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Post by Whill Shaman Nyx on Apr 9, 2013 1:59:17 GMT -8
*The history is currently unknown.*
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Bloodrage Pirates
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Post by Bloodrage Pirates on May 8, 2013 6:53:47 GMT -8
The peace above Roon was violently interrupted when the Star Shag exited hyperspace. Captain Salyer had bartered, begged and stolen to get his hands on the hyperspace trade route to this secretive world. He might have even killed someone along the way but the crew were unsure. The diminutive Captain had managed to come out on the winning side during Arkan's power struggle with his brother. At first he was loyal to Sorak but he distanced himself the battle of Sernpidal and eventually pledged fealty to Arkan. It was not long after the conflict had ended that the new head of the Bloodrage Pirates had sent Salyer out on his quest, to find a new base of operations. Arkan was not going to repeat the mistakes of his brother, he would set up small on an out of the way planet and try to avoid conflict with the locals. He would manipulate them if they become annoying.
The trip through hyperspace was tough on the ship, even with the charts the course was incredibly challenging and they had taken some damage. That was not even the worst of it. The ship had to avoid the ring of lethal asteroids that surrounded the planet. Even though the huge killer rocks were concentrated in a ring around the planet there were many rough asteroids that sped around the planet on unknown courses and at terrifying speed. However, the helmsman had got the ship this far, Salyer had faith in the four-armed Xexto to get them through this storm of rocks and down to the planet's surface.
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Bloodrage Pirates
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Yo ho, yo ho a pirate's life for me!
Posts: 758
Affiliation: Piracy
Traffic Light: Blue
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Post by Bloodrage Pirates on Oct 7, 2013 14:18:17 GMT -8
The Star Shag remained in orbit of the isolated world when the unexpected happened. Ten frigates, sizable ships for this region of space, exited hyperspace at the same time, in formation. The stolen ships had recently been "acquired" by the Bloodrage Pirates over Kuat in a daring raid before being diverted, through other systems, to Roon. Arkan was going to use the very isolated system, which he had unique knowledge of how to navigate to safely, as his base. Not a heavily fortified one but a hidden, disposable one which could be moved at a moments notice. Anything that couldn't be moved quickly was expendable, such as the fort on the surface. Was the base ever to be discovered the Commandant had placed a self-destruct in the base to burn the insides clean of any Pirate involvement.
The ships split into five pairs and began to disperse in orbit of the small planet. Their Captains were still organising their crew, appointing who they wanted, kill those they disliked. The fighter pilots flew their X-83's in practice formations and the D5 Mantis patrol craft tested their weapons on small asteroids. Soon the pairs of Frigates broke up and their were ten distinct shapes visible from the bridge of the Star Shag. Captain Salyer sighed, his ship would stay put at Roon for now but the other ships would get to test their mettle sooner than he thought they should.
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 22, 2014 12:52:43 GMT -8
A course from Honoghr to Roon looked fairly simple on a holographic map; however, it was not that straightforward a journey in reality. The first part, which would take several days in hyperspace, was not complicated, just monotonous. Near Ryloth the fun would begin. Essentially, the crew of the 3-Z light freighter would have to pass Roon, and then backtrack along the Death Wind Corridor. It had always been a tricky plant to find, and the Death Wind Corridor was a famous Twi'Lekkan smuggler route. In fact, it made up on side of the notorious Spice Triangle.
Alexis finished inputting the coordinates for the intermediate stages of space travel in the navicomp, then turned to Kaelan. She knew he didn't like being out of the pilot's seat. "Call me if anything happens, I'm going to check on Mike. You want a cup of stimcaf?" she inquired as she got up and stretched.
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Atton Kaelan
Crew of the Wayward Son
You're not allowed to name the star destroyer after your junk, Adi.
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Post by Atton Kaelan on Jan 22, 2014 14:08:21 GMT -8
Atton was no stranger to long trips through space, though that didn't mean he liked them. Still, it was much better being on a larger ship instead of a cramped fighter cockpit. One hadn't truly appreciated the space offered by even a small freighter until one had suffered a two day hyperspace journey in the cockpit of an A-wing. Some people thought Atton was crazy for owning that craft and at times like this, he would probably agree.
Alexis had done a good job of getting them this far, but the real test was coming up and this ship didn't handle like a starfighter. Sometimes pilots had trouble adjusting to flying larger craft, but he hadn't noticed that with her so far. Of course, he had been prone to taking long naps during this trip so he honestly couldn't tell, but they were all still in one piece though so that must have meant she wasn't having any trouble. Long trips always made him sleepy...
He nodded."Sure. Make it a large one...I get drowsy during long trips.
