L'ara sat in her blind, as she had for days. She knew her target came this way fairly often, but she could never accurately predict when. So she finally settled in to camp out and wait. Her bike sat below, covered in camouflage netting.
A humming reached her ear cones as her droid floated in through the window to display a short holorecording.
There she is.
This newcomer, she didn’t know her name, or allegiance, but she’d heard Jax and the other Erinos elders discuss their presence. She’d taken it upon herself to investigate with a more… hands-on approach.
The Twi'lek did a quick check of her gear before slipping out of the blind and onto a tree limb. She left the blades behind. They wouldn’t do any good.
Now to wait.
I’m lost. … No. I’m not lost.
There was a bit of a pause as she stood there, her eyes looked around behind the helmet.
I am lost. With an annoyed sigh, she rose her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose to only be met with a thunk of her hand hitting the helmet. Right. She was wearing her helmet. She was not going to tell a damn soul that she got lost, especially to Wulfram and Asani. They would never let her live it down. With a slow deep inhale, she focused again. There was a nagging feeling in her gut so she became extremely quiet and very still. Haar'chak, maybe I am not ready for a mission alone… Like a slow and deadly creeping disease started to grasp around her heart, she started to get a bit anxious.
L'ara had to suppress a chuckle as she watched the target seem to struggle with her helmet.
Shetook a breath. She didn’t necessarily want to start a fight, but she wanted to assert Erinos’s dominion over the region.
And better yet, she knew exactly what line to use.
L'ara dropped from her perch in the tree and landed behind the lost woman with a thud. Her knees would hate her for that someday, but it just looked so cool.
“I think you’re lost.”
She waited for a response with a hand resting on the Westar slung on her thigh
Movement.
Unable to know if it was friend or enemy, Sagitta front rolled and turned her body quickly to face another being, wearing armor. Can’t have her back to a sudden stranger after all. Judging by the helmet type, it was a Twi'lek. Oooh. She hasn’t really met or got to know any, just from afar. Then she spoke.
With an awkward cough, Sagitta cleared her throat. ‘Take a scouting mission they said, it’ll be easy they said,’ bitterly thought to herself.
“Yes, I believe I am,” Though she doesn’t know who this woman was, so Sagitta was being very careful. Her eyes darted to where the female hand was as her hand casually rested where the hilt of her vibroblade was. Her confidence was sinking fast, she was to start the academy soon after all.
“I’ve been watching you on your missions, outsider. You’re treading in Erinos territory.”
She spoke in Mando'a. If the newcomer wore their helmet, L'ara hoped she could speak their language. Her delicate finger undid the button that secured her weapon in its holster.
“I would like to know your purpose and intentions. Who are you with?”
Great. She was being watched.
Everything her dad taught her, didn’t get through her distracted skull. Erinos…. where did she hear that before? What was a nice pleasant surprise though, she also spoke Mando'a.
“Not quite comfortable to give you that kind of information.” Her heart was pounding as her breathing was steady, usually people dont’ do well when it comes with territory wars and battles. If only she paid attention!
“That’s unfortunate, because I’m not comfortable enough to let outsiders scout our system unchallenged.”
The pistol was out of the holster. Not aimed…yet. but it rested in a comfortable grip at her side.
“We’ve got enemies. Erinos and Arcona. Hard to afford risking them walking around.”
*‘Quick, get out of this situation, no need to escalate things…’ *Her right hand moved away from the vibroblade hilt and went over to the blaster.
“Yes, there’s enemies, but I assure you, I am not one of them.” Feeling trapped and no where to go, her left hand immediately went to the hilt of her blaster as she quickly rolled to her side while attempting to aim at the branch above L'ara in hopes that the branch would land on her or catch her off guard so she could get out.
L'ara let loose a three-round burst from her own pistol, all misses. This newcomer was quick, but so was she. The branch came crashing down as L'ara rolled back and tucked behind the tree for cover.
“Real interesting way of showing it!”
She popped out to take a few more shots, all aiming to be non-lethal.
