Private Against the Odds

[Aveline Cuiléin]

​

“Kark. Feth. Farkling!”

It was not a good day to be Aveline. She was hurt, people were chasing her, and her lightsaber was missing. I just made that thing too… Fething… Feth! This was not okay.

A blaster bolt took out a pice of the wall right above her head. She fell down into a crouch, hands above her head as pebbles and dust settled about her. “Ooh Sithspit!” She’d had it. She really had had it.

Aveline barely made it around the corner and into the alley before another volley dug up the dirt where she’d just stood. No time thinking about that now. She started running.

This had been the pattern of the last two days. Ever since she’d unintentionally stumbled into this viper’s nest, she’d gone from hiding, thinking she’s safe, only to be discovered and have to run and hide all over again. Set, repeat.

She was tired.

The end of the alley led her into a dead end. But the young Padawan still had some fight in her. She eyed the narrow walls all the way up to the roof. She could make it.

With a deep breath, drawing upon what little energy she had left, guided by the will of the Force Aveline leapt. She made it about halfway up, hands clutching and grasping at a rugged wall. She kicked off again, and once more, bouncing from one side to the other until she managed to pull herself up to the top.

This side of Arkania was pretty from up here, but Aveline didn’t have the time to appreciate that. Slowly she stood, looking back down. She saw the first three pursuers who made it into the alley. One lifted his blaster, but the other stayed his hand. Instead he shouted something into a comms unit.

Moments later, in the distance, Aveline could see two speeder bikes rising. She just knew they meant to come for her.

Aveline could cry. She knew what was coming. She would have to fight. But not here, not yet. She started running, leaping from one rooftop to the next, sprinting atop the houses, looking for a way down, a way to safety or to turn the tables.

Kara Jade​

 

[Kara Jade]

Today was not a lucky day for Kara.

Although it could be argued there hadn’t been any ‘lucky days’ for a while now. Ever since that eventful night, and the consequences that followed, Kara had been trying to track down one Aiden Rennek . Unfortunately, she never asked about the soldier’s rank, nor what unit he was with. Both pieces of information would’ve been infinitely useful to try and find him, even despite how expansive the Galactic Alliance’s presence was.

That and well…it would’ve probably helped if Kara could remember his last name too.

But what brought her to Arkania of all places, was the report that the Alliance had dispatched a number of squads to its cities. While the capital city was mostly untouched, primarily thanks to its local police force, the neighbouring ones were less fortunate.

Something had started to stir ever since the Empire struck Ilum. Concern and fear started to seep across the planets that bordered Galactic Alliance space. Especially ones that were on the doorstep of the Imperials’ territory.

Cue riots and opportunists groups using the chaos to sow further mayhem. But there was something odd about the whole thing, Kara had noted an increased hostility towards Force users. Not necessary ones associated with the Alliance, but rather in general.

The Padawan had very quickly got wrapped up in trying to help the locals. Plans to try and potentially find Aiden were pushed aside in favour of helping those in need. And it just so happened she was in the right place, at the right time to help someone.

Hearing the building commotion, Kara ran to a fire exit and pushed it open. She looked up, just in time to see a young woman, a teenager, peering over the roof’s edge as she tried to catch her breath.

Kara whistled quietly, trying to catch her attention.

“Hey, down here!”

If the young woman decided to take a chance, Kara would keep the door open, waiting until she passed through the doorway before closing and locking it shut.

Aveline Cuiléin​

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

A whistle caught her attention. Then a voice. Then a face that kriffing better be friendly. She had neither the patience nor the energy to deal with any other twist.

It could be a trap, it could be a terrible mistake, but Aveline didn't really have the privilege of having a lot of time to contemplate things. It helped that her gut feeling told her this was the right thing to do, like a gentle breeze that blew her in the direction of this woman.

"Right" she said more to herself than anyone else, then hopped on down, making her way down the fire exit and to the door held open for her. She practically threw her inside, and was relieved to see she didn't have to tell the woman to close it shut behind her.

