Joining the Rebellion

[Keshani]

"I'm fine." She smiled at Danny. "Where would you like for me to start?"

[GM Craig]

"Well, get cleaned up and report to medical for a checkout. Then we can debrief on everything after that. The spores the troopers encountered had side-effects that needed to get treated."

[Keshani]

She took a slow breath, doing her best to both force down and try to make sense of the feeling that was forming inside of her.

On the one hand, she felt almost giddy - this was the first time she had ever been off on an "adventure" on her own (well, since joining the Rebellion, anyway....) And she hadn't even gotten herself killed! (or anyone else). AND she even had information that she could tell people that would be new to them; information she had gathered on her own.

But, the adrenaline from her bout with the natives and the battle droid factory on her own was quickly leaving her, making her feel shaky and drained of energy as well. She was currently fighting this feeling really hard, because she didn't want the others to know what she was feeling; she didn't want them to think that she couldn't handle things on her own.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, wishing the tiredness would go away.

"I really am fine. We can debrief right now if you want...."

But after a Look from both Holler and Danny she shrugged, trying to stay cool (she succeeded in her mind, anyway).

"Ok. If it'll make you guys feel better I'll go get cleared by the docs first...."

She turned to go, and made it around the other direction away from the other two before a yawn forced its way out.

Suddenly walking over to the med bay seemed like a tremendous effort. "Maybe I'll grab a cup of caf while I'm at it, too..", she mumbled to herself.

One foot in front of the other, she told herself, just keep walking.

She felt suddenly alone and unsure, walking into the med bay and hesitated. Another strange feeling. But she hadn't exactly had that many times in her life where there were people to care enough about her to MAKE her get medical attention, and when she had been living on her own she hadn't had any means to GET medical attention even if she HAD needed it.

She supposed she had gotten pretty used to just dealing with aches and pains and not complaining. This all was still new to her....

She sat through the med droid poking and prodding her until she was told she could go. She was feeling like a nap would be a REALLY nice thing right now and it was a lot harder than she had expected to convince herself to get up. But she did.

Grabbing a quick cup of caf to hopefully give her more energy, she headed over to find Danny and Holler.

[GM Craig]

The debrief goes as well as can be expected, though Holler is nowhere to be seen. Danny asks a few pertinent and smart questions, and makes several notes on a datapad.

When you are done she asks, "Do you think the we can work with the natives? They're obviously more advanced than we were led to believe. Would they work with us?"

[Keshani]

"Well, treating them for the poisons they've been exposed to would probably be a good starting point...", she answered

[GM Craig]

Danny nods. "Would you be up to visiting them again?"

[Keshani]

She opened her mouth to respond but then closed it again.

SHOULD she be nervous to go back? Was there something weird that she really wasn't?

They had knocked out the rest of the team, had held her by her helmet up in the air, had made her go with them to their "village", had locked her up.....

She should be scared, right? She should "hate" them and not want to help them?

But they hadn't really done anything to hurt her. They had put her in a "cage", but hadn't done anything more than that. And they seemed to actually WANT help. They clearly needed help....and they didn't know who she was or if she was one of the ones who was causing the people in the "village" to be sick.

So slowly she nodded.

"Yeah. As long as when I go back I have the stuff I need to help them..."

[GM Craig]

Danny nods. "Right. I'll put it together. And thanks for your help."

[Keshani]

"Sure", she said.

She tried to keep her tone normal, but she couldn't help but feel a little....let down? Disappointed?

She managed to figure out all of this stuff on her own, NOT get killed, NOT blow anything up, AND make it back to the base relatively unscathed and all she got was a 'thanks for your help'?

Holler didn't even care enough to come to the debriefing, but she supposed he had more important things to do....

She let out a breath which she hoped was soft enough to go unnoticed.

But then she realized she wasn't quite sure what to do next.

"So. Um. What do I do now?", she finally asked

[GM Craig]

"Go rest up, grab some food from the mess tent, maybe grab a shower. You've earned some downtime."

[You have ~16 hours slack time if you want it. You could always report for work instead if you want.]

[Keshani]

She nodded, again feeling a bit unsure.

She guessed she had let her ego get a bit ahead of her, thinking they'd be more....proud? of what she had accomplished on her own.

But she supposed that's not what the Rebellion was about. They had way bigger issues to be concerned with than one kid.....

She got up awkwardly and left, feeling a bit lost for several seconds, trying to decide what she wanted to do.

But then she caught a glimpse of her clothing and remembered just how long it had been since she had eaten a "real" meal, changed or showered.

Those things sounded pretty good....

************************

About an hour and a half later, after she was freshly clothed, fed and showered, she found herself wandering the hallways of the base again.

Her thoughts wandered to the droid drone that she had brought back from the factory with her.

She had never had any use for droids before. They were mech that she didn't trust, preferring to rely on her own hands to do what she needed.

But this little drone, as well as the others she had enlisted to help her in the factory had turned out to be pretty useful.

She thought maybe about keeping this one with her for a while.

The base had a small workshop area set up where Kesh figured maybe she could work on the droid a bit to make it more useful - a better power supply would be a good starting point...

So she went to grab the droid and head over to the workshop.

[GM Craig]

Keshani strips down the battle droid, salvaging parts and small components. Settling on the head, she adds some small repulsors and some simple fan motivators. It will take a while to rig up a control suite through her suit - the remote would be too simple for independent action - but through her suit comlink and datapad she could use it for scouting and the like. This will be a project of a few days, likely, and ongoing tuning and refining might take longer yet. Her supplies are limited out here - this is a construction camp, and Danny would take a dim view of cannibalizing command consoles and other required electronics for the parts she would need, so enhancements would have to wait.

She is done the chassis and mobility parts of the clunky-looking remote when Hollar comes over to her.

"Thought I'd find you here. I heard the report - sounded like a tough time. Glad you made it back in one piece." He stops, a look of concern on his face. "How you doing, Snaps?"

[Keshani]

She jumped a bit at Hollar's voice, intent in her work, but recovered and paused, putting down the droid head for a minute, but still toying with it on the workbench.

"I'm ok.", she answered, pretty much out of reflex.

"I'm sorry I got the rest of you guys hurt...."

[GM Craig]

He shakes his head. "None of that. It was our job to keep you safe. We broke formation, and that left us vulnerable. That whole thing was out fault, so stow that drek."

he smiles to take any sting out of his words. "We underestimated the local threats. Fortunately, lesson learned, and no permanent damage, right?"

[Keshani]

She frowned for a minute, toying with the droid head on the table.

"Yeah." she said thoughtfully.

"The natives weren't really that bad. They just don't like watching everyone get sick and die, I think. And without knowing what is causing it, why WOULDN'T they blame the next humanoid beings they see present on the planet...."