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Post by Whill Shaman Xixo on Apr 5, 2013 6:34:58 GMT -8
*The Vanishing Place was a prison established by the Galactic Empire on Felucia shortly after the end of the Clone Wars.*
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Post by The Pages of the Journal on Jun 27, 2013 14:56:00 GMT -8
Deep within the bowels of the of the darkest corners of the Vanishing, amidst the ruins of deepest part of the prison, the broken corridors and cells, the barren meeting places and holding rooms, surrounded by the howling of memories from a war long forgotten by the surface dwellers of the Felucian forest world there sat... a Top Hat awaiting anyone who had the wit to find it, the power to attain it, and the will to wear it.
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Mary Cerulea
The Jedi Order
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 18, 2016 18:35:20 GMT -8
The Ndathoggu Tempest soon passes over the crumbling prison once known to the First Empire as the Vanishing Place. On the bridge of the yacht, Mary looked out at the structure that she had to help refurbish in order to pay off the massive debt she owed because of the very ship she was riding now. The squat ugly building could barely be considered two floors. It might have been more in the past, but only rubble remained above the ground floor. The decades of abandonment had not been kind to the structure as the fungal growths had pushed up on every side of the building & was well on the way to engulfing it completely. Mary couldn't see any entrance except the roof, but the scanners were showing a large blast door set into one wall & buried beneath the fungus. While the trip had taken only ten minutes, it had pushed the dawn back another full hour.
The quiet thrum of the engines was a comfort as the Tempest gently circled the building to look for a landing spot. Mary was surprised that the building wasn't much larger, in fact it was slightly smaller than the Tempest was based on scans. Working on a hunch, Mary brought the heavy duty scanners up to power & ran a full sweep of the area. True enough a set of turbolift shafts ran deep into the ground. Near the edge of her scanner's limits, the shafts connected to a honeycomb warren of passages & chambers that extended even deeper down out of sight. Perhaps it would be a challenge to refit after all.
After five more minutes, Mary gave up on finding a place to land. Now it was time to make one. Locating a spot of ground that was both large enough & roughly level below the tangle of fungus, Mary slipped into the command chair. Bringing up the weapon displays, Mary powered up the belly quad cannon, but only to minimal power. Picking out a target along the edge of her planned landing zone, Mary gave the command from the droid brain to fire.
-Tempest
THOOM
The fungus that was hit burst into flame while nearby ones began to smoulder. Mary was quick to check & make sure her landing zone hadn't been damaged by the shot. Satisfied, She began to fire more shots into the jungle. Several minutes later & she had a rash of smouldering rings. What we didn't have was a cleared landing zone. It would seem that the fires lacked the proper force to get going enough to spread & clear her landing zoom. An easy enough problem to fix. Dialing up the power on the belly gun to maximum, Mary carefully pick out a new spot for the next shot & gave the clearance to fire.
-Tempest
THOOM!
The effect was instant as the entire yacht shook under the rebounding shock wave. Outside the window, entire giant mushrooms were falling from the sky, still burning. A proud glance showed that her landing zone was now clear. This quickly faded into horror as the flaming debris from her shot & the still burning ring around the new landing zone continued no only to burn, but to spread.
Mary watched in horror as the fire began to grow more quickly, even engulfing the old prison she was here to fix. After a few more moments of watching the fire grow even bigger, Mary thought that she might be able to stop the fire by using more low powered shots to make a gap around the fire & at least contain it. Picking her first three spots, Mary quickly gave the fire command.
-Tempest
THOOM!
THOOM!
THOOM!
The Tempest bucked as if hit with a trio of giant hammers & the night grew nearly as bright as day as three more massive fires began to rage below the still shuddering yacht. She had to get it right this time or she wasn't sure when or even if the fire would go out. Making sure to reset the power to minimum, Mary plotted a chain of weak shots in a ring nearly a kilometre out from the site of the prison, which was now the heart of a massive fire-storm. Having a moment of inspiration, she also powered up the tractor beam, using it to rip up a wide trench as the cannon lanced out its ring of fire.
