Open [Rafa IV] The Fool

[Derium Vark]

Derium watched in annoyed surprise as the Jedi outside his cell failed to let him loose from his cell. The fake guard was showing his ignorance by slashing at the controls, locking Derium inside, and no one had tried to cut him out yet.

Derium growled and snarled in frustration as the combat outside continued without him. It was unfair. All that pain out there...he should've been having a part of it. His path to perfection was not inside this cell. It was out there, in the heat of painful battle. But he was stuck inside this blasted padded cell, with nothing but a frock that wouldn't enable any kind of the pain he desired!

Derium then noticed something. The fake guard, when he cut the door controls, had destroyed all power to the door. Sure it was manually locked and impossible to open without a cutting device, but now, the plasma shield over the window was no longer operating. Now, there were only the metal bars that had been left from before Derium was a member of this prison.

"Let me out!" Derium shouted as he began to beat his hands against the bars over and over again. A small smile crept on Derium's face as the shock of the pain jolted up his arms. He continued to shout as he bashed his hands over and over. "Let me out!"

He could hear them. The spirits were howling in the invisible air. Their chosen vessel was calling them, and they were answering. To those Jedi outside his cell, they would feel the Force being called upon inside the cell. But to Derium, all he knew was the spirits were answering his call, and the air around him was getting hotter and hotter as a result. If, and when, those jedi let him out, he would be ready to set something on fire and reignite his path to perfection.

@Darasuum @TheDudeMike @Aurius

 

[Gram Van Alasdaire]

“Lance, it is. Name’s Gram.”

How long has he been away? That was a fairly good question. His recovery had taken some time - he’s fallen out of contact with family and friends both.

“A year, maybe longer..?”

Gram paused. The Council no longer existed? Had the war been going that badly?! To be fair, he was hardly in the know - it would explain why his allies and family in the Order had become next to impossible to track down. If any of them were still alive.

He chuckled at the comment about her friend, before the shenanigans really popped off. As the door opened, and Lance barked to not kill the guards, Gram simply grumbled in the affirmative. Disregarding the fighting, and the usual rantings of the cultist he was trying to release, the Vahla made two quick incisions across the bars holding Derium. Slashing the console had deactivated the cell’s security system, and prompted the alarm. While this sounded bad, it meant the conflict with the Jedi would be recorded by the local security feed. The feed also looped in audio, with the lockdown affecting a guard’s ability to reinforce this corridor. On the off-chance they failed and were killed, the feed would be transmitted to the Republic Security anyways.

The durasteel door hissed shut, blocking the remaining hostiles outside as Gram moved away from the cell, towards the side wall. Derium would be able to leave his cell with a well-placed push on the cut bars. The Vahla could feel the strange energies building about Derium like starweirds to deep-space vessels, but chose to ignore them. For the sake of his own sanity.

The doorway sealed, with a security lockdown in place - the prison’s teams would have to take a bit to override security without breaching charges.

Impaling his saber into the side wall, Gram began to slowly carve an exit into the adjacent corridor, leading away from the isolation wing. The others had already dealt with the hostile presence - so he was on cutting duty.

“Kriff. Lance, when I’m done with the wall take this saber. I’ll manage.”

This was something he personally disliked doing, but it was a show of good faith. That, wanting to stack the odds in their favour. These two Jedi likely knew how to work together, he and looney-bin were the odd ones out. Even as the two Jedi went about, to reply or otherwise, the Vahla kept his subconscious and peripherals focused on Derium.

Just in case.

@Darasuum @Narzen @TheDudeMike

 

[Lance Decker]

Decker was ignorant of Natalie’s blushing, mostly chocking it up to the cold temperatures outside leading to rosy cheeks and flush features. Vanya was a name that had been mentioned a few times in the past several days which was to be expected since she had rallied the Jedi to action and was responsible for the formation of the Jedi Crusaders.

