Log:Catch The Light: Part Four

Catch The Light: Part Four

OOC Date: January 17, 2022
Location: Ahch-To
Participants: Rey, Ax, Zandra naMuriel, Jax Greystorm and Vega

The Jedi Order was back on Ahch-To for more discovery. This trip found them on board the Charybdis, Vega's Mon Cal Deepwater-class light freighter. This would make under sea travel easier and safer in the end of things. The ship follows the map that is the sea floor from the side of the island that the originally opening to the chambers had been discovered. There's the outline for the tunnel that leads into a big underwater cavern of sorts, but there doesn't seem to be any other way into the natural structure.

Vega leaves the controls with the lights and things still on. Allowing the ship to illuminate where they are going. "Alright. This shouldn't take too very long. Just need to see if they were trying to make a tunnel from the chamber we were in to things here." she points to the map that's pulled up.

Zan's taken a seat, and just watching this time. At least for the moment. Ships flying underwater still seems a bit odd. "At least we're not directly in their home, though the ship is," she murmurs. Yes, yes, she still has that little quibble about water on planets. It's probably never going away, no matter how hard she tries. "Shouldn't take too long? I suppose. Are we looking for a way into the cave?" The violet haired young Jedi tilts her head, as she looks at the map, and then over to Vega, curiously. "This is a neat ship by the way."

Jax looked more like a spacer than a jedi at the way he was dressed. He had been leaning against the bulk head with his arms crossed as he watched the water through the view port. He split his attention with Vega and the map with that of what's out in the Deep dark ocean. "Sounds like a plan." He looks back out into the water, "Do we know what's out there?"

~

Ax had flown all over the galaxy, but 'flying' a ship under water was a first. The Echani was all smiles as he stared out the cockpit viewport. This wasn't his ship, so he wasn't at the controls, but he was damn sure intrigued. "I gotta get me a submersible now," he says with a broad smile. "I had a clearwater for a bit, but never took her under water."

Ax looks to the others. "Wonder if my wife would make me sleep on the couch if I bought another ship. Wonder if the Mon Cal have any kinds of submersible starfighters."

~

The process of going from atmo flight to beneath the waves was one that Rey observed with quite a lot of trepidation. It was enthralling to her in a way, as it wasn't something she'd experienced before. She spent a lot of time on Arisnar getting used to oceans, even building a small boat to go out on to the waters.. it helped build confidence for her back then, even coming in handy on that Endor moon where she took a sailer to the Death Star ruins... but this was different.

From her seat, Rey watches out the viewports, and looks to what they're heading toward.

"The great unknown." She cheekily answers Jax with a smirk before her eyes go back to the depths outside again.

There's no hard currents down this far, so the ship hovers in the water as things are flipped over into standby. "Thank you." Vega tells Zandra with a nod of her head. Then she's drawing out two points on the map, one is the door that was in the chambers over on the island. The other was were they were thinking the entrance to the cave was. "So we're guessing that the former inhabitants were wanting to make an underground and underwater entrance into this cave here..." she draws the line from the island to the underwater cave. "Which leads me to believe that there is something very valuable to us in this cave, but we're going to have some work in getting it finished." she admits.

"We're just going to do a quick swim around, see if we can find an opening for Dio to get into to take some scans of the inside and then we'll be on our way home...hopefully without too much trouble from the local underwater creatures." she muses.

"Wait, swim?" Zandra says, eyes widening. "maybe I can stay here and ... monitor?" A breath and the jedi can be seen to relax as she goes through a quick meditation exercise. "I should have thought this through better," she adds, wryly. "I will of course come with you if you need me to, but I don't swim very well." There's full disclosure, more or less.

"Uh-huh and it'll be Arisnar all over again." Jax says with a shrug, "Monsters in the water and a crab stealing my lighsaber. Under the sea." That was aimed at Rey. Then he looks around, "Do we have the equipment that Yuun was testing? Have any of us tested that?"

~

"I was raised on a desert planet," Ax says with a shrug. "I can't say I'm a great swimmer, but I'm willing to do what I can. I'm confident that the force will help me make up for my weaknesses."

Ax looks to Jax. "Man, I missed all the fun it seems. I don't remember any underwater escapades on Arisnar." As he speaks, Ax pulls out an older model A99 Aquata breather and looks it over for a moment, before pulling out a datapad to go over the instructions once more.

~

Rey looks over to Dio as he's got a mission. She smiles as she sees him rolling around the stuff they brought with them, continuing to 'train' he calls it. But he stops when the others are getting ready.

Rey looks back over at the others herself. "I never did a lot of actual swimming on Arisnar, I was told there were very dangerous creatures in their seas. But, I did sail out over it for a distance, on a little barge I made myself."

Rey stands up then, and pushes her loose strands of hair back behind her ears. "I haven't worked directly with the suits, but I did read about them some. They don't seem overly complicated... So, I'm... confident. Mostly."

