Jawa Jailbreak

Posted on Wed Jul 18th, 2018 @ 6:53pm by Kalen "Rex" Vickers & Amare & Reave & Mentis
Edited on on Thu Oct 3rd, 2019 @ 11:30pm

2,738 words; about a 14 minute read

Chapter: Chapter V: Unbound
Location: Warehouse Unit 110, Lower Industrial Sector, Nar Shaddaa
Timeline: Late afternoon, After "Preying on Mantis"

OLD

"So, by helping you against this gangster, I'm really helping all the downtrodden folk in the sector?" Mentis chuckled, "You know, you don't need to make an appeal to my conscience; I just want to look out for myself right now so, assuming you have a strategy that won't get me killed, I will help you save your violent little friend."

"Hey, that's great news!" Rex exclaimed, clapping Mentis on the back, once again invading his space. "I can already tell we're gonna be great friends. And besides, Rex Vickers always pays his debts."

Although, given the manner by which he delivered the line, it was doubtful anyone would truly be reassured by that final statement.

NEW

The whirring sound of a repulsor truck speeding past echoed up to where Mentis sat, perched atop the flat roof of a warehouse in one of the Lower Industrial Districts. Even as the day waned, people were still busily working on the perpetually-dark moon. Many of the warehouses here were old but almost all were still in use for legitimate or, all too often, illegitimate business.

In the sky above, the bright lights of the Commercial District could be seen piercing the gloom. Just coming into view was a large blimp with swinging spotlight attachments that was advertising the grand re-opening of Casino Zorb. A picture of the bearded Hutt himself was animated on the side of the blimp; focussing his hearing through the Force, Mentis could hear an announcement:

"...est drinks and the most-exhilarating entertainment! Casino Zorb is reborn, even better than before so don't waste your time anywhere else!"

As far as Mentis was aware, the destruction of Zorbo's hot new venue had been a retaliation from his more-successful rival Grogga for plotting against him with Axion's help. His old master had not cared at all when his former Hutt ally had reached out to him afterwards. He had not intended their partnership to extend beyond his acquisition of the Kaiburr shard and the young Hutt's displeasure had simply amused him.

Mentis hoped that Axion might live to regret that decision, if Zorbo did manage to recoup his losses and work his way up in the Hutt Cartel. Although he would have to do a lot more than rebuild a casino to make the cult leader fearful.

Bringing his gaze away from the glow of the upper platforms, the Rattataki Force user looked again at the target warehouse adjacent to the one he was currently atop. According to Rex's information, this warehouse, unit 110, was where his companion Reave was being held by the Karkarodon gangster.

The plan that Vickers had laid out was that he himself would draw as much attention towards the building's entrance through whatever undisclosed means he deemed suitable, while Mentis would cut through the delivery hatch at the rear and grab the hostage Jawa before anyone noticed. Given the average size of a Jawa, Mentis presumed this literally meant grabbing him.

While Mentis was not averse to cutting down the gangsters inside to get to his goal, he had agreed that the fewer people that knew a Dark Jedi was involved, the better, so the distraction approach suited him.

With a jarringly unpleasant screech, the earpiece Rex had given him buzzed to life as it was activated on the other end. Mentis winced and removed it slightly from his ear to make it bearable. After a few seconds, the noise cleared up and the voice of his temporary 'employer' came through clearly.

"-you hear me alright, buddy?" Came Rex's painfully and eternally cheery voice, clear, if a bit tinny, in Mentis' pale ear.

“Yes, Rex,” Mentis replied, realising that might be the first time he had addressed him by his preferred name, “Coming through clear and very loud.”

"Damn fine stuff. Right, I've just about finished rigging up some, uhh, thorium charges along by the platform struts holding up the entrance to Seven-Gill's warehouse," the Human said, seeming to try to brush past his mention of high-grade explosives and how quickly he had come into their possession. Rex was not, after all, a man well-endowed with finances.

Standing up suddenly and with some vigour, Mentis pushed the earpiece in again slightly in case he had misheard, “Thorium charges?” he repeated back, “Did you just happen to stumble across high grade explosive to use?”

"I, uhh, borrowed them," Rex answered, almost nervously. "Just a few charges from my last run out of Anobis. Smeelo ain't gonna mind; I'm not due to deliver any of the charges to him until my next spin into Mulatan. Besides," Mentis could almost hear the man shrug, "me and that old Hutt go way back - he'd understand." Not that Rex's voice indicated that would really be the case.

“Right…” Mentis trailed off, deciding to start his descent down towards the delivery entrance, now slightly concerned that atop the adjacent building might not be the best place to be if these charges went off, “I’m going to move into a more secure place, give me a moment.”

