STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- Cold War

Started by Captain REX45 pages

Ker'Raos is effectively your pilot, and Wraith is coming along for the ride.

Pade volunteers to have his forty men hold Gremon at gunpoint all the way to their destination, or you can have him on your ship.

Well, since I own him now, ought to have him on my ship.

If Ker'Raos is piloting, Dak will take the task of watching Gremon. Oh, and not letting Ker'Raos forget to blast the other transport.

The Black Dawn is just as you left it, though ice has formed over the hull. Being an Arnian vessel, it has adapted to the cold rather easily. Any other ship, unless designated for cold weather use, would be effectively useless.

Ker'Raos deposits Wraith into the storage space that you converted into a medical bay then heads up to the cockpit.

"Keep Gremon out of here," Ker'Raos warns. "I don't want him trying anything."

Gremon just offers a grim smile.

"Oh, no worries. Gremon is going to be with me. Aren't you, Prince?" With that, he'll take Gremon back to a separate part of the ship, away from anything he can mess with.

Pade packs his militiamen into the troop transport, which he hotwires and flies himself. It lifts off and is up and away, leaving the lone transport abandoned on the landing strip.

The Black Dawn takes off, breaking some of the ice with its lift thrusters and the sudden heat of the engines. It turns in the direction of the troop transport. Ker'Raos locks on with the targeting computer and sends a single torpedo streaking toward it. The next moment, all that remains of the troop transport is a molten heap of scrap.

"We're off," Ker'Raos informs you over the comms. "Pade has sent coordinates. I, uh, don't want to share them with our guest, so it will be a surprise..."

"Understood," Dak answers, "It's for the best, I'm sure."

Dak watches Gremon, smirking slightly. He thinks over the new info he's learned today, and how he can best use Gremon.

Meja'Tsid, now the gravesite of four-hundred Royal Arnian soldiers, is left behind as the troop transport moves ponderously over the terrain, the Black Dawn following after.

Moving at the pace that the troop transport has set, it takes several hours to reach your destination. Pade expresses a fear of Arnian starfighters being sent to apprehend them, but none come. The journey is made longer still when Pade insists that you avoid all towns and industrial sites, flying at a higher altitude to remain unseen and undetected, or simply flying around civilization to keep outside of sensor range.

Gremon sits quietly the entire time, staring at you.

Wraith will quietly rest in the make-shift medical bay that is actually a closet.

Did the others nab his pistol from the ground? And can he keep the Arnian knife as a souvenir?

Yes and yes. And with the bacta patch that Pade applied at the scene, your injury seems to be healing and you can move about the ship.

However, your throat feels very sore and swollen.

"So, Prince, anything else you feel like telling me? Or would you like to hear all about how your intended murderers decided to train me in their ways, giving me the power to take control of Arnia, exactly like the Queen-Mother predicted?"

Wraith will take his leave of the medical closet and go see Dak and our prisoner.

"So, thought you could kill me off so easily?" Wraith asks Gremon. He gives the Prince a solid kick to the side. "You underestimate us, Prince."

Gremon is about to speak when your companion kicks him in the ribs.

However, Wraith, when you open your mouth to speak, nothing comes out. Excruciating pain strains your throat and you are unable to make a sound other than a hoarse, incomprehensible rasping noise. Any continued effort to speak makes you light-headed and you must sit down to keep your balance.

Wraith stops, realizing that something is wrong. Glancing worriedly at Dak, Wraith returns to the medical bay to perform a scan or check on himself to see what is wrong with his voice.

Dak growls at Wraith, for kicking Gremon for no apparent reason and interrupting him, and returns his worried glance with a furious glare.

After Wraith leaves, he turns back to Gremon. "So, uh... yeah. I'll be whacking him for that... you were saying?"

In the medical bay, you are able to make rudimentary scans of your injury and suss what has happened. The knife, with its wide and jagged edges, has permanently damaged your vocal chords. You have become mute and are unable to communicate by spoken word.

This life that you live has started taking its toll on you, Wraith. You lost your eye to that Dark Jedi on Rakata Prime, now your voice to an Arnian Prince on Arnia... how much will you lose before you lose it all?

-

"I fear you think too highly of yourself," Gremon says. "The future is always in motion. But I do not expect you to understand this. You are a magnificent fighter, Kaliero; Manette and her henchmen made the mistake of training you beyond their own abilities, no doubt. But your connection to the Force is weak. I can sense it."

"And what of it?" Dak narrows his eyes, barely controlling the urge to lash out at Gremon.

"Do you really think you have the power to rule this world? You have bested me in combat, but you have not broken my will. Nor will you be able to bring contest at all to the Queen-Mother. Even if you wreck this planet and tear it out from beneath her, she will destroy you."

Wraith remains still for awhile, hit with the realization that he will never again hear the sound of his own voice, nor will anyone. He decides that he will attempt to secure a prosthesis at some point, just as he had for his ruined right eye.

He thoughtfully rubs the eye, a cold metal object that can access extra-sensory modes of vision. It resembles the head of a screw, though the line that crosses it glows a dull purple. But despite the intimidation and benefits it brings him, he still wishes he had his original eye.

Damn it all, Wraith thinks, bitterly.

"It is my destiny to rule this planet," Dak says stubbornly. "Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it won't happen."

"And just because you do see it doesn't mean it will happen," Gremon responds. "You must understand that you are putting yourself in grave danger in attempting this. It can only end in grief for all."

A prosthetic voice box may be possible, Wraith, but you do not know if you can find one amongst this rebel movement. In your experience, rebel movements tend to be poorly supplied in everything but guns and loud-mouths.