Ask Not Another Solus

[Shale Vizsla]

A Solus. She was stuck working with a fucking Solus.

The very name made her blood boil. It was an entire clan- no, a House- full of stubborn, brutish, egotistical imbeciles. Shale had little choice but to work with other clans now since her own despised her for having worked with the Empire. Ever since the Sith were ousted, she had attempted to assimilate herself into the Imperial military for some kind of formal career. Mandalorians remained in the dark ages, hiding like rats in little pockets of the galaxy or racking up a massive bounty like the idiot Hauron Solus. Shale wanted to keep a consistent job that valued her skills. In the end, it all went tits up and she realized she didn’t fit so well with organized structure.

She found herself on the jungle swamp of Twon Ketee, a planet infested with rathtars. Word had it that a princess of Shu-Torun had seen fit to take a ‘safari trip’ out here and promptly got herself trapped. Countless rescue attempts had failed due to inexperience with a toxic planet or just getting eaten by rathtars. Shale was highly skeptical that the princess was alive, but the payout included both cash and a good rapport with the king that could give Mandos access to some valuable exports.

The Mandalorian was adorned in her usual all black beskar’gam, striding down the ramp of her ship with her full kit. She would need all the firepower she had to take on rathtar. She knew her companion was a Solus, but nothing beyond that. Hopefully it was some older, experienced Mando that talked little and just plain got the job done. Solus were most tolerable when they kept their mouth shut.

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Xan Solus]

Oh boy! A genuine, dyed-in-the-wool adventure. What a treat! This had the makings of a great day. Xan Solus sat quietly beneath his beskar'gam on the flight over to the planet. Every now-and-then, his excitement bubbled up inside of him and he let out a quiet OYA, pumping his fist emphatically. He was lightly clad, and lightly skilled; he hoped that the tactical genius imbued to him by his years of training with the Death Watch would be worthwhile in navigating this dangerous quest.

Competing his trials last week had made him a man in the eyes of his peers. He had to act the part. He took in deep breaths to pump his chest out farther - drawing attention to his rather conspicuous, blue armor. He didn't technically own a ship of his own, so he had to hitch a ride with some fellow Mando's who were headed in the same direction. He hoped his new friend on this mission would give him a ride home - he could even pay them in gas money from the bounty! It was a brilliant plan for a brilliant day in the life of Xan.

His fellow Solus had egged him on to take this job. Though it seemed more fit for someone more experienced, perhaps, he had always been told that one Solus was worth ten other Mandalorians. If that was the case, then a vod just done his trials had to be worth at least 5. And, again, tactical genius. Surely he could outmaneuver whatever threat came ahead.

A ship touched down at Shale Vizla's coordinates, and two dark green beskar-clad Mandalorians hurriedly shoved Xan down the landing ramp before hastily jetting away. Over the comms, she could hear a faint sendoff from the Mandalorian vessel departing: "He's your problem, now."

Xan was left there - completely absent-minded - but the cool gaze of his helmet showed nothing. He waved at the ship departing, and turned to wave at Shale, hurrying over to her with sloshing boots in the muddy floor of the jungle. "Hey, uh, 'Su cuy'ga,'" He said, in Mandalorian thick with a stupid, Lothalian accent. "I'm Xan Solus. At your service. Ready to work. The one with the gun." He couldn't remember if it was taboo to shake hands, so he just kind of stood there awkwardly. He pulled out his datapad to review the mission, but it instantly slipped out of his hands and fell into the mud below. "Gosh, this might be a tough one, huh?" He paused, not to really stop blabbering but to scope out his surroundings.

"Luckily, all we have to do is cut through the rathars, keep our rebreathers on, find the princess, and leave together." Just wanted to slip that in early, so he could guarantee that ride home. "Easy enough, right?"

