Orbit around Omonoth, The Arkanian Legacy, Sunday Morning [FT]
As the negotiations continued by Lord Adasca's throne, it wasn't tough for a couple Mandalorians and a Republic pilot to make their way back into the crowd. Commander Morvis spotted the pilot and called out, "Finally, Onasi! What kept you so long!"
Before Carth could respond, a passing Mandalorian in red armor put a stiff shoulder in his chest. Carth answered with a punch to the Mandalorian's faceplate. "This isn't Serroco, buckethead! You're not dealing with defenseless victims here!"
The Mandalorian took a step back and shouted, "Or'dinii! Copaan! Mirshmure'cye?"
"Oh yeah? Well, if I was your kind of ugly, I'd wear a mask, too!" Carth said as they both slid into fighting stances.
Mandalore the Ultimate tried to take control of the situation, breaking away from the negotiations to command, "Warriors, now is not the time..." but the red-armored Mandie rushed forward to shove Carth into his admiral and commander. Carth charged back from that group to shove the Mandalorian right back into his troops.
One of those troops, Rohlan Dyre, called out, "Get off of me, clumsy fool!" as he shoved his comrade to the ground near Jarael at the foot of Adasca's throne.
"Mandalore! Karath!" Adasca yelled. "Control your forces or my guards will..."
The sound of a ligthsaber activating cut his orders off. The red Mandalorian held up his yellow lightsaber, called out, "Jarael, duck!" and sprang forward to decapitate two of Adasca's HK-24 guards.
As Zayne pulled off his disguise's helmet, Lucien Draay landed in the middle of a group of droids, dispensing them quickly with his lightsaber and Force pushes. "LORD ADASCA, THE JEDI HAVE ARRIVED!"
"That's right, Lord Adasca!" Zayne said as Lucien stepped up next to him in front of the throne. "Your trap is sprung!"
"Yeah, just like you planned... milord," Squint - or Alek, whichever name he preferred - said, switching his lightsaber on and joining the others. He wasn't sure what was happening exactly,especially with those two standing side by side, but he knew to trust Zayne when something crazy was happening. If Zayne and Lucien were pretending to be working at Adasca's command, he was going to complete the ruse.
"Sorry, 'old friend,'" Lucien whispered at Adasca. Then to his colleagues he ordered, "SEIZE MANDALORE!"
"Treachery!" Mandalore declare as he started to move back into his forces.
The Mandalorians and Republic troops started firing on each other while Zayne rushed to Jarael and slashed her restraints. She quickly grabbed a guard's shockstaff and joined the fray alongside the Jedi, the Republic, and Rohlan. "Camper, this is Zayne! Jarael is safe!"
"He can't hear you, Zayne!" Carth called out while shooting a Mandalorian in the helmet. "She was speaking to him through some kind of comm!"
Zayne took a quick glance around and caught sight of Jarael's bracelet on the floor. He dove toward it and started calling out, "Camper! If you can hear me, this is Zayne! We've got Jarael! We've got Jarael!"
The battle continued without a response. But Lucien and Alek were leading the way against the droids and Mandalorians, making some headway when Mandalore himself started to make his retreat. "Cover fire, warriors! Back to my shuttle!"
"Wait! Don't leave!" Adasca called out. "I still have the exogorths!" Seeing that his pleas weren't enough to bring Mandalore and the situation back under his control, Adasca grabbed one of his Arkanian guards. "Don't just stand there, lowlife! Kill Lucien Draay! Kill Zayne Carrick!"
"But, milord!" the guard protested. "The exogorths! They're attacking our fighters!"
Sure enough, a glance through the observation dome showed the giatn space slugs in battle with Arkanian starfighters all around the Arkanian Legacy. Then Camper's voice rang out over the loudspeakers in the dome. "Your grandfather was putrid, an' your father was worse! And now we got the Eighth Lord Adasca. Well, I got news for ya. There ain't gonna be no ninth!"
As Zayne grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards an exit, realizing that something big was about to happen, Jarael started yelling out, "Camper! Can you hear me? Camper, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
But the only person Camper was hearing at the moment was Adasca. "It's just me now, offshoot. Right here in the observatory. Do you have the guts to confront a true Arkanian? You want me, you filthy animal? You come down here and get me!"
