Private Children of Shiraya: In the Shadow's Wake

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

"By five moons of Tharaxis," Brandyn spat, "you are a stubborn, pigheaded..." HIs words trailed off.

He was into a jog, and walking alongside her in a moment. "I have plenty of intel thank you very much," he said, "I tell you the time of one meeting and you think I have spilled all my beans? Not just stubborn...but arrogant and short-sighted too."

It was almost like arguing with Briana. Actually, it was a LOT like arguing with Briana.

"I have names....both real and code...I have headcounts for multiple cells...and...I have no less than three potential terrorist plots foiled," he blurted, before adding with a little less conviction, "plus...a lot more...stuff."

He followed her the best he could from being almost level with her in pacing. "Now that we are working together...I guess you should know the truth. Names Brandyn. Brandyn Sal-Soren. You can call me..."

| Zorah Fel |​

 

[Zorah Fel]

Temperance City | Nyriaan | Imperial Space
Brandyn Sal-Soren

​

"...Numskull, I think. It fits you perfectly. And we're not working together."

She stopped at the corner of a stout duracrete building that cast a long shadow over the alleys. Dim lights flickered along the edge of its roof. Nyriaan's twin moons sat low in the sky, wreathed in wispy clouds. Based on the maps she'd studied before setting out, this particular building would lead her directly to the safe house, if she traveled by roof.

"Let me reiterate," she began, crouching low, gathering power into her legs. "I don't need you. You are one, lone, foolish Jedi- whatever you know, the ISB knows, which means I know. You are a nuisance, at best, and the only reason I'm allowing you to follow me is because it means you aren't meddling elsewhere. Now be silent."

She leapt to the top of the building with one powerful jump, slowing at the apex of the arc as she guided herself onto the roof, her cape fluttering behind her. Onward she went.

​

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

Shaking his head, Brandyn simply persisted with following after her. His jump took a bit more time than hers to 'charge' up, so by the time he got to the roof top he had to jog to catch up.

This time he refrained from responding. Her faith in the Imperial intelligence agency was clear to see, and he had no reason to doubt that what she said was true, although he still felt like he offered something. "I can do silent," Brandyn said, failing even in the midst of his assurances.

He checked his chronopiece, noting that there was only a few minutes until the meetings start.

| Zorah Fel |​

 

[Zorah Fel]

Temperance City | Nyriaan | Imperial Space
Brandyn Sal-Soren

​

Brandyn had fallen into blessed silence as the young heir of Fel pushed the pace to reach the hideout in time. She was all but certain the man was a Padawan, and observing the way he used the Force was passingly interesting. For all that they both used the Lightside of the Force, her use of its power was shaped by a very different persepective-- the Jedi asked of the Force whereas Zorah demanded. Such was the difference between a Jedi raised to keep peace and a Knight raised to fight wars.

Eventually, they came upon the hideout. Zorah peeked over the edge of the roof, surveying the streets and buildings below. The safehouse was rather nondescript, little more than a five sided tower some two stories tall with a small turret jutting from its northern face, wrought of smokey gray duracrete. The streets were mostly empty, but she saw and sensed several hidden sentries, and counted a number of cameras angled just so to cover every approach to the tower.

Every approach save from above.

<"Captain Dyvos, have your men encircle the enemy position but hang back. When I give the word, close in."> And to the two recon troopers: <"Set up a sniper's nest at my precise location. Pick off any stragglers that slip through the Captain's net.">

And then she leaped across the expanse to the rounded roof of the safehouse, landing in a crouch. There was no roof access to the building that she had seen, save for the turret, which was manned be a single sentry. She approached it now, careful to mind her boots on the duracrete, and peaked through a crenel to glimpse the sentry hidden in the turret.

He was looking right at her. She reached out a hand and caught his throat in an iron grip, choking the sound out of him before he could yell.

​

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

Despite falling marginally behind the Imperial's pace any time Force propelled movement was employed, Brandyn quickly made up for it in longer, faster strides than that woman. She was clearly more experienced in the Force, something that he would aspire to reverse given enough time.

He cringed when he heard the woman's plans to have everyone in the room arrested, and opened his mouth in complaint just at the time that she began Force choking the guard on top of the roof. His eyes grew in size briefly, before his mouth closed and he kept his opinion to himself. She was Imperial. This sort of tactic was to be expected, and he was not really in any place to dictate tactics.

