Private Second Times A Charm?

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

"Colette, make ready the ship is in sight"

The large merchant ship before them lay dormant as the Jedi steadily approached from afar. Silas had been called to investigate the distress signal only an hour prior by the council, although when he was about to set off he had an unexpected tag along. Colette, A Jedi who probably didn't consider him highly had been placed with him. Silas was half expecting her to continue where they left off, but for now, things seemed to be civil and going well. He could only hope for that to last if things got more hairy, especially considering there were hostages involved in this whole ordeal.

Pirates had already claimed responsibility for the attack and ordered the alliance to pay a price for each head. They weren't prepared to do that, so to keep on the safe side they put their trust in two talented Jedi who had proven themselves before. The only problem was the fact they didn't know of their differences before the assignment was issued, something which would provide a test for the pair to get along.

No matter what happened in the past, they both needed to focus on the now.

"Are you ready? we must make sure we don't spare any mistake for such a delicate task"
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

The armor piece was attached properly. Hilt hooked to the belt, safe and sound. With the rest of the check done and over with there was nothing left to focus on that could assuage the knot in her stomach that always formed in anti-grav environments, or maybe it was the idea of working with Knight Westgard that got to her again. She wasn't one to hold grudges, but it was also hard to forget a man who had tried to encourage self-righteous murder.

The kid gave herself one more look in the mirror before she closed her locker and secured it. Whatever had happened was in the past, Silas was a man as capable of change as anyone else. She was already suited up in her entirety by the time he came around to get his own equipment.

"I'm ready, Knight Westgard." Colette nodded. "The intel suggested the hostages are the remains of the crew who couldn't make it to the pods, which makes no sense. Enough drop pods should have been installed to see all of them through."

"The ship is practically unarmed, but has enough shields to withstand a prolonged assault…"

"Any idea what a luxury cruiser would be doing all the way out here?"

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

"It's uncertain, but from the data we have my guess is that someone from the inside caused all this. Luxury cruisers like this one don't normally stray away from their route unless in extreme circumstances, so it's certainly possibly a hijacking took place before the rest of them jumped on board to cause chaos."

Things like this were common in the galaxy and for the most part an ever ending story. The best the alliance could do was help prevent and save those who had been affected, otherwise they'd just be fighting an uphill battle. There were sure to be families also aboard looking to get a cheap lift elsewhere, that in itself was concerning enough for the knight.

"They've already made demands of safe passage and credits in return for the passages and crew lives. If we're not careful, it's not just our lives that are going to be at stake"

Giving the padawan a confident nod, his hand went to the ship's camouflage and activated the process. The pirates were not expecting any further company, especially those who had come to ruin the chance of having more credits in their pockets. There were a few docking bays that were still open, one being towards the back which was smaller than the rest. Hopefully, the attackers hadn't yet learned the ship off by heart for them to get to their location if spotted.

"We're going in, keep an eye out for any activity," he muttered before finally moving them toward the docking bay. The last thing they wanted was a welcome party for their arrival...
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

They both seemed to be in agreement that this was a trap, no doubt about it. Question was how the two of them would treat the situation. Colette saw it as a rather obvious thing to spring it and then reverse engineer it, but with Silas she just couldn't know. She wanted to believe he meant that they needed to try and avoid combat at all costs given his choice of words, but then maybe he also meant to keep none of the kidnappers alive.

Colette shook the uncertainty and merely settled on coming along for now. The ramp to their boarding vessel touched ground and revealed an empty hangar. She looked over at Silas and nodded.

"They must have missed this one in the sweep." She whispered and pointed at the scorchmarks on the ground where vessels had made unsafe takeoffs. "More could have made it away before they secured the ports."

"Keep an eye out for survivors in hiding."

