Crashing in the Jungle (Open)

[Ben Kenobi]

The jump to hyperspace went along without a hitch and Ben immediately fell away from the cockpit towards the galley to bring up some of the most recent scans of Felucia along with some reports of Imperial activity in the area. First came the reports; indications of increased Imperial Patrols on this end of the Prelemian Trade Route suggested that there was a large capital ship in the area or perhaps worse, an Imperial VIP which in itself meant trouble for any and all Alliance operations for the Empire had a vast tendency to make things difficult whenever one of their important faces were about.

Ben delved into the old yet most recent reports. Two XG-1 Patrols spotted just this week east of the Felicua route while an Imperial Frigate was seen off to the west by some certain parsecs. Only one light border skirmish in the vicinity within the last month though it was apparently a swift affair with minimal casualties on both sides. Though for all these reports there had been no sightings of any Ships of the Line or even medium to heavy cruisers… why all the sudden would the Empire engage the area with a Star Destroyer? It was indeed a mystery and while the logic was lost, the facts were clear; if there was indeed a Destroyer in the area then it not only complicated things but it also meant that Alliance Intelligence needed to step up their efforts if such a gargantuan sized vessel could slip by and remain so anonymous.

Felucia on the other hand had been utterly silent. Imperial presence was minimal, Alliance operations were comparably miniscule, there hadn’t even been any cross traffic in weeks. It had been as if the world had been forgotten by galactic standards. Yet here they were knee deep in a crisis. Ben shook this thought away and delved deeper into the more tangible end of the report. It seemed Felucia was weeks into its Summer season, humidity would be arguably higher than normal while the rains would come and go with a furious and rather unpredictable manner. Could be a good thing for cover should one such rain storm be nearby during the extraction efforts. Could also complicate things with cross winds, flying blind without sensors… any number of things.

The locals seemed to be recluse this time of year, another good thing as it meant if an altercation occurred the collateral damage would be kept in check. For the next while, Ben continued moving through these reports as he made a strong effort to get a grasp on the situation at hand. He despised going into any scenario without knowledge of his surroundings or the ongoing setting. This way he’d be at least one step ahead of the situation and just maybe his reactions would be swifter for it.

Within the cargo hold of the Talon the tall and lean Captain of the Antarian Rangers regarded the youth approvingly. “Right you are lass, you’ll not be standing proper to an Imperial Stormtrooper in those rags.” He turned aside and motioned to one of his men, “Sergeant Holmes, get our Padawan friend a more sound kit, won’t you.”

Instead of just abandoning Sophii to her means, Jann moved with her up to Gerald Holmes, a broad Human male from Arkania, scars ran his neck line from shrapnel along with the incision scar left by his own combat knife from when he’d extracted the heated slag personally… then promptly passed out. Eyes of solid rock brown regarded the girl up and down, “They are getting smaller and smaller. What are the Jedi feeding you kids nowadays.” It was more comment then question as he stood up from the crate he was sitting on and with his boot he flipped up the lid to a small armory of gear; Antarian Ranger kit though it was specifically small arms and equipment, there was no staying power here but there was enough of it that Sophii, should she choose, could bedeck herself out just like one of these Troopers, or pick and choose her loadout accordingly.

As she did so the other three moved up to anxiously see what she’d pick. They were a warm bunch. Not arrogant, hot headed commandos like some members of the Alliance Special Forces, no, these men were humble and held heavy characters to them. Where Alliance Soldiers were either term or career, Antarian Rangers worked with the Jedi Coalition for a ‘greater’ cause and so their demeanor reflected the good work they strived to accomplish. Sometimes the Rangers were humanitarians and hadn’t the martial skill of a Hutt, others were hardened veteran soldiers though who’d recused the work of governments and made for the efforts of the Jedi; sometimes they contrasted the Jedi and were by far more aggressive than they were, but that was often the result of pitting normal men against the Empire and Sith. It seemed to make men jaded and coarse. Even so, these Rangers were the best of men and they showed it.

