Down in Flames [FZ]

[Rugs]

Alarms blared.

Locke stumbled down a narrow corridor, clinging to a slender metal handrail as an explosion rocked the ship around him. “We were almost gods-damned home!” he yelled at no one in particular, venting frustration as a pipe burst overhead and nearly vented hot steam onto the crown of his skull. “Damn it, damn it, damn it!”

The comm tucked in one of his coat pockets bleeped as he lurched back into motion. “What?” he growled, not bothering to hide his irritation.

“Pods are jammed, Locke.” This was the voice of Miir, the Preponderance’s steadfast captain. He was a good man. Or a good Sephi. Locke didn’t really care to get the phrasing right at that moment. “That last hit made sure of that. Not that they’d be much help since there’s an atmosphere leak in the aft end anyway.”

“So you’re telling me we’re trapped,” Locke said. “Is that what you’re telling me?”

Silence hung for a moment. “Yeah, more or less.”

“Fan-freaking-tastic,” Locke muttered.

Another hit slammed into the vessel, making it rock and wail as the lights dimmed, then came on again.

“Fortunately, I think I can get us down in one piece,” Miir said. “Gonna be rough, especially once we hit atmosphere. Gonna have to find something to hold onto. But the world is habitable.”

“Well that’s good,” Lock answered, ducking under a bulkhead that was struggling not to collapse under it’s own weight.

“Yeah, well, bad news is it’s Vendaxa. But better than getting blown to smithereens up here.” Miir’s tone said he thought landing on the world was only a very slight improvement. Locke was inclined to agree.

“If you can get us down, get us down,” he said. “I’m still trying to find Jazen.”

“Will do.”

Locke swore in four different languages as the ship groaned from a sudden shift in direction. Something on the outside hull sounded like it broke, but he couldn’t concern himself with it.

“Jazen!”

Everything had gone well, up to that point. They’d left Coruscant to put a stop to major criminal activity in the outer rim that threatened the peace of nearby Republic worlds—Naboo, Drukenwll, others. All of them fell under the shadow of a fledgling group that was terrorizing spacers with piracy, abducting civillians to sell into slavery and worse.

Locke had an informant in the organization, so stopping them was just a manner of patience and finesse. Cut off the head and let the body die, rather than run in, guns blazing.

That’s what they did. The whole of the organization’s leadership was either dead or in custody, and a joint effort of planetary security forces would clean out the straggling henchmen that still hung on here and there.

The job was long and grueling. It was hard, even for Locke. But he’d accomplished everything he could’ve hoped to, save one thing.

Rumor was that someone controlled the group from a far — played the leaders like puppets from the shadows. Locke and Jazen had dug, and they’d dug deep, but nothing turned up.

Ultimately, they had to abandon the rumor as just that — a rumor.

Finally, they left to return home, leaving on what, to the rest of the Galaxy, appeared to be an unremarkable personal starship. Locke’s informant was in tow; he’d be set up for a new life on another world on the other side of the Galaxy under a witness protection program.

And that would be that. Jobs like this were never easy, but they were incredibly rewarding when accomplished.

That was until the ambush.

Apparently, some remnants of the busted organization knew what was happening, and they weren’t happy.

An asteroid had been placed in the hypserpace lane ahead of them, forcing them to drop back to real space.

They’d been battered by a frigate with some nagging fighters—nothing a military vessel couldn’t take, but the Preponderance was unarmed and lightly armored.

Hyperdrive disabled. Engines damaged and limited. Escape pods jammed and atmosphere in a now-sealed-off section of the ship leaking.

They’d flooded S.O.S. messages to the Republic and the Jedi like a screaming child, but it would take time. The only way to survive the sudden turning of the tides was to go down, to Vendaxa.

Even then, surviving landing was no sure thing.

“Jazen!” Locke called again, as another one of Miir’s maneuvers made the dying vessel shudder. “We need to get to the front! We’re going down!”

[Jazen]

If someone had to choose the most effective, yet annoying, yet alarming way to be woken from their bed, Jazen noted, this would most definitely rank well up the list.

Seriously, who wouldn't consider a possible life or death situation an effective and annoying way to wake up?

Case in point; the current situation Jazen found himself in right now. Everything had been good before, a quiet ride home from a rather simple, yet taxing mission out in the Outer Rims. Him and Master Locke had been sent out to the boonies of the Outer Rim to deal with criminal activity that was threatening nearby Republic worlds, such as Naboo and Druckenwell, places they'd been before, as well as others they had not. The majority of the crimes were being committed by a single group, whose crimes were and not limited too slavery and pirating, as the key ones.

The job had been mostly following leads, checking reports, following the trail Locke's informant gave them to follow, all with a single goal in mind. Find the head of this gorram snake and cut it off cleanly. Like any animal in the wild (or most in this galaxy), if you cut off the head, the rest will quickly die behind it. That had been the plan, a tedious plan with long hours and days plan, but the plan nonetheless. As Jedi, both of them were well acustomed to having to be patient and wait out the long storm before daylight appeared on the horizon. And they knew it would come; didn't mean it wasn't a massive pain to have to wait for it.

Finally, after their long game had been played as much as it could be, they got the job down. The head was cut off, the sub-commanders of the whole thing either joining their boss or now spending some quality time behind Republic bars. The only thing that was left to them at that point was a rumor of someone else running the job behind the scenes, a shadow within a shadow. In the end, however, nothing could be found to justify that. And so, exhausted and hoping to spend some quality time back home to recover, the two of them had taken an unassuming transport for the trip back to Coruscant.

Guess they should have dug a little harder.

The Force gave Jazen the warning about a moment before the ship tossing him from his bunk told him that something was going wrong. At least he had the mind to avoid smashing his face into the bulkhead. Jazen was surprised, pissed but probably most of all, he was suddenly alert. The ship hadn't even shaken for a second time before Jazen was tossing on his robes, grabbing his equipment and diving off into the halls, his mind alive with questions and what he needed to do.

Find his Master. Then find out what the frell was going on.

It didn't take long to find out either. The crew were already yelling to one another that they were being attacked; a frigate apparently, with a little swarm of fighters. Nothing a ship this size with weapons couldn't handle. Of course, this ship didn't have weapons; that had been the point of using it. Unarmed. Unassuming. Not worth anyone's time. Apparently not.

Locke himself was already screaming down the place for him, but Jazen would have found his Master in the chaos even if he wasn't. Like all Jedi masters and their students, the two of them had a bond in the Force that only they shared. It was like a tether between the two of them; all one had to do was follow it back. So Jazen followed it and was greeted with the reward...of almost getting run down by the man himself. Dodging aside, Jazen had to brace himself against the hull as the ship shook again. Favoring his Master with a half-smile, Jazen glanced around quickly before making a move towards the bridge of the ship.

"Guess things were getting a little too quiet. Any idea who decided to ruin our track record of things going well?" There was a bit of sarcasm and humor in that statement, but then, it did help keep his mind off the fact that they were going down. To the planet. In a ship that was likely crashing. Oh yea, try not to think about that too hard.

[Rugs]

“I’ve got a few guesses,” Locke growled at his student’s question. His ire wasn’t directed at Jazen — the lad hadn’t done anything to warrant it — but just about everything and everyone would be getting the short end of Locke’s temper until they got to safety.

