Saving Commander Varo

[Jayscreec Alecwit]

Spoiler: mission brief

Find Commander @Markus Varo and bring him home.

THEME​

The Nerf-Class Freighter approached Atrer III, being one hour away from the planet's surface.

"I have your little commander here," Zemass' words echoed in Jayscreec's head. "Your Empire had assured me its collaboration." This holo-record was played over hundred times last week. In any case it taught the agents to recognize the Hutt from a mile away. While the mission remained rescuing Varo, it never hurt to keep an extra eye open.

"I got you some gifts," Jayscreec said excitedly as he stepped inside the bridge. "This will let us blend in!" He was holding two dresses by their coat hangers. The clothes had medium coverage by duraplast and a couple other functions. "They have rebreathers too, pretty good for sandstorms. Maybe a pool party if we get lucky."

After finishing with the clothes Jayscreec started preparing. He casually passed Tomic and Kat each a fruit. Surely, if he bragged about the fruits importance, Tomic wouldn't eat it, and Kat would consider him smarty-pants, so he stayed silent. Yet some easy food a couple hours before deployment keeps the person clear-headed. "So Kat, you see how big these deserts are," Jayscreec said. "Needle in the hay." He took a deep breath as he looked down at Atrer III. "We will find him. Think of a fancy line for meeting him. 'Doctor Kat Solari, tech specialist and your savior.'"

@Nefieslab @Space Grunge @Brick

 

[Tomic Domin]

Tomic was bored.

Space travel might be marvelous to some people but there was only so much staring out the windows at the unknowable depths of hyperspace before Tomic just wanted to go to sleep. The ride wasn't long enough to do much sleeping however so instead he had taken to painting his armour instead. It was something of a hobby of his, to paint his armour with little 'cartoons' of things that he had done.

He was currently painting a scene of Jay and himself storming a rave.

The paint needing time to dry was the only reason Tomic didn't just canabalize the armour Jay had offered him to fit into his own armour. He checked over his rifle, making sure he had five spare mags for the thing. Of course he loved his rifle but it just ate through ammo.

"Can we jump into a sandstorm now please?" he teased Jay and Kat, "Save my ears from Jay's attempts at flirting."

@Space Grunge @Brick @Ediwa

 

[Kat Solari]

The trip to Altrer III was uneventful, just as expected. After her shower, Kat redressed in simple slacks and a sensible blouse and opened her cabin door in case she was needed. That turned out to be a mistake, as Agent Alecwit took the invitation to annoy her. She looked up from the game she was playing on her holoprojector and glanced at the clothes he offered. "I find it hard to justify wearing a skinsuit to a pool party... Unless we're going diving in someone's private coral pool." The brunette flicked a little holographic ball toward a group of larger balls and watched it swing around and between them for a second. "If anything, we're probably more likely to be thrown into a pool full of sharks with blasters strapped to their jaws."

Still, she changed into the uniform and met her fellows in the common room of the ship as they got ready to drop out of hyperspace. She took the fruit offered and bit in, she loved jupa and relished in the sweet stuff as it coated her tongue and splashed up onto her cheek.

"Mm-" she hummed through a mouthful of jupa flesh and nodded as she chewed before replying to Jay's pessimistic comment. "Well, if he's a needle, I'm the magnet. I've had the trace spooled up since we left Coruscant. Just waiting to get within range of the global holonet terminals."

She had planned to ignore Jay's advice on introducing herself to Lord Varo, but raised an eyebrow when Tomic spoke up. "Is that what he's doing?" She laughed and rolled her eyes, slurped some more juice from her juba and gave both men an amused smirk. "That's alright, he can flirt all he wants... I'm not into Human men."

Right about then, the ship lurched and Kat perked up. "Oh, sounds like we're in Realspace now." Instantly in work-mode, the woman began to type with a clinical ferocity at her datapad.

"Okay, I'm linked into the local net. Accessing transmission history for the day of the broadcast... Narrowing down hemispherically... And cross-referencing with the timestamp on the broadcast... There!"

Swiping her fingers a bit more, Kat cast a globe of Altrer III to the holoprojector mounted on the table and zoomed in. A red triangle appeared over a swath of desert well over 100 square km.

"Right. Looks like there were only a handful of transmissions to and from this area at the time... Nine, to be exact. No population centers on file either... Could be a pleasure barge or a hideout. Shall I take bets?"

 

[Markus Varo]

Markus was dead. Or so he felt.

It had been days, probably months since Markus had been dumped on this forsaken planet with both his hands cut off. Markus hadn't kept track. He also hadn't seen any civilization. Of all the places that stupid Hutt had to dump him, it had to be in the middle of nowhere. Markus had survived for this long by sheer luck. Thankfully his holiness had not cut off his legs too, so he was able to walk around, instead of crawl. The worst part was not being able to hold anything. Fortunately his hands had stopped bleeding a while ago, so that was one less thing to worry about.

