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Post by Taaru Masako on Aug 8, 2009 20:41:32 GMT -5
Jorunn's response iss as frigid as the golden, honey-combed reflecting visor that masks her face; that is to say, Aaron had no idea how she responds beyond her words, which are noticeably measured.
"You are to learn the basics of movement. MACS do not control like regular powered armor. There battlefield tactical employment is more similar to starfighter or hovertank operations than infantry,' he hears her say, as she boosts power to the repulsors to raise herself up for emphasis.
"Mobility is your first defense and your greatest offense. So, to more directly answer your question...," at this point, Aaron, if he has his outside audio sensors engaged, would hear the priming sound of some sort of engine warming up.
"...you'll have to catch me."
With this, and a a sudden impulse burn from her jumpjets that sends dust and bits of burning grass kicking up behind her, Jorunn pivots and launches off in the direction of the floodplains, bordering the Mansion to the east.
She is already about 2 kilometers away before Taaru, keying in to Aaron's comm frequency, asks: "Well, I didn't hear a thing either of you just said, but it seems your womanizing skills need a little work, if the girls need armored power suits to get away from you fast enough."
While saying this, Taaru has already sauntered off on his repulsor jets, slowly following Jorunn, intent on finding a good perch to watch from.
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Post by Aaron Starkiller on Aug 9, 2009 20:11:34 GMT -5
Having never lowered his own visor, Aaron was still able to faintly hear the sound reminiscent of a priming engine. However, he chose to leave his own jump jets alone for now. Instead he lowered his visor just in time to deflect the debris that Joruun had kicked up with lift-off.
Instead of mimicking the female thruvaran's actions Aaron chose to use his repulsors to glide hastily across the grounds which left him below and only slightly behind Joruun. As he maintained his distance he grinned at Taaru's statement. "All women play hard to get," he replied. "That's what makes convincing them so much fun. And the prize is so much sweeter."
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Post by Taaru Masako on Aug 10, 2009 8:48:38 GMT -5
Aaron can hear Taaru laugh, despite the distortion from the comms.
"If you think this is a matter of debate, and you have to convince her of your position, then you don't know Thruvaran women very well. This isn't an issue of her playing hard to get, this is an issue of her personal honor."
Taaru had made some headway, engaging a slow burn from his jumpjets to give him a bit of a forward boost on his repulsors. Jorunn, meanwhile, has already made it to the floodplains, and is following the river. Engaging the magnification function on his HUD, Taaru briefly sees her swivvel around on her repulsors, checking on Aaron's progress while hurtling backwards across longgrasses and tangles of marsh weeds.
Careful little one, lest you wound your pride.
Taaru opts not to follow Aaron or Jorunn directly, splitting off from their vectors and favoring the higher ground of a ridge paralleling their course, where he can get a better view of the proceedings.
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Post by The Thruvarans on Aug 10, 2009 9:04:29 GMT -5
Miko, watching the proceedings on the screen with Konrad, notices movement in his peripheral vision and turns to the hangar entrace. He recognizes the young woman standing their from her personnel files.
He waves to her, trying to get her attention.
"Ms. Heartshorn, over here."
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Post by Jet Almeara on Aug 10, 2009 9:24:28 GMT -5
"Ice..take over for me will you?"
Jet asked the little droid who beeped an affirmative and plugged himself into the Chaser, taking over control of the camera's tasked with following Aaron and Jorunn. As Devlin left the hanger she had taken note of Avery's arrival and Miko's shout out. Having taken care of the business she had wished to see trough as well as a few extra's Jet decided to head on over and join them. Disembarking the ShadowChaser she crossed the hanger and called two chairs over from the wall, one for Avery who was still approaching and one for herself which she drew up without preamble to watch the remainder of this unscheduled 'event'.
"Miko"
She greeted, nodding to Konrad whom she knew by file only.
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Aug 10, 2009 20:30:13 GMT -5
She tilted her chin up a bit, trying to get a good view when she heard her name over the voices. She stood on her tippy toes looking up and over to where the hands were waving about. She smiled a bit and moved over to Miko, Konrad, and Jet.
"Looking for me?"
Smiling, she stuck out her hand to Miko.
"Avery Heartshorn."
Seeing the chair Jet had pulled over, she nodded a bit.
"Thanks Jet."
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Post by Aaron Starkiller on Aug 10, 2009 20:36:21 GMT -5
"Personal honor," Aaron remarked. "Is that what the women are calling it these days?" With that Aaron engaged the stealth system on the suit, cutting off the comm. When he reached the river instead of engaging his jump pack to maintain his position above it he powered down his repulsors and sunk below the surface of the river, all before Joruun had decided to turn around and check his position.
Once the feet of his suit hit the riverbed Aaron powered down the majority of the suit's systems and it immediately began to cool down with the help of the cool water rushing past. Aaron sat and waited as he tried to form a plan to "catch" Joruun.
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Post by The Thruvarans on Aug 10, 2009 20:37:47 GMT -5
"Miko Reglia," he returns with a firm shake of her hand, nodding to Jet as she joins the little group. "I've heard much about you Ms. Heartshorn. I can't tell you how relieved I am to be working with someone that finally speaks my language."
He is curtly interrupted by a gruff clearing of the throat. Rolling his eyes, he remembers his manners.
"Ladies, may I present Staff Sgt. Konrad Karelia, our Quartermaster. Handy with knifework and all forms of close combat, including Teras Kasi. He's also the best cook this side of the Rishi Maze."
