Private Second Times A Charm?

[Silas Westgard]

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

Nothing could indicate a trap ahead, nor any activity that could hinder their progress. Although, when the both of them decided to move ahead their thoughts were soon going to be proven very wrong. As they approached the door, an unusual noise came from Colette behind him. When he snapped his head backward, he was barely able to register what happened to her before his world turned black, leaving them at the mercy of the pirates who were surely behind this well calculated attack.

When both had finally fallen motionless a large individual, followed by a gang of his lackeys finally appeared from down the corridor laughing victoriously. On the other end, two individuals dropped down from their hiding places in the vents and did the same, seemingly proud of their handy work and cheap tactics "Dat was a gud call boss, day think we stoopid enough to believe dare tricks?!" one of the attackers bellowed, his glance looking for praise from the bloated pirate.

"Ya did gud both of ya. Dese Jedi underestimated our smarts, now day will be our bargaining chip!" he said proudly with a rub of his hands, knowing well he'd be able to get a good payday out of both "Send dem to da sells, I want dem unspoiled for when dare Jedi pay for dem!" upon his orders the pirates drag them both to the holding sells. Chucking both in, Silas groaned and finally began to wake up from the rough landing.

"What in the galaxy..." the knight groaned out as he lifted his upper body and put a hand to his neck. Whatever they used was strong enough to knock them out almost instantly, leaving them little time to react and pump out what was in their system. Looking at Collete, he slowly shook his head in annoyance and nudged the padawan to wake up.

"Colette, are you with me?"​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

The young woman woke with a twitch. Her chest sunk and rose in quick succession, the initial shock and panic sent her hyperventilating and her eyes darting around to figure out what was going on. To her she had only just been darted, and now she was somewhere else completely. It made for quite a rude awakening.

But, on the bright side, Silas was here too. Maybe she would have liked it if it was anyone other than him that she shared a cell with, but at least it was better than sharing a cell with no-one at all. If anything because it meant that their captors were dumb enough to put two Jedi together in one cell.

"My head…" She groaned.

Colette put her hands to her forehead and began to apply pressure. It felt as if she had just drank a dozen jugs of pure moonshine at once. Nausea clung to her throat and the veins that ran along the side of her head to her temple seemed to pulse with an infernal beat.

"They got us?" She asked.
"Where are we?"

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

The fact he had a banging headache and blurred vision didn't really help his proceedings one bit, at least Colette had been placed with him "Well, we are certainly not in a corridor anymore" he said with a hint of sarcasm in his tone "They've thrown us in the ship's cells. You know, a small space we can't get out of?" the knight sighed with a shake of his head. It could have been worse, at least they weren't floating around in space with no air in their lungs.

Slowly getting to his feet with a groan, he looked to the energy field locking them in. There was no way they'd get through that unless someone opened it from the other side "I had a feeling this was going to happen..." he said with a quick grin while he was turned away from her "Due to your inability to watch your surroundings you've got us into this mess"

Step one, make a scene.​

 

[Colette]

He did not just do that. Colette curled her fingers into her palms and tensed them. She felt her lips pull at the corners to expose her teeth. He wanted to make her angry, huh?

Wait.

He wanted to make her angry.

Her lips thinned out, her eyes squinted and she backed off. Hands remained balled into fists, though.

“You’re trying to make me angry.” She said and shook her head. “I won’t let you.”

Silas Westgard

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

Damn it, if only it was that easy.

Silas hated being mean to fellow Jedi, even if they were incredibly annoying. It wasn't in his nature, but if it was required for their escape he'd have to pull out some of his best work in order to get the reaction he wanted from the ever stubborn Colette. Silas was going to regret this after the mission, and he was certain the effects of her

Taking a deep sigh, he looked at the padawan with a cocky, fabricated grin "You won't let me? Oh please, I'm sure you'll start having a breakdown like you did the first time we met" the knight said as he stared daggers into her eyes "I wonder what Master Noble would think of your stupidity? would she look at you the same way after getting one of her former padawans almost killed?" Silas continued, his mind helping him push the last words out of his mouth.

"In their eyes, you'd be a disgrace to the Noble name"
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Why was he doing this? Colette raised her eyebrow and began to look around the cell. It wasn't very big. Four solid walls and a roof that glimmered with impassable energy. There was barely a thing in this room except for a small camera in one of the corners that recorded just about everything that they were doing.

Colette's attention danced between the two before she finally let out an amused chuckle. She placed a hand on Silas' shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Not only are you so fucking wrong with that, but you are also just making a fool of yourself." Colette shook her head. "All you're telling me is that you're scared of death. And, I've been insulted by people twice your size and smarts."

She leaned in for a whisper.

"If you wanted me to attack you, just say so!"

