Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Failure Home

Doldur, the planet of Teagan's birth and where he still called home. He had not been back in month since he had joined up with clan Raxis to try to be a Mandalorian, but he had a family matter to take care of. It seemed his relatives that owned the old family farm were having some financial trouble due to a mixture of thieves and equipment issues. The thieves was natural since the planet still was recovering following the rebellion, but the equipment problem was not as obvious. There was a shortage of parts as well as food which was double an issue for his family. The farm might have survived the rebellion but it was looking as if it wasn't going to survive the aftermath.

So Teagan got indefinite leave to help his family, since it was one of the biggest things the clan was about, and headed off to Coruscant. The planet was along the hyperlane towards Doldur and not far from Mando space so it worked out perfectly. He was taking a shuttle back, because he didn't have a ship of his own yet. That wasn't going to be a problem for him despite the looks everyone gave him wearing his Rogue armor. Mandalorians were still shaky for people out there. The only problem he had though was having to store his weapons and equipment in the storage area. He wasn't a threat or going to hold up the shuttle, but he also didn't like the idea of them not being near by if something happened. After the Rebellion and events after, he had gotten use to keeping something within arms length he could defend himself with. But this was a peaceful shuttle ride so he was just going to have to deal with it.

Teagan stowed his stuff away and boarded the shuttle. He found a seat near the back by the engines and settled for it. The sound of running engines might calm him down. The workshop and hangar were the only places he didn't carry a weapon on him at. The familiar hum might just make him forget his odd habit he had picked up. The mechanical voice of the droid pilot came over the speakers and announced the shuttle was about to take off and so everyone should find their seats. Good. He was about to get started on heading home for the first time in months finally.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
Her own ship down and needing repairs greater than what she could do on her own, Ra had left it on Coruscant in the shop. It would be there for at least a week and so she had some time on her hands to do whatever she wanted. Taking a look at the different shuttle destinations in the spaceport, she picked the one leading to Doldor. A place she had never been and looked interesting. It was a civilian shuttle so she had to check in all her items, her weapons being confiscated before being allowed to board. Though the flight droids and personnel assured her they would be returned when they landed. In the end, she surrendered her weapons and climbed aboard the shuttle.

With the fire of anger lighting her eyes, she stalked to a seat near the rear of the shuttle. Muttering under her breath all the way, she sits down a seat away from [member="Teagan Stoirm"]. She looks at him in a glance and takes him for a country boy with high expectations to be something more. From the short glance she took, he was well on the way too.

"Man, they should allow us to have carry something. You never know what could happen."

It was directed at anybody willing to listen and maybe agree with her. Having now found a voice, Ra still prefers to keep silent and observe. Today, though, she needed to let it out. Her ship in the shop and now no weapons. She was really upset.
 
The shuttle was getting loud as everyone finished up boarding. Humans, twi'leks, rodians, and all sorts of other races were amongst the passengers. Despite how full the shuttle was getting though, no one was sitting within a row of Teagan. Was his armor really that off putting or did people just not like the sound of the engines? Thankfully though before long a woman not much older than him sat in the back by him. His helmet was in his lap so she would be able to see his cheerful smile and nod in greeting. The look on her face though wasn't even half as pleasant as his own. Seemed someone was having a bad day and her comment she made after sitting down reflected it. He did agree with her though about the whole ordeal with the weapons and other such items.

" You are right, but they are worried about someone hijacking the shuttle. They should just put up shields though leading into the engines and cockpit though and maybe a knock out gas that gets pumped through the vents if anyone tries anything. I knew a smuggler once who did just that. His ship was all busted up when he came to the shop and he-" Teagan had to stop. He was rambling and it was bringing up some memories he couldn't handle right now. So he just said, " Sorry about that." He then got all quiet again and started to listen to the engines hum as the shuttle crew announced they were about to take off down the Corellian Run hyperlane towards Doldur.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
The up and coming Mando responded to Ra and she looked at him again. He started speaking about what the shuttleline could do to prevent hijacking or other violence from breaking out. She had been thinking the precaution was meant more for the passengers than the safety of the crew and his observation gave her a new viewpoint to look at. Calming down a little before responding, she took a listen to the engines and could tell it needed a tune up. Nothing wrong with it, but another flight or two and it would need some repairs.

