Run through the Jungle

[Dire Wolf]

Tahlia awoke with the unholy mixture of spent thermite and smoke in her powerful nose. Those crimson eyes of hers flew open to see a burning rainforest through a shattered viewport. Confusion clouded her mind for a moment as she tried to remember what happened after leaving Uthren's base on the planet of Vendaxa. Naught but the nothingness of what was surely concussion induced amnesia was what she found. Hopefully her companion was still alive. If not, her life expectancy had just fallen to a very, very low number.

That was when her mind finally registered that she was in the cockpit of a burning ship. The heat warmed her clothes and skin to the point where part of her thought she was sitting in the middle of an inferno. It wasn't true. Pain didn't neglect to rear its ugly head in any case. Some bones felt cracked, perhaps broken, and she was certainly bruised and battered in more than one place. Recovery was certain if she managed to escape the burning conflagration that was the ship before it reached the reactor, or the hyperdrive, or whatever cataclysmic thing each ship had in it. She wasn't entirely sure.

Tali's hands fumbled for the release latch of her chair's safety harness, but couldn't seem to find it in her panic and confusion. The woman would jump off of the highest building and fight the most terrifying creature imaginable without a moment's hesitation, but found her mind overtaken by fear the second that death by burning entered it. An eternity of fumbling passed before drew a switchblade style vibroknife and cut through two of the thick straps as if they were butter.

Her eyes darted to the other seat. Remiel was nowhere to be found. Last she remembered he sat just beside her, but the last thing she could remember was lifting off from the flight deck of Uthren's base as the special forces prepared to enter. They were to be a distraction so enough men got in. She hoped that the little plan worked. If not... well... things wouldn't exactly go well for the two wounded runaways. Tahlia grabbed her m26c blaster carbine and m24 apdw from their position beside her seat (they were thankfully braced by the rack itself), and shot to her feet. A veritable inferno danced between her and the door.

Tali glanced back at the shattered viewport with the hope to squeeze through one of the holes there, but the largest one would still have her shredded by the sharp spines. Crimson eyes closed for a moment and her lungs took in an especially large breath of air before she sprinted towards the fire and the half open door. Movement was always a thing that the Jedi had been good at. Tali threw her weight forward as she neared the fire so that her shoulders were vertical and not horizontal... and prayed that she would clear the fire on the other side.

She hit the ground with an anti-climactic thud and a notable lack of pain besides what was already there. "At least I'm not on fire," she wheezed before picking herself up enough to stay out of the smoke. Another eternity passed before the woman was able to find the sizable hole in the hull of the ship and drop out of it. This time the Jedi hit the charred ground on her two feet, and took off in a sprint without bothering to take a look at her surroundings. Animals generally fled fire. Tali was inclined to agree with them in this case.

Once a she had gotten a few hundred yards from the ship she turned to view it. Funny. The ship seemed almost peaceful as licks of flame sprouted from the hole in the hull she had just left and the shattered viewport. For a moment she cursed herself for not being able to get to Uthren's power supply so that a safer route could be taken, or at the very least found a way for the special operations soldiers to infiltrate the base without endangering herself or her companion.

Remiel would likely be dead if she hadn't, though. Perhaps it was her own fault for speaking to the man at all while she worked undercover as a jailor. It had been about a week since he was dragged into Uthren's little prison, and he had a little less than a day before he was executed. That was why she rushed the attack on the base. Yes, Tali had wreaked havoc where she could with more than a few well placed detonations, but the key positions of the base were guarded by men and weapons detectors.

Hopefully the plan she formulated worked, otherwise her haste would have cost the lives of many soldiers. As well as herself. Perhaps Remiel was still alive, keeping her move from being one made in vain.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

’That was some ride,’ he mused…as soon as he’d managed to pick himself up out of that temporary lapse of consciousness, anyway. Speaking of picking himself up, the tall, lanky, and undeniably shaggy, man knew he was going to have a hell of a time picking himself up after everything that had happened today…the crash only being the frosting on the proverbial cake. For a moment his vision swam and he wasn’t sure if it was the drugs still wearing off or a blow to the head he’d taken at some point during the day. Maybe it was both.

