Ask Lothal Stumblin'

[Nobody]

Xath heard the speeder pull up and decided he didn't have a problem with looking creepy; these men didn't know him anyways. He slipped back into his robes, fingering a saber through the cloth.

He watched the door, fully unprepared for who was about to walk through.

As he waited, his mind wandered...last time he had been on Lothal, he'd gotten into a fight with a Jedi. It'd led to some civilian deaths; he'd also shaved off the end of a sketchy character's blaster. It looked expensive, too...though not as expensive as his hand that came off next.

He'd been lucky not to run into anyone who hated him; hopefully he'd just be in and out.

 

[Aska Ryun]

The door to the farm house was already open but the interior was poorly lit as the moon's glow hardly seeped in the few windows so Aska slowly poked her pistol in first. Aiming the barrel at the far end of the room opposite the door and then slowly scanning to the left and right, the woman made her way in slowly but saw no one at first. Finally, the silhouette of a person standing in the shadows came to her view. Almost instinctual, Aska pointed the blaster at the man.

"You! Step forward!" she demanded. Everything about this felt like a set up, as though she may be creeping up on her own robbery. First she had next to no information on the drop, and now someone was actually here when she was under the impression this would be a dead drop. While she didn't give the man any opportunity to comply, Aska pulled the trigger and the blue laser bolt slammed into the ceiling above him, exactly where she had aimed. The glow from the weapon, however, illuminated the character and while she could not see his face, the worn black robes seemed extremely familiar. "Wait... You? What are you doing here?"

 

[Nobody]

Xath noted the door creaking open and sighed in relief--they were actually here. Someone peaked through with a blaster and yelled at him, but as soon as the bolt flew into the ceiling, he was on his guard.

He stuck out his hand and made a pushing motion, causing whoever it was to fly backwards; he'd been surprised so they'd only fall a few feet and may even manage to stay standing. Nevertheless, he didn't like being the only one in the room with a weapon.

He ignited his saber, but in the light of its glow he recognized her. "What are YOU doing here?!" he yelled.

 

[Aska Ryun]

As Xath made a waving motion with his hand, Aska felt some invisible force push against her comparable to a strong gust of wind. She stumbled back from the door slightly but regained her composure, leveling her blaster with the man once again only to see he was wielding the same sort of weapon that he had handed her hours earlier. It's red blade illuminated the immediate area of the room and cast the same crimson glow that allowed her to get a better look at his face, though it was still covered by his hood.

"I was hired to bring a cart of supplies out here, and it was a set up all along, wasn't it?!" Aska demanded as she took slow but steady steps back towards the speeder and the cart, being careful to make sure she didn't lose her aim on the laser sword wielding man. "I knew there was something off about you! What do you have to gain from luring me out here?"

 

[Nobody]

Xath stared at her in annoyance; "Me?!? Luring you?? You're not as stupid as you look! This was all a setup to capture a big bad Red-Saber, eh? Well, I won't go down without a fight, and I'm afraid you alone will not be enough!" He brandished his saber in front of him, shocked at this turn of events.

The air was tense--it could be shattered by a stone dropping. Sadly, it was shattered by something much worse than a stone...

At that moment, a huge explosion coming from somewhere outside blew out a good portion of the wall behind him. The initial shockwave from the blast chucked Xath fowards at the same time he leaped towards the door, throwing him far enough to slam into the opposite wall.

He opened his eyes to see a piece of wall flying at him; It somehow managed to lodge itself into the wall--but at least it wasn't his head. Groggily, he turned to see what had become of the idiot who had done this...

 

[Aska Ryun]

Aska gritted her teeth as she stared down the lightsaber wielding man, listening as he exclaimed that it was him who was set up, but all she had brought out here was herself and a few crates packed with... Just as Aska began to round the corner and run back to her speeder, she was greeted by a bright flash and a deafening boom which was followed by a shockwave that threw the woman back into the air. As she slammed into the ground and came sliding to a stop, Aska pulled her hands up to her ears to try and stop the insistent ringing, keeping her pistol held tightly in her right hand. She could feel the warmth of blood slowly seeping from a few cuts on her forehead and her white jumper now had some small tears across her right side. Laying there for a moment to regain her composure, Aska rolled over slightly and watched as the remains of the speeder and the crates burned brightly, likely catching the attention of people who may have been on the highway this late at night and someone far more sinister.

The sound of two other speeders pulling up to the explosion site started to bring the groggy Aska back to her senses but her vision was still blurred.

"Do you see him?" One voice called out. "He has to be here somewhere!"