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 22, 2014 15:22:29 GMT -8
Alexis walked back to the semi-cramped passenger quarters, pausing in the common galley to set a brew of stimcaf to heating up. Few things were more demoralizing than ice-cold stimcaf when one was expecting a warm drink. She grabbed a couple protein bars and set off to find Mike.
She was grateful for a couple minutes to herself. The light freighter was a ship that anyone could pilot...so much slower than her StealthX, modified to the point it required the skill of a Jedi to fly it successfully. Anyway, it came with the territory.
Alexis stopped outside Mike's door and knocked firmly. "Mike?"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2014 15:41:26 GMT -8
Aside from meals and hygiene, our intrepid young archaeologist had courageously avoided breaking anything by staying in his room. It had been time well spent. The slight flutter in his lightsaber's harmonics had been nailed down, and with time enough to spare to review the research material that had led him to embark on this quest.He was therefore quite surprised when Alexis knocked on his door.
Mike jumped up, nearly dropping the ancient and literally priceless tome in his hands in the process.
"Uh, just a second."
More like three seconds, but the speed with which the tiny cabin was organized spoke of a man used to surprise visits. Once that was arranged, he keyed open the door.
"What can I do for you?"
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 23, 2014 12:38:06 GMT -8
Multiple ideas of what was happening in Mike's room flashed through Alexis' mind as she could feel the confusion roiling off his Force presence. A flicker of regret passed through her. She hadn't meant to cause such an upset. She held out one of the protein bars, "I thought you might be hungry. I've got some stimcaf heating out here in the galley, and we are currently in hyperspace. The next six days should be relatively calm," she instinctively rapped on the door-frame with her knuckles, "and then the real fun begins."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 21:27:59 GMT -8
Mike specifically didn't sigh. He didn't look like a kid whose puppy had been hit by a ground car. Six days...He had known the particulars of the trip when he started, but it was really sinking in now.
But then again, so was the fact that he hadn't eaten since yesterday, and it was almost tomorrow by his internal clock. He gratefully accepted the protein bar.
"Heh. Fun. Right."
He carefully did not mention that, at this point, he'd rather jerk off with cactus mittens and fistfuls of salted glass than spend another six days stuck in here. He also knew he didn't have a choice. Oh well. Actually, there might be a way to alleviate the boredom, and it didn't involve self mutilation.
"Thanks for the heads up. Oh, while I'm thinking of it, you brought up lightsaber crystals before we left. If you find yourself with a few free moments, I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have."
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 24, 2014 10:45:26 GMT -8
Alexis Karidian was not stupid. She could tell easily enough that Mike was disappointed, perhaps it was even more obvious because he was trying so hard to appear nonchalant about it. Frankly, she wasn't thrilled herself. This was no light, maneuverable x-wing, and the contrast was almost physically painful from her point of view. So, for her, the thrill and fun would both begin when they neared Ryloth and ran the Corridor. If they were lucky they would not run into pirates, but Alexis did not think much of her luck just lately. And the thought of pirates...it went near to filling her with a cold rage that she did not like.
She opened a bar for herself and was about to crunch down on it, when her eyes shot open wide and she nearly choked as she looked up at Mike with a gasp and then blushed furiously. "Well. REALLY! You could at least try to keep that to yourself!" She spun on her heel and made for the pot of stim-caf as she felt in need of something. Well, probably something a bit stronger than that, but it wouldn't do to be irresponsible at this juncture. She only hoped Kaelan didn't sense her embarrassment from the bridge.
Alexis poured two cups and handed one to Mike, carefully not quite looking at him but not giving the impression of ignoring him either.
"Erm, I can't really think of any at the moment...except I thought it would be interesting to see these underwater caves sometime." She nearly reminded him that if he was as bored as all that, or frightened by flight, he could always hibernate for a time.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2014 11:14:31 GMT -8
What in the hell? What was she-wait, he didn't say that out loud, did he? No, Mike had been careful not to say the bit about the mittens and glass.
"Er, I did keep it to myself. Would you like me to put in a tinfoil hat next time?"
The archaeologist sighed, opened his protein bar, and swirled it around in the caf. On their own, both were dreadful. Together, they were still dreadful, but it was a new sort of dreadful that Mike could tolerate. Once one had dissolved into the other (it wasn't clear which did what,) Mike tossed the foul concoction down in one long go.
"Ah. Well, if we make it out of this, I know a guy that does that sort of thing for a living, and he owes me a favor. He'd take you, so long as you don't mind helping him find the place."
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 25, 2014 11:36:22 GMT -8
"A---tin foil hat?" Alexis queried, unsure how or what that could possibly signify. She sipped at her own stimcaf, nearly scalding her tongue in the process as she considered Mike's offer. "Thank you. But I do not know yet where my path will lie after Roon. Sooner or later I will have to deal with unfinished business on Yavin IV." She supposed that this trip was an effort to run away, at least temporary. But one thing Alexis was not (as a general rule) was irresponsible. She'd face up to her duties, whether real or self-imposed. But sometimes it took a bit of time to work up the mental courage to be able to do so in a creditable fashion.
