Session 27: The Infinity Path, Part V
General Summary
Day 11, Morning
At The Resort in Northwest Coromons, Tomla and Lyshea head to northeast treeline of the island's coast to try to get a signal on their comlinks to call for help with the invading The True and Loyals. They try to camouflage themselves with mud and grass before crawling across the open grass area between the hotel and the trees, but the guard on the terrace notices something out of place. He sends a droid toward that area to check it out. Before they are discovered, Tomla lifts a piece of debris with the Force and throws it against the east side of the hotel, causing the droid to change course to investigate. They take the opportunity to resume their crawl, but the droid finishes its investigation before they make it and once again heads toward their area. Tomla tries the same trick again, but the droid doesn't take the bait. Running out of options, she decides to use the Force to break off a branch from a tree a ways from their location, causing it to crash through many other branches on its way to the ground. The droid does take notice of this and heads toward the tree. This gives them the opportunity to make it to the treeline and the edge of the island, but unfortunately their comms are still being jammed. Making their way around the outer edge of the island, they continue clockwise along the cliff edge hoping to get a signal eventually.
Meanwhile, Kyp Durron and Lem decide to go investigate the Yuuzhan Vong camp on ViGureni since they have the parts they need and Rin is taking care of getting the hyperdrive. Unfortunately, none of the speeder taxis go to Vigureni, so they need to find their own speeder. Kyp says he knows someone that will let them borrow his speeder in Lower Coromons, but Lem gets the feeling that this is another one of Kyp's less-than-legitimate approaches. At one of the poorer housing facilities, Kyp buzzes down a Bothan named Utri. After a not-so-friendly exchange of words, Utri reluctantly agrees to let Kyp borrow his speeder as long as he brings it back in once piece.
Flying across the ocean to ViGureni, Lem parks the speeder on the beach where they landed The Mynock's Wing a week ago and they head into the jungle. After wandering aimlessly through the jungle, trying to find his way back to the Vong camp, Kyp says that he senses something stalking them. Lem quietly tells him to get down; a Coromon Headhunter has picked up their scent. As they try to maneuver behind it, it pounces from a tree right at Lem. Thanks to his experience with the beasts, Lem is able to tumble forward, causing it to land behind him As it turn and pounces at Kyp, the former Jedi Master ignites his lightsaber and slices cleanly through the animal as it lands. Seeing that they don't have as much to worry about as the last time he was here, Lem takes off into the jungle at full speed, finally finding his way toward the Vong camp. As he and Kyp stop for a moment to catch their breath and confirm that they are going the right direction, they realize that all of the noise that they made crashing through the jungle has attracted more than a half dozen headhunters to their location. They are surrounded. Kyp calmly puts away his lightsaber and tells Lem to do the same and to focus with him. As he does so, he feels a massive surge of calming Force energy emanating from Kyp. As he focuses on this, it grows and spreads from their location. As it reaches the headhunters, the animals suddenly calm, no longer interested is hunting their prey. As they walk off into the jungle, Lem and Kyp breathe a sigh of relief, have a quick snack of local mushrooms, and head toward the Vong camp.
Back at The Resort, Tomla and Lyshea continue making their way around the island. Not having any luck with their comlinks, Tomla reaches out in the Force to Lem telepathically, telling him "enemies". Lem tells Kyp what just happened, prompting Kyp to reach out to Tomla and ask her if she's ok. She responds "trapped," so Kyp tells her that he is deep in the jungle, but will send help. Lem reaches out to Major Jason and explain the situation. Lem asks for his help as a personal favor, and Major Jason says that he is happy to send a squadron over to the island immediately.
With help on the way, Tomla and Lyshea head toward the main plaza to assess the situation. There are still over a dozen droids and T&L soldiers in the plaza, as well as a Twi'lek who looks a bit out of place. Not long after, they see an ISS speeder headed toward the island with a half dozen security personnel on board. However, as soon as it reaches the island, a large ion cannon fires from one of the starships on the island, disabling it and spilling out the security personnel. Five droids quickly head toward them to intercept and finish them off. Seeing the danger they are in, Tomla uses the Force to throw a large fallen tree between the security personnel and the droids, causing the eruption of blaster fire to harmlessly hit the tree instead. This gives the security team time to dive for cover down a small cliffside and onto the beach. Now that her location has been given away, the droids focus in on Tomla. She tries to use the Force to yank one of droid's arms off, but instead just throws it at another droid, causing them both to fall to the ground. Seeing an opportunity to get off the island, Tomla then uses the Force to pick up the massive landspeeder and pull it toward her. However, something so large takes her quite some time to levitate the long distance to her location, and the droids are closing in on her. Seeing no other option, she tosses the vehicle over the cliff, down to the beach with the security staff. As she takes cover behind a nearby tree from the droids, Lyshea heads toward the beach to help the security team. Tomla follows.
Now at the Yuuzhan Vong camp, Kyp and Lem discuss the best way to gather their intel on the aliens. Lem opts for the direct approach and calmly walks up to the front entrance of the structure and knocks. Soon after, a Vong warrior looks out, sees the two of them, then goes back inside. As Lem and Kyp start moving silently around to the side of the building, the Shaper that Lem tangled with previously calls out to him, mocking him, calling him "Onirra's pet". Kyp steps forward and announces himself, and Lem calls out in Vong that they are here to relieve them of their post. The Shaper responds in Basic that their flesh is forfeit. Kyp, tired of the taunting, strides into the structure to face the enemies.
As they enter, Lem sees that although the Vong are of courses waiting for them and that they are badly outnumbered, there are fewer Vong here than when he was here last week. As the warriors close in to attack, the Shaper offers Lem the Embrace of Pain if he surrenders. Relying on his usual approach, Kyp gathers his energy and sends forth a massive blast of Force energy - which harmlessly passes through the Force-immune Vong. He then ignites his lightsaber and begins to fight, but he is not used to being Force-blind against his enemies and loses control of his weapon, causing it to fly across the room. Lem, being much more experiences against the Vong, uses his lightsaber to keep as many of the Vong warriors off of Kyp as he can. As Kyp takes blow after blow from the warriors' amphistaffs, he slowly adjusts to fighting without the Force. As Kyp pulls his lighsaber to his hand from across the room, he slices through one of his attackers in a single motion. Lem incapacitates another warrior attacking Kyp from behind, and Kyp vaults over two Vong racing in from another room, neatly decapitating both of them as he sails over them. Seeing that the battle is turning against them, the Shaper throws some kind of plant-ball at Kyp, releasing spores into the air when it impacts him. As Kyp inhales the alien spores, he begins to cough, but he is otherwise unharmed. Lem takes out the two remaining warriors surrounding him, twirling his lightsaber over his head and hitting them both. The Shaper runs into another room and they chase after him. When they find him, the Shaper is using a villip to communicate something in Vong about "Jeedai", and then curses Lem and Kyp before using an implanted toxin to kill himself. While Kyp is still focused on learning as much about these capable warriors as he can, he continues coughing. Lem explains to Kyp that he has been infected by some Vong tech and insists that they get him medical help immediately.
