Private Rocks and Sand

[Annrae Esspitt]

Annrae, or just Ann to those who knew her, wasn’t too happy about the situation. Their planet was in the outer rim, as in the outer outer rim, almost as far out as one could get while staying within the galaxy. It was mostly red, red sands and rocky areas, with a few underground water deposits and springs. But that was the limit of it’s valuable resources, there were resources to make durasteel, and a few run-down factories for actually producing it, but other than that there were only a few of them and most were controlled by The Triarchy. And it was this that made her less than happy.

She crouched behind one’s of the many red dunes of the planet, in the Vaaile specifically, the second biggest sand waste on the planet. Other than that’s there were five major areas of the planet. The Vaaile, The Cragg (the biggest rocky waste), The Deik (the biggest sand waste), The Rift (a rocky waste with a large fissure), and The Faal (a rocky waste). Other than that, at the North Pole of the planet was a large sea, called The Sea of Moons, completely controlled by The Triarchy and completely encircled by a towering black wall. In the center of The Sea of Moons is the Isle of Trinity, the capital of The Triarchy. And without it The Insurgency was hard pressed to keep it’s people hydrated.

It was midnight, and none of the moons were in the sky, letting the stars and nebulae of the cosmos light up the night sky. And a comet. No, meteor? She’d took out her binoculars and looked at the falling object. It wasn’t a meteor, it was too dynamically constructed. A ship? What was a ship doing so far out here? The planet had been abandoned by the rest of the galaxy for generations, why is someone coming here’s now? She looked again, it looked like the ship was damaged, that explained it. She got down, and the ship passed overhead and crashed about a half kilometer away. So she stood up, and jogged over. It’s best she learn about what happened and why they were near the planet, and hopefully, hopefully, they’d be able to help them.

( Leenic Ellsil )

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic’s eyes shot open at the feeling of a warm, sticky liquid trickling down his face. “Karabast.” He muttered, pushing his head backward from the damaged control panel and taking a look again. “Second time I’ve crash landed, I gotta get better at this stuff.” Then he dug through one of the small pouches on his belt and pulled out a stimpack. He stuck the small needle into the artery on the inner section of his elbow, wincing slightly as the cool bacta entered his bloodstream and rushed towards the wound on his head. After a few more seconds of sitting in the chair, he unclipped himself and opened the cockpit.

He slowly climbed out of the small X-Wing he had commandeered (or as he liked to say, “borrowed without asking”) and checked himself for any damaged gear. His beskar’gam was intact (per the usual), he still had his blaster pistol, all his bags and pouches seemed to be holding everything, and his lightsaber was still hanging off his belt. He sighed, wishing he had brought along his jetpack and LE-05, and then grabbed the lightsaber off his belt. It was a small apparatus, with a brown leather grip and an all black body supporting a tri-blade emitter. Clipping it back onto his belt, he hopped down from the smouldering wreckage and looked around to see if anyone was nearby before lowering his targeting-assist antenna to scan for heat signatures. He saw a heat signature approaching, and grabbed the lightsaber off his belt.

“Who are you?” He shouted, igniting the lightsaber to and causing the sound of a hurricane-force wind to emit just as the white blade appeared. After waiting a couple of seconds to let it sink in (and so that he could enjoy the quiet hum of the saber), he continued speaking. “Are you here to kill me? Because I will let you know right now that this blade can pierce even beskar’gam, so I would recommend you think twice before attacking.”

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

A laser sword? No, what were those called, lightsabers? Yeah, lightsaber. Very dangerous, and usually those who had them were even more dangerous if rumors and stories were to be believed. She needed to be very careful. Him activating the weapon made her raise her rifle at him, and he asked her who she was. She thought for a moment about how she should answer, then he spoke again. This time she had her own answer.

“That depends, do you intend to kill me?” She countered.

Then she answered his first question, “I’m Ann. Who are you?”

If he were to lower his weapon, she would do the same. She had no intention of inciting violence, but she had to be careful, everyone had to be very careful at all times in this place.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic saw her raise her rife and tensed, preparing himself for a tense fight. But then he relaxed when she gave her reply. "Name's Leenic." He said, deactivating his lightsaber and hooking it on his belt. "And no, Im not here to kill you. But if I was, you should know that blasters are completely usless against beskar'gam, so I'd recommend not pointing that thing at me or anyone else that looks like me."

