Ask Nar Shaddaa The Pit

[Lilith Vye]

Alais, or "Lilith" for the moment leaned against the hard cement of a building. She was a street and a half away from Gurrba the Hutt's pit fighting ring, in the location she'd agreed to meet Tal at.

As she mentioned to him, she was wearing something different than the last time they worked together. Every inch of her body was covered, including her face due to the helmet. Over top of it was a gray cloak because of her extreme paranoia. It also had a voice scrambler and a built in spike. It was easier to slice into things with her datapad, but it was always handy to have extra tools.

Of course, she'd deleted the extra copy of the manifest off her datapad so she wouldn't be caught in public with it. Thinking about it, everything that happened up until now felt like a blur. None of this was planned and it was all moving so quickly, or so it felt that way. Even having a new name felt strange, as she'd only ever planned to have two.

She tapped her fingers on her crossed arms while she waited for Tal. After a minute her thoughts drifted into something else... she still hadn't asked what Tal was after. He knew what she was after, and it didn't have anything to do with this pit fighting ring or a hutt. Well, it did in some ways. Whatever she learned while working with him would be helpful to her. She thought on the subject for a few seconds and decided she wasn't going to bother asking what he was after. It was better this way for more than a few reasons.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak had made his way back to his ship and decided to spend the time grabbing a meal. He had every intention of wearing the same Kage warrior outfit and short vibrosword. He was quite proud of himself for this particular cover as it perfectly fit how he wanted to fight without drawing attention.

He made his way back to the prearranged location and saw who he assumed was Lilith. This time she was dressed much more like a traditional thief, which was probably for the best. When they were inside, neither of them wanted to be linked back to this job.

Are you ready? he asked, his fingers brushing momentarily against the hilt of the vibrosword. Unlike the last job, he was anticipating a high chance that this one involved bloodshed. Although, he also wasn't too excited about that either. If they could avoid trouble, it would be much better.

If we can get through the security doors it'll make our job easier, he said, looking up at the massive stadium in front of them. He could hear chanting and screaming inside, and there were guards at most of the major entrances. They would have to take a staff entrance and get out of the main halls after that. The plan was already in Talak's mind, and the Force was his ally in this particular case. A powerful ally. @Dread

 

[Lilith Vye]

Lilith turned to face Tal as he walked over to her, and she answered with a simple, "Yeah" in her regular voice. This mission was starting calmer than the last since she hadn't worried about him stabbing her yet, but she had a feeling it'd end with a bigger bang.

"I can make that happen," she answered. "But the question is do you want the camera's offline? Since this is a busy place, turning them off may draw more attention than less." Maybe, she thought. Them walking around in areas they weren't suppose be sounded like it'd draw a lot of attention, but Lilith wasn't entirely sure that'd be the case here; hutts tended to have lots of sketchy looking folk in and out of their places so they might not stick out at all. If she gave them free reign of the building via her slicing skills, others may assume they belong there.

As they got closer to the hutt's building, she turned on her voice scrambler to deepen and digitize her voice. If everything went to plan, she'd continue her work on Nar Shaddaa so she did not want anything to slip. She stopped at the bottom of the stairwell to let someone already at the top use the security door. It was... while she spoke up again when the man went in, "That doors panel most definitely isn't connected to the security system. It's...very cheap and old." This building really is run by a hutt, she thought.

Lilith walked up the stairs and quickly pulled out her datapad, bringing up a program on it and then pressing it on the panel. The door beeped shortly after that, prompting her to put away her datapad quickly. It opened up to a hallway that was mostly empty... except for one man. A male human and he turned and saw Lilith.

At first she was ready to run or fight or whatever Tal decided to do, but the man started to walk up to her with a smile on his face. He excitedly flung his arms in the air in a welcoming way while shouting, "Welcome! I assume you're that female bounty hunter Gurrba is waiting for?" He lowered his arms and then... one of his hands touched her thigh and stayed there.

Suddenly Lilith felt her anger boiling, very, very quickly. The only thing that kept her from snapping right in that moment was Tal. She hoped he wanted her to clobber the man, but if she had to play along well... her self control was quickly dissipating while she waited for the signal.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak considered her question before shaking his head.