The crackling of fire and shorting electronics mixed and, for a moment, he considered trying to absorb some of that electrical energy to help bolster his own reserves…luckily, logic got to his muscles first. In his state, it was likely he’d end up doing more damage to himself than good, and that just wouldn’t do. Glancing over to the pilots’ seat as he worked at the clasps of his restraints he saw that the woman who’d saved him…Tali…was unconscious. As the clips of his harness came undone and he struggled to get up, he debated his next actions: did he try to drag her out and risk losing precious resources to the fire, or did he salvage what he could first and then come back for her?

Glancing toward the flames he decided that she would be safe enough for a few minutes. If he could just find some supplies and maybe a way out of this wreck….

Beaten as he was from that lovely torture session with Uthren and the added crash landing, even a master of movement such as Remiel couldn’t keep from trembling a bit as his weakened muscles protested his attempt to stand. In truth, it was taking every ounce of energy he had to put any amount of pressure on his injured leg. Hobbling his way through the beginnings of electrical fires sprouting up around the ship, he combed his way back through the transport.

Everything was a mess of tumbled and toppled items that had come free during their tailspin and subsequent impact. Nothing was simple to find and, even with his senses open to the force’s guidance, getting anything of use seemed to be pointless. Obviously Uthren and his minions didn’t believe in stocking their ships with items that could help them in such situations….something he didn’t understand in the slightest considering their choice of planets for a base. Still, he did manage to find a med-kit, a few more medical supplies, and some charge packs hidden among the strewn about tools and contraband.

Gathering what he could into a small, sturdy, bag that he emptied of its tools, the unkempt ex-jedi coughed painfully at a lung-full of smoke. Yes, it was most certainly time to go…and with that thought, he went to go and retrieve his unconscious savior. Hopefully she was coming around by now and they could both just be out of this place and patch themselves up.

Of course, things couldn’t possibly be that simple.

By the time he managed to hobble his way back to the cockpit he found something…well, he supposed it was a good discovery, but it was also quite certainly disconcerting. Where Tali was…she wasn’t. Meaning, simply, that she was gone. He didn’t bother to try and make his way through the flames again since he could see that she obviously was just…gone. Hopefully she’d gotten out fully. The question now was…how did he get out? All of the breaches he’d seen in the hull were too small for him and it was at that particular moment that he sincerely wished he had his saber again.

It seemed he had no choice but to try and go out through the cracked viewport since it would likely be the easiest thing to shatter.

”This is gonna hurt…”

Gathering his energy, Remiel unleashed a shockwave of concussive energy that made the viewport shatter outward with the explosive force, and fire. Gritting his teeth against the pain that he knew was coming, Rem surged forward as the flames still licked outward and away from him as they followed the pulse of energy and air he’d unleashed. His feet found their landing points naturally on the arm of a seat, the consol, the sloped nose of the transport just outside of where the viewport had been…and finally he emerged from the ship, sliding down the metal to the ground and nearly collapsing as his injured leg buckled beneath him when he hit the ground.

Groaning loudly at the pain, he dropped the bag and closed his eyes, focusing on his breathing to help try and dull the pain that etched its way along his nerves.

[Dire Wolf]

Once her head had been cleared from the adrenaline and the overwhelming urge to survive she took a moment to see what the Force had to say. Those crimson eyes slid shut as she allowed herself to become more attuned to all things arcane and incorporeal. Her presence within the Force would stay masked as she did this. Tali sensed that her tall and odd compatriot was still within the confines of the ship, but alive. Good. Those malevolently colored eyes opened just before she sprinted off towards the pyre of their one ticket off of the Vendaxa.

