Private In the Dark of the Night

[Katja Javik]

She awoke with a groan and slowly pulled her head up to sit upright. Her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting as best they could but several people just appeared as figures among the shadows with only the nearest person, who moved in front of her upon seeing her awaken, providing any clarity. "What's this about?" She asked, calmly, acutely aware of the fact she was unable to move from the seat, bound by the wrists and ankles.

"It was difficult trying to find you. See, we had to follow a lot of rumours since we had nothing but a name. Your identification lists your birthplace as Hapes but there's no record of you having Hapan citizenship, so it took us a while to track you down since you didn't exist according to the Hapan authorities." He replied. It was a non-answer but it gave her enough information to understand the situation so she gave a frustrated sigh. "So, you're the galaxy's most over-zealous immigration officers?" She asked, jokingly.

"So, we're smugglers here to collect our payment for shipments delivered to Hapes to Nora Javik." He replied. "That was my second guess." She replied with a frustrated sigh. "Look, I don't have that kind of money. These are her debts. Ask her to repay them." She told him. "We are." He pulled a blade from his belt and used the end to lift her chin upwards to look at him. "We were just after some encouragement." He informed her with a false smile before dropping the expression and removing the blade.

Somehow, her fate being in her mother's hands made her more nervous than if it were in her own. Still, her expression remained placid as she watched the shadows exchange objects in the distance. She squinted to try and see what they were holding but it soon became apparent when one walked into the light with what appeared to be a camera.

As the blade was held above the knuckle of her smallest finger, she didn't flinch. They had been trained to withstand such adversity. Regardless, her primary emotion wasn't fear but the loathing she felt towards her mother for getting her into such a situation. Now she could only hope that she could get her out of it.

K'in'cuci​

 

[K'in'cuci]

The Black Knuckle Gang - at least this specific branch - had been terrorising a small community for years. Exploitation, theft, harassment, assault and more filled the list of crimes committed against the people - which he had learned from the locals. While he still hunted down those that killed his brothers, he was compelled to help those in need whenever he could. Which is why the Chiss took it upon himself to purge this gang.

Perched on a rooftop facing the Knuckles' well-known hideout, K'in'cuci's colorless lenses studied the guards patrolling the surrounding area, memorising their routes. His body remained stiff as he inhaled deeply, centering himself and focusing his mind on the coming conflict. The ending rose to his feet and closed his eyes, exhaling as he reached out to the Force that connected all beings.

Using this energy, he propelled himself toward the man standing guard of the main entrance. Aiming his beskar coated blade downward as gravity began to return him to the surface below. In the hair's breadth of the tip of his blade press against the skin of the unwitting guard, plunging further down as his feet neared the ground, the world slowed to a stop. In that moment, he could see, hear, and smell everything moving at a crawling pace - K'in'cuci could see the blade begin to tear through the man's body, hear the crunch of his bone being severed, smell sickly copper as blood began to shoot from his opened wounds.

And before the man could even realise what was happening or even make a sound, it was already over. K'in'cuci's expressionless mask glanced down at the man below him, lying in an expanding pool of blood, and whispered "Ch'im to K'un'ci tascarah vah tis." Before bending down to retrieve the fallen man's pass key. Watching the main entrance slide open as it obeyed the command of the key, he entered inside.

A guard making his patrol down the hall that the current corridor K'in'cuci occupied, immediately noticed the intruder "K'pah." he muttered, and without as much as a word, the guard began to open fire on the hooded swordsman. K'in'cuci swiftly brought his blade in front of his body and began to block and reflect the bolts that came his way. The sound of the blaster fire served to alert the hideout that something was amiss, and not long after, more men soon arrived.

Meanwhile
​

"Er, boss." an underman spoke up, sounding particularly dumbfounded.

"Yes, I heard it too." the ringleader would respond, instantaneously.

"What do you--" he started.

"Go and find out, obviously!" the ringleader cried in a simultaneously annoyed and panicked tone of voice.

