SWKotOR: The Darkest Hour Cometh

[Penguin Unit]

((Anyone care for some action?))

 

Aravel nodded in acknowledgment to the officer. "I'll go take a look. Please, though, don't let too many people know who I am if you can."

 

Stooping to examine the bodies, he closed his eyes and attempted to sense a footprint in the Force around the victims, something even non-Force users tended to leave behind minutely. There was no telling who had done it for certain, and it clearly wasn't any of the Republic agents in the cantina. Finding the culprit in a station that packed was unlikely at best, with the intents of thousands of sentiens crowding out any chance at a pinpoint-accurate search. Still, though, suspects were viable. The guy in the corner seemed suspicious.

 

"Apart from the blaster and blade kills, there's not much to see here. I can't sense much beyond someone in this general area. Ms. Olande, I suggest we quesion that man over there, in the corner. It's difficult to tell who might have been behind this, but we should start with him, since he's the nearest person to the crime scene. Are there any security feeds in here?"

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Aravel noticed a ripple in the air. A cloaked shape was standing near the door. He was skilled at hiding, but a sudden movement to avoid Aravel as he took a step towards the wall had given him away. Rather than cause another commotion, however, he decided to leave the figure be for the moment, electing to keep an eye on it instead.

[Writer]

As Torin and Kira left the dock, the Carmen automatically sealed itself to await their return. Torin didn't trust the docking attendant and he was sure the feeling was mutual in spite of the fact that he'd seemed very happy with the amount of money Torin had given him. Torin saw to his satisfaction that the fuel lines were already connected and running, which meant all that was needed now was a good drink.

 

But of course, there was a problem.

 

"Wouldn't you know it," he grunted, surveying the police tape. "Closest cantina to our ship and it's a crime scene when we wanna use it..."

[Taak Farst]

"F*ck," Rickett hissed. He was getting old, and he got slower. He was observing what was happening at the crime scene, but as he swiftly jumped across the room, he swore to god that cloaked jedi over there saw him. He didn't want to make a scene, and of course he didn't know for certain, so he just kept to the shadows and transfixed his eyes onto the jedi. He wanted to get the jedi alone, and interrogate him on what he has to do with the crime. Those Republic officers need to leave..but how?

 

(I'm up for some action penguin:))

[Penguin Unit]

((Wait, Taak, your character is the cloaked guy? I meant for something...well...completely different. It's okay if you're cloaked and watching too, mind you, but it feels like I'm controlling you to just force your character to be the guy suddenly standing there...

 

Unless I mention "another" distinct cloaked person during this scene, I'm interacting with the NPC following me/us.))

 

Something wasn't right here.

 

First, the strangely random killing, then a guy quietly sitting in the corner after the massacre went down right next to him, and now an obviously cloaked person skulking around the scene. Murderer or otherwise, Aravel only got a worse and worse feeling about their stalker and his intents. Edging closer and closer to the figure, Aravel slowly forced it into a corner inconspicuously. Finally, when he couldn't move any closer without touching their stalker, he went straight for it's throat, or at least where he assumed that was. The two fell to the floor in a noisy brawl as Aravel attempted to subdue the person.

 

It uncloaked during the ensuing mélee. A masked man in a tight black bodysuit appeared underneath Aravel as the two violently kicked and punched at each other. The assassin abruptly ignited a blood red lightsaber while he threw his Jedi foe off of himself, assuming an Ataru stance and unsuccessfully attempted to be-leg his enemy in the process. Aravel, in turn, ignited his own lightsaber and fell back on his dueling-superior Makashi, simply side-stepping the aggressive swipe at his thigh. Responding in kind to his assailant, Aravel brought his lightsaber down on his dark enemy's blade and attempted to push him down.

 

"Everyone down!" he shouted.

[Tysyacha]

Suddenly distracted from her questioning of the man at the bar by the shout of the Jedi, Aieri stood up, reaching up to detach the long, silver overtunic she usually wore. Underneath it, she wore a burgundy suede bodysuit, but kept the silver silk wrappings tight over her hair and face. As a Republic Intelligence agent, she wasn't one to run and hide when danger struck. She may have lost an eye, but that was not due to cowardice on her own part. Rather, it was due to her overdeveloped sense of bravado, which usually served her quite well...

 

Unsheathing a vibroblade with a cortosis weave from her belt, she sprung toward the assailant with the red lightsaber. Now's your chance to run for it, the spy thought, casting one last glance at the suspect she had been questioning. For now, I've got bigger fish to fry, but I'll be watching you...