If Remiel died it was likely that she would as well, even if it wasn't right away. Ignoring a few scrapes, bruises, and probably cracked bones, the woman was relatively unharmed thanks to the fact that she went unconscious before the impact. Tali was nearly to the ship when Rem a wave of power detonated outwards from the viewport. This telekinetic wave cleared out the shattered viewport, and Rem was little more than a blur as he leaped through the hole. Just in time, too. Moments later a gout of flame spewed out of the viewport as if it were fire from a dragon's maw.

Tali rushed towards Rem as he landed with less grace and more pain. She could sense it even from the moderate distance between them. "By the Force! I thought you were dead for sure, Rem! Please tell me that you're okay." It wasn't long before she reached him, picked up the bag, and tucked herself underneath his armpit so that he could use her body for support. Tali felt as if it would be counter productive for him to know that she was a Force user. He was obviously a Force User, and one who's demeanor subtly prickled at the mere mention of being called a Jedi from the Order.

Odd as it sounded, she believed that he would trust her more if she continued to lie about her true job description. Though that belief was may have been born of a mistrust of the galaxy at large. Her entire adult life was spent lying to criminals, gaining their trust, and inevitably breaking it as the Republic law enforcement or special forces smashed their organization apart with her intelligence. As far as Remiel knew, Tali was a somewhat eccentric RBI or RSA agent who was somewhat susceptible to guilt.

"Stop moving. Let me look you over before we get moving. I don't want you bleeding out. Help is on the way, anyways," she lied. If the cavalry succeeded in taking Uthren's base their first concern would be clearing it out and hauling off as much evidence as possible. They likely wouldn't know that she was gone for another day or so if she was lucky. They may assume that Tali simply skipped off back to the Jedi, and if that were the case it would be a very long time before anyone searched for them. Fortunately it would be a Jedi, at that. If the piggies in blue weren't successful, well, lets just say that Uthren would likely start searching for them, to. Only if he found them he wouldn't exactly want to give them a bandaid and send them on their merry way. Pain would be involved. Much pain. Especially for her.

Tali wouldn't take no for an answer. She gently lowered her body and his until Rem was in a prone position. She knelt beside him and began to triage his body for potential wounds that she could fix. To use the word gentle would be an extreme understatement. If any wounds that Tali could treat were found she would do so. Patching up bullet holes, splinting broken limbs, and stopping hemorrhaging dead in its ugly tracks was something she got moderately good at since she'd had to focus on more corporeal aspects of life than the rest of her Jedi brethren.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

meh, it's a reply...not the best, but *shrug*

---

Oh the pain!
Oh the humanity!

”Oh! Tali!”

Looking up as she hurried up to him, he bit back on the pain, just pleased to see her.

”Yeah, you’re not the only one!....wait…”

That had come out all wrong. Alright, try again, Remiel…’atta boy.

”I mean I thought you were…bah, never mind…yeah, I’m just super.” His grin was obviously fake with his teeth gritted together and pain etched along just about every line of him. Even though he grunted and grumbled a bit as she hefted him up (mainly because of the pain) the scruffy ex-jedi sure was happy to see Tali alive and kicking. Between the two, and probably blood loss, he wasn’t thinking entirely clearly and it was showing in his words.

Calling the bag to his hand, he limped along with her until she all but ordered him down again. He wasn’t about to complain. Settling gingerly back on the ground again he dropped the bag and hissed as he slowly stretched out his injured leg…or really, his injured all of him. ”There’s a few medical supplies in there that I managed to get from the ship, but not much I’m afraid,” he said, nodding over to the bag as she started working on getting him patched up.

His leg was the worst of him, really…mostly. Uthren had been ‘kind’ enough to keep him relatively patched up after his torture session. Apparently he liked having his victims survive as long as possible…more pleasure for the maniac, he supposed. Other than his leg, a few cuts, a knock on the head, a couple of blaster injuries, and several burns, he wasn’t too badly off. Well, at least not in ways she could fix.

”We can’t stay here much longer. We likely only have until the fire on that ship burns out before the critters come out to play.”