Nutbush City Limits

[ADM. Reshmar]

Juguanda's Moon, a word of devoid zealots and Sith wannabes. How we ended up here is a matter of much conjuncture and a chain of events that for what it is worth was out of anyone aboard The Private Dancers control. Raymond sit looking at the command console of the Dancer rubbing his temples and thinking about how much this is going to cost him. The power dampening relay under the console was sizzling and sparks spat from the console much to Rays dismay. Now he was stuck on a planet of holy sith mambo jumbo with a hold full of Loman Ale.

"Thunderdome, start repairs." Ray sad to the R7 unit in the corner. The small droid unlocked from his wall charging dock and rolled over to the console now smoldering as the sparks abated and smoke filled the cabin of the Dancer. Ray stood and walked out of the cockpit into the narrow hallway which ran the axial rim of the vessel. "Go to Dormond Kaas they said. Make a fortune they said. I will be lucky if I break even after this mess is over." Ray opened the door to his bunk and laid down to close his eyes and decompress. "What else can go wrong on this trip." he said as he turned off the lights to get some much needed sleep. He had just relaxed when the door chimed and a loud voice rang out from the other side.

"What now?"

 

[EmKay]

You know, Ronan had been on his fair share of near-derelict uglies but this really set a new low. He rubbed his temples as he watched smog roll in from the crack under his room's door and let out an aggravated sigh. Somewhere off in the distance he heard Rillians shouting, singing, crying... whatever that man was doing, he was doing it loudly. The Mandalorian donned his helmet with a near-audible thonk upon his skull and stood from the bunk upon which he had been sitting. With a flick of the door switch and a solid kick near the door's mechanical servo the thing shuffled, shimmied, and ground its way almost open. A right shove pushed the door all the way in its pocket where it belonged. He slung his blaster rifle over his shoulder and stepped out into the hall. Ronan knew, by the rough and unmistakable crashing lurch, that they had landed, so he decided to get the hells out of this ship and see what rock they landed on. Hopefully it had a beach. Continuing to abuse the ship's faulty mechanisms, he kicked and bashed his way through shoddily-maintained doors and finally down to the cargo ramp that he had to supplement the hydraulic with his body weight to get it to fully lower. Even behind the duraplast helmet, anyone witnessing could tell he was at the peak of sentient frustration without breaching that threshold into anger. When metal met soil, the Mandalorian couldn't get off the ship fast enough and felt indescribable amounts of comfort when his boots hit dirt.

His first impression of the planet's surface was that it was windy. If the ship had been a functional, normal, regular, not-piece-of-slag ship, he would have contributed the whipping gust to engine wash. Instead, it seemed that this planet just really hated to let the dust settle. That was the second thing Ronan noticed. There was a lot of dust. Not sand, that would be more of a Tatooine, Jakku, or maybe even Lothal thing. No this was the dust you'd find on Korriban or Dathomir. It was fine particulate that sheered off the rocks - probably because of that damned wind - and got stuck in... places. In the face of this horrible place, there was one thing Ronan was certain of.

There was no beach here.

 

[Ambria]

She had decided, at the last moment, to not go with Captain Vassyl Doren and his crew on the strange ship. She did not know why, but it did not seem like the right time to go. So for-she-knew-not-how-long-it-was before there came a whining roar from outside. She withdrew from the temple ruins and made her way out, the wind whipping her hair about her face and into her eyes. Fingers impatiently swiped at the strands as she warily made her way to the ship that was descending. Sparks emitted from various places along the hull and tendrils of smoke puffed and spiraled. Well, that didn't look good. With a hard thud that made the ground jar and shake, it landed.

Hisses sounded as it settled, and she continued to watch from behind a crumbling obelisk. She stayed where she was, she did not move. Fingers traced over fading runes carved into what was left of the obelisk as her eyes remained on the - what appeared to be - damaged ship. Lightly she sniffed in a mixture of curiosity and disdain, and to be certain a whole lot of trepidation. The last time someone had come around there was a fight and weapons and convoluted dialogue. She did not like violence. She did not like the tuggings of memories and all sorts of other weird crap that happened for which she had no explanation. And since her aunt essentially left her here on this stupid moon, she was completely devoid of any incoming answers.

If truth be told, she was somewhat relieved to see others arrive. Let's term it: cautiously optimistic. She was almost out of supplies and - for kark's sake - she was lonely. While learning what she could do with plants and animals had been interesting and entertaining, she had no idea what direction she was going in. She had been trying to imitate what she had seen her aunt do back on Jaguarda, what Le'ehah had been trying to teach her - to which she kept running into a proverbial mud brick wall. So.. now that she had an understanding of how to kinda sorta not really but still play with plants by her will and getting animals to befriend her, nothing really made sense and she felt rather... blind.

As the thoughts swirled about and her eyes scanned over the ship, she found she was holding her breath. She was nervous. Anxious. What and who were in the ship. Would they too have a ... what was the word? A fleet? Her darkening eyes shifted from the ship to the skies, searching to see if there were more coming.

 

[Nik Woverius Rillians]

"Show me the way to go home...." It took about ten minutes to navigate the straight hallway to the fresher. "I'm tired and I want to go to bed..." Every word he spoke as he meandered toward sweet salvation only got louder. "I've had a wee drink." he stopped, he had a drink at some point but he'd be shot if he could remember when. "about an hour ago and its gone right to my head! All together now!" Nik spun, arms splayed wide, fingertips touching the walls of the corridor. "SHOW ME THE WAY TO GO HOME! I'm tired and I want to go to bed! I had a wee drink about an hour ago..and its whe...and its..." he reached the fresher then came the tricky part. Unbuttoning his pants to pee.

The ship lurched, not in the we're going to die way but in a "we have now landed, please leave" regardless he still stumbled, penis in hand, trying not to get urine all over his nice overalls. Nik steadied himself against the bulkhead before he heard the abuse foisted upon the ship. It was the resident tough guy, captain t-visor, royal prick if you were asking Niks opinion and no one ever did...

One shake two shakes, Nik was done. He stumbled backwards, almost falling into the corridor before the shoddy door caught him. "Hey! Mando prick! This rust bucket is faling apart as it is. I get you're a strong "strapping" man so lets not speed it along any okay!"

