Star Wars KOTOR: Counterplay

[Cyborg Ninja]

Zen found himself at a loss for words. It seemed he had underestimated both Mica and Sal's abilities. He dropped his idea and followed Sal into the Cantina where Pauel was. He hand his right hand on his energy sword in case Pauel had anyone with him. He was going to suggest to Sal they go in quietly when the human took action. Zen moved in with Sal and was shocked at what he saw. He saw a man who had to be Pauel, a woman...and Dominic.

 

Zen couldn't believe his eyes, as he was unsure what had happened to Dominic after the Jedi attacked the Found. He was glad to see that Dominic was still alive, but sad to see him with Pauel. Zen suddenly heard Sal say that Dominic was a fugitive and then pull out his blaster.

 

"No!" was all Zen could get out before he watched Dominic's impressive stunt.

 

With everyone distracted Zen made his move on Pauel. Zen slammed Pauel's head into a table in an attempt to stun him long enough for Sal. Considering the job done he could focus his attention on Dominic. Zen saw Dominic as true family, much like how he viewed Adeline.

 

Zen forgot about Pauel and darted over to the window to see what had happened to Dominic. Dominic was okay from what he could tell, and the woman seemed okay as well. He turned his head to the right and saw that Mica was approaching them with a blaster in his hand. Zen couldn't just stand there and let something happen to his former comrade, especially after Dominic had helped him escape with Perdante. He left the cantina without saying another word.

 

He followed the path he saw Mica take before he went through the front of the cantina. it didn't take him long to find the window Dominic had jumped out of and sure enough there was he was with Mica pointing his blaster at him.

 

"Do not point your weapon at my brother!" Zen barked at Mica. "Are you alright Dominic?" he asked regarding his stunt.

[Alkonium]

"Then we set up our trap to take them into account as well." Garren pointed out. "Let's get started. I have the data, along with footage of the victims, where's the projector controls?"

[Tysyacha]

GALACTIC SENATE OFFICES, CORUSCANT

 

Carth pointed. "I think they're right over there," he said, glancing over toward a door that read CONTROL ROOM: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. He, Atton Rand, and Garren Shain snuck toward it, but were met by another security droid:

 

"I'm sorry. The Control Room is only to be used by authorized personnel only. Unless you have the proper documentation to prove you are authorized, I myself am authorized to escort you out of the building and bid you good day."

 

"Have any other plans besides punching this droid in the 'head'?" asked Carth.

[ForceFightWMe12]

Mica glanced at Perdante with contempt when she said that she wouldn't attack them. She didn't even ignite her damn blades!

 

"You'll never be any help to the galaxy if you keep up like that." he snarled at her, casting a sidelong glare at her before Dominic's companion attracted his attention again. She seemed familiar, too...

 

He listened with an expression that grew steadily darker the more that the woman scolded him. Scolded! As if he were a child! His blaster immediately swapped Dominic's head for the woman's.

 

"You say that as if you'd actually be a threat to me!" he snapped back. "But I don't have time for this. Both of you, disarm yourself and throw your weapons--"

 

And then the alien butted in. Mica's nostrils flared in annoyance and anger, and he sidestepped slightly so that the newcomer and the fugitives would all three be in his line of sight. "Stand down, Sangheilii!" he ordered. "The man you are addressing is a Republic fugitive - continued cooperation will be seen as treason and accessory!" His trigger finger was tensing against the metal. Just one pump, and that would be it. Just one shot, and the woman would drop; a second, and so would Dominic. He only had a vibrosword. He had no defense, no way to hide.

 

But the man in question wasn't entirely aware of what was going on. The last five minutes had been spent blinking at the side of Arai's head, uncomprehending. It was a fairly impressive snap, especially considering they were both staring down the barrel of a gun...

 

And then Zen arrived, and Dominic stepped slightly forward, holding out a hand. "Leave it, Zen." he advised. "You have nothing to do with this now."

