Swamp Thing

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra sighed in relief once the whole group was regathered. She could feel Kat and Sir-ouch a lot in the hall besides them, but she made no move to join an assist, the little empath shhhhying away from their force signatures all together. They seemed to have their poodoo together. That was good enough for her.

She surveyed the group she had gathered, her gaze flickering over Acaadi with concern. Something in the back of her mind told her something was off with him, but then again, he had just snapped his leg in half. She pushed it out of her attention, really not caring to probe deeper and be burnt by his pain again.

“Right. Well. We’re all alive,” she breathed, trying reassure the group sitting before her. “Even if comms are down, this planet is populated, right? We’re not screwed. We could- we could walk somewhere. They’ll havecomms and we can skidattle out, right?” She nodded, not wanting to hear otherwise.

“So first things first-- can anyone check comms?” Her voice rang purposefully down the hall.

If not, they would need to gather themselves enough for rescue. Actually. “Someone might need to go put together some supply packs just in case…” She didn’t care to linger too long in this situation if they didn’t have to.

Everyone needed more hugs.

 

[Acaadi]

"Sorry, didn't get to check it," Acaadi said to Kyra looking bashful. He had boldly proclaimed that he would make his way to the cockpit. Then both he and Ura had ended up back off their feet after the new development.

"Can someone go to the cockpit?" he asked. All anyone would find there was a very dead set of consoles. No power, no comms, no beacon. The pilot droids were out too.

Acaadi found some relief in knowing that they had finished their head count. They had at least one healer too. From his chair he could just about see the swamps through his mud-splashed window. His crutch was going to work badly out there.

Acaadi turned to Ura, lowering his voice. "Do we need to...cut my skin to let them out?" he dared to ask with a grimace. He had suffered more pain in the last few minutes than he had in the entire seventeen years that came before and he could barely face the notion of having to go through more.

 

[Ura Iolar]

Ura looked around at everyone, and more worry and embarrassment seemed to come off of her. It wasn't the situation she and Acaadi were in though. She just still wasn't comfortable being around everyone. Yes, she knew a few of the other Padawans here, Reggie, Kat, Kyra, and somewhat Auteme, which helped, but she could help her shyness getting in the way of her thinking right now. She was happy to hear Kyra say that everyone was a live, that was good at least. Didn't help her feel less like a shackle right now, but it somewhat helped her nerve.

It was then that Acaadi lowered his voice to ask her if they'd have to cut his skin to free the rest of her. She could could teel he wanted to keep this private at the moment. She focused on him, forming a telepathic link to him. In part, it would help her emotions show better, but mostly it was make it easier to not reveal anything right now. She then answered Acaadi though this new link, sounding concerned, but more for him than anything.

"Y-yeah. But without knowing where they are, it'd be like trying to find your ancestors in the sands.... Plus... you seem.... It doesn't look like you like the idea."

 

[Auteme]

Auteme moved quickly, raising her hands and placing them such that they were just barely touching Tyra's eye. A moment of focus later and a soft green glow began to emanate from the padawan's palms. She'd never actually healed anyone's eye before, and she couldn't quite tell if repairing the eye would cause any permanent scarring -- after all, her healing was limited to natural recovery, just sped up. Hopefully it'd work out for Tyra until they could get better medical help. "Sorry. That's all I can do," she said, letting out a slight sigh. The young woman would have to tell Auteme whether or not she'd helped any.

With Kyra's urging, Auteme finally followed them to the rest of the group. She glanced at the other padawans in the room, quietly taking a headcount. There were more, right? Two more. Or more? Auteme's head was still a little fuzzy, and exerting herself by healing someone hadn't helped too much. "How... why did we crash?" She mumbled. Everybody else seemed so practical with the situation, but she was just afraid. She could always hope that some wanderer would be there to rescue them, but she doubted that would be the case.

The teenager took a seat in one corner of the room, taking a moment to focus herself. They'd be alright... right...?

[member="Kyra Perl"] @Reggie Fayaare [member="Tyra Ashen"] [member="Acaadi"] [member="Ura Iolar"]

 

[Acaadi]

Acaadi looked down at his shin. He didn't like the idea of that. Not at all. A droid with scanners and a laser scalpel could probably get the job done in a few minutes, all with Acaadi fast asleep. Digging around in his flesh for flecks of sand was a thought that brought a fresh wave of nausea creeping up the back of his throat.

