I'm Phrikin Alone Out Here

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Roche Asteroid Field.

A highly skilled pilot Sera was not. It is a good thing nobody ever asked her to wage a war in a starfighter. She could maneuver, and understood the ideology behind the concept of fighters, but she was no ace in the hole so to speak. Luckily for her she wasn't engaging in any dog fighting today. Although she was on her way back to Ossus after meeting with a new Padawan that had been stationed on Onderon, at the small enclave there. Onderon was a fine place, she enjoyed the environment and scenery, but not so much the politics and mega-structures that had begun sprouting up given the capital move.

Surviving the boredom during her trek back to Ossus would be the truest challenge here, as everything was relatively dull, and she had nothing overly exciting to do while traveling, nor a companion to travel with and talk to throughout the course of the flight. A lonely trip indeed, but nothing she couldn't handle, at least so she thought. The Roche Asteroid Field was enormous, and populated, which she always thought incredibly odd.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

BANG.​

Sera heard a loud clank follow something that sounded like it collided with the ship. Not good. The sensor array on her controls began illuminating. Something had collided with the ship while she hadn't been paying attention, and boy did it not appreciate that! Warning lights followed by incessant beeping and booping, and no astromech to fix the problem for her. Well, that makes for a bad day! The Jedi looked around, surrounded by nothing but asteroids, and encased in a ship that had something wrong with the hull. Depressurization would be one terrible way to go out, so she needed to act, quickly.

The Twi'lek quickly pulled up her navicomputer and dialed in the coordinates for Nickel One, the capital "city" of the Roche, in hopes that she would make it there before the starship faced catastrophic damage and her body popped like a grape between a table and fist. With the coordinates locked in, the ship began it's descent towards the massive asteroid, home to the Verpine. Luckily for her, these beings were friendly to the Republic, and also were technological geniuses. Two things she desperately needed to fix the kind of day she was having.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

As the ship descended towards nickel one, Sera pulled up hard on the controls as the ship began a sharp nose dive. With the city limits rapidly approaching, she was quickly running out of options, and would either need to eject and allow the craft to crash into a building or try and steer away.

She realized the consequences of remaining in the ship could result in death however did not wish to harm anyone caught in its path. Momentarily allowing the Force to guide her, she was able to force the craft safely away from major structures and into a large crater within the Verpines capital city.

Smoke poured from the engine of the craft, and Sera shook her head as she climbed slowly from the cockpit, dropping down with a pained expression, a number of bruised bones as she looked over the damage to her ship. The Verpine would likely have seen the careening ship approach and would hopefully be by to investigate soon.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

About 20 minutes would pass before a number of the local Verpine appeared at the top of the crater, looking down at the disabled ship resting at the bottom, damaged and mangled. Sera looked up at those gathered, and a few of them began to descend towards her location to investigate just what was going on, and why both she and the ship had crashed on Nickel One. The Twi'lek was able to make out their distinct features as they drew closer to the Jedi Master. The bipedal insectoids were roughly foot or so shorter than herself, with large, round eyes that were backed by antennae. As they seemingly communicated silently with one another, their antennae twitched back and forth, though as they drew nearer to Sera a single Verpine spoke in Galactic Basic, so that she would understand them.

"What ails you and your vessel, off-worlder?" The being stood close by, its' large eyes observing every miniscule detail that both she and her ship had to offer. "I believe my ship collided with something. I was on my way back to Ossus and it would seem that something got damaged. Knocked out a number of systems and I was forced down here. My name is Seraphina Shel'tah, Jedi Master of the Galactic Republic. I do apologize for the scene, and the mess."

The Verpine's antennae twitched again, though never taking his eyes off of the Twi'lek, nor her ship. "I am Nar'then Ters, and I believe we can fix you up, but we require something in exchange, if you wouldn't mind please."

The Jedi was hardly in a position to debate the terms of their assistance, so she had little argument against the point. "Very well, what is it that I can help you with?"

