Grounded

[Aurelie Fleury]

Sullust. Local time: 09:23

A bunch of miners, wealthy mine owners and lucrative transporting business. Sullust seemed like a good spot for someone such as Aurelie to be, at least since she had stayed in the regions around Tatooine for just a bit too long for anyone wanting to remain sane. It sure took some time to get there, but finally, the young woman and her trusty droid arrived "Scrappy, we're here" she said, despite the droid standing right next to her, equally capable of seeing the planet appear in front of them as they dropped out of hyperspace. "Mistress?" the droid asked, making sure that she was aware of his presence, causing her to roll her eyes.

The Mynock which they traveled in was smaller than the freighter they picked up on Tatooine, but the extra credits from the sale was sorely needed. Still, it was a nice ship and handled rather well. Upon reaching the surface, the girl discovered that docking permits would be much cheaper in a neighbouring town and without having any too concrete plans, she steered the ship in that direction, letting it cruise calmly along the surface of the ashen planet. Each planet seemed to posses its own beauty, even one such as Sullust. She watched the planet below with a high degree of satisfaction, noting the numerous lava creeks and grey cliffs with sharp walls.

Suddenly, the radar picked up a group of four fighters and a brig. Seeing as they clearly weren't flagged as official law enforcement, it seemed rather weird to have them follow her. The ship's radio soon started to play irregularly which caused immediate distress. With the press of a button, she sent out a distress signal - it probably wouldn't be picked up by the cities, but hopefully, someone on their way to the cities would be close enough to pick it up. Increasing the speed was not very effective against star fighters and as soon as they got within range, two of them fired a first couple of shots each.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

Kyi had just exited hyperspace in his Malla-class starfighter, he was on his way to Sullust for Galactic Alliance business involving Zygerrian slavers and putting an end to their activity, but this mission wouldn't officially begin until a day after his arrival, he wanted to arrive a little earlier so he could prepare though.

Entering Sullust's atmosphere and flying toward the city he began to formulate his opinions on the planet, he'd never been to Sullust before - it was interesting, he could tell why it was a mining world seeing all the rich resources scatted across the terrain, outside the cities. He had heard the people on Sullust were good, hard working people, reminding him of his own family back on Lothal and giving the Jedi Knight more of a respect for Sullustian people.

Enjoying flying through the clouds, his starfighter had picked up a distress signal from a nearby ship and, well, being a Jedi and the person he is, he answered the call without hesitation. Pressing a few buttons on the console inside the cockpit, he pinpointed the location of the distress signal - which was a few clicks away from where he was, swinging his flight stick to the right, Kyi began flying his way toward the person in need.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

"Scrappy, man the guns!" a stressed voice pierced through the hum of the engines, prompting the droid to move to the turret controls. The Mynock and her pursuers were heading in a northward direction, but then, the young woman spotted another fighter coming from the north - it was Kyi's Malla-class starfighter, but it was too far away to see that detail. Having her communications scrambled by the brig and not knowing if the fighter was friend or foe, Aurelie turned her ship to the right in an eastward direction. "Scramblers, firing without warning - there's no way these guys are law enforcement" she said, more to herself than to the droid.

Naturally, evasive maneuvers were taken, ensuring that the fighters missed a few more shots - but dodging blasts from the much faster vessels was far from sustainable. One of the fighters seemed to be particularly eager to line up behind her, firing a few shots from time to time. Eventually, the girl kept the freighter steady, but instead of getting shot down herself, Scrappy managed to fire off two precisely aimed blasts which hit the wing of the pursuing fighter. The small ship started spiraling down towards the ground, with the pilot only managing to eject himself in the last second. Still, there were plenty of threats still in the air and they did not seem to relent.

Soon, the evasive maneuvers had to be resumed, causing shots from the brig, the fighters and the Mynock freighter to miss. Having great faith in her piloting abilities, perhaps a little too great, Aurelie dove down into a canyon. While the brig stayed behind, pursuing from above, the three fighters followed suit. It was only with great difficulty that the thief managed not to crash into anything despite the relatively small size of her freighter. The fighters had a much easier time in the canyon but still had to slow down with a significant drop in their rate of fire. Nothing but static noise could be heard from her comms by now, making her realise that further contact with other's would be to little avail. "I really hope that distress signal reached someone" she mumbled under her breath with gritted teeth as she struggled to keep the ship from crashing into a canyon wall.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

Approaching the distress signal, he spotted a lone Mynock freighter being attacked by four fighters and a brig. The Jedi pilot attempting to activate his comms and communicate with the other ships but communications were scrambled, Kyi closed his eyes and called out to the Force to guide his hand on the flight stick - while reaching out to the Force he sensed a familiar presence on board the Mynock freighter, it was Aurelie! A thief he had met on Tatooine a few weeks prior, what was she doing on Sullust? He'd have to ask her when all this was over.

