Fandom Stranded on Ryloth

[Epiphany]

Planet Ryloth, City of Nabat

Sasha affected the typical behavior of what most corporate agents would do when confronted with a lengthy custom's inspection. In other words, she was on a datapad she'd been issued at the Crimson Crescent for this new assignment. She read through the various automated messages generated by the Corporate Alliance's HR division, as their records indicated she'd just transferred. Sasha made a particular point of reading up on the general files of the Corporate Alliance's munitions shipments to the Ryloth front. She hadn't had time to get someone to truly hack everything they had but her 'role' as a QA Project Manager meant there were available figures like quantity shipped, frequency of shipments as well as some high level utilization patterns which she dutifully studied. After all, she was theoretically here to look at munition utilization and find ways to save money.

In short, Sasha barely paid attention to TX-20 or its inspection request, looking very much like she had better things to do with her time.

It'd been a decade since she'd actually read anything about Ryloth and though the trip here had given her some time to refamiliarize herself with its geography, culture and so on, the Chiss woman took advantage of the opportunity to look out at the visible portion of Nabat. It was as war torn as any part of the front. Only years of training turned her reflexive grimace into rubbing a mote of ash out of her eye.

The loss of life was staggering. She could feel bitter tides in the Force from so much recent death. More bitterness lay ahead as she reached the staging ground and saw the starving Twi'lek civilians huddled around proton cannon positions. Utterly diabolical. And she could do nothing now. For a Jedi, this represented an intolerable situation but a Jedi Shadow learned that atypical, asymmetric tactics were often necessary to ensure the rights and liberty of the whole.

It took four seconds of concentration to swallow her need to make the Separatists regret this.

TX-20's inquiry was an almost welcome respite from the horrors before her. Sasha lifted one elegant eyebrow, finally dragging her apparent attention away from her data pad to look at the tactical droid. "Months?" she repeated back. "That may be...optimistic if these usage stats are to be believed. Still, I suppose with the destruction of the Republic garrison, you only have local insurgents to worry about now. This planet's safer to walk now than the Argente District on Murkhana!" she added with a dry chuckle. "Certainly the traffic's a distinct improvement."

"But you're not here to listen to tourist commentary, of course." Sasha reined in her humor and looked duly serious. "The Emir's wishes are entirely reasonable, especially in light of any remaining pacification you lot are carrying out. The Intruder leaves in a week and I plan to be onboard. Between you and me, I hope to have my work sorted in five days."

The Chiss eyed TX-20 speculatively. "Say, would you spot me a few of your B1s if you can spare them? I'm quite capable of looking after myself, especially given the enormous successes the Separatists have enjoyed this week, but I imagine there are local insurgents. Would make me feel a bit safer, pacified as this city is."

Having come this far, it was unlikely a droid of all things would suspect her of being a Jedi or a Republic spy. But no spy would ask for more droids that would get in the way of sneaking. Well...no ordinary spy anyway...

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

The Lonely Five near Kala’uun

Reaver shook his head as the droid not only continued to fly but then land. "Frang! This job is just getting too expensive." He watched as Argent charged straight at the Starfighter turned walker. "The alecake lives to play solider."

He began moving forward and to his right slightly as the Twi'leks just watched in their indecisive places. "Come on! Me and Jack can't scratch it alone!" He yelled at the huddled group as he drew his pistol taking aim at the location of the laser power cells in its forward right leg. He knew that this type of Starfighter did not have any deflector shields and lacked any sort of higher level tactical processing, which made it basically a glass canon, against other Starfighters.

His first shot missed due to dual explosions from the torpedoes detonating as they missed Argent. Now that it's back was to him he took aim again and concentrated at the mechanical neck strut, focusing on it enough so this time his use of Combustion would have a more drastic effect. Lining up his shot and firing when it started walking towards Argent. Whether the shot hit or not, the pull of the trigger was timed so half a second later the neck strut would explode, thereby removing the cranium from the body and completely disabling the droid.

 

[HK Fifty]

The Lonely Five


Argent didn’t expect the Vulture Droid to use one of it’s front claws to assault her with Ryloth’s crust , a tactic she hadn’t yet seen utilized by any of the Vultures she had come into contact with before. She managed to avoid the flying , earthen hazards well enough so that few of the largest pieces struck any vital parts of her. Nevertheless , a rather large stone still managed to connect with her temple , and with her already unbalanced from the torpedoes’ ground impact she couldn’t keep herself from falling onto her back. Thankfully , she was too close to the Droid to allow it to simply shoot her , though if it did she would’ve simply deflected it’s lasers back towards it.


The Shadow felt the towering Droid start to maneuver it’s forward right ‘leg’ to impale her and quickly rolled to left and sprung to her feet. She also heard thunderous cracks she scarcely recognized as the sounds of a Slugthrower being fired , and though she wasn’t sure who was firing such a weapon she could only assume they were trying to cover her. Should the shots fail to deter the Droid and it’s appendage come down beside her , as she assumed would happen , she’d cut it off and resume her strategy of cutting off all the Droid’s legs to cripple it before dealing the coup de grâce. If not , she would either dart to the closest leg and cut it off , or once again attempt to Ionize the Vulture’s Central Control Cluster. Regardless , with it being nearly directly above her it would be forced to back away from her position to use it’s blasters or torpedoes , which for the moment gave her the advantage.

 

[Scavenger]

Unknown Listening Post

"Phantom nervously scanned the droids as he was walking across to the listening post, as he walked he kept rotating his saber inside of his sleeve in nerves and to be prepared if anything happened, although he new that he would fall should these droids all turn against him. Phantom strained his ears but couldn't make out what the droids were saying. It was obviously good however because immediately after they finished speaking the gate rolled open. As he walked through and passed the super battle droids he reflected on the current situation, on one hand it is unlikely to be a trap as almost all droid commanders would prefer to kill a Jedi rather than to capture them and there had been no data on a dark sider being in the area, on the other hand he was currently walking into a situation with little to no information except for a message with the only origin determinable due to it's encryption codes. As he walked through the door into the command centre he let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief, even with the droids inside it felt better to be out from under the scrutinising gaze of both the assassin droids and the super battle droids.

Surveying the inside of the listening post it seemed very standard for a quick to assemble, or even prefabricated listening and command and control post, The large droid presence inside suggested that the contact, likely the shadow Ghoul, had re purposed these droids and the listening post rather than constructing it themselves, if this was even run by them. Phantom froze as the voice came over the intercom, quirking his head at the instructions, the circle itself looked like a lift and given the structure he had observed outside likely downwards. If this was a trap travelling down in a lift shaft would render him very confined for a period and offer a lack of movement once at the bottom. With this in mind he spoke, his voice was gravelly from the travelling and little water that he had consumed "I would be a lot more comfortable if you could provide proof of Identity before we continue" as he spoke he re-seated his pack and dropped one of his feet back into a light stance, just in case.

 

[Proletariat]

The Lonely Five Mountain Range

The Lonely Five near Kala’uun

Reaver shook his head as the droid not only continued to fly but then land. "Frang! This job is just getting too expensive." He watched as Argent charged straight at the Starfighter turned walker. "The alecake lives to play solider."

He began moving forward and to his right slightly as the Twi'leks just watched in their indecisive places. "Come on! Me and Jack can't scratch it alone!" He yelled at the huddled group as he drew his pistol taking aim at the location of the laser power cells in its forward right leg. He knew that this type of Starfighter did not have any deflector shields and lacked any sort of higher level tactical processing, which made it basically a glass canon, against other Starfighters.

