Private What Wars Left Buried

[Meri Vale]

The ruins of Balmorra bore little resemblance to the ancient, hushed temples Meri usually frequented. There was no sense of quiet reverence buried beneath the collapse here, nor were there any carefully carved stones softened by centuries of weathering. Instead, the wreckage felt harsher and somehow younger, despite the layers of destruction. Metal and ferrocrete sprawled across the landscape in fractured scars, the remnants of wars too massive for the planet to ever fully survive. Half-collapsed bunkers sank into the earth beside the rusting skeletons of factories, while old artillery emplacements stared blankly over desolate fields where nothing healthy seemed eager to grow.

Yet, even in this industrial graveyard, there were patterns, and that was exactly why she had come.

Meri crouched beside a partially exposed blast door built into the side of a broken structure, her datapad balanced carefully against one knee as its pale blue light flickered across the weathered surface. Although most of the exterior markings had been burned away or stripped for salvage, faint fragments of technical notation still survived beneath the corrosion. Her stylus moved steadily across the screen, copying sections of the damaged script into a reconstruction program.

"Repeated directional notation," she murmured quietly into her recorder. "Likely evacuation routing or restricted personnel guidance. The structural reinforcement around the lower hinges suggests this level remained important even after the surface sustained heavy damage."

The fact that the deeper sections of the complex had not fully collapsed was enough to hold her interest. While most scavengers focused their efforts on weapon caches or salvageable machinery, Meri's attention lingered on the architecture itself. This blast door was too thick for ordinary storage and too deliberately hidden beneath the surrounding debris to be accidental; someone had clearly intended for whatever lay below to survive a bombardment, which usually meant one thing: information.

The wind shifted through the shattered remains of the structure, carrying dust and the distant, metallic groan of stressed beams from somewhere deeper in the ruins. Meri barely noticed the sound, her focus remaining fixed on the damaged symbols near the access panel as she worked through possible translations piece by piece.

Then, she paused.

It wasn't the ruins that caught her attention this time, but a subtle, measured movement. Different enough from the natural settling of the complex to be immediately distinct. Meri straightened slightly from her crouched position, one hand instinctively closing around the edge of her datapad while her gray eyes lifted toward the source of the noise. Though her posture tightened with caution, she did not retreat; people came to Balmorra for many reasons, and while not all of them were safe, her curiosity held her firmly in place.

"…someone else is here," she said softly, the words meant more for herself than any listener.

The structure fell quiet once more as the wind slipped through the fractured metal beams overhead. Meri remained kneeling near the blast door, waiting to see who else had chosen to wander through the buried remains beneath Balmorra's scarred surface.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

from around the corner hurried footsteps could be heard, then running. then a voice in the distance "hey! give that back you little thief, thats not food!" mthe running was getting closer and closer until from around the corner a little metal parasite comes runnig out and sliding to a stop, almost falling over. the little beast, basically just a head with long jaw and teeth, with long legs coming out of the side had a blaster in its mouth. it started to go down the hall until it saw Meri Vale where it yet again slid to a stop and looked around, unsure where to go.

suddenly a massive 4 armed snake man came rushing around the corner "there you are!" he said as he bend low to the ground slithering quickly towards the creature.

the creature tried to run but panicked since it didnt know where to go, until novac grabbed it with his top two arms "ugh finally, can i have my blaster back," he said raising up to his usually high and holding his bottom 2 hands under the mouth of the creature where the blaster was. it refused, so novac tried to pry the blaster from its mouth, yet again it refused. novac held his blaster in his hand, the creature hanging on to it by its mouth, legs dangling there. it'd jerk to try and get the blaster from novac but it did little. "um excuse me, this isnt food little one, it might hurt you, gimme," he said as he used his other 3 hands to pull the beast off. once finally off novac put it on the ground lightly and let it run off.

until now novac hadn't noticed the woman in the room until he turned his head. he almost jumped a little when he saw her "OH! uh hi there, didnt see you there. was just trying to get my blaster from that little guy." novac said but before he finished he remembered he should probably say, "oh im novac by the way, nice to meet you,"

 

[Meri Vale]

The sudden sound of running shattered the stillness of the ruined corridor so abruptly that Meri startled hard enough for her stylus to slip from her fingers. It clattered against the floor beside her boot just as the small mechanical creature came skidding around the corner with a blaster clenched between its teeth.

For one deeply confusing second, Meri simply stared. The parasite-like machine froze. She froze. Then both seemed equally uncertain what to do next.

