Private Into the Unknown

[Valery Noble]

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Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

Within seconds after she had sprung the trap, Valery heard six shots, and all of them were dead on the ground right after. The hallway fell silent and for just a moment, Valery looked around her and frowned — she would have preferred to handle this without casualties, but she hadn't actually discussed that with Joran, and it was too late to do something about it now.

"Hallway cleared," Valery finally said before she turned around and looked at him.

"Chit. Comma aren't just down, they being jammed. I figured we could send the droids to go find the power source for the tractor beam but I can't get through. Back to the bridge then or you fink we should split up?"

She gave it some thought for a moment but quickly made up her mind, "I don't think we should split up, especially because we don't know where the power source is. For one of us to walk around aimlessly is too risky." Even if they found the power source along the way, going up to the bridge was still the better option. It allowed them to not only deactivate the tractor beam but also learn about who attacked them and the people this ship once belonged to.

"Oh and one thing, don't kill everybody on the bridge, please. I don't think it's necessary, and we might also need them for answers. I'm not going there just to escape — I want to know who is behind all of this."

She paused a moment, then added, "If it costs extra to get you to use a stun setting, I'd be happy to pay it too."

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

"I don't think we should split up, especially because we don't know where the power source is. For one of us to walk around aimlessly is too risky." She told him quite reasonably.

"Fair 'nuff." Joran said as he checked the calibration on the pistol he just used. Everything had worked like it was supposed to, the enemy was dead but Joran hadn't loved the way it felt.

"Oh and one thing, don't kill everybody on the bridge, please. I don't think it's necessary, and we might also need them for answers. I'm not going there just to escape — I want to know who is behind all of this." She continued. He hadn't planned on killing the whole bridge but she was right to be safe and say it out loud, because most like he could take out the bridge if it came to that.

She paused a moment, then added, "If it costs extra to get you to use a stun setting, I'd be happy to pay it too."

"They're your credits." He told her as he stuffed his pistol back in the holster roughly completely unsatisfied with whatever fixes he had been trying to make.

The walk to the bridge was far less eventful than their boarding had been.

Must've been an advanced scouting party. He thought.

The two of them stood outside the doors to the bridge. Joran tilted his head and looked straight into an overhead camera.

"Well they know we're about to knock." He said to Valery.

Joran pulled a flask from somewhere on his person and took a long gulp.

He held the flask out to Val and shrugged.

"Whenever you're ready, let's pop in and say hello."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

After making their way over to the bridge, Valery briefly studied the closed blast doors before her gaze was drawn up to the camera, "That's alright, it won't make a difference that they know," she said with a shrug of her shoulders before she looked at him. The second he pulled out a flask and took a gulp from it, she tilted her head and raised an eyebrow.

"It's water, right...?" She asked while she looked at the flask and declined with a small wave of her hand. Regardless of what it was, she didn't want anything and stepped over to the door instead. "Alright, I'm opening this and covering you. Try to take them out as quickly as possible," Valery said before her hand traced vertically along the frame of the door.

The sound of internal mechanics shifting could be heard, and slowly, the massive doors slid open. As expected, a wave of blaster fire immediately met them, but Valery drew her double-bladed weapon and began to deflect the incoming bolts with great precision. Some were sent back to the weapons of those shooting, while other bolts were simply sent into the walls or ceiling. It offered Joran a lot of cover on the otherwise open bridge of this vessel.

She hoped that he'd make good use of it, and drop those she wasn't able to disarm with her deflections.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

"It's water, right...?" She asked him while turning down his offer of a drink.

Joran looked at her like he didn't understand the question. The way he saw things was as such: they, only two people, granted two overqualified people but yet still two people, were standing outside the only known entrance to a room they needed to get inside of, in said room on the other side of aforementioned door were an unknown number of hostiles, though one had to imagine that unknown number was significantly more than two.

That unknown but significantly higher number than two hostiles were all aware that the two of them, overqualified as they are, we're about to come in through that door which happened to be the only known entrance to that room and so presumably had an unknown number of weapons with an equally unknown level of lethality pointed directly at the previously mentioned door.

To Joran that all added up to a pretty significant chance of dying and he would be damned if he were to die with the taste of water on his lips.

"Alright, I'm opening this and covering you. Try to take them out as quickly as possible," she told him.

That last bit was a little unnecessary. He thought to himself as the door slid open with a woosh.

He hadn't had time to count the number of enemies in the bridge as he returned fire on them but he counted as the number became less. He had counted up to five newly made corpses when he went to count a fifth and too his shock and dismay the very lethal not all stun bolt he had fired went ricocheting off of its target which Joran realized only after shooting it was not a person but a droid.

