Log:Retracing the Steps: Interlude at Crater Caye
The source of all the trouble at Crater Caye is a ship, buried long ago. What they find inside will set them on a trail 30-years cold.
OOC Date: September 05, 2021
Location: Pamarthe
Participants: Zelo Parrai as GM, Nerys Greystorm, Vhe Tenara
Zelo meets Vhe and Bitty in the hallway, leaning down to offer the Jedi a hand-up climbing to the fore passage. Nerys' own information is quite a bit to consider. As he approaches the cockpit, he replies. "There may have been extra parts in the engineering room. I'm not certain. It was... Masterfully rigged, I don't know how they did it, but it bypassed the damaged systems entirely. The systems are all held together on a droid brain, I think." At the mention of a lightsaber hilt, Zelo looks to Vhe. It feels like this definitely has turned into her show. Black-pool eyes sweep through the cockpit as he waits for Vhe's thoughts.
In the cockpit, a set of black robes shroud a skeleton - in the hands of which rests the central core of a spidery Perimeter droid that hadn't been leggy enough, or lively enough, to make the journey to harass the engineering crews above. In this gleaming white interior - kept clean likely by a very anxious set of perimeter droids - one pile of debris stands out. Within it, a simple trigger, but... The decor, the wardrobe, and the odd composition of the body don't refute the idea that it was once a lightsaber. As crews above congratulate themselves on a job well done, three water-wet individuals convene in the cockpit of the sideways-tipped shuttle, in which the skeletally-occupied pilot's seat rests at eye-level.
Nerys, who did not approach the pieces of the floor, nevertheless, hunkered down to study the skeleton and the droid it was holding. Bitty, who had finished clearing the ship, but had, unfortunately, found nothing else on which the expend her rage, peeked over Nerys shoulder at the droid body. "Think we can get it working, Bitty?" To the other two, Nerys offered, "Odd thing for a skeleton to be holding, don't you think? I wonder if whatever it was this pilot was doing down here, he might have stored the information in the droid."
Taking Zelo's hand she ascends to join them both. It is only when she finally arrives to see the skeletal remains that she looks uncomfortable. Her brows furrow as she stares at the figure no longer a threat to them but still carrying with it a dark past.
Not wanting to touch it for fear of the taint that may yet rest on it or the lingering spirit of one connected to the Force she reaches out with said power and begins to pluck up the bigger pieces, mostly in an attempt to find the crystal and determine its condition and color.
A bit frazzled, she seems to come up with nothing, her gaze narrows as she begins to move, lowering down to see if it's rolled or found a position within the robes of the dark dead figure. As for the ship working? She has no clue where to start with that but it seems Nerys and Bitty have it in hand. "I can not even consider who this used to be....but it may help us if we can get the ship up and out of the water so I am all for you messing with it."
Zelo, still wearing his diver's wetsuit, feels his own discomfort looking at a skeleton; one who spends swathes of time in combat is typically more used to seeing bodies that look much more like they did in life. Still, black-pool eyes watch the others, and he nods. "I can't imagine why it would be so, unless... Something like a comforting thing or... In the end, they wanted it to be seen first? I can't imagine though... Having your ship stuck and... Just dying like this." Zelo turns to Vhe, watching the Jedi as she begins to seek. "Getting the ship out will take some time, but it may be possible... Once they do the anchoring to tie the columns to the gorge, it may be dug out and a more solid base filled in... I think." The engineering is not at all something he knows himself, but he'd been listening to the engineers discussing plans. Pouring duracrete underwater without using a dry-dock system was rather brilliant.
"More information might be on the droid if you two think you can get it working." The Nautolan crouches near Vhe. "What do you seek, Vhe?" Perhaps two sets of eyes will be better than one.
Nerys, having been in a good many burial sights, and done her fair share of graverobbing, didn't seem much bothered by the skeleton, but then, she was also, well, not terribly inclined towards organic foibles. She did rise, Bitty following her, as she moved to try to remove the droid from the skeleton's lap. She took care not to disturb anything more than was absolutely necessary. Once she had taken it, she moved to find a spare bit of counter to work on, "We're assuming he or she, just sat here until they expired. They might have died on impact or been killed at some point and the ship was brought down by some other means."
