First Reply Stranded

[Aiden Porte]

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The ship jolted, the console flickering in fits of static light as alarms began to blare through the cockpit. Jedi Knight Aiden Porte steadied himself, one hand gripping the co-pilot's chair as the other swept over the readouts. Coolant pressure, dropping. Fuel regulators, offline. The hum of the hyperdrive had long since faded into a low, grinding sputter, and now even the sublight thrusters were giving up their last.

"Not now…" he muttered under his breath, feeling the faint tremor in the controls as if the vessel were gasping for air. Mygeeto's frozen sphere loomed beneath him, shrouded in jagged storms of glittering ice that caught the light of its distant sun. He didn't need a readout to know how inhospitable the world was—its very presence in the Force was brittle and cold, full of echoes of ancient battles and buried greed.

He guided the failing ship down through the haze, angling toward a narrow stretch of broken terrain between the crystalline spires. The hull groaned as atmospheric drag took hold, sparks tracing along the viewport as the ship fought gravity's pull. Aiden reached into the Force, steadying his breath, feeling the ship as an extension of himself. Not resisting—just guiding, easing it down.

The landing was rough. The repulsorlifts coughed once, twice, and died entirely, leaving the freighter to crunch down onto a bed of frost and shattered crystal. Silence followed. Steam coiled from the vents, hissing softly in the cold.

For a long moment, Aiden sat still. The only sound was the faint ping of cooling metal. His reflection stared back from the frost-rimmed viewport, calm, but weary. Bastion had not been easy. Nor had what he'd seen there.

He unclipped his harness, rose, and reached for his cloak. The ramp opened to a wall of icy wind that bit through fabric and breath alike. Snow swept across a wasteland of fractured glass and pale blue mist. Yet even here, beneath the layers of cold and the distant hum of long-dead machinery, he could feel life. Faint. Hidden. Flickering at the edges.

He took a slow step forward, boots crunching on the frost. The Force stirred, an echo, a presence. Not darkness, not fully, but something. Watching.

Aiden exhaled, his breath a thin mist before him.

"Guess we won't be alone after all." he murmured, drawing his hood up as the wind howled around him.

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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She hadn't planned to be on Mygeeto for more than a couple days. It was supposed to be a quick hunt, like they all usually were. She had been here now for nearing a week. The cold had started to seep into her ship, despite the heat being on. She woke every morning with a scratchy throat and no matter how much she tossed at night she wasn't able to catch the warmth. It had been miserable, but she was no amateur, she promised the bounty delivered and she would fulfill that promise. Even if she felt like she was close to frostbite.

She knew it had to be anytime now that her mark would make it down, just as told by her informant. Or so he had better hoped, because if that Hutt tried to pull one over on her, she would make him pay. After she got the chill off her bones that was. No, she couldn't think like that. He was supposed to be there anytime now, his ship was going to land down in the ravine below. "Damn Hutts." She cursed, watching the steam from her breath dissipate in front of her.

Just as she was about to give up hope, the background sensor on her ship started beeping. Its green lights cutting through the otherwise dark ship. "Gods I love the Hutts!" She exclaimed while jumping up and running over to match the signatures of the ships....and viola! They're- different?! She realized this was a different ship, not the one she was after, and it appeared to be crash landing nearby. She could see the smoke plume in the distance as the landing happened. She could tell by the lack of explosion that it wasn't a total failure of a landing, still, whomever this was would be cutting into her hunt if they didn't get a move on soon.

Stirring from her little nest she had built in her cabin, Juniper donned her winter gear, a fur lined leather ensemble, equipped with wampa leather boots. She begrudgingly left the cold but quiet confines of her ship and exited into the whirling storm that waited outside. She had Misch stay aboard, keeping the bed warm for her. He didn't like the snow anyways, smart thing. Onward she went, deeper into the white until everything became a haze of snow and crystals reaching out forever. It was not ideal weather by any means, but luckily her positioning device was working and telling her which way to go toward the ship.

