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It was the only thing I could thing of saying at the time
And I normally did not have too much to say anyway. Today was just one of those days.
Know what I mean?
I mean there was a prison break and now tanks were here to help clean up a mess?
Now things were getting out of hand. And yes I know. A prison break..
Midst the chaos and though my mind was a peace my reservations about the prisoners safety was not. It was a curse to care for those around you, ever the sociopaths and psychopaths of the galaxy. It was also a blessing.
To see the good in everyone and their worth.
" They deserve another chance at life." I uttered in my breath.
My eyes focused on the prisoner I recently knocked down.
He was being restrained now.
" STOP!" I shouted and held up my fist. The sun reflecting off a rusted ring.
"All SJO personnel. Snipers in east towers are neutralized".
Word broke out across the Comm's, revealing a break in the exterior defense of the Prison Compound. Immediately a squad of Antarian Rangers was dispatched to test the waters and ensure there were no remaining hostiles, Caedyn Arenais moving with them, his senses sweeping out about the environment hoping to catch hint of an ambush or any such threat were it to come. Much to their relief, when the squad of troops reached the eastern perimeter, no shots were heard and after a brief reconnaissance of the prison yard itself, they began to move forward towards the entrance to the Prison itself.
"This is Caedyn. I'm situated on the eastern front with a few of the Rangers. Entrance is clear and we're moving in" Caedyn informed the rest of the Silver Jedi Personnel on site before turning his attention back to the commanding officer and nodding in acknowledgement, signalling his readiness to proceed. Drawing upon his Bo Staff from over his shoulder, Caedyn swept the blunt force weapon around to rest beneath his left bicep as they moved forward. The Rangers keeping their corners covered with their blaster-rifles locked and shouldered, the corridors were tight and behind every corner could be a prisoner awaiting to take them by surprise. Rifles were set to stun and if it could be helped, casualties were to be avoided, yet there were hostages somewhere within the facility and so that would be their number one priority.
"Anyone got eyes on the Prison Guards?" Caedyn whispered across the comm's channel, hoping for some form of guidance as they moved quietly but quickly through the first prison block.
The Jedi stranger continued to object to the presence of the Lightbeams. However, Rick had his orders.
The task force moved in through one of the western entrances. Here, about a dozen prison guards had been able to establish a small foothold blocking the western gate. They had only opened up to Rick's forces upon seeing through a small, bulletproof window that they were friendly units. Inside, the guards established a series of low wood and concrete barricades across the field bordering the prison walls, some barricades of higher quality than others. However, they were all well-worn, with stunned prisoners strewn around, some of them still holding makeshift weaponry. The guards were equally worn, their body armor dented in places and smudged with blood in others. One humanoid guard was currently being attended by a prison medic, a deep stab wound in his left calf. But for now, the guards and Rick's task force remained the only concious people on the feild, and there was a brief halt to the waves of desperate escapees.
[Anyone got eyes on the prison guards?] called out a fellow operative through the allied comms.
[The western gate is secure. There's about a dozen guards, one severely wounded, holding the line in the west. We're clear here, any news in the north or south?]
As Rick delivered his reply through the comm, he realized something. A turbolaser on the northwest wall of the prison complex was turning, tilting to face the western gate.
[They took the prison defenses! Take co-]
Rick's reply was cut off as a bolt from the turbolaser tore through the western gate, taking out six Jedi operatives and a Lightbeam tank.
Syd had kept cutting her way through the prisoners, leaving it a pretty equal number between dead and wounded as she fought her way to the library.
It was strange, her doing it this way. Normally there was much more burning than normal. Most of them would have become baked goods by this point. The patient way allowed for more precision...a little more planning. But it was damn slow.
Her red blade redirected bolts to arms or legs or heads depending on the situation, beheading some. The rush of life and death within the Force was almost too much to handle for the now human...whatever the hell she was at this point...Syd wasn't quite sure...
A kick shattered a jaw, a punch broke a collarbone or pelvis. Her knuckles were starting to hurt, and this was a unique and special pain that made it more difficult to grip and manuever her lightsaber the more she did it. Thus she began to stick more to the blade, using her ability to fly very fast with the Force to zip out of the way of a bolt or manuever in otherwise impossible manners to evade melee attacks, then retaliate with a delimbing.
