[center][b]Ba'alkyri and Company in. . . The Temple of D--*KZZRT* AKA) How Everything Went Wrong on my Vacation on Arkinnea[/b][/center] --- Ba'alkyri rubs her eyes as Zobis pilots. “This one is happy to report we are approaching destination...” The Jedi master nods and fixes her mask on securely, before looking up and over the rest of her company. There were the three knights who remained with her even after Theodis' death. She was delighted to have their support with her and to know her oldest friends and the closest she had to family were secure in her leading them in the wake of Theodis' death. Alyssandri was the most uncertain in her command, but if only because she had seen herself as Theo's successor should anything happen. Writh seemed unconcerned, happy to follow in her footsteps in a path he saw as righteous. Perhaps the hardest to read was Vitril. She had been a great assistance in holding the allegiance of the Kiffu, but she seemed distant and hollow in the events that had come. With them, though, were their apprentices... Rather, her, apprentices. Two who had risen from the creche... Kreeva and Chris. They were both promising in the times to come and both were eager to join her in this endeavor, given the link to the Jedi. They were quiet, though, uncertain of their rights to stay with her when the rest of the creche had been passed into the care of Tohkran and Cyphor. They had been Theo's creche and, yet, now they were under the wing of one they had barely ever noticed as their superior so long ago. Ba'alkyri winces at the thought but quickly remains calm, laying back. If nothing else, perhaps this adventure brought to them from one of Theo's old lorekeeper connections would ignite a lively spark in them. It had been a strange frantic message sent to her upon her flagship. The lorekeeper had contacted her, claiming to have found the remnants of a former Jedi enclave here on the world of Arkinnea. It was a promising prospect to look into. However, the recent activity of the CIS and Republic had shown her the need for remaining under the radar. As much as she would like to step into the limelight to show the galaxy the jedi were not the same as the bantha dung sith, it would bring about... less than desirable consequences. Not that it stopped her all the time in her vigilante work, as some of the news reels had begun to call it. Emerging from Hyperspace the sight of the planet below would be one not terrible impressive. It appeared to be a fairly normal world, but also a quiet one, there was little traffic in the system and all of it seemed to be CIS in origin. Fortunately it seemed that their arrival had been undetected by the CIS forces in system. Zobis would point out the presence of two Lucrehulks with some concern with regular vulture droid CAPs around them, some entering the atmosphere to overfly the capital. However there doesn't seem to be any obvious activity in the direction of the co-ordinates the Loremaster provided. Ba'alkyri grows quiet before directing to the co-ordinates. “Go in low, try to give them a wide-berth. And by the light side of the force, try to keep our presence minimal.” She observes silently, eyes scanning the horizon. It was a gutsy move to take what was essentially a smuggler vessel with no weapons into CIS territory. If they ran into trouble before they could land and shutdown their systems, they were in for a world of hurt. As the descent begins an alert chimes and Zobis gulps. Despite their stealthy approach it seemed that a trio of Vulture droids on patrol noticed the ship and began to head on an intercept vector. Zobis however noted a canyon and forest that she thought she might be able to lose them in. But she notes that if she's wrong the world of hurt might be self inflicted. At a questioning look from the Barabel, Ba'alkyri nods her consent. Worst case scenario, they need a few repairs and they have to exercise force healing a bit earlier than expected. “Everyone, better get your harnesses on.” Zobis took the ship low into the canyon the Vultures chasing after her with extreme precision and skill, one of the Vultures flew clean into a rock overhand that Zobis had deceived it into and growing cocky Zobis hugged the canyon walls more closely, close enough that a second Vulture droid was destroyed trying to match her skill. A skill that evaporated as she pulled up and into the forest. Suddenly Zobis couldn't avoid branches or trees to the point that one of the others on board went 'you missed one' now and again. The Vulture Droid was similarly handicapped and exploded however not before it had gotten a volley of shots off which annihilated the shield generators. And suddenly... the Baal IX came apart, torn nearly in half as Zobis fought to slow them down. Soon only the main trunk of the ship and the people within came to settle down on the forest floor not