Fwurg

[Mercury]

((OOC: I am not sure how Force Lightning works underwater. There might be some issues with it. Because I don't want to drag this part on, the move is approved, but it should be noted that both the knocking out with Force Lightning and the use of Force Lightning under water needs to be reviewed in the future. This ruling is for this specific situation only and cannot be used to establish precedence for the power to be used in this manner in the future.))

Ajava knocked out the woman, and proceeded to bind her, though it was not easy to get her properly strapped down under water - this meant the woman was a flight risk once she came to, but for the moment it would do and it would at the very least hinder and delay her escape until Ajava could get the woman more properly tied up later.

Meanwhile, Trigiel used the airlock to get into the vessel, which did not seem to even require a key-code: simply pressing the "open" button was enough for him to get in. Once the water had been replaced by air, the second door opened, letting Trigiel inside. Inside, a young Ithorian male was looking somewhat startled.

"Uhm... hi..." he stated awkwardly.

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana had no new information and no way to reach the group in time so she waited in the ship above the surface of the water. She continued to scan the area, keeping the ship on standby to be ready when something happened.

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava isn't really willing to let the unconscious woman alone for even a moment, but since Trigiel's approach might take a while she decides that she might as well move to the crane.

While swimming over to the crane, she contacted Ariana: "Sorry for not reacting earlier, I had to defeat a rather aggresive woman wielding a lightsaber. We're down here with four more guys, and Trigiel and I are currently collecting them to get back to the surface. Did anything else happen up there?"

As she arrived at the crane, she looked at the guy up there before taking any action.

[Mercury]

Ariana was in for a bit of a wait while those down in the water gathered their things. She could keep track of the sinking ship though, it was currently still a few more minutes out.

Ajava swam over to the crane where a young Rodian man with green skin was sitting wearing scuba gear at the operating station. He was holding a datapad which was displaying some text in large letters due to overuse of the zoom function of the word processor program:

I surrender!
Please don't kill me :'(

[Fecta Trigiel]

((OOC: I knew I was forgetting something, I have no idea why I keep forgetting to post here :'(.))

Trigiel looked at the ithorian man before saying: "Let's be clear shall we? I ask simple questions and you give clear answers.

Who are you guy's, what are you doing here and why did the woman attack us?"

((Check: 10 = 6 Force Level + 4 Intuition -- Trying to detect if the man is lying.))

[Shebi Ajava]

"Do as I say, and I won't", Ajava told the rodian. "First, move that rock onto the plateau. Then follow me to get your friends. And tell me why you're here while you are working. "

While he operated the crane she kept an eye on the other two near the rock.

((Check: 15 = 8 Force Level + 5 Energy + 2 Telepathy -- ))

[Mercury]

((OOC: I considered going through all the motions, but I felt this would not be very interesting to roleplay out in detail - there are no challenges here, and this is a forum roleplay, not a chat one, so it'd probably take several weeks to do nothing of significance. Instead of making this all take forever, I am going to skip ahead a bit. If you feel what I posted here is not fitting, please let me know and I can adjust things accordingly. This also allows Ariana to get back in the action more swiftly.))

Ajava and Trigiel easily gathered the four men, each of them surrendering and offering no resistance. According to their claims, they had been working in the research station the Jedi visited earlier until they found some high concentration of rare exotic matter unlike anything they had seen before, located under the sea floor - it was likely a piece of meteorite that hit the planet. After informing their financier, the woman had come and attacked, forcing them at the point of her lightsaber to help her secure the exotic matter, which they had been working on almost non-stop in the past few days.

With some carving of the stony outer layer, the two Jedi were able to secure the exotic matter in the container behind the submarine, securing it and making sure it was safe before carrying it up to the surface where it was loaded into the Jedi's ship. The Union would be able to figure out what to do with it no doubt.

Before the exotic matter could be loaded up entirely however, the ship Ariana had spotted dropped by. For a moment fearing an attack, the Jedi soon found that the vessel was indeed droid controlled but that the droid had only been instructed to head down here, not to do anything beyond that, and being an obedient machine, it did exactly that: nothing.

