Log:Defiance Guild: Prefection

Trouble on Tython

OOC Date: February 28, 2019
Location: Silent Desert, Tython
Participants: Defiance: Jehni'va Cihn, Kasia Ashkuri, Naelyn, Tarion Tavers, Grom, Iggy Odessa, Sajin, Siha Archer, and Hex as GM

The short story: In the silent desert, no one can hear you scream. A problem is solved without violence, which is confusing and upsetting to everyone.

The long story:

Once upon a time in the early days of Defiance, Hex and Kasia Ashkuri met with Queen Ailana Pareja of the Naboo, and after some negotiation with said Queen, they established a facility on the swampy moon of Rori.

The purpose of the facility was to give the slaves snatched up from all over the galaxy a new place to call home, a safe place, a place to learn skills for work. A place to learn how to choose again. A place to shelter from the overwhelming galaxy waiting just outside. But increasingly over time, Rori's shelter began to be compromised as once again, Naboo entered the stage of a galactic war: first finding itself under the uncompromising heel of the First Order, and more recently liberated by a terrifying Resistance superweapon. It isn't peaceful, it isn't quiet, and Hex decided to pack up and get gone. Supplies and people have been loaded into a number of transports and shipped off, up and away from Rori to a new moon: the quiet, spiritual forests and valleys of Tython.

Defiance has been conscripted into assisting with this move, for pay of course. Cause for a slave-freeing op, warm fuzzy feelings don't really motivate this crew. Boxes to move, people to herd, but eventually the ships are ready to go. Hex and one shipment of slaves, probably some off-camera Deflings as well, have gone ahead in another ship. This leaves Kasia flying the Mayhem, supplies, 10 former-slaves, and the rest of the Deflings to Tython in a second batch. Easy stuff. Milk run.

"... watch ... approach to Tython," Hex's voice can be heard over the coms. It's strangely garbled, staticky. "Storms and ... --trical anomalies over the desert in atmo. .... .. -vector. Be careful, ok ka. See --- soon."

You paged Siha Archer with 'You gained fame and notoriety among former-slave children, who now regard you with fear and awe. You have no idea why.'
You paged Jehni'va Cihn with 'You threw out your back while moving crates onto a droid lifter. It hurts. You'll never be the same.'
You paged Naelyn with 'An old former-slave took a liking to you, and gave you many hard candies. They're not very good.'
You paged Iggy Odessa with 'You drove a forklift full of crates into the swamp by accident. You don't know what it was. You hope no one notices.'
You paged Kasia Ashkuri with 'You got to play your choice of music while packing things up! No one else likes your music.'
You paged Grom with 'You ate something you didn't recognize. You have the most incredible cracked-out energy. You are sweating profusely.'
You paged Tarion Tavers with 'You started shit with an air-space traffic control officer at the Restuss City Starport. You are the reason the ships had to wait 90 minutes to get an exit vector to leave Rori. Everyone knows it.'
You paged Sajin with 'You found 100 credits between the cushions of furniture you were moving! Score!'

"I'll never be the same." Jehni'va groans for the twelfth time to whatever poor soul wound up next to her on the Mayhem. As well meaning as she may have been, that droid lifter /probably/ would have gotten to the heavy crates on its own. Really, it never needed her help and the fact that she was so adamant about offering it stems from either a place of deep, unending sympathetic courtesy, or deep, unending stupidity. "Seriously, this hurts so bad. I don't think I'm ever going to be the same." Thirteen.

Kasia is in the pilots seat, because she's good at it, it's one of the ships that she and Hex use regularly, and because she wanted to fly. Also she might be hiding from everyone after annoying everyone -- possibly slaves included -- when her music choice for the process of packing up was NOT something that pumped everyone up. It was a classical style with stringed instruments, the sort of ambient music you'd hear quietly played at fancy restaurants. It did not fit the setting. She made them listen to it anyway. "We're almost there, guys," she says over the intercom, that same soft music can be heard playing in the cockpit again. NO REGRETS. "What did you say, ka're? You're breaking up-- careful? We're always careful." Are they? No. "See you soon. Love you." MUSHY.

"All I'm saying is, it would have probably been storming worse when we got here if I /hadn't/ made fun of the air-space traffic controller's name," Tarion is saying, lounged as he is on one of the low bench-shelf double-duty furnishings in the cockpit. "What sort of name is Duumass anyway? How was I supposed to know it was a sore spot? If we weren't stuck there for that extra ninety minutes we wouldn't have had the chance to open up this case of emergency rations because we were hungry," the bounty hunter points out, gesturing down at the detritus of a meal-ready-to-eat that's strewn out on his own lounging figure, on the furniture, and some that's drifted onto the floor. "I mean, sure, I had to open up and sample three of them to find one I liked..." And a foil-pouch is still couched in one hand, plastoid spoon sticking up out of it, "but it was a valid emergency. Kasia. It was a valid emergency. And after ninety minutes of whatever the krif that trashy music was I needed /sustenance./" When Jehn groans her despair to the air, the grinning man launches a different foil pack at her head. "Shut up and eat a snack bread."