No, leave them on for now, he said. In a full disguise, lingering recordings weren't his primary concern, but drawing attention while they were still inside the building might bring trouble that he'd rather avoid for as long as possible.

As they made their way to the building in question, Talak turned to keep watch while she did her work. There weren't a great deal of people in the area, and even those who were here weren't paying much attention. That was the wonderful thing about Nar Shaddaa: butting into other people's business was liable to get you killed, so most people didn't do it without good reason.

He heard a quiet beep and the door latch clicked before it slid open. Perfect, he thought before turning to see the man standing inside. He was about ready to go to work when the man... thought he recognized Lilith? Well, that was convenient.

He could feel anger boiling within her and then a moment later noticed the guy was touching her. Talak stepped up quickly and interjected.

We need to be moving forward quickly, he said, earning a nasty glare from the thug before he looked back to Lilith.

Who's this guy? I thought you worked alone? he asked, though at least it had gotten him to remove his hand from her for the moment... for the moment.

The boss is only paying for one of you to be in the arena, he said with a scowl. And just like that, it seemed that Lilith was signed up to go into the arena and fight... something. @Dread

 

[Lilith Vye]

With the strangers hand off her, for the moment she wasn't seeing red. The issue now was the reversed roles; the stranger was upset, mentioning something about "her" working alone. It took all of the remaining amounts of willpower in Lilith not to just lash out at the man as the solution.

"He's not my partner," she claimed in her digitized voice, not exactly being a stranger to lying during a job. "He's someone I thought Gurrba would find... interesting to meet. More precisely... lucrative."

There was a moment of silence between them, or as silent as it could get in the building of a fighting pit. But the man's smile seemed to somewhat return, though slightly more smug than before. "Ah, two days early and bringing Gurrba a gift? I see someone is aiming to please..." with that the man clearly reached out to wrap his arm around her waist

Lilith's hands balled into fists that even hurt her, and it was almost as if the rooms temperature changed in that very stitch in time. "If you touch me again I'll give your hand to Gurrba as a gift too," she hissed, too calmly.

He stared for a few more seconds before chuckling a, "A disposition of a true bounty hunter!" It didn't seem like he took her that seriously, but he hadn't touched her again and simply started to walk forward. "Gurrba is in a meeting right now, but I can show you to him anyway," the man offered.

If Tal stayed in 'character' Lilith wouldn't say anything and just let the man bring them deeper into the complex. They were relatively safe in this cover for the moment, it seemed. However, she decided to speak up again once it seemed like they were getting closer to their destination, "Did you double check that you have all the data?" she asked Tal. She was trying to play along but give Tal the option to either meet Gurrba and try keep this cover, or possibly get away from this guy.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak decided to go along with things for the time being, but he knew they probably didn't want to keep this act going for too long. If they did, they were likely to wind up in the presence of someone that would be looking far more closely at their covers and surrounded by extra security.

Can you feel his mind? Feel the weakness and cracks in it? Press on those cracks with your own emotion and tell him he needs to go to the 'fresher in an isolated part of the building, Talak's thoughts would ring out in her mind. He told her that he would begin to train her in the Force, and there was no better training than this. He didn't know if her attempts at a mind trick would be successful - he kind of doubted it - but he was a safety net if it didn't work.

Although his suggestion of where to go seemed odd, Talak wanted a place that would isolate the man from other people so that he could... extract some additional information. It would take time and he couldn't just do it here in the halls. Hopefully the noise of the arena would cover over any other... noise. @Dread

 

[Lilith Vye]

Her question was answered with words in her mind. That made her nearly jump out of her skin, but she could sense he wasn't exactly invading her mind per say. Since his request was to copy something she had done on her twice now, she had some modicum of understanding about it already.

Reaching out with the Force, Lilith put all her focus into feeling the man's mind as he walked. It took some time for her to understand what she was sensing exactly, because there was so much. She dug through it regardless of feeling a little overwhelmed and suddenly found...something that could be considered a 'crack' or weakness. She seized the moment, lifting her hand towards the man to speak, "You want to go to the fresher in the most isolated part of the building."

