Knights of the Old Republic: Rise of the Reavers

[Comrade Tortoise]

"He knows we are here." Asarak said right before the rhodian sith exited the shack. He too drew his lightsaber, but did not activate it and summoned the Light Side of the Force to surround him and protect him.

"But he isnt after us. He is hunted, as we are. I suggest diplomacy"

He stepped out of the hiding splot behind a corner

"Greetings. We sensed a disturbance in the force and came to investigate. We mean you no harm so long as the feeling is mutual" he said the albino

[General Havoc]

Ryassek stopped dead in his tracks as a Hortek stepped out from around a corner, lightsabre in hand, and addressed him.

Frankly put, he was not expecting this.

His emotions shrouding him like armor, Ryassek took a moment to carefully determine what his response ought to be to this bizarre greeting he had just received.

"We?" he asked. "Are the Sith no longer men enough to face their adversaries in person?" He was not saying this to make the Hortek Sith angry, but to work himself up into the proper mindset for the battle he was certain would soon come. "Or do I now rate the arrival of assassins armed with words instead of lit sabres? Do not tell me your lies and expect I will swallow them whole. You and your masters mean nothing but harm to the galaxy at large. It is that which blinds and shackles you. You do not see..."

The amulet was in a hidden pocket inside his coat, buttoned shut against the acrobatics that might be required here, and protected by the cloth it had been swathed in. He lowered his unlit sabre to one side, assuming the traditional opening position of the Makashi style of Lightsabre combat. There was more than one here, but he had no fear of what was to come.

"You do not see," he repeated, "but if you but take a step forwards, Sithling, you shall be made to."

[Comrade Tortoise]

Asarak took the same position, but did not activate his saber, but did chuckle

"You think the two of us Sith? And you are hunted by them? We have much to talk about then. For we are not Sith." He said this calmly. He said this laying his hand on the table

"If you do not believe me, open your thoughts, and I will show you. Alternatively, peer directly into my own, and know me for what I am."

He opened his own thoughts, letting the light side of the Force wash over him and boost his natural telepathy to send a brief image of his escape from a republic base under bombardment by sith interdiction cruisers followed by three words

We are Jedi

[Cynical Cat]

Asarek and Melek felt a rush of menace, both in front of them and behind them. The huge human renegade, Merdar, pointed at them. Two human, two Rodian, and two Weequays advanced over the corrugated metal catwalks toward them. The Rodians and the humans wore cloth and leather and had drawn pulse-wave blaster pistols. The Weequay had pulse-wave blasters in their left hands and cortosis-weave laced vibroblades in their right. Merdar stood well behind his men.

All along this area of the Pit sapient creatures suddenly found urgent business in doors or elsewhere. Hiding in the darkness were a trio of head sized spy bots, their sensor clusters recording everything.

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The Selonia Sunrise burst out of hyperspace and into the void. Before it was the distant blue-white jewel of Mandragal. The Dynamic class freighter's engines flared and the ship raced toward the planet. A cherry-red envelop covered her as she fell through the clouds above Digtown.

The mining town sprawled over dozens of kilometers, eating mountains whole and leaving craters it flowed over. More than a million miners worked and with them were the smelters and the cargo chiefs and the administrators and transport officers and the endless legion of droids who worked with them. Refinery towers belched fire and huge conveyor belts loaded shuttles.

In the worked out areas and the social habs were the service industries and parasites that accompanied mining operations everywhere. To the north of the urban sprawl was the deflector shield facility and two turbolaser towers that helped keep raiders at bay. Several air defence towers protruded from the city structure to hold off lighter and more agile pirate vessels.

Like all cities, it had a cloaca and the waste from the gigantic industry was massive. A huge canyon ran to the south, more than a kilometer deep. Carved by ancient rivers it was now fed by the fluid flow of massive pipes. Digtown in all of its awful glory.

There were more than a few places to land.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Asarak ignited his lightsaber and turned toward the bounty hunters taking the Soreso stance.

"bounty hunters! So my friend" he said to the Rhodian sith "Think we can put our philosophical and political differences aside to work against a common threat?"

he sent out a thought to the two others qhickly

Pull their blasters

He drew the force around him, reached out with it, and pulled back, attempting to disarm the two Rhodian bounty hunters.

