Private Sword Saint's Run

[Nine Lives]

Wearing: Progenitor's Robes

Armed with Hundred Handed Giant

Obsidian Lightsaber

Objective: Secure Business Deal for House Li-Ves, have vicious Sword Fight.


Location: The Azure Dragon (Atrisia)


"You must understand..." Mister Yamamoto said to the tall woman sitting across from him, wearing a green hooded kimono with white rose print embroidery, her gorgeous face concealed by the hood so well only the glowing centers of her purple eyes were showing. Yamamoto, by contrast was stocky with leathery skin and thinning white hair in a green business suit of fine Atrisian Silk.

The capital city of Atrisia, magnifcent and futuristic even by Modern Galactic Standards, stretched below them, the wide glassteel window seperating them from the golden cityscape at night.

Nine had rented the Jade Tea Room, where everything had jade ornaments, and not just green, but blue, purple, and golden jade insets on the black furniture. Glossy obsidian servant droids poured tea for the man. Strong tea.

Nine herself never drank...tea...

Instead, she eyed his map, which showed a set of encrypted hyperspace routes leading to a planet with an ornate golden key, sitting next to him, sealed in scan proof foil.

"I took great risk meeting you here. I didn't even know what this was..." he explained.

"But when I saw the seal it came with, I recoiled in fear for I recognized it..."

He produced the Jade Seal, upon which lay words in Atrisian Kanji:

ダース*火

"Darth Phyre..." Nine remarked..."Never heard of 'em..."

"Few remember that evil beast...her execution was deserved. She was without honor..." Yamamoto said dismissively.

"There are rumors of her vile cult being alove and well. I was traveling the outer rim when I came upon a grisly massacre...they instantly reminded me of tales my great great great great grandfather told of slaughters and tortures upon the innocent the cult would inflict. He survived one of course. The only one who ever survived one conducted by Phyre. His family worshipped the ancient gods who blessed him with the stealth of spirit to hide him from Phyre's inner eye...it is a blessing that has passed down from generation to generation. I myself would have died many times if Force Adepts had been able to sense me. I heard you were looking for any information you could find on this cult..."

"I am...and am willing to pay handsomely..." Nine spoke.

"My Great Grand Father times four hunted for the Cult slaying many of the survivors from its downfall during the plague. But he refused to destroy this relic...he is said to have stolen it from Phyre herself..."

"What do you want for it?"

"By even making you aware, I am placing your life in danger...I am being hunted..."

As he spoke, dozens of Shinobi were repeatedly dropped on the roof with cloaked shuttles, and began rappelling down the extravagant metallic blue skyscrapere with a blue jade dragon statue coiling around the entirety of the glittering spire.

They communicated in hand signals, faces concealed in gold dragon masks, their robes black, their Ninjato sharp.

The map was to be taken at all cost, even if they had to steamroll over the matriarch of a royal house...

But Nine wasn't the only danger tonight in this skyscraper teahouse...

Caltin Vanagor

 

[Caltin Vanagor]

He was not one to make trips to Atrisia, the planet was strife with corruption and turmoil in his time, but that was his time. Now he truly did not know and had heard great things about the Jade Tea Room. It was a little silly to make such a trip just to drink tea, but the best way to catch up with the galaxy was to experience it first hand. So when he had some free time, the big guy borrowed a shuttle and made way to the birthplace of “Jar Kai”. It was a sword/saber style that he often used in training, but not in combat, utilizing two blades at once.

In truth, Caltin preferred a single blade, he liked having the freehand but did not discount the perks of the extra weapon. The culture of the planet was about the form though, more often than not for meditation, which he could understand, but that was then and this is now. What was the planet like after 800+ years? If it was anything like the others he had been to, it would be recognizable, but something completely out of the ordinary. That is the one thing that he could count on and he was not disappointed in that regard.

He set down in the starport and walked the streets. Sure, they were not what he was used to, with more technology than before but still the tinges of tradition and history. It was a respectable look that probably the populace of today would not appreciate fully, much like every other. The tea house oddly enough was in the penthouse of a building and not on its own. That was not concerning, but what was, was the hordes of troops, or thieves, or thugs or whatever landing on top of it.

Oh brother. He thought to himself as he could not turn away, there was trouble brewing and while it was not his jurisdiction, he could not turn away from trouble,

 

[Nine Lives]

Mister Yamamoto sipped his tea daintily while Nine watched.

"You do realize you will have to go into hiding once you give me this, right?" Nine asked. "Those witches will show you zero mercy if you are captured."

"I've been pretty good at hiding for a long time now..." Yamamoto assured her. "Now...about price..."

"Hold on...What's the map lead to, exactly?"

Yamamoto paused.

"I believe it is a means of entering the realm where Phyre's Goddess reigns supreme."

Nine raised an eyebrow, conveniently in a Dwayne Johnson esque manner.

