"Thanks," Ariella said as she picked it up. "Hey you're one of those Sith Jedi things aren't you?"
"I was," Marik replied remembering the fight between him and his master. He walked out and turned the corner just enough to not see her but to ask her questions. He heard a zipper.
"So why were you tied up?" Marik asked.
"Well, these Duros came on the ship saying that I owed them money. Which I didn't. When I told them I didn't have money they said I was a liar. And you can imagine what happened next," Ari said, voice muffled as she slipped the robe over her head.
"So this is your ship?" Marik asked as she walked out of the hold in the robe.
"Yes it is. The Talon," she replied as she strode down the corridor towards the cockpit. Marik followed her.
"So where are you headed?" Ari asked Marik as she sat down at the controls.
"Valeria."
"Well it seems like we're there." The ship dropped out of Hyperspace and a blue-green planet loomed in the window.
In the few moments after coming out of hyperspace, Zuin quickly assessed the situation.
So this is what you’ve gotten into Deev.
Dead in space, Deev’s ship was snared by a Valarian cruiser’s tractor beam and being swiftly reeled in. Zuin figured he needed a plan fast.
He could not just stand by and let them take Deev, he was a valuable contact, and a rare smalltime friend. Deev had supplied Zuin with several of his now prized possessions, in exchange for something else of course, including his highly illegal custom repeating blaster.
He couldn’t just open fire on the cruiser; he couldn’t risk getting on the bad side of the Valarian government. Unless he could totally destroy the cruiser so fast that they couldn’t get any transmissions off that is. But while heavily armed, his modified police craft the Astro King, just did not have the firepower to crack the two hundred meter warship’s shields. Much less vape the whole ship in time.
An idea began forming in his brain.
If he could talk the captain of cruiser into letting him transport Deev and save them the bother…or something. He would have to make it up as he went along. As he reached for the comlink he suddenly froze.
A massive tan head lunged from the abyss in the asteroid, an exogorth, a huge space slug. Zuin sat with his mouth hanging loose, as the monster closed its jaws on the cruiser’s nose. Then quickly as it had come, the slug was gone. But one thing had changed--the cruiser no longer had a nose.
Zuin’s tactical display showed that the Valarian ship’s shields were down and the tractor beam holding the Free I, and its shields were damaged.
Mentally thanking the slug for solving his problem, Zuin flicked switches and pulled his ship around, facing the cruiser’s engines. Now was his chance to rescue Deev. He knew he could blow the cruiser now with one massive attack.
Zuin unleashed the full fury of ship, his two turbolasers blasting repeatedly, burning into the engines of the damaged cruiser. Before the crew of the cruiser could react to this second unexpected assault, the lasers had done their work. The already weakened shield gave way and the turbolaser blasts found the reactor.
Watching the resulting explosion of orange heat, Zuin fervently hoped that Deev wasn’t too close.
Skirting the still moving debris, Zuin moved towards the asteroid. Pleased at the sight of the Free I still floating motionless and apparently none the worse from the explosion, he did a quick barrel roll and opened communications.
“Contacting the Free I, this is Zuin of the Astro King.”
“About time Zuin. For awhile there I thought you were just going to sit back and enjoy the show. Hey, could we continue this discussion later? That slug may want a second course to that meal, and I wouldn’t want to be his dessert.”
“Quite. I’ll get you with my tractor beam.”
“Wonderful, another tractor beam.”
Zuin chuckled. “Well, at least I’m not quite as demanding as Valarians.”
Zuin maneuvered his ship close to the Free I until the airlock hatch on the top of his ship could latch onto the Free I’s undamaged port side hatch. As the locks pressurized, he began plotting the route through the field to Valaria.
Presently the lock hissed open and Deev staggered into cockpit of the Astro King. Dressed in a zero g vacuum suit, he slumped against the wall while he pulled off the helmet.
Sticky trails of blood covered half of his face.
Zuin was none to moved. “You look awful.”
“Did it occur to you that it might feel awful? Where’s some bacta? I don’t want to go back to my ship for some.”
