Rapid Departure

Posted on Sun Oct 21st, 2012 @ 2:45am by Bomoor Thort & Thane & Berry & Kip Hoddai & Sev Rezer

2,359 words; about a 12 minute read

Chapter: Chapter I: Web of Fate
Location: Grogga's Palace, Nar Shaddaa
Timeline: Day Two, Late (After "Palatial Congress")

OLD

"It is time for us to leave!" He announced to his allies, and he looked with avarice at his treasure. "We have what we came for! So sorry we could not play longer, Jedi, but I have no doubt we shall meet again." Axion looked to Thane. "And perhaps we may finish what we started so many years ago, child. Mandalorian, climb back into the hole the rest of your people seem so content to live in - there is no place in the galaxy for you."

As everyone seemed about ready to jump him, he extended his hands out and let lightening spill out into each of them, forcing them to run to cover or defend themselves, but giving his cultists time to gather themselves. Blasting a hole into the ceiling of the large chamber, they threw themselves through the gap and away, moving quicker than most eyes could follow, the injured Mentis being seemingly dragged by the enhanced power of Axion's Force mastery.

And with that, the dark siders and the Kaiburr shard were beyond their grasp.

NEW

"No!" Thane called after the Dark Jedi, his desire for revenge unabated by the sudden departure. His lightsaber in hand, he scowled at the massive hole made into the ceiling, seething.

Bomoor lowered his saber from his defensive stance, "Thane!" he called to his friend, "Are you all right? That crystal Axion took, it was very powerful. Did you..."

He was cut off as he heard the sound of people approaching - several heavily-armed mercenaries burst into the room. They held their blasters up at the remaining people in what was left of the audience chamber, "All right, nobody move!" barked a large Gamorrean, obviously the one in charge, "The Hutt Cartel is officially taking charge as of this moment and all fighting will be brought to a halt. We have already subdued your associates surrounding the building so you might as well give up."

The Ithorian groaned with concern, "They think we're with Zorbo and the cult. Might I suggest we find that ship right about now?"

Whatever the Cartel's men were about to say to respond to that never came. There was a whisper of a presence and movement out of the corner of their eyes and the cartel enforcers staggered and fell, all at once, like switches had been turned off in their heads.

Standing behind the Gamorrean with a small device with a switch on it was a frowning Devaronean with metallic golden eyes. He wore a black leather jacket with crimson trim, black leather pants with crimson piping trim and wore a long hooded cloak with the hood back and a pair of enhancement goggles of some sort strapped on but pushed up to his back-curving polished black horns. "Don't just stand there! I need you to go after Axion, since you dropped the job in the vethta!"

Sev raised his both arms towards the new arrival. "I know your kind; if you even twitch, I'll blow you out of this place, assassin", said the Mandalorian, gritting his teeth. "Everyone else, there's a side door fifty steps south, seventy east. That will take us to the hangar. We may be able to cut off their exit through there."

Berry was too busy picking her jaw off the floor at the sight of Horns Guy. He looked so cool!! Would Eye Guy's lasers bounce off of them? Oh, ultimate faceoff!

Bomoor looked between the fallen Cartel mercenaries and the Devaroneon. The newcomer appeared to have done them a favour but he knew he couldn't trust anyone on this moon, "Come on, don't bother with the red-skin, let's just get to that ship before more mercs arrive," He looked at Berry, still transfixed on the strange new presence, "Come on, Bería - over there like Rezer said."

The part-Aquar slumped slightly. "Aww..." She waved at Horns Guy and trudged over to Thane, tugging on his singed sleeve. "Hey, we need to go." Her brow was slightly knit as she gazed at him with wide, worried eyes. He wasn't feeling too good...

"If I'd meant to beam one of you," the Dev nodded towards them, "I would have hit Thane or Bomoor. But Mentis is a little skritt and needed to have his face burned off, plus it evened things up for you lot didn't it? Now if you want out, I have the codes to the doors and the hangar." He smiled widely and spread his hands.

Whilst Thane's sensitive burned hand twitched near his lightsaber hilt, he made no move to activate it. Despite his wrath for Axion and the simmering hatred he continued to feel welling in him - as well as the burden of the holocron - he did his utmost to force some of it to wane, to let his logic take command.

"I believe him," the Human announced to the others, scowling with narrowed eyes at the Devaronian. At the glances of a couple of the others, he continued: "I mean, think about it... If he knows all of our names, and by the way he executed those men, I sincerely doubt he'd be playing a gambit like this right now." The fact that the Hutt Cartel would only send more guards, better armed and better trained, in time helped to convince the usually wary Jedi. The last couple of days had forced him to concede his nature to now three people he would not usually take any interest in, or certainly not as allies.

As if on cue, his senses immediately began blaring within his mind, and he noticed that Bomoor had felt the same. Bería, however, seemed more concerned at looking at Thane himself, for whatever reason, and one he could not be bothered to ascertain right now. He motioned for the newcomer to lead the way, keeping a distance from the assassin. "After you, Mister...?"

"Kip," the Dev replied with a dismissive wave. "Come along then," he cocked his head, "the status-monitors in these showed them down and reinforcements are on the way and they have bigger guns. 'Course, Grogga's gonna scream at me over this but," he shrugged, "what can you do?"

"If he survived that assault," Bomoor hummed with concern, "Now just open up that hanger door and let's be on our way. Hutt-or-no-Hutt, this place is going to be crawling with Cartel in a moment and I certainly don't want to be around for that."

