Ask Nar Shaddaa The Pit

[Lilith Vye]

Once again Tal's words rang in her mind, and they surprised her but for a different reason this time. She tried to focus on the connection he created to send to those words into her mind, in order to replicate it herself. "I-I have what you described. How did you know...?" she projected back to him, genuinely curious.

The act took all her focus until a random man waltz up, demanding that her and Tal come with him. He came off like standard thug to Lilith—standing there demanding compliance with a blaster in his hand. If Tal wasn't here, she would've simply attacked or fled. She still might, should this 'sector ranger' pull the trigger on his blaster.

But Tal's reaction and words reigned her in somewhat, and confused her at the same time. Was he really trying to save these people, or was this a cover? Why was she looking so deeply into his actions that were outside of training her in the Force? She tried not to focus on it.

Then Tal finished his speech, and something dawned on Lilith. Without skipping a beat, she obnoxiously blurted out, "What the kark is a Sector Ranger?"

@Phoenix @Orbit @Darasuum

 

[Roland Rook]

The hiss of another door opening revealing the Mandalorian behind it. On the other side of the door there was a protocol droid. Its back was turned to him as it tapped at a security terminal. Roland's hand went back to his hip holster, unsnapping the release and smoothly pulling it.

The blast door behind him closed with a similar hiss as it had opened. The droid began turning around. Damn, not going to be able to turn it off. He thought to himself and leveled the blaster. The Ranger wanted to get in an out without leaving a trace but in this case he could deal with blasting a glorified appliance. It must have thought he was someone else because it spoke in its robotic voice with a tone of familiarity. "There is a disturbance in the-" The Sector Ranger did not let the droid finish before he shot the automaton in its head. The sound of its power supply and components falling silent followed its clanking fall to the ground.

Locking the door behind him with his security spike the cautious Ranger took a few more steps into the security office. Smoke curled from the body of the droid and the Mandalorian stepped over it. Coming to the terminal of the security system he jacked himself into it similarly to how he had used the device built into his armor. He planned on setting up an open link to his ship. Of course he knew to keep it still protected and undiscoverable unless specifically looking for this but it would take a moment for him to get the feeds to each security camera.

<"We might not know what you're up to Gurrba...but we will."> The armored man said, somewhat mockingly in huttese. The law enforcement officer saw the value of having recorded evidence and information of anything nefarious going on in the Pit. The Mandalorian did not have a datapad or storage device on him. If he wanted the potential information he had to have a way of accessing it later.

@Dread @Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

That wasn't the first reaction he was expecting and he grimaced slightly as Talak was technically correct about his jurisdiction. He could still arrest people but there so was technicalities and red tape that it did leave him feeling powerless and having to take situations in his own hand. Most people when they heard the words, Sector Ranger, they freeze immediately but I guess this was a completely different type of crowd then he was used to dealing with.

Duke glanced at the slaves that ran away, noticing the condition they were being treated in and the fate they were being forced into without any chance to command it on their own. With the fact that he knew the arena was ran by the gangs, it infuriated him that Talak was making sense because he did but it wasn't perfect. "Two wrongs don't make a right... But," For all he knew, what the man stole could lead to even more tragedy then what was happening in the arena. However, Nar Shaddaa was Duke's home and when Talak mentioned possibly saving the slaves, it tugged something inside him. He slowly lowered his pistol but kept it aimed at the ground, easing his stance as well but not fully.

He was also outmatched and outnumbered and knew when to take the better option. "You're right, these people do need our help. We'll call it even, I let you slide and you help me take this place down." With that, Duke held his vibro-blade up for Talak and Lilith to see before he slid it into its sheath on his hip. The blaster was still out but that was because they were still in a dangerous area and he hoped stowing away his blade would act as a good substitute. Duke pointed a finger at Talak but was meant for the both of them, "If you try anything funny, I won't hesitate to shoot both of you."

 

[Talak Rand]

Somehow whenever Sector Rangers were involved, things never went as he anticipated. He hadn't expected to start freeing slaves today, but he wasn't objecting to it. In fact, having an extra hand to help him was quite a pleasant surprise in its own way.

He glanced at Lilith and gave a nod to signify that this was the way to go, and hoped she wouldn't take that as a "this is the time to attack." She seemed smarter than that, though, so he wasn't too worried.