With no further warning she sent her fist on a collision course for his nose. For all intents and purposes it was a genuine attack on his pretty little face. Not because of anything he'd said but because she wanted to see if she could at this point.

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

Bingo.

The raging fist of Colette slammed into his nose and sent him falling to the floor back first, leaving him curled up and making the most of their vicious attack. To say Silas was afraid of death was a huge overstatement, for a long time he had welcomed the day to see his parents once more. The only thing that was stopping him was the fact it wasn't his time yet, his purpose had yet to be fulfilled in this galaxy. Being a fool on the other hand... he had no other choice but to be one for the moment.

"Wat are you bratz doing in ere!"

A booming voice from the entrance suddenly rang out in the room as he and another one of his buddies came to check on them "Wees didn't say yous could fight each other! Now back away ya slime!" punching the button to lower the energy shield his partner went to Colette and pushed her toward the wall. In the meantime, he went to check on the groaning Silas who was still reeling.

"Get up ya wimp! we don-"

Suddenly, Silas's body rotated on the floor and a leg came swinging out for a well calculated sweep. The pirate, who was taken well off guard fell to his back and was soon jumped on by a nose bleeding Silas. His arm lifted with lightning fast intent and slammed an elbow flush into the side of his skull, instantly knocking him out.

It all went so fast that his buddy had only just turned around to see his friend's body go motionless

"Heh?!"
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Yep. That was the signal.

The remaining pirate hesitated for a moment before he reached forward as if to try and grab Colette again and the girl returned the favor by grabbing a firm hold of him instead. She yanked his arm forward to get him off balance and immediately lifted her leg to stomp her foot against the inside of his knee to force him to kneel.

After that it was just a measure of sparing him of the pain by knocking him out with a gentle touch and the force. One strike to incapacitate him for the rest of the fight, the other to — in a way — soothe his pain. Sure, she could have done that before the knee-stomp but then he would be able to just get up again if his friends found him and woke him up.

It was hard to move with a broken knee after all.

For good measure she knelt down by the one Silas had taken out just to ensure that he was still breathing. There was a pulse, which was good! She offered him the same peace. There was no need for them to suffer needlessly. They technically already were, given their occupation.

"Grab their weapons." Colette muttered and grabbed one of their blasters. "Disassemble the rest."

"We are the predators in the cattle's pen. They will be looking to encircle and kill us, meaning we will need to outmaneuver them."

"You're good at violence, and you're a Jedi, so I doubt you'd have any issue with that. Just try to keep as many of them alive as possible. They deserve better than to die a meaningless death like this."

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

Silas snapped his head in time to see his buddy fall to the floor with an impressive takedown by the padawan. She did well, but now they needed to get out of here before more of those mindless fools arrived "You don't have to say that again..." he grunted as he moved to one of the holsters and pulled out a blaster. Silas was impressed that Colette had stepped up and ordered him around for once. It was a good call, and it was always good to see Padawans take the initiative.

Getting to his feet, Silas ran a hand through his bloodied nose and looked to Colette with a slight grin "Good punch, I see you were waiting to do that for a while" the knight said jokingly as the stream of blood slowly went to his mouth. The only negative was that it was a little too hard, that was something he couldn't help.

Colette had earned it in all honesty.

"None will be killed unless absolutely necessary, you have my word" he said with a more direct tone and a brief nod. Killing was the last thing he wanted to do and if hostages were going to get killed because they were too focused on not trying to hurt them too badly then that would need to be thrown out the window. It was either them or an innocent civilian who didn't deserve to be harmed.

"We better move, I sense more will be arriving here at any moment" Silas said while moving up to the doorway and looking down the corridor "We're in the same corridor as we were before the ambush. That means the control room is close by..." He muttered "However, they'll know we'll be coming by now"

"Got any ideas? if we can somehow lead most of them away from that area we'll have better odds of freeing those hostages if they're around here."
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Initiative was part of who Colette was. Problems needed dealing with immediately and decisively with whatever resources were at hand even if that meant it would lead to a sloppy first solution. It was better to get it under control and then re-apply it once there was a better solution available.

In this case it was punching Silas and then disarming their opponents. The kid held the stolen blaster in both of her hands and ran an inspection. The weight was off and whoever had messed around with the charge feeder seemed to think overcharging it would make the shots pack a bigger punch.

It would seem that whoever had tried to break them up were part of amateur hour. She withdrew a small spanner from her belt and quickly gave the charger a quick tuning.

"Here." She said and handed Silas the gun and then took the one he was holding and ran a quick rundown on it too as they went. She took out the plasma pack to check how much there was left in it: about a third.

"I have a few." Colette muttered and began to do the exact opposite of what she had done with the previous rifle. "Ever seen what happens when a poorly tuned charge port gets into contact with a tampered plasma pack?"