@Sreeya

 

[Shale Vizsla]

Shale knew she had her work cut out for her the moment the other Mando was left behind like yesterday’s trash. The others couldn’t zoom away fast enough. She watched in silence as the guy practically skipped through the swamp and began chatting away all at once. Through it all, she stood as a statue, arms crossed over her chest. The pinnacle of his intro was highlighted by his datapad plopping into the mud. Her gaze flicked down behind the visor towards the slowly sinking datapad for a moment as a striking representation for how she felt about this mission.

“Do you know what a rathtar is?” Shale’s modulated voice resounded after an uncomfortable moment of silence.

In some ways, this doofus was actually a breath of fresh air. Most Solus she met couldn’t wait to wave around their big beskads. This one sounded eager and excited, which was absolutely going to get him killed, but also a change of pace.

Shale started walking quietly through the dense forest. He would notice she wasn’t hacking and slashing herself a path, but gently moving foliage out of the way.

“Stay sharp, soldier. Consider yourself prey to everything here.”

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Xan Solus]

Did Xan know what rathars were? Certainly not. But from the ride over, he inferred they were monsters of some kind native to the planet. Probably pretty small and weak, though; nothing a big, brave Mandalorian like him couldn't handle. "Um..." He stumbled over his words, too eager to be seen as proficient and skilled to just say 'no.' "I've heard of them before. Foul, terrible beasts that can only be put down by the IRON FIST OF MANDALORE!" He pumped a fist into the air. "OYA!" Birds scattered out of trees when he yelled, startled and annoyed by his sudden noisiness.

They began to walk ahead into the clearing. Noticing that Shale was gently, carefully, moving the foliage ahead of them, Xan took note. She must have forgotten her beskad at home. It wouldn't be a problem, though, because he had his. "I'll stay sharp. We are the hunters! OYA!" He stepped ahead of Shale to perform a power pose as he drew his heavy beskad. He began to cut through the foliage ahead, in ignorant defiance of the the careful path Shale was attempting to carve. "Just tell me where to go and I'll cut the path for us." He was trying to be helpful - be a good soldier for his fellow vod.

His stomach rumbled. "Man, all this adventure is getting me worked up." He sheepishly turned to Shale. "We, uh, don't have any snacks, do we?"

@Sreeya

 

[Shale Vizsla]

This guy couldn’t be real. Shale suddenly felt as if she was in a Swarvel movie with a hero character flexing and posing before her. She knew within an instant the guy had no clue about anything, let alone about Rathtars. Shale was willing to tolerate it until the idiot started doing his loud OYA’s and sending birds flying everywhere. Despite him continuing to babble, she noted the abrupt stillness in the air.

He was still in the middle of doing trophy poses when Shale abruptly launched herself towards him, activating her jetpack. The force of it was enough to make her collide into him and lift him up into the air and skate them both back many feet. Shale switched off the jetpack, grabbing him by the back of the neck to shove him down to crouch beside her behind a massive boulder.

The trees and leaves rustled where they had been standing seconds before monstrous noises could be heard. High pitched shrieks erupted, along with tree limbs being torn apart. It sounded like multiples of these monsters and Solus would begin to get a sense of how large and vicious they were.

As terrifying as this was to witness, it meant the rathtar were drawn away from elsewhere. Shale practically began to crawl on the ground to creep away from the site, knowing the rathtar could hear well. Shale gestured for Solus to shut the hell up. If he had an OYA outburst right now, they would both be killed instantly.

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Xan Solus]

Xan promptly shut up after the rocket-powered tackle. He looked up at the Vizla manhandling him - in stunned awe. She was so cool and competent, he almost wanted to yell OYA just to celebrate her. Was this what Mandalorian love felt like? Was Xan Solus in love?

Probably not. Flustered by the exchange, though, he did shut up long enough to hear the roar of the rathars and the splattering of the trees. Ah, this meant that the hunt really was serious, didn't it? Carefully, Xan began to crawl behind Shale, hoping to escape his own quick demise before the creatures could approach.

