Ask A Different Kind of Chopper

[Orenth]

The Sojourn class shuttle dropped out of hyperspace. The distant planet of Attolon seemed small. Byron started up the sublight engines and began having them fly sunward towards the planet. Keeping the ship's scanners active, the long range communications suite would also help keep them in contact with the Jedi Order.

Sitting behind the controls of the shuttle, Jedi Knight Byron Ryker and his companions had tracked a smuggler to this world. The man had recently been in and around the Lothal sector and it only made sense. After the events on Garel, and his visions before that with Doctor Morata, it all felt like it was coming to a head soon.

The group of Jedi headed to the surface knew there were smugglers' operating out of the area. But there was more that lay in wait on the surface. Byron could feel it. Part of him felt like this world had been calling him. The SCS-20's engines were soon at their maximum acceleration. Only when the planet eclipsed the sun did the man slow down.

So far there were no smugglers making a run or pirates trying to intercept them. That was good news and it also meant the smugglers were smart. Byron knew there was going to be more than just one light freighter crew on the planet. Reports of the planet also having dangerous spider creatures brought back memories of when Byron had been on Felucia. It still brought a shiver down his spine and a slight pain to his chest.

"Once we land, we probably will have to the leave the ship for awhile. That means there's probably going to be spiders all over it when we come back." His tone was far from enthusiastic. They had speeder bikes for this. The plan was to land on the dark side of world in the shuttle, and speed their way to the not-so-abandoned rebel base. All while dealing with whatever local perimeter defenses and wild dangers between them and their mission.

The dark coral like horizon stretched under the starry sky. A faint breeze brought a mostly dry wind in front of cargo ramp. The soft thrum of the repulson engines warbled after the muscularly jedi straddled his. "We'll keep our lights off as we approach." That meant they would be feelin where there were going at high speed. Not seeing. "Try not to raise the alarm though they may know where here already." Byron of course was referring to scans that had maybe detected their ship as it entered the system. There was no way of telling yet.

@Nefieslab @Makashi Master

 

[Maxim Frey]

Maxim stayed on his feet as they entered the atmosphere and barreled down towards the planet. He stood in the small bay where they had stored the speeders and stared out the window as the planet quickly approached underneath them. Night drops had always been the worst, especially for a man who was not a great pilot. Feet on the ground was where he preferred to be. Every now and then they passed a light on the ground below, but there was no way of telling how close they were.

His headset crackled as Ryker spoke to no one in particular. "Once we land, we probably will have to the leave the ship for awhile. That means there's probably going to be spiders all over it when we come back." Great. Who didn't love giant spiders? It wasn't an arachnophobe's greatest nightmare or anything. "We'll keep our lights off as we approach. Try not to raise the alarm though they may know we're here already." Maxim scoffed. "So don't shoot anything until we can see their eyes. And don't look angry at anyone. We're just three Jedi on a midnight ride through spider infested canyons. Got it." The ship shook and he shifted his balance slightly to stay on his feet. He checked his gear. Lightsaber, light battle armor, reflec woven cape, in-ear commlink with integrated locator and one eye HUD, blaster pistol, and of course the speeder bike. Nothing fancy, nothing that would slow him down. With a few pulls on his belt and gunbelt he tightened everything down, and slid his lightsaber into a leather sheath that would hold it tight to his body.

"Ready as I'll ever be." He smacked his gauntlets together and enjoyed the solid metqllic clunk they made for a moment. His Eyes bounced up to the mission timer. "Three minutes until mission start. Rebel camp marked and sent to locators."

@Nefieslab @Darasuum

 

[Crix Aran]

Sojourns in a Sojourn class shuttle were always kind of awkward for Crix - the ship was so small than it often felt rather cramped in the worst kind of ways. Thankfully he was able to take the position of the co-pilot rather than the pilot seat so he didn't have to expose either of the other Jedi to his truly terrible piloting skills. Just work the damned navicomputer and work in conjunction with Byron who was in the hotseat so to speak.