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

"Good observation, it appears more have escaped even when they were on the ship"

Keeping that in mind, the knight slowly lowered the ship until it safely reached the floor with a quiet landing. Before he got out of his seat, he made sure to leave the ship on standby just in case they needed a quick getaway "Let's move, I'm positive the hostages will be happy to see once they know we're here" he said positively as he made his way over to the ramp, his gaze briefly looking back to the padawan who was joining him.

"Listen Colette, whatever happens in there, we make sure to get all of them out alive... got it?"

The command seemed to have a little coldness behind it as if he stood by every word. If needs be Silas was going to put his life on the line to make sure they were all safe. No one deserved such treatment, especially for the plans the pirates had for them if they managed to get off this ship in one piece.

When the ramp lowered, he moved down and kept a hand close to the saber which was attached to his belt. For all they knew it could have been a trap, but from the looks of things nothing looked out of place so far. Another positive was the fact the cameras appeared to be disabled, possibly from internal damage during the taking over of the shuttle

"There's a jammed door up the stairwell, it looks like someone has smashed up the control panel in a hurry. Care to do the honors of getting it open?"
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Someone out there in the galaxy had lived to tell about this story… Colette looked at the smashed console, the scorch marks, and then Silas with a grave nod before she withdrew her saber and ignited its blue blade to begin carving a small square hole for them to step through in order to reach the other side.

The corridors were eerily quiet as they stepped through. Clear signs of a struggle was showing in the way things seemed scattered about. Splatters of blood and burns from blasters decorated the walls and floors and brought with it a full picture of what had gone on here. Given the way things were otherwise decorated around here it was fair to assume this was the section of the ship where those who did not come from the top-of-the-top stayed.

"Why does he always pair me with you?" A gruff yet nasally voice echoed from the other end.
"Cause he knows I got brawns and brain." A very cocky, clearly gran voice scoffed.

Colette dodged into one of the suites and beckoned at Silas to join her.

"You have neither of those, dimwit."
"What did you call-"

The silence grew tense.

"Did we cut through the doors on the way in?" The gran asked.
"NO! You'd know that if you weren't so-"

The gran hushed his friend with a hiss and knelt down by the square hole Colette had carved.

"This is fresh."
"We're not alone…"

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

The mess of the corridor only indicated the chaos that had transpired once the bulk of the pirates had gotten onto the ship. Blood and scorchmarks were the proof, and if anything was to go by it only got worse the more you looked down the corridor. Silas noticed that as they both quickly took shelter in a suite that kept them hidden from the oncoming voices.

Nudging Colette as they spoke, Silas carefully looked over their cover. He saw that both of them had their backs turned and were vulnerable to a surprise attack <"We've got to strike before they spread their suspicion to the rest of the grunts"> he said telepathically while kneeling back beside the padawan <"You take the right and I'll take the left. Do what you think is necessary to take them out quietly">

The obvious thing was to use force stun and tie them up in the suite. However, he was quite curious to see if she had taken Valery Noble teachings to heart.

<"Stay close, we will need to do this at the same time">

Silas gave her a brief nod to show he was ready and began to quietly move back out of the door. As Silas got closer, he gave Colette a brief look before suddenly lunging forward and putting his hand on the back of the left pirate's head. Instantly, the man's body locked up and fell back into the knight's arms in an unexpected slumber.

All he hoped was that Colette did the right thing.​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

There was a significant difference between killing someone and incapacitating them; a fatal one at that. Colette wasn't opposed to pacifying someone, but she most certainly wasn't about to let any subsequent harm come to them either. Tying them up was an effective means of both keep them from harming others as well as themselves.

She wanted to comment about it to Silas, but it was still best to not poke at the scabs of their past.

"A3." She whispered as they closed the doors to seal the two pirates in one of the cabins to keep them from running. "For when the enforcers come pick them up."

She looked at the slag of metal on the floor that she had carved from the door. She considered maybe putting it back in or at least trying to hide it but there was really no point. There was, after all, still a giant hole there.

Up ahead was a three-way crossroad. She peeked around the immediate corner but saw nothing more than another longer row of cabins, and up ahead there seemed to be a row roughly as long as the one that they had already traversed down.

