Another Happy Landing

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Well.

"Well..."

They weren't dead.

"We're not dead."

Didn't mean that the landing hadn't been rough enough to leave his head feeling like it was caught in a blender. Groaning, he released the four point harness and climbed to his feet. The ship had landed at an angle but at least it wasn't upside down. He rubbed at his eyes and mentally did a couple of sums to make sure he wasn't concussed.

He patted himself down to make sure he wasn't missing anything or injured in some other way.

He was fine but he wasn't the only one on in the shuttle when they had crashed. The newly named 'Cregan' looked around.

"Gaz? You alright?" he called out to the other Sith, "Alright we..."

Shaking his head, he frowned as he suddenly felt himself become more serious. Seemed like the crash had rattled him a bit - he was far more talkative than he usually would be. He scowled at that thought lightly before drawing his lightsaber.

"We need to move."

He cut the door open before kicking it away from the crashed ship.

"Grab any survival pod materials this thing has."

@The Matt

 

[Gaz Fallwen]

.

Ugh.

The impact had rattled Gaz's huge form, especially considering he had just strapped in when they hit turbulence. The hilt of his lightsaber had dug into his hip, leaving some pain in the area even after he stood up and fixed his belt. Gaz looked to Cregan, who had already stood up and was shaking his head. "Well, I'm not dead," he replied, somewhat grateful.

The Acolyte stood up with some difficulty, gripping his lightsaber in one hand. Gaz nodded and headed to the escape pod, hanging onto the walls to prevent himself from falling over--he was still a bit dizzy from the fall, but his head was slowly clearing. He found a first aid kit and some water bottles, along with what looked like a few MRI packets, which he took with him.

"Food, first aid, and water. We're set for a day or two I think." He put everything in the pocket of his cloak. "No need to worry about me keeping supplies to myself or anything, but if you feel safer you can carry everything." Gaz started walking, although he'd pass them over to Cregan if he wanted.

He glanced at the landscape around them. It looked like the usual mix of forest and mountain that Concord Dawn featured, and he saw smoke in the distance. "I see smoke, but I don't see any buildings. We might be dealing with hunters or smugglers." @Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Gaz was alright - indeed he was not only alive but he was alright enough to quip about the fact that he wasn't dead. In Eddard's book that meant that the big man was perfectly fine so they had no excuse for not moving on. He had no doubt that the locals were not friendly to outsiders. If those locals found out that they were Sith? Well not only would they end up getting hunted down by people on their home turf. As Gaz was looking for the supplies, he grimaced before setting about stripping the pilots out of their flight suits and relieving them of their weapons.

They had a blaster and a vibrosword each.

Eddard passed a sword, a blaster and one of the suits (without the helmet) over to Gaz.

"Put this on over your robes." he suggested with a grimace, "We can't be identified as Sith - they'll hunt us a thousand times harder and far beyond the borders of this planet if we are. We're going to need to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible."

He wasn't really on the same side as Gaz but the two of them had one thing in common above all else - they were both Sith trapped on a planet where the locals made their profession, made their myths and legends, but hunting people like them down. Sure, they had originally hunted down Jedi but the difference between a Jedi and a Sith in a fight were not as varied as people liked to think - it was all still laser swords and space magic as the hicks of the Galaxy would believe.

Pulling on his own flight suit over his robes, he made sure that Gaz was off the ship before starting a fire - the fire would catch and burn the bodies beyond recognition while hopefully removing some evidence. It would also, eventually, cause the ship's engines to explode that by that point they should be far away so the explosion would serve as a nice distraction.

"Let's get a move on." he urged Gaz as he started heading in a set direction in a straight line, "We look mando enough now... if we can make it through the wildlands we should be able to get to a small town further along - might be big enough for a shuttle or something."

He wasn't fussy - he'd take anything that had a hyperdrive at this stage.

"So Gaz - while he trudge through this bloody planet - wanna tell me about yourself?"

Might as well talk after all.

@The Matt

 

[Gaz Fallwen]

.

He took off his cloak and threw it into the ship, then slid into the jumpsuit Cregan had handed him, stashing his lightsaber into a pocket in that he could reach in case of emergency. As Cregan had said, it would be awful if they were discovered to be Sith, but sometimes disaster struck.

He doubted the Mandalorians would hunt them beyond their borders, considering their current standing with the Empire and the fact that if they were caught trying to kill Sith in Imperial territory they'd probably get burned alive or something else equally enjoyable. But Gaz understood Cregan's point. The Mandalorians were thorough.

They got moving eventually, after they set fire to the ship and erased all other evidence in the area. Gaz was surprised, somewhat, by Cregan's sudden curiosity, and for a moment he pondered whether to humor him. Eh, what's the worst that could happen, really?

