Last time: Viran admitted her loved Sasha and she loves him back.

Now: Kyr and the Jedi start following the Temple paths to find Oppie.

Chapter 3- The Temples

"Where the heck are you?" Kyr groused. The droid had knocked something else over and gotten stuck somewhere. His annoyed warbles and whistles were echoing through the ship. After a week of travel they were bored, all of his weapons were cleaned to a fine polish, every item in the ordinance cataloged and inventoried, they had even cleaned the ship, a little. "For such a precise little machine you sure are the clumsiest thing I've ever known." Kyr said.

He got an angry whistling in reply.

"What turbulence? We're in hyperspace!" He looked around the corner of the port maintenance pit for the engines and didn't see the droid. He heard a whistle come from back towards the front of the ship.

"Why in the blazes are you in there?" He yelled back, going back around the main corridor to the armory. He stepped into the room, the walls of various blaster rifles, rocket launchers, pistols, hold outs and everything in between, neatly arranged on racks on the wall. He stepped past the beautiful display of religious artifacts and to a side access panel, opening it. He stepped through into the tube-room, as he called it. There were six vertical launch cells, each fed by rack upon rack of various types of rockets and missiles. This was next to the concussion missile launcher that was in the nose of the ship, also serviced from the stores in this room. A mortar launcher was just off the side of the concussion rack, with its own stores in case he needed Tac to send in some indirect fire. This space on a YT-2300 was usually the main cargo bay, but it made a great place to store the ammunition for the launchers, and the launchers themselves, as he had no need for a large cargo bay on the Shadow Runner. He looked around, and then continued around the interior radius of the ship, having a hard time moving through the space in his bulky armor and the racks designed more for the loading conveyors than for people to get around them. In the far corner he saw Tac, finally, trapped under a rack that held all the tools for this equipment, it was knocked over and had pinned him to the wall. His little wheels hadn't had enough force to escape the deadly trap. It was deadly, Tac's power cells might have run out after a year or so stuck there.

"Clumsy, clumsy." Kyr chided the droid. He leveraged the rack back up into place, reaffixing the clips that held it to the wall. And started putting the tools that had fallen over back into place. Tac started helping, at least with the tools that went on the lower shelf.

Tac let loose his own comments on the quality of the shelf and how it had nearly killed him.

"Yeah, shelving racks can be real killers." Kyr agreed, rolling his eyes under his bucket.

The alarm started going off for hyperspace exit, and Kyr rushed to the cockpit, arriving just in time to get into the pilots seat and bring them out of hyperspace. The planet flashed into view, it looked like it was mostly forest and grasslands. It looked kind of cold, not that it mattered much to him. His armor system kept him comfortable in pretty much every climate. He even remembered hearing a story of a Mando that had survived days trapped in an ice lake when his ship crashed and became entombed.

Probably should still bring a scarf though. It made him look more awesome when he was on colder planets like this.

He settled into a low orbit, trying to figure out how to find… whatever it was they were looking for. He hoped another temple, but spotting one of those things from orbit would be a pain. Sensors didn't reveal anything, since there would be no refined metal or other obvious indicators. As he crossed the terminator to the nightside, his optical sensors picked up a few scattered campfires across the planet. He programmed the computer to get a high res image of one of the sites and waited a few seconds, the results popping up on his display. He saw humanoids, gangly looking creatures, covered in rough pelts and carrying wooden spears. Primitives, okay. So no local traffic control to check in with, or to avoid.

He completed his first orbit in twenty three minutes, and didn't really spot anything interesting. With no better option he set the optical sensors to start scanning the planet for unnatural formations, and also tuned his other sensors to scan the planet for the same. That done, he sat there for a few minutes, bored, and then got up, back to the galley to get a late lunch.

He came back a few minutes later and took his buy'ce off, setting it on the little holder he had installed on the center console to keep it secure. He enjoyed his plate of noodles in some sort of cream based sauce with some kind of shellfish mixed into it, and then set the plate aside. Looking out the window, slowly slouching in his seat has he completed his fifth orbit of the planet, drumming his fingers. Tac was off rearranging the rack, now that he was fairly sure it would not fall over and kill him.

