March 26, 2009

349. THX 1138 - Trychon

Their hyperspace trip took them about a week. There wasn't a whole lot new for the Sith to work on that they hadn't already, but Trychon and Raezyr continued to sharpen their skills as best they could. Achkay always seemed to feel left out when they sparred without him, but they let him watch, and Trychon told him to catalog the matches.

When he wasn't sparring or drinking, and sometimes while he was drinking, Trychon got to work on programming some hand to hand combat routines for the droid. There was some rudimentary knowledge in his banks... but assassin/combat droids were hardly meant for such combat themselves, lending more to heavy rifles and the sort.

Trychon knew his own knowledge was still limited but growing... but he was convinced that Achkay would be better suited to help them if they ran into Jedi, which was bound to happen, if he was more prepared for the style of battle they were likely to have. Trychon went through the cataloged sparring matches, and with Raezyr's help... pointed out flaws in their attacks and defenses. After some time, Achkay was able to find some of these on his own, and was starting to help them train.

During their last fight before arriving in-system, the droid sat in the corner of the room, and watched them spar, making semi random shots at any weakness his new programming told him there was. He didn't score any hits, but Trychon and Raezyr assured him he was doing a good job. They were certainly perspiring a bit more than regular. Achkay was proud... and learning.


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After getting cleaned up and having a few hours' last minute rest, the group sat in the cockpit as they fell out of hyperspace, and looked at their new surroundings. Trychon was quick to point out that there was no traffic, either ship or comm. They did some more checks, and began moving in on the planet.

As they got closer... the features of the planet began to come in to focus. Rather, they didn't. Trychon squinted at it through the viewport. "Um... Raezyr? That looks like Hoth."

"Yeah..."

Achkay piped in. "Statement: While the visual similarities would be strong from a limited human standpoint, sensors clearly show that the light spectrum you are receiving is actually due to massive condensation in the atmosphere, rather than a large concentration of ice."

Trychon gave him a quick glare and then shook his head and smiled before getting back to the computer readings that they were getting from the planet. They pulled into a high orbit so they could maintain an equally high velocity, and allow their ship to pull a closer sensor sweep of the surface by circling the whole planet several times.

They didn't learn much. Raezyr lowered their speed and went into a lower orbit near the equator of the planet. "We're not learning anything this way... and while there's plenty of signs of life... we have no idea if anyone here will be able to point us in the right direction." He closed his eyes and said nothing.

Trychon was about to say something when Raezyr gestured to him to remain quiet. Frustrated, he followed Raezyr's lead, and closed his eyes... not really sure what else to do.

Twenty minutes later, they both opened their eyes and looked at each other. "Huck... mark the spot we just passed over on the sensors. We've found a landing spot. I hope."

Achkay did as Raezyr asked, and Raezyr slowly turned the ship around and circled it down through the atmosphere to whatever it may have been that caught their attention. As they got closer and closer to the surface, they began to realize that the white appearance was more than just a simple cloud cover... it was a thick fog that followed them entirely down to the surface. Raezyr slowed as they got close, but didn't have any visual of the ground until they were just less than a hundred meters up.

"This... can't be natural." Raezyr commented on the fog, taking his time to insure a clear path to the ground. Eventually, the Jet Razor was settled down onto a fairly clear patch of grass in a small clearing from the decent sized trees. They took a few minutes to run last minute checks, and then they grabbed their gear and headed for the ramp.

They walked down to the end of the ramp and waited, taking in the sights... what little sights there were. Their visibility was a little less than the visual scanners had given them... around fifty meters, Trychon guessed.... although it was hard to tell for sure, as most of the trees were forty meters or less distant, in a rough circle around where they'd landed.

They stood there for several minutes... and Trychon felt lost. The sounds that should accompany a forest were simply not there. He had grown up in terrain similar to this, but the feeling he was getting was not similar at all. The silence was deafening to him.

Raezyr looked at him, and through his feelings through the force he noted that this was probably the first time he'd seen a genuine look of concern in Trychon's eyes.

"So much for our welcoming comittee..." Trychon said.

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