Old Wounds

[Anora Vahn]

"Maybe I don't care if it fits within the Jedi rule book." Anora stated, frowning just a little now. "If my parents are criminals, then justice is within the rule book." Maybe not the sort of justice that was waiting for them, and perhaps that was a really dark think for a padawan to say, but it was true. "It's not my place to be their judge. It's only my place to hear the truth from them, and get that closure. Whatever happens from there is out of my hands."

 

[Tyran Numeck]

"Fair enough." Tyran replied with a nod. He couldn't imagine what he'd do if he were in her position right now, sure parents kept secrets from their kids but what her parents had done was a little bit of a step beyond keeping a tiny harmless secret. Now that the truth was out there it had put a mark on their children and left them being open to becoming leverage in a dangerous game, which is exactly what Anora had found herself becoming. He thought about it and sighed. "I have no issues with you Jedi, if you stay calm and don't become a problem or try to interfere with my mission then I'll consider letting you go after we finally get to Denon and find your parents."

Sure it wasn't a concrete commitment to giving her back her freedom, he was still deliberating on that, but it was the best news she was going to be getting for a while. He was certain of that.

 

[Anora Vahn]

Anora sighed through her nose slowly, "I won't get in your way." she assured him. "Not if everything is as you say it is." Now, if her parents were innocent? That was another matter entirely. But if they weren't? Well, as she had said it was out of her hands. If they were these people she didn't know, then surely they would have their own tricks and secrets to get them out of whatever situation. And if they didn't, then it was their time.

 

[Tyran Numeck]

It took a few more hours but they finally arrived at Ylesia and Tyran brought them out of hyperspace. "This place is only slightly better than Nal Hutta was. It might take me a bit to find a decent ship to place that tracker on after I get it off our hull. I want you to monitor the external video feeds from the cockpit and make sure no one else tampers with my ship." He spent the next few minutes showing her how the controls worked and how to swap camera angles. "If it looks like someone is trying to get inside and I'm not back yet, you can get a hold of me through the comm headset, it's linked to the one in my helmet. Also there are blasters in the back, you'd do well to grab one."

Normally he wouldn't have armed his captive but he could tell that Anora was more interested in if he was telling the truth about her parents than she was in causing him physical harm. With Anora being prepped on the systems she needed to know to run the ship while he was out, Tyran stood up and made his way out into the spaceport and then up onto the hull of his ship to find that tracker.

 

[Anora Vahn]

In the time that passed, Anora had managed mostly casual conversation. She did ask the occasional question, but it was all things about the ship, or the droid loitering in the back, or things that she was just obviously curious about. She had obviously gone from one sheltered life straight to training, and while she was a little defensive about it, she at least wasn't hostile about it. And she wasn't afraid to be wrong or curious about things she didn't understand.

Most of all, it was just nice to have someone to talk to who wasn't her sister, even if it had been someone who took her hostage.

When they finally stopped, and Tyran took the time to teach her how to use the system, Anora proved that she was a quick enough learner. She had only needed to ask a few questions about a couple of things, but she had it all mostly figured out by his explanation alone.

"Alright," she nodded to him, and got up so that she could get past him and get a blaster to use. Oddly enough, the idea of trying to unload it on him didn't even cross her mind. She hadn't been lying when she had told him she had her own code of honor, and they had made a deal. Once he was out, and she was armed, the brunette went back to her seat so that she could keep an eye on the monitors and make sure nothing was going on.

After a moment though, she did smirk a little and activate the com. [Hey, there's some armored nerf herder messing around the-- Oh, wait.] She really shouldn't have been comfortable enough to tease, though at the moment she didn't even think about it.

 

[Tyran Numeck]

"Ha. Ha." He said turning his head towards the nearest camera. "Good thing you went down the Jedi career path rather than that of a comedian." Tyran worked his way across the hull and found the tracker. It took him a couple minutes to remove it from the freighter, he had to get it onto another ship quickly.

