Ask Lothal A Humanitarian Effort

[Rizkacha]

Oftentimes Jedi were under obligation to assist the populations of Outer Rim planets when they needed it. It came as no surprise when those living on Lothal, a mainly agricultural world, did not have access to medicine they needed to combat a sudden disease that began to inflict their people. Those in the Jedi Order sprang to action, sending a team of a fledgling Padawan and her Master to collect and deliver supplies from Coruscant to the needy people. They were given the sterilizations required in advance to assure no undue risk was present in their mission.

Though the more veteran Jedi was already on the scene, the Padawan arrived not too long after her assignment to the mission to assist in their humanitarian efforts. Even though the Padawan hadn't yet met her master, she was excited to begin her training and to start her journey along the path of the Force. Riz'kacha stepped off her ship after landing, and quickly made her way to the landing pad that housed her master's ship. Adjusting her lekku and her blast vest for presentability, she rapped a couple knuckles on his ship as she called out, "Luth Tropam, my name is Riz'kacha. I have been assigned to you as your padawan and I have been assigned to assist on this mission. Are you inside?"

@Tomce795

 

[Luth Torpam]

"This... might have been a bad idea." He spoke as he surveyed the interior of his ship. Rows upon rows of crates, stacked on top of eachother. It was almost hazardous to walk around the ship, since it seemed like a crate could fall on you at anytime.

This was of course Luth's own doing. When the he had heard that the Council needed someone to deliver a shipment, he jumped at the opportunity to fly around in the galaxy once more. Although there was a small hiccup and his ship was not big enough to ferry all of the supplies. So he grabbed what he could and made his way to Lothal. Thus the Council was forced to send another Jedi for the rest of the supplies.

Luth had been here for quite sometime now as he awaited. Most of that time was spend wandering around the spaceport or meditating inside his vessel. At the moment however, he was trying to figure out how to not get crushed by a crate falling on him. "I need to get these things off loaded." He mused, before he heard a knock outside his ship.

He think he heard someone talking outside, but he wasn't very close to the exit ramp, so it was muffled and hard to understand. Exiting the ship, he noticed a Twi'lek standing outside his ship. "Yes?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. He tried to sense the Force around the younger woman and found that it was positively swirling around her. Yet it was untapped and untrained. Did he accidentally stumble on a Force Sensitive or was this the Jedi the Council sent him?

"I'm afraid I didn't catch what you said back then, do you mind repeating it?" He asked since he barely even heard her speak.

@WiffWaffs

 

[Rizkacha]

Riz'kacha eyed the man as he came to the ramp, comparing his features to those that the other Jedi had told her about. Light brown hair, blue eyes, human, and a beard. He certainly looked the part. Especially with his robes. Plus there was this sort of... Feeling she got when she focused on him. It was something she had began to notice since becoming aware of her powers and since she began meditating in the Jedi Temple. She figured it must be the Force, somehow.

Finally, she spoke up as the man likewise finished speaking, "...My name is Riz'kacha. I have been assigned to you as your padawan by the Jedi Council and I have also been assigned to assist you in this mission. I picked up the rest of the crates that were left behind and I have them aboard my own ship. Do you need assistance unloading yours?" The way she spoke was strangely robotic. Almost as uncomfortable to listen to as it was for her to speak. Not that there was really anything physically wrong with her; she just didn't like talking to people. It wore her out. It was something she needed to work on.

 

[Luth Torpam]

Luth ignored the slightly emotionless tone of the young Twi'lek's voice. He was used to dealing with all kinds of people, so it didn't surprise him. "Padawan?" He quietly asked himself. He never really thought about taking on a Padawan, but he supposed it was time for him to train one. He's been with the Order for a long time now, so it only made sense. "In that case, my name is Luth Tropam, but I'm sure you are already aware of that fact. I must say I didn't expect that the Council would assign me a Padawan to both the mission and in general, but it is a pleasant surprise."

With a small smile, he motioned towards his ship. "The crates I brought in are still in my ship, so I'd be grateful for your assistance in unloading them." He beckoned Riz'kacha inside his ship and grabbed one of the crates, before carrying it outside and setting it down near the ship. A few passersby raised their eyebrows at what appeared to be someone sort of robed monk carrying crates from a large freighter like some sort of menial worker. Still might take a while even with Riz'kacha's help. He thought.

 

[Rizkacha]

Riz'kacha forced a smile to her face out of politeness, knowing that it was the socially accepted thing to do when someone smiled to her. Not to say that she wasn't happy, that is. Having a higher purpose and someone to help her make sense of everything was quite enlightening to her, "I will be happy to assist you, Luth. I have some crates in my ship as well, but those can wait until the bulk of the supplies are offloaded."

