[Tides of Change] Co-Op Fiction Team 1

Sometimes It Just Isn’t Enough To Try

Team

Rhiann Baenre, #13774
Scheat Eclipseflame #13922

“A shuttle would have been a better idea… I could have piloted.”

The sultry voice came from the only other person on board the ship at the time. Seated in one of the seats other than the captain’s seat was a pink skinned Sephi woman frowning at a datapad in her left hand. Even with the boosted signal thanks to what to appeared to be some sort of mobile satellite, she still was having connection problems to the Invicta.

She had insisted on staying connected at all times; just in case.

Even with what could be considered an insult, the Nautolan continued to steer them down toward New Tython. Rhiann had not entertained the idea of going onto the actual planet itself unless it was absolutely impossible to avoid; and it was. So she insisted on being picked up. That, in her mind, was a mistake.

Regardless of it all and the situation he had found himself in, Scheat continued to smile-- a stark contrast from Rhiann’s constant serious or otherwise frowning face.

“So…” He said, attempting to start some sort of conversation, “Your name sounds famili–”

He had been cut off by the woman swearing at the datapad in her hands in the Dathomirian language, the rest of his sentence soon coming out of his mouth once the woman had calmed down.

“–ar. Familiar,” the Guardian finally said to finish his sentence.

They continued to descend, making their way toward the more lush area of New Tython. They had been tasked with rescuing whomever they could find in the area, having gotten some sort of distress signal from the edge of the rainforest. No one could possibly figure out why they decided to wander in toward the rainforest; but there had to be a reason. There was for everything.

Rhiann didn’t bother with answering the inquiry on her name, much more focused on tuning the mobile communications booster to allow for them to function more efficiently within the rainforest. It had really started to cause the Nautolan to wonder just why he was stuck with such a grumpy woman.

It wasn’t long before the ship landed on the ground, Scheat starting to shut it down so they could get on with their mission. They had people to find and he didn’t want to be with this woman any longer than he had to be. Even while disembarking the ship, her eyes were on the datapad. Her fingers started to furiously tap along the glass screen. From what the Jedi could tell, the woman looked pleased with something. Or less angry. It was hard to tell.

“I have the datapad connected to the Invicta,” the woman stated, “It will track our position within the rainforest so we do not end up running ourselves in circles.”

Scheat looked impressed, the smile on his face as glowing as ever.

“Let’s go, then!”

Scheat looked at his ally. “You don’t talk much do you? Anyhow your name is familiar. Given time I could probably recall who you are…”

Scheat stopped talking when Rhiann started to stare holes into his soul. Scheat shook his head. This is going to be a long time… Why couldn’t I have been stuck with someone who talks… he thought.

“Well miss antisocial. We should probably start trying to find someone. Unless you would rather just wait and starve…” Scheat said, trying to get his ally to say something. As he waited he saw a ship descend. He could tell it wasn’t one of Odan-Urr’s and appeared to be a regular shuttle. The Sephi saw it too, and her eyes narrowed. Scheat took it to mean that these were enemies.

“Then we should move,” Rhiann said at last.

“After the enemy, or after survivors?” Scheat asked to annoy the Sephi. He got another flat stare from her and sighed. “Enemies it is. You are no fun. Ohh and well if your datapad gets hacked…. it was not me!”

Rhiann gave him another glare before moving into the rainforest. Scheat followed her, muttering under his breath. His eyes drifted toward her saber. As silent as she is, she has be a good fighter. While the quiet is annoying, I would rather have the quiet than be on the other side of the battlefield.

Scheat’s hand slid instinctively to his saber. He was reassured by the weapon. Well if it comes down to a fight, then I am glad to have someone skilled. At least I hope she is. She is an Obelisk….

Scheat caught himself before tripping over a tree root. He looked around, and noticed Rhiann wasn’t paying attention. He sighed. This was going to be a long experience.

Even though it looked as if she hadn’t been paying attention, her feet made sure to steer clear of the root Scheat had almost tripped on. She was aware enough of her surroundings and was able to avoid a simple obstacle such as a tree root. Although the datapad had taken precedence over anything else in her surroundings, her eyes still glanced up time to time to make sure they were still safe.

“According to information coming in from the Invicta, that was not a friendly ship,” Rhiann said, tapping the screen a few more times, “Also, according to data and some calculations, they did not land terribly far from here. The best course of action would be to move in the direction we currently are and hope to avoid them.”

