Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Ghosts of our Past

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpBuky70rMg

Taeli's data pad would suddenly ping her that a communique was inbound. It turns out it was a holo from a ghost out of her past. And not a live transmission, but a simple recording.

Static was all that she'd see at first. A fraction of a second later, the picture became clear. The face that appeared before her, she'd be able to recognize instantly. It was that of Ice. His expression was much different than what she'd remember him as though. There was a somber look to him. A line of dried blood ran down the middle of his face from a gash on his forehead. In the background, a haze of smoke could be seen floating through the inner confines of a ship most likely. Sparks were shooting forth at random intervals from exposed wires jutting out of a wall behind him. There was something odd about the time stamp of the holo as well. It was dated about the time he disappeared. While this seemed unlikely, the degradation of quality in the video seemed to be another testament to the trust of the stamp.

"Hey you." Ice said with a sad smile. "As you have no doubt guessed...I managed to get myself into quite a predicament. Well not me per se, but long story short, I was with an exploratory team checking out another newly discovered world. We're in the back of beyond on this one. While performing a routine scan of the planet from orbit, we got hit by an unexpected meteor shower. The officer on deck fell asleep at his post." His expression had turned to an angry one as he relayed that tidbit.

"He is no longer with us." Letting out a long sigh, Ice continued. "The shower crippled our vessel and pushed us into a decaying orbit which we were unable to break from before gravity brought us down. The...uh...landing, if you could call it that, was nothing short of disastrous." His gaze shifted away from the screen for a moment. "Most of the crew were killed on impact. One of the few pieces of semi working equipment we have left is this single comm probe. I'm uploading this message and coordinates to the planet we are on in hopes that someone picks up the distress signal and comes to save our hides."

Returning his face to the camera, his expression was again that of a sad smile. "To be honest with you. I doubt this will ever get to anyone in time. Without hyperspace capability, it'll more than likely be quite some time before anyone else "discovers" this system and gets the message from the probe floating around. And that's saying if it even still works by then. We're trying to jury rig a solar panel-ish type set up to give us some continuous power....but what systems are left are failing fast. I'm not sure we'll be able to make any retrofits to whats left of the ship in time before our remaining equipment is useless. The environment is not too terribly harsh... but I can't say the same about the local fauna. We lost two people just trying to get a perimeter sweep done and assess damage."

There was a long pause as his eyes lowered away again. After another sigh he looked back up and smiled. "Taeli. If you do somehow manage to get this message, and I am no more, I'd uh...well I want you to know how much I cared for you. I know at times it may have seemed more business like. But I enjoyed every minute of our time together and wouldn't have traded a second of it. The memory of all the blissful moments we had now come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to you for allowing me to share them with you for as long as we did. My greatest regret will be that I never told you this. I will miss you immensely Taeli, and can only say sorry for not being there to at least say good bye in person."

His words were cut off by a sudden roar in the background and the near panicked screams of men and rifle fire. His eyes closed for a second before reopening. "Got to go now darlin'. I hope to see you soon. And if not, then take care. I wish you all the happiness in the galaxy. I love you."

With that, she would see a rifle start to be hoisted over his shoulder before the recording cut out.

There was no further information to be gleaned by what managed to get to her, save the coordinates of Ice's last known location.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

Her foot was tapping out of impatience as the ship she was on streaked through hyperspace to the coordinates she had received a few days ago. She had wondered what happened to her old flame Ice and now she knew. A ton had changed for her, but she owed it to what they had to find him and bring him home ... if he was still alive.

The crew watched the Jedi Master tap her foot and fidgeting. She had commandeered three Aurora Industries Sentinel Frigates for the mission, the rescue team a mix bag of Aurora Security and Republic forces, with several of the new Harbinger War Droids on standby. Was it a tad excessive? Maybe, but a hostile planet meant she was taking no chances.