"My guess would be death on impact. Considering who this person likely was though I can not say for certain. Possibly sith...they would have found a way out if they had been alive." She says this from a position with knees upon the floor, carefully tilting her head to send wild hair about while she looks for the presence of that which is not present.
She frowns some only to glance up and meet Zelo's dark gaze. "A crystal, possibly red in make. It is a guess only but it could be any color really. It was part of what these pieces once were." She still does not touch them.
She glances up and over at Nerys briefly but finally reaches out to move the dark robes about in an attempt to find the crystal.
Zelo does a lot of nodding, as both in the cockpit are likely much further ahead of the plot than he is on this one. "Impact, or otherwise, it's very... Composed. Almost like it was posed? Would that not mean that someone did the posing then?" He watches Nerys as she retrieves the main body of the droid, but his eyes return to Vhe, nodding.
"I would think anyone with that sort of... Background would... You both must have the right of it. To make a crater like this, it's almost like the ship came down nearly vertical... That would kill almost anyone. Though I'm not certain about the honeycomb of rocks. It's..." He shakes his head, starting to move those black-pool eyes about. "Maybe the crystal got flung? I could check further back. Maybe if they were cleaning, they picked it up and put it somewhere..." It WAS rather spotless.
Nerys and Bitty left the scavenging to Zelo and Vhe, as they bent over the droid. Nerys, pulling her interface from her armor, allowed Bitty to plug into the droid, the two falling into silence, as they moved to a personal comm channel between them. Binary was faster than basic, and the two droids were soon chatting away with the third. As the work continued on behind them, Nerys withdrew a datapad, switching to her helmet's transmitter so that Zelo and Vhe could hear her again, "I am going to download the information on the droid. looks like some flight records, a series of logs, and one holorecording. Bitty says the droid is trying to wake itself up, but she's keeping it at low power for the moment, so it doesn't startle itself." As most things did, if they woke too suddenly.
Contact is made, the Jedi's fingers curling around the cloth of the robe. But her consciousness is not here, it's delving deeply through the Force. Through to the past of the events that brought the ship here. For several seconds she is still her amber gaze distant as if seeing a distance away. Vhe is not here. Even her breathing has slowed.
But that is all it takes is a breath or two. Possibly ten seconds at most before she seizing a deeper breath when her body fully remembers to do so and she centers back in the here and now.
"Sith...definitely sith..." she does not elaborate but pushes herself up. Still unsteady around the dark-robed figure she lets out a breath and reaches her hand out towards the face, not yet touching. With a delicate care she uses the Force to part the jaw of the long-dead pilot.
There is some natural resistance and as Nerys ends her explanation Vhe is drawing a red crystal from the very mouth of the deceased. A lot less fleshy than the vision had shown her moments before. The red piece hovers in the air, turning about as it comes to levitate over her hand. "The Sith corrupt their crystals. Forcing the darkness into it...forcing it to their will." She frowns some and looks at the skeleton. "She had no eyes but she died on impact." She does not touch the crystal yet but turns to look at Nerys.
Nerys and Bitty are, indeed, harvesting a great deal of information. The largest - and most intact - of which is the holorecording, which seems ready to play if they have a medium through which to send it. The flight logs are in two parts. One seems to be following this ship - the Bleak Seeker, as it is apparently called - and the others are earlier, archival records of a ship with a name corrupted by long-term hibernation. The ship's identifying tags are intact though, right up to the point when the log abruptly terminates. The smaller recordings, as they are sifted through, seem to be taken from a lower position and are a few second snippet here, a minute there. Largely of nothing but showing the robed figure walking, or engaging in battle. The droid seems to stir in the connection when those last files are accessed.
Zelo watches Vhe as she touches the robes, and his own breath is held as she seems to do the same. A cobalt hand is held out to steady her if needed when she returns to a deeper breath, but the Jedi is sure in her footing. Black-pool eyes watch the jaw part and a deep red crystal emerge and float above Vhe's hand. "How was she flying with no eyes? Is that something you can do? To see without seeing?" But... There are also two seats, aren't there? One is in a static forward position, and... Clearly empty.
