The Search for the SunGem {- SJO & Torr Industries -}

[Darren Torran]

Onboard The Avalon, Approaching Onderon​

​

The SunGem - an ancient starship that once belonged to Arca Jeth millennia ago during the Great Sith War and the Beast Wars of Onderon. It was once used as a mobile Jedi Training Facility, but now it had been buried in the plains of the planet - long forgotten by many and remembered by very few. One of these few - Darren Torran - a member of the Silver Jedi Order and entrepreneur. Though he would not seem the type to study the history of the galaxy, the Beast Wars appealed to him for some unknown reason. Perhaps the unconventional use of creatures to ride into combat - perhaps just the interesting premise that it poses, either way, he had been doing extensive research. The research led him to be enlightened by the existence of the SunGem and so he gathered a group of fellow Silver Jedi. This group would travel to Onderon in search of the remains of the fabled starship in the hopes of reviving it's legacy and using it to train Jedi once again.

Darren had been given The Avalon (a Tempus Ardet class freighter) by the Silver Jedi for this particular mission in order to transport a select group of Jedi, Rangers and others alongside a squadron of soldiers and a lot of cargo materials. The ship travelled a long way across the galaxy, from the Silver Jedi Capital on Voss to the Mandalorian planet of Onderon. It had been a tedious journey due to the ship not being particularly suited to prolonged ventures, being a cargo ship rather than a comfortable one. They survived though, and they had finally made it. Upon reaching the vicinity of the planet, Darren Torran called a final briefing on the mission in their make-shift meeting room.

The Zabrak stood at the head of the 'table' (if you can call it that - it was a few crates pushed together) with Grandmaster Yune and Colonel Calderon to each side of him. Once everyone had taken a seat, he began his briefing.

"I understand that this was a long journey, and I apologise that I didn't organise a better form or transportation, though this was all I could get on such short notice. Now, with that over with, let's begin the briefing."

"We all know why we are here. We're here to find the SunGem's wreckage and restore it to it's former glory, if possible - after all it has been almost four and a half thousand years since it was last used. This will not be an easy task, you all knew this from the start. We will have to traverse through the harsh jungles, avoiding the dangerous beasts that the planet is renowned for. If all of this isn't bad enough, Mando'ade had alerted us of a group of pirates that may get in our way. 'Te ge'tal verda' or 'The Red Warriors' in Standard. They're fierce warriors, identifiable by the red skulls that they adorn on their helmets. They also primarily use fire in combat - don't ask me why, it's just their thing. I'm not particularly worried about them at this point, I have complete confidence in that we can handle them. Now, onto the plan."

"We have Mando'ade's full consent for this mission - providing we don't mess around in their affairs and don't interact with them too much, that is why we won't be staying in Iziz for too long. We will dock the ship in the city where we will be met by our Mandalorian guide, [Member="Kurayami Bloodborn"], he will be our escort as we traverse Onderon. He knows the land well, and we will be much better off having him with us. Due to the time we are arriving, we will grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant - 'The Cheeky Pikobi' - and stay a night in the local hotel. We leave at around 6 in the morning tomorrow, so you will all have to be up and ready by then. We will gather outside of the city where we will be met with a group of domesticated Fambaa. These will be our mounts for the first part of the trip. All of our gear will need to be carried by these things, they're the only things big enough to support all of us alongside our luggage."

"If all goes to plan, we will reach the outskirts of the Jungle by around 3 in the afternoon. Unfortunately, here we will have to dismount and make our way through the forest. Our luggage will be transferred over onto a pack of Rupings who will fly it over to the other side. We, however, can not be flown over with the luggage due to the sheer amount of weight it would put on the beasts. We will have to make our way through the jungle. Due to it's size, and any possible exploration we may want to do, I've allocated 3 days to the jungle. Once we make it to the other side, we will meet the rupings at the place where I believe the SunGem's wreckage is buried. I've been studying it for a while, and it's the only logical location - an opening surrounded by a mountain range. The only entrance by foot would be through the dense forest - the one we are traversing. Once there, we will look through the wreckage for anything of interest or significance. Once we have looked through the wreckage and determined whether it is fixable - we will leave the luggage there and ride the Rupings back to Iziz. That is the end of the trip for most of you - unless you wish to stay here and help myself and my employees repair the ship. So, any questions?"

