Private Children of Shiraya: The Show Must Go On

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

Chandrila
Hanna City

Hanna City was alive and buzzing. The concert going on in the open air arena just outside the commercial district was filling the whole downtown region with the rhythmic beats of the glimmik band, Sithspawn. Nearby, two Jedi could worked to drown out the background thumping noise as they worked their assigned case.

---

He was beginning to think that the tip off was a red herring. He and Aeris had been sitting uncomfortably in the rafters of the commerce district warehouse for over an hour, still nothing had happened. Workers just went about their job as usual. His tipper, Eks Ongil, had assured both Jedi that there would be a New Way meeting happening within the hour. They had only taken a quarter of an hour to get situated, but Brandyn was starting to wonder if that had been too long and the meeting had already happened.

This warehouse was a known New Way meeting spot, even if it had never been raided. It was one of the many spots on Chandrila that were under observation, or at least, regularly checked on just as the Jedi were doing now. It would be easy enough to bust the manager, impound the droids and send the workers off to find new employment, but that would not get them any closer to who it was that was organizing the whole mess.

"I am starting to think we were either too slow...or too trusting," he murmured.

It was a few years since he had first met Aeris, and she had tried to teach him some book learning. It hadn't really taken on that occasion. He found it slightly ironic that it was now he that was taking the lead, despite their respective ranks in the Order. He had learned more on the job than he ever had in the libraries, hopefully it would show. Brandyn pondered for a moment why it was always so important that he impress people. Pride? Insecurity? Both?

He started to move, his legs having partially fallen asleep from sitting on the beam for so long, but then caught a glimpse of a Gilliand walking up to the manager's office. "Hello there...beautiful," Brandyn said as he returned to his perch.

"She must be the courier," he said, noting the camtono she had nestled in her arms.

Apparently, she was here for a pick up. They would know soon enough when she walked out, if the camtono were still in her possession.

"Be ready to go when I give the word," Brandyn pointlessly reminded Aeris, who had been assigned to pick up the visual following from the outside of the building. Brandyn was to keep visuals inside and relay the couriers chosen path, then catch up to his partner.

| Aeris Lashiec |​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

"Patience." Aeris whispered as she looked down from their elevated position amongst the rafters. If Brandyn was anxious, Aeris was about as calm as ever. There was a calm in this situation, a form of familiarity that few ever really seemed to associate with her and it felt like it was showing. This was just par for the course back in her days.

"My guess would be that she is the courier, yes." She nodded and carefully glanced down at the camtono. "And that is the package."

While the details of this little outing was a bit on the looser edge than Aeris might have liked, it was still a chance to get out of the temple. While Brandyn began to shuffle about, Aeris remained still. Her feet dangled off the edge of the rafter with a casual sway.

"The plan was that I keep an eye out for others that might have the same idea as us, while you stalk her. Am I right?"

"Any last minute rundown?"

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

​

Equipment: Standard lightsaber, commlink
Location: Chandrila, Commercial District
Tag: Aeris Lashiec


Her version of the plan was close enough, Brandyn decided as the courier had already exited the door the camtono. "There's only one door that way," he said, pointing in the direction where the courier was headed, "come on. Let's move."

He stood, and his knees nearly buckled immediately. His legs really had fallen asleep. "Whoa...sitting on that beam wrong...I think," he whispered.

He glanced at the courier who was just about out of visual.

"You had better go ahead. I will need a moment."

As Brandyn stood there focusing on the Force to get blood flowing through his legs properly, he felt a little ping of familiarity, like a splinter in his mind's eye. He could feel someone, nearby, that he knew well. Brandyn shook his head.

You are just feeling light headed, Brandyn.

​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

A small, quiet chuckle blew through Aeris' nose as she looked at the way Brandyn stumbled. She had figured something like it would happen when they took their seats.

"Only one door means that they would have to enter and leave through the same door." Aeris nodded in the direction of the now disappearing courier. "Meaning, they are most likely already counting on people following the messenger."

