To Find Aing-Tii [Expedition to Kathol Rift]

[RC 212]

OOC: Going to find these guys, and learn a trick or two from them.

Here's a lil blurp bout the Rift

Excerpt from Wookie:

"The Aing-Tii have an understanding of the Force; but it's a different understanding from that of the Jedi. Or perhaps it's merely a different aspect of the Force they relate to. I'm not really sure which."

―Jorj Car'das




Kathol, the last frontier perhaps. He was aware the Outer Rim Coalition had built quite a following around the place. As such the Freighter he rode on, hired out for just about every expedition entered the rift with it's weapons down. Having just refueled at a alien port, they had plenty of starship fuel to keep them going, but what they really needed was advanced sensors and maybe a companion or two.

He was paying double on this one, but convenient left out the part about where the Seclusive Monks might try and blast them from space.

No need to ruin a good business arrangement.

The Captain and he strode down the ramp, past a custom that looked like a squid.

"Credits?"

"You don't need to see credits my friend."

"Sorry Jedi mind tricks don't work here.....Credits??"

Zakath gave the Captain a innocent look, and shrugged.

"Damn Zakath, you costin' me already. Gunna have to pay that later."

"Of course I will, no worries friend, now C'mon, lets get some wares!" He said, clapping the Captain on the back.

This time the trick doid work, or rather, calmed his anxiety. Zakath let the force take the wheel....

 

[VashtiVeridian]

(OOC: Would love to get in on this!)

 

[VashtiVeridian]

"Of course I will, no worries friend, now C'mon, lets get some wares!", the man could be heard from miles way. Vashti never understood the naivety of some. She leaned on the wing of the IM-005, about 200 yards away, watching the two men leave the ship. From what her Intel had revealed, that ship had planned on travelling to the Kathol Rift. She needed to be aboard that ship. She was in search of the mysterious, but well documented Aing-Tii. Masters of the Force. Surely, they would be able to restore some of her lost Force powers.

Now was the time to move, they had left the hangar area in search of vain endeavours. She would board the ship, stow away, tapping into the ship's power core to recharge her cybernetic body. Her ship, the IM-005, wouldn't be fair behind. It would be tailing the ship as it made it's way to the Kathol Rift, and effectively be mapping the route on the way. And plus, it was always good to have a faithful, giant, metal space-dog following behind you loyally.

Vashti didn't have any urgency in her movement, she slowly walked over to the ship that the two men had recently left, her vessel to knowledge. She walked slowly up the ramp towards the boarding zone of the ship, sending her small recon drone into the ship before her. It would quickly map out the interior, and highlight the ideal zone for her to stowaway. More than likely, she would rip out a panel in the engineering deck and mount her body directly into the ship, pulling the panel back closed behind her. Hiding in the walls and using one of her few force abilities; she would conceal her bio-signature from any sensors as she went into a temporary hibernation.

And with any luck, she would awake at their destination. With a map and a means to acquire the knowledge she had lost.

[member="Zakath Tariz"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="VashtiVeridian"]

Kal'Shebol
Some place....

They walked for a fair while, collecting this and that. He had an itch on the nape of his neck he could not quite scratch. Something was off. But he shrugged it off, realizing that his latent force maturation, he was wayyy behind those that had found their gift younger. He had no chance of detecting much other than a general disturbance.

"Hmmm."

"Hmmm?" The captain replied.

"Yea just something. No big deal. So we get those sensors?"

"Aye, and another fee added for going over our docking time."

Zakath smiled, and took a bite of some weird meat off a stick.

"Then let's head back," He said through a full mouth. As they walked thataway and toward the ramp he flipped another credit chip to the Squid custodian.

"Y'know, life about much more than credits my friend."

"Say that when you got a disgruntled crew who wanna booze and brothel it up. Now C'mon old man, get on board so we can get this damned hokey religion mission over with."

 

[VashtiVeridian]

Staying concealed from the crew didn't pose as much of a challenge, between the recon droid and the thermal heat sensors in her FOX Helmet. Excellent tools of the trade. She had made her way down into the fusion core bay of the ship, the most unoccupied part of the ship due to the radiation. Any regular life form would die from such a high dose of radiation without protection. Luckily, She was mostly metal and wires, as they say. What little bio-organic material would be protected behind the thick panels of the walls.

It didn't take her long to get settled into her "hiding hole", her "blind". She coupled her power core to the ships power supply, safely inside of the wall of the ship. It wasn't the most professional job, but she was crunched for time and it was only temporary. She didn't have time to routinely cover the power dip the ship's engineer's would notice on the power-grid. Hopefully, no one would have to do an analytical check on the electrical system while the journey was underway. If that was the case, she very well might be discovered. She commenced the subroutines to start a concealment process, to try and cover her tracks. Her analytical systems indicated the process might take over seven galactic days. Hopefully, she would not be discovered before then.

Vashti leaned her head back on a structural support, inside of the wall. "Stasis commencing.."
Vashti's bright blue cybernetic eyes flickered gently, then slowly died off behind her helmet. When she awoke, she would be within the Kathol Rift.

[member="Zakath Tariz"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="VashtiVeridian"]

Kal'Shebol
Some place....

Whatever power Vashti was drawing as she stowed away was not noticed by the captain. Though Zakath did still nurse that weird itch that he couldn't shake. At first as they plowed through the strange nebula's and space lanes of the rift, he paced back and forth. Then he searched. Then he meditated. Weeks into the journey he was still unable to find the source, and had chalked it up to a general discontent feeling in his gut.

It was another standard day, plowing deeper into the void.

Each of his days started the same. A wake up, hygiene, some morning meditation, then a bit of reading from the texts he had collected. Then he sparred with his remote, seeking to refine his saber skills. This particular day his spar was interrupted as the Captain called over the comms.

"Attention folks, we've just run afoul of a few vessels. No known IFF. Might be Pirates, might be Lawmen from ORC. No way of knowing. Vessel tagged as Washburn class. Zakath if you're listening, bring that glow sword up to the bridge with ya will ya?"

He parried another two blast, deflecting them into the bulkhead and then blinked.

"Hmph."

The saber deactivated, taking it's place on his hip, and the old man wandered off down the hall of the freighter, moseying to the cockpit.

 

[RC 212]

Kal'Shebol
Some place....

Whatever it was they encountered was gone in a flash....

Zakath was left staring at an odd thing, a rift of sorts. They'd traveled weeks and he could feel now they may be close to finding exactly what he wanted to find. What he sought was not far beyond the vale now.

"Go closer Captain, if you would."

"You crazy?"

"Hmm just a bit. I'm curious."

And as they got closer his curiosity began to become sated. They were definitely onto something, and something good. Blue ripples, and white pearly blossoms encased the rift, and then it began to shrink. There was some strange call in the force, but he could not identify it. Was it indeed the force? It felt different....older and more serene. Where something should be in the force, the rift was absent, but gave off a much lower volume of feeling.

He cleared his throat and then twitched his finger.

The throttle lever snapped forwards launching them dead on into the rift......

"What the!"

"Apologies Captain." Was the last set of words he stammered out, before it all went deaf and white. Blinding white.