"I'm sure it will be more interesting than what goes around on this base. I'll take some long walks through the unknown wilderness over guard duty"

It hadn't been the warmest welcome ever, but he couldn't really expect that much from a group of people who he'd only just met. So he sits down at their table and joins them. In truth he's mostly interested in something else he overheard them saying earlier, something that really piqued his interest.

"So.. You have an X-wing too? What happened to it that it needs towing?"

"Not their X-wing, it belongs to the base. I was out flying Grey Nine on patrol when the scout ship appeared and started scanning. I chased it down, they tried to lose me in a canyon. I managed to take them down." He said with a sly grin, "And them." He said indicating the Alabak's Gold crew." His smile got wider. "And myself... it got crazy..."

'I like boring.' Lyla added.

She looked disbelievingly at Jason. 'More interesting? What, you missed the ISC commando assault the other day?' she asked, referring to the recent incident in which the downed Imperial Survey Corps crew had infiltrated the spaceport, planted explosives, and stolen the Handree. Chasing them, retaking the ship, and protecting the colony from the Empire was how these heroes of the Alliance had earned their reps.

'And the canyon.' she reminded after Rynn, grinning in spite of herself. It had gone from catastrophic to ridiculous. 'I had to dig him out with a shovel.'

Jason smirks at Rynn and his story.

"Well at least you got your target, that's what matters, the rest are just details. Well played"

Then he looks at Lyla and shrugs.

"Well sure, but I didn't get to do anything during all that. And word is the imperials shouldn't be returning for a good long time. So I don't want to be on guard duty for all of that, better to be out in the wilderness with all of you"

His thoughts drift back to the stranded X-wing and the possibility of salvaging it.

"And if we can recover that stranded X-wing, all the better. What happened to the astromech, did you manage to save it?"

"Hey, even if we can't restore the Survey ship, we can give the Gold a few upgrades with it. The sensors on that thing have to be top class, not to mention the sheer amount of useful gear we can try to strip from it." Tera suggested "But the Xwing if I remember should be relatively straightforward....unless anythings happened since we've been away."

'And the weapons.' Lyla added thoughtfully.

'So, we need a lot of shovels.'

All the essentials food supplies and shovels were loaded into the speeder truck, it was a cumbersome vehicle but offered everything they would need to survive out in the wilds for a couple of days, or longer if the recovering the Alabak's Gold was going to be a difficult operation.



The team with their new addition of Jason Starflare still had plenty of space onboard. Taking the speeder out of the hangar the crystals surface of Isis glinted in the daylight, the translucent crystal lit up in a rainbow of colours. They soon left the crystal mesa of Neskroff behind. The sunshade goggles that Lyla had requisitioned offered some comfort from the permanent glare of the multi-coloured reflections. For anything but the natural crystalline inhabitants Isis was a harsh and threatening world, yet beautiful.

The Rebels had not attempted any terraforming on the surface, content to hide in their mountain base. The Gutretees miracles of crystal waves left no mark of a technically advanced race on the surface. The landspeeder could traverse the seemingly barren world but not at any great speed. It took them a few hours to reach the crash site. Everything was as they had left it. The wreckage of the Wanderer, Grey Nine and the Alabak's Gold were all half buried in crystal shards but on a planet with no organic life as they knew it they had all been left undisturbed.

For Lyla's part, she had organised all the supplies and gear they would need to get by in the wilderness, particularly without communications to guide them. Even a few hour's drive out of Neskroff, a breakdown or getting lost could be a killer. Fortunately, the experienced scout had studied the maps, knew the terrain, and could find their way by the stars and an old-fashioned magnetic compass if need be.

She went into the speeder truck disappointed not to be going hiking as she'd planned, either with Tera or alone. She still just wanted to get away from it all, to search for peace and get her tails on straight. Maybe, once they'd found the ships and work was under way, and she had nothing else in particular to do, she could just take off for a while, and just walk, see what she could explore and discover, even if she found nothing at all. In fact, there'd been a narrow channel on the map, walled by prismatic crystals, that she had an idea would act as a crude laser...

