Wake Up

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Making two sandwiches didn't take long. About fifteen minutes later, Kira was walking back into the hanger, searching for her husband. In her right hand she held a platter of two generous portions of roast nerf steak sandwiches. In her left, she carried two bottles for them to drink. She found him crouched in front of a few stacks of footlockers, going through the contents. The back of the lid was to her, shielding the contents.

"Got some sandwiches," she told him, walking up beside him with a curious expression. "What did you find?" she asked him, rounding the footlocker to get a good look at the contents herself. Pausing beside him, she extended the plate for him to take his sandwich along with his drink.

"Here you go."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Protocol droid." Soliael said simply as he pointed to the inside of the locker.

It might have seemed an odd find, but it was something that the engineers of Kuat had likely put into place because of their destination. The Rishi Maze was unexplored, and that meant that much of it's language was likely unknown. A protocol droid programmed with some million languages could likely translate at leas the very basics of whatever languages they encountered. It was smart really, and Soliael hoped that the thing would survive his plot.

If not...well charades was always fun.

"We can use it as a distraction." Soliael said as he took the sandwich and took a bite. "Won't be an issue."

Of course they also had to find some probe droids, but he knew those were somewhere around here.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Sure enough, there was a KDY designed protocol droid. This one wasn’t a polished gold as much as a buffed silver. Most considered Protocol Droids to be a sign of influence and money, but having one stick out to be a bright gold in the middle of a jungle would likely not be taken too kindly.

“A distraction?” Kira would ask her husband, inquiring for clarification. What happened to just going in and taking a look around. “For what? We’d be able to both sneak in just fine.” well, Kira would. Sol was well equipped to take care of himself too. With the way the sun was setting, they’d also have the cover of night in their favor.

“Maybe a small drone to look around… like a topographic mapper. Something that can slip in pretty easily and without notice.” A soft crunch followed the bite of the blonde as she enjoyed her sandwich. A half turn, and blue eyes would pan over to have a look at what else they had.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]


He perked an eyebrow. "These pirates dear likely won't be friendly."

That much was obvious.

"If we manage to sneak in, which we probably will." All he had to after all was just blink, it was easy enough and most people didn't expect someone to just appear right behind them. He'd scared his children like that more than once and pirates were usually much dumber then any of his children. "We'll inevitably find out their dastardly plot, and then you my love..."

Soliael trailed off as he put the plate down and wrapped his arms around Kira, pulling her close. "Will want to stop them."

Though the former False God could not tell the future, he knew Kira well enough to predict exactly what would happen. It was a gift born of over twenty plus years of marriage, and today he decided that he was going to use that trick in order to be well prepared for the eventual outcome of what his loving wife would want. He smiled down at her and pressed his lips against her forehead, then slowly shifted back towards the footlocker and his own sandwich.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Kira sank against her husband, a half grin perking over her lips in pleasure at the token of affection. Didn't matter how long they'd been married, she still very much enjoyed the sensation of him holding her in his arms. It was the way he held her. The way that he would smile against her skin with each kiss. Every action, no matter how small, relayed the wealth of his love for her. The Lorrdian was no different. Gestures and subtle motions as well as every little touch, stroke, and cafune were a wealth of tactile connections.

"Well, we'll see..." she told him, taking another big bite of her sandwich and chewing furiously. Kira settled on simply eating her sandwich for a few moments, before stretching forward and looking at the protocol droid.

"Well it isn't one of Nohei's." she joked, flashing a grin to her husband. "What are you going to do? Have this guy wander into the pirate camp and ask for directions?"

The thought alone was amusing, but they would have to take things seriously if things did... escalate. Licking her lips, she set down her sandwich and took the bottle in her hands. Unscrewing the top, she took a deep swig.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael shrugged.

"Pretty much." There wasn't much to the plan, really, but it was usually better that way, less of a chance for something to go wrong. "They focus on the protocol droid bumbling around their camp, we go in and end it before it can even begin."

Again, this would be much easier if his wife was okay with killing people, but Soliael already knew that wasn't going to be an option.

At times he yearned for the time when he had lacked most morality and human decency. Things had seemed much easier. He could kill anyone who stood in his way, take control of thoughts, pretty much do everything that he wanted with a snap of his fingers, now...well now he loved and respected his wife, and that meant that she got what she wanted. Which was of course, no dead people. He understood why, he even understood the reason for it and had accepted it decades ago, however, that didn't mean he couldn't yearn for when things had been easier.