A B-series super battle droid to be precise. Karking hell it was a relic and probably worth more sold to a collect of antiques than used in some I'll thought out robbery scheme and it was certainly not something Joran had thought to find out here in the literal middle of space but it honestly wasn't very often that things went the way he thought they would when he teamed up with a Jedi.

Joran grabbed Valery by the shoulder and pulled her roughly back out into the hall so they could each take cover behind the wall as the droid fired a rapid amount of blaster bolts at them along with the remaining robbers. She was good, great even, a Jedi Master but Joran was aware that she couldn't keep deflecting bolts forever, sooner or later she would get tired or they would get lucky and with his pistols not being able to break through the droids shielding the two of them were close to become sitting gundarks.

"We need a new plan!" He called to her over the sound of blaster fire. They probably should've workshopped the first plan. 'Open door. Shoot bad guys.' While genius in its simplicity did not rank highly in being well thought out.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: @Joran

After the doors opened and Valery began to deflect the initial wave of enemy fire, a rather unexpected opponent appeared as well — a shielded droid she personally didn't recognize, but it had a lot of firepower and even though she deflected some of it back against its shielding, nothing seemed to be able to penetrate through them. So she began to plot a different approach in her mind, but before she had a chance to try anything, a hand settled on her shoulder and pulled her back.

"What are you-"

She looked at him with surprise when she was pulled around the corner, but quickly accepted it and glanced around the wall to see the enemy taking up new positions. They had been able to drop a few, but the droid and remaining thugs were set up well, and the barrage of blaster bolts seemed to be endless.

"Do you have a grenade?" Valery asked when he mentioned a new plan. "If you toss it into the room, I can use the Force to guide it accurately so we can take that thing out."

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

"Do you have a grenade?" Valery asked when he mentioned a new plan. "If you toss it into the room, I can use the Force to guide it accurately so we can take that thing out."

si'hklesi foh He cursed. Thank The Force Merrick was no longer around, if that sour old man had found out Joran had gone this under prepared into a situation that was so very clearly going to go south he would have beat him bloody.

“Sorry, Lo-...No such luck. One second.” He held up a finger and then swung himself so that he pressed nearly face flat toward the wall right where Valery happened to be taking cover as he took the time to fire a few blaster bolts into the room as he gave it a quick scan. He was close enough to her that she’d be able to smell his cologne(expensive) or notice just how clearly he needed to shave his five o’clock shadow. They looked like something out of a romance holo or something but this was no fantasy, it were real and they were very close to having their stories come to a close.

“Left side of the room, one of them boys I shot dropped his rifle. Can you Force that thing out here?” He was certain she would be able and that it was only a matter of time.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

Valery blinked at the curse she didn't understand, and sadly it meant her idea to use a grenade wasn't going to work. He, however, seemed to have a different plan and shifted over to her part of the wall, where he took cover really close to her. While he fired several shots into the room, Valery looked at him for a moment, before she finally shifted her gaze to where he wanted her to look.

"I see it," she said as she placed a hand on his shoulder and moved around his back to take a good look into the room. After she spotted it, she shifted back around his body to get back into cover. "Alright, here goes." Again she shifted away from cover but this time she extended a hand and very quickly summoned the rifle towards them with the Force.

In the blink of an eye, it found its way to Valery's grip, after which she pressed herself with her back against the wall and offered the rifle to Joran, who was... probably going to use it to blast them? Regardless of what his plan was, she would be ready to assist. "What are you thinking? Is it powerful enough to take those things out?"

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

"What are you thinking? Is it powerful enough to take those things out?" She asked as she handed the rifle to Joran who answered with his trademark charming smile.

Joran took a knee, pulled a small knife and his flask out of his pocket. Joran removed the power cell from the rifle and began working it over with his blade. After a few furious seconds of working with his face scrunched, Joran looked back up at Valery, his smile returned.


“Maybe you know or maybe you don’t.” Joran started as he unscrewed the cap of his flask. “But these powercells are full of tibanna. Most of the time it’s tibanna gas.” He explained taking another long drink from the flask, before turning it over and pouring the rest of the contents onto the floor with a pained and apologetic expression over his face as he watched the caramel colored liquid flow over the floor panels.

“This,” He held the mangled power pack up to show her. “Is older than I am and it so happens to be a pack that actually kept the tibanna inside as liquid, where it would be converted to gas and then to plasma. Typically droids use something like this and not all that often because it’s damned easy for the conversion mechanism to get screwed up and have a worthless power pack.” Jora then held his flask in the power cell and began to pour the highly flammable liquid into it.

Now he held the flask up to show her. “The power cell itself is designed to, you know, not explode from something like a normal blaster but this flask full of tibanna will very much go boom. How’s that for a grenade?” He asked her grinning once again.

“You Force this beauty where it needs to go and I shoots it, we got ourselves a winner. What’chu think?”

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

She definitely didn't really know.

