Neither Jedi spoke on the trek through the forest. The wind was howling above, causing what rain that made it through the treeline to pelt down in what felt like icy shards striking the top of Dana's head and shoulders. Jayden looked rather cozy in her helmet and armor, but it was hardly the time for any kind of jealousy or complaining about her less fortunate attire.
As it turned out on descending a hill, the armor became more of a hindrance as mud overtook crushed leaves and sticks underfoot. While Jayden could theoretically remove her left boot and take the chance of jabbing it on something, a jab into the synth flesh of her right foot would not heal at all. In fact, any damage to her right leg below the hip could prove to be disastrous. The kit fitted into the leg itself was only designed for patchwork until she could seek the aid of a proper technician after all.
She didn't particularly feel like hobbling around a soaked forest on one foot while carrying her leg around in hand.
Ascending the next rise put an end in sight to the slog. The hill they were climbing was much higher, and backed up into a mountain range. They would be safe from the worst of the wind and any sudden floods, and given a good spot they would also be protected from mudslides.
Being left in the forests of Mires with nothing but a sonar insect repellant device and a vibroknife seemed trivial against the night that lay ahead of them.
It was in a particularly thick area of the hilltop forest that they stopped. What little clear space there was looked noticeably darker than others around them thanks to some especially large trees. While not free from the rainfall that worked its way down, it was definitely the best they could hope for.
Dana brought out her lightsaber for illuminating the area while she searched for a tree branch to spend the night on, not trusting the potential risk of sleeping on the ground.
After the stress of the long hike, there was little Jayden could do to start up with the questions spawned of a bad mood. "Why don't you start a fire? You clearly have me beat on that expertise."
The intended slight against her was so obvious that Dana only scoffed in response, making the first of several leaps towards her selected spot. "The humidity is overwhelming. There won't be a single dry twig in this entire area, perhaps the planet. Even a Mandalorian flamethrower wouldn't last long."
"Oh, so fire conjured from the Force is afraid of excessive moisture? You can make it pure white, but not hot enough to dry out kindling?"
Dana remained silent, clambering up to her branch and working into what could remotely qualify as a comfortable spot.
Jayden, still on the ground, wasn't ready to let things drop. "You know I don't have the agility of most Jedi because of my leg! And you know what else? I can't spend the next five days without safe drinking water or food! I'm not capable of meditating to sustain myself through the Force! How do you propose we find food on a planet that has yet to show any sign of animal or fruit life, or boil water if you won't produce fire!"
All she got was a gust of wind that sneaked in through the canopy. Her helmet came off, slammed to the ground below in a splash of mud. The droplets of water that splashed into her tied back hair stung like Miresian thorns.
"Answer me! I gave up spending time with my husband after years of service to the Jedi for this! I have risked my life time and again defending that Twi'lek brat! I am owed answers!"
A branch pelted her head on its way down to the ground, causing her to stumble back and grab at her helmet again.
Dana finally chose that moment to speak. "I've lost the trust of the only other effective member of my race, the one person left in this galaxy I care about. You'll excuse me if I'm not in the mood to talk."
Jayden swore several times while putting her helmet back on, most of them directed up into the tree. Not that it made any difference.
"There might be supplies left at the excavation camp, if it hasn't washed away. We go there tomorrow. Now get some sleep and shut up."
And she did just that herself, closing her eyes and firming her position on the branch, making sure she was properly resistant to the cold, the wet and the wind before settling into rest.
On the ground, Jayden paced around for several solid minutes before finally finding a firm spot of her own to sit down on, lying back against the trunk of a tree that had a convenient notch her helmet leaned into. Very far from comfortable, but at least she wasn't in danger of wringing any muscles by the time whatever qualified as morning would come.
The night passed by without incident. If there were creatures large enough to be a nuisance to Jayden in the protection of her armor, or Dana up in the tree, they were either not in the area or smart enough to not bother two Jedi.
It was entirely possible they had been driven off by the dark disturbance in the Force that had emanated from the battle the day before.
Dana was first to wake, jumping down and landing on both feet in near perfect silence. She waited until her boots were back on before waking Jayden.
"It's not pitch black anymore, and the winds have calmed somewhat. Now is the time to move."
From the cover of her helmet, Jayden woke with a bit of a glare at Dana, but did rise to her feet nonetheless. There was little to become comfortable with after all.
"I suppose you know where the base camp would have been from this position?"
"Back down the hills, they set up some distance from the building on the odd chance it was harmful to be around. And no, I didn't see any swoop bikes left at the site."
"Oh yes, because swoop bikes are suited fine for dense forest. We'd be lucky to get two hundred metres without colliding into something."
