Lehon's Terrain

==On Wing's of Eagles==
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, Plu'tonium Cay, Clan Naval Academy>>

The Naval Academy Of Lehon was on of the premier training institutes in the Mandalorian Empire. Given that only Clan Ordinii, their supporting minor clans, & the socii factions even still acknowledged a Mandalorian Empire, and that Lehon was the capital world, it was fairly inevitable that would be the case. It was not, however, the only Naval Academy remaining in the territory of those still holding onto the Empire. More than a dozen various naval academies were scattered over the breadth of its territory. The standard training course required a three year training cycle, followed by a two year forward deployment. Those deployments were to active naval ships of the Empire. Once the full term of forward deployments was finished, the Cadets would all cycle through The Academy on Lehon for final testing & promotion to active ranks.

One such cadet was Orania Dizen (of Clan Ordinii). Her grandfather had effectively founded an several new branches of the clan. First as a major proponent of the project that brought the native Rakata back from extinction. Then a second time as head of the clone projects on Kamino. & then a third time by spearheading (and being the genetic source) for one of the largest & most audacious cloning experiments & projects in recorded history. Her mother was currently Imperator of the entire Empire (though the Empire is itself only part of the larger Mandalorian Assembly), & a former Mand'alor. Neither of those facts gained her the slightest hint of favoritism or leniency from the tutors or the crews she had worked with over the years. In fact, the opposite was true. The standing policy was that members of the extended royal family (such as herself) were required to score significantly higher than required for any other Cadet.

She was back on the world of her birth for the final tests before being promoted from cadet to a full fledged member of the Clan Navy. The sun was hot overhead, despite the still early hour of the morning, as she made her way across the landing pad. She made good time across the huge space, using the weak repulsors in her armored boots to quickly glide like a skater. Despite her Rakata heritage & how much time she spent in space or on tropical worlds, Orania loved to skate, especially ice skating. She could have walked, or even caught one of the regular ground trams that scooted around the pad, but she didn't get many opportunities to skate, & she took every one she could.

The gleaming silver hulls of the Imperium ships parked on the landing field never ceased to amaze her. As far as she knew, no other faction in the galaxy used Ultrachrome hulls for their ships anymore. Sure, with modern shields it was little more than ornamentation, but the sleek silver shine of it gave the warships a beauty that couldn't be matched. Most of the ships on the field were GR-75s loaded with standard cargo pods, though a few Crusader Corvettes were scattered here & there. She quickly found her designated training ship. It actually wasn't difficult at all, given the logical way the pads were laid out. As she expected, she had been tasked with a GR-75 for her first binding. The GRs weren't glamorous, But Orania knew they were the workhorses of the Imperium. Both its military & economic power was built on their bones. This one, however, was only a training ship. Loaded with nothing more interesting that sand for stability.

As she logged in at the boarding ramp, she reflected on stories she had heard from the early days of the clan. In the old days, trained crews had been so short, that many of the smallest ships didn't have crews at all. They instead had been controlled either remotely from larger ships, or piloted by a drone machine. It had been done of necessity, & those unreliable methods had been slowly altered over the decades. In her own experience, only fighters & bombers were still remotely piloted for most situations. However, she had served on a Frigate that had a Drone Corvette assigned to it. It had been an interesting three months before she had been transferred to her next billet. Long gone were also the days of the Socii Factions fielding their own military forces as auxiliary units. Now, everyone served on the same crews, with a single uniform & rank structure. Of course, each crew member was allowed to wear the emblem of the Socii Faction in a place of pride. Even the Mandalorian members of the military had the standard uniform, though they had the option of wearing their armor instead if they chose.

As this was a training ship, there were already a full dozen crew on board. Four of those would be actually coming along on the test flight, both to evaluate her performance & to fly the ship in case her actions put herself, the ship, or others in danger. The other eight were medical officers & technicians. Of those, only one would be staying on board. Judging from the emblems on display, she had an interesting mix of Socii, Ordinii, & Minor clans represented. As she made her way to the cockpit, she saluted the only real officer on the ship. The name plate read "Awet, Sheshy" & her uniform had the single thin gold stripe of a Lieutenant. Everyone else on the ship, herself included, had some combination of silver stripes denoting the junior grades.

-LT Awet
Cadet Dizen?

