Shadows of Kashyyyk (Shamira)

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
Realising that she’d inadvertently caused some distress, Tempest winced. However, she didn’t immediately go after Shamira. Sometimes it was better to let someone have some time before going in.

Therefore she tidied up and then headed to where she could sense her student. From the doorway she looked in, finally speaking.
“I’m sorry if I upset you, Shamira. I didn’t mean to. Is there anything I can do to help?”

There probably wasn’t, but it was nice to ask. She wanted to make sure her Apprentice had all the support she could give her.

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]

Shamira had found herself walking towards the back of the freighter, to the tiny observation station. She sat up against the window, watching the stars speed by in hyperspeed, trying to calm her racing heart. Speaking of hurtful past times certainly brought up repressed feelings of sadness, shooting through her with reckless abandon. She was supposed to be stronger than this. She had made her decision, she should have the courage to deal with it. But it had been months, and every time Shamira’s mind had crossed that day, it hit her hard, like she was being stabbed in the heart again and again.
At least staring at the stars calmed her. The streaks were consistent, never changing, and just overall had a very calming effect. She had been sitting there for a few minutes now, and the tears had dried. Now, all it felt like was there was a hanging cloud over her head. No tears, but a distinct feeling of sadness.
The togruta smiled lightly as she turned, watching the white-haired mistress enter the room. Shaking her head, her gaze returned to the stars. “No, you didn’t say anything Tempest. It’s just..sensitive. Really bad memories of that day. I know it was the right thing to do for me, and I have no ill feelings towards most of the order.” A heavy sigh was pulled from her lips as her gaze fell down to the floor. “I don’t know. I really just don’t know.”

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
Tempest patted her on the shoulder. “If you need to discuss it, I’m always here, Shamira. I know though that some things just need time to process properly.”

She stepped back. “I won’t crowd you though if you don’t want me to though.”

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


Shamira leaned into the woman’s touch slightly, enjoying the feeling and sound of Tempest’s comforting voice. It certainly had a calming effect on her, and she could feel the cloud of pain and sorrow dissipating with the dark skinned woman near her.
Looking back to her mistress, Shamira shook her head, montrals swinging lightly. “I don’t want you to leave. I feel a lot better when you are here, if I have to be honest with you.” The Togruta gave a small smile before leaning back against windowsill, eyes turning back to the stars. “Like I said, its just a sensitive subject.” A heavy sigh was pulled from her lips as she looked back to Tempest. “It does feel better, a small bit, to talk about it.”

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
“When this mission is done, we can talk more about this if you’d like. I don’t think we’ll make everything better all at once, but every step forward is worth it.”
Giving the girl another pat on the shoulder, she turned for the door. “For now though, we’ve got work to do. We’ll be reverting in an hour.”

An hour later the ship broke from hyperspace, moving towards the green orb of Kashyyyk.
“Shamira, you want to join me up here?” she called into the ship intercom.

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


Shamria was kicked back, enjoying some well needed rest on the couch, when the voice came over the intercom. Quickly hopping off the couch, she pulled on her maroon, leather boots and rushed up to the control room, scooting herself quickly into the copilot seat.
The world in front of them was an extremely lush green, almost putting of an aqua green glow. It certainly was pretty enough, though there wasn’t much air traffic as the pair’s freighter began to head towards the surface. Looking over to Tempest with a raised brow, Shamira questioned where exactly they’d be going. “Mistress, where is the meeting taking place? There doesn’t seem to be many major cities or big villages, at least not big enough to generate a lot of traffic.”

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
There were precious few ships around, though there were some. It made navigating quite simple.
“The wookiees incorporate technology into nature. They live at one with nature and in mainly scattered communities. It’s similar to how my homeworld was before the invaders came.” She was silent for a moment before moving on without elaboration.

“We’re heading to the village of Wachirooa. It’s not big by galactic standards, but it is an important place for trade. Several guilds and other offworld groups have set up trade areas there.”

There was no formal tower arrangement, and as they came in to land they simply chose one of the unoccupied landing pads.
As they descended below the treetops the bright day was turned into a sun-speckled twilight. They could see the blue of the sky above, but the sun had not risen enough to shine down on this landing pad.

“I hope you don’t mind heights. If you do…don’t look over the side.” Their landing pad had only a basic, waist high barrier which did nothing to hide the fact that they were on a landing pad attached to the side of a massive tree and that below…. It was best not to look.

