Ask [Yavin IV] River of Darkness

[Oren Zapan]

​

The Yavin air was thick and humid, and it seemed that even in the orange skies of dusk such things never relented. The Jedi Master had taken to the heart of the planet, searching for the fabled stories of this lost company that he had heard so much about, and the ones that seemed to be chasing the same darkness that he sought to find himself. He had been out on the search for weeks, and his skin showed it as he rested against the back of the boat, shirt off, Nashyr's crystal clung around his neck as he peered towards the sky.

He was here with Max and another Jedi, a Pantoran, that he had never met before, traveling down one of the many deltas that made up Yavin IV, searching for the fabled company's dig site and some supposed temple lost to the times. Oren had little to no idea if it was true or if he had slowly gone mad like the rest of them, what was evident that the darkness was present on this planet--hopefully everything that came before it and what would come would be enough to find it and destroy it.

"Whatever you do, don't get off the boat." He'd mutter as he peered towards the dark waters.

tag: @Nefieslab @Killa Ree

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max had taken his armoured robes off for the duration of the trip to Yavin IV. It seemed that they were around the moon's equator during it's summer seasons and it was hotter and more humid than he could endure with his armour still on. Instead of focusing on the heat however, Max had killed some time on the boat by disassembling and reassembling his lightsaber. He still had his stun baton strapped to his side, alongside a vibroknife.

He was just finishing off putting his lightsaber back together again when Oren spoke. Without looking up, Max smirked a little bit from his polishing of his lightsaber.

... that sounded bad.

"Don't quite fancy a swim, Oren." he assured his friend before glancing to Indy, "What about you Indy? I hear a swim is good for joint pains."

He was joking about her previous shoulder injury but he wasn't entirely sure if she would find it funny or not. If she did then it was a nice bit of camaraderie. If she didn't?

Well it was hot and the drinking water was limited; he'd blame it on that.

@Killa Ree @TWD26

 

[Indy Sati]

She peered over the edge into the murky depths, and gave a raised brow to the Jedi Master. "Don't plan to, really," she answered, tilting her hat back to peer out towards the edge, lips pulled into a faint frown. She hated the heat, the humidity... sweat beaded and rolled at the base of her neck, and down her cheeks, causing her skin to glisten in the light. She had taken off her blaster vest temporarily, white synthweave shirt wrinkling in the humidity.

To pass the time, she had begun cleaning out her blaster, checking her power packs, and watching Max assemble his lightsaber. Hearing what he had to say, though, caused a wry chuckle to pass her lips, giving him an arched violet brow. "Sure, Maxims. Should be great for you, especially," she replied, but the smile in her tone took any bite out of her words.

She leaned back, mopping her brow and reholstering her blaster, holding her lightsaber hilt in her hand. The feeling here... beyond the humidity, beyond the heat, held something else. Something that lurked beyond spooky shapes in dark waters... and she wanted to be prepared to defeat the darkness.

No matter the cost.

@TWD26 @Nefieslab

 

[Oren Zapan]

​

Something about this river seemed to set me off, the insidious calmness to it all was what got to me. A river as wide as the eye could see with its brown murky water, small fisherman's boats cruising along, though the further we made our way into the heart, following the Czerka Company's trail, the further into darkness I knew we were going.

Nothing about this planet had felt the same, and now I was starting to see why this heart of darkness needed to be stopped. Everything seemed strange, from the Colony Town and their never ending battle with force knows what..they claimed to see it, yet I saw nothing. There was no command no authority, just anarchy running among the groups. They claimed a man, a Captain Thers and his men came through bringing the word of THE ONE to them, whatever meant, and that they were there to find the ruins of old.

The Death Star Ruins, the ones that were believed to have been wiped clean of the terrors of old by Klaud and the others was merely a temporary solution, the darkness still lingered and the remnants and those men dawned in make shift relics of the Imperial War, claiming to be the last platoon left to protect their prize. Whatever was inside that station was gone and Thers had taken it into the valley and heart of the planet, for what reason I do not know, and I shall admit that I am quite nervous to find out. The further we go, the stranger this gets and I fear for what we may come across in the depths of the heart of Yavin.

-Jedi Master Oren Zapan

Oren clicked off his datapad as he peered towards the group who all seemed to be happy and at ease for the moment. Maxims and Indy were both cleaning their weapons, while the fisherman's crew they hired managed the boat, their eyes focused on the water ahead as they made they directed their ships across the water and towards the the darkness of night.

"Up ahead..Up ahead.." The Captain of the boat would point towards his hand as they saw a narrow fisher's boat some ways ahead, he'd turn towards the group of Jedi, "Strange..not see many this far up stream," he'd say with some concern, "No good fish up this side of the river."

Oren would peer towards he boat, pulling himself up as his black jungle boots stepped across the boat to get a better look at what was going on across the way. He could see what appeared to be men and women fishing on the boat, but couldn't quite pick up why they were so much of a concern. "So...what does it mean?"

He'd ask as the boat turned towards the direction of the fisher's ship, annoying the Jedi Master. Slowly they would come up across a boat full of what appeared to be a family, casting nests and pulling them in with nothing inside of them. "What are you doing out here?" The Captain would say, "No one fish here..so why you here?"

What appeared to be the father peered towards them with tired eyes, "There is no war here, quiet and calm." He'd turn back to throw his net into the water, annoying the captain.

"What you see ahead..you see anything...you see anything?" The Captain would call out, as the hand looked on nervously towards the fishers. It didn't seem they were answering, but maybe the Jedi could talk to them and find out what was going on, but Oren had a strange feeling that he couldn't shake.

tag: @Nefieslab @Killa Ree

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max finished up the maintenance on his lightsaber and cast his gaze around. Usually a calm and peaceful scene would make him feel more at peace himself. Usually it would mesh well with the Light side of the Force and warm him with a certainty that everything was going to be alright.