She said the name like she either didn't recognize the ruling family, or didn't care. Either way, it was a fair bit better than the usual reaction from instructors. Without waiting for a reply, the Lieutenant Immediately hustled her off to the medical crew. It was then that Orania got her first real sight of a Casket. She had seen simulators of the devices many times, but those had been clearly marked with the training icons on blazons. This was the real thing, & it was open & waiting. In many regards, it looked like someone had taken a medical bed with restraints, then installed it in a regen tank. Then mounted the entire contraption inside a shining ultrachrome escape pod barely large enough to fit it. Of course, that was more or less exactly what it was. The Casket was the living heart of every spaceship in the Imperium. It was what allowed most ships to get by with only a single crew on board in an emergency. Even larger warships were controlled primarily by several Caskets each controlling a different primary system. While most ships larger than corvettes did still have other crew on board, they were mostly damage control & backups.

She had worn her standard uniform for this exact reason. Today would be her first time to step into a Casket for real & be one with the ship. The standard uniform included a pair of trousers & a tunic, but the majority of it was a fairly form fitting bodysuit. One that included port sockets for most of the standard cybernetics used by the clan, including those required to Bind with a device. She quickly stripped out of the tunic & pants, stowing both in a small locker just inside the Casket's hatch. Like its nickname, the Casket itself was flat on the floor, & after stowing her gear, she climbed into it like a high walled bed. The medical staff were professional & experienced. Despite her own nerves, they quickly attached the multiple of fine wires into the ports to her internal cybernetics. They also strapped her firmly in place. There was a manual release that could be activated if needed, but it was still a touch uncomfortable. Not that she would mind if everything went correctly.

Within minutes, she had been firmly strapped, wired, had a mask placed over her lower face, been closed into the Casket, & been immersed in a shock absorbent gel. At last, the last step of securing her occurred. With a tingling ripple, she was encased in a stasis field. She knew it wasn't a standard field. Normally, a person wouldn't be aware of time passing anymore, they would simply pause until the field was dismissed. The Rakata, however, had come up with a strange variant. A person inside one of those stasis fields could still think & perceive time as normal, but would be unable to act or even feel their own body. It had been a form of imprisonment & torture. But with modern cybernetics & a few other interesting bits of tech gathered from other races, it had become so much more. There was a voice inside her mind, carried by her cybernetics & the links to the ship.

-LT Awet
All checks complete. Proceed with binding when ready.

If she could still breath, she might have taken a deep breath. Instead, she had already reached out for the ship, as she had done in simulations so many times before. To her surprise, all the stories about real bindings being more difficult was false. What wasn't false was the depth of the data she was getting. In simulations, she always had felt like she was wearing the ship. Now she WAS the ship. Her deep breath did come, as the engines gulped air & roared with power. Her heart was a furnace. Her silver skin drinking in the warmth of the sun. She could see the landing crew giving the signal for a clear takeoff zone. With a twitch, she pulled her boarding ramp closed. Suddenly, the voice of the Lieutenant again.

-LT Awet
Binding nominal. Proceed with check flight.

With a surging roar, she pushed herself up into the sky. It was poetry in motion. The sun above, the sea below. her body was heavily loaded, but she was STRONG to match the weight. It only gave her something to balance against. Of course, there was still work to be done. She had to flying a carefully chosen course. A task that was simplicity itself with the chart data information available in her eyes. She had had to run a number of systems checks that were as simple as pain or the lack of it. She had to direct the onboard drones to complete various tasks while still flying. That was more difficult, it was like trying to tell your blood cells what to do & getting them to listen. But the drones had been well designed for the task & she managed it without more than a few minor mistakes. At long last, she was gracefully extending her feet & setting down once again on the landing pad. After the normal post flight checks she pulled back away from the ship. Becoming smaller. Becoming herself again. She stumbled a little as she was helped out of the Casket. It was both familiar & odd to be small, weak flesh again. To her surprise, the Lieutenant was waiting for her. Orania managed a salute, though she still felt extremely wobbly. This time, the Lieutenant snapped a salute back, rigid & parade ground proper.

-LT Awet
Cadet Dizen, Congratulations on passing your flight exam with excellent marks. I am pleased to be the first to address you as Marine Dizen. Well done.

