Log:Jedi: The Sunfighters
A team of Jedi respond to a perimeter alarm on Arisnar...
OOC Date: May 22, 2023
Location: Arisnar
Participants: Rey, Lira'una, Zev, L'orera, Juria Nexum
The planet of Arisnar, a secret location for the Jedi Order. The home of their youngling training facility. The Jedi had been called to bolster defenses around the Academy after a series of attacks came from an Insectoid-Dragonkin had been spotted testing the facility's defenses. Though there were Two Jedi Masters on-site, and a wavering number of a handful of Jedi Knight, the younglings... some 100 children, needed to be protected.
Thus, more numbers were sent to Arisnar to help with this effort. Rey, and a number of other Jedi Knights, and Padawans now find themselves on the planet at the rather nice little Academy facility that rests on the edge of a idylic beachfront.
They had been on world for several days now, and things had been 'business as usual'. But tonight, things change.
An alarmy went off, only for the adults at the Academy. Those adults had scrambled to respond to the situation outside, and upon arriving they find two strange figures moving in the darkness, both of them pulling apart a moisture vaporator about two hundred yards from the school.
This is where the group is now, observing them from afar, on a sandy dune hill, Rey amongst the others. She holds a pair of binocs and is staring upon the creatures in the low-light that the binocs provide.
"It looks like they're trying to get at the water storage..." Rey says as she lowers the binoculars and offers them to another, should they desire to look and see for themselves.
The creatures are large, about six feet in length and somewhere equally that in height. With dragon-fly wings, and long snouts, they look quite menacing from afar as they tear at the technology in the sandy clearing about 100 yards out.
Lira'una's lavender frame is nearly swallowed by the inky black robe she wears, the hood pushed back to expose her lavender lekku. She's standing next to a droid that's been a relatively constant companion of late -- BT-SKT (named Skitter), a meter-tall four-legged black spider droid with hints of dark, dark purple painted as accents.
Skitter and Lira both quietly through the sands of the dune. She'd been walking the perimeter of the school when the alarm had gone off and she came as quickly as she could, not at all too shy to go up to Rey and offer a small, purple-lipped smile, hand extended for her turn to look through the binocs.
"Master, back on Tempes, you mentioned... fighting them, before? Were these the same creatures?"
Skitter stills beside Lira, his own sensitive array of scanning equipment already starting to work in that direction as well.
Zev had trained on a mobile enclave when he was younger, so he'd never been out to this particular planet until the mission. But boy this place was beautiful. During his down time he'd been particularly fond of exploring the beach. But that was over the last few days, now? Now was time to focus.
He hops up next to Rey, looking out at the vaporator that they're tearing into, "Maybe there's somewhere they could be relocated to where they can get water and food without tearing into the equipment.." He knows Jedi in the past have shown an affinity with connecting with animals, but these are sentient, if he remembers correctly.
L'orera has been dividing her time between the archives, the infirmary and entertaining the Younglings. Being who she is, she really likes interacting with the children.
She may also have been telling them the story of what happened on the trip with Qutha. It's an important story of how to solve problems with words alone. No Force, no violence. Just an open hand.
Somehow, she doubts this will end up that way.
The Mirialan slips up to the spot, bowing slightly to the Grand Master. She squints out to see what's going on, taking her turn with the binocs. She's not quite sure how they're going to stop this.
Feeling fairly certain that they're about to kill these creatures, and having a particular aversion to it, Juria is standing quietly off to the side. Staring out across the desert with her hands on her hips, which juts out slightly. Green eyes glance over as each individual arrives, then back to where they say these creatures are, but all she sees is the haze of vapors wofting up off the sand.
A pensive expression on her pale face beneath.
"In our first year at this place, quite some time back now, there was an attack." Rey explains when questioned. "I'd been asleep in my room, and had experienced the attack in a dream. When I woke up... I went about waking some of the others, and thankfully it gave us time to be ready for the onslaught that we faced."
She looks to those with her on the sand dune, a gust of cool desert night wind rushing across them all. "It was these creatures, yes..." She says, her eyes going back out to them.
"But they were twice this size." She quietly states.
