Log:Starlight Vanguard: Homecoming Pt 2
Aria asks Saito to help her find out what happened to the Stellar Windrunner...
OOC Date: April 29, 2023
Location: Stellar Windrunner
Participants: Aria Voss, Saito
< Central Corridor - Mid Section - CRV Stellar Windrunner >
A standard Corellian corvette corridor with bright white bulkheads and bright white floor plating. The bulkheads have computer terminals here and there that can be used to access ship information, with the right permit codes. The corridor has some branching off sections but other than that is pretty standard for traveling. Its very well lit and gives off a sanitary feel with its pure whiteness.
After the initial team entered the CR-90 Stellar Windrunner and cleared out some of the spiders and other pests flying around, droids were moved in to assist both with cleaning out the overgrowth of foliage and some of the smaller rodents and insects that had infested crawl spaces and access panels.
After a diagnostic test to make sure nothing was going to explode, a generator had also been brought in, which was plugged into one of the external ports on the ship and turned on, allowing the ship's onboard systems to be brought online. The engines still hadn't been fixed yet, but at least the ship had power so they could turn the lights on!
It was starting to look much more like an /actual/ CR90 now. There was still a lot of cleaning to do, but the rooms were all accessible and the condition of the ship was more apparent.
Still, no one knew the story of how the Stellar Windrunner came to be stranded on Xyndarra or why, but there were starting to be clues. The airlock hatch had been left open, there were fifteen year old decomposed remains, and there were scorch marks down some of the walls, especially near the bridge. Lightsaber scorch marks.
Aria was back in her typical /Rebellion/ gear, the all black "Spook Suit" that she seemed to favor, but instead of the blaster rifle, she had a pistol strapped to her thigh. Her hair was up in a braid, and she also had her two purple droids following her -- the 501-Z police droid and the R2 unit she'd named Chirp.
She was standing in the main hallway of the ship, directing a couple of technicians into the med bay and apparently helping to coordinate repairs.
Steps on the oposit side of the halway would announce the arrival of Saito. The Jedi is wearing the robes that identify him as a member of the order. He appears to be distracted as he walks, mind focused elcewhere. "Need any help?" he calls out to Aria. From the distance, she'd be able to detect his happiness that they are finally in the covert and, at the same time, his concern and uneasiness. Despit his emotions, he can't help but offer her a warm smile.
Aria looks up from her conversation when she hears the steps approaching, but it's the robes that catch her eye first. The tension that had existed in her shoulders seems to relax a little, allowing them to sag a fraction of an inch.
"Sai."
His name is breathed in warm relief, and the pink-skinned Zeltron turns to the technicians she'd been talking to. A few last checks, last directions, and then she nods, dismissing them so that she can turn her full attention on the Jedi.
"Please. We could use all the help we can get," she says, stepping up to him at his arrival and touching his arm as she stretches up onto tip-toe to place a chaste kiss against his cheek. She wanted more. It's there in her eyes. But in these times, she kept her affection for him discrete. Their relationship was no secret, but there was no sense in making anyone around them uncomfortable.
"Is Figly around? I was hoping the two of you could look into something for me."
"Yes, he should be here in a few moments," Saito's smile is warm when his eyes land on the Zeltron. He looks behind him and, jus tlike he said, the Astromech comes rolling down the halway. "Did you see the marks?" he asks, pointing to the scorch marks on the walls. "I wonder what has happened here?" he muses, before his atention is once again on the Zeltron. "So, what do you need?" he asks. He gently touches her hand. In that moment, she can sense that he alsso wants more affectionn but is, just like her, restraining himself.
"Well, that's what I'd like the two of you to see if you can figure out," Aria says, those violet eyes dipping affectionately to the little astromech when he rolls up. But then her attention is focused on Saito and she raises a hand slightly to gesture back down the hallway where most of the slashes were. Most of the time they were angled cuts, though in a few places the scores are deep, like they had been carved intentionally.