Kip took off down the hallway, not super fast but faster than most normal people could run. He hit the door at the end of the corridor and turned to the right and touched the wall in four quick touched, opening up a hidden panel. After entering in a secure code, the entire section of floor dropped as a heavy platform lifter and rode them down to a small hangar under the Palace where a rather odd Corellian ship lay. Dev jumped down and ran up the ramp, moving to the droid rack first and working on the interface, snapping down the keyboard and typing away furiously while shouting over his shoulder, "Start preflight! I'll get these guys up in a sec!"

The rest of the group quickly followed him into the hangar bay. When they were all inside, Bomoor tapped the controls to close the door then jammed his lighsaber into the panel - lodging the reinforced metal door in place with a reassuring hiss. He turned and craned his neck up at the ship, "Is that the ship you were talking about?" he asked Sev.

Sev Rezer didn't even look at Boomor to answer. "Yes. That's it. The Red Raptor. It's a fast ship, made for smuggling. Grogga took that from someone that didn't pay his debts."

The Mandalorian opened the ship's lower ramp and climbed inside, guns pointed. After a moment, he put his head outside. "It's clear. All aboard", he said before disappearing again, moving back to the cockpit. Rezer gave a small grin of satisfaction at the sight. It was a grand ship indeed. Axion wouldn't be able to escape with them following in this ship. He started pre heating the engines and making sure all the systems were operational. Sev only wondered how long it would take for the Navcomputer to reboot.

Berry was stuck staring at the giant ship monster before them. The fish tank didn't count as her first ship. THIS was her first ship...and it was super cool.

"Come on!" Bomoor urged, prodding Berry forward. They made their way up the ramp and immediately found themselves in the main cockpit, where Sev was hurriedly pushing buttons. This clearly was no fancy personal starship, it was a smuggler's ship through and through, meant for quick get-aways, hence the immediate access to the controls. As Rezer fiddled around, lights slowly began to come on around the room and a hum began to resonate around the ship as the engines powered up.

Thane wasted no time in rushing into the cockpit with the others, the ship's bright orange consoles casting an eerie glow over all of those assembled, including a G2-series astromech droid, whose globe-like head was spinning about its axis, a red eye peering at each of the newcomers, but Thane paid no attention to its annoying warbles and beeps, as it supposedly pressured those gathered to explain their presence.

"Go jump in the kriffing engine!" The Human finally barked at it, growing increasingly annoyed as the astromech kept pushing him for information, Thane never having had any love for droids or much machinery, but it was as the Raptor begun to shudder more, its large weight being lifted from the surface of Grogga's personal hangar, that he finally took interest in what the G2 was screeching about.

"Shut up a second!" He growled at it, finding its incessant noises incredibly grating. "You serve the ones who own the ship, right? Well, that's myself and my esteemed colleagues, so how about serving us?" Thane knelt down to be closer to the sentient machine's level, a sense of urgency still present from the inbound Cartel cronies; no doubt they would be well-prepared to shoot down the Red Raptor if it took too long in leaving. "Plot the quickest course out of Hutt space now." With an unintelligible series of bleeps that could only surmount to some sort of complaint, the G2 whirled over to the navcomputer.

Thane looked over to the others, the pain over Axion, Caanus and his family still very much present, but he knew it would be wasteful to throw all of their lives away at this instant. "Even if we could trace that piece of druk, we'd have no way to catch him; Axion's betrayed Zorbo, got what he wanted and left. They were prepared for a hasty exit. Cowards." The Jedi realised he was explaining this through gritted teeth as Kip appeared in the cockpit with them, the room large enough to accommodate each of them. "And even if we trace them," he went on, "the amount of time it would take would give the Cartel time shoot us down and blame us for all of this mess."

Eyeing the Devaronean in particular, Thane then said, "Better to live today, and get revenge another day." Even as he muttered the words, Thane hated himself for saying it, and fought the urge to rest his hand upon the holocron resting in his singed jacket. He was certain its power was helping to salve some of the pain Axion's lightening onslaught had inflicted upon him.

With a series of bleeps and boops, the G2 unit pulled away from the navigational computer and addressed Rezer, making clear the course was ready and set, a sure-fire destination well away from Nar Shaddaa.

Berry clapped her hands over her mouth and did her best to hold in her excited squeal at the sight of her first moving droid. It was so...cute! But...she knew better this time. Her brows knitted again as she glanced over at Pale Guy, then leaned over and patted his back. Although even reaching into his air-space made her feel weird, all that bad feeling...

Scowling, Thane was about to knock Bería's hand away and remand her when the Devaronean spoke.

"Well if you feel that way I won't activate the tracers I put on them," Kip sighed and watched as they piloted for a moment and then cocked his head. His posture was odd when he did this, as if his attention was elsewhere. "Yeah, Grogga's mad," he sighed as he focused back on them, "real mad. But he's alive and he's more mad at the Cartel right now than us."

"I think you should perhaps explain a few things to us, Kip," Thane said, having risen to his full height, and flexing his burnt hand, "once we are out of Hutt space, and once I've had this hand seen to." He looked to the G2. "Robot, where is the ship's medical bay?" Based on how surprisingly-advanced this vessel was, he had no doubt about whether there would a medical facility on the Raptor. The Jedi looked from Bomoor, Bería and over to Sev, who was still focused on the controls. "Please, let me know when we're clear." Not saying anything more, Thane walked away.

Bomoor gave a wary glance to Sev and Kip before turning to Berry, "Come on Bería, let's look around the ship and see if we can find somewhere to rest. It's been a long day."
He and Berry walked through the cockpit door and down the large corridor towards the back of the ship. Before the door slid shut, the Ithorian's deep voice echoed back into the room, "Oh, and I suggest you two join us once things are up and running. We have some things to discuss."

Outside, the Red Raptor broke free from the smoggy atmosphere of Nar Shaddaa and into the pure darkness of space, its destination unknown.

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