Off in the distance, a screaching sound can be heard, it echos off of the terrain as it reaches the Jedi observing the beasts. "I don't know what to expect from these things. I never got much of an answer out of the Arisnar representitives at the time as to the nature of what these things were. They told us to report any further incidents, but there were none. Until now."
Another screach is heard as the creatures continue to tear in to the vaporator. Rey draws in a breath, her good hand going up to stroke some of her loose hair out of her face as she considers their options.
"We can approach them. We can attempt to ease their fears, or worries, should they feel any toward us. I've managed to get in to the minds of animals in the past, but I'm not sure where these things fall in regard to their intelligence levels."
"We need to know how many of them are out there though... I'd like to... follow them to their nest, which they might run to if we spook them."
She looks back to the others then. "What do you suggest?" She asks EVERYONE, which is her style of teaching, training, or however you wish to describe it.
Lira frowns faintly as she listens quietly to the briefing, offering the binocs around to any in the group interested, or back to Rey if no one else takes them.
Her hands fold over her stomach as she turns to face the creatures in the distance, listening to the screeches with a soft sigh. "If only one of us goes down there, they may feel less threatened.. or they may feel like they have enough of an advantage to attack. If we all go, they may feel /more/ threatened, or they may be more likely to run. Back to a nest.. or just.. for the closest thing they consider cover."
A pause, then. "Do we really want to stir up a whole nest of them by sending them back there scared? I can't think of any other reasonable alternative than to /try/ to communicate with them. Do we have any way to track them /besides/ chasing them? If we run after them, we don't know what we'll be running into."
What do they thing should be done? Zev hmmms faintly to himself as he looks out across at the creatures, thinking a bit to himself, as he swats an insect near one of his ears, "I would approach unarmed and try to talk to them, but I wonder if there's any way we could get a tracking device to plant on them." He muses to himself, as he looks to the other group. All padawans and the grandmaster, he realizes.
Wait is this a test?
Now that he's thinking it might be a test, Zev's tail twitches faintly. He's probably going to take this very seriously, because Jedi tests have a tendency to be extremely dangerous.
Rera frowns thoughtfully, eyes flickering towards Juria, Rey and then Lira. "I think we should try and communicate. I don't want to cause anyone, any creature, undue harm unless it's the last resort."
Talking worked so well the last time!
"I...I'll volunteer. I'm inoffensive and unthreatening. If they decide to attack me, I should be able to defend myself long enough for help to arrive." She pauses. "If you think it's too dangerous for a Padawan, though, I understand."
The blonde Knight stands quietly, staring out across the desert at where the others have indicated the creatures are tearing at the evaporators trying to get at fresh water sources. "The gestiational period seems to be fairly long, fifteen to sixteen years. Given such a lengthy egg to adult cycle, they probably nest in secluded locations as far away from civilization as they're able..." Green eyes scan the horizon, "Either in deep lairs beneath the sand or in mountain caverns where there are no natural resources the Arisnar have not yet found to excavate."
She blows out a sigh, standing with her hands yet on her hips.
"Given they're not attacking the facility directly, but staying on the outskirts, I can surmiss that they're probably young adults..." Motioning over to Rey, "Since Rey has said that they were much larger when they encountered them previously." Her hand goes back to her jut hip.
"I would study them. See if there's a way that we can live in harmony with these creatures, who are probably native to this planet, given their lengthy gestation, and older than the people who live here. What do we know about them? Since our 'hosts' have been so very forthcoming in regards to precisely what they are and what threat the represent,other than to a few machines?"
Rey reaches out to accept the binocs back with a soft smile as she hooks them back on to her belt on her hip. She puts her eyes back out across the horizon toward the creatures quite a ways off still. One thing about the Arisnar star system is that its surrounded by nebula that are bright in the night sky, looking up to the stars one is greeted with a palette of reds, oranges, yellows and a myriad of others that are bright even at the furthest point from the noon hours. This gives the desert a dimly lit level of painted illumination, with deep and dark shadows stretching in wildly varying directions from their points of origin.