The Jedi witnessed the Mynock managing to shoot down one of the four fighters - Kyi began prepping his weapon systems as he began to get closer to the aerial dog fight. Then he witnessed the Mynock descend into a canyon with the three fighters following closely by, was she crazy?! Flying a freighter into a tight canyon like that was borderline suicidal but...he remembered this was Aurelie, she was ridiculously resourceful in situations like this, he trusted her. Realising that the brig stayed behind, Kyi would engage it and attempt to take some of the heat off of Aurelie's freighter.

Kyi pushed his flight stick forward, increasing his acceleration and pressed the top of it with his thumb, activating his light laser cannons and began shooting at the brig. The brig immediately turned toward Kyi and began meeting his fire with its own, the Jedi pilot began evasive manoeuvres, a barrel roll against the brig once realising that it had superior fire power. Thinking quick, he figured it would be smart to use the terrain as an ally and so he quickly performed a Split S combat manoeuvre and flew closer to the ground. As long as the brig was away from Aurelie's Mynock, he was fine.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

For some reason, there were much less firepower directed towards her than expected. At this moment, however, Aurelie didn't care much for the reason why as her sole focus was surviving the expedition down the canyon. The fighters' laser bolts exploded against the cliff walls around her until one finally hit the freighter. The light shield was able to withstand a couple of shots, but this was a warning sign if any. Scrappy, resourceful as he was attempted to create a 'wall' with constant fire in a single direction. This would, naturally not hit any fighters who could easily fly to the side of the wall, but it did give them less space to maneuver. Eventually, the third fighter furthest away from the Mynock found itself in too narrow of a space between the wall of bolts and the canyon wall. Instead of crashing into the canyon with certain death, the pilot elected to steer his fighter into the laser fire, hoping for the best. The third fighter quickly caught fire, forcing the pilot to eject whilst the ship turned into scrap.

It was not becoming easier to survive in the canyon with a shield at half strength and a far larger ship than those pursuing her. The young woman raised the nose of the ship with a sudden move, just after having rounded the first bend of as S shaped path in the canyon. It was rather fortunate, considering how hard it would've been for her to manage both turns which was an important objective. She also hoped that the two fighters would believe that she had continued on in the canyon without realising that she had indeed left it. The noise of laser bolts ceased sounding from down below but the ships where nowhere to be seen from her current angle. "Did we get rid of them?" she asked with a sense of careful optimism. "Correction master: I got rid of them. The other two are on their way here as we speak." The droid said, watching the two fighters emerge from the canyon as well. She was lost for word for a few moments "Y-y-you know what I meant!" she protested before turning the ship back in the direction it came from.

Heading back towards the Brig, Aurelie saw that the fighter from up north was engaged with the Brig. She thought of how brave of a fighter pilot it must've been to engage the much more heavily armed Brig. The though was soon to be interrupted by a new salvo from the two remaining fighters. The young woman did a quick turn to the left, causing the entire salvo to continue towards the Brig in the distance. With a chuckle, the thief once again pointed the nose of her freighter towards the Brig, figuring that she might get some help from the seemingly friendly fighter.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

The brig chased Kyi as he flew his starfighter low to the ground, his plan was to have the brig blind itself by flying low to the ground and having the brig barrage the rocky terrain with laser cannons and in-turn causing the small rock granites from the floor to kick up and obscure Kyi's starfighter. It worked for a little while but the brig wised up and stopped shooting, exposing Kyi's position - realising this, Kyi performed a Immelmann turn to gain more altitude and hopefully think of a way to take out the brig.

Back in the skies once more he noticed that Aurelie's freighter had returned from the canyon with only two fighters following her now. Nice. With the brig still hot on his tail, he accelerated forward to give himself a little distance before performing an upward swoop and turning his starfighter around to meet the brig head-on, Kyi activated a button on his console to switch to his missile launcher. Locking on to the brig, he quickly activated his missile launcher and sent it straight to into the brig - while it didn't destroy it, thanks to its shields, Kyi managed to do some serious damage and take it out of fight temporarily.

