Descent into Tython

Posted on Sat Jan 19th, 2013 @ 7:17am by Bomoor Thort & Thane & Berry & Kip Hoddai & Sev Rezer & Morgo Le'Shaad & G2-O7

2,111 words; about a 11 minute read

Chapter: Chapter III: Relics
Location: Red Raptor
Timeline: Early, Day Eleven

The Raptor jerked and jolted about as it flew through the inner core of the galaxy. Kip had worked with the droids to calculate the hyperspace course but the route was far from prefect and the droids were busy making small corrections in the Navigation Computer as necessary during flight. The Devaronian monitored the system from the computer room while Sev Razor sat in the pilot's seat, awaiting the moment when they would drop out of light speed and he would have to pilot the ship down to the surface of Tython. The room was only dimly lit but the light of hyperspace flooded the small cabin and illuminated all the surfaces with a dazzling blue light.

Bomoor Thort entered the cockpit, having found his concentration broken by the bumpy ride. He was greeted by a symphony of beeps and whoops as the two Astromech droids argued in their unintelligible language. G2 had taken a dislike to the new droid Kip had brought on board. Assumably, the other model threatened his long-standing position aboard the ship. The metal pair were flitting about between the Navicomputer room and the cockpit, flicking switches and connecting the the interface.

"Is everything OK in here?" the consular questioned openly, nodding towards the rumbling robots, "Are these two causing all this rocking about?"

"I thought you said you could fly, Mandalore," another voice followed Bomoor's, a sarcastic but not unfriendly tone to Thane's comment as he came up beside the Ithorian. He did his utmost to ignore the astromechs as he watched the blue swirl unfolding before them. As usual, it unsettled the Human's stomach slightly, but he was able to not let it affect him too much as he noticed the readout on the console between Sev and Kip. "We're almost there, then. Do you want to alert Her Grace and Bería?" He asked Bomoor. "I think they'd both want to see this."

"Don't call me Mandalore, Jedi", replied Sev without looking back. "Tython will look beautiful from space but it has one of the worst weather systems in the galaxy - you try to fly through the Deep Core without a bump, land on Tython, and then we'll talk. Now, could you two shut up? I have to find a decent place to take us out of hyperspace". The Mandalorian expression showed total concentration.

Thane simply raised an eyebrow at Sev's comment, holding back any return quip as he heard the two women heading into the cockpit.

“…think about it Berry.” Morgo finished, her meaning ambiguous as the both of them left the corridor and entered the room.

Berry smiled excitedly, both at the prospect of exploring AND at Morgo's offer. "Yeah, Ruby nuts sound reeaaal good." The part-Aquar was already salivating slightly as looked out the window.

Morgo stepped in quietly, a slender hand braced lightly against the wall in case the ship decided to lurch more violently than before, eyes turning from the green-girl to the view of space.

“Seems like we’re nearing Tython.” The woman commented.

"We're just coming out now," Thane replied, just a few seconds before Sev began pulling on the machinery to bring them out of hyperspace and into normal space. The blue swirls quickly gave way to momentarily elongated stars, and the bright, blue marble that was Tython was suddenly before them, an idyllic and beautiful-looking world from space, but one they knew would be quite different in some areas of the surface.

The second they had dipped back into normal space, Thane immediately felt the massive presence of the Force on the ancient tombworld, and he was certain that Bomoor, and even Berry, could feel it, too. It was a peculiar sensation; a mighty power lurked beneath the clouds of the ancient planet, but rather than the great light beacon of Force energy the Jedi Temple on Coruscant had, for example, it simply was, rather than having any particular alignment. Indeed, there was not even a trace of the the dark corruption Coruscant's seedy underworld leant to the planet, either. A natural presence, as opposed to one caused by others.

Morgo eyed the planet with quiet delight. This historic planet, birthplace of the modern Jedi and so much more, she had only ever seen in pictures and holo-projections. In the flesh, the world was so much more.

"Whooooaaa, that's a lot of water magic," Berry murmured in awe, for once not shouting. She was almost reverent with her mannerisms...whatever that meant.

"The Force." Thane corrected quietly and with a slight bit more sternness than intended.

"Indeed," the Ithorian Jedi hummed with contemplation, "Very rarely do you feel such power in such equilibrium. But look there-"

He raised a long arm to point at the planet, "Looks like there is quite a a storm near the equator. If the legends are to be believed, that storm could be around a centre of imbalance - a recent disturbance in the Force. Something may still be active on this world..."

"So much for forsaken," Thane grumbled to himself, although he could not deny a clear amount of curiosity concerning whatever it may be that had been - or indeed was - on Tython. "For it to be that extreme and prevalent, something distinct must have happened recently, or could still be happening," he said, peering at the site of the horrendous weather system they were now descending towards.

Already, the extreme weather conditions were buffeting the Raptor, shaking the former smuggler's ship this way and that, and making Thane's breakfast seem somewhat less settled than it had been a few moments before. Nevertheless, Sev was doing an admirable job.

He tried to take his mind away from the journey. "Got all of your gloves ready?" He asked Morgo with a small half-grin.