Aeris stood up from her seated position and gently brushed the dust off her thighs. Meanwhile Brandyn seemed distracted, she could sense it. Her brows furrowed, she bit her tongue to not mention it. Nervosity for things like this wasn't uncommon. Still, she had assumed he was no stranger to stalking a suspect.

"I will position myself within eyesight of the door." She whispered and offered a hand in case he needed help standing. "You get in there and listen in on the meeting. Ping me if something goes wrong."

"What's your entrance strategy?"

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

"Strategy?" Brandyn said, using a quip to pull him out of his momentary daze, "I think I missed that class at the academy..."

Without awaiting a response, he was off bounding from one beam to the next before he was over against the far wall, and above the room where the meeting was taking place. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a small droid, no larger than his palm. The droid whirred quietly into life and hovered before him.

Tucking an earpiece in the appropriate facial orifice, Brandyn patted the little droid and then it promptly descended towards the room below. Within a few seconds it had reached its target destination, and extended a vibration sensor to make contact with the corner of a window on the blind side of the room, away from prying eyes.

"...don't care what Bartholomew says, it's getting too hot here. I had Chandrila's finest here the other day asking questions. Now you bring me rumours of Jedi?"

"Look. Bartholomew says he needs just one more run. Just one more. And you will all be even."

"No. No. It's getting too much heat. I can't go back to prison. You hear me."

"Prison? You won't go to prison. They have nothing to pin on you...and Bartholomew knows people. He can psh buttons, pull levers...see to it htat you never seen the inside of a cell again. Come on. Just one more run."

There was a long pause.

"Fine. Put it in the cantomo and I am outta here. I want to get this delivered and be done. Last one I say. Last one."

Brandyn gave Aeris the 'go time' signal, while he called the droid back to his hand. Within moments the courier was out the door and headed towards the alley. Brandyn filed away this second mention of a Bartholomew in as many weeks.

| Aeris Lashiec |​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

Aeris might have done something unusual in coming here and actually partaking in a mission, but that hardly meant that she was about to drop who she was inside. The fact that their plan was to not have a plan had put her on edge. As Brandyn dropped into character, she remained for a second. There was no need to bring attention to themselves as a duo just yet. Instead she decided to move by the time Brandyn gave her the go-ahead. It was easier that way.

As the courier passed into the alley she gave him a look as if to remind him of what she had said before.

No shooting the messenger. Mostly in one part out of honor, and another because they were just the one in the middle. Taking them out solved nothing, and that was not to mention the fact that they were Jedi. Murder was beneath them.

[ Any idea who this Bartholomew character is? ] Aeris phoned in over telepathy. [ Should we expect resistance up the road? ]

The courier delved further and further into the alley with their eyes darting all over the place, not to mention behind their back for each step they took. This wasn't just your average delivery, was it? She eyed the movements from behind her corner and shook her head.

Easiest way to draw attention was to act like you hoped it wasn't on you.

[ You could stop them here or a few blocks up the road. If memory serves, there is one up ahead that has less people passing by. ]

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

Brandyn paused on one of the support struts above the warehouse. <Second time I have heard the name,> Brandyn said through the Force, <perhaps we will learn some more today?>

He bounded off from the beam, and towards a window that had been identified as a possible point of egress on their survey of the warehouse earlier. Ducking out into the open air of Chandrilla, Brandyn took a deep breath. The warehouse had been just a little musty. It was pleasant to being outside again.

It wasn't as quiet out here though. The music from the nearby concert in the docks was much clearer here.

<The contents of that cantomo are important. But I think that the person it is going to may be just as...or more important,> he said, trying to visually acquire Aeris' location, but failing, <you got visual on them? If so, I will try and get ahead of them.>

| Aeris Lashiec |​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

There was visual, but not in any good way. Aeris caught eyes with the messenger for a moment before the blonde ducked away behind a corner once they broke. The messenger looked back only to find that Aeris was gone and it did nothing to their nerves.