"This takes us down the center of the ship." She said. "Maybe there's other ways to move around."

Colette glanced up at the ceiling and walls to try and see if she could find anything else. A droid shaft for service and delivery, or maybe a vent.

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

"Indeed, we will let them know where we left them once we've cleared the ship"

Leaving the two pirates and the destroyed door as they were, the two Jedi were finally met with a crossroads of sorts. Either way seemed to lead them into trouble and the thought of climbing into a nearby vent didn't seem too bad of an idea. Like they mentioned earlier, the pirates probably didn't know the ship too well yet so it was probably the safest option of not getting seen. Walking down the corridor a few more steps, they managed to stumble across a big enough vent they could climb into.

"Here, there's a ventilation we can use to try and make our way through the ship. We may still have the surprise on them, but there's a good chance we may bump into more of those thugs along the way"

Raising his hand, the knight used the force to tug at the ventilation shaft "Who knows what mess we will find up there, hopefully just ten years worth of dust and grime..." with one last tug the grate of the shaft was finally pulled free. Placing it in his arms, he quietly placed it in an empty cabin and went back to Colette.

"Ladies first..." he said with a slight smile before leaning over slightly and extending his two hands in front of him for a standard lift into the hole above.​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard
Pshft, lady, yeah, okay… Colette tsked as she stepped into the dust-ridden ventilation shaft. The cruise might have seemed somewhat semi-luxurious but that certainly wasn't evident from the looks of this place where one could almost have sworn that the walls were covered in fur if they squinted.

["Careful movements, mind your feet, try not to speak."] Colette signed back at Silas. She didn't quite enjoy telepathy. It seemed too much of an intrusion for her tastes. ["Did you close the vent behind us?"]

However, just in case he didn't know Basic Sign Language, Colette would draw a square using both her index fingers and then acted as if she grabbed onto the edges of it and pulled it back towards her to make the point.

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

Silas helped the unthankful padawan into the vent and soon joined her. Now kneeling, he looked straight at the girl and seemed to look at her confused when she instead used sign language. After thirty seconds of figuring out what she was trying to say the knight finally knew that was asking for the vent to be placed back in.

Sighing lightly, Silas could only shake his head in annoyance <"Well, it's a bit too late now considering I had to rip it off"> he said without regard for her wish. If he tried to talk back with sign language they were going to be here all day, she'd have to live with it for now <"Nonetheless, I have placed it in one of those empty cabins. We just have to hope they don't find it suspicious...">

Motioning her to get moving, they did the best they could not to cause too much noise. If they were discovered in there, it would certainly spell bad news.

"What's with the sign language anyway? It is not one of the core things Valery teaches to her students..."​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

The vent was ripped off and she bobbed her head as if to say 'fair point'. And no, signing was not a part of Valery's education, that was something that Colette herself had decided to mix into it given her aversion to having someone invade her mind against her will. Lazier Jedi, such as the one she looked at (amongst a great many others like him) saw telepathy as some sort of given thing. It was not. It was disrespectful, at least to Colette.

Never presume that someone would appreciate unsolicited intrusions just because it was "easier".

But, in the continued spirit of 'reconciliation' it wasn't worth pointing out. Instead she shrugged and continued to motion at him. Two fingers at her eyes, then raised to draw a circle in the air before she pointed her thumb over her shoulder and turned around in said direction to move forward.

"... been a while since they reported in…"

The voice caused Colette to slow down. Two pirates positioned themselves just in front of a vent and began to speak. She looked at Silas and moved to position herself on the opposite side so that they could both listen in.

"Flarkin' Bex prolly jus' off goofin' again…" A noticeably toothless voice nearly hissed. "Alwaysh goo' fer it tho'."

"Yeah, but on a job like this…"

"Eh, we clear' the aft 'en thoush luck' runnersh."

Colette motioned her hand at Silas as if to say 'ahh, so that was the scorch marks then.'

