The droid's one red eye shifted toward the Togruta padawan. "What would be our immediate destination be. There are several common routes from this system, I believe.."


 K1's optical sensor went off and on a few times almost as if she was blinking. She used her metallic fingers to pull up the navicomputer's small screen. "Very well. I will check the navicomputer. It appears that Tylen set an emergency course before he landed. It would be logical to assume this would be that this would be the best destination for our immediate needs."

  She clicked on the keypad quickly to get the coordinates situated and hit the button to submit the heading based on their current vector. The droid intoned, "Hyperspace course locked. Ready to initiate jump to light speed."

  Raana found the correct lever to activate the hyperspace jump and pulled it, the hyperdrive spun up, briefly, and then shut back down immediately. Glowing red alert lights went off both at the navicomputer and on the sensor panel.

  K1T1's head swiveled back and forth between the transparisteel window and the navicomputer, as if in confusion. She read the warning aloud, "Warning. New objects detected along plotted course. Please alter vector or plot a new course."

---

OOC: 3 out of 4 positive dice rolled came up as blanks! So no successes and 3 threats.

13:10, Today: ChosenOne, on behalf of K1T1, rolled no successes, 3 threats using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of 3A 1P 3D 1S 2B with rolls of 6(A), 1(A), 1(A), 1(P), 8(D), 5(D), 7(D), 1(S), 3(B), 1(B).  astrogation check.

  The threats are that the sensor alerts show that 3 ARC-170 fighters launched from a nearby hangar and are moving into firing range.

This message was last edited by the GM at 19:11, Tue 09 Oct 2018.

Den looks to the others when hearing K1's warning of incoming ships. "It doesn't look like they're going to let us get away. Think we can convince them that there are no jedi onboard?"

  K1 stared at the navicomputer, "This computer is inferior!" the droid exclaimed in a miffed tone. She then started pressing buttons on the computer again. "I'm not sure what object it was, that wasn't there a minute ago. I shall plot a new destination, a shorter destination this time."

  As K1 was making the calculations, the ship computer called out. "Warning! Missile lock. Missile lock. Missile lock."

  The droid's blackened metal digits started flying faster across the keypad, as she uttered, "Oh, my."

  She finished her calculations and responded quickly. "Course plotted. Come to heading two, two, six mark five zero, and engage the hyperdrive!"

---

OOC: 4 advantages can be used, I'll let someone suggest something for the group to use. K1 plotted a course to the nearby system of Ganthel.

11:03, Today: ChosenOne, on behalf of K1T1, rolled 1 success, 4 advantages using the Star Wars Edge of the Empire with a dice pool of P P A A D D S with rolls of 8(P), 11(P), 8(A), 4(A), 3(D), 4(D), 2(S).  new astrogation check.

[Private to Raana De'Fenn: You can make it to the correct vector without a roll, though as you are avoiding turbolaser blasts they get into firing range and fire concussion missiles just as you pull the lever. Everyone hopes the coordinates are correct or 3 missles will be hitting them. Just for dramatic effect, well actually that would have been the case for real. Not real, real, but game real. lol.]

The cockpit is a chaos of blinking lights and blaring klaxons as a trio of missiles scream towards the freighter and Raana jerks the ship to the right and then down to avoid turbo laser fire. “Oh, no,” she mutters as she sees not one but two cruisers up ahead, clearly the presence of the ships had prevented the first attempt to jump to hyperspace.

“If you’re going to do this, I suggest you do it now,” she shouts at K1. “I don’t care if this computer is from the first Galactic war, just get us out of here!”

“Impact in ten seconds,” she shouts over the intercom. “Brace for impact everyone!”

And then she hears K1 say the magic words. She changes the heading to the direction indicated with the droid. The display in front of her is counting down the seconds until the missiles impact. It reads '1.9 SECONDS' when Raana pushes the levers to jump to hyperspace. The sudden acceleration pushes everybody into their seats for a moment before the gravity system can compensate. The display has stopped at 0.47 seconds.

Breathing easier for the moment, Raana gets out of the pilot’s chair after checking that all systems appear normal. “That was a little too close,” she says. “Great work, K1. We wouldn’t have made it without you.”

She leans against the bulkhead for a moment. This day is not going the way she thought it would, to put it mildly. She leans over the pilot’s dashboard and activates the internal communications. “We are safely in hyperspace. We should all assemble in the common area.”

