Phrikers

[Kiln]

Gromas 16
1300 Hours

Kiln rides across the deserts of Gromas 16 on a speeder with his hood up and his head down, keeping the sand from flying into his eyes. He was heading toward a mining base called Mohc Extractives. He had made a deal with [member="Rave Merrill"] - the owner of some phrik mines there, to help him find new veins of the ore if Kiln could keep 50% of what they found. Behind him sat [member="Siara Vorru"] - a lady who had agreed to come along and help, so long as she got a fair share of what they found also.

As they approach the mining base, Kiln slows to a stop outside the main building. Rave said he would lend them one of his mining ships to help with the process. Kiln gets off of the speeder and takes his broken shield out from the side of his seat, putting the strap over his shoulder and carrying it on his back. Without a word, he looks at Siara and then walks inside the building.

 

[Siara Vorru]

Riding across the deserts on the back of a speeder was not her idea of a good way to make an entrance but the Kiffar woman suffered through, she could have simply flown in and landed her ship nearby but at least this way she didn't have to do much of the work. She could sit back and watch the desolate wastes fly by. If things went according to plan they would find a rich vein of ore which would bring her a nice supply to put into the construction of some new armor. She had been planning this armor since she had first encountered [member="Crystal"] and the Crusade. Up until that point she had been happy with the scraps of armor she had been able to assemble up until that point but with the Crusade footing many of her bills and paying her handsomely on top she could afford to put together something that suited her unique style.

As they approached the mining base and came to a stop Siara stepped off the back of the speeder following the larger man, apparently he had everything in order. He had apparently arranged access to a lot of equipment she would not have been able to access. She barely knew the man but she knew she was going to leave this world one way or another with the ore she sought.

[member="Kiln"]

 

[Kiln]

After talking with some of the miners, they were led to a hanger where the mining ship was. One of the miners went through the basics of how to operate it with them and then left to go about his work. Kiln was still a bit unsure about it however. Flying ships wasn't exactly his specialty. He would have to figure it out as he went along. Sitting in the pilot seat, Kiln successfully started the ship up and slowly started to pull out of the hanger, but he had neglected to disengage the docking collar and the ship jerked to a stop. Kiln grunts angrily at himself and glances silently at Siara, before disengaging the docking collar and carefully pulling out of the hanger.

Kiln takes the ship into the air and stops as he then tries to figure out how to use the navicomputer. He stares at it for a long time, trying to remember everything the miner said about flying the ship and operating the equiptment, but it all sounded like nonsense to him anyways.

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Only partially listening to the miners as they gave their instructions to the two of them Siara stared over at the flying brick that was the mining vessel. It wasn’t pretty but according to the manuals she had downloaded from the ‘net before arriving it was one of the best mining vessels available. The mining functions were still something of a mystery to her but she didn’t need flying lessons from a grizzled old backworld miner.

As he finished jabbering and left to do whatever menial tasks he had to perform Siara boarded the vessel. Watching [member="Kiln"] take the pilot seat she assumed he knew what he was doing, after all he had proven competent enough with the speeder so she kicked her feet up onto the co-pilot console leaning back deep into the uncomfortable seat closing her eyes. She didn’t even have an opportunity to even begin daydreaming when the bigger man jerked the vessel out of its dock forgetting to disengage the collar.

The Kiffar mercenary caught his glance and glared back coldly he was clearly struggling but at least the ship was level for now. Siara sat up glancing over the console quickly acquainting herself with the layout of the controls. She reached up to a small switch at the left of the console as she took the control stick. She flicked it and took control herself releaving Kiln of command of the vessel.

“How about you make yourself useful consulting the charts, there has to have been some recent surveys out here no doubt they have identified some likely locations of some veins. Find a cluster of possible veins and we will set down in the center of them to conduct a more details survey.” It was almost as if she had been doing this all of her life and though Siara didn’t know anything about mining she knew a thing or two about taking command.