As she approached a crystaline peak nearby, she ducked low. The crystals were good for more than reflecting light, they also helped echo the Force and the effects of it, and she quickly got a whiff of the Jedi's scent. That wasn't apart of her contract, she was here to kill a Bothan investigator named Boaz, not kill a Jedi. She realized that if he were a Jedi worth his weight in salt, he would have picked up on her scent as well. So she stayed back for a moment, ducking behind the crystals and using the wall of snow as cover.

Just beyond, Aiden Porte waded further into the winding storm.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Juniper Le Fey
​

The snow thickened as Aiden pressed on, his cloak heavy with frost, each step sinking into the crystalline crust beneath his boots. The air here felt charged not alive, precisely, but resonant, as though every breath carried a memory. He passed between narrow spires of ice that caught what little light there was and fractured it into shards of pale color. For all its cold indifference, Mygeeto held a strange beauty in its stillness.

He paused, turning slightly. The wind shifted, carrying something faint not sound, but a ripple through the Force. A flicker of thought, sharp and guarded. The kind born of instinct honed by danger.

Aiden let his eyes close for a heartbeat, centering his focus. The presence wasn't darkness, not truly. But it wasn't peace either. A steady pulse of tension beneath the blizzard's static.

Someone's watching.

He drew his hood tighter and turned his path toward a ridge where the snow broke against a jagged line of crystal. His breath misted as he murmured under it, half to himself, half to the wind,

"Come on then… let's see who fate's brought into this storm."

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Juniper's boots stuck against the frozen mountainside as she climbed the crystalline slope. She was nimble, sure, but slippery, icy things were not her favorite. Still, she needed a better vantage if she was going to assess the situation and stay out of view. When she finally reached a higher ledge near the cliffside, she jumped down quietly and rolled into cover behind a jagged outcropping of crystal.

Once she was sure the Jedi had looked away- if he'd even seen her at all, Juniper drew her hood closer around her face, hoping to blend into the pale wash of snow and stone. She raised her macrobinoculars, glass catching a faint reflection of pink from the runes hidden beneath her coat. Through the storm she spotted him: the Jedi, trudging forward through the gale. She wondered if he actually knew where he was headed or if he was wandering on instinct alone, chasing a direction the Force had whispered.

Either way, he needed to move along. Her target's ship would be coming down soon, and she couldn't have a stray Jedi in the way when it did. She moved again, descending the structure as swiftly as she had climbed it. Her body flowed easily across the ice, every shift of weight deliberate, never lingering on one ledge long enough to slip. She knew the Jedi would probably spot her now, but honestly, she didn't care. He wasn't armed for a fight, not visibly, and she wasn't looking for one either. Not yet.

When Aiden Porte turned his attention fully toward her, he would see all six feet of Juniper cutting a smooth path through the snow. Her head was lowered against the wind, cloak whipping behind her, but there was nothing frantic about the motion, controlled speed, the kind that said she'd done this before. She carried no visible weapon, though they both knew that meant nothing.

As she closed the gap, her deep spicefire gaze lifted to meet the Jedi's. She stopped a few paces short, snow swirling between them, the storm catching the hem of her robe and twisting it around her like smoke. She didn't break his stare as she spoke, "Hello, Jedi. You seem…" Her eyes swept over him quickly, searching for tells, then narrowed like a hunting nexu. "…lost."

Her voice carried cleanly over the wind, low, steady, almost amused. If he moved for a weapon, she was ready. But for now, she wanted to see if words would work faster than fire.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Juniper Le Fey
​

Aiden stopped a few strides short of her, the storm tugging at the edge of his cloak. The Force hummed faintly in his periphery, alive with tension, with the cold gleam of uncertainty. She wasn’t afraid he could feel that much. No panic, no flinch. Just that practiced readiness that spoke of someone who lived by their own instincts and trusted them implicitly.