Darren then took a deep breath and awaited the questions - should there be any.

[Member="Arisa Yune"] | [Member="Valkren Calderon"] | [Member="Cath Lorr"] | [Member="Dusaro Dresari"] | [Member="Honoko"] | [Member="James Mathison"] | [Member="Kurayami Bloodborn"] | [Member="Kad Tor"]

 

[Dusaro Dresari]

Dusaro had not actually known exactly what ths 'SunGem' was until it had been explained, but after he was told the premise of it he was actually quite interested. It had surprised him that the Jedi had not, to his knowledge, created any ship based training facilities. While there were certainly cons to the idea, the possibilities it opened up were expansive to say the least. Being a ship it meant students could much more easily be introduced to new places, locations and people. It also had certain 'defensive' perks, hard to bomb a place that is constantly on the move to force knows where. Though there were also plenty of downsides. Dusaro himself knew how 'interesting' living on a ship could get, as his home where he had been born, raised and trained on was his YV-929 armed freighted, amusingly named the 'New Avalon'. Though he had not explained why, he had a bit of a chuckle when he heard the name of the ship they would be traveling on was called 'The Avalon'.

As for the trip itself, Dusaro managed rather well. He was fairly used to cramped and unenjoyable sleeping conditions thanks to his past career before he met Joshua and became a Jedi. Going from one day sleeping in his ship to the next sleeping in a hole somewhere was rather normal, so the spartan conditions did not particularly phase his Firrerreo self. At least it was not raining on them and the ship was not having any accidents with its hyperdrive. He was also not particularly worried about their destination, though if that was because of his own personal bravery or because of various equipment he had taken along, one could only guess. He was not overly concerned with rations and while he had brought enough to deal with the majority of their predicted 'trip time', he had prepared for needing to do some on sight procurement.

"I have a question, regarding the pirates. What kind of equipment can we expect from them and how organized are they? Are we gonna have to be worried about these people riding in on Drexels? Or just people on foot with flamethrowers? 'Cause there is one heck of a difference between the two." While Dusaro was rather certain that [member="Darren Torran"] would have said so if these 'Red Warriors' were expected to be using such beasts, asking never hurt. Though with them being on Onderon, he did not expect them to be anything to extreme but misfortune and bad luck had a tenancy to stalk the unwary Dusaro had noticed. With that in mind, he fully planned on being the wary one. Besides that though, he couldn't really think of any questions that could not be better answered when they got there. He was curious about their Mandalorian guide but that curiosity could be sated after they got there and met the person. Dusaro knew enough about Mandalorians to not put his foot in his mouth to badly, so that was not much of an issue either for him.

 

[Eugen Aker]

[SIZE=24pt]If[/SIZE][SIZE=10.5pt] anyone asked why she had tagged along for the expedition lead by Darren, she would say that she just found herself with a rare bit of free time to help to excavate a priceless Jedi artifact. Though in reality, she was antsy about the whole prospect of the Silvers moving around in Mandalorian space, especially in their capital system. She found herself playing informal chaperone to ensure that interactions between the Mandalorians and Silvers went as smoothly as possible during their visit on Onderon. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]As they neared their destination, Darren had the ground assemble for a briefing, going through all the details of the expedition and possible risks they faced. They may be on okayish terms with Mandalorians at the moment, but the same couldn't be said for any of the natives and pirates that roamed outside the walls of Iziz. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]One of the Padawan on the on the expedition, Dresari, asked a very good question regarding the force strength of pirates or other belligerents they may encounter on during their travels through the jungle. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.5pt]"Dresari raises a good point. I would feel more comfortable if we sent some probes ahead of ahead of our party so that we can get a good lay of the land and find the safest route toward the suspected resting site(s) of the SunGem. If you already have a good idea of where to look, then the scanning process should only take about a day or so." [/SIZE]