 

[Kiln]

Kiln begrudgingly handed over control of the ship to Siara, standing up from the pilots chair and going over to examine the charts to find a good place to start looking. If she wanted to lead the way, it was fine with him. He found the charts a bit easier to make sense out of, with directions and graphics that resembled the layout of a map. "Here." He said pointing to a set of coordinates on the chart, when he notices one of the the fingers on his prosthetic hand is stuck in place. Must not have fixed it right last time. "... Let me know when we're close." he says, walking up to the controls and turning on the radio before returning to the back and sitting at a small table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_qzMtN8TMU

Taking his gauntlet off, Kiln places his arm on the table and uses a small tool to open a triangular shaped panel on the back of his hand revealing the mechanism inside. As he tries to fix it, his mind drifts to thoughts of his friends. His memories of them were still clouded, but since he had learned to use the force certain things had started to come back to him. There was a name, Diggs. And the image of a beautiful woman. Did he have a family? Every moment he wasted thinking about it, these people suffered in the dark. Inside the belly of a monster. Kiln focuses back on his hand and continues fixing it.

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Glancing over her shoulder at the chart that he was pointing briefly making note of the coordinates as the other man left her to take us to their destination. Siara didn’t even notice the malfunction in his prosthetic, she didn’t care about the minor details in the lives of others, they weren’t important. All that was important was her continued existence and anything that improved that existence like credits. She brought the ship in low along the ridge her companion had indicated looking for a good place to set down. It was quite likely there was something here, if they were lucky they would discover a rich untapped vein on their first attempt but something told her with the rarity of this ore it would take a bit more effort than that.

Getting on the comm Siara spoke sternly into the comm. “I am looking for a place to set down how about you figure out how to get those scouting droids working, let’s see if we can get them going without any damage to them or the ship.”

Surely her companion could get these little droids dispatched without being hand held after they landed, she certainly didn’t want to do all the work, in fact Siara really didn’t want to do any of it but that ship had already sailed. She didn’t regret joining this mission yet at least the price had been right, but of course being paid relied heavily on them actually succeeding in finding a vein at all.

[member="Kiln"]

 

[Kiln]

Kiln raises an eyebrow as the radio cuts out and Siara's voice comes over the comms telling him to activate the scouting droids. He didn't really care for her tone, but it was only a mild annoyance for now. Walking over to the droids, he started to carefully examine them, looking for a way to activate them.

These things creeped him out. The way they looked and moved seemed so unnatural. But everywhere he went, droids were being used for one thing or another. Kiln feels around the back of the droid when he accidentally flicks a switch and the droid powers on, floating up into the air. He jerks backward startled at the sudden movement, and breaths out an aggravated sigh before going back over to it and trying to figure out how it works.

When Siara lands the ship, they step out onto the cold desert floor and release the scouting droids. Kiln watches the droids float away into the distance when he spots a collection of small holes in the ground close by. He walks over to the holes and stares down into them for a moment before backing away and returning to the ship. "Something lives down there."

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Setting the vessel down on the most level ground she could find Siara powered down the main reactor, no point keeping the fires burning when the power wasn’t required to keep the systems they needed running active. She stood up from her seat in the co-pilots chair leaving the cockpit behind as she adjusted her gunbelt on her hips heading for the landing ramp. Stepping down the ramp into the oppressive heat the Kiffar woman shielded her eyes making a mental note about the armor she was planning to use this ore on.

Seeing [member="Kiln"] approach the ship again he was ckearly concerned with something being alive under the ship. “Something like what? Worried they are going to come and get you? You look like a big boy, surely you can handle yourself if something wild attacked us. Until that happens I think we should focus on our goal, get this done with as soon as possible, sooner we are done the sooner we can get off this backwater dustball.”

 

[Kiln]

Kiln ignored the girl, looking around the desert and spotting a few more of the holes scattered across the area. Whatever was in the ground, there was a colony of them. And Kiln didn't like not knowing what it was. "... Maybe we should find another place to dig." He said. But Siara seemed anxious to start mining, and the scouting droids were already on their way back with the data.

