Between a Rock and a Hard Place

[Vaylin]

Some months ago...​

​

The Crimson Valkyrie exited hyperspace, appearing in view of their target. Before them was a sizable planet, an aquatic world that had several sizable islands as its only landmass. Although it wasn't the Valkyrie's main target, but rather the derelict ship that was hovering before them. It was a rather old fashioned model, last seen amongst the Rebels that had attempted an assault on the Sith Empire not too long ago. This one in particular was a straggler that had gotten away, and immediately caught in a pursuit with Vaylin's ship.

It had been a game of cat and mouse. They would chip away at the Rebel ship, slowly damaging it each time they caught up with it via hyperspace. Until now, when it had finally been crippled and seemingly abandoned.

Vaylin stood on the bridge, watching through the viewport as the Crimson Valkyrie slowly approached the ship.

"What are the scanners picking up?"

"The ship is pretty much dead, no lifesigns and the escape pods were ejected some time ago."

Which in the Zabrak's mind meant her targets had decided flee towards the planet, hoping to land on one of the islands. That was nothing but good to Vaylin, she liked a hunt.

"Bring the ship in close so it can dock, I want it scavenged for anything useful." Not that she was expecting anything substantial from that wreck. "I'll be taking a shuttle down to the planet, alone." Supposedly there had been Jedi onboard, a rumour that sparked Vaylin's desire to pursue. Even if they outnumbered her...she liked the challenge.

Whoever they were, they'd have a bit more time to prepare as the Zabrak got her armour and weapons.

[member="Safina"]​

 

[Safina]

Out of everything Safina had expected to happen, she certainly hadn’t expected being stranded on a remote island. Nor was she expecting the headache that came along with her fellow jedi arguing about certain fixes needing to be made on the ship - which if they asked her, and they hadn’t, she would have told them that it was useless. The ship was done for.

The game of cat and mouse had been played between them and the Crimson Valkyrie, and the jedi’s ship simply wasn't enough to handle that many hits. An older model, it was bordering on being out of date and while it had as new of equipment as it could handle, they were still years out of date and it wasn't enough. Using an escape pod Safina had landed near the shore.

She had gone off to collect anything that could be useful, both because they had needed to, and because she wanted an excuse to escape the bickering for a bit.

But now she stood between them, trying to get the arguments to stop, especially as the Crimson Valkyrie was entering the atmosphere. Safina would be lying if she said her heart didn't stop, only to start beating faster in that moment.

Fingers wrapped around her closest friends shoulder, pulling back on it to grab the woman's attention.

“We need to move..now!”

That seemed to have gotten their attention, Safina’s hands making sure she had her blaster and lightsaber on her person before they started moving into the coverage of the trees.

Safina was only hoping it would buy them a little more time before the combat would begin.

[member="Vaylin"]​

 

[Vaylin]

Vaylin had made quick work in donning her armour and getting onto a shuttle. At this point it was routine for her, never forgetting to equip all her weapons and trinkets too.

"Where do you want me to land this thing? There's no way of knowing where they fell, if they didn't just land in the ocean." The Zabrak wasn't flying entirely solo, as she had brought a pilot along to get her down on the ground.

"You don't have the Force to guide you, just let me find them and you focus on the flying."

While the Crimson Valkyrie loomed high above the planet, a much smaller shuttle descended to the planet's surface. Before leaving, they had acquired the general location of where the escape pods had landed.

Of course a couple had hit the ocean, but the rest had surely landed relatively safely. Though too much time had passed for Vaylin to pick them off one by one, so she was going into this expecting her targets to have already regrouped.

A challenge, but one the Zabrak wasn't going to walk away from.

Vaylin closed her eyes and focused on the Force, stretching out her senses for presences down below. It got stronger the closer they descended, There were the obvious life forces of the native wildlife, so she focused on finding those that had a significant presence in the Force.

But what she found wasn't what the Zabrak had expected. Light, but with a touch of Darkness.

"There, fly the shuttle towards that island." Vaylin's eyes snapped open, raising a finger towards a landmass due north-east of their location. "Make sure you take off the moment I'm off, I don't want any of these Rebels thinking they have a chance in leaving." The pilot made quick work on flying the shuttle the remaining distance, hovering just above the sandy beach as Vaylin jumped down and landed with a soft thud.

[member="Safina"]​