[member="Darren Torran"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Valkren Calderon"] [member="Cath Lorr"] [member="Honoko"] [member="James Mathison"] [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"] [member="Kad Tor"]

 

[Riamah]

Ailuros, one of the rangers signed up for the expedition to go. Used to being at the helm of the ship, she would instead be found quite often stalking through the engine room tinkering with things and making minor adjustments to the systems, bringing about a better performance. When they arrived a briefing was called for everybody that was going to the ground to be at.

She arrived early and found a spot at the back of the room and waited for it to begin. While waiting, she proceed to clean herself and get the grease from the engines out of her fur. Once more people started arriving, Ailuros stopped cleaning and hoped they wouldn't see any of the grease she still felt clinging to her various body parts she hadn't cleaned yet.

Swishing her tail back and forth while people settled down and listened to Darren give the briefing. It sounded like this mission would be a good workout for the trianni and she looked forward to it. He stopped speaking and asked if there were any questions. Turning an ear to Dusaro to listen to his question and the other the answer Arisa provided, she wanted to speak her idea.

"If the news of the probes is already a day or two old, things could change and people move into our path. A live scout may also be a good idea."

Falling silent, it was all she spoke of the matter and she didn't have any questions.

[member="Arisa Yune"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Darren Torran"]

 

[Negative Prime]

Honoko checked and rechecked the systems of the ship. you could take the kid out of the motor-pool but.. umm no that analogy din't work she was a Mechanic before she was anything else.
Honoko was asked to tag along and keep them out of trouble after all she was raised as a commando. force or not that training doesn't go a way.

 

[Khrelan Arke]

Already, there were rumours of an expedition the Silver Jedi were taking not long after he joined and already, Khrelan was almost one hundred percent certain he'd go. But before he ticked the box, he delved in a bit, asked around, and did some research of his own. That eventually lead to his presence here, on board the Avalon, the too cramped ship for his liking traveling to the Mandalorian planet of Onderon.

Though new and what was considered a rookie to the rest, he'd already made several aquaintences, even what could be considered friends within the rangers.

Khrelan shuffled in to the room with the very makeshift table when the final briefing was called, listening silently, dark eyes narrowing just the slightest. He mentally filed the information into his head. When [member="Dusaro Dresari"] raised a good question he was wondering himself and the Silver Jedi's leader [member="Arisa Yune"] suggested probes and [member="Ailuros"] suggested a live scout in return, his hand shot up in the back and waved around to get everyone's attention.

He pushed himself off the durasteel wall. "I can volunteer as your live scout if we're going with that. But, I think a very small team of two or three people would be better than just one, don't you think?"

He wasn't afraid, but it was unknown territory and there were pirates out there.

[member="Honoko"] [member="Darren Torran"]

 

[James Mathison]

Having literally just started a side campaign to gather and archive old Jedi and Sith secrets, holocrons and techniques, James felt this mission was a perfect starting point. He'd tagged along in his own vessel, "The Archive". A massive cargo type ship with endless supplies and an army of droids to help him gain, store and maintain anything he picked up along the way.

Having patched in through a holo-terminal, a blue image of James stood, arms folded and his Jedi Shadow Mask covering his face, atop one of the crates. He was very interested in how this would go down and had opted to leave the Archive in a geostationary orbit on another planet in the system as not to bombard the Mandos with any sort of fear of attack, seeing as the Archive did in fact have its own fleet.

As soon as the green light was given, he'd jump into a shuttle and rendezvous with the others.

[member="Khrelan Arke"] [member="Honoko"] [member="Ailuros"] [member="Arisa Yune"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Darren Torran"]

 

[Darren Torran]

"Hmm.." Darren pondered the questions that arose from the group - and the suggested solutions. He didn't know much about what they were up against, to be truthful. The Mando'ade hadn't presented him with too much information about this group of arsonists. They all raised good points, all of which made perfect sense.

