Alban Archeology

[Lloyd Gross]

The planet of Alba was certainly beautiful. But unfortunately their mission didn’t take them to the mountains of Roark, the tropics of Valko, or the volcanic islands of the North-East. Nope, it took them to the blinding white, freezing cold, ice cap. It wasn’t a miracle that ruins had been found in the ice cap; it was a miracle that it took so long for them to be found. Ya’el found herself looking at anything and everything that wasn’t white. On occasion that meant staring at a middle aged man who mistook her gaze for interest and now she was spending the ground speeder ride from the spaceport to the dig site listening to Sanjo Meltark blather on about a three million year old vase he had found last year.

She gripped her lightsaber. It would be quick. He wouldn’t even know what hit him. I could kill everyone on here, leave no witnesses. Set the speeder on autopilot to fall into the ocean where it would never be found… Ya’el sighed and released her grip. There were only five more minutes on the trip and listening to Maltark would be much less work. She slumped back in her seat.

Once the ground speeder came to a halt and the door opened she jumped up grabbed her backpack and shot off the speeder. She was wearing a snow suit that she’d purchased years ago when she first left her homeworld. She’d spent lots of time in space and had a hard time dealing with the cold. Now she was a practiced Padawan and knew how to keep herself warm with the Force, but she didn’t want to set off any alarms on Alba. Their enemies were everywhere and she didn’t want to be the one to give away their presence here.

She opened herself up to the force and sought out the other padawans. Hopefully they would feel her presence and make themselves known to her.

 

[Khivas]

Alba was a lot like other human based planets, a lovely mix of places both warm, mild, and cold, and thanks to Khivas' luck, the first stop on this lovely trip wasn't a place located on those previously mentioned warm or mild spots, but instead one of the cold ones, in this case the coldest as it was the damned Ice Cap. He was located in the speeder heading into the snowy lands with a few others, a well contrasted collection of Padawans, Archaeologists, and even a few armed mercenaries seemingly bought along for protection just in case the arctic wildlife got too friendly with the scientists during their research dig.

With his suit on and helmet up in full in an attempt to keep fully warmed, Khivas sat there wrapped in his cloak damning whatever idea the Force had to drag him out here, but complying nonetheless as he could feel Ya'el's frustration at the fact that one of the scientists caught and locked eyes with her, and took the moment to mean that perhaps they should hook up, and to woo her the man told about his odd findings, particularly an old vase from an age far long gone.

Placing a hand on her shoulder to remind her not to viciously tear the speeder apart, Khivas simply chuckled a bit and leaned in to the older man and said "Sir, if you don't mind, we're not the type of Jedi who are overly interested in heavy archaeology, but rather finding our heritage and keeping you alive. We're not too big on the science stuff, but perhaps you could tell us about ancient Jedi and their practices if you know any?" He said, trying to change the subject. Khivas knew the man wouldn't quiet himself, but he did know he could get the middle-aged man to switch to a topic that might better suit the audience at hand.

 

[Krajin]

Ice caps. Kade hated them with a certain degree of passion that on its own could keep himself warm from that. He had his own Speeder bike along for the ride and kept himself along the side of the speeder the two other Padawans and their archaeologist friend. They got stuck with the fellow who couldn't keep quiet even if his life depended on it. This suited him fine, besides fitting into that thing would of been like Sardines in a can. Not fun at all.

His cloak billowed out behind him whilst he was on the retrofitted BARC styled speeder the big kitty floated along side the speeder. "Well, least we know the Jedi know how to find the chillest of all spots." He comments over their comm, just for the sake of adding what could be the most horrible Pun ever imagined. But a bit of humor always helped alleviate the boredom of a situation. Especially for Kade for as far as his eye could see, it was white. White Glaciers, White Snow, off white speeders, almost white sky.. it was as if he was trapped in a perpetually shaken snow globe.

 

[Richie B.]

It was cold, very cold something the young sage was not good with being born on Ryloth the young man never really played with snow only when it got dark did the young sage felt cold on Ryloth but this was very different. Thankfully Jaleer was wearing his Jedi robes and brown cloak even if it wasn't the best thing to keep him warm, it was a step Jaleer was rubbing his hands together and blowing into them trying to keep his fingers from falling off. Shaking the young padawan was riding with a few scientist that were heading to the Ice caps and now that they were close the young man regretted ever agreeing to come here, once the speeder had stopped it took the sage a good 10 minutes to find the courage to find the other padawans 8 of those minutes were used up in thinking about stealing a speeder and heading to some place warm.

