STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION - Desecration

"Yeah," Galder says. "Not going to let this discourage me. Hopefully they're not trouble."

"Yeah, I hope they aren't either..." Taiza says. She brings the ship closer and starts putting in to land near the area where the largest numbers of lifesigns and technology are detected...

...when suddenly the ship is hit by something and jolts violently.

"What was that?" Galder says, checking the scanners himself see what kind of impact it was.

"Something's shooting at us! No ships on the scanners...must be a ground emplacement!"

Taiza swiftly throws the ship into a spin to evade another shot coming your way.

"Do we land or do we get out of here?"

"Land!" Galder says.

Is there a co-pilot seat? Can Galder help Taiza fly her ship?

Sure thing, but keep in mind you're not much of a pilot; Taiza is definitely much better than you are in that regard.

Rura has gone to take the single turret, just in case, and Rianna is clinging tight to whatever she can to attempt to keep her balance.

Taiza has you use the scanners to find somewhere to set down the ship that should be safe from attack, while she flies as evasively as possible. It's a dizzying few moments, but you find a large ravine some distance from the apparently inhabited area on Iragez. It should be large enough. You hope it is, anyway.

You think you're going to make it there safely. Taiza's evasive maneuvers are keeping the ship largely safe, though they aren't kind to your stomach. One lucky shot gets through, though, rocking the Fortune's Dancer heavily.

"Hold on, this is going to be rough!" Taiza shouts, aiming the ship for the large shelf in the ravine. The landing is indeed much rougher than intended - hard enough that the ship bounces slightly and finally skids to a stop further down the ravine, hitting the wall hard. The impact is enough that everyone is thrown from where they were sitting (or standing) and knocked unconscious.

--

When you wake up, you're not sure how much time has passed, but you don't think it was very long. You seem to be uninjured, beyond some bruises and a small gash on your upper arm.

Galder just lays there for a moment when he regains consciousness, staring up at whatever is above him. He then slowly picks himself up and checks for pain in any part of his body. He find the gash but nothing more serious.

He looks around.

Taiza is typing away at the console; she seems okay.

"Oh, hey, you're awake. Seeing how badly the ship was damaged, I don't think it's been more than an hour since we crashed..." She's babbling slightly, and you can tell she's nervous about what happened.

Rura is seated on one of the bunks, checking over his weapons for damage. Rianna is slumped in a nearby corner, bleeding from a cut on her forehead; she hasn't yet woken up.

Galder will go tend to her injuries, not excited about her bump to the head and wondering how much it will impede her.

Rianna wakes up pretty quickly, sitting upright and waving you away.

"I'm fine," she says, but she shivers slightly. "Something is very wrong on this planet..."

"Well yeah, we got shot at," Galder says. "Meaning there are bitches we need to stab to death. A lot. You sure you're okay?"

"Beyond that...I'm cold. It reminds me of...never mind. But this place is full of the Dark Side," she replies. Now that you think about it, it does feel slightly colder than you'd expect, and your senses are picking up a general feeling of 'evil'.

"And yes, I'm okay," she insists, standing up and looking around. "Been in worse..."

"Ship doesn't seem to have taken any major damage," Taiza calls back. "Nothing that won't stop us from getting out of here, anyway."

Galder remembers feeling such cold on Zeiton.

"That's good," Galder say to Taiza about the ship. "We'll probaby want to disable whatever shot us down, though, before we leave. And kill the people operating it."

"Good. I don't tend to think too kindly of people who shoot me out of the sky..." Taiza replies, her voice harsher than you've heard from her before - generally she's been pretty light-hearted. Seems she's taking this one personally.

Galder would too if it were his ship.

"Let's get going then," Galder says. "I want to see what it's like outside."

Everyone makes sure they're all armed, then, before Taiza lowers the landing ramp and the four of you step out onto the surface of Iragez Prime!

You've landed in a ravine, as already mentioned, but thanks to the out of control slide that the Fortune's Dancer made, most of the ship is jammed underneath an outcropping of rock, and you are at the bottom of the ravine. At least if anyone comes searching, the ship is largely hidden, and Taiza seems fairly confident she'll be able to get out of there.

It is cold here - not only the cold feeling that our two Dark Jedi are feeling, but literally cold; there is also a fairly strong wind that is blowing around a fair amount of dust. You can see no signs of life of any kind, and nor do you sense any. This really is a dead planet.

You'll have to climb up the sides of the ravine to get out; you're about 20 meters down at this point. Looking up and down shows that you are in a shallow part, at least.

Galder remembers Zeiton again with its frigid dusty surface, a planet long ago annihilated. The same is true of Iragez Prime, though under different circumstances that Galder has yet to discover.

"Rianna, you and I should go first," Galder says. "We can jump these walls, our friends can't."

"Hmmm...still, might be too high to take in one leap," Rianna says, looking up the rock face. She glances over at you while saying so, and you get the feeling from her look and tone that she doesn't think you'd even make it up in two jumps.

I'll judge that for Galder to make it out in two leaps, you'll need to spend a Force point on Great Leap, because of his lower Agility; otherwise it'll take him three jumps. Rianna, having such a high natural Agility to begin with, can make it up in two jumps on her own. There are enough outcroppings that there are safe places to land before making your second leap up.

"No need to rush it," Galder says. "I just figured jumping a bit a time would still be faster than climbing."

I edited my last post a bit - without spending a Force point, it'll take Galder three jumps to get up. Either way, it'll still be faster than climbing, and it'll take Taiza and Rura about twice as long to climb up.

So which would you prefer to go with? Rianna is confident in her agility and intends to leap her way to the top.