Seeing Through Teeda's Eyes

[Dasquian Belargic]

It was a spur of the moment decision, but after an archery lesson with Chance, Dasquian was eager to craft a new bow. Of all the wood he could think of to use ‘greel’ seemed the most appropriate. It was a rare substance, and however much he tried he could not locate it anywhere on Coruscant. Thus the only way to find a sample would be to head right to the source, the planets Pi III and Pi IV in the Arkanis Sector. For the trip he hadn’t prepared much aside from essential things – a few ration pacts, arms, and a little light reading material for the long trip. He wasn’t to go alone, however, as he had asked two of his apprentices – Kack Mebuffy and Lion El’Jonson – as well as another named Sarr Koon to come along with them. The trip would be both interesting and beneficial to their studies, as Dasquian had heard rumours of there being an old Jedi Master living on the planet.

Never the less, the four now sat aboard their transport. Each strapped into a seat, Dasquian turned around to check everyone was in place. He offered each a smile, and thanked them in turn for coming along. Having cleared take off, they set off to their destination, and were permitted to then roam around the ship wherever they pleased until they reached their goal, in two days time.

At this time, Dasquian stood up, stretched out, and yawned, smiled to himself as he scanned his eyes around the room.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion was dueling with a remote with his saber...not a real remote, of course, since he'd have killed one maybe 10 times by now, but it ws enough.

The projected droid threw out another stun bolt, but Lion sensed it in time and deflected it with his saber, sending it flying off into the wall paneling.

He spotted his master and shut his saber down, bowing.

"Anything about to fall apart in this bucket, Master?" Lion asked, pointing towards the ship. It was a nice craft, but he never had anything to do...maybe he's "play" with the engines a bit...

[SashaKovalev]

Zatania had not been his apprentice for long, but he knew she was eager to begin her training – to remember all that she had once known, and so he was doing his best to accommodate her. To some degree, it altered his normal life and the things he would normally have been doing. But it was a good distraction, and so he pursued it with one hundred percent of his energy.

He liked to travel. And he was determined, in his lifetime, to visit every planet, every moon that he possibly could. Not to mention, he hated training within the confines of the castle grounds, for it felt stifling to him, and he much preferred real life situations to anything that simulated combat could provide. It was where he’d learned most of his lessons, and he valued and had never forgotten any of them. In fact, he’d been lucky to escape with his life on more than one occasion. But these lessons had found him promoted to knighthood, and as a knight of the Sith Order, he did as was expected. He took on apprentices.

His first apprentice, Xam, had not lasted long. Lost his life to a rather nasty fall from a cliff during a rather simple lesson – using the force to be aware of your surroundings. Pity the young apprentice hadnt paid better attention to the lesson…

His second apprentice, Odin, was doing well, and nearing knighthood, really. It was more of a mentoring process for him, as Lady Vader had done with Sasha.

His third apprentice, Luis, was coming along, but was not capable, Sasha thought, of handling this kind of experience just yet. And though Sasha pushed his apprentices hard, and wanted to challenge Luis, he wasn’t ready to lose another one just yet.

And so he brought Zatania with him. She was wise beyond the years of her body, and he hoped that in their travels, something might help to trigger her memory of her skills long forgotten. Or at the very least, she would begin to learn them over again.

As the ship traveled through space, destined for Pii III, he turned to her.

“You’re quiet…” He commented

[Zatania Duvall]

Zatania sat in thought in a seat near Sasha, her mouth shut as well as her eyes. If anyone looked at her they'd think that she was sleeping, but thats how things were when you were a deep thinker.
This was usually how she'd act before any mission in the past, so she could clear her head of anything that might distract her.

“You’re quiet…” Sasha said, breaking the silence between them.

"Hm?" Zatania opened one eye and looked towards Sasha.

All that thinking had her in her own little world, but Sasha brought her back out of it easily just by saying something.

"Just thinking."

She opened her other eye and shrugged. "Trying to pry a few memories open. Still not working as well as I'd like it to."

Her arms stretched in front of her for a moment, then above her before she rested her palms onto her knees.

[SashaKovalev]

Slowly, he nodded. He understood what it was like. Every day since he’d learned who his father was he had struggled to recall one – just one memory of him. And despite how hard he tried, that which he desired so badly eluded him. And this angered him.

He rose from his seat, pacing slightly, trying to find a way to control his anger. He was the master in this situation, and he had to exercise some form of control.

His hands opened and closed, slowly, making fists, and then releasing them, feeling the darkness flowing through him, and trying to release it bit by bit through his fingertips.

And with his back turned to her, facing out towards the stars as they passed them by, he spoke once again.

