The Mission Without A Moon (Joshua/Tallia)

[Josh Dragovalor]

Despite being ousted unfairly via the corruption of the Jedi Order that Josh had feared, and taking a hiatus from active duty (Council duties aside, which he attended via hologram), Josh's schedule didn't seem to shrink. If anything, it seemed to grow. He had pledged to travel the galaxy, make allies, garner information, hunt down the Sith best he could, and do every job of the Jedi on his own time. Without politics and drama and corruption in the way, Josh was free to hunt down Sith, stop slave rings, end crime rings and generally bring peace and serenity to the galaxy as a whole.

For this mission though, Josh had tracked a Sith Lord that had been wrecking havoc on Centares since the fall of the Sith Empire. This mission was dangerous, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to do it alone. But the problem was... Who could he trust? Aleidis? He would ask her, but she was busy with her own affairs, and probably wouldn't be interested in helping him hunt down a Sith. His best option was someone from the Jedi Order, but... Well, he wasn't exactly well liked after calling out the corruption of many of the Jedi publicly as he was ousted. Who could he trust not to put a lightsaber in his back?

Tallia.

[member="Tallia Farn"], a woman Josh knew well, and trusted more then many. Possibly the only member of the Jedi that he could trust to help him, and was tough enough to be able to handle something like this. He had given the Jedi Knight a call, and had arranged the mission with her.

Finally, the Final Dragon landed on Centares. The former Grandmaster took a breath as he took in the planet's air. Stepping down the ramp, he looked around for Tallia... They were supposed to meet around here.

His face was of stone. Cold as ice. That laid back demeanor had been destroyed by the Jedi Order's corrupt members and their conspiracies, their plots... Betrayal burnt into his heart even to this day.

 

[Tallia Farn]

Tallia Farn stepped carefully down the steps into the sunken docking bay. She'd just spotted Josh's ship land, which had been her queue to mobilize. She had changed her appearance since they had last seen each other. For this mission, she had gotten her normally brown hair dyed auburn and cut in a shoulder length, choppy style with bangs that were flipped to the side. She was wearing black leggings, a long sleeved, tan button up with the sleeves rolled to her elbows, a brown leather vest, and a light purple headset around her neck that she liked because it matched her lightsaber. A red painted astromech rolled behind her, carrying her lightsabers inside.

She basically looked like a regular teen who was up to no good. The citizens on the street had barely given her a second glance as she had patrolled the back alleys of what was called the Spacer District. It was where most of the traffic to and from the capital happened. There was barely an alien to be seen besides those that were visiting from off-world, and they weren't being treated very kindly. She had watched a family of Twilek's get arrested, children and all, in the middle of the street by Imperial soldiers. Tallia had been tempted to try to help, but she had restrained herself. If she and Josh could pull off their mission, all the non-humans on the planet would be free again.

Tallia stepped towards the Final Dragon and waved at the figure standing at the bottom of the landing ramp. "Hey!" She called, beckoning him over. "Probably didn't recognize me looking like this... How are you doing?" She smiled sympathetically.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh himself was dressed in attire similar to when they had their date. He didn't seem to be wearing his Jedi Master Robes anymore, which was rare for him on a mission. But if Tallia noticed his shoulders at all, she would notice they were a bit bigger then usual, a size difference that couldn't be seen under the robes. It seemed he hadn't forgone his armor under the casual attire. His hair, meanwhile, had been cut to a fair medium, though the blonde remained. He looked back at the astromech droid that was at the top of the ramp, and gave a nod as the ramp would load itself back up and the door would close.

He sighed and closed his eyes, taking in the air of the planet... Before opening them again as a familiar voice called out to him. He looked over, and it took a moment for him to recognize Tallia. Like he had, she had changed as well. He could see it in her appearance and in her eyes. Walking over, he gave a small smile in greeting.

He could feel it, sense it... The terror, the fear, the need for help in the people around them... It sickened him, he wanted to help so much... But it would come in time.

"I'll always recognize a pretty face" he teased with a small smile. For some reason it felt... Really good to see Tallia. It brought a thought of relief to see her safe. The galaxy hadn't been kind to him, obviously. But seeing her still seemed to bring a smile to his face. He was tempted to hug her, like she had on Naboo. Hug her, hold her close, know she was there and that she was okay... But he didn't know if it was appropriate. Hugs were good, right? But... Was this a good time?

"I'm peachy" he remarked, smirking a bit. "This is the best vacation I've ever had" he joked.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"Great!" Tallia turned and walked for the exit. "though I don't usually equate trying to stop a Sith Lord with vacation." She murmured quitely. "I've got an apartment rented out a couple blocks from here. We can talk there." She hurried out onto the sidewalk and headed in the direction of the apartment building. She tried to look as casual as possible and keep her head down like the rest of the citizens were doing.

