Private Trapped Under Ice

[Rhyssar Sundar]

THE PANCATH REACH
OUTER RIM TERRITORIES

... SPACE ...​

It was just a ship.​

​

A simple enough vessel to those not well versed with historical crafts, admittedly very dated, drifting on through the depths of the void. Aimless, in a state of continual blackout, it was easy to overlook. Easy to ignore even when it did come up on radars. Its most recent crew had long since succumbed to the strands of time, dead before the fall of the Republic and Order 66. Much of it had been raided already, anything of true worth stripped away until it was merely a husk of its former self.​

​

Suffice to say, there should have been no reason to investigate it.​

​

The destruction of Panatha had led to far more debris in this region of space than usual, chunks of rock floating this way and that as they became caught up in new gravitational pulls and sought their new place in this ever changing system. The ship, once caught in a rotation of its own, was knocked slightly off course, and though it was a slow drift at first it soon picked up. That was until it struck some of that Panathan space rock.​

​

Impacted by that jolt, the final systems in place were pinged into existence. Deep within the ships hull, a cryopod began to awaken and thaw. What had previously been a ship showing zero life signs pitched a fit and began to send out automated distress signals: someone was onboard, and given the state of the ship they wouldn't likely last long there.​

​

Jasper Kai'el Valery Noble Kara Jade ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

The Pancath Reach
Tags: Valery Noble , Kara Jade , Rhyssar Sundar

​

"Alright, looks like we're working with a D5-Mantis Patrol craft," Jasper relayed from the cockpit of the Lonestar 1 to Master Noble and Kara. "Lucky for us, I used to own one. so we should have no trouble entering the vessel. It... looks in pretty rough shape. I don't know how long it's been sitting here, so we'll be moving slow. Dock with it's upper airlock, pressurize the ship's cabin, then we move in to find out what the distress signal is all about."

They had just been touring the newly completed Dawnbreaker just before, his plan for reconstruction and relief after the Second Great Hyperspace War was over. For now though, the distress signal came first, though he wondered if it's setting off was just a fluke. There was only one way that they would find out.

Pretty soon, the connection had been made. A clunk, followed by the hissing of the air re-pressurizing for entry.

"Well, who wants to go in first?"

 

[Valery Noble]

Pancath Reach

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Jasper Kai'el Kara Jade Rhyssar Sundar

"D5-Mantis...? As in, the very old one?" Valery blinked in surprise and looked over Jasper's shoulder to confirm it for herself. While piloting ships beyond her fighters wasn't a strength of hers, she still recognized many of the older designs from the Old Republic. How could one have possibly survived?

Or was it just a redesign of some kind?

If it wasn't for the distress call, she would have theorized for much longer. Right now, all that mattered was helping whoever had sent out the call, so Valery returned to her seat and waited until they were docked before rising again. With all of her gear ready, she walked over to the hatch and watched the doors open.

"Well, I suppose I can step forward. If lights aren't working on the Mantis, I'll be able to see pretty well without us having to ignite a lightsaber in a narrow hallway. I can guide us." She grinned and walked into the ship.

 

[Kara Jade]

It had been far too long since Kara had last been on a mission. The last one, officially speaking anyway, was back during the earliest stages of her pregnancy. And while she loved her son dearly, Kara needed a breather. One that went beyond just walking the streets of Coruscant.

Enter Valery and Jasper

Kara had run into them while heading out somewhere herself, although the destination was unknown. They talked of going to tour something of Jasper’s, and Valery had suggested Kara to tag along. If anything, she suspected the Master Jedi knew exactly why the blonde Padawan was eager to stretch her legs.

Thus they toured Dawnbreaker, only to be interrupted by an alert of a distress call reaching the ship. None of the trio wasted time in getting things together and heading out towards the origin.

“If it’s an original D5-Mantis. Lots of people in the galaxy have a thing for relics, and if the credits are there, they’ll commission a replica.”

Kara followed behind Valery, who took the lead going into the ship. The blonde Padawan had a bag slung over her shoulder, full of medical supplies if needed. In her hands was a datapad, one she was currently flicking through.

“From what I can tell, the distress signal isn’t using anything current. The transmission codes are definitely not GA at the very least.”

She was falling back on an old subject of interest she had years ago, back when she was a teenager and eager to learn anything and everything. That and well, being a smuggler at the time also heavily leaned towards monitoring signals and transmissions.

