YLU Part III: Between Scylla and Charybdis (Andromeda, Vic, Dakler and me!)

[Hara Kiri]

Hara Kiri watched in utter amazement as Jorshal forced a wave to knock over the droids which landed with a loud clatter that hurt her ears. Before she could react, Zereth leapt into action with the mysterious lightsaber glowing in his hands. She had to say, since joing the Sith Order every day had become filled with uncanny and fantastic events she had only heard of in the children's books she filled her free time with.

"Capture the kids and get them to somewhere safe and where we can keep an eye on them." Jorshal's voice rang inside her head. As soon as she learned that trick she was going to do it to him and see how he liked it. ... Such an invasion of privacy. Jeez!

She watched as she tried to decide who it was that they were supposed to chase and began eliminating people based on how much she thought they could hurt her if things went wrong, which for her was a common occurance. The Twi'lek looked harmless... but then it was the burly man that was escaping with her who could probably make her cry with a stern look.

"Dak... We really need to chase the Twi'lek and the dude or else Jorshal will become cross with us. And they look easiest to catch, so, you do it." She gave Dakler a shove in the general direction of the fleeing force users and hoped he would lead the way through the mess of droids-with-guns.

[Victer Dejan]

Victer wasn’t local-familiar with this bit of Coronet, but he was aware enough to take advantage of the side roots he noticed on the walk over. A good smuggler makes escape routes from every scenario. He had an agile Twi’lek in tow, and an ion handgun. If Kyashi had kept his head on straight, he probably would have been fine. But he had panicked. Stupid kid, but however he pushed the droids over was a neat trick.

The smuggler tripped and pulled Andromeda down as one of the assault droids rounded the alley to corner them. The droid paused to look down the alley more carefully. Guns blazing would have been a better idea. Victer put two ion bolts into it, toasting it mid-step.

“Can you shoot?”

[Andromeda]

She fell on her butt as Victer stumbled and pulled her down. Her little skirt provided no protection and she inwardly cursed at the road rash that would make dancing impossible until it healed. Impossible to do for money, that was.

Her lekku were wrapped in black silk straps that matched her skirt and tube top. The closest assault droid paused at the entrance to the alley and the smuggler ionized it's systems with a few well placed shots.

"Can you shoot?"

"Do pigs fly?" Andy thought for a moment, and then shook her head. Her Basic was good, but sometimes the meanings of human sayings eluded her. "I mean, yes."

[Dakler Terrcin]

Dakler loved playing the hero, but babysitting Hara Kiri was getting tiresome. She would have to learn to take care of herself sometime soon. That is, sometime before he throttled her himself. Perhaps he would leave her alone for a bit and she how she fared. At the very least she probably wouldn't attract much attention just standing there looking confused. That's what everyone else was doing anyways.

Dakler force-jumped to a ledge near the Twi'lek and the "dude" as Hara Kiri called him, waiting for an opportunity to play the hero, hopefully winning their trust, at least for a moment. He kept checking back on Hara Kiri, waiting for her to panic or do something stupid. He really wasn't in the mood to save her.

He didn't have much time to watch, however, as his force-jump had attracted some attention, and a half dozen droids were soon standing on the ground below him. They would provide a perfect opportunity to impress the two he was supposed to capture. Dakler force-jumped again and the droids began to fire at him. The plan was to draw the droids to the youngsters, wait for the youngsters to open fire, and then to "save" them. If he pulled if off correctly, the other two would understand the simple concept of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," and wouldn't have any reluctance to coming with him and Hara Kiri.

[Hara Kiri]

"Jeeeez!" She said in awe as Dakler took to the sky in a Force leap. She stood there for a good minute looking to the sky before she remembered her objective. Jorshal said to capture the kids and he was the boss. She looked at them, blasters blazing.

She definitely didn't want to get shot.

Dakler has a plan, I need one too. So I'll... umm... She thought to herself as she looked around.