His first shot missed due to dual explosions from the torpedoes detonating as they missed Argent. Now that it's back was to him he took aim again and concentrated at the mechanical neck strut, focusing on it enough so this time his use of Combustion would have a more drastic effect. Lining up his shot and firing when it started walking towards Argent. Whether the shot hit or not, the pull of the trigger was timed so half a second later the neck strut would explode, thereby removing the cranium from the body and completely disabling the droid.

The Lonely Five


Argent didn’t expect the Vulture Droid to use one of it’s front claws to assault her with Ryloth’s crust , a tactic she hadn’t yet seen utilized by any of the Vultures she had come into contact with before. She managed to avoid the flying , earthen hazards well enough so that few of the largest pieces struck any vital parts of her. Nevertheless , a rather large stone still managed to connect with her temple , and with her already unbalanced from the torpedoes’ ground impact she couldn’t keep herself from falling onto her back. Thankfully , she was too close to the Droid to allow it to simply shoot her , though if it did she would’ve simply deflected it’s lasers back towards it.


The Shadow felt the towering Droid start to maneuver it’s forward right ‘leg’ to impale her and quickly rolled to left and sprung to her feet. She also heard thunderous cracks she scarcely recognized as the sounds of a Slugthrower being fired , and though she wasn’t sure who was firing such a weapon she could only assume they were trying to cover her. Should the shots fail to deter the Droid and it’s appendage come down beside her , as she assumed would happen , she’d cut it off and resume her strategy of cutting off all the Droid’s legs to cripple it before dealing the coup de grâce. If not , she would either dart to the closest leg and cut it off , or once again attempt to Ionize the Vulture’s Central Control Cluster. Regardless , with it being nearly directly above her it would be forced to back away from her position to use it’s blasters or torpedoes , which for the moment gave her the advantage.

The vulture droid attempted to crush Argent by burying its leg claw into her torso. At the last second the shadow rolled out of harms way, but only for a moment. The droid shifted its back legs and prepared to try again with its other front claw. As it raised its leg to deal the finishing blow, a loud explosion crackled to life just under its "head." Although from a distance it looked like a blink of flame that vanished in an instant, the shock wave was enough to damage the neck strut that attached the droid's vital brain components to the rest of its body. The explosion was not enough to separate the droid's head from its body, but it did crush the strut and internal wiring that carried signals to the body. The vulture's head crooked forward in an unnatural pose and its red visual sensor ports flickered for a moment. Without commands coming from the brain, the droid's body lost power and stabilization. Instead of extending its leg claw to crush Argent, the entire vulture droid leaned forward slowly to begin its descent onto the ground-and Argent. The droid's brain was still intact, but it was rendered helpless to stare down at the Jedi as its body collapsed.

Planet Ryloth, City of Nabat

Planet Ryloth, City of Nabat

Sasha affected the typical behavior of what most corporate agents would do when confronted with a lengthy custom's inspection. In other words, she was on a datapad she'd been issued at the Crimson Crescent for this new assignment. She read through the various automated messages generated by the Corporate Alliance's HR division, as their records indicated she'd just transferred. Sasha made a particular point of reading up on the general files of the Corporate Alliance's munitions shipments to the Ryloth front. She hadn't had time to get someone to truly hack everything they had but her 'role' as a QA Project Manager meant there were available figures like quantity shipped, frequency of shipments as well as some high level utilization patterns which she dutifully studied. After all, she was theoretically here to look at munition utilization and find ways to save money.

In short, Sasha barely paid attention to TX-20 or its inspection request, looking very much like she had better things to do with her time.

It'd been a decade since she'd actually read anything about Ryloth and though the trip here had given her some time to refamiliarize herself with its geography, culture and so on, the Chiss woman took advantage of the opportunity to look out at the visible portion of Nabat. It was as war torn as any part of the front. Only years of training turned her reflexive grimace into rubbing a mote of ash out of her eye.

The loss of life was staggering. She could feel bitter tides in the Force from so much recent death. More bitterness lay ahead as she reached the staging ground and saw the starving Twi'lek civilians huddled around proton cannon positions. Utterly diabolical. And she could do nothing now. For a Jedi, this represented an intolerable situation but a Jedi Shadow learned that atypical, asymmetric tactics were often necessary to ensure the rights and liberty of the whole.

It took four seconds of concentration to swallow her need to make the Separatists regret this.

TX-20's inquiry was an almost welcome respite from the horrors before her. Sasha lifted one elegant eyebrow, finally dragging her apparent attention away from her data pad to look at the tactical droid. "Months?" she repeated back. "That may be...optimistic if these usage stats are to be believed. Still, I suppose with the destruction of the Republic garrison, you only have local insurgents to worry about now. This planet's safer to walk now than the Argente District on Murkhana!" she added with a dry chuckle. "Certainly the traffic's a distinct improvement."

"But you're not here to listen to tourist commentary, of course." Sasha reined in her humor and looked duly serious. "The Emir's wishes are entirely reasonable, especially in light of any remaining pacification you lot are carrying out. The Intruder leaves in a week and I plan to be onboard. Between you and me, I hope to have my work sorted in five days."

The Chiss eyed TX-20 speculatively. "Say, would you spot me a few of your B1s if you can spare them? I'm quite capable of looking after myself, especially given the enormous successes the Separatists have enjoyed this week, but I imagine there are local insurgents. Would make me feel a bit safer, pacified as this city is."

Having come this far, it was unlikely a droid of all things would suspect her of being a Jedi or a Republic spy. But no spy would ask for more droids that would get in the way of sneaking. Well...no ordinary spy anyway...

TX-20 blankly stared at Sasha as she spoke. It wasn't clear whether or not he was listening and after she finished speaking there was a delay before he responded. "Five days." He repeated. "That is... satisfactory. As for your request, I will have to decline. If you were concerned about your safety you should have spoken to your employers about it. It is not my responsibility to risk droids for your sake. There is an insurgent presence still on Ryloth, but it is pathetic and crumbling. Within days the Emir believes they will be eradicated. The threat to your safety is minimal, especially if you stay within Separatist held cities and bases."

Sasha, not completely satisfied with what the tactical droid was telling her, looked past him as he was speaking. Behind him and above the fortifications, up on the plateau, is where the slums began. It was incredibly far away and it was uncertain what she saw, but Sasha could have sworn that she spotted a small face in the first floor of a crumbling adobe building overlooking the area. It grabbed her attention for only a couple of seconds before it disappeared and the droid's monotonous voice filled her ears once more.

"If there is nothing else I must be going, there are still countless preparations to be made, calculations to be done." The droid said before turning to walk back to its command center. It did not seem particularly interested in helping Sasha out at all.

Ghoul's FOB

Unknown Listening Post

"Phantom nervously scanned the droids as he was walking across to the listening post, as he walked he kept rotating his saber inside of his sleeve in nerves and to be prepared if anything happened, although he new that he would fall should these droids all turn against him. Phantom strained his ears but couldn't make out what the droids were saying. It was obviously good however because immediately after they finished speaking the gate rolled open. As he walked through and passed the super battle droids he reflected on the current situation, on one hand it is unlikely to be a trap as almost all droid commanders would prefer to kill a Jedi rather than to capture them and there had been no data on a dark sider being in the area, on the other hand he was currently walking into a situation with little to no information except for a message with the only origin determinable due to it's encryption codes. As he walked through the door into the command centre he let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief, even with the droids inside it felt better to be out from under the scrutinising gaze of both the assassin droids and the super battle droids.

