Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars) - Cont'd

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Monkey Kitty
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Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars) - Cont'd

Post by Monkey Kitty »

Visper Averrod

Visper hadn’t given much thought to Dallyn until he was in melee range beside her - and that gave her pause. Being focused on the mission was one thing. Developing tunnel vision to the exclusion of looking out for the safety of an apprentice was quite another. She resolved to be more careful in the future, since she fully planned on bringing the young man back to Teizi in one piece.

The battle against the handful of Brothers went quickly. Though they had been prepared for the arrival of strangers, the slavers didn’t anticipate the numbers involved, and the odds were uneven.

Within moments, no one from the slaver gang was left standing… only the potentially affiliated scout.

“I’d like to question him if we can,” Visper said under her breath. “See how much he knows, and what he’s up to.”

She approached him with her lightsaber still in hand.

“What do you want from my husband?” she demanded.

The scout looked back and forth between them, but decided to play it cool. “I was just surprised to see this particular experiment wander back,” he said nonchalantly. “I would have thought once he got ransomed, he’d stay well away, but I guess he’s not that smart, hm? I guess he’s fine with ending up back on the slab.”

Visper’s hand tightened on the grip between her lightsaber blades. Her natural impulse was to respond with extreme violence… but that wouldn’t get them what they needed to know. If this man was affiliated with the people who had turned Vanity and Apathy into living Force batteries, they needed the information he had.
Monkey Kitty
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Monkey Kitty »

Siralai and Rossi Mahr

The training drone whizzed past Siralai's left ear. Her blade followed... not quite fast enough. The lightsaber cut nothing but air, centimeters from the drone. Not close enough. Not in battle, if her life was at stake.

"Again!" she called. She closed her bad eye to concentrate on her other senses. Her hearing. The tiny breeze of the air displaced by the drone. She reached out with her mind, feeling the Force. Swung her lightsaber.

Closer.

"Again...!"

***

Rossi was not idle while her mother trained. She divided her time between the people she felt needed her. Her new friends, Evanni, Tacia, and Shandri. Vanity and Apathy, the young Sith who were so damaged and overwhelmed, so in need of care. And Reyth...

Sometimes she just sat near Reyth. She hoped that was enough. Enough to convey that she cared, that she wanted to help. All the Mahr children regularly pestered both Reyth and Arksynn to teach them Reyth's sign language. Rossi smiled every time she saw Maialin and Ebben grinning proudly as they signed to each other.

Moments like that made Rossi believe everything would be okay. That the damage done to the Sith among them could be healed - without losing the passion that made them who they were. They were not Jedi. They never would be. But their emotion could be their strength. Someday...
Quaxo9
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Quaxo9 »

Neva Xolte and Padawan Dallyn

When Visper approached the scout - and he gave a moronic reply - she was a bit concerned. The fact that he remained alive for even a second longer than he had was a testament to Jedi training, no doubt. Still, she doubted that Visper could hold out forever. What this guy needed was some encouragement to do the right thing.

"Hey buddy, you don't know who you're dealing with, do you? Jedi have restraint and stuff, but if you care to notice...she's not alone. And some of us, well, we have a little less patience."

Her blaster was still warm from its little work out and she used the barrel to point toward Lana and Theron, then back to the man himself. Not that she necessarily thought the two spies would do anything horrible, but she didn't know that they wouldn't either. More importantly, he didn't know that they wouldn't. Hopefully Lana and Theron didn't mind being villainized.

Meanwhile, Dallyn was plugging himself into the mainframe. He downloaded everything, but tried to keep his reading to what might be important. A list of labs. That was a good start.
Quaxo9
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Quaxo9 »

Reyth and Arksynn

It was hard to truly relax while waiting for the other shoe to drop. At least, Reyth told herself that was what she was waiting for. It helped distract her from her real concern - the future. She was certain that no one on Dromund Kaas knew they were alive or wanted them. She was equally certain that she still wanted to be a Sith lord. How was she going to do that now? Was it even possible to advance? Of course, Dromund Kaas wasn't the only place to learn about the Force. That Beniko woman seemed to be strong in the Force - and she didn't even call herself a lord. Maybe...maybe their studies didn't have to end.

