First Reply Wonders of Yore

[Zelannia Arcrin]

[Desert Fortress by Greg Semkow]​

Insignificant Arid World, Wild Space
Around Noon Local Time

With a harsh sun battering down from above and twin moons engaged in a neverending tug-of-war over the few stable bodies of water that clung to the arid globe unimaginatively designated LPHP-1661 by a corporate exploration fleet in centuries past, it was no wonder that no permanent settlements had taken root, despite its relative proximity to a local hyperlane connecting planets of some significance.

Much like everyone else, Crowe too would have passed it by - had it not been for the distress signal echoing forth from a very much intact starship positioned squarely in the middle of the rocky deserts that dominated its southernmost continent.

Was it a trap? Maybe. Was it dangerous? Probably. Was there good salvage to be had? Almost certainly.

---

As it turned out, the landing zone was quite abandoned, with the exception of the lone postgrad student that was currently clinging to the Miraluka's legs, shivering despite the heat and exhaling a mixture of dire warnings and unintelligible rambling as if his life depended on it.

"Don't be silly." Turning his helmet to the side in a gesture of puzzlement, Crowe's voice came out oddly cheery. "There's no such thing as ghosts."

---

OOC: Here we go again, the pitch is simple - mysterious alien ruins with a pair of ships next to it, one belonging to a university of some kind and the other a truly hideous Ugly. Enter based on the distress signal, enter based on an affiliation with the unspecified educational institution, enter based on a Force Vision you had in the shower two hours ago - whatever works for you.

In a similar manner, there's no grand plan here, I'm throwing out a hook and seeing if anyone takes it. Will there be ghosts? Maybe. Ancient droids? Probably. Alien languages neither of us know how to decipher? Almost certainly. Unsafe working conditions? That's the Crowe guarantee!

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

"Well, whaddya think?"

Alyosha studied the three ships which were now parked side by side on the Insignificant Arid Planet the distress signal had lured them to. His eyes flicked from the university vessel, to the YX-Wing, to his own ship, the Harlock. In particular his gaze lingered on the latter two, studying them with greater intensity and attention to detail. Then, he pursed his lips, turned to his pilot, Theo Vathek, and answered the question.

"I still think ours is uglier."

Theo laughed. "I knew you were gonna say that. Say, man, we must have the ugliest piece of junk this side of Coruscant. Maybe in the whole galaxy. And you know it's worse because somebody made this thing this way and thought it looked good - whoever crapshooted this one probably only cared about adding a bunch of fancy gadgets and gizmos."

Alyosha snorted. "I better go see what's up with that distress signal. Take care of yourself and hold down the fort while I'm gone."

"You got it. I'll just be right in here," Theo replied. He giggled under his breath and rubbed his hands together as he headed back inside the Harlock, overjoyed that he could keep his title as pilot of the most hideous ship ever flown, regardless of whether or not beauty was truly in the eye of the beholder.

Alyosha instead headed for the university vessel, from which the signal had originated. When he and Theo had arrived, there was no one visible on the landing pad anymore. When he reached the bottom of the ramp, however, he sensed two other presences inside. His hand drifted to his lightspear, but while he removed it from his hip, he neither extended it nor ignited the blade. The weight of the weapon in his hand was nonetheless comforting as he ascended up into the not-so-abandoned ship.

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Completely untrained as he was, Crowe's senses gave him no supernatural awareness of approaching strangers - the Super Tactical Droid's head welded into the Flying Coffin was kind enough to let him know, however, albeit in a suitably reluctant manner.

"Very good... though I don't know what a "sailing ship" is, Reginald."

"For the one thousandth and forty-seventh time, my designation is Aut-L even if your puny faculties ..."

Having already tuned out the silly droid and the whimpering student, Crowe turned towards the entrance, the movement made awkward by the fact that the latter still refused to let go. Despite the lack of an actual visor (a metal plate seemed to have been welded in its place) the slender humanoid seemed quite able to see the stranger, at least in his own way, "gaze" immediately landing on the plasmathingamajig at his hip.

