Log:Jedi: Don't Stop the Signal
Jedi: Don't Stop the Signal
OOC Date: August 14, 2023
Location: Nar Shaddaa
Participants: Zev, Qutha Buvu Pah and Yuun, GM'd by Rey
Setting up a Jedi Enclave on Nar Shaddaa was a risky venture. One reason the risk was so high is because enemies could come at you from seemingly any direction! Some potential directions were sussed out by the Jedi, and now task force teams were being sent out to these sites, to install comm and listening devices that could give forewarning of any potential unwanted spies making their way closer to the hidden enclave.
Adjacent to the Enclave...
Hidden beneath Nar Shaddaa's Mechanical Gardens, the Subterranean Vents beckon with a network of twisting tunnels lined by radiant bioluminescent plants. Soft glows cast an eerie yet inviting ambiance upon stone arches coated in moss, while the distant hum of machinery provides a steady backdrop. As the Jedi venture deeper, they navigate through this natural haven, seeking the ideal nook to discreetly install their communication device, surrounded by the soft rustle of leaves and the faint scent of exotic flora, mixed in with the contrasting smells of steam, oils and mechanical machines.
Rey, dressed in her black garments, turns a corner and steps further in to the ventilation shafts that run through this subsection of the old gardens. She looks back over her shoulder.
"Decades ago, a Hutt Lord wanted to turn his property on Nar Shaddaa in to something more akin to Nal Hutta. He had elaborate gardening droids created. Armies of them," she explains, stepping lightly around plants growing out of old ruined duracrete walls, her eyes scanning over the fusion of flora and industrial development.
"According to what I read, it went well for several years, a true oasis of beauty like a natural city... until the Hutt's enemies infiltrated his droid gardeners programming. They began to destroy sections of the gardens, began to plant life in places it didn't belong. The place became pure chaos, and the wildlife that had been transplanted to live within it broke loose."
Rey walks through a steamy jet that was warm, but not dangerously so. She steps over a long stretch of vines covering the duracrete floor of the vent shaft. "Instead of dealing with it properly though, the Hutt just ordered it sealed up. Cut off from the outside world... and now, the droids that remain continue to cultivate their gardens, lost in their own little world here."
She once more looks back behind her. "It's very strange, and very much the kind of thing you'd expect from the Hutts." She dryly states with a smirk.
"Ayuh... though I reckon beauty's relative... If'n y'never been to Nal Hutta."
Qutha was moving along, his eyes adjusting to the gloom with the aid of the force to keep him from needing his goggles or his usual overabundance of glow rods. Making his way in Rey's wake with a heavier and heavier frown taking his features.
"Didn' think a world could be more industrially p'lluted than Corellia." a grunt and a shake of the Zelosian's head while he checks his haversack, "What're we doin' pokin' round ol' sealed up botanical nightmares, Miss Rey?" an unconscious pat at his side, making sure his saber is ready to be plucked up, should circumstance require.
"I've seen worse places." Rey comments about their current locale as her eyes roam around the corridor of duracrete, moss, and strange plantlife. Some of it even glows, offering dull light to shine off of the Jedi as they maneuver through the environment.
At the question, Rey produces a small box roughly the size of a holocron. She offers it back to Qutha. "We need to see this installed at the old comm array that used to service this district. One of our contacts said that it is still used to this day, but is rarely visited by anyone other than your standard maintenance droid. It also is one of the main intersections still standing, still able to be used to get through this space... And, since it's close to our little home here now, we need to know who is coming through and any communications they might be transmitting while doing so..."
She steps over another cluster of vines that are interwoven around the corridor's floor, having burst out of pipework lining the walls of the ventilation tunnel.
"It's up ahead," she says, raising her navigation device to check her map and beacons directing her.
As she leads him around a corner, the two come out upon a larger room, its a few steps down from the ventilation tunnel, and its filled with the same bio-luminous plantlife, a veritable small jungle of it, in fact.
It causes Rey to pause, and roam her eyes over it all, the chamber at least 50 feet across and the same in width.
"It's beautiful," Rey notes. "If a bit dank..."
For the most part Zev has been kind of lost in thought. He'd been spending more time on Nar Shaddaa, and had actually wondered a lot about Nal Hutta, "I haven't been. I heard that the Hutts ruined it so they came up here instead, but that was thousands of years ago."