[Cynical Cat]

The tug of the Force sent the pulse-wave pistols tumbling out of the Rodians' hands. They dived down, scrambling to regain their weapons. The two Weequay moved quickly, with the coordination that meant they had trained and fought together, taking up positions behind the shacks just ahead of them.

The humans opened up. Blue-white pulse bolts flashed through the air towards the Jedi. The outlaws weren't great shots, but they had some idea of what they were doing. A moment latter the Weequay added their guns to the fusillade. Pulse-wave bolts blasted out white hot fragments from the shacks and structures around the Force adepts or deflecting off their lightsabers. The hail of fire and the spray of hot, jagged metal was, however, quite punishing

More sapients hurried to get out of the way as the gunfire erupted in earnest. Other, more distant heads, turned to watch. In the Mining Police security station the monitors covering the event were deliberately turned off. "Nothing to do until things cool down," said the cynical Lieutenant Gren.

Other beings were more interested. A pale Twi'lek in black robes answered his com. [Huttesse] "What? A gunfight. And the albino? You're sure. Yes."

He turned to one of the human's next to him. "The albino has been spotted. "Take control of the deployed teams and take his head. The rest of the Pit needs to know what happens to those who cross us."[/Huttese]

[rhoenix]

Quickly taking advantage, Melek used the Force to yank the guns away from the Rodians, and toward he and Asarak as they both took cover.

Igniting his lightsaber, Melek moved fluidly into Djen So style with the blade to defend adequately against blaster bolts, and dodging the sprays of molten metal here and there as he concentrated on reducing the amount of guns firing. Moving defensively as well, Melek held his calm.

These are not our prey.
They are obstacles, and unworthy of challenge.
They must be neutralized without death.

One by one, as he was dodging, weaving, and parrying bolts, he yanked the assailants' blasters from their hands, causing them to fly over to him.

[Cynical Cat]

Melek yanked the Rodian's guns closer to his position as the Weequay closed. At near point blank range their accuracy was excellent and almost more than Melek could handle. The Rodians ran up behind their advance to retrieve their weapons.

As his minions advanced, Merdar drew his own weapons, long barrelled blaster pistols with a high cycle rate. He didn't aim at Asarek or Ryassek, but instead at the metal around them. Crimson energy bolts flew from his gun barrels and sent jagged pieces of white hot shrapnel flying in the air around the Jedi. The Weequay were tough and wearing fibrous body armour. He was willing to risk their health.

Melek drew the blaster out of a Weequay's hand, but the Weequay was still armed with his cortosis laced vibroblade and his clan brother was right beside him. They had trained since childhood in close quarters combat. They struck swiftly and strongly as a coordinated pair, one slashing high and the other stabbing low.

The Rodians retrieved their weapons and added their fire to the storm of gunfire being directed towards Asarek and Ryasssek. They were measurably better shots than their human or Weequay comrades. The shrapnel storm would take a harder toll on the comparatively thin skinned Rodian, but it was potentially lethal to both. Any slip in their comparatively inexperienced and strained defence would leave them open to deadly blaster and pulse-wave fire.

[Cynical Cat]

Melek tried to parry high and dodge low. He jumped to the side and his saber crossed the cortosis blade and hung. The vibroblade was seconds away from total failure from the the lightsaber, which flared and sparked where it contacted the cortosis alloy. Unfortunately, that meant there was nothing to stop the follow up from gutting Melek.

The former Sith fell back, a huge wound bisecting his abdomen. Blood gushed from his mouth and he toppled. The Weequay turned towards Asarek and Ryassek, eager for a second kill.

[General Havoc]

Things began to happen rapidly.

Ryassek had about as much intent of opening his thoughts to this random Hortek force-adept as he did of falling on his knees and begging for mercy, but the mere fact that the Hortek suggested it was a surprise. So much of a surprise, in fact, that he actually hesitated. The images he saw swirling around him (he was not daft enough to actually let any of them through, but he could at least tell what they were). The thought occured to him moments before the Hortek claimed the title himself. Could these be... Jedi?