Breaking away from his dog fight with the brig, he turned his attention to the Mynock and the two starfighters following close behind. He flew directly toward her, switching back to his light laser cannons, and flew over her Mynock and shot at one of the starfighters - unloading a barrage of laser cannons, destroying it in the process. "Yes!" he shouted with excitement, the Jedi Knight was really starting to take a liking to flying. Circling back around, he flew in Aurelie's direction to rendezvous with her freighter.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Aurelie's peripheral sight picked up how beautifully the the Palla-series starfighter flew, just as if every maneuver was pre-planned and well executed. The main focus, however, still had to remain on surviving whilst hoping that either Kyi or Scrappy could do something about the rather poor situation the Mynock was in. The droid may have been designed for combat, but aerial combat was not its strong suit which was clearly demonstrated as it had difficulty hitting the small fighters unless the ship was held steady. Holding the ship steady, however, was very risky when chased by starfighters. "Ready to fire!" she exclaimed as she finally held the vessel steady in order to allow for another shot against the fighters. Unfortunately, this time, the fighter got off its shot first, collapsing the Mynock's shield entirely. Even worse, the droid's shot could never find its mark as Aurelie immediately veered the ship to the side, knowing that getting shot again could have fatal consequences.

It looked brighter on her newfound ally's front as the fighter managed to force away the Brig. The larger vessel was quickly making its way towards what looked like a settlement in a long reaching valley dale, surrounded by cliffs. It was only natural to get a bit nervous when the friendly starfighter few directly towards her, but the pilot had proved that he wasn't on the side of the hostiles which meant that it didn't cause too much concern. Even though it was completely unnecessary, the thief dodged in her seat as the Palla-fighter flew by and cheered "Yes!" as the dot representing a hostile fighter went out on her monitor.

After having been chased for so long, the final pursuing fighter managed to land a shot despite Aurelie's evasive maneuvers. The shot hit centrally on the topside of the freighter, taking out several systems and staring a violent fire which spread both on the interior and the exterior of the ship "Blast it!" she screamed whilst noticing the controls of the in-atmosphere flight operations becoming less responsive. Scrappy fired wildly towards the last fighter behind them with the hopes of at least deterring it from attacking them further as the Mynock descended closer and closer to the ground. Their last hope was now in the hands of the Palla-fighter pilot.

The young woman guided the burning freighter to what looked like the safest place to set down, a canyon valley, relatively flat and with a lack of lava - at least in the part she had set her eyes on. The ship soon touched down, it was far from gentle, even to the extent that some might have called it a crash. Having been knocked out, it took a few minutes for the girl to regain her consciousness. Her left shoulder hurt immensely and she had been bleeding lightly from her left shoulder where the brown jacket was now torn. At least she wasn't boiling alive yet, as Scrappy had been busy putting out the internal fires. The fire at the top of the ship was still, however, very much alive.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

Blast it all, all Kyi's methods of protecting Aurelie's Mynock wasn't good enough as the last fighter managed to knock the Mynock out of the sky. It began its descent to the ground with the fighter still on its tail trying to deal the finishing shot - not on his watch, he thrust the flight stick forward and descended behind the fighter and began shooting at its engines and saw that the Mynock was firing blind trying to deter the enemy fighter, hopefully he didn't get hit in the process. Kyi managed to hit a critical part of the enemy fighter's engine which forced it to descend to the ground, Kyi noticed the pilot ejecting into the air before it crash-landed though.

With the fighters out of the way and the brig having retreated, the Jedi pilot made his descent to the ground below near the crashed Mynock freighter. Landing a few metres away from Aurelie's crashed freighter, he took a few minutes changing out of his pilot uniform and into his custom-made Jedi armour inside the cockpit. Attaching his lightsaber to his belt, Kyi exited his starfighter's cockpit and swiftly made his way toward the downed freighter. Realising the ship was on fire, he held both arms out and reached out with the Force to pull down the ship's loading ramp.

