Ellies Expeditions: Caverns and Sea foam

[RC 212]

Location: Pax Insul
Objective: Have fun, story it up!
Might be a cool prize at the end for participants. We will see how it goes!

[member=Boulder] [member="Wrrlykam"]

Pax Insul. A tropical world, full of islands and open oceans. Ellie had read about it once, in a holonet file. Since she had some time off from playing Galactic Delivery girl she was intent on going there, and finidn gout what it held. Exploration had always been one of her hobbies, along with Archaeology, logging the ancient secrets of civilizations long past.

Pax was off the beaten path, but relatively easy to find. Her navigation skills, combined with gut instinct had given her a distinct set of jump Coordinates. Right now they were in hyperspace, hurtling through and she was watching the white lines of the wormhole void streak by her canopy.

Ellie had a full tank of fuel, lots of food, water and few speeders on the deck of the Crop Duster. She was ready to go.

There were two other explorers with her too! One a Wookie woman who'd saved her life on Kashyyk once, and another a stranger she'd taken on at Void Station, just outside of the Techno Unions reach.

She brushed a hair back from her face, brown eyes roving the panels of indicators and dash lights. Then she turned and gave a friendly smile to the pair.

"So guys, tell me more about yourselves?"

 

[Wrrlykam]

One of the best things of space flight was the wait, the peaceful white streaks flying about like little needles, barely avoiding every change to hit the ship from what it looked like. The Wookiee's attention was stolen from peering into the window, and instead pushed onto the voice that sounded. Luckily for herself, and anyone who spoke binary, a single BB unit in purple and white strolled like a little ball against the Wookiee's thick leg, bubbling in a burst of deeps and boops, acting like she was speaking to the girl. The Wookiee let out a tiny set of purrs and growls, as per usual, followed by it being translated into the droid's language. "I am uncomfortable without someone close to home."

She was home-sick, sure, but what else could be a giant beast's weakness, other than that? She glared at the other person, daring him to say something smart. [member="Eliza Raxis"]

 

[Boulder]

[member="Eliza Raxis"]

The Mandalorian Brute named Boulder took his T-Visor helmet off , His skin rough from years of mining at an early age. He looked at the wookie, examining the creature , the fur-ball looked like a decent fight , without his Beskaram on. The Armored Hulk of a Zabrak, weighed more then even the wookie in front of him weighed. With his natural strength, and his unknowingly amplified strength through the force, he was definitely more then qualified as a warrior to provide security on this expedition. His ability to mine valuable materials, and his ability to smuggle them were also noted , as he literally was worth 50000 credits of bounty. His deep and rustic voice began to make words , "You can call me Boulder, I pride myself with being a mandalorian , and making a living through mining, and smuggling. When I heard about a personal adventure, I just could not resist." , the painted warrior smiled, his fur cloth of the nexu he killed bare handed spoke much of his physical power. His armor had the primary color of yellow, meaning vengeance for any fallen loved ones, and teal blue as the secondary color, meaning reliability. His trophy on his shoulders along with the color schemes told everything else about this follower of the mandode.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Wrrlykam"] [member="Boulder"]

Ellie nodded.

"Well then welcome aboard Mr. Boulder. As for you fluffball."

Ellie smirked at the Wookie, giving her a pat on the shoulder.

"You got me! Don't worry about anything, I owe you one."

It was just then a light began to blink. Ellie gave it a glance and the tapped a few controls, opening up the holoprojection of the ships systems. Something was wrong. Power spiked through the reactors and the coolant lines were over heating.

"Uh oh!"

With a few more taps she flushed fresh coolant into the lines. Next she cut the reactor to half power. Their eta was within a few minutes, but too far out from that. So far they had been making good time. Her gut however was telling a different story, queasy butterflies were erupting. Something was wrong.

Some-thing's always wrong with this hunk of crap. She thought, ignoring the light and peering into the blue charts with narrowing eyes.

Then she found it, hyperdrive core malfunction. They were about to be dead in space with the core crapping out.

"Hold on guys, we got an issue."

Seconds ticked by to minutes, the drive failing more visibly by the moment. The wire frame projection of the drive showed it turning from green, to yellow. Ellie checked the clock.

Ten seconds till they were there.

"C'mon baby! Give me one last push!"

Boom! Clank!

