The Rising Blood, Falling Flesh, and Enduring Soul (COMPLETED)

[Armand Temi]

Armand was furious with himself for allowing his body to take over like that. He was a doctor after all! He took Gross Anatomy at the University of Hapes. He had dissected cadavers! Even in his clinic he needed to perform some quite squeamish work - facial injections, skin grafts and the like. But the smell. Oh the smell in this spaceport was repulsive!

He tried to use the Force to block out the smell and drive down the nausea in his stomach, but when the Hutt spewed out a fresh round of vile wretchedness from his dripping mouth, Armand nearly again lost all of what was left in his stomach. He really shouldn't have had those baby Dewback ribs for lunch. Once Sage landed on the ground he finally got a better view of the Padawan he was here to help. There was a major wound on his ankle. And he was covered in the Hutt's noxious stomach contents. All of this gore was truly mesmerizing in the worst way imaginable and if ahead of him wasn't bad enough, Armand heard a scuffle behind him.

Slipping and sliding through entrails and blood was a Gammorean Guard and none other than [member="Piraiba"], his friend from a salvaging operation. The Torogian kicked at the guard with about the same enthusiasm as a house cat toying with a half-dead mouse. The Gammorean beast went flying and landed with a squish, the giant axe he held skittering across the spaceport floor out of reach. Armand ignited his lightsaber and rushed to attack, cleaving the guard in half. Yet there was another Gammorean guard behind Piraiba, blinking and looking a bit sleepy. The new guard swung his axe at the Torogian. "Stop!" shouted Armand. "Or you will get the same treatment as your friend here." He motioned to the Guard in two pieces.

[member="Gorg"] [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] [member="Sage Bane"] [member="Piraiba"] [member="Digo Odel"] [member="Catalys Maijora"]

 

[Vexxtal]

Well, things were definitely escalating now. Throughout the commotion, Alisa had been blending into the small gathered crowd with her hood up (dressed in her Jedi Gear) , trying to avoid the unwanted attention her unique 'looks' might bring. She too had been sent here, but not for some spice dealer. Instead, she was simply here to observe the Hutt's actions, as both Hutts and Siths were threats. The two combined... Well that could be disastrous. When she had agreed to partake in the mission though, she didn't realise that things would get as heated as they were, especially with what seemed to be two other Jedi here. Alisa gave a sigh, disappointed that she would actually have to do more than just watch today.

Pulling down her hood and igniting the blue blade of her curved-hilt lightsaber, the girl stepped forward near [member="Armand Temi"], covering his back incase the Hutt or any of his ugly guards came from another angle. "Need some help boys?" She smiled smugly, rather amused now that she sounded like the savior. Indeed, it wasn't long before one of the pig-snouted Gammoreans ran forward with their axe held high. Performing the typical Makashi salute rather quickly, Alisa spun her lightsaber infront of her just as the guard came close. The result; a guard split into three pieces. "Hey, Hutt! Might wanna surrender."

[member="Gorg"] [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] [member="Sage Bane"] [member="Piraiba"] [member="Digo Odel"] [member="Catalys Maijora"]

 

[Zambrano the Starweird]

Satisfaction was all the Hutt could think about. As the padawan gagged, the Hutt laughed, around him, two or three guards might have died... he wasn't sure nor did he care very much. However, the growing pain in his head from even more force users surrounding him was becoming very irritating and annoying. Enough for him to become acutely aware of their presence. The semi-circle of guards was starting to break away as they responded to the threat to their master, but their numbers were becoming fewer to superior enemies. The Hutt knew this would make his target emboldened... but not for long.

As the shots were about to ring out, the Hutt ever so slightly pushed his aim from the Hutt... towards a girl ([member="Alisa Kalor"]). The Hutt groaned as he did this, not entirely enjoying this constant exertion on his mind, it made his eyes hot, his mouth sting, and his skin cold. Zambrano paid no attention to the girls call, as he was taking care of it now with Sage's hand. With him on his back, he lashed his whip once more down his back and over his upper thigh, and tearing it back, most likely silencing his blaster fire. With that, huge yellow eyes stood towering over a beaten body, who would succumb to paralysis shortly wallowing in pain, and his head would waver side to side to a great meaning within the awed and frightened passerby's of the station... innocents, thugs, criminals, security... weak minded folk. The Hutt would do nothing more than speak to them...