The loading ramp slammed hard onto the rocky surface with a loud clang, he entered the ship and saw that Scrappy was putting out the internal fires - he liked that droid, Scrappy was super helpful. Making his way to the freighter's cockpit, he found the pretty blue-eyed thief still in her chair, holding her shoulder, she was injured from the crash. Despite the circumstances, he was happy to see her and she still looked great since the last time he saw her. He tapped her uninjured shoulder to get her attention, "Aurelie, we've gotta get you outta here." he said with urgency, "Come on, let's go." he added, wrapping her right arm around his shoulders and placing his left hand on her waist and right hand on her wrist. He guided her outside the freighter, away from the smoke and out of danger. With Scrappy still putting out the fire, he was confident the ship would be...fine, outside the freighter he set Aurelie gently on the ground and began examining her injured shoulder. "What the hell happened?" he asked, clearly concerned.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Still coming to her senses, the thief started removing her seat belt - Aurelie always wore one when possible, which had been quite fortunate in this instance. Her forehead furrowed as a loud metallic clang could be heard along with a slight vibration in the ship. She wonder if a loose part had fallen off or something until a surge of fresh air entered the ship, followed by footsteps. Normally, it would put her on alert, but she was in no condition to do much about a person entering now. Besides, Scrappy was there to keep her safe. Surprisingly, the droid didn't offer much more than a "Greetings" making her think of a guard kath-hound being thrown a juicy bone by the burglar.

Looking to her right after the tap, the young woman was surprised "Kyi?" she asked upon seeing her rescuer. It was a joy to see him again - although that thought didn't truly surface as Aurelie was still very much affected by the crash. "Is it..?" she mumbled, still confused. "Yeah, you're right" she said making use of his support as she slipped off of the pilot's seat. It wasn't a very large ship, making the journey out relatively short. It felt good to breath in the fresh air outside, even the hard rocky ground felt better than remaining inside.

"I, I don't know" she replied honestly. "We were heading towards a smaller town up north when they suddenly attacked." A slight smile appeared on the thief's lips "I'm glad to see you again" she continued "But we do meet under the most perilous of circumstances." After a short amount of laughter, Aurelie looked down to her shoulder. The bleeding had stopped and it still hurt, but carefully moving it, she didn't think anything was broken.

Meanwhile, the combat droid had moved onto the roof of the freighter to extinguish the fire up there too. While she was wearing her gloves (without any armour functions right now), boots and rather advanced googles - all melding in with her civilian outfit well, her eyes traveled across his armoured torso and then to his fighter in the background. "What are you doing here?" she asked with concern in her voice.

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

The Jedi Knight felt butterflies when Aurelie commented on how she was glad to see him again and laughed along with her on her comment about their tendency to meet during chaotic situations. After analysing her shoulder, he'd had a basic grasp of medical experience from his Star Squadron training, he deduced that the thief's shoulder was partially dislocated but before he could get to work on popping it back into place, she asked him what he was doing on Sullust.

Kyi met her eyes with his own and gave a sly smirk, "Alliance business." he said in a playful tone, "I got your signal when I arrived here. How about you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. He'd have to wait for her answer however as he interjected, "Actually, hold that thought. Your shoulder's partially dislocated...so this may hurt a little." the Knight said with a focused look, eyes staring directly at the thief's shoulder. Since this was a partial dislocation he wouldn't need to suddenly yank her shoulder back into place but in fact gently move and rotate her arm until the bone slid back into its socket. After doing this for a few moments, he successfully managed to get the bone back into place but Aurelie would need medical attention after all this was over.

"How does that feel?" he asked, gently placing a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. He proceeded to stand from his kneeling position and placed his hands on his hips, recollecting what Aurelie said about her attack - was it random? Or was this targeted? Kyi observed Sullust's rocky and larva filled landscape contemplating the events that had transpired. He'd have to get Aurelie to the city, to some healers and he'd need to get some mechanics back to fix her ship, maybe find out where Aurelie's attackers went too.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

"...so this may hurt a little" the words caused concern. Usually careful and not prone to getting things dislocated, Aurelie wasn't quite sure what Kyi had in mind. He seemed focused, calm, like he knew what he was doing. The conditions to remedy her partially dislocated shoulder were far from optimal, especially considering the relatively small cut at the shoulder which had torn the jacket and caused the bleeding. Still, the Jedi went on. The thief winced from the pain but quickly bit her lip, determined to push through it until it all suddenly felt much better. There was still some pain, naturally, but it felt much less severe than before "Much better" she said, smiling as he removed some hair from her face.

