The Mission Without A Moon (Joshua/Tallia)

[Josh Dragovalor]

He gave a shrug and got up. "Fine with me" he said. He cracked his neck and headed to the thing that posed as a kitchen. Scrambling together what he could, he got to work...

Tallia would return to find two plates on the table near the couch. Both with bacon and buttered toast on them. Josh would finish cleaning up just as Tallia would return, before tossing a spare piece of bacon set aside for the dragon to him. The dragon would snap it up, making little happy hungry noises as he ate it. Seeming satisfied for the moment, the hatchling would return to leaping onto the ball that Josh had put on the floor to occupy him with, and trying to sink it's teeth into it, clinging to it as it rolled around with the hatchling on it.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

Tallia finished her shower, and rubbed her wet body dry with a towel. She slipped into her underwear and a mesh, combat jumpsuit that fit tightly to her body. She had a set of durasteel armor she could have worn too, but that was back on her ship still. If they had time, she told herself, she'd run back and get it. She left her hair semi-wet and then spent several minutes brushing through it. Luckily, with it cut shoulder length, that was all the maintenance that it required. She was still looking forward to grow it out longer again though.

When she opened the door and walked out into the main living space, the smell of cooking filled her nose. Tallia noticed the plates sitting out on the table. Bacon and toast. Two things that Tallia could never get enough of a breakfast time. She was about to sit and devour the food, but she noticed Josh at the sink cleaning up dishes. The kitchen space was squared off by counter space around it, but you could still see into it from the rest of the apartment. She jumped up onto the counter and sat there cross-legged. "Thanks for making breakfast." She smiled, while pulling a piece of toast into her hands with the force and taking a bite.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He smirked over at Tallia as she sat on the counter. As he finished cleaning, he tossed another piece of bacon to the dragon, who snapped it up, again making little happy noises as he chomped it down. The Jedi Master chuckled faintly, before gingerly vaulting over the counter and out of the "kitchen" as if it were nothing, grabbing his plate in mid-air using the force. Using the Force to propel him, he frontflipped in mid-air and landed sitting on a chair with the plate in his hand, and taking a bite of a piece of bacon. "Mmmmm" he let out gingerly at the taste of the bacon, as if he hadn't just flip-vaulted over the counter. Even in self-imposed exile, and being a former Grandmaster, the Jedi Master still seemed to be a show off.

"Anytime" he said in response to her thank you. He looked over at the dragon after swallowing his bite. "That's John" he said, motioning toward him. "Turns out after looking through my family history that I had an ancestor that shared my name, multitasked the Jedi Order and a group of galaxy defenders that rode force sensitive dragons to battle to defend the innocents and bring peace to the galaxy. His dragon's name was John, so... Figured it would be fitting to name this little guy after him" he said, patting the creature on the head.

"Have a nice shower?" he asked, chuckling a bit. "Looking at you just fresh out of cleaning, you wouldn't be able to tell you're preparing to take down a Sith Lord" he joked with a grin. "If it weren't for the getup, I'd have thought you were going out on a date" he teased.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

Tallia slid off the counter and took a seat at the table. "Well, I want to look professional when we meet up with this Sith. Don't want to look like I just woke up from bed." She said. "And as for the 'getup', it's better to maneuver in than Jedi robes. Plenty of people use them for combat."

Satisfied that she had defended her urge personal hygiene, she turned her attention to the dragon on the floor, who was chewing on a piece of bacon. "I thought he was your pet. He's a cute little guy." She watched him roll on his back with his tail swaying back and forth excitedly as he snapped up the last of the bacon into his mouth. "I'm guessing he's not full size?" She'd heard that the Krayt Dragon could reach the size of a small house. Of course this one wasn't the same breed, but she didn't recall reading about dragons staying small for very long.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Of course, John wasn't a Krayt. Something much more, with wings and all... A rare species in the galaxy indeed. It was almost as if Tallia could sense some aspect of the Force from it...

He laughed a bit at her response. "I don't think the Sith care what you're wearing, sweetheart. They're bound to chop you up, even if you're in your knickers"

Really, he wasn't kidding. They would probably chop her into pieces even if she was wearing a chipmunk suit. They weren't very picky, that lot.

He gave a shrug. "I've learned to maneuver in Jedi robes, but... I think I'll do much better in this jacket" he said with a small smirk. "I can still fit my armor under it, so I should be alright"

As she turned her attention to the bacon-punching force-dragon, Josh smirked a bit at her words. "He's adorable" he said with a laugh. "I absolutely love him. And... No. Not full size. Not yet" he said. "He'll be a big guy. One of his species actually showed up at O'Reen, if you remember" he said.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"I don't recall." Tallia said in between bites of toast. "I was a bit busy fighting off Sith." A good number of Sith left over from the empire had been fighting at O'reen. They were mostly the young warrior types, less worried about the Sith ideology and more focused on finding a new planet the wreak havoc on. It had been a bloody conflict, and felt like a waste of life now that it was all said and done.