"I was hoping that we would be able to gather intel...you know...eavesdrop?" Brandyn said, as he tried to ignore the sounds of suffocation from around the corner, "it is only supposed to be small fish here tonight, but they might give information about where to find someone bigger."

He winced hearing the man around the corner struggle to breath. "Hey...let me just tie that guy up, huh?" He said, no waiting for the permission to do so. He was around the back of the turret and yanking the man out of his perch. He proceeded to tie the man's feet with some ascension cable contained in his utility belt.

With a quick glance across the man, Brandyn identified the guard's comm device, and took it into his possession.

"It's hard to tie his hands up when he is struggling to breath," Brandyn said, glancing back at the Imperial.

| Zorah Fel |​

 

[Zorah Fel]

Temperance City | Nyriaan | Imperial Space
Brandyn Sal-Soren

​

"I was hoping that we would be able to gather intel...you know...eavesdrop?" Brandyn said, as he tried to ignore the sounds of suffocation from around the corner, "it is only supposed to be small fish here tonight, but they might give information about where to find someone bigger."

"That's how you gather intel? By eavesdropping? No wonder you're floundering," she muttered, shaking her head. She left such mundane business to ISB agents-- she was the iron fist of the Empire, not its ear. Then she said, louder, "My intel says different. There will be at least two high-ranking members here tonight, one of them with possible ties to the local Moff. And they will give me information. Everything they know."

She wasn't just choking the air from the guard, but the blood as well, squeezing his jugular to close his carotid arteries. It was quicker, more efficient, and more effective.

"Hey...let me just tie that guy up, huh?" ...He proceeded to tie the man's feet with some ascension cable contained in his utility belt.

With a quick glance across the man, Brandyn identified the guard's comm device, and took it into his possession.

"It's hard to tie his hands up when he is struggling to breath,"

By the time Brandyn had finished speaking, the guard was out cold. He looked dead if not for the slow, steady rise and fall of his chest.

"Go on," Zorah said, moving past the unconscious guard to the access hatch. "No one is stopping you." She threw the latch open, cast out her senses, and dropped into the base.

​

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

"Floundering?" Brandyn said, trying to hold back the very clear offence in his tone.

The confidence of the woman was admirable, infuriating and many other words he could come up with later while trying to get the annoyance out of his head.

And then the unconscious guard. Her methods were dark side, but why was he surprised given that she was Imperial. Looking down at the man, Brandyn felt a chill run through him. The cold way that she went about her work made him uncomfortable.

He had hesitated too much already.

"Wait up," he muttered to no one, as he moved to jump after the Imperial. Slowing his descent, he landed in a three point landing.

The hallway was unkempt, grimy and industrial in appearance. The scratched up metallic surfaces of the floor and walls were appealing when compared to the splashes of what looked like charcoal dust, and crusted slime on the ceiling.

Brandyn stretched out with the Force, feeling ahead of them, but also trying to find a place that he could break off and go it alone.

| Zorah Fel |​

 

[Zorah Fel]

Temperance City | Nyriaan | Imperial Space
Brandyn Sal-Soren

Zorah crept down the dark, grimy hall, all but ignoring the Jedi behind her, her steps as quiet as death. There was an agent idling in the stairwell having a conversation over a comlink, a thin cigarra dangling from his lips. She had sensed him long before she saw him. She paused at the corner, waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Couple'a big wigs showed up for this one," the man was saying. "Apparently there's an Imperial knight sniffing around the district. Karking bastard snatched up Wiz and Lorun...yeah? You think? Well the tunnel is still up--"

She grabbed his face from behind with one hand, squeezing with the Force, and crushed his comlink with the other. He struggled as best as he could, but he was only a man, and Zorah was a Knight. Emboldened by the Force, she pulled him back into the hall and down to the ground, one had clamped over his mouth all the while. His eyes were wide and panicked, but his body seemed to be in a vice grip.

She shaped her Power into a spike and pushed it into his mind.

​

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

As the Imp went for the attack on the New Way operative that was talking way to freely, Brandyn started to retreat, before turning and jogging quietly in the opposite direction of the assailed man and his Imperial assailant.

