Vacation All I Ever Wanted

[Setzi Lunelle]

Location: Chroma Zed Spaceport

For all intenstive purposes, the sister's trip had been an enjoyable one. Chroma Zed was one of the most majestic planets in the Mid Rim with its breathtaking views and lush setting. Tourists attractions were plenty - waterfalls, steamy hot springs, and challenging hiking trails. The girls spent a week hopping from one Chromian ampithetre to the next, taking in the spectacular vistas and learning of the planet's turbulent history under Empire rule.

But now they were ready to head back to Aduba-3 for a quick visit with their parents, before they went back to their respective Jedi Academies. The spaceport was insanely crowded with humans, humanoids and aliens, with no native Chromans in sight as the worm-like aliens lived in mountainous tunnels and could not thrive too long in direct sunlight.

Setzi had ordered her younger sister Chastity in charge of watching their luggage while she dealt with scheduling, credits, tickets, security scans...well just about everything else. But she was the more mature and responsible one of the two, although to be fair, neither sister had been too far away from their parent's nuna and maze-stalk farm on Aduba-3.

The padawan had just finished checking them onto the next shuttle and making sure they had boarding pass retina scans, so she walked back over to where she had left Chastity. Her dark-haired sister was looking at a nearby atrium that was the focal point of this spaceport and did not have her eyes on the luggage as she was instructed. Seltzi's heart quickened its pace as she grew closer because she could only see one set of luggage and not hers.

"Where are my bags, Chastity?" she asked, her voice cracking. Setzi hated losing her composure especially in a crowded spaceport but she began circling the area frantically. with a sinking feeling, she realized her bags were gone, probably stolen by thieves.

"I gave you one job," she said angrily. She didn't want to yell at her sister because it reminded her too much of when they were kids and now they were adults and shouldn't do things like argue in public. But right now she was furious over the lost bags. "Please tell me you put my luggage in a locker while I was off getting our boarding passes."

[member="Chastity Lunelle"]

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

Older sisters were such a pain.

Where are my bags, Chastity? Stop stealing my clothes, Chastity. Don’t look at my boyfriend that way, Chastity.

Couldn’t her sister for once try to relax and not be a total killjoy?

“Um, I put it down right over there.” Chastity said with an edge of irritation in her already fiesty tone. The dark haired teen jabbed her finger in the direction the ladies’ refresher and then rolled her eyes at her sister.

What did Setzi expect? Chastity was a travel virgin. Other than her time at boarding school on Arkania, the young Force Adept had never left their parents nuna farm, much less Aduba III itself. And let’s face it, when your home planet’s main attraction was a lump of dirt called Spacer’s Hill where a bunch dead smugglers were buried, it was safe to say that Chastity was a pretty naive girl. The Chroma Zed spaceport, bustling with all its different sights, sounds, and species completely distracted her. All the languages she had never heard. The strange clothes some of them wore. It was pure information overload.

“Look, you can borrow my stuff. ok. We’re kind of the same size,” she offered helpfully.

If her sister wasn’t such a beanpole with her gangly arms and spider legs, that is.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

"Well, does it look like its still there to you?" asked Setzi losing patience. And by the holy stars, if her sister could roll her eyes right now, Setzi could roll them better and harder. And add a huff for good measure.

"And I don't want to borrow your clothes. All of my belongings were in there including the credits to get us all the way back home. Our boarding passes are set but there is a waypoint and we'll need a credit chit for that. Oh, just wait here!" she said exasperated and holding out her hand.

Setzi went over to the customer service terminal and asked if any luggage had been turned in, but of course it hadn't. It had been officially stolen. The padawan nervously bit her nails as Chastity kept looking around like a dopey cow with nowhere else to be but this spaceport. Feth, she thought to herself and then she chided herself for swearing.

Storming back over to her sister, she said, "Any ideas, Chaz?" She knew her sister hated being called Chaz. Sometimes just calling her that would get her a swift punch to the upper arm.

