Ask Today We Sail

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera began to slow as they neared the Pyke camp, her mind starting to formulate battle plans when Mako called out to her. Stopping, she turned towards him as he stated, "I am a Jedi." and Hera smiled. It was not a particularly great or amazing thing to see Hera smile, as her joy was not reserved for special occasions. There was a nickname the Jedi had been given as a Padawan by her peers, 'Hera the Joyful' they called her. Of course, there were other, less kind nicknames, but that one was her favorite.

But she was so nicknamed because her joy was genuine and truthful. Now, after hearing those words, Hera gave Mako a smile of pure joy, unmarred by the pain that awaited them ahead. Her smile, though it diminished, did not fade as she looked out toward the work that proceeded below in a small crater, only half-way through its carving into the earth. The infernal machines churned out material for the droids and slaves, 'but no spice?' she wondered.

Without taking her eyes off the enemy below, Hera posed a question to Mako, "I don't see any sasanna spice... Just metals... I think I have a plan... If you think it might work, I propose you go down there alone to negotiate with the syndicate head. Convince them that it would be in their best financial interest to leave the world in peace, abandoning their enslaved workers. Do you think you could tell them that, should they not leave, we would make this industry so financially devastating that not leaving would constitute a moral travesty against credits?"

"And while you're down there-" A devious grin now crept across Hera's face, "I will find the most vital area of their machines. At your signal, I will wreak havoc. My destruction will be so great that it shall burn its memory into the consciousnesses of their children."

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako met Hera's observation, listening to her lay out a plan as he surveyed the mining camp. "No spice indeed. Not the usual Syndicate operation." Her plan was workable, though there was a high chance of him dying at the hands of the Pykes below. It didn't involve killing them all however, so that was a step up.

"Alright. I can go down there and try to negotiate with them." He nodded, not exactly confident in his silver tongue to get them through the day. The force would provide a way, he thought. "Be ready to make something fail loudly on my signal." He said to her before letting himself drop down a level into the pit of the scarred landscape.

It was slow going making his way deeper down into the strip mine, the path littered with broken down droids who's servos had swung their last power hammer swing. No corpses so far. So far so good.

"Who goes there." A Pyke voice shouted out from behind him. Mako turned his head slowly to see a Pyke in ramshackle armor holding a blaster on him. Mako took a deep breath. It was show time.

"I am here to speak to your leader." Mako said confidently. The Pyke looked confused at first as he tried to put together what was going on. A strange Pyke who wasn't part of their operation on the planet. Mako could see the spark of paranoia beginning to set into the guards eyes and he acted before it could continue.

"You want to take me to your leader." His tone empowered with his will through the force. The Pyke stood there for a moment as his previous thoughts stopped in their tracks before he nodded. "I will take you to our leader." He said with a dull tone in his voice.

@Black Noise

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera dismounted her runner beast, tying it up far away from the crater. Mako headed into the crater, and Hera had her mission. Quieting herself through the Force, she did what she did best. Her body became almost as one with the living force, the energies flowing through her enhancing her speed, strength, and quieting her footfalls. While Mako made slow progress on one side of the pit, Hera moved like a fleeing madwoman.

Stepping back from the pit, she gave herself a running start before leaping with all the strength of the force that she could muster. Her body flew hundreds of feet across the air, soaring like some kind of quiet green bird. Anyone who might've looked her way would've needed to rub their eyes and think twice about what they thought they saw. But, much to Hera's benefit, no guards were tasked with watching the skies. The Qellan did not appear to have any aerial squadrons, making a need to watch low vaulting humanoids a task delegated to 'non-essential.'

Hera landed hard on the top of the largest of the Pyke's great metal diggers, shaking the machine as she gripped it for purchase and to slow down her movements. Shouting attracted her attention as she ducked into a recess on the machine, listening for any sign that she had been spotted. "Be careful with the machine you idiots! If that breaks then your skins will pay for the replacement!"

With a sigh of relief, Hera surmised the nearest guard seemed to think it was a droid or slave that nearly broke the machine. Here, she waited for Mako to send her some kind of signal to start breaking shit. Below her, a few slaves working the machine glanced up in her direction. A handful of them had spotted her but kept quiet so far. She looked down at them, a few half-starved Qellan it seemed, and badly maintained droids. Putting a finger to her mouth, she signaled for them to stay quiet. Her warning would have carried little comfort or weight, except that the hand she used to hush them held her lightsaber.

