Damsel(s) in Distress

[Mereel Vaun]

In Orbit of Aargonar​

En Route to Seo Linn's Distress Signal ​

Spoiler

Img src: https://www.deviantart.com/yobarte/art/desert-193062877

He clenched his right hand into a fist until his knuckles turned white, waited until his hand started to hurt, un-clenched for a moment, and then repeated the process. He had been doing it for a while now, almost during the entirety of his trip through hyperspace in fact.

After giving up on the idea of having Seo use psychometry on his sister's journal, Mereel dove deep into alternative methods of investigation. His first course of action had been to return to the wreckage of the Itinerant Soul, a passenger liner rendered derelict on the outskirts of the Bandomeer system, to have the Iviin'yc's technical team collect all the information that they could from the lifeless vessel's databanks. Although he had previously though the databanks corrupted, the findings that the technical team had made through their recovery process was nothing short of miraculous: navigational information, internal audio logs, and even some video surveillance footage had been recovered.

But the pièce de résistance? The technicians had managed to recover an external video recording that vividly displayed the vessel's destruction, and more importantly the vessel's killer: an Interceptor-class frigate embroidered with familiar, dark red nova emblems. With his past dealings with crime syndicates, Mereel recognized the livery almost immediately as belonging to the pirate gang known as the "Suns of Avarice", and just like that the hunt was on to find the Suns' port of call.

Him and Seo had decided to split up to investigate two different possible locations for the gang's hideout. Seo left to investigate a lead on Aargonar, and he had gone to checkout a potential hideout spot on Vjun. The plan should've gone off without a hitch. Aargonar was a desert planet with terrain Seo would be accustomed to, and Vjun's acid rain would simply require Mereel to repaint his armor after his visit to the planet.

Investigating infamously ruthless pirates, he should've known better. Alas, hindsight was a cruel mistress.

The Iviin'yc relayed Seo's distress call to his personal commlink as soon as the ship's crew received it, prompting the Mandalorian Jedi to forsake his investigation on Vjun immediately.

As Mereel's starfighter dropped out of hyperspace in the Aargonar system, something all too familiar happened. All of the starfighter's console lights lit up like a Life Day tree. With an aggravated sigh, he punched in the coordinates of Seo's distress signal and began piloting the aptly named Death Bucket towards the planet and what he knew would be a choppy landing.

"Hold on to your dome R9. It looks like we're in for another happy landing."

[member="Seo Linn"] | [member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

 

[000]

[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Seo Linn"]​

​

It was then as Ronin piloted the freighter thru space hauling cargo as it were to one order mission site. Which on all account wasn't much his choice but part his probation stemming from a few his earlier mission. Where he was sent to make a round of a couple off-world mission of which would have him pass just outside the Aargonar system. When off the blue his com rang which he picks up figure it is his contract for the next pitstop in this delivery run. Which it had been thought before he could put the com down that a second message came thru on its heel.

One of a report down the ship in the sector which he obliges to check into...

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Flames licked across the wings of the Death Bucket as the fighter cut through the planet's upper atmosphere. The pilot console was letting out a symphony of bleeps and alarm chimes, and the ion engines groaned until inevitably shutting offline. The ship's atmospheric thrusters screamed in protest as they were forced to become the primary method of keeping the Death Bucket and her pilot from experiencing an early retirement. Somehow, even above all this, the noises that R9 was making worried him a lot more than the noises resounding from the plummeting starfighter.

This was the third time he had crash landed his starfighter in.. what? Four months? Counting this time, two of the three crashes had been because of technical failures, "Don't worry 9, if we get through this we're getting an upgrade." The astromech droid responded with a high-pitched, nervous whistle as the fighter broke through low-hanging morning clouds.

Mereel gritted his teeth and slowed his breathing to a shallow rhythm. He was confident in his own natural and learned ability to land the crashing ship without killing himself, but a lot more than the well being of himself and his ship were on the line here. His thoughts became clear as he fully fell into the Jedi meditation technique, and the seconds it would take for the ship to crash into the ground played out for him in slow motion.

Before he saw it, he jerked the steering column hard to port, sending the ship into a sideways roll and narrowly stopping the starfighter from slamming headlong into one of the jagged rock spires that jutted up from the planet's surface. The ship's S-foil cooling systems had been one of the first warnings he noticed on the console, so when over half of the ship's atmospheric thrusters failed during the maneuver he wasn't really all that surprised. The sudden and rather violent change in g-force caused the edges of his vision to darken, and he blacked out for a second as the starfighter impacted Aargonar.