"WE should approach them." She agrees then, and starts down the dune, her booted feet casting sand gently around their heels as she steps down at a light pace.
"We will stay back twenty or so feet and allow just one to approach to initiate contact. We'll be here to support them, but not advance as a group."
AS she reaches the bottom of the dune to press foot upon a more hard packed dusty desert floor, Rey looks over to Juria who seems rather put-off by all of this.
"I'm told they're from another world in this star system, the one that hangs closest to the system's stars. Sideosnar. I'm told that they've been found in nursey's here from time to time, dating back quite a number of years. But the information I got is old, and it was a bit dodgey even back then..."
She advances now, moving casually and walking witha confident stride just on toward the creatures as they continue to dismantle that twenty foot tall vaporator that has been providing the school with water for nearly two decades now. Rey's hands remain at her sides, her dark hued lightsaber hilt just bouncing against her hip as she walks.
The creatures continue to make loud yipping noises, screaches, and cries of either chatter or triumphant encouragement of one another as they 'work' on the machine with quite a bit of diligence to get at its watery goodness.
Lira sticks by Rey with Skitter following close at her side, and though she listens to the others, she looks warily back at the Mirialan.
"These aren't bandits, Rera," she says after Rey has answered. "And you're the one with the first aid kit," she reminds with a playful twinkle in her eye. "I can't help you if /you/ get hurt." It's playful, friendly teasing, though her voice is kept quiet.
Looking back to Rey, she tilts her head a little. "Juria's right -- harmony. They're obviously after the water. I've been working on my telekinesis, lately. Is there a way to open a valve or something and give them what they're after? Maybe that will help placate them, for now.. show them we're not here to hurt them?"
That seems like the best option, Zev things. The group sticks together, only one person moves up to try to initiate the communication, then hopefully things go well and they can get them to stop ripping up equipment.
The lepi follows along, keeping his hands out of his robes so that when they do get up there to where the creatures are, he'll be able to show he means no harm after all. At the same time, however...He's aware of how delicious he tends to look to predators.
"They're not bandits. You're right. But if they're intelligent, we should still try and talk to them," Rera says. Though, the bit about the first aid kit makes her tilt her head slightly. "I guess -that's- right." She sighs a little as they start to move. "I'll hang back, then. Just in case anyone gets hurt."
Hopefully nobody gets hurt and these things can communicate. She lingers in the back of the pack near Juria, leaning over to whisper a bit conspiratorially. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Juria looks put-off by it because she is. "Lira's suggestion holds weight. If we can provide them the water they're trying to get, perhaps we can stop them from attacking the evaporators all together. Produce oasis for them where they can have access to fresh water in the desert, someplace where we can establish a communion, attempt to become friendly with these... if not all.. of these creatures. We study them, we learn their herding patterns, and we determine the actual threat they represent." With that said, she doesn't balk at following Rey forward.
Her own lightsaber bounces against the leg of her trousers, beneath her hanging poncho with the hood pushed back off her raised ponytail. "My purpose is to live in harmony with nature, even the dangerous parts. If it costs extra for us to avoid disrupting them, I feel that doing so is the appropriate course. And it starts with how we approach this group." Pointing to the creatures that are starting to become more obvious the closer they get to the machines they're tearing apart.
"I, for one, volunteer to study them. I'm going to do so regardless, but with the councils leave, I will establish a base-camp out here in the desert, closer to their habitat. Hidden when necessary. Dangerous though they may be, they are worthy of protection as any creature. At least until we can determine their exact effect on the ecosystem of this planet and in this solar system."
Peering around at the padawan, but ultimately up to Rey.
With Rera stepping up to her, Juria smiles for the first time and shakes her head. "There are no bad feelings, only bad actions. If something concerns you, voice it, but don't act upon it until it you are certain it is true. I trust that the right decision will be made, even if I am concerned about the purpose of the Arisnar's unwillingness to cooperate by providing information. In the absence of evidence, we find it. If there's a lack of knowledge, we learn." Winking one green eye. "Everything will be fine."
