Ssi-Ruuvi Remnants [Unknown Regions, 244Core]

[Soeht]

Not even a year had passed since the Lords of the Fringe conquered Lwhekk. After that, the privileged Ssi-ruuk had fled from their home-world and sought sanctuary somewhere else. Their unique religion posed an issue in that any Ssi-ruuk that died off-world would lose their soul to the void. The objectives of the exiled Ssi-ruuk were to obtain a new home as soon as possible. As nomads, their travels eventually brought them to 244Core.

Despite being a relatively bleak planet, 244Core was deemed as a strategically important planet by the Republic. The resources within the planet were seemingly endless. Fortunately for the Republic, the corporations that controlled the planet were driven by profit and credit-signs. This allowed for the Republic to trade with the companies without inhibition.

Yet with the arrival of the Ssi-ruuk wanderers, the flow of trade was disrupted. The Ssi-ruuk used the mostly uninhabited lands of 244Core to hide and harass the mining facilities. It could have been assumed that the Ssi-ruuk planned to leech the raw materials of the planet from the corporations.

Desiring to secure its interests in the Unknown Regions, the Republic sought to provide aid to 244Core. Not knowing the full extent of power that the Ssi-Ruuk held, the Republic managed to convince the Jedi Order to send a small investigation team in order to assess the situation. Daella Apparine had been assigned to travel with Master Iksav, a Cerean woman at the age of nearly sixty standard years, to 244Core and provide support as well as learn from the experienced Jedi Sentinel.

Upon arrival in 244Core's orbit, the Jedi's ship passed by Skyscan 6. While the ancient space station was mostly for monitoring astral objects and shipping patterns, it provided the ability for those with weak physical constitutions to do business with 244Core's companies without experiencing the full effect of the planet's heavy gravity.

The shuttle eventually entered 244Core's atmosphere - passing by several major mining facilities such as Eeokko as well as Relaali. Daella sat near the back. She had traveled with three other Jedi besides Master Iksav. One could have considered the three to be excellent, experienced Sentinels as well and were experienced with investigation missions such as this. Yet, neither Master Iksav nor her three comrades understood exactly what type of danger the Ssi-ruuk would pose. It had been centuries and a dark age since the Republic had to deal with these beings.

It had not been more than thirty minutes in 244Core air that the Jedi's shuttle came under attack by ground anti-aircraft fire. Master Iksav had sensed the attack just moments before it happened, yet it was too late by then. The shuttle had been struck and had to make a ditch landing. Luckily, the durasteel frame of the vessel managed to hold and spare its passengers.

--------​

With such a sudden attack, Daella had just barely enough time to brace herself for impact. Upon the completion of the impromptu landing, Daella got up and headed to the door. At first, it seemed as if the young Jedi had difficulty standing. The gravity on 244Core was noticeably stronger than that on planets such as Coruscant. Still, Daella managed to make her way to the shuttle door with a relatively slower pace than usual.

Upon exiting the spacecraft, Master Iksev, her three Jedi comrades, and the pilot emerged one by one at their own pace. The pilot had assessed where they landed while the Jedi attempted to sense whether or not there were any beings nearby. It was determined that they were several kilometers away from a small mining camp and the Jedi claimed that they did not sense any other beings nearby.

As the adults attempted to discuss their next plan of action, Daella kept looking out toward the horizon with her head scanning the landscape back and forth. The area was littered with rocks and hills that obscured vision past a quarter of a mile. Large trenches due to mining dotted the area and would have provided excellent approaches for those that wished to remain out of sight. Rusted mining equipment and vehicles could been seen scattered sparingly around.

Iksev approached the girl and calmly asked, "You can rest now, child."

Daella silently turned her head to her left in order to just barely see Iksev. The girl bore a rather stoic face.

"We're not far from a camp," informed Iksev.

The blue eyes of the Padawan looked back toward the three Jedi and pilot. They toiled with a datapad and attempted to plot a route to the nearby mining camp.

Yet just a moment after Iksev's attempt to reassure Daella, she drew a green lightsaber without hesitation and shoved Daella behind her. She quickly assumed a battle stance and shouted, "Company!"