And probably for a while after, Jedi Code be damned.

“Unfortunately, the list of ass-holes I’ve pissed off in one life or another is too long to recount, and these particular ass-holes are ready to cash in on a bad check.” He moved back toward the front of the ship, a hand on Jazen’s back to keep the boy moving forward through the rattling ship. “We’ll figure it out l-“

Something shook the ship from bow to stern.

“Miir!” Locke screamed loud enough to cut through the alarms’ incessant squealing. “What in the seventy-five hells are you doing?!”

“Sorry Locke, I can’t take the credit,” he Sephi answered over the comm. One of our engines got stressed too hard. Blew out.”

Locke paused for a moment to grab some first aid kits, shoving a few into Jazen’s hands with a muttered command to take them — Force only knew what condition the ship (and its passengers) would be in when it made it to ground.

If it made it to ground.

“Great,” Locke said, ducking behind Jazen as a wire blew out overhead. “Can we still make it down to the surface?”

“I’m not some baby pilot on his first flight, Nemsee.” Miir nearly sounded indignant. “Engine’s not what we got to worry about. It’s our friends lettin’ us get down. But,” he stressed the word, cutting in before Lock got a malevolent crack in edgewise, “they’ve been backing off. Not sure why.”

“Cause they want to watch us burn to a damn crisp, that’s why.” Locke didn’t mutter the complaint into the comm.

The reached the bridge, door struggling to slide open to allow them in and shut once they were past. Miir worked like a fiend at the controls, while Locke’s informant, a round, balding man, sat strapped into a seat with his eyes firmly shut. His gripped the armrest with white knuckles.

“Gods be damned, of all the worlds for this to happen above…” Locke looked through the viewport. Vendaxa was below. The world’s start hung was ahead, the line between twilight and full morning below. The space around the world was brilliant—illuminated a bright, beautiful yellow. Locke wasn’t in the mood to find much beauty in anything. “Vendaxa…”

“Locke, strap in,” Miir warned. “We’re about to hit atmosphere.

Locke began to move. The ship hit resistance and buckled beneath them.

[Jazen]

To any outsider looking in, Locke's reply to Jazen might have sounded like a teacher scolding a student using only tone of voice rather than actual words. It would have been understandable; the situation they were in was rather pooched, what with death likely coming for them all via a fiery crash into the ground. It's not exactly the thing a normal person would find humorous. Which Jazen did not, at least the crashing and dying part anyway.

But Jazen knew Locke was not angry with him; he was angry at the giant mess they were now in. Just once, Jazen was sure, he wished they could finish a mission without something going terrible wrong. A pipe dream to be sure, but one could hope. So while Locke took the stance of the man angry at the situation they were in, Jazen adopted the other half, the one that held onto hope and tried to ease the ire of the other through light humor.

"Maybe I should start listing people off that I know we've pissed off lately, starting from the latest?" Both the end of Jazen's words and the start of Locke's were cut off as the entire ship suddenly seemed to shift for a moment, Jazen latching onto the nearest hold on the wall and clinging to it for dear life while his Master hollered into his comm unit. Apparently while their captain was trying to get them down in one piece, whoever had put them into this situation obviously had other plans. So much for hoping they'd take a piece out of them and let them possibly make it down.

Suddenly Locke was thrusting medkits into Jazen's arms, the padawan juggling them for a moment as he was still death-gripping the wall. As he settled them down into a more manageable load, Jazen listened to Locke argue with the captain, waiting till he'd finished to chirp in. "Well, at least if they're backing off, we might still have a chance. They could have followed us in the whole way; pretty sure we'd really been toast then."

Following his Master onto the bridge, Jazen was about to seal the door when several people came rushing towards the door in their wake. Stepping aside, Jazen focused his will, the power of the Force, onto the door, forcing it to stay within the wall until the three had passed through; with the way the ship was lurching about and one of his hands occupied, it was much easier to keep the door ajar this way. Once they were in, and giving one last glance down the hallway for others, Jazen tugged with the Force, pulling the door sealed.

Dropping the medkits into a place where he hoped they wouldn't go flying about, Jazen quickly took one of the open seats on the bridge, snapping the straps closed around him and making sure they were good and tight. Everyone aboard the bridge was doing the same, while Miir was arm wrestling with the controls to keep the ship under control. If his intensity and determination were any indication of his skill...well, Jazen felt a little bit thinking that they were. Glancing to his Master, who was strapping himself in now, he gave a little worried smirk.

"Look on the bright side Master; at least there's a place to crash." Sure as heck beat being shot down in the middle of space, after all.

[Rugs]

There were few things Locke Nemsee could be grateful for, given his current trapped-on-a-flaming-and-crashing-starship situation. But given the absolute abruptness with which the Preponderance slammed into Vendaxa’s atmosphere, he could at some point in the future (if he remembered) thank the Force that he hadn’t been running his mouth at that particular point in time.

Otherwise, Locke Nemsee might not have a tongue, and that was a punishment the Galaxy did not at all deserve.

Instead he grunted as he nearly fell and broke his jaw on the ground, grabbing the back of the pilot’s seat for support with one hand and Jazen’s shoulder with the other.

“Gods damn it,” he growled as he muscled his way into an empty seat and strapped in. The Preponderance shook violently, and didn’t sound particularly healthy as it did. The scenic view of the stars and space beyond was gone, replaced by a translucent red glow and the faint curvature of the wild world below as the stricken ship streaked through the sky.

“At least there’s somewhere to land,” he repeated from Jazen, voice sounding almost thoughtful for a moment. Then he snorted. “Kid, I dunno. Not sure Vendaxa’s any better than getting’ burnt alive up here. Still no guarantee of livin’ — Not that I’m saying the landing is what might get us,” he quickly added to a sidelong glare from Miir.

“But Vendaxa…” Locke shook his head as a finger of cold slid down his spine. The planet below grew steadily larger. The glow of space grew steadily darker around the heat’s luminance. Lightning-lit clouds brewed below; a malevolent veil that hid the world’s hateful surface. “We’re gonna have our work cut out for us once we get down there.”

He desperately wanted to plan. To scheme or do anything to feel like he wasn’t the hostage of events he could not control set in motion by some person he did not know, and Jedi teachings be damned if they said he shouldn’t feel that way.

But there wasn’t much he could do without knowing where they’d land, or what condition they’d be in once they did.

Nothing more but sit and hope the Force would keep them safe.

“It almost makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” The informant asked. He had a surprisingly light, melodious voice for a man of his size. “If our friends there wanted to kill us, they surely could have by now. Instead they’re letting us fall to the surface, surely well aware that we may live…”

He paused, more to gather his thoughts than to let the importance of that possibility hang between them. He wiped his brow to dry away the sweat that was forming from the reentry heat that crept insidiously into the cockpit as the ship fell further through the atmosphere.

“It begs the question: Why?”

“Because they’re not done with us,” Locke said simply. Quietly. “But we might have something to say about that once we’re down.” On that, at least, Locke’s voice held conviction. He did not take kindly to others threatening those under his protection, and especially not his student.

