After a series of hyperspace jumps through the Drift, the ships finally emerged into realspace around the planet Alluuvia. A vibrant blue planet covered by water.

"Well... that was a close one, again." sighed Klyn.
"Another part of the galaxy we never should go back to.

All right. So what's the plan now?"

'Could've been closer.' Lyla concluded laconically. 'We got away with what we came for, and without getting any hits. For us, that was a clear win, so let's take it. And yeah, we can never go back anywhere again.' she ended in agreement.

'Now, the plan is...' Lyla quickly reviewed her mission notes, just to be sure. 'To secure Alluuvia for Radell. Which would mean making sure it's not a secret pirate or Imperial base. Since the Scourge ambushed the Gray Griffins shortly after leaving here, a world not on on any regular routes, they might be up to something here. So, we go pirate hunting. Let's make orbital sensor sweeps and see what turns up.'

The ships began scanning the planet. Initial reports showed that ninety-seven percent of the planet’s surface was water. The only land was volcanic peaks and purple coral atolls that poked above the ocean surface. Life form readings were plentiful in the water. The temperature readings were mild and the ocean temperate. Many of the island atolls were large enough to be used as landing bays.

As Lamar used the ship's scanners and sensors to sweep the planet, he thought about this crew. He wasn't a team guy. He could work with people, but he was much more comfortable in solo roles. Snipers tended to be that way. Unless they had a spotter, but even then the two man teams tended to be pretty standoffish. It was interesting to see the crew work together, but he wasn't sure if it would last for him. He still had his own mission, and they didn't likely play into that...

Lyla looked over the results coming back, double-checking them to confirm what she was seeing. 'Another water world, huh? Odd place for a pirate base, I would've expected another dump. Alright, let's do a flyover of some of these bigger atolls, here, here, and here, and see what sticks out.' she suggested, pointing to some of the larger, loop-shaped atolls around the equator. 'If nothing else, it could be nice for a beach holiday. Goddess knows I need one.'

The ship’s sensors showed that the waters were high in metal and mineral content making it likely to be toxic. However filtering the water or mining ore deposits on the ocean floor could be a valuable source of metals and minerals.

Despite the toxic readings for the metals and minerals contained in the water the sensors picked up many life forms in the ocean.

'Water's high in, uh, a whole bunch of metals and minerals I can't even name, most likely toxic. So, not nice for a beach holiday then.' Lyla concluded as she scanned the spectrographic analysis of Alluuvia. 'It's another dump after all, but I can see why Radell would be interested. So, same deal as on Dega, if we have to set foot planetside, let's wear breath masks so we don't breath any of that not-so-fresh sea air.' she advised. 'Do we have a course set for that flyover?'

"Course laid in L.T." Lamar said scanning the sensors. "We should be coming up on reentry to the atmo in thirty seconds."

"What's the plan if, or when, we find their base?
With some luck, they might not have come back from their recent attempt, but it's likely they are ready for our visit.

After all we killed some of their men, ruined their last operation, freed the hostage and most certainly destroyed a big part of their firepower."

The ships entered the atmosphere and travelled closer to the water. All looked as the scanners had detected. A water world scattered with purple coral atolls.

Lamar admired the beauty, but also noted the toxicity. "Lovely place, and in typical nature fashion, the most beautiful things are deadly. Make sure you don't remove your protective garments while out there." He remarked sardonically.

'That's a myth, you know.' Lyla pointed out to Lamar. 'Some boring ugly-ass things in nature can be pretty deadly too. But as long as we don't drink, or breathe, or drown down there, we should be good. I hope.'

'Now, the plan... is to scramble to come up with a plan when we find out what's going on here.' Lyla outlined. She laid out the facts they'd found to help them, and especially her, get to grips with the situation. 'Remember, the pirates' main base is that container ship we saw, coz they like to stay mobile. It holds the gravity well generator, and its interdiction field is still a big bit of firepower. They might have another hideout here on Alluuvia, or they're snooping around for some other reason, or it was just bad luck, but either way they got the Gray Griffins soon after they left here. So, if Chalmer's realised we're tracking down the Whisper, they'll be coming here or waiting for us to leave before ambushing us with that interdiction field again. This time, we know what to expect and we've evened the odds. So let's survey Alluuvia, see what turns up, then trip our ambush.'