far from the co-ordinates. It was going to require a salvage crew to get the Baal-IX airborne again. Ba'al unstraps from her harness and looks in horror at the damage to her ship. Her eyes water at the horrible sight, having had spent so long aboard this vessel when she had first left Theo's command after the first meeting of the Jedi. She focuses herself, “Is everyone alright?” A menagerie of sore groans and curses meet her, with Zobis snaking out from the cockpit, a few cuts and scrapes but nothing so wounded as her pride. She nods, “Alyssandri, with me, let's try to cover up this crash site as best we can...” The Knight woman groans, all but falling out of the straps and landing roughly, “Right... Whatever you say, boss... I vote for a new pilot, though...” With that, the two women climb out of the wrecked old ship and begin work trying to cause a surge of plants to envelope the crash site and hide it from prying eyes. Meanwhile, Zobis sets to marking the coordinates of the wrecked vessel on her commlink. Zobis has no difficulty marking the location of the site on her commlink, but after a good ten minutes Ba'alkyri can't help but concede that they're simply not going to be capable of covering up the site, there was too much ship covering too much area. “Right... Zobis, clear?” the reptilian woman nods, checking her commlink. “I know it isn't your normal deal, but if you could navigate us to the coordinates? I know it will be a longer trip on foot... but perhaps this is all for the better. We wouldn't want the Separatists to follow us there.” Kreeva rolls his eyes, crossing his arms, only to receive a rap upside the head from both Vitril and Allysandri at once. The Chiss winces and rubs his head as Chris stifles a laugh. “We're behind you on this one, Ba'al... Zo-zo, you really should get better at that whole landing thing, though,” Allysandri says. The Barabel releases a threatening hiss before straightening herself out, trying to retain some pride, “Master Theodis had no problems with this one's piloting, Sandri.” The female knight narrows her eyes, “And look where that got her.” Ba'alkyri bristles and swipes a hand through the air, “Enough. Zobis, send an encrypted message off to the other Jedi about our location and what we've found... Judging by the welcome party, I doubt they're hospitable enough to give us a ride off this rock. After that, we're going to the coordinates the loremaster gave us.” As Zobis attempts to send the message she aggravates a crack in the commlink and breaks it in two the energy discharge burning the tip of her finger. Another of Ba'al's people sent the message with eyes rolling, probably Allysandri. Heading in the direction of the co-ordinates soon finding themselves heading onto a plain where a broken down ruind could be seen. It was not much to look at little more than rubble, but its position co-incided with the co-ordinates. Unfortunately, with the stars high in the sky nobody could do much more than make out some small movement in the dark. The place was clearly not lit. But there did seem to be the sound of activity coming from within. After about a million jokes about how Zobis was breaking everything she touches, they had finally arrived... and were about as blind as the Arcona amongst them. After a moment, she could hear the faint rustling of those around her about to ignite their lightsabres for light. She utters a soft hiss for silence before pausing, trying to trigger her shadow vision in order to perceive the world around them. Better not to immediately give away their location. Meanwhile, Writh whispers, “I only see little rodents, small animals.” Ba'alkyri still holds for silence, though, trying to perceive if there was an immediate threat. Ba'alkyrie saw the temple thrown into a more stark clear relief. And much more importantly. A pair of B1 Battle Droids that appeared to be standing outside the main entrance standing guard. Ba'alkyri pauses, surveying the droids that were waiting just ahead. “There's some droids up ahead... Kreeva, Vitril, Sandri, don your protection, get into range and when I give the word, lightsabres... Knights guard the padawan, he can disable one of them... I'll move in and take out the first, the second if you need help...” With that, they all don their force defenses. Ba'alkyri goes into a cloak of concealment and begins forward. From just ahead as they move in the Droids look at each other. "What's that? One of the droids said. The other shrugged. "How should I know, i've been here just as long as you have." The first turned towards the light. "Halt, this is a restricted area!" Ba'alkyri hesitates for a moment, “Stop here... you'll see the signal soon....” With that, she continues forward, still concealed, to get in position to take out one of the droids. "What was that?" The droid on the south end of the door remarked turning its