Nerys, who looked up from where Bitty was working, her single red eye flickering, looked over to catch sight of the glint of red crystal. A tomb raider always knew when there were treasures around. "I can hold that, if you like, Vhe. It can't affect me, as it might you or Zelo." That was an odd thing to say, but if Vhe thought to reach out with the force, she would find an odd thing. Her ability to sense life would indeed identify Nerys, but... And then, as if it were entirely reasonable to have two conversations at once, "There are some species which lack eyes. Perhaps she used some adaptive technology to fly."
Bitty, who clearly did not see a problem with any of this, turned her head, staring at a place where there were no bodies to interfere with her projection. The trio see:
The image of a dark-skinned man in the crisp and sharply decorated uniform of an advanced officer of the Imperial Navy flickers with small pulses of static - remnants of fragmented and frustrating memory corruption after thirty years of storage. Sharp brown eyes bore into the viewer with the weight of a glare as thick as his well-manicured beard and eyebrows. The recording begins in the middle of a conversation and seems to be the recording of a recording. "-that we are counting on her. Darth Setis is the last chance we have of finding-" The original hologram seems to flicker for a moment, and a burst of static follows. "-er after its disappearance. It was last seen at the deep-space sublight beacon, and we have attached the records of every trace on any and all systems. The last team that went *krzzst* has disappeared, so we must turn to her. Take the Bleak Seeker, fly her wherever she needs, assist as necessary. The Empire must have that weapon or we may just fade into obscurity in Queluhan. There is nothing more important. Any means, all resources. For the Empire." With that, the message cuts off, and a voice off-camera chuckles.
"Any means, all resources? I guess that's a job." The image shifts slightly, and then the recording cuts off.
The offer gives Vhe pause as she regards the woman. "Of course, you are family to Jax." But there is a curious study given to the other woman before she reaches down to tear a piece of the robe off and setting it over her hand in several layers settles the crystal there. Direct contact need not happen.
"I need to take this to the others as well...the Jedi." Possibly. For she looks uneasy as Nerys and Bitty get the recording to play. Her hand loosely closes over the precious artifact in hand directly removed from the now-dead Sith's mouth.
"Sith ..Setis...she could see, Zelo. Through the Force. But it is as Nerys says." But she quiets and looks between the two, a troubling furrow. "So the records are here and the location is...here on this ship. Whatever they were seeking they never found but it does not mean they will not try again."
Zelo looks away from the crystal, even though something about it is... Alluring in a way. Maybe it's just the way the facets catch the light. He thinks on what adaptive technology would be necessary to translate the data of a deep field of view, through star systems... Navigating asteroid belts with a blindfold. There's a shake of the head - not something he could ever try. But he also could not wield the force. Full attention is offered to the holorecording, but Zelo's mind is already itching at something. "Queluhan? I don't know where that is." He looks between the two. "There was definitely something important they were after. Following the trail of a ship using subspace beacons is tedious. But feasible. How they lost the trail I don't know. You can pull a lot of information pretty quickly, I would think..." Zelo nods, seconding Vhe's thought. "If they're sending a... Sith after it, it must be important, right? If it's enough to save the Empire - or, how they saw it?" It hadn't worked, being this ship's crash was 30 years before. "
"Nerys, you said there are flight records? Perhaps there's something to put us on the trail. If it's a weapon like that... We should probably know about it, so it doesn't end up in the wrong hands." There's an unintended shift of his head as he looks to the skeletal hands which had been holding the droid's body until a minute ago. He turns that gaze back to Vhe. "I'm up for a scavenger hunt if you think I can be of help." There's a pause. "What about the other voice?" The Nautolan suddenly remembers that the transmission hadn't been the original.
Nerys, seeing Vhe cover the crystal, stepped away from the droid Bitty was still hooked into, swinging the waterproof case she was using instead of a backpack around. She opened it, and began rummaging around. Finally, she pulled out a slim storage case, which she offered over to Vhe. The interior was softly padded, filled with a foam that would conform to the shape of whatever was placed inside of it to keep it secure. "That might make it easier to transport."