He then stepped towards the girl, eyeing her to see what her armament was and how quickly he could kill her if needed. "Is that....oh what were they called....clone armor?" He asked, deactivating his targeting sensor and inspecting the dust covered pieces of her armor. "Because, if so, you are wearing something that could fetch a couple thousand credits on the black market. More than enough for you to buy something that'll protect your vital organs." He then gestured towards her exposed torso. "Seriously, is this a fashon statement or something? Because I can tell you that you are just making yourself that much easier to kill."

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

He put his weapon away, and she lowered his rifle. Then he asked about her armor. What the heck were clones? She shook her head, “no, it’s not clone armor, I had it made, and it was all I could afford. That and it doesn’t trap heat. No one on this planet who doesn’t work for the Triarchy can really afford to have anything better than this made. Honestly I’m lucky to have gotten this much.”

She looked over his own armor, it covered him almost completely. On this planet, that would cost an unbelievable fortune. He’d be the equivalent of a king in terms of wealth. She couldn’t imagine how much it would cost to have something that protective made. She decided to ask, “and how much did that cost you? I honestly cannot imagine how much that suit is worth.”

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic looked down at his beskar'gam and chuckled. "Beskar'gam is not bought, at least, not if you're worthy of wearing it." He said, looking back up at the Ann. "For Mandalorians, we have to earn the armor that is given to us through hard work and dedication to the code. Anyone who buys this sort of armor is a thief, and will be treated as such should they be found by one worthy of the armor." He then patted his lightsaber. "For beskar'gam is made of beskar, which is impenetrable to all forms of attack. The blade on my belt is the only weapon I have found to be able to pierce it's hull, and even then it requires some concentrated effort."

Leenic glanced around at the sandy desert surrounding them, then back to the girl. "So, uh, where are we anyway?" He asked, gesturing to the wastes surrounding them. "My Hyperdrive malfunctioned so I have zero idea what section of the Galaxy I am in currently."

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

She listened to his explanation and nodded, she didn’t quite understand this particular set of ideals but she understood what morals meant to a person. So she didn’t press the issue, then he asked where they were, and she said, “this is Hurun. A desolate rock as you can see. Where we are in relation to everything else, I don’t know, no one does.”

She looked towards the west, where the sky was beginning to come up, and she said, “come with me, we don’t want to be caught out here with the sun up.”

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic nodded at her explanation. "Well, maybe someone has a terminal i can use..." He said, trailing off as she mentioned the sunrise. "This place is starting to sound a lot like Tatooine, and I dont like it. But yeah, lead the way to wherever you live I guess.” He then placed a hand on his blaster, waiting for whatever this place was going to throw at him next.

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

"No clue what Tattooine is but I'll assume it's a rocky or desert wasteland." She said with a sigh. "Of so then yes, it's similar. But I don't know if this Tattoine has a sun that heats the planet enough to make your blood boil in your veins, but we have that here."

She lead him a short ways away to what was essentially a foxhole. It was an absolutely tiny bunker with a single hatch at the top for entrance. It was twenty by twenty foot of bare concrete and a couple of benches. It was clearly meant as a traveling shelter, a place anyone could stay on their treks across the deserts. She ushered him in and sealed the hatch behind them, they'd need to wait a total of eight hours for the sun to go down again.

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic waited for Ann’s boots to hit the floor before sliding down the ladder, shaking the dust out of his cape when he landed. “Cozy little place you got here.” He commented, glancing around at the surroundings. “Astounding lack of furniture, however. But I guess that’s to be expected inside of a survival bunker?” He shrugged and rubbed the top of his helmet. “Forgot that bacta doesn’t cure headaches, probably should put some padding inside of my helmet.”

Then Leenic paced around the edge of the room, leaving dusty footprints each time he stepped. He lowered his targeting array and scanned the room for any hidden doors that might stash some weapons or the like. “So, how does anyone survive on this planet?” He asked, pulling up his targeting array and looking at Anne. “Yknow, the of water and food usually result in death.”

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

He'd find a single compartment. Not exactly secret as there was an actual hatch on it. But it was in the corner on the floor, and contained a fairly deep hole, with a bucket and long rope set next to it, which answered his question regarding water.

"Well we go underground for the most part." She said. "That's where we get water, that and we recycle urine. As for food, well, we aren't the only things in the Labyrinth."

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic tilted his head slightly at the mention of a Labyrinth. “The Labyrinth?” He asked. “That some kinda code word for a big underground structure?” He then glanced around at the walls, as though he feared a large beast would burst through them. “But anyway, since there are things to hunt here, how long till that sun goes down? Because I highly doubt the few MREs I have on me will last both of us more than a day, and that's with rationing.”