Blaster flashing firing blindly in the direction it thought it saw movement. The blaster bolts hitting three patches of ground, a slightly lopsided tree and a nocturnal bird trying to secure a mate. She stops for a moment, before raising a hand, channeling the force to capture the two in a stasis field. The attempt falls short of its goals only the closest droid being trapped in the stasis field. The other realizes that they're actually in trouble. "We're under attack!" It calls out loudly and fires towards where it thinks it was under attack from. Ba'alkyrie manages to deflect the seemingly unnaturally accurate bolts from the B1 Battle droid. Maybe it was malfunctioning? Kreeva takes that as a sign, moving forward a step and attempts to disable one of the droids. Meanwhile, Allysandri attempts to urge the plants to snake up about the droids and force their weapons to aim down. Vitril holds their weapon at the ready in order to deflect any incoming attacks as Ba'alkyri curses and surges forward, drawing and igniting her lightsabres. Kreeva succeeds in disabling the droid as Ba'alkyri moves in and removes their heads without any further difficulty leaving the entrance defenceless. But the sounds of droids within can still be heard clearly. Ba'alkyri waves her group forward with an ignited blade, shifting to the side as she waves her group forward. “Sandi, Vitril, we've got more.” With that, she crouches down, lips twitching up into a faint smile before she releases a repulsing burst of the force to send rubble flying forward. The force repulse blasts out well enough throwing debris. But it was not all that well thought through as Ba'alkyri's force repulse begins collapsing a section of the entry hall, a large piece of masonry only just missing her head as she moves out of the way in time. She looks with wide eyes at the area she had just occupied before slipping back into her camoflauge to lurch forward into the area to get a better look, if nothing else, as to what was laying inside. Meanwhile, the rest continue to try and keep up. And yet as she stepped into a wide antechamber with some clear ruins available around her it becomes clear that she's not fooling anyone the dust from her force repulse outlining her clearly enough for the Droid Receptors not notice. "It's a Jedi! Open fire!" The four droids open fire and while one misses marginally, the rest don't. Two of the shots to little more than cause light burns as the hit, but one of them seemed to actually do well at shooting and hit Ba'alkyri in the midriff dropping her to the ground breathless and in some agony. While the shot wasn't lethal, it was in an extremely painful area. “A little help?!” Ba'alkyri shouts out, willing a new wrap of protection over herself as she moves to stand. Allysandri and Vitril are the first on the scene, as Allysandri moves in front of her and throws a wave of force directly at the two who were closest together. Meanwhile, Vitril, standing behind her, channels a whirlwind on the only droid she could see ahead of her, “And here we thought you had it, great master Jedi.” Everyone else was trailing after, incapable of such speed as the others. Allysandri smashes the two droids into the wall where they crumple down clearly disabled while Vitrils attempt to disable another with a whirldwind gets cut short as she stubs her toe on a piece of debris that Ba'alkyri had previously dislodged, the pain enough to suggest a broken toe. The two droids in the chamber not disabled return fire, but the unexpected attack, despite their prior accuracy, had confounded their aiming this time leading the volley to fail. But the sound of more droid feet closing could be heard. At the pitter patter of incoming droids, Allysandri rushes forward and launches another wave of force clear through the decayed remnants of the door, “Knock-knock!” Meanwhile, Ba'alkyri follows similarly with the other door. Vitril bumrushes the closest droid with her lightsabre to bring it down as Kreeva comes up behind, attempting to disable the farthest droid. Ba'alkyri's wave punches out and destroys all four droids from point blank and a small section of the retaining wall. Within the room there seem to be a lot of old terminals decayed beyond any possible use. Meanwhile Allysandri's force wave loses momentum as her concentration is broken by seeing four droids at point blank ready to punch her full of holes. Vitril manages to engage the droid and destroy it before it expects it, though Kreeva's attempt to disable the another droid falls flat. The surviving droids visible open fire on Allysandri, the one furthest from her having the most luck, but along with the poor accuracy of the four she faced in the other room she managed to block all the bolts from causing any real damage. Giving up on trying to disable the droid, Kreeva attempts to inspire valor through the