Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Below the Wroshyr Trees [DragonsFlame]

Tallia dropped her fighter beneath the canopy of Kashyyyk's giant tree's to reveal a vast city that appeared as if it was floating. In reality, large durasteel cables held the platforms in stasis. But the bright lights from buildings and the darkness that covered the surrounding area helped to solidify the illusion. She received clearance to land, then made her way to into a hangar built into the side of one of the trees. She jumped out of her starfighter and marveled at the intricacy of the structure she stood in. An oddly cozy mix of primitive and state-of-the-art architecture shaped the room. The walls and ceiling were the tough, wooden insides of the tree while the ground was plated in metal. Spaceships where present, along with a sprinkling of Wookie airspeeders, or fluttercraft, which were unlike anything Tallia had seen in her life. "Quite an interesting planet." Tallia thought to herself. "It's good to finally visit here. If only it were on better circumstances." The Republic occupation of the Kashyyyk system was a generally recent one, and the planet was right on the edge of Imperial territory. It had it's fair share of problems, including a continued problem with Wookie slavers.

That was why Tallia was here. Despite the attempts of the Republic to shut down the slave trafficking on Kashyyyk, It was still a major problem. Groups of humans and non-humans alike, but especially Trandoshans had raided villages on the lowest of tree levels, taking away their young and able bodied inhabitants. An awful thing, and so Tallia had been sent from Coruscant to see what a Jedi could do. Two, in fact. A Jedi Master, @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] would be joining her. Stepping through a wood carved archway and heading across a long, narrow, suspension bridge, she made her way into the outskirts of the hanging city. The sounds of distant wildlife resonated from above in the trees, where strange birds with unfamiliar calls made their home. The buildings and homesteads found in the city had the same rustic and refurbished look as the hangar Tallia had landed in. The whole place fascinated Tallia immensely, how technological yet natural the place seemed. She made her way across the intertwined platforms to the Republic Security Department building. From there she could find out the important details on the situation and plan her course of action, with Master DragonsFlame's consent of course. She also hoped to meet up with him in the Security building.
 
@[member="Tallia Farn"] would, though, be greeted with a surprise.

"Boo" a familiar voice came from behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. It was Jedi Master Joshua DragonsFlame. And unlike last time, he seemed in better spirits then when they had met last.

Last they had met, it was just after the archive raids. Everyone was in a foul mood. Josh had been trying to vent out the frustration and grief through training. Though Josh seemed to be hiding it better this time, it was obvious just by looking into the Master's eyes that something was causing him, once again, something. Perhaps even worse then the archives raid.... It was easy to tell by the fact that his eyes told of despair, of someone who hadn't slept a wink in days.

But regardless, he gave her a smile. "Hey" he said, giving a slight wave. "Am I early?" he asked, almost innocently.
 
Tallia smirked when @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"] appeared behind her and laid his hand on her shoulder. "It's never a bad thing to be a little early." She said while looking behind at Joshua. He seemed to be in rather good spirits today, considering what had been happening recently. "My first stop was going to be over at the Security Building to see if I can get any additional information... You have been briefed haven't you?" She added a question onto the end.
 
He smirked a bit. If anything, this mission was a good distraction for him. Which would probably explain why he was in good spirits. He needed one for sure, and hoped she wouldn't bring it up. Everything from the upcoming war with the Empire, his closest friends disappearing, his brother being a Sith Knight and the death of his girlfriend Saoirse Jenulia was weighing heavily on him, but he wasn't going to get anywhere on a mission if he didn't distract himself from that fact.

"Funny story actually" he said. "I had to deal with these lizard people trying to invade a city in Naboo recently. I went from getting my fortune told to keeping slavers from storming a city and kidnapping townspeople. So... This'll be fun for me" he said with a chuckle.

"If I'm correct on the briefing..." he mused aloud. "We're here to strike a blow to the lizard people trying to enslave the giant furry people, right?" he asked.