He turned around, a look of blankness on his face. "Yes... I want to go to the fresher in the most isolated part of the building," he answered before walking off.

It... worked?

Lilith looked back at Tal for further instructions, even if they were just him walking past her so she could follow. Part of her was uncharacteristically impressed by his instructions, but mostly it felt good to be the one in control this time.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

She was picking it up quickly, and Talak had to say that he was relatively impressed. If this was how quickly she picked up everything then she'd be proficient in short order.

They were off and deeper into the building a moment later as they followed the man to the fresher. It was quite the trek to get there, really, because the most isolated part of the building was... isolated. He noted how many blast doors they had passed through and tried to remember all the turns they had taken, but eventually lost track of exactly where they were. That would probably cause a problem for them eventually, but not yet.

Eventually, the man entered one of the rooms on the side of the hallway, and Talak followed him inside. It was the men's room, but he wouldn't stop her if she wanted to come inside. After all, he wasn't actually going in there to use the facilities.

They crossed the threshold of the room and the door snapped shut behind them with a hiss. He glanced through the stalls to ensure they were alone, and then he didn't hold back. He reached out with the Force and grabbed the man by the throat before slamming his head violently against the ground.

Dazed and confused, Talak struck his head again and climbed atop him. He dug through the man's mind, and agony shot through the man's ever fiber. It was an artificial pain, but it felt quite real to the victim. As he did this, he dug through the man's mind, looking for information about passcodes and doors into the Hutt's more private areas.

The poor guard screamed and screeched in pain, but after only a few moments, Talak had what he was looking for. His eyes seemed an unnatural yellow now, and the Force strangled the remaining life from the unfortunate guard. The actions were both intoxicating and repulsive in the way that only the dark side could be.

After stuffing the body into a stall and locking the door, he poked his head back outside to see if anyone had heard the commotion. Hopefully not.

Personal quarters are in the lower levels, under the arena. That's our next stop, he said. The process of tearing through someone's mind so violently wasn't something he was prepared to teach on the job. Not when the stakes were this high, but they had their information. @Dread

 

[Lilith Vye]

Lilith decided she didn't want to go into the men's fresher. She didn't have to see or know everything this man did. Far from it. Besides, she thought, it'd be better if someone stayed to keep an eye out. With this in mind she crossed her arms and leaned against the wall beside the freshers door.

In time she heard the twisted screams of terror and pain. No, not only that she could sense it. At the back of her brain she knew that it was wrong, yet she couldn't help but enjoy the fact that that man in particular was suffering.

No one came around, and soon she saw Tal poke his head out of the bathroom. "Lower levels..." she mumbled in echo, recalling a stairwell not too far away. Nodding as an answer she pushed off the wall and walked ahead of Tal this time. They made it to the staircase in good time, though after two flights they ran into another security door.

Lilith did the same as before, placing her datapad against the panel to unlock it. When they entered more people were walking around. There was what looked like young slaves, droids, and an array of sketchy looking men. One man stuck out to her. On his belt was a keychain and a whip, and a feeling that something was off about him. Then there was a crashing noise in the distance, like something massive was thrashing against a wall with murderous intent.

"Why do I feel like something bad is going to happen?" she asked in a hushed voice, though not exactly expecting an answer from Tal. Whatever it was, it may not have anything to do with them. Hopefully.

@Phoenix

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak followed after her as they made their way toward the lower stairwell. He reached out with his senses to the Force, but it somehow felt... distant. It was as if it didn't want to give him any information or clues about his mission. He didn't know the source of this feeling, but it was unnerving in its own way, What little he did sense was a mask of pain and misery that was too familiar to him. It was the same misery he'd felt on Gamorr in the slave rings.

He closed himself off quickly. He wasn't willing to lose control here as he had there, but he also knew that if he wasn't careful, his entire job would be blown.

