Alone

[Vexen]

RING OF KAFRENE
IMPERIAL LABOUR WARD

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Through clenched eyes Vexen saw him start his run up, but there was nothing she could do other than curl even more tightly into a ball. Even through her shielding arms the kick knocked the wind out of her. The huge soldier’s foot actually lifted her from the ground and she went rolling further into the cell. She managed a soft growl, but it didn’t seem to scare anyone. They knew the fight had been knocked out of her.

“Where did you find it?”

“Two troopers found a series of secure doors open from the marketplace down into the slave storage pens. It was trying to let some free.”

The Stormtrooper who’d kicked her looked over his shoulder and canted his head to one side. “I assumed it was some kind of rare animal.”

“Oh no. I don’t think it speaks basic, but it’s intelligent. Found it with goggles on and a pair of stun batons. Put up quite a fight actually. FS-431 managed to subdue it with a flashbang as we fell back. I’ve got four men in the med bay.”

“Doesn’t seem that dangerous now.”

Vexen closed her eyes shut, expecting another kick. None came.

“Just keep the lights on it and the door sealed. I’ve got to go tell the Warden we had a breach. He won’t be pleased. Mining operations have been behind targets this month already.”

“I told him we should just feed the slaves more…”

“Yes but they demanded that first which means…”

The voices trailed off. Vexen was left alone in the brightly lit door. To her it was as if she’d been left in utter darkness. She couldn’t open her eyes more than a fraction. Everything hurt. Micah wasn’t here. Kaili had opened the secure doors so she could get in, but she doubted the younger Talith could get in here.

She was quite alone.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

It had been an hour now. Kaili glanced at the chronometer on her arm. One hour since Vexen was let in, the safe period had passed without any word on how it was going on the inside with the job. Kaili had offered her objections to this mission from the very start but it would seem Vexen wanted to go ahead anyway with the young blonde as her sentry, and now it would seem that the escape window had closed. For operatives that meant certain death, for Kaili that meant that this was the part where she entered into play.

This was Micah’s friend, possibly his best friend. She wasn’t going to rot in some slave pit, get left behind like an expendable asset. No, she was family at this point. They had been through way too much for that. Kaili considered the approach carefully before stepping up to the door she had seen Vexen pass through. This wasn’t going to be pretty and Kaili knew that. The people that ran these holes, Imperials, people of the First Order, they were little better than actual slavers. If anything they were worse. They were organized, had a hierarchy that went beyond who had raised the most slaves and who ushered themselves in the biggest riches. They had the blind trust and following of well-trained soldiers.

This wasn’t going to be easy, but neither was Kaili as a target.

She took a deep breath and had the door swept open. She focused on the hinges and the very structure that kept it intact, twisting it over to cause a malfunction, forcing the doors to remain wide open and making the soldiers have to divert attention to her location once they discovered it. The situation did create a bottleneck, but there were other ways to get a slave pit to open up. This was just the first step.

She withdrew the saberpike from her lower back and held it by her hip. Unignited, unheard.

There was still a lot more to be done.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

An imperial officer was next to enter her room. He wore a smile instead of a white helmet. He dragged a small stool into the centre of the room and set it down.

"Hello," he said softly. Vexen turned one ear towards the sound, but didn't move her head. "I tried these on you know, almost completely impossible to see through the glass."

This time Vexen raised her head and squinted in his direction.

"I think they're wrong, I think you do speak basic. Don't you? I can only imagine that it's very uncomfortable for you under the bright lights. Would you like these back?" He leaned forwards in his chair, holding her goggles out. "Don't worry I won't hurt you."

Vexen had never been trained to resist torture. She had never had it explained that it was often the case that they would play both angles to soften up the victim then extract the truth through kindness. She tentatively lifted one paw.

"Go on...it's okay..."

