The Last Straw

[Levi Solus]

M O S_ E I S L E Y_—_ T A T O O I N E

Ambient

The wind blew across the sands of Tatooine as it always did, and Levi shifted uncomfortably. His hands were cuffed behind his back, and he had downgraded from the clean black prisoner uniform of the Empire to a bunch of brown rags that had probably been worn by many a slave before him.

He was being sold off into slavery apparently, the Empire (Sith Order now, apparently) finding no further use for him. Accompanying him was a Sith Crusader, there to ensure the transaction would go smoothly. The man in question—wearing full black and the generic Sith armor—was sitting side stage at the edge of the auction platform. Up ahead were roughly 30 slavers looking to buy some new workers, each clamoring to get a look at the other unfortunate prisoners. Levi was part of a group of about 10 slaves, all standing side by side on the platform.

The Jedi—if he even was one anymore—looked around with an air of absolute resignation. He'd been a prisoner on an Imperial ship for a few days. Then, when no one came to interrogate him, he was thrown into the gladiatorial pits, only to manage to survive a few fights. Once the Sith realized they wouldn't be able to get rid of him so easily, they withdrew him and sent him off to Tatooine, where he was now. In the span of those few months, Levi had completely resigned himself to his fate. Sure, maybe this was all in the Force's plan—but that didn't mean he had to be happy with it. The Jedi teachings sounded awfully nice in theory, but spending a few months in Sith custody was enough to disenfranchise most. Levi clung to the Jedi mentality as much as he could, but even he was losing hope.

If he didn't escape today, he'd probably fade away into some distant corner of the galaxy, where he would spend the rest of his life a slave. I should have just stayed a Sith, he considered, chuckling to himself.

A few voices suddenly began shouting in an alien language that Levi couldn't quite understand, and he watched as two slavers burst into a fistfight. The people around them formed a circle to give them space, but some tried to run away, stumbling one onto another as commotion broke the relative silence of the auction square. Shit, maybe not.

He turned to look at the Sith accompanying him, but the man was staring directly at him as if daring him to do something. Levi stuck his tongue out at him.

Spoiler: OOC

Escape thread approved by @Faded Truth. 48 hour posting limit for each side. Currently looking for 1 Jedi and 2 Sith to join the fight, but anything goes. Just get my boy out please.

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[Samael Aeveroth]

A young man wearing light brown hooded robes slowly approached the stage, the hood kept so low that it covered the man's eyes. Almost no one, apart from maybe a Force Sensitive, would be able to distinguish that human from what he really was, a Miraluka. He gently moved through the crowd, time to time muttering an apology when accidentally bumping against a person or two. Soon, he reached the front of the stage, observing the various slaves, until his attention was drawn by Levi's Force signature. A former Jedi? Or just a person strong in the Force? The Miraluka wasn't sure about either, but he knew that this man would surely not have a good life if he got sold, so he had to act quickly. He gave a look around, wondering how he could distract the Sith guard before trying to free the man.

 

[Alysanne Drast]

Alys hated the Hutts. Well, maybe hate was too strong a word, she was a Jedi Master after all. But she most definitely did not approve of them and the manner in which they carried out their business. She made no effort to hide the look of disapproval on her face as she walked through the slave market on Tatooine. A few slavers thought the look was there because she did not like their "wares", and offered to show her something more to her liking. But a simple glance was enough to make them shut up and back off. Raising children had helped her master the ability to put unruliness in place with a simple glass, and she was putting it to good use now to keep the slavers away from her. She wasn't sure she wouldn't smack them right then and there if they tried to speak to her.

She wasn't sure why she was here, the Force was a guide, but often an infuriatingly silent one. She knew that she was supposed to be here, but she was yet to discover exactly why.

As a fight broke off to the side, she had to weave her way through the bodies rushing to watch the spectacle. And as she did so, her eyes passed over some slaves standing atop the nearest podium, noticing something as she was turning away to let a rather unpleasant smelling Rodian pass. She had kept her presence subdued in the Force, as had become a habit for her in her years of exile raising the boys, and as a result hadn't sensed the Dark presence that stood there. It was a Sith, there was no denying that, and he was guarding someone. The light haired man. She let herself open up oh so slightly to the Force, with control that only came with true Mastery of the Force, and probed at the two of them. The Sith was as she expected, all dark emotion and turmoil. But the other was a surprise. There was control there, he was trained in the ways of the Force.