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
"A "funny" story indeed." Tallia chuckled. She had had her fair share of similarly odd missions. "But, your analysis is pretty much spot on, though I would avoid calling the Wookies giant furry people when their around. I don't think their very fond of jokes." She smiled at him. "I heard they like to tear anyone that makes them angry limb from limb, literally." She smirked. In reality, Wookies were just as known to be kind and gentle with friends, as tough and fearsome to their enemies. She doubted they would have any problem with them. It was the "lizard people" she was worried about. @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]
 
He smiled. "I'm HOPING that if they hear, I can bribe them" he said with a grin. "Wookiees love bones, right?" He asked as he motioned for her to walk with him toward their arranged meeting place.

"I mean, if I was a giant walking carpet with teeth and a fondness for ripping limbs off, I'd love to chew the bones of my enemies too!" He joked.

"GRRRRRGGHGGGARGGHHHH AAARHHHGRGHHRR" he managed to get out, which could roughly be translated to "But make no mistake, they are skilled warriors, and valuable allies". He'd said, or barked it, loud enough for any eavesdropping Wookiees to hear. His way of covering his ass in case he were heard.

He gripped her shoulder with one hand as he finished, another hand, knuckle white, grasping his own chest Afterword as he hacked and choked. Fishing out his canteen, he took a drink and the choking stopped.

"Sorry, I'm a little rusty at speaking Wookiee" he said with a charming smirk, as if his hidden talent hadn't just almost killed him.

"It's been awhile" he admitted with a smirk.

"But on that note..." And his tone turned serious as he eyed her. "Wookiees are monsters in combat. I fought and killed one once. The Sith Wookiee, Balthazier. He was fierce, dangerous, and vicious. And an equal opponent. He was a testament to the strength of wookiees.

"It's known in the Order that I have superhuman strength" he said. "But him? He practically matched it. If that is the Wookiee's strength, I feel bad for the lizard people when we free the furries"

A smile crossed his face. "Think we'll see limbs get cut off?"

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
Tallia giggled at @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]'s Wookie impression. It was actually quite good, though it was followed by a great deal of coughing. The language seemed odd to hear coming from a human throat, and came across as rather out of place. Still, it quite amused her. Master DragonsFlame did indeed seem to be in a very good mood.

Tallia had a hard time envisioning the Sith Wookie that Joshua described afterward, but she did know that Wookies were extremely strong beings. It wouldn't be wise to underestimate them. As she continued to walk, she heard him say "Think we'll see limbs get cut off?"

She looked back to him. "I certainly hope not." Tallia expected that there could be violence, and she was prepared, but she would prefer there not to be any flying limbs.
 
He chuckled a bit. His mood had changed since when he'd landed on the planet. Distractions were good. Very good. More distracty from dead girlfriend and unborn child, the better.

"Remind me not to do that again though" he said with a smirk. "That's a killer on the throat, and there's a reason why Humans don't speak Wookiee. I just kind of picked it up, no real classes. I spent a couple of months here once on a mission when I was younger, I kind of HAD to learn in order to actually communicate with them. Think that mission was.... Hmmm... 6, 7 years ago?"

As for her answer, he shrugged. "If any limbs come off, I'm so using one as a weapon" he joked with a cheeky grin as he looked at her.

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
Tallia rolled her eyes at @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]'s snide comment. She decided that she would probably get along with Joshua great. This was a whole different side of him that she hadn't seen before. In their brief encounter on Tython, he'd been very down in the dumps. She could sense a bit of that lingering still inside him. She too had scars that would never heal, though she did a remarkable job at burying them.

"Come on," She said, quickening to a jog. "We're almost there." She entered through a blast door into a room that looked familiar yet stuck out like a sore thumb on Kashyyyk. The building was clearly based on Coruscanti architecture. There wasn't any green foliage in sight, only different shades of greys and tans. Tallia nodded to two guards standing at each side of a closed doorway. The door slid open to reveal an archive room. A protocol droid stood at the left side of the entrance. "Welcome to the Kashyyyk Security Databa-" She walked past it and headed to the back of the room.

Tallia turned to Joshua. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what we're looking for." She turned to one of the consoles. "Any suggestions?"
 
Josh smirked as she completely ignored the protocol droid, cutting it off. He looked at the droid before shrugging and looking back at Tallia. She was fiesty, that was for sure.

"Not sure" he admitted. "I mean, we have giant lizard people enslaving Wookiees. What else should we do?" he snarked with a grin.