The chrome suited sort-of human propelled her elbow into the snout of a Trandoshan thug, then kicking him so hard he flew backward, transitioning the kick into an assisting movement to help her flip backward out of the way of a punch. Her mouth opened and a ray of white light erupted out of it, blinding whoever it was shined at allowing her to rush them, killing the most heavily armed, but mostly wounding the rest soon, there was no one on the floor of this block other than Syd in fighting condition. She got the transmission from @Stardust Australis Skirae .
"Kinda got started on that front. Cell Blocks A, B, C, F, and connecting passages between are clear of hostiles, but I had to make shortcuts, so the blocks in between and after still have a lot of hostile prisoners. I won't be able to link directly with you unfortunately, but anything I spot on my end to help lighten the load on yours, I'll let you know.
A second transmission then came in, this one from [member="Caedyn Arenais"].
"I captured the armory earlier, its in control of some surviving guards. I'm sending any surviving staff I find there." Syd explained to him as she continued her way to the prison library, after scavenging more ammunition for her pistol. She heard a high pitched hum behind her and turned, activating her red blade as she spotted him. He was dressed differently then the other prisoners, in a gray jumpsuit instead of orange. He was Utapaun, taller then her, armed with both a lightfoil with an elegant, curving stem of bronze for a hilt, with a pen-thin blade of orange that was slightly longer than average, as well as an orange shoto with a hilt just as black.
"So you must be The Assassin the Hutt hired...you have a most...impressive trail of bodies behind you."
"You will be a part of that trail if you don't surrender."
"Fool! I've been sent to aid you...wait...I sense the presence of the light in you!" The Sith Assassin sneered. "You're a Jedi!"
"So that's why you didn't escape with all the Jedi about to stomp these guys..." Syd realized. "You're obviously Sith. What's the Empire's stake in The Hutt?"
"As if I would be so foolish as to devulge that." The lanky alien man sneered, the thin ridges along his gray toned face crinkling in disgust.
"I dunno, buddy, you gave away you were supposed to team up with Lyli...or were you?" Syd wondered, circling him.
Syd begin to see the edges of a more in depth scheme.
"Lyli kills the Enforcer...and then you kill Lyli. All so the SJO doesn't find out Arcuruss has imperial ties. What's he do? Smuggle for you?" Syd asked. "Ferrying spies perhaps..."
"How typically Jedi. So close to the answer...yet lacking the depth for true understanding. It is why you shall always be inferior to the Sith." The Assassin taunted, brandishing his foil in a makashi salute.
"You any good with that foil, son?" Syd asked, slinking into a Form 2 that felt quite alien...yet...natural at the same time. It was bizarre. One hand folded behind her back, while placing a foot forward of the other, which went slightly to the side as she pointed her blade at him.
"I studied at the feet of the sons of of the misshapen Ro-No-Do, Duke of The Fallen Fields."
"An inferior technique. Risky. Too much Juyo thrown in for its own good." Syd quipped dismissively. "Ataru...well...I've found its a little more reliable for blends. Lots of mobility."
"If I had a credit for every Ataru cultist I've slaughtered, I wouldn't be taking chit missions like this."
The Assassin sprinted at her, thrusting and slashing with the foil in a semi chaotic pattern.
Syd flick-parried his foil aside, moving a single step towards his inner space and giving a downward, diagonal swish of her foil, only to be intercepted by his shoto. She twirled to the side and his foil turned aside her thrust, swishing with a high pitched hum for her throat. Syd dodged it, and he readjusted.
The shoto went inverted and he slashed upward with it. Syd used Force Flight to twist her whole body out of the way of the slash, The light came out of her mouth but this one was much stronger than Lyli had been, he merely blinked and sent heavy, intense bolts of red lightning towards her. Syd was blocking the powerful bolts with her blade, all her strength going into stopping an attack she had no doubt would kill her on impact. Red Force Lightning was among the most powerful kind, as Syd could attest from experience. That stuff was always killing strength.
She didn't even think her blade could take much more of it. No choice now.
Syd sprayed fire from her mouth, instantly making him break his concentration. To her disappointment, he conjured the force around his body as a red field, easily able to stop a fire not able to go above book burning temperatures. It did have kinetic impact, unlike other fires, so he was knocked down, but she could tell by the field strength her fire wasn't going to burn him. Her blade deactivated, disabled by the lightning.