By the time the much larger figure rounded the corner behind it, Meri had already taken a quick half-step backward away from the center of the hallway, clutching her datapad instinctively against her chest while her wide gray eyes flicked rapidly between the creature, the blaster, and the towering four-armed stranger pursuing it.

The scene unfolding in front of her was so wildly disconnected from what she had expected to encounter beneath Balmorra that her mind struggled briefly to organize it into anything coherent.

The creature had stolen the blaster. The enormous snake-like man was negotiating with it. Apparently unsuccessfully.

Meri watched in bewildered silence as Novac wrestled the weapon free with all the exhausted patience of someone who had dealt with this problem before. The little machine finally darted away once released, disappearing back into the ruins while the echoes of its metal legs faded into the distance.

Only then did Novac seem to notice she existed. Meri blinked once at the sight of him, and, strangely, that reaction alone eased some of the tension she had immediately felt when he first appeared. Dangerous people usually did not look surprised to find someone else in a ruin. They looked calculating.

"…it seemed very determined to keep it," she observed quietly after a moment.

Her gaze shifted briefly down toward the reclaimed blaster before returning to him. Up close, he was still undeniably intimidating in size alone, but the absurdity of the situation had largely dispelled the fear that realization might otherwise have caused.

Slowly, she bent to retrieve her fallen stylus from the floor.

"I am Meri Vale," she said once she straightened again, her tone settling back into cautious composure. "I was documenting the lower structure when your…companion arrived."

There was the faintest hesitation before the word companion, as though she was still uncertain exactly how to categorize the fleeing mechanical parasite. Her eyes drifted briefly toward the corridor the creature had disappeared into.

"Do they normally steal weapons?" she asked thoughtfully. "Or was that unusual behavior?"

The question was entirely sincere.

Even now, curiosity was steadily overriding surprise as she studied him more carefully. The extra arms. The way he moved. The casual familiarity with the dangerous little machine. None of it aligned with the scavengers or mercenaries she had expected to find wandering old Balmorran ruins.

Then her attention caught briefly on the fact that he had come from deeper within the structure. Immediately, her focus sharpened.

"You came from the eastern corridor," she said, almost more to herself than him. "Did you find another access route?"

And just like that, the ruins reclaimed priority over almost everything else.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

putting the blaster back under his cloak "oh that little thing, eh kinda, they eat metal and well blasters are made of metal so you can imagine why it had my blaster." they usually just ate scrap or whatnot but that one saw novac blaster as he was laying on his back trying to get under a fallen bit of rubble and ran of with his blaster. "pretty sure they just saw something really shiny and wanted it, kimd of like some birds i guess."

when asked about how he came in novac put both of his right hands on his "hip". "oh yea a bit further east there was a small tunnel made from a collapsed part of the place, due to my body i was able to get through. took a little while to get through though but i managed. anyway, you said you where documenting the place huh? may i ask what exactly? if its any better i'll explain my reason for being here. im kind of a "collector" when it comes to droids, not like a put em away and just look at em, kind of collector mind you. but i know they use to make some here so i though might as well see if theres any old schematics left down below. scavengers usually only take physical stuff like droids themselves and dont always come down here so i thought schematic where the best bet."

he'd been to other old factorys before and only occasionally found any schematics but still there could always be something good. "and its also always kind of interesting to think of what this place use to be. how many people use to be here, there must have been so many people who used this hall almost everyday. but now it sits alone. kind of sad in a way sometimes, seeing places left forgotten and rusting ya know?"novac realized he was about to start going on a tangent but stopped himself, this was a new person, cant say everything all at once.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri listened carefully as Novac explained the creature's behavior, her tension ebbing as he spoke. The image of a mechanical parasite sprinting off with a heavy blaster simply because it was "shiny" settled into her mind with unexpected ease. Despite her usual reserve, a faint trace of amusement touched her expression.

"That is an incredibly dangerous survival instinct," she observed quietly, her gaze drifting toward the dark corridor where the creature had vanished. "Though I suppose most scavengers could be described similarly."

As Novac detailed his entry point, Meri's focus sharpened. A secondary access tunnel explained the inconsistent airflow patterns she'd been unable to map. Her fingers moved instinctively across her datapad, sketching a rough adjustment to the structural diagram: Collapsed eastern section; maintenance route preserved beneath debris.

Only when the notation was secure did she look back up at him. The more he spoke, the more the initial absurdity of their meeting softened into something comfortable. Most people she encountered in ruins chased either credits or adrenaline, but Novac's enthusiasm for schematics and forgotten infrastructure felt genuine. To Meri, that sincerity was more disarming than she cared to admit.