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

"A few kilometers from here we are in the process of excavating a large deposit of Phrik for our warriors to fashion equipment out of, unfortunately though our equipment collapsed under a sinkhole and we've been unable thus far to retrieve it, as our heavy equipment can no longer reach the depth of the hole, and we have a dozen or so workers trapped. If you would aide us in retrieving this, we would be most grateful. And of course be willing to both repair your vessel and provide you some of the ore, if you so desire."

Without waiting for a response from Sera, the insectoid called for a transport and began making his way up and out of the crater. Sera followed and they were greeted shortly thereafter by the transport shuttle.

"I will do what I can to rescue your people, Nar'then. And thank you. You are most grateful."

With a nod of his head he stepped inside and slid himself toward the opposite end to make room for the Jedi. It would take them about 15 minutes of riding before they arrived at the scene of the accident. Dozens of cranes had been pulled back, along with the rest of the heavy equipment they had been using that hadn't been swallowed by the sinkhole. Cautiously the Jedi took a few steps forward and peered over, gazing into the darkened depths below.

"We've begun staging flood lights around the area, they should be ready shortly, Seraphina."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

While things were being prepared Sera sat motionless, legs crossed near the opening of the pit, under deep meditation. Her body and mind allowing the waves of the Force to cascade over her, caressing her with its' powerful embrace. Through it, she could feel the presence of several life forms below. They were in distress, they were afraid. Time was slipping by, but at last the lights were activated, shining like a brightened stadium to the hole below, illuminating the fallen vehicles, though there was no visible sign of the crew trapped below. Perhaps they were simply too far down, or were trapped under rubble and debris.

The Jedi Master's eyes opened, and her body rose from its' position to look down into the void. It was quite the distance down, certainly one worth observing caution over. Her hand raised to her chin as she contemplated the idea. The drop, gauging by her senses was about 30 meters down, or roughly 100 feet. Carefully she stepped towards the emptiness, ensuring her connection to the Force, and taking a few steadied breaths before she allowed herself to take the final step over the edge. The void below beckoned to her, but her body refused its' pull. Her fight now was against gravity. Her concentration was focused solely on lowering herself into the pit below, in a safe, cautious manner.

It would take several minutes to descend fully to the surface below. However upon landing she could hear the shouts of the men trapped still in their cranes and excavators. Hundreds of kilograms worth of phrikite ore laid about the perimeter of the equipment, while some was still laying in the beds of the transport vehicles. The mine they had been working in was all but collapsed. With nothing but a small opening in the side of the crater to show for it.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Sera located the first of the survivors relatively easily. He was banging on the window of the mangled door within a damaged crane. The Twi'lek's telekinetic hands reached forward, prying the door clear off the crippled hinges and dropped it lightly to the side, allowing the first of the Verpine to escape. He had a few cuts and scrapes from the initial impact of the collapse, but was otherwise unharmed. Carefully and slowly she lifted the remainder of the vehicle up into the air, floating it about through the air and gently releasing it near the opposite end of the chasm away from anyone else who may be down there.

Another survivor called out, though she couldn't see from where. The Verpine placed its' insectoid hand on her shoulder and pointed near the outskirts of the perimeter. Another of the workers were partially buried underneath the rubble and a small loader laying on its' side that appeared to have been carrying the ore out of the mine when it collapsed. Again the Jedi lifted the vehicle with the aide of the Force, quickly moving it to the side before rushing to the Verpine's side. "How bad are your injuries? Are you able to walk?" Sera was no healer, and could offer him little help other than to carry him out of the pit. "No, I don't think so." She nodded, and was careful not to move him to much, though enough to get him into a more comfortable laying position while she finished locating the others.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

It would take the Jedi about 30 minutes to locate the remaining workers trapped beneath rubble, debris, and equipment. Once they were all accounted for, Sera began the slow process of raising each of the smaller Verpine one by one back up the thirty meter hole, the more seriously injured first. This was a true test of her concentration, as holding steadily on to another body while lifting them the 100 feet out of the pit was inherently dangerous. Each trip up and down would take roughly 20 minutes each time. In total, it would take just over four hours to raise the last of them from the depths below. Of course, this was just the first stage of the rescue efforts, as later on they would need to find another way to retrieve that equipment from the pit. Sera most certainly wasn't going to be lifting 10-30 tonne trucks and cranes thirty meters up and out of the crater without help.