While Valery had learned how to use blasters, she didn't know too much about how they worked and what else could be done with them. But when he began to work with the power cell and mentioned the gas content, she did understand where it was going, and it made sense to her. If it was strong enough to power blasters, surely it could help them blow up those droids, right?

She then watched him spill the contents of the flask onto the ground, and only one thought ran through her mind, Yeah, that's not water.

Joran transferred the gas from the stable power cell to the flask and held it up. Even without really knowing just how powerful it was, Valery felt a tad tense. He was essentially holding up a makeshift explosive, and they could be very dangerous. If the enemy were to hit before they could move it far away enough, they'd be in a lot of trouble.

But it was still a clever plan, and one she wanted to go through with.

"Perfect, let's do this," Valery said before she took the flask so he could already prepare his weapon. She then focused on it with the Force and very quickly stepped away from cover while she tossed it in the direction it needed to go. Once close enough, she slowed it down with the Force and positioned it just right to hit not only the shielded droid but some enemies around it too. All she had to do now was wait for Joran's shot, and move behind cover quickly.

Because even if the explosion wouldn't reach them, the debris certainly could.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

Their handcrafted totally genius grenade was in position and Joran took aim and fired twice nailing the target with the first one. There was a rush of air being sucked into the area around the flask and then a larger boom that accompanied a flash and a rather impressive ball of fire. In Joran's youth he partnered with a Houk smuggler and pirate who had nicknamed Joran "Flash." As much for his style of dress as for his ability to make things explode.

The thing went boom and Joran pulled Valery back into cover with him where he shielded her body with his own. Would debris come flying out of the room? maybe, maybe not. Did she need him to stand over and protect her? No, not at all. She had The Force after all and was a Jedi Master and almost certainly all around more capable than Joran but old habits die hard, you understand.

Joran smiled for a second, just a second when suddenly he was yanked from his feet and sent hurtling into the bridge room. It seemed their bomb had worked in destroying the droid but it also had the unintended consequence of piercing and blowing a hole in one of the bridge viewports. Normally a blast shield would drop and cover the damaged part of the ship and seal the vacuum but as derelict as this vessel was the blast shield only came down half way and the screaming vacuum was trying to take anything it could out into the void of space.

After Joran had been pulled into the bridge the doors that they had been hiding behind closed and sealed shut, a back up measure in the ship's system once it was realized that the blast shield failed. Joran was now stuck clinging tightly to a computer console holding his breath while Valery was on the outside staring at a set of closed blast doors.

Chit just kept on getting better and better.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

The explosion was a lot more violent than Valery had expected.

After Joran pulled her aside and shielded her, she briefly smiled in return and focused on projecting a Barrier of Force energy around them, which shielded the two against debris flying out towards them. As much as she appreciated him being willing to take the hits for her, she was able to shield them both with the way they were standing, so she wasn't going to allow him to get hurt.

But she did not quite realize just how much damage the explosion had caused. Very suddenly, the pressure difference that occurred when a viewport cracked caused Joran to be knocked off his feet and sent flying towards it. Valery watched it happen with widened eyes and wanted to reach out with the Force to help him, but a safety mechanism to isolate the breach kicked in, and the large blast doors closed on her. Part of her wanted to shatter it the way she had before, but she knew that could cause catastrophic problems for the ship.

Luckily though, Joran had probably met the right Jedi to help him out in this situation.

Drawing on her training as a former Jedi Shadow, Valery stepped forward and drew in a deep breath before she phased her way through the door. In this massless state, even the lack of pressure could not suck her out of the ship, and so she quickly moved for one of the consoles. Once there, she materialized normally and held on before her fingers reached for the switch that could activate a force field to pressurize the room again.

It was her only shot at keeping Joran from flying out the viewport.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

Joran was swimming in and out of consciousness from the lack of oxygen but he honestly thought it would've been a bit longer before he started seeing things and yet here he was watching a ghost version on Valery walk through the depressurized room as if she were just taking a jaunt through memorial park.

Suddenly the pressure was back and Joran hit the floor with a thud. He lay face down on the floor for a moment catching his breath and severely missing his flask and its pre-tibanna contents.

"You're a sight for sore eyes, Love. Sorry, Valery. Fings got a little close for comfort, yeah?"

Joran picked himself up off the floor and surveyed the now very damaged bridge.

"That bit about not killing everyone? Maybe I gotta knock the price down for you." Joran told the Jedi when suddenly and very fortuitously there came a sputtering cough from under some pieces of droid debris.

"Hold that thought. It looks like we have a survivor. Fink you'd like to 'ave a chat wit 'im?"

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

"You're a sight for sore eyes, Love. Sorry, Valery. Fings got a little close for comfort, yeah?"

