Indiana Jones and the Sith Stone
Posted by: Darth Danno 04.30.08 12:01am

The Transdoshan known only as "Slaver Blade", nicknamed after his favorite weapon of choice, picked two of his fellow hunters to return to the entrance of the Shadowlands and keep watch. Each took up a strategic place surrounding the landing spot to await the basket's approach. Minutes turned into hours, and the only fighting the trio did was against the boredom that assailed them. Slaver Blade kept glancing up, hoping to see some sort of downward movement indicating the basket was on its way, but nothing came. Then, he heard an odd noise. He cocked his head to listen more closely, trying to determine the source, and the direction from which it came. He growled in disgust when he realized the origin of the sound was from one of his compatriots snoring. He fired a rifle shot, hitting the snoring slaver's foot, waking him up with a snarl and a snort.

"You shot me in the foot!" He bellowed.

"You're lucky I couldn't make out your exact position laying amongst all that foliage," Slaver replied. "I was aiming for your head! Stay awak... "

Perhaps it was his hunters' instinct, or it could be he caught an all too familiar scent, but he realized something had changed. He quickly glanced around, looked up, and smiled. Though it was still quite high up, he could definitely make out an object descending into the Shadowlands, and that object was ,the basket.

"They're coming!" Slaver Blade whispered loudly to the others. "Get ready!"

The three ducked down to conceal themselves as best they could so as to not be seen by those coming down in the basket. Slaver Blade drooled in anticipation of the coming carnage. Soon he would have some adult Wookie pelts, and more importantly, some dead, skinned Wookies lying at his feet. It was about time he got to do some serious fighting instead of all this hiding and sabotage. He was just trying to decide if he should kill the Wookies quickly, or make them suffer awhile? Should he allow the rest of his party to make some kills, or should he slaughter everyone in the basket singlehandedly? The Scorekeeper would be most pleased with his efforts. All that remained was for the basket to come to ground.

The basket continued its slow and steady descent towards the forest floor. From this position, Slaver couldn't make out how many were in the basket. He couldn't even see anyone IN the basket. There had to be someone in there, didn't there? The Wookies wouldn't simply send down an empty basket, would they? If they did send it down empty, why? He was aquiver with anticipation, and questions.

As the basket drew nearer, Slaver Blade could start to make out shapes of the figures within, and what odd shapes they were. On one side, it looked to simply be a leg hanging over the side, over another, an arm.

"What are they doing up there? Hiding? Sleeping?" He asked himself as he watched these events unfold. "Something definitely stinks about all this. And it's got nothing to do with us not bathing in quite some time."

He held his position, and his efforts finally paid off as the basket finally came to rest on the floor of the Shadowlands, and what he saw really confused him. There were numerous Wookies in the basket, but they were all... dead? Each one of them lay about the basket, and each other, in some odd position. Even when the basket came to a stop, not one of the hairy forms moved a muscle.

"This HAS to be some sort of trap!" He snarled to himself. "Alright. Let's see how long they can keep up this charade."

The other Trandoshans who had accompanied him knew not to make any moves until he gave them the signal, so Slaver didn't have to worry about either of them jumping the gun... hopefully. He was in a much more comfortable position to wait this drama out than those Wookies were with their arms and legs in all sorts of uncomfortable poses,. Now it simply became a test of wills.

Again, minutes ticked by as neither party gave in. Slaver Blade was cunning, deadly, and a brilliant tactician in times of battle. His downside was he was also quite impatient. Finally unable to take any more, he rose, left his hiding spot, and cautiously approached the basket, watching for any hint of movement. Not seeing any, he proceeded to close in on the Wookie corpses. Once he was upon them, he poked the barrel of his rifle at the nearest Wookie's skull. The head moved slightly from the applied pressure, but other than that, remained still. Slaver couldn't understand what was going on. Who would want to lower a bunch of dead Wookies down here? Did his brethren up on the walkway have something to do with this? He had tried to reach them before, but had no success. This was all quite strange, and somewhat unnerving. He stretched, craned his neck to release some of the tension, and caught a glimpse of a figure sliding down the rope that had lowered the basket.

"NOW!!!!" Master Tenuto shouted as he continued his descent down the rope.

Suddenly the six Wookie forms in the basket sprang to life, brandishing their bowcasters that they had concealed under their bodies. Slaver Blade did a speedy retreat, trying to get some cover, as the Jedi Master released his grip on the rope and landed in front of the Wookies. One Trandoshan got Chewbacca in its crosshairs, but Honj saw the Trandoshan first and with a single move, flung his lightsaber at the reptile, cutting him down.

Slaver Blade fired his weapon like a creature possessed. This was his time to shine, to be recognized and commended by the Scorekeeper. No mere Wookie or Jedi was going to deprive him of that. He was Slaver Blade! His father was a great hunter, as was his father before him. He had a reputation to uphold, he was...

Shot dead through the head by a bowcaster bolt.

The remaining Trandoshan managed to get off a lucky shot, felling one of the Wookies. Tenuto wasn't about to let him get lucky with another. He somersaulted through the air, landing a few meters in front of the killer and cutting its blaster rifle in two. A moment later, the Trandoshan met the same fate.

"Quickly!" Honj commanded Chewbacca and the others. "I'm sure the remaining slavers have heard the firefight by now, so the element of surprise is moot. Let's just hope the Trandoshans don't attempt to cut their losses by harming the cubs."

With speed and stealth, the lone Jedi and five Wookies made their way over the darkened terrain, none were sure how many more slavers might be down here, but that was of little consequence compared to the safety of the young Wookies.

Master Tenuto held up his hand. "I sense we are close."

Carefully and cautiously, the group approached the area surrounding the Trandoshan campsite. Honj had the Wookies take up positions around the perimeter. For creatures of such size, the primary inhabitants of Kashyyk were able to move around with quite a bit of stealth. The Jedi gave them a few moments to get into position, then peered over the crest of his current hiding place to see what he could see, and what he saw made him drop his lightsaber.

The Wookie cubs weren't only safe; they had been freed from their cages, and were sitting in the center of the now slaver-vacated camp around their savior... Professor Indiana Jones.

Honj stood up and scratched his head, trying to figure out exactly what had transpired since Indy had fallen into the Shadowlands. He saw the eyes of his Wookie raiding party looking quizzically back at him from their concealed places around the camp. Apparently they were as confused as he was. He gave the "all clear", and signaled them to come out.

Upon seeing Tenuto and the Wookies entering the compound, Indy commented with a smirk, "what took you so long?"

Darth Danno