Weekend Treasure Hunt 25: Terrible Hothpitality

[Makai Dashiell]

[member="Myra Elspeth"] | [member="Zak Dymo"] | Location A : Girls Are Huffy!


"Careful, the connections aren't the best." Makai commented as his friend half-tackled him, declaring the entire operation was 'amazing'. He couldn't help chuckle a little. Lack of advanced knowledge was hampering him from getting a better and stronger signal. It was difficult to tell if Ellie could even see them properly.


"Hey! Ellie is my friend. Besides, her Mom owns Arceneau Trade. They are everywhere......Jedi are stuck all over on one side of the 'verse."


It wasn't like he knew any contact information for Jedi beyond Theo Heavenshield anyways. Who knew where that guy was hanging out. Once a guy grew facial hair they acted like everyone else without was a second class citizen. Too cool to hang out with the regular kids anymore.


"Wait....What? Where is she going. ELLIE!" Makai grew frustrated as she ran out of view. He promptly ended the holotransmission.


"She hung up on us. You got anyone else we can call for help? I think the snowstorm outside is getting worse....I keep hearing stuff hit the ship."

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

After blown up twice, shot to pieces, and now assaulted by swinging a laser sword, the scavengers of Rhen Var did not seem too eager to continue the assault. Couldn't get off the planet if they were dead, after all. In the middle of the skirmish, one of them had a bright idea.

"De ships no protected."

"Eh?"

"De ships, letsa go now."

And just like that, the number of scavengers attacking the small party began to fade away as they realized that there were easier pickings to be had, until the only ones who remained were the corpses.

Of course, Pauul could not appreciate this chain of events. He was too busy bleeding all over the Guavian. Fortunately, the cyborg did not really seem to care, which - on the one hand - Pauul was grateful for, since being on the bad side of an angry death soldier did not seem very enticing. Yet, on the other hand, he felt like the piker should care and the fact that the Guavian did not made him somehow less of a person. People had empathy.

Farrlo was not entirely sure why he felt this way, but he supposed that his strange tangent of thoughts could be excused. Blood loss did funny things to the brain.

A series of bleats cut into his thoughts.

"Ey? Whatsat Punchy? Oh... oh right. Yeah gimme the pixie."

The Gran pulled two pills from his pouch and offered them to Pauul, who promptly tossed them back and dry swallowed. The drugs took effect within seconds and Pauul felt the pain fade away beneath a sudden feeling of limitless strength. He stood up straight, pushing away from the Guavian.

"Oh yeah. Oo-ho-ho yeah. Fruity."

Pulling up his own shirt with hands that no longer trembled, Pauul checked the injury. Not so bad after all. Knife stabs were rarely fatal, especially to the torso. He knew a thing or two about shanking. Ear stalks twitching, he fumbled around in a vest pocket before coming out with a bacta patch. He slapped that sucker over the wound and let it seal tight. The bacteria would go to work in no time.

Mmm, the pixie kiss was really getting to him now. He felt like he could go nine rounds with a gundark.

"Alright Polly, let's go get the -uh, yeah." He patted the Givin on the shoulder as he passed him by to walk ahead of the group, nodding to the guy with the lightsaber. "Sup Jeedai. I'll take point."

[member="Pollux"] | [member="Gray Raxis"]

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | [member="Gray Raxis"] | Pawnchee | x2 Guavian Security Soldiers

Pollux flinched when a Jedi suddenly leapt into the mix. Then again, Pollux quickly deduced that this was not a Jedi by any real stretch of the word- a Jedi would have shown some sort of restraint, but this one gunned and hacked down more feral scavengers than Pollux, Pauul, Pawnchee, and the Guavians had killed put together since they got here. The slaughter got so bad, especially with the lightsaber throw, that the remaining scavengers now retreated for good. Which was convenient, as now Pollux could see the doorway he was promised by the deities of plot convenience. It would still be a long way to the engineering bay, however.

The Guavian that had been assigned to assist Pauul was rudely pushed away, as the Rodian preferred the use of a combination of soft medicine and hard drugs. Pollux was not above indulging in such things himself, but not while on the job. Usually. There was that one time, on Zeltros, where he had been masquerading as a Kubaz pimp in order to secure some vital intelligence, and a Zeltron had kept offering and offering and after a certain amount of time he just couldn't-

Not relevant.

Pauul strutted on by like nothing had ever happened, Pawnchee and the Guavian splattered with Rodian blood following after him. The other Guavian remained with Pollux while the Givin fished around for something. "Thanks." Pollux pulled two credit chips, both worth two hundred and fifty, and flipped them towards the Jedi. Five hundred credits wasn't a bad haul. Pretty decent sum of money, plus he now had the rights to whatever loot was on the scavengers... And in the hangar, provided there was any.