Never wanting to stand out /too/ much when dealing with missions like this, Naelyn is in all black...the leather, the tunic, the bracers, the veil that covers his braided hair and the veil drawn over his mouth and nose, leaving his eyes exposed. Pack and toolbelt secured, multiple hidden sheathes double-checked, he had /quite/ a few lovely romps, trying to make sure...he was friendly, catching up with old associates. The usual, but he's seated closer to Kasia so he can monitor communications and occasionally pull a hard candy from a side pouch, sighing as he eyes the candy and the slips it into his mouth. The expression on his face, as one use to swallowing, is long suffering and hidden behind that veil. It would be so much easier to swallow but, he promised...He does however, sit forward a bit, candy pushed to the side of his cheek as he takes comfort in the calming nature of this music. And tries to translate broken Hex into normal Hex. There's a crunch as he tries to bite down on the candy and his eyes widen, and water a bit. But his kohl is waterproof so he just suffers in quiet silence.

Sajin is stuffing his face with a frosyed pastry of some sort. His lips glistening with sugar, he happily munches away on the treat he had been saving for a ride. He was feeling lucky and for once in a pretty good mood... though that could have also been the spice he almost overdosed on. Two days in bacta make you chill af. He grosses his legs gentlemanly over each other in his seat. Sometimes he may smile at yhe others but for now he is quiet.

"GROM IS HERE," the Houk declares. Again. Every few minutes, since he had found that snack. Even though the ship is not so large that he couldn't be heard on the strength of his own lungs, but still the massive alien walks with thudding steps and enough of a bounce in his step that his footfalls cause creaks in the deck plating and his helmeted head leaves small dents in the overhead panels. Enthusiastically punching a button to activate the in-ship comms, he informs Kasia, "GROM IS HERE."

Iggy Odessa almost thought it a joke when Kasia had presented the hidden armor. "This is supposed to protect me?" he asked, inspecting the cloth in his hands. Stretchy yet unyielding, it most certainly looked as if though it would never get around the curves of his body. And yet, fast forward to the present, here Iggy stands among the other Deflings. His chubby belly has been pushed inward and upward, the armor forming his body into the perfect specimen of a man. And it's deeply uncomfortable. You can tell by the pale look on Iggy's face and the beads of sweat, forming on his forehead.

"Hey could you uh ... grab me one of those pastries," the younger Odessa asks Sajin. His eyes are flitting to and fro nervously from behind his thick glasses. But he says nothing aobut it. What could it be?

Kasia is an excellent pilot, but the approach into Tython proves immediately treacherous, and the ship hits atmo with a harsh jolt as a dozen alarm systems being to beep, flash, and screech alarmingly. Outside, the planet tears viciously, eagerly, at the freighter dropped into its midst, and electrical storms, wind, and flying sand and debris seem to be taking special and direct pleasure in ripping at components of the spacecraft. The approach vector that was supposed to bring the ship to the calm, forested part of the planet has been shot to hell, and it's a struggle to keep the craft in the air.

A struggle that's rapidly being lost.

They're headed for the ground, and they're headed there fast -- this is going to be another happy landing. There is no help for it. The ship is damaged, it's falling, and as Tython's desert wastes suddenly loom large in the viewscreen, the passengers have a split second to think about the trouble they're in before the impact.

The ship hits the ground with a horrifying, tortured shriek of twisted, breaking wreckage, everything goes silent, and then it goes dark.

...

..

.

They wake up some time later, to discover that Hex's VCX-100 has been thoroughly, hopelessly wrecked. There's an enormous hole in the side where the ship tried to break itself in half, sand already blowing into the interior. The ship's auxiliary fighter, Mischief, looks like it may have fared better. The Defiance crew are scattered around the crash site at random locations like hoverpins struck by an unfriendly alleyball. None of the slaves are anywhere in evidence; they should probably find them.

Most strangely of all, there is no sound here, none. The sound of one hand clapping is the same as two hands clapping: None. And in this desert, no one can hear you scream.

With another groan, Jehni'va tries to lift a hand to snatch the snack bread from the air. She misses, and it smacks her in the face - hard. "Kas, could you at least put some jizz on?" The hapless, helpless, horribly injured pilot moans pitifully, her voice muffled by both the emergency snack bread she's eating and the hand cupping her sore nose.

And then the world is ripped apart.

Jehni'va, to her credit, does try to go into 'mechanic' mode - but there's nothing that can be done. As such, she is unbuckled, out of her seat, and elbow deep in a control panel when they impact. The last thing she remembers is being thrown against one wall and, with a groan, mumbling "I think that fixed my back." She wakes up, crying out in pain and alarm - but no sound comes out. For a moment, she panics - but reality and logic slowly return to her. She stands, she falls over, she stands again - she writes "GUYS????" in the sand, but that doesn't seem to do much. A pair of boots catch her attention, and she rushes that way, a small cut on her forehead and a body full of bruises from the crash.

But her back is fine, thanks for asking.