"Frrrrriiiiiieeeeeeennnnnddddddssssssssssssssssssss" As much as he hated it, the Hutt was exceptional at basic mind tricks, and he had quite the domineering personality for it. Before he had but seven Gamorrean Guards... now in addition to those he had a half dozen of simply random people who wanted to stay out of the fight... hostile hostages. They all thought they were his friend, and their friend was under attack, naturally if one's friend is under threat, you would seek to remove that threat. The Hutt coughed several times, and hacked up blood over the body of Sage. The Hutt felt very tired, and he decided he would see the Captain another day. Tossing the severed arm in a random direction, the Hutt reached down to pick up Sage. The random folk swarmed "the battlefield", and his guards did their best to respond as well. There would now be at least three opponents now for each hostile present, at least one Gamorrean, and at least two citizens. Sluggishly, Zambrano tried to drag Sage back to his ship... through a mile of gore.

[member="Piraiba"], [member="Digo Odel"], [member="Catalys Maijora"], [member="Sage Bane"], [member="Gorg"], [member="Armand Temi"], [member="Alisa Kalor"]

 

[Piraiba]

Piraiba's force enhanced reflexes were up to the task of turning and dodging the swing of the axe by @Gorg. He too might have found a large claw adorned foot print in his chest if it weren't for the timely intervention of blaster fire from his Gamorrean compatriots. Instead the Togorian quickly strafed sideways and then performed a force assisted jump to get away from Gorg and the blaster bolts that flew at the space he had occupied just a half moment prior.

This quickly gave himself away as a force user for anyone in the room who lacked or hadn't quite honed the senses necessary to detect him. Piraiba certainly lacked the finesse to hide himself at any rate. As such the feline pulled out his large lightsaber hilts and thumbed them on. Two rare white blades hissed to life. This was when he saw [member="Armand Temi"].

"AH little brother! Piraiba runs into you again," came the deep bass filled voice. It had little trouble being heard over the chaos.

Of course [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] finally noticed the odds having sharply turned against him. The guards he brought would have been little help against his new opponents.

"Frrrrriiiiiieeeeeeennnnnddddddssssssssssssssssssss"

This subtle mind compulsion had worked perhaps better than Zambrano had intended. Piraiba may have been the king of the roost in sheer physical prowess, but he was poorly shielded against mind tricks. The feline knew Armand from a previous engagement. This was enough to shield the man from being a target. Unfortunately, he saw through the weak minded guards and hostages to the next biggest target in the room, [member="Alisa Kalor"].

The 800 pound cat raised his sabers and lunged at the Jedi. He came barreling towards her. This might have been quite a terrifying sight to induce a quick jolt of adrenaline ... except the monster didn't quite make it to her. A small puddle of blood made him lose traction during a critical step, which made the creature tumble ingloriously well short of his target.



@the other people too

 

[Sage Bane]

As Sage finally emptied out all of the ammo in his blaster, he suddenly felt his lower leg going completely limp. Not only did the paralysis travel quickly up his shin to his thigh, but it started to affect the other leg as well as his lower torso. Poison. There had to be some kind of poison in the barbs. Struggling in vain to move his dead legs, the slug’s whip rained down once again, this time lashing him around his back and across his other thigh. The barbs sunk into his skin like tiny daggers and raked deep grooves in his flesh, making Sage release a howled of agony.

The half-Chiss tried to scramble backwards on his hands, but his legs were too uncooperative to get very far. He raised a hand to clear his face of the digusting mixture of vomit and tissue and was crestfallen to see to that none of his blaster shots had even grazed the creature. From Sage’s vantage point it was hard to see what was going on as there was so much slimy slug girth in his line of sight. Now almost fully paralyzed, his blaster tumbled from his grip, and worse than that, blood spattered onto his face from the Hutt's lipless slit of a mouth.

A moment later, a meaty paw gripped his ankle. With sharp claws hooked into his tender, exposed muscle, Sage felt himself get dragged across a soup of slug trails, blood, and tidbits of gore. Panic consumed him at the thought of exactly where he was headed. The sailbarge, where he would be forced to genuflect in front of the many-folded gastropod, and who knew what many punishments awaited him at the hands of a Sith Hutt. If Sage had a suicide pill he would have swallowed it right there and then. The former slave sadly mused that perhaps he was simply fated to serve another. Even his induction into the ranks of the Jedi was imposed upon him by Ession authorites. It seemed like these days free will was a galactic luxury that only a select few enjoyed.

