Ask Lothal Plot Kept Waiting

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Lothal was considered a backwater planet to the point that before today Byron had not even heard of it. But after some research it sounded to be like a decent place to live. It lacked anything that would make it attract tourists except maybe the odd traveler just making a pit stop.

From the edge of Jalath, Byron sat in the shade of the shuttle he had flown to get here. Beside him was BG-L0, his trusty astromech companion. So far it had been quiet, the occasional thrum of a vehicle's engine rising in the distance but otherwise it was quiet. There seemed to be just as many tred based vehicles as there were repuslor vehicles which Byron had taken an interest in watching to pass the time.

A set of macrobinoculars sat in his lap. In turn, the casually but cleanily dressed padawan was sitting in a collapsible chair. A half hour at least had gone by since he had first sat down. There was someone coming to meet them but was apparently delayed. For once, he didn't have a ton to do and was wondering if he had best start meditating and go through some of the practices he had been shown.

There were others that had come with Byron. The recently promoted Knight Thral was on this excursion as was Knight Allam. The man had not interacted with the latter before this mission. Some of the other padawans had informed him she was still considered as being rebellious for a Jedi Knight. But he didn't have any particular opinion yet. He was the odd man out in this trio in more ways than one.

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Izel Thral

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For her own part Izel was passing the time meditating, sitting on the grass about ten feet away from Byron. Her head was lowered, antennae and robes rustling in the calm breeze. Lothal was a wonderfully calm planet, at least for the moment. With any hope it would stay that way. This was an excellent place to connect with the Force. Perhaps she would bring Isen here to aid his studies in the future.

This was supposed to be an easy mission, just purchasing an old ship for use by the Order. Izel wasn't familiar with all of the details, Byron had taken the initiative in setting the whole deal up. She found the Padawan to be remarkably enterprising, she could see him going very far with the Jedi. And with both her and Nara accompanying him hopefully any local ne'er-do-wells would be dissuaded from causing a fuss.

She hadn't been completely unguarded after all. While trying to reach her zen state she was also in the back of her conscious mind reaching out with her Force sense. She could feel just about everything and everyone for a mile and a half around them. Perhaps that was a bit much, but given past experiences it felt appropriate. If anyone with ill intentions approached, she would know of it. Now all there was to do and hope this deal went off without a hitch.

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Nara knelt near the other two, a thin mat rolled out on the grass in front of her, weighed down with her saber hilt and a datapad to stop it rolling up from the breeze. On top of it was the little tool-set she carried on her belt, as she picked inside the head-cavity of her droid, 3-B. Something was rattling his logic-board and she was taking advantage of the down-time to investigate it. The droid chirped angrily as she pushed the probe deeper.

"Shut up, stop bein' a pain," she groaned quietly, trying to keep it down. Izel was meditating and Byron seemed to be fairly content in the quiet. The last thing either of them needed was a whining droid interrupting them. It was good to see Izel again, especially fresh off her (well-deserved) knighting. And Byron? He seemed pretty okay. They hadn't really interacted before and hadn't shared many words. It was weird trying to see him as a padawan when he was clearly older than her and seemed a little more... mature? Maybe that was just her overly-critical brain talking.

She put her probe down and snapped 3-B's head shut, rolling her eyes as she turned to look around. Nothing approaching them yet. How long were they going to wait for this contact? And why did it need two knights and a padawan? Not that she'd complain about an easy mission like paying for something from a trader. Maybe this counts as my yearly mandated vacation. Send you to Lothal, let you sit around some.

A little fed up, she stood and walked over to Byron in his chair, hands on her hips. "So, who is this trader we're meant to be dealing with?" Her voice was quiet in respect of Izel, but there was a tone to her voice she did little to hide.


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Orenth

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The exchange between Nara and her droid was audible and Izel remained quite. Byron still had plenty to learn about the degree of focus that other Jedi had. He knew he was capable of it when it came to ships but it was still something he struggled to manifest when sitting still and trying something with the Force. But today he was far better than he had been months ago so it wasn't like progress wasn't being made.

