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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2017 19:26:09 GMT -8
Most of the Clan had been poured down the shaft into the ship below. Much of the first wave of effort had been spent on getting the life support systems up and running again. At least enough to allow exploration of the ship. Parties of Warboys & roughriders were being sent down into the ship constantly, trying to map out the maze of corridor, chambers, work areas, crew quarters & multitude of other spaces. Judging from the reports, backed up by the scans from above. the ship was one & three-quarters kilometers long, with a body that was both a kilometer high & another kilometer wide. The engines pushed out the height & width even further than that.
A Roughrider from the Palace arrived to report additional help would be arriving shortly from the Tusken Clan that Mig had liked. Once it arrived, the roughrider with them would come in first to make sure it was safe. A circle near the shaft was cleared for the incoming Tuskens to park once they arrived.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 1, 2017 19:34:55 GMT -8
The R'Crurak Shaadlar troopship and Bantha shuttle flew in formation over the Dune Sea towards the coordinates given by the Sand Lightning Rough Rider that had accompanied them to the Enclave to pick up their Engineers and anyone who would volunteer to aid their new friends in excavating and repairing the ship the Jawa clan had found. It had not taken them long to load everything that the chief R'Crurak engineer Kar'Orzh thought they would need. Nearly twelve hundred Tuskens and Jawas piled on board both ships with most of the equipment loaded onto the Bantha shuttle. Things were tight and uncomfortable but nearly everyone on board who were told what they were doing out here were almost salivating at the mouth at the chance to dig up an old ship, especially if the report from the Sand Lightning about the size was to be believed.
Kar'Orzh piloted the Shaadlar troopship, leading the way, guided by the waypoint on the holo map on a display screen to his right. The display flickered several times but after a few kicks came back on. The proximity alarm went off every so often as the ship came close to some higher dunes. Flying close to the surface was necessary but it didn't make it any less dangerous. The older Tusken could not see the ground with his eyes and instead had to rely on sensors, something he dislike doing but had become slightly more accustomed to when piloting this ship.
The ships landed at the coordinates given by the Rough Rider, who had explained they would have to wait for the Sand Lightning clan to give them the go to head to the excavation site. Nartaga, who had insisted on coming with the crew to help, stood behind Kar'Orzh, waiting for the signal, or scouts, or anything. The Rough Rider left to meet with his clan, so they waited.
After some time had passed the comm lit up with another set of coordinates. Taking flight once again the ships flew the short distance to land in the cleared area for their ships. Nartaga and Kar'Orzh readied themselves for the quick unloading of the ships, but first left to make contact with Sand Lightning. The ramp to the Shaadlar and several Sentries marched out, armed only as a precaution to protect their people. They stood by the side of the ramp while Nartaga, Kar'Orzh, and several Jawas walked down to meet with whomever was waiting for them.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2017 19:52:10 GMT -8
As it turned out, Mig himself was waiting at the bottom of the ramp. There were a number of warboys & roughriders around, but they looked more like spectators than guards. As he recognizes the form of Nartaga he takes a heavy draw on his roll-up, the glow from the tip briefly illuminating a rather sharp smile.
-Mig
Howdy Y'all. Been a bit. I heard y'all were coming & I decided to come up & say hey myself. We have room for you to unload these down below if you want. Unfortunately, only one at a time. Y'all mind if I hitch a ride down with y'all? It will save one of my boys an extra trip.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 1, 2017 20:24:56 GMT -8
Nartaga took a deep bow in greeting when he saw Mig. Kar'Orzh did so as well, and held it for a moment after Nartaga lifted himself from the bow. Nartaga elbowed the older Tusken so he would get up. With a jolt the R'Crurak Engineer stood up straight and looked to the shaft leading to the ship underground.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"It has been quite a while indeed. This is our chief engineer Kar'Orzh. I am glad we decided to reach out to your clan. Hopefully the work we do together here will be the basis of a beneficial relationship before our two clans."