Their heavy, lumbering steps towards them indicated that the pair of hunters would find trouble with them. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, the ratters stepped into view. In the dark underbrush of the jungle, it was hard to tell what was real and what was not - the echos across the forest floor made the hungry roars of the rathar sound like they were right next to them.

The pair would see their tentacles, first. As they crawled, Xan periodically peeked behind him, to see sets of tentacles engorging themselves on the local fauna. Small creatures were ripped to shreds before their blood was drank, birds snapped out of trees and nests, the trees themselves completely eviscerated. The aftermath of just one was like the damage of a hurricane. Xan shuddered to think of what multiples of these could to.

@Sreeya

 

[Shale Vizsla]

The jungle had turned into a war zone in an instant, and she felt as if she were crawling towards the cover of a trench in the middle of a Mando/Jedi conflict. Fortunately the foundling- er, other Mando finally began to settle down and adjust to the situation. Shale army crawled away, but she paused when the rathtar drew closer. The two devoured everything in their path, churning like deadly tornadoes until they finally passed by the Mandos. Once the creatures were long out of earshot, Shale finally moved again and took a seat in the grass.

“I’m skeptical the princess is alive,” Shale muttered quietly, glancing back towards the direction the rathtar went, “But perhaps bringing back something that belonged to her will be enough for the King..” The girl had sealed her own fate by coming out here and bitterness set in as Shale thought of all the rescue parties that were sent to their deaths as a result.

Shale was considering her options when she heard Solus’ stomach growl loud enough to alert the forest. She scowled beneath the visor, reaching into her pack and pulling out a snack bar, “How is your shooting?” Shale asked, “To kill a rathtar, your aim has to be true and precise. You will likely get only one or two shots max before it gets to you.”

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Xan Solus]

"Wooh! That was scary. These rathar guys seem tough!" Tough meant good, right? Could he recruit one of them as a foundling, get them to be a Mandalorian? It's a question that would probably have to wait until later; once they rescued the princess from whoever's terrible clutches. "What? No! The princess has to be alive." She didn't, of course, but Xan assured himself that they would rescue her.

He greedily grabbed the snack bar and shoved it into his mouth, mmh-ing and aww-ing as he ingested it. "Ooh, thank you. That felt great! I'll get you back next time." He had eaten all his snacks on the flight over. He hoped the mission would be short enough that he wouldn't have to skip a meal - Solus had hated that during basic training.

He spun his Westar blaster when she asked about his shooting skill. "I am a Mandalorian. My blaster is an extension of my arm." The practiced propaganda of his youth returned. "Oya!" Fist pump. "I should be able to hit a Rathar, long as we're in range."

He shrugged and holstered the blaster once more. "Why? You think the rathars took the princess?" They'd have to go through some real heroics to rescue her, then. What was a rathar home even like? Did they have nests? Or castles? Xan hoped for the latter - castles were cool. "You wanna follow them back to their castle?"

"You were around for the crusades, right?" He had been a boy, a victim, of the invasion of Lothal. "That must have been so cool! Why didn't you ever become Mand'Alor after?" After Fenyang's disappearance, the Death Watch had turned inward, conditioning their soldiers to be the perfect soldiers in the image of their missing leader. Xan obviously hadn't taken after their stoicness. But he did appreciate the idea of the Mand'Alor, the most free and visionary Mandalorian who could live.

@Sreeya

 

[Shale Vizsla]

“Apparently the princess was here for some kind of ecological retreat..” Shale rolled her eyes behind the visor, “She made it to a building that happened to be located near a rathtar habitat and got trapped there. No one has been able to get to her,” She snickered a bit, “Might be your chance to be a real hero,” She said as she nudged him with her elbow. While most Mandos would have gotten irritated with his overenthusiasm, he was growing on Shale.