"I've got teams working on repairing the damage so we can get the ship back in the air, but I'd like to know /why/ they're here. They kind of look like..."
The woman's eyes dip down the length of Saito's body and she makes a kind of vague gesture.
Lightsaber scores.
"...don't they? I don't know if there's anything you can do to find out what happened. We have power, obviously, but some of the computer systems are still offline. It looks like a lot of the functionally was manually locked down. Would you be willing to try?"
[PASS ( +35)] Saito's Sense Echo @ (110) diff.
Sensed through the prism of the Force, darkness looms large in this place. The Stellar Windrunner is a tomb -- a once glorious ship beset by tragedy.
The visions begin with the CR90 Corvette embarking on its fateful mission, carrying a Sith prisoner of great importance. The crew, a mix of skilled officers and enlisted personnel, is diligent and cautious, aware of the dangerous entity they have on board. As the ship traverses the galaxy, they maintain strict security protocols, confining the Sith to a heavily reinforced cell deep within the vessel.
Despite their precautions, the dark energy of the Sith prisoner begins to seep through the ship, corrupting the minds of the crew and sowing discord among them. The once-cohesive team starts to fracture, with suspicions and paranoia taking root. The visions in the Force reveal whispers in the shadows, as the crew members turn against one another, driven by fear and manipulation.
One fateful day, the Sith prisoner seizes upon an opportunity and, using their dark powers, manages to break free from the cell. Panic and chaos erupt throughout the ship as the crew desperately attempts to contain the threat. The visions grow darker and more intense, showing the Sith systematically hunting down and murdering the crew members, their dark laughter echoing through the corridors of the Stellar Windrunner.
As the situation becomes increasingly dire, the remaining crew members make a desperate decision: they will attempt an emergency landing on the jungle world of Xyndarra. With sheer determination, they manage to navigate the vessel through the dense foliage and land with minimal damage. As the ship comes to rest, the exhausted crew breathe a momentary sigh of relief, believing they have escaped the clutches of the Sith prisoner.
However, the visions reveal a chilling twist. The Sith had anticipated their actions, lying in wait for the ship to touch down. As the crew disembarks, the Sith emerges from the shadows, their eyes filled with dark glee. One by one, they eliminate the remaining crew members, leaving none alive to tell the tale of their harrowing ordeal.
With the crew of the Stellar Windrunner wiped out, the Sith calmly exits the vessel, vanishing into the depths of the Xyndarran jungle. As the visions fade, they leave behind an eerie sense of the darkness that once pervaded the ship, and the knowledge of the tragedy that befell those who dared to challenge the power of the Sith.
"Sure," Saito nods to Aria after a moment of thought. "I'm not sure what I could do to help, really.. I mean II'm not a detective or anything of the sort," he says with a shake of his head. "But its worth a try, at least.. Hmm there is something I could try, tough I've never even trained in it.. Well, its worth a try," he approaches the wall of the halway and closes his eyes, reaching out into the force. He spends several momentss standing very still, trying to focus on the wall. He spends a minut infront of the wall and hmms, slowly turning to Aria. "Well, the force is telling me that this.. Is a wall of a CR-90." The smile of amusement is cut short as Saito is overwhelmed by the darkness thatt had and still does pervade the ship. Aria would be able to sense the shift in his mood. Calm and concern were replaced by a sense of deep loss, sadness and despair. "By the force,, no," Saito murmurs as the echoes of thee feelings of the ship's passengers and its dark ocupants starts to overwhelm him.
"Thank you."
Aria's smile softens. "You've obviously seen the marks. The computer term-- oh." She seems surprised that the man didn't want to take the astromech over to the data port, apparently not expecting -- though she probably should have -- his ability to turn to less mundane sources for answers.
She moves with him when he simply stands here, focusing. She's quiet. Daring not speak.. until he says it's a wall. /That/ has her sighing.
"Thank you, Master Jedi," she intones in a completely flat voice. "I don't know what I--"
But then everything changes. She can /feel/ the way his emotions shift, and impulsively she reaches out, slipping her arms around him protectively.