"Don't follow us."

With that being stressed by the payment, Pollux and the other Guavian turned around to go after the drugged up Rodian on point.

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Ellie?

Who the feth was Ellie? The random broad on the holo-screen? That was...

...wait, did Makai just say that a girl was his..?

"Oooooh," the young Nautolan uttered, as a slow, chit-eating grin spread across his face. "Ellie and Makai, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," the boy sang out, bopping his head left to right in time with the rhythm. "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the youngling in the baby carriage!"

Why, yes, he was nine.

Thank you for noticing.

As for who you gonna call... "Uhhhh, where are we?" the small boy asked, fumbling through his pockets until he came up with a HoloBoy Advanced gaming system. In addition to being the galaxy's most powerful handheld holo-arcade, it was also a miniature datapad. Flipping through the apps, the Nautolan swiped up the Sasori Star Charts app and waited to see what would load. "Hoth, right?" the boy asked, as he held the rectangular device out length-wise and began tapping away with both thumbs. "H-A-uhhhh... How do you spell Hoth?"

Seriously, was that an A or an O sound? Because it wasn't HAH-th, but it wasn't HOO-th either.

"Okay, so we're between Lothal and Sullust," Zak said, once the star map was properly reflecting their sector. "There's Jedi Temples on both those planets, so maybe we could contact [member="Nefertari Sovint"] or [member="Shmi Labooda"]. They're usually near this sector. I think."

[member="Makai Dashiell"]​

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

The group of bindlepunks, less one Guavian, swaggered down the corridor, with Pauul at the front. He strutted along, feelin' just ducky. Didn't see any more of the scavengers, which was a real shame. Could probably bump off at least a dozen by himself right now. Pauul pulled a vibrodagger from a hip sheath, leaving the carbine slung over his shoulder and the pistol in its holster. Vibros were better for the close and dirty work anyway.

Light panels should have shown illumination, but he guessed they were long dead. The bulkhead was all frosted solid from however many years the thing had lain here.

"Oh the shark babe, has such teeth, yeah." He started singing to himself just barely under his breath, buzzing Rodian voice drifting into the cold depths. The vibrodagger spun lazily between his fingers.

"And it shows them, pearly white. Just a jack knife, has old Macheath, baby. And 'e keeps it ooooutta sight."

Pauul added a light skip into his step.

"Ya know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe." Pauul cocked his head at the starboard bulkhead. The blade revolved one last time around his fingers, then came to a stop, as did his feet. "Scarleeet billows... start to spread." He scratched at the bulkhead, flaking off bits of ice to reveal the paint beneath.

"Hm, hm, hm, hmm," scrape scrape, "Hmmm hm hmm." He stepped away, looking at what he'd uncovered.

"Ey Polly, looks like engineering bay is that way. Let's see if this ol' doll's got any juice, yeah?"

[member="Pollux"]

 

[Myra Arceneau Dashiell]

[member="Zak Dymo"] [member="Makai Dashiell"]

Little Miss Myra did not hang up. That was Makai all on his own. What the youngling was doing was important! Mainly, she went off in search of her adoptive mother. Maybe she would be able to fix the comm.

Mister Tuggles, the critter who was about as tall as her and as white as snow trotted along behind her, the click, click, click of his black talons creating a small beat along the floor. With her hair flying behind her, Ellie's slightly out of breath search would end at the living room. There, the Queen of Trade would be seated along the far wall, playing a game of Dejarik.

At the sound of those quickening footsteps, Danger would lift her head. A soft smile would curve along those lips, only to fade when she caught the worried expression on the youngling's face.

"What's wrong, honey?"

Silent gestures along with a tug at Danger's sleeve got her attention. Myra was frantic and frustrated, her face red. Come! She demanded, prompting the older woman to rise.

"Okay, I'm coming."

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x2 Guavian Security Soldiers

Pollux paid little to no attention to the horrendous ululating that was currently coming from Pauul. The Guavians exchanged silent looks of concern among themselves as the Rodian led them through the corridors. Clearly Pauul was the best person to have on point, seeing how well he bounced back from being stabbed. With his assortment of bacta patches and whatever pixie dust he had just injected into himself, he was practically invincible- to say nothing of his named character status, something the Guavians would envy terribly if they knew or understood what risk it put them at.