force to those around him. Meanwhile, Vitril moves in to defeat the last droid in the room as Ba'alkyri moves alongside Allysandri to fend of the droids with their sabres. The rest of the group was almost there. They'd arrive some day. Surely. Vitril manages to bisect the droid she faced as Kreeva inspired them all towards greater heights. Greater heights that were just a bit too far for Ally or Ba'al to reach their ability failing them against mere B1 battle droids. Three of the Droids fortunately couldn't seem to hit the broadside of a barn, but the closest did manage to get a shot at Ba'alkyri, her force defence negating the hit.. “Did I ever say I hate droids?” Ba'alkyri snaps as she decides she had enough and attempts to simply freeze the droids in place with a stasis field while Ally continues to try and hack them up. Meanwhile, Vitril moves to check the next closest room, waving Kreeva to come with her. If anything, he was an effective mascot! . . . The others were still on the way. Two of the droids are frozen barely by the power as Ally successfully sliced apart the other two. This room smells of decay and dust and ancient books can be seen decayed to nothingness, even nudging one with a boot is sufficient to crumble the book to nothing. The last two droids being disabled, Allysandri executes the first while Ba'alkyri pulls the weapon of the other away with the force. “Zobis, get your slicer gear out.” Meanwhile, Vitril and Kreeva take their look into the first room they come by. As Zobis attempted to slice the droid he triggered a short disabling his gear. A situation made worse when the short caused the B1 to headbutt him breaking his nose. Vitril and Kreeva meanwhile discovering the unexplainable joy of an oversized janitors closet. The barabel hisses and draws her blaster, shooting the droid and moving away with a leer, “It was busted already.” Alyssandri rolls her eyes and moves to check the next room as Ba'alkyri sighs, “I think it is just a bad day for you and tech...” She moves to the other Jedi's side as Vitril and Kreeva move to the next room. Allysandri discovers a room littered with technical detrius. Some lightsaber parts are visible in the debris as well as several clear sections indicate some large crates were removed from the chamber. Virtril discovers what looks like a rock garden that leads deeper into the building. “Got a pathway here... Going on ahead. If we're going to be here awhile, we might as well clear the building. Padawans, with me... Writh, I'd like you here with me too,” Vitril calls out. Ba'alkyri flinches for a moment, about to argue against her before sighing, “You heard the lady. Sandi, Zobis, suppose that puts you with me.” With that, Vitril and her group continue forward as the Master and her small group continue their sweep. Vitril and team spot droids ahead but they don't seem to have noticed working at something. However Ba'alkyri and team are fired on by a droid hiding in one of the atriums leading deeper in. Vitril presses a finger to her lips and gestures at Kreeva and Writh to get to work. The former attempting to disable the droid from afar, Writh to freeze a droid in stasis. However, Allysandri and Ba'alkyri both surge forward to deal with their droid. This time everyone except, as usual, Ally manages to accomplish their objectives which is why Virtril found himself with chills up his spine as a deeper droid voice joined the audible noise. "Intruders found. Terminate." The rapid fire from the B2 hammers at Vitril most of the bolts being deflected desperately but several burying themselves into Vitrils right kneecap blasting through the flesh and severing the leg outright. Vitril would definitely require a prosthetic once this was through. The Knight falls to the ground, screaming in pain, spurring Writh to action as he ignites his sabrecane and attacks. Kreeva's eyes bug out wildly as he frantically tries to disable the droid. Chris, still barely more than a crecheling in skill moves forward to fend off another attack that might be directed at Vitril. Ba'alkyri's group, however, continues onward into the dark building, all certain that the others could handle themselves. Writh finds himself struggling against the B2 before Kreeva manages to disable it at least temporarily, but the moments pause before Writh finished the disabled droid revealed 2 more B1,s approaching before they too opened fire. In the other hall the team moving forwards also began to notice signs of Droids. The blasts took Writh in the chest, though his force protection did reduce some of the damage, they did not reduce it enough leaving him to know that after this he would be out for at least three weeks recuperating. Writh gasps out in pain, stumbling back and throwing a hand out towards the darkness where the blows had come from, hand igniting with green lightning. Meanwhile, Kreeva's