Spacer trash in a Jungle

[Kaia Starchaser]

Always a lot of work to be done. The Outer Rim Coalition was a land that had a flourishing population of pilots, smugglers, and other fringers. Kaia refused to call them criminals, they weren’t. Just people who were given a strange hand of cards. She herself could have been a member of the Alliance, and if push came to shove would state that she was part of both, the Outer Rim and the Alliance, especially when it came to being compared to the First Order, or the worse, the Sith. Sure, maybe Kaia had a past with the Jedi, but with the fall of the Republic, and the New Jedi Order taking the majority of Jedi, she felt a bit out of sorts.

For her, it was about doing what was right, but not always being aggressive. But here, she was able to do a lot. There were targets that needed to be hit, people who were causing the disparity of wealth. And what she had found out were a few things. A hovertrain had been carrying a lot of data, tring to move it without it getting intercepted.

That didn’t work too well, Kaia and a few others like her, the so-called Spacer Trash of the Outer Rim, had broken into the train, and stolen part of a star map. And with he probe droid, and a few other contacts she had, she located the planet that was in question. It was out on the rim, between the Outer Rim Coalition’s space and the First Order. Some sort of temple, advanced technology, and a connection to an ancient Force Order. Really, a whole lot of hopeful information.

The trick was she knew it would need more than just her. That was why she had contacted the people who she knew could help. The self-proclaimed Spacer Trash. Her own ship, Pulsar had left from one of the nearby shadow ports, the one that she was resting at. She had given the option that they could fly with her, but knew that it wasn’t always going to go that way. The smugglers and fringers liked to have their ship with them.

Pulsar had landed and Kaia had unloaded a few of her swoops from the ship. It was going to be a bit deeper into the jungle until they got to the ruins. The map was uploaded into all the swoops , and Kaia was waiting to see who else was responding to her call, who else would be here to help. Especially after her droid, Drifter, reported several other lifeforms and ships nearby. It seemed that the people Kaia had stolen the data from had their own team heading out.

Before stepping to her swoop, she tied up her Nightstinger Rifle to the side of the bike, with her lightsaber and pistol on her hips. The dark haired Starchaser was all ready, but needed to clear her mind and make sure she was ready for the fight ahead.

OOC: Treasure hunt! Join on the unnamed world, jungle world. Going to a ruins with a technological bunker, and be ready to fight pirates and steal treasure! Tech and subs will be built based off what is developed (after the factory reopens!)

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

The StarDream settled onto the ground with a hiss of hydraulics and repulsors, before the boarding ramp lowered with a hiss of steam. Aeshi strode down the ramp with her pistols strapped to her side. They were heavy enough to punch through just about any armor. At least any armor that she’d ever encountered.

The organizer of the job had already arrived and parked her ship. One of the Starchaser clan. There was word of them enough that floated here and there through her social circles. She frowned at the sensor readings that she was picking up through her ship sensors. Others were coming their way.

“Company’s coming.”

She unbuckled the straps on her guns and loosened them from the holsters. The swoop hummed beneath her as she swung onto the seat. Her hand twisted on the accelerator and its engine thrummed. Her hands were itchy at the power in her grasp.

“What’s the distance to the target?”

She was feeling the danger begin to close in around them. They were in a race and the finish line was not too far away. Nor were their opponents. It’d be a tight finish, by any means. Gunfire would be exchanged, if she had any sense of the future.

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian didn't always wear a suit, although recently it seemed he never left home without one. Well home, or the vessel he happened to be flying in. Regardless he found himself in a brown leather jacket, armored of course with his own Deflex fabric, wearing a less luxurious that normal Chase Wilderness Chronometer. He looked over at [member="Kaia Starchaser"], really the only Starchaser he had much of a relationship with, and gave her a nod. He was on-board her ship as she wordlessly mounted her speeder bike. She was his kind of cousin, if a clone could have relatives and their initial meeting had been rather... well she confused him with Marek Starchaser his clone template and reacted poorly. Damian himself acted like a perfect gentleman of course. Okay so he acted like a brat. Whatever. Don't judge.