"Thank you" she said breathing heavy. "You could get into a lot of trouble helping me. You might want to reconsider" she said it with a light chuckle but it wasn't a lie. "But thank you. I'm Aveline" and thanks to this random stranger, she wouldn't be Deadeline.

Kara Jade​

 

[Kara Jade]

Kara kept her ear pressed against the door, listening for the teenager’s pursuers. She could just make out the sound of multiple voices talking amongst each other. The sound of a couple engines, speeder bikes probably, drawing nearer only to turn and head off again.

It seemed they had either lost track and turned around, or were heading onwards without giving thought to check the buildings.

Good, less of a potential headache that way.

“If that’s the case, then I’ve been in a lot of trouble over the course of…” Kara paused, thinking for a few moments. “Forty-eight hours now.” She chuckled, walking past Aveline and motioning her to follow.

“It’s no problem, my name’s Kara.” She led the teenager into a hallway and down it a bit. The blonde quietly counted the doors they passed, until she finally stopped at one and pushed it open revealing a stairway. “So, what’s brought you to Arkania?”

Aveline Cuiléin​

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

"Yeah?" Aveline said, following in behind Kara. If she was getting herself in trouble in a place like this, well, she might just be the sort of person Aveline needed. If fearlessly offering her help while knowing the consequences, wasn't enough. "Same here."

"Nice to meet you Kara." and as to her question... "A desire for peace brought me here. My master and I-" she cut herself off. Had she said too much? They didn't much like Force users here. Yet, she had the sense that she could trust this woman. And if the same people had been giving her trouble the last 48 hours...

"I'm a Jedi. Or, a Padawan at least." If that was the sort of statement that would lead to blows she would handle that as it came. Picking up where she'd left off before, she continued: "We've been working in the border territories to the Empire trying to restore order and bring balance. Working against covert cells that have been trying to disrupt the Alliance. But our focus was never Arkania. This was just meant to be a quick stop for me before I went back to the front lines. That's where my Master is. The last two days were... Unexpected" Understatement of the decade.

It seemed Aveline had decided to trust Kara until that approach was proven wrong, and followed her to the stairway, and to wherever else she was leading her. "I'm not sure though... I didn't run into any Empire goons or secret operatives. Just... People, you know? And they don't seem to like Force users very much." The Empire could be behind it, of course Or it could be an entirely local situation. Aveline hadn't the foggiest.

"What about you?" She didn't seem local, but what did Aveline know

Kara Jade​

 

[Kara Jade]

The blonde had listened closely, noting the pause in Aveline’s words when she had mentioned her Master. It confirmed her suspicions that the teenager was a Jedi, but she wasn’t one Kara recognized. Albeit, she hadn’t seen every face that was at the Jedi Temple. She only knew names, and that was presuming the archives on Coruscant were completely up-to-date

Aveline Cuilein was not one such name.

A Silver perhaps? Or could be independent from either of the major Orders.

Kara knew it wasn’t completely unheard of. Sometimes, Masters went their own way, inevitably picking up a Padawan or two without ever stepping into a Jedi Temple. There was no identifier on Aveline, of whether she was from a specific Order, but then neither was Kara right now.

All for the best, sticking out like a sore thumb in Jedi robes was a death sentence right now. Fortunately for Kara at least, they hadn’t identified her as a Jedi just yet. More of a sympathiser that was helping them.

“Well you’re in luck then Aveline, I’m a Jedi Padawan myself.” She motioned towards the staircase, leading the way down them. “I came here searching for someone, a personal matter. But quickly got caught in the chaos that’s been unfolding here. Ran into a couple and their kid that were being chased, felt that urge you know? They needed help and I could provide, so I jumped in.” It was what ultimately got the attention of whomever it was hunting down Force sensitivities.