"Decker." He repeated his surname coolly, correcting the man who apparently failed to listen. (@Aurius ) The prison was privately owned and under control of corrupt individuals not to mention far outside of republic jurisdiction not that they even had the assets to spare. Each of them could be killed and erased from the galaxy long before any authorities became aware of it. They were each on their own in this prison with only eachother to rely on. Maybe in a few weeks the Order would send another team of Jedi to investigate but until they found any evidence of what transpired here it was entirely up to the team on Rafa IV to make any progress and survive. Regardless of future events, the only effect that slashing the door controls had was damage the physical controls. The door before Natalie and Decker would remain open until Natalie shut it.

Focusing on the task before him Decker grimaced at the muffled sounds of pain reached his ears on the other side of the door. Natalie had the right idea delaying them a bit longer. The noise from the pyromaniac inmate made glance at the investigator expectantly.

“That’s very absolutist of you.” He said to Natalie. It was his attempt to warn her in a friendly manner she had said something very “sith-like”. It may have been just an off hand quip but it was worth mentioning to Decker. People fought and killed just to survive and live. A wolf was not corrupt just because it hunted its prey. That was just the cycle of nature.

Decker nodded in agreement to Natalie’s plan. “I’ll take a weapon if I need it.” Decker's style of fighting was heavily improvised and focused mainly on using his own body for strikes. The unarmed Jedi usually once in the midst of his foes he would take their own weapons and use them against them before discarding them.

Hearing his first name used by Gram, Decker ignored him. He would wait until the man learned to call him by his preferred name and otherwise ignore him until then. The stranger continued to focus on making an exit and was intent on fleeing but the Jedi had work to do here.

Spoiler: OOC

Damaging a control panel has no effect other than damaging THAT control panel. It does NOT cause a domino effect or chain reaction that miraculously benefits the plot and make this easy.

Lance and Natalie are here on a mission and I am set on completing that mission. You are welcome to make an exit attempt if you wish to flee and avoid danger but the NPCs will be difficult and dangerous.

@Aurius @Narzen @TheDudeMike

 

[Derium Vark]

The Door was loose. The fake-guard had at least done enough to get Derium a way out.

"Finally" Derium snarled.

Now on the other side, Derium looked at his 'companions', and snickered at the fake guard who offered his weapon to the other Jedi.

"You can always give it to me. Such scorching plasma would call the spirits so much quickly"

But he was joking, and his laugh showed it. He knew that no one, not even these idiots, would be crazy enough to simply hand him, the innmate, a weapon like that. Not that he wanted it neither. Such tools were weapons of a different religion. He would rather have his javelin, a weapon that punished the unfocused and idiotic alike.

Derium glanced around. The spirits were screaming louder now. He needed to use them, but how? A glance over towards the nearby medical station where Derium was treated before being thrown in had a few answers. After ripping off his anti-suicide smock and grabbing his own clothes, bearing all to see, he reached and grabbed a curtain.

"Yes..." Derium laughed as he began to channel the spirits inside him into the curtain, focusing the Force into heating it up. "Sweet smoke...blistering, coughing, choking smoke. Pain for the lungs, pain for the soul..."

Within moments, the curtain was beginning to smoke and sizzle before erupting into flames. Derium laughed as he let go of the curtain as the fire began to spread slowly. If he could cause damage to the building, fine. But he doubted the curtains would do that. What he wanted was to create enough smoke in the area to help cloud their escape.

"Breath it in you peons" Derium told the others as he adjusted his hood over his face while the smoke began to fill the room. "Breath it in and let us leave. I want my barb and my crystal"

@Aurius @Darasuum @TheDudeMike

 

[Natalie Hope]

"A philosopher now?" Natalie said, quirking a brow at Decker. Natalie always slept through those classes. Philosophy was all good and great until you added context, then it all went to shit. Only Sith deal in absolutes, yet every choice, decision, and action boiled down to binary options. Either someone was trying to kill her, or they weren't. She wasn't about to roll over and let someone mop the floor with her over a philosophy from an Order that died- multiple times. Quite horribly most times, actually. New Order, new Jedi, who dis?