"I guess you're right, I hadn't actually thought of that. Sorry for the outburst earlier and it sounds like your friend had an interesting life."

She made herself as comfortable as she could. Being a little less than average in size, made it pretty easy to do that.

"Since we'll be together for the trip, call me Ra."

Holding her hand out for a brief shake, she took it back when that was done.
 
This woman seemed to be more forgiving about his little rambling there than he expected most would have been. Teagan was glad someone was finally treating him in a more friendly way than a nod or evading eye contact. Something about Mandalorian armor just made people all nervous. The person didn't even need to be a Mandalorian just look like one for these people it seemed.... Right he technically was a Mandalorian now. He just couldn't get use to that idea no matter how much he tried. Was it really that difficult to change or was he just as inflexible as the metals he worked with everyday?

Teagan's attention though was brought back to what was happening when the woman spoke back to him and offered him a hand. He smiled to her a little more and took it. He shook it as he said back to her, " I'm Teagan, it is a pleasure to meet you. The smuggler did live an interesting life but he eventually messed up his hyperspace destination and ended up flying into an asteroid. It was sad to hear, but space is a very dangerous place. We always forget that though as often as we travel through it and gaze upon it."

Teagan was feeling vaguely poetic right now. He wasn't into poetry, so what had gotten into him here? Maybe it was all the reflection lately or the fact he was spending so much time around machines and soldiers. It was nice being around someone normal for once instead of his clansmen. He was about to say something else to her though when the captain announced it was time to depart. The shuttle doors all locked as the passengers got themselves into comfortable positions. The craft took off slowly at first up into the atmosphere and then into the space around the planet. Once the craft was lined up for it's route the ship leapt forward into hyperspace. As this happened the engines made a sound betraying their overworked condition. A trained or experienced ear would recognize that they were indeed only another trip or two before they would have to be repaired. There was another sound however mixed in with them that made Teagan frown. A little vibration sounded subtly under the hum of the engines and could easily be lost in the sound of them. However if someone who noticed it had any experience with ships they might realize what it was. The hyperdrive was beginning to suffer a malfunction.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
"Teagan," Ra nodded her head as she repeated his name and returned his smile. She'd never been one to truly show her emotions, slowly that was changing. She was human like everybody else and didn't need to keep it bottled up all the time.

"I'm sorry to hear about your friend.
Speaking of space, I hope the engine here makes it to Doldor. It's sounding very odd now."

She tipped head in the direction of the engine room behind them as they took off and engaged the hyperdrive.

[member="Teagan Stoirm"]
 
The sound was bothering Teagan more and more the longer he listened to it. He had heard what Ra had to say to him, but his attention was just too much on the sound at the moment. He knew that if the sound just stayed like this then they would make it to Doldur just fine...probably. But if the thing ever made a sort of grinding or cracking sound then they would be lucky to make it to any planet intact. He just kept on listening to it with that in mind for well over ten minutes without the vibration ever seeming to change. That was a good sign at least. If it was going to break down then it would do it shortly into the trip. With that fear eased mostly, he finally turned his attention back to the woman near him.

Teagan gave her an apologetic smile as he said, " Sorry about that. I wasn't trying to ignore you. I was listening to the engines, and you are right about hoping the engines make it to Doldur. They should always do a quick repair of the engines after every trip just to keep them in perfect condition. But you know how everyone is. They would rather pretend like their ships can just fly wherever they like as much as they like and never need to see someone to keep it in repair. I swear the number of cracked engines I have seen because someone flew through debris and didn't think anything about it is heartbreaking. Ships might be machines, but even machines need love and care."

There Teagan went rambling on again. He really needed to stop doing that. At this rate he was going to scare his only flight buddy off and have to spend the rest of it in silence. He knew he shouldn't have put his holopad in with his other stuff to be stowed away. He decided to just shut up here and let her have a chance to reply or do whatever it was that she was going to do. He certainly couldn't blame her for losing interest in conversation after him going on like that. The engines continued their humming and the hyperdrive its vibrating as they had been since the trip began. So far so good...at least as good as it could be with the state of repair the two happened to be in.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
For a while Ra thought maybe she had offended or bothered the young man she had been speaking to. Quiet conversations were going on around them, some people had already fallen asleep and others were listening to music or reading datapads. In the silence left between them, Ra pulled out her datapad, reading the latest news on its screen. After a bit more than ten minutes though, her attention was taken from the pad by [member="Teagan Stoirm"] speaking again.

