Acidic Alliance

[Lina Zambrano]

A hop skip and short jump away from Mandalorian Empire territory, Vjun, for all intensive purposes was a lump of dead rock. But for some reason it was a planet of interest to the Sith Empire. She’d gleaned very little from the reports she’d managed to get hold of, logs of cargo ships hauling in goods but with their manifests redacted. It wasn’t uncommon for her to come across something even she, as the Emperor’s Apprentice, couldn’t see all of but a project outside of Sith space?

Well that was something worth digging into more. What reasons would he have for keeping something outside of sith space? Perhaps whatever he was constructing would be detrimental to his Empire if it was discovered. A weapon that could be turned on them? Or maybe he was laying something for the mandalorians to snatch up, it was likely they would head this way after all. They needed some buffer between them and their precious homeworld.

Calina was scowling, she realised and shook herself in the cockpit of her avata class fighter, rolling her shoulders to ease the tension from them and studied the sensor readouts coming from the surface, looking for something...anything that might give her a lead.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira sat quietly in her T-95, drifting through Vjun space on velocity alone. Engines were cut, internal lights were off, and sensor mask was active while she ran long range reconnaissance of the system. Space anomalies had been reported in the system along with cargo ships passing through the system from away. Given its proximity to Mandalorian Empire space, the Resistance wanted scans of the systems and accurate details of what was being shipped so near the Sith Empire's primary allies.

She relaxed in her cockpit, just waiting for the sensor data to get collected and a cargo ship to scan comprehensively. She didn't have a co-pilot, though the ship had space for it. Instead there was a simple Logistics Droid sitting and manning the sensor controls, nothing she really cared about. It was a solo job, perfect for a loner like her.

Laira yawned, drifting through space without a care in the world. Bright redhair was pulled back in a tail, flightsuit a little too small. She liked wearing outfits that showed off her curves and clung to her hips and chest a little tighter than regulation might suggest. The Resistance tried to have military regulations similar to other governments, but was ultimately more than willing to let a hotshot volunteer pilot with experience do whatever she wanted when it came to dress code. They were all volunteers in the end, so there were only so many punishments officers could propose without the pilots just shrugging at them and walking away.

"Ma'am," The droid started in a faux accent she had programmed into it. She liked hearing it attempt a Kathol Creole while unable to use their shorthand. Made the thing sound funny. "Sensors detect an anomaly originating from the central star. Seems to be causing weather disturbances on the planet. Ionic disturbances in local space have been reported over monitored communications."

"It'll be fine R-Nine." They weren't even planning on going to the planet, so bad weather on the surface didn't hardly matter to their mission profile. "Just keep me up to date on the ion disturbances."

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Zambrano]

"Come on." Calina groaned with annoyance, pushing the avata class into a low orbit. There had to be something here, something worthwhile. He continued trips away from bastion were not doing her any good. Kaine's suspicion was growing, and she needed to be sure that when the time came, it had all been worth it. That she had gained enough intelligence to help bring the Empire down....or at least wound it.

Dark clouds twisted across the planets sky, their swirling patterns drawing her eye. Lightening illuminated in bright purple flashes and for a moment, Calina stopped watching the sensors. She didn't often take the time to appreciate the beauty of anything, so engaged as she was by the task she'd set herself, she blinkered herself to the distractions of everything beyond it. The storm below was beautiful, its power raw and untamed no doubt carving the world beneath it.

The teenager smiled a rare smile and turned her attention back to the sensor suit. She didn't notice the storm that was coming for her, she paid little heed to the ion disturbances until alarms began to shrill. She spun the avata class to point out from the planet, eyes wide. "Feth." she kicked the ship out of orbit and tried to run, but the Ion storm descend in a fury, purple and blue cutting across the space.

Calina plunged herself into the force, let it guide her movements. her flight path became instinctive, moving before the lightening could strike. She could ride it out.

CRACK.

Her shields went. She could feel panic rising in her chest, swallowed against it, tried to find her equilibrium, so sink back into instinctive navigation. Another crack, a blue spasm across the controls, making her draw her hands away sharply.

"Double feth."

The controls didn't respond, the sensors were black, the engines were dead, her cloak was down too, no doubt and Calina was in low orbit.

