The Brothers Three

[William Belargic]

"Aye."

Will nodded his head thoughtfully. He'd heard stories and witnessed some of the inhabitants of Hallaera himself... from a safe distance. It perplexed him somewhat on how a once civilized people could turn so, well, uncivilized.

He looked at the table they sat at, and hit a button on a small console in front of him. In the center of the table illuminated a whirling sphere of the system. Will pressed some more buttons, zooming them into where Hallaera orbitied, and further into the planet where they would be landing. He pointed to the spot.

"On a little trip my crew and I took about half a year ago, we landed the ship here, near this river under these cliffs. It has dense vegitation, but the vegitation is low..." He continued to point, letting his finger trace the map, "until about here where the trees grow very tall."

He lowered his finger. "It makes for a good place to land and conceal the ship. We of course would leave a few of the crew here... a skeleton crew at best, and take the rest with us as back up, leaving them to follow at a distance bhind to keep anyone from coming around us."

He smiled somewhat mischievously. "I have yet to see anyone outdo my crew when it comes to stealth. They could probably hear you breathing before you even noticed their weaponry pointed at you." He sighed. "Of course, we were lucky the last time we came to Hallaera in not being detected. I can't continue to think our luck will hold out all the time."

[Dasquian Belargic]

“These people didn’t seem the types of subtlety,” Dasquian mused aloud, “Then again; it is possible that we simply encountered a handful of what is really a vast population. We spent all of our time in the Sovereign city… it is quite likely that there are settlements spread across the rest of the planet. With being sent away from the planet at such an early age, we were never given the chance to see anything more than the capitol city itself.”

Dasquian turned to William, a grave look in his eyes. His voice was calm and sincere. “Promise me that we won’t go down their armed to the teeth. It’s not my way, William – it’s not our way. They fled when they saw my lightsaber. I know that we need to defend ourselves, but we don’t want to appear like we’re some kind of invasion party. It’ll only alarm them even more.”

[William Belargic]

Will looked as his triplit for a moment, studying his face. With a sigh and nod, he conceaded.

"Alright, you have my word. We won't go down there 'armed to the teeth'. We'll carry concealed weapons, and the few archers I have will be part of the party that remainds behind us at a distance."

He taped his curved sword at his hip. "I'll even leave this here. I will however take my dual long-knives with me, but those are worn on my back and thusly not noticed as a threat... out right at any rate."

The ship bucked gently. Will looked up and then out towards the windows in the room. "It looks like we're entering the planet's atmosphere." Outside, the blackness of space began to take on a faint glow, but only faint, as the ship decended into the night side of Hallaera.

He stood and made his way to the door to go back to the bridge. "Better get our brother up here and inform him we won't be going out in full force. Somehow, he doesn't strike me as being the one to have 'the way' of not being armed to the teeth." He spoke this as he passed by Dasquian, gesturing for him to follow Will onto the bridge.

[Aaron Belargic]

Once the two brothers had arrived onto the bridge it was not long before the third joined them. He and the engineer had played another hand of cards before Aaron’s nerves had finally gotten the better of him. Seeing the Jedi’s obvious discomfort, the crewman had conceded defeat before urging Aaron to rejoin his family on the main deck. Approaching Dasquian and William, Aaron caught sight of Hallaera through the ships front view port. They had entered the atmosphere mere moments ago, although it would have been easy to remain oblivious to this – unlike the ships the twins were used to, this vessel moved smoothly even through the roughest of star fields.

Anxiety was self-evident in Aaron’s posture and manners, Dasquian did not need his skills as an empath to see that. “Not long now. Don’t worry, brother.”

“Don’t worry he says,” Aaron exchanged an irritated glance with William. “I don’t know how you can remain so calm when we’re venturing into the unknown… quite possibly to meet with these Cursed Ones again.”

Dasquian sighed. His brother had spent too much time away from the Temple, and now lacked the composure he had once carried so flawlessly.

[William Belargic]

Will gave Aaron a hearty pat on the back, enough to send a few organs rattling against the Jedi's rib cage.

"Think positively, brother. If it's one thing I've learned from my short encounter with you two, is patience." He quirked an eyebrow towards Dasquian. "Ok, well, maybe a wee bit more from one of you."

He quickly clasped his hands together to forestall any comments to what he'd just said. "ANYWAYS, we have a job to do. Time to head on down to the airlocks."