Rolled safely to a tree, the blasters shot did not go unnoticed, “Can you blame me? You make a woman nervous!” She shouted back as she took in a deep breath. Maybe she’s not an enemy. Maybe she is. Should she really take a risk and drive a wedge between Clans? Might be simple as telling her which clan she was in but thanks to her lack of attention, she has no ideas who her Clan enemies are. Besides, they are two people, how much two people can influence an entire clan? Unless, knowing her luck this woman could be someone really really important.
At least they were in an area when there’s trees and she has one strength on her side.
Running.
With a kick off, she started to run and zigzag through the trees, only to come to an abrupt and sudden skidding halt. She was face to face with a group of… smugglers to put it lightly. They raised their blasters, aimed at her, “Wah!” yelped Sagitta as she dodged down to a boulder. Shit. Might as well and hope that the woman can be on her side. “Hey! Stranger!” She shouted in Mando'a, assuming the woman gave chase, “I’m Clan Arcona and have really shitty common sense!” She waited with baited breath, heart pounding against her chest. She peeked around the boulder and saw they were splitting up and about to approach her on the left and the right.
L'ara sighed inside of her helmet before sprinting from cover to her bike’s hiding spot.
She thanked the Mother that she’d left it idling as she hopped on and ripped the throttle. She wove through the trees similarly to how her target had until she came to where the woman was pinned down.
“Karking mother-kriffer!” She twisted the steering of her bike to slide sideways to a stop. Despite her rapid deceleration, on of the new assailants took the Force of the speeder sliding to a stop directly to his chest.
L'ara hopped off and ducked behind the bike for cover before providing suppressing fire.
“Was this really easier than answering a couple questions?!?”
“With them in the area,” Sagitta shouted back as she propped herself up to over the boulder and used her blaster to take down the one that was coming to her left, first shot, the knee. Second shot, the head. Her father taught her well. When the left one was down, she moved over to avoid the right side incoming fire, “Can you blame me for not knowing who or what you are?!” There was some relief in her voice that she didn’t have to deal with them AND the stranger.
“I WAS HAVING A PERFECTLY RATIONAL CONVERSATION WITH YOU!”
She popped up again and caught one with three shots in the center of mass.
“YOU RAN!”
The Twi'lek reached down to her belt and removed a denton charge, primed it and tossed it where she had seen a handful of enemies flanking her unexpected ally. The small sphere beeped rapidly before detonating.
Remember, L'ara. The explosion isn’t always about thinning their numbers. Sometimes it’s a distraction. All we have to do is get it close. Our friends will take care of the rest.
Jax’s words rang in her ears, drawing out the minor tinnitus she had developed in recent years.
“AND NOW WE’RE OUTNUMBERED IN A FIREFIGHT!”
Sagitta could not believe what she was hearing! Besides the blasters of course.
“YOU-” but she stopped when she heard a beeping noise, took this chance as she prepared herself, when it detonated, she hopped over the cover she was using, drew her vibroblade, quickly she squatted down and turned her body as she grabbed an oncoming enemy’s arm and threw them over her shoulder before fatally stabbing as they landed on the ground.
“YOU DREW YOUR WEAPON FIRST, OF COURSE I RAN,” yelped Sagitta as she quickly punch another enemy at the neck, the impact caused them to lean over slightly as she wrapped her arm around their neck whilst bringing the vibroblade to stab repeatedly at their abdomen as she quickly used the same said now bleeding body to help protect her as a shield from the blasters before going to a new cover place before tossing the body aside.
“I don’t know!” Sagitta smirked, “I like these odds!” Course, didn’t help that Sagitta was better close range or far ranged, not so much trapped like this. “Cover me!” Sagitta shouted, before she even waited for a respond, she jumped over the boulder, hoping the stranger was a good shot and figured she could use her vibroblade and the enemies body as a good shield.
As L'ara listened to the stranger, she called her droid to her and pulled out a sizeable metal disk. She gave the droid its instructions and sent it on it’s way.
When she hears ‘Cover me!’ she swung up with her blaster leveled and opened fire on the enemy.
“I JUST THINK THE ODDS ARE A LITTLE UNFAIR! FOR THEM!”