 

((GOD that was a confusing post >.>))

[Tysyacha]

Perdante scoffed. "They'll be no good to the Republic, or the people who are sick and dying from the ostanovium if they're dead," she growled in Mica's direction, "and alive is going to be the only way they'll ever lead us to Pauel. After all, the Apostle who were looking to bring down, and not these three. I say bring them in for questioning, not immediate execution. That, my dear comrade, would be pointless." She put her hands on her hips. Her pride had been wounded, but true Jedi Knights did not let such things affect them.

 

Besides," she continued, stepping forward and looking at Zen, "you're with me. Not only did you rescue me from the Throne of Gain, but you're also with me and Mica aboard the Millennial. Shouldn't we stop this nonsense and see if our squadmates need backup? For all we know, either they or Pauel himself could be dead by now."

[Writer]

In one fluid motion, almost too quick to be visible, Arai drew her own lightsaber, the familiar snap-hiss producing an emerald green blade.

 

"I am a threat to you, soldier," she said softly, "just as long as you are threatening my friend." She shifted slightly, moving her lightsaber from one hand to the other as her eyes bored into Mica. "You recognized Dom from a Republic watch-list, I'm sure. Even if they didn't have my image, they'd have my name with how I left the Jedi Order. Roll it around in your head a bit, soldier, see if it rings a bell. It's Arai. Arai Elan."

 

She turned her gaze to the young Jedi. "What of you, Jedi?" she asked. "Did your Masters tell you my story? Did they explain to you how the High Council tried to exile me? Have they admitted that I saw shatterpoints in even the members of the High Council? That I was able to manipulate those points, effectively turning the High Council into quarreling children as I made my escape?"

 

She scowled. "Of course they didn't!" she spat, her tone full of contempt. "My departure from the Order was their greatest failure since they lost the original Dark Siders. They wouldn't tell you my story, or of any other failure lest you begin to believe they are flawed."

 

She shifted again, putting her lightsaber back in her right hand, where it was most comfortable. "Let me ask you one question, Jedi. Do you trust the Order with your life?"

[Tysyacha]

The Jedi pondered this for a long moment. When she finally managed to put words to all of her jumbled thoughts, thus bringing clarity to them, she said:

 

"If you want to hear the truth from me, before my comrade Mica possibly kills you, then I will freely give it. I was a Sith Initiate before I became a Jedi Knight, and many within the Order, among all of its ranks, are still suspicious of me. It was only through the intervention of my trainer, a Cathar Jedi named Juhani, that I was not slain on sight. I intended to duel her to the death, but she spared me instead of giving me the fate I truly deserved. For that, I trust her with my life, alongside a handful of other Masters that Juhani herself trusts. Those few people do not constitute the entire Jedi Order, and so my answer is...no. I know it should not be, but that is the truth as I see it, miss."

 

She stepped forward slightly. "You say you were exiled? On what grounds?" A slight twinge of a memory clicked into place. "And what are...shatterpoints, as you call them?"

[Writer]

Arai's eyes narrowed slightly. To hear the young woman's entire life story hadn't been exactly what Arai had been expecting. Maybe she'd been away from the Jedi too long to fully expect what one of them would do. As the Jedi asked her for her own story, Arai scowled and shook her head.

 

"What's this?" she asked, "pre-spy training? Keep the crooks chit-chatting while your best buds surround them? I don't think. We have a ship to find and I'm not about to let a trigger-happy communications officer and an inexperienced Jedi stall us."

 

She turned to Mica, stared at him for a moment, then said, "Perhaps you'd like to check on Sal. Pauel may not be my caliber of dangerous, but I'm sure you know how dangerous he is."

 

Then turning to Dom, she said, "Come on, let's get out of here."

[ForceFightWMe12]

Dominic just stared at Arai for a moment. He was starting to wish he'd found her sooner.

