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Dr Ilana Morata

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She had Kai's ship along with her own, and Lilah and Tiny went to their respective adoptive parent homes. Ilana had much to think about; Beck Acquisitions was still a company running fairly independently, but she had to start thinking for herself. She had to start planning for the future, and part of that planning meant changing her own personal goals. The galaxy had just gotten larger in many senses, but the biggest shift had been meeting someone that made her question the rabbit hole Malakai Beck led her into... then tried to drag her back out.

It had been a week since she last met the bounty hunter that went by Rawl. During that time she met ranger Corran Velt for the second time, and began re-evaluating the life she had lived in relative discomfort for the last near-decade. Pushing herself to the limit earning her Doctorates as the youngest of her classes and the youngest graduate, working legitimately then forced into the underbelly of the galaxy, dealing with her sensitivity. And now there were some answers to these abilities... but they came with too many complications attached.

He mentioned being interested in Force-centered artifacts, and not for the first time did the Arkanian Offshoot wonder why he even bothered concerning himself. But now things were changing, and for her to survive she had to change too. It was a very late hour, possibly later than the Mandalorian could expect courtesy calls, but she was certain if she waited until morning she would stall or change her mind.

She put the fresh cigara to her lips, a flame flickering to life at the tip of her thumb. A nice little trick, finally learned after so many weeks of intense study. Some of her fingertips were still blackened with the soot of earlier results. The holocron had much to reveal yet... but there was the issue of earning the bounty hunter's trust. Perhaps he could be useful with his own ties, and if so, she could use him for protection and other benefits.

Sighing on a cigara smoke-laced exhale, she dialed his number on her comm, holding out the device on the table for speaker mode and flicking the flame off. She could always apologize for the hour later, and make up for any rudeness on her behalf.


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Roland Rook

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Roland was not on Nar Shaddaa anymore. There were places to go, people to see and work to be done. In fact he had been promoted since he last visited the Smuggler's Moon. A green and blue marble of a different planet hung in the void in front of him. The side of the planet facing him was the day cycle.

He could see his reflection in his armor to a degree. The colors, the shapes, skewed by a shade of blue but still him. Roland sighed and rubbeed his eyes. "What are you doing? You, Roland Rook, I'm asking you." He sat in his chair while the drive of his ship thrummed. The planet slowly grew bigger before him.

Moments would pass where he went between looking at the starscape, his helmet, and the reflection inside it. Hearing the alert that there was an incoming comlink call he looked at the the ID. He had begun to wonder if Ilana was going to call at all or if the Mandalorian had been too abrasive during their last encounter. Grabbing his helmet before he answered, he accepted the call. "It's late..." For her it was. Not for Roland, at least not in the Naboo system. "...but I was wondering if you were going to call at all."

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Dr Ilana Morata

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Distortion of the signal. The lack of exhaustion in his voice. Everything about it pointed to his no longer being there, perhaps... and for some irksome reason, she was bothered by that thought. She took another drag from her cigara, pausing before answering.

"I've been doing some thinking. I'm willing to trust you... and I may have some information for you." She exhaled slowly, smoke streaming from pursed lips. She set the commlink on the table, allowing her image to flicker to life on his side, should he choose visuals. "In my professional interests, as well as some personal. Provided I can give you this information in person. I considered not calling at all, but if you're interested..."

She stubbed out the cigara, leaning back in her seat.

"Unless now is a bad time, Rawl?"

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Roland Rook

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A light near the hologram projector blinked on, signalling that Ilana was sharing her image. Having already put on his helmet he had no reason to hesitate. But he didn't say anything until she continued and posed the offer. The way she spoke. He honestly wasn't sure if she was flirting with him. Even if she was he had the feeling she was smart enough to be trying to manipulate him. The Doctor was ready to trust him maybe, but that wasn't the case with Roland.

"My schedule is currently flexible, if it's worth it." For some reason talking like a mercenary came naturally to him. Proximity to those and unfortunately having to track down warriors for hire wasn't surprising for any Mandalorian. Not the ones that survived.

"Where do you want to meet?" His eyes looked at the holographic image of the woman for the first time since the call began. She looked as composed as ever. Roland hoped that meant she was confident in her information.

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Dr Ilana Morata

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If it's worth it. Playing the long, hard game, making her run in circles, trying to gain his trust. If he was really worried about trust, then perhaps he would question her merits when it came to the request of not removing his helmet. She could have, very easily actually when he was unconscious. There were several times she could have attacked him, had she had the mind to. And yet he said if it was worth it.

"Ancient temple worth it?" she quipped back, perking a white brow.

"Bal'Demnic. If you can spare the time," she commented calmly, and clicked the call off.