Sagitta let out a holler of HA! at L'ara’s comment but she was still slightly focus. This is the first time with her being in a battle and not so focused. Usually she hyperfocus but this… stranger brings out a different being in her.
She likes it.
A victim sent out a punch as she side stepped for dodge, grabbed their wrist and put them in an arm lock as she stabbed them with the vibroblade. It didn’t go unnoticed that L'ara was good… really good. ‘Damn,’ She thought, ‘I have some competition!’ They were teaming up well and working through the hostiles quickly. Sadly, Sagitta, even though she was enjoying herself, lack the focus she would needed to avoid harm. She took a few hits but nothing lethal and it helped her get into more locks and be in within range.
That was, until she almost feel back, regained herself and felt something burning at her lower left abdomen. It felt hot. Really hot. One enemy left but her adrenaline was so pumped, she didn’t notice she had been shot somewhere in the mist of the fight. The last hostile was down as she glanced down. Of course, she got hit in the one area where she didn’t have much plating at. “I’ve been shot?” She turned around to face where L'ara was, “You shot me?” She yelped, the aderaline not quite gone yet so it wasn’t that painful. Just felt like she was poked with a hot poker.
A really big hot poker.
“Kriff!”
L'ara vaulted over her cover to sprint toward the downed woman. As she slid on her knees at the taller Mandalorian’s side, she started patting her down.
“Your medkit! Where’s your medkit?! Kark it. Take off your helmet.”
She pulled out her own medkit and went to work
A bit in a daze she glanced at the Twi'lek, her brows furrowed in confusion behind the helmet, “… Medkit?” She asked towards her. Then she laughed weakly, “At dad’s ship?”
Great. She’s going to get a lecture from her dad, Asani, Alex, or hell maybe even the druid. That would be a sight to see. Her fingers went underneath her helmet as it slid off, dark purple with pink hue strands fell onto her shoulder. Burnt mark was obviously on the side of her face as she grimaced towards the Twi'lek, “Easy!” She yelped at the woman, “Don’t need to be rough!” Then panic started to set on. “Kriff, it’s really hot, it hurts, ow ow ow ow IT HURTS!”
“Sorry, I don’t have the best bedside manner, I’m not a medic.”
Once she had the wound exposed. She knew she’d have to disinfect it before applying the bandage.
“This is gonna hurt like a kriffer. On three. One. Two.”
And she sprayed the field disinfectant
“That goes without saying! Let’s just go back to- Wait, what? No, no, nonononononono I -” Then a legit blood curling scream as she rolled over to her side, grimacing. “I”
She exhaled sharply, “Don’t”
Then a groan as she was now laying on her belly, her hand resting on the wound, “Do WELL WITH PAIN!”
“You’ll live, I promise. Besides, I can’t take you back to your people with an untended wound.”
Once the wound was clean, she prepped and applied the bandage.
“Hold pressure on that for me.”
She waited until the Mirialan had complied and removed her own helmet, shaking her Lekku free.
“I’m L'ara. I’ll take over from here.”
Sagitta groaned as she whined, “No, this is it, tell Dad I love him, tell Asani I’ll always be there for her,” She sobbed as she felt a pressure slid between her hand and the wound as she applied pressure. “Sagitta” She turned her head to look at her, “Huh. You are pretty. You would make a woman nervous alright. This is it. This is how I’m going to die. Friendly crossfire. Tell my family they were always right and I should’ve listened better, can you give them my stuff you don’t mind?”
“No problem. I’ll tell them all of that when I deliver your body. Unfortunately I can’t stop the bleeding. You’re right. This is it.”
L'ara smiled as she waited for a reaction from Sagitta.
“You’re gonna be fine you big baby. Your armor caught most of it.”
She paused. She thought back to recent events. How her own actions had cost the flight crew of that transport their lives.
“I’m sorry I shot you. It really was an accident. And I probably shouldn’t have drawn my weapon on you either.”
With that, the bandage was applied. She stood and brushed the leaves and dirt off.
“Can you walk back to my bike or do I need to carry you?”