"I am documenting the structure itself," she explained, tilting her datapad to show the transitional layouts. "Architectural patterns, surviving notation—evidence of how people were expected to move and work. Factories especially."

Her voice softened as she leaned into his observation about the silence of the ruins. "You are right, though. These places feel... strange once the pulse of life is gone."

She looked down the rusting hallway, noting the floor's wear patterns where thousands of boots had once marched. "Someone designed this for workers, technicians, and shift rotations. There would have been noise regulations and schedules." A faint crease appeared between her brows. "Now, the loudest thing here is a metal parasite with a penchant for grand larceny."

The dry humor was subtle, but unmistakable. Her attention returned to Novac, her curiosity finally overriding her caution.

"You collect droids because you enjoy the repair," she noted, fitting the piece into her mental profile of him. "Not for the market value." It wasn't a question; it was an acknowledgment of a kindred spirit.

She gestured toward the eastern dark. "How stable was that tunnel? If it connects beneath the collapsed levels, there may be intact engineering records or archives deeper inside." Despite the inherent danger of Balmorra's shifting foundations, the spark of the historian was now fully lit in her eyes.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

novac let out a small chuckle "yea not the best is it, definitely shouldt let it see an explosive thats for sure, unless you want to kill it i guess." novac listened as she spoke, she seemed quite genuine so he felt lile he could relax a little around her. all to often had he encountered some scavenger who shot first and never asked questions so this was a nice change of pace.

" i believe its stable enough, though would be nice to reinforce it if we could. i did see another tunnel branching off going lower down. was going to start down there till that little thief ran off in here. care to explore it with me? or anything here getting your interest you'd like to check first? i'd be lying if i said i wouldn't like the company. never know what might happen in places like this." novac remembered the one time he almost got trapped in a crashed star destroyer when the section he was in collapsed. he had to slowly carve a way out with his lightsabers for about a day he was so far down. besides having someone to talk to was nice, as was a second pair of eyes.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri listened as Novac spoke, and for perhaps the first time since meeting him, the guarded caution she carried so naturally began to ease in a noticeable way. There was something unexpectedly reassuring about how casually he spoke about the dangers around them, not because he dismissed them, but because he seemed to understand them without becoming consumed by them. Most people she encountered in ruins were either recklessly confident or perpetually tense. Novac simply sounded experienced.

The image of him trapped inside a collapsed Star Destroyer for an entire day briefly surfaced in her imagination after he mentioned tunnels and cave-ins, and although he spoke lightly, she could immediately recognize the sort of danger he was referring to. Structures like this did not fail cleanly when they collapsed. They folded inward unpredictably, turning corridors into crushing traps with almost no warning.

Still, none of that diminished her curiosity. If anything, it sharpened it.

"A lower tunnel branching away from the main collapse probably means maintenance access or secondary infrastructure," she said thoughtfully, already turning the possibilities over in her mind. "If scavengers focused on the upper factory levels, then deeper archive systems or engineering storage may have been overlooked entirely."

Her datapad was already back in her hands now, the stylus moving quickly as she added new structural possibilities to her rough diagrams while he spoke. The more information she gathered, the more the buried facility beneath them began to assemble itself into something coherent in her thoughts.

When Novac admitted he would like the company, however, her attention lifted from the screen almost immediately. Its honesty caught her slightly off guard. Not because the request itself was strange, but because so few people ever stated things that directly. For a brief moment, she looked genuinely uncertain how to respond to it before a small, shy smile finally appeared at the corner of her mouth. "I would like the company too," she admitted quietly. The words came softer than most of what she said, but there was no hesitation in them once spoken.

Her eyes drifted briefly toward the eastern corridor he had mentioned earlier, where the deeper tunnels waited somewhere beneath the collapsed sections of the facility. Even from here, the dark passageways seemed to carry that familiar pull she always felt around abandoned places: the sense that answers still existed somewhere just beyond the visible structure.

"And honestly," she continued, the faint trace of dry humor returning to her voice, "if there are metal creatures stealing weapons down here, I suspect having someone experienced with them nearby is probably wise."

She adjusted the strap of her satchel more securely across her shoulder before stepping a little closer to him, noticeably more comfortable now than when he had first come sliding around the corner after the fleeing parasite.

"I do want to see the lower tunnel," she said, her gray eyes sharpening again with unmistakable interest. "Especially if it extends beneath the production levels. Facilities like this usually separate their knowledge archives from the primary manufacturing sections to protect records during accidents or sabotage."

A brief pause followed before she glanced up at him again.

