Private No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

[Sadira Valen]

The smoldering metal crackled in the early morning light. A pillar of smoke reached high into the sky and drifted east with the breeze. The remnants of a ship jutted above the tall, untouched grass around it, twisted and bent into abstract, irreparable shapes. Behind it, the earth was gouged for half a kilometer, like the tail of a comet. The aftermath of their violent, premature landing.

Sadira stared vacantly at the two suns rising before her, peaking shyly through the cloudy lavender horizon and thorny trees in the distance. One vibrant orange-red, the other a smaller, pale blue. The tall grass--taller than her--hissed softly in the breeze. The occasional dying ember drifted down past her like hellish snowflakes. It was so warm there. Warmer than she expected, but maybe it was just the fire behind her.

She didn't know how long she'd been standing there. A moment of clarity would come, and with it, a sense of panic and urgency. Then returned the realization that she was utterly alone. Without her ship, without her Master, and without a clue what perils this unknown planet hid from her. Then her thoughts would fade again like the receding tide, and she would find the numbing silence. If only the stabbing pain in her skull, and the blistering of her arm, would fade with the rest.

Rivulets of blood weaved through her harassed brown hair and dripped steadily from her ear and jaw. Black and red smudges covered her neutral toned robes. The sleeve of her left arm was torn and singed almost completely off, with a fresh, oozing burn throbbing over much of her arm.

"Master Irion!" She exclaimed suddenly, a light returning to her eyes as if she remembered something important. Then she turned, a little too quickly, to the ship, and the light disappeared again in the face of a burning metal grave. Concentrating was...difficult.

 

[Finley Dawson]

It wasn't long before the lone Padawan had guests. The crash had caused a ruckus that could be heard from kilometers away. If she looked closely enough, she may have seen sets of yellow orbs looking back at her from between the foliage of the gnarled trees and tall grasses.

Curious predators waiting, making calculations.

The biped was different from the others, but the scent of blood was familiar.

A sign of weakness.

A sign of opportunity.

The calculus was gradually leaning toward one direction.

She was vulnerable, and they were positively famished.

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

As the minutes ticked by much quicker than the disoriented girl could keep track, the yellow eyes that once had gone unnoticed began to hold her attention. Her memory kept resetting, so to speak, after ever-fluctuating lengths of time, but that was fading now. She started to repeat to herself what she could remember, once she recognized the loop she was stuck in.

The ship crashed... Master Irion is dead... We were shot down by...something. There was a distress beacon... I am alone...

But she wasn't alone, exactly. The eyes moved and blinked every so often, and that's how she caught them in the first place. Something that didn't belong, in this stationary scenery. Well, no, she was the one that didn't belong, but it was too late for that now. Injected into this planet like a foreign microbe, and now it was coming to investigate and dispose of her. Maintaining her concentration was still a work in progress, but she reached through the Force, and she felt them. The hostility, the eagerness... These beings would not be friends.

She felt a little clumsily along her utility belt, wincing the instant she bent her burned arm. The blaster was still equipped. Good. It was nothing fancy, but it always helped in a pinch. Her lightsaber, though...

Sadira glanced back to what was left of the ship. Reaching a hand outward and closing her eyes, she willed it to her. For a moment, nothing happened. The fire crackled, the grass hissed, and around her she felt the eyes on her back. They weren't sneaking in closer yet, but she was on borrowed time. Then, with a sharp clanking of metal, it came to life and shot out of the metal rubbish and into her hand. The pale blue blade lit up her shady position in the tall grass immediately. Just about the only comforting sight she was bound to see for a long while.

Glancing back to the shifty, inhuman yellow eyes, the saber twirled with a wavering hum, and she took a step forward.

Injured or not, she had never been keen to wait for an inevitable attack. Master Irion often lectured her on impatience, and occasionally warned her harshly when she was being 'aggressive'. But now he was gone...and she had no interest in surviving a crash just to get picked off by some unfriendly locals.

Finley Dawson

 

[Finley Dawson]

Finley was one lucky guy.

So lucky that when then the Nuyina was practically cracked in two, he ended up with the bit without surface controls or a shield generator. He was smart enough to have donned his hardsuit ahead of time (to be the first outside to test the atmosphere), but it wasn't going to save him from reentry once the split fuselage hit the lower reaches of the atmosphere. Already, he could feel his suit heating up.

There was only one option. His section of the courier ship contained the escape pod. If he could reach it, maybe he might be saved, but easier said than done. The whole thing was tumbling through space while the fuselage was hurdling toward the planet at mach 25. It took everything just hold onto the railings, so he didn't fall and crush himself against a bulkhead of get sucked out into the vacuum of space.

