Old Stuff

[Lira Dajenn]

Lira stood inside the cargo hold of an old Republic Freighter.

With her were half a dozen troopers, some technicians, and a few random people that she had never seen before. The freighter itself hurtled through the atmosphere of Raxus Prime, the galaxies greatest junkyard planet. The environmental suit she was wearing was tight fitting and rather cramped in certain important places, but it would keep the acid rains on Raxus from eating away her skin so that was a plus.

Their goal here was simple, salvage.

Though Raxus Prime wasn't exactly worth the greatest of fortunes it was worth for inspiration. Quite a few ancient wrecks had been found and recovered on Raxus Prime, and half a dozen other ship classes had been thrown away by the hundreds upon the junkyard world. For a woman who had been tasked with building something for the Jedi, it would be the perfect place to draw inspiration from.

That was Lira's goal, and that was why most of the people were here. She was leading this little expedition oddly enough. Such a tiny padawan being in charge of so many people seemed rather odd to her, but strangely enough most of the people in the cargo hold hadn't questioned it, at least not to her face.

Lira shrugged slightly, shaking as the Freighter touched down on one of the few safe platforms on Raxus Prime.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Lira Dajenn"]

Jorus Merrill was dead to the mainstream galaxy for a variety of reasons, most of them fairly valid as he saw it. Among the lesser ones, certainly, was the same reason he'd left Silk in the hands of people who knew what they were doing: He just plain didn't like being in charge.

So when the dead man heard about Dajenn's expedition through this source or that, and decided to attend, he wasted zero time in ensuring that he would not be looked to as a leader. Guide -- guide, he could do. He and Alna had tackled every major salvage yard in the galaxy at one point or another. The 'local contact' who came out to meet the Jedi freighter bore little resemblance to Jorus Quentin Merrill. He'd spent enough years as a Rebel to make that happen, even if disguise wasn't exactly second nature to him. Rather than the shabby-but-clean spacer clothes and Tenloss Ambassador ripper revolvers he'd worn every day of his public Jedi service, he'd opted for his old salvage gear and a broad Cad Bane hat, amped up for the acid rain. A pair of battered but serviceable ascension guns and a droid disruptor completed the ensemble.

"Welcome to Raxus, ma'am," he said at the base of the ramp, touching the hat's brim. "I'm Gideon. Which way can I point ya?" The slurred Outer Rim accent was nothing fake; he'd actively tried to clean up his voice while serving on the Council.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Lira greeted the man with a warm smile and bright green eyes that may have been mistaken for emeralds lit up by spotlights.

“Hello!” Her chirpy voice was rather jarring. “I'm Padawan Dajenn, though you may call me Lira if you like.”

None of the innocents was lost in the young padawans voice, she was clearly someone that had yet to learn that bad people did in fact exist in the galaxy and greeting everyone like a small child was likely a bad idea. Then again, perhaps the bad guys would find it off putting and fin someone else to stab, who really knew?

“I'm not sure if Raxus is organized in any fashion or if things were just thrown in one big pile, but I would very much like to see some of the craft that the Jedi flew.” She knew for a fact that Jedi had specialized ships throughout the ages, she only knew the name of one since the Archives were rather scattered due to the Gulag Plagues, but there had been no picts or images of the ship, which was the reason why they were here.

To find inspiration.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Lira Dajenn"]'s perky naiveté was deeply familiar to Jorus, not only from his time with the Order, but from the ever-pertinent fact that he had both a six-year-old and an infant.

"Oh, tons of people've tried organizing it, or setting up new drop patterns for the new stuff. Then a new 'ministrator comes in and thinks it'd be better another way, or going back to an old way. So t'answer your question, ma'am," said the man in the hat, "we're just one big pile."

He turned and pointed out across the trash. "That said," he added, "I'm pretty sure I know a spot where the pre-Empire Order dropped some junk, back when they had junk to drop. Lot of it's under this fethed-up -- 'scuse me, ma'am -- this shot-up Watts-class that got put down thattaway, if you're down to spelunk a bit."

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

She found that agreeable.

Back on Prakith, Lira had enjoyed spelunking with her group of friends. Those from the university would often go out into the desert and explore nearby ruins or cliffs, hiding in caves and generally being a nuisance to the local authorities who tried to keep teenagers away from the area. Of course this was slightly different in that they would be climbing over the wreck of a massive Star Destroyer, but the general purpose would still be the same.

“Lead the way, Gideon.” She heard a few groans behind her, likely from those members of the party who weren't too keen on lots of exercise and clambering around a broken star destroyer that might have been filled with deadly acid.

Yet she was in charge of this mission, so they would do as she told them.