"Well, you're not gonna believe this, but my dad was a Mandalorian soldier." He chuckled. "They started rolling in all that anti-Empire shit, and my old man decided he'd had enough. He tried to leave peacefully, but they didn't let him, so he had to carve his way out through a couple of officers and the like, which got a bounty put on him. He started a family on the run and my mom died during childbirth so he just said 'screw it' and moved us to a shack on one of Concord Dawn's moons. He taught me everything he knew. When I came back from training in Sith space, the house was burned and he was gone." There was a pause, and the last sentence was more solemn. "I'm still looking for him, but I'm pretty sure bounty hunters got to him."

"I'm sort of new to this whole Sith thing. I'm enjoying it so far, but I just haven't found the whole 'deception and lies' thing in me yet. I guess it's an acquired trait, but I can't even bring myself to sincerely hate the Republica. I just see the whole civil war as pretty pointless, but that's usually what happens when you think about a war using your head." All this was said over a longer period of time, so that Cregan could absorb the information nicely while walking. It was a nice conversation, even if Gaz was the only one talking so far, but it felt nice to actually tell someone his story. They could be about to die to Mandalorians or the elements, so at least he got this before death.

"What about you?" came the final question, which the other Sith no doubt expected. "I guess you could make up some bullshit to lull me into a false sense of security, and I'd be none the wiser, but that wouldn't be as cool as actually telling me some stuff about yourself." A subtle smirk crawled across his face. "Starting with a real name," he added, winking. Shit, Cregan could be the guy's real name as far as Gaz knew, but he also knew Sith tended to be shady and give out fake names. It was completely likely that the man before him had done that. If he hadn't he could simply reaffirm it and put Gaz's assumption to rest. @Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

They were on the move and they were making decent time. The walking wasn't hard and there wasn't anything to challenge them but both of those statements seemed, in his mind, to be something that could change. Perhaps he should rephrase it? There hadn't been anything to challenge them YET.

This was a world that was designed to challenge after all.

But as they walked, Gaz explained more about himself and his background. It was interesting to say the least - son of a Mandalorian and now a Sith? Well that would have made family reunions a bit of a pain, had there been enough family to reunite. And he was happy he had kept that thought to himself actually because that was probably a bit rude.

One thing that Eddard was beginning to get a little bit annoyed about was the way that Gaz just seemed to be so dismissive of his cover. It was a single name - what was the man picking up on that would allow him the confidence to just straight up declare that he thought he was lying about his name.

Of course he was right but that still didn't make the question any different.

He decided, against his better judgement, to be honest for once. As an Imperial Agent he didn't spend a whole lot of time being honest with anyone but he decided that now might be a good time.

"Well... if I'm coming clean I might as well start big." he glanced at Gaz, "I'm not Old Empire - I'm an agent for the Imperial Republica and my name is Eddard Thul-Drast."

If Gaz knew much of his history about the Drast family he would know that Lyanna Drast, Evandrus' daughter, married a Thul and that was where the Thul-Drast family line came from. He continued onward regardless.

"I was born on Alderaan and I've been working in Imperial Intelligence since I graduated from the academy." he smirked very faintly, "I have an aunt who's younger than me and a cousin who's starting to do well for himself as well. Afraid my life has been one of reasonable comfort and dutiful service really - not much interesting."

Unless he counted his membership of a certain secretive order he supposed.

"Disappointed now you know the truth?"

@Insalius

 

[Gaz Fallwen]

.

Eddard Thul-Drast. That was a dangerous name to hand out. Gaz could see why he'd chosen to hide it. If he was a power hungry Old Empire Sith, he would have tried to kidnap the Imperial Agent the moment those words left his mouth. Instead, Gaz nodded agreeably.

"I don't blame you for covering your identity," he said, remaining silent until Eddard finished talking. They were approaching the tree line already. "There's something exciting in the royal life too, for some," Gaz added after. "I'm not disappointed, but now at least I know who I'm talking to." He grinned. "So, you're a Drast? Does that mean you're, like, tenth in line for the throne or something? Should I start using 'Your Majesty'?" He was teasing, but if Eddard was arrogant enough, he probably wouldn't mind.

"Technically, I'm in line for the Old Empire throne, too. If I manage to kill the Dark Lord, that is. In which case I'd skyrocket to first in line." He waved away the thought. "But that's just hypothetical. I'm not really in a hurry to gain a lot of power. Finding my father is more important for now." A thought came to him. "Maybe that's why those Mandalorians attacked us," the Acolyte said, shrugging mildly. "I may have poked my nose in the wrong place."

