Starwarfenstein

[Maple Harte]

Arriving at: Haruun Kal

With: Siva, [member="Matsu Ike"]

Armed with: Staff (thread takes place before modifications and before even meeting Sawa)

Nine-millimeter smg

Wearing: Maple's custom armor


"We're set to drop soon, Uri..." Siva the Twi'lek announced as she walked into the room Maple had been preparing in aboard Matsu's ship. Maple was geared up, her staff in two and slung over her back. Skip. The empire controlled the whole galaxy and she had spent her life well into her nineties as nothing but a slave. Skip. Zombie Anakin Skywalker was kicking down her front door to eat her. Skip. Butterflies! Skip. Back to normal. Back to the things Maple could never be truly certain was happening. Even Matsu, wonderful though she was, Maple could not be certain she was any more real than anything else she experienced.

There were long periods where she was fairly grounded, and long periods where she didn't trust anything. This was a long stretch of relative lucidity for her. She needed it to last a little longer. When she had first met Matsu she had been coming out of a long stretch of 'question' everything.

The cold chill came up her spine as Siva spoke to her. The doctors had told her these lucid periods would eventually get shorter. And shorter. And shorter...

Eventually, Uri would become lost in her insanity, and permanent institutionalization would be unavoidable.

She was fethed in every way it is mortally possible to be fethed.

Siva being here, despite being a welcome presence among current company, was one more painful reminder that they'd never be able to be happy. The illness would tear her from everyone and everything she loved eventually, until they only lived on as fragments in whatever delusion she'd be stuck in. Or a dying dream.

The sudden panic at her inevitable fate made her do something stupid. She turned around from her workbench, having been assembling a bargain bin smg with basic silencer from the supplies aboard Matsu's wonderous ship, walked over, and pulled the green skinned woman into her arms. Siva fell into their old pattern easily, kissing her without hesitation, Maple smelled apples from Siva's skin. She always liked Siva's scent.

That kiss...she remembered their first one. Soft...Siva had shamelessly flirted with her a thousand different ways, and Uri had been flustered as to how she felt until one day, after ejecting that Sith Lord she'd trapped in his own escape pod into the local star, Siva had flirted with her one time too many and Uri had abandoned all restraint with the Twi'lek. They had desecrated that
Sith ship with what they had done once that restraint was gone between them.

The future had looked so bright back then...she'd leave The Marksmen, elope with Siva, spend the rest of their days on the spacelanes catching bounties together, and die old and frail on some planet that was sunny and way from the madness of the galaxy and its endless warfare. Its endless chaos.

But the diagnosis had dashed those hopes. Now Maple was stuck with the painful fact she had to tell this wonderful woman who had re-awakened her soul--her first love--that madness would wreck everything and tear them apart in the end.

Maple had not been certain what she had really hoped to achieve, hiding away in that cabin on Alderaan. She would only have gone crazy in silence. Maybe that was the point.

Maybe that was her penance. The Force balancing everything out by punishing a killer. Fitting, if that was the intent: Engage in something with an inherently insane premise expecting a result other than what you keep seeing and then actually go crazy as a result. From Uri's selfish, heartbroken perspective, unable to be with Siva without eventually breaking her heart was totally unfair.

If one took into account everyone she had slain (Even if many of them had been bastards, and had done far worse than she)...then it was entirely fair...maybe even deserved.

The Marksmen chose their targets, and their missions. By and large, they answered almost exclusively to themselves. Perhaps that had been the problem all along. Maple had thought she was defending democracy and the innocent...but at some point, some point she was not certain exactly when she had crossed it...it had degenerated into murder. Simple murder. Barely better than a Sith Assassin...maybe not even barely. Maybe just the same.

Maple pulled away from the kiss, and her doubts, about herself and reality.

"Uri..." Siva said gently, tilting Maple's head up to her, her apple green eyes and skin only magnifying her natural beauty.

"Talk to me. Please. Whatever's bothering you...let me help...I'm there for you."

"Its enough that you're here, Siva...and what's bugging me right now...you can't help with that..." Maple said, feeling horrible for kissing her and leading the poor woman on. But she needed Siva. She needed familiar. Everything was being torn away from her. Would be torn away eventually.

Maple's wet green eyes stared straight in Siva's.

"I missed you..." Maple said quietly. "But we have asses to kick..."

Siva nodded. The battle always came first with Uri. She saw a bit of the cold warrior still locked away in the human woman's eyes, that methodical killer that would never really leave either of them. That would always be in the background.

Waiting...


Later on...

Maple walked out to the main hold, fully armed.

"Matsu? You ready? These Kanzer feths ain't gonna kill themselves...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu had spent the time preparing herself while she was on the ship itself. The rooms were smaller and the jedi master herself laid there in the one bed as the sounds of the ship came. THey had picked up a small team along the way and she was laying there breathing in the scent. Blonde hair in front of her face, warmth around her torso as she was covered with a blanket of her black and the golden locks of Hanna. Where they were working around before she was enjoying the feeling. The small hapan contingent was being brought to them with information and they would be able to help them in infiltration and fighting just in case.

"YOU are not coming with us." She said it as a statement and laying there only heard a groan but the jedi master spoke more serious letting her eyes focus a little even though she was in the arms with a ticking warmth on the back of her neck. THe jedi master rolled over and looked at her. "You are a politician not a fighter and the Kanzer are dangerous in ways few can really believe or understand." She said it when she was moving around for a moment but could see the eyes for a moment hidden under the curtains of hair. "I mean it as well, Magda will be keeping you here on the ship to be safe. I am better at infiltrating and we don't know what might be there."

She got a sad look but she kissed the woman giving a better look and she slowly backed away getting out of the entwined bodies before she checked out a few of the things. She stood there and changed into the bodysuit, black and silver tactical form fitting. She had her lightsabers on her hips and was moving with the equipment packs when she moved around. In the ship though walking to go and join Maple and the twi'lek looking over at it. This chance they had brought them back into the unknown regions and this far out even Sasori didn't have a huge enough reach. It was wild and unexplored with dangerous worlds the kanzer controlled. "Ready?"

 

[Maple Harte]

(Character Theme Song Power Up)

Theme Song: GoldenEye, by Tina Turner

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/mOgFS6AYoVc

Maple was impressed with the team [member="Matsu Ike"] had helped them gather while in transit. The ship alarm sounded in the main hold and told them they were fast approaching their main target site.

"These Kanzer are extremely deadly and have a well defended position. Taking this place down will not be easy. But we have a way in...an old mining quarry in the jungle where the Kanzer use slave labor and profit off the conflict gems they sell. Thats our best way in, because the gems are sent directly into this samctum. Loud bits of machinery which would help mask our presence well is here as well, so we should take full advantage of that..." Maple spoke as the holoprojectors displayed the terrain.

