The Story So Far….
The twin suns blazed above a vast jungle planet as two native birds flew down into the trees to investigate the tromping and cursing coming from the jungle floor.
"Gods above! Tell me again what we're doing here?" Bri exclaimed as she flopped down on a flat rock, her various packs of electronic equipment strapped to her shifting into place. She pulled the goggles off her forehead in frustration and wiped her sweat-plastered black hair from her brow.
A very tall and grey-furred female wearing purple robes walked by Bri, one hand clutched around a metal cylinder and the other outstretched to brush against the foliage. She stopped and looked curiously down at the disgruntled sweaty human. "I have found in our travels that many races do not seem to share the same goals as the Diud-Chi for some reason…so I will refrain from judgment as to why you are here, friend Bri." Her brow raised as she looked ahead into the jungle. "I, however, have sensed a shifting that deems investigation by my master."
"Yeah, yeah, La'Vander…you and your shifting. Continents shift…not your metaphysical mumbo-jumbo," Bri said wryly as she rested her arms on her knees and ran her hands through her sweaty hair.
La'Vander gripped the metal cylinder tighter in her hand as her flat nose flared briefly and continued through the jungle, quickly disappearing in the dense foliage.
Not long after Bri could hear a loud stomping and cursing in another language coming towards her. As the foliage parted what looked like a shorter and stockier version of La'Vander came towards her, though this one was wearing grey military fatigues and hoisting a rather wicked looking rifle. Unlike the calm of La'Vander, she was visibly agitated and sweating profusely. "Tell me which god put two suns on this god forsaken planet so I can shoot him!" She spotted Bri resting on the rock and nudged her side with the butt of her rifle. "Scoot over, seat hog."
Bri moved over to give her space to sit beside her as she pulled off one of her packs and set it on the ground between her feet so she could search through it. "Maybe you can remind me, Kivet. What are we doing here again?"
"You mean other than dying from the blasted heat?" she dripped with sarcasm as she took her canteen off her belt and chugged the blessedly still-cold water within.
"Yeah…I've got that part already," she laughed hollowly as she grabbed a blue gel-filled pill from her pack and swallowed it. A moment later her eyes closed and she sighed in relief as the feeling of cool water flowed down her parched throat.
"Near as I can see, we're on a wild goose chase. That Professor Messandy…he got everyone's panties in a bunch when he started claiming the existence of ancient advanced alien races leaving their junk in the Wilds, and now everyone and their grandmothers are out here with a gun trying to take what they think is theirs."
"That still doesn't explain why we're here," Bri replied with a raised eyebrow. "Since when are we junk collectors?"
"Since we found out that junk is worth a lot of money!" She hefted the rifle in her hands and quickly checked over it to make sure it was working properly. With a satisfied grunt she stood up again and hefted her pack. "After putting up with this heat, if there's anything worthwhile at all in this place it's mine!" With a last roll of her eyes at the suns above she made her way into the jungle to follow La'Vander.
"You coming?" she heard Kivet call.
"Yeah…just a sec." Bri raised her left arm to access the computer in her bracer. Text from Professor Messandy's book, "Lost Legends of the Sky Raiders" scrolled by on a screen projected by her display contacts until she got to the entry she was looking for.
What was the purpose of these Sky Raiders? Some claim they were pirates of the space ways, pillaging technology from all over the galaxy to amass into their own. If so, why did they seem to settle on these primitive planets? Did they wish to live as Gods, using their obviously high levels of technology to manipulate the local populations? Was it greed and power that drove them, or something more?
"Advanced alien technology from across the Universe…" she muttered as she turned her computer off. "Yeah…you can keep your 'shifting' and your cash…as long as I can find the parts I need." She put her goggles back on and loaded her pistol as she followed the rest of them into the jungle. Bri walked on through the jungle, doing her best to avoid the thorny vines drooping from the trees above. She ducked under some low hung foliage and came out the other side only to have Kivet's grey furred hand press against her.
"I think we found their dig site…"
Bri pulled down her HUD over her eye and quickly scanned the area. Vast swatches of undergrowth were cut away to leave a large clearing segmented off into a grid by thin ropes. On the other side of the grid were some metal buildings reminiscent of Terran military bases, but strangely…there were no people.
"I've got a bad feeling about this, guys. Either something happened to make them all leave all of a sudden, or…" a series of loud clicks rang out of rifles being cocked as close to 30 men wearing camouflage came out of the jungle around them.
"It could be a trap," Kivet finished as she dropped her rifle and raised her hands into the air.
"This is your fault for saying you were bored yesterday, you realize that." Bri muttered wryly as she dropped her weapon and raised her hands.
Kivet opened her mouth to reply but forgot what she was going to say when the tall Diud-Chi strolled between the two into the clearing and looked at the men around them in curiosity, her hand gripping the metal cylinder tight. One of the men then yelled at the trio as he gestured with his rifle. Bri leaned to Kivet and whispered, "Afraid I don't know that language…who are these guys?"
"Mercenary soldiers by the look of them…Vilansh by the sound," she replied. "They're telling us to drop our weapons."
"I kinda figured…but does she know that?" Bri gestured towards La'Vander as the Diud-Chi's arm stretched out and the metal cylinder suddenly lit up with light as a purple energy blade shot out from one end.
Before they could yell out to her a brief command was barked out and suddenly one of the men raised a large gun at the Diud-Chi and pulled the trigger. Instantly she was wrapped with a sticky substance that began to foam around her and solidify into a cocoon from her shoulders to past her knees. She fell helplessly to the ground, her sword shutting off and landing beside her.
Four of the men shouldered their rifles and picked up the encased alien, while others came up behind them to shove them with the butts of their rifles into moving towards the buildings.
