Welcome To New Dorin

[Jamie Pyne]

"The surface of Dorin has many caves and valleys that we should be able to take shelter in, if it comes to it." At least there was that. They'd have to wait the storm out, however long it took, but the would survive. "Typically, at least from the information I found, these storms tend not to last too long." One small measure of comfort. "But I agree. Carrying these crates would not be ideal. Not with the distance we have to travel."

The first location wasn't too far off now, but the others? If they had to walk them it would take several days. The acid rain would very likely eat through the reinforced durasteel on those as well, meaning they would have nothing to deliver regardless.

"If it does start, we'll just have to find somewhere to take shelter and wait it out."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Think we can make it to the first stop?" Lily asked, a hand finding a place to rest on the accelerator. She had no problem pushing the old risgecrawler a littler harder. She was willing to bet the tough old girl could handle it.

Above them a flash of light pierced the sky, a couple moments later a loud crack tearing through the quiet hum of the crawler's thrusters. The wind was beginning to pick up as well, the wind now not only blowing into there face but from their right as well. The storm was close.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The momentary crash above the sky startled her, causing Jamie to flinch for a second. She looked down at the gadget on her wrist, tapping the device a few times as she connected to a HoloNet source. Once a connection was made the girl tapped a few more times, narrowing it in on Dorin, before finally reaching their own signal beneath the atmosphere. "No." She said bluntly. "We won't make it there." The storm was too close. They had maybe five minutes to find shelter before the acid bath arrived.

"We need a cave, or canyon, somewhere to protect the speeder and supplies for the next hour or so. The storm will be brief."

As most on Dorin were.

"We'll only be about fifteen minutes out. But we'll never make it, even at full throttle, judging by the atmospheric readings."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily nodded, "Buckle up then." She suddenly put the proverbial pedal to the metal, pushing accelerator all the way forward, the old crawler suddenly shooting forward. The plains seemed to zoom by at a ludicrous speed that sent the wind straight into their faces, blowing their blonde hair backwards. In the distance Lily could make out what seemed to be a shallow trench that led into a deeper canyon. She turned the crawler in that direction and sped right for the narrow opening.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie had confidence that the pilot knew what she was doing. Then again, she had confidence in anyone that wasn't her piloting things. That tended to end in disaster one hundred percent of the time. "Right."

A series of rolling clouds flashed as lightning tore through the sky, separating the darkened billows from one another. The two would make it in time, before the severe gusts began to push through the canyon, skies opening as the toxic rain fell from the heavens above. Though it started slowly, the downpour rapidly increased in a matter of mere minutes, becoming a blinding water wall.

"Just in time."

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily pulled the crawler into a small overhang, shielding them from the burning rain which had begin to descend upon the two woman. A smile graced the Lieutenant's face, the high speed race between themselves and nature bringing her a peculiar joy.

"I bet you could do that." the woman joked.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"You've no idea the limitations of my piloting ability, Lily." She shook her head. "I swear it's a curse of some sort."

There was a small bit of laughter as the volume of rain picked up, the sound of it hitting the ground outside forcing her to raise her voice some.

"I could crash a speeder on the open plains. That's not an exaggeration."

She nearly crashed her father's speeder on so many occasions that he refused to teach her further. She was beyond tutelage.

Jamie was really that bad.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"On an open plain? "How in the galaxy would you even manage that? These blasted things float!" the Lieutenant pointed out as she unbuckled the seat belt and shifted in her seat to be a little more comfortable.

The pitter patter or the rain sounded off to the woman. 'The sizzling,' she decided, 'that's it.' As the acidic rain struck the earth beneath it, it sizzled lightly, the acid eating into the ground ever so slightly, like a great cloud of fish nibbling on the algae upon a rock.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"You'd be surprised." She simply stated. "I am a marvel when it comes to destroying mechanical transports."

Anything and everything that had controls, panels, buttons, an engine and an accelerator was destined for the junkyard or repair shop by the time she was finished.

It was why her father had forbid her to ever pilot one of their family's luxury speeders, and why he refused to continue teaching her. She was unteachable.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Ya know, I'm starting to rethink my offer of teaching you to fly." Lily said, all while laughing. The sky cracked with thunder and lightning, the sound echoing through the canyon, disproportionate to the quickness of the light.