“Well, we’re gettin’ closer,” Miir said, grip strong on the ship’s controls. The ship pierced a layer of dark clouds. Locke heard quiet hissing as moisture outside vaporized against the ship’s burning hull. “We ought to be coming down somewhere on the dusk line. Not ideal but doable. Might as well start bracin’ for impact.”

[Jazen]

Despite the situation, Jazen had to try very hard not to smile at his Master's quick change of words at a glance from their captain.Some part of Locke must have trusted that they would survive this landing; he wouldn't be trying to make sure he wasn't going to be arguing with the captain afterwards otherwise. It was a good sign and, in present situation, maintaining the thought...heck, just the appearance that everything was going to be alright was the best thing they could do. If everyone else saw in the two Jedi that the chance of survival was pretty bad, it probably wouldn't do well to encourage spirits.

Making sure his harness was secured as tightly as it was going to get while allowing him some breathing room so that he didn't get squeezed to death by it, Jazen glanced out the viewports to watch the incoming horizon. For all that they were hurtling to what easily could be a fiery and violent death, it made Jazen feel better to know that the chance was there to survive. Sure, it might be on a living hell like Vendaxa, but at least it wasn't a place like Hoth, where they would be very ill equipped to survive after.

"Don't worry Master; I don't spend all that spare time with Elys in the library for nothing; I'm pretty sure I've read a thing or two about the place. We won't be completely unprepared." Glancing out the window to see the planet rapidly getting closer, the ship rocking as it passed through the chaotic storm they had seen in the clouds from above, Jazen grimaced and muttered lightly to himself. "I hope..."

The surprising calm in the voice of their informant was something that Jazen had not expected, but it was another voice that clung to the hope of life, to the disbelief that this would be their end. And he didn't speak idle words either; his questions made sense and were ones to consider, especially if you believed you'd be around to answer them later. Glancing to his Master, Jazen nudged him slightly with the Force to draw his attention as he whispered back his own thoughts. "Maybe there's a reason they want us alive...or someone else onboard." Jazen's dark eyes trailed across the other crew and passengers, locking each one down in his memory for later. The pair across from them, the odler gentleman built like a human tank and his young ward, who couldn't be much older then Jazen stuck out in his mind, but he set it aside for now. That detail could wait till they knew life was in their future.

Jazen smiled back at the conviction he heard in Locke's words about what would happen if their enemy came for them on the ground. True, strapped into this seat, at the mercy and skill of their captain and gravity, Jazen and Locke were all but useless. But on foot, against an enemy they could see and feel, things would be very different. And they'd learn just how big a mistake it was letting the two of them live. "I think we might have quite a few things to say Master; I look forward to educating them to them."

After that, Miir's voice had them all silent as the planet got closer and closer. The time for words was over; everything now came down to the will of the Force...and Miir's skill. Taking a deep breath, Jazen watched as the ground came closer...closer...closer...and then the whole ship rocked, Miir managing to yell out hang on before the sound of metal on rock drowned him out...and the whole world went dark.

[Rugs]

Jazen, at least, could lighten Locke’s mood. A smile broke through the thunderheads that clouded his brow. For a brief, fleeting moment, Locke, sly and calms showed as he grinned at his student. “We are educated folk,” he said. “And I’d hate to leave our mutual friends in ignorance, wouldn’t you?”

But the ship shook like a thing possessed as it cut into the storm’s chaotic lower level. Locke’s smile faded. He bit his jaw and held on, fingers digging into the arm of his chair. Too many things to consider. Too many possibilities for attack, even among their crew.

What if the boy was right?

“Hard to see through all the rain and clouds,” Miir said, voice tight with concentration, “but scanner, or what’s left of the damn thing, is indicatin’ a village up ahead. Open plains around it, near a ravine. Gonna try to get us down there, but it’s gonna be rough. This storm’s nothing nice…”

The pilot’s voice seemed to fade into the background as Locke focused inward, as much to draw away from the chaotic surroundings as to let his mind run over the situation. Tiino and Tylan emphasized, during his padawan years facts were important things, especially to a budding Investigator.

The facts were that he was strapped into a seat in a flaming metal can that wasn’t so much flying to an extremely hostile planet’s surface as it was falling with some assistance from phsyics. The facts were that up in orbit there were several someones that were rather unhappy with him, his student, and possibly one of the people placed under his charge.

Now a new fact emerged, but it conflicted with Locke’s preconceived notions of the world they’d soon become quite intimate with.

“There are villages on Vendaxa?” he muttered. He exhaled deeply through his nostrils, clenching his jaw against another shudder reverberating through the ailing vessel. “Guess there’s no reason there wouldn’t be any. People live practically everywhere else….”

“But is that a blessing…” asked the informant, melodious voice haunting against the tortured metal’s creaks and groans, “or a curse?” The large man looked at the two Jedi, eyes dim in the dark light. \

“We’ll figure it out when we get to ground,” Locke muttered, filing the concern away with the rest of a seemingly-endless list of them. “They damn well better be friendly, though.”

“Won’t take long to find out,” Miir said. His voice was suddenly very loud. “Ground!”

Locke almost had time to ask a question before the ship slammed into the ground. The impact was jolting.

Suddenly everything was disorienting and incredibly, incredibly loud, like some great sea creature was dying. The ship rocked and scraped and bumped for what felt like an eternity, and then…

“Whew…” Miir sighed, leaning back in his seat. “We’re down, boys. Won’t be going back up, though. Not in this ol’ gal.”

Through the dirt-caked viewport, Locke saw a glimpse of lightning crack the sky overhead. Thunder, low and rumbling, followed a scant few heartbeats later.

Locke exhaled and leaned forward against his restraints. Suddenly he was thankful for them; his heart felt like it would beat out of his chest otherwise. “I… Well…” he couldn’t even think of something smarmy to say.

“Thanks for the heads up, Miir. Or I might not have a tongue. And Force save us if we lose that blessing…” it would have to do.

“Anyway, things aren’t over yet,” he continued, unbuckling himself from the seat. “Might as well see what state of affairs things are in here.”

[Jazen]

The world had become a rattling, rumbling, roaring shadow of itself.

From the moment the ship had made contact, Jazen's whole world had shrunk down to the tiny seat he was sitting in and the metal container they called a ship that it resided in. Everything outside was forgotten, his view of the world narrowing to that small space he was in, along with the chaos that had suddenly enveloped it. Jazen had thought the ship had been shaking hard when they were entering the atmosphere, the bridge shaking wildly under the barrage that mother nature and diving head first through the atmosphere always brought with it. Only without proper shields and half an engine.

It was nothing compared to the roller coaster of a ride that turned the world to a nightmare. Jazen wasn't sure what caused the darkness; whether it was him blacking out or simply shutting his eyes and praying to the Force that they made it through this in one piece. At one point, it felt like the chair underneath him was ripping from its seams and the whole world turned upside down...but that must have just been his imagination. It felt real though. So real that he could have sworn he channeled the Force to brace and steady himself.

As quickly as it had begun, the world was suddenly still and quiet. Save for the occasional sound of metal creaking, wires sparking and the cough and groans of the crew, the world was a much tamer place.