A hushed joy soon began to spread amongst the slaves, Jedi were here, and they were coming to help them! Unfortunately, their heightened spirits would eventually be noticed by the guards even if Hera herself was not spotted. A time limit had just been set on their operation, Mako would have to negotiate quickly.

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako followed the Pyke guard, and many eyes followed him in stares as he tread among the slaves and droids and guards that manned the operation. His robes were dirty and stained with the travel that had brought him there, but he walked with dignity, head held high. It was all about image to the Pykes as he willed his eyes to ignore the suffering of the people around him.

He gulped, forcing the anxiety that curdled in his stomach to quiet as he was brought before a prefab shelter. A pair of guards exited the building, and then another, he presumed their leader. The Pyke seemed familiar behind the mask he wore, his movements and mannerisms whispering of familiarity in Mako's memories.

"Who have you brought before me?" The Pyke leader spoke and it took everything for Mako not to visibly react to the voice. He knew that voice. It was a voice that had left his life long ago, even before his departure from the Syndicate that night, but he knew it.

"I have... uhh." The Pyke guard who had escorted Mako there looked around suddenly, confused. Mako stepped forwards, taking the spotlight off the stuttering guard.

"I am here to negotiate on behalf of the people of this planet." Mako's voice reverberated throughout the camp, projected loudly through the force so that all the slaves and guards could hear him. The Pyke leader seemed to wince as he looked at Mako with distrust.

"Negotiate?" The Pyke leader asked with an incredulous tone before laughing cruelly. "What is there to negotiate? We hold all the power here, these savages have no army, no force with which to repel us. What terms could you even offer?" The question seemed more rhetorical than a question, but Mako seized upon it as an opportunity to speak, cutting off the Pyke leader before he could continue his tirade.

"Our terms are simple." Mako's voice boomed louder than it should through any normal means. "You will release the slaves you have taken. You will leave whatever valuables you have stripped from this land. You will leave this place and never return."

The Pyke leader stared at Mako for a long moment as he tried to make sense of the offer. Nowhere did it benefit these Pykes that he could see. "So you offer nothing. Why shouldn't I just kill you where you stand." The words had hardly left his mouth before the Pyke guards around him all raised their rifles on Mako.

Mako merely smiled at the Pyke. He moved his hand in such a way that it pulled back the hem of his robe, revealing the lightsaber that rode their on his hip as he continued to speak. "I offer you your lives." He started, as much as the statement pained him to speak. "And I offer you your equipment to take with you. Every moment longer that you stay will be a moment of financial ruin." He hoped Hera could hear his voice booming and echoing through the force, that she would take that as the signal to begin.

@Black Noise

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera heard the voice of Mako, his voice booking far louder than she thought the soft-spoken Pyke could speak. The Jedi Knight could clearly hear the power and volume of every word that Mako spoke. Of course, so too could every slave and every guard. The Syndicate sentients were instantly on high alert, forgetting for a moment to look at the slaves around them as they scanned towards the meeting area where Mako spoke.

The slaves were murmuring amongst themselves, some even quietly picking up rocks, pipes, and whatever they could see nearby to utilize as a weapon. The combination of Mako and the short sighting of Hera emboldened a few of them, but the majority remained apprehensive. Until, that is, Mako gave the signal. Hera had been silently focusing on the machines while Mako had been speaking and listening to the Pyke leaders. She traced, through the force, the paths of the many pipes inside of them. Hydraulic fluid, water, motor oil, and fuel were all targets of her sabotage. As Mako’s threat echoed throughout the camp, Hera reached out with the Force at a smaller, nearby digging machine.

Suddenly, with bouts of fire and terrible noises, the machine erupted into chaos. Every pipe systematically burst at critical junctions, spewing fluid and fire in all directions. Conveniently, -purposefully- Hera had chosen a machine primarily operated by other machines. Nearby slaves and Pyke guards were able to easily get out of the way as the machine broke down. To anyone looking, it would appear almost as if an act of the will of the force itself had aligned itself with Mako. But this deception was not to last much longer.

As the machine burned, many of the local guards began actively looking for Jedi reinforcements. Hera’s time concealed would soon run out.

