Public Echoes Over Ord Janon (OPEN)

[Oraya Kaith]

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Ord Janon was abandoned centuries ago, its surface stripped bare and its settlements left to collapse into dust. The records say nothing survived. No one was supposed to come back.

And yet the signal persisted. A Republic distress beacon, impossibly old, still ticking in broken cycles. Oraya Kaith hadn’t meant to stumble into it—her freighter’s sensors simply wouldn’t stop screaming once the system drew near. Static. Ghost echoes of ships long gone. Navigation warnings that contradicted themselves.

When the planet came into view, it was wrong.

The southern hemisphere glowed with an eerie shimmer, as if glassed by weapons no one remembered. But at its center was the scar—an endless black wound that bent the horizon around it. Gravity folded inward there, drawing storms, rivers, even whole ruins into its grip. A singularity, half-buried in the world’s crust, eating the planet from the inside out.

And still, from somewhere within that wound, the beacon kept calling.

[LOG 3:14] :: “—don’t go near the southern ridge. The ground moves. It’s—” :: [static]

Oraya adjusted her comms, frowning. The voice was decades old, yet sharp enough to cut through the cabin like it had been spoken yesterday.

[LOG 5:02] :: “Half the colony’s gone. Just… gone. Like it fell into the sky upside-down. If anyone hears this—”

The ship shuddered as another wave of interference struck. Her navicomputer flagged phantom vessels all around her—hulks of transports, warships, civilian craft—none of them really there.

[LOG 7:41] :: “We sealed the doors but they keep whispering. I hear them in the walls. They sound like my wife. She’s dead. I buried her—”

Her stomach turned cold. The voices overlapped now, mixing beacon chatter with words that weren’t on any frequency.

[BEACON ID: UNKNOWN] :: “…you’re already here…”

She swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the wound in the planet. That black horizon tugged at her ship as though daring her to come closer.

And she wasn’t the only one listening. Ships were already dropping into realspace along the system’s edge—lured by the same impossible signal.

Something on Ord Janon was calling out.
Something born of power that was never meant to exist.

---


Tags: Mykel Dawson Rayne Lo'to weirwooddream Tohu Sula Skirata​

 

[Tohu]

Mazdo had never seen anything like this before. Scanners picked up ships, then nothing, then different ships. Comms full of static and voices, all talking over each other. But looking out the viewport, he saw nothing but a dead planet; black scar running across it like some god had sliced it with a planet-sized knife.

"I recommend immediate departure," said his ol' faithful co-pilot Kiwor, an ancient OOM model of a pilot droid.

Mazdo shook his head. "And have the Vigos serve our heads on a platter? Tsk." He glanced back at the tall man looming behind him, "Tohu, what you say?"

"Long as you don't crash us," Tohu said.

"I won't. Don't worry, I won't."

Mazdo's voice said otherwise and Tohu heard it. Still, he wanted that bounty hunting license bad, and if this was the way to get it, he'd take it.​

Oraya Kaith

 

[Sula Skirata]

Sula sat perfectly still, one leg tucked up under the other as the sound filled her cockpit. Messages overlapping so much so that it was almost impossible to decipher one from the other. Almost. What interested her the most, however, was the phantoms that kept appearing and disappearing on her navcom. Sula listened to all of it, watched it all, analysing every detail and drawing up hypotheses but nothing seemed to truly fit.

Time was simple. It was the continuous progression of events in one direction. An irreversible direction. It wasn't possible to go back in time. It was possible for time to move slower in places, but it never went backwards. She looked up as the navcom pinged again, the hull of the ship creaking as it did. She noted their unchanged locations from the last wave.

Did time...echo?

Sula frowned, untucking her leg she reached a hand for her comms and flicked the incoming barrage off.

"…you're already here…"
​

Her frown deepened. She checked the comms, confirming she had switched them off, that they were not malfunctioning. Something akin to fear ran down her spine, but Sula Skirata did not feel the same ways others did. She ignored it, taking the ships controls in her hands once more and drifting closer to the dying planet. Whatever this was, whatever was waiting for her, it was down there.

And she would have answers.

 

[Rayne Lo'to]

Ord Janon
Tags: Open

Rayne Runner | Trash Mobile Home
​

An unorganized heap of trash jumped into the orbit of Ord Janon. Distress beacons were a double edged sword. If you could save the person calling for help, great. If not, at least there was a little scrap for your troubles. Not that you'd feel good about it. You may just leave the scrap behind.