Thankfully, Decker and Natalie would have to hash out their mental gymnastics skills later. Beef Jerky was now free, of both cell AND clothes. Natalie had seen some shriveled things, but Derium took the... beef jerky cake? Natalie suppressed a gag at that thought. Alright, just gonna look past him, or not at all. Why was she cursed with eye-sight? And now he was setting a curtain on fire- in an enclosed room- with only one exit that was covered by heavily armored goons.

"Alright!" Natalie cheered, clapping her hands around the lightsaber hilt she held. "Sprinting toward our deaths at record speed!" At least he made a smoke screen. Natalie turned toward the door and made her way toward it, not just to get ready to go out but to delay having to breath in enflamed curtain as long as possible. "Smoke screen won't do much unless we push it out into the guards." The Force coiled around her left arm, readying it to blast the smoke out the door the moment it opened.

"I'll push the smoke. Decker's on point," she said, casting a grinning side eye to him. "Since you want to be all complicated about who gets stabbed and who doesn't." She turned to... Gram was it? Can't really call him Sus-Ass now that she had his lightsaber. Gramcracker? Too easy. Fuck it, she'd come up with something later. "You follow him out. I'll keep an eye on Beef Jerky." Man just set fire to curtains and has been talking like he loves pain. He was lucky Natalie wasn't yeeting him out first.

@Darasuum @Narzen @Aurius

 

[Gram Van Alasdaire]

“You wouldn’t like how I’d ‘give’ you this lightsaber...”

The mystic was partially convinced his saber would bleed if ever Derium got ahold of it. Gram’s carving of a new doorway was paused when the maniac started to release himself from the cell. The Vahla kept his amber eyes on the man. The two Jedi were conversing, with Decker seeming to have come to a similar conclusion to Gram regarding some of that aggression.

Regardless, now Derium was buck nude. Gram completely turned away, as he considered carving out his own eyes. Dear Force. That was an absolutely abysmal sight.

Decker was being cold, which didn’t seem abnormal from what little Gram had observed. Completely ignored his offer. Perhaps it was a trust thing? Maybe he was simply too distracted by the woman, and the stripping pyromaniac, to bother with the offer. The man had been guarded since he arrived. For a Jedi he was not the most open sort. Whereas, his companion seemed almost eager. Borderline bobbing in preparation for the conflict.

And Derium was lighting a kriffing curtain on fire. This man had the mental capacity of a squirrel with carbonite poisoning. The veil of his patience cracked, due to the stress as well as the utter absurdity of Derium’s actions.

“By Vahl, can you STOP SETTING KARK ON FIRE!”

His voice snapped across the room as he ripped his lightsaber from the wall. His cybernetic fist closed as he began to consider knocking the madman out, or acting on his previous musing and just impaling him.

Would dragging this guy out take too long?

He slowly eased the pressure on his cybernetics as the female Jedi broke into a potential plan. His attention turned to their strategy - namely, engaging them directly. Decker expected Gram to flee, which was only slightly offensive. At least, if he cut their way out, they’d be able to catch their opponents off-guard. A frontal assault was pretty risky - wasn’t about to let them engage, alone, with only a madman at their back.

The Vahla nodded to Natalie as she clued him in on using the smoke as cover. With Decker taking point, the Jedi asked him to stack up. Shaking his head in incredulity, Gram stepped up behind Decker, keeping his saber in a tight boxed stance. Wouldn’t want his fellow Jedi to be cut in half.

“Alright, just be careful with him.”

Glancing at the man, Decker, Gram would raise his eyebrow. His head cocked backwards slightly to see Derium and Natalie, both preparing themselves in their own ways. At least the wrinkled special needs psychopath was wearing clothes again.

”This is a great plan. Living is overrated anyways.”