Nartaga nodded and gestured for the Jawa to board the ship. The Jawas that had stepped off with Nartaga and Kar'Orzh lingered for a few moments, staring at the Sand Lightning Jawas before running back up into the crammed ship. After everyone was back on board the Bantha shuttle would fly into shaft first, unloaded all of the R'Crurak's gear and the people board before taking off again to fly back to the Enclave and allow the Shaadlar troopship with the majority of the R'Crurak aboard. After they had landed and stepped out Kar'Orzh was the first to speak.
-Kar'Orzh in Tusken-
"Where do you want us to start?"
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2017 21:25:50 GMT -8
The shaft extended roughly five hundred meters deep into the sand. At the bottom, one side of the shaft opened up into a large hanger. Much of the light in the hanger came portable lights & lamps of various size. It didn't seem that the main power was running yet. One nice thing however was the fitful gusts of air being pumped from the various air vents. Taking up much of the space in the hanger was Silver, the Sand Lightning's only spacecraft, though it had not been space worthy in some time. It seemed to be in the process of being cannibalized for parts. While the central GR-75 hull was being left intact, the two GR45 hulls were being stripped off for their components & hull plating. With all the help in the hanger, it did not take long for the shuttle to be unloaded. As the first shuttle left & the next would soon join them in the hanger, Mig considered what to do with the R'Crurak.
-Mig
At the moment we are trying get a feel for where everything is. For the moment the only repair work we are doing is patching the hull holes we have found. You will need to be careful down here as we had already run into a few things that moved in.
Mig waves over a warboy & chatters away for a few moments with him.
-Mig
There was a big gap in the hull on the port side, about twelve levels down. We could use your fighters down there to help make sure nothing came in that way. We just located the main reactors. We could use some help getting them all checked out & patched over so we can try for a test burn. It will be a lot easier to fix this place with lights & doors working.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 2, 2017 9:10:57 GMT -8
Kar'Orzh rounded up a half of the Tusken Engineers he had brought with him to help with repairing the hull that was accessible that Mig spoke about. With them also went a group of non-engineering volunteers to help them. Next he gathered all of the Jawas who had come with them, nearly tone hundred and fifty, who had more experience with starship engines and making them live again. Kar'Orzh would go with this group to the engines, being the most experienced Tusken here with ships. As the large group the R'Crurak brought out began to disperse throughout the ship to help in bringing it back to life Nartaga bowed his head to Mig and let him know his part in this.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I can take some our warriors through the ship to reach the breach in the hull. We'll secure everything we come across."
Nartaga walked off to round up some R'Crurak Sentries to accompany him to the port hull breach. Any of the Engineers remaining would follow Nartaga and the Sentries as they secured the way to the breach to reach it and try to start to repair it. Nartaga took out a small lizard skull and blew onto it, whispering a small Tusken incantation. The skull lit up like a torch and pure white light shone from the eye sockets. The two Shaman Sentries that were with the group did similar things, while the rest turned on regular flashlights. Nartaga held the skull like a flashlight in one hand and drew out his gaderffii with the other. As he and his Sentries moved further from the center of the main group he could sense other lifeforms in the ship. He spoke to whoever, if anyone, from the Sand Lightning clan had joined them.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"How long was this ship down here again?
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2017 10:38:07 GMT -8
A pair of warboys were collected to lead the jawa party off toward the reactors. Those sections had already been secured so there was little threat to be worried about. However, Mig & a dozen or so warboys joined the other party as there was little telling what could have creeped into the ship over the years. At the very least, a number of gizka had been found, killed & then cooked. More yet had been captured & there were talks about starting a farm for them.
-Mig
Couple hundred years at least from the look.
The group followed the constant stream of warboys that were carrying hull plates salvaged from Silver deeper into the ship. Not all of them were headed to the same place, but Mig knew the way. Eventually, they reached the rip. It had obviously been caused by the crash & the tear reached nearly five decks from top to bottom. It had taken a bit of effort, but the sand had been shored back enough to open up a bubble of clear space outside the hull around the rip. For the moment, most of the sand had simply been shoveled into nearby empty rooms, but the warboys bringing in hull plates were taking cartloads of it back with them to be dumped out on the surface.