His talk about "Alliance business" worried her. She had already grown fond of the young Jedi on Tatooine and his help just now was also highly appreciated - whatever he had planned to do now surely had to be dangerous if he wore armour. The girl had heard his question and had not forgotten about it, but she didn't think Kyi would like the answer very much. After having gotten up to her feet, Aurelie considered how to explain her presence whilst looking over to the ship. "Look, Scrappy has put out the fire!" she exclaimed, quite happy that there was something to distract them from the original topic. The freighter didn't look very good with a large burned area at the top, a partially destroyed interior and both the turret and shield generator overheated. Letting her gaze move from the ship to Kyi, she chirped "I'm not a bad pilot, promise" jokingly.

Bringing up a holomap of the area, it was clearly visible that they were in a dead end in the canyon with a settlement a fair bit up ahead. "I detected three armed Sullustanese organics on their way here. Permission to engage?" the droid asked from the roof of the ship whilst putting away the fire extinguisher, ready to pick up either the flamethrower or his rifle. Aurelie looked to the freckled Jedi "Well? What do you say?" she asked, comfortable enough with him to let him take charge of the situation.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

Kyi smiled to himself at the thief's joke, he enjoyed her lighthearted nature, it was a much needed breath of fresh air compared to serious members of the Jedi Order and the overall seriousness of the current state of galactic affairs. He turned his head to her, "Hey, for someone who was ridiculously outnumbered, you did great." he meant it too, Kyi was a decent pilot but that was due to his Force-sensitivity, the Jedi Knight had a much greater respect for pilots who's skill was based on their own abilities and not just the Force itself guiding your actions.

Scrappy had detected armed organics headed their way and asked whether to engage or not, hoping the security droid would listen to him, he disregarded the request "Hold on, Scrappy." he said, looking up at the roof of the Mynock where Scrappy was located. He turned toward Aurelie once more, "If these were the people that attacked you, we should try and find out why first before engaging in a firefight." he then looked at the blue-eyed thief's injured shoulder and then returned his gaze to her once more, "Plus, you're injured. Let's try and avoid a fight if we can." he said, concluding his sentence.

Then he heard heavy footsteps approaching rapidly. He stood next to Aurelie, and placed his hand on the palm of hers for a very brief moment, as a way to comfort and reassure her that things would be fine. Scrappy's scans were right on the money, there were free armed Sullustans and they were here - blasters readied and aimed at the three. "Not bad, kid." the middle armed Sullustan, who Kyi assumed to be the leader, said, speaking to Aurelie, "Not many pilots could survive an ambush like that." the leader turned to Kyi, aiming his blaster rifle at him now, "But you, where did you come from?" Kyi wasn't in the mood to play games, he wanted answers and so he responded bluntly "What do you want?" he asked with an expression of irritation.

There was a short silence, the leader exchanged looks with both of his men before nodding - "Eh, what the hell." he shrugged, still grasping his blaster rifle firmly, "We're gonna kill you anyway, so why not tell you." the leader said letting out a wheezy laugh, "We shoot down ships stupid enough to fly in our territory and salvage equipment from the wreckage, simple as that. That kinda stuff can make you a fortune on Sullust." the leader said this with a complete un-remorseful look on his face - in fact, it was quite unsettling.

Kyi's eyes trailed to the ground and he let out a small, quiet sigh, he knew how this was going to end and he began questioning why his attempts and negotiations always fall flat.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

There was something about the Jedi which always made Aurelie feel calm, except for when being chased by him through the streets of Mos Eisley that is. She liked it, and his peaceful nature was a nice change from the more violent thugs she usually on the streets. A tingling sensation coursed through her body as he placed his hand on hers and she worried that she might be blushing. "Gotta stay focused" she thought, hoping that he wouldn't notice anything with her standing just a decimeter behind him to the side.

The armed Sullustans soon came became clearly visible as they got close with weapons raised. The tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife - the Sullustans had an advantage in already having their weapons out, but then, the good guys had a Jedi. Her right hand slowly drifted towards her belt, near where the blaster was hidden. With narrowed eyes, Aurelie gave the leader a deathly stare as he commended her. Not a word escaped her mouth, however, she was waiting to see how Kyi would do.

It was quite the surprise to see the Sullustan team leader tell them their plans - just like how the bad guys would have an evil monologue in the holovids. "Query: Would it not be better to tell them to land before shooting at them?" the droid asked. One of the goons didn't seem to like it much and fired a blast a bit to the right of Scrappy "Shut up, droid!" he growled before turning his rifle to the humans, leaving the droid without a guard.