A branch creaked a few meters into the treeline. The Sith's hands flew to his blaster, his brain confused as to why he wasn't holding his lightsaber, before realizing they were under cover. Taking the safety off his blaster and peering into the treeline, he lowered his voice.

"Did you hear that?" @Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Indeed, the name alone was something that would mark him as being abnormal. The name alone was something that meant that people either wanted him dead or wanted him captured so that they could ransom him back. The damned name had been a blessing and a curse so far and it looked set to continue being so.

"I'm not a royal - not really." he admitted with a small shrug, "The Thuls are Alderaanian Royalty and the Drasts are the Emperors and the like but the Thul-Drasts? We're just vaguely related to them both. As for line of succession...?"

He waved his hand a bit in a 'kind of' gesture.

"It's a bit murky right now seeing as the Emperor has no immediately obvious heirs so who even knows?"

The royal line was a bit thin on the ground right now, even if there were Drasts coming out of seemingly every doorway in the Galaxy at some point or another. Hell, he knew some of them were part of the 'Old empire' after all. He hummed a little bit.

"Everyone is in line for the throne of the Old Empire though - I believe it follows the line 'to the strongest' or something similar?" he chuckled a little bit, "Since I'm openly at war with the current Dark Lord I'd say I might actually be one step closer to the 'throne' than you are."

A joke but still.

He paused for a moment.

"I heard it." he confirmed quietly, "I think it's a local... he's on his own."

He frowned for a moment, noting that the local in question was dressed like a hunter and currently had a long rifle casually held in his arms. The hunter just stared at them for a long moment.

"You lost?"

Eddard glanced at Gaz for a second before nodding once. The local hunter raised an eyebrow.

"You forget how to speak?"

Gods be damned... he couldn't fake a gods damned Mandalorian accent!

@The Matt

 

[Gaz Fallwen]

.

"Some hunter gar are. Meh ni were geroya, gar'd ganar nayc dinner tonight." he said with a chuckle, replying in Mandalorian. Eddard was so damn lucky to have him there. Gaz could tell by the man's look that he couldn't speak Mandalorian or fake an accent if his life depended on it--which, technically, it did.

"Meh ni wanted brokar pirunir sur'haaise gar, gar'd cuyir bleeding dayn staabi jii," came the equally cheeky reply from the hunter who had lowered his blaster. "What's with your friend? Cat got his tongue?"

Gaz thought for a moment. He'd been lucky enough to have a father who could teach him Mandalorian, so he could, more or less, get along with the locals without Eddard having to speak. A bright idea sprang into his brain.

"He's mute." He looked at Eddard and flashed him a subtle look. "He speaks sign language though." Hopefully the hunter didn't.

The man looked at them for a bit, then shrugged. "Does he understand Basic?"

"Yeah. Speak slow though. His brain isn't fully developed yet either," he said, with a smirk toward Eddard. Might as well have a little fun with this. The hunter seemed convinced, so Gaz loosened his grip on the pistol, instead keeping his hands in his pockets casually.

"Our ship crashed a ways from here and we have nowhere to rest tonight. Is there an inn or something at your village?" They'd be going into the belly of the beast, but Gaz refused to sleep with the wild cats tonight.

The hunter thought for a moment. [color= #006600]"There isn't, but I have a guest room you could share."[/color]

Gaz look at Eddard, then shrugged.

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Eddard really hated the fact that he couldn't speak the local language and he made a mental note to tear the knowledge from the mind of a Mandalorian at some point. It would likely be messy considering his lack of skill with the technique so it would be best to do it when they weren't being actively hunted - that way it wouldn't leave a body through which they could be so easily tracked. Instead he would go along with what Gaz had set up for them.

Though being mute was going to really make it annoying.

Being mentally slow?

Well that was something he would just have to pay Gaz back for in the end now wasn't it? But despite what people said about him, Eddard did have a sense of humour. Or at least enough of one not to take offence over this. A guest room? He supposed that a guest room was a good idea.

If they could get themselves situated with this hunter they could learn about the local area, including where they could get a ship to leave this rock. Could be that they even managed to grab this hunter's speeder to make sure they made good time in getting there. Although they may have to kill the hunter if they did that.

Maybe the man's family too.

He was... less than enthused about the idea of killing the family but this hospitality could be useful for them. So he nodded carefully to Gaz to show that he agreed they should go with the hunter.

@The Matt

 

[Gaz Fallwen]

.

And so they took off, the hunter first, rifle still held in his hands. It was clear the man knew his way; his movements were precise and passive, like they were muscle memory. He said nothing as they walked, not that Gaz was feeling in the mood to chat with the enemy. Eddard was "mute" so conversation with him was out of the question--unless it was telepathic, but he was too tired for that. Gaz just wanted a bed.