Gulls cried overhead as the sun beat down on Sarazen Yin's bald scalp, baking the ridges of his brow while he sat along the shore, watching the tide roll in. His bare shoulders were already baked to a crisp, stinging in exquisite delight as he sunk his spindly fingers into the hot sand and stroked the earth. He liked this planet. It's remoteness afforded it some peace, of which he found himself in sore need. Enjoying the salty breeze blowing in off the water, the world temporarily seemed to stop closing in around him, haunted as he was with the things he had experienced. He closed corpse pallor lids over his luminous mqaaq'it ocular implants, masking their furious cobalt hue. He took a deep breath in through his nose stub, savouring the fragrance of the ocean wafting off the brine, exhaling the nightmares that sometimes troubled him even in the bright of day.

He sat up, his lean frame exposed from above the waist, ritually scarred and displaying dark imagery related to the slayer-god, Yun-Yammka. He looked quite savage actually, as he cracked his neck with a sinuous snap, gritting crooked yellow teeth. His lower half, concealed in a symbiotically adhered layer of second skin known as a cloaker, kneeling in the sand. The membranous glossy black surface of his pants gave way to bare feet, with nails in sore need of clipping. Sarazen curled his back as he stood, feeling each vertebrae pop as he readjusted his insides, rather facing a single moment of discomfort than a consistent lingering ache. With his hands resting on his hips, he let out a hot breath that could have knocked the stank off a wookiee.

Life was just a little bit simpler here. Oh, he missed his brothers of Domain Yin, but his time spent in darkness was over. He could no longer live as a shadow hunter, a vengeance seeking wraith, a harbinger of justice. The blood that soaked his knuckles was thicker than vonduun carapace, he had reaped a terrible tally on his path towards envisioned revenge. It left more than the scars written across his corpse grey flesh. So in the aftermath of the Enclave damutek's destruction, Sarazen had elected to stay behind and help the remaining colonists rebuild. The horrors he had faced aboard the Echo of Damnation, they had finally broken him. A hundred years of wielding the assassins blade and he was done in by a few heretical creations by a mad shaper. It was funny. And a bit sad.

Sarazen was sad, but that didn't seem likely to change anytime soon so he did his best to enjoy the calm as afternoon began to give way to evening. Most of the remaining colonists, roughly four hundred Yuuzhan Vong of mixed genders and ages, had already retired into the cave system. With help from some of their herd-beasts and bio-technology, they were able to make the coastally carved cavern system a bit more homely. It was still mostly rustic living. As the Intendant was about to rise, he felt a rumbling vibration coming from his robeskin satchel. He opened the sac and reached inside, retrieving his personal villip. The odd sac inverted and projected a three dimensional image of Master Shaper Mira Yim's head. Sarazen's dark purple eye sacs defated as he laid his mqaaa't on her, the right side of his lip curling to expose a long crooked canine.

"Mira, delightful. What do you want?" His tone in harshly accented Yuuzhan went well beyond bordering on disrespectful, his sarcasm quite clearly expressed. He actually didn't dislike Mira. Frankly it was hard not to like her. He just didn't want to be bugged. She had ruined his moment of serenity.

{{ I apologize for disturbing you, Sarazen. It is not lost on me why you chose this assignment, so I will keep this brief. In the wake of the tragedy that had befallen the Praetorite Council, the Handmaidens of Yun-Ne'Shel wish to offer their assistance. From my discussion with the Yu'shaa, it was made clear to me that the colony has suffered greatly. The shaper caste stands ready to use its skills to help your people. }}

"A kind offer. Extraordinary actually. It would be foolish to pass on such a valuable opportunity. Still, I think we'll decline. Thank you though. It was pleasant hearing your voice."


"No. I mean it. What you offer comes with a price, seducing these people...my people, with civilization. We're done with the galaxy, done with the Praetorite and the Enclave. Here life is simple and we are free. So I thank you for your generous offer, but I must whole heartedly refuse."

The villip representation of Mira closed its wonderful glowing pink eyes, like two caged fairies suddenly going dark, and her head seemed to nod as though coming to a quick decision. When she opened her eyes, they looked on the Intendant with a calm patience, having found her own measure of serenity.


Too late. He was pretty certain he'd already been cursed, though hell, that might not even be the fault of the Yun'o. He'd been pretty ruthless in his pursuit of moral balance, made more than a few enemies along the way. Some of those could have been magic, he supposed.

