The Anger Of Angels

[Jamie Pyne]

Belsavis // Orbit //​

​

Stupid, incessant beeping! The blonde looked down to one of the panels behind the control column to see a few indicators blinking. Two were red, the other was orange. Moments later the Star Skiff dropped out of hyperspace rather abruptly. Oh that....That can't be good. A small, curled fist drove down atop the blinking signals out of frustration and petty hope that somehow that might fix the situation. "Kark." Sitting back into the chair the blonde placed her right hand over her eyes and let out a deep sigh. Nothing was ever simple. There was never a time where she could just get where she was going. Something always had to go wrong. Whether it was space pirates, busted engines, or random acts of the Force, somehow, someway, she never made it to her destination without a hitch.

A small shake of her head and she dropped her hand back to her side, adjusting herself to look out the main viewport at the world now directly in front of her. It was an ice world. Frozen entirely, and likely desolate for all she knew. Pale blue eyes glanced down to the navicomputer to see that it was Belsavis. Well, at least that's something. It knows where we are. Of course we can't exactly go anywhere but planet side at this point.

Leaning to her left the girl pressed her finger against the ship's internal comm. "We got a problem. Hyperdrive is dead, as well as...well, I don't know what else. We're going to have to land on Belsavis." Land was a figure of speech. They were going to crash. That wasn't a probability, it was a guarantee. This girl had enough trouble piloting under ideal conditions. With systems out or damaged there was nothing to do but put this craft down into a mountain of ice and snow and hope for the best.

"You might want to strap in to something. It's going to be a bit harsh."

Before she forgot the blonde pressed the emergency distress signal locator off to the far edge of the console before taking up the controls and directing the ship into a steady descent into the atmosphere, or what little there was of it, of the frozen arctic known as Belsavis.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

She didn’t really know [member="Jamie Pyne"] all that well.

It had been a comparatively short trip mostly filled with some minor conversations about the lack of weather, the way hyperspace looked like through the viewport, and what she was going to do once they hit the starport and would have to wait on Ceri to return, before they could return back to Sullust. So there wasn’t really anything to prepare her for that familiar feeling of them reverting back into realspace - the hull almost screeching against the sudden difference in pressure - and then Pyne’s voice positively roaring through the comms about the… hyperdrive, really?

Belsavis? This planet again?

But before the complaints in her mind could materialize into anything verbal another shock rushed through the ship once the ship broke through the atmosphere. With something akin to stubbornness fueling her, Cerita powered through the imbalance and got to her feet, carefully holding onto the walls, the doorway and finally the tight corridor finally leading up to the cockpit of their ship.

"Belsavis?" The words finally came two moments, before she rushed into the tight space and plopped down in the seat next to her. Immediately locking herself into the chair. The last thing she really wanted was to crash into the viewport in front of them and crack her skull.

"Be honest with me…… are we going to die?"

She wasn’t sure what to think of that possibility.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

If Cerita wanted the truth Jamie wasn't about to withhold it from her. "Probably." She was blunt about it. The last time she was in a bind like this, comparatively speaking, had been while trying to evade space pirates through an asteroid field. That was far and wide the most frightening experience she'd underwent while piloting. Somehow she had managed to survive that, so if nothing else she had some glimmer of hope in her heart that they wouldn't die in this crash. "I'm not exactly a career pilot. I don't even know what that indicator is for. But it's blinking and it wasn't while we were in hyperspace, and I've never seen it on before, so I'm sure it's not good." There, that should help reassure the other woman how safe they were, right? Sure.

"The best I can do is say to make sure your harness is tight, you brace, and hope we live. Maybe the snow will cushion the landing, but I wouldn't bet on it.We're going to be coming down heavy."

As the vessel broke through the atmosphere of Belsavis Jamie shielded her eyes from the blinding glare reflecting off of the thick ice and snow near the ground, enhanced only by the added orange and red flames pulling at the ship's heat shields as it came screaming downwards closer and closer to the surface. By now a dozen more beeps and buzzes could be heard inside the cockpit, none of which Jamie had any real time to observe or do anything about. The controls became rigid and difficult to maintain a level flight path, or rather, fall path. Every step of the way became a fight to not let go. A faint smell of burning wires and smoke began to find its' way to the girl's senses.