They walked for a good 20 minutes through the forest before emerging from the treeline into a clearing, a dirt path in front of them. In the distance, thin lines of smoke rose from the chimneys of a couple dozen huts. They were looking at a small village, likely specializing in hunting, although a few farms were scattered about. People were moving around dutifully, carrying buckets of water or bags from the marketplace in the square. It was big enough to seem busy, but small enough to remain nothing more than some nameless village.

They arrived after walking down the path for a bit, already garnering looks from any passerby. It was likely that the two Sith were the first visitors in years. Did these villagers even know other humans existed?

Gaz ignored the looks and trudged on, head down. No one approached them, so he just looked at the ground until they got to the hunter's property. Without looking, he pointed to a shed. "That's the one. I'll bring you some food and water," he grumbled and shuffled off into the main house, dropping off a bag of game at the entrance. Gaz shrugged and walked to the shack slightly faster now that there was a promise of privacy for them to get their bearings and decide on a plan.

As soon as the door was shut and locked behind them, he sat on one of the two simple beds and looked at Eddard. "The 'mute' thing was pure genius, you have to admit."

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

Eddard was beginning to get the impression that this planet was, in a word, weird. It was like they refused to accept that they were part of the rest of the Galaxy in some ways but still used the benefits of being part of said Galaxy in other ways. After all, who the hell hunted in the forest for their own food? He supposed it was probably a cultural thing and he should probably do his best to get used to it a little bit.

It might come in handy to know more about the local culture after all.

And then they stepped out into the clearing and Eddard realised something. This was legitimately just a village. He hadn't seen a legitimate human village in his entire lifetime - everything was either a recreation village (Alderaan) of holiday cottages or just a town or city. This was... well it was odd considering his life experiences. Was this what it was like for Mandalorians growing up? Was this why they were so fixated on taking things, on conquering things?

A shed huh?

Well he wasn't going to complain too loudly.

He was supposed to be mute after all.

Eddard stood in the corner of the shed for a few seconds with his arms crossed over his chest before sighing and putting a hand over his face. He really didn't want to admit it but...

"Yeah alright it was pretty smart."

Why did he get the feeling he was never going to hear the end of that?

@vamp

 

[Gaz Fallwen]

.

"And it's only so we can gain their trust. Once we're making our exit, you could ditch the cover whenever you want," he said, hoping Ed would feel at least slightly better. "Which brings me to our plan." Gaz squinted for a second. [color= #b72700]"What exactly is it?"[/color]

He thought for a bit, likely while Eddard did as well (unless he was suggesting something), before having sketched something out. "What we could do is..." Gaz pieced the words together and looked up. "Absolutely nothing, if you think about it. They clearly want us gone as soon as possible, so we can take the first cargo shuttle that goes out of the village and end up in a major city. From there, I'm pretty sure we can manage well enough."

@Nefieslab

 

[Eddard Thul Drast]

He was right about another thing too.

"Indeed - it seems that outsiders are not exactly common or welcome around here. They're likely going to either shoot us in our sleep and toss us into the forest or just toss us out of the village."

Pausing for a moment, he made sure to check no one was coming through the window before frowning. He didn't really know a lot about Mandalorians in their homes. His only experience with Mandalorians was either 'at work' or 'at war' and neither of those types of Mandalorians was going to do anything but kill them.

Maybe they were kinder at home but he doubted it.

"If we get to another town we'll be fine." he agreed before gesturing to the bed, "Sleep up - I'll take watch. I'm the paranoid one after all."

He paused before adding.

"If they ask why I'm not sleeping? Tell them I'm in love with a Rally Leader and I want to take her on a date - people always accept stories based around emotions."

@vamp

 

[Gaz Fallwen]

.

"Will do" he said, but didn't lay down. "I think it would be wise to stay up until our host comes back with food and water."

A few seconds after Gaz had finished speaking, there was a knock at the door. He undid the lock and opened it to find the Mandalorian, two blankets draped over his shoulder and a basket in his hands. He set it down on one of the nightstands and laid the blankets out on each cot. "It ain't much, but it's somethin'. I'll check in in the mornin' to make sure the wild cats haven't eaten you two."

"We're grateful for your hospitality, although we'd like to be out of your hair as soon as possible," Gaz said, trying to sound as polite as possible. "When is the next shuttle leaving the village?"

The villager scratched his head. "Well, we don't really get any shuttles coming and going. I know someone in town who has a speeder, but I don't reckon they'll be willing to part with it. They're your best bet though."

"Ah. Thank you," he said with a nod. "Have a good night."

The villager nodded too, then left, closing the door behind him. Gaz locked it.

"I guess the next census will have one less citizen and two less vehicles."

@Nefieslab