[ They saw me. ] Aeris told Brandyn through the force. [ Expect them to be on alert. ]

And they were, for a bit. Aeris played it off as a one-time thing. Stepped into the open and approached a stall on the other side of the road, let them see that they were not being followed. At least not physically so. Beneath the surface she was latching onto their location.

The messenger stepped into a dark alley to make a detour and lose their tail: Aeris.

[ Dark alleys. They are playing it loose. Now could be the time, or you could follow them to their destination. ]

[ If you stop them in the alley, there is no telling what the recipient will do to them. If you let them reach their destination you might lose them on the way, or we will be severely outnumbered. Choice is yours. ]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

<We have to know who she is delivering to,> Brandyn said as he jumped from one building to another.

Aeris being spotted by the courier was not good, but the situation was salvageable. Despite the alleyways in the area being dark and devoid of persons, the larger area was certainly not. In the main thoroughfares of the area there were a considerably higher number of people walking about. Hopefully, the courier would just think that Aeris was a drunk patron from the nearby concert that had wandered into the alley.

Another jump, and Brandyn could sense his fellow Jedi below. He had caught up. Now it was just time to get to the other end of the alleyway and hope to pick up the trail of the courier.

Aided by the Force, Brandyn reached the end of the dark alleyway, and stooped to look over the side of the building. He waited. They would resurface from the darkness soon. He reached out carefully to see if he could sense the courier without alerting them to his presence. They were nearby, but the direction felt slightly...off.

<Somethings wrong.>

He resisted the urge to jump down and check the path back towards Aeris, the path that the courier should have taken towards him. Had they already passed this point? Surely not. He had gotten here much faster than the speed they had showed the ability to walk.

<I am going to check.>

He jumped, falling the two stories, but slowing his descent with the Force so that he could land as if jumping only a meter. He took a few steps forward, the darkness beginning to part for him. The courier was not there. He looked around for signs of the courier perhaps having fallen, or been shot.

<Check for doors!> He said through the Force.

Damn.

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

It sounded like the muted sound of gravel to a grinder. A faint smell of ozone began to carry in the wind down the alley as the last breath of the messenger fell on deaf ears. If Brandyn paid attention he would feel it coming from one of the darker corners of the alley as a shadowy figure deftly swept from the ground towards the roof.

Aeris entered the scene to drown out the noise of the street beyond.

"Did we lose them?" She asked. "I think-"

Something from the corner of her eye twitched. Like a brief glimpse of a silhouette that moved in the brightness of the moon.

"Did you see that?" Aeris cut Brandyn off and pointed at the roof. "Movement. Rooftop."

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

"I...just came from there," he said, tone clearly annoyed at himself.

The courier was dead, and someone else had absconded with the cantomo. The rooftop was higher than he could jump, his eyes darted to and fro looking for a way back up.

"The fire escape."

Jump one, saw him grapple with the metal of the fire escapes railings, before he could get a foot hold, and then launch into jump two. The second jump was across the alley, to the next fire escape, before long he was on to jump three, reaching the top of the roof.

Again, he failed to pick up on any movement immediately.

"I don't have eyes...did you get a direction?" Brandyn said, before taking off in the direction that was his best guess.

| Aeris Lashiec |​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

Right, the fire escapes. Aeris began to take off after Brandyn but skipped the first skip of his metaphorical stone. Her feet pushed off the ground against the cold duracrete of the alley and onto the wall. Her arm slid against the cold metal paneling before her entire body seemed to latch onto it with a surprisingly firm grasp. With another leap she grabbed at a nearby windowsill on the opposite wall, and with one final leap she grabbed the ledge of the roof to hoist herself up with one fluid motion with a roll that ended with her on her feet and right back into a jog.

"That way." She said and pointed straight ahead. "My guess is that they are going to try and lose us up here before diving into the crowds below."

Her footfalls were heavy yet efficient. She might not have been much of a fighter, but there was no denying that she was a runner.