teeth chatter as he grips his weapon, moving forward to try and disable more droids, Chris moves forward to attack with her lightsaber. Writh manages to engulf both his attackers in the emerald lightning overloading their circuits as Kreeva manages to disable one of the droids in the room off to their left. Chris finds herself without an opponent with which to strike. But the moment does give her the chance to see that room was a commissary, the old tables still there. Meanwhile the second team found themselves attracting the attention of a small host of droids who open fire. The shots spit at Ba'al with some accuracy, only her force abilities and armour kept it from being more than the 2nd degree burns her right inner thigh now sported. Ba'al winces, and moves in to attack the droids, getting a wall between herself and the other firing droids. Allysandri follows suit. Zobis moves in and fires at the farthest away droid. Meanwhile, Chris moves in and engages a droid with her lightsaber as Kreeva attempts to disable the one farthest in the room. The attacks of Ba'al, Allysandri and Zobis fail badly to achieve their objectives as does Kreeva with his abilities. Chris however manages to fuck up well and truly royally misjudgin a strike her lightsaber hand twisting on the droids chassis the light blade slicing across her face enough to erupt in pain, it would take some weeks to recover from it, but at least she didn't lose an eye, ear or nose. The attacks of Ba'al, Allysandri and Zobis fail badly to achieve their objectives as does Kreeva with his abilities. Chris however manages to fuck up well and truly royally misjudgin a strike her lightsaber hand twisting on the droids chassis the light blade slicing across her face enough to erupt in pain, it would take some weeks to recover from it, but at least she didn't lose an eye, ear or nose. The two fighting Ba'al and Ally however seem to manage to literally behead themselves on the Jedi's lightsabers and the shooter at Ba'al fails to hit. The one in hand to hand with Chris fails to hit, but also fails to kill itself as its others failed so spectacularly to do. But the one shooter, just managed to avoid hitting Chris. Ba'alkyri goes to defeat the last droid, shouting at the other two in the room, “Go clear the other room!” Alyssandri and Zobis both go, Alyssandri engaging the nearest droid as Zobis fires at the droid next to Chris, the padawan whimpering in pain as she tries her best to dispose of the droid before it gets her. Ba'al fails to do much of anything to the droid she's facing as Zobis attempts to shoot the droid next to Chris missing it marginally while Allysandri successfully dispatches her target. Chris however appears to be struggling to face her target which retaliates with its rifle butt. Fortunately neither Chris nor Ba'al's attackers are able to land a hit in their condition. Whatever haze seemed to fall over Kreeva, he appears to snap out of it at the sound of more struggling and new sparks and pops from another dead droid. He raises a hand and attempts to disable the droid attacking Chris, much as she and Zobis each try to destroy it. Thinking that 3 ought to have one droid under control, Allysandri goes back to help the injured Ba'alkyri dispatch the droid. Her injuries [i]must[/i] be getting to her for the thing to still be in one piece! The two droids are destroyed without further effort. Allysandri and Ba'alkyri discover the room they're in is quite definitely a kitchen, the woodfired stove visible under much debris. Seeing the droids all dead... Kreeva turns to glance at Vitril and Writh, wincing at their state... before surveying the other room they had seen some droids working in. Meanwhile, Ba'alkyri pants and pats Alyssandri on the back appreciatively before going to the other room. “What happened?” “Writh and Vitril both got hit pretty bad... I don't think Vitril is going anywhere anytime soon,” Chris whimpers, looking at the finally destroyed droid. “What?” “She uhm... Her leg decided to split.” Ba'alkyri frowns and looks back at Alyssandri, “We're stranded... Are you up to keep going?” “Not if its just the two of us. I'd rather barricade ourselves in til help can arrive,” she shrugs. “Help isn't going to arrive anytime soon. We need to be able to get to supplies.” “... Well, blast.” Ba'alkyri shrugs, “Look, I'm going to clear it with or without all of you...” Writh grunts, trying to keep from probing out his chest with his hand as he staggers about the corner, “Coming... Just... Expect lightning.. I'll follow in the shadows...” Ba'alkyri looks at the injury before nodding slowly. Kreeva swallows, “I'll go too. I mean, I feel like this is sort of my fault. If I did better--” “You are not to blame,” the woman snaps, eyes glinting behind her mask. Allysandri sighs and looks at Chris, “Fine, I'll go too... but that one is staying