As Zelo posed his question, Nerys looked that way, the recording cutting off on a freeze-frame. "We're transferring everything the droid has stored. If we can get to a secure system, we can load the information and try to make sense of whatever flight plans and maps we might find there." But that did not seem to be Nerys' chief interest at the moment. Instead, she stepped over to where the projection had been, "Bitty, rewind the recording, let me see the figure again?" Bitty, looking back up from her work on the droid, emitted a single image. "Queluhan. That's a name I haven't heard in...a long while. The Queluhan Nebula is in the Unknown Regions. But this fine fellow." Well, he was a rather dashing looking human, "Grand Moff, by his uniform, Imperial, but some of these decorations predate the Civil War." Nerys looked back to Bitty, "Bitty, can you extrapolate and give me a side view?" for once, there was no complaint, as the image disappeared, and Bitty projected a new, reconstructed image, a 3D model which rotated slowly, so that they could get a good view of him, "Rannd. He was the Grand Moff of the Exterior, which included the Outer Rim Territories."
As Nerys offers over the vessel, Vhe nods and reaches out to take it. "I get the sense she was...I have a feeling the crystal is greatly wounded. Carefully she opens the container and eases the wrapped crystal within so that she can close the top. Nerys gets another look from the Ysanna as she considers the other woman. "We should talk when we are not trying to follow the path of madmen and power-hungry creatures."
Once the thing is safely stowed she watches Nerys and Bitty work, moving closer to Zelo as she seeks out his hand, grasping it within her own to the point that tanned fingers weave with his blue. "This could be a rather impossible task but I think you were sent down here for a reason Zelo. I know nothing of these people but it seems as if anything to do with the Empire would hbe something to chase and secure."
The crystal covered and resting in a trusted hand, Zelo watches it disappear into a case and out of sight. "Grand Moff of the Outer Rim? That would certainly include Pamarthe... I still don't know why they would have gone down... The ship - from the inside - seems... Fine. Unless there were others doing repairs. But even then... Where are they?" He keeps coming back to the immaculate care given to the downed ship. He looks to the figure in the still image projected by the minute Bitty. "Grand Moff... In search of a weapon to bring the Empire back?" Black pools turn back to Vhe, reflecting the woman back to herself as they do to all things with some light to them. His fingers close around her own.
"I'm willing to take a run at impossible. If it's a weapon they want that badly... It should be secured... Or destroyed." Enough power to bring the Empire back after Jakku? That would be too much for anyone to hold safely, or so it seems to the Nautolan. He looks back to Nerys.
"I think we should get that information to a secure computer and start tearing through it, see what else we can find out about this search... See if the trail led them here, or if it was only a coincidence..." Not a lot of coincidences. But as a coincidence, the perimeter droid begins to stir, despite Bitties throttling to slow its awakening.
<"Stop... Get back. She is... She must be at rest. She... Return... *krzz* -t back. Do not... touch..."> The droid struggles against the suppression. Its voice is different than the shiny terrors above with their blaring warnings. It has a... Coruscanti accent?
Nerys frowned, as the droid began to fight Bitty's control. "Bitty, see if you can isolate its speech processor, so we can hear what it's trying to say, but keep its mechanical function suppressed, would you?" But the droid was now as adamant as a droid could be, and the pair were now working against a hostile neural matrix. It was not going to be easy. "We can't let it run riot in here. Who knows what safeguards have been built into the ship? I don't want to have saved this bridge to be blown up and ruin all that good work." Because that was clearly the important thing here.
Vhe's hand leaves Zelo's, setting the container down beside him to hold as she steps forward to join Nerys. "Please allow me to help." she offers and looks between the two so that she can step up beside them fully and reach out her hand. Fingertips once touching the black cloak now brush metal of the unmoving droid as she focuses upon it, amber eyes stealing across its prone form.
The Force guides her through circuits made from organic materials that have been blended and formed into the very thing before her. There is a spark of something, an existing mind that is not part of the Force and as it gives to her she lifts her shoulders with a deep breath in. Through the Force she speaks to it, coaxing it with the language that is born on the mysterious power. 'What is your purpose on this ship and is there access to the coordinates you were attempting to arrive at?'
Zelo nods, looking to Nerys. "There's something about the one in the engineering panels... I think it's using this one's legs to aid the bypass... If they're linked, it could be bad." The Nautolan really doesn't want it to be bad. Vhe deposits the case in his hand and he holds it firmly, held away from his body though as one would with all things of unknown and discernible power.
