Ask Spelunking

[Rhea Dameron]

Rhea sighed, as she sat on the ledge of the boarding ramp. The Kaba Class shuttle’s engines sent out a light hum ready to ignite at a moment's notice and plunge her and another acolyte down into the depths of a mine. “Why did I do this to myself?” She said out loud to no one but herself, she knew why. It was a way to try and fit in, she had been on this side of the Galactic Fence for just over a month now and had hardly spoken to anyone, let alone make an acquaintance with someone in the Order.

Little assignments like this one were often posted at the academy, tiny missions way too unimportant for proper Sith to take on, but still a little too messy for the average grunt. ‘Builds character and skills.’ That was the slogan used to lure most people in, but for Rhea it was just a chance to speak to someone one to one without the stigma of people knowing who she was already backing her into a corner.

The assignment was simple, an old mine on Ord Cestus had become infested with some kind of bug. It was hostile apparently and killed a few servicemen who had been sent to find out why the power systems had been failing. It was offered to the Academy before the Sith Military were called in.

She had turned up early, no where else to go or wait before the scheduled lift of time. So Rhea sat on the boarding ramp fiddling with her pistol, waiting for whoever was to join her on this little spelunking trip.

@Phoenix

 

[Trace]

Trace had checked out one of the Imperial shuttles for transportation to this particular assignment. She didn't know her partner for this operation, but that wasn't all that uncommon. There were a lot of Sith academies in the galaxy and acolytes spread across dozens of worlds or more.

She descended the ramp of the ship, reaching out and sensing her surroundings and her partner. The young woman was... nervous. She could hear the nervous fidgeting with the blaster, the distant sounds of whatever they were here to hunt. She could hear old mining equipment and the faintest sound of running water.

Hey! she said, smiling widely as she made her way over to the other girl.

I'm Trace. You my partner on this job? she asked. Seemed likely as most others had been cleared out, but you never could be too sure.

You ready for this? she asked. Her tone wasn't accusatory at all, almost chipper, but she silently wondered to herself if this was a first assignment for the other girl or something. Granted, Trace hadn't actually had that many combat assignments herself, so she was more nervous than she tried to let on.

@Braden

 

[Rhea Dameron]

The other acolyte startled Rhea, deep in her own thoughts causing her to almost drop the blaster. She juggled it once twice and caught it on the third before pulling it close to her chest, a heart racing for a moment. Perhaps fidgeting with a blaster with the safety off was not a smart thing to do. But her nerves had been on edge since she landed, not knowing if something was going to come charging out that hole at any moment. Taking a deep breath she holstered the weapon and turned to face the young woman.

“Umm.. Yea.” Standing up from the ramp she approached Trace and held out her hand. “Rhea.”

Trace seemed rather cheerful and happy, unlike a fair few of the dour and angry students she had spent the last few days with in the academy. The girl's attitude relaxed the former Jedi, an unknown tension in her shoulders releasing. “As ready as I can be. You got any idea on what is down there?” She doubted Trace had been given more information than she had, but maybe the girl had contacts and gotten information that way.

Her eyes drifted towards the entrance of the tunnel, clicks could be heard coming from the entrance. Or was just her imagination?

@Phoenix

 

[Trace]

Trace's head recoiled slightly as she saw the girl juggle her blaster as if she had completely scared her out of her skin. Jittery little thing, wasn't she?

Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, she said, making her way over to the girl who introduced herself as "Rhea."

Unfortunately, no. I didn't get much more information than you. I was hoping you'd heard something. Did you get to talk to any of the workers? she asked. She took in the surroundings, sensing no one else living and sentient nearby. It seemed like talking to anyone else wasn't looking good for the pair.

Guess we'd better take the plunge, she said, heading into the cave ahead of them. She had no need of light, so she did nothing to ignite her saber or pull out a light.

Where you from? What academy? she asked without glancing back.

@Braden

 

[Rhea Dameron]

Rhea calmed herself as the woman apologised. “No worries, just a bit jumpy at the moment.” She had been jumpy ever since the ‘incident’, the fact she now stood in enemy territory, surrounded by people who would have killed her on sight a few weeks ago only added to the nerves. Rhea tried to put on a brave face though, she needed to get through this, feeling sorry for yourself was not going to help anything.