From the report by Parek and the Gray Griffins they were ambushed by the pirates after they left Alluuvia, not whilst they were there.

The two ships found an island large enough to land. The volcanoes were of black rock and the coral was purple.

Lyla scrutinised the first island that had turned up in their survey. 'Okay, I know the odds of us landing more-or-less at random somewhere on the planet and finding something are minuscule at best. But the few islands big enough to land on here raise those odds a lot, and if nothing else, we'll get the ground truth for the orbital surveys and get a good sense of this place for our report to Radell and the Alliance.' she explained. 'So, set us down over there by this beach, and we'll take a look around for a bit and see what turns up.'

"As you order L.T.," Lamar said stoically. He began prepping the ship for landing, he also decided to check and see if Bill would be able to join in or was the atmosphere or environment toxic to droids. Acid rain could be shrugged off by the protective layers of suits, but sometimes they ate right through the metal of a droid's shell.

The atmosphere was safe for R4-B11, or Bill as the Rebels had named the cranky droid. However the presence of so much possibly corrosive liquid had Bill stating in a series of rude bleeps that it did not want to leave the ship.

Once the ships had landed it wasn’t long before they had the attention of the natures. Slithering toward the island from all directions were creatures between three to four metres long. They had slender, muscled, eel like bodies, varying in black to olive green in colour. Their arrow shaped heads had huge hinged jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth.

As they slithered onto the island it appeared that the eel like creature possessed webbed hands and held spear like weapons. They did not approach the ships however but lay on the ground and watched the rebels. There was probably more than twenty of them.

While landing the ship, Lamar noted their watchers. As he was putting the ship into standby mode, he said, "Well, well, well. We have a welcoming committee. Based on the primitive tools, they are likely intelligent and maybe sentient. Should we introduce ourselves L.T.?"

On first sighting the lifeforms, which looked large and alien and very dangerous, Lyla's first thought was to call the mission complete and take off again and continue the survey from the very safe distance of high orbit. But she waited, as she also caught sight of the hands and weapons that suggested intelligence, if not peacefulness. But if weird-looking aliens landed on her world unannounced, she'd come armed too. 'Yeah, let's hope they're friendly too.'

Not sure what might or might not be considered an aggressive gesture in their culture, Lyla settled for simply raising her hand. She called out in Basic 'Hello! We come in peace.' It sounded like a cliche from a holo-vid movie, but it was the best she could come up with on short notice for a potential first contact. She hoped they knew Basic, and if not, she tried Ryl, Rodian, and Huttese next.

The sea creatures listened to Lyla’s words attentively. They showed no signs of recognising any particular language but their actions demonstrated some understanding of Lyla’s statement.

They either lay down their spears or sheathed them in harnesses which they wore on their backs "peace" they repeated Lyla's word and then spoke in different language ""

'Yes, peace.' Lyla repeated, relieved and thankful but not entirely sure if they understood or if it was simply the last word they'd caught. Either way, they were no longer pointing pointy things at them, which was good. Then they said something and it was her turn to be uncomprehending. 'Did anyone get that?' she asked her companions under her breath. 'What I wouldn't do for a protocol droid right now.'

Shaking his head Lamar said, "Sorry no L.T. I could have if they were speaking Hutteese or Shyriiwook, but whatever they are speaking I can't figure it out."

Then he seemed to start and reached quickly into his bag for his pers-comp. Maybe I can find a translation program. He thought to himself as he began to pull it out...
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 01:34, Tue 07 Dec 2021.

"I was hoping they would use a language close to the mon calamari, being water dwelling creatures, but no luck there."

The aliens were relieved by Lyla response and they repeated the word ”peace” again. Amongst themselves they spoke a different language, a language no one recognised. Their early speech had sounded familiar, although clearly not a language that any of the Rebels understood or knew.

Some kind of debate continued amongst the ocean aliens for a few minutes before one of them spoken haltingly in broken Galactic Basic “meet… leader… Anyar” and they pointed into the ocean.