"If you stay close, will you be okay?" he asked. Acaadi was already pushing back onto his feet. It turned out that he did not have the highest pain threshold, but he was a determined young man.

A few awkward steps with the cruth and he was at the door. The button did nothing, so he had to manually pull the sliding door away.

Not a single light winked on the consoles. The two droids fixed to their swivel mounts sat motionless. Acaadi tried a few switches. Nothing came to life.

"Must have been a power surge or something. Everything is dead. Everything. We're going to have to make it to the next town."

 

[Kresslyn Cantor]

As he leaned against the piece of rubble, he finally regained his composure and started to ignore the soreness in his legs and stomach area. While she spoke, he looked around and tried to gather a brief summary of how the ship was doing, but then she said it. Droids. Droids droids droids. They were either always the reason something went right or always the reason something went wrong. This time it was the latter. She'd told them something needed to be fixed and they didn't have the human instinct to evade disaster. Droids also couldn't refuse their programming, in most cases.

Down the halls a few voices echoed, some familiar and some quite new to him, but he could feel the panic in the air. Through the force, the emotions were all around him. Panic. Fear. Anxiety. Then came the different attitudes and tones. Curiosity being the common one among all of them. Most of them probably wanted to get in contact with others, but the comms were down among all the things that were broken.

Once he was done daydreaming about the situation, he thought he'd lighten the mood with a quick joke and a smile before getting back to business.

"Well, you're right. Those clankers really are bad with human instinct.." he laughed as he looked around for where to go next.

"We should probably get going." he said, turning to walk back towards where she came from.

"I'm heading towards the cockpit. See how the others are holdin' up. You coming?" he said, talking over his shoulder as he walked ahead.

"Thanks for the help, by the way. I didn't happen to catch your name?" he seemed nonchalant and very focused on the objective now that he was healed but just a bit sore. It was nothing like a big hit in shockball, though.

[member="Acaadi"] | [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"] | [member="Ura Iolar"] | [member="Kyra Perl"] | [member="Kat Decoria"] |

 

[Ura Iolar]

Ura looked at Acaadi, able to see his feelings in the Force. He definitely didn't want to have someone digging around his leg without knowing where Ura was in there. She tried to comfort him a bit, trying to send out a relaxing sense through the Force. She couldn't really influence Acaadi's emotions though, only show that she was staying calm. She then heard Acaadi ask if she would be ok if she stayed close. The Lervon nodded, standing with him and staying close. Honestly she was awkwardly close, but it was the best she had at the moment.

"Yeah. I should be good." Well if no one noticed something was off before they probably would now. She noticed his difficultly walking, sighing a little before walking with him and peaking into the cockpit. Everything was dead. Droids, lights, anything electronic. He looked at her current partner when he suggested that everything was dead, and that they'd have to get to the next town.

"Maybe EMP or arc weaponry? If we can get a look outsi.... Do you have any tech on you?" Ura decided to avoid the question of walking that far the way they were at the moment. One problem at a time.

 

[Kat Decoria]

It was surprising the turn that the other Padawan made, from screaming and nearly passing out to steel focus on the mission and figuring everything out. She would have taken five if she was in his position, a breather or time to think about everything. However, this was his decision so she let him wander off on his own. Looking around, she wasn't sure if she needed to look for others to help or stick with the other Padawans she had helped, it was a little complex. Kat paused and thought for a moment then looked at Kresslyn as he wandered off to the cockpit. "I'm going to search for others. Need to make sure everyone is safe I guess. Let the others know I am safe, they should have headed to the cockpit already so might be able to tell you more." Kat commented to the other Padawan as he left. "Name is Kat." She answered quickly before trying to shift through more rubble.

Kat breathed out slowly, her head was feeling a little light and she could feel a little dizzy but it must just be a sign of how exhausted she was though she didn't feel too tired. The healing hadn't spent too much of her powers, she pushed through some rubble to a new area. It was empty, she found a seat and took a sit. Breathing deeply, she felt some pain in her side that hadn't been noticed before. Checking her sides, Kat realised she had a couple of broken ribs. She cursed to herself. This wasn't good, she couldn't muster the energy needed to heal herself, but she knew that the bones would damage her lungs if she tried anything without taking care of it. What was she going to do? Looking around, there wasn't much in medical supplies in this area so she ripped a sleeve off her Jedi tunic and then used the Force to freeze the material. Placing them around her broken ribs, she breathed deeply. There wasn't much more she could do without overexerting herself.