It was a close call, as the Tempest raced around the planned ring, belly nearly level with the jungle canopy. In the end, Mary managed to close her fire break ring only fifteen minutes before the fire-storm would have escaped. Flying up high above the resulting conflagration, Mary kept a careful eye out for any part of the blaze escaping her ring of torn ground. One thing for sure, it wouldn't be hard to find a place to land once the blaze was out.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 18, 2016 18:56:37 GMT -8
Naan had been sleeping in her room, curled up. She was dreaming, quite peacefully. She was all grown up, having completed her Trial, and was having a marriage arranged by her grandfather. The ceremony was planned for tomorrow. She had not given it much thought, but whenever she did think about her betrothal her heart raced. She was walking through the Enclave, which was now a center of commerce for Tatooine, and looked up to see several ships lifting off from the sands and flying into the air. She smiled beneath her mask at the sight.
Thoom!
Naan looked up, and saw the remains of the ships fall from the sky, landing on a pair of Sandcrawlers that had been making their way away from the Enclave to head to the Outsider cities. Debris rained down on the Enclave, and fires began to crop up in the Tusken city. She looked on in horror as R'Crurak Sentries ran past her, pushing her aside. She caught herself with her hands, hitting the hard ground and looked back up at the sky as a large ship appeared in the sky, seemingly out of nowhere. The R'Crurak ships had barely taken off when blaster cannon fire rained down from the enemy ship and cut them down.
Thoom!
Thoom!
Thoom!
Naan opened her eyes and jumped to her feet, grabbing her gaderffii and running to the cockpit to find Mary. The ship was rocked as if struck by something, causing Naan to lose her balance and almost fall over. The small Tusken girl was obviously in a panic, and it was very noticeable even through her heavy clothing. Her body language was a mess, and she seemed like she was ready to jump ship and run into battle. She entered the doorway of the cockpit and yelled at Mary trying to find out what was happening.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Who's attacking us!?"
Mary seemed to be very invested in what was happening, so Naan ran into the cockpit to get a view of what was going on. There was a fire raging below the ship. Naan pressed her mask against the viewport as she tried to see who was attacking them. She didn't see anyone. Had they already been destroyed? Naan could not make out much through the smoke and fire, but she could see a building. Obviously the enemy stronghold, she thought to herself.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Did we destroy them? Is the battle already over?"
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 18, 2016 19:12:16 GMT -8
Starting to relax after the close call of setting the entire planet on fire, Mary noticed that Naan had joined her on the Bridge at some point.
-Mary
No enemy. I just wasn't careful enough with what I was doing & started a fire. It shouldn't spread any farther. We are still going to watch it until it goes out.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 18, 2016 19:22:20 GMT -8
Naan suddenly fell backward and hit the floor behind her. Her gaderffii clattered on the metal deck of the ship beside her. She lay there silently for a few minutes trying to wrap her head around what was happening. They weren't under attack by an enemy, yet Mary had fired upon a building and started a massive fire. Naan was suddenly very exhausted as the adrenaline began to fade. Her breathing became steady and she finally spoke.
-Naan in Tusken-
"What are we doing here starting fires? Are you testing the ship's weapons?"
Naan was tired again, even though she had just woken up. The horror of the dream turned nightmare had faded, and she was now thinking about how big the fire was. She had never seen such a wild fire before, as Tatooine did not even a small percentage of the flora that Felucia did.
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 18, 2016 19:29:17 GMT -8
Mary actually blushed at that, though it couldn't be seen behind the mask. She almost felt like she was back in school & being questioned by a teacher when they both knew what she had done wrong. She takes a moment to clear her throat.