The aggressive Sullustan took a few steps forward, basically stepping into melee range and waved his blaster in their faces. "Let's just blast'em boss!" he roared. With one of their own being a great distraction by himself, Scrappy pulled up the flamethrower from his back, ready to rain down a stream of fire on the thugs from his elevated position. The girl was ready to throw herself to the side or draw her blaster at any moment now - the hostile team leader had already made their intents rather clear.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

It was go-time, one of the Sullustans was practically in their face now and Kyi could sense the murderous intent emanating from him and the other armed Sullustans. Kyi eyed the one closest to them, daring him to pull the trigger - from what was a tense, short moment, felt like it was an hour. Sensing the aggressive Sullustan's finger ready to pull the trigger and without taking his gaze off of the thug "Scrappy, now!" he yelled, giving the security droid the okay to rain fire on the thugs. Within a split second, Scrappy sprayed the two Sullustans further ahead of Kyi and Aurelie.

Distracted, the aggressive Sullustan closer to Kyi and Aurelie, momentarily turned his head which gave Kyi the chance to push his arm out and send the aggressive Sullustan a few feet back with the Force. Kyi quickly unclipped his lightsaber and ignited it with haste and zoomed toward the downed Sullustan who was just getting up and used Cho mai to slice his dominant hand before he could even pick up his blaster, he screamed in agony before being cut off with Kyi's boot being placed on his chest. Although these thugs were horrible people and would have killed them if it were the other way around, it wouldn't have been the Jedi way to harm a defenceless enemy.

He turned to look up and saw that Scrappy had badly burned one of the Sullustan lackeys whereas the leader was on the ground, stunned - Aurelie's handiwork no doubt, it all happened so fast as he was solely focused on detaining the aggressive Sullustan but he had faith his friends would have no trouble taking them out.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

It all happened quickly. One moment, the aggressive thug was roaring, convincing his comrades to attack. In the next moment, Kyi gave the command and two of the Sullustans were suddenly drowned in flames. With their blasters already aimed, the thief immediately hopped to the side, dodging the bolts from both of the the aliens on the back-row whilst the final one had his weapon aimed at Kyi. The burning heat would prevent them from making any impacting shots, but the danger was far from over. In the corner of her eye, she saw the aggressive Sullustan pushed to the ground. The aggressive noise of a lightsaber coming to life along with a soothing blue light soon followed - she wouldn't need to worry much about that front. It appeared that the team leader had some kind of protective gear against heat which was undoubtedly common on a planet such as Sullust. He was starting to recover after having made his way out of Scrappy's range. With her blaster pointed at the criminal, Aurelie waited until he had put out the fires before firing at him - two shots just to be sure. Naturally, both were set to stun which often worked as her blaster's default setting.

Her eyes glanced past the now one-handed thug whom she assumed wouldn't be troublesome anymore as he was screaming in agony until Kyi put a boot on him. The though of her friend looking heroic flashed through her mind, just as she shifted her attention to the one who was still burning. Although the combat droid had already killed the stream of fire, the man was still very much aflame. "Take your clothes of. Take'em off! Do it!" she screamed to little effect as the guy just kept producing a panicked scream as he ran around uncontrollably. The girl fired a stun bolt at him, making him fall bluntly to the ground. "Scrappy, the fire extinguisher" she yelled. The situation was, however, rather problematic, since the droid was pretty far away and needed to climb down the ship in order to get there. Being outside the range of the flamethrower, throwing the device wasn't much of an option either. The droid picked up the fire extinguisher and considered how to best accomplish the task of saving their foe - a rather unintuitive move for a combat droid.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

Boot still placed firmly on the Sullustan's chest he saw that Aurelie and Scrappy were scrambling to extinguish the Sullustan that was on fire before it became fatal. The Jedi Knight looked between the blue-eyed thief and the security droid before softly closing his eyes and reaching out to the Force once more, with his hand outstretched in the direction of Scrappy, he used the Force to guide the fire extinguisher out of the droid's grasp and floating it over into Aurelie's hands. Kyi swiftly tilted his head in the direction of the burning Sullustan, an indication for the thief to quickly put the fire out.

While Aurelie was handling that, Kyi levitated the aggressive Sullustan's blaster rifle a couple of feet in front of his freckled-face before swiping his bright blue blade upward, slicing it cleanly in half as sparks flew everywhere. The Jedi Knight looked down at the injured Sullustan, "Have to make sure you don't try anything with that other hand." he said cautiously. Returning his gaze to check on the situation at hand, he saw that Aurelie had successfully managed to extinguish the burning Sullustan, avoiding further injury as well as saving his life. Kyi remembered how protective he was of her back on Tatooine but by now he knew the young thief was more than capable of handling herself, he had complete trust in her.