 

Mica's eyes widened, not in amazement, but in fear. The woman was right; Mica had sent Sal in with Zen to capture a leading operative of a subversive, violent terrorist organization...and now Zen was here, with them. Which meant Sal was alone...

 

...with a fat, lazy man that did more eating than fighting. Arai was just trying to distract him.

 

"I'll give you trouble!" He growled, and raised his blaster again, finger on the trigger, to aim right between her eyes--

[Writer]

But his moment of hesitation was his undoing. He'd barely aimed his blaster when it was torn forcibly from his hand and compressed to about the size of it's power pack. Indeed, the majority of the blaster had essentially been turned into a fancy metal case for the pack. Arai smiled faintly, tilted her head to one side and shook her head.

 

"Somehow I don't think that worked out quite like you expected," she said softly. "Go your own way, Republic. We're leaving whether you like it or not."

 

She paused, turning to Dom and gesturing to Zen. "So the big guy's a friend of yours?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

Now Mica stared in amazement. He had heard that the Jedi's Force powers were capable of doing such things, but he had never seen it done before. It was like...magic.

 

Dominic just grinned, shaking his head. She was going to have this officer pissing in his pants before long. When addressed, he turned to look at Arai, and then at Zen. He nodded. "He's another--" he cut himself off, immediately editting his language. "He's a former Pilgrim." The look that Dominic now gave his old comrade was not one of mistrust or hate; it was one of simple, nonverbal understanding not unlike the one they had shared on Coruscant. He had done his job well, it seemed. "Zen, the Sanghelii."

[Tysyacha]

((By the way, what's Pauel supposed to be doing while all this is going on? I forgot...))

[Cyborg Ninja]

((Well Zen slammed Pauel's head into a table before leaving the cantina))

 

Zen wanted to draw his blade at Mica's words but he knew that would be foolish. A drawn weapon demanded blood, it was part of Sangheili code of honor. He remained a bit more silent as he realized he had almost gotten himself shot for acting without thinking.

 

Things seemed to calm down as Arai spoke with Perdante. Zen felt that this little conflict could end with both parties being satisfied. Once Sal was mentioned things began to pick up. Zen found himself in awe at what Arai had done to Mica. He wasn't sure whether to be impressed with her abilities in the force or her words. Zen looked over at Arai at the mentioning of his height and nodded his head when Dominic introduced him.

 

"It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Arai." Zen turned his head over to Mica who was still in shock at what happened. "You can go check on your brother if you wish, though I doubt he'll need help. I hit Pauel quite hard before I left to come out here." Zen turned his attention back to Dominic and Arai. "Do either of you still need to speak with Pauel?"

[Writer]

"The pleasure is mine, Zen," Arai answered with a faint smile. "Any friend of Dom's is a friend of mine."

 

When Zen asked if they were finished with Pauel, Arai glanced at Dom before turning back to Zen. "No, we're finished with Pauel. The Republic can do as they wish with him now." She shifted and looked back to Dom. "Speaking of which, I think it's time we move out, hey Dom?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

Dominic nodded stiffly. "Yes, we should." It felt wrong to be tossing Pauel up like this, but what choice did he have? By now, he was already in Republic custody - he wasn't exactly the strongest or most aerodynamic of men - and for all he knew, they already had backup on their way. He wasn't about to let Arai get captured for the sake of a loyalty he felt. No, the best move now was to find the Prophet, and ask him for guidance.

 

He turned to Zen and nodded to him, beginning to back towards the Sangheilii. He would be the one to let them leave before either of the other two. Once he ascertained that Zen was making no move against them, his eyes turned back to the Republic officer.

 

"Well, this has been a charming time, sir," he said, "But now, I'm afraid it's time for us to take our leave." And with that, he grabbed Arai's arm, turned tail, and ran.

