R'iia was not a benevolent god…

[Tejori Lotor]

Tejori didn't have much hope for a good find. She'd lost the morning already, and by the time she'd ridden her speeder out to the edges of the graveyard from Jakan, it was mid-afternoon. Anything the morning’s violent storm had revealed farther in had already been claimed. As she rode, she could see small groups of scavengers working new wrecks. A lot of people worked in teams, figuring they could cover more ground that way. Tejori worked alone and always had. It was easier when she was alone; there were fewer complications, fewer things to worry about. The only person she had to trust was herself.

She rode out farther, beyond the easy finds, into the harder terrain and she opened up the speeder. Tejori rode fast and hard, enjoying the thrill of the machine's power and acceleration. She'd had the speeder for years, built it herself as she had so many other things, and as much as she could allow herself a sense of pride in anything, she was proud of that.

The graveyard wasn't, strictly speaking, just one area but a vast expanse, and you could go for kilometres without seeing signs of anything, then crest some high dune and suddenly find yourself looking down at a field of wreckage. The storm had done more than reveal new finds, however; it had changed the terrain, reshaped the desert, and it wasn't until she hit the capital ship that she realised how far out she'd gone, how long she'd been riding. The ship was one of the few constants in the desert, marked by the almost perfectly vertical spine of some massive capital ship — half-buried in the ground. Nobody knew what kind of ship it had been, Republic, Imperial, something else from earlier, later? It was impossible to tell, because all that remained was the keel line, rising out of the ground, and some twisted support beams still clinging to what remained of the frame. Everything else of the ship was simply gone, taken in the explosion of plasma that had erupted on impact. The heat had been so intense it had seared the desert sand, burning so fast and hot it had turned the ground to blackened glass. Over the years, the glass had broken into smaller and smaller chunks, on its way to becoming sand once more, but when you rode or walked over the land, you'd hear it cracking, echoes that seemed to whisper for kilometres.

Hence why the locals called it the Crackle.

Tejori stopped as she approached the ship, squinting up at the sun as she pulled a corner of her wrap from her face. Maybe two hours of daylight left, she calculated, and she'd need most of that to get back home. The temperature plummeted at night, got as cold as it could be hot during the day. What little wildlife there was on that part of Tash-Taral emerged in the darkness, as well, and most of it was predatory, as desperate to survive as every other living thing. The swarms of gnaw-jaws came out at night, carnivores that ran on six legs and preyed on warm blood. Getting caught in the dark wouldn't be good.

She'd lost the day, Tejori concluded, but maybe she could get a head start on the next one. She shut down the speeder, dismounted, and spat out more sand. She drank half of one of the bottles she'd gotten from the junk trader, then stowed it back in her satchel. Tejori looked at the vertical spine - that a looked as though it had erupted from the very sand - critically, thinking. It was definitely climbable. Not particularly safe but climbable.

[member="Thel Rhysode"]

 

[Thel Rhysode]

"You ain't goin' to climb, are you?" a boy, Thel, asked from behind the girl.

He had come to the planet for one reason only -- he was there to hide from the chaser. He'd decided to go somewhere he'd never been before, just to confuse the chaser, and so he had decided to choose this place. He had no idea what planet it was, but truth be told, he barely knew any planets he'd been to.

He only cared about whether the planet would hide him and give some time to rest from the eternal chase.

"This thing looks like a karkin' star destroyer," he commented, even though he actually had no idea what the ship was supposed to be.

How had he come there? Well, his ship was right around the corner. Not actually around the corner -- it was behind some dunes. He'd barely managed to deal with the sandstorms, but now everything seemed to be a lot safer.

Behind the dunes he'd actually hidden himself, but after hearing a speeder coming his way, he had decided to find a better place hide, and that better place ended up being the other side of the huge spine.

[ [member="Tejori Lotor"] ]

 

[Tejori Lotor]

Given it was the desert, and windy, it wasn't hard to sneak up on someone. The main reason it happened rarely was because of the vast expanse of sand. You could go days and see nobody.