"I heard the sound too. My own ship is repaired on Core. I guess that's why I'm here instead of flying around myself. Normally, I can repair my ship, but this work was a bit much for me to do on my own."

She shrugged her shoulders slightly and nods in agreement to what Teagan says.

"Can't keep things in perfect condition, but at least proper working order. These here are going to go out any trip. I just hope it's not this one."

In theory, it should make it, but once they landed o n Doldor, Ra would make sure not to take this shuttle back to Coruscant and maybe even not use this line again. If one was in this bad of shape, then likely others were too.
 
" You are right about all of that. This ship isn't going to make it much longer and they really should never have left the engines sounding like this." Teagan replied back as he glanced back at the engines. They were still sounding the same as they had been. Maybe he was just being too paranoid about them. Engines always did weird things and they weren't as fragile as he liked to think they were. Things were going to be okay....yeah okay. He just needed to get past it and enjoy his trip while talking to this possibly new friend. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he made his thoughts about the engine go away. He turned to face Ra afterwards with a cheerful smile.

" So why are you going to Doldur? Do you have some kind of plans or just going to visit? I can't imagine there is much to see when you get there though. It's not like it is Christophsis and the entire surface is all covered in crystal. So are you meeting with someone?" Teagan began to ramble on again. He really needed to stop doing that. He didn't usually talk this much.

The attendants began to hold some sort of conversation up at the front of the shuttle. They could not be heard from as far away as they were from the two in the back, but if they looked closely they might notice how nervous they seemed to be. Something was going on. They seemed to be arguing about how to handle whatever it was. Teagan didn't notice this however because he was too busy looking at his companion for the trip. He hadn't taken the time to really get a good look at her before so he was taking the time to do it now. The first thing he noticed was that even though she appeared to be human like he was, her hair was white and eyes a golden color. That was an unusual combination but not one that looked bad in any way. She was shorter than he was, and that was about all he had time to notice before he caught a movement up front from the corner of his eye. He looked towards the nervous looking attendants as the head one got onto the com system.

" I apologize but it seems we are completely out of all our food and drinks for this trip. I do not know how this could have happened but no one will be able to get a meal until we land on Doldur, which is still several hours away. Again I apologize for the inconvenience." As the attendant finished speaking everyone began to complain about the news they had just been given. No one was looking forward to such a long trip with nothing to eat or drink. One of the passengers even began to complain loudly about some health condition requiring them to eat every 4 hours, which the last time was 2 ago. This pattern just continued on for several minutes as the attendants did their best to pacify everyone.

Teagan looked over at Ra and said, " So no food or drinks it seems. This trip sure is getting better isn't it?"

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
It almost appeared that [member="Teagan Stoirm"] was nervous about something. Maybe it was the sound the engines were making or maybe she made him uncomfortable. After a few minutes and a deep breath, he turned to her again and gave her a smile. She felt him looking at her and may have blushed only slightly under his scrutiny. He asked why she was going to Doldur and she just shrugged.

"I've never been out in the country I guess. Raised a city girl."

She shook her head at him when he asked if she was meeting someone and gave him a small smile. Not that it was any of his business really.

"No, I'm going there alone."

Ra had never allowed anybody close to her heart and tried to maintain an emotional distance between her and others. Life was pain and there was no point in opening yourself if you were only going to get hurt.

Keeping her opinion and thoughts to herself though, she noticed some of the crew up front of the cabin quietly arguing between themselves. One stepped out of the group and spoke to the cabin in general. They had forgotten to check their food stocks and there was none of this trip. Small exclamations to surprise and irritation came out of the other passengers, but Ra took it in stride. Engine trouble, her ship being out for a while and now no food....this just was NOT a good day for her.