"Easy." Soliael said with another shrug and a bite of his sandwich.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Well, when you put it that way.." hmm... it made sense. Granted, 'bumbling' had a high tendency of also describing Soliael's wife. With nine toes, her balance seemed to shift now and then. And there have been many a time where her klutzy nature and terrible timing meant that the Jedi Master ended up in over her head.

Soliael would oft say that with her short stature, it was inevitable. Which promptly would result in a punch to the arm.

A lick of her lips and she set down her bottle. "Are you going to make it do anything... special?" the former false god had a knack when it came to droids. A trait that he passed on to their youngest, Nohei. "Or just have it wander around on standard protocols?" a few more bites of her sandwich and she'd be done.

There were times where she would be curious at the full extent of her husband's powers. There were a few he had passed on to train to their children, others that he would hold fast to himself. He still hadn't shown anyone how to 'blink', as Kira described it. While the Lorrdian could manipulate a few electronics, it was no where near to Devin's level of expertise.

Although, she did often wonder if there were any tricks that he'll finally decide to show her.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael shook his head. There wasn't any need for something fancy, not now anyway. "We're not trying to convince them the droid is a god or anything, just get them to pay attention to it. Protocol droids by nature are annoying blubbery things."

That was a simple statement of truth.

"It will see them and start talking." He took another bite, chewed for a second then continued on. "When it starts talking a bit too much we'll move in and we what we have to do."

Military strategy was based off a single principle, keeping things simple enough that they didn't go wrong. Many commanders throughout galactic history had not understood this principle and inevitably everything they had plotted out went to ruin. They didn't need anything fancy here, so why commit the time and effort to it. He smiled at her and slowly stepped away, kicking the side of the footlocker so that the small metal side-panels would fall off and to the side.

His fingers came together, a snap ringing out within the hangar and the protocol droid suddenly springing to life.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Show off." Kira told her husband with a twist of her lips, if a bit of pride and amusement. Taking the last bite of her sandwich, the Jedi Master chewed quickly. Licking her lips, she would watch a couple of seconds worth of Soliael studying the droid.

"Nothing to tie him back to us right?" if he was out of the box, it was unlikely. However, one couldn't be too sure. For all she knew, this protocol droid already had been programmed to serve the Taliths per the prep team that had everything stocked on the Freya. Both hands came together, dusting off stray crumbs.

Rolling onto her feet, the petite Jedi Master stood -- and promptly was annoyed that even the Protocol droids was a good twenty five centimeters taller than her. A huff of hot air blew her blonde bangs away from her face at that.

"Identify yourself." she told the silver protocol droid.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"C2-10"

The droid said simply, not giving any more detail then requested. That in it of itself was an answer to Kira's original question. It seemed that the droid had indeed not been pre-programmed with any information about the Talith's, otherwise it would have addressed them by name. That in it of itself rather pleased Soliael, mostly because it meant that he wouldn't have to spend the next fifteen minutes wiping the things memory and restoring it's basic programming. It also meant however that he could basically do whatever he wanted with it once they were done with this little Pirate ordeal.

If the thing survived anyway.

"Nope." He answered her with a smile. "Come on, let's load him up into the speeder."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Huh, well hello Cee-Two," Kira said, giving a rock of her feet and a light tsp of her fingers upon the protocol droid's chest. This worked out fine. No added information. Good!

The Lorrdian gave a quick nod of her head, setting down her bottle beside the new empty plate. She could take it back to the galley later. "I'll take him over," she told him, turning for blue eyes to meet bright orange. "I left the satchel over by the entrance." She had also added a few more things they may need just in case...like macrobinoculars.

"Come on over Cee Two Ten," Kira ordered, a gesture of her fingers summoning the protocol droid to follow her. It might be a tight squeeze in the speeder, but it will serve them well.

Although actually...

"Did you want to change speeders?" They had such a selection. A few would probably be best under the circumstances. A bit less conspicuous.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."

The people at Kuat Drive yards had supplied Soliael and Kira with a pretty large selection of speeders, mostly because the company made quite a few of them. It was nice, if not a show of wealth and opulence. He smiled slightly and watched his wife for a second.

"You pick one." The former false God turned and searched through some of the lockers. "I'll find the probe droids."