"There's a high cliff with heavy foilage on the south east that will give us a good over view from the sight below..." Siva added, strapping on a parachute. "We're doing this at night, so make sure your night vision is working properly...we're doing a HALO jump."

Maple grinned at Matsu as the ship slowed in the atmosphere. She and Siva immediately went to the hatch as the other squad got ready. She had memorized the terrain. She knew when to pull the chord. She leapt out without hesitation, Siva following soon after...

Skip

Twenty year old Uri Udinia fell from the burning Imperial Star Destroyer after having sabotaged its reactor. Burning pieces of it fell to The Korriban Desert below. She was clad in a black combat suit, torn and ripped and burned in some places. Uri had a black eye from the ship captain, whose live body she had used to sabotage the ship reactor. Even Laertia had admitted it was impressively creative.

Laertia Io fell with her to her right, clad in a heavy, silvery armor equipped with a jet pack, her face obscured by a helmet with a red visor.

Ursula fell to her left, clad in her all white combat suit, using a parachute. Uri looked at the ever stoic, frosty Twi'Lek woman with purple skin and sharp blue eyes, who normally was focused solely on the objective, share a small smile with Uri as the flaming wreck above hurled itself to the ground.

There were still Sith trying to escape though. Ursula took out her pistol, nodding formally to the both of them. Uri unslung her own pistol as they fell while Laertia activated her crossguard lightsaber.

The three focused on the Sith trying to escape the giant wreck slowly falling with parachutes of their own, and they narrowed their body profile to increase speed. Laertia teleported to her first target and quickly closed the five meter gap limit, slicing the falling officer in two before teleporting back to the formation, waiting for the hundred meter range limit of her teleport to soon include other falling targets.

Uri took aim next with her own pistol, spotting an intact fuel tank next to a cluster of falling Sith.

Uri took aim, tongue sticking slightly out of her mouth to the side as she concentrated, brows scrunching together. She fired and the tank erupted, consuming every sith nearby in a fireball.

Ursula spun as she fell and, solely relying on the Force, successfully shot every Sith she fell past, Laertia began to teleport every where in her radius, stabbing Sith above and below her, Uri killing with precision head shots and dodging scattered return fire.

Meanwhile flaming wreckage hit falling imperial storm troopers and jet troopers, some determined to try and take the three marksmen with them before they went splat on the ground.

Uri reoriented herself to fire above her, hitting jet packs , groins, visors, anything that came in front of her pistol site, gritting her teeth as she relied on the Force to tell her when to shoot, her short brown hair billowing in the wind, wet green eyes locking on and killing whatever she stared at that wasn't her, Laertia, or Ursula, twirling out of the way of falling star destroyer parts, watching the main hull break up above her lighting the sky up in fire. She saw an intact TIE fighter tumbling and had to flip out of the way to avoid it. Uri decided to try something cool.

Uri narrowed her self in profile, going aerodynamic as she shot down to try and catch the tumbling star fighter, manuvering past falling hull pieces and the remains of its gigantic ion thrusters.

Her hand stretched out, feeling Ursula's thoughts as her master telepathically expressed her curiosity.

What are you doing, Uri?

We gotta find a way to get clear of that wreckage. Uri answered back.

Get Laertia first...

Ursula may not have always showed it, but she did care for Laertia. At the same time, Uri had this occasionally odd suspicion that on some deep level...Ursula also feared the thuggish shadow with an unnaturally high command of the Lightsaber.

Uri dived, the ground creeping ever closer. She at last managed to catch the ion panels and then pull herself to the entry hatch.

A piece of wreckage clipped it at the wrong time increasing its spin, and Uri tumbled backward in the sky, forcing her to orient herself again and dive, realizing every meter she lost was a meter closer to death. The fighter had a dangerously fast spin and As Uri caught up to the whole sky was nothing but a rainstorm of burning ship. Some stormtroopers were still alive and as she launched a force push at the fighters panels to slow its spin down, blaster bolts slipping by her as she caught the craft, firing behind her three times and hitting three targets before throwing open the hatch and pulling herself in, the world tumbling violently as she oriented herself in the cockpit seat and desperately trying to activate it...after a few seconds it sputtered to life and she rocketed up ward to where she sensed Laertia, still teleporting, having not stopped killing at all, finishing off remaining stormtroopers as Uri telepathicaly told Laertia to catch the fighter, cutting power to the thrusters, halting its momentum somewhat. Laertia teleported onto its frame, holding on for dear life as Uri sped the TIE downward. Ursula was four thousand meters from hitting the ground.

Uri sped towards her, watching her master continuing to kill those she fell past.

Laertia trailed behind her, hanging on for dear life as the chance to clear the wreck got smaller.

Uri sped past Ursula, manuvering under her.

Catch! Uri exclaimed.

Ursula went aerodynamic and soon caught it at less than two thousand meters. Uri had to go slower in order to manuver safely enough her two passengers would not be ripped away from the hull. Measurements had to be precise when adjusting, the throttle hard to control, requiring all her strength to keep the craft steady.

Six hundred meters...three hundred...seventy five...

At twenty five meters, she finally safely completed the arc and skimmed the ground, just as the star destroyer hit, the inferno chasing the star fighter as Uri outran the crash.

There was a burst transmission from Laertia's comlink.

"Uri Udinia, yooz 'iz completely fethin' kraayzee!"

Well done, Uri... blared Ursula mentally.

Skip.

Maple realized she was only four hundred meters from the ground and pulled the chord on her chute in the night. She barely slowed to a safe speed before she managed to land.

Siva had already landed, pulling out her blaster pistols as Maple rose and cut her chute, making her journey to the overhang in the forest.

"Made landing. Matsu? Get to my position..." Maple whispered as other team members landed, cutting their chutes...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu sensed something from Maple as she stood there and listened to her.... letting the information about the layout go into her mind then she was moving to the drop and sensed something from Maple...... She wa distracted when they jumped and the jedi master used the force to control and slow her descent itself. THe jedi master could HALO drop with the force and get in there but she watched for Maple to ensure she was safe as something flashed across her mind... something she could see and it seemed her friend was remembering something as finally she came to and opened her chute dangerously close. Matsu controlled her descent and landed within a cushion of force energy that slowed her speed down into just a small plop on the ground. She was then moving quickly and allowed the force to conceal her and then extend outwards to conceal the others... mind making it more into a shield they could use when she was sensing the Kanzer within itself. She felt their heartbeats and a sense of darkness that was almost choking when her hand touched something and came up with slime and ooze. "Eww." She moved with one hand going towards the mine and directing the small team they had with them as the Hapan soldiers were much for as force users in their armored robes.

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple and Siva scrambled ahead in the jungle. Siva snickered a little as she heard [member="Matsu Ike"] express disgust at having touched something slimy. Priceless. It was little things like that which made the job worth it.