The Lepi continues to follow along, though when they round the corner into the room full of bio-luminescent plantlife he stops, surprised at how beautiful it does look, "It's bigger than I expected.."
"Means we ain' gonna be 'lone down here." murmured glumly as he takes in the sights surrounding them. Looking down to the device in hand now keeping it held close while studying the room of bioluminescent plants. Already letting his gaze sweep from one growth to the next, gauging how to proceed for himself before he hunkers some.
"So's, we gotta git this into the comm relay, up'n runnin', n'git ourselves gone wit'out folk possibly gettin' suspicious via they's droids." Qutha adds after a bit, brow knitting, "Oh bother..."
Rey starts down the metal staircase that leads the team in to the luminous jungle. She listens to them behind her, and exhales softly before nodding. "Yeah. The good news is, these droids are all gardeners. They shouldn't give us any problems." She states with a glance over her shoulder. "But be careful. There was wildlife brought in to inhabit the gardens, and I couldn't find any clear information on exactly what kind. The records were.. well, they left a lot to be desired."
When they reach the jungle floor, Rey pauses to look for the best route through it. She glances down at her navigation device, then points ahead, and to the right with her good hand.
"We should be headed that way." She notes. "There should be an exit on that far wall there..."
With a glance over her shoulder she motions for them. "Lets go, keep our feet light." She states, showing them a faint smirk.
Soon the Jedi will be pressing in to the jungle, Rey turning her shoulders to slip between the glowing plantlife. Some red, some yellow, some orange and some even changing hues from blues to purple, and back again. It really is quite a sight, with huge bulbs bigger than most sentient lifeforms, and long stretching leaves dotted with strange patterns and rich colors.
"Smells a little unusual.. we might want to--"
Rey's words are cut off as something makes an audible 'pop' noise near to their small team. One pop alone might not be that big of a deal, but soon there-after following pops begin snapping off around them, and visibly little pods lining some of the glowing plants begin to burst open, spraying visible clouds of polun in to the air.
When inhaled it will instantly start to burn the interior of their mouths, and a light headed sensation is likely soon to follow.
At first Rey has expressions of concern showing on her face as she tries to push onward, but soon she's reaching for her rebreather. "Come on, we need to get through this faster!" She encourages the others as she starts to try and increase her rate of speed through the strange underground jungle.
Moving forward as directed, the popping raising his head and brows but the orchardist offers nothing on the nature of it - not sure of the sorts of plants, or likely fungus, being encountered.
Time to study more about Hutt plants.
"Ifn' y'kin smell it, Miss Rey, it's likely somethin' tryin'a use you as an air-cab." free hand lifting and with it follows a roll of airflow pulled to create a buffer between the Jedi and the flowing particulates. His other hand draws a bandana from his belt, now tying it around his face while focusing on his direction of the air currents.
Yuun was lagging behind to just make sure things were clear behind them, but he soon is catching up. He sees the cloud, and he quickly puts on his rebreather. He is moving in behind the rest of the team so he isn't too far behind them.
Rey gives a look back to Qutha to convey she's not interested in playing host to this polun filling the air around them. With her rebreather in, though, she's unable to vocalize her thoughts on it.
Qutha's timely 'blast' of wind has a strange effect of being helpful in the short term, but the gust also causes a whole swath of more pods to react. The tiny plants just start bursting all across the chamber of glowing flora!
Rey adjusts her breather, and rubs at her eyes with the back of her cloth-wrapped wrists.
They're almost there.. half way through the jungle room, her shoulders brushing aside some of the glowing bulbs that seem to react to the Jedi being near to them, brushing against them, as it seems to cause them to glow brighter when they are interacted with. It's strangely hypnotizing in a way...
But what most certainly is NOT hypnotizing is the sudden sound of something rumbling, something growling.
From the far side of the room, the massive plants are pushed aside, and the fangy face of a actual bio-luminous beast emerges. The bursting pods clearly having awoken it. Like a cross between a massive wildcat, and some kind of living plant-creature, its face glows with pockets of red, yellow and orange hues, its eyes a deep crimson red.