"Flowers!" she exclaimed as she saw a little pot of red petaled flowers. "Flowers...?"

The revolution she saw on the holo moments earlier.

She had a plan.

She gabbed the bunch of flowers and tied them together with a white ribbon she found in an abandoned and open suitcase on the floor. Next she gripped a white hankerchief. White is the color of the mental revolution...

"REVOLUTION!" She cried as she charged towards the droids.

[Victer Dejan]

OOC: Victer is 32, and he doesn't look like a kid. Please be reading more carefully ;)

"They do." He said in Twi'lek as best he could, and handed Andromeda the ion blaster. If she shot him on accident it would only sting really badly instead of killing him.

Victer headed for the other end of the alley with Andromeda right behind him. It was only another 10 meters. They stopped, and he looked from around the corner carefully. He was about to move when a pair of boots impacted the ledge above impossibly hard. Victer didn't even bother more than a glance. They didn't have time, and in his opinion, had attracted entirely too much attention. He'd end up with a warrant on him, and that would complicate things.

Dammit. He took another glance around the corner again, and three more droids had appeared on the street. They were trying to flank the pair in. No fire escapes between the pair of three-story shops. He wasn't about to jump into a dumpster unless he absolutely had to.

"REVOLUTION" Flowers and hankerchief in hand, there was the distraction they needed. Victer and and Andromeda made quick work of the three droids and wordlessly bolted away from the three coming from the other direction. A block further down, they slowed. In the distance he could see the brown suits and funny hats that meant Imperial Customs was now in the warehouse with the ship.

"Crap." There were other ways off of Coronet but he'd have to pay a slicer and bribe a few locals to fix things.

"When I see Kyashi again I'm going to brake his nose." Victer grumbled and waited for the other three droids to round the alley corner.

[Andromeda]

She didn't have any trouble keeping up with the pilot as he ran to the clear end of the alley. They stopped at the end, and he peered around the corner as she examined the weapon he'd handed her. It was the ion blaster he'd been using earlier. The dancer checked to make sure it was primed to fire, and peeked under Victer's elbow at the scene on the main street.

Thump

Before she could get a good look out of the alleyway, a man landed on a ledge above them. She squeaked before she could stop herself and looked upwards, but the man was already leaping away. Victer settled back against the wall as she saw that they were surrounded and the security croids were closing in.

"REVOLUTION!" A humanoid girl darted into the street, waving a hanky and holding flowers. The droids swiveled to look at her, and Andy shot one of them with the ion blaster as Victer took out the other two.

With a touch to her arm the pilot pulled her out of the alley and they ran, the droids behind them also picking up their pace. After a moment they slowed down, and Andy looked back the way they'd come.

"When I see Kyashi again I'm going to break his nose." Victer groused as the three droids popped out of the alley and into their line of fire. Andromeda missed with her first shot, but pegged one of the droids on her second try. The ion blast didn't seem to effect the entire droid, and it got off a blaster bolt that creased her shoulder before she put it down with another ion blast.

[Dakler Terrcin]

OOC: yeah, I suck, but I'm back at school which means a more regular schedule and internet access that almost always works...

"Hara Kiri.....what an absolute crazy" Dakler thought to himself as she charged out into the street. He wondered if he would be punished for letting her get herself killed.....

In any case, he had to keep track of the two fugatives. He followed them, force-jumping accross the rooftopps. He saw the girl take out one droid and take a shot on her shoulder. Now was his time to act. Dakler jumped from his vantage point on the roof, amplifying his strength on the way down. He landed on top of one droid and it collapsed underneath him. He turned the fall into a roll and threw the droid as he came out of it. The droid smashed against a nearby wall and fell to the ground, sparks zapping accross it's broken wires.

Dakler turned to face the remaining droid and found that he was dead in it's sights. The Droid spoke in a disturbingly human sounding voice: "Do not move. I am authorized to use deadly force. Any non-compliance with my orders is grounds for me to use said force. Please remain where you are and a civil security team will be here to secure you shortly."