There was still no light presence, and they continued to be guided by the head lamps of the Guavians. Pollux was moderately concerned for a scavenger ambush, seeing how narrow these corridors were. It would be quick and decisive if it came to that, which it could very well since Pauul was singing about sharks and knives and fights, giving away their position to anyone with ears. Pollux was still debating whether or not he was paying Pauul more than he was worth when they stopped at a "you are here" map painted for the original crew. Convenience as usual.

The Givin checked behind him to make sure the Mandalorians had respected his wish to not be followed. When he saw nothing, he turned back to Pauul. "Keep moving."

 

[Yag'dril]

Objective B

Yag felt it, that popping senstion of bones under the strain as the wampa in her coil roared and couldn't get free to attack her. Instead slumping over while she was embracing him tighter then ones true love. Slowly uncoiling while she looked around and began to continue on deeper to search. There was something here maybe to find if the trial led to them. They were protecting the area when she stopped and adjusted the mesh with a small nod of her head. "This world is strange." Looking over everyting as her attention was on more of it all. She was interested in seeing the finer things in life and the prettier things in the cave while she slid through a small crack into a cavern with boxes and equipment.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

Location C

It did not take them long to reach the engineering section.

Pauul stared at the frost covered equipment. Frozen data screens for monitoring ship energy output. Frozen life support systems. Frozen reactor readout. And what wasn't frozen was broken, probably in the crash.

"Ittu," he cursed, "None of yuz would happen to be an engineer, would yuz?"

Even a moderately skilled slicer would be better than nothing. Maybe they could get some of the systems online. Provided they could defrost them.

"Punchy, you still have that heater in your pack? Set it up and crank it to max. Let's see if we can melt some of the ice."

[member="Pollux"]

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x2 Guavian Security Soldiers

Engineering was a wreck. Not atypical for a crashed star destroyer thousands upon thousands of years old, but still inconvenient. One end of the area was clogged with snow, which had presumably flowed in through a rupture in the hull on this side of the ship. Electronics were frosted over. Barely operable if not destroyed completely. Pauul wanted to defrost them with a heater his pet Gran carried. Pollux silently declared it a wasteful effort as he wandered away from the group, searching greedily for the fabled Roonstones. Even if Pauul could get rid of the frost, the ship had no power. How could it? Thousands of years, water damage, scavenger raids? Not a chance.

Then again, stranger things had happened.

Pollux rounded a corner too quickly, bumping into a wall. A very peculiar wall, Pollux immediately noted, running a hand over its surface. Strange... It felt like carpet and was oddly warm to the touch. Fur. He backed up a few inches and squinted, finding that it was not in fact a wall but the back of a very large, very irate Wampa. Pollux's mouth hung open, but he didn't scream. Screaming was not part of his gimmick. The lumbering beast turned around slowly, squinted back at Pollux, and then backhanded the slackjawed Givin with such force that he flew back into the hallway, crashing into a bulkhead not far from where Pauul, Pawnchee, and their local Guavian friendship buddies were waving a heater over a frozen console.

As if that was not enough, Pollux then hit the grated durasteel floor with an equally miserable (and just as painful) thud. "Ow." Was all he had to say, although this was then drowned out by the Wampa's thundering roar.

 

[Makai Dashiell]

[member="Myra Elspeth"] | [member="Zak Dymo"]



Makai blushed crimson under his blue-green scales. Zak was giving him the business about having a friend that was a girl. Was it a crime? Some of us didn't live in gigantic Jedi Academies with tons of other people to pick for friends. Besides, Ellie was real nice. He found it interesting she didn't know a lot of stuff but at the same time knew so much. Probably way smarter than him, even if she couldn't talk.


"Hey!" Makai was still blushing a crimson when something came to mind. A slow grin spread across his features, coming to stare at his buddy. "Wait a minute. You're just jealous girls like me. Sounds like someone isn't liked by the Temple girls."


Okay, a weak argument but it was all Makai had as he reattached the lines that powered their communication center. Cold numbed hands took a minute to reattach everything, the panel lighting up weakly and dimly as Zak did his best to connect to some Jedi. No one seemed to be answering, but Makai wasn't surprised. Probably off meditating somewhere.


"Maybe Miss Arceneau will call back."

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

The Givin flew past Pauul and into the bulkhead.

"Huh?"

A mountain of shaggy white fur ambled into the engineering bay from around the hallway corner. Pauul stared, eyes tracking up, up, up to the beady black eyes and little horns. The Wampa roared and spittle spattered Pauul's face. The slaver barely registered.

"Oh kriff."

One of the Guavians uttered a mirroring curse. Punchy bleated angrily.

Not Pauul, though, no he simply got to his feet knife in hand.

"Come on yeh big lug, Eyes Pauul's gotta few things for yuz."

