A Line In The Sand

[Darth Chagrin]

The Jundland Wastes was the one place that Kahranna could call home on Tatooine. Even an exile needed temporary homes on the worlds that they wandered on, and Kahranna had made an abandoned hut in the Jundland Wastes her homestead. It was a simple home, but it reminded her of the people who lived on Tatooine — those forced to endure the harsh, unrelenting conditions. As much as she had in common with these people, however, she had no desire to stay in any one place for too long. With the passage of time, Kahranna would undergo the passage of space; travelling from one planet to another. Today, she would do just that. Kahranna had just made it to Anchorhead to find some spacer that would be willing to take her offworld — and then she would continue to roam the systems at the edge of the galaxy...

"Help! Help!" came a cry of pure despair. Kahranna turned to see a woman run towards her. She didn't know the woman, but she recognised the signs of despair — hands up, a defeated look, tears cascading down. Kahranna tensed. She was used to helping others in need, and she could always spare a few credits. But this woman's howling and defeated posture betrayed the nature of her calamity — it was obviously something far worse than missing a few credits.

"My son -- they took my son! Please, get him back!" the woman sobbed as she fell to her knees in front of Kahranna.

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[spoiler='The Dune Sea, Tatooine]

[/spoiler]​

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It took about fifteen minutes for Kahranna to calm the other woman down. Once the hysteria had subsided, the woman managed to recount how she and her son had been part of a group of farmers who lived not far from Anchorhead, when out of nowhere, they were beset by a mob of armed people. The description of "armoured warriors" eliminated the possibility of sand people. It was likely then that the attackers were a group of slavers who were seeking to make a profit off the farmers. The woman had nothing else to add other than the fact that the mob had taken the farmers south-east — towards the Dune Sea.

Kahranna succeeded in convincing the woman to stay at the edge of Anchorhead and wait for her to return. A few others had overheard the woman's tale, but none were courageous enough to venture out into the Dune Sea. Not only was the Dune Sea so vast that the group could've been anywhere in within it's countless hectares of sand, but it was said to be so hot that the average human would dehydrate in a mere thirty minutes. While Kahranna was no average human, such treacherous conditions would give her little time to find the group within a massive area.

And even if she did find them, Kahranna could not guarantee that she could defeat all of their captors by herself. She could only hope that their longer time in the Dune Sea's harsh temperatures left them at a disadvantage that she could capitalise on. Kahranna made a check of her equipment. Viborblade was ready. Blaster was ready. Grenades were ready. And... her lightsaber was ready. Kahranna had often left it hanging on her utility belt, but she had only used it as a tool since she had left the Jedi Order. She hadn't wielded it in battle for five years — in fact, she had spent those five years devoid of contact with the Force. Her skill with the weapon would undoubtedly have declined drastically. And yet something told her that she would be needing it very soon...

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] | [member="Elpsis Elaris"]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Kahranna"], [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]


Tatooine. A sandy, arid and terribly hot world that could be described as a binary furnace. Famous for Krayt Dragons, innumerable hazards that populated the life-threatening desert and the Skywalker dynasty. Anchorhead did not have the infamous reputation of Mos Eisley, most well-known wretched hive of scum and villainy in this quadrant, but was still seedy.


After Kaeshana, Elpsis had returned to her roots. It was her way of dealing with that horrible battle, which had seen the death of one friend and the betrayal of another. Now it was under the yoke of the First Order and their Sith allies. Her anger burnt as brightly as the desert world's twin suns, but there was little she could do. Guilt wrapped itself around her like a vice. Her scarlet beskar armour weighed heavily on her shoulders and was still battered from the great battle.


Her long red mane hung in sweaty clumps around her equally sweat-baked face. Her scarlet beskar'gam was battered, for it bore the scars of battle. Among the never-do-wells, cutthroats and opportunistic merchants that populated Anchorhead's bazaar, the suffering of one despairing woman was like a beacon through the Force.