The three Jedi and pilot looked up and toward Iksev. Immediately, they also armed themselves. The Jedi sported a mix of blue and green lightsabers while the pilot drew a blaster pistol. The each bore narrowed eyes and slightly ajar mouths in a look of shock and surprise.

Turning toward what Iksev saw, Daella's eyes simply widened to see the sight of two crimson Ssi-ruuk glaring at the party. They stood at the edge of one of the trench and had most likely approached the group under its cover. They reached the group without being sensed by any of the Jedi - or at least without any of them voicing it. Both Ssi-ruuk held metal paddle-like objects in their left claws - ion paddle beamers.

After a quick glance at each other, the Ssi-ruuk gave quick whistles and tweets to each other - presumably to communicate something. Without a word, Daella took her training saber from her hilt. It remained unactivated, though.

The following confrontation only took seconds to be decided.

Just several meters away from Iksev, the Ssi-ruuvi warriors fired their paddle beamers at the the Jedi Master. Iksev braced herself to deflect the beams with her lightsaber. She skillfully moved her lightsaber in front of the ion beams. Yet, both shots bent around the lightsaber just moments before they should have impacted it. Just a split second later, the projectiles struck Iksev's chest. Immediately, Iksev's lightsaber deactivated as it fell from her hand. Her body dropped to the ground with a loud thud and crack - with Iksev unconscious.

The pilot pulled the trigger to his blaster pistol and shot at one of the Ssi-ruu. He struck the right arm of one, yet the other ran forward and fired the paddle beamer. This time, the beam struck the pilot's head. The body of the pilot fell to the ground, just as Iksev did. His heart never managed to beat again, though.

The three Jedi began to charge for the Ssi-ruuk. Their bodies seemed heavy and slow. Daella turned away from them and began to run. A beam brushed Daella's right arm, and she instantly dropped her deactivated training saber. The girl continued to awkwardly run with her right arm, numb and limp, swinging at her side.

Before the Ssi-ruuk could fire again at Daella, the three Jedi Sentinnels caught their attention as they got closer. The pair managed to strike two of the Jedi with quick shots and incapacitating them. The third Jedi managed to get close enough to slice off the left forearm of the Ssi-ruu that had his right arm grazed by the pilot's blaster. Yet, the Ssi-ruu's partner managed to fire off a bolt at the Jedi and incapacitate him as well before he could land the killing strike.

Having witnessed this, Daella continued to flee. A winding trench stretched out before her. Turning her focus completely before her, Daella look a step off the ledge and slid down the slope of the trench - managing to reach the bottom without losing her feet. Once she got on relatively level ground, Daella continued to run away and toward the mining camp that the party had mentioned earlier.

The Ssi-ruuk did not fire at Daella nor pursue. She had managed to get out of range of their paddle beamers. They remained with the bodies of those they shot with the intent to collect them and take them to their base of operations on 244Core.

Meanwhile, Daella continued to run despite there being no sign of her pursuers. She seemed to not be willing to stop until she reached the mining facility.

@[member="Ashin Varanin"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

244Core ranked among Ashin's least favorite Unknown Regions planets, and that said something considering she'd walked the quiet streets of Mugg Fallow and climbed the Spires of Hell. Even as a girl, a Jedi Padawan and then a Knight running around this region, she had disliked the prospect of corporations stripping a world to its bones over the course of centuries. Now that she'd seen life from another side, corporate avarice fell into the same category as Ssi-Ruuvi savagery, Jedi sins or Sith weakness of character.

Proper subjects for contempt, but not for surprise.

In two days' time, the Lords of the Fringe would liberate this world. The Chrysalide-class battlecruiser Astral Horizon under Lord Admiral Dranok Lussk would dive into swarms of Ssi-Ruuvi battle droids, its hundreds of flak guns turning the miniature starfighters to shrapnel. Millions of enteched souls would be set free. She had foreseen it, and the visions lingered as she adjusted the signals intercept gear she'd carted into the mining facility in a bulk freighter. It had taken nearly the whole freighter, too, because what she'd brought was a fully operational Ranger transceiver, the same kind her Permanence-class battleships mounted. The machine and its staff offered SIGINT collection capability across the entire subspace frequency, deconstructing and decoding and translating everything within a hundred light-years. A crypt crew worked hand in hand with translation droids. The mining facility was currently anything but.