“And you’re not wrong, I haven’t encountered any Imperial elements myself.” To which Kara wasn’t sure what to think about. On one hand she was glad they didn’t have a presence here just yet…

Everything about this screamed of a local disturbance, but something in the Force felt off about this situation.

“I have heard rumours of a group forming that are anti-Force, but I didn’t think they were already influential enough to pull something like this off.”

Soon enough the pair were finally at the bottom of the staircase. Kara pushed the doors open revealing a large hall, the centre of which was filled with a maze of makeshift cots. And what appeared to be almost two dozen people were occupying them.

“Miss Kara!” A small green blur suddenly came dashing towards them. But before the young Twi’lek could collide with Kara’s stomach, she put a hand out.

“Easy now,” she warned gently. The young boy looked at stomach with wide eyes, remembering. As much as the pregnancy wasn’t that far along yet, she wasn’t willing to risk it.

“My bad, sorry Miss Kara…” She just smiled at the boy, pulling him into a more gentle embrace. But just like any hyperactive kid, he was suddenly curious about the newcomer. “Oooo, who are you?”

“This is Aveline, a new friend and someone who's here to help.”

Aveline Cuiléin​

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

’Well you’re in luck then Aveline, I’m a Jedi Padawan myself’ the words sent a wave of relief through her. Even if she didn’t say it, her body language made it obvious.

This didn’t mean she was out of the woods yet, but it meant she had a natural ally. She didn’t need to know much more about the other woman - if she was a Jedi, that was enough.

«I lost my lightsaber» she commented as they walked. It was a point of embarrassment, but perhaps if Kara or someone she was working with came across it at some point, it could be returned to her.

«I’ve spent most of my time running, and haven’t been able to do much investigation. But I agree, there’s something not right about this…» They were organised, bold, and despite supposedly being made up out of ’local rabble’, they didn’t follow the local rabble playbook.

«At risk of sounding like a broken Jedi record, but could it be a Sith plot?»

They joined in with others in hiding. Aveline couldn’t quite hold her laughter back at the child who came at them. It was a sweet and tender moment, a welcome break from what she’d seen on this planet so far.

«Hello! Nice to meet you» she waved. «I don’t know what I can do, but I want to help any way I can» she tried to make her smile as warm and friendly as she could. She imagined being introduced by Kara was a big help towards getting some trust.

Aveline turned to Kara. «I could contact my Master, but it would take him some time to get here. And he has his own mission…» she said, thinking out loud. «How do you want to play this? Do we know who leads these people? If there’s someone behind the scenes manipulating them, maybe we can find out where they are running things from and shut down the operation»

It was perhaps a very Jedi way of handling things. Find the head of the snake and… Disable it. That would be easier than taking on an entire revolution. She looked to the other Jedi, as well as the others in the room for advice.

Kara Jade

 

[Kara Jade]

Aveline’s words had their effect, even if she wasn’t quite certain with them herself. The young boy hugged the woman’s legs, mumbling a quiet thank you. Kara smiled, but did usher the child away gently.

“Why don’t you go back to your parents, yeah? We’ll be moving out to the next checkpoint soon.”

“Okay!” And just like that the kid was running back towards where his parents were resting. Kara chuckled, shaking her head slightly. Despite the situation they were in, it seemed children had the knack of remaining ever exuberant.

The blonde thought on Aveline’s words, her gaze linger across the gathered civilians that would be soon thrown into potential danger.

“It might be a good idea to contact him, even if he can’t get here soon. He might’ve encountered something similar while on his own mission.” She shook her head in response to the rest. “I can’t say for complete certainty, but they present themselves as a group hellbent on their objective. Although, if you told me it was actually multiple smaller groups, each taking advantage of the opportunity to achieve a mutual goal…I’d believe it.” Kara sighed as she rubbed her forehead slightly. “My gut tells me someone, or another group is behind this. You mentioned Sith before, and that might be possible. But something tells me the Imperials are more likely.”

A war after all was fought on more than one front. They had shown their might above Ilum with that superweapon. This was just another aspect.