The young Togruta walks with the others to the small galley and rec-area. They have a lot to talk about.

Den nods to Raana and follows her into the common room so they can talk. He finds somewhere to sit, glad to have his weight off of his shaky legs. The amount of stress and adrenaline that still is working its way through him makes it difficult for him to calm himself. He attempts to focus himself on what he's learned through training on centering oneself, but real life situations versus in a classroom are two different animals altogether.

  The modified protocol droid's ocular sensor seemed to brighten at the praise. "Why, thank you, Jedi De'Fenn. Despite the pressure, I was able to complete the calculations precisely for the alternate route, and not a fraction of a second too soon it would appear."

  The dark shaded droid shifted her gaze looking out of the viewport to the swirling blue vortex of hyperspace travel. "Our current hyperspace jump is very short. We will arrive at the edge of the Ganthel system in approximately 28.26 minutes. I will have more time to program several jumps to get us to the Karun IV system in the Churnis Sector of the Mid-Rim region. After our first jump to Uviuy Exen, we will link up to a couple known hyperspace lanes until we reach our destination."

  K1T1 followed Raana and Den to the common area, just outside of the crew quarters on the cargo level of the G9 Rigger class ship.
This message was last updated by the GM at 19:57, Tue 23 Oct 2018.

Keilbrun nodded at the Togruta's assertion. There was, indeed, a lot to discuss and, in many ways, he had never felt more out of his element. He had been in combat before, but never with what felt like so much on the line and now he was an enemy to the Republic he had sworn to protect.

He unclicked the harness he had strapped himself into, glad that they had been able to get away, considering how close a thing it had been. But he also understood that they had lost less than one of their comrades and potentially had lost two others. His own position with them was uncertain and rightly so. He was an unknown quantity to them.

He gathered with the rest of them in the common area, taking a seat to the side. Seen, but able to be ignored or questioned as they saw fit.

  Tarrin came down the ladder from the cockpit and joined the others, he sat silently off to the side, on a pull down bench seat near the main round dining table. He turned his covered face toward Raana, but didn't say anything.

  There is a round table there with a half round cushioned bench, and a couple of places where you can pull down a plastoid bench that seats two or three people along the bulkhead. A small galley is between several of the pull down benches.

---

OOC: Okay, let's go ahead and start the conversations so we can move along. To speed things up, just post the questions, without writing up a full post, in OOC. That way others can see it fast and think on their responses while you draft a final post in the story thread. The same with the responses to the responses. Trying to find away to make conversations to not drag on for weeks of real time.

 We also have the option of doing Google Hangouts to discuss, but everyone would have to be on around the same time. Since Tarrin is busy dealing with some personal issues, that probably won't work for Hangouts.

The young Miraluka had been thinking about the events of the last mission.  Knight Relliri.  Charlie.  So many friends and mentors come and gone.  It was unlikely that they would see Master Rancisis again despite what the Jedi Master had said to them.  They were words of comfort, he knew.  Ways to allow the Padawans to move on with their lives and survive.  He knew because Knight Relliri had said the same kind of thing to them when she had shut off the elevator in order to hold off the Separatists.  Was this what their lives were to be from now on?  Running, hiding to survive another day?

There was much to contemplate.  They needed something to fight against this great Darkness he could feel beginning to take over the galaxy.  But, what options did they really have?  As much as he did not want to admit the wisdom in Master Rancisis's words to him, he knew that fighting Darkness with more Darkness would likely not help their situation.  After all, they were up against something that knew how to wield Darkness better than he did.  Not only that.  If he chose to pull on it, have it answer his call, he knew deep down that he would not come out unstained himself.

And that thought scared him more than he was willing to admit.

Sitting at the table, he simply watched and waited.  Now that their adrenaline from trying to survive was starting to fade, Tarrin could feel the oppression at their situation starting to sink in.  They were alone in the galaxy now.  All they had left was each other.  What would determine how successful they were would depend on how well they could band together in this new, trying time.

Preferring to observe, he watched and waited to see how the others were dealing with the reality of their situation.

This message was deleted by the player at 00:37, Sat 27 Oct 2018.

“What, in the name of the Force, just happened back there?” Raana says, still coming down from the rush of having another near-death experience as they jumped to hyperspace. “Why would the clones attack us? Claiming the Jedi were traitors? It makes no sense,” she mutters.