Syd held out her hand. "Ashla, send a flock upon my foes..."
The purple, fiery bird constructs were rushing out of her hand zipping around his vision, Syd pulled out her pistol and fired as fast as she could, but the man genuinely wasn't bad, deflecting every bolt she sent away with his shoto, destroying her bird constructs and cautiously reapproaching her.
"Ashla, shield me from wickedness..." Syd whispered, focusing.
A deep purple fire enveloped her, and not a moment too soon, as He tried to Force Grip her and found her windpipe closing tightly, butnot enough to truely cause problems. Syd, in a fit of whimsy, conjured fiery spears from all sides and forced him to refocus on shielding himself with the Force.
But she was starting to realize how tired she was getting. It had not been a problem being made of fire, as long as she got enough oxygen.
Muscles need oxygen. But muscles tire out. She had spent much of her time ripping and tearing, and it had cost her.
She had to end this now. She tested her blade, and it turned on.
He struck in elaborate deadly chaotic alternating flurries between the foil and the shoto, Syd blocking or parrying them all, having at last deciphered the flaws in his technique. She slapped aside his strikes without moving, but he got faster, and soon Syd was forced to fly backward from him and rethink. He was faster. Much faster.
"So dismissive of my Juyo blend?" He asked haughtily
"You haven't inflicted one wound so far, asshat." Syd replied
"Nor have you."
Syd raised her pistol, firing. He froze the bolts in mid air and rushed her, Syd coiling and twisting like a snake to evade him, parrying the stabs of his foil, now deciding to shoot as well as slash, combining it with Force flight to put him on the defensive, and this combination at last broke his defense, allowing her to nick his legs, then the foil holding arm after his defense failed. But the Force Armor held, leaving only welts. Syd dodged and parried the next flurries of his blade, shooting her knee upward into his pelvis shattering it after turning aside both weapons he had at once, pushing her muscles to the very limit to match him. He flew backward. Normally, this is the point he would have cooked to medium rare. But Syd needed information. She crouched over him, holding her blade to his throat. His weapons had flown from his hand.
"You will tell me everything..." she snapped.
The death warning in the Force made her twist out of the way, his foil passing through the space her head had been not a second prior. He screamed as it burned through his own head, killing him.
"Fething Supervillain Move--!" Syd swore, frightened at how close she had come to actually dying. But his unintentional suicide by telekinesis (Or perhaps not intentional but instead a failed attempt to take her with him.) had left her right at square one. Syd retrieved both weapons he had, using the Litany magic to purify them, her body feeling drained, more so than purifying Lyli's weapon, but she still got through it. Now for that library.
Syd intercepted a transmission. The western gate defenses had been activated. The library would have to wait. Syd could feel the deaths of the Jedi, and it tore at her in a way she was unused to as she changed direction, spotting tied up hostages in a cell, freeing them and directing them to the armory, then took the fastest route she knew to the Prison's security control center to try and help [member="Rick Kaloo"]. She began running into more dead guards, and her patience, and personal physical energy greatly exhausted, and when Syd finally reached the control center she was pouring fire out of her mouth just to make them flee, not deliberately aiming at them. The prisoners, of course fled the controls after she came in both breathing fire and shooting at whoever was dumb enough to stay, killing several who had died at the controls.
Syd, irritated by how pear shaped her own mission had gone, knew todays failures would stay with her awhile. Like it or not, the damn hutt had timed this perfectly.
Maybe she should just charbroil him...
After ten minutes of figuring out how it worked, Syd powered down the weapons and opened all security doors where SJO were, sending another transmission.
"All SJO personnel. Turbolasers deactivated. Security on all taken areas should be open to you."
At least she had some sweet loot...
(Zelda acquisition theme plays)
(Syd obtained new weapons!)
Weapon: LIGHTFOIL
Sith developed lightsaber variant, allowing for swifter thrusting and slashing against a lone opponent. Upgrade capable, emits an orange beam
Weapon: SHOTO
Offhand, shortened lightsaber blade balanced for use in dual bladed combat. Upgrade capable. Emits an orange blade.