 

[Raymond Mosses]

Ray heard the commotion in the corridor and burst through his door, which worked fine without issues, and shouted at the two men now conversing in the long hallway. "Hey watch the old girl she... " Ray paused when he noticed one of the men had his genitals in his hand and overalls around his ankles.

"Nik, unless you can use that thing to fix the command console put it away" he said shaking his head and returning to his bunk. He said nothing to the second man, it would have been useless. He and the Mando had an understanding, They were only to talk to each other when absolutely needed. It seemed they both liked it that way, it worked for them. A healthy relationship is key when traveling the universe haphazardly. Ray wished the other member of their crew would get the memo and fallow suit. He heard more commotion from down the corridor and decided a nap would not be had this day.

"Time to sale this cargo" he said with a sigh. The Ale in the hold had been cheep to purchase and they had acquired a great deal of it. Thirty tons to be exact, but it had proven difficult to get rid of the vile stuff. Nik had found an open case nearly three days ago and until today had been oddly quiet. The man spent most of his time down in the engine compartment tinkering with something or the other. Ray wondered if that had anything to do with the sudden death of the power relay, or the power outage they had near Zoist. Those were questions for another time. He needed to get rid of the liquor in his holds, buy a new regulator, find some new cargo, and if possible a quiet place to sleep for the night.

Ray stepped out of the bunk room again and noticed the two men still at the end of the corridor in front of the refresher. "Hey Im going into port to see if I can unload this hooch. Meet me at the River Deep pub when you two get sorted. I will buy you a drink." said Ray as he walked down the forward stairs into the command cockpit.

 

[majpipsqueak]

As the ship opened up, her eyes skirted back down to the yawning of the vessel, listening to the thudding of boots to metal as the thing groaned open. Her mouth dropped slightly agape as she saw a man - or what she presumed to be a male figure - made of metal exit from the ship. Her eyes had widened as she regarded him, the container on his head and - of course - the weapons upon his person. Great, another who would probably battle first and have questions later.

She didn't know what he - or they - hoped to find here. In her time upon the moon, she hadn't met another "person", however that was quantified. She had hiked for hours only to return to the ruins without having met up, seen, or interacted with anyone else. Pulled from her reverie by shouting and such, she traversed her gaze from the metal man to the cavern of the ships opening. Although she could not see anyone else as of yet, she knew - now - there was more than just the metal man aboard. How many? What did they want? Was the apparent damage to their ship what dropped them here?

She eeked a little more behind the obelisk ruin as the wind whipped hard about for a few moments, her eyes narrowed against the dust. Metal men, weapons, shouting.. none of that seemed entirely pleasant and her curiosity had abated away into something more like "extreme caution". That in mind and using the ruins as her cover, she made her way back to the temple. The winds were picking up and despite the foliage that twined their way into everything, dust stirred and swirled. It seemed like an omen... as if... "something wicked this way comes". Such as it may or many not be, it was always better to err on the side of caution. Ambria, if nothing else, was cautious. You lived longer that way. As she made her way back in, she ran her hand over the glyph that would seal the temple closed once again, a glowing of red showing between her fingers and briefly illuminating through her skin. The sound of stone sliding against stone rumbled as particulate matter swirled about before the base of the door met the stone of the floor. You could see the tension almost visibly relieve itself from her shoulders as she turned and made her way into the fire lit depths of the outer sanctuary, a barrier now between those who were out and she who was within. As she walked away from the sealed opening, vining bits of plants on the outside tendriled about the exterior of the temple face, as if to say "Nothing to see here. Nobody's home."

 

[Ambria]

As she sat before the fire, the flickering of flames casting shadows over herself and the stone walls, her arms wound around her drawn knees, hugging her thighs to her chest as her toes wiggled in her shoes upon the stones of the floor. Her eyes reflected the fire she was gazing at... her memories resurfacing in a replay of what had transpired:

[FLASHBACK]

"Aaargh!!" echoed through her cave as she tried, once again, to get the potion to formulate as intended; but all she got instead was a tendriling of smoke from the antique bowl. The bowl was of a rock she could not name, passed down from mother to daughter since her family had begun. It was unremarkable by sight, but the "feeling" it had was one specific to the person with whom it was associated. For now, it was "her" bowl. Like a pet, but not. Her frustration mounted, and as it did so, the plants in her cave tightened, the branches creaking as they rubbed against one another, the leaves seeming to almost furl. The cave walls seemed to all but creak, dust rained down in various places causing Le'ehah to look up from where she was reading in the corner. She stared for a moment and frowned over at Ambria. "You know"... a nervous glance about the inner dwelling as she listened to the creaks and groans strain further "one of these days you're going to bring your domicile around your ears and it'll serve you right. You really must learn to control your temper." Her voice was quiet as she spoke to Ambria, her ambered eyes staring in disapproval at the young girl. A frown rest its place upon her lips as she watched the young girl carefully. Ambria's crimson marbled eyes shifted over to her mentor, her countenance bearing the same expression of disapproval. Her eyes held the frustration and ire she was barely containing before she let out a woof of air and closed her eyes. Her tightly clenched hands relaxed - obviously with effort - and the creaking and groaning of the flora and cave eased. The tendriling of smoke from the bowl ceased and the heaviness in the air lifted. With slow, meditative breaths she forced her calm, slowly opening her eyes to reveal verdant hues. Reflexively she swallowed and licked her lips, speaking quietly as she glanced down at the old bowl "I'm sorry. I just... " she gestured helplessly to the bowl and the ruined contents "... I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm following your instructions. I've followed it the same way every single time and every single time I fail." Tears of frustration filled her lowered gaze as her lower lip then quivered. She stopped speaking for fear her voice would break, making her also seem weak as well as a failure. Le'ehah rose from the chair she had been lounging in and came over to the table, to perch herself half upon it. With slender fingers she pushed a lock of Ambria's reddish hair behind the pale shell of an ear. "Child. You must listen. It is not simply the ingredients, or the bowl, or the words you utter that make it come to fruition. It is the same kind of what causes you to make it storm, or demolish your cave, or put out fires." Her gaze took on a more maternal look: empathatic, compassionate, patient. Ambria snorted and turned slightly away, not in petulance, but still wrapped within that same veil of frustation "I don't know how. Noone does. I'm simply a freak that you put up with since my parents died" The warm look hardened and Le'ehah pulled her hand back "Now you listen to me, Ambria. You are no freak. Granted none of us have seen your talents in who knows how long, but you are not a freak. You simply need to learn how to harness your gifts and channel them into your studies." She stood up and looked down at Ambria and frowned, slightly shaking her head "You have never been a burden. You are my sisters daughter. And now mine." A flare of pain entered her gaze and stiffened her spine. Ambria watched her as she left the cave and walked away, rounding a corner. Every so quietly, she sighed.

