Survival Instinct [Ash] - {Maridun}

[Mara]

(((Again, apologies for the delay…
Anyway, I hope this is all right; it’s long, but I wanted to establish

a scene, lol. I promise other posts will be shorter. You really only have to deal with the last paragraph for the most part...)))

Feeling the shift out of hyperspace into realspace, the subtle change from the lightspeed engines to the sublight engines, Lieutenant Ambria Arcane of the Mandalorian special ops undid her crash webbing. She stood up from her seat and stretched. To reach the planet of Ordo and join the battle there, the troop transport Triad had needed to make a couple of smaller jumps after departing the base on Concord Dawn early the night before. Partly for safety, partly for surprise. Now they should be just outside the system and had only to move into the right vector before being able to bring their additional manpower against Ordo and its Republic dogs.

The Triad was part of a coordinated 15-ship group that had left Concord Dawn to assist the Mandalorian efforts at Ordo, filled with transports, gunships, and battle cruisers. Ambria was part of a 30-soldier team aboard. She and Lieutenant Vasil Pasok were the co-leaders of the troops assembled on the Triad. Along with some of the others, they were meant to arrive a couple hours after the initial attack and land planetside to quell any leftover resistance. Blonde-haired Pasok had skill in slicing and mechanics; the dark-skinned woman fulfilled the roles of sniper and medic. A couple others were demolition and explosives experts; they all were trained fighters.

Pasok and the others were getting up as well, relieving sore muscles and getting pumped up for the battle ahead. As they filed aft out of the main passenger cabin in order to gather their armor, weapons, and supplies in the storage lockers, Ambria nodded to them. She would follow suit in a moment but wanted to touch base with the pilot and navigator up in the cockpit. Ambria didn’t expect any trouble—so far everything had gone smoothly—but as one of the commanding officers onboard, it was her duty to perform a routine check in person. Just one of those unspoken perks of leadership.

But when she entered the cockpit to join the human pilot and Klatooinian navigator, the two normally calm soldiers were unusually jittery, speaking brusquely to each other and gesturing wildly. Having not yet noticed her arrival, they were busy at their various controls, pressing buttons, flipping levers, obviously put off balance by something. Every few seconds, one of them would glance up to the forward viewport and then back down to the console. It was odd, but Ambria could almost feel an air of confusion permeating the small space.

Wondering what could possibly be the matter, she turned her gaze up to the viewport as well, and almost immediately her emerald eyes widened. Though the dark-skinned woman only had a very rudimentary knowledge about ships and spacefaring, she could tell something was wrong. She didn’t see any other vessels, Mandalorian or otherwise. A quick glance at the sensor board confirmed that the other ships in their battle group were nowhere in the vicinity. This information was worrying, but Ambria swallowed her alarm. There had to be an explanation.

Clearing her throat and laying her hands on her hips, Ambria addressed the pilot and navigator with as steady a voice as she could manage. “Sergeant Lasker, Sergeant Helab, what is going on? Where are we?” Her gaze never left the viewport. Besides the obviously missing Mandalorian ships, the array of stars and a nearby planetary system was unfamiliar to her. Before departing, she had studied the charts as she and Lieutenant Pasok had discussed routes to Ordo. If they were actually just a short jump out of system from the battle, this was not the view she
should be seeing.

“Unsure, sir. Perhaps a malfunction,” answered the human pilot succinctly but generically. Still intent on his controls, he didn’t bother to turn and look at the superior officer. His job was to figure out what had happened; the navigator was likewise trying to figure out where they were, shuffling through the computer in front of him. Helab was a bit more forthcoming. “We appear to have departed hyperspace early. I’m working on gathering information on our current coordinates.” The Klatooinian smacked his jowls in nervousness. “And… I’m getting nothing. That system there isn’t listed. Though, we are not far off from our intended location.”

Ambria wanted more answers but contained herself; her frustration wouldn’t help anything. Nor would falling apart in front of them. She took a deep breath. “Well, whatever it is, Sergeants, figure it out, fix it, and get us back on track to Ordo. We have a schedule to keep.” The dark-skinned woman had been waiting for weeks to be involved in this battle and didn’t plan on missing it. Hopefully this was just a momentary hiccup, something that most missions suffered. And if this was the only thing that went wrong, she could live with that.

With one last look out the distressingly empty forward viewport and the unnamed planetary system they were slowly closing in on, she turned around and stalked back into the interior of the transport, trying not to let the worry show on her face. There were 30 soldiers depending on her leadership to get them safely to Ordo so they could kill as many Republic dogs as they were able to. Seeing Pasok back in the passenger cabin, Ambria stopped to bend her head and whisper what she had found out in the cockpit about the whole situation. He nodded his assent, and she continued on to don her own armor and weapons.

She was strapping on her belt holster when she felt a jolt that made her stumble and grab for something to retain her balance. Almost immediately after, klaxons sounded, followed by more thuds. Worried that they were somehow under surprise attack, Ambria switched into battle mode. Quickly, she fitted on the rest of her amber-colored armor. The pilot came over the intership comm. then. “Asteroids! We’re hit! I’m gunning it and making for the nearest planet to land. Hang on!” Even though it wasn’t enemy fire, they could still be in trouble, and she hurried to grab her pistols and rifles amidst the heavy turbulence.

* * * * *

Half an hour later, the Triad was shearing uncontrollably through the atmosphere of the unknown planet. It had taken some heavy damage from the asteroids, but that was nothing compared to what it was currently experiencing. With a double dose of bad luck, the vector Lasker had chosen had taken them right into the middle of a furious storm, and there had been no time to turn back. The forceful winds had grabbed the transport and tossed it around before letting it go, venting air, harboring broken shields and much more as it hurtled down towards a very rough landing that the sergeant was trying to prevent with all his might.

Inside, the armored Mandalorian soldiers were being tumbled around the passenger cabin. At first, they had hung on to seats and other bolted-down items to keep the pummeling to a minimum. But eventually it became too much, especially after the pilot had suffered a head injury, and the Triad was on its own, deadweight, an oversized hail stone falling and spinning to the ground. Much earlier, the Klatooinian navigator had bailed, deciding to ride it out with his fellow soldiers, who were not doing much better. Their armor, meant to keep them protected, was actually doing more harm than good as they were buffeted from wall to wall to ceiling to floor.

Still in the cargo area, Ambria had briefly contemplated going up to find Pasok and the others but soon her personal well-being had ruled it out. She wouldn’t be much help to anyone when they finally made landfall if she ended up unconscious or worse. With a burst of inspiration, she had locked herself into one of the larger storage lockers, hoping that its reinforced durasteel would reduce some of the beating she would have been taking if she had tried to stick it out in the room proper. Once secured, she prayed to Manda. Forgetting Ordo for the moment, she just wanted them all to survive this.

* * * * *

 “Come on, Jassik! Please!” Lieutenant Ambria Arcane was attempting to resuscitate one of her fellow soldiers, one of the men under her command. After a hair-raising few minutes, she had finally left the safety of the storage locker she had sequestered herself in, noticing that there was no longer any movement coming from the transport. Somehow she had suffered only a few bruises and minor damage, most of which had been focused on her prosthetic leg's clasp and hinger. She had had to pause and jerry-rig it back on her stump with the help of bent metal and torn clothing in order to lift herself out of the container.