-Mary
Well, I needed a place to land. So I decided to test the weapons at the same time. I might have turned them up too high. Then I kind of panicked.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 18, 2016 19:36:52 GMT -8
Naan let out a loud laugh and sat up, grabbing her gaderffii from off the ground. She walked over to Mary, still laughing. In the little Tuskens eyes Mary could do no wrong, but she still found the whole thing very funny. Naan finally caught her breath, holding her stomach which was hurting a bit.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Well I'm glad we have one now. So what are we doing here? Is it Jedi business? Am I allowed to know, or is it super secret?"
Naan swayed from side to side as she began to ask question after question. On the last question she traced her foot along the ground while looking at the deck.
-Naan in Tusken-
"If its a secret I'm really good at keeping them..."
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 18, 2016 19:47:36 GMT -8
Mary wondered how much to tell the little girl, but decided it couldn't do any harm. First there wouldn't be anyone the girl could tell any time soon. Second, by the time she could tell anyone the job would hopefully either already been done or she will have been moved to a different job.
-Mary
I have to make the prison fit for use again. Mainly in order to pay for the ship.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 18, 2016 20:07:55 GMT -8
Naan tilted her head to the side and rubbed the side of her mask in confusion. Her already numerous questions had only left her with several more.
-Naan in Tusken-
"What's a prison? Is that like a fort? Are the Jedi moving from the Temple?"
Naan had never heard of the concept of a jail before because if someone was taken captive they were held in the stockades in the Enclave until either they were released or taken to be executed. Tusken justice was very harsh when it came to following the guidelines of the unwritten laws that prevailed over Tatooine, especially in the desert.
-Naan in Tusken-
"If the Jedi are moving, they'll need a lot more room for more ships. Should we burn more of the forest to make room?"
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 18, 2016 20:39:02 GMT -8
Mary really didn't feel like explaining the concept of a jail to an eight year old.
-Mary
It is sort of like a fort. I don't think the Jedi are moving. I'm not sure what they plan to do with it. Right it looks like it is settling down. I will watch it in my mask. Let's go see about getting the furniture in place.
Despite her statement otherwise, the fire did not look to be dying down any time soon, though it also didn't look like it was going to be able to cross the fire break either.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 18, 2016 20:51:43 GMT -8
Naan was proud of herself for guessing correctly about the similarity between a prison and fort. Naan turned to look back through the viewports at the fire. It didn't seem to be settling down any, but she could tell from the way Mary spoke that the older woman just wanted to get some other things taken care of. She figured it was best just to nod her head and follow Mary, so that is what she did.
Naan followed behind Mary, slinging her gaderffii onto her back as she walked.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Why does a ship need so much furniture? A ship is for traveling in. You shouldn't bring anything with you that you won't need. It's wasteful if the ship gets destroyed or lost."
Again Naan was drawing from her own experiences with ships. Luxury was nearly non-existent in Tusken culture. They came from a planet of hardship and war.
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 18, 2016 21:26:36 GMT -8
Mary nodded her. To many cultures a ship was just something to get from one point to another in. But Mary had spent nearly a decade working with light freighter captains & shock jockeys. To them, the ship wasn't just transport it was a home when nowhere else could be. From the little reading she had done in the time since meeting Naan, she knew that Tuskens were nomads, but not much more. Hopefully, she would be able to make that connection to her young guest.
-Mary
That's not right at all. A ship is more than just travelling in. It is like ...
She paused for a second trying to find a good anchor in the database on Tuskens the ship had added to the Science Bay computers at her request. Not that the database held much solid information. Most of the data was marked as conjecture or second hand reports at best. She did manage to find something though.
-Mary
A Bantha. Yes you ride it around. But it is much more. It is a home. A place to recover. Somewhere to hide or to learn. It is shelter from storms & a mighty weapon against foes. It isn't just a way of travelling, it is a way of life.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 18, 2016 21:47:14 GMT -8
Naan stayed quiet as she listened to Mary. Not much of what the woman was saying made any sense to her.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Banthas aren't homes, silly. They're our companions, and are our equals in life.