His hand hovered near his belt not to draw, not yet, just to ground himself. The saber remained dormant, its weight familiar but unnecessary for the moment. He tilted his head, studying her through the swirl of ice.

“Lost?” he repeated softly, the faintest smile ghosting across his lips. “I suppose that depends on who’s asking.”

He took one step closer, slow enough that his boots crunched deliberately on the frost. The air between them was charged, not hostile but sharp, like the first clash of flint and steel. “Not many find reason to linger here. You’re far from any trade route, and the weather doesn’t seem suited to sightseeing.”

A pause. His gaze drifted to the faint glint of the runes beneath her coat, to the controlled set of her stance. Not Imperial, not local militia. Independent, then.

“You’re armed.” he said calmly. “But you haven’t reached for it. Which means you’re not here for me.”

He let that settle before adding, voice even.

“Still, you might want to find shelter. The storm’s turning, and I doubt your business is worth freezing over. Do you have shelter?”

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Studying eyes scanned the horizon while the Jedi spoke, and damned if he wasn't correct. In her focus on figuring the Jedi out, she had neglected to account for the weather changing around her. A twinkle of magenta lightning danced across her skin in response. Her body and soul had not yet learned to contain the magick she had inherited from her bloodline, and it was still coming out in chaotic spurts whenever her body felt it was in survival mode. She took a controlled breath in and pushed her anxiety away for the sake of the mission. She couldn't have her emotions ruining her paycheck again.

"You may not be my quarry, Jedi, but I promise you someone would pay good money for you," she said, her tone playful but sharp. She wanted to reinforce that she wasn't someone to be played with. "Just because I haven't drawn my weapon doesn't mean that I am not dangerous." Her head tilted back with confidence as she spoke, her gaze shifting from the storm to the Jedi before being drawn again to the titan approaching in the form of snow and ice. It truly was a big storm.

When Juniper's gaze finally returned to Aiden Porte , she realized, as much as she hated it, he was right. "I do have a ship, but I doubt I'll make it back in time to miss the storm. Hrmph." Her sigh was audible; she wasn't excited to be wrong, and she certainly wasn't thrilled to see where this was going, or whether he would do the gentlemanly thing and offer to help, or turn her away back to the elements. Either way, she realized her target likely wouldn't make a landing in this storm, which meant she had more time to make it back to her ship before they attempted another drop. A glint of good news among the bad that seemed to be piling up.

"What about you, Jedi?" she asked, lazily waving him off. "It looked like your ship was more smoke than steel by the time you landed." Her tone was sharp, sharper than it needed to be. She was nervous about the storm, and she loathed the cold. "You stuck the landing, by the way. Very impressive." She punctuated it with a playful wink. If she was going to be this close to Aiden, she might as well play to her strengths and keep him guessing.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Juniper Le Fey
​

The wind was a living thing biting and wild, pulling at his cloak as if the mountain itself sought to test his resolve. Aiden turned his gaze from the horizon to Juniper, his calm composure masking the flicker of intrigue her words stirred. There was fire in her raw, undisciplined, but bright. The kind of fire that either forges or consumes.

He saw the faint arcs of magenta across her skin, a shimmer of power barely restrained. His instincts both Jedi and human registered the danger she carried within. But Aiden's expression softened, the faintest hint of empathy behind the stoicism of a man who had seen far too many lose themselves to things they didn't yet understand.

"Dangerous?" he said, his voice low but carrying easily over the rising wind. "That much I already gathered." His lips curved in a subtle smile, the kind that was more acknowledgment than amusement. "But danger doesn't always mean malice."

Aiden took a few slow steps closer, boots crunching through the snow as he kept his hands visible, palms open a Jedi's gesture of peace, but not of naivety. "I've learned that those who speak of bounties and threats are often the ones trying hardest not to be hunted themselves."

The storm cracked overhead ice and thunder blending into a sound that rattled the air. He tilted his chin up to watch the lightning splinter against the clouds, the faint blue light reflecting off his eyes. "You're right about my ship," he said, returning his attention to her. "It's in much needed state of repairs. The ground didn't take kindly to my arrival."

