New Friend, Old Enemies

[Veloster Turbo]

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Planet: Lamaredd
Location: Outer Rim Territories
Coordinates: S-18

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Theme Song​

The large aquatic planet slowly grew in front of Khelsea and Arranev as they approached the planet which housed the secret outpost for the New Jedi Order. Khelsea had met Arranev in a Force Healing class taught be a member of the rebellion, and since they were both headed back to Lamaredd she offered to give her new friend a ride. She enjoyed having intelligent conversation, and it was clear that Arranev had a good head on his shoulders.

Before officially joining the Order less than a year ago, Khelsea had little to no knowledge of the planet. It was in a less traveled sector of the galaxy, and the majority of the surface was covered by water. However, the planet was slowly growing on her. She would never like it as much as she loved her home planet of Naboo, but at the same time there were some attractive features. Firstly, she loved the beaches and the water. Khelsea was an excellent swimmer and she enjoyed both competitive and casual forms of swimming. Secondly, the vegetation was lush and exotic when compared to Naboo, and the sunsets and sunrises were awe-inspiring. Speaking of sunset, the horizon slowly turned yellow and orange as she entered the atmosphere and lowered her flying altitude. However, the biggest turn off for her was that even the most urbanized areas were severely underdeveloped, and as a big-city girl some things were just hard to adjust to. Regardless, she mostly enjoyed her time with the Jedi and it had been a great learning experience so far.

Within the hour, they were approaching Bartyn's Landing. From there, they could reach the outpost easily. Turning over to Arranev, Khelsea asked him a question casually to help pass the time. "So, what's the first thing you're going to do when we land?" Finally approaching her usual landing spot, Khelsea took the Apailana into a hangar on the outskirts of Bartyn's Landing and put the ship down gently. She cut the power and gathered her belongings, and checked to make sure Arranev didn't leave anything behind. After making sure the ship was clear, she followed the padawan out of her ship.

 

[Arranev]

Arriving at Lamaredd was a pleasure, due to Arranev having grown weary of big cities and densely populated areas. He had enjoyed the Force Healing class, but he was happy about returning to the serene aquatic planet. He felt unusually calm on this planet. He had caught a ride back to Lamaredd with a fellow Padawan named Khelsea, and they were starting to hit it off. He was still holding back a bit, as he was not yet comfortable with leaving his shell completely, but he was gradually starting to open up, as he enjoyed her company. This was the first time he was conversating with a fellow Jedi, and it was in fact enjoyable.

"So, what's the first thing you're going to do when we land?", Khelsea asked him as they stepped out of the ship near Bartyn's Landing.

Arranev was always nervous about interacting socially and casually like this, but he had to give it a try. "I don't know...", he said, and turned his head to stare at the ground. "I don't really do anything in my spare time. I just sit around and read. I guess we could take a walk down the streets of Bartyn's Landing and see if there's anything to do, if you feel like it. Or something else, if you have a better idea."

His voice was a tad shaky, and his legs were trembling. He was very new to all of this, and he feared that he might be coming off as boring. Yet he was hoping that she would not refrain from doing something, as he was starting to get bored with spending all of his time in solitude. He ran his fingers through his hair, awaiting an answer.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Arranev was so shy it was almost cute. He seemed to be receptive to Khelsea's conversations, but she would have to push him a bit to get anything out of him. Either way, it was nice to have company on the way back to Lamaredd and she had found Arranev's company enjoyable for the most part. He just didn't seem to be very decisive, at least for the moment. "I guess we could just go back to the outpost? I've been around here often enough." Arranev didn't object, so Khelsea made her way towards where they would be able to access the underwater outpost.

Along the way there were many warehouses which stored goods of every kind, and were privately owned or rented by a large variety of businesses and individuals. The metal buildings were a bit inland, and about a ten minute walk from the nearest docks. Khelsea looked around, but the area was mostly quiet and there were barely any people walking outside on the street. Suddenly, a door opened with a bang and a large group comprised of various species exited the building half a block a head. They moved hastily and even from far away, Khelsea could tell they weren't like the regular business owners.

"They look strangely familiar..." She froze in her tracks for a moment. If her feelings were correct, these were the same slavers that her and Kai had escaped from in the jungles of Lamaredd many months ago. Could they be the same slavers? And if they were, would they recognize her? More importantly... were they using their warehouse for slave trade? There were many questions to be answered. Khelsea walked at a casual pace, reducing her speed so that she was only moving at a slow walk.

