X marks the spot

[Vardon Galland]

Nar Shaddaa, the Malevolence. Local time: 15:30

The speeder ride towards the Malevolence took a fair amount of time. Vardon had a concerned expression plastered on his face as he had just witnessed his ally kill two defenseless victims, one of which he had just spared. The padawan found the lack of mercy to be quite troublesome, but he felt that the Kel Dor was going to do more good than bad and hoped that he would be able to influence the man with his own actions. In response to the comments, Galland let out a short "Perhaps you're right, although we won't know for sure now" with a calm voice and continued after the other presented his name "Well met, Ko Atoln"

Eventually, the Malevolence could be seen in the distance - it was obvious that Ko knew where he was heading as he directed the speeder towards the floating nest of scum and villainy. Vardon felt like the force was pulling him towards the place too, but then, it could just be a gut feeling too. All sorts of beings could be seen wandering about, rich, poor, captor and captive - and soon, a padawan and his newfound ally too.

After Ko had set down the speeder they traveled down, Galland exited the vehicle and had a look around, seeing all kinds of aliens, even a few Devaronians, although they lacked the same emblem which the thugs they encountered before carried. "So, what now?" he asked while looking at his ally and the out over the crowds wandering between the many market stalls, boutiques and shops. The goods which were sold were often far from illegal but no one seemed to pay it a second thought and except for the hired mercenaries, there were no real law enforcement to be seen.

"I suppose we could wander deeper in and have a look. If these Devaronians are dealing in people, they ought to have a shop or a larger storage area or something - a simple stall won't do" he noted while looking out over the area. Slowly, the padawan eventually started walking deeper inside the Malevolence to see if he could spot something or if the Kel Dor would figure out how to find their targets.

@Rexvis Zaetoran

 

[Ko Atoln]

Pulling into a speeder parking space near the Malevolence, Ko exited along with Vardon. He scanned the surrounding area while Vardon did the same. To Ko, this place was filthy. Definitely not somewhere that he would see himself ever coming to for a good time. While there was a good number of Devaronians around, there weren't any that wore any kind of insignia's that could give away their allegiance to the slave market.

Ko approached Vardon's left side as they entered the club, the sound of harsh beats and lazer like sounds emanated from suggesting a substantial amount of music was blaring within. He subtly pulled out the keycard that he had acquired from the female that had tried to ambush the two new allies and waved it for Vardon to see. "That female said there were reinforced blast doors somewhere in here that we could open with this keycard, if thats true then the doors should lead us to their inner hideout."

A thuggish looking Devaronian stood nearby with his arms crossed, a menacing expression on his face as he watched the Kel Dor and Thyferran walk past. Noticing this expression, Ko glared down the Devaronian as he walked by, not in the habit of allowing others to think they're intimidating him in any way. Though in all honesty the glare was probably useless, it's hard to read Kel Dor facial expressions and the fact that he is forced to wear special goggles AND a breath mask which only further cover his face didn't help. Still though, Ko took satisfaction from giving the Devaronian a look of his own.

He tapped Vardon's shoulder as they entered the inner most sanctum of the club, the music blarring making it hard to get words out that could be heard without raising his voice. "Here. Hold on to this keycard, I'm going to go have my own look around. If we split up we'll cover more ground."

He then slipped the card nonchalantly into Vardon's left hand before disappearing into the crowd. He seemed to be mildly skilled at blending in when he had too.

 

[Vardon Galland]

Ko was correct, of course. The best way to find the despicable Devaronians would surely be to find the locales of which they'd be told. Vardon was quite impressed that his ally managed to lay claims to the keycard at the time, and now, it certainly proved to be most useful. The plan was sound, they were to enter the club, find the doors and open them with the keycard.

As the allies entered the club, the padawan quickly felt rather out of place. He had never been to these kinds of settings before since he went to train with the Jedi at a relatively young age. The music was loud and noisy while a great amount of the patrons looked quite affected as they danced away or blabbered on in a booth. There were also quite a few rather tough looking fellows including the Devaronian brave enough to have a stare-off with Ko. But then, the Devaronian didn't know what Ko was capable of and with the mask and alien nature of the Kel Dor, the thug just seemed confused after Vardon's ally let the guy out of his sights.

The Thyferran was taller than many other visitors and had a relatively easy time getting a good look in the first room as they entered it. His white clothes made him stand out a bit since many of the others wore darker colours. But it didn't take long for the young man to figure out what he was supposed to look like after regarding a few patrons and his new ally. The word of the day was tough, and that was what he tried to portray as they explored the Malevolence.

