First Reply Crash Landing on Naboo

[Tae'l Vizsla]

LOCATION:	Naboo, Plains
TIME:	1300 Hours
OBJECTIVE:	Escape with target
EQUIPMENT:	In bio.

Tae'l jerked the fighter controls into a spin to avoid incoming laser fire. The same two starfighters that had ambushed her from the dark side of Naboo's moon had forced her into the atmosphere, and she was running out of options. She didn't know much about the bounty tied up in the back seat, but she suspected that these were friends of the target's if they were willing to follow her into a populated world for all to see. She hoped to use this to her advantage, maybe get local law enforcement involved just long enough to get these unidentified craft off her tail, but that meant she had to keep this thing in the air until then, which was better said than done as these seemed to be faster than her own.

And to think this was supposed to be a simple job to get her away from the undead crisis in the tingel arm...

In a last ditch effort to end the pursuit, she pulled up hard in her fang-fighter and cut the engines, sending herself into a stall saw her enemy fly right past and gave her just enough time to power up the engines again, desperately fighting her controls and gravity to line up a shot. And with a squeeze of the trigger, one fighter went up in flames...

She smiled behind the visor as her thrust came to full power, propelling her through the smoke and falling rubble left by the enemy. Now she was behind the second, burst firing laser cannons at the bogey who began to twist and turn around her shots. The Twi'lek in armor was sure that her enemy was almost done for, knowing that if she didn't finish him soon, then the arrival of local authorities would no doubt dissuade him, but there was one thing she hadn't considered.

A flash of green came from behind, followed by a sudden proximity warning as a third enemy fighter appeared from the clouds behind her, visible for only a moment before black smoke puffed and billowed from one of her engines. The fang fighter began losing speed quickly, and Tae'l was forced to decrease altitude quickly, knowing that if she started losing power at this height, she'd not survive the crash. The Mandalorian couldn't see them now, but she could certainly hear them behind her. They had stopped firing, undoubtedly to keep their associate in her backseat alive, but they followed like vultures follow a dying animal.

The last thing she remembered after that was angling her dying ship into the flat grasslands, dirt covering her cockpit, and then everything went black...

 

[Aris Noble]

"Alright, if we put this here and that there and.."

"You're talking to yourself, Young Master."

Aris bit the inside of his cheek briefly before glancing to the sword that spoke to him. He was outside in the grasslands of Naboo, working on a project he'd been mostly keeping secret. Building his own speeder. It was a junker for certain, at least in part. He'd been salvaging what he could from across the various planets in the Galaxy to bring them here and build.

It looked clean, at least. Getting it to run was a whole different subject.

He fiddled with one last nob under the hood before stepping back to look it over once again. This time for certain it'd work. He paused for a moment. He heard something in the distance. A subtle bang? No, explosion. His eyes lifted up as he watched a ship, billowing in smoke, rip through the cloud layer and into the field. A crashing ship.

Without delay he hopped onto his speeder and flicked it on. Seszil was quick to follow, going back into the sheath that was now hanging off of the speeder's handlebars as he took off. It worked this time at least, not that he was too focused on that. Other ships were incoming- no. He heard more in the distance. Planet defenses was his guess, which was good.

It meant he could focus on the crashed ship. He found it half buried in the ground, burning up. "Help me cut through."

Aris was calm as he hopped off his speeder and walked onto the wreckage. The heat wouldn't bother him. Seszil cut through some of the panels as he, barehanded, reached down to rip apart the metal with sheer unnatural strength alone. It was a shame for the ship, but this was necessary in his mind. There was only one person within one he did make his way through.

Mandalorian.

He let out a sigh. Either a friend or an enemy, but either way he hoisted her up with far too much ease, armor and all, and drug her right out of the wreckage. The medics would be there soon enough.

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

The Mandalorian was known in her circles for being heavy even for her small size. Being grown for battle in an age of uncertainty to her people, she was augmented with denser bone structure, muscle, cybernetics and later on, heavy armor. She would have been beyond impressed by the child's abilities if she were awake. The reddish-brown armor clattered, leaving alien dust and chipped paint in it's wake, but apart from a red tear painted just below the visor, she wore no distinct markings that could tell the young Jedi what clan nor faction she came from. Even her thoughts, adrift on the wings of dreams, were clouded in the force by her helm's uniquely telepathy blocking properties.