The sounds of the others quickly woke Jazen from whatever little spell he had gone under...and his first impression was that the world was all wrong still. Everything, from the ship around him to the stumbling forms of Locke and the others, was upside down. For a moment, dazed from the crash, Jazen thought his head must have taken a terrible knock or that he was still dreaming.

It didn't take him long to realize the truth. He was strapped into the chair...and the chair had relocated itself to the ceiling. Well...that was just embarrassing.

A quick survey of the situation told Jazen that the main reason he wasn't splattered across the ship interior was the weirdest one. His harness had held simply because the damn thing had gotten jammed; it wouldn't release no matter how hard he tried. After trying everything he could think of quickly(which wasn't much in this situation), Jazen reached for his lightsaber.

"Some might consider the loss of your tongue a blessing of the Force too Master." A chuckle from Miir at that brought a smile to Jazen's face as well; no doubt he had thought the same thing while Locke had shown a slight lack of faith in Miir's skill during the landing. "But I'm sure..." he said as his lightsaber buzzed to life and sliced easily through the back of the chair, cutting him free of the restraints and dropping to his feet on the floor below, "there would be plenty of ladies who would be upset as well."

Returning his saber to his belt and coming to Locke's side, Jazen glanced around the ruined bridge, taking stock of who was standing, who was struggling and any casualties the crash had taken(which was none, by some miracle). He quickly gave himself a patdown as well, searching for any injuries his little relocation might have given him. There was a slight gash on his temple and another on his arm, but they were minor wounds. Nothing that would affect him in the greater challenge to come.

"Well..our state of affairs is woozy, wounded but otherwise intact I think. Which won't last I'm sure if we stick around here too long. So...what's the plan Master? Make for these villages our "friend" here mentioned?"

[Rugs]

“You joke, Kiddo, but that would be a Galactic tragedy,” Locke shot back with a grin that hadn’t graced his face since their ignoble descent began. “Mourners would like the streets for days ahead of the funeral…”

It was all well and good to play — to joke to take their minds off of their situation. But they were alive, and Locke thought, as he watched Jazen free himself from his unfortunately-relocated chair, that that was enough to be satisfied with. For now.

Freeing himself from his own chair was a much simpler task than Jazen’s minor ordeal; he’d been shaken around rather severely during the crash, but his chair was still quite firmly on the floor. A bit of finagling and a swear here and there and he was free of his restraint to stand on wobbly legs and assess the damage.

Things could undoubtedly be better — they could still be on their merry way back home away from all of this nonsense — but they could be worse, considering the circumstances. The bridge, at least, was relatively intact, though a broken sensor insisted on beeping. Constantly. As if they wouldn’t hear it if it went off less than a thousand times in five minutes.

“Worse for wear, but wear’s been worse,” Locke muttered, as he walked to Jazen. He put a hand to the boy’s head. A soft light followed and the wound mended itself. Not completely, but enough to stop the bleeding and close some of the skin back up. “No need gettin’ that infected. And I have a feeling we may need to save some of our medical supplies.”

The rest of the Preponderance’s passengers stirred. Miir was fine. The contact was visibly shaken, but appeared to be okay. The others were in various states of shock and surprise but it seemed everyone would be okay.

“The ol’ girl held up,” Locke said to Miir. “She wasn’t meant to handle all this, but she did. At least we hav- oh will somebody shut that gods-damned beeping up?!” He punched a panel to accentuate the last word of his outcry. The beeping stopped, and was replaced for a moment with a yelp from Locke as one of the five senses was sure to remind him that punching metal usually wasn’t a good idea.

Miir chortled, and he could feel Jazen’s amusement as he sucked on his knuckles, but he didn’t care.

“Anyway,” he said, trying to maintain as much dignity as he could while sucking on his fist like a wounded school child. “First thing’s first. We need to check the condition of the rest of the ship and do a bit of scouting to figure out the area.” He glanced out the viewport, where the storm, angry and violent, continued raging. “We’ll have to make for somewhere eventually, but we aren’t going anywhere this weather.”

He turned to Miir. “Do we still have communications?”

The pilot shook his head. “Most of the systems are dead. She’s a shelter, but not much more than that.”

A shelter or a death trap? Locke’s stomach clenched, but he pushed the thought away. “Well, we’ll have to make do for now. After all, we’re resourceful folk.”

Locke turned to the door, wishing he could feel as optimistic as his words. “Anyway, come on, kiddo. We’ll check the ship while the rest of you get your bearings. Don’t go running off into the storm or anything.”

[Jazen]

It had taken Locke a serious amount of willpower to not show too much amusement about Jazen dangling from the ceiling from his adventurous chair. It took a considerable amount more to keep the laugh that threatened to break free from him when his Master slammed his hand into the constantly beeping panel, replacing that beeping with a cry of pained surprise. He tried really hard to keep himself under control; all that actually managed to sneak by was a slight squeak as he grinned like an idiot while trying to keep his jaw sealed tight. The situation they were in was bad but at least there were moments like these that reaffirmed they were alive...and through worse before.

Turning his to follow his Master's gaze, Jazen watched the storm brewing just beyond the shattered walls. The bridge was bounced, broken and messed up, but the hull and viewport had held form, which meant that none of the lovely weather outside was managing to get into here. The rest of the ship surely wouldn't be the same; it had taken a pounding, both from the attack and from the crash landing as well. There were sure to be breaches in the hull in places, if not whole sections gone. And though they had done well for the well-being of everyone in the bridge, Jazen doubted they'd be so lucky in the ship as a whole.

"Let's just hope this weather doesn't last too long. Probably won't be long before our "friends" up there come down to check if the crash finished us."

Following Locke out through the door, Jazen's thoughts about the condition of the rest of the ship were put to form. There were several punctures in the hull from where a few blasts had gotten through when the shields had weakened, some fires burning from where something electrical had exploded and set flame to anything nearby that would burn, scattered debris from damaged components everywhere. Injured crew-members stumbled about if they could, the rest slumped against the nearest bulkhead to rest while the crew in better condition got med-kits to tend to them.

And there were bodies. Not many of them, but here and there were crew who had been too close to something that exploded or had been hit by flying debris in a spot that had killed them quickly, if not instantly. Jazen had been expecting it...but it didn't help to feel that sting upon seeing the lives of so many innocent ended simply because someone or someones wanted them or another dead. It was a waste, pointless and the work of people who cared only for themselves at the end of the day. Inwardly, Jazen hoped whoever was responsible for this did come down for them; they'd find attacking them here wasn't so easy as taking on a defenseless starship.

"Looks pretty bad...seems the bridge escaped the worst of it. We should probably have these people relocate there; those gaps are like to let in more then the weather eventually. How about you help out here Master while I check out the supply rooms for anything useful we might need; use you're healing on those that you can. We'll meet back here in ten and take a look at what awaits us beyond these not-so-shiny walls. Sound enough?"

[Rugs]

“We can assume, probably correctly, that the storm will last for longer than we’d like,” Locke told his student as the door opened for them with a hesitant hiss. Thunder rolled over their heads, as if to emphasize his point. Locke found himself past the point of caring. “We can also assume, probably correctly that from now until our rescue arrives or we find a way out of this hellhole, that it’s us against the world.”