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


Shamira really should have found time to scout the planet, or at least learned about the culture, cities, small things so that she wasn’t so clueless going into the mission. Because of this, the togruta nodded attentively as Tempest described the landing pad and the city, Wachirooa, and how they were hubs for trade.
The integration of materials into the daily lives of the Wookies, and how they built their cities in the trees, were certainly the most interesting bits. The latter was shown off as the ship slowly lowered onto an open landing platform, high above the trees. It was still twilight, and the sun had not yet fully risen to give it’s yellow color to the world around them, yet the trees were alive with lively colored greens and browns.
At hearing the warning from Tempest, Shamira nodded and smiled nervously. She wasn’t typically scared of heights, having grown up climbing through the forests of Shili, but on their decent she had seen the distance to the ground from the landing pad. It certainly was something to be cautious of.
The initiate hopped from her chair, pulling the survival pack from the floor onto her back, and started towards the exit, knowing that Tempest would be right behind her, and would be wanting to get going as to not be late for their meeting.

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
As they descended down the platform they came into the more occupied areas. It was here that they’d start to see wookiees, sometimes in ones and twos, but sometimes in large groups. Humans and other sentients were also visible.

At the foot of the platform, a huge and shaggy wookiee with a bowcaster blocked their path. He growled an inquiry.
Tempest handed Shamira an earpiece and put one in herself.
“I am Mistress Tempest of the Order of Fire and this is my Apprentice Shamira. We have an appointment with Chief Makrrora to conduct trade,” she said politely. She offered a datapad.
The guard looked it over, manipulating the datapad with surprising dexterity considering the size of his hands. Finally he handed it back.
“Follow me, do not deviate.” The voice came through a half second after the growls through the earpiece which was a translator.
“Thank you, lead the way,” Tempest said with a slight bow.

As they followed behind Tempest leaned closer to Shamira. “Mind what you say. Wookiees are good hearted but they do not take surprises or insults well at all.”
They were heading into a tree village, where every massive tree had a house built around it and platforms and boardwalks linked every such area together.

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]

The very first thing Shamira saw as she walked off the ship was the massive, close to seven foot tall wookie standing near the bottom of the ramp, with an impressive looking bowcaster in his hands. His growl was just as intimidating as his massive size, and the togruta’s first reaction was an involuntary swallow, biting her lip nervously. She could practically swear that he got taller as they walked closer, as she could easily feel herself craning her neck upwards to see the shaggy haired aliens face.
It growled something that vaguely sounded question-like, though Shamira could not tell if it was a question, or a greeting. Turning her head, she saw Tempest with a translator in hand. Nodding thankfully, she placed it on the side of her left lekku, as if it was the most normal thing in the galaxy.
It worked perfectly, and the wookies response was translated in the computer generated, monotone voice that did the series of growls no justice. Shamira made a mental note to learn Shyriiwook some in case they met wookies at any point.
The pair began to follow the shaggy beast, who had failed to give a name, through the wooden villages high in the trees. Wookies and sentients milled around the market, and the togruta felt hard pressed to not leave her mistress’s side, half wanting to go explore the market and maybe buy a trinket or two. If the wookies took credits, of course.

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
When Tempest saw her apprentice holding the translator to her ear she frowned. Togruta didn’t have ears? That was…curious. Obviously they could hear but she’d never really considered it before.
Score one for cultural ignorance. She wondered if she should offer some tape…but decided that’d be even worse!

Sensing her Apprentice’s curiosity she spoke. “We’ll get a chance to look for items afterwards. They take Silver Jedi, Alliance or Free World credits here.”

The largest of the houses sat in a central platform boarded by a ring of trees which supported the boardwalk. This building was large and was unusually made of metal in parts. Heavily armed wookiees guarded the doors.
Their escort dropped them off and they were led inside.

Inside this building, more a hall than a true chieftain’s residence, several large vaults were placed. Wookiees, humans and others were negotiating fiercely at benches all across one side of the room.

One particularly large and shaggy wookiee with much black fur was standing to one side.
“That’s Makrrora. We’re trading him technology, weapons and other gear in return for hard wood, healing plants and components and toxins from the animals here. And credits of course.”