If in the end they walked away from this with Lira finally knowing exactly what her new found talents were to be used for, then the expedition would be success. If not, well then there would likely be some very angry Jedi Masters back on Ossus.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Lira Dajenn"]

Jorus wholly lacked a portion of Lira's context, and could probably guess at another portion. A good chunk of both those subsets fell into the category of 'not something I care about.' Oh, he knew he should care, but really, one purpose- and identity-seeking Padawan was the same as another. He clambered into the driver's seat of a slab-sided hovertruck protected by a curved section of sheet metal on stilts. The corrugated desh canopy covered both of the front seats and the cargo area in back where the rest of the Jedi would be sitting. Acid rain ran down from the sides in parallel lines; a little junk-metal gutter on each side, at the front, kept entryways clear for the two front seats.

"All aboard, burlap brigade."

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

Jaryn stood still on the docking bay of the cargo ship. He had never been to Raxus Prime himself previously, and frankly had never heard of it either. This, would be a new experience. Jaryn folded over his arms and leaned into one of the corners of the cargo bay's. He didn't intend on sticking to the group, he was here because of a certian informant of his ties to rodian mercenaries on this planet. It just so happened, that [member="Lira Dajenn"] had set up an expedition of sorts. However, she had left him alone for the most part and assumed she would. It would just look like he was covering them from the merc's but in reality he served a darker purpose.

However, it wouldn't get in the way of their "spelunking" as this Gideon character had pointed out, ([member="Jorus Merrill"]) Jaryn attempted to go digging around in his head. But, he couldn't find anything. Lira on the other hand was different, she was incredibly interesting. However, unlike her Jaryn very much so kept his thoughts to himself.

Jaryn waited for all others to climb aboard the hovertruck. Standing in the back with his hands on adjacent railings. Then, he spoke to Gideon telepathically. For, he was speech-impaired. -We'll have to be careful, there's rodian mercenaries about and this rustbucket won't take too many hits- That was all that was needed, a fair warning and enough understanding to not question Jaryn's following movements.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Lira smiled and followed the man to his hover truck, she assumed that the passenger seat was open for herself. She reached over to he truck, pulling the Electro-staff from its magnetic hold and jamming it into a slot in the truck where it seemed to fit perfectly. The padawan smiled slightly, taking careful measure not to ruin any part of the truck as she secured the staff. When it was done, the young girl hoisted herself into place and sat herself down.

The expedition crew piled into the back of the hover truck one by one, clearly disturbed by its appearance.

When they were all settled Lira shot Gideon a smile.

“All ready I think.” Her eyes shot forward. This was an interesting world, a dangerous world. Surviving here would be next to impossible given the toxic environment and everything else deadly. She froze for a moment, what else was deadly here? “Gideon, how long have you been on Raxus?”

Why not ask?

Learning was important.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Lira Dajenn"]
He'd been on the receiving end of more than a few mental probes, could shrug off most overt influence and keep probes from the sensitive stuff, but he hadn't expected one of the Jedi expedition's members to try a straight-up deep read. That, and the standard Jedi skillset was completely beyond Jorus. [member="Jaryn Rhane"] would get a pretty solid idea that 'Gideon' meant no harm but was much, much more than he pretended, and that Jorus knew that he knew. The young Master got a mental nod of acknowledgement, in regards to the warning about the Rodians -- and the revelation that more was going on than Jorus, maybe even Dajenn, knew about. The shotgun under the seat might wind up being necessary, though he hoped not. Too many people knew that gun by sight.

"Not long," he said to Dajenn after a Rhayne-related pause, "but it ain't my first time salvaging here, not by a long shot. I sorta make the circuit. Professional guide. I've been neck-deep in salvage heaps just about everywhere, and I'd like to think I've got some transferable skills at this or that." Which was all true.

The salvage truck meandered around mountains of jumbled durasteel...and, perhaps to Rhane's surprise, encountered absolutely nothing hostile, though the young Master might catch a hint of deep, relaxed focus from Jorus' direction. His entire skillset was derived from one form of instinctive navigation or another; where other Masters could lift rocks, repel their enemies, swing lightsabres, bend wills and leap chasms, Jorus could navigate. Really, really well.

They arrived at the Watts hulk without incident.

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Amazingly they found nothing on their way to the Star Destroyer, something that Lira was actually rather thankful for.

“Is anything alive here?” Lira asked as they arrived at the Watts Class. It sat half submerged in toxic waste, and half on top of a massive pile of salvageable junk. She assumed the dumping yard was either deep under the Watts class, or just to the side of it. Either way they would have to go through the ship to actually get there.

Oddly she looked forward to it.