The woman was all alone, for the crowd had dispersed. Just another tale of woe in a dark, bleak Galaxy that was afflicted with it. Nonetheless, Elpsis approached her. "Hey. What happened? I can help." Could she?


The woman, whose face was coated with drying tears, looked up at her. She had regained some of her composure thanks to Kahranna. "Are you a Mandalorian?" The armour was probably misleading. She flinched. Perhaps Elpsis reminded her of the armoured warriors who'd taken her child.


"No, no. Just a...concerned citizen," Elpsis said a bit lamely, reaching out with her empathy and patting the woman on the shoulder. Ahead of them lay the seemingly endless desert.


"Those monsters...they attacked our village. Took my son! I begged them to take me, but they refused. My only child." There was a forlorn, devastated expression her face. "The authorities don't care. No one would help me...except that woman."


Elpsis' heart went out to the poor woman. "Slavers." The worrd tasted like acid on her tongue. There would be retribution and punishment. "I'll go after them. Where did they go?"


"I don't know where their camp is. They headed to the southeast into the Dune Sea. I'd go myself...but I'm no warrior," she was close to sobbing again. "My poor child. No one else would help me...except that woman. She's all alone."


"Woman? Can you describe her for me?" Having backup would be good. Unfortunately, the woman could not give Elpsis a lot of information, beyond a basic description. But anyone who walked straight into the perilous Dune Sea to take on a bunch of slavers on their own had to be brave...or suicidal. Neither was mutually exclusive.


Regardless, a few minutes later Elpsis' landspeeder shot out of Anchorhead and roared across the swirling sand. As far as the naked eye could see, there was naught but dunes and more dunes. A hot, arid wind blew fiercely over the sandy dunes of Tatooine, kicking up a choking amount of dust into the air like a shroud and lessening visibility in the process.


The desert world's twin suns burnt brightly, radiating intense, scalding heat across the bleak landscape. The next oasis was a great many miles away, so only the great, smouldering wreck of a disabled sandcrawler offered any relief from the scorching rays of the tyrannous suns. Whoever the Good Samaritan was, she could only hope that she'd run into her in time.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Of course, the conversation had been overheard. But one, perhaps two, were brave enough to go at the slavers. Jedi Master Josh DragonsFlame was a known hunter of slavers... And he was one of the more efficient sorts at it, to boot. He'd come to Tatooine, deciding that whether the Hutts ruled it or not... Well, after his Padawan [member="Douglas Starwind"] had his family taken, he'd decided to come here on his behalf to do a bit of slaver smashing, whether the Hutts allowed it or not.

He'd heard enough to know where they were and what was going on... He didn't know that others had taken up the cause, just that it had happened. His speeder had docked near where the slavers were hiding out... A man in robes would hop out of the airspeeder after hiding it well, and would bring his cloak over his head. It was hot... But he was used to Tatooine. He'd lived here, for a time... A few times, actually.

Force sakes, he still hated it here though.

He didn't intend to stealth his way through... The heat would make the slavers delirious, they'd doubt everything they saw. He could come right in, and it'd take time for them to organize their forces once he attacked.

He intended to attack head on, and then disappear into the shadows...

[member="Elpsis Elaris"] - [member="Kahranna"]

 

[Darth Chagrin]

Kahranna felt the seething glare of Tatooine's binary suns on the back of her neck. Scorching heat, dry air and an endless expanse of sand was all that the Dune Sea had to offer. It was easy to see why even Tatooine's hardened farmers dreaded the Dune Sea. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as easy to see any other lifeforms in the area. No slavers. No captured farmers.

The speeder that Kahranna was using was hardly an upscale model. A couple thousand credits were all that she had to to buy a speeder — and she still had to visit four vendors before she found a speeder that wasn't malfunctioning or appear like a scavenged piece of ramshackle Jawa junk. The one she had settled for was functional; nothing more or less, and that was enough for her. Its engine whirred as it carried Kahranna over miles of sand in pursuit of slavers that might as well have been invisible.