He got a little buzzing sound, and he immediately shot up in the seat, not realizing he had been dozing off. The sensors had found a possible target. That was good enough for him. He checked, and there were some local settlements nearby, actually a few big camps, but they were fairly distant from the site. He put his bucket back on his head, and dove into the atmosphere, weaving around the cloud cover and coming in low in the early morning for this part of the world. High conifer trees blanketed the ground, and he came in just above their highest points. The site came into view; another temple. This one also with a central dias, and precisely aligned stones columns as well. The same builders and style as the one on Chikara.

He circled around, looking for a good landing site, and found one a bit off in the distance, a small clearing in the trees just big enough for his ship. He landed the ship easily and then walked out of the cockpit, back across to the main lounge, going past it to the armory. He grabbed one of his rifles after carefully selecting it from the armory racks, and slung it over his shoulder. He went over to the equipment rack to look for another imager, like the one he had given Sasha and Viran. Tac came over questioningly.

"No, not this one buddy, pretty rough terrain. I'll take the imager and relay it back to you." He told the droid as he clipped the imager to his belt and turned to leave. The droid emitted a disappointed chortle, and Kyr patted him on the top of his dome as he went out.

He was already walking down the ramp before it completed opening, the disinfectant cocktail shooting down as a fog around him. He looked left and right as he stepped onto this new world, checking for signs of activity and getting his bearings. He pressed two buttons on his left gauntlet, and the ramp closed behind him, locking the ship up tight. He hated getting bugs in it if he left the ramp open too long on strange worlds.

He set out over the terrain towards where the temple was, a little higher up in the mountain, on an outcropping overlooking the valley he had landed in. As he stepped into the forest the light thinned a bit, the foliage above him making for a dense canopy. The place reminded him of Artemis, but the star was a little more bright, the air a little warmer. There were the usual sounds of nature on an established world like this, insects buzzed, and small animals let out cries. Nothing big, though, which he was glad for. Nice as this place was, he just wanted to get in and get out. Though it might make a nice vacation spot at some point, especially since it was only known to the navicomputer by its catalog number, so he was probably the only off worlder that had ever been here, and might be the only offworlder who even knew about it.

After a twenty or so minute hike he came up to the temple. It looked just like Chikara to him, though surrounded by forest instead of exposed boulder desert hills. He approached the center, and started looking around. He set the imager in the center of the dias, the same place where the crater would have been at the other temple, and set it to work. While it performed its scan he moved off through the temple, curious to see what he might find. In the exact same spot was exactly the same stela. He moved over to inspect it. Okay, it wasn't exactly the same, it had some of the same scenes; the swordsman over the fallen man at the river, the exploding globe. At the scenes where on Chikara's it had shown what had happened to Op, Sasha and Viran, they were replaced. He looked at them closer, puzzled.

The first scene showed a caped figure in a helmet that looked suspiciously like him running away from a cloud of arrows that was descending upon him. He coughed slightly at seeing that. The next scene showed what looked like people kneeling on the ground before a great altar that had… the distinctive shape of a YT-2300 medium freighter as its central idol. He stood up, puzzled and a little worried. He made sure his visor got full images of all four faces of the stela in case there was anything they needed to reference later, and then turned back. The imager was done, a full recording of the monument was recorded for Tac to analyze. He picked it up and clipped it to his belt.

Then an arrow landed at his feet, bouncing off the stone pavers.

"Oh osik." He swore. He pulled his rifle up into a ready position and turned to face where it had come from. His visor enhanced a couple of instances of movement in the brush, if he hadn't had it they would have been invisible.

"I don't want any trouble, I was just leaving." He said, amplifying his voice through his helmet as he started retreating back towards the path he'd used for his ship. He heard a couple of voices as he turned up the gain on his sound amplification. Definitely not speaking Basic.

A couple more arrows tinked off the ground around him and another bounced off his beskar helmet. His armor would protect him, but a lucky shot might hit his unarmored joints, and he didn't want to get disabled here. He glanced down at the arrows that lay on the ground around him, and saw they were flint tipped. It didn't look like they were coated in anything, so he at least didn't have to worry about poison. Just razor sharp stone. Great.

"I'll be going now." He said into the forest. "I don't want any trouble." He repeated as he backed away as non-threateningly as a two meter tall Mando armed to the teeth with his blaster up and ready could look. He kind of wished he had sprung for that protocol droid he'd seen when he encountered those Jawas on Nevarro.

A rustling came from the forest in front of him, and then he looked up.