Galland looked down at his hand, suddenly holding a keycard as his ally walked off. "Sure" he said shortly, almost surprised at their sudden split up, but once again, the Kel Dor made sense. The padawan was quite happy about having found this ally as he certainly made the job go very much more smoothly than it otherwise would've. Sticking to the side of the room, Vardon tried the keycard against a few doors without success. It seemed as if he'd have to go to the next room and have a look there, perhaps he'd be able to reunite with Ko in there to.

With that, the Thyferran moved on to the next room which was very similar to the first in nature. Although this room seemed to contain more of the rowdier kind of patrons who were more prone to violence. An idea which was readily confirmed as a fist fight broke out between a couple of patrons just a few moments after Vardon had entered. He smirked before moving on towards new doors, ready to respond if his ally called for him.

@Rexvis Zaetoran

 

[Ko Atoln]

Ko made his way through the club, his sensory organs on his head picking up many different external stimuli at once. In many cases this might confuse any other Kel Dor from Dorin but Ko was quite used to having his sensory organs overloaded, having spent alot of time on Corellia and now Nar Shadaa it wasn't too much of an issue for him. His black eyes shifted around the room continuously, taking mental images with each step so that he could remember every detail. Details such as where the nearest exits were, who the most aggressive patrons seemed to be, where the most hostile areas of the club were. By the time he had finished making his rounds through the club he had come full stop at the place where he had left Vardon. Feeling comfortable with the visual information that he had gathered, he was fairly certain that the door they were looking for did not reside in the current room or any of the rooms that Ko had been through when he and Vardon split up.

At this moment by process of elimination Ko had decided that the door must either be in a floor below or in one of the rooms that Vardon was searching, so Ko split off towards the right side of the club, passing a bar fight as he did so. He slipped by unscathed and used the commotion as a way to blend in. He seemed to move through the crowd with a sort of grace that made it appear as though he had covert training, though in reality he had just lived on this planet long enough to know how to move through large crowds unseen.

After travelling through several various party rooms, he made his way to Vardon, sliding up beside the Thyferran silently. "Hello there. I didn't find anything on my side of the club." Ko was short and sweet, to the point. Such was his personality.

He then began walking forward once more, moving past Vardon while still speaking to the man."Something is afoot here." Ko's hairless brow seemed to furrow as he moved over to one of the patrons, a female Twi'lek with pink hued skin who was obviously drunk. She was leaning over a bar counter with her eyes half closed.

Ko approached the Twi'lek and spoke in galactic basic, his personality seeming to suddenly change at will as he leaned over the counter beside her while pretending to be drunk. "Man.. What's a Kel'Dor gatta do to find a good fight around here." He swayed lightly and allowed his shoulder to bump into the womans'. "I'd love to fight a group of Devaronians... All at once, just to test myself.. Know where I can find a bunch of those ugly things?"

The Female in her drunken state seemed all too happy to assist. "w-wow.. A big strong man are ya?" She stood upright for a moment and looked at him with her bloodshot eyes. "If you wanna get beat that ba" She was interrupted as she began to vomit, thankfully not on Ko. As she finished letting out a pool of blue liquid all onto the club floor she'd wipe her mouth with a forearm and continue. "If you wanna get beat up that badly, the Devaronians like to gather in bigger groups downstairs, but the guards only let Devaronians down there."

Ko, satisfied with the information simply turned around and motioned for Vardon to follow him as he addressed Vardon. "We need to find a stair well that leads deeper into the club. That Twi'lek said that larger groups of Devaronians congregate down there, that's obviously where we should take our search next."

 

[Vardon Galland]

"Me neither" Vardon responded as his ally appeared rather suddenly beside him with a quick report on his status. The padawan kept walking towards another door but slowed down his pace dramatically as his ally approached a drunk twi'lek. He didn't quite understand what his ally wanted to do, but Ko hadn't failed to impress so far, which lead to the padawan remaining in place to watch what his ally would do.

The Kel Dor pulled off an impressive change for demeanor as he started to communicate with the girl. The tactic seemed strange to the young man, but he had learned that the light worked in curious ways and that doubting Ko was something which shouldn't be done lightly. Galland chuckled in the distance as his friend's stunt actually seemed to work. The padawan's facial expression did, however, turn to the more disgusted scale as the pink alien puked out a blue goo on the floor. He was a jedi, but that was still a bit beyond what he liked to see.