Comforting thoughts, and the pessimism might have been a bit unbecoming for a Jedi. But expectations needed to be kept in line with reality, and Locke, optimist that he liked to be, was not feeling particularly optimistic.

The rest of the ship dampened his mood further.

The Preponderance was a wreck, put simply. A smoking, burning wreck. Holes and tears dotted her hull, like big, gaping wounds. Rain fell in, thick and heavy. They had the thunderstorm to thank in part for keeping some of the fire under control, but the pooling water would present its own problems if it continued to rise.

What few crew members hadn’t made it to the ship stumbled around the wreckage if they lived. A fair few of them didn’t. As Locke pried open a door that’d jammed itself onto its threshold, he saw one poor soul who’d been skewered by a beam when the ship crashed to ground. “Force help us,” he sighed. He leaned down to close the man’s eyes, jaw muscles tense and moved on quietly.

Eventually they stopped in what had been corridor before the crash. Now it was just a twisted metal tube that was slowly filling with acrid smoke as a ruptured wire sprayed sparks intermittently. Locke leaned against a wall, shoulder drooping as he stared through a cracked viewport at the rain-soaked world outside.

Jazen spoke. He heard the padawan’s words, but didn’t answer for a few long, silent moments. Guilt ate at him. Where had he gone wrong? If he’d searched a little longer, dug a little harder for that shadow behind the shadows, would any of this be happening? Did I miss the signs? he wondered with a frown, rubbing his beard in distressed frustration. What if we’ve been led along the whole time and I never saw the signs? These… people were under my protection…

Worst of all was the unshakable feeling that he and Jazen were toys in a larger game, and the unquestionable knowledge that whatever hell they’d have to endure was only beginning.

“Go,” he said quietly. He looked to Jazen, a mix of emotions warring in his slate grey eyes. “The main storage was probably crushed during the landing, but there’s an aft supply room that may still be accessible. Don’t try to force anything if you can’t get in; we don’t know how stable the rest of this ship is.” Locked turned to move, then looked back at Jazen with urgency clear on his face. “And be careful Jazen. We’ve had too many people hurt here already.”

He managed a smile for a moment; a weak one, but it was better than none at all. “Besides, can’t have you suckin’ up all the bandages, kiddo. Go on. Be back in ten.”

He watched Jazen go, then allowed his thoughts to drift to the wounded. Three of them. Four dead. Guilt and fury made a strange cocktail. Locke forced them down; a Jedi should be levelheaded, at least, in times of trouble. Lightning crashed.

These were surely troubled times.

[Jazen]

As soon as Locke had gave the word, correction, words, Jazen was turning off into the rest of the ship, heading aft towards the engine room and supply compartments. He gave his master a parting look, giving him a smile that was out of place in this solemn situation. The situation was bad and was like to get worse but Jazen knew they'd manage to come through it. There hadn't been a threat yet that could stop the two of them when they worked as a team and this wasn't going to be the one that did them in. As long as Locke was around, Jazen could push aside the despair and negative influence of their situation. As long as Locke was here, everything would be fine.

"Don't worry Master. I'll make sure I don't trip over my own feet."

Then he was off, leaving behind the wounded, the dead, the alive but wearied. Leaving behind that look of pain on his Master's face in response to the fates of those who had not survived. It was painful and terrible that not everyone had made it through their rather eventful landing, but to have expected everyone to come out fit as a fiddle would have been far too optimistic. To linger on their passing for too long would only prove to be troublesome and burdening. The dead were dead. Nothing that could be said or done now would bring them back or reverse the flow of time. You could honor them for their sacrifice, yes. Just so long as you didn't let the loss of them keep you from protecting those that still breathed. The people on this ship that still lived; his Master, Miir, the informant, the strange pair on the bridge, the still breathing crew members. They were the one's that they had to be concerned about protecting now.

Jazen didn't have to go far to find out where a solid portion of the ship's damage had been. The aft of the ship had taken the brunt of the damage, most likely from when the engine had been damaged in the attack. Holes in the hull littered the back, rain pouring in from multiple places. More than one of the holes was big enough for something to slip through depending on its size. And most the lights were gone, leaving much of the place veiled in shadow. Drawing his saber, the crisp, cool blue light of his saber sprung to life, bringing light to the nooks and crannies of this darkened hall.

There were a few more bodies here, mechanics and engineers that had been caught in the blast or crushed as the rear of the ship bounced around. The entrance to the engine room was gone; a wall of debris between him and the room beyond. As Locke had predicted, that meant the main storage would be cut off as well. There was still a chance they could access it; cut through the inner or maybe even the outer wall to create a pathway. But that would only be possible once the crew was safely away, in case the ship decided to buckle in any form as they cut inside. In the meantime, there were other alternatives.

The aft storage that Locke spoke of was, by the will of the Force, remarkably intact. The door even still worked, hissing and screeching as it slid aside to give Jazen access to the interior. Moving inside, Jazen drifted his saber around, letting the soft glow of his winter blade illuminate what was available to him.

There wasn't too much, but there was enough to raise Jazen's spirits. Food, water, portable shelters, blankets...there was even a couple of binoculars, both with night vision optics for use at night. There was a crate of flares and flashlights, which considering the lovely planet outside, would be a welcome thing to have. And...well wasn't that something? In the far corner, on a shelf all its own, were several blaster rifles and pistols; not a lot of them, but enough to arm a fair number of the survivors with proper protection. Again, from what Jazen had read about Vendaxa, they would probably be needing all the firepower they could get. Once again, despite the bleak situation they found themselves in, a smile creased Jazen's face.

They had hope yet.

Jazen made a mental inventory of everything in the room, they scribbled it down for good measure before backtracking the way he came. He paused for a moment as he exited the dark aft of the ship, glancing back when something triggered a shiver up his spine. It felt like he was being...watched? There was nothing in that dark shadow, nothing but darkness and silence. But it still felt like something was there...no wait...it was gone. Gulping, Jazen's progress back may have been a little faster then intended.

He found Locke helping the injured onto the bridge, waiting till he placed the man he was carrying down before coming up to join him. "Back end of the ship is totaled; you were right about the main storage. Completely cut off unless we cut a hole somewhere to get there. The aft storage, on the other hand, was in good condition. Not a multitude of supplies, but enough to keep us on our feet for several days. There was also...a small cache of weapons. Likely for the crew in case of attack...too bad it does squat when they don't come aboard.

All in all, it's a bright side to this rather dark day. Anything else we should do before we take a gander at our vacation spot?"

[Rugs]

One again, Jazen managed to draw a tired smile from Locke’s otherwise-sullen face. “Yeah well, I’ll take your word on that kid,” he said. “But don’t come calling me for help ‘cause you forgot to lace your boots up proper.” He smiled again and motioned for the student to go.

Locke turned his attention elsewhere as Jazen withdrew, though he kept a tenuous string of his awareness on his apprentice. If Jazen found trouble, Locke would know immediately.

In the meantime, Locke busied himself with worrying about the dead and dying the crash had left behind. There wasn’t much left to do for the four that perished in the landing, beyond close their eyes and offer a silent prayer of peace for their souls. The living, however, could still be saved. Locke returned to the bridge, thankful that he’d at least had the sense to gather medical supplies before during the ambush.