Mounting a speeder bike next to his kind-of-cousin Damian checked the blaster rifle at his side mounted on the speeder bike. Standard blaster rifle, nothing fancy about it. Multiple shots with moderate hitting power, would take more than one shot if they ran into larger creatures. That was an idea, a big game blaster rifle. . Something for taking down krayt dragons, plenty of rich folk liked the thrill of the hunt and shooting a large creature a hundred times to down it ruined the meat, not to mention the trophy He pondered getting Q-Branch to whip something up for him. In addition he had his pistol, and lightsaber should anything get too close for comfort.

"So do we have any other intel?" Damian said through a comlink to Kaia. "Or are we going in blind with just a location?"

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Aeshi Tillian"] | [member="Damian Starchaser"]​

The sound of heavy spacer boots descending down a landing ramp heralded the approach of Runi Verin, the salvager appearing a few seconds later guiding a battered looking swoop bike from beneath the ramshackle hull of the Boracyk. Her expression was decidedly ill-tempered as she brought up her free hand to shield her eyes from the sudden glare, no doubt remembering the last jungle misadventure she'd been unfortunate enough to be tangled up in. Of course, there were no Cartel thugs or rogue Mandalorian whackjobs lurking in the trees here. Nor any accursed, karking Vizslas. No, she'd traded that particular named brand of trouble for a whole different variety.

Verin grunted sourly and gave a vicious yank on the strap securing her supplies. Wholly unnecessary, sure, but oddly satisfying none the less. At least now she wouldn't have to concern herself with worrying about it flying off at the first sharp turn. The jungles of Rishi had taught her the value of being well prepared. A fact evidenced by the heavy, broad bladed beskad that jangled softly as she swung her leg over the bike. Between that, the akaa'gi tomahawk and ancient looking carbine-turned-blaster strapped to opposite thighs, the normally light geared salvager was clearly taking no chances on this particular temple bound romp through the foliage.

"Fierfek." It was official, she really was crazy to keep getting wrapped up in these little hairbrained, di'kutla schemes. She brought her hand up to the side of her ear, hitting the small comm bud to cut into the group channel. "I'm with pretty boy over there. I ain't exactly keen on lettin' anyone beat us to the punch, but runnin' in without a clue of whats ahead is jus' askin' for a whole world of trouble, 'lek?"

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

This was the type of stuff that Kaia loathed and loved. She was happy to be on a planet, but anytime she spent dirtside, she felt like she was betraying her upbringing. The girl did live on the “home ship” of the Dawn Treader for 18 years, with other children of the paramilitary survivalist group known as Warbird Wing. It helped, she knew what she was doing around a ship, and in space. But she also learned to scavenge and cobble things together to get them to work. But right now? No, she didn’t really need to. Her father had left her the company, and she had her ship, so there was always money coming in.

But sometimes adventure was needed. The dark haired Starchaser was grinning to herself. More had arrived, she recognized a few ships. Tillian’s, and of course she had picked up Damian, her uncle would kill her if he found out she was carrying on with him, and Verin’s ship. Still, that was enough to get moving. She knew it would be … fun, right? Of coruse it was, there was treasure!

“Well, we’ve got a few clicks. I know we’re not too far, but… talking isn’t going to get us moving.” She laughed when she thought of it all. That far on a planet? But there was no decent landing zone nearby. “And company just makes it fun!” Looking at Damian, she shrugged.

“I mean, there’s treasure. And ruins. Probably pirates, based on what my ship’s scans had shown.” She mounted her speederbike and kicked the repulsor online. “And probably some critters. So be careful, apparently explorer teams apparently had gone missing…” She should have lead with that.

“And Runi, it’ll be fiiiine.” Yes, she drew that word out. “I got my lightsaber, and a blaster.” And a case of the Starchaser hard-headedness. “So, come on!” She urged as she pushed the throttle forward.