Sagitta looked at her in horror before she saw the smile, causing her to puff her cheeks in anger. “That wasn’t funny..” She muttered under her breath as she fought the urge to stick her tongue out at her. She’s an adult after all. Mentally sticking her tongue out at her would have to do for now. Then she started to feel bad as she sat up, her hand still on the bandage against the wound, “No, I asked you to cover me after all! I’m okay! Don’t feel bad! Seriously! I’m the one that messed up and should’ve known better where you were and where I was going.” Then she laughed as she waves off the drawing of the weapon, “After… this.” She glanced around at the mess they made, “I can get it. I should’ve been more cooperative.”
Honestly, being carried and taken care of sounded tempting. But she didn’t want her to feel bad, so she got up as she grimaced, “No.. I think I should be okay…” She grabbed her helmet with her free hand to be sure not to leave it.
“It was a little funny. But just a note, asking for cover then running into close range with the targets isn’t the smartest move. Here.”
L'ara moved to help support the Mirialan as she walked.
“So, feel like telling me anything now? I’ll give you a ride back to your people, it’d be nice to know what kind of welcome I’m in for.”
Oh. She was wrong. She wasn’t going to get lectured by her family. Nope. It was a complete stranger. She didn’t disagree though, it… wasn’t smart. “Took them down quick though!” She said with a smile before grimacing as L'ara moved to help her walk. Once the question reached to her ears, her face seemingly to freeze in time.
The memory of him taking down people around her when her face was being burned on the grill. Then her sister telling her the story of how Dad and Asani met. And last, not least, the execution style he did to that guy when her sister and her was hunted down by someone who was attempting to return Sagitta to her parents. “L-let’s not tell them who shot me,” Sagitta laughed weakly, “With any luck they haven’t returned yet and you can just drop me off.”
“You still haven’t given me a clan name, if you have one.”
The Twi'lek paused by the bike, ready to help Sagitta into the passenger seat.
“You know I’m Erinos. But who are you and why are you here? I really just want to know because I want to trust you. You seem legit, but I want to make sure my family isn’t at risk.”
“Ah yea,” She said breathlessly, there was something creeping and trying to claw at her mind that she didn’t realize. The burn on her abdomen was also, somehow, making her feel the burn on the side of her face and her brain was trying to put her back to that moment.
But she was not fuckin having that.
“Clan Armis.” She paused at being asked why she was here as she groans in pain, “Your family isn’t at risk. I’m - well, I was scouting, long story short, when I was six years old, my family got fed up with me talking so much so my dad, well, my biological dad that is, not the dad that adopted me mind you, he’s nothing like my biological dad, just wanted to point that out there. Anyways… right, okay so my biological dad ordered his guard to hold me down, oh we were walking down the street at the time, I can’t remember why or what, I just remember what happened, so there was this food cart nearby so my dad, bio dad, dragged me to it and held my face down, and don’t worry! I don’t mind talking about this! Usually people stop me by now but really, it’s okay! I’m healthy and fine as you can see! Despite, this pain from being shot stupidly hurts right now but seems like talking is helping get my mind off of it.”
“As I was saying, he had the guard take over and dad, bio dad,” she corrected, “Tried to get ahold of my tongue to cut if off I’m assuming, then dad, my actual dad who adopted me, took down the guards and honestly, I thought executed my dad, bio dad, but we found out years later he’s still alive and I’m still being hunted. So! I was scouting to make sure there wasn’t any evidence I was being hunted again, met you, ran, ended up meeting those,” Her head tilted towards the mess they made back there.
“… That wasn’t long story short was it? I suck at that.”
“Not really.‘ She laughed
"But I respect the openness. I never knew my biological parents. My bill of sale was timestamped within an hour of my birth. But Jax, my kinda adopted dad, rescued me, with the rest of the Voidbreaker crew. I joined up with the AEF and got tapped to join the Erinos. Jax taught me almost everything I know about making thing not be there anymore.”
The Twi'lek got sad for a moment. It had been a long time since she had had a nightmare about him. That was, until a little while ago. They weren’t every night, but more often than they had been.
“I guess we have a bit in common.”
L'ara explained a bit about herself and her past. Her becoming sad didn’t go unnoticed.