Next in line was Corporal Cyphus Telion, a young fresh faced Ranger that was very clean cut and straight up and down. A young man from Tanaab, he’d grown up on a farm not far from Pandath and the old Mora Homestead. He was equipped with a standard A-280K Rifle with close/medium range optic. He had been granted his Corporal stripes for being the most fit and capable though he was green and while he held rank over Adren and Luff, he didn’t push it nor hold it over them.

The other two were Rangers Adren, Sullustan male from his homeworld though he was apparently the squad marksman as his A-280K was decked out with a folding bipod and medium/long range optic. His belt was also home to a bulky range finder that he could either use by hand or set up next to his firing position. The device was linked to his optic and whatever he aimed at the range finder would as well. He wore a more padded set of elbow and knee pads for those long running times where he’d be set up in the prone and unmoving.

And Ranger Luff Xenicum, a bald Human male from… well… no one knew where Luff was from as the story changed regularly though every time it was told it was deeper and deeper within Imperial Territory of which he’d fought his way out from. He was the biggest Ranger of the team and he hefted a pack with spare power packs aplenty to support his use of a modified DTL-19 Repeater. The modification only included the compaction of the weapon, a shorter barrel with a folding stock that these operations of arming up light could still be granted the fire support of a squad automatic weapon. He had all gold teeth and his knuckles were tattooed. He spoke with a rasp gained from too much cigar smoke and likely a crushed wind pipe from a brawl he’d endured long ago, though that story had changed many times as well. For his robust retellings of his past, his heart was in the right place and he was the reliable sort.

“Brought a serrated Gamorr sticker in there, girl. Best take it before I do.” Luff commented though he was shot down by Adren.

“You couldn’t use a long knife to save your mother.” The Sullustan’s galactic basic was broken but good enough to understand and easy to recognize as a jab.

“Did I ever tell you about the time back with the Alliance 32nd Infantry? We were stuck behind enemy lines after a bad drop from orbit. Kidnapped we were. Goners we were. But no, I fashioned that knife from sheet metal and a rancor shin bone,” Luff’s expression was serious but clearly no one was buying it nor listening.

“You killed the rancor didn’t you?”

He nodded absently, dropping his dramatic story of escaping from behind enemy lines to a tale of a bounty hunter tasked with tracking down a bull rancor on some distant moon in the Outer Rim. Again no one really paid much attention. In truth though Luff wasn’t fully telling lies, every story had plenty of truth mixed with just as much embellishment. He’d seen years of action and it had rattled him and he’d been medically discharged from the Alliance Military to have found a home with the Rangers who sorely needed a man of his skills. Aside from the tall tales, he was as sound as they came.

“Whatever suits you,” Jann interjected. “We brought plenty of gear so don’t be shy.”

As she made her selections they all fell in for some small talk to get to know her a bit more. “This your first mission? You’re with the old man so you’ve probably been through a gauntlet already aye? It’s typical for us to operate with Master Kenobi on such short notice on delicate ops like this, I recommend keeping your head down, he doesn’t look for trouble but it has a way of finding him.”

[Sophii Zahra]

An involuntary grin bared the young Zabrak's brilliant white teeth and brightened her deep purple eyes when the Ranger agreed with her assessment. She was glad to have impressed him, but somehow this felt different from when she did something to impress or satisfy her Master. There was something almost inherently... baser about the satisfaction she felt, as she could feel a strange mixture of physical sensations totally alien.

