FLY ONCE MORE

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...



STAR WARS: FLY ONCE MORE
Episode 4

Pax Crew, divided, failed to stop the Mother. The encounter resulted in death
of forest witch Karliah, and her apprentice Zannah, who has betrayed Lindrala
and was killed in self defense by the Jedi Master. Mother Witch escaped with
Lindrala's blood, that she plans to use in witchcraft, revealing more secrets of
the dark side in the Force to her ally Darth Jadus, who is eager to learn more.

Benna's team had their hands full with work as well. Against imperial forces sent
by Jadus, Pax Crew successfully defended the village with aid of offworlder Ochra, but also
received heavy hit and needed time to recover. Luckily, Jadus had more than one enemy,
a mysterious soldier. She goes by name Skye and aided Pax Crew greatly. This was
enough for Benna to welcome her to the crew, even if her past remained unknown.

Divided Pax crew is finally reunited now at the village, preparing for another day and
all what Dathomir has in store for them. Satele's ship still broken in the wilds, now conquered
by the Spider Witch summoned by the Mother. Spider Queen was awaken and with its nature
the ship was claimed. But not ship's heart and that heart is its crew. As long it beats, Pax
Republica has the chance to stop evil Darth Jadus and twisted Dathomir's Mother.



The Village that Pax Republica defended from Imperial occupation still answers to the Mother, and Pax Crew cannot remain here forever. As they recover, their enemies are getting stronger. Satele's ship still lays deep in the wilds where it crashed, at the spider nest, providing the new challenge to the heroes. By recruiting Ochra and Axo, the crew gained a chance of getting the ship working. But Ochra and Axo were defeated in the village battle, if they encounter anything similar again without protection of Pax Crew, they will not be able to make the ship fly once more. A new day arrived to the village, and it is time for Pax Crew to awake.

Protagonist/Captain: Lindrala
Crew Member 1: Aya
Crew Member 2: Benna
Crew Member 3: Skye
Crew Member 4: Ochra
Crew Member 5: Axo
Crew Member 6: Oyo

Roles
Tank1 Slot: Lindrala
Tank2 Slot: Oyo
Dps1 Slot: Benna
Dps2 Slot: Skye
Dps3 Slot: Open
Dps4 Slot: Open
Healer1 Slot: Aya
Healer2 Slot: Open
Support1 Slot: Axo
Support2 Slot: Ochra
Pilot Slot: Open

Retired: Snake Byte
Died: Zannah

Click to Join the Story

"Lindrala ..." A familiar female voice called for Lindrala. It came from behind, like a whisper, an echo, that quickly faded away. But it was enough to make Lindrala open her eyes and wake up. She'd find herself in her bed, and on a first attempt to move, shed feel the pain, that reminded her that her hand is gone. Others were already awakened, except Axo, still laying in his bed. If looked through window, Lindrala could see Aya returning from somewhere, coming in to the house they were let in to stay over night. And conversation could be heard in next room, it looks like Aya and Benna were talking.

"...I am telling you that we are no longer welcomed here. The village elder was very clear. And I cannot blame him, our presence here will anger imperials even more, and we know best what damage they can do. But there is something else I am concerned about Benna." Aya ponders as she glances shortly towards the room where Lindrala and Axo are. "The elder also said that Axo is property of Karliah and that he has been serving her in plots against the Night Mother. Karliah use to come here to collect tributes from the villagers behind Night Mother's back and it is how Karliah grew stronger in magic. And that if Zannah or Karliah were unable to come, it was Axo who had to do it for them. Karliah sent us to find him, and she had instructions for him to fix our ship. She had it all planned, she was a seer. And how much do we actually know about Axo? What if he finds out that they are dead, that Lindrala killed Zannah? What if it is dangerous to fix him and have him among us? He still belongs to the team that tried to kill Lindrala."

"I expected to leave this village as soon as possible anyway. I don't want to make these people an imperial target. We made deals with Skye and Ochra too. I'm distrusting towards new people, but I'm not a cynic. As for Axo, I have no idea about his loyality, all I know if that we need that ship fixed ASAP." Benna turns face into that thoughtful mode as she's been known to put on lately. "With Kaliah and... Zannah are dead. We have no idea where Axo's loyality lie now. I think... Actually Aya, give he your thoughts, what's your assement?"

