[OOM] Kazic III.

[stuck_mynock]

Out in the vast forests of Kazic III, the carpet of snow is rather abruptly disturbed as a flash of green light sends snowflakes flying outwards and animals fleeing.

A moment later, a green line appears in the air, and widens to admit (more like toss out with considerable force) three people. It flickers for a moment, before creaking closed again, and vanishing with a puff of greenish-white flame.

As far as worlds go, it's one of the more interesting ones to land in. The trees are evergreen and ridiculously tall, the snow is thick and heavy, and the sky has no sun to speak of, just shifting and glowing clouds in shades of gold, pink, amber and red.

Comments

[guppy_sandhu]

"Godzilla would be." Guppy points out, before he realises Teja probably hasn't heard of Godzilla.

"Kate, are you getting cold?"

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"We're almost there. It's not that bad yet." Granted she did feel a little cold, and her eyes checked to make sure none of those insects were sneaking up on them.

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"Who's Godzilla?" Jaq asks, as they reach the edge of the hill. Below, a cluster of buildings - some metal, some wood - can be seen.

[ostro_goth]

"There we shall find warmth and transport!" Teja says, walking faster.

[guppy_sandhu]

"Big dinosaur thing." Guppy says to Jaq.

"Ah, thanks lad." He digs in his pocket for some credits and gives him a good tip, and a couple of mars bars. He then digs into his kit bag, finds an extra jacket, and chucks it to Kate.

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," Kate remarked and put it on. Well who knew? Especially coming from warm summer back in the bar and spring at home?

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

The credits are stuffed away, but mostly ignored. Jaq scarfs the mars bars down. Lyman starts running off down the hill towards the settlement, and this time Jaq doesn't try to hold him back.

"You won't find any transport there, though. I mean, some tauntauns which were imported from Ilum and Hoth, and maybe a couple of speeders, but there isn't a spaceport down there."

[ostro_goth]

"Speeders are good enough, to take us to the spaceport," Teja says. "Speeders are very useful things."

He has never heard of tauntauns, of course.

[guppy_sandhu]

"I know how to ride a tauntaun." Guppy says, bracing himself for questioning from Kate.

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate had heard of tauntauns, but she had never ridden one.
More staring at Guppy again.

"You do?"

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"It'll still be a couple of days journey," Jaq says, mildly. "Usually, anybody wanting to go to a big city with a spaceport waits for a trade convoy. Those have guards and big guns and sonic devices for warding off animals, like the settlement. There's usually one once a month - more, if there are travelling tradesmen."

[ostro_goth]

"So we go in there, find a place to stay, and wait for the next convoy," Teja says. "Did anybody bring a chess set?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"How do we find a convoy, and how often do they go?"

Beat.

"I have Scrabble."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"A month? What should we be doing for a month? Games are going to get old after a couple of days."

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"I think the last one came about two weeks ago."

[ostro_goth]

"For two weeks, at most," Teja says to Kate, "you shall be busy missing Will, Guppy, his wife and child, and I, my Charlie; then, we shall be off to do what we came here for."

Pause.

"And if we need a distraction from the yearning, then we may play scrabble; I am sure Guppy will teach me, as I for one have never heard of that game."

[guppy_sandhu]

"Or we could take tauntauns or speeders and try not to die."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

"I've had to go for longer missing Will than this. I'll be fine."

Kate added, "I vote on keep moving. It's just wolves and snow wraiths right? It's doable."

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

Nod. "Wolves and snow wraiths."

Beat. "Well, and bandits. Sabertoothed lions. If you're going through open terrain, you may end up attacked by monster crows, too, but they'll keep away when you're going through a forest. Snowmites, but they're pretty easily killed. That's all, I think, apart from earthquakes and avalanches."

It's like a planet that was specifically designed to be as murderously uninhabitable for intelligent life as possible.

[ostro_goth]

"That is an interesting list of foes we are facing," Teja says. "How large are the tigers with the sabre teeth?"

[guppy_sandhu]

"Do you think we can do this?" Guppy asks the others. "We need to balance out the risks with the gain of time."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate grimaced. Ok two threats are one thing. But this was looking less likely.

"Ok... on second thought. Maybe we should wait. That's a lot for just the three of us, not counting more than one at once." She wasn't sure she had enough arrows and could cut down as much if they were mobbed."

[stuck-mynock.livejournal.com]

"The lions? About as large as the wolves. Big enough to take down a speeder."

As they enter the settlement, most of the people there - ragged, worn down people who are almost without exception tall and dark haired: A lot of the men even have a stark resemblance to Atton - keep their distance from them.

A group of three people head straight for them, though: An old woman with enough guns to probably conquer a small planet; a rather dignified and battle-scarred old man; and another man who looks to be in his late thirties, almost as well-armed as the old woman.

[ostro_goth]

"Greetings," Teja says to them. "These children have helpfully led us here; perhaps you can help us?"

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy wonders if they can pay some people to accompany them sooner than a convoy would.

"We're looking for safe passage to the nearest Spaceport." he says.

Though what they're going to do when they get there, he has no idea. He has a way to transmit his location to Atton, sort of, if he's around nearby. But it's not something he can afford to do right now and he's got no idea what kind of distance it works over.