Ura held the controls of her swoop tightly as she finished out of the hammerhead turns. She had to make up ground, so she had gunned the speeder to gain some positions. She did her best to keep the speeder in check, quickly breaking at the last second before entering the hairpin turn into checkpoint three. Then she was met with an unexpected obstacle. Someone attacking the other racers, and knocking one out! Ura let out a whispery, Lerdos curse before pushing power into her repulsors, planning to ride over the carnage. Anything she couldn't fly over she maneuvered around. Someone wanted to target the racer. She didn't know who was behind it, but this meant that she had to stay sharp. Ura looked around before pulling through the third check point. This wasn't good.
He remembered those eyes. Cold, calculating, brutal eyes. Looking down at him. Yellow, and milk-white. Like a dead person's. Person was already dead inside. Their eyes being all messed up made sense. Red blade hovered over a fresh kill. He looked down at the wounded Tulan.
Tulan and him were on the same side, right?
Wrong.
The guy laughed at him, crouching near him. Said something about culling the weak from his unit. What he didn't know, is that Tulan could move just fine. He just couldn't see out of his left eye. And from what he knew about Jedi and the force, Jedi could see what was comin', but the Sith lost that touch, thanks to their... well, Tulan best described it as 'an adolescent fascination with black with space magic and laser swords'.
That's what let Tulan stab him in the neck. Tough as he was, you get somethin' in your spinal chord, and well- that was that. It was Tulan's turn to laugh. Two Commandos turned to observe Tulan kill the Sith. The Commandos never really bothered with the Sith. Never liked the ones they got, anyways. So they just walked over, and dropped him into the pit with the other bodies, lightsaber and all.
Tulan stood up, bleeding from his face profusely. But he was strong, stronger than he ever felt.
And he realized what he was, and who these guys were. So while his team was busy covering up the mass grave with loose dirt, Tulan walked behind them both, and shot them in the back of the head. A disruptor pistol blew their brains out, in a nice, fresh-out-the-oven way.
Tulan stood over the grave, pistol at his side. He reached up to the patch on his shoulder, and tore it off of him. Didn't feel right anymore. He dropped it into the pit, and walked away. Now he was free. From them, at the moment, at least. He'd never be free from himself.
Present Day
Something was off.
And Tulan knew that, as soon as the police left. The prison break garnered more attention than he thought. Now, the authority on the track were the people who had stakes in it. The underbelly of the race was full of mechanics, managers, people with clipboards, running to and fro, people paying attention to the betting boards.
But a few groups of people stuck out.
Everyone down here was doing something, having something to do.
But not these guys. That's why they stuck out.
There was a wrench on the table near a mechanic. Tulan dropped to a knee and slipped a credit chit into the guy's pocket and told 'em to take a hike. There were three of them. He had a wrench and a gun.
He'd only need the wrench.
He swung at the first. Clipped him on the back of the head. Sent him sprawling over. Blaster tumbled out his waistband. Second guy went for the gun, in his waistband. Tulan helped him get it out of his waistband, and hell, he even helped him shoot it. Guy probably didn't appreciate being shot in the leg, though. He tumbled over, clutching at his charred meat and cursing Tulan. Tulan watched the last guy fumble with his blaster.
Not career criminals, obviously.
Tulan took the time to disassemble the weapon in front of the guy to prove a point.
He swung the wrench and grabbed the guy by the collar. He squeezed tightly and started to grin.
[member="Syd Celsius"]' message had gotten through, the Tubolasers defending the facility had been shut down and thus allowed for a team to take to the roof. Transports would be shuttled back and fourth undeterred now, the wounded could be treated without further duress while the teams moving into the Prison could better focus on securing the hostages and restoring order to the Prison Compound. The Ranger unit with Caedyn had their rifles set to stun, while he himself preferred the use of his Bo Staff to incapacitate those who refused to surrender. Unfortunately, the rioters and would-be escapees didn't see things the same way and took to the fight like there was no alternative. Many of these convicts had killed before, and so the prospect of doing so again in order to live like free men and women, no doubt sounded like a rational option to turn to; truth was however, with the facility surrounded and the local authorities reinforced by the Silver Jedi, none of the convicted would escape this place. They just had to ensure the security personnel who had been overrun and taken as hostages, would do.