Indeed, the only thing one could tell by looking at her armor was this alone: It was made from pure beskar, and it had seen use across a thousand worlds.

When she began waking, it was like a finely tuned podracer starting it's engine. Artificial lungs began to expand and contract much faster, while cybernetics connected to the brain- small gaps in the twi'lek's living presence within the force- began to assist the body and brain in sending electrical signals throughout the organics and metals working in harmony.

"Mmph" She coughed, though it would sound more like static coming from that helmet.

Sunlight. She swore that sunlight she saw. It was so... unbearably bright. Where was she? Crashed, yes, she was crashing. The big green blur below would indicate that there was grass nearby, perhaps she was already on the ground. But then... why was she moving? Was she being dragged by someone?

"Who... let go... of me"

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"Can't. Your ship is burning and I don't know if your armor is fire resistant. Just a bit farther. Seszil?"

Another flash of steel ripped through the hull as the sentient sword carved yet another path out. The one Aris had made would be enough for him. Not so much for two. Her ship would need repairs. Then again it'd need a lot more than just repairs from his blade carving through steel. Once they were a distance enough away and they weren't currently in danger he set her down.

"Medics will be here soon. Whoever was chasing you flew off. Don't try and move, you probably broke something."

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

"Armor's fine..." she muttered, though it was anyone's guess what exactly that meant to Tae'l in this state of mind. As is, she hardly registered the fact that it was a child dragging her out of the wreckage. It seemed the one thing her mind did notice- aside from movement- was the soft grass below, which caused her bare fingers to twitch and curl as she was laid down. Eventually she tore a blade of it away, rubbing it between her fingers. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt grass, let alone grass that green. Too many days spent on tatooine, or city worlds with nothing but smooth or rusted durasteel.

"Medics will be here soon. Whoever was chasing you flew off. Don't try and move, you probably broke something."

"No, bones. Too dense" She tried to sit up, a few more sense slowly coming back.

"ow..."

The other arm didn't feel so great, perhaps leaning on it was a bad idea. Hopefully just a small fracture, a hairline maybe given her particular augments.
So much was happening, or that's what it felt like at least. Her vision was coming back though, maybe the slight headache would go away if her eyes weren't so strained? please?

She could see white hair, and someone that was definitely a little taller than her.

"Who are you?" She asked, lifting her head a little higher than last time, speech more clear than before. Perhaps the medics would have less work at the hospital than initially expected.

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"Padawan Aris Noble."

He replied from a distance this time as he set about putting out the flames of her ship. It wasn't too difficult for him, as all he needed to do was reach down and literally snuff them out with his bare hands. He wasn't a medic, that was Vera's skills. His were focused more on the physical side. Bit by bit he'd continue to act as a fire fighter. Not the flames from her ship itself, those were too hot.

But the ones that were threatening to catch the field of grass ablaze of they weren't halted.

"You're on Naboo, if you don't know where you are. Who was chasing you?"

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

"Noble? Like... Valery Noble?" Maybe he knew Iris? She would really like to make use of her powers right now, or would it be rude to drop in after all these years and ask for the "magic hand thing" ?

"Naboo, right. Ambushed by- ✱wince✱- By pirates" The Mandalorian sat up some, pushing with her good arm this time.

"I grabbed their fu-" She paused to give the kid a look, only now she was able to see and hear that he was a indeed a child.

"Can't say that..."

"I'm a bounty hunter. I make enemies of bad people" She was bad people... somewhere deep down, she knew that. But that wouldn't change the truth, she helped rid the galaxy of worse people some days. Others, the number of murderers in the galaxy stayed the same. Did she feel guilty sometimes? yeah, but would that make her quit? probably not, it wasn't her fault she turned out this way after all, why would she blame herself for being who she was?

That was what Tae'l told herself anyway.

"Kid, you should probably leave before they circle back. Or... we should leave? I dunno. my head hurts"

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"My mother."

He shifted around the grass, idly dragging his heel through the earth to fully tear it up. Separate the burning wreckage from the grassy field to prevent any further fire spread. His gaze shifted up to the sky above, his eyes clearly searching for something. Even from this distance he could see the ships above were already leaving. This was as far as they would go with the Naboo authorities already reacting.

They didn't take chances after what happened before.