"It wasn't your fault I guess..." she obliquely referenced what had just happened in a semi-apologetic fashion, "my skill with the Force tends to run stronger in the less flashier applications, unlike Dav. He was a brilliant Battlemaster."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2014 0:27:38 GMT -8
Mike nodded. That explained a great deal, like why she had noticed him in the first place.
"I can sympathize. I can walk through a crowded room without anyone ever knowing I was there, but ask me to chuck a pebble across it..."
Interesting that she brought up her master. He could still feel the pain there, fresh and oozing into the Force like an open wound, but a willingness to bring him up, even in passing was a good sign.
Mike offered her the chair at the desk. They had a way to go yet without anything to do in the way of flying, and if Alexis could bring herself to talk about her fallen master, maybe she could start to heal a bit.
"I'm curious. I've heard a lot about Dav in passing, but that doesn't exactly paint a clear picture of the man. What was he like?"
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 26, 2014 15:12:44 GMT -8
"There's times where I've wished I could walk through a crowded room and be unnoticed," Alexis responded ruefully. She was much more comfortable in the shadowy sidelines at times. Crowds had never been pleasant for her. Most of the time they were tolerable now, given her Jedi training, but growing up, they had been an awful form of torture.
Alexis accepted his offer and sat down, crossing her right leg over her left and balancing her mug on her knee as she considered Mike's question. She realized he was trying to help, but deep down she wanted to slap him for it. And she was fully aware that to give in to that impulse was impossible. She forced a smile and attempted to put things together while ostensibly looking in her mug for inspiration. "Dav was wise, brave, kind---a Jedi, essentially, but he was also human. He tried to act like everything was alright, a facade, you know?" She looked up at Mike, "But his eyes were sad, I could always tell there was so much more than that." The ghost of a smile twitched at her lips, "He was often insufferable, but that was just part of being him. And though we argued, I wouldn't have changed it."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2014 16:04:02 GMT -8
"It's a handy skill to have. If you'd like, I can teach you a little of it. I can't fully control it, but part of learning to keep it in check was to break it down into its constituent elements. Some of them, it seems, can be done by just about anyone."
Since Alexis had the tiny room's only chair, Mike sat on the edge of the bed, careful to maintain a respectful distance. He felt her brief flash of anger, but it was expected. While necessary for healing, discussing her late master was bound to hurt like a son of a bitch. Still, he couldn't help but grin a little at the mention of him being insufferable.
"Did he do that thing where some problem would pop up on a mission and he'd just kind of stare at you until you figured it out? I mean, you knew he knew the answer, but he wanted you to find it. Never mind that the whole world would be crashing down, he'd just sit there with that patient grin until you saw the way out."
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Atton Kaelan
Crew of the Wayward Son
You're not allowed to name the star destroyer after your junk, Adi.
Posts: 265
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Post by Atton Kaelan on Jan 26, 2014 20:54:41 GMT -8
Atton sat in the cockpit, now alone after Alexis departed to heat up the caf. Not that it would likely do much to keep him awake, but he could always try. Speaking of caf, it was probably ready by now. With a groan, he pulled himself out of his seat and shuffled into the common area where he caught the scent of the caf that Alexis had put on. There wasn't much left, and he guessed that Mike and Alexis had already had some. Oh well. It probably wasn't that great anyway, and against his better judgment, he poured the remaining amount into the cup. One sip confirmed what he already knew that it was terrible, but he had certainly had worse. Well...not much worse...
Grimacing, he sat down in one of the chairs and continued to sip the terrible caf. Such a hefty price to be paid for staying awake...
He could hear Alexis and Mike talking in one of the passenger quarters but couldn't really hear them over the ship's engines. He opted not to interrupt, having little he could say to them at the moment.
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 29, 2014 10:42:04 GMT -8
Alexis was relieved that Kaelan had gotten his own stimcaf as she'd gotten into the middle of a conversation with Mike and she didn't wish to break it off. Though, his disgust at the quality of the steaming drink was palpable, and she agreed with it. In fact, if she hadn't known that it was a reflection upon the beverage itself, she might have thought it was a reflection upon her own domestic skills.
As it was she appreciated the warmth radiating into her fingers from the mug she was holding. The fact that Mike couldn't fully control his abilities was probably what made him invisible to many people, though she found it hard to understand since she herself had not had any difficulty in that area. "So, you were born with this ability?" Alexis wondered how he had discovered it, since if it was hereditary, his family might have had an interesting time remembering to take care of him in infancy, unless they knew of it and were aware of the special challenges it presented.