Things are going so well, really, packing things up, moving, boss music choices (no). Of course, anytime things are going really well on missions, that means that something is going to go wrong. Kasia should know this by now. "No, I hate jizz," she protests in a tense voice, trying to keep the ship in the air. It's a losing battle, that is heralded by a soft, "Kriiiiiiiffffffff" that steadily increases in volume until that final 'f'. "EVERYONE STRAP IN!" she shouts over the intercoms so that her not so calm voice echoes through the ship, drowning out the peaceful music that doesn't quite fit the setting. Soft lift music plunks along as she mashes buttons, and pulls levers, but it's no hope. "EVERYONE BRACE FOR--" CRASH. That. The terrifying rending of the ship is the last thing that she hears before she hears nothing at all, first because she's unconscious, and then because there is nothing to hear. She wakes up some time later, struggling to unfasten the straps that held her in the seat, and will leave some real impressive brusing later, trying to call out to the others. ... ... Her eyes go WIDE as she looks around, not seeing anyone else. Has she gone deaf? OH NO. One hand snaps near her ears, but there's still no sound. She's pretty certain she's gone completely deaf, trying to holler out for help, for the others, not quite grasping yet that it's not just HER that has the hearing issues.

The ride abruptly becomes a whole lot more bumpy, and Tarion for his part is an experienced crasher in more than one sense of the word. As soon as it becomes clear what's going on, he straps himself down with a seatbelt, someone else's seatbelt, if he can reach a third other person's seatbelt, that's strapped down too, and grabs the nearest food items in to himself in a Houk hug.

When he wakes up, the ship has been spirited away, leaving him and the bench he's strapped to alone in the sand. Blue eyes blink open, and he unlatches himself, rolling off into the sand with a ____. "____," Tarion mouths, baffled, reaching for the food that didn't get lost in the crash, what little there is. No crinkles from the foil-packs. "____ __ ____ _____," his mouth forms, casting about in confusion, wiggling a finger in his ear and looking up at the sky. Bitty bloody Jehn comes running over then, and he looks that way, tapping at his ear and giving her a quizzical look, shaking his head, thumbing his chest, and then pointing at her.

The last thing Naelyn can recall, is turning around, lips parted to offer softly. "Master Iggy, when we return to a good spaceport, I will get you some c-" Then the taste of old socks and citrus cleaner mingles with the taste of blood, as his body is rocked, jarred, and slammed causing a nip of his own tongue or cheek and all is black.

He comes to, gasping , hanging/dangling mostly upside down still strapped into a chair, fingerlessly gloved hands coming up to pull desperately at the straps, as the buckling contraption is stuck. Sand, dirt, a bit of red from a few light scratches and bruises that will require makeup later. Naelyn's lips part behind that veil to call out his usual equivalent of 'f*ck you Hex' in Ryl. But, nothing comes out and his hand moves to his throat and he rises to his knees, coughing a few times and hearing nothing. He's looking around for familiar faces being blocked by some piece of debris or maybe its a rock. So, he takes a deep breath and pats himself down for one of his tools, pulling out a flash light and flashing it a few times. Taking time to look around to see if anybody else is in his same predicament. He could get to his knives, but that's more abwork than he wants to do for now, so tucking the flashlight in his belt to keep flashing at will, he's sucking another one of those hard candies into his mouth and taking a deep breath.

His lip, and cheek muscles are well developed, mostly from sucking...so he tries to estimate which direction more debris or crash victims may be and he spits, as hard as he can...a strangely toe jam colored hard candy going flying up into the air. An improvised signal shot.

Sajin was about to reach into one of his pockets and pull out a pastry for Iggy, but that's when the crash started. Poor pretty Sajin got tossed around in the ensuing crash like a Trandoshan playing with a verpine. Maybe he was used to the abuse, but he was out for the count once he hit his head against the bulkhead. Waking up some time later, his face to the ground and butt up in the air. He groans, but no sound comes out... He attempts to speak and shakes his head, hitting it with the palm of his hand as if that would fix the problem. Even that doesn't make a sound. He looks around at the others and shrugs, moving to retrieve his bowcaster and engage his helmet.

"Open the hatch!" Grom had roared to Kasia as the ship was buffeted by ferocious winds. Because what a stressed pilot needs is a loud alien shouting, "GROM WILL FIGHT THE STORM." But then the ship had crashed (The storm was LUCKY) and when Grom awakes without a groan, throwing a length of ripped bulkhead off of him without a satisfying clunk, and peering around unable to shout. Peering around, Grom gestures to the nearest of the Deflings, his head moving animatedly. A gauntleted hand is raised to thump himself on the side of his ear-holes, and then again harder. Shoulders draw back and chest swells with an intake of breath tremendous enough to cause a few grains of sand to ripple towards him, and he bends forward with the largest, loudest bellow that has ever failed to be.

It goes on for an impressive amount of time, too: over a full minute of arm and throat shaking fury before Grom noiselessly shouts himself out, and topples off his feet in a most Kingly swoon. One booted foot kicks the air in a twitch. Coming to again an instant later, He scribbles in the sand and nods, seeming satisfied. Hauling himself back to his feet the Houk wobbles a moment, still light headed, and siezes upon a plan. The takes hold of the scrap of ship plating, and throws it as high overhead as he can, then promptly tries to shoot it, before the scrap falls back to the sand. THE DEF-SIGNAL.

