Ask Padawan Adventure to Gravlex Med

[Shaw Amaris]

Was that all there was to it? Shaw felt like he had been let off the hook way too easy, but he wasn't going to complain about it. Maybe Theia was in a forgiving mood or maybe she just wanted to focus on the mission at hand and not get distracted so said the first thing that would shut him up and let her focus. Shaw couldn't tell, but Theia acted like it didn't bother her. It was a one-eighty from the cold shoulder she had been giving him only a few minutes before, but Shaw would take it at face value and move on for now. Shaw was still far too oblivious to pick up on many of the subtle nuances that was common sense for everyone else.

"Thanks," he said lamely, one hand still awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck because he didn't know what else to do with it. It was weird to just let it hang there at his side, right? At least the other hand had the glowstick. It was a working hand. "I know that was a pretty mid as far as apologies go." Probably almost as bad as one of those holotube apologies that always went viral for all the wrong reasons. "But uhhh I mean it." And that was that. They had reached their destination. To Zessel he mouthed, Sorry, dude. Shaw had a knack for making things awkward. Some things never changed, not even when you became a Jedi.

The tree padawans came to the fourth door on the left, except there was no door. Just a large hole where presumably there once had sat a door. It was gone now. The glowrod cast a warm light across the spacious room on the other side of the threshold. At the far end of the room sat a massive generator, large enough and powerful enough to power up the entire launchworks for a time. Shaw was almost as excited by the prospect of lights as he was by the promise of normal gravity.

For some reason Shaw just lingered on the threshold, not actually walking in. He wasn't sure why at first. It was just a feeling. "Watch out," he told the other two, spotting and pointing to a thin wire that stretched the length of the doorway. At one end of the wire it was connected to a frag grenade, just waiting for one of them to trip and get themselves blown up. The force had heard his plea after all. Or had it just been luck? Nah. He liked to think it was the force. "Looks like we're not alone in here after all." Had to be the work of that lingering syndicate.

That was when a familiar voice cut across their comlinks, reminding them that they really weren't alone. "Caul?" Shaw responded when the transmission was cut off by blaster fire. "Caul?" No answer. Yeah duh there was no answer. He was being shot at! "We've gotta get this generator going," Shaw said, concern evident by the tone of his voice. Then they would have power. Lights. And hopefully the artificial gravity generator would kick on soon, but if the other padawans were pinned down in a firefight there was no guarantee. And no guarantee Theia, Zessel, and Shaw would be able to get to them anytime soon with this high gravity.

There was a puddle of thick, goopy green stuff on the floor. The best way to describe it? Like Shrek had rolled in and used the floor as his own personal napkin to blow his nose. Hanging out with Kaedan Shaw had learned a lot of things. For one that that probably wasn't snot, as much as it might have looked like it. It was probably coolant. Which meant the generator had a leak. Which meant they would have to fix the leak and replace the lost coolant. @LouJoVi @GABA @Zay @Narzen @Interdictor

booby trap roll 14/20

 

[Syr Bors]

Boom, boom, thud, thud, Bors plodding footsteps sounded out. Even if he wanted to be quiet like his fellow padawan wanted, he doubted he could. His weight and the planet's gravity combined to make a difficult situation for him overall. Each step was like marching through water. No, water had resistence. This felt like Bors was carrying a speeder bike on his back. Doable, but slow going.

At least they were at building that housed the generator.

"Aha!" Bors exclaimed as the blaster fire erupted. Despite the gravity, he still managed to pick himself up off his hands and grabbed his blade in one swift motion. "I knew we would encounter felons of some form!"

The blade ignited. The large yellow beam of plasma extended just in time for Bors to deflect a shot that would've been lethal to himself. Unlike the others, he couldn't run and dash for cover. Even without the gravity, Giant Pangos were not known for their speed or their ability to hide. Rather, they were the cover others relied on. Bors protected his kind from Killik drones back home on Rago, and as a Jedi, he knew he would protect others everywhere else.

"Come at me vile villains!" Bors shouted. Large hands spun the large blade in an attempt to block another incoming shot. This time, the shot wouldn't have even hit him, but Bors was practicing a tactic jokingly nicknamed 'Angry Customer'. Bors was attempting to draw as much attention towards himself to give the others a better chance at maneuverability.

"Behold low lives, I am a Jedi! Face me and know judgement!" Bors continued to shout as he stepped forward. Boom...boom...thud....thud.