He brushed snow from his sleeve, the motion deliberate, almost contemplative. "But there's shelter not far from here, w hen I stuck my landing a saw an outpost not too far from here. We can wait out the storm there. You're welcome to join me, provided you don't decide my head's worth more than my company."

His tone was neutral, though there was a glimmer of dry humor beneath it an olive branch disguised as banter.

He turned, cloak whipping behind him as the wind surged again, then glanced over his shoulder. "You said you're not after me, and I believe you. So let's not make the storm our enemy too. What say you?"

 

[Juniper Le Fey]

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Juniper's eyes narrowed like a predator's ears going back before they strike. Her dark brown irises locked onto Aiden Porte , almost like she was looking through him. He'd feel the stare in his bones, it was a test, mostly her sizing him up. He'd spoken calmly, steady in the wind, but there was a flicker there she didn't miss. Something about him that didn't match the serene reputation of Jedi; something human. Criminals never lived longer than their stupidest mistake, and she wasn't about to have hers be shacking up with some Jedi Lord in a cave. The Dark Jedi knew she had to play her cards right if she wanted to get her way out of this interaction.

"The outpost about two klicks west?" she asked, showing she'd seen it too, her tone casual but edged. She wasn't going to let a man, especially one with that calm smile, get the best of her. "Seemed like it had some life in it. My ship picked up movement in and out of there a couple of days ago." Her voice was low and even, her gaze holding his. "Yeah, I've been stuck here a while, " she added, the hint of humor slipping out like a nervous tic.

His offer to share shelter hung between them, and for a moment she weighed it- him, his posture, the way he kept his hands visible like he was trying to prove something. She couldn't decide if it was respect or pity.

"If it's hostile, we may have to fight," she said at last. Her hand gestured loosely toward him, and as it did, her coat shifted, revealing a belt lined with hexblades and her Pathbreaker weapon hanging beside an unassuming lightsaber hilt. The wind carried a flicker of magenta light through the folds of her coat, painting faint pink streaks across the snow. "You do know how to use a lightsaber, right? Or do you just keep it for the threat of violence?"

Her voice carried an almost teasing edge, but there was something serious beneath it, an instinctual challenge, the kind that came from one predator recognizing another.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Juniper Le Fey
​

Aiden held her stare.

"Two klicks west." he echoed, tone calm, but his gaze swept over the ridgeline in silent confirmation. The Force whispered of movement there old machinery, faint warmth beneath the frost. She wasn't wrong. "You've done your homework."


When she mentioned the movement, he tilted his head slightly. "Then you also know we won't be alone. We could run into Raiders, scavengers… or something worse. Or maybe nothing at all." His breath fogged in the air as he spoke. "If it's hostile, we fight, but only if we have to."

Her coat shifted, and his eyes flicked to the shimmer of the magenta light, the glint of steel and plasma along her belt. For a brief heartbeat, his hand drifted toward the hilt at his side, habit, not threat, before he let it fall away again. He'd long since learned that showing trust too quickly could be as dangerous as drawing too soon, yet something about her dared him to. She wanted to see what kind of Jedi he was.

He met her challenge with one of his own: quiet, steady, edged in wry warmth.

"I've managed with a saber once or twice." he said with a smirk on his face. Making a small show of falsehood as he was more than experienced with lightsaber, he brushed snow from his cloak and armor. "But I don't keep it for the threat of violence. I keep it for when words aren't enough."


A crack of thunder rolled across the valley, echoing off the ice. He turned toward the west, the wind pushing hard against his shoulders. "If we move now, we can reach the outpost before the next surge hits. Stay close. The drifts ahead are deep, and the mountain doesn't forgive missteps."

Then, as he started forward, he glanced back over his shoulder with that same faint, infuriating calm smile the one that would look to make her wonder if he was testing her just as much.