It growls more openly at the Jedi, its maw opening up and a glowing tongue of veiny lines slips across its pointed teeth!
Rey plucks her rebreather from her mouth, and shouts back to her group. "Run!"
And then she's off, darting ahead to lead the way, her feet nimbly leaping over the thick vines covering the jungle floor within this subterrainian chamber!
Watch your step, watch your backs! The bio-luminescent beast lunges from the jungle, and begins to charge after the Jedi! NEW PREY!
"Bother..."
Muttering with the sound of the approaching beast and taking off a Rey's direction, Qutha is moving with the same half-attention that he maintains in his normal day to day. Letting his consciousness drift on he eddies and currents of the force - letting them move his feet and choose the zelosian's direction.
"Rey... ifn' y'got where we need t'git in mind, might could work best to have us git on the move, reckon!" the words interjected with breaths while trying to outpace the creatures taking interest in them.
The Lepi hadn't said much as he was trying to move with the group, putting his robes up over his mouth and nose. Which isn't helping him see where he's going. Thinking he might actually be able to get some extra speed by pushing off one of the planters, he misjudges his timing and slips off of it, falling to the floor and sprawling out as he does so. That was way wetter than he thought it was.
Rey reaches the far side of the jungle first, and is quick to spin around to view the rest of her team having mixed results. Her eyes scan around the jungle flora as more of the pods continue to burst open their polun reserves, while the Bio-Luminescent beast bounds down one of the larger plants in his way, lunges up on a massive root, spies the Jedi... and leaps toward them!
It lands about 10 feet from Yuun and Zev, its heavy body causing the entire ground beneath the Jedi to shake.
The shaking doesn't lessen either, heralding it not at all being your average tremor of a heavy creature's threatening landing.
No, it harkens to something far more ominous.
"Wait... just wai--" Rey is saying, at a near-whisper before the whole side of the chamber that they're on begins to fall out from under them.
The ground itself gives way, the flora having been tearing at the duracrete foundations for ages now, and the droids that keep the water flow coming to the floor only making the situation way worse!
This entire side of the jungle goes down, a slanted slope that breaks loose under the doorway that the Jedi were trying to get to, and sliding down in to the dark beneath it!
Everyone, even the Luminous Beast are sent cascading down in to an even more sub-terrainian level!
Debris, detritus, and plants are all torn up in to chunks, as a natural landslide is created within the strange sub levels of the Mechanical Gardens.
Rey is sent tumbling downward, just like everyone else. A good fourty foot drop that ends with her rolling end over end until she is at the base of the sloped decline, a literal tsunami of debris falling around her, and over her, along with everyone else!
The fear here, and now, is to not be buried beneath the fall of all the debris!
The Beast? He's right there with everyone else, tumbling down toward the pile of gathering filth, howling in its own fear and pain from the fall and fright of it all!
Looking over his shoulder when Zev falls and Yuun draws back, grunting and trusting The Force to guide his direction. Looking at the gathering mass of detritus they're hurtling towards and reaching out to try and shield himself when Qutha strikes. Slamming into the debris and rolling along with a grunt.
That was a long drop, and Yuun uses the force to control his impact to the ground. He does roll with the impact, "Uhh..."he says as he stumbles to his feet. Rising to his feet, Yuun looks for Zev and he moves to face the creature that also came down with them.
Once the collapsed floor starts to settle, and everything that came down along with it finishes tumbling down in to the edge of the level below, the situation starts to take form. The dust and polun in the air continues to float around those who fell with the room itself, and senses start trying to figure out everything that had just happened.
Rey, using her mechanical hand, starts to pull herself up out of the massive amount of plant fiber, dirt, rock and otherwise. She pulls herself free of it, with fresh wounds visible on her forehead, her shoulders and across the side of her neck. "That wasn't good." She starts to utter.
But beside them, that massive Luminous beast rises up to its four legs, shaking its head as it glares at the Jedi.
It roars at them, its entire body undulating as it shouts with a reverberating scream that echoes through the room.
But, it doesn't attack them, a clear wound upon its leg, it instead turns, and begins to bound up the fallen floor back toward what remains of the luminous jungle above!
Rey, one hand near to her belt where her lightsaber is securely clipped, watches the creature bound off, and once more she strokes her cloth-covered forearm across her brow.