Still, the traveller in her wasn't irritated to be riding a few hours in a truck instead. It was a road trip, time spent with friends going some place and talking about nothing, to watch the scenery fly by. It was easier on the feet too. She was taken back to her childhood and the family caravan on Ryloth, riding along the terminator region between the bright and dark sides. Happy times. For the most part, Lyla sat in quiet contemplation, gazing out the window at the beautiful, rainbow-draped crystal land.

When they finally came to a stop, Lyla jumped out, glad to stretch her legs after so long in the truck, and gazed around at the ships: the Alabak's Gold, with Grey Nine just nearby, and the Wanderer in the next valley over. It was odd to find everything exactly as they'd left it. It seemed so silent and timeless. There were no people or animals as she knew them to disturb things. Of course, in a crystal-based ecosystem, the local flora and fauna could well decide to eat spaceship components. 'Where should we start? I say the Alabak: we could live out of there while we get the others. Besides, I want our ship back.'
This message was last edited by the player at 01:49, Sat 25 July 2015.

The speeder truck isn't exactly the kind of vehicle Jason would prefer to drive, but it certainly beats hanging out at the base doing nothing, and his new colleague's seem like a pleasant enough bunch. And the view of the planet is certainly worthwhile, it's an unusual place this planet, like nothing he's ever visited before.

During the trip he can't help but test out the vehicle's ability to accelerate as well as it's maneuverability, of which there isn't much. Still if some kind of trouble did occur, he'd like to know a little bit about the vehicle he's in and what he can do with it. But beyond that he just enjoys the ride towards the crash sites.

When they finally reach their destination he get's out of the truck and stretches with a groan, glad to be able to free his muscles a little and breathe the fresh air.

"Sounds like a good place to start to me. Though I wonder if we can't use the truck to simply pull the X-wing free, if we have strong enough cables. It'd safe us from having to dig that one out at least right?"

Tera enjoyed the trip out sticking to herself while she caught up on the journals she'd been studying. As she watched the ships she wondered if it might be a wrong idea to wrench them out from the crystals. "Why don't we just ask the Gutretee to free the ships from the crystals. If they make starfighter hulls out of the crystal I can't help but feel we might break things by using brute force to try to splinter it."

'Because dealing with the Gutretee will cost us a wallop to the head, and I dunno know about the rest of you, but I can't take any more concussions.' Lyla complained with a wince and a smile. 'But Tera's right, I think yanking it out is likely to snap the wings off. Come on! A little hard work won't kill us.' she tried to rouse them.

"Fair enough.. Guess it's up to us then to do the hard work.."

He grabs one of the shovels and jumps out of the speeder truck to walk over to the ship indicated and experimentally tries to push the shovel into this crystal ground to see how easy it will be to dig out the ship. If it's truly some kind of organic crystal, it might prove difficult to do any digging at all.

As they reached the crash site, klyn couldn't help but to feel sad at the stata of his beloved ship.  He, of course, agreed with the gold beeing first on yhe list.

"Shovels might be hard but I have some hope with vibroblade or sonic tools."

In the speeder truck were plenty of shovels as well as a few laser tool which would speed up the recovery process of the Alabak's Gold. Gathered around the jumpship they started the arduous task of uncovering it. The crystals shards and rumble glittered brightly and without the anti-glare goggles they would have all be dazzled into blindness as they shovelled and dug at the crystal canyon.

"Alabak first will be fine." Rynn nodded as they traveled to the ship. He was feeling bad about being the cause of the wrecks, which set off the series of events that took them down a dark path.


As they stopped, he grabbed a shovel and attacked the ground like he was angry at it. "This shouldn't take us too long... well, maybe a little bit." he said with a chuckle. "Do you guys have room on board for Jason and I inside?"

Tera happily helped the others trying to ship at the crystal surrounding the ships. It was only in the midst of the task that she stopped staring off into the distance. She frowned, unable to see anything in the glare, before turning back to her task. She'd only started her work for a few seconds before she stopped again to look.