AS she walks on the far left of the group, Rey does dig around in her satchel hanging from her opposite hip from her saber. She pulls out a small device that she presents in her palm toward the others. "A tracking device. Though this is for ships..." She indicates as she offers it to Zev. "If you can find a chance to get close enough to attach it. But becareful..." She says to the floppy eared amongst them.
Her eyes go up to Juria then, and she nods once to her. "I support you in such a goal, Juria. You know you always have my support." She adds a soft smile to the end of her words before her eyes go forward again at the sound of something happening.
The Jedi are fifty yard out now, and the two dragon-like bugs rip part of the vaporator off, causing a big durasteel plate to thwump down in to the dusty ground. It sends clouds of sand up around it, as the two Dragons both descend down upon it with an almost cackling sound of glee coming from them.
The two beasts begin to nose the metal plate, their visible tongues gliding over it before one goes to the exposed guts of the machine still standing to get at whatever was exposed.
For anyone familiar with vaporators it'll quickly start become obvious that the Dragons are not going for the water, they're going for the mushrooms that grow on the machines themselves. Mushrooms that grow in the condensation in the shadows of the sunslight.
Rey just peers at them as she continues onward, walking at a casual pace.
30 yards now.
"I'm not sure they're after the water..." Is all Rey has surmized.
25 yards.
The dragon licking at the plate on the ground is the first to see the group in the distance. It raises its wings, it bends its long neck down, and casts its long snout up. It shrieks, which draws its brother to turn around to look at the group too!
The second Dragon mimmicks the first, its wings spreading out, its body language going in to a defensive posture!
They both JUMP over the fallen plate from the vaporator, landing just a few feet from it, their heads aimed right at the approaching Jedi now.
They bark something at them, little shouting shrieks, followed by the one on the right breathing in deeply, and then exhaling again through its nose, which sends a wave of white-hot flame up in to the air, a ball of fire just extending five or so feet before it rolls back out of existence.
The fire lights up the desert, the warmth felt even 25 yards away.
Rey stops, her body visibly more tense now as she watches this unfold...
Lira glances over at the tracking device before it's handed to Zev and nods. At least that was something. Running blind into a nest of angry creatures seemed like the worst possible scenario. At least this would give them the ability to follow them more safely if they could do it.
But then there's the big thud from the vaporator as it collapses, the creatures jumping up and clawing at it. /She/ wasn't familiar at all with vaporators, so despite the fact that Lira could tell they weren't after water, anymore, there wasn't really a way for her to know what they /were/ after... of course, in a moment, that didn't matter.
The first one turned its head and shrieked, and Lira's faltered.
I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me.
Then there's the snort of fire, the wave of heat, and the Twi'lek's eyes slide closed. She takes a breath and lets it out slowly, her hand coming up a little in front of her. The decision to try to calm the creature is instinctive. At least she didn't immediately rush into kill it and ask questions later. It just.. probably would have been better if she'd had more practice calming things like this, before.
Rera listens quietly to the advice her Master gives her. It's sound and sagely and she will remember it. The feelings aren't bad, only actions are. This will likely be direly vital at some point in the future.
She moves through the sand gently, keeping a wary eye on the creatures as they get closer. She stops when Rey does, watching the beings ... eat mushrooms. Huh. Not what she expected, honestly. The threat displays make her take a step backwards, and the searing heat of fire makes her take another. She looks between everyone present, swallowing as her mouth is suddenly dry.
"This....What should we do?"
Zev moves slowly, quietly, keeping his hands up as the beasts roar at them and shriek and shoot flames, the warmth felt from his distance, "I hope this works.." He mutters to himself, keeping himself ready, tensing up just a bit as he waits and hopes. He trusts Juria and he trusts the Force..But he's also ready to jump in and defend Juria if need be.
Like the others, Juria stops when the dragon-bug spots them and begins to shriek. Instead of looking startled or afraid, the blonde Knight stared at the interaction between the two creatures. The way one shrieks, then barks, and the other responds in kind. Her green eyes slide back and forth, observing that inital communication and narrows her eyes curiously. "They're talking to each other." She says to the group, not yet aware of what Lira is doing.
