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.