Sevarkoh spits up a bit of blood. This isn't going well at all. Growling, he grabs onto the dark force he felt earlier in the fight. Resist it as he might, the battering he is taking wears on his willpower as much as his body.
With the anger fueling his blows, one connects with Hunta's face. The other goes wide, as the haze causes Zane to not aim his swing correctly.
You feel that presence suggesting to you.
You are injured.
Take what you need.
Replenish your health.
"I'll keep an eye on these two. Will you go make sure Zane gets out of his fight alright?"
Kol nods. "Right"
He goes over to position himself to pull Zane out in a hurry if he has to.
Vash'elie follows after the group with Zhil. Still quite agitated from the fight she continuously touches the wound on her forehead and pulling back blood she mutters a string of curses, rolling her shoulder with a grimance doesn't add to her agitation.
When the group has retreated to a 'secure' location she lets her unhappyness be felt. "Frak! That was close! Who's hairbrained idea was this anyway? Remind me please!" Pointing to Zhil she seems ready to lay it on him as well, "And you! You fracking nerf-hearder! You better roll over somthing usefull or I'm gona tie you up in a spacesuit behind this ship and let the fracking afterburners toast you!"
Sevarkoh growls, temporarily in the grip of a dark rage in the heat of the fight. It isn't as removed as a lightsaber duel, but rather a feral fight for life. He feels the ebb of Hunta's life force through the Force. Before he knows what he is doing, the Arkanian reaches out with the Force, drawing that energy into himself.
"I'll keep an eye on these two. Will you go make sure Zane gets out of his fight alright?"
Kol nods. "Right"
He goes over to position himself to pull Zane out in a hurry if he has to.
1d20+8
Sevarkoh growls, temporarily in the grip of a dark rage in the heat of the fight. It isn't as removed as a lightsaber duel, but rather a feral fight for life. He feels the ebb of Hunta's life force through the Force. Before he knows what he is doing, the Arkanian reaches out with the Force, drawing that energy into himself.
Hunta falls over a quick check shows that he isn't dead but he is shaking with a severe palsy as he foams slightly at the mouth.
The fight in the ring is over and Zane is the winner!
Sevarkoh raises his hands in victory to the cheers of the onlookers. In his heart, though, he feels doubt and regret instead of victory. His desire for victory was stronger than his will to resist the Dark Side.
Resisting Revan's temptation had been easy, an intellectual rejection. This, however, was so much harder to resist, to control. As he exits the ring, he feels the dark taint and shame of his actions.
Kol opens the cage and raises Zane's arm high.
"The winnah!"
Then he pulls Zane out.
"OK, ok, you won. Time for somebody else. You two!" He points to a couple of inmates. "Take the loser to the infirmery. You two!" He points to another couple of likely looking inmates. "Your turn in the cage. Fight!"
After this is done he hustles Zane off after the others.
Kol leads Zane to join the others in the cells.
I'll discuss DSP at the end of the mission.
Zhil sits defeated on a bunk surrounded by his new 'friends'.
'Okay, you got me, Doc. You already know that Harry was here and said he was expecting you and your crew to make an appearance. He gave us the knives and promised me the muscle to make sure you were 'welcomed'.
'He promised us rides to the rim if we did him that favour. He said that you burned an operation on him and he was pretty sore on that point. He said you got a lot good people killed and busted up a sweet deal to grab a capital ship.'
'It sounds perfectly like one of your operations except for the whole thing going nova and wiping out a system in the wreckage. You were one of my best operatives, Doc. I could always count on you in a pinch, you know, to help, ...'
Zhil whispers this last part to Doc.
'..., clean up messes.'
Standing over Zhil as he starts opening up she backs up a bit to allow Doc room to work. Vash'elie hears Zhil murmur somthing in Doc's ear and instinctively strains to hear what is said. But can catch nothing of the whispers.
Kidd leans casually against the cell wall, seemingly at ease, but he strains with his eyes, ears, and the Force to make sure they remain unobserved and unsurprised by anyone not on the team.
Zhil, like a broken faucet, keeps leaking information.
'Course, it is 'Lunny', that's Lonry Lunarstar, that runs the show here. Sitting up in his little box and looking down on everyone.'
'You've already seen a couple of his pets in the ring fighting. Typical Arkanian, trying to build a better warrior. Something that nature didn't evolve if you know what I'm saying.'
'Bad as Cloners if you ask me and probably much worse.'
'And the ones in the ring today are just what they call the first generation. The nastier stuff is down below. Not safe for regular population they're not.'
