Sequential report: Lights Snuffed Out by VN | World Anvil
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Katunda, Nelona 12th, 12731

Sequential report: Lights Snuffed Out

by Jedi Knight VN Ysadora

Katunda

12 Nelona

12731

 
It is really nice to have travelers of the Light here. I mean. I still have more stubborn in my bag. Weeks more. Maybe another month and change.

But it is nice to not be the one dim bulb in Ole Town Sector.

 
Hicks fulfilled his gladiatorial contract by winning that third combat, and might even have some cash coming to him. That's a pleasant surprise.

 
I have told Davish about the pantry full of beans. He mostly did not spit out his tea.

 
Cap'n Kolene wants some time to think up the story she's going to tell us to explain the attempted hit on her earlier.

That's fine, as Dr. Cantol Stom is applying medical care on about everybody while I get in and out of his way.

 
Aerena asks the very reasonable question about what is going to happen next.

 
Well ... I dunno what their plans are, but for me: tomorrow, I'm going to have an arena match. And the day after that. And the day after that. Until I lose twice in a row. Because I need to buy time for someone else. Wait, let me get everyone acquainted!

 
I start introducing people to each other:

  • Cap'n Aerena Kolene is a freelance fighter escort and courier,

  • unconscious colleague So'Zen Al Saba is sensitive about his horns,

  • Sir Davish Tam is my partner at the detective agency,

  • Hicks is still in the shower.

  • Sector Ranger Andan Jouric (who is still wrapped in bacta strips around his middle, on account of the hole through his gut) is a man to whom I still owe one completed rescue, and he would like it very much if I stopped introducing him as a "Galaxy Ranger".

  • Pek Rondoon the Nautolan witness kid is around here somewhere doing his own thing, which mostly does not involve talking about anything.

 
Everyone starts throwing pertinent information into the pot, including So'Zen who wakes up for a short time.

Ranger Jouric explains about Pek witnessing something particularly horrific when the Bloodsmith Raiders attacked a cruiseliner.

Aerena explains a little (and probably a variant on the truth, which is fine! really!) on the angry bounty hunter Davish had told me about.

Hicks tells us that he was on the same cruiseliner as Pek, that he's the one put Pek in an escape pod, and that the Bloodsmith Raiders were collecting samples possibly including live ones in stasis from Tor Ceti. The death world with the Hellweasels and the Hellwalrus.

 
Oh goody?

 
I ask Hicks a personal question: Does he know that none of his brothers and cousins are on this world. He says yes, he knows that.

And then he says he knew that Pek was somewhere on Nar Shaddaa when Hicks landed on Nar Shaddaa.

(What? But! Nautolan. TC. One of these things does not fit the other!)

 
(But. The worm things from Tor Ceti would alter a current host's body with genetic material from previous hosts.)

 
After a couple of careful breaths, and an "OH GOOD", I add that to my mental index card stack.

 
Aerena busts into the flow of conversation. She hits the intercom to ask Grakor if he had the Kylo's Star moved?

Because it's not where the team parked it.

...

 
He did not. He gets the parking berth number from Aerena. He says he will access the security footage and find out what's happened.

 
So'Zen is carrying on about his astromech to the point that Dr. Stom gives him a ten minute chemical nap via hypospray.

 
Who

or what

is an "Omatron"?

I bet I'd get a clearer answer than "marshmallow who wants to heal you" if I asked Davish, but he's taking his turn in the shower.

 
Hoooooooooookay, so we have two immediate things going on and one of them is more Davish's area than mine: the whole Evil Mentat Mind Games thing, where we need some vulnerable points to puncture. The other one would be a straight investigation (around the BuShips enforcement, and aren't they going to be happy to see us around) on which I will be partially unavailable because. Arena fights. That's half a day of prep, fight, recovery, every day.

 
Grakor comes into the room. I automatically stand up, which escapes the notice of my firmly informal friends. That's fine. I'm in a weird position with this Hutt and they are not.

Grakor's intel, summed up: Crimson Nova has stolen the Kylo's Star. Or arranged for its theft.

 
Oh ... good ....

 
Davish is going to lead Team Deep Cover. They (Davish and Andan and Hicks) will try to find a couple of critical points in Almon D'Joy's plans which are 1) screw-up-able and 2) not an All Hutt Goals plan.

 
Cap'n Kolene, So'Zen, and I are going to work on the detective work of where the eff is our ship. At least, until I have to start getting ready for my next match.

 
We on Team Poke Around go to meet Aerena's X-Wing, which is bringing in Spook and Danar. He has rough news: Vance Kerplocken has been burned and also several "Vance Kerplockens" have been killed.

 
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand then the power goes out!

 
Bonus: I am having trouble drawing upon the Light Side.

 
Pek is in the medical wing with Dr. Stom. Hicks is near the other side of the building, with Davish. Okay, that means Pek is the most vulnerable likely target!

I send So'Zen, who moves faster, running back toward medical. By the time Aerena, Danar, Spook, and I get there, a vent cover lays on the floor and (we can presume) So'Zen has gone up into the shaft after either Pek or hostiles, or maybe both. Also there is a crumpled high-tech face mask of Dr. Stom laying right here.