[member="Zambrano the Hutt"]

 

[Vexxtal]

Alisa raised her lightsaber just in time to deflect the shots coming her way, but she was unable to direct them back at the Hutt. Instead they flew off into nothing, useless. Then she noticed the giant beast coming towards her fast, and readied herself once again, only for it to fall short rather comically. Her smug look returned, and she pointed her lightsaber down at the giant cat. "Please, don't move." She tilted her head and flashed a smile, trying to keep the cat pacified while hopefully the other Jedi would deal with the Hutt.

[member="Sage Bane"] [member="Piraiba"] [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] [member="Armand Temi"]

 

[Armand Temi]

Armand shot a grateful smile at the young, female Jedi. "Help would be much appreciated," he said gritting his teeth. The girl answered by shearing through another guard. But then when a barrage of Gammorean blaster fire headed his way, Armand dove and scrambled behind the body of the hulking, pig-nosed guard he had struck down with his lightsaber. Grimacing, he lifted the upper half of the guard and used it as a corpse-shield. He could feel the impact of blaster fire, hear the squelching noise of wounds opening on the body and smell the dead creature's flesh burn as it took all of the fire that was marked for him. He peeked around the limp head of the guard and was surprised to see the Togorian had turned from the Hutt's guards and was now targeting the female Jedi.

Using his Force telepathy, Armand tried to, not necessarily seek communication with Piraiba, but to understand his intent. All he could sense was a dark amalgamation of anger, passion, aggression and blood lust. His friend was a Force user and a strong one - that he could tell. But the Togorian's mind wasn't calm or restrained. They were allies but on different sides of the Force as it were.

And heading back their way was the immense Hutt, slithering through carnage. In one hand he held a brutal-looking whip and in another, he held Sage Bane by the ankle and was dragging him behind him like a limp fish. Armand scrambled up and but slipped again on what appeared to be a spleen. By the Holy Stars, it was hard to get your footing through all of this mess, thought Armand. While the girl was busy with Piraiba, he caught up the Hutt and his prey. "Sage, stay alive," he telepathically communicated to the other male padawan. "I'm right here. Just hold on."

Armand knew his saber wouldn't do much to the Hutt's epidermis but he could at least buy some time for Sage by attacking the foul creature. If Sage had any moxie left after being barbarically whipped maybe he could crawl to safety.

[member="Sage Bane"] [member="Piraiba"] [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] [member="Alisa Kalor"]

 

[Catalys Maijora]

The commotion got even worse as the Hutt yelled out and to his own convenience random denizens began to swarm the attackers. To the spectator it seemed like the biggest mess of a lifetime was about to unfold but for whom? It surely wasn't the Hutt, albeit his path covered in a trail of remains. "Jedi.", he said to himself. It wasn't loud enough for anyone of them to hear over the sound of Gamorean cries and shouting. Taking advantage of the distraction, the agent decided to follow the Hutt. Whoever this one was they were unlike any encountered before; and most Hutts were relatively the same.

The footsteps from his metallic armour clapped against the ground as he made his way around the crowd of people -- gun drawn -- and followed the path of vile gore. The smells were mostly cleansed from his mask's respirator but they weren't that much of an issue for him to begin with. He had spent time in the torture chambers of Salacious Vile, one of The Primeval's most twisted members; a disgraced body guard who slunk into the shadows as a torturer responsible for many of their new indoctrination techniques.

After moving over a few crates empty and full, the agent slid behind a few heavy canisters and used his rifle's scope to get a better look and understand what was going on. Who this Hutt was remained a mystery but there was no time to lose. Catalys hopped over the containers when it seemed a Jedi was about to attack. Did it seem like they already traveled a far distance? One might believe so but many forget how sluggishly slow a Hutt really is; but I guess that might say more on Catalys' part. To be fair, he was quite far initially and had to avoid gathering unwanted attention.

"I better not regret this..", the words escaped his lips as he set his blaster for stun and fired the blue blast out towards the Jedi. ([member="Armand Temi"])

[member="Sage Bane"] [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] [member="Gorg"] [member="Alisa Kalor"] [member="Piraiba"]

 

[Armand Temi]

As the Hapan padawan reached the Hutt's flickering tail, he could smell its repellent odor and see the gelatin oozing out of the creature's folds. Since Armand was a doctor by trade he had studied a little about the species skin and its regenerative properties. He also knew how intensely hardy a Hutt's exterior was - it truly made the gastropods impenetrable to run-of-the-mill defense weapons.