Packing those thoughts away to reflect upon later, Sophii hopped off the speederbike and went over to the crate of arms and armor that the Rangers had loaded up earlier, apparently. "I grew up rich," she said absently to the gnarly Human as she scanned the contents of the crate, "I don't think I will get much taller than this, but I have not been accused of being skinny since I was..." Sophii finally looked up at the sinewy mountain of a man, resting her hands on her wide hips, "twelve or thirteen?" After giving Holmes a quick once-over, she flicked her gaze back to Jann for a moment before bending down to pick a few pieces of armor. They were sleek black pieces, much like what the others were wearing, though thankfully a bit smaller. The plates that she grabbed were just a bit bigger than she might have preferred, but they fit over the fronts of her legs and the outsides of her arms without much trouble. In the end, Sophii had armor over her thigs, shins, forearms and elbows, with a larger, almost shield-like piece on her right arm, extending over her shoulder so that it could guard her face if she tucked, and nothing over her left shoulder, so as not to weigh it down too much when she aimed.

Satisfied with the additional protection, the Zabraki Padawan strapped a short vibrosword to her right hip and finally hefted a blaster rifle with ironsights, aiming it about before loading and slinging it over her back. "You can have your knife," she said, "I prefer a longer blade." She listened to the story of the Rancor with interest as she took one last look in the crate to see if she had missed anything else she might need. "Ooh, ammo!" she said, bending over one last time to grab a pair of extra power-packs for the rifle and slipping them into spare pouches on her belt. "Do you think this will be enough?" She asked the group in general, but again let her attention linger on the Captain a little longer than the others.

"This is my first actual mission, yes," she admitted with a confident smirk and a hand on her cocked-out hip. "I seem to have the talent for attracting danger too. Lucky for me, I'm strong enough to move my 'little' body out of the way faster than it can be touched. And, I have a couple of tricks up my sleeves, courtesy of my father." With a wink, she tapped on a little device attached to the back of her belt, instantly deploying a small energy-shield in a small, oblong bubble around her body. After making the point, she flipped the shield off and slipped the rifle off of her back. "Hold onto this for a minute, I forgot to change my cloak. This one is too nice to risk all that mud and laserfire, no?"

With that, Sophii handed the blaster to the Sullustan as she slipped her cloak off and slipped away to the lift. Once there, she swapped out her nicer blue/silver reversable cloak for the black/brown one she'd gotten from the quartermaster on Kashyyyk. Afterward, she checked in with Ben, who was perusing the holonet in the galley. "How long until we get there, Master? We are all ready below."

[Ordona Vandorak]

“I don’t think the planet, of all things, is what’s going to get me in the end,” Ordona called as the man paused between sentences. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but he did have a point. The planet was much more than just a mild annoyance, and presented a rather hostile obstacle. Still, Ordona would rather contend with the jungle than the odds she was currently facing.

At the offer of a temporary peace, Ordona cocked her head. They had her cornered, certainly, but even so, it seemed a strange offer to make. One of the troopers spoke up and it seemed Ordona wasn’t alone in that thinking. The response from the Force User brought a small, grim smile to Ordona’s face, hidden behind her Mandalorian helmet though it was.

“...the Jedi don’t engage.” A bit of mistaken identity, then, she mused. Well, I don’t have to dissuade them from that just yet, Ordona thought, trying to fit this mistaken information into a rapidly evolving plan of escape. She stood, letting the rifle fall to her side. She walked to the side of the giant mushroom, using the curve of the cap as a barrier between herself and the gathered Imperial forces so that only her head and left shoulder were showing.

“You ask if I have a living master. It seems an odd question to ask, but I’ll humor you. Why do you want to know? Did it not cross your mind that I might be a master myself?” Ordona asked with more than just a hint of a threat in her voice. Before he could answer, she gave a soft laugh. “No, I guess it wouldn’t. Still, why do you ask?”