@Interdictor @Zay @throwitintothefire

 

[Zessel]

Zessel held his breath when Shaw said that he was sorry. The white-haired boy didn’t know exactly why his friend was apologizing to the girl, but he suspected that it was related to the events of that party. The other boy had left Theia alone while they danced, only for her to end inside a lake. Seeing her reaction that day made the half-Arkanian think that she would fly over the other Padawan’s neck as soon as he shut his mouth.

He stared in surprise when Theia said that she was fine and he had to control himself to not open his mouth in astonishment when Shaw simply accepted it. It was obvious that she wasn’t fine. Someone that was fine would be more talkative, make jokes about the situation or start a conversation with their teammates.

It was the complete opposite of what was happening here. Theia was barely talking with them, had stayed silent during the entire trip and even looked as if she wanted to be in a dentist extracting a tooth rather than being on this mission. Someone that acted this way wasn’t fine.

Suddenly, Zessel noticed that he had been paying a lot of attention to how Theia was acting and felt concerned with her.

Before he could think too much about it, Shaw looked at him with an apologetical face and the half-Arkanian smiled as awkwardly as the entire situation was for all of them. Before Zessel could say anything to make the situation more awkward, Theia said the direction that they should follow.

“Good eyes.” Zessel said, after Shaw pointed to the trap. He didn’t notice the wire in the door, it was so thin. Then, they received Caul’s message and it became obvious that there would be more trouble than this trap. Adding to that was the fact that the generator was leaking coolant.

“I’m taking some mechanic classes. I think that I can fix it, but we need to find a replacement for what leaked.” the other Padawan could ask why a baker boy like him was learning mechanics. The answer was that he didn’t have a lot of money to pay for the maintenance of the kitchen equipment. Learning it himself would save his funds. However, in the classes he learned to fix other stuff, like generators.

@throwitintothefire @GABA @Zay @Narzen @Interdictor

 

[Shaw Amaris]

Shaw tried to ignore the uncomfortable pressure in his chest as he approached the generator, but it was hard not to think about Myla, Caul, and Bors all the way on the other side of the launchworks, caught in the midst of a shootout. Sure, they were Jedi he told himself. What was a handful of gunmen in the face of three Jedi? There were just a handful, right? Caul was an incredibly skilled dueslist. Myla had talked about her experience on the battlefield. And Bors—well Shaw didn't really know him, but the guy was huge. He could totally wreck some criminals and not even break a sweat. But then again, he was a big guy which made him a big target, and they were all working against gravity. Time wasn't on their side so long as that gravity generator remained off.

At the back of the generator, Shaw hunched down over a length of exposed silicone hose that ran out of one panel and into another. The outlet hose was coated in the same green goop that was on the floor, and it stuck to Shaw's hand when he ran it along. "Looks like this hose is leaking." That was where the lost coolant had to have come from. "For real?" Shaw perked up when Zessel mentioned that he could probably fix it, hitting his head on a metal pipe that ran the length of the wall in his excitement. "Ouch!" Zessel had been holding out on him.

Pulling at cobwebs that clung to his clothing, Shaw would reemerge and look around. Brown eyes landed on a dusty metal box sitting on a shelf with a bunch of different hoses in it. "Any of these work?" he asked Zessel, holding up an assortment of hoses. Too bad the Empire hadn't labeled any of this stuff. @LouJoVi @GABA @Zay @Interdictor @Narzen

dice roll 11/20

 

[Theia Durand]

Theia wasn't exactly done with giving him the cold shoulder; she could tell it had bothered him and she wasn't exactly done being angry about the party. He would respond by saying thanks and play into the neg of his own ability to apologize. Her brow narrowed as the guys continued ahead, her thoughts really digging deep into what he said despite probably no actual deepness there. The red haired teen didn't say anything more on the topic as they paused at the improvised door where Shaw pointed out the trap mechanism.

Though Caul's cry over the comm regarding enemies brought the mission back to focus. She agreed with Shaw, but more so she wanted some normal gravity and that meant getting the generator going. She noticed the liquid goop on the floor, and nodded, recognizing the leak as coolant. Luckily Zessel knew how to repair such things, she was having a hard time wanting to do things for Shaw when she still just wanted to yell at him. Theia helped look for supplies around the area, it would be silly if there weren't any for just regular maintenance.

