Drastically Off-Course

[Darth Parox]

Arkania, 1430 local time​

"Sir, something's wrong." Milo's head snapped from looking outside the window to the open door of the cockpit. They were flying in a small shuttle and he was sitting in the main "living room" of the craft, which was really just the entrance and hallway of the ship. A few benches were scattered throughout it, built into the durasteel walls, to make lounging more comfortable. They had just exited hyperspace and it had been the first indication that something was wrong. This was meant to be a quick trip to Coruscant, so they should not have stopped until a few more hours. It had been such a short trip, in fact, that he had not opted to fly with his flag ship—for the first time in about a month. There was no reason to bring a frigate with him to Coruscant.

"Could you please be more vague? I'm afraid I might know what's happening." He could visualize the pilot's scowl even though the man had his back turned. Then again, the sarcasm was well deserved—the man had no right to complain. "What is it?"

"Well—" The pilot was swiftly interrupted by the ship rocking hard enough to throw Milo into the wall in front of him. The lights began flickering and several buttons started strobing on the pilot's dashboard. The blaring scream of the alarm started serenading their ears. "An asteroid—" The alarm seemed to increase in volume. "AN ASTEROID SEEMS TO HAVE STRUCK THE SIDE OF OUR SHIP, SIR! THE THRUSTERS ARE DAMAGED AND OU—" The back of their ship seemed to be facing some problems of its own, because they rocked again. "OUR ENGINES HAVE JUST BLOWN UP!" They were barreling forward now, heading directly for the surface of Arkania.

Milo had grabbed on to a pole on the wall, but knew that it would not be enough to defend from the oncoming impact. He pressed a button nearby, and the room was suddenly filled with what seemed to be a big balloon, covering all of the walls. It was soft enough to ensure they would survive the fall, but it sadly locked the pilot into his cockpit. The bad thing about standard-issue shuttles was that most of them didn't have escape pods, and those that did had broken ones. Buoys like these were one's best shot at surviving a crash landing.

He felt the ship bumping, and knew that meant they had entered the atmosphere. They were quickly approaching the surface, so Milo braced for impact. After what felt like forever, they struck ground, and he was thrown around the soft room like a ragdoll. After a few seconds of unrelenting damage, the ship screeched to a stop, and he slowly rose, the buoy de-pressurizing and leaving the durasteel floor littered with a rubber blanket.

@Logan

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

Aadya had always been oddly relaxed by shuttle rides. Zipping through the inky blackness of space gave her mind time to turn off for awhile, to slow down and be silent. There was little to do on your average shuttle, people just going here and there as people did. This shuttle was no different, though Aadya had been pretty much unrelaxed the entire time she'd been sitting on it.

It had mostly to do with the other inhabitants of the shuttle - well, just one of the other inhabitants. Aadya was sitting across the way from Milo Vemec Drast, one of the more prolific Sith in the Empire outside of Victriss or the Emperor himself. Not only that, but she too was a Drast - and up until now, she'd never met anyone else that shared her heritage.

Aadya was unsure whether or not Milo knew who she was given how new she was to the Empire and how insignificant she was in general. Aadya wasn't one to let an opportunity slip by, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to become slightly more significant.

Of course, the Force had other plans. Just as she'd worked up the courage to introduce herself to Milo properly, alarms started blaring and lights started flashing. Through the noise she could sort of make out what the pilot was saying - something about an asteroid and holy shit he said the engines had blown.

Aadya gripped the arms of her seat tightly as things began to escalate and Milo activated the rubber.. thing. Luckily she'd been wearing her seat belt. As things screeched to a halt, Aadya noticed that Milo seemed mostly unharmed. Doing a quick self check, so did she. Looking towards the pilot he seemed.... not so much okay. Unbuckling herself, Aadya gave Milo an apprehensive wave.

"Ship seems pretty roached," She said simply, shrugging her shoulders. "Pilot doesn't look so good either." Aadya wasn't really sure what to say, which was a strange feeling for her. Usually she had everything to say and would take charge in a situation like this, but being around Milo was still throwing her off a little. "Any idea where we are?"

@vamp

 

[Darth Parox]

there's no text here​

And here they were. The two Sith were still inside the shuttle, so it would normally be hard to discern their surroundings...if not for the blown in windows and the fact that Milo had been looking at the planet shortly before everything happened. He knew exactly where they were, and though the planet was not familiar to him, things could have definitely been worse; they were on a populated Imperial world. Sure, they had crash landed in the wilderness, but they could head out and run into a village soon enough. They would have to walk through the tundra to do so, and it would be cold and unpleasant, but that was the pilot's fault for running into asteroids. The man had paid for it with his life from the looks of it, so Milo had no one to reprimand now.