Konard nods to the women in greeting and to himself, quite pleased with himself having successfully induced Miko to observe formalities.
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Post by Jet Almeara on Aug 10, 2009 20:46:20 GMT -5
"Welcome"
Jet responded to Avery as she joined them, before turning her gaze back to Konrad.
"Teras Kasi huh? the last Dark Lord was fond of it, known a few Jedi and Mando's to use it a time or two as well. Nice to have you around in any case."
She remarked, recalling a few pleasant and not so pleasant fights with those using that particular fighting style. Grifter had made her study it herself - though she rarely employed it's tactics.
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Post by Taaru Masako on Aug 10, 2009 20:50:08 GMT -5
Interesting.
Taaru is watching from a rocky copse, using the HUD imaging suite to keep track of both players.
So he's opted for a sit and wait strategy. A fine tactical choice, but it doesn't meet the lesson objective. Still.....we'll see how this turns out.
Taaru focuses his attention on an incoming comm on the line of site mazer system. Jorunn is pinging him from a distance, not wanting Aaron to intercept. For added privacy, she favors Thruvaran.
<<Does he know that the Minovski particle field betrays his presence?>>
Taaru laughs: <<Possibly, Little Boar, but not his location. It seems you have a wilier opponent than you bargained for.>>
He hears a dismissive snort. <<Not likely>> is her response.
Taaru hovers around the copse and focuses his imager on Jorunn and magnifies. She has changed course, veering away from the river and aiming for an outgrowth of the nearby Agrilat Swamp, with its dense wooded terrain.
<<If he wants to play games, then I'll oblige him>>
Within moments, she has disappeared into the gnarled and twisted roots of Agrilat's diverse tree species.
Taaru shakes his head inside his suit as he begins to head down the slope towards the edge of the forest: She just finished cleaning it too....
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Post by The Thruvarans on Aug 10, 2009 20:56:57 GMT -5
Konrad thanks her for the compliment, stroking his beard as he muses.
"Eet ees versatile style. Well-suited for any environment and any situation. Eets only weakness lies with the practitioner, and the limits of hee's creativity."
"I probably have my culinary skills to thank, that I am a Grandmaster of the discipline."
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Post by Aaron Starkiller on Aug 10, 2009 21:22:23 GMT -5
After a few moments, Aaron primed his jump pack and launched out of the water and onto the shore. He looked around but he couldn't find any visual evidence that Joruun was still here. Instead he decided to locate Taaru with his imager, which was easily done considering he wasn't hiding.
Aaron increased the magnification of his imager until he could see the direction in which Taaru seemed to be looking. Using the suit's computer Aaron layed out a 3 dimensional map of the most likely direction Joruun had headed. Sure it was large area, but it was at least a direction. He began walking into the swamp, deciding to use only his imager and exterior audio sensors in hopes of locating her.
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Post by Avery Heartshorn on Aug 11, 2009 2:35:35 GMT -5
Leaning forward, she couldn't help but let her voice raise a little.
"I'm excited too, I've heard alot about-"
The gruff throat clearing sounded off and she sat back in her chair, looking up to regard Konad. She nodded to him and then looked back to Miko making a quick goofy face at him. It only lasted for a flash second before being replaced by her normal expression.
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Post by Taaru Masako on Aug 11, 2009 7:09:48 GMT -5
Aaron arrives at the edge of the forest shortly after Masako does. Taaru is busy scanning with various vision modes, trying to pick up a trace from Jorunn's suit. He is not surprised to see that she is too smart for such easy tactics, and has already taken some sort of precautions.
Taaru turns to Aaron as the younger man trots up next to him. Taaru activates his outboard speakers, as opposed to using comms.
"Hope you don't mind getting a little muddy."
But Aaron seems intent on finishing what he started, and continues into the Agrilat swamp.
The edge of it is a mixture of marshy ponds, wetland plants and younger beorl trees, their thick buttresses and aerial prop roots (an adaptation to continually moist soils) making passage for normal bipeds daunting. The interior of the swamp gets darker the deeper you go. Aside from the occasional break in the canopy from tree fall, most of the light is obscured by the tangle of tree limbs, vines and other epiphytes. Here and there are pools or stagnant water or small streams; leftovers from the last time the river flooded.
Fauna compliments the flora. As Aaron enters the swamp, he spooks a Corellian banshee bird, which takes off with an ear-splitting screech.
Somewhere, in the darkness, eyes are watching him.
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Post by Jet Almeara on Aug 11, 2009 7:51:14 GMT -5
Jet smiled
"Well I've got to say thats the first time I've heard someone relate fighting prowess to cooking."
She remarked although her comment was far from teasing in tone, not only did she not know Konrad enough to torment him in the way she would a few others but she learned a long time ago that everyone found inspiration for their art in different ways. And fighting - regardless of the style Jet regarded as art.
Glancing at the holoscreen she furrowed her brow slightly but made no comment before turning back, catching Avery's look out of the corner of her eye but turned her attention back to Konrad.
"So..Karelia, interesting last name, does it mean anything?"
Jet was mostly interested due to its small similarity with Corellia, it had piqued her interest enough to ask although she didn't expect any sort of correlation. Mere curiosity - fore despite her friendship with Taaru she didn't presume to know much about Thuruvaran culture or language asides from their similarities to Mandalorians - to which she rather hoped they would exceed. Damnable Mandos.
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