Let's Paint the Town....Red, Black and Gold! [OS/GA]

[Soeht]

[member="Mira Rekali"] slammed against the fallen statue behind her. As she struggled to regain composure, Soeht merely watched as if looking at an animal the Sith just wounded. Soeht approached Mira. No words came from the Sith’s mouth at first.

Just a blank, cold stare.

Then, Soeht looked up toward [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]’s ship as it hovered in the air. If the ship had such capabilities, Mara would have been able to get a view of Soeht’s face as well.

Stormtroopers frantically tried to shoot [member="Roth Tillian"] and his savior - yet were unsuccessful in killing the young man. More troopers continued to pour into the Valley - now calling for more firepower with the arrival of a strange ship. A group of soldiers approached Soeht and Mira.

One soldier was about to move toward Mira. Yet, his body was forcefully stopped by a gesture of Soeht’s hand.

Soeht then pointed that same hand toward Mira.

As Mira’s mind was out of focus, a compelling voice came from Soeht’s mouth. A mind trick.

“You will sleep,” commanded Soeht of Mira.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Mira Rekali"] [member="Soeht"] [member="Roth Tillian"]

The pall of dust was clearing in a stiff breeze from the repulsors, giving Mara a clear view of the scene: the man with the broken mask, the fallen girl, the stormtroopers. That last point was fairly critical. If the enemy is in range, so are you. A blaster shot, then another and another, splatted glasteel on the viewport. The Bullet Time, a little Rendili blockade runner, had its virtues, among them some phrik plating at various areas, but a small ship was a small ship. Even standard trooper grenades could do serious damage if they hit right. Beside and behind her, Mukami reached over from the sensor console and tapped her on the shoulder. "We have incoming, Captain. Patrol speeders, possibly starfighters. We need to leave."

At the controls, never taking her eyes from the tableau in front of them, Mara stretched out with her empathic senses again. She felt the girl's self-sacrifice mindset explode in pain, fury, and the first inklings of despair. From the unmasked man, she felt-

She shied away from that mind, locking down hers, possibly before she could be detected. Unknown quantities were nothing to sniff at, not this deep in enemy territory. And maxims about reciprocal range applied to mental contact, too. The last thing she needed was to take a full-spectrum mental assault while at the controls. "Styr," she called back, flinching as repeater fire stitched the transparisteel. "You got him?"

"Aye, Captain," the half-Valkyri said. "Gettin' him strapped down and patched up."

Strapped down was good. There was a better than even chance they'd have to leave...kinetically, within the next few seconds. Mara's fingers hesitated at two controls: the shields, and the Mandal Hypernautics emergency vector thrusters. Her crewers -- Styr, Mukami, Kolatta, Barth -- were Underground commandos, and they'd agreed to put their lives on the line to accomplish this objective. But better a bird in the hand than two in the bush. Better fifty percent completion than risk total mission failure. And she'd be risking exactly that if she used the Force to try and maneuver Mira into an open hatch. She'd be in no position to counter whatever the Sith might do. The Bullet Time wasn't high enough to deploy Conner nets effectively, and all the other guns would put the girl at risk. Flak cannons at point-blank range were blue-on-blue fire at its worst.

"Barth, you have the controls. Get us out of here." She switched helm to the copilot station and closed her eyes, stretching out to get a grip on the fallen girl. The odds of this working, for any reasonable value of working, were pretty fething low. Oh, she was decent enough at telekinesis, but decent didn't cut the mustard when Barth rolled the ship ninety degrees and triggered the starboard emergency vector thrusters. Even with redundant inertial dampeners, acceleration pressed her sideways into her seat at two effective gravities, straight up.

Anything could happen, and the outcome was more or less out of her control, no matter how hard she gripped. She'd never tried anything like this before. In theory, it was the same idea as a Jedi shadow bomb, and she'd done that. But Jedi shadow bombs generally didn't have to contend with terminal-velocity-grade atmospheric effects, sudden high-G maneuvers, or the potential for enemy telekinesis, all at the same time. Soeht could oppose her Force grip, and Mira Rekali might be torn apart or dragged back down as Mara passed out of range. Mara's grip could succeed initially but fail after a couple of seconds, leaving Mira wounded and hundreds of metres in the air. Now that Mara had revealed her presence for certain, Soeht could switch his attention to Mara's mind or those of her crew, in which case Mara would be forced to release the grip and protect herself.

Absolute best-case scenario, Mara might pull Mira along in the ship's wake, buffeted, probably thruster-burnt, likely unable to breathe from the force of the passing air -- at which point Mara and Barth might be able to snag her with an open hatch, a bruising and potentially lethal process. Massive gambles every step of the way, but balancing survival for six against the chance of getting Mira Rekali out alive, this particular hail Mary might be the optimal solution.

For some fairly unimpressive values of optimal.