Shaky and limping, she had slowly moved through the Triad and had been horrified at the carnage she saw arrayed in the passenger cabin. It was worse than she had imagined it could be, much worse. There had been armored bodies piled everywhere, limbs splayed at unnatural angles. But she had found a few still alive, including Pasok, her co-lieutenant. Ambria had raced to their sides, going through all of her battlefield medicine knowledge. Eventually, however, they had all succumbed to their injuries. Now Jassik and herself were the only ones left.

She pounded on the man’s chest with one fist, trying to get him breathing again. With the other hand, she pressed down on a wound at his neck, willing the gushing blood to stop. But it was too late for him. He gasped one more time and went still. Sighing, Ambria rocked back on her heels, wiping a hand across her forehead, unknowingly spreading the man’s blood there. Lifting her eyes up, she closed them, murmuring a short prayer for Jassik’s soul, whispering his glorious accomplishments. Then, she levered herself to her feet and turned her back on the whole scene, surprisingly clean and bloodless, considering most had suffered concussions, snapped necks, and broken bones. There was nothing more she could do; for the time being, the Triad would be their crypt.

Ambria picked her way through the wreckage, fitting her helmet under her arm and sliding her rifle onto her shoulder with the aid of its strap. Finding a pack, she filled it with necessary items she’d need to rough it outside until help arrived: food rations, canteens, medical supplies. She couldn’t bear to spend another minute inside the damaged vessel with all the bodies. The dark-skinned woman was more than able to face whatever waited her outside on the unknown world they had crashed down on. Without a second glance, she pried open the hatch and jumped out, careful not to dislodge her faux leg.

Encountering a steady downpour, remnants of the storm that had battered the ship on its descent, she slipped on her helmet against the wetness. Ambria started walking, getting some distance between her and the crash site. Sufficiently away from it, she stopped and scanned her surroundings, using her HUD to supplement her eyes. She needed to find a spot to camp for the rest of the day and night; though the rain didn’t bother her, she’d get nothing accomplished until it broke. Spying a small copse of trees about a klick west of her position among the otherwise barren grassland, she started heading in that direction.

[Ash]

(30 minutes ago)

A storm would more than likely push more people indoors, and very few people would venture out into one, especially one as bad as this. However, a group consisting of easily recognizable Amanin, as well as more humanoid figures, could be seen. To top it off, they were in a field with speeders all lit up. It was a beacon in the middle of a savanna.

One could only speculate what could be going on between these two groups of people. At least one man knew, or at least he was told, what was going on. Was it accurate information? Who the hell knew. He was told to go here and kill so and so and be done with it.

(Three days earlier)

Phantom, we have a rather special mission for you.

Oh? What is it today?

A group of the Amanin species are attempting to make a pact with the usual group of people. This would be truly devastating to us, as they turned down all of our attempts so far.

This is where you come in, Phantom: kill them all, or at least as many as you can. At the very least, kill whatever lorekeepers you can, which should be fairly easy to spot. Also, kill whoever you can from the other side who looks like leaders.

Afterwards, go confirm who you killed, gather up any evidence you can from the meeting, and then return.

If that's whats to be done, fine. I'll get it done, then.

We're counting on you, Phantom.[/b]

Zwei looked at the two people before him in this dark conference room. To his eyes, though, one fully cybernetic and once cybernetically enhanced, both of which one couldn't tell, the room was quite bright.

Zwei looked between the buxom woman in her purple business dress, and man in a white suit that looked more suited to a formal outing than sitting in here. Even Zwei looked like he was more suited to be somewhere else in his casual black suit, jacket opened wide and his dress red shirt out for the world to see. Waving her hand, the woman dismissed the assassin, who gave a nod of his head, and left the room. Several hours later, he was on his ship on the way to Maridun.

(30 minutes ago)

Zwei still never got why the meeting was being held in the middle of a storm. Perhaps it was to ward off any of the fearsome predators on this planet. Zwei knew that if it wasn't for his hide, perched high up in the trees, he probably would have been hunted down already. He was lucky thus far, and tonight, even with the storm, he would be lucky. His targets were only a few hundred meters away, easily within touching reach of his large caliber verpine sniper rifle.

The barrel pointed in the direction of the group of speeders The 10 round magazine would be enough to take out most of the group here, and a quick change to a waiting magazine would take care of the rest. Taking a few breaths to slow his heart rate, Zwei let his killer instinct take over. When the unnatural sense of calm took over, Zwei pulled the trigger... again... and again... and again...

Within 20 seconds, over half the group was killed. A speeder went up in flames after his fuel cells were hit, and something lit the fuel itself. That killed some people. Zwei had to reload before he was happy with his kill count. A few of the Amanin ran away, but that was fine. Fear would only fallow now.

Zwei threw on his molted black and grey poncho, hiding his black bodysuit and armor from the storm, and left the hide site, heading into the savanna. It took the man but a few minuted to walk to the speeders and bodied. The bodies were littered across the area, most with a chunk of their torso missing from where the high velocity round hit them. Any survivors were quickly offed by a verpine pistol shot to the head, after they were recorded with a camera.

The assassin was about to head back to his hide site when he heard something that seemed out of place. It sounded like thunder, but it was artificial. It was a sonic boom, but what could have caused it.

Zwei looked around, then something bright, brighter than the lightning, lit up the sky: a falling starship. Cursing loudly, Zwei turned and sprinted away, or at least tried to. The Starship crashed perpendicular to where he was running, which was towards the treeline where his hide was. The ship hitting the ground and delivering its force was enough to knock Zwei off balance.

He fell to the ground, rolling back to his feet, but he knew running was useless at this distance. The ship tore through the speeder group, throwing dirt and metal from them, and its own hull, everywhere. Being less than 100 meters away at this point, Zwei took the full force of the impact, and was pelted with debris. Metal tore through his poncho and armor, pelting his limbs and torso. Stones beat his body, and he felt at least two rips crack or break. That was before a nice chunk of metal, or something, smacked him square in the face. His mask absorbed the impact and shattered, but he was still cut above his left eye, and was knocked clean out right there.

(Present time)

Zwei awoke with a sharp gasp. He was on his back, left arm at an odd angle and still slowly bleeding from a few wounds. This man was lucky to be alive right now. Even before sitting up, mentally stored away all his known injuries, which consisted of at least three broken ribs, and more cracked, his left shoulder dislocated or worst, left leg with a nice gash and a metal rod sticking out of it, and multiple lacerations to his body. A nice gash over his left eye continued to bleed, making that eye useless for the moment.

Finally, the assassin stood up, slowly, of course. He scanned the area with his right eye, which had thermal capabilities, but saw no immediate movement. He sighed, pissed at his luck. He doubted anyone survived that crash, so he wouldn't bother with it, but he had to get out of the rain and treat his wounds. The only way he was able to do so was back at his hide site, where his med kit was at.

Just before he moved on, Zwei had a sudden realization: this crash would bring people here: people who weren't too friendly. Now would be a good time to go. The man took three steps before he had to stop. It hurt so bad to walk Zwei was almost in tears. He clenched his teeth, balled his hands into fists, and limped a few more steps, before the unnatural sound of metal on metal scraping caught his enhanced hearing. Zwei turned in time to see a figure come out of a now open hatch of the ruined ship. He could tell this person was injured, but seemed to be in better condition than Zwei, despite the limp that figure had: they didn't have a ship crash nearly on top of them.

Zwei smiled bitterly at this, but knew that he had a better chance at living with his person. Zwei yelled, and waved his one good arm to get the persons attention. The sound probably wound't carry in the dying storm, but the unnatural movements he was doing would be sure to catch some attention.