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


Shamira turned and grinned widely up at Tempest, nodding happily at the opportunity to shop around the market. From what she could see there was plenty of interesting things she could buy, and the fact they took credits certainly made it viable to even be able to buy anything from the Wookies.
The building the tall wookie lead them to looked much like a massive meeting area. Her gaze shifted from the alien that was leading them to the side rooms, where wookies and sentients, and sometimes other wookies argued loudly over their trades. Some were much calmer than others, with one room housing what looked to be a regal human talking to a black wookie. They both drank some alcoholic drink calmly, much different than the room next to them, where a chair had ended up across the table, and the brown furred wookie made some extremely threatening movements towards a very scared looking rodian.
Her eyes turned from the rooms once Tempest pointed out the wookie they would be trading with. She raised an eyebrow as they approached, then spoke low enough for no one near them to hear, but her mistress. “Is he…nice? Or like,” Motioning behind them, to the room with the rodian and wookie, where armed guards were now rushing the room. “Like that.”

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
Tempest offered a slight smile. “Both…depending on how things go,” she said, in a not very reassuring way.

For this interaction, they fortunately had a protocol droid present. Unfortunately, the droid had several large dents on its casing, as if massive fists had beaten on it at some point….

“Chieftain Makrrora welcomes you to Kashyyyk and is excited to do business with you.”
It was a unique situation of course because the Wookiee could perfectly understand Basic, but simply lacked the ability to make the necessary sounds. Thus, he gave the protocol droid a sidelong look.
“Thank you for your welcome, Chief Makrrora. As discussed we have brought the items to trade.”
The Wookiee grunted something. The translating droid’s reply was noticeably longer and less terse than the actual noise.
“Chieftain Makrrora thanks you and bids me tell you that the items agreed upon are also ready for the exchange. If you are ready he will organise the cargo and we will perform the exchange at the landing pad.”
Tempest nodded. “Sounds good, we’ll meet you there.”

As they stepped outside Tempest paused. Something…was wrong.
“Do you feel that?” she asked Shamira. There was a warning in the Force, but not immediate. It was more a dark cloud encroaching.

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


Tempest’s response did little to nothing to reassure Shamira in the Wookie’s hospitality. When she saw the protocol droid making its way towards them, her smile brightened momentarily, until she saw the punch holes on it’s body. Obviously, something very big, and very powerful had taken its frustration out on the poor thing. Her eyes flicked to the chieftain that they would be training with, silently wondering if it was the source of the droid’s dents.
Shamria said nothing when Tempest greeting the wookie, only bowing her head and keeping her nervous smile straight on her face. She figured as long as she didn’t say anything, there was no way she could anger the massive walking carpet.
Once the meeting had concluded, and the pair had walked outside to make their way back to the landing pad to begin the exchange, Shamira couldn’t help but feel a cold feeling wash over her. As if something dark had just popped up, even if the sun was starting to rise over the horizon, bathing all the tree’s in it’s warm light.
Turning to her taller mistress, the togruta nodded heartily, making it known that she felt the troubling presence as well. “It’s…cold. Dark. Unwelcoming.” Her eyes turned back forward, trying not to let the feeling bother her too much. They were almost done here. Perhaps it was just her nervousness with the massive wookie warriors that were eyeing them as the pair walked.

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
Perhaps the Wookiees picked up on their tenseness, perhaps they sensed something, because suddenly they were urging them along quicker and quicker. The sled of commodities being driven by repulsorlift moved almost too quickly for the humans to walk alongside.

“What’s going on?” Tempest asked Makrrora.
“Bad wind,” the Wookiee growled. The translation seemed to be literal and missing some sort of cultural nuance. Unfortunately the droid had been left behind in the rush.

Tempest by then had arrived at the platform with their ship. She did not go to open the ship though as she was still scanning the sky.
“Shamira, what do you hear?” she asked.
Reaching into the Force she let herself flow out to the wind, let stray breeze carry the sound of…engines. Faint, buzzing like gnats.

Suddenly Makrrora bellowed. “Enemies! To arms!”

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


Shamira hurried along, going as far as to jog now, doing her best to keep up with the massive wookies and her mistress. The feeling was growing stronger, closer, darker. When she heard what the wookie chieftain said, her brows furrowed, hand idelly moving closer to her lightsaber as the group finally approached their destination of the ship landing pad.
While her mistress scanned the sky, no doubt trying to find the source of whatever was coming to them, essentially watching the group’s back. Because of this, Shamira practically sprinted to their freighter, pressing a few buttons on the outside to lower the ramp so the contents of the cart could be unloaded quickly.
Before they got the chance, the buzzing came. What sounded like gnats on the horizon was slowly growing louder and louder, putting Shamira into a trance to attempt to figure out their origin. The bellowing cry of Makrroa shocked her out of it, immediately prompting her to pull her lightsaber from her hip. Lightsaber in one hand, and translator in the other, the initiate sprinted over to her mistress near the edge of the platform. “Mistress! We should go!”