"Oh for the love of....What else could go wrong?"

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Hmpf." Ceri coughed out, before the ship broke through the atmosphere and almost send her flying to the side, if not for her locking herself into her seat. See, this was the sort of thing that always happened to her whenever she got into a ship. She wondered if it wouldn’t be easier if she simply learned how to fly herself.

That… could maybe limit the amount of times they crash landed.

"What else could go wrong?" The green-skinned lady gave it a good thought while they rushed to their death. Her analytical mind sorted through the possibilities, categorizing them, before she realized it had been a rhetorical question.

She decided to not sum all the things up.
That would probably jinx this entire thing.

And they wanted to be alive at the end of it.

"Look, if we don’t make it out alive, I just want to say-" One of the control pads next to them fizzled up in smoke and fire, making the girl cough again. "I didn’t mean what I said about your hair last night, I was just jealous and I do really love the new style."

An additional alarm started to ring, this one coming from afar, from the depths of the ship itself.

That couldn’t be good.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

No, that alarm going off in the distance was likely something very, very bad. There was probably a fire in the engine room. Unfortunately there was nothing to do about it right now, the two had much more immediate dangers to worry about than escaping the fireball they were riding in at terminal velocity towards the frozen tundra of Belsavis. The pit in Jamie's stomach grew as the ground came closer and closer into view, the ship creaking and screeching as she desperately tried to pitch the vessel upwards so that the brunt of the impact would be at the underbelly of the ship. Even with every ounce of strength in her body it felt nearly hopeless to maintain their position. They weren't exactly flying anymore, more so just trying to hold onto a level fall.

"Apology accepted, and I'm sorry for throwing that vase at you. I overreacted. But I don't plan on dying so we're gonna have to find a way off this ice rock together."

Just then the altimeter began to beep rapidly, alerting them to the already well known fact that they were descending far too quickly and were about to impact the ground.

"Hang on!" Those were the last two words Jamie shouted before the impact caused her to black out. The blonde's head slammed forward, collided with the steering column, then back against the pilot's chair with such force that before she could register the pain she was out.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She hadn't ever been in a genuine, real shipcrash, but this wasn't what she had imagined it to be.

"Gotch-"

But before Ceri could finish speaking the ship already crashed nose-first into the snow. A shudder went through the hull of the ship, kinetic energy warping and ripping off parts of it. The only thing that prevented her from being squashed like a bug was the fact that she was locked into her seat, the thick reins holding her in place while everything rocked around them.

The shock knocked her out cold, before she could do anything to minimize the danger.

***​

​

Hours later.

It was dark, the sun already set hours ago and it wouldn't come up again anytime soon. The snow had put out most of the fires. Only embers were kept alive in the depths of the ship, embers and two girls who were about to be very grumpy. The croak of her voice sounded through the cockpit, Ceri tried to swallow but couldn't- to dry and for a moment it almost felt like she was going to choke in the air.

Dry-heaving, but this was what Dissero had been training her for.

She calmed herself mentally. And after a moment the girl felt her pulse stop its racing, her mind relaxing and her breath coming back into her control.

"J-Jamie?" It was more a cough than a word, but that was all she had in here. Trying to move showed her she was still strapped down tight in the seat, which had been ripped off the floor and currently leaning awkwardly against one of the walls.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Awwgghhh." The sound came from Jamie's lips before she had even a chance to open her eyes. The feeling of something running down the right side of her temple tickled her, forcing her to raise her hand to feel whatever it was. It was only then that she finally opened her eyes to get a glimpse of the crimson liquid that clung to her fingertips. The blonde exhaled in what could be considered a laugh. "Well, we're not dead. The pain and the blood is proof enough." Looking to her right she noticed that Cerita was no longer seated next to her. In fact, neither was the co-pilot's chair. "Wha-" Then, despite the ache in her neck, turned to see that the other woman had been ejected, seat and all, to the opposite side of the cockpit.

"You okay?" She managed to get out before coughing a bit of dust from her lungs. Already the cold began to fill the room. The viewport had been completely smashed in, with a bit of snow covering what was left of the console in front of her. "This is bad." Not that it wasn't completely obvious, but it was one of those things she felt obligated to say nonetheless. The blonde leaned down to try and release the harness holding her to the chair, though found it to be inaccessible due to a bit of metal that had bent its' way up and pinned tightly against the chair.

