Log:Jedi Order: Lost Library pt 4

Jedi Order: Lost Library pt 4

OOC Date: August 31, 2020
Location: Raxus Prime
Participants: Jedi Order: Elrych Cometburn, Jax Greystorm, Vhe Tenara, Zandra naMuriel, Aryn Cole, Liren, Finn, Rey Skywalker; and Ben Solo

A long while has passed since the Jedi's expedition to Halowan, on the trail of a lost Jedi library that traces its source back to Ossus and the Great Library there. Over the centuries, a mysterious group known as the Keepers have shepherded this knowledge through a variety of transfers. "The last set of data we found under that research facility led here," Ben tells the others, leading the way through into the abandoned manufactory.

The atmosphere on Raxus Prime is foul, to put it lightly, the very air saturated with every sort of toxin and pollutant known to civilization and some that are unknown. To combat this, Ben has a rebreather mask strapped on, the cartridge riding on his belt, ungainly tube dangling from his face, but the smell is still intense. The sky is yellow with ammonia and sulphur, and the ureic tint to the light persists no matter how high on the rubble and refuse one might climb.

Before them, piled in a majestic edifice of trash, junk, and detritus that rises higher than it ever should, tilts more wildly than it ever could, and assaults the senses with its presence more than anything else ever would, rises the mechafacture facility, a jaded temple to industry. "If I've seen worse hiding places, I can't remember them," the last Solo admits, surveying the landscape before them. "Don't get your feet wet if you're attached to them."

"It had to be the Tion Sector..." Elrych grumbles behind a rebreather mask remarkably similar to Ben's. hey likely came from the same storage area or were of the same make and model as were standard with CEC ships like the Falcon or Elrych's own Fair Mynock. He had Void Armor, he just prefered his Robes. His green hooded cloak flowed with as he moved with the others. "Let's hope there's no murder droids this time."

Jax had not been involved in any of the previous searches of the library. He stand in the group wearing his Katarn Clone Commando Armor. The armor leanding him an air of stoiciness and mystery. His expression completely unreadable under the helmet. He raises a finger as if to offer a Rebuttle to Ben. Then he rolls his shoulders in a shrug, "You know, I got nothing. This may be the worst." His voice sounding tinny and broadcasted complete with the little static before and after he speaks.

"It seems like the perfect place, considering that no one would come here to look without reason," Vhe remarks through the filter of her mask. Her eyes study the current surroundings as she mmms and then glances to Elrych. "What is wrong with the Tion Sector?" She asks of him curiously as her hand flexes and she brushes the saber at her side.

The Ysanna initiate rocks on her feet and glances down at them when Ben make sthat comment. Jax gets a smile though its hard to see save where her cheeks lift and the outer edges of her eyes wrinkle.

Zandra is wearing a TX3 Flightsuit. it's a bit more protection from the perspective of the pollutants and the smell. And also, if it gets covered in goop, she can throw it out after without worrying about it. It makes her voice sound funny of course, but that's the same for everyone. "no murder droids would be a bonus, yes. Also no sewage monsters." They all sound remarkably similar, truthfully, the equipment garbling their voices. Zan shrugs though. "It did lead here, and so I guess we get to explore another interesting place."

The suit rubs around the neck, where Liren has cinched it to compensate for the extra room. Borrowed armor, like borrowed clothes, didn't always fit precisely. Next time, she'd be in something custom fitted even if it took draining her bank account. But for now, she was just grateful for the good solid layers of protection between her and the environment. Careful about where she places her feet, the young diplomat follows the others, "I haven't seen anything remotely approaching this place. Ever."

Aryn is wearing a protective sealed suit, with a helmet that contains her hair. She had no cape on this time, leaving her back bare save for the armor. She was heavily armed, with two pistols holstered, each serving a different purpose. Her lightsaber is also present, clipped on her belt in a way that keeps it from swinging with her steps. Aryn relies on her oxygen supply, and the HUD to see appropriately. This does nothing to shield her from the unnerving feeling that swept over her at seeing such towers of refuse. Never, in all her life, had she been in a place of such filth. She dusts her hands off idly, knowing it would do nothing for the stench. She'd need a to decontaminate at least 15 times before stepping back on her vessel. Aryn remains quiet, staying near the back of the group and not particularly eager to take the lead.

