Showbiz

[Mig Cabra]

Mig was surprised to hear he was chosen to help protect a pop star at a concert. It did not seem like a usual rebel request. The Gotal Engineer was excited about it though. What an opportunity to make some cool friends! Mig was even looking tough lately by carrying a bowcaster on his back with armor and gear all over. He could fool some into thinking he was a mercenary. Mig the Gotal Mercenary. He loved it.

"Hello fellow protectors of famous singer Malani Telsh! I am Mig!" His monotone enthusiasm was strange and the regular security seemed perplexed by his existence. "I hope we can all be friends!"

Most of the security ignored him. That was probably a good thing for everyone involved. Soon the concert would begin and they had a job to do. Other Rebels were out here to help with the job as well. If things got heated they would certainly find each other and protect the girl. Mig felt invincible after his last encounter and was ready for anything.

It was a fairly simple venue, which made things tough. The stadium was round and had many entrances with seating all around the performance area. Malani would be vulnerable in many ways. Checks at the gates and patrolling security would not be enough to stop the truly determined assassins. Mig would be under the stage in the prep area so any infiltrators would be spotted quickly and he could also get to the stage as fast as possible in case of a problem.

@Insalius @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Every day among the rebels was a learning experience for Alys, be it in the practical or the arbitrarily mundane. This was one of the latter, as she was finally understanding what the fuss about pop-stars was and just how much of a following they had amongst their target demographic, and sometimes outside it.

She had never been to a concert, had never even heard a lot of music beyond what was deemed appropriate for her, but so far she was liking this. The energy of the crowd, the excitement of the attendees, the upbeat music playing on the speakers while everyone waited for the concert to being, and just about everything about it. If only she were here for more positive reasons, she would have enjoyed herself if she wasn't here to protect the very pop-star everyone was here to see perform and try and catch her would be assailants.

She was roaming around through the crowd, trying to get a feel for them, and also using this an excuse to practice what Aurora had taught her. Everything and anything could be training, and this was one instance where her training could actually prove vital to the mission. It was possible for a trained user to sense intent in the Force, if there were really strong emotions behind those intents. Going by the description of the sort of people who were planning this attack, it seemed like they were the perfect targets for someone like her to try and track down using the Force.

So she was trying to find a good spot where she could settle down for a few moments, meditate, and see if she felt something through the Force. If not, then she would simply continue her rounds, till she sensed something else and repeated the process. In a ground this big the chances of her spotting the would be assailants by sight was minuscule, but maybe her approach would help improve those odds.

@Cazar @Insalius

 

[Omnis Waszylla]

When it came to protecting someone during a performance, especially if that person was the one doing the performing, it was important to have guards in as many places as possible as the possible avenues of attack were almost endless. The closer one could be to the target, the better. In most cases that would mean being in the crowd, or just behind the curtain, as most bodyguards would only unnerve the crowd that had come to see the show. Thankfully, Omnis had a particular set of skills that made him the perfect bodyguard to take this position. This performance wouldn't be his first rodeo and he quite liked the outfit the backup dancers had been given for the show. Already skilled at learning difficult choreography quickly from his theater days, he was sure he was ready to both back up their charge while looking damn good while doing it.

Omnis had made a couple modifications to his outfit, though, to go along with his original duty of protecting the burgeoning pop star. In easy reach, yet tastefully hidden, his guardian hold-out blaster and stun rod were prepared for use in an instant. He didn't bring his grenades, as the chance for collateral damage would be too high and that was the opposite of what they wanted to do. His greatest asset here, though, was his admittedly limited control over the Force. It wouldn't be pretty, yet in the absolute worst case situation he would be able to pull or push their charge out of the way of an attack none of them could have seen before it happened, which could be the only thing that would save her life if that happened. Hopefully nothing would happen, though, and he'd be able to strut his stuff on the stage and have everyone enjoy the show. It was going to be a fun song, too.