"Use the force," She exhaled between steps. "Seek out signatures of elevated stress and caution. Do NOT rely on your eyes for this one."

And with that, she seemingly just melded into the floor and disappeared into an opening to an alleyway below, the sound of undisturbed gravel hitting the floors below was all that the kid got as Brandyn was granted a full reign of the rooftop situation. Down below, if he decided to seek her out, he would be able to see her push with all due haste through the crowds.

[ Remember, fear is a form of stress. If you can, focus on the ones trying to actively hinder your attempts to locate them. That is our ticket out of this. ]

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

Right. Use the Force.

He mentally chastised himself for falling prey to the oldest lie in the books 'trust your eyes'. He reached forward with his mind. He touched the crowds of people dancing to the thrumming beats of the concert just up a few blocks. Their emotional state was quite deafening to begin with. Then he began the sweep backwards towards his locale. Nothing stood out. Nothing elevated. His mind probed to his left a little more, and a spike of controlled fear disturbed the flowing tendrils of Force energy in his mind's eye.

[I feel them. Two buildings ahead. Third floor. Going down.]

It was a good thing Aeris had gone down to the alley again. Brandyn set off in a sprint. His breathing focused in, allowing his mind to clear and the Force to aide in the run. He reached the building in question and found the hatch on the roof to be locked from the inside. His blade was quick to hade, and the green thrum was soon meshed with sparks and a bright flair of light as Brandyn cut through the lock. The hatch fell down with a clang to the floor below him after he had also cut the hinges.

Brandyn grimaced. He probably should have caught that hatch with the Force and not let it make so much noise.

[Best guess is they know I am coming. You on the other hand. You might have a chance.]

He jumped down into the hatch, and set to finding the quickest way down the few floors in pursuit of the spiking fear which seemed to be approaching the doors that led straight out into the crowds of the concert.

| Aeris Lashiec |​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

Eyes snapped to look over at the indicated floor. She could feel the residual energy in the force, the small trail that usually would have told her where not to go. But today was not one of those situations. This time it was she who was the cat to the figurative mouse, the one looking for someone who didn't want to be found.

To some extent it was actually quite exhilarating.

The door opened with a gentle hiss, but out from within it burst two men in a hurry. They pushed past Aeris at first before they rounded into another alley. As one of them began to turn around, realizing that he had seen her before, the other fell over from the pipe that ever so gently swept against his shins. The pipe merely hovered, the force of his fall was entirely his own.

"That was her!" The one who had turned around exclaimed as he entered into a sprint. Aeris flicked her wrist and the hovering pipe immediately flew in his direction. He was too fast for the hit, and he seemed to have absolutely no problem leaving his friend in the dust.

As Brandyn burst through the door she looked over at him.

"Rooftop guy ran that way." She said and pointed. "Left his friend to rot."

"This is your call, make it."

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

"You see what you can get out of this, chump," Brandyn said, as he ran, almost out of earshot by the time he finished his sentence.

Into another alleyway he ran, gaining on his prey with each step. The man ahead of Brandyn looked back, wide-eyed in shock. He had clearly never tried to outrun a Jedi before, and with Brandyn only being a Padawan that was saying something indeed.

A blaster came out of the man's coat, as he aimed over his shoulder and let loose a volley of randomly aimed blasts. Without flinching, Brandyn has his blade out, and deflected the couple of shots that came near him. The final shot from the man bounced from Brandyn's blade and returned to hit the man in the back of his leg.

"Argh!"

The runner hit the ground, sliding across the wet alleyway floor. The cantomo in his hand crashed to the ground and spilled over to the side. Brandyn was soon standing over top of him, and kicked the blaster away before his opponent could regather himself.

"You have lost," Brandyn said, pointing the blade at the man, "now tell me...what did you want with that cantomo?"

| Aeris Lashiec |​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

Aeris gave the kid a nod as he bolted off after 'Rooftop Guy'.

"Need a hand?" She asked and extended her hand towards the man on the ground who looked at her with an utterly confused stare. "I am not looking to hurt you, only talk."