He came to a moment later, the smell of fire being the first thing he noticed. The second thing he noticed was that he was looking at the desert-scape from a sideways perspective. He slapped the cockpit release button, but nothing happened.

"R9, emergency release all cockpit hatches" The faint sound of burning answered him. "R9?"

Another second of crackling passed and he finally put two and two together, "Fierfek."

Pulling the lightsaber from his belt, he ignited the icy-blue blade before unceremoniously ramming it through the cockpit's transparisteel. He unhooked his safety restraints and clumsily rolled out of the starfighter with lightsaber still ignited in hand.

It was a miracle that he was still in one piece after this landing, but he didn't think about it or the loss of R9 for a second as he kicked the blood back into his legs. The Death Bucket was missing a wing, and apparently the part of the underbelly containing the cargo compartment had also been separated from the starfighter's hull - it was now sitting directly in front of him. As his right hand pulled a medkit from the now free-standing cargo compartment with the force, he blinked his HUD into life and summoned a distance tracker for Seo's distress signal coordinates.

He attached the small personal medkit to a belt clip and disengaged his lightsaber. Two kilometers of desert sands and rock spires stood between him and the distress signal. Not wanting to waste another second, he swapped his lightsaber for the blaster rifle on his back and broke out into a sprint to begin traversing the desert floor.

[member="Ronin Wendigo"] | [member="Seo Linn"]​

 

[000]

[member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Seo Linn"]​

​

It wasn't like he cared much to ask in regards to details about the down ship he'd been sent the coordinates to head off to. But then again he figured what was there to ask? Given the bit of detail and location, he'd been given thus far hinted on that it is another possible mechanical issue. One which he'd been all but familiar with working the line of the hangar duty to pay off his little incident of losing a couple or so ship not so long ago.

But then again midway thru the flight he unexpectantly comes across minor ship issue himself. Cause his ship come out of hyperspace midflight and end up in middle of what seems to be some sort of firefight. One which he had no idea who or what about but then it seems that did matter little. For no sooner had he come out of hyperdrive that the other ship did a turnabout and came after him. With gun blazing and itching for a fight, he knew well not to stick around given his ship was ill equipt for such an encounter. Being it was a cargo ship and had little to slim in terms of firepower as such no sooner had he gotten a ship back online. That he prepared gun the engine into an evasive maneuver...

 

[Seo Linn]

She had been following a different lead in the attempt to find Mereel's sister. Having a family of her own, Seo would have liked to see his complete. They were entirely different families and situations, but both of them had met the other. Even if her meeting of his father had been under far different circumstances than his meeting of hers.

Her lead had brought her to a scientific research facility. It seemed she and Mereel were investigating opposite ends of the spectrum. He had gone to check out pirates and she her own lead. They actually kept pretty close tabs on each other. So far everything had gone smoothly until today.

At least this world was much like Lorrd and she could blend in with the population. Her skills with mimicry as well as observation of routine allowed a person trained on Lorrd to become whatever was needed. In this case, she portrayed herself as one of the scientists which ended up backfiring on them all horribly. It may not have been her fault in reality, but when the escape happened, she blamed herself.

In the quest to finding the girl, she had started to look through the various logs in the computer. It was possible her actions lead to the escape of the very people she was reading about. That really didn't matter what did was the fact, the facility ended up becoming overwhelmed by their prisoners. Those people kept here for whatever reason and now ran rampant through the area.

Jedi training or not, Seo was in trouble. She was able to get off two calls before falling. One was directly to Mereel and the other a broadcast to any Silvers in the area. She knew Mereel would come as soon as he could, but did not have as high of a hope for a Silver to.

Blasters, clubs and anything that could be considered a weapon were used by these prisoners. She was dressed as a member of the facility and that is all they saw when the five burst into the room Seo was looking up this information. Not wanting to actually kills these people was probably a mistake on her part and she drew her saber to defend herself.

The sight of that blue blade did not seem to phase these men at all. A dark memory flitted through her mind, but she focused on the now not the past. Placing a barrier around herself, it would not hold up long against their assault. But she did the best she could against them. In the end, she fell after one of them clubbed her squarely on the back of her skull.

She crumpled to the ground, knocked out cold and bleeding from that head wound. Their victim taken care of, they moved on after kicking her unresponsive torso around a little and likely breaking a few ribs in the process. Her life was actually on the line with the chance she may not live.

[member="Ronin Wendigo"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Hard Contact]

Traln Gorrik, Orbit of Aargonar​

[member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

--​

It was a routine job for the Suns of Avarice. Find a regularly traveled route for a cargo vessel, setup an interdiction frigate somewhere sparsely populated along the route, and then strong arm the vessel into submission.