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

These halls were eerily silent. It felt like each step she took was an explosion and each breath she took was a hurricane but Kaili had to keep going. She needed to find herself a security console or anything that would allow her to get a better idea of where they were keeping Vexen. She didn’t have the luxury of thinking about her friend in greater details, all the details that were spread around the hallways seemed to indicate this wasn’t originally a place that was intended to see long-term use. The exposed cables, that popped out of from the wall in the spots where panels might be missing, the way they sometimes sparked ever so close to the shake of the irrigation pipes.

Her heartbeat pounded. She had never been great at hiding, that had always been Micah’ forte. Most of the time Kaili was as subtle as a steam train and the fact that she had not been spotted yet amazed even her. She approached a corner as her heart slowly ascended further and further up her throat.

Voices caught her attention.

“Hear about the new rifles they got at Section Three?” A radio-distorted voice rung out.

“Yeah, supposed to have some kind of alternate firing mechanism.” His friend replied.

Kaili tried her best to sneak past them both further down the hall, but,

“Did you hear that noise?” One of them twitched only to set their sights on Kaili right in the middle of the hallway. He raised his rifle “Halt!”

Kaili stopped and the two soldiers began their approach with their blasters pointed towards her. She looked around for a second before she closed her eyes in focus. In the end blasters were a mechanical device that flung superheated goo at others. It had firing mechanisms, fine tuned triggers that adjusted load according to the limitations of whatever device was set to flung it. Kaili focused on it, made it hers.

Eyes finally opened and the men stopped their approach. “Drop your weapon or I’ll shoot.”

There wasn’t much in the way of compliance coming from the girl. In fact, she raised her left arm, extended her hand and pulled out a single finger at them. A taunt to get them angry, and it worked. The firing mechanism was pulled but what erupted was no bolt, it was an explosion. The man holding the rifle quickly latched onto his hand in horror and stared at the burn marks that had spread across his hand.

His friend did the same and Kaili wasted little time with whacking first the incapacitated man across the head with her pike’s handle and then the man that was with him. They both fell to the floor, unconscious before the alarms sounded.

It was about to get a whole lot more complicated.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen kept her paw still, half way to the goggles. Her arm faintly trembled. Every inch of her body was hurting. Her midriff had taken the worst of it and they hadn't hit her around the head too much. Everything else was somewhere been a dull ache and absolute agony.

"It's okay," he said softly. With his other hand he turned to lights right down. She blinked her eyes open just a crack. She snatched her goggles back and wrapped them around her head before sinking back down into a foetal position once more.

"So with that established, why don't you just tell me a few things. They're just little questions. Then I'll see about getting you a medic and some water?"

Vexen didn't respond, but watched him carefully from behind her goggles. He didn't seem to want to hurt her. Everyone else here did. Perhaps he just cared for her well-being? It was wlan easy thing for the young wraith to believe.

"Were you working with anyone?"

Vexen shook her head a little too quickly.

"And who sent you? Who do you work for?"

This time she didn't move at all. This seemed to disappoint the officer. He pulled a brief grimace and stood up. Maybe you're not feeling right. I'll come back later. He slipped out of the room without a word. He'd learned she wasn't alone, that would do for now.

When he was gone, Vexen found herself wishing he was back. That only got worse as she felt the temperature starting to fall. Soon she was shivering from the cold as much as the pain. A klaxon started to go off in the cell. Every ten seconds, loud enough to hurt her sensitive ears.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

The timer had started. This was by all means an Imperial facility and right now Kaili was the only target they had. That put her at a disadvantage that was way beyond the scope of what ‘disadvantage’ would even entail, right up there with ‘Suicide Mission’ and ‘Just don’t.’ But true to her family name the girl put little thought into her own safety before that of her friends and right now that meant getting Vexen out of this hellhole no matter what state they left her in. This was after all partly her fault for agreeing to the plan in the first place and having let Vexen in. There was no way for her to actually come out of this without at least having tried.

She bolted for the nearest door and forced it open. Before her stood five troopers in a barracks. Her eyes went wide, as did their before the door was thrust shut and demolished to buy herself some more time. Backing away she took to the left in a clueless struggle to find the controls for the cells. Right now it was just Kaili, but she had to at least try to cause trouble elsewhere for her own sake. She tried to use the force, but through the sheer amount of people locked up it was hard to truly discern any particular signature that could be it.