He retrieved some of the medkits and called a crew member, a tall middle-aged man with wings of grey staining his jet black hair near the temples. Together they did some basic work; applied kolto, saw to minor cuts and bruises, and began moving those they could to the front.

Locke was bringing the last survivor to the bridge when Jazen returned. He set the man in one of the seats, careful to keep his leg, which was wrapped in a makeshift splint, steady.

“What’s the report?” He asked simple as he finished the task and turned his attention to the boy. He folded his arms over his chest as Jazen relayed what he found. Weapons. Not worth their weight in nerf dung during the attack, but… Locke looked around at their ragtag band of survivors, they might be a necessity if we’re going to get out of here alive.

But they had other supplies as well, Locke couldn't deny that provided some small measure of relief.

“Yeah, we can take a look outside in a moment,” Locke said. He looked to Miir and the man that’d helped him treat the wounded. “Miir, Roran, go see what you can start moving from the back. Enlist help if you need it.”

Well need more than that, though. Food, clean water we have for now. But we'll need more. And our medical supplies can only last for so long… Never ending worries. One step at a time, Nemsee. One step at a time.

“Keep contact with us,” Locke told the two men. “If anything goes sideways on you, let us know. Immediately.

“Now…” he looked to Jazen and pulled his hood up over his head. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled on again. “Let’s see what’s out there.”

[Jazen]

"About time Master. It was getting crowded in here."

Jazen smiled before pulling his own hood up, gently using the Force to keep it there. In here might have been warm, calm and otherwise protected from the elements, but out there was going to be a pouring, freezing, windy hell. With lightning and god knows what else lurking just beyond the safe confines of the ship. Taking a deep breath, Jazen followed his Master to the airlock that would allow them to exit the ship. It was partially damaged from the crash, but it still managed to slide open enough for the pair of Jedi to exit to the world outside.

Jazen's mental picture of what Vendaxa would look like wasn't far off; it was just much more optimistic then what really awaited them out there. They had crashed upon a high rise that gave them a fair vantage point over their surroundings; on any other world, that would have been an advantage. Here, it just gave cause for more concern. All around them, in every direction, was jungle. Dense, thick jungle, for as far as the eye could see. Which wasn't much; the clouds overhead made seeing more than a few feet in any direction all but opposite, dark as night was the world around them. Only when the lightning flashed overhead was Jazen able to see that thick forest covering the land in every direction. Both made the environment seem much harsher then it probably was; right?

Staying close to Locke, Jazen glanced around, trying to get a sense of their surroundings. Not just with his senses, but with the Force as well, reaching out to seek signs of life in that thick foliage all around them. It was useful in telling him two things; that there was life in excess out there...and not all of it was friendly. He felt hunger, rage...and an almost invisible malice, lurking just beyond his eyes, always on the very edge of the senses. A world of predators and surprise no doubt awaited them out there. This...was not going to be easy.

"Well...next time we crash on a planet, let's try and pick one with sunshine. And butterflies. And happy, harmless, bunny rabbits."

He frowned as he squinted into the darkness before the light-bulb in his brain went off, causing him to slap his forehead and activate his comm link. "Miir, activate the external lights...the ones that work anyway. It's dark as oil out here and we got no line of sight on anything. Might come in handy if we can see if something's coming." There was a grunt of acknowledgment from the other end before the ship hummed gently; the sound of its backup energy systems supplying power to the ship's external lights. A moment later, several portions of the jungle were suddenly much brighter, as was the area around the pair of them. Not all of the lights came on, but enough did to give them a proper line of sight around them.

"That's better. Alright...let me think here...from what I can remember, Vendaxa has three kinds of environments. It's got lush plains, some oceans...and one of the densest ecosystems in all the known worlds. Not that that's hard to tell at all." he said, making a gesture to the forest around them. "I don't know about colonists or if there's an intelligent species that calls this place home...but I do remember its home to some really nasty..."

Both their com-links would hiss to life, halting Jazen mid-sentence. On the other end was Miir...and his voice cracked just a little as he made a report to them. "Hey, you two. Eyes out...we were moving the supplies to the bridge and...well, you know how we lined up the fallen? Well...we found blood trails. And two of the bodies are missing." There was a pause, as if he was dramatically waiting for something. "I don't think we're alone anymore."

For a few moments, there was only the sound of the rain and the gentle hum of the ship behind them. Then came the hiss. Then another...and another. Jazen's hand drifted down to the saber as his side as the lights on the ship flickered as the ship had to reroute power to support the lights. "....predators. Master...I think we have company." Jazen lifted his saber up, snapping the blade to life, surrounding them in a pale light for the moment.

A pale light that illuminated the Acklay's toothed maw as it descended on them both.

[Rugs]

The airlock protested, but some not-so-gentle persuasion from the Force and Locke’s booted foot saw it slide merrily open to admit the Jedi out into the wild.

Rain poured into ship until the lock closed behind them, leaving the two Jedi alone with the world beyond. The wind whipped in wild gusts at Locke’s cloak, and he huddled down in it, dropping his shoulders somewhat to keep the frigid rain out of his face.

They’d landed atop a ridge. About a dozen metes separated the Preponderance’s broken husk from sharp, rocky decline. Sure as hell wouldn’t be standin’ around moaning about our luck if we’d hit that, Locke mused. He glanced back over his shoulder as Miir turned what few floodlights still worked. I don’t know if you knew that was comin’ up Miir, but I owe you a drink. A few drinks.

“Yeah, that’s mostly right,” Locke said as Jazen summarized the world. In truth the density of life wasn’t Vendaxa’s danger — it was the savagery of the life that choked the planets plains and forests. But with luck…

The comm crackled with a concerned warning from Miir. Locke swore under his breath. At about the same time, he felt, then heard something moving in the darkness behind them.

Locke heard Jazen’s blade sizzle to life at the same time he picoted on his heel, raising a heavy blaster to confront the creature behind them. A slender head, mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth, swooped down out of the darkness at them. Locke sidestepped the lunging beast and fired two quick shots that buried plasma into the base of the creature’s neck. It recoiled and screamed, and Locke recognized an Acklay’s renowned clicking roar.

“Of course it’s a gorram Acklay,” he yelled as lightning lit up the sky above them. “Mind the teeth, kid!” Locke yelped as the Acklay decided that he needed to be put down first and stomped at him. He avoided the attack again, curses and all and shot the beast in the leg. Flesh glowed as the plasma bolts burned into it.

“I’ll keep it distracted,” he yelled. “Go for a leg!”

[Jazen]

Jazen knew more then most young adults his age.

Being a Jedi was a full-time duty to protecting the peace, a job that the only reward you would gain was the reward of knowledge and that what you did was protecting the people and at times, the greater galaxy at large. But one didn't become a keeper of the peace without the knowledge and wisdom of how to do that; it was for that purpose that Jazen spent what time he wasn't on mission, training or doing something else entirely to study. He'd lost hours to the archives the Jedi had, studying planets, cultures, lifeforms, history. He wasn't always great at remembering it all at once but he did remember it.