The Crop Duster Creaked and groaned under the intense and sudden G forces of the planet as they reverted. Ellie's eyes grew wider, and he glove clad hands seized the yoke of the Yt-2400 pulling up hard.

"I over shot the jump!"

Yes, she'd overshot. Instinctive astrogation was never a precise thing, and her own feelings had been clouded at the time. They had reverted right inside atmosphere, above a shimmering sea of crystal blue waters. To their left through the viewport she could see foam and tide washing up on a nearby beach. They were careening to the waters of an island chain.

"Hold on!"

 

[Boulder]

[member="Eliza Raxis"]
[member="Wrrlykam"]
The warrior concerned, picked up his bucye (helmet) , and placed it back onto his head, the brute held onto to whatever he could. The muscular tank communicated through his comm in his helmet "What the kark is going on ?" , His T-Visor peered over at the window , watching as he saw the island chain, and the beach to his right . If they landed in deep water luckily the ventilation system would be able to block out the water, allowing him to walk towards wherever they were going. The brute then demanded "Give me a calculation of how deep we will be landing in the sea!"
The miner was about to go on a fine adventure, full of thrill and full of uncertainty . The Zabrak's nerves where intense.

 

[Wrrlykam]

The Wookiee let out a frantic cry, starting to run around in tiny circles to find the tools. She thought she could fix this situation in time - though it was impossible. What good would tools do right now? Who knew? A Wookiee's mindset was set on fixing, for this one at least. And fixing it would be easier with tools...

@Boulder @Eliza Raxis

 

[RC 212]

[member="Boulder"] [member="Wrrlykam"]

The water parted as the vessel sailed down towards it. Lucky for them Ellie had been able to hit the inertial dampeners and slam the reverse thrusters. The resulting impact was harsh and shook the entire craft, but they were all ok. Waves ricocheted from the center of the impact like a pond with a stone thrown in it's midst. As the engines submerged they flared, frothing bubbles and vaporizing water into whispy clouds of steam. There wasn't much damage, but they were floating on the top of the waters.

That meant the rear ramp was out of commission. All YT models came outfitted with an escape airlock on the top, and that's what Ellie made for. With quick hands she unsnapped her harness and moved towards the back. Up a short ladder an a few turns of a lever later the air-hatch popped, fresh salty air rushing into the cabin.

"That was close, not so bad eh?" She asked, cracking a wide grin.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Boulder"] [member="Wrrlykam"]

Ellies first sight brought a wide beaming smile to her face. A grin that ran ear to ear. Suited up with her twin sawed off shotguns, rucksack, hoodie and a few extra toys she climbed out of the hatch and stood on the hull of the floating Crop Duster, placing one hand in a bridge at her brow to block out the sun.

Wind whipped across the sprawling oceans, stirring waves that crashed on the hull. Misty cool water splashed on her face, salty sea air thrust it's way into her nostrils, stinging them, and the sun beat down, baking her like a casserole. Sweat began to form on her brow, glistening under the heat.

"Wow it's hot." She muttered, removing her hoodie and stuffing it in her bag.

The whole place looked deserted. She flipped open a compass from her belt and turned every which way, getting a decent reading on what passed for what. The metal of the hull was interfering and whenever she placed it due east it spun wild and free, never stopping. That was an oddity. Oddities meant usually something awesome, or something gravely dangerous.

That would spot number one to check out.

They seemed to be on a corral reef, with islands of lush verdant greens and tropical jungles ranging as far as they eye could see. On the horizon she thought her sharp eyes spotted a larger landmass due north, with a blue foggy ridge-line silhouetted against the emerald sapphire color of the swirling ocean.

"You guys alright down there?" she called.

If they lagged behind much more Elli would leave. She was fresh and eager to explore. The ship and repairing damage and such was the last thing on her mind.

 

[Wrrlykam]

[member="Eliza Raxis"]

Wrrlykam inched her way forward out of the ship with Eliza, fearing of what drowning situation she would find herself in if she stayed much longer. With a small growl, she reached out into the sun and blocked out some light. "Too bright," a translation would say in appropriate measure to her growls.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Wrrlykam"] [member="Boulder"]

Ellie chuckled, cinching down the straps on her pack.