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
“Shamira, get down now!” Tempest called in alarm. She rushed forward to help, but the enemy were upon them!

Flying in low a gunship pivoted above them, and at the door was a snarling alien with a very large minigun.

Tempest dived forward, pulling Shamira behind the crate of Wookie produces before the gun opened up. Fortunately the durasteel containers and their contents proved bulletproof.

Perhaps realising that, the gunner opened fire on the wookiees who had assembled, killing several and driving the rest back.

As the gunship dropped low mercenaries dropped out and began to advance. They were between them and their ship, blocking their escape, clearly wanting to steal the ship for their own use.

Tempest pulled out her sabre but did not activate it yet. “You ever fought in a battle before, Sha?” she asked, a grim smile on her lips. Was she enjoying herself?

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


The buzzing had grown so close, the Togruta could actually see what was making the noise. It seemed to be some sort of alien gunship, followed by a pair more flying slightly behind them. The leading gunship flew low, the side door suddenly sliding open to reveal a large minigun spinning up. The sight frozen her momentarily, enough time for the minigun to point directly at her.
Her arm was suddenly grabbed, and the padawan was pulled behind the durosteel crates, lasers biting into the wood where she had stood only seconds before. Turning, she saw Tempest had been the one to pull her to safety, and she nodded a quick thank you before her attention turned back to the gunship.
Fists clenched tightly as she watched lasers hit the wookies, sending a few sprawling, bleeding, no longer breathing, to the wood floor. Forcing herself to stay still was the harder part. No longer to the chieftan, and she muttered a small prayer that he had gotten away.
Looking back to Tempest, who now had her lightsaber out, but not ignited. Pulling her saber from her belt, Shamira shook her head, admitting with a small twinge of nervousness in her voice. “No…though I have experience dueling. But nothing like this.” She frowned, peering around the crates to see the aliens advancing on their position.

 

[Tempest]

[member="Shamira Karuto"]
Tempest smiled slightly. “Alright, stay low and cover me. Aim at that gunship. Just keep that gunner off my case for a moment,” she said, passing Shamira a blaster pistol.

The orange blade of her lightsabre ignited as she stepped out, relying on Shamira to distract and even deal with the gunner.

“She’s a Jedi, blast her!” one of the mercs shouted. They spread out to try and envelop her, preparing to use grenades and multiple angles to attack her.

Tempest though was no Jedi. She didn’t have her armour so simply charging was not an option. However, she did have the Force, and a mighty weapon it was. A blast of telekinetic power staggered several of them, even sending one to a long tumble into the abyss below. Then, lightsabre deflecting bolts, she leapt with the Force, coming down to cut down several with clean, precise blows. Here was Form V in action as she expertly defended and then countered.
However, even without the lightsabre she had power, and a blast of lightning consumed a mercenary. The last came at her, trying to stab her from behind, but sheathing her hand in a telekinetic glove her fist broke the man’s jaw and her orange blade parried the blade, following up with a stab to the heart.

Having seen that the minigun hadn’t targeted her, she turned to see how Shamira was faring.

 

[Shamira Karuto]

[member="Tempest"]


A ‘wait!’ was caught in Shamira’s throat when Tempest handed her a blaster pistol and headed into the battle without another word. Her eyes glanced down at the pistol, then back around the corner of the boxes to the hovering gunship. Biting her lip, the beginnings of a plan started to form in her mind as she began to slink back behind the boxes and slowly lift one in the air in a force grip.
Darting from behind the stack of crates, while lifting the medium sized durosteel box in front of her, Shamira slowly advanced forward towards the hovering gunship. She could feel the solid thunks as lasers bore into the crate with the minigunner obviously focused on the little togruta more so than the mistress effectively cutting down their troops.
When she was a little over a few meters from the edge of the platform, Shamira slowly sucked in a deep breath, preparing herself for the next part. The gunner had stopped firing at her, obviously perplexed at what she was doing. Coiling back her left shoulder and arm, they suddenly shot forward to shoot the box forward. The heavy durosteel box slammed into the minigun and the mercenary, throwing him and the now detached minigun through the open door on the other side of the ship.
Shamira turned back to Tempest, grinning widely, and giving a little thumbs up to signal she was alright.