The man sighed. This entire situation was a new level of strange that he had not quite expected or even experienced before. First he was hunted down, then he was offered help? His palm latched on to the extended hand and he grunted as he was lifted off the ground and onto his feet. Once back on his feet, he merely stood there and looked at Aeris who proceeded to brush the metaphorical dust off of her hands.

"See? Now we are on equal ground." She nodded and slowly tilted her head towards the corner where his friend yelped in pain. "Seems you picked the better straw out of the two of you."

The man looked her over yet again, not unaware that he was being intimidated by someone that didn't look like much. But then, neither had the kid and he had sped up like something fierce just before he rounded the corner.

"What do you want?" He finally mustered as he began to glance over to the entrance to his friend's alleyway. "You already got Henron."

"Information." Aeris added quickly. "Who you are running these packages for, and where they are to be taken."

"Only know his name is Bartholomew, runs out of a wareh-" The sound of gunfire erupted twice in the distance and the man was cut off — and quite metaphorically so. One bullet pierced through his temple with a remorseless crack. The other bit against Aeris' thigh with a burn she had almost forgotten. She tried to move before she had been any the wiser only for the pain to sting with an unrelenting agony.

Her teeth gritted as she fell to the ground. The puddles around her glistened ever brighter from the neon lights as she struggled against the pain. People began to disperse as she ever so meekly began to pull herself towards a nearby wall seeking to use it to stand back up again.

 

[Brandyn Sal-Soren]

"I don't know what's in it, I swear," said the fallen man.

"That's not what I asked," Brandyn said, inching the blade closer to the man's face, "I asked why you wanted it, not what was in it."

"Crazy Jedi...get that thing out of my face," the man said, recoiling from the tip of the lightsaber blade but grimacing in pain from the blaster shot he had suffered, "I don't know why they want it...but I know its to deal with your kind...you reckless...uncontrolled Force-wielding psychopaths."

"Who is Bartholomew?" Brandyn said, hand stretching out a little more to bring the tip of his saber again to within inches of the man's chin, "tell me..."

Just then, Brandyn heard the blaster fire from around the corner, and the screams of a quickly dispersing crowd. "Aeris..." He felt her pain with a spike in her Force presence. Unintentionally, he glanced back down the alleyway. In that moment, the captured man rolled away from the saber, hilt grappled quickly with the blaster that lay a few meters away and turned to fire at Brandyn.

The sound of movement wrenched Brandyn's attention back in just enough time to deflect the shot and protect himself. His quick thinking did not account for the aim of the shot's ricochet which saw the shot hit the man directly in the chest, just above his heart. He crumbled to the ground with a pitiful whimper. Brandyn stepped forward, wide-eyed in shock at the second's worth of devastating action.

His eyes darted about, looking for a quick answer, a quick upside to the man's death. There was none. No answers. No help. No life to be redeemed. He was just...gone.

The Padawan thrust his hand, annoyance fueling the moment, and drew the cantomo to his hand with the aid of the Force. Turning, he ran again to round the corner, and find out if Aeris was alright.

| Aeris Lashiec |​

 

[Aeris Lashiec]

Brandyn Sal-Soren

The dirty water that had pooled up in the alleyway slowly mixed with blood. Her teeth clenched as her jaw shut tight. This wasn't exactly an unfamiliar sensation, but one that seemed distant nonetheless. She gave it an hour before the worst of the pain began to kick in. By then she had damned well better be on her way home again or things wouldn't be looking particularly bright.

Her hand pushed against a nearby staircase to get her back on her feet again. Her knees already ached.

"They are dead then." She groaned and put her weight on the uninjured leg before she sat down again on the stairs. She waved her hand above the wound. "Don't bother. Force won't do chit."

She reached for the pocket inside of her jacket to withdraw a small syringe that she promptly thrust into her leg and began to inject. Slowly but surely the blood stopped pouring.

"We need to get out of here. Back to your ship, and fast."