Damn, just damn it. Why didn't she notice this early?!

[member="Kresslyn Cantor"]

 

[Kresslyn Cantor]

"Alright, whatever floats your boat, Kat." he said, laughing over his shoulder. Suddenly, he turned around and stared back to the empty space, shouting out to the direction of the rubble she had pushed through. "Hey, stay safe. Thanks for the patch up, Kat." then, he switched back on the focused act and continued to walk through the already cleared rubble from where she had met him before. There were a few areas that weren't cleared or explored by the other Padawans, assuming they immediately headed to the cockpit.

"Huh. Might be worth a little detour." he said to himself, lifting some large crates and destroyed chunks of metal out of the way with ease. He didn't find much, but he did find an empty room where he could quickly relax. So, with energy and ease, he plopped himself on the floor and shoved his arms into his shirt, crossing his legs and closing his eyes.

He sat there for about thirty minutes in a meditative state. The area outside the ship was quite dangerous, so the Padawans would have to work together to get wherever they were going to regroup, or get whatever supplies they were going to need.

Once he was done meditating, he stood up and slowly opened his eyes, a slight bright blue glow emitting from them (indicating he was using a weaker, untrained version of force sight). Through the beams of the ship, he saw multiple bodies in the cockpit and began walking towards them.

When he approached the cockpit, he saw a few people there and looked down at each of them. As usual, he was a large figure compared to the rest. His hands remained tucked into his Heliost Clan robes, remaining almost statue like as he spoke. None of the faces were familiar whatsoever.

"Hi everyone." he said in a calm yet authoritative tone of voice.

"What do I need to do for you all? What's our situation?" he said, smiling calmly yet still keeping a certain aura about him, his eyes coming to a dim and natural blue.

"We'll be fine."

[member="Kat Decoria"] | [member="Ura Iolar"] | [member="Acaadi"] | [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"] | [member="Kyra Perl"]

 

[Tyra Ashen]

Tyra almost flinched when Auteme raised her hand and just barely touched her eye. Clenching her teeth, she let the other padawan set to work healing her eye. The healing effect was almost instant as she felt the force run through the wound. All the pain from before began to quickly fade away. The skin quickly healed till the injury was nothing more than several small scars across her eye.

When Auteme said she was done, Tyra took a step back and blinked a couple of times. Even with Auteme's healing, Tyra couldn't see out of that eye. This worried the Valkyri even though she had a gut feeling from the start that her eye had severally damaged. She didn't want to worry the other padawan or make her feel as if she didn't do a good job, with a soft smile, she gave the girl a small bow. "Thank you. That feels a lot better. I don't think any amount of force healing was going to save it, unfortunately."

Taking the cloth from earlier, she wrapped it around her eye as she joined the rest of the padawans. She scanned the little group of that gathered here and listened to what they had to say. Acaadi stated that the ship suffered a power surge and that everything on the vessel was dead. The worst part, though were going to have to make it to the next settlement on foot. That was a big risk, especially with this many injured and in unknown territory. Ura was hesitant in asking one of the questions on Tyra's mind, what was it like outside of the ship. "I'll take a look outside, just to make sure everything is safe. Who knows, maybe there's a settlement not to far off."

Her eye turned to [member="Kresslyn Cantor"] as he entered the room. Another survivor to add to their ranks, that was a good sign. She gave nod to the man as he entered the room. He seemed more than willing to help and was trying to reassure everyone that they would be fine. At least he was doing his best to keep everyone calm.

[member="Kat Decoria"] [member="Ura Iolar"] @Acaadi @Auteme Denko-Durren

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra slowly lowered herself to the ground, the chaos of the moment catching up to her as everyone scattered or otherwise took the moment to recover. Kyra wiped at her mouth, the taste of her vomit clinging and catching at her attention. Water. She needed water. She tried to stand up and grunted as pain seared through her ribs.

Right. In a minute then.

She watched as [member="Kat Decoria"] patched up her own side, making subtle signs of pain.

"You okay there?" She wheezed, worried for the girl.