The fact that the Suns were already in a perfect ambush system after the hostage delivery was a good omen indicative of good fortunes, or at least that was what Traln and a lot of the other pirate starfighter pilots thought. However; as Traln's Z-95 and the uglies of the pirate cell swarmed over the cargo ship and brought their laser cannons to bear on the vessel, there was a small hiccup in the Captain's plan.

Traln's ship comm crackled to life, "Traln, sensor contact just got snatched from hyperspace. Deal wit' 'em."

Having something of a reputation for being a strong silent type, the Rodian sent a burst of static back in acknowledgement, and promptly broke off from the flight group to deal with the new bogie, which also happened to be a cargo ship.

Traln hit the acceleration hard, attempting to get in close to tailgate the new cargo ship at near breakneck speeds. The rodian pilot smiled a sickening grin as he eagerly fired the starfighter's unlinked-laser cannons twice, aiming at the rear of the new cargo ship.

###​

​

Aargonar, Followers of Ma'lauk Research Lab​

[member="Seo Linn"] | Mereel Vaun​

--​

The soft hiss of the chamber's door stirred Gaurav from his meditative trance. A scientist in a lab coat stood in the doorway, with a look of absolute terror in his eyes.

"My - my Lord, the prisoners have escaped from their holding cells an -"

Gaurav rose to his feet and raised a hand. The scientist's words were cut off mid sentence, the noise of his cowardly voice replaced by a highly satisfying panicked gurgling as the man struggled to breath through Gaurav's force choke.

"This is not the first time your pathetic facility has failed my master."

The Dark Jedi tightened his hand, and the aged scientist began clutching desperately at his own throat, "Amitabh may tolerate your failings, but I am of a different belief . . ."

"I think you lack a certain resilience, a certain pride, in your work. That, along with your ineptitude, disgusts me."

Gaurav tightened the grip ever so slightly, "And so you will be replaced."

The Dark Jedi closed his hand fully and the scientist ceased his incessant struggling. Gaurav waited for the man to drop to the floor, and then walked over the corpse and into the facility's main residential hallway. He wasn't going to go deal with the prisoners, such an issue was surely below a man of his talents.

No, Gaurav had a very specific goal in mind. He had sensed a beacon of light amongst the facility's sea of force sensitive prisoners - a beacon that disgusted him more than the chief scientist's incompetence. It was his personal duty to snuff out the light of the Jedi, no matter when or where he found them. This time would be no different.

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Mereel had sprinted just over a kilometer when he ran into his first obstacle. A small mountain stood in his way, blocking his path for miles. In his mind, he had already taken too long to get to the planet, he didn't have the time to go around it or anything else. Nothing could stand in his way, he had no other choice than to climb the sheer vertical rock wall.

Spirit undaunted, he aimed his rifle high up the mountain's face. He held the Westar M5 V2 tight as his fingers eased back the trigger of the grappling spike launcher slung to the bottom of his blaster's barrel. Liquid cable ejected from the weapon attachment at an extreme velocity, crashing into and burying itself in rocks two hundred meters above him, about a third of the way up the mountain. Having full confidence in his own equipment, Mereel began ascending the heights. With the automated pulley of the launcher pulling him up, the strength in his legs, and good old fashioned elbow grease, he was scaling the wall at dizzying speeds.

He made it to his under-barrel spike launcher hook in a minute tops. Without wasting a second he pulled the independent spike launcher that he had used on Cioma from his belt and fired it further up the mountain. Once he saw it land, he held onto it with his left hand and pulled the first hook from the cliff with his right. No longer using his blaster's hook to lift him, he slung his rifle over his back and held onto the dedicated spike launcher with both hands as he felt its pull. He repeated his actions from the first phase of the scaling, making even better time than before.

But it still wasn't fast enough for him. Mereel looked skyward, the top of the cliff could have only been a hundred or so meters away. He could make the rest of the ascent with jetpack.. and if something went wrong with the aging and often faulty pack, he would think of something. He would keep going until he was rendered incapable of doing so, and he had already decided that nothing was going to stop him.

With a bold grin, he let go of the second spike launcher as soon as he reached the device's hook. For half of a second, he felt the full weight of his armor dragging him down as he entered free fall, and then his jetpack thrusters roared into life. Leaving the launcher that he had used on Cioma behind, he flew on a vertical path beside the final stretch of mountain cliff. Discovering that the mountain top was flat, Mereel set himself down on the sandy surface and continued running toward the signal as soon as he felt solid ground underneath his boots.