I'd expect nothing less, he said at the threat of being shot. He appeared completely unfazed by the threat, and while saying he trusted the Ranger was a stretch, he didn't think he'd double cross them. Not that he was going to be turning his back on the man.

We need to get to the central data system, he said quickly. If we don't wipe the records, they'll just use the trackers to either blow the slaves up or recapture them. They need to be erased, he continued. He had learned from his mistakes, and wasn't going to see another batch of slaves butchered because of his mistake. They both might also get the impression that he had done something like this before... it was at least his second rodeo.

L, can you get us a layout for the arena? A route to the main data terminals? he asked. He didn't know if that was within the realm of possibility remotely, but it was worth the ask. Either way, Talak knew they couldn't stay here long or else they would become trapped. He started moving immediately after, keeping his attention in the Force on the Ranger... just in case. @Orbit @Dread @Darasuum

 

[Lilith Vye]

It was a surprising turn of events, but Lilith simply nodded when Tal called her 'L' and asked about locating the central data system. When she put away her lightsaber and walked up to a panel, she hesitated for a handful of seconds knowing she was going to slice in front of this stranger. But, at least she was unidentifiable out of this armor. Pulling out her datapad, she brought up three of her hand crafted programs—since she didn't trust other peoples work—and connected to the panel. After only a few heartbeats a map blinked up on her datapad's screen but Lilith remained quiet at first, in thought.

"This is where the Hutt invested all his credits," she mumbled under her breath. "Bypassing all this security wont be fast and this area will be heavily guarded due to it's proximity to all those weapons lockers. We need... a real distraction."

Lilith looked back when she noticed the thundering slamming again, one that sounded like it came from some sort of massive beast. Something clicked in her mind just then. She looked at the map and then back to Tal again. "Mentor... you know what you said about our meaning in this galaxy..." she said softly, trailing off.

Without another word Lilith walked past the two men. Taking a quick turn, she ran up the stairwell they had come down, but once they got to the ground floor she continued up another flight of stairs. This time the door at the top wasn't locked and simply hissed open. If either men followed Lilith, they'd find themselves on a private viewing deck, watching an adult rancor smash wildly against a wall at the edge of the arena. It had not gotten it's slave meal, it seemed. It was also as Lilith expected, very large and in an arena with not very high walls. It wouldn't take that big of an object to give it the step it needed to get onto the first level of viewing stands.

"All these people came to watch slaves suffer..." she said scarcely above a whisper.

The Force swirled around her, almost violently to those who could sense it. If it was her purpose to rain death upon the rotten and stagnant worlds of this galaxy, so be it.

Lilith reached out with the Force, wrapping it around a large, square water storage at the edge of the arena. It took all her might, all her focus to do so and begin to pull it towards the rancors location. The structure whined against the pressure and the crowd began to stir. Lilith felt her body begin to tire already, and did not know if she had the strength or the training to pull this off. Perhaps Tal would help, perhaps not, but she had come this far and she would not go back.

@Phoenix @Orbit @Darasuum

 

[Roland Rook]

The remote backdoor into the Hutt's pit ended allowing Roland to let out an audible breath. But he made a sigh knowing that he would be remissed if he did not make the most out of the situation. Squinting behind his helmet he thought what best to do next.

Sticking the security spike back in he began sending an upload of broad records to his ship. It was a larger load of data but the Mandalorian did not feel he had the time to search at where the records were hidden, at least not now. So instead he sent the data to his ship where he could analyze it later Float me, I bet there's going to be a whole lot of nothing and I'm going to have lost hours of sleep pouring over it. That'd be typical. But he knew that recorded tapes and files the hutt might keep to blackmail his patrons could also be useful in a plethora of ways.

I really need to take one of those classes on holo-warfare. Kids these days can be scary with that sort of stuff. He said to himself while shaking his helmet. It felt wrong to be standing so still in a dangerous environment. Then he remembered something that made his shoulders sag. The security spike stopped turning. Roland had sliced the doors behind him to get here. But he had not remembered to lock them behind himself. The cross visored helmet slowly turned to the door behind him. The security spike resumed turning, almost hesitant at first and then fully to the process it had begun earlier. At least he would have a fast way out and wouldn't need to worry about unlocking the doors to get back out. His trigger finger that held his blaster tapped the frame of the weapon a few times just above the trigger guard.