Dio rolls up toward everyone and chimes in too. "I'm r-ready." He announces to them all.

"I did a lot of swimming on Arisnar when I was at the academy there...but closer to the shallows." Vega laughs at that. "There were things there that would definitely make you snacks." she agrees as she kicks off her boots and then picks up a bag that has the rebreathers in it. She passes one to all except for Ax since he's got one. "We'll probably want to tether Dio, just so he's not lost should anything go wrong, we're harder to lose." she tells the group.

The outer robe to her clothes is shrugged off and she leaves it with her boots. No reason to get everything wet. "Time to get psyched up." she tells them. "And I'm not sure what equipment Knight Yuun was working on sadly." she admits. Then she's heading for the hatch that leads to the outside of the ship safely.

Zandra is hesitant, but she decides to go along. Because she needs to work on her own fears, right? She too removes her cloak and her boots, and takes the rebreather. That at least she has trained with so she knows how to put it on. Then she quietly follows the others, mostly working on the negative emotions, trying to work through them and release them to allow her to return to calm.

Jax had prepared himself to go outside in the water. He was holding a mask and a rebreather. He looks back to Ax. "You should have come out to the beach more often. Now I wouldn't mind visiting the mesa again." He looks at the others preping. Then as he's out in the water he starts to swim staying up with the others.

~

Ax strips off the flowing wrap parts of his outfit, leaving himself in the highly maneuverable portions of his attire. Taking a deep breath, he readies himself. Putting the breather in.

He sure hopes that the water isn't too damned cold at this depth. He'd done a bit of underwater work, but he'd never launched out of a ship that was already submerged. Today was a first for a lot of things involving the depths it seemed.

Ax exits the ship, and there's a bit of a shock before he catches himself and begins swimming properly, catching up to the others.

~

Rey steps out of her own boots and sets them off to the side before she pulls on a water suit jacket that she zips up over her tunic. She accepts the rebreather with a smile, then tests it out before she turns to Dio. "Ready for your tether?" She asks him.

Dio rolls forward, backward, and then nods his cone head. "Y-Yes." He says.

Rey crouches down then and gets a line out from the suit jacket she just put on, hooking it to a side clip on the small droid. "I made you this." Rey says then as she pulls something else out of a pocket. "For bravery." She tells the droid.

Her hands reach forward, and she attaches a small silvery cylinder to the side of the droid via a metal clip. "Every Jedi needs their lightsaber." She tells him with a light smile.

Dio looks down at it, rolls around some causing it to jingle on the edge of his wheel, then does an excited twirl! "J-Jedi!" He declares before excitedly rolling toward the hatch now.

Rey stands up, and tests her breather again before she nods. "I'm good to go then."

Once outside, she starts to swim with the others, Dio using his wheel fans to propell himself along as his search light comes on. Rey looks over to the others, her loose hair flowing around her face...

Vega is comfortable in the water once she gets past a certain point. Her twin brother was also a good swimmer and it made her miss him for about five seconds. Bubbles blow outside of the rebreather as she lifts the violet colored chem stick that's guiding her way. It's not as dark as the deeper parts of the ocean, but it was not a bad thing to have a light source either. She gives a thumbs up to the others when she takes a quick headcount.

Not far below them is the half finished remenants of what appears to be some kind of metal and glass tube like ruin that stretches from the location that the Jedi have already explored on the not so wet side of things.

There is also the location that should be the entrance to the cave. Everyone can swim down and get their easily. The closer they get the more that comes to light, there looks to be construction work of some kind that was left. Something was definitely being built down here.

Zan comes out of the ship and ends up upside down. She dodges away from a piece of seaweed as though it's electric, and then manages to get herself oriented. She's just barely settled when she spies Vega's thumbs' up. She returns it, and then heads towards the construction work. Now her curiosity leads her to go further, even as she realizes she can't talk to anyone about this.

Jax was swimming along the underwater tunnel, He'd deployed a waterpoof glow rod that he'd aquired and was shinning it along the glass tube. That's when he finds a hole big enough for Dio. Then looking over at Rey or where he thinks she is and he begins to wave her over as bubbles begin to rise up from his rebreather. Then after a moment of gestures, he reaches out for the Paragon's mind, "Rey! Hole, here!"

~

Ax is searching about, instead of using a light source, however, Ax shifts his vision to a different spectrum to be able to see. Spotting what looked like a hole that was big enough for Dio, he motions towards it, blowing a few bubbles trying to speak, but it doesn't work very well.

~

The waters of Ahch-to are rather cold. Rey focuses on the Force to try and create a warmth through the area, as she swims along beside the others. Her legs are her primary way of swimming along, while her hands are used to guide her about more. She looks to the others when she gets that sense of Jax's presence. She raises up her thumb to signal him as she arrives near.

Her hand motions then to Dio, who blinks his flashlight in affirmation.

