Alone

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen's breathing was short, sharp huffs. She placed a paw on a console and took some of her weight from Kaili's arms. Her mind was foggy. She felt as if she didn't want to do anything at all. Find another cell, or a dark corner and curl up. Let everything pass her by and just go undisturbed.

She remembered a time someone had thrown a bottle at her on her herdship. Bleeding from the temple she had retreated to the cubby hole Micah had found her in. As hungry and thirsty as she had become it took her two days to leave that room and an entire week to come back to the surface once more.

"Okay," she sighed. "But can you open up all the prison doors? Do something to give them the best chance. They'll... They'll..."

She wanted to say that the garrison would pick up the regular criminals quickly enough, but that a pair of alliance spies would vanish without trace in the commotion. She found she was out of words, the second wind if determination having blown itself out.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

It was worrying how injured Vexen was. At the back of Kaili’s mind she had already surprised herself with her own words. To say that someone was hopefully dead was a harsh thing to say, but even then the girl was quite certain neither she nor Vexen had the luxury of risking a rescue. If they were alive — which Kaili found a bit hard to believe after seeing the state Vexen was in after an hour — then they were most certainly wishing that they were. No, Kaili could not risk herself for the sake of two spies. It happened all the time in war. You lost some, you won some, and this was not a loss that Kaili would be willing to put on her shoulders.

She could, however, raise more hell in the sectors. Gladly.

“They’ll die.” Kaili didn’t sugarcoat it. “Many lives have already been taken here, Vexen. If they had been here for a long time, and if the Imperials knew who they were at the time of capture, I don’t think there is much hope for their well-being at this point.”

“Mission Failed. We need to find a way off the planet.” The blonde continued to lead the defel further away from her cell and closer to the exit. No detours were made towards the doors, at least not yet. “I’m sorry, Vexen. Really I am, but things are too far out of hand to be salvaged at this point and I have already opened what doors I could in sectors A, B and D.”

“If they are alive, if they are capable, they will find a way.”

“If not…” Kaili held her breath.

“... Don’t hold your breath.”

She exhaled the disappointment.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

In other circumstances Vexen would have channeled Micah's optimism. She would have demanded to make an attempt to get the spies out. There was no evidence the imperials knew just what they'd captured.

But her thoughts were dominated by the officer's commands she had followed without question. And the pain. All the pain. Just a few steps has been difficult. The ring of Kafrene was a structure built between two asteroids. If these steps had been difficult how was she going to make it the rest of the way?

"My things..." She murmured, raising a shaky paw towards lockers on the far wall. Her ring was in there. Even a little boost would be welcome now.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

Kaili stopped and sighed. Vexen’s items were important to retrieve, if not for their emotional value then because there was no way Kaili would let such things fall into the hands of the Imperials. Her brother did good with his imbuing and she’d refuse to let that come under abuse by someone who called this poodoo-herder’s cause something worthy of following. Imprisonment and slavery. It was enough to make the skin crawl. Scum, there was no better word for it.

“Very well.” Kaili shifted Vexen over towards the lockers.

She eased her down by the row of cabinets.

“Do you know which one?”

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen tried to slow her breathing. It had been nice, to have a warm, reassuring body against her. Hearing Kaili's voice still brought a measure of comfort as she tried to gather her wits. Kafrene was a big place. An almost vertical city filled with markets and visitors. What had happened didn't matter right now, she told herself. What mattered now was putting one foot in front of the other.

"One of the top two in the middle," she said, her voice faint. Her arm moved a fraction, but she didn't even feel like raising it up to point. All she had brought was her cloak, stun batons and a comm unit.

"Thank you," she sighed. Vexen wasn't sure if she had even said it or not already. If she had, it needed repeating anyway.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

It was hard to watch Vexen struggle as she was. Perhaps the one thing that burned the most was the fact that Kaili knew that it was her own fault, to a degree. If she had gone in with Vexen there would have been less of a chance for failure. But she hadn’t, and there was no point in dwelling on could-haves. At least not in the current situation.

Kaili helped to further ease Vexen out of her grasp so that she could reach for her belongings. Outside the sounds of Chaos would call in the dark as prisoners and wardens clashed. Blasters echoed along the halls that were safe enough for the moment. Kaili thrust each locker open trying to find Vexen’s belongings.

“Found it!” The girl exclaimed as she reached in and proceeded to hand Vexen her items.

Outside the sound of plasteel boots sounded between the steady blares of klaxons.

“Halt!” One man in shining white armor called out at Kaili and Vexen both as he raised his rifle. “Don’t move.”

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

Vexen had closed her eyes as she slipped the ring over one finger. It was a small boost to her reserves, but anything was better than nothing. She wouldn't be getting out of here if Kaili had to carry her the entire way.

The rest of her things were in a pile when the stormtrooper arrived. Her moved the point of his muzzle from one to the other.