“That’s base ingratitude. I come save you from detention and a slug, and all you do is ask for bacta. Well it’s somewhere in the small hold, it’ll have a big bacta symbol on it, can’t miss it.”
Deev just hunched his shoulders and turned to leave. “Who knows, you might turn me in for the reward yourself. I’ll be back in a while.”
“Fat chance.” Zuin said to Deevs retreating back. “Where else would I get such sweet toys of destruction?”
“Now for some fun acrobatics.” Zuin murmured to himself. He fired up the sublight engines and started through the asteroid field, swooping over and around asteroids in a smooth dance.
-----
(sorry for the long break, I guess, hmm, maybe I'm not that sorry, oh well )
~S.P.E.W~ "Special People Enthusiastically Writing"
*sigh* "Another day, another death course."
Ratchet
When Deev had cleaned up his face he surveyed the damage in a mirror. It wasn’t that bad, unlike his ship. As he sprayed the gash on his forehead with bacta and wrapped a bandage around it, he began a mental list of his ship’s needed repairs and prices. Adding up the cost, he groaned.
Deev threw the medical supplies back into the case and went back to the cockpit. As he dropped into the chair at the copilot’s position, Zuin glanced up from the controls.
“You don’t have to worry about the Valarians, Deev. I was listening to their com frequency and the Sword of Pellor didn’t have time to get off a mayday. So I doubt we’ll have a reception party waiting for us.”
“It’s not that, I don’t have enough credits to fix Free up, I’m gonna be stuck here for a long time.” He buried his face in his hands.
“Come on Deev,” replied Zuin, looking down and fiddling with the controls, “you can just sell a couple of those RK repeater rifles, like the one you sold me and you’ll be back in business.”
“It’s way more than that, besides I don’t have a line to those anymore. My supplier got shot in a weapons bust a couple of months ago.”
“What about your current cargo?”
“Not enough, most of it’s all small value. Except for the Zynthyeen.”
Zuin turned to stare at him. “You got Zynth? That’s going for big creds right now. I thought you didn’t fly that kind of stuff though.”
“I don’t. When I loaded up I had no clue the stuff wasn’t legit. Who in their right mind would be getting high off a fuel stabilizer cocktail anyway?”
Zuin laughed, “Just bantha brains I guess. I always thought blowing up stuff was more fun myself.”
“You would.” Deev grinned as a recent memory hit him, “well I’ll figure out something I guess.”
When they reached Valaria, Zuin disconnected the Astro King from the Free I and Deev hired the space port’s tug to tow his ship down to the repair dock.
As the Astro King descended towards its designated landing bay, Deev stared blankly through the viewscreen at the other ships landing and taking off. In a nearby landing bay two people dressed in robes were just leaving their craft. When they had gotten off the ramp, one of them, a young fellow with a sharp, intense face, gestured at it with one hand and the ramp swung up. Deev suddenly sat up straighter and stared at him. It had been an ordinary gesture except Deev could clearly see that the hand was empty with no sign of a remote. It was almost as if the ramp had been willed shut.
A Jedi, thought Deev, one of the galaxy’s self-appointed police.
He instantly hunched up in his seat even though the he couldn’t possibly be seen from the ground. He quickly relaxed though; he surely wasn’t big enough in the smuggling world to send a Jedi after. Probably the guy was just waving at someone still inside the ship. Yeah, that could be it. Still he watched the pair closely as they walked towards the city entrance and passed out of his view.
Later, after Zuin had haggled over the docking fee with the manager and Deev had bribed a dock assistant to hide the Zynthyeen for him, the two hired a taxi to take them somewhere to stay until the Free I could be fixed up. The dock assistant had mentioned a nearby bar as a cheap place to crash so they went there first.
As they pushed through the beat up doors they could hear an argument at the bar; a short cloaked figure appeared to be threatening a red-faced barkeeper.
“…don’t know where he is. No don’t…”
The barkeep began gasping and clawing at his neck, his features growing livid.
“He…hasn’t…been here…for years.”
Suddenly the man’s eyes stopped their frantic rolling, staring in Deev's direction.
“That’s him!”
Deev spun around to dash out the door but bumped into a grey cloaked man coming in.