"Maybe he got vaporized! Check out this building! I told you that was too much thermite!" Laughter erupted from the newly arrived group. Slowly pulling herself to her feet, Aska tightened her grip on her weapon. Gone was the quiet and scared woman and was instead replaced by a woman looking for blood. She felt as though she was taking a back seat in her mind, allowing the host of her genetic material to sit at the controls. All she wanted was revenge.

"Boss! We have a survivor!" It was the Iridonian who had hired her to bring the explosives out here. Rage welled up inside her as she recognized him. "Ha! You lived? Job well done!" Aska spit blood from her mouth as she advanced towards the group, of which she was close enough to begin to identify them all. The first was the Zabrak she already knew. With him was a Twi'lek male, three human males and a body guard droid. Aska took note of the one man's rather cheap cybernetic hand.

"I'm full of surprises," Aska replied loudly enough to be heard over the fire that raged between her and the men, keeping her weapon in her hand trained on the dirt below her. "You could have warned me this was going to happen," She didn't care what he said. He was going to pay for nearly killing her.

"Not how this works," the man with the cybernetic hand replied. "You met a man out here, girl? Where is he? Did he die?" His facial expression was determined and she knew he wasn't leaving without verifying Xath was dead but if it wasn't the lightsaber wielding man who had planned this, then she wasn't selling him out.

"I was alone, and the only person who is going to die here is the one responsible for this," With that, Aska pulled her weapon up and instinctively aimed at the Zabrak she had met earlier before pulling the trigger twice. Two blue bolts flew forward and one slammed into his chest, the other his neck. Before they could react, Aska dove back towards the burning farmstead for cover.

 

[Nobody]

Xath coughed and hacked, red fluid spilling out of his mouth as he sat stunned. A fire was starting to spread about him; he had to get out of there. He seemed whole other than being shaken from the initial impact.

He cautiously stood and wobbled, leaning against the wall he had hit. His leg gave him some trouble, but aside from that he was stable. His lightsaber was off--how it had happened he had no idea. Probably instinct.

He ignited it immediately; that had been no accident. While he didn't trust the girl, he didn't think she had any part in this...but he couldn't be sure. He shuffled to the door, saber in front of him.

Before he came into the line of sight of whoever might be outside, he heard blaster fire and stopped, turning his saber off. There was more than one person out there...and the smoke should be enough to cover him.

He gave in to the force, activating force cloak and stepped outside, saber still in hand.

 

[Aska Ryun]

As she fell into her cover, the group of men had begun firing on her location. Red blaster fire peppered the ground beside her as the man with the cybernetic hand began to bark orders. She was out-numbered, even if Xath had survived and decided she wasn't his enemy, and needed to come up with a game plan. Bringing herself to her feet, she poked her blaster around the corner and tried to take aim as best she can, firing a volley of shots that landed on the speeder and the flaming cart though a couple had flew over the wreckage yet missed any of the thugs. It didn't matter, she just wanted them to keep their attention on her current location. Ducking back into cover as they returned fire, Aska scurried along the edge of the building. She hoped to flank them on their right side and catch them off guard but as she rounded the corner she took noticed the Twi'lek and one of the human males had the same plan.

Ducking back to the same side of the building as the door that she had taken cover by previously, three shots narrowly missed her. Her heart was racing but she was running on the essence of who she was encoded in her blood. She wasn't dying here. Looking passed the corner she had just turned back from, she spotted some defunct farming equipment and took her chance. Jumping out of her cover, the woman fired another volley of blaster fire at the two men before making her way in behind the machinery, red blaster fire following her steps. As she waited for the blaster fire to subside, Aska wondered why the other men hadn't rounded the opposite corner to box her in but so long as they weren't on her flank, she had a chance. Spitting blood once more, she stood up and took the time to aim another shot through a gap within the machinery, slamming into the left pectoral of the human man, leaving only the Twi'lek as her immediate threat.

 

[Nobody]

Xath immediately spotted flashing bolts and stalked his way towards a group of...two men and a droid, it looked like. He snuck up behind them, putting his saber behind a man's head.

He ignited it as his force cloaking faded away before wrenching it to the side. The droid had turned as soon as the blade came out and raised a blaster, but Xath managed to deflect the bolt back into his foot.

Disabled, the droid leaned heavily on one side before Xath disarmed its blaster arm, literally. By then, the man with a prosthetic hand had fired. Xath grunted as the light bolt skimmed his upper arm; this guy could not shoot...

 

[Aska Ryun]

The sound of blaster fire from the other side of the building caused Aska to flinch, but as she looked to her side she saw that no one had come to flank her. What they were shooting at wasn't obvious to her but she wasn't looking forward to finding out. First she had to deal with the Twi'lek and she would deal with that afterwards.