At the other end of the corridor, Brandyn found a locked door. He looked over the control panel, but knew before looking that he was not mechanically inclined. Picking or hotwiring this door was not an option.

Snap-hiss.

The brilliant green light of his blade illuminated the grimy hallway. Without hesitation, the Padawan drove the point of his blade into the door frame, and began to cut to the left into the door and slowly around the lock. It was a risky move. There could be agents of The New Way on the other side, but he was already half way through the necessary cut and he had not heard any complaint from the other side. He glanced over his shoulder...

| Zorah Fel |​

 

[Zorah Fel]

Temperance City | Nyriaan | Imperial Space

Brandyn Sal-Soren

<"Lady Fel is fething terrifying.">

<"What do you expect? She was a squire for Knight Commander Sahar. Now that woman is certifiable.">

<"She's hot though. Both of them--">

Captain Dyvos had heard enough. <"Let's keep the chatter to a minimum, people.This is an active operation.">

<"Sorry, Cap'.">

<"Apologies, Captain.">

<"Won't happen again, Sir.">

<"Latrine duty,"> the Captain said. "Two weeks.">

Fething idiots. Forgot to switch to a private channel. All those combat stims have addled their brains. The Captain sparked up a cigarra of t'bacca, watching the safe house from through a pair of electrobinoculars. He was hidden in an alley nearly two blocks down, crouched between a stack of crates.

His men were still moving into position-- as per the lady's orders, he'd ordered them to surround the building, twenty men for each direction. He'd sent a half-squad to the rooftops to join Tez and Seven, and the other squad, fifteen heavies under Sergeant Paksen D'Arion, he held back to serve as breachers. The Captain was almost certain the New Way, being an anti-Force user group, would have some method of cutting Force users off from their source of power, so he kept them on hand to charge into the safe house and recover the lady, if need be.

A few moments later, his coms crackled to life again as the last squad confirmed that they were in place. All that was left now was to wait.

---

His mind didn't open up so much as spill out. She saw fragments of memories, glimpses of thought, but mostly, there was fear. It touched his every thought, so she followed the black webs of emotion through the cracks and crevices of his mind until she found what she wanted. There was an organizer in the rooms below, and a woman who was affiliated with a 'funder'. Definitely information to be forwarded to ISB, she thought. They would have the resources and authority to seize funds and records with little issue. She only needed a name...but the man didn't know it.

She lifted his head up from the floor then slammed it back into the duracrete, once, twice, thrice. The man stopped moving. His eyes glazed over.

Zorah moved on. The Jedi had fled while her attention was elsewhere, but it wasn't as if she was about to chase him down. The Captain Spaceworth's voice sounded over her coms.

<"Troopers are in position, ma'am. Awaiting further orders.">

<"Excellent, Captain.">

Zorah descended the stairs to the rooms below.


​

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

​

Wearing: 'Disguise'
Equipment: Standard lightsaber
Location: New Way safe house
Tag: Zorah Fel


He half expected a hand to be on his shoulder, or a blue arc of stun energy enveloping him. He glance over his shouldered and offered a grunt of surprise. The door was already swinging open under its own weight by the time he turned back. It was a storage cupboard.

Wry acceptance washed over his face, as he stepped in and examined the area for a hail mary secret opening or something. Nothing was immediately apparent.

He pulled the door closed behind him, and stooped to touch the floor. Eyes closing, Brandyn reached out with the Force to feel what was beyond the floor.

~Panic.~

They know we are here.

~Delete.~

Destroying evidence?

~Bartholomew.~

That's a new name.

He had heard enough random words and feelings from the three in the room below him. It was time to introduce himself. Standing, he backed up, ignited his saber, flipped it upside down and jammed it into the floor. With the blade cutting through fairly easily, Brandyn moved it in circle to cut a hole. The metal's clanging sound was accompanied by the startled expletives of the people below. Blasters were already being drawn, so Brandyn jumped down without any further hesitation.

"Hold your fire...I am Jedi...not Imperial. I can help you get out," he said hands outstretched.

There was a moments pause. Only then did Brandyn note that there was at least one blaster pointed directly at his head.

"Prove it," came the gruff voice of an older man.

"Really? We are going to waste time for me to prove myself? What other choices do..."

"I'll go with you," came a woman's voice, younger than the man. She stood behind Brandyn.