"We do not have much of a choice. We need Axo to make the ship moving. But he can never be left alone, we must keep eye on him all time. We must know what he installs in our ship." Aya expresses her concerns. "We cannot keep from him what happened to Zannah and Karliah. But it may not be good to tell him yet."

Lindrala slowly opened the door to the room she had been resting in, she walked out of the room and quietly closed the door behind her to not wake the others. She walked to Benna and Aya. "Karliah and Zannah died because of my decision, I will not hide the truth but you should remember there is always the bigger picture." Lin pauses and looks between the two of them. "Axo had a strong desire to help the villagers here, he risked his life to protect the innocent here as did we, when he has recovered I shall be honest with him, deception is not the Jedi way."

"Not really Master." Aya glances between Benna and Lindrala. "You were away when next wave of imperials stormed to the village, Axo did not want to stay and help. He was asking us to leave, and said we are running out of time. He was determinant to go to our ship at the cost of the village being stormed. It is obvious that he is enemy of our enemy. But is he really our friend to open all our cards to him right this instant? At the end it was Benna's call to stay and help."

Lindrala brings her remaining hand to her face and rubs her cheek pondering on the situation. "Odd, he seemed eager to fight the imperials the first time... Perhaps he was afraid that you would lose... It looked like a tough battle I am sorry I was not here to help you face it." Lindrala pauses for a moment, "We must also consider he his part machine as well as man, perhaps he calculated the odds?" Lindrala sighs. "I trust both of your judgements, believe me I do, but I don't think we have enough evidence to make Axo guilty of anything just yet... Zannah only attacked me due to been consumed by grief, the dark side had consumed her it is something I have seen before..."

"Aya's right. Watching is him is not judging him." Benna re-enters the conversation abruptly. "Your jedi morales might be good back in your sheltered tempel, jedi, but things here on the street aren't plainly black and white. Don't let naïvety blind you."

Lindrala responds to Benna's remark, her tone is serious as she responds. "This is not about morals it is about evidence, and if you think I am the sort of person who has spent their entire life inside a temple then it is your arrogant view of the Jedi that blinds you, considering you and Zannah seemed to get along just fine before she tried to kill me should I hold you in suspicion as well, after all I know from experience how easy mercenaries are bought."

Influence Loss: Lindrala -10

"You think I'm not proud of taking money for my work? Pfft! That's why I'm still alive. That's how I get by. That's my life, and I'm not ashamed of it." Benna starts to walk away, but stops a feet away from Lindrala. She suggests a tilt of her head in Lindrala's direction. "And yes, you should suspect me. That's how I know I can trust you. It's called street smarts. I don't care what you decide to do, Jedi. Just don't get us killed." Benna walks away for some peace and quiet.

Skye had appeared in the door way as Benna walked away over hearing the conversation that had been taking place. "You know I get it, I get both of you, trust is important to you but keeping your guard up is important to her, both of you hold ridiculous views of the others background, you should move passed that if you plan on working together for much longer..." Skye paused and looked Lin in the eye before glancing back at Aya. "Also if this is a private conversation you should keep your voices down, pretty sure the whole house heard you." Skye chuckles and walks away leaving the two of them be.

Lindrala sighs, she looks to Aya and places a hand on her shoulder. "Aya you are one I do trust, what would you do in my place, speak freely my friend."

"For start I would not leave my padawan alone on a hostile planet with unknown people. I thought that you and I will go together through everything that galaxy throws at us. Like it tells in many legends about the jedi before us. But I guess we started splitting up before I could realize that life outside of archives is a different one." Aya looks away from Lindrala. "For now we should check on Ochra, and her progress on repairing Axo."

"Just because we were not literally standing next to each other does not mean that we are not in this together, the challenges we face are real, My own master once taught me the value in trusting in your allies to do what is right, I trusted that you would be capable enough to prove yourself on your own and here you stand, the threats and challenges we face are bigger than me and you, bigger than Benna and her rewards, bigger than any of us and that sort of comittment is what it will take to defeat Jadus." Lindrala looks out of the window, she can see the curious villager still waiting around outside and she sighs. "But alas you are right, we should get moving as soon as we can."

