Private A dockside investigation

[Dagos Terrek]

“Bet.” he said, smiling wide. He did the best he could to seem calm and cool… mostly cool but he could hardly contain his excitement at finally taking this speeder out into the real world on a real mission. He had of course driven the old girl around the empty shipyards, testing out her new parts and features but this was their first job together and he was equally hopeful that Neli would find him...er…her impressive.

He pulled out of the garage and the two went off in the speeder driving fairly casually nothing crazy as Dagos took them off toward their next destination

“Did you say your mom put a bounty on you?” He asked, sounding a little amazed “that chit is wild.” It seemed to Dagos that having karked up parental relationships was way too common. Really, how bad was a bounty anyway? Sure it sounded karked up with no context but saying bounty could just be an exaggerated way to say her mom would pay for information to know that Neli was safe or whatever. Dagos remembered what Neli had said earlier about her mom and The Darkside and decided that no, her placing a bounty on Nel was probably a karked up thing to do.

As she answered, if she answered they would keep driving normally until Dag would look down and see the krono. Chit, he was late.

“Uh. Better buckle in.” He told her and they were no longer driving casually. The buildings began to turn into blurs in the viewport as Dagos pushed the throttle forward. That scene in the bar had cost them more time than Dag had realized. The speeded began to slow as they came up on a cross section of abandoned road.

A large carrier vessel came flying fast down the cross road followed closely behind by two smaller sport style speeders. The two sport speeders were clearly harrying and harassing the cargo truck.

“Those are our hijackers!” He told Neli unnecessarily. “Hang on!” Dagos punched the accelerator again and took off in pursuit of the cargo hauler. “I hoped we would be able to get here before the hijacking started.” He explained. “We need to help that truck! And hopefully bring these guys in, we, I have some questions for ‘em.”

Dagos floored his speeder bumping into the tail end of one of the sportsters. Suddenly a blot of red hot plasma came shooting out missing his speeder by a few feet.

“So…” He said turning to Neli. “You got any ideas how to stop them guys? Cause I don’t think you’ll like mine.”

If she did not have an idea Dagos would continue talking to her as they flew right behind the car that was still shooting at them.

“You wanna drive…or jump?” He knew she wouldn’t like his plan

Neli

 

[Neli]

She smiled at his response and hopped in the passenger seat before they took off. Ah, he wasn't too reckless. Not right now anyway. That was good, well, mostly. She had to admit recklessness was somewhat of something she got herself into perhaps a little too often. She had to chuckle at his comment about the bounty, "Yeah, that's my mom for ya. Didn't work and she did take it off, just wanted me back. Guess she realized it was more dangerous with it up since I wasn't coming easy." she said it somewhat lightly. It did bother her, but it came out as if it was completely normal.

Neli furrowed her brow as he seemed to be in a sudden hurry and she ensured she was kept in tight, though it quickly turned into a light grin at the feeling of the speeder going ever much faster. Now this was what she wanted to do in a speeder!

However it seemed there was another objective, hijackers. She unfastened herself as they started closing in, already hooking her saber to her belt and glancing over the edge. "Well...no non lethal options it seems." she commented with a grunt. She brought her head up as he bumped one of them and a blast of plasma passed them by. A smile, almost childish, grew across her face.

A glance of almost smug accusation at him about if she had any ideas, "Oh I have something, but let's hear it." She took in a breath and started to stand carefully matching her stance so the speed or accelerations wouldn't hit her as much, at his comment she had to look at him in slight surprise, "Mate, I knew you were reckless, but that's a bit much. Let's do it. Nothing's better than a little adventure."

Her legs crouched and the force boosted her onto the cargo ship rather than the speeder. She turned to the speeder that Dagos Terrek wasn't chasing. He could likely see the move she was making, a force push. A little slow, but the reason would be obvious when the sportster was sent careening off course with a dent in its side. The pilot managed to get it back on track but it would defenitely give Dagos a little extra time to make his decisions and prevent those hijackers from taking action as soon as they may have wanted. She raised her lightsaber into the air activating it, "Woo! Let's have us a fight!"