One of the members of the group in front of her turned around, but even after looking at her he didn't say anything about it. In a flash, Khelsea realized it was one of the men Kai had stunned with his Force abilities. Perhaps he didn't recognize her? Either way, she waited till they turned around the street corner and picked up her speed. She needed to take a look into the warehouse.

 

[Arranev]

As they walked away from the ship, Khelsea suggested that they might as well head back to the outpost. Arranev was fine with that, and he followed her lead with no objection. She led them down a crowded set of streets, surrounded by all sorts of warehouses, businesses and people. He was not familiar with the place, so he decided to simply follow Khelsea until they had reached their destination.

After having walked for a while, he watched as Khelsea suddenly stopped walking right in front of him. Naturally, he stopped too, observing her, trying to find a reason for her stopping. She looked at a group of people and mumbled something he didn't manage to catch. He looked over at the people she seemed to observe. They looked a tad shady, not very much like the other merchants on the street. He sensed a slight concern in her. Suddenly, she started walking again, a lot slower this time. He followed her, hopeful to find out what was on her mind.

As the group of strange men passed the corner ahead, she picked up her pace drastically. He had to follow her, so he did the same, even though he was in quite bad physical shape. He noticed that she was leading them towards a warehouse. "What's all this about?", he asked.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Arranev asking her a question caused Khelsea to slow down her movement. "Oh. Well, I'm assuming they're slave traders. I ran into them a while ago, and long story short they tried to kill me after I freed the slaves they had captured. That was in the middle of the jungle though, I want to check out the warehouse for any suspicious activity." She didn't have much time to explain, and hoped her shortened version of things would be enough to sway Arranev. If he wouldn't actively help her, it would be great if he could at least be a lookout. Khelsea had strong negative feelings towards slavery, and she was going to do her best to prevent it from happening whenever she could.

Examining the door, Khelsea figured there wasn't a way to go into the main entrance without breaking the lock. It wasn't a good idea, and she knew it. Circling around to the back, Khelsea finally found a window which wasn't fully locked, and with the Force, she managed to fiddle around with the lock until it was open. Looking at Arranev who was still following her, Khelsea asked him the most important question. "Well, are you coming in with me?"

 

[Arranev]

Arranev stood completely still and watched as Khelsea asked if he was going to follow her inside the warehouse. He looked at the ground for a couple of seconds and thought it over. Obviously, it wasn't safe, nor polite, as the warehouse didn't belong to them. But after hearing Khelsea's tale of slavery and injustice, he came to a quick conclusion. He lifted his head to meet her gaze, and nodded positively. He watched as she turned around again to face the entrance of the warehouse, and followed her to the window she had managed to open with her force abilities.

They stood in front of the open window and examined it for a short while. It should be relatively easy to climb in through it, as it wasn't placed that high above the ground. He turned to his fellow Jedi with a barely detectable smile on his face and told her "Ladies first.", as he jokingly made a polite gesture towards the window.

After Khelsea was inside, he climbed through the window, a slightly painful process, as he was not at all used to climbing through anything at all. He dropped down from the ledge, feet on the ground, and stared at the damp, steely walls. Apparently, they'd landed in some sort of back room, as there didn't seem to be anything but a table and some shelves full of generic maintenance equipment, as well as a door. He looked at the fellow padawan. "What now?"

 

[Veloster Turbo]

With a shrug, Khelsea entered through the window first. She didn't mind, as long as they could get in and out and investigate without being noticed. It was the ideal outcome, and being caught wasn't an option. After waiting for Arranev to get into the building as well, Khelsela tested the door to see if it was locked. "Follow me." With that, Khelsea opened the unlocked door and stepped into the warehouse.

The warehouse was mostly dark, with shadows cast from the occasional dimly lit aisles. It was large, and there were more rows than Khelsea could see or count. There were flights of iron stairs that went up from the first to the sixth level, and aside from ground level, the floors were made of metal mesh material. Khelsea wasn't entirely sure where to start, but they had to search through the area quickly, and find anything suspicious as fast as they could. "Lets split up, it'll be faster."

Moving ahead, Khelsea noticed a long ladder which presumably led them to an emergency exit out on the roof. The ladder hung just low enough so that an average human could reach it from the bottom floor, and was near the wall on the far side. A flickering light illuminated the ladder, which Khelsea made a mental note of in case they needed an escape route later. She made her way into one of the aisles, and stepped up onto the second floor, her footsteps clanking off the hollow metal stairs and echoing around the warehouse. As for any captured slaves, Khelsea could feel a few faint presences through the Force but it didn't seem like they were reachable at the moment.

