Ossus Running

[Jsc]

Ossus
The Wetlands

The Republic Dropship landed just outside the Ossus Dunglad Wetlands. Massive avian creatures took flight from the sounds of the landing craft descending. Filling the blue skies with rushing wings just above the black curling smoke. The crash site was nearby.

"She's just over yonder that uprooted tree. Scanners ain't picking up a thing though. Good luck out there. She's all yours. Oh, and radio for pick up when you've got something. We'll be jumping around a lot today, but we'll try to swing back around if you're still here in an hour. ...Force be with you Jedi."

The Republic Trooper sounded hesitant in his reassurance. Understandable. This was simple recovering job for the Jedi Order today but these marshes were home to some very strange creatures indeed. It was wise not to go fishing around too heavily. Rumor has it there are some really, really big snakes out here.

"I've got it. We'll be in touch." Megan nodded as she hopped off the deck.

Megan Rhymes was a colorful Jedi Apprentice just arrived from the Core Worlds. She was new to exploring, but that was the point. The Order felt she needed to lose that Green Streak.

___

Her boots sank ankle deep into the green water as she approached the crash site. A golden 'House Tetan' escape pod. Half sunk into the wet soil and still smoking. The large birds nearby simply remained high in their trees and silent as the dead. She didn't like the way they kept watching her. Meh. It was probably just nerves,

"Ugh. What a mess. Guess I should have brought a shovel instead."

She frowned and looked up at the sky. Something else was approaching.

"...Oh? I don't remember them saying anything about back up?"

Megan squinted against the suns and watching the vessel approach. Thinking quietly to herself: Friend or foe?

___

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Flying my old YT-2400 in low to get a better look at the crash site I heard about on the comm I could see several Republic Troopers on the ground, waving up to get my attention. Flicking on the channel so I could hear them "Yeah boss, we just sent someone out a few minutes back." Well, either there goes salvage rights to what ever is out there or there goes somebodies stuff. Troopers were pretty notorious about pocketing small things that they knew would get replaced no harm done. I landed the ship next to their dropship and got out.

"Well you'd you send trooper." They snapped to attention when they saw my rank tags, "ehh, put your hands down." i guess I technically ordered them to, but meh.

The troopers all looked back and forth at each other. "We're not sure. She looked like a Jedi and answered to that." They responded, a little sheepishly.

"Ah, sith spit, you don't know. Alright, I'll pop out to the site and take a look." Worst case wasn't so bad anyway. It was a fair walk, but i ended up using my jetpack for about half the trip, screw walking that far, but I didn't want to pop in on someone who might be a little skittish so I walked the rest of the way in towards the site. "Oi, whose out here?" I called as I walked close to the crash.

[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

Megan gave a cheerful wave to the approaching Trooper as she sat atop the golden pod with deviant pride. Standing up and smiling, she pointed down to the crash and gave a holler,

"Escape pod crashed. You here to help me pull her out?"

She snickered. It was a bad joke. This pod wasn't going anywhere.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I looked the young padawan over pretty well. She's got an attitude. Good then this banter won't be one sided. "Nah, I leave that up to you magical folks with your mind powers. Or did you miss that lesson." I bet that would sting a little. Most of these Jedi were always talking about how the Force was all powerful and all encompassing, but then you shove some cold hard reality that sometimes it didn't always cut it and the got pissed.

Shifting my attention to the downed pod, "What was it carrying, do you know?" I asked more seriously. I was out here for a reason, and that reason wasn't smack talking with a Jedi.

[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

Megan pulled out her blue Saberstaff and carved away the canopy,

"Don't know. Snub Freighter ditched the pod on the way in. So... I'm betting on illegal goods. It's the only reason a pilot would jettison a perfectly good piece of Tetan equipment. Probably."

The door melted through and she popped the red hatch lever for sport. The door peeled away with a blast of the Force and set the nearby birds reeling for the sky. Thump. Splash. The door sailed through the air and landed nearby.

"Okay. All done up here. I'm hopping down. Watch the splash."