He slid down some guttering with ease and crept through the shadows between the buildings until he was at the rear corner. Peering around the dirty outer wall of the warehouse, he saw several unpleasant-looking thugs huddled around the back shutter, which was open just slightly at the bottom so that the light from within spilled out and illuminated their figures. There was a Phindian looking far-too relaxed sitting on the ground and inhaling from some kind of pipe while a Rodian chatted to a Falleen examining a datapad.

All three could be easily dispatched but, if Rex’s distraction worked as he was assured it would, he would not have to. He brought his head back around so he stood again in the shadows.

"Whereabouts are you positioned?" Rex asked after a few more minutes. "I mean, are you ready, because I'm about good to blow those struts all the way to the Void!"

“I’m in position at the Northwest corner,” the hidden Dark Jedi answered, “The entrance is open but there are a few guards hanging around.”

"Good enough!"

With a blast that shook the entire platform and possibly the entire Lower Industrial Sector, the Thorium charges detonated at the front of the warehouse. Mentis’ earpiece went crazy: whirring and screeching so he ripped it out and pocketed it in frustration. He didn’t need the smuggler’s guidance for this next part and presumably Rex was going to be more than occupied around the front.

The shaking continued as the front of the building presumably started to collapse and, peering around the corner, Mentis saw the three individuals shouting to one another and checking their communicators. Over the rumbling an alert started to sound, along with a flashing light that sprung to life by the delivery hatch. In response to this, the hatch began to drop closed. The building was going into lock-down.

Rex didn’t anticipate that, Mentis thought, slightly frustrated but ultimately not too concerned as the thin shutters would not stop his lightsaber blade. What might cause a problem were the three thugs who were now making their way towards his position now that they too were locked out of the back. Thinking quickly, Mentis jumped high and suspended himself, with some Force assistance, against the wall. The group quickly shuffled by, eager to see what was happening and Mentis silently dropped back down and made for the now fully-closed shutters.

Igniting his blade as he came close, he carried his inertia forward and sliced through the metal like cutting a wedge of cheese and kicked through it. He was inside and immediately on high alert so that he could find his target as soon as he could. The warehouse layout was simple; he had cut straight into the unloading area but he felt he could sense a small, energetic life-form higher up, which he assumed to be the Jawa. Looking towards the roof, there was a catwalk running around the whole warehouse interior and what appeared to be an office room suspended in the centre, which seemed to be where he needed to go.

Towards the front, the stairway had collapsed as the whole building had sunk forwards so there was no regular way up but, with a few swift jumps, Mentis found himself up on the unsteady metal catwalk and made his way into the office. As anticipated, there was the odd-looking Jawa. His dark face and glowing yellow eyes were wrapped up and concealed like any other member of his species, although he did not wear the regular brown robes of his people, but what looked like a miniature custom-tailored gunslinger’s outfit. One tiny arm was held by a stun cuff, which was attached to a pipe on the wall. His other arm was frantically reaching out towards a small table which seemed to hold several of his belongings, including a large, brown, wide-brimmed hat.

The diminutive Tatooinian could also be heard to be jabbering in a high pitch language unknown to Mentis, but by the aggressive manner of the Jawa and the way in which he delivered the alien lines, it was obvious the little sentient was swearing profusely as he failed to grasp at his weapons. Remarkably, two of the weapons were larger than the Jawa himself, and one of which very clearly resembled a scaled-down explosives launcher of some description.

The incessant babbling suddenly ceased, and the Jawa, most presumably Rex's friend Reave, cocked his head, appearing to be craning to listen to a noise currently inaudible to Mentis. Showing Reave's auditory senses had served him ably, the single misshapen door leading onto the level of the room Reave occupied swung open with a terrible metal scraping, and two pairs of feet marched their way in.

The owner of the first pair was a brutish-looking Uulaq Aqualish, the bristling muscles of his two arms entirely uncovered by his tattered waistcoat-styled overalls, tensing as he stomped towards Reave. Just behind him was a Bothan, similarly garbed in overalls and otherwise entirely unremarkable.

Speaking first, the Aqualish barked something unintelligible at the Jawa, who merely puffed up his chest in defiance at the huge, tusked man, who proceeded to backhand the Jawa to the grimy metal floor.

"Tat-Rat!" The Bothan growled at Reave, now activating a stun rod clasped in his right paw, which he then thrust into the Jawa, causing him to convulse on the floor, screaming and swearing in his warbling native tongue again. "That scum Human of yours blew up my mate!" As well as jabbing him with the rod, the Bothan delivered two hard kicks into the small alien's abdomen, causing him to curl up into small ball.

The Aqualish then bleat a few vaguely-intelligible noises at the Jawa, and although Mentis was not fluent in the language, he did recognise a few choice words, including: Seven-Gill, Rex and eat alive.