[Mara]

(((Erm, it got longer than I wanted it to be, but still, it’s not as long as my opener, lol. And once we get more into things, my posts should get a bit shorter…)))


She had only gone about a dozen meters in the direction of the copse when something blipped on the edge of her peripheral vision. Turning her helmeted head, Ambria focused in on the movement with her HUD. There was a figure standing a couple hundred meters from her current position, waving an arm wildly in her direction. For a brief moment she had hope that it was one of her soldiers from the Triad who had also managed to escape. But then her heart sank as she zoomed in closer; this being—she saw it was a male and likely human—was not clad in Mandalorian armor. He couldn’t be a survivor from the crash.

With a glance back towards the stand of trees, she considered her options as the rain continued to pelt her amber-colored armor. The Mandalorian lieutenant could just continue on her original plan and find somewhere to hold up for the remainder of the rainstorm. Not because she was afraid of whoever this being was but because she needed to prioritize her actions and figure out what to do, how to contact the rest of the battle group and get rescue sent to this unknown rock. She couldn’t afford distractions and detours; she needed to get to Ordo and the battle there.

However, as she studied the man who was desperately trying to gain her attention, Ambria noticed he was in distress. At this distance, even with her HUD, she couldn’t be sure on details, but he looked injured. There was redness mixed with the rainwater dripping down his face and onto his camouflaged poncho, and she didn’t think it was paint. As much as she wanted to ignore him, the dark-skinned woman knew she couldn’t let him suffer. Her medical training and sense of duty wouldn’t let her. Plus, the realization hit her, his wounds could perhaps even have been a result of the Triad’s crash landing, considering his position.

Making up her mind with a sigh, she changed her route and started for the waving man. It was slow going through the tall, thick grass soaked with rain, not to mention with her damaged leg, but she moved with fresh determination. Ambria would help the injured man as much as she could. Not only did she find it her responsibility as a medic, but she also thought that this man might be able to help her or at least give her some information. He would likely have his own transport, and she should be able to contact someone from the battle group to come pick her up and take her to Ordo.

As she came closer to the man, Ambria tightened her grip on her rifle’s shoulder strap, making sure it wouldn’t fall off. The bag of bare essentials bumped against her armored hip as she walked carefully, not wanting to lose her prosthetic leg again. She kept herself alert to her surroundings, wary for a trap. Though she knew it was a pretty low possibility, there was always a chance that the man’s injuries were superficial, and he was only drawing her over to him so he could ambush her. Ambria had known similar things to happen after crashes. Better to be aware of any outcome than to let herself become complacent with the thought of an innocent wounded man.

A few meters from the man—she could see now that he wore armor under his layer of camo—she came to a stop. Ambria scanned the man’s wounds now that she was closer. There was a piece of shrapnel in his leg, and he was bleeding above his eye, an eye that looked rather mechanical, perhaps even cybernetic. And she could only assume there were other, unseen injuries, if he was indeed truly hurt. But overall, he didn’t look too bad; she had definitely seen much, much worse over the years.

After observing him a few moments, she spoke through her helmet, not bothering to remove it until she was sure this was no ruse to attack her. “I can help. I’m a medic.” Ambria dropped her bag of supplies to the ground, lifting off her rifle as well. She also had two blaster pistols, one on each hip, so she wasn’t afraid of being caught unarmed. Her amber-colored armor covered every part of her except for her left knee and lower leg; she had had to remove that piece in order to secure a piece of cloth to keep her prosthetic on until she could fix it more permanently.

Moving her hands up away from her holsters in a gesture of goodwill, she moved a couple steps closer. Ambria wasn’t sure if this man had ever seen or met a Mandalorian before, wasn’t sure what could be going through his head. She didn’t think he could be Republic military, but she thought it was better to err on the side of caution. The woman wanted to put him at ease so she could help him without any trouble. “If you would just let me help you over to those trees and lay down out of the rain so I can examine you, it’d be much easier for both of us. Please, I promise I’m not here to harm you.

“Here, I’ll show you…” Slowly, not wanting to startle him, she lifted her hands to her helmet and pulled it off, revealing her dark-skinned face, emerald eyes, short, boyishly-cut dark hair. Rain immediately started soaking her, but it was a small price to pay for the man’s peace of mind. Ambria knew she was taking a chance by doing this, but at the same time, she felt it was necessary if she wanted to help this man. And if, on some far shot, he did come after her, she was more than capable at defending herself, helmet or no helmet, rifle or no rifle.

[Ash]

Mandalorian...

Why did it need to be a Mandalorian who survived... Hell, what were Mandalorians doing around this system anyway? One of Azura's spies must have fed the higher ups some bad information.

That was the least of his problems though as he watched this Mandalorian get closer and closer to him. He was in little shape to run away, and would probably need to fight if something happened.

See, Zwei was an assassin for Azura corporation, who use to have ties with both the Mandalorians and the Sith. After both of those forces cut ties with Azura, Zwei was their response. Under the alias of The Phantom of Azura, Phantom, or Zwei, was sent out to kill key Sith or Mandalorian personnel, as well as anyone else who proved to be a threat to stop Azura from trying to take over the galaxy for their own means. Lucky, his mask, which always hid who he really was, is now shattered. Now he was just some battered man in the middle of the storm.

Zwei held his breath, happy that it was dark and the wind was shaking his molted poncho so his form was ever shifting. The Mandalorian came closer and closer, stopping a few meters away from him. He feared that they would attack him, but that wasn't what happened.

She spoke, saying she was a medic. For good will, she removed her rifle after dropping a bag she was carrying to the ground. She stepped closer, but he didn't move at all. His eyes remained neutral, hands held near his pistols hidden under his pinned poncho.

The woman made a promise to not hurt him. That was nice, but it didn't mean he wouldn't hurt her after everything, but the offer for some free first aid was soothing. What really caught him off guard was that this Mandalorian took off their helmet, showing that they were a female. His eyebrows twitched in surprise, but otherwise he didn't move for a few heartbeats. Finally, he closed his eyes, or mostly so, and nodded his head slowly.

Alright. Lets get out of this rain. I have a campsite and hunting hide set up in those trees. We should go before the storm decides to pick up again.

[Mara]

(((Sorry for the delay…
I feel this is still a bit rough (I generally feel that way about anything I write), but I didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer, lol… Hopefully it still fits the bill.)))


There were a few tense moments as Ambria waited to see how the man would react to her offer of help. She stood there quietly, helmet held at her side, raindrops pinging her armor, and blinked against those that dripped into her eyes. The woman could tell that he was doing some serious thinking, despite being hidden behind his mechanical eyes—she had seen later that both were enhanced in some way. Obviously they were both wary of each other, for various reasons. But Ambria did hope that whatever differences they might have, those could be put aside for mutual aid. This man needed medical attention; she needed to call for help.

When he eventually assented to her offer, she blew out the breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding and relaxed. With the possibility of danger and attack thus subverted for the time being, Ambria switched fully into medic mode. She studied the man’s injuries more completely before glancing into the nearby trees where he had said he had a camp. The wound on his head wasn’t so bad, and she felt it could keep a bit; she was more worried about the piece of metal sticking out of his left leg and whatever else could be lurking under the surface. Shifting her weight a bit on her prosthetic, Ambria knew all too well what could happen if infection set in before she could safely remove the shrapnel and clean it out.