"I need rest. And to meditate on a way to extract your equipment from below. We're going to need another plan." Sera spoke plainly to Nar'then, they had done the most important task thus far - getting their people out, but a long rest and meditation would be required to consider her options with respect to retrieving the equipment which was still salvageable. The Verpine had a number of ships that could carry the equipment, though it may have proven too risky to land them in the hole, given the instability of the area.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The following morning Sera awoke to the sound of Nar'then's knock on her room door. "Master Jedi? We are ready to return, and have a number of transport ships ready to go."

The Twi'lek had one true nemesis, early mornings. After the day prior, she was still feeling rather exhausted from the amount of work performed not by sheer strength, but the energy of one's own mind. Today, the objective would be to somehow retrieve the Verpine's mining and excavation equipment, as well as the vast amount of Phrikite Ore laying at the bottom of this sinkhole. The Jedi Master gave a series of mumbles and grunts to indicate she was awake before rolling from the bed and collecting her belongings.

A short time later they arrived again at the vast opening, only this time it was lit by the sun that was stretching across the sky, illuminating everything in a brilliant warm daylight. A number of large transport ships were ready to go. One had been filled with workers to collect the majority of the Phrik that was lost, the others would carry the equipment. "Nar'then. I have a plan. What we'll do is because the ground is too unstable to have ships like these landing and compressing their weight, further risking additional collapse, have them hover a few meters off the ground, and I will lift the equipment up and into the transports." The Verpine looked to her and nodded, before his antennae twitched a number of times, speaking via radio frequency to the vast number of others nearby. A few minutes later and she found herself once again at the bottom of the pit.

Slowly, she began to lift one by one each piece of machinery that was not seemingly beyond repair into the transports. The pilots kept the ships level and on course as they were loaded mid-flight with the additional weight, while remaining careful not to collide with one another, or drop too low to the ground, nor drift towards the walls of the pit. While she was performing this task, the workers that had been dropped in began the task of collecting and salvaging the Phrik that had already been mined to be returned to the surface. In total, about seven hours would pass before Sera had completed her end of the task, while the workers finished shortly after.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

At the conclusion of the rescue efforts, a grand amount of the Phrik had been retrieved, along with all but two of the mining and excavation rigs. All of the workers had been rescued, though some had more serious injuries than the others, but all in all they were in good health and safe. Nar'then expressed his gratitude and quickly moved to have Sera's A-Type Stiletto repaired so that it would be flight worthy. Though they were fantastic mechanics and had immense intellect, some of the resources required to return the vessel to 100% factory quality would need to be pulled from Nubia Star Drive's factory, as the Verpine had no Reflec or anything similar to utilize. However, the mechanics and useability of the craft had been restored after roughly 3-4 hours of several Verpine working on the ship. It was certainly impressive what the insectoids could do as a team. They were much faster and more coordinated than she could have ever expected.

At the conclusion of the work, Nar'then brought Sera back into the hangar that it had been transported to and displayed the ship. "Master Jedi, your vessel is ready to go. I cannot express my gratitude enough for rescuing our workers. Their families, and myself, are in your debt. I've taken the liberty of stowing a bit of the Phrik we were able to salvage in your cargo hold as a token of our appreciation. We may have lost much more, if fate had not seen fit to strand you here. So while we understand this was not a part of your intended trip, we are truly fortunate that you wound up here. Thank you."

Sera smiled and bid the Verpine farewell, hoping to again return some day on much brighter occasion, to further explore the Roche Asteroids, and the amazingly gifted Verpine that inhabited them.