotions. But it was a long word. She had a feeling it began with an F. "...emotions for a long time after they've gone. Tend to disperse."

Disperse. That was a good word. Must have made her seem more clever.

She softly padded over to Taheera. "The kind of folk who'd want to steal those," she reasoned, "are not the kind we wanna meet."

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

"Yeah," she whispered and slipped the crystals into her pocket. She gave one last look around. Shoulders squared slightly with a bit of a stubborn edge. "But we have to keep searching. If there are any survivors...," voice trailed off uncertainly.

"Can you track whoever did this through the swamp?" Hand motioned to Vex's extra sensitive nose. Footsteps were already sloshing back through the mud and around the outside of the downed ship.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

"Through the swamp?" she asked quietly. Vexen was keeping one stun baton firmly in her grip. She didn't look at Taheera as she spoke, but kept glancing towards the two exits from the cargo bay. "Will be hard, but there could be tracks as long as there hasn't been any hard rain. Depen's what species they were."

She turned her attention towards the corridor that led deeper into the ship. Foreboding dark red emergency lighting could be seen coming from deeper within the vessel. Vexen tried to reach out with the Force. She could sense fear and panic. Whether it was from survivors or just and echo of recent events was not clear to the wraith.

She lightly padded over towards the corridor. It sloped up away from them where the ship had tilted as it sank into the mud. That was a worrying thought: the entire ship being swallowed up with them still inside.

"Stay a few steps back," she whispered. The shadow merged with the long ones that lined the corridors of the ship as she went looking for any remaining crew or at least some more clues.

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

She gulped. "Okay," she whispered as the wraith disappeared. Senses stretched forward, lightly keeping a lock on her mission partner. Boots slipped slightly in the mud. The swamp outside burbled and garbled as if burping from its slow digestion of the ship itself.

Being a mirialan came in handy with this low light. Still, she pulled a glow stick from her pack and switched it on. A little radius of warm, yellow light encircled her green form as they went deeper and deeper into the belly of the sinking ship. There were pinpricks up ahead in the force. Whispers.

One thing was clear; they weren't alone.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

Vexen's ears both pricked up at the sound of breathing. It was ragged and shallow. She paused at an intersection, ears twisting back and forth. "Down the left," she called back softly. She moved even more slowly now. There were blaster marks down this corridor and a blastdoor that had been forced open. Someone had made a stand here. But there were no bodies.

As she stepped through the noise became louder. There was dried blood on the floor here. Abandoned blaster power packs too. The sound grew on her right. She peered into a side room. Crew quarters, bunks on both sides. Someone was pressed up against one. A human female, her life force was weak, fading. One arm was held tight across her waist.

Vexen padded back to Taheera. "Think it's one of the crew, best you approach them. Call first, she has a blaster still."

 

[Taheera Sollo]

[member="Vexen"]

She slipped and slid further down, following Vexen's instructions. She regretted not wearing boots with better traction as the grade became steeper and steeper. Hands had to press against the walls. Even though she felt Vexen approach, it was still a surprise when the wraith materialized. Well, materialized as much as she could.

"Got it," healer-mode was immediately initiated. She could feel flickers of the woman's pain as she got closer and closer to the door. "Watch our six," she whispered back to Vexen. Who know who or what was still out there?

"Hi," she called out, poking her head cautiously in the doorway. "Miss?" Hands were raised, non-threateningly. Fear flecked across her face, blaster still tightly gripped. Hand was shaky, though.

"Sta-stay back." The woman cringed.

"I'm with the Alliance. We got your distress call. I'm here to help." She eased closer. Slowly.

The woman gave Taheera one more cautious eye before relaxing slightly.

"I'm a healer. Can I look at your wounds?"

She nodded and cringed again. Face was pale. She didn't have much time. It might be too late.

Taheera quickly knelt in the mud, hands hovering over the woman's wounds, the force flowing through her, as the woman drew her hand away.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Taheera Sollo"]

The woman’s life force was slowly fading. She didn’t have long; her wounds were too great. At least her expression started to slowly relax. What Taheera was doing was at the very least easing her passage to return to the Force. Perhaps they could stabilise her just enough, or at least find out what had happened.

Vexen padded away, moving to another intersection. There was a faint shift in the Force, a minor disturbance. The sound of heavy boot was a much more obvious warning. Vexen stayed exactly where she was. The red lights flickered and then settled again, leaving her well concealed.

Roung the corner came three forms armoured from head to toe in black. The armour was reminiscent of Stormtrooper armour but she didn’t recognise it. She slowly backed away and then rushed back to Taheera as soon as she was out of sight.

“Taheera!” she hissed. “We’ve got company. Stay quiet, I’ll lead them away.”