Surveying the inside of the listening post it seemed very standard for a quick to assemble, or even prefabricated listening and command and control post, The large droid presence inside suggested that the contact, likely the shadow Ghoul, had re purposed these droids and the listening post rather than constructing it themselves, if this was even run by them. Phantom froze as the voice came over the intercom, quirking his head at the instructions, the circle itself looked like a lift and given the structure he had observed outside likely downwards. If this was a trap travelling down in a lift shaft would render him very confined for a period and offer a lack of movement once at the bottom. With this in mind he spoke, his voice was gravelly from the travelling and little water that he had consumed "I would be a lot more comfortable if you could provide proof of Identity before we continue" as he spoke he re-seated his pack and dropped one of his feet back into a light stance, just in case.

A tall, lanky looking humanoid stood in a near pitch dark room that was only illuminated by the light of the massive glowing green monitors arrayed in three panels in front of him. It looked as if he was half enclosed by the monitors. Each of them were data feeds, raw numbers flying across the screen at a pace that no one could read or make sense of except for a droid. Next to him was a worn looking white R2 droid with red trim. Its computer spike was connected to the terminal that was displaying the numbers to the humanoid. He was dressed in hooded dark grey robes that hovered just above the concrete surface of the room, with the hood pulled over his head. The humanoid wore a strange, robotic looking mask that covered his entire face and the top of his skull. The mask was so well fitted to his face that it appeared that he might just have an entirely mechanical head. The humanoid was named Ghoul, the Jedi Shadow leading Order activity on Ryloth.

Ghoul let out a sigh. The sigh, like all vocal noises he made, filtered through the mask's voice changer to make himself sound like a radio host from the distant past. His voice was already deep and strange, so the filter just made him sound even more terrifying and mysterious. With the touch of a button one display turned into a video feed from the floor above. He could see his command center and his droids working diligently. The only abnormality was a single organic standing near the entrance. Ghoul turned his head to look back over his shoulder at the only Jedi Shadow to have already reached him.

"Chors." Ghoul called in his raspy, electronic voice. "Get on the elevator, greet our guest. He is paranoid, get him down here before the droids figure out what is going on." With that command he turned back to his monitors, one of them still fixed to the video feed of the command center.

boo.

 

[HK Fifty]

The Lonely Five

Argent heard the machine’s steel leg clang down beside her , however the sound of steel striking rock was quickly outstripped by a loud explosion , almost like some sort of missile or bomb going off. Being as close to it as she was it was fortunate the noise didn’t damage her hearing , which might have had something to do with the Vulture’s body being directly above her , perhaps insulating her from the noise. In any case , she wasn’t quite sure what had happened until the massive machine started to topple over. ‘That must’ve disconnected it’s control circuits somehow.’

The Shadow unfortunately wasn’t given much time to think of who had done it , as , being directly underneath it , she was liable to be crushed if she didn’t move quickly. She sprang to her feet and leapt to the left - that being the side she was closest to - hopefully missing it’s body and wing struts. Should she avoid being crushed she’d quickly notice the explosion had crushed it’s throat and choose to stab her lightsaber deep into it’s computer brain , putting the helpless Droid out of it’s misery. ‘Reaver must’ve done this , using some form of Combustion - that’s the only Force ability that would’ve produced such a loud explosion , and any kinds of grenades worth carrying would’ve simply blown it’s head off , or failed to work entirely.’

 

[boo.]

Chors was surprised that Ghoul even spoke at all, but he nodded as he looked through the cams himself. Outside was a young-looking man waiting awkwardly outside the basement lift. Not a good idea, seeing as there were Separatist droids right there. No matter what Ghoul had done, he didn't trust them in the slightest. It would be best to get whoever that was out of there as quickly as possible to avoid enemy contact, which that man didn't quite seem to grasp.

Taking off the brownish-black cloak he was accustomed to wearing, Chors made sure his lightsaber was safely on his belt and made his way out of the chamber he had set up camp in. Turning down several hallways, he found himself facing the small service elevator that would take him up to meet what he assumed was a human. He pressed a button and waited for a few moments as the lift slowly crept upwards, slowly rising to meet the young man. He was silent as his eyes razed him, his dark eyes trying to gather all he could about him.

Finally, he opened his mouth, saying, "If you don't mind, we have business to get to. Ghoul is downstairs waiting."

Scavenger ​

 

[Scavenger]

Ghoul's FOB

Phantom was scanning around the room, trying to keep an eye on the droids when a soft hiss indicated that the door into the elevator shaft was opening, immediately his eyes snapped to the figure that slowly emerged from the shaft. The sight of a blue Nautolan caused him to halt the progress of his saber out of his sleeve and into his hand. When the elevator finished ascending the sight of the lightsaber had him immediately wracking his memory for any dark side adepts that matched this description but none came to mind, at this Phantom lightly probed the force and could only detect a light-side presence coming from in front of him. Coming to the conclusion that the light-side presence, knowledge of his contact and lightsaber likely marked him out as a Shadow, Phantom stopped staring into space slightly and locked back on to the Nautolan in front and responded a few seconds after he had spoken. "Very well, Let's proceed" As he responded Phantom walked onto the elevator pad, provided there was room for two.
boo.

 

[Epiphany]

Planet Ryloth, City of Nabat

When the droid declined her request, Sasha gave herself a briefly pouting look before smoothing it over with a professional expression. "Right. No harm asking. I'll just, er, carry on then. Good luck! I'll be back in-" The Chiss woman spoke with ever greater volume at the departing droid's back before finally letting it fall away, as if she realized no one was listening. Leaving her alone on the platform, alone on Ryloth, without a droid escort.

Just As Planned.

Overconfidence was a failing that had led many Jedi to the Dark Side, though. Sasha checked her own pride in having gotten this far, shuffling it aside as she turned her attention to the much greater challenge; finding Ghoul.

That brief glimpse of a face up in the slums was promising. In part because local intel could be useful. In part because she needed to trigger her encoded Shadow comlink to try getting Ghoul's coordinates, and doing so in the middle of the slums would nicely complicate any Separatist attempt to find her, should they notice the signal at all. Which they probably would. Overconfidence again, always a danger for a Jedi, and the better the Jedi, the greater the danger. She had to assume they'd notice the signal. The problem would be ensuring the newly arrived Corporate Alliance Lieutenant wasn't their first suspect. Meaning she had to make sure she wasn't the closest person to it when it transmitted.

Sasha made her way down to the speeder yard to check out a local transport craft so she could follow her intended route. She hopped into her vehicle once assigned and did her own inspection, taking the opportunity to familiarize herself with its controls. In reality, she produced her encoded comlink and programmed in a broadcasting history, complete with schedule. With any luck, if the Separatists found it, the comlink would now look like someone planted it and set it to broadcast a signal periodically...suggesting it'd been planted a while ago.

At which point, Sasha hopped out of her speeder and turned in her paperwork...and with a bit of sleight of hand and perhaps a little nudge of the Force, she planted the encoded comlink on one of the Separtist's transports as it passed by.

The Chiss woman climbed back into her speeder and took the long way to Nabat's exit, passing by the slums in hopes of getting a closer look at that building and its mysterious face. About five minutes after she planted it on that passing transport, the encoded comlink would fire off a brief burst on one of the Jedi Shadow coded channels, indicating her local coordinates. No identification, no extra detail, nothing that the Separatists could use to risk her or Ghoul. The only Jedi Shadows on Ryloth (that she knew of) were here for the same reason she was.

Sasha still had her Corporate Alliance comlink, having already had the trip here to subvert the low-end operating system. With it set to scan for the specific encoded frequency her Shadow comlink was set to broadcast on, she'd instantly pick up any reply from Ghoul or another Shadow. Worst case scenario, she could probably repurpose her Corporate Alliance comlink into a new encoded comlink but, the Force willing, it wouldn't come to that.

And while she waited for her message to broadcast and for Ghoul's response, time to see what that small face was up to.