Twenty minutes passed. Kahranna was acclimated to Tatooine's treacherous conditions, and like any wise traveller on the desert world, was stocked on water. Even so, she didn't want to take her chances and stay out in the Dune Sea for longer than she had to. That didn't mean she was going to give up on the missing farmers, however. An injustice of this calibre begged to be corrected.

At long last, Kahranna came across some double-file track — no doubt left behind by the captured farmers, forced to march by their captors. There were some other erratic tracks to the sides of the the double-file track. The slavers, perhaps.

Kahranna followed the tracks for a good six or seven minutes before she noticed the sputtering of her speeder's engine. The engine coughed for several seconds before dying, and the speeder ground to a frustrating halt. Taking her last full bottle of water with her, Kahranna slowly trudged through the desert sands, continuing the follow the tracks. She herself lost track of time, but eventually, she found an abandoned sandcrawler that would offer her shelter from the fiendish heat.

She couldn't stop for long, of course, but the respite was certainly welcome. What wasn't welcome was the fact that as she came closer to the sandcrawler, she heard voices from the other side of the mammoth machine. She couldn't make out everything they were saying from about seven metres behind the other side of the sandcrawler, but there were enough "On your knee's" and "Move and I'll shoot's" that she was convinced that this was exactly the party she was looking for. The voices, filtered through helmets, reminded Kahranna of Mandalorians.

What she wasn't looking for was the cloaked figure who was approaching them from the other side, though. Eyeing them curiously, Kahranna took out both her vibroblade and her blaster and trained the latter on that cloaked figure. They might've been the one who arranged the meeting place and was now coming to buy their next batch of slaves. But something told Kahranna that they weren't. Something told her that, for better or worse, they were something else...

[member="Elpsis Elaris"] | [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Kahranna"], [member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]


The Force called to her while her speeder roared across Tatooine's seemingly endless dunes. Fortunately, she'd brought her own bike rather than relying on the quality control of Anchorhead's questionable rental service.


If she had not been on a quest of retribution and justice, she could've spent more time admiring the desert. There was a beauty and purity to it that few could see. Yes, the conditions were life-threatening and it was full of dangers, but it was also...beautiful. Mother Nature was a fickle mistress and there were a thousand ways you could die here, but she was more honest than civilisation could ever be.


In its own way, the desert was full of life. It was one of the works of the Great White Wolf. Part of her admired the Sand People for having adapted so well to it. A shame they'd probably shoot her on sight for being an outsider if she ever attempted to visit one of their villages. The wind howled loudly, and her speeder kicked up sand as it dashed across the dunes.


Soon she could see the seemingly abandoned sandcrawler. The enormous piece of machinery sat immobile, spewing acrid fumes into the clear, cerulean sky. As she slowed down the engines, she heard voices amidst the whistling of the wind. When she reached out with the Force, she felt presences. Being blind, she could not see them with her physical eyes, but perceive them through the Force. Her jaw tightened. Through her empathy, she felt their greed and cruelty. This was the party she was looking for.


But her senses prickled when she felt two other presences. These were strong in the Force. They could be confederates of the slavers, but something told her that this was not so. Elpsis had learned to trust her goddess' whispers. The speeder ground to a halt and Elpsis disembarked, her red mane soaked with sweat.


She came through the swirling sand, as if drawn to a figure who seemed to be lying in wait (Kahranna) like a moth to a flame, stretching out with the Force. She did not feel greed radiating from the figure. Far from it. Rather a desire for justice, and a lot of deeply buried pain. "I'm a friend. Here to fight the slavers." The figure could probably hear Elpsis' footsteps since it was difficult to be stealthy while wearing beskar armour. A lightsabre was attached to her belt, while a revolver rested in a holster on her hip.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He wasn't going to go into detail about Tatooine, since quite frankly, he wasn't a fan of the climate, despite being better in hotter weather. If he wanted good warm weather, he'd go to Naboo. So he didn't really think about how brilliant the sand was. Quite frankly, it was coarse.... And rough.... And it gets everywhere. Also he liked the beaches sand on Naboo better. So yeah, just go to Naboo. But there were slavers here. So he was here.