Maple occasionally stole glances at Siva as the apple green Twi'lek in her black combat suit moved as quick as she did as the reached the overhang. Maple went still and the stealth system in her suit went active, cloaking her as she stared at the mining site below with range finders Siva had brought. Maple barely understood most of the suit that Matsu had made for her. She hadn't exactly had time to sit down and read the manual, so she was taking it slow.

"No lightsabers...so far..." Maple spoke as she watched all those Kanzer she'd soon be killing.

"Means nothing. All it means is they don't bother with the slaves..." Siva growled, having cheated this fate for her and her now departed younger sister to not instinctively hate the act of slavery upon sighting it.

"This is how we met, if I recall..." Maple asked tentatively, not just because it was a sensitive topic, given how she knew Siva had been forced to kill to stay out of slavery, but because given how unreliable her memory was, she could not exactly trust her own recall of events to be accurate.

"Yeah...I remember you shot a guy's trigger finger before he could execute a slave..."

"Would have aimed for the head, but I could not guarantee a non-reflexive shot..."

"Its what made me like you, y'know..." Siva whispered, marking hostiles as she spotted them. "Always a creative solution..."

"Trick shots, Siva, nothing more..." Maple replied, embarrassed. She spotted a small incline and crawled down it.

She spotted a man nearby and decided to take advantage of the local vegetation. She stretched out, struggling to focus, but her madness made the task three times as difficult at times, like now. Maple spotted the biggest man with a gun and all but begged the Force to ensnare him.

But it was so difficult...she gave up after a moment, and panted. Skip. The demons locked her in the iron maiden. Skip. Back to reality. Rewound then fast forwarded back to current events...

"Okay...new plan...shoot 'em..." Maple ordered.

Siva smiled, rose from her hiding place and took aim at the slave drivers with both pistols, coldly aiming and firing at slave drivers.

Maple sprayed accurate bursts with her submachinegun, still distressed by her failure to use the Force. It was easier to use during a state of heightened emotion.

In other words the very mindset she had killed so many others for. The irony of it left a bitter taste in her mouth as she sprinted from hiding, cutting down Kanzer slave drivers, the alarm klaxon sounding as Maple gunned down Kanzer Assassins that came out of the turbolift, the same type that had entered the abandoned citadel and tried to kill her and Matsu.

Maple wasn't screwing around though, and as tough as Kanzer were, Maple wasn't playing by their rules as she ruthlessly aimed at the upper torso, knowing the spray of automatic fire would likely take a little of the skull with it but was not bothered by this as Siva joined her side and charged together, the two acting in synchronus, taking out whoever the other missed, Siva even more frighteningly precise with a pistol than Ursula was, and Ursula had been a Master pistol fighter.

The pair began to lay waste to the Kanzer defending the mining tracks into the facility, Maple and Siva feeling a strange contentment fighting side by side as two halves of one warrior...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu looked at the two of them and raised an eyebrow but she was wiping the slime off of her hand. SHe was used to some things but that wasn't like something from a slug or melted things decomposing. She wasn't exactly certain what that was while she was moving and watched the Kanzer who were there for a moment before the two of them were going all out it seemed. The jedi master moved and focused the force into her body so she could move around quickly. She let the force move her body as she didn't bring out a blade but used a small stun stick on them first. Observing some of them and what they had been doing to the slaves here.

"Careful." She said it while moving around with the stick and the buzz from the energu made the scent of something burngn as ooze poured from their ears and nose. Matsu stopped and was looking at it as she could see the slave brands on the neck but spoke. "THey are doing something to the slaves to make them fight." SHe looked more at it and activated the chevron pad letting her be able to see more parts of it. She was getting readings and squinted before she was smacking another kanzer who was trying to attack her. "Higher concentrations of exotic matter in the nervous ssytem and brain. Reading are rozzum."

 

[Maple Harte]

Siva was a blaze in battle, her pistols expertly finding their mark as she twirled and somersaulted through gunfire.

Maple was capable of wielding nearly every type of production firearm and blaster on the market today: she was even capable of wielding very ancient models...Ursula had spared nothing in educating her on the nuances between the various types of disruptors and the differences between pulse-wave weapons. Maple could wield pistols with a well versed proficiency. But Siva was her superior in this respect. Because while Siva was really only good with pistols, she was far, far better than Maple by comparison, to the point it bordered on the supernatural. Siva was like someone out of one of those hard boiled action films she had watched as a teenager, able to move with a panther grace, returning fire with a frightening accuracy even as she dodged return fire. Siva was as much an artist at shooting as she was a pistoleer. Maple was more classically trained, aiming for center mass, not going for trick shots. She didn't go for lethal on her own initiative, but any dark sided group (At least, those not aligned to the CIS) was still fair game to her. That was because this time, she knew why she killed them...preservation of assets. The Marksmen had killed to thin their numbers, to stop them before the entire Jedi became needed to stop them, which was impossible...for every twenty they managed to down, there was a hundred they didn't know about. Any justification had slowly been whittled way over time, almost to the point Uri couldn't remember a time she hadn't been a killer. She wasn't free though.

Maple peppered a Kanzer guard with submachine gun fire as she advanced. Skip. She was surrounded on all sides by zombies, a single clip of ammo left, all her friends dead. Skip. Maple dodged the wild swings of a kanzer slave, and it was here that one of her weaknesses came into play.

She had never been good at hand to hand, being more lithe and agile than strong and buff, never able to throw a good punch, and had never really been able to take one either. So when the crazy slave came bellowing on the side, at a time her Force connection was goning wonky, Maple, for once wasn't fast enough to react, and the heavy blow to her face knocked her silly, giving her a concussion as she hit the muddy ground, the rain hitting her face as her submachine gun flew out of her hand as the slave tackled her, and started to strangle her, the world starting going black. In her growing confusion and struggle to get him off she did something on instinct, not really conscious of it as she subconsciously sent her will into a deep puddle nearby.

The water rippled, formed a tentacle that surged towards the slave's head, smacking him hard and knocking him off her, allowing her to breath as the thick tentacle of water collapsed. She gagged, coughing...the slave got up charging with a scream.

On instinct, Maple concentrated, all the water falling on her sliding towards her right arm, garthering as a thick rippling sheath around her arm made of water, and as soon as he got in range, Maple let him have it, decking him with increased force,knocking him out. She then dropped to the ground, still dizzy...

And on Katanos Seven, an ancient evil flickered awake for a moment as something powerful crossed an old domain of hers..

(Plasmid Acquisition Theme plays)

(New Force Power acquired!)

Power: HYDROKINESIS

Spoiler

Drawing moisture from the air or nearby water sources, character can create constructs of water, for use in combat or defense, such as creating objects for weaponry, or creating temporary 'armor' to cushing from kinetic attacks. Sophistication and strength of constructs increase as Character advances. Dependant on nearby water sources or other wise heavy moisture to get the most out of this power.