“Maybe theres a point where you give up trying…” He commented, his tone edged with bitterness.

“And just begin to be who you are now.”

[Zatania Duvall]

Zatania wondered if maybe she said something wrong, since Sasha had grown silent and began to pace. She watched her for a moment, wondering what he was thinking until he finally said something.,

“Maybe theres a point where you give up trying…” He said, in a tone she wasn't too familiar with him using. “And just begin to be who you are now.”

She shook her head. It held a bit of truth in it, and yet it also didn't. Not in her case at least. "If I had done that from the beginning, then I'd still be the same boring and lost person I was when we first met. I'd much rather be halfway lost instead of entirely lost."

She took a deep breath, leaning her head back against her seat. "Or maybe I wouldn't be the same, and Ceres would be the one in this body instead."

Her head turned just slightly to look at Sasha. "I'm not one to give up. But if worse comes to worse and I have to give up, then fine. Maybe fate is telling me that there's a penalty for tempting it."

[SashaKovalev]

If I had done that from the beginning, then I'd still be the same boring and lost person I was when we first met. I'd much rather be halfway lost instead of entirely lost Or maybe I wouldn't be the same, and Ceres would be the one in this body instead. I'm not one to give up. But if worse comes to worse and I have to give up, then fine. Maybe fate is telling me that there's a penalty for tempting it.

He could feel her as she turned only slightly to look at him. Slowly, he shook his head.

“I wasn’t talking about then, I was talking about now.” He replied, his voice oddly quiet as he turned to face her. He sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead.

He needed to get control of his emotions. Too much of what he was saying was coming from his own situations, his own confusion with his life. He was one to talk of giving up – he had been harboring anger for his entire life wondering who he really was, who his father was. If anything, he should have taken his own advice and moved on, and perhaps this was what he wanted to do, struggled to do, and his frustration over this was exhibiting itself in the bitterness of his tone. Her struggle was a constant reminder to him of his own, and he needed to put this aside.

And so he did, along with the entire issue at hand as he changed the subject.

“We’ll be landing shortly.” He stated, his voice less strained as he found composure. Yes, this trip would do him good. The activities he had in mind would help Zatania to relearn what she had forgotten, and they would give him a chance to release some of the anger he felt within.

“If you need to prepare anything, you might want to do it now.” He added, now sounding more like the Sith knight that Zatania knew – serious, but courteous.

[Zatania Duvall]

“We’ll be landing shortly.” He said.

With the change of subject, Zatania immediatly complied to it and ignored what had just happened without thinking much of it. She didn't like to pry into situations like that with others... It felt too much like therapy.

"Alright."

“If you need to prepare anything, you might want to do it now.” He added.

She smiled and nodded. "Bathroom, right. No thanks."

For some odd reason, she hoped that lightened his mood a bit so he wasn't so pesimistic about not giving up. But like she had done before, she let it be without adding anything else. She simply stood up and stretched out her limbs so she'd be ready for the landing.

[Kack Mebuff]

After liftoff Kack sat in a quiet dark corner meditating. He could sense Master Dasquian's eagerness to reach this planet. He also could feel Lion practicing his saber techniques.

Kack reached deep into the Force, feeling it flow throughout his entire body. He suddenly was aware of every movement around him, even the presence of the ship and stars were more than clear to Kack.

As Kack meditated he suddenly was jarred back to the ship. He had seen the face of a masked man, he appeared to be a Mandalorian. His armor resembled that of the infamous Jango Fett, but Kack could sense a familiar aura. Core? No, it couldn't be, Kack's brother was gone, killed by that thermal detonator.

Kack jumped to his feet. And ran to Master Dasquian.

"Master, I have a question to ask you."

The wise Jedi just nodded.

"Is it possible to feel the Life Force of those who have passed on?"

[Sarr Koon]

The Kel Dor relaxed in his chair during the ride to wherever it was they were going. He couldn't remember the name. Dasquian had invited Sarr to go along with him, as well as two of his own Padawans. He didn't know anything about where they were visiting. In the message he had gotten, Dasquian had said something about a bow and needing the right equipment. Thinking it would a good experience, Sarr had excepted the offer gratiously.

[Kack Mebuff]

"Master, I am most perplexed by this new information. I have felt the Life Force of my brother who died seven months ago. Is this possible??"

Kack's face expressed almost a pleading tone to Dasquian.

"Please, I must know, is he still alive?"

[Lion El' Jonson]

(ooc: Hey, Kack...Jen had to move, so she's gone for a while longer...:lol)

IC:

Lion sighed and returned to dueling with the remote. It whizzed around and accelerated towards him, and Lion didn't sense it in time. The remote let off a stun blast, which impacted on Lion's side.