But he had to move.

Almost biting his tongue, he gritted his teeth as he strained against the G-forces holding him down. With each step he took, he pulled the Force into himself, letting it flood his limbs to give him strength, to keep the blood flowing to his head, so he wouldn't black out.

Fucking move, Fin.

Sweat had broken out on his face in rivulets. He wasn't sure if it was from the rising heat or the physical stresses against his body slowly crushing him to death.

Step by step, he inched closer and closer to the latch of the pod at the end of the hall, but it felt like an eternity. He probably didn't even have two minutes.

"No!" he bellowed, drawing even deeper on the Force. His bones, feeling like they were on the verge of snapping, now were nearly weightless. However, at the same time, it felt like his body was on fire.

At first, he was afraid that he was already burning up from reentry, but he realized that wasn't it. Rather it came from all the Force energy he had just channeled into himself to survive.

Enough to defy gravity.

Not telling how long he could hold it. Quickly, he pulled himself the last half meter until he could grab onto the latch that opened the escape pod door. Naturally, it was stuck, but he hadn't come this far to lose it all here. With a roar, he almost ripped the whole damn door off the hinged, finally releasing the latch with the sickening screech.

With the last of his newfound strength, he rolled into the pod, and pulled the latch shut from the inside. Almost as soon as he was inside, he collapsed completely exhausted from his endeavors. He could only just move his hand a few centimeters to weekly drop a loose fist against the eject button.

The last thing he felt was the rattle of the pod's engines whirring up before he passed out.

----------------​

They immediately recoiled as the biped revealed herself as a monster. They so didn't feel threatened by her blue flaming sword, but rather how she had summoned it to herself.

Just like the Dark Ones.

Their fear compounded, but so did their hatred.

Before, they were content to quickly snap her up, but now they wished nothing better than to shred her, slowly. Slow enough that they may begin to sate their vengeance.

Not now, though. Soon, the eyes flickered out of view as if they had been popped out of existence.

They were gone.

For a time.

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

They were there, and then they were gone. Blinking out of sight like a mirage tooling with her mind. The knock on the head still had its lingering effects, and would for a while. It was enough to make her question if she had misinterpreted what she saw...though intuition insisted she had not. Sadira stood there for a time, staring into the distance. She could sense nothing near her now, but she would not be so easily assured.

They would return, or a new danger would replace them. It didn't matter. All she could do was move forward. The only problem was, she no longer knew where 'forward' was. The distress beacon was the reason they came to this planet, but getting shot down changed some things. For one, she wasn't sure where she even was anymore, but it certainly wasn't where they meant to land. Two, she had no way of rediscovering the distress beacon, to her knowledge.

She gave a quiet, dry laugh, and glanced one last time at the ruined vessel that somehow spit her out alive. Not even a burial was an option now. The Jedi Master who spent the past couple years painstakingly correcting her errors and teaching her everything he knew was now in more than one piece.. She only knew that because she vaguely recalled pushing a severed arm off her as she staggered out of the wreckage. At least it had been cauterized.

The soft blue saber hummed next to her as she wavered from dismay, to disbelief, to numbness. He didn't deserve such an abrupt, unceremonious end, but she had to go. Something told her that staying here much longer wouldn't be safe.

She moved in a direction away from the trees, choosing to steer clear of them. Feet moving in an aimless, but steady pattern. The plume of smoke shrank behind her, succumbing to the tall grass that she weaved through. The saber shut off and was returned to her belt, leaving her in near silence. The further she walked, the sharper the pain in her skull, and the hotter her arm burned, but her face was stoic. Appearing almost vacant, though she was alert now.

Until a streak from above caught her attention. Sadira stopped her trek, her eyes following the cloudy trail of a small, descending craft. Something that she swore looked like an escape pod. It was distant, and so...so unlikely, that she again questioned her own eyes. Perhaps they weren't the only ones honing in on that distress beacon?

It seemed to good to be true, but it could very well be the impossible stroke of luck she needed, and so her new mission began. She followed its descent. Eyes glued to it until it crashed down out of sight, and she followed a direct course to its location. It ended up being only a few miles from her, which wouldn't matter under normal circumstances, but it felt so much longer.

Finley Dawson

 

[Finley Dawson]

Finley was out cold until he was stirred by the violent landing of his pod, the whole frame vibrating as it slid across terrain for several kilometers, no doubt etching a flaming gash across the surface of the alien planet.

The Corellian couldn't do much but weakly grab onto a few buckle straps to keep himself from being throttled within the capsule as it continued sliding.

Eventually, the rumbling did stop as the pod winded up somewhere.