"But in all seriousness..." he began. "They're probably keeping them in a compound somewhere, the ones that are enslaved, I mean. We free them.... Well, I don't think they'll be able to tell them apart from the rest of the Wookiees, so they'll have a hell of a time tracking them down" he explained.

"If they've already put slave collars on them, I can probably hack into them. I've done my share of slave liberation missions. My hacking skills aren't good, but I know how to fiddle with slave collars the right way with a screwdriver or a pin"

"The hard part is going to be getting IN" he explained. "There's going to be fighting, for sure. Think you can handle getting your little delicate hands dirty?" he joked with a grin.

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
Tallia leaned over the consoles keyboard. The interface was very similar to the computers found in the Jedi Temple. She began scanning through reports on the slave raids. Running diagnostics on all of them. "I need to find out where their going to hit next." She mumbled to herself. A map materialized on-screen, and began crossing off areas on a grid. Now she was getting somewhere. The slavers had been hitting all the lower level villages within a several hundred mile radius. Only two villages remained uncrossed on the map. One of those two had to be their target. After they were exploited, she was sure the slavers would start shipping the Wookies off planet to places the Jedi couldn't go.

"Iv'e been in battles before." She said looking up from the computer at Joshua. "You don't have to worry about me." She took a step back from the computer and pointed at the screen for him to see. "Those villages are their target, we just don't know which their gonna hit first."
@[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]
 
"Hmm...." he mused aloud, scratching his beard in thought.

"Wait, I have an idea. The villages aren't very far apart, right?" he asked. "Here's an idea. We'll split up. Each of us will hide near or in one of the villages. If they attack either one, then we can use the communicator to alert the other that they're attacking, and the other can come join them to ward them off" he said.

He pointed to one on the map. "I'll take that one" he said. "Key word for slaver attack is.... Pickle Juice" he said, flashing her a smile and heading off toward one of the Wookiee villages.

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
Tallia tapped her foot, waiting for the turbolift to reach the forest floor. She'd agreed that splitting up was the wisest course of action, so she was heading to one of the Wookie villages to lookout. The turbolift opened at the bottom. Glow torches lit up the area for several meters and then the trees were engulfed in blackness. She tried not to think about what kinds of creatures were lurking around this place.

"No wonder the slavers haven't met any Republic resistance on their raids. It's too dark for people to come down here."

It was especially hard for her to see, as she was from Hapes where the sun shined all the time. The Hapans had adapted to the constant sunlight by having tan skin and sensitive eyes. They were as blind as a mynock in even dim lighting. That's why Tallia relied more on the force to guide her than her physical vision. She could sense the bustle of life coming from the village ahead, and she began to see the lights from huts in the distance.

"Master Joshua, I'm approaching my village. Doesn't seem to be any activity yet." She continued to use Josh's proper title and full first name, despite the informal way the Master conducted himself. His attitude was actually a breath of fresh air compared to some of the Jedi Masters she had met in the past.

@[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]
 
Josh meanwhile, was more used to the night. He had lived everywhere from Tatooine to Coruscant to Tython to Naboo. So seeing in the night wasn't too hard for him. He quite liked Tallia, missioning with her was fun so far, she was a breath of fresh air from having to sit in the Council chamber and listen to the "traditional jedi" grump and womp all day long.

He closed his eyes as he disappeared from view as he walked toward the village... The White Current was something he was still learning to dabble in, but he was getting better by the week. Even Masters had things to learn, after all.

Under the cloak of the Current, Josh made his way into the trees, climbing up into them so he wouldn't be seen... Once he was engulfed by the cloud of the branches, he released himself from the Current so he wouldn't exhaust himself. After that... It was a waiting game.

"None on my end either, hide yourself and prepare" he ordered into the communicator.

And he waited.

An hour passed. Josh had nearly fallen asleep. To keep himself awake, he'd started playing his Holo Boy on mute, so nobody would hear him. Because what better to cull the boredom then The Legend Of Kelda, some kind of dungeon crawler and adventure game?

As something crossed his line of vision though, Josh's face turned to a serious expression. Saving Princess Kelda would have to wait, it seems. Turning off his Holo Boy and putting it away, he stretched to get the numbness out of his body and stood up on the branch.