With that, she made her way inside the ship to help the man unload the supplies in question, grabbing a box of her own and hefting it down next to the one Luth had brought. It wasn't exactly glorious work, but maybe that was the point. Even Jedi are needed for more menial tasks from time to time. Still, the woman did feel a bit strange about the arrangement. Shouldn't crates like these be heavier? Maybe not. Still, she felt that it was best to voice her opinions, "...It seems strange that we are able to unload these by hand. I'm not exactly the strongest person, myself. And aren't there supposed to be dock workers to assist us here?"

 

[Luth Torpam]

Luth nodded in thanks to Riz'kacha as they began unloading the crates. He had to admit however Riz'kacha, his new Padawan, was an odd one. The things she said felt forced and not exactly natural. Did he intimidate her or was she just not used to social situations? He couldn't help but wonder about that for a moment and wondered if he could help her get out of that shell. He did have a lot of experience dealing with all kinds of people.

After listening to Riz'kacha's question, he began. "Normally, you'd be right. But with the crop failure the more profitable farms have basically stolen all the dock workers." Luth said as he looked around the dock itself. There was barely anyone around except for the odd passerby. All the dock workers were already preoccupied with supplies on other landing pads. "We're trying to help those who can't afford to do so themselves. Which means not a lot of people can assist with this. Some of the farmers do have speeder trucks however, so they'll be able to pick up the cargo after we are done."

@WiffWaffs

 

[Rizkacha]

"At least they will be able to pick up the cargo later. It does make sense that we are here to assist these people if they cannot afford to do so themselves. From what I have read, such a thing was quite common during the Clone Wars. Jedi heroes like Kenobi and Skywalker... They did this sort of thing all the time, right Luth?" She sounded quite interested in topics such as the Clone Wars, now that she started to talk about them.

For now, though, she had crates to unload. After they had delivered the crates to their designated positions, she couldn't help but open it to check the contents, "How full are these supposed to be? They certainly do not seem very heavy." After opening them up, she frowned, "...Uh.." She simply began, looking to him, "You should come see this."

@Tomce795

 

[Luth Torpam]

Luth thought about Riz'kacha's words for a moment. "Well the Clone Wars was... well to put it simply, a war. Jedi were thrust into an unfamiliar position of being generals in a galactic scale war. Heroes like Kenobi and Skywalker were more like war heroes in that sense. They excelled in martial prowess and military tactics, while back then Jedi were seen more as peacekeepers. Although I do believe Kenobi was more of a negotiator, but I don't recall too much about the Clone Wars itself. We can do some investigating once we're done with this and are back at the temple." Luth promised, seeing that his new Padawan was interested in the topic.

After the crates were delivered, Luth was taking a much deserved break. Some of the crates were heavier than he thought so he was a bit winded. Riz'kacha caught his attention however and beckoned him to take a look inside the crate. Looking inside, he noticed that the crate was completely empty, the much needed chemicals completely gone. "Well that can't be good." Luth deadpanned. He then opened up another crate to find it also empty. Luth frowned at this. They couldn't have been shipping empty crates, could have they? When he picked them up, the dock workers said that they double checked them and everything.

He walked over to one of the crates that he recalled being more heavy and opened it up. This one was packed full of chemicals meant to help in fighting the crop blight. "This one still has the supplies however." Luth thought for a moment. And idea popped into his head. "Riz'kacha, head to your ship and check your crates. If all the supplies are there someone stole the supplies before we loaded them. If not only my supplies were stolen and the person who stolen them could still be here." He glanced around the off loaded crates. "I'll stay here and count how many untampered crates I still have and I'll also contact one of the speeder trucks to come pick up my crates. Do you have a comlink with you?" He said taking out a very small cylindrical device that could fit in one's palm.

 

[Rizkacha]

The purple-skinned Twi'lek seemed interested in her master's interpretation of the Clone Wars, doting on his words and thinking about them a bit before responding with a simple, "...I see. I would very much like to investigate when we get back. I believe that those such as Kenobi are still exceptional Jedi in their own rights." With that said, she watched the man investigate the crate with a slightly worried look on her face. Something was wrong, surely. Supplies usually didn't just go missing.

"I do have a comlink, yes." She nodded, bringing out her own cylindrical device from her belt and showing it to him, "I will go check my ship once we exchange frequencies. Hopefully they are still on planet, as I do not know how we can track them if they have gone off planet." Sending her own frequency to him, she nodded before taking off to her own ship. Before long, the Twi'lek returned, a deep frown on her face, "...Some supplies are missing from my ship's crates as well. Mostly chemicals that could be used to construct drugs, if I am correct. Do you know where they could be? Several Hutt-controlled planets could be culprits."