@Darasuum @Narzen @TheDudeMike

 

[Lance Decker]

Spoiler: Music

Song

At first Decker wondered if he had missed a smoke grenade but amidst the melee he could tell that it was the inmate who had started a new fire. With this in mind he held his breath using his expert bodily control. A corrupt guard tried to aim the butt of their blaster at the larger Knight while he was distracted. But he raised his arm inside the swing and stopped the arms forward motion while his free hand grabbed the muzzle of the blaster, controling its direction and preventing it from being fired. Decker's forehead closed the distance and cracked the guard's helmet. Having enahanced his forehead like the rest of his limbs, the man's helmet shattered and spiderweb cracked as he fell back.

Decker repeatedly lashed out, struck and swept guard after guard without using any weapon. One after another armored bodies ended up sprawled ontop of one another. Most of them were knocked out cold and otherwise incapacitated. The tools of destruction in the hands of the guards got in their way. Decker ripped a baton from the hands of one guard only to throw it into the face of another. The baton bounced of the guard in a violent zapping crack only for the weapon to become airborne momentarily.

Decker caught the stun baton and hammered it into the back of another guard's knees. The melee was brutal and savage while also effecient. Amidst their comrades it was a danger for the guards to be too careless or they would injure one another. Already a few guards had taken accidental stun bolts to limbs. Not a finger was laid on the Knight as he pushed forward beating the fight out of one hostile after the next.

A moment later and everything was quiet. Decker stood over the hallway of broken bodies with his broad shoulders rising and falling. He could taste the smoke in the air and knew the longer they stayed the harder it would become to keep fighting. More were probably on the way but he had no intention of staying. "Let's move."

Looking for his shoulder, Knight Decker waved for the rest to follow him. He led them up through the prison towards the warden's office. There would be some opposition but that was expected. He sensed fear and it was mixed with guilt ahead. They felt a reckoning coming, the walls closing in as justice approached.

The prison compound was a decent size but as predicted, the penal colony could not dispatch all guards their guards. The rest of the prison still needed to be on alert in case this event was capitalized on by other prisoners. Those that were available had been commanded to intercept the Jedi Knights and their cohorts or sent to reinforce the Warden's office or the armory.

@Narzen @TheDudeMike @Aurius sorry for taking so long

 

[Derium Vark]

Derium laughed as one of the others yelled about him setting things on fire. He ignored the welp however, and continued to follow the others. As much as he wanted to be the one leading the charge, and thus, receiving the most pain, he recognized that he wanted his weapon of choice first. He would not lower himself to the weapons that the guards dropped in the midst of combat. Such implements caused less pain than desired.

Plus, it was enjoyable to watch the fighting.

"Hahaha!" Derium laughed as he stepped over the bodies. "Such idiots deserved their fates."

Derium recognized the way the group was going. The warden's office would be a fortress in its own right, but not impenetrable with the Jedi's lightsabers. The Madman remembered when he was held for hours in the office bound to a chair while being questioned. That warden was an annoying clod, and teased Derium about his useless weapon being his now. He kept it in his desk.

The Shaper smiled as the group turned a hallway that would lead towards the office. Four more guards were at the end of the hallway behind a barred doorway. As one they, began to raise their blasters.

"Duck" was the only warning Derium gave the others while he tore a piece of fabric from his clothes. The cloth instantly erupted into flames in his hand. There was a reason the guards forced Derium to wear a suicide smock. Not because he wanted to harm himself, by no means. It was because somehow, Derium could always start a fire, and the smock was the only thing that wouldn't burn easily.

Now having a small flame in hand, Derium pulled his hand back while focusing his pain into it. The spirits roared as the flame grew larger to the size of his fist. With one clean motion, Derium flung the small fireball down the hallway, where it exploded upon hitting the door. While the explosion wasn't grand by any means, the force of it was enough to startle and knock the guards off balance.