"Great. Good going, Ambria. You've done it again. Hope you're proud of yourself" she mumbled as she sank down into the chair by the table and stared at the bowl. Ambria was young, around 56 years by all accounts. Her skin was quite pale, her hair a reddish colour. Her eyes stormed between red and green, darker of the colours. Apparently her eyes varied in colours depending upon her mood what she was working with at the time. She was slender of build and stood 158cm. She was considered small for her race, even though she was not yet done growing. She would never be as tall her the rest of her people. Noone knew why and noone dared to question. Her aunt, Le'ehah, had been taking care of her since she was 16 after her parents died. She did not know how her parents had died, only that it was tragic and noone spoke of it. Everyone around her - in her clan - stayed away from her. Her existance was a lonely one and she longed for adventure, to be away from resentful attitudes she did not understand. The feeling she got from everyone around her, her aunt was an exception, was hostile.

A rolling fog surrounded her. Her eyes narrowed as she strained to see through the haze and darkness "Ammmmmmmmbriiiiiaaaaa" melodious was the voice, urging her forward as her name was spoken "Commmmeee to meeeee Ammmmmmbriiiiiaaaaa". She did not want to move forward. She was afraid, but the voice beckoned so beguilingly that she just *had* to. A figure materialised in the swirl of shadows, a beautiful image of a woman whose power made the hair on Ambria's arms stand up at attention. She was dressed in hues of black, with a bejeweled high ornate collar banding about her slender throat, the cape it stemmed from billowing out behind her. Prickles danced along the nape of her neck, causing chills from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. Involuntarily she shivered. "Ammmbriiiaaa" a seductive whisper then from about 25 feet away, but she could see the red of the woman's eyes. So intense. So .. so...enrapturing yes? Yes.. yes, yes please.

***

Her eyes rolled beneath her closed lids, Le'ehah bursting through the entrance of the cave, her eyes opened wide in fear, the colour drained from her tanned face. "Ambria!!" She rushed over to the unconscious girl where she lay slumped in the chair, gripping her shoulder hard to give her a shake "AMBRIA! WAKE UP!"

***

Images flipped through the fog like a slideshow, though fast and quick - hundreds of images. Ancient temples. Odd structures in space that moved with what looked like fire behind them. Relics. Fighting. Obelisks. Then... death. She felt it as surely as if it were her own, the breath sucked out of her like she'd been sucker punched in the stomach. She groaned from the feel, her whole body tensing as she began to retch; shivering so that her teeth chattered while her stomach tried in vain to empty contents that weren't there. She couldn't breathe...her breath was caught.. stuck.. and she couldn't gain a new breath or exhale the one pent up.

***

As soon as her hand touched the girl, electric shock raced up her hand and into her arm shooting her backwards against the wall. She oofed as the air was ejected from within her, her eyes still opened wide as she stared at Ambria. Ambria lay convulsing in the chair, her throat working as her eyes continued to race beneath their closed lids. Le'ehah made to get up from the floor, her back and ribs aching as she struggled for breath... and found she could not move. Sweat stood out on her skin as she strained, her body striving to lean forward to get to the writhing girl. She closed her eyes then and allowed her body to sag, releasing the fight as she concentrated...

***

The woman moved closer, an apparition of evil beauty and it emanated from every pore. "Please" Ambria choked out, her eyes fastened to the approaching figure. The woman spoke in the rich silkiness of her disembodied voice, each syllable clinging to Ambria like warm honey "Liiiissssssten to meeee" The eyes closed off the crimson ambivalent hues before reopening "Listen to me Ambria. You must listen" Jerkily Ambria nodded her head, her brain clinging to every cloying word. The fog beheld the old bowl she worked with, fragments of it - the whole of it - centuries of its use and passing. Her gaze shifted to it and then back to the woman "That is of our world. Ambria. Your namesake. My greatest accomplishment and disappointment" The woman's figure shifted, fading before coming back again "You will leave Jaguada" Ambria stiffened and the woman's gaze filled with fire "YOU. WILL. LEAVE. JAGUADA." The image shifted again.. faded. And as though static had interfered, she was abruptly gone and Ambria was released. She sucked in a breath, it loudly filling her lungs.

***

Ambria's body arced upward as she was... for lack of a better word.. released. Sweet air filled her lungs and her eyes opened, the tension still holding her limbs tight. She shuddered out that tension and sort of slithered out of the chair to the ground, leaning against the rubble of the table. Sweat drenched her body, the flimsy material clinging to her quaking form. Le'ehah also opened her eyes and crawled over to Ambria, pulling the trembling girl into her lap to cradle her. Carefully she swept the damp strands of her hair from her face, speaking softly in a tone of awe "The unnamed sorceress. It has to be. Nowhere are you now safe". Tears sluiced down her cheeks as she rocked Ambria, her words gone unheard as a deep slumber overtook the exhausted and mind-numbed girl.

Weeks had passed; and in that duration Ambria had tried to sort what all had occurred. It hadn't been until days later that Ambria had awakened, her aunt having been vigilant at her side. Ambria didn't remember much from her experience, but she had this new compulsion to leave the planet, one that left Le'ehah going out of her mind. There came a point that Le'ehah stopped fighting Ambria's drive to get off-world, so she resolved to teach the young girl mindful meditation and how to control her urges. Le'ehah wasn't keen on teaching Ambria anything more than that out of fear of reprisal from those they lived amongst. Too, Le'ehah had no idea what was going on as far as politics - the place she was at kept themselves pretty much in the dark; and she had wanted it that way for both of their safety. Weighing heavily on Le'ahah's mind was the fact that the unnamed sorceress had supposedly reached out to Ambria, unsettling the older woman to her very core. What did this mean? Ambria had been destroyed for almost two milennia... how could this possibly be?

"I want to go" Ambria suddenly voiced, drawing Le'ehah out of her reverie. She looked at antsy as she felt and her youthful countenance betrayed her impatience. "There's nothing more to do here". The older woman looked to her and she sighed... nodding her head. Ambria was right. There wasn't anything more to do and Le'ehah had been stalling for more time.