"One minute until reversion, Master Raaf," the bridge officer announced. "Teams are on standby, including medics."

"Very good Captain, thank you," she said, her face neutral. While she and Ice had been an item, a lot of time had passed and it was going to be awkward when she found him. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. The only if was about his living or being deceased.

The tunnel of hyperspace vanished and the small task force erupted into real space above the planet. A bustle of activity began and she left the bridge, heading for the transports. The original crash site was located and would be checked first.

"Deploy Harbinger drop pods," she ordered through her comlink as she arrived at a still open transport. "Let's find them."
 
The crash site was a fairly grizzly scene for those that arrived and first set foot on this alien world. It wasn't so much that there were bodies around, as there was blood stains everywhere. If anyone searched the ground for tracks, they would find a dizzying number of footprints going in every direction imaginable. But among the normal foot prints one might find in an area controlled by sentient beings sat some very strange tracks. Big ones. Some bigger than others indicating that more than one time of animal was roaming the area.

The tracks themselves were so easy to see because it was obviously that the area surrounding the ship had been cleared of foliage a long time ago. Not far from the downed exploration ship that Taeli might still recognize as the vessel she and Ice had gone to Enigma Prime in and discovered there relationship would be taken to the next level, lay a graveyard with a sadly large number of markers. It was however, also apparent that none of the graves were recently dug. An analyses of the markers would reveal Ice's name was not amongst them. Anyone who knew anything about blood, or was able to do a test would reveal the samples scattered...well, everywhere were roughly 3-4 days old.

The ship itself, what was left of it anyway, was in very poor condition indeed. It could easily be seen where solid walls of metal had been erected and welded into place over previous breeches. None of the patchwork though indicated these were repairs to try and make the ship space worthy once again. But rather it bore a similarity to a very crude type of fortress or keep. Atop the structure sat what appeared to be a small solar panel array alongside an antennae that was still blinking a light at the top, as well as a a wind detector still spinning rapidly with every captured breeze. A perimeter sweep around the remnants of the ship would reveal only one obvious entry point. A door quite obviously opened violently.

Carbon scoring was evident all around the entry point, with random peppering of marks spread along the hull at different seemingly random points.

Other than that, the area is very quiet. Only a slight breeze blowing grass and leaves around in the jungle farther off (roughly 150 yards around the entire ship).

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

"Master Raaf, we've uncovered the crash site," a voice over the comlink said. She was on the side of a gunship coming in to land at a designated LZ. Republic troopers and Aurora Security were swiftly clearing out the foliage and blasting anything large that moved. This world was infested with predator species, making it far more dangerous than a normal jungle world. It seemed to her that this world was all about survival of the fittest.

"It seems to have been converted into a makeshift fortress, but it was abandoned," the voice continued. "Plenty of graves so the survivors must have been living here for a time, plenty of blood on the ground too. Three, maybe four days old so they may have been recently attacked and relocated. We will be moving out to search the surrounding area for clues on where they might have gone. Harbinger One and Two are taking point."

"Keep me updated," she said, closing her eyes. The world was so full of life that finding anyone in the Force would be impossible. They would need to do this the old fashioned way. "Captain, have our fighter squadrons and the few gunships we brought fly cover for the ground teams. See if they can spot anything from the air."

"Yes, Master Raaf."

Taeli stretched as she suited up with the rest of the team that would be moving out from the LZ. Several Harbinger droids were with them, all weapons powered up and ready. They would cover the flanks while the team did grid searches. Taeli was hopeful that the Force would lend her some guidance here, pick up a clue or two on the whereabouts of people and Ice.

"Move out," she ordered, strapping the helmet of the armor she was borrowing on and drawing her lightsaber. Into the jungle they would go.
 