One room after the next, the squad would meticulously clear each section before moving on. Prisoners who surrendered themselves would be handed to the local authorities and moved to a secure area until the all-clear could be given for the entirety of the facility; those more prone to violence would be subdued and secured for holding all the same. Killing these folk weren't an option to Caedyn's mind, they were people all the same after all. Just those who had made some very poor choices in life, unfortunately. The medical ward was there next destination, and upon arrival the squad could already hear the anger and anxiety from the prisoners who had over-run this section of the Prison. They seemed to be arguing among one another, while a pair of them were intimidating their captives. A Doctor, the nurse and a few security officers that had been guarding the area before all hell broke loose. Three of the prisoners were armed, while the others had taken to whatever sharp instruments they could get their hands on in the ward.
"Hostages in the medical ward. Moving to secure" One of the Rangers spoke into their Comm's to update the other teams sweeping the facility. Their commanding officer removed a small spherical device, flat surfaces above and below, from his pocket and soon threw it ahead into the room to slide along the ground all the way towards the center of the group. A loud bang exploded from the device and for a brief second the room lightened from the outside, the prisoners thrown into disarray as the flashbang blinded them all, allowing for Caedyn and the Rangers to move in.
Caedyn went for the hostages, while the Rangers took the prisoners to the floor with appropriate force and subdued them all. "Room's clear!" one of the men called as Cae was busy trying to pry the hostages bindings from around their wrists and ankles. "Relax, we're getting you all out of here" he tried to reassure them, though the two medical personnel were less than encouraged. It wouldn't be over for them until they saw the light of day and walked out into the open air once more.
[member="Rick Kaloo"] | [member="Stardust Solus Skirae"] | [member="Syd Celsius"]
Speeding past some of the slower racers, Kat was now getting into a middling position which was getting Kat feeling good, she could definitely turn this around and could rank at least in the top five. She darted to the next turn when the podracers started coming under fire. The shots were from a skilled sniper, not just some lucky guy taking an opportunity. Kat gripped her controls tight and darted around the debris and multiple podracers that had crashed. It was not an easy manoeuvre to execute but Kat was trained in the Force so she could sense when the shots were fired at her. Sensing the danger, she moved in several different directions dodging the incoming fire.
As she turned the bend, she had lost a few moments of momentum but she wasn't out of the race yet. Pushing the engines to full speed, Kat moved forward as she approached the others. Curious who would take a few shots at podracers, she had heard it was common but that was definitely someone with a good eye to shoot at the speed they were travelling.
Of course, the racers the Order had posted on Ingo to pose as decoys for the other teams that were to root out the saboteurs were still behind her, but now came the less treacherous portion of the track to her, and for the others in the lead group. There was a somewhat long straight line before the final turn but when that turn came, the final checkpoint before the finish line was occurring. With that said, she saw an opportunity to boost the engines for much of the long straight portion that laid before the lead group. And that was the best opportunity for her to break off from the rest of the group, but she knew better than to risk an engine catching fire, so she needed to stop boosting the engines at some point before the first turn but after the finish line. Once that happened, however, she was in the lead, with the second-place racer not far behind.
As the speeders neared the starting point, ready to go onto lap #2 – there were more shots from the cliffs. More red bolts rained down from on high–a few coming dangerously close to the people in the stands, too. But that only made the crowd go wild... they thought it was all part of the show.
A blaster bolt clipped MTP Limited's speeder, causing the driver to drive erratically—right for the stands of race fans. Having gained enough speed, the craft jumped up and over the barrier.
There were screams as fans realized that this feat had not been planned.
Well, something bad happened, and it was on her watch. Auteme felt that she wasn't doing a very good job. A speeder crashing into the stands should've been something she would be able to sense, right? She'd read about Force precognition. She wished she'd actually... you know, practiced something about it. Might've come in handy for predicting whatever just happened.
The source of the blaster fire wasn't something she wanted to confront, so instead she launched into action towards the speeder, managing to slip her way through the panicking stream of fleeing fans. The crash had damaged the stands, and quite clearly damaged... a few people. A little girl had her leg caught under the speeder -- the speeder that was looking like it was about to catch fire. She didn't need precognition to see that. The driver seemed to be unconscious, and two other people had been injured from what she could see.
Focus.