@Dread @Phoenix @Orbit

 

[Duke Winters]

The standoff ceased as the three came to a compromise and agreed to at least not shoot each other. "L" pulled out her datapad and was about to begin working on it but revealed that the security measures were greater then she thought. "And how would we cause a real distraction? " But she told something to her mentor before walking past them. Duke glanced over to Talak, "Please tell me you guys have a higher purpose." This just kept getting better and better but they quickly left with L and followed her as she knew the route well.

At the end of it all, they arrived at a viewing deck to see what had been happening above them. There was a rancor already out and clearly pissed off as it hadn't gotten its meal yet. The crowds were still sitting in their seats as they wondered what the delay was and how much longer it would take. Duke glanced between Talak and L, wondering why there were up here. "What's happening?" But the air started to shift enough that even he could notice it. When he glanced at L, she was concentrating on something but she wasn't doing anything but standing there. Instead, he took a peek out of the window, able to see and hear the water tank being moved somehow of its own accord.

Duke connected the docks instantly, looking over to L before shoving her arms down forcefully to disrupt her concentration. "You asked for a distraction. What are you doing?" His grip tightened around his blaster and vibro-blade in case it turned into a fight but he didn't want it to, "We're going to release the slaves but not by letting a rancor kill everyone in there." Even when he was a kid and didn't understand this place he had tried to sneak in. Everyone in the crowd may not have been perfect or even was a straight-up criminal but there were going to be innocent people there as well that would get caught in it.

He thought to himself for a moment, trying to think of a substitute before thinking he had one, "An armory. There has to be one, with a rancor and slaves, they have to have weapons. We trip the alarm on purpose to flood them to that location and use their own munitions against them. At least we can control that somewhat instead of that thing down there." It wasn't perfect and releasing the rancor would be the easier option for a distraction but Duke couldn't stand by that.

 

[Talak Rand]

Talak followed Lilith up until they found a place where she found a rancor. He had no objection to her plan and started moving forward with it, focusing her energies. She was picking up on this Force-using business rather quickly, which he considered a good thing.

The Ranger stepped in to stop the plan, and Talak felt a flash of anger primarily because his decision to "interrupt" involved him becoming physical with Lilith, and that could be a preface to violence. Talak stepped forward, watching the weapons in the Ranger's hands. He supposed he shouldn't have been shocked that he stepped in, but he also couldn't find himself feeling a lot of pity. They were here to watch slaves murder each other in a blood sport.

He didn't attack the Ranger, but at least he was ready. He also couldn't guarantee what Lilith would do.

Lead the way, then, he said. There was a clear hint of impatience in his voice, but at least he was being relatively amicable about this disruption. @Orbit @Dread @Darasuum

 

[Lilith Vye]

The moment she felt Dukes hands forcefully push her arms her lightsaber snapped to her hand, as her focus was no longer on the water storage. She pointed the saber towards Duke. He had gotten close enough to her to smack her arms down, which meant that he was close enough for the blue blade to pierce through his abdomen should she simply thumb the trigger.

"Never touch me again. Do you understand? Never. Again," she said in an icy cold voice. If it was possible, even the air around her would be freezing cold.

She had had enough of men touching her whenever they pleased, without permission or prompt. It didn't matter what their reasoning's were. All that matter was she wouldn't tolerate it. But...if he didn't say or do anything to push her over the edge, she'd slowly lower her lightsaber and remain quiet. Tal had already made the decision, there was no reason to say anything else.

But she'd grab her datapad—if things didn't spiral out of control between the three—which still had the map up. She'd simply turn it around to show it to the ranger; if he wanted to do things his way, he could be the one to locate an area worth tripping an alarm.

@Phoenix @Orbit @Darasuum

 

[Duke Winters]

Of course, Duke's intervention didn't bode over well but he had to make sure he absolutely interrupted her from releasing the rancor. She flipped around with her lightsaber aimed right at his gut but when she faced him she would find herself staring down the barrel of the blaster with his finger hovering over the trigger for the first time. It was already out and just as easy as she could thumb a switch, he could pull a trigger. "Gladly, now let's get to work and not kill random people." Before she could say anything, he flicked the barrel of his blaster up towards the ceiling and away from her to be the first to offer an olive branch.