@Wit @Cazar

 

[Mig Cabra]

The Gotal Engineer felt a bit awkward as no one really spoke to him under the stage, or back stage as they might call it. It was all quiet and many were getting to work to prepare for the show. Other guards seemed to have a basic handle on not letting the wrong people in and Mig basically stood in the center of the hub. Mig found he was actually in the way of a lot of people but he was too socially awkward to move out of the way properly. Instead he tried to act tough and important while carrying a big weapon on his back. It seemed to do the trick because he did not spot any funny business from down on his side. Security must have been too tough at the current moment for anyone to try it. Maybe a different angle would see an attack, or maybe the beefed up security already did its job.

"Hey, I can start to hear music now! Wow!" He shouted at a nearby worker who simply gave him a confused, pitiful thumbs up.

Mig did not care if nothing exciting was going on. He enjoyed his job for the moment and listened to the music. Big brute with a big gun at an important concert. If mother and father could see him now! They'd have him committed and spend thousands of credits on mental doctors to give back the engineer they created. That seemed about right for them. Mig was having fun and would not write home about this particular event.

@Insalius @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Wandering through the crowd, Alys had finally come to a stop a few dozen meters from the stage, just in front of the center of the stage. As the crowd jumped and swayed around her, she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She swayed a little with the music so that anyone taking notice of her might simply think that she enjoying the music. But with each breath she began shutting out the music, focusing instead on the Force and the sea of life all around her.

With so much excitement in the air, she wasn't really expecting anything, maybe a Jedi Master could have found something with their more refines skills, but she was still too inexperienced to have much hope. But what she hadn't counted on was the simple fact that whoever wanted to attack the singer wasn't just some simple minded fool, it was an extremely determined, and extremely opinionated person, and people like that with thoughts like that stood out in the Force. Stood out so much that even someone like her could sense them. And sense them she did, their thoughts screamed out through the Force, almost begging her to hear them.

Her eyes shot open as she turned to her right, her hand rising to activate her comm. "I think I have something, or rather someone. Maybe a dozen feet ahead of me, I think's it's a woman. A very angry woman." She wasn't really sure how she had sensed that, but she was certain that it was a woman. And that was a bonus, it helped cut down on the number of potential targets. But it was still just a first step, they still needed to identify and catch the perp, and she had no idea if there were more of them. So she began elbowing her way through the crowd in the general direction in which she had sensed her, opening herself up fully to the Force now, hoping for another hint that might help identify the would be assailant.

"Hold your positions, I'll check this one out, there might be others."

@Cazar @Insalius

 

[Omnis Waszylla]

The First Routine​

And just like that, the concert began. Omnis had to admit, it was nice to have a spotlight on him again, even if it wasn't specifically for him. He had to admit that the star of the show, the performer they were supposed to protect, had quite the passion put in to her performance. The stage had some holoprojectors that changed the background as the opening dance routine got the crowd riled up, the vivacious dance moves stirring the blood of everyone in attendance. He could see why she was so popular, as there was a difference between someone who put their heart into their passion and someone who made the motions for more selfish reasons. This young woman wanted to bring joy to the people she loved and that made the performance so much better.

Despite doing his best to back her up, glad he'd made himself limber before the procession, he also had enough time to keep an eye out from his vantage point for any potential threats. Luckily he couldn't see any, which meant that his fellows with the security team were doing their job just as well as he was doing his. If this kept up they could manage to have just a plain successful concert. Despite the pessimist in him saying it wouldn't last, he held out hope for the best regardless. After all, isn't that what this whole thing was about? To give hope to the disheartened? That thought spurred him on further, putting more of his heart into his performance. It was the least he could do as a Waszylla.

@Cazar @Wit

 

[Mig Cabra]

Mig heard that one of the Rebels had spotted a potential enemy. That seemed horrible for that lovely singer. The Gotal Engineer seemed to see now issues down below the stage. Plenty of other people with armor and weapons were there already. Mig could leave the job to them and all would be fine. Mig would be a hero to help stop this woman who seemed to be dangerous. He would write home about how he helped the Rebels secure a planet because he moved at the right time and did his job well. Just like they taught him. It was basically impossible to spot anything in the crowd but it was better to be up here and ready in case the other Rebel failed to catch the enemies. Mig had managed to catch very few glances as he got out from under the stage and positioned himself to watch.