There were three different signatures that she could make out in particular, but they were all spread apart to the point where going to each of them posed a far greater threat to her than she had hoped.

Wait. Idea. The girl rushed back towards the barracks again, towards the troopers she had knocked out. Sound of footsteps came closer in a hurry, no doubt to check on the very men she had knocked out. She dug through their pockets and storage compartment before Kaili finally raised her hand in triumph, holding two different comm units, one of which she pocketed for herself and the other which she kept in hand.

Bolting back around the corner right as the other spotted her she got to work. Not on pretending to be one of them and feigning instructions to the control room, she knew it wouldn’t be that easy, but rather on disrupting communicaitons. She flipped on the communications device to make herself heard.

“This is… FX-1323,” Kaili giggled as she proceeded to bend the device to her will, sending out a sharp feedback noise through the soldiers’ systems. No doubt not all of them were affected, but for the precious few that were Kaili knew that she had granted herself at least a few more seconds to find where she needed to go.

She kept the system ringing in a randomized pattern between static and high-pitched feedback. Anyone who still wore their helmets was about to have a bad day.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen wasn't sure how much time was passing. The constant noise seemed to drown out all sense of reality. Even with her fur the cold started to cut through to her quickly. At first just her extremities started to tingle and lose sensation, but before long her entire body was trembling.

She tried to relax, disconnect her mind from the physical reality where her pain was grounded. Such a task was more easily envisaged than carried out. She made no progress until the doors were opened once more.

It wasn't the smiling man this time. Nor was it the faceless troopers. It was another uniformed officer. Even as drained as she was, she could recognise the panic in his face. For Vexen that expression was hope. Or at least it had been until the officer took a running kick.

A strong hand grabbed the scruff at the back of her neck, pulling her head up from where it had been tucked between her paws. She tried to growl at him. At the sight of those teeth he administer a sharp backhand to her skull. Not hard enough to knock her out, just enough to discombobulate her and remove any trace of resistance.

"How many of you are there?"

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

The screams of bursting ear drums seemed to be coming from all around. Kaili could only assume that her plan had worked as she continued to bolt down the corridors towards the closest of the signals that she had picked up. It had to be it, it just had to. She would get there and she would find the switch to free her friend. Bolts started to fly in her direction from down the hall, she was forced to take a corner to avoid it and send herself down the road leading towards one of the others signals. Not the closest, but the turn had been taken and at this point she did not have the luxury of turning back.

Bolts started to rain from behind again, the girl looked for ways to hinder their approach but came up empty handed. She was forced to turn around and face them. With her hand extended she focused on the bolts and their intended target. For each shot she could not avoid she raised her hand to meet them in order to deflect them away from her using the force. It wasn’t the ideal situation to be in, but she had hopes of keeping her saberpike a surprise at least for a little while longer.

Kaili backed through a door and promptly forced it shut to stop their approach. With a quick turn on her heel she found herself within the small confines of a room that seemed rather unimportant at first, but the closer she inspected it the greater the importance became.

“Security cameras.” Kaili muttered. “Perfect.”

She grasped at the console nearby and began her work to understand the layout of the facility and where she needed to go.

The main security room for this sector was located down the hallway from here.

Good. Hopefully Vexen was close enough for that to matter.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen fell silent. His fingers dug deep into her skin, taking a firm hold and keeping her back arched. The cell took a moment to stop spinning from his firm smack. The officer was patient enough to wait a few seconds before repeating the question. Vexen once more feigned ignorance.

She yelped as he lifted her up. It hurt a great deal as strands of fur were pulled out at the root.

"I don't have time for this. Wiston says you speak basic, or at least understand it. You can nod or shake your head at least I reckon."