Finn has foregone a rebreather. He's quite used to the smell of garbage, as the sanitation floors and trash compactors on First Order Star Destroyers weren't much better sometimes. Still, he wrinkles his nose a little and peers around the trash-strewn landscape.

"What a place to keep some old books ... "

Rey dons a dark grey poncho that conceansher otherwise white clothing worn beneath it. Her hood is up and she wears a mask like many of the others. Her eyes scan the garbage,her ears listen to her companions and she glances toward them. "I'm starting to think we're all getting a little jaded in our escapades." She dryly comments to their calls for hopes of not running into foul creaturs here.

The last Palpat--Skywalker, steps up beside Finn and glances toward him, she grins throughher mask at him. "I still can't believe you chose to endure the stench. I can smell it through my mask. It's like a Rathtar's breath, as I imagine you can recall." She then looks forward. "Do we have the slightest idea where we're going?" She asks her counterpart in the Force, in Ben.

"Assuming whatever you're hiding isn't broken down by the constant aggressive atmosphere, yes," Ben replies to Vhe with a shrug, the burnt hole in his jacket revealing the shirt beneath it as it moves. Wending his way through the rubble and refuse, the man gestures vaguely towards a towering spire rising from the dump, made from the dump. The trash, stacked upon itself in a monument of trash, has transcended its trashdom. "It's that way. I wouldn't bring you here without having some idea," he hedges defensively, frowning at the question, even though his definition of 'some idea' appears to be thin.

Wrapped in a spiral around the tower, chunks of speeders, swoops, starfighters, discarded bits of landcrawlers, durasteel plates, all come together to form a meandering, uneven ramp to the top. The Jedi just have to cross a short valley of debris, carved by the shallow rivers of toxic waste, to get there. Amid the troughs, aimless creations of scrap and bric-a-brac maneuver through the heaps, moving parts from here to there with no apparent rhyme or reason, mismatched sensors staring, ungainly, misshapen limbs moving out of concert with each other. It's unclear if these junk droids are hostile or passive.

"This is Xer's home turf. In fact I'm surprised him and the Chief and out here soaking up the radiation and acid rain getting rekked." Elrych offers as an aside to Vhe, a slight smirk on his face if you can even see it behind the mask. HE didn't seem overly bothered by the smell... more than likely used to it wafting off of the former Black Suadron pilot.

As they move further into the valley of junk and fetid waste filled rivers, Elrych spots the junk droids going about their buisness. "Try to stay clear of those drones... they can get hostile if you interupt their work space..." He jumps over a stream, hopping from junk island to junk inlet. He reaches out for those who might need help crossing.

Jax works his way down through the valley of trash and the steams of acid. He finds himself in the bottom of a steep embankment as he leaps across to the other sider. The Corellian starts to climb up the bank of metal till one his feet goes to lock into a toe hold that gives out causing Jax to slide back into the acid. The soles of his boots beginning to hiss. "Sithspawn. Not the the boots! Aw man I just got this pair broke in." He says trying to scramble back out again.

"It could be protected," Vhe says faintly in agreement with Ben's observation but then she's listening to Elrych. "I am sorry I have not gotten to know him better," she remarks in amusement. A they are moving she gives a glance aside and is noting the droids with a nod of understanding, her braid bobbing as she begins to pick her way carefully, climbing, scaling and shifting about the various obstacles in the way.

She is doing her best to find the path that keeps her far from the droids. She hears Jax and glances back, "Do you need help?" In fact will others need help is the question.

Zan manages to make her way reasonably well. She's in the middle of the pack, it seems, when it comes to such feats of athletics. She too looks at the droids, speculatively. And then she keeps on her way. A glance over at Ben, and she says, "We've come looking with less information, don't worry." Yeah, sorry, one of the gang now. Almost. "We'll find it." She's cheerful enough, as she nearly dips her feet in the acid, but manages to just miss by millimeters. "This is really a nasty place. How is it even possible?"

Wary about the surroundings, cautious about the stability of the pile they have started to climb, Liren trudges up the human-made mountain. A gap up ahead demands a leap. She jumps, missing a rusting speeder, but catches her foot on a protruding handlebar. Falling to her knees, on the other side, she feels the junk begin to vibrate angrily. Puzzled, she looks down into the sensors of a junkyard droid. There is no place to back away, only climb, which she hastily does.