Following his friend, Vardon listened as what they were looking for was explained to him. A staircase couldn't be that hard to find which resulted in the two allies walking together until they found it. They walked down the stairs arriving at a much more silent room with a total of four doors and a few couches along the walls. There were only a few patrons down in the silent room, quietly lounging away as they had managed to escape the noise from above. "The light shall see us through" he mumbled, barely high enough for anyone to hear before looking at his ally with a nod.

With that, he tried the keycard on a door which he had instinctively felt drawn to and with a smirk, he watched it open. Two unsuspecting Devaroinians stood inside a cramped room of 2x2 meters which had a another door leading into a larger room. The red-skinned aliens turned to the intruders in surprise "That's not right. What are you doi-" the first one spoke while pulling out his blaster but was interrupted mid-sentence as Vardon used the force to slam him into the wall behind him. He didn't want to draw his lightsaber while the patrons outside could hear it and call for security, and with that, the young man rushed towards the second Devaronian and tacled him to the ground and threw a heavy punch to his face. With a forceful hand, he turned first the second victim and then the second one to lie on the floor with their backs up. The rather well-built padawan struggled to hold them both down and simply waited for Ko to assist him.

If Ko wouldn't close the door behind him, Vardon would reach out with the force to do it instead.

@Rexvis Zaetoran

 

[Ko Atoln]

Ko watched his new ally as he forced pushed one of the Devaronians into the wall. This caught Ko by surprise and he stared in awe for a short moment even as Vardon tackled the second Devaronian. Ko had seen similar abilities on his homeworld and he knew of the force's existence, however his people mostly used the force as a way to predict the planet's weather patterns or in other such practical manners. The order on his planet capable of using the force was called the Baran Do, though he had never met any personally.

Deciding that he had stood there long enough, he approached Vardon and the two Devaronians as he tried to keep them subdued. As Vardon held the two beings down Ko would walk over and grab the neck of one of the Devaronians, twisting with immense strength and snapping the Devaronians' neck. With one body now lifeless, he moved to the second and grabbed his neck in the same manner. "No, NO! W-Wait!" The Devaronian tried to plea with Ko but was cut off by the sound of vertebrae snapping. The second Devaronian now lay still.

He took Vardons hand and helped him stand back up."You didn't tell me you could use the force." The surprise wearing off, Ko now confronted Vardon. "You should use those abilities more, I suspect that it would be helpful."

 

[Vardon Galland]

Despite being a rather large and well trained individual, the padawan still had trouble keeping the two Devaronians down, keeping his left arm on the back of one of them and the right arm on the other while he pressed down on them with his body weight. It didn't take long for his ally to arrive. Vardon automatically thought that the Kel Dor would help him knock them out, but to his dismay, the man simply killed the first thug. The Thyferran looked to his ally in surprise, not at all having expected him to execute the horned alien. It didn't take long before Ko had executed the second one too.

Standing up to his full height, the padawan simply looked Ko in the eyes, as if stunned by the drastic actions of his ally. Vardon's breath was heavy after the exercise and he still didn't know what to say which allowed the other to speak first. The Kel Dor knew how to take command of a situation, that was for sure, having executed the Devaronians against the force user's wishes and then even suggested that Vardon make more heavy use of his abilities. The suggestion was, however sound, prompting him to nod in silence before confirming "I didn't. But you're probably right, I should use the force more, at least now" he responded without showing much emotion in his voice.

After another heavy breath, Vardon spoke again "We could've just knocked them out. There was no call for killing them - but I am still grateful that you came to my aid." his words were burdened by the guilt of deaths which he was partially responsible for causing.

After the exchange of words, Vardon opened the second door to the connecting larger room. Inside was a centrally placed set of couches with five Devaronian thugs watching a beautiful Twi'lek dancer by the couches in the middle. Then, there were two more thugs sitting in the corner opposite to the door which the padawan just opened in the midst of a game of pazaak. Crates were stapled on top of each other by the entrance which would allow the allies to sneak into the room. This time, they were in no rush, and Galland had learned to trust in Ko's tactical mind. The young man looked to his ally for direction on how to proceed - both ready to storm the room or conduct a more elaborate plan.

