Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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The Holocron

He'd never thought the abilities he'd learned to master as a Jedi Shadow would be put to this use, but then he'd never expected to lose an arm either. Necessity had required a shifting of views and an evolution of ethics in the young Corellian that had raised a number of uncomfortable questions: ones he intended to answer with the conclusion of this hunt.

His new employers had tasked him with retrieving a particularly valuable holocron. Word had slipped that an item associated to it had been sold recently on the world of Anaxes, and with nothing else by way of lead, Darius had set forth for the red world.

The investigation had hit a wall shortly after he'd made planetfall. The man who had bought the item, whose name conveniently was seemingly unknown to everyone Darius approached, had disappeared with his prize. The item in question was nothing more than a wooden table, but one that had evidently been used in the dining halls of a particularly interesting Sith Lord.

It would be the first step to finding the holocron.

Left with no other options, the fallen knight made made his way to the supposed location of the salvager who'd first sold the item. He rode in on the back of a speeder bike, his visage enshrouded by a steel helmet, and his arrival rather loud.

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
Ever since Grizmallt her ship hadn't quite run the same.

Truth be told Mara was surprised she had made it over to Anaxes in one piece. She felt certain it was a suicide run after it first spluttered in the middle of the run, but by that point she'd just as sooner go forward than back, the distance would have been the same. The results too.

Thankfully she had managed to land it without nearly hitting a crowded airway this time. Didn't stop her from having to patch the darn thing up, though. Which was precisely what she was doing in that exact moment, happily oblivious of the speeder bike which was chugging its way toward her.

The A-Wing was a beauty, a relic from a bygone era, and far more precious was the fact that it was a trainer model. They'd been all but obliterated over the course of time. Still sported its original colours, too, though of course the paint had been touched up over time.

That would be how she was found, knelt on the back of the ship just behind the cockpit hatch, streaked with oil and grease, visor over her face and blowtorch in her hand. There were countless other tools scattered about the hull but they'd have their time. Right now there was some thingamabob needing to be reattached.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
Sometimes Darius felt like he was a bit overdressed.

His clothing was designed expressly to repel natural light and the effects of the force, but it was also the slightest bit much in terms of aesthetic. That, coupled with the rather ornate helmet of the Black Library's guardsmen he made him stand out in places where being dressed more casually. Now was one of those times.

He felt a bit awkward approaching the woman. Despite his supposed fall, Darius had not evolved into the overconfident brute he'd half expected to become. Instead, his insecurities had grown amplified, and though he drew upon them well enough to command the force they still marred him in a normal setting.

Still rather new at this whole Dark Jedi thing, Darius strode up behind the woman, folded his arms about his chest, and did his best to look intimidating. He suspected the voice modulator that made his tone sound far more robotic than it actually was might help.

"Ma'am," he looked down upon her from a few paces away, "I need to speak with you about a table you sold."

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
"I don't have the cash to buy it back."

Kal didn't even bother to look up as she responded to the monotonous voice which was so obviously aimed in her direction. Who else around here would have sold a table? And one at a high enough price to have someone come back talking about it. She'd wager nobody was stupid enough to have bought it in the first place, but she had been high on credits at the time. Now she was low.

So. Very. Low.

There was a distinct clunk as - from up ontop of the A-Wing - she placed down the torch and took up a set of wire cutters. With her free hand she pulled out a whole tangle of cables and began to cut a couple of them. One red, one black... To the untrained eye it was almost as though she didn't know what she was doing, like she was mutilating the poor relic, but in truth it was the opposite.

When she realized the stranger wasn't about to leave she let out a very slight sigh.

"Speak, don't got all day."

Still she kept her head down, more focused on her work than the one who had interrupted it.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
A more well financed individual would have just paid the woman off for her services. Unfortunately Darius was not so lucky as to have a disposable income, or any income for that matter. He wouldn't be paid until he completed his first assignment - and that payment would more than make up for the lost time - and that meant he was as poor as the rest of the galaxy.

As she turned back to work on her starship, he stood in silence running through his options. He could use the force to try and dominate her mind, perhaps force her to lead him down the correct path. He could threaten her with physical harm, a tried and true tactic. Then there was the more difficult path, but the one that would likely help him gain a better understanding of the situation, and one that wouldn't result in him having to harm an innocent.

One day, but not yet. He wasn't ready for that kind of guilt.

"I don't have the credits to get it either," he admitted. "I need that table either way. Tell you what - you show me the way to the guy that bought it, and I'll pay you for the trouble after I'm done talking to him."

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
As insinuated, she gave the man a chance to say his piece.