___

Inside the pod there was nothing. It was completely empty but for a few broken remains. Droid parts. But Megan didn't know that. She leaned in deeper and let her, (smoking hot,) tush swish in the air. Swish swish swish. Jedi booty for everybody. Gods, but she was irreverent.

"Trooper. Come over here. What do you make of this? It looks empty?"

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I kind of regretting making fun of her now, but what's done is done. When she called for me I walked up to get a good look in the escape pod, "The names Draco so you know. Yours?" I asked as I arrived next to her.

I peered inside the empty pod and got a good look at the stuff she was referring too. It looked like a lot of the stuff Benji kept around the shop. "I guess spare droid parts, but I'm no expert." I turned around and surveyed the area for a moment. "Give me a sec to get a good scan of this place." Using my enhanced sensors in my helmet i got a good look around, heat signatures from small animals and birds everywhere, X-ray data of all sorts of creatures.


[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

"Rhymes. Apprentice Rhymes. Ossus Temple. Nice to meet you Draco."

Megan stood up straight and peered about. The marsh would make footprints impossible to follow. But? There wouldn't be any metal in these parts either. The droids would show up on electronic scanners.

"Welp. Looks like we've got ourselves a few runaway droids then. ...Erm. Don't know how many? But. They couldn't have gotten very far."

Megan noticed the birds again. They scattered at movement and circled above. Mm. It still made her nervous for some reason. Couldn't quite say why.

"You've got a ship right? We could do some flyovers and scan the ECMS. Well? If you've got time, that is?"

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

She looked up into the sky for some reason, must be admiring the birds I guess. "A pleasure to meet you Apprentice Rhymes. Yeah I got a ship, and I got all the time we need to go looking, but fair warning, she ain't much to look at." I said to her, turning back to head out to the landing area a ways back. The avian creatures didn't bother me or interest me in the slightest. I had dealt with worse, maybe not bigger, but certainly worse.

It wasn't too far of a walk back to the landing area, but it could be made a lot shorter. "We could fly back if you're in a hurry." I said, sticking a thumb back over my shoulder to the jetpack on my back, "Or if you wanna get a closer look at those birds."

[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

Terrified at the thought of being turned into a jetpack piggy-back, Megan happily declined. She wasn't that much of a bird person. Nope nope nope.

*sigh*

___

The boarding ramp pulled up slowly as Megan strolled into the cabin of Draco's YT-Class Starship. It was a familiar design but she had to admit, Draco did not possess a woman's talents at decoration.

"Ah. Well. This should do nicely. Now, I suspect if we do a few passes at few intervals out? We'll find our lost droids after all."

She looked around the cabin as she spoke. Searching for one appliance in particular,

"Oh? ...And do you have a coffee machine around here Draco? I'm famished."

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Walking it is then, I thought as we made our way back to the ship, again not a bad walk, just what I felt like was an unnecessary one. Once we got to the ship the ascended the ramp before me. I didn't mind, not at all, it just wasn't normal is all.

She didn't seem to mind making herself at home on my ship. I nodded down the circular hall, "Galley is the first open door down that way, make yourself at home while I get this thing powered up." She may not know this, but the power on sequence for my old freighter was right about five minutes, by no means fast, so she had plenty of time before the ship was ready to get off the ground and under way. "Help yourself to what ever food I got in there, probably isn't anything more than protien bars, but its something." I called down the hallway as I walked into the cockpit.

About four minutes later I remembered I had an unopened bottle of Corellian Whiskey in the galley, and I hoped she hadn't helped herself to it. It was too late if she already had, and I didn't want to make her feel bad about opening something that couldn't be readily replaced anymore.

[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

Megan sat around the circular table eating a bowl full of protein bars. Banana Chocolate flavored. Mmm. Yum. It went perfectly with her steaming cup of coffee too. (Space Diets are weird) Classically enough, It appeared this little Jedi knew her way around a kitchen rather well. She relaxed like the ship was a Zeltros Spa.

"Mm. Perfect compliment. I forgot how much adventuring takes it out of you. Hiking around a marsh is tough work. Ugh. So mushy. Bleh."