While that initial report may have mostly been accurate, it wasn't entirely so. A blaster shot from inside the ship suddenly rang out sending a muffled echo of the blaster round to the outside for all to hear. A loud roar followed by more shots were heard in quick succession before all went back to the quiet they had thus far seen since landing. Reinforcements troops and security personnel rushed in through the breach. What they would soon find is a badly wounded soldier with the carcass of a freshly killed predator laying lifeless nearby.

monster_no__054_by_onehundred_monsters-d3d5aqg.jpg

What they would find beyond was the only sealed door on the whole "ship". The door and wall surrounding the door had numerous claw and scratch marks. Presumably from the animal nearby. It took teams a few minutes to breach the door, and as they did they would find a cabin. A large one, more than likely the captains quarters. Inside, there was a man laying on the floor. He had a pistol in his hand but was unconscious at the very least. The blaster wound in his shoulder and leg which had not been stitched up may have had something to do with it. A quick check would reveal that man two was now dead. The first actual body at the scene so far.

Around the room sat the normal furniture, a bed, desk, night stand, so on and so forth. On the desk sat a computer console, and a holo imagecaster which were both turned off. The blinking lights seemed to indicate power was available to both. If the console was turned on, it would reveal a password protected screen. A message was sent out to Taeli reporting on what was found.

Outside the ship, the scene was relatively calm. There were a few of the smaller predators here and there, but for the most part, they seemed to be being left alone. A few small trails were discovered leading away from the ship. One to a higher mountain farther to the northwest, another going directly south to a lower valley area, and a third going eastward toward a rocky outcrop.

In the sky, not much would be spotted in the dense undergrowth of the jungle, in way of people....or animals for that matter. The trees were too tall, and the vegetation thick.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

"Master Raaf, we have one live one here at the make-shift fort," the commander of that squad said over her helmet's comlink. "Badly injured, and we have a corpse near some equipment. None of them are the commander of the mission we're looking for. Looks like the equipment is still functional, possibly been used in the last few days. We have trails going off in three separate directions though."

Taeli frowned a little, but at least they had found one survivor. She had to wait a moment to reply though as her lightsaber ignited and cleaved through some monkey creature with huge teeth that came swinging out of the tree at her. Predator galore around here.

"Directions of the trails?" she asked.

"One to the northwest, heading towards those mountains. One heading south into a valley region, and one heading to the east towards some rocky terrain."

"Air support deploy along the northwest trail and scan the mountain, rappel down to the ground if the jungle is too thick to search. Commander, take your team down into the valley section after you get that injured man into a med evac. We will cover the rocky area, we're not too far from it ourselves."

"Yes, Master Raaf," the commanders replied one after the other.

Gesturing with her hands, she and the team with her began moving through the jungle towards the east. The occasional blaster bolt or the soft poof of a shatter rifle going off to deal with some creature was the only sounds that broke the silence of the jungle. Her team had to cut their way through the foliage in some spots, her lightsaber's spinning feature doing quick work.

Extending the Force outwards, she kept track of any movement or sign of people.
 
The troops that had gone to search the mountain pass to the northwest would find an area rich with fruiting types of trees and bushes in the higher elevations. Trails could be seen weaving their way through the different type of plants and trees, but no sign of their quarry would they find.

The men deployed to the south would find a small lake with a trail that went all the way around it. The pieces of the puzzle were starting to show these were trails going to different supplies a surviving colony of people would need. While foot prints could be found on both trails, again like the mountain path, not a trace of those they were searching for could be found.

As Taeli's group followed the path to the rocky outcrop they would notice the trail soon began to follow a stream which seemed to be going to their very destination. Here the footprints would also seem to be a bit fresher, and occasionally drops of blood could be found sporadically along the path or on leaves. Tracks from the local wild life could also be easily spotted on the trail. This planet really was looking like a hell for shipwrecked survivors.