"Though if the tunnel collapses while we are inside it," she added thoughtfully, "I would prefer not to spend an entire day cutting through wreckage."

The statement was delivered with complete sincerity, though the faint amusement behind it was unmistakable now.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

novac let out a soft chuckle, "i dont either, luckily i have a little beacon that sends signals to my droids onboard my frigate. if its interrupted or if i have it send more signals they'll come get me, or in this case, us. but i'd still rather not need that to happen. anyway this way." he says waving his hand as he turns and goes back the way he came.

a minute or two of going down the hall they reach it. a tunnel leading slightly up. it wasnt tall enough for meri to stand in, much less novac. but it was tall enoug to easily crouch through. it looked sturdy enough to last a few years at least. "if you follow this going up you end up outside. a little bit in theres a small drop into what is either another tunnel or hallway. didnt get much time to look but i did see it goes down. i'll go first." he lowers himself to the ground while putting his arms to his side, now slithering across the ground he leads her through and to the drop. it was a opening about 4 feet tall and 5 feet long. little to no light so novac retrieved two lights from inside his cloak. offering one to meri "need one? i always keep a spare on me"

now going into the opening a little he looked more now then he could earlier. it was a hallway, to the right was a wall of rubble. to the left where stairs going down into the unknown. "ooh it goes even further down then i though, we're in luck i guess." he said as he slowly slithered down and onto the floor, the last bit of his tail landing on the floor with a soft thud. "its not to far a drop, about 8 feet i'd say, want me to catch you?" he said jokingly.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri followed Novac through the ruined corridor with noticeably less hesitation than she had shown earlier, though her attention still drifted constantly across the surrounding structure as they moved. Even while listening to him explain the emergency beacon connected to his frigate, part of her focus remained fixed on the walls, floor seams, and collapsed reinforcement points as she quietly assembled a mental reconstruction of what the lower facility might once have looked like before war and time had reduced it to buried fragments.

Still, the mention of rescue droids caught her attention, prompting her to admit thoughtfully, "That is actually a very sensible precaution, though the fact you require a contingency plan specifically for being trapped beneath collapsing industrial ruins suggests this happens to you far more often than is statistically reasonable." The observation carried the same dry seriousness she usually defaulted toward, yet by now, the faint humor beneath it had become familiar rather than accidental.

As they reached the narrow tunnel entrance, her attention shifted fully toward the structure itself, and she immediately crouched near the opening to run the beam of her datapad's auxiliary light across the support points and fractured metal edges. While Novac explained where the path led, she noted that although the tunnel was crude and formed by collapse rather than intentional excavation, the surviving reinforcement ribs suggested the framework had originally been designed to withstand far heavier pressure than the ruined levels now resting above it. "The support lattice is still partially intact," she murmured while studying the exposed framework, "which explains why this section survived the collapse chain."

When Novac offered her a stronger light, she accepted it with visible appreciation, finding that the beam illuminated the tunnel far more effectively than her datapad ever could. Her curiosity sharpened almost instantly once the deeper passage became visible, and whatever nervousness she might have felt about crawling into unstable ruins steadily gave way to the possibility of undiscovered infrastructure waiting below. Following carefully behind Novac's slithering form, she kept one hand on her satchel while the other held the light low, finding that the confined space felt more like an invitation than an oppression as her anticipation grew.

Upon reaching the opening, Meri leaned over the edge and swept her light through the newly revealed hallway, where the rubble blocking one direction barely held her interest before the descending staircase reclaimed her focus. Her eyes narrowed as she cataloged the possibilities—lower administrative levels, archives, or maintenance access—until Novac's joking offer to catch her produced a flash of visible alarm. That realization caused a faint, embarrassed warmth to creep into her expression before she regained her composure.

"I appreciate the offer," she replied with a dry humor that surfaced more easily than before, "but I think the probability of both of us surviving improves if I attempt the descent independently." Remaining crouched, she lowered her light first before shifting over the edge and hanging briefly from the lip to shorten the drop. The landing, however, was not especially graceful; she hit harder than intended and stumbled upon impact, only narrowly avoiding a fall by catching herself against the nearby wall with a startled breath.