The little droid speeds toward the spot, and pauses near it. Rey reaches up and puts a small link in her ear, then flips it on.

"Rey. I'm going in. May the Force Be With M-me..." He says before turning and sputtering along, soon vanishing inside..

Vega sees Zandra swim off towards the abandoned construction and there's a moment she looks between where the other group is and then back to the Knight to watch her to make sure no big whales or sharks try to sneak up down here.

Dio has been deployed successfully and the little droid can go about his business of scanning. It leaves the Jedi floating for a few minutes. But it is indeed a few minutes later that there is a very frantic tug on the rope that has Dio tethered and the little droid almost shoots himself out of the hole he was put into. "Scans acquired!" is what he trills out.

So Zan is all by herself, and she's checking out the construction. It takes her a bit to realize the others are not exactly with her. Eyes widen a bit, and she goes totally still. That's when she realizes it's cold down here, and so she concentrates for a moment, calling on the Force and warming the temperature around her. Bubbles from her rebreather and she moves towards the others, just as Dio comes shooting out of the hole. That has Zan back up a bit as well, looking to see what's chasing him.

Jax was swiming there waiting for the little droid to return. He was kicking his feet and treading. As the cold begins to sets in, Jax pulls the force to him and use it to begin to warm himself and the water around him.

~

Controlling ambient temperatures was not Axel's forte. He gives it a brief attempt, but realizes it's not going to work well. He does the next best thing in his mind, enhancing his body's internal fortitude. Moving up to the ruins, his legs a little wobbly from treading water while Dio was away. Maybe he could help with a different kind of scan, one of the past of this place.

~

Rey waits patiently outside of the crevase that they had deployed the Scout Droid in to. Her breather rleasing bubbles as she cycles the oxygen through the filtration system. Her eyes look around to the others, watching out toward Zandra as she seemed to be getting a bit adventurous...

But when the reel started to pull at Dio, Rey moved, sweeping her hands to the sides to change her position...

The little droid's light shun through the darkness as he got closer and closer, then popped out back in to view.

Following him are a number of glowing little sea creatures, all swirling around him several times before they rush back in to the dark!

Dio speaks further to Rey then. <"What an experience! I feel like I have g-grown as a Droid, R-Rey!"> He emits over the ear com.

Rey just raises her thumb to everyone then, signalling that the scans were taken!

Vega gives a look to Zandra as she starts swimming back towards the group and there's a gesture to her, not really readable but it's a welcome back type thing. They should get underwater comms! Dio pops out of the hole they sent him down and the white haired womans head tilts a little as she wonders what the hurry was.

That is answered by the small shockwave that goes through the water, knocking the group of Jedi back towards the ship from the force of it. The sound of something crashing against the side of the wall that holds the secrets of the deep is heard and it makes the situation go from chill to extremely important to get out of the water!

~Round One, get the ship ready for takeoff, we're coming in hot!~ she tells her bb-unit as she starts to wave everyone back towards the freighter.

There's a shockwave sending her flying and Zan's eep can almost be heard through the rebreather. Almost. She at least has warm enough water around her, thanks to the Force and her connection to it. She takes a few moments to catch her balance, struggling a bit, but since she can breathe it doesn't matter so much if she's upside down and turned the wrong way. Where's the ship? A moment, and then she catches sight of Jax's light, and Vega's, and heads that way. Hopefully he is going towards the ship. At least the basics of swimming Zan can manage!

Dio back in Rey's Jax turns back to the ship. He starts to swim up to the air lock. He waits queitly to go back inside. He gives Zandra a thumbs up as she arrived. It looks like there wasn't going to be anyone lost on the bottom of the ocean.

~

Yep, that's definitely the cue to get the hell out of there. Ax almost spits out his breather when the impact came, and he struggles to hustle back to the ship. Yep, he needed to get more swimming practice in, and possibly get Kadi to convert one of his ships to operate underwater.

~

Rey is swimming toward Dio to help clean him off of some of the gunk he'd accumulated in his adventure through the cave. She breathes evenly through her rebreather, bubbles floating up past her face as she pulls algae and some seaweed from the little droid before she is turning around to look at the others...

Then the shock wave hits, and it sends the young woman flying backward in the water, tumbling head over heels, flipping and spiraling as her hands and legs try to regain her control. Rey loses her rebreather in the chaos, and is left holding her breath outright as she looks for Dio at the end of the tether attached to her belt. The droid is dazed too, but starts to swim toward her, as Rey, without any way to get oxygen now... starts swimming rapidly back toward the Mon Calamari underwater ship... She sees the others ahead of her, and when they make it thorugh the hatch she's hot on their heels!

Once she bursts through the protective barrier, she pulls herself up out of the water and gasps for breath.

"What... was /that/?" Rey asks as Dio comes rolling up toward her, while Rey strokes her hands across her face and tied-back hair, still wet with sea water...