Giving the screen a few more taps, the Sephi woman soon took her eyes off the screen and attached the datapad onto a special pouch at her side so she could still hear sounds coming from it; it was keeping them from going in circles, after all.

“So get moving.”

Moving to take the lead, the Obelisk drew one of her daggers and picked up the pace. Her movements were graceful as she moved around trees and vines, avoiding any sort of hostile flora and fauna she had read about during her time on New Tython. The dagger acted as a way to get foliage or vines out of the way of their movements, Rhiann not wanting to waste more time than she had to.

Rhiann at least looked pleased that the Nautolan could keep up with her in speed and endurance. She was impressed by that, which showed on her face-- he could tell she wasn’t irritated with him.

The both of them soon came to a stop when they heard rustling in the bushes. Without a closer look the two of them wouldn’t be able to tell what it was, but kept still as long as they were able to. What they didn’t expect was sudden blaster fire coming from the opposite direction of the sound. The both of them drew their lightsabers at the instant. Rhiann, being slightly distracted at the time and having a more difficult time sending back blaster fire was grazed by numerous bolts until Scheat stepped in front of her and reflected the blaster fire back with ease.
With a huge grin on his face, he looked back to the woman with him.

“Told you your datapad would get hacked!”

Scheat swung his lightsaber reflecting another blaster bolt. “The data pad is a liability at best. Someone should get a data gauntlet. With better firewalls.” He laughed.

Rhiann looked at Scheat with mild acceptance. Regardless of our differences he has been able to keep pace with me, and has a skill I don’t have. she thought. I guess it means I won’t have to kill him.

Scheat smiled as he moved forward, reflecting blaster bolt after blaster bolt. “You know Rhiann,” he said, joking his way through the situation. “I never imagined being a barrier for someone. Granted it wouldn’t be so easy if the O’reenians were such terrible shots.”

The O’reenians heard his comment and started to approach, scheat counted about a dozen of them, two with strange swords and daggers. Scheat merely laughed. The two of them surged forward. Scheat, distracted by the blaster fire, was caught off guard. Only a general sense that an attack was coming, and his lightning reflexes, saved him. He kicked one of the O’reenian’s in the leg, and reflected another blaster bolt.

“A little help would be nice,” he called out to Rhiann.

She nodded and approached, engaging one of two sword wielding O’reenian. She pressed him back, using several thrusts, one hand behind her back. She was suprised to his his sword resist her lightsaber. Other than that she had no problem with this fight, cutting through his defence like a knife through noodles. She had killed him quickly and efficiently. Her favorite method of killing.

Scheat on the other hand had some difficulty killing his foes. in a single power strike that redirected three blaster bolts, he struck down the remaining O’reenian with a sword. in return he was grazed by a blaster shot, and cut by the O’reenian’s sword. Not caring about his injuries he continued to move forward deflecting blaster bolt after blaster bolt.

At this point in time, any remaining enemy forces had withdrawn. Rhiann was unsure why; perhaps herself and the Jedi seemed overpowering or they had other plans. Whatever it was, it was a good opportunity to re-evaluate what they had in mind for the remainder of their mission.

Still holding onto her saber with one hand, the Sephi took the datapad from her side and awkwardly held onto it while she poked at the screen. Her facial expression didn’t change during the time, but Scheat could see her glancing up more and more. It was dangerous for them to be stationary, but there was something she had to check.

“It was not hacked. It was more they picked up on any signals going back and forth and used their own technology to find the electronic signature of another piece of technology within the rainforest,” Rhiann explained, putting the datapad back.

“I still say it was hacked,” Scheat said with a toothy grin, causing the woman to sigh in annoyance.

“You Jedi are just too behind the times.”

After another minute, the datapad would go back to her side where it had been in the first place. Rolling her right shoulder, she started to move back where they had come from, casting a glance at the bodies left in the wake of the fighting. Her eyes moved over the objects on the ground used by the O’reenians and despite their technological advances, none of it caught the woman’s eye. The Nautolan’s eyes were caught by the weaponry, but his partner had started to move so far ahead that he had to dash to catch up.

“Shouldn’t we be going further into the rainforest?” He asked, “What about the people who need rescuing?”

Rhiann didn’t answer at first, continuing to walk. Scheat continued to ask her the same question over and over and over, her eyebrows knitting on her forehead. With a movement of her hand, she tried to tell him to keep quiet; but the man kept insisting that he know the answer to the question.