 

[The End Narrator]

She felt the odd sensation of sleep grabbing at her being – threatening to take her into the darkest reaches of its cavity. The sharp pricks brought on by the probing of [member="Soeht"] rattling her mind but there, a familiar sensation brought her back to reality. A light energy source which felt so familiar and so close – Mara! Her mind screamed and resisted against the trickery, the foul sorcery attempting to sway her into a slumber. The chains within her psyche buckling, cracking and a demonic roar reverberating through her presence in the Force – then silence before a rush of darkness rippled from her light aura. It tainted her very presence, plotting out her echo in the Force, staining the bluish haze with a blood red. The chains of emotion broke into a thousand splinters of searing metal as Mira unleashed her emotions upon the moment, upon Soeht and the link to which Mara reached out to her.

The sensation of pain diminished as rage consumed it, her eyes began to flake with spots of deep crimson as they opened wide with a new sense of urgency. With a quick gasp and reach behind her, she would produce a surprise for the Sith Lord – a charge similar to the ones she left decorating the Valley. It would begin to tick away as Mira was ripped free from the ground by a telekinetic pull from Mara – one she ended up aiding. Granted, she was drained from the statue and physically beaten – but the dark side was a pathway to many talents and abilities. She had given in just for a moment, to escape the fate that was not hers. Through the Force, she wound her darkened tendrils of telekinesis about those of Mara’s and created a line that would pull her along – using what energy she could. It wasn’t long before she could feel the link between her and Mara’s begin to weaken as the ship progressed but Mira wouldn’t let it end like this.

As for the Sith Lord on the ground – he had minimal options, interfere with the rescue and be blown apart by the mystery item Mira dropped, or save himself and let it go for another day. He had seen her face and felt her mind, he knew who she was – there was no hiding from that fact.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] | [member="Roth Tillian"]

 

[Soeht]

[member="Mira Rekali"] began to rise into the air. Soeht stepped forth. The lightsaber in the Sith’s hand sprung to life. Yet, Soeht stopped at the first tick of Mira’s parting gift.

Without any apparent thought, Soeht swung the tip of the crimson blade at hand toward the beeping device. The same stormtrooper that was frozen in place flew through the air. The trooper screamed in horror as his body was thrusted onto the device and firmly pressed against it by a telekinetic force.

Soeht turned around and attempted to briskly run away from the fallen statue. Several soldiers followed in suit. A couple stayed - confused - as they looked at their panicked companion that was forced to cover the bomb.

An explosion ensued - ending the life of the stormtrooper forced to cover the bomb. The shockwave was still huge enough to send the closest stormtroopers flying several feet. Soeht stumbled as the air blast hit him.

Turning around, Soeht witnessed Mira ascend further toward [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]’s ship. The Sith deactivated the lightsaber at hand. The stormtroopers still conscious after the explosion began to blindly fire at the ship - yet the small arms would pose no risk to an entire ship.

After placing his lightsaber back on his belt, Soeht covered what was exposed of his face with his right hand. Still, several people have already seen his face with the wound inflicted on him by repeated bashes to the head.

The Sith departed from view of the ship - heading behind one of the bases of a Valley’s statue. He would leave the situation to regular One Sith forces.

 

[The End Narrator]

She heard some muffled explosion beneath her but that wasn't her focus, she was concentrating on the here and now - and with a reflex of her wrist, the grappling hook would shoot forth from her wrist and latch onto the side of the vessel that belonged to Mara. It would no doubt draw the ire of the good Captain, but it would be something she'd pay for later. The upwards progression began to take a sudden toll upon her arm, the sensation of tingling and numbness wracking her right side as she was reeled in towards the vessel - but it wasn't enough. The speed and velocity of the vessel was outweighing her gain, and Mira knew it once more. There was only one other option in this particular case - she could use her sustained flight system, but it wouldn't give enough thrust for enough time to catch up. She had to overload it through emergency protocol procedures.

“Protocol Delta Zero Five!” She screamed into her helmet as atmosphere zoomed by, the scream more for the feeling of dislocation coursing through her arm. She could almost feel the ligaments and tendions tearing as she started in a small spiral. Then without warning – the emergency protocol would kick in and Mira would launch forward in the speeds she needed to, to atleast make it to the hatch of the vessel, maybe beyond. She just hoped someone was there to catch her or this was for not. She could feel the waves of unconsciousness knocking at her brain as she sailed through the air - guided by the grappling line.

[member="Soeht"] | [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] | [member="Roth Tillian"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Soeht"] [member="Roth Tillian"] [member="Mira Rekali"]

Eyes still closed, Mara turned to Barth. "Now."

He switched helm control back to her, and she let go of the Force grip and twisted the yoke as the thrusters stopped burning. The Bullet Time spiralled in midair and dipped underneath Mira, snagging the young Mandalorian in the hatch. In quick succession, Mara slapped the shields, the hatch controls, and the afterburners. The Bullet Time roared into the sky, clawing for space.

"Calculating jump," said Mukami.

"Hear that, Mukami. Styr! How's guest number two?"

The big man's voice boomed through the intercom from the small medbay. "Human chum, Captain. Severely dislocated arm, thruster burns, other injuries. How're we doing for pursuit?"

"They've got nothing that can catch us before lightspeed, all else being equal." She'd felt a surge of negative emotion from the girl... "Might want to sedate guest number two. 10-96."

"...copy, Captain."

The Bullet Time leaped to hyperspace. Not the longest or the most precise jump in the world, but needs must.