V'jun's gravity reached up and tugged.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The redhead was whistling, letting the ship drift through space while the sensors took scans of the planet and local space. They were preparing for a minor adjustment to slingshot around the planet on their start out-system, and so far the droid had been quiet about anything other than the storms. "Sensors detect a signal." The droid remarked, continuing his wide-angle sweep.

"Put it on my screen." Laira blinked and yawned, stretching in her seat as the sensor data replaced the layout on her dashboard, lines of code to either side of what she was looking at. Whoever it was, they were in a nice ship skirting low around the stormy planet and they were having some trouble. Laira considered on ways to help, ways she could lend a hand. "Alright, systems on." If she got underneath the ship she could help it escape the planet's gravity by using her repulsor-lift coils in the X-Wing to knock it upwards. Not the prettiest fix, but a fix.

Engines flared and atmospheric shields clicked on, alerting any Rekali Drones or watch systems to her presence as she brought the ship around to fly to the aid of the falling ship.

As Laira tugged her fighter so that it's path went below the craft, she sent a burst message, 'Helping. Don't Shoot.' Not that it meant anything other than make the redhead feel better. "Hang on," she muttered under her breath, knowing that the process was going to take some fancy flying.

"Ma'am, Ionic Disturbance det-" Static erupted from behind her, and suddenly her board was sparking, arcs of purple electricity shot over her controls.

"Feth..." she muttered, hauling on the stick and hitting the dash over and over again with her open palm. "Come on, come on." Nothing was giving the screens and controls were going dead. Her rescue mission had suddenly turned into her own crash, at least now she knew why. Her hands turned the crank on her left so that the pedals and stick changed to manual gear. At least she'd be able to guide herself down some, depending on how bad the storms were.

"Feth..."

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Zambrano]

Death was not something Calina had contemplated before now. For one so young, it seemed like decades away from her, despite her choice of lifestyle. She spent her days under constant threat of it, one wrong move, one incorrect slip of the tongue to blow her cover and she'd be cut down faster than you could say 'traitor'. And yet, it wasn't until the avata class plunged through the atmosphere, fire streaking up its hull, tearing off hull plating as she spun uncontrolled towards the planets surface that she truly realised her mortality.

And just how much she did not want to die.

G-forces pinned her to her seat, turned her stomach with such violence she was in danger of losing the contents of her stomach. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, fingers straining to reach eject controls as darkness flitted at the edges of her vision. She found them, pulling the cord hard. Too hard. It snapped, the mechanism failed.

No.

Calina went to the next option, the only option to her and plunged herself into the force, barrier raising around herself. Screams of tearing metal, a sudden stop that made crash webbing cut deep and the world went black.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira couldn't do much other than steer at this point. Flaps and aerospace controls were all she could adjust using the pedals and control stick now, her dashboard black without information upon it, the occasional spark of ion energy tracing across the controls. The redhead strained, trying to keep the ship level as she entered atmosphere and began drifting through the storm.

She thought nothing of the storm, bad weather was nothing to worry about so long as the surface wasn't so bad. According to her intel, the surface was endless desert with complete lack of vegetation, so a little rain would be good for her to store up on water. Turbulence struck her hard and she lost track of the other ship for an instant, missing the pilot's ejection in the clouds and cascade of lightning arcs.

She pulled the controls left and right, trying to wobble the ship to decelerate it on approach with a rocky region of canyons and plateaus that loomed beneath him. Splotches appeared on her canopy, everywhere the metal frame of the cockpit's viewport was being degraded rapidly. "What the hell?" the redhead muttered, noticing similar splotches all over the nose of the X-Wing. It was as if the ship was being disintegrated around her. "Oh feth."

She didn't know what it was, Laira had never studied Vjun and had no idea that acid rain was slowly turning her ship into a puddle. All she knew was it was breaking up and it wouldn't last long enough to wait out the storm in the cockpit.

A massive lurch followed as the starfighter smashed into the ground, crash webbing straining against her chest and shoulders to keep her in place, airbags deploying to protect the pilot from from hitting the dash. With a yelp, the redhead crashed as smoothly as she was able atop one of the plateaus.

The princess groaned while the airbag deflated around her, little pieces of her dash sprayed everywhere in the cockpit. "Ugh," she moaned, wondering what Cato was up to on the outer rim while she was busy crashing absently before catching herself. 'He doesn't care about you, you need to stop caring about him.' Laira had to remind herself sometimes that everything that had happened with him wasn't real, but she was a teenager. It still hurt to think about.