Calling all Ringers, your presence is required at the Middangeared group...Please?
(Well, it's about time. Be sure to PM everyone and tell them the storybook is back up.)
Deev only had a moment to stare into those blue eyes, but when he did he felt something. He couldn't describe what it was, but it felt old and powerful.
The woman, who was most likely a dark Jedi, approached them. "It's about time you showed up," she said to Deev. "Hold still and I'll make this quick." She pulled out a lightsaber that emanated a bright red beam.
The blue eyed man pushed Deev out of the way and pulled out his own lightsaber. It was as red as the woman's.
Rage showed clearly in her eyes. "We are both Sith. Why are you getting in my way?"
The man pulled out another lightsaber and activated it. This one was green. His voice held an unearthly calmness as he spoke. "Sith and Jedi are no more than words to me. I follow neither path."
Something close to surprise and interest flickered in the woman's eyes. "Niror Andaar, or should I say Grey? My master told me all about you."
The stranger peered over his shoulder at Deev and Zuin. "You two, leave now before it is too late." That tone of utter calmness never left his voice, even while he was fending off the Sith woman's lightsaber with his own.
Chicken <-- Egg <-- Rocket Powered Fist Take that, science!
Special abilites: Uses the force to enhance his body's performance. Keeps a red lightsaber to remind himself of the Empire's cruelty.
History: He became a bounty hunter after the Empire destroyed his family. He soon became known for such feats as tricking an admiral out of his Star Destroyer.
Kale actlivated his lightsaber and whirled. It was an Imperial drone, not much trouble. He tapped into the Force and leaped, so fast the drone's sensors couldn't keep up.
In less than two seconds, the drone was in halves on the floor.
"Impressive," said Luke from behind him.
Kale grunted and powered down his saber. "So, what's our objective?"
"The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart." Miles Vorkosigan
"You can be an author if you learn to paint pictures with words." Brian Jacques
(Empire? That's a few thousand years away in this time-line. It's about a century after the end of teh video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. You're going to have to change your profile a bit.)
Chicken <-- Egg <-- Rocket Powered Fist Take that, science!
Kale clipped the saber to his belt. He stretched slowly, wincing as his wrist twinged. It was his fault; he'd gotten it stuck in a processor on Kessel. It was a wonder he still had a hand.
"Say, Kale, how do you like your Droid Fighters?"
"Fried. Why?"
"There's a whole passel of them on our tail."
Kale swore and made his way to the bridge. His black cloak swirled in the low gravity.
"How many are there?"
"I count seventeen."
"Enough to make a good scrap, I see. Power up all shields."
Jaca already had. She grabbed the turbolaser controls and blasted the nearest fighter.
Two more sped into view. Kale nudged one of them with the Force. It crashed into its fellow, sending white-hot debris spattering against the Bolt's shields.
"Two down, fifteen to go."
"The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart." Miles Vorkosigan
"You can be an author if you learn to paint pictures with words." Brian Jacques
"Come on. Let's go to a cantina. Maybe they have a room or two for rent," Marik said to Ariella.
"Fine." The pair walked to the nearest cantina. He noticed flashes of red and green coming from inside. Lightsabers. Marik grabbed for his. Nothing was there.
"What's wrong?" Ariella asked Marik.
"Nothing. Let's wait for the bar fight to end," Marik replied. They sat down on a durasteel bench. Marik listened to the fighting from the inside. He could feel the foot work and lightsabers. One of the combatants made a mistake. He wondered which one.
Kale fired on another fighter. He was in his element: battle. The Force was a living shield, the droid fighters a pinprick against the net of space.
Jaca whooped. "Yes, Kale, we did it!"
As always, Kela woke from his trance and shivered. It was moments like this where, he somehow knew, he was closest to the Dark Side. Anger became his fuel.
"Hey, are you all Knight?" His copilot chuckled.
"Yeah," he said with a grin, "just wrung out."
"Now approaching Coruscant." Kale switched off the alarm. Annoying gadget, he thought. How'd I ever pick it up?
"The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart." Miles Vorkosigan
"You can be an author if you learn to paint pictures with words." Brian Jacques
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