She turned her attention Teagan again and rolled her eyes, tuning out the rest of the people in the cabin, he would know he had her full attention. As if the others around and the situation didn't bother her. Her eyes though took on a golden hue with a brown circle around the iris.

"That's just how my day has been.
Why are you going to Doldur?"

She did not give voice to her question if he was flirting with her when he asked if she was meeting somebody nor did she ask that back at him.
 
Going to Doldur alone just to see what things were like. It seemed that Teagan was completely off on his thoughts about why Ra was on the shuttle. It might have been because he had grown up on the planet, but he often forgot how the planet attracted people to it for the factories and shipyards. It was not as overly populated as the core systems, such as Coruscant, but it was still a populated world with a well established economy. Or at least it had been before the Rebellion started up. The planet wasn't the same after all of those cities, including his home city, had gotten leveled to the ground by the previous leadership. Perhaps seeing the devastation that still haunted the people was what she was going to see.

Her comments got a bit of a sympathetic grin from Teagan. He understood that feeling very well. He said to her as people finally began to calm down into an annoyed silence, " Doldur is my home. I'm going back because some relatives need help dealing with thieves and faulty equipment. Things are pretty tense on the planet right now. It was only a few months ago that there was a rebellion against the tyrant who use to be in charge."

The woman's eyes had done something odd earlier before she had commented, but Teagan thought he was just seeing things. After having a bit of time to think it over, he wasn't so sure he was seeing things. He was beginning to think her eyes had changed colors a bit, but he couldn't say anything about it. It would be rude if he did and he could be wrong about it. He wasn't sure about her eyes but he was sure that she could use a little pick-me-up. He reached down into the pouches on the front of his legs and pulled out a water bottle from one and a food bar from the other. He handed them over to her with a nod and a friendly smile. The other people were too preoccupied with their own troubles to notice them.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
"That the tourist information booth left out, Teagan. Hopefully things have settled down and I can actually see what it's like there."

Of course, there would still be people recovering from the rebellion and rebuilding their lives.

"And Coruscant was my home."

It wasn't anymore and if [member="Teagan Stoirm"] asked she would answer, but decided to keep the answer simple at least for now. Who would want to listen to her life story anyway?

She watched as he reached into a couple of pockets in his pants and took out a bottle of water and a nutrition bar. He passed them over to her with a friendly smile. Ra took them and set them on the seat next to her.

"Thank you, I'm sorry I don't have to offer you in trade.
Once my ship is fixed though, I can take you anywhere you want to go."

Prior to this, Ra had not told him why her day was going so badly, so this information was new to him.
 
Things seemed to be calming down a bit around the shuttle as people began to finish coming to terms with just how terrible the flight was going to be without food and drinks. Teagan had also begun to forget about the engines as the sounds coming from it had settled into background noise he could ignore. His new friend was also beginning to open up a bit, if only about surface issues. Yup, it was finally beginning to turn into a regular, pleasant shuttle ride finally. He liked this idea a lot. Normalcy. He had not had nearly enough of it after the rebellion had started up on Doldur. Just sitting here talking and having a person to person connection was nice and how things should be.

Teagan kept on smiling cheerfully at Ra as he said, " That is kind of you to offer. What was wrong with your ship though?" He always found it interesting to listen to these kinds of things. It was his life after all to always be working on ships. You would think he would be tired of the subject, but he just saw ships being like people. To him ships were all unique from one another. Each problem for a ship was unique, sort of, and so the solution needed to be different. Also no matter how any number of ships started out after some time they would all be different from each other. Some part would be switched out for a different one. A scratch in an odd shape would end up somewhere very noticeable. The brightness of the paint would vary. For all of these reasons, it was just not possible for Teagan anymore to see ships as just ships.

Teagan listened to everything that Ra had to say in response to him. It was the polite thing to do and it was the best way to get an idea of what was happening. After she finished he said, " Interesting. Maybe I cou-" Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh kunk! A grinding sound had started up before another sound went off. Metal against metal was the best way to describe the clatter for most, but for Teagan the best way to describe it was sure death. All of the color drained from his face and his cheerful expression had just vanished immediately. He just said in a half whisper, " The hyperdrive...."