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

If Silas had known how to sign he probably would have followed suit with her idea. Instead, he decided to use the standard way of not talking which was communicating telepathically. He never took it for granted and only used it when the time called. Although, there were some people who seemed to be quite against the idea entirely. One of them was staring him in the eyes, and the fact she thought that way really made him disappointed with her line of thinking.

Nodding to what she was motioning, he followed her down the vent until they heard more talking outside one of the many entrances.

Their accents were barely recognisable even for an Azbrian boy. The thugs were speaking almost gibberish, to translate and fathom they were actually speaking galactic basic was getting harder by the second "That explains things..." he said after she indicated about the scorch marks. The more they continued the more they learned more of the situation, it was clear they had to keep moving.

<"I don't know about you, but I want to know what they're holding those hostages">​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Thumbs up on that. Colette would too like to know where they kept the main objective for this one. She looked out the vent to get a look of the two guards since it was just about the only sense they hadn't invaded yet. They smelled of sweat and unwashed clothes to such an extent you could almost taste it, and spoke loudly when they opened their mouths. The second she was going to try and sign a question at Silas was the moment that things went wrong.

"Pretty good armaments in this crew." One of them said and raised it as if to point it out.

"Chewpowsh sho…"

"Yeah, this is definitely a higher calib- OH SHIT." The one that made sense exclaimed as he dropped his gun. At the barrel hit the edge of a nearby trolley, and after that it hit the floor with a loud bang. A disruptor bolt went off straight in the direction of the vent separating the two Jedi from the invaders.

Colette shielded herself from the oncoming shot with her arm as dust from all around them was shaken awake to linger THICK in the air both inside and out of the ventilation shaft.

"BLEESHIN' IJIIT!" The incomprehensible one shouted.

<What was that?> A voice over their radios called.

"Ijjit droh 'is gun."

A tickle spread along Colette's nostrils. She looked at Silas in horror as her mouth slowly opened. She was going to sneeze, it was just a matter of time. She tried to push it down, her panic growing. If he wanted a drop on these guys, he had to act NOW. Otherwise it would all be blown.

Whether he acted or not, the outcome was still the same.

"AH-CHOO!"

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

The two pirates in front of the vent must have been drunk in some capacity. Silas had not heard such a disruptive accent for a long time, not even in the most remote parts of Azbrian did they talk that bad. Not only that, but their heads must have been hollow. The pair of them were testing out a new blaster when one of the two stooges fired the damn thing. The knight immediately covered up as the shot whistled past them, forcing dust to land on their forms. Thankfully, he seemed unaffected compared to his partner whose mouth was preparing for an almighty sneeze.

<"Dont you-"

Before he could finish, Collete's sneeze echoed through the vents and almost instantly alerted the two idiots in their direction. Silas only looked back to the thugs and rushed out of the vent with a quick force push. The metallic sheet slammed into the legs of the first, dropping him to the floor with a loud yell and leaving the last one to begin raising his blaster. However, before he could squeeze the trigger Silas slammed a fist into his face and threw him hard back first into the wall.

"Elppppppp eelllll-"

Out of no where a hard kick to the head of the pirate ended his pleas for help. He had been slowly crawling down the corridor, unknowing that Silas had been by his side. Looking back, he motioned for Collete to join him outside the vent <"I guess our questions will need to wait till later"> he said with a large sigh. Then, on the body of the thug closest to the wall a radio crackled to life.

"Ello! Ello!? did yaw not hear me voice?! give me one gud reason why I shouldn't come down dare and slaw yaw both senseless!"​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Colette sniveled and coughed as she stepped out of the ventilation shaft, far too dazed to really register just how violently Silas had incapacitated the two thugs. Would she approve? No. Would she see the point? Sure. He effectively had to act on his own or the others would have been notified. As long as she could see this as a hunt there were a lot of leeway to be had.

Just too bad they had no real idea where their prey was.