As Vhe reaches out to the droid with the force, it's as though the droid's sensor array shifts, pulsing in time to its reply, which it offers aloud on a steadier vocoder connection.
<"I serve Syeta... I wait for her to awaken. It has been so long... I worry she will not. But she believed... I believe in her. I serve Syeta..."> It starts to repeat itself again, and then stops, as though in thought. <"There... Is a beacon. On the far side of this system, long out... She believed it to be the next step in the path. If you... Continue her mission... Help the seeking... I will tell you what you wish. But let her rest."> The droid waits, fighting Bitty and Nerys less as it seems to have found an outlet for its weary frustration in conversation.
"Of course we will let her rest." Nerys glanced briefly between Zelo and Vhe. What else could they do? The Sith was, literally, a skeleton. You could not get more rested than skeleton. "And we would like to continue her mission. But we will need your help." Bitty, who spoke to Nerys quietly, received a nod for her trouble, "You must leave the ship as it is. If you move it, you will disturb her rest. if you will come with us, we will help you to help her in her mission."
"She is right," meaning Nerys. "This ship is not operational. We need to get you out of this one and somewhere that you can interface with." She glances at Nerys to be sure before she reaches out with the Force once more. "I will carry you. Do not move. Your systems are not working fully." Zelo has the crystal, and Vhe is ready to wrap this droid up in the Force while they swim back out. It's going to be fun. Right?
She reaches out both her hands. "Be not alarmed." Best to leave her hands free to swim, the Force will help her through this.
The droid-ball shifts a little, some internal workings and servos as it tries to shift legs that aren't there. <"She put some of herself... In the crystal. I thought it would be enough... It... Was not enough... Was it..."> The droid asks questions, but speaks in statements. <"If you will seek what she sought... I will go with you... At least for a time. When it is done... May I return?"> Then the droid is gently floating in invisible hands of Force.
<"I am not afraid.">
Zelo, watching this exchange, has the wise instinct to keep his mouth shut. His words have failed him too often at the wrong time, and this far down with... This on the line? It's not at all a good time. He moves to precede the others, taking the case and setting it up in the aft-ward corridor before pulling himself up into the walkway. He kneels and offers the others a hand up if they require it. "I think if it sits for long enough... The situation in engineering will... Correct itself. I'll pass word along to those who need to know, but hopefully this can all stay under wraps. Nobody outside of our team needs to know that there was anything down here." The Nautolen even makes a mental note to cover the entrance and re-bury the segment of hull bearing some of the lettering. Something to quickly take care of when everyone is top-side.
"Of course you may. Every creature, whatever its origins, should be allowed to rest when its work is done. And if you wish to rest with her, then I will do all that I can to ensure that you do so." Nerys, who again looked between Zelo and Vhe, allowed them to handle the droid, as she made her way down from the cockpit, offer a word of thanks to Zelo as she settled, "We'll get the information onto a system for you to look through. And I'll make a copy for you as well, Vhe." Nerys would make her way out of the ship, Bitty staying close, and guarding for any other danger which might present itself. "The ship should stay where it is. Any attempt to move it will likely draw too much attention."
"That much is appreciated...knowing she put herself in that crystal? It means it is likely best I did not touch it." Vhe remarks and then glances towards Zelo to be sure he remembers said item and very nearly drops the droid. "What shall we call you?" Her adrenaline is up as she quickly course corrects and catches him before he hits the ground. Upward he floats and she is following after Nerys.
"We will get you back here, as my compatriot promises." After all, why not? What could it hurt after all.
"We have what we need, this ship is likely best if it stays here."
"Thank you, Nerys," says the Nautolan pilot at the promise of information. The search had his curiosity piqued, but more importantly he wanted to see that the weapon was found - whatever happened to it after. Better 'us' than 'them.' Zelo takes up the rear, following with the case firmly in cobalt hand, which he lifts with a slight smile to the Jedi as the droid volunteers one last piece of information.
<"Enslow. She named me Enslow.">
Zelo, seeing everyone else pass, opens the hatch to engineering, casting another long look to the droid hooked into bypass the patch panels. Already, the hum of energy is reducing as the ship's systems draw less power, turning slowly to a dormant state. While it had almost hummed before... The droid seemed to sag now. Leaving the hatch open, Zelo continued aftward, following the others into the water.