-Mig
Ok, we have been spreading out from here to make sure nothing came in. This deep we shouldn't have too much problem, but the gizka have been eating something so expect small pests at least. Hopefully, we won't find anything that has been eating the gizka.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 2, 2017 18:18:31 GMT -8
Nartaga aimed the bright light of the skull in his hand at the breach, looking it over. He was surprised the ship had survived the crash, but then again he had survived several crashes himself, with much smaller ships. The Sentries began working on a few hatches to pry open to allow entry to other parts of the ship.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Gizka are pests themselves, I feel something else here...."
Nartaga handed the still light emanating skull to Mig to hold onto. The Tusken slung his gaderffii onto his back and walked over to a wall, placing a hand onto the metal plating. The Sentries stopped working on the hatches for a moment when they saw Nartaga move to feel the wall. They could feel there was something up and waited for their Councilor to give the all clear, or tell them to ready for battle.
Nartaga concentrated on feeling around the ship with the force, trying to pinpoint what exactly he felt in the ship, but he could not get an exact location. Whatever it was, it was either really big, there were several of them, or both. Nartaga kept his hand on the wall as he moved over to one of the hatches the Sentries had been working on. He placed his ear against the metal of the closed door and try to listen to the other side. Nartaga stepped back from the hatch and motioned for everyone to prepare themselves.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I do not know what it is, but whatever it is...is on the other side of this door."
Nartaga unslung his gaderffii and looked to Mig for a decision.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Should we open it?"
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2017 19:20:20 GMT -8
Mig thought gizka were too tasty to be considered pests, but everyone had the rights to their own thoughts. As Nartaga handed the light to him, Mig realized it wasn't a normal light. Giving it a small shake, he didn't hear anything inside of it. Nor could he see any tech when he tried looking up the neck hole. It was more than a little creepy. As Nartaga did his 'touch the wall' routine, Mig quickly dismissed it as magic though. Unless he was wrong however, Nartaga was a male. Perhaps the tuskens were different in more ways then Mig thought.
After passing the light back Mig looked around & counted a dozen warboys ready to prove their worth & nearly twice that many of the Tuskens. With a smooth motion, his two pistols found their way into his hands & were aimed at the door, a moment later & the warboys has also drawn their weapons. There was another glimpse of a sharp smile as he drew heavily on his roll up.
-Mig
Open sesame.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 2, 2017 20:30:40 GMT -8
Nartaga nodded for his Sentries to continue prying open the door. He took a few steps back and took the skull light and shone it at the door. The other Shaman Sentries continued to scan the area with their own lights, watching the rear to make sure nothing unexpected came up behind them. As the door cracked open a horrid smell crept through. The Sentries stopped for a moment to stick their gaderffii into the slit and use it to pry the door open more easily. As the door began to give way the smell grew worse.
Nartaga shone his light through the crack as it opened. What he saw was not the inside of more of the ship, but the inside of a very large dune worm. Nartaga began to yell out for the Sentries to stop opening the door but by the time the words got past his lips the door was open.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Dune Worm!"
The worm stretched itself past the door a few feet, confounded by its regained ability to move after being stuck behind the closed hatch, immobile and starving for so long. It sensed food and shook its body as it began to try and force itself through the doorway. One of the Sentries was not quick enough and was captured by the gaping maw of the worm, the screams of the Tusken filled the air as he was lifted into the air by his leg and thrashed about as the worm reveled in the feeling of food entering its gullet again. The Sentry was only thrown free once he leg detached above the knee, still conscious and yelling both in pain, and curses in the tongue of his people at the worm.
Nartaga and the two Shaman Sentries ran up and held up their hands to the worm, holding the creature back with their power. The Tuskens were pushed back as the worm slammed their barrier collided, one of the Tuskens falling to his knees. Slowly the worm came to a still, screeching and biting at the invisible wall between it and its food. All three Tuskens began chanting, focusing their minds to strengthen themselves to hold back the beast to allow their allies the chance to attack.