Jamie dropped her head back against the chair and groaned. "Welcome to hell. It has frozen over."

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I…" She tried to raise her hand to underline her point, but then let it hang sadly, because there was no way in hell she would be able to raise it in her current state.

Everything hurt.

Everything.

Muscle Ceri didn’t even know she had were aching, but at the same time it couldn’t be that bad, right? Because as she tried to move, she felt the aches, but nothing that was trying to knock her back into unconsciousness.

"...am tougher than I look like." Literally. The girl looked like a twenty-year old, pound nothing pixie. But Vinithi had some advantages over most sentient species, in that they were literally plants.

Plantmass worked different from regular muscles.

"Buuuuut, feth. I feel like someone took a pickaxe to my brain." As she blinked and trying to center her focus around her, everything just swam and buzzed around her.

She pushed against the harness around her chair and found it just as unyielding as Jamie’s. Which usually wasn’t a big issue, but the moment Ceri tried to focus again in the Force to break it open- splitting headache.

"Fffheeeeeh. I hate hell, can we have our vacation somewhere else?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"This was hardly my first choice." The blonde snickered despite the ache of her body. Shuttering her eyes she leaned her head against the panel to the left of her and took a few breaths. "We're going to freeze to death if we stay in here too long." A harsh reality, but with the viewport shattered and the snow quite literally inside of the ship with them it was only a matter of time before the arctic temperatures put them to an infinite sleep. "We need to find a way out of here and assess what the rest of the ship looks like." Looking around was difficult, the pounding of her head was an impediment that reminded Jamie that she was still bleeding pretty steadily from the temple.

"Okay, right." Using what strength she had she tried to pry her harness free from the latch without luck. It was simply not going to happen. Instead she felt around with her feet for a piece of transparisteel to cut away the harness that held her to the chair. With a few moments of fidgeting around she felt a sizable piece and lifted it up with her feet and let it fall into her lap where she was then able to pick it up.

"Let's get out of this mess and find a way out of here." Cutting away at the harness was not quite as simple either, given that they were specifically created to hold passengers in place under the most demanding circumstances, but eventually she was able to free herself of the chair that had held her captive and scramble her way over to Ceri and help her as well. The ship had been so badly damaged in the crash that the cockpit was now slanted at an upwards angle, making it extremely awkward to walk in.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

It just didn't want to work. Every single time she tried to focus her mind and attune herself to the Force a splitting headache ripped through her mind, basically shattering her concentration and starting her off at zero. At some point blood started to trickle from her nostril at the sheer stress she was putting her body through. When Ceri tasted her own blood she grunted, but admitted defeat for the moment.

"Sorry," The girl apologized again. This was making her feel like that young, young useless girl she used to be. Back when there was no purpose to her, besides being a little science experiment for Rave.

"I can't focus enough to use the Force. Feth, makes my vision swim and it feels like an asteroid is trying to force itself through my eyes."

She looked on as Jamie started to cut away at the contraption around her body. Why hadn't she thought of that? It wasn't like the Force was her only tool, but it just didn't even comd up for her this time.

"Think we got any painmeds on board?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"It's fine, don't worry about it." She was surprisingly calm for her state. Perhaps it was due to the adrenaline coursing through her body, telling her they needed to get out of the ship as quickly as possible. "I'm not exactly a stellar example of a Forcer either, so I guess that puts us in the same boat." Jamie rarely ever resorted to using the Force. Quite frankly it scared her more than anything. Her results were always varied, and more oftehn than not unpredictable. Even more, she typically ended up using the Force unwillingly and unknowingly in the face of certain danger or death.

Right now was hardly the time to recant those stories to Ceri though. Instead she focused solely on freeing the other girl so that they could get a move on.

"I'm sure there were pain meds on board. The question is will we be able to find them in all the debris?"

The cockpit itself was in pretty rough shape. What they didn't know was the state of the rest of the ship, and how difficult or easy it would be to find a way out. Jamie assumed it wouldn't be quite as simple as walking the corridor to the ramp and strolling out into the snow. For one they would need at least some supplies, or this would be a rather short trip ending in severe hypothermia.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

She didn't immediately respond, instead just watching silently as Pyne worked her magic on the harness. After a few moments of cutting and yanking hard against the metal, it gave away against their combined strength and Ceri found herself free. She tried to stand up and immediately had to support herself against the wall, lights in her eyes, floaty feeling, the entire thing.