The Jedi Padawan jumped out of the Truck, landing with a solid thud on a pile of junk that had long since been compacted into nothingness. She loosened her electro-staff from the side of the vehicle, twirling it for a second and then slamming it onto the ground to use as a crutch. Behind her the team of Jedi began to unload themselves, setting up things and doing their work.

Her eyes twitched over to Gideon, expecting an answer.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Lira Dajenn"]

"Rodians, some. The occasional transplanted Jawa. Your main threats are dianogas and conduit worms."

He gestured at a deep fissure, half-choked by trash and spanned by the cruiser's hulk.

"Down we go. If there's anything decent left of the old Jedi dump, it'll be down there."

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

Jaryn could feel Rodian Mercenaries on the edge of his senses. He could feel their meaty wet palms clammering over broken scrap and each others bodies. He almost shivered, they were disgusting creatures. For the most part, he'd actually met a few nice rodians once or twice and single sith rodian. Now she was weird, at least he thought it was a she. Jaryn couldn't get a straight read off of the much older man, but he could tell that both of them knew that deep under each others' skin there was much more going on. But, both respected the other in not attempting to delve further into the minds of the other and therefore, Jaryn remained silent throughout the trip until they arrived.

But ([member="Jorus Merrill"]) Gideon had only made two mistakes, one believing that Jaryn was jedi. He never claimed to be such, he was simply a friend of the order. He was a scoundrel and a man of self interest, on an occasion such as this. However, if the time ever came the young man would most certainly stand for the weak and fight for the people against the Sith. Not, the republic. The people. Jaryn had became more and more aware throughout his travels that the Sith terrorized much more than simply the Republic. People were what mattered, not the republic. Jaryn would let the republic crumble before he let the Sith take another world and enslave another species, not that he was the one to make such a call. But it was possibly someday he might be.

And the second mistake? A tad of arrogance, for sure the rodian mercenaries couldn't possibly navigate as well as Gideon. Jaryn had saw first hand their pilot slip past many patrols without so much as a hitch. But, you couldn't navigate your way past something at your drop off point. Jaryn could feel Rodians crawling all over this destroyer and the surrounding area and he was sure Gideon felt it too. It was obvious he simply didn't wish to alarm young [member="Lira Dajenn"].

He then gave Gideon a small gesture to show he was facially acknowledging him this time, Jaryn's helmet underarm and cloak left on the truck. The young man was outfitted in his usual Scoundrel Outfit and was ready to rumble. He was just curious whether or not their guide would let him.

-I think it best if I deal with our infestation-

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Jaryn Rhane"] got a grunt. It wasn't the first time the Republic had sent non-Jedi Forcers along on a Jedi expedition; Jorus had been one of them himself. Jorus leaned back over the seat.

"Kid, stop poking in my head or I'll make you. You want to go out there and get your hands dirty, be my guest." He faced forward again, drawing the shotgun from its place under the seat. Double-barreled, break-action, eight-gauge, forged of solid Mandalorian iron right down to the stock, the Mandalorian shell gun had seen more battles than half this planet put together. With another grunt, he slid out of his seat and into the light drizzle. "Rest of us will be heading thattaway."

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

Jaryn couldn't help but poke around, he was a telepathic master. Which, was due to his speech-impairment. -Not my fault you oversensitive old git- However, this thought he kept to himself as Jaryn threw [member="Lira Dajenn"] a flirtatious wink and grin before he sealed up his helmet with the rest of his insulated outfit and leaped with a force empowered jump up onto a broken hole through to a higher level of the star destroyed, using force augmented leaps to slowly climb upwards until he reached the clear window before throwing a playful wave to his spelunking party, and then Jaryn leaped into the ship. He was alone now, Jaryn cleared his mind of all thoughts. He allowed a deep breath to exit his lungs and he closed his eyes for a moment, retaining absolute calm and tranquility in his mind before taking to his feet, and beginning his hunt for some nasty rodians. He might run into his spelunking crew later on, who knew.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Lira narrowed her eyes. She may have been young, but she wasn't an idiot.

She had no idea who the man in her party was, she had been told a name and that he had his own little task, that was it. Clearly however he was a force user, one that used the force to speak. That made sense to her, what made more sense to her was that Gideon was a force user as well, or he had experience with them, most people would be far more bewildered by someone touching their mind.

The young Padawan made a mental note not to trust either men. Secrets were never good, that much she knew from her time on the run on Prakith. Still, it seemed Gideon was well intentioned and not out for Jedi blood. That alone made him useful.

Lira smiled slightly, then flipped the Electro-staff over in her hand, slipping it back into its magnetic lock before grabbing rope and several metal hooks as well as a driver gun. With a practiced eased she placed herself in a small harness, attaching it to the environmental suit and locking the first of the hooks in place at the edge of the massive crevice. The other Jedi in the troop did the same hooking into lines and ensuring everything was secure.