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

The Lonely Five near Kala’uun​

Reaver blinked several times after the explosion, looking at his pistol. Surprised his use of Combustion had not done more damage but glad the droid was no longer an immediate threat. Then looking to the Twi'lek resistance, smiled and shrugged in an "That was supposed to happen manner."

An immediate threat to him and the Twi'leks at least, as it slowly toppled over onto where Argent was, he resisted urge to reach out with the Force openly to ensure his fellow Shadow did not become one with the Force today. But given how she had handled things so far he was very confident she would not become a meat smear.

If Argent does, or does not, strike at the cranial unit, Reaver moves towards the downed droid looking for some usable repulsor and propulsion tech or a transmitter. That way he would be able to either use that tech to make a transport or signal for a couple of STAP's to clean up the area.

 

[Proletariat]

The Lonely Five

The Lonely Five

Argent heard the machine’s steel leg clang down beside her , however the sound of steel striking rock was quickly outstripped by a loud explosion , almost like some sort of missile or bomb going off. Being as close to it as she was it was fortunate the noise didn’t damage her hearing , which might have had something to do with the Vulture’s body being directly above her , perhaps insulating her from the noise. In any case , she wasn’t quite sure what had happened until the massive machine started to topple over. ‘That must’ve disconnected it’s control circuits somehow.’

The Shadow unfortunately wasn’t given much time to think of who had done it , as , being directly underneath it , she was liable to be crushed if she didn’t move quickly. She sprang to her feet and leapt to the left - that being the side she was closest to - hopefully missing it’s body and wing struts. Should she avoid being crushed she’d quickly notice the explosion had crushed it’s throat and choose to stab her lightsaber deep into it’s computer brain , putting the helpless Droid out of it’s misery. ‘Reaver must’ve done this , using some form of Combustion - that’s the only Force ability that would’ve produced such a loud explosion , and any kinds of grenades worth carrying would’ve simply blown it’s head off , or failed to work entirely.’

The Lonely Five near Kala’uun​

Reaver blinked several times after the explosion, looking at his pistol. Surprised his use of Combustion had not done more damage but glad the droid was no longer an immediate threat. Then looking to the Twi'lek resistance, smiled and shrugged in an "That was supposed to happen manner."

An immediate threat to him and the Twi'leks at least, as it slowly toppled over onto where Argent was, he resisted urge to reach out with the Force openly to ensure his fellow Shadow did not become one with the Force today. But given how she had handled things so far he was very confident she would not become a meat smear.

If Argent does, or does not, strike at the cranial unit, Reaver moves towards the downed droid looking for some usable repulsor and propulsion tech or a transmitter. That way he would be able to either use that tech to make a transport or signal for a couple of STAP's to clean up the area.

Argent managed to avoid becoming a red stain on the sand just in time. The colossal vulture droid's body planted hard into the ground and the front of its body immediately sank into the loose dry soil. Its head was stuck as well, forced to rest on the ground and permanently stare ahead as it held no control over its body, despite sending constant signals from its brain. Argent made sure to quickly climb on top of its large "skull" and sink her light saber into its brain. The droid's visual ports flickered one last time before it completely shut down due to extensive damage to its brain.

Next to Reaver the Twi'leks had all stopped speaking to stare at Argent stabbing her lightsaber into the droid. The next word that came out of their leader's mouth was in basic and easy to understand, "Jedi." Once Reaver made his way to the Vulture, the Twi'leks started up again in their own language, but their leader used a firm tone and they all quieted down for a moment. The leader jogged after Reaver while his men started sprinting alongside the mountain away from the entrance of Kala'uun.

The tall Twi'lek leader had dark purple and splotchy blue coloration to his face and arms. He wore a ragged looking rag shirt with a rag headband and rag pants. He looked like he had seen better days. His lips were cracked and his teeth had sand in them. He ran up next to Reaver and said, "You and the jedi need to come with us, we have no time standing out here in the open. More droids will come, so many that not even a Jedi can beat them. You follow us, we can sneak into Kala'uun and help you, but we won't wait around. I am Setu. People will trust you if you're with me." Without sticking around for a reply Setu nodded and took off after his men. For the moment there was nothing else around except for the gritty wind.

Planet Ryloth, City of Nabat

When the droid declined her request, Sasha gave herself a briefly pouting look before smoothing it over with a professional expression. "Right. No harm asking. I'll just, er, carry on then. Good luck! I'll be back in-" The Chiss woman spoke with ever greater volume at the departing droid's back before finally letting it fall away, as if she realized no one was listening. Leaving her alone on the platform, alone on Ryloth, without a droid escort.

Just As Planned.

Overconfidence was a failing that had led many Jedi to the Dark Side, though. Sasha checked her own pride in having gotten this far, shuffling it aside as she turned her attention to the much greater challenge; finding Ghoul.

That brief glimpse of a face up in the slums was promising. In part because local intel could be useful. In part because she needed to trigger her encoded Shadow comlink to try getting Ghoul's coordinates, and doing so in the middle of the slums would nicely complicate any Separatist attempt to find her, should they notice the signal at all. Which they probably would. Overconfidence again, always a danger for a Jedi, and the better the Jedi, the greater the danger. She had to assume they'd notice the signal. The problem would be ensuring the newly arrived Corporate Alliance Lieutenant wasn't their first suspect. Meaning she had to make sure she wasn't the closest person to it when it transmitted.

Sasha made her way down to the speeder yard to check out a local transport craft so she could follow her intended route. She hopped into her vehicle once assigned and did her own inspection, taking the opportunity to familiarize herself with its controls. In reality, she produced her encoded comlink and programmed in a broadcasting history, complete with schedule. With any luck, if the Separatists found it, the comlink would now look like someone planted it and set it to broadcast a signal periodically...suggesting it'd been planted a while ago.

At which point, Sasha hopped out of her speeder and turned in her paperwork...and with a bit of sleight of hand and perhaps a little nudge of the Force, she planted the encoded comlink on one of the Separtist's transports as it passed by.

The Chiss woman climbed back into her speeder and took the long way to Nabat's exit, passing by the slums in hopes of getting a closer look at that building and its mysterious face. About five minutes after she planted it on that passing transport, the encoded comlink would fire off a brief burst on one of the Jedi Shadow coded channels, indicating her local coordinates. No identification, no extra detail, nothing that the Separatists could use to risk her or Ghoul. The only Jedi Shadows on Ryloth (that she knew of) were here for the same reason she was.

Sasha still had her Corporate Alliance comlink, having already had the trip here to subvert the low-end operating system. With it set to scan for the specific encoded frequency her Shadow comlink was set to broadcast on, she'd instantly pick up any reply from Ghoul or another Shadow. Worst case scenario, she could probably repurpose her Corporate Alliance comlink into a new encoded comlink but, the Force willing, it wouldn't come to that.

And while she waited for her message to broadcast and for Ghoul's response, time to see what that small face was up to.

Sasha succeeded in planting a comlink on a passing Separatist transport without being noticed. She then mounted a land speeder and pulled it up to the Separatist checkpoint that led out of Nabat. At the time there was no other vehicle passing in or out, so she drove right up to the B-1 outside of the outpost guarding the narrow pass into Nabat's landing pad and defense area. "Identification," demanded the droid. Sasha pulled out her ID badge and the droid scanned it. Once he was satisfied with the beeping that came out of his scanner he nodded and the gate opened for her. The droid gave her a parting message, "Stay close to the city to minimize your risk of death."