Which should I choose...? I mean... If we send a drone there is always a chance that they could take it down before we see them - it has no defences. But... If we send scouts there is always a risk that they could die - they don't know what they're up against, they wouldn't know what to prepare for... We're trying to prevent casualties, I don't like people dying, especially on my watch. Alright, drones it is.

He had decided. "Alright. To be truthful, I'm not wholly sure what kind of power we're dealing with here. Whether they're just a bunch of hard-done-to teens with lighters and a can of deodorant or well trained arsonists with full-blown flamethrowers. So, with that in mind, there is no way in hell I'm risking the lives of good soldiers by sending them head first into danger. As the grandmaster stated, it's our best bet to send a drone or two ahead of us to scout, instead of risking the lives of good men."

"Approaching the atmosphere, Sergeant!" Darren was interrupted by the sound of a Twi'lek shouting from the cockpit. The man nodded, "We're nearly there. Everyone strap in, I have a feeling it'll be a rough ride down to the surface in this thing." he watched as the crew members scatter, strapping into seats attached to the walls of the starship. After ensuring everyone was strapped in, he did so himself, next to Grandmaster Arisa. "I know you're not keen on us being in Mandalorian space, but just try to relax a bit, will you? Enjoy yourself, this is more of a holiday than much else. Just... Try, for me." he smiled to her before sitting back and holding onto the armrests of his seat.

All of those that had to endure the ship entering the atmosphere of Onderon would tell you the same thing - that they sure as hell would not do it again. Due to the quality of the starship that they were in, the flight down to the surface had more turbulence than an aeroplane trying to traverse the air around godzilla - it was not fun. Alas, they made it and the consensus was true to the planet's reputation - it was beautiful.

The group was in awe as they departed the starship - which they now dubbed 'The Ship from Hell' - and took a good look around as they awaited the arrival of their mandalorian guide ([member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]). "Welcome to Onderon, people! This is gonna be a good trip, I can feel it." Darren exclaimed.

They had arrived in the spacedock of the majestic city of Iziz, the capital of the small planet. True to the nature of the planet, Iziz was relatively small compared to a lot of the cities of the rest of the galaxy and was rich in history and surprisingly welcoming of tourists. The sun was dimming as they arrived, it was coming to the end of the day, and it was beautiful. The sky was painted a lush shade of orange, and the light highlighted the calming beige of the city streets. It was almost perfect - surely as close as you can get in a galaxy torn by war and conflict.

[member="Arisa Yune"] | [member="Valkren Calderon"] | [member="Cath Lorr"] | [member="James Mathison"] | [member="Khrelan Arke"] | [member="Honoko"] | [member="Ailuros"] | [member="Dusaro Dresari"] | [member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[Negative Prime]

hono looked over her gear. being a Mando herself she knew the dangers of this region. as such she made sure to have at leas 1 suit of powearmor
still at least the power-core was fine sadly the ships superstructure however needed a propper refit.
still they had arrived at a location.
so she joined them out side in her common boots trousers and vest armed woth her dual sabers ( * & * ) and exited with her V1-L1 vehicle just encase
after all she made it a mission to be over prepared.

 

[Dusaro Dresari]

Dusaro agreed with Darrens assessment on how to handle the situation. Sending in people in front would be fine, but on a place with the critters that Onderon of all places had that was asking for disaster. While Drones came with their own potential problems, it was likely to be the best option they would be able to implment with any form of practicality. So Dusaro just nodded in agreement with the solution. "Alright, good to know and thanks for the heads up."

When the call was made to strap in he did it with a good deal of familiarity. He had been here and done this more then a few times before, at this point the feeling of the flight seats was almost like a home away from home. Not a home one stayed at for long mind, but certainly plenty familiar. He looked around with a bit of curiousity to see how the others fared. He didn't expect anyone to be failing to properly buckle in but he was curious if anyone else was used to such things besides himself. What he was not completly used to was the roughness. Sure, Dusaro had been in plenty of nastily shaky landing crafts before, but that was from flak getting shelled at them. Not because the thing didn't have any inertial dampening to amount to anything. So while he handled it better then anyone not used to the feeling, he still left the ship with a bit of a wince. "While we are here i might find some inertial dampeners to install. I probably can manage the money to get 'em if someone else has the expertise to install them." The sad part though is that he was only partly joking.

