Ashes to Ashes

[Chevu Visz]

Location: Alaris Prime

Scrappy. That was one word you could use to describe the Galactic Alliance. In fact, the GA was so thrifty, due to the organization’s infinitesimal budget and limited manpower, even its leaders were occasionally tapped for scavenging missions. Its ex-leaders, too. There had been reports of a fleet of unknown origin going down on Alaris Prime in the Kashyyyk Sector. Chevu Visz and [member="Coren Starchaser"] were sent to investigate the detritus and perhaps come back with weapons, supplies, precious metals, or anything else they could get their hands on. The tricky part? It was a hostile place. Gundarks roamed the forests along with gnasps and a species of Mynock that could survive in atmospheric conditions. All the better to send Forcers who could fold space, like Starchaser and his apprentice.

In the distance, Ancient Jedi ruins stood like frozen gods. Wroshyr trees stretched to the sky, parting around the twisted wreckage. The ships themselves, starfighters and destroyers alike, seemed to be fairly well-preserved. Who knew what they’d find, but if they came up empty handed, they could always treasure hunt among remains of the old Jedi temple.

Chevu knelt on a patch of moss, fixing a malfunctioning scavenger droid. The trip to Alaris Prime had been tense. While Master and Apprentice were on better terms, their relationship had not fully healed from the schism of Chevu’s trial and her subsequent closeness to Gabriel, a man that Coren refused to trust.

“Know anything about the make of those ships?” she asked, as she snapped shut the maintenance panel, smiling at the droid as it whirred to life.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

This was one of those worlds Coren never had much of an interest in going, the whole system, really. Wookiees didn’t bother him, per se, but they didn’t exactly excite him. Sure, they might’ve fought against some mythic Empire of the past, but they were hairy, and didn’t speak Basic, or any language he could communicate in. A bunch of guttural grunts and nonsense.

Much like how Mandalorians spoke, the more Coren thought about it.

So, Coren Starchaser might be a little bit of an elitist, but he figured there were better ways to run a government than the Mandos had, and just better ways to exist, overall. Same with his feelings on the Sith. Controlling everyone? No, not the smart move. And he was going to fix it, no matter what jobs he had to take. And yes, the Commander could typically pick out what missions he preferred, and most of the time it wasn’t planetary salvage missions.

But this close to the hot bed that was the area between the Republic and the Sith and that Hutt Cartel (Never Forget!), if it was going to be a salvage mission, might as well send people who knew how to handle themselves. Sure, he was trying to repair things with Chevu, but who knew how well that’d go.

Sleeping with the Wrath and continuing to be his friend was a hard thing to forgive when you joined a faction on the purpose of destroying the dark side no matter where it was. Some small Rim faction, the One Sith, wherever it was, he’d find it, and he’d cause damage to it. “They’re older than I am, I wager. Still, can see if anything over there is running, up for it?”

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu nodded, and rose to her feet, wiping her oil smudged fingers on her huntsuit. Her team of scavenger droids floated around her, awaiting instructions.

"I wonder what these ships were doing so close to the atmosphere of Alaris Prime," she mused aloud, casting her gaze towards the gas giant around which the planet orbited. Ships were really Coren's thing, not hers.

"Go on ahead," she said to the droids. The little metal automatons veered off in different directions, accompanied by a crawler, with Coren and Chevu following behind them. The closer they got to the wreckage, the worse the stench of bodies became, and Chevu covered her nose and mouth with her hands. She guessed not everyone made it into escape pods.

She branched out with the Force, searching for signs of life. There was a good chance there were other scavengers and salvagers at the site, and an equally good chance that if there were, they wouldn't be friendly.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren had his lightweight armor on, not the Starhawk armor that he was using for combat lately, but an older edition of the ExCon armor that the Levantine Sanctum and Frontiers Corps had been using. He looked out at the ships, using the macro binoculars and scratched at his head. What were they doing? He shrugged. “The systems’ a weird place with the gas giant.” He looked up, then back down at Chevu.