The little girl was crying in pain -- a woman, likely her mother, was trying desperately to push away the speeder. Auteme took a moment, taking a deep breath. Visualize, then execute. She raised her hands and closed her eyes, seeing the speeder in her mind -- no, through the Force. Her hands felt like they were taking their place alongside the woman's, but hers were much stronger through the Force. She didn't need to lift it up all the way, just enough to let the girl escape, but she found herself distracted by her own doubts. What if she couldn't do it? Maybe she should go help the driver, or the other people who are injured. Or maybe she'd be better off finding other help?
Her resolve hit a snag, and for now, she'd struggle alone.
Objective: Find alternate method of securing Hutt conviction.
Syd fought her way through the prison, trying to put together what had been going on here, her human heart pounding with anxiety, fought away only with the Jedi Code. It was not just fear of death, but the exhilaration of battle. She must not enjoy this.
Only...
Syd was...at the moment at least...technically human. But that was only an effect of the armor she wore. There were things that did not make sense.
She had noticed her vision in very dark areas had improved, and she had picked up those light abilities with unsettling ease. But there had to be a catch. There had to be. Darth Phyre had been a Sithspawn. Then she had been torn apart with magic and remade as this. And this same armor of that murderess was keeping her human. Her essence had been soaked in magic. Drenched in it. From both extremes. She may have been human, but there was no way it stopped at that, not with the amount of magic her spirit had been saturated in. That in of itself might still affect the flesh in some manner. It unsettled her, not knowing what sort of devils bargain she had made.
The other SJO seemed to have a handle on the situation and Syd was eager to continue to her mission to the Hutt. She soon reached the library, kicking the primitive swivel doors open.
"One Chance. Where. Is. The. Hutt?" Syd snarled, not sure if she was entirely faking her fury as she tapped the mannerisms of Darth Phyre, and pray the Hutt had not actually known what Lyli had looked like before hiring her. The Dark Jedi had been very careful to leave no photo evidence of herself. All known cases of hiring Lyli had been through inbetweens. Never face to face meetings.
In other words, Syd had to sell the idea that she was a Dark Adept to these people. They looked to be all the friends the Hutt had made, among the prison population, None of them were big time. Low level enforcers at best.
The Hutt was busy in one corner of the library, a prisoner turning a book for him. He had an odd, albino pigmentation.
"I believe payment was to be arranged elsewhere..." he said in strained basic.
"It just fething tripled." she snapped, brushing past the guards. "Also ran into your Sith friend. These are his lightsabers, by the way. Give me one good reason I shouldn't use this lightsaber to chop your ass into confetti."
The Hutt sighed, still reading his book. "I suppose a renegotiation of our contract at this juncture is not unreasonable."
"Damn right it isn't. In addition to my increased fee I demand a few extra things...I want more business opportunities..."
The Hutt finally turned to look at her. "A bold request. You are one of the cheaper Dark Jedi I could have hired."
"I just infiltrated a prison, fought my way through who knows how many guards..." Syd snapped haughtily, going towards him. Men leveled their guns at her but The Hutt wordlessly held up his hand.
"I also killed the Sith originally meant to kill me. I think I've proven my credentials. Of course, if you like..." she trailed menacingly, holding up her lightsaber.
The Hutt sighed. "And here I was, thinking it would not all go south."
"You either make a deal, or you die..." she warned.
The Hutt wordlessly signalled to another for a datapad. The prisoner handed it to Syd after retrieving it from the top of a very tall bookcase via a ladder.
"That contains the means of contacting my associates."
Syd tossed it aside. "Lies..." she snapped, lightsaber activating. "Do you take me for a fool? You wouldn't leave something that sensitive on a datapad!"
The blasters were pointed at her head. Either she had sold it or she was dead. She saw shotguns. A few of them would get her at this angle.
"Fine..." the Hutt conceeded. "I'll give the real info."
The Hutt reached into the folds of his fat, removing a small, sealed holodisk.
"It contains the contact list of everyone I work with, including the ones the authorities don't even know I am in league with. I was originally planning to depart with the Sith but you fouled that."
"Why are you in league with the Sith Empire. What do you do for them?" Syd inquired, sensing the truth this time.
"I help smuggle Jedi who want to turn traitor out of SJO territory. Its surprisingly lucrative work, given how strong they are. You wouldn't think they'd be too prone to this problem but apparently I'm only one of several people supplying the means to get disillusioned Jedi out of this sector." Arcuruss the Hutt warbled.