Looking back to the man, she nodded and slipped her helmet back on, completely focused on the tasks ahead of her. She reached down and grabbed her rifle and bag, slinging both of these around her neck and shoulders. Moving to his side, she offered an armor-covered arm. “Here. We can’t have you stumbling around and jostling that leg.” At this, Ambria smiled, amused, glad her face was hidden. With her own left leg banged up and tied on, she could use some extra support as well. “Let’s go. Carefully now…”

The woman led him into the copse and almost immediately noticed the lessening of the rain hitting her armor as they maneuvered around the trees and under their protective canopies. “Now, which way to your camp?” Ambria gestured with her free hand, slowing but not stopping. It was best if she kept him walking, focused away from any pain he could be experiencing, because that would all change once she got to work. She turned her head at him a moment before looking ahead once again. “I’m not sure how extensive the damage is, but in any case it’s best if you don’t need to move again for a good while.”

[Ash]

Before Zwei moved closer to the Mandalorian, who was offering her arm for support, he took his right hand, placed it on his left bicep, gripped it hard, clenched his jaw, and forcefully shoved his shoulder back into place. It went in, with a horrible sound and much pain, but at least he had much more use of that arm. He would get it checked out by professionals when back on Corellia. He wiped the blood out of his eye and off his forehead, showing that, if one was able to see it, the wound was already healing and the blood stopped flowing. Now he moved to take the womans arm.

I would be more worried about your own leg. You may need a new one unless the damage gets repaired soon before there is too much water damage.

The thermal capabilities of his right eye allowed him to make out the minute thermal details of the woman, which was only that much easier with her closer. Playing with the brightness and contrast for a few seconds let him at least know what was real and what wasn't on this woman. The leg was the most obvious.

He moved up to meet this woman halfway after she collected her goods. A quick mental pat around his body, feeling the usual weight on his leg and the small of his pack of his pistols, as well as the cool metal chain around his neck, he knew he had all his gear, or at least what he brought out to this field.

Together with the woman, they made their way to the grotto of trees that wasn't too far off. His leg still hurt like hell, but he never let anything past his stoic face and dark eyes. He also never let his guard down: he was, after all, with an enemy, even if they were working together temporarily.

Were almost there.

Zwei was using the trees to navigate. Even if it was almost pitch black out, the use of his thermal eye allowed him to see perfectly, as well as fallow the small patched of thermal reflecting squares he put on trees as hint as to where his hide was. A short walk, at they were at the hidden rope latter going right up to his hide.

C'mon.

Zwei left the womans side, heading to the latter, and started to climb up, using mostly his arms. His left one burned, but it was much better than using his leg. Without taking a short rest, he climbed the entire distance to where his hide was using only his arms. Everything here was as he left it. Perfect. The assassin pulled off his poncho, showing his now mostly ruined black echani armor, pulled out his medpack, which would help the both of them, and boost up Zwei's healing abilities, and sat back, waiting for the woman.

[Mara]

(((Sorry this got so long… Just kind of ran away from me... Later posts should be a lot more succinct.
Also, hope I’m not taking too much liberty with Zwei’s hideaway or with Zwei himself. If so, I can edit.)))

Instead of immediately taking her arm for assistance and heading into the trees, the man had proceeded to grab his own arm and push his shoulder back into position with brute force and an audible pop. Inside her helmet, Ambria had raised her brows in startled amusement as she watched him rather calmly, though with an obvious and brief grimace of pain, perform this feat. Having only done a visual scan of his injuries, she hadn’t realized the socket had become dislocated; such an injury was hard to spot with the eye, especially since he was wearing a poncho. But it was something she would have easily discovered once they had settled into his camp and happily had fixed for him.

He had turned back to her then, rubbing the dried blood off of his face, and she had been able to see that the cut there was only superficial and already starting to scab over. She may not have to do anything with it, except perhaps clean it out a bit to remove any debris and make sure it was healing easily without any infection. Ambria made a note of this, along with checking his shoulder. Then he had finally moved closer to grasp her proffered arm, and they had gone forward slowly, using each other for support of their respective mangled legs. Soon enough they had left the open grass behind and made it to the tree line and were well on their way to the man’s hideaway.

As they had started off, the man had commented about the damage to her own leg and needing help herself, and at first, this in itself hadn’t surprised her. After all, she had been limping a bit at times, putting more pressure on her right limb, hoping to keep her prosthetic from falling off again. Ambria had been trying to disguise this as much as possible, moving with as normal a gait as she could manage, but a trained eye such as this man had would surely have spotted her discomfort. So she had just absorbed his statement and acknowledged it with a nod of her helmeted head, more important things in the forefront of her mind that needed dealing with.

But then as they maneuvered carefully through the trees together, the implications of what he had said exactly made her go back and replay it in her head. He had not merely assumed she had banged it up, suffering a sprain, deep bruise, or even a small break in the crash. This man had mentioned the possibility that she would need to get a new leg if she didn’t take care of her current one. Of course, he could have been just imagining the worse scenario, thinking of his own grievous wound. However, she had a feeling he had somehow deduced that she already had a prosthetic and hadn’t been suggesting she might need the services of one in the future.

This realization bothered her a bit; she wasn’t ashamed of her battle injury, but she didn’t go around advertising it either. It was just a part of her now, a reminder of the past, and she didn’t feel a need to flaunt it. Ambria was more annoyed by how the man had figured it out. She was certain she hadn’t voiced it out loud. Her focus had been on his wounds, not on telling him hers. The dark-skinned woman went back through their encounter so far, using the HUD inside her helmet to glance up at the man beside her without turning her head. Then it came to her—the mechanical enhanced eyes she had discovered earlier. Those must have been what had allowed him to see her faux leg…

No matter, what was done was done. She had pushed the thoughts away with a mental shake of her head and had asked him the direction to his camp. Though she had originally taken the lead to get them out of the rain and into the copse, Ambria had to leave it up to the man now to show them the rest of the way. He said it was close, and she nodded again, glad that it wouldn’t be a long walk. The woman was worried about the wound in the man’s leg and wanted to get a look at it as soon as she could. It would give her something to focus on and help her forget about feeling so exposed with the knowledge of her prosthetic no longer being a secret.

Sure enough, after just a few more minutes had gone by, the man stopped and let go of her arm. He moved forward to one of the larger trees in front of him. At first, she thought he had gotten lost, confused in the aftermath of his accident and the rainstorm. Though he had appeared confident the whole time, zig and zagging around the trees, Ambria knew he could have been putting up a false front, leading them in circles or even into a trap. But then, she saw him leave the forest floor, and she clicked her HUD to examine the tree closer. A well-hidden rope ladder rose out of the shadows. Suppressing her brief and unfounded fear at having to treat the man’s leg in the damp of the leaves instead of high and dry as promised, she pushed out a breath and followed him to the tree.

She waited below until he had left the ladder and climbed into the hide itself, unsure of the tensile strength of the ropes. With all her gear and her armor, plus the weight of the man, it just might stress the fibers too far. Again, her brows jerked up as she watched him ascend, pulling with only his arms. Ambria was a bit impressed at the extent of the man’s grit and fortitude, not to mention his upper arm muscles. However, this was evidence to her at how much his wounded leg was hurting him; he had walked on it, obviously not wanting to show weakness to her, but here, he’d rather put weight on his newly relocated shoulder than his more gruesome injury.

Once the ladder was empty, and he had disappeared into the camp in the tree, Ambria grasped the sides of it and made her way up. It was slow going, the bag of supplies and her rifle banging into her armor and upsetting her balance at times. Also, the movement meant she was bending her knees a bit more than while just walking, and she had to be careful of her hastily-rigged prosthetic leg. After a while, she ended up climbing mainly with her three organic limbs, just resting the man-made one on the rungs without much pressure on it, afraid that her left leg would just pop off and drop back to the forest floor.