"You got it, boss. And by the way?" Several exogorths rammed the observation dome, breaking through the windows with ease. "I quit! Again!" The observation dome started to suck the air, droids, bodies, and even Arkoh, the Eighth Lord Adasca out into the depths of space to die as the exogorths continued to batter the Arkanian Legacy. Adasca's threat had officially ended.
*****
The Jedi, Republic troops, and a ragtag group of criminals continued to make their way out through the quickly collapsing Arkanian Legacy, although they were having to fight their way through swarms of HK-24 assassin droids to do so. Toward the back of the group were Zayne and Carth. Zayne was deflecting blaster fire with his lightsaber while Carth returned fire.
"Lieutenant Onasi!" Commander Morvis called out as he was holding Admiral Karath up while trying to rush him toward the Deadweight. "The Admiral's hurt! We've got to get him to your ship! And bring Carrick! He's still our prisoner!"
As Carth watched his commanding officers run past, he grabbed Zayne by the shoulders. As soon as the Admiral was out of sight, he let go. "Whoops. You escaped."
Zayne turned around, looking confused. "Why?"
"Too many bad guys right now. You're not one," Carth answered. "And I don't need to be another." As he started to hustle to follow the Admiral, he gave a wave back toward Zayne. "Good luck, kid! Let's party again. But next time, try not to bring a war with you!"
By the time Zayne caught up with the rest of his group, he found Jarael and Rohlan standing in front of sitting Elbee. "Ship left," Elbee explained. "Ship left Elbee."
"What do you mean, Elbee? Where's Camper?" Jarael asked.
"Local receiver operational," Elbee announced. "Transmission incoming." His holo-projector showed an image of Camper, looking healthier than Zayne had ever seen him.
"Jarael!" Camper greeted. "You all right? You got a way out of there?"
"Yes, Camper, I'm fine," Jarael answered, sounding relieved. "Zayne's here. He'll find us a ship."
"I'm glad. I knew the kid would come through. He's good people, Jarael."
"Where should we meet when we get out?" Jarael asked.
"We won't. I gotta take the Last Resort and lead these critters out to wild space. Its where their kind..." Camper paused for just a moment. "Our kind... belongs."
"What?"
"One jump won't do it. I need to lead t'em out and out and out. Make sure they can't be followed. Then I gotta remove the hyperdrives and let 'em be what they were."
"On your own?" Jarael asked. "How?"
"Don't worry none 'bout me, Jarael. Ships stores are full and I feel better than I have in years. Gotta remember t'change the filters in here, though."
"No! Camper, you wait for me!" Jarael pleaded.
"No time. More people show up, more can track us. Besides, I seen you these last weeks. Hiding ain't for you. You deserve better," Camper said. "Me, too. First time in years, I'm thinking clearly. Not livin' in fear. Not livin' in a hole. Can thank the kid for that. And the rodent."
Rohlan took the moment to speak up. "I will protect Jarael, Camper, against all who would threaten her."
"You better," Camper said. "Goodbye."
As the holo faded, Jarael hugged Elbee and cried at the loss of a man who had been like a father. "I made him leave. I gave him to Adasca and I made him leave," she said quietly.
As Squint made his way back toward the group after finishing off the droids in the hangar, Zayne called out to him, "Squint! The slugs are gone and the Last Resort with them!"
"The bay with my ship's gone, too. Civilians took the lifepods. Blasted assassin droids are hanging in there, though," Squint said. "Lucien just hit another wave of them!"
"Lucien..." Zayne repeated to himself. "That's right! Jarael, we have to go!"
Still inside her own despair, Jarael said, "I've lost him. I was only trying to help him. I never meant to..."
"Jarael, please!" Zayne pleaded. "I know now, I'm not ready to face my Masters. If I do it alone, I'll die. You have to come with me."
"ZAYNE CARRICK!" Lucien called out, returning to the group after finishing off a wave of droids and blocking off the doorway. "There's room for all of you in my transport, Zayne! But you have to come along. That's the only way!"
"You'd deny us rescue to get to him?" Alek asked, turning sharply on the Master.
