Ask The One with Hunting for Sport

[Corra]

Per my OP template, thread is death enabled​

Corra awoke surrounded by jungle. Her head was groggy and from what she could remember, she hadn't been on a jungle planet before this. It had been... a space station? She had hitched a ride off of Umbara? She'd... what, she'd drunk something and then felt woozy? Now she was here.

She groaned and sat upright before rubbing her eyes and checked over her things. Her phone was missing but strangely enough, her lightsaber wasn't. Surely whoever had checked her had found it, but they had left it. Why?

She didn't know, and at this point she wasn't sure she had the luxury of caring. Her head was still splitting but the "danger" sense in the back of her mind was as strong as ever.

Okay, think Corra. You need to find... I don't know... someone. Find out where you are and a way off world, she muttered to herself as she pushed unsteadily back to her feet.

Kriff, she said.

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

Alaric rolled to one side, a stick snapping underneath his weight. Why was there a twig in his bed? He had been on a space station and it was one of the shitty ones, not the lavish newish ones with floating forests and recreational gardens. Sniff, Sniff Hmm, it certainly doesn’t smell like metal, oil and sweat like most stations.

Opening his eyes Alaric was met with a stabbing pain right through the back of his eye into the top of his skull as the light from the low hanging sung broke through the tree line. The Sith let out an audible cry as he reached up one hand pressing on the eye to somehow relieve the pain shooting through his head. Sitting up he surveyed his surroundings through one eye, he was in the middle of some kind of wooded area and the sun was definitely not artificial, how the hell had he gotten off that space station and onto this planet.

A shot panic ran through him and he quickly checked for his weapons, they were all there. His purse was mysteriously missing along with any other tech he had on him. His hand raising back up to his eye, he pulled himself to his feet, his gaze shifting around the small clearing he had been clearly dumped in by whatever sick individual had kidnapped him and stuffed Alaric down on this overly humid rock.

Slipping off his jacket he placed it on the ground next to the nearby tree, pulling a little of The Force into his muscles to help the effort, he began climbing the tree to try and get a little more information on the surrounding area. “I hate people.” He muttered as he clambered up the trees limbs.

 

[Corra]

Corra didn't see anything of use nearby so she decided to just start... walking. The problem was that she didn't know where she was, where she needed to go, or even how she'd gotten here. She had to hope that the Force would guide her because otherwise she was pretty sure she was screwed.

Don't panic, she told herself.

Maybe it was luck or fate that she found a man halfway up a tree a few minutes later and her eyes flicked up.

Who are you!? she shouted up. She probably should have waited, hidden, and watched, but somehow that felt like it wasn't the right decision. Maybe it was the subtle flex of the Force here or something else, but she somehow knew that she needed allies and needed them quickly.

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

He was pretty sure he hadn’t seen a tree like this before, its bark had some thick substance that was both great at allowing him to hold on, but also slowed his climb as he had to pull with a fair bit of might to remove his hands each time.

A rustling of bushes signalled something was behind him, but with his hands stuck to the tree trunk he had to crane his neck around to see what was coming. Luckily he felt no ill will from the creature, although his body hummed with The Force just encase. “A tree man, who are you?” He replied, a little short, but the headache was still throbbing and climbing the tree was becoming more annoying than helpful. With a yank he relieved his right hand from the tree, before using a little help from the big power in the sky released himself from the tree falling to the ground next to his jacket and the woman. Picking up the former he started wiping off the tree tar from his hands. “I assume you got thrown out here as well?” He asked, from what he could see up the tree there was little in the way of civilization around here. Nor had he seen any craft in the sky since he woke up.

 

[Corra]

Yes, she confirmed as he asked if she had been dumped here. Tree-Man, eh? Okay Tree-Man.

See anything useful up there? A direction? A guess where we are? she asked. It sounded like he'd been dumped here as well and probably didn't have any more answers than she did apart from maybe information he already had in his own head.

Kafrene station? she asked. Maybe that was the common connecting point. But who had dumped them out here?