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako finished his ultimatum. There was silence in the artificial valley for a moment, the Pykes glancing around, looking for reinforcements. There was nothing and no one. The Pyke leader looked at Mako for a moment before he started to chuckle... Just in time for a digger machines to burst into a geyser of fluids and flames.

"Kill him." The Pyke said coldly as Mako stood their, his attention and mindfulness now focused on all the Pykes around him. Well this hadn't turned out at all how they had hoped. The Pykes raised their rifles at the Jedi, hesitantly. There was a brief moment of uncertainty in the air. "Kill him!" The masked Pyke shouted again as his men hesitated. The tension in the air was thick, the strands of the force tangled as a multitude of outcomes hung in the balance.

There. A string plucked in the force, the first shot of conflict. The vibration of the pit changing from pain and despair, to violence and chaos.

Snap-hiss.

Mako's purple hued saber blade erupted into motion in his hand as the first shot sought out his vulnerable back, a quick draw and twist of the wrist that positioned the blade to ignite running parallel up his spine to send the blaster bolt spitting into the dirt. The force was a symphony now, singing of threat and opportunity. Mako pivoted and brought his saber slicing up to bat another blaster bolt into the sky before whirling to send another bolt flying into the hand of a Pyke guard.

The position he held was quickly becoming uncomfortable as a multitude of Pykes focused in on him with their blasters, the early staccato of fire becoming more focused as the Pykes realized their opposition, a cold and dangerous fear sweeping over them as they sought to overwhelm the Pyke Jedi.

@Black Noise

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

It had begun. The first blaster shot immediately made all thoughts of a peaceful resolution evacuate Hera's mind. With the sounds of blaster fire, many of the slaves began to freeze in apprehension, afraid of being fired upon next. However, most of the Pykes hunting for Hera had now turned in the direction of the main tent where Mako fought, prepared to backup their comrades. They heard the distinctive sounds of a lightsaber, and Hera could feel their growing fear right alongside the slaves.

A powerful idea taking hold in the Jedi, Hera ignited her dual orange blade and stood atop the drill she had previously hide inside. Raising her blade to the sky, she cried out, "Qellan! This is your planet! TAKE IT BACK!" A few Pyke turned her direction, spinning their blasters towards her and firing. Spinning her blade fast enough to look almost like a shield, Hera deflected their shots and leaped from the drill into the nearest Pyke soldier.

Her blade plunged deep into his chest as she utilized the Pyke's corpse as a cushion to soften her landing. Spinning her blade up and out, she reached out with the force and pulled the next nearest Pyke screaming into the end of her blade, he too died nearly instantly. All around her, slaves began picking up poles, rocks, minerals, fallen blasters, and anything they could get their hands on. It was not a universal slave rebellion, there were always a few stragglers consumed by fear, but the majority of the Qellan people revolted en masse at Hera's rallying cry.

"To me! I will defend you!" The Knight cried out, calling anyone who could hear to come closer to her. The Jedi intended to fight her way toward where she knew Mako to be. Spinning her blade in a whirlwind, she deftly disarmed neck collars, wrist restraints, and anything else that might hold down the Qellan warriors that coalesced around her. For that is how Hera saw them now, the moment a slave reached down for a weapon, they ceased to be a slave, and they became a warrior.

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

Things happened so fast in the heat of battle. It was only in the symphony of the Force where a Jedi held the advantage. Any normal being would be overwhelmed by blaster fire, turned into a smoking pincushion of fleshed and holes where energized particles had ripped them apart.

A Jedi stood above that. Mako moved in concert with the song that the force sang as he held himself open to it. Each note a warning of where to put his blade, the minds and hearts of the Pyke soldier's signaling their every shot to the Jedi. The panicked violent intentions clear to him through the force. He felt their fear, their pain. The hope of the slaves as they broke free of their shackles. He felt it all.

Death.

Mako felt the first death of the conflict while he moved. He spun into a crouch to let a blaster bolt fly through his previous position, blade lashing out in an arc as he spun to send another singing back at its sender, to knock the blaster from their hands. Mako did not wish to kill, had hoped they could avoid bloodshed in this conflict.