Markus didn't know where he was heading, so he just walked in a straight path. Along the way, there were several watering holes for strange creatures. Those were sources for water, though Markus found it extremely difficult to drink from the waterhole due to the fact that he couldn't cup his hands to bring the water to his mouth. He found out that he could just bend at the waist and put his mouth directly to the water. However, many times Markus leaned in to much, and ended up inside the mucky water. It took quite some time to figure out how to get out without the support of his hands, but Markus adapted. He was an Imperial Officer of the Sith Empire.

Not only had Varo encountered various waterholes during his journey on Alter III, he had also come in contact with ferocious beasts. Markus had never seen these types of animals, and he didn't want to find out what they were. The beasts would mostly come in the night to hunt. Along the path, there were many abandoned huts that Markus resided in. Markus wasn't able to make any tools, much less carry any if he could, so most of his days he would spend inside the hut, or traveling what he hoped was North.

@Space Grunge @Ediwa @Nefieslab

 

[Jayscreec Alecwit]

While Marko suffered, his rescue team bonded on their cool rusty ship.

"You're not into human men?!" Jay scoffed as he wiped the juba juice off Kat's cheek playfully. "You could have said earlier, then I don't bring any Bith to play you songs." He chuckled. "Shouldn't have bought those rings."

As the team jumped up Jay calmly took a bite from his own fruit and walked to the bridge. He briefly examined the radar then took a glance at the planet. "Checking coordinates," he called out things as he started typing. "Here we go." The ship tilted to the right and entered Atrer III's atmosphere. Unannounced. "The Needle was somewhere one hundred square kilometers around? Perfect. Lets sweep the zone then."

Jay wore his combat dress and kept his long blasters at hand already.

@Nefieslab @Space Grunge @Brick

 

[Tomic Domin]

Not into human men huh?

"That's sexist." he quipped before adding, "Probably species-ist too. You should work on that."

Of course he didn't actually care but it was good to joke about with people when he was off-duty. It helped to convince them that he actually gave a damn about them. Did he? Eh, the jury was still kind of out on that one it had to be said. He cared enough to try to appear more normal if that meant anything?

They were coming into the atmosphere now.

Tomic didn't care.

He sat at the ready by the exit to the ship with his rifle at the ready. At the end of the day, Jay was their pilot and the Doc was their techie. Tomic? Tomic was the guy with the gun and a hardwired fault in his brain that meant he enjoyed violence and dealing out pain. So right now, still on the ship?

That meant he was the guy sat around with his thumb in his arse waiting for shite to go down.

@Space Grunge @Brick @Ediwa

 

[Markus Varo]

Markus had a feeling.

It was a good feeling. Today was going to be a good day. Wether it be getting finding a good hut with good supplies left in it, or not encountering any beasts, or just getting rescued. The first two seemed the most probable, the last seemed outlandish. Regardless, it would mean Varo would survive another day. Many men wanted luxuries, others wanted fame. Markus just wanted to live to see another day.

Markus currently sat in one of the many chairs of his current hut. Whoever the previous owner was, that person loved sitting down. Markus had found some protein packs, and had managed to rip open the packs with his feet. He then proceeded to pick up the bar with his feet, and somewhat toss it up to his legs. He then would bend his head to hungrily eat the snack. It would last him give or take, a couple of hours before he needed to scrounge for more food. This enduring process took between 5 to 10 minutes. After he had eaten the last morsil, he heard a scream of a familiar creature overhead. A shuttle. Rather an imperial one. Imperial shuttles had a distinct sound to them, that made people cower in fear. Markus got up, and ran outside, was this his rescue? He widened his eyes in disbelief, had the empire managed to find him. Markus frowned as he thought, had they seen him, were they going to go away? Markus jumped up and yelled at the top of his lungs.

@Space Grunge @Ediwa @Nefieslab

 

[Jayscreec Alecwit]

With the loud engines on the rescue team couldn't hear Markus screaming, however they noticed him. Even though, he could be watched. Just to be careful, Jay tilted the ship from side to side, just to signal that they spotted him. He then circled around the area once, looking for threats.

After the short reconnaissance Jay put down the large Nerf-Class Freighter in front of Markus Varo. As soon as it landed the doors immediately opened. "We need to grab him and take off immediately," Jay said. "I have a bad feeling."

Could he be a trap? Most people would frown at the dismembered arms or the poor man's situation. But Jay wasn't like that. If he smelled roses, he expected to see a coffin. He briefly examined Varo's body before he approached him, hoping not to find anything suspicious.

"Commander Varo, we came to rescue you!"