"Man no wonder you are nervous. One Hundred Million for the Map, an extra fifty million so you can afford the absolute biggest of Big Fething Guns an elderly man of your stature can hold against the hoardes of screaming murderbeast witches that will haunt you to your grave."

"I've had a good life...I'm not afraid..." Yamamoto replied stoically.

Nine, remembering her own torture at the hands of The Amalgam , sighed.

"You 'will' be..." she trailed. "You 'will' be..."

Her Force Sense tingled...

(90's Spiderman Animated Series Theme Plays)

She pounced on the surprised Yamamoto as the windows were blasted open and Shinobi poured in, firing SMG's. Nine leaped to the ceiling with the Force, using her natural abilities as a vampire to then crawl across it, dropping down amongst the first wave and drawing her Katana, which cut one in half on the first slice...

The other Shinobi wheeled on her, drawing their own blades, but The Arch Psy-Pire was faster, slicing past the defenses of those closest to her, parrying half a dozens swords and salvos of gunfire as she moved, Dark blue Saber flashing to life as she cut a man in half at the waist, ludicrous amounts of blood spilling everywhere.

Yamamoto, to his credit, was not underprepared either, because he had a massive handgun in his suit that he whipped out and fired, scoring headshots that made the heads erupt like bursting melons. One charged, swiping at the old man with his sword only to have his entire chest blasted open by the custom sixty caliber gold plated hand cannon Yamamoto was using, which flung the corpse back into the crowd as Nine beheaded another two. But more Shinobi were pouring in and their attacks were becoming more aggressive and fast, forcing Nine and Yamamoto into retreat out of the room, Nine grabbing the map and both broke into full retreat under heavy gunfire and sword attack.

"I don't have enough bullets for all of them..." Yamamoto remarked as they fled down a passage, blasting the head off a pursuing Shinobi as both barely avoided clouds of Shuriken impacting into the walls.

"I kinda got that impression, admittedly..." Nine confessed, deflecting the throwing weapons and covering Yamamoto as they tried to make the emergency staircase, only to find more Shinobi rushing them from the opposite direction.

"Yamamoto..." she trailed as she and the old man huddled together in the wide passage of polished brown walls and floors, the Shinobi closing from both sides. "Duck..."

"I prefer beef..." Yamamoto said obliviously, keeping his hand cannon on a Shinobi about to strike.

"No...DUCK!" Nine explained loudly.

"Oh..." the old man said, pulling a Max Payne and shoot-dodging the Shinobi in front of him as he hit the floor, while Nine concentrated the magic in her Katana to darken the area to near pitch black, launching herself at the Shinobi in a flurry of attacks that ripped and tore into their defense, Yamamoto blind fired into the crowd ahead, unable to see or hear anything for fifteen seconds, feeling Shuriken and bullets glide past his hair. He emptied his pistol, and when the world brightened, Nine was alive, clutching her side, covered in gore, and all the Shinobi in the immediate area were dead.

"That's not the last of them..." she breathed, wincing at the gash on her side. "The staircase...run..."

Yamamoto nodded, picking up an SMG from one of the sliced apart Shinobi and they both headed for the staircase, trying to find an emergency exit out of the building.

Nine heard screams as they traveled down...the Shinobi were executing witnesses in other parts of the building...once they spotted Caltin Vanagor approaching he was immediately targeted from a balcony with a Z-6 Rotary Cannon held by a particularly large Shinobi while squads of Shinobi that had been sealing the building off moved instead to engage him, flinging shuriken...

 

[Caltin Vanagor]

These attackers were numerous and organized, but they seemed to be out of some horrible holo-movie. Clad all in black, hooded, masked, and in black Caltin wondered exactly who they were. Several of them, a dozen, were running at him as several stood in a secured position on the roof. This was a situation where he would choose between attackers, especially since one of them was securing a rotary gun and targeting him directly. He was very well centered, considering the circumstances, the truth is, the big guy still felt like some kind of prank was being played on him. It was almost as if someone was sitting in front of a computer writing a story a long time from now in a galaxy far far away.

~Like that will ever happen.~

The choice Caltin had to make between attackers was one they would not expect. They wanted him to either be cut up by swords or be shot up by a rotary cannon and some flung pieces of metal. Reaching out through the Force, the massive Jedi Master pushed back not only the swordsmen (they were mistakenly grouped allowing this) and then at the pieces of metal sending them back from where they came as well. The big guy had a few moments to reposition himself as the hail of blaster bolts rained down on him. Planting his feet, Caltin utilized his mastery of Soresu and Djem So in redirecting the fire. The first volley went at the swordsmen, keeping back but a moment and then he twisted his wrist, sending the second volley back at the weapon itself.