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Looking over the holes Siara shook her head slowly. “No, there is too much potential here, besides if there is going to be anything coming out of the ground we can retreat to the ship, we need to wait for the droids to return anyway. I wouldn’t want to waste that much valuable technology and come up empty.”

Looking at the man she was already figuring a way the use him as a distraction if anything too dangerous came out of the holes. She didn’t know him all that well and she had no reason to think he wasn’t thinking the same. Watching the first of the droids float back from its survey to download its data to the main computer Siara smirked to herself. “Won’t be long before we have a good idea of what is down there, I say we wait for the data to compile before we decide whether or not we tuck tail or not.”

[member="Kiln"]

 

[Kiln]

"I'm not worried about something coming out of the holes. I'm worried about digging into them" Kiln said as he watched the scouting droids come back one by one. They all uploaded data into the ships computer and then floated to the back of the ship and deactivated. He walks back into the ship and checks the computer as it compiles the data and brings it up on screen. It appeared there was a decent sized ore deposit nearby a few miles below the surface, making Kiln wonder why no one had found it until now.

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Shaking her head ever so slightly the mercenary smirked at the other man as he headed back onto the ship to study the data the little droids had collected. In her opinion [member="Kiln"] was too cautious, too afraid of what could be, in short her complete polar opposite. Siara doubted this mission would lead to any kind of lasting relationship, and that suited her just fine she would use him until that usefulness ended and then cut him loose to be on his merry way. Following him up into the ship she stepped in behind him as he reviewed the the data on the screen, she certainly didn't know how to interpret the data she left that to him. "So what is the word? Have we found our jackpot or do we have to find somewhere else to conduct a survey?"

Anxious to get drilling into this dust ball to get at the precious ore that lay somewhere beneath so she could be on her way Siara made no effort to hide it. She wanted to get this over with with her share of the ore so she could return to more important tasks like serving her own interests within the Crusade.

 

[Kiln]

Kiln stared at the screen for a moment, thinking to himself. "It looks like there's a spot east of here were we might find something..." He sits in the copilot seat and lets Siara fly them over. As they neared the spot that the data pointed to, Kiln looks out the front of the ship to see that there is large tunnel going into the ground, that looked like some other mining ship had already dug through.

So someone had found this spot before. But then why did the data suggest the ore deposit was still there? Kiln looks at Siara with a raised eyebrow.

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Growling slightly at the hassle of having to move the ship Siara moved to the pilot seat reached over the console, snapped off the bypass she had engaged before and brought the ships’ engines back online. She carelessly lifted off barely off the ground before she was accelerating away towards the spot her companion had marked. She certainly wasn’t a patient woman but [member="Kiln"] would have certainly noticed that by now.

Bringing the ship back down in front of the tunnel before them Siara reached across the console and snapped on the forward lamps lighting up the entrance to the cavern. “Well we best send in the droids, I’m not setting us down until we get a detailed reading, that tunnel looks wide enough we could actually just fly in there but who knows how narrow it gets.”

 

[Kiln]

Kiln looks at Siara before walking to the back of the ship to activate the droids again. The girl didn't seem very interested in helping him much on this trip. Although as long as she operated the ship, he didn't really care. The only reason he needed someone else on this trip was because of his inexperience with technology. But at least, he was able to get the droids working.

As he activates the droids they float outside of the ship and into the cavernous hole in the planet. Kiln walks back up to the front of the ship and sits back in the copilot seat, watching the droids disappear into the mineshaft. "Why would someone dig this tunnel and then leave the ore there?"

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Watching the little droids float into the tunnel to run a complete survey of the inside Siara shrugged at [member="Kiln"]. "Perhaps they lost their nerve when they saw their shadows on the wall? Or maybe there really is something down there something to present some sort of actual challenge. It doesn't matter either way, if there is a rich vein down there we are setting up shop and mining it out regardless of the risk."