"We will go, when darkness falls" and with that, Ambria began packing her things. Le'ehah watched her with mixed feelings, knowing that this was most likely going to be good-bye. She could feel it. Le'ehah rose and packed her belongings, meagre possessions they were... and formulated a plan of exit. She figured she would take her to Si'laan, Jaguarda's moon. Lush in life, it was a contrast to the planet in which it orbited.

***

Darkness fell and she could not be contained. Her eyes danced a crimson rainbow as she thought about getting off this foresaken planet. Le'ehah had mentioned something about going to the moon, and her ears had clung to every word her aunt had uttered about it. She kept firing off questions until Le'ehah lost her patience and told her to be quiet.. and the force of the words had left Ambria literally unable to speak for a few minutes. She for hours she just kept to herself, her imagination running wild as she thought about the forests and lakes and oceans and rivers.. and the life that abounded. Unlike here.

Without words Le'ehah had left the domicile with her belongings, letting Ambria pick up the cue that it was time to go. Ambria had no idea why Le'ehah had stopped speaking or what was going on in her head, and while Le'ehah had always been the quiet sort, she was most unusually so at this time. In that wealth of silence, she followed Le'ehah through the caves.. of which were familiar, until she came to a part of the cave system that she did not recognise. It seemed for hours that they walked, until finally coming to a large opening where there was a lake. The cave had ended and it was a cave mouth that opened up to the spanse of water. Foliage had overgrown the area and there was a barely visible path that they now followed. The heat was sweltering and the foliage grew more dense, in a most unnatural way. With a wave of Le'ehah's hand the mass of tangled tree limbs and foliage released.. to reveal a ship.

Ambria stood in open mouthed awe. She looked from the ship to her aunt, comprehension slow to come as Ambria had - quite literally - never before seen a ship before. The one before her was a small representation of the images she had seen in her enounter with the Ancient Witch and she was rooted to the spot. Le'ehah glanced back at Ambria and opened the ship to be entered.. her form disappearing into the bowels of the vessel after walking up the loading ramp. Ambria stood there a moment before looking around and then getting on the ship, the opening closing.. her aunt apparently gone to the front. "Stow away your stuff here" the suddenness of Le'ehah's voice startling her. She turned to see her aunt walk down a corridor toward a door.. the door hissing open to reveal a room. There, they stowed their belongings.. her aunt leaving her to go to the cockpit. After a few tries, the ship hummed to life... and after she was strapped in, off they went.

***

The trip wasn't a long one, and when Ambria asked why they went only to the moon instead of somewhere else, Le'ehah mentioned something about a damaged hyper drive.. and smoothed that over with Si'laan being the most realistic place to go within the system. "Why?" Ambria queried, but she was met with no response. They stayed on the ship until morning.. and with torches in hand, exited the ship and headed through the vegetation. Le'ehah seemed to know where she was going, although she paused several times to look around before going in another direction. Broken obelisks staggered across the floor of the forest and they passed small ruins. "What is this place.. " Ambria asked, trying to keep up with her aunt. But this gained yet another batch of silence in return; and after a time, Ambria just followed and kept her questions to herself.

Soon they arrived to a large temple looking structure. Some obelisks had toppled over and there were blackened burn marks on the outside of the building. Steps led up to a wall of stone and it appeared there was no way in. Only, when Le'ehah approached it, she ran her hand over an oval looking glyph and the marking turned red. A rumbling began that hummed through Ambria's legs, dust showing down as a grinding could then begin to be heard. Slowly the wall of stone opened by way of a door, revealing a black cavern beyond. Le'ehah flicked on her torch and Ambria did the same.. and then the both went inside the temple.

Their footsteps quietly echoed in the cavernous structure. She followed silently behind Le'ehah, looking at the demolished statues that once towered but were now either defaced or shorn to ruin upon the temple's floor. You could tell, even among the dirt and debris, that this had once been a beautiful and rich place. Le'ehah would turn at corridor junctures; and it happened with such frequency that she soon lost bearing and any ability of how to get back. Now, it seemed, they were on some descent. The air grew cooler and for a moment Le'ehah stopped and looked upward, as if she were listening. Chills prickled all over Ambria's skin and she looked upward as well, fully expecting to see some sort of apparition, but there was nothing. The older woman tilted her head as if trying to hone in what she was listening to, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly before her lips drew into a firmed line. Le'ehah let out the softest of sighs and her honied gaze flicked to Ambria, glancing behind her before looking back to the perplexed young girl. "We will part ways soon" the woman glanced away and struggled to contain the expressions that sought to crumple her features. Abruptly she turned, but kept speaking.. forcing Ambria to strain to hear as their footsteps rapidly continued, soft gravel and dirt crunching underfoot "There are others who are now here. You must control your fear and your temper Ambria. No matter what happens."

Ambria paused in her following, shifting the pack that was upon her back as she watched Le'ehah's form continue on into the dark swallowing shadows. "I don't understand... " she fully expected her aunt to stop as she did; but she didn't. She simply kept going... and vanished, as if the shadows had consumed her into their nothingness. Fear hummed in her veins, causing her heartbeat to race as she surged forward to find her aunt. The light of the torch cast eerie glows about the stone walls, the beam flicking along the walls, toward the depths of the passage as she started to jog "Aunt Le'ehah!" her voice cried, tight with unshed tears as her heart sought to choke her voice. She saw a pattern of glyphs much like the ones that had gained her aunt entry in the temple.. and she approached them, running her hand along one and then the other as she had seen her aunt do. But nothing happened.

The fear was making her mind hamster wheel inside her head, ridding her of rational thought. She should have been thinking of focusing on her aunt and finding her. She should have tried to figure out what it was her aunt had been sensing. But since she entered the temple, she had been sort of blinded - or muted - by the feelings of despair and pain and fear that resided within the stone structure. Shivering as if cold, the hand holding the torch lowering so the beam was directed at the floor and her other hand lifting to her forehead, rubbing a spot between her eyes. Fear coiled and tendriled in the pit of her stomach, causing her to feel nauseous and unbalanced. Small showers of dust sprinkled around her, dusting her auburn hair in white. The stones around her rumbled, grinding against one another; and it wasn't until she pressed her fingers more into her forehead that she realised what was happening around her. "Control your fear" she whispered to herself, rubbing that spot.. trying to erase the lines of worry from between her brows. She was shaking so bad, tears hot and alive in her eyes as she struggled for a calm she certainly did not feel. Suddenly, the rattling about in the corridor stopped... and she took a series of deep cleansing breaths before looking around her once more, trying to gain her bearing on which way to go and what to do next.