A smirk crept across his face. He did not wish to kill anyone, but it was clear that these individuals would not take his advice and flea. No, he wanted a “somewhat peaceful” solution (making them run, or defeating and letting them surrender) but it was clear that these black-clad fighters would fight to the last man, or woman, or, whatever. He had to fight back, he had to stop them completely, so be it.

Running at the individuals, Caltin did something unexpected first, he took the first opponent by the neck and slammed him to the ground. With a duck and a roll, his next move took his lightsaber, Conservator, into a sweeping upwards diagonal arc. While the permafrost tinged energy blade met the three swords it was intended to, the blades blocked it. “Phrik”, he thought to himself, in a factual, and cursing fashion. That just meant that he would indeed have to fight them more intently now. These men, women, whatever were indeed proficient in Jar’Kai…

… but so was he…

… their unarmed attacks showed their mastery of it. They were proficient in Teras Kasi…

… but so was he…

This was going to be a fight. It was going to be a fight just to get inside.

Tag: Nine Lives

 

[Nine Lives]

Nine rushed down a passage, her Katana and Lightsaber drawn, Yamamoto following close behind, She had slapped one of those modified bacta patches her daughter Magnus had made for her, but it was barely helping. It was only a matter of time before they were attacked again.

Nine heard the innocent being slaughtered in other tea rooms and was torn. Those people were dead because of her. Because of what she was after.

Nine looked at Yamamoto. "You need to hide...you won't survive another barrage...not like that..."

"Hiding is what I am very good at." He assured her.

"Then hide where you think they will not look or have already sweapt..." she warned. "I am going to clear the way ahead, and I can't do that and watch out for you..."

Yamamoto nodded and used his family blessing to turn invisible.

"Do not come out until I give the all clear on the intercom system..." she called out before kicking open one door to another, the wound on her side painfully sore.

She used her vocal mimicry abilities to imitate a loud rancor scream. One she was sure would get the attention of every Shinobi in the area. And catch it they did, for they immediately swarmed her position, swords drawn as she entered a wide lounge space on this floor, decorated in Atrisian furnishings of jade and Oni.

Nine grinned, her inherent mental instability allowing her to make an OOC reference by imitating Riddick's voice.

"You're not afraid of the dark...are you?" she asked, before using her Katana to dampen every light source...

(Character Theme Song Power Up)

(Theme: "A View To A Kill" by Duran Duran)

The first blades rushed for her face, and her Katana swished out in front of her and parried, a sudden step forward allowing her to swiftly decapitate the closest ninja kicking his head into the attacker immediately behind him, parrying two more attacks and swiftly counterattacked, disembowling her nearly blind attackers, and rushing forward with a frenzy of blades and saber, slashing off limbs and head, ducking, dodging shuriken strikes and sword attacks, her katana cutting down two or tgree at a time without mercy, sending hilarious amounts of blood violently geysering everywhere in near pitch black conditions, blinding some of the ninjas further.

One started violently screaming at her, wildly firing his semi auto shotgun, accidentally hitting some of his own only for her to Force Leap over a crowd of warriors over to him, decapitate him, and fling her Lightsaber into a particularly large Shinobi charging at her with a giant iron mace. Two even came at her with chainsaws as if she was Leon from RE4, necessitating her to pick up the shotgun and emptying it into them and every one in front of her in a Shinobi mask, liking the feeling of silly delight at watching them turn into mist with each trigger pull.

"XP! XP!" she shouted as she finished turning the first crowd of Shinobi into hamburger, only for another crowd to pour into the area. Nine tossed her empty shotgun and grabbed her Katana, crashing into thdm with a storm of frenzied slashes and stabs, covering herself in blood as she fought, but given trapped civilians time to flee as Nine distracted them...which was her intention.

Nine fought like a demon, for she could not allow the map to leave her...

Caltin Vanagor

 

[Caltin Vanagor]

REDEMPTION IS NEVER OUT OF REACH...​

Location: Atrisian Tea House​

Equipment: Conservator(Lightsaber)​

Companion: Astromech R01R - "Roller"​

Tag: Nine Lives​

​

OOC: Well… if we’re doing theme music.



The attackers' numbers were great and seemed to be increasing. The more he pushed into the building and upwards, the more blood seemed to be spilled, it was clear that they were after something, or someone up there and Caltin could not turn his back on them. It went against his moral code, let alone his oath to the Jedi code. So he fought, and fought hard, they would offer him no quarter, that was obvious by the innocent people that were butchered lining the halls.

So neither would he… until it could be warranted.

It was when he could not keep up with the attacking hordes, when they were beginning to overwhelm him, not necessarily in lethality, but sheer numbers did Caltin do something he had never done before in his entire time with his lightsaber Conservator. Pulling off the “club” on the opposite end of the lightsaber, the big guy positioned the hilt sideways and ignited the second ice blue blade.

Conservator was not just a long handle, it was double-bladed.