For a deeply offended second, she remained frozen there as if personally annoyed by the laws of gravity, but she soon straightened and brushed the dust from her sleeves with wounded dignity. Looking back toward Novac, she informed him calmly, "…that was still preferable to the alternative."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

"eh only a couple times, nome as bad as that star destroyer time. but once or twice is enough to want a back up." he said at her mention of it seemingly happening to much. "though i guess being trapped by rubble once is more then the average person goes through.
novac gave a little chuckle at her comment once she regained her footing. "fair enough."
he then turned to look down the stairs, it went down for a while but his light could still reach the bottom. as he went up to the edge he noticed the thick layer of dust coating the floor and walls, his tail leaving a slight trail behind him. "man, no body has been down in in...probably since this place was abandoned. that means we might be the fist to come down here, incredible, i cant imagine what we might find down here. welp no time like the present" he said as he started to go down the stair.
Meri Vale

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri brushed the remaining dust from her sleeves with the solemn dignity of someone refusing to acknowledge that her landing had been anything less than entirely intentional. Novac's chuckle at her expense earned the faintest narrowing of her eyes, though the expression lacked any genuine irritation as she informed him calmly, "I am choosing to interpret that response as supportive rather than observational."

Turning her attention fully toward the descending staircase, the earlier embarrassment vanished beneath immediate fascination the moment her light swept across the lower corridor. What she saw was a rarity in her field: undisturbed dust, not the scattered debris patterns left by scavengers or maintenance crews, but a complete, uninterrupted layer coating the stairs and walls alike. Even Novac's passage had left a starkly visible disruption, the long trail of his tail marking the surface in pale streaks that stood out sharply against the otherwise untouched floor.

Meri stepped closer to the top stair, her light tracing along the edges of the corridor while her thoughts visibly accelerated. "The particulate accumulation is uniform," she murmured almost absently, noting the lack of "secondary compression patterns or fragmented displacement fields." Her eyes narrowed as the realization settled into place, leading her to admit, "…you may actually be correct."

For a brief moment, she simply stood there staring into the untouched lower level with an expression bordering on reverent, silenced by the possibility that they had found a site free of scavengers, restoration teams, and excavation damage. If the structure had truly remained sealed since abandonment, then whatever survived beneath them had escaped centuries of interference, a thought that thrilled her visibly.

"Do you understand how statistically improbable this is?" she asked, turning toward Novac with an excitement she made little effort to conceal. "Most ruins are discovered in layers where looters remove artifacts and salvage teams dismantle infrastructure before historians ever arrive to reconstruct the remains, but this…" her voice softened as she gestured toward the staircase, "…this still has context."

To Meri, that context mattered more than any physical treasure. She moved to follow him down the stairs, trailing one hand along the wall for balance while keeping her light angled ahead, her earlier caution now competing directly against a mounting anticipation. Every layer of dust and intact seam in the architecture deepened the feeling that they were descending into something preserved rather than merely abandoned.

After several steps, her gaze shifted briefly back toward her companion. "Also," she added, her characteristic dryness returning effortlessly, "I feel obligated to point out that the phrase 'star destroyer time' was introduced into this conversation with deeply insufficient explanation. You cannot reference surviving a collapsed warship and reasonably expect me not to ask follow-up questions."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

novac couldnt help but feel the wall as he went down, feeling all the dust thats built up. "i almost cant believe this. yea scavengers usually pick places clean but this is untouched. i almost feel bad for "disturbing" it in a way. who know what could have been forgotten down here. what history is here."

novac realized he let that star destroyer part slip. "oh yea thats what i was trapped in for a while. it was on some forest world i cant remember the name of. it clearly been there a long while. moss and plants growing all over it, even some trees. as i was exploring a section collapsed and trapped me in there for a while. luckily the whole thing didnt come down, it was a section towards the edge of the ship where it was thinner and less supports. good thing i had my lightsabers and was able to slowly tunnel out. took a loong while though."

as they reached the bottom of the stairs it was even more obvious no on had been down here in years, it was in fairly good condition, well fairly good for a section of ruins. but there weren't any areas with major damage or decay.

to the left was a hallway that ended in a bend to the right, infront another hallway with 2 doors on either side going into some unknown rooms.

"well, i say we try those two rooms first, hopefully the doors wont be stuck shut. then again theres ways around locked or broken doors."

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri moved slowly across the lower corridor beside Novac, her light sweeping methodically over the preserved walls and floor while she absorbed the strange stillness surrounding them. The deeper they ventured into the buried structure, the less it felt like a ruin and the more like something merely waiting to be rediscovered. Dust lay thick across every untouched surface, yet beneath it the architecture remained remarkably intact, preserved with a level of structural stability that felt increasingly deliberate rather than accidental.

Novac's comment about disturbing the place drew a thoughtful look from her as she brushed her fingertips lightly along the wall beside them, leaving narrow trails of dust.

"I think forgotten places only truly disappear when no one remembers they existed at all," she said quietly. "At least this way, whatever happened here still has the possibility of being understood."