She put her oversight down to her preoccupation with the failing light and greed. People say scavengers died of exposure, or dehydration, or the many nocturnal predators. But in truth it was greed that killed them. Taking one too many risks.

Had the boy been so inclined, she could be dead now. It wasn’t murder if there was no body and nobody cared if you came home. Heck, nobody even knew if you came home.

She eyed him warily. “Why?” she asked, unwilling to answer his question directly, preferring to throw it back at him. Why was he curious?

“And yeah, it’s an Imperial Mark II Star Destroyer. And at night it’s full of things you’d rather not know lived in this desert. So I’m figuring to find a good place to hold up for the night. Somewhere smaller. Somewhere that things with big teeth won’t be living in.”

She glanced around. She’d heard no speeder approaching, so wondered where he’d come from. Logic said he was here before her. But she didn’t trust logic. Or instincts. In truth she didn’t trust anyone or anything. It kept you alive longer.

“So…you’re not local?” Her voice was slightly accusatory, without being openly hostile.

[member="Thel Rhysode"]

 

[Thel Rhysode]

"Nah, just curious," the boy said as he looked at the girl. He couldn't tell if she was human or not -- there was something dark around her eyes which he had not seen before. Well, now that he was thinking about it, he was not a normal person either. Who the hell had bright white irises with no visible pupils in their eyes? And the reason he wore his breathing mask around his neck was something even he himself didn't really know for sure.

"I ain't local, yeah."

He turned to face the star destroyer. A magnificent thing. Just a little bit sad that it had ended up being here.

"But whadda ya think, maybe it has fancy bling-bling stuff inside?"

He was, first and foremost, a smuggler and a thief, meaning he always looked out for new artefacts and relics to hoard. He loved getting new things in his hands, even if they were not the most important or valuable. An item was an item and it didn't matter what it was worth, he thought.

Well, unless he wanted to sell it to somebody.

"Has anybody even been inside there after it crashed?"

Just curiosity. A question he didn't expect an answer for.

[ [member="Tejori Lotor"] ]

 

[Tejori Lotor]

Tejori was used to secrecy. Around here, information was not only power but often the difference between life and death. So the boy acting guarded wasn’t precisely a surprise. And he was an off-worlder, so no doubt was doubly untrusting of her.

Everything about him said off-worlder. His clothes, his accent. His eyes! But then her irises lacked any pigment, so she wasn’t precisely one to cast judgement.

“This ship has been here for centuries.” She spoke with a weary voice — clearly this was a conversation she’d had before. Countless times. “Do you know what, nobody ever thought of going inside. Do you think the owners would mind?”

The sarcasm was literally dripping onto the sand between them.

“Every scavenger worth his salt has been inside there, ten times. If not twenty. Looking for that one find that nobody else has spotted. Sure there will be dangerous spots nobody has tried before. Where something with teeth as big as your head has decided to nest. But otherwise, the open stuff? Stripped clean.”

A thought occurred to her and she vocalised it before she was able to stop herself.

“Although the storm might have caught some of the predators out in the open last night. They wouldn’t have been able to return and would have had to hold up wherever they were when it hit. So maybe, just maybe, a spot or two might be open to explore. As long as we’re out before they come home. Else they’ll think they ordered take-out.”

And having shared the thought, the benefit of two pairs of eyes was actually apparent. It was too easy to focus on the scavenging and neglect your environment.

“Do you have a head for heights?”

[member="Thel Rhysode"]

 

[Thel Rhysode]

"Pfft, I've been to places more dangerous in m'life," Thel said as he looked up at the ship. Hmm, well yeah, maybe it wasn't the safest place to go, but when there was somebody chasing you until you were dead, every little adventure was worth it, no matter how risky or dangerous it was.

"I've got weapons," he continued, "and I ain't scared."