At first she was tempted to laugh him off, send him on his way and get back to working, but as he neared the end of his speech she found herself a little more... Curious.

"And how do you plan on paying, if you ain't got any credits?"

It was the kind of question he was no doubt expecting from her. People in these parts didn't do something for nothing, especially when it came to something niche such as this. It wasn't as though he could walk away and find someone else to ask, Kal was the only one with records of who she'd sold it to. Who they were. Where they were.

Tossing down the wire cutters, and spending a few moments carefully reconnecting the ends, she finally glanced down toward him. He reminded her of a mix of both the Kiffar and the Alabaster man, two individuals she had no desire to run into again if she could help it. Not the best of first impressions, that much was for certain, though if he was anything like either of them then perhaps it was best to keep on his good side.

Last thing she needed was to be dragged around at knife point again.

"You got a name? I'll do it for your name. Your real name."

It might seem odd to one outside of her culture, but names held real power in the eyes of some. And Kal was definitely one of those people. Didn't put fuel in her ship or food in her belly, but it had been a long time since she'd last bartered with someone's name. It felt almost nostalgic.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
Darius had started to prepare a list of things he might offer to the woman. All of them were currently out of his reach, and were entirely intangible when it came to actually retrieving them. Even still, once he was paid, he could afford whatever she asked for in return. Perhaps he would offer her a new ship, or maybe just a large suitcase full of credits. He was weighing the options when she spoke once more, asking for a single thing.

His name.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Darius wholly agreed with the thoughts going through the woman's head. He too respected the power of a name, so much so that he had gone to great lengths to wipe his from history. For most, Darius Sedaire had died defending the Black Library; the figure known simply as Darius was nothing more than a force sensitive upstart that left little by way of a footprint. Giving the woman his name might change that.

Just gut her.

"Darius." He answered simply and automatically. The voice that was not his own was silenced once more, though its advice was growing more and more common. "Yours?"

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
"Darius."

She let that sink in for a moment, getting a good feel for it, before shrugging. There were likely countless Darius' in the Galaxy. A single name was power, but a full name? Now that was something all together more sacred.

"Darius what?"

Turning back to her work, waiting to see if he'd relent just that one extra bit of information, she began to whistle a very light tune. A random song ingrained in her mind, though she couldn't for the life of her remember where she'd heard it from. Certainly not her own playlist, that much was for certain.

She supposed she owed him some sort of a response to his own question. Once the plating was secured back in place she turned and slid down the hull of the ship until her feet touched the duracrete. Legs bent slightly, just enough to break her fall, and then she turned to face him.

"You can call me Mara."

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
Of course she would ask that.

His father had abandoned him. His name meant nothing to him anymore - it wasn't lying if he told her that much. "It's just Darius," he affirmed, "I don't have a surname. I'm not keen on my family." He explained as he reached out into the empyrean, searching for any sentient life that might have been nearby. Satisfied when he felt nothing amiss, he returned his senses to the moment at hand. "Happy to work with you Mara."

His tone sounded honest enough. Truthfully Darius appreciated the company. Before his tenure as the Black Library's protector, he had been a social man. The time after his change of heart had done little to change that isolation. The change was welcome, though he would not voice such.

"If you want to get us started; who was the guy that bought the table, and where did he head off to?"

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
Just Darius.

A little less of a payment than she'd been hoping for, but what could she do? If he wasn't known by another name then that was that. Wiping off some of the dirt from her hands on the trousers of her flightsuit, she offered out her dominant left hand to shake on it. Seemed as good a time as any.

"The guy's name is Sarrux, he's a falleen if you're familiar with that kind. Can be a little tricky to deal with if you don't keep your head. Pheromones and all that."

Reaching into one of the large pockets attached to the suit she pulled out a datapad and spent a good minute or so looking over the screen. Whatever it was wasn't visible to Darius from where he was stood, or at least it shouldn't have been, but it didn't seem to take her too long to find what she was looking for.

"Should still be here on Anaxes," she informed him, switching off the device and placing it back where it came from, "He's stationed at one of the old Navy Colleges."

Believing that their exchange was over, after all it shouldn't have been too difficult for him to find the man with all of that information, Kal turned back to her ship and prepared to hop back up onto the hull.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
It really should have ended at that.

Darius was confident he could find this Falleen on his own without too much trouble, but another issue had presented itself. If the alien had gone into hiding, then he understood the value of the table he'd bought. He would likely be aware of hunters coming to look for the artifact, though their reasoning was likely far different than Darius' own. The exile sought the ancient piece of furniture for information; most sought it simply for the profit that would come from delivering it to a collector.