His hands raised the macrobinoculars but stopped as he saw Nara come into his peripheral vision with the clear intent to talk to him. "His name is Oskar and he's a nautloan I think. He said he was delivering one last shipment today in Jadath and then coming to hand over the ship for the credits. Maybe his drop off just took a bit longer than usual though." His head turned to look over his shoulder at the shuttle. "The Order said it was alright to sell the shuttle or use it as part of the trade so I might bring that up during the trade..." He said it more to himself since between the five of them, if they included 3-B and BG-L0, they would be running the Gozanti on a skeleton crew until they got back to Ajan Kloss. They would have to leave the shuttle here which was why he hadn't brought his own ship in the first place.

A chirp came in from his comlink that told him he was getting a call. Standing up from the lawn chair he only stood a few inches taller than Nara but began pacing almost immediatly after hitting the answer option. "Oskar, you close by?"

"Yah got ah bit delayed en route but we should be dere in a few short minutes." Byron smiled, glad they woudn't be waiting much longer. "Good to hear. We came in a shuttle and since we're going to be crewing the Gozanti I'm wondering if you want to buy the shuttle we have. It's a SubPro JS-77B..." A pause followed the offer before the nautolan came back. "Sounds actually like just what we need. We can talk prices when we get there." Byron nodded and the comlink connection ended. Turning to look at Nara he gave her an expression asking if that satisified any other question she might have.

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Izel Thral

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With meditation being something she did quite often Izel had developed a remarkable talent for shutting out the world around her. As such Nara's droid and her conversation with Byron did little to distract her. Instead her serenity was interrupted by a sudden feeling of impending conflict. There was something ominous brewing in the currents of the Force, something that threatened to disrupt the calm state of the world around them. She wasn't sure where this would happen just yet, but it seemed to stem from Byron's communication with their ship supplier. The Vratix sighed. Of course it had to do with them.

Slowly standing up and picking up her lightsaber pike the Knight looked out at the landscape around them. Things were still quite peaceful, and nothing stuck out to her. Walking over to join her fellow Jedi she spoke to Byron curiously. "Do you know where Oskar is meeting to transfer this cargo? Perhaps if we went there to assist him we could finish this more quickly." She didn't want to raise concern where there might have been no need. And again perhaps the mere presence of three Jedi would be enough to ward off anyone that may have intended to cause trouble. Anything to keep this deal a simple deal and not a fight would be preferred.

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Nara listened in to the conversation, feeling a little miffed about Oskar's lateness. Continually suspicious, Nara wondered if it was some sort of ploy to try and get more credits out of them all. Make us all totally bored out of our minds and then spring us with a higher price. Make us bankrupt ourselves just to get the heck outta here. Though exactly why anyone would try that with Jedi of all people didn't make sense. Quasi-religious orders based out of temples weren't known for their vast pockets of credits.

Nara nodded at Izel's intervention, though. That had been niggling her too. What cargo could it be that he was so desperate to offload it before meeting them? Was he just trying to be super efficient in his dealings or... what? "I'm presuming he has a crew working on this ship we're buying, that'd be the 'we' he mentioned?" she asked Byron, the hairs on the back of her neck tingling a little.

Stop being so bloody suspicious, Nara.

She huffed, feet padding on the ground as she paced a little more. Something about this wasn't sitting right. It was too secluded a spot, for one thing. They were buying a ship, not spice. They didn't need to be on the edge of things. They should be in the settlement itself. Or a city. Or on a station, that'd make more sense, right? For such a big ship anyways.

"Who picked the location?" Nara asked the other two, frowning a little more. "Us, or Oskar?"


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"Didn't ask." He shrugged in response to Izel's question. Byron took it as the Knight wanting to help. Not to mention he sometimes just brushed off some strange actions as being from her insectoid nature. Small mannerisms were probably different for her species as it could be for twi'leks and their lekku. At least, that was what Byron had learned. With the force he needed to practice sensing other people's intentions. It was something that he had yet to get a solid hold of.