 

Mica's nostrils flared, watching them run. He turned his cold eyes on Zen. "You," he said, pointing a finger, "I'm reporting you to the captain." He turned around to face Perdante. "And you! How far did your Code get the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars? Hm? Do you think Revan became so great and did so much by playing by the rules all the time?"

 

He turned to Zen. "There's a back up party joining us momentarily. I want you to go back upstairs and secure Pauel with Salvatore. And if you screw up this time," he growled, stepping closer, "It will be your honor on the line. Perdante, we're going after those two."

 

And without looking back at her, he pulled out a hold out blaster he had stashed in his boot and took off down the street. They had only a few minutes' head start...

[Tysyacha]

Perdante followed Mica, sprinting down the steaming-pavement streets of the commoners' section of Nar Shaddaa, which reeked of urine and litter. No matter. Jedi put such things out of their minds when it came to pursuing the enemy, or in this case, people who were believed to be the enemy. Her own opinion of Dominic was that he was indeed a member of the Found, but he was merely misguided, not evil as she knew that Mica would like to claim. As for Arai? Arai...That woman "stuck in her craw", and the Jedi knew it. Do you trust the Order with your life? Did they explain to you how the High Council tried to exile me? Ordinarily, those would have been questions over which she would have challenged the querent to a duel, and not a sparring match either. However, she had not wanted to kill or "rough up" Arai, merely to understand her and get more information on Pauel...

 

Understand? Understand WHAT? That you're chasing two people who are on Pauel's side at the moment, if only because they need the ostanovium? That you practically let them get away? Mica's right. The Jedi Code and its naive pacifism aren't doing any good for you right now. You didn't use your lightsabers, and thus that snobbish little neophyte of a Force user gained the advantage over you. You! You were once 'la Gagnante', and right now? You really are a loser. You're nothing but a shadow of your former self, your SITH self. Show a little spine for once!

 

Igniting her twin silver blades, Perdante sliced a waste receptacle clean in half as she rushed past it using the Force to bolster her speed. It was in her way.

 

Revan let nothing get in his way in his quest to save the galaxy...

[Writer]

As they ran, Arai laughed softly. "Question what they stand for and every Jedi reacts more or less the same," she said. "She and the soldier are in pursuit."

 

She took the lead, guiding Dom toward Pauel's ship, which she had managed to locate in his mind in spite of the ostanovium haze. They came to an intersection and Arai sent Force projections down one street while turning Dom a completely different direction. With his ostanovium tattoo, he would be harder to pinpoint, so she simply masked her own presence in the Force, leaving the projections behind as a nice distraction.

 

"I've done what I can to throw them off our track," she told Dom, "but it won't last long. We're just under a minute away from Pauel's ship and we'll have to do a cold-start." She grinned. "Just like last time we came to Nar Shaddaa together. Think you can still pull it off?"

[Tysyacha]

There they are! The Jedi Knight's pulse quickened as she spotted two figures, presumably Dom and Arai, up ahead. However, no matter how fast she tried to run, Perdante never seemed to close the distance between herself and them. It was like one of those diabolical paradox problems she'd encountered while taking Force Metaphysics as part of her Jedi training: You can never truly catch up with someone who is running ahead of you. First you have to get 1/32nd of the way there, then 1/8th, then 1/4th, then 1/2, and it never ends. At least, that was how she remembered it. In practice, that was absurd, as you could often outrun your opponents and catch up to them. That made the paradox absolutely absurd. However, the paradox was also true in a theoretical sense. This maddening thought plagued her mind as she continued pursuing the two.

 

Come on, Force, help me out here! My legs aren't the fastest, and my body's not the strongest, but I have to catch up to Arai and Dominic. If I don't, then I've lost my chance to find out more information about Pauel, the Found, and its Prophet, Khristoff. I don't care what I have to do in order to catch them--just let me do so! Indeed, the Force seemed to give her an extra burst of speed as she continued running and running, appearing to passersby as a flash of fleshy color and silver light. However, unbeknownst to the poor young woman, the figures she were chasing were Arai's projections. She was becoming more hopelessly lost by the moment, not even knowing it...

