Pirate's Folly

[Insanity]

Vaerin sighed as he pushed himself up and faced his two 'allies'. While the Jedi might not have believed anything he said, it was fine by him. "History is divided up and facts are lost, young Jedi. Study the histories that haven't been touched by Jedi or Sith... and you will learn the truth, in its entirety." He left that discussion with that bit of wisdom as he returned to the true issue at hand. He considered the Sith's words, agreeing partially as he approached the navigation console and plugged the wire in there. He re-set the co-ordinates, the ship dropping out of hyperspace before entering it again. As it did, he answered their questions. "The criminals, what are left and haven't already been overrun by the prisoners, can be left in Hutt space. They'll find that the Hutts aren't very forgiving, but they won't be killed. They'll find themselves as indentured servants, workers in the Hutt underworld. A nice bit of justice, returning the favor for those lives they're already ruined. You can return to your ship when we arrive, Sith. I, myself, will take my leave on the next stop after that. The Jedi will likely remain aboard the ship as it arrives in Alliance space, correct?"

 

[Rameth]

Hal was about to interject once again but this time he held his tongue. There would no changing the minds of either man and you can't win them all. He wasn't sure if leaving them in Hutt space was preferable to imprisoning them however. Seeing as the Hutts weren't very kind to their slaves. It seemed that both men were aware of this even as they asked for it. It left Hal with a bad taste in his mouth, even more so when he spoke up to agree.

"Fair enough. We will leave them in Hutt space and yes I will remain on board to make sure the prisoners are released to their homes. Hopefully they can be returned to where they belong without much hassle.", Hal placed his lightsaber on his belt, realizing he no longer had any need for it. "As for a ship for myself well, I guess I will just use the one this key card goes to." Hal said pulling out the key card he took from the armory. Looking around the bridge Hal also realized something else. "I will also have to deal with this vessel. With the crew gone I guess it will be up to me to decide what happens to it." He wondered what would become of the vessel when he brought it to the Alliance.

 

[Zach]

Ruthric nodded to each of the Force sensitives, agreeing with Vaerin of going their separate ways, while acknowledging the Padawan's confirmation. The pirate ship would be taken back to Alliance space, but that was all good and well. The assassin had no issue or problem with the Jedi taking the vessel as his own, and perhaps he would see it again one day in battle. Ruthric turned back to the slave and finished his command to haul the unconscious pirates to the nearby escape pods. He would surely be finished by the time the gray Jedi and himself made it out of the hangar.

Making his way to the door, he turned his face over his shoulder to the others and asked, "Ready to move on, then?" He awaited one of them near the console to unlock the blast door, as it would be unnecessary to cut through it without the need to. He assumed the Padawan would watch them on the view cameras, observing their path and controls from the bridge. Even from any survivors that secured their helmet sin time would barely be a challenge for Vaerin and himself.

 

[Insanity]

Setting the last of the jump co-ordinates, he nodded distractedly and approached the console near the door. This time, he didn't plug the helmet-wire in, entering a short sequence instead. The blast door opened, as did the main door to the bridge. A small group of unconcious pirates lay outside it, one having been slumped against the door now falling back to hit their head on the ship's flooring. Turning back to the Jedi, he spoke again. "The first stop will be in Hutt space. The second will be on the Alliance-Hutt border. The third, Corellia. Small, intermittent jumps to get us to each location in the shortest time. I suggest you rally the prisoners after the pirates are left in Hutt space, so as to make them presentable to the Alliance authorities."

Turning, he stepped over the sprawled pirates, the lowered life-support keeping at a near-minimum as it tried to adjust to the intake from the bridge. He followed his own mental-map, as he kept a remote eye on the ship's systems.

 

[Zach]

Ruthric walked from the bridge, following in Vaerin's footsteps around the unconscious thugs, he sensed out and felt the pirates' presences in the hangar. They too seemed unconscious and deprived of air, with only a half dozen wearing helmets. From their base emotions, most seemed concerned, even frightened. A couple of the older, more experienced vets of their group had kept their wits about them, taking cover and setting explosive charges by the entrances. Ruthric detected their movement and intention of action, recognizing that as experienced as they were, there was no evidence of mental shielding training, and it would be easy to interpret their actions.

As the pair approached the sealed doors of the hangar, the assassin closed his eyes and sensed outward, picking out the most rattled and senseless of the group. He was a coward among the group, sticking out from the ship's crew like a sore thumb. The fool's mind was easy to penetrate, allowing the Sith Crusader to infiltrate the man's thoughts and influence his actions. With little effort, he made his range of suggestibility open to only his own desires, taking control of his priorities and instincts.

The power of turning an enemy to your side was a built-up technique of Force Persuasion, allowing a Force-user to avoid risking his or her own life and still removing an enemy from the situation. As he felt his hold on the pirate solidify, the Sith ordered him to take his rifle an shoot each of the others, aiming for the tanks of oxygen on their backs. They weren't aware of the stabilized environment, and had still worn the canisters they'd attached to their backs, open to the surprise attack.

The first shot burst from the barrel of the slave's rifle, making contact with the back of the pirate between two others. The small explosion blew the pirate away, knocking him headfirst into a wall and knocking him unconscious and badly injured. The other two were blown to the sides, burned from the fire, but not hindered. The two following bursts hit one of the burned thugs in the chest, while the other missed. He fell backward, either dead or incapacitated from the shot. The other turned about to fire at the enthralled target when he pulled a pin from his torso, releasing the blinding light from a flash bang.

The room was bathed in a bright light and Ruthric took his chance, opening the door and raising his arm. He released his hold on the slave and refocused his efforts on the set explosives, slinging them back into the group with telekinetic power. Their sensors grazed over the two veterans and detonated, sending shrapnel across the lower part of the room and into the legs of all but the experienced ones, who had hopped over their cover for safety. Now, their lives were in the hands of Vaerin, as Ruthric had done his part.