"No. He is one of them," said the older man.

"Father. What choice do we have?" Came the feminine reply.

Brandyn felt it as time enough to stand. "Good then...we don't have long," he said pointing up towards the hole. The woman was young, about Brandyn's age, and strikingly attractive. Her expression towards him though was one of distain. He was used to that today.

"Well?" She said, grabbing a data spike from the table next to her.

Closing his eyes, Brandyn stretched out his hands and lifted the woman, who gave a nervous gasp. Brandyn could feel the other two in the room, men, preparing to fight off the oncoming Imperials. Within a moment, Brandyn opened his eyes to see the blue haired woman pulling herself up into the storage room above. She moved out of the way for Brandyn, who glanced back at the older man. The man stood resolutely refusing to look in the direction of the woman that was apparently his daughter.

"No pleasantries then," Brandyn whispered before jumping up through the hole in the ceiling.

"Come one...let's go," he said, grabbing the woman by the arm and tugging her into the hallway.

​

 

[Zorah Fel]

Temperance City | Nyriaan | Imperial Space

Brandyn Sal-Soren

Zorah paused at the bottom of the steps and quickly wrapped herself in a cloak that was part illusion and part suggestion. The illusion hid her from all senses save touch-- the suggestion influenced observers to ignore her if they did touch her.

Two men entered the stairwell; one of them walked up a single stepping, literally inches away from Zorah, and peered up at the landing above.

"Lorn?" he called out. "Lorn!" He waited for an answer that would never come. "Where the feth--"

Zorah dropped him with a vicious chop to the neck, pulled the other man into her open arms, and choked him into unconsciousness. <"Captain, I've confirmed two VIPs on site. Ops a go. Send in your breachers and start closing the net.">

His reply was swift and succinct. <"Yes Ma'am.">

She pushed ahead into the hall beyond the stairwell. There was a group of men standing guard by he barred entrance at the far end of the hall-- in an open doorway in the corridor to her left, she heard tense voices. She stretched her senses towards the sound, straining her illusion. She felt several lifeforms ensconced within, and after searching her feelings, moved resolutely towards the room.

Moments later, the fronts door exploded inward with a thunderous boom. Fifteen heavy purge troopers came pouring into the foyer, battle rifles barking explosive particles beams.

​

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

When entering the grimy hallway on the buildings top floor, Brandyn felt the boom and shake of the building as the breach had begun. Brandyn's heart nigh on skipped a beat as he stuttered in his steps towards the point where he and the Imperial had entered the building. "This is our way out. There are snipers watching the roof," Brandyn said to the woman, who had made the mistake of walking to the far end of the hallway. Brandyn waved her back in a hurry.

"Snipers?" She said, worrying creasing her forehead. Brandyn added a nod of confirmation.

"They only have the roof covered from one direction though," he said, "stay put...and wait for me to lift you up."

The entrance hatch was still open, and Brandyn looked up before jumping up and slightly towards the hatch door that was propped open. Moments after his jump, a shot impacted the hatch, just narrowly missing his leg. Brandyn landed and hunched down behind the hatch door, with another shot pinging off the edge of the hatch.

He reached out. Could feel the Imperial forces ascending stairs towards the hallway below, and then...there...he could feel the snipers in the distance. He focused, heart rate doing its best to counter his focus, reached out and pulled at the weapons. He felt a ripple of panic through the Force as the snipers fought for control of their weapons. Brandyn stood, hands outstretched towards them, he could hear them from even this distance.

<Ma'am, there is a Jedi escaping via the rooftop. We are unable to get a clean shot.>

Brandyn pulled harder. One of the sniper rifles flew out of the man's grasp and clattered into the alleyway below, the second man hung on but did not manage to keep his footing tumbling forward, only for his partner to grab him before he could fall.

The Jedi dropped quickly to the ground, and thrust his hand down the hole into the hallway. "Grab my hand..."

The woman obliged, jumping her best, grappling on to his arm. Brandyn pulled, focusing the Force on lifting her and strengthen his arm. The woman clambered up, and turned to slam the hatch closed. Brandyn rolled away just in time. "Whoa..."

"Thanks for the assist...Jedi," she said, blaster in hand and set to stun.