As they walked, following the droids, Coren took a look back at the ship in which they came. They had a few Power Droids on board and could use them to start up some of the vessels. If they could get one or two online, he could use them as a mobile base to push back any squatters while they waited for help to arrive.

The smell hit his nose, but with the suit, it was able to adjust as he put the face mask on. Light repeater and lightsaber were with him, and should things go wrong, he’d be ready, willing, and able to bring the full force of the light side and justice to them.

“Sense anything?” Coren’s own ability with Force sense changing the more he worked to figure out how to affect the very space around them.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

As the droids' heads bobbed up and down behind sprawling mounds of debris, Chevu closed her eyes branched out with the Force to see what she could sense. Her energy threaded through the wreckage, but did not feel the tug of life force anywhere within.

"No life forms yet," she muttered. Her eyes snapped open, and she put her hands on a portion of what seemed to be a starfighter's hull. There was a great deal of carbon scoring on it, which could mean that the fleet had come under enemy fire. Curious.

"There's a Force technique I've always wanted to learn. Psychometry. Do you know it Coren?"

They could possibly use this ability to pick up impressions and traces of information that would reveal what had happened to the mystery fleet. If the two of them worked together, they might even be able to find out more about its origins.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

No life, that was good. Coren didn’t feel like having to blast someone today. Well, unless his preferred targets showed up, Sith, dark siders, pirates. He’d be the equalizer between the normals in the galaxy and those crazy folk who wished to get involved and worry about controlling people. The Jedi weren’t a fraking use either, worrying about their karma score when it came to this war. Still, he was trying to get to these ships to get them ready and airborne. He’d move the ship that he and Chevu came in in order to get these things flying.

Looking to his student, then back to the ships, he stroked the hull of the starfighter near him before taking a few paces. She was asking him. “Psychometry? A bit, more a natural instinct.” There was a weak grin to him. Coren wasn’t one to really brag, hell, he got knocked around by Sith more times than he could count. But there was a military behind him now.

Coren looked back the Chevu. “You need to concentrate, feel the ship… Feel…” He wasn’t sure. “Residual life. What was going on with this piece of equipment? What was the last thing you feel before this ended up here?”

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu called the Force into her body and as she let the energy flood her system, took off the gloves of her huntsuit. She lay her hands carefully on the side of the hull, feeling the cool metal beneath her palms. Closing her eyes, the Mirialan Knight concentrated on the material underneath her green fingertips. She felt...nothing. Psychometry was harder than it seemed. Was something blocking the energy field? Or was she simply not tapping into the right part of the energy?

"I can't seem to..." She shook her head and frowned, gazing at the ground. Chevu hated to admit failure, and in light of the things that had happened between she and Gabriel and the resulting demotion in her rank, even more so now. She turned back to her Master with a hopeful expression.

"Maybe you can help." she offered. "We could try it together."

She took his hands, carefully removing his gloves, and placed them on the side of the ship with hers on top, green against tan. Touching the ship through him? Yeah, something was definitely happening now.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren was one who knew how to use the Force on instinct, but only with certain things. He never had formal training with the powers of instinctive astrogation, nor psychometry. They just had started to happen for him. Made him a very good quartermaster for the crew of the Dawn Treader, and the Warbird Wing. Beyond that? He was one who knew how to make the Force work to travel, to find his way between systems, and smooth out the ridges that came from gravity wells to get himself into hyperspace. He’d been working hard on getting his skills better in that, ready for a war, ready for any situation.

“You’re looking for the here and now. Pyschometry is a…” He stalled, looking for the word. “It’s a skill that revolves around retrocognition. Not what is happening or going to happen, like the Jedi teach, but what has happened. What you’re looking for can be found by entering an area and feeling for it. But you need to know where to look. This was a fighter, find the pilot.”