"Is everyone alright?" She asks. "I think this place is more dangerous than we anticipated it would be. Which might be a bit obvious at this point..." She says with a somewhat weary voice.
She looks over the three of them accompanying her on this trek, and exhales softly. "Come on, lets get to the intersection, and hope to get out of here without any further issues..."
Rey turns then, to a new tunnel that had been exposed by the fallen debris. She moves toward it, and starts to crouch down to roll in to the new hallway, since only a small amount of space was still accessible.
Inside the new corridor, more plantlife lines the mossy walls, but the further the Jedi will delve in to it, the more open it becomes, with the fallen debris not reaching more than a few meters in to the new hallway tunnel.
"Qutha. Can you take some samples of these plants?" She asks. "I'd like to know what exactly they are made up of, and what we've been breathing in." She states, her rebreather lost in the collapse.
Within moments the Jedi reach a room filled with access ladder entrances, scaling up and down what looks to be an intersection, but not the one they came for. "I think we have to go up." Rey quietly notes, her eyes scanning around the new dark area of branching tunnels...
Zev gets burried under a lot of rubble. After quite a few moments, he pushes some of the debris off of himself, and then gasps out, "Ow." Eventually picking himself out of the debris with the help of Yuun, he has blood running down the side of his head. He doesn't seem to notice at the moment.
"Up? Up makes sense.." He rubs the side of his head, pulling back his hand with red on it, "Wow..I suppose that could have /definitely/ been worse." His head could have been crushed completely by that debris.
"In a non-lit environment, usin' ambient moisture'n heat from the lower levels, we're dealin' more wit' sporin' plantlife n'fungi." stumbling for balance, Qutha looks warily in the direction that the beast had gone before he starts going through his haversack, pulling out small containers and his clips to begin taking cuttings and tucking them into his pack.
Hunkering and rubbing the side of his face with a cloth as he looks over his new bit of work,
"But when y'have these sorta situations, they's either gonna entice to carry, eat, or they'll try t'make y'food." nodding to himself as he works.
Yuun looks and sees Zev, though as the large creature bound upwards, Yuun watches it. "I hope you will be alright."he says as he hopes his words reaches the creature. Yuun turns around as he hears Rey and he looks to Qutha. "I hope we're all are alright." he asys as he looks to them. Nodding his head, " I will keep at rear guard." he says.
Following behind the others, Yuun keeps a watchful eye on things, "I'm enjoying this." he says to the others as he keeps his voice low. Yuun continues to look out as they move.
The Jedi progress up the ladder system to reach their original destination level. When they step out of the old rusted ladder tubes, they find themselves back within the heart of the strange plantlife filling the corridor alcove around then...
Still deep within the Subterranean Vents, the alcove stands as a fusion of ancient and forsaken. Bioluminescent tendrils illuminate rusted metal and chipped stone, revealing a weathered communication array, its flickering lights hinting at long-forgotten messages. In the shadows of the archway, the Jedi find their opportunity, a chance to meld their own device with the array's hauntingly abandoned form, "That's it." Rey says as she pulls the cube box from her satchel.
"That's what we need to attach this too." She states, opening it up before she glances at the others. "Anyone good with old comm sat stations?" She asks with a smirk as her fingers pluck their own listening device from the box she'd had it stowed within.
Rey's gaze remains fixed on the alcove's rusted communication array, the soft glows of the bioluminescent flora casting eerie shadows upon her determined expression. She watches as Yuun, works with quiet precision, priming the array for their discreet task. As he steps back, she steps forward, her gloved fingers deftly retrieving a small device from the box she carries. With steady hands, she attaches the listening device to the array, the mechanical and organic elements merging in a silent accord.
"There." She says after a second, her voice low. "That should do it." She adds as her gaze now goes to the others. She sees that they are all beat-up now, all covered in dirt and grime, and it causes her to smirk. "Come on, lets try to find our way out of here, and see how the other teams did with their missions."
She turns to regard the various other tunnels that branch off from this intersection, and she raises her directional device to help guide them.
In the distance, down the corridor with the most plantlife attached to its walls, the sound of that howling creature can be heard. It's still out there, and it may yet be tracking them...
