On Top of The World

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Allyson Locke"]

Tans. There would not be time to work on that for a long while, at least not for Kaili. She watched the green-blue pearl before them as it grew ever closer, until the forests seemed to almost brush against the ship’s hull. There were nerves radiating off of Kaili, but Allyson helped keep them in check. Her breathing seemed to shake and shiver for each exhale, but she was managing. The droid left the cockpit to head towards the cargo room in preparation and Kaili would follow behind, letting Henry interface with the ship and keep it steady for landing in a small grove below.

“We are almost there.” The droid-man seemed rather excited. “So many years and it’s soon here.”

“We aren’t there yet. Calm yourself.” Kaili told him as well as herself. “Readings indicate this grove offers the smallest chance of detection from prying eyes.”

“I still say we should have landed in the city center.” He responded.

“No, that would mean forcing our arrival upon people. We need to be gentle, let people ease into it.” Kaili said and withdrew a small case from her pockets. Contact lenses, a disguise to make her eyes turn from orange the a clear blue like her mother’s.

The ship touched down with a small shake. Kaili froze up in panic.

“We need to beware the wildlife.” The man warned the two girls. “Kiara is not as safe as it was, well, four hundred years ago.”

Kaili took a deep breath. “Okay, we can do that. Right, Allyson? It’s just wild animals, how dangerous can those be?”

 

[Allyson Locke]

Allyson wrinkled her nose as she watched Kaili change her eye color. She fully understood the necessity for it, but it didn’t mean she was going to like it. Being something for someone else is odd and it was never something Allyson fully accepted. Kaili got Allyson the way Allyson was and will always be. Of course minus the whole floozy part which the Corellian battles with - though in the end knowing that she has Kaili always makes it easier. Allyson never thought of having anything with anyone else besides Kaili, she figured that's what love meant.

She was starting to get ahead of herself and decided to slow down. If she kept up this train of thought she would end up one knee. Chuckling to herself, she wondered how Kaili would react. In her fantasy the blonde accepted quickly and they were whisked away to be wed, but Allyson knew the reality. Which meant she would probably be denied. Shrugging it off she chimed in. “People aren't fond of having something shoved down their throats.” Whistling sharply, Bait rolled over. “Got anything little guy?” The small droid holographed a small area for them.

“From here we can gather ourselves also allows us to show up unannounced to get a feel of the crowd. If they don't like us, Kaili and I won't get getting hanged. If they do we can proceed with the next step.”

Pausing she tried to think of the next step and shook her head. “Which we will probably look to R2D2 man for that step...right?” The man mentioned danger and Allyson’s happy exterior darkened. Instantly she became protective of Kaili. “Dangerous? Wild life? What kind of wild life are we going to have to deal with? Hopefully something that a blaster can handle...or we are in poodoo…” Allyson reached out and grabbed Kaili’s hand, “Might need your magical chosen one powers~” she teased hoping to relax [member="Kaili Talith"] a bit.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Allyson Locke"]

Kaili didn’t find it all that amusing. She wasn’t chosen, she wasn’t magical. She was herself and she was on a planet she had never seen or heard about before. The Man-in-an-Astromech rolled down the loading ramp and out into the open. Kaili let her guard down for a second to let in a deep sigh and took her first step towards the open. That was when the force cried out in warning, as did the predator outside. A loud roar called from outside, heavy paws stomped to the ground before sharp teeth dug deep into the tin can right outside their loading ramp. The creature’s teeth kept him in a firm hold as it shook his corpse around looking for nourishment only to find nothing but cold metal and oil.

The man’s dead body was discarded with a toss that threw him deep into the forests beyond the treeline as the creature set its eyes on the big ship that was right next to it. Hungry eyes set on Allyson and Kaili’s heart skipped.

“Henry, the door!” She cried out as the beast started to charge at them. “The door!”

The loading ramp slowly closed.

The creature pounced.

A loud thump could be heard as it hit its head against the cold backside of the ramp’s metal surface. Kaili remained shook, ran for the cockpit and activated the turrets and opened fire at the creature which promptly began to run away. She kept firing until eventually she hit it in the back leg. It went limp, fell to the ground with a whine as she continued to rain down fire one after another until the loud sound of the cannons were no more.

Much like the creature was no more.

Wasting no time she burst the door open and ran out towards where the man’s body had been thrown.

“We need that man’s backup drive, Allyson!” Kaili shouted over her shoulder. “We’re double dead if we don’t know the way back or the way into town.”