Or they could try it together, he wasn’t one for boring lectures and when she took his hands, he grinned. That was unexpected. He felt the warmth from her skin on his as he took a breath in, and let it out. The pilot was the last being who had this vessel, that was what they needed to find to find the ship’s history.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Her hands lay upon his, a subtle charge bristled between them where their skin touched. She let her power mingle with his, and then closed her eyes again. Instantly she felt the difference in the extra power and with Coren as her guide, she began to experience subtle sensations. Flashes of a face, voices crying out, panicked crew mates. Turbolaser fire. Smoke.

Furrowing her brow, she focused more deeply into the ship's past. The matter it came in contact with. The people who commanded it. A phrase was returned to her, cryptic words that she couldn't quite decipher. Deep brown eyes locked with Coren's icy blue ones.

"Do these words mean anything to you?" Chevu recited the words just as she heard them through the psychometric reading.

"'We require no head to survive.'"

Despite being finished with the reading, her hands continued to linger on top of his hands. Chevu felt more connected to Coren than ever, whether from the psychometry or something else. It was a nice feeling, and she didn't want it to end.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Starchaser’s power was a bit different. Yes, it was the Force, but the man had spent so much time on ships, in space, in hyperspace, that the very way the Force worked for him was a bit different than most. The man was an explorer, and spent ample time on a planet, from here and there, an adventurer of sorts, but working with the Wardens and with the Aing-Tii? He had a whole different view.

It was similar to how the Fallanassi were different from Jedi, fundamentals. Sure, he had training from his father, an ExplorCorps member, from Sith to teach him to hunt down Dark Jedi, and from several beings between then and now.

A starfighter, something for him to learn about. Something for him to greet and understand. It was the easiest target for him to understand, and he could feel the pilot’s thoughts, feel the emotions as the ship that he called home, the ship he served on, was under attack, coming to the planet to seek cover.

He looked at his apprentice and quirked up an eyebrow. Require no head to survive? He knew nations that didn’t have a backbone, and … insects. “Doesn’t ring a bell, mind goes to bugs but…” He looked around not really to the here and now, but to the distance, to the past, or future.

His hand was still on the ship, he was seeing what he could get out of it, but… that phrase, something deep was searching.

The hell was that sound?

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu felt that she was on the precipice of understanding a bit more about that cryptic phrase. It wasn't spoken by the pilot, but by someone outside. Perhaps the owner of the enemy ship? Then the Force shifted. The energy cried out, screaming at her to ignite her blue blade. Coren's face changed as he heard a rustling. She heard it, too. It sounded like...creatures.

Removing her hands from the ship's hull, Chevu reached for her lightsaber and whirled around. Two reddish-brown anthropoids with four arms and sharp-toothed, spittle flecked maws were charging towards the pair. Gundarks. One of them held a human skull in its paws and flung it at Coren. The other came barreling towards Chevu, swiping at her with all four pairs of arms.

"Coren, watch out!"

She swung her saber around, and as plasma sliced through flesh and bone, one of its arms dropped to the ground. The wounded gundark raised its face to the sky and howled, swiping blindly at her. The Mirialan was hit with an enormous blow, and flew backwards, landing in the mud. Her saber was dislodged from her grip and landed several feet away.

Kark that hurt.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He could hear the sound, but he couldn’t place it. Starchaser preferred aquatic locations, maybe because it reminded him of space. He wasn’t really sure, but being on the ground? It affected him a bit, it changed his perception and made him feel out of place. Looking to his apprentice, she started moving faster than he did, and that had Coren a bit ashamed. Maybe it was that he was waiting for that opportune moment to get to work. Right as she ignited her blue blade, a step and a half ahead of him, he grabbed the bloodsteel hilted lightsaber that was his secondary weapon.

With something like the gundark, it was foolish to use a blaster, the beast was just going to keep coming. And yes, some times the blade was also a viridian color, different weapon, but that gem was a Starchaser-Special. The family had made viridian crystals for a long while now, synth crystals, to be exact. The orange, that came from an underwater cave on the homeworld, and that was all Coren cared for.

Tradition. Before he could activate the blade, he lifted a hand, and the amulet he wore created an energy shield that caused the skull to bounce off. His blue eyes tightened as he stared down at the gundark. The orange blade hummed to life as he saw, and felt, Chevu getting knocked aside.