"Ooooo, is that a lightsaber? Never seen an intact one, a bit long isn't it? Not very good for close quarters?" Patting the shock baton on his hip contently while cheerfully ignoring the fact that it was otherwise a much inferior weapon, his introductory rambling continued unabated.

"Does that mean you're a Jedi? Or, oh, a Sith? Or, uh, a Witch?"

Did witches even use energy swords? They did in some stories, but in others they just hit people with brooms.

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

Pausing once he reached whatever part of the ship held the two presences, Alyosha had a chance to size them both up. A helmet (?) clad fellow with the gangling physique and immature voice of a teenage boy, and a college-age guy clinging to him like a frightened child. The latter was so blatantly terrified that his knees were actually knocking together.

"Ooooo, is that a lightsaber? Never seen an intact one, a bit long isn't it? Not very good for close quarters?"

"It's a lightspear, actually," Alyosha replied, tilting his head curiously. The motion of the helmeted one's hand toward his own weapon didn't go unnoticed, but Alyosha just snorted at the gesture. As if it was worth bothering with these two. "And you're right, it's not much good in close quarters. Given the circumstances, I suppose that yours is as big as mine."

"Does that mean you're a Jedi? Or, oh, a Sith? Or, uh, a Witch?"

"It means that I'm here to respond to a distress signal." He nodded to the simpering college student. "So, what seems to be the problem?"

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Quirking his head sideways in another display of puzzlement, Crowe's voice betrayed his amusement? "Lightspear? Does that mean it just has a teeny tiny plasma tip? Doesn't seem very practical." Head quirking further still at the stranger's second comment, the Miraluka seemed... baffled.

Where Force Users in general prone to insanity? Would explain the Sith and the Jedi alike, that's for sure.

"Same as me, then!" Turning to the college student clutching to his legs, he made another effort to dislodge him then sighed dramatically. "Well, there's the ruins, obviously - that's where this guy says he came from. Went in with a whole team, came out alone. Says they were attacked by ghosts - which is silly, obviously. I bet it was hidden weapons, oh, or ancient super-droids, oh, or both of the previous controlled by a malfunctioning AI!"

That last part seemed to have stirred the fully-covered Miraluka to action, or at least made him gaze longingly in the direction of the partially artificial rock formation they were parked next to, despite the fact that there was a bulkhead in the way.

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

Alyosha sighed as his (admittedly awkward, now that he had the benefit of hindsight) joke bombed. He was never much of a comedian. Reaching over his shoulder, he tapped the butt of the rifle strapped to his back. “If the quarters are too tight for my spear, I can always just start shooting.” He turned his attention to the student. “What exactly was this team of yours looking for?”

“W-we were supposed to find out what was inside,” the student stammered. “The r-ruins were only recently discovered—built to look like rock, blend in with the natural landscape. Nobody knew what to expect.”

“Let me guess. You went in prepared for the worst but expecting the best?”

The student gulped, and his voice came out barely above a whisper. “It wasn’t enough. There were ghosts in there. We went in with a dozen people, and… and now I’m the only one left.”

Alyosha narrowed his eyes at the student, holding eye contact. Though the rest of his face was too boyish to be intimidating, Alyosha had found that his hard glare worked to unbind some of the less seasoned veterans of the galaxy—and he wanted to be sure the hapless student was telling the truth, for both his sake and Helmet Head’s. He maintained his gaze until the poor guy shuddered, but didn’t look away. Satisfied, he grunted and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Since I take it you're not well-equipped to come with us, but there's still safety in numbers, I suppose you better stay in my ship—it’s the really ugly pirate-themed one. My pilot’s inside, name’s Theo. Tell him I sent you. Oh, and he’s a Wroonian, not a Pantoran—he gets a little pissy sometimes when people confuse the two.”

While the student scurried off, Alyosha turned back to the kid with the helmet. “Not to be a nasty old fogey, kid, but how old are you? Sixteen, seventeen? The hell are you doing out here answering distress signals all by yourself?”

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Clapping his hands enthusiastically as the terrified man finally left, Crowe betrayed no hint of having been unnerved by the "ghost story" - clearly silly people being silly and stepping into traps, as far as he was concerned. The follow-up question caught him off guard, however.