[ForceFightWMe12]

Dominic offered only one half of a laugh, which sounded more like a cough than anything else. He could feel his chest tightening the more they ran...

 

"Don't remind me." he muttered, breathing through his mouth. After a moment, he glanced at her, and shook his head. "My ship might just fall apart under that. Let's just hope that Pauel had more cash on hand than I did."

 

The outlaws might have been running faster, but they had chosen the wrong person to run from. Had it been Sal, he might have been worried about losing them completely; as it was, Mica wasn't worried. He was always the fastest runner in their boot camp, and he had been constantly training to keep that title.

 

Perdante was faster, though, and she took off ahead of him, rounding a corner after to fleeing shapes. Mica reached the same intersection a moment later, and was about to follow after her...but he stopped when he saw a trash can knocked over. A can came clattering down, indicating that the trash hadn't settled into its new horizontal position...indicating that the trash had only just recently been knocked over. He narrowed his eyes. Perdante was too far gone to call her back now...

 

He would have to overtake them himself. Mica headed off in exactly the opposite direction of the Jedi.

[Alkonium]

"I'll deal with it." Garren told Carth and Atton, approaching the droid. "I am lying. Is what I just said true or false?" He asked it. Understanding the overly logical design in droids' programming, he understood that the droid would attempt to process his query, and break down due to the inherent paradox in his statement.

[Writer]

((JP with FFWM))

 

Arai sensed the change of tone in Dom, but she had no time to consider it yet. They made it to Pauel's ship and Arai used the Force to trigger the ramp open. She ran up the ramp, calling back to Dom, "Hurry! Soldier boy's on our heels."

 

Wordlessly, Dom charged up the ramp behind her and headed for the engine room. During their first trip together to Nar Shaddaa, he'd fumbled with the engine controls. Since then, he'd learned a little more about the controls themselves and was a little pleased to find that this ship wasn't terribly different from most of the others he'd worked with.

 

For all its dangers, bypassing the standard startup procedure was a simple process. Flip this switch, press that button, cross these wires with those wires, type in this little string of code. Once that was done, all systems would read false-positive, allowing whoever was at the controls to fly off without so much as consulting the computers for anything. Admittedly, it was dangerous. There weren't many people who could fly a ship that was only half functional. Thankfully, Arai was one of them.

 

"Ready!" he shouted.

 

Sluggishly, the ship lifted off the ground, its engines screaming in protest at being used before they'd fully warmed up. On the ground, Mica heard the noise, recognized it for what it was, and charged toward it, fishing a tracking device from his bag as he ran. If he couldn't catch the fugitives, at least he could keep track of where they were going.

 

The ship wobbled just a little and as Arai worked hard to steady it, Mica hurled the tracking device. He grinned in satisfaction as it stuck, half a second before the ship lurched skyward. Then his grin faded and he turned back in search of Perdante. Foolish girl, running off after phantoms...

 

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

 

In the cockpit of Pauel's ship, Arai fought with the controls, keeping the ship aloft while the computers finished their startup processes. Several long seconds later, the computers seemed to realize the ship was in flight and they began working with Arai; the flight path smoothed significantly and it wasn't long until they left Nar Shaddaa's atmosphere. She cut the engines and checked the navicomputer, only to find that it was still pulling up.

 

As she waited, Dom entered the cockpit and sat down beside her.

 

"Just waiting on the-" she began, but then the navicomputer beeped. "Never mind." She pulled up a list of coordinates the ship had previously flown to. Most of them were easily identifiable. One stood out as utterly unknown to her and she showed it to Dom.

 

"I think that's our heading," she said. She gave the navicomputer instructions to create a safe flight path to those coordinates from their current location and waited. Minutes later, the computer chimed that the course was laid in, and Arai sent the ship into hyperspace.