Once it was over she lit another cigara, exhaling out slowly. If he didn't come within a week, she could assume he found it not worth the time. And in which case... she wouldn't lose any sleep.

I mean... it wasn't like they were going to meet up again anyway, did it?


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A temple, just in general was vague. But then she added the planet, Bal'demnic. That was the nake of the planet which had shown up as a location the Sith astromech had navigated towards. The Sith astromech which had been inside the starfighter Roland had practically wrangled outside of the Coruscant prison.

The Mandalorian opened his mouth to ask a question but the transmission had already been ended or dropped. His shoulders dropped a little. A slow and equally deep sigh followed wondering how to handle this. Taking a moment he made some calculations about where he was and how long it would take him to get to Bal'demnic from Naboo.

A text message would be sent. +See you there in 72 hours+ It would take him with the Cobalt Viper 48 hours to reach Bal'demnic give or take. But for Ilana, if she had a ship with a class 2 hyperdrive it would take double that amount. Still, Roland wanted to make sure that there was breathing room. Giving too specific a time would narrow down his movement or his transport.

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Dr Ilana Morata

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It was time to use the courier for now; far faster, and with her protocol droid manning with Kai's crew on the RangeMaster, it would make far more sense for their artifact to be kept safe on that ship while she took her own. A beeping confirmed his message; perhaps it was rude to hang up so quickly, but she wasn't going to waste time on pleasant small talk.

So he would meet her in orbit on the planet formerly inhabited by Sith. It would take her roughly 48 hours to get there on her class 1 alone.

So she had some time on her hands.

Plenty of time, once arriving, to contemplate meeting this stranger on this remote rock. As far as sensors could tell, there was no life on the planet other than the wildlife that already existed there previously. And like before, there was a sense of darkness, of something waiting within the seemingly harmless planet hovering before her.

As before, storms arched across its' atmosphere, obscuring most of the surface below. So either she was there ahead of him... or he was already in orbit, waiting for her arrival.


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Roland would arrive a few hours after Ilana aboard his own ship. He made a point to have Bal'demnic scouted with probe droids when one of the Sector Ranger drone barges passed by. The planet needed to be scouted.

Entering the system he immediatly checked for threats. But there were none. A signal of a singular ship showed it to be the quad five that he recognized as belonging to the Doctor. The Identify Friend or Foe and ship registry came through on his ship's dashboard.

The Mandalorian sent a holo-call towards the Arkanian's courier. "You got here sooner than I expected." The firespray class patrol ship plied the open space between the two ships and made its way to align with it. While this transpired the Ranger kept scanning though his ship was not meant for exploration. The terrestrial detection was different than keeping an eye out for ships in high orbit. For the time being he powered down the tractor beam projector as well as the laser cannons to better boost the scanning capabilities of the ship without overdrawing power from the reactor. There were no enemy contacts anyways so the weapon systems were not needed. Not yet.

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Dr Ilana Morata

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Ilana had been waiting long enough to consider her options, here. If Rawl was, in fact, anything related to the law, then she would be abiding by galactic protocol. If he was just another citizen like herself, then she was perhaps doing something that wasn't frowned upon... necessarily. But he came. She almost couldn't believe he trusted enough to arrive... or was wary enough to ensure she was as good as her word.

"So did you," came her glib response to his holocall, glancing over. "I have a code; if you arrive on time, you're already late." She put the Telomere into orbit already, but even with limited scanners she could sense the planet was devoid of the kind of life that would be a true threat in any Force capacity.

Time to settle to business.

"How much do you know of Bal'demnic?" she asked calmly, still remaining in orbit. All weapons were powered down, but minimal shields were up, in case any others decided to make a visit. Even though the planet seemed abandoned, she wasn't taking any chances. Depending on his answer, she would bring him down or provide a brief lecture.

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Bad timing is bad timing. But Roland just gave a small murmur of acknowledgement at her code. There wasn't any point in small talk or discussion of personal outlook. At least not yet. Part of him had struggled to get a consistent read on the Doctor throughout their past interactions. It was both intriguing but also caused Roland to be wary of her.

"Not as much as I'd like. The planet has a mining operation that's seen better days." He replied. There were records of mining back during the clone wars and other notes regarding the planets that were public record. Aside from that, the Lieutenant had not researched or had any experience with the system. Mentions of Shu-Torun refugees and culture moving to Bal'demnic was also mentioned. Remembering that, Roland began pulling up information on the planet Shu-Torun. Bal'demnic was still populated with a civilized people that were indiependent of the Free World Alliance. That was why the Sector Rangers had yet to make contact. It was unclear if the ore-barons and the monarchy of the planet were in league with the Sith Eternal. Hopefully I won't have to figure that out the hard way.