"Next time we get a mysterious message saying to go to the freaking coldest spot on the planet I am not volunteering seriously I am nearly dying over here." Some might say the young sage was just being dramatic he was serious about not going to any place that is cold when asked to go.

"Now what do we do." Jaleer had asked the three padawans hoping they had some insight that would be helpful right now.

 

[Lloyd Gross]

Ya’el appreciated Khivas’ help in running off Meltark; however it wasn’t until after the padawans were off the speeder that he actually left her alone. She thanked Khivas for his help but wasn’t sure if announcing that they were Jedi was the best thing. Sure everyone knew that Jedi were coming and they were the new people on the dig site so it wasn’t a big leap of logic for anyone to come to that conclusion on their own, but it made Ya’el worried.

“Yes, first a blazing swamp and now a freezing pole. Whoever it is, they’re certainly testing our limits.” Ya’el responded to Kade. The three of them were dressed for the weather but when Jaleer showed up he wasn’t wearing more than robes and a cloak. At first Ya’el thought he must be using the force to warm himself; but realized as he got closer that he was shivering and cold.

Ya’el centered herself, focused on the air around her, she encased herself in an invisible bubble to prevent heat from being released into the air and relaxed. She took off her jacket and handed it to Jaleer. “I must teach you three to control your body temperatures. Do you wish to learn?”

 

[Krajin]

"Sure why not?" He said with a grin. Dismounting his speeder and sinking into the snow. Kade wasn't shivering as much, if at all thanks to his choice of attire and thick fur coat. Thick foot wraps, thermal underwear and light thermal clothes so he didn't overheat and have issues that you'd not want to associate with the cold. His thick furry tail flicked back and forth under the cloak, leaving a snaking trail in the snow behind him. Granted the Kushari was only a quarter of a metric tonne standing there so he wasn't exactly light. Physically he was the strongest though, minus the force in that case. He checked his visor which swapped between various modes of vision and then slipped it onto his forehead so he had a nice clear view of Ya'el. She was a decent looking Jedi, if not incredibly short to him.

He dug out of his belt a small canteen and opened it up, taking a drink of the hot liquid Kade put it back onto the belt and grinned, feeling the warm, slight burning sensation of it going down.

 

[Khivas]

The others were getting along swimmingly, or as close to swimmingly as one could come in a frozen wasteland. Kade was there, but had to hitch a ride on a separate speeder as giant catfolk in armor tend to weigh a lot, on top of taking up a lot of space. Meanwhile, Jaleer in his apparent infinite wisdom decided to wear only the standard robes and cloak the Jedi ran around with back in the day.

Thankfully Ya'el was there to save the day for him as they disembarked the speeder, using the Force to keep herself warm and giving her warm weather coat to Jaleer. "Good thing she's here bud, or else you'd be a Jedi Popsicle by now." Khivas joked, and when Ya'el proposed to teach them all how to use the technique she was currently using to stay warm, Khivas wouldn't possibly refuse.

"Sure, I've heard of that ability but never actually gave it much thought to learning about it, but now's a better than any, right?" He said, and waited for the lesson to begin.

 

[Richie B.]

Though Jaleer had realized he should have brought more clothes with him but the fact is the sage didn't bring much and didn't have anything to carry clothes with him, without a ship to his name the sage wasn't able to have a place where he could grab clothes and stuff. But when Ya'el offered her warm clothes to him the sage had to refuse being the youngest in the group and trying not to be a burden to anyone even if she could warm herself up the sage just wasn't the kind of person to accept help even if he needed it. It's a matter of pride but rather the sage knew the cold wasn't that much of a issue even if it was freezing the young Jedi would survive.

"Thank you but I can't take you jacket, but I will like to learn to control my body temperature. Besides this is the best place to learn that kind of technique." Jaleer hoped it wouldn't take to long but also hoped the other Jedi padawans wouldn't make him get the jacket it just doesn't seem right to have a girl even if she is older than you give her jacket up for a guy that was only a little bit cold.

 

[Lloyd Gross]

Ya’el cocked her head to the side when Jaleer refused. It would not only be more difficult to master control of temperature while freezing; but it seemed very un-Jedi like not to accept help when it was offered to you. Ya’el didn’t mind, she came from a tough culture but Jedi were weaker. From her experiences they didn’t leave people to fend for themselves in the cold; but then again neither of the other Padawan’s had offered Jaleer a jacket.