[END FLASHBACK]

She let out a sigh, feeling that tension buildup ripple down the length of her spine as she closed her aching eyes and slowly reopened them. The crimson marbling of her irises had mellowed out into a cool green, her mind skirting around the memory of the Captain that had visited and offered to take her off of the moon. Subtly she shook her head. Had it been a wise decision to stay? She questioned her decision as her mind trundled back to the recently landed ship and its occupants, her gaze shifting then from the fire to the closed stone temple door.

 

[Raymond Mosses]

Raymond walked down the boarding ramp and was immediately irritated by the wind and dust. You would thing an area with as much green as this would not be this dusty. He shook his head and walked out into the windy forest. A large temple stood near where they had landed. Vines and moss covered most of what was left of the structure. Small trees and shrubberies filled the area where The Private Dancer now sat. He looked around checking out the moon and where they had more or less crashed. He looked back over at the Mandolorian now doing much the same as he was. He knew they type, he was the type. You look for anything and everything expecting the worse and ready for anything. He nodded his head towards the north where he knew the small settlement was located. He looked up at the bottom of the craft and pressed a button on his writ console. A small hatch opened and two speeder bikes lowered from the undercarriage of The Private Dancer.

"There is only two so you two will have to share" he said looking towards the Mando. It was at that moment he noticed that the other man had not come down the ramp and joined them. "Wheres Nik?" he asked half not caring for an answer but thought it would be rude to just leave the man. Ronan nodded towards the ramp then walked over to inspect the bikes. Ray looked at the ramp and there at the top was Nik passed out in the hatchway. "I guess I will throw him over the front of my speeder" Ray said to Ronan without looking at him. Ray knew the man would wake up at some point. He estimated it was one hundred and forty kilometers to the settlement so they were in for a bit of a ride. Ray smiled thinking about the man waking up strapped to the front of a speeder bike. If only he could get a holovid of it.

Twenty minutes later Ray had the unconscious man strapped to his bike and was loaded up and ready to go. "follow me, I know da way" Ray said to the Mandolorian on the bike beside him then sped off towards the horizon.

 

[EmKay]

There was something not quite right about this canyon. Between the dust and gusts, he could see ancient and decrepit stone columns that led up to a temple door carved into the rock face with additional structure built up beyond that cliff. It struck Ronan as one of those places locals would say to stay away from on account of it being haunted or possessed. From where he was standing, he would be inclined to agree. His sensors and visor heads-up display were screaming that there was motion somewhere in all of that but he physically saw nothing and had not yet earned - which is to say crafted - greater technology than the basic motion detector. Commotion from behind made the Mandalorian realize he had drifted away from the loading ramp in his curiosity, and lo and behold more great news. The spacer-smuggler-gambler type that was Nik had convinced him to come along on this little voyage and since then it's been nothing but him wearing that millennium-old Mando helmet and saying "dis is de way" in the most mocking voice imaginable.

The notion of sharing a speeder with that man elicited an audible sigh from the otherwise-typically-quiet Ronan. The jerking cranial motion was the most he could muster when probed to Rillians' location. If he was going to be sharing, he would be taking the good one. Mosses probably would not notice the difference, besides the bike would need the extra power to support two people. He leaned against the speeder's saddlebag and turned to see what the hold up was. There was no need to hide Ronan's amusement because of the helmet, and the cheeky grin played across the man's features while Nik was strapped to the front of the captain's speederbike. Once they were all set, the Mandalorian kicked his bike into gear and followed suit into the distance.

He chose to ignore the "da way" comment. This was going to be a long job.

 

[Ambria]

The commotion from outside drew her attention, causing her to stand as she heard high whining whooshes, the mechanical sounds fading into the distance. So.. they left? Without a whole lot of thought, her hand reached out to reactivate the rune (don't ask her how long it took to figure out how to do it and she still wasn't sure how she managed) and the door slid upward in that same stone grinding on stone sound. The vining plants had pulled away (self-preservation at its best) and before the door had fully raised, she was already out it. Nimbly she skirted over the ruins, yet ever so cautious, her eyes darting around as the sun lowered in the sky.

The wind had died down by now, it always seemed less windy the closer it came to nightfall. Silently she crept forward to the still open loading ramp, her voice quietly calling out "Hello??". She stood at the base of the loading ramp, one foot on the metal of the ramp as she leaned slightly forward. Someone or something was still up there, she could hear movement "HELL-OH?" she called out louder. As a machination rolled by with a flurry of chirps and beeps, she pulled back so fast she almost fell backward. The thing rolled backward to look at her, chirps beeping that she could make no sense of... at all. "Well hello there" she tried for a soothing, friendly voice, the black thing turning to look at her, the gold patterns glimmering in the evening sunlight. It beeped at her, the red light sort of pulsing before it turned away and continued on the path in which it had been going. She took that as a sign to follow, so follow she did.

She paused at the top to allow her eyes to adjust to the change in light before turning towards where she could hear the sounds the machination was making. She was so intrigued and felt at ease around the thing that she had no issue with just coming up around it. Besides, she'd never seen anything like it. She just stood there and watched it, and it seemed as though the thing was making ship repairs. She followed it from one end of the ship to the other, familiarising herself as she went. The mech never tired, never paused, just diligently went about its set tasks. Were they set though? Was it programmed to do what it was doing? Was there a tiny person in there that moved it around? She scoffed at her latter thought. If there was a tiny person or being in there, surely it would have done more than beeped and chirped at her.

As the sun lowered, lights illuminated the interior of the ship. She knew, by having followed the gold and black rolling thing around that the ship was empty of live beings. The machination beeped at her a time or two, mostly when she inadvertently got in the way, to which she'd mutter an apology. The mech would beep in reply and continue to roll around and do its thing as if to say "Not a problem, just stay out of the way". She grew bored after what seemed a few hours, so she sat on the landing where the ramp descended to the ground. The night sounds had begun.. and her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn't eaten today. At the waist, she turned, looking in the direction that the mech was.. calling out "Is there food? I'm really hungry and hadn't eaten" The mech leaned back from where it was and beeped a serious of noises at her before zooming toward her, pausing and beeping, then zooming off down the hall. She rose and followed, having been led to what looked like a kitchen. Why hadn't she seen this before? She piddled about and went through all the cabinets and whatnot, familiarising herself with everything.