“No they were all bugging out by the time I got here.” She replied, Trace took the lead, she was confident, that was handy. Rhea could do with someone taking the lead at the moment, otherwise they may just be sat on that loading ramp all day. The darkness quickly surrounded them, “One second let me get my torch.” She said stopping by the entrance, turning it on, she set the beam to diffuse as much as possible, it meant they couldn’t see far down the tunnel but they could see the walls and ceiling, just encase.

“There we can see now.” Rhea paused in her step for a moment when Trace asked about where she came from. Darth Anaris had told her to keep most of it quiet encase well, she was killed on sight. “I just started at Serenno, been there for about a month. What about you?”
@Phoenix

 

[Trace]

Trace headed into the darkness with no more information than when she landed her ship. She followed the twists and turns of the cave, still hearing some sort of skittering within that made her skin crawl. She didn't like bugs and giant bugs were even worse.

Oh, she said, hearing that the other girl was from Serenno. Serenno had a reputation of being the snobby academy where they looked down on everyone else. Taris wasn't the most prestigious academy and she half expected the obnoxious comments to begin any time soon.

I'm from Taris, she said, more curtly than she really intended. She was tired of people looking down on her and unfortunately felt a little bit of a need to prove herself because of it. She'd fought hard to graduate in the top 10% of her class, and she was going to do it.

Careful, there's a ledge up ahead, she said. The two continued forward and came to what looked like a scaffolding wrapping its way around the interior of a very deep hole. In the center was a very unsteady-looking wooden elevator that they could descend as well. This just screamed "unsafe" in Trace's mind, and she was not going to take the elevator down. Nope, nope, nope.

@Braden

 

[Rhea Dameron]

Rhea had heard there were a number of other Academies, though she had only spent a little time on Serenno, she was interested in how the other academies ran. Trace was a little stern with her response, perhaps she didn’t like the school? “What’s Taris like?” She asked, having no cultural experience of the Empire, she had no knowledge of the class divide between the two schools. “Serenno is a little uptight for me, but I was told it was the best place to go.” She continued.

When Trace commented on the ledge, Rhea furrowed her eyebrows. How can she tell, the girl couldn’t see much further than she could considering Rhea was holding the light. But no the girl was correct, there was a ledge and by The Force it was a drop behind. She scanned around the room with the light as they stood near the edge, Rhea spotted the rickety elevator, yea that was a no go.

“I think we should take the stairs.” She said her flashlight pointing away from the elevator and towards the spiralling staircase which led them into the deep. Taking the lead as she had the light. “Umm, Trace, can you see in the Dark or something?” She asked. About five seconds later, Rhea stepped on a rather rotten piece of wood which snapped under her weight sending her tumbling down.

@Phoenix

 

[Trace]

Well if the girl thought Serenno was uptight then maybe there was hope for her yet. After all, if she'd only been there a brief time she probably maybe didn't have time to be inundated with obnoxious and demeaning behaviors or opinions yet.

"You must really be new," she said, realizing a moment later that that was probably a bit rude and unnecessary. She let out a small sigh. "Sorry, that was unworthy," she said. "Taris is fine. I grew up there and like it. The Academy is a bit of a mixed bag," she explained. She didn't want to sell it - and by extension herself - short, but it did leave something to be desired in many of its students.

"I guess you could say..." was all the further she got when she heard a splitting of wood just behind her. She moved to try to catch the other girl as she fell... unfortunately, the split caused more than just one board to give way. Within a moment, several meters worth of platform was plunging downward with the two Sith on it.

She tried to pull the Force to herself, but it barely blunted her fall as she landed several meters below on the next layer of platform down. She hit hard, knocking the wind out of her and lay there for a moment, trying to gather what breath she had left.

It took several seconds before she managed to push herself up into a sitting position again, letting her senses sweep around to located her partner.

"Are you... okay?" she asked with a groan. "Anything broken?"

@Braden