Her gaze drifted down the untouched corridor ahead of them, lingering briefly on the preserved seams in the walls and the thick stillness hanging through the lower level.

"Most ruins lose their context long before historians ever reach them," she continued thoughtfully. "Scavengers remove anything valuable, then time removes everything else. What remains afterward is usually fragmented enough that people spend decades trying to reconstruct what was originally obvious."

The fact that this place still possessed that context visibly fascinated her.

As Novac elaborated on the Star Destroyer incident, however, her attention shifted back toward him almost immediately. By the time he finished describing tunneling his way through a collapsed warship with lightsabers over the course of an entire day, Meri had developed the unmistakable expression of someone trying very hard to determine whether another person was exceptionally resilient or catastrophically reckless.

Possibly both.

"You continue to describe objectively horrifying experiences with a level of calm that I find increasingly concerning," she informed him seriously.

The dryness beneath the statement softened it considerably.

"Most people would categorize being trapped inside a partially collapsed military vessel beneath a forest as traumatic."

Still, despite the concern hidden beneath her words, there was unmistakable curiosity there, too. The image of an ancient Star Destroyer overgrown with moss, roots, and trees had clearly lodged itself firmly inside her imagination already.

When they finally reached the bottom of the staircase, Meri slowed almost immediately.

The lower level remained in astonishing condition.

Her light moved carefully across the corridor ahead, tracing preserved doorframes, intact wall plating, and dust thick enough to suggest centuries without meaningful intrusion. Even the doors themselves appeared structurally stable despite their age, which was statistically unlikely given the deterioration visible throughout the upper sections of the ruin.

That alone immediately drew her suspicion.

Meri stepped slowly toward the nearest doorway without touching it yet, her focus narrowing as she examined the hinges, frame seams, and surrounding wall structure with visible concentration.

"If these rooms remained sealed intentionally," she murmured thoughtfully, "then it is possible this level retained environmental regulation systems long after the upper sections failed."

Her light angled briefly downward as she studied the dust patterns near the base of the doors.

Then her brow furrowed slightly. "Or someone specifically wanted this section preserved." That possibility appeared to excite her considerably more than it alarmed her.

When Novac mentioned alternative methods for opening locked doors, however, her attention snapped back toward him immediately. "Before we begin cutting through ancient infrastructure," she said carefully, "I would strongly prefer confirming these doors are not pressure sealed, structurally linked, or trapped."

Her gaze shifted back toward the corridor again.

"People who construct hidden archives tend to become very defensive about unauthorized entry."

After a brief pause, she added with complete seriousness: "And based on recent experience, that increasingly appears to involve acid, explosives, hostile droids, or all three simultaneously."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

"or a blaster. one time i was going through some abandoned building with one of my droids, they opened a door and got a blaster to the chest, tripwire. that i am much more concerned about then being temporarily trapped."

novac thought for a moment, it probably was good how calm he was about being trapped in ruins...he'll have to think about that later.

going up to the door he put his bottom left hand on the door "i didnt mean cut in right away of course, im not that careless. if only i had a probe droid with me, rather them not be hurt of course but they can always be fixed"

as his hand was on the door he closed his eyes and sent out waves of force like a radar scanner, he couldn't tell much but it seemed safe enough. "hmm i dont sense anything hostile. buut we can never be to sure."

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri listened with visible concern as Novac casually described a droid opening a trapped door and immediately taking a blaster shot to the chest, noting how he delivered the story with the same conversational tone someone might use to discuss poor weather. This nonchalance only deepened the increasingly strange impression she was forming of him, as his experiences seemed to deviate wildly from any standard academic or exploratory norm.

"You appear to encounter an alarming number of weaponized ruins," she observed seriously as she stepped closer to examine the doorway beside him. The dryness beneath the statement remained unmistakable, punctuated by a slight tilt of her head. "I am beginning to suspect your definition of normal exploration conditions differs significantly from the galactic average."

Still, she seemed reassured by the fact that he had not intended to immediately carve through the door with a lightsaber, a possibility that had remained disturbingly plausible in her mind, given his earlier suggestions.

As Novac rested his hand against the ancient door and closed his eyes, Meri fell quiet and watched him carefully. She could not fully understand what he was doing the way someone naturally attuned to the Force might, yet after her recent experiences, she recognized enough to see that he was reaching outward to sense through the structure beyond ordinary perception. The realization still fascinated her, pulling her attention away from her own mechanical assessments for a fleeting moment.
While he concentrated, Meri crouched slightly near the edge of the doorway and angled her light carefully across the seams, hinges, and floor plating surrounding the entrance. Dust coated nearly every surface in uninterrupted layers, yet she noticed faint inconsistencies near the lower-right corner, where the accumulation appeared subtly thinner than in the surrounding areas. This was not a recent disturbance caused by their arrival, but rather something much older and mechanical in nature.