"They're not coming down. The only ships at the moment are Naboo fighters and a rescue vehicle. They'll get you the help you need, I imagine."

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

She observed the young fellow tending to the earth as her vision leveled out, sacrificing just a small amount of grass to prevent the fields from going up in a blaze. Either he was taught well or her had seen enough fires around to have learned the process intimately. Beside the pirates that followed her here from another world, this place looked peaceful otherwise, so the latter option seemed unlikely to her if the boy was from Naboo.

Then again, Jedi padawans had a knack for finding trouble from what she remembered.

Finally she sat upright as the boy continued, explaining that they were safe for now. She looked around, seeing nothing but grass and rolling hills, with some manner of forest somewhere in the distance.

"I'll take your word for it" She decided.

Then she remembered. It wasn't just her safety she had been trying to protect! Her target was wanted alive, and the Mandalorian didn't see anyone else laying in the grass.

"Wait!" she called, bringing her knees under and forcing herself onto her feet even as her sore limbs begged otherwise.

"In the backseat! My passenger, is he...?"

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"There was no one else in there when I found you." Seszil had only felt one living person within, which only meant they were dead, or they'd already found their way out. Aris naturally hoped for the later as he glanced around the wreckage. Tracks wouldn't be hard to find, now that those were what he was searching for. Sure enough, some of the grass had been flattened out in a hurry.

Crawling at first, then limping away by how the grass bent. IT went up and over the hill, so they'd likely been running since before Aris had arrived.

"He's hurt. Tracks lead that way. You should stay here, let the medical look you over. I'll go fetch him and make sure he's not too injured."

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

"Nah. that man is walking money!" She stumbled toward the tracks, or at least the direction she thought Aris had seen the tracks.

"He owes me a new starfighter."​

With the smell of credits on the air giving her newfound motivation, Tae'l continued to push forward despite her condition. If had to guess, the tracks would lead them towards the woods. There were more places to hide, which the pirate would definitely need now that his goons had turned tail under threat of local law enforcement's arrival. Help wasn't coming, not for him.

"Thanks for the wakeup, I appreciate that. I'd like to be a better guest but I can't meet your people just yet, got some business to attend first" She said stubbornly and threw her gunbelt around her neck, using it as a makeshift sling for her injured arm, while drawing her Golden Gun in the opposite hand as she followed the tracks. She wasn't left handed of course, but maybe she could still use that targeting system to her advantage.

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"My people aren't on Naboo."

In the literal sense, of course. The Epicanthix had a new home on Niv Hani, but they certainly weren't here on Naboo. Unless they were. He frowned in that thought. It could be possible, he figured. Not that it was what she meant of course, but that's where Aris's mind went. Instead, he just watched her for a moment before his expression thinned.

Ah. A bounty she was chasing.

"You're going to go even though you should be looked over, correct?"

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

"Oh. I figured your parents would be on their way, unless they let you wander by yourself" She shrugged, still wandering off. It was possible that his familial situation was not unlike her own, the thought making her frown behind the visor. But Jedi didn't seem like the type to abandon children, not after meeting Iris. Although, she once thought the same of Mandalorians, so maybe every rule had exceptions.

"You're going to go even though you should be looked over, correct?"

She stopped to look over her shoulder at the questioning child, only now realizing that he looked unusually tall for one with such a young face, but also that he carried some kind of sword- Not even a lightsaber- but an actual sword. He might need it, if he was planning what she thought he was planning.

"I guess that's about the size of it" She would nod "Why?"

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"I'll be acompanying you, is all. I would prefer you don't go, but at the same time I do believe that someone caught by a bounty hunter is also a criminal that shouldn't be running free here on Naboo."

Regardless of the reason why they were wanted at least. He'd figure that out soon enough, but he also didn't want her to get hurt any further, be it trying to fight him to go or fighting the bounty alone. He walked with her, glancing back to the ship once more. The Naboo fire force would be able to handle putting it out further, and he'd made sure the fire couldn't spread.

This was fine.

"Just don't push yourself. You are still injured."

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

Tae'l smiled invisibly and kept walking. His reasons were sound enough, and even if she preferred not to involve someone's kid in a hunt, she could appreciate the sense of adventure.