From his position he picked up on coms chatter and relayed it to the others.

"There's apparently a small incursion of spiders on the west side of their base - it kept them busy from their scanners for awhile but they'll be back on soon."

It explained why they hadn't been challenged even with Byron being a much better pilot that Crix himself could ever claim to be. As they came into land he made sure to head to the small cargo hold area where they had their speeders prepared. He was better on a speeder than he was in a ship but he was still not looking forward to it.

He sighed ever so slightly.

"Well I've not crashed a speeder bike since I was sixteen so I guess I'm overdue another one. Do me a favour and catch me if I explode into a fireball, yeah?"

At least this one wasn't one of the custom ones he had made for Willa or his other friends back on Coruscant.

@Makashi Master @Darasuum

 

[Orenth]

Hearing that the smuggler camp was going to be occupied at the perimeter was good information. The Knight kept his awareness in the Force open and observant. Knights Aran and Frey were ready to move on their speeder bikes to the camp without further delay. Though there was some griping about the risks ahead and likely outcome. "Do you mean physically or with a holo-recorder?" He replied with a joke. In truth what they were doing was very dangerous and anybody but a Jedi would certainly crash at moving any faster than jogging speed.

Taking in a deep breath Byron centered himself. First his left foot raised where it acted as an anchor for the speeder bike. The cybernetic limb was more advanced than the average limb and to the two jedi, looked like a normal leg. Only those that knew he had lost it on Denon would know it had been replaced. In the recent months his limp had vanished and the melding with the synthetic appendage had worked out for the better.

Byron kept his right leg on the ground as he brought made sure only his rear red light showed faintly. other foot came up off the ground and with his mind focused on the world around him he accelerated the speeder bike. It felt like it was moving faster than it was, like when Byron ran at night for an evening run on Ajan Kloss. This was like that, exhilarating and dangerous but totally in his control to manage.

No sign of skittering legs or dangerous fauna as Byron used his sixth sense in conjunction with the others to guide the trio of Jedi across the wilderness. It was not long before even at half speed, the Jedi Knight's bike began to slow. A heartbeat later, the faint lights of the camp reflected off of large coral like formations. Rising into the air was leaf petals that acted as shelves for what looked like half a dozen ships of different makes and models. If he had to bet, there were probably even more further inside and closer to the center of the formation. A few outlying terminals and comm arrays, some moisture farming even, the smugglers had definitely set up a decent sized camp here.

@Nefieslab @Makashi Master dice roll: rousing success

 

[Maxim Frey]

Maxim slung his leg over the speeder bike and goosed the engine to life. He twisted the throttle and took off after the tail light in front of him, making sure to keep a decent way back. As they gained distance from the ship the night grew ever darker. Even the moon was hidden behind the thick clouds that hung low above. With a thought Maxim extended his mind and allowed it to roll over the terrain in front and around him. Life forces hung as bright dots in his mind's eye while obstacles remained a dead spot.

The ground rushed by underneath him as the repulsor at the bottom of the bike bobbed him up and down over the landscape. He had never understood why speeder bikes did not come standard with spotlights positioned forward. Without the Force this would have been a very short ride with a very painful ending.

After some time the smuggler camp came into view. Oh joy. There are a lot more of them then there are supposed to be. He slowed the bike to a stop and slid off the seat with a grace that belied his size. A few steps took him to a formation that he ducked behind, using it as cover as he pulled a pair of nocs off his belt and raised them to his eyes. Panning over the camp he counted ever smuggler could see. He whispered quietly into the mic near his mouth. "I count at least 36 of them. 6 Sentries, the rest I can see at rest or hauling cargo."

@Nefieslab @Darasuum

 

[Crix Aran]

Crix didn't want to get on the bike but he didn't often get to do things he liked in his time as a Jedi Knight. At least he managed to ignore the urge to sigh about the fact because the last thing he needed was to be considered pouting just because he didn't like flying or piloting of any kind. Securing himself, he nodded to his fellow Jedi and started off - the good thing was that he only needed to follow them.