Dakler froze....

[Hara Kiri]

"Whoa, hey!" She shouted as the two ran away from her. Now faced with the deadly droids she paniced and ran away, dropping both the flowers and hankerchief. The droids seemed to take no interest in her and began pursuit of the two Jorshal had ordered them to capture. She snuck through the area anyway, perhaps the droids were attempting to fool her. She could take her chances.

She was much slower than Dakler, but she managed to keep pursuit regardless. She ducked behind some wood boards leaning against a stone wall and watched as Dakler confronted the droid.

He's screwed.

She had no other option than to heroically risk herself for her friend. Her dearest friend who had worked so hard to protect her and guide her.

She grabbed ahold of a heavy pipe also leaning against the wall and snuck up behind the droid. Dakler could see her, but the droid could not and she swung the pipe as hard as she could, aiming for the head, but hitting the rather durable torso instead.

[Victer Dejan]

Victer had been aiming the entire time. The droid was a good head taller than Hari, and he blasted it in the “head” and out through the optical sensors. Flame licked out of the entry wound and the destroyed optics as wire and lubricants melted.

He decided that as wonderful as the assist had been, they still needed to get out of sight and start making some calls to clear out of this mess. Sure, Dakler’s performance had been impossible and impressive, but it had also been tactically stupid.

“Let’s get out of here.” He said to Andromeda, and started for the other entrance. He knew of a shop where he could use the comm undisturbed.

[Andromeda]

Breathless, Andy nodded, following the pilot out of the area. Her arm stung, but there was only a red welt across her deltoid muscle. As they ducked out of sight from the two humans in the street, the stripper checked the power cell on the blaster in her hand. Still plenty of juice.

"Think that was it?" She looked over her shoulder as they took another quick turn. He seemed determined to lose any and all pursuers by taking the most convoluted route imaginable.

[Dakler Terrcin]

Dakler was beginning to become frustrated. First the fugatives were running from the droids, and pretty soon they would be running from him, if he wasn't carefull. He was simply wasting time as it was. He needed them to calm down. He decided to follow them as quietly as possible, from a good distance back. Their fear was easy to detect and follow, even for someone as mentally incompetent as him, so he did his best to stay completely out of sight.
Hopefully they would go somewhere more neutral where he could approach them without scaring them away again. A bar or something where they wouldn't see him coming from a mile away. This would be so much easier if he were just supposed to kill them or something, but unless he misunderstood his instructions, he was supposed to bring them to Jorshal unharmed.

[Hara Kiri]

"Hey!" She called. "Wait!" She took off running after them, turning the corner they had only moments ago rounded. She could see them running not too far ahead.

"We only want to talk!" She yelled. "Why are you running?!" It was something that seemed far from obvious to her. Hadn't they just taken out that droid like some superpowered chums on the Holo? As far as she recalled they hadn't done anything to jepordize the Twi'lek and the human.

She stopped running as the two turned another corner. She stared down the new alleyway and saw it to be a dead end. She was positive they'd find a way to jump it or scale it to the roof. Some superhuman feat that ordinary Hara Kiri only dreamed of.

Her stomach growled a little, Jorshal had insisted they all participate in the 'formalities' with the Corellia government before anything else, even eating. She hardly participated, she'd spent her time trying to catch one of the exotic fish in the tank on the third floor of the government building. Err, this whole day sucked.

"Hey!" She yelled as hard as she could, producing almost a comedic effect. One hardly authoritative. "Let's get some lunch or something! I'm sick of this!" Wait... she didn't have any credits. "Dakler's buying!"

[Victer Dejan]

Victer slowed and turned around. His looked at her incredulously. This whole scene was ludicrous. It ate at his very core. If Victer were the teeth grinding type, which he wasn’t, it would have been an idea time to feed him some coal: there would have be diamonds shortly.