A couple feet from the opening, she leaned forward against the support of the hide. One at a time, she pulled off her rifle and duffel and set them down on the wooden planking before shoving them farther into the ‘room.’ Then she pulled herself up and over, a bit bemused that chivalry was apparently not an option for a female Mandalorian soldier, despite the man’s injuries. Kneeling, she scooted over to where her things lay. Ambria propped the rifle up against the wall behind her and took off her helmet, setting it beside the weapon, and then she zipped open the bag, digging through her hastily assembled supplies from the Triad, mind already on the next task at hand.

Pulling a few items out—kolto patches, vials and hypos, bandages, a small knife, among other things—she finally turned an emerald-eyed gaze to her temporary companion. He was sitting across the hide from her and appeared to be still dealing with his situation well enough. She didn’t notice any signs of shock setting in. Ambria also saw that he had removed his ragged poncho, revealing the full armor that he had worn. They had been a nice set as far as she could tell; it was a shame they had gotten so messed up. A smidgen of guilt rose up inside of her, despite the fact that her transport’s crashing was not her fault, but she quickly swallowed this down.

Clearing her throat as well as her head, she moved to carefully crouch beside the man’s left side, taking her handpicked medical supplies with her. “All right… let’s see what we’ve got.” Ambria pulled a glowstick from her utility belt and shone it over the piece of metal stick out of the gash in the man’s leg; with the other, she used her fingers to lightly peel back the edges of his torn clothing—some kind of legging or body glove—in order to get a better idea of where the shrapnel had landed. Looked like it had missed bone and the femoral artery, for which she was thankful, but still had caused a good amount of damage.

“Here, hold this.” She shoved the glowstick into the man’s hands before bending back over the wound. “Sorry, but…” Ambria grabbed the lightweight black cloth on either side of the metal rod and wound and ripped it open farther with a quick jerk. Blood released from its previous compression starting rushing out in time to the man’s pulse. Quickly, she grabbed some gauze and packed it around the piece of shrapnel, slowing down the bleeding for the moment.

Sitting back on her heels, she pondered her next move. Removing the rod would cause extensively more blood loss, but she couldn’t rightly leave it in, either, allowing more infection and possible gangrene to set in. The timing would have to be just right… Ambria glanced back behind her at the open bag of supplies, then back to the man. “Any alcohol in this place?” She had thought to bring a couple small bottles with her, but for the purposes she would need to use it for, a lot more would be preferable. "Or... even a nearby stream?"

[Ash]

((Again, I am sorry for taking so long to post.))

As the Mandalorian made her way up into the hide, Zwei made to grab her rifle and bag, moving them away to make room for her. As her armor clad body made its way into the hide, it creaked, swaying with the wind and rain, but it had no signs of breaking apart. Once again, Zwei was glad at what Azura was able to make and provide for him.

The assassin watched as the woman began to go through her bag after setting her rifle behind her. She pulled out some medical equipment, and other things, including a small knife, and them moved closer to him. Instinct willed him to fight back or back away, but he pushed that away in an instant, sitting still, dark eyes hard.

Speaking a few words, the Mandalorian pulled out a glowstick, then began to check out the massive wound in Zwei's leg, where the piece of metal was imbedded. Right after, she shoved the glowstick into his hands, which surprised him slightly, then ripped his formfitting black suit, exposing more of the wound, and causing some blood to gush out. He grunted in pain, closed his eyes, and sharply inhaled, but besides that, made no sounds. He focused hard on random thinks, taking his mind off the pain he felt in his leg.

At least you warned me.

The woman packed some gauze around the rod in his leg, holding it in place and slowing the bleeding once again. It would be a good while before his regenerative abilities stop the bleeding all together and the wound closes. It wasn't like the gash above his eye which was already nearly fully healed with hardly a mark.

In that bag over by that rifle is some whiskey and water bottles. That's all I have on me right now.

Also inside that bag was a second formfitting black bodysuit, as well as two changes of clothes, some power cells for a blaster, and magazines for a verpine pistol, and the virpine rifle next to it. There were also some random objects and things, making it look like a normal travel bag. The two most recognizable items was a engagement ring, with an infinity sign, on a chain necklace, and a white mask with some flame-like red designs around the eyes. It was a second mask marking him as someone who wasn't exactly friends with either the Sith or Mandalorians, if they heard of the man who wears a mask like that.

I'm not a doctor, but I have some training in self aid. The rod missed my bone and major artery. It should be fine with being removed, if we wash it, get some kolto in it, and wrap it up.

He knew that was all that was needed for it to be healed up. In a day or so, he would just need to remove all the gauze or whatever was packing it, spray it down with another healthy dose of kolto, and the would would be nice and healed, albeit with a nice scar on his leg for a while. Infection would also be fought off, so he wasn't too worried about that.

He leaned back, resting against one of the walls of the hide, and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. His hands were shaking slightly, and this calmed him down, and his shaking stopped. He knew he was running out of blood, so this wound would need to be patched up quickly. Preferably before shock set in, and without this Mandalorian learning that he was a man who hunted down and killed her fellow Mandalorians when he was ordered to.

[Mara]

(((No worries… and same here, lol…)))


Ambria suppressed most of her obvious relief at the man’s answer, merely glancing at him with a grateful smile. She hadn’t been looking forward to the prospect of having to descend the rope ladder with the hindrance of her damaged prosthetic and then go searching for a nearby source of fresh water to supplement her own small supply of alcohol. Not to mention having to start a fire with rain-soaked timber in order to boil and sanitize the water to protect against infection in the open wound. And then she’d have to go back up into the tree stand somehow, carrying it. Much better for her to have everything at hand, for both parties concerned.

Still on her knees, with her face once again resolutely set in consideration of the task at hand, she shuffled over to the indicated bag. Foregoing the option of picking out the items and bringing them back with her, she instead just grabbed the edge of the sack and dragged the whole thing back with her, pushing it up next to her own supplies. Opening it, she rifled through it, feeling for the telltale signs of water containers and whiskey bottles. With her close-minded focus on helping the man, and the light of the glowrod still in his hand not reaching into the dimness, she didn’t register any details of the other objects and items within.

As she pulled out the whiskey and water, setting them next to the things she had already removed from her medical bag, the man offered up his opinion of treatment. Her head still bent over with what she was doing, he missed Ambria’s mouth twist upwards, showing her brief amusement at this diagnosis. He wasn’t telling her anything that she hadn’t already seen and figured out. This was far from her first time in encountering an injury of this type, and she had developed her own steps of dealing with them. No matter his experience, she felt confident that her skills were far more developed.

With everything laid out within her reach and as orderly as possible on the floor of the tree stand—her alcohol joining the other objects—she propped her arms against her thighs and straightened up to look the man in the eye, the emerald orbs all businesslike. “Okay, time to get started. Listen, I’m going to get this done as quickly as I can, to stave off as much blood loss as can be helped, as well as any infection. In order for me to do that, I need for you to remain as still and quiet as possible, no matter what.”

She reached for the bottle of whiskey, uncorked it, and held it out for him. Luckily it was still mostly full. “Here, to help with the pain. Take a nice gulp but leave the rest for me.” In case he had any thoughts of being a hero and skipping on the improvised anesthesia, Ambria added, “I’ve seen bigger men than you with much less serious wounds cry for their mothers, so this is no time for you to get all macho on me. Drink up.” It was truth, though perhaps stretched a bit; she had only encountered a couple of her fellow Mandalorians, all tough in battle, who had wailed like little girls when they had decided to brave medical treatment without anything to dull the pain.