Apparently they weren't the only ones, though, because moments later another man emerged from a bush, looking equally as stunned. Then an Ithorian, a Trandoshan, and a Twi'lek woman. All looked like they were armed, though they weren't attacking. They each came from their own directions and looked equally as confused.

This is weird, she muttered to herself.

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

The jacket was pretty much ruined now he had cleaned the tar from his hands and forearms. Stuffing it into a ball he threw the discarded clothing on the floor, whoever did this owed him a new jacket. “Nothing specific, thick forests in every direction, though I couldn’t get to the top with all this tar.” He said holding up the small residue on his hands. “It looks like we are in a valley though, down is that way. So water and hopefully some civilization.” He guessed pointing off towards Corra’s right.

“The same.” He replied to her question a moment before the rest of their marooned party appeared in the clearing. They were all armed, a few holding weapons in their hands, although not raised, Alaric still didn’t like it. A little snarl curled on his lip as his hand slipped to the small of his back, pulling out his lightsaber hilt. He kept the blad unlit, but allowed them all to see what he was holding. The Twi’lek and the Ithorian took a step back, but the Trandoshan smiled, his chest rising a bit at the challenge. He would probably have to die first, Alaric’s fist tightening around the hilt of the saber. “Friends of yours?”

 

[Corra]

Corra wasn't sure if she felt better or worse about the fact that they had both been plucked from the same place. So there was some game being run on Kafrene that involved kidnapping people and dropping them in this place.

Weird.

The others began to appear from the brush and Corra took a step backwards, pulling the Force to herself in preparation to defend - or more likely - run.

I don't know them, she said with a shake of her head, a frown deepening on her face.

We are not enemies, the Twi'lek woman spoke up first, lowering her rifle and holding up a hand as she looked at the pair of them.

You are Jedi? she asked, eyes dropping to the lightsaber in Alaric's hand. Only now did Corra's eyes fall to the lightsaber as well, and she had sudden nerves rising within her. What if he was a Jedi? Would he try to kill her or arrest her? Or try to drag information about the Order from her?

She let him do the explaining and held silently as she put her back to the jungle. Now she was no longer sure which of these groups was the greater threat. A great old Tatooine Stand-off.

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

He noticed the first women slowly move away from him and the exposed lightsaber, it was understandable, these weapons had caused more than enough chaos and destruction across the galaxy for anyone to be wary of their wielders. Alaric’s finger hovered over the activation switch as the Twi’lek lowered her rifle and tried to calm the situation. “Want to tell ‘Scaly’ their to drop his peashooter as well then.” He replied, gesturing to the Trandoshan with his chin.

“Once all weapons are lowered, we can talk.” Alaric answered, Sith were more likely to be attacked than Jedi and a single ignition of his blade would break any lie he told about his affiliation. So he wanted the group to be weapons down before he revealed himself, then if one of them went to attack, he could make out into the Forest. “That includes you too.” Alaric said, his eyes turning onto Corra. “Weapons out and lowered.”

 

[Corra]

Corra was more than a little scowly as she was told to pull out her weapons and put them down as well. Fortunately, she had a trick in that regard.

Do you see any weapons in my hands? she asked, holding up the two hands to emphasize their emptiness. She didn't really like her lightsaber anyway and was more comfortable with Sign Casting than saber slashing anyway.

The Twi'lek woman, meanwhile motioned for the Trandoshan to lower his weapon, though no one was going to drop anything. After all, there was a whole lot of tension going on right now. None of them knew each other or was going to expose themselves.

Fat chancccccce that I'll drop my gunssssss, the Tandoshan said as if to emphasize the point, making a biting motion in the air at the Twi'lek woman. It seemed that while she had become the de facto spokes person for the group, there wasn't exactly unity there.

Urglrbrdr. Urblurdenerpen, the Ithorian said, though Corra - and she guessed everyone else by the looks on the faces of everyone there - had no idea what he said. He seemed to lack a translation device, although she got the impression that he still understood basic even if he couldn't speak it.

