Fandom Stranded on Ryloth

[Proletariat]

Space over Ryloth / Separatist Blockade

A lone Munificent class frigate broke the line of the blockade to drift into mid range of the fleet's turbo lasers. The moment the Lucky Skifter came into tractor beam range, it was locked onto and unceremoniously dragged into the hangar bay without hesitation. In the hangar bay there were two dozen vulture droids arranged in deployment formation. some of them underwent routine maintenance while others sat deactivated. With a full compliment of fighters on board, there was not much room for anything unnecessary, droid ships were packed tightly as tightly as they could be. Cargo containers were organized perfectly along the perimeter of the hangar and utility droids scurried about in seeming disarray, going about their duties without regard to the new visitors to their home.

The Captain of the Lucky Skifter was welcomed to the hangar by ten B-1 Battle Droids and two B-2 Super Battle Droids, all of which had their blasters trained on Cais Rirmik. One false move and a wrist rocket would be fired straight into the ship. A command droid stepped forward from the squad and beckoned Cais.

"Disarm yourself pilot." The droid ordered. "All organic and inorganic life forms will present themselves to the hangar bay to be searched. Once they are searched, you will accompany the inspection team as they scan your ship, while your crew and droids remain here as collateral. Should you attempt violence, or should you attempt to interfere with the inspection team, your lives will be forfeit. Are these commands understood, Pilot?" The command droid's listless voice spoke as if it were executing lines of code.

The heartless battle droids had a programmed disregard for organic life, the moment the established parameters were breached it would not hesitate to terminate the pilot and his crew.

 

[Segue]

Aboard MCF-49883

Finding himself the centre of a circle of heartless killing machines, Broadaxe acted in the finest tradition of Weequay pirates everywhere. He took a quick step back and raised his hands placatingly, "Hey, hey! No need for that my friends. Look, I am disarming myself all peaceful-like. Understood!" He unslung his blaster carbine and laid it on the decking, then his blaster pistol (also drawn butt-first) and finally the durasteel chieftain's gaderffii was placed on the floor. Clearly disarmed, he reached to his waist and drew a comlink. "This is a comlink," he enunciated clearly in his gravelly tones. "I will call my crew now, and they will disarm." Droids rarely deal well with chaos, so it's important to keep things simple for them. Lifting the communicator to his mouth, he activated it and hailed the ship. "Lucky Skifter, this is the Captain. Come on out and introduce yourself to our neighbours. They're the jumpy kind, so bring your weapons pointing down and lay them in the open where everyone can keep an eye on them." The lift retracted a few seconds later and Broadaxe endured the long lonely wait under the battledroid guns until it descended once more with three passengers.

Lakhan was the first of course, disarming eagerly as he dropped his heavy broadaxe to the decking with a resounding clang. He followed them with a number of other items around his person that could conceivably be seen as weapons; two knives, a crowbar, an energy wave dialyzer and some surprisingly fine electronic manipulators custom-designed to fit over his thick clawed fingers. Balance came next, taking even steps until he stood to his master's left and clasped his hands together behind his back. He had a labor droid's typical disdain for battle droids that could only destroy and couldn't build anything to replace what they broke. The long period of time he had been permitted to operate without a mind-wipe elevated him above his basic parameters though, so he knew better than to say anything overtly provocative. His master would send him to the torture droids if he caused any harm to happen to Weequay's beloved ship. And Qokli was worse. He shuddered and turned to the youngest Weequay, his red photoreceptors catching on her look of fear and intransigence. One after another Lakhan and Broadaxe followed his gaze back to the Captain's 'daughter' and Broadaxe didn't hesitate; immediately he shifted back over to the girl's side and stripped the blaster from her hands before she could do anything foolish. "None of that, small one." He threw it to the floor to join the other pieces of equipment, then gestured meaningfully to the repair kit and hydrospanner on her belt. "And the rest of it." "Of course father," Qokli yielded sulkily. She dumped the kit and spanner with the other discarded pieces, then folded her arms and looked around with defiance.

"Children, am I right?" Broadaxe commiserated with the command droid. "I suppose you wouldn't understand. Think of her as," he gestured vaguely in the air, searching for a likeness, "a new droid in your unit, say a B-1. She's had all the basic training and knows she knows exactly what she needs to take the galaxy by storm. But she hasn't served with you before and she doesn't know how you work, so you have to keep an eye on her to make sure she's following your commands and not her, er, first programmer's." Qokli looked waspish at the comparison, and even Lakhan's eyes showed laughter when Broadaxe looked his way. "Never mind," he grumped. "Let's get on with the inspection before I decide letting you shoot them is a good idea after all."

The Weequay Captain followed the droid inspection crew throughout the ship, opening hatches and lifts as required. If the droids detected the sensor-shielded smuggling compartments he would give them a tour of those as well, but he certainly wouldn't volunteer that information. Despite the fact that they were now empty.

 

[Proletariat]

Argent was making her way towards the mountain when she heard the droning of STAPs in the distance , rapidly approaching her position. The part of her devoted to destroying the Dark Side called out to her , crying out for her to vring them the Justice they deserved for the slaughter that had taken part in. With her hand placed on her Lightsaber the Miraluka had to force herself to stay hidden , knowing if she gave in to her desire the entire mission she was sent to carry out would be compromised. 'They'll get the Justice they deserve soon enough..'

Unfortunately for the Shadow , hiding herself would prove to be difficult - she had never learned the ability to camouflage herself with the Force as many of her peers had. She darted over to what looked to be a small cave carved from the wall of the crevasse facing the direction she heard the STAPs arriving from , large enough to hide herself from being spotted on their initial pass. If the droids followed usual protocol they'd fly over her location once , then circle around for a second pass as they flew back to their base. Dissapointingly , the opposite wall didn't appear to offer her the same cover. On their return pass she'd simply try to flatten herself as best she could against the opposing wall. Using the crevasse's slight overhand she should be hidden well enough to avoid detection on that pass as well.

Assuming , of course , that Argent hadn't gravely miscalculated the situation.

Across the rocky crags STAP's scoured for their humanoid target. Small rocks and dust kicked up in an artificial storm behind the speeding droids. After passing their mark by half of a klick and finding nothing, the droids reassembled in a tight group. After several seconds, the five STAP's spread out in a line perpendicular to their original trajectory. There was roughly ten meters between each droid as they slowly began their return vector. The droids barely moved faster than a runner's pace, giving them time to scan for their target. Only minutes after their return voyage began, the droids stopped in their tracks.

"I've got something on my scanner. Looks like a life form." said the droid commander, alerting its comrades that it was time to stop. The droid commander stared ahead at the rising foothills and noticed that ahead of it, there was a rocky crevice in the hillside that might have been a cave entrance. "Drive up to that crevice, but stay mounted. I'm going to investigate."

As their commander ordered, the search team hovered in a tight perimeter several meters outside of the crevice. The command droid dismounted and made sure its blaster was set to full charge before it slowly approached the crevice, eyes peeled for any humanoid life forms.

 

[Proletariat]

The Terminator

Phantom had begun mentally cursing the maps on board his ship about an hour ago, He was sure that they had not displayed this many hill along the route. Although his Wolf form made travelling for long distances much easier 10 hours of near constant jog took its toll on any being. The constantly changing environment didn't help either going for long stretches with no cover from sun and wind to suddenly entering a small forest and having to jump and move to avoid getting tangled in roots and branches. As he climbed yet another hill the only good news was that with all this travelling there could only be another hour or two and he was going to take a short break when he reached this peak. That plan was scrapped the second he skulked over the edge of the plateau and immediately hit the ground, internally he cursed but knew that he had already been lucky to not run into any separatist presence.

Hoping that the droids might just pass he concentrated on them again, only to realise that they were moving in a standard search pattern. Cursing again he realised that he would have to go around them, while he could become invisible the packs on his back could not and fighting them would require shifting back into human form and that required time and a big change like that produces noise. Phantom stayed very close to the ground and went back over the hill before moving to the side of the plateau on the sloping sides of the hill before he began moving again, slower and move carefully than before, his coat shimmered before changing from its normal black and white to brown and grey to better camouflage with the mountain side. Internally he updated his estimated time and sighed, that rest would have to wait another hour.

As Phantom detoured, he noticed that the gradient of the plateau increased in steepness the further he attempted to skirt around his initial course. After moving roughly 150 meters, Phantom realized he was eventually going to reach a point where he either had to circumvent the entire plateau and arrive at the other side, or he had to cross over the peak of the hill and traverse the plateau directly to his destination. In his mind he pictured the location. His initial entry point was roughly the same altitude as the plateau, the only viable access point by land. As he went around it, he mentally noted that the plateau was rounding off, and his destination was squarely in the center of it. No matter how long he stayed on the slope of the hill, he would remain roughly the same distance from the center, which was his destination.