He was poised to lob off the end of the tail with his lightsaber - more to get the Hutt's attention than to cause grievous harm, when suddenly his entire frame seized up. He fell immediately backwards and curled up, his body tensing involuntarily. He lost all use of his motor skills and the feeling was such that he could imagine a Wampa grabbing hold of him and shaking him until his teeth rattled. In his head he screamed out a thousand curses, but his mouth could only offer a slow moan.

[member="Sage Bane"] [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] [member="Gorg"] [member="Alisa Kalor"] [member="Piraiba"] [member="Catalys Maijora"]

 

[Digo Odel]

He shambled toward the cockpit of the ship and found pilots, pilots chained to their seats. Evidently, [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] had a high turn over rate. Digo raced forward to look at the wide eyed pilots.

"Ahm here ta halp." He said as they drew back, "Ah get ya free real quick, ah reckon. Juss hold still."

"If Zambrano finds us he'll kill us and you." A Duro pilot said as Digo took his fusion cutter from his belt and quickly cut through the first chain.

"Den we bettah not waste time."

He cut the chains of the other crewer and they all began rushing for the door. Digo looked at them confused.

"Dis got no hypahdrive?" He said as his tongue rolled out to lick his dry reptilian lips.

"No." A human replied

"Ya better run ta mine den." He said still playing as dumb as possible just in case.

"Which, is it."

"Da one dat has the big TIE fighter style view port. I'll check fa udders."

"Thank you. ..whatever you are." The pilots said and agreed as they headed out of the caravel.

Digo sighed internally and then headed back to check the cabins hopefully not dying in the process.

[member="Armand Temi"] [member="Alisa Kalor"] [member="Piraiba"] [member="Sage Bane"] [member="Catalys Maijora"]

 

[Zambrano the Starweird]

Eyes narrowed, the exhausted Zambrano continued to drag his fallen prey, coiled whip in hand. It was strange, how that solitary figure trudged forward slowly with the small weight in his hands, whilst everything happened around him. Had Zambrano been more egotistical, he might relish this moment, being the eye of the storm. The sick and bloody Hutt dragged a mutilated body by its bloodier foot, through a river of crimson, as random denizens attacked Jedi protectors, and a monstrous cat accidentally under his influence did his dirty work... and an unknown follower protected him from a Jedi nuisance behind him. Even though the Hutt had yet to relearn all that he knew, this entire encounter demonstrated to many that he was still a powerful force to be reckoned with. Albeit the battle was mostly against padawans, it still spoke volumes to the horror he was: there were three padawans and a physically threatening sith knight against one whose dark influence extended no further from an acolyte, and seven dull and stupid guards. One was utterly incapacitated, another stunned for an unspecified amount of time, and one under attack by a physically imposing figure wrapped around his influence for an unspecified amount of time. Yet he remained... virtually unscathed. How many had died today? A more appropriate question, how many lives were ruined by today?

At least seven, but it could be thirteen or more, even twenty would be an acceptable answer if you counted the guards he was about to leave behind. The real answer didn't matter, because the number of people scarred by what they witnessed... that was the priceless unknowable answer. Whatever resided within the fatty folds of the gastropod was a twisted miasma of a dark monstrously eldritch abomination, a vile sickening thing that hardly had a name any longer. Is it so hard to believe that once... hundreds of years ago it had been a being whose affinity to the lightside of the force had been so great it had retained its identity upon becoming one with the force? There was much history between then and now, and see before you how deeply one can fall. The corruption alone could possibly shave off another century of the Hutts life, in addition to the other century's shaved off due to disease... despite this however, Zambrano would continue to exist centuries more as a horror that committed to chaotic needless acts of sadistic violence, as witnessed by the Massacre of Shadowport Station.

From the commotion of random denizens of the crowd attacking the Jedi, the passerby's no longer retained their decency, or what was left of it, and made a mad scramble all across the station. Men and women alike ran for their lives, afraid despite their criminal courage that they could be made to face the Hutt Butcherer and be turned into the incessant gore that permeated the very air of the port. It would be another minute before the retreating slug would approach his ship... which was in actuality fully capable of hyperspace due to his modifications that he demanded of his serviles. From here though he might see familiar faces retreating from the port, sneakily keeping out of sight. He didn't mind, he had new serviles. With a mental beckoning that caused him to groan, two denizens under his influence joined with the Hutt on either flank, so as to become a part of his "Friendship" Barge. In a pinch, they could be used as pilots.