Syd raised an eyebrow.
Whoa.
"That is quite the reveal. Anyway a woman can get in on that?" Syd asked coyly, practiced playfullness that she had done in a mirror twice a day for months, along with a list of other expressions and emotions. Only in her human form did it occur naturally.
"Bah! You should probably use the routes I have set up to join them yourself, if you're ever in the mood."
Syd inwardly shuddered at the idea but maintained a slowly cooling demeanor.
"Hmmm..." she muttered. "Well, seeing as to how I'm to help you escape--"
"Ah, yes. I'd originally planned to escape with the Sith. But I suppose given how you proved to be even better than I thought you would be..."
The Hutt slithered over to the statue of a famous playwright, popping open the head and pressing a red button (Westward: 60 XP)
A wall to Syd's right parted, revealing a crude but wide staircase. The other prisoners who seconds before had pointed weapons at her now began the journey to freedom behind the Hutt.
"How in the Darkness did you get that installed?" Syd asked, preparing.
"Oh, I had to engineer an accident or two to get the library closed off for a while. Long enough for the prison to hire architects to rebuild it. Architects staffed by people who work for me in secret." Arcuruss answered as he slithered down the staircase. "Amazing what a little money can do, huh?"
Syd had him. A blink summoned them. Constructs of orange fire, shaped like knights in ancient heavy armor, holding flaming axes to the throats of the prisoners and the startled Hutt.
"You betray me?!" The Hutt protested, backing away from the construct.
"I'm SJO. You are under arrest." Syd snapped. "Some of you might be pretty fast. But are you dodge-a-magical-fire-axe-fast?"
None of them thought they were, it seemed. They all dropped their weapons.
"I thought so."
Syd got out her comlink. "Syd Celsius to all SJO personnel. Library and High Value Prisoner secured. Hidden escape route discovered. Need immediately reinforcements to library to help secure prisoners more thoroughly."
It took about ten minutes, but SJO soldiers and Jedi soon burst in, and an exhausted Syd took a breather for a moment, before heading out to help secure the rest of the prison with other soldiers, sending any prison staff she or others found alive to [member="Caedyn Arenais"] .
The aid of Syd Celsius proved invaluable in securing the Prison Guards taken hostage, removing them from the rioting inmates and beginning to double back the way the team had entered in order to get them outside to the local blockade, from there the authorities native to Wobani could debrief them alongside any needed medical attention.
Clearing the Prison Facility of Hostages meant greater ease in handling the over-all situation. With any potential innocents now out of harms way, the blockade surrounding the Prison would slowly and tactfully begin to close in on the perimeter, keeping the Looters distracted while smaller teams would infiltrate would non-lethal rounds, sand-bags that could be fired from a rifle and incapacitate their target with enough force to drop them to the ground.
As part of the team, Caedyn would continue on further into the facility with his Bo Staff rather than a fire-arm. The power of the Force and a firm strike to the midsection and most prisoners would fall to the blunt force of the alchemized, force imbued weapon.
"This is Caedyn Arenais, we've secured the main building. There's a few stragglers but the majority of inmates are down. Suggest the local force come in and take over" Caedyn spoke into his commlink as he and the team had finished rounding up the last of the criminals within the primary cell block. The Silver Jedi weren't required here any further, the job was mostly complete with the exception of a few but with the Jedi's arrival the hostages had been freed and now it was just a matter of cleaning up the mess.
As far as Caedyn was concerned, the locals would be more than capable to finish up the rest.
[member="Rick Kaloo"] | [member="Stardust Solus Skirae"] | [member="Syd Celsius"]
Ura quickly pulled her swoop through the forth checkpoint, her mind still on the shots fired as she pulled around to turn. This was bad. Why would someone want to kill the other racers? Ok. That was stupid. One of her friends was a bounty hunter for crying out loud. She knew what the underworld was like from him. All she could really do right now was gun it, and hope for the best. Well... that didn't happen.
As she pulled through the line, a blaster bolt his the plating over her swoops engine. The thing sputtered some, not completely dead, but not very helpful for control. Poodoo! Who the heck was shooting, and thank the Force that Ura like old and rugged over new and light. Still, these poodoo brains needed to be taught a lesson, and if they destroyed her swoop.... She'd be ready to take them out.