It was not meant to be however as he felt a death ripple through the force, and then another. He felt their pain, flare and then extinguish in finality as Hera's lightsaber pierced one of the Pyke's chest. A frown formed on his face. He needed to put an end to this. The longer it went on, the more lives would be forfeit, Pyke and Qella alike.

He leaped back out of the crouch to somersault up and over the Pykes as a trio of blaster bolts cut into the ground around his position, blade a whirl below him as he sent an errant shot back to the ground. The Pyke leader had been steadily backing out of the conflict as he fired at Mako with a hand blaster, and he hurled himself backwards as Mako landed in front of him, firing point blank at the Jedi.

Mako's saber moved in short stutters as he held the hilt close to his body, intercepting each bolt near the emitter of his blade. A sidestep and whirling chop of his blade cut the blaster in half as he stepped outside the Pykes line of fire, grabbing him by the wrist to pull him into a meat shield position.

"Call them off!" Mako shouted in the Pyke's ear as held the gangsters arm twisted behind his back and the purple blade of his lightsaber lightsaber near the Pyke's throat. "Now!" The Pyke leader tensed up for a moment as his men held their fire on the Jedi.

"Stop! Stop shooting!" The Pyke leader shouted, a quaver of fear in his voice, eyes focused on the blade of the purple saber hummed steadily near his face. "Stand down!" The Pykes in the immediate area stopped, lowering their blaster's slightly a the words of their leader.

"This is over, Pykes, your leader has surrendered!" Mako shouted in a booming force enhanced voice to carry the message to those who could not hear the leader's words themselves.

@Black Noise

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera did not stop her killing as she freed the Qellan. Reaching out with the Force, she yanked Pyke into each other, and pulled the bodies of allies in front of each other, causing friendly fire amongst the Syndicate. Friends killed friends and Hera killed them both with her blades if they dared to fire at her, approach her, or come within grabbing distance with the Force. The energies of the living Force pushed and pulled, reacting to the violent strings that Hera strummed.

Fast as it started though, it was over. In the haze of smoke and mists of blood, a booming voice shouted out to all with ears to hear-

"This is over, Pykes, your leader has surrendered!"

And Hera froze, her blade mid-swing to cut down another, halted mere centimeters before it would have bisected another being. Slowly, she deactivated the weapon while Syndicate members quietly set down their arms. They kneeled, arms above their head, as Qellan slaves took up weapons and continued to unshackle each other. Deactivating her lightsaber, the armored Knight said not a word as the recently emancipated started up a cheer.

Walking over towards Mako, Hera started forming the words in her mind. Congratulations, for their efforts, yes. That's what she'd say, as her solemn gaze fixed itself on the captured leader and Pyke Jedi. Before she reached the pair, however, a young Qellan sprang up between the pair. His joy was overtly evident, even on features so intensely foreign to Hera, as he exclaimed, "I knew my father would send a rescue! I never lost hope! Thank you Jedi- both of you."

The Qellan swayed before them, and it was then that Hera noticed. He was bleeding, heavily. Suddenly, the young sentient collapsed. Replacing her lightsaber hilt and moving instantly, Hera laid hands on the Qellan and began flowing the Force into his wounds, desperately trying to keep him alive. Looking to Mako, she spoke quickly, "Send some of the others to find first aid, focus on capturing the rest of the Syndicate, please."

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

The fighting was over nearly as quickly as it started, or so it would first appear. The Pyke leader surrendered and his men began to lay down their weapons. As the freed Qella gathered and Hera joined Mako, there was a burst of activity as the Qella leader's son made himself known with his gratitude before collapsing due to his wounds.

Mako nodded as Hera issued commands, turning to the Pyke leader who was kneeling in surrender

"Where do you keep the medical supplies," Mako asked him, continuing as the Pyke hesitated, "Quickly now, you and your people's fates depend on this one's survival." The Pyke Jedi said, perhaps a little too viciously as he let his sharp teeth show.

"Over there, in that prefab." The Pyke nodded towards a small shelter that appeared to be a small guard shack. "You, and you, search for first aid supplies." Mako pointed to two of the Qella, giving them direction before turning to the remainder. "Any warriors, with me." He finished, about a quarter of the gathered Qella who were armed following him as he turned away and began to jog away and towards a satellite mine that seemed to still be operating judging by the dust that still churned into the air over the rim of the depression they had fought in.