They came upon a three-way crossing of corridors. One led back the way they came, the other up ahead, and the third was to the right. They knew the backup would come from the right, and not just because the force said so but because a group of heavy footsteps. Colette dropped the rifle on the ground right in the middle of the crossing so that the crew would find it.

A trap, in very simple terms.

There was a very real chance that in about five minutes — give or take — Silas was about to see a henchman pull the trigger on a bomb that would blow his hands clean off. Provided that he picked the rifle up to begin with, of course.

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

Silas took the gun and briefly examined it himself. He hadn't used a blaster for some time, but it wasn't going to be hard to pick up when things began to get heated. His gaze went down to the pack Colette was holding and for a few moments a smirk shot across the knight's face. She certainly had a plan, not a solid one but an idea that could potentially even the odds considering the numbers they were up against "It explodes..." he said in reply to her last comment as she put the blaster in the right place.

"I like where you're going with this, I'm willing to give it a shot" Silas said with a brief nod "Just make sure we're out of view from any secret cameras. From what I've seen, they don't appear to have a microphone to capture audio. So in regards to our plan, they haven't heard a word."

Looking at the camera down the corridor, he noticed that it wouldn't have picked up Collete placing the gun in their spot. There was also no feed covering the area they were in, so he doubted those punks would be smart enough to figure out their plan. Lightning didn't twice, nor did the use of their brain cells.

"I'd suggest hiding in a nearby empty compartment. When we hear them spring the trap, that's when we shall emerge to take down any potential stragglers" Silas suggested just before a feint echo of stomping came from down the corridor.

Ready or not, it was showtime.
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

They each dodged into a compartment of their own and waited for the trap to be sprung. After a few minutes there was a set of boots that passed both their compartments by that abruptly stopped as they picked up the rifle on the floor.

"Morvath's rifle…" One of the grumbled. "Never leaves anywhere without it."

The two jedi could hear the way the crook twisted and turned the rifle in his hands.

"Always well-tuned though. Always a little more punch than normal, but… With a veeeery sensitive-"

Click. BOOM. A loud shriek erupted from the man as he accidentally pulled the trigger on the gun he had just picked up and found that superheated plasma covered his hands for little more than a second, yet for just long enough for both his index fingers, a ring finger and thumb, and all but his thumb on the other hand to evaporate into nothing.

The man fell silent a moment later with a whine and a thud. The others seemed to be struggling with the after-effects. Some sought cover, others had to pat out fires that had engulfed a limb or two.

In a very real sense it was lucky that none of them had died. Not for them as much as Colette. She kept a close watch on the situation through the force. They were alive, but most certainly not in a good state.

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

Silas and Collete both squeezed into their compartment, waiting patiently for the set of boots to come stomping down the hallway toward their trap. Soon enough, that very thing came. Grumbles from the men outside confirmed his thoughts and without warning a giant blast erupted outside to indicate one of them had been stupid enough to try and mess with it. Huffing to himself, he finally kicked his door open and revealed the carnage Colette created.

"Good work, that's a big portion of their men gone"

Silas imagined the pirates wouldn't have brought an entire army but a crew of at least a dozen. Six lay on the floor beneath their feet, it was just a matter of how many were left in the control room "Come on, we better head to the control room and get those hostages before the pirates do something even more stupid" the knight suggest as he began to run down the corridor to where the signs were guiding them to their destination.

Coming up to a set of large blast doors, Silas had a feeling they knew they were coming "Be prepared, it's guaranteed they know of our arrival. We may not have our sabers, but at least we have these blasters and the force to keep us company" he explains while coming to a stop next to a switch to open the doors.

However, just when his hand was going to open it himself the doors began to open from something on the other side. Jumping back to Colette, he stared into the large control deck and rested his eyes on the captain who had two of his last men on either side of him. The hostages were all behind them sitting in the corner shaking for their lives, one of which was in front of the captain with a blaster against their skull. They were a mixture of ages, but the one the captain chose specifically looked only to be a young kid who was trying to make some quick credits from a job.

"Stop where ya ar else the puny brats head gains an extra ole!" the gluttonous man barked, his finger ready to squeeze the trigger at a moment's notice "You lot ain't giving up are ya? so aw about we stop data right ere, right naw!"​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

She nodded and followed along. It was time to disable the big guy and the one who most likely had their lightsabers on him. And big guy didn't feel like a bad description once he came into view. Colette had low standards in terms of beauty, but this man was pushing it even for her.

However, once they realized he had a hostage there was little she could do but raise her hands in apparent surrender and glance around the room for something to use.

"Fine." She said and looked the man dead in his eyes. "We'll listen as long as you don't pull that trigger."

"Let the hostage go and we can talk."