Focusing in on the battle, Coren hurled the Force at the gundark, hoping to stun the beast, but, well, he interrupted its thought process. Good. He ran in lightsaber going to cleave one of the arms off.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Chevu lay on the ground for a moment, trying to catch her breath She had landed hard. Her everything hurt. There wasn't any time to survey her injuries The gundark that attacked her beat its chest and stomped on the ground, signalling an incoming attack. It used its powerfully-muscled legs to launch itself at her with a howl. Just as it was about to land, she hit it with a devastating telekinetic repulse, sending the creature flying into the side of the hull with a smack. Its head hit the hull and it fell to the ground where it lay unconscious.

Her gaze flew to Coren who was in the midst of lopping off one of the arms of his gundark. She scrambled to her feet and reached out her hand, letting her lightsaber pommel snap to it. Igniting her blade, she lunged at the injured creature, thrusting her saber into its gut with a grunt, and turning her blade upwards, eviscerating it. It toppled over next to its brother, entrails leaking into the mud.

Wincing, Chevu extinguished her blade and stumbled backwards, propping herself against the ship's hull. The Miralan's huntsuit was covered in black mud. She moved her limbs gingerly, and then made another face when she bent her arm at the elbow. Might be a fracture. She couldn't tell.

"You ok, Coren?"

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The one thing that was Coren’s saving grace when he was not in a starfighter was his dexterity and agility. Now, you see, unlike some characters, Coren had his shortcomings and strength was definitely one of them. A lightsaber had an insane cutting ability and it helped our Corellian hero through most tasks that needed the saber, but when something was coming for him, the pilot had to depend on his ability to not be somewhere when the attack hit.

And that was where his movement speed came in. As an instinctive astrogator, Coren always knew where he was going, mix that in with a few months spent learning among the Aing-Tii, to recharge the years he had spent with them before? He was very good at staying on his feet. And once battle hit, that gave him all the focus he needed, a grin crossed his features as he looked up at his foe.

As he was lining himself up for a heavy swing at the left side of the neck of the gundark, a bit of a Force assisted jump, there was a small crack and whoosh as he displaced himself, moving to the far left of the creature. When he appeared, his body had followed through with the spin, sliding the orange blade through the neck, severing it partially.

Enough to knock the thing down as Coren hit the ground, blade extinguishing as he caught himself on his feet and one hand. He looked up, at the two gundarks before relaxing and getting to his posture, approaching his apprentice. “All green, you?” Probably not so much.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

A wan smile came. "Don't I look green enough?" joked the Mirialan, then squeezed her eyes shut, wincing from the pain in her arm. The mud on her face and hair began to cake. If they got one of the ships working, maybe she could use its refresher.

"That thing you did to the gundark," she started. "The uh..." She didn't quite know how to explain what he did. "Shifting of your body from one point to another. Can you teach me how to do that?"

Sure she was injured, but she'd use the Force to push through her training if she had to. Chevu wanted to make up for lost time with Coren. They were getting on surprisingly well on this mission. It had been at least an hour since he'd made a comment about her sleeping with the Wrath anyway.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Shaking his head, he looked to his apprentice. A bit banged up, but no worse for wear. He looked her over, taking a second to peak at her skin, caked with mud and shrugged. “You’ll be fine.” Field medicine, though, what was that? One thing he always flaked on, was learning the best way to make people heal up. Warbird Wing always had at least one Forcer who was able to revitalize others. That was keeping people fighting, the Force did its best to keep everyone in check from there.

And then she was questioning fold space? Coren tossed her a grin. “I could, but you’ve not earned it yet. I could also point you to the places you need to go to find the experts, but I’m not convinced you’re ready for that, either.” Difficult teacher? Yeah, yes he was.

The man looked to the apprentice, then back to the ships. “Well, barring other interruptions, we should get on well here.”