Valery smiled and didn't seem to mind that he called her Love again — he had just narrowly escaped death, so it wasn't too strange that he slipped up a little bit. "Much too close," Valery agreed before her eyes were drawn to some coughing in the room as well. She let a smirk linger on her lips following Joran's comment about it and moved towards the source.

"Oh, I definitely want a chat with him."

"P-please... don't kill me," the man said as the pair approached him. He looked mildly injured, probably from the blast and debris that was flung around, but nothing serious that would require immediate medical attention.

"We're not going to kill you," Valery assured him, but she still had a stern tone and looked rather intimidating to the man. "We're going to take down the tractor beam, and you're going to tell us what you're doing here, and if there are more of you."

"And what if I don't?"

Valery glanced at Joran, giving him an opportunity to step in as well.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

"And what if I don't?"
Valery glanced at Joran, giving him an opportunity to step in.

"Well mate," Joran said, kneeling down to look the injured man in the eye. "The lady already promised we won't kill you." The man yelped in pain, his eyes widened in fear and anguish as Joran leaned on the debris covering the man putting pressure on his hurts.

"But you don't talk and well all your mates out there drifting in the void or even them ones that got blowed to chit, mate if you don't talk thems is gonna be the lucky ones, dju understand?"

The man's only answer was another cry of pain and Joran put more pressure on the crushing debris.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

Joran got the signal and while he knelt down to apply pressure to the man's wounds, Valery stood with her arms crossed and just watched. There was nothing about her body language or the way she looked that made it appear she'd step in to stop Joran, so there were no cries for help or attempts to play into her feelings.

The man just screamed and listened during the brief moments of relief Joran gave him to talk.

"F-fine.. please... stop..." He was breathing heavily from the pain and screaming at this point, and he very well understood that he was lucky to even still be alive. He wanted to keep it that way. "We were just looking to make some credits, man... please," he whined while he looked at Joran and the realization really kicked in.

"You killed all of them."

Valery tilted her head and ignored his comment, "Are there more of you out there?"

"Plenty more, but I don't know where they are. I swear," he replied, and for a few seconds, Valery stared at him before she finally nodded. She could feel whether or not he was lying, so there was no further need to pressure him. "Let's take him with us, Joran. I think it's best we get out of the hellhoop for now. I have what I wanted from this place."

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

"Let's take him with us, Joran. I think it's best we get out of the hellhoop for now. I have what I wanted from this place."

Joran responded with a short nod and roughly dislodged their new captive from under the bits of mangled droid. The Shanghai man wailed in pain. His left leg was a mess. Caught in the blast or perhaps just from the shards of droid, his leg from down below the knee was hardly even there. It looked like raw uncooked bantha burgers where shoved into sausage casings that were too small. As Joran pulled the man away from the wreckage his leg bounced disturbingly along the floor, it was barely hanging on by a flap of skin.

"Oi, mate. Tha there ain't no good." He told the wailing man who took one look at his own mangled leg and passed out.

"Val, we got'ta get 'im to the medbay or your got to use that lightsaber o' yours for a quick surgery. Bloke's gonna bleed out for we make it back to the ship."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Location: Perseverance
Appearance: Link
Outfit: Factory Link
Weapon: Double-Bladed Lightsaber
Tag: Joran Del-Finn

Watching the leg practically fall off, Valery shuddered and reached for her weapon again, "Yeah, I'm on it but it could still be risky," she said before she cleanly cut the leg to cauterize the wound. It was something the old healers she once knew would have been absolutely pissed over, but they had no medical equipment on them to stop the bleeding.

It was this or a guaranteed casualty.

"Let's carry him back, and I'll tend to him while you get us out of the hellhoop. After that..." she let out a soft sigh, "I'll get you the well-earned credits and that'll be it."

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

A scream, a shudder and too much squirming as the Jedi’s lightsaber sprang to life. Joran set the man on the floor and held him forcefully as Valery excised him of the lower half of his leg. Serves him right. Joran thought. Either from pain or from shock mercifully their new captive passed out. Joran groaned as he heaved the man back over his shoulder.

The pair retraced their steps through the derelict vessel and ran into no further surprises as they boarded Joran’s ship.

“Get ‘er undocked and ready to fly.” He told his droids. Joran dumped their prisoner onto the floor of a cargo hold and turned to Valery. “I don’t carry much in the way of med supplies.” Joran rummaged through a crate and in his hand held a medium sized white plastic case. He tossed the case to Valery. “Tha’s a basic medkit. You’re better off hitting him wiv the stims inside, waking him up, interrogating him and tossing him out the airlock, but don’t let me tell you how to do your job. If you need me I’ll be flying us out of here.”

Joran left the Jedi and the raider and headed back toward the cockpit. He took a seat in the cracked sweat-stained leather chair, put a grip on the worn control stick, fired up the engines and headed back for Cyrillia.

Valery Noble