@Rexvis Zaetoran

 

[Ko Atoln]

As Vardon opened the door to the second room. All of the Devaronians lounging about turned their heads suddenly to look at the two. Ko coughed softly as he slowly grabbed his blaster rifle, slipping it free from his shoulder where it hung by a shoulder strap. "Well this is awkward." He stated simply before the two devaronians who were playing pazaak stood up. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Now the five that were sitting at the couch stood as well, all of them drawing blaster pistols from underneath their clothing. Ko leaned over and spoke softly to Vardon. "If you have any cool tricks, now is the time to use them friend." With that Ko jumped into action. Running forward and sliding behind a crate, he would remain crouched while resting his rifle over the top of the crate, using it for stability as he began firing at the pazaak Devaronians. One fell to the floor with a blaster hole through where his right eye used to be. When the first Devaronian fell the other six began firing at Ko as he took cover behind the crate, though Ko was accustomed to this sort of combat and had no fear as he hurdled over the crate while dodging blaster bolts.

Sparks flew about the room as blaster bolts slammed into the wall and various electronics, Ko continued to dodge the shots to the best of his ability. He sprinted towards the other Devaronian who had been playing pazaak and the Devaronians who had been sitting on the couch all turned to aim at him as he did so. They weren't even looking at Vardon, not one bit. Ko's distraction was working well.

He slammed into the Devaronian he had been charging towards, spearing his shoulder into the Devaronian's sternum. As the two fell to the ground Ko shoved the barrel of his rifle into the Devaronian's stomach before pulling the trigger. The blaster shot penetrated his body, searing through the flesh and leaving a black charred mark on the floor underneath him. Ko got up quickly, still dodging blaster bolts from the five remaining Devaronians. "Vardon!" He shouted as he dove behind a column of crates.

"Do something!"

 

[Vardon Galland]

Their element of surprise seemed to be lost almost as soon as they walked through the door, but the Jedi trusted in Ko's ability to think on his feet. Upon the advice of utilizing cool tricks from his ally, Vardon use the force to push the two highest stacked crates down onto the group of five Devaronians, providing Ko a good opportunity to get his first shot off while the larger group had to hop away from the crates. One of them weren't fast enough resulting in a broken leg and him being pinned to the floor by the crate.

The Kel Dor clearly had the initiative on his side, seemingly being quite capable of outmaneuvering his enemies and avoiding their shots. At the same time, Vardon tried to aid his ally while not drawing too much attention to himself and simply used to force to push one of the Devaronians onto another which effectively put three out of the five centrally standing foes in a rather disadvantageous position. While the one with the broken bone was firing at the Kel Dor furiously and inaccurately, the other two were still getting back to their feet.

By this time, the dancer had ran away into a corner which meant that the padawan would finally go into the fray. As Ko became a more static target whilst fighting the last pazaak-playing Devaronian, Galland rushed into the fray. He knew that both his own life and his friend's life were on the line and did not want to risk any of them being hurt in any way. With that, he drew his lightsaber and charged at the unsuspecting foes. Bringing his saber from the right to the left immediately took down the two targets who had managed to remain on their feet for the entire duration of the fight.

It didn't take long for the other three to notice the lightsaber wielding menace who just cut down their comrades which resulted in the three of them turning to Vardon, giving Ko a moment to recover. The padawan felt fortunate that his opponents all fired towards his central mass by instinct, making it relatively easy for him to deflect the bolts, even managing to reflect two bolts onto one of the standing foes, leaving only two more opponents to go.

While the crippled opponent kept firing, the last Devaronian who stood upright drew a vibroblade, hoping to overwhelm Vardon with their combined arms. The young man kept deflecting the bolts while slowly backing away from the two enemies, thinking that he might leave himself open to one attack if he defended himself against the other. Finally, the crippled one ran out of ammunition and had to reload the blaster at which point the Thyferran went on the offensive. His foe was no easy opponent, however, and the two eventually ended up with their blades locked up high in the air while they were wrestling with their free hands below.

After a few short moments, the padawan proved to be the stronger fighter and managed to knock the sword-wielding opponent to the floor and disarm him at the same time - just as he did that, however, the cripple could be seen aiming at Galland, who weren't prepared to defend himself yet, with a loaded blaster.

@Rexvis Zaetoran

 

[Ko Atoln]

Ko watched as Vardon began dispatching the Devaronians, finally giving Ko a moment where he wasn't being shot at. Luckily the Devaronians were now completely focused on Vardon and the Thyferran seemed to be handling himself well enough. It wasn't long however until Vardon got into a grappling match with one of the Devaronians, he was distracted and another Devaronian that was injured on the floor was aiming his blaster pistol at Vardons chest.

"I think not." Ko muttered under his breath, as he quickly raised his rifle and fired, a blaster bolt travelling straight through the injured Devaronians temple. He slumped over and remain still while the last Devaronian stared up at Vardon while laying on his back. The Devaronian had an ear piece in and voices could be heard coming from it. Ko walked over to the disarmed Devaronian and snatched the ear piece, putting it into his ear instead to listen in on the Devaronians' plans.