Iggy Odessa counts the crates, quietly in his head. Maybe they won't notice the batch of them missing. He then eyes the heavy machinery on board. So far no one has noticed that they're down a forklift. As kind as they are, these people aren't very thorough. The sweat continues to pour from his brow as he repeats to himself internally 'They won't notice. They won't notice. They won't notice.' And then WAM, the ship shifts sharply, making Iggy fall face-first out of his seat, pastry-less. He's out long before he could even strap himself down.

When he wakes, blood has poured over his face from a gash on his forehead. The armorer doesn't seem to notice though, instead rising from beneath the sand to notice that he can't see very well. Ruh roh. 'Hey' he tries to call out. But hears nothing and is so dazed that he thinks nothing of it. Naelyn's candy signal is missed but Grom's shot is so visible that he stumbles toward the blurry Houk, squinting all the while.

Snoorrreeeeee. CRASSSSSH. Snooorrreeee. Like those slow mo movies of crashes, Siha is whipped around, but she was smart and like always, buckled in for the flight. She might court death, but she always flies safely. It's just the right thing to do. It is also what helps her not die. Flopping around, hands up in the air like she just don't care, legs flying out but body staying in place she remains blissfully unawares of the actual crash.

She just can't handle kids. And she's slept through worse. Or maybe this is the worst thing she's slept through. It's hard to know. It's the scrap of plating that Grom shoots up into the air, then shoots, that wakes her up when it SHUCKS back into the sands soundlessly beside her to her left, the impact sending a jolt through the woman which is the final nudge needed. Slowly she rocks her head back and forth, side to side, hands reaching above her head as she begins to writhe in the sand like she's still in her bed. Both feet kick out, one booted and one Genosian, toes curling before she's pressing up onto her elbows, noticing she's in a desert.

A soundless sniff. A turn of her head to look off to Grom because, well, how could you miss him, other folk noted with another turn of her head ...and because she's an arsehole she rolls up, crouches to a stand, and begins wandering to the caves.

Woman's gotta pee, but she's not a savage. Along the way she scratches the back of her hips, said hips wagging this way and that as she re-sorts her weapons belt with katana and gun on it to a more comfortable slant.

The silent desert doesn't care for their plight. The storm has calmed as suddenly as it arose, and they're alone in the oppressive, deafening silence that doesn't relent no matter how the King of Fale roars at it. 'Sculptures' of sand rise from the ground like the petrified ghosts of the damned, esoteric and artful as though wrought by sentient hands. They look humanoid, almost. It's disconcerting, and perhaps easy to mistake them for missing Rori Refugees for a moment. But none of them prove to be so.

The wind whips up again, fierce, ferocious, like being sandblasted to remove an old coat of paint, and then dies down, just as suddenly. All of the Deflings can spot one another -- alive and intact, Siha tromping off toward the shelter of a cave -- but not yet their other comrades.

Post wind storm, all of the sand sculptures are in completely different positions. It's even more disconcerting.

Is Jehni'va disappointed that the boots she's found are attached to Tarion? Not as distraught as she would have been had they been attached to nobody, but that's a close second. The pilot slows as she approaches, breathing heavily and still casting frantic glances around - she can see movement, spread sporadically through the sands - but are they real life, or just illusions? She opens her mouth in a silent, frantic question, but - duh. She takes a deep breath and scrawls something in the sand - a question of her own before getting to Tarion's. 'How mirages work?'

As a cargo trader, Jehni'va spends the majority of her days flitting from one planet, one system, to the next - she knows some stuff. The Silent Desert of Tython is more than a myth, and is a frequent topic of conversation around these parts - how couldn't it be? It's incredibly spooky. Tarion's question has a simple answer, and Jehni'va definitely knows it.

Unfortunately, the crash has addled what little brains she has. Jehni'va just shrugs and, using the tip of her boot, scrawls a crude drawing of what she thinks happened to them.

More movement, movement that couldn't have been a mirage, catches her attention. Something thrown in the air - candy? And another, much larger, and this time ripped through by a blazing blaster bolt. She scribbles an arrow and motions to Tarion, already running in that direction, waving a frantic 'hello' - arms high in the air, because the soundless of equivelant of yelling is flailing. Apparently. But she freezes, eyes wide in terror, and just points at the... Sculptures?? She wasn't running towards Defiance at all - Jehn screeches to a halt and scrambles backwards, still pointing.

Kasia spends a couple of minutes simply making sure that nothing is too broken, or bleeding, and that there aren't obvious signs of internal injuries. Which she doesn't actually know how to do, but it involves prodding and checking of bruising, which she's got the beginnings of, but again, no idea what she's looking for. Nothing is so injured that she can't get up and move, so that's what she does, stumbling out into the sand, an inaudible groan exhaled at the sand. So much sand. It's always sand. Pretty soon she's not even going to want to go on beach vacations. She spots statues, and... Tarion. She hurries over to him, and whether or not he sees her she slaps his arm a couple of times, then points at her own ears and says in what would be way too loud a voice could anyone hear anything, "_ ____ ____ ________!" But he can't hear it either, she just doesn't know that yet. Both hands make a helpless sort of gesture and the drop, feeling defeated at this unexpected loss of a sense.