Tallia walked into the apartment building lobby and took the lift up to the third floor. She paused in front of one of the doors and nodded to her astromech, who gave a small, affirming tweet and shot a key from it's containment chamber. Tallia grabbed it from out of mid air and slid it into the keyhole. It was something that she wasn't really used to. Most planets used key cards to keep their doors locked. She waited for Josh to step inside then closed the door, locking it behind them.

"You can shut off for now T7." She said to the droid. It rolled into one of the small rooms corners and powered down. The apartment was pretty small. It contained a living room with a fold-out sleeping couch, a refresher, and a kitchenette that could barely fit two people inside it. Tallia went over to the couch and got down on her hands and knees. She pulled out a small device from underneath and activated it.

"This is a disruption generator. It should keep us hidden from unfriendly ears." Tallia sat down on the couch. "So. Now your here. What's the plan?"

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He smirked faintly at her crack. "Well, sweetheart... It's better then dealing with politics" he joked, chuckling, before nodding and following her to the apartment.

"Nice place" he commented as he looked around at her little rented establishment. Was probably a bit different from the royal poshness of her birth, but Tallia seemed to cope well. Years as a Jedi would... Probably do that. He wondered for a moment why this planet's apartments were so... Traditional in comparison to what he had seen. But he supposed everyone evolved at their own pace, and didn't mentally question it further.

He watched the droid roll away at Tallia's command and shut off, before watching the Jedi Knight take a seat on the couch. He looked over at the device and nodded. Smart girl. He wondered why she hadn't been made a Master... I mean, if some of the current Masters got their positions, he wasn't sure why Tallia wouldn't be looked at... Maybe she just had to be more active. Contribute more. He was sure eventually they'd notice her with a little more effort.

Regardless.. He nodded at her statement. He took a breath and sat down beside her, getting comfortable on the couch/bed thing best he could before looking at her.

"So. Now your here. What's the plan?" she had asked.

"Well... I could make all sorts of jokes about two people being in a small space just weeks after a date, but first up, time to get down to business" he half joked with a slight smirk, before taking a breath, thinking.

"This Sith... By the looks of what I'm seeing here, he's got flunkies all over the place. My R4 unit's also traced a couple of droids with the exact same signal, and they've been helping out said flunkies. But the big thing here is we need to find where he is" he explained.

"Now... We could do a couple of things. We could kidnap one of the droids, get the return coordinates. Or kidnap one of their flunkies and interrogate them into giving the location of their base of operations. If you're feeling REALLY daring though, we could go out there and stop their operations, saving people, foiling every attempt to mug and hurt and... Basically everything they do. We can be the thorn in their side until they send their militia after us, and when that's gone, that'll probably draw the Sith Lord himself out. Risky? Yeah. But if we can't get a location from interrogation, it might be our only choice... Unless you have ideas of your own, of course"

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

Tallia thought about it for a moment. She definitely didn't want to run into anything unprepared. Fighting the entire Sith garrison on the planet seemed like a foolhardy idea, but she wasn't naive enough to think that negotiation was an option. She was between the droid and the human hostage. Both involved a certain amount of risk, but the droid was probably the best bet.

"I'd rather steer away from interrogation." It was one thing to kill a being in self defense, and another to harm someone to get information. "If we get can get one of the droid brains, either of our astromechs can easily tap into their memory banks." Even though she was talking to Josh, she was more or less thinking out loud and trying to hash out a plan. "That's assuming that they aren't built with a self destruct sequence... What do you think?"

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He nodded in response after giving Tallia time to think things over. Her option seemed the safest, for sure, although it could be the most tedious, troublesome and most likely to get them caught if they weren't careful.

"Aye, I agree" he said. "I just hope that nobody notices a droid, or worse off, DROIDS going missing if any of them initiate a failsafe or self destruct. This is the quickest way to get caught and have someone know our intentions, but it's the easiest if we play our cards right" he said.

"So, where do you suppose we start?" he asked, getting comfortable on the couch and smirking faintly at Tallia.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"Hold on a second." She stood up from the couch and walked over to her bag sitting by the front door. Tallia unzipped the main compartment and reached in to grab her datapad. While doing so, her hand brushed against a small, circular, metal object. It instantly gave her a plan. She pulled out both the object and her datapad. "I might have a solution to our problem."

"What if we didn't have to tamper with droid, what if we track it instead." She tossed Josh the round tracking device that was in her hand. "It may not give us the precise location, but it's a good place to start." A least, the droid would take them back to an Imperial base when it needed to recharge. They might even get lucky if it went back to the main headquarters. Tallia sat back down on the couch next to Josh. "Do you think it could work?"

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He watched as Tallia got up and grabbed her datapad, curious as she pulled out the object as well. "Oh really now? Do tell" he said, sitting up in place, cracking his neck.