Shale rose to her feet and began to track her way towards where the princess may have gone. She studied the foliage and the ground to inform her direction, and she doubted the other Mando would be much help. However, when he asked his question at the end, she paused and bristled, “Because Nox Solus was supposed to do it,” She hissed, a sudden hint of rage in her tone. It was almost out of character for her and she exhaled softly. There were a lot of emotions tethered to that name that she thought she overcame. The man had completely disappeared from the galaxy shortly after becoming Mand’alor, just like Fenyang. It was a cursed role, and no one wanted to take up the mantle since. Except it was more than that with Nox Solus. He had left her with a broken heart.

“I never wish to be Mand’alor,” Shale muttered grimly after a moment, her tone calm and missing the anger then. She said nothing else on the topic, starting to make her way down the path again.

“Why did you sign up for this?” Shale asked curiously, “Trying to impress someone?” She grinned to herself. Solus were always so obnoxious.

@Fine Dining Set

 

[Xan Solus]

An ecological retreat? That sounded dumb. That was a dumb reason for her to get captured. He sighed. Once again, the Mandalorians would have to be the galaxy's saviors. His chest bristled when she mentioned the possibility of becoming a 'real' hero. "We'll both be real heroes." He noted, grateful that his new best friend shared his optimistic outlook on the situation ahead. As they stalked through the underbrush of the swampy jungle, he took note of her words. Nox Solus. the last Mand'Alor, and the Alor of his own clan. It was indeed believed to be a cursed role by the superstitious Mandos - a mantle of responsibility to heavy to bear.

His head turned when she returned a question to him. He was, of course, trying to impress someone. "Yeah, all the vods back in Solus, my old Death Watch buddies..." He trailed off, again reminded of the fire and brimstone that brought him into contact with the Mandalorians. He continued to remain positive. "They don't believe in me. I can sorta tell." He said, flatly.

"But I believe in me. That's what I love about being a Mando. We're the most free people in the galaxy - we can just live a life of adventure most people dream of. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks." He thought back to his first jetpack flight, his first hunt, even his first combat simulation against another Mando. Sure, there were traditions, and rules, and stubbornness, which was all annoying, but there was freedom in the skies and in the iron skin that the rest of the galaxy couldn't imagine.

"I signed up to have the best adventure in the galaxy, and we're gonna get it!" He continued to crawl excitedly in the direction of the rathar tracks. It was rather obvious to track the direction of the rathars, from the trail of blood and destruction they left across the forest as they moved, but Xan still managed to get lost or wander off a couple of times as they trailed the beasts. The forest darkened as they moved further within, prompting Xan to activate the low-light scanner on his helm.

Through his visor, he saw several strange shapes jutting out of trees. The size and shape of a fully grown human, yet covered with a sickly grey coating. Some wriggled, others sat fully still. Xan looked on at these strange things, withdrawing his beskad cautiously as he approached a still one. "Look," he whispered conspiratorially, "I think that's a fruit!" He sliced through the top of gray exterior like wet papier-mâché - and a rotting, human head spilled out. Xan raised his beskad and hopped back, eyes widening beneath his helm. His breathing sped up rapidly, his eyes shot around, sweat began to form, and...

Deep breaths. After an inhale, and an exhale, he took stock. Some wiggling, some still. About 10 in total, of different sizes. "Can you help me investigate this, partner?" @Sreeya

 

[Shale Vizsla]

“Then fuck ‘em,” Shale said with a shrug as he relayed that his clan didn’t believe in him. She had lived her life disappointing her clan in some shape or form. Shale had left home as soon as she could to venture out as a bounty hunter. Her adventures took her to Imperial space where she briefly trained them and was technically a part of the army. While she found herself back with Mandos again, there was no denying that she was absent from many of their critical fights.

His cheerful optimism was infectious, and she found herself smiling beneath the helmet. Shale glanced over at him briefly, “Do you ever take it off?” She asked him as she gazed at his helmet. These days, there was very little tradition maintained around helmets. Her entire clan took it off, but she stayed with the habit of leaving it on as she transitioned in her earlier years and just plain adapted to it. Even Death Watch generally didn’t abide by that old tradition outside of a few pockets here and there, and Solus certainly had members showing off their faces all the time.