And though the Ranger transceiver gave her staff the big picture, it also tapped in nicely to squad-level communications between Ssi-Ruuvi forces.

"Jedi," said the translation droid, among other things.

***​

A speeder skiff whirred across old mines. Her lightsabre, she'd stowed under her chair. A Corpsegrinder heavy blaster pistol on each hip -- that's all she carried as the non-Force-user Grand Admiral Shira Karrde, she of the battered spacer vest and cargo skiff piloting skills. She was not the greatest Sense user in history, but a Padawan in battle's aftermath was relatively easy to find. The cargo skiff skidded over a ridge and into a turn, and she kept pace beside the running @[member="Daella Apparine"].

"Need a lift, kid? How far back're the whistlers?"

 

[Soeht]

Without stopping, Daella continued to run toward the mining camp in the distance. She had yet to spot it even as she emerged from a trench. The landscape still did not provide a clear view for too long.

This allowed for Ashin to approach Daella on her speeder skiff without being spotted. As soon as it turned up next to Daella, the young Padawan looked up with wide eyes toward the woman. Her gait would have seemed awkward as she ran with a limp right arm.

Once Ashin offered a ride, Daella leaped toward the skiff and grabbed onto it with her left arm. She awkwardly pulled herself up onto the speeder and tumbled onto the floor. For possibly a minute, she panted on her back with heavy breaths. She clutched her white hoody just above her chest with her left hand.

When her breathing began to slow, Daella pushed herself up into a sitting position. Turning toward where she ran from, Daella silently pointed forward and toward the horizon.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

@[member="Daella Apparine"]

The skiff's path swerved a little as the girl in the hoodie tumbled onto the deck. Te whole top of the thing was flat, save for the control panel and Ashin's chair. She adjusted course to match Daella's outstretched arm.

"Yeah, I had the vector. 'How far' isn't a -- eh, never mind, I can triangulate." She rerouted her comm control through the Ranger transceiver back at the repossessed mining base, and the SIGINT crew used her as a relay point, then fed her the results. "Looks like that whistler squad is moving fast, back towards their main lines. Not gonna lie, kid, we may not catch up in time."

The wasted landscape blurred past, and she squinted, enhancing her sight with the Force. An old Jedi trick, that, but she'd been a Jedi Knight long before Daella got to that point in her training -- who knew if the curriculum was the same. Standardization had been nothing more than a gleam in Teferi's eye back then. She blinked away the enhanced vision after a minute. "Yeah," she said at last, "they'll get to the outer sentry line before we catch them. We can punch through, maybe, but we won't have long before the second line dogpiles us. Your call. Go for broke?"

 

[Soeht]

As @[member="Ashin Varanin"] spoke, Daella kept her eyes on the horizon toward the Ssi-Ruuk. Her bun threatened to come undone as the wind tugged on her hair. A thin blonde veil draped itself over her eyes - surely obscuring some of her vision.

Once Ashin mentioned the possibility of attacking the Ssi-Ruuk despite the odds, Daella sharply turned her head back to the woman with wide eyes of shock. She kept that gaze for several long seconds.

Then, Daella pressed her left hand upon the skiff. She slowly righted herself and stood on two legs. As the vehicle continued to move, Daella wobbled back and forth as she continued to maintain her footing. Her eyes drifted away from Ashin toward her legs during this ordeal.

When Daella reached an upright position, she looked to her right arm - which had been numbed by the Ssi-Ruuk earlier. Turning away, her right arm twitched once and then straightened herself. Her face winced for a moment as if the feeling in her arm suddenly returned.

Upon relaxing her arm, Daella returned her focus to Ashin and gave the woman a stern gaze. With an affirmative nod, Daella replied, “Yes.”