Manually added by Grand Master Telaris "Mav" Cantor

Muz Ashen Keibatsu (3714) https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/3714/snapshots/348/691
Ashia Kagan Keibatsu (6353) https://www.darkjedibrotherhood.com/members/6353/snapshots/1722/3549
Google doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8iwRUslQJdxbKDsDl_-Z-Jmu4VDq3pP0XL6jmteDR8/edit?usp=sharing

Uses Jar'deon Blazio as main character.

shadows fall and yet
nothing kept the forest back
nothing but the dark

these old stones sing
stories of rage, hate, of hope
i can hear them still

hate grows like a weed
through the cracks, behind calm eyes
intoxicating

He stood in the rain a little while longer, letting the drops beating against his head, streaming down him in filthy rivulets. He exhaled slowly, letting the warm water wash away the stink of space off of him. He looked up, eyes flinching as a drop snared against eyelashes. This was not the life he had imagined for himself as a hatchling, cramped into a limping freighter with people that had no other options than to take what other people made. But it was better than where he was, the crumbling tenement housing on Corellia smelling worse yet than Nikto cooking and Weequay body odor. The peal of thunder cracked in the distance, but close enough to make him turn. The lightning would play havoc with the droid command modules, and the Captain would be ornery about it.

He picked his way carefully through the undergrowth, down the faint trail of mashed leaves and cracked twigs that led him to that little clearing. He chuckled to himself at the thought, the clearing in the woods, nothing but tall grasses and rocks where he had been three times this week, trying to find a place to clear his head. It wasn't the first green planet he had seen, but it was the longest that they had been camped down. It was the back side of nowhere, far enough off any of the regular hyperspace routes that no one would bother patrolling. Between that and the old ruins, it was a decent place to hide and count their recent hauls. Well, that and it gave him time to repair the old battle droids that had gotten busted up when they took down that last yacht.

It was only a few minutes down the path before he saw the outcropping, ruined stone walls so antique and weathered that they looked almost naturally occurring. He picked his way past the vines, peering around the corner, into the depths. The captain stood here, glowrod in hand and eyes tracing the weathered symbols. He cleared his voice, and the Nikto turned abruptly.

"Wolrob, I didn't see you there." The captain looked at the Gozzo before turning his attention back to the sealed vault. Scans had shown that there was a passage beyond, but the stone had weathered so badly that drilling through or using charges would cause the whole thing to collapse in on itself. If there was anything precious in there, it would be buried by trying to force their way in, and that annoyed the captain ferociously, making him obsess over the entry for the past few days.

"The droids are almost done, Cap'n." Wolrob punctuated that with a click of his beak. "Then, we are just waiting for the fence to show up."

The captain nodded slowly, speaking as if by rote. "Three days before the fence is due. Any routine maintenance you can get done in the meanwhile?"

The Gozzo restrained a chuckle as he adjusted his goggles. The captain knew full well that there was no supplies to do anything with. He had to cut chunks out of shipping crates to replace droid armor and carapaces as it was. He barely had any fuel for the cutting torches left, let alone quality replacement parts for the ships. His commlink chirped, the mechanical call twitching the tufts of feathers at his ears before he pressed the button and the message blipped across the screen.

"Hrm."

The captain ignored that. Wolrob twisted his head in curiosity before continuing. "Three days?"

"Yeah." The captain turned, an annoyed look on his maw. "Why?"

"Well, either our scanners are fritzing out again, or the fence is early." Wolrob adjusted his goggles. "And they're flying an old imperial destroyer..."

we came for wisdom
for this wood was quiet once
and space is noisy

loud not from the void
but from within our own minds
anxious and painful

this place summoned us
it's not our way to seek peace
but to bring the sword

Her leaves needed us
the balance we oft forget
in our driven hate

return to silence
just metal and skeletal
amidst fallen trees

The transport shook a little as it entered atmosphere, wobbling as the transition from void to air rocked across its fuselage. A few words flew between the pilots, faces obscured by their helmets, reflecting the myriad sensors and gauges that poured across their eyes.

Thick clouds, invited them toward them, swept across their view by torrents of wind, the occasional pocket swirling open like windows to the green below. The ship banked, pilots recalculating their landing path. The Lambda class dipped lower yet, a wing tracing lines in the clouds before a wave of vapor washed over them, bathing their view in bright fog.

And then the world opened up below them.

Wild and unkempt, the forest snarled at the landing zone in the distance, pale flickering lights marking their way past verdant woods that seemed to stretch further than they could see. The Force sang to them all now, hushed tones and conspiratorial accents retelling the tales of love, of life, of hunger, of loss. There was a look exchanged between them all, half nods and a shine behind their eyes.

No words.

Words would only complicate the feeling.

They all felt it.

Someone was going to be fired.

No, better yet, drawn and quartered. A fitting punishment for the Rodian calling himself Quartermaster but was apparently composed of equal parts incredulous facial expressions and utter incompetence. The cases the droids unloaded from the transport were patently incorrect, painted bright colors as if by children. The Rodian watched as an equite waved a stuffed porg under his snout, asking him quite loudly if he would like to wear it internally.

Muz chuckled at the whole scenario, watching them from across the ad hoc platform. He leaned against the Lambda, watching as journeymen flung bits and pieces of random clothing and spare parts over their shoulders in an effort to find something of actual use. He scratched his chin as he watched the Rodian seem to get more and more frustrated with the situation, blaming first interns, then ensigns, and finally the loot from pirates that they had already captured. That made the most sense, after all. Pirates were rather nondiscriminatory with what they stole when the situation afforded it, and the clans seizure of their goods were fast becoming a logistical nightmare. Somehow, a deleted spreadsheet entry was to blame for this. If it wasn’t so amusing, Muz would have peeled the skin off of the Rodian already.

A minor ruckus raised as one of the Guardians found something, then was bowled over by a pair of Knights that quickly seized it for themselves. The raised it quickly, trying to activate the hilt, only to find that instead of a properly tuned crystal chamber, there was a collapsible plastic tube and a weak flashlight. Tossing it aside, they continued to dig through the containers, worthless detritus flying everywhere.

"Mind telling me what you think is funny?" Tasha moved alongside the man, noting his mood.

Muz nodded in their direction, the Guardian now waving around a protocol droid's disembodied arm, making a rather obscene gesture with the fingers before throwing it at one of the Knights that had previously bullied him.

"I suppose it is good to see them having fun for a change." Tasha continued, watching the mirth. "Still, without the proper equipment..."

Muz raised an eyebrow. The first thing you learned in your knight trials was to never leave your saber behind. The Jedi would act as if it was all but inseparable, often going to great lengths to retrieve a fallen friend's weapon. Muz shook the thought out of his head. That was a long time ago, a different life.

Muz pushed himself off of the Lambda, stepping forward as one of the younger journeymen was trying to make a holoprojector work despite a faulty battery and a cracked lens. He turned, looking at the Rollmaster as a half smile crept up his lip.

"You're going in anyway?" The Twi'lek tilted her head. "Don't you need..."

He shook his head, then turned to walk away.

Tasha sputtered for a second, looking for the words to say. "Hey, uhh, if you decide to ...ummm... " she moved her hands in a weird way, then spread her fingers wide and made an explosion sound with her mouth, "Could you at least give us a little notice first? Please?"

He let the smile bloom fully, reaching his eyes. "Maybe."