(Private Post) Welcome to the Jungle...

[Kher Lotu]

"I've heard Kashyyk is nice and peaceful as long as you mind the wookiees.", Kher thought as he took The Darkside Runner down into Kashyyk's orbit. He decided he'd rather go in without dealing with authorities. Not that he had anything illegal with him, or at least not that they could find anyways. But, he decided he'd rather let the wookiees be. "If I go up there and cause any trouble I could leave this forest with one less limb." He didn't want any trouble anyways. He didn't want to deal with anybody just yet. He needed to think. For a long time, think and be alone. Two things he is good at. Kher decided rather than go to the treetop villages he would rather land on the foret floor. If he had any knowledge of the things that prowled Kashyyk's floors, he would have taken the trouble to land in one of the cities.

Just as Kher spotted a clearing in the large trees, a tree limb struck his ship on he side, sending it careening into the various trees below his ship. Luckily, two of the trees had touching branches, which fortunately held the Darkside Runner in place. "Lucky these trees are so big, otherwise I'd be dead.", Kher muttered to himself as he went to assess the damage. Kher inspected every wire of the Runner's systems and decided he wanted to check out how high up he was. Since his viewport was at an upward angle, he had to look elsewhere. He went over to the boarding ramp and opened it a little. Just enough so he could walk on it without slipping. "I figure I'm about, well, pretty high up.", Kher thought as some type of bird flew below him.

Kher decided to lay down. He was in a state of minor shock. He had never crashed a ship. let alone his ship. Kher struggled a bit with getting back into the ship off of the boarding ramp. But he did and closed it most of the way, but enough to let a good amount of air in. It sure was stuffy in there. He had made his trip from the Outer Rim to Kashyyk as quickly as he could. Which was still a long time. Kher layed down in the lower bunk in the crew's room and swiftly fell asleep.

Kher did not know much of Kashyyk's flora and fauna let alone what creatures the forests held. While Kher was sleeping, a group of tach, seemingly interested in the ship, climbed aboard and were looking around, and touching things. They made their way to the cargo hold, where only Kher's food and weapons were held. While some of them were playing around with the various blasters and vibro - weapons Kher had gathered throughout his years, one found the switches to the cargo lifts. The tachs decided it would amuse them to see the various crates of food and weaponry fall out of the ship. So, they proceeded to lose all of Kher's food and weaponry to the jungle floors of Kashyyk. The tach that had opened the cargo lifts closed them again and ran off. The others followed suit leaving Kher to himself once again.

Kher awoke to the sound of wood cracking. Thinking fast, he ran to the cocpit to see if it was him who was falling. He prepared the ship to fly away if need be, but fortunately it was not the branches he was on that cracked. Kher sighed, and looked up into the falling sun of Kashyyk. As he did so he saw what did crack. A huge wroshyr tree branch hit the roof right above his head. Again he was sent careening down into the forest floor. This time, he was really heading for the ground, with no branches to slow him. He stabilized the ship and readied the repulsors. As the ship was about to hit the ground Kher activated the repulsors, leaving the ship floating about a foot off of the ground.

Kher shivered, feeling the draft, he closed the boarding ramp completely. He then walked to the cargo hold to grab something to prepare for dinner. To his surprise all of his crates were gone. He did not think anything of it, for that was the way his day was going and just shook his head and went back to the cocpit. He took a ration bar out of the foot locker he had attached to the floor next to the pilot's chair and began to eat. He looked outside and though it was not yet night, it might as well have been. It was completely black in the land below the mighty trees. After Kher finished he went to his bunk and decided he might as well get as much rest as possible before morning, for then was when he tried to get help. As, Kher began to drift off to sleep he shuddered at the thought of the creatures that lurked just outside the walls of his vessel.

[Kher Lotu]

Kher awoke to one of the most horrid sounds he had hear in his entire life. He heard a scraping of something upon metal. He instantly thought, "My ship!" and ran to the viewport. The sight he saw then was one he would never forget. He saw the back and tail of a katarn. It was scraping its hard spurs from its paws on the ship and circling the ship. Kher fell back into the pilot's seat in shock. Kher shook his head in disbelief, at the size of the creature. "Is that what wookiees ride for fun?", Kher thought as he went to grab his blasters. He grabbed his belt with the holsters attached and strapped it on. He also felt in his boot for his hold out blaster. Kher looked out the viewport and saw the creature starting to walk away. He still had no idea what it was. He grabbed a ration bar and began to eat it on his way to the boarding ramp. As soon as the boarding ramp hit the ground, the creature let out a shriek. He began to run, putting distance between himself and his ship, so the creature would not further damage it, he hoped. To Kher's surprise the creature walked slowly around the ship to the side he was on and began to stroll towards him. Kher began to slow to a walk, and continued to eat the ration bar. The creature stopped, and sniffed up into the air. Suddenly, it took off at full speed towards Kher. Kher ran, with food still in hand towards a tree with low enough branches to grab onto and hopefully climb. Kher sprang for the tree but to no avail. He fell to the ground, and was suddenly lifted up into the air by a primitive snare trap. Luckily he was out of the creature's grasp, or so he thought. The katarn stood up on its hind legs and began to swat at Kher.