As they made it deeper, things didn't improve. He could see the slaves mulling about from place to place, and the Zygerrian slaver with a whip at the far end of the room. He heard Lilith quietly mention that something bad was going to happen, but he hardly noticed it. He was too fixated on what was unfolding before him, the same irrational anger rising within, albeit to a slightly lesser degree.

The man with the whip pulled it free from his belt and cracked it, driving a small group if individuals toward a huge door. They held weapons in their hands, but they looked like they didn't have the first idea of how to use them. Not to mention that they barely looked like they'd function.

If Lilith looked at his eyes, she would see a murderous intent in the only part of him that she could see. He thought of the dead girls hanging from the tree the last time he'd tried to step in to help slaves. Maybe this wouldn't help either... it probably wouldn't, but he could stop this one from hurting anyone again, couldn't he?

Isolate him and kill him, he said on impulse, indicating the Zygerrian they were both looking at. It could be part of her training, though it was also as much about his own vendetta as anything. He wouldn't have been surprised if she refused outright, but that didn't mean they weren't still going to find a way to do just that. @Dread

 

[Duke Winters]

After apprehending the man in the office building, who did indeed turn out to be a bounty hunter, gave him information of the two who also broke into the building, or as he put it, his "targets." He got a description of the two, a short blonde woman and a man who wore a Kage warrior outfit. Since he had been on Nar Shaddaa his whole life, that gave him time to form a few connections on the planet and at least send the word out that he was searching for this woman and kage warrior. It had taken a while but eventually, he heard whisperings of the two visiting a known fighting ring on the planet.

That's where Duke was currently, standing outside the ring with his badge and other weapons neatly tucked away in secret holsters on his body. It was a small benefit that as a Ranger he could enjoy, legally allowed to carry his weapons anywhere he wanted. As he approached the ring, memories flashed in his mind as he remembered when he was younger and snuck into the arena to watch the fight. Sometimes they would make it in, sometimes they would get beat and thrown at the door and it had been a while since he had actually visited the arena himself. When he approached the front, he saw the huge crowds still shuffling in and it made him pause in his tracks. He wouldn't be able to get in without drawing attention and if memory served there was a service door that could allow him to cut through it all.

Tracing his steps from memory, he found the door and climbed the stairs to try and open the door. It wouldn't budge however and he tried one more time to no avail. Duke glanced around to make sure he was clear of anybody witnessing he was about to do and with the roar of the crowds and bustle of the crowds outside, it would mask the sound he was about to make. He pulled out his blaster and shot the lock, quickly stowing his weapon away after and opened the door to step inside. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone on the other side of the door as it seemed the guard maybe forgot his shift or just got drunk. Duke hid his badge before calmly stepping towards the sound of a raucous audience as they watched a fight unfold.

He stopped at the end of a hallway that opened into the area, allowing him to see the current fight on display. He was about to search for the two there but he realized they simply wouldn't watch the fight. If they came to an arena this packed, that meant they were here for something else while all this drew attention away from something. Duke started to walk back before deciding to head deeper into the building, trusting his gut to lead him as he went in blindly.

---​

The Zygerrian, named Jol, hissed loudly before cracking his whip against the wall as small pieces of it were chipped off and made a couple of slaves duck. "You best put on a good performance! I will not be embarrassed by filth like you." There was one slave that was more separated from the rest and that quickly earned him a crack of the whip across his calf that made him whimper and fall on the ground. "Get up and get to the door!" When Jol turned back around to face the group of slaves but found something that had never happened before.

They weren't staring at the Zygerrian or at the present task they were given and that meant Jol wasn't doing his job correctly. There weren't many things that could infuriate him more than being disrespected. He followed their gazes and found the strange looking pair staring at him and the slaves that were about to enter the arena. Jol growled loudly but that's when the large doors opened and he cracked his whip in the air, "Move!" The slaves followed his orders and rushed blindly out into the arena, not realizing they were accepting death for the entertainment of those that paid enough.

Jol brought his gaze back towards the pair as he slowly started to draw the whip back toward, "And who the kark are you two?" He wasn't the only one there watching over the slaves as there were two guards assigned with the Zygerrian. He wasn't hostile yet towards the two, they could still be customers who were just exploring but they still were trespassing and that made him suspicious.

