one small step for man....

[Iota]

The expidition party managed to find a clearing amongst the dense fog. Nex Humus, a planet that has rarely been stepped upon by humans or aliens alike. Understandable due to the rough terrain and viewing distance of about 50 feet, and thats on the light side of the planet.

The dark side of the small yet inhospitable planet is quiet, the winds whistle as they rustle through the branches of the trees.. to any force sensitives there is an eeiry vibration like a hum . It's as if the force eminating from this planet is untamed, untouched.. the force in its raw virgin like state. was this what the force was before sentient intervention? one can only ponder.

Iota handed Makiro a rebreather mask as he put his own on.

"You will need this my padawan, otherwise you will probably suffocate." Iota turns to B4-D4, his droid he uses to maintain the ship. "for your safety friend, i suggest you stay on the ship and keep the engines primed...just in case... i have a bad feeling about this place..." Iota took out his datapad and set it to record.

"i will pass any information i gather onto the council they can do with it what they wish." Iota nodded before proceeding to walk down the ramp onto the barren desolate planet. "we should not stay long for i feel something terrible may happen." Iota looks to makiro. "are you ready for what may lay ahead of us?"

[Makiro]

As the eerie tendrils of dense atmosphere swirled around his feet, Makiro peered cautiously around his new surroundings, desperately trying to make out even the slightest landmark.

At the sound of his master's voice, he jumped. Forcing himself to remain calm, he turned back to the Zabrak Knight.

"Yes, Master. At least I think I am."

As he took a step forward, he tripped over a root, protruding from the barren ground. The fall would probably have broken his leg had he not reached out to the Force to slow his impact. Nevertheless, he still managed to end up covered, head-to-toe, in foul smelling dirt.

As he stood up, he pushed as much dirt off of his robes as he could.

"You must remind me to retire here, Master."

[Iota]

Iota smiled slightly as he witnessed his padawan falling over.

"Retire? if life was only that simple." Iota looked around his surroundings before turning back to Makiro.

"The ships sensors picked up a crashed ship not too far from here.. our bests bet is to find this ship and see if anyone survived." Iota nodded.

"I'm going to try to teach you a technique to help you see in dark times such as these... you will see aura's of life forms whether it be plant or sentient." Iota looked around as if something had caught his attention before he looked back to Makiro.

"Close your eyes...clear all your thoughts and reach out with your senses.. look beyond what your eyes will percieve things to be and let the force tell you what it sees." Iota would try to teach makiro the ability to see using the force until he got the basics.

[Meira]

A beeping sound came from the display in the wrecked ship, stirring Meira into consciousness. Her eyes fluttered and took a moment to focus. Her head was leaning back against the seat support. When she moved to lift it, a sharp pain flashed through her skull and down her neck. Taking a sharp breath in, she continued slowly until her head was up. Looking around, she couldn't see far around the ship. The dense clouds hid everything more than a few meters away.

Where am I? She said out loud. Then, looking down at the display on the console, she sighed as a damage report scrolled up the screen. There was no way she'd be flying this ship again any time soon. Punching a few buttons, the display brought up her coordinates. Nex Humas? She said, a confused tone in her voice. She'd never even heard of the planet. Punching in a few more buttons, she soon noted how far off course she was. She was nowhere near Mon Calamari. In fact, she was even in the outer rim anymore.

Great. She moaned. But what had happened to throw her so far off course? Taking a deep breath, Meira placed her hand against the console. Closing her eyes, she called up the most recent memories of the ship, starting at her take off from the Jedi Temple hangar. The take off and exit from planet orbit was all normal, but at the moment the small ship made the jump to hyper speed, there was a spark in the nav computer, throwing the whole system into fault. Meira removed her hand. Ok, now what?

She got no signal on her com. She wouldn't be able to send any messages. Meira unfastened her safety belt and stood from the chair and moved from the cockpit to the small hold of the ship. She gathered a few supplies, water and nutrition capsules, and began to lower the hatch. As soon as the air from the planet made it into the ship, Meira began to cough and gag. Frantically, she searched for a breathing mask. Once she had it in place, she turned again to walk down the ramp.

Though the mask helped, it couldn't fully separate the sulfur from the air, and so it took a few moments to get used to the foul odor. The sooner I can get off this rock, the better. She thought to herself. She felt entirely out of her element. Meira made a habit of learning about a planet before she traveled there, but she had no way of preparing for where she was now.