Well. It wasn't. ...Not really. Megan was just a sore tenderfoot. A rookie. She might have been uber strong and magically empowered, but? Yeah. ...Girl was pretty homebound. It was obvious she hadn't done a day's worth of real-work in her whole life. That much was for sure.

"Mm. So? Draco?" She waved a protein bar in the air, "What are you doing in this area anyway? The Troopers who dropped me off seemed pretty busy today. ...You been' slacking off or something? Hehe."

She giggled at the thought. Megan didn't get Troopers. *shrug*

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The young Jedi sat nearby eating easily two days of protien bars while sipping coffee. I was a little impressed that she was planning on eating that much, but hey, who am i to judge. When she started talking he turned his head enough to where he could see her sitting at the table. "I'm a Master Chief attached to a Special Operations unit, which is big words to say, I am not required to work very hard anymore. I put my grunt time in, now I get to reap the rewards with a lot of free time. When they need me, they call and tell me where, otherwise I do my own thing." It was a rough explanation and a lot of special exceptions had been made to allow me this much free time, no small part because my company funded the Special Operations branch with gear and equipment, but she didn't need to know that.

The power on sequence ended and he put his hands on the flight controls. "Come sit up here and work the sensors, would ya. I don't really know where to start and I was hoping you had a decent guess." I lifted the old YT-2400 up and out of the landing zone. It shook a bit on the way up, but once we were stable at about two hundred meters it was fine.

[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

Ah. Special Ops. That made more sense. Draco was outfitted like a one-man Mandalorian army-tank. Phrik, flame-thrower, AV helm, etc. It was the sign of a man who'd fought against a Force User before and lived to tell the tale. ...It um. Well. It also must have cost a small fortune. Sith Lords and CEO's can afford Tier 10 armor. Not many other people can be so specific.

Ahem. Megan knew her fashion, after all.

___

She put her bowl of goodies into her lap and took the co-pilot's seat. She switched up the scanners and began cycling through the monitor system. It took a moment but she eventually got it working. She brought up the mineral scanner and punched in durasteel and desh-terianium for the code. It was just a guess. But it worked,

"Okay. Got something. Desh-terianium deposit detected northwest of our location. Can't tell how many, but she's there. Let's do a flyover at high altitude and get a better look. ...I don't want them to see us yet. Hit the clouds would ya?"

Megan switched over to visual scanner and peered down into the landscape. Anddd. ...Bingo.

"Got em'. Two astromech droids wearing Tetan colors. Ooo. Fancy little buggers too. Must be hot cargo or some princesses' new toys."

She looked up from the scanner and smiled,

"Let's go get em' Draco. Put er' down anywhere. Those illegal robos ain't getting away from this Special Ops team. Hehe. It's showtime."

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I would have put the ship down, but there wasn't a good place to do so out in this swamp, and the last thing I wanted was for the ship to get stuck out here on Ossus so far away from anyone. "I don't have a good place to set her down. I will switch it to auto, keep it hovering at two hundred fifty meters and we will repel down." I stood up after flicking a few switches and gingerly letting of the controls to ensure the ship wouldn't plummet when I let them go. I grabbed a long repelling cable, portable winch, and harness and made for the loading ramp.

I was able to set up the winch quickly and electromagnetically lock it to the inside of the hull. "Alright sweetheart, don't look down, I'll catch you if you fall." I said holding the harness out to her. "Lets get em." It was simple reassurance. I might be able to catch her if she fell, but hanging maybe's in the air wasn't good for morale.

[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

Oh gods. Repel down? In a harness? Dangling in the air? ...Oh no. Force help her. Rookies aren't cut out for this. Oh bother.

Sighing heavily, Megan hesitantly strapped herself in.

"Okay Chief. I'm going to need two restraining bolts for the Astromechs too. Grab a pair of them from the droid banks in your engine room. Assuming you have had astromechs on this ship before. Naturally. Otherwise they are like to misbehave wildly. Pfft."

She took a big gulp and told herself it was just for one mission. Just one mission girl. Fishing for droids. Yeah. I mean? What could go wrong? Right?