The last thing Brandyn remembered was his muscles grow tense, before suddenly relaxing as he blacked out.

| Zorah Fel |​

 

[Zorah Fel]

Temperance City | Nyriaan | Imperial Space

Brandyn Sal-Soren

The heavies made short work of the deafened and disoriented guards, taking them down with brutally ruthless effeciency-- within moments, the troopers had secured the hall, and were already pushing up to her position. When the sharp report of blaster fire died down, there came the sound of shuffling chairs and frantic shouts and erratic footsteps. Zorah sensed the rising panic of the terrorists in the room, and beneath it, growing like a tumor, was fear.

She was no Sith to relish and cultivate fear, but she could not deny it had its uses, when applied properly and deliberately.

<"Secure the exits!"> Zorah heard Sergeant Paksen yell. The burly woman, taller even than Zorah who was a shade high of six feet herself, hurried to place herself in front of the Fel heiress. <"No sense in you going in first, ma'am. Just in case.">

Zorah greatly disliked the notion that she might be injured, but she wasn't fool enough to dismiss the sergeant's concern. "Very well, Sergeant Paksen."

Paksen D'arion wasted little time-- she placed a breaching charge on the door, cleared the blast zone, and with a simple press of a button, blew the room wide open. The troopers rushed in amidst the wafting smoke, rifles already barking, but Zorah remained in the hall, her senses assailed by a horrid noise that scratched at her bones and drowned out the song of the Force. It was like being near a Ysalamiri, but somehow worse. White noise, it was called.

Just as abruptly as it had begun, the noise stopped. Zorah climbed to her feet, recovered her composure, stepped into the room, and saw the source of her ails crushed to bits on the floor. It was an ND-013, a rare and obscure piece of Jaeger tech.

<"There were a few runners,"> Sergeant Paksen was saying, <"Bastards slipped out through a hatch beneath the closet floor. I already told the Captain-- he's sending teams to every sewer access grate in a four block radius, and I sent some of my men down the hatch after them as well.">

Zorah offered a terse nod in response, still reeling from the after effects of the white noise. Only when she had fully recovered did she deign to speak: "Where is that damnable Jedi?"

<"Upstairs maybe?">

"...That's very possible.."

<"I'll check myself. Squad, on me!">

<Ma'am, there is a Jedi escaping via the rooftop . We are unable to get a clean shot.> That was Tez's voice. <"One of the others probably has a clear sight line, though...hey!!">

Seven's snickers followed shortly after. <"Idiot's lost his rifle."> There was a long pause, and then: <"Looks like we won't have to shoot your Jedi though-- some woman just did it for us.">

---

A Few Minutes Earlier...​

Many posts ago:

He'd (the Captain) sent a half-squad to the rooftops to join Tez and Seven

The Half-Squad: Trickshot, Viper, Scorch, Matthias

<'The hell is this guy doing?">

Trickshot eyed the Jedi through his macrobinoculars, just as confused as Viper, who watched the roof through his rifle scope. <"Maybe he doesn't realize the hatch only covers him from one direction? Or he has some sort of barrier up, like the one Lady Zorah uses!">

<"Is he..using the Force to try and...take their rifles?">

<Ma'am, there is a Jedi escaping via the rooftop. We are unable to get a clean shot.>

Somehow, Tez kept his voice level, even as he struggled against an invisible assailant. Brandyn didn't only try take Tez's rigle-- he succeeded, and nearly snatched Tez from the roof as well.

<"Should we shoot him?"> Scorch asked from the adjacent roof top. Matthias was his spotter.

<"Wait a sec',"> chimed Seven. <"Just give it a mo'.">

None of the troopers were Force sensitive enough to be Sith or Jedi, but Seven was close enough get a notion or nudge, every now and again. Her and her sister, Sixer. The Jedi reached into the hatch and pulled a woman up, who promptly turned slammed the hatch shut.

<"Shoot now?">

<"Wait, dammit!">

They didn't have long to wait. The Jedi and the woman exchanged a few words, and then she shot him, just like that.

<"Now shoot her,"> Seven said. <"With a stunner though! There's a story here and I'm sure the Lady would love to sniff it out.">

<"Yes,"> said Zorah Fel. <"I very much would.">

---

Sergenat Paksen led three troopers to the roof herself to collect the Jedi and the mysterious woman.
​