He dismissed the notion almost instantly. Jedi would not ask to "talk" with a Sith. Sith and Jedi were enemies. And yet they had made the claim to be...

Gunfire.

Ryassek cursed himself for having permitted his concentration to flag as six bounty hunters armed with a variety of weapons spontaneously materialized and began opening fire indiscriminately, to the point where Ryassek couldn't tell if they were coming after him, the so-called Jedi, or both. Both seemed the most likely answer. Blaster bolts flew about like raindrops and sizzling bits of metal whizzed past in every direction. The Hortek took the time to ask him if they could put their philosophical differences aside for the moment before engaging just as a Jedi would, pulling blasters from the hands of the assailants and deflecting fire away from himself. He even had the temerity to give him an order, a telepathic order, to 'pull their blasters'! This, if nothing else, convinced him this had to be a Jedi. Only Jedi could be that perverse.

Ryassek couldn't manage to suppress his grin as he ignited his own, blood red lightsabre. Let the damned fool give orders. Ryassek had blood to draw.

He brought his sabre up and forward, dropping into Soresu form, the Deflection form. The Weequay were busy with the Jedi and the blaster bolts were the primary threat now. He blocked several, sending them flying back at their shooters like embodiments of reciprocity, not accurate enough to kill (his Soresu technique still needed work), but enough to make them duck. The Jedi began pulling the blasters, true to their word, sending the gunmen scrambling for them. Idiots! That was no way to win a fight against superior numbers. No wonder the Jedi were nearly extinct.

These scum wanted to play? Then it was time to show them what the true power of the Force was.

He reached out towards two of the gunmen on the catwalks above, grabbed at them with the Force, and pulled. He did not pull their blasters. He pulled their bodies, focusing every ounce of contempt in him on the pull. One he sent flinging like a rag doll towards an exposed steel girder that had been shorn off by something or other into a cruel point. The other he simply tossed aside in the general direction of the open mining pit. He would have loved to try something flashier, but with this many gunmen, it would have been suicide. As it was, several blasts came close enough for him to feel the heat, and he was sure that had he been permitting pain to cross his mind, he would be feeling the touch of many small bits of molten steel kicked up by the blasters.

Fortunately, he was not.

A crash and a spark, and something hit the ground, and Ryassek turned to find one of the Horteks laying gutted on the floor, both Weequay standing over him holding cortosis-woven vibroswords. They moved in synchronisity, a trained battle pair, or whatever the Weequay term was for it, and he felt a rush of anger come over him that these thugs should be depriving him of the chance to meet actual Jedi.

He did something they probably did not expect.

He rushed towards both Weequay, sabre still deflecting what he could, and as he did so, he took the anger he had just felt and focussed it into a beam, reaching out with his spare hand and spiking his rage like a thermal detonator straight into one of the Weequay as hard as he could. He did not bother to aim, his intention was to throw one of the two of them away, anywhere would do, and to do so with enough force that the Weequay would need time to recover from the impact, if he even recovered at all. And without stopping to verify what had happened to the second swordsman, he switched styles in mid-run, falling back into his more familiar Makashi duelist's style, and prepared to engage the second Weequay, trusting to the gunner's multiple targets and the Weequay itself to protect him somewhat from incoming blasterfire.

Perhaps it would even work.

[Cynical Cat]

One hapless human shouted in pain as he was flung at a jagged girder. His velocity was low and his leathers were tough and so the low velocity impact merely opened a shallow puncture and cracked ribs. It did, however, prevent him from shooting.

The other human dropped his pulse-wave blaster and clung to the edge of a catwalk for dear life, having almost been sent tumbling over the side by Ryassek's telekinetic attack.

Ryassek's telekinetic thrust smashed the Weequay through the air and into the catwalk. The fibrous body armour they wore and the Weequay's own hardy constitution probably helped him avoid suffering any severe injuries, but that wasn't important. What did matter was when the other Weequay raised his blade in a high attack stance to rain down crushing blows upon the albino Rodian, he did so alone. For a few precious moments Ryassek no longer suffered the risk of blaster bolts, deadly shrapnel, or superior numbers. It was one on one. For a few moments. Sometimes that could be an eternity.