As Theia returned with clamps, she heard Shaw ask if any of what he found would work. The eyeroll couldn't be stopped, as she felt herself judging Shaw as an idiot for not knowing the difference between the hoses. "Here are some clamps." she said laying them beside Zessel. "I'm going to check for any additional damage."

 

[Zessel]

”Yeah.” Zessel said, before wincing when Shaw hit his head in the pipe. That must have hurt. “I thought that it would be a good skill to have.” he walked toward a nearby table and picked a tool box. It was so good that the Imperials were in such a rush that they left it behind.

With the tool box, he crouched near the hose and studied it for a moment. If there was an isolant tape, he could seal it. However this solution would be temporary. Replacing the whole thing would be better, but where would they find a replacement?

Thankfully, Shaw found a box full of hoses. The half-Arkanian rummaged through them, sometimes picking one and comparing it with the leaking one. “This one!” he smiled, showing his friend how the hose that he was holding was identical to the other. “In these cases, you can compare the width of the hoses. This helps.”

“Thanks! Now, time to work!” the half-Arkanian said and went to replace the damaged hose. First Zessel closed the coolant flux for a moment, before carefully removing the hose, leaving it in a corner in the ground. Then, he went to install the new one. After a moment, he finally concluded the operation. “Done! Did you find anything else broken?” Zessel asked Theia, while raising from the ground. He cleaned his hands with a tissue that would need to go to the trash after that.

@throwitintothefire @GABA @Zay @Narzen @Interdictor

 

[Myla Lessi]

Myla gave a small nod in response to Caul's question. "…Yes, but I think it was answered." Her voice was quiet, but certainly audible. She was bracing herself for the inevitable next question when a familiar sound met her ears: blaster fire. Suddenly she was on Geonosis again. Clones falling around her, irreplaceable vod of which she knew many by name. The ethereal whine of blasters firing, accompanied by the occasional deep, dark rumble of artillery cannons and the warble of gunships.

She froze, and that should have cost her her life. Fortunately, whoever was shooting at her seemed to be having trouble adjusting to the gravity. That, or they just couldn't hit the broad side of a space freighter. Either way, the Padawan managed to shake herself back to the present and draw her lightsaber a second or two after Bors, igniting only one end and dropping into a defensive position. Focusing on doing something she was good at helped her ignore the pesky, dragging feeling of the extra gravity pulling on her. She heard the occasional yell of someone hit by the deflected rounds and winced each time, but pushed the images out of her head. Myla needed to focus.
@GABA @Zay @Narzen @throwitintothefire @LouJoVi

 

[Shaw Amaris]

Zessel was able to find the correct hose needed to replace its leaking counterpart, and Theia found some clamps to help with the repairs. Straight up? Shaw had no idea what the clamps were for, and he was not about to ask a stupid question right now when they were all already stressed out. Normally Shaw wasn't afraid to ask stupid questions and risk looking stupid in the process, but now was probably one of those moments when it was best to remain silent and let the experts do their thing, even if it didn't come easily.

Shaw stood over Zessel's shoulder, glowrod in hand so the half arkanian could see what he was doing while he worked. It reminded Shaw of childhood days back on Coruscant, holding a flashlight for his dad late at night while they worked on the family speeder. A real old junker that they had eventually had to replace with a newer model. It was a high stress job, holding the light for your dad because if you didn't hold it just right he would blow a gasket. Luckily Zessel wasn't the type to bite his head off if he didn't hold the light the right way, and luckily luckily there was really no wrong way to hold a glowrod.

Once Zessel announced that he had replaced the leaking hose, the padawans would find some bottles of coolant and replace what had been lost. That left only one step remaining: try and start the generator. The controls could be seen through the window of a canopy door on the side of the generator, so Shaw swung it open and checked out all the different buttons. There weren't that many. It looked pretty straightforward. A green start button. A red stop button. A big red emergency stop button. Shaw pressed the start button and waited for the generator to kick on.

Nothing. Nothing. Still nothing. Why wasn't it starting?! "Uhhh," he called out to Theia, wherever she was, "Did you find something else wrong with it?" @GABA @LouJoVi

dice roll 5/20

 

[Theia Durand]

Theia carefully walked around the generator, looking for any other signs of damage but also trip wires like the one in the entrance. The last thing they needed was something disastrous to destroy the whole generator. She paused when she came to a ladder and climbed up, looking down at the fans inside the generator, nothing seemed too amiss. She heard Zes say everything was reconnected and the sound of clicking as Shaw pressed the buttons. Though every time he hit the start button, the generator fans moved just a little bit; her eyes narrowed as she begun to look around, imagining there was a safety mechanism.