 

[Allyson Locke]

“WHAT IN THE KARKING FORCE?!” Allyson scrambled from the door as the creature made its way thorugh the circuit board of the robot man. She didn’t know what else to do or think. Usually when large creatures or enemies are crashing down on her, she’s in an x-wing and not out in the open such as she was now. It was a good thing that Kaili was able to think as quickly as she did. If no one had acted, they would be on the inside of that monstrosity.

The doors shut and Allyson sighed with relief as she heard the blaster shots and then a loud and heavy thud. This meant that the creature was dead or at least knocked out. Allyson of course hoped for the former. If it was dead it was the least of their worries, if it was alive and just knocked out...they were in for a hard and difficult adventure. When Allyson had finally felt her heart rate calm down, Kaili mentioned the hard drive. Wanting to groan, Allyson stood up and did her best to seem as cheerful as possible.

“You're right, I'll head out and get it. Just uh watch my back and see if there's anything we can shove him into.” Allyson strapped on her blasters to her thighs and then did the check over of her entire frame. It took a moment for her to build up some guts, but Allyson ran out as soon as she could making her way towards the man’s hard drive.

As she ran she hoped nothing else was going to pop out. [member="Kaili Talith"]. It was quickly and she wondered when it had happened, but Kaili moved quicker than Allyson could ever imagine. The blonde was so far ahead of her and Allyson focused and attempted to move as fast as she did. Allyson did remember quickly that Kaili probably was using the force to enhance her movement or Allyson was just out of practice with moving physically. Either way, she covered the ground the best she could and looked frantically for the hard drive. It was their main concern now. "You have anything in sight yet? I don't really want to move too far from the ship."

She thought for a moment as she stopped to catch her breath, "If its not close we should move the ship you think?" Suddenly in the back of her mind, a small beeping echoed. Looking around, Allyson took off into the nearest vegetation.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Allyson Locke"]

There was no better landing spot in a mile’s radius. For a planet that had been left to its own devices for half a decade the overgrowth would almost make you think otherwise. Kaili was of course unaware of exactly how bad the situation was around here, but needless to say it wasn’t good. Allyson caught up without any monsters in sight. The area felt safe enough as it was, there were a few signatures in the near vicinity, but they didn’t seem all that dangerous to the young Talith and she disregarded them.

She followed the Corellian into the foliage and continued to do so until they found the metallic husk a bit deeper into the woods. The robot man’s life was without a doubt at an end. Circuits were torn apart in the gaping holes from where the beast’s teeth had torn its chassis asunder. A wide frown spread on Kaili’s lips.

“Poor guy.” She sighed. “I didn’t make his homecoming the best, did I?”

Regardless, the girl knelt down by the droid and proceeded to loosen its parts so that she could dig around within it. It was one of few benefits of droids. Less blood and other runny liquids to get stuck on your hands. If anything there was oil, but this droid seemed to be remarkably dry. Rust dotted the occasional cog within him.

“Sorry for just running out like that.” The blonde apologized to Allyson.

“We needed to find him, and we did.”

 

[Allyson Locke]

Allyson stood close to Kaili mostly to make sure nothing came up near the girl and scooped her away. She watched carefully as the man’s memory core was extracted from the hunk of mess the r2 unit had become. Sighing softly, Allyson nodded agreeing with Kaili. “I know neither of us want to be here, but I feel like we are this guy’s only hope. The least we can do is give this all a chance.” Allyson took a look around, she was getting those bad feelings and she decided to try and usher Kaili back to the ship.

“Come on let's get back, we need to put him in something so we can get some information into him.” They began to head back, when Allyson looked towards Kaili, “Bait might not like it, but he can share his body for a little with this guy. The little terror might keep him honest if anything.” She chuckled, but she wasn't fond of forcing the entity onto Bait, hopefully Kaili had another plan.

There was hope that the short walk to the ship was uneventful, the faster they get back the quicker they can put the guy into something and get more information on the planet. Also where to go from here. There was a freshness to this world and Allyson was briefly once more reminded of Corellia. “I want to help these people, I wasn't able to help my world - so at least I can try here.” [member="Kaili Talith"]

 

[Kaili Talith]

“I am not putting him in Bait.” Kaili chuckled. “Worst case I’ll just strip him of data and dial in a manual route home.”

Yet something about the walk back seemed a bit longer than usual. The droid-man had been thrown quite a bit into the forests, but it wasn’t anything that two good legs couldn’t manage. Before long they would find the dead monster lying by their ship, the loading bay left open as Kaili would seem to remember it having been. They had been in quite the rush to find their companion, and now they had.