Just as her mouth would open to respond, a horrible metallic shriek tore through the ship. Everything jostled, the ground abruptly tilting and sliding as the ship settled on...

The sound of rushing water tore through the air. Kyra's eyes widened in horror, the meaning abruptly clear. "EVERYBODY OUT, WE'RE GOING UNDER!" Water. They landed in water. Of all the rotten luck!

She launched forward, grabbing Kat under the shoulder and helping her up. She gritted her pain through her teeth, the chaos of a breaking hull loud in her ears. If they didn't get out in time, they'd go down with it. "[member="Kresslyn Cantor"] , [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"] get [member="Tyra Ashen"] ! Acaaaadi!" She screeched out.

 

[Acaadi]

"My datapad is dead too," Acaadi confirmed to Ura. It didn't mean there was no chance this had all been caused by an atmospheric storm or natural phenomena. Who would take the time to try and bring down a shuttle of padawans? Accadi thought to himself in innocence.

She launched forward, grabbing Kat under the shoulder and helping her up. She gritted her pain through her teeth, the chaos of a breaking hull loud in her ears. If they didn't get out in time, they'd go down with it. "Kresslyn Cantor , Auteme Denko-Durren get Tyra Ashen ! Acaaaadi!" She screeched out.

By the Force she had a voice that could cut through his thoughts. And this time they were surrounded in quite a thick wall of pain.

"I'm moving!" he called. He was, but slowly. There was a crack and a hiss as someone pulled the lever on the emergency exit. It wasn't a clean lake outside. They had landed in a swamp. Whatever muddy sediment there was below them had given up on holding the ship's weight. This was going to be strength sapping. The bog did not smell that pleasant either.

"Can you...swim?" he asked [member="Ura Iolar"] in ignorance.

 

[Ura Iolar]

Ura looked a the datapad [member="Acaadi"] showed her. Dead too? She could feel that he wasn't quite convinced that a weapon knocked them out, but she had seen more electric weapons at work. That was a major part of Yurb's defense after all. It was then that she felt the ship buckle, and heard [member="Kyra Perl"] call out. She cursed a little in the whispering language of Lerdos before hearing Acaadi say he was moving. She was kinda happy he was a bit slower right now, cause it helped her keep in step with him.

It didn't take long for a door to open, and Ura found herself looking at a swamp. She didn't have anything like this on Yurb. Her homeworld had oceans, and a handful of shallow rivers, but it was still arid. No swamps or bogs. She looked out at the water, trying to understand how deep it was. How far they'd need to go. Then she heard Acaadi's question. Could she swim? The Lervon quickly nodded, looking back out.

"Yeah. I can." She then sighed, whispering this time. "Kinda wish we had told them about our situation now."

[member="Tyra Ashen"] [member="Kresslyn Cantor"] [member="Kat Decoria"] [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"]

 

[Kat Decoria]

Things were not going her way, just wanting to take a moment to herself or three, instead water started pouring into the room. Kyra had spotted her tending to herself which wasn't great either, she didn't want others to worry about her injury. She would be fine as long as she didn't work herself too much, it was likely cracked and not a clean break so Kat wasn't worried about puncturing a lung, at least she wasn't trying to think on that possibility since that would need expert healing if it were to happen. Standing up, Kat winced hard she was in a considerable amount of pain but she breathed slowly and deeply as she walked with Kyra.

"I'm sure Ura is with Acaadi, he's going to be fine, right now we need to focus on us. Sounds selfish but I am injured not gunna lie and I won't get out of here in time on my own so we need to get free before you can go on your own and save the others if they need help." Kat told Kyra as she shouted out for Acaadi, seems that the two were very close, perhaps dating which made Kat realise how long it had been since she had last been on a date. Kat shook her head, nope, not going to go down that route. She needed to focus on getting free from this watery grave.

[member="Kyra Perl"]

 

[Acaadi]

"Oh feth, it stinks," groaned Acaadi. It shouldn't have been the biggest problem. It definitely wasn't the biggest problem facing them right now. It was almost comforting to focus on the stench of the stagnant water.

He could see the ship starting to sink into the swamp. As it went he could also feel it tugging him back towards it.

Despite the humidity the muddy water was cold on his skin as he soaked through his robes. He swam on his back and let his broken leg float. He flapped with both arms and kicked gently with one leg.

"We'll tell them when we get to that ground," Acaadi called to Ura.