After a long pause, the helmeted scavenger shrugged.

"Sounds about right." Leaving no room for reply, he tapped the nearest bulkhead with a gloved finger once, twice, thrice. "Distress signals are prime component sources! When everyone is dead, anyway. Not so much when someone is left to complain about it."

Frowning under the helmet as he realized that might be consider impolite, he shrugged again.

"Aaaaaanyway, ruins are almost as good! When made by an advanced species, anyway, here's hoping! Shall we?"

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

Crikey. He was dealing with a fething nutcase. Again.

Luckily for Crowe, Alyosha was used to crazy people by now. Between his brother's schizophrenia, his pilot's regular abuse of hallucinogens, his master's prophetic madness, and his own recent stint with hard drugs, he thought he knew exactly how to deal with freaks and fruitcakes. Well, not exactly... he just felt sorry for them, and therefore was more tolerant, he supposed.

Since the kid hadn't actually given him a proper answer to the question of how old he was, Alyosha assumed either he didn't actually know, or his guesstimate was close enough. He sighed, mentally scrolled through all the things he needed to know in order to proceed, then just shrugged it all off, figuring the kid knew about as much as he did about the situation. "Alright, whatever. I don't give a chit. Let's go."

They headed out of the ship and towards the artificial rocks which served as the entrance to the ruins. Alyosha didn't typically care enough about other people to bother with small talk and pleasant conversation, but he figured they ought to at least know each other's names. "My name's Alyosha. Try not to wear it out. You got a name, or should I just call you Buckethead?"

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Cheerfully ignoring the not-Jedi's momentary hesitation, Crowe set an eagre pace out of the ship, stopping only to wave cheerfully to his ship before heading towards the ruins, as they were. He'd seen worse in terms of structural integrity on the planet he'd grown up, so clearly it'd been built to last.

"The name's Crowe and I stopped wearing a bucket on my head months ago."

The dry tone on the latter marked it as a joke, or so the Miraluka figured. Truth be told he didn't have all that much experience interacting with people outside the HoloNet. Pirates were quite the disagreeable bunch and other scavengers not that much better.

Taking a long moment to gaze appreciatively at the way the location-with-an-unknown-function's architecture blended seamlessly into the nearby rock, the Miraluka nodded energetically to himself before strolling inside at a somewhat more careful pace, Force-based vision piercing rock with ease in order to locate... aha, some sort of power grid? Making a noise of appreciation, he moved towards a wall, jumped up, and poked the stone...

... but after a long moment he was forced to admit defeat, turning back to the not-Jedi. "Aww, looks like the lights are out."

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

Alyosha laughed uproariously after Crowe said he stopped wearing a bucket months ago, but not because he thought the joke was funny. Upon exiting the craft, he actually bothered to look around for once and, seeing the inviting pinkish color of the sands at their feet, immediately thought of Theo's spice stash. This gave way to a vision of Theo on his hands and knees attempting to snort the sand, which absolutely tickled Alyosha. He played it off well, though. "Well, what do you call that thing you're wearing now, a toaster oven?"

As Crowe scaled the wall for seemingly no reason at all, Alyosha examined the door. The last time he came across an ominous-looking doorway in a remote location, he had to stare directly at a hypergem and pluck it from its socket in order to open it. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case here. On the other hand, it looked like the only way to unlock it was by way of a code, which meant slicing or hacking. Or... well, they could always cut their way in, but that didn't seem like a particularly good idea, given that they didn't know how the systems might react or what lay inside.

"Hey, Crowe," he started to call up, just in time to hear the kid say the lights were out. Feth, did that mean the power was down and they couldn't get in even if they tried to hack the door open? And there were ghosts and who knows what else waiting for them on the other side. Abeloth on a tricycle...

Setting his jaw in a grimace, Alyosha hefted his lightspear and turned on the burning blade. "Doesn't matter if the lights are out, I brought a flashlight. Right now I'm going to cut through the door." He thrust the spear tip into the metal. The shortness of the blade made the work slow, and he did his best to keep the molten durasteel away from the cortosis of his staff, but it seemed to be working. He hoped...