[Neive Undant]

The golden eyes held within Prazutis' eyes narrowed. Just hearing the tone of this woman's voice, clearly, Prazutis wasn't dealing with a Jedi. However, if this individual was working for the Galactic Alliance, what business does she have being anything but Jedi? Neive Undant was a man who had used the dark side for good back when he was a member of the Alliance, but Prazutis knew not why someone would use such power for such a hypocritical purpose...
"A personal endeavor I have. One to benefit both myself and the Empire as a whole."
Prazutis held his arms crossed over his chest, thinking to himself.
"However, seeing you now... I see I must have made a mistake. If you're not a jedi... then what are you?" He spoke, keeping his eyes on the foliage near the woman's hips. If her hand raised, he would be ready to fight. But for the moment, as neither of them clashed, he could only await her answer. Knowing is half the battle... and if by chance this person was a sith who had infiltrated Alliance ranks, he refused to be the one to void the cease fire. But if she was what he thought, perhaps a sort of dark side user working for the Alliance... then the situation would become increasingly complicated.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben nodded his head towards the screens in front of him at Sophii’s question though he also granted a verbal answer. “Shortly, R6 was able to shave off four hours of transit time from our route.” He paused, unsure of whether to tell Sophii how or not but she was the stable sort and would be able to handle such news. “Only had graze us passed a star instead of curving around it.” He smiled, “Already gone by though.” Apparently they’d come that close to utter annihilation, the star could have easily spat out a flare or tendril of shifting gravity that could have either obliterated the Talon or sent it bouncing off course into who knows where, but it hadn’t and Ben considered it a casual occurrence despite the danger and risk taken. Clearly it wasn’t the first time.

Calmly he brought up their actual position on the mapping system, “We’ll be translating from hyperspace in just a few minutes.” Pressing an icon he keyed the comm. to the cockpit, “R6, when he break from lightspeed, give us one good burn from the engines and then kill power save for minimal life support.” Ben ordered, “If there are Imperial forces in the area I’d rather avoid contact with them if we can help it and they can’t intercept what they can’t detect.” The small droid delivered its acknowledgment and Ben leaned on the holotable, staring at the screen and wishing he could get a good scan of the orbital theatre before they arrived. Knowing though that it was impossible he reached down and switched off the terminal and it went dead.

Turning to Sophii he took her in visually with a smirk, “Looks like you’ll be ready for anything then,” he stepped passed her and towards the cargo hold, “Thank you for prepping the bikes, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have the time to get to them myself. I trust you’ve been introduced to the Rangers too, they are a good bunch. As entertaining as they are reliable.”

His steps took him down into the cargo hold where he greeted the Echani Captain and his team as they made one last check over their gear, he had to force his way through them as they all jabbed and teased him about the new spitfire personality that Sophii was and also warned him not to ruin her by instilling too much Jedi stoicism in her. He laughed and jabbed right back with them as he checked over his own gear which included his staff, utility belt with the basics and his cloak, he wore no armor but rather kept his robes about him beneath his cloak.

Meanwhile, the YT 2000 Talon dropped out of hyperspace and as ordered the little silver and red astromech droid disengaged the hyperdrive engines and killed all power save for the main drive engines and life support, the latter of which was dialed down to the minimal setting of 5%, just enough to keep the life forms within from suffocating… at least for a few hours until the ship filled with carbon monoxide.

With the systems offline, the YT 2000 made one small course correction to nose directly towards the murky ball of Felucia and once done, R6 initiated an eight second burn of the main drives to initiate a surge of momentum that would take them in towards the planet and eventually catch them in the world’s gravitational pull. After eight seconds the drives went dead and the powerful engines of the tiny Corellian Light Freighter wound down. Initial ETA suggested they’d be in drift towards the planet for at least thirty minutes at this speed… Hopefully they’d remain undetected in that window of time, if not, then this flight would get a lot more exciting.

With the lights out, Ben settled onto the saddle of his speeder bike and sat in the silence of the cargo hold. Even though sound itself couldn’t be heard through the void of space, the Antarian Ranger team were utterly silent as they too got into the mental zone and mindset of infiltration and extraction. The elder Jedi stowed his staff horizontally underneath his right leg running the length of the bike, satisfied that every preparation that they could make had been done, Ben stared at each member of this strike team with great confidence and finally to the exterior cargo doors. Time was ticking down and it was painfully slow as the anxiousness of deployment settled into his stomach like an ice cold ball of steel. For a moment the emotion threatened his concentration but no, he swallowed the feelings and focused his mind with a simple mental exercise. Glancing to Sophii, he gave her a firm look, he’d taught her to focus her mind and calm herself before they’d ever made it to Kashyyyk. This was as good as place as any to put that lesson into practice though he silently watched her to see how she’d react.