 

It was only then that she realized that Dom had barely spoken a word to her since they crawled out of the dumpster...

[ForceFightWMe12]

The Pilgrim was determined that the only reason why he had fallen against the sides of the ship's corridors was Arai's struggle to get the ship airborne and even; it shifted from side to side several times. Most of the time, he was perfectly fine with keeping his balance - he was a long-time martial arts student, after all - but these shifts must have been more like bucks, because they sent him jolting into the wall every time.

 

Finally, he made his stumbling into the cockpit...and he was no longer able to fool himself. The room was spinning; he couldn't catch his breath. The more that he tried, the more his chest locked up...he could feel his eyes starting to bug, hear himself wheeze...

 

The kolto. Thank the almighty Creator he had thought to bring some with him! But his hands were shaking, and he fumbled with the clasp of the belt-bound pack for several seconds. "Shot," he gasped out, talking more to himself than to Arai. He heard her say something, but he couldn't discern what the words were. As the wheezing turned to coughing, and that coughing became a fit, he managed to get the needle out...but it dropped out of his fingers almost immediately. He couldn't hang onto it.

[Writer]

It was the coughing fit that finally made Arai turn to see what was happening. They had just entered hyperspace, so there wasn't much for her to do anymore anyway. Dom clearly not in good shape, pale and fumbling with a syringe. As the syringe clattered to the floor, Arai sprang into action, catching it up with the Force. Kolto.

 

"Force, Dom," she breathed, spinning the needle around and pressing it into his neck, gentle but firm. The kolto began working almost instantly, but it took almost a minute for his coughing to subside. When he was finally breathing more easily, Arai turned her chair to face him and sat down again, the syringe still in her hand.

 

"From where I'm sitting, that doesn't look all that good for the Found," she said. Her tone was soft, but the words conveyed a sense of betrayal. This was what he wanted for her, for anyone who was Force-sensitive?

[Tysyacha]

Perdante continued chasing the figures, which were nothing more than Force illusions from Arai, which suddenly lost their footing...and dissolved into the bottomless chasm that was the central pit of Nar Shaddaa. The Jedi almost followed, before she realized she was teetering on the edge--and ledge--of eternity...Once she became cognizant of what had really happened, she swore.

 

"I--I can't believe I almost killed myself over Force projections!" She clenched her hands into fists, climbed down off of the ledge, and gnashed her teeth. How could I have been so stupid? I'm a Jedi Knight, and I'm supposed to be trained far better than this! Rage and hatred began to fill her heart. They got away, both of them, and unless Sal and Zen have captured Pauel, our mission is a hopeless failure. Where was Mica now? Where was she?!

 

Great. I'm completely lost on this Force-forsaken planet, and for WHAT?!

[ForceFightWMe12]

His nostrils flared, his teeth set, and he sucked his breath in sharply as the needle punctured his neck. It was all he could do to stay still long enough for the kolto to be delivered and the needle removed; he just couldn't stop coughing. When it pulled free of his neck again, he immediately collapsed downward, sitting now with his elbows on his knees and head hung low, letting the coughs come out. Finally, they began to subside, and he was reduced to wheezing, wheezing to labored breathing...he could feel sweat beading on his forehead.

 

It hadn't been what she said that sparked his temper; it was the tone with which she said it. When he raised his head to look at her, the anger was clear on his face. What she was suggesting was an insult to him.

 

"This has nothing to do with the Found." he snapped through gritted teeth. His breathing still hadn't quite returned to normal, but he could speak at least. "This is a problem with me. Not ostanovium."

 

- - - - - - - - - -

 

"Perdante!"

 

The communications officer stood at the mouth of the alley that had led her here, his blaster stowed and hands in the pockets of his uniform pants. His eyes were sharp, his expression somewhat dark. When he had her attention, he jerked his head behind him. "Come on."

 

She was furious, she was insulted...she was completely and totally open to manipulation. Perfect.