"Osik!" He exclaimed, seeing a veritable storm of arrows flying down at him. He turned and ran, hoping his backplates and armorweave cape would protect him. He realized he was seeing the scene from the stela here, now. He wondered if he glanced over his shoulder if he would see some mason peeking out at him from the distant past, carving the scene. He didn't have time to look, he just ran. He felt and heard arrows bounce off the ground and his armor as he ran into the forest. He stopped and turned around, blindly firing a few blaster shots off into the forest behind him at those chasing him where his visor indicated movement. Then he just kept running. The blaster bolts stopped them for a second, and then heard a cry from behind him. Not a cry of pain, a war cry, and he got the distinct impression there might be a small army of the local primitives chasing him for disturbing the sanctity of their holy place. Or he just looked like a particularly tasty lobster in his copper plate, he didn't want to find out.

"Tac!" He yelled over the comline. "Start the engines! Get it up!" The barrage of arrows kept up the whole way back. "Tac, power up the ship!"

Over the line Tac called back an affirmative with some annoyance. He was busy hunting a local pest that had gotten aboard. In the distance he heard the engines power up, and the Shadow Runner came up over the tree cover, Tac brought it down, crushing a few trees against the durasteel armor plate. The ship didn't mind, the trees did. The ship was rotating so that the already opening ramp would face him.

Kyr lept aboard as the arrows continued. He turned and grabbed on to the ramp hydraulics to face his pursuers as they just stopped, a few falling to their knees, looking at the spaceship that was already ascending to the sky. Over a hundred of them, Kyr estimated, brought up short as they stared in awe at the sight of the bright metallic YT-2300 clawing for altitude. Kyr stepped back on the ramp, breathing heavily from the chase. He felt a weird sensation on his leg and looked down. A spider the size of a dinner plate was crawling up his leg.

Kyr screamed and batted it away, it tumbled off the ramp and to the ground far below. As Kyr recovered from the horrifying encounter with the spider, Tac called over the com line, worried. "There was a big spider on the ship!" Kyr yelled back as he got to his feet and hustled back up the ramp. Tac called back in another worrying tone. "Why the hell did you name it Reggie?" Kyr spit back "And no you can't have a pet spider, ever! I hate spiders Tac, I hate 'em!" He said as the ramp sealed shut.

He walked down the corridor and around the core of the ship, into the lounge. He settled heavily on the sofa, Tac had already programmed the ship to enter orbit. Down below he was fairly sure the locals had just found a new religion, worshipping the great YT-2300, if the scene on the stela was to be believed. Tac came in from the cockpit and looked at him, but said nothing. Then he let go a little burst of binary complaint and abject sadness.

"Look, I'm sorry about Reggie, if you want a pet how 'bout a lothcat or something? I just can't handle spiders." Kyr said, apologetically T1C-TAC considered him for a moment and then let loose an excited series of whistles, leaving to go see if there was a good space for a litter box near his favorite data port by the gun turrets.

"Oh hey I'm fine too!" Kyr called back as the happy droid left the scene. He sighed and relaxed into the lounge sofa. So he had the temple data which meant he should have the alignments. What could you use as a reference time though? He considered for a moment, then called up his visor recordings, going back to the timestamp of when the first barrage of arrows had come in back at the temple. The time of the scene depicted on the stela. Once Tac was done figuring out the litter box situation, he would have him calculate the alignments.

Neither of them could believe it had been a week since they split off from Kyr in search of a way to bring Oppie back. During that week of travel, Sasha and Viran used that time to train and hone in their skills. Since leaving Vestora, neither of them really kept up with any of their training that Oppie gave them. They had been so busy from escaping Vestora, dealing with Cien, searching for help, getting captured, and losing Oppie. Even during their time of mourning, they barely trained and now they actually had lightsabers to train with rather than some measly sticks found in the forest. So they spent their spare time while traveling through hyperspace to train on what they could with the space they had. They worked through Force techniques and meditations. They did stretching and basic cardio exercises. They also moved through combat forms and katas while holding the lightsaber hilt in their hand without it on. Both of them decided to avoid sparring until they had the room to do it. This shuttle was just too small for that.

However, their long week came to an end when they finally arrived at their given coordinates from Tac. Viran pulled their ship out of hyperspace over the planet. It was more like a moon than a planet, but it would do the trick if it had what they needed. Viran guided the ship into the atmosphere. As he did that, Sasha closed her eyes and sunk into the Force to seek out whatever it was they were looking for. As the ship hovered, Viran waited patiently for her to tell him where to go. After about five minutes of silence between them, Sasha finally opened her eyes.