Tarion has his own message to scrawl when he sees Siha marching off out of the corner of his eye. His mouth makes a few shapes while he scribbles a quick phrase in the sand. When the statues appear out of the... maybe they've always been there. Tarion stands there silently, staring one down, eyes narrowed suspiciously, before the storm rolls in, obscuring everything. He waits in inscrutable silence for the winds to die down, and when they've settled once more and the sand clears, he turns in a slow circle to survey the environment, taking in the locations of the other Defiance members. Kasia assaults him, and he looks blankly at the woman while her mouth moves, blinking a few times before just shaking his head in dismissal, too busy looking around for something to offer any sort of comfort or explanation.

Then he sees what he's looking for, and his eyes widen. The man launches into a sudden sprint, slowed by the sand, moving soundlessly across the surface and launching himself at one of the statues, barreling it down to earth. It lands with a crack, revealing nothing that wasn't already visible. Instead, the sightless eyes stare up at him sorrowfully, inhuman and familiar at the same time. The bounty hunter reaches down and quietly lifts the chunk of stone, opening his jacket and nestling it inside against his chest, face out, so that the eyes can still be seen before walking back towards the others.

OKAY, so nobody could see him spitting candy. Naelyn doesn't keep this up, because there are actually limits to how many disgusting things he'll put in his mouth. But he is taking a deep breath and using those acrobatically honed abs to bend in half and slip a knife from his boot, quickly and efficiently freeing himself from his bonds. Falling as gracefully as possible, he's rolling to his feet and clicking off the flashlight. Hands flutter up to fix and resecure hairpins and straighten his veils even as he's taking stock of all the people he sees and all the people he does not see. He holds up his datapad, white screen with BRIGHT PURPLE LETTERS THAT SEEM TO GLITTER. 'NEED TO SECURE THE INVENTORY - MISSION STILL ONGOING'. Because, write in the sand? Witch please, he just did his nails. He holds it up like a ring girl before a prize fight, over his head as he saunters towards what looks to be random debris. Then he's on his knees, fidding and sorting from something, datapd tucked under his arm as he finds the sensor package/panel from the ship and is typing things in, frowning for a moment as he reads the results. Then he's typing into his pad again. 'RORI ----->' pointing towards the caves. and then 'WTF???' and arrows pointing everywhere. And then one more message 'NEED FOOD TO LURE OUT HEX'.

Sajin hasn't moved too much, just kind of keeping off to the side while the others run off. His head moves back and forth, scanning with the tracking system in his helmet. At least they still had sight, for now. The wind makes it hard but the tacking system picks up on some tracks. Head rises up and he follows them off in Siha's direction. He finds a few pebbles and picks them up, tossing them over towards the others to get their attention. If they look over he'll make a walking motion with two fingers and point towards the caves Siha is venturing towards. Then he'll start walking that way himself. Noticing what Nea has writtin then the sand, he pulls the now crushed extra pastry that was meant for Iggy out of a pocket and tosses it towards him on his way towards the caves.

Grom greets Iggy when the pudgy, bleeding human stumbles his way. Probably. The hulking Houk gestures toward Iggy, plants the butt of his ridiculously oversized blaster rifle onto one hip, plants the other skull-sized fist on his other hip, and casts his head back as head, shoulders, and chest boom with silent laughter. Iggy is clapped on the shoulder by near five hundred pounds of armoured reptile.

Next he turns around in a full circle peering at the sand, before looking back up with a shrug, and trudging toward the others. Seeing Tarion's message in the sand, the Houk shakes a fist after the bounty hunter as Tarion sprints off, "_______ ______!" Bending over to scrawl over Tarion's message with his overlarge finger, Grom seems pleased, afterward.

Iggy Odessa remains blissfully unaware and unquestioning of the soundless situation they find themselves in. Besides, silence is better than whatever Kasia was playing on the ship - though he'd NEVER deign to say that out loud! Grom gives him a hefty pat on the back, which makes him fall face first AGAIN into the sand. Someone really oughta teach this man how to catch himself with his hands during a fall. Iggy yells silently on the way down, which is the precise moment he realizes he can't talk.

Plucking back up from the ground like a daisy, his cheeks are covered in blood and sand, but somehow his glasses make their way back to his face. They're cracked with one stem missing, but enough to catch Naelyn's message across the way. "____ ___ __!" he calls to no avail. But patting Grom's arm, he tries to lure the Houk and the rest in the direction of the cave.

Siha Archer stops suddenly near one of the newly ..moved statues, and whether out of surprise or spite, or spiteful surprise, one of Siha's fists snaps out to PUNCH into the statue nearest her, a couple pieces rolling off and Siha following them into the cave. Suddenly, as she crosses the threshold between cave and the outside world, the rattling of the pieces sounds as they continue onwards before shuttling to a noisy clatter. This, after deafening silence, is amazing, and awesome, and Siha will quickly tuck forwards into a slow run, crouching down and scooping up one of the rock pieces, "Ha ..okay - so, I'm a tiny little tea pot ..diddle-dee-dee ...here I am a'baskin' in a fire ..."

Sing-songy as Siha turns and walks back to the entrance, "Short huffs, long huffs, huffs as lo-" Then silence as she passes across the line dividing the caves from the sandy outdoors, the world a whole ball of nothingness for her ears again. A toss of the rock into the cave, no sound coming from it, and a quick dash back over that line to hear the clattering down the way. Turning back around she begins to sing in earnest, jumping into the cave backwards, and out of it forwards, hands waving for the group to come along and see how cool this thing is.