The ship did follow the submarine up to the surface and would likely follow the Jedi vessel into deep space, tracking its owner, but the vessel made no move to attack or otherwise interfere with the Jedi. After ensuring this was indeed the case, the Jedi let it follow to the surface.

With the woman (who was not being very cooperative and not at all talkative) secured and the four men having surrendered, Ajava and Trigiel made their way back into the ship, bringing all prisoners aboard. Still wearing wetsuits and air tanks, the five waited for the Jedi to decide what to do with them.

They could ask more questions here, but having secured everything, it might make more sense to transport them back to Unity and the Jedi Temple where they could be handled securely. Then again, they might let the four men go, if they preferred. Regardless, it probably made sense to properly secure the woman or deal with her in some more permanent way, so she would not be a problem during the trip.

[Shebi Ajava]

Standing in the shuttle, still wearing her wetsuit, Ajava looked over the five people they hauled up.

After taking off her breathing mask and her flippers, she turned to her companions: "This is all nice and well, but we still have to reach our mission objective. Ariana, can you go over to the other vessel? We need to investigate its whereabouts, and disable that annoying droid before its emergency programming kicks in and it starts to broadcast who-knows-what everywhere.

Trigiel, I think you should interrogate these four guys. They might want to spill some more information with regards to their financier and their work here -- there is probably a reason they were accosted and forced to help recovering the exotic matter. And I don't think its just for financial gain either, their base had some strange rooms.

While you two are doing that, I'll keep an eye on miss aggressive while she changes out of her wetsuit and into something more suitable for longer durations. I have the feeling I know her from somewhere, and I'd really like to find out why...", Ajava looked at the woman, then at Trigiel, and back again, "I'm sure that she will understand the value of cooperating for now.", she added with a smile.

Ajava then proceeded to grab her own armour, some spare clothes and a towel and put them in the back room of the shuttle. Incidentally, the only way out of the shuttle, or to the cockpit, from these was the door leading out of the back room and back to the room where Trigiel and the four guys were.

If her companions didn't voice any objections, she then simply grabbed the woman and carried her into the back room.

((OOC: I'm not planning on RPing a back-and-forth interrogation here; I place quick pause to allow my companions to voice objections, or describe their reactions before I continue with a post what Ajava's plan is.))

[Ariana Danacia]

"Welcome back. There was not much to do here. I was about to check out that vessel anyway."

Ariana still had her spacesuit on and left the ship flying towards the other vessel. She entered the ship through the airlock and went straight to the cockpit where she expected the droid to be. When she found the droid their she activated her lightsaber and pointed it at the droid.

"Get out of my way droid. Wait over there." She pointed to a corner of the vessel where she still had a visual on it.

Ariana did not have much time or patience. If the droid was hesitating to obey or tried anything funny Ariana would slice itin pieces with her lightsaber.

Ariana started to look through the logs of vessel. Specifically looking at the travel history of the ship and possibly recently added data. She copied all the relevant date to her datapad.

After looking at the ships logs she looked through the rest of the ship looking for data carriers or clues that other individuals were here.

((Check: 14 = 6 Force Level + 6 Reason + 2 Slicing -- Hacking into the vessel's computer and retrieving log data. (same score if programming is applicable)))

[Fecta Trigiel]

"just please don't get distracted master." Trigiel had not forgotten their time in the broken space ship, where Ajava got carried away by a naked Theelin. Surely at this moment Ajave couldn't about having sex with the woman who just attacked her right? But Ajava said she probably knew her... no reasons to get carried away in thoughts like this.

"I will interrogate the workers." That said, Trigiel started to question the four people: "All right, why don't you start telling a little more about yourselves and this operation here?" then, depending on what they gave as answers Trigiel continued to ask to get answers on the questions:

• "Who are your financiers?"
• "Why on this planet?"
• "How long have you been here?"
• "Who is the woman?"
• "What is your relation with the Woman"
• "why came the woman to you and forced you to help?"
• "Why attacked to woman us?"