"Okay I came out to help. I know you said to stay, but it was secure there. All these people with guns showed up to help guard it. So now I am out here, with you!" Mig said, happily reporting into the comms to his team. "It seems they locked me out now. How secure! These guys are great. Glad they decided to show up and relieve the other crew. So what does this woman look like anyways?"

It would be pretty clear to absolutely anyone else that Mig had just been fooled by some bad people. Poor guy was a bit too innocent and trusting. No one would be able to do anything though as the stage began to smoke following a loud boom hardly heard under the music. Fire and sparks flew as the crew beneath blaster apart most of the stage, pointing weapons up in search of their primary target. Mig was extremely surprised to see this happening, but he was stuck for the moment and could only watch. He quickly ran around one side of the stage to find stairs to whatever was left while getting out his bowcaster.

"Oh no! It looks like the stage broke! Is this your girl? Did she get away? Did she do this?" He asked over the comm as he reached the stairs and paused.

@Insalius @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alys was still trying to locate the conspirator she thought she had felt earlier when Mig's voice came across the comms, mentioning something about people with guards securing his side of the stage? Her attention on following the Force signature she had sensed, she didn't quite notice what was wrong with what he said. People with guns? What people? And people, not person? As it slowly started to dawn her that something was off, the sound of an explosion stopped her in her tracks.

She turned to look at the stage as chaos started spreading among the crowd. Blaster fire, it had to be blaster fire, flew up from a new hole that had shown up in the middle of the stage. Alys stood where she was, staring at the stage as people panicked and frantically ran about all around her. Then she noticed her Ramona Flowers, pop-idol extraordinaire and the woman they were supposed to protect, still seemingly safe and sound, still on the stage and not too far from Omnis.

Lacking many options, she reacted at once, for once everything she had been taught as a child working in her benefit as she stayed calm in the chaos all around them. She opened herself up to the Force and reached out with it, and luckily it answered. With everyone's attention on getting out, no one noticed as she reached out with the Force and pushed the singer straight at Omnis. "Get her out of her, keep her safe and we'll try to catch whoever did this."

With that message sent to Omnis, she had a decision to make, move towards the stage to deal with whoever was behind the blast, or continue looking for the perp she had sensed earlier. Thankfully the decision was made for her when she glanced in the direction where she had sensed the woman and noticed someone else standing still within the chaos of the crowd and staring intently at the stage. As she focused on the woman, the Force immediately told her that she was the one she was looking for.

Immediately she started darting towards her, but as she was almost in reach someone slammed into the woman as they ran past her and whipped her around, turning her gaze straight towards the charging Alys. Alys cursed as the woman began to run, but managed to slam into her from behind before she was able to vanish into the crowd. But not before she managed to pull out a comm unit and message her companions. "Be alert, we have company!"

@Cazar @Insalius

 

[Omnis Waszylla]

The warning came just a few moments before Alysanne wnt to fight back against the blasters, the crowd starting to panic from the sudden fighting. A sense of injustice as great as Omnis had ever felt came over him, quickly switching his mind to Potencia as he gently grabbed Malani in his arms. He could feel and partially hear what the enemies were doing underneath the stage, his gut telling him that a bomb was about to explode to take the two of them out. For her part, the singer gave the young man a questioning look, devoid of fear in her eyes. She trusted him, all of the defenders the Galactic Alliance had sent, and it would be remiss of Potencia to let her down now. He gave her a shining smile in return, filled with hope and conviction, and she returned it with the same feelings from her heart. This wasn't over, the show wasn't over yet. Gathering the Force to himself, Potencia leapt into the air as the flames seemed to engulf the stage, the other backup dancers just beyond the blast radius.