Once the pod came to a halt, he tried in vain to stretch out his arm and work the internal console, but he was just too weak from earlier. If not for the Force he probably would have been crushed to death or ripped up by shrapnel before the fuselage even crashed to the planet.

Sighing, he gave up. It wasn't like he could do much anyway, the exterior of the pod was probably still molten to the touch, and would be like that for a while. The pod should have been already transmitting a distress beacon automatically.

He snorted at the irony - they were supposed to be the rescuers.

No good deed goes unpunished, eh?

The life of a Jedi in a nutshell.

It gave him time to mend. Closing his eyes, he slowed his breath as he drew upon the Force again, meditating to accelerate relief to his muscles and bones, so he could move once more.

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

The heat from the crashed vessel radiated several feet still, even an hour after it etched its landing into the earth. Not heat enough to emit light, that was a start. Standing near it aggravated her throbbing arm. She would need to work on healing it before infection set in. Soon... Finding shelter and water were priorities, after she assessed this stowaway.

The blue blade returned and she eased close enough through the rippling, heated air to glide the tip slowly along the side of the pod. Slicing a white hot incision. She paced around the pod, the saber steady in her grip as she traced it in a full circle. Effectively creating her own lid, without pushing deep enough to damage whoever, or whatever, was inside. Or so she hoped.

When finished, the kept her saber at the ready, pointed down at her side. Her free hand lifted, and she focused on the lid. Willing it to drift vertically and hover. It moved hesitantly, as though she were trying to be careful, or was struggling with the task. Then she knocked it away with a Force push, and it fell a few feet from the pod with a heavy thump.

Sadira's eyelids fluttered, and she sighed, letting her hand drop. She peered into the vessel without getting too close, and was a little surprised at what she found. Another human. One that looked close to her age. One who was alone, just like her?

"Are you hurt?" Her calm voice reached him, though she wasn't sure if he could even hear her at the moment.

Finley Dawson

 

[Finley Dawson]

Invigorated by the Force, his body would begin to mend itself, patching up micro tears in his muscles and hairline fractures in his bones. Normally such a process would have taken days or weeks to achieve, but with accelerated healing the repairs were happening within minutes and hours. If he stayed like this for a day then he'd probably be fine.

Unfortunately, he doubted he had such luxury of time.

Sure enough he could feel someone nearing him, well before he had returned his body to an acceptable state. He stiffened, reaching for the gunmetal tube strapped to his utility belt. Who know what was out there on the other side? It could have been a good Samaritan, or a shady opportunist. The Knight prayed for the former, he really was in no condition to fight - he could still barely wiggle his limbs without seizing up in pain.

He gripped the hilt tighter as the inner hatch began to glow increasingly brighter from heat, but then he would deflate as the inner lining was finally bored through by blue light.

A lightsaber.

Chuckling almost deliriously, he relaxed back in his weird splayed position at the bottom of the pod, letting the (presumably Jedi) other person do their thing. The hatch zipped out of view, flooding the interior with light from outside. Moments later, a human female face would be peering down at him. He immediately recognized her as Mater Irion's apprentice. That meant that someone had survived on the other half of the ship. He wasn't alone.

She asked if he was hurt. His laughter grew louder.

"It...feels like....I just took a round trip through a trash compacter," he wheezed. "A hundred Gs has that effect...but otherwise I'm in one piece. H-how are you? Where's your Master?"

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

The man laughed deliriously as the lid frisbee'd a short distance and they got a good look at one another. The strange reaction made her wonder if she wasn't the only one who'd been knocked about on the head. If that was the case, then she envied his knock, because it seemed to put him in a better mood than her's did. Her mood could be worse though, all things considered. Being a little emotionally numb had its advantages when things went catastrophically south...like a ship. So south than it breaks apart into pieces mid-air and smashes into the ground.

It took a second or two longer than it should have, but she recognized him. Ken Dockson. Or Fen Dickons. Something...like that. He was a Jedi Knight, if she wasn't mistaken. Amazing that he managed to get to an escape pod, considering there was no warning before the strike. She couldn't recall most of her violent journey to the planet's surface, but she knew it wasn't fun.

Wait, there it was. Lin Fawson. That was his name.

"If it makes you feel better, you look better than most trash." She commented after a pause, and smiled slightly. It took conscious effort to keep his face in focus, and the effort aggravated her headache. All she wanted was to go to sleep and wake only after she fully healed. At least now she didn't have to be the only fish out of water, though.

He asked about her Master, and her smile faded. "Master Irion didn't survive the landing. You are the only living body I've seen. Your escape pod was the only one I've seen, for that matter. I think...everyone else is gone."