 

[Raymond Mosses]

Twenty minutes into the trek from The Private Dancer to the settlement Raymond spotted something odd. Raymond held up his hand to signal Ronan to slow down then they came to a stop. In the distance Ray could make out another ship crashed on the moon. over the wind he nodded towards the crash site and said "Lets check it out. We may finds something worth having"

Ray revved his bikes engine then took off towards the crash. The already windy surface of the world become even more wind gusted as the bikes turned into the breeze. His cheeks whipped from the gust as the crash site grew closer. A flash of light exploded from site and a blaster bolt whizzed by Raymond's head. Raymond pulled back on the throttled and whipped the end of the bike around fifty meters from the crashed craft. He jumped off the bike and took cover behind the small speeder as he looked for where the shot came from. a second shot sizzled past his head then a third as he watched to see who was shooting at them and from here.

"Hey! where are friends. Why don't we put our guns down and talk about this" he shouted as he fired two shots in the direction of who ever was hiding in the crashed vessel. another shot flew by him and he in return shots twice more in the direction of the crash.

"We are not here to hurt you. We are just travelers on our way to the River Deep Pub. We saw your crashed ship and thought we would see if anyone needed help" he said firing off three more bolts in that direction. He looked off in the direction he thought Ronan had stopped his speeder but did not look long enough to see anything as a bolt of blaster fire struck the speeder millimeters from his head. He hunkered down as another shot struck the bike then another.

"So whats your name?" he shouted as he fired again at the crashed vessel then hide behind the bake again. a resounding hiss of blaster fire answered him then he remembered Nik strapped to the front of one of the bikes. He shrugged off the thought then fired another shot.

"I am, beginning to think you do not like me" he shouted as he dug in the saddle bag of the bike for the grenade he had been saving for a rainy day. It was not raining but it was windy as hell so he thought why not.

"My name's Raymond, Nice to meet you" he said as he fired another shot and found the grenade. A series of bolts struck his bake as he armed the grenade.

"So do you like Loman Ale? I got a ship full of it. We could get to know each other better over a drink. What do you think." he said as he through the grenade at the crash site.

Big badda boom!

 

[EmKay]

The Mandalorian had always enjoyed speeder travel. It was fast, it was fun, and it was probably the fastest he had moved since he donned the armor. He did not object to the notion of exploring the crashed ship. Best case scenario, they got some supplies and could even haul some functioning parts back to the Dancer to help that droid speed up repairs. A shrill bee-deep from his headset sensors indicated there was movement from the area of his field of view. Which meant the ship. Which meant it was occupied. As Ronan contemplated speaking up about this, a blaster bolt grazed against his right armor pauldron and sent him tumbling off the speederbike. He managed to hold onto a foot hook and used the weight of his armor on the ground to create enough drag to reach the ignition and shut the bike off.

Once behind the bike for cover, Ronan brandished his rifle and switched a knob that toggled the safety. Couldn't be too careful around the drunk. Sliding the slender barrel of the rifle through the speeder's framework, he effectively used the personal vehicle as near-total cover and eyed through the scope at the location of fire. He spied an old droid, a small robed creature, and then there were blaster bolts just coming out of some black box. It was... a motley crew, but they were a threat nonetheless. He took aim at the little robed thing - like a Jawa that had seen far better days - and despite the terrible negotiating skills of Raymond, squeezed his trigger.

The screech of dying Jawa reached his ears a moment after the blaster bolt was spat from its origin, and that was soon washed out by the explosion of Mosses' grenade. The Mandalorian maintained his line of sight despite the dust in case there was still a threat and left the ship's captain to be the hero who got closer. If he so chose. There wasn't anything wrong with a standoff, after all.

 

[Raymond Mosses]

Raymond stood and watched as the dust cleared around the crash. The wind, which had died down since dusk helped to blow the debris and more so the blood and oil around the site. "Was that a Jawa?" he asked the helmet who was still waiting behind his bike. The closer Ray got to the crash the more things came into focus. From what he could tell the tiny creature and two droids had been hiding in the crash. How long he had no idea but one of the droids was an ancient clone war era model. "I have never seen one of these. I had no idea any were left functional." Ray said as he walked over to a small black box laying on its side wheels spinning insanely fast and stuttered beeps coming from its burn frame. Atop the small box was a blaster which seemed to have been rigged to the thing.

"This is what shot at us?" Raymond said as he picked up the mouse droid. to his left the old battle droid squeaked and sparked and said something. "He just said Roger Roger. What the hell does that mean?" he asked looking out towards where Ronan was. The droid gurgled something incomprehensible then sputtered ff into droid nirvana .

"Ok it is clear. Lets look around and see if anything survived the crash and my grenade" Ray said motioning for Ronan to come help look around. He looked to his left and spotted something

"Oh what is this." In the severed arm of the Jawa was a bag of space cocaine on the bag the words hypersleep in bold print. "Look a piece of candy" Raymond said as he picked up the bag from the Jawas severs hand.

 

[EmKay]

Once Raymond had reached a threshold that Ronan had mentally labeled the "danger zone" and had not met an untimely demise, the Mandalorian retracted his rifle, flicked the safety, stood, and slung the weapon in a smooth and practiced series of movements. In no real hurry, he walked to the crash site in time for the archaic droid's gravely voice to recite its trademark "roger-roger" line. He gave it a kick in the chassis that sped it along towards its permanent shutdown and eyed the little black box in Mosses' hands that turned out to be an old Imperial mouse droid. He took it off the captain's hands, disabled the blaster affixed the top of it, and rotated the machine in his hands. He wanted to keep it, everyone needed an insane murder droid and this fit the bill to a T. He held onto the indignant little squeaking thing while he and Raymond investigated the site.

There really was not much left. Some old crates of spoiled food, ammunition for blasters but many of the canisters had cracked, but there was a crate of spare components and scrap that could be useful as well as some tarps and whatnot. He set the useful items to the side and looked over to the sack that the other man found. As a general rule, Ronan avoided mind-altering substances. Many called him boring and/or no fun for that "buzzkill habit" but it kept him sharp - especially with how often he hung around cantinas and bars.