She finished her food and used the force to guide the empty plate into the sink. "No sense in doing the dishes. If all goes well we won't be coming back here." Tallia stood from the table and went over to wake her astromech. "Hey T7, it's time to go." She switched him on and waited for him to boot up his systems. He let out several grumpy sounding garbles and rocked back and forth. "Hey! None of that! I can't do this without your help!" She grinned. Tallia was fond of the little droids personality that had grown over the year that she'd worked with him.

"You didn't lose my lightsabers did you?" T7's front compartments swung open and his retractable claws produced her lightsabers. "Great job buddy. Keep them safe until I need them." The droid whistled a confirmation and closed his storage back up.

Tallia turned back to Josh. "I'm ready when you are."

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He nodded a bit in understanding. "It showed up at Nar Shadda too" he said, a look of disgust on his face as he remembered the entire situation. "Both Nar Shadda and O'Reen ironically disgusted me. Funny how the dragon showed up both times" he said, smirking faintly. But she was right... A lot of Sith from the Empire had joined the Fringe and jumped into O'Reen. And they called the Republic and Jedi evil?

He finished his own food, giving the scraps to John who hungrily nommed them, having finished his own. He used the Force to put his own plate and John's empty one (After he'd eaten the scraps as well) into the sink before getting up.

"You're one of those types that hides your lightsaber in your astromech then, are ya?" he asked, watching this back and fourth take place with a vigor of interest. "I'm usually good at keeping mine hidden, but maybe I should try it with my astromech... He could be good at it, if he stops pulling pranks on me, pretending the hyperdrive is malfunctioning, messing with the radio to play the most ridiculous songs... Trying to pair me with half the people I travel with or just making fun of me... Etc, etc" he said, giving a shrug.

Finally, he got up. He adjusted his lightsabers on his belt and let John fly onto his shoulder. Once the dragon was comfortable, he looked over at Tallia.

"Ready" he said as he opened the door.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"Astromechs love to cause trouble." She followed Josh out the door, and held it long enough for T7 to come rolling out. "But they're loyal." They moved down the hall and into the turbolift, making their way to the ground floor. "How far away is the droid you scouted out?"

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He smirked a bit. "It certainly seems like they do" he said as they walked out the door. "Agreed" he added in agreement to her other statement. As they took the turbolift, he thought for a moment.

"Not too far from here, actually" he said. "Most likely we can sneak there via the Current, and either grab the droid or take something from it, as long as we don't expend too much energy doing so" he said.

He took a breath as he began to focus his energy... "Should probably have your droid hide somewhere nearby, I could put a veil over it, but it'd take more energy and we'd have less time. It'd be easier to have just us under it" he said as they walked.

"It's not too far now" he said after a couple minutes. Finally, he leaned against a corner and peeked over, and pointed to an astromech droid.

"There" he said quietly. "It's been going around here making repairs to their damaged droids and electronics in the area. Most likely, it's wired to head back to it's base at a certain time, because I followed it for quite some time and it never once had any human orders, just one instance of maintenance from one of the Sith's men. If we can incapacitate the droid, we can likely salvage something from it that'll point the bases coordinates to us. What I'd be using the Current for is getting us to the droid without alerting it"

"Let me know when you're ready then" he said, looking back at her.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"Wait, us?" Tallia said apprehensively. She peeked around the corner at the droid, then back at Josh. "I'm not sure i'm ready for a technique like that." In reality, Tallia was just nervous about this whole White Current thing. She wasn't even entirely sure what it was, just what it could do. "I don't know how much help I can be my first time trying it, and I don't want to slow you down." She didn't like being left out, but she equally hated getting in the way.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He chuckled a bit at her answer. "No worries, I can shroud us both" he said. "Thing is, I can't expend too much energy or the invisibility will stop and blow our cover. I need to focus on keeping it up, I need you to disable the droid so we can either take whatever chip needed, or take it back to our little home base to do so if the process will take time" he explained.

Ah, even the Current wasn't perfect. But at least Tallia wouldn't be left out.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

She nodded, happy that she could lend a hand. "My astromech should be able to diagnose the droid brain from here. He can access the data in mere seconds and process it into a map in ten. If we're lucky, we can put the droid back on patrol before they even notice it's missing." That was assuming the many things that could go wrong didn't. She was certain she could power down the droid successfully and plug T7 into it's processor. What kind of fail safes were involved she could only guess at. She was hoping they wouldn't trigger anything once it was powered down, but there was always the possibility of the unexpected.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He nods a bit. "It'll be up to you to disable the droid then" he said. "Hurry if you can, in case it has failsafes. After it's been disabled, we can plug it into your astromech and get everything we need" he said firmly.