The two arrived at clearly humanoid shapes hanging from trees. Shale was about to say something when Solus blurted out about how it was a fruit. She did a double take to look at him, “Are you serious? Can’t you see it’s-” And he sliced through it. Shale briefly stared at the human head at their feet. It felt vaguely like the moment of silence as his datapad sank into the mud.

“Right, well that just about made me lose my lunch,” Shale muttered before she went over to investigate the others. She went to one of the wiggling ones and cut it open. Almost at once, a blue twi’lek gasped for air, extending an arm out to escape the weird cocoon.

“What the hell..” Shale helped her out as the woman stumbled into the grass. She coughed and sputtered, grasping at her throat.

“Th-Thank you..” She said as she looked at them both with her golden eyes, suddenly realizing they were Mandalorians. The twi’lek straightened up, looking around at the other pods. She quickly drew out a knife and began to cut through the other wiggling pods.

“Hey, who are you and how did you get caught up in all this?” Shale asked in accented Basic.

The blue twi’lek paused what she was doing, turning around to gaze at the Mandos. She appeared to be in her late 20s, “I’m here to look for a princess,” She said, “My name is Zana.”

She turned away from them, “We have no time to waste! This place is overrun with Rathtars. I’ve lost my saber, but if we can-”

“Wait, you’re a Force user?”

Zana turned around to look at them again, “Now is really not the time to bicker about allegiances. I’m a Jedi and I’m on the same side as you. You’re here for the princess job, I’m here for the same. I’ll help you both get to her and I have no interest in the reward money. Do we have an understanding?”


@Fine Dining Set

 

[Xan Solus]

What were his view on the Beskar? True, the Mand'Alors Fenyang and Nox Solus had not hidden their faces. Nor did really anyone these days. But yet, he felt protective of who he showed his face to. Truthfully, his iron skin felt more like a superhero costume. And this all certainly wasn't because Xan's writer hadn't yet picked out an image reference for his character.

Couldn't be that.

"Yeah, I don't wear it all the time. Just during missions. We have to be the face of Mandalore when we're around non-Mandalorians." He didn't know what that meant or who had taught him that, but it felt right. At the very least, he wouldn't want to take off his helmet and get a blaster bolt to the face. His armor ran a little light, anyways.

"A jedi?" He had never actually met a Jedi, but the nature of his training instinctively made him think of them as foul, ugly, decrepit sorcerers. That was his image of the Sith too, really. He had never met one, so all he had was the fearful image conjured in his mind. It was a surprise, then, that this Jedi was a beautiful twi'lek of about his own age. Guess they weren't all stodgy, cantankerous farts. He had to readjust his thinking.

After this momentary surprise, Xan swooped in to help Zana to her feet. "Sure thing! Welcome to the team, honorary Mandalorian! Oya!" His confident bluster tapered off, suddenly self-aware of how silly he sounded; he didn't want to make a fool of himself. His change in character was conspicuous. "I mean, uh, I'm Xan Solus. We're happy to help out." His tone evened out, in his native basic tongue. He looked up at Shale with a nod. "If my comrade here signs off on it, that is."

He knew that there was an ancestral and recent enmity between Jedi and Sith and Mandalorians that led back thousands of years but resurfaced constantly. Maybe them working would help them end their ancestral strife. Or, if nothing else, he could learn the habits of the enemy.

Xan gestured towards another wriggling pod, slicing it open to see a wild bird stumble out, confused and grimy, before taking off into the jungle forest. "So...it's not fruit." Ever the detective, Xan surmised that the rest of the body-shaped cocoons would also contain bodies. "So, Zana..." He slashed through another humanoid cocoon, and the corpse of an emaciated Nautolan wriggled out. They could hear the snapping of his feeble bones as his corpse touched the floor.

A few more pods remained, some high in the thick, sturdy trees of the the. "We need to save all these people trapped, like you. You got any intel on these...rathars?"

@Sreeya