He kept a consistent sprint across the entire mountain flattop, aptly stopping himself just before running himself off of the other side of the mountain's cliff. He pulled himself back from the ledge, the mountain provided him a grand vista, from which he could almost see the entirety of the desert floor below him. A metallic glint caught his eye, its source less than a kilometer away. Fire kindled in his eyes as he saw a durasteel facility nestled snuggly against one of the desert's many rock spires.

The jetpack had activated to get him part of the way up - assuming that it would continue to work properly, it would stop his fall, while also being much faster than hook-climbing down. Mereel didn't weigh his options for even a second before he jumped off of the mountaintop.

[member="Seo Linn"] [member="Ronin Wendigo"]

 

[000]

[member="Hard Contact"] | [member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Seo Linn"]​

​

It was then with his fingers all but flying thru the controls and try to work out not so much what the hell happened. But try figure out what he had to work with in terms of what systems were working and to what capacity. When out of the blue one of the uglies came close enought to buzz him a flyby take a peek if nothing less.

"Just great....pirates of all things."

With that said he then heard the faint ring from ship forward sensor that just came back online indicate the other close in on his position. At which time breathing a slight sigh of relief he did note how the hyperdrive seems had come back online. Though barely in the nick of time at which case knowing there was a slim chance he was probably gonna get one shot at this before it either fried or went down again. That he then under his breath spoke while trying to do as best of an evasive maneuver that could be had.

"Well here goes nothing...."

And with that said he then head forward make sure to avoid as much the ship as guns the engin to make it towards the close planet he could see. Hope against hope it was at best had a breathable atmosphere. Were he hope to touch down and bring the fight to the pirates...

 

[Hard Contact]

Traln Gorrik​

Aargonar, high orbit​

in hot pursuit of [member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

--​

​

Traln breathed heavily in frustration as both of his laser cannon shots and the ones that followed went wide due to his foe's evasive maneuver. Either that cargo ship's pilot knew his way around a starship control column, or the rodian pilot had lost his edge. Traln crossed his fingers and hoped that it was the former of the two possibilities. If his performance dipped he would be reassigned out of his Headhunter to an ugly like the majority of the Sun's pilots.

The Rodian pilot's semi-amphibious fingers began dripping with sweat as he renewed his focus on the cargo vessel, but Traln didn't end up firing any more shots at the cargo ship.

Traln blinked his eyes several times in disbelief. The pilot of the cargo ship had set a course to land on the planet. Traln rationalized the development by thinking that the pilot likely wished to avoid death by laser cannons.

Whatever the reason, Traln swiftly stopped worrying about being demoted. If he could get an entire cargo ship's haul without even having to shoot the vessel out of the sky, that was perfectly alright with him. Following closely behind in the wake of the cargo ship as the vessel entered the planet's atmosphere, Traln kept nervous fingers clutched close to the laser cannon firing button.

Assuming that the vessel's pilot actually planned on landing on the planet instead of pulling a fast one on him once in atmosphere, Traln fully planned on setting his ship down right beside it to blast the pilot and any crewmen with his blaster pistol. The Rodian was absolutely giddy with excitement. Bringing in a haul without even a scratch on the cargo was almost unheard of in the Suns of Avarice, he would surely receive recognition for such a feat.

###​

​

Gaurav​

Aargonar, Followers of Ma'lauk Research Lab​

[member="Seo Linn"] | [member="Mereel Vaun"]​

--​

​

Faint billows of smoke ascended from the charred remains of what had been a gaggle of escaped prisoners. Talking your cattle into surrendering was pointless. Like all whom they had encountered before, the prisoners either submitted to the stun bolts of the two mercenaries following him, or succumbed to his blade.

This group had collectively sealed their fate with the latter option.


"What a waste."

The Dark Jedi muttered as he deactivated his lightsaber. Each prisoner's death almost guaranteed that he would reap less and less benefit from the Follower's glorious mission - more and more power that would be granted to Segenom, an unworthy whelp, and by far the most useless individual he had ever met.

Guarav clenched his fist in frustration. He sensed the source of light nearby. It was fainter than it had been, but he had no doubt that the Jedi was still in the facility. Just like the prisoners beneath his boots, he had no doubt that the Jedi would soon become another cog in their operation or fall to his bladework.

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Despite the fact that the free fall took only seconds, he felt like eons had passed before his eyes as the desert floor rose to meet him. The ground welcomed certain death should he have landed with his current velocity, but his jetpack ignited without issue and prevented his hastiness from killing him this time.