“And if you need to, find something to bite down on,” she said after the bottle was returned to her. “I’m not quite sure how deeply this is embedded, but it’s sure to be extremely painful, and I can’t have you moving around while I’m working.” Ambria paused a moment, giving him a chance to do this if he so chose. Everything she was saying was pretty self-explanatory and clear, given what she could deduce from the man’s appearance and behavior. But sometimes common sense went by the wayside under shock and stress, and beings had to be reminded of the obvious.

Seeing that he was as ready as he would ever be for the trauma ahead, she nodded to herself and turned her attention to the metal rod sticking out of his leg. “Brace yourself.” She raised the whiskey bottle above the wound and proceeded to empty its contents into the opening, making sure the area around the shrapnel got a good dousing, partly for sterilization, partly for numbing the area. Then picking up some gauze in her left hand, she grasped the piece of metal with her right. After a deep breath, she yanked upwards.

A couple seconds later, the foreign object released with a wet suction sound, and immediately after, she tossed it aside and pressed the gauze to the spot that had just been vacated and started welling up with blood. Ambria went through a few rounds of gauze until she had gotten the bleeding somewhat under control. Now that she could see the damaged area, she carefully prodded around the ragged opening. Apparently satisfied with what she saw, she reached over next to her and picked up some small kolto patches, packing them around the hole. Then she used some larger ones to close up the gash. And then she pulled out a long bandage and wrapped it around tightly to hold the regenerative material in place, carefully lifting his leg as she did, so as not to jostle it.

Finished, Ambria sat back to check out her work. It had gone better than she had thought, but still, the man would need to get himself to a medical center once they got off this planet. She would have liked to have stitched up some of the frayed vessels and torn muscles, but needle and thinned animal gut thread were not things she had thought to bring with her. The kolto would do well enough for the time being in restoring the inside of the wound and protecting it so it could it start to heal. All in all, it was a fine job in her experience.

The dark-skinned woman turned her gaze back to her patient as she wiped her hands on a clean piece of gauze. “That should do you for now. I’d like to check it in an hour or two, but I’m confident that it will heal well. Except for a bit of a scar.” A smile crossed her lips. “But when it comes to losing a leg or gaining a scar, I’d go with the scar every time.” Reminded of her own battle loss, she bent her head away on the pretense of cleaning up the mess from the impromptu surgery—and to hide anything in her features that would have given her away.

Her hand felt the familiar cylinder of a pneumatic hypo filled with a mixture of antibiotics. It was halfway back into her medical bag when she changed her mind. Without looking at him, she said, “I almost forget… to help with infection…” Ambria found the fleshy part of the man’s thigh and jabbed the needle through his black body glove and injected him with the hypo’s contents. “There you go. All set until you can get professional treatment.” Quickly, she bagged up the rest of her items, including her glowrod taken from his hands, and tossed the empty bottle of whiskey into the man’s sack on top of his other belongings.

“Now is there anything else I can help you with? How’s the shoulder?” In the dim light coming in through the hide from the rain-soaked forest, she could hardly see the gash over his eye, but she was still concerned about whether he had set his dislocation right. Ambria would prefer to check it for swelling if he offered. Otherwise, she wanted to move on to other matters, most importantly being whether or not he had a way to get off this planet, or to at least send a communication. She was anxious to get back to her battle group and join them at Ordo.

[Ash]

Zwei sat still as the Woman went through his bag, laying out what she needed, as well as thing she would need from her own bag. Her movements in prepping and organizing everything showed she had plenty of practice at surgery, even impromptu such as this.

While she was doing that, he ripped off a part of his sleeve from his arm, then folding it so he would have something to bite down on. Without any anesthetics, this was going to hurt more than anything else today. A small smile appeared on his face, if but for a second, as his mind paralleled this to being shot.

Zwei perked up when the Woman began to speak once again, telling him that she was about to start on the rod in his leg, and that he needed to stay as still and quiet as possible. He should be able to remain still, but quite... hopefully she didn't mind grunts of pain.

Then she handed him the whiskey bottle, telling him to take a nice big swig of it. That is exactly what he did. Zwei took a nice long draw... then a second and third from the bottle, coughed, and handed the bottle back to her. He had a small smile on his face, surprisingly, as he found it funny what she said about her seeing larger men cry for their mother.

Don't worry. You wont hear me cry out for my mother.
Or any family for that matter.

Such as it was for the amnesiac man, who had no memories beyond about four years ago, and nothing outside of Azure, his 'employers'. Soon he would need to get away from them, but for now he had to deal with this issue.

When the woman mentioned about something for him to bite on, he held up his torn material, which was folded well enough for him to use. He could feel his mind slightly numb from the whiskey now, but only just. Now she told him to brace himself.

Go ahead.

He stuck the material in his mouth, grabbed the sides of his body-glove with his hands, and tensed up, making sure that he wouldn't flinch. He felt the chillness from the whiskey being emptied onto his wound, then, seconds later, the extreme pain that was the Woman ripping the foreign object out of his leg. He grunted in pain, eyes closing, but he didn't flinch beyond the flexing and arching of his back.

Zwei felt himself become lightheaded almost to the point of blacking out during this part, but... hell, he wasn't even sure if he remained conscious during the entire sequence. Before he was really comprehending anything again, the Woman was wrapping a bandage around his leg. He let the material he had in his mouth fall out as he sighed, relaxing his muscles. His non-injured leg let out a small spasm, but otherwise was still as he got his breathing under control. His eyes were closed as she spoke once again. In fact, they were up until the point where she stuck him with the hypo.

Ow. Hey now.

Zwei sat back again, eyes closed as he let himself relax once again. He knew it was bad to relax, but his body now felt worn out from the day's events. This was just the topping on the cake now. He opened his eyes when the Woman spoke once again.

Shoulder's fine. Everything else is just a few a few possible broken ribs and some lacerations. Check them out if you want to.

Zwei leaned forward, grabbing a small, mostly hidden zipper at his neck, and pulling it down, which opened up his glove, allowing him to take his arms out and pull it down to his waist. His torso showed bullet holes, blaster burns, stab marks, and slashes, some of which looked like they should have killed him. His chest showed some busing on his left side, and some dried blood spotting his chest, and arms, but besides a handful, there were no more open wounds, as the small cuts were already healed, not even showing a scar. He leaned back again when he had his top pulled down, eyes slightly open.

[Mara]

(((So sorry for getting to this so late…)))

The dark-skinned woman wasn’t all that surprised, given the short time she had spent in the man’s company, when he confirmed her suspicions: he felt his shoulder and other injuries were non-issues and seemed ready to close the subject. And despite her curiosity in wanting to see if this were indeed true, she was willing to discard it. She had dealt with the most life-threatening wound he had; the others could wait a while. He was stable and appeared relatively pain-free. Perhaps when she checked on his leg, she could also give him a once-over. Ambria was inclined to let him be and question him on other matters.

Already thinking about how to broach the topic of escape, she had started unfolding her legs in order to stretch out and relieve sore muscles and hadn’t really caught his offer to go ahead and look at his other injuries. It wasn’t until she realized he had stripped down to his waist that she looked up, startled, halfway between a kneeling pose and a reclining one. But to her credit, the shock left her face rather quickly and was replaced by her former medic demeanor. “All right…” She nodded and then gathered her knees under her again and moved a bit closer, reaching to grab the glowrod from her bag.