The final man - a humanoid species Corra didn't recognize - spoke up next. Look none of us have gone shooting each other yet. I'm assuming this isn't an accident. Let's all just calm down. We all met up about an hour back. All of us picked up at Kafrene. You two as well?

@Braden

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

Alaric glared over at Corra, he was sure she was armed, even if it was just a small pistol. It was almost suicide to travel the outer rim without some kind of weapon. He didn’t get to press the issue however as the Trandoshan opened its maw. A sneer appeared on Alaric’s face to match the one on the walking lizard, his hand flexing around the hilt of the sabre. Something in the back of his mind was begging for the Trandoshan to try something, go on, raise that blaster further, take a shot, let me snap that little neck, hear the crunch of the bones.

Alaric took a breath to calm the blood lust welling up inside as the final man began to speak. “Seems like we all picked a bad spot to go for a drink.” He answered. “Seen anything in that hour?” He asked, trying to decipher if this group had anything to do with him ending up in his jungle. The fact they had been awake longer than him, made him extremely suspicious of the quartet.

 

[Corra]

Corra felt off. Something just settled over her mind like she was being targeted, and she didn't know why. Her eyes flicked to the side to look behind her, looking for the source of the unknown distress she was feeling.

It was about three seconds later that the crack of a blaster shot rang out through the air and slammed into the unknown humanoid man. The shot slammed into his chest from the trees behind Corra probably a couple hundred meters off and Corra threw herself to the ground without even thinking, rolling and crawling behind the cover of a fallen tree.

The trio of surviving people opened fire wildly into the trees as they began to retreat began to the bush-line, and Corra jumped up and began sprinting after them, having no idea of Mr. Tree-Man was following. She wasn't going to look back to find out as another blaster shot slapped into a tree about six inches to her left causing a small explosion of bark and dirt.

Kriff! she screamed, the ringing in her ears from the assortment of blasters going off was enough to make her head almost spin and she desperately tried to find anywhere that felt safe. Somehow, she ahd a feeling that nowhere was going to be safe.

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

That familiar itch of The Force on the back of his neck ran a shot of adrenaline through his system. Something was about to happen, however Alaric’s eyes were still glued on the four ahead of him, his mind narrowed he didn’t pick out that it was something else. As the blaster bolt shattered through the clearing, his lightsaber sprung to life, engulfing his right hand side in a deep red glow.

Another bolt headed in his direction, if it was going to actually hit him he didn’t know but on instinct he flung the red blade at the green bolt sending it crashing off in a different direction. There was more than one shooter, that was for sure, the blind fire from his now ‘allies’ made it impossible to properly see the coming shots from the going. “Screw this.” He said to himself, turning and running into the forest, beyond the retreating three firing back. They could die in a firefight he was making for the river, leaping over a fallen tree he made his way down the hill, not knowing if the unarmed woman was following.

 

[Corra]

Well with neither Alaric nor Corra knowing where the other was and both of them hurtling through the forest, it was an inevitability: they slammed into each other.

Corra was sent tumbling to the ground, and although she was the smaller of the two of them, it was likely that he would be sent down as well. Blasterfire from behind them still continued, and Corra wasn't going to wait to see how the fight was going.

She did, however, have her confirmation about Tree-Man. He was a Sith for sure given the red lightsaber and his readiness to abandon everyone else. Not that she was judging, mind you, just noting it for herself.

She scrambled back to her feet and they came to the river several moments later and the blasterfire had finally stopped now, the remaining trio of people appearing behind them.

We need to find a way across, she said, her eyes flicking up and down the bank. The water looked deep, fast, and cold, and there wasn't an obvious or easy way to cross.

See those rocks in the middle of the river, she said. They were about three quarters of the way across, and it gave Corra an idea. Could you cut down one of the trees so it hangs over to it? she asked. It would take some precision lumberjacking that was as much luck as skill, but... maybe.

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

Corra was more than lucky that when the two collided she wasn’t accidentally impaled by the ignited Lightsaber in Alaric’s hand. The unexpected collision dislodged the weapon immediately un-igniting it and sending it tumbling into the grass to one side. Without looking to see if she was injured Alaric scrambled towards the weapon using The Force to ping it back into his hand and then continued running down the hill skidding to a stop by the edge of the rivers bank.