She began to circle the exterior of the ship to assess the damage visually. This didn't lighten the mood. She had neither the know how, or the resources to fix half the problems on the ship. And she didn't even know if this planet was inhabited. After a few moments, Meira took notice that her heart rate had increased and her breathing along with it. Determined not to panic on her first solo mission after being knighted, Meira began to control her breathing and allowed her thoughts and worries to float out of her mind, replaced by the flow of the force.

As her thoughts cleared, she knew it was time to do some surveying. If the coordinates of the planet were in the ship, then that mean this planet was at least known, and that at least one traveler had been here before. She went back into the ship and gathered some gear, including a hand-held nav tracker. She left it's corresponding anchor beacon inside the ship so that she could find her way back should she get lost. Making sure her lightsaber was securely fastened to her belt, Meira left the ship, raising the ramp behind her.

She set out on foot into the fog, remembering to breath deeply and letting the force guide her. Having left her outer robe on the ship, Meira was able to move quickly through the tall trees. Soon, she was picking up a presence ahead. Two people, not moving. She could sense the force around them. She had slowed as she came closer, and soon she knew they would detect her too. There was nothing she sensed in the force that would cause alarm, and so Meira continued forward until the two came into view. It seemed as if a master was teaching his padawan. The force had guided her to another Jedi.

Hello? She said, stepping closer to the two so that they would be able to see her clearly.

[Iota]

Iota was in the midst of teaching his padawan how to see using the force to help on this dark part of the planet. As he taught makiro he did indeed feel a shimmer, but he was unsure due to the planets natural flow of the raw untamed force that shrouded the surface.

"Hello?" a calm and feminine voice enquired. Iota not surprised about the presence of another as he had seen a ship crashed not too far. He turned and looked at Miera through the eyes of the force, her aura was blue/green shade. it was beautiful, it calmed iota as she approached. Not so much in the sense that he had feelings for her, because he didn't. Afterall he was a jedi, they are above such things.

But instead it was the aura itself, he always did like to view people using the force, he thought it was easier to know somebody this way. Morbid or not iota never voiced this particular notion of his as some people may have raised an eyebrow. It was love, love for all things good, love for the jedi and the republic. A pleutonic kind of love of course because he knew all the dangers of proper emotions.

"Ah..a fellow jedi.. what are the odds? still there is no luck..there is the force as the masters would say." Iota smiled as he chuckled slightly. "I am Iota Dhegon, Jedi Gaurdian.. and this is my Padawan, Makiro.."

[Meira]

As the Zabrak man spoke, it was as if a cloak of tension was lifted from her shoulders. She smiled in response to his words and nodded. There was no doubt that the force had brought the three of them together. Whether this was to help her or not was irrelivant. They were here, which meant she would not be stuck on this planet.

She came closer as he introduced himself. She gave a bow of her head to both Iota and Mariko before introducing herself. My name is Meira Valli, knight. The word came out a little awkwardly and she smiled. It was the first time she had given her rank since she had been knighted, and she had to admit, it felt good to say it.

My ship crashed not far east of here. She said, indicating in the direction she had come. I was knocked unconscious. I don't know for how long. At this, her hand touched to the right side of her forehead, sure enough, there was a welt there from where she hit her head against the console. If you don't mind another companion, I'm afraid I did a solid job of destroying my ship.

[Makiro]

Makiro had just been starting to see faint impressions of the Force when the Kiffar Jedi's greeting had intruded on their session.

Surprised to hear another's voice, he had opened his eyes and jumped up off of the floor.

Makiro nodded in response to Meira's introduction, trying not to show his surprise at finding another Jedi on the desolate World.

"It's nice to meet you, Master Valli." Said Makiro, "I see that you could not resist the pull of this... charming World either."

[Iota]

Iota was trying to look into the distance, he held his hand open palemd out in front of him to try to sense anything. He turned slowly to Makiro and stated.

"i doubt she intentionally wanted to be here. By the state of her ship i would of guessed its not a re-fuelling stop." iota smiled slightly. "there is...something odd..here..Sentient life i can only just vaguely make out. But anger, i feel anger or atleast i think its anger. What ever it is.. it may not like our presence here..so we must proceed with caution." Iota looked deep in thought as he tried to make sense of what he felt.

[Meira]

Meira smiled at the padawan's comment. She then moved in closer so that she was now standing among them, rather than off to the side. Iota spoke and she again smiled at his comment. Indeed, they were both right, it could be reasoned. Iota then spoke about a presence of life that he felt, and something akin to anger. She nodded.