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

"Wait, what? Only the lights are out, the door still..." Pausing for a long moment, the Miraluka eventually just... sighed. "The door worked. Not so much now, so you might as well just keep cutting." Just his luck, ending up with a man with a hammer to whom every problem was a nail.

Eying the slow progress dubiously, Crowe tapped his foot against the ground, muttering inaudibly.

"... functional despite ... how did he think they ... Ashla and Bogan ..."

After what felt like hours, a large chunk of the door collapses inwards, exposing a surprisingly clean passageway to their eyes, with no hint of the little expedition except a trail of luminescent rods planted onto - not into, they are/were archaeologists - the stone floor.

"Would you look at that, they left us a trail!" Pointing towards the wall, his tone was oddly victorious. "... and that, right there, are some sensors! Hidden from visual observation, of course. Told whatever security measures the ancients installed they were here, no doubt - see, no ghosts!"

Not that there were any traps or other defences in sight - yet, anyway.

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

Alyosha did stop when he overheard Crowe saying that the door had been working. He turned to glare at the kid over his shoulder.

"Well, what the hell did you mean by 'the lights are out' then? Aren't you scavvie kids supposed to be street smart as well as tech smart?"

As he should have already guessed, his teen companion's communication skills sucked. Probably spent most of his time with that toaster oven head of his jammed up an ion engine, chatting primarily with droids and computers. Whatever. Alyosha would be sure to let Little WarGames take the lead when it came to dealing with any technology from here on out. After all, he was just the dumb muscle of their dynamic duo...

He resumed cutting through the no-longer-fully-functional door until a chunk of it collapsed. Listening impatiently to the kid's observations, he growled, "Would you like me to blow them up, smartass, or do you have the ability to charm sensors?"

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Shrugging helplessly, Crowe's tone was bewildered. "When I say the lights are out, it means the lights are out."

Clearly the NotJedi operated in mysterious ways, or maybe this one was just especially eagre to get to the action. Did he think the team was actively dying at the moment? It seemed implausible, given the timeline they were likely fine but trapped or already dead.

Opaque helmet tilting once more, his confusion only rose. Taking a long breath, he pointed towards the wall, finger sliding through the air until it was directed towards the big chunk of sprawled prominently across the entry. "Oh, I think we've already been seen, but if you reaaaaaly want to..."

Pulling a vaguely gun-shaped object from his belt, he tinkered with the settings for a moment before pointing it at the wall and pulling the trigger...

... which produced exactly no visible effect nor even any dramatically sparking electronics. "All done!"

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

Alyosha closed his eyes, heaved a sigh, and decided that he couldn't be bothered. Without saying another word, he headed into the corridor, taking the lead in front of Crowe.

The light of the beacons cast a pale glow on the walls. He followed the trail to the end, where he himself facing a wall, two routes extending to his right and left. He turned, looking down each. Both were likewise lit by beacons, and both took sharp turns as they headed deeper into the ruins. He couldn't see what was around the corners. Couldn't sense any presences, either.

On the other hand, he was starting to feel a little fuzzy, like a metaphorical veil had been pulled over his perception of the mystical energy field. This was further evidenced by the uncomfortable sensation of his bond with his little brother, which was strong enough to stretch across billions of light years, gradually becoming static, as though afflicted by a bad wireless connection. Alyosha grimaced.

"You feel funny?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at Crowe. The odds were low that the kid was sensitive, let alone as sensitive as Alyosha, but he might as well ask. Make sure it wasn't just the beginnings of an 'episode'...

If there were indeed ghosts here, he imagined they wouldn't feel like presences, just the echo of them. Maybe the echoes would be enough to disrupt things, similar to how fog could wreak havoc with sensory equipment. If that were the case, and the ghosts were real... the disbelieving Crowe was in for a rude awakening.

"I can't sense any presences nearby, just a funny feeling like a haze." Tapping the bottom of his lightspear against the floor, he sighed. "You wanna split up or stay together?"