“Okay then.” Ya’el said as she put her jacket back on. “There are three ways to go about heating yourself. The easiest is to create a force bubble or shield around yourself. The air around you becomes warmer and warmer as you exert energy. It’s not immediate, but it’s certainly the easiest. Secondly involves controlling your body. Closing your pores, increasing your heart rate, your body won’t be able to release heat and you’ll become warm. Third is controlling the actual air around you. Manipulating the air around you to move faster. When air is cold the molecules move slowly, but if you control the molecules to move faster, the air heats up. And that’s what we’ll be doing.”

Ya’el looked around to see if everyone was still on board. It was a lot to take in while standing in the cold but she needed to explain the basics before they got into application. “So. Just close your eyes or keep them open which ever works best for you. Picture the air around us, the individual molecules, and move them. Simple telekinesis. We’ll work on it together to get the air around us all tolerable. Then we can work on it individually when we’re in warmer weather.”

She finished her mini-tutorial and began doing as she said. She saw the individual atoms swirling all around them and began to push them back and forth, slowly at first, but then gained speed. She could already feel the effects emanating from around her but didn’t know if it was powerful enough for the others to feel the disruption she was making. After a few moments she opened her eyes and looked around at each of the three Padawans awaiting questions.

 

[Khivas]

The way Ya'el explained how this technique worked seemed almost too easy to believe, or at least the first version did. The second and third one left the impression that they were much harder and required a deeper level of concentration, something Khivas was not the best at nor was he willing to train and learn it on the fly during this snowfall, thus he went along with Ya'el's idea of using the first method, agreeing that for now the easiest method would be best, and learning the other two can come later.

"Just make a Force bubble eh?" Khivas said as he focused and thought about the technique. The idea wasn't unlike Force Barrier, where you use the Force to crate an energy barrier around or in front of you, simply concentrating it to block enemy attacks, only in this case instead of making a large shield, he would be making a safe environment of sorts, a comfort zone.

And honestly it wasn't that hard either. In a very easy bit of work, Khivas summoned the Force Bubble around him and began to meditate and focus on the air itself, exerting his energy into it and in a short amount of time the air around him was now a much more mild temperature, allowing him to officially not need his armor to stay warm. He'd still wear it of course, like hell he was ever going to take it off, but nonetheless it was nice to learn a new ability that may prove handy later on in life.

Walking over to Jaleer, Khivas exerted a little extra energy around him, warming the air further and making sure the young sage would be caught inside of the aura. "By the way bud, now is a really bad time to try and impress the lady, especially since the lady is a good bit older than you and would probably kick your ass in a fight. But since you insist on not taking the jacket, at least stay in my bubble until you get the hang of this." He said, now waiting patiently for Jaleer to get himself together and learn the technique.

 

[Krajin]

Kade listened and adjusted his hood a bit, then held out a gloved paw to try and perform this trick. Focusing first on a small pocket of air that was considered in his grip. He focused on the air molecules and focused the force on such a level, similar to stimulating cells to replicate to heal and began to aggravate the molecules in the air. His focus to much and his energy going over the top he ignited the air and subsequently the glove caught fire! He quickly smacked it out and grumbled a bit "..I am.. thankful I didn't aggravate the air around my body then!" He said, checking the glove for damage, nothing to bad just some light singeing to it. He tried again going for the bubble effect this time, focusing the energy and slowly he made a simpler bubble. It took a bit of work and wasn't easily sustained but.. with practice Kade would be able to keep it going!

 

[Richie B.]

Jaleer liked that the manipulating air was similar to Telekinesis since he was good at it, having practice a little with another padawan by the name of Cappi but it seemed Khivas decided to allow him into his little bubble yet the sage wasn't going to not do any work and looked at the his friend. Though he didn't want to impress the girl it was just something he didn't think he needed.

"Thanks but I wasn't trying to impress anyone why don't you let me handle the bubble I could use the practice." Jaleer said and was prepared to create a force bubble around him, yet when he looked at Kade he saw the padawan set his hand on fire but it didn't seem that bad, and it looked like Kade did the same thing and just made a force bubble.

"Kade be careful, an does anyone have a idea of what we should be doing? If not I suggest we speak to one of the people here and see about figuring out what was here." Jaleer said though he was no learn the Jedi wanted to find out anything he could about this place.

 

[Lloyd Gross]

Ya’el was pleased with what she saw. The other padawans had, in some form or another, begun to warm themselves through the force. Jaleer and Khivas had resorted to using a force bubble and Kade had attempted to use the environment altering method. He’d managed to create flames in his hands as a result. “Yes, I may have failed to mention that these principles make up the building blocks for pyrokinetic abilities. So…be careful.”