Eyes were constantly watching the team as they advanced. Some eyes would be closed forever as their owners would charge in toward the group looking for a meal, and then be summarily put down. Another pair though, looked on at the group with suspicion. A voice could suddenly be heard in Taeli's mind and her mind alone. A ragged and tired voice. "If you wish to-- *Cough* live another second. You will stay, right there." There was a pause for a few seconds to make sure there was compliance. Then the voice continued. "Now what....what would a Jedi be doing in these parts? *Cough*" The tone was deadly serious, but obviously labored.

Someone could see Taeli and her team, but they couldn't see them.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

Taeli froze as a voice spoke into her head, asking her to stop her men from moving.

"Commander, halt. Someone has eyes on us, scan for where they are," she ordered over the inter-helmet comlink. Immediately the men and droids stopped moving and took up a defensive position, while quietly scanning the area for life signs for might have contacted her. As the second statement came, more of a question, the voice sounded familiar in a way but it was different.

'Jedi Master Raaf,' she though back at the voice. 'We received the distress signal that the crew of a downed ship sent, and came to investigate for any survivors.'

A small icon popped up on the helmet she was wearing, a message from the commander that the droids were picking up a heat signature not too far from their position.

'You can come out of hiding, we're not here to harm you,' she mentally said. She wondered if maybe the person was a Force Sensitive survivor of the crew, Ice did attract all sorts to his service, or possibly just some native with no one to talk to or even another spacer stranded here for decades.
 
The heat signatures they'd pick up would be of the last couple people besides Ice still alive. They were holed up in a small cave behind a waterfall that fed the stream they were standing by. But they wouldn't be seeing Ice any time soon. Not with him in his full STI gear designed to allow a wearer not be seen or heard.

"Oh no? So why *cough* are your people not standing still and instead *cough* preparing defensive positions while scanning for us?" An invisible round came streaking into their ranks, slamming into the head of one of her droids, but specifically not her people. The sound dampener he had activated would make it impossible to hear where it came from too. "That's for not listening." The voice was still labored, but becoming more irritated by the second. "And that is what the last bunch said...right before *cough* right before they opened up on us. Give me a reason to believe you."

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

When the shot came into their position, striking the Harbinger droid in the head, she had to stop herself and her team from reacting adversely. The droid he shot wanted to go into an aggressive hunting mode, but Taeli sent a command over her helmet to stand down.

"If you need confirmation..." she said aloud, her voice amplified by her helmet's speakers, "Men, lower your weapons."

"Master Raaf, what about the predators?" the commander said over the comlink in his helmet.

"I think we're safe for now, we don't want to agitate the survivors though," she said over the comlink, turning off her lightsaber and clipping it to her belt. Reluctantly, her men and the droids lowered their weapons. Aloud, she addressed the invisible defender of the survivors, "Our weapons are lowered. There is no need for anyone to get hurt here, we just want to help you all get out of this situation."

Using the Force, she shrunk her presence down to the size of an atom so this Force using guardian didn't sense her looking for his perch. He might have technology covered since they didn't detect his heat signature, but only trained beings could hide themselves in the Force effectively against a Master Force user.
 
"I admire your showmanship." Cackled the voice. "But anyone can lower a weapon to lure us out." Her searching wouldn't take long. She'd soon spot him in an extremely defensible position a dozen or so yards away from the cave entrance and about 20 feet higher up. "Here's my problem with your story, "Jedi Master Raaf". The Jedi wouldn't send someone of such obvious importance, with a small army of troops, to a backwater world they don't control *cough* to look for survivors of a 7 year old crash."

His voice at this point was sounding like he was getting worse. "So you are either a liar. Or here for something else....which would still probably make you a liar." If Taeli were to recognize anything, it would be the stubborn suspicious nature of her former lover. "You still wish to try and convince me " Jedi"? Or should we just get down to the killing?"

It was quite frankly a hopeless situation in Ice's mind. He saw how ineffective his round was against the droid. But if this was going to be his end, he'd go down defending his people to his last breath.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

"You're right, this wouldn't usually be the response the Republic would have in searching for a downed craft," Taeli said, noting the suspicion rising off the sniper. It felt familiar ... a bit too familiar now. He always was guarded. "I'm slowly raising my hands to remove my helmet, if that is okay with you."