"You know what he's wanted for, Alek! We'll get back to Coruscant and sort everything out there. Don't interfere!" Lucien warned. "You have to decide now, Zayne!"
Zayne took a long glance at Jarael and saw that she wasn't in a condition to run or fight right now. He'd escaped Lucien before, he could do it again if need be. Jarael needed transport out of this place more than he needed to hide from his Master. "Okay, I'll go with you. For them. I..." It was suddenly one of those rare moments when Zayne actually sensed something dangerous coming, so he grabbed Jarael and pulled her away from the ship entry to the hangar. "Look out!" he called.
A ship that Zayne recognized as the Moomo Williwaw took a hard landing, separating Lucien from the others by sheer chance. After a moment, a heavily armed Ithorian stepped out of an airlock. "Del Moomo?" Zayne asked.
"Dob Moomo," the Moomo answered. "And if you're Zayne Carrick, I've brought someone to see you."
The galaxy's happiest-looking Trandoshan rushed out of the Williwaw, bringing Zayne one of his few moments of happiness over the last couple weeks. "Slyssk! You're alive?"
"And so are you, Master Zayne!" Slyssk answered. "I'm so happy! We were sent to get you, but we were afraid we wouldn't be in time!"
There was a question there that needed to be asked. Zayne hoped, but... "Wait, who sent you?"
"Master Gryph sent us!" Slyssk answered, as if it wasn't obvious.
"Gryph? Gryph's alive?!" Zayne asked, giving the big lizard a big hug.
"Alive? He's running the resistance on Taris!" Slyssk said. "And he needs your help!"
As the Moomo herded everyone onto his ship, Lucien called out from his transport, "You can't run forever, Zayne!" He realized that he had lost this battle, but he knew something Zayne didn't. He still had an agent on Taris. The chase was about to end where it began....
[OOC: Whew. Okay, Daze of Hate Part 3, Miller and Bazo, all done, thank god.
Coming soon, Knights of Suffering in which Zayne returns home and a prophecy begins to prove itself true.
Oh, check out this image my icon was taken from if you want to put faces to characters. Non-droids, left to right: Jarael, Rohlan, Carth, Karath getting squished by droids, Lucien, Zayne, and Alek/Squint with a very short haircut.]
Before Carth could respond, a passing Mandalorian in red armor put a stiff shoulder in his chest. Carth answered with a punch to the Mandalorian's faceplate. "This isn't Serroco, buckethead! You're not dealing with defenseless victims here!"
The Mandalorian took a step back and shouted, "Or'dinii! Copaan! Mirshmure'cye?"
"Oh yeah? Well, if I was your kind of ugly, I'd wear a mask, too!" Carth said as they both slid into fighting stances.
Mandalore the Ultimate tried to take control of the situation, breaking away from the negotiations to command, "Warriors, now is not the time..." but the red-armored Mandie rushed forward to shove Carth into his admiral and commander. Carth charged back from that group to shove the Mandalorian right back into his troops.
One of those troops, Rohlan Dyre, called out, "Get off of me, clumsy fool!" as he shoved his comrade to the ground near Jarael at the foot of Adasca's throne.
"Mandalore! Karath!" Adasca yelled. "Control your forces or my guards will..."
The sound of a ligthsaber activating cut his orders off. The red Mandalorian held up his yellow lightsaber, called out, "Jarael, duck!" and sprang forward to decapitate two of Adasca's HK-24 guards.
As Zayne pulled off his disguise's helmet, Lucien Draay landed in the middle of a group of droids, dispensing them quickly with his lightsaber and Force pushes. "LORD ADASCA, THE JEDI HAVE ARRIVED!"
"That's right, Lord Adasca!" Zayne said as Lucien stepped up next to him in front of the throne. "Your trap is sprung!"
"Yeah, just like you planned... milord," Squint - or Alek, whichever name he preferred - said, switching his lightsaber on and joining the others. He wasn't sure what was happening exactly,especially with those two standing side by side, but he knew to trust Zayne when something crazy was happening. If Zayne and Lucien were pretending to be working at Adasca's command, he was going to complete the ruse.