Naan suddenly made the connection of what Mary was trying to get across to her, at least as much as an eight year old Tusken could. She still didn't understand completely, but she could tell ships were important to Mary.
-Naan in Tusken-
"I think I understand though. It's like the Enclave."
Naan did not elaborate on what the Enclave was, but she perked up a bit when she mentioned it. She stopped in front of the crates that were stacked in the ship, filled with the furniture Mary had bought.
-Naan in Tusken-
"I didn't realize you bought so much....."
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 18, 2016 22:32:14 GMT -8
Mary quickly called the BAF & the LE to help unload & move the furniture into place.
-Mary
Enough for the ship.
A couple of crates right from the beginning got shoved off into the room that would hold her trainer. She hadn't been sure what to get him, so she had just mostly bought stuff that looked Jedi-ish. He could sort out what he wanted from that. To clear room in the main area, Mary decided to do up the side rooms first. For her own quarters, a coat of deep red was applied to the walls, once that was done the floor was made to match with a carpet of the same colour. The furniture set she had chosen was a dresser, cabinet, bed, side table & wardrobe panelled in a cherry wood that was nearly as dark at the paint. Of course the furniture under the panelling was solid durasteel like everything the store sold. & as a bonus, the panelling itself was protected by a thin layer of transparasteel. Nothing short of a full fledged fire fight was going to damage any furniture Mary bothered spending credits for. Finally everything was in place where Mary liked it & bolted to the floor so that combat wouldn't risk throwing it around the room.
Next was Naan's room. A sandy coloured carpet & a dull gold paint job should make it more welcoming. The pile was much smaller was there was less room to work with, only a bed & cabinet with a pale grey wood finish where installed & bolted into place. They were followed by the dog bed Naan picked out, of course.
This left only the furniture for the Living area. Mary had decided to stick with the ship's already present colour style of dappled greens & purples. After laying down a matching carpet, a number of various length couches were installed. The major piece of the collection was a large holoprojector installed on the ceiling so that it projected into the centre of the room, directly over the access hatch to the Pod's Cockpit.
-Mary
What do you think?
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 18, 2016 22:55:24 GMT -8
After all the furniture was in place Naan's was huffing. She had her hands on her sides and was worn out all over again. She had insisted on putting everything in her room in place. The bed perplexed her, but she did not say anything at the time as it was bolted down into place. She grabbed hold of the pet bed and pulled it into the opposite corner from the regular bed. She was amazed at the fact she had a wooden shelf. She did not realize it was durasteel underneath. She was beginning to understand that Outsiders had a lot more resources than she thought. Wooden furniture was a luxury higher than comfortable seating, as wood was scarce on Tatooine. The paint and rug was a nice touch, and it reminded her of home. She now understood what Mary had been talking about when she tried to explain the need for comfort in ships.
As everything was finally put in its place Naan plopped down on a couch, though she soon sat straight up when she remembered the question about her quarters.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Why do I need two beds? Am I going to be sharing the room with someone?"
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 19, 2016 13:31:33 GMT -8
Mary was confused by this for a few seconds before she realized Naan intended to sleep on the dog bed.
-Mary
You won't be sharing with anyone. The big bed is for you to use however you want.
The fires below where definitely beginning to burn themselves out. That wasn't too much more to be done to get the ship ready as a base of operations. She did however need to work up some racks strong enough to mount the swoops in in the Vehicle Bay. Of course that would go faster had she thought to assign some droids to start melting down the scrap into ingots. She hadn't thought of that though so she would just have to work them down on the fly.
-Mary
Come on, I have a project you can help me with.
It didn't take Mary long to lead the way up into the cramped hallways of the Maintenance Deck & the Secondary Cargo Bay. Much of the back half of the large room was packed with crate. Each one with a neat little label showing the contents. A few moments after the pair entered the Bay, the HV floated in from the Main Cargo Bay. Mary pulled a stack of colour tags from a storage locker next to the Bay's entrance. Some were blue while others were orange. Mary handed some of each to Naan.