The Shadow was left with a choice, attempt to cross over onto the plateau now and face whatever lie ahead, or circle the plateau and hope to find a place to climb over the increasingly steep and rocky face of the hillside. Regardless of his choice, Phantom did find it unusual that his Shadow contact would be sending him somewhere with actively patrolling droids. The curious nature of the situation began to play out unforeseeable possibilities in his mind.

 

[Proletariat]

Aboard MCF-49883

Finding himself the centre of a circle of heartless killing machines, Broadaxe acted in the finest tradition of Weequay pirates everywhere. He took a quick step back and raised his hands placatingly, "Hey, hey! No need for that my friends. Look, I am disarming myself all peaceful-like. Understood!" He unslung his blaster carbine and laid it on the decking, then his blaster pistol (also drawn butt-first) and finally the durasteel chieftain's gaderffii was placed on the floor. Clearly disarmed, he reached to his waist and drew a comlink. "This is a comlink," he enunciated clearly in his gravelly tones. "I will call my crew now, and they will disarm." Droids rarely deal well with chaos, so it's important to keep things simple for them. Lifting the communicator to his mouth, he activated it and hailed the ship. "Lucky Skifter, this is the Captain. Come on out and introduce yourself to our neighbours. They're the jumpy kind, so bring your weapons pointing down and lay them in the open where everyone can keep an eye on them." The lift retracted a few seconds later and Broadaxe endured the long lonely wait under the battledroid guns until it descended once more with three passengers.

Lakhan was the first of course, disarming eagerly as he dropped his heavy broadaxe to the decking with a resounding clang. He followed them with a number of other items around his person that could conceivably be seen as weapons; two knives, a crowbar, an energy wave dialyzer and some surprisingly fine electronic manipulators custom-designed to fit over his thick clawed fingers. Balance came next, taking even steps until he stood to his master's left and clasped his hands together behind his back. He had a labor droid's typical disdain for battle droids that could only destroy and couldn't build anything to replace what they broke. The long period of time he had been permitted to operate without a mind-wipe elevated him above his basic parameters though, so he knew better than to say anything overtly provocative. His master would send him to the torture droids if he caused any harm to happen to Weequay's beloved ship. And Qokli was worse. He shuddered and turned to the youngest Weequay, his red photoreceptors catching on her look of fear and intransigence. One after another Lakhan and Broadaxe followed his gaze back to the Captain's 'daughter' and Broadaxe didn't hesitate; immediately he shifted back over to the girl's side and stripped the blaster from her hands before she could do anything foolish. "None of that, small one." He threw it to the floor to join the other pieces of equipment, then gestured meaningfully to the repair kit and hydrospanner on her belt. "And the rest of it." "Of course father," Qokli yielded sulkily. She dumped the kit and spanner with the other discarded pieces, then folded her arms and looked around with defiance.

"Children, am I right?" Broadaxe commiserated with the command droid. "I suppose you wouldn't understand. Think of her as," he gestured vaguely in the air, searching for a likeness, "a new droid in your unit, say a B-1. She's had all the basic training and knows she knows exactly what she needs to take the galaxy by storm. But she hasn't served with you before and she doesn't know how you work, so you have to keep an eye on her to make sure she's following your commands and not her, er, first programmer's." Qokli looked waspish at the comparison, and even Lakhan's eyes showed laughter when Broadaxe looked his way. "Never mind," he grumped. "Let's get on with the inspection before I decide letting you shoot them is a good idea after all."

The Weequay Captain followed the droid inspection crew throughout the ship, opening hatches and lifts as required. If the droids detected the sensor-shielded smuggling compartments he would give them a tour of those as well, but he certainly wouldn't volunteer that information. Despite the fact that they were now empty.

The situation was tense as the crew of the Lucky Skifter carefully disembarked the vehicle and disarmed before their mechanical hosts. When the crew was assembled before them, the command droid and four other B-1 battle droids accompanied the captain into his ship. The command droid held a portable cargo scanner in his hand while they swept through the vessel. Once they reached the cargo bay, the command droid ordered his soldiers to open the cargo bay doors and lower the lift with the "gift" scanner. Crew droids scurried in with a sort of magnetic utility vehicle to transport the large scanner parts to safety. Once the lift was cleared, a B-2 battle droid and two additional B-1 battle droids stepped onto it The smaller droids were team carrying a heavy-duty sort of scanner that no one of the present crew recognized. The new scanning crew was lifted back into the ship and the cargo bay doors closed.

Outside the ship, a B-1 battle droid with a handheld scanned went from crew person to crew person, slowly running the scanner from each persons' head to their knees before moving onto the next. The remaining battle droids not engaged in inspection held their ground, weapons raised at the crew divorced from their ship.

Inside the vessel, the droids on the cargo lift activated the scanner. A quiet whining noise filled the bay as the large scanner came to life. The command droid, the captain, the two B-1's and the B-2 all stood together in relative silence while the scanner showed its readout on the small screen on the side of the device. Just as the rest of the inspection crew returned to the cargo bay, the command droid looked at the readout for a couple of minutes and then turned to Captain Rirmik.

"Tell me, pilot, is there a compartment on this ship that we have yet to inspect?" The droid laid a poorly veiled trap for Cais, it was obvious to the Shadow that the droid had just learned from the scanner that there in fact was a shielded compartment somewhere on the ship that he had not yet shown the inspection team. It was Cais's assumption that the droids had been given specific instructions to try to find a reason to melt the crew and commandeer the ship plus the scanner.

 

[HK Fifty]

The Brightlands (Unknown Mountain Range)

Argent ground her teeth together as the hostile droids passed over her location , focused on staying as silent as possible. As the noise grew further distant she took a moment to weigh her options and decided to stay in the small cave she found , as it offered much more cover than flattening herself against the opposite wall would. Beads of sweat ran down from her hairline as she fought to keep her breath as shallow as possible. The second pass was always the more thorough one , and she knew her skills at camouflaging herself were mediocre at best.

Unfortunately , this caused the squad's commander to find her rather easily. The Shadow's mind raced to find a way out of the situation. She could easily use her skills at Ionizing to destroy the Commander from her hiding spot , but that would only prompt further investigation from the other Battle Droids. And while she knew she could destroy the entire squad without much difficulty , that could easily cause an endless stream of Droids to assail her. She couldn't destroy them all (not the more advanced types anyway) , and even if she did somehow survive she'd have failed in her mission of arriving undetected.

If the cave went deeper the Miraluka might've followed it to it's end , at least luring the small squad along with her and destroying them out of sight. But the quintuplet of droids simply disspearing into to cave would likely alert her enemies to her presence , which swiftly invalidated that option. The shallow foothills to her east and west left her just as exposed as the desert plains , and although they built up to the mountains she knew she wouldn't make it to adequate cover in time to evade the Sentry's watchful eye , nor the Commander's STAP squad. Perhaps with Force Speed she could , but it was a long shot. She wasn't as highly skilled with Force Speed as many other Jedi were.

Still , it was a better chance than any other Argent had available to her. She reached out with the Force to throw one of the rocks lying on the foothills westward of her against the rearmost Droid's skull , before shifting several more stones in close proximity to the first in an attempt to imitate some sort of creature scrambling up the shallow hill. Once she was confident the Battle Droids had taken her ruse she'd activate her Force Speed and rush towards the eastward foothills , and the rising mountain after that. Force willing she'd appear as nothing but a blur to the Sentry until she reached better cover higher upon the mountain , which hopefully would also give her the ability to stealthily dart in and out of small caves and other natural features carved from the rocky mountain face.

 

[Proletariat]

Space above Ryloth / The Lonely Five near Kala'uun​

Reaver was in one of the cantinas on Smugglers Run while the crew finished loading the cargo, most legal, into the light freighter for the upcoming run to Wrea. As he settled the tab his comlink vibrated alerting him to an encrypted message waiting for him on the freighter.

After the few minutes it took to reach the hanger he was pleased to see the crew was waiting to depart, it looked like the inspectors were getting the last of "paperwork" in order for them to depart. Stepping into his cramped room and locking the door he set about decrypting the transmission. "Well dosh!" He was being sent to Ryloth. Just him.