He involuntarily exhaled a sharp breath as a tingly feeling manifested itself inside his body. He flicked off his saber and limped over to a spare seat, checking his side. He couldn't really feel it, but he had been hit by stun-blasts before. He just hoped he wasn't numb when they arrived in the Pii system.

Lion had heard from his friend Rinoa about the Pii system. There were two planets there were an incredibly rare and expensive wood were produced. It was called Greel wood, and was regarded as a symbol of wealth. Rinoa, whose family was practically drowning in money, naturally knew about the wood.

Lion was eager to get down to the surface. He had looked up Greel harvesting methods on the encyclopedia database onboard the ship, and had heard that Industrial Automation had built a special droid just for harvesting Greel wood. It would be an interesting droid to see, he thought.

"I think I'll catch a bit of rest..." Lion thought, as he pulled his cloak off and folded it to make a pillow. He lay his head down on it and closed his eyes to get a bit of sleep before they reached their destination.

[Kack Mebuff]

OOC: Well don't I feel like an <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont> ... thanks Lion

IC: As Kack stood waiting a response, he realized Dasquian was in deep meditation. Kack blushed and sheepishly walked back to his seat next to Lion who was now sleeping.

Kack himself decided it might be a good time to catch up on some sleep as well. He wrapped his robe around himself and put up his hood to keep warm. Kack slowly dozed into a deep sleep.

In his dreams images flashed before his eyes. A Mandalorian, a Dug, the Jedi Bar. Suddenly in a flash Kack saw the Dug burst into flames.

Kack sat straight up sweat pouring down his face. "What the hell was that?" he thought to himself. Kack shook his head and went back to sleep.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The feverish dreaming of Kack and anxious musings of Lion passed into calm sleep with a little mental aid from their master, while Sarr seemed at peace of his own accord. In due time there questionings would be answered, but he preferred for them to get some rest so that when they arrived at their destination they would be full of verve and vitality. The trip passed over in what seemed like now time, and within what seemed to the group like a mere day or so they were being hailed down onto the planets surface.

Dasquian had ordered modest loggings to be prepared just on the outside of the timber works, so that they would be able to survey the way in which it was made as well as buying samples. The whole area, much to his surprise, looked familiar. The high, gleaming green trees and the vast expanses of forest floor all reminded him of some vista he’d once been to … perhaps in a dream.

“Well I suppose we should set our things down in their rooms then go to the tavern to get some lunch?” he said, voice rising to question the group of Padawans.

A worker from the sawing mills had agreed to show them the way back to their cabins, and presently arrived, hearing the last of Dasquians words.

“The tavern’s currently shut down, m’afraid, Master Jedi. Everywhere is.”

The Jedi Knight lofted a brow and questioned why, to which the man replied:

“The people say there’s a beast on the loose, and won’t come out of their cabins… even the mayor’s locked up in his room away from it,” he said, allowing uncomfortable silence to hang in the air before continuing.

“It’s been killing things… and… eating them.”

[Lion El' Jonson]

The trip seemed to take no time at all, and when Lion awoke, they were being hailed onto the surface. Before Lion even felt the light "bump" of their ship touching down, he was already on his feet. He headed towards his locker near the back of the ship and placed his hand on the glowing green pad near the lock.

"Identity Confirmed" the computer spoke, and a second later, the locker popped open. Lion grabbed a duffel bag that he had brought which carried some clothes...and a longrifle. Pii seemed like a safe place, but he wasn't willing to bet his life on it...He threw the bag over his shoulder, taking comfort in its weight.

With that, he closed the locker and returned to his seat to pick up his cloak and his lightsaber. He hooked the saber hilt to his belt and threw on his cloak, leaving the hood down. Then, he turned and walked out of the ship where the others were waiting.

Lion was a bit hungry, so he perked up a bit when he heard his master mention "lunch".

Then, a worker arrived, and broke the bad news.

Inwardly, Lion was thinking: "No lunch? Argh......

Instead of saying that, however, he stepped next to his master so that he could hear the reasoning behind the closed tavern.

"A beast, eh? This could be fun...or deadly..." Lion said out loud.

[Sarr Koon]

The Kel Dor had been up a while before the craft settled down on the planet and was already prepared. Grabbing the bag which contained what little he brought and his lightsabers he hung off his belt. He didn' think it likely they would be needed, but it never hurt to be prepared for whatever should happen.

Making his way down the ramp of the ship he stopped around everyone that was already assembled. At the mention of food he realized that he was hungry, but with his anti-ox mask he couldn't eat anything at the moment. When the worker mentioned a beast, it immediatly caught the attention of the Kel Dor. What could it be? Perhaps Dasquian, Kack, Lion, and himself could help these people.