with Vitril. They're both too bad off.” And so they moved on... It would seem for once, they had gotten the actual drop on a droid... And without hesitation, Ba'alkyri and Alysandri move in to take it out while Writh begins down the opposite way quietly to stop anything from flanking them. Though they got the drop on the droid they couldn't manage to put it down their attacks just missing as it shouted. "HELP HELP ROGER ROGER!" Though Writh's investigation revealed another that opened fire on him. The droid firing at Writh hit him with a burst of fire, the first causing a deep wound to his shoulder as a second narrowly splashes him in the face removing one ear and the last, to add insult to injury, strikes his weapon hand charring the flesh. And in retaliation, the Arcona makes a feeble attempt to to blast the droid before he collapses. Seeing one of his knight instructors fall after a burst of gunfire, he runs forth, trying to disable the attacker. Meanwhile, a droid down... Ba'alkyri and Alyssandri exchange a glance, a competitive smile flashes over Alyssandri's face as she takes off with a burst of speed to find anymore droids as she cleared the building. Ba'alkyri splits off, gesturing Zobis to follow. Writh's desperate moves pays off in time for it to deflect Kreeva's attempt to disable it against the watch Kreeva was wearing stopping it permanently. As the blast of emerald lightning ended and the droid dropped as if sensing the force a hologram came on. "If you're watching this you are a Jedi, or I hope not, Sith. As well as seeing this. I am dead. Perhaps long ago as you reckon time. This was my sanctuary, as of the time I was preparing this message the Sith were planning to raid this little private enclave. Forseeing this I packed up the greatest of my treasures and " *KRZZZT* The image fizzles, "Go to the Vergesso Asteroids, you will find my trea..." *KRZZZT* "there. Use the force. It will.." KRZZZT the image dies permanently. Kreeva blinks in confusion at the hologram as Writh crooks his head weakly to one side, “What was that you said, Kree?” “Uhh, not me.” Meanwhile, Zobis and Ba'alkyri attack a droid they came upon. Allysandri, beating her to the farther room, does much the same. The droids are torn apart without much effort it doesn't take long to realise that they were now in the dormitory part of the complex. An ancient poster of a nude Twi'lek on the wall crumbles as Zobis touches it. Ba'alkyri frowned at Zobis... for touching it, or where, we'll never know. Ba'alkyri and Zobis continue down the halls, as Writh and Kreeva take a breather. Meanwhile, Alysandri was already in what appeared to be the last room. And without hesitation, she leapt at the droid with her sabre. The droid unimpressed levelled its blaster and held down the trigger. The shots were furiously deflected by Ally just avoiding having them touch her skin. Allysandri drops down low as she sends a wave rippling at the droid. Without proper time to concentrate the wave just didn't have enough juice as the droid continued to fire at her it did little more than push it a bit. But it couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside. And with all this failure to hit each other, it had given Ba'alkyri plenty of time to arrive on the scene. She attacks with a force-assisted leap. “Not fair, I was here first,” Alyssandri declares as she strikes out at the droid. Allysandri leaps and strikes at the droid. It crumples into ruin against the wall and the head pops off and smashes into Allysandri's face leaving a big bruise that resembled the B1's eye sock straight smack-bang in the middle of her forehead where the whole galaxy could see. Ba'al stifles a laugh and Alyssandri groans and rubs her face, “Ow...” Zobis paces over, “This one believes we ought collect our stragglers, perhaps?” The Diathim appears confused for a moment before it dawns on her, “Oh! Oh, right. Yes. Let's... You think Writh was holding up alright? He was pretty banged up already...” Zobis pauses and looked at her singed finger, “Perhaps. Of course... It appears none of us are without injury today...” Alyssandri sticks out her tongue, “Your ego doesn't count.” The Jedi master rolls her eyes and begins walking back the way they came... “Thank you for volunteering to track down some food and water, Zozo.” Ba'al smirks and crosses her arms as she walks. Hopefully... Someone else had found something. So far it was truly as if they went through all the trouble just for new wounds and trash. --- [center][b]Results[/b][/center] Chris: injured 2 weeks (face) Ba'al: 2 minor injuries (abdomen, inner thigh) Writh: injured 3 weeks (chest, shoulder, hand), half-deaf Vitril: Needs a new leg Alyssandri: Big face bruise Zobis: broke everything technological she touched, including the Old Ship Quest update: Go to Vergesso Asteroids for more dramatic, life-threatening fun!