The disguised Shadow drove up and around the plateau formation which proved to be a wider and longer journey than she imagined. After three or four minutes of driving near full speed she pulled up to one of the mountain passes that led into the slums. Sasha dismounted her speeder bike and turned it off, then headed into the slums. It was an eerie and ominous place that felt like death and sadness. Belongings were scattered all over the street and the building showed signs of conflict, but she could see no bodies lying around. There were no people anywhere that she wandered to either, it was like the entire population of the slums vanished. She could tell that the people being used as shields for the proton cannons were only a fraction of the population of this place, which worried her greatly. Occasionally she had to duck into a hovel to avoid small droid patrols that walked the area diligently. She noted that there was no way for even a company of soldiers to squeeze through the narrow winding streets, but a squad of commandos could easily slip by undetected. Being inside the pitiful homes made her feel even worse. For inside there were sometimes photographs, or the outline of a Twi'lek burnt into the wall.

Eventually Sasha walked around a building down a tight street when she saw movement all the way at the T intersection at the end. She swore that she saw something small blur behind the left-hand corner. She tried to sneak down the street and stick close to the buildings in order to be undetected by whatever made the movement. Above her the rocky cliffs met and showed no trace of the sky, the whole slums was like that, with entire neighborhoods entirely under the shelter of the mountain. As she turned the corner to the left the Shadow immediately came upon a circular open area, it was a cul-de-sac of two story stone homes that looked to be in only slightly better shape than the other she had seen. There were many dark, empty window staring down at her, but nothing living that she could see.

 

[Epiphany]

Planet Ryloth, The Slums of Nabat

With her remaining comlink still keyed to her encoded comlink, waiting for Ghoul's response, Sasha finally had a little freedom.

She strode through the slums, on foot now, just the way she liked it. Playing a Corporate Alliance Lieutenant was entertaining enough but even a Jedi could take a reserved measure of pride in using their training. Stealth and infiltration often took a backseat compared to her disguise and playacting abilities, and she enjoyed turning them loose once again.

It was the only pleasure to be found here. The emptiness of the hovels, the absence of their people, the signs of death and heartbreak wore on Sasha's spirit. Spotting a trace of movement was a relief despite the risk, for it gave her something else to think about. Sasha moved with the practiced stride of a Jedi Shadow, her footfalls making no noise on the dusty streets as she reached the end of the street to inspect beyond the intersection.

The absence of a culprit and the multitude of potential hiding places momentarily set her back. So Sasha bent her head, closed her crimson eyes and reached out through the Force. Her senses expanded, taking in the slightest change in air currents, the faint stirrings of life from native insects and scavengers and especially searching for anything larger. Perhaps she'd feel the heated emotions of something living, as all living things were part of the Force. Perhaps she'd overhear a conversation out of reach of ordinary hearing.

Or perhaps she'd turn up nothing and need to move forward. Sasha pushed her expectations aside, emptied her mind and felt only the Living Force before moving silently down the street to start searching homes.

 

[boo.]

Chors nodded to the young man and waited until he had boarded the lift. Once he was, he pressed a button on the wall, which closed the doors and gave the whole chamber a shudder, a sign that they had begun to move downward. As the painfully slow descent continued, Chors turned his gaze to the man again, as if unable to know what to think of him. But he trusted Ghoul at least somewhat, even if he did think he was a bit out there. He trusted the Jedi Council even more, however, and if they thought Ghoul would pick the right people for the job, then so be it.

The doors finally opened, and Chors motioned for the man to follow him as he led him down hall after hall, finally coming to the chamber where Ghoul was. Ah, the old geezer was still at it with the code. What exactly did it mean? Chors was no expert on that, for it just looked like gibberish to him. He was more of the person that would execute commands in the best way possible, not give them.

"Perhaps you'd better talk to him yourself." Chors made a motion toward Ghoul, not wanting to talk to him himself. "I'm Chors, by the way. I assume we'll be working together.

Scavenger ​

 

[Scavenger]

Phantom felt the nautolan's gaze on him but bore it stoicly, he really wanted to either shift his form into one that actually fit this outfit or to get back into his armour, staying like this was uncomfortable. He continued to follow them down the long underground passages, noting the route taken and slightly suprised that they had managed to set up such a base before concluding that it must have, at least partially, been built by the separatists who built the listening post above.

When they arrived into a room at the end Phantom immediately noted the masked figure sitting looking at a computer screen, He spent a moment watching the code scroll past but none of it made sense even comparing it to other security and droid codes he had scene it was either completely different or in a form that he couldn't recognise. Phantom heard his escort introduce himself but he stepped forward, his mindset dictating to greet the most senior person first and incidentally it would also introduce him to the escort. After stepping forward Phantom would bow "Greetings Operative Ghoul, I am Operative Phantom, it is an honour to work under such an expert"

boo. Proletariat

 

[Proletariat]

The Slums of Nabat

Planet Ryloth, The Slums of Nabat

With her remaining comlink still keyed to her encoded comlink, waiting for Ghoul's response, Sasha finally had a little freedom.

She strode through the slums, on foot now, just the way she liked it. Playing a Corporate Alliance Lieutenant was entertaining enough but even a Jedi could take a reserved measure of pride in using their training. Stealth and infiltration often took a backseat compared to her disguise and playacting abilities, and she enjoyed turning them loose once again.

It was the only pleasure to be found here. The emptiness of the hovels, the absence of their people, the signs of death and heartbreak wore on Sasha's spirit. Spotting a trace of movement was a relief despite the risk, for it gave her something else to think about. Sasha moved with the practiced stride of a Jedi Shadow, her footfalls making no noise on the dusty streets as she reached the end of the street to inspect beyond the intersection.

The absence of a culprit and the multitude of potential hiding places momentarily set her back. So Sasha bent her head, closed her crimson eyes and reached out through the Force. Her senses expanded, taking in the slightest change in air currents, the faint stirrings of life from native insects and scavengers and especially searching for anything larger. Perhaps she'd feel the heated emotions of something living, as all living things were part of the Force. Perhaps she'd overhear a conversation out of reach of ordinary hearing.

Or perhaps she'd turn up nothing and need to move forward. Sasha pushed her expectations aside, emptied her mind and felt only the Living Force before moving silently down the street to start searching homes.

Sasha reached out with her mind in order to attempt to detect any living beings nearby. At first, the feedback from Nabat was overwhelming and difficult to deal with. Every person that died in the slums in fear and horror left behind a scar in the Force. Their feelings of agony lingered in their old dwellings, like ghosts from the past. Amid the dense fog of pain and anguish, Sasha saw a light. It was a small candle, a flicker of hope cocooned inside of the fear leftover. A fragile being, she detected through the force. Something sentient and alive. It was to her three o' clock in a two story adobe building with two windows on either side of the front door and three windows on the second floor facing the coul-de-sac.

The Shadow withdrew herself from the living Force with relief. Normally connecting to the Force was a source of peace and tranquility, but it felt like quite the opposite in a place such as this. Cautiously she crept across the dusty road towards the building. Being duly wary, Sasha peeked in through the window and saw nothing but empty darkness. Feeling like there was no immediate alternative, the Chiss slinked through the doorway into the first floor. It was little more than a looted out hut with scrap strewn across the dirt floor. It appeared that the Separatists took any metal that wasn't rusted beyond repair. Not seeing anywhere for someone to hide, Sasha began to walk up the crumbling stairs. All was silent in the dim hut as she rose to the second floor. She immediately spied a crude looking bunk bed on the far side of the room with a little sack doll lying on it. Sasha felt compelled to approach the bed and did so. Before she could reach down to touch the brown colored doll with button eyes, she was surprised by a high pitched yell.

"Hyaaaaaaagh!" A tiny battle cry came from behind Sasha. She turned around just in time to be struck on the thigh by a short wooden stick. She looked down to see a three foot tall Twi'lek girl grimacing at her. The girl was light blue with white freckles across her nose. She was dressed in ragged clothing and her face was covered in soot. As the child reared back for another blow, the Chiss caught the stick and took it from her hands. Without her stick, the child resorted to flailing her fists wildly at Sasha with little effect, as Sasha could hold her at arm length. Once she wore herself out, the kid began squirming and trying to wriggle out of Sasha's grasp, but that too died down into wild sobbing.