He scoffed as the villip returned to its original state, the connection lost. He replaced it in his bag and finally rose from the sand, standing as the last bit of red on the horizon gave way to the coming blue of night. Sarazen meant what he said. What they already had would be enough. All that they needed was community and a chance to finally heal those wounds of the soul. When his hand came free of his satchel depths, his tatooed fingers were curled around a long stemmed crustacean that had been fashioned into a pipe biot. He packed the bowl end with some of his remaining supply of Ossus Kush, then took a deep breath through the hole at the end of the shells stem like length. The creature's mouth, which was the bowl of the pipe, actually released vapours that immolated the dried herb, causing the smoke to be drawn through its shell and into the Intendant's throat. Sarazen took a massive hit, exhaling purple smoke from his mouth and nose stub, coughing a bit at the end.

Pretty sticky icky. Fortunately he had plans to increase the colony's supply. They still had some seeds of Sekotan Green from the seed world, that if they could find a suitable place to plant and harvest, would solve his lacking of recreational and supposedly medicinal smoking herb.

==Vong of Lehon== +Zotu Vomdo+
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, New Coral Town>>

Zotu wasn't sure if the island had been claimed by anyone else, or even if anyone else lived in the area, but a quick query over his internal comm would get someone working on the question pretty much immediately back at headquarters. On the other hand, it was a surprisingly remote and hidden location, given its overall proximity to the capital. He was impressed with the skill that had obviously gone into its choice and development.

-Zotu
I would not have thought it possible that someone could set up a base so close to our own heart of operations without our knowledge. I must congratulate you on your efforts, even if it is causing a bit of panic in the people wondering who else might have done so.

After a few more moments, the reply to his question returned. The island itself wasn't claimed or used by any of the nearby groups. Though a trading outpost was a bit further south, and several islands nearby had Rakata enclaves, along with one Ithorian enclave.

-Zotu
It would seem that no-one else has a claim on this island, so that at least is one problem we won't have to deal with. And I can point out on a map other nearby settlements that are even closer than the capital if you wish.

==Vong of Lehon== +Zotu Vomdo+
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, New Coral Town>>

Zotu took the offered hand up to the back of the creature, then splashed down without hesitation into the shallow shore of the cave beach. His boots and lower legs would get wet, but he wasn't bothered in the least by it, and they would dry quickly enough. Despite more recent attempts at civilized behavior, Rakata were predators by nature. And the most fearsome predators on a planet of predators at that. His widely spaced eyes quickly swept the cavern, as well as everything in it. He was moderately impressed, both from a defensive standpoint, and from the practical economy of the layout. It was a good balance. Then again, there was no telling what might come up out of the water into the cave. Lehon's predators rarely bothered to restrict themselves to either land or water, but most moved surprisingly freely from one to the other.

Once he had both feet on the sand of the beach, he waited for his escort. It would be rude to intrude on their territory without a guide, at least until they had a much better working relationship.

==Vong of Lehon== +Zotu Vomdo+
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, New Coral Town>>

If it had worked to resolve tension, Zotu wasn't going to complain. And he really could handle most intoxicants. He wasn't about to tell anyone in this group it was due to a cybernetic blood filter that could either neutralize or store any number of different compounds for later. But it was still true, regardless of the reason. And it wouldn't have been the first time Zotu dealt with copious alcohol to make a good impression with a group, or even stronger substances on occasion.

-Zotu
I am honored to be invited. And I will try not to leave too many of them on the floor when I call it a night.

Zotu returned the friendly gaze with a predator's grin.

-Zotu
It really does, doesn't it. Admittedly, most had already been spread fairly wide by my own time. But my people's history says that most of them came from here on Lehon to begin with. Though part of that might have been propaganda.

Zotu also saw the children coming and glided to one side to let the scrum flow past.

-Zotu
I don't have any children of my own, yet. At least, not from this body. The few I had in my previous life are have all long since grown old and likely passed away themselves. On the other hand, Given modern medicine and lack of backstabbing, I should have plenty of time to correct that if I ever decide to. For now though, I like to focus on my work.

Now that he had been formally invited into the village, Zotu takes a more open and long look around. Seeing what all was where and how the village was laid out. He was also trying to get a measure of how many people were visible and what the major tasks seemed to be.

==Vong of Lehon== +Zotu Vomdo+
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, New Coral Town>>

Zotu hadn't been expecting any sort of trouble, let alone having to deal with a rancor. The only weapons he had with him was his usual oversized knife, and a pistol. Generally, he didn't carry much more. But a rancor was a serious challenge, even for one of his species. On the other hand, it would be a great way to bond with the locals.

-Zotu
I'd like nothing better, do you have a spear I can borrow? Or would I need to make my own before we set out?