[Taak Farst]

(Bit of a misunderstanding here guys, disregard my last post and just remember my post of watching from the bar. I just realised that Tysyacha probably meant me when she was questioning a man at the bar. Whoops, won't happen again :S))

 

Rickett looked at this so called Aieri Thekla for a moment. She stared onward, waiting for him to answer. Then, in the background, a man shouted. Rickett looked over Alieri's shoulder as she turned around to look at the commotion. Ah, it was the jedi, and it seemed he was in battle with a..sith? Civillians and drunks all crouched down beneath tables and ran out of the cantina door. Rickett caught sight of Alieri looking back at him as she ran off towards the battle. She had unsheathed a Vibroblade, and looked at the attacker.

What should I do, Rickett thought, I could make my escape if I wished so I don't have to be questioned, but these people could use my help..

Rickett ran around the commotion, and walked through the door. The revolving door closed behind him.

..No.

Rickett pulled out his blaster pistol, sprinted bback in and rolled towards the jedi. He crouched down next to the jedi and took aim. He looked at the robed jedi, gave him a swift stern nod and looked back at the assailant. He shot the attacker in the head, only for the bolt to be deflected by the attackers lightsaber. Didn't work..so he took the more literal approach. He pulled out his precious dagger, ran toward the attacker and sliced his arm, only to be thrown against the wall by the sith's power. A republic officer ran toward the injured war veteran to tend to his wounds.

Rickett coughed.

"It's up to you now, kids!" Rickett smirked at Aleiri and the jedi.

[Penguin Unit]

Swiftly ducking, Aravel avoided a swing at his neck and kicked the Sith assassin down to the ground with a mighty thrust of his leg. His still-armed opponent thrashed and struck at the Jedi all the way down, with the end result being his own dismemberment at the hands of Aravel. Just as soon as the assassin was killed, however, several more cloaked figures appeared in the direction of the entrance and charged into the cantina, wielding lightsabers of their own. More assassins, all identically clothed like the first.

 

"Ms. Olande, do you have any reinforcements? This fight is too much for us!" Aravel said as he prepared to use Force Judgment on the advancing assassins.

[ForceFightWMe12]

Kira's demeanor immediately darkened, her good humor evaporating in the light of the yellow tape that blocked off the entrance to the cantina.

 

"You have got to be f*cking kidding me!" she cried, going up to the yellow tape. She put her hands on the top of the plastic strip, looking not unlike a kid longingly staring at a long-loved toy beyond reach in a store front window. "That would happen to m--Force!"

 

She caught sight of the lightsabers' glow a moment before a renegade piece of debris - the remnants of a table that had a second ago been used as a projectile by one of the robed men - ricocheted off a wall and sailed right by where her head had been a blink of an eye ago. The spacer rose from her frantic crouch with a very dark look on her face.

 

"Throw tables at me, will you??" she said, immediately unholstering her blaster and letting loose a barrage of bolts at the robed men.

[Taak Farst]

When more attackers barged into the cantina, the republic soldiers had temporarily tended to Rickett's wounds, leaving him intact enough to fight. Rickett drew his blaster pistol from out of it's holster. There was way too many of these robed attackers. Five, maybe Six. Two of them stood on the left side of the cantina. The attackers seemed to be getting in a formation, to trap the jedi. Rickett looked upward to see a large electrical cantina sign above the two on the left. He shot the sign, causing it to fall, giving the attackers a temporary electrical injury. As they hovered for the moment, Rickett ran up, blasted one of them in the head and shoved his dagger into the other one. He landed next to the jedi and looked at the two he attacked. The one he shot was already dead on the ground, and the other one slowly dropped to the floor. As the attacker died, Rickett crouched towards the bodies, thrusting his dagger out of one of them.

"I'll take that," Rickett said, as he smirked, rolling back to the jedi.

[Tysyacha]

Aieri ducked and whirled as fast as she could between the fighting figures and the falling bodies. She managed to stab one of the assassins, right in the middle of his unprotected back, with her vibroblade before he had a chance to turn around and slit her throat. Noticing that both the Jedi and the man she had been questioning earlier had excellent fighting skills, she smiled underneath her veil. These fools don't stand a chance, she thought, whether they are truly Sith, or merely some hired killers with counterfeit lightsabers. Such people do exist, she thought disgustedly as she decapitated another uncloaked man. Fortunately for us, they're not existing for very long...

 

Kay Olande, herself a Republic officer, tried not to fire more shots than were absolutely necessary. Not only did she want to avoid hitting civilian patrons, or those who were trying to fight alongside her, but she also wanted to lessen the damages that the Headquarters aboard the station would have to fork over once this wreck of a cantina was finally put to rights!

 

Once the smoke and screams finally seemed to stop, all looked around....

[Penguin Unit]

((Anyone up for a little...destruction? Hehe...))

 

After the last assassin's cleanly severed head went rolling, the cantina was quiet, if only for a moment.

 

"Well, then," Aravel said with finality. "That's over with."