Maple stumbled, still suffering from the concussion, to her gun...

...and then passed out...

Siva had still been blasting away at guards when she saw Maple go down. She finished killing the guards, or knocking out attacking slaves, whatever the case and then immediately went to her old friend, injecting some medicine when she diagnosed a concussion, to reduce any swelling. Maple's eyes fluttered open after a second.

"What's up, Doc?" Maple asked with a smile, blinking up at her while laying on the ground.

"I'd give you a carrot, but I hate those..." Siva joked back, helping the woozy ex shadow up. They looked around and spotted the ooze from the nose and ears of the slaves.

"Bio-agent?" Maple asked.

"Chemical, I'd wager. Timed release, maybe, affecting the brain's fight ot flight response. Could be the collars delivering a signal...which is even worse.

"Kanzer bastards..." Maple grunted, heading to the mining tunnel to the facility.

"They're gonna know we're coming..." Maple called out to [member="Matsu Ike"]

"What's this look like to you Matsu?" Siva asked as she examined an unconscious slave.

When Matsu answered Rozzum, Siva jumped back.

"Definitely not touching that..." she said.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu was moving when she felt Maple... the power flickered and it raised her eyebrow with a look on her face then she saw Maple falling and passing out. Her own instincts were kicking in as the jedi master moved quickly around lashing out with a force shockwave to send the kanzer slaves up into the air and then she launched an ionized stun blast to make their bodies seize and stop. THey weren't dead but the muscles were contracted enough that they weren't going to be fighting while the jedi master looked at the twi'lek who was over near Maple and she crouched down holding a hand up to make a barrier around the three of them.

"Is she alright?" She asked it but her mind was working and processing the information around them more now. Maple and Slva wanted to know if she understood whart it was that had been happening. "Yes, I have seen this before. It is old." She said it but thought back to it for a heartbeat and tugged on that small invisible cord that would let her share the images and impressions. SHe had been younger when she infiltrated the Kanzer and had disclosed that to Maple but there was a lot to it. The jedi master didn't go into a long explaination about it but the memories she had of the mission and encounter had lasted for two years of her life.

"Rozzum." She shared the memories of it... of the creatures and how she had been inducted into the Kanzer. Infiltrating a planet quietly that was going to be taken as slaves and showing the talents and beauty that would attract one of the few high priestess of the kanzer. She had been... perfectlmhy detailed, given the best views from what was several years of observation and previous infiltration to learn how best to get someone within and.... it had worked. THe young jedi with pale skin, black pools for eyes and inner strength had been intoxicating and welcomed to her getting taught the ways and seeing much as she had been turned from captive slave to concubine.

She had spent several months in that being the best, seeing and remembering everythign that she could learn... participating where needed, learning about the kanzer and more of the people so she could mimic and continue to immerse herself within it. Her training in the jedi making and her one thread to cling to so she didn't slip into the darkness that was the kanzer. She had finally made it though she was partaking in some of the rituals and had moved throughout the space with her master as they went into deeper mysteries and secrets themselves. Allowing the jedi investigator to see the ritual first hand.

THe rozzum were something from elsewhere... another dimension that was torn apart and broken into with the force. SHapeless and formless in this dimension as their bodies shifted trying to find a form that would and could be comprehended by the minds of the beings here. THey took hosts and burned through their bodies and minds using them as puppets in their seemingly mindless quest to kill and spread. THe jedi master had seen some of the horrors they could do and some of the stuff that was in that dark dimension.. the rozzum were just something that came through a lot faster... they were smaller, they were faster then the other things.

The jedi master though was looking at Maple in the span of a heartbeat of sharing that information and she spoke. "THey are dangerous and not of this universe... they get into the body and hollow it out trying to infect and spread but it takes time. just don't let some of the living slime things get itno your mouth or other holes." She said it when moving and held the barrier up for the three of them and she motioned over to some of the cover they could use for infiltrating and getting in. "We need to be careful if they are bringing these things forth... there are larger, more dangerou things in that dimension. THings that don't want to just spread but tear everything asunder."

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple's eyes widened at the explanation made by [member="Matsu Ike"]. Noticing Siva had practically jumped back at its mention, Maple could only assume the Twi'lek knew more about it then she did. Regardless, it was still necessary to press their way into the facility.

"We'll deal with the Rozzum as it comes up...just gotta avoid it is all. Poor slaves. We'll gun down a few extra for their sake, save anybody the Rozzum hasn't gotten to." Maple said, grimacing at the slaves fate as she headed to a rickety mine cart. Some were filled with precious gems still trapped in the rock that bound them. Maple snorted in disgust at the conflict gems. Siva was on edge having been forced to fight slaves who were far worse off than either of them guessed.

One cart was empty, and led directly into the small tunnel that connected the underground facility. Big enough for two. There was another, semi empty cart behind it. Maple and Siva hopped into one cart and pulled a tarp over it. "Matsu, get in one of the emptier carts."

"This reminds me of that time on Coronet when we were stuck in that economy sized speeder..." Siva mentioned with a smile in the darkness of the cart as Maple telekinetically hit a switch on a console nearby to send the cart track moving.

"You were wearing those short shorts that day..." Maple remembered outloud as the cart went into the facility tunnel. "And that tank top..."

"Oh, you remembered..." Siva flirted as the cart came to a stop. The pair, crunched together, readied their weapons as they heard voices.

"First one to get fifteen headshots buys the other dinner..." Siva suggested in a whisper, the tarp still covering both, but not enough that she couldn't see Maple's green eyes.

Maple smiled. "You're on, Joyeuse..."

The tarp was thrown off just as the pair rose, greeted by half a dozen Kanzer assassins and more slaves in what appeared to be a dark stone chamber full of carved roses and gargoyles, where they were sorting the gems into different piles. Siva opened fire faster than Maple did, her pistols killing four in a span of a few seconds while Maple's SMG peppered a cluster of Kanzer with bullets, finally managing to focus enough to Force Pull a pistol from the holster of a fallen victim. Standard blaster. Nothing fancy.

But oh, the sheer havoc a trained Marksman can cause with only a blaster...

(John Wick Theme plays)

Maple and Siva both flipped out of the cart as Kanzer fighters began to scramble into the room, armed with assault rifles, spraying the positions both Maple and Siva had previously been in. The pair were interlinked, covering each other from all angles as they fired in a three sixty pattern moving toward the route that led even deeper in this part of the facility, ducking, twirling, flipping through clouds of blasters and energy-infused slugs, both their reflexes allowing them to hone in and gun down whoever fired, Siva mixing her gunshots with hand to hand, breaking wrist and rib as well as shooting when she got in range, while Maple was pure pistol, using the Force and Ataru training to flip, dodge, and cartwheel away from harm, even as she kept blasting heads off of Kanzer, only shooting slaves who had signs of Rozzum exposure.