He sailed horizontally above the dunes with eyes locked on the compound, paying no mind at all to the geography or fauna he passed. Even flying over a sarlaac pit without noticing halfway through his flight. Everything passed like a blur until his boots touched down on the roof of the research facility's main building. As he unclipped and ingited his lightsaber, his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He sensed far more than one force sensitive in the facility below. He couldn't put an exact number on it, but it felt like he could have easily been standing on top of a small Jedi academy. It was a little jarring for a second, but one familiar, faint presence drew his attention like a moth to the flame.

She hasn't reached out to me with telepathy..

Refocused in a heartbeat, Mereel carved a meter wide circle around himself and fell through the new hole in the roof. He channeled the force to lessen the weight of his landing so that he didn't break his ankle when he landed with the durasteel roof chunk. After scanning his surroundings for a second, Mereel broke into a run down a pristine looking white hallway.

He was entirely concentrated on making sure he could continue to sense Seo's presence, so he took in few details as he made his way through the research lab's various similar looking hallways. One thing he did notice though at one hall intersection was a pile of dead bodies in prisoner outfits, but he didn't stop to analyze them to determine cause of death.

Before turning left into a new hallway, he sensed a new presence. He rounded the corner and his worst fear was confirmed. A man in a black hooded cloak stood on the opposite side of the hallway, facing away from him. He didn't stop his run towards Seo, but he bore witness as the cloaked figure cut down two large prisoners close to him with the blue blade of a lightsaber. Mereel lost sight of the man as he took a hard left and entered a room halfway down the hallway.

His stomach sank when he finally saw her.

She was wearing a scientist lab coat, laying in a heap on the floor with blood pooled by her head. Any color in his cheeks drained as he ran over and fell to his knees at her side. His breathing became short and panicked, and his hands trembled as he took the personal medkit off of his belt. He had seen countless soldiers fall in battle, and had performed emergency first aid before. He knew Seo's condition was dire, and he was terrified of screwing any part of the first aid process up.

"Hey Dandellion.. If you can hear me you're going to be fine. I'm here now. I'm here cyar'ika."

She probably couldn't hear him, which was probably a good thing. Even though his words were meant as a reassurance to both himself and her, pain filled his voice as he uttered them. He slowed his breathing and cleared his thoughts, his mind slipped into a Jedi meditation trance as his body carried out the motions of Mandalorian taught emergency medical procedures.

Mereel wrapped a piece of kolto-laced gauze cloth around her head's open wound with care. As soon as the cloth was firmly tied in place, he pulled out a single-use bacta injector needle from his medical kit. The hand holding the needle shook as his metal hand lifted her shirt partially to expose her stomach. Just as suspected, her stomach looked bruised and battered - ribs were likely broken. He slowed his breathing and held his shaking flesh hand in place with his metal one as he injected her with the bacta. He watched in solemn silence as he watched the miracle drug begin draining from the needle.

The door behind him opened with a faint hiss.

[member="Seo Linn"] | [member="Ronin Wendigo"]

 

[000]

[member="Hard Contact"] | [member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Seo Linn"]​

​

[member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

Aargonar, high orbit​

Traln Gorrik​

​

It then seemed just his luck that for once he was able to wiggle his way out having any of the enemy shots make a hit. Then sort of with a combination of dumb luck and bit help from the force he was able least get swing the ship over planetside. Swing wildly to the untrained eye and weaving thru the canyon at quite high speed. Cause one of the uglies to crash and clip the wing of another on the way down... where spot a good enough clearing ahead. Good enough for say one ship land on which he took a gamble roll the dice before taking the shot.

Make it seem he was going for the spot and gearing land......force the other ship to try overshoot he hopes Force them to maybe unable stop circle back which in itself was a tough maneuver, Given how sharp the turn was and winding it was in some spots.

 

[Hard Contact]

Traln Gorrik
Aargonar
Tailing [member="Ronin Wendigo"]
--

The rodian shook his head in disbelief as the pilot lured two of his compatriots into the canyon after him, ultimately leading to their deaths. What fools they had been. If the they had only followed the cargo freighter from a safe distance above like Traln had, they would have survived.

Still, even with his superior intellect over his comrades, Traln overshot the freighter pilot considerably as the pilot began to feint going in for a landing - before actually turning hard in setting down on a much tighter spot. Traln slammed his fist down violently into the console steering column. Furious that he would have to loop back around before seizing his cargo.

Wasting no time, the Rodian jerked his steering column hard to port, beginning his loop back around. Once he found that freighter pilot he was going to put several blaster bolts through him for his troubles.

###

Gaurav
Aargonar, Followers of Ma'lauk Research Lab
[member="Seo Linn"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]
--

Accompanied by two mercenaries, the hooded and masked Dark Jedi stepped into the room. His lightsaber hissed to life in his palm, and a light blue glow illuminated the room. "What is this? A lone rescuer?"