@Black Noise

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera poured herself and all her focus into healing the Qellan chief's son. The young man had never given up on his family, even if his family had given up on the possibility of him even still being alive. 'No,' thought Hera, 'Even if he thought his son was dead, the Qellan still told the Jedi about his son, he still called for the Jedi's aid, there had to have been a sliver of hope in there.'

The medical supplies came quickly, just as fast as Hera would've liked, and the Justicar was able to swiftly and efficiently stabilize the young Qellan. The Pykes were surrendering, laying down their weapons and following the orders of Mako. The slaves had been freed with almost no casualties. For once, everything seemed to go as planned.

------------------------------------------------------------Later-------------------------------------------------------------

Hera sat quietly outside of the large building that she had been told was a medical facility. Truthfully though, it looked like every other flesh building on this strange world. Teeming with life, but so strangely devoid of it as well. As if the entire planet had just woken up from a very, very long sleep. Well, in a way it had.

Her runner beast gently nudged her as she sat, demanding attention. The beasts would be returned to the Qellan in due time, but so much focus had been on reuniting family members and taking the wounded to the medical facility that no one had come to take it yet. So Hera kept him with her, gently brushing the genetic patterns of its skin with the mucus it produced fairly constantly.

The Justicar was, to put it bluntly, disgusted by the runner beast. It's heads and slime made her want to recoil away, but her shame at how she had treated it earlier override any repulsiveness she felt towards its appearance. Therefore, she forced herself to pet it, to tell it quietly that it was loved, and to care for it until it was time to be returned to its rightful owners. "Yes, indeed, you are precious." She whispered, hoping she would eventually start to believe it.

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako led the party of Qella warriors, equipped with blaster's from the fallen Pykes over the rise separating the strip mine recessions. His saber blazing a vibrant purple by his side and the Qella who had fought for their freedom at his back. They caught a group of sentries by surprise who were quickly put under gun and surrendered.

Their approach would not be easy however as they were spotted midway down the zig and zag of the path down to the secondary mining operation. Mako's demand for their surrender was met with the firing of blasters. It was only after six Pykes were dead, a few more missing a hand or finger, and two of the free'd Qella's fallen repelling the slavers that they had the Pykes surrounded and surrendering.

-----​

Mako stood nearby his fellow Jedi, his runner beast's reins in hand as he spoke to a human, one of the small contingent of human slaves they had found. They were gathered outside of the medical center, worried about what might happen to them. They had been shy with Mako for the journey back, fearful of him as they saw in him their captors, but he managed to break through their suspicions with his warm and gentle attitude.

"On Ventooine?" Mako asked the man, who had just finished telling him about a spice mining operation where he had been originally been enslaved by the Pyke's. The man nodded for a moment before drinking deeply from the seashell looking cups that the Qella had provided them. Mako nodded as he assured the freed slave "We will do everything we can."

He turned away from the man and towards the building as the Qella leader came out of the medical...facility. The four legged alien seemed to glow compared to when they had first met him, though his face was still wet with tears. Some guards left his side to take the Runner beasts from the Jedi to return to the stable.

"You have saved my people, you have saved my son." The man said as he bowed deeply to the Jedi in gratitude before turning to Hera. "I owe you a great debt, master Jedi." He said, talking to Hera before glancing at Mako. "Both of you. But you most of all." He begrudgingly acknowledged the Pyke Jedi before returning his attention to Hera.

"My son, he told me that you saved him from the edge of death." The leader said solemnly with his face serious. "Our people owe you a great debt for you have surely saved us from destruction at the hands of those invaders. You will always have an ally with the Qella, what little we can offer with our fledgeling recolonization of our home. Thank you." The Qella bowed again. He looked back and forth between the Jedi for a moment before his features turned into a grin. "Let us feast to your victory tonight." He said as he led them back towards the grand hall.

Mako looked at Hera for a moment, his face uncertain. He was glad that everything had turned out as it was meant to be, and that everything as it was meant to be was good. There was still the problem of all the Pyke prisoners, and the freed Ventooine slaves, but for now those problems could be handled by others. He made a frown as he thought of what the Qella's idea of a feast might be. Something fleshy no doubt. "I suppose life is supposed to be an adventure." He laughed quietly to himself as he followed the Qella leader. After the events of the day, perhaps a little joy was in order.

/.end

@Black Noise