But the pressure from the Kanzer was serious now. And even though more than three dozen dead Kanzer warriors, male and female, littered the place, more kept pouring in...some help from Matsu would be nice, because there were only so many shots the two could dodge...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

THe jedi master was listening to them and she moved into the cart behind them as she meditated. Letting the force energies themselves expand outwards and she could feel something here and it wasn't the background of darkness that the kanzer projected. It was more cold and elusive. THe jedi master stopped when Maple and the twi'lek burst out ready for a fight and she moved quickly with her lightsaber activating. The three blades coming. A single hilted saber in one hand that she could use and her saber disc, black phrik in the shape of v's with the saber blades emitted as silvery white. The hilts designed to house the components and protect them.

She came up and over the cart sending the disc saber blades out as they spun activating and the duel phase as the blades kicked out to three meters each and spun like a massive wheel of silver into the kanzer. Her other blade was on her hand and activated with a pale blue lightsaber blade. She weaved through kicking off of a wall and her older body was infused with the force letting her launch and dance around the mine they were in. Her feet landing on the pile of gems and she spun kicking them up into the air for a moment. Letting her body move with the force and speed accelerate. The gems were moving slowly and the jedi master lightly stepped upon them as she climbed and moved around the room.

She could sense Maple and they were shooting and blasting down kanzer warriors as Matsu moved up into the air and her disc blade came back to her off hand letting her twist. and fling it outwards again into another entrance and it activated sealing it off for a moment. Her feet touching the wall and with magic she clung there using spells and the force to give herself grip that the witches of dathomir had. Green energy radiating with her steps along the wall and the jedi master moved along the roof of the cavern before droping back down with her blade in her two handed grip as the disc blade sliced through the air and landed on her belt.

Meanwhile the security monitors gleamed and showed the frantic action as she watched... the lack of amusement on her face less because there was nothing impressive then... she didn't show anything. The portal to the dark realm, the place where the rozzum slithered out was... not where she wanted to go. It was just part of different dimensions that were connected to them and the kanzer had been using the parts of the codex to open up different ones. She wanted Waru... she wanted the anti force solution to what might be her ultimate goal. In theory at least it should react like matter meeting anti matter and cascade at the right point throughout the universe and she'd ascend to be the only consciousness left.

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple and Siva were like dogfighters, but on the ground, moving in complex zig zags as they gunned down kanzer to avoid return fire and blade attacks. Siva's pistol bolts expertly ricocheted off the dense reflective arches, making people dodge fire from unexpected angles or get hit, which often happened. Maple's legs hooked around a Kanzer and she used her weight as a pendulum, flipping him to the ground and pinning him underneath as she shot six more ahead of her in the opulent yet ancient underground passages and chambers, grabbing her captive's shotgun nearby, but not before shooting him and pumping a slug into the visor of a heavily armored warrior, the Dark Side coursing through the very wallls according to her senses, Siva's pistols and a newly acquired shotgun ripping through everyone who fought them, the air growing acrid from blasters and blood and burnt flesh, the pair stepping over bodies with the aid of [member="Matsu Ike"] . Matsu knew far more about the Force than Maple had even in her mental prime.

The amount of bodies was about right for the old days, as was walking through them with Siva. Gods that woman could be catnip sometimes. So athletic...focus, Maple. Do what the squirrels your spine is made of tells you. No way it could go wrong.

Maple blinked, and was terrified when she saw slaves instead of warriors, only to blink and suddenly find herself facing warriors again. The temple was starting to screw with her and her arm wavered and she took a hit to the leg which sent her crashing to the ground, though she managed to drop another two in spite of it with a shotgun burst.

Siva was taking apart someone in hand to hand, the grips of her guns bashing through teeth and into ribcages when she saw Maple go down.

"MATSU!" Siva yelled as she blasted away in a three-sixty pattern to kill groups of sword wielding Kanzer trying to dice her apart. "I can't reach Uri!"

Maple had sustained another hit, this one to her shoulder and now she was firing from the floor desperately still shooting every Kanzer she could, but the darkness of the temple, or whatever this opulent place was, was starting to make her shoot at targets who were not there...worryingly close to Matsu...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

Matsu was moving and letting the force dance around her and through her. She could feel it in her muscles, in her senses when she weaved and moved throughout the room, around the bodies and she could feel the two of them and something underneath it all. THen there was a voice... screaming and she felt something of painf rom Maple while stopping just enough to flick her eyes and observe what was happening when she saw Maple go down before the jedi master was kicking up into the air and repulsing the kanzer away from herself. She pulled at the earth itself and brought the tunnels forward and then closed them to seal some path ways off from reinforcements.

BUt it wasn't MAtsu herself to got there.. she moved quickly, faster then many might be able to see and under a scattering of the force itself. From the ground coming up and pulling at Maple to bring her down deeper into the mines themselves. Where the rituals were taking place to bring all of the creatures forth. She stood there and moved her towards one of the alters in the room as things slithered around and stood there watching. Her hands clasped behind her back when she held a hand up and activated one of the healing units as the earth changed to close around them. She was looking at Maple and used the shadows oif the underground to obscure her face. "ANd what makes you so interesting."

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple stirred awake, snapping away from a delusion where [member="Matsu Ike"] had snapped, become a Sith, and proceeded to enslave her. It was dark. Really dark. She could not see, and did not know where she was. Had that blaster fight with Siva fighting and being gorgeous even happened?

Someone asked what made her so interesting. It sounded familiar...and yet...it didn't. It felt colder, more remote. For some reason, she was reminded of Ursula.

"Well...I'm cute, have a lovely smile, I can juggle high caliber handguns, and if you let me go I promise to give ya a biiiiiiig hug!" Maple answered with immense sarcasm, knowing she was still too weak to fight. That had always been her problem. She could put holes in people big enough to stick a fist through but she really could not take it being on the receiving end. She stared at the woman in the shadows.

"You the one in charge of this place?" Maple asked, keeping still. "All this power and you still need something like rozzum to make people do your bidding. I mean, granted, I only just heard about it but it has some rather nasty effects from what I have seen. You just ripping these people off the street or something?" Maple asked in disgust. "Look...I dunno what you think you are accomplishing here but I can guarantee you'll only feel empty by the end of it all. Shut this place down. Whatever madness you are planning just isn't worth it." She asserted to the figure in the dark, growing uneasy. What was she planning? Who was she? Was Siva alright. Maple was afraid of Siva being hurt because of this hair brained scheme. The thought of losing the apple green Twi'lek sent a surge of heartache to the ex-shadow. And the thought Matsu might be hurt was an extra knife to twist into her as she waited for the figure to respond...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

"Charming." She said it and looked at Maple. SMall in figure but where Matsu generally gave warmth the mirror universe that had opened from battling Celestials in the netherworld was colder. Black hair shorter but still to the small of her back. One black eyes looking at Maple and the other was white. Slash marks running down from her forehead to her throat like something had raked its claws trying to cleave her face. She stood there wearing the Kanzer priestess outfit but it wasn't sexy, it wasn't meant to invoke anything but dread as indifference rolled off of her body in waves of the force. "THe Rozzom are a means to an end perhaps but their dimension as least is a step closer to getting home." SHe looked at Maple and came into the light standing there but mostly seemed almost amused in a colder way.

