Open Why Can’t I Cross This River?

[Gram Van Alasdaire]

Note: For clarification, this thread is not death enabled. And I’d rather not get into a fight. Thanks.

-Music-
​

Gale had no idea what was going on anymore.

Two weeks ago, he’d elected to completely throw away all he had worked for. Though it was true, the Vahla wasn’t much for espionage and his distance from the Sith made it impossible to garner anything but what he heard in person - he had at least accomplished something.

The Jedi trusted him, at least those who mattered, and if the Vahla had elected to maintain his espionage plan he might have crippled the Eternal from within. But instead, like his fools for ancestors, the Vahla had elected to play the role of the hero. And just as it was for his progenitors, so it was for him. By fighting for the Jedi, his end goals were now impossible.

Truly, a Master of nothing, fighting everyone’s battles for them. Standing alone.

What’s worse was the simple fact that the Jedi could barely find the courage or strength to defend themselves - much less teach him. Gale understood quite clearly they didn’t have any time for it, this newfound war took their attention now. He had been there on Ajan Kloss, not long ago - he’d seen them run. Not in the slightest bit concerning. Though he detested everything the Sith stood for, the ancient words of Darth Malak spoke true. Those who attempted to master everything failed.

Now? He did the only thing that someone in his desperate condition could do - released an encrypted sub space beacon for aide while but a light year away from the last known settlement of Jedi. It was a long shot, but after Ajan Kloss Gale had lost contact with both Nykoria and Izel. It was possible, however unlikely, neither of them survived the attack. In that circumstance, he would have no choice but to surrender himself to Jedi authority. Maybe somebody still alive within their Order could corroborate his story.

Now, he waited. Alone, with exception to the rusted silver R4 astromech gently charging by his chair.

 

[Izel Thral]

It had been ill advised to return to Ajan Kloss so soon after what had happened, but Izel saw little other choice. Master Reev hadn't been among those regrouping on Yavin. She had talked with everyone that might have known if he was off on one of his missions. All evidence indicated he had been in the temple during the attack. It became clear what had happened, but still... She had to go there. She had to see the body, and tend to it as tradition demanded. She owed him that much.

She was careful to mask her presence in the Force, hire a simple scavenger vessel to pass by the unassuming moon. And just as she knew she would, she found her master there waiting for her. Now his body was nothing but ash, and with his spirit one with the Force, there was nothing for her there anymore. That was until she sensed a familiar presence as they started to depart.

Through some light static Gale would hear a familiar voice over his ship's comms. "We really must stop meeting like this Mr. Van Alasdaire." It was clearly meant to be a joke, but there was no mirth in it. In fact, her tone would give the same cold, uneasiness of a dying woman. It seemed they had both been having a bad time.

@Aurius

 

[Wiley Winnz]

THEME​

The repaired and modified A-9 had relied on the use of a hyperspace ring along with a mixture of unpowered sublight travel to get to where it was now. People didn't realize that a planet's greatest defenses didn't care about an extra system object or slingshot pilot long enough to get a read on his IFF tags or question him even for why they were turned off along with his transponder. The rest of his ship was unpowered and virtually undetectable, no different than debris or space rock. Its pilot, Wiley Winnz, was similarly hidden.

Ajan Kloss.​

He wanted to see it for himself. Hell, he wanted to see if there were any stragglers or things worth picking over. Supposedly the Jedi had interceptors and the Rebellion relied heavily on starfighters against the Empire. It would be sweet irony to shoot down more jedi with their own starfighters.

The Marauder giggled in his snug pilot seat. The artificial gravity was disabled, most systems were powered off. Through careful plotting and calculating, Wiley wouldn't need to adjust his course again for hours, maybe even days depending on what he saw. There were two moons that orbited Ajan Kloss. The place where the Jedi had lived was in fact a moon itself orbiting a gas giant similarly named Ajan, would allow keep him at a comfortable unpowered speed. Elsewhere in system there were dangers of radiation but being in the shadow the the gas giant meant even his unshielded ship avoided the harmful dangers of solar flares and extreme radiation.

A single scavenger vessel came up on the passive scans so far. Active ones would probably cause him to have his position pinpointed. Wiley would be getting closer in a few minutes without needing to power up and get a feel for it soon enough if need be.


@Aurius @Reyn

 

[Gram Van Alasdaire]

“Izel..? Well. I hate to say it but I actually don’t mind meeting like this at all. Especially given the circumstances. I wouldn’t land if I were you - but if that’s your plan, send the coordinates.”

Gale rotated in his chair with a smile and nod. This had been a much quicker response time than he had expected. Gently tapping the blue button that released the R4 from its station he turned to his metallic chief of security. The droid powered on with a series of whirred and cornered beeps.

“Z? We’ve got an ally in orbit. Track their location. Patch Izel in and open a wide band frequency. Then encrypt it.”

This was, Gale could be sure that if anybody was following the pair they’d hear this transmission. But only those within 200 meters could decipher the encryption enough to make the words understandable. An old Rebellion trick for scrambling short range signals. The Paladin smiled slightly as he broadcasted his voice again. She’d be confused - he’d have to explain when they met in person.

“...so yea, I was just going to drop by my sis’ place. Meet you there, and be sure to bring the Life Day exchanges! I’ll see you soon, hun.”

He cut the transmission.

 

[Izel Thral]

She certainly had no intentions of landing anywhere in this system again, she wanted to get as far away as possible, but if they were going anywhere together she would need to take precautions they weren't being followed first. As the Vratix stepped up to the ship's console and began examining the galaxy map for nearby safe systems her antennae twitched slightly. Despite herself she couldn't help but be the least bit amused by the little act Gale was putting on to avoid the suspicion of any nearby ears.