Jaleer was pressing the group onwards to the goal even though he still didn’t seem to be warming himself efficiently. Ya’el expanded her bubble of effect to include the entire group. It was draining and ineffective at warming them up quickly but it would keep the cold from eating into their bones. “I believe we are free to roam the temple on our own. There may be a guide around, but I wouldn’t want to bring another person we’d have to protect. Maybe we could talk to the head archeologist, get a layout of the temple, and see if there’s been anything interesting going on lately?”

Ya’el pointed out the temporary structure a few meters away where they were likely to find their quarry. It looked like a large canvass stretched over poles. Like most everything else around, it was white. There was an exhaust vent in the rear of the building that seemed to be pumping cold air out the tent. In the background, behind the tent, a single spire could be seen jutting up into the air around five meters. The spire was made of a green jade and was very weathered. Ya’el waited for the others to take charge and decide what to do first.

 

[Khivas]

"Woah!" Exclaimed Khivas when he saw Kade nearly engulf himself in flames. "Yea, good thing indeed." He said aloud to the group. As Kade and Jaleer picked up the technique alongside Khivas, the group was now ready to move on, to which Ya'el was the first to make a suggestion on how exactly to proceed after warning them that this technique was essentially the ground work for learning Pyrokinesis. "Get a feeling that'll come in handy later." Khivas thought to himself as he listened to Ya'el speak further.

Her advice on how to go on from here was sound for the most part, and as he gazed up at the giant jade structure, Khivas decided to head to the base camp and talk to the Head Archaeologist, taking Ya'el up on her advice. "I'll be back, unless you guys want to follow me, that is." He said as he departed from his spot in the growing snow, lowering his bubble as his armor for now was enough to keep him warm.

Upon reaching the tent, Khivas opened the loosely made door and walked inside, and gazed at the scientists within. Strewn about the insides of the tent was a small work station devoted solely to the collection of artifacts for cataloging and studying, and a two man team per table it seemed, three tables in all. On the other end was a machine that warmed the air inside the tent while also circulating it, pumping the carbon filled air outside while drawing in fresh air for reheating, a truly efficient machine. Opposite that machination lied the holodeck for communication, and around it was the lead scientist and two of his colleagues, managing what looked like a crapload of notes and datapads. "Ahem, pardon me sir." Khivas said to the oldest one there, the man who held about him an air of experience in this field and just seemed the most like the leader of this group. "My friends and I are here primarily on a sort of guard duty, but seeing as this could possibly be a Force-Related set of ruins, we would like your permission to fully explore the area on your behalf, and we'll even record what we find for you, if you'd like."

Eyeing Khivas up and down, the older man looked at him and quizzically hummed to himself as he scratched his chin, gazing and apparently seeing right through him, taking a moment before speaking again. "Give me one damn reason I should let you folks have the run of the place?" He finally said, his voice gruff and deep. Luckily for Khivas, and more so the group, the Jedi had thought of this scenario, and had an answer prepared. While the others probably didn't want somebody to hold them back, Khivas knew that might be a likely scenario, but he would still do his best to not have a straggler with them, however he was prepared to guard them should it come to that, but first....

"Because as I said, these ruins might be a attuned to the Force, or at least they feel that way, we've felt it." He was lying, Khivas hadn't sensed a damn thing yet, then again he hadn't tried to yet either. "And if it's related to the Force, or more so the Jedi, it might best to let the Force Sensitive ones take the first dive, no? That way if there's any dangers we can clear them out for you, and as I said, I'll take along a camera or a droid if you want, and we'll record whatever we find, and I even promise not to damaged anything."

The man looked at him yet again with the same look as before, and after a moment of grunts and "hmms", the lead scientist brought forth a floating droid with a set of cameras set all over the damn thing. "This is I.N-9.Y, or Indy for short. He'll be following you guys around and scanning and doing legwork for you. Despite popular belief, we actually haven't found much in this place if anything at all really, so you'll be diving in for us. Now get the hell out of my sight, I got work to do." The man growled, and passed along Indy to Khivas and the Padawans. "Right, thank you sir!" He said gleefully but with a tint of sarcasm as Khivas nodded to the others to signal them to leave.

Once outside, Indy started floating next to Khivas' right side, seemingly sticking to the man as it's anchor for now. "Well that wasn't so hard, bit grumpy though. Anyway, since they decided not to give us a loadout of what they found so far...." He said as he raised his left arm and began to type at the holo-panel in his gauntlet, "I took the liberty of taking one. And tada!" He said as a large map opened up in front of them all. "Slicing, gotta love it. My Map-Render Program has been running since we landed, and so far I have a decent layout for us to use, but keep in mind I can't upload this to you guys, we'll have to stop if we want to look at it, but the good news is of course we still have a map, and now thanks to our friend the archaeologist, we have a slightly more detailed map. Yay. So where to first guys?" He finished, his tone a mix of sarcasm, wit, and actual duty.