The Padawan's gaze left him to slowly sweep their surroundings. Sensing something that may or may not be there. This place had given her nothing but an unsettling feeling ever since she stepped out of the wreckage, though nothing had outright attacked her. Yet. Getting shot out of the sky wasn't the warmest welcome, and she doubted fate had anything uplifting to offer in the foreseeable future.

"We aren't safe here. Can you move?" Without waiting for an answer, she hooked her saber to her belt and stepped up onto the edge of the pod and reached with her good arm to help him up. Worst case scenario, she could lift him out herself with the Force, but if he couldn't walk right now, that would change things.

Finley Dawson

 

[Finley Dawson]

Better than most trash? If he hadn't escaped death by the skin of his teeth then he may have felt offended, but he accepted the complimented with a small huff.

That fleeting moment of levity was lost when she reported that her master was dead. That meant that Doctor Traynor, Mr Brennic, and Ms Ricchi were gone as well. Four souls already lost before even taking a step outside. He could only hope that their deaths had been swift.

"Then they are one with the force now...move ----ahh," he groaned from her reaching for him. "Honestly not really...I probably wouldn't get further than a few steps before I collapsed again. Uh, this pod should have some kind of SERE kit." He shrugged her off and turned his head toward the center of the pod. "Should have a few shots of bacta and stims. Military grade stuff."

He really didn't want to waste such quality bacta if he could help it, but if they were in danger like she claimed, then he had little choice.

"What's out there? What did you see?"

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

So he was injured then, perhaps worse than she was. Curious, since she didn't see any obvious wounds. Then again, the impact alone could have broken half the bones in his body, if his landing had been anything like hers.

Again, she had to wonder why she emerged relatively unscathed.

Her arm lowered and braced on her leg as she glanced around the inside of the pod. She'd been fortunate enough during the past two years not to have needed to get acquainted with one until now, but it wasn't very big or complex. The outline of a small compartment gave away the location. Rather than awkwardly lean down and over him to yank it out, she gestured with the intent of opening it the lazy way.

This time, nothing happened.

Sadira blinked slowly, narrowing her eyes as if it would help her concentrate. When she tried again, there was a short pause, rattle of the compartment, and then the small kit burst through and snapped into her palm. She grunted softly as she inspected its contents, finding the life-saving syringes he guessed would be inside.

"I saw...eyes. Many eyes. They might have been reptilian." She mused skeptically as she removed what she wanted from the bag. "I don't know what they were, but they weren't human. They stayed back...within the trees. They...disappeared, when they saw my light saber. That might be the only reason I'm standing here."

"Both, or just the bacta?" She was leaning down with the bacta syringe as she asked, and jabbed him in the thigh with the needle. Swift and stern enough to go through his pant leg, because she wasn't about to remove his pants...or ask him to do it, since it would take him an hour minimum. Her own dose would wait until she got him fixed up.

"I'm sorry, I...think I forgot your name. What was it again? I'm Sadira Valen."

Finley Dawson

 

[Finley Dawson]

Before he could answer about what he wanted, she just stabbed him with the syringe of Bacta.

The pain of the syringe was just a fleeting prick, but within a matter of moments he could already feel the burn of the bacta. This was the military grade stuff, originally meant to boost regenerative properties in the midst of battlefield conditions. So it was going to work very quickly, and very painfully as his body went into overdrive.

"No...save the stims. We may need them for later," weakly shaking his head.

So they definitely weren't alone. Sadira had attracted the attention of someone or something. With their luck so far, their new friends may be hostile. It was wise to treat them as such until otherwise.

"It's Finley. Finley Dawson. I've seen you around back on the carrier, but I never really had a chance to say hi. Just got there about a couple weeks before this point, and only attached myself to this mission the last minute. Didn't want to miss out...ha..."

The burning had spread across most his body, replacing the dull ache of his overworked muscles, but at the same time he could start moving his limbs. Slowly he pushed up on his arms in an upright position.

"So it sounds like we won't be able to stay put and wait for help, let's see what we can salvage and try to find a more defensible position before nightfall."

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

Fishing out another bacta syringe, she angled her injured arm across her chest and injected it into her deltoid. A burning sensation immediately spread through her shoulder and down her arm, but it was tolerable, compared to the blistering mess she’d been enduring.

Or so she thought. As the fast-acting medication spread through her system, it took over her senses. Mending injuries at an uncomfortably fast rate. Hers weren’t as extensive as his, so the pain was confined mostly to her arm and head, but it ignited nerves in places she hadn’t anticipated, as it uncovered hairline fractures and torn tissues.