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2017 20:59:06 GMT -8
Mig wasn't sure what the Tuskens were planning, but as soon as the first one feel free of the jaws of the beast, he opened fire with his pistols, alternating back & forth while keeping both up. The rest of the warboys quickly followed suit. Most jawas were not very violent. In fact most would rather run from a fight. However, the Jawas of the Sand Lightning spent most of their time watching cowboys wielding the most powerful things they could grab. The Jawas of the Sand Lightning clan followed suit, making every effort to increase the power of whatever weapon they managed to acquire. While their pistols were no more accurate than normal, most of them now boasted power cyclers that put them on terms with full sized rifles for damage. Everyone that could was also wielding two of the pistols. The end result was a wave of fire eating into the face of the worm as the trio of tuskens brought it to a stop.
The worm was not happy. First it had been trapped & starving. Then it had been stopped when new food had appeared. Finally, its head was suddenly on fire. The worm wasn't very intelligent, but even a dumb beast will run from that much pain. Despite its size, the worm started attempting to back up or turn around.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 2, 2017 21:37:29 GMT -8
The Sentries opened fired on the worm with their Cycler rifles, those who did not have rifles kept out their gaderffii should the worm get any closer, moving to the right and left of the other Tuskens and Jawas to be able to move in and flank the beast from both sides. As the worm attempted to turn back the trio of Nartaga and the two Shaman Sentries' chants grew louder. Nartaga closed his open hand into a fist and stopped the worm from moving, letting it suffer and die under the barrage of gunfire he felt it deserved. After what seemed like nearly an hour to him but what was in reality only at most several minutes the worm let out a howl and went limp. As the gunfire slowed to a stop so did the chants from the Shamans and Nartaga.
Finally after everything was said and done Nartaga was the only one of the three still standing, the two Shaman Sentries collapsed on the floor in exhaustion and near loss of consciousness. Creating the barrier given so little warning had drained them nearly completely. Nartaga felt the adrenaline in his body slowing and remained upright only through sheer force of will when his vision went dark for several moments.
The R'Crurak Sentries ran to the aid of their Councilor, Shamans, and fallen Sentry. The Sentry was still alive, but a large pool of blood had flowed from the stump where the worm had bit his leg off. The Tuskens acted as quickly as they could to stop the bleeding, two taking belts from their own robes and tying them tightly above the wound. The bleeding slowed and two Sentries picked up the downed Sentry and began to run him back to the main group for medical attention.
Nartaga leaned against the wall and waited there until his vision returned to him, slowly at first. He turned to Mig and gestured towards worm with a nod of his head.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Looks like we found dinner."
Nartaga let out a hearty laugh, trying to make light of the situation that had just happened to lift spirits.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2017 8:33:06 GMT -8
Mig took a long look at the beast before fair large chunk that had been blown completely off the worm.
-Mig
I think we might have over cooked it a little. I was not expecting anything this big. We will have to spread the room to the other search parties.
Sure enough, a few of the warboys were already running off to spread the word. By the end of the day, the search parties would be moving much slower as they probed new areas more carefully.
-Mig
Real question is what to do with this before it starts rotting?
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 3, 2017 8:56:01 GMT -8
Nartaga collected himself before taking out large knife from the back of his belt, holding it and giving the worm a once over now that the creature wasn't trying to eat them. Nartaga then turned and looked around at the passages they were in. Nartaga stepped closer to the worm, already beginning to stink of death. He tried to look past the beasts girth through the door they had opened but part of it was still caught, blocking them.
-Nartaga-
"Well first we should move it out of the way."
Nartaga held out a hand and was thrown some rope by one of the Sentries. He threw the rope over on one side and began to tie the corpse up to be dragged. Two of the other Sentries with them left to go get help more people to come and help deal with the worm corpse.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Once we pull it out of the door we can get another group to cut it into pieces and take them back to be roasted. Dune worm meat doesn't last long out in the open so we need to act fast. It would be better to roast it as one piece but dragging this creature would be hard enough even if we weren't in a ship. It has been eating well, at least until it was trapped."