She filled her mind with gathering and logging what gear she was gathering out of the cargo compartment at her feet. Another compartment was accessible from the outside, but she'd have to get to it later. She also started thinking about Elpsis and all her smooth curves and bright red hair to purge any thoughts of others from her mind.

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Zambrano]

Calina shipped had dug deep into the soil, a soft repetitive drip stirred her into consicousness along with an unnatural heat on her leg. She opened her eyes, blinking through blood, head throbbed. But no where near as much as the heat in her leg that became a burn. The ship came into sharp focus then, the shattered cockpit causing a roof run off of acid onto her thigh.

She screamed in pain. Finger fumbling for the straps of her webbing and scrambling back. The rest of the hood caved, melted transparisteel congealing where she'd been sat, the acid starting to eat at the chair. Of course the beautiful storm would be producing acid rain. Of course Calina had to appreciate the beauty of something that now wanted to kill her. The ship wouldn't last, bit nor would she if she stayed here.

She snatched an emergency pack from under the seat before the acid could reach it and raised a force barrier around herself once more, before trying to climb out. Hands slid over pools of acid and she bit back another scream of pain shrinking away. Her leg gave way beneath her as she tried to stand, acid still chewing its way through her flesh.

She was going to die on a dead world and no one would even know or care.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira began scrambling, checking her face and cheeks quickly for cuts. A few but nothing more than superficial injuries, a bacta bandage and she'd be right as rain. Had to keep her face pretty after all, wouldn't do for her to have facial scars pulling attention away from her bright red hair or shiny grey eyes. Once everything was pulled out of the cargo compartment beneath her, really just an all-terrain survival pack and things she kept up front for her amusement on long trips, the redhead popped the canopy.

As she started to get out of the X-wing something burned her hand, "Ow," escaped her lips as she inspected the sudden sensation. Her glove was melted, she hadn't noticed until now. The sensation remained, a touch of liquid against her hand and sudden smoke rising from the ruined glove. With a jerk, she removed the glove and tossed it away only for another stinging burn to begin on her shoulder, and another on her arm. A rain drop hit her face, and the sudden pain shot through her. "What the Feth!"

Acid Rain.

Of course she hadn't remembered the most important aspect of life on Vjun. "Ouch," she scrambled out of the cockpit through the rain as it poured over her, burning her skin wherever it made contact with her flightsuit. "Feth," She slid under the wing of the X-Wing for refuge, yanking at her clothes but the ground was equally wet with acid slug.

Her mind swam and in the process of disrobing, the princess managed to open the cargo compartment of the ship and slide into it, leaving her acid-soak clothes behind while she got comfortable in the dry compartment. "Well ain't this just karked." Laira muttered, twisting around to dig in her things to find a new wardrobe. The ship wouldn't last the whole storm, it would provide temporary cover for the time being. Long enough to get her bearings if she was lucky.

Inside the cargo compartment, it was difficult to pull on new pants and slink into a new shirt, but not impossible. Luckily RESINT officers had been kind, she was a bit of a fan favorite with their supply team after she had modeled what they thought to be the perfect Sith Acolyte outfit for them, and packed her a pair of acid proof ponchos and similar acid-proof galoshes. At least she'd be able to move around on the planet for a time, but she needed to watch her step and keep from splashing or her thighs and calves would end up melting away.

Now to move, and keep moving.

First things first, to the other ship, get the person assuming they survived and then move in the opposite direction of the storm.

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Zambrano]

You are not going to die.

You daughter to Anaya Fen and Jared Ovmar, pull yourself together and think gorramit.

Eyes closed, Calina took a deep breath, and shook herself mentally, several deep breaths and the rising panic seemed to fade. Opening her eyes again she reassessed her situation. First thing first, deal with the acid on her hands and leg. Shrinking her presence using the Art of the Small was something she had been taught from a young age, but there was another part of it that she could put to use. The world around her seemed to shift molecules trembling in her minds eye.

She focused on the acid on her, breaking the molecules apart, shifting them into something far kinder. The burning began to cease and she smiled. A small step but a good one none the less. She opted to maintain the cover of her presence, she'd no idea what or who, if anyone, she might run into.