There was going to be competition, and that meant that Darius needed an edge.

"Thanks," he paused, "I can give you a decent portion of the payment if you show me where that is. Something tells me Mister Sarrux isn't going to be entirely open to speaking with me without someone to connect us."

There was a private mumbling in the back of Darius' mind that told him to simply force the woman to cooperate. It would certainly be easier than trying to gain her help as most would.

He ignored it as he always did.

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
"Good luck!" she interjected, during the pause in his words, pulling herself up onto her ship and reaching for one of the tools. There was, as always, plenty of other repairs left for her to do; she couldn't afford to waste more time.

However, the man did not simply turn tail and leave. Instead he continued to speak.

This time the offer of credits was back on the table; she didn't know what payment there could possibly be in hunting down a table, so she couldn't deduce how much it would be worth it to her. Her eyes fell over the ship, its integrity poor, and with some reluctance she turned back to face him.

"Here's the deal," Kal sighed, "I take you to him, get him to open the door, and you give me that fancy cloak you're wearing. Looks like it'd keep me warm." That was something she knew he had, credits on the other hand? Well, she'd be forced to stick around til the end in order to get paid, and she simply did not have the time. "Then..." she lifted one of the heavier tools, dropping it into the cockpit now that it wasn't needed, "we go our separate ways. Think it over."

Clunk, clink, clank, tools fell one after the other over the edge of the ship, landing on the ground where she'd previously been standing. Then she slid down after them, gathering them up while she waited to see if he'd accept her offer.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
This was cruel.

The cloak had been forged specifically to serve Darius' purposes. It had been alchemized to a particular degree to allow him near silence when he so wished, and made detection with the force something more of a nuisance than a true threat. It was an artifact of great worth, and one that was particularly stylish too. Darius would be lying if he said that he didn't appreciate the aesthetic it provided him. More importantly, it would probably be rather difficult to find a replacement.

And she wanted it.

He cursed a couple dozen times in his head before finally speaking up. "Alright," he grumbled, sounding none too pleased about the agreement. "Just get me to him. There are probably going to be other people looking for him as well. I need to find him first."

His arms folded about his chest as he regarded her falling tools with curiosity. "When are you good to leave?"

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
Kal, of course, had absolutely no idea what the cloak actually was.

All she saw was something to keep her cozy and warm during long stints in space. While her flight suit staved off most of the cold, she was still only protected from the void by a layer of durasteel and the temperatures inside remained less than ideal. A thick piece of fabric to throw over herself, at no monetary expense from her? Why not. It meant she could leave the moment he was in Sarrux's apartment.

As a result she couldn't really understand why he was being so grumpy. She was offering to take him to the person he was after, wasn't she? And he got to keep whatever credits he had. What did he care if he lost one small article of clothing in the meantime, he looked as though he owned more than one. Which wasn't something Kal could say. She was perpetually in her flight suit or the light trousers and tank top underneath. Wasn't as though she had the space for many possessions on board such a tiny ship.

"I'll get you to him" she assured, opening a compartment on the underbelly of the ship and stuffing the tools inside without any real rhyme or reason. "We can leave now."

Without waiting to see if he was following she set off, the sooner they were done the sooner she could get back to work.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
The empyrean rarely ever spoke to him anymore. He has forsaken the partnership he had formed with it in favor of dominance, and the abilities that had come with that dark deal more than made up for the force's silence. When Darius felt it calling to him now, it stole his attentions entirely. Something was amiss.

He did nothing to signal Kalyn as to the alert he'd received - there was little point in putting her on edge if it proved to be a false alarm. At least it had distracted him from the discomfort of having to part with his cloak.

"Hopefully we've got a head start on the other hunters," he murmured as another ripple surges through the force. This one was more akin to a wave in its intensity, and it caused Darius to halt.

Two green laser points appeared along both his chest and Kalyn's own.

"Chit."

The bushes nearby parted to reveal two Duros in mercenary gear. The aliens stepped out from their cover, the larger of the two speaking.

"He's not the one you wanna go with sweetheart," the alien tilted his head toward Darius. "We'll pay ya better, so long as you cooperate with us. You don't want to run off with some idiots working on his lonesome. It'll get ya killed."

[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
Kalyn didn't really say much as she led the way through the cityscape.

Her companion seemed a little introspective, and she'd learned the hard way not too long ago that some dark-shrouded-men did not appreciate her chitter chatter during such moments. One hand instinctively rose to touch her throat, though of course it had been quite some time since that exchange en route to Kiffu and there was nothing actually there but memories.