Thinking fast, Kher threw his ration bar as far as he could away from him. The katarn stopped in its tracks and again sniffed the air, and went running away after the ration bar. The katarn licked up the tiny meal, and snorted in disgust. Just then, 5 wookiees dropped down from vines and trees and started shooting the katarn. Within seconds the katarn toppled over and sent shockwaves through the area. The wookiee hunters all let out a triumphant cry. One hunter, with beaded fur, who seemed to be the leader, approached Kher as he hung upside down. Kher, could not speak their language, but could understand it, he only hoped they understood Basic.

"What are you doing in our sacred hunting lands, Outsider?", roared the wookiee leader in his language. "I crashed here by mistake, I was going to land in the spaceport.", Kher lied. "You are far from the nearest space port, Outsider.", growled the wookiee. "I do not trust you, but I will let you leave, after we have what we want". "Have what you want? I don't think so walking carpet!"

The wookiee leader shot the vine Kher was hanging from with his bowcaster, and allowed Kher to fall violently. Kher outstretched his arms towards the ground and rolled. He came out of his roll pulling his right blaster and shooting the leader between the eyes. The other wookiees all let out incoherent roars. The two remaining outside Kher's ship began to fire their bowcasters at him. Kher dove to the ground and slid on his stomach behind the already-dead wookiee. He pulled his other blaster and readied himself. He peeked his head up over the hairy corpse, during a pause in the firing. Kher saw that one of the two wookiees that were in his ship came out and that the group began to move closer.

Kher began to panic, if he jumped out and shot he could only take out one wookiee, maybe two before he was killed. Besides, there was one more wookiee left inside his ship. Thinking fast, Kher holstered his blasters, and began to slide under the dead wookiee. He got his head and half of his body under, and got a view of the remaining wookiees. He grabbed the leader's bowcaster. Luckily, it was a modified bowcaster, it was shot with a trigger rather than taking a wookiee's strength to pull it back. "Luck is on my side today.", Kher thought. He set the bowcaster to fire spread shots, rather than one compacted shot. He waited, the wookiees got closer, and closer, and closer. Just as their heads disappeared from his view, Kher shot at their knees. The wookiees screamed in pain and fell to the ground collasping their wounded knees. At first Kher didn't move, fearing one of the wookiees would get up. Then he dropped the bowcaster crawled backwards and drew his own blasters. He stood up just in time to see one of the wookiees shoot at their former allie's corpse. He shot the one with the bowcaster still in hand three times before he dropped it. Kher then approached the two other wounded wookiees. He was about to speak, when one thrashed out at him with its bare hands. Kher shot that one once in the head and proceeded to his ship.

He quietly stepped onto the boarding ramp and into his ship. He looked throughout the entire ship as he went, searching for the remaining wookiee. He made his way to the cocpit and saw the wookiee eating the last of his emergency rations. "Get out of my ship fur ball!", Kher shouted. The wookiee roared and charged Kher, with a vibrosword in hand. The wookiee caught Kher unprepared he expected another bowcaster, and expected the advantage of close range fighting. The wookiee swung the vibroblade violently at Kher's head, Kher crouched in time to see the vibroblade hit a wall. The wookiee had to take a second to regain his composure, Kher took that opportunity to spin himself around and scramble to his feet and down the boarding ramp. Kher, dove underneath the boarding ramp, afraid to be in the line of fire of that enraged wookiee, just in case he did have a blaster. The wookiee ran down the boarding ramp and suddenly towards his wounded allies. Kher then made use of his scope. He holstered his left blaster and put the right one up to his face, he waited for the wookiee to become vulnerable. Then the wookiee crouched over his wounded ally and dropped his vibroblade. Kher took the shot and put a hole through the wookiee's head. The wookiee then fell on the wounded wookiee, destroying his last chances at even attempting escape from the Shadowlands. Kher made his way towards the group's dead leader. He took the bowcaster, as a trophy and a pouch that was around the wookiee's waist.

Kher got back into the Runner and put the bowcaster and pouch in the lockbox where his rations used to be. Kher then powered up all of the systems and took off. Slowly at first, he flew the ship straight up through the clearing his ship had created during its fall. After he cleared the treetops Kher gained more height and began to look for the spaceport. "I'm going to need more food and supplies, and maybe a few drinks.", Kher thought as he took the ship in to land.