NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3711207" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 507: Thyferra“What kind of name is Xozhixi?” Adria grumbled as she stepped around one of the jungle trees outside of Thyferra’s capital city.    Rulae looked over his shoulder to her, glad that they had all changed out of their orange flight suits, which would have made them easy to see in the greens of the Thyferra, and now into more appropriate fatigues. Behind the red-haired human was Xozhixi, the city they had set their X-Wings down on and only spent a short amount of time in gathering information before heading out to the jungle.    “I believe it is from the native Vratix’s language,” he said eventually, having found a spot to look over the terrain ahead of them and, sadly, seeing nothing beyond the trees. He then looked over his other shoulder to Rea, who looked somewhat odd in the green fatigues with her blue skin...though he likely had the same strange mix of colours, “Anything?”    The Twi’lek was looking down at a large scanning package she had taken from her X-Wing, “A couple metal signatures not far off, but probably just bacta storage units.”    “What possessed these people to just store bacta out in the middle of the jungle and hills?” Adria asked, still sounding annoyed and obviously not liking the humid air. She took a few steps over next to Rulae and tilted her head to the side as she waited for an answer that she wasn’t going to get.    Well, not from him. Rea, on the other hand, said with a shrug, “I believe there are defenses around all of them so we should be careful,” she lowered the scanning package and looked over the half-jungle, half-grassland that extended out in front of them, “Sir, not to be difficult, but are you sure they said a ship came down near here?”    Rulae allowed himself a slow nod of his head before saying, “The local authorities said they lost a ship matching our target not long before we jumped in system. Apparently he dropped the ship low enough to duck below their scanners before he set down...somewhere.”    Adria crossed her arms over her chest, “So he could be anywhere out here. That’s a lot of ground to cover.”    “At least they said there’s nothing out here but a few Vratix settlements,” Rulae found himself being a bit more casual than usual lately. That was going to have to be corrected soon, but he couldn’t bring himself to just yet. These two were still just kids and now that Loro was gone...    “Sir,” Rea spoke up again, and he was glad she was keeping the formal tone, “About five kilometers north of us...its too small to be a bacta storage facility.”    Rulae got his bearings and turned to his left to look north. That direction was less jungle and more tall grass, though there were patches of trees here and there from what he could see, “Alright, it’s the best we’ve got so lets head that way.”    It would have been easier to take the X-Wings. But, then again, they would have been much more easily spotted. Apparently, Tokarr had not responded to the local defense fleet’s hails, avoided a starfighter compliment sent to intercept him, then managed to outmaneuver them and lose them completely. He was a better pilot than had been expected. So they were doing this much more low-tech and keeping to the ground.    Rulae had a feeling that Tokarr was off finding whatever it was he had come looking for the second he’d landed, but that wasn’t a problem. Time to search the ship and, maybe, set up an ambush for when the Miraluka returned. There was the technicality of him not returning to the ship, but that would have to be dealt with when, and if, they found the thing.    So the three of them walked through the rough terrain, keeping an eye out for anything that might mean they didn’t have to go the entire five kilometers. But all they passed was a single bacta storage unit, which was a circular building, roughly four stories high. Not far from it was a smaller building that looked like a bunker of sorts. They didn’t go close, just to be safe. It was unlikely that the people guarding the storage units were very welcoming to visitors.    “There’s our ship...” Rulae said quietly.    It had been well over an hour. Thyferra’s sun was setting on the horizon, with two of its moons already high up in the sky. It wasn’t much more comfortable, though. The direct heat of the sun was fading, but the humidity in the air remained the same, making the walk rather hard for all of them, as if they were walking through a thin wall of air the entire time. But none complained, and though there was light conversation, they mostly remained silent, focused ahead.    They had come to a section of hills with a thick jungle growing off to the east, and while many animals could be heard, they never saw any. The native wildlife seemed to be very willing to keep to themselves. The surprisingly natural area outside the planet’s capital city made it easy to spot their target.    At first, they saw simply a light, which was enough to catch attention. But, looking closer, they could see the light was reflecting off of a metal service. And once Rulae produced a pair of electrobinoculars, he got a very clear look. It was a modified Lambda-class, Imperial shuttle, except that it didn’t have three wings. The center, stationary wing was missing, but the two lower wings were folded up as they always did in the landed position, with its beak-like cockpit extending out towards the ground. The light was coming from the two floodlights on either side of the cockpit, meaning that someone was still there needing the light...or they’d left them on.    Adria lowered her own pair of electrobinoculars, “The boarding ramp looks to be down. You think he’s stupid or just careless?”    “Or overconfident,” Rea suggested helpfully.    Rulae confirmed this himself, then lowered his own electrobinoculars and stowing them back in the pack he carried with him, “Whatever the case, we need to be careful. I’ll head around and come in from the north...Adria, you move in from the west. Rea, stay here and cover us then move in from here once we’re all in position.”    “You two be careful moving around out there,” Rea said very quietly, her lekku twitching a bit. She seemed nervous, and Rulae couldn’t blame her. This didn’t feel very good. Something was off here.    “Lets move,” his voice remained stern and as it should coming from a commanding officer. He didn’t hesitate and got to his feet, glad to see Adria showing no hesitation, either. So the two of them began heading around, towards the west first so as to stay a good distance from the shuttle. By the time they were all in position, it would be completely dark.    Hopefully that would help, but Rulae had a feeling this was going to be difficult no matter what. Everything about this mission felt wrong to him. And now the shuttle found like this...easily, and with lights on. Not well hidden. It felt like a trap. It probably was a trap. Too bad the only thing they could do was walk right into it.</blockquote>

Verification