 

[Proletariat]

Ghoul's FOB, Day 2, 10:00

Phantom felt the nautolan's gaze on him but bore it stoicly, he really wanted to either shift his form into one that actually fit this outfit or to get back into his armour, staying like this was uncomfortable. He continued to follow them down the long underground passages, noting the route taken and slightly suprised that they had managed to set up such a base before concluding that it must have, at least partially, been built by the separatists who built the listening post above.

When they arrived into a room at the end Phantom immediately noted the masked figure sitting looking at a computer screen, He spent a moment watching the code scroll past but none of it made sense even comparing it to other security and droid codes he had scene it was either completely different or in a form that he couldn't recognise. Phantom heard his escort introduce himself but he stepped forward, his mindset dictating to greet the most senior person first and incidentally it would also introduce him to the escort. After stepping forward Phantom would bow "Greetings Operative Ghoul, I am Operative Phantom, it is an honour to work under such an expert"

boo. Proletariat

Ghoul never reacted to the sound of two figures approached from behind. The completely concrete halls of the basement caused every little whisper to echo all the way to the dead end where he stood. On the walls were shelves of random droid parts. Throughout the halls there stood deactivated droids that either needed repair or suffered some severe malfunction. In the dim lighting of the basement they looked kind of creepy just standing there at attention. Ghoul said, "Wait a minute, run that back again R2." The numbers on the screen seemed to go in reverse for a second before returning to their horizontal streaming. Ghoul made a fist with his gloved hand and the leathery material squeezed against itself. "This is a real bag of Bantha shit..." He muttered to himself.

Ghoul shoved himself off of the desk and turned to face the new member of his "crew." His breathing could be barely heard as his mask's microphone picked it up and translated it into electronic scramble. "Let's get things straight right away, cut out that formal flattery shit, we use code names only here, no sir, or lord, or your highness, or whatever the hell else you might feel like calling me; I guarantee you that you won't be thinking those things by the time we are on this wasteland shithole of a planet-if any of us survive," Ghoul said abrasively.

He cracked each one of his finger' knuckles one at a time before continuing in a marginally lighter tone, "Now that that's square, here is the situation we are in. We shadows find ourselves waist deep in sand and the droids are lining up with buckets filled with the stuff. About five different problems require our immediate attention and we still have two Shadows out in the middle of nowhere and one undercover in Nabat, whom I have received no contact from as of yet... So that's the status update here from our sunny little corner of Ryloth, I hope you brought a change of clothes because you are going to be here for awhile..." Something on Ghoul's terminal behind him beeped and his R2 unit made a whistling noise. "Well at least she has the courtesy to call.." mumbled Ghoul before returning to the terminal.

@Handaboo Scavenger

 

[Scavenger]

Phantom straitened up after saying his greeting and continued to look around the room in silence while Ghoul didn't react . When Ghoul suddenly spoke, addressing his R2 unit phantom's eyes snapped back to face him arms hanging loose at his sides. The electronic scramble underlying Ghouls voice made it uncomfortable for Phantom to listen to but he continued to be attentive, nodding as Ghoul informed him to ditch the formality for a more practical form. He started more formally because he knew that some shadows preferred it as it made them feel closer to the order.

As soon a Ghoul finished briefing them on the current situation Phantom swung his equipment bag off his back and pulled out a simple belt to cinch the long tunic that he as wearing, once it was around his waist he dropped one of his sabers into his hand while digging through the bag for the other and attaching both to his belt. "So we attempt to bring in the remaining shadows then get to work? What's your plan for that?".
Proletariat

 

[Epiphany]

The Slums of Nabat

It was never a mistake to reach out through the Force, to feel the living soul of a world and its people. Cutting oneself off from the Force, from those connected through it, meant cutting off a part of oneself. It led to indifference, forced perspective and eventually cruelty. But avoiding that sometimes meant accepting pain. And listening to Nabat's soul meant acknowledging and experiencing its pain.

Listening is what led her to the small Twi'lek girl. Searching the place made her somewhat self-conscious, in part because her uniform identified her with the enemy, in part because she'd have to scramble to have a good explanation for what a Lieutenant was doing here if detected by the Separatists. The cry of the girl, her attack and subsequent reaction told Sasha the consequences of that choice.

So she simply held the child as the little girl sobbed. Sasha lacked the lekku to really speak Ryu but words would have to do. "Shhhh, numa, I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe now. Shhhh, you're safe, numa. Safe." The Jedi Shadow repeated those words softly, endlessly, holding the Twi'lek until the storm had passed. Such a strong emotional reaction, the result of so much fear pent up for so long with no release. Letting the child fight and sob released those unbalancing tensions and would lead to calmer conversation, given time.

Still no reply to her encoded signal. Sasha frowned to herself, child held against her shoulder, and contemplated the need to eventually follow the truck she'd planted her comlink on. It would try another broadcast in a day. Maybe the other Jedi Shadow was out of range?

In the meantime...

"Call me Sasha," she said at last, once the Twi'lek looked calm enough (or just exhausted enough) to listen. "I'm here to help. Can you tell me what's happened here? And why you're all alone?"

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

The Lonely Five near Kala’uun
​

Reaver stared at Argent as she once again brazenly used her most iconic weapon in the open. 'Alecake! How has a mynock not bought you tea yet?' Shaking his head in what looked like disbelief at seeing a Jedi.

The human Shadow was slowly holstering his pistol as the Twi'lek leader spoke.

"You and the jedi need to come with us, we have no time standing out here in the open. More droids will come, so many that not even a Jedi can beat them. You follow us, we can sneak into Kala'uun and help you, but we won't wait around. I am Setu. People will trust you if you're with me."

Looking to the ragged, dirty, but cunning leader he nodded. "Cen. And I agree." As the Twi'lek ran off the Shadow called out to his counterpart. "Auntie! Let's go! We don't need anymore friends, it's time to make the kessel." He smirked knowing she would be a bit irritated at his use of "slang" but he wanted her to follow him, so he took off after the fleeing Twi'leks.

Proletariat HK Fifty

 

[HK Fifty]

Argent looked up from the now lobotomized Droid to see the lead Twi’lek breifly talk to the other Shadow before fleeing after his fellow revolutionaries. She was about to use a gesture asking what the two may have said to each other before Reaver called out to her , once again using the indecipherable slang he seemed to insist on speaking to her in. Thankfully she had enough context to understand the essential meaning of what he was suggesting she do , although she would’ve followed the Twi’lek’s regardless.

The Shadow leapt back to the ground and quickly closed the gap between herself and Reaver. “For the love of the Force , can you please stop using that Vile Slang of yours! We’re not Smugglers , Reaver , we’re Jedi Shadows , you should start acting like one!” She calmed herself with a repetition of the Jedi Code before speaking again , sounding much more serene. “Regardless of your most decidedly unbecoming behavior , what did the Twi’lek say to you? They are resistance fighters , correct? I’m assuming he knows we’re both Jedi , and that we’re both here to help liberate him and his people from those Seperatist Monsters attempting to subjugate his people?”

 

[Proletariat]

The Slums of Nabat

It was never a mistake to reach out through the Force, to feel the living soul of a world and its people. Cutting oneself off from the Force, from those connected through it, meant cutting off a part of oneself. It led to indifference, forced perspective and eventually cruelty. But avoiding that sometimes meant accepting pain. And listening to Nabat's soul meant acknowledging and experiencing its pain.