"Droid. I just stepped on a droid. It really doesn't look happy about that," she says, the suit projecting her voice.

Aryn's attempt at climbing ends in utter failure. She got about ten feet off the ground when an unsteady platform snapped and she fell with it, and a small mountain of trash. <"Oh NOO!"> Aryn cries out in momentary anguish, landing back first in a massive puddle of toxic sludge that waves outward upon impact before swallowing her up. Subsequent to her landing, a heap of garbage lands on top, burying her completely.

Trying to stay calm, Aryn is subject to a number of internal warnings conveyed over her HUD, which now begins to static out, and her plastoid arm is sizzling. "Oh no, no, no.." She mutters to herself, uncertain of how to get out of this particular predicament. Moving with some purpose, the trash piled on top of her shifts and her hand emerges from the heap. then she drags herself from beneath. Alive, at least, but not enjoying the effects of radioactive trash-juice. Thank the Mother she wore a helmet and protective gear. Ugh.

Finn regards the droids for a moment before he takes to the pile of trash, doing his best to climb up it. Some of the trash gives way under his hands and he's forced to yank it free and toss it out into the air and towards the caustic puddles down below. As he ascends, he glances back towards Rey with a grin.

"I don't know. The smell of garbage. Following him," he nods his head towards Ben, "Reminds me of home."

Rey watches the others move and begin to cross,her stare lingering on the droids for a moment. "It's best to leave them be. None of us like to be pestered while we're working either, after all, right?" She questions-- nobody really --and then starts up the mountain of garbage. She struggles with handgrips, and a filthy coating of sludge on the junk she's scaling, but she manages to proceed upward. As she glances over and to the crash that Aryn makes, Rey takes a step toward her, concern on her face... She's about to react when Aryn emerges. "Are you okay?" She calls out, looking forward and starting to move again. "We'll all go to a beach world after this, I promise!" She shouts for the others, a glance over to where Finn is making his jumps...

"I suppose Jakku reminds me of the smell of misery, so I guess I can relate." She speaks out to him as she jogs forward to balance across a precarious piece of wobbly trash on her trek forward along Ben's lovely route!

infuriating to behold. "Surely Jakku holds other memories," he remarks aside to Rey, glancing over his shoulder as some of the others encounter difficulties. "Like constant boredom, and... sweat." His lips purse together; maybe that IS just misery.

In the valley, a passive junk droid rears up out of the muck and dregs of industry, dripping oil, acid, and sparks. Its sensors flare red, and an angry hiss emits from its auxillary speakers, a borrowed holobox that used to blast jive beats in some airspeeder's cockpit. The other droids in the proximity twitch and start, grinding joints turning to face where the hulking mishmash of machinery's fist smashes down into the waste Liren recently occupied.

"Shut that thing up!" Ben calls, pausing at the bottom of the trash tower.

"What droid!" Elrych shouts as he's hopping from one pile of junk to the next. He turns just in time to whitness the loud machination assault poor Lirin Iskender. "Watch out!" He wars, his free hand reaching out to take command of the living force and pick up a large chunk of scrap metal and send it flying towards the scrapper. With in that same motion, the Corellian scoops his lightsaber from his belt and activates the blue mephite beam.

The call for something to be silenced draws her attention and she catches the tail end of Elrych throwing the thing. Instead of risking her chance at slipping into the hazardous waste she reaches out and slams the piece of scrap down upon it with a hard shove of the force to try to submerge the thing, aiding Elrych in his attempt as she notes his saber jump to life. Her gaze narrows and she glances to the other worker droids as her own blade is drawn from her belt. "Do you think attacking one of them will draw the attention of the others?" Not that they can directly link them to what is currently happening.

She glances to Liren. "Are you okay?" Even Aryn gets a look and Jax as well. Whatever is on their clothing is not exactly the most amazing thing to see. "Even the world is trying to kill us."

Jax climbs up up the side of the junk hill, "I got it, Vhe." The Corellian yet to see the droid that's trying to attack Liren as he's too busy climbing. He makes it to the surface. "I just want a decontamination for my boots and a shower. A really long shower." He shakes his head, "It's worse than the Nar Shadda sewer plant."