Lyla spared a second to parse that, nor being sure if Anyar was a name or just some other word in their own language. Unfortunately, she did not have the time to try learn it. 'You want us meet Anyar, your leader?' she tried to confirm, speaking slowly. Then she realised how they would meet Anyar: by going into the toxic water. She pointed to the sea, them shook her hand and head and tails. 'No. Water bad. Poison. Make sick.' She mimed it, put hand to her throat and making a sickly face.

Next, she held her hand to the sea and beckoned toward her. 'Leader Anyar come. Bring leader Anyar?'

The slippery eel like aliens talked amongst themselves in their strange language and then a few of them slithered back into the water.

One of them turned to Lyla “wait… Anyar” then it laid down it head down, an eye kept on the Rebels.

Lamar had been furiously typing away on his datapad and grunted suddenly. "Huh. That's odd." He muttered. "They are speaking two languages kind of mixed together, one is unidentified, the other is a derivative of Ithorian.

Working on a possible translation matrix, but it might take a while. I don't have that language in my database. I'm looking to see if I can pull it off the Hypernet. But as you would expect there isn't a strong signal here."

'Us wait Anyar.' Lyla confirmed, quietly relieved the Alluuvians had accepted it and they wouldn't have to go into the toxic water. Maybe they could do with aquata breathers and dive suits, or using the Alabak's Gold submersible mode, but she'd rather not risk it if she didn't have to.

She ducked her head downward in imitation of the Alluuvian, then, when she was sure it wasn't disrespectful, turned away toward Lamar and the others. 'Ithorian? I wish Oglo was here, or even that Ithorian ship we met around Dega... Alright, well, do what you can. Even just a few more simple statements could help us a lot.'

"Ithorian?  Not that surprising as this kind of planet fits perfectly for their project of planetary restoration.

But for it to mix with what I suppose is their native tongue, they must have come here a long time ago... And failed" he added, looking at the toxic ocean.

After waiting another alien emerged from the sea. The creature was alike to the other but wore a crown of shells and its spear was fancier although also clearly functional.

There creatures spoke together in their own unknown language before the newcomer spoke in halting Basic.

”You… Friends…Those…That…Fought…Many… Anguilla…Fifteen…Tides…Ago?”

Lamar was confused at the creature's way of speaking. Anguilla? Was that these people, or something else? Was the statement supposed to be taken literally as it was said? They were friends of the people who had fought the Anguilla people? Or did he just not understand the proper sentence structure and they were the Anguilla and they were asking if we were friends to those that fought alongside them?

"L.T. I'm not sure exactly what he, at least I think it's a he, is asking? Does he mean are we friends of his people or not? I'd get clarification first before answering."

He typed a quick search into his database and looked for anything related to the word Anguilla.

Lyla tilted her head toward Lamar, offering her own interpretation. 'I think he's asking if we're friends of people who attacked his recently. Maybe. Sounds like the Scourge have been here, anyway.'

Looking back to the Alluuvian, or maybe Anguilla, leader, Lyla gestured toward them. 'You Anguilla?' she queried, speaking slowly and enunciating clearly. 'We not friends to those that fight you. We come to you in peace. We look for others who come here, to fight them. Maybe those that fought Anguilla?'

”Me… Anyar… We… Anguilla…” the alien responded to Lyla.

”You… Honour… Good…?” he asked.

Lyla had to think about that, wondering if maybe she was missing something. Honour good? What did that mean, exactly? 'Uh, yes, we honour good.' she tried. 'We want peace, honour, and good.' she reiterated, just to be clear, before she decided to change tacks and direct this conversation 'Can you tell about those that fought Anguilla fifteen tides ago?' They had to be the Scourge, she figured, here seven or fifteen days ago, depending on how the Anguilla reckoned time. Why had they attacked them? Where had they gone?
This message was lightly edited by the player at 03:04, Fri 24 Dec 2021.

Klyn hopes the mention of honour won't put them in a delicate situation.

Likes if you have honour, you will help us get rid of our enemies...

But if those are indeed the Scourge, they might find a way to cooperate.