The newcomers had not yet sighted Mentis, who stood behind a broken and fizzling console near the rear entrance to the office. It was clear now that Rex’ involvement was already known. The question was whether Rex had gotten away in time to avoid Seven-Gill’s wrath. Perhaps the appearance of these two grunts presented an opportunity. He looked out from his position and, for a moment, Reave’s eyes caught his. It was just long enough to convey an understanding between them. The Jawa cocked his head slightly towards his weapons once more before resuming his verbal barrage of Jawaese on the Aqualish.

Waiting for his moment, Mentis watched as the Bothan paced around the room, coming closer to his position. As he was about to step in front of him, the former cultist shunted the pile of Reave’s gear off the table and well within reach of the short captive. With a click he also telekinetically loosened the retraining cuff around his minuscule arm. Immediately afterwards, he sprang forwards and grabbed the Bothan firmly, while igniting his lightsaber across the front of his chest to hold him in place.

Not missing a beat, Reave had clasped the second of his oversized weapons, a large-barrelled plasma thrower type device, which he immediately fired at the oncoming Aqualish, causing over half of his face to disappear in a smouldering instant. A peculiar, and very fleeting, moment of shock seem to cross the remnants of the goon's now-two-eyed face, before he tumbled to the ground lifelessly.

He squealed something high-pitched and offensive at his felled opponent, and within seconds of worming his way free of his shackles with his recovered equipment, he took to jumping up and down on the Aqualish's corpse with an excited and quite malevolent fervour - but not before carefully aligning his wide-brimmed hat atop his tiny head, of course.

As the Jawa was mid-vengeful jump, Reave clearly spotted the alarmed expression on the captive Bothan Mentis had claimed, and the little sentient made a distinctly threatening gesture to the furry mammalian with his hands, and the Bothan let loose a low growl at him.

Wrenching the Bothan's arm to silence him, Mentis eyed the unstable Jawa to ensure he was staying put for now. He then quickly brought out the earpiece he had pocketed earlier and inserted it into his ear, being sure to bring his lightsaber closer towards his hostage to ensure no thoughts of escaping while he used his other hand, “Rex,” he said, activating the communication channel, “I have found Reave and I have one of the Karkarodon’s gangsters hostage. What is your situation?”

"Havin' a good ol' time!" bellowed a heavy brutish male voice on the other end that was definitely not Rex. "Nice o' yoous teh ask. Heh heh heh. Yer little pal can't come to the phone right now. Wanna leave 'im a message 'fore I skin 'im alive?"

Mentis shot Reave a wide-eyed glance. He had just saved one half of the pair from the gangster only to lose the other to him immediately. To make matters worse, Seven-Gill now knew Rex had a partner and would undoubtedly start asking Rex about this, likely under painful circumstances.

“Kriff,” Mentis cursed under his breath, before formulating his next action, “Listen here, Seven-Gill. I have one of your men here…”

He prodded the Bothan in the back, shunting him so close to the laser blade that the synthweave of his coat began to warp, “Say your name!” Mentis ordered.

“Or..Orlyn,” he half growled and half trembled, “Krath Orlyn.”

“Your friend Krath here is at tremendous risk of dying this evening, unless you release Vickers immediately.”

"Krath? Bwahahaha!" Seven-Gill's laughter was accompanied by henchmen sarcastically joining him in the background as a chorus of mockery at Mentis. "...Duhhh...who's Krath?" Gill asked one of his men. There was a faint voice that replied. "Huh? 'is daddy's a nerf herder?" Another voice belched in. "His mudder has a what?!" And yet another stammering voice. "Ohhhh. Dat guy! Yeah! Hey, whose evva yoous are, kill da sorry fleabag. He ain't worth nuttin' teh me. Heh heh...or better yet, 'ow's abouts yoous bring 'im along real gentleman-like. Meet ya at teh loading bay. I wanna see yer sorry face so's I can smash it! Hahahaha! No guns, no baloney, or yer pal's head gonna be rollin' around on muh dinner plate tonight. Got it? Bring yer fists and yer guts. And do it quick. I ain't got all day." A simple click sound followed.

Mentis clenched his teeth and pushed the Bothan Krath to the ground with enough force that he would think twice before standing up until willed to again.

“Our mutual ‘friend’ Rex has gotten himself captured by Seven-Gill,” the Rattataki finally addressed Reave, who had slowed his bouncing to try and listen in on the earpiece communication, “He says we have to meet him unarmed back outside in the loading area. Fancy being the rescuer this time?”

Reave jumped off of the Aqualish, and picked up his grenade launcher, the first weapon Mentis had seen him reaching for. Although it was almost imperceptible, the Jawa's glowing eyes narrowed an iota as he pumped the weapon once with purpose.

"Uuuutinni!"

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