The Dark Jedi slowly paced closer to the Mandalorian leaning over a blond haired woman in a lab coat splayed across the ground. The two mercenary guards fanned out and stood on either side of the door entrance behind him. He could sense that they were both force sensitive, but they felt far more focused in their abilities than the rabble of the facility. Even the semi-maybe-not conscious woman.

"And a pathetic one at that.. I can sense your anguish, Jedi. Take him."

The two mercenaries swiftly trained their blaster rifles at the Mandalorian, and both fired stun bolts aimed at the man's center of mass.

 

[Seo Linn]

Her world was black, painless and she was floating in nothingness. As Mereel tended to her wounds, a light started to dawn for her. Dim at first, but growing. When he injected the needle into her the eyes that had been closed popped open. She didn't remember what happened, but knew the helmet of the man over her.

Letting out a stream of curses in quite a few languages including some of the Mandoa he spoke so fluently, the pain of her body finally hit her. The profanities would be great enough to make any sailor blush. Granted they were hardly above a whisper because she could barely draw in the breath to say it. Her head also hurt like it had been cracked open.

Not remembering what happened to her head, she attempted to sit up, but ended up flopping back down clutching at her ribs.

"Ugh, what happened?"

Then it dawned on her. He had responded to her call and came for her. Just like he had said he would. Instead of sitting up, she laid on the floor and noticed through it all he had kept his helmet on. This was something good in her eyes, instead of being a hopeless romantic, he had enough sense to keep it on. It was a good thing as the door opened behind him. He might be able to pick up information that Seo couldn't in her condition.

Her vision was blurred at the distance viewing and Seo was unable to pick up any clear details.

"Trouble. Move now..."

Hoping he took her suggestion, she didn't know what was going to happen. Attempting to raise a simple barrier to keep from getting hit, she found herself unable to grip the Force. She could feel it, but could not touch it. Closing her eyes, taking as deep of a breath as she could, she tried again. This time without anything clear in what she wanted to accomplish. Just touching, using and accomplishing something. The Force controlled her and her eyes reopened.

Able to move her hand at least without causing herself a great deal of pain, the Force flowed from to wrap around the two mercenaries. It immobilized them for a few moments, but since she wasn't controlling this fully, they turned red and then purple in the face. No sound was uttered by them as they suffocated and eventually passed out. There was no death for them and once they were knocked out, she released them to fall to the floor.

"You take care of the other guy? I don't think I can."

[member="Hard Contact"] [member="Ronin Wendigo"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]

 

[Mereel Vaun]

By the golden light of her eyes, his spirits skyrocketed. It took all of the self control and reason he had to resist wrapping his arms around her right then and there, but he was able to hold himself back. He had seen the damage to her ribs with his own eyes, and while he was no longer nearly as worried about a broken rib piercing her lung due to his bacta injection, he still didn't want to risk the possibility because of one careless mistake.

He stopped breathing for a few seconds as he listened to her quietly let out a storm of obscenities, some being personal Mando'a favorites of his. A small smile formed under his helmet, and he made his voice low to match hers, "Mando'a and Huttese profanity? You really do know how to get me fired up. Think that might even be better than telepathy. ."

He got up from his knees and transitioned into a squat on his heels, still positioned slightly to the side and over Seo as he heard the lightsaber snap-hiss into life behind him. "You got a little roughed up, but I've seen worse. If you're trying to scare me away with looks at this point, it's not going to work."

She uttered her warning a few seconds after he first heard the lightsaber, and a few seconds before the Dark Jedi issued the order to his hired guns to fire at him. Mereel stared at her for a final second before reluctantly willing himself to standing. As he turned and faced their new foes, Mereel sized them up. The Dark Jedi didn't stand head or shoulders above him, so there was a good chance he outclassed the man in terms of strength, and the two mercenaries with him didn't look to be pointing anything special at him, just standard run-of-the-mill hunting blaster rifles - which also apparently had stun settings.

A devilish grin sprouted on the face under the helmet as Mereel cleared his mind and fell into the force. Adrenaline and the force made it so that the blue rings seemed to fly towards him in slow motion. The lightsaber on his waist unclipped itself from his belt and sailed into his rising right hand, icy blue blade igniting as it crossed in front of his face. Although he didn't have time to adopt the opening stance of form III, he began swinging his lightsaber to utilize one of its key techniques as soon as he felt the hilt in his hand.

The blue blade swept across him, starting in front of his right side and moving to the left in a deflecting slash. Since these were stun bolts, neither of the shots were reflected toward their origins and instead the blue rings harmlessly dissipated on the length of his blade. Not like he needed to follow up after his deflection anyway - Seo had choked the two mercenaries into submission before they could fire another volley at him.

