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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3716457" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 508: Also ThyferraThyferra was even more like Alraxian than Yavin IV. From the air, Tobias could see thick jungles, a myriad of wildlife, and pockets of settlements all over the place. In fact, the entire time Venda was bringing them in to set down outside one of the larger cities, the name of which he’d not heard, Tobias had been glued to the viewport, staring down at everything like a child seeing something for the first time.    And then, after they’d landed near one the edge of one of the jungles, Tobias stepped off of the ship and was hit by the heavy wave of humidity and heat. And he smiled.    Sure, as a human, it was impossibly uncomfortable. It felt like his clothes were suddenly sticking to him, and every step was like walking through an invisible screen of water, but it was like home. If he’d had any less self control, Tobias would have gone back to his Alraxian body that second and found himself right at home. Instead, he simply turned around, headed back up the boarding ramp into the little transport, removing his jacket as he went. Tobias tossed the thing onto the co-pilot’s chair, then ran back out to see Venda rolling up her sleeves and adjusting her boots slightly.    She looked over her shoulder to see he’d discarded the heavy jacket and smiled, “Not a bad idea.”    He just shrugged and then took a moment to look around. All he could see was green. Grass, trees, planets...green everywhere. Without realizing it, he was smiling.    “Do you feel it still?” Venda asked, also giving the area a good inspecting, though not with the same happiness that had consumed Tobias.    Tobias stopped and made himself focus. Closing his eyes to drown out the wonderful view around him, Tobias clumsily began to reach out with the Force, stretching an invisible arm out and searching...    “I feel it...” he said softly, “He’s here.”    When he opened his eyes, Tobias turned and pointed towards the south, though he didn’t know it was south. It was along the edge of the forest, and so they began to follow it, with Tobias basically leading the way. There was a reason for that.    While Venda was very good at tracking people, Tobias had first hand experience with Tokarr. He knew what the Miraluka felt like in the Force...he knew what to look for. It made it so much easier to find someone if you had even a slight idea what they felt like in the Force. Otherwise, it was simply a see of life that all seemed exactly the same. So Tobias led the way, with Venda feeling it out in her own way. Truthfully, she could likely have done it on her own, but it seemed to just make sense to push Tobias to the front. Not to mention the fact that he was doing a good job of it.    “You’ve been smiling since we landed,” Venda said, eventually, “Not that it’s a bad thing, Toby, but considering the person we’re after...it does seem a bit strange.”    Tobias, at first, just shrugged. His natural inclination was to not bring up anything involving where he was from to anyone in this part of the galaxy. Marix would have been proud of that, at least. But, Tobias quickly remember it was Venda who had spoken, someone who had, apparently, recently been to Alraxia. His mind catching up to this, Tobias finally said, “This place reminds me of home.”    Venda reached up to brush a loose strand of hair out of her eyes before nodding, “It does feel a bit like Alraxia here. Make you homesick?”    Shaking his head, Tobias said simply, “I wasn’t born there.”    He wouldn’t have elaborated anymore if she’d asked, but thankfully, she didn’t. Venda had sensed something in his words and, intelligently, not pushed any further. The reason she was usually tasked to deal with people was because she could read them, and Tobias wasn’t exactly hard to. It was like he’d never learned, or thought about, hiding things. Not that Venda would pry into his thoughts...it was the feelings that were enough to tell her.    Conversation was hard with him. She’d tried it while they were sparring on board the transport, but Venda found that Tobias just didn’t seem to do very well with it. Which was odd to her. He seemed uncomfortable with most all subjects she tried to bring up. Venda couldn’t help but wonder about how he’d grown up, as he just didn’t seem to have much in the way of social skills. If she’d known Marix better, it might not have surprised Venda. But, instead, Venda simply found it a bit worrying, as Tobias was...well...she didn’t know how old he was, but he looked about sixteen, and at that age he shouldn’t just stand around staring at his feet when people talked to him.    And yet...    “Hold up a second, Toby,” she could see something now. Not far ahead, near the tree line, was a metal object. From the sky, they’d both seen multiple bacta storage units. They were large, cylindrical, and more black than silver. This looked like a starship...    