He held tight to his grip of the Lightsaber and The Force as the others came into view, he had revealed himself, which would have put a target on him for anyone looking to make pretty with the enemies of the Sith. Alaric’s eyes flicked over towards the rocks. “I could.” He replied, moving down until he was opposite the rocks.

It was a good distance, more than the average man but Alaric was not average. For a moment he did think about helping the others, but the way they had stumbled in together and the fact they had woken a long time before him made him suspicious. And being suspicious of others is what kept you alive in this Galaxy.

Taking a few steps back he pulled The Force into him, enhancing his body, strengthening his muscles, tendons and bones, before charging forward and leaping into the air. The landing wasn’t smooth, the rocks were damp, and even with The Force aiding him his knee slammed down into the stone. It would definitely bruise and swell in time but for now he had to keep moving. Pulling The Force in again he made the second shorter jump across.

 

[Corra]

Corra was more than a bit annoyed that he was apparently going to just go and take off on his own, but that was Sith. She shouldn't have been surprised, and maybe it was better for her to just be on her own.

But she still needed to cross the street, and she pulled the lightsaber from under her robes and slashed across the very tree, giving it a shove with the Force so it fell across the rocks. No doubt, he would hear the sound of the saber and feel the flux of the Force before she quickly made her way across the log, shoving it off a moment later so that it fell into the river.

Her lightsaber was away by the time she leapt across the final stretch of the water and landed on the other side. As it turned out, whoever had been left behind had really been left behind. It seemed she could take some lessons from even people leaving her behind. She was always a quick study, but the truth was that she was far outside of her wheelhouse in a place like this.

She didn't actually say anything to the other man if he had stopped, and instead continued on into the forest, knowing she was probably leaving a trail behind her, but not really having a lot of other options at the moment.

The trail through the forest led on a downslope down toward a valley.

I feel like this valley will be the easiest route to travel but also might give people a better view to shoot down on us, she speculated.

@Braden

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

As he landed on the other side, flexing his bruised knee he heard the telltale snap-hiss of a lightsaber behind him. Abruptly turning on his heel, Alaric readied himself for an attack, was one of them a Jedi?

Then he saw it, the crimson blade of a Sith at the hands of the young woman. A smile crept over his face, well done, she had kept herself hidden even among other Sith until she was desperate. His smile grew even larger as she easily made short work of the tree crossing most of the river before pushing it into the flowing water stranding the others completely alone.

Alaric waited near where he landed, The Force wrapped around his body encase his colleague in arms needed any assistance for the last jump. “Well then, that is an interesting turn of events.” He said as Corra landed and started making her way back into the forest.

Catching up to her quickly he carried on speaking. “We should follow the river bank downstream, yes we are open but it will be easier and we will be less likely to get lost.” Alaric, offered know he knew the Woman was Sith or at least within the same spectrum of Force usage, he was more open and willing to talk and strategize with the woman. “Alaric, by the way.”

 

[Corra]

Corra was feeling quite please with herself after her little display. Probably over confident for an Acolyte, but she took her wins where she could get them.

They pressed on to the valley below and she vaguely wondered if the others were all dead. The blasterfire had ended, and while Corra wasn't really one to grieve over spilled milk, it was useful information to know as well.

It seemed that they were in agreement about the path to take, at least, and Corra looked out at the area ahead.

Corra, she said, making note of his name instead of saying "hey you."

Sith? she asked. There was a possibility that he was some other lone, Dark Side user, but it was more likely that he was Sith of some sort.

So they're hunting Sith for sport? That's dangerous, she speculated as they made their way down along the river bank and into the valley. She didn't know where it would dump them out, but before long the sound of distant engines sounded across the valley.

Corra ducked down, squeezing under a rock as something like a gunship or shuttle flew by overhead, going in the same direction they were traveling. That was either a good sign because it meant a way off world or a bad sign because it meant their hunters were that way.