The room had stopped spinning. Vexen eyed what seemed to be an open door behind him. Her elbow snapped up, break his hold but leaving more fur in his grip as she darted past. The officer called something out and two stormtroopers stepped in front of her, blocking the path. The stood tall over her, barring her way. Never had one of their kind looks so imposing as they did now.

"What are you doing lieutenant?" a voice called from behind the troopers. It was the man from earlier. The one who came with smiles and her goggles.

"There is an inci..." the man behind her started to say.

"I am well aware. Back to your station and deal with it." The stormtroopers stepped aside and the man from earlier was revealed. Major, Vexen thought. His stripes marked him as a major. "Please," he said to Vexen. "Go and lie back down."

Vexen looked up at the stormtroopers and then did as she was told. She gave the burly lieutenant a wide birth as he brushed her fur from his hands. He left and Vexen was once more left alone. She was left pondering why she had done as instructed instead of darting for the gap between the two soldiers.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

The door swept open and before Kaili stood a group of seven troopers all pointing their blasters at her. “We got her pinned,” One of the trooper relayed back over the comms “Blonde intruder-” The man tried to report back before the microphone started to twist and spout feedback into their ears again. They all screamed out of agony and Kaili bolted right past them and down the hallway. She could have attacked them, sure, but for some reason she quite simply couldn’t bring herself to do it. Perhaps she was saving the energy for the escape, or maybe something else.

Sweeping into the security room she forced the doors shut again. The officer in charge turned around, startled at the sudden intrusion before the girl’s fist promptly met with his face. That was the first one Kaili noted to herself. She stole his key and jacked it into the appropriate security terminal and began going over the records. She didn’t know why she was surprised, but there were a lot of criminals within these halls. Murderers, men and women who had no idea what no meant and those who were quite simply insane. Yet there was also the few innocents, those whose records seemed to imply arbitrary imprisonment for the sake of labor. Jaywalkers, disorderly conduct and one even said outright backtalk.

Kaili hovered over the release switches and considered her next move. Vexen was located under Sector C, marked as a hostile intruder in an entry from little over an hour ago. The girl hovered over the button. The lights indicating master control over the sectors were all lit. Sector A, B, C and D.

This was it. Kaili thought to herself. It was time to start a riot.

Her hand swept for the release hatch.

It sounded off three sets of beeps as each sector released its prisoners from confinement.

Wait, three.

Kaili watched as Sector A’s light faded, then Sector B and finally Sector D.

“Feth.” Kaili cussed. “Fethfethfethfethfethfethfethfeth!”

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen was sore all the way through. There were only different intensities of pain. Where their boots had caught her ribs were the worst. That didn't seem to matter compared to the dejection she felt. Vexen had snuck through platoons of troopers before, had fought as hard as she could until they had taken her down.

So why did I go and curl up when he told me to?

That question hurt far more than the ribs. She was tired, exhausted. The noises, the changes in temperature and bearings made it hard to concentrate. She didn't want to be this way forever, with the fight knocked out of her, but she feared she would be.

Micah. She wanted Micah.

A loud noise reverberated through all the cells. Each was reasonably well sealed but the doors on three wings all opening together ran throughout the structure. Vexen's ears picked up. What had that been?

What had panicked the officers?

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Control in Sector C had been taken from her. The must have figured her out and who she was going for. The kid repeated a long string containing mainly the word ‘feth’ as many times as she could before it got old. The troopers were still outside trying to get the door up; she was trapped. Retracting her saberpike she put it by her lower back again and began rolling her shoulders and arms in preparation for the next step.

She stepped up and hid right next to the door. The lights went out as the door swept open and in stepped a squad of five soldiers. Mara had shown Kaili hand-to-hand and she figured that in a dark room she would be at an advantage, and she planned to use it against them. Sweeping up behind the one closest to the door she proceeded to punch him in the back followed by a fist in one man’s face and a kick to the one next to him. Utilizing the force to the best of her abilities she proceeded to throw the remaining two into a wall each.

They all fell to the floor and she in return picked up one of their blasters and proceeded to destroy the console that she had used to free the prisoners. Stepping out of the room with the blaster in hand she could already hear the sounds of the prisoners rioting against their overlords.