"Okay padawan, since you're not telling me where I can and can't go, I won't tell you not to follow me"

The Mandalorian's condition seemed to be improving still, seeing as she wasn't stumbling anymore, and her speech was more coherent now. If Aris hadn't pulled her out of the wreckage ten minutes ago, there might not have been any evidence of her injuries beside her shooting arm laying in a makeshift sling. She even had the clarity of thought to use her scanners to better pick out the tracks in all this grass.

And to make conversation while she followed them.

"Ya know, I never met a kid taller than me before. Are you augmented or just a species I haven't met yet?"

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"Epicanthix are naturally tall. I should end up around eight feet when I'm done growing."

That's what it meant to be Epicanthix, anyway. He frowned a little as he watched her walk. She was recovering rather well for how injured he'd found her. It was odd, but he didn't want to bother her with his questions. Right now they had something to focus on. "There are a good number of species that are tall, though. I wouldn't assume I'm something that unique."

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

"Epicanthix? epicanthix" she muttered the word a few times, practicing. It was new to her, reminding the Mandalorian that she was still fairly new to this galaxy, a result of accelerated aging that thankfully had a cap on it unlike past generations of clones and strand casts. She had traveled from Mandalore to Coruscant and from there to Saijo, but it wasn't until recently that she stopped to learn about these worlds and the people around her. Cultural exchange was always hard at the wrong end of a gun after all.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I... grew up very quickly, didn't have a lot of time to learn about other peoples. It just surprises me because when I was younger, I was very short for a Mandalorian. I always assumed that people wouldn't take me seriously, so I trained extra hard, got stronger than they were"

Tae'l laughed quietly to herself. There was a lot more to it than being short, but it was one reason she'd been so eager when she was still fresh from the vat. She was naïve then, innocent in her own way.

"Hard for someone like me to imagine, but I'm guessing you don't have that problem, do you?"

They were entering the woods now, the tracks easier to find as sank into dirt and mud.

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

"People take me too seriously, but I don't think that's because of my height."

That would certainly be a weird scale of height to seriousness, though now he was actually thinking about whether or not there was some merit to the idea. Perhaps that would be something he explored later, when he wasn't trying to help find a threat to Naboo in the forest. Once they reached the edge of that it was clear that the person had at least cut off their own bindings, by a pile of said bindings close to the edge.

"Did you have weapons readily accessible on your ship? In places that would be easy to get to in case of emergency?"

Tae'l Vizsla

 

[Tae'l Vizsla]

"I'm a Mandalorians, weapons are part of... Yeah" She sighed, realizing that she was repeating her mentor word for word. Aris was just asking an honest question, not for a sermon.

"I usually keep them on me though" Tae'l stopped to pat herself down in case anything was missing. She had been traveling light- at least by her standards- so a lot of her weapons were being stored in a hideout elsewhere right now, reducing the risk of things being stolen on occasions like this. However, there was one keepsake that she forgot about until now.

"Fu- Dank Ferric!" she cursed suddenly, realizing that her second pistol was missing from the gunbelt she had turned into a makeshift sling. In her previously concussed state, she must have forgotten it until now.

There was an abrupt shift in her demeanor as the stakes became higher. Not as much for herself, her armor had already proven that it could take a beating, but in her desire to level the playing field against sorcerous powers from prior battles, she was endangering the child more than she could be comfortable with. She ducked ever so slightly, leveling her gun on the path ahead as she stepped between it and Aris.

"Listen, he has my slugthrower. It's loaded with Void-stone bullets. I want you to stay behind me, okay?"

Aris Noble

 

[Aris Noble]

So they were armed?

That was good information. She seemed quite concerned over it though. Void Stone, right? He reached up to rub his chin in thought. It was something he read about before, right? Ah, right. It messed with the use of the Force. "You shouldn't swear." He was oddly uncaring of the threat it posed to someone who could use the Force, instead continuing to walk beside her.

He brought his lightsaber to his hand, keeping the blade off for the moment. He'd have to use the actual blade for a slugthrower. He paused though as he something caught his nose. Blood. It was subtle enough to suggest something had been bandaged to keep from leaving a blood trail, but close enough that- His saber clipped through the air as it burst into existence. Gunfire went off a she cleaved through the bullets shot his way with speed that not even a Jedi normally had. He didn't have the Force to tell him where the shots were coming from. Just his natural senses.

Which were far too enhanced to be considered normal even for someone with the Force.

"You should come in peacefully. You're already hurt."

Tae'l Vizsla