It didn't take a genius to put two and two together, but the realization of who the captured man was lead to more questions. When had the Sith captured a Jedi? If he was indeed a Jedi, and she was fairly certain he was. Well, only one way to find out. She was going to have to spring him out. But that wans't enough, wasn't right. She now knew why she was here. She was going to spring them out, not just the Jedi, all the slaves in this little market.

@vamp

 

[Sakadi Marathi Sinvala]

The heat was absolutely killing her... The Sephi slentered through the blocks that made up the city its slave market. Her old self would've protested against coming here, refusing to take this mission for the Galactic Alliance. But knowing the responsibilities of a Knight, Sakadi had accepted to transfer the sensitive data of a rebel cell to Jedha. She often performed these kind of tasks, moving undercover to bring encrypted data from point A to point B. But why did they have to pick Tatooine for the transfer to take place? And that wasn't even the reason for her annoyance today. No, the real joke was that the entire mission had been cancelled last minute. Why? Because apparently there were Sith present. The entire mission had been blown off, because of something so simple.

As the Knightess was about to march back to her shuttle, however, she sensed something peculiar. The Light side of the Force amassing near her generated by two, no, three trained practitioners? That was strange. She wasn't informed of any Jedi being on Tatooine, and her briefing had been very detailed. A bit suspicious, Sakadi moved from crowd to crowd, actively hiding her presence, until she suddenly found herself on the second row watching a fist fight. But it was not this fight that had caught her attention. It was the man who stood just a few meters away from her. A familiar, blindfolded face.

For a moment, her hidden presence wavered as she summoned the Force to telepathically reach out to the man she knew as Samael. They had met once before, on their quest to save the Grandmaster a long while ago.

"Samael, what is going on? Why are you here?" her feminine voice would echo through his head, as she swiftly scanned the crowd, rooftops and the nearest podium with the slaves. The Sith crusader did not go unnoticed to her, but she couldn't imagine that to be the reason why the Padawan was here. So what exactly was about to go down?

@vamp @samdragon @Wit

 

[Brent Fury Drast]

⌬ THEME ⌬
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"Hey..." Nothing, the gunner did not respond. "...pst...hey" Still nothing. "Do you know where we are?" The gunner finally responded to its master's obnoxious antics. "We're over Tato-" "IT"S THE DANGER ZONE!" The man just sighed after Brent interrupted him. "...cuz we're doing something dangerous. It's got a nice ring to it...danger zone... danger zone....yeah. I'm gonna use that again."

Regardless of everythin else Brent would continue to rock out while his custom acklay, The Cheeky Pincher. "Don't worry Levi. We're coming to save you!" He said to himself as the assualt fighter peeled out of its high altitude circling. Maybe one of the locals would just try to attack him or something. The people around these parts tended to be aggressive.

For now he was providing more or less an overwatch. The people on the ground freeing Levi would need air support. As Star Two of star squadron he was more than happy to facilitate some extra firepower in their defense. That was what the Galactic Alliance was all about. Team work and unity. Plus seeing the elevated view of the desert planet was beautiful. As he flew overhead he kept his music blasting. Its loud noise reaching the streets of Mos Eisley at the same volume of casual conversation. If he got closer it would possibly shake some glasses. Brent wanted to install a subwoofer in his ship but it was cramped enough inside the fighter.

 

[Levi Solus]

The fight seemed to intensify as one of the men pulled out a blaster and shot his opponent directly in the upper chest no less than five times. Well. That's that.

But that wasn't that. Outraged at the man's actions, one of the spectators pulled out a machete and hacked it directly into his shoulder. As the body slumped and collapsed, another shot the machete-wielder in the back. The auction yard broke out into flat out war then, with bolts flying and blades smashing in every corner. A stray blaster bolt slammed directly into his Sith captor's neck before the man even knew what was coming, and Levi took full advantage, ducking under an attempted punch from one of the auctioners who, realizing that there was no stopping the fight, decided that he might as well just try to keep the slaves from escaping. The Jedi reached the corpse and grabbed both a chain of keys and the man's lightsaber. Within the blink of an eye he was free and armed. It was time to take on the world.

Outside the yard, the enforcers had finally arrived, sent by the Hutt that owned the property. They would begin shooting any troublemakers indiscriminately the moment they charged in. As they dismounted from the three speeders they came in, the 12 enforcers loaded up their blasters.