She holds her hand out and back, laid upon Rera's shoulder. Her other hand extends out palm facing the pair of creatures with a sense of soothing calm radiating off from her as she takes a single, solitary step towards the one snorting white-hot fire from it's nostrils.
"It's.. they're such an unfamiliar species." She says to the others. While the creatures definitely represent a very dangerous threat, it has always been her experience that running from such shows of force was met with a respond in kind, so she doesn't. If she doesn't run, they wont chase.
She's just hoping what she says next is true: "Stay calm. They're young and we startled them." Her green eyes move from Zev to Rey, from Rey to Rera... From Rera to... Lira... squinting.. Then back around quickly at the two creatures. Her hand remains extended, the Force flowing through her and radiating outward as she stares at the two beasts. "We mean you no harm. We only want to understand what you want." She curls her fingers and points at the evaporator, nodding at the mushrooms she can just barely make out in the shade.
She takes one more step forward.
"Be careful." Rey warns when she sees, and senses, the effect to the beast's mind being attempted. She steps over in front of the Twi'lek to her right, to make herself the target of any ire from the animal, her hands at her sides after she'd given Zev that tracking device.
"No sudden movements." Rey quietly warns the others when Juria advances and counters some of the ire placed inside the fire breather's mind.
Both of the Dragons continue to cautiously step around the front of the vaporator, their eyes locked on the two Jedi women who are stepping forward. They're still twenty yards away from one another, but the sense that that space can be closed rapidly is understated after seeing a brief example of how the two can move under the guidance of their wings. Those wings, spreading wide and far, vibrate rapidly as they exercise them, prime them for potential pouncing upon potential new prey....
Rey glances to Juria, and then to the others behind them. "We are going to get their attention." Rey says to them softly. "Get close enough to throw that tracker on to one of their backs, and hopefully we can track them back to their nest."
And not get eaten in the process.
Rey looks back to Juria then, and nods once to her. "Advance with me?" She asks of the other woman, before her eyes return to the Dragons and she steps toward them, and to the right, trying to draw their eyes away from Zev with the tracker, and the others should they wish to go with him, or them...
The two Dragons do seem keen on staring directly at Rey and Juria now though, as Rey's boots quietly crunch on the sandy ground... their massive feet impact upon it, leaving massive footprints in the crusty surface.
15 yards away from one another now, another burst of fiery puffs is sent up in to the air, once more illuminating the night, sending a wave of heat, and sound across the darkened desert night.
Lira sighs softly when she can feel her attempt sort of.. slip. It's like petting a creature the wrong way. If you brush the hair the wrong direction, they get even more angry. And apparently, she was petting their hair in the wrong direction (okay.. so.. maybe it's a bad metaphor in this particular situation).
She seems a little grateful when Rey steps in front of her, though when she starts to move away, the lavender girl looks confused.
"We?"
Blue eyes case from Rey back to Juria, and she 'Ohs' quietly. Right. The more experienced 'we.'
"Don't worry," the Twi'lek whispers softly to Zev. "You've got this. And if not, I've got your back."
Because Lira's been /so/ helpful, so far. Skitter's still there at her side, too, quietly watching and waiting.
Rera hangs back because she doesn't really relish the thought of being set on fire. There's only so much she can do for that kind of thing here, but she's better prepared to do it to other people rather than herself. She smiles a bit wanly when Juria rests a hand on her shoulder for a moment. It's a comforting thing, but this situation is ... dicey.
Dragons.
As the two full Jedi move forward, Rera roots around in her satchel. Luckily a Porg doesn't pop his head out of her bag at this inopportune time. She's just making sure the medkit is accessible and ready to go. Where is Sir Fluffington?
ELSEWHERE, ON BOARD THE BLOOD LUST
A single porg hops around the room that L'orera was given for the duration of the stay on this planet. The most adorable bird is rooting around everything he can get his weird little not-beak on, making a mess.
Okay, the beasts seem suficiently distracted. Zev decides to make his move, as he opens his hand up, his other hand, down at his side, moving as he focuses his eyes on the tracker.
First he rises it up above the dragons, high enough up where they won't see it while they're keeping their attention on Juria.