“We only have twenty minutes or so until we come out of hyperspace. We need to get to the coordinates Master Rancisis mentioned,” she says, thinking. “But we also need to know if this is something that was happening on board the station or if this is more widespread. I think we need to contact the temple. The Council will know what to do.”

Keilbrun motioned from where he sat, the expression on his face was...uncomfortable. It was never an envied position to be the bearer of bad news. "That was Order 66. Something straight from Coruscant. The clones? Well, they are more apt to follow orders than any of us. It's like it's instilled in them...part of their makeup," he started. "We all take, or took, our oaths seriously, but they take it to a new level."

He paused to let that sink in, but knew that it was worse than even that and he would have to give them everything he knew. With a heavy sigh, he started again. "Apparently this has been in motion long enough for the clones to stage on Coruscant. One of my superiors had a friend that sat relatively high in the Senate Guard. It was fairly clear that the target was the Jedi Temple," he paused again, chewing his lip a moment.

With a shake of his head he continued. "There really isn't anything else there to attack. Interstingly, it was entirely clones. No human or near-human assets. I can only imagine the body count on both sides. The Jedi are formiddable, but the clones are many and driven."

He leaned forward in his seat and took in each one of them. "I can only imagine that the only Jedi with a real chance of not being killed or captured are nowhere near the core. The further the better. This is as widespread as it gets. I'm guessing you're little group is an anomoly, but even you've taken significant losses and your...our future is uncertain, at best."

"For what it's worth, I'm committing myself to you for at least until you are safe. Whatever that looks like. I'm Sergeant Keilbrun Osh. That rank means nothing now, along with my Oath to the Republic, apparently" he went on, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "You can call me Kyle if you wish. I'm a trained commando and was a junior member of the Senate Guard. I and most of the old guard had been pushed out of Coruscant over the last year or two," he said with clear disillusionment and a resigned expression.

"I don't even know what the Republic has even become in this moment. Palpatine has surely lost his mind..."

Den slumps in his seat, hearing Kyle's explanation on the situation. "The Jedi wiped out by clones? That can't be possible. I mean...there are--were--so many of us. There are bound to be some that aren't on Coruscant or aren't near other clones. We should try and find others who don't know yet."

So many Jedi dead already.  And Order 66 had probably claimed more?  What the soldier in their midst was saying had even more staggering implications than the Miraluka expected.  If what had happened to them just now happened on a larger scale considering the clone forces on Coruscant, it was more than likely that even if the Jedi Council had not fallen they were likely crippled.

"Given the amount of clone forces on Coruscant, this Order 66 may have dealt a serious blow to the Jedi Council," Tarrin stated after a few moments to weighing everyone's words.  "As we are right now only a few padawan without a Knight or Master with us, I doubt our efforts will be able to coordinate well with the Council at this point.  Trying to travel to Coruscant may end up courting a certain death.  Our best choice may well be to follow Master Rancisis's words and head to the coordinates he mentioned.  There will be time to send word to the Jedi Council.  However, we should take care in how we send the message.  If the blow has been as grievous of one as I surmise, there is a chance that it may be traced back to us.  And the galaxy does not currently seem like a very safe place to be a Jedi at the moment."

Raana thinks about this for a moment. “I can’t belief the temple has fallen. The masters there will have seen this coming. Master Yoda doesn’t miss something like that. And I don’t care how many clones they have on Coruscant, they couldn’t take on all the Jedi in the temple at any given time,” she says with confidence. “Could they?” she adds, her confidence wavering a little bit.

She looks at her chrono and gets up. “Time to start calculating another jump. I’ll set a course for the coordinates Master Rancisis gave us. Once we are there, we can decide how to play this. We just don’t have enough information to work with here,” she says as she moves to the cockpit to begin her calculations. “K1, would you mind giving me a hand with the calculations?”

  K1 listened to the information given by the guardsman who aided in their escape with a touch of distress to her logic algorithms. "Oh, my. That would mean we are all galactic fugitives."
 
  "Why, of course, Master Raana. The next jump should minimize our chances for discovery for direct pursuit. I do have some concern about the level of fuel this ship has though. There wasn't enough time for Captain Rhezzick to negotiate his refueling stipend from the Republic. We can make this jump and possibly the next. But you should decide on refueling options soon."