“That and more.” Morgo coolly shot back, raising a brow and turning her head to give Thane a long-suffering look from the corner of her eye, the cheeky bastard, “And while we’re on that note…”

Morgo held fast to the wall, the rocky turbulence of the ship doing nothing for her head as she pitched her voice to carry above the noise of the jostling ship, “A general announcement to all who intend on entering ancient ruins of any kind.” Morgo inhaled, her smile pleasantly fake, “Do refrain from desecrating and destroying with wild abandon. Keep your boogers from the walls and do try not to touch everything you happen come in contact with. I’d very much appreciate it if I didn’t have to monitor everyone like moronic children.” Morgo said, eyes passing (incidentally, of course) over Thane and landing pointedly on Berry, her mind going to that horrid place where she’d been witness to countless cases of site contaminations from grown adults. Statistically, booger smearing was in fact, more prevalent than most any other offense.

“I give a fair warning now that if I catch anyone doing said things, or worse,” Morgo continued, batting her dark lashes prettily, vaguely catty, “You’ll get much more than a scolding.”

Berry smiled widely and laughed just a little nervously as she teetered to and fro on the deck. "Scolding? Ha, what's that?" If there was a list to be made of all the things she was scolded for as the captain of her crew, the list would reach faaaar into the Unknown Regions.

"That's what happens when the sarlac in the middle of your abdomen doesn't get anything to eat for three days," Kip said as he entered, legs braced just a millisecond before the ship shifted again, bending knees and maintaining balance like he was riding a hoverboard. "Do try to keep the lady's instructions in mind Berry; you could end with a nasty case of dead if you touched the wrong thing down here."

Berry chuckled excitedly, almost now bouncing with eagerness. Well, more from the ship itself shaking so much she was moving all over the deck...

Sev Rezer didn't like the way the weather was looking, but the way those people talked behind him annoyed him even further. Still he didn't have the time to discuss. He had to find a good landing area for the Raptor, flying through the storm. It was difficult to see a clearing on the surface.

Kip gave his droid a trill and a whistle making the mech turn about and leave the cockpit and head to the back, magnetic treads active for traction.

G2 gave a warbling chuckle as his nemesis was called away before turning his globe-like chassis back towards the control panel, most likely changing it back to the settings he had programmed.

The ship dropped sharply as the thick pressure system engulfed the Raptor and a sudden burst of purplish lightning streaked across their path, blinding the crew's vision for half a second. Bomoor grasped the dashboard and pulled himself towards Sev at the pilot's seat, "We're going to crash if we continue on into this storm. I'm not questioning your skills but I think we'd do a lot better if we landed further out."

"Tell me something I don't know, Bomoor", snapped Sev. "I have been trying to find a kriffing clearing since we entered the atmosphere. The sensors simply don't work here. So I'm trying lower the ship down and find a place by sight. Maybe any of you could use your Force and help things along?"

"Hmph," the Ithorian drew back, still keeping a firm hold of the ship, "This is a Force Storm, Rezer. All I can sense is the churning mass of energy that surrounds us. Perhaps this is a task best left to the other senses."

Morgo chuckled lowly, "And the Force will kill us all. How appropriate."

Sev huffed. "I would laugh, if I wasn't trying to keep us alive. Wait. There's a clearing near that structure. Hold on. Now things we'll get bumpy".

The Mandalorian put the Red Raptor into a sharp turn to the left and then dived swiftly towards the jungle, at first there was nothing but trees and more trees. The green of the tree started to dominate the view. Sev then pulled the stick up and ship straightened. He reduced the power of the engines and actived the landing gear. He cut the power of the engines and Raptor fell for one meters to the ground.

The Mandalorian shrugged. "Another happy landing."

Morgo pushed a displaced strand of hair from her face and finally took her hand from the wall, smirking lightly, "Thank the Goddess I tied down my lab equipment."

"And that I had a small meal," Thane muttered through a weak smile. Visibly pleased that the ship had landed, he nevertheless also noticing how Kip had casually entered and dismissed his droid, still leaving them none the wiser for the new addition's purpose. Surprisingly to himself, he had found G2-O7's reactions amusing.

Pushing that to one side, he made a rudimentary check of the equipment that was already on him, as well as giving a few things in the cockpit a once over. "Well, then," he began, "let's get our things ready and get hunting. If what we know is anything to go by, my own, Bomoor and Bería's presence is only going to make that worse." The Human glared at the foreboding purplish storm brewing a short distance away, but close enough to cause heavy winds all about them.

In the distance, the temple they had sighted ruing their descent rose up out of the ashen ground. The jungle, in a most peculiar way, suddenly cut short at a certain point. Rich green grass gave away to grey dust, rocks and the remnants of petrified trees. The diameter about the temple was a barren wasteland, courtesy of the Force storm.

"Very true," Bomoor agreed as he pulled himself up slowly from the dashboard, "I doubt this weather will be easing up any time soon so we had better gear up for a difficult journey. Thane and I should investigate that temple first of all. What the rest of you do is up to you. But, as our good Lady suggested, be careful what you uncover. The artefacts around here could very well be very powerful."

He looked to Berry who was now peering out of the window at the landscape ahead. He added, "But nonetheless, be thoughtful. We came here to learn so let's share our information. We're working together on this."

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