After Nartaga and some of the Sentries who join tied the body up moved back after they believe they had secured it with the rope and took hold of the slack rope. Nartaga gestured for Mig and the other Jawas to join in the pulling to help free the worm of the door.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2017 9:40:11 GMT -8
Mig took one look at the rope & another at the beast that was easily three meters across & just as tall. A handful of jawas wasn't going to make a difference in this tug of war. With a few quick motions, the warboys fell in behind him as he bypassed the ropes. Within moments the guns had been replaced by a very large collection of point metal. There was a grinding hum as the vibroblades sprung to life. As the Tuskens pulled, the jawas quickly worked to chop the head free from the beast. It was messy work, but so was working with engines. Within a few moments, the head came free. Of course, free was only relatively. Even with only a three meter deep chunk, it still weighed nearly thirty thousand kilos. They would be eating for a long time off this worm alone.
-Mig
Too heavy to move, we will have to butcher it in place.
Within moments, more warboys started showing up to see the massive beast. With a few quick suggestions there was soon a steady stream of work carts hauling off huge chunks of metal as other warboys carved into the remains with a vicious abandon. Even with the speed of the work, it would take a long while to collect all of the meat.
-Mig
If you will get some people to teach my boys how to treat the meat, we can look for a way around this beasty.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 3, 2017 9:54:14 GMT -8
The Tuskens continued pulling the head back for a few feet before letting go and inspected the inside. Several R'Crurak arrived with the Sand Lightning warboys, armed with primitive knives and machetes instead of the vibroblades the Jawas had. With a few orders given all who had arrived would begin cutting up the meat, while two of the Tuskens began telling them about the wonders of dune worm meat and its ability to be cooked into just about anything and everything. No piece of the worm would be wasted, especially the hide. When cured and treated it would make a strong material to work with.
Nartaga untied his water bladder from his belt and took a swig of the still cool liquid, walking over to Mig and offering him some.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"You speak as though you have never had dune worm before."
Nartaga pointed at one of the other unopened doors and two Sentries began trying to pry it open. They made sure to only open it a few inches and shine a light to see if anything was on the other side. After the all clear signal was given they opened the door all the way and began scouting just past to make sure there were no surprises around the corner.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2017 10:11:01 GMT -8
Mig took a dirty rag from somewhere & smeared a fair bit of blood off his face before taking the offered water. Passing the water back, Mig held his hands up about half a meter apart.
-Mig
Little ones. Most clans avoid their territory & the Sand Lightning is still new.
As they talked, Mig followed the scouts down the next corridor. Each door they passed was pried open enough for a jawa to squeeze through. Most of them were just empty rooms of one size or another. Once it was cleared, the door would be closed again & a series of marks scratched into the metal of the frame. Any Sand Lightning jawa would recognize the symbols as describing the state of the area beyond the door, how much of worth was in it & what it was likely used for.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on May 3, 2017 18:25:21 GMT -8
Nartaga chuckled at the size of the dune worms that Mig said they had come across before as he tied his water bladder back onto his belt. The Councilor and his Sentries went with the Jawas to help clear the paths inside the ship.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"The bigger ones are definitely harder to hunt and kill but the amount of food they provide is worth it. The one we killed back there was actually on the medium size. The largest one I've seen was nearly twice as big, when I was but a child."
Nartaga leaned against a wall as the group stopped to open another door, still recovering from earlier.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"May I ask you a more serious question?"
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2017 19:20:42 GMT -8
-Mig
You can ask me anything at any time. As long as you understand I might not answer.
Mig glanced in the crack as the warboy slipped into the room. It looked like yet another storage area. Most of the rooms were more or less all large, empty & the same. Every now & again, they would find a crew area or a engineering station.
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Post by Nartaga on May 3, 2017 19:56:19 GMT -8
Nartaga waited until they had moved to the next area and were in the process of clearing it.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"Your Sheriff back at the old Palace said that you plan to use this ship as a rallying cry, a symbol for them to follow and to bring new clans into your fold. He also let slip the possibility of destroying anyone who refused to join with you. I wanted to hear the plan straight from the source, if you would humor me with it."
Nartaga stood up straight trying to not look weak despite his current state.
-Nartaga in Tusken-
"I ask because I have seen too much war during my life, as well as before it. I have no right to ask as I am not a member of your clan, nor have the R'Crurak sat down with your leaders to work out a treaty...but if we want to be allies I wish to know. This ship could do so much good, not just as a symbol for your people, but as a symbol to all of Tatooine's Children."
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