He had to note, that woman was clearly an adventurer-scavenger like he himself was, even though he didn't know what was her reasoning. He couldn't tell if she was a smuggler and thief like he was, but on the other hand, it was a viable option -- she didn't seem to like talking and revealing a lot about herself. Well, neither did he.

"Shall we go?" he asked, smiling at the girl.

"Or did ya suddenly get scared of that poodo?" he asked, chuckling maniacally. He only had a blaster with him, but he figured he would manage. He had been to really messy places due to his job, so that little exploration was definitely something minor.

Or well, at least he hoped it would be.

[ [member="Tejori Lotor"] ]

 

[Tejori Lotor]

“Welcome to where technology comes to die,” she said as she entered the cavernous hull of the ship. Her voice echoed, even though she kept the volume low.

Cliffs of plasticene derivatives stood on each side of them. This was not like walking around a ship that had simply landed. It was more like exploring a cave. Just a very big one.

She stared up at the dark metal wall to her left, illuminated by light pouring in through a hole in the ceiling, hundreds of metres up. Even from this distance you could see it was pimpled with protruding sensors, manipulators, and other decaying mechanisms. She pulled up from her neck some light protective goggles with green lenses and attached a face mask and gloves. Her dun clothing means she blended into the wall and with her eyes closed, the black oil she smeared across her face, there was nothing reflective to giver her away. She wore a backpack and from her belt hung an assortment of tools.

“Ready,” she asked? And she began their perilous ascent. “If we can get sixteen decks up, and if I’m right, the ripper-raptor nest should be empty. If so, we can get past it and might find some decent pickings. If not? We leave quickly.”

Even with her mask on, it was clear she was smiling.

And with that she started to climb. Quickly and surely. And she never once looked down.

[member="Thel Rhysode"]

 

[Thel Rhysode]

Thel made his way to the hull of the ship as well, and after seeing that the girl had put a mask on, he did the same with his breathing mask. Even though he couldn't cover his bright white eyes, which was an obvious disadvantage. Even putting his hood on did nothing to prevent the pair of white balls brightly shining. Oh well, it was one of these times when he would have wished to have black irises instead.

"Got ya!" he said as an answer to the woman's plans. She seemed to be pretty clever. Not like... intelligent clever, but just clever. At least she was not somebody Thel would have to save from a risky situation or anything.

He started climbing upwards, following the girl's lead. She was going pretty fast, even faster than Thel had expected her to go. Of course he didn't have a hard time keeping up with her, but he had to admit -- the girl was pretty fit as well. Like a true adventurer, perhaps.

"Y'haven't told me yer name yet," he muttered as they kept on going. "Might be useful knowledge."

And that might have been a pretty awkward sentence, but he had nothing against having a little bit of fun. Even if that fun was laughing at himself for all the dumb mistakes he made.

[ [member="Tejori Lotor"] ]

 

[Tejori Lotor]

“Tejori,” she offered, and then she started to climb.

She made no allowances for him. If she left him behind, it would be an indication he would be a liability. And better to find out now rather than later. When she might depend on him.

If he was smart, he would see where she put her hands, her feet. See when she wen straight up and when she went sideways. And judging by his proximity, he was attentive — or figured out his own route.

Soon she was above the point she’d usually reach around this area. The next exit was an opening used by a group of small but deadly predators — that used volume over brute muscle to overwhelm you.

She slowed as she reached the nest — the smell told her how close she was. Ignoring what her nose was telling her, she listened. Nothing. No faint rustle of creatures slumbering. Nothing. Her guess had been a good one. They’d be holed up somewhere else and tonight, when darkness fell, they’d hunt, giving them until nearly dawn to get in and out again.

She carefully peeked over the lip of what was actually a floor and saw carcasses, skeletons, various pieces of chewed and ripped materials — that clearly passed as bedding — but no animals. Smiling, she hoisted herself up and stepped over the area and into the darkness beyond.

Into the unknown.

She glanced back and nodded at the boy. Pulling her flashlight from her bag, she pointed into the blackness and switched it on.

[member="Thel Rhysode"]