He took a breath and cracked his neck. "Alright..." he said quietly. He knew she would need both her hands to disable the droid... So he thought for a moment... How would he be able to do this? He could easily take her hand and cloak them both, but she wouldn't be able to use it properly if he did...

Then it hit him. He wrapped an arm around her waist, and focused. The both of them would disappear from view, as well from her astromechs sensors. Tallia would faintly be able to sense Josh's conscience near her, as well as his arm around her that was keeping her veiled. Now that he was sure she was veiled just as he was, he slowly slipped his arm from her waist, being careful not to let go of her and cause her to be unveiled. He managed to slide the hand to her back, giving her total freedom of movement while still being cloaked, not to mention being in a less awkward position.

He didn't move, not yet... One of the thugs they had seen before was giving the droid maintenance... Finally, they would finish, and would walk away as the droid would start rebooting itself.

"Go, now" he whispered into her ear as he began to walk, making sure Tallia was keeping up as he kept them both veiled. If they wanted to disable the droid, this was the best time.

It was now or never.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

She followed his order and moved out of the alley towards the droid. It was odd, but the White Current didn't quite cause the feelings that she expected. She had thought that the same emptiness that she'd felt when she cut herself off from the force would be present when someone entered the White Current. It wasn't though. It was just different, hard to put a finger on. Tallia didn't dwell on it too long as they neared the droid.

Tallia thought about the easiest way to shut it off. She focused on the droid and analyzed it with the force. It's power cell was located in a compartment on it's underside. She gave it a tug with the force and it slid out of it's containment shaft, and the astromech powered down. Tallia grabbed it's legs and pulled it back into the alley, where T7 waited patiently.

"Okay, let's hurry this up so we can get moving." Her voice was anxious.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

She had done well, it seemed. As they pulled the astromech into the alley, Josh finally released the Current. His eyes grew wide as he realized how much energy he expanded, but he didn't say anything for now. The both of them would re-appear in the alley in front of T7.

"Do what you gotta do" the Jedi Master said quietly as he sat down to catch his breath. "Don't worry about me, I just need to relax for a moment"

He closed his eyes and relaxed, giving Tallia and her droid time to get to work.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

Her first instinct was to check on Josh as he took a seat on the permacrete, but she knew that they had only a precious few moments to spare. Tallia's astromech poked and prodded the other droid before he finally found a plug-in that gave him access to the droid brain. It only took him a moment before he began chiming excitedly. Tallia set a hand on his saucer shaped head and squatted down to his photo receptor. "Great job buddy!" She encouraged him. "Show us what you got."

The first hologram he projected showed a room filled with other droids of various models. Text beneath the picture showed a date six years in the past. "This droid hasn't had it's memory wiped for years!" Tallia exclaimed. "There's got to be something good in there!" T7 whistled impatiently as he flipped to the next slide. He'd skipped forward to only several months before. The next couple of pictures showed a first person view of the astromech being loaded into a transport from a planet that looked familiar. "Must have been taken from Korriban as the Sith retreated."

The ship landed and unloaded the droid right outside a large building on west side of Centares' capital. From the shot's that T7 projected, it seemed to be an abandoned warehouse of some kind. The droid had never entered the building directly, which made things all the more suspicious.

"I guess that building is the best thing we have to go by." T7 gave a cheerful affirmative. "If nothing else, it hopefully has clues on where to go next. I'd make sense for the Sith to be there, but" She shrugged. "who knows?" Tallia's astromech shut off his holoprojector and unplugged from their captured droid. "We should probably put him back where we found him." She said, referring to the droid.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

double post

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh took a breath and watched the droid go to work, and Tallia fill in the cliffnotes of what she was seeing. A small smile crossed his face. Good... Good... Perfect, even. The information they had downloaded to her astromech was perfect. It was exactly what they needed to find where this Sith was hiding... And then some.

"Good..." he said between breaths. "That's perfect" he said, before finally getting to his feet. "Meet me back at our little base, Tallia. I think I still have the strength to get this little buddy back where he belongs before anyone sees" he said. "I'll leave no traces, and you can review our new information while you wait for me"

And with that, he would disappear again... The droid would suddenly start rolling. Not rolling on it's own, of course, but it would be hard to tell that someone was invisible and dragging it along.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not too long later, Josh would walk into their little temporary base. John would spring to his little feet and crawl at a blinding speed to jump into the Jedi Master's arms as he closed the door and locked it behind him. He laughed a bit as he hugged his little pet tight. "Did'ja miss me, boy?" he asked, grinning. "I hope you didn't get into any trouble while I was gone"

He looked around, looking for Tallia.

"Talli? You round?"

[member="Tallia Farn"]