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Dr Ilana Morata

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She nodded along with his words, gazing down. Surely, though it was once a mining operation, there was more than that. Their location was empty, at least the one that some law enforcement would know about. It was another location she was considering entirely.

"Very true," she assented, nodding. "But did you also know it was once a Sith stronghold? I once rescued... a patient... from there. I think it was abandoned by then," she added, though mostly to herself. "But much as I wanted to avoid here, there was one other place, that the book pointed to before you took it away... one location in cipher. But I'm not sure it's accessible."

Not unless you were a Force user like Kai, she thought with grim humor.

"It's a temple, supposedly, if all indicators are correct. Dare to investigate?"

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Roland Rook

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"Beck?" He inquired singularly when she mentioned rescuing a patient. Of course he was equally interested if it was someone different. That meant there were more out there she was in contact with than she led on. Why not just say that? I already know they know one another, er, knew...one another. The Ranger thought to himself.

The way she spoke indicated there were two points of interest on Bal'demnic she had visited. He was curious about both. "Is this Sith stronghold and this temple one and the same?" Roland asked in a straight forward manner. He wasn't about to jump at the opportunity to prove his bravery in a dark nexus in the galaxy. Pride was not something that got in the way of the Mandalorian's objective contrary to how numerous mercenaries tried to feign a humble outlook.

Roland had yet to visit any force-order aligned temple aside from the Jedi temple on Ajan Kloss. Part of him wondered if he should hold of and request backup. While each Mandalorian was a combatant to be respected, even a one man army could still be defeated.

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Dr Ilana Morata

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She gave a small sound of assent to his query, but she didn't sound happy about it. "I can't name patients if their files still aren't unsealed..." she demurred, but shrugged. "But in this one case... yes. His call brought me here, and he was... seriously injured."

A flash of memory. Scarred, burned flesh. The cave hangar. Seeing him slumped on the floor, burned and near death... a residual pulse of rage still flared to life in her chest just remembering. She gritted her jaw, amber eyes glittering coldly with the restraint. But at his following question she shook her head, a puzzled expression crossing her features.

"I don't think so. I mean, it would make sense... but at the same time, I doubt if there was anyone from that cult that knew about the book; or if they did, no doubt their method of... obtaining it... would be far more obvious." Deep distaste laced her words, and no small amount of disgust. "Brutishness and cruelty. This is why I choose to stay away from them." This was mostly an aside to herself, but if there was any visual he'd see it to be true.

She had the choice, before, to go down that path... and had chosen not to. Though at first she couldn't understand why... she could now.

She was better than that. Such petty, short term goals would not suit her own ambition. She had to look beyond cultists whispering in the shadows for answers. The answers laid elsewhere. She would get them one way or another, but without their help. She had a better idea of getting what she wanted... and it had a few things to do with getting on this Rawl's good side. If that was even a thing.


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"...so they are the same thing?" He wasn't sure if she had answered his question already. It seemed the Doctor's train of thought trailed off. But it was also possible she just didn't know. Roland was skeptical of that possibility. Ilana had brought him here believing there was something worth reporting. Unless she was planning some kind of trap of course.

"So where are we headed?" He asked to that point. The Mandalorian figured she would share the landing coordinates or lead the way. Rawl, had come to see something worth while.

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She shook her head in reply, then gave a verbal response. "No, I don't think so. At the time of patient acquisition, I didn't exactly bother to memorize coordinates. Sending them to you now."

She quickly texted something over the comms, the same location as the temple. Staring down at the churning sea from her distance, she had to wonder briefly if the Mandalorian, once seeing the Temple's location, would still choose a way to attempt to bridge the distance. The last time she had, it had been with Kai's help. Unless he had jet boots... but that was perilous.

Once he would affirm he got the coordinates, she began to dip the Telomere down towards the surface. Past where the spires of the fortress stood, skimming low over the rough, roiling sea. The coordinates pinged towards a place distant from any other rocky outcropping... yet despite its' rough outer appearance, the entrance was unmistakable. She took care to seem to follow where the coordinates guided... because that much was true, when she and Kai first accessed it, her patient's well-being was her primary concern over his 'research'. And now she had another old patient with her. Funny that.

As was the standing point to access it equally unmistakable. For a moment she kept the Telomere to hover, then glanced between where Rawl followed her and the Firespray, and the entrance itself. She let out a low sigh.

"I don't suppose you have any idea of how to access the entrance...?"