After deleting the message and wiping the system of its record he found the Sergeant in charge. "Just got a FragOrd. I'm headed out, it's been fun." The Sergeant nodded, all too familiar with Frag Order, or the modification of an existing order. "Good luck on the new assignment." With a hearty slap to the shoulder the Sergeant smiled. "The boys aren't gonna be to happy, but they'll deal with it."

Reaver waved as he headed out to the back of hanger where the Nu-class shuttle that had just found its way to black market was awaiting its owner. Which was not Reaver, but that wasn't going to stop him from taking it. It wasn't long before he clear of the asteroids and making the jump to hyperspace.

After about a day or so the shuttle exited into normal space and was almost immediately targeted by the blockade. Which was to be expected and he had planned for it. If there had been a gunner on board he would have attempted something else, but as it was he pushed the engines to maximum and just tried to make it to the atmosphere. The droid fighters quickly swarm around the small shuttle as Reaver tries to dodge the laser fire from the larger capital ships. As he nears the outer edge of atmosphere the shields fail and the blazing energy weapons start tearing through the wings and one of the engines.

Smoke begins trailing from the damaged craft along with gouts of flame.

Inside the cockpit sparks begin jumping and panels burst as they overload, however the craft has stopped any evasive maneuvers. It has been programmed with a direct reentry course. Reaver is preparing the escape pod, knowing it will most likely draw the attention of the fighters who will likely shoot it down and then for the most part let the critically damaged shuttle crash into planet.

He slaps the launch button just as the shuttle lurched from a direct hit on the remaining engine. "Well I wasn't good at landing anyways." The escape pod cleared the shuttle just as they started the fiery descent, looking at the remaining sensors he watched as the escape pod was shot out of the sky. The shuttle, now more or less an unguided meteor, tumbled and fell through the thickening air as the fighters broke away to let the planet finish their job.

Staggering to the exit as he was in freefall and could hear parts of the damaged hull being ripped away Reaver double checked his glider pack was secured in place and ready to deploy. "This is where the fun begins." Using his lightsaber to cut an exit he was immediately pulled through into the dark rushing air. Using the Force and freefall training he cleared himself of the ship and its growing debris cloud so he could safely deploy the glider at a low enough altitude to not be picked by sensors, but high enough to not be killed by the sudden stop of hitting the planet.

As the glider settled into a steady flight the human shadow checked his bearings and made a minor course correction to get him closer to the spaceport Kala'uun. As he got closer to the mountains the wind started picking up, making it difficult to keep a direct glide path. The wind shear whimsy causing him to crash more then once, so rather then beiing forced into the mountain side he spotted a relatively flat area not far from his target and made for it.

After a rougher then planned touch down the Shadow concealed the glider for future use, just in case, and pulled out his encrypted comlink and sent a burst transmission signaling he was dirt side and moving.

Reaver found himself at the base of the Lonely Five mountain range, which was home to the underground city of Kala'uun. Although Reaver was regularly exposed to scenarios where he relied primarily on quick thinking, good aim, and blind luck, being isolated on a desolate planet occupied by Separatists was a new level of "Shadowhood" that he did not have experience with. While he waited on a response from his unnamed Shadow contact, he contemplated what he was going to do if he never got a response. Alternatively, he contemplated what he was going to do if he did get a response, and it told him to travel to the opposite side of the planet. He was stranded on a desert/ mountain world that he had almost no knowledge of geographically, and allegedly there were droids absolutely everywhere. Preliminary reports suggested that there might have been as many as three Lucrehulk-class battleships in orbit with a complement of Munificent frigates as an entourage. Reaver didn't bother counting ships as they were trying to turn him into space dust, but he had time to do the math now. Chances were, there were over one million droids planet side and only the Force knew how many more in space or in reserve. Eventually the human decided that he would handle it like he handled pretty much every other scenario out of his control, just wing it, rely on instincts, and hope that the Force was guiding him somewhere that didn't involve a shallow grave.

To his relief, a response did come back to him over the encrypted Shadow channel. It was not the sort of voice he was expecting to hear though. The voice of a battle droid, he could not determine which kind, instructed him on how to proceed. The voice explained in slow monotone that Reaver was actually standing above Kala'uun. The voice then informed him that he was near another Shadow, to the South along the mountain range about five klicks away. The droid ordered him to travel South, to link up with the Shadow Argent, and then to call back in when they were together. The droid made it very clear that he was not to send anything else over the frequency until he had encountered Argent.

Reaver considered asking the droid what Argent looked like, but he figured that he'd just keep his eyes peeled for anyone carrying a lightsaber that wasn't a droid. With his orders freshly in his mind, Reaver began the hike along the mountain's base Southward. He relied heavily on his electrobinoculars to scout enemy convoys and sentry positions, which became more and more frequent the further South he traveled. The altitude became more apparent to his body as well, the air seemed thin and it was ever so slightly more difficult to breathe. The Shadow saw an opportunity to scale the mountain and follow a path along its face. The path was narrow and risky, it made it more difficult to look up the mountain for sentry posts, but it also concealed him from anyone across the foothills that might be watching the mountains. He came to a part of the path so narrow that it required him to shuffle sideways. Just as he reached the halfway point of the narrow ledge, he heard the signature electronic hum of a hover-vehicle in the distance, to his South. Without panicking, he froze on the ledge and listened carefully to the direction the sound was coming from. It was definitely to his South, and not necessarily moving towards him.. Suddenly he spotted a group of small figures coming around the edge of the mountain-and his vision. Reaver carefully lifted his electrobinoculars to his eyes with one hand, mindful of his own balance. After using one finger to dial in the focus. Reaver could see that a group of five STAP's was moving in a tight formation to the Southwest.

He had no idea if it was a patrol, a search party, or a joy ride session. To his left was the wider part of the path, which was the direction of his current destination, to his right was where he came from. Behind him was the rock face of the mountain, in front of him was.. truthfully Reaver did not care to think about the vast and empty drop in front of him. After quickly but cautiously making it across the ledge, Reaver continued to watch the STAP's as they dipped over the crests of foothills that masked their location roughly half of the time. The droids circled back after a certain distance, then slowed, then disappeared behind the hills. Reaver cursed the rugged landscape, it would be nearly impossible to see anything from down in the hills. Luckily the droids climbed over a ridge that was in his line of sight and even dismounted for some reason. Only half of the squad was visible and his electrobinoculars were zoomed to the maximum magnification. He could vaguely make out that three of the droids were stationary and facing the hillside that he couldn't see. A decision came before the Shadow, would he continue to the entrance to Kala'uun, or would he investigate the droid patrol?

 

[Scavenger]

Phantom mentally cursed again as he saw the ever increasing gradient that he would have to move on if he wanted to get around the plateau. Looking down at the small locator on his chest he raised a wolf-like eyebrow when he saw that the coordinates that he had received in the transmission led to a point in the middle of the plateau. Immediately his mind flooded with all of the possibilities that could have happened, the droids could have intercepted the transmission, they could have sent the transmission in the first place. He shook his head slightly to help clear his thoughts, while both of those things could have happened they both indicated far more worrying possibilities than just difficulties with his mission. Seeing that there was on obvious way around the plateau, especially since his target was in the centre he returned to his last position treading quietly and constantly scanning the surroundings. Once he reached the previous ridge he lay down with just his head poking over the ridge, his fur offering a nice natural camouflage.

Phantom closed his eyes and focused on the force inside his body, with a small mental flex he reached out with it and coaxed it to form an image of a Twilek wearing jedi robes in the middle of the plateau at the coordinates that he had been given, hopefully he could gain additional information by seeing what happened to the illusion, it was of course completely invisible to the droids as their inorganic minds could not comprehend a purely force structure.

 

[Proletariat]

Phantom mentally cursed again as he saw the ever increasing gradient that he would have to move on if he wanted to get around the plateau. Looking down at the small locator on his chest he raised a wolf-like eyebrow when he saw that the coordinates that he had received in the transmission led to a point in the middle of the plateau. Immediately his mind flooded with all of the possibilities that could have happened, the droids could have intercepted the transmission, they could have sent the transmission in the first place. He shook his head slightly to help clear his thoughts, while both of those things could have happened they both indicated far more worrying possibilities than just difficulties with his mission. Seeing that there was on obvious way around the plateau, especially since his target was in the centre he returned to his last position treading quietly and constantly scanning the surroundings. Once he reached the previous ridge he lay down with just his head poking over the ridge, his fur offering a nice natural camouflage.

Phantom closed his eyes and focused on the force inside his body, with a small mental flex he reached out with it and coaxed it to form an image of a Twilek wearing jedi robes in the middle of the plateau at the coordinates that he had been given, hopefully he could gain additional information by seeing what happened to the illusion, it was of course completely invisible to the droids as their inorganic minds could not comprehend a purely force structure.