"The door has been opened before," she murmured thoughtfully, tracing the light along the floor to highlight the faint marks. "Not recently, but often enough at some point that the wear patterns remain visible even beneath the heavy settling of dust."
Her gaze lifted slowly toward the frame itself, her mind already calculating the implications of such a discovery. "Which is either encouraging or deeply concerning, depending on what exactly was being moved through here."

When Novac finally admitted they could never be completely certain, Meri straightened again with a small exhale that almost resembled reluctant agreement.

"That may be the single most reassuring statement you have made since we entered this ruin," she informed him quietly, her posture relaxing just a fraction. "Overconfidence in ancient structures generally correlates strongly with catastrophic outcomes, so I am glad we are on the same page regarding our potential demise."

Her eyes drifted once more toward the sealed room beyond the door as her curiosity began to win out over her caution yet again.
"If there are intact lower archives here," she said softly, speaking more to herself now than to him, "then whatever was considered important enough to preserve may still exist exactly where it was left thousands of years ago."
The thought alone visibly sharpened her focus, sweeping away the lingering remnants of her hesitation. After another moment examining the door's interface, she finally glanced back toward Novac with a look of tempered resolve.

"All right," she said carefully, signaling her readiness to proceed. "But if this releases hostile droids, ancient toxins, or automated weapon systems, I reserve the right to say I warned you repeatedly before we even crossed the threshold."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

novac was about to retort her statement of his definition of normal being different but stopped himself for a moment. "yea your probably right. at least im not going out of my way to purposefully find dangerous ruins."
she was right, it had been opened since the place was left abandoned. "thats..more then worrying. here stand back a bit" he said as he moved back. once she moved back with him he used the force to open the door slowly. at first it didnt budge so novac floated one of his sabers over to cut the lock. the door opened a bit slow, even if it was opened since the place was abandoned it didnt mean it wasnt old. once the door was fully open the two of them stood there for a moment waiting...waiting...waiting...nothing happened. "hmm doesnt seem like theres anything..oh wait give me a moment." he said as he yet again floated his saber to the now open door. he moved it around the doorway for a moment before returning it to its place under his cloak. "ok so nothing automated that would shoot at anything moving."

the two of them slowly approachd the door way from the side. novac looked down at meri, "ladys first right? kidding" he slowly peaked his head in as well as his light. "well nothing dangerous." moving to infront of the door he made a small bow and put his hands out "now ladys first" he said jokingly.
Meri Vale

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri watched with visible relief when Novac paused long enough to reconsider his own definition of normal exploration practices, though the faint amusement lingering in her expression suggested she still considered his standards deeply questionable.

"That is only marginally reassuring," she informed him calmly as she stepped back when instructed.

Her attention remained fixed on the ancient doorway while Novac used the Force to pull it open, the heavy mechanism groaning softly with age as dust shifted loose from the surrounding frame. Even after the lock was cut, Meri stayed perfectly still beside him, waiting through the long silence afterward with the kind of focused caution belonging to someone fully expecting ancient ruins to become hostile at any moment. Nothing happened at least initially, but when Novac floated the lightsaber around the frame to check for automated defenses, Meri followed the movement carefully with her light, her shoulders visibly relaxing only slightly once he confirmed nothing appeared ready to shoot them on sight.

"Your investigative methods continue to be significantly more dramatic than mine," she observed dryly.

As they approached the doorway together, she angled her light carefully across the threshold first, rather than immediately stepping through, illuminating layers of untouched dust, old wall plating, and the faint outlines of whatever waited deeper inside the chamber beyond. Then Novac bowed and gestured for her to come forward with exaggerated politeness, causing Meri to simply stare at him for a quiet moment before the corner of her mouth lifted into a genuine smile.

Carefully shifting her satchel higher against her shoulder, she responded by offering him a small, equally formal bow of her own, though hers carried the unmistakable precision of someone academically committed to the bit once she accepted it.

"Your bravery in volunteering me for potential disintegration is deeply appreciated," she replied with complete seriousness, the faint humor beneath the words remaining unmistakable.