Although he has trouble thinking of ways those native people could fight blaster wielding pirates.

”We… talk… when… you… have… honour” Angar replied to Lyla question “come.” the eel like creature beckoned Lyla toward the sea “the…rites…of…Conch-tar” it then turned and submerged itself in the sea.

By the moons of Anzor... These guys don't listen. Lamar thought to himself.
"Uh.. L.T. That's gonna be a problem."

'Huh?' Lyla began, bewildered by what he meant, before realising Anyar was slithering away into the sea. 'Wait! We can't— Water is poison! Hey! What are the rites of Conchtar?' she called after him, but, too late, the representative had slipped beneath the waves.

She stalked back up the beach, muttering 'Some representative he is... Okay, maybe if we use breathers and don't drink the water, we should be fine, for whatever this is...' She tried to flag down one of the other Anguillans before they too departed. 'Hey, what are the rites of Conchtar?'

"Maybe it's unconceivable for them to not be able to get into the water?

Lamar, we could use the space suits to get under water.  With some added oxygen reserve, maybe?"

The spacesuits would protect the wearer from any toxicity in the Aluuvian ocean.

”Ceremony...Sacred” a retreating Aluuvian replied to Lyla.

"Okay, but do we have enough? It's not like they are used for much more than repairing the hull in an emergency. Most ships don't carry more than two or three." Lamar asked.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Sat 01 Jan 2022.

'Right, of course it is, thanks.' Lyla replied, giving a short and cheery wave to the leaving Alluuvian, before turning back to the team with a grimace. Once again, she found herself with no options. 'Even without the language barrier, I'm not sure how much information we're likely to get out of these guys. But I want to know who they fought with, so I guess we're going to have go through with this... Or I'm going to go through with this, I won't ask the rest of you to risk yourselves.' she declared. 'I have a breather, flight suit, and Twi'lek physiology, and  I've survived worse, so I probably stand the best chance.' she estimated, fairly confident and only partly hopeful.

'Maybe the rest of you could follow in the Gold in aquatic mode. Would it be okay in that water?'

OOC The Wayfarer has 6 spacesuits and 10 breath masks

OOC So what's the plan?

OOC: Lyla will suit up and go into the water after Anyar for the ceremony. The others can follow in suits or in the Gold as you like. I hope the Anguillans don't expect us all to do it.

Lamar heads quickly to the Gold and starts getting her ready for submersible operations.

"You sure you want to be alone there? If you need a second, I'm volunteering."

Anyar and the host of Anguilla warriors led Lyla to a submerged cave a few kilometres away. The spacesuit and breathing apparatus protected Lyla from any toxins.

Lamar prepared the Gold and followed.

The cave mouth was black. The entrance was too small for any starship to enter.

The Anguilla began to chant and Anyar order Lyla into the cave ”you… stay… in… cave… worthy… any… who… don’t… enter… cave… leave… world”

Klyn will also equip himself, just in case things go south and he would need to get out and help Lyla.

She dived into the water and swam after the Anguillans, after a while reporting that her suit integrity and her health were holding. 'Hey – if I don't make it, you can volunteer too!' Lyla called back to Klyn over the comlink, her tone flippant as she tried to keep upbeat about all this. It wouldn't be her first time walking (or swimming) into an unknown environment, or taking part in a native ritual, or trusty her life in the hands of the mother goddess.

But when she arrived at the black mouth of the cave, she began to feel her first doubts. When Anyar said that if she didn't go in, she would have to leave the world, she had to wonder if he really to leave life as well. But she wasn't afraid of the dark, her Twi'lek eyes were well-adapted to low-light conditions, and she'd been through worse than sitting in a cave for a while. 'Okay.' she agreed, paddling up to the entrance. 'I stay in cave how much time? This not last long.' she reminded Anyar, tapping her breather.

Inside the cave looked pitch black as Lyla approached. Anyar handed Lyla a bone with phosphorescent seaweed attached. He then handed her a leaf of seaweed “you… eat” at Lyla question he replied “must… stay… in… cave… to… be… worthy.”