“Yeaaah, this ain’t Alliance, or not even the Republic before that. Tried to cross reference with some old Outer Rim Coalition stuff too, still nothing.”

Rhyssar Sundar | Jasper Kai'el | Valery Noble​

 

[Rhyssar Sundar]

The inside of the ship was barely pressurized. Any lights it had once housed had long since burned out, and if not for the very distant thrum of a generator it would have been easy to assume that it was totally derelict. Had the distress signal been a fluke? A relayed message from days long gone, or triggered by some extenuating circumstances? Certainly with the asteroid field around them, it wasn't entirely unlikely.​

​

Darkness seeped into every crevice of the vessel. ​

​

As the trio made their way through though a very pale, and very dull, light began to emit from the cargo bay door. Had the rest of the ship not been so pitch black it would have been easy to overlook, but instead it stood as the only beacon in the void. A chill seeped forth too, up from the hull and into the hallway.​

​

​

~ ~ ~ ~​

​

The thawing process had been slow, caused more by a breach in the pod than any systems being intentionally meddled with. Aurelius had been the first to rouse, the crystalline being thrumming softly through the Force as it tried to make sense of its surroundings. The Shard was clutched within the grasp of another, much larger sentient who was having a much harder time thawing out.​

​

<Rhyssar> the Shard chimed all the same, hoping to prematurely rouse the Initiate, <Rhyssar, wake up...>​

​

No response came from the girl, though the tips of her extremities began to flex with life.​

​

Aurelius sent another pulse through the Force, scanning their surroundings and searching for lifeforms. It caught on to three, each nearing the pod, and then its incessance grew.​

​

<Now, Rhyssar... They're coming back. We need to get out of here. We need to find Master Kast.>​

​

Jasper Kai'el Valery Noble Kara Jade ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Pancath Reach
Tags: Valery Noble , Kara Jade , Rhyssar Sundar

​

"Well, this looks legit," Jasper frowned, flipping the grip of his flashlight and sending a beam down the hall. "Sure is dusty enough to be a thousand years old. I'm shocked its in such good condition."

The fact that the patrol craft hadn't been struck by a rogue asteroid or torn apart by scavengers was truly miraculous. There were certainly a lot of things about this ship that were very lucky. Maybe too lucky.

It wasn't long before something had caught his eye. A light, faintly creeping through the slightly ajar cargo bay door. Strangely, he began to feel something in the air. No, in the force. It was activity of some kind, clear signs of life, though he could only feel it ever so slightly. His force connection was still very limited.

"I think someone is in there," the knight stated, pointing to the cargo bay. "Someone alive."

 

[Valery Noble]

Pacanth Reach

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Jasper Kai'el Kara Jade Rhyssar Sundar

At the ignition of his flashlight, Valery squinted and turned her head away, before shooting a quiet look toward him when her eyes had been able to adjust to the new source of light. She had to silently admit that it was a better alternative than relying on just her eyesight though, so she kept walking forward without complaining.

"Yeah, it worries me that it is," Valery then said as she looked around. "If it's a replica, Kara should have recognized the distress call. Even the worst criminals wouldn't mess with that part of the ship because it's for their own safety as well. So... why is it so old, yet seemingly intact?" The lack of lighting and the weaker atmosphere weren't that bad, all things considered.

The group of Jedi then walked down the hallway, and in the darkness of the ship's interior, a small light easily stood out to the eyes. But what was even more surprising was the presence she felt — someone was alive in there.

"I feel it, too. Let's take a closer look."

Again, Valery stepped forward and began to lead the way to the cargo bay door, and right through, hoping to find whoever was still in there. She felt no danger, nor pain or suffering, so they seemed to be fine? Why hadn't they shown themselves yet?

 

[Kara Jade]

Kara squinted as light suddenly sprung out ahead of them, temporarily blinding until her eyes adjusted. A fine, cool mist seeped out from the opening, causing the blonde Padawan to shiver from the sudden cold.

“Aye, I feel it too. It’s nothing Dark, but I can’t quite say it’s Light either.”

She could sense a lifeform ahead of them beyond the light. But there was something else to it, something Kara couldn’t quite place. So she reached into herself, focused on the Force and the meditation she had been practising. Kara grasped ahold of the warmth, the love, and friendliness within her, and stretched it out towards whomever had been slumbering beyond the door.