They would still need those to explore the camp a little bit more, mostly because even if they did sneak through they wouldn't want to go in blind, that was just good strategy. Of course finding the damn things would have been easier if he'd gone through all of his beforehand, and now that he was searching Soliael quickly came to the decision that once they were done with Rishi he was going to go through every inch of The Freya and put everything where it belonged.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Okay," with C2-10 following behind her, Kira did exactly that.

"Hmm." they had quite the selection, and would have to pick a speeder that will not only be quiet, but have enough room for what they required. Not to mention, be a little bit more stealthy than the bright yellow speeder they had used earlier. The Protocol droid waddled on behind her, silent for the present time. With no set directives it simply did what it was told.

The Freya had quite the spacious hanger, and after having removed the typical shuttles and spacecraft that normally were stationed there, it left Soliael and Kira plenty of room to pick and choose what speeder they may like. It still struck the Lorrdian rather odd to have such a selection. Having grown up with nothing, then joining the Jedi Order with their monastic lifestyle, Kira made due with the bare necessities provided by the Order.

When she married Devin, the true breadth of his wealth was rather staggering to adjust to. Then again, in hindsight, it was something she should have expected from someone who had been a vessel of the false god Neth.

"This one should do," Kira told herself, coming upon a dark grey speeder. It was rather simple in design, and the dark color would allow it to blend into the background. A quirk at the corner of her mouth would note an amusing thought.

He would be happier with these seats, she mused, considering they were a bit more padded. "Come on Cee-Two Ten, let's get you in the back seat."

The speeder was a fourseater, with a bench in the back instead of two seats. That gave them more room for wiggle.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He eventually managed to find the probe droids, they had all been stuffed into a series of two lockers that were pressed tightly into the corner of the hangar bar. Most of the things within the Hangar had likely been organized by droids, and that meant things had been placed in order to gain maximum space efficiency. It was a bit of a silly thing, really, especially because in order to actually reach the thing that he wanted Soliael had to move about five boxes and two crates.

He sighed slightly, plucking two small recon drones from the box.

"Don't need more then that." The former False God said to himself as he drew himself up and placed the two orbs into his pocket. The droids were tiny really, not much bigger than his palm. Their range wasn't as great as many recon droids, but then again he and Kira didn't really need anything like that.

All they wanted was to get a closer look at the camp, for now.

Quickly the old man made his way over towards the speeder that his wife had selected, hopping over the edge of the door and landing ina seat that was decidedly more plush and comfortable then the one that he had been sat in before. He wiggled for a moment, then shifted so that his arm was hanging out of the vehicle. "Let's go."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

The hum of the speeder’s engines was relatively low. This was good, it was less likely that they’d be noticed. A half grin was tossed over at the former False god’s direction, “Your tush feeling better?” the Lorrdian would quip, The expression that Soliael gave her was enough to send her in a titter, a half chuckle as the pair burst out of the Freya’s hanger and out into the humidity of Rishi’s dusk.

The sun was dipping down in the horizon, a big fat blood-orange disk upon a painter’s canvas of dark maroons, indigos, and rusted yellows. The night would be upon them soon, and with it, a few more dangers than that of mere pirates. Nocturnal critters would commence their prowls for their breakfast, the islands of Rishi seeming to team with more life after the dark.

Sea salt spray and the muted sound of crashing waves would follow the pair as they cut across the sea, taking the same path as they had before. There was still enough light to navigate without the lights, ensuring that they move with as little to flag them as possible. Reaching out, Kira sought for her husband’s hand, finding a small measure of comfort in interlocking her fingers against his own.

“So we let the Protocol droid loose on the west end?” the cavern was south east. It made sense to try and get as much distance between them and the distraction that C2-10 would be planted to be.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"The drones first." Soliael said as his fingers curled around hers.

The droid was meant to be their distraction when they went in. Protocol Droids were often known for their bumbling personalities, generally not taken seriously and more often then not considered by most people to be an annoyance rather then anything else. Soliael generally tended to agree with those sentiments, though he was well aware of the robots usefulness in certain situations. He knew that the droid would do well enough on its own once they released it and told it to walk into camp, there was no real reason to 'set it up' as it were.

Or so he hoped anyway.

"I want to see what else they have in their camp." Soliael mulled for a second. "They had a lot of heavy weapons, and if they're all outfitted like that I can't believe that they're just regular pirates, a few of them even looked like they had military gear."