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Largely oblivious to the finer details of the Force with the exception of his Force-based sight (as with all Miraluka) and an innate aptitude for the technical and mechanical alike, Crowe was the last person any reasonable not-Jedi should ask about how something felt.

"Feel funny?" Sounding genuinely surprised, Crowe might have blinked if he had eyes. "I'm not scared of old tech, if that's what you're asking."

Chances are, unless a theoretical ghost rose up from the ground and politely introduced itself, the scavenger would continue to doubt such silliness.

Considering Aly... Alysha? Considering the man with a woman's name question, Crowe strolled over to the beacons, leaning over as if to examine them through some unseen method. Nodding to himself, he turned back to Alysha. "They split up - the beacons have been active around as long."

Thinking it over for another moment, he shook his head. "Let's stick together, you are much better suited to deal with anything dangerous and I can make sure you don't blow anything up!" Suddenly getting a bright idea, he quirked his head in a decidedly questioning manner. "As a not-a-Jedi, can you feel people like they do in the stories? Kind of like, uh, a bat's echolocation but for living beings? Is that how it works? Does it work?"

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

"I'm asking if you can sense the clouding effect in this area," Alyosha clarified, his tone already impatient. "You've clearly heard of the Force. Did you realize you've got it?"

The kid seemed totally ignorant, which if Alyosha was being honest, wasn't all that surprising. He still didn't know that much about the Force himself. But for the time being, it was an annoyance to be dealt with, this snag in their communication.

"Well, if they split up, I take it things didn't go so well for them." Alyosha scratched at the ground with the butt end of his spear, anxious to move on. "I'll take the lead, then."

He had already turned his back and started walking down the right-hand corridor when he heard Crowe asking questions.

"As a not-a-Jedi, can you feel people like they do in the stories? Kind of like, uh, a bat's echolocation but for living beings? Is that how it works? Does it work?"

"That's what I was referring to when I asked if you felt funny," Alyosha replied without breaking his stride. "I can't feel anybody alive in here except for you. It's not exactly like echolocation, because it doesn't use sound or vibrations. It's... more metaphysical than that. Spiritual, even. It's hard to explain." He shrugged, then sent a mental ping Crowe's way - about as much as Alyosha could muster in the realm of mental powers. It wasn't particularly strong, maybe just enough to give Crowe pause and make him want to scratch his nose. "Here. Did you feel that? That was me giving you a nudge with the Force. You didn't hear it, you didn't feel any vibrations. It's pure... uh, energy, I guess..."

Alyosha slowed, feeling the atmosphere of the area change. Up ahead, the hallway stretched on, lit by beacons... but only up to a point. There was one that had been knocked over or hastily discarded on its side, and then darkness beyond that. Starting forward again cautiously, Alyosha tapped one of the buttons on his chest, just below his neck, and activated the built-in lights on his suit. "Looks like they found something that spooked them."

As he neared the fallen beacon, he heard a soft, muffled rumble. It was too metallic to be an animal, and he would've sensed it anyway. Some sort of machine, then. Droid constructs designed to protect the ruins, perhaps? Great.

He leveled his spear as he moved forward down the hall at a faster pace, the glow from his suit lighting his way. "Crowe, we're gonna have company."

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Shaking his helmet vigorously, Crowe almost seemed to chastise his companion. "Yes, I am aware - and no, not literally echolocation, like echolocation. Do you release a... pulse of sorts that interacts with other lifeforms in a metaphysical manner, do you make use of some sort of, uhm, cosmic network, taking in and processing information derived from some sort of interconnectedness, or is it something entirely different?"

Tilting his head as Alysha did something, the scavenger seemed more confused than anything. "A bit? Very weird, kind of tingly."

Clearly, his understanding of the Force and its mechanisms left much to be desired.

Nodding along in agreement, the lack of light did absolutely nothing to impede Crowe's Force-based vision... vision that showed him a serpentine form in a level of clarity reserved for complex machinery, and oh boy was this one complex. Interlacing scales offering impressive defensive potential while some sort of exotic energy weapon covered offence, a smoothness of motion that hinted at some sort of mobility-enhancing tech...