Any living beings in the cave are being treated to the most off-key sound from Siha who basically screeches in the same way the kids were earlier, hopping in and out in a shimmying sort of bouncing dance which is also not pleasing to the eyes. Sound. No sound. Sound. No sound. Don't worry, she'll get bored soon and head deeper into those caves.

Despite the murderous quiet, Sajin and Naelyn have managed to determine that the Rori Refugees passed by Siha's cave and did not enter in there -- and Siha herself has found that unlike the creepy desert outside, within the cave, sound exists again! It doesn't carry out, but within, it's there. Much better. MUCH better.

So why didn't the Refugees stay in there?

Jehni'va doesn't see (nor hear) Tarion's assault on the statue, she is still scrambling backwards in abject terror. Her mouth continues to move, forming thematically appropriate curses that any sufficiently freaked-out sentient in the sand would shout, but... Alas. Finally, she spins around - there's Kasia! Jehni'va pushes herself upright and runs at her, coming up short when she sees -" ___ __ _____ _____?!" She stares at Tarion's chest before repeating herself, this time in the sand. She's drawing when she catches sight of Siha, flailing and dancing, and takes off in that direction. She grabs a piece of broken ship piping to use as a weapon, just in case. When she gets there, there are more Deflings, and the sudden resurgence of sound has her clapping her hands over her ears. Her pipe falls to the ground with a clatter: that makes it worse. "Testing, testing, 1.. 2... O-okay. Um." Naelyn, Siha, then Sajin get her look. "This whole planet is huffing coolant. Where is everyone else? Are we being haunted? Where are the -" She eyes deeper into the cave. "Y'know. People we -" Jehn makes massive, dramatic air quotes. "RESCUED".

Kasia finds herself abandoned by Tarion. ABANDONED! Someone isn't going to get a bonus, and that someone would hear that if only she could speak. Because verbal barbs have failed her, she kicks some sand in Tarion's direction, which also fails her, and then turns to stomp toward the cave where Siha is doing her experiments. SILENT STOMP, SILENT STOMP. This desert is all sorts of unsatisfying, she can't even complain about it, which is really just messing with her mojo here, because that's what fuels her when forced to be out in nature. More silent stomping, right into the cave, and then she hears again. "HA." It echoes, and she whips around to give Jehn the biggest smile. "HAHA! I CAN HEAR!" So could Jehn and anyone else in the caves until she bellowed, but she makes no apology for the loud noises, and instead tries to grab the lanky woman in a hug. "I can hear again, I've never been so happy in my entire life, I thought my ears were broken from the crash." She looks a /mess/ but she doesn't even care. "We have to find the slaves, I have no idea where they are. Hopefully better off that we are? We need to figure out which direction to go to get help, and then worry about the slaves, if we die we can't help them so they're the secondary mission here. Hopefully they'll have gone in the same direction."

Tarion's mouth makes a line, a line, a line, and a circle at Jehn when she moves her mouth in response to the sight of his new chestpiece. The bounty hunter goes about his business calmly, collecting a few of his snacks and things, heading into the ship for a moment and reemerging with his rifle, before moving off towards the cave where the weird dance and other activities are occurring. Rather than enter the cave, he stands outside of it in the silence, staring in at them and obstinately crossing his arms over his chest. A foot draws some words in the sand.

The Tiny Dancer's focus remains on making sure he remembers what he just saw on the sensor. He kneels down beside the dropped pastry and makes a little sand mound to prop the pastry up on. Just so...Hex knows where to find them if worse comes to worse. He even risks his fancy nails to write something in the sand. Just in case. Then he's downloading something onto his datapad and murmuring soundlessly to himself in Ryl.

And so now he's heading towards the caves, following the data he's downloaded from the sensors. He pauses to show his datapad to people as he passes them by, Grom, Iggy, Etc. 'THIS WAS THE DIRECTION OF THE FORMER SLAVES' and walking over the word 'prefection' as he passes by Tarion. Pauses by the mouth of the cave to hold up his datapad. 'WE HAVE TO FIND MY PEOPLE'. And onward he trudges.

Sajin peeks his head into the cave just enough for the others to hear. "Well where ever they went they didn't come in to the caves." Then popping just back out he looks to Nea and nods to him, moving to look for the tacks once more. They had to at least make sure they were okay. He keeps an eye out around them too, who knows what could sneak up on them in this silent desert.

Grom notices Iggie's motion and movement toward the caves, and then a frenetic Siha is bouncing in and out of the caves, drawing Grom's curiosity. As he trudges near enough, head clocked at a curious angle, he gradually crosses the cave's sound threshold. "-rly Reptile has lost her- GASP. Grom's voice has returned!" The big idiot also promptly begins experimenting, wavering back and forth across the barrier. "GR-- -S HE--. --OM I- --RE."

Finally joining the others in the cave, Iggy Odessa sighs as he sees the world through cracked lenses. "Well they can't have gone far. This is the best shelter for miles." He doesn't call them 'creepy sculpture things' because that's inaccurate and politically incorrect, and formations have feelings too! "Oh there was a rocky outcropping not too far away. That might make for some decent shelter."