"Head towards the southern hemisphere," she instructed.

Viran nodded and pulled on the controls so the ship could turn towards the south. As the ship flew over the planet, Viran kept a steady pace so he could be ready when Sasha would tell him when and where to land. The flight took about another fifteen minutes before Sasha spoke up again.

"It's just on the other side of that lake," Sasha pointed out as she gestured to a clearing on the other side of a large lake.

This moon was primarily made of grasslands and lakes. It almost reminded them of Naboo in some regard. However, it was humid and warm according to the sensors. Viran took notice of the lake and maneuvered the ship over to the flattest piece of land he could find to land the ship. As he set down, he started the shutting off sequence.

"Alright, I tried to get us as close as I could, but the hills make it difficult to just land at the temple," Viran stated. "So we have a hike ahead of us."

Sasha nodded as she stood from her chair. She walked over to the hidden compartment to retrieve their sabers. Opening it up, she pulled out both lightsabers. She tucked Oppie's into her jacket as she turned to Viran to toss him his. Viran caught the saber and with a flick of his wrist, he spun it in his palm before tucking into his own jacket. From there, the two of them made their way into the back compartment with the bunks. Viran grabbed the imager gear that Kyr had leant them. Sasha grabbed a backpack that was packed with a first aid kit, some rations, and a couple of survival tools to help them just in case.

Lowering the ramp, the two of them cringed as they were hit with a wave of hot, humid air.

"Ugh, this is awful," Viran complained as he started down the ramp. "I miss the weather on Artemis and Vestora already."

"You miss it cause it's colder there," Sasha stated as she walked alongside him.

"And what's wrong with the cold? That's the best kind of weather," Viran pointed out.

Sasha chuckled. "Well maybe the water is cool enough for you to take a dip."

"Oh that sounds nice," Viran said with a pleasant sigh.

Sasha rolled her eyes as they continued walking. It would take them at least a couple hours to trudge from where Viran parked the ship to the temple and he was right. There was no good place that was close enough for the ship to land on as nothing was exactly even or flat enough as they climbed up and down hills. As they walked, they also ditched their jackets about halfway as the heat and humidity was making them sweat uncomfortably. Viran used his jacket to make a shade over himself as he was getting burned with every second he was in direct sunlight. Sasha had tucked hers into her backpack so she didn't have to carry it. Soon they reached the other side of the hills to see what looked like a temple down below. That was where the Force was calling them.

"Finally," Sasha groaned as seeing the temple was giving her a burst of energy to make it down the rest of the way.

They made their way down to the temple. As they reached the bottom, they noticed that the temple was built into the side of the hill and looked identical to the one on Chikara. Outside there was a courtyard that looked closer to a meditation circle then an exterior entrance for a temple. They stepped onto the stone circle looking around.

"Okay, we need to set up the imager so we can send the information to Kyr and Tac," Sasha said before taking a swig from their water bottle.

Viran nodded. "We need to find the center of the dias. It looks like it is over here." He said as he started towards it,

Once they stood in the center, Viran started setting up the imager while Sasha set their bag down next to it. She then turned her attention to the temple and where the stela should be.

"Alright, this is going to be about ten minutes. I'm going to take a quick dip in the water if you want to join me," Viran said with a slight toying sound to his voice.

Sasha chuckled. "I think I'll stay with the imager and check out the murals. Once everything is done, then maybe."

"Fine, party pooper," Viran said with a chuckle.

While Viran headed to the nearby shore line to cool off, Sasha turned her attention to the stelas on the pillars. She noticed some of the similar images from before. However, she also noticed a few that were not present on Chikara. The ones that caught her attention the most were two that sat close to each other. One of them looked like a dark helmeted figure facing off with a man, lightsabers, or what looked like them, drawn before them and surrounded by stars. The other one that caught her attention was one of a girl and boy running across a field as a dark storm rained down upon them. She found that one the strangest.

Glancing up to the sky, Sasha noticed that in the distance a storm was brewing. They didn't notice the storm when they had first arrived. It was as if it had just formed out of nowhere. With an uneasy feeling in her gut, Sasha rushed over to the imager to check on the status. There was only a few minutes left. Cursing, Sasha ran over to the shore line to see that Viran was indeed enjoying his swim.