"Uh....I think someones coming." she said out loud to the team working on freeing the gold.

Rummaging through her kit, Lyla produced a shiny new Alliance-issue entrenching tool, to replace the one confiscated by the Imperials. She could fold and configure the multipurpose implement as a shovel, pickaxe, or hammer, though, as she'd lamented previously, it had no vibro function. It would handily break through and shift the chunks of crystal, as she'd shown when she'd dug Rynn out of his cockpit not too long ago.

Readying for the hard yakka, Lyla stripped down to tank-top and short shorts, and wore her sturdy hiking boots, protective goggles, and a breath mask. Although the dust had settled since the crash and collapse of the canyon wall, their efforts would likely stir up more, and Lyla rightly feared what sharp crystal flakes could do to their lungs and eyes. She'd already been right about the goggles cutting down on glare and dazzling.

The twi'lek wasn't strong, but she was tough and enduring, and she swung a mean entrenching tool, over and over in graceful arcs and precise strikes. Lyla used the pick to break apart crystals and drag out boulders, and the shovel to dig out the smaller rubble and fling it away. Untiring, unrelenting, she steadily dug out the parts of the ship Klyn needed cleared.

Soon, in her exertions and the heat, Lyla had worked up quite a sweat, her skin flushed a golden orange. She made for an impressive sight: her sleek orange skin glistened in the rainbow light, accentuating her firm muscles and soft lush curves, from her long lithe legs to her bare arms and shoulders, from cleavage to chest and neck and down her long tails. Dusted all over with crystal flakes, she sparkled in the rainbow light. It all put her in mind of her time as a dancer, and the days of stripper glitter.

Finding a neatly cut hunk of crystal, every facet gleaming and diffracting rainbows, Lyla picked it up to have a close look. She took a short breather, pulling down her mask to reveal a tired, pretty face. She scrutinised her find for a time before pocketing it as a souvenir. She answered Rynn 'We've got five quarters, two bunks each. One each for all of us. Any more in the crew, and we're going to have to share.'

She looked to Tera and where Tera was looking. 'What's that, T?' she asked, keenly looking into the distance through the glare.


OOC: Perception 27
10:56, Today: Lyla Rahn rolled 27 using 1d20+8. perception.

Jason can't help but stare briefly at Lyla's far nicer digging tool and then at his own simplistic shovel a little disappointed, but there's nothing for it. So he just sets to work on digging out the ship the best he can. Besides, he doesn't want to be caught staring at Lyla for too long, it keeps bringing up memories about some of the other pilots telling him about Twi'lek exotic dancers they went to see. But at least he can appreciate why they went to see such shows now.

And the fact that Lyla feels comfortable enough to work in little more than a tank tank and some short shorts also means he doesn't need to feel so bad an hour later when he's sweating and hot as hell and decides to take off his own shirt and use it as a towel to wipe off his face.

"Is it just the work or does this place get seriously hot?"

He tosses his shirt into a pile somewhere and continues working, he doesn't really have the strength generally required to do heavy digging, but he does know something about hard work and endurance trials, and he's determined not to stop before the rest of them do. He would hate to be the new guy and the first to take a break as well, that just wouldn't do. If anything he wants to be the very last to still be going.

"Sharing a room isn't a problem for me.. I spend most of my adult life as an imperial pilot, not a lot of privacy in that life.."

He looks up surprised when Tera mentions someone else coming their way and he stops digging to look around, frowning slightly and turning his eyes towards the speeder truck where he left his weapon.

"Do you think I need to grab my weapon?"

Tera shrugged "I don't know. I could be wrong, but I thought.... Maybe it was nothing." she moved back to her weapons picking up her blaster pistol. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid. I thought I saw something coming towards us."

While the others were buzy outside, Klyn went inside the ship to run a few diagnostics and, if possible, begin some repairs.