The Padawan followed behind Valery, slowly but surely approaching the doorway.

As they did, Kara decided to reach out verbally too.

“Hello? We’re friendlies, we’re Jedi of the New Jedi Order.”

Rhyssar Sundar | Jasper Kai'el | Valery Noble​

 

[Rhyssar Sundar]

From fingertip to hand, feeling began to return and with it a sense of life. Aurelius soon slipped free from her grasp, though before it could fall to the ground and potentially shatter it found itsself held up by the long leather cord which attached it to her robes. It dinged all the same, as it struck the interior of the pod, sending a soft chime through the air between them.​

​

Rhyssar stirred in response. Her eyes did not open, but her body felt all at once alight as though electricity ran through every nerve. She gasped for breath and rose one stiff, shaking hand to the pod door. Out. She had to get out. Brittle and largely still immobile, it proved a much more difficult feat than it probably ought to have, but the sound of distant voices helped to spur her on.​

​

Aurelius was right, the cultists were returning.​

​

The dimly lit room which held her had been very clearly ransacked. Crates lay here and there but their contents were scattered or gone entirely and the durasteel flooring was covered with deeply set scuffs and charred marks. Even the cryopod itself was off-kilter, as though tossed to one side and ultimately deemed less important than whatever else the ship had been hauling.​

​

In the bay, the temperature dropped significantly. There was a long crack in the glass of the pod, and on the wall across from it the hull seemed close to breaching, dented inward by whatever had struck the ship and set it back into motion in the void. The light itself was coming from the pod, a garish red that seemed almost like an emergency flare telling of the pods breach.​

​

Voices, steps, what little sense she could make of it all left her with a very thin jolt of panic. Her lips moved though much to her displeasure no actual words escaped her, just a gasp. ​

​

<Hold on> the Shard warned, as it reached through the Force and sought to find a way to open the lock keeping the pod door in place. It quickly discovered that the mechanism was busted, no matter what it did the pod wouldn't open. Closer and closer the cultists stepped, until they were in the room with them. The cracked glass did not permit much of a view, and thoroughly backed into a corner Aurelius opted for the next best thing to an official opening.​

​

All at once, the pod door was blasted outward off its hinges. With nothing to hold them in place, Rhyssar and her crystalline companion tumbled forward.​

​

Jasper Kai'el Valery Noble Kara Jade ​

 

[Jasper Kai'el]

Pancanth Reach
Tags: Rhyssar Sundar, Valery Noble , Kara Jade

​

Cracking glass and a tumbling sound made Jasper hesitate no longer. Some kind of commotion was beyond the door, which could mean that someone was in danger. He quickly levered his mechanical hand under the door, steam erupting from the hydraulic piston within. Mustering his strength, Jasper threw up the door. Beyond was a young girl, no older than fourteen from the looks of it. Something was clutched in her hands, something force sensitive. It was like Phyla, the shard whom he was currently serving as the guardian of. A girl and a crystal out in the middle of nowhere, locked in some kind of pod. A cryochamber?

"Hey there," Jasper greeted, giving the pair a wave. "You okay? This ship is in pretty bad shape, but we picked up your distress signal... but I'm starting to think you weren't the ones that sent it..."

Oh, right. Why hadn't he lead with who they are? That would probably put the girl at ease.

"We're with the New Jedi Order," he informed her. "You're safe. Well, safer. I don't know how long this thing can hold itself together."

 

[Valery Noble]

Pacanth Reach

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Jasper Kai'el Rhyssar Sundar Kara Jade

Much like Jasper, Valery quickly began to move when she heard noise beyond the door. She waited for Jasper to open it up and rushed inside to see... a young girl. Her presence in the Force was much fainter than it should be, but only a single glance at the pod she had escaped from helped Valery understand what was going on.

She had gone through the same thing.

Jasper introduced the group as Jedi of the New Jedi Order, but Valery was concerned about something else first. "Heyy, take it easy, alright?" she said, her voice soft and almost motherly. "You've been... asleep. For a very long time, so you might suffer from hibernation sickness." Valery had gotten out of her pod blind and unable to move a single muscle. She didn't want the girl to suddenly collapse.

So without wasting any time, she made her way over and gently offered some support. "My name is Valery," she continued, hoping that her speech and presence in the Force would be calming. "We're here to help you."