((OOC: I see no reason to play out the entire interrogation, so these are the questions Trigiel liked to have answered :).))

[Shebi Ajava]

((OOC: As the trip down was about ten minutes, the trip up wouldn't be much more than 15. I'm assuming the woman is still unconscious; if not Ajava won't hesitate to use her lightsaber to stay in control.))

"Don't worry Trigiel", Ajava replied tersely.

After she carries the unconscious woman to the back room she checks to make sure that she is indeed still unconscious. After that, she unties the woman and starts to disrobe her. When she is completely disrobed Ajava takes a moment to inspect the woman. She tries to remember if she ever saw this woman before, if necessary she tries to sense the woman through the force.

Once she recognizes the woman, or after some trying, she towels her dry and clothes her in the spare clothes. Then she ties her up again, doing a proper job this time. After that, she takes off her own wetsuit, towels off and dons her normal armour.

If the woman regains consciousness before she is disrobed or tied up again, Ajava won't hesitate to activate her lightsaber and force the woman to comply with either Ajava's inspection or the tying up.

((Check: 13 = 8 Force Level + 5 Intuition -- trying to recognize the woman))

[Mercury]

Ajava

Ajava grabbed the still bound and unconscious woman and dragging her into the back room, leaving the others to their own plans. There was something menacing about the woman even as she was unconscious. Fortunately, for the moment, Ajava easily manhandled her onto a chair to interrogate.

Once she pulled up the hood of the woman's wetsuit and took off the breathing mask, she instantly recognised the white hair. This was the woman Ajava had seen on the research station orbiting 1341-8010J RSP!



Inspecting the woman and stripping her of her clothing, Ajava managed to secure a second lightsaber that had been hidden subtly under her clothing, no doubt in case she was captured. She also noticed the woman had various scars all over her body, as if she were a veteran warrior who had seen much in the way of combat - and not always on the winning side.

Getting her dressed again in some spare clothing, she secured the woman to a chair, making sure she was bound securely this time before getting dressed. By the time she was done, the woman was still knocked out, which seemed a bit odd as by now she should have probably come too, but she was still breathing so all was well, no doubt.

Ariana

Ariana meanwhile made her way into the ship, which did not really cooperate, but some quick slicing of it and the droid took care of that.

The ship seemed to consists of three parts: the cockpit, the cargo bay, and personal quarters.

Accessing the computer in the cockpit, Ariana soon found what she had been sent for: this ship had been at the joint-research facility in Sector 16 -4 shortly before it had been destroyed. Moreover, it had docked with the station. Checking the hyperspace signature in detail, Ariana found a match - she was now absolutely sure that this was the vessel that they were searching for.

Ariana found no files that seemed to suggest they were research, but the cargo bay did contain something that did not belong: a container, linked directly to the ships main power supply. Inside was some sort of exotic matter, though the computer only listed that they were micro-branes. Ariana wasn't a physist, but perhaps T'sal or some other person with skills in that area would know what to make of them. They seemed valuable regardless and listed the logo of the research station.

The personal quarters were strange and not very welcoming. Chains hung from the ceiling, seemingly intended to hang up victims for the torture equipment scattered throughout the room. There was dried blood on some of them so clearly whomever used them cared little about sanitation. Luckily, she did not find any bodies. Elsewhere in the room, a small shrine focussed around a red, tetrahedral holocron crystal: it was somewhat similar to the holocron crystals the Jedi used, but it radiated far darker feelings. Ariana seemed to vaguely recall some of the symbols she saw from her jedi education, but she could not recall right now. She'd have to look it up when they were back home.

Trigiel

Trigiel meanwhile interrogated the workers. He found them to be quite cooperative, though there was some tendency of them to make awkward geography themed jokes that just did not seem to hit home with him. Nerds.

Trigiel quickly established they were being financed by a research foundation which held many more such projects on other worlds. Their consortium, the "Intergalactic Geography Foundation", was a union based research organization focussed on fundamental research into planetary geography, answering questions like how planets are made, seismic research and the way in which matter under extreme pressure acted. It in turn was mostly funded by universities and governments as the research was not directly marketable, but it had several commercial investors who were interested in locating valuable sub-surface resources.