[Sophii Zahra]

Sophii nodded with a giddy bounce, pleased that there wasn't very long to wait. She briefly wondered just how close to the aforementioned star they had grazed in order to cut down the jump time, but decided that this might be one mystery better left unsolved. Besides, there would soon be plenty else to worry about, such as slipping past Imperial ships undetected, and that was just to make planetfall!

"I exist in a constant state of readiness, Master," she nodded at Ben's assessment of her loadout and followed him back toward the cargo hold. When he commented on the Rangers she said, "Oh yes, they seem lovely. I look forward to seeing what they can do." And what i can do, she left unsaid, but was certain that Ben knew it anyway.

Down below, the Padawan reclaimed the blaster she'd picked out and copied the others in mounting her bike. Everyone was quiet now, as if afraid that the Empire might actually hear them in the belly of a whole other spacecraft. Following suit, she spent the several minutes' decent drilling the ignition sequence on her speederbike through pantomime. After a few repetitions, she practiced drawing and bringing to bear her weapons, each in turn, until she felt the rumble of the Falcon passing into Felucia's atmosphere. At that point, all she could do was hold her handlebars, close her eyes, and try to find her center. This was it. This was for real. This was exciting!

[Ordona Vandorak]

“A personal endeavor?” Ordona asked, unable to keep some of the sarcasm out of her voice. Coming from an Imperial, that couldn’t be a good thing. Still, she mused, best to humor him for now and work out the consequences later. Then the man spoke again and the small bit of plan she’d been able to formulate fell through the floor.

“Well now you’re just getting too familiar,” she replied, the hint of a smile evident in her voice. “And that’s a deeper question than I think we have time for at the moment,” Ordona continued. “More than that, any answer I give is likely going to dig me deeper in the hole I seem to find myself in here. So here’s an alternative.”

While she had been talking, her hand hidden behind the mushroom cap had slowly primed a thermal detonator. The instant the last word had left her mouth, Ordona dropped the grenade and turned to run the other way, using the mushroom to screen her movements from the party of Imperials. Hopefully they would give pursuit and be at the very least knocked back by the unseen grenade. They’d not yet fired on her, and Ordona felt no need to kill the men unless it was absolutely necessary, but she wasn’t going to play fair either.

[Neive Undant]

Prazutis narrowed his eyes as 2 of the troopers ran after her, the commander, growling before following. Prazutis immediately heard the small, electronic noises given by the explosive, sighing as he heard the explosion and screams of the 2 soldiers who had been caught in the blast. Prazutis pulled back and in one leap, he shot towards the woman to catch up to her. He wouldn't land perfectly in front of her, but he would be close enough to track her and follow suit.
Watching the woman make her way through the plants from above, he landed a couple feet behind her and immediately gave chase, not igniting his saber until he was sure she was going to stand and fight. No use risking losing it during the pursuit.
The commander had been effectively left behind. He and the others who were still scanning the ship.
With a sigh, he commed the others.
"All units, return to the ship. We have a force user. If she wants to leave the planet, she'll need a ship. And our's, along with the inquisitor's, are the only ones in the area." He spoke, walking back towards the 2 vessels.

[Ben Kenobi]

There it was, the green light. Apparently the Talon had gone through the orbital range of Felucia without the local attention of the Imperial star-borne assets and as such they all had a quiet trip through the space from outside the world’s gravity well to the inner atmosphere. From there the YT 2000 powered back up to prevent a plummeting fall to their doom where the world itself would hopefully hide the sudden spike in energy due from the engines flaring up. They sped down low through the skies and penetrated the cloud layers until they’d reached the canopy of the towering Felucian species of ‘tree’ which were more mushroom-like or even natural towers of strange alien matter.