He turned and nodded in greeting to the girl that waved at him. He wasn't sure who exactly she was—likely just another Acolyte carrying on with her daily business—but something about her seemed very familiar. Many would advise not to judge a book by its cover, but it would be a lie to say that people didn't do it anyway, if only just a little. Milo, nevertheless, judged a book by its cover, and he liked what he saw. But pretty faces would not keep them alive in the tundra.

"Arkania. Small, frozen, world in the colonies, notable for nothing besides a few legends that worked their way off-world." He reached out with one hand and his helmet came flying toward his outstretched palm a moment later. Sliding it on, Milo stepped forward to the door, only to find that the button that was meant to open it was broken. He turned to the window, which had been blown in and was now permanently open. Vaulting through, he landed on his feet on the snow and was glad to see they were not stuck on a cliff—they had crashed in the middle of an icy field, a few hundred meters away from a mountain made of blueish rock. There were a few openings in it—likely leading to caves—so he made a mental note of that in case there were no villages nearby.

"We can take refuge in one of the caves, though I have no idea what kind of wildlife Arkania is home to." After a moment, he realized he hadn't even introduced himself—and neither had she. "Milo."

@Logan

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

Unsurprisingly, Aadya had never heard of Arkania before. Most of her galactic knowledge was fairly limited to the big ones out there - Korriban, Coruscant, Nar Shaddaa. Those places she'd heard of before because everyone had heard of those before. She was grateful that Milo knew where the kriff they were and seemed to at least have a mild plan for how to get them out of the frozen wilderness.

"Setting up camp is probably a good idea," she said, her eyes wandering up towards the Arkanian sky. The sun seemed to be in the middle of its descent, signaling that darkness would likely be coming in a couple of hours. "Probably better to search for a village when we have more daylight."

The caves didn't seem too far away, though Aadya was definitely dressed appropriately for this kind of cold. Her mother's voice was ringing in the back of her head now, she had always told Aadya when growing up to take a jacket with you, you never know what could happen.. It always seemed like silly advice, and Aadya would never speak of this moment with her mother. Couldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing just how right she was.

"I'm Aadya by the way," She said, making her way towards the caves. "Aadya Drast."

Aadya decided that she wasn't going to pretend to be no one despite not knowing how Millo would react to another of his name. Aadya had heard there were many Drasts who didn't like the competition and would try to kill their kin. She hoped Milo wasn't one of those.. not like she would have stood a chance against him in a fight anyway. Even with her super ego and commendable skills, the experience gap was just too large and she was man enough to admit that.

Focusing her mind as they walked, Aadya let the Force roll over her and regulate her body temperature. It was a simple application and one that her mom had taught her, though it was mostly how to keep cool when hot and not the other way around. Either way, it would let Aadya stay relatively comfortable until they reached whichever cave was to become her and Milo's temporary shelter.

As they approached the cave, Aadya could have sworn she heard a large swooping sound above them, like massive wings. She hadn't seen anything though so perhaps it had just been the wind. Just inside the mouth of the cave things seemed dry and there were several large stones littered around, perfect for her to plop her ass down.

"I hadn't eaten before we'd left," she said idly, an annoyed look on her face. "Kriffing hungry now. Hopefully the village won't be too far once we leave in the morning."

@vamp

 

[Darth Parox]

Aadya Drast. It was rare for Milo to meet another Drast nowadays, with most of them either in hiding or dead. The only other member of his family he knew was definitely alive was Midas, though he had no idea what the man was up to. Come to think of it, it had been months since their last encounter. It was completely possible that he was dead too. It was a grim thought, but the life of a Drast was no longer the noble life that most had grown used to associating the family with. Nowadays, they were fugitives. Only Milo had been able to rise through the ranks of the new Empire and make a name for himself—which he was rather proud of.

Now there was another, but he did not view her as competition. It was hard to, when he met someone that might be able to actually relate to what life as a Drast was like. She was the only person he knew that might understand the way things were now. Everyone else just assumed he was still a pampered bastard, even though that was no longer the case. Milo had discarded that life long ago.

"Drast, huh?" They were like two inmates discussing their sentences. "Welcome to the Empire, I suppose. I would tell you to enjoy your stay, but that's proven to be rather difficult." There were still soldiers among the Empire's ranks that wanted him dead for no reason other than his name. Then again, his quick ascension had not helped his case either. He only hoped that Aadya didn't view him as competition either, since he would hate to take part in the culling of the Drast family.