@Dread @Phoenix

 

[Lilith Vye]

Even though Lilith didn't understand why he wanted this, she'd follow Tal's orders. After all, despite not completely trusting him, for this mission he was both her boss and mentor. She wouldn't stick around and watch the show unfolding before them though, instead Lilith acted on his command right away.

Walking towards the Zygerrian as he screamed at the slaves, Lilith was intercepted by his two guards. They said something not in basic in deep booming voices, obviously threatening her. Dammit, she thought, but she quickly fell back onto the training Tal gave her. Summoning the Force to her aid, she used it to compel them, "A couple slaves escaped, they ran down the hallway, you should follow them."

The guards looked at her blankly, then echoed her words before leaving. As the door was about to open to let the slaves out, Lilith panicked a bit.

Was Tal trying to save the slaves or was this some personal vendetta? She didn't know, nor did she want to mess anything up. Quickly, Lilith reached into herself one more time, raising a hand but as subtly as she could. It looked like she was trying to adjust her hood or something, but she was using the Force to keep the door from going up and letting the slaves into the arena.

The door groaned as the gears began to crack from the pressure, and if Lilith could she'd groan too. This was tougher than she thought, but her focus remained so Tal could do whatever he wanted in the meantime. Since the use of the Force was so rare, the first assumption wouldn't be the strange girl causing the door to stop, but some sort of technical issue. And the guards had walked off willingly. Anything could happen at this point.

@Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Roland Rook]

THEME​

Nar Shaddaa, the big city version a hive of scum and villainy. Roland was not the type to enjoy himself on the Smuggler's Moon considering he was an officer of the law. But this was the job. The outer rim had an insurmountable number of hidy-holes for the dangerous and the depraved. Roland sat outside of the fighting bit building with his back leaning against his speeder's seat. Gurrba the Hutt was a known factor in the criminal underworld. It was why he was here to stake the place out. Intelligence gathering and case building could be exciting one minute and then utterly mind numbing for the rest of the time.

While there was more crime and those that perpetrated it on Nar Shaddaa it was still possible to be bored. The Mandalorian took a deep breath before reaching for his water with accompanied straw. The sound of sucking air and the last droplets of water filled the air speeders cabin. Then the Sector Ranger realized he had filled his bladder. Sighing, he got out of the secluded but observational parking spot and walked a few meters until he was unlikely to be seen. The cross visored Mandalorian had his badge in a pouch. Not particularly concealed and easy enough to pull out with one hand, but still out of sight. Then again, most people would not expect a Mandalorian Sector Ranger. But never when its useful. He complained to himself.

After finishing his business he returned the stationary speeder. *pew* The sound of a blaster discharge made him furrow his brow. His hands brought up a pair of macrobinoculars to try and see if he could catch any figures. But by then it was too late. There was no sign of any movement outside of the building. The Ranger sat there, chewing his lip wondering if it was just some random sound or unrelated weapon discharge. He knew he was in the right neighborhood for that sort of thing to happen.

Finally he dropped the macrobinoculars into the passenger seat and exited the air speeder again. Locking it behind him Roland looked up and down the street, making sure there were no witnesses or possible lookouts. Trying to not clop and make too much noise he walked across the street and came to the door. If anyone saw him he hoped they would assume he was just some other violent prone blast-thug like the rest of the occupants he had seen go inside.

There were three things he noticed about the door. Firstly, it was open. The second thing, the blaster hole in an access panel, explained the first. Lastly, and maybe the least obvious fact, was that there were no guards. But the security cameras were partially the reason for that. Roland had seen guards around the building before. Different patrons that enjoyed the fight pits had come and gone in the past hours and all the while the law enforcement officer had seen some semblance of manned security. Well this just ain't right.

His palm gently touched his holstered blaster as he moved down into the hall for a few steps. Occasionally, the hooded warrior looked behind him as a precaution. This was Hutt territory and he did not want to seem like someone the people inside might want to shoot at. Forcing himself to relax, there was no apparent threat. Removing his hand from his sidearm the Ranger dared to delve deeper with no idea what really awaited him inside. This is one of the few times I wish I had a partner.