Matsu meanwhile was moving and had sealed most of the passages to secure them away from the mines as she looked at the Twi'lek and spoke standing there. "This is not something I expected. If she is here." She looked at it while she was standing there and she had caught the look of it all... of who it was and she spoke. "This could be very dangerous not just because of the Kanzer." Where she was looking was at the ground and she crouched feeling the force presence. "She is below us somewhere, these mines could criss cross and go on forever if they wanted them to just to mess with us and fighting through slaves it not ideal."

 

[Maple Harte]

Siva finished shooting another Kanzer in the head. With Maple's disappearance, they would have to move exceptionally fast now.

When [member="Matsu Ike"] spoke of the new threat, the Twi'lek could only furrow her brow and spin her blasters.

"Then we move as carefully as possible but with efficiency. The longer Uri is in enemy hands the greater the possibility of her being used as leverage to make the two of us surrender. I bet money that they're--"



Green eyes, staring lazily at her. She wanted to be lost in them. Perfect, full lips that took her breath away--

Siva snapped out of it, going over to a nearby desk with a terminal to get a floor plan. It wasn't long before Siva had uncovered a route to the bottom...but it would require going an awkward, long route through an old service corridor that led to a steep drop down a ladder, and they would be exposed. Siva could already hear the shouting of reinforcements, and was already running for the path to the bottom down sinister black and red stone halls, her blasters tearing through lightly armored Kanzer. She could reach Uri. She would reach Uri...failure was not an option.



Uri and Siva had torn through the Sith Commander's private crusier to reach the deck where his quarters and he were and there were no signs of slowing down, the pair dividing their foes with each blaster. Maple had one of her various assualt rifles and was blasting through duraplast and flesh from armor piercing rounds, the halls clouded from smoke and debris as the pair smashed through scores of lesser warriors across the whole deck, killing seemingly endless reinforcements that did not seem to end, pouring from various barracks and side offices, blasting and blasting through imperial soldiers, destroying computers, alarms screaming louder than the repeater fire that came there way, only for Siva's hands to have the usual magic and rip apart heads from blaster fire. Uri squeezed the trigger only when the shot was certain, using a center axis relock stance to advance, downing some with shots to the knees before focusing on the head. Her black fiber armor scorched and torn from multiple impacts as she destroyed her opposition. There were fires and corpses everywhere behind them by the time they finally reached the lavish quarters of the Sith Ursula had ordered them both to kill.

"You good on mags?" Siva asked.

Uri snapped another clip of seven point six two into her rifle.

"I'm good. Be a darling a distract him, would you?" Uri asked in her usual calm, no nonsense manner.

"For you? I'd be 'much' more than a darling..." Siva said to the younger woman.

Siva smiled at how Uri, usually the icy professional, blushed a little at the shameless flirting.

"Ummm...okay..." Uri got out, trying not to smile as she headed in before Siva.

The Sith had been waiting for them in the blood red chamber lined with statues and paintings and a blood red chandalier of crystal at the center of the ceiling. He was clad in plate armor from head to toe, all of it lightly engraved, wielding a single bladed red lightsaber. The pair pointed both weapons at him. Siva spotted the escape pod behind him, already opened.

"Going somewhere?" Uri asked the Sith coldly, opening fire.

The Sith batted aside the bolts, holding out his hand and lifted the both of them in Force Choke painfully, and the pair quickly started to black out as the pressure mounted on ther neck. It felt like a boot was crushing it.

Siva spotted the tip of his blade, hovering above him as choked the both of them. Uri was losing too much air to focus, being of slighter build than the muscular Siva, who aimed her pistol at the tip of the blade, a little to the side. Just a little higher...

Siva squeezed the trigger as the world turned red. Uri dropped coughing as the bolt bounced off the tip of his blade and into his helmet. Siva was that good with a pistol. He stumbled back in surprise, only to get his armor pelted by Uri, who fired directly at his head as he tried to retreat, armor piercing rounds bouncing off Phrik alloy. Siva shot at him from another side, strafing him and forcing him to deflect her bolts while trying to avoid Maple's bullets, forcing them both to dodge when he cast massive arcs of red lightning that damaged and set fire to everything around them in the room, forcing them to duck behind furniture as they returned fire, the Sith leaping about like a grasshopper as Uri fired one of her remaining grenades from the underslung launcher on her rifle point blank but he caught it with telekinesis. This was a trick of Uri's, and a notorious one. She was already diving backward and behind furniture firing when Siva pulled the trigger on the caught grenade while diving mid air herself.

It was a concussion grenade. The blast of concussive force smashed into the now screaming, armored Sith, sending him flying into his own escape pod, badly burned and bleeding. Uri shot at some of the controls with two, well placed rounds, before using telekinesis to shut and launch the pod just as he started to rise. The last they saw was him banging, horribly mangled, within the pod as it launched.

It was over.

"Who was that guy again?" Siva asked, picking herself up and knocking the dust off skintight black armor.

"I used to ask...got bored with asking after a while..." Uri replied in a grim manner.

Siva coyly turned to face the green eyed little minx she had been crushing on.

"Oh well, I've got far more interesting questions..." Siva responded suggestively, drawing close to her. Uri started to blush again.

"Siva, is really the best time to do this little flirting game we always do? We just, like, killed a bazillion people." Uri said in a shy yet playfull manner, a finger twirling a brown lock of her hair absentmindedly. Their exchanges had grown more suggestive, more sly, as the number of assignments they had done.

Uri had never been attracted to boys. It wasn't until she met Siva that she understood why. But the code had always stayed her hands. But with all the doubts she had been feeling, the way Siva stared sent an involuntary feeling of desire into Uri that she really was having trouble ignoring. She could not even stop from playing with her hair anymore when the Twi'lek flirted with her...

They had liked each other from the moment they met. Uri, as much as she loved her Marksmen brothers and sisters, felt something deeper for Siva. Siva was curvy and cute, but it was more than that. She was kind. Uri didn't know yet how much that alone would not be enough.

"All the danger, the fighting..." Siva circled around Uri, whose blush grew redder.

"...I dunno about you...but danger excites me..." Siva went on, pulling Uri close.

"...and besides...with everyone dead...we have this place all to ourselves..." Siva finished.

The kiss on Uri's lips did it. It was followed by another. And another...

Uri lost her restraint towards her crush completely. COMPLETELY.