 

[Samael Aeveroth]

Samael almost jumped in surprise as he got approached by Sakadi and she talked mentally to him, but as he recognized her, he took a sigh of relief and answered mentally "Honestly? I'm not entirely sure. I'm on Tatooine to visit an old family friend and huh, looks like the Force decided to draw me here" He observed the fight going on, waiting for the right moment to intervene, and that moment came when the Sith enforcer got killed. At that point, he jumped on the stage and gave a punch in the face of the auctioner who attempted to knock out Levi, and then turned on his lightsabers, using them to break the cuffs and chains that held the closest slaves. He yelled "Stick together and try to go in a safe place, the Jedi order is here to protect you!" He shot a look at Levi, who now was free and armed, and then looked at the enforcers that arrived, taking a guard position, ready for combat.

 

[Brent Fury Drast]

"-to...the daanger zooooooooooooone! BABY I WENT TOOOOOO THE DANG-"" "Nothing on my scopes yet" Brent's starfighter karaoke was rudely interrupted by his comrade inside the Cheeky Pincher. "Dude...you cut me off mid danger. Not cool" He swore the fellow rebel sighed. Then again he had been playing the same playlist on repeat for the better part of a half an hour.

Turning down the volume only slightly so he did not have to yell the ship carried on. "Maybe I'll try out some tricks..." He thought out loud. "Hey buddy! I hope you're strapped in. I'm going to do some zooming. Hold on tight." There was a reason he was called Star Two. Technically the number did not mean much in terms of prowess but he always thought that since he was 'number two' that meant he was 'the shit' and in a cool way. Kids still use that kind of slang right? Now he had made himself feel old.

The starfighter did a barrel roll. Inside of the dorsal turret the rebel crew member tensed and let out a distressed groan as the ship did more loops and manuevers. It was like there was an air show over the desert planet. "Maybe I should get some smoke trail or something then I can draw a giant pe-" His hands jerked to the side as he narrowly avoided a passing merchant freighter that was headed out toward high orbit. "Kark...nobody uses their blinker these days."

 

[Levi Solus]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth I guess, he thought, using his newly-acquired lightsaber to whip someone across the face with the heavy hilt. A hooded man ran through, claiming to be a Jedi here to rescue Levi. Whether or not that was true, going anywhere was better than staying here, so the Padawan just nodded. "Alright, let's go! After me!"

He knew the location of the ship he'd come here on, and still had the Sith's keys. Though illegal, he doubted anyone would mind a little grand theft in the Outer Rim, especially performed on an Imperial vehicle. Levi wove his way through the crowd hoping the Jedi would follow, just ducking under swings and avoiding blaster bolts, not hurting anyone else.

Among the hustle and bustle, the enforcers had failed to spot them just yet, but there was no telling when the indiscriminate shooting into the crowd would catch up to them and a stray bolt would hit. Levi just tried not to think about it, reaching the black freighter without issue and opening its door. "Strap in, you can tell me more about who sent you on the way."

He had no idea about any air support, but the help was much appreciated. Hopefully, the Jedi would know to page the back ups in to let them know to provide air support as they staged their getaway.

Mind going a mile a minute, Levi flicked away at the buttons and levers of the control panel, getting the ship off the ground with the ease one might expect from someone who had been a part of the Star Squadron once.

@samdragon

 

[Samael Aeveroth]

Samael ducked to avoid a stray blaster flying from who knows where as he followed Levi, using his lightsabers to deflect any bolts that would go towards them. The Miraluka kept his senses in alert as they went through the town, but thankfully they weren't pursued by the enforcers.
When they entered in the ship, he sighed in relief and kind of flopped in the co-pilot's seat, taking a short breather before getting to help Levi turning on the ship and making it take off. It took him some time to get used to the commands since these differed some from the ones on his own ship, but at the end he figured out everything and also managed to send a distress signal to any GA fighters in the system.

 

[Levi Solus]

It was clear no one would stop them when their ship took off and no one even batted an eyelash. Blending in among the spacers fleeing the slave auction gone wrong, Levi and his new Miraluka friend were able to leave safely, a distress signal sent just in case things would go south—which was doubtful.

They slowly gained altitude and Levi slowly relaxed, his white knuckled grip on the ship's control loosening until his heart wasn't beating up against his ribcage. The light blue sky above turned to black, and he sat back. They were safe.

"So," he said, breaking the silence. "You guys knew where I was all along?"

@samdragon

END.​