To Go Beyond The Limit

"DO NOT FEAR, ERIADU!" His stage clothing burning away, the super hero outfit he had worn during his theater days burst forth as the light gleamed off the two of them. The people cheered and the enemies paused to watch the spectacle unfolding. Landing on a small platform unharmed by the explosion, he gently let Malani down and gave her an encouraging thumbs up before returning to speak to the crowd. "Yes, Darkness and danger has descended upon this formerly innocent concert. HOWEVER! The words and melody of this beautiful singer has touched us all, some so deeply that we will NOT accept this violence, this cessation of our enjoyment, due to the deranged goals of these criminals! Her words have touched my heart, so do not fear, people of Eriadu! FOR WE ARE HERE!!!" He turned to Malani giving her a wink. "Sing for our valor, young songstress! Everyone else, stand back! Your heroes are here to protect you, but don't forget! This light of hope, this desire to protect, lies within each and every one of you! ENEMIES, PREPARE YOURSELF!!!"

Malani's Song of Valor

Gathering what power of the Force he could, visualizing it again as a cascade of colors coalescing into his clenched fist, Potencia leapt from the stage and down into where the criminals had set off the bomb under the stage. They were still stunned from what had just happened, their whole attack having been turned against them in the eyes of the concert-goers who were even now cheering even greater for Potencia and his two companions. They thought it was part of the show, but as Potencia delivered a powerful punch straight to the face of the one man holding a blaster rifle found out the pain wasn't an act. "ERIADU ERASER!!!!!!!" He flew back, tumbling into a few other of his men who were trying to free their weapons after having expected the bomb to be their final act. Instead, the show was just beginning.

@Cazar @Wit

 

[Mig Cabra]

Protect Malani was the objective. Mig repeated that as he was scared to enter the combat. Find the girl and protect her. That was all he needed to do. He was hiding below the stage at a set of stairs, unsure of when to pop up and help. The Gotal eventually peeked up and saw Omnis in his new clothing fighting very close to Malani. Mig did not recognize his partner in this new look so he saw this was an assassin grabbing the pop star they were supposed to be protecting. The Gotal Engineer quickly picked the Bowcaster up and took aim. He would be a hero!

"Mig sees a bad person trying to get Malani! Taking shot!" He said over the comms and pulled the trigger before anyone had a chance to answer.

The bowcaster leaped to life and the recoil knocked Mig to the ground off the stage. He would not see the results of his shot and would have the wind knocked out of him for the moment. On stage, however, a deadly heavy shot would be coming center of mass for Omnis who hopefully would be able to handle it. The bowcaster shot at least came with some verbal warning, but it was dangerous nonetheless.

@Insalius @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alys pulled her blaster out and slammed it into the head of the assailant she had tackled, knocking her out. Getting back to her feet, she turned her attention back towards the stage, where Omnis was just about wrapping up his little show that had the crowd cheering now. It still surprised her how easily people could be manipulated, you just had to know what buttons to press.

She was about to go after the remaining assailants, the ones who had blown up the stage when she sensed something, a faint warning in the Force. Her eyes went searching for Mig as his voice rang in her ears over the comms. She couldn't see him through all the chaos, but she knew something was going to happen, something bad. So on instinct she reached out through the Force and tried to grab Omnis and the singer, hoping to pull them off the stage. With the spectacle that had been put up for them so far, the crowd was sure to believe that it was just another part of the show. Special effects for their entertainment.

But just as she was about to grab them one of the members of the crowd slammed into her, her grip settled instead on a pair of speakers behind them and she pulled them towards her. By the time she was able to recover from the stumble and looked back to the stage there were two heavy pieces of stage equipment flying straight at her. She instinctively raised a hand to protect herself, but the momentum of the speakers was too much, and she felt the hand break on impact.