Zan turns too, at Ben's call. Her gaze goes over to where Lirin is and she takes a breath. She reaches for the Force and then uses TK to try to pull out the droid's noise maker. If she can. Certainly, she tries to make it stop riling up the rest of the droids. That done, she looks to see if Lirin is okay or not, waiting now, before she continues forward. But only a bit, hopefully, because she would like to keep her feet.

After being battered repeatedly by chunks of rubble, the droid has collapsed in a heap, but the holobox, half-ripped out, continues to wail a pathetic dirge to its untimely demise.

Caught between looking out for the others and looking for a way up the heap, Liren misses the droid taking a shot at her. Only the blast's noise and the console smoking to the right of her tell her what happened. Before she can react, the droid has taken flight under the impetus of Elrych's telekinetic throw, aided by Vhe and Zandra. The droid tumbles end over end down the pile buzzing angrily.

"I'm fine. No problems. Thanks everyone!" Finding a handhold she takes another step up to the next level of trash.

Aryn manages to free herself, but there's a number of things happening around her. While she could help deal with the droid, but she was currently in danger herself. Corrosive acid is burning through her plastoid armor, endangering her safety! <"I'm fine,"> Aryn calls back and rises up to her knee. Pulling out her medical kit, she sets it on the ground and hits a button to open one cartridge to look at her collection of chemical compounds. Choosing the wrong compound not once, but twice, exacerbates the process and begins to break the seal of her armor. Unable to function with everything shutting down in her armor, Aryn slams her kit shut, picks it up and starts to head back in the direction of her ship. She's no use to anyone burning up in corrosive trash juice.

As the droid continues to wail, Finn furrows his brown and shifts his weight to look back and down at the junk-bot. He lets out a sigh, reaching to unsling his blaster from his back and levelling it against the forearm that is still gripping and outcropping of trash. One eye closes, he takes aim, and 'POW!' he blows up the vocalizer with a carefully-aimed shot.

He's smiling and looking proud of himself when he shifts to look at something, brow furrowing again thoughtfully. He calls out for Rey's attention: "That hose there. It's a PPE nozzle. They use them to neutralize harmful chemicals on Star Destroyer. Do they have /Star Destroyers/ here?!"

Rey sidles up beside Ben and glances over at him with an exhale. "Boredom and sweat. Two of the most interesting emotions." She dryly jests with him before she hears the others behind them and turns to regard them. She spies Aryn struggling, and Elrych and Vhe's droid situation... then looks to Finn after her fires the blaster and calls out.

Rey's eyes look up to the hose he's indicating. "I don't know!" She calls back about Star Destroyers. "I've got it!"

Without questions, Rey runs at the junk wall and attempts to scale it before she lunges outward, and carries herself on the wings of the Force to grab the hose!

She swings forward and backward until her feet plant on the scaffolding of durasteel junk, and she aims the hose down toward the acid pool. Struggling with a grunt, Rey turns the valve on the nozzle on and begins the flow of the hose's contents down into the acid pool below!

With the obstacles cleared and the angry junk droid silenced, the path to the tower and up it is relatively clear. The other droids seem to lose interest, their mechanical eyes finding other things to stare at, their horrific mishmash limbs finding new occupations. The neutralizing spray from the nozzle Finn points out is a sort of gel-foam hybrid, thick and unctuous, with a noxious reek that fits right in on the junk world here.

Ben's nose wrinkles under the thick rubbery mask gripping his face. "That stuff smells even better than the rest of it," he remarks dryly, eyes following the hose to see if there is indeed the wreck of a Star Destroyer somewhere. "...if you squint right, you can almost... I think I'm imagining it."

The twisting spiral that leads up the side of the tower beckons, that trail of broken machinery and shattered automata shoved into the side of the compressed heap like ascending spokes from a giant's wheel. Even with mastery of the Force, the climb looks daunting.

"Aryn, you okay? We're almost there." Elrych asks of his fellow Knight as she packs up and turns to leave. Blue eyes keep an eye on the roaming machanations but as they move about their buisness without paying mind to him or his compatriots, he deactivates his lightsaber and returns the Darkstar and Angelshine cylinder to his belt.

Turning to face the towering wall of junk, The Corellian sighs. "Well... here goes nothing." He starts to climb, going slow. It takes him a while, not having the strength of a mascular climber but that of a toned runner. He starts to work up a sweat and his breath quickens. He looks back at the others. "Is Aryn still there... we can use her S5."