"Hold on, I'm looking....I'm looking..." she said, taking in deep breaths and then she saw some color-coded valves and reached down to turn them. There were several audible hisses and creaking as the generator's pipes were opened.

"Try it now." she said looking over the ledge of the generators, "Everything is opened and cleared."

Theia quickly slid down the ladder and joined the other two, ready for the other group to switch on the environment generators so they could have some normal gravity. That is if they were able to handle the scumbags who were firing at them. She frowned internally realizing they have not heard them for a hot minute.

@throwitintothefire @LouJoVi

 

[Shaw Amaris]

It was a moment or two before Theia's voice answered back. Shaw peered around the generator, not sure where she had gotten to. It sounded like she was on top of it? There were several hissess and the squeak of old valves turning, and then she called back down again to Zessel and Shaw to try turning the generator on again. Shaw nodded even though she couldn't see and waited for her to climb back down the ladder before he tried hitting the start button again. It was probably for the best that way, just in case something exploded or the fans sucked in her hair or something wild like that.

Index finger extended, Shaw pressed the start button again and waited along with the other two teenagers with baited breath. It was the cooling fans that kicked on first, and then there was a steady rumble that built up until it sounded like someone had started an industrial sized washing machine with a full load. After a few seconds the overhead lights started to kick on.

Shaw breathed a sigh of relief, wiping sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. "Power's on," he announced over the comlink, hoping that the other padawans had gotten out of the jam they'd found themselves in by now. "You guys okay?" There was no immediate response, so Shaw turned to Theia and Zessel.

"We better go check on them." He was sure it was the last thing any of them wanted to to, to traipse all the way to the opposite end of the launchworks, but they really didn't have a choice. They couldn't just sit around and hope that Caul, Myla, and Bors would be alright and that they would get the gravity generator up and running. They might be in need of backup. @LouJoVi @GABA @Zay @Narzen @Interdictor

 

[Syr Bors]

General Combat roll: 12/20

"The light is relentless! As am I!" Bors shouted out as he deflected another bolt. Days of training with remote droids continued to flash in his mind as the large yellow blade spun just as continuedly. Bors had studied the jedi lightsaber arts intensely, initially because of the enjoyment of seeing the Jedi of old fighting, and then more so because of the excitement of the action. The style of the Krayt Dragon had become his sole focus within his time of the Jedi, if only because he loved the idea of making more cover for those behind him.

And the art of Djem So, of being an unstoppable defensive force? Well, that went without question...

Boom, boom, thud, thud. It was slow going. Bors was feeling the weight of the planet even more so. True, he wanted to be the one bragging about how long he could last in a battle like how long some of the other Pangos back home talked about the bed, but this was getting troublesome. While some of the bolts sent flying back were accurate, Bors initial goal of being 'loud and proud' so the others had more maneuverability seemed to have gone unused.

"That's it! The Light shall be your judge!" Bors proclaimed as he witnessed 3 more criminals bunched together at the far side of the room. It would've taken much too long to get closer, and deflecting blaster shots was not a garentee. The other padawans were being just as slow, or defensive, as he was. No, this time, Bors was going to have to try something else if he wanted to finish this fight quickly

True, Bors had only done this trick a few times. Once it was actually successful. And once, during a Wookie-saving adventure from trandoshan slavers, Bors had nailed his target, albeit with a slight cut to himself. And while he had been banned from attempting this on the space stations, he felt here it would be alright to do, provided he could deal with the advanced gravity...

OOC: Roll for Lightsaber throw: 2/20

Bors wound his arm up and chucked the blade at the enemy. It seemed there was good reason he had been banned from attempting this on the station, as the blade not only flew in a complete wrong direction and hit the floor before it could actually strike an enemy, the large nearly 3 meter blade actually managed to slice a part of his arm pretty deeply. It was a miracle that the blade didn't hit the generator.

"Gah! The light has judged me unworthy! I've been injured!" Bors cried out in pain and horror as he clutched his new wound. The smell of burnt flesh and scales was pungent. Overhead, the lights came to life, making Bors as a perfect target.

@LouJoVi @GABA @Zay @throwitintothefire @Interdictor