C-463, that was where Kaili needed to go, and she set off in a sprint to get there.

I am coming for you, Vexen. Just hold out a little bit longer.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen had faced many challenges in her short life; it had not been an easy one. Yet nothing as trivial as unfurling one paw had been so difficult before. Lying down was the best thing to do, but she felt as if she had to stand up just to defy the other the officer had given.

But it was hard. She watched every shaking inch of progress. Fingers splayed, she placed her paw down on the cold deck of the cell. Even through the soundproof door she heard the sound of stun blasters. Something was going on outside. She could feel it through the Force: violence.

She took slow, deep breaths. Giving in would be the easiest thing. Get the officer who smiled back to answer his questions. Maybe he would take her somewhere more comfortable.

The easy way was never the right way.

Arm trembling, she started to push herself up.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Kaili continued running. In the distance she could hear the sounds of battle raging as troopers struggled to keep the prisoners at bay. Her plan had worked to the extent that she needed it to work. The distraction was laid out, but there was still a small distance to cross before she would find herself at the doors to Vexen’s cell. The girl bolted up staircase after staircase until she reached level four. Her head turned in each direction to see where she needed to go.

Sector C. Left.

The girl continued running until eventually she ran into a prisoner.

“Stop!” He cried out in an attempt to threaten her.

She did not comply. Her fist raised up to smack him across the face and the man promptly fell over and she continued to pass him by. By her side ran the color-coded stripe indicating sector. Blue for A slowly faded to a red for C. Kaili was there. Eyeing the many cells in the open space before her she ran a count until she reached 63. A quick look at the courtyard below made the chaos of her actions all the more evident. While most prisoners remained in their cells in this sector there were still the matter of the other prisoners from other sectors coming in to fill up the place.

The kid stepped away from the railing and began to jog to her left. Someone was there. She raised her blaster at the man who in turn raised his hands.

“C-463!” Kaili outright screamed at him. “Show me C-463!”

The man panicked and nodded his head, kept his hands raised and began walking towards the wraith’s cell.

“Your friend is safe.” The man tried to reason with her.

“She better be.” Kaili retorted with a poke at his back with the barrel of her gun.

He shut up and continued to walk along the catwalk towards Vexen’s cell. They shared no more words until eventually he came to a stop outside a door marked with a door that had C-436 painted onto it as if in a hurry. The officer swept the door open to expose Vexen to ‘the officer that smiled back’ as well as a Kaili Talith pointing a gun at his back.

Eyes set on her brother’s friend.

A gasp parted Kaili’s lips and without hesitation, or thought, she dropped the rifle to the floor and thrust the man against the wall. Her forearm dug into his throat, her eyes peered into his.

“Who did this?!” She shook him. “Tell me who did this.”

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

She had to close her eyes against the light. Vexen had managed to make it onto her elbows and knees when the door opened. Fearing another beating, she immediately dropped back down to the floor. At least it was the smiling man, perhaps come to offers something else for her to give up Kaili.

It was the clatter of the heavy rifle on the deck that caused Vexen to look back up. Even then as she saw Kaili push the officer into the cell she struggled to believe it. Orange eyes, you could always recognise a Talith by the eyes. The first time Vexen had seen those eyes starring back at her she had felt very much like she was in a cell. Micah stood in the only entrance to her squallid abode whilst she shook in fear.

"Kaili..." She croaked.

"I know you could... ack..." The officer had started to call triumphantly before Kaili tightened her grip. "Ask it! It wasn't me!"

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Letting attention shift from the man to Vexen was a good way for Kaili to have tables turned on her. She heard the wraith’s voice but she could not turn to look at her. Her forearm continued to dig into the man’s throat as she grit her teeth even harder than before. She was able to protect her friend from this man, to do what she had failed so many times to do from behind her desk as people attacked those close to her.

“I wasn’t asking Vexen, I was asking you.” She bashed his back against the wall. “And it’s a she, not an it.”