Yet, after all those words, it is only now the Iggy realizes that he has his voice back! He must really be frazzled from the crash. But he can speak! He can hear! He can sing! "TTIIIIIMMEE TOOOOOOOO .... SAYYY GUUUUUUD BYEEEEEEEEE!" The notes come out in a rich baritone. Smooth and operatic. It makes the space angels cry.

And based on the skittering noises that echo off the rock walls, it also wakes something in the cave.

Finally joining the others in the cave, Iggy Odessa sighs as he sees the world through cracked lenses. "Well they can't have gone far. This is the best shelter for miles." He doesn't call them 'creepy sculpture things' because that's inaccurate and politically incorrect, and formations have feelings too! "Oh there was a rocky outcropping not too far away. That might make for some decent shelter."

Yet, after all those words, it is only now the Iggy realizes that he has his voice back! He must really be frazzled from the crash. But he can speak! He can hear! He can sing! "TTIIIIIMMEE TOOOOOOOO .... SAYYY GUUUUUUD BYEEEEEEEEE!" The notes come out in a rich baritone. Smooth and operatic. It makes the space angels cry.

And based on the skittering noises that echo off the rock walls, it also wakes something in the cave.

"Eeeeeeyyyyyy." Siha fingerguns in the direction of Tarion who stares into the cave while Grom comes in and figures it out, "Right? I think we're all completely /high/ and experiencing the same hallucinations." She shrugs, keeping her helmet on because she doesn't want to get higher than she is, but a nudge of her chin as Jehn and Kas hug is given towards Nae, "But ..they didn't come this way, we gotta go back into the silence and ..datapads are likely the way to communicate. As fun as this is .." Then an owlish turn of her head to stare at Iggy through the t-visor of her helmet, the face she makes going completely unseen. But there is a face being made. Then slowly she will goose step, kitten tawdle, monkey skeedatle, out of the cave, following the direction of Iggy to that outcropping, back in the sweet, sweet silence.

Naelyn says -- well, writes -- that they have to find his people, and by trudging onward, the people he spots. Cresting the next dune past the cave, he can see all ten of the Rori Refugees huddled under a rocky outcropping, just as Iggy thought they might be. Clinging to one another, looking distressed, they seem eminently relieved to see Naelyn, and several rush forward to embrace him. They worriedly point toward the caves and say.... something. Something. It can't be heard, but their distress is apparent.

What the former-slaves might have been trying to warn Naelyn about is, likely, what Iggy just woke up. The other Rori Refugees climb to the top of the dune with Naelyn and the others, and this group can see a bit into the cave. They can't hear, of course, but those who are still inside the cave can.

Skitter.

sktrsktrskttrskttr.

Skitter.

Blink: a pair of yellow eyes in the dark.

Blinkblinkblink: More of them.

The back of the cave, the darkness, is now a sea of glowing yellow eyes like stars in the also eerily silent expanse of space, and slowly, one creature detaches from the shadows and slithers forward. It's a lizard-like creature, with six legs, and a wide maw full of sharp, sharp teeth.

And you know where Siha goes to! TO DA SHIP. She'll take off at a good clip to go and rescue that fighter, sliding across the hood into the open cockpit, prepping it, launching it and hitting all sorts of things because she's a little disoriented. Like, you know when you're driving but you're trying to find your turn, so you turn your music down so you can see better? OPPOSITE FOR SIHA. She needs that sound to ground herself, and without it she's like a giant drunken elephant trying to do some cool flying, "Shoot, shoot, sorry not sorry Hex, I'm sorry - I know I can hear now but it's like my systems are cycling and I gotta wait for the re-- oop, shavit, sorry stupid ..statue whatever ..." But after a moments worth of orientation she takes off across the sands! TO SAVE THE DAY. With ..minimal accidental wing-swipes into waiting rescuees. Minimal. Promise. She's a professional smuggler, honest.

"We can /talk/ - carabast, I thought the explosion had -oof!" Jehn is gathered up in a hug. Her arms are pinned to her sides; the pilot in an embrace could be one of those statues for all intents and purposes. "Apparently they're going.... Uh...." A lot has happened in the last few moments. They were reunited (with each other and their voices), Tarion scalped a statue, communication via datapad was decided upon, Jehn was hugged, Iggy has a beautiful voice, and... Well.

"Niiiiiice reptiles..." Jehni'va croons, slowly stepping backwards towards the silence outside the cave. "Niiiiiiiiiiice babies -" She makes a strange series of hissing sounds, breathing heavily. "They're actually kind of cu-" She is cut off as she continues to walk backwards and out of the cave, her mouth still moving.

She can't hear the ship leaving them behind, she's focused on the horde of reptiles, holding her hands up and still reflexively gurgling a silent gurgle in her throat - because, for whatever reason, Jehn has Language: Beast. Not that it's audible anymore - she slowly slides out her datapad and pings off the message, typing without looking: 'MVE SLOW THAY COO WE COOL'. The reptiles are slowing, but still advancing. Everybody, be cool.