As Phantom attempted to project an image into the center of the field he felt the Force materialize an image just as he had imagined standing in the field. An hour passed with the image in the field and nothing changed, the droids walked right past it and even right through it in some cases. With his attempt failed, Phantom instead continued to observe the droids that passed by the ridge in the field ahead. Although they moved slowly and in search pattern, it became clear after half an hour that they were operating on a routine. They were patrolling in a search pattern with no specific goal in mind, so they probably weren't programmed to look for anything in particular. He then observed that there were several large patrol groups circling the plateau. New groups would follow in the footsteps of the old; either they would walk across the field and then down around the plateau, or they would turn short of the hillside and walk directly over the earthen wall across the field from Phantom.

Upon closer inspection of the ridge across from him, Phantom realized that it was entirely constructed and not natural at all. The roughly two meter tall wall of earth ran exactly the width of the entrance of the plateau, and then curved to fit the shape of the plateau. It was as if someone built it so that no one from the ground could see what was on the center of the flat. After one patrol group descended the hill or crossed over the ridge, it would be several minutes before another group reappeared in the field. After an hour had passed on the ridge, Phantom was again left with a choice on how to proceed.

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

The Lonely Five near Kala'uun​

Reaver looked at the mountain side then the rock beneath his feet and shook his head as he let out a slow breath. "Well if there are wanna be mashers around they're going to be where I'm supposed to heading." As he made his way South and towards the supposed location of Argent, the increased number of droids only made sense. 'Must be getting close to a base or they control the spaceport and have entrance under heavy guard.' That made sense to him, and given the number of times he and his former squad had to either directly, or through resistance groups, disrupt spaceport operations he didn't see any reason why they would be any different on this rocky forsaken planet.

The human Shadow watched the mounted patrol dismount for some reason. 'You don't dismount unless there was something significant to investigate or capture.' His face scrunched up as he ran scenarios through his head. It could be a local predator, but that wouldn't warrant investigation. An escaped prisoner? More likely, but still unless they were a high value individual they'd just be shot. That only really left his objective as an option.

"Kriff it! If I am supposed to pick up a spanner, probably gonna have to take it from the neighbors." He shook his head and began moving towards the droid patrol and began thinking of how he could use the rocky and hilly terrain to his advantage. Obviously he would have a maneuverability issue, but surprise would even that out. Not to mention his ability to use Combustion to destroy or at least disable one or more of the STAPs and their drivers.

He let the Force flow through his lungs and limbs to aid him in getting to the point of droid interest faster then normal. Hoping that he could get there before anything of value was gone. "This shark needs some shiny bolts if I wanna keep my teeth." Having gotten a good look and feel for where the patrols, sentries, and outposts where he knew roughly where to move to avoid outright detection, not to mention using Force Cloak where he would be visible to those looking for something of interest on the outside of the spaceport.

 

[Segue]

Aboard MCF-49883

The trio of crew-beings stood in the docking bay under the battledroids' guns looked unsurprisingly nervous, at least the two organics who could. It would probably have looked stranger if they'd be calm, and by no means all their nerves were assumed for the purposes of their cover. They had been in similar situations before, but usually they were able to watch Broadaxe at work, reading his cues and subtext to gauge if everything was going to be okay. Here and now the first they might know would be when the droid squad opened fire. Qokli reached out with her senses, found her master in the Lucky Skifter and tasted his quiet confidence. She relaxed internally, but kept up her tense expression for the locals.

Aboard his spacecraft, Broadaxe smiled benignly at the command droid that challenged him. "Why yes, neighbour. I haven't yet shown you Auxiliary Storage Annexe One and Two." He gestured down the corridor toward the portside coolant tank, leading the command droid and any of his scanner team that follow to inspect the bulkhead in the commons bathroom. When he applies pressure to the wall above the sink as well as behind a valve a foot to the left, a panel slid open and revealed three cubic metres of storage space. As the panel opened the electromagnetic shielding for the storage cut off and a dim glow blinked to life inside. "As you can see we don't have anything stored here at the moment, but when we have live cargo in the main storage hold it's useful to keep anything delicate or dangerous somewhere else. Especially when the cargo is reluctant, shall we say?" He chuckled at his own joke, then sealed up the chamber when the team is done.

"They're also useful for extremely delicate electronics which my patron occasionally asks us to carry." He leads the way back across the central hub and into the lounge. "Purely by mischance there are sometimes intense electronic signals that could damage their expensive inner workings, and so we have built in the shielding to protect it." He crouched and slid a hand behind the liquor cabinet to press the wall there, his other hand pressing a specific bolt in the decking. Again a panel opens in the wall towards the ship's aft with a dim red glow snapping to life as the empty space snaps into view on the droid scanners. "And here we have Auxiliary Storage Annexe Two. Empty as you see, but you are welcome to climb in and look yourself." He gestures grandly toward the low entrance to the three cubic metre space. "It is surprisingly restful in there, especially when the alternative is adolescence." He shudders, playing the gesture up so that even a battledroid should recognize it.

 

[Proletariat]

The Brightlands (Unknown Mountain Range)

Argent ground her teeth together as the hostile droids passed over her location , focused on staying as silent as possible. As the noise grew further distant she took a moment to weigh her options and decided to stay in the small cave she found , as it offered much more cover than flattening herself against the opposite wall would. Beads of sweat ran down from her hairline as she fought to keep her breath as shallow as possible. The second pass was always the more thorough one , and she knew her skills at camouflaging herself were mediocre at best.

Unfortunately , this caused the squad's commander to find her rather easily. The Shadow's mind raced to find a way out of the situation. She could easily use her skills at Ionizing to destroy the Commander from her hiding spot , but that would only prompt further investigation from the other Battle Droids. And while she knew she could destroy the entire squad without much difficulty , that could easily cause an endless stream of Droids to assail her. She couldn't destroy them all (not the more advanced types anyway) , and even if she did somehow survive she'd have failed in her mission of arriving undetected.

If the cave went deeper the Miraluka might've followed it to it's end , at least luring the small squad along with her and destroying them out of sight. But the quintuplet of droids simply disspearing into to cave would likely alert her enemies to her presence , which swiftly invalidated that option. The shallow foothills to her east and west left her just as exposed as the desert plains , and although they built up to the mountains she knew she wouldn't make it to adequate cover in time to evade the Sentry's watchful eye , nor the Commander's STAP squad. Perhaps with Force Speed she could , but it was a long shot. She wasn't as highly skilled with Force Speed as many other Jedi were.

Still , it was a better chance than any other Argent had available to her. She reached out with the Force to throw one of the rocks lying on the foothills westward of her against the rearmost Droid's skull , before shifting several more stones in close proximity to the first in an attempt to imitate some sort of creature scrambling up the shallow hill. Once she was confident the Battle Droids had taken her ruse she'd activate her Force Speed and rush towards the eastward foothills , and the rising mountain after that. Force willing she'd appear as nothing but a blur to the Sentry until she reached better cover higher upon the mountain , which hopefully would also give her the ability to stealthily dart in and out of small caves and other natural features carved from the rocky mountain face.

The thrown rock struck the rearmost droid's head with considerable force. It was enough to throw it off balance, and the droid's shaken cognitive processing unit was too stunned to recover, causing the battle droid to stumble forward and collapse onto the ground. It was disoriented for several seconds before it climbed back onto its feet, its system immediately ran diagnostics and rebooted parts of the movement software in order to reestablish balance. Meanwhile, its fellow squad members had turned around to scan the foothills behind them for the source of the rock.

The command droid, which heard the stone connect to the metal of the droid's head from inside the cavern, turned about to investigate what was going on outside. As his confused comrade turned to join in the search for his assailant, the command droid inquired as to what had happened. 6532 had a brand new scratch on its head unit and there were rocks falling down the nearby western hillside at the droids. The squad carefully edged away from the cavern, their blasters were raised at the ridge of the hill, ready for anything that might pop out over it.

When the droids were as far away from the cave entrance as Argent assumed they would stray, she made her way out into the open. The moment her body was free from the confined space of the crevice she started in a Force-powered sprint away from the droids and towards the eastern hills. The command droid, who heard her footsteps, turned back to the cave only to see a blur of a humanoid streak into the distance out of the corner of his optics.

"There is the humanoid, blast it!" The command droid ordered. The droid squad responded buy opening fire with their blasters, but by the time they started shooting Argent was already too far away for a battle droid to hit.