She had done her best to tidy the parts of the medbay that were her fault. In so doing, she found the meditation scroll. Another mark in the favour of that nosy Jedi. With the Sith daughter. Who kept sitting with her. She'd actually tried to chase her off by playing the most obnoxious music she could find, but she found that she had a much lower tolerance for bad music and soon gave up that idea. Besides, she had to admit that she didn't mind the company. Not that she enjoyed it or anything, but didn't mind it.

The kids had gotten quite a few words out of her and Arksynn's exchanges, much to her chagrin. Even though it was nice to have someone interested in learning their language. It also meant that she'd had to make some last minute changes - the word for 'Jedi', for one. She wasn't sure why she felt like she had to do that. It wasn't like the Jedi didn't deserve it...but still, it was their mother she was sort of referencing and it just didn't feel right to teach them stuff like that.

They seemed to know more than the snippets they'd observed, though, and she suspected that Arksynn was teaching them behind her back. She still wasn't comfortable eating in front of any of them. Even when it was something liquid, she just...couldn't. Arksynn fetched food from the kitchen and sometimes he took too long doing it. She let him know how much his dallying angered her. He was always more than eager to make it up to her.

That was one thing she was certain of. She loved having control over him.
Monkey Kitty
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Monkey Kitty »

Visper Averrod

Lana and Theron seemed entirely happy to play the roles Neva had assigned them. With Lana, at least, Visper doubted it was a bluff. With Theron, she wasn't sure. The SIS agent had a surprisingly tender heart at times. But he too could be ruthless when needed, and he'd seemed very upset by what happened to the Sith twins. Visper doubted the scout could expect much clemency from Theron either, when push came to shove. Not that she objected, herself. Threatening Felix was a step too far, and it was only with great restraint that she wasn't poking holes in the scout with her lightsaber.

Lana's hand tightened on the scout's throat, and she shoved him against the wall. His feet dangled a couple of inches from the ground.

"Who do you work for?" the Sith demanded. "What do you know?"

"I... I work for Jarak's former students. They're doing... groundbreaking..."

"We know that already," Lana said tersely. "You'll need to do better. Names?"

"Hegali Manier. Ackishno. Valnez Greep. That's all. And their assistants. Just... just let me go..."

Lana paused for a moment, considering his request. But then the scout made a mistake. His hand made a subtle movement toward a communication device strapped to his wrist.

"I think not," the Sith said. She unceremoniously snapped his neck. With a gurgle, he slid down the wall, then collapsed in a lifeless heap. Lana prodded the corpse with the toe of her boot, but there was no movement. She sighed, and rubbed her palms awkwardly against her robe. "Sorry about that," she said with slight chagrin. "But..."

Visper shook her head. "He knew too much. He threatened Felix. He almost called them all down on our heads. He was a danger. It had to be done."

Lana nodded. She didn't disagree - but she was glad someone else saw it the same way. "Hopefully those names will give you something to go on, Dallyn. I'm sure their facility will be well-guarded. We must be prepared."
Monkey Kitty
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Monkey Kitty »

Pyrran Onyk Mahr

Pyrran was out of Kolto, but his recovery had been slow, even with the Force healing that had been provided to him. His crushed ribs - courtesy of his father - were taking time to mend. He was back on his feet, but he had to take it easy.

He'd been spending as much time as he could with his sisters - but now he was watching Vanity and Apathy form bonds with people other than himself. Pyrran was proud, and bemused, and anxious, and delighted... so many different emotions... as he saw them starting to build rapport with the other Mahr children. It gave him hope that they could truly be a family. Both twins were speaking occasionally now. Every now and then, Pyrran would catch a glimpse of a smile.

Right now, the twins were on the beach with Rossi. She had cajoled them into the water, along with Tacia, Shandri, and Evanni. The three former Hutt slaves seemed to be enjoying themselves, relaxing a little and acting like the youths they should be. Rossi had begged Reyth to join in, too.

Pyrran knew they would have welcomed Arksynn also... but he was also conscious that the lad hadn't had many male role models in his life. That was something Pyrran could relate to. Growing up with an abusive father and equally abusive, violent teachers, it had been hard to figure out how to be a good man. Perhaps he could help provide to Arksynn what he himself had been lacking.