But the difference between seeing something on a flimsy or in hologram compared to reality was a huge gap. Jazen had studied the Acklay in the archives as closely as possible and felt no concern about it. He was a Jedi, it was an animal. He'd win in the end. The advantage was completely to him, to his skills and to his weapons. In essence, he wasn't afraid of the hologram he'd been looking at because it had been just that, a hologram.

The thing lunging for him was no hologram. It was real. Jazen could smell its breath, he could feel its hunger in the Force...and he could see the razor sharp teeth that were trying to remove a chunk of him from his body. Jazen had studied the form over and over and over...and that did nothing to silence the spike of fear that drove its way up his spine at seeing this beast, this predator, this monster coming out of the darkness at him. If Jazen had been younger, that might have paralyzed him and been his greatest mistake.

What saved him was the fact that he was a Jedi. Reflex and instinct kicked in instantly; the teeth found nothing but air as Jazen shot away from the creature with a single backflip, his feet sliding on the slick rock and mud at his feet. It was an effort to keep his balance on this awkward footing but again, training kicked in and he used the Force to steady his stance and balance his feet. Which he knew he would need; the Acklay wasn't a foe to take lightly, saber or not.

Locke was busy distracting it with his blaster, the bolts causing the creature pain but didn't slow it in the slightest. "I'm less worried about the teeth and more worried about the..." Jazen stopped mid-sentence to dive away as the Acklay took a swing at him with one of its massive legs, the spear tipped end sending rock and dirt flying as it drove into the ground.."legs! Right!"

Jazen timed his attack perfectly. Locke had put another bolt into the creature, turning its attention back to him. That brief moment was all Jazen needed. He felt the Force flow into him, as easily as breathing, pumping his legs full of energy for what he was about to do. He flew forward faster then any normal man could wish to achieve, his saber off to the side. As soon as he was in range, he brought the blade from right to left, cleaving through the creature's limb like it was butter. The Acklay didn't even have time to register that attack before Jazen reversed his stroke and removed the other hind leg, effectively putting the creature on its backside suddenly.

Its roar of pain was loud enough to shake the night; Jazen didn't give it much more of a chance after that. Jumping, he landed flat on the creature's back and drove his saber into its neck, cutting cleanly through the thing where neck met body before twirling the blade and sending the head tumbling away. Panting in the cold rain, Jazen watched as the body slumped before hopping down next to his Master. "Jeez...they're bigger in person. At least it was easy too..." the sound of bushes shuffling in the distance paused Jazen mid-sentence as he turned to the darkness, saber hissing as the rain made contact.....take down. Uh...Master...I think you might want to switch up the saber. I think we have more company."

The hisses from the forest answered his concerns. And this time, it was more than one. ""A lot....of company." he muttered as he drifted to his Master's side, ready to fight as the team they had become to counter whatever was coming through way.

[Rugs]

Locke raised his pistol as the Acklay’s dying breath heaved out of its sagging body. A pity, he thought, looking at the giant creature as hi student climbed off of it. But the Galaxy needs us to live more than it does you, friend.

Still, the area felt wrong. The Force was alive with life, but Vendaxa’s ecosystem was so choked with life that it was hard to tell where what was coming from…

Locke glanced over his shoulder to the left and nearly swore.

"Jeez...they're bigger in person. At least it was easy too..."

“Might want to save the celebratin’, Kid,” Locke muttered. “We ain’t outta the woods yet. Not by a long shot.”

A chorus of Acklay calls sounded through the forest around them. Locke counted three, but he wasn’t completely certain of the number. The wind and rain and incessant thunder made judging anything accurately a bit of a chore. Even so, Locke didn’t quite feel like dealing with three in an all-out romping brawl.

“No, we might have other options,” he said quietly, still yet to draw his blade. “Always remember your options. After all,” Locke flashed a grin, even knowing Jazen could not see it,” we are not normal folk.”

Locke breathed in deeply. His body relaxed allowing the Force through him like water through a sieve. He reached out, expanding his awareness to the trees just beyond the edge of the small clearing behind the Preponderance’s crash site. There were three Acklays indeed, two males and a female, approaching quickly. They were agitated, tired of the rain. Hungry.

Fortunately for the two Jedi and their friends inside the broken hip, the beasts were also rather stupid.

“You’re going to have to trust me,” Locke told Jazen quietly as he reached out to touch one of the creature’s minds. “Don’t. Move.”

Finding a way to turn he situation was a simple matter of taking advantage of the urges that existed in almost every male in the Galaxy, regardless of species. One Acklay, the larger of the two, suddenly had a very sharp, very strong desire to mate with the female. But the other male was a threat to his supremacy.

The Acklay suddenly turned on its companion, falling on it in a great tangle of shrieking and claws and snapping teeth. The female, surprised by the sudden frackas, stopped.

The havoc died down to silence after a few moments before a blood-curdling shriek ripped through the stormy night. A few more cries followed, then the sound of something thundering on the ground.

Locke smiled. The female burst through the trees, followed by the male bleeding and battered, but quite intent on its prize. The two creatures stormed right through the clearing, past the two Jedi without seeming to notice them and off into the trees down the ridge again.

Locke let the sound of the chase fade away, then counted ten heartbeats before speaking. “Like I said, always remember your options,” he quipped, looking at Jazen with a wink. “That’ll keep those two busy for a while. But we can’t stay here for long.”

He glanced out over the edge of the broken ridge. “I believe there’s a village not too far from here. I don’t know if it’s occupied or if the people there will be friendly, but…” Locke looked back over his shoulder at his student. “But it’s better than staying trapped here on this dying ship. Not to mention our friends above’ll be looking for our wreckage.”

[Jazen]

Jazen stood ready, his body tense as he faced the direction the sounds had come from. Every muscle was alive now from the brief encounter with the Acklay, ready to move at a moment's notice when the threats came, his lightsaber held firmly in his right hand and pointed towards the never ending darkness, giving the nearest trees a faint blue shadowing. His breathing was slow, controlled, finding that state of balance that all Jedi found with the Force in combat, calm, precise, prepared. His awareness was stretched out with the Force as well, seeking the source of the screams and alert in all directions for the faintest sign of danger.

There....three more Acklay, shoving their way through the undergrowth with a speed no normal man could match. Anything that didn't simply yield before them they plowed aside, the sound of branching snapping barely audible above the pounding rain and thunder. Again they screeched, a roar that he felt more then he heard with his senses stretched. He could feel them now, feel their presence as if they were part of him...and he didn't need to hear their next roar to know what they were.

Hungry.Very, very hungry.

Three of them would be trouble...but once Locke joined the fray with his own blade and pistol, they'd have no trouble dispatching them. Jazen had already proved how effective their sabers were and if they both took down one and then focused on the other...

Jazen felt the shift in the air around him, the change in his Master's stance as he spoke. The words had caught him unaware, so intense he had been in his focus on the coming threats and alert for any other ones. Blinking, he felt himself relax ever so slightly as he turned to watch his Master out of the corner of his eye, keeping most of his attention focused on the charging animals.

What did he mean by other options? Wasn't the best way to deal with a charging one track mind beast to....to...wait...Oh but of course! Their animals with only base instincts and desires. We can influence their minds! The revelation hit Jazen like a ton of bricks and as he watched and felt, Jazen knew what his Master was doing. The beasts were too simple minded to command with the Force, focused intently on the need to feed...but that intent could be focused into another direction. And as Jazen reached out to feel the beasts, he felt Locke do exactly that.