Listening is what led her to the small Twi'lek girl. Searching the place made her somewhat self-conscious, in part because her uniform identified her with the enemy, in part because she'd have to scramble to have a good explanation for what a Lieutenant was doing here if detected by the Separatists. The cry of the girl, her attack and subsequent reaction told Sasha the consequences of that choice.

So she simply held the child as the little girl sobbed. Sasha lacked the lekku to really speak Ryu but words would have to do. "Shhhh, numa, I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe now. Shhhh, you're safe, numa. Safe." The Jedi Shadow repeated those words softly, endlessly, holding the Twi'lek until the storm had passed. Such a strong emotional reaction, the result of so much fear pent up for so long with no release. Letting the child fight and sob released those unbalancing tensions and would lead to calmer conversation, given time.

Still no reply to her encoded signal. Sasha frowned to herself, child held against her shoulder, and contemplated the need to eventually follow the truck she'd planted her comlink on. It would try another broadcast in a day. Maybe the other Jedi Shadow was out of range?

In the meantime...

"Call me Sasha," she said at last, once the Twi'lek looked calm enough (or just exhausted enough) to listen. "I'm here to help. Can you tell me what's happened here? And why you're all alone?"

Slums of Nabat

The little Twi'lek girl seemed to calm down, still shuddering with tears rolling down her cheek. When Sasha lowered her guard and talked to the girl there was a brief silence. Suddenly the girl tensed and twisted her head to the side. The Twi'lek's small teeth sank into Sasha's skin, causing the Jedi to recoil and release the Twi'lek. The girl somersaulted backwards and grabbed a rock off of the ground, she raised it threateningly. "You may not be a chee, but you dress like a Separatist. You try to trick me. You work with the clankers. You are a koyi who has come to deceive me. Well I won't let you!" The little girl wiped her tears away and grimaced at Sasha, she had been faking it, or so it seemed, to get the Jedi to drop her guard.

"Die koyi!" the Twi'lek squeaked and tossed the sharp rock at Sasha's head. Outside the small, square opening that served as a window, Sasha could hear the incredibly faint, but distinct sound of mechanical joints moving. There were multiple and the sounds grew faintly louder. The noise came from the road she was moving towards before she cut into the culdesac.

Ghoul's FOB Day 2 18:00

Argent and Reaver followed the rebel Twi'leks up into the Lonely Five Mountains. They learned from the rebels that Cham Syndulla ordered a withdrawal from all resistance fighters to a mountain range deeper in the desert. Apparently the rebels had been too aggressive and confident in their ability to fight the droid army in the open field and were lured into a slaughter. That forced them to retreat and reform, Syndulla wanted to drive the droids out by force, but now he would have to nip at their ankles from the shadows. Reaver and Argent never made it into Kala'uun. The rebels brought them to a checkpoint in a mountain pass where they received speeder bikes, but droids began to trickle out from within the mountain caves, they had discovered the rebels' secret tunnels. Argent and Reaver sped out of the mountains, into the open desert towards their destination. Since that they had a map it was easy enough to navigate through the dry wasteland. Reaver continued to annoy Argent, and Argent continued to worry Reaver. It took them 8 hours of hard riding to get in visual range of their destination. Luckily nothing spotted them. The droids didn't feel the need to waste resources scanning over dead sand for anyone. Nobody could survive out there for more than a few hours. The duo saw a thick pillar of smoke on the horizon before they saw their rendezvous point, which coincidentally laid in the same direction. By the time they could see the raised plateau and the smoldering listening post, their speeder bikes were coming apart at the bolts.

After a hard, dry ride, both of them were ready to find Ghoul and get on with the mission. They did not feel stealth was necessary, given the lack of combat sounds coming from the plateau as they approached (and Argent aggressively denied the option when Reaver raised it.) Instead they flew up the natural earthen ramps on the plateau just in time to see an incredibly tall figure throw a saber-pike like a javelin into and through a B2 battle droid, then pulling the pike back into the figure's hand with the force. There were two individuals who were obviously Jedi a few feet behind the figure. The trio stood in a literal pile of droid corpses, still sparking and smoking. Three AAT's and a half dozen dwarf spider droids sat among the 20-30 B1 and B2 battle droids in the large area outside of the ruined listening post. More droid corpses littered the courtyard of the listening post. As Reaver dismounted his speeder bike, it made a horrendous noise and collapsed to the ground. Argent's more or less did the same.

As the duo approached the three Jedi Shadows, the tall one with the yellow pike saber stowed his pike on his back and held out his long arms. A deep, filtered voice called out to them, "Welcome to my humble abode, we've been waiting on you for some time." He looked down and kicked a B1 droid head into more crumpled corpses. "I tried to clean the place up for your arrival, but, as you can tell, we've just had too many guests roaming in and out." A grey and red R2 droid came rolling around the corner of the garage, which seemed to be the only building not destroyed by fire and explosion. "Bwee Bwoo Bweoo!" Called the droid. Ghoul ignored the droid and continued to address the new arrivals. "Reaver and Argent I presume... took you long e-fucking-nough." Ghoul's voice sounded less cheery than before, which was all sarcasm. A hover-skiff exited the garage pulling an enclosed shipping crate on a hover-trailer. "Bwoo BwooOo Breep!" Called the droid, it rolled up onto the skiff and spliced into the control panel. The skiff floated up behind the three Jedi standing in the killing field, the door to the storage container opened with a creak.

Ghoul looked back at the R2 droid and chastised it, "Shut the hell up R2, nobody wants your moronic optimism!" The droid BroOooped in disappointment as Ghoul pointed to the storage container. "Now everybody get in the damned container so we can beat it before another army of droids shows up!" Ghoul shouted his command, inhaling sharply through his ventilator afterwards.

HK Fifty Grim Wraithe Stjerna Scavenger boo.

 

[HK Fifty]

Ghoul’s FOB Day 2 18:00

Argent had quickly made the connection between the Rebels’ slaughter at the Separatist’s hands and the mass grave she had encountered earlier , which she chose not to inform any of their leaders of if only to help keep their morale up. Although it wasn’t as if she had the time to , given how besieged the resistance fighters already were and now pressing the Shadows’ own needs were. While she would’ve very much wished to stay and aid the resistance fighters in deafeating or escaping from the Droid Army that sought to exterminate them , she very reluctantly - and not without rather aggressive protest - listened to Reaver’s advice and used the speeder bikes to escape. Ultimately she knew that they couldn’t do a great deal to help the Twi’lek’s without locating the rest of their allies , and the sooner they did that the sooner they could free the planet of the oppressive Separatist regime seeking to destroy it.

Of course , Reaver’s rather un-Jedi ways of behaving annoyed the highly orthodox Miraluka a great deal. She still had yet to comprehend his odd , distasteful slang asides from when the context would’ve made the meaning transparent , which rather apparently irked her. It seemed the only thing keeping her from openly chastising him was his status as a fellow Jedi , her focus on the tasks at hand , and perhaps her extremely hoarse , dry throat. The eight hour speeder bike ride may have helped too , although she didn’t seem bothered by it. It was rather apparent she was used to spending hours on end riding hover transports , likely those of Republic Issue. The speeder being of rather poor quality was slightly worrisome , but as all her mechanical powers dealt with how to take machines apart instead of holding them together there was little she could do asides from quietly repeat the code to herself , something she seemed to do as often as she breathed depending on how irritated or stressed she felt.