They walked for a while, and unlike Aadya, Milo took no measures to warm up. His armor and robes were enough for the Sith, who was so encroached in the dark side that it was literally dripping off him—an intoxicating heat, spreading through the Force. It also heated his physical body up as well, so he had no problems with the weather.

As they reached the mouth of the cave, she spoke again, and he reached into his robes a moment later, pulling out a cylindrical object wrapped in some papers. "Standard-issue dining kit—only provisions from the ship that didn't get vaporized." It would not be tasty, but it would definitely sate her hunger for the next half day—if only because of how disgusting it was. Water was normally needed to make the powder edible, but there was plenty of snow around them. He didn't mention that it was the last of any food they had. It was uncharacteristically self-less of him.

As he finished speaking, a shadow passed over them, followed by a gust of wind. By the time Milo looked up, it was gone, but he was left with the unmistakeable feeling that they were being watched. He headed into the cave, where he immediately got to searching the surroundings. The cave featured a large cavern that lead from its mouth, which had a smaller corridor heading deeper into the mountain dug into the far wall. Milo walked into it and came back a few seconds later; it was 10 meters long and led to a dead end. There were some bones scattered throughout the corridor, but he paid them no mind.

"There might be some wildli—" he remarked as he walked out of the corridor and into the cavern, only to be interrupted by a massive wave of flame slamming into the wall above him. Milo's eyes snapped forward in surprise, setting on a speeder-sized reptile standing at the mouth of the cave. It scowled back at him as it stopped spitting fire—leaving black char marks on the wall above him—and he didn't wait any longer. His lightsaber flew to his right hand and violator to his left—Milo had an idea. "There might be some wildlife in the cave!" he shouted, finishing his sentence with a tinge of sarcasm.

Taking cover behind a nearby boulder, he pressed the trigger of his violator, and the whoop that filled the room indicated it was charging. The dragon roared in response to the blaster's noise, then opened its mouth again.

@Logan

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

When Milo offered his rations to her Aadya couldn't help but feel a small flicker of friendship begin to burn between them. They may have both been Sith, both ambitious and deadly - but that didn't mean they both weren't people, too. And the fact that both of them shared a lineage that gave them experiences no others could understand probably helped too. "Thanks," was all Aadya said, tearing into what she'd been given with an almost embarrassing voracity.

Deciding not to follow Milo as he meandered further into the cave, Aadya instead focused on finishing up the rations. She was zoned out a little bit, her mind thinking about the various things they might need to do throughout the night to prep for their trek to find civilization in the morning. So inside of her own head was Aadya that she didn't hear what Milo had been shouting at first. "Eh?" She asked, turning to face where he was coming from so she could hear him better. That's when she felt the fire above her, whipping back around to now be face to face with some massive looking hell-beast.

"You don't say?!" Aadya yelled back at Milo sarcastically, scrambling to get behind some sort of cover.

The dragon let loose another jet of flame, this time at the large rock Aadya was using to hide behind. She could feel the waves of heat radiating around her cover but was thankful that whatever type of rock was in this cave seemed to be able to stand up to being bathed in fire. Seeing a large, jagged rock on the ground, Aadya reached out with the force and sent it rocketing towards the dragon's face. The rock hit the dragon pretty hard, causing an interruption in its fire-breathing and giving Aadya a small window of time to move to a different area and a new cover.

"Any ideas?" Aadya shouted towards Milo as she drew and activated her lightsaber. She had no clue whether or not her weapon would be able to harm the monster, but she hadn't met something that a lightsaber couldn't cut through yet.

@vamp

 

[Darth Parox]

Dragons were supposed to be a thing of legend. It was common knowledge that people living in villages did not have much to do besides drink and farm (or whatever other jobs they were assigned to), which left them with plenty of time to make tall tales up and spread them. They were simple-minded and superstitious because of their circumstances, and afraid of anything they didn't understand. That was why dragons had been dismissed as myth long ago, even though the creatures once ruled over Arkania. However, it seemed that there was a degree of truth to any peasant's story.

That aside, Milo could not help but admire the beast. It was magnificent. It exuded power even though it was only the size of a speeder—which, to be fair, was rather large, considering this was his first time seeing a dragon. They were beautiful creatures and he actually felt a bit of guilt as the rock hit its face. It did not feel good to harm one of nature's most spectacular creations, but it was necessary for their survival. He only hoped that there were more dragons out there, and the two Drasts would not push a species into extinction an hour after they crash landed on their planet.

He heard a lightsaber ignite, but his remained extinguished in his hand. Why? Well, Milo had just neutralized the threat. With one flick of his wrist to point the barrel of the pistol toward the dragon, he ended the fight. A ray of light or dust or whatever it was that violators shot flew out of it, hit the dragon, and turned it to dust within seconds. Only its legs remained, muscles twitching as they collapsed in the heap of "ash" that had once been the creature. Rising from behind cover, he holstered the blaster and his lightsaber, then dusted himself off.