@Nefieslab @Space Grunge @Brick

 

[Tomic Domin]

Well this was odd.

No one around trying to stop them and their target literally right in front of them? Tomic wasn't the kind of guy who pointed out when things were obviously a trap but if he was he felt like he would be saying it right now. Instead he just sighed once and scanned the area with his rifle up.

No signs of any enemies.

"Coast is clear."

He lowered his rifle but did not sling it over his shoulder; he merely moved to stand at ease with the rifle as he continued to scan the area with his naked eye.

"Doc, scans show anything in the area?"

 

[Markus Varo]

Had they spotted him? He bet they couldn't hear him, but there wasn't much an armless man could do but scream, and wriggle in the air. Markus had contemplated that the people in the ship weren't even Imperial. They could be pirates, or even the dirty Hutt come back to finish off poor little Varo. It didn't matter, at this point, Markus would rather die then spend another day on the knifing desert.

Markus watched as the ship tilted from side to side, either signaling that the pilot had seen Markus, or they were just a bad pilot, and couldn't keep the ship in control. Nonetheless, Markus watched as the ship circled around and proceeded to land. Markus jumped in excitement, and wondered what he looked like, an armless man flailing around. If his rescuers were imperial, he wondered if they would even recognize him. Without the proper materials, and lack of hands, he wasn't able to shave, so he had grown a beard, and his hair had grown longer.

Markus watched as two men exited the vehicle. Both looked to be Imperial, that was a relief. They both looked cautious, which was normal. If the roles was reversed, Markus would also be concerned. Markus laughed weakly, "Well, you guys finally made it, what took you guys so bloody long?" Markus jerked as one of the agents examined him as if he were livestock. Then again he would of done the same. They were most likely checking for any traps and explosives. "No need to worry gentlemen I'm clean of any traps. Now as to mentally or physically clean is a different matter. I need a five hour shower pronto." Commander Varo was back in business. "So what's been happening while I was gone? I hope the Empire's still around?"

@Space Grunge @Ediwa @Nefieslab

 

[Jayscreec Alecwit]

Just in case, Jay ran his portable scanner to verify Varo's identity. The arms gave him away, but who knows for sure? The results were positive. "Commander, we will tell you everything on the way. Let's get out of here before that sandstorm hits us."

It didn't sound like a matter of debate, Jay brought Varo on board to the prepared room. While the medical droid started to clean him they got him water and some food. "Easy, I know it's hard but we cannot feed you too much, just a few bites, your body needs to get used to it."

Navy survival rules. Upsetting him now is better than killing him.

The ship took off as fast as it landed. It's engines roared loud from the warm sand, but it was strong enough to bring them up.

Jay sat down beside Varo after the droid finished. "So the Empire's still up and running," he said. "We are in war, with forces we haven't seen before. Dark and ruthless creatures. Korriban fell to them. We lost many."

@Brick @Nefieslab

 

[Tomic Domin]

"Seriously?"

Tomic was not a kind and considerate guy at the best of times but they were on a planet that none of them really knew much about where one of their own had been dumped specifically so he would die a painful death. The hell were they doing just standing around here shooting the breeze?

"We can have a chat on the ship and you can read whatever the kark you like via the extranet." he told their target bluntly, "Now get on the karking ship before I frag you and chalk this entire mission up to being a waste of time."

He was done playing around on this speck of dirt they called a planet - there were more important things to be doing than wasting their time like this.

 

[Markus Varo]

"Alright lets get out of here. I can assure you i'm fine and I am indeed Commander Markus Varo." He was just as impatient as Tomic, and didn't want to spend another minute on the dreadful planet. "Whoa whoa there agent. No need to be so rude. Why don't you try being in my position? Remember who you're talking to." Markus replied to Tomic. "Don't complain to me, go do me a favor and talk to the Hutt." A few minutes later, and they were on the ship, heading back home.

@Space Grunge @Ediwa @Nefieslab
/END THREAD?

 

[Jayscreec Alecwit]

Back on Coruscant Jay's admiral thoroughly questioned the team. They weren't used to not dealing with his, and his all-time partner, Tomic's excessive use of force. All in all, they were happy with their mission. Taking back Korriban warranted more attention though.

During Varo's medical check Jay approached him. "How are you doing," he asked. "I heard they can fix you cybernetic arms. I guess that's good?" Biotechnology excelled within the military. Tomic also had special eyes, perfectly able to see. Shouldn't a pair of limbs deliver fast?

The Navy lost so many officers in the war, they had to open fast-tracked recruitment for command positions. Jay wanted to apply, but it was common that people with connections got hand-picked. "Commander," Jay continued. "I will apply tomorrow for command's enrollment. Would you sponsor me?"

/END THREAD

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