He chose to follow behind Byron if only because he knew the other Knight slightly better than he knew Maxim. It allowed him to better follow the Knight's trail while keeping an eye on anything that might have changed in the route. Thankfully they managed to reach the end of their journey without him dying and that? That was all kinds of lucky for someone as pilot-challenged as Crix Aran.

This time he did give a small sigh, very clearly of relief. He frowned ever so slightly in the dark before shrugging a little bit and retrieving something from the speeder bike's saddle. Spinning his stun baton around in his right hand, he rolled his neck a little bit.

"Two sentries each then." he reasoned as he fell back into some of the 'Shadow' training that Hannibal had taught him, "We approach, wait for them to call in, then take them out. Should give us the longest window where no one is asking for them. No sabers - too much light."

He wasn't even planning on turning his stun baton on even, instead most likely going to beat them over the head with the heavy stun weapon instead.

"When we take them down, we can connect to their com lines, keep us alerted to their movements." he continued before grinning, "Time to be stealthy."

He laughed as he took a step forward ahead of both Byron and Maxim before he seemingly faded out from view of his fellow Jedi mid-step, practically becoming one with the night. Better still, he wrapped the Force tightly around himself as he did so, disappearing not only from their sight but from their perception through the Force as well.

A chuckle would echo around them, quietly, from seemingly every direction as Crix began his approach.

Spoiler: Roll

I rolled a nat 20 on discord to disappear from my own allies just to be extra! Think Young Justice Robin level of laughing from hidden

@Makashi Master @Darasuum

 

[Orenth]

Byron looked and listened to his fellow Knights and gave a nod to each of them. He knew well enough how to disable a target with the Force quietly and with no harm done to them. There were a few ways to go about it and with the man's muscle he could probably knock them out without using the functionality of his matukai guantlets.

It seemed like a vanishing act, a trick of the eye losing his Zabrak companion in the dark. But then again Byron was wearing his own robes that gave him a little passive assistance. Byron would have to ask if the Knight had a stealth field generator on his belt. But his focus was angled towards the two sentries he would be going after.

Byron thought of maintaining a cloak of illusion around himself. He knew through experience that some people and machines could still see through illusive techniques. What's more, he could spread it to others nearby depending on how intense the need was. For the time being the man kept it just to himself and trotted at a steady pace, keeping low.

One of the sentries turned as the sound of a pebble rolling along other rocks. Byron's telekinetic use of the Force was the cause. The pair took a few steps in that direction. They continued to chatter between each other, something about clichés and lines before 'getting got'

"Yeah what's the big deal?" One of the sentries said with a humble shrug while walking in the dirt. It was clear they did not really think there was a threat. That was probably thanks to their actually pretty secret hiding spot. But it had made them complacent.

"LeT's ChEck it oUt he says." The mocking tone almost made Byron lose focus. The mind of the Jedi honed in on the desire for the two to simply fall unconcious. Dulling their senses and fogging their mind until they dropped first to their knees and then into a small cloud of dirt barely even seen by Byron in the dark. Quickly he ran over and switched off their flashlights so the other guards wouldn't spot them and began draggin them out of sight. Throwing one over his shoulder and dragging the other, Byron barely slowed down until he was sure. He hoped it was going as well for the other two Knights.

@Nefieslab @Makashi Master dice roll: success

 

[Crix Aran]

Sneaking sneaking, he was sneaking.

Hannibal had taught him a lot of things but sneaking was definitely one that Crix actually rather enjoyed for it's own sake rather than just because it was useful. He hummed almost silently to himself as he made his way closer to the first sentry that he wanted to take out. Without hesitating, he reached up when the man turned his head and wrapped his arm around the man's throat in a blood-choke while bodily pulling him to the ground and round behind a rock in a single motion.

"Shshshsh... there we go."