"Can you start to ask around and see if anyone saw the thief? And quickly as we don't want to miss our shuttle too."

[member="Chastity Lunelle"]

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

Chastity gave her sister dagger eyes. Her hand shot out quickly as she punched her sister in the arm.

"Don't call me that," she growled, trying to divert the attention away from the fact that yes, she royally karked up and lost her sister's bags.

"And don't order me around. UGH!"

She hated to break it to her sister, but she had an inkling that those bags were long gone and on the first shuttle to who knew where. Plus, they were standing in a spaceport. The sight of a person running with bags wasn't going to raise any eyebrows.

To placate Setzi she did as she was asked, kind of. Closing her eyes, Chastity branched out around the immediate vicinity, using her burgeoning Force powers to try and sense someone with ill-willed intentions. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but it was better than running around like nuna with their heads cut off, like Setzi wanted.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

“Ouch!”

The slug to her shoulder was wholly expected but it still hurt. Setzi rubbed her arm protectively. She watched her sister close her eyes and go into a trance, trying to use the Force to use… what? The maker only knew.

“By the core, you’ll never find the thief that way,” the padawan groaned. “I guess I literally have to do everything by myself.” She stalked off in the direction of a nearby stimcaf self-serve kiosk. A line of humanoids and aliens were waiting to get fresh caf, tea or Fizzy Bip from the machine. Setzi addressed those in the queue asking, “Has anyone seen a small, teal green bag? My sister and I have seemed to have misplaced it. Anyone?” Most of the patrons in the line shook their heads or just ignored the padawan.

Finally a greasy Caarite appeared out of nowhere and sidled up to her. “What do you need, little one? I’ll help you find your bag.”

“Oh well that’s very nice of you…”

“But for a price.”

“But… I don’t have anything to pay you with. My luggage is lost which is kind of the problem in the first place. No luggage, no credits.”

He put a finger to his chin. “I know how you can make some easy credits.”

“Hmmmm,” Setzi said but alarm bells were going off in her head. You didn’t just make credits at a spaceport. This sounded very shady indeed. “It’s a nice offer but I’m going to go meet up with my sister,” she said quickly. “Thank you for your time.”

Setzi walked back over to Chastity, who would be able to see behind her that the Caraatie was following, his mouth stretched into an unsettling smile.

[member="Chastity Lunelle"]

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

Her sister shot off to go talk to a bunch of people. Chastity was an usually an extrovert, except for when she felt unsure of herself. Which was this very moment. Her lips curled downward as she waited by her luggage, all folded arms and hunched shoulders. She dropped her gaze to the floor where gave her luggage an almost imperceptible kick as she mentally flogged herself for being so stupid.

When Chastity raised her head, she saw her sister talking to a small alien with long ears and a weird, porcine face. Was he an Ugnaught? Chastity was blanking on the species. Her sister's body language betrayed the fact Setzi looked thoroughly creeped out by the man. Poor guy. He was probably just trying to help. It would be just like Setzi to turn down someone's generosity because he looked like a pig. Literally. Her sister was so judgmental.

As Setzi returned, to their spot, the pig guy was following her with a strange grimace on his face. As soon as her sister got within earshot, she leaned in and whispered.

"Don't look now, but I think you made a friend."

But what was that shiny thing glinting in his palm?

[member="Setzi Lunelle"] [member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

When Chastity said she had a friend, Setzi whirled around very fast. Then she tried to appear nonchalant, but her face looked more like a squall in the speeder lights.

“Sir, I told you that I wasn’t interested in any get rich quick scheme and… oh,” she said. Setzi stopped abruptly when she noticed the pig-like creature had a small vibrodagger in his hand. Any weapons that the padawan had were in her luggage and she didn’t want to scare Chastity. She tried to use her body to block the view from her sister.

“Look I don’t want any trouble here,” she said in a quiet voice. “If you just back away now, I won’t scream for the spaceport police.”