 

[Krajin]

"He was about as pleasant as a Gungan on a desert planet." He commented and pulled out a visor that was made from clear material that sat over his eyes, it acted for two functions, eye protection from both shrapnel and environmental hazards. Putting his hood over that large fuzzy form Kade looked over Khivas as he came out with a Probe droid with more Cameras than a Hutt's vault room. Kade looked the droid over and rolled his shoulders a bit, the force bubble around himself dropping as he found it tough to keep the thing maintained for long. Hot breath creating a white fog as he breathed out. He didn't shiver yet and flexed his claws "Well, where are we first to? Pretty obvious, the entrance of the actual ruin would be good. I do hope you all brought some basic equipment with you to navigate the place. Even with the force there will be times some gear will be helpful." He said.

The gold furred Kushari was quite thankful for his own kit that he had with him. His tail tip dragging through the snow and brushing some snow off to the side and onto another's boot. Now that Kade had an idea of pyrokinetic abilities could be learned or created through this he was going to continue to practice this. Something to do on a personal side or practice with a few other people. Other thoughts crossed his mind, if he could aggravate particles.. he could do the opposite and freeze them! He looked at the rest of the Padawans, tail swishing about a bit.

 

[Richie B.]

Jaleer used the force to make a bubble but it seemed everyone was making force bubbles looking at Ya'el with a small smile his thanks for her using the force to heal them stay warm as Khivas got them a map the sage was glad to not get lost while they were in the abandon temple. Glad to see everyone was getting along it meant this trip would most likely be nice but the sage understood that it could change any minute.

"Alright lets go to the abandon temple where we will most likely meet our doom." The sage wasn't much of a joker but he hoped his little joke was well received by those around him.

Keeping his robes tight around him the sage didn't bring anything other then his lightsaber being used to traveling light, hopefully they wouldn't mean a lot of equipment or this trip was going to start going down hill real fast. But the sage realized they could just get some equipment from the people already here hoping they wouldn't mind if the Jedi needed them.

"If we need equipment than we can just ask the people here but I don't think we will need a lot of tools the force can be a really useful tool." Understanding the force hand limits too the young sage was trying to be positive and would start walking towards the entrance Kade had suggested when they began to move.

 

[Krajin]

"To rely on the force and not develop your material skills can be a detriment to your development as a being. Do you have a basic kit to keep with you?" He asked looking to Jaleer. "A Basic utility belt would do you well for getting about. Datapad, food capsules if you're out in the wilds. Canteen, re-breather and liquid cord rope dispenser are good basic things to keep with you. Possibly a battery pack as well." He motions to his own belt and bandoleer. Granted he had a bit more gear than they and.. was a larger furball but hey!

His own kit was allot of pouches, his two Lightsabers and what looked like a Vibro-dagger settled there as well. Granted Kade was also a trained engineer so he always packed differently than just strict survival. "If you don't train your material skills, you will be unable to survive in places where the force would be unable to aid you. Like Khivas here who's slicing skill is pretty admirable. I'm an engineer and can root through scrap piles to find workable junk bits and make horrors that'd work but would probably be dangerous. That and get creative with starship hulls..." He grinned a bit and continued to walk towards the ruin. He ruffled his fur out a bit, if anyone could see him beneath the outfit, he was as fluffy as all hell and probably the worst thing you could rub across carpet for static shocks.

 

[Khivas]

"And engineer, mechanic, duelist, marksman, and crafter of various armor and weapons. I did quite a lot before I found myself here." Khivas said when Kade noted his ability to slice into things. "And Kade's right Jaleer, we might be Jedi but we're also still normal things made of flesh blood and blood. Just because we can float things around with our minds and do other neat stuff does not make us any better than the next non-powered person or thing. These skills and equipment come in handy big time. If you ask nicely, maybe one day I'll make you a suit of armor like mine." He said with a wink to Jaleer as he started walking forward. "And since it seems to be one of the only options we have, I suppose we'll be starting at the main entrance of this place. Only makes sense right?" Said Khivas as he pushed ever onward through the snow ahead of the group.

Once at the massive structure, Khivas took a moment to pause and look up at it, taking in the immense proportions in front of him, letting out a sharp whistle before saying "Man, they sure knew how to build `em back then. Wonder what's inside...." Before moving onward to pass through the giant double doors that lay before him and the group.