"Saito, what's wrong?" she demands. Even a few of the techs nearby stopped and turned to watch what was happening.
[PASS ( +20)] Saito's Willpower @ (100) diff.
"They, they.."Saito starts to shake slightly, a result of his emotional state. "The sith killed them.. First they turned against each other and then they were hunted down like wild dogs.. Close companions killed each other, just because they thought that the other would do it first.. What sort of monster could do something like that!" He's screaming and, for a second, the air gets heavy around him and Aria, as if filled with static. She can feel his negative emotions increasing. For the first time, she can sense real hatred coming from him. Near them, a few devices start to move on their own accord, as if wanting to over or to be thrown against the nearest hard surface. as thee oppressive feeeling in the air grows, Saito closes his eyes once again, tears starting to fall down his cheeks, his arms clutching Aria and bringing her close, the jesture being done out of a instinctual need for safety. Meanwhile, Figly rolls closer to the pair. "What is wrong, what is going on?" the droid asks in Binary. As the tears fall, thee strange senssation isn't felt anymore, the area returning to normal. Or as normal as it can be.
[PASS ( +3)] Aria Voss's Charisma @ (100) diff.
Aria watches without interruption except for the hand she placed on his arm, but she's there the whole time, close enough to grab, to pull close, to comfort. It isn't long, however, before she starts to shudder, herself. Plagued by the emotions she could /feel/ radiating from him, she closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, tears escaping down her cheeks for reasons she couldn't understand.
The /feelings/ were there, but she has no /reason/ behind them.. not until he explains. And in short enough order, she's being wrapped up in him, and she uses her own empathic abilities to push calm, comfort into him. "It's okay," she whispers urgently, trying to help sooth him. "I'm here, Sai.. we're okay."
There's beeping beside them, then, and the little whirring of servos as the R2 unit rolls up.
"It's okay, Figly," Aria says softly, still holding on to Saito. "He's... he's better." Violet eyes lift to Saito again, then. "I'm so sorry, Sai. I had no idea..."
Saito takes a few deep breaths, atempting to calm himself, the tears finally stopping. He keeps Aria in his embrace, gently planting a kiss on her lips for a moment. "I was a fool.. My masters aolways said that I shouldn't try to do that.. Not without a lot of training, now I understand why," Aria's emotions start to affect him and he starts to calm down. "Could we go elcewhere, please? I.. I don't want too be here," hee admits, still feeling overwhelmed. "First let me explain what I did.. I basically tried to sense the history of these walls, Aria.. And its.. Dark, dark and sad.. The crew of this ship was carrying a Sith prisoner.. They didn't do anything wrong, they put the prisoner in a cell, followed all security protocols.. However, they stayed with the Sith for too long.. The dark side corrupted the crew.. What were once friends turned into enemi.. Over a period of time, they killed each other, in a wave of fear, paranoia and anxiety.. The sith eventually escaped their cell and went on a rampage, killing most of the crew.. Thats why the ship was landed here, it was their last resort.. None of them survived.. Thats why this ship is like this, thats why there are lightsaber slashes on the walls."
As soon as Saito asked to leave, Aria was already in motion starting to pull him back towards the airlock, but she paused when he launched into his story. Her gaze locked on him, taking all of it in, and once he was done, she looked down at Figly.
"Figs, make sure to save a copy of everything he just said to the log files for this mission. I don't want to lose any of that." She pauses, then, and looks over her shoulder. "Chirp, stay here and see what you can do with the computers. See if /any/ of the logs say anything about having a Sith passenger onboard or why." Finally, her gaze is on Zed, her 501-Z Police Droid. "Zed, come with us. We're going outside."
And then, her arm looped around Saito's, she walks with him towards the airlock, keeping herself close to his side.
"I'm sorry, Sai," she repeats softly. "I shouldn't have asked. I really had no idea, or I never would have..."
Thankfully, it didn't take long to step back out into the serenity of the jungle.