The Caarite chuckled and said, “There will be no trouble if you give me the other piece of luggage.”

Setzi stifled the urge to scream right there and then. She wasn’t sure if he was the original bandit or a new one, but either way the Caarite moved closer, and she could hear the buzz of the electronic blade as he put it far too near to her arm. She and her sister had been taught that if they were ever robbed or mugged to just give the thief what they wanted. Don’t negotiate. You’ll be more likely to survive if you comply with any demands.

But the fallacy of that is: what if you complied and the assailant still did what they wanted to do to you if you had resisted?

With another sinking feeling, and a fret to herself that, by the maker I can’t believe this is happening to me, she turned to Chastity, gulped and said, “Can you hand me your bag please?”

[member="Chastity Lunelle"]

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

Chastity felt the tiny hairs on the nape of her neck stand on end. Something was very, very wrong. Every cell of her body hummed out: Danger, grab your sister and run. Was this the Force trying to communicate something with her? Or was she just a being a scaredy-cat? She craned her neck to one side and then the other so that she could see around her sister, who had suddenly blocked her view of the stranger. It was maddening to be unable to see what was going on between them.

She heard her sister talking to the fellow in a low voice and then she distinctly heard the man ask for their luggage. Sithspit! They were being mugged. When she swallowed back an lump in her throat, Chastity felt like it could be heard by every human and alien in the spaceport.

Suddenly, Setzi turned to her younger sister and asked for her bags. No karking way. The young woman's hands were trembling, but she narrowed her eyes and stuck out her chin definitely. Nobody messed with the Lunelle sisters! Especially not pig people!

Stepping forward, she put herself between her older sister and this foul, luggage thief and stuck her face in his.

"Go away!"

[member="Setzi Lunelle"] [member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Chroma Zed had done Connor the world of good. Being away for a few days to have some time alone, work on his E-wing, fix up his armour and generally get away from the growing strain of the Silver Jedi. It was a world far away from Voss. But all breaks must end, and right now he stood in the Spaceport after refuelling and obtaining refreshment for the flight home. Just Connor and his thoughts. Not the most exciting company, but he didn’t particularly trust droids as co-pilots.

Standing on the lower levels with a glass of Blue Milk fresh from the chiller of a confectionary stand, Connor was drawn to those always looking like they were out for trouble; vagrants, punks and those preying on weakness. While he was no guardian angel, he knew the limits of the law and the Jedi and he would do anything he had to in order to defend and protect the innocent.

While being away on the planet, Connor had taken time to evaluate his status as Master. He had led a Padawan, Syala Daivik, to Knight status and she was off on her own missions. He now had to have confidence in himself to act the Master. Others would look up to him, to emulate and take guidance from him. He also had a duty to protect those under the Light that he swore he would do as a Jedi. Not a perfect Jedi, but a Jedi none-the-less.

Right now, it seemed the perfect opportunist was preying on a couple out of their depth and clearly alone. Sipping his drink slowly and using the glass to cover his face as he peered out from it, slowly drinking the cold milk, Connor watched from the distance. There was a Force aura among them, but that didn’t mean anything in this era.

He was not dressed as a typical Jedi, and wore his black armour with self-made Silver Jedi emblem on the shoulder. A small cowl draped down his left side, lightsaber hilt hanging under it discreetly. He could just be another mercenary, a solider, or fighter pilot on glancing over. All shadows trained to blend into them, so not to draw obvious attention – and as a Jedi, he wouldn’t shout out the fact he was. There was no need. Those who opposed him would know soon enough, and those he befriended would soon learn.

[member="Chastity Lunelle"] | [member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Lord Tarantula]

Chroma Zed was beautiful. In another life, or another role in this one, he'd have lived here and spent all his money on fancy crap just like the other rich kids who seemed to populate this world. But, this life was this one, and Kyale was having the time of his life. He drank frozen coffee out of the large metal SpaceBucks cup in one of his cybernetic hands, and a sandwich with some kind of bacon in his own organic hand.