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

Even though Colette had raised her hands to surrender, Silas didn't.

The pirate captain looked to the knight and snarled "Listen to da little twerp Jedi, she be smarter den you!" the big man suggested as things noticeably began to change. Silas was silent and coldly staring at the captain, undeterred by what his fellow Jedi had done or what the pirate was asking. As soon as he saw the kid being used as a hostage something seemed to be off with the young knight. Colette would also notice something changing.

Slowly, she'd start to sense something dark. His emotions were going around like a whirlwind, transforming into a cocktail of hatred and sorrow mixed into one. Scruching his fists the pirates saw his attitude change and glared with nervousness, to the point where the captain had slightly lifted his blaster away from the kids head.

"One last warnin Jedi, don't do an- YAWWWW!"

Suddenly, the kid fired a surprisingly strong back elbow in between the man's legs and sent him almost falling backward into the controls, sending his blaster falling to the floor at the same time. Without hesitation, the other two turned to the kid and looked to squeeze the trigger in line with what their captain asked them to do. Silas on the other hand wasn't having that. Using the force, the knight forcibly slid the kid across the floor in the direction of Collete who hopefully would be ready to catch him when needed.

"Kill da bratz!" one of them shouted as he redirected his aim at Silas, only to be shocked by his speed and a powerful knee breaking a few ribs close to his midsection. At the same time, his buddy managed to start firing at the half turned Jedi to try and get the jump on him, only for the shots to be blocked by the body of his pirate friend "Huh?!" was the only thing he could release before the same body shield was flung into his chest with astonishing force.

Looking back to the captain who was struggling to pick up his weapon, Silas nonchalantly slid it away from reach and slammed a kick into his leg to send him falling to the floor with a loud yell. Standing over the man, he looked at his struggling form with cold intent "You are nothing pirate, just a mere stench in the universe no one will remember." he grunted, his head turning slightly to acknowledge Colette standing behind him.

"Colette, take the hostages back to the ship..."​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Colette caught the kid with a grunt and a thud as they both fell to the floor. She struggled to catch herself for a moment. Her head hit the ground and the world began to spin just a little before she got herself resituated.

She could feel the death of one and the near-death of another. The kid got herself back on her feet and walked over to Silas. He seemed to have taken to what the captain said, a dark cloud clung to him that she didn't particularly like.

"No, I'm not leaving him with you." She said as she slowly put herself in front of Silas, between him and the pirate just as she had all those months ago. "You're taking the hostages to the ship and I'll make sure these men actually get served the justice the hostages deserve."

"No-one else is going to die today."

 

[Silas Westgard]

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

Silas had a feeling Collete would do this. If she was still bitter about what happened months ago there was no way she would just stand there and let it happen again.

"Who said I was going to kill him, Collete?" the knight asked at first, his sharp gaze resting on his fellow Jedi "I was only going to show him what it felt to be treated like crap. Scum like him thrive off people suffering, sometimes it's only right for them to feel what they've been through!" he grunted with a hint of venom in his tone. At the moment, he couldn't do anything to the bloated fool. If it weren't for Colette protecting him he'd be thrown around the control like a ragdol by now.

Looking past them both, he saw the confused and scared looks of the hostages. They had already gone through enough, their rescuers arguing wasn't going to help by any means. After a few seconds, he sighed and hesitantly motioned for them to follow him back to the ship "I will however follow your request..." the knight stated as he stopped next to the blast doors they were hurrying through to give one last piece of advice.

"Please, do not go against my judgment again. Next time I will do what I want within reason..."
​

 

[Colette]

Silas Westgard

Foolish. To think kicking someone when they were done would somehow lift them up. Colette shook her head as Silas began to spit his nonsensical vitriol at her about how there needed to be vengeance for what had been done to these people as if that would solve anything. The man was already in pain which was more than could be said for his goons who were dead.

He deserved a shot at redemption same as Silas would if he stepped out of line. He deserved the chance to be faced with the consequences of his actions, same as Silas would experience once Colette reported his actions back to Valery Noble in her report for this mission.

She reached down to retrieve her saber and Silas' too from the pirate captain's coat and proceeded to put him in a pair of nearby cuffs that one of the hostages had been in. Silas could pretend to himself all that he wanted that he had sound judgment, Colette knew damned well that he did not.

"I will, until your judgment stops being bantha chit." She grumbled. A good leader wouldn't have had to ask her to trust his judgment, she would naturally have done so. Silas was, however, not a very good leader. At least not any kind of leader that someone such as Colette would follow anywhere.

Oh well, just another reason to keep their distance from each other once more. There were a time earlier, but… An exception sometimes merely confirms the rule. Silas was firmly on her avoidance list, just like he had been before this mission.

Hopefully a good talking to from Valery would put his head on straight again.