Tobias had stopped to look at her and ask what she’d told him to wait for. But when he saw her looking ahead, he tried to follow her gaze...and saw the same thing. Without being prompted to, he fell back into the Force again, feeling it out and...    “He’s there,” Tobias said as he opened his eyes again. Then, he bit his lip and said quietly, “And I think he know’s we’re here.”    Venda nodded and then took the lead, moving closer to the trees to their left, “Draw yourself inward as best as you can.”    Nodding, Tobias fell into step behind her. As they moved closer, they could see the two lower wings of the ship folded up into the landed position, with one lower floodlight on, despite the fact that Thyferra’s sun was high in the air above. More importantly, the boarding ramp was down.    The closer they got, the more nervous Tobias began to feel. The last time he’d had a run in with Tokarr hadn’t been the most pleasant, and the feeling in the Force he was getting was worse than before. It was strong, focused, and very angry. But the anger was more like a laser point than an explosion. Tokarr had a plan.    “I don’t think we can talk him down,” now Tobias was whispering, despite the fact that they were still a good distance from the landed shuttle. The original plan was to talk, as Tobias knew it should be for a Jedi. Combat was never the first option. Only dive in with a lightsaber when it was the last choice left.    Venda gave him a quick glance over her shoulder, “We will still try.”    That was the sticking point for Tobias, and the part he knew Marix hated. A futile act to attempt talking down when they were bent on fighting, but that was the Jedi way...because there was always a chance. Always. A true Jedi would not make an exception to that. But still, Tobias found himself saying, “He is not likely to give us the chance to.”    The problem with Tokarr was that he had become needlessly violent. The fight that he’d gotten into with Tobias back on the ship before the battle was proof of that. He’d just irrationally attacked Tobias, and it seemed to just be going downhill from there. During the battle, he’d murdered New Republic medics and then stolen this ship. After actions like that, it was extremely doubtful he would say a word.    “They tried to stop me, too,” a voice called out. Tobias knew the voice, and knew it was Tokarr...but noted he sounded a bit...off.    Both he and Venda followed the sound to the shuttle’s boarding ramp, where Tokarr had just finished stepping down. He was wearing a grey technician’s uniform with a blaster at his belt and an object in his hand that Tobias knew had to be a lightsaber hilt. The cloth covering his empty eye sockets was still there, and it made it even more difficult to read Tokarr...ignoring the twenty meters between them.    Tokarr took a few more steps to bring him out from under the shuttle and motioned to the two Jedi, who had both stopped coming closer just in case it provoked him, “You’ve come to try the same, I assume. But you’re just like them...you don’t even understand how many lives we could save.”    “By doing what?” Venda asked. The problem both Venda and Tobias had was a lack of knowledge. They knew Tokarr had killed the medics, but not why. They knew he’d come to Thyferra, but not why...though Venda couldn’t help but wonder if bacta figured into it somehow.    “It could be our greatest weapon!” Tokarr did sound off. In fact, he felt off. Tobias was quite sure that something in the Miraluka had just switched off and caused the young man to simply snap, “The Vong wouldn’t know what was happening!”    Venda put the pieces together. What could be the greatest weapon? He was motioning around them...he had come to Thyferra...killed medics...it had to be bacta. But a weapon? Was it even possible to use bacta as a weapon? No, that didn’t matter! What did matter was...    “But the Yuuzhan Vong don’t use bacta,” she said in a calm, non-combative voice, “They see, obsessed with their wounds.”    A snarl formed on Tokarr’s face and he shook his head violently while swinging a hand in front of him, “No! You’re just like them! You don’t think! You want to just sit around and watch them kill more! I won’t let you kill more people due to inaction!”    Snap-hiss.    A blue blade sprung to life from Tokarr’s lightsaber hilt, and suddenly, the delusional young man was charging right for them. There was no time to make a witty remark about sparring on the way. Maybe Jyren would have squeezed one in, but Venda wasn’t that kind of person and Tobias was too baffled by just how...crazy Tokarr sounded. They had tried to talk, though. They had tried. And now that part was over.    Two more distinct sounds of lightsabers activating cut through the natural sounds of Thyferra’s wilderness.</blockquote>

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