The Alabak's Gold was structurally sound as Klyn ran his diagnostics. The starship had been through plenty of adventurers with the Rebels and crashed more than once too. The main concern was getting it out of the avalanche of sparkling crystals. It was for Jason, Lyla and Rynn to get physical with the labour. The work was slow but the planet Isis was peaceful and beautiful it's rainbow of colours and bright crystals. Tera felt more presences than just the others, her labour paused. The presence grew closer.

Finally Tera's feelings became real as the crystal canyon rippled and a wave came down it. On the wave were two individuals. Those who had met the Gutretee before recognised the dull and cracked appearance of Yustavan the shaman as the old humanoid controlled the crystal wave. Beside the Gutretee was a tall human in dark robes. He had a charismatic air despite his youth.

"Ho-noured one. You come to move you wave. Champion Tera and worthy Lyl'arahn I will help" the old shaman greeted them warmly as the wave came to stop shuddering the loose rubble around the Alabak's Gold.

[OCC: Private to GM: Noted; I take it that if I was to do a force sense detect thingy, she would pop up on my radar]

Stepping off the gathered crystal rubble produced by the wave, Bron steps forward looking at the individuals before him. Taking note of their individual characteristics, he eyes Tera for a moment longer than everyone else, almost with an air of familiarity.

After a moment, Bron turns back to Yustavan and bow in his direction whispering so only Yustavan can hear him and turning back towards the group.
With a wide smile he approaches them and says, ”Greetings travelers, the Shaman here tells me that you may be leaving this planet soon and I was hoping that one might be able to accompany you on your journey. I do not need much room, as you can see I live a very simple life without many belongings.”

Looking each individual in the eye as he speaks you see that he is younger than most people traveling alone, but his violet eyes shine bright with great wisdom. Taking a wider glance at him he is wearing dark tan robes and has his blonde hair pulled back behind him underneath the robe’s hood, and he carries a metallic tube at his waist.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Thu 30 July 2015.

'Nothing wrong with paranoia in this line of work, Tera.' Lyla advised, scanning the horizon and the crystal walls of the canyon for signs of movement, ears pricked for danger. Lyla shrugged; she didn't see a thing out of the ordinary, if anything really could be considered ordinary here. She ended her inspection at openly eyeing Jason's lean physique, a small smile playing on her lips. She knew he'd been catching sight of her, but she was well used to such attention, and as Tera had said, she enjoyed it. But that was all it could be.

Finally, she got back to work, long orange legs astride a mound of rubble, swinging her pick in high arcs overhead, metal flashing in the light before shattering through a slab of crystal in a burst of glittering shards. She gotten a few swings in before a Gutretee crystal land-wave came sweeping in. She'd ridden it before, but it was still an awesome sight. Lyla glanced across to Tera, wondering how she'd heard it well before it came. Leaning on her pick, Lyla watched as the wave settled, recognising Yustavan. She'd expected the other to be Iponta, the champion, but was surprised to see a human.

'Wise Yustavan,' she greeted with a bow. 'Thanks for your offer. We were too polite to ask.' And I didn't want to be smacked upside the head again for asking. Lyla started moving away from the Alabak's Gold, waving Jason to clear away from the ship before any crystal land-waves erupted beneath it.

She regarded the robed man, not sure what possessed anyone to walk around in robes like that. Some kind of priest? He looked like a Jedi from the old holos, but what in the Galaxy could possess one to dress up as one of those? 'Very practical,' remarked the ranger, who owned nothing more than she could stuff in a backpack, and now not even that. 'But I don't know about "soon", mate. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got three ships to salvage and repair, and don't have orders to go anywhere yet.'
This message was last edited by the player at 07:41, Sat 01 Aug 2015.

Turning to look the Twi'lek Bran smiles and says, "Certainly, while I am looking to leave this planet. It is of no great importance that it be immediately, I have spent the past few months here. While it is a beautiful planet I do believe my destiny lays elsewhere."

Looking around, he lets his gaze linger on the star-ships buried in the crystal, before returning his gaze to the Twi'lek.

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance in your current endeavor. It seems that, what I can only presume to be your star ship, is rather stuck. I would be more than happy to lend a hand in exhuming it from the crystal."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:57, Fri 31 July 2015.