Speaking of bacon, there was a Caarite speaking kind of loudly at a couple of women. It wasn't that the Arachnid Lord didn't like Caarites, or that he particularly wanted to help pretty girls (they looked too young for him anyway.) It was more that those girls looked so... lost. Lost things annoyed Kyale very much. And people who exploited lost people got him angry. Real angry. Like I-will-karkin'-dissect-you kind of angry.

Plus, a certain Caarite had stolen an important piece of tech from him, once. He'd been waiting to get some payback for that, both literal and psychological.

Opening the metal cup and gulping down the rest of the frozen coffee, he put the cup safely down on a nearby bench as he strode towards the Caarite with half his sandwich sticking out of his mouth. Honestly, it would have been funny to Kyale, if he hadn't been astonishingly mad. One arm stretched around the piggy man's neck, and the cybernetic fingers wrapped around his collar, holding him up a solid four feet off the ground.

The Lord Tarantula looked truly evil, for once. His eyes seemed to glow like molten lava. It was the same man... Jak Luje. His voice dangerously calm, a crooked grin spread over Kyale's face as he said. "You."

[member="Setzi Lunelle"] [member="Chastity Lunelle"] [member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

The pigman’s feet kicked as he dangled, held up in the air by by a serpentine cybernetic arm. Chastity blinked. She felt a strange mixture of relief and fear. On the one hand, the pigman had dropped the knife the second he was lifted off the ground, but on the other hand, the newly-arrived creature’s eyes glowed red, and his undulating arms looked like they could rip off a limb. Chastity wasn’t sure if after he was finished with piggy, if he would be coming for them.

However, she didn’t want to see bloodshed. Her dream was to be a Jedi, a guardian of the galaxy. If she sat back and did nothing, well, that wasn’t exactly the Jedi way was it? But what could she do? She barely knew how to control her powers. Chastity did the only thing she knew how to do. Try and talk some sense into the men.

“Stop it right now,” she ordered with a quavering voice. “Or...” here she gestured to her shocked sister with a manicured hand.

“...We will do something you’ll regret.”

That was how you Jedi'ed, wasn't it?

[member="Lord Tarantula"] [member="Connor Harrison"] [member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Lord Tarantula]

One of Kyale's eyes turned back to its normal color as he glanced at the girl who was waving her hand at him. With a sigh, he hit Jak over the head with another claw and dropped the safely concussed pig on the ground. Two of his cybernetic arms picked over the unconscious man's body, while a third retrieved the coffee cup, and the fourth looked at the girl and chittered to itself quietly. With an angry glare, Lord Tarantula started on the girl, "Kid, you have no idea why I just did that. You don't know anything about me. And you certainly can't stop me from giving this thief his dues for cutting my lungs out a decade ago."

Attempting to sip at the coffee cup, before realizing it was empty, he watched idly as one of his hands gave a nasty thump to the Caarite's head again. In the pig's pockets had been an assortment of different currencies, a heavy blaster, a comm unit, and a variety of nasty-looking chains and blades. Then it occurred to him to ask the two women, looking between them, "Neither of you have any internal cybernetics, do you? This guy makes a living off of cutting them out and reselling them. Fuckin' murderer is what he is."

[member="Chastity Lunelle"] [member="Connor Harrison"] [member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Nearly spitting back his Blue Milk at the sight of the strange metallic-arachnid/sentient hybrid being starting to take matters into his own hands, Connor set it aside and smacked his lips and he moved forward to the growing commotion, grateful it wasn’t yet an all-out security lock down. Commuters either paid it little attention, or stood trying not to watch but ready with their holo-recorders to capture the excitement to share via the HoloNet.

It seemed the…cyborg arachnid…was certainly out for something vicious, and the two females were attracting attention they didn’t want. A tremor in the Force was telling him that, coming from the confrontation.

”Excuse me, excuse me.”