Siva took position and shot another Kanzer as she neared the service corridor, only to find it had already been collapsed in anticipation of this tactic.

Great, Siva thought as she took cover by a pillar and reloaded. It was time for a new plan now to the bottom.

Hold on Uri, I'm going to reach you. Siva thought as she fired at Kanzer blasting away at her cover. This part of the themple or whatever was very old, and long faded paintings of some beautiful Zeltron woman adorned the walls. Who was she? It didn't matter. Not yet. Maple...Uri...her life depended on Siva and Matsu reaching her...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

The jedi master was looking at it and a large service tunnel to get them down lower into the mines and the feeling here was just wrongness... something lingering and evil when she breathed out holding a hand to make a small glowball and sending it down to mark their path and illuminate it all. She wanted to see what they could do when she was checking out the twi'lek. She had been moving them down deeper and the jedi master focused on the force as she thought more about how she had infiltrated and what she had seen within them. THe Kanzer had some things as she moved around in the tunnels and used the illuminated lights to get down deeper and deeper. She stretched out with the force allowing herself to find the way down. "We'll make it." She said it looking at the twi'lek as she went.

Meanwhile the mirror looked at Maple who seemed to be thinking and she remained there standing. Her eye gleaming a little until she move down deeper into the room and held a hand out behind her. She pulled and guided to carry the woman with her. THrough the caverns twists and turns as kanzer were being infected with the Rozzum. "So much power and purpose... if only they knew the truth." She said it standing there though when she finally looked and set Maple down towards a seat. "Sadly... while you might have some appeal there are less things charming about you." She spoke looking at her and her eyes followed the former shadow with the force but she was calm and getting angry wouldn't be needed as the shimmering portal leading to the nightmare realm.

Her mind was racing.... the jedi had been undercover for several weeks now and managed to infiltrate more and more but rising up in a place like this required a lot of attention and a certain mindset. She hadn't seen people more brutal and beautiful compared to the rest of the galaxy. The arcane rituals that were created here to preserve many of them served a dangerous entity the Kanzer were strong but they were foiunded to serve dark force gods and beings that were far more powerful then most jedi she had seen.. and something had cast them, imprisoned them in pocket dimensions. in deep space and the void.... she moved through the hallways and her mind raced as the mining tunnels mirrored what she had seen before.

"I know this ritual.. or what they might be trying to do. Some of the kanzer wanted to bring back gods... beings of terror and size many couldn't comprehend. Whatever they want to try and bring back it is going to require a lot of life and power with something to maintain it. THe rozzum using the bodies while the kanzer feed the soul into the ritual serves two purposes."

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple squinted at the woman who looked like [member="Matsu Ike"], but far darker.

"Either my head is really messing with me, Matsu was evil the whole time orrrrrr...you are Dark Matsu. Wait...there's a Dark Matsu?" Maple wondered out loud, trying to examine her restaints as Dark Matsu telekinetically dragged her with her so she could watch the horrors of the Rozzum.

Maple was not a stranger to this type of condition in blacksites. She had spent nearly eight months in one. But this was still pretty bad, even when comparing it to the "Torture Camp" the Sith had sent her to. She hoped the actual Matsu and Siva were on their way.

"And pray tell just why is bringing back massive dark gods a goal? I mean, these Kanzer can't really think they'll come out on top if they succeed, do they?" Maple asked. Skip. She was secretly thousands of years old and everything revealed about her history was a lie and the parrot in the cage had been the mastermind. Skip. Back to Dark Matsu. Back to reality. "I mean, think about it...if they actually succeed...what use will the Dark God have for them at that point?"

But the more pressing question was who the hell Dark Matsu was.

"So what are you? A clone? Some...Dark Side abomination?" Maple asked Dark Matsu, trying to glean whatever she could. She definitely was no Matsu. Matsu would not have allowed this horror to pass. This creature, whoever she was, did not deserve to wear Matsu's face.

"Your sick little plan won't work, Not-Matsu. Actual-Matsu will rescue me. And if you did something like swap your original face for hers like in that film about swapping faces with a criminal I will 'make' you give her face back...wait, did you steal her face or is that your actual face? I'm confused. Is someone going to swap out my face? Will there be a face-off? As long as its very dramatic I'm good, I swear..." Maple claimed, deliberately attempting to see how far under Dark Matsu's skin she could get.

Meanwhile.

Siva followed the real Matsu Ike, covering her from the attacks of Kanzer warriors amd assassins, gunning them down with an almost feral disposition. These bastards had Uri. Uri had freaked out or something and now they had her somehow.

What was wrong with Uri. Why wouldn't she tell Siva.

They had been so close once. And yet Uri had this distance in her now. The more Uri remained Silent the more Siva grew afraid for her. Uri was not weak. She had brought down people three times her size. But whatever she was up against now...it was something that could not be killed by a blaster.

Trouble was, killing stuff with blasters was one of the few things Siva was good at.

They got deeper, Siva's ammo gradually running lower and lower the more the Kanzer ruthlessly assaulted their route in waves, until she was forced to collapse the route behind them using a det charge just to fend them off a little longer.

"Master Ike, can you feel Uri anywhere?" Siva asked, bleeding and burned from all the fights she had been in taking this route. But Uri was worth it. Uri would have gone through this place even if it had four times as many defenders to reach Siva. Uri would go through a battalion to reach those she cared for. The least Siva could do was try and match it.

"Hold on, I..." Siva leaned against one of the tunnel walls, seeing the murals of an ancient Zeltron Queen rule over her people. Someone important had owned this place once. No wonder these Rozzum using bastards had set up shop here. Siva took a few deep breaths, wiping the sweat off with the blood.

"Let's go." Siva said after moment, spinning a pistol.

"We'll need a new tactic...and while giving each and every one of these feths a Tibanna injection should be considered a professional sport, it's slow. Every second Uri spends in these creeps hands...I don't even wanna think about it. What if...what if they use the Rozzum on her?" Siva asked, worried, but trying to fight through her fear. She could brave blaster fire and artillery as an alliance medic but the idea of not reaching the green-eyed brunette filled her with actual dread. All her friends in the military had cut ties when she was dishonorably discharged. She didn't have many friends left. Uri was among the few. She had met her about a year after being discharged. Her sister's cancer hadn't progressed to its final stages yet in those days. Uri had been cold. But Siva had seen the person past the frosty armor she wore. Uri loved that person without question.

She felt silly at the same time, however, risking so much for a girl who had faked her death. But Uri was worth it. She would always be worth it. Siva was not losing another friend today. She would burn this place to the ground with her bare hands before she let Uri die.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

THe jedi master was looking at her and moving through it as she shaped and altered the earth itself to give her a better level of protection from the kanzer and their servants. She didn't know how deep they went down bit more and she spoke. "We should be getting close... maybe, the rozzum might try and overtake her but she is a lot stronger then most I have seen even with..." She said it and stopped as she wasn't entirely certain but she had felt it in the force from Maple.. she had felt something but she wasn't certain about what exactly what it was so she couldn't name it. THe jedi master was going and stopped as she spoke bringing out soe of her supplies. Mostly the rylith power packs.