But unfortunately for her and everyone else, the hand that broke was also the one in which she held her blaster, and somehow between the impact and the break the weapon went off, a few bolts flying off in all directions and sending the crowd into a panicked frenzy. Clutching her broken arm, Alys could barely keep herself from getting trampled as she knelt on the floor, waiting for all the screaming to subside so that she could hear anything over the comms, she waited, unsure if everyone else was alright.

@Cazar @Insalius

 

[Omnis Waszylla]

Omnis was unaware of his companions' plights, working on punching out terrorists left and right. It was probably luck that he was in the right position, with the right struggling form in his hand, that when Mig's bolts came at him he was able to turn enough where the terrorist took all the shots. Not having seen where exactly the attack had come from he threw the body in that general direction, which was able to take an of the other possibly friendly fire that had been loosed while trying to stop what had happened. The crowd and Malani were still safe, as was Omnis, though he felt somehow that his luck was coming to an end. Regardless, they still had a job to do. Finding another unpunched terrorist, Omnis leapt at him with his punching arm cocked to deliver a heaping helping of JUSTICE.

@Cazar @Wit

 

[Mig Cabra]

Falling to the floor hurt, but Mig had a job to do. Now that he knew the bowcaster would kick back like that he would do better to handle it the next time. He re-positioned himself at the stairs to the stage and saw many of the assassins were still moving about trying to take shots. Now Mig could fire and see the results before quickly firing more. He was ready for the recoil and knew enough math and physics to get a good shot. Two of the assailants were getting ready to shoot at the girl when Mig unleashed a powerful bolt from the bowcaster that went through the first one's neck and lodged into the second one's chest. Two dead with a single shot. Now that was an engineer's efficiency.

"Only a couple more!" Mig said excitedly over the comlink as he celebrated his good shot. "Friends doing okay?"

Mig realized no one had really answered his last comment. He began to wonder if his friends got hurt or were in trouble. All that was left was a pair of the assassin team who were quickly realizing this was a lost cause. One of them started to run while the other got shot in the face by Mig's second shot from the Bowcaster. It was a gnarly, disgusting result but Mig did not seem bothered by it. He was an engineer and doctor who had no issue with weird or gross things. Mig also realized, obviously too late, that the first person he had shot at was actually his friend fighting the assassins too. Luckily, he had apparently missed.

@Insalius @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Despite things going so wrong for her, Alys was relieved to see that everything hadn't gone to seven hells. Omnis had somehow kept the singer safe and sound, and Mig had managed to take out some of the attackers. Alys noticed all this only after she heard Mig's voice over the comms and managed to get back to her feet. The pain from her arm had kept her from passing out, but she had been lost in the chaos and missed seeing all that happening in real time.

Getting to her feet, she transferred the blaster to her uninjured arm and began pushing her way towards the stage, flinching every time some panicked patron bumped into her broken arm. So when she finally found enough of a clearing to see the stage and the assailants Mig was engaged with, her eyes were more than a little watery from the pangs of pain that was coming from her arm.

So the shots she took at the assailants were far from the most accurate, and she did little more than warn them of her presence as her shots flew well clear of them and just hit the walls behind them. All the harm she managed to do to them was showering some of them in sparks as the shots hit. "Omnis, get her out of here, Mig and I can probably keep these guys occupied." Acting as a diversion was probably all she could do, but at least they could still keep the singer safe.


@Cazar @Insalius

 

[Omnis Waszylla]

Before Potencia could act on Alysanne's request, the leader of the terrorists managed to claw himself up from under the stage to confront him. The man wore a pair of pneumatic fists and seemed willing to throw down with the Waszylla. To the crowd, this seemed like the final fight, and as it began Potencia could tell that he was at the end of his rope in regards to the Force. He wasn't actually trained, having only picked up bits and pieces and slowly practiced over time, and this man was a seasoned veteran from how he moved and struck. For each attempted punch or kick, a block and counter came at him. To the audience it still seemed a show. The 'hero' was being beaten back by the supervillain, leading to a climax in one way or another. Forced down to his knees, trying to push back against the terrorist, Potencia was pinned in stopping his advance. Was there any of his companions left to save the day?