There seemed to be no way around the water, or getting wet for that matter. After the wookie woman had saved her on Kashyyk from drowning, she'd taken some swimming lessons from a dockmaster on Theed. That was after the whole venture with Zorchla the Hutt and robbing him of his datachips.

"You come from a jungle, ocean sun planet. How is it to sunny?" She joked, cocking her head to the side, a beaming mirth in her eyes.

"We gotta start hopping these islands, hopefully we can find something on the way."

Ellie checked her gear, cinching down the straps again, making sure everything was tight. Most of what was in her bag was waterproof. The shotgun shells in the Twin Sawed-off's might get ruined, but she had more of those in a plastic container any ways.

"Follow me!"

Ellie arched her back, bridging both hands and jumped. She dove head first into the water, letting the cold salty ocean shock her body and gasping as her head broke the water. The sun beat down on the gentle wave ridden shallows with a vengeance. Sun burn was totally possible here.

In small butterfly strokes she began to swim, kicking and moving her arms in perfect sync, moving like a fish in the water. The nearest island was coming into view over the white capped crests of the waves. Ellie kicked harder, pushing herself, digging deep for motivation. It seemed like it was far off, eternally even, but she knew better.

C'mon Push Ellie, She thought, moving faster, stroking harder.

Push!

 

[Wrrlykam]

The large wookiee snorted at Eliza's response, finding it a bit inappropriate in her own way. She looked down at the ocean with unwanting eyes, making excuses for herself not to jump in - then she remembered the ship could possibly sink. With a tiny huff of upsetting attitude, she dove deep into the water, a large ball of wet fur. Her strokes were long and powerful, probably two times as far with each stroke than the human could do.

Her arms reached out in front of her, and with cupped hands, pushed behind in frog like motions with both her hands and her legs. She could see the island already, and was nearing it closely with no sense of a problem. From their previous adventures, the wookiee had to check back every few strokes to make sure her human girl wasn't drowning.

The items on her were probably wet, but she didn't care. Most of her stuff was built to survive these types of things.

[member="Eliza Raxis"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Wrrlykam"] [member="Boulder"]

They made great time across the waves. Ellie found herself climbing onto the rocky, sandy shores of the island in no time at all. Her clothes and pack dripped as water poured from them, mud clumping up and sticking to her boots. The salt began to dry in the intense heat, baking to her skin even as she moved across the beach.

There was something her she'd never seen. A wooden mansion, with a dock and a strange vessel in the water. Cloth sails and what appeared to be old musty ropes held to a wooden frame. But how could wood float? She'd read of these once, but she couldn't quite recall the name at this exact second. She looked back casting a thumbs up and raising her eyebrows towards the Wookie Woman.

"Check it out! We already found something!"

Ellie was eager and much too reckless to wait for her. She bounced and skipped ahead, rushing towards the wooden doors. Just as she reached the doors she heard a clacking, mandibles knocking against themselves.

What the hell?

Her senses came to life, homing in on the location of the sound. Sand crumpled and made a distinctive whooshing sound as the ground broke right behind her. She felt the rumble go from her boots to her chest and pivoted on one foot, hand reaching back for the sawed off shotgun.

Which she then realized was not functional, ammunition water logged.

"Kark! Wrrly look out!"

The shotgun came up anyways, and Ellie cracked the breach open, letting the soaked shells fly out past her shoulder. Her other hand fished into the pack, drawing her case of shells and slipping it into her belt. The waterproof seal broke, two shells lodged between her fingers.

A giant crab like creature with four claws and a rancid looking set of teeth was rising from the sand, hungry for the kill!

With trembling fingers Ellie managed to insert the shells.

"Get back!" She roared, snapping the Sawed off Shotgun closed...

 

[Wrrlykam]

[member="Eliza Raxis"]

One of possibly the most dangerous things to do was rush into things - and Wrrlykam was just about to give Eliza a long lecture about that before it was suddenly too late. Pulling out her crossbow with an upset growl, she aimed for the door, listening to the fleshy human-ish Eliza scream and run about. With her crossbow aimed, she fired - sending the crab a bit away with the pure power of her high powered device. It was a proud weapon for someone as strong as she was.

Without waiting, the wookiee instead started to run to the trees so she could climb up and get an advantage over the dear crab - and hopefully put an end to it so they could explore the floating wooden device further more.