The Rodian charged for the enormous yeti, senses hyper boosted on the dust. Multi-faceted eyes caught the twitch of the behemoth's shoulders as it reared back and swung. Pauul slid shock ball style along the icy deck under the swipe, clawed fingers that would've taken his head of slashing through the air just a foot above his antennae.

Pauul leapt spryly up from the swipe and lunged, burying his vibrodagger to the hilt in the beast's belly. He jiggled the blade around.

"Ha! Told yuz not to mess with Pauul friggin' Far-"

CRACK

The backhand took Pauul in the side and flung him bodily into a row of capacitors. His body smacked into them with a sickening crunch and he fell to the floor.

He didn't move.

[member="Pollux"]

 

[Micah tol Powl]

Wasn't liked by the temple girls?

Who would even WANT to be liked by the temple girls? Had he even MET [member="Nina Heavenshield"]!? Did he even know where she'd been!?

The Girl's Refresher. That's where.

That place was seriously, seriously scary. Zak had gone in there once, in order to drop a cherry detonator down one of the toilets and... there weren't even urinals in there!

A refresher... without urinals.

It was a mad, mad, mad world.

"Hey," the Nautolan replied offhandedly. "Say it loud. I'm gross and I'm proud."

Placing his hands behind his head, the young Jedi nodded and glanced up at the screen. A second ticked by, and this Arc-ee-no person wasn't calling back. The Nautolan gave a large yawn as he waited. It was starting to get a little late. "Maybe we should... pull out some sleeping bags?"

Blinking, Zak was struck by an idea.

No, it didn't happen often.

Yes, this was a good thing.

The not getting ideas often part that is.

"Oh, it'll be like a sleepover!" the Nautolan chirped, as the thought dawned on him.

...and then he remembered Master [member="Jorus Merrill"] "Only with a semi-dead Jedi brah there..."

That was definitely going to dampen the vibe for the stayin' up late, no adults party.

[member="Makai Dashiell"]​

 

[Yag'dril]

Objective B

Yag continued to work on some fo the larger things here, looking with her attention when she felt the force energies rebounding through it while she was exploring in the crates now. There was black robes frozen over before she gave a few of her own ideas to the things checking it out. An equipment pack when she rose up checking the higher crates to pick them up down into the down coiling herself around them. There had been star charts and a few other things but she wans't finding anything really special as she felt something along her skin. It was like a soft caress when she came over near it and there was a frozen corpse grasping and holding a crate near them with a saber in its hand. Yag started moving while she looed over it for traps.

 

[Myra Arceneau Dashiell]

[member="Makai Dashiell"] | [member="Zak Dymo"]

Myra led Danger back to the living room, where she promptly set the Queen of Trade in front of the comm array. She then peered up at Danger expectantly, as if expecting the older woman to get to fixing the comm and getting Makai on the line at once.

However, Danger wasn't a mind reader. She wasn't a Forcer, and she certainly wasn't one to understand what went in Myra's mind. She understood something was wrong, but without the little girl explaining, Danger was in the dark.

After a moment, the youngling began to gesture back at the comm array, becoming a bit frustrated as she tried to get it back up. How to explain that Makai had called?!!

"Did you want to make a call, sweetie?" Danger inquired. That got her a nod in the yes... but there was more to it. "Did you want to call Makai." Honestly there was only two people the little girl really wanted to get on the line. It was either Rose or Makai. Usually Makai. The mention of the youngest Dashiell brightened the little girl's expression, pleased that she got that bit.

"Is this about Makai?" Danger asked again, curious about Myra's gestures and concerned features. Turning to the comm, the Queen of Trade gave a small frown. Upon closer inspection, she caught the last frequency dialed in. It was an unknown comm number, but few ever had her direct line.

"Did Makai call?" and exaggerated yes. Frowning, Danger carefully dialed back the frequency number. Back at Hoth, Makai's comm would ring.

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x2 Guavian Security Soldiers

From his position on the floor, dazed and confused, Pollux wondered what kind of lunatic would bring a vibrodagger to a Wampa fight. The exact kind of idiot that was Pauul, of course. Pauul wasn't getting up. Then again, it didn't look like he needed too, because once the Guavians had finished screaming they started shooting. Wampas were tough, but they weren't invincible. This one might have been pretty close, though, because it took a whole lot of blaster bolts as it barreled towards the Guavians and Pawnchee. It managed to grab one of the Guavians by the foot and then smack him against the wall as if he was little more than a sack of Dantooine potatoes. Or for the farmers in the audience, a sack of kittens/puppies you could not afford to care for. Bones broke, but thankfully the remaining Guavian caught a lucky head shot against the Wampa, causing the beast to fall over on Pawnchee, who had been running to tend to Pauul.