Yeah, he definitely needed a vacation.

He was about ready to disappear, to storm the area and take the forces by surprise when he sensed something... Two presences. And one seemed... Hostile. He would quickly turn back toward them, noting the blaster trained on him. It was there that he overheard the other, claiming that they were a friend... There to fight the slavers. His guard didn't go down, but he would begin to make his way toward them. One moment he had been there... The next, he had been gone. He had slipped into the Current, mainly so they wouldn't shoot at him. He was still learning how to attack while under this guise, but for the moment, he could not, and did not plan to. After a minute or so of walking, he would re-appear and tip the blaster down, and away, should it still be up.

He would then pull down his hood. Long blonde hair would fall down his face, which he'd brush back behind his head. He would appraise the two for a moment, and then... He would smile. He didn't look much older then 20, although the Force worked in strange ways for some...

"So I come here to bash some slaver heads, and I run into two beautiful women also looking to bash slaver heads. What're the odds of that?"

The joke was followed by a grin. He was hoping the joke would alert them to the fact he wasn't there to bring harm, but he supposed there was no harm in elaborating... So he took a breath, as his expression turned serious, as did his tone. "Look, in all seriousness. I'm intending to go in there and try to get that woman's son back, and take care of these slavers while I'm at it. If you care to join up, feel free."

The redhead looked... Familiar to him, somehow though. He couldn't help but study her face for a moment... Where had he seen her before?

[member="Elpsis Elaris"]
[member="Kahranna"]

 

[Darth Chagrin]

Kahranna fell into a combat pose the instant she heard the sound of metal-on-sand footsteps behind her. Whoever it was, they were trying to be stealthy, but they were working against their armour. Turning around, Kahranna's eyes and blaster locked onto a woman in Mandalorian armour. She pulled her vibroblade back, ready to impale (or shoot) the new target as soon as they attempted a sudden move.

"I'm a friend. Here to fight the slavers," the other woman whispered. Kahranna softened her poise and noticed that the newcomer was blind. Her eyes traced the outline of her new "friend" and noticed the blaster and lightsaber hilt around her waist.

In another instance, Kahranna might have responded by asking for the other woman's name, or attempt to confirm if she was a Jedi. In this case, however, she simply whirled around to return her sights on the cloaked figure before — only they weren't there anymore. A moment later, Kahranna felt a weight jerk her blaster gently to the side, and the figure she had been searching for materialised on her side. Instead of attacking, though, he simply dropped his hood. He was surprisingly young and handsome, but a quick glance at his attire revealed that he, too, was a Jedi. The next thing he dropped was a joke, then a comment about how he also intended to fight the slavers.

Kahranna had plenty of questions to ask the two Jedi — like how they found her, or why they both happened to find her at the same time. But the questions would have to wait. Kahranna could hear the sound of shuffling footsteps on the other side of the sandcrawler. The trio had to act quickly.

"Fancy my new odds, but talking can wait. We've got slavers to deal with," Kahranna whispered before rolling over to the side of the sandcrawler. Peering out, she caught a glimpse of about a dozen figures, clad in dirty Mandalorian armour. A few were controlling the captives with their blasters; others were performing miscellaneous tasks. But it was clear that they were all getting ready to move again.

A few Mandalorians still had their helmets off, and Kahranna picked one to fire a headshot at. She retreated behind the cover of the sandcrawler as soon as the crack of her blaster sounded, but she heard a thud on the other side that signalled the slaver's corpse dropping in the sand. A split-second later, a series of battle cries and jetpacks sounded from the other side.

[member="Elpsis Elaris"] | [member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"], [member="Kahranna"]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp_K8prLfso​

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The chick with the vibroblade did not stab her. That was good! More detailed introductions would have to wait. For one, they had a bunch of slavers to kill and innocents to rescue. Moreover, a moment later a blonde dude in Jedi robes materialised out of thin air. His appearance, seemingly out of nowhere, was not entirely unnoticed though. The White Current was a pathway to many abilities, but the young redhead did not use her physical eyes to see. As a cursory examination of her milky white orbs would show, she was blind. The white wolf had blessed her with the second sight, enabling her to see through the Force.