"Look at the bright side of all this," Kivet muttered to Bri as they were herded towards a metal shack across from a sturdier building with guards posted at it's door.
"Do I have to? It tends to make my eyes hurt," Bri replied sarcastically. One of the men opened the door to the metal shack and after a quick stripping of all her gear shoved her to the ground inside as Kivet stumbled in next to her, also sans equipment. "I prefer to look at the dark and dismal side of things."
"Not only did we get a laugh from 'Cocoon Girl' here," Kivet said as she squatted on the ground next to Bri and pointed a thumb at the guards bringing in the encased Diud-Chi to set her against a stack of crates, "But I think we found our professor."
Bri turned from the guards locking them in the shack to see a worn old man and a younger woman trying to hide in the corner. "Hey," Bri greeted them in Terran and waved her hand. "Professor Messandy, I presume?" she said with a laugh.
The younger woman's eyebrow raised in curiosity as she stood up. The old man fervently tugged at her sleeve to remain where she was, but she patted his hand in assurance before turning to them.
"You three aren't Vilanish…who are you?"
"Long story short, we're your rescuers," Kivet replied sarcastically from her seat on one of the crates. "Getting captured by these douchebags was all just part of our cunning plan to find you."
Bri rolled her eyes at Kivet as she stood and shook hands with the woman. My name's Bri, this is Kivet, and our friend here is La'Vander. We were sent by the I.S.S. to find you both."
"I highly doubt that," the older man scoffed as he stood up slowly to join them. "The I.S.S. hasn't given a damn about me ever since they fired me for my ideas. "
"If it makes you feel any better, you're probably right." Kivet said as she ran a hand through her hair. "Once they discovered you might actually have found something, though, you've become important enough to offer a reward for."
"You see, Lorraine? They aren't to be trusted," he scoffed.
"Father! These people are the only chance we have right now!" Lorraine reprimanded him over her shoulder and turned back to Bri. "After father had disappeared I funded a small group of researchers and explorers to come with me to Morraine to find him. Unfortunately, they ended up being a part of the same trap my father fell into."
"Which was?" Bri asked encouragingly.
"The Vilansh. Eniri Kalamaru, to be precise, a wealthy trader from Vilan. He funded my father's expedition when nobody else would…but it turns out he was doing it for his own purposes."
"No surprise there…the Vilansh are all a bunch of elitist scum," Bri muttered.
"Things were going fine until I couldn't find anything…" Professor Messandy replied in frustration. "I had plotted out the prime spot for the Sky Raider's ruins…but nothing turned up. We searched and searched…I double and triple checked all my calculations…but still nothing! I thought we could at least check some of the other sites on my list, but Kalamaru has run out of patience."
"This man's behavior seems rather illogical," La'Vander replied as she pondered their words. "If he damages the two of you he'll be back to where he started, but with even less funds and equipment."
"Kalamaru isn't about logic, unfortunately; power is all he cares about," Lorraine replied in scorn. "If we don't get him what he wants, he'll keep paying and discarding people until someone does."
"Yeah…typical Vilansh, really," Kivet piped up as she crept up to the door to watch the guards out the window. "If you two would get out more instead of hiding in your books, you'd know that."
Lorraine gripped her fists in anger and was about to reply when a sudden explosion rocked the building, causing everyone but the encased Duid'Chi to crouch warily.
"What the frak was that?" Bri exclaimed.
Kivet carefully stood up and peered out the window again to see smoke trails coming from the building across from them as the guards in front of their door scattered. "That was the distraction we need to get out of here…can you get the door, Bri?"
"Hang on…let me see." She reached up into the small single braid she kept in her hair and pulled out a bent piece of wire. "Gotta love old school…" She moved to the door as Kivet backed away and inserted the wire into the lock. After some adjustments and mild curses she pulled the wire out of the lock and turned the knob. "Voila!"
"All right…we're in business!" Kivet said with a grin and turned to La'Vander. "Can you walk on your own?"
The tall alien looked down her body and flexed her legs to test. "The Vilansh have not adjusted their tangle guns for Duid'chi physiology, so it appears that I am capable of limited movement on my own."
"Great." Kivet turned to the Messandys. "You two…stick with the Jedi and try to get out of here."
"Wait…where are you going?" Lorraine asked worriedly.
"Saving your hinder wasn't the only goal of this mission, lady…" Kivet replied before charging through the door and running towards the building across from them.
Bri looked from the door to Lorraine. "Do you know the best way away from this camp?"
Lorraine nodded. "They've got hovercraft by the shore to the northeast to get to the island they use as their main base of operations. We should head there."
"Fantastic. Why don't you guys do that?" Bri muttered as she crouched by the door in preparations to run.
"What? Wait…now where are you going?" Lorraine asked in frustration.
Bri rolled her eyes at her. "Do you have any idea how much money I spent on that top-of-the-line gear? I'm not leaving without my stuff!" She gripped the edge of the door tight then launched herself into a run across the way.
Kivet rolled to dodge the gunfire as best as she could and scrambled to the door to the building. She was more concerned with not getting shot than subtlety and quickly opened the door to find a rather surprised Vilansh on the other side. She instinctively reached to her hip and swore when she remembered her guns were no longer there. Unfortunately for her, the mercenary had his.
He stepped back to draw his gun but suddenly froze in surprise as Bri came running up behind Kivet with a primal scream, shoving the stocky Duid soldier's mass solidly into him like a battering ram.
"Ooof!" Kivet exclaimed as she landed on top of the surprised merc. She quickly regained her bearings and started slugging with her furred fists. " Fraking Vilansh pussies…let's see you fight, now!"
"Yeah!" Bri said as she climbed over them to kick the merc in the head for good measure. "That's for taking my gear!" She then ran past them to frantically search the building for their missing equipment.