The Padawan looked at them all, then smiled.

She was the first to head over the cliff.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Jorus rappelled down beside [member="Lira Dajenn"] and another couple of intrepid Jedi; the second wave knocked pebbles loose above them, and microdebris rattled off his hat.

His boots hit the surface -- a massive chunk of ancient starship, at least a thousand years old -- and he unhooked as fast as possible, stepping back from the wall of the crevasse. He watched the rest of the Jedi task force descend.

"So you're the one in charge, kid." Crossing the pitted metal, feeling old hull plates groan under his boots, he looked out at two divergent paths, one along each side of the crevasse. "Down to your left is a jumble of fighters, off to your right is more old Consulars, Ambassadors, microcorvettes, transports. If I'm remembering it right, anyway. Dianogas and Rodian mercs down both, worst-case scenario. Take your pick."

He squinted down to the left -- was that an old Defender-class buried in there? Fether had to be four thousand years old. Raxus. Feth.

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana had been there from the start except really quiet. In a sense she wasn’t really here for the 'scavenging' or 'inspiration finding' as much as overseeing things and to make sure nothing too dangerous came their way. Maybe she would find something interesting to check out but her hopes weren’t that high. For now she settled on making sure the others were safe and unharmed.

As the others disembarked, so did she. Jaryn and this ‘Gideon’ type seemed to be at each other’s throats. Maybe not quite, but there were enough tension for Kana to give them a worried look. She knew better than to get in between them but that didn’t mean the wish to do so wasn’t there. ‘Next time’ she thought to herself as the team made it’s way ahead.

Kana would lie if she claimed she hadn’t hesitated the moment it came to making her way down the crevasse. She still had bad experiences with heights and falling, landings in particular.

“Here goes.” She muttered to herself as she hooked the lines to her own suit before to descending, hesitantly.

[ [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Lira Dajenn"] | [member="Jaryn Rhane"] ]​

 

[Catherine Romanov]

Catherine was one of the few non-Jedi on the expedition. Being a tinkerer and mechanic by nature, she had jumped on the opportunity to join the expedition, despite the crew being mostly Jedi. An intrepid explorer at heart, she had kept silent since they landed, taking in all the sights of the junk world. She feasted her eyes on the metallic jungle that littered the landscape, thoroughly amazed by what she saw. Catherine had never seen so much junk and scrap metal in her life. As they arrived at the wreck of the Star Destroyer, her eyes widened in excitement. She promptly attached the harness and lines to her suit, and descended excitedly, quickly following the three that had gone before her. She wondered what laid in store for them down below.

[member="Lira Dajenn"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Lira Dajenn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Catherine Maxwell"] [member="Kana Truden"]

Fighters and interceptors.

That was where she wanted to go. She wasn't quite ready to think she could build a large ship, even with a team of Jedi Technicians backing her. Her lips thinned for a moment, and she wondered if the Jedi would eventually relegate her to be stuck in a small broom closet with a desk drawing up designs for capital ships.

The possibility of that future caused her eyes to go small for a second.

Then she shook her head.

She had far more to offer the Jedi than simply designing ships and gadgets. Lira was training to be more than a simple technician, she was training to be a Jedi. With a reassured smile, and a nod in the right direction Lira called out.

“Left.” Looking back towards her party she remembered Gideon's words. “Be on look out everyone, The Sith still have bounties on us that are more than tempting.”

That was an odd thing to think of, but it was true.

The Jedi in this party were worth more than most of the salvage on this planet, one Master would go for nearly a million credits. She frowned slightly, looking at those in her group. She would be damned if any of them got captured or left behind.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Kana Truden"] [member="Catherine Maxwell"] [member="Lira Dajenn"]

"Eh, kid, don't sweat it. Everyone's got a bounty on'em these days, and there's only half a dozen bounty hunters out there with the guts to go after a group of Jedi and the skill to make a dent." He snorted. "If that. Heck, I was worth a million once upon a time. Know how many hunters I so much as smelled?"

He made a zero with thumb and forefinger, and led them down the leftmost path. It ambled down the side of the gorge, then terminated in a side canyon choked with Aethersprites, StealthXs and assorted others, all acid-washed and picked clean like the old Defender-class he'd seen. Maybe a couple of salvage droids could pull it out and put it aside for him to take a look at later.

"This might be what you're after. I'll keep watch, but the walls of this canyon make me nervous." He leveled a finger at Kana Truden. "You've got the air of someone who's been around the block; you keep watch too, eh?"