"What if we didn't have to tamper with droid, what if we track it instead." she had said as Josh caught the tracking device in mid-air. "It may not give us the precise location, but it's a good place to start." she added, and he nodded in return.

"Do you think it could work?" she asked after detailing her plan. A smirk crossed Josh's face.

"Tallia, I could kiss you" he said with a laugh. "It could work, certainly. As long as we don't get caught" he said. It was risky, again, but it could be a good nonviolent method if they were careful enough.

He wondered... Perhaps one of his secret weapons would prove useful in this situation?

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"Great..." Tallia leaned her head back and looked up at the ceiling. She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She was tired from running around the hot streets all day, and didn't really feel like moving from off the couch.

Despite her exhausted state, she asked, "When do we start?" It would take some time to get prepared, and the cover of darkness would be the best time to pull off what they wanted to do.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He took a breath, noticing the exhausted state of Tallia. Nodding off a bit, he thought for a moment.

"Tonight or tomorrow" he said, looking her over. "You look like you're about to fall over" he added, shaking his head. "It'll be no use trying to do this if you're not up to the task, Tallia" he said calmly. "Rest for now, if the Sith Lord's been going about for this long, I doubt they'll have any problems waiting for us" he said, smirking faintly.

"Also..." he began, sitting up and cracking his neck. "I might know of a way to get one of the droids without being seen...." he began.

Before Tallia knew it though, the Jedi Master had disappeared. Almost as if into thin air. He disappeared entirely from her senses, entirely from the Force... It was as if he wasn't even there.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

Tallia frowned as she listened to what Josh had to say. "Really, I'm fine." She mumbled as he continued. "I'm not going to slow down the mission just because I'm tired. I can push through it." Tallia said insistently. "I'm coming w-" She started to speak again, until she noticed that Josh was gone.

"Okay, Really?" Tallia looked around for signs of his departure. Odd. She hadn't even heard the door open and close. "I'm seriously fine." Her voice was raised. She stood up off the couch. "Not to mention you just made the most cryptic exit ever!" Tallia huffed. She didn't like being left out. It made her feel like she wasn't useful. She walked into the kitchenette and searched the cupboards. There had to be something in there that could wake her up.

Tallia finally found a bag of ground caf, and a kettle for the stove. She set that up to brew and went back over to the couch while she waited. Tallia laid out onto the cushions and picked up her datapad. It was too bad this planet didn't have access to the Holonet, or she could have streamed a holodrama or listened to music. Instead, she picked up where she'd left off in one of her novels. She was on the way to the end of the chapter when the kettle began to sing.

She set her datapad down and went back over to the stove. She pulled a clean mug from a cabinet and poured out a cup of steaming caf. Tallia preferred to drink her caf Coruscanti style, with lots of milk, sugar, and chocolate syrup on top, but straight up was the only option she had tonight.

She was back to the couch with her caf in hand in a flash, ready to return to her novel. She'd cooled down about Josh, and now she was actually glad she'd gotten this time to relax. An hour and a half later, she was curled up on the couch asleep. Not even the caf had been able to keep her awake. It was the first good sleep she'd had in days.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Sadly, Josh had never actually left. He had disappeared using his illusionsry talents in the White Current, and was seconds from re-appearing when the Jedi Knight had raised her voice, then seemed to give up and start relaxing. The Jedi Master had heavily considered popping out and maybe scaring her, but... She needed the relaxation time. Tallia falling asleep put the icing on the cake, and that made his decision easy.

Finally, he decided to go scouting. He would walk out, as she'd suspected him of doing, to see if he could find any of these droids...

Eventually said time passed, he would return to find her still asleep. He considered speaking.

"Tallia, I was still here when-Ugh..." He gave up halfway, deciding to just let her sleep. He gave a frustrated sigh before curling up on the couch beside her and taking out his datapad, deciding to relax a bit himself while he let Tallia get some rest. He would tell her after. For now, he had a book saved on his datapad he felt like reading...

A small blue dragon hatchling would poke its head out of the jacket pocket that had obviously been modified to let it fit comfortably. It stared up at Josh and made little hungry sounds.

Josh looked down at the hatchling and smiled faintly. "Hey, I just fed you 15 minutes ago, you big lizard" he said quietly as not to wake Tallia up. The hatchling would respond with whimpering until Josh gave in and handed it a treat, which it happily gobbled up, making happy cooing sounds afterword. After that, it would crawl out of it's pocket home to lay on the Jedi Master's stomach to take a nap. Josh shrugged and patted its head, going back to his reading.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

Tallia finally woke from her sleep. Her internal clock told her she now had plenty of rest. The room was quiet, but she sensed a familiar presence in the room. She rolled over onto her back and stretched her arms and legs. Her feet rested in Josh's lap, who was sitting on the other end of the couch, and she strained her neck upward to get a clear look at him. A reptilian creature that she realized must have been his pet sat on his stomach, sleeping soundly.