Piercing the illusion, she saw the ripples, though only faintly. Moreover, there was a good deal of sand. Walking through it equalled footprints and noise. Seeing the other woman's blaster get tipped aside, she was ready to summon tempestuous flames, but the figure that materialised a moment later introduced himself as a friendly. The fact that he looked very youthful for a Master would be lost on Elpsis since she was blind. Besides, she was very young, too.


"Dude, you're not my type," she said in response to his comment about running into 'beautiful women'. Alas, she liked those, too. Cloak Boy's aura felt like that of a Jedi. Elpsis did not like Jedi, but it seemed he wanted to bash slavers as well. That was good.


"Let's kick arse," she agreed. The woman with the blaster was already moving. Surreptitiously, Elpsis followed her. A gang of ruffians clad in Mandalorian armour was lording over the captives. One went down when a red-hot kill bolt from the intrepid blaster woman's gun made polite conversation with his head. His death echoed through the Force and he fell to the ground like an empty sack of potatoes. Battle cries erupted, blaster fire came their way and jetpacks were fired up. Some Mandos swarmed out to go after the attackers, others herded their human cargo.


Time was of the essence. So what did Elpsis do? Summon a wind. Aeromancy was not her specialisation, but she was proficient in it. Sand and dust was propelled upward by the wind as she pushed it forward, disorientating their attackers as they found themselves firing blindly. "You there, go help the slaves," she called to the Jedi. After all, he had the stealth mojo, so he could more easily sneak in while the slavers were busy.


The wind gripped jetpack-using Mandalorians, tossing some around when they sought to get close. Heat surged through Elpsis' body as she drew upon her kindred element: Fire and heat. What did jetpacks require to function? That's right, fuel. Pulling at the tangled web of power that was the Force, she flooded the jetpacks of some approaching Mandos with an obscene, almost pornographic amount of heat. Boom. The explosions were beautiful to behold, the cries of pain were satisfying.

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

A smirk crossed his lips when one of the woman would admit he wasn't her type. "That's fine, it was a jest anyway..." He would admit, shaking his head. "Besides... You remind me way too much of a dear old friend of mine for me to even think of trying to get in your pants. I never did see her that way, saw her almost like an older sister type... Much older at that. Either way... Would be weird to wake up in the morning and see a face that resembles hers staring at me all lovingly. No thanks" Josh would add, starting to laugh in turn despite the fact he was starting to ramble without meaning to - nor knowing he was until a few moments after. "It's your force signature as well, it's... Hard to explain, really. They're similar. But I think I've rambled long enough, I'd honestly be very much happy if we could get to kicking some slaver aider right about now."

Honestly, the resemblance was uncanny... And he could admit it bothered him, as did the fact he had unintentionally began to ramble to this complete stranger things that he knew she would not understand - and likely label him strange or creepy for. That and the similar force signature as well to... Her. It just seemed so surreal... And yet it was only her face, and her signature that reminded him of her. Their personalities couldn't be anymore different.

Ah, Coryth... Where had you gone?

He had come to visit one day, to find the homestead abandoned and sacked. She had not contacted him, she had not given him any warning that she would be leaving Naboo, nor where she would be. Years had gone by and he just... Never saw her again. Thinking about it made him visibly frown, for a moment averting his eyes from even wanting to look at [member="Elpsis Elaris"] in that moment, his mood souring a bit then and there. His laughter had been his attempt to hide that, hide how his mood had changed. He hid a lot behind laughter, it seemed... But eventually it did come out, the truth did... Josh was a horrible liar.

But he could mope about losing his best friend another time. He would nod when commanded to go after the slavers just as the blaster fire began... He would disappear into the Current then and there, and begin to make his way toward them amongst the commotion...

[member="Elpsis Elaris"]
[member="Kahranna"]