"Oh? And hand me that mag-hook too. I'll unhook when I'm down there and send them up to you one at a time. You can wench me up last."

Breath. Breath. Breath. Okay Megan. Here we go.

"Wish me luck."

She winked bravely. Megan counted to three and then jumped. ...Here goes nothing.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

While the young padawan was getting ready to leap, I grabbed a few retraining bolts that she asked for quickly and turned the corner just in time to see her wink at me and ask for luck. Well, luck isn't what I was planning on relying on today. Today, for a simple droid fishing, I was banking on this just being a walk in the park. When she jumped I was only two steps behind her and I walked off the edge of the boarding ramp, free falling to about seventy-five meters before burning my jetpack to land softly, and even then I shouldn't have tried to show off as much as I did.

I landed pretty hard despite my efforts, almost being able to hear my knees pop from the landing. "Oh, crap" I muttered to myself, hoping she was still far enough up not to hear. A quick survey of my surroundings I didn't see the droids, granted I didn't look to hard either. I looked up and called out to [member="Megan Rhymes"] , "You alright up there?"

 

[Jsc]

Megan came peeling down shortly thereafter. Looking ever-so happy to unhook and finally be back on solid ground. Never again, she shook. Never again.

Adjusting her harness she pointed north,

"There they are!"

Two golden astromech droids stood only a few meters a far off. A blank look of trepidation on their beeping faces. The game was up. Easy as pie.

Suddenly, and before Megan could voice her gasping caution, a giant snake creature reared up from behind the illegal droids. A slimy Viper of tremendous size and appearing to have at least six eyes, had just appeared. Sending violent splashes of green soil everywhere.

"Drake!" Megan shouted as the Viper lunged for one of the blank-faced Astromechs. Attempting to swallow it whole. Something it could probably do with ease and thrusting.

"...Do something!!" She screamed.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Oh crap, a really, and I mean really big snake complete with titanic size and enormous forearm length fangs had slithered up this close to me. I sigh of relief that it wasn't me it was going to eat escaped my lungs. I heard her yell something at me, and I didn't even need to look at her to understand what she meant. She wanted me to do something, most likely involving that giant snake. I had had run ins with local fauna before on other planets, and they didn't end as well as i would have liked.

Nonetheless the snake was trying to get away with our meal ticket. It wouldn't like the droids and would no doubt eventually spit them back up, but that would be well after they were irreparably damaged. It was going to eat a droid and she needed me to do something about it. Well either go big or go extinct as they say. I raised my left arm and took aim with my wrist mounted rocket launcher. It wasn't a big missile, but it was the most powerful weapon I had on me at the moment. One click and the guided missile took off aimed for the viper's head. "Boom." I said as the missile accelerated away. Best I can do given the circumstances, I wasn't a miracle worker.

[member="Megan Rhymes"]

 

[Jsc]

Boom

Megan was stunned as the Viper reeled back from the blow. Red blood flowed from a viscus wound and it appeared to have lost a few of it's many eyes. The Astromechs whirled with terror and began a slow spin of their treads. Escape was so cute for a droid.

The Viper hissed and thrashed about. It's body becoming larger and more visible with each passing moment. Especially when it's tail appeared. BEHIND Draco!

"Draco!!" She screamed and ignited her lightsaber. ...But it was too late.

Whip. Crack. Revenge.

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I remember thinking, damn that's a big snake. Then something whalloped me from behind, smashing me to the ground hard. Great this was Felucia all over again. Big beasts, internal bleeding, and chest pains. At least this time I had a cute girl with me instead of an elderly duros, and she wasn't complaining about being out here. Then again, there was an extremely large snake, now extremely upset with me. My senses came back after only a few seconds, but those were vital seconds. Time to play hard ball with this overgrown rat snake.

Pistols for now, slugthrower rounds at that. I grabbed for them as I popped up off my back. "I hope you're ready for this" I said, more to the snake meaning I was gonna hurt it, but also to [member="Megan Rhymes"] meaning, I really hoped she had a plan.