Letting the now unconscious man slump into a sitting position, he stole his com-link and hooked it into his own before tearing off some strips of the guard's own clothing to bind his hands and to gag him. Just in case he woke up kind of thing. Reaching down to the ground, Crix took a moment to gather up two rocks.

He weighed one in his hand before shaking his head and dropping it in favour of a new rock.

Nodding, he silently agreed that this one was better.

Stepping out from behind the boulder, he checked the wind before throwing the first stone, cracking a sentry across the side of the head with the Force-assisted shot and sending him to the ground. A slightly further shot with the second rock hit the only other sentry within earshot from above, sending him down too.

Naturally he fist-pumped before calling it in on the coms.

"Three down on the east side Byron - moving on in."

@Darasuum @Makashi Master

 

[Maxim Frey]

Maxim moved slowly around the base of a large plant, looking up at the sentry that stared into the darkness along the ridge. He shook his head slightly and reached out to grasp the stalk. It wwas rough, even through his gloves, and he used the roughage to climb silently and easily up the side. With a final jump, assisted by the Force, Maxim found himself on the leaf behind the sentry. He stalked forward as he reached into a belt puouch and pulled out a small round disk. His thumb depressed a small stud on the side and the disk sparked to life, one of the round flat sides arcing with electrical energy.

As he reached the sentry, he reached forward with his other hand and tapped him on the shoulder. The sentry turned around, startled, and looked at the tall Jedi standing in front of him. His mouth opened in surprise but Maxim stopped him with a finger held in front of his lips. "Shh. You look like you could use a nap." His right hand moved out and patted the man on the shoulder, leaving the small device attached to his shirt.

It only took a moment. The device arced again and the sentry's body seized up as the current raced through him. Every muscle in his body locked tight as the small device sent the force of a stun bolt through the smuggler. His locked jaw clenched tight and his throat muscles vibrated as the electricity coursed. After another moment he fell back in a boneless sprawl onto the leaf. Maxim reached down and tapped the control panel, changing the interval of the shocks to keep the man down.

He raised his hand and pressed his index finger to the comm bead in his ear. "Last sentry down. Moving on to the CIC." Within a moment his lightsaber was in his hand, still unlit. A quick look around the camp showed him what should be a mostly unhindered path. With an easy jump to a large cargo container Maxim moved back into the shadows.

@Darasuum @Nefieslab

 

[Orenth]

Hearing the responses of the other two Jedi through his headset, Byron began moving towards the six ships. The Knight kept low and moving from cover to cover just in case someone came to check on the presently unconscious sentries. There was at least thirty organics in various places throughout the base. Roughly ten of them divided evenly between the trio unless of course there were security droids.

The nearest vessel was a lancer class patrol craft. There was a glaive blastboat lacking a blockade shield sitting next to it with an astromech powered down near its loading ramp. A comet class star yacht was almost missed due to its size behind the other remaining ships. It was nearly the length of a corvette but the pleasure ship was far from a war vessel. Two checker marked escort freighters with a group of smugglers on lawn chairs under each of them. Lastly there was a starfighter sitting near the tail end of the comet star yacht. A more active astromech and pilot looked to be attending to the syck class fighter.

"Maxim, disable the lancer. Crix you've got the blast boat. I'll take out the starfighter pilot and move into the comet from the aft if its open. We'll take out the crews of the escort freighters last. There's a boarding ramp to the comet in the nose." He told them the last bit just in case he ended up needing help inside the larger ship. Unless either of them objected, he would be making his way to the rear of the parked star yacht. The aft hangar of the ship was open though it was not a very large one.

@Nefieslab @Makashi Master dice roll: success

 

[Crix Aran]

All the sentries were down and that meant that they were, for lack of a better term, In. It probably spoke to all the cheesy action holos he watched with his mom growing up that he, naturally, thought that phrase in the same way all those stupidly buff “hackers” did when they logged into some difficult system.