Rayne didn't feel as awful responding to this one. It was an ancient beacon by comparison to the modern standards now, so she doubted it was a real distress call. Probably just some malfunction.

That hardly prepared her for the sudden assault on her mind. It started as just a simple buzzing noise. Nothing crazy. Then it was louder, more intense. She saw images flashing in her mind for a moment. Blood, people crumpled like tissue paper, a black pyramid, fire engulfing a planet as the screams melded together.

Silence.

It was nothing. She probably just hadn't had enough sleep. Rayne just hoped that there was actually something of value out here, cause whatever else was didn't seem to be very welcoming of visitors.

What had she gotten herself into?

 

[Oraya Kaith]

The planet hung below them like a bruise — dull, mottled, and breathing clouds that looked too slow to be natural. Oraya watched from the viewport as her ship’s hull glowed from the friction of descent, the atmosphere clinging to the vessel like wet ash.

“Kaith to orbiting vessels,” she said into the comm. “Breaking through the upper layer. Readings are… inconsistent. Gravity’s fluctuating by point-two.” She paused as the static bled through her words. “You’re probably going to lose me for a few seconds.”

The ship shuddered violently. Lights dimmed. For a heartbeat, the sensors screamed of life — thousands of readings blooming across the surface — before winking out again as if they were swallowed whole.

When the turbulence eased, a gray plateau emerged below, marked by the broken teeth of old structures. She steadied her breath, flicking the ship into a hover before lowering it down onto the dust.

“Ground contact,” she reported. “No visual on movement. But something sure is humming out here…”

The ramp hissed open. Cold air rolled in, heavy and metallic. Oraya stepped forward, blaster rifle raised with caution. The world below was silent except for the slow pulse she could feel through her boots — a rhythm much like a heartbeat buried in the planet’s crust.

And then, faintly, from somewhere beyond the ridge, came a slow pulse of blue light.
Tags:​

Rayne Lo'to Sula Skirata Tohu Mykel Dawson weirwooddream

 

[Tohu]

A comms transmission came through, less bungled up than the previous. Mazo, after visually double checking through the viewport, deduced the transmission was authentic. Belonged to some vessel the size of theirs streaking towards the dead planet.

Might as well follow them, they agreed with Tohu, we were going down there anyways. Mazdo managed to note the world still had atmosphere over the screech of durasteel bending under turbulence, and Tohu just shrugged as he held on.

They landed opposite of the unknown ship. Tohu said, "Keep the engine running."

"Engine, shields, hell, laser canons are primed too." you know, in case that ship thought anything funny.

Tohu stepped out of the ship, down the ramp and stopped right in between the two boats. His left hand hung over his brow, shielding him from the other ship's headlights, thinking why the hell did Mazdo park right in front of them.

He saw a figure coming down the ship's ramp. The light hit just enough to catch the shape of a blaster rifle — muzzle and stock cutting from the silhouette's contour.

Tohu said, "You wanna tell me who you are?", as his right hand clasped the side of his waist, fingers itching for the phase-blade's hilt on his left hip.

Oraya Kaith Sula Skirata Rayne Lo'to

 

[Sula Skirata]

Sula's ship circled above the others, her dark eyes assessing the situation from above before adjusting her trajectory and setting the ship down and flicking off all the sensors. They were useless in this situation, the only thing that would help her would be her own eyes and ears. And A'den. Slipping form the pilot seat she activated security protocols in case one the aruetiise decided to try and snag her ship, she paused at that thought...was she not the aruetiise in this situation, or were they all aruetiise equally?

She paused, for far too long, a metal groan and a series of beeps pulled her from that trail of thought. there were better things to think about, like time...and how it was wrong here. She slid her helmet into place and lowered the cargo ramp. She was not alone in her descent, behind her, lumbering awkwardly on two legs, her besu'liik.


"Harna ner durlr, A'den" The war droid gave a snort of what could only be described as indignation, like the low muttered request was an insult, because it was, after all, his job.


Sula's head tilted looking between the pair already on the ground who seemed to have stopped. Should she stop?
No.


Decision made she set her feet on the ground. "I am Sula, of Clan Skirata, Scientist for the Mandalorian Star Corps. I have no interest in whatever is happening here," She waved a hand between the two of them. "But I do want to know what is happening on this planet. I have no intention of killing anyone, but if a gun twitches in my direction, A'den will." the droid let out a low mechanical growl, emphasizing her point.


