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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr Midnight" data-source="post: 1566330" data-attributes="member: 69">The Rezschechk are peaceful herbivores. These lumbering giants roam the forests of Ilstaes IV, stripping the trees of their cobalt-rich pine needles for sustenance. When the settlers came to the moon, they “domesticated” a few and put them to work hauling equipment such as the two-ton canisters used to safely store mined temp. Rezschechk are easily twenty meters tall, generally, and have two strong “arms” tipped with thick, heavy claws used for climbing the sides of the mountains that form the landscape. They have large eyes that gleam red in the darkness, to better exploit Ilstaes-IV’s unique light spectrum, and their mouths are lined in sharp teeth that are little more than tools to “comb” the needles from the branches. One thing was learned early on about the Rezschechk: they are engraged beyond belief by a certain frequency of noise generated by Kellian disintegration mines. These mines are used to clear new tunnels beneath the earth, generally, and the first time one was used with a Rezschechk in the camp, twelve men died before the beast was put down. The mines were abandoned as a tool, but some cautious miners kept the deactivated mines on hand for the simple idea that one day they might need the beasts to rage upon invaders or hostiles. The idea hadn’t been used until the day Jaren Creel came down in the Indelible. Jaren adjusted his grip on his blasters nervously and shouted “How long’s it going to take to get this ship moving?!” The pilot yelled his frustrated response. “This isn’t a speeder, this is a capital ship! I’ve got two men co-piloting, and it’ll still take a minute to get in the air!”The beast lumbered from its pen, roaring and brandishing its claws. Froth dripped to the hard-packed ground and the thing advanced on the hated thing that was making the noise, lying close to a large metal monster of some kind. Jaren waited until the thing stood over the mine. He aimed and shot the silver thing he thought to be a bomb. To his dismay, it merely sparked and lay there in pieces. He’d hoped it would detonate and destroy the monster. The Rezschechk stared down at the thing, and the noise that drove it mad was no more. Still, the bloodlust was in the beast and it needed an outlet for its rage. It stomped across the camp to the ship. It seemed determined to rip something apart for putting it through the noise-based madness.Jaren ran aboard the ship from where he’d been standing, at the ramp’s base. The ramp closed behind him and the ship began humming to life. The Rezschechk screamed and raked a taloned paw down the starboard side of the Indelible’s hull. Sparks flew and there were four ragged, parallel gouges baring the ship’s inner workings. The thing savaged the hull further, apparently under the belief that the hovering ship was trying to fight back. It didn’t notice when a boulder lifted from the ground and flew up to strike it in the back of the head. The force didn’t kill it or even hurt it badly, but it turned and roared at the huddled miners, two hundred meters to the north. They had clearly tried to hurt it, and the tiny pink things would pay. It didn’t notice when the Indelible turned in the air away from it and hit the thrusters. The jetwash of the capital ship’s atmospheric thrusters scorched it and immediately lit it on fire just before the Indelible flew off, up into the dark sky. Magnus watched out a window as the flaming Rezschechk screamed and tore its way through the camp, destroying everything it could. The bodies of men flew into the air over the backlit treeline. The Jedi Knight then turned to his student and asked “The rock- was that you?”Pock looked up at him, unsure. “Yes Master.” He was clearly wondering whether he’d done the right thing. Sometimes what was right by the Jedi code wasn’t entirely clear to him, and often he was scolded for doing what he thought was helping.Magnus nodded. “Your instinct serves you well. You strove to distract the beast so that we might escape. Good job.” Pock grinned. Jaren cursed nearby and looked at the hole in his shirt the grazing blaster bolt had left. “I’m hit,” he grunted. He seemed more upset that his finery was damaged than that he’d been struck in a firefight. Pock laughed. “And you were going to protect me??” He wandered over to the man. “Hold still, I can heal you.”Creel said “Don’t hurt me, kid…”Mikau Me spoke to the droid that had chosen an awkward moment to introduce itself. “Hello. I apologize, but I am afraid I was unable to make out your name over the sound of blasterfire.”The droid bowed politely. “Understandable, I’m sure. My name is Y3-Ns, droid/ship interface and maintenance. I’m quite pleased to make your acquaintance.”“Y3, can you tell us if the ship was damaged at all by the creature’s attack?”“Of course, sir.” The droid hobbled over to the computer and interfaced with it. After a moment, Y3 said “Ahh. It seems most systems are functional- the sublight drive is at 98% operating capacity, the fuel cells remain unmolested, and the hyperdrive is undamaged. Only the velocital dampers are down.”“I see. I know nothing of a ship’s workings… will damaged velocital dampers prevent us from entering hyperspace?”“No, sir,” Y3 twittered.Mikau relaxed somewhat. “Ahh. Very good.”“It will, however, prevent us from safely leaving it.”Magnus glared at the droid. “What?”“Velocital dampers are, in effect, what makes going from light speed to sub-light speed possible. Without them, the sudden reduction in speed would rip us to our component molecules instantaneously. It’s not unlike striking a durasteel wall at light speed.” “Wonderful,” Turon said. The ship rose out of Ilstaes-IV’s stratosphere and into orbit. The thirty-five other moons of the system floated about them. “Now what?” the pilot asked. The tone of his voice told that the encounter with the monster had left him shaken, and that this matter of the velocital dampers wasn’t helping his mood. “Stuck on the outer rim without light speed. This is not good at all.”Mikau spoke calmly, as he always did. “Y3, is there a nearby planet where we can make repairs? Preferably one friendly to the Republic?”Y3 took a moment, then said “Why, yes, sir. The Tarsoan system nearby boasts the planet of Phelene, a Rebublic-sworn metropolis planet.”“Truly? A city-planet out on the rim?”“Yes, sir. It should be just a few hours away, provided we use our top sub-light burn speed.”The pilot and his two crewmen gasped and pointed out the viewshield. Separatist forces were entering the Ilstaean system from the opposite side- three large cruisers, moving slowly. “Separatists… they haven’t spotted us yet.”Jaren Creel said “Well, poodoo… seems we’re not done running yet.”“Quickly, pilot,” Mikau Me chirped. “Can we make it out of the sytem without their noticing?”“We can try,” the pilot said, easing the ship into place, heading for Phelene while putting Ilstaes-IV directly between the Indelible and the Separatists. “Let’s hope this works…”More to come…</blockquote>

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