"Vir," She called.

Viran appeared from under the water.

"What?" He responded.

"We have to go. A storm is coming," Sasha said while gesturing to the sky.

Viran turned his head to see it. With a groan, he dragged himself onto shore.

"It looks like we have at least an hour or two before it hits. But it would take that long to get back to the ship," Viran said as he came over to his pile of clothes. He had dressed down to a pair of compression shorts that he must have been wearing under his clothes. Sasha kept her gaze at either his face or the coming storm.

"I'm going to tear down the imager," Sasha said with a nod. "Hurry up. I fear that storm will be here sooner than we think."

Sasha turned on her heel and headed back to the imager. It was done by the time she returned. Tearing it down, Sasha packed it into her backpack and removed her jacket. She pulled the jacket back on despite her sweat soaked shirt. She could feel the cold metal of the lightsaber press against her side as she straightened the jacket. She then heavied the backpack onto her back just as Viran came running up from the shore, dressed. The storm clouds grew closer.

"I hate when you are right," Viran commented as he rejoined her side.

"Right now, so do I. Now let's move," Sasha said.

Moving as quickly as they could back up the hill, Viran had taken the lead as Sasha lagged behind. Going back up the hill, Sasha was struggling with the incline as she was carrying the heavy pack and was overheating. Viran hadn't noticed until he was back at the top of the hill. He could see the shuttle in the distance. As he turned back to check on the approaching storm, he noticed Sasha struggling.

"Give me the pack," He ordered while holding his hand out to her.

Panting, Sasha grabbed his hand allowing him to pull her up. She then shrugged off the pack with a relieved sigh. Viran took it and shrugged it on before grabbing her by the hand.

"We need to keep going," Viran urged. "We don't exactly have shelter from the storm out here."

Sasha nodded, still out of breath. Viran guided her back down toward the ship. As they grew closer to the shuttle, the weather shifted more as the storm grew even more closer. The sky grew dark as the storm blocked out the sun. They were still at least another few klicks away when the rain started to fall. Remembering the stela, Sasha realized that it was her and Viran that were running away in the rain. However, the one thing the stela forgot to mention was that the rain was boiling. That was why no one existed on this moon. Boiling rain isn't exactly a good time. The rain drops started off as mere sprinkles that left soft sizzles on their clothes and skin as they now moved from a brisk walk to a full sprint. As the rain fell down harder, they tried their best to avoid the boiling rain, but that was easier said than done.

When they reached the ship, the two of them collapsed against the ramp, out of breath and soaked. They were drenched from head to toe and any part of their exposed skin had burns from the water. Viran chuckled as he straightened up.

"Well, I never thought I'd say this, but I hate rain," Viran said. "Well at least this rain."

Sasha nodded as she staggered up onto the ship. "Let's get out of here."

Viran nodded too. He followed her up, closing the ramp shut behind them. Sasha sat on the edge of her bunk checking on their gear to make sure it survived the storm while Viran made his way to the cockpit.

"Looks like everything is still dry and in one piece unlike us," Sasha joked at the last comment.

"Well it looks like we aren't going anywhere anytime soon," Viran stated as he returned to the bunk room.

Sasha glanced up at him, confused. "Is the storm that bad?"

"Lets just say if we try to leave right now then we may risk crashing. These storm clouds are not going to be easy to maneuver through," Viran said as he pulled off his soaked jacket and hung it up to dry. "And one blast of lightning from close range would destroy this little shuttle."

"No wonder no one lives on this moon," Sasha said out loud as she shrugged off her own wet coat. She trusted that if Viran, who was an impressive pilot, was nervous to fly in it, the storm must be pretty bad. "The storms here are as hectic as they are powerful."

"Yeah."

"Let's get changed into dry clothes before we catch a cold then we should reach out to Kyr and get the next set of coordinates," Sasha said as she removed her boots.

"Agreed," Viran nodded.

They switched out of their wet clothes and treated the small burns from the rain with the bacta and medicine on the ship. As soon as they were dry, the two of them returned to the cockpit to check on the status of the storm. They found an opening in the storm to actually escape through. Viran started the ship and veered them up into the eye of the storm toward the orbit of the planet. Once safely back in space and away from the storm, Sasha placed the call out to Kyr with the new set of images. They soon received the coordinates from Tac and they moved on to the next path across the galaxy to find a way to save Oppie.

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