There...they're not hungry anymore. No wait...one of them is...for...oh. Ooooooooh. Damn Master...really?

Jazen held firm as Locke had requested, although he did almost stumble as the two remaining Acklay barreled past them, the wounded one almost taking his head off as it passed in its desire to do...well, what Locke had made it want to do. Neither of them said or did anything after that for a moment, waiting till the sounds of the two had died away into the storm before even thinking to consider moving an inch. Finally, Locke spoke, a signal that they were good to go. Jazen let out the breath he'd been holding before snapping his lightsaber off and back into place on his belt.

"Yes, next time we're under fire by a bunch of soldiers, I'll try and make the dumbest ones want to hump their comrade. I mean...yes Master, I'll remember." The sarcasm was strong in that one, but one look at Jazen after would know he was messing with Locke about his choice of redirection. Jazen got the lesson; now it would just be a matter of applying it in real life.

Joining his Master at the edge of the ridge, Jazen glanced down, letting the lightning show him what lay beneath them. Not much, as it were. If they wanted to get down to the village, they were gonna have to loop a bit back through the jungle to do it. A fun trip, considering they didn't know what else was out there and with injured crew. "Knowing our luck, the village is likely to be full of flesh-eating villagers looking for a snack. But you're right, it beats waiting here for the people we know are trying to kill us. Best take our chances with the natives.

We're gonna have a heck of a time getting down there though, what with the wounded. That forest ain't like to be very easy to move through. So what do you think...get going as soon as possible or take some time to prepare before we move out? I for one vote for moving as fast as we can...provided we grab all the essentials. Med supplies, food, water...toilet paper. Thoughts?"

[Rugs]

“Oh come on, it’s not like I took pleasure in doing that, Kid.” Locke couldn’t completely suppress the childish grin that threatened to push him to giggles as he glanced over his shoulder to his student. The ever-so-slight weight placed on the word nearly broke the Knight’s façade of teacher-appropriate calm. “But, as I said, we have tools others don’t.” He looked to Jazen fully for a moment, as the boy joined him on the ridge’s edge. “If letting nature run its course saves us even a little bloodshed, well… There are worse things to do.”

Locke clasped his hands together behind the small of his back as Jazen gave his thoughts on the situation and the village waiting off in the distance. It seemed they were of the same mind, both of the need to keep moving and of the dangers it’d bring.

“Something like that, yeah,” he muttered as he glanced back to the broken, smoldering ship. He turned, after a moment’s hesitation, to begin walking toward the ship. His heavy cloak flared at the sudden motion, before falling to sway with his motions, heavy with water weight. “We can’t hang around here too long, but we can’t go rushing out into the wild like twice-damned fools, either. Take stock of what we have, plan a course of action, and head out.”

He paused, thoughtful. “And see if we can’t get a damn map of where we are. Though with our luck, the damn nav systems are probably too busted from the landing for that.”

The airlock struggled to open again, with jitters and false starts aplenty before it grinded its way open enough for the Jedi to slip through, one at a time. Locke waited before he slipped inside, taking one last look at the hostile world beyond.

“The forest will be a trial, for all of us,” he said, crawling inside and loosing a few choice swears as the door closed on the cloak, nearly strangling him. He made a show of brushing himself off when the incident passed, face only slightly flushed with irritation. “But, the good thing, if we can call it that, is that it will give us at least some cover from aerial search parties. For whatever that’s worth…”

[Jazen]

Shaking his head at Locke, Jazen couldn't keep the smile off his face any longer, the lines of his mouth creasing into it with practiced ease. It vanished just as quickly at the high-pitched cry that erupted in the distance from where the Acklays had vanished, Jazen turning his head to peer that way carefully. There was no sense of danger this time...but it gave him ammo for his next words. "Well...unless we just ended up making more threats..."

Gulping, Jazen didn't quite turn his back to the forest(as best he could anyway being surrounded by it; it was more in the direction that danger had come from before) as he followed Locke back towards the ship, listening quietly to his Master speak. As they came to the struggling doors, Jazen lifted an eyebrow at him, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "But of course Master...when have we ever rushed in like fools?"

That was the thing about idle banter like the stuff Locke and Jazen were trading; it may have sounded silly and accusing and all that stuff...but it was a light amongst the darkness and peril they now faced. Neither of them would admit openly that the prospect of heading into that dark forest, into the unknown planet before them and the dangers that may await around every corner sent fear down their spines and threatened to crush them, to make them curl up and wait for an answer to save them. What made them different and by extension, qualified to be Jedi in part, was that they refused to let that happen to them. Were they afraid? Oh yes, no doubt of that. But anyone would be afraid in this situation; it was natural. Fear was a natural response and to not feel it would have been much more disturbing. But they wouldn't let that fear dominate them or their actions. The banter helped with that, taking the edge off the situation and turning it into something that could possible be managed.

Thinking helped Jazen clear his mind for the task ahead, nodding as Locke forced his way back inside, his young ward right on his heels. "I'll take any form of silver lining at this point Master...at least we won't have lasers raining down on us as we flee. We'll deal with everything else as it comes. Anyway, I'll check the supplies and see what we can put together for the wounded and the journey. And then we'll see what we can do about getting out of here..."

~~~~~~~~~~

It was several cycles later when Jazen heard the first sounds of potential trouble, out amongst the shadows of the great trees that now surrounded them. He was halfway up the column the survivors had created, walking with Locke on his opposite side and slightly ahead, both of them close at hand to the crew helping the wounded along. It had been a discussion, back at the ship, whether to leave them behind and come back for them later...but the lack of proper protection from the outside predators in the broken ship swayed the decision. That and the fact that the ship would be the first place pursuers would look...or bombard. Most of them weren't hurt too badly...but it was slow going nevertheless.

Between Locke, Jazen and Miir, they're plan of action had been decided. They would make for the village they had seen from the cliff and after a debate, the order they went in was decided. Some of Miir's men had seen jungle before and they had opted to be the front scout's clearing the way through the bush for the rest of them. A small group was dedicated to protecting and assisting the wounded, a group that included Jazen and Locke, who could jump to the front or back of the line to assist in an instant from the center if need be. The remaining crew-men carried what supplies they could and kept their eyes to the jungle, watching for trouble. Miir and the pair of odd travelers that were with them were also near the center, the man insisting that they would be of more use there. Neither Locke nor Jazen had argued at the time; they had enough problems.

The group had made good time through the forest this way and they hadn't run into anything tougher other then the weather that poured down on their heads and the thick bush that made even the simple treck exhausting. Of course, that couldn't have lasted...and so Jazen had his senses tuned to the thick forest around them, searching for any incoming danger. The sounds of the forest were many but this one was new...and yet it was unmistakably that of a predator.

It wouldn't be the last.

Moving ahead slightly to join up with his Master, Jazen snapped his lightsaber to life, turning some of the shadows back as the rain hissed against his burning blue blade. "Master, we have trouble coming...I've having a problem locating it's exact location through...this whole place feels off. Hostile. Do you have anything more concrete?"