"Does wherever we're going have a fuel depot? Would it be best to refuel there before continuing onto whatever we decide to do?" He pauses a moment, a sense of dread coming over him. He soon realizes that it may not have anything to do with their current situation, but a certain item in their possession. "What are we going to do with the artifact? I fear it's influence may try and turn any of us to the dark side."

Keilbrun remained quiet as the Jedi seemed to process the magnitude or even the veracity of his words. It had to shake them to their core, even as he was still coming to grips with his own part in this.

He was unsure of just how much they wanted his help, at this point, the unknown quantity that he was to them. The fact that they had not left him behind was encouraging, as was the fact that they seemed to listened to him. He imagined that if they felt as alone as he did, they would be hoping for every bit of help they could get.

"While I recommend starting with whatever your Master gave you, that should only be a temporary stop. You should keep moving and, ideally, keep any attempts to contact others of your Order to a minimum for some time," he offered. "The Outer Rim is probably your best bet. Places the Republic has less sway. Hutt Space, perhaps..."

Raana nods when K1 and Den bring up the fuel levels. “We are headed to Uviuy Exen. We’ll be able to refuel there, I should think. It’s situated on the Hydian Way so I’m sure there will be multiple starports to select. We should perhaps go for something small and out of the way and try to keep a low profile until we can find out more about what’s going on. And we need to stay clear of any clones,” she says, a tone of sadness in her voice.

The Togruta frowns when Kyle mentions keeping contact to the Order at a minimum. She is a bit concerned about the newcomer. She knows the others and trust them with her life, but Kyle’s agenda and allegiance are still unknown. Raana has learned not to take people at their words when it comes to such things.

“We’ll need to contact the Order as soon as we can, but I agree that we need to keep the line of communication open for a very short time so that the transmission won’t be intercepted. This bucket of bolts isn’t the fastest or the most maneuverable. I’d rather not get in a fight and it’s too slow to run from a good gunship or fighters without a substantial lead,” she says, watching Kyle intently as she speaks. If he tries to stop them from contacting the Order at their destination she’ll know she can’t trust the human.

She returns to the cockpit with K1 in tow and together they start working on the coordinates for the next jump as soon as the ship leaves hyperspace.

“Mistress Raana, the charts of this system indicate that there is a moon in close proximity to Uviuy Exen. My I suggest we jump in close to the moon, letting it shield us from detection from any ships or satellites in orbit?” the droid asks. “It seems like a prudent precaution, given our circumstances.”

Raana nods. “That’s a good idea, K1. We don’t want to jump into the middle of a patrol, especially if we only have enough fuel for one more jump,” she says as they work on the calculations. Since they have the time they check and double check the coordinates before the pilot pulls the lever and the ship jumps again into hyperspace.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:10, Sat 17 Nov 2018.

Den nods quietly, thinking about their situation. He stands and removes his Jedi robes, folding them up in his hands. "I suggest we retire our robes. It seems the only way we can hide out is to not look like Jedi." He sits back down, looking down at the robes sadly. Den was only just getting a true grasp of being a padawan and on his own personal connection to the Force.

Keilbrun kept his face neutral, his lips tight. Cocked his head slightly before nodding at the female Togruta's desire to try and contact the Order. As long as they stayed mobile, the occasional contact might be worth it, despite the danger.

He glanced at the young man as he spoke. "Probably not a bad decision. And find ways to carry your lightsabers out of plain sight," he offered.

"May I ask your names?," he asked. It appeared that he would be traveling with them for the foreseeable, he hoped introductions were in order.

"Raana, correct?," he said, looking at the Raana. "Your droid, K1?, gave it away," he went on, a slight inflection, ensuring he caught the droids moniker.

He then turned to the two young men, expectantly.

"I'm Den." The padawan responds with a small nod. "What was your name again? Not sure if you said, and if you did--well, it's been crazy these last few hours, I'm sure you'd agree."

"How rude of us," Raana says, blushing. "Yes, I'm Raana. Raana De'Fenn," she says before heading to the cockpit.

Keilbrun nodded at Den, giving him a tight-lipped smile. "Keilbrun Osh...Kyle is fine," he replied to the young man.

The pretty young Togruta woman's response caused him to shake his head in dismissal. "No offense taken, ma'am. It's been a trying day," he offered, his tired, resigned smile painting a good picture of his emotions.

"Tarrin Feruwi," the Miraluka replied after a few moments of silence.  "Apologies for the lack of introduction.  During a firefight seemed like an inappropriate place to do so."