Now that he had time to take in the sights without having the view port gouge his eyes out, Dusaro took a good, long look around the area. His previous profession meant he had done a good bit of travelling, but he had never been to Onderon before. Iziz lived up to its reputation exceptionally. He let out an impressed whistle at the sight, enjoying the vista as they awaited their guide.

[member="Honoko"] [member="Darren Torran"] [member="James Mathison"] [member="Khrelan Arke"] [member="Ailuros"] [member="Arisa Yune"]

 

[Riamah]

When the suggestion of a scout looking out was shot down, the ears and wiskers of Ailuros drooped in disappointment. She would be safe up in the trees scout in front of them and felt confident she wouldn't be seen, heard or hurt by anything on the ground.

The order was given to buckle up and she did this as requested. She was glad she had done what little work she was able to do or their coming down would have been much harder. When they got landed, Ailuros was ready to go. The only belongings she had were on her belt and in the satchel she had holding her light armor if she needed it.

Climbing off the cramped ship, she stretched out slowly from head to tail to her toes. Walking forward, she stopped to give the others room to disembark and waited for the location to be said where they would be sleeping. A nice nap would do her well right now.

[member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Honoko"] [member="Darren Torran"] [member="James Mathison"] [member="Khrelan Arke"] [member="Arisa Yune"]

 

[Kaiza Pawaro]

Another noble goal called for Kaiza’s attention. This would be the first time she ever got involved in something big in fact, bigger than heeding help requests coming from ordinary people, but ultimately helping out the common and needy sentients the most. An ancient and long forgotten spaceship slumbered somewhere on Onderon, likely a wreck that hardly did justice to its once lofty purpose. Admittedly, the farmgirl-turned-Padawan had yet to educate herself on history, thus the ship’s historical value was lost to her.

On the other hand, she fully understood and supported the idea of turning it into a mobile Jedi training facility, which would be a great help and allow the Silver Jedi extend their aiding reach even further. Always the idealist, helping her fellow Jedi with SunGem’s recovery was both duty and honour for her, a task of great importance she could not let slip by. The ambitious mission also promised learning a bit about Mandalorian ways and seeing the Grandmaster herself at work. What more could the yellow-skinned Padawan ask for?

Onderon greatly differed from the Mirialan’s dry, cold homeworld, and thus proved to be particularly stunning when she first laid her emerald eyes upon it. Temperate and rich in vegetation, it was a feast for her senses, a world she immediately desired to explore after exiting the ship and breathing in the fresh air. As the dying sun bled over the sky and painted everything in a vibrant mix of orange and purple, Kaiza had to remind herself of the mission and staying mindful of the actual goal.

Excitement of seeing a new, beautiful world started to brush against her inner sense of calm. While not dangerous by itself, the feeling nibbled at the Jedi’s sense of duty, and thus she quickly chased away all ideas of roaming the wilds and discovering Onderon’s wonders. Her mind returned to the present, finding a measure of peace in knowing exploring the world was a part of their task. She also noted the party’s composition, realizing her own attire was easily the most plain of the group; typical Jedi apparel.

Hands clad in sturdy gloves reached up, removing the brown hood that rested upon her head to appear less out of place. Raven black hair and a long, tight braid tucked behind her ear immediately felt the soft kiss of an evening breeze that raced through Iziz’ walls. It was quite refreshing, actually.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing new places.” Kaiza laughed, unable to hide the girl origination from a small, religious community.


[member="Ailuros"] [member="Dusaro Dresari"] [member="Honoko"] [member="Darren Torran"] [member="James Mathison"] [member="Khrelan Arke"] [member="Arisa Yune"]