I sense it too. As far as my ship. I could gather that there was a malfunction when it made the jump into hyperspace. I was supposed to be going to Mon Calamari, but my presence there is not urgent. Though, I think I should send a message to let them know I won't be able to make it. Do you have a com that I can borrow?

The truth was, this place was far more interesting than a treaty mediation. She was sure they could spare one knight when there were already two there. At least for a while if nothing else.

[Iota]

Iota looked to miera and heeded her words and responded accordingly.

"With the amount of fog and the thickness of the atmosphere, you would need the communication capabilities of a capital ship. We shouldn't be more than a day or two here as i feel our presence here may be compromised and unwelcomed anyway. I am sorry."

Iota then proceeded to look into the distance and pointed the way.

"The force here, its untainted and strong, it is hard to make out anything. So keep your eyes and senses peeled, it could be a trap. but what ever it is..its that way." Iota nodded in the direction as he was recieving slight shivers down his spine. He was certain that the answers to the curiousty of this particular planet were down this unmaintained pathway into the jungle, he followed his feelings and started to walk down the path.

unknown to the group they were already being watched and followed...from a distance.

[Makiro]

Brushing yet another dangerously hideous insect from his face, Makiro forced his way through yet another thick tangle of weed and webs.

"Master?" he called, "Where in the name of the Force are.... Blast!" he exclaimed, as he stood in something odd thick and viscous.

"Never mind..." he muttered, as he desperately tried to scrape the oozing substance off of his boot, only to be ambushed by a trio of the same insects that had been plaguing him since they had entered the thick foliage.

Finally having scraped off the strange liquid (and the strange insects) he hurried to catch up with the two knights. As he slowed to match their pace, he noticed yet more of his favourite insects. These ones appeared to be consuming what looked like the corpse of some large mammal. He made a note to avoid them in future.

"Master, I really don't think that..."

A noise from the jungle behind him cut off his sentence.

"Master?"

[Iota]

As Makiro had trouble traversing the jungle, Iota and Miera carried on down the track, they would stop every once in a while to let Makiro catch up.

"Strange insects, never seen anything like these type before.
there seems to be mass mammals of sorts too.. hmm." Iota tried to seem some what intrigued.

"Master?" Makiro stated. Iota turned to makiro.

"Don't worry padawan, we are most likely being followed.. we are in a sense trespassing.. Look at it this way, if we were its prey.. we would of been attacked by now.. maybe they are just watching, to see what we do." Iota nodded before he turned to walked ahead.

[Meira]

Meria nodded in response to Iota's apology. She figured as much, but felt that it was never wrong to ask. Her uncle had made sure she understood that. She had been a timid child, often afraid to speak up. But Evos had wisely mused that if a Jedi's greatest strength is his knowledge, then it was natural to seek out knowledge. And one of the best ways to do so was to ask questions of those who knew things.

So Meira learned to ask questions, even if she was fairly sure of the answer, as it was in this case. It was confirmed. There was nothing to do but stay with these two until they could leave. And it wasn't as if it was unwelcome company.

Iota began to lead the way toward what they had sensed. His padawan seemed to have trouble keeping up, so they showed mercy and paused occasionally. Soon, they came upon the corpse of a massive creature. It didn't smell too well, even through the rebreather.

A noise was heard and Mariko seemed on edge, but Iota's words were true. She could sense it as well. They're studying us, Mariko. Let's not give them the wrong impression. With a smile, she let her sense of calm travel through the force and to him. If he was open, he would feel it, and be able to draw from it.

Before moving on and following Iota, Meira gave the creature a quick study. Though much of it was decaying, a good amount of information could be gleaned. For instance, the creatures teeth showed that the animal was capable of an omnivorous diet. Though the hips had bony protrusions, it was unclear what their purpose was, and the lack of other defensive features, she guessed that these creatures moved in herds for safety. There was a lack of decoration, clothing, or other key components in identifying a sentient life form. Interesting.

After her quick evaluation, Meira returned to Iota and Mariko, still musing over what this information might mean. Suddenly, she felt the anger and anxiety that they had been following was suddenly very close. I think we should stop. She said, her eyes and her senses cast out around them. It's about time we met these people. She stood still and as tall as she could, which wasn't very. Her hands were held slightly away from her sides, and her palms were open, to show those who were watching that she held no weapon. Yes, her lightsaber was clipped to her belt, but she had no intention of drawing it if she could avoid it.

[Iota]

Iota had stopped in mid step as he stood there thinking about what they should do. A million combinations rushing through his head as what would be the best logical course of action to take. He looked at his surroundings before he looked back to his companions.