Slowly raising her hands, she undid the clasp to helmet and tucked it under her arm. Shaking her head a bit to get rid of helmet hair, her violet eyes would look right up at where the sniper was hidden. She assumed that because she wasn't eating a bolt from a rifle, he didn't mind her removing said helmet ... or he was too shocked to see her if he had his sights on her.

"This is the response of someone trying to find a person that was part of their life," she said, using the Force to project her voice.
 
She would see the snipers head rise up instantly from the scope to look with his own eyes for just a moment as her helmet came off. It quickly went back to the scope. Then repeated one more time. "Ta.....Taeli....?" He whispered quietly to himself in shocked disbelief. It couldn't be...he continued to scan the face for what seemed like an eternity. Her facial tatoos were gone and for some reason she was walking around acting like a Jedi....but it looked just like her otherwise.

The fact that she was standing there not more than a couple hundred yards away was just not registering in his mind. He had long since given up hope of ever seeing her again. But there she was. Standing there looking as beautiful as he had remembered her. In fact it seemed even more so to him.

He began to laugh bitterly to himself at the irony of it all as he dropped his rifle and looked down to the horrific gash that was across his chest. "You should of been here last weak darlin'. The place wasn't such a mess. I could have shown you around our " operation."" He let out another ragged cough and collapsed to the floor.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

She felt his surprise, which only confirmed to her that it was Ice and she saw his head poke out from his perch. Then, she felt him slide to the ground. Waving her hand hand, her men started moving, weapons still lowered as they went to help those in the cave. Taeli ran forward, suing the Force to jump from perch to perch before landing next to her former lover.

"Sorry that I'm late, Ice, your message only reached me a few days ago," she said, taking out a bacta patch and placing it over his wound. "You'll be okay, and so will your people. Transport is on the way and you can get off this hell hole of a planet." Smiling a bit, she added as a little joke, "Compared to your other operations, not all that impressed by it."

"Master Raaf, transport is five minutes out and incoming, medic teams are on standby on the Sentinel frigates," the commander of her men said over her earpiece comlink now. "We're assessing the injuries and state of the survivors in the cave now, the rest of our teams are pulling back to designated LZs."
 
When she arrived, she would see that his helmet had been removed. There was a small trickle of blood coming down from the corner of his mouth. His breathing was terribly labored as it could be deduced his lung was probably punctured. Ice however, didn't care about any of that. When she joined him at his perch and began applying the bacta patch, he raised a hand and softly carreased her cheek with the back side if his fingers.

It was done to make sure the angel before him wasn't just some apparition. "It really is you..." Was all he could say at first, not responding to her initial sentences. His tone was obviously still shocked, yet beyond happy. When she made her joke about his "operation" here on the planet, he let out a gasping cough of a laugh. "Taeli...I don't think I'm going to be pulling through this one...but I'm glad I at least get to see you one last time."

He smiled warmly at her as he could here a report being made. "Wait! My-- *cough* my quarters. I had a computer and imagecaster, please don't leave those." His eyes had changed a bit to show his concern over losing those two things. He was beginning to sound a bit delirious as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body began to shake uncontrollably.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

"You're not dying on me now," she said, letting the light side of the Force flow through and out of her hands into his shaking body. She could feel every wound he had suffered, the bacta only just now kicking in. It needed help and she would provide it, letting the Force flow through his cells to reinvigorate them ... to heal them.

He was most likely going to be unconscious and require actual medical help for awhile, but she would keep him stable until the medics arrived. When they did, she moved aside and they started pumping him full of healing agents and chemicals, loading him onto a hover gurney that would be loaded onto a nearby transport.

"Punctured lung," she said to the lead medic. "Plus various other wounds he has been carrying for awhile."