The hike back down the hill went quietly after that. With the light vaguely improving, instead of vaguely fading, they could at least see where they were going, as opposed to having to use the Force to check every step they made.
Gruelling hours passed before they reached any sign of others before them. A supply backpack, emptied long ago by creatures they had still yet to encounter. But it was an older design, and it was the first reassuring sign they had.
"You'd think there'd be a blaster or something left in there. I left my carbine on the ship, and lightsabers aren't ideal for hunting."
Dana made no comment, choosing instead to push on. It wasn't long after that they reached what remained of the base camp, a clearing of rusting metal, tents that had collapsed long ago and were only visible through the muck by the support poles that somehow remained standing, and a notable lack of any vehicles.
Not usually one to fall into despair, it was still a depressing sight for Jayden. "I don't know if there's even enough to salvage for some alternate tools. The lightsabers won't hold a charge forever if we have to keep using them."
"We won't be here that long."
Jayden watched as Dana picked her way through the remains to a particularly dense part of the forest. At a point before the treeline, she stopped, slowly turned around, and approached a specific location to kneel down over.
"Found something?"
Dana raised her hand for silence, then brought it back down to the muddy surface. Her eyes closed, moving her perception beyond what she saw in front of her.
The ground began to rumble. With a groan of metal, a section of the mud began to rise at last, revealing a ramp that led into a dark passageway below.
She stood back up and drew her lightsaber again. "I didn't want to get our hopes up on there actually being a secret tunnel where they set up camp. It's still possible there's nothing left to find down there."
Jayden looked around the remains, then at the bleak sky still pouring rain down on them. What was there to lose?
"I don't know if there's anything to be found up here. After you then."
After the lightsaber came on, Dana took the first step down the ramp. Musty air was starting to seep back out, warmed by the geothermal power that ran the complex, or what was left of it anyway.
"Keep your lightsaber ready. The place Teegs and I visited was in very good condition, chances are there are still active droids around. No telling if the race that built this were paranoid or not."
"Wonderful. Potentially hostile droids in a humid dark corridor."
When they reached the base of the ramp, a few metres below the surface, Dana turned around and closed the hatch behind them carefully. "I'd rather that out way back out not be flooded, or have wildlife prowling around it."
Jayden shrugged it off. A walk through a humid tunnel sounded less appealing against cold rain and mud, but at least there was the comfort of actually having a defined direction to go in.
Their journey through the tunnel quickly changed her mind. Even though there were no visible turns or crossroads, the sense of retracing their footsteps became heavy on her mind. Nothing but tubes and cables to her left and right, the hard metal surface below and above, and the glow of Dana's lightsaber ahead.
It had been at least a few hours walk when Dana finally sighed and stopped, finding a comfortable spot to sit down and rest her aching legs.
"I truly wish I had paid more attention in those studies. I haven't a clue as to what exactly could be waiting for us ahead."
"So much for trying not to get our hopes up."
While not nearly as physically exhausted, Jayden took that opportunity to sit down beside her and remove her helmet at last, coughing briefly on the unfiltered air around them.
"I'm sorry Jayden. I pushed for Teegs to go off on her own, I thought I could help her. I got too attached."
Jayden laughed, at the futility of their predicament, and Dana's confession more than anything.
"That's always the way of fallen Jedi, isn't it? Someone gets attached, and the next thing you know, the whole fucking galaxy is tearing itself apart. Maybe I'm not one to talk, being married and all, but it really does dumbfound me just how amazingly repetitive the problem is."
"I'm hardly a fallen Jedi though. I'm just a bitter shell of a woman that used to exist, trying to eek out what's left of her kind while silently cursing the Jedi mantra. To fall, you have to reach a height to begin with." Dana scoffed, kicking her boots off again. "Making me a Jedi Master was a joke. It's all pathetic now. Koor's way too young to be on the Council, Sereti can't decide what her priorities are, all the old heroes have given up on the Order and gone their own ways. The Sith can't even decide if they want to invade or not anymore. Getting back to Teegs and straightening her out is quite literally the biggest problem we have to face. Everything else is just so meaningless."
"Can't call it a defeatist attitude, can I, given what you've been through?"
Dana turned her head in a cold glare. "Try it, really."
Jayden scratched at the scar tissue on her jawline. "Look at us, two scarred women with bad histories, murky relations with the galaxy at large, and all we do is bicker with each other." She hauled herself up, this time without replacing her helmet. "Come on, we've got nothing to lose by going the rest of the way. If there was anything else alive, or active, we'd have found it by now."
Just before the glow from her lightsaber faded out of view, Dana got up and hurried after her at last, breathing quite heavily by the time she caught up to her pace.
"If there's a dead end, and we just can't make it back out, then I'm sorry again."