"Yeah." A gozanti freighter was large. It needed a decent crew to operate effectively. It would be a bit difficult but it was possible for he three jedi and their droid cohorts to bring the vehicle back to Ajan Kloss. Then again, maybe the Knights had never crewed a ship before.

"Uh...both. He said anywhere in the Lothal sector worked for him. I picked here...specifically." All the questions that Nara asked had him wondering if he should be concerned. His furrowed brow looking towards the Veratix. "Should we....have a plan for something if things go wrong?" Because it was sounding like they felt like it was going to go wrong.

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Izel Thral

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Izel sighed, so much for not causing concern. She didn't need her Force sense to tell her Nara was on edge and she could feel the uneasiness rising in Byron as well. "I felt a disturbance in the Force, like a calm before the storm. And it seemed to be stemming from Oskar." She admitted. "If I'm not misinterpreting things, that means either he could be in danger or he presents a danger to us. Now I don't think some common spacers would pose much of a threat to the three of us, but we should be on guard nonetheless."

The Vratix did her best to make sure her tone was calm and confident. There was no need for them to be freaking out over this. She found it much more likely that their Nautolan business partner was in some kind of trouble that he had failed to inform them about. "Do you know anything more about Oskar? His background? Any... enemies he might have?" It was probably useless. Unless Byron knew the Nautolan personally he probably wouldn't have bothered to learn his life story when arranging the trade. Still she considered it worth asking at least.

With their luck the man was probably a smuggler or some other sort of criminal, which would mean he'd have all sorts of baggage coming with him. Just imagining the Sector Rangers swooping in on their deal annoyed the Vratix. How humiliating would it be to have to explain that? Of course she could be wrong about all of this. The disturbance may have been completely unrelated. But in her experience it was always related to what she was doing.

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When Byron revealed that he'd picked the location, Nara relaxed a little. That was good. She felt a little less like a sitting duck now. Her shoulders released, arms falling to her side again. Four years with the Jedi and she still acted paranoid, like some teenage street rat on Nar Shaddaa. Constantly seeing schemes and gangs waiting in the shadows. That just left the thought of them taking the ship home which was... interesting. Nara had a ship but it was one she could just about fly herself. A huge freighter posed a scary problem.

She listened closely to Izel's warnings, though. Nara knew that Izel was exceptionally in-tune with the Force in ways that she could never manage. Instantly, the tension seeped back into her muscles and she looked around at the horizon. Trying to catch sight of anything moving. She imagined some smirking Nautolan turning up with a freigher full of armed thugs. Why? To take our dinky little shuttle? Or maybe it'd be the Sector Rangers and they'd be implicated in buying a stolen ship. Great, I'll explain that to the council. Forgive me Master, but I had a run-in with the law. Although, actually that's getting off pretty easy when it comes to Jedi and Sector Rangers...

Maybe she was just still paranoid after the Temple affair and she was seeing Sith everywhere, in every corner. "If things go wrong... well, we're Jedi. We're more than a match for some seedy spacer types. We stick close to the shuttle and if things go south, we cover each other with blasters, sabers, the Force, and take off in the shuttle as soon as we can. Sound good?"



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Byron turned in his fold-able chair to look at the Veratix while she explained. Just by having conversations with other jedi opened his eyes to the potential he had. If Izel could sense dangers, even as vague as they were now, that still gave some inkling to what could be ahead. Then again, Byron with his common sense didn't entirely trust Oskar or any stranger in the outer rim. But Izel felt something specifically relating to the Nautolan captain they had yet to meet. The padawan gave Izel the benefit of the doubt and gave a concerned look towards the sky over the town of Jalath.

"Freelance trading is what he called it. But he was talking about switching careers or at least downsizing..." Byron had understood it as someone who's small time business was struggling or not at lucrative as before. But after thinking about it, 'freelance trading' sounded an awful lot like smuggling.