[member="Runi Verin"]
[member="Damian Starchaser"]
[member="Aeshi Tillian"]

 

[Damian Starchaser]

Damian sighed. He liked Kaia, he really did but sometimes... well. "Alright," he said through coms gunning the speeder bike forward into the jungle. It would only take a little time to reach their destination. "Operation Dash in like lunatics is underway," Damian said not caring that his comms were still on.

While the young man wasn't too happy about the fact that there seemed to be no plan he had to admit that jetting about dodging trees was rather enjoyable. He might be a clone, but he was a Starchaser with speed in his veins just like all the others.

He gunned it, flying at the speeders maximum speed and allowing the force to take over. "We should stop half a kilometer before the objective, scout it out on foot. Its quieter that way." And safer. Less likely for someone to take a blaster bolt to the chest, on either side. Call it his old masters influence but Damian had been trying harder and harder to not simply shoot people. Then again with Kaia around he doubted he'd have the chance to try to talk or trick the pirates into leaving.....

[member="Runi Verin"] | [member="Aeshi Tillian"] | [member="Kaia Starchaser"]

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Kaia Starchaser"] | [member="Aeshi Tillian"] | [member="Damian Starchaser"]​

​

"An' just like that, all my worries are miraculously gone." Runi deadpanned in response as she flexed the throttle on her speeder, the engine thrumming out a muted roar as it sprung to life with surprising vigour. She didn't know what was worse. Kaia and her apparent lack of caution or the fact that she was still willing to go along with this little (mis)adventure. "Fierfek, sure. Why not? Let's do this 'fore my common sense kicks in an' I change my mind."

With that, she kicked off in pursuit of the rapidly departing pair, pushing her speeder to and beyond the recommend limits to keep them within an easy distance. Being left behind in an uncharted jungle like this was almost as bad as running in head first. At least with the latter she could take comfort in the fact her newfound companions were getting shot up just as much as she was.

"I see who got the brains in the Starchaser family. Pretty boy keeps on making good points." Runi called over the comms as she twisted around trees and wove beneath branches. A lot smoother than her last jaunt, but then she didn't have a catatonic Vizsla bleeding on her this time around. "These pirates know they're not the only ones with these coordinates, 'lek? If they're worth their engine grease, chances are they'll be stickin' up sensors an' autoturrents to pick off any fast inbound movement. Ain't no sense in playin' in to their hands. I dunno about you, but I got no pressing desire to die today."

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

“Safety?” Aeshi asked through the comms and kicked it to maximum. “That’s overrated.” Wind whipped her hair back as the speeder kicked forward. She sank into the Force and let it guide her. She hardly watched the surroundings around her, but let her instincts guide her. Trees blurred past.

She set an eye on her scanners. They were crawling with indistinct life forms. Animals for the most part, but there were machines as well. A limb stuck out ahead of her and she ducked. It whipped past her head.

“Speeders inbound. Handful. Three klicks out.”

The woman dropped a hand to her hip and pulled out one of the MT-14 pistols. This she held as she returned it to the handles. The gun lay easy in her hand.

“I can drop back to stop their pursuit. Or we going clear to the target.”

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Common sense? Psh. Kaia was a Starchaser. Sure, she and her father didn’t always see eye to eye, but she couldn’t deny her upbringing. She knew what she was supposed to do. Act first, think second. It was how the living Force kept everyone alive. And that was what they were going to do. They could keep an eye out for the pirates, but if they were not being expected? They could get the drop, find the goods and be off this rock quick.

“Sure, we can stop, they won’t be looking for us this far out.” She called to Damian and Runi. “And Runi, c’mon now. Its fun! No one would have left the homeworld if we were planning.” Granted Kaia wasn’t quite sure the attachment people had to home worlds, but Corellian blood did make her a bit of an adventurer, sails open and all.

Ducking the next set of branches, Kaia looked over her shoulder. “Behind us?” She fell into the Force and pushed her speeder forward. “We’ll deal with them… then follow Damian’s plan.”

She hated saying he was right.

[member="Aeshi Tillian"]
[member="Runi Verin"]
[member="Damian Starchaser"]