With the loose ends tied up, Scrappy climbed down from the roof of the Mynock and accompanied Kyi and Aurelie on their way to the stunned Sullustan leader to further question him. Coming to, the Sullustan was met with a Jedi Knight, a handy thief and a security droid standing over him - defeat immediately fell on his face as he hung his head down in surrender. The Knight turned his head to look at Aurelie, "Wanna take it from here?" he asked his friend, letting her take the lead for this next part.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Claiming that everything had gone according to plan might be an exaggeration, but it went as well as one could've hoped. None of the good guys received any injuries during the fight and their opponents had been dealt with. It did, however, seem like a rather troublesome situation - the three thugs were only out of the fight for now, but leaving them alone to venture out to the settlement was out of the question. The risk of them stealing Kyi's fighter to get help or simply setting up an ambush was too great. It was, however, a problem for them to think about later. For now, it seemed as if the thief would be leading an interrogation. Giving her friend an confirmatory nod, Aurelie added "Just, intervene if things aren't going great." she said with a low voice, only for him to hear.

Taking a few steps, she bent down to stand crouched next to the leader who had just begun to wake. Aurelie put on a concerned face "Are you alright?" to which the team leader only responded with a few dazed grunts. The girl helped the man reach a seated position and put her hand on his upper arm "I'm so sorry for shooting you earlier." her voice was filled with faked empathy - just as her father had taught in her youth. "Uh, wha-" the man was about to speak, but no opportunities at self-sabotage would be given. "We were speaking when that guy called for his droid to attack you." she interrupted him and pointed with her thumb at Kyi upon mentioning him. "But you were just about to offer us mercy. I'm so sorry I shot you." Confusion was the primary characteristic of the team leader's facial expression for quite some time, but he finally regained his senses "Yea, yeah! You people attacked us! You bastards!"

The plan seemed to be working as the leader now clearly seemed to think himself in some kind of advantageous position, preying on her bad conscience. With raised hands, showing her palms, Aurelie continued "I'm sorry. Can we try to make it up to you somehow? Our radio equipment don't seem to be working, do you know anyone nearby?" An evil smirk began to grow on the Sullustan's lips as an idea plopped into his head "Yes. I have some friends all over the canyon, your friend shall go into it and look for 'Colonda's outpost' and tell them to send the, uh, medical ship to this location. If any of my friends in the Canyon tries to stop him, just tell'em that Nien sent him. You shall treat my injuries while waiting." The thief soaked in the information and told the injured Sullustan that she would try to convince her friend of doing as he asked before walking over to Kyi.

With a lowered voice, she asked "What now?" as she wasn't quite sure what to do with the information. The team leader was clearly taking her, and perhaps even Kyi for fools, she glanced towards him, wondering if there was anything more to be gained from speaking to him.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

Kyi crossed his arms as Aurelie took a few steps ahead of both him and Scrappy. She began feigning concern with the Sullustan leader which peaked the Jedi's curiosity, what was she up to? He thought to himself. Aurelie began lying through her teeth as she mentioned Scrappy was his droid and that the dazed thug was to offer them mercy - confused, Kyi raised an eyebrow, giving Aurelie a sort of "What the hell?" facial expression and exchanged glances with Scrappy, only to shrug at the security droid, he figured the droid definitely had no idea what his master was up to...well he thought so, he'd have no way of actually knowing since droid's didn't convey body language or gave off impressions through the Force like organics did.

Even more curious, the Jedi tilted his head slightly and began to really pay attention to what lies the thief was telling the Sullustan leader next. Kyi couldn't deny it though, the girl was a natural, he wondered if Aurelie had ever lied to him before and he hadn't even clocked on to it. The leader mentioned something about 'Colonda's outpost' and sending a medical ship to their location, obviously some kind of trap, but he was still curious to hear what Aurelie's plan was.

Finally returning to Scrappy and himself, she asked in a hushed tone what happens now - Kyi took a moment to think, honestly he wasn't exactly sure what to do. If he went alone to engage the remaining pirates, he ran the risk of being overwhelmed and captured or worse, killed by them as he had no idea of actually knowing how many there were but also if he brought them back to their current location, it was possible the pirates would win a skirmish with superior firepower and superior numbers. The Jedi was truly stumped as his eyes stared at the ground and his arms were crossed, deep in thought.