Zev slows his breathing and then pushes the device towards the closer of the two dragons, rotating it around, he brings his other hand up and closes his eyes, focusing on the tracker through the Force, as he flicks it on and lowers it gently against the dragons back, between the wings. Hopefully it'll adhere like it's supposed to.
Juria doesn't especially like the idea of tricking the dragon-bugs, but they're caught between a rock and a hot-place. So she nods to Rey and begins to circle off towards the right. Her hand remains extended out towards the pair of fire breathing, winged creatures and her green eyes stay as fixed upon them as theirs are upon Rey and herself. "They're after food." She explains in a hushed tone to those who chose to walk with them. Very careful about her foot placement as they move, since one false step or poor footing could cause this to become very violent. "Mushrooms. You see them?" She asks with another nod towards the side of the evaporators.
She's already gathering information about the creatures. Green eyes looking into their mouths, the angular forward facing snout with wide jaws full of slightly rounded, incisors teeth and blunted back teeth. "Omnivorus hunters..." She explains, because even in the middle of a dangerous situation it's important to learn and teach. "See how their eyes face forward? They see what's directly in front of them, rather than around themselves..." They can use that, as the creatures track Rey and Juria, their field of vision shifts along a cone angled in the two circling woman's direction.
With a whole lot of natural weapons, including flame breath.
Which she's not yet convinced it uses for hunting... that wouldn't make any sense. "Their breath is defensive.. it has no logical use in hunting. A creature this size wouldn't want to damage the meat and their teeth aren't evolved for chewing charred flesh, they're designed for tearing fresh kills... They only started spewing fire once they felt threatened by our presence. They weren't attacking the evaporator with it..." Which she, again, points at. Always speaking in a calm, collected voice. There's no fear in it, but neither is she attempting to establish dominance and threaten. She's smaller than they are, probably not as fast, but presents herself as not food by not running away. Will it stop them from eating her?
By the Force she hopes so...
But Nature is very weird.
The desert itself has grown quite quiet since the tension of the situation had risen. The ocean waters of the Stardust Coast are a good two miles to the west from here, thus there's not much but the sound of the wind rolling over the dry surface of this dusty, brush filled stretch of land. Behind the dragons, to the north, stretch the dotting forest of massive skyscraper-sized mesas, each one a diferent shade of white, red or orange painting quite a diverse picture of colors as far as the eye can see to the east, with more heading out toward the ocean waters westward.
Juria manages to garner quite a lot of information from her visual rundown of the Dragons, likely aided by the light of the fiery exhalations coming from the Dragon-kin on the right side. This has she and Rey hovering about 15 yards away from the beasts, and their eyes primarily focused on those two of the group.
Zev, Lira and Rera are going unwatched in the moment, and Zev's efforts pay off with the little circular tracking device flying outward on the wings of the Force all around them.
It slaps in to the hard skin of the Dragon-kin on the left, it instantly spreads out its little triangular attachment points and latches itself on to the Dragon's hide. No reaction from the Dragon-kin either...
And then the tracking device beeps. It's little lights come on, and it eminates several quick beeps as it announces itself being powered up. Not very stealthy, but it wasn't designed for THIS!
Rey was listening to Juria, her eyelids fluttering rapidly as she watched the Dragons. She's intimidated by them, how could you not be? But she remains calm, her fingertips brushing against the edges of her tunic that hangs over her thighs, her saber hilt brushing against her wrist and thumb.
"They're remarkable." Rey quietly says in summation at the end of Juria's run down. "Beautiful even." She adds with a glance to Juria, until the beep from the tracking device happens.
That's when BOTH Dragons quickly look away from Juria and Rey, toward Zev and the others.
Uh oh.
The left Dragon looks back over his wing toward the beep, while the right just assumes the worst, and billows a spout of flame toward Zev, Lira and Rera... and the droid!
"Get down!" Rey shouts! Her hand going to her saber to pull it up and switch it on!
Lira'una was already moving by the time Rey shouted, and her droid was right there with her. They both found some big rocks to dive behind, Lira's dark robe shielding her from all but the rush of heat as she and Skitter both flatten themselves.