"How about a new ground rule; we don't give up until we can no longer draw breath."
"Aren't you supposed to say that in Mando'a, according to tradition?"
"What's the point if I have to translate it anyway? Or is Maarani not the only other one who speaks it?"
Dana nodded, then lifted her head. "Jariler ir Jetiise etyc, kyr'amur an."
That made Jayden draw a breath in shock. "Where in the hell-"
"You forget, Suroni was there at the time of Mandalore the Indomitable. Those Chosen of Vahl learned many phrases from him. They used them to spite the Jedi when they came and butchered their families, their children. Some things you don't forget, even when they came from a past life."
"Right, forget I said anything."
As it turned out, it wasn't much longer before the seemingly endless corridor did in fact come to an end.
After Dana cast a small plume of fire around the room to provide better illumination, both their moods went up drastically.
It was a hangar bay, and it was far from empty.
"Actually, do remember what I said. Looks like I might not end up starving after all."
"We still need to catch up to them. And we don't have a good way of storing water yet."
They made their way over to the spacecraft. It was small, perhaps no bigger than the middle section of the Distant Star itself as a whole. But, it lacked signs of corrosion or decay, and the engines certainly looked as if they were designed with interstellar travel in mind.
"That's also assuming it still functions."
While Jayden began pacing around the hangar itself in search of anything worth taking, Dana approached the vessel itself. The design was definitely unlike anything in the known galaxy, but it still at least seemed to have been made with bipedals in mind. Fortunate for them.
Upon locating what appeared to be the hatch, she carefully reached out with the Force. After some searching, she tripped the mechanisms inside, allowing it to slide open and reveal the dark rooms within.
"Alright, there's definitely still some active power."
Lightsaber raised, she took a cautious step inside. No long dead remains, or any smells that warned of danger. Many of the control panels in the main compartment looked completely unfamiliar, without a clue as to what their purpose was. The cockpit when she eventually found it was at least vaguely like any other that she had seen. Even if she had little idea what she was doing, there was at least the potential to fly out without crashing.
She passed her hand over the whole array, this time searching for the power up sequence. To her relief, the panels began to illuminate at last, as did a series of lights in the ceiling above her as well as the other compartments.
"We might be okay after all."
Her lightsaber returned to her belt while she made her way back into the main compartment. Now that it was properly illuminated, she could at least see some of the devices built into the ship itself for what they were. Most notably, a water purifier that had emptied long ago, and an oxygen scrubber that while old, still seemed to be holding up well enough.
With newfound optimism, she stepped back out of the ship. "Found anything?"
"Nothing. Not even an empty canister. And I'm not sure it gets any better."
Dana found her by the hangar doors where she had pulled open an access panel. Unlike the ship, there was no sign of power in any of the circuitry there.
"Great, we have a hopefully working ship, but no way to get it out."
"Oh, we might be able to get this open." Jayden tugged at some cables, causing a loud thump to echo through the room. "The magnetic seals are off now. We get the ship ready to launch, force the door open ourselves, and we're good to go."
"And you just figured that out in the past minute?"
"This isn't the first time I've broken a heavy seal. I know what to look for."
With a shrug, Dana stepped back towards the ship and raised her hands. "Alright, let's give this a go."
Her breathing slowed as a rumble went through the room, her hands starting to shake ever so slightly as she concentrated on lifting the door. It quickly became apparent just how tough the process was going to be.
"It's still very heavy, and I'm probably fighting the mechanisms here. I don't know if I'm strong enough for it."
Jayden was quick to circle around, feeling the metal door before finding a good spot to hook her hands into and begin lifting with a loud groan.
"No kidding! They built this thing to last."
After several seconds, the door budged ever so slightly, revealing a new problem as water began to flow in from beneath the door's seal.
Dana's concentration broke immediately. "Oh shit."
In a quick move, she twisted her head to the doorway they had come through and slammed that door shut. "Jayden, I think we're in trouble here!"
By then, she had pulled it up a bit more, feeling some of the eons of built up tension starting to ease. It was only then that she really took notice of the water now rushing around her feet.
"We haven't gone down at all! How is it flooding?"
"I don't know! Look, we only have so long before the water overcomes the air pressure in here, just get in the ship and we'll lift it from in there."
"You know I can't work from a distance! Just…" With one last look at the ship, Jayden groaned again and quickly shoved her helmet on with one hand. "Get the ship ready, and fly out of here as soon as you have clearance! I'll get inside once it surfaces!"
"That's a terrible plan! Even Teegs would say as much, and she wanted you to punch a Hammerhead destroyer while riding on top of the Distant Star!"
The door slid open a little more, increasing the rush to a bubbling torrent.