Then it hit him, Kyi had a slight idea but he wasn't sure if it would work...but it was best idea he had at the moment - locking his brown eyes on Aurelie to gain her attention, he unfolded his arms "Maybe if me and you go together and leave Scrappy here to keep watch and tend to the leader's wounds or whatever-" he said in a low tone "-maybe you and I can take a stealthy approach, take the pirates out in Colonda outpost one by one and use the parts from the "medical ship" to repair your Mynock?" he proposed, if Aurelie had a better idea he was completely open to it.

@Pyrenees

 

[Aurelie Fleury]

Kyi's plan seemed solid. More so than anything she could think of anyways. "If we've got everything we want, we needn't play so nice with him anymore. His injuries might just be made up. You know? To split us up." Aurelie glanced to the Sullustan again; Kyi was probably right in that it would be best to leave Scrappy behind to keep watch. She nodded, agreeing to following his plan. With that, the young woman turned back to the Sullustan sitting on the floor "Hey, he wanted me to come along with him, and I think it might be for the best." she said. Apparently not minding it too much, the Sullustan showed that he understood with a grunt. "Before I leave, is there anything I should watch out for?" The team leader considered what to say next for quite some time until he finally spoke "After this bend, there will be a wider area with a lava stream to one side, so you'll wanna go to the other instead, right? Thing is, I've got some trigger happy buddies over there who might not be so easy to see. So just approach carefully and use my name: Nien" After thanking him, the thief turned back to Kyi who seemed to be ready to go.

The two walked along the path in the canyon. For some odd reason, it felt peaceful again, even though they knew that they were in for another round of excitement. It was an unusually quiet walk as neither party said anything. Aurelie carefully glanced over to the freckled Jedi on multiple occasions, just to let her gaze quickly turn back to the path ahead of her. Although the peace and quiet was very much enjoyable when at Kyi's side, the young woman wanted to talk to him, get to know him better. "Sooo, what do you do when not on 'alliance business'?" she asked, using a rather goofy impression of him when reciting his reason for being on the planet. The girl looked forth with bright blue eyes "Sabaac? Music? Got a damsel in every port?" she asked, turning to her tanned companion curiously.

@AfroBandit20

 

[Kyi Wavestrider]

Kyi and Aurelie began their trek to Colonda Outpost after the Sullustan pirate leader - or Nien - had told the two to use his name as a way to avoid immediately being shot at. This actually gave him another idea, instead of steathily taking out the remaining pirates - maybe his thief companion could work her magic and convince them they're friends of Nien but he'd tell her about it later when they're closer to the outpost.

Honestly, it was nice to have some alone time with Aurelie. He'd never actually got the chance to properly talk to her about stuff that didn't involve surviving an ambush against Sullustan pirates and it had been a while since he'd had some downtime. Aurelie's sweet and tender voice broke the silence between the two when she jokingly asked what he did in his free time, the Jedi Knight laughed at her potential listings which ranged from playing Sabacc, listening to music or being some kind of womaniser. Kyi took a short moment to think, what did he actually do? Aside from being a Jedi and partaking in assignments for the Order or the Alliance - he didn't actually have any free time.

"I don't actually know." he muttered, "My duties as a Jedi keep me so busy that I don't really have time to do other things." he said with a shrug, wow, Kyi had no life, he'd never even kissed a girl before! - it was all work and no play for him, he took a moment to think what his hobbies were before joining the Jedi Order as his thumb and index finger hooked onto his chin, signifying his thought process. "Well, I guess, before I left Lothal to join the Order, I enjoyed cruising in my mom and dad's landspeeder. It was an old model but it was still fun stuff for a seven-year-old." he said with a slight chuckle, remembering how easier things were back in those days, Kyi remembered he had an interest in speeders growing up and kept his eye out on the newer models that were released every few years.

Kyi smiled at the sky for a moment as he reminisced about Lothal and his parents. If...no, when things settle down, he'd have to make sure to visit them again. Not seeing them in eight-years was a strange notion but he never really had time to think about it due to all the hectic-ness of the galaxy. Realising he had trailed off into deep thought again, he quickly shifted his gaze back to Aurelie, "What do you do in your free time? I'm sure you have guys falling over your feet all the time right? Pretty girl like you and all." he asked with a mischievous smirk - he was genuinely curious about her hobbies but also attempted to slyly find out what the blue-eyed thief's relationship status was.

@Pyrenees