The Anguillan leader looked at the Alabak’s Gold ”must…go…in…cave…or…leave”

Lyla looked down at the seaweed leaf, and sighed, released a stream of bubbles from the breather that blocked her mouth from ever being able to eat it underwater. These Anguillans really were awfully choosy about free help. And kind of dumb. 'I must eat this and stay in cave?' she confirmed before Anyar altered the deal any further. Then she tapped her breather that transmitted her voice through the water. 'I cannot eat. I cannot breathe.' she tried to tell him, but she took the seaweed, her stomach churning already. Damn thing was probably poisonous too. 'I go in ship, eat in air, then come back, okay? You can watch me. You come.' She beckoned Anyar to follow her before he could argue, leave, or come up with some new and worse test of worthiness.

Swimming back to the ship, she communicated 'Lyla to Alabak's Gold, they want me to eat this seaweed too. Open a ventral airlock, I'll do it in the air bubble.'

The Anguillans were happy to allow Lyla to enter the Alabak’s Gold to eat her leaf and gather up her companions for their trip into the black cave. Anyar gave Lyla more leaves "for...your...tribe."

'Ah, thanks, they'll love them, I'm sure...' Lyla said quickly, trying to catch all the leaves before they floated away from her hands. Then she realised these seaweed leaves were meant to be more than just complimentary snacks. 'Oh, you mean all my tribe must go in cave? Not only me, the leader?'

"Yes...to...be...worthy"

Like talking to a Dagobah parrot. Lyla thought dismally. 'Ah, okay, bit of a mistranslation then. I thought me taking a risk for my tribe would make us fairly worthy already. But, alright, we'll all take this risk for the Rebel Alliance. Wait here.'

Lyla swam up into the airlock, breaking the water and calling the rest of the crew. 'Alright, change of plan. They want us all to take part in their ceremony. Everyone they saw on the beach earlier, anyway. So suit up, eat some of this weed, and come with me.'

While they did that, she examined the seaweed, but struggled to work out anything without time or equipment. She did know a lot of rituals like these involved plants that were, in some way, psychoactive.


OOC:
17:37, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 11 using 1d20+10.  Knowledge (life sciences).

Lamar looked to see if the Gold would fit in the cave.

The cave entrance was small. No vehicles would fit inside.

"I'm not leaving her alone" Klyn said.
"Do you wish to go or do you feel confident in handling the Gold?"

"Damnit. We're going to all have to go. It won't make much difference if I'm off planet. It would take too long for me to get back to do any good if things got harry. Guess we could park it here and swim in." Lamar said sighing.

When Lamar, Klyn and Lyla prepared to enter the black cave they were individually handed a bone with phosphorescent seaweed and another leaf for them to eat.

The Anguillans at this point were all chanting.

Lamar had always hated being underwater. The cold dark along with the pressure combined with strange creatures flying around him gave him a shiver in his back that didn't seem to go away until he was out of the water. So of course he had to do this. Fraking primitives. He thought to himself as he waited with the L.T. and his team.
He was confused at the leaf, as he obviously can't eat it with his helmet on, and without his helmet he drowns.

Lamar was given time to go eat the leaf in their spaceship.

Once they were ready, Lyla had waved Anyar to come to the airlock so he could watch them each eat their seaweed leaf, and only one leaf, while above the water in the airlock. No matter how bad they tasted. And apparently they weren't too poisonous, for they were all still swimming. For now, anyway.

So, after swimming back to the cave entrance, Lyla intercepted the Anguillan as it offered Lamar another leaf. 'No no no, we ate our leafs. In our ship. In the beach we take with us. Anyar watched us.' she tried to explain, pointing to mouths and ship and Anyar and eyes as needed. Instead, she took and passed around the bones tied with phosphorescent seaweed for use as torches.

She switched to a private comms channel, and beckoned the team to follow her into the dark cave. Have gone through this water-world thing on Sedri, Lyla was less bothered by it all now, though dealing with the Sedrians was seemingly like a snap compared to the Anguillans now. 'Come on, let's get this over with before they come up with something else. And if we're still not worthy, we'll have to leave them to the Empire.'

The cave was very dark as the Rebels entered.

OOC Continued in other threads…