Merdar didn't bother to help his downed henchmen. Useless fools. He joined with the two Rodians in concentrating a stream of fire on Aserak. Four guns flared and the Hortek Jedi was at the center of a deadly storm.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The Jedi was calm at the center of the storm. Soreso was secondary to him, but he was still fairly skilled, having had good practice defending himself from bounty hunters.

Still, he could not hold this up for long. In his hands the Third form was only delaying the inevitable. He could feel their thoughts, the Rhodians would need to reload soon, and when they did he would have a chance. He also needed to get out of the path of their leader.

There. The rhodians's reloaded. He put on a brief burst of force-enhanced speed closing the distance between them with his lightsaber, using them as cover against Merdar's guns and raked his lightsaber toward both of their bodies in the same stroke as he deflected their master's blaster fire.

[Cynical Cat]

The Rodians, of course, didn't need to reload. It was a surprisingly cunning ploy, or perhaps not given the Rodians long cultural tradition of hunting. Flush the prey into the open.

Asarek took it and rushed into a section of catwalk that had suffered more than a little damage. It could easy support his weight, of course. That is, until the Rodians shot the part in front of him while Merdar shot behind him. The chunk of catwalk fell, taking Asarek with it.

Fortunately for the Jedi, there were a few layers of the Pit beneath him before open space. He could, perhaps, leap to another catwalk or gantry.

[LadyTevar]

The Selonia Sunrise rotated about its center axis, fitting itself inside the hanger Trys had bargained her way into. It was as close to the Pit as she could get it. Replusors slowly settled the freighter down upon its landing gear, and Trys shut her down, although a feeling had her keep it ready for a fast startup.

She hit the intercom. "Ok, guys... I'll take care of the docking fees while you boys go find the Jedi. I got us as close as I could to the Pit, so now it's up to you."

[frigidmagi]

Dew picked up the heavy repeating blaster. They were walking into a badly patroled slum with force users and who knew what else knocking around... He wished he had a anti-armor gun.

[Comrade Tortoise]

The Rodians, of course, didn't need to reload. It was a surprisingly cunning ploy, or perhaps not given the Rodians long cultural tradition of hunting. Flush the prey into the open.

Asarek took it and rushed into a section of catwalk that had suffered more than a little damage. It could easy support his weight, of course. That is, until the Rodians shot the part in front of him while Merdar shot behind him. The chunk of catwalk fell, taking Asarek with it.

Fortunately for the Jedi, there were a few layers of the Pit beneath him before open space. He could, perhaps, leap to another catwalk or gantry.

The jedi landed on a grating several meters below the first, and he landed with little grace and only a few bumps and bruises to show for it. Granted he had some rather nasty lacerations from shrapnel he was not able to keep away. He should have counted on Bounty Hunters who hunted Jedi learning tricks to confuse the ability of a Jedi to discern someone's intentions. They laid a trap for him and he walked right in. He cursed himself inwardly for his stupidity, but if he dwelled on it, he would die.

He needed control of the engagement, this meant that he needed to move and engage these hunters on his own terms. He couldnt fight them all at once, even with the sith who he might end up having to engage afterward.

So he bolted. He ran down the catwalk as fast as his legs and the force could carry him until he found a spot where he could leap to another cat walk and hide himself in the slum. They would probably follow, but then he would be the the one to ambush them. They probably had some means of tracking him. Probably droids that would be easier to hide from his senses. They would have to be seen, found and destroyed.

[Hotfoot]

Zyke loaded Ermey into the astromech slot of the Crimson Hand and readied his own gear. His light armor, his carbine, some grenades, a brick of plastique, and of course, his holdout blaster, just in case. He left orders with Ermey to come and circle the area if he gave the word, but hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

"Okay, let's find ourselves our target."

[Cynical Cat]

Merdar swore. The Jedi's fall had placed a whole level of catwalks and gantries between them, making a clear shot very, very difficult. On top of that, the inconsiderate bastard was still moving. Why couldn't he have missed the catwalk and fallen five klicks straight down? The spy droids would have been able to recover the remains of the lightsaber and a blood sample for the bounty.

He activated his comm. "Give me everyone."

"What?" asked Threel.

"I need everyone. One's down, confirmed kill. The other two are being stubborn and one's in the wind."