Of course the sentries were the least of their worries because there were dozens of organics actually in the base and their mission objective was further in. Looking over the people milling around, working or avoiding work, he tried his best to keep track of where most of them were. He was going to be going down into the den of the beast after all and the worst way to be spotted when on a stealth mission was to be spotted by someone you forgot was there.

The blastboat was his target.

“Shiny.” He commented over the comlink, “I’ll see if the droid can be convinced to assist…”

Moving deeper into the base using the same stealth skills that had seen him through the rest of the mission so far, Crix made it to the blastboat without much in the way of difficulty. The hanger, despite having people in it, was easier to sneak through because the people inside it were, typically, rather busy.

Reaching the astromech beside the blastboat, Crix activated the familiar droid with the correct booting sequence (no need to wake the droid up too roughly) and when it turned to him he grinned and placed a hand atop its chassis.

“Hey there – wanna help me steal this ship?”

A beep and a whistle.

“… piracy is wrong little buddy.”

Two beeps and a mocking whistle.

“It is absolutely not a victimless crime.”

An indignant squawk.

“Oh the weird sensation? Yeah that’s me.”

Using the Force to integrate with technology was better done when you had an understanding of the tech in question and Crix did an entire degree on droids. Re-booting the droid’s morality was pretty simple all things considered, though it would lack much in the way of personality for a few months regrettably.

@Darasuum @Makashi Master

 

[Orenth]

Spoiler: Song

Byron skirted the glow of hand lumens, holoprohectors and other light sources that the smuggler base had. The burly Knight was soon upon the pilot near syck fighter. Not having to use his muscular brute force to knock the man out, Byron had instead dulled the man's senses from behind. The risk of a hard impact echoing and being heard was too high.

Catching the downed pilot and guiding his body down to the ground, Byron moved towards the astromech near the other side of the starfighter. Similar to what his Zabrak cohort was doing, the man communicated with the machine through touch. It didn't even need to beep in droid speak for the two of them to talk.

The droid informed him there was still likely three people on board. One on the bridge, one in the kitchen area and then another one somewhere else nearby. Byron thanked the polite droid in kind.

Leaving the small craft behind, the droid and the Jedi moved around to the aft of the comet class star yacht. Inside the man saw three other syck starfighters. One was positioned to exit the hangar in the near future while the other two were closely parked in the small interior compartment. Still it was amazing that the comet could hold up to four starfighters. It would definitely be of great use to the Jedi Order and the Knight's more diplomatic approach.

Knowing the common design, he was banking on the internal compartment arrangement was not too different from the norm. Being a ship engineer he had done plenty of time studying star yachts and Contruum Ship Yards certainly took some influences from Latero Spaceworks from time to time. At least, they did after Byron began advocating their designs when he was working there as a low level engineer a life time ago.

His silent prayers to the Force were answered and the elevator up to to the second deck was right where he expected. Midship, the elevator began to descend, the doors open and of course there was someone inside. Looking up from their datapad, a splotchy skinned twi'lek gave a 'huh?' in time to get literally decked by Byron's right hook. His body fell into the elevator in a heap. The Knight was pretty sure nobody had heard that.

Going up the elevator, with the unoncious twi'lek hitching a ride, the Knight took a deep breath and focused on using Force sight. The aid of being able to see a level above him and around him without direct line of sight would make things easiest. The second crewmember was found in the kitchen where the astromech had indicated. Byron was a bit more gentle this time since he had the element of surprise. Going back the tail of the ship and passing the armory with a cursory glance, Byron made a quick dash back to the bodies and grab code cylinders from each of them. Using the code cylinder to get up to the bridge, he entered and saw the standing between their chair and the co-pilot seat, leaning over the controls. Byron tip toed closer, hands ready to lash out with a strike. But the bearded Jedi didn't need to as the pilot was apparently wearing headphones. The Knight used the dull senses let the pilot lay on the deck. The comet class star yacht was secure.

@Nefieslab @Makashi Master dice roll: success