For that reason, Pyrran invited Arksynn to join him on the terrace for a game of dejarik while the girls splashed around in the water.
Quaxo9
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Quaxo9 »

Padawan Dallyn and Neva Xolte

He wasn't sure what the Sith was apologizing for until he turned away from the console and saw the man on the ground. Dead. Somehow, Master Visper's explanations rang hollow for him. The man had just given them the information they needed...and she killed him. The sound of his own name jolted him to his senses and he turned back toward the console.

"Of...of course...ma'am. Just a minute."

Focus on the mission. The people who tortured people for a living. The little girls who suffered at their hands. This was important work. He couldn't let them down.

"Okay, I've found some chatter with those names. Tracing. Okay. I have a location. It's...deep in the Red Zone. Like actually deep - it looks like it's buried inside part of the asteroid that hasn't been mined yet. There's got to be an access point...I just don't know exactly where. Sorry."

Neva snorted and leaned over the padawan's shoulder.

"If you know where-ish the lab is - look for the power signatures around there and follow them out. One of those gotta be a lift."

"Oh. Right. I...shoulda thought of...that." How could he have been so stupid. Of course that would be the way to go about it - start from the end and work backwards. He felt the tips of his ears reddening, but kept at his work.

"Okay - I've narrowed it down to two potential locations. Could be two lifts...or maybe one's an air shaft.That's...the best I can do."

Dallyn found the courage to face the rest of the crew. He silently hoped that if they split up, he wouldn't have to go with Lana Beniko.
Quaxo9
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Quaxo9 »

Reyth and Arksynn

He couldn't quite explain what he felt to be invited to play a game with Pyrran. Excited? Certainly. Maybe a bit proud? He looked up to the other Sith a great deal. Not only had he orchestrated the death of his master, he'd manipulated his way through the capital and the battle with his own father...it had been fierce and amazing. Arksynn had learned so much in the few short hours he'd spent in the man's company.

Now he wished he was better at dejarik so he could try to impress him. Two moves in and he was already losing - badly. Biting his lip and lowering his head closer to the board, he inspected his remaining pieces, concentrating on planning his next move. Perhaps that was why it took him longer to notice than it should have.

Reyth had been eyeing the water suspiciously for days now. Part of her marvelled at the expanse of beach and the way the waves rushed in, all foamy and energetic. Part of her was terrified by the vast endless expanse of the ocean beyond the shore. She had never lived anywhere that wasn't a city and having something planetside as empty as space itself was unnerving. Of course, she wasn't going to let on about her irrational fear to Rossi or anyone else. She went as close to the water as the wetted sand and took off her boots. There was no way she was getting talked into disrobing and going in there. Reyth tucked her body back into the safety of her hood and placed her attention squarely on the ground. She watched herself press her toes into the sand and lift them out again, small round imprints marking where they'd been. She pressed them in harder and the sand around her foot cracked open. A little smile formed on her face. This was okay. She could handle this.

The others were either sitting in the water or splashing about. She felt a stab of envy of the slave girls who could run into the ocean so freely while every time she looked at the waters she saw nothing but an abyss. Envy - and then pride. If they could do it...so could she. She was Sith, not some common slave! What was a mere ocean compared to the vastness of the Force? She could do this. She could walk straight in and...

The next wave came in a little further than the ones before it had and slapped the top of her foot, sending the girl leaping back as though bitten. Instantly, she was ashamed of her reaction and set her jaw, scowling at the retreating freckles of foam. She took a step toward the water again, but it seemed like the waves were possessed. They had seemed to move with such regularity and now the timing seemed all wrong! Reyth backed up as the water approached and let out the smallest sigh of relief when it fell short.

"Are you playing chase?"

The child's voice cut through Reyth's reverie and she looked up, confused, to find Maialin staring at her with sparkling eyes. Why did they all have to be so happy? It was weird. Her face shifted to return to its perennial scowl, but then the girl's words sunk in. "Chase?" she replied, walking a set of fingers in the air away from her and sending the other after it. The smaller girl grinned and nodded.

"You run up to the water as close as you can and then run away before the waves touch you! Like this!"

The child proceeded to demonstrate her great bravery and dexterity, squealing with delight as the wave nearly caught up to her. Not about to be bested by a mere child, Reyth followed suit, though if anyone was watching, she certainly wasn't getting as close to the water as the five-year old and scooted away a great deal quicker. Still, she couldn't help but smile as the girl laughed and ran beside her. It was almost...fun.