 

Chance decided to mock the Jedi. Mere seconds after the comment, the entire station rocked with a tremendous rumble that put the largest earthquake to shame, throwing every standing person hard down on the ground. Yet more assassins, exposed by the abrupt shift in footing, appeared from every conceivable direction and attacked at once. Every other bystander in the cantina not involved in the incident was quickly cut down, adding to the growing pile of bodies. Blaster fire could distinctly be heard coming from within the depths of the station's catacombs, accompanied by sounds of ferocious melee combat.

 

"Or not..."

[Master_Archon]

Alexander had been getting money! He was surprised, the Twi'lek draped across his leg had proven useful, most passersby believing that he was collecting credits for the poor girl lying across his now asleep leg.

 

But all too soon his good fortune was turned around as he heard the distinct sound of blaster fire echoing down the corridor.

 

'No! No, no, no, no, no, I don't need this right now!' he thought to himself agitatedly, knowing that fighting meant problems for him. Which was all too true as security started filing through the tiny halls, ushering people out of the corridors to prevent casualties in case the fighting broke out into the area. Not only that but the Twi'lek woman was starting to come to, moaning like she had the worst hangover ever, she began to wriggle around on his numb leg. Both were bad because, he was losing the people giving him credits, and the reason he was getting credits was getting up, and he very well couldn't knock her out again, at least, not with all the security in the area.

 

A few more blaster shots rang out, Thriist rolling his eyes as he sighed angrily to himself and with a grunt and a snarl he hauled himself up on his feat, nearly throwing the Twi'lek across the corridor as she fell from his leg while he stood; she moaned painfully in turn.

 

"Here, for your help, a contribution," he muttered, throwing a credit chit beside her. After that he hobbled his way down the corridor, weaving through the thinning crowd and avoiding security officers as he curiously went to investigate ((yeah, that's redundant, I know)) what was causing his misfortune.

 

He finally made it within sight of the yellow holotape that was draped across the main entrance of the Hyperspace Oasis Cantina, shrugging his right shoulder a bit to adjust the weight of his bowcaster which he was holding up. His 'instincts' went wild as he scanned the entrance while he approached, his gut telling him that their were familiar problems from his past lurking within that place ((not familiar as in he knows Aravel, or the specific Sith attacking him, that is)).

 

Suddenly he realized there was someone at the entrance as he approached, and she was firing into the cantina, red hot bolts flying back at her as she did so. Alexander tensed up, he wasn't too sure about joining in on what was going on, but he seemed to be drawn to what was happening.

 

He stepped up beside the woman, begrudging any idea of being hit in the head by return fire - or being shot by the seemingly ticked woman - he looked in on the scene and froze, it was the Sith, combating some security guards and officers, and a Jedi; great, if Sith weren't enough there was a Jedi there to make things worse.

 

He looked over at the woman beside him firing in on the Sith, then back in on the scene; one was on the ground that he saw smoking blaster holes in it's back - he could guess that she'd caught him off guard and tore his back up with her spastic fire. Two others had turned towards her and were deflecting her shots back at her, but seemed unable to advance as she was firing at them with such crazed gusto. But if she kept it up, one of the deflected shots would hit her - or even him.

 

Alexander lowered his shouldered bowcaster, holding the weapon's stock under his arm he hip-fired into the cantina, pouring in energy encased bolts of death. The two Sith were overwhelmed, the shear number of blaster bolts, and the added power of the caster rounds was too much: first, one was clipped in the shoulder as he was caught off guard by a caster round from one of Thriist's first shots, then the other, distracted by the sudden new threat that was the caster fire, was hit several times by blaster fire in the arms, from there it turned into a shootout between Alexander and the woman as they rained down fire on the two, clipping them at first, but eventually they began taking full body shots. By this time the Sith were dead or dying, but as they fell they twitch with the fire of the two gunman....Or the gunman and gunwoman.

 

As the Sith fell and the two stopped, Alexander looked over at his shooting partner, he blew a slight laugh through his nose as he shouldered his weapon and tilted his head sideways and downward, lolling it lazily on his scarred neck.

 

"By the Force woman, I don't know if your stupid enough, or crazy enough, but you're some kind of something to go pickin' fights with Sith," he said to her in his gruff, cantankerous manner, blinking his reddened, hollow eyes slowly. He paused and looked at her, staring her straight in the eyes like he was trying to drill holes into her head, then he continued, "But I've gotta say, you're my kind of person, crazy, stupid, or not. After all, not many people beyond those who're crazy or stupid will try gunning down Sith like that. Can't say I'm too sane either since I don't even know you from a Rodian, but when I'm impressed, I'm impressed."

 

He lifted his head back up and looked in on the cantina and the events occurring within. He looked back over at the woman and with half-lidded, dead eyes, he shrugged, returning to looking in on the cantina, not even caring if he got a response, only to have his footing nearly knocked out from under him as the station rumbled with tremendous force.