There was still the problem of getting out. She slid the emergency back onto her belt and sighed. "Woman up, Calina." she told herself. "Its just pain, not like you're not used to it." She took a deep breath, seized the edge of the cockpit and pulled herself out, a long stream of curses ripping from her mouth. The force barrier held, the rain stopping an inch above her head and rolling away. Acid became water on her hands and slid away. She tried not to look at them, she was fairly certain all she'd see now were muscles raw and painful.

Foot steps in the sodden ground made her look round. Someone was coming....but who the feth was it? She was in no position to fight, mild concussion, hands too raw to wield a lightsaber. the most she could do was send them flying and run.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira had to be careful traversing the rugged desert terrain that was now being drenched with powerful acidic rain, splashing up with each drop and sloshing against her galoshes as the redhead jogged. Rain pelted her poncho, the occasional drop striking her delicate face and sending a searing pain throughout her brain until she could get the liquid off her skin. Already several burn marks marred her otherwise pristine features.

The redhead jumped from rock to rock in order to avoid a small river of acidic liquid as she ducked through the rain. Ahead of her the ship that Laira had seen catch the storm first sat, slowly disappearing beneath the heavy rain. Wind whipped through the storm overhead and the back of her legs stung from the drops that struck her calves as the rain lanced through the air sideways. Lightning cracked across the sky, casting a suddenly flash of light across the land.

The pilot was alive enough to have removed themselves from their ship and take cover, the subtle expression in the Force told her that the person was actively using the Force in some manner, but little else. That was enough to be suspicious for the time being, and so Laira shrunk her own presence as best as she could while keeping the her body's natural healing accelerated with the amulet around her neck.

The redhead would have waved, but that would have exposed her hand to the rain, so instead she shouted. "Hey! Alive over there?" As she approached, hoping they could find shelter long enough to get acquainted and tend to their wounds. "I have a spare poncho if you need one!"

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Zambrano]

"I'm alive." she replied. Just. She squinted through the rain, stepping forward to catch a glimpse of read hair beneath a poncho, face and features a similar age to her own. Where had she come from? Did she know where there was shelter? Did she live here? That and many other questions wrangled through her mind. Had she not been so focused on keeping herself hidden, keeping the barrier up and wrangling with the distraction of the searing pain in her hands and leg she might have noticed something familiar about that aura.

She did notice however that her feet were beginning to get a little warm, the acid eating through her boots. "Ah krif." She complained, scanning the floor for a spot less drenched. There wasn't one. "A poncho would be great, boots would be better. And shelter too if you know of any." Not meant to sound like demands, but under the circumstances, manners were in short supply.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira leaned over slightly so the rain wouldn't drip onto her face as she approached the young woman cowering under a small telekinetic barrier. She looked familiar but Laira couldn't place her just yet. She'd think of it given enough time. Through the haze of acid rain and dim light that broke through the clouds or flashed across the desert from the lightning.

The blonde woman was injured, with raw hands much like Laira's own and her clothes were damp. Acid on her clothes was why Laira had scrambled out of her original flight suit and changed, which had been awkward and cramped trying to peel out of painful clothes and scramble naked into a cargo compartment without touching the bare ground so she could change into dry clothes. Dry that already had some rain drops striking her legs on occasion, every time she shifted her shoulders the wrong way.

"I've got galoshes to put over your shoes in my pack, but um..." Her hands were still tucked under the poncho even though she was bent a little and talking about the back on her back. "I don't have gloves and they are in my pack. If you could, um, make that barrier a little bigger I could get into it for you."

Laira's own legs and hands were raw and needed some bacta bandages wrapped around them, as well as some on her face. "We need to get moving east and find shelter. I have a medkit once we find some place dry. There is a canyon maybe a mile that way we might be able to hide in."

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

 

[Lina Zambrano]

Calina limped forward with a nod, careful not to tread to heavily and splash more acid up either of their legs. The force barrier stretched, forming a neat dome around them both. "Thank you." she said softly, she tried to help shift the pack from the red heads back, but everything she touched burned and she was ultimately useless. A mixture of pain and frustration prickled her eyes but she blinked hard against it chiding herself inwardly.

With a little help from the woman for balance she altered the acid on her feet, so it didn't continue to eat at her shoes or the galoshes from the inside, and slid her feet into them. Eyes slid upward to the crackling sky and the acid running over her barrier. A miles east? Not far at all. "If you stay close, I can keep us both covered." she indicated to the barrier.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]