With the green light the cargo bay of the YT opened up while the ship decelerated that the occupants could disembark whilst not being torn to bits by high speed, wind instantly ripped into the hold and as soon as the door was wide enough Captain Jann gave the signal to launch with a short chop of his hand, for a verbal one would have been lost in the din. Ben was the second out the door following Jann, gunning the throttle of his old weather beaten 74z, the engines screamed aloud and the freefall release was exhilarating for a moment; the speeder bikes were too high up for their repulsors to keep them aloft. Though they wouldn’t fall like stones, they would continue to descend in elevation until their engines could support them.

As soon as all seven bikes were clear, R6 took the YT 2000 and peeled away with intent to either fly low somewhere or even tuck the Talon away until so called to complete the extraction element of this mission.

In the mean time Ben took a quick visual scan of the area and noticed a column of smoke off to the northwest. Also a flight of a local avian species was fluttering up from somewhere nearby that column. While at a glance he couldn’t yield much information, if he had to guess, their extraction target would be in that vicinity.

Downward they fell until the powerful engines of their bikes caught and prevented them from slamming into the ground. None of the Rangers were at risk, having executed this maneuver many times over, Ben also accomplished the simple feat of keeping steady on his bike and so they all slowed to an amicable speed. “Sword Group; Status!” Jann’s voice was stern and almost a bark as he ordered the up status of the infiltration team to make sure no one had any complications during the drop.

“Sword Lead this is Two, I’m green. Standing by.”

“Three is up.”

Subsequent reports chirped in until all five Rangers were clear. Ben then spoke, respectful of the operational head though he realized he should have taken up a callsign in case the Imperials were listening in, however unlikely. “This is Ben, everything check’s out.” It was Sophii’s turn next.

Now at operational readiness, Ben delivered his suspicion that the a possible crash and altercation was occurring off several clicks to the northwest. Captain Jann keyed in on the squad-channel once more, “Alright folks, let’s keep the formation loose, our speed reasonable. Orient NW and if you find anything report it. The Imperials are likely already here and in numbers to be cautious. Our GA Agent is the priority and we need to back them up. We’re coming in blind to the situation but we don’t think the Imperial are expecting us either, use your heads and play it safe.”

[Sophii Zahra]

After what felt like far too long rumbling through the planet's atmosphere, the Talon's engines hummed back to life as R6 took control once more. Sophii opened her eyes a few seconds before the door opened, sending powerful gusts howling around the cargo hold and buffeting her clothes. It was moments like this when she was glad that she kept her hair short. Once the door was fully open, Captain Jann made a knifehand and pointed outside the ship: the order to charge.

Sophii was the last one out the door, having waited until all the others had taken flight to gun they throttle on her new bike. For one terrifying moment after she was clear of the ship, the young woman looked out at the verdant world around her and knew that she was in a place she had no business being. Some old instinct in the basement of her brain wanted to panic, for Zabraks were not gifted with wings of any kind, and had no way of dealing with this kind of altitude. She saw the others below her and breifly saw an image of all their bodies embedded in the soft peat of the underbrush, broken open and bared for the scavengers to recycle. Then she felt the drop and the frantic thrumming of repulsors fighting to find a base to repel from, and as she tinted her bike's nose down just a bit, she felt a huge rush. Her only addiction in life- pure, high-octane adrenaline, spilled into her bloodstream and gave her focus enough to follow the path of decent outlined by the bikes in front of her.

All too quickly, the fall was over, and the Padawan had to cut back her engine's power as she leveled out and matched pace with the group. "Zahra here" she said into her comm, a little breathless from the insane landing, "I'm alright!"
She listened in as the Ranger leader gave orders and made to follow suit, moving closer to her Master in the formation.