"I'm sending everyone I can," replied Threel. The Pit was big though. A lot of space and only so much manpower and their target was Jedi.

"Go," Merdar ordered two spy drones. "Follow and report." The black orbs descended, their repulsor fields humming softly.

Across the way Gamorreans grunted to each other and split up. The slavers were armoured in steel and leather which provided excellent protection from shrapnel and not so excellent protection from lightsabers and blasters. They had blasters of their own, but the squat piglike humanoids preferred their massive Gamorrean war axes for close quarters work.
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Top side, the Selonian Sunrise had landed in one Digtown's many docking platforms. The decline in business left plenty of room and easy to please customs officials. They balked when seeing a massively armed Wookie and ready for trouble mercs, but such things weren't technically forbidden. And the town could use the business.

Prefab wall panels turned sections of the sprawling mining platform into buildings. All around the docking bays were cantinas, spice dens, brothels, repair shops, small traders, shipping concerns, droid shops, and other assorted services for the space traveller. Gantry cage elevators and rail cars provided rapid transportation to different parts of the city alongside stairs, walkways, and ramps.

[frigidmagi]

"Okay, which way do we go?" Dewaddik asked as they exited the ship.

[Marcao]

It took a bit of time for him to prepare properly. It was a matter of possibilities and a lifetime of acquired experiences. Combat was something that he knew well. It was something that he had been trained since childhood, an art that he had studied hard to master. He was not there just yet. Amongst his own kind he was respected but not revered and amongst those that had fought against him in various wars he was feared. But he was not the top Kath hound yet. Even amongst his own tribe he had not been the best.

In time. I will be.

He chose honor and inspected the weapon quietly, making sure that the power charge was full and that everything was at it should be. The three barrels seemed to absorb the light drinking hungrily in breathless anticipation of what was to come. Trys had a penchant for trouble and her uncle always sent her into the heart of it. He did not mind that fact for it kept life interesting and his skills sharp.

While honor became his weapon of choice it was only the first tool at his disposal. The custom heavy repeater was a weapon for a Mandalorian in every way. It was designed for war, designed to kill as quickly and efficiently as possible but it was not without its faults. He rounded out his desired armament by choosing a handful of assorted grenades as well as two compact yet capable thermal detonators. Duty his armor had been designed to accommodate their presence. Since it was not a bounty mission, he did not choose to carry he net gun. Instead, he chose a grenade launcher which he placed over a shoulder rack. He picked up a single ripper and his familiar vibro-sword.

With his weapons chosen all that was left was the helmet that would encase him into Duty. His hands reached for the familiar helmet and guided it into place. The helmet snapped in a reassuring manner before the suit's life support system kicked in. Clean air began to make its way into his nostrils before he turned the feature off. For the moment, he did not require the full features of Duty's life support systems. The vision enhancement systems of the suit highlighted various items arrayed around him. He reached for Honor and hefted its weight easily as the suit enhanced his strength.

"Time to go." He said to himself before he began to walk towards the exit as the Sunrise touched down on the target world. As he walked ponderously towards the exit, he caught sight of Zyke. The Zabrak looked insignificant next to the towering mass of black and silver armor and the foreboding presence of the triple barreled implement of war that it carried.

"Keep yourself alive Zyke. I am sure that Trys will be disappointed if you get yourself killed." The suit spoke without looking in his direction. Dewaddik arrived a moment later and the trio exited the Sunrise as one.

"We are after Jedi are we not? Let's look for where the trouble is." He said flatly.

"Maybe we can use the Sunrise to check any frequencies about reported activity of interest?" He added a second later as his helmet glanced from side to side.

[General Havoc]

The plan had worked as well as Ryassek could possibly have expected. Neither of the gunmen he had thrown had died, but neither one were still in possession of their weapons, and one was dangling for dear life from the side of the catwalk. The remaining gunners had elected to start firing at the other Jedi, and one of the two sword-wielding Weequay had been flung out of range. He had an interval with which to fight, a priceless gift.

One he would do well not to waste.