"Get on your STAP's, let's chase it down!" ordered the droid. Its command was echoed by four "Roger roger" acknowledgements.

Argent had put considerable distance between herself and the droids by the time she heard the faint sound of the STAP's coming to life. Within seconds their repulsors could be heard straining at full speed and the Shadow knew she would not be able to outrun them. So she decided to hide instead. Argent detoured South and planned to duck over the hills while the droids would likely follow her initial trajectory. It was a sound plan, except for the fact that Argent had to learn the hard way that the difficult thing about using the Force to propel oneself was stopping. By complete lack of control and exhaustion, Argent failed to slow enough when she reached the peak of the hill she was planning to hide behind and her body launched over the top. She landed squarely on her back and slid down the hill with minimal control. The baked dry land and rocks scraped her up considerably, causing lacerations on her back and legs. Before she could think to do anything else, Argent could hear the STAP's whiz by the other side of the hill and continue eastward. she was safe, for now. As the Shadow laid against the hillside, she could feel her skin start to tingle and sting. All the time she spent under the thin atmosphere and blazing sun of Ryloth was starting to have its effects on her body.

 

[Proletariat]

The Lonely Five near Kala'uun​

Reaver looked at the mountain side then the rock beneath his feet and shook his head as he let out a slow breath. "Well if there are wanna be mashers around they're going to be where I'm supposed to heading." As he made his way South and towards the supposed location of Argent, the increased number of droids only made sense. 'Must be getting close to a base or they control the spaceport and have entrance under heavy guard.' That made sense to him, and given the number of times he and his former squad had to either directly, or through resistance groups, disrupt spaceport operations he didn't see any reason why they would be any different on this rocky forsaken planet.

The human Shadow watched the mounted patrol dismount for some reason. 'You don't dismount unless there was something significant to investigate or capture.' His face scrunched up as he ran scenarios through his head. It could be a local predator, but that wouldn't warrant investigation. An escaped prisoner? More likely, but still unless they were a high value individual they'd just be shot. That only really left his objective as an option.

"Kriff it! If I am supposed to pick up a spanner, probably gonna have to take it from the neighbors." He shook his head and began moving towards the droid patrol and began thinking of how he could use the rocky and hilly terrain to his advantage. Obviously he would have a maneuverability issue, but surprise would even that out. Not to mention his ability to use Combustion to destroy or at least disable one or more of the STAPs and their drivers.

He let the Force flow through his lungs and limbs to aid him in getting to the point of droid interest faster then normal. Hoping that he could get there before anything of value was gone. "This shark needs some shiny bolts if I wanna keep my teeth." Having gotten a good look and feel for where the patrols, sentries, and outposts where he knew roughly where to move to avoid outright detection, not to mention using Force Cloak where he would be visible to those looking for something of interest on the outside of the spaceport.

Reaver was forced to cross open ground in order to get to the nearest hill cover. Fortunately for him, with a combination of Force Cloak and anxious droids checking the location of their patrols, the Shadow made it out of sight without being spotted. It was only the beginning of his challenges though. Even though he was initially in cover, Reaver knew that the landscape would betray him several times. After all, the droids had a massive altitude advantage over the Shadow and only the highest foothills concealed him from their view.

Ten minutes into his roundabout journey to the droid patrol's last known location, Reaver found himself climbing a wide, steep slope into a valley between two long ridges. The Northern ridge protected him from view of the mountain which meant he could travel much faster. As his head appeared over the incline to where he could see into the valley, straight ahead of him there was a droid foot patrol in sight. There were ten of them about thirty feet away, walking the other direction. Three B-2's and seven B-1's, not moving particularly fast, but still directly in his path. In the distance- toward his destination- Reaver heard the faint but obvious sound of blaster fire, droid blasters. Although he probably could avoid the patrol, he knew they would be constantly closing the gap behind him and it would take an extremely long time to divert his course through the hills to ensure his stealth remained intact.

After the blaster fire, the sound of a personal hover vehicle going full speed from the same direction, but moving away. He recognized the sound as an STAP.

 

[Proletariat]

Aboard MCF-49883

The trio of crew-beings stood in the docking bay under the battledroids' guns looked unsurprisingly nervous, at least the two organics who could. It would probably have looked stranger if they'd be calm, and by no means all their nerves were assumed for the purposes of their cover. They had been in similar situations before, but usually they were able to watch Broadaxe at work, reading his cues and subtext to gauge if everything was going to be okay. Here and now the first they might know would be when the droid squad opened fire. Qokli reached out with her senses, found her master in the Lucky Skifter and tasted his quiet confidence. She relaxed internally, but kept up her tense expression for the locals.

Aboard his spacecraft, Broadaxe smiled benignly at the command droid that challenged him. "Why yes, neighbour. I haven't yet shown you Auxiliary Storage Annexe One and Two." He gestured down the corridor toward the portside coolant tank, leading the command droid and any of his scanner team that follow to inspect the bulkhead in the commons bathroom. When he applies pressure to the wall above the sink as well as behind a valve a foot to the left, a panel slid open and revealed three cubic metres of storage space. As the panel opened the electromagnetic shielding for the storage cut off and a dim glow blinked to life inside. "As you can see we don't have anything stored here at the moment, but when we have live cargo in the main storage hold it's useful to keep anything delicate or dangerous somewhere else. Especially when the cargo is reluctant, shall we say?" He chuckled at his own joke, then sealed up the chamber when the team is done.

"They're also useful for extremely delicate electronics which my patron occasionally asks us to carry." He leads the way back across the central hub and into the lounge. "Purely by mischance there are sometimes intense electronic signals that could damage their expensive inner workings, and so we have built in the shielding to protect it." He crouched and slid a hand behind the liquor cabinet to press the wall there, his other hand pressing a specific bolt in the decking. Again a panel opens in the wall towards the ship's aft with a dim red glow snapping to life as the empty space snaps into view on the droid scanners. "And here we have Auxiliary Storage Annexe Two. Empty as you see, but you are welcome to climb in and look yourself." He gestures grandly toward the low entrance to the three cubic metre space. "It is surprisingly restful in there, especially when the alternative is adolescence." He shudders, playing the gesture up so that even a battledroid should recognize it.

The droids silently searched the "Auxiliary" storage units and found nothing that raised any red flags to them. After they had fully probed the ship, the droids found nothing out of place. The Lucky Skifter was outfitted for slave transportation and it scarcely had anything else other than supplies meant to sustain organic life and equipment repair the ship. Once they were finished, the droids came down the boarding lift with their equipment and joined their comrades, who still had their blasters trained on the crew. Broadaxe was ordered to join his fellow smugglers in the hangar bay until the command droid had finished briefing Mar Tuuk.

The scanner array from the Lucky Skifter's cargo hold had since disappeared into the depths of the frigate, the command droid followed suit and the crew of the ship was left against a wall with a bunch of droids ready to kill them. After a painfully long five minutes, the command droid returned with a holo-communicator. The small disk shaped communicator produced a quarter-sized blue image of Mar Tuuk from the droid's hands. The Captain had a cheerier disposition than before.

"Well now, Captain Rirmik, it appears your story checks out so far." The Neimoidian seemed less bothered than before, something was different. "I took the liberty of discussing your... situation... with the leader of the Separatist forces on Ryloth, Foreman Watt Tambor of the Trade Union."

It was a name Broadaxe recognized. An influential figure in the CIS, but previously only a supporter, working with connections from the shadows. He had never met the man before, or worked for him.

"The generous Foreman has told me he will accept your vessel at the Spaceport in the capital of Lessu. However, I will tell you that your negotiations with me have no bearing over Mister Tambor's... conditions of your business venture on Ryloth. You will be allowed to take your ship to the Spaceport, but be warned, act out of turn, breach the conditions of the agreement, or land anywhere except Lessu, and your patron will be looking for a new employee. You understand?"

Mar Tuuk reluctantly allowed the smuggler past the blockade. The Captain was convinced that either Watt Tambor's demands would be too much for the smuggler and he would leave the planet, or they would agree on a deal and he would be under such close watch that he would be forced to adhere to the conditions established by the Foreman. Though he still partly hoped for an excuse to vaporize the arrogant fool.

 

[Segue]

Aboard MCF-49883

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Broadaxe of all Lucky Skifter's crew seemed the most at ease under the guns of the inspection team, the words of the Jedi Code passing through his mind. It was always possible that this time the gamble wouldn't pay off, that his trust in the Force would be rewarded at last by a swift and unexpected death. Yet somehow he thought their path would not end here, and with that behind it his smile and undeniable swagger projected no shortage of confidence. Sadly the display was largely lost on the armed droids and Balance, but Qokli and Lakhan seemed bolstered by it.