"I say.... we say hello.. keep those lightsabers clipped to your belts." Iota turned round to look for their stalkers, the rustling of a bush is all what was seen.

"We come in peace..we mean you no harm." Iota raised his voice slightly so they could hear him. But all that could be heard was the rustling of bushes and the swaying of the trees.

[Iota]

Iota and his companions had waited for a fair few minutes, their persuers reluctent to to come out of hiding. Iota looked to the other two jedi.

"If you ask me, they are watching and wish not to speak..possibly to make sure we don't do something we're not meant to..hmmm...i would suggest we carry on and try to find different samples of water and wild life to take back with us." Iotanodded to the group before brushing jungle thines from his path.

"Starting to regret this mission.." Iota chuckled to himself..

"how you doing there my padawan?" iota asked as his padawan had remained quiet for some time.

[Makiro]

Makiro looked up at his master, his handsome face contorted into a grimace of the most disgruntled kind.

"I'm... remarkably well given the circumstances..."

He waited for a few seconds as he tried to find the right words to describe even vaguely the emotions he was feeling at that time.

"Suffice it so say, Master, that the life of a Jedi is not nearly as glamorous as I had originally anticipated."

Standing in yet another pile of thick, oozing mess, Makiro took a deep breath in. The dense, sickly stench that rushed to assault his nostrils ensured that he regretted it almost immediately.

"What in the name of all that is good and Light is that, Master?"

[Meira]

Meira continued to follow, still warry of their surrounding watchers. Why did they choose to hide and watch and not confront them? Then, remembering that she hadn't even heard of this planet before landing here, and noting that her ship carried only it's name and coordinates in its memory, she wondered if these natives even spoke basic. Even if they came forward to confront them, they might not be able to communicate with eachother.

Her attention was brought back to the present as Mariko expressed his displeasure with the planet. Indeed, it seemed as though there was little to admire. But every dark cloud had a silver lining, or at least that was Meira's point of view.She almost spoke up, but didn't as she felt it was not her place to do so with another's student. Instead, she smiled encouragingly at the boy. No, the life of a Jedi was not always glamorous, but she couldn't see herself as anything else. She doubted many Jedi could.

((I don't really know what was planned for the thread, so I'm afraid I don't know how to help move things forward.))

[Iota]

((yeah soz i haven't been as active..but my forum needed some TLC ))

Iota pondered for a moment before heading down the track some more, The jungle growing thicker, the pathway closing in and the insects evidently getting bigger and more vicious.

"It would seem evident as to why this planet remained unexplored.. trust me to get the "bottom of the barrel" missions" He laughed to himself as he proceeded to clamber through the dense wildlife.

A fair while had passed, Iota amusing himself with a cheery tune to pass the time. Almost a skip in his step, he seemed unusually. Perhaps because he was away from civilisation, politics and the like. He rather did enjoy peace and quiet now and again.

It was quite evident that they had traversed a fair few miles into the jungle until they came to a clearing of sorts, which was an odd sight to see as it was the only clearing they had stumbled upon. On closer inspection there was a formation of rocks, not naturally left there by mother nature as it seemed that it was a door way. A door way to where though would be the question to ask.....

[Makiro]

Makiro stared as his master stepped into the clearing.

"What is it?" He quested. "It looks like a door... but there doesn't seem to be anything behind it..." he said slowly, answering his own question.

He stepped gingerly after his master, taking great care not to miss any detail of the strange clearing.

As he neared the stones, he noticed that their surfaces were exceptionally smooth. He reached out carefully and drew his hand across the largest stone, feeling the flat coldness beneath his fingers.

Realising that he knew nothing about the stones, and that they could very well be extremely dangerous, he drew back, looking expectantly at the two older Jedi for some explanation.

[Iota]

(sorry about not posting sooner..very busy )

Iota examined the neatly arranged rocks, noticing the shape and smooth surface.. "Now this is an oxy moron if i saw one..Definatley sentient intervention..hmmm" Iota followed on by trying to push the rock "won't budge.." Iota then tried to use the force to move therock, he sat with his legs crossed, he closed his eyes and shortley afterwards the smooth rock floated a few feet above the ground. Iota used the force to move the rock to one side and let it down gently. He stood up. Conveniantly the rock was covering a doorway, obviously put there to hide what was hidden below.

"Right, first obstacle out of the way....lets head in.." As the group cautiously ventured into the hole, the group found themselves in an underground chasm which could only be described as an underground city.

"Well.. this is new.."Iota stated out of the obvious.