Sadira closed her eyes, remaining silent until the worst of the sensation fizzled away, with a faint frown. After a few moments, she looked off into the horizon. Collecting her thoughts.

She wasn’t usually so somber and mechanical, but it seemed it wasn’t result of injury, since the bacta hadn’t changed that. Something wasn’t sitting right with her, but it was hard to clear her thoughts and focus on something other than the urgency of finding security, and deciding their next move.

Then, glancing down at Finley, she extended a hand to help him out of the pod, one that was now free of angry, oozing burns. Assuming he was in a better position to move now.

“The ship is a burning, mangled wreck, but if you think there’s something worth salvaging…we can go back. It’s a few miles from here. I also saw the remains of some old ruins along the way, but I don’t know what’s inside, or how structurally sound they are. You’re a Knight, correct? I’ll defer to you.”

Finley Dawson

 

[Finley Dawson]

Between them right now, there wasn't much to work with. Only the smoldering remains of their downed ship. At least the pod was still intact, though. It was packed with emergency items that could tide them over for a while.

"Yeah, we can return after we find some shelter. Right now we can put some fires, and then unload the emergency kit and transponder from the pod."

Control began to return to his limbs. Craning his necked, he looked over her head towards the lavender sky overhead. From his limited vantage, it was hard to tell if the color signaled dusk, or was just its natural hue.

"You mentioned ruins. What is the terrain like in general out there?"

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

Spoiler

"I think it's early morning." She commented offhandedly. Not because she was psychic. Mental abilities were actually her weakest skills. It was just observation, and she'd wondered the same thing stepping out of the burning rubble earlier.

Nodding to his little To Do list, she wondered briefly why he would want to start a fire, but they'd get there. One step at a time. At the moment, the fingers of her outstretched hand wiggled in front of him to catch his attention. "Sure thing... But first I think you need to get out of the pod. I could try to levitate you out, but I can't promise I won't drop you. I need more practice moving other living things." She smiled weakly. He was probably a tough cookie, but getting banged around wouldn't be so fun after the landing he just had, military grade bacta or not.

Spoiler

"Well..." Sadira looked up and around. "Lot of tall grass and short, scraggly trees on my way here. Easy to get turned around without any defining landmarks. There are mountains to the west of us, and the ruins I passed are south."

Going quiet, she looked thoughtful for a moment, and then closed her eyes. Letting her senses spread out through the Force, and mapping what she could of the landscape around them. It was vague, but she could sense the planet and the life within, at least in a small vicinity.

"There's one river...in the direction of the mountains. I don't sense any wildlife that we need to worry about for now."

Finley Dawson

 

[Finley Dawson]

Sadira suggested that it may in fact be morning. That was great if true. Would give him plenty of time to get back on his feet and for them to find shelter.

She also offered, to unload him from the pod with TK, but he declined with a small shake of his head, already unbuckling his restraints. Her beside manner with that hypo had been...lacking, so he would trying crawling out on his own at first.

Which he did, while the Padawan began to concentrate. He couldn't perceived exactly what she was doing, but he could feel her consciousness projected on the landscape, invisible fingers feeling about the terrain.

Impressive, for a Padawan.

At the end of her psychic search, she pointed them toward the mountains. Now upright, he brushed against her while poking his head out of the pod to look where she directed. That looked like a good a spot as any, especially ideal to establish communications.

"Not bad...let's try it. After we pick through the wreckage."

Sadira Valen

 

[Sadira Valen]

Ah, but of course he would climb out on his own. How unfortunate would it be to negate the hard work of the bacta by refracturing all those bones it was in the process of mending, after dropping him like a gangly ragdoll back onto the pod with her clumsy telekinetic abilities? While he regained his bearings and got back on his own two feet, she finished her attempt to trace the terrain around them. The light brush he gave her startled her slightly, and she opened her eyes to look down at him.

Salvage the wreckage... Though it was arguably a smart thing to do, if not critical, it was one of the last things she wanted to do. Sadira stifled a sigh. Yes, they should go back, and either way, she was supposed to follow his lead anyway. "I don't know what we'll be able to find in the twisted metal and...body parts...but maybe the fire will be out now. It's...about a mile from here, I think."

"Wreckage, mountains, shelter. Let's do it, then. Hopefully this journey remains...boring." Ahh, the irony. Adventure had been exactly the sort of thing she'd been looking for. Just not like this. Assuming he'd manage pulling himself the rest of the way onto stable ground, she moved away from the pod. The maze of scraggly trees awaited them on their way back to the crashed ship, and within it, who knew what lurked.

"How many crash-landings have you survived now? This is my first one." She asked in a dry joke, keeping her lightsaber at the ready as she drifted onward.

Finley Dawson