"Noooo," she replied uncertainly, "well, sometimes he did that, but more often it was the leaving me behind because he didn't want me to end up being in danger." Alexis recollected, "The temporary abandonment was awful. I know why he did it of course, but that never made it any easier, you know?" she looked up at Mike, brown eyes seeming strangely vulnerable in the light as she confessed one of her deepest fears, "I was always afraid he'd never come back...somehow. And I'd just go on hoping. And waiting." ~Like I am now...~ she did not say. "Where I am involved people tend to disappear in ways that later turn out to be permanent. I just wanted to be there...that way, at least if I ended up dead, I would know." She wondered if he understood what she was trying to say.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2014 11:28:32 GMT -8
Mike shrugged.
"I don't know. My temple found me wondering around the city one day , living on the streets. I don't remember much from those days, but my master thought it might have been because my parents just sort of forgot I existed, after a while."
He was a boy of maybe thirteen when he first heard that theory, and it had devastated him. But Mike had come to terms with the idea over the years, and it didn't bother him much anymore.
As Alexis spoke, he was forced to revise his opinion of Dav. From the stories, the man might as well have been three meters tall with turbolasers for teeth and lightsabers for claws, but this was an interesting side of him. He had feared for the safety of his apprentice, and probably viewed her as something of a daughter. Leaving her behind was a mistake, in his opinion; it would only retard her growth as a person and as a warrior. But if the man's greatest sin had been caring too much, well, the archaeologist was hardly prepared to pass judgment.
That said, whatever the reasoning had been, it had left a mark on Alexis, one she would probably bear for the rest of her life. Survivor's guilt is a hard thing to overcome. He knew from experience.
"Okay, I'm going to say something that may, in fact, infuriate you. Or maybe you've figured it out on your own, or maybe I'm totally off base. At any rate, the hardest thing for me to accept when my master died was that there wasn't anything I could have done to save him. I could have been more powerful, been a better fighter, a better healer, but he still would have died because I'm not a god.
"A god could have made him change his mind about the decisions he made that led to his death. A god could have saved him from being crushed by the rubble, or from being killed by the blast.
"Dav was a grown man, and he lived and died by the choices he made. Unless you're secretly some sort of deity, there's nothing you could have done to change that. It's not your fault."
Mike looked the young woman square in the eye. His voice was gentle, but his gaze was utterly unyielding. Though he didn't know it, it was exactly the way his master's husband had given him this very same speech, all those years ago.
"It's alright to grieve. In fact, I'd be worried if you didn't. But if you're blaming yourself, you're just insulting his memory. Do you know why?"
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Post by Alexis Karidian on Jan 29, 2014 17:23:39 GMT -8
"Just wandering?" Alexis looked at Mike sympathetically. It seemed they had semi-similar backgrounds to a degree. Well, maybe not that much. But both of them were lacking in family.
"I am not infuriated," she informed him, appreciative of his efforts to make her feel better and help her work through a very traumatic experience. "But I don't believe in deities either." Religion was never something she had given thought to. She supposed there were religious people around, and there was definitely a lot of superstition. But as far as something deeper went, she didn't give it much credence.
"I do grieve," Alexis mused quietly, "and the pain is always there, and I regret---but, I do not blame myself." She finished the rest of her stimcaf quickly and placed the mug on the ground next to her before rocking her chair back on two legs and balancing carefully, eyeing Mike from her vantage point. "I suppose it would---" she broke off, considering, and then finally just asked, "Where are you going with that, Mike?" She thought that Dav would have chosen a death like that, covered in glory, as opposed to just aging and finally dying in bed, asleep, alone in the middle of the night. He just seemed so indestructible that even though Alexis knew there was more to him than that, she found herself unconsciously believing that he was immortal.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2014 18:41:32 GMT -8
"Wondering, with an 'o'".
Mike chuckled.
"Most of the other street urchins moved around constantly, never even sleeping in the same place twice. I'd just sit down and sort of...contemplate my surroundings. After a few hours, I'd blend in so well that I could walk right up to a food vendor and take what I'd need off the counter. No one would ever even notice I was there. They called it 'wondering around.' The folks at my temple had an odd sense of humor."
When Alexis declared that she didn't, in fact, blame herself, Mike realized that he had been wildly off base.
"Towards the destruction of the notion that I have any business trying to play mentor, apparently," he said in response to her question. "Survivor's guilt is, historically speaking, one of the greatest problems apprentices face when they lose their master. The Force knows I had a hard enough time with it. I had this nice little speech prepared about how it's an insult to his ability to blame yourself, and you were supposed to get mad but later on stop and think about how maybe I was right, but you're already ahead of the curve. Honestly, I'm impressed. Dav did right by you, it seems."
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