"I am... okay." It took her a few moments, but then that light head feeling was gone. Just to be careful she moved fairly slowly, allowing her feet to be firmly placed on the ground, her hands constantly looking for support from the walls, the seat and other nearby debris.

Then a nod followed.

"We will get pain meds and more." She responded, before blinking once and then shaking her head. "Okay... I think I am good again, but feth, Jamie... we have survived this. We are practically immortal already."

Just a little, weak joke to poke fun at the situation. They needed all the humor they could get.

The door separating the cockpit and the corridor to the interior of the ship had been yanked out during the landing. She could faintly see the metal shining farther away the hallway in the dark. A gesture to Jamie came, to signal her to follow her to her room.

"My trunk was alchemized. There isn't much to anything that can wreck it, I am confident.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The girl shook her blonde head, "I don't know about immortality quite yet. Despite -" She gestured to their surroundings. "All of this, I don't think we've been through the worst of it yet." Stranded somewhere far outside the reaches of civilization in sub-arctic temperatures and blinding whiteouts was an incredibly dangerous situation to find yourself in. The snow itself may not even be the whole of it either. Jamie had no idea if there were beasts or predators that roamed a planet like this, but if there were, chances are they were anything but friendly.

"But alright, let's see what we can salvage for supplies. There are some things in my room I'd like to take as well if possible."

Jamie shivered slightly at the sudden draft that could be felt as they stepped into the corridor. "Before we went down I activated the distress signal on the ship. I'm not certain as to whether or not it was damaged though. Hopefully not, but we'll be dead long before anyone finds us if we stay and wait." Of course, where they would go Jamie had no idea. It wasn't quite like she had a map telling her where the closest town was. And with the snowfall as heavy as it appeared to be, seeing anything further away than her own hand was going to be a challenge.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I have been on Belsavis before." She mentioned over her shoulder as they walked. The corridor was mostly fine, some minor wreckage and debris they had to step over every moment or so, but there weren't any major obstructions that were keeping them from walking deeper into the ship.

That's where the real damage began. To their left there was a huge gash that ripped most of the hull away, snow had already poured in and every once in a while wind forced itself through - with it came more snow and the icy cold of Belsavis.

"Most of it's snow, ice and wind- like Hoth." They rounded the corner right. Moving down the hall would eventually lead to the little hangar, but in the corridor itself there were two doors opposite of each other. One was Ceri's room and the other Pyne's.

"But there are places that are strangely... tropical. Forested woods, rivers and planes, also a lot of volcanic activity. If we are lucky we aren't too far away from one of these locals, that will give us a chance."

"I am gonna see if there's anything salvageable from my room, if something comes up just shout."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"There are volcanoes and forests here that aren't covered in permafrost?" The blonde was baffled by that. She figured by the looks of the planet that everything was as it was here: a frozen wasteland suitable for almost nothing but snowmen and beasts. "If what you say is true then all I can do is pray that we're not too far of a walk away from one of these places. Otherwise the next people to find us might be a thousand years from now as icicles." The girl shivered at the thought of that, dying in the frozen arctic to be lost among the stars for generations. What a terrible way to go.

It appeared that not all of the ship had sustained catastrophic damage. Perhaps crashing well was actually a talent of hers. She couldn't fly worth a damn, but maybe crashing well was a skill. If so, she was good at it.

"Alright. I'm just going to grab my backpack, some clothes, and starlight." Assuming she could find any of the above in her room, that is.

"It will only take a moment or two." Maybe she could find her datapad if that wasn't destroyed, and perhaps a lighter she used for incense and candles on occasion.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

The moment she stepped through the doorway she was hit with it.

Fierfek.

The crash was real, really real, because her room was a gorram mess and that wasn't a joke. Her bed was gone. Courtesy of a huge, gaping gash in the hull of the ship that was lazily blowing in snow at steady intervals. The angle of the ship made sure that the room itself was relatively clear of snow, though, so that was good.

Her chest had moved as well, the corner of the room now, leaning on its back... but it was still intact. See, it was a good decision to alchemize the damn thing.