"Hahaha! Fear the spirits and my perfection!" Derium laughed letting

@Darasuum @TheDudeMike @Aurius

 

[Natalie Hope]

Natalie moved behind Beef-Jerky, because that was the best place to watch over him. Now one might think this was a good idea, but Natalie could assure everyone who thought that, that it was in fact a mistake. The man's smock was already torn and battered, and he seemed to want to tear more from it. What this meant, was that Natalie got the wonderful view of a wrinkled, beef-jerky looking ass the. entire. way. It was almost enough to make a girl go vegetarian. Almost.

She said she'd push the smoke and push the smoke she did, creating a smoke screen for Decker and Gram to go do what hopefully they did best. For the first time since arriving to the planet with Decker, she was glad he was around; the way the man hiya'd the guards- like nothing could hurt him and he had everything under control. It was probably utter chaos, but man if Natalie didn't think she was watching a holo-movie featuring Hris Cemsworth or Cenry Havill. Ooooo she should watch one when she got back! Perfect idea Natalie! For now, Beef-Jerky ass. Uhg.

Natalie followed the group through smoke, guards, and Beef-Jerky decided he wanted to become one with the Fire Nation. While it was in her best interest, and that of her compatriots, to not allow the man do to literally anything except putting clothes on, she let him do his thing. Flame on, brother, flame on. His little bit about spirits and being perfect was a bit odd. He did have some great balls of fi- NATALIE DO NOT FINISH THAT THOUGHT PLEASE!

"First off, Beef-jerky, nice fireball. Second, you are about a hundred trips to the gym and several high-stakes, skin-grafting surgeries away from being perfect. Maybe tell the spirits to stop lying to you so much," Natalie said, glancing over her shoulder as a group of guards began to close in. Finally, a reasont to turn around!

Natalie spun, igniting the homie's lightsaber and spinning it in front of her to deflect blaster bolts. It wasn't killing the guards if the guards were the one that pulled the trigger, right? Even so, Natalie tried not to deflect any directly back at the shooter, but man if they weren't just walking right into the bolts. What if she saw things as normal but they saw things as super fast? Was that what being a Jedi is like? No no, it's much more likely the guards were just inexperienced with anything fighting back. Yeah, it was a them problem! Natalie was perfect.

@Darasuum @Narzen @Aurius

 

[Gram Van Alasdaire]

The smoke filled the corridor as the durasteel doors hissed open. Decker was the first out of the door, quickly disabling a guard who'd tried to take a potshot at him with a rifle. As he stepped out, Gram kept to the right of Lance, advancing with his saber in his left hand. The Vahla stepped into a horizontal slash, cutting through the barrel of the closest guard's rifle before freeing his cybernetic arm to haymaker the man to the ground. The guard contorted as Gram's fist impacted his helmet with a deafening thud.

The next group seemed to prefer batons, but quickly realized those twigs were useless against heated plasma. The greatest challenge here was not the enemy, but rather minimizing the damage to them. Gram caught the first swing with his saber's blade, kneeing his opponent in the chest. He winced as he felt bones crack beneath the blow. His partner barreled into the Vahla, jabbing him in the chest with the electrified baton. The Van Alasdaire grabbed the man's wrist and twisted, striking him in the head with the saber's hilt.

Derium's fireball caused a downward swing meant for his head to miss. In response, the Vahla quickly cut a minor nick in the Rodian guard's calf - causing him to drop before stomping him directly in the head, knocking him out. Checking his left, he noticed that Decker had all but decimated his portion of the enemy. His partner had likewise disabled or incidentally killed the remainder that had elected to pick them off from a distance.

"The Warden's Office is ahead."

Decker told them to move, and so Gram did - pushing down the corridor at a measured pace. The rest of the guards were likely stationed inside the office, hunkered down and trying to get them into a chokepoint. Nonetheless, he'd follow the Jedi's lead, keeping his saber raised to defend against any incoming blaster fire.