Nara gave a layout for a plan and Byron managed to give a nod before he caught something out of his peripheral vision. Big-Low warbled an additional alert. "Yeah I see it." The Gozanti freighter descended slowly and parked forty or so meters away. Getting out of his seat he looked towards the two Knights in case they had any other suggestions before he headed to meet with Oskar and his crew to make the deal.

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Izel Thral

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Izel nodded to Nara as she laid out a plan of action. As she had said before she wasn't too worried should Oskar bring trouble with them, she just wanted to be prepared for the worst. Hopefully she was just overreacting. She got the same suspicions that Byron did once the Padawan mentioned "Freelance trading". It gave her the distinct sense their partner wasn't entirely above the board.

She turned her head in the direction of the freighter as she heard the large ship incoming. Nothing immediately stood out to her, and it didn't appear to be readying for battle. So far so good. "Let's just stick close to one another and try to play this casually. We don't want to instigate anything." She said, though she moved her lightsaber pike into her dominant hand. Fortunately the weapon appeared like no more than a metallic staff when inactive. Unless Oskar was familiar with Jedi weapons he shouldn't notice anything off about it.

She fell in alongside Byron as he approached the freighter, reaching out once more with her Force sense to try and feel out the people they were about to meet. Nothing stuck out to her immediately, but there was still an ominous feeling lingering around them. Whatever could it be?

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The freighter appeared and Nara watched it descend. Seemed exactly as big as Byron had been saying. Wow, we're really running on a skeleton crew if we take that back to Ajan Kloss. It seemed like entirely too much ship just for them, but she trusted Byron's judgement on that. She watched Izel prepare herself as the ship landed. Nara shrugged as Byron looked at them both, nodding her head towards Izel after her statement.

"I guess we get to work."

She headed towards the landing site, presuming that the other two were following. She tried to reach out through the Force but... eh, her sense wasn't nearly as refined or practiced as Izel's. Maybe she was just used to not trusting anyone outside of the Order. She'd gone for a slightly friendlier approach, with her hands empty. Her droid clung to her shoulder, and affixed to her belt were her blaster and lightsaber, both very obvious if you looked at her for a second or two.

"I think you're the most charming out of us Byron, and you know the guy," Nara said with a smirk, "unless you want one of us to negotiate?" It wasn't a serious suggestion. Izel was all polite, respectful seriousness and... well, the less said about Nara's spiky 'charm,' the better. She did wave as she saw people stepping out from inside, trying to scope out the Nautloan. Hands on her hips as she scanned over them, expecting him to be front and centre.


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Byron looked between both Knights, lingering on Nara. He wasn't sure for a moment if she was joking. But rather than ponder it awkwardly he swallowed and cleared his throat before heading towards the ship. The debarcation ramp of the bulk cruiser descended as they made their approach.

First off the ship was Oskar but he was followed by four others. Each of them seemed to at least be armed with a blaster pistol but this was the outer rim. "Byron! sorry to keep you waiting. Is that the SubPro shuttle you mentioned?" The green skinned trader had a charismatic smile as he gestured towards the ship behind the Jedi. "Yeah. Is she ready for us?" The padawan jutted his chin in the direction of the significantly larger ship. "Just about. I've still got a few lads onboard clearing out personal belongings." As if on queue another four colorful individuals brought bags and crates down the ramp. "Uh, hate to be straight to business but would you mind if they started moving their stuff onto the shuttle?" Byron wouldn't have thought it suspicious but Nara's concern had sowed the seeds of doubt in the man's mind. "Yeah, sure." He answered and carried out the transfer of ownership and the handing over of credits. Byron had never actually handled this large amount of credits before.

"Thanks. We'll get out of your hair." He said and along with the rest of his crew, finished moving their nomadic belongings over to the shuttle. As they did this, Byron looked over the ship and made sure it was just as Oskar said while they finished loading things over to the shuttle. "Big Low, go ahead and run diagnostics. Run preflight check too." He had just seen the ship fly but wanted to know if there was anything running at a suboptimal level. The ship was definitly big for just a crew of four. It was larger than any house Byron had lived in, or ship for that matter.