Kasia isn't always a hugger, but today is the exception, and Jehn the recipient. You're welcome. "I thought so too," she assures Jehni'va, stepping back turning to look further into the cave while Iggy SINGS for them. He's cast a surprised look, but she's already subjected everyone to terrible music tonight, so she won't ask him to sing even more, no matter how lovely his voice might be. It's a relief when Siha leaves to definit-- probably go for help, but someone less of one when those eyes begin to appear, because the human blender is gone. "Uh--" A hand moves to the blaster on her hip, sloooowly pulling it from the holster, but she doesn't start to fire immediately. Wide eyes watch as Jehn is pulling her Jehn moves, while backing out of the cave. "You can't have more pets," she informs the woman, but did she say it before Jehn got to the no-sound-zone? Yes, but there's a lot of room for denial here. "We should go. I don't want to be lizard food." And with that, she starts to move out of the cave as well.

Tarion does not look at his datapad. Maybe he can't read. Unlike the others, he's remained outside the cave and doesn't hear the snikkity snik of the silik lizards. What he does notice are the yellowy eyes moving around in the darkness and coming out towards the light. His brow furrows, and a finger points at the reptiles, then with a flat hand, skims slowly down over the face peering out of his jacket as if to exhibit its majesty to the creatures, and his mouth moves as he explains something lofty, eyes cast up at the sky. "______! ___ ____ __ _ ___!" And just in case, he quietly powers on his rifle with a blink of light. Then he moves with deliberate, grandiose stride towards the slaves and the outcropping, writing in the sand with the barrel of his rifle as he goes.

Okay, staying on task. Naelyn sighs in relief when he sees the refugees, nodding slowly and bowing his head in greeting. He lifts his arms as people rush up and embrace. He does swing one small child to his hip though, tapping on his datapad and holding up the message. 'WE WILL STAY HERE AND WAIT FOR RESCUE - WHO CAN HELP MAKE CAMP?' Sadly, he didn't get to hear the singing, but he does hold up his pad, tapping in a message to hold it up as a sign for people approaching that says 'I FOUND THEM - NOT DEAD - BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER - BE CAREFUL THERE ARE THINGS IN THE CAVE'. Then he sees the blinky yellow eyes and hears the ship taking off and shakes his datapad to clear the message and then shows. 'RUN!!'

Sajin is slowly approaching the Rori refuges. He holds up his hands as he seems to think they're cowering and pointing at him. He did get that sometimes. However, Sajin is too stupid to work through the fact that they remember who he is and that they're warning him of the Lizzard beasts that are emerging. He doesn't even turn around to look at them. He doesn't realize they're there and he can't hear them. So he didn't spook and he didn't shoot at them, focused on the refuges and getting them to move. He doesn't even hear the fighter. He's even missed out on Nae's message.

Grom was briefly excited as beasts stir in the cave. "Worthy foe??" he bares teeth in a broad smile, until the size of the Siliks becomes apparent. The smile fades. "Bah. Stupid TINY reptiles. Grumble. GRUMBLE. ...Gromble?" he muses, turning and slowly tromping his way after all the others, almost broadly reaching down to pick Iggie back up on the way.

Iggy Odessa blushes at everyone who throws him a look with a the coy smile of someone who KNOWS what he just sang was real good but is trying to be humble about it. The act is up though when a lizard pops out of the darkness, springing forth from the family of yellow eyes. "Oh ... this is not ... I don't ..." He quietly creeps back, back, back out of the mouth of the cave. And once shrouded in the veil of silence, Iggy turns and tries to book it in the direction of Naelyn.

Unfortunately he falls flat on his face AGAIN, but doesn't stay there for long when Grom picks him up and fireman carries him. 'RRRUUUUNNNN! RUUUUUNNNN!' Iggy tries to yell while kicking and flailing to try and convey the expedience that is needed at this moment, pointing to where the slaves are waiting. His distress matches theirs.

Against all odds, Defiance did it. They solved a problem without violence. Tarion and Kasia are wise to have weapons wielded just in case, but in the end, they don't need them. Jehni'va's approach is wise, and allows the silik lizards to handle the problem the way they would have with another encroaching pack of siliks in their territory: some posturing, then one tribe leaves and the cave tribe congratulates themselves on a job well done. They're just strange animals at home in this alien desert, and thanks to atypically good judgement, they didn't have to perish for doing what they do.

They weren't much of a worthy foe anyway, Grom was right about that.

The Rori Refugees are just as happy to see Sajin as they were Naelyn, though there is some definite confusion about who's gesturing for what and why. Eventually one solves the problem by hugging Sajin. You are known. You are hugged. It makes it awkward to get back toward the ship, but, you know. They'll get there.

Back in the silence, the first sign they have of the arriving Crisis is the shadow it casts over their group, but arrive it does. Siha got help! Wind kicks up and sand flies around as the craft lands, and the ramp lowers, to reveal Hex tromping out with a cigarette and a shocked expression, immediately gesturing in lekku language. No one can understand. But it's generalized wtf-ery. There is flailing.

Deflings and Rori Refugees alike are herded onto the ship, everyone safe and intact, a job well done.

By the time they leave, the wind-sculpted statues have shifted again, in a perfect semi-circle surrounding the crash site.

That's probably normal.