Connor sidled through, mouthing small apologies as he bumped through onlookers, speaking loud enough to be heard as he made his way to speaking distance with the dangerous looking scenario playing out.

”Let’s not do anything too rash – have we got a problem here?”

Right now, he was in peace-maker mode.

[member="Lord Tarantula"] | [member="Chastity Lunelle"] | [member="Setzi Lunelle"]

 

[Setzi Lunelle]

Of course Chastity would escalate things like a rancor in a china shop. As soon as she went mental on the Caarite, she could see an outsider approaching from the corner of her eye. Noting his cybernetic limbs she dismissed him as Spaceport security. Perhaps he was an enemy of the pigman? Stepping back, she watched with wide eyes as he lifted the thief up. Her first instinct was to slink away and pretend that nothing was happening here, no sir, not involving Setzi. But maybe she could get her bags back if the Caraate had stolen them. Or perhaps he knew who had. Then her sister began making threats again and suddenly the pigman was on the ground. Was he dead? Oh by the maker, he was dead! Well maybe not dead…

In a tentative voice, Setzi said, “I’ll handle this, Chastity.” Then she cleared her throat and said, "Neither of us have any cybernetics, so I’m not sure why we were targeted.”

And all of a sudden, a tall human male came over. Finally, someone who looked like the helpful type! His whole presence exuded confidence from his stance to his voice. “Well clearly there are many problems with this whole situation,” she answered, sounding ruder than she intended. “But thank you for your concern,” she added to soften it.

“This alien,” Setzi continued pointing to the Caarite.“Is a criminal.” She merely looked at the man who was part cyborg, not sure if he was friend or foe.

[member="Chastity Lunelle"] [member="Connor Harrison"] [member="Lord Tarantula"]

 

[Chastity Lunelle]

Chastity all but forgot about Pigman and Spiderguy because suddenly a tall, dark-haired port authority officer came to the rescue. And a handsome one at that. She flashed the newcomer a worried glance. Why did Chastity always feel like she was in trouble even though she had done nothing wrong? She wasn't guilty of anything! The young woman opened her mouth to began to launch into some kind of explanation when her sister interrupted her. As usual. It was nice that she had a sister who protected her, but Setzi's overbearing actions often made Chastity feel like a bird whose wings had been clipped before she learned to fly.

She ran her gaze over the taller man's outfit. He didn't look like your typical port authority officer, not that she would really know the difference. There was an air of influence about him. Plus, the cowl draped over his shoulder and his armor? He was something a bit more elevated than a spaceport cop. Curious, she began to reach out with the Force to see if she could detect anything around the man, a hint of an aura. Chastity wasn't very good at it, but sometimes she was able to get a sense of a person's emotions or intentions. A brief swash of colors over the underpainting. But just as quickly as it came, the feeling was usually gone.

Determined not to be background noise, Chastity finally spoke up.

"He tried to steal our luggage," she said pointing at the alien.

"And according to him..." A finger jutted out towards at the cyberman. "...The guy is also a murderer."

She wished she could do something more than just parrot what her sister had already said. Still, all things considered, this was getting pretty exciting.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"] [member="Connor Harrison"] [member="Lord Tarantula"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Looking to both girls who spoke up fast and with spirit, Connor nodded and looked to the one they pointed out. The cyber-arachnid was unlike anything he’d seen before, and he immediately began to evaluate a possible opponent – stance, arsenal, body language.

He felt the aura of the girl speaking last nudge him, and his eyes moved to her for a second with a small nod.

”Ladies, why don’t you take your luggage, whatever belongs to you, and be on your way. I’ll take care of this before the Port Authority gets involved and makes it difficult for everyone.”

Connor turned to the cyber-spider man.

”Interesting set up you have my friend. Care to hand this one over to me? I will make sure he is properly detained and questioned for whatever crime he has committed, if you yourself cooperate.”


[member="Lord Tarantula"] | [member="Chastity Lunelle"] | [member="Setzi Lunelle"]