 

[Arranev]

Arranev nodded at Khelsea's suggestion that the two of them split up. He walked up to the door that hadn't been locked, and opened it to reveal another room, completely dark, as usual. He hit his hand against the wall a couple of times before he hit the switch that activated the lights, and as the room was illuminated, he saw a table set, apparently used for eating, and a staircase leading up towards the second floor. To the right, he saw the hallway that lead towards the main entrance, which they had refrained from using. He looked around for a minute, and chose to follow the staircase up towards the second floor.

As he opened the door at the top of the staircase, he entered a room full of doors, each of them leading in to a small storage unit, probably used for storing slaves. However, the prisoners could be in any other floor. He decided to check through the doors and see if Khelsea finds something as he did so.

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Searching for a minute or two and still not finding anything, Khelsea made her way up the long ladder just to make sure that there wasn't a hidden room at the top instead of the roof. Before reaching the top, Khelsea felt like she was being observed as she climbed. She turned her head to the left, and almost lost her grip and fell off the ladder from shock. There was a large cage in which a Menahuun was held, and the native of Lamaredd was looking right at her through the edge of the cage. She didn't speak Menahu, their language, but after collecting herself she tried to communicate to the captive that she was there to help.

Khelsea noticed that the captive had an ID tag on him, as well as on the cage. She wasn't going to cut the cage open with her lightsaber since it would be extremely suspicious. Instead, Khelsea told that captive that she would return for him, and moved back down the ladder.

Finding Arranev, Khelsea explained what she had found. She wasn't sure if there were more of them, but since the captive had an ID Khelsea was sure that there would be records somewhere. "There's got to be an office somewhere in here, warehouses usually have a small office. The records are probably going to be there?" Remembering another door she had seen earlier, Khelsea led the two of them there and sure enough, the door led to the office. There were several computers inside, as well as binders and thick books which could be record books. Khelsea opted to examine the paper documents first, leaving the computers and anything else in the room to Arranev.

 

[Arranev]

As he entered the room alongside Khelsea, Arranev looked at a room full of documents and computer terminals. Khelsea was quick about getting to the series of papers, so he saw no other option than getting to work on the computers.

He walked up to the closest one and booted it up. The system wasn't a very advanced one, and he would certainly be able to override it with a bit of work, so he waited for it to boot completely and was met by a password being requested. However, the software was pretty outdated, so he tried a couple of administrative commands and watched as the third one worked. A GUI showed up and welcomed him to the system, and he felt quite content. He then proceeded with searching through the archives of the computer. He managed to get access to the local files, and he started browsing the folders for anything interesting. After a while, he came over a file called 'menahuun_/id'. However, much to his dissapointment, the file was encrypted, meaning that he would have to transfer the file to a more advanced system in order to view it. He took a flash drive out of his pocket and inserted it into the machine. The file started downloading, and he turned to Khelsea, saying "Do you know of any other computers around here that are more updated than this one?".

 

[Veloster Turbo]

Arranev's question caused Khelsea to pause for a second. She thought about what she saw as she searched the warehouse earlier, and was pretty sure she hadn't seen any computers elsewhere. "Uhh. This looks like the office and I didn't see any computers earlier so I think this is the best they have?" She turned to look at Arranev and see what he was doing, and realized that there was one more door in the office that they hadn't opened yet. "Unless there's something on the other side of that door?" She looked back down at the paper documents, knowing that Arranev would check the next room.

She flipped through the documents, noticing that there were records of weapon shipments, slaves, and other illegal activities. It would probably be best to get the local police force to raid the warehouse, but that would require them to have a permit. Illegally breaking into the building to obtain information wouldn't count as evidence, and thus even if the police knew they wouldn't be able to legally produce a search warrant. That might be a project for another time, but right now they needed to get the Menahuun out of his cage and they needed to leave the building.

She flipped through the pages for a few minutes, and finally found something she thought was useful. Khelsea flipped back and forth between a few pages, and realizing that she had what she wanted, she turned to talk to Arranev, who had entered the next room. She walked into the next room, and laid a few pages out for Arranev to see. "Look. This is where they keep record of the Menahuun. There should be four currently here, but I only saw one. They have tracking IDs, so while you're on the computer see if you can delete or disable them? I'm going to look for the other three."

Leaving Arranev to his task, Khelsea made her way out of the office and into the warehouse. She needed to figure out where she hadn't searched yet.