Mar Tuuk's diminutive return is welcomed with a clap of satisfaction. "I understand completely, Captain. Many thanks for your gracious hospitality, and for accepting our small contribution to your blockade here. Fear not, we would not dream of violating your trust in the course of our business here." He gave a small bow to the holo-Neimoidian then clapped his hands together briskly twice. "Back to the Slam, my friends! Let us bid our good neighbours farewell and return to our washing." As the crew returned through the boarding lift, Broadaxe let some of his careless generosity slip. "Balance, bring up the engines. Qokli, Lakhan, fan out. Time to see if our good neighbours left us any presents." Bombs, tracking beacons, recording devices; there could be anything, and with three of them scouring the ship they would find anything the inspection team had secreted quickly enough.

It was unfortunate but not unexpected that the scanning team had picked up the sensor shielding; military blockades tended to be tighter than most planets' customs divisions. As a precaution the Weequay had emptied them both, and been forced by circumstance to display them both for inspection. The Force had not abandoned the Jedi Shadow and his crew, and exposing ASA One and Two had served handily to cover the presence of ASA Three beneath the stairs. Skifter's crew would surely know about anything the Separatists had left aboard ship by the time they arrived at Lessu, but in the meantime Broadaxe would behave as though every word was being picked over by a highly paranoid JN-66. Hearing the engines hum to life he keyed his wristcomm without looking up from his search.

"Take us down to Lessu, Balance. I will be on the bridge to take the landing."

 

[HK Fifty]

The Brightlands (Unlnown Mountain Range)

Argent tried and failed to stop herself from clumsily falling down the barren side of the foothill , the jagged hill side lacerating her pale skin. By the time she slid down to the bottom the back of her robes were nearly turned into rags , and open gashes all across her back and lower legs coated the already sweat-stained robes with her blood. Unfortunately that was her only set of clothes , which meant she'd either have to find more soon or try to patch the robes - neither of which were possibilities at the moment. At least her boots remained inma servicable condition , despite the wear and tear the rest of her had suffered. Thankfully her artless , painful fall didn't draw the attention of the STAP patrol , the quintuplet rocketing past her position at close to the craft's maximum speeds.

After taking a brief moment to gather her strength , aided by her skill with Force Body , the Miraluka rose to her somewhat shaky feet and started to scramble up the hillside ahead of her. She paid careful attention to the area around her in case she encountered other Droids , and she knew the patrol would circle back around at any moment. Given her growing exhaustion she'd prefer to avoid the Droids altogether , instead of drawing her Lightsaber and cutting them down as she often preferred to. Hopefully she'd reach the mountains before the patrol - or the sentry , or any number of other Droids - could catch sight of her again , or at least before they could engage her.

Nevertheless , the Shadow was prepared for the very real possibility she'd be forced to combat the Seperatist's army regardless of how swiftly she made her way up the mountainside. 'Those mechanical tools of Evil shall not stand in the way of the Force's Will!'

 

[folclor]

Ryloth Orbit: Nightlands

Vhyvy gave a hiss of pain, the burns and injuries from blaster fire still adorned her skin. Ando had been a shit show at best, intentional sabotage at worst. But she couldn't imagine it as intentional sabotage. It couldn't be, right? No one would intentionally cause those clones, those Jedi to die, would they? Other than the Separatists but... She shook her head.

In the dark of her damaged fighter's cockpit she decided it was wrong to start blaming others. She didn't know. Couldn't know. Perhaps this was a bit of a ridiculous situation, anyway. Coming off of a battle where she was one of the only survivors, barely escaped, sent into another very plausible death trap. And, to top it off, they put a blind girl in a fighter with minimal assistance. Voice help had to be disabled, for the most part, to dampen sound. She had no droid. The Force would guide her.

Her display flashed, letting her know she was coming to her destination, trying to warn of the enemy vessels. She couldn't see them. No audio meant she couldn't hear the alert, either. But she did sense the presence of enemies. Her unfortunate lack of cloaking aside, she'd do her best to sneak through any sort of blockade.

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

The Lonely Five near Kala'uun​

Reaver let out a long slow sigh, both from mild frustration and to catch his breath due to the altitude and atmosphere. "I could use jack and the old hat but I don't need any more friends right now, so pazaak is better choice right now." He shook his head, his habit of speaking to himself was so ingrained from the years of working in areas where he suspected everywhere to have some sort of listening device, that it was safer if he just kept it up. He knew that no one would realistically be able to hear him, but habits were habits at this point.

He noted the direction of travel of the droid patrol and where he had been going, they would run parallel for a while, but he could get ahead of them using the ridge as cover and worry about the droid patrol later. He was contemplating having one explode to buy him some time and provide a distraction, when he heard the blaster fire and the engine noise of the STAP's. "Time to play solider or I'll be pulling teeth."

The human Shadow ducked below the ridge line and using it as cover from the parallel droid patrol, adding in some Force Cloak for good measure, he began moving to get ahead of the patrol and make his way to where the STAP's had been, and hopefully he would find this Argent, whoever they are, still alive and they could provide a destination to meet up with the contact.

 

[Proletariat]

Aboard MCF-49883

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.

Broadaxe of all Lucky Skifter's crew seemed the most at ease under the guns of the inspection team, the words of the Jedi Code passing through his mind. It was always possible that this time the gamble wouldn't pay off, that his trust in the Force would be rewarded at last by a swift and unexpected death. Yet somehow he thought their path would not end here, and with that behind it his smile and undeniable swagger projected no shortage of confidence. Sadly the display was largely lost on the armed droids and Balance, but Qokli and Lakhan seemed bolstered by it.

Mar Tuuk's diminutive return is welcomed with a clap of satisfaction. "I understand completely, Captain. Many thanks for your gracious hospitality, and for accepting our small contribution to your blockade here. Fear not, we would not dream of violating your trust in the course of our business here." He gave a small bow to the holo-Neimoidian then clapped his hands together briskly twice. "Back to the Slam, my friends! Let us bid our good neighbours farewell and return to our washing." As the crew returned through the boarding lift, Broadaxe let some of his careless generosity slip. "Balance, bring up the engines. Qokli, Lakhan, fan out. Time to see if our good neighbours left us any presents." Bombs, tracking beacons, recording devices; there could be anything, and with three of them scouring the ship they would find anything the inspection team had secreted quickly enough.

It was unfortunate but not unexpected that the scanning team had picked up the sensor shielding; military blockades tended to be tighter than most planets' customs divisions. As a precaution the Weequay had emptied them both, and been forced by circumstance to display them both for inspection. The Force had not abandoned the Jedi Shadow and his crew, and exposing ASA One and Two had served handily to cover the presence of ASA Three beneath the stairs. Skifter's crew would surely know about anything the Separatists had left aboard ship by the time they arrived at Lessu, but in the meantime Broadaxe would behave as though every word was being picked over by a highly paranoid JN-66. Hearing the engines hum to life he keyed his wristcomm without looking up from his search.

"Take us down to Lessu, Balance. I will be on the bridge to take the landing."

The droids had been as meticulous as their programming in the cargo inspection. Nothing was left out of place, and nothing of the droids' was left behind. The Lucky Skifter was allowed to leave the tightly packed hangar without delay, and the descent into the planet's atmosphere went as ordinarily as it could. The entire crew could practically feel their ship being tracked by the Separatist blockade all the way into the upper atmosphere. Once they were in range, the scanners aboard the Skifter were immediately jammed. Their only eyes were holocams and planetary maps. The ship was receiving a steady signal from Lessu that acted as a tracking beacon. After a time of gliding over desolate waste, the ship made its way into more temperate ground with visible flora and fauna, although it seemed scarce. It was no wonder to anyone aboard the ship why the people of Ryloth were starving under Separatist control.

Lessu came within range of the naked eye and the ship was immediately contacted by the planetary flight control. They were ordered to land in the flat just outside the city. It was a strange looking place for a capital. On the surface Lessu was the size of a large village built directly onto a spire. All around the spire was a deep canyon, easily 100 yards wide and too deep to want to investigate. There was no clear way to cross the divide, but it did appear that the canyon was the victim of recent blasting, due to the scorch marks and rubble on either side of the capital.

Broadaxe's first step on the soil of Ryloth was met by a droid escort. This time their weapons weren't drawn at least. Five B-2 Super Battledroids, five B-1's, and a tactical droid met the commander on the ground.