... and oh my, quite the droid brain. If it even was a droid brain, the design style was different from anything he had seen before.

"Uhhh, yeah, might want to take cover."

Following his own advice, Crowe promptly hid in an alcove.

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Zelannia Arcrin

“Ah, chit,” Alyosha grumbled under his breath. He ducked into cover across from Crowe, watching as the clockwork serpent slithered past the corridor opening.

A few minutes later, it slid past again. It seemed to be patrolling rather than hunting them.

“Crowe,” he hissed across the hall. “Crowe! Can that ray gun you used on the sensor work in that thing? Or—you got any EMPs?”

As he spoke, his eyes darted toward the creature as it made a third round past the opening. It was nowhere near as huge as the metropolis-destroying Kaiju he, his master, and the lovely Laertia Io had killed on Atrisia, but being a machine rather than an animal, it was a bit different. Plus, there was no ruined city around them to loot for gear and gadgets to use against it—Alyosha had killed the Kaiju by riding a speeder bike into its mouth and jumping off just before it exploded, but that wasn’t going to happen here.

“I mean, I can always just blow it up,” Alyosha continued, keeping his voice down. “But if you’ve got anything that would make my job easier, I’d be much obliged.”

 

[Zelannia Arcrin]

Could it work on the guardian? Staring into nothingness for a long while without bothering to reply, Crowe eventually shrugged, whispered words about as cheerful as ever. "Maybe? Better than an EMP, anyway, would probably have to be strong enough to fry all my stuff too."

Clearly not a thought the Miraluka was willing to entertain except in an emergency. Unlike some, he could not, after all, waggle his fingers at someone or something in order to make it obey him. He would go so far as to claim it couldn't be done if he didn't know for a fact Jedi could do it.

Probably. Not that he'd ever met one - unless Alysha counted, but the man with a woman's name was clearly not a Jedi.

Jedi wore robes and delivered sanctimonious speeches - he knew that from the holonovels.

Going quiet as the serpentoid reemerged after completing its circuit, Crowe readied his gun-shaped-invention, waiting for it to pass only to step forward, aim at its centre of mass, and hold in the trigger for maybe a second... only for nothing to visibly change, except the droid spinning around.

It did, however, seem less graceful, less certain in its motions, almost as if he'd fried whatever external mechanism bolstered its mobility.

"Better than nothing, your turn!" Taking cover within an alcove, Crowe would only peek out of Alysha entered the fray.

Alyosha Drutin​

 

[Kai and Gerda]

Alyosha was barely aware of what had happened. His attention was distracted by other more pressing concerns involving his state of mind. Specifically, the buildup of pressure in his head which was a telltale sign that an “episode” was coming on, and fast.

Not now! Please!

Fate couldn’t have picked a worse time for him to lose control. At the sound of Crowe’s voice informing him that the ray gun had been somewhat successful, Alyosha dug his heels in, gritting his teeth against the flood. He was going to kill this thing before his other half took over even if it killed him.

“It’s… it’s probably going to get really cold in here,” Alyosha gasped, obviously straining. He shut his eyes and clutched his spear tightly as he called upon the Force. Doing so would speed up the “episode”, but he didn’t have much of a choice.

He wanted the serpentoid to freeze. Picturing ice spreading across its mechanical joints and circuitry, he imagined it grinding to a chattering halt. There wasn’t much moisture in the ruins, but he drew whatever water he could from the air and ground, sticking it to the droid, trickling through the cracks in its undulating scales.

The temperature within the ruins started to drop, but it was slow, much too slow. Alyosha’s grasp on himself was slipping rapidly. He abandoned the reins and instead lunged for the source of the power which was threatening to take him over, tapping into the bond, pulling power from it. The temperature abruptly plummeted, plunging this chamber of the ruins into an unnatural winter. There were popping noises nearby as all of the heat was violently pushed out of every crack and crevice, and the crackling of ice crystals forming on various surfaces.

Was the droid, fashioned to guard a structure on a desert world, prepared to face this chill?

Zelannia Arcrin