[Kack Mebuff]

Kack slept, his visions passed, but still they bothered him. He was haunted by the face of the Mandalorian warrior. When he woke he was refreshed and ready for whatever Master Dasquian had planned.

Kack walked over to the cockpit to see that they were landing on Pi II. Everyone was now awake and rearing to go, Kack had already grabbed his tattered duffle bag.

His ears pearked up at the mention of food, but quickly that idea was gone with the mention of the beast. Perhaps the Jedi could find a way to dispose of the beast without having to kill the creature. Kack never was one for the killing of animals or other beasts.

Kack approached Dasquian. "Master, what do you suppose the creature is?"

[Dasquian Belargic]

“I would imagine it it’s been killing and eating people it would be far from fun,” Dasquian replied to Lion, watching as the man who they’d spoken to seemed to go a little paler.

“I have no idea what it is, Kack. Perhaps during our time here we can find out… in the mean time, I think it might be wise for us to have a look around. We can patrol a good deal of the area before night fall, then rest up and eat back on the ship.”

At this point Dasquian was thankful that some provisions had been packed for the trip, and that the group hadn’t eaten them all on the trip here.

“Er, patrol?” the little man spoke up finally, voice trembling, “… Y-you do that, but you won’t get any help from us, rioght? We don’t want anymore trouble.”

The Jedi gave an understanding nod and looked away across into the thick forest. All of the trees were scores of feet high, some looking as though they pierced the clouds. For a moment, he mulled over his thoughts, allowing the worker man to slip away in the silence.

“I think we should split up. Kack and I will head east, Lion and Sarr west. Maintain force contact at all times, and we’ll meet up at the southern side of the forest, on the other end, in two hours time. OK?”

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded, then smiled.

"Well, master...a challenge is always welcome. How do you improve unless you're faced against something better than you?"

He nodded to Sarr, then bowed to his master, and then consulted his small GPS device. He double checked their direction, and then started off to the west, his stomach giving a slight rumble in protest.

"No lunch..." he thought to himself. He called over his back: "Master, do you have a comlink?"

[Kack Mebuff]

Kack nodded. He grabbed his lightsaber and his blaster which he put in the holster at his waist. The padawan wrapped his cloak around him and pulled the hood over his head.

Kack looked to Dasquian.

"I am prepared to leave, Master."

[Dasquian Belargic]

Had Lion not mentioned communications links, Dasquian would have forgotten them entirely. He fished into his robes and tossed one to each of the Padawans, before testing his own.

“Alright, we’ll be seeing you both in two hours then.”

And with this said Dasquian and Kack set off. As they began their walk it was clear they were the only people in the forest, and that all of the workers were inside hiding from this ‘beast’ that was supposedly destroying things. Dasquian had his doubts about the validity of this theory. In his research into the planets he had never once come across anything about previous attacks, though had heard of a ‘dangerous’ shift named the Crimson Duty. Why it was dangerous the file neglected to mention, but he didn’t think it was because of some bloodthirsty killer.

It would have been easy to get lost in the forest, what with every tree looking the same. Every tree, that is, aside from one they were approaching. It was the same size, colour and width as the others, but appeared to be covered in large gashes.

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion caught the comlink, nodded, and then began trudging off, making sure that Sarr was following him.

"Two hours, master." he called back, then began a light jog into the forest, They walked along for some time. The thick, heavy bark of the Greel trees looks extremely tough. In some places, the wood had been cut into, and Lion could glimpse the expensive red wood on the inside and smell its rich, damp smells.

He'd been walking along for a while with Sarr when he noticed something vaguely metallic out the corner of his eye. Walking over to investigate, he was overjoyed when he discovered a IA lumberjack logging droid. He hurried over, the mission momentarily forgotten as he studied the machine. For some reason, it was immobile. The two Vibro-chainsaws were dead silent, though they glinted in the patchy sunlight filtering through the forest's canopy.

When Lion moved around to the back of the squat, boxy droid, however, he discovered why the expensive robot was being so quiet.

A great gash had been swiped along the machine's back, severing key command cables. Greasy stains showed where the droid's lubricant had leaked onto its gleaming white body. Grimacing, he leaned down and opened the droids control panel.

It was surprisingly intact. Lion rustled around in his backpack and retrieved a datapad, then extended a cable from the datapad into the droid's interface slot. The information Lion was looking for was retrieved from the droid's still fuctioning computer core.

He looked at his datapad in interest, keying up the files he had downloaded. He grabbed the comlink from his belt and held down the "transmit" button.