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Izel Thral

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Izel stood back, watching the exchange silently, antennae twitching slightly. That feeling that something was off was still nagging at the back of her mind, but everything seemed to be going smoothly. While Byron went to inspect the ship and the spacers started transferring their belongings she got a little closer. The closer would inspect each of the crew members as they moved, in some cases leaning in uncomfortably close to try and get a better sense of them. This drew some confused and concerned looks from the crewmembers, but none of them said anything.

Still unsatisfied Izel returned to Nara's side and crossed her arms as she watched the spacers. "It's not them..." She said to Nara in a low voice. "I don't know what it is I'm sensing but... Oh perhaps I was wrong..." She sighed. It was discouraging to think that after all the time she dedicated to her meditations and finetuning her Force sense it could still be wrong from time to time. She knew she should be happy things were going off without a hitch but she couldn't help but feel just a bit defeated.

And then her sense flared up again. Something in the distance, but growing closer very quickly. She could feel the malice. The Vratix looked up at the horizon. They weren't visible yet over the hill, but they would be soon, whoever they were. "Or perhaps not..." She said ominously, and took her pike in both hands. She still hadn't ignited it yet, but she was moving into the iconic Soresu defensive stance.

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Nara watched the spacers disembark, keeping a wary eye on the Nautolan. The ship was truly huge, just like they'd promised. And heck, they'd all watched it land, so obviously it wasn't completely beyond repair. She noticed them looking at Izel strangely, which made her smirk just a bit. She'll sniff out anyone who's causing trouble.

Still... nothing. It all seemed very orderly. A simple transaction. She raised her eyebrows at Izel as she came in close for a quiet chat. "I doubt it, I trust your senses before I trust anyone else's," Nara shared. She meant it. She had the utmost respect for Izel's abilities... which was why it wasn't a shock when she saw Izel looking towards the horizon and take a defensive stance.

Nara looked over and squinted, barely able to see anything. She knelt down and pulled the binoculars from her belt, zooming in on the hill. Adjusting the lens to try and focus. She didn't see anything yet... until...

"Five. No, six... I've got six unknowns heading towards us. There may be more over the hill." She spoke clearly, trying to keep the worry from her voice. "I see a lot of blaster rifles and they're... they're in some weird armour." The figures looked around at each other as one took a knee, raising their rifle. Nara stared, confused, wondering what they were doing. Then it clicked.

"Longblaster..." she muttered. Then she tore the binoculars from her eyes. "They have a longblaster! Cover!" she yelled. The first blast smacked against the ship, scorching a mark in the side. Nara scrambled to find cover as she grabbed her blaster pistol. Useless at this range, but a weapon was a weapon.

What in the eternal heck did these guys get us involved in?



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Orenth

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Sometimes work just came with a feeling of unease. This was the outer rim and there was a higher chance for a chaotic event to occur it seemed. Byron's momentary humming to himself stopped as he heard Nara's voice come in. "Huh? Where?" he was at a fairly elevated position on the bridge of the Gozanti. But he didn't know if he should be looking north, south , east or west.

"Get in the ship. We'll take off." He said and began moving through the last of the preflight checks fast. The large engines at the back of the massive vehicle thrummed. "One of you get on one of the turrets or something just in case" The weapon systems didn't have power routed to them. Everything was primarily on the engines and making sure they could take off the moment they were onboard.

Afterwards, Byron would get his first chance at flying a gozanti through atmosphere. Sufficed to say it was not as maneuverable as his Skylark Horizon. But the large combat freighter was not going to be slowed down by the small arms fire of a few dozen goons. "Once we are at a safe distance, we're out of here." He would say. Getting out of the Lothal system was probably just the safest bet for the time being.

@Charndley @Reyn sorry for the delay. I figured we could maybe end it here since it's taken such a long time for me to reply.
 
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