“Hey!” Sagitta said with a smile, “Look where we are now! Alive, despite being outnumbered and getting shot. ” She joked. “Now come on, this really does kriffing hurt,” grimaced Sagitta before she pauses, “W… where are going?” She realized that they haven’t had the conversation of where they were going. Taking her to an outpost may not be a bad idea. Wait. Was there even one where they were at?
Wow.
This was a shitty scouting mission on her part.
“We’re going wherever the best place to hand you off to your group is. Do you have a comm? Maybe call ahead and get a meeting point?”
L'ara had to hop a little to mount up on her bike. She slipper her helmet back on, careful to make sure her lekku made it into their proper protective sleeves, then offered her hand down to Sagitta to help her onto the rear seat.
“Hold on tight, we’re about to go fast.”
“The ship should be empty at the moment… sooner we get there, the better and we wouldn’t have to worry about coming up with a story. Buir like to shoot first and ask questions later. Sometimes they never get to hear the questions..” Sagitta muttered, which was true. In fact, she’s trying to remember if there was a moment that her father had shot someone and then ask questions. Nope.
“Scratch that, it was always shoot first and they don’t usually live.” Sagitta grimaced as she hopped onto the bike and let out a soft whine as she put one arm around her while the other was still holding the bandage down, “I hate pppppaaaaaiiiiiinnnnn.”
“It’s a good thing I’m quick at dodging then!”
Despite the speed, once it hit cruising velocity, L'ara’s speeder rode incredibly smoothly. Even with the upgraded thrust coils.
“I guess if I meet your dad, you’ll have to meet mine!”
Sagitta groaned softly as she was trying to get her communicator to work but it was being stubborn. What kraking ever. She just helped with directions back to the ship. Not long after, a shuttle should be in their sights. Sagitta slid the helmet back on to keep from losing it cause… she doesn’t want to tell anyone how she had constantly lost her helmet and her dad never let up about it. “Your dad? Sure! I wouldn’t mind that if we ever get to meet again! Stop here, I can walk the rest of the way, and I swear, if you don’t stop, I will roll off” Sagitta threatened, she didn’t want to risk having to move than needed, she was in pain, hurting and wanted a nice soaking hot bath kriff it! The pain was turning her more and more grouchy by the minute.
L'ara considered it. It would have been a little easier.
“No can do. If something happened and you didn’t make it back, it’d be on my hands. I can’t let a sister, even one from a different clan, and an ally fall if it’s within my power to prevent it. Like it or not, you’re my responsibility until you’re home safe.”
The Twi'lek did ease off the throttle a bit though.
“I’ll walk with you though, if that’s what you need.”
A smile spread behind the helmet, “Aliit ori'shya tal'din.” Wulfram has really imprinted that on her and her sister. “There’s no reactions yet so I don’t think anyone is at the shuttle at the moment so that’s perfect.” Sagitta let out a breath sighed of relief and hunched her back before yelping in pain, almost forgetting that she was, well, HURTING.
“FRACK PAIN WHY DOES IT EXIST”
“Lets you know you’re still alive. It’s when it stops hurting you need to worry. Here.”
L'ara stopped the bike and offered a hand to her passenger then prepared to help carry some of the weight of walking on her shoulders.
Sagitta grumbled under her breath. She heard that before but she still doesn’t like it. She grasped L'ara’s hand as she slid down and wanted to turn around and kick the bike when the shock of landing on her feet went up to her body. But the bike did nothing wrong. The pain was gone as fast as it arrived anyways as she turned and held out her hand to L'ara, “Ret'urcye mhi”
L'ara took the hand.
“I hope so. Here, take my comcode. If you need anything, give me a call. I’ll help if I can.”
Sagitta smiles as she nodded, “I will. Let’s.. not tell our dads, agreed?” Sagitta muttered, “Between us.” She smiled softly, she never thought she would befriend another outside of her home… which was the ship. Though there has been talk amongst the family for Asani and Sagitta to branch out. Sagitta had been excited, to learn, to explore, and just absorb everything. However, her older sister, Asani, felt differently.