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
Not yet eating or drinking, Ra listened to Teagan and when he asked about her ship went to answer him.

"It was making an odd clicky noise when swapping between sublight and hyperdrive. Whatever the part was, it was needed within the engine itself and I just don't have the tools to deal with that personally."

She knew her way around her ship, but the true inner workings of the engine were a mystery to her. Shrugging her shoulders slightly the man next to her spoke again. Before he finished his sentence though, the grinding of metal on metal could be heard from the engine room and Ra swung her head around. One weapon that slipped past the radars of the crew was the spiked ball at the end of her braid.

The momentum of her turn, whipped that little spiked ball in the direction of Teagan. However, that thought did not cross her mind as the blood drained from her face as well. While her expression had been pretty neutral to the young man, it now showed almost a primal fear. One even greater than that of when she was in battle for her life. It wasn't just hers on the line anymore.

"We're going down and this is going to hurt."

If only this shuttleline had kept their gear in better upkeep. On the slim chance she lived through this, there were going to be some hard words given to them.

Her eyes flared into an almost glowing gold as she just stared at the engine room.

[member="Teagan Stoirm"]
 
The rest of the passengers were clueless as to what had happened in the engines. Even the organic attendants didn't know what was going on. The only ones that had any idea that something happened to the hyperdrive was the droid pilot and the pair sitting in the back. It was the worst possible situation for them as they didn't immediately drop out of hyperspace when the drive went down. No they were currently stuck in it with no way of escaping. Teagan knew this, but didn't exactly have any idea of how to fix it off the top of his head. He would need to see it to figure anything out, and he decided to do just that.

Teagan began to sit up from his seat as quickly as he was able with his bad back when the weaponized braid ball struck right next to his face. He was shocked that it had barely missed him and couldn't move for a moment. If that thing had actually hit his head then there was no possible way he would be okay. The thought of his own morality because of the near miss had to play out for a bit before he finally could refocus on the engines. He finally managed to get to his feet. He turned to Ra and said, " I need to do something about the drive. Can you help me out with that? Not sure what I will need help with yet but I do know I will need help."

Teagan stood there to wait for a reply from her. He figured she would agree since her life was on the line here as well if he didn't fix it, but it was rude and foolish to act on an assumption. It was especially foolish to do so with a woman who could kill him just by whipping her hair in his direction. He had only been up for a moment though when one of the attendants began to hurry over to them and demanding that he take his seat. It was clear they still didn't realize what was going on, and he wasn't so sure they would believe him. He just waved to the person with a friendly smile while he continued to wait for the response to his question. It was more important that he get her help than it was that he smooth things over with the attendant. Their lives depended on every second that it took him to get the drive working again.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
The movement of Teagan brought her mind back to her location instead of the engine room. He said he needed to do something with the drive and asked if she would help. Nodding her head, she stood up with him just as the attendant approached them. She requested they sit back down and Ra stared at her for moment before speaking.

Her voice was so soft that only the three them would hear, there was no reason to cause the whole cabin to panic. Though it was soft, it was firm and as fierce as the fire in her eyes.

"This shuttle is going to crash and we are all likely to die. However, there is a slim chance some of us will make it out alive, but we need access to the engine that to happen. We are caught in hyperspace and right now we will continue to until something is done."

She watched as the blood drained from the woman's face and went into a state of shock. Ra sat the woman down and looked back at Teagan.

"Let's get to work."

[member="Teagan Stoirm"]
 
The help with dealing with the attendant was appreciated. Teagan wasn't entirely sure how to handle the person and mostly was just going to ignore them. This was a must better plan though. Well it would have been if the nearly hysterical woman actually knew the code into the engine room. She just rambled something about mechanics only and droid access and not qualified. It was hard to really make out anything she said as it was shot out there so quickly. All he could do was sigh as he listened to her. It seemed he was going to have to do this the hard way without his plasma torch or tools. They thought it would be "safer" if he left them with his weapons yet look how safe they were now.