'You don't want to go sharing no shower with those Frost Zorggs. They'll give you a whole new definition of pain in places that ain't pleasant to share in mixed company if you ask me.'
'Course, Luny's always been a bit mad. Talks to the hand, some of the guards say. Gives him ideas.'
'Since then, he's been starting some new and very weird stuff they say. They don't even let the regular guards go down below because of the labs down there. Only Luny and his pet Pretorians go down there.'
'But likely any place its all talk and no substance. But Doc, you and we both know that where there is talk there is often a bantha of bones buried in the sand.'
'I even heard tell that Luny's been sending people out towards some of the old places that we did business on. Looking for some of the secrets that we and the Mandalorians took from some of the masters.'
Sevarkoh has a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. What price had he paid for victory in his quest against Lonry Lunarstar, for his victory in the ring? He had pushed himself to the limit against Hunta, then pushed beyond that with the power of his anger. He felt ashamed and relieved at the same time, exhilarated and horrified at himself.
Now his new allies were talking about the Mandolorians, as if he hadn't seen enough of the armored freaks in the war under Revan. What had he gotten himself into?
Despite the reservations and questions, Zane doesn't doubt for a moment that he will follow this through until Lunarstar is brought to justice, whatever form it took.
"How do we get down there?" Vash'elie asks gruffly. "Who has the keys?"
Zhil thinks for a moment and says, 'Honestly, if it were me, I wouldn't go down there. There are bad things down there and I'm not fully sure you're in the shape to handle the sort of stuff that is down there.'
'But, if you're bound and determined to go, I'd suggest there are three ways that you could do it.'
'The first way is to go for the elevator that Luny's Praetorian's guard. Their all vat grown offshoots with more muscle then brain but they got an excess of muscle. Their armed and ready to fire. Then it is in the elevator which is almost certainly rigged in some way so you better have someone with tools and good at hacking or your elevator ride is going to be a quick transit to free fall. After that, it is just what ever Gen 2 monsters that Luny might have down there and something else. I don't know but everyone kind of whispers that there is something else down there.'
'The second option is easier to do but very messy. You start a big enough fire in the prison and the automated fire and rescue system gets activated. Light and sirens and then ten seconds later, all these cells convert to life pods. It's a Republic Law for prison ships. Row after row of cells popping off of here like a teenage zit farm. Not much left after that but a skeleton of a ship and the stuff below. Of course, when that happens, you're going to have plenty of open air to contend with. It's like being on the outside of freighter headed for orbit. You get one bad gust of wind as you climb around and you're doing the two mile swan dive.'
'The third way down is through the kitchens. There is a small food elevator in the kitchens. It could take one person crouching or maybe a pair of Jawas at a time down. 'Course, there's bound to be security of some sort on such a thing and being trapped in a box that is smaller than a piggy's coffin is no way to go if you ask me but it might work.'
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Kidd speaks up without taking his eyes from his watch on the surrounding area, "Much as I hate to agree with that pice of sh!t on anything, we're in no shape to go blowing any doors down. If we're gonna check out the mysterious mad-house of craziness below us, we need to rest up and equip up."
He pauses his watch to match stares with Doc for a second, "Though I gotta admit, I'm far more interested in tracking down and beating some answers out of Harry than I am in getting to the bottom of this craziness."
Kol rubs his head.
"Dark side take it. I know we worked like hell to get this far, but we don't have the stuff to go farther. We gotta go while we can. If we want to come back, we have to set up different."
Sevarkoh angrily gets to his feet, still a little unsteady after his fight. "Absolutely not, not when we're this close! All we need is our weapons. Once we're in, we don't need to sneak around and pretend to be prisoners. This is war with Lunarstar! When you go to war, you press onwards!"
Thinking furiously a plan begins to form in Vash'elie's mind. "But if we get a big enough fire going, or an explosion perhaps? Then the ship will launch the escape pods automaticly, stripping it down to a skeleton, like he sayd." she gestures at Zhil, "Then we call in the ship, get our gear and head down." Looking up at the crew, she waits expectantly. "Well? Crazy enough to work, right? Fits our MO, eh?" she says grinning, getting giddy at the thought of blowing things up.
Kol looks amazed between Zane and Vash.
"Did you two leave your brains back there along with your blood? Half of us have taken significant injury, and I think we've pressed our luck right to the edge. And we don't have the proper equipment. We need to get clear and get healed and get our stuff first."
"Has it occurred to anyone else that we were all sent here to die? I'm much more interested in tracking down the piece of schutta that gave us this intel, and I'm less than thrilled with the idea of releasing all these animals into civilization - such as it is.
Kol pleads for reason...