 

[Luth Torpam]

After watching Riz'kacha walk off, Luth contacted the farmers to come pick up whatever supplies were left, which sadly lacked some of the much needed chemicals. He apologised to the farmers that not all the supplies made it to them, but he did promise that he'd work towards getting them back in one piece. He looked around the leftover empty crates and wondered where the supplies could have gone off too. It was either stolen or the dock workers made a mistake while he was picking them up. And for some reason he felt that it was the former rather than the latter.

When his new Padawan came back, the landing pad was looking a lot cleaner. Most of the crates were shipped off and only the empty ones were left remaining. Luth was working on getting the empty crates aboard his ship. As he was finishing up with the last one, he noticed Riz'kacha and her grim expression. After listening to what she had to say, Luth adopted a similar expression himself. "That's no good... That means the crates were stolen at our provider. And combing through Hutt Space would take too long, the supplies could have already been used for something."

Luth placed his hand on his chin and began lightly stroking his beard, a clear indication that he was thinking. "We should finish what we've started and deliver your crates to the farmers. We can then head back to where we got the crates from and see if we can find someone who knows where the crates have gone off to. Maybe if were lucky they might have just forgotten to put them in the crates." He added jokingly, but even he didn't believe those words. There was something else at play here, Luth could feel it. "Let's get a move on. The sooner we can finish this the sooner we can find the rest of the supplies."

 

[Rizkacha]

Well, this was off to a good start already. Still, the apprentice agreed; they had come here to do a job, and with people relying on their supplies there was all the more reason to try to right this wrong. Perhaps if the Jedi had been more thorough in the first place they wouldn't be in this mess. "Understood, Luth. We will unload the full crates and attempt to find the missing supplies in a timely manner. If we are lucky, we may be able to fill out this statistically improbable plan and right the wrongs that have been committed."

Before too too long, the crates were offloaded from the apprentice's ship and the duo had made their way back to Coruscant. Upon seeing a familiar ship with two familiar faces coming out of it, a certain dock worker almost immediately tried to run, but the two Jedi stopped him soon enough. Scared out of his mind, he almost immediately got to talking, both out of fear of what the Jedi were capable of and out of a sense of self-preservation.

From the surprisingly cooperative worker, the Jedi got the information they needed to continue their investigation: the chemicals had been stolen and taken to Nar Shaddaa, and was now under the custody of a seedy crime boss and his goons. Before long, the Jedi were back in hyperspace, approaching the planet to get their stuff back, "...Master, what is the plan for this venture? I assume that we are not just going to attempt to go in guns blazing. Such a thing has an exponentially low chance of success."

 

[Luth Torpam]

Luth had to admit, they were a lucky bunch. Not only did they immediately find the culprit who stole the supplies, but they also found out who took them and where. A small time Nikto mob boss by the name of Jalyd Jex. He took the supplies to Nar Shaddaa, in hopes of repurposing normal chemicals to more illegal types of drugs. Jalyd Jex himself was not a big player in the Nar Shaddaa scene, so this shouldn't take too long.

Luth was in the co-pilot seat of Riz'kacha's freighter, overlooking the main pilots seat. It felt odd to not be the main pilot when on board a ship, but Riz did a good job without him. She managed to effectively plot their course so he didn't complain.

"Well you'd be correct. We don't want to attract too much attention, especially with the Hutts all riffled up about saberwielders." He said in response. "Our best bet would be a more subtle approach. Perhaps sneaking in or somehow talking our way in?" Luth wondered.

 

[Rizkacha]

The Twi'lek flipped the required switches to keep the bird on the right course, only adjusting the joystick to fix minor course adjustments. It was clear that she had a pretty good idea of what she was doing. After a few minutes of piloting and thinking in silence, she raised a brow, coming up with an idea. She didn't like it, but it was an idea.

"Crime bosses like this tend to appreciate Twi'lek such as I as dancers, correct? Perhaps I could pose as a new dancer and you could pose as... I do not know, my transporter, or something along those lines. Then, when necessary, you either provide me with my blaster or take care of the criminals yourself." She paused, flipping another switch, "That is, unless you have a better idea."

 

[Luth Torpam]

Luth disliked the idea. No actually, he hated the idea and hate is not a word that he uses lightly or any Jedi actually. But the more and more he thought about it, it was probably their best bet. Any other idea he had was either improbably or just plain suicide.

"I don't like it... But it might be our only choice." Luth admitted. "As far as the dockworker knew, Jex has a cantina as the front for his drug manufacturing lab. So if I go in has your... handler and agree to a backroom deal we could strike then." He mused. The more he was thinking about the plan, the higher the odds of success was. He still disliked it, but it possibly was the only way.