In the berth across from their own was an old salvage ship that looked like it had escaped its share of scuffles with pirates and other rogues in its days. It would do just nicely as a decoy. Tyran made his way over to the ship and moved along the underside of its belly. His helmet sensors weren't picking up any cameras on the hull pointed at him, so if there was anyone inside the ship they didn't know he was there. He found a little nook in the hull plating and fixed the tracker securely into it and smirked inside his helmet. "That oughta keep you busy for a while you overstuffed slug."

"Anora, I've planted the tracker on a salvage ship. Should put some distance between us and the hut'uune following us." He radioed to her as he started making his way back to his own ship.

 

[Anora Vahn]

Anora gasped softly, and placed a hand against her chest even though he couldn't see it. [How rude.] she let out, but the smirk was definitely evident in her tone.

When he disappeared from view, Anora sank back in her seat some and kept her eyes on the monitors. She switched around from camera to camera, watching one longer than others when she would see someone move, or someone get too close for her to like, though nothing ever became a problem.

When Tyran's voice rang across, the brunette nodded, then made a noise since once again she couldn't be seen. [Good deal, we've already had to side track enough.]

 

[Tyran Numeck]

Tyran was about halfway back to his ship when a voice called out to him from behind. It wasn't a voice he was particularly fond of hearing. "Numeck! I thought that was you skulking away from my ship." Tyran turned and found himself looking at five Trandoshans, the leader of which was about a foot taller than the others and covered in dark green scales that looked about as shabby as the cruiser Tyran had just placed the tracker on.

"Vrassk." He said sourly. "So that's your ship huh? Real beauty, pick her up from some Toydarian salvage yard?" His hand slowly lowered down to his pistol because there was no way that this was going to go well. He switched over to his private comms with Anora. "We've got a situation here." He said to her in a calm but urgent manner.

 

[Anora Vahn]

A situation? Oh of course there was a situation! Why wouldn't there be? Anora groaned, [What kind of situation?] she asked. He wasn't quite close enough for her to get a look, not yet at least, though that didn't stop her from flipping through the cameras in an attempt to do so anyhow. She didn't like not knowing what was going on, especially when something going on came across as such a vague statement like that had been.

 

[Tyran Numeck]

"Oh ya know, the kind where a rival bounty hunter has me surrounded and might be a little angry." Tyran said casually. "I may or may not have have stolen a few bounties from him over the last couple years." It wasn't Tyran's fault that Vrassk and his crew were idiots and easily duped. "I need you to warm up the cannon on the ship and make sure the engines are primed for take off, we're going to need to make a quick exit from the system."

Vrassk, unaware of the conversation Tyran was having with the Jedi on his ship, was halfway through a traditional bad guy monologue. "Finally have you cornered all by yourself, no back up, no family. None of that. Now it's time for you to finally get what's coming to you."

"Wouldn't be so sure about that." Tyran said as he drew his blaster quicker than the lumbering Trandoshans could draw theirs and opened fire.

 

[Anora Vahn]

[Of course. I should have guessed.] Anora rolled her eyes at her own sarcasm, but she shifted around in her seat so that she could do exactly what she was told. Admittedly, this would be a lot easier for her if she could tap into the Force to let it help guide her, but as it were she had to rely on memory. Thankfully, she had a pretty good head on her shoulders, and her memory usually served her well.

[Alright,] she started, though the sounds of blaster fire from outside caused her to wince. [It should be ready any minute. You going to get on board, or shoot it out with them out there?]

 

[Tyran Numeck]

Tyran had rolled out behind a stack of crates for cover. He'd hit a couple of Vrassk's lackeys but the rest had pretty much well cut him off from his ship. "They're trying to push me away from the ship." He said. "You're going to need to take control of the ship and fly it over me, I've got enough juice in my jetpack to get me up onto the hull." He popped up and fired off a few more shots before ducking back down behind his cover again. "The sooner the better!"

 

[Anora Vahn]

Wait, he wanted her to do what? Slowly Anora turned in the co-pilot's chair to look at the pilot's seat, and for a moment she just sort of looked at it. Her cheeks then puffed, and she held a breath for a long time before exhaling it out in a rush and getting up from her current seat to move to the other.