"Prisoner four two three," he growled, raising his carbine. He'd been with the squad that had brought her down. It was fear that drove him to line up his sights on the shadowy creature. In bright light she had seemed a small, mild creature. Down in the shadows of the slave pens it had been a terrifying shadow that darted back and forth taking stormtroopers down.

Vexen held up her hands and very slowly took a step to her left, away from Kaili. Those helmets weren't very good for peripheral vision.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

There was no time for this. The man aimed at Vexen and then at Kaili. As the distance grew between them the greater the window that each of them had to take him out got. Vexen took the left, Kaili took the right and the man got more and more desperate for each step they took until his nerves finally got the better of him.

“I said fething stop!” He cried out at the two intruders.

Bringing his finger to the side of his helmet he activated his comm unit. “Intruders in Section-”

It died with a crackle and a pop.

“Ooops.” Taunted the young Talith. “Seems your comm-unit broke.”

Which was not to mention what she was doing to the plasma cartridge loaded into the man’s carbine. The blaster spoke to Kaili at a very basic level. She understood it, knew it, controlled it, and to think she wouldn’t abuse it would just be silly. No, the girl continued focusing on his plasma cartridge in an attempt to overload it and cause it to explode upon firing.

It was all just a matter of keeping him from doing that before she was done.

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

"I'll get back in my cell!" Vexen said, throwing her hands up further. The stormtrooper had brought his weapon to hold his aim squarely on Kaili. If one of them was going to stop the trooper it wasn't going to be Vexen.

"So you can talk!" He exclaimed, his voice wavering. The weapon returned to Vexen. She took another half step to the left and leaned against the corridor wall. Standing was such an effort.

Vexen could feel the Force being manipulated. Even that small change was a sign of the reserves she was drawing from the ring. Behind the soldier she heard a commotion. Clacks of makeshift weapons striking duraplast armour. The thrum of stun bolts being fired. The trooper glanced back over his shoulder.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

A frustrated glance shot out at Vexen as she surrendered despite the man’s weak attempt at exerting any kind of dominance. A groan parted Kaili’s lips as her teeth gritted once more in anger.

“Screw this, this is taking too fething long.” Kaili growled.

The force seeped into the man’s blaster like a tide hellbent on destruction as Kaili’s breathing kept getting faster and faster, and the load in the man’s rifle moving more and more towards and overcharge. The girl’s fingers dug in deep within the palms of her hands as she continued channeling the force before finally a loud crackle emanated from the plasma cell. Within her mind she saw the plasma pushing against the boundaries containing it, the way it wanted to break free from the tyrannic durasteel walls that kept it in place, under control.

But it was not meant to be.

Within a second of Kaili having spoken there was an explosion, a flash and a loud shriek of pain as the man’s blaster exploded within his grasp. In only a few seconds he had gone from the man with a finger on his trigger to the man with no fingers at all and it was all Kaili’s doing. The tinned screams of pain, of terror, reverberated around the small locker room as Kaili approached him one last time with her arm raised in a crook above her head. She didn’t hold it back. She wanted to, but she just couldn’t.

The fist met with his face and in an instant the screams died out as he fell unconscious.

A look shot out at Vexen. “We’re leaving. Now.”

 

[Vexen]

[member="Kaili Talith"]

The Defel opened her eyes after shielding them from the explosion. Vexen stumbled just a half step towards the wall. Her shoulder collided with it heavily, but she only let it take some of her weight for a few heartbeats. Just standing still and trying to draw the soldiers attention had been exhausting, even with her ring and the sudden kick of adrenaline.

"Gotta to keep moving. Then I'll be okay," she said. It was as much to herself as Kaili, but there was a modicum of truth. Putting one foot in front of the other seemed easier than standing.

She took her things. A light holster and her stun batons. It ached in several places just to wrap it around her and slide the batons home. She couldn't seem to slow her breathing to a regular level. "What's the best way?" She asked.

 

[Kaili Talith]

[member="Vexen"]

There was no real response to Vexen’s self-encouragement. Kaili kept an eye and ear out for any further interruptions but came up empty. At least for the moment. The riots remained in full blossom, but the worst of it had either not come here yet or it had already passed. Knowing their luck, it was most likely the former.

“Not sure there is a best way, Vex.” Kaili sighed. “We are trapped between rioting prisoners and overwhelmed, scared guards.”

Kaili licked her lips and took a deep breath.

“The front door.” She nodded. “No doubt there are reinforcements coming, but if we move quickly we may be able to evade them.”

This place was, after all, an Imperial installation. It would make little sense for it to be as lightly guarded as the prison already seemed. Perhaps the real guards were off elsewhere. All things considered Kaili had not seen a single heavy unit or officer yet as much as the regular troops. No pauldrons or distinguishing marks, just the white armor of old and an attitude to match.

“How are you doing? We might need to fight our way out for the last part.”