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Roland saw the coordinates and saved them for later. "Got it." The two ships flew through the air of Bal'demnic towards the Sith Temple. The under cover ranger did a slow fly by as they got close and saw the point of interest that seemed to be carved into the cliff side.

He made another few passes, going to cliff the temple was built. "You picked up your patient here. You tell me." Came his response. But the Mandalorian did have an idea or two. But for now he wondered if he should wait to delve into the temple with other Rangers. If this was a Sith Temple then there might be more of the cultists down there. Even now, Roland continued to glance at his scanners to see if any new contacts were entering nearby space.

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Dr Ilana Morata

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A long, heavy sigh came over the comms as she leaned against the back of her seat, eyeing the temple before her.

"No. These coordinates are different. The place where I picked him up was much more visible... there was a cave hangar," she commented quietly, rubbing at her temples. Already she could feel a headache building. "This place was mentioned in the book. It was in ciphered codex... if you would have bothered to look at it, you would know."

She stared down at the outcropping of rock, at the foaming, hissing water.

"I don't suppose you have a jet pack, do you?"

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There IS a second location. It also seemed to continue the theme of the Doctor knowing more than she let on. Roland's hunch proved correct but he kept it to himself. At least he was getting results so there was nothing to complain about, yet.

The Doctor's tone seemed agitated. Roland looked at the book when she gave it to him and while it was clearly in code, he wouldn't be surprised if it would take him days to understand it. She didn't decipher it alone either. She probably had help with Beck or someone else plus more time than I did. The Mandalorian felt like maybe Ilana had been unintentionally bragging and perhaps even smarter than she realized too. Sometimes people who don't know their own strength can be the most dangerous.

At the mention of a jetpack the Lieutenant shook his head. "Jetboots and plenty of rope." He replied. The idea was to land on the cliffside above the temple and then just drop down through the entrance. It would be much easier for Roland to do as a single person with his own means of flight. But carrying Ilana with only the jetboots was a recipe for disaster and he doubted she wanted to scale down

"I'd rather not tangle with Sith if this is their temple but I haven't been reading any major life signs coming from the there." Even so, Roland would anticipate there being dark side practitioners inside. The Force was an incalulable factor for the Mandalorian. Maybe one he could take on one Sith, but working in the Outer Rim had him learn how effective he could be when fighting alone. Despite the Doctor being here, he still didn't feel like she was on his side, or Rawl's side for that matter. Not to mention the planet was giving him a creepy vibe. "We can try to get inside from over the cliff edge. But getting back up will be the hard part." If they did end up finding something they needed to escape from, it wouldn't be nearly as fast an exit as Roland would like.

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Dr Ilana Morata

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A heavy sigh came over the comms. "If it were an easy mission in mind, I would have gone to Naboo instead," she commented wryly, lips quirking faintly. Was that... a touch of humor the Doctor exuded? Instead she merely nodded once, the visual on his own end displaying the consent. "I'd rather avoid them myself... but I promised. I'll do my best to recover anything you might want to from in there... to be honest, I don't have a very good feeling about it. And the planet is creepy."

So saying, she wasn't going to wait for herself to grow old up here, dithering about risks.

"Meet you up top, then. And I'll do my best to make sure we both make it back up in a far easier manner. I don't want to stay here longer than absolutely necessary."

So saying, she slowly angled the Telomere upwards, angling for a better position on autopilot against the rough cliff face. Hopefully Rawl had learned to be a little more trustworthy... but from the amount he had lied to her in the past, she very much doubted it. She would have to be on her guard.


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The man gave an amused murmur of confirmation to her response and nodded. Her words were wise but he was just Rawl right now. It wasn't like he could tell her that they could wait and have a team of Rangers to aid them. The Doctor seemed fine descending cliff side the hard way so he too brought his ship to land at the top of the cliff, a few dozen meters from the edge.

Exiting the ship for the first time on the surface of the planet he could see the rolling clouds and the turbulent sea. The cloak of the Mandalorian flapped to the side a little as the wind blew across the flat surface around them. Further inland it just looked to be more rocky and green terrain further away. But the immediate area was sparse and lacking life.

Roland grabbed the rope and secured it to his ship as the anchor. With his jetboots he technically didn't need to use the rope. But he felt that since he had yet to use them in front of the Doctor, it was best to not waste their limited fuel either. "You want to go first or should I?" He offered. The rope was capable of holding more than the two of them simultaniously. "You going to be able to climb back up a hundred feet? Or do you want me to get actual climbing gear first like a harness, winch and risers?" He was pretty sure he had rented it and never returned it so had to pay an inconvenience fee as well as purchase the used gear at full price. But now he had two sets of climbing gear, even if they were obvious colors meant for tourists.

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