When at last the pair arrived at the rendezvous point Argent very quickly made the decision to dart towards the foreboding plume of smoke without any stealth or hesitancy , keen on assisting whatbshe thought may have been their comrades in danger. Of course she was therefore the first to arrive at the destination and the first to dismount her speeder , stepping a little to one side once it crashed to the ground. ‘With the Force’s blesssing I will not be required to use that form of transport again. If the Force is with me there should be a transport provided for me by my new Handler.’ She was about to draw her Lightsaber wennshe notices the enormous amount of infantry droids , Dwarf Spider Droids , and even AATs strewn about the plateau in various states of destruction , the very last of them being cut down by who she could only assume was Ghoul , seeing as how he or she seemed to be vastly the most powerful. She couldn’t identity the two behind him , though she immediately recognized them as fellow Jedi , most certainly Shadows.

The blind Miraluka woman , unaccostumed to the use of Sarcasm by a Jedi Master , smiled very slightly and reverently bowed upon greeting him, ready to introduce herself in the most formal of ways. Naturally , then , she was caught by surprise at his swift change of tone to a rather irritated reprimand , submissively lowering her head and cringing , whispering the Jedi Code under her breath nervously. ‘Force forgive me , I’ve already displeased Master Ghoul.’ Oddly enough she wasn’t appalled with the use of curse words nor the hostility he exhibited , clearly only upset with herself for her failure to arrive on time. She would’ve swiftly apologized for herself if she was invited to speak , but instead she simply meekly followed his orders and situated herself in the cargo container , trying to take up as little room as possible. Now wasn’t the time for her to attempt to get a briefing on their situation, nor was it the time for her to apologize for her thus far poor performance at actually completing her mission. Perhaps later such an opportunity would arise , if her new Handler saw fit to allow it. Her only responsibility was to follow her orders as they were given , to the best of her ability - a responsibility she had , thus far , not carried out satisfactorily.

Proletariat Grim Wraithe Stjerna Scavenger boo.

 

[Scavenger]

Ghoul's FOB Day 2 18:00

Phantom had used the break between his arrival and the unknown meeting with the rest of their team to change out of the tunic that he had quickly pulled on and back into his normal armour with a sandy coloured robe over the top when they left the underground lair he slung his long rifle so it hung from his right shoulder. With little communication coming from his enigmatic boss phantom had settled down and meditated for a short while before Ghost spoke pulling him out of his trance and informing both him and the nautolan that the rest of their team was nearly here so it was time to mop up. Phantom was slightly confused about discarding such an asset but decided that perhaps without Ghost providing it's full attention the droids may reconnect to the separatist network. Anyway Phantom's help was not really required, Ghost had already set everything up so all that Phantom really helped with was destroying the surrounding droids though the small size of his blue shoto meant that he was slower than the others, especially since he used neither ionise or his other lightsaber saving his own power and possibly keeping a few aces in his sleeves.

Phantom had just finished walking back over to ghost when he heard the distinctive whine of two speeders, given the Ghoul was perfectly happy finishing off the last surrounding droids Phantom just waited in a relaxed posture behind it but with his lightsaber hilt firmly in his hand. The two speeders that came over the ridge looked like they were falling apart which they both did as soon as they came to a shaky stop.

Off the first one stepped a tall and well built man who's manner and appearance immediately screamed smuggler even down to the obvious blasters on his hip, however Phantom could feel the force around him, it was gently pulled into him where it could be felt crackling in restrained power, such a presence was clearly the mark of a jedi with certain skillsets, Phantom made a note to not underestimate him though, he was clearly very good at projecting his smuggler's persona, maybe he had been on this mission for a while.

As the second one collapsed Phantom got a good look at the other member of this duo who would presumably joint their team. She was surprisingly short and stocky for a Miraluka, her race could be easily determined thanks to the strip of purple cloth that she wore across her eyes. She was easy to determine as a jedi not only did her force presence seem to rage inside of her asking to help her destroy those who opposed her but she also was wearing the traditional robes of the order.

A small smirk appeared on his face at the droids outlook on the whole situation but it was quickly quenched into a frown at the Miraluka's response to Ghost with the lowering of the head not in respect but in fear at Ghoul's small reprimand, this frown was further cemented with the meek posture as she moved into the crate. At the order Phantom quickly moved picking up the equipment pack that had rested between his feet and jumping into the mouth of the crate, he quickly moved to the back corner of the crate opposite the Miraluka, sitting up against the side with his bag resting between his legs. Once settled he nudged the Miraluka with his foot "Hey, head up no need to give the commando droids an easier target" he tried to comfort her in a way that she might be receptive to.
Proletariat Grim Wraithe Stjerna boo. HK Fifty

 

[Grim Wraithe Stjerna]

Ghoul's FOB Day 2 18:00
​

Reaver kept his eyes and ears open as the beleaguered rebels led them away from the mountain and to a makeshift camp of sorts. The part of him that was Republic Commando cringed at the lack of preparation, kit, and training, and wanted to get them into fighting shape to at least bloody some noses. The part of him that was a smuggler shook his head at the lack of materials that were worth anything. These rebels would not make good trade partners: too poor. And the part of him that was a Jedi Shadow wanted to stay hidden and find a way to help them without their knowledge.

When they gave them the rickety speeders and a map he thanked them waited for Argent to take the lead as she was want to do. Mounting the bike and pulling goggles down and scarf up the Shadow followed the zealot across the wastes, grateful for the quite the ride. Quite being relative, since the bikes seemed to be on their last legs; sputtering and coughing as they should not be.

Scanning the horizon he spotted the plume of black smoke easily enough. 'Of course that's where we're going.' Pushing the speeder bike to its limit, it vibrated a bit more then what would be comfortable. He watched as a piece shook loose and flew off, bouncing into the dust. Cresting the plateau, Reaver slowed just a bit as he took in the carnage, also watching as Argent continued at speed. 'Of course Aunty is going to play old solider, instead of pazaak.' Coming to a stop just a few meters from the tall light pike wielding Jedi, the smuggler stood and leaned against the speeder bike, his hand comfortably resting near his pistol. But when the bike gave up the ghost and collapsed he jumped slightly, giving the hunk of junk an annoyed and betrayed look, kicking it as it is had personally offended him.

This happened as Ghoul spoke, the shift in tone was not missed by the Shadow, as he took a few steps closer to the masked contact. "Well Uncle you made getting here to be less horse then it should have been, not to mention all the friends we met getting here." His left hand moved to his hip while the right remained on the pistol, standing in a comfortable, non-threatening, fashion.

Looking to the crate he sighed and shook his head. "This shark don't play turkey." Looking back to Ghoul he nodded to the front of the hover sled. "Winch alecake is going to be shark in this hand, hmmm?"

Proletariat boo. Scavenger HK Fifty

 

[HK Fifty]

Ghoul’s FOB Day 2 18:00

Argent pulled her knees closer to herself in the box to take up as little room as possible , hoping to allow her fellow Shadows as much room as they needed. She didn’t mind being in the metal container that much , even if it should end up being for quite some time. She noticed the other Shadow - one of the two accompanying Ghoul , she sensed - climb into the container with her , although she didn’t acknowledge him until he brushed her foot. At first she thought he wanted her to take up less room and drew her legs in further , nearly folded up as much as a Battle Droid by this point - though of course she was much shorter and much stockier , which may have ended up looking slightly humorous.

The purple-blindfolded Miraluka looked up when her fellow Shadow spoke , looking slightly confused despite herself. “Thank you? Er , yes , I shall make sure I avoid being killed by one of those vile machines.” She stretched out slightly more and kept her head held high - well , sort of - and tried to take in his Force presence. “My Code Name is Argent. I’m only a Knight. Am I permitted to know your Code Name?” It must not have been a Codename she had chosen for herself - she was blind , unable to perceive her own hair color - but it wasn’t difficult to see why it was chosen even from her silver hair and pale skin alone. Her Lightsaber blade , too , was silver on hue , but only Reaver had thus far seen that.