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Coren was the "shake it off" type of Master; Chevu was aware of that. But when Starchaser told her that she didn't "earn" the chance to learn that shifting power that he knew, she quirked a brow. Her onyx eyes narrowed into slits. Had she not earned it? The Mirialan had fought the Final Order as well as put her life on the line on Coruscant. If that didn't earn the right to learn the power, what did?

She didn't quite understand it. Was this a petty sort of punishment for sleeping with Gabriel? She couldn't help but feel like Starchaser was holding some kind of a grudge.

It was reckless. It was disrespectful. It was stupid. She was going to do it anyway.

Without a word, her arms shot out in front of her. Chevu assailed her Master with an unexpected Force repulse. It wasn't as strong as the one that she'd unleashed on the unconscious gundark, but the burst was possibly enough to knock him backwards, and most likely enough to sweep him off his feet.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Was it just Coren who was preventing Chevu from learning the arts of the Aing-Tii. No, that was something he promised the Aing-Tii, if he had found a worthy being, he could instruct them to make their way to the planet, but to teach without one of the Monks present? It was dangerous. Moving matter from point A to B was one thing all its own, taking it to the next level how Coren was? That was reckless. Some beings could get the hang of it, to move beyond the immediate line of site, Coren, though, he needed line of site to prevent himself from scattering his bits and pieces around existence.

The earning wasn’t from him. Even when she made it through the Rift, she’d have to impress the Monks. But the location, and how to best fly through? That was a trust issue. And he was coming back to trusting her, slowly. The more she, and he, distanced himself from the force that was Gabriel, the easier that was coming.

So much that his guard was down nearly constantly around Chevu, when they were alone, something that was a new development when it came to their relationship since the introduction of the Wrath into Alliance space. And he wasn’t ready for the blast that had hit him, launching him back, against the dead gundark. His lightsaber fell from his hand and he let it lay.

Pulling the hood from his head, he looked to her, dropping into a martial stance used by the Wardens, he was reaching out to her in the Force. There was a part of him that was grinning though. Something got this girl riled up and for the first time since the trail, she seemed to be fighting for what she believed.

Abandoning his stance, he dropped his side arm, and moved it, to where his saber lay.

[member="Chevu Visz"]

 

[Chevu Visz]

Master Oomomo would have insisted that Chevu simply practiced patience. The Sullustan would say that she would eventually learn the skills she needed to learn when she was ready, and the Force would decide when the time was right to level up her training. Chevu didn't care about that right now.

Oh, it was on. She saw the fight in Coren's bright blue eyes. He was going to spar with her. He was even grinning, the nerf herder.

He took on some kind of fighting stance that she didn't recognize, and in response, Chevu grabbed her saber hilt, wrapping her green fingers around the pommel and igniting her blue blade with a snap-hiss. The Mirialan had Knight-level Soresu skills to bring to the fight and it showed. She took the opening stance, right foot in front and left behind, saber held aloft and her other arm pointing towards him, palm perpendicular to the ground. If he wanted a battle, then by the Maker, she would give him one.

"C'mon Starchaser," she goaded. "Make me earn it."

Her eyes invited him to attack.

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

There was a purity to battle, not in the way the Echani and their oddity group sought it, no, Coren just knew that battle was the equalizer. Was that a strange bit of life? Maybe, it wasn’t like he was raised by an aging gunslinger who beat students with a stick to teach them life lessons. He didn’t ever forget the face of his father.

First came smiles, then lies. Last is gunfire.

He didn’t get to lies with Chevu, they were going straight for the gunfire, and he was going to disarm this as best as he could. What he was hoping to do, was get Chevu using the Force, get her using it against him. Show him some fight, moving in towards her, one step, then another at an even pace, eyes on hers, adrenaline pumping in his ears, his eyes tightened and he was focusing on her lightsaber. A bit trickier, this trick, but he was hoping to move it from her hand, right over to where his own lay in the dirt.

Even the odds.

And regardless of the outcome, he’d start coming in quick, going for a leg swipe.

[member="Chevu Visz"]