By now, the sun had begun to lower in the sky and neither of them really knew what might come out in the night on this world. It could be nothing or it could be one of those planets where darkness allows blind nocturnal predators who can echo-locate you and shred you apart in mere seconds to, well, you know. He would rather not find out.

"We should grab our things and get moving," he called out to Mosses.

Did it express the full measure of his thoughts? Not so much, but their mutual understanding was enough to know that the fact the Mandalorian had spoken warranted consideration. With that, Ronan grabbed the tarp-draped crate and looked it over for any functional repulsors. No such luck. He grabbed what handfuls of salvage he could load into his saddlebags. It would have to suffice.

 

[Essada Termiss]

Essada smiled and stretched out on her bed, before the telltale silent draught crept over. Her smile deteriorated quickly as reality washed away the pastel remains of the dream she was experiencing.

The absence of noise was sickening at this point. Her eyes began to adjust to the darkness that she loved to envelop herself in. Nothing around her was visible, all the existed where the variations in the shadows where the familiar objects of her room lay. The medium sized wardrobe in the corner, the small dresser opposite her bed and the lighter square where Essada had rigged extra clothes to block all of the light outside of her window.

Essada sagged as she turned herself around and her feet bouldered onto the floor. She fumbled over to her dresser and pulled on enough of an outfit to appear decent enough to make her way to the bathroom. She sorted through the coins on top of the dresser, placed a couple into the pocket of her coat in the wardrobe and grabbed a towel.

As the Twi'lek showered, she regained some of her senses. Closing her eyes and allowing herself to enjoy the flow of the water as it trickled along her lekku. Despair turned to anger and she resolved to find a way out of her prison. Of course, this resolve had manifested at least once a week since arriving.

Wrapping the towel around herself, Essada rushed out of the bathroom, stopping only to wave at the next resident in line as she dashed back to her room. Her routine passed in fast forward, drying and dressing, collecting the remaining the coins from the dresser and back out to the hallway. She paused, taking in the early rumblings of the patrons of the bar, the sensation of glass clinking the perfect distance away resonating through her body. Her hands trembled as she regained her composure and carried along the corridor.

The bar itself was well-maintained, much to Essada's surprise. It certainly wasn't the dusty, run down hovel she had expected a bar on this moon to be. She reckoned there must've been a cleaning droid that operated through the night, but she had never seen or heard it. The tables were well spaced and drew enough attention that she hadn't heard the owner complain about the other bar nearby stealing his business in weeks.

"You can't keep doing this to me." Essada slammed the coins down on the bar in front of the owner. "I'm practically part of the staff at this point. How is it fair that you're charging me twice as much as any other customer staying the night?"

"Mornin' tae you anaw, Essa." The short, ginger-haired smirked. "Ah think it's only fair to charge ye a wee bit mair than the ither folks. Ye dae have mair demands and expenses than they dae. Ah dinnae see any ah them asking me to buy make-up." He gathered the credits from the counter. "Plus the longer yer here, I'm doon wan room. Ah'm losin' business."

"I..." The comment about providing her make-up caught Essada off-guard. She didn't enter this argument expecting a logical rebuttal. "...wait a minute. If I'm paying for a room, how can you be losing business?" She lowered her voice slightly, trying not to draw the few eyes in the room towards them. "I think you're pulling in more business because of me. When I first arrived you were always going on about how River Deep was stealing all your customers."

"Ah cannae deny, their in-hoose band cannae compete wi' a stri-"

"A mood elevation expert." She cut him off through clenched teeth. "As you would say 'dinnae say some'hin' ye might regret."

"Ah take it fae yer wee ootburst that yer ready tae leave. Naebaydy's keepin' ye here." He pointed behind Essada. "There's the door, Essa."

"Stop calling me Essa. It's Essada." Essada took a deep breath and brought her hands to her face. To her surprise, the owner had kept a level head throughout the heated discussion. She was beginning to feel defeated. "We both know I can't leave."

"An' the last time ye tried to get a bloke tae take ye, they took yer stuff and left ye behind." He spoke lower and sympathetically. "Remember ah hid tae buy ye a bunch of new clays, that wis when I raised yer room rate. Some day ye'll be able tae buy passage oot a here, but fur the noo, there's work tae dae."

 

[Raymond Mosses]

Ray nodded to Ronan then finished looking through the pile of junk he had been eyeing for the last minute or so. Most of the crap laying around was useless. the few things worth anything were not worth much but still waste not want not. He threw the box down and knocked over a pile of junk in one of the corners of what used to be the cockpit of the ship. There rolling out of the pile right up against his boot was a slightly used but not terribly damaged Power Converted just like the one on The Private Dancer. "Well well, will you look here." Ray said as he reached down and pickled up the converter. "See Ronan, I told you investigating this ship would be a good idea." Ray smiled at the man then looked back to the converter in his left hand. Then at the bag in his right hand. Then off towards the distant settlement.

You know it is still a long ride into town in the dark. I think we could head back to the Dancer Pop this converter in and just bounce over the the settlement without riding half the night through what ever man eating eyeless mud demon lurking out there territory. One fight tonight is good enough for me." Ray said as he walked over to his Bike and packed away the converter and bag of magic dust. "Besides I think I left the door open to the Dancer."

Ray climbed on the bike and turned it back towards the Dancer. "Lets go" he said then pushed the accelerator and sped off into the darkness.

 

[Ambria]

As she had familiarised herself with the kitchen, the machination had returned. It watched her as she rummaged about, beeping and chirping at her. She found that when she quieted her mind as her aunt had taught her, she could sort of understand the thing. She learned that it wasn't a thing, but a droid and it saw itself as a female form. It explained to Ambria what a droid was and she found that very fascinating. The droid, however, didn't find it fascinating that she kept poking at it and wanting to peek at the inner workings of it. She gave up trying to convince the droid to let her see inside it and asked it if it had a name. Oddly, its name was ThunderDome. When she asked TD (as she shortened it down to be), why it was called ThunderDome, it said that the Captain thought it was hilarious. Ambria didn't see the hilarity of it, but what did she know? People, she learned, were... strange. Maybe it shot thundered bolts of lightning from its domed top or something, but when she asked all she got was a series of annoyed beeps. She also could have sworn that it *sniffed* at her in disdain. But droids don't sniff, do they?