 
.... good.

 
Danar, who is better at range than I am, goes in to support So'Zen. Spook and Aerena find Actual Dr. Stom in one of the closets, stunned unconscious. I go running through the halls to try to flank whatever So'Zen is pursuing.

The Light Side of the Force is trying to tell me something about impending doom but there's so much tar everywhere....

I get to some glue grenades just in time to prevent them from smothering So'Zen and Danar, but they get me. I am stuck in place a lunge's distance below the vent, arms extended, lightsabers in hands. Meanwhile, the Blue Spider a.k.a. Torana Sivron is chasing Aerena and Spook. The Spider claims that she and her sister have already found this job to be profitable -- and talks about how "handsome he is".

Force bless Danar, he used his expensive Vorpelagia whiskey to dissolve the glue.

 
I make a mental note: I need to take a seriously objective look at 1) how I am doing, not how I think I should be doing at this point but how I am actually doing; 2) that thing I have about my own competence. And lack thereof.

Not now, obviously, because So'Zen has gone hunting the Blue Spider and Aerena and Spook have gone hunting either the other Blue Spider or else their planned extraction point, ideally with non-blaster ranged weaponry of some sort, and Danar is going to retrace our path back to the landing point and bring vehicular tools to bear on the problem, and that means I need to get into this ventilation shaft (ugh) and pursue Pek.

He's smaller, but honestly, I'm in better shape. So I get close enough to hear him, and I start trying to talk him into giving me a chance to prove that I'm on his team.

We end up in the kitchen, where Cap'n Aerena Kolene and Spook catch up with us. She has a plasma thrower and it's, I think, capsule based? I just. Okay. Awesome. She says she's not Catholic so we've got this going for us now.

 
Ya know, I have never caught an Adepta Sororitas using the Voice.

Small favors!

 
Anyway. I set Pek to shutting off every pipe valve, whether water or fuel or other, while Aerena checks the freezer for lurkers or nasty surprises and I check the loading dock entrance. There's a repulsorlift in the loading bay with its engine running.

Ah, it does not say "Skywalker" across my forehead. I call upon Aerena.

Who calls upon Spook.

Who informs Aerena (who informs me) that no life signs or active explosives are detected.

What the hey. "Spook? All yours." Let the hostiles deal with that on extraction.

 
We look around and Pek is gone, running away from the building toward the parking garage.

 
I just ... I'm not good with children. I admit that. I was okay with my peers in Skirzden, but those were peers, y'know? I turn to Aerena. "By the time you were ten, did you have any terrible life decisions under your belt?" We start trading. By the time I was ten, I had dug out of sealed files that my progenitors did not want me, and that I did not in fact have a name. So of course I did dumb things at that age, and there was no telling me how to be smart.

 

Danar: By the time I was ten, I had stolen a submarine and gone on a joyride.

Vanya, delighted: You know, THAT sounds like a story I gotta hear!
— semi-OOC aside of "in character" conversations that did not really happen because characters are separated; "Revenge of the Slave Lords" chapter 3: "Trust and Consequences"


 
The Dark Side of the Force is gathering in the motor pool. Why?

 
We need to compare notes with our closest allies. I turn to Aerena. Does she trust me? Will she give me her hand and opt in? I get The Face ... and a "yes". All right! That's a start.

 
I have watched Jenkins do this at least fifty times. It's a little bit like Battle Meditation. It uses Projective Telepathy and Receptive Telepathy. I'm already maintaining Battle Meditation to connect allies, so ... yep, there's Davish, and he and Aerena can hear each other. And there's Hicks, good, and Danar (excellent!), and Danar tells me that So'Zen is laying on a floor having suffered a nerve strike so I reach to click him in. Good, we're comparing notes. What's the thing with the Dark Side and the motor pool? Can Danar see it?

Andan is in the motor pool (alone?) and fighting one of the Spiders. Pek is running that way loaded with a slingshot and cans of Spam.

Oh, fierfek!

Run. Run. Run.

 
The Dark Side takes a breath and I can fling myself into the Light within that gap, get into place with my back to Andan as the Spider turns around to see who hit her concealed helmet with a can of meat, now the game has changed so she has to adapt. All I can think to say is "Bring it!" and I bet that is a lousy idea from me right now. Too aggressive. So I wait.

She starts the match with a low "punch" that I block the way Ani taught me, swinging down and out to knock it aside with my lightsaber, and it wasn't her fist it was a telescoping staff which was supposed to knock me into Andan.

Rude.

Ruder for her, because now she has half a telescoping staff and a reason to back up two steps. Which frames her nicely for Aerena's blaster shot from the side.

 
"Do you want medical attention?" I ask as she stumbles away. Fight is probably over but I am not dropping my guard just yet.

Torana Sivron won't actually say that she wants me to stop her from leaving. But she does say she's on a contract with someone who has deep pockets, and that I maybe need to talk to a contracts lawyer about the Corellian Intelligence Agency.

 
The. The what now?

Continue reading...

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.009 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 05:33, Apr 18 2024