@Wit @Cazar

 

[Mig Cabra]

Assailant after assailant fell to the bowcaster and for a moment all was good. Mig was covering the escape of the singer quite well. His confidence was high and he had no semblance for strategy or tactics. He simply stood and fired repeatedly down into the pit hoping to finish them all off like some hologame. The bowcaster felt warm so he gave it a moment and would stand while caring for it. The Gotal was oblivious to the world around him for the moment. Until he heard the cheers change and looked up to see the boss of the enemies fighting with his partner who was the last line of defense for the singer. This was no good.

Mig lined up his bowcaster carefully, as to not hit his friend or the singer instead. He wanted the perfect shot to end the struggle for their side. A deep breath was taken and he was about to pull the trigger when he felt a punch to his gut so fierce it threatened to rip through his armor. All his wind left his body as he flung through the air off of the stage. The bowcaster fell from his hands into the dirt next to him as he collided with the hard ground. One of the assassins in the pit had recovered from his wounds enough to fire right into Mig's stomach. Luckily, the Gotal was wearing armor, but it was not going to negate the shot completely.

"...Mig signing out... forever..," he coughed into the comlink as he failed to gasp for breath.

Tears streamed down the engineer's face as he lost consciousness. Was this death? It hurt so bad. He couldn't breathe at all. His armor had been useless. Mig felt like he was going to die here. As his vision faded and he went into dreamland, he thought he would be meeting the afterlife. In fast, he was just injured and knocked his head when he landed. Mig would be fine after a little bandaging and a few hugs. Plus some rest time.

@Insalius @Wit

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alys could only look as everything went from bad to worse, the leader of the assailants attacking Omnis and those wicked fists of his turning the tide, and while Mig had been doing a marvelous job of keeping the rest pinned down below the stage, he left himself open to a shot from one of the survivors from down below when he turned to aid Omnis.

Alys tried to fire her blaster to help them, but all that she got was empty clicks, those wide shots fired when she broke her arm had emptied out the clip. She was empty. She could just watch helplessly as he friends were cut down. She was looking around for something, anything, that she could use, when Mig's voice came over the comms as he slipped into unconsciousness. But she didn't know that, to her it seemed like the brave Gotal had given his life to save them. And that changed everything.

The Force coursed into her, a maelstrom that threatened to drown her. She could see it all there, light, dark, the Force laid bare before her in her moment of despair. She wasn't sure how long she drowned in it, unable to keep it at bay, till a voice whispered into her ears through the void. Don't fear the dark. She had heard that voice before, Alais, the same words she had heard on Kashyyyk. Alys couldn't draw some momentous understanding of the Force at that moment, but she could recall how she had felt on Kashyyk when the Force had threatened to overcome her like it was now.

She could have reached out to the Dark, the pain would have made it so easy. But there was something else, and the voice of Alais had made her see it. Compassion, the same love and empathy Alais had felt for her friends, her loved ones, her children. Alysanne had inherited that from her, that same compassion. For her friends, for her companions, for everyone in the Galaxy trampled upon by the Sith.

"I do no fear the dark." She wasn't sure if she actually said the word out loud, or if it was just in her head, but in that moment it didn't matter. The light side, the true Force was coursing through her, pushing away the pain, the fear, everything. The only thing that mattered was saving her friends.

She ran, dancing through downed assailants and shattered equipment till she was upon the leader. Running up from behind him, she grabbed the back of his head in her uninjured arm as she launched herself into a jump that pushed his larger figure forward, slamming him face-first into the ground. As he fell unconscious, she felt the Force slipping away, gone as soon as it had come. She was left with the pain, but also the satisfaction that she had made it, had saved them. She had been the hero, but more importantly, she had faced the Dark, again. And she had won, again.

With a content smile on her face, she fell to the floor on her back, slowly drifting towards unconsciousness as in the distance sirens started blaring. Help was finally on the way.

OOC: End Thread.
@Cazar @Insalius