Her visor swung towards the blue light as she crouched the place a hand on the stone beneath their feet feeling it pulse. It was like a heartbeat. Planets didn't have hearts, so maybe it was mechanical? Like the thrum of a ship? She rose back to her full height, and began to make her way towards the blue light, the others already forgotten


Tohu Oraya Kaith Rayne Lo'to

 

[Oraya Kaith]

With an almost military precision, the change in her elevation from descent from the ramp to the ground offered no deviation from her aim. Yet as soon as it was made clear that he was also investigating the planet, the barrel of her blaster rifle was lowered towards the ground.

"Kaith," she responded, giving him only her last name. "And you?"

The arrival of the Mandalorian and her metal-bodied 'pet' joined in the introductions. And as abrupt as her arrival was; her departure was equally so. Oraya's head tilted to the side curiously. A shrug of her shoulders was given before she followed in pursuit.

The hum deepened the farther she walked from the ship, each vibration a pulse that rose through her boots and into her bones. It wasn’t mechanical. It felt aware — like the planet itself was listening.

The blue light ahead shimmered through the mist, steady but alive, flickering with faint tendrils that spread across the soil like veins. When the wind changed, she could hear a faint chime beneath the tone — too ordered to be natural, too delicate to be a distress beacon.

She knelt, brushing her fingers over the ground. The dust clung faintly to her gloves, glowing for a heartbeat before fading again. Energy traces. Familiar, somehow — though she couldn’t recall from where.

“Not the Force,” she murmured, eyes narrowing. “Something trying to become it.”

The hum responded with a subtle shift in rhythm, as if acknowledging her thought. And that was when she saw it —
A silhouette, distant but moving toward the same light. Someone else had heard the call.

Tags: Tohu Sula Skirata Rayne Lo'to​

 

[Tohu]

"Tohu" he said, but before he could say anything else, another ship landed beside them.

Its ramp hissed open, and Tohu saw a Mandalorian, a woman by the shape of her armor, he guessed, coming down the ramp and a huge, bronze mechanical beast looking almost cylindrical in its long heaviness, like a big bronze hover train, plodding behind her. It moved at a stiff-necked, stiff bodied pace, and he could hear the hydraulic hiss of its upswept wide bronze wings and heavy legs with each step it took.

The Mandalorian introduced herself as some Sula of Clan Skirata, a Mandalorian Scientist, and Tohu lifted an eyebrow. First time he'd heard of a Mandalorian being a scientist, and first time he'd seen a beast like that. Sula told them she had no interest in either Tohu, or Kaith, but if they found interest in her, A'den, who Tohu assumed was the hulking mech-beast, would take an interest in them. In a bad way. Well, he thought, she does threaten like a Mandalorian. His last interaction with Koda Fett, the only other Mandalorian he knew besides the one who sold him the phase-blade on his hip, had ended in the same vein (there was a head-butt with that nasty helmet, too, but let's not recall embarrassing moments.)

Tohu saw Kaith drone after the Mandalorian, both heading toward a faint, blue light shimmering in the distance, and without much else to do, he followed them both.

Then, his earpiece cracked with Mazdo's voice, <<"You going with 'em?">>

<<"Got any better ideas?">> Tohu said, and there was a brief pause before Mazdo spoke again, "<<Just be careful. Can't do nothing against that basilisk if it gets rowdy.">>

<<"That's what you call that droid?">>

<<"You never hear of it before? Mandalorian Basilisk War Droid. You see a Mando pirate ridin' one of those, you pray to all the stars your hyperdrive's still on. Drill a hole size of a Hutt in your hull, and before you know it, bucketheads swarm your ship like a batt of mynocks.">>

Tohu grinned, <<"Sounds fun.">>

<<"Yeah, well, if that thing goes mad at you, know I'm leaving your corpse behind.">> Mazdo said and the line was cut.

As Tohu walked behind the others and kept his curious eyes on the basilisk, carefully examining all of its features, he felt the ground rumble beneath his feet like someone was drilling through layers of layers of earth. Up in the distance, a silhouette emerged, drifting like a ghost toward the strange, blue light.

"You all see that?" he jutted a chin at the mysterious figure, but otherwise kept walking forward.

Oraya Kaith Sula Skirata ​