“We’re running because we just destroyed several bits of Corellian property and they don’t take kindly that. As wowing as your friend’s physical feats were, I’d rather not spend days in a cell somewhere. I have calls to make to friends so that doesn’t happen.” He glared at her with the fury of ten thousand angered dragons.Was this just staged to get them in awe of Dakkler's physical feats, which had been as impressive as it had been tactically stupid?

“If this was a ploy to talk to us, why didn’t you just send someone and ask? Shock and awe? Stupidity and absurdity? Oh wow, some guy can smash droids, we should be amazed! You failed at social relations and combat tactics. Lets go Andromeda, we’ll get that looked at soon.” He turned back around and resumed walking with the Twi’lek.

[Andromeda]

She looped her lekku around her shoulders when Victer slowed down, and had to agree with his assesment of the situation. She walked beside him as they turned away again, her hips swaying. "Yeah, thanks. I'm not hungry anyway."

Andromeda walked a few more steps in silence, then added, "Uh, so we're not running anymore?"

[Dakler Terrcin]

Dakler was quickly becoming pissed off. This was deffinetly not worth his time. Dakler turned to Hara Kiri, adoped a mysterious air, and told her "Close your eyes and watch what happens to the stupid man."

Then he began to attack Victors mind. A more sophisticated Sith might have forced Victor to relive all of his worst memories, diluded him into thinking he was Dakler's household pet, or even given him halucinations of cockraoches crawling around under his skin. Instead, Dakler chose pain. Not that he had ever done this to a person before, but when you got down to it, people weren't that different from animals. Victor would be writhing on the ground in seconds...

[Victer Dejan]

What started a sudden bad headache transformed into agony in seconds.

“Nghghhhh.” He couldn’t even scream. His whole body was recoiling from pain.

[Hara Kiri]

She ignored his instruction and looked on.

"Whoa." She said softly. She couldn't see anything actually hurting the man, but she knew it was Dakler's doing. It had to be. Lurking around the Sith Order had taught her that unseen forces were more active with the Sith than anywhere.

"Lady," She said to Andromeda. "Let's just call it quits, already."

[Andromeda]

Startled, Andy froze for a moment, while Victer dropped to the ground. It sounded like his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth while he was trying to scream. It didn't make sense - the pilot had seemed fine only moments earlier.

The twi'leki female dropped to her knees in the alley beside Victer, and looked towards the other man, the one with the grim smile on his face. "What are you doing!? Ba'anti kooda! Stop it!"

There was one thing she could try. She'd lost any sense of modesty long ago, and she knew that... that she had no idea what was happening to Victer, and he had been her ticket out of this mess. "All right, all right! Just stop - you win!"

[Dakler Terrcin]

"Come with us" said Dackler. "You will be with the rest of your friends shortly. I don't particularly enjoy causing your friend pain, and it would be a pity if I had to attack your mind as well."
Dakler lowered the intensity of his attack on Victer, Dakler strode over to where Victer was lying on the ground. Slinging Victer over his shoulder like a sack of grain, Dakler started walking away. "come along Hara" he said.

[Andromeda]

"My friends?" Confused for a moment, she deduced he meant the rest of the young passengers on Victer's ship. Mind working rapidly, she said,"Oh, right. No, I was just a passenger. I don't have anything to do with whatever they're messed up in."

The twi'lek hesitated, the ion blaster still in her hand. But it wouldn't do anything to a human, would it? She scooped up Victer's fallen blaster, even though she had no where to hide it, and stuck both of the weapons in the waistband of her skirt. "Look, I don't want any trouble. You've got the pilot, I'll just be on my way."

[Victer Dejan]

Victer groaned quietly. He didn't really feel that terrible now, even though his brain told him he had. Now he was shouldered by his assailant.

What a crappy day.

"I swear I'm going to kick that stupid kid's head in." he murmured.