"Looking forward to it..." She replied, trying her best to match his deception. "We're just about finished here, then we're bringing our haul in. Don't keep me waiting..." With that she transmitted the simple message //Phaeda Spaceport// to the dark sider. It was a good choice. Just a short hyperspace jump away, a crowded smuggler's den with a large diversity of alien species populating it. The Vratix wouldn't stand out at all there, and they could conduct themselves without fear of being discovered.

Her Gotal pilot leaned back in his chair and smirked up at the insectoid as he listened in on the conversation. "Boyfriend huh?" He asked. "What, is he blind?" Izel just crossed her arms as she looked down at him in annoyance.

"Oh... What's that?" She wondered aloud. "Huh... I can just feel that Life Day bonus I was going to give you getting lighter and lighter..." The Gotal just rolled his eyes and sat up, starting to set the course for Phaeda.

"Alright, alright I get it. Geez, learn to take a joke will ya?" With that the old junker started moving to make the jump to hyperspace, inadvertently drifting right in the direction of Wiley's interceptor.

@Aurius @Darasuum

 

[Wiley Winnz]

The second contact, was a light year away from the system and far out there. No come relay that way, unless there's someone out that way... It didn't even take his active scans to detect the long range communication link being transmitted between the two. It wasn't like there was a lot of traffic to intercept and get interfference. It was like having his ear listening on another phone line in the house. It was encrypted though.

Why would a scavenger be sending encrypted messages to another ship in a place like this​

It looked like the A-9 was going to collide into the scavenger ship but Wiley knew better. That was fine, it might want to try and recover his ship thinking it was debris. Powering up, the interceptor's lights brightened the cockpit more. Several things happened in quick succession.

Maneuver​

Hail
Lock​

The engines came on and the thrusters maneuvered him out of the way of the ship's collision course and remained in its way. The face of his interceptor remained center on the ship. That went for all systems powering up, including his groundsweeper which descended from its hidden compartment underneath the wing of the ship.

The passive scans, the communication chatter, the fact that there wasn't any actual debris out here. Maybe Wiley just really wanted to shoot something after coming all this way or get a chase going but it was more than that. Provided the suspicious individuals answer his hail, power down and didn't give him reason to scratch his trigger finger, Wiley wouldn't have to worry about more debris getting into his ship's engines.

The slingshot pilot preferred flying to shooting but he was true to his name and wouldn't give a second thought to send a hail plasma at the scavenger's otherwise relatively stationary ship, the Marauder would be keen on getting some answers and didn't need target lock to do major damage. The man liked to think not using it helped keep him from normally shooting down his prey too quickly, but at this distance it hardly mattered. In terms of space combat, it would be like having three blasters held only a few feet away. Fight, run, or stay. Those were the options for any scavenger crew when faced with a situation like this.


@Aurius @Reyn

 

[Gram Van Alasdaire]

Instead of moving the potential conflict to the surface they took to answering the communications offered by the stranger. That had been a mistake. Gale was Sith once - no self respecting Sith or their cohorts would give a single damn about a hostile ship that size in their territory. Gale rotated in his chair once more with a scowl. The droid replied with a series of whirring beeps.

“Unidentified vessel. This is Captain Tyber of the Zann Consortium. Disregard any transmission you’ve elected to eavesdrop on and identify yourself.”

He was still in comms range, but at this point he was most certainly out of weapons range. If he preformed a slingshot maneuver around the planet itself at the correct velocity, Gale theorized that gravity would do the work for him. An old Rebellion trick for scrambling short range signals. The Paladin smiled slightly as he broadcasted his voice again. She’d be confused - he’d have to explain when they met in person.

“You have ten seconds to comply. Raise shields and polarize, Lieutenant.”

However, R4 didn’t immediately raise anything - only moved the ship to a hovering position as opposed to landing. Banking around, Gale enabled the rear thrusters to stabilize them and spun the ship. The hull was now aimed at the newcomer. The droid then cut the open transmission.

 

[Izel Thral]

The moment A-9 appeared on their scanners Izel was on edge. Given her recent encounter on Sullust, and just who had been most recently occupying this system. Well... It was fairly easy to put two and two together. She had a pretty good idea of just who it was they were approaching, and didn't like that one bit. She wasn't really in any position to do anything up here, and while her pilot had insisted he was one of the best in the sector, well, that's something all pilots liked to say when trying to get a client.

As the pilot halted his course to avoid impact Izel quickly answered the hail. It was alright, they weren't in any trouble yet. She just needed to play this smart. "Uh, hello there... friend?" She started, maintaining the scavenger facade and trying to make it appear she was afraid she had just run into a Sector Ranger. "Sorry if we gave you a fright. We just wanted to see if you needed any... help..." She was hoping he'd take the bait and write them off as unworthy of his time. Nonetheless she stepped back from the com and looked towards her pilot. "Start making the preparations for hyperspace." She whispered. The Gotal just nodded and got to work. It was clear this wasn't his first time trying to outrun the law. And while he prepared to make a speedy getaway Izel turned back to the com.

"We were just in the neighborhood, heard some... distress signal coming from the moon... Thought we'd see what the fuss was but nobody's here." Vultures picking the bones of the dead was nothing new out in the Rim. Surely the same would be true of Jedi bones. Izel just hoped their new friend bought it.

@Aurius @Darasuum