"Someone's tearing up the place, leave the slaves, they aren't worth dying for. Get to the ship hanger, We're out of here until things cool off."

Ko scowled and tossed the ear piece to Vardon in case he wanted to listen in as well. As he walked past the disarmed Devaronian to open another door, he pressed the barrel of his rifle into the Devaronian's chest and shot him, his body lay unmoving. Reaching the door he kicked it open with force, on the other side was a filthy room that smelled of death. There were cages scattered about the room, with several different species of innocent people trapped inside them. It looked as though the Devaronians were forcing these people to expunge their waste upon themselves in the cages, instead of allowing them any sort of restroom privileges.

A pile of small children lay in the corner of the room, and looked as though they had been dragged out of the cages after death and were left there to rot. In the cages, the children's mothers could be seen on their knees sobbing, their hands outstretched through the bars of the cages towards the lifeless corpses of their loved ones.

The sight made Ko's blood boil, he was very protective of women and children. He stood there a long moment, taking in the gruesome scene before he walked over to each cage, blasting the electronic locks on the doors so that they would open.

When he finished freeing what was left of the enslaved people, he walked out of the room without a single word to anyone, including Vardon. It's hard to read the expressions of Kel Dor, but Ko's face clearly shown signs of rage and sadness for what he had found.

He exited the room and opened another door, beginning to walk through it's threshold, he appeared to have a purpose, a deadly and most gruesome purpose. He was on the path to war. It could only be assumed that he was heading for the hanger that the Devaronians had talked about on that ear piece.

Right as he stepped through the door he called to Vardon. "Come on, we have some animals to hunt."

 

[Vardon Galland]

Vardon let out a sigh of relief as Ko shot and killed the crippled Devaronian which saved him from getting shot. The Kel Dor then proceeded to gather what information he could from the neutralized Devaronian's earpiece before handing it to the padawan. "Thanks" he said with a youthful voice, both appreciating being saved and being given the earpiece. He listened in to what was said and only heard someone confirming an order and stating that the ship was being prepared for takeoff. The young man didn't think too much of it, believing that freeing the captives would be of a much higher value than catching the horned thugs.

As always, Galland's heart broke a little as his friend executed another defenseless person. Coldly letting him die while proceeding into the next room. The padawan knelt down and closed his former foe's eyes while Ko was kicking down the door. Vardon soon joined his ally, stepping into the room just a few steps behind him. The stench hit the young man like a wall making him close his eyes. Upon opening them, he saw, what was probably the most gruesome scene he had ever had to witness. Letting out a silent "No", it was clear that this left the padawan in a chock-like state; freezing still as his eyes blankly gazed into the misery while hearing the muffled sounds of his friend's blaster going off to open the cages.

Eventually, Vardon regained his senses and sprung to action, igniting his saber and stabbing both one and two cage locks causing the mechanic doors to open automatically. The free people who came with children rushed to the pile in the corner whilst those without just rushed out of the cages and remained in the centre of the room, looking rather traumatized. The Thyferran brought up his comm and hailed CJ who was still at the bridge of the Solange whilst sending her his coordinates "Claudia, tell Joe Bethersonton and Phil to come to my coordinates with the Leger. They will need blankets and body bags, and to prepare to witness a gruesome scene" he said with a calm and emotional voice.

The padawan was looking towards the freed prisoners with his back turned against the door to the hangar. He saw his friend's face, and was for once able to decipher the emotions it displayed. He knew that the Devaronians were about to feel the wrath of his ally sooner or later. He realized that they had a ship to catch, so Vardon continued his call "Tell Lowe to cook some food, a warm stew or something. I won't be here when Joe gets here, but the hangar downstairs will be unoccupied."

Putting his comms unit away, Vardon found the Neutolan which inspired him to come here in the first place. She had only been there for a limited time and seemed to be more composed than the ones who had been there for longer. Turning to her, he spoke "I have people who will come help all of you to get away, just remain here." His voice was filled with compassion as he made sure to speak clearly so that she'd understand what he said and remember it. With that, he ran towards the hangar door.

The two allies eventually traveled at a running pace through a staircase and then a narrow corridor until they reached a hangar. There, they could see the Devaronians' freighter, just about to take off. With the smallest of marginals, Ko and Vardon hopped onto the ramp as it closed - both seemed more determined to bring an end to the operation than ever.

/End thread

@Rexvis Zaetoran