@Phoenix @Dread @Orbit

 

[Talak Rand]

There was a nagging feeling inside Talak's mind, but he didn't know if it was from the Zygerrian or something else. It felt more... elusive than an immediate threat. If it wasn't the threat in front of him, then he probably needed to push it to the back burner for now.

He focused instead on the Zygerrian. The man was demanding to know who they were, and Talak decided that appearing equally as confident was the only way.

How dare you! This is the Princess Tariqua or the Kage people, and she will not be sworn at by some pawn of his master. If you speak to her like that again, we'll inform the might Gurrba that we have no interest in his slaves because his slave driver had no respect, he declared. While he didn't directly influence the man's mind - as he was sure the man would sense or resist it - he did apply the faintest pressure to make his cover story appear more... convincing.

Luckily, the man wouldn't have much time to be able to scrutinize the cover as the door appeared to malfunction. The taskmaster would be forced to turn and deal with the slaves now, and Talak would take that opportunity to finish him off. His hands looked as if they were grasping a ball in front of him, but the reality was that they were gripping the man's head in the Force. He jerked his hands in the air and pulled on the Force, twisting the slaver's head grotesquely and nearly all the way around.

Assuming he was successful, he would help the slave's gather the weapons in the area. A slave revolt might well get them killed - it likely would - but at least they had the chance to fight their captors rather than each other for the sick pleasure of the crowd.

OOC: I'm going to go ahead and close the thread before it gets too full. Please try to post in a reasonable time so that this thread isn't slowed down. Thanks! @Dread @Darasuum @Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

The taskmaster gave a surprising look to the robotic voiced woman as the two guards simply followed her words and went down and ran towards the hallway. That's when the Kage warrior seemed offended by the Zygerrian's words and informed him that she was indeed a princess to respect. There was a nudge in Zygerrian's mind to believe what Talak was telling him but one thing stood out enough that he didn't buy it. Lilith had spoken that slaves had managed to run away, that wasn't possible because he had been keeping track of all the slaves that were supposed to go out and perform tonight. No alarm had been triggered and instantly the Zygerrian's hackles raised, "Liars."

That's when he felt the force starting to wrap around his head and prepared to practically yank it off. But the taskmaster wasn't going to down so easily, there being a reason why he paid to be in charge of the slaves. He lashed out his whip with a snap right towards Talak, it coming right for face and ready to split it down the middle and leave it scarred forever if he continued to use the force on the Zygerrian's head. If he let go to dodge the strike, then the Zygerrian would immediately rush over to a nearby wall, ready to activate the alarm to have guards descend upon their location. As he sprinted over there, he shouted out to the slaves, "Attack them! Now!"

A weird effect happened, half the slaves decided to fight for their freedom and help the pair, the other half listened to the Zygerrian some of them rushing over to Lilith and Talak with just basic weaponry. It became chaos real quick, slaves fighting over slaves, slaves rushing to fight the pair.

---​

Duke had been navigating through the hallways, keeping his head down and avoiding any contact that could possibly draw any questions to him being there. He was started to find the idea of just randomly searching for the mysterious pair to be entirely unrealistic and was about to head back. But that's when the sound of what appeared to be a battle happening, people shouting and the clashing of weapons echoing through the hallways. Duke immediately pulled out his blaster and rushed down the hallway, following the noise and hoping it led to what he was searching for.

When he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, it was utter chaos, practically a small battlefield as he couldn't tell who was fighting who for what purpose. His eyes scanned through the crowd until he finally saw it, a man wearing a kage warrior outfit and filling the exact description of who he was searching for. Duke sprinted forward, pushing through the crowds and shoving people out of the way to reach towards the pair, his gun still at the ready in case anyone decided to get a cheap shot on him during his dash.

 

[Lilith Vye]

Lilith acted once all chaos broke loose. She quickly turned around to find some cover, easily outrunning tired and hungry slaves. No one else was focused on her, thankfully. Noticing a door on the way she took out her datapad that was already loaded with the program to break through this places security doors. She smashed the datapad into it and got into the room quickly. The door slid closed behind her and locked again.

