Public A Trip by the Blackwall

[Brooke Waters]

The Quiet Storm had arrived in low orbit. Brooke was glad of that. Poking around the Blackwall was not something she wanted to be doing, what with the Sith’s unnatural beasts breaking free, and the Jedi keeping their war fleets ready and moving. But her ship was already starting to run its stealth systems. Getting those up was her primary focus while she moved the corvette. Her pilot droid doing most of the work. Brooke herself was making her way through her ship to her shuttle, the Nautilos. The ship had been primed the second they hit real space.

Stepping aboard, Brooke was followed by a Sparkat and two other Witches, students that she was taking on. They were here as there were some ruins that needed to be cataloged. The world was a bog world. Well, technically a fen, the scans already showed it to be more alkaline than acidic. But as they touched down?

One thing was for certain.

There was darkness here. It was clear. But the landing zone was farther than she wanted it to be from the ruins. Apparently there was a Witch clan on this world, part of the ancient Kingdom. And if the Sith were close, she’d have to move fast.

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Darkness pooled at Juniper's feet, rising from the water below and pressing down from the air that clawed at her lungs. She had no idea why she was on this planet, only that she had woken here. It was one of those times when her powers had carried her farther than her will. A trauma response, perhaps, her psyche pulling her where the Force whispered was safe. Even if nothing about this place felt safe.

The last memory she could call her own was fear. Someone had threatened her. Then came sparks of green and pink bursting across her vision, and she woke on loamy ground with no ship, no equipment, only the dark. She had carved her way through it for hours now.

Every alarm in her body rang as she pressed forward, but forward was the only way she knew. She had endured worse, Nal Hutta's slime pits made this mire almost a pleasant walk by comparison, though the sting on her skin told her she was being watched. Juniper Le Fey wasn't one to yield to the elements, but she wasn't blind to danger either. With no weapon at her hip, her hand hovered close to her side, ready to draw on magick at a moment's notice.

The fen deepened with every step. Shadows flitted at the edge of sight, laughter and weeping darting from tree to tree. The mud clutched at her ankles like hands. It was a darkness she recognized, a kinship to her own blackouts, and that familiarity chilled her more than the water seeping into her boots. Whatever stalked her here felt linked to her blood. She needed to live long enough to find out.

It was almost on her, she swore she felt its breath at her neck, when the low hum of an engine cut across the sky. A ship, its stealth veil breaking as it descended. The sound was enough to scatter the gnashing dark before it swallowed her whole. Juniper drew a shuddering breath. This world was not kind, but maybe fate had delivered someone else into it. Someone with a ship.

She crouched behind a moss-slicked log as the shuttle set down. A woman disembarked, flanked by others. Juniper's instincts eased from shrieking alarms to a dull, warning wail. Safer than before, but still uncertain. Slowly, she rose from cover.

Juniper stepped around the log, hands visible, her voice low.
"Don't shoot."
She walked toward the stranger, cautious but steady. "I'm not quite sure where we are. I'm… lost."

Her eyes held Brooke Waters a moment too long, testing her. Whether this woman would be savior or enemy remained to be seen.