"Come out of there, moof milker! I'm going to gut you like a gizka!" he taunted, followed by making a clicking noise with his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Let's just get this over with!"

Aska watched through an opening of the machinery and saw the Twi'lek had begun to advance on her, his blaster rifle aimed at her hiding spot. Still, he was young, barely a man, and clearly lacked experience. Aiming her pistol in the right hand towards the farm house, Aska fired a shot into the air. The shot cleared his head by an arms length but it served it's purpose. Flinching towards the building, the Twi'lek took aim towards the same side of the equipment she had fired from and returned a volley of his own but Aska was no longer there. Rolling out of the left side of her cover, she raised the SE-45 and took aim. With a single shot, the blue energy slammed into the man's forehead and his corpse slumped to the ground.

It wasn't over yet, though. Aska ran in the direction the thugs had come from and rounded the corner with her pistol aimed ahead of her but was greeted by the sight of Xath and the man with the prosthetic hand squaring off. She was unable to get a clear shot from where she was, however, so while she gritted her teeth, she followed the last thug as best she could, waiting for an opening or for Xath to bring this to an end.

 

[Nobody]

"You!"

The man gasped as the two stood, both holding weapons. He brandished his prosthetic; "You did this to me!" Xath shook his head. "Ahh, so it's revenge we're after? Guess you shouldn't have aimed a blaster at me." The man roared in anger and pulled his trigger.

The first shot missed as Xath flinched, the second glancing off his saber into the night sky. Xath swung in succession, cutting off the man's prosthetic which held the gun. Of course, it didn't cause any pain, and the man drew another gun with his other hand.

Before it was leveled, Xath's saber was there, cutting through the flesh. The man now lacked both hands--but only one arm was bleeding profusely. Ironic.

That certainly hadn't gone how he thought it would...

 

[Aska Ryun]

Aska slowly lowered her blaster as she watched Xath bring his weapon through each arm of the last remaining thug, his screams deafening to the two victorious survivors. Slowly, she made her way towards the men while raising her hands to show Xath she meant no harm.

"I guess we both were wrong?" she questioned sarcastically by the time she had come up behind the kneeling wounded man. Dropping her blaster into the back of his skull, the man fell forward unconscious. "Shut up already," she groaned. Turning her attention back to Xath, she slowly raised her left hand to wipe the blood that had been dripping down the side of her head away. "So," she started, pausing long enough to look down at the armless man then returned her attention to the Sith. "Friend of yours?"

 

[Nobody]

Xath stared at her, confused how she had managed to not get shot. Those guys were just standing there, not shooting at anything--why wouldn't they be going after her? He didn't trust her at all...

If he had looked, he would've seen the three bodies that resulted from her raging, but he was simply to skeptical. The bodies lay not to far away, but by random chance he walked the opposite direction, away from the burning building...

He didn't want to stick around with someone he didn't trust; not to mention, authorities, if there were any, would be there soon for sure. He didn't wait to here anything more she had to say and didn't say anything himself, but simply walked away.

He had to get off this planet. It'd brought him nothing but trouble...something that he didn't like. But who did?

/EXIT THREAD

 

[Aska Ryun]

Xath's lack of a response told Aska everything she needed to know. It was time to leave for them both but they would be leaving separately though that suited her just fine. Someone who had just waltzed into her life earlier in the day ended up being involved in a shoot out and was the target of the bombing she had inadvertently put into action wasn't someone she felt she needed to associate with. Turning back to the burning building and the wreckage of the speeder, Aska looked around at the bodies surrounding her. She had killed three more men today, but it was different than when she had killed Dur'Ago back on Coruscant. This time all she felt was relief that she had survived and a surprising amount of pride in being able to prove that she was going to simply be a doormat to those who wished to walk all over her.

Time was running short and Aska knew her time on Lothal was over but paying for safe passage off world wasn't going to be cheap. Moving as quickly as she could, the woman picked through the pockets of the dead thugs and pulled whatever credits from them that she could find, as well as a few extra energy cells that were compatible with her pistol. Placing the cells in her pouch, she quickly counted out the chips and found that she was now up another eighty credits. She knew she had enough to leave the world already, but this would help ensure she would have some extra funds to try and get by whenever she found the next world for her to try and find her place. Looking out at the twin moons as they reached they're peak in the night sky, she couldn't help but wonder if she would ever return here. Only time would tell, she knew and pushed herself up and began to walk back towards Capital City. She would avoid detection from the authorities and soon was en route to her next chapter.

END THREAD​