Ochra was finally back in her own home. She felt good there, even though she dreamed of leaving it for good so often. After such extreme hours, at the blink of existence, she finally appreciated her home. The tinker-room with all its gadgetry was most important to her. She loved being there, inventing, repairing and tinkering. Sadly, her body recovered only slowly from the shots of the imperial officer. Especially her legs made her worry. Without the anti-grav unit she could walk only like a snail. Moving her muscles was still a damn difficult task. But the best distraction was for Ochra, above all, to deal with Axo’s android body. His whole corpus was damaged by the shooting. Hundreds of wires, contacts, and memory banks were charred by the laser contact. The repair required a lot of tact and time. The former had Ochra, but the latter Ochra's new friends did not have unfortunately. Again and again they pressed to leave. But despite the progress Ochra made, Axo’s neural network was still not fully functional. His speech-processor was a mess and also the motoric skills of his left body-half often had dropouts. Ochra needed more time and asked for it. Maybe she and Axo should stay behind. Ochra has plans with the anti-grav unit. Maybe it was possible to enhance it's power so she and Axo can use it as a hoover-craft-like vehicle. But she would need at least three more days for it.

Ochra alone maybe needed more time, but her half way through the work with additional help of Aya's healing abilities allowed Axo to continue self repair with his organic side of the body that did not have any dropouts or malfunction.

What seems a very bad condition to Ochra, for Axo that was an easy as pie task. With his advanced skill in mechanics, Ochra's tools, and special equipment granted by Karliah to repair Satele's Ship itself, Axo began fixing every single damage on his cybernetic part of the body and would be ready for action in no time. His specie trait allowed him to endure physical pain more than others would, which gave him extra edge and speed in task such as this. But without the starting push performed by Ochra and Aya, Axo would probably still be just a pile of crap. What takes three days for some in mechanics, it takes three hours for Axo, and it is no wonder why he was selected for this mission. As Lindrala was watching through the window at the villagers, she could hear the noise coming from the room where Axo was.

Hearing the sounds coming from Axo's room Lindrala moved away from the window, she walked up to the door and slowly opened up the door and entered the room. "Everything okay in here?"

Influence Failure

Axo did not allow Lindrala to see his front. He was half in suit, half revealed at the tops. Axo was holding his cybernetic arm with his own, attaching it to his left shoulder. The tattoos on his back and spots where horns were once on his head gave the hint what he once was. He flexes his cybernetic hand, testing its functionality, before grabbing his helmet and putting it on head. The helmet had an attachment that dived deep into Axo's head from the left, from the place where he was missing left ear. Finally he zips the suit up, closing the tops, and once he was now fully covered again, then he turns towards Lindrala. His visor lights up, and electronic voice comes out: "The systems are at 84% capacity." This was his answer to Lindrala's question.

Lindrala watched him closely as Axo pieced himself back together... "Part of me is wishing I could do that right now." she glances down at her wound and her missing hand. "As soon as you are up to it we should get ready and move to our ship, we do not want to linger in this village much longer they have suffered enough at the Imperial hands."

Axo nods, briefly glancing at Lindrala's wound: "That is the mission. Karliah and you need to come with me to the ship. Zannah can help us dealing with the creatures that inhabit the area, she knows the wilds, she should join others." Axo closes the box with tools and repair parts, and picks it up for the handle. "Empire will not wait on us to stop by and rescue everyone along the way. Only if we deal with the source we can save Dathomir. Until then, the invasion will continue."

Lindrala takes a breath... "Axo, Zannah and Karliah... They will not be joining us..." she sighs then looks straight into his visor. "Karliah, Oyo and Zannah were not powerful enough to stop the Mother, she defeated all 3 of them but somehow Zannah and Oyo escaped, when i got to the cave Zannah and Oyo were outside but Zannah, Zannah was... consumed by grief, she tried to kill me so I defended myself and the rage... the rage was too much for her to control." Lindrala holds up her wound to Axo. "Zannah took my hand unleashing her attacks, she left me no choice but to strike her down."

Influence Lost -5

"You should never let them face the Mother alone. Karliah spoke of you before your arrival, you were needed and you left them, like you left us." Axo looks away from Lindrala's hand. "This does not make us same. I wish I had choice to keep my team together. Karliah and Zannah were not flowers, but they were all I had left. And without them your chances to success are reduced by 64%. Nobody knows the Night Mother better than Karliah." And there was it, a little bit of emotions escaping this cybernetic suit.