“Our focus right now is to get these people to safety. We’ve been using underground tunnels to get from point to point. The goal is to get outside the city where transport is waiting to get them to the capital.”

Aveline Cuiléin​

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

Sith, Imperials, same shit different coating. Either way, they would have to put a stop to it.

"You're right. I'll give him a call." she said, in agreement with Kara. "So, step one, get these people to safety, then we try to hit them at their core?" Could they even do that though? Aveline didn't know where to start. It might require reinforcements, long investigations, but... If she was to become a Jedi Knight soon, wasn't this exactly the kind of situation she needed to be capable of resolving?

Aveline excused herself to get in touch with Ammon Rane. When she came back, she told Kara "Master Rane said he'd apprehended a smuggler crew. Only they were Imps posing as smugglers. Forged ship codes and all. Not sure if it's related, but the Imps could've been smuggling in equipment, weapons, maybe even agents to train and organize the population in nearby system. The confiscated cargo suggested as much."

It would appear Master and Padawan were both trying to solve the same issue, though spread over different systems.

"Right, so. To the tunnels?" Aveline asked Kara. She'd been her longer and seemed to have a better overview of the situation, Ave didn't mind deferring to her on this. Meanwhile she walked over to one of the locals who gestured her over to a table. Luckily she was able to borrow a blaster. It wasn't quite her lightsaber, but it was something. She mouthed a thank you.

Kara Jade

 

[Kara Jade]

Kara nodded in agreement. “Yeah, step one is to get these people to safety first. They’re the priority, after that we can try and track down where these groups are operating from.” At a glance it did appear as though the groups were acting independently of one another. But it didn’t take much of a closer look to see through that charade. Namely the fact each group had roughly the same equipment, all of them suddenly had access to speeder bikes and the like.

As Aveline stepped aside to contact her Master, Kara returned her attention to the civilians. They were in the process of organising themselves, ensuring the children and most vulnerable would be protected from all sides. Those that could take up arms did, and while they had yet to encounter any issues along the way, it was always best to be cautious.

It wasn’t long before Aveline returned with news, and it made the blonde frown.

“Smugglers are usually hired to do such jobs themselves. The fact they were Imps posing as them would mean they’re not willing to risk any mistakes.” The group Kara had been a part of years back never touched that side of the job, but it was pretty common knowledge amongst their ilk. “Definitely can’t be a coincidence, but we’ll need to find some connections with the local groups if we want any concrete evidence.”

Kara didn’t like this, not one bit. Slowly but surely, there had been a growing resentment towards Force users. It’s starting small right now, but history saw those voices grow louder.

“To the tunnels.” She nodded, walking over to the assembled civilians. “Alright folks, you know the drill. Keep the children and the vulnerable in the middle, everyone else forms a perimeter around them. Aveline and I will take the lead, but keep watch of our six.”

Once everything was sorted, the group was underway. Kara led the way down into the underground tunnels. Though before they started down the tunnels proper, she did a quick headcount to make doubly sure everyone was present.

“Have you ever heard of a group called ‘The New Way’?” She asked, glancing over to Aveline.

Aveline Cuiléin​

 

[Aveline Cuiléin]

"I can't piece it together. But you're right, something is definitely up here." together they could get to the bottom of this. But depending on how much resources the Empire had spent on this, if they indeed were the ones behind this, what could they really hope to accomplish here?

"No, I haven't. Pirates?" she took a wild guess. "Think they had a hand in this?" she asked, as she and Kara pressed on.

The tunnels were a mystery and a maze to Aveline, although she trusted that Kara and the people with her knew the terrain well enough. She kept up pace. She felt naked without her lightsaber, but no matter what happened she would still have the Force. That would be enough...

"Any reports of these people using the tunnels?" Did they expect a quiet run or... She stopped, cocking her head to the side. She thought she'd heard... Something. But when she focused, the sound was gone. Probably nothing

Kara Jade