Approaching the loading ramp Kaili turned around to look at Allyson.

“Let’s see about getting off-” The girl walked into something. Something fleshy. Panic kicked in and she turned around to face it.

“Oh boy.” She muttered at the grown women before her. “This is awkward.”

Both of them looked at the blonde kid with wide eyes. Not fear, not panic, but with uncertainty and hints of joy before they looked at Allyson in very much the same way.

“... Hi?” Kaili tried to speak to them but they just remained frozen in place as if they had seen a ghost of good tidings.

This complicated things.

[member="Allyson Locke"]

 

[Allyson Locke]

Allyson yawned slightly as she followed nodding with Kaili’s plan for things. For the most part, it seemed that they would be having a bit of time to themselves before actually having to deal with any locals. That concept seemed wonderful in Allyson’s mind of course. Neither of them knew what they were getting into and not having to chase after this guy would make things go a bit more at their pace.

Well that was of course until Kaili ran into a woman who seemed to have found their ship. Allyson blinked and stared at the woman that Kaili seemed to have bumped into. Fear settled in knowing that they weren’t completely sure if this prophecy was something everyone accepted. In all honesty, it could just be the ramblings of some old guy who had a weird dream that seemed to have included Kaili and in the end included Allyson herself.

So here they were face to face with obvious locals, but there was a weird look on their faces. Could be anything really. They could be happy they have found dinner…which would mean they were cannibals...or scavengers. Either way, Allyson wasn’t feeling rather comfortable with any of this. Instinctively she reached out for Kaili’s hand and attempted to drag the girl slightly behind her. If anything dangerous was going to happen, she would get the brunt of it - so that Kaili could escape if needed. Keeping a protective grip on Kaili, she spoke as well to the people.

“Uh Hi, we err we aren’t looking for any trouble or anything. We can just get back on our ship and uh get out of here or something. Okay? Okay.” Looking towards [member="Kaili Talith"], she nodded. "Let's try and get out of here?"

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Allyson Locke"]

While Kaili appreciated Allyson’s gesture to protect her she thought it unnecessary. They were locals, no doubt. With the trip they had just experienced there was no chance that any freeloader was still alive by now. Kaili remained not behind Allyson but rather by her side as the two hunters looked at each other and then the two women. They were uncertain what to do and didn’t speak a single word before they dropped their weapons on the ground and got down on their knees.

“Please forgive us!” One of them exclaimed.

“We did not intend to offend you!” Exclaimed the other.

Kaili gave Allyson a rather surprised look before looking back at the two women kneeling down to the floor before them with their arms laid out as a sign of subservience. It made Kaili uneasy. If this was just the two people’s reaction, how would the rest react? Her fingers interlocked with Allyson’s for a measure of safety. The nerves from before came back and the bad feeling from before resurfaced at an alarmingly rapid pace.

“Please do not leave, we need you.” The first hunter pleaded.

“We’re nobodies, nobody the likes of you should be bothering with. Please. We need help.”

Kaili took a deep breath. “Where are your leaders?”

The two hunters looked at one another rather perplexed. “Our- our leaders? Oh, of course, they are-”

“Take me to them.” Kaili ordered the two hunters. “It is of the utmost importance.”

And the hand that held on to Allyson’s did not let go. Not even once. “Right, Allyson?”

 

[Allyson Locke]

All of it was becoming too real. There were people here and Allyson felt the sudden urge to run. She wanted to get back on the ship and leave, dragging Kaili along with her. The way the natives reacted to them scared Allyson. The two of them had barely experienced life, how could they guide a whole group of people to salvation. Allyson’s mind stopped and she looked at Kaili. This wasn’t her battle, this was Kaili’s. The prophecy spoke of her, not Allyson. Decision were not hers to make and she needed to be there to support Kaili. The second person mentioned as the supporter and that’s what she knew her job would entail.

Kaili looked to her for some sort of response. Allyson blinked and then responded quickly. “Yes, let’s go” She felt the security of Kaili’s hand in hers. She knew the other girl would feel the confusion that bubbled up inside of her. Where was this going to lead them? Did the man that had brought them here lie? Was there something dangerous waiting for them when they arrived? There were so many unanswered questions, but Allyson couldn’t voice them right away. Kaili had to take the lead on this one.

For she was the prophesized messiah and Allyson was there to help her along the way. Taking a deep breath, Allyson looked towards Kaili and nodded. The natives began preparing to take them to where Kaili demanded to be taken. If something became dangerous, Allyson would protect Kaili with her life. That’s what it meant to love someone right? [member="Kaili Talith"]