Zambrano neared his craft, Sage and company in tow... allowing the storm one final moment to become an obstacle... such as a stowaway freeing all his slaves among other things.

@everybody

 

[Gorg]

Gorg snorted in suprised as [member="Piraiba"] dodged his strike with ease. However his snort of suprise turned into a squeel of glee when he heard his Gammorean allies firing on the giant cat-thing. The rotund pigman turned quickly as the cat-thing suddenly began attacking the girl with the glowy sword and, with a sqeealing battlecry roughly translating to "GOOOOOOOOORG" ran at him with his axe held high. Most intelligent sapients would reconize that the Togorian was attacking an enemy, and leave him be- prehaps even run off with [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] and escape onto his ship. Sadly Gorg was not intelligent and barely sapient. So instead of doing the smart thing, Gorg attempted to swing his axe through the Togorian's tail in a fashion that might remind onlookers of a cartoon if Gorg was a small brown mouse.

 

[Piraiba]

Piraiba could suddenly sense Armand's touch upon his mind. Anger, passion, aggression, and blood lust were definitely evident in the Sith's gargantuan cranium, but these emotions were quickly overshadowed by confusion. This second intrusion had made him return to his senses. What had he just done?

The Jedi did not have the power to effect a mind like this. Well they did, but he was unaware of it. Piraiba had been under the impression that only Sith has such a skill. This could only mean one thing. The Hutt had done this. This epiphany caused rage to suddenly well up in the Togorian. His force signature spiked and darkness practically emanated from his bristled fur.

"HHHHUUUUUTTTTT," bellowed the beast at the top of his lungs in a downright roar.

The beast looked up at [member="Alisa Kalor"] with outright murder in his eyes. Then he looked right past the woman to see Zambrano was getting close to his ship.

Of course chaos dictated that he couldn't just dust himself off and pursue. [member="Gorg"] had followed him and swung his axe down at the cat's rear end. The premonition warning that the force gave him enabled the feline to twist his body in time to just barely dodge the crude weapon by a fraction of an inch. If Togorians had tails, his would have been cut clean off.

Piraiba's sabers had both been deactivated in his tumble lest he wanted to impale himself. Instead his almost instant impulse reaction was to send his foot out to strike at the Gamorrean before scrambling to his feet to escape both the Gamorean and Alisa. The Sith Knight didn't have time for henchman. Zambrano had almost escaped.

The beast may have weighed two thirds as much as the massive gastropod, but he was far from two thirds the hutt's speed. Instead the ten foot tall bipedal feline actually dropped to all fours and glided across the floor in great leaping strides.

"HHHUUUUTTTTTT!"

 

[Gorg]

Gorg seemed suprised when his axe missed. Don't cat things have tails? Hm. Before the pigman had a chance to try again a giant paw hit him square in the chest, sending him stumbling backawrds before falling on his rear. It was getting away! It was running away! The Gammorean struggled to get to his feet as [member="Piraiba"] ran off after [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] on all fours, quickly rabbing his axe off the ground. <<"Back here kitty!">> Gorg sqeaked in Gammorean before half running half wadling after the Togorian. However, pigs weren't nkown for their speed... he was barely faster then the Hutt.

(How did I forget Togorian's don't have tails? XD)

 

[Catalys Maijora]

Catalys rushed through the crowd, glancing at the Jedi he had shot; perhaps they should be thankful it was a stun. Most agents were afar less merciful in that regard but this one didn't kill uselessly unlike that Hutt, although one could suppose it wasn't useless. He killed to suit his own purposes and some of which likely only made sense to him; in his own head.

"I'm coming with.", the agent said as he ran up behind the slow Hutt. That was all he said. No protest, no pitch, nothing; as if he knew that by saving the slug's tail was perhaps worth the ticket off this station. Of course he wasn't counting on gratitude and that wasn't why he asked, the agent could've easily just stolen a vessel if it wasn't a difficult task to stun a Jedi. No, Catalys had new motives. The Agent was clad in his advanced armour, a cortosis-weave blend with other materials making it resistant to blaster and lightsaber energy.

[member="Zambrano the Hutt"] [member="Armand Temi"] [member="Gorg"] [member="Sage Bane"]

(Pst.. Every Hutt needs their Fett, right?)