@Darasuum @Narzen @TheDudeMike

 

[Lance Decker]

A few guards were quick to the trigger and managed to fire off a few shots towards Decker. The man was without a lightsaber but not defenseless. Being in the lead, Deck did not wish for any of the bolts to strike any of his companions. Both of his palms shot out in front of him and seemingly "caught" the stun bolts before they impacted him. The blue light dissipated in a flash akin to an impact but had in fact been neutralized with the Force leading to no lasting affect on the Jedi.

Before Decker could counter he heard a word of warning from behind and knew better than to ignore it. The burly boxer dropped down to kneel in time for a bolt of orange fire to hurtle past where his head had been. The fiery ball flew down the hall into the surprised expressions of the guards before exploding in a magnificent blast. Some of the corrupt guards tried to dive away for safety but it was in vain as the bursting fire ball caused them to be carried off their feet.

Decker dared to spare the pyromaniac a glance. Natalie however said everything already on his mind so Decker saved his breath and got up. The threat of an attack from behind drew the other Jedi's attention which also motivated Decker evermore to push onward. Decker spared the energy and picked up one of the stun blasters, shooting a few of the still-moving guards as he walked passed and subsequently dropping the blaster when he was done.

Inside the Warden's office were two unconscious guards, smoking from the explosion that had wrenched the doors from its connection to the wall. Cowering behind an ornate desk was a pantoran who was a little younger looking than Decker would have expected. He was wearing the clothing of a businessman but had a pin and symbol on his collar and chest respectively that each betrayed his identity as the Warden.

Not willing to go without a fight, the man raised a holdout blaster and fired at Decker. Similar to how he had done before, the Knight raised his hands and blocked the blaster bolt. But the man fired again, and again. Decker could not block all of them. The energy from the blaster began to burn his hand.

With each pull of the trigger, the Warden backed away from the desk but Decker took a step into the room. Through gritted teeth and an expression of focused will, he dashed across the room. Decker knew he was at his limit for blocking energy barehanded. Dropping down to his knees he allowed one shot to pass over him, striking the wall just to the side of the door. Summoning the Force into both hands he stood back up and flipped the man's desk across the room and slam into the desperate Warden. The heavy desk would block the last blaster bolt the pantoran fired before slamming him into the wall behind him and knocking various books and trinkets off of shelves that had been on display.

Now the posse of "special investigators" just had to deal with any guards that came behind them. But until then they would have a little bit of time to interrogate the Warden, provided he was not comatose. Decker sucked at pulling his punches, not that he ever tried to. The same went for using the Force. But at a cursory glance the man just seemed to be knocked out with maybe a broken bone or two. He would live.

"Wake up Warden..." The bloodied and bruised man tried to rise but the desk kept him from moving far. Decker leaned on the desk and kept it from moving any further. "Nice of you to join us. I have a few questions for you. Tell me what I want to know and I'll leave you alone. If I find out you're lying to me or keeping anything of importance I'll come back. Do you understand?"

The pantoran continued to struggle for a few moments to try and push the desk but it only led to a fit of coughing. Stopping his pointless attempts to escape the interrogation the Warden gave an expression of submission and acceptance. "We know you have a life crystal operation. How are you getting these crystals?"

"W-we found an orchard. We've been using prisoners to harvest from the trees. This isn't even my operation." The Pantoran tried to shrug like he was innocent but Jedi knew better. "Where do the crystals go after you harvest them?"

"Wesellthem! We sell them on the black market, usually to merchants AND smugglers that have loose ties to the Syndicates."

Decker looked around for the public announcement system but realized it had been on the desk. The Jedi needed to collect it if he was going to say anything. Thankfully it seemed to also be operational though he would not be able to tell from inside the Warden's office anyway.

"Tell your guards to stand down and then we can have a proper conversation, unless you would rather we keep talking like this." After a moment of consideration the Warden nodded. "I'll do it. J-just get this ahHaa...karking off of me."

End Thread​

@Narzen @TheDudeMike @Aurius