"Force sakes, my ass hurts...." he muttered as he used a pair of binoculars to see what the suspicious figure was....

Okay, suspicious figureS. The lizard people slavers were heading toward the Wookiee village. Great.

Picking up the Holo Boy, Josh began to speak into it for a second, before realizing and cursing himself for getting a bit too sleepy in his boredom.

"Oh kark me" he said irritably, putting it away and rightfully getting the communicator.

"Tallia. It's Master DragonsFlame. Code Pickle Juice. The slavers are here. I'm getting ready to engage them now, hopefully you can join me soon"

And with that, he put it away. He watched as they stormed the village.... And without a second thought, Josh leaped out of the tree.

Through the air, the Jedi Master went. If Talli was close enough, she would see the Jedi Master fly out of the tree without fear, soaring almost like a bird with his arms out, his lightsaber in his hand.

Using the force as a sort of parachute, Josh managed to cushion his fall as he landed on a roof. His lightsaber ignited, the dark blue blade humming loudly as he let out a war cry, leaping off the roof and impaling his lightsaber through the head of one of the slavers, who was going after one of the Wookiees. This caught the attention of the others...

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
"I'm on my way!" Tallia shouted as she stood up from her crouched position and started to sprint towards the other Wookie village. She hoped she could arrive in time, but she had a long way to go. She put on a burst of force speed and began to close the distance between her and Josh. She dashed past some lizards twice the size of her. They flicked their forked tongues at her but didn't pursue. She probably wouldn't even come close to satisfying their hunger. "I'm almost there." Tallia said when she began to see lights. She heard the sound of blaster fire. "I'm guessing their not in the mood to negotiate?"

She leaped up over a grass hut and landed next to @[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]. Her purple lightsaber ignited. "It doesn't look like I missed much." She said looking at the dead slaver at Josh's feet. A volley of blaster bolts came in her direction and she blocked them away. The Wookies seemed to be doing the best they could defending themselves. She watched one of the bigger males charge one of the slavers, stay up after being hit with two stun bolts and throw the lizard like he was nothing. Still the Wookies were horribly outnumbered, and many of them were already being stunned and loaded into cages attached to the back of landspeeders.

"This isn't looking good!" She shouted over the roar of blaster fire. She struck a human charging her with a vibro-axe and sent him crumpling to the ground. "We need a plan!"
 
"Careful, looks like the lizard people got human buddies too!" he shouted over the blaster fire. Not that Tallia had to figure that out, seeing as she'd just impaled one.

"Nice of you to show your pretty face!" he snarked toward Tallia as he ducked the slash of an axe, his lightsaber gracefully going through the side of the lizardman who thought he'd made a pretty good trophy head. As the lizard guy went down, Josh charged and punted him in the skull, hard, hoping to knock him out and put him out of commission. What the Master didn't expect though, was his superhuman strength causing the lizard's head to seperate from his shoulders, and the severed head went flying, smacking into the head of another lizard guy, knocking them down as if they'd been struck by a bowling ball.

"Ah bantha piss!" he cursed, surprised and ashamed of himself for underestimating his own strength. Okay, knocking people out wasn't an option here. He quickly plunged his lightsaber through the chest of the lizard guy he'd just knocked down before they could get up. Josh quickly took off at a run, dashing past Tallia like a dart. He suddenly slid between the legs of a human who was trying to take Tallia from behind, before impaling his lightsaber through their abdomen mid-slide. Getting up and dusting himself off, Josh took a breath as he surveyed his surroundings, the human crumbling behind him.

The Wookiees seemed to be doing well, or as well as outnumbered furry bear people could. Hopefully they'd be able to hold out.

He overheard Tallia say something about a plan. "You think?!" he called out over the roar of the blaster fire.

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
Tallia spun around when Josh slid in from behind and took out a slaver on her flank. "I could'a taken him!" She huffed, continuing to block incoming lasers. She threw her blade at one of her attackers, ducked and rolled out of the way of another volley and recalled her lightsaber with the force.

While Tallia continued to fend off the raiders, the Wookies were being loaded up into cages. They were running out of time. The slavers would take off any second now and leave them in the dust. She began to work her way forward, slicing through anyone that made the mistake of stepping in front of her.