She eventually spoke up in irritation, “Do you really think people survived? You saw how many came after us. Some of them fled. More ships are landing. Do you want to die too?”

The woman looked back at him with an irritated look. She actually had no clue if anyone they were trying to rescue died, but she wasn’t even sure if there was anyone in the rainforest.

“We were both hit numerous times by blaster fire. I cannot take on these large mobs without getting exhausted and your brute force will only last so long. Despite the fact that I have confidence in my skill; we are out numbered.”
Looking forward once more, her feet kept moving and picked up the pace.

“I do not know about you, but I have a reason to continue to live and nothing will keep me from that; so I am not sacrificing my life to save others when I know I will likely not make it out alive myself.”

A sigh escaped from the woman’s nose; not wanting or caring to look back at the man’s expression.

Scheat, in one of the few moments in his life where he wasn’t smiling, growled. “ Make it out alive? What if it were you in the forest hoping that someone would come? Or do you feel nothing?”

Rhiann started intently into her datapad, only replied to silence the Nautolan. “I wouldn’t have to rely on others to save me.”

“Says the person to afraid to move on because your life is at risk. Give me a real answer or leave. I don’t care how many of these O’reenian bastards there are. I will go on my own if I must. Nothing will stop me from saving anyone I can!”

Rhiann did not reply, realizing, that unfortunately the Nautolan hit his mark. She would leave now if she needed, but he got her to doubt her own ability. After seeing the man smile through almost anything, the fact he could do that was partially terrifying. A few beeps came from her Datapad, as she hacked into the comm channel that the O’reenian’s were losing. A message appeared on the datapad. There was an image of Scheat on it with a 50,000 credit bounty. Apparently the O’reenians dispersed to get more people to capture and hand Scheat over to the Saraask’ar Slaver Guild and collect the credits.

“If you go on your own then you walk into an O’reenian trap,” she said trying to scare the Jedi. “Apparently they are going to capture you and turn you in for your bounty. Go do whatever you want. I don’t care.”

“Let them come,” Scheat said, and Rhiann could almost feel his anger like it was tangible. “Let them come and die. I don’t care. I will help those people. That is all that matters. Arconan, Urr, Sith, Jedi, it doesn’t matter. I hope you are happy walking away. I hope you realize that if the roles were reversed with you and whoever is out there, I would still come to rescue you.”

Rhiann stayed silent. Who is he to judge me? Who is he to say he would rescue anyone. he is simply going to die. He is a fool. If only I had a droid with me instead. She turned to yell at him for being stupid, and he wasn’t there.

Scheat left Rhiann behind. Why couldn’t she see sense. People need help. That is all that matters! he thought. He felt a stinging pain in his side, and realized he had been shot. He could see more blaster fire headed toward him and ignited his blade redirecting the blasts.

Shaking his head, he continued to run, staying ahead of the blaster fire. He ran as fast as ever, doing his best to ignore the pain. He made it over 800 meters before he tripped. Laying in the ground, his knee injured and his wound from the blaster bolt, he calmly waited for death. Well he thought This should be the end.

He heard footsteps and smiled. They shall never get the satisfaction of seeing me in pain!

“Scheat, get up!” he heard Rhiann’s voice call out. “They are one hundred meters in the wrong direction following the Lobster on Auto-pilot. Yes I hacked your ship. Deal with it. The only reason I am back is because the Shadow lady would kill me for possibly ruining the alliance because I left you to die.”

Scheat struggled to his feet, laughing. “Sure thats why.” he said. “But I chose to believe you came back because you had a change of heart. Any way you can hack my ships turrets to kill the O’reenians?”

“That doesn’t sound like the light side, but yes.” Rhiann replied coldly.

“Then get to it. I am not explicitly a follower of the light. Sometimes people need to adapt. And I am going to have to adapt a lot if I can pull off taking down the Saraask’ar. And for that I have to infiltrate Clan Plagueis.” Scheat paused. “But forget you heard that.”

Rhiann, too busy with hacking the ship’s turrets, didn’t even hear him. After she completed that, she took off toward, to find whoever survived in the forest. Scheat followed behind, slightly slower. What they found was a crashed ship. Corpses were everywhere.

Scheat almost cried at the sight. Most of these people died in the crash, and with the blaster marks on the ship, some had probably been killed by the O’reenians.

“Call my ship back,” he said, looking away from the bodies. “Let us get out of here.”