Jax finds himself rained on with a weird foam that neutralizes the acid on his boots. "Thanks Rey and Finn." Then he takes a moment finding his center and taking a breath. Then Jax starts to climb up the structure trusting into the force. If he's not the first to the top, he's not far behind the top. He pulls himself to the top and turns to look out at the environment keep an eye out for any problms that could be coming their way.

Even as they continue on once everyone is safely seen to, Vhe sets her saber back to her belt and follows after the rest. She reaches up and at first she begins to use the quickness of her step. She seems assured one moment and then a piece wiggles and gives way. She slams her knee upon the ground and slides back a bit, jarring her teeth in her skull with a rattling ache. Hissing through her teeth she glances up at the ground she has to make up and gingerly starts to pick her way forward.

"I am almost certain that this is all going to start shifting at any point." It is rather ramshackle and now each hand hold is inspected before she gives herself over to it. She hoists herself up slowly and manages to begin to catch up.

Zan takes a breath, glad to see that everyone is okay, though she casts a long look over at Aryn. Thoughtful, she starts to make her way up. She stretches to reach a jutting out piece of steel, but it drops under her weight, and nearly dumps her in the ick below. She hangs from it for a long moment, unable to avoid looking down while it creaks and wobbles. She then closes her eyes for a moment to add, "This is really a terrible place." That said, she reaches for the Force, using her own TK to nudge gently and get herself climbing again.

Looking down to the Jedi below her, Liren realizes that she can't help anyone in distress short of flying. Acid pools add to the fun. With one more glance behind her to check on the others' progress, she gingerly continues up the pile. A piece of rusted metal tumbles at a touch, rerouting her to another precarious step, which she measures before attempting. It's a long slow slog, and the stench is beginning to leak through her environmental systems. A mighty stink, indeed.

"Well there's no better place for it," Finn says of the junked Star Destroyer, hanging for a moment to regard is solemnly, "Put the rest of them there and we'll have made a good start."

"Hey, look over there," he announces, pointing to another pile of junk, "That's a broken trash compactor. Look at all the scoring on the inside - wow, that must have had a dianoga as big as a star cruiser living in it."

Rey grabs a dangling hooked-wire from the hose and twirls it around in the air before throwing it up to a beam above her where it latches on, holding the hose at an outward angle to aim it toward the acidic pool below...

A second later and the poncho'd Rey drops down from the dangling destroyer hose and lands in a crouch before standing up and moving to join the others on the ascent upward. "Star Destroyers..." She mutters as she climbs. "There's a lot of valuable stuff inside them." She offers. "If we hav etime, I'd be happy to show everyone around inside of it." She's kidding. Mostly. She continues her upward ascent until she finds another level to hoist herself up on to. "Is everyone okay?" She calls out, wiping her hands across the fabric of that grey poncho she'd pulled out of the Falcon's lockers.

Not much for clambering hand over hand, Ben uses his long legs and strong connection to the Force to ascend, jumping high when he needs to and higher when he has to. Some of the gaps take a simple step over them, but those are few and far between. Most are larger. "Of course. In ten years, perhaps we'll have covered half of the interior," he deadpans to Rey's offer to show them the insides of a destroyer as they reach the top of the tower.

The scene that greets them is a curious one; a rectangular box, perhaps knee height, is set in the very middle of the tower, nondescript planes of grey metal jutting up from round, flat summit. Arrayed around the box like guardian angels are three droids with long, thin limbs, narrow humanoid bodies, and tall, cylindrical heads, spotted in red circular sensors of varying sizes all the way around.

Three pairs of metallic hands reach down and draw three pairs of blasters from three sets holsters. The limbs extend parallel to the platform, completely straight, and open fire as the Jedi ascend to the platform one by one.

"You know, they had entire planets dedicated to stripping apart and recycling old destroyers like that... made a lot of cre-" Elrych is interupted by the drawing of blasters from three seperatet ID units. His eyes widen and he dashes out of the way of blaster fire. His Lightsaber comes to life once more as he summer-salts on the ground, closer to Vhe. He rights himself up quicly, reaching a hand out as Rey dflects the well placed bolt from one of the IG Units. He spots a rather sharp piece of steal and without and hesitation grabs it with the force, sending it hurdling into and through the hunter droid. IF it were a live being it would have been grusome. He raises his blade to mid guard of Nimen, ready to defend.

