Character
Tag:
Taiia Locke
Taiia LockeLocation: Planet, habitable zone (Mord'Rethar)
System: Unknown (The Court of Bones)
The vast glittering swath of distant diamonds rested on a black and deep blue velvet canvas. A mottled dark marble hung there, lit only by distant, dim starlight. A single sleek ship flickered into realspace over the planet, arrowing in with the pseudomotion leftover form exiting hyperspace. The lone pilot shifted the nose of the ship to the right and performed some roll to put the planet relatively 'above' their flight path as the sublights sent the flying speartip down the planet's gravity well.
She pondered switching to silent running and making her course purely ballistic. But falling space debris was unlikely out here, and if it were purely ballistic... the ionization and plasma trail would have stood out on any sensor system. Better to just ease it in. Don't just rush in. Doors and corners. That's where they get you. It's the thing you don't see coming. In that regard she turned her ship's sensors toward the planet below. They weren't fantastic, but they were decent. She was a scout vessel after all. Able to loiter and snoop with a minimal profile while slurping up information. Not as much as an explorer or survey ship, but she got the job done.
Immediately data began pouring in about the astral body hanging overhead. Cold, estimated rotation within standard limits. Orbital cycle... fairly standard. Gravity was within standard tolerance. Atmospheric data would take a little longer. The planet itself still had some warmth to it. The star itself was only a ruined husk, a black dwarf, a dead ball of heavy compacted materials, cooling on it's early way to the heat death of the universe. But it was not truly dead, merely cold. Sensors showed a fair amount of infrared radiation coming from it.
Lia sat back in her seat and closed her eyes, opening up her senses. A chilling disturbance in the Force came to her immediately. Located overhead and ahead. The whole planet was awash in the cold chill of death, decay, and destruction. Entropy. And seething hatred and pain of billions of lives snuffed out in moments. There was power in it and it brushed up against her consciousness with an insidious caress. It sent a shiver down her spine, but from revulsion or pleasure she could not tell.
In her hands rested an old tome, hand written on ancient flimsi and bound in unyielding iron. It spoke of a lost world full of Sith knowledge on the edge of the galaxy. Rife with the dark side where the light once was, but now extinguished. The clues lead her to an extensive survey of old maps, compensating for stellar drift and painstaking efforts to map out the gravity shadows and eddies. The process revealed a dark spot where the gravity silhouette remained, but no astrogation data otherwise seemed to exist. A hidden mystery but what else could one expect in the Unknown Region.
The book, a codex really, held much information that had been lost but not all of it was clearly defined. One had to often fill in the gaps, translate. It spoke in riddles, puzzles, and made assumptions that the reader would know it's references. For some it's lack of clear answers was infuriating. For Lia, they were mysteries to be unlocked, puzzles to solve. They kept her mind sharp and the challenges that came with such exploration helped grow her knowledge of the Force.
Opening her eyes, she put the book away. She was right where she was supposed to be. Moving forward a little she took hold of the controls and switched out of autopilot. Following her instincts she nosed toward the planet and began to slide down the gravity well, while angling the shields to provide minimal friction. As it slipped into the upper atmosphere that cold feeling settled into and through her, whispering promises of uncompromising strength. Cold calculating thoughts intruded in the back of her head as she followed the feeling in her gut. There was something about this place that made her feel alive, like being dunked in a vat of ice water.
Before long she was streaking through the lower atmosphere on repulsors only. The surface seemed scoured of life, leaving only mountains and jagged canyons, blasted valleys. Some great cataclysm had befallen this place. Most of the display in front of her was a multi spectrum readout comprising of infrared, light amplification, and motion. She could have turned on navigation lights and shined ahead of them but preferred, for now, to not turn on bright lights in the dark. Between the display and the Force serving her will she would know where she was going when she found it.
Soon enough in the far distance, looming in the dark was a warm spot on the ground. Only by a few degrees, but it was enough. Something was warm there. Below the surface. Active scans passed over the area, but didn't seem to penetrate too far underground. Wonderful. She pondered getting some altitude and standing the ship on it's nose, breaking out the cannons and punching the ground until she'd made a proper hole in it. Of course some missiles would help. Send that ground some missiles. Ground loves missiles.
Buuuut, that was not a good way to play knock-knock. And for all she knew there was volcanic activity there, and cracking the surface was a good way to enjoy a gyzer of molten rock. Her shields could only handle so much. Letting the ship hover on repulsors, she flipped through the book. There were old drawings of terrain similar to this, only now there were piles of rubble and twisted nightmarish landscape. Blasted, melted rock with razor sharp claw and tooth like projections reaching up to the sky, as though it had been melted and flash-frozen into freefom sculpture.
Shaking her head, she couldn't fully stave off the cold sense of foreboding. This place belonged to the damned. Why did she come here?
The answer came swiftly and unbidden from somewhere in the back of her mind. She pushed it away. That wasn't true. She didn't seek power. At least not over others. Knowledge. Curiosity. Introspection. But knowledge is power. And the power to forge one's own destiny. Their own path.
"Frak off," she muttered to herself and goosed the vessel forward. A minute later she brought the nimble vessel about and settled it onto the blasted surface. Powering down, she headed to the back. Her saber was already clipped to her side. She grabbed a breath mask, not sure of the atmospheric conditions outside, as well as a heavy long coat, a multi-optic set of goggles. She could use the Force to navigate even while completely blind, but if she wanted to conceal her presence, it was best to have some other means to see. Her lightsaber would suffice for a light source, but it was a brilliant beacon in the dark. Grabbing a glowrod she added that to her kit. Several chemical lights or glow sticks went into her gear. Shouldering on her pack with teh rest of her provisions and exploration gear, she dropped the ramp.
Immediately cold air sucked at the the warmth in the interior and her ears popped at the change in atmospheric pressure. Grimmacing, she killed the interior lights. Plunged into seemingly total darkness, Lia began making her way down the ramp, goggles on, lighting up the night. A remote closed the ramp behind her, and activated the security system. One of it's neat little features was the disruptor cannon. Anyone attempting to board without the code would trigger the defense turret. Normally meant for engaging ground troops, it could swivel and target anything in the ramp area. It didn't do warning shots. Either shenanigans stopped immediately or the would-be intruder had to deal with high power repeating disruptor fire at close range. Stupid games get stupid prizes. No refunds or returns.
As Lia stood there on alien soil, she did take a moment to cast her gaze overhead. The planet seemed quiet as a tomb. There was no rush. Yet. And despite the cold, lifeless wreackage of a world, the stars were particularly bright, and luminous overhead, glittering impartially. It really was quite beautiful, even in this tomb.