"Crisis averted," he replied, then turned his gaze to the spot where the dragon had once stood. "For better or for worse." Milo looked around at the cave for a few seconds, as if willing any further threat to come out of the shadows. When nothing happened, he stretched his shoulders contentedly and turned to the exit. "As nice as rest would be, I don't trust the local climate or fauna to be very welcoming to weary travelers. I suppose we might as well get a head start and find a major road." As major as a road could get on Arkania, anyway.

@Logan

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

Aadya was just getting ready to charge the beast, her mind racing to come up with potential plans for avoiding getting cooked alive by its fire breath, when Milo's violator shot turned the beast into literal dust. While she was happy that the rather dangerous and life threatening event was over, she could't help but feel like it ended quite anticlimactically.

"Yeah, maybe heading out to find the village now might be the best idea." If a freaking dragon was the first sign of life they found on Arkania, Aadya wasn't particularly keen to see what else the wilds might have in store for them should they attempt to bunk for the night.

Heading out of the cave, Aadya started walking in the direction opposite of where they came. She hadn't been paying particular attention during the rough descent, though she figured she'd have probably notice if they rocketed across any areas where people actually lived. It didn't take them long to find a clear area through the trees where a rather large road had been cut through the wilderness.

As luck would have it, there was a sign pointing due west that said the next nearest town was only a couple miles down the road. Aadya hoped it was more of a town and less of a hamlet, there wouldn't be much a couple farmers and their livestock could do to help and her feet were already starting to get tired. Deciding she didn't feel like walking in silence, Aadya adjusted her gait so that she would be walking side-by-side with Milo.

"So which line are you from?" She asked rather abruptly. It would be pretty obvious what she was talking about, at least to Milo. "I didn't grow up anywhere near the family, so all I have are second hand stories and the stuff my mom told me. So I don't really know that much about the Drast history or lines outside mine."

She hoped the conversation wouldn't be too awkward.

@vamp

 

[Darth Parox]

The trek back down the mountain was uneventful, but Milo couldn't help but feel a bit irritated. They had spent all that time climbing up only to stroll back down a few minutes later because of a giant flying lizard. Hopefully they would not run into another on the road—they would be in the open then, and the Force aside, Milo was not fireproof.

They hiked in silence, but he didn't mind. It was silences like these that gave him time to think. Today, the main subject was dragons, as Milo struggled to scrounge together what information he had heard of the creatures. Most of his knowledge of the species consisted of tales he'd heard back in primary school, and they were hardly a reliable source. Nevertheless, he still tried to derive some likely facts from it: dragons never stopped growing and were seemingly immortal, spit fire, and were resistant to blaster fire. He was not sure whether lightsabers would harm them, but he was willing to bet that was the case. All of that information could be cross-referenced with the locals when they actually ended up in a village.

Aadya walked up and fell into step with him, and he tilted his head toward her as she spoke. "Siris line, from what I remember." Did it even matter? They were all Drasts anyway as far as anyone else was concerned, and taking pride in their heritage was the main reason the Empire was embroiled in war on several fronts. That aside, he was pretty sure his mother was from the Siris line. His father was a Vemec. Milo wondered what his parents were doing now, for the first time in years. Perhaps he should visit them. "What about you?"

He was curious how closely related they were.

@Logan

 

[Aadya Drast]

____________

"Kravos," she said simply. Aadya found it interesting that Milo was from the line of Siris, though she didn't know much about that particular husband. She'd also heard vaguely of the one named Evandrus, but Aadya's mom had always regarded him as a failure and disappointment sine he'd been killed by a Jedi at the height of his personal power. "We can talk more about it later though, looks like we're here already."

The village happened upon them quicker than Aadya would have thought. It looked to be of a somewhat decent size, though it looked like it was that time of night where most of the denizens would be sleeping. The flickering streetlights along the main road illuminated their path, and the only building around that looked like it still had its lights on was an obvious destination.

The establishment was sort of like a cantina meets hostel, or at least that's how the owner described it to Aadya when she asked if there was anywhere in town for them to stay. Luckily this place still had a few beds open, and the price was pretty cheap. Figuring Milo was as exhausted as she was given all the events of the day, Aadya ordered herself a drink and some food and told the guy behind the bar to just leave it outside her door whenever it was ready.

Aadya gave Milo a wave as she retired to her quarters, dead ass asleep long before the knock came to her door telling her the food she ordered was ready.

//end thread