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

“No, The Labyrinth is what we call the cave systems in which we live for the most part. Of course there’s more caves than we’ve explored, so we call it The Labyrinth for a reason I think should be obvious.” She explained. “We have roughly eight hours until the sun sets. But we aren’t going to be hunting anything until we reach The Labyrinth, unless you intend to kill and eat a Crawler.”

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic sighed and walked over to one of the benches, sitting down on it and rubbing his shoulder. "Eight hours?" He groaned. "So I assume you people are primarily nocturnal? Well, I guess I could be in worse company." Then he glanced around the room and sighed. "So, w\do we just sleep the day away or something?"

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

“When aboveground yes. But underground it’s hard to tell when it’s day or night, so domestically speaking we’re actually more of an all day type of people. But when up here, yes, we’re largely nocturnal.” She explained, “which is why we’re so pale.”

She gesture do to her face to demonstrate the very pale skin she had. “And unless you brought some cards with you, the number there isn’t much we can do aside from sleep.”

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic nodded at the comment for being so pale. "Thats understandable, although you managed to be more pale than me and I wear this armor all the time." He said, patting his chestplate. "But yeah, I forgot my holotapes back on tatooine, so I guess sleeping it is." He then laid back on the bench and placed his hands on top of his chest. "Wake me up in 8 hours, alright? I tend to sleep in if the sun isnt in my face."

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

She nodded, and laid her own head against the wall to sleep. As difficult as it was, it was possible to train oneself to sleep in a certain way for a certain time, usually generalized on the time scale. She had trained herself, or rather her drill instructor had trained her, to sleep forever hours and fifteen minutes on the dot, and to sleep lightly a that the sound of anything approaching would wake her. So she slept for that time, and woke up. Then occupied herself with maintaining her gear, checking her ammo, keeping her gun oiled and doing so quietly. When the eight and half our mark had passed, she had a digital clock on her left gauntlet, and it read 14:46, the sun should be down by then. She creeped to the hatch and put her hand against the steel, it was cold, a good sign. She opened the hatch and looked out, the twilight of sunset could be seen, the sun had gone down but still cast some light.

She said, “Leenic, hey, time to go.”

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic yawned loudly and placed a hand on his helmet visor, grumbling as he stood up. "Understood." He said, shuffling over to the ladder and climbing up, glancing around at the night-darkened desert around them. "Yeesh, this place looks more foreboding at night if I'm being honest." He said, kicking up some sand with his boot. "Where to now anyway? There a village nearby that you know of? Preferably one with a spaceport."

 

[Annrae Esspitt]

“There are no spaceports on this planet. The only group that might, might be capable of leaving the planet is going to be The Triarchy. And I highly doubt that they’d help you. As for a village, you could call it that.” She said leading the way. They walked westward, towards a far more craggy looking place a ways off. It was a bit of a low, barren mountain range.

It took two and a half hours of walking for them to arrive at the place where it seemed they were headed. In the craggy area, appropriately named The Cragg, they were a half mile in when they approached a cave, which Ann walked right into without hesitation, and she seemed not to be deterred by the dark or cold. It was three more hours of near constant decent into seemingly random paths and coming across numerous diversion points with four or five different ways one could go. After three hours of seemingly endless wandering, they came to what could be described as a village.

It was a vast cavern filled with activity. People were moving about, people with guns and some unarmed. Very few people wore more than what covered their assets, loincloths and kilts and chestwraps for the women. The only universal garment was shoes, usually being of some kind of thick, processed hide or animal skin. The homes were, of course, small caves and alcoves. “Here’s the village, I imagine that the Master of Arms will want to speak with you.”

 

[Leenic Ellsil]

Leenic trailed along next to Ann, noting that the Triarchy might have a way off the planet. "Looks like I'll be stealing another ship, I really need to buy my own." He commented, pulling off his vambraces, taking his gloves off, and rolling up his sleeves. Once he was satisfied with the air temperature, he put the vambraces back on over his bare forearms and adjusted his helmet.

During the walk, Leenic couldnt help but draw his saber and fiddle with it, igniting it every once in a while to make sure it still worked. Leenic hesitated when they got to the cave, but stepped inside of it after seeing Ann walk through without heistation. After walking to a while, he observed the village and raised an eyebrow at the choice of attire but, having seen much odder clothing while working for the crime bosses, didn't say anything about it. "Master at arms?" He asked. "Im just passing through, not looking to join your army."