She was almost to the closet landspeeder when she heard a beeping sound. A Trandoshan stood ten meters away holding a thermal detonator. Tallia barely had the chance to mutter. "Oh kriff." Before the grenade landed near her feet and went off in a fiery explosion. She was tossed into the side of one of the Wookie huts and fell to the ground.

Tallia managed to lean her back up against the side of the building as she quickly checked for injuries. The ends of her hair were singed and she had burn marks on her face and forearms. The impact with the building had left her sore and she had a bleeding gash on her forehead. All in all, she wasn't in too bad of shape. She struggled to stand up and she limped slightly her first few steps but Tallia was able to shake the pain off and pick up her lightsaber that was lying on the ground.

As the fire cleared, she could see the last of the landspeeders pulling away and heading out into the darkness. Panicking, she quickly searched around for a vehicle. Luckily, not all of the slavers had sped off, and a few of them where hurrying over to their swoop bikes to make their escape. She lifted one with the force, and sent him headfirst into the trunk of a tree. The other two were speedily dispatched with her lightsaber. She wiped the blood from her forehead.

"Need a ride?" She shouted to Josh as she revved up the engines of her bike.

@[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]
 
Josh had been sent flying by the explosion as well, but was able to make a good save. Covered in burns and marks, this wasn't anything new to the Jedi Master, though he felt like shit regardless.

They were running out of time. He was torn between going after the slavers, or checking on Talli. His concern for her outweighed the mission, something that wasn't a good idea for Jedi, but Tallia still managed to throw a flunkie off his swoop bike and take it for herself. They would need to be quick if they were going to catch up.

"Need a ride?" she had asked. A smirk crossed his face as he hopped on.

"Yknow, this could be considered an awkward position if you thought about it!" he joked as he wrapped an arm around her waist, for balance purposes. He didn't need much to keep balanced, and his time as a racer at one point in his life made this easy for him. Thing was though, he had a feeling he'd probably have to use his lightsaber on this trip, and trying to balance that while on the passenger seat was an unfamiliar position, liable to cause mistakes. Usually, he was the one driving. Alas, hopefully Tallia wouldn't mind the contact.

Josh held her waist with one arm, his other holding his lightsaber, still drawn, prepared to hit anything that might get in their way.

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 
They took off in the direction of the escaping slavers. The swoops bright headlights were all she had to go off of as they sped through the forest. She didn't really think about the way Josh was holding onto her waist. She was running on adrenaline and her focus was forward into the darkness. Soon, Tallia could see the convoy up ahead. There were four landspeeders with cages and at least a dozen swoop bikers on either side. She weaved back and forth between the trees, her quick reflexes allowing her to steadily gain on them.

Suddenly, she heard laser fire from behind. She took evasive maneuvers, leaning hard to the left, barely evading the shots. She didn't bother to look to see how many speeders were on them. "Try to keep them off us!" Tallia shouted. She only needed a couple more seconds to get to the closest cage.

@[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]
 
(Yay, the notif system wasn't broken for this one :D )

"Ah, blast it all!" the blonde said as he heard the laser fire. Ah, he almost hoped that this was going to be easy. He couldn't reach them with his lightsaber just yet though...

Deactivating his lightsaber, he switched arms. He wrapped the arm holding his lightsaber around her waist, and extended his left toward one of the swoop bikers behind them, just out of his reach...

"I learned this trick during a race once" he said as he reached into the Force.... Suddenly, one of the bikers had his head slammed against the bike, the impact causing them to let go and fall off. The bike spun out of control and crashed into a tree, exploding on the spot.

"Hope you don't mind if it tickles when I switch arms!" he said, as he switched arms again, his lightsaber ignited again. One of them was closing in... Though their pursuit was quickly stopped as Josh reached over, using Tallia's hips as a sort of anchor to keep him steady so he wouldn't fall off, and stabbed his lightsaber right into their flank. In pain, the biker fell off. Another explosion was heard, another bike destroyed, another biker down...

He took a breath. "How bloody many ARE there?!" he said, irritably.

@[member="Tallia Farn"]
 

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