[Putting a lot of faith in me right now...] she told him. What was keeping her from taking the ship and taking off, after all? Probably some high tech hoo-haw she knew nothing about, but the real kicker to it all? Running off and leaving him behind didn't even cross her mind. It should have - more than once! - but it hadn't.

Once seated, Anora looked the controls over and her hands flexed uncomfortably. "Piece of cake." she told herself, and then she took a deep breath and took control. While it was by no means the most graceful lift off, surprisingly moving the ship came easily enough. Flying? Sure, alright...Taking off and landing she was going to need to work on - hell, she didn't even want to think about landing. So for now, she focused on getting the ship over to where she could now see Tyran.

[Alright, get your ass up here and lets go!]

 

[Tyran Numeck]

Tyran traded a few more shots with the Trandoshans for a few more seconds when he heard the engines of his ship flare into life. He looked over his shoulder and saw his ship wobble a little and its belly scrape against the ground for a few seconds before lifting off into the air. "HEY!" He yelled into his helmet comm as he watched the ship fly towards him unsteadily.

When it was over head he launched himself up into the air and moved towards one of the escape hatches on the top. "Angle us for an exit out of the system." He said. "I'll be down in a few seconds to take control."

 

[Anora Vahn]

The hell into the comm made Anora wince again, and she closed an eye, [Hey, don't yell at me! It's not like I've ever done this before!] she didn't quite yell right back at him, but she came pretty close. Hey she had thought she was doing a pretty good job for it being her first time!

But when his voice came across again, the brunette blew at the hair that had fallen into her face. The ship was turned, and while there was no real grace about it, she didn't scrape against anything or take out any walls or other ships. And once she had the damned thing angled to where it needed to be, just flying was easy.

Still would have been a hell of a lot easier if she didn't feel half blind at the moment, though.

 

[Tyran Numeck]

Tyran looked over his shoulder and back down at the spaceport before he opened that hatch. "Shab." he groaned. The Trandoshan salvage ship was also rising up out of its berth and rushing towards them. Tyran hurried down the hatch and into the cockpit. "Out of the chair." He said hurriedly. "Vrassk has decided to chase us. Don't know what's got him so upset, it was only a few thousand credits I stole out from under him."

 

[Anora Vahn]

A noise sounded in Anora's throat when she was told to get up. She did as she was told, and stepped aside so that Tyran could get into his chair, but his statement made her scoff. "A few thousand credits? No, why would that make someone mad?" she rolled her eyes and sank back into the co-pilot's chair, switching the monitors around so that she could see without needing to be told to do as such, or reminded how.

"Though, I suppose that's a drop in the bucket out here." she stated after brief thought about it. She then shifted in her chair enough to see him clearly. "You didn't sleep with his sister, did you?" And she asked with the best poker face ever.

 

[Tyran Numeck]

"He's a Trandoshan, so no I didn't." He said without looking at her as he put in a new set of coordinates in the nav computer. Once they were free of the atmosphere he kicked in the hyper drive and instead of seeing the stars before him stretch out into elongated motes of light his ship just rattled and remained in orbit around Ylesia. Tyran growled as he stood up. "Must have done something to the hyper drive when you bounced the ship off the ground. Just keep us flying on this heading while I try to fix it, and hope that Vrassk doesn't catch up with us before I do."

 

[Anora Vahn]

"You really need a sense of humor." Anora grumbled at him, and she shifted herself in her seat once more so that she wasn't looking at him. She did however brace for the jump the ship was about to make, and when it didn't happen there was a brief moment of disorientation. It didn't last long, especially once Tyran opened his mouth, and she made a face at his back.

"Hey, don't place all of the blame on me here. You're the one who decided to let the non-pilot fly the ship, for the first time, in a very precarious situation, I might add."

 

[Tyran Numeck]

If only she could see the scowl she was given under his helmet. Tyran made his way down to the engine compartment and tried to figure out what was wrong with the hyper drive. "Try not to let them get too close, Vrassk likes his ion cannons and if he hits us with one of those he'll fry everything and we'll be dead in the water. I don't know about you but I certainly don't feel like being forced into being some rich Nemoidian's slave labor."