But what she saw in the room was almost beyond her fathom: dozens of treasures. She did not know this was the room that Talak was looking for the entire time, but she did know that something or somethings were drawing her to them. They were alive in the Force. She stepped forward without wasting a single second, picking up two lightsabers. Lilith did not know what they were beyond weapons, or what they represented to the galaxy at large, but she ignited one and it snapped to life with a flash of blue.

And for some reason, as the blue hue reflected in her wide eyes, it felt right.

Through the blue blade she saw and sensed one more thing. A holocron, though she would not know what it was. It was encased in some glass and Lilith simply swung the lightsaber at the case. She was shocked when the blade cut the glass cleanly in half instead of smashing it, but acted as fast as she could to grab the mysterious object and put it in a pouch on her belt, along with the second lightsaber hilt.

Grabbing the blades and robbing the holocon wouldn't take long, so the screams of chaos outside brought her back to reality quickly. With these new items she decided to rejoin the fray. When she exited the room, instead of the slaves charging her they stopped in place to stare. To them, she was not just a misguided liberator anymore... she was a Jedi, a beacon of hope. They would have no way to know otherwise, and so instead of attacking they put their hopes in her.

The slaves that once fought for their tyrant of a master turned to stab and shoot him. Ever since she'd left the room, Lilith had kept the one blade at the ready in case she needed to stop at any moment to fight or dodge, but decided to grab the second one and toss it to Tal. No matter what he was doing, she knew he would catch it. She thought this weapon—one that could cut cleanly through glass—would be a lot better than his sword.

@Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Roland Rook]

With each step the Ranger thought about how this could end. This was a building filled with tough son of slugs and he was heading into the belly of the beast. Confident in his abilities he was still only one man. But he was not about to completely lose the opporunity.

Walking carefully down the hall he did not see anybody. But he definitely heard something, a lot of somethings. <"It's a fight pit Roland. Of course you're gonna hear some noise."> he whispered to himself in mando'a. The law enforcement officer tried remembering what information he had gathered about the buildings interior. But unless his memory was shoddy there were some turns in the hallways, a wall or a door that were not in the plans he had looked at the other day. But it was no surprise. The intelligence was old and made the Ranger even less comfortable.

Coming across a door panel outside a blast door he stuck his armor mounted scurity spike. Roland was betting the security center was still in the same place. The sound of of the rotating device would fall silent. Thankfully the security system was not upgraded very often. The hall beyond would lead to the security center. From there the Sector Ranger planned on slicing and getting some recordings. <"This is why I hate stakeouts." >

@Dread @Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak was focused on snapping the man's neck, and so the Force didn't seem to give him warning of the incoming attack. It was only the man's arm movement that gave away his intent, and even then, Talak couldn't fully avoid the strike. The whip cracked, but having your neck twisted was distracting, and instead of landing right on Talak's face, in conjunction with Talak's dodge, it struck across his shoulder, sending an electric shock down the legionnaire's right arm.

He ran at once and shouted out toward the slaves, but apart from only a couple, most weren't too eager to fight for their executioner. The Zygerrian had run to the far side of the room, which meant Talak was out of his range, but he wasn't out of Talak's. Before the slaves could jump at him, he acted. The Force grabbed the man's entire body and knocked him to the ground and into the middle of the slaves.

One of them lunged at him and plunged a rusty, filthy blade into his back. And again. And again. And again. There was a sickening squelching sound as the blades were rammed in over and over, and a feeling of satisfaction filled Talak. He was glad to see the man fall.

He wasn't expecting Lilith to have found their target, but it seemed the Force worked in mysterious ways. Perhaps his stopping to help the slaves had led them right to their goal.

The area down here had become a bloodbath, though. A few slaves turned on each other, and the two guards who had been sent away came back. They opened fire and were rushed. Slaves fell, guards fell, and everything was chaos.