Duke led the way out of the private viewing deck, taking the same stairs and having them arrive all the way back to where they first met. The guard's bodies were still there, brutally beaten up with their weapons missing and most likely used against them. He walked over and patted them down, quickly finding a radio and tossing it over to L, "You can tell us when they're coming toward us." After that, he stood up from the body and went down the hallway, figuring that if the slave pens were down here, then the armory had to be nearby or at least close enough that guards can get to it.

When they arrived at the end of the hallway, they found a massive double door with square red lights around the rim to indicate that it was currently locked. There were two guards standing outside with weapons and a patrol of two coming down the hallway to meet them. When the patrol arrived, one of them stepped forward and asked, "Where is the taskmaster? The crowd is about to have a riot if the show doesn't begin." The guards just shrugged and the who asked a question just snarled, starting to walk towards the slave pits and right at the trio. Duke glanced at the two others, "We take them out, we're in."

 

[Lilith Vye]

Lilith caught the radio and frowned, not that the man would be able to see it. As he mentioned two guards were heading towards them, she tossed the raido back to Duke. It'd hit the man's head if he didn't dodge or catch it. She listened to Tal, that didn't mean she'd readily listen to all this strangers instructions.

She took out her blaster while already holding her lightsaber. The attempt to move the water tank left her somewhat tired, so she decided to try something that wouldn't strain her. As the guards were close to rounding the corner of the winding hallway, which would give them full view of the trio, Llith fired two shots towards one of the guards chest. He saw the gun and managed to dodge but she was moving forward, and ignited her saber while swinging it in his direction. This caught him off guard and cut him in half.

Assuming someone else dealt with the second guard, Lilith would take a moment to say, "I suddenly feel disappointed that wasn't you" towards the ranger.

At this point the two other guards in the back would likely hear the commotion and possibly run towards their direction, but Lilith noticed that a huge panel was right beside her, and it was likely connected to the large doors. "Cover me," she said, putting away her weapons so she could use her datapad again.

Once again she managed to connect her datapad to it, but this time she was looking for the alarm or to forcefully open the door to trigger it. Instead... something popped up on her screen that nearly made her skin crawl. "Someone booby trapped this system... SOMEONE BOOBY TRAPPED THE SYSTEM!"

She hardly had time to disconnect her datapad and started running as she heard explosions go off one by one. The ground shook so vioently that she barely was able to keep running, and it sounded like one of the explosions came from the large door. She hadn't had time to explain it because she had no idea what was about to go up in flames, but some other slicer had laid a trap for the hutt, it seemed. It could've been there for weeks, months or more, but activating a certain file set off several bombs around the building. She'd seen the same program used before, which was what tipped her off. How much destruction—the amount of bombs—was up in the air, but usually they all went off close to one another, so the answer came quickly.

@Phoenix @Orbit @Darasuum

 

[Roland Rook]

The security spike stopped rotating again. This time it signalled that Roland had finished his slicing of the Hutt's facility. The Ranger let out a relieved breath. But he knew he was not out of the woods yet. The security spike retracted back into his armor and he made sure there was nothing left indicating he had been there. Aside from the droid with a blaster hole in it there was nothing to link him to ever having been there.

Walking towards the exit the Mandalorian kept his hand close to his holstered blaster. As he passed the bathroom he swore he could hear muffled noises from inside. Shaking his helmeted head Roland ignored them. I don't want to know.

Roland did not look back as he did his best to look calm. He crossed the street and unlocked his speeder by the time he started feeling the rumbling in the soles of his boots. From beside his speeder, with the door open, he stopped and looked towards the building he had left. A few bursts of explosions and the Ranger realized that some abnormal activity was happening. It was going to be an interesting sight but Roland knew that it was best for him to not stick around.

Dropping into his airspeeder he started it up and took off. He headed back towards his ship with his eyes regularly checking his mirrors. The explosions would continue though they grew smaller as he gained more distance and looked like any other air speeder in the sky. This is what I get for thinking today was going to be boring.

EXIT THREAD​

@Dread @Orbit @Dread

 

[Talak Rand]

Another shot from the second guard cut through the air directly at Duke, but Talak cut his saber down through the air and slammed the bolt into the ground. It would give Duke time to fire at the other guard and finish him off. It was not unlike the maneuvers used by the Jedi and the clones during the Clone Wars: sword and shield maneuver, they had called it.