This planet had been chosen for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the world was geologically active, which made it interesting to study and the group was here on a two-year mission, having spent quite some time here already.

The group was not familiar with the woman, never having seen her before the attack, but were able to tell that she had come in after they had reported about their find. Since she forced them to go after this immediately, it was clear she was there in response to that. One of them speculated that the woman wanted to harvest the exotic matter for some reason, but handling such an object in the deep sea alone would likely be difficult - it had taken them several days to get the crane installed, draw up the rock and then get it ready for transportation. Alone she'd likely have taken weeks and they'd have noticed on the scanner.

Though the group did not say so, Trigiel figured that since they were the only people on the planet, likely they made a free workforce that the woman could easily dispose of afterwards - she did not seem like someone who had problems with killing people.

[Shebi Ajava]

When, after changing, the woman was still unconscious, Ajava decides that she is probably faking. Interested in what she was planning on doing after she heard Ajava leave the room, Ajava walked to the door. She opened it and stepped through, she let the door fall closed again, but stepped back in at the last moment. As silent as she can be, she moves through the room so she stands in the shadow at the far end of the room, behind the woman.

From there, she waits for a few minutes to see if the woman does something. If not, she'll just get Ariana to do a medical check of the woman -- she doesn't want some medical condition to threathen the safety of her prisoner.

((Check: 14 = 8 Force Level + 4 Fitness + 2 Stealth -- Silently stepping back into the room and moving about))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana looked whether the crystal could be taken out of the shrine without damaging it. If this was possible she would wrap it in a piece of cloth and put it in her backpack.

After going through the ship Ariana went back to the cockpit of the vessel and flew the ship towards their ship and activated the auto-pilot to keep it stationary.

While maneuvering the ship she contacted Shebi Ajava again using the telepathic bond. "This is the vessel that we were looking for. I found a crate with some stole exotic matter as well in the cargo bay. It has the logo of the research center on it. There is some dried blood and torturing equipment in the personal quarters, but I did not find any bodies."

Ariana kept the ship at least 20 meters away from their ship at some height to make sure that if a prisoner escaped it could not reach the ship without using flight.

"What is the situation with our prisoners? Do we have enough information to return to Unity?"

When her party members asked for her presence Ariana would return to their ship.

[Shebi Ajava]

While standing in the shadows, Ajava could easily reply to Ariana without drawing attention.

"Not yet, I think that one of the prisoners is faking unconsciousness, or has a medical condition. Please return to do an examination."

Ajava remained in the shadows to see if the woman was only playing unconscious. If she hadn't tried anything by the time Ariana arrived, Ajava will give up on being stealthy and simply observe the examination.


After the examination, Ajava went back to Trigiel and motioned for Ariana to join them as well.

"We've got what we came for in the back room and in the other shuttle, so I don't think that it is useful to ferry these four all the way to Unity", she gestured to the four, "maybe we should bring them to a nearby spaceport? We can leave the rock of material with them as well. They found it, after all."

((OOC: I think this discussion isn't dependent upon the results of either Ajava's observations or Ariana's examination of the woman, so we con do this while we wait for the ST to catch up?))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana returned to the ship and examined the woman. If she was medically alright but still unconscious she prepared a syringe filled with a strong sedative that would keep her asleep for a few days.

"Let's make sure she stays this way. I will give her something to stay asleep."

((Check: 14 = 6 Force Level + 6 Reason + 2 First Aid -- Examining the woman and administering a strong sedative that keeps her asleep for days.))

"I have no problem with letting these locals go. I doubt they have anything to add."

[Fecta Trigiel]

"Why not let them here behind at their station? We can just ask them if they want to brought back to their station on this planet or if they like to be dropped at a nearby space port."

[Shebi Ajava]

"That would be find with me."

[Mercury]

Ariana analysed (and Ajava observed) the woman, establishing that she was indeed still unconscious. Ariana had some medical expertise and was able to analyse that the woman had been suffering from exhaustion, so when her body got the chance, it decided to take the break.