Jax's voice sounds neutral in tone, "We could probably find a Better Star Destoryer in mothballs around a planet somewhere if you guys really want one." Jax's hand reaches for his lightsaber igniting it as the IG units show up. His hadn reaching up to catch the blaster bolt shot at him and asorbing it harmlessly and passing it into the ground. "Droids. Well at least I won't feel bad later."

Vhe's knee is still giving her some trouble when they are beset by another group of droids. "I suppose they are really the only things that can stand to live here for extended periods of time." But the terror they begin to rain down upon the group draws her attention and the saber that has found its place back on her belt for the climb is drawn freee and she draws her hand up towards one of the tin cans. Her fingers curl and grip, trying to pull off its arm that wields a blaster, sending it skittering as it breaks free with a spark that ends up downing the last remnants of its functioning system. When it goes down she nods and glances to Elrych as her foot sweeps forward and she looks for a better purchase on the uneven terrain, the soft glow of the pale blue of her saber helping offset the harsher lighting of the planet.

Zandra is a bit behind, having been slow climbing up. She pauses as she peeks up, ducks back down and mumbles under her breath. "Fine," she says under her breath. "it's all fine." She makes it the rest of the way and draws her lightsaber, charging in. Those things were attacking her friends, and that isn't something she is happy with. Her lightsaber is ignited and flashes green through the air as she slices the one nearest to her once, and then for good measure once more. She then moves to a defensive position, ready to take on more. In case they show up.

"This is dumpster diving on a planetary scale," Liren quips after wobbling then catching herself on a piece of protruding metal and pulling herself up far enough to catch sight of the droids. Two have been handily taken down by the other Jedi climbing ahead of her. She readies her blaster to take the third droid, but Zandra's lightsaber dispatches it before she can aim.

"Well done. Are we there yet?" She laments, half joking.

Finn has put the blaster carbine away, and his hand naturally drifts down to the lightsaber he carries as he dangles from one hand on the junky 'cliff face'. Apparently, the Force is his guide today, as he has it ready when the blaster bolts start flying. The lightsaber is ignited and moved through the air, catching the bolt and redirecting it back at one of the bounty hunter droids.

"Are we getting close or did people just forget to turn off their droids before junking them?"

"Where's your senses of adventure?" Rey replies as she too reaches the top of the tower and lunges up to her feet, just in time to sense the droids coming from behind her. She whips about and a golden beam of light raises up in front of her to sweep to the side, clashing with the droid's projected blaster bolt! With a sudden flash, and the growl of the saber int its wake, the bolt fires back and slams into the droid's chest, only to be finished off by another.

Rey stutter steps to the side, then sweeps her saber down to aim it toward the ground beneath her feet. "Well done, indeed, everyone." She says, echoing Liren's words. Then with a light nod she steps onward and swipes her saber, to draw the blade back into its hilt!

With her blade off, she glances back to Finn. "We're supposed to turn off our droids?" She asks, cracking a small grin. "I left ours on." To Ben, she walks toward him. "What could possibly be hiding up here?" She asks, because it's fun to pepper their guide with non stop questions, he'll love it.

IG-88 droids are some of the most feared killers in the galaxy. It's unknown how many exist out there, but the Jedi remember at least several they inadvertently activated on Halowan. "Are these the same we saw before?" Ben muses, poking his head up over the edge of the platform just in time to see the last of the spindly droids chopped down in its prime. "We're lucky they gathered together like this. Makes it easy." Evidently. "I could have sworn there was one more."

The box in the center of the platform, now left undefended, calls to Ben while Rey peppers him with questions. "To see if we've found the library or just another clue," he replies with a shrug, though the size of the box is not inspiring and neither is their track record.

A swift kick dislodges the lid with nary a whimper, which raises an eyebrow. "That should have been sealed," Ben mutters behind his mask, and reaches into the box to retrieve its contents. He lifts out a corroded chunk of metal, dim glass; a datapad. "...this doesn't look good." An eye peers back into the box, but there's "Nothing." Sigh.

"Well, don't ever say I don't take you nice places," he announces to the Jedi, heading back towards the spiral to start the climb down. Another disappointment!