"What's your father like?" Lily asked, a desire to get to know the kind woman taking root within herself. Besides, they had nothing else to do but talk.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"That is likely for the best." She said with a smirk. "If you at all value your safety."

Her father? "He's..." This subject was a bit more difficult to answer than it would have been several months ago, after she had learned of the affair he had with another woman and fathering a sibling she hadn't known of for twelve years. It was likely best to go with the basics for now. "He's a nobleman on Naboo that serves on the court of delegates. He's a very reserved man, quiet, unless he has something that needs saying." She would have called him a good man, had he not done what he had done and kept it a secret from her.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

The Lieutenant listened to the slightest pause as [member="Jamie Pyne"] told her of her father. "Was he good to you?" she asked. Her own father had died in the bombings of her planet. A young girl then, she had trouble remembering him sometimes. The moments were there, the event, but the details faded more and more every day. The man was slowly becoming a shadow of a man. Something one tried to hold on to but couldn't.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"To me? Yes. To my family as a whole? No. At least, not truthfully." This was hard to explain. "He was a good father but not a good man. He had a child by another woman and kept it a secret. I've lived twelve years a lie."

That was what hurt the most, he had lied to her for more than half of her life.

"But best not to dwell on those things now." She pointed up towards the clearing sky. "We have work to do."

It was also a touchy subject for her, still having not dealt with the consequences of his actions yet. She would need to return to Naboo some day in the near future for the conclusion to that confrontation.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily nodded silently as she powered up the speeder once more. She understood that the woman wouldn't want to get too much into it, and Lily respected that. Some matters were best left untouched except by those it involved.

Soon enough the pair were zooming off in the direction of their first stop again, the ground underneath them a mixture of damp and burnt. Like not too soggy burnt paper. "This is one crazy planet." the Lieutenant murmured, the stench of the acid filling her nostrils.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Quite." She said with a nod as the speeder putted along on its' path once more. "I sometimes wonder how the Kel-Dor live here. It's a very hostile planet."

Her eyes cast another glance up, checking the horizon in their path one last time. "We should be able to make it now. It's only about ten minutes out." Of course they still had a few more deliveries to make, but perhaps the weather would hold out for them this time. As unpredictable as the storms were they weren't always so frequent. Thankfully they also were most often relatively short bursts as well.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Beats me. But I guess given they can't survive off world without a mask, we're just getting to see what life is like for them." the Lieutenant said. The girl had never actually known a Kel-Dor. Well at least not personally. As a girl seen a few when in cities before, but she'd never known whether or not the masks they wore were mandatory or cultural. It wasn't until she arrived at the academy that she learned that Kel-Dor didn't breathe oxygen.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I do suppose that is fair." Having to wear a mask while on Dorin was certainly not ideal. It was only a small sample of what it was like for the Kel-Dor though, given that they were forced to wear their own respirators on just about every other planet, save for a small few in the galaxy. It seemed an extremely daunting task to maintain. Their own planet was hostile, and every other planet wanted to kill them.

She shivered at the idea of being one. What an unfortunate lifestyle. "I do not envy them, that is for sure."

Ever so slowly, ahead in the distance and through the haze of sand kicked up by the storm the two would begin to see the faintest outlines of a structure that would signify their return to civilization, and the hospital where they were to deliver the shipment.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Neither do I." the Lieutenant agreed. The faint outlines of buildings growing and becoming less of a specter made Lily let out a sigh of relief. To be out of this awful dust would be amazing...even if it were only briefly. She pushed the accelerator forward just a little more, eager to arrive sooner rather than later. "How many crates are we off loading here?" she asked, the air blowing past them with just a little more bite than it had before.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Just the one." Jamie said with a reluctant sigh. "The other two have to be brought elsewhere. But thankfully this is the furthest of the three destinations."

She looked back, ensuring they still had the cargo in tow. After all, what good would it do to arrive empty handed?

Thankfully it was all there still. "The other locations are just about five minutes apart from one another, and ten minutes from here."

The worst of the trip, aside from the return back to the spaceport, was over.

Hopefully.

[member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

"Sounds like we're through the worst of it." the Lieutenant said with a smile, now less than five minutes out from their destination. "We'll be back before the sun goes down, I think." Lily was quite interested to hear the complaints the remainder of Grey Squadron would have for her. She was sure it'd be amusing. Maybe Jamie would laugh too, one never knew. But, then again, a pilot's humor was usually far different than that of nobility.

[member="Jamie Pyne"]