"Here use one of these, they recharge when exposed to light overtime but stopping them here could be harder. We are lucky it just seems to be a few... this one time on Loa their planet base... like it is literally a base tens of thousands of kilometers across for worship of the things and they managed to rebuild it after it had been destroyed the first time." She looked at the Twi'lek then moved over to stand near her but not close... just being there back to back and covering from each side. The jedi master was reaching out with the force to understand and find where it was. "As to the dark gods and what use they could be."

She shrugged. "I imagine they would want servants... of at least that is the thought process. If you had the chance for a god who would take away the villains you dislike.... why not help them, serve them?" She was guessing but they could and would be able to survive maybe.. that was assuming that things were still around or could be brought back. There was no real evidence one way or the other and they had encountered things.. in pocket dimensions where space and time flowed differently. She was checking it out and stopped reaching out to bring the world around them before shaping the earth to open a hole for them to get down faster.

Meanwhile the Dark Matsu stood there and looked at the woman... as she spoke and there was something more sinister... about it.. something more dangerous to what she was doing and what she planned to do. "Oh I can assure you... I am every bit as much Matsu as the one you know... I didn't steal her face, or get cloned." She remained there and walked around her looking her up and down. "I just happened to be on the wrong side of the dimensional rift when a celestial tore opened a pathway between. A few others might have made it through but imagine my shock when the empire I served had not only lost but didn't exist in its form."

She said it and stood there remaining dangerously calm, her emotions controlled just there when her damaged looking eye barely moved. The scar visible and pulsing with darkside energy but she didn't use anger as others did. "You see... we are similar, the differences are small enough.. she has a family, friends... people she knows like you. I used those I suppose to have this sort of resolve... and so that I would be able to absorb the spirits." She finally grinned at that looking at her and the force spirits were powerful being that existed she had learned in other universes, here they were more bored and left alone but still just as powerful.

"But what to do with you, sadly you are not exactly run of the mill and something to let these rozzum consume... if I did that you would just be another husk but tell me what it is that you want? What is it that you would want to do in the galaxy if you had the chance?"

 

[Maple Harte]

Maple was given pause at Dark Matsu's answer about herself.

"And you're in a palace sized coffin with no friends pumping chit into people you don't even know..." Maple grunted. "I don't think picking evil has done you any favors in the slightest."

But then Dark Matsu asked what it was she wanted most. Maple wanted the death of the Mind-Binder, one of those little pancake wrapped sausages with maple syrup, cold strawberry milk, and Siva in a bikini..a really tiny one. She refused to elaborate this to Dark Matsu.

"I'm no fool. Any promise you make would be nothing but poison..." Maple snorted in dismissal at the question. "Make no mistake, even if you kill me, [member="Matsu Ike"] will find you. We're in the same line of work, she and I. And to be honest? She's been at it longer. Like...like...like twelve thousand times longer..."

Skip. She fell through an endless sky for more than thirty minutes. Skip. Maple woke up in a dark cell, chained to the wall, bleeding and bruised. She had been stripped to her undies. What had happened between telling Dark Matsu to go space herself and ending up in the cell.

Never mind. It didn't matter. She had to escape. Her settings were mostly stone. She saw strange black wards drawn on her arms that blocked her connection to the Force. Maple took note of her surroundings. Chain fastenings were clamped directly to the stone, secured by durasteel bolts. The clamps on her wrist were old school designs, manual locks. They needed metal keys to move the pins.

Maple looked down at her feel. Those had been secured also.

Maple felt around the roof of her mouth, found the pick, a soft little flexible plastic one, and placed it between her lips, yanking her arms to her painfully and putting the pick into the lock, loosening the pins and eventually undoing the cuffs on her wrists, then slowly undoing the ones on her ankles. She was free, for whatever that was worth.

Maple heard someone's footsteps from the passage outside her cell. Quickly and quietly positioning herself, hiding her thoughts, thinking about how painful the cuffs had been, and how she was gonna break Dark Matsu's jaw if Good Matsu didn't break it first.

The cell door opened and the Kanzar warrior sent to fetch her stood stock still in surprise at the empty chains on the wall before immediately turning and scanning behind and above him. The thing was, Maple had timed it so that when he turned she had already silently rolled behind him, hands taking precious seconds to remove the double edged knife with ghostly fingers and rammed it into his chest as he turned around. He collapsed in open mouthed shock as Maple knealt and took his pistol also, as well as his comlink. She immediately tuned to Siva's frequency.

"Siva? Siva come in."

"This is Siva. Uri? You okay?"

"No." Maple answered bluntly. "But I'll be well on my way after I get out of this cell block. What about you? Is Matsu fine also? Because I just ran into an evil Matsu who half considered pumping me full of that Rozzum crap..."

At hearing this, Siva, who had broken into a security office and taken out the priest and the priestess there, handed the link to Matsu, as she might know more.

"Yeahhhh...I'm outta my depth on that one..." Siva admitted to the Jedi Master. "You have a go. Uri? I'm putting you on with Matsu..."

"Any insight would be welcome on how to escape or kill the evil version of you..." Maple said bluntly as she exited the cell, sticking to the shadows...

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Maple Harte"]

"Can be unsettling can't it?" SHe said it looking a the office they were in and going over some of the surfaces to find hidden compartments. "She is dark but it is different. I have seen sith, I have seen evil beings and so have you... she always felt far more calculating, others might have a justification, have some twisted sense of what they are doing is the right thing.... she just kind of does it because stuff." She pointed around opening a section of wall. "Ah here we go." Opening it up she was able to find some equipment, mostly what they had information wise about the rifts and what had torn in the universe.

"I can't kill her though it isn't the jedi way and she doesn't just randomly attack and kill people or try to draw attention to herself... like the kanzer."While they knew about them the pair had stumbled across their plot by accident... given how little attention the tens of thousands year old death cult had existed and remained hidden from most of the galaxy.... They might have been very lucky to stumble across that warping device on Ando-prime. Still the jedi master took a moment when she was thinking about ti and trying to come up with something clever in the span of it.

"We should be able to really work on it and get to you though," She was feeling in the force and the kanzer were wicked, evil and twisted in the force... her dark mirror was very much calm and sedate... harder to find as she didn't give off any intent or emotions about what she was wanting to do. "We'll move quickly and quietly towards you, anything you can do that will give us a better impression and how to find you will be most helpful Maple." She said it with a small look of concern on he face that she was trying to keep back a little. Searchign through here couldbe taking longer then either of them would like if they weren't carefula nd she wasn't certain what might be done to Maple.