"C'mon guys, we're already beaten up and without our most important equipment; and no offense Zane, but another big guy like that one in the ring and you're toast. Let's get clear, get healed and get our stuff. We can come back at our leasure."
He swollows nervously.
"And... I don't know what I felt in the force earlier, during the fight, but I didn't like it one bit. And yes I am afraid of it."
Clenshing her fists Vash'elie holds her breath for a bit before releasing it and relaxing. "Alright cap. You'r right, let's bail on this tub."
Zhil looks to his left and right and then leans in and whispers something to Doc. Doc nods and says, 'Okay, people, I know where we need to go. Let's flush this place and get back to the Grasshopper. Kol, call her in.'
You start to move as a group to your exit point. Prisoners start to scatter as you exit the cell and all eyes seem to be on you and Kol.
All around you can hear whispers as the prisoners have realized that you aren't part of the 'family'. They aren't going to challenge you but they are watching and word is filtering fast through the prison.
On your headset, you hear word of orders going to the guards to assemble a detainee squad and to include you in the group of people to be detained.
Kol puts his hand up to his earjack and listens.
"Uh, oh. The word has been given for the guards to assemble to 'Detain' us."
He lifts one leg, and hopping on one foot trips the signalling device.
Six offers up one of the confiscated vibroblades to anyone without a weapon.
"I'd hate it if they made me hurt them. I'd hate it even more if they made me spend one more second on this tub than had to. Whole thing smells like hutt sweat."
You start to move faster to get to the extraction point.
The prisoners as if sensing your need to get away, start to drop or knock obstacles into your way.
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Kidd takes the vibro-blade from Six as they head out, stretching out with his emotions to try to locate the guards before they can close on the team. His force powered senses alert him to the food-cart hurtling towards him before his eyes do, and he reacts instantly. Without breaking stride, Kidd launches from the floor, in a flipping jump to the side, using a man's chest as a spring-board to launch him over the obstacle. He lands lightly, still on the run, "Thanks for the lift, bud."
A container full of cleaning chemicals smashes against the wall next to Six, a cloud of noxious gas erupting around him. His training immediately kicks in, and he holds his breath as he runs through the poison vapor.
Kol reacts quickly as a mop sweeps at his legs in an attempt to trip.
Acrobatics:
And did a backflip as it swept under him; but the handl just caught his toes and he does an ungraceful faceplant into the soapy floor and slides forward...
Tired by his fight, Severkoh tries to hold his breath through the chemical vapor. Try as he might, his lungs are near the breaking point and he gasps for air just before he makes it through. Hacking and coughing, Severkoh nearly stops in agony, but tries to press onward.
Rushing through the crowd Vash'elie catches the eye of a brute stepping out of the crowd, ducking left to confuse him she tries to slide by him on his right side. Quick on his feet the brute sticks out his foot, tripping Vash'elie who goes crashing to the floor, sliding in the soapy substance from the spilled cart.
Doc fakes a blow at one prisoner that seems to be preparing to push a cart of laundry into the group's path. The threat of the blow makes the mousy individual cringe and pull back from the group.
You hear word on the radio that a ship is spotted approaching the prison. Deck guns are being crewed and armed.
You've been slightly delayed getting to your escape route and you can see security measures are starting to activate.
Seeing the security door start to close Vash'elie scrables furiously to get to her feet, spured on by desperation she springs to her feet and darts forward.
As the security klaxons wail, Six sees Zane stumble in the poison fumes. Six grabs his arm to pull him along.
"Perks? We've been shocked, stabbed, beaten, and gassed - I don't think I could handle more 'perks'!"
Sevarkoh pulls himself forward, relying on the Force other than his tired muscles. He barely makes it through, nearly in a roll.
Initiative:
Skidding forward, he sees he's not going to make the blast door as it shuts. He reaches out in the force to push himself faster.
Force point use:
...aaand just squeeks through.
"Guys, they spotted the ship coming in; They're getting the deck guns crewed and ready!."
Everyone zips under the door and they can hear the pounding of booted feet just moments behind them before the door fully closes and seals.
They can now hear the staccato sound of multiple deck guns starting to fire.
The group's quick reactions in getting past the barrier has allowed them to gain a beat on the prison staff.
The fire is still ragged and not the steady beat of deck guns that are fully manned and firing.
The crew is able to quickly board the Grasshopper as its shield flare in brights reds and blues. The Grasshopper can not keep this pounding up for long without a proper crew at the helm and systems.
Vash'elie rushes to the cockpit. Taking the navigators chair she furiously sets the computer to crunching numbers. .