With the blaster-wielders taken care of, Mereel slipped into Soresu's opening stance before the Dark Jedi made his move, "Thanks for that, but take it easy. I got this one."

[member="Seo Linn"] [member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

 

[Mereel Vaun]

Spoiler

double post

 

[000]

[member="Hard Contact"] | [member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Seo Linn"]​

​

[member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

Aargonar​

Being tailed by Traln Gorrik

It was then no sooner had he landed and saw how his half-arsed plan seems to have worked out. As he heard the loud explosion that followed when the ship pursuing him faceplanted into the canyon wall hard. Though his seem plan appear although did not to have gone over as well he'd hope without a slight hitch. When soon enough when while work on the ship controls that his short-range scanners came to life. Showing as much as confirming to him that there seem been more than just two ships in pursuit. As a third one blip to still show in and was no sooner heard whizzing past his ship on a more higher altitude. To which no less press upon him the urgency of the next phase of his plan. Calculation given the fuming anger he would likely assume they would have felt. Given the situation and outcome thus far of the situation given perhaps their miscalculation on their part. Presuming perhaps in some sense and buying into the cover his ship was under.​

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At any rate, he then no sooner turn his attention back to work the ship controls as best he could. Figuring he most likely won't have too long before that ship came to bear down on him again. To which thought the engine was still somewhat down. Make the option flying out there slim he noted that for the most part, the shield seems to be holding up somewhat. And so using this knowledge he then opted to go with a plan c... Wherein he then rerouting as much the power to the overhead shield, especially around the engine. Hope against hope they would least hold against the possible oncoming barrage of fire to come. That he then turned his attention to draw himself into a more meditative state. Before pushing his thought outward searching to connect towards his pursuers thought. As he plans thru the next phase... just in case the shield did not hold up as well he hopes. To then connect and using the skill learn thru the long solitude of his personal sojourn of learning. Ready himself as he then did so as he rolled the dice of fate try to dig in and grasp his attacker's mind as best he could. Instill in them the image of a ship damage and torn as best he could remember how if he could. As the ship then slowly close in for the second time...​

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[Hard Contact]

Traln Gorrik​

Aargonar, lower atmosphere/surface​

[member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

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Traln was still slamming his fist about in his cockpit when he finally pulled out of his long loop. Save the ugly fighters that had already crashed, no other pirate fighters had followed him into Aargonar's atmosphere, and he wasn't about to request for additional backup. The cargo vessel that the rest of the pirates were handling in orbit was much larger than the ship he had broken off to pursue. He wouldn't get help if he asked for it, he would only get laughed to scorn for failing to subdue the freighter.

The Rodian pilot wasn't worried though. This freighter pilot might have been good with a steering stick, but there was no way they could match Traln's skill with a blaster - or at least that's what Traln thought.

His ship sensors had detected a decrease in speed from the freighter - actually, a complete cessation of movement from the freighter. Traln eased off of the accelerator entirely, slowing down the ship as he angled the vessel to sail low over Aargonar's desert rocks. As he flew over the freighter's position, his eyes confirmed what his sensor readouts.

Traln's stomach sank.

His eyes saw that the cargo freighter had crashed, and had sustained serious damage. There was no comfort in knowing that his two pilot wingmen hadn't died in vain. The cargo ship was in tatters, which meant the cargo was likely damaged, which meant his share of the plunder was damaged, and that promotion was likely out of the question.

In a state of despair, the Rodian let out a plethora of curses as he set his ship down to land behind the smoldering version of the freighter that had been projected onto his mind. The cockpit of the Z95 sprung open as soon as his landing gears touched the ground. Traln drew his blaster pistol and vaulted himself out of his fighter cockpit.

He walked towards the downed freighter with jittery caution, ready to blast anything that moved through the rubble - which was very much still being projected onto his mind.

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Gaurav​

Aargonar, Followers of Ma'lauk's Research Lab​

[member="Seo Linn"] [member="Mereel Vaun"]​

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Gaurav watched unimpressed as the mercenaries to either side of him failed to drop the lightsaber-wielding Mandalorian to the floor. A second after they had fired their first round, both men stopped, clutched at their necks, and then crumpled to the floor. Good help really was hard to come by.

The Dark Jedi sighed in annoyance, "The most formidable opponents in this facility - a buckethead and a wounded dog. Thus is the dishonor of my role.."