The Kiffar woman seemed fearless, confident she could handle anything that came her way, perhaps slightly undeserved but even when she failed in a task she always found a way to turn it to her favor. She watched anxiously as all the little droids disappeared into side tunnels carved out by previous miners hoping to strike a large vein. No doubt most others who came here only do so because they saw the profit in doing so the ore they were after held a great deal of value to a lot of people after all. Normally Siara would be one of those individuals only out to make a profit but not this time, the ore held value to her in what it could do to improve her odds of survival. She spent a great deal of time in the presence of powerful force users these days and though their manipulation of masses made it easy for someone like herself to take advantage of that system it also presented more dangers that had to be accounted for. Their lightsabers were her primary concern and this Phrikite ore manipulated properly promised her a level of protection against their little lightsticks.

 

[Kiln]

As they waited for the droids to return, Kiln stared out the front of the ship in silence wondering if Siara was reckless or just plain stupid. He had figured she just wanted the ore to sell it, but she seemed to be motivated by something other than greed. It didn't really matter what though. So long as she had the common sense to know when something was wrong.

The droids start coming out of the mineshaft one by one and downloading data into the ships computer. Kiln looks as the the ship brings the data up on screen, compiling the data into a map of the tunnel. The tunnel goes down for miles, until it opens up into a large wide open cavernous area where all the ore veins are located. "Whoever dug this tunnel did a whole lot of work just to run from shadows..." An abandoned mineshaft with all the ore still there for the taking. This felt like a trap.

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

“Well if there is something down there we should check it out on foot, if there is some kind of ambush it would be better to figure it out on our terms. Besides this ship is no doubt worth a fair bit and I don’t feel like paying for it.” Siara stated as she brought the ship down. “Grab your gear, I’ll meet you at the end of the landing ramp.”

Powering the vessel down the woman left the cockpit grabbing her duffle bag from the rear of the cockpit as she stepped out. She believed in being prepared and had brought along her armor, it was all packed away with care inside the duffle bag along with her favourite rifle. She thought perhaps this was going to get interesting at least. She found a clear spot, removing her jacket and belt from her hips she started suiting up. The armor was heavy, part of the reason she was looking to accumulate enough of this valuable ore so she could make her design a reality, she was aiming for a lighter set of gear.

With the armor finally pulled on she pulled her belt around her waist again synching it tight as she slung her rifle over her shoulder. She proceeded down the ramp her imposing armor presenting a frightening profile as it was intended to. She looked at [member="Kiln"] her smirk hidden behind the mask of her helmet. “Are you ready to check out this cave?”

 

[Kiln]

While the girl put her armor on Kiln grabbed his broken shield and few flares, and walked out of the ship waiting for her at the entrance to the tunnel with his hood on. He checks the shield to see his lightaber attached to the back of it right above the handle, before grabbing the shield handle with his prosthetic hand. It was a sad, rusty old shield that didn't offer much protection but it had sharp broken edges, and his shield arm was still in peak physical condition from carrying a much heavier shield for two months straight. He couldn't bring himself to let the shield go. It saved him. And now he had to save it.

When Siara came out of the ship they started heading down into the tunnel as Kiln lit the way with a flare. After continuing down the tunnel for a while, they came to a point where the path dropped straight down into a deep dark hole. Kiln tosses the flare into the hole and watches as it dropped down the mineshaft for a long way before hitting the cavern floor. He squints his eyes, thinking he saw something scurry away from the light as it hit the bottom.

[member="Siara Vorru"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

Following down into the cave behind [member="Kiln"] the Deimos of the Crusade relied on her HUD and the heat vision provided by her helmet's systems. It was certainly more efficient then the flare the other man carried in fact if he wasn't using the flare she could use the IR visor but then her companion would not have anything with which to see. She noted that the visor indicated the man's head signature was not complete, he had some sort of artificial limb. She also noted the presence of a lightsaber strapped to the shield the man carried. She made a note to herself about that little fact but left it be for now as they approached the edge of the hole and her companion dropped the flare down the tunnel. She could see at the bottom a number of small creatures scurrying away from the new source of light as the flare hit the floor.

"Getting ready to mess your drawers yet? Or should we setup to climb down there." Siara asked.