The Jedi recalled that the four prisoners and her had been down under water for several days setting up the crane and excavating the exotic matter. As the men had not exactly volunteered for the job, she might not have gotten much sleep to ensure they did not kill her or escape while she was dreaming.

Using a sedative, Ariana made sure the woman would not be waking up for a while.

Speaking with the men, Trigiel established they'd prefer to be dropped off at a nearby space port so they could go home. The events of the past few days had thoroughly shocked them, though they would be fine with some rest. One of them, in a moment of clarity, did request the group be credited for the discovery and be allowed to participate in any study into the object.

With the woman under control and the men ready to be dropped off however, it appeared as if the mission was mostly done.

((OOC: If nobody objects, you can drop off the men and fly back to the Union with both ships to return the items and report back to the Council. There'll be an epilogue of course, but for now I think we're done. If you want to do anything with either the prisoner or the men, please state so explicitly, otherwise you might not have another chance.))

[Shebi Ajava]

Ajava has no problems dropping the men off at a nearby spaceport. During travel, she stays around the woman to keep an eye on her.

When they are back at the Jedi temple, she makes sure to inspect the woman's vessel as well. She is interested in the woman's living quarters, as she remembers the dark feeling she felt from the woman on the research station. This time around though, she didn't feel such a strong emanation. Maybe because she has become stronger over time, but maybe because of something else...

((OOC: Ready to move on.))

[Ariana Danacia]

Ariana had nothing to do with the men. She was fine with dropping them off at the space port. She was content with the fact that she had a medical reason to keep the woman sedated, since keeping her awake now would only put more strain on her body.

Ariana was ready to either pilot one of the ships to Unity or take turns piloting and watching the woman.

((OOC: Ready to move on.))

[Fecta Trigiel]

Trigiel was fine as well with dropping the men of at a space port. He also had no problems with giving them the credit they deserve so they had a option for future jobs.

[Mercury]

The group dropped off the men at a nearby space station from where they could take public transportation to their intended destinations. Once they had said their goodbye's, the group returned to Unity, handing the woman plus the items they had found over to other Jedi to take care of. The woman was sent to Unity Secure Prison, to a cell equipped for the likes of her, while the exotic matter was sent to the appropriate research labs to work with. The ship finally was added to the Jedi collection, to be retrofitted for future missions by quartermaster Nishra.

"A most disturbing set of events." Master Screetor acknowledged once they had told him what had happened and what they had found. "We will have to see if she will tell us what her plans were with this exotic matter... No doubt once we learn more of her plans, there will be a new call to action from the Jedi Council, but if what you say is true and she was the one you saw at 1341-8010J RSP - and everything indicates that way - then whatever her plan was, it was nothing good..."

He paused a moment, pondering.

"From the content of her room, we have ascertained that she is likely a Sith." he pondered a moment "With Sith, there are usually two: a master and an apprentice. Which leads me to wonder who we captured... the master... or the apprentice?"

((OOC: You can ask any questions you wish now, but I also think it may be time to do a writeup so that I can hand out !))

[Shebi Ajava]

"Based on how she fought, and what I felt during the mission at 1341-8010J RSP, I think that we have captured the apprentice. She fought viciously, but lacked experience. I also spotted a shrine of sorts in the living quarters in her shuttle... If she adhered to a philosophy or ideal, I would have expected that we would find scriptures or data files on the topic, but we did not. So, most likely her master has those in his possession."

((OOC: I'm not exactly sure how those sith-holocrons work. I assume that the darker feeling due to being enshrined in the living quarters, since the atmosphere and the structure of the room seem more relevant to me than a single item. So, I assume that we can't feel the dark energy coming from the holocron while Ariana has it stashed in her backpack.

Note that this is in part self-interest! If Ajava can feel the dark energies right now, this will greatly impact her actions in the near future -> she carried a like holocron near Master Screetor with only a single layer of cloth hiding it...

I've also updated the story page, a review by the others would be good.))

[Ariana Danacia]

"I have nothing to add."

((OOC: Report looks good.))