Yawning, she glanced around their surroundings and then down for a moment. She noticed some excess grease on her hand, probably taken from one of the tools she'd been throwing around, and made a move to wipe it off on her flightsuit. It was then that she noticed an odd sight, a dot of green lit up on the orange.

Was the damn thing starting to grow mold?

She didn't have a chance to voice her frustrations on such before the rustle of bushes, and a sudden curse word from the man, drew her attention to one side. Two men stepped out, duros. Damn slimeballs seemed to want to take over the operation, have her switch allegiances. Not that she really had an allegiance.

"Aww," she pouted, turning their way and taking in their gear and the weapons trained on she and Darius, "But I do so want his cloak."

Kal reached down, scratching at her lower leg with an air of frustration at having been halted, and glanced up at the duo. Throughout it all she hadn't even looked in Darius' direction. Nope, she just kept on scratching that infernal itch.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
The exile's blood ran hot.

He did not have the time to waste dealing with here overzealous hunters. Were it not for the laser sight aimed at his chest, he would have already gotten to dispatching them. The longer they took meandering about, the sooner more opportunists might arrive to make this situation even more complicated.

He found his brow furrowing as the woman and the Duros had an exchange of words. To his own surprise, Darius found himself somewhat relieved that she did not surrender immediately. Truthfully he hadn't expected much out of the salvager, but then he didn't expect much from anyone these days.

"Just shoot me now. I'd rather die with my coat as my own," he said disparagingly to the two mercenaries.

One of the Duros seemed keen to take that advice. He immediately fired a round at Darius - a round that found itself suspended in the open air between them. It required a certain amount of concentration to will the empyrean into rooting the bolt in place, but the effect was immediate.

The Duros gave him a momentarily confused look, and the bolt found itself flying right into the chest of the shooter.

The shot had been fairly loud - the authorities would likely be on their way soon. The second Duros seemed not to understand that as he leveled his rifle at the exile and started shooting, ignoring the seemingly harmless salvager for what might have been a rather crucial moment.


[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 
As the chaos began to ensue Kal seized the moment.

Her hand, which had been falsely scratching at her leg, now reached into one of the many pockets of her flight suit and pulled forth a small cylindrical device. When one of the Duros fell back - Kal didn't see where the slug had come from, and was certain that Darius wouldn't have had the time to pull a blaster out of thin air - she flung the device forward.

Then she shoved herself right into the side of her companion, hoping the two actions together might tempt him into moving. There was a loud pop, a burst of light, which she hoped he'd avoided looking in the direction of. Not least because she'd put her body between him and it.

Her ears were ringing, but she still had her sight so she grabbed his wrist and immediately began to flee in some random direction, hoping to lose the mercenary in the plume of smoke that was left behind.

Whether or not the merc' had been caught up in the flashbang she couldn't say for certain, but she wasn't about to slow down in order to find out for herself.

[member="Darius Sedaire"]
 
Time always seemed to slow in the moments where Darius was likely to lose his life. He'd watched curiously as the bolt had pierced the torso of the mercenary. He'd honestly not expected that to work as well as it had, but he had no time to revel in that small victory. The second alien raised his rifle to gun the duo down. The exile reached instinctively for his lightsaber, but found himself stumbling to the side instead.

The weight of the salvager forced him away from the small orb that she'd hurled toward their assailants. Darius found himself closing his eyes instinctively as a deafening pop rung his ears. The noise was fortunately shortened by his helmet's audio dampeners, and the light of the flashbang momentarily obscured by the flash-tint of his visor. He reached out to the empyrean as [member="Kalyn Shif"] took his hand, and found the mercenary to be rolling on the ground clutching his skull, and the presence of others seemingly absent.

Even still, he could not put all his faith into his senses. There were those on the hunt that were hidden from the force.

The noise of the city seemed to grew louder as they fled into its depths. Darius was content to let the salvager lead him along - he wasn't familiar with the city enough to be confident in choosing a path. They found themselves standing halfway down a damp alley when Darius came to a halt, possibly forcing the quick thinking salvager to a stop with him if he didn't let go.

"I think they might be interested in meeting Mister Sarrux too." The exile mused as he scanned the alley. It was wide, dark, and lined with garages held closed by archaic key locks. The distinct smell of oil and gasoline clung to the air, and a pool of neon light poured out from the end of the alley a few dozen meters away. It reminded Darius of the inner city of Coronet during its seedier days in his teenage years.

"I'm not familiar with this area," he spoke, his helmeted gaze falling upon her, "We need to get somewhere safe, and then we can contact Sarrux. You know anywhere that might fit the bill?"


[member="Kalyn Shif"]
 

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