"Noted, Master Raaf," the medic said, already rolling up his sleeves and injecting a substance to Ice's body from going into shock. A rebreather was placed over his face to keep oxygen in his system. "We've loaded the other survivors inside already, several are in need of severe medical attention as well."

"Get them back to the Sentinels in orbit then," she said, climbing into the transport with the medics and keeping the flow of Force energy into Ice going. She might love another, but she wasn't about to lose a friend after finding him again. The transport shuddered as it lifted off, heading towards space and the medbay of the closest Sentinel frigate.
 
An undetermined amount of time had passed when Ice's eyes flickered open. He was in unknown surroundings and still drowsy as he looked around trying to figure out where he was. His heart began to race as Ice tried to remember the last events before this. Was what he saw real? Or just the hallucination of a badly wounded man sitting on death's door? The clean hospital room around him seemed to confirm that he had in fact been rescued. Though what happened to the last of his team, he had no idea.

His brow turned into a frown as he noted the oxygen mask over his face. Pulling it off in an annoyed fashion, he slowly sat up in his bed, wincing in pain from his wounds that seemed to be well on their way to being healed.

It appeared that Jedi was telling the truth. But then, that "Jedi" was Taeli. What game was she playing now? In fact where was she? A myriad of questions were streaming through his mind at a mile a minute. "Hello?" He asked in a raspy voice. Looking for anyone nearby.

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

"Oh good, you're awake," a medic said, coming over to check his vital readings and pushing Ice back onto the bed. "Stay right there sir, I'll go fetch Master Raaf. She wanted to know when you regained consciousness."

The medic scurried off, moving around additional beds that contained the sleeping forms of the survivors of Ice's mission. They had only found those in the cave, and even then, two of those had been so badly wounded that they had only been able to ease their passing. A few minutes would pass before Taeli returned with the medic, a lab coat with a magenta Jedi Order symbol on the lapel over the blue dress she was wearing.

"Some privacy, Doctor, Mr. Ice and I here have a lot to discuss," she said, taking the chair next to the bed.

"Of course, Master Raaf," the medic said, activating the privacy screen around the bed and moving off to look after his other patients.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, Ice," she said, smiling a bit and removing her glasses from the pocket of her coat. "You were hit and miss there for a few days, but we worked out magic in the end. You've been unconscious for five days before you ask."
 
Ice didn't say anything at first. Instead he just sat there while Taeli and the doctor had there interchange, and finally said her initial greeting. His mind was racing through details. Something seemed....off. She seemed different somehow. Could this whole Jedi thing be for real? Everyone seemed to be so convinced.

"Five days? Wonderful. Been meaning to catch up on some sleep for ages now." Ice said with a small laugh while returning a warm smile to her. His joking around was very much a character trait he used when he knew things were serious or a close call. It helped him cope with the stress of it all.

"So, Jedi, huh? Sounds like you've made a few changes. Though what's with the "Raaf" business? New alias to keep the Sith off your tail? Wait, does that mean we can finally do some higher tech projects jointly now? Assuming off course my holdings are still around that is..."

Gesturing to a chair nearby, he offered. "Care to sit?"

[member="Taeli Raaf"]
 
[member="Ice"]

"Yes, Jedi now and Raaf is my legal last name, Rae was my adopted last name," Taeli replied, smiling still. "Seven years, Ice. You missed a lot of things that happened, both in the galaxy and for me."

It was strange seeing him, essentially a ghost out of her past, and yet she had come to rescue him because he was still a friend in her eyes, even if he might see her as more still. That was going to be an awkward part of this conversation.

"As for STI, I'm not sure what is still left," she continued saying. "Your disappearance was not good for the company's health, as far as I know. I've actually moved and rebranded Krayt into Aurora Industries. Don't work for the Sith anymore, had to get them out before I left the One Sith though. The employees and their families, everyone got out."
 

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