She waved the light over his chest with one hand as she lightly probed with the other, checking everywhere but focusing on the left side. Ambria wanted to be sure that if the ribs had broken, they had broken without impacting any internal organs. There wasn’t anything she could really do about the ribs; they would heal on their own. However, internal bleeding would be another matter. Among the various scarring throughout the area, though, she saw no signs of anything more serious than just the bruised and possibly shattered rib or two.

Satisfied that there was nothing that demanded her attention there, she switched her attention to his shoulder. “I’m sure your shoulder is fine, but a second opinion can’t hurt, right?” She had seen him push it back into place, but the woman wanted to make sure that it had been a clean dislocation and relocation. Ambria felt around the socket area, careful not to press too hard among the remaining bruising. Everything felt normal and correct to her touch, and she hid her amazement at this discovery.

“Okay, you should be back to whatever it is you do in a few days. Just take it easy for a while and let yourself heal up.” Ambria leaned over to put her glowrod away again. “I still want to check on your leg in another hour or two, make sure no infection is setting in. But for now, you’re all set.” She finally allowed herself to sit back then, stretching her legs in front of her and leaning against one of the walls of the hide, near her gear and weapons.

After a moment or two of letting her muscles relax, she turned her emerald eyes on the man in the dim light of the space. It was time to get down to business. “So what brings you… here?” She still had no idea which planet she had crash-landed on. “More importantly, how did you get here? Do you have a transport?” Ambria really wasn’t interested in why this man had crossed paths with her; she just wanted out and back to her fellows. However, she had been raised with some sense of etiquette and wanted to be polite before asking for what was on her mind, even if her heart really wasn’t into it and it came out sounding more abrupt than intended.

[Ash]

Zwei remained quiet as the Mandalorian woman did a once over of his body, checking his chest and shoulder mostly. When she was finished, she sat back, stretching her legs and leaning against one of the other walls of the small hide. There were a few moments of silence while he threw his mangled body suit back on, and it seemed like as soon as he did, the woman had more questions for him.

Zwei set his dark eyes on the woman, taking her in once again. He studied her, reading the tone of her words. It seemed like the conversation was forced, but it was something, considering that he thought that the Mandalorians were his enemies, and that there was one right near him. So, he decided to tell the truth, or rather, half truth, and see what information he could get from her in return, if he played his cards right.

What im doing here? I was... hunting. There was some prey here my employers were interested in, and i was sent out to track and kill. At least until someone decided to land a starship on me. I didn't know Mandalorians had anything to do with Maridun.

Well, if they tried to commit suicide to try to kill me, they will need better aim...

Zwei smiled faintly at his small joke of the ship 'landing' right near him. It was funny, he thought, that he could joke about near-death so easily. Now his smile was gone; disappeared just as fast as it showed up, as he waited for a reply from the woman.

[Mara]

Ambria had to swallow down her disappointment when the man failed to address her most important question. Maybe he was just being methodical, or maybe he just didn't feel comfortable revealing his method of transport. Perhaps she would have to cultivate this conversation a bit more before she was able to get the answers she desired most. Though, she had saved his leg and his life; she would have thought that would have counted for something in her favor.

Instead, she listened as he explained his purpose into coming to this seemingly deserted backwater planet. Apparently he had been hired for a job. The dark-skinned woman nodded, taking his word as truth; obviously this location was not a pleasure center for recreational activities. That was about the only reason she would have come to such a place as this: orders from above. A staunch stickler to those in authority over her, she would have obeyed without a second thought.

But when he brought up the ship's crash landing again, Ambria's bitterness at his blocking of the information she wanted dissipated with a wince. A slight blush rose on her cheeks before she checked her emotions and pushed down her embarrassment. It wasn't as if she had had any control of what had happened to the Triad. And she had lost her entire complement of soldiers in the process.

Still, she felt she had to say something to apologize, to get in better graces with the man. Anything she could do to get what she wanted from him. Without revealing too much about the Mandalorians' plan, of course. More than one being could play the limited information game. So with a wry smile, she spoke. "I am sorry about that. And honestly, I still don't know what went wrong to cause us to depart hyperspace early and not at our intended destination. And... everything went to kark from there." Ambria turned her eyes away for a moment, remembering.

Then something else he had said finally registered with her, and she snapped out of her remembrance of just a few hours prior.  She moved her gaze back to the man, sadness no longer showing in her green eyes, but curiosity. "So, this is Maridun?" Not waiting for an answer to what she meant as a hypothetical question, she continued. "I'll have to be sure to pass that along to my superiors and have it added to our charts." Ambria smiled lightly.

[Ash]

Poo doo happens. You're alive, which is all that matters.

The way Phantom said that almost implied that he didn't care if he died under that crash. Maybe he didn't, after living for 4 years without a past, and doing almost nothing but kill people. But his time wasn't then.

Now, for a ship, I don't have one, but it shouldn't be too hard to steal one, if you're up to it.

Phantom adjusted himself slightly, careful about his leg. The pain was starting to lessen up ever so slightly, which was good for him. When she mentioned the planets name, he smiled slightly, and looked her in the eye. He was mainly testing her reaction now.

I don't remember saying the name of this planet, so how would you know what its called if it wasn't in your charts? But yes, its Maridun.

There were many ways to answer that question, but Phantom just wanted to get a good feel on the woman before him, and who didn't like to poke fun at people here and again?

[Mara]

She had nodded at his comment, conceding. Yes, at least she was alive. Ambria would live to fight another day, another mission, another battle, for the Mandalorian cause. Though it was a hard pill to swallow, all the same. Especially with the wreckage of the Triad spread across the plains a few klicks away, filled with the thirty corpses of her fallen comrades, men and women under her command whose deaths were in vain. It would take her awhile to get over the loss, but first she had to get off this barren rock.

But then her forehead had knitted in confusion as he finally addressed her main concern. This man hadn't a ship berthed somewhere on the planet? Ambria wondered how he had gotten here. The obvious was that he had been dropped off,  but then he would have also arranged some kind of pick-up. And his mention of stealing a ship ruled that option out. She supposed he could have hitched, but the woman found it hard to believe that this planet was anywhere near major space lanes. A pilot would have asked a hefty payday to deliver a passenger here.

Before Ambria could remark on this oddity, he called her out. And wrongly, at that. She was positive the man had mentioned the name of the planet just a moment ago, or what she had assumed what he had been referring to as the planet. First, the curiosity of his being without transport, and now this; the woman's alertness cycled back up. Subtly shifting her body slightly to put her in better reach of her weapons, she lifted a dark eyebrow. "I have a pretty good memory myself, and you brought up the name of Maridun. After you brought up my ship's almost landing on you." This time, no sadness entered her gaze, but instead a coiled readiness.

[Ash]

Phantom watched as the woman before him as he falsely accused her of knowing this planet or not. She shifted ever so slightly, almost unnoticeably, closer to her weapon. He eyed her carefully for a few heartbeats, before he started to laugh, which quickly turned into a wheeze.

Sorry, just a joke. Oh that hurt.

Phantom covered his stomach and chest with his arms, a smile still on his face, despite the pain he was feeling. Physical pain was easily worked though, as much as anything. After a moment, he let his arms fall and his smile fade away. His head leaned against the wall his back was on.

I don't know about you, but im hurting, and going to sleep. The wilds won't do anything to us up here, so you should do the same.