"I'm a half-Mandalorian Jedi, I'll manage that kind of swim!"
Dana threw up her hands. "That's if the ship actually flies at all and we don't end up drowning!"
"We agreed on no quitter's talk! Go!"
With little else to argue, Dana waded back through the rising water and hopped up into the ship, closing the hatch behind her. Her view through the cockpit screen wasn't ideal, but she could see Jayden, and just how much clearance she needed.
"I'm not sure you can lift it high enough anyway! This ship isn't exactly economic on vertical space!"
"I'll get it open! Get the ship moving before it floods!"
"Next thing you know, it's not even watertight, let alone airtight…"
The door moved up a bit again. While she fumbled for the drive controls, she watched Jayden positioning herself so that her shoulder was braced under the door. The flow of water had to be immense by that stage, and she was still holding her own.
"May the powers of the Force be with us in this desperate hour."
There was an incredible sense of relief when she throttled what she assumed was the engine drive, and a familiar hum came from the rear from the ship in response. After a few more guesses, she felt it lift off the floor enough to retract the landing struts. Water was starting to splash over the cockpit windows by then.
"Jayden it's going! You'd better be up there because I'm not leaving you behind!"
In the meantime, Jayden had been practically screaming at the exertion she was putting herself through to force the door open in larger shoves. Every time, she could feel the mechanisms giving a little more, but it still wasn't nearly enough to open it all the way.
Worse still, the water level was quickly rising up over her head. Her armor had not been designed with full immersion in mind, so she was left holding her breath and struggling against the obstacle above her.
The Force is my strength. I am the wielder, and the Force is my strength.
She braced her body again, repositioning both hands for one final push.
The Force is my strength!
In another cry that sent a flurry of bubbles from her mask, she forced herself to stand, all of her strength channeling into the door and grinding it up well past her reach. The torrent that it allowed through threw her off her footing altogether, knocking past the ship as it moved forward into the open water ahead.
Dana did her best to ignore the sound of water trickling into the compartment behind her as she brought the ship forward. She could see very little through the windows due to how little light there was to begin with, and the fact that the water itself was choking with mud and forest debris. It was still enough to know where the surface was, which she made for at the best angle she could.
"Jayden, if you're still listening, don't leave me waiting…"
She let out a great sigh of relief when the ship broke the surface, coming to a hovering rest just above the turbulent water. When she felt confident in leaving the controls there, she dashed from the cockpit to the hatch, glancing around first to locate any tools to repair that leak she had heard.
Opening the hatch left her exposed to howling winds that nearly blew her back inside when she tried to lean out and peer below the surface.
"Jayden!"
Rather suddenly, an armored hand splashed up from the water. She grabbed at it immediately and did her best to haul Jayden up, no easy feat even for a Jedi given her size, the weight of her armour and the weight of the water still flooding her armor.
As soon as she had a hold on the ship itself, Jayden tore off her helmet, leaving water splashing over her face as she took a desperate breath.
After several more, she hauled herself up out of the water, clambering into the main compartment while Dana rushed back to the controls. Water was running free from the seams in her boots, legs and chestpiece, and while the flesh connecting her synthetic leg was particularly cold, she hadn't lost function in it.
The ship began to move away from the rushing water. After dripping out enough, she pulled herself in properly and closed the hatch at last, just lying there and enjoying the ability to breathe again.
"Thank you, Dana."
Once Dana had found the clearing they had landed in with the Distant Star, she set the ship down and returned to Jayden's side at last.
"How're you doing? There's at least one hole we need to plug, and you'll have to dry off before you get sick from whatever bacteria was in that water."
Feeling notably paler already, Jayden gripped onto the nearest surface and made herself sit up a bit. Her matted hair felt cold enough already, and the thought of being dry seemed like a far off prospect.
"I'll manage. I've fought off worse things from my body. Just, make the repairs, let me worry about myself."
Dana glanced around again in search of that toolkit she was hoping for, then back to Jayden.
"Mark my words, no-one is going to forget that heroic stunt of yours when I tell them. Not least of which being your husband. That was undeniably above and beyond what I've come to expect of Mandalorians."
For how weak she was feeling, Jayden still managed a hearty laugh. "Lifting up a door in the middle of a flood, kinda pales in comparison to punching a starship head-on. I think I'll wait before commissioning a song about 'The Jedi of Mandalore', thank you very much. Still something to be said for 'Dana the Redeemed' though."
With a smile of her own, Dana gripped onto Jayden's shoulder then stepped past.
"Fine. I know the galaxy might've forgotten about the name Kanjeff in lieu of Revan, but at least I won't go down in history as Suroni. Just remember, it' A, okay?"
Jayden managed a smirk before closing her eyes. "Got it."