"Master Dasquian, this is Lion and Sarr. We found one of IA's loggerbots. It's back is slashed open, and cables are severed, so it's incapable of movement. However, it's internal systems work just fine."

Lion paused and took a deep breath, then continued.

"I accesed it's communications log and found out something interesting. All of the loggerbots in a 10 kilometer radius aren't moving. Anything outside that area is working fine. I think we're getting close to our problem."

With that, Lion turned the comlink's volume up to hear his master's response.

[Kack Mebuff]

Kack walked carefully around the forest with Master Dasquian. The leaves crunched underneath their boots. For the first ten minutes they walked in silence. Then Kack looked over to his Master.

"Master Dasquian, after we have taken care of this creature, do you think it would be possible to teach me some of your bow skill? I have heard that you are one of the most proficient bow masters the Jedi have ever seen."

The padawan stopped for a moment. "I would be most honored if you could aid me."

Suddenly, Lion's voice came in over the commlink.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Dasquian had just been going to respond to Kacks question when Lion’s voice screeched out of the comm. Link. Lifting the mouth piece to a good range, the Knight replied:

“10 Kilometers? Is there anyway to tell how long there was between each of the droids being disabled?”

“No, Master. All I can tell is that whatever did this was very efficient. Each of the bots has exactly the same malfunctions, and I doubt these could have been produced by chance.”

The Jedi cast a glance towards Kack, raising one eyebrow.

“If we knew what the time intervals was between each of the shut downs then we’d be able to assess better what had done this.”

“It’s usual that with this type of equipment there is a mainframe driving all of the drone units. If we could get permission from the logging company to see the main computer, I think I could work out how long this thing took to cover the 10 kilometers.”

Dasquian smiled to himself, “Excellent suggestion, Lion. After our patrol is up we’ll investigate back at the base. Be on your guard, and may the Force be with you.”

The link closed and Dasquian pushed the small device into his pocket, satisfied with the progress that they had made.

“… Anyway, as I was about to say Kack,” said Dasquian after a moments silence, beginning to walk once more, climbing a small hill,

“I’d be glad to help you with your studies into archery. Perhaps some of the wood I intend to purchase here could be used to make a bow for you.”

[Lion El' Jonson]

Lion nodded grimly.

"Yes, master. Force be with you."

He flicked the comlink to transmit, then back to monitor. Sighing, he turned to Sarr and said:

"Let's go, dude...times almost up, and we've got to get back to camp before it starts getting dark. The really nasty things don't usually show up until it gets dark outside..."

Suddenly, it had become very important that they got back to base quickly. Already it was getting hard to see, the sunlight barely filtering down through the trees. Lion and Sarr took off at a light jog, Lion absentmindedly munching on a two year-old ration bar.

"Ech...stroodleberry...." he said to nobody in particular. Lion figured it was another hour or so before they got back to base, but Lion made sure that he tagged the location of the loggerbot in his GPS map, in case they needed to come back to take another look.

[Kack Mebuff]

Kack smiled. "Thank you very much, Master."

The padawan felt honored to be allowed to learn from such a skilled bowsman. Kack looked at his Master as they walked and noticed the Jedi's pointed ears, white hair, tall stature, and purple eyes. Suddenly, Kack wondered if his master was one of the Elves of legend. A species from a time long forgotten. Dasquian's features matched that of an Elf perfectly.

"Master, I have a question ... uh, I know this may sound stupid, but, um, are you an Elf?"

The padawan's face reddened. "I've noticed that you share the exact same features of such creatures and you are most proficient with a bow, as were most Elves. So perhaps you and your brother, Aaron, are of that species. They are a people of great age and beauty, a lost race, who left our world for the undying lands. But legend has it that a few remained behind."

[Dasquian Belargic]

Dasquian laughed, inwardly sighing.

“Elf? I don’t know about that Kack. It seems like a lot of people call me that, even Helenias is convinced I’m one of these Elves that come from her planet. I’ve always known my people as the Haeller – the tall ones… well not always, but recently, after visiting my home I’ve learnt this is what we were known as. I don’t know my birth mother and father, so perhaps they were members of this other race, the Elves, but until I find someone who knew them, I will never know.”

The Jedi cast a glance up at the sky. At a slow walking pace, they would just get back to base by the time they were meant to.

[Kack Mebuff]

"I see ... good luck finding such a person. Anyone who would've known them would be long dead. Except perhaps Jedi Master Marcus Elesar ... he is a member of the family that long ago had dealings with the Elves."

Kack smiled.

"So what do you know about your family, Master? If you don't mind my asking?"