Talak's head swiveled around the "battlefield" looking for who was the greatest threat. To his surprise, a lightsaber came whipping through the air, and he caught it cleanly. He could see hers was blue, which prompted him to thumb the activator, igniting it to find a blue blade. Interesting, he thought to himself. Sure, he could play the Jedi. He'd already played the vigilante and liberator. Why not?

The blade felt heavier than his own, which was... odd. As if the Force and emotion that he poured through the blade made it heavier. Resisting him. But it still beat out a vibrosword by a large margin.

Live slaves. Dead slaves. Dead guards. Dead slaver. Live... armed man? his mind ran through what he saw. Someone was running toward him, gun in hand, but something about him felt... different. Maybe even familiar? In the Force the man didn't have the deep red and black swirl of malice and evil that was characteristic of the slaver guards, but he was armed and he wasn't one of the slaves. His eyes locked on the man, and for a moment he just stood there, watching him, and waiting for him to make a move. He wanted to know who the man was.

Did you find the holocron? he asked, reaching out through the Force to Lilith before realizing she probably didn't even know what a holocron was. Pyramidal, size of your palm. Might glow, he projected. He was ever ready if this armed man attacked, and he knew he could buy time for Lilith to find their actual target. @Dread @Darasuum @Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

There was a flow of people in front of Duke and he had to duck under an incoming club to his head before simply grabbing a slave's collar and throwing them to the ground. He didn't want to shoot any of them, they were just slaves and he was trying to help them if he could, not kill them. But the battle continued to rage on and their attention was split everywhere and giving the Ranger the opportunity to close the distance between him and the kage warrior.

When the two had some feet between them, Duke stopped where he was and raised his blaster at Talak with both of his hands on his weapon to steady. "Sector Ranger! Drop those weapons." But the moment he asked the man to drop his weapons, he extended his hand out and caught a lightsaber thrown somewhere as a blue blade erupted from the hilt and gave off the same color hue. "Oh shit," Duke muttered, now seeing another walk-in with a blue lightsaber as well. Did suddenly everybody have lightsabers to pull out from somewhere? They kept popping up wherever he went. He pulled out his vibro-sword in his left hand and kept his blaster in his right, it continued to be aimed it at Talak just in case. "You're very hard people to find but I guess that makes sense now."

Once the slaves saw the lightsabers, they immediately fled into a different corner of a room and huddled together since the door was closed. That just left Duke standing across Talak with Lilith in the back doing whatever she was. "I don't know what you are but you're gonna need to come with me." The Ranger was in a stance that made him prepared to either dodge or launch himself at Talak but his finger remained above the trigger as he waited to see what the kage warrior would decide to do. Duke didn't want to kill them, he wanted to bring them in.

 

[Talak Rand]

OOC: Figured I'd post again since @Orbit and I are kind of talking here.

Talak frowned as he saw the man run up, point his gun at him, and then identify himself as a Sector Ranger? Oh, this could get complicated. Talak didn't feel the warning in the Force that the man was going to fire, and although he kept his guard up, he took the opportunity to try to talk instead of attacking.

Talak actually rather liked the Sector Rangers. Or at least the ones he knew. Some of them even considered him a hero for pulling some of their own out of the line of fire, and others had seen glimpses of his true nature, though she deemed "his heart was in the right place." But Talak didn't recognize this one. All that to say, he didn't want to fight this guy.

But that wasn't all that struck him about this one being a Sector Ranger.

You don't have jurisdiction here, which means you're vigilante. Which leads me to ask: wouldn't you rather help free the slaves who are gonna be murdered than try to shoot me? Because I'd... he motioned to himself with his free hand ...rather save people's lives than try to arrest someone for stealing from a murderer, he said. His words were quick and without hesitation. It was a lot to say in a chaotic environment such as this, and Talak hadn't made any move to attack yet.

He wasn't going to deny he was stealing, but there was a much bigger fish to fry here than Talak and Lilith. He could only hope that this Sector Ranger was like the others he'd met and would rather save lives. Talak would welcome the help and would be more than happy to help in turn. Of course, there was always the distinct possibility that this one was corrupt, which would make this more awkward.