"Pilot Cais Rirmik, the Foreman Wat Tambor sends his apologies for not being able to meet you in person. He is busy campaigning against the rebel filth that still clings to the shadows of the mountains. If you and your crew would accompany me into the capital, I have been given negotiation orders. You may address me as TX-20." The tactical droid spoke with the serene indifference possessed by all of its kind, and it seemed to be withholding a degree of irritation with the situation.

 

[Proletariat]

The Brightlands (Unlnown Mountain Range)

Argent tried and failed to stop herself from clumsily falling down the barren side of the foothill , the jagged hill side lacerating her pale skin. By the time she slid down to the bottom the back of her robes were nearly turned into rags , and open gashes all across her back and lower legs coated the already sweat-stained robes with her blood. Unfortunately that was her only set of clothes , which meant she'd either have to find more soon or try to patch the robes - neither of which were possibilities at the moment. At least her boots remained inma servicable condition , despite the wear and tear the rest of her had suffered. Thankfully her artless , painful fall didn't draw the attention of the STAP patrol , the quintuplet rocketing past her position at close to the craft's maximum speeds.

After taking a brief moment to gather her strength , aided by her skill with Force Body , the Miraluka rose to her somewhat shaky feet and started to scramble up the hillside ahead of her. She paid careful attention to the area around her in case she encountered other Droids , and she knew the patrol would circle back around at any moment. Given her growing exhaustion she'd prefer to avoid the Droids altogether , instead of drawing her Lightsaber and cutting them down as she often preferred to. Hopefully she'd reach the mountains before the patrol - or the sentry , or any number of other Droids - could catch sight of her again , or at least before they could engage her.

Nevertheless , the Shadow was prepared for the very real possibility she'd be forced to combat the Seperatist's army regardless of how swiftly she made her way up the mountainside. 'Those mechanical tools of Evil shall not stand in the way of the Force's Will!'

The Shadow spent most of her time on the hillsides farther from the mountain. Droid activity intensified in the area, which slowed the Shadow's progress to a snail's pace. Argent was constantly halting her progress in order to avoid foot patrols of droids, though she noted that the patrol groups seemed to be getting smaller the further out she stayed. After another hour of delayed and detoured travel, Argent was able to make her way nearly due east of the base of the mountain. with her new vantage point positioned at the edge of the Eastern foothills, Argent laid down on the ridge and could see that the mountain range extended no more than a few miles. There were five prominent and quite massive peaks that dominated the range. That new information coupled with the fact that the sun was hanging low in the Western Sky prompted her to believe that the mountain range was the Lonely Five, which meant one of the mountains housed Kala'uun, or the Southern Capital of Ryloth.

As she continued to observe the mountain, she noticed that there seemed to be an entrance of sorts at the southern face where droids were entering in columns. The entrance was wide enough to fit an AAT Hovertank, she watched one slowly drift out of her vision into it. Though she could not really see the dimensions of the tunnel, part of her wondered, if it was large enough to fit most small spacecraft, if it was the entrance to the city's space port. She could not detect any other location on the Eastern or South Eastern side of the mountain where droids were disappearing into it and she found it doubtful that there could be any sizable entrances cut out of the top or Northern side of the mountain.

As she pondered her next move, something entirely unexpected happened. Argent saw fire and rock shoot out of the tunnel, it was immediately followed by one of the loudest booms she had ever heard in her life. The ground beneath her felt like it was shaking as rubble and droids were sent flying for dozens of yards away from the tunnel. Droids were falling off of the mountain and collapsing to the ground all over the area. Seconds later, a dozen or so star fighters came screaming out of the tunnel at a dangerous speed. The pilots pulled up just before they collided with the hillside and streaked off into the horizon. Following the star fighters came a stream of at least 200 Twi'leks on speeder bikes that were hollering and firing their blasters as they trampled over the bodies of the unsuspecting droids. After a matter of minutes the droids seemed to pull themselves together and all the patrols in the area came storming back to the mountain. Several Twi'leks were shot dead by the droids, their bodies slumping off of speeders that carried on without them and exploded into the hillsides.

Argent was quite shocked by the entire scenario, she had no idea what to make of what she had just seen. Behind her she heard the mechanical and electronic noise of a droid running. The Shadow rolled over to see a B-1 battle droid's head come over the top of the hill behind the Shadow, it's head locked into place once it spotted her and it began to raise its blaster.

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

The Lonely Five near Kala'uun

Reaver was steadily making his way to where he thought the STAP patrol should have been when they began chasing something, probably this Argent he was supposed to link up with, and took a moment to catch his breath and check his soundings; ensuring he kept enough of his focus on maintaining his Force Cloak as he starred to peek over the crest of a hill.

That was when the planet seemed to crack and explode above him. The shockwave sent him flat onto his face and chest, almost knocking him over the top of the hill. Coughing and blinking sand, dust and miscellaneous debris, he noticed there was a singular silence permeating everything. It slowly gave way to a high pitched tone. Knowing he was exposed, the human Shadow rolled back into the ravine, in time to see Starfighters scream, he guessed that's what it sounded like since he still couldn't hear anything properly, out of somewhere above him.

Once they stopped Reaver began clearing some of rubble and droid parts off of him but immediately laid back flat on his back as the speeder bikes shot over his hiding place. Forcing himself to wrap the Force Cloak around him once more, not wanting to be spotted by the obvious aggressor Twi'lek and blasted.

Cenhelm waited for a break in the chaos and flying death machines, Starfighter and speeder bike alike, before he began to move again. His hearing back to normal, or at least more then he had a few moments ago. With no clear idea what was going on he decided to continue in the direction he had been going, hoping to catch up with Argent and figure out what was going on. But if the chance presented itself for useful equipment, droid or speeder or blasters, to be acquired or if he was spotted somehow he had his pistol at the ready and so he moved off bending light and sound around him making his way along the same ridge line.

 

[HK Fifty]

The Brightlands (The Lonely Five near Kala'uun)

Argent was rather happy to see what could only be the entrance to the city of Kala'unn , where Force willing she'd be able to locate a map. Unfortunately the AAT entering through the wide entrance would make it difficult to sneak in , assuming this was the only entrance. Just as she was beginning to think of ways to avoid the Armored Vehicle or the assuredly numerous guards inside the entrance , the tank spontaneously exploded , and through the flames hundreds of what she immediately knew to be resistance fighters jetted out.

Despite her sharp intellect the Miraluka wasn't entirely sure of the context of the situation - whether they were occupying the City and were fleeing Seperatist Forces , part of a coordinated attack , or perhaps even a horde of escaping Prisoners of War she knew not. The few things she did know for certain , however , were certainly in her favor. It pleased her the very active and large insurgent movement , for with them she knew she at least had some allies on the occupied planet that could assist her. In addition , the large Battle breaking out would make it much easier for her to hide and avoid the Droid patrols , as all the Seperatist forces would be much too focused on the Twi'leks to search for her. And even if a small group did locate her , the rest would be too occupied to aid or perhaps even notice their comrades being cut down.

The Miraluka woman rolled over to continue her trek with a strengthened resolve , only to meet the gaze of a B1 marching up the cliff. Before it could fire at her she reached out and attempted to use her honed skills with Ionize on it , which with her strength would easily destroy the poorly-constructed B1. Provided she succeeded she'd swiftly leap to her feet. 'Those Dark tools of Evil never travel alone.. there has to be more of them!' Unfortunately she was caught in an odd situation , for while she strongly desired to destroy the Commander's comrades she had no way of knowing how many of them there were , nor what types the group may comprise. For all she knew , she could end up fighting anything from more B1's to IG-100 magnaguards. The first Droid had also been more than 30 feet away from her , which would either mean she'd have to spring into their group or wait for them to approach her.

On the opposite end of the spectrum , Argent had an extremely high chance of coming into contact with an even worse group of Droids should she flee down the northward hillside. And if the Droid was part of an especially large group , she would've certainly heard them marching on her.. wouldn't she? And even though she'd have to flee eventually , she'd much rather not have the group firing at her while she ran. If it didn't attract other Droids , it very well could injure her.

With this in mind the Shadow ignited her Silver Lightsaber and darted into the fray , leaping over the hillside and into the middle of the Patrol - assuming whatever Droid was immediately behind the point-Droid hadn't already scaled the cliff , of course. She'd immediately ionize the first B2 , before slicing one of the B1's in half and another's neck in a swift pinwheel. She'd deflect their blaster fire as directly as she can back into their torsos , while throwing one of the three that would remain into a rock formation and pulling another forward , directly onto her waiting blade. This would leave only one of the B1's and one of the B2's , which she'd dispatch by pulling the B1's weapon to her , cutting it down and then slicing the B2 diagonally in half from the upper right shoulder down to the lower left torso connector.