She was hardly the most bloody warrior. But there was still something about this that brought joy to her. A childish sense of adventure in contrast to the bloodlusting joy of her mother. So alike yet with so much different application in the same thing. One enjoyed the challenge and the violence of it. But Neli, it was cleaner than that. She liked it because it was like a story, an adventure for a hero or a protagonist in a story. Like so many others.

 

[Dagos Terrek]

“Oh Chit!” a surprised cackle flew from his lips as the speeder ahead of the one he was tailgating was sent careening off the road, kicking up dust as it slid down the embankment. Dag was sure his plan to take them alive was totally lost before the speeder righted itself and joined back in the chase no worse for the encounter except for a large dent in the passenger side.

Dagos now found himself sandwiched between the two speeders and taking fire from both. His teeth clacked together and there was an unmistakable whine of metal on metal as the dented speeder rammed Dagos the same way he’d done to the other speeder earlier, he swayed but kept himself on the road.

The sport speeder in front of him took off like a dart cutting off the cargo hauler and Neli . The freighter swerved hard but managed to quickly regain control. Shots fired from the speeder ricocheted off the view port of the hauler, the pilot however was made of stern stuff. The hauler punched the accelerator directly at the would be hijackers at the same time a hatch opened on the driver’s side door and out came a thick arm holding a blast cannon.

The cannon went off with a thuwmp so loud Dag could hear it in his own speeder. The backend of the hijacking speeder was now an open hole of smoking metal and loose wires. The hijackers, clearly uninterested in messing with the blast cannon further moved along now to the opposite side of the hauler from Dagos.

Two grappling hooks would attach themselves to the hauler near Neli’s feet and up would climb a pair of burly nikto, each carrying a heavy blaster pistol and a riot baton and both were looking for trouble.

 

[Neli]

Neli grimaced as the speeders started targeting Dagos Terrek . Turned out she didn't need to remedy that herself. She steadied herself to the swerving vehicle as one tried to cut them off and then the Hijackers would attempt to send grappling hooks to the cargo hauler. She practically laughed as she winked at them her rebreather pulled over her mouth and nose.

And then she moved, very quickly as the force enhanced her movements. A disadvantage of the riot batons was their weight, and with Neli's fighting style so heavily being formed around speed, agility, and angles she had a sizable advantage in the situation. She closed the distance with incredible speed always on the move as her blade darted towards the chest but then suddenly shifted to the knees of one of them, a feint that was very easy to pull off due to the lack of weight in her blade. She wouldn't even wait to see how it proceeded before she was several yards in the air and to the side sending stun blasts towards each of the two allowing her to land on the side of their other speeder and leap off again back to the main vehicle before anything could be done about it.

She continued an onslaught of fast and hard to predict strikes, stun blasts, and feints while always being ready to get on the move the instant she either went for a hit or even felt an attack coming always changing up her reaction to an attack so they wouldn't be able to attempt to control where she dodged to.

This was it, this was an adventure worth taking. Adrenaline pumping, yet no fear. Still that constant threat of death by just falling off or knocking someone else off was something genuinely enjoyable. It was far from the anger or fear that could drive a sith to great power. But nor was it the peace that a Jedi could obtain to bring them closer to the force.

She'd nearly forgotten about Dagos herself, used to doing this sort of stuff alone. Instead focusing on the enemies she was fighting and the overall goal of stopping them from taking the cargo hauler. It wasn't about killing them. It was about stopping them.

 

[Dagos Terrek]

The cargo hauler swerved hard to the right trying to smash into the speeder that had just emptied a couple goons onto its roof.

Dagos slammed on the brakes and sent the dented speeder into the ditch again. He did not wait before punching the accelerator and catching back up to the cargo hauler which proceeded to now swerve at him. The padawan gripped the control of his speeder and pulled hard to the left barely avoiding a collision with the larger vehicle. Dust flew from the back of his speeder as he tried to regain control on the embankment turning pink from the light of the setting sun.

Able to get himself back on the road Dagos looked over to see the barrel of the blast cannon was once again out the window of the hauler. It fired, blowing away the right head light of his speeder.