"The tracker's on! Everybody spread out!" the Twi'lek shouts to the others, pulling the stunsaber off of her belt and flicking it on. "Do your thing, Skits. Don't hit the one with the tracker."
There's a reason, it turns out, that Skitter has a stun rifle mounted underneath his chassis. Even as Lira'una gets back to her feet in preparation to try to herd and scare the dragonkin creatures with the rest of the group, Skitter is rushing out and rising up menacingly to fire a stun charge back in the direction of the blast.
Rera is distracted. Too distracted for the Force to tell her something bad is about to happen. Luckily she sees the movement out of the corner of her eye, and she just reacts, throwing herself to the ground and rolling across the sand to cower behind a sizeable rock.
But the hem of her robe smolders.
She furiously swats at it from her hiding spot, peering out over the top of the rock to watch. Golden eyes widen as Lira goes back out there with a -stunsaber-. Well, they widen for multiple reasons. Firstly because she went back out there. Secondly because she's showing the willingness to use violence.
"Don't hurt them!"
Zev snaps his lightsaber out after the tracker is finally placed, as the flames spew towards him. He hops backwards, keeping some distance between himself and that heat, as he brings the blade up in front of himself, taking on a defensive stance.
He's following Lira's suggestion, spreading out and getting some distance between himself and the others, so he can have room to dodge, and hopefully get the one with the tracker on it to flee.
This is precisely why Juria did not want to use the tracking device, but it's too late to make that known now. As soon as it start beeping, and the creatures wheel around to breath fire at the padawan, the Knight's defensive instincts set in. She steps forward and wraps herself in the Force, but not in a way that would be overtly offensive. She sucks in a deep breath, curling her fingers to manipulate the subtle energies around the pair of dragon-bugs, a calming wave.
The young Jedi are not your enemy.
We are not your enemy.
When she speaks, her voice has been transmuted by the Force. Drawing upon those shrieks and barks she'd heard when the pair initially saw the five Jedi arrive. She Shrieks at them, the sound so similar to the one they'd produced... then three sharp barks,
ACH ACH ACH... REEEARRRRREEEEEEE
Trusting what she'd seen, heard, and the Force to show an intention of communication despite their aggressive response to the thrown tracking device.
Rey sweeps her lightsaber around in front of her face, holding the golden blade aimed skyward. She sees all three of the Jedi duck beneath the rocks, which makes her feel a sense of relief that they avoided that initial burst of flame from these potential new foes.
When the saber beams start coming on, and the reaction that it draws from the Dragons occurs, Rey steps forward again, aggressively this time... out of habbit to defend her people as she has had to do for so long now.
But Juria's words give her pause, they give the DRagon's pause too.
She looks to Juria, as do both of the large Dragon-kin. They stare at her with glaring, angry, vicious expressions upon their scaly faces.
The Dragon-kin on the right shrieks back, the Dragon-kin on the left just huffs out a pair of smoky tendrils from its nostrils.
Both beasts flap their wings, both leap in to the air on massive muscular legs, and both whip their wings so powerfuly that a tsunami of wind, desert sand, and little bits of debris come washing over the Jedi!
The dust cloud rolls across the desert, whipping Rey's robes around her body as she lowers her chin, raises her golden glowing blade that shines brightly in the dust storm cast across them.
Both of the Dragons turn toward the north then, and begin to fly rapidly to the north, their wings beating fervently as they vanish out of the dim light cast down from Arisnar's distant nebula, and in to the embrace of the shadowy mesa canyons.
When the dust settles, Rey stands there with her saber still on, still growling... for several seconds, before she deactivates it, and her eyes sweep around to the others, blinking in the wafting dust.
"Is everyone alright?" She asks.
"That's the goal!" Lira calls back to Rera's shout.
Lira stands ready to move, backing up as she watches to Dragon-kin make their next decisions, Skitter still spreading out to gain even more space so that a single breath of fire couldn't possibly target so many of them at once.
