Aria had been banking on a relatively smooth landing, given that the scans had been clear when they had first broken Voss’ atmosphere. But of course, that wasn’t going to happen to them now, was it? Things ALWAYS went wrong. It was almost guaranteed. As the pilot shouted something about only being able to get them to an altitude of one thousand feet, Aria’s stomach did a couple of flips before she had even risked peering out of the now open loading ramp. Cheriss and Voldon, being more experienced, took the jump far before the Champions did and were soon far out of their line of sight as they sped towards the ground.
“Or Tython!” Aria called back in response to her partner's comment of the similarities to their first landing on Zinuthra. You would think she would be used to it by now, more prepared….nope, she still hated it. No time to chicken out now! she told herself as Yerbol took her hand. The Champion drew in a sharp breath and managed a smile, before they made the jump. One thousand feet was a LONG way to fall, but the ground still rushed towards them at a disorientingly fast pace despite their collective efforts to slow their drop...or at least it seemed that way. Halfway down, they slowed to a more respectable speed and allowed the Champions to squint at the landscape below them and try to evaluate the situation (as much as they could from this high up, anyways). Streaks of vibrant green split the sky around them as the anti aircraft turrets opened fire on their ill-prepared transport. The bolts were larger than the Champions themselves, designed to wreak havoc on a ship’s hull or thrusters on impact and would spell certain death for both of them if they were caught in their path. From their current position, she could spot two of the artillery towers on either side of the area that would become their landing zone; Yerbol had seen it too, catching her eye and nodding to the rightmost turret. Aria understood his directive and nodded back in confirmation. She felt the impending danger before she saw it, jerking her attention away from the ground in time to look up and see the bolt speeding toward them. She wanted to scream a warning, but the velocity of the fall meant the wind was howling in their ears and ripped the sound from her lungs so all that came out was a barely audible squeak while she let go of his hand to throw up a protective shield around them before they were cooked by the beam. The line of green streaked past them so closely she could feel the heat of the plasma tingling against her skin, but thankfully she reacted quickly enough to ensure neither she nor her partner were injured. From then on, Aria focused her energy on diverting the bolts so that they didn't connect with either of the Champions and shear them in half while her partner kept their descent as slow as he could manage. 
Two hundred feet. Time to split up and get to work. Aria glanced sideways at her partner one last time, but he was too busy focusing on the rapidly-approaching landscape at that point to catch her eye.

Right. Still falling. 

The Champion abruptly refocused her own attention, realising with a sickening jolt that it was not grass that she was angling for, but in fact VERY solid stones. 

This was going to HURT. The Champion shut her eyes tightly as she braced herself for the impact, angling her body so that she could protect her head and neck from a direct collision with the cobbles, praying Yerbol wouldn't be too badly injured where he had landed either. She had hoped to slow down enough that she could simply land in a crouch, as she had seen Roan do on several occasions, and no doubt the same way which Cheriss and Voldon would have come to a stop themselves. Aria’s own landing was anything BUT elegant. The Champion misjudged the distance left by a mere few feet, but it was enough of a mistake. Her left shoulder hit the ground first, before Aria had the chance to complete a full rotation and attempt to land feet-first, the momentum of the fall instead forcing her into a sideways log roll. The cobblestone crunched underneath her weight, clumps of the brightly coloured pebbles churned loose and sent spraying upwards to land somewhere within the vicinity. The sharp edges of the cobblestone scraped the exposed skin of her face, neck and hands; thankfully her clothing protected the rest of her body well enough, though the blade guards of her lightsaber hilts jabbed painfully into her ribs as her body weight rolled onto them. They had served her well in both offense and defense in the past, protecting her wrists from attack and useful as a weapon even when the blade wasn't activated, but in this case they were a sore (literally!) hindrance….After a few rolls, the Champion fetched up against a large metal object which she quickly realised upon opening her eyes again was the bottom of the leftmost defense turret. 
[i]Tell me...you're...ok…[/i] Yerbol’s voice broke the silence that had once sat between them during their descent. 
[i]Uuuuughhhh.[/i] Aria’s exclamaition of discomfort was accompanied by a groan out loud. [i]I'm alright….I'm good...y-you?[/i] She sat up gingerly as her partner confirmed his relative wellbeing, giving each of her limbs an experimental stretch. So far, moving was uncomfortable but none of the bones were broken. Nothing she couldn't grit her teeth through and deal with later. Aria drew in a breath, channelled into the Force to harness the pain into productive energy to fuel her movements, like Renso had taught her. 
[i]Pain and fear are only a weakness if you allow them to rule over you. But you can harness them and use them to your advantage and that is a strength that you have over many others your age. [/i]

[i]Meet in the middle?[/i] She reached out to Yerbol a final time as she got to her feet, skirting around the base of the anti-aircraft turret until she located the stairway that led up to the control panel. A myriad of buttons flashed brightly coloured lights, the cannons themselves shaking with the reverberations of each shot as they kept firing. Jagged red letters proclaimed “HOSTILE CRAFT INCOMING” on the main screen as the red blips indicating their position flickered in and out of the radar's focus as their poor pilot desperately tried to evade further damage. Aria hoped he could hang in there for just a little longer; her hands trembled ever so slightly (despite her best attempts to use the Force to help keep her cool) as her fingers passed over the buttons, feeling for the little wear-and-tear indents that would show her which ones had been most frequently used and thus give her some clue as to the access code which would allow her to power down the AA guns. They were easily enough located, but there were still thousands of possible combinations...she didn't have time for guess work dammit! There HAD to be a better way to do this....
[i]Come on, help me out here![/i] Aria didn’t know what she was expecting when she focused her energy back into the Force once more, but anything was worth a shot at this point and if there was some way for her to figure out what the code would be….

There! The vision was very brief, no more than a few seconds, but Aria’s hands moved instinctively to punch the buttons required. The console blared an obnoxious beeping tone as it processed the command; for a paralysing moment Aria’s heart jackhammered violently against her ribs as nothing happened, before the entire turret deactivated and powered down all at once. The Champion’s shoulders sagged so dramatically backwards in relief that she almost took an involuntary swan dive off the edge of the platform, had she not caught herself at the last moment and steadied herself on the railing.
[i]I got it! PLEASE tell me you got the other one![/i] She reported to her partner, reassured to hear a similar affirmation of success from Yerbol. [i]Good….good, I’m heading back down, I’ll meet you on the pathway. [/i]

As she hurried back down to follow the pathway back towards Voss-Ka, the Champion stopped momentarily to examine the damage caused during Yerbol’s landing with a raised eyebrow, allowing her partner to return and catch up with her in the same moment. 
“Well, I can tell you came this way, look at the mess your big head made of their lovely walkway.” Aria grinned teasingly, gently bumping her shoulder against his chest. Perhaps now wasn’t the best time for jokes, but they had to keep their spirits up somehow, considering they might be walking into a trap that could go badly for any one of them.
“Let’s hurry and catch up with Cheriss and Voldon, they probably need our help.” she added as they continued walking, picking up their pace somewhat. The unmistakable snapping of Cheriss’ lightwhip up ahead alerted the Champions that the two Elders had likely met some resistance already on their way to the fortification; the Qyaari would likely have to fight their way into Voss-Ka, but Aria hoped the Ambassador who had contacted them previously had managed to find their (it was always hard to tell gender with the Voss….they all looked and sounded the same to her) way to safety inside...if it was as well guarded as Cheriss had implied they should be safe from further ambush by Manus at least long enough to get an appraisal of the situation. Exchanging one last glance with Yerbol, the Champions drew their weapons and hurried to help Cheriss and Voldon.