"Sorry, 'old friend,'" Lucien whispered at Adasca. Then to his colleagues he ordered, "SEIZE MANDALORE!"
"Treachery!" Mandalore declare as he started to move back into his forces.
The Mandalorians and Republic troops started firing on each other while Zayne rushed to Jarael and slashed her restraints. She quickly grabbed a guard's shockstaff and joined the fray alongside the Jedi, the Republic, and Rohlan. "Camper, this is Zayne! Jarael is safe!"
"He can't hear you, Zayne!" Carth called out while shooting a Mandalorian in the helmet. "She was speaking to him through some kind of comm!"
Zayne took a quick glance around and caught sight of Jarael's bracelet on the floor. He dove toward it and started calling out, "Camper! If you can hear me, this is Zayne! We've got Jarael! We've got Jarael!"
The battle continued without a response. But Lucien and Alek were leading the way against the droids and Mandalorians, making some headway when Mandalore himself started to make his retreat. "Cover fire, warriors! Back to my shuttle!"
"Wait! Don't leave!" Adasca called out. "I still have the exogorths!" Seeing that his pleas weren't enough to bring Mandalore and the situation back under his control, Adasca grabbed one of his Arkanian guards. "Don't just stand there, lowlife! Kill Lucien Draay! Kill Zayne Carrick!"
"But, milord!" the guard protested. "The exogorths! They're attacking our fighters!"
Sure enough, a glance through the observation dome showed the giatn space slugs in battle with Arkanian starfighters all around the Arkanian Legacy. Then Camper's voice rang out over the loudspeakers in the dome. "Your grandfather was putrid, an' your father was worse! And now we got the Eighth Lord Adasca. Well, I got news for ya. There ain't gonna be no ninth!"
As Zayne grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards an exit, realizing that something big was about to happen, Jarael started yelling out, "Camper! Can you hear me? Camper, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
But the only person Camper was hearing at the moment was Adasca. "It's just me now, offshoot. Right here in the observatory. Do you have the guts to confront a true Arkanian? You want me, you filthy animal? You come down here and get me!"
"You got it, boss. And by the way?" Several exogorths rammed the observation dome, breaking through the windows with ease. "I quit! Again!" The observation dome started to suck the air, droids, bodies, and even Arkoh, the Eighth Lord Adasca out into the depths of space to die as the exogorths continued to batter the Arkanian Legacy. Adasca's threat had officially ended.
*****
The Jedi, Republic troops, and a ragtag group of criminals continued to make their way out through the quickly collapsing Arkanian Legacy, although they were having to fight their way through swarms of HK-24 assassin droids to do so. Toward the back of the group were Zayne and Carth. Zayne was deflecting blaster fire with his lightsaber while Carth returned fire.
"Lieutenant Onasi!" Commander Morvis called out as he was holding Admiral Karath up while trying to rush him toward the Deadweight. "The Admiral's hurt! We've got to get him to your ship! And bring Carrick! He's still our prisoner!"
As Carth watched his commanding officers run past, he grabbed Zayne by the shoulders. As soon as the Admiral was out of sight, he let go. "Whoops. You escaped."
Zayne turned around, looking confused. "Why?"
"Too many bad guys right now. You're not one," Carth answered. "And I don't need to be another." As he started to hustle to follow the Admiral, he gave a wave back toward Zayne. "Good luck, kid! Let's party again. But next time, try not to bring a war with you!"
By the time Zayne caught up with the rest of his group, he found Jarael and Rohlan standing in front of sitting Elbee. "Ship left," Elbee explained. "Ship left Elbee."
"What do you mean, Elbee? Where's Camper?" Jarael asked.
"Local receiver operational," Elbee announced. "Transmission incoming." His holo-projector showed an image of Camper, looking healthier than Zayne had ever seen him.
"Jarael!" Camper greeted. "You all right? You got a way out of there?"
"Yes, Camper, I'm fine," Jarael answered, sounding relieved. "Zayne's here. He'll find us a ship."
"I'm glad. I knew the kid would come through. He's good people, Jarael."
"Where should we meet when we get out?" Jarael asked.
"We won't. I gotta take the Last Resort and lead these critters out to wild space. Its where their kind..." Camper paused for just a moment. "Our kind... belongs."