"ARE YOU KARKING SERIOUS!" He yelled from behind the control of his speeder. Just then he was bumped from behind by the dented speeder which had made its way back into the chase.

"Hell boy." He sighed, completely ticked at the state of his speeder.

The blast cannon fired again going wide over his hood and turning part of the embankment into a smoking hole. He spared a glance up top and hoped Neli was having better luck.

 

[Neli]

Neli's time wasn't so bad. While not a master in the force or the blade, her sheer speed and weapon advantage was definitely making up for it. On top of that the specific style of swordsmanship she used was convenient for this kind of situation darting in and out. They weren't bad, able to at least somewhat keep up with her attacks.

Just, not for all that long. She had to dodge several attacks, especially from the blasters. Those were far more of a concern then in melee combat and they'd figured it out eventually. But there was only so much room for them to counter-manuever and she eventually managed to reflect one blast back at them causing him to move to the side, giving her the necessary opening in which she lunged forwards quickly piercing all the way through both of the still standing ones shoulders and then force pushing the other off the vehicle before he could recover. She wasn't actually sure if either would survive, but they'd made their choice. And if they died, it wouldn't really bother her that much.

However while she had a rather successful victory, the constant dodging and aggressive movements had definitely exhausted her. She was breathing heavy as she looked over and grimaced remembering that Dagos Terrek was still in his own situation. One that was also itself potentially very hazardous. She saw him look over at her and she gave a quick smile as she switched her blaster to ion. If it was mere droids chasing them it'd probably be a one hit, it was however a vehicle. But it was fortunately a rather powerful weapon and she hoped that the vehicles weren't too much for it. Technically, she knew it could take down some vehicles. But she really didn't know for sure if this would work or not. And she didn't have the energy to dry and give it all that she had left, not without excessive risk.

She fired repeatedly at the enemy vehicle, aiming for where she believed the controls should be and hoping that even if one hit wouldn't do it, maybe if she kept laying into it that'd be enough. She was enjoying herself though, however exhausted she might be. And she was recovering quickly.

 

[Dagos Terrek]

“Kriffing hell, man” Was all he could manage to say in the most disappointed and defeated voice he had as a body came from off the roof of the big freight vehicle and hit the ground hard and went tumbling down the road behind them, its limbs flopping and contorting in ways that just shouldn’t happen.

He was going to get in trouble for this. The thought had occurred to him before but it had never really sunk in like it had when he watched that body bounce lifelessly in his rearview mirror.

He got bumped again and all thoughts of dead bad guys and future punishments left his mind as he resolved to finally put this ordeal to one end or another. As if his mind were being read Neli leaned over the side of the carrier truck and fired blue blasts of energy repeatedly at the speeder following him. It swerved and did it’s best to avoid being hit but it did not do enough with several of the blasts hitting home and shutting the speeder down. No, it only shut the controls down!

The speeder no longer being kept on course by its driver went careening into the larger freight truck, becoming lodged underneath of the larger vehicle, causing it to fishtail violently before jackknifing. Dagos skidded to a stop in his speeder, flung the door open and tried to reach out with The Force to help assist Neli in her attempt to escape from atop the freighter before it went ass over head and started flip rolling like six times.

Neli

 

[Neli]

Well...they did something. The speeder spun out of control but ended up crashing into the freighter. She felt the danger she was in as the vehicles began to go completely out of control. Already putting herself into the air as Dagos reached out to help her move, which she greatly appreciated as it helped to bring her towards his speeder which she still nearly toppled off the side of not having quite accounted for the help, but it was still preferable as she saw the freighter turn over on itself. Had she still been there, things could have been so much worse.

She watched through careful breathing as it moved and then looked at him for a moment as she collected her thoughts. The very first being, Well, if they were buckled they should be alright.

However, there was no way to know without finding out. She got on the move towards the vehicles, especially looking for doors and feeling out for life or the emotions of the passengers. If they were alive, she'd like to get them out as soon as possible. As for the hijacker, so long as he wasn't a threat, he'd get any attention last.

Dagos Terrek