She pointed at the radio device and then Silas. How would she convey this without breaking into Silas' mind?

[ You. ] She pointed at Silas. [ Are a man. ] Colette raised her hands in front of her as if gripping too really big balls. Then she raised her fist in front of her as if to hold something into her mouth and began to smack her lips. [ Talk to them. Lie. ]

Now, it could have been interpreted as encouragement for him to talk, or something… Else. Something a bit more… Mouthful.

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

Silas's brows raised in amusement to what Colette was trying to indicate. It was obvious what she was asking him to do, the way she was doing it however made it quite humourous to say the least <"You may want to touch up on your sign language, Colette. You seem to be getting a little bit too excited"> the knight expressed with a cheeky smirk.

Her mishap wasn't the biggest issue, there was still a mindless brute he still had to answer to <"There's no miracle in the galaxy that can help me replicate that disgraceful accent. I will try my best though..."> kneeling, he grabbed hold of the communicator and looked back up to Colette with a bit of concern <"Alright, here it goes"> With that, he hesitantly placed it close to his mouth.

"Uhhhhh... we don be shootin on purpose boss. Rock for brainz ova ere is causing da gun to malfunction!"

As soon as he had finished, Silas could only run a hand down his face in absolute embarrassment.​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Eye roll. Now wasn't the time for that. At least the universe was kind. Silas opened his big mouth and tried to copy the deep accent. There was a pause of static on the radio for a while before:

< "Right, well, rein it in." > Came a frustrated growl. < "Scans picked up intruders entering the system earlier." >

Then the intercom died and Colette let out a sigh of relief.

"They know we're here. But they don't know where we are." She whispered. "That gives us the element of surprise still."

Her foot tapped against one of the pirates on the ground. And then eyed the ventilation shaft.

"We should put them in the shaft. Gets them out of sight." She said. "Or we put them in the cupboards, I don't know."

"Can't leave them like this at least."

 

[Silas Westgard]

Location: Space, close to Fornax
Objective: Investigate the distress signal
Tag: Colette

Silas kept the hand on his face and expected them to call his bluff. However, to his surprise the person on the other side seemed to fall for the voice and leaked some valuable information "For now, but they'll be high alert and increase their patrols" he whispered back "We will need to pick up the pace and find those hostages before they get too erratic"

Looking at the bodies on the floor, he looked to the vent before glaring back to the cupboards which looked big enough to fit in the two stooges entirely "Help me put these bodies in the cupboards, I doubt they'll be searching in these any further" the knight suggested while going to the man's legs and grabbing him by the ankles to try and lift him with Collete "Carefully now..." he said quietly as the man's head bumped into the wood and forced a small groan to escape his lips.

Doing the same with the other man, the two of them were finally ready to move on. Sneaking up to the doorway, he peaked into the empty corridor and spotted a sign that indicated the control room was up ahead "Bingo, if we can get to the control room we can check the cameras and find out where the hostages are"​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

It was heavy work fitting two grown men in cupboards, but the duo would manage it just fine. Maybe their captives were just a little worse for wear, but most likely nothing worse than on their average night out. A bump on the head or two, maybe a pinched foot.

Colette snuck up to the doorframe next to Silas and gave a nod. Getting an overview would be good. Numbers, locations, anything was better than just stumbling upon them one by one and hoping that the last one truly was the last one.

The hallways were quiet, but so too was the control room. There was obvious signs of struggle, the cameraman was clearly taken out and—

Thwp!~

Colette felt a prick in her neck. She reached out to feel it only to notice that something was sticking out of it. She pulled it out, held the dart in front of her, and…

"Huh." She said and blinked for a moment. "That's not good."

She turned around, saw two hooded figures in black, far more well-armed than the men they had seen up until now. Or at least they looked hooded, it was getting hard to see with how bright everything seemed to get all of a sudden. Actually, it was… Really difficult to stand.

"S-silasssssss-..."

The kid collapsed on the ground with a thud.