This move seemed to irritate him as the massive Jedi Master did not want to resort to this “room clearing” alternative. He was not given an alternative though and had to find out why this was going on. The only way to do so was to take them down. It took a few strokes to shake the proverbial rust, but soon Caltin showed just how capable he was with this type of weapon. Soon enough the attackers were retreating, not to fall back to a more defensible position but to get away from this guy. The big guy would not follow those who ran, they were no longer a threat, he had enough of them to worry about.

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[Nine Lives]

Nine savagely slashed and slashed into the Shinobi, covered in blood and guts, her sword moving endlessly in vicious, efficient motions that rapidly cut through defenses, and weapons. Heads and limbs flew off...

Nine felt a strange harmony in the combat, a hardened swordfighter that had stayed out of the arena for too long, suddenly wondering why.

She had always been a warrior. Being a Jedi Consular had been her last ditch attempt to honor her father's will and take the Li-Ves name into Peace and Charity.

It wasn't long before she had become an expert in hunting Energy Vampires. Her traumas on Atrisia had influenced her fields of interest. Medicine. Genetics. Electrical Devices. Secret experiments with magic. All done just as The Order was starting to completely transition out of Lightsabers with belt mounted power sources. When they'd first started having run ins with the Jerks from Korriban.

Nine, or Ni-Ne, as she had been known back then, had always been a bit of an oddball. In reality she was trying to distract herself from the fact that at the Tmtime she had joined the Order, she was wrestling with living in exile from her home planet that she had worked so hard to save from Shadow Vampires led by her own mother. The second time a Vampire Crisis had come, she had also stopped it. But it had meant the end of Ni-Ne and the birth of Nine.

Nine still felt Ni-Ne's pain and always would, it was one of the few ways she had of clinging to her humanity.

Her sword decapitated another Shinobi as his defense failed, their fight having carried to another tea room, smashing through Dragon themed furniture, Shinobi blood and viscera flying everywhere...

"Ni-Ne..." said the warrior Shimada Li-Ves in his voluminous steel colored robes. His daughter, fourteen years of age and wearing a darker set of gray robes kneeled in front of her father in the outside training arena, golden leaves from trees in their family estate falling all around them.

"Yes, Father?" Ni-Ne asked respectfully.

"The Way of The Warrior is frought with violence and death. This is an inevitability when one takes up the sword. This reality must always be in the back of your mind should the day ever come that I require you to take life in earnest...or should you need to defend yourself..." the Master of House Li-Ves explained, a man of middle age, with gray on the sides and blue eyes that were as sharp as the Katana that rested on his belt sash.

"I have labored long and hard to try and not see 'everything' through the eyes of a killer. I have never fully succeeded. This is why I have done my best to inculcate to you the idea that the way of The Warrior is not always the ideal approach. It served our great house well in the past...but we are entering a time where such things counterproductive if we want to keep our house respectable. This is nonsense of course...there will always be a need for hardened killers..." he said matter of factly.

"The Royalty is full of treachery and wickedness. To survive as they grow more depraved, other skills must be cultivated. Your sword will not always be useful."

"I understand, Father..." Ni-Ne said quietly, not looking up.

Shimada smiled. "But I believe in wiggle room for deniable assets and sleeper agents, with very specific sets of skills."

(Cutaway of Liam Neeson electrocuting that guy in the chair from Taken)

"Is that to be my fate?"

"Yes. They must not know you have warrior skill...you'll take them by surprise better..."

Ni-Ne bowed her head. "I will not fail you, Father."

Nine gutted another Shinobi, this time, feeling the presence of Caltin Vanagor killing below her.

She was too slow to dodge a Shinobi tackle, distracted by suddenly sensing him, and they both flew out of a window from a high floor.

As they fell, a pissed off Nine dived for him, decapitating her attacker as he fell with her, before jamming her alchemized sword into the side of the building, grinding it all the way down to slow her fall until she let go and used the Force to break her fall the rest of the way...the decapitated body had already went splat. She saw Shinobi running from Caltin and waved in her bloody green robes.

"Ahoy there!" Nine called out to him. "They're everywhere! Its me they're after! We should totally team up to fight them off before they kill more civilians!"

 

[Caltin Vanagor]

REDEMPTION IS NEVER OUT OF REACH...​

Location: Atrisia Teahouse​

Equipment: Conservator(Lightsaber)​

Companion: Astromech R01R - "Roller"​

Tag: Nine Lives​

​

Not wanting to argue, he held back his desire to facetiously respond to her and just kept defending himself. The big guy was getting tired of killing everyone and decided that it was time to make them start retreating on their own. Using a combination of light, Force waves, and mind tricks Caltin began driving would-be assassins away, it did not matter how determined that they were. Even the ones only after… whoever the frell that is, he was not going to leave until this was over. They were leaving him no other choice, so he was taking their choices away.​

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