"Thank the Force, I thought of buying some regular clothing while on Coruscant, since my robes would probably draw too much attention, especially out here." Luth unbuckled himself from the co-pilot seat and stood up. "I'll go get changed. Think on the plan some more, we could probably use some contingencies if things go awry" With that Luth exited the cockpit leaving Riz'kacha alone to pilot.

 

[Rizkacha]

Frankly, she didn't like the idea either, but it was all that had come to mind. Part of her had hoped that Luth would've come up with something else, but no such luck. Oh well. Her clothes were casual enough that she didn't really need to change, so she watched Luth unbuckle with a nod, "Understood, Master Tropam. I will be up here thinking about contingencies, as assigned."

First things first, she needed a way to defend herself. A way that didn't require Luth to give her her gun. Not that she didn't trust him, of course. She still had her stun baton. Perhaps she could hide it in her jacket somehow; just in case. Still, having a weapon wouldn't help if they were vastly outnumbered or surrounded. She needed something that could even the odds. After a moment, her mind went back to the stun baton. Since it took ten charges before she had to reload it, perhaps there was a way that she could overload the cells and cause them to go off all at once. Such a thing would probably not be lethal, but it would be enough to incapacitate multiple people at once. It would also probably rend her baton useless.

After a moment, she nodded. The ship was easy enough to pilot, so this would give her a nice little side project while she waited. She flipped a switch, then pulled out a spare charge to get to work. Her gaze shifted back to the charge, and she got to work. By the time Luth got back, she would be holding what looked to be a power cell with some wires wrapped around it.

 

[Luth Torpam]

It took Luth a few minute for Luth to get changed, but as he came back to the cockpit, it could be seen that he lost the Jedi look he had. Instead of his robes he was wearing a plain grey shirt with a black vest on top and below the waist he had regular leather pants with brownish combat boots. His semi long hair was now also tied to a tail behind him fully transforming the older Jedi Knight into something more of a shady looking character. On his hip, instead of his lightsaber, there was a leather holster, which was missing the blaster part.

"Do you think this looks convincing enough?" Luth asked Riz'kacha as he stared himself down once more. To the Jedi, he felt odd. It was weird being back in regular clothing. He didn't dislike it per se, but he didn't think it suited him, at least not anymore.

Noting the gizmo Riz was working, Luth raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to be?" He asked curiously. He loved ships and knew the inner working of one, but smaller electronics were still a mystery to him.

 

[Rizkacha]

As the man returned, the apprentice gave him an appraising gaze before nodding, noting the holster that was empty on his hip. Her gaze shifted back to his face before she responded, "Yes, I believe so. Many smugglers have similar looks, so it would not be out of the question to paint you as one of them." She drew her Power-5 Pistol and held it out by the barrel to give him the handle to grab onto, before shifting her gaze back to the power cell she was holding in her other hand.

"This is a contingency plan. If things go wrong and it works as intended, it should be able to release a blast of electricity in a wide area that can incapacitate multiple attackers. It isn't strong enough to kill them and it will fry my stun baton, but it should still be useful." She looked it over one more time, trying to see if there were any apparent problems with the wiring job on it, before shrugging, "But hopefully things will not come to that." Her gaze shifted back to the navicomputer in the cockpit and she flipped a few buttons as the blues of hyperspace disappeared, "It appears we have arrived."

True to her words, the city world was now visible through the viewport of the cockpit, staring back at them and daring them to come closer.

 

[Luth Torpam]

Nodding to Riz, Luth took her Padawan's blaster and observed it for a few seconds. It felt weird, wielding a weapon that he didn't train with for literally dozens of years, but it would have to do for the moment. Making sure the blaster setting was set on stun, he holstered the weapon on his hip.

"Good idea, considering chances are we are going to be observed by multiple guards, so we might need a quick way to take them out." Luth said in agreement to the overcharged power cell. Noting that they were about to exit hyperspace, Luth went back to strap himself on the co-pilot's seat. Seeing the giant city-scape come into view, Luth started. "Take us in closer, we'll need to land fairly close to the cantina if we want to get away with hauling giant crates."

 

[Rizkacha]

At the man's words, she nodded, pocketing the power cell and taking control of the joystick once more. With some more button clicks, switch flips, and throttle adjustments, they reached the smog-filled atmosphere of the planet and navigated the various skylines before finally getting close to their destination. Before long, she had remotely hailed a landing pad not far from the cantina they were supposed to be getting the crates from. They had to wait a few minutes before they were finally cleared, but it wasn't too long.

Once they had successfully gotten clearance and landed, Riz'kacha looked to Luth and nodded, "From now on, you're in the lead. Just do your best to look like an intimidating ne'er-do-well and act like you've brought me in or something. I am sure you can figure something out." She paused, before adding, "You have your lightsaber hidden somewhere, right? You may need to use it."