 

[Proletariat]

The Lonely Five near Kala'uun

Reaver was steadily making his way to where he thought the STAP patrol should have been when they began chasing something, probably this Argent he was supposed to link up with, and took a moment to catch his breath and check his soundings; ensuring he kept enough of his focus on maintaining his Force Cloak as he starred to peek over the crest of a hill.

That was when the planet seemed to crack and explode above him. The shockwave sent him flat onto his face and chest, almost knocking him over the top of the hill. Coughing and blinking sand, dust and miscellaneous debris, he noticed there was a singular silence permeating everything. It slowly gave way to a high pitched tone. Knowing he was exposed, the human Shadow rolled back into the ravine, in time to see Starfighters scream, he guessed that's what it sounded like since he still couldn't hear anything properly, out of somewhere above him.

Once they stopped Reaver began clearing some of rubble and droid parts off of him but immediately laid back flat on his back as the speeder bikes shot over his hiding place. Forcing himself to wrap the Force Cloak around him once more, not wanting to be spotted by the obvious aggressor Twi'lek and blasted.

Cenhelm waited for a break in the chaos and flying death machines, Starfighter and speeder bike alike, before he began to move again. His hearing back to normal, or at least more then he had a few moments ago. With no clear idea what was going on he decided to continue in the direction he had been going, hoping to catch up with Argent and figure out what was going on. But if the chance presented itself for useful equipment, droid or speeder or blasters, to be acquired or if he was spotted somehow he had his pistol at the ready and so he moved off bending light and sound around him making his way along the same ridge line.

Reaver

The explosion and ensuing chaos stirred up a dense dust cloud around Kala'uun. A mixture of stone particles and sand in the air made vision difficult and breathing harsh. With every minute more dust expanded out of the mountain and the cloud spread out on the wind. Reaver's position was not yet overtaken by the looming dust, but he would be enveloped in it in a matter of minutes. As he skirted the ridge, the Shadow heard blaster fire, followed by the signature sound of a saber cutting through metal. His feet hurried towards the sound of conflict. He scrambled up a rocky slope on his hands and knees and dove to catch himself at the top, laying low in case there was something nasty waiting for him ahead. Just as he landed on the slope he saw a pale white figure standing against a steep incline, slicing through a B2 battle droid with ease. Around the figure were the corpses of other droids, still sparking and glowing with molten saber wounds. Surely this was Argent, the other Shadow he was supposed to link up with. The growing cloud to the West darkened the area around them as the sun became obscured from direct view. The area was immersed in perpetual twilight as it was, so the additional shadow made it impossible to discern specific features about the figure at this distance. All either would be able to tell was that each was a flesh and blood humanoid. Argent was pale , definitely female, and held a lightsaber in her hand. Reaver was rough looking and probably male. The smuggler picked himself up and brushed rocks off of his pant legs, his arms were raised with his palms facing Argent. He knew very well how jumpy some Shadows were, not the most trusting lot either. The last thing he needed was to spook her and get a saber to the gut for his trouble.

(Reaver posts first)
HK Fifty Grim Wraithe Stjerna

 

[Scavenger]

As Phantom attempted to project an image into the center of the field he felt the Force materialize an image just as he had imagined standing in the field. An hour passed with the image in the field and nothing changed, the droids walked right past it and even right through it in some cases. With his attempt failed, Phantom instead continued to observe the droids that passed by the ridge in the field ahead. Although they moved slowly and in search pattern, it became clear after half an hour that they were operating on a routine. They were patrolling in a search pattern with no specific goal in mind, so they probably weren't programmed to look for anything in particular. He then observed that there were several large patrol groups circling the plateau. New groups would follow in the footsteps of the old; either they would walk across the field and then down around the plateau, or they would turn short of the hillside and walk directly over the earthen wall across the field from Phantom.

Upon closer inspection of the ridge across from him, Phantom realized that it was entirely constructed and not natural at all. The roughly two meter tall wall of earth ran exactly the width of the entrance of the plateau, and then curved to fit the shape of the plateau. It was as if someone built it so that no one from the ground could see what was on the center of the flat. After one patrol group descended the hill or crossed over the ridge, it would be several minutes before another group reappeared in the field. After an hour had passed on the ridge, Phantom was again left with a choice on how to proceed.

After observing the droids movement for some time Phantom decided on the best way to proceed, to do anything he first needed to know what was beyond the wall, and what his contact was doing in an area with such high droid presence. He waited until the latest droid patrol had passes out of sight before sprinting up to the wall, he reached into the force to both give him more speed and to try and ease his aching muscles, although he wasn't profficient in force enhancement he still understood the basics. As soon as he reached the wall he reached further into the force and pulled, feeling it surround and cover him and begin to part him from the real world. When he reached the wall he began skidding to a stop, just before he stopped his head slipped through the wall as if it wasn't even there, once it passed through the other side he looked around, trying to take in all there was to see as quickly as possible.

 

[Proletariat]

After observing the droids movement for some time Phantom decided on the best way to proceed, to do anything he first needed to know what was beyond the wall, and what his contact was doing in an area with such high droid presence. He waited until the latest droid patrol had passes out of sight before sprinting up to the wall, he reached into the force to both give him more speed and to try and ease his aching muscles, although he wasn't profficient in force enhancement he still understood the basics. As soon as he reached the wall he reached further into the force and pulled, feeling it surround and cover him and begin to part him from the real world. When he reached the wall he began skidding to a stop, just before he stopped his head slipped through the wall as if it wasn't even there, once it passed through the other side he looked around, trying to take in all there was to see as quickly as possible.

Phantom

Phantom waited for his moment to move. He knew that leaving cover was a big risk, especially with so many damned clankers patrolling around the place. Whatever was behind the wall must have been of some importance. When the patrols changed and there were no droids in sight, the Shadow bolted for the earthen wall. Using Force Phase, he walked forward through the wall until half of his body vanished. His long wolf nose poked through the earth on the other side, followed by his predatory eyes.

What the shadow saw was a sort of Separatist outpost. Roughly 500 feet away from him, across an open field of arid dirt, there was a compound of grey metal buildings. In the center was a dome shaped building, what must have been the command post. To the left of that, connected by hallway, was an open garage with STAP's, mechanical tools, and some deactivated Droidekas. Slightly behind the command center on the opposite side was a large radar installation with a satellite dish on the top. The command complex sat at the bottom of a slow dip in the land. From the edge of the plateau to the center, the land sloped down towards the center so that none of the compound was visible from ground level around the plateau. In a square shape around the complex there were four circular guard towers at about fifteen feet tall. Atop each guard tower were three B-1 battle droids and a Battle Droid Assassin variant with a sniper rifle. Connecting the towers was a twelve foot tall energy fence that looked like it would incinerate anything that touched it. Phantom could clearly hear the loud humming of the energy field from here. At the center of the closest fence wall was a wide metal gate that was manned by one B-1 battle droid and a B-1 command variant.

Besides the complex he could see guards posted everywhere inside the fence facing outward in every direction. There was one patrol group passing another halfway to the compound, one group was on its way out, another group was on its way in. Phantom had a lot of confidence in his abilities as a Jedi Shadow, but he knew that there was no way he could possibly get into the compound undetected with that much open ground to cover and so many droids watching every possible entry point. To add insult to injury, four assassin droids and maybe half a dozen droidekas would make it nearly impossible to win open combat against the two dozen B-1's and B-2's in sight. There was no telling how many more droids would appear once the fighting started.

Phantom was certain that the center of the command compound was the exact coordinate he received from his handler when he arrived planet side. Suddenly, he felt a force presence that he did not recognize. There was a clear and strong force presence nearby that he never detected on his approach to the facility. As the droid patrol continued to approach Phantom, he felt the force presence grow even stronger, it was directing its energy at him. He could feel an unknown figure pulling at him through the Force. The figure began to send him simple ideas, images directly to his mind. Phantom saw himself walking through the earthen wall and then transforming into his human form, right past the damn droids! They didn't even notice him as he passed. When he approached the metal entrance, the gate slid open for him and he walked right by the threatening B-2's standing guard at the command post door. There was nothing after that, the images stopped, and Phantom's attention returned to the approaching droids, who were now within twenty feet of the wall. As of yet they had not noticed the wolf head sticking through the dirt, but they were bound to see him in a manner of seconds.

Was the force presence to be trusted, or was it just a trick by the Separatists?