Kat could see that all the other racers were starting to crash, get shot down or racing ahead. Pushing the engines to the max, she gunned forward and heard the engines shrieking as the power pushed the podracer around the final corner and to the finish line of the first lap. This was hard going for the engines but Kat was picking up positions so she couldn't worry too much about the engines and just trust in the Force and in the cooling system. Mostly in the cooling system though. She had built that for events like this where she was pushing the engine more than it should be. Kat slowed down a little as things got hectic with more firing.
Breathing, Kat stared at the other racers ahead of her, she was not too far behind now but she needed to make sure that she kept going as fast as she could.
Right behind her, MTP's pod was shot down... the Polydroxol was feeling like she was next in line. As unplanned as it may have been, it was unlikely these guys held some grudges for what happened on Morellia, or were otherwise have been Ssi-ruuk-affiliated at some point. But she was lucky she had enough boost not to be at a high risk of taking the hit while the stands were close to the finish line. And yet, said boost had to end, not only because keeping it on for too long was a big heat risk, but also because the first turn was forthcoming. And with it, the first checkpoint; for what was to follow there was no way she could continue going at maximum speed as she previously had, and tight turns were going to be next. Just because a close competitor bit the dust, didn't mean the rest of the playing field was getting easier to race against.
For within you shines the light of a thousand suns.
No. She was here now. She had the opportunity to do something, to change a life, to save a life. The look of stress on the padawan's face subsided -- for a moment, Auteme felt a deep peace, a connection to the Force she hadn't before. The Light would guide her, give her the strength to protect and the wisdom to heal. There was no anguish or struggle visible on Auteme's face; her arms rose further, and with them the crashed speeder.
The little girl's mother looked incredulously at the podracer as it began to float, just inches above the ground, freeing her to pull her daughter out from under the wreckage. The woman's eyes fell on the padawan as she carried her daughter away. As Auteme lowered the podracer again, the woman uttered two words: "Thank you."
The young Jedi eased the podracer back onto the ground and opened her eyes. Whatever she'd done, it'd been more effective than she'd hoped -- the flames from the crash seemed to have died down, and the racer seemed to be fine. She went over quickly, pulling the driver out of his ruined podracer. First responders streamed into the area, helping those who'd been injured away. Auteme handed off the driver to a pair of paramedics. She felt accomplished today -- even when bad things happened, she could aid those in need.
Ura held the controls tight. Trying took keep the swoop under control. Poodoo poodoo poodoo! Why did she have to be the one who got shot! She slid by, seeing [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"] in the stands as she arced around the debris. Honestly, she was still holding a lot of speed for her racer to b damaged. She took the first turn, taking advantage of her swoops agility before passing through the first check point. She could keep her peed up a little bit. She still had to slow down more as she took the hammerhead turns. "Please don't fall apart, girl. Please please please."
Argos sat in the stands with his twin siblings, Yeada and Ordos, who had already gotten some weird looks. Lervonian twins were an odd sight, always sharing a portion of there crystal mass. In his siblings' case, having a humanoid form with two torsos, but only two legs. Nothing really considered odd for Lervon. Some even chose to be like that, considering it was easy with there forms. To others though... it was weird. They were there to watch the race, specifically routing for Ura. At least until the blasters started firing. He looked down at the wreak that happened in front of them. Quickly looking at where the fire was coming from. He looked at his sibling, noticing a Force wielder trying to help with the crash. "You two help her here. I'm going to try and find these shooters."
"But we can help...."
"Ordos. You and Yerda don't have a weapon. Help the people here." He looked up, calling to the Force wielder. "Any idea who's shooting?"
Once again, she entered the right turn after the first checkpoint, which was far from the hardest on the circuit, and also she knew by now what made the next set harder of two left turns, and the hard right one after that, than the last set. With the enemy shooters being sandwiched between the third checkpoint and the finish line, Dunames was a little nervous as she went into the second checkpoint, feeling that maybe she could be next, especially since several contestants were already eliminated: MTP, MG, with MG's wreckage now being worked at by [member="Auteme Denko-Durren"] to save the driver. Plus, going into the hairpin near the first incident, the other remaining contestants were closing in on her, and the majority of the surviving contestants were still potential targets.