After swiftly manipulating the control pad of the chest, it opened itself up to her. Inside she was treated by the image of most of her stuff being smashed to pieces.

"Karking hell." She cursed out loud. Of course, the chest itself was fine, but what was inside had been rattled around by a lot. After rummaging around a bit, she managed to salvage a few things: some bacta pads which would hopefully help with the headache, her lightsaber (which she never used, but oh well) and some tiny odds and bits that could be helpful.

With all that in tow Ceri started to go for the door, to meet back up with Jamie.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Unlike Ceri, Jamie hadn't stored her belongings in a trunk. They had been mostly resting atop a night stand that was now non-existent, a dresser that was partially smashed, or loosely about the room here and there.

"Well, that's great." She said to herself as she stood in the door frame that now was at a partial slope. "There's not much left." The blonde stepped over some rubble of what could have passed for her bed at one time, some glass breaking beneath her feet as she navigated her way through the mess of debris. Jamie pushed aside a bit of shelving that had been mounted to the wall to reveal her sword, a gift from her father back home. "At least you made it." Blue eyes scanned the room for anything else that she could take. The datapad had been completely destroyed, nothing but the frame of the device itself remained.

With a heavy sigh she walked to the dresser, removing a small hat, and a long sleeved shirt. Where her closet used to be was now a rather large opening, the clothes and shoes that had been inside were now resting nicely atop the snow that had settled inside. Jamie picked up a small coat, though hardly appropriate for the weather here, as well as a pair of ankle boots and saw to quickly putting on what she had managed to scrape together.

Satisfied with what she could salvage the blonde stepped back through the entryway to see Ceri standing, waiting. "I guess that's that. I got some clothes and this." Showing the sidesword to the woman.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

A practiced eye took in the sword, before giving a nod of appreciation.

She had helped Rave forging swords for days back in the... day, so she could pick out some rubbish nonsense with the real deal. This one could definitely be useful for them while they were out there in the wild.

"That could be helpful. Know how to use it?" After that Ceri eyed the pieces of clothing and immediately started shaking her head. "No, that won't do, but luckily I was in the middle of experimenting with this."

You could almost hear the word 'this' being underlined as she said it. She revealed two medallions, one already around her neck and one being extended in offer to Pyne. They had an interesting sketch etched into it.

Of a tree.

"Still working out some of the kinks, but it's alchemized to stabilise and retain your body temperature."

Originally she had meant it for victims of hypothermia - slowly restoring their body heat without overheating them. But it would work in this situation as well.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie gave an almost indignant expression to the question of whether or not she could use the sword she presented. "Of course! Just about every moment of free time I had back home was spent with swordplay!" It was as if she suddenly felt the need to defend her prowess. "I won the Theed championship fencing tournament at the coliseum!" Well, that was partially true. She had won, by disqualification. The opponent decided that swordplay was only fun when one didn't take any hits. When Jamie scored on him he proceeded to beat her senseless. But that was neither here nor there!

"What's this?" She said, holding the strange looking medallion. "How is this going to keep us warm in arctic temperatures?"

Her eye raised, "And what do you mean, still working out some kinks? What kind of kinks?"

Was this thing going to suddenly stop working and leave them to freeze to death in the middle of nowhere? Her knowledge of alchemy was even less than that of the Force. The idea of performing some kind of magic on objects to make them do unbelievable things was lost on her entirely.

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

The way Pyne underlined how qualified she was to use the sword made Ceri realize she had been a bit... insensitive and undiplomatic about the way the question was posed. That wasn't unusual, of course, if anything it was what usually happened. She was far more comfortable in a lab or maybe even the board room talking about scientific pursuits or numbers, than being social with people in any capacity.

Something to work at.

"I wasn't suggesting you weren't competent, I just..." She waved her hand vaguely to the side, eyebrows furrowed helplessly. "You know.... anyway,-" Awkward. "Once we get out of this alive."

Once, not if.

"You will have to teach me a few tricks."

Ceri brushed her own medallion when Jamie asked the questions. Now the awkwardness melted away in the face of amusement.

"It's got alchemized dragon blood infused into it." She clarified, as if it was as easy as that. "It will basically keep your temperature up, as for the main kink... it might get a bit uncomfortable warm. Like you got a mild fever, if you were it too long."

"Better than freezing to death I think."