With a very characteristic bounce in his step, he briskly walked towards the lift that would take him below where his venturing party awaited him. As he entered the lift, followed closely by the twins, he called over his shoulder.

"First mate! You have the bridge! Keep her safe!"

As the lift doors closed, a hearty "Aye aye!" was heard from his second in command.

Now in the relative quite confines of the lift, Will went over in his head what they would need, mummbling at intervals. "Concealed weaponry... lighter on foot... no large equiptment... archers to the rear..." He went on like this, as if oblivious to the other two Hallaerans with him, until the lift doors open and spilled them onto the cargo deck where a half dozen pirates awaited them... armed to the teeth.

Will stopped just outside of the lift, shook his head, let out a hearty laugh, and then began to relay to his crew that they were to go out with concealed weaponry due to the delicate nature of the inhabitants. With much grumbling, the pirtaes removed the large weapns from their backs and sides, but kept smaller weapons that were easily concealed within jackets, pant legs, and small satchels. To the archers, Will informed them they were to take a position behind the main venture party, several paces back, as a back-up. Finally he informed them that they would be traveling on foot instead of using the hover vehicles some were already clamoring on. With some more dejected sighs, they dismounted the vehicles and came to stand in a semi-organized line, facing their leader.

"This isn't going to be easy, not for any of us. We've heard the stories, hell, some of us have even expereinces what the natives here can do. But we're doing this to unravel a mystery... a mystery I know all of you would like to have answered." There was a collective nodding of heads and affirmative grunts. Will smiled his charming lopsided grin, grabbing a twin, one under each arm. "And with the help of my brothers here, we'll find that answer yet!" This let out a cheering whoop from the gathered pirates as the ship settled on a patch of soft moss and brush.

At the ramps controls stood a uncharacteristically burly and very fair Hallaeran. He hit the controls and the ramp lowered slowly into the midight mist. Small insect sounds and wild animals calls filled the cargo hold, silencing everyone and putting them all on alert.

Will looked out into the unknown and took in a deep breath, forcing a small smile onto his face. "Gentlemen... off into the night we go." With that, he led the half dozen pirates into Hallarea's wilds, flanked on either side by his brothers.

[Dasquian Belargic]

As they moved through the dark woodlands, Dasquian felt a creeping sense of foreboding. He had begun to feel it the moment they had entered the planets atmosphere, and now here on the surface he could sense it even more keenly. There was an eerie quiet to the forest, the keep that preceded an ambush, yet he could feel no trace of other life nearby. Something had changed since he had last been here, and not for the better.

“We’re going round in circles,” a voice murmured. Dasquian glanced over his shoulders and saw that a small group of Will’s crew were growing somewhat uneasy. At Dasquians command, the group stopped, each of the ‘pirates’ watching their Jedi guides with a degree of skepticism.

“Aaron,” he spoke in a hushed tone. “The Jewel is landed at a bearing north east to the bridge. Can you work out the quickest way to reach it?”

The Jedi Padawan nodded and lowered himself into a kneeling position. Adopting a typical stance for meditation, he began to focus upon the Force and the world around him, allowing images of the terrain and landscape to unfold in his mind. After some time had passed, Dasquian spoke.

“This won’t be quick,” he explained to the others, some of whom began to sit down. “But don’t take this as an opportunity to rest. We must keep our…”

crack- Dasquian cut himself off, looking left then right. They were not alone.

[William Belargic]

Everyone in the party froze. They'd all heard the distinctive twig snapping. Had it been an animal, the chipring of birds and insects would have continued, but everything was deathly quiet to the point of seeming deafening.

Will made a motion with his left hand, and his crew quietly without so much as crunching a dried leaf disapeared into the brush. As for Will, he instinctively went for his cutless with his right hand to unsheath it. It normally hung on his left hip, but when his hand got there, the weapon was missing. He cursed inwardly having remembered his promise to Dasquian about not going in "armed to the teeth", and had even promised to leave his sword behind.

Instead, he lowered his hand slowly, keeping both of them free if he needed to quickly go his his long-knives at his back.

His crew at this point was completely concealed, and the few archers they had as part of their party were a few paces back from the main party. Only the three brothers remained standing in the path they had created through the forest, listening, muscles tensed.

Will hazzarded a question, strained at a low, almost inaudible, whisper, "Do either of you sense anything through the Force? Cause my gut sure as hell is sensing something."