And like that, Phantom's body loosened up, and his breathing slowed down. He wasn't asleep yet, but it would be pretty hard for anyone other than a machine to tell. His senses were aware of every sound and movement. He would eventually allow himself to sleep, so his body can heal faster than it is now, but he had yet to earn the woman's trust, and her his, so he would wait and listen, or the moment at least.

[Mara]

(((Decided not to jump to morning... I didn't want to presume where Zwei was...
But I can extend it if you like...)))


Ambria's brows rose. A joke? This man was becoming more and more of an enigma for her. When they had first encountered each other, he had been dressed in armor and nothing chintzy either. He had apparently come to this backwater planet for some kind of a job, nothing good, in her opinion. And he hadn't arrived on his own ship, and she had no idea how he had actually gotten to Maridun. Every time the dark-skinned woman thought she was making headway, she was left with more questions. She didn't feel remorse when his laugh turned into a cough; served him right to play with her.

Still, she edged her arms back away from her belt holsters as he sat back and appeared to be relaxing and said as much to her. Ambria watched as the man across from her in the tree hide effortlessly let himself slide into sleep without waiting for a response from her. She needn't give one, but she nodded anyway, for protocol's sake as well as for her own. The female Mandalorian was at least in agreement on this point: they would both need their rest if they planned on trying to depart Maridun in the morning. And she was reasonably sure that they were safe up here from native predators. As for each other, the jury was still out on that one.

Keeping her emerald eyes on her companion for a few minutes to make sure he was actually out and not just doing a fair representation in order to keep tabs on her, she allowed her own body to relax. The day had been an exhausting one with everything that had gone on, and she began to realize how tired she actually was, her lids feeling suddenly heavy. Making a quick inventory of her gear and weapons nearby and one last check on the man, she was satisfied that all was well for the time being. Ambria then closed her eyes, figuring on taking just an hour or two's rest to recoup her energy...

[Ash]

((Ok, ill move us to morning then. I dont know what Ambria would be doing, so ill try to keep it neutral. If you need me to change something, just let me know.))

Phantom waited long in silence, and finally, he heard Ambria move around a bit, probably just to get situated, then fall silent. If was then that Phantom decided it would be best to go into a light sleep.

It seemed like moments before Phantom was awake again, only he wasn't in the hide. He was, in fact, in a house. It seemed to be an older one, but still well build. Outside the window to his left was a nice, rural townscape, and some shops built right into the houses as well. Somehow, he knew he was on Corellia. This made his heart skip a beat, then beat faster.

Phantom walked out of the room he was in, and stepped into the bathroom. In the mirror, he saw a face that was like his, but wasn't his. His eyes, though still an almost black-blue color, held light, and didn't have the looks of a killer. His hair was also noticeably shorter, and more well kept. Quickly, Phantom stripped off his shirt. His body wasn't as well built up, and didn't have any of the many scars that it normally held.

Honey, come down for breakfast.

Chills were sent up Phantom spine as he heard that voice. It was something so familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. He threw his shirt back on, then made his way out of the bathroom and down a set of stairs slowly. He turned a corner to his right, and a kitchen came into view, with a woman with long black hair, held together around the middle of her back, about halfway down her hair, by a white ribbon.

She must have heard his footsteps, as she turned around. Before he could see her face, however, the entire world was thrown into a fire pit. Fire and busted metal surrounded Phantom, and his entire body was in an intense pain. Just when he thought it was too much, the scene switched again: he was in a white room, the smell of disinfectant and blood strong. Men and women in white were working on his body. He was in so much pain that he just wanted to scream, but all he could do was stare at the ceiling.

One of the doctors saw that his eyes were open and aware, so he pressed a mask to his face. Internally, Phantom screamed at this, as the entire world started to black out.

Phantom woke up in the hide now, covered in a cold sweat and a gun in his hand pointed strait out. His breathing was heavy on account of the dream turned nightmare. Once he regained his senses, he dropped his gun and pressed a hand to his eye and forehead, working on slowing his breathing... He haven't had something like this happen to him in a long time, but he normally drank himself to sleep almost every night. Right now he didn't care if Ambria was awake or asleep of even here. The events of the dream were going around in his head. He didn't even hear the birds chirping in the pre-dawn light.

((Ok, there we go. Phantom would have been shifting around in his sleep, and probably wake up on his back, gun pointed strait at the ceiling.))

[Mara]

Her eyes fluttered open. For a moment she wasn't sure where she was, the surroundings unfamiliar, and she immediately tensed for a fight. But then everything from the day before came back to her: the crash, the man, the field dressing of his leg, the tree hide. Ambria took in a deep breath of fresh air that still held a frosty bite from the night and relaxed once again. In the distance she could hear some kind of animal, probably avian, twittering away, and soft light was just beginning to make its way into the dark structure. She had slept later than planned; her exhaustion must had been greater than she had thought.

Ambria sat up a bit more, stretching and flexing her sore muscles from sleeping propped up against the wooden wall. Though she hadn't wanted to be out that long, it had been a blessing in disguise. Her sleep had been deep and restful and restorative and, most importantly, dream-free this time around. No visions of her family back on Mandalore. No painful memories of her husband, lying dead in her arms. Instead she had woken up completely energized and without any need to block away any lingering mental anguish.

She looked over to the companion fate had forced on her, just in time to see laying there on his back, a blaster pistol in his hand and pointed upwards. So much had she been enjoying her blissfully blank night and subsequent waking, Ambria hadn't noticed the movement until then. Reacting quickly as she had been trained, within a second she had one of her own weapons trained on the man. The Mandalorian soldier didn't feel any intent in the gesture--she was not being targeted, after all, not yet anyway--but did feel a need to gain control of the situation in case it went south.

But a few moments later, he dropped the blaster and put a hand to his face. Ambria counted out several more seconds before lowering her own weapon. She didn't replace it in her belt holster but held it in a relaxed grip against the floor of the hide. Carefully, she watched him, wondering if he was having some kind of mental breakdown, if he was hallucinating attackers, but he just remained where he was, stuck within his mind and whatever had garnered such a violent response.

Pulling herself into a cross-legged position, she set her blaster on a knee and leaned forward towards the man. She cleared her throat. "You got anything in this joint that could pass for breakfast? Or do we need to head down and rustle up something?" Ambria had briefly considered questioning the man on what had happened, but she wanted to respect his privacy, and it really was none of her business. If the tables had been turned, she would have hoped he would have done the same. Besides, if she wanted his help, irritating him would only make things more difficult.

[Ash]

After a moment, Phantom put his hand down and sat up. He was still sore, but his wounds pained him a lot less than before. He looked over at Ambria, who just lowered her own weapon. She must have been wondering what the hell just happened, and she could wonder all she wanted. Even Phantom wondered himself.

After a moment, she pulled herself into a cross-legged position, setting her blaster on her knee, then inquired onto if he had anything to eat, or if they needed to go find their own food. Phantom brought food, of course, just rations that were meant to last him for his trip, and then a little more, just in case. It was nothing special, but food was food.

Phantom slowly stood up, went to his bag, and pulled out two stripped down MRE's, and tossed one over to Ambria, then he took a seat and started to open up his. The main meal was some sort of meat, if you could call it that, stew.

That's the best I got until we get back into town

Phantom took a bite of his food, and just chewed it idly, lost in his thoughts about what he was dreaming of last night... He was still thrown off about why that has happened, but it was something he could think about later, when they finally got off this planet.