 

Sith seeming to grow from the walls themselves came pouring out, cutting down anyone around them, and anyone with a weapon and capable of fighting ended up embroiled in heated combat with said Sith.

 

"The FORCE!!! Why me!?' he thought as he lowered his bowcaster once more, but bringing the weapon up to his shoulder this time for better aim, he began firing on a set of Sith he saw advancing on him, or them, if the woman was still next to him, he couldn't tell considering all of his focus was on killing the Sith assassins baring down on him.

 

((Well, if you don't want me messing with what you were doing FFWM12, then I'll change my post. Just tell me, and I'll change how he comes to the cantina, etc.))

[Writer]

"That's what you get for standing between Kira and a good drink," Torin offered good-naturedly, first drawing his blasters. Then as the attacking Sith seemed to realize they had attackers outside the cantina as well, he swore under his breath and reached for the sword hilt tucked away inside his jacket. The hilt in his hand, his arm extended outward toward one of the charging Sith, he waited. Thinking he had an easy kill, the Sith raised his saber to deal the final blow.

 

"Checkmate," Torin said softly, pressing a button on the side of the hilt. The heavy blade telescoped out, plunging through the Sith's chest. The man gasped, unprepared for such a fatal blow. He struggled to remain on his feet as Torin pulled his sword back. He tried feebly to raise his saber to block Torin's next swing, but all he succeeded in doing was a feeble twitch of the arm. Then, his head was separated from his body and he knew no more.

 

Turning from that one, Torin scowled into the bar. "How would you like to try on some of these reflexes, boys?" he murmured. Though no one heard him, one more Sith turned to face him. He brandished the sword with a wicked grin and called out, "Come on over. I got room."

 

With a war cry, the Sith charged, driving her saber straight for Torin's torso. In a series of swift motions, he batted the blow away, drew one of his array of knives, and stabbed aggressively downward at a slight angle. The blade pierced her shoulder and drove clear to the hilt, its tip finding her heart.

 

A third Sith saw him, but hesitated to attack. Fully facing Torin, he turned his back to the Jedi, a fatal mistake...

 

((Penguin, I'm gonna PM you on an idea I had for Torin. I'd like your approval before I fully write him as I'm considering.))

[Penguin Unit]

((Holy cow, Archon!))

 

The station rocked again, this time much harder. Debris from various objects attached to what used to be the ceiling came crashing down around everyone, smashing some and trapping others.

 

Rolling out of the cantina as angry blaster bolts and sharp debris crowded the air, Aravel entered the larger fray, stabbing a Sith through the chest in one clean motion as he returned to his feet. People were still running to and fro, limiting the engagement options to swordplay and other close-range techniques. Force Judgment was still to experimental to try in the midst of a station packed to the brim with innocents. Contemplating a method of escape, he continued to hack through the endlessly growing horde of murderous Sith who were appearing all around them. There had to be a way to escape this living prison, but Aravel had come by transport craft and not his own starship. Then it hit him. Someone had to have a ship, and the sentients fighting alongside him were the most calm candidates for hitching a ride out of the hellhole station.

 

"Does anyone have a ship? I have nowhere to run, and these Sith are hunting me!" Aravel turned and spotted another assassin, who had turned his back to face a spacer wielding a blade of some sort. A single backstab later and the Sith was finished, one more out of a few dozen of the growing mob. Finally, Aravel, about to be overrun, relented and unleashed his Force Judgment in the direction of the nearest Sith, weakening them with a pulse of greenish-blue energy from his fingertips. Each fell quickly, still stunned from the abrupt attack and unable to adequately defend themselves.

[Writer]

((Slight char control of FFWM's Kira, with permission of the author of course. ))

 

Torin snorted. "That's a fine admission to make when requesting passage away," he observed. "Take a Jedi on board and all these fine Sith warriors will be all over you like flies on a pile of Bantha dung."

 

Swiping his sword through another assassin's midsection, Torin glanced at Kira. "We should be going, though. We'll get our drink on somewhere else, preferably somewhere that's not overrun with Sith assassins..." The station shook yet again and Torin added, "... and also preferably somewhere that's not falling apart."

 

He glanced at the Jedi. "I've no fear of Sith," he said. "Being a Jedi, I'm sure you can keep up with slowpoke ordinary folks like myself and my mechanic friend, so I'll not tell you that you're not welcome. We have a ship and we're getting out of here. Let's go."

 

At last distracted from her alcohol-deprived rage, Kira stared in disbelief at her partner's invitation to the Jedi, but by that point, Torin had already turned and was making a beeline straight for Carmen.

[Penguin Unit]

((Are you guys waiting for me to post? It feels kind of dead in here.))