 

[Zach]

As Vaerin remained still Ruthric quickly stepped inside, he raised his left hand at the furthest pirate of experience. A spark of electricity coursed across his knuckles before a solid bolt struck his target, singing a burning hole into his exposed chest. The suit had burned away, revealing a scorched and cracked black mark. With his right arm, the assassin gripped the one further to the right in mid jump, slamming him downward into the cover face-first. He'd leaped over the barricade to avoid the explosion, uncontrollably smashing his face into the metal in disorientation. Quickly after, he plummeted to the floor before sliding across to the far wall. The second pirate was swiftly knocked unconscious and tossed aside, allowing Ruthric a clear path to his fighter.

Without delay, he used the Force to raise the cockpit of his fighter and leap into it. The subtle Hssiss beast still remained hidden inside, curled up comfortably in the back as his presence and image was concealed. None of the guards had seen him, nor made any attempt to get inside the fighter, so he didn't have to worry about changing the settings. Although the assassin checked his systems anyways, the coordinates were swiftly punched into the hyperdrive unit in the stealth ship before exiting the hangar.

"It was a pleasure meeting your acquaintance, Jedi. Perhaps we will meet again, under more allied circumstances," he suggested hopefully, wondering if the Padawan would possibly see benefits to reaching one's true potential through not the path of the Sith, but merely the Dark Side. All emotions and personal attachments were considered to be a part of this, rather than the Light's restraint and discipline in one's control over emotions. "The same to you, Gray Jedi," he added before cutting off communications and blasting off into hyperspace. Soon, he would be back at Korriban.

 

[Insanity]

((Sorry for delay.))

Bloodshed was no longer something worth entertaining, to Vaerin. The Sith was more than capable of dealing with it. And Vaerin let it be so, as he stayed in the corridor, hearing the blaster-fire and screams from the hangar. Death, wounds, silence. He withheld a sigh and walked through, into the hangar. Pirates were sprawl about, death, dying, unconcious. Once more he shook his head.

There was no finesse, no real manipulation in any of it. Ruthric had used a blunt object to batter through something that could've been cut with a simple whisper in the right ear and a knife in the right hand. Once more, a confirmation that Vaerin was no longer a part of the Sith Order. Another imbalance to correct, somehow.

He approached his own ship, the Coruscanti Moonshade, and keyed in T-8's normal comm channel. It served as a backup activation signal as well. The ramp lowered soon enough, the astromech spekaing in binary at Vaerin in a rush. "I know, I know. Next time you can go check the drifting ship, eh? Gives you more purpose." The droid made an indignant sound, followed by some coarse binary language. Moving into the cargo hold, he noted that everything was as it usually was - empty, devoid of cargo, and no secret compartments or niches open.

A nice surprise, really. The cockpit, though, was another story. Some idiot had rummaged through the small bag beneath his cot, spreading his things out in a mess. Shaking his head, he motioned for Tate to plug in and start getting systems running. Comms came first, along with Ruthric's message. The Sith didn't stay in range long. He'd left and the pirates' vessel jumped into hyperspace along the routes Vaerin had set. He put his things away and settled into the pilot's chair.

Tapping into the large vessel's comms, he directed it to focus on the bridge as he spoke. "Once, in years past, there was a child on Dantooine. His mother and father cared for him, taught him, and he came to be a common sight in his small community... until, of course, the Jedi came." He paused in his seeming narrative, eyeing a timer that would say when the main vessel dropped back into real-space. Then he continued. "The Jedi spoke to his mother, who was an important woman in the community. Afterwards, she killed her neighbors and her husband. Her son was elsewhere, drunk at the age of nine and having his own adventures."

"But... when he returned to the only home he'd had, he found himself hated and outcast. The sins of his mother were his to bear. So he fled, went to space. He was a slave and slaver alike, serving aboard a freighter. He was kind to the slaves, because the captain of the vessel said he should. That captain became, in a way, his second father, his second chance to live a life without knowing his potential. He learned a lot, aboard that ship... Life in the galaxy, debts and promises, how things were, how to find people you could trust to work effectively."

"And in the end, he left that life. He became an urchin on Bastion, where he grew... He killed, he fought, he ran, and he carried messages. By chance, the Force saved him. Condemned him. A Sith caught him and taught him his first lessons. Lessons that were just as important as the rest." His voice trailed away, silent, quietly. His next words were half-warning, half-assurance. A lesson for someone who needed lessons, from someone who'd learned them by chance. "There are many people in the galaxy, young Jedi... No matter who they are, they've learned a lesson or two. And those lessons set them onto a new path, as chance or the Force dictated. Be wary when you judge others... because if you do so lightly, without thought and consideration, you'll find that people judge you without thought nor consideration in return."

"We all have our paths to follow. Consider your own choices carefully, but don't hesitate to act. Don't remain passive when action can serve better than mere words. But again, be wary of your choices and judgements. Every action has a consequence, no matter how small. Everything you decide, echoes... and those around you, near you, are touched. That is the simple truth of the universe, the one certainty the Force offers. As much as people wish for Light and Dark, for simplicity... the universe isn't that simple."

The timer stopped, the vessel dropped from hyperspace. A small smile touched Vaerin's face as he spoke his own farewell. "Goodbye, young learner. Until we meet again." The Moonshade eased out of the hangar and into open space, moving beyond the ripple-area around the seized pirate vessel. As that ship vanished back into hyperspace, he set new co-ordinates for his ship. Things to do, people to meet, and promises to fulfill.

A balance to maintain.