He reached up to scratch around the bottom edge of his eye-patch. If he was honest with himself, it didn't even itch and he knew the itch wasn't really there either but there was nothing he could do about it. Phantom aches and pains were to be expected so recently after having lost something.

Still, looking around, Max couldn't help the feeling of dread coiling within his gut.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

He probably said that a bit louder than he honestly meant to but what did it matter? Max doubted that he was the only one who thought that amongst the Jedi. For a moment he thought about using the Mind Trick before discarding the idea. He shook his head.

"Let's just move on." he suggested with a frown, "It is not our place to intrude on the private lives of people."

@Killa Ree @TWD26

 

[Indy Sati]

She felt calm.

Despite the dark foreboding that dwelled beneath and around, she methodically cleaned out her blaster, checking the power packs and her vibroblade, then kept an eye on the horizons around them, golden-eyed gaze speculative. Yavin IV... she had heard much about the kind of place they were at. The oddness of these fishermen and the unease of their guide solidified her suspicions. As peaceful as this place was... much in the name of the Darkness lurked here, and not just with the story of Thers.

She kept her senses out, however, and said nothing for the time being. What was there to say, anyways. She simply nodded once in agreement, and holstered her blaster away. However, she glanced at Max, and her lips twitched once. That loss of his eye... she knew it technically wasn't her fault, but every now and then she felt a twinge of guilt she couldn't save the eye.

She then glanced out again, further downriver.

@Nefieslab @TWD26

 

[Oren Zapan]

​

Oren would peer towards the one eyed Max and the Pantoran with a nod as he stepped back from the edge of the boat, the family never turning back to look at them, besides their two children who looked on with a subtle smile that shaped across their lips. "Keep the ship moving, the sooner we find what we're looking for, the sooner we can get home."

Truthfully, that was what the Jedi Master wanted, to be done with this sort of insidious magic that crept across the land, but maybe there was more to it. Old Relics of the Empire and the Rebellion on full display and the ghosts of dead rebels and imperial troops alike. Was it a sign, a message from the force? Oren was not quite sure what the real truth was, but the Force had ways of displaying hidden messages and meanings that would only reveal itself in nature, and maybe in due time the truths behind what this all is would come to play.

"Bye..Bye..!" The kids would wave as their ship slowly passed them by their dark eyes peering towards them as their ship slowly descended down the river and into the last vestige of their journey, as large canopies slowly extended over the banks of the river, painting the trail ahead in a wall of black.

Oren would peer back, but the fisher ship was gone, almost as if it was never there to begin with, and it seemed that the valley of uncanny had slowly begun to take root. "I should tell you, that the darkness that is engulfing this planet is getting far worse," he'd say quietly, "Things are happening here that you wouldn't expect..Ghosts of the past are coming back and it seems we've slowly transported to a time of old Empires and days of Rebellion..Something existed on that station of death, that we failed to realize and now this man..the man that the Colony has asked me to find and execute has it and has entered the heart of Yavin.."

He'd peer towards the two Jedi, "What I do know is that it seems both colonists and ghosts are appearing, it's nearly impossible to tell what is real and what it is not..I implore you that the darkness we are going into you must be careful, if you gaze too far into it, you may not come back from this."

tag: @Nefieslab @Killa Ree

 

[Indy Sati]

"...I can feel it."

Luminous gold eyes stared at both Knight and Master calmly, listening to the lapping water, violet-haired head tilted slightly as though listening to something, or someone. "It's strange... like the whole spot of this galaxy is holding its' breath." She would not have been surprised if this was a focus of Darkness, seeped deep into the very core of this planet; considering its' ties to the past, the feeling would not be an unfounded one. But as it was, there was little they could do for the time being.

Like all turning points of the Force, they would have to bide their time. This journey was only just beginning... even the people here seemed to hold old memories of the past. Memories that even the long dead would murmur, if she were of a poetic mindset. Instead she focused her senses outwards, peering into the horizon.

But some of the Master's words drew her back to the present, and she gave him a mildly puzzled stare. "You've witnessed this before." It wasn't a question, but a flat statement, and she focused now her gaze between her companions, waiting for confirmation or denial.

She was loathe to use her lightsaber... but somehow, she felt it would be wise to have it on hand. For the time being though, she listened.

There was little else to do, but wait...

And see what Dark Things would come their way.

@Nefieslab @TWD26

 

[Maxims Tionson]

Max frowned slightly.

"We are Jedi - it is our duty to stare into the Darkness and stand firm. To stand between it's march and the peoples of the Galaxy who don't know enough to truly fear it's existence." he spoke with certainty, "We are the line and we need to remain strong. I've no doubt that when the time comes we will do what we must."

The Darkness here was palpable.

It felt like the entire planet had a heartbeat in the Force but there was something wrong with it. As though there were a parasite latched onto the heart and leeching it's life away with every moment. Yavin was overflowing with life and that life was being drained and tainted by the mere existence of what they were here to combat.

Something spoke to him still however.

Some kind of whisper from the Force, from the history of this moon and the war long past. Max hummed lightly to himself as their boat continued down the stream. Before too long however, he could only find himself singing it softly.

"Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,
To add something more to this wonderful year;
To honour we call you, as freemen not slaves,
For who are so free as the sons of stellar waves?

We never see the Imps but we wish them to stay,
They always see us and they wish us away;
If they run, we will follow, we will drive them ashore,
And if they won't fight, we can do no more."

@TWD26 @Killa Ree