“You, your friends, it don’t make a difference.” The blonde hissed. “I have an injured friend and right now you are the only one around who can be held accountable.”

Inside of her head she wanted to do so much more to him, but her conscience held her back. She didn’t need blood on her hands, she didn’t even need to hurt this man anymore than she already was, but even with the ring on her finger she felt herself both angered and ecstatic at the chance to finally protect those that meant something to her. Vexen was her brother’s best friend and to think someone would get away with locking her up, with torturing and punishing her like this was simply not going to happen.

Someone would pay, and right now this man was the only one at hand.

“I am going to ask you again,” Kaili growled. “Who. Did. This?”

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

“In just an hour we broke your…sit!” His croaking voice changed suddenly as Vexen was hauling herself back up slowly. The Defel dropped back to the floor. The officer leered at Kaili.

“As I was saying. We broke your friend.” There was defiance in his eyes despite the discombobulation from having his air supply limited and his head knocked against the cell wall. It rose in the face of the girl’s anger. “We know what we’re doing…I doubt you do.”

Vexen could feel the anger simmering beneath the surface within Kaili. But she was too weighed down with her own embarrassment to pay it any heed. The officer had snapped a command at her and she had followed it.

Am I really so fragile that they can do this to me in just a few hours?

She started what felt like a marathon task of getting back to her feet once more.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Steady streams of hot air burst through Kaili’s nose. She wanted to hurt him, she wanted to hurt him bad but she knew better. Her teeth gritted to the point where her entire body started to shiver before she acted on it. Her head arched back before she thrust her forehead with all her might against the bridge of his nose. The grip on his body eased up and she let him slump down to the floor, satisfied with the fact that she had not given in and let them win.

“Come on, let’s get you up,” Kaili uttered as she approached the defel wraith. “They are not going to hurt you any further.”

The blonde knelt down by Vexen’s side and offered to help wrap her arm around her neck for support.

Meanwhile the groans of the officer behind her reverberated around the small, cramped room. For a moment his world rung but the pain at the dome of his head lingered. His eyes slowly batted and he regained awareness of where he was. The blonde schutta who attacked him was too busy helping her friend to notice or seemingly remember the discarded blaster.

He eyed it with intent, thinking about what to do. There was a chance, but would he take it?

 

[Vexen]

His eyes went from the pistol to the pair. Back in the academy he'd been know as an exceptional shot with the pistol. There was risk here. He was disorientated. She had barely held back from doing worse to him already. So easily provoked. The reward didn't seem worth the risk; his career was most important and his wouldn't suffer greatly for this.

The door hissed shut behind them and Vexen out even more of her weight against Kaili. Her chest fluttered as she took rapid, shallow breaths. Each brought new pain down her side. If she had the focus, she could have turned it inwards and found the cracked ribs.

It had been no time at all since she had been out here in the guard station, but it seemed to Vexen as if days had passed.

"We can't..." She breathed. "They don't... Know... D-Block. The two Alliance spies are still there."

Freeing all of the souls trapped here to work the mines would have been a good thing to do. Perhaps, there were a lot of real criminals too. But they had to get the Alliance operatives out. The streets of Kafrene still had stormtroopers patroling in large numbers. Vexen wondered how they would get back to the ship.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

The officer ran off and closed the door behind him. For most people that might have worried them, but just this once Kaili wasn’t ‘most people.’ Kaili focused instead on getting Vexen up on her feet again and the fact that she was more hurt than the girl might have thought. The tide within Kaili was still on the rise, the state of her friend and the things the man had said still echoed around her mind as much as the thoughts of how close she was to snapping him was.

And then there was the matter of the Alliance spies.

“We might have to leave them.” Kaili seemed awfully matter-of-fact about it. “Call for backup from another group of agents.”

The blonde led the defel towards the door and pushed it open. “We’re down to half-size here, Vexen. We can’t afford to make this any worse on ourselves than we already have.”

“If we’re lucky they’re already dead.”