Talak turned to cover Lilith while she went to work, but things went downhill from there quickly. She turned and screamed about a booby trap, and Talak started running as well. He didn’t know what it was or what had triggered it, but he could tell this wasn’t the time to stop and question it. He turned and tore off after her as the explosions began to rock the building.

It tore through the levels they were on, and Talak knew that they were all going to be in trouble with falling debris and fire.

The Force! shouted at Lilith. He hoped she would be able to figure out what he was talking about and would use the Force to defend them. He threw his own arms outward and let a barrier form around all three of them, and hoped she would do the same.

In conjunction with the protection of the building and the distance they had put between them and the bombs, he hoped it might protect them from being killed even if not saving them from all injury.

Unfortunately, for the others, including Gurrba, they weren’t so lucky as to have the Force as an ally. The ground beneath the Hutt and his top lieutenants fell out from under him and the ceiling collapsed in, crushing the bulbous slug. @Orbit @Dread

 

[Duke Winters]

Fortunely for Duke, he didn't turn immediately when he tossed Lilith the radio and caught it when she just threw it back at him. "Good teamwork." He gave her a nod before just sliding it onto his belt and turned towards the guards that were coming straight toward them. When they turned the corner, one of the guards fired a bolt directly at Duke as he saw the flash from the barrel but before it could connect, a blue lightsaber came down and deflected the bolt towards the ground and sparing him. Relying on his training, his blaster was raised instantly and he fired two shots into the guard's torso and then one into his head.

L took care of the other guard and Duke gave her a grin, "I'm starting to think you like me." She asked for cover and the other two obliged, the Ranger letting Talak step forward first with the lightsaber to act as a shield. He had to give credit, those weapons were incredibly useful. Duke fired shots downrange but the exchange didn't last long as L suddenly screamed that the system was booby-trapped. He didn't need any other warning and he immediately began to run with the other two. The explosions rocked the enter building, it feeling like an earthquake happening right underneath the building.

When Talak stopped to throw out his arms, Duke didn't understand what was happening but he didn't question it as he slid the remaining distance so that he was between L and Talak. It was crazy to see, debris simply falling straight towards them before hitting an invisible sort of shield and falling over to the side. With the two of them concentrating, he hoped it would be enough to hold whatever protection was over them. Getting up from the ground, he glanced around before muttering, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it."

 

[Lilith Vye]

Lilith stopped when Talak screamed "The Force!". She could sense what he was doing and, as she had done many times since she met him, she tried to duplicate it. However, just before she was about to add to his shield, she noticed the slaves in the distance, huddled up together. The ones they'd liberated and left not much earlier.

One cried out in pain when a debris flew out and burned through his leg. "NO!" Lilith screamed, remembering or, at least, thinking that helping these slaves was Tal's mission the whole time, the holocron being an after thought. She wouldn't let him down, not with her training at stake. Even though it was safer to add to his shield, his instructions weren't exactly clear and so she went with her gut.

She did use the Force as Tal commanded, but extended her hands forward to erect a shield around the slaves in the distance. Creating her own instead of bolstering Tal's put much more strain on her, which only further exacerbated her fatigue from the stunt she tried to pull earlier. It couldn't be helped, but she accepted that. She only had so much training, and could do so much at once.

Between her body growing weaker and weaker to the shaking of the foundation below their feet, Lilith found herself falling to her knees. But she wasn't the type to give up even while on the brink. She was stubborn, a trait she took pride in, and so she pushed herself further, visibly shaking from the exertion. Even though the explosions didn't last long, every second felt like minutes to her. Large chunks of debris fell around them, many of the ceiling beams groaned from their foundation, one hitting Tal's shield. They were lucky enough not to be directly beside any bomb, but it was only thanks to the Force they survived.

When it was over, Lilith took in a deep breath and lowered her arms. She was so tired, but there was no doubt in her mind that their mission was complete, "The explosions...the booby trap," she began, taking another deep breath and very slowly pushing up from the ground in an attempt to regain her composure. "I've seen it before. The main databank will be destroyed to destroy the evidence." Which meant that they could leave.

/thread

@Phoenix @Orbit