-Mary
Right, if the crate says 'scrap' put a blue sticker on it. If is says anything else, put an orange sticker on it.
She had already uploaded a storage plan to the HV about were to move crates with each colour. The blue ones would be moved down to the main Cargo Bay, while the orange ones would be shuffled out of the way into another corner of the Secondary Cargo Hold. Once Mary had double checked all the crate in the Main Bay, it would be easy enough to get the droids to automate melting the scrap down into more easily handled ingots.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 19, 2016 19:40:08 GMT -8
Naan put her hand to the side of her mask and was already thinking of ways to utilize the bed when Mary said she needed her help with something. Naan hopped off the couch and hopped behind Mary, following her to the room stacked with crates. She took the stickers in hand and peeled one of the blue ones off the roll. She had never seen such a thing before. Sticky on one side, smooth on the other. Naan shook her hand, trying to get the adhesive off her glove, but just settled on sticking it to the front of her robes to get it out of the way. The Tusken peered up at the labels that adorned each crate and paused for a moment before realizing that many of the words on the labels she did not recognize in Basic.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Which one says scrap?"
She nodded her head when Mary pointed out the word, and while she couldn't read it, she could recognize the shapes of the word in Basic and eliminate the other crates by not having a similar looking word on the label. Naan set out to work, first labeling all the blue scrap crates and then going back and putting orange stickers on everything else.
By the end of the labeling, Naan was covered head to toe in stickers that had stuck to her and she had been unable to get off her cloth garments. She looked down at herself, and tried to shake the stickers off to no avail.
-Naan in Tusken-
"I think I got all of my crates. What now?"
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Mary Cerulea
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Post by Mary Cerulea on Jan 19, 2016 20:10:06 GMT -8
As each crate was tagged with a blue sticker, the HV floated over & carried it down into the Main Cargo Bay. Taking a few moments to check over the crates left in the Secondary Cargo Bay, Mary didn't spot any that were marked scrap, but didn't mean there wasn't one she missed.
-Mary
first we get you cleaned off.
Focusing for a moment on exactly what she wanted to happen, Mary raised her hands like she was about to conduct a choir. Then dragged them down like she was scratching a chalkboard with both hands. The mass of stickers currently stuck to Naan curled back like the peel of a banana. Once on the ground, a second sweeping motion of her arms collected the stickers into a rough mass.
-Mary
Now we head down & get the droids start on their part of the job.
Walking over to the doors leading into the Main Cargo Hold, Mary stepped blithely out into space, with nothing but five metres of air between her & the deck. Reaching up with both her arms & the Force, Mary pulled Against the ceiling with her Telekinesis. She wasn't strong enough to lift a full sized person, but she certainly could make them weight much less. As with every time she used TK, she could feel the push or pull on her own body. Usually it was light enough to ignore, but this time she was going all out purposefully. With a light tap, she settled to the deck of the Main Cargo Hold. Looking back up at Naan, Mary motioned her to jump down.
-Mary
I'll catch you.
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Nartaga
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Post by Nartaga on Jan 19, 2016 20:23:35 GMT -8
-Naan in Tusken-
"I can go to my room and pick them off, it'll only take a mome-"
Naan stopped talking as Mary raised her hands and brought them down. The stickers rained onto the floor and were soon swept up into a pile. Naan looked up to Mary and raised her hands above her head, hopping a bit as she spoke out in admiration of Mary.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Cool!"
Naan lowered her arms and started up after Mary, trying to stick close to her. Naan watched as Mary jumped down into the main cargo hold of the ship. Naan stepped up to the edge and looked down. She waved to Mary when she offered to catch her. Being raised around heights, her home being surrounded by mountains, as well as her experience with riding in ships, Naan was unafraid of heights.
-Naan in Tusken-
"Okay!"
Naan readied herself, grabbing hold of her gaderffii sling to make sure the metal weapon didn't fly off of her, and then jumped off the edge down towards Mary.
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