The Guavian who had slain the Wampa ran over to tend to the Guavian who had been smacked into the wall. Unnamed NPCs had to stick together, naturally, and so left Pollux to wearily stand to his feet on his own. Had the Givin broken anything? That was a joke. He was all exoskeleton. And while his insides were sufficiently rattled and he was quite sure he might have been concussed, he was otherwise fine. Pollux squinted again in the darkness, skulking off to find his pistol. Again.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

It took about ten minutes for Pawnchee to stabilize Pauul and bring him back to consciousness. By that time, the Guavians had discovered a crate in the corner full of the mythical roonstones - though why a ship had a crate full of the roonstones was anyone's guess. Presumably, Pollux had used this time to glance at the engineering terminals and see if they had anything interesting on them.

The Rodian did not particularly care. He was too beat up and tired and not quite sure what had happened. When Pawnchee tried to relate to him the bum rush against the Wampa he simply refused to believe it.

"Whattaya on, sleemo, I would neva take a crack at one of them all on my lonesome. Musta just hit my head when I was runnin from the thing. Guavians took it down. Didn't I tell ya? Neva mess with a Guavian Death Gang. Bad for business, yeah."

He turned to the Givin. "Polly, can wez beat it already, place gives me the shivas."

[member="Pollux"]

 

[Darth Osano]

Location C

[member="Pauul Farrlo"] | Pawnchee | x2 Guavian Security Soldiers

Pollux eventually recovered his pistol and moved further into engineering, uncovering... The Wampa's nest. It was filthy to an absurd degree, which also described the cleanliness of Wampas in general. Rotting corpses of scavengers and similar treasure hunters hung from the ceiling. Bones of various sentient and non-sentient species crowded the floor. The Wampa had also amassed a treasure horde of sorts. That is, what constituted treasure for a Wampa. Most of it was just random objects and items looted from the explorers and scavengers that had come before Pollux and Pals. Datapads, a lightsaber, energy cells, a flash light, a some plasteel helmet-

Wait, a lightsaber?

In a blur of motion, the lightsaber was snatched from the pile and clipped to Pollux's belt. What could he do with a lightsaber? Nothing. Nothing at all. He would most likely sell it to a collector once they left. Pollux shifted through the junk and kicked around the bones until he found what he was looking for. It was a small crate, but a small crate full of Roonstones could have paid for this whole dreadnought. Probably. They were expensive, alright? It was heavy as hell, but Pollux was much stronger than he looked and far stronger than a Givin should be. He hefted the crate up and carried it out, grunting with the effort. When he got back into the hallway, one of the Guavians was fiddling with one of the now-defrosted terminals.

"They have the blueprints on here, y'know."

"What?"

A long, pained groan came from the Guavian who had been slammed. Otherwise, he said nothing. Maybe he couldn't?

"The blueprints, for this whole big ship."

Were those even usable? The ship was ancient. Then again, it could easily be stored on a datapad. Might as well see if someone wanted to snag it in an auction for an obscene price. With another grunt, Pollux slammed the crate back into the ground. Strong as he was, he would need assistance. "You two." He said, calling over to Pawnchee and Pauul. "Carry this." Pollux then nodded towards the Guavian at the computer to procure the ship's blueprints while he went to see about the wounded Guavian lying over yonder.

 

[Yag'dril]

Objective B

Yag continued to move through while she was searching and coming away with not much. A few robes she compared to what she had and the meshed robe was lighter and superior in strength as well as being a big thing for her which was making it harder to find acceptable clothing. The large snake like body she presented wrapped around when she was holding a lightsabe rin her hand to crack some of the cases to see whatelse was in there waiting for her to discover it while the other ones were on the world and making the rest of the stareship graveyard echo with the force as well as life for whatever else was out here in the things. "This world is strange."

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

A buzzing sigh issued from Pauul's mouth. The concussed Rodian wobbled to his feet and helped pick up the crate full of roonstones. Multi-faceted eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, transfixed by the gleaming fortune within. He looked at Pawnchee. Pawnchee looked back.

They began to laugh; Pauul a sickly, high-pitched buzzing, the Gran a low bleating. It lasted for a full half a minute, then they hefted the crate, still giggling - giddy with their greed - and started to walk toward the exit.

Pauul, not fully in possession of his right mind thanks to the wampa-sized lump on his head - started gabbing about how he was going to spend his share of the fortune. He didn't stop until they'd reached their ships.

[member="Pollux"]