Straightening again, Meri slowly swept the beam of her light deeper into the chamber one final time before finally crossing the threshold herself, her steps remaining cautious and measured carefully against the ancient floor as though half expecting the ruin to object to their presence after all. Still, curiosity outweighed hesitation as she moved farther into the room, her light traveling slowly across the interior walls and whatever ancient remnants had survived untouched all these years, while her voice drifted quietly back toward Novac behind her.

"If something does attempt to kill us," she said thoughtfully, "I would like it formally noted that I entered first entirely out of politeness."

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

"hey if it my investigation methods work they work"

he was amused to see she was returning the joking bow. "hey its not like i didnt look or anything, besides i went in front of the door and wasnt shot at or attacked."

"noted" he said following her in. once in he looked around, light going over dusty bookselfs, selves, and a desk with some old datapads on it. that got his attention immediately. moving over them he took a look, turning them on and taking care to not disturb it to much. "hmm seems like some financial stuff, not relly my thing dont know if you'd be interested. hm, wonder why this was lower down. seems like just a office, maybe a office for someone higher up in the chain of command. then again those are usually higher up, and the real question. why was this place entered more recently then anywhere else we've seen." looking at the bookselfs he thought 'maybe if i move one a secret passage would open, wouldn't that be fun. taking a look at what was on the selves themselves it was mostly things he hadnt heard off, as well as some official thing, datapad documents and what not. "could look through all these, would be here a while and theres a lot to this place to see though." he couldnt stop thinkig something must be in here, why would someone have been in here after the place fell to ruin.

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri stepped carefully into the room beside him, her flashlight sweeping slowly across the dust-coated shelves and scattered office furnishings while the stale air shifted faintly around them. Compared to the unstable corridors above, the chamber felt strangely preserved, not untouched exactly, but insulated from the broader collapse consuming the rest of the facility. Even the layer of dust coating the floor appeared thinner near the doorway and around the desk itself, subtle enough that most people likely would not have noticed it at all.

She absolutely noticed it.

As Novac moved immediately toward the datapads with visible enthusiasm, Meri crouched near one of the lower shelves instead, angling her light carefully along the floor-wall junctions while listening to him speculate aloud about hidden passages and financial records. The mental image of him dramatically shoving aside a bookshelf in search of a secret tunnel caused the faintest trace of amusement to touch her expression.

"If a hidden passage opens after you pull a random datapad dramatically from the shelf, I may be forced to reconsider several academic positions regarding architectural design," she informed him dryly.

Her fingers brushed lightly against the edge of the wall before she straightened again and turned her attention toward the desk area.

"You are right about one thing, though," she continued thoughtfully, moving closer to inspect the room more carefully. "This does not fit the surrounding structure properly."

Her flashlight passed over the shelves, the desk, and finally the old datapads beside Novac.

"Administrative offices are usually positioned closer to active personnel traffic, especially in industrial facilities. Lower sections like this are generally reserved for maintenance access, storage, power distribution, or restricted operations."

She paused beside the doorway again, glancing down at the dust patterns.

"And someone definitely entered this room after the rest of the structure was abandoned."

That conclusion emerged with complete certainty.

"Not recently," she clarified, "but long after the facility itself stopped functioning."

Her attention drifted toward the shelves again as she slowly crossed the room.

Unlike Novac, she did not immediately believe there was necessarily treasure hidden inside, but she did believe there was intent here, and intent interested her far more than valuables ever could.

"Financial records may still matter depending on who maintained them," she said thoughtfully while running her flashlight across the faded labels on several storage binders. "People rarely risk entering unstable ruins for ordinary bookkeeping. If someone came back here intentionally, either the room itself mattered, or something inside it did."

She stopped briefly near one particular shelf where the dust appeared uneven along the lower edge.

Not disturbed recently.

But disturbed more than the surrounding area.

Meri crouched carefully, narrowing her eyes slightly as she examined it.

"Though for the record," she added without looking up, "if you dramatically pull a book from that shelf and trigger a hidden staircase, I reserve the right to be extremely annoyed that fictional adventure stories were apparently correct."

Despite the dryness of the remark, the growing curiosity in her voice made it painfully obvious she secretly hoped he might.

Novac Lyrikal

 

[Novac Lyrikal]

looking over his shoulder at her "not that i'd think it'd happen just that it'd be fun. if i wanted a secret room i would."

as he continued to look at some datapads, none of which having much interesting things on them he added "and its not lile im "looking for treasure" i just thought of stories where that happens, as unrealistic as it is."

as he noticed her looking closely at a shelf he stopped "wait..dont tell me what im thinking is right. do you think there might be something hidden behind there?" he approached her and looked at the dust as she was. "oh dang no way my joke might be true." he said in a quite surprised voice.