"You make a nice footstool." She said smirking, before again resting her head on the arm of the couch. It was nice to have him back again. It was nice to feel his reassuring presence again. It always brought out the best in her. "Where in the Force did you disappear to?" Tallia questioned, relief dripping into her words. "I couldn't even sense you."

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He smirked and jokingly pulled her over, wrapping an arm around her. "Is that better?" he joked with a small laugh. After that though, he smirked at her question and cracked his neck. "To be honest? That's exactly where I disappeared to. Into the Force" he said, chuckling. "I was meaning to re-appear and scare you, but you went all ham, and then while I was waiting for you to calm down, you ended up falling asleep"

He shrugged. "AFTER that I left. Let you go have a nap while I went and monitored the patrol patterns of some of the droids. You looked like you'd been in a wrestling match with a rancor" he said. "I was trying to show you that I could get around the senses of force users, the line of sight and the sensors of a droid for a limited time. It's a nice trick called the White Current. I had it used on me a few too many times, so I got help from Aleidis and Je'gan, before the both of them bolted from the Order" he explained. "The point I was trying to make, before you went all Ham on me was... Well, I could maybe use that to get past the droids sensors, disable it, and then we could drag it somewhere to get whatever we need" he explained. "Would be easier then risking it going off and alerting it's comrades to our presence"

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

She tensed when Josh pulled her over, but didn't fight his embrace. "White Current huh?" She blushed, again letting her emotions get the best of her. It seemed the harder she fought against them, the more they came to the surface. He'd been there the whole time? Without her noticing, or even being able to sense him? That was some technique.

"Just do me a favor and don't do that without me knowing? You're lucky I didn't change my clothes." Her voice turned sour again. It was kinda creepy that he'd been there the whole time. "But, on an up note.. That should definitely solve our problem. Can droids not pick you up on their scanners either?"

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Well, he HAD mentioned that he hadn't been there the ENTIRE time. Just kind of sat on the couch while invisible and waited for her to cool down before he re-appeared, before deciding to do some scout work while she was asleep.

He noticed the blush, and the emotions. He wondered if she was uncomfortable with things like that? The wondering was obvious as he moved over a bit to give her space. He didn't want to cause her discomfort, not at all. Her friendship meant a lot to him, and risking that because of a few jokes wasn't worth it.

"Just do me a favor and don't do that without me knowing? You're lucky I didn't change my clothes" she had said. Okay, now it was HIS turn to blush. He hadn't considered that possibility. "Honestly, I thought it was kind of obvious I was just invisible" he admitted, covering his face with his hands for a moment to hide the crimson mask. "I mean, I was just telling you about how I might have a way to get past the droid's scanners undetected, and then suddenly disappeared. I didn't even realize you thought I'd just left till you started going ham into thin air" he explained.

"Aye" he said to her question. "We can get past droid scanners that way. It's perfect for our situation. I just can't use it in combat, or at least, I can't fight during combat with it. I can use it to escape, yeah, but trying to fight while invisible will expend too much energy"

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"I might have misinterpreted what you were saying and overreacted." She slumped on the couch. "I thought you were going to get a droid without me... Sorry." She realized she'd managed to make things a bit awkward again, but that was in the past now. Things had actually worked out relatively well because of it.

She sat quietly for a moment, and rested her head on Josh's shoulder. "What time is it?" She asked suddenly. Tallia realized she had lost track of the time. Had she slept all the way through the evening and night? Or was it very early morning? One thing she was sure of was that she needed to hit the refresher before they did anything.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He gave a sigh and hugged her gently with one hand as she rested her head on his shoulder. "It's fine.." he said, taking a breath before looking over at his datapad, putting it on the table and putting the dragon comfortably onto one of the couch pillows so he could move.

"I was only gone about an hour" he said. "It's very early morning right now. Kind of wish I'd gotten some sleep myself, but it'd have been harder to explain the situation to you if I'd just woken up" he admitted, chuckling a bit at the idea.

"As well... Don't worry. I wouldn't go out and do the mission myself" he teased with a small smile. "I know you're eager for this mission, I wouldn't ditch you like that" he said. "I DID memorize the movements of one of the droids though. One of the furthest away from the "operations" I've seen carried out throughout the area. That one'll be perfect to start in" he added.

[member="Tallia Farn"]

 

[Tallia Farn]

"Great." She pulled away from Josh and stood up from the couch. "I'm getting in the shower. How about you make yourself useful and make breakfast?" It was kind of meant as a joke, but if he did in fact make food it was fine by her. Fighting Sith with nothing but ration pills on your stomach was not fun. Tallia walked to the refresher and sealed the door behind her.

[member="Joshua DragonsFlame"]