 

[Zambrano the Starweird]

"HHHHUUUUUTTTTT,"

That garnered the attention of the Hutt, with a sort of surprised face... some of it might have been amusement, but mostly surprise. For whatever reason, the cat had slipped his memory... he didn't even really remember him being there despite being one of the largest force - and physical - presences in the room. Having had such success in unwittingly manipulating the force sensitive, he had hardly registered as a threat to him. The Hutt's face turned to look over towards the barrelling feline, and sluggishly observed him.



"HHHUUUUTTTTTT!"


With a slight smirk, Zambrano knew when a friend wanted to play, and it looked like this pet wanted desperately to play. He would have to cut it short however, as he was very tired at this point and held no intentions of overstraining himself to the point of making himself unconscious. It wouldn't have been the first time he died that way. Instead, the Hutt simply watched as the few seconds passed that would transgress between the roaring tiger being in one far off location, and very close to his own location. In the meantime, the Hutt glanced at some humanoid figure that spoke to him, and he didn't think much of him, too focused on dragging Sage into his barge.

Piraiba charged at the slug with sabers deactivated, and his face presumably in full exposure. His posture was horizontally parallel and low to the floor, compared to the Hutts vertically perpendicular high posture. The Hutt was essentially for the sake of argument, stationary, while the feline was full of muscle powered momentum that would be very difficult to stop for anyone but himself. Of course, Zambrano took none of these things into account when he waited for the cat to approach him past the point of no return before unleashing his paralytic barbed whip to the side of his Head, hopefully sending enough painful slashing force to shift his head to the side. However, it should all work to his advantage, giving him the height advantage, the reach advantage, the reactionary advantage, and the simple fact that controlling the head would cause the body to follow. If the blow connected in those last milliseconds, it would whip Piraiba aside by shifting his directional momentum through controlling his head before he could stop himself and react with his sabers, as well as deliver a painful and poisoned blow directly to his head. It would almost immediately render half his face limp, and then it would gradually spread through the bloodstreams it might have come in contact with. The absolute best case scenario was that the blow connected and Piraiba went skidding off in another direction, quickly to succumb to the temporary paralysis and get knocked out from the poison directly injecting into the bloodstream nearest to his brain.

That was solely an optimistic estimate of what might happen in the next moment, but in reality, all the Hutt did was swing his whip at a charging felines temple.

[member="Catalys Maijora"], [member="Piraiba"], [member="Gorg"], [member="Digo Odel"], [member="Armand Temi"], [member="Alisa Kalor"], [member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Armand Temi]

When Armand felt like he could use his arms and legs again, he rolled onto his stomach and crawled military-style to yet another pile of bodies to use as cover. He let out a groan, still dazed by the stun gun and knew he needed to wait a few minutes until the after-effects wore off. The muscles in his chest where the stun gun squarely hit were still twitching but he knew he was not in danger of cardiac arrest. As Armand lay with the corpses, he could see the massive Torogian fly at the Hutt. The Hutt in response had his foul whip raised to counter the attack. A Gammorean Guard was coming up behind Piraiba as he barrelled on all fours toward the giant slug. Armand's eyes darted anxiously for the adversary who stunned him. He finally spied the shadowy figure near the Hutt as well - possibly special protection that he hadn't noticed before?

Armand's limbs still weren't working at full capacity so he tried to reach Sage telepathically. Even though he knew he was failing the other padawan he didn't want Bane to give up hope, although the Hapan could only imagine what horrors were in store for the poor fellow. "Hold on, Sage," he sent. "I'm right here. I can still help you."

It felt like an empty promise but one he needed to make.

[member="Catalys Maijora"] [member="Piraiba"] [member="Gorg"] [member="Digo Odel"] [member="Alisa Kalor"] [member="Sage Bane"] [member="Zambrano the Hutt"]

 

[Zion Krayt]

The space station was close enough to Sith Space that it's occupants should have the information that he was looking for, surely? A long time ago the Jedi Master had lost his grasp upon a Holocron that had been stolen by a former Jedi by the name of Daella Apparine. It was a low point in his life, a point that he meant to rise from again.