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

Although they would have to venture into the jungle at times to avoid large obstacles, they were able to keep the river in view and would quickly make their way back to the bank as to not get lost in the dense foliage. “Yes and yourself?” He asked, still hesitant, even if she was a Sith that gave her Alaric’s assistance but definitely not her trust.

“I doubt they picked us for being Sith. Just the wrong place at the wrong time.” He added before ducking into his own set of cover, the small alcove Corra found was not big enough for the pair of them without getting too familiar. From his own hiding spot he only caught the back of the engines so was unable to see too clearly what it was. “Any markings?” He asked, stepping out from behind his cover, his saber once again back in his hand.

Motioning for them to keep moving he picked up the pace a little just encase whatever flew overhead was dropping off more hunters. “But I assume once they realised what we were they couldn’t just leave us be, we have a reputation for vengeance.” He added, though his breaths were a little shorter as he began to sweat beneath the thick humidity of the jungle.

About fifteen minutes later the sound of rumbling again filled the valley. Quickly ducking into the thick foliage by the river bank he was just able to hide from a retreating shuttle. Its trajectory pointed at it having taken off from somewhere just up ahead. “Looks like we have…” He began, before voices moved through the trees.

 

[Corra]

Yeah, Corra confirmed. Of course, no surprise there.

He said that he doubted they were picked for being Sith, but Corra was skeptical. Everyone who had been pulled seemed to be armed and capable of handling themselves. Now how they would have known the two of them were Sith, Corra had no idea, but she didn't really believe in coincidence. She'd had too many prophetic dreams to believe that things happened by chance.

It looked like some kind of... red sun? she said with a shrug, not knowing what it meant and not being familiar enough with the underworld to parse through what it could mean.

They continued on as the two of them speculated about the source and reason for their capture, but it was just that: speculation. Ultimately, she had no idea who they were up against, how many they were, or why they were here. She didn't like it. She liked to be in control and to know things. She wondered if she could divine it somehow. That usually came to her in dreams, though, right? And almost never in any way she could direct or control.

She turned that thought over in her head for about fifteen minutes before the sound shook her from her thoughts. She almost didn't hear it in time and dove for cover again as a shuttle flew over.

Except this time it stopped and hovered.

Seconds ticked by in what felt like an eternity before ropes began to drop from the shuttle and a trio of people: one trandoshan, one human, and one Muun hit the ground. All were wearing military-type gear, though based on how overweight the human was, she was guessing that it wasn't actually military.

I swear I saw something just up there! she heard one of them shout, pointing about 15 meters south of where Alaric was hiding.

@Braden

 

[Alaric von Reichsburg]

What is it with those scaly bastards? Alaric wondered to himself as he spotted the claws of the Trandoshan slip down the rope from the shuttle. From his hiding spot he couldn’t tell if he was the same one from the clearing before, but it didn’t matter, he had a weapon and was clearly not a rescue party.

The fat one’s shout sent the small party in their direction, shit, it seems his dart into cover hadn’t been enough to avoid being spotted from the air. They were too close to sneak away and not be seen, plus the Trandoshan’s nose would probably pick them up sooner or later. There was the chance of leaving Corra as bait and getting away, but he still didn’t have answers on why they were here. Or a simple way out, so staying together was more sensible.

Alright fight it is. Taking a quick peak between the thick branches which covered him, Alaric spotted the fat man in front, holding a repeating blaster too large and heavy for his rotund frame to properly carry. The Muun was next with the Trandoshan, his nose up in the air following in the rear. “I hope she follows suit.” He said aloud, not risking calling to Corra encase the trio heard.

Glancing up at the tree above him he smiled at an idea coming to him. Pulling the Dark Side towards him he centred himself before launching into action. With one smooth motion Alaric stood up from his hiding place igniting his sabre as he swiped it above his head severing a tree branch about a metre long from the trunk. Catching it quickly with The Force he flung the branch like a dark piercing into the stomach of the obese hunter, the momentum of the branch pierced his armour and cleaved clean through to the other side. As his screamed bounced around the trees the other two opened fire.