She'd rummaged around through all of the cabinets, and had even found a pantry. Stocked. Well. Maybe she could acquire some of the foodstuffs and take it back to the temple before the ship left. She didn't think the people here would be very friendly, even though TD assured her that if she asked, it would be fine. Covered in metal didn't seem fine. Nor did the mini arsenal of weapons the one metal man had equipped himself with. She presumed the ship was full of the metal men, those who had left on the whining motors that had departed hours ago. Casting aside her thoughts, she stood and looked around, returning to the kitchen from the pantry and poked the display console. TD beeped and chirped at her garbled instructions on how it worked and gave a brief summary on the cooking apparatus. Interesting. TD informed her that there was also a recipe function, a sort of book that was stored inside the console that she could use to put ingredients together to create a dish. She knew what recipes were, but TD seemed to think she was completely backwards - and with all the help TD had given, she didn't want to appear rude, so said nothing.

She put some dishes too cook. Some smelled good, others not at all. TD whirred and spun and chirped enthusiastically; and while everything was cooking, she left the ship to return to the temple. She decided, she was getting off this leafy rock. And with TD seeming so welcoming, she couldn't fathom the metal men being the opposite. Grumpy maybe, but she'd dealt with loads of grumpy from the villagers on Jaguarda. She packed what meager possessions she had, slung her pack to her back and grabbed up her friend Petrie. She hoisted the potted plant to her hip and walked out the door, pausing to slide her hand over the glyphs to close the ancient door. She waited until it had seated before heading back to the ship, her voice calling to TD: "Hey TD, where can I put my stuff?" she went to the kitchen and checked on things (there was no need really, at this point it was automated), then turned back round the corner and past the lavatory. TD was waiting at the room just past it, the door sliding open. She peered in. "This one?" she queried. TD chirped. "Are you certain?" She peered within, it looked so... lavish. So nice. She looked back to TD "You're absolutely sure." stated as she stared at the droid. It bobbed a nod and wheeled inside, turning a circle before zooming back out to turn and look at her. "Well, alright then." She went in and dropped her pack on the desk in the corner, her potted plant set atop the desk on the corner of the desk where it met the wall. TD gave a series of loud beeps to gain her attention, and when she turned, TD showed her how it worked. How to lock the door, how to work the console and last, a bit of instruction on how to use the loo and the shower. Well, that was certainly helpful. Profusely she thanked TD and as the little droid rolled away with contented clicks and beeps, she walked to the kitchen and sampled all of the dishes she had made. She couldn't remember the names of them. Some were really tasty, some definitely were.... not. But perhaps it was just because it just wasn't something she cared for. Outwardly she shrugged to her thoughts. Full from spoonfuls of tasting, she went to the loo and closed -and locked the door with the personal key code TD had made for her- then figured out the shower. Ahhhhh... bliss. Hot water rained down over her exhausted too-slim figure, her eyes closing as she allowed a pent up breath of tension to whisper out of her. This, was nice.

 

[EmKay]

Ronan gave Raymond an understanding nod. It seemed their shared apprehension of danger aligned well with these parts and that power converter just made everything fall into place. It was the way. He swung a leg over the speeder and set off after the captain once again, this time toward the ship rather than away from it. The ride seemed to go slower on the way back. Something about the trepidation of what creatures crawl in the night on this world made the Mandalorian hyper-vigilant of the passing of time. Soon the ship was in view, and some of the anxiety faded back down to his standard level of caution. He killed the throttle and dismounted the speeder, then walked it up the loading ramp before switching it off completely.

There was something... off about the ship now. There was a fresh smell of food above the nearly stale odor of multiple meals and canned air that he had become accustomed to, and some of that R7 unit's repairs seemed half-finished. The low sound that escaped Ronan's throat could be described as a growl but it was not as aggressive. It was rooted in suspicion, and without saying a word he rushed up the stairs to the main deck. When he investigated the kitchen and dining areas he saw several platters of full meals on the dining table, an emptied-but-still-wet cup, and on closer investigation a dirty eating utensil. He let out a less anxious grumble and walked the corridor until he heard the unmistakable hiss of water from one of the refreshers. The notion of knocking played in his head for a moment, but instead he decided to wait. He walked back toward the kitchen and pulled up a chair, then set it to face where the invader was currently bathing and took his seat.

Ronan figured, if this character were an inherent danger there wouldn't be an obvious smorgasbord on the table, they wouldn't have an astromech rolling around chirring away as it went about its tasks, and they would not have left themselves defenseless enough to be caught in the refresher. So he would wait... and he would see.

 

[EmKay]

<accidental_doublepost>

 

[Raymond Mosses]

The ride back to the Dancer gave Ray some time to think about a few things. Firstly, who puts a blaster on a mouse droid? I mean you had a battle droid, old as it was, that was more than capable of holding the blaster, and a Jawa. Sure he imagined the Jawa was hopped up put of his mind on the Hypersleep but why the mouse droid. Secondly, what were the odds of Nik not getting hit in the firefight. He was laid out on the front of Ronans bike like a Mynok on a trump freighter. He himself was nearly hit at least three times and Ronan was hit and knocked off his speeder. Nik just layed out there, nothing between him and the blaster wielding vacuum cleaner and never get a singe. Ray wished he has that kind of luck, he would clean up at the tables. Lastly Ray thought about Misna Lyynn, Why didn't she answer the note he passed her in elementary school.

He slowed his speeder and brought it to a stop near the ramp. He watched Ronan do the same then push his speeder up the ramp with Nik still strapped to the front of the bike. He pulled out the regulator to take in and went to do a once over of the ships exterior before going in. The ship was beat up but nothing major. nothing that would stop it from getting to the settlement at least. He put any thoughts he had about the parts falling off the Dancer on lift off and pushed his own bike up the ramp into the lower deck of the ship.

immediately Raymond knew something was up. He had not smelt food on Dancer in months. I mean he knew food was there and ate something from time to time but never cooked food. He finished walking through the lower deck of the Dancer then up tot he second deck. Then he saw Ronan sitting in a chair watching down the corridor towards the refresher. He walked up to the man then turned his head sideways down the hall looking at what ever the Mandolorian was watching and saw nothing. Then he heard the hiss of the refresher and nodded an affirmation to the man and sat beside him. Someone had been eating his Spacham and using his shower.