For the briefest of moments, she felt her guard slip. This. This was what innocence felt like. This is what it felt like to be free.

Maybe that thought of freedom was what caused her to turn her head and look for Arksynn. She slowly came to a stop on the beach, losing track of Maialin as the girl raced back toward the water to chase the wave back to its home. Her world seemed to condense. Everything on the edges of her vision went fuzzy and that familiar roaring in her ears began welling up. The tiny voice, the one she recognized but didn't, whispered that she was happy Arksynn had a friend. He looked so happy...

Probably because he was leaving her behind. That runt was kissing up to the only Sith lord on this backwater planet behind her back! He was asking him to take him on as an apprentice, she just knew it. He was leaving her. Leaving her. After all she'd done for him! Leaving! Well, if he was going to leave, it was going to be on her terms and that pathetic excuse for a zabrak was going to wish he had never been born.

The change in Reyth wasn't difficult to see. Dark energy crawled up around her, snaking through the air and through her body. The sand around her began to churn until she was standing in a circular depression with tendrils of silica leaping upward and crumbling into nothing all around. She stepped forward and the circle moved with her. The dark energy started to coalesce around her hands until it became a bright lilac ball of lightning. Reyth's eyes were black when she opened them up to stare at Arksynn who was running toward her, his lightsabers drawn. They wouldn't save him. The sandstorm intensified as the lightning shot from her hands toward the boy, the heat from the reaction turning sand grains into shards of glass that continued to dance around her in a terrible display of raw, untamed power.
Monkey Kitty
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Monkey Kitty »

Visper Averrod and Lana Beniko

Lana noted Dallyn's reaction to her; she said nothing, but was bemused. She wondered what the boy was imagining the alternative was? Let the scout summon every slaver in the sector down on their heads? Fight it out in some glorious battle? Probably. Dallyn was likely too young to know that battle was rarely glorious. But of course, it wouldn't be him charging into that fray, anyhow. It would be Visper, or Lana herself. It was easy to hold life cheap when it wasn't your own - not that she blamed Dallyn for that. After all, Lana had just demonstrated it very bluntly too. She was unapologetic that her primary goal was to get all her own people back in one piece. The life of a slaving scout didn't rank at all on her priority list.

Visper nodded agreement with the information Dallyn and Neva had gleaned and assembled into a coherent picture. "That sounds reasonable. I think our best bet is to just go put eyes on. If one is an air shaft, that should be fairly obvious. We'll just have to consider their security..."

Lana was already rummaging through the dead man's pockets. "Here," she said, picking up a key card and presenting it to Visper. "This should do the trick. And a datapad. How handy. I wonder if this will have any information about..."

She punched in a few characters, pulled up a menu - and turned a shade paler. "Nothing useful," Lana said quickly. "Never mind."

Visper got just a glance at the screen before Lana secreted the datapad in a pocket somewhere in her cloak. It appeared to contain rather graphic images of the horrific processes these slavers had practiced on their victims. Visper shuddered too.

"Neva, how close can you get us without detection?" Visper asked "And we'll walk from there, I guess."
Monkey Kitty
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Re: Mek-Sha Nightlife (Star Wars)

Post by Monkey Kitty »

Siralai Mahr

It didn't take long for Siralai to notice the commotion on the beach. She brushed the training probe aside and ran toward the sounds of chaos, lightsaber in hand.

When she got to the beach, she realized it was Reyth. Not too much of a surprise.

"Rossi! Get the others out of here!" Siralai called to her daughter.

Rossi nodded, and started rounding up the rest of the beachgoers. Not that anyone was hesitant to go - but in their panic, they weren't moving in a coherent direction. Rossi bunched them up like a herd, and started moving them toward safety.

Siralai got as close to Reyth as she was able to, sheathing her lightsaber and instead holding up her hands to block the swirling sand from her eyes.

"Reyth, stop this!" she shouted. "Whatever is wrong, we can find a way to set it right. But first, you have to stop."

Not for the first time, Siralai considered the fact that trying to help Reyth might cost her her life. She hoped not. Not for her own sake - or for the sake of her family. But if it had to be, it had to be. She had no plans to abandon the young Sith.

Stop! Siralai signed for emphasis.
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