==Vong of Lehon== +Zotu Vomdo+
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, New Coral Town>>

Zotu took a moment to test the balance of the weapon. It was more front heavy than he was used to, likely an effect of using bone rather than the correct native woods. That would make aiming a strike slightly more difficult. The flexibility of the material also meant the weapon couldn't be braced properly to take a charge from some of the larger beasties in the wilds or to club some of the smaller ones into submission with the same force.

-Zotu
I can in fact make a spear. In my time, doing such as part of a ritual hunt was part of being accepted as an adult. And the black crystals you use are what we used even then, they are surprisingly common here, though I have found them less so on other worlds. As for the haft, I will show you what type of wood to use later. It is a type of creeper vine that grows along the ground, not a tree that must bend with the storms. They often need to be straightened for use, but they won't break or bend under the charge of even the most vicious beast. But later, after dinner perhaps.

His own ritual hunt had found one of the semi-aquatic beasts that prowled the shores and shallow surf, not a rancor. But he had fought such beasts before. He chuckled at that thought, since before in this case meant before all currently recorded history.

==Vong of Lehon== +Zotu Vomdo+
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, New Coral Town>>

It had been a long while since he had been hunting in the bush like this, but it was an old skill, one from more than a lifetime ago. And one that he did occasionally like to refresh. As the Yuuzhan'avi spread out through the jungle, he quickly ascended a nearby tree, the claws in his fingertips digging into the soft wood for a firm grip. Within moments, he was up in the branches. Up in the high paths as his people used to call such primitive travel. He had to go slower than he would have liked however, or he would have left his company behind. The branches in the first canopy level were dense enough to allow reliable travel, but it was still far less cluttered and restricted than the floor. In the second canopy, a person could make even better time, but there were gaps and weak spots that could make such travel dangerous in its own right.

From his vantage point, he saw the ridge of back spines first. Of course they had a bull, not just some regular cow. Still, the creature wasn't invulnerable. If his spear was more firm, he would have jumped from above. The distance from where he was to the creature's back wasn't far. In fact, it could probably reach him if it noticed him too soon. And a firm spear planted in its back would keep him out of its grasp while he went to work with his knife to bleed the beast out. With the whippy nature of the weapon he had though, the bucking of the beast would likely fling him off like a hook from a fishing rod. That thought gave him an idea, and he set to work as he waited for his hosts to catch up.

He secured the last knot of his hastily gathered vine as the beast roared, likely noticing one of the villages. Time to give it something else to focus on. His run to above the beast was silent, but he let out the shrieking of his species as he dropped onto the Bull's back. The spear was planted deeply by his impact, hopefully deeply enough. While it stole much of his speed, it didn't stop his fall. A long strand of vine trailed out behind him, connected at the other end to the spear now anchored in the Bull. As the creature reared back in reaction to the pain of the thrust, Zotu suddenly became the weigh on the end of a pendulum. The vine pulled as tight as a wire and hummed under the sudden strain, but it had been well chosen. As the creature's arms rose in the direction of the pain, the vine swung across them, pinning them tight against the creature's upper chest. As the arc finished, Zotu looped a prepared knot over the spear already anchored in the creature.

Zotu was now firmly anchored to the creature's back, and as a bonus the beast's arms were pinned. While it was still far from helpless, that would reduce the risk to everyone hunting the beast. With a flourish, Zotu pulls out the oversize belt knife he kept as his side arm and began hacking into the bull. With something like this, it would be more like digging a trench than stabbing into anything vital. It would be messy and time consuming, but he would also hopefully have help shortly. He really hoped this one wasn't smart enough to try and scrape him off on a nearby tree.

==Vong of Lehon== +Zotu Vomdo+
<<113 PP (123 ABY); G11 Sector, Lehon, New Coral Town>>

Zotu felt his bones vibrate as the beast below him roared. Though whether it was pain or rage he wasn't sure. There was a deep THRUM sound for a worrying moment, then a whip crack pop. Zotu looked up just in time to duck slightly, as the snapped end of his vine whipped across his dome line forehead, drawing a deep gash. Somewhat stunned from the hit, and much less stable without the bracing from the vine, Zotu held on with desperate strength.

The Bull, driven by the combined pain of the assault below, managed to snap the vine holding its arms pinned. It was still somewhat disoriented from the sudden lashing of pain from both below and above, but it could see the targets below. It reached out for the nearest target.