 

[Reggie Faayare]

Reggie was slipping in and out of unconscious as time went by. He tried his best to stay alert, especially since there could be a chance that he wouldn't wake up if he did fully blackout. On the other hand, the crash could be the breaking point for the Padawan's untested body. It wasn't that Reggie didn't get rest back at home, but he did put other things in priority over sleep. There was a lot he wanted to do, even more that he wanted to learn! Sleep just had to be put on hold for a lot of other things.....and now he may be paying the price for it......or he took a serious blow to the head and he was concerning himself with thoughts that didn't matter at this moment.

The Padawan saw [member="Kresslyn Cantor"] and returned his greeting. Or at least he thinks he did? Reggie needed to stand up or something, he needed to stay alert. And alert he was after the ship was moved and a loud screech from [member="Kyra Perl"] broke through his thoughts. He jumped up and began to move, the pain he had raging from the movement. "Time to go!" Reggie moved with haste, but kept his eye on the others. He wouldn't exit the ship until he knew everyone could make it out. He would help where he was needed.

[member="Acaadi"] | [member="Kat Decoria"] | [member="Ura Iolar"] | [member="Tyra Ashen"] | [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"]

 

[Kresslyn Cantor]

Just as he finished introducing himself to the rest of the Padawans aboard, it was time to go. A piercing scream broke the awkward silence between the group and urged them all to dive into the disgusting swamp below. It was definitely top three in one of the worst things that Kresslyn had ever smelled. It probably wouldn't be the last stench he came across anyways.

"Guess I'll just breathe through my mouth... Goodness, this stinks."

When he jumped out of the ship and into the swamp below, he found that the swamp water was unexpectedly cold but his mind simply let him bypass it. To distract himself, he closed his eyes and uses his growing force sight ability to see where he could go. There were a few others jumping down to join him and there was already one in the water, so he calmly swam over him to catch up.


"My whites are totally gonna be ruined. Guess I'll have to buy more." he said as he laughed to himself.

[member="Reggie Faayare"] | [member="Acaadi"] | [member="Ura Iolar"]

 

[Ura Iolar]

Ura looked to [member="Acaadi"] , giving a slight chuckle when he mentioned the smell. "Well... At least Lervon can't smell." This was probably the first lighthearted thing that most of the other Padawans there would have heard from her emotionless voice, though the force conveyed her somewhat joking meaning. She would quickly follow her friend into the water, forming a band between her and Acaadi to offer some leeway while they swam. Being a shapeshifter had it's advantages right now.

She looked back at the ship, trying to spy any damage that wouldn't be from a typical crash, but she couldn't focus enough to tell. She did look back at her partner though when he said they'd tell the others when they got to land. She nodded, thinking for a moment. "I may have a way to help with this too once we get there. At least to help with walking."

[member="Kresslyn Cantor"] [member="Reggie Faayare"] [member="Kat Decoria"] [member="Kyra Perl"] [member="Tyra Ashen"] [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"]

 

[Auteme]

More danger. That was fun.

Honestly Auteme hadn't really been paying attention until the crazy-ish Zeltron girl cut through the daze with a very, very loud voice. It made Auteme's head hurt more. Then again, drowning would probably also hurt her head a lot. She didn't waste any time after Kyra's warning, quickly moving out of the room and the ship, hopping into the water.

She wasn't the best swimmer, but she was passable. Didn't help that she was so thin, but she managed to keep her head above the water, semi-flailing in a rather not-graceful manner. Finally she got herself stable, and she quietly counted the heads and... other figures that poked above the surface. "Is that everyone?" She asked to no one in particular.

[member="Kyra Perl"] [member="Tyra Ashen"] [member="Acaadi"] [member="Reggie Faayare"] [member="Ura Iolar"] [member="Kresslyn Cantor"] [member="Kat Decoria"]

 

[Acaadi]

"I may have a way to help with this too once we get there. At least to help with walking."

"I'm all ears!" Acaadi called back. There wasn't much to do beyond wriggle and kick his way along. As he moved closer to the bank he didn't find solid ground beneath his feet. Instead the water just became even muddier and harder to swim through.

"Is that everyone?" She asked to no one in particular.

"Kyra!" Acaadi shouted out, realising he could not see the zeltron. "Anyone see her?"

[member="Kyra Perl"]