Gaurav didn't launch into an attack, he instead took a single second to mill over what had just happened in his head since he didn't want to recieve even a scratch from either of these whelps. The Mandalorian's opening move was painfully obvious to read. The sweeping, defensive slash of his maneuver looked mechanical to the seasoned Dark Jedi, almost as if it had been acquired through flash training.

The most important takeaway from his observations though were that the woman on the floor was trained, likely a Jedi herself, which meant she was still a threat - and the man in front of him was a practitioner of Soresu. A wretched form, incapable of being utilized in striking down ones opponents.

With cool resolve, Gaurav put his left foot forward and pulled his lightsaber back in his right hand. Blade pointed upward, the Dark Jedi lifted the weapon until the hilt was evenly leveled beside his mask. Niman's opening stance left him open to attack, which was precisely what he wanted from the Mandalorian.

"If you had succumbed to the stun rounds, your deaths would have served a purpose. You will die without cause, but at least I can grant you the honor of dying on my blade. It is a warrior's death to die standing up Mandalorian, more than what can be said of the death that will come to her."

 

[000]

[member="Hard Contact"] | [member="Mereel Vaun"] | [member="Seo Linn"]​

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[member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

Aargonar​

Being tailed by Traln Gorrik

It was at best not his finest work nor the easiest use of the fairly untested skill thus far but somehow he'd seem. By some blind luck been able make the connection between him and the pursuing pirate. Feel and sense his way into his mind strong as much well enough make the illusion stick. Long enough that he avoided an aerial attack. Bu not so much a close up one given the pirate growing anger. He'd sense stem from perhaps the loss of his comrades and loss of their coveted prize of an easy ship cargos snatch.

That after brief look about and a brief scare from one the few local wildlife that cuffed close the ship. His ship seem escape the brunt of any further attack. As the pirate seem resign to cut his loss and egg on by the sudden ring his com. As he'd been then recalled back rejoin the fold as they wrap up the sacking of the bigger ship above. Then left and no sooner had the coast clear that he carefully power up. Conserving the ship power as he did a low orbit flight.

And soon found his way towards the wreckage of the beacon he'd been follow originated. At which time after securing his ship close and cloak it from air detection.Just in case the pirates circled back that he then set on foot pursuing the down ship occupants. To what he figure was some off the way structure. Which he secretly and silently broke in check out. And come in long sight of what appeasome red be some sort stand of. Where in even from that distance he'd recognized her presence in the force along with two other. One dark and another unknown to which fear the worst as from round them. More presence could be both spotted as well senses by hin. As such he opts to approach with cation as well carefully haste just in case....things went south and he'd had to intervene.

 

[Mereel Vaun]

The plethora of force signatures he could sense around the facility were of the least of his concern. What mattered to him was that there was a dark Jedi in front of him, and Seo incapacitated on the ground behind him. This was either a game of kill or be killed or keep away of the highest order.

Since he didn't a ship planetside, he chose the former of the two options. He stepped slowly closer towards the Dark Jedi. Normally he would have charged such an exposed stance headlong, but Gaurav's taunt on Seo's life had made his veins go cold with ice and made him cautious.

He didn't draw on his anger, although the force knew that he could have. Instead he slowed his breathing and emptied his thoughts, opening himself to the guidance of the force. His lightsaber lowered from its pointed opening stance and he brought the blade into a guard in front of his chest. As soon as the blade was repositioned he swung the hilt in a downward angle, trying to catch his opponent at his feet with a low sweep.

[member="Seo Linn"] | [member="Ronin Wendigo"]​

 

[Hard Contact]

The Dark Jedi frowned under his mask when his taunt failed to elicit the desired response. But it was of no matter. If he couldn't inspire fear in the man to defeat him, then his skill with a lightsaber would do well enough on its own.

Guarav let the force flow through him, using his frustration of his meager responsibility and anger for the Jedi to empower him. He saw the tells of the man switching forms into Shii-cho, and easily backstepped out of the path of his blade swing when the Mandalorian went on the offensive.

The man's attack left him wide open for Guarav to launch a stab at his chest, but before he attempted to thrust his blade to do that, he felt a new presence behind him. Another force user more in touch than the pathetic beings he was used to around the research lab.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Gaurav manifested his anger by throwing out the hand not wielding the lightsaber, and sending a massive wave of force energy cascading towards the Mandalorian, and by extension the woman laying on the floor behind him.

Turning his focus to the new, more powerful signature in the force, Gaurav spun about on his heel. Now facing the man who had been approaching cautiously from behind, the Dark Jedi hurled his lightsaber at him, blue blade spinning through the air propelled by the force.

[member="Seo Linn"] [member="Mereel Vaun"] [member="Ronin Wendigo"]