But then they're rising up into the air, and Lira raises a hand to shield her eyes. There's a crackle against her blade as the particles impact it, making little sizzle and snapping sounds like a bug-zapper. Her ropes snap around her legs for a moment, and then everything is settling again. Once Rey has extinguished her blade, Lira's goes out as well, and Skitter comes skittering back over on his four legs.
"Fine," the Twi'lek calls back out to Rey's question.
Zev relaxes visibly once the dragon creatures choose to not attack. With the tracker in place they'll be able to follow them back to their lair on their own time, and not have to try to deal with following them through the wilderness while getting attacked.
After Rey turns off her blade, he also silences his, taking a moment before he hooks it back on his belt, "I'm fine. Robes might have got a bit singed but I'm alright." He brushes a bit of dirt and ash off of his robe, "If we're going to suggest that they relocate, we may also want to find a place where they'll be able to relocate to before we do." He muses, walking towards the vaporator that had been savaged, "I wonder if this is salvagable."
Rera keeps peering over the rock as Juria does ... whatever it is that she just did. The Force is weird sometimes. Regardless, the dragon-things take off, hurling sand and grit, and Rera ducks back behind the rock to not get too dosed with grit.
As they fly off and the dust settles, the green girl pokes her head back up. "I'm fine, Grand Master." She is just so darn polite. She rises then, dusting herself off and frowning at the singes on her robes. Luckily she has a spare. She steps out around the rock, watching the dragon things fly off into the distance. Nature is kriffing metal.
When the dragons spin to stare at her, Juria tilts her head and considers whether this was a huge mistake. Until the one on the right responds. Her green eyes flick up to him, then over to his brother huffing a stream of smoke from his nostrils, and she steps back when their wings begin to beat rapidly to carry them up off the sands and into the air. The wind kicks her poncho back as the storm of sand rushes forward to temporarily obscure her in a cloud of dust. Bellowing behind her, she watches through that haze as they disappear north-ward..
When the scene settles, she's still staring in the direction they had headed.
Only turning once Rey asks if they're all alright. There's a clipped nod, a distracted glance in the direction they'd flown, and then Juria is moving over to join Zev by the evaporator. A hand laid against the torn and rended side of the machine, she leans in to look at some of the inner workings with a small frown. While she doesn't know anything about the machine itself, she's not actually looking for what might be damaged.
Her gloved hand reaches in, turning her body to extend her arm down through twisted metal, with the other hand up near her cheek pressing to the warm durasteel. Fiddling around with her fingers until she feels the edge of one of the mushrooms, which she grabs and tears off at the root system near the wiring that leaches into the moisture collectors.
The mushroom is brought up in a gloved hand, turning it slowly by the stock held in her fingers. With her forehead furrowed, green eyes peer around at them, holding it slightly in the air. "We need to figure out how to grow these in places where they wont damage our evaporators."
The mushroom slides into one of her multitude of pouches, hands crossing over her chest beneath her poncho, "You all did very well. I'm glad we didn't have to harm them."
Quite honestly to have everyone okay after that was a relief. That spout of flame was unlike anything Rey had seen in her 17 years of exploring the galaxy. She nodded softly to everyone in-turn before she too ended up near the vaporator. Her eyes went from the panel on the ground up to where Juria was harvesting a mushroom, something the creatures clearly considered a treat.
"I remember hearing about such things growing on these..." She quietly says before she glances to the droid with Lira. "I'm sure the vaporator can be restored." She adds before her eyes look north to the mesa.
In the distance, a quiet sound can be heard of something shrieking in the darkness of those looming rock structures. Rey had spent quite a bit of time training in those mesas years ago, and she'd never seen those things within them before.
She shakes her head softly. "The ones we faced years ago... they did not breathe fire." She quietly notes, loud enough for everyone to hear.
With another moment of pause, she clips her saber back to her belt. "Come on, leave the vaporator for now. We will head back to the school, collect our findings, and check on the tracker. Maybe we can find where they are, and then inform the Arisnar about this, I imagine they'll be interested in exporting these creatures back to their homeworld."
The dust continues to settle after the creatures flew their way out in haste, a thin layer of sandy fog still flowing around the flat desert landscape with the sounds of nature returning to normal levels after the Dragon had gone.