That wasn't too uncommon, what was uncommon was for everyone to have that type of equipment.

Soliael had met more then a few pirates in his day and most of them weren't exactly known for the equipment that they used. More often then not pirates carried on with second-hand gear that was stolen from one storage warehouse or another, it was rare for them to have anything truly dangerous. That was what made pirates so...well easy to deal with for most governments, they were simply outclassed. Here it seemed to be a different story, something that concerned him.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Okay, drones first!" Kira echoed, a nod into the wind as her bangs flew back away from her face. They were almost to the spot, just a few more minutes. The light they had caught earlier wasn't visible yet. A tightening of her fingers against her husband's expressed her gratitude at his support. She knew that he wasn't too thrilled, but he was helping her anyways just to give her that peace of mind. He always would do that. Whether it be for the kids or something else. He knew how she worried and he was very considerate about that.

"I think my datapad is in the satchel." she told him, "Unless you already synced up the feed on yours?" stars were beginning to scatter across the indigo sky quickening overhead. There were so many of them, enough to see the thickening streak of white of the galaxy, and just off to the right, a smaller spiral swirl. The Rishi Maze.

"Look," Kira would point up towards it, wonder and amazement in her voice. The wide smile could not be missed, their destination clear as day upon the night sky.

"There it is."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He'd never seen the Rishi Maze before, not in person anyway. The smaller satellite galaxy was located 'above' their own galaxy on the x axis, and thus was actually rather difficult to see on the nights sky unless you were in the right location. Exocron and most worlds that he had spent a long time on were lower on the x axis of the galaxy, and thus he'd never actually been able to observe the Rishi Maze. Of course now that he saw it, he was reminded how starkly...similar it was to pretty much everything else in space.

It was beautiful, that was true, but he wondered how such a thing had remained a mystery for so many eons.

He didn't voice either of those thoughts to Kira, mostly because he knew that they were on the cynical side of things. His wife preferred to keep her head above the clouds. That wasn't a bad thing of course, in fact it was one of the reasons why he loved her, but it did mean that sometimes he didn't express his own thoughts on things. It was something he didn't mind doing, mostly because he simply preferred to see his wife happy.

"Don't need the datapad." Soliael reminded her, tapping the side of her head. "I can see just fine."

He gave her a wink. Technopathy came in handy sometimes.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]


"Show off." Kira would chide him with a tease. An affectionate poke would nudge him along his ribcage. "Okay, that works out." Which it did, it also served to avoid having Kira become too aware of just what the drones might find, which was a boon for the former false god. While secrets were extraordinarily rare between them, there were a few details that Kira did not need to know the full extent about. Some of which would only prompt her to worry even more.

The Lorrdian ran her fingers through her blonde hair, pushing back the strands. In her mind, they wen't over the plan. It was good to keep a level focus on how things would go, even if in her experience, it ended up going sideways and impromptu plan besh would come into motion.

Odds were, something might happen that would likely be due to her klutzy nature... or her need to all too willingly jump in with both feet without looking.

Up ahead, the faint light from the tower shone. "Here we are." Kira murmured, straightening in her chair. One could see the sort of a game face the Lorrdian Jedi Master was putting on. Her fingers danced lightly upon the piloting yoke; she was excited. It had been a while since they both managed to do something other than try out a hobby that they ultimately were terrible at.

Parking the speeder back in their previous spot, Kira set down. By now, the sun had completely set, with only the light of the stars and a half crescent moon for illumination. Engines shut off, and Kira dove her fingers into her hair so as to tie it back in a pony tail.

Now they just needed to set up the drones and the protocol droid.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

The drones weren't really anything advanced or even all that special, little more then tiny spheres with a repulse drive and a camera. They were short ranged things, only capable of going a couple hundred meters before they couldn't transmit anymore. These ones in particular were usually used for mining, exploring dangerous sections of tunnels or looking into cave ins when people needed rescuing. The technology wasn't too advanced, but honestly things didn't always need to be super fancy.

"Alright." He said as he pulled one of the droids from his pocket.

The former false god fiddled with the drone for a second.

"These things aren't exactly the pinnacle of reconnaissance." Soliael said as he threw one into the air. The globe activated almost immediately, springing into life and giving off a silent whirring noise as it floated about. "Don't think it will be an issue though."

He threw the second in the air to join it's twin. "Can you get See Two ready?"