"What?"
"One jump won't do it. I need to lead t'em out and out and out. Make sure they can't be followed. Then I gotta remove the hyperdrives and let 'em be what they were."
"On your own?" Jarael asked. "How?"
"Don't worry none 'bout me, Jarael. Ships stores are full and I feel better than I have in years. Gotta remember t'change the filters in here, though."
"No! Camper, you wait for me!" Jarael pleaded.
"No time. More people show up, more can track us. Besides, I seen you these last weeks. Hiding ain't for you. You deserve better," Camper said. "Me, too. First time in years, I'm thinking clearly. Not livin' in fear. Not livin' in a hole. Can thank the kid for that. And the rodent."
Rohlan took the moment to speak up. "I will protect Jarael, Camper, against all who would threaten her."
"You better," Camper said. "Goodbye."
As the holo faded, Jarael hugged Elbee and cried at the loss of a man who had been like a father. "I made him leave. I gave him to Adasca and I made him leave," she said quietly.
As Squint made his way back toward the group after finishing off the droids in the hangar, Zayne called out to him, "Squint! The slugs are gone and the Last Resort with them!"
"The bay with my ship's gone, too. Civilians took the lifepods. Blasted assassin droids are hanging in there, though," Squint said. "Lucien just hit another wave of them!"
"Lucien..." Zayne repeated to himself. "That's right! Jarael, we have to go!"
Still inside her own despair, Jarael said, "I've lost him. I was only trying to help him. I never meant to..."
"Jarael, please!" Zayne pleaded. "I know now, I'm not ready to face my Masters. If I do it alone, I'll die. You have to come with me."
"ZAYNE CARRICK!" Lucien called out, returning to the group after finishing off a wave of droids and blocking off the doorway. "There's room for all of you in my transport, Zayne! But you have to come along. That's the only way!"
"You'd deny us rescue to get to him?" Alek asked, turning sharply on the Master.
"You know what he's wanted for, Alek! We'll get back to Coruscant and sort everything out there. Don't interfere!" Lucien warned. "You have to decide now, Zayne!"
Zayne took a long glance at Jarael and saw that she wasn't in a condition to run or fight right now. He'd escaped Lucien before, he could do it again if need be. Jarael needed transport out of this place more than he needed to hide from his Master. "Okay, I'll go with you. For them. I..." It was suddenly one of those rare moments when Zayne actually sensed something dangerous coming, so he grabbed Jarael and pulled her away from the ship entry to the hangar. "Look out!" he called.
A ship that Zayne recognized as the Moomo Williwaw took a hard landing, separating Lucien from the others by sheer chance. After a moment, a heavily armed Ithorian stepped out of an airlock. "Del Moomo?" Zayne asked.
"Dob Moomo," the Moomo answered. "And if you're Zayne Carrick, I've brought someone to see you."
The galaxy's happiest-looking Trandoshan rushed out of the Williwaw, bringing Zayne one of his few moments of happiness over the last couple weeks. "Slyssk! You're alive?"
"And so are you, Master Zayne!" Slyssk answered. "I'm so happy! We were sent to get you, but we were afraid we wouldn't be in time!"
There was a question there that needed to be asked. Zayne hoped, but... "Wait, who sent you?"
"Master Gryph sent us!" Slyssk answered, as if it wasn't obvious.
"Gryph? Gryph's alive?!" Zayne asked, giving the big lizard a big hug.
"Alive? He's running the resistance on Taris!" Slyssk said. "And he needs your help!"
As the Moomo herded everyone onto his ship, Lucien called out from his transport, "You can't run forever, Zayne!" He realized that he had lost this battle, but he knew something Zayne didn't. He still had an agent on Taris. The chase was about to end where it began....
[OOC: Whew. Okay, Daze of Hate Part 3, Miller and Bazo, all done, thank god.
Coming soon, Knights of Suffering in which Zayne returns home and a prophecy begins to prove itself true.
Oh, check out this image my icon was taken from if you want to put faces to characters. Non-droids, left to right: Jarael, Rohlan, Carth, Karath getting squished by droids, Lucien, Zayne, and Alek/Squint with a very short haircut.]