The second Weequay came at him hard and fast. Larger and stronger than Ryassek, he was relying on brute force. Had his weapon been a lightsabre, Ryassek would have identified his style as Djem So, the way of the Krayt Dragon. A forceful, powerful, overwhelmingly aggressive style that was well represented within the Sith. One designed specifically to overwhelm Ryassek's favored style of Makashi.

Fortunately though, Ryassek knew a trick or two about dealing with Djem So fighters...

The Weequay came on strong, bringing his sword down in an overhead slash, which Ryassek parried with a horizontal block held above his head. His arm and sabre shook as the Weequay slammed his blade into his lightsabre, but the defense held. A second stroke followed the first, and Ryassek parried in the same way. This time the blow was hard enough that it staggered him, knocking him off his footing, his sabre faltering. Against a smaller opponent, Djem So threatened to simply overwhelm and crush its enemy, and to all observers, that was exactly what was happening. The Weequay's third strike came down, and Ryassek's block was unready and weak, too weak to stop the blow.

Or so it appeared until the Weequay committed to the attack.

Ryassek's 'stumble' had been designed to conceal his shifting feet, and when the blow came, he suddenly rotated clockwise, letting the blow strike his sabre which he tipped down and left, away from him, allowing the Weequay's powerful slash to simply roll off his lightsabre harmlessly to his side. As the Weequay stepped forward and doubled over with the momentum of his own unblocked blow, Ryassek turned with the Weequay, pivoting on his right foot as he spun completely around the over-extended swordsman, brought his sabre up, and rammed up to the hilt through the back of the Weequay warrior.

A rush of victory coursed through him. He had probably not needed to go through so much trouble to crush a single Weequay swordsman, but the thrill of victory was all the sweeter for the extra pains he had taken. And in the throes of victory, he realized something else. The Hortek Jedi that had fallen had been holding a lightsabre.

He pulled his sabre out of the Weequay and let him crumple to the ground, turning back to face his other adversary. And as he did so, he raised his free hand towards the dead Hortek, and called upon the force to bring the fallen lightsabre to him. He had no idea how, or even if this particular Jedi had arranged his lightsabre's ignition, how it was weighted, or what, if anything, he could do with it. He didn't care. Even if it was useless to him, he wanted to make sure he didn't forget it in the middle of the battle, and it just might come in handy.

Besides, the other Weequay didn't know that he wasn't a master of Jar'Kai, the art of the paired lightsabres...

[LadyTevar]

After Trys paid the docking fees plus the normal 'grease' that was supposed to buy a bit of silence and privacy in nearly every hive of scum and villiany (although she wondered cynically if it really did), the Corellian slipped back into the Sunrise's Comm room and started scanning the local frequencies. In theory, she had a way to contact the Jedi and let him know his ride was here by sending a certain signal on a certain frequency, and that would be that.

However, past experience had taught her to keep a listen out for when the Untouchable Trio got into trouble, so she could have the Sunrise ready to burn atmosphere. Sometimes, they got so caught up, they forgot to comm her with news. She reached over and flipped a switch. "Testing, Testing... Sunrise to Duty, do you copy?"

[Cynical Cat]

The Weequay took one look at his dead clan brother and another at the paired lightsabers and backed away. Unfortunately, this left Ryassek exposed to a host of blasters pointing his way.

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Threel strode out of Exchange headquarters, his vibroblade bouncing on his hip. With him were a dozen gunslingers of various species, all of them openly carrying heavy firepower and body armour. "Find and kill those Jedi," he ordered.

[Hotfoot]

"Well, with just a name and a prayer, I say we hit a bar, or cantina, or something. If we're lucky, we might even catch them chopping an arm off to make a point." Zyke had seen the Jedi resolve issues through a method they referred to later as less than lethal violence. Zyke never understood it, as it left an angry, armless being alive who already tried to pull a blaster on you once.

Looking around, Zyke tried to find any sign of a pub, bar, cantina, or other such place where people went to get drunk and talk about darker subjects. Idly, he wondered if this bar had Juri Juice.

<Portion of Post Stricken by GM clarification>

[frigidmagi]

"Lead on then." Dewaddik grunted scanning the crowd. He didn't like what he saw. The Pit was crowded and cramped. Ambush territory if there ever was one. He would have to keep his eyes and ears open.