A walk on the Beach (Ord Cestus / Kibo Lake)

[Mishka Larraq]

Planet: Ord Cestus
Location: Unnamed Town built on edge of Kibo Lake,on top of Kibo Plateau
Objective: Explore Foreign City
Allies: NA
Enemies: NA

Mishka Larraq stepped from the Korribean Cafe, Pumpkin-Spice-Whatever in hand, and took in the sight of an alien sky. This one, fortunately, devoid of acid rain. <Beautiful.> Mishka thought to herself as she sipped her drink. She had no idea what a pumpkin was, nor did she know if the drink actually contained spice or not, but it was freaking delicious and full of stimcaf.

A crisp breeze blew Mishka's hair and sent the ends of the scarf fluttering in the air behind her. It was much colder than Mishka was used to. It being fall on this section of Ord Cestus was bad enough, but the altitude of Kibo Plateau added quite a bit more wind and cold than at the planet's ground level. Mishka cupped her drink between her hands and let the warmth of it radiate through the paper-ish container and into her hands. Taking another sip of the delicious liquid, Mishka turned her eyes from the alien sky and looked again at the sign hanging from the store window.

All products 20% off
50% of all proceeds are donated to the Korriban Relief Effort

Mishka sipped her pumpkin-spice-whatever and stared at the sign. Inside the cafe, holonet news broadcasts from various networks were being displayed on the wall-mounted viewscreens that dotted the store. Even from outside, Mishka could still hear the closest one.


"The death toll continues to rise as rescue workers discover hundreds more dead and injured in the ruins of Korriban City." The female news anchor on the wall display said. "While public outrage over the Jedi attack grows throughout the sector, many planetary officials have questioned why SJO warships were operating so far outside their official boarders."

<I didn't think Jedi did that.> Mishka thought to herself as she stared at the viewscreen through the storefront window and sipped her stimcaf beverage. She had heard plenty of stories about the Jedi. They were aggressive, manipulative, underhanded, backstabbers... or so she had been lead to believe. But bombing cities? That was suppose to be something Sith did. Or... in some extreme cases, something that the Mando'ade did when doing so could end a war.

Either way, Mishka's thoughts were with the victims of Korriban. And while her pumpkin-spice stimcaf drink hadn't been too expensive, she hoped that the relief effort being put on by Korribean Cafe was able to help the survivors.


TLRD: Sipping Coffee and watching the news about Jedi Warships bombarding Korriban City from orbit.

 

[Mishka Larraq]

Planet: Ord Cestus
Location: Unnamed Town built on edge of Kibo Lake,on top of Kibo Plateau
Objective: Explore Foreign City
Allies: NA
Enemies: NA

While her mind contemplated the lives lost on Korriban and those that performed the attack, her feet took her from the cafe and towards the massive Kibo Lake that this city rested against. The blue, cloud-dotted sky reflected in the calm waters as a light breeze fluttered the scarf around Mishka's neck. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, the number of lives lost was unknown. What was known, was that entire sections of city had been reduced to mounds of rubble and toppled skyscrapers. Not even those below ground were safe from the savage bombardment of the Jedi. Using Kinetic weapons like that... They had shattered the very foundations of buildings far outside the blast zone of their weaponry, collapsed tunnels and subways and basements... they destroyed power lines, gas lines, water and sewage... The Jedi had done more than kill thousands of civilians... they had forced the people of Korriban to live in squalor, to labor for months and years to clean up the bodies and debris... to tare down fallen towers, uproot the former foundations, and hope... that one day their efforts would allow them to start again.

Mishka sipped on her flavored stimcaf drink and let her eyes wonder from one sight to the next as she walked along the path that rounded the lake. In spite of the similarities of the world itself, Mishka did not need to remind herself that she was not on her homeworld of Mandalore. A few meters away, alien children played on a shallow beach. While Ord Cestus was populated with plenty of humans and near-humans, the vast majority of the world's population consisted of one insectoid race or another. They were strange to watch... She had grown up on a world populated almost entirely by humans, in a small town populated entirely by humans. And here, on a world that was aligned with the Mando'ade Aliite, were hundreds of thousands, if not millions of aliens.

It was a strange thing to her. Not just that there were aliens on an alien world, but that so few people wore armor. Here and there she spotted the tell-tale sign of a person wearing a flak vest under their jacket... but by and large... the people of Ord Cestus were simple, defenseless aliens. They were vulnerable not just to military attack, but to any true act of aggression. They were not like the Mando'ade. They were not strong... which meant that they, like children or cattle, must be looking to the Mando'ade as a provider and protector.

Quietly, Mishka wondered if the people of Korriban were not so dissimilar to those of Ord Cestus, insect or otherwise. Perhaps they too were a weak people in need of protecting.