As he watched some of his underlings leave to investigate the disturbance, some remained behind. Turning back to Katja, the ringleader would approach the restricted Imperial, leaning close to her face and in the most threatening tone he could muster "I don't know how you tipped off your pals in the Empire. But they ain't gonna save you, I promise you that."

Katja Javik

 

[Katja Javik]

The sound of blaster fire exchange piqued her interest and unnerved the people around her. Though she didn't fully understand what was happening, it gave her some hope. "I don't know how I did it either, to be honest." She replied. To her knowledge, no one knew where she was. Perhaps the group had managed to irk someone else and she just happened to be in the right place at the right time or maybe it was more debt collectors on her mother's behalf. That remained to be seen.

As he leaned in closer, she turned her hand to grip the blade, surprising him enough to pull it from his grasp even though it cut her hand in doing so. She pulled blade closer towards her and upwards to cut through the bind on her right wrist and then turned her hand to thrust the blade in the direction of the man's chin, holding the tip of the blade against his skin as he had done to her.

With the distraction, she was afforded more liberties, though she still needed to be careful. The people around her were armed with armed with an untold number of weapons but she felt pretty confident in the fact that they didn't want her dead yet - it would be counter-intuitive.

She maintained her threat towards the leader, seemingly in stalemate.

K'in'cuci​

 

[K'in'cuci]

The hooded avenger had brutalised his way through the men guarding their ringleader, now what stood between him and his target were a group of men with a deluded sense of honor attempting to make a final stand. The blood red eyes behind the white lenses scoured into the eyes of the men at the end of the hallway, their fear and panick clung to K'in'cuci's senses like a foul odor. Their ragged breathing displayed their uncertainty to commit to what they were about to do, it didn't matter regardless, their fates had already been set.

Raising their pistols and rifles, they began shooting and K'in'cuci resumed his assault. The soles of his boots kicked off the ground one at a time, breaking into a sprint the Chiss raised his blade and began swinging the weapon in multiple angles and positions - deflecting and reflecting the bolts that came his way. In one fell swing, his blade reflected two blaster bolts into the chest and head of two guards. As their bodies collapsed to the ground, their allies collectively gasped in shock before two more would feel their body restrict and tense, refusing to obey their commands.

K'in'cuci's off-hand had the two men in a tight grip via the Force's ethereal grasp, lifting them from the ground he would then jerk his arm forward and launch the men into the door behind them. The impact broke it off by its hinges, sending them even further into the room where their ringleader lie in wait. The remaining men inside flooded out the door and attacked once more.

It was already too late, having already closed the gap he quickly dispatched his attackers with his blade. Plunging the weapon through the last remaining gang member's abdomen, he spun around behind him and used it to fling him deeper inside the room - unaware of the hostage inside.

Katja Javik

 

[Katja Javik]

As the commotion neared, she grew impatient. She was yet to find out if it was someone or something else she needed to defend against so she didn't want to be in her current position when she found out. Whoever it was seemed to be making her life a little easier at least for the moment as he drew away the remainder of the reinforcements. The sound of the door breaking open was enough of an encouragement to act quickly.

"They won't stop." He warned her, almost smugly. Their faces were almost close enough to feel the warmth of breath but it did nothing to deter her from running the blade across his throat in one swift movement, not giving the satisfaction of a reply. As he crumpled to the floor, she freed herself from the remainder of the restraints and got to her feet. She was by no means sadistic but neither was she merciful so she left him to die without consideration.

She couldn't help but wonder why someone would give their life for such a meaningless cause. At least her own allegiances meant something greater than financial gain. Though she didn't have time to ponder on the philosophy of motivation as one of the gang members' bodies slid across the floor and stopped near her feet.

Even if it hadn't been dimly lit, she couldn't have seen out of the room to identify the attacker so it was better to be safe than sorry. Still armed with the knife, she reached down and pulled the blaster from the body in front of her, aiming it towards the door. "Step into the light." She demanded.

K'in'cuci​