Teagan examined the panel for the engine room for a moment then turned to the woman. He said in a low voice so only the three of them could hear, " Do you have a small knife in your work station? It doesn't have to be sharp just flat. I need it to get this door open." This wasn't his first time having to break into a locked engine room. When you did salvage and repair work for people you had to learn how to adapt to a lack of a proper tool. He sometimes wondered how useful all of this knowledge really would be out in the rest of the galaxy, and it was seeming as if it was about to mean the difference between life and death. The woman seemed to have enough of her wits about her to understand what he wanted and went off to go grab whatever it was she was thinking of.

After the woman was out of ear shot, Teagan turned to Ra and said in the low voice from before, " There should be a kit inside of the engine room once I get it open with tools I can use to repair the thing. I will need you to hand me what I ask for from it. I'll be able to fix it faster if you help me out with that. Don't touch anything else though in there. My gloves can withstand extremely high temperatures and are highly resistant to electricity so I can mess with the hyperdrive, but if you touched it then you wouldn't be able to use those hands right after. You have pretty hands so I would hate for anything to harm them." He just smiled to her cheerfully after before looking back towards the place the attendant had gone. She seemed to have explained the situation, or at least her version of it, to her coworkers.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
Ra watched as Teagan asked if the woman had access to the engine room. She didn't for whatever reason and she was sent off to go find a knife he could use to open the door. As the attendant walked off, still shaken by Ra had told her, she turned to look at her companion together in this project.

Listening to his words, she nods that she understands. Her own captain had showed her what he knew of the workings and just how dangerous it could be to touch with hands. Of course, he had allowed her to get numbed on the less dangerous parts to teach her a lesson. Ra opened and closed her left hand in memory. It had been so long since she had thought of him. How different things were for her now.

Coming out of her memory, she blinked her eyes at Teagan in surprise.

"Are you flirting with me when we might die?"

[member="Teagan Stoirm"]
 
The woman eventually came back after speaking with her coworkers with the knife that Teagan had asked for. She handed it over to him and he gave her a smile and nod. He took a look at it. The thing was a tiny cheese knife. It seemed this shuttle normally had blocks of cheese it seemed to cut up for the passengers. As odd as it was, he could use the little thing to do what he wanted to do. He went over to the panel and slowly took a knee in front of it. His back was as stiff as it always was and he just knew it would be hurting him by the time he finished messing with the engine. Hopefully they collided with something in hyperspace and he could avoid that fun later on.

As Teagan began to use the blunted edge of the knife to pop open the side of the panel, he heard what Ra had to say to him. He blushed at her words and the embarrassment caused him to miss the edge of the panel. He got back on it and began to apply pressure steadily to it with the knife. He said as he did, " You noticed that.... I was. You are a very pretty woman after all and your eyes are beautiful. They also seem to change color.... Did you know they did that? Of course you did they are your eyes. But that doesn't mean they aren't like perfect little circles of aurodium.... That was corny wasn't it? And now I'm rambling.... I should shut up now......"

Teagan's face would be a dark shade of scarlet by this point as he shut his mouth up tight. He had already done a good job of making himself seem like a fool just now so it was best he save her from more. He did manage to get the blunted edge of the knife into the groove of the side of the panel. He began to push the knife around it as he pulled up on the side of the panel towards him with the tips of his fingers from his other hand. Little by little the panel's face plate began to come free from the wall plate. He decided the best thing to do was to focus on his task instead of keeping on rambling any further. If he kept on talking he knew he would end up dying before the ship ever had a chance to crash into anything.

[member="Ra'a'mah"]
 
The woman returned with small cheese knife and Ra just shook her head.

"You call that a knife? Should have let me keep mine."

After delivering the knife, Ra turned her around and suggested she buckle in. She sent her off with a gentle shove, turning her attention back to Teagan.

He had his back to her and working the knife at the side of panel. If there had been room for her to get down there too she would have. Stepping closer and keeping him from the casual view of anybody. He was commenting on various aspects of her eyes and complimenting them. It was actually quite poetic and sweet. She looked down at the top of his head and smiled, even though he couldn't see it.

She also noticed the back of his neck had turned pink, he was blushing. His attention was now fully on getting the panel off the door so they could enter the other room.

"Relax, Teagan, I'm not going to bite. And thank you."

[member="Teagan Stoirm"]
 

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