Headmaster of the Tython Praxeum, Zaren Bouqi had remained on the down low for many months. To the point that he had even abandoned every one of his Padawans and descended into the grime of the Underground. This day however, the Jedi Master had decided it was time to resurface, and what better place to do that than the border of Sith Space and presumably near Republic Space? If he needed to escape somewhere quickly, he'd jump into his ship and jump into hyperspace quick enough to safety, right?

The Protector of Tython was upon the space station the whole time, with a concealed presence, he had observed the ongoings from a distance. He didn't want to engage with multiple criminals and what appeared to be other Force users all at the same time, especially since he couldn't tell whether they held an Ashlan or Bogan Force presence.

At that point, he had expanded his Force present out and unclasped his lightsaber hilt from his belt before finally running.

Straight from the nearest doorway, to the Togorian and beyond him, the Hutt with the Jedi.

[member="Armand Temi"], [member="Zambrano the Hutt"], [member="Catalys Maijora"], [member="Gorg"], [member="Piraiba"], [member="Digo Odel"], [member="Alisa Kalor"][member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Piraiba]

If Piraiba's mind had not been clouded by pure rage, he might have been genuinely shocked that [member="Zambrano the Hutt"] didn't shuffle his way up the boarding ramp of his ship. The Sith slug had been so close to escape, and yet still waited even after turning and noticing the predator that sought him out.

This time the Hutt didn't face down slaves or a lone Jedi Padawan who had bitten off more than he could chew. This time it was a grizzled veteran who had force imbued reflexes that were forged in the fire of battle. The Togorian's momentum did give him a great disadvantage in avoiding the barbed whip though. Continuing forward, jumping over the Hutt, stopping, or trying to strafe sideways all would have ended ultimately with a lashing to the face as Zambrano intended. Unfortunately Piraiba took the choice not listed above. He tumbled...

This time the tumble had been induced on purpose with his front limbs tucking in and his body twisting to send him onto his side. It was certainly one of the many reasons an experienced beast didn't run with lightsabers activated while operating as a quadruped. However, the tumble caused two things to happen. Firstly it allowed the Sith Knight to just narrowly slide under the gastropod's whip. If someone had been watched the fight in slow motion they likely would have seen the weapon's barbs snagging and ripping a bit of fabric from the old blanket of a cloak that the feline wore.

Secondly, and much more importantly, it sent the Togorian rolling and skidding forward directly at the Hutt. Unlike Zambrano's slow methodical slithering action, Piraiba had a peak speed of somewhere in the area of 30 miles per hour when running on all fours. He couldn't maintain such a stride for more than moments, but it was enough to close the gap. The tumble reduced his momentum, but the creature had literally been at whip range when this happened. The Hutt would have only had a fraction of a moment to move, and they just weren't the most agile of creatures. Hopefully [member="Catalys Maijora"] had the insight to not stand between the two Sith for his own sake.

What happened when an unstoppable force collides with an unmovable one? The heavier force naturally wins, and the Hutt certainly had the weight to stop him. Of course over 800 pounds of dense hardened Togorian flesh and armor would take its toll at such a speed. The real icing on the cake though was the extremely close range lightsaber that suddenly activated in an attempt to impale his opponent.

Piraiba's sabers always extended to twice the length of a normal human variant to compensate for his height. The length of the blade coupled with the strength of the arm behind it made it a serious threat to even hardened Hutt hide.

@other peoples

 

[Digo Odel]

"Oh feth oh feth oh feth oh feth" he said as he cut a chain on one of the few survivors he had found, a heart faced little human girl. He looked down realizing her apparent age, "Pardun da language, lil'missus."

He took her hand as he stood his hunched form up and decided he had done all he could. He shambled as fast as his legs could carry him until the little girl fell. She was weak, malnourished and afraid but to leave her was something he simply could not bare to do. He stopped and snaked a big clawed hand beneath her and pulled her up like a child sized sandbag and hoisted her on to his back. He could hear shouting in the distance as he made his way toward the boarding ramp and pulled up short. He had to find another way out.

He turned and ran, if you can call that running, toward the aft of the ship and found a maintenance ladder as the girls weak little arms wrapped around his massive neck as best they could. Her tiny digits knotting themselves in his collar for dear life.

He began to climb slowly with one hand